in the judgment of the Law To alter the setled frame and constitution of the Government is Treason in any State Cicero Aut undique Religionem tolle aut usquequaque conserva Either take away Religion clean or preserve it in all points whole and sound Bracton l. 1. c. 8. The material Sword is put into the hands of the King by Almighty God lib. 2. c. 24. By the material Sword is meant Power and Right to look to the defence and preservation of the Kingdom and it is no less than Treason to enter into any Association or Confederacy without the King's Consent or against His Will By the KING His Majesty's Proclamation forbidding the tendring or taking the late Vow or Covenant c. WHereas We have lately seen a Vow or Covenant pretended to be taken by some Members of both Houses of Parliament whereby after the taking notice of a Popish and Traiterous Plot for the subversion of the True Reformed Religion and the Liberties of the Subject and to surprise the Cities of London and Westminster They do promise and covenant according to their utmost power to assist the Forces pretended to be raised and continued by both Houses of Parliament against the Forces raised by Us and to assist all other persons that shall take the said Oath which Oath as the same hath been taken without the least colour or ground the Contrivers thereof well knowing that there is no Popish Army within this Kingdom that We are so far from giving countenance to that Religion that We have always given and always offered Our consent to any Act for the suppression of Popery and the growth thereof and that the Army raised by Us is in truth for the necessary defence of the true Reformed Protestant Religion established by Law the Liberty and Property of the Subject and Our Own Just Rights according to Law All which being setled and submitted to or such a free and peaceable Convention in Parliament being provided for that the same might be setled We have offered and are still ready to Disband Our Armies and as the said Oath was devised onely to prevent peace and to pre-ingage the Votes of the Members of both Houses directly contrary to the Freedom and Liberty of Parliament and to ingage them and Our good Subjects in the maintenance of this horrid and odious Rebellion so it is directly contrary as well to their natural Duty as to the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy established by Law which obliges them to bear to Us Truth and Faith of life Members and Earthly Honor and to defend Us to the utmost of their powers against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which shall be made against Our Person Our Crown and Dignity and to do their best Endeavours to disclose and make known to Us all Treasons and Traiterous Conspiracies which shall be against Us and to their power to assist and defend all Jurisdictions Privileges Preheminences and Authority belonging to Us or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm And whereas We are informed that some desperate seditious persons do endeavour to perswade and seduce others of Our good Subjects to take the said Oath thereby to ingage them and this Kingdom into a continuance of these miserable and bloody distempers We do therefore out of Grace and compassion to Our people and that they may not by any craft or violence suffer themselves to be seduced against their Duty and Conscience warn them of their natural Allegiance and their Obligations by Oathes lawfully administred to them and with them to remember the great Blessings of God in Peace and Plenty which the whole Kingdom hath received whilst that Dâ—ty and those Oathes were carefully observed and the unspeakable miseries and calamities they have suffered in the breaking and violating thereof And we do streightly charge and command Our loving Subjects of what degree and quality soever upon their Allegiance that they presume not to take the said Seditious and Traiterous Vow or Covenant which indeavours to withdraw them from their Natural Allegiance which they owe unto Us and to which they are or ought to be sworn and are bound by the Laws of the Land albeit they are not sworn and engages them in Acts of High Treason by the express Letter of the Statute of the twenty fifth year of King Edward the Third And We do likewise hereby forbid and inhibit all Our Subjects to impose administer or tender the said Oath or Covenant And if notwithstanding this Our Gracious Proclamation any person shall presume to impose tender or take the said Vow or Covenant We shall proceed against him or them with all severity according to the known Laws of the Land Given at Our Court at Oxford the one and twentieth day of June in the nineteenth year of Our Reign God save the King Antiqua fert animus-dicere From his Majesty's command and because our Government hath been and stands established by Kingly power which power I am not to question but perform what is commanded for the King ruleth absolutely and commandeth his people at his pleasure as the World and all things contained therein are tied in subjection unto the will of the Highest King Because the Statutes and Acts of Parliament which banished Popery out of this Kingdom did establish our Church-Government with the Ceremonies as Lawful and if we through weakness or perversness make Lawful things to be Unlawful Baxter that will not excuse us in our disobedience our error is our sin and one sin will not excuse another sin Because the King as God's Vicegerent is bound to maintain and advance the true Religion so far forth as the light of Nature can manifest it or Divine Revelation doth make it known unto Him yea a Christian King is a Law-giver above the Ecclesiastical Law-makers for with Him is Wisdom Power Righteousness Meekness Justice and Judgment Therefore we ought to acquiesce in the unanimous Votes of the King's Majesty The Honorable Houses of Parliament And the Venerable Convocation and all Powers and Interests ought to be fully satisfi'd whether in the decision of Controversies in Religion making Ecclesiastical Canons c. or any the like Ecclesiastical matters because they are the conjunct Votes of all the concerned The General Assembly in Parliament is the Common-Council of the Realm called together by the King for advice in matters concerning the whole Realm of which Assembly Lambard some be Counsellors by birth as the Barons by Succession as the Bishops by Election as Knights and Burgesses the King as the Head to give life The Barony consisting of Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commonalty made up of the Knights and Burgesses be as the Body to deliberate confer and conclude So that forasmuch as every man from the highest to the lowest is there either in person or procuration therefore of right reason every man is said to be bound by that which doth pass from such an Assembly
appellat quia Ceremoniarum ad eos Religionumque cura tutela pertinet The Spirit of God doth very often call Kings and Princes Priests because the cust dy and care of Ceremonies and of Religion belongs to them Bilson Kings and Princes before Christ subverted Idolls Reformed Religion in their Realms by their Princely Power and Zeal Stat. 25. Hen. 8. It was Enacted by Parliament That no Canons or Constitutions should be made by the Bishops c. and by them Promulgated without the King's Command Records of Convocation The Clergy were forced to give up their Power of Executing any old Canons of the Church without the King's consent had before Heylins History All former Constitutions Provincial and Synodal though hitherto in force by the Authority of the whole Western Church Stat. 25. Hen. 8. were Committed to the Arbitriment of the King and of sixteen Lay persons and sixteen of the Clergy appointed by the King to be Approved or Rejected by them according as they conceived them Consistent with or Repugnant to the King's Prerogative as Head of the Church or to the Laws of God c. Stat. 26. Hen. 8. Authority was allowed to the King to Repress and Correct all such Errors Heresies Abuses and Enormities whatsoever they were which by any manner of spiritual Jurisdiction might Lawfully be repressed c. any thing to the contrary notwithstanding Ibid. All manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical was by Parliament acknowledged to belong to the King as Head of the Church So that no Bishop had any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but by under and from the King Stat. 37. Hen. 8. c. 17. Supreme Power of dispensing with any Ecclesiastical Constitutions is ascribed to the King and Parliament as recognized Supreme Head of the Church Stat. 25. Hen. 8. c. 21. and the Arch-bishop made the King 's Delegate so that in Case he should refuse two other Bishops might be named to Grant such Dispensations And after all the King and His Court of Chancery are made the last Judge what things in such Dispensations are repugnant to Scriptures and what not Stat. 37. Hen. 8. Though the King did not Personally himself Exercise the Power of the Keys yet this Right He claimed that no Clergy man being a Member of the English Church should Exercise it in His Dominions in any Cause or over any Person without the Leave and Appointment of Him the Supreme Head Nor any refuse to Exercise it whensoever He should require Stat. 32. It was Enacted that whosoever should teach contrary to the Determinations which were set forth by the King Hen. 8. c. 26. should be Deemed and Treated as a Heretick Stat. 2.5.6 E. 6. An Act is made in which the King and Parliament Authorize Bishops c. by Vertue of their Act to take Informations concerning the not using the Form of Common-prayer then prescribed and to Punish the same by Excommunication c. Confirmed by 1 Eliz. cap. 1. 5 Eliz. cap. 1. 23 Eliz. cap. 1. Because in doubtfull matters the resolution of the Major part must be obeyed Now it hath been resolved by many Kings and Princes that our Government is not repugnant to the Word of God from whose Judgment there is no appeal but only to God by Prayer Because Schism did grow out of and arise from Presbyterian Government in the purest time which caused the Churches then to out it and to establish Episcopacy as the best Antidote against Schism and for the Restauration and Maintenance of the Churches Peace which was by Succession from the Apostles if not of Divine Institution The Apostles of Christ ordained Bishops in the Church Bullinger 5. Ser. Now it seems a desperate course to use Presbyterian Government as a soveraign Antidote in our time Lloyds prim Epis which had the effect of Poison upon the Churches in the Apostles time Because Contention is a deadly Enemy to Charity and Holy-living Now the refusing of Subscription and Obedience to Church-Government must needs kindle Contentions and why will you thus Contend seeing that the Government by Bishops is the Government of Christ and what better Government can we expect from Man A Government most of the Godly have Conformed to Baxter Most of the Godly able Ministers of England since the Reformation have Judged Episcopacy Lawfull or most Fit and most of them did Subscribe and Conform to Episcopal Government as a thing not contrary to the Word of God but as instituted by the Apostles to which all or the most of the Ancient Fathers do agree so that it is very Evident that it is very Consistent with a Godly Life to Judge Episcopacy lawfull and fit or else so many hundred of Learned and Godly men would not have been of that mind Because they ought to be under the Obedience of all Laws Ecclesiastical and Civil which that Prince commands under whom they Live Division in Government makes Division in a Kingdome and a Kingdome divided cannot stand Omne regnum in se divisum desolabitur Because the Grandest opposers of the Government of the Church of England have ever been of Unconstant principles though Violently zealous in opposing Indifferent things Which if simply Unlawfull they were sin why then do they not contend against them as sinfull but as formerly they did so now they can dispense with them under their own Cure in the Person of another and Subscribe themselves if they might be Dispensed with as to a Compliance in their own Persons which by the Act they are Enjoyned Nor do we find any great Opposition in the time of the Reign of our Immortal Queen Elizabeth untill Her Majesty Commanded Her Bishops and Her Bishops by Her Authority Commanded due Obedience to the Government of the Church which doth manifest it was not nor is not Conscience that doth raise this Opposition against them as if Unlawfull but as not Convenient for them that have been and still are Braindistempered opposers of them Because no Persons for the reason of inconveniency ought to reject what Publick Authority hath allowed Sith that it is apparent that the Composers of our Divine Service-book made choice of the best things out of the most Ancient Liturgies of the Churches which Flourished long before the Birth of Antichrist Because it hath not been manifested unto the Church of England by any Irrefragable positions that the Government of the Church is Unlawfull or the Ceremonies thereof Impure for which impurity the Church should lay aside the Practice of them being Warranted by the Word of God or not Dissonant from it And that they are Unlawfull hath not nor cannot be Proved though Disallowed by some whose Approbation makes nor the Government of the Church of England ever a whit the more Lawfull though Consented unto by them Because we have the Truths of Doctrine Christian Ordinances and a Holy People of the Church of England exercising themselves in the Holy Duties
of Religion without any manifest known sin in the Manner of Worshipping of God or in the Matter and therefore our Government ought not to be Altered though Opposed by some that will not Conform because they are Commanded and yet confess Robinson Justific we ought and must obey the Ceremonies for the ends Commanded and as they tend to the Edification of our Selves and Others and that if they tend to the Edification of the Church and good Order they are Lawfull in the Commander Because the Officers of the Church as our Arch-bishops Bishops c. met together to Discuss and Consider of matters for the good of the Churches may be called a Church by the Judgment of the greatest Antagonist of the Church of England Robinson Because the Order of Bishops being of Divine Institution Ordination or Confirmation by the Apostles it follows that they are not of less Excellency than the Churches whose Servants they are but that the Churches are and ought to be in due proportion Inferior unto them The Man was not Created for the Woman but the Woman for the Man and as Ministers of the revealed Will of God they are infinitely above and Superior unto all saith our great Antagonist Robinson and for this Ambassage of God and Christ they are absolutely and simply to be Obeyed Because wearing the Surplice Cope Corner'd Cap Tippet Rotchet the use of the Ring in Marriage Signing with the Sign of the Cross in Baptism Kneeling Sitting or Standing in Divine Service are not Ceremonies in themselves but only when they are so Designed Appointed and Observed Dr. Burges A Bishop doth not wear the Judges Quoif the Counsellour a Surplice the Attourney a Ministers Garment a Lay man Parliament Robes an ordinary Citizen an Alderman's Badge it is one thing to wear a Garment to keep one Warm or for some other Service and another thing to wear it as a Distinctive cognizance of Authority of such and such a Degree Office Calling or Profession in which use it is a Ceremony otherwise not Dr. Burges a Ceremony external because internal actions of the mind being matters of substance cannot be duely called Ceremonies yet the institution or observation of an action or thing to express this or that to such an use as is Ceremonious makes it a Ceremony See Styleman's Peace-Offering Because meer Civility would teach though Religion were silent that men under Authority should obey and candidly forbear to intermeddle in matters of which they are not meet Judges though as Mint Annise and Cummin but Religion should teach them much more and put them in mind of the weighty things of the Law of Christ studying by all ways to gain some I became a Jew that I might gain the Jew saith that great Doctor of the Gentiles and was this by contradicting and gain-saying the Ceremonies of the Jewish Church Because God is a God of Order and Peace and hath ordained and commanded Peace and Unity between Ecclesiastical and Civil Power lest the Peace and Union both of Churches and Kingdoms be equally in danger of being broken Now that there is in the Church of England purity of Doctrine Order and Unity with Peace the Brethren themselves confess who do write about 1602. That in regard of the common grounds of Religion and of the Ministery we are all one we are all of one Faith one Baptism one Body one Spirit have all one Father one Lord and be all of one Heart against all wickedness Superstition Idolatry Heresie and that we seek with one Christian desire the advancement of the pure Religion Worship and Honor of God We are all Ministers of the Word by one Order we administer Prayers and Sacraments by one Form we preach one Faith and substance of Doctrine And we praise God heartily that the true Faith by which we may be saved and the true Doctrine of the Sacraments and the pure Worship of God is truly taught and that by publick Authority and retained in the Book of Articles Because the propounding of the true Doctrine the decision of Controversies making of Canons Orders Constitutions c. expedient and necessary to edification of the Church are Acts of Religion most proper to the Church and to make Laws to establish them to bestow Civil Gifts and Privileges upon the Church to ordain Civil Punishments for Offences committed against Christian Religion to erect Courts for the Cognizance of such Causes and the execution of the Laws is the peculiar and proper work of Christian Kings who are the onely Judges of their People Lambard Nevertheless Christian Kings though they may well do all these things without the help of the Church yet have they not done it but have made use of the Church for the more ample discharge of that great trust reposed in them Ut levior sit illis labor Because the Church hath power in Civil actions that draw scandal with them Ecclesiastically to censure yea the Church is to censure them Ecclesiastically in her members though the Magistrate pardon or pass them by except the Parties delinquent repent of them for then they are to be forgiven And what Usurpation is here upon the Magistracy The greatest enemy of the Church hath confessed this for a truth Robinson Because our Ceremonies are not immediate means of Worship neither do they terminate themselves in God who is worshipped Because the Church doth not give signification and effecting supernatural events to human Ceremonies as the Papists do K. James And no Church ought further to separate it self from the Church of Rome either in Doctrine or Ceremonies than she hath departed from her self when she was in her flourishing and best estate and from Christ her Lord and Head Because Ceremonies are ordained for those ends for which Rites may be ordained and are agreeable to those Rules which God's Word prescribes to wit Decency Order and Edification For Order and Uniformities sake Not any one Duty in all the Scripture so oft and so earnestly recommended as Unity which cannot be effected without some joint care to walk Uniformly in the Publick Worship of God Because the appointment of Ceremonies to be used as Ceremonies and not at all as Worship to God in themselves are no where condemned in the Scripture though not commanded Because our Ceremonies are of an indifferent nature and no Religion doth lie in the opposing of them but scandal and offence doth arise thereby causing even the good the Opposers might do to be evil spoken of and to become unprofitable Because our Ceremonies are not against Faith or a good life few and easie which Custome hath allowed and the not conforming to the Custom of a Church or State doth give occasion to Censures and Opinions and thereby cause suspition where a man might pass unquestion'd Because the Church of England never cast away all Ceremonies nor utterly abolish'd them but cast away all that which was properly Popish and corrupt in
sought to bring the Authority of Ecclesiastical Praelates to nothing when as they never forbad them that worldly Government and Authority which they have given unto them by Kings and Emperours for the civil Government of their Goods c. it being conferred upon them by Pious Princes out of their Love to Christ and his Ambassadors the better to preserve them from the contempt of the wicked and to inable them the better to maintain the great interest which in civil things belongs to the Ecclesiastical State and that the great Honour of a Christian Kingdome should not sit without giving the Ambassadors of Christ an Honourable place and Privilege amongst them Because the Churches abroad confess that so many as do despise Ecclesiastical Assemblies and separate themselves from them they are contemners of true Religion and are to be compelled by the Bishops and Godly Migistrates to surcease stubbornly to separate and absent themselves from sacred Assemblies Because the Churches abroad confess if any Church do Religiously celebrate the memory of the Lord's Nativity Circumcision Passion Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven and sending the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples according to Christian Liberty they do very well allow of it Because the Churches abroad confess no Religion doth keep every where the same Ceremonies although they admit and receive the self same Doctrine touching them For say they even they which have one and the self same Faith disagree amongst themselves about Ceremonies the Churches having always used their liberty in Rites as being things indifferent Because the Churches abroad confess Ceremonies brought in by good Custome are with an Uniform consent to be retained in the Ecclesiastical Assemblies of Christian People at the common Service of God according to the Doctrine of the Holy Apostles Let all things be done in the Church decently and in order For God is not the Author of confusion but of peace and no man by pretending a shew of Christian liberty should withdraw himself from such constitutions as be godly and serve to a good use Because the Churches abroad confess although their Preachers do not keep all Rites with other Churches yet they do not withstand or oppose themselves to any good and godly Constitutions neither are they so minded as that for the Ceremonies sake they would raise up any dissentions although they should think that some of them were not very necessary Because the Churches abroad confess their meaning is not to have Rule taken from the Bishops but teach that the true Pastors of the Churches may ordain Publick Rites in their Churches for good Order's sake and if they be broken with offence given there where the Churches are well ordered and there be not error in Doctrine let him that in such a place breaketh them know that he doth offend because he disturbeth the peace of the Church well ordered or doth withdraw others from the true Ministery Because the Churches abroad do profess Ceremonies invented by Man such as are seemly devised for Order may be observed without any opinion of Merit Worship or Necessity and confess they do both observe certain Ceremonies which are comely and made for good order and also teach that they ought to be observed even as men cannot live without good order Because the Churches abroad confess that it is lawful for the Bishops with the consent of the Church to appoint Holy-days Lessons and Sermons for edifying and for instruction in the true Faith in Christ Because the Churches abroad touching Traditions of the Fathers or such as the Bishops and the Churches do at this day ordain hold it as their opinion such as agree with the Scripture and were ordained for good manners and the profit of men although they be not expressed in the Scripture nevertheless in that they proceed from the commandement of Love which ordereth all things most decently they are worthily to be accounted rather of God than of man which no good Christian will refuse to obey no not unlawful Laws so they have no wicked thing in them Because the Churches abroad deny not the Churches Canons about Rites which serve for the publick order and edification of the Church but that the matter of the Canon warranted by God's Word doth bird Because the Churches abroad confess indeed they teach that the care of Religion doth chiefly appertain to the Magistrats and he that opposeth himself against the Magistrate doth procure the wrath of God against him and therefore condemn all contemners of Magistrates as Rebels enemies of the Common-wealth seditious Villains and all such as do either openly or closely refuse to perform those duties which they ought to do and confess all men of what dignity condition or state soever they be ought to be subject to their lawful Magistrates and obey them in all things which are not repugnant to the Word of God and condemn all those troublesome spirits who do reject Higher Powers and Magistrates overthrow Laws and Judgments that do abolish and confound all those Orders and Degrees which God hath appointed amongst men for Degrees and Vocations should not be confounded nor is it lawful for every man to start up into the Pulpit and there shew his mind and teach others openly Con. Tol. Solus ad sacra Dei mysteria tractanda accedat quem morum innocentia literarum splendor reddunt illustrem Let such an one alone undertake to handle the Divine mysteries of God who is renowned both for integrity of life and excellency of Learning and these Councils conclude Concil Mediolan Toledo Trident. Lateran Carthage Apostoli in quorum locum Episcopi successerunt satis nobis aperuerunt verbi Dei praedicationem esse praecipuum illorum munus qui in Episcopali sede collocantur The Apostles in whose room the Bishops come have made it sufficiently manifest unto us that the preaching of the Word of God is the principal function of those who are placed in Bishops Seas Because it were scandal not to give obedience to the Laws of the Church when they prescribe things necessary or expedient for eschewing of scandal and it were contempt to refuse obedience to them when we are not certainly perswaded of the unlawfulness or inexpediency of things prescribed Because in things which are in themselves indifferent and none of them inexpedient we ought to do that the Church requireth though our Brethren should exhort us unto the contrary being bound in conscience to obey the Ordinances of the Church except they be evidently unlawful and when the Authority of the Church doth ordain and the things be lawful and expedient we are bound by both saith an Anonymus of Scotland Because the Church of Scotland profess his Majesty shall ever find that he hath none more loyal and true Subjects who will more gladly imploy and bestow their Lives Lands Goods Houses Holds Gear Rents Revenues Places Privileges Means Moyeties and all in his Highness Service and maintenance of his Royal Crown and moreover