THe [...]aid Defendent saving & re­serving to himselfe, now and at all times hereafter, all advan­tages and benefits of exceptions to the incertaintie and insuffi­cientie and other imperfection of the said Information: For answer thereunto, so far forth as concerns the sayd defendent; he saith, he doth with all thank­fullnes acknowledge his Majesties great care & zeale at all times, for the mayntenance and defence of the true Christian faith and religion, & the service of Almighty God, love, charity and concord among his Subjects; & withall, that his people [...] & all loyall Subjects, have great cause, dayly to praise God for the happy government they have had under him, and for that they may for fu­turity promise unto themselves under his Royalty and Principality, especially when he hath so graciously made knowne his pious intentions for the good [...] and Wellfare of Church and State, in that his Majesties Declaration to all his loving Subjects, of the causes which made him dissolve the last Parlament, published by his Highnesses speciall command; in the which Declaration pag. 21. his Mast. thus speaks: For wee call God to record, before whom we stand, That it is and alwayes hath been our hearts desire, to be found worthy of that Title, which we account the most glorious in all our Crowne, Defender of the faith; Neither shall we ever give way to the autorizing of any thing, whereby innovation may steale or creep into the Church, but preserve that unity of doctrine & discipline established in the time of Queen Eliz [...] whereby the Church of England hath stood & fl [...] ­rished ever since, &c. These words & [...]olemne protestation of our most pious King, cannot but stirre up the hearts, loves, and affections of all his true and loyall Subjects, both incessantly to pray for his happy life, raigne, & pre­servation, and also to the utmost of their powers to yeeld all subjection, obedience, yea, & their lives and liberties for the honour of his Crowne & Dignity, in the number of the vvhich Subjects the said defendent professeth him­self to be, being willing and ready at all times and upon all occasions not onely to lose his liberty, livelyhood & estate, but millions of lives, if he had them, in defence of his Empire and prerogative royall: and doth againe & againe acknowledge, and that with all thankfullnes, his renowned Highnesses zeale & care, for the maintenance of the true religion, love, charity, and concord amongst his Subjects, and beseech the King of Kings and Lord of Lords long to continue him among us, and to put into his royall heart, to remove all those Scandals in Church & State which have been [...] such hinderances of the propagation of the Christian faith and true religion established in his Mast. Kingdoms (of the which he is defender, in his dominions) and the right instruction of the people in the same: who alone are most of the Pre­lats in generall, & the Arch Prelats in speciall, being so farre from seeking the right and due instruction of the people in the true Christian faith & religion, as the in­formation vvould inferre, as they spend their vvhole en­deavours, to take avvay all the possibility and meanes of instruction, vvhich is the preaching of the vvord, that is onely able to save our soules, and vvithout vvhich, no man can beleeve or come to life eternall, as thousand pl [...] ­ces in sacred Writ vvitn [...]s; and among other, that in the 26 [...] of the Acts, vvhere Christ saith unto Paul, Rise, & stand up on thy feet: For I have appeared unto thee for this purpos [...] to make thee a minister & witnes, both of the things which thou hast seene and of those things in which I will appeare unto thee, delivering th [...]e from the people and from the Gentiles [...] unto whom now I send thee, to open their eie [...], and to turn [...] them from darknes unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgivenes of Sinnes, & inhe­ritance among them which are sanctified by faith, which is in [...] m [...]e. And Paul vvas not disobedient to this heavenly vi­sion, but preached unto all men that they should repent [...] & turne to God, and doe vvorks meet for repentance. And this vvas, and is the onely vvay God hath appointed to save our soules by; for, Faith cometh only by hea [...]ing [...] & this preaching vvas all that Paul did [...] I came not to ba­ptise, sayth hee, but to preach the Gospell, so that prea­ching is the effect of all the ordinances: And in another place he saith, Woe be me [...] If I preach not the Gospell. And in the sixt of the Acts, the Apostles told the Church [...] That it was not reason that they should leave the vvord of God & serve Tables; and [...]herefore they resolved, continually to give themselves to prayer, & to the mini­stery [Page 4] of [...]he Word [...] And in the 4. of the Ac [...] the Rulers commanded Peter and [...] to [...] nor teach in the name of [...]esus. Th [...]vered & [...] un [...]o them: Whe [...]her it be right in [...] of God, to hearken unto y [...]u more then unto [...]ge yee: for vve cannot but speake the things [...]e have heard. He [...]e vve see, the vvhole office [...] the Apostles vvas to preach the Gospell [...] [...] the vvorke, ta [...]ke and duty of Ministers to [...] same vvord of life. And Paul set hi [...] [...]re them for his sedulity in preach [...]mands them to follovv him in that [...] [...]y and Titus, and all Ministers in them, to [...]stant in season and out of season in preaching the vvord, & they that neglect that duty are no Ministers of Christ nor of the Gospell. Yea, the Bishops themselves, and all their Priests as they call them, as vve may see in the booke of Ordinations, so­lemnly promise before God & the Church, that [...]hey vvill be diligent in the preaching of the Worde of God, and publishing of the Gospell: And for the better stirring of them up to that Duty and Office they reade the 20. Chapter of the Acts concerning the charge that vvas gi­ven the Elders and Bishops of Ephesus for their diligent preaching of the Gospell. And in most of all their prayers before their Sermons, they beseech God to blesse the tvvo fountaynes of all learning in this Kingdom, & that he vvould send out streames for the vvatering of [...]he gar­den of the Church, and that he vvould preserve those fountaynes pure and incorrupt. Novv, all men knovv hovv Paul planted and Apollos vvatered the garden of the Church, and that vvas by preaching, as is manifest in the 1. of the Cor. Notvvithstanding all this, Viz. the charge that is layd upon them by God himself, that they should preach the vvord diligently, & as they love him: notvvithstanding allso the promise that the Bishops and their Priests have made of their particular care in prea­ching, vvhich is onely able to save our soules: & not­vvithstanding the curse that is layd upon them if they do not preach: & notvvithstanding they pray, that the tvvo [...]ountaines may send out streames for the vvatering of the garden of the Church. Notvvithstanding all the premis­ses, the Defendent saith, That the Prelats neither preach themselves, nor vvill let others preach, but silence all­most vvhole Diocesses together, and have extinguished very many of the chiefe burning lights amongst us, and doe dayly suspend [...]he remnant of the most laborious & painfull Ministers through England and Wales, and have deprived the people of all Soules comfort and spirituall solace, vvithout vvhich a mans life is miserable, to the infinit dishono [...]r of God, & hinderance of the Christian faith, and the good institution of the people, yea and to the trouble of the vvhole Church and State: and there­fore the Prelats are the onely hinderers of the instruction of the people in their Christian faith, and the saving of their soules, and by consequence the enimyes of the Church and Kingdome, for from these Priests is iniquity gone out through the vvhole Kingdome; and of the truth of that the Defendent novv saith [...] all the Realme can vvit­nes, and the Prelates practices prove, vvho make voyd the commandements of God by their vaine traditions, and trample his holy & divine precepts under their feet, and stop the course of the everlasting Gospell: and there­fore the enemies of Christs Kingdome, and the salva­tion of their Brethren.

Novv, vvhereas in the Information it is sayd [...] That the tontriving, publishing, divulging, s [...]lling, venting and dispersing of defamatory and libellous Books [...] pam­phlets and infamous Libells and Letters, are perni­cious & wicked things in themselves, and of dange­rous consequence to his Mast. service and the pu­blik weale of this Realme, & directly contrary to wholesome Lawes and Statutes, The Defendent for his part doth absolutly in all things thinke the same. But vvhereas the Informers vvould make the Defendent, M. Burton [...] M. Prin guilty of such things, and to have envyed & maligned his Mast. happy government and the good discipline of the Church, and that they have made a confederation among themselves, out of some schismaticall & factious humors, and have from time to time causlesly indeavored, as much as in them lyeth, to vilify & defame his Mast. Excellent government, & the proceedings of the Courts Spiritual and within the Kingdome, & especially the Court of High Commission for Ecclesiastical causes, & that the said Confederats have within these seven yeares last past, raised & layd diverse false & scandalous imputations upon the proceedings of all the Courts in generall, & especially of the sayd High Com­mission, and chiefly upon the Archbishoppes & Bishops & prime Iudges thereof, who doe equally administer justice therein, by acquitting the innocent and correcting the nocent, according to their demerit, proceeding therein with great temper & moderation; and by their wicked courses and by telling & divul­ging of false lyes, news, and tales, have attempted to move and stirre the people to disobedience and dis­content against his Mast. government; & for the effecting of the said wicked designes & purposes, the said Iohn Bastwick having been heretofore about the 10. or 12. of February in the tenth yeare of his Mast. raigne justly censured by the said High Com­mission Court for writing & speaking words ten­ding to the maintaining & upholding of schisme and division in his Mast. Church of England, & opposi­tion against the laudable orders & ceremonies of the Church, as by the said Sentence amongst other things more at large appeareth. Thereupon vvithin these three [Page 5] yeares last past, he, the said Iohn Bastvvick [...] by the advice, confede [...]acy [...] combination, abetment, helpe and assistance of the sayd Henry Burton and Mr. Prin, &c. hath un­lavvfully contrived, framed and vvri [...] & vvithout li­cence printed divers epistles, prefaces, additions & other passages annexed and inserted thereunto, and all vvrit­ten by him the sayd Iohn Bastvvick or by his advice and approbation, in vvhich book he hath causlesly & boldly enveighed against the Oath ex officio & other the an­tient formes and proceedings of the sayd High Commis­sion Court, &c. & against the Hierarchy of the Church, preferring a Presbyterian parity before the sacred and setled Orders of Bishops, Priests and Deacons, and in the sayd book hath falsly and scandalously defamed the vvit­nesses produced against him: falsly allso and maliciously taxed the High Commission Court it self and the Iudges therein, in generall, and some of them particularly & per­sonally; vvith cruelty & injustice, vvith vvant of vvisdome & temperance, and that they are persvvaders of his Mast. though in vaine, to bloud [...]hed, and are upholders of ido­latry, superstition & prophanesse, and therein farther most malicio [...]sly & falsly affirmeth, That the Archbishop & the Lord Treasurer, and the Bishop of Ely, three of the most vvorthy and learned Prelats of the Kingdome, that they are disgracers and contemnets of the holy Scri­ptures, and falsly traduceth them for Traytors and inva­ders of his Mast. prerogative. And in the sayd booke are contayned divers other unlavvfull, scandalous & li­bellous passages; vvhich beeing many and of various na­tures, is annexed unto the information as a part thereof to vvhich he referreth himselfe.

To all vvhich large accusation, the Defendent for an­svver saith, That vvhereas these things of so foule nature & consequence, are layd upon him, Mr. Burton, and Mr. Prin, That the informers begin their accusation with a ca­lumny. As for the defendents ovvne partscular, he affir­meth and that truely, That for reverend and learned Mr. Henry Burton and Mr. Prin, he hath never knovvne them othervvise then to be loyall Subjects unto his Mast. and such as in all peaceable vvayes and honest endeavours, have sought, vvished & earnestly laboured for the pro­motion of the true Christian faith and religion, and such & no other maner of men, he the defendent hath ever knovvne them and such he verily believeth they are: and therefore, as they feare God & honour the King, he is, and hath been, and ever vvill be, by the grace of God an a better vvith them; and if that in so doing and prac­tising, it be counted either faction, confederation, or com­bination, he vvill live and dye in it. But notvvithstanding of the resolution and purpose of the defendent, he fur­ther for satisfaction to the information sayth, that hovv­soever the forenamed Master Burton and Mr. Prin, and himself, have been of long acqueyntance, yet their fami­liar [...]y hath been ever very little, they having not by the 4. or 5. yeares together neither seen nor heard one of an other, and for these three yeares last past the defendent sayth, that he hath not seen the face of Mr. Prin nor been ever vvith Mr. Burton above tvvice or thrice as he remembreth, much lesse bene privy or acquaynted the one vvhat the others either proceedings or intentions vvere: and therefore for ever doth disa [...]ow [...] any help, counsell, advice in the making or publishing of any thing that ever he hath done, but vvhatsoever he hath vvrit it vvas accomplished before that they knevv of it. And for the other men specifyed in the information, the defendent knovves them not [...] neither by face nor name; and this he is ready to depose. And so much may suffice in generall to have spoke of this matter; But novv more especially; vvhereas he the defendent is accused of long continuance to have envyed & maligned his Mast. happy governmen [...], and the good discipline of the Church [...] Hee the defendent protesteth in the presence of God [...] and be­fore the vvorld, that it is a most false accusation, and that there is never a Subject in his Mast. dominions a more honourer of the government of his Imperiall Mast. & one that desireth more the good discipline of the Church and is able to produce the testimonies of all the places he ha [...]h lived in, in this Kingdome, both from Magistrats & Ministers for the honesty and integri [...]y of his life and conversation, and that in all respects he hath so demea­ned himself as that he hath not onely been free from vice [...] faction & schisme, but from the suspition of all: vvhich testimonies he hath ready to shevv to this honorable Court, & the vvhich he exhibited to [...]he High Commis­sion Court, at that time they studyed most to defame him, & all this both towne and contrey can testify, as also of the infatigable diligence, in his particular calling. How that he neglected no opportunity to doe the indigentes [...] men good, & how that being unwearyed in his imploy­ments, he wen [...] through the heat of Summer, the cold of Winter, rose earlie & went to bed late, exposing himself at all times, to any danger whatsoever of plague and pestilence, and all to doe the meanest of the Kings Subjects good, never taking penny of poore nor never of servant, never suffering the most neglected creature of nature to perish for want of care or looking to, but made them all an object of his pity and of his art, giving them out of his poore competency both for their food & Physick; neither can any man say, that ever he asked the richest a farthing for any paynes he tooke day or night for their preservation, or that he ever murmured at the smallest content thy gave him; & if the Prel [...]s had let him follow his calling, this defendent had continued in this diligent course of life, till the day of his death. Bu [...] they picking a quarrell with him for writing in defence of the Kings prerogative Royall against the Pope [...] saying [...] that while hee writ against the Pope, he meant them, put him upon s [...]ch imployments as he indeed thinks, will be very little pleasing to the Prelats, all [...]hough he is most cenfident, that in them he hath, and shall doe the King and Church good service, and so he knoweth it will ap­peare when he is dead and gone. But because this book [...] is now layd unto the Defendents charge as tending to th [...] mayntenance and upholding of schisme and division i [...] his Mast. Church of England, & opposition against th [...] laudable Orders and Ce [...]emonyes of the sayd Church [...] howsoever there be no such thing in the sayd Flag [...]ll [...], ye [...] this Defendent desireth to give a reason unto this hono­rable Court for the writing & publishing not onely o [...] [Page 6] that booke, but of all other his writings since. And first, concerning the booke for which he was censured, He saith, that he was provoked thereunto by a Popish Ie­suiticall Doctor of Physick, who continually dared him into the field of Dispute, and set downe his owne thea­mes about which he w [...]ld contend, which were concerning the Popes Supremacy and the sacrifice of the Masse. And it is well knowne to the Townes & coun­try where they both dwelt, that the sayd defendent could never be quiet for his braggs and [...] scriblings to himself & others till he had ansvvered, vvhich vvas the sole cause of his ruine, & the vvhich ansvver of his though he had long time for peace sake neglected, yet at last, he vvas through his adversaries importunity put upon it. Neither could he for the honour of the trueth, and the honour of his Prince, both vvhich he loves more then his life, de­lay it any longer: and [...]herefore out of his duty to God and the King, he entred the combat vvith the enimy. To vvhich duty he the defendent saith he vvas bound, by Christ himself, vvho ha [...]h commanded to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars, & unto [...]od the things that are Gods, vvhich commandement of Christs tyes all Christians under obedience to a double duty vvhich by them may not be neglected: Viz. to give vnto God his due, and unto the King his. Yet for obeying of this com­mandement this poore defendent must be defamed, rui­ned, undone, and left friendles, monylesse, and in capti­vity, and given to the Divell, and yet say nothing. But the Defendent desireth this honorable Court to give him leaue to say, as Queene Hester spake to Ahashuerosh; if that hee and his wife had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, he had held his peace: but for them to be ruined and undone because he could not see God and the King dishonoured, he the defendent cannot but speake. Let the King live for ever, and never let it be sayd, that he hath such a base cowardly fellovv in his Kingdomes, that vvill suffer his imperiall Mast. to be trampled upon, and suffer it in silence. For his ovvne part, this defendent con­fesseth, that he is but poore, and the Prelats have made him so; but as rich in loyalty as any Subject in his High­nesses three dominions: and as [...]ob sayd concerning God, though the Lord should kill him, yet he vvould trust in him: so this defendent sayth, Though the King should leave him to the mercylesse f [...]ry of the Prelats, yet he vvill ever honour him vvith his life, and all that ever he hath: and as hee vvas borne under obedience, under obe­dience hee vvill dye, and vvill ever say vivat Rex let the King live for ever, and our gracious God put it into his Royall breast to looke into the devillish plo [...]s of the Pre­lats, that doe not onely equalize the paynted tombes in Christs time, but farre exceed them in cruelty and wickednes This he is resolved living and dying to doe, [...]vito Diab [...]lo, to give unto Caesar the things that are Cae­sars, and to God the things that are Gods, for he is bound to this duty by Christ himself [...] neither will he ever rebell against his blessed will.

Now, the things that belong unto God, as he is King of Kings, & Lord of Lords; and by vvhom alone Kings raigne, is an absolute command & Soveraign [...]y ove [...] his Church, and vvho requires of all his Subjects that they should love him vvith all their hearts vvith all their Soules, and vvith all their migh [...]s, and that they should not serve him by any of their ovvne inventions. And for the maner of his vvorship he hath abundantly de­clared it in sacred vvrit. And Saint Paul vvriting unto Titus vvarnes him [...] sharply to rebuke his audito [...]s, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed unto the commandements of men that turne from the Trueth, & chargeth the Corinthians, that they should [...]ot be ser­vants of men, nor vvise above that vvhich is vvritten [...] & sayes unto the Colossians, vvherefore if yee be dead vvith Christ from the rudiments of the vvorld [...] vvhy as though living in the vvorld are ye subject unto ordinances? and Christ himselfe saith, In vaine doe they vvorship him, teaching for Doctrines the commandements of men. By all vvhich it is manifest, if Christians vvill give unto God that vvhich is his, and vvill not vvorship him in vaine; as they must love him vvith all their hearts, so he onely must rule in them, & they must give him his ovvne vvorship, and such service onely, both for matter and maner, as he requires at their hands and commands from them, and not serve him accordi [...]g to mens precepts and devices: for in his vvorship they must not be the servants of men: for he is the onely King and Lavvgiver in his Church, and this is his prerogative Royall, vvhich no man may meddle vvith [...] & this is to give unto God that vvhich is Gods: & this duty he the Defendent sayth, all Christians are bound unto. Againe, for all Subjects duties towards the King the defendent saith, that must allso freelie & vvillinglie bee yeelded, and that by speciall precepts, for they are com­manded to feare God & honour the King, & to be subject unto his autoritie in all things in the Lord, & to give unto Caesar that vvhich is Caesars.

Novv in regard of his duty, both to God and the King, and also of his speciall Oath of allegiance, the defen­dent sayth, he could doe no lesse then that vvhich he did in vvriting his booke, being provoked thereunto by an enimie of both. And so much the rather, because himself and all Christians are commanded to give a reason of their hope, to vvhomsoever shall demand it of them, & earnestly to contend for the faith vvhich vvas once deli­vered unto the Saincts: he saith, in all these respects he could doe no lesse in ansvvering that Popeling then that he did, by giving unto God the right of his government in the hearts & consciences of men, & taking it from the Pope that Vicar rather of hell then of Christ, & by giving the King that jurisdiction and a [...]tority of regiment in his dominions & over his Subjects, which God hath confer­red upon him [...] Both vvhich Autorityes Spirituall and tem­porall, the Pope and Popish Bishops most blasphemous­lie arrogate unto themselves, [...]rampling all Divine Lawes and Kinglie regalitie under their polluted feet, making Kings and Emperors their Vassals; vvhich is a most hor­rible arrogancie and usurpation, and not to be suffered by either Kings or their Subjects. And therefore vvhen this defendent did nothing but that vvhich by his speciall dutie he vvas bound unto. If this by the Informers be thought, either schisme, faction, or sedition, he this de­fendent is resolved to live and dye in it, and never to thinke any a good Subject that is not of his minde. He [Page 7] doth vvithall freelie confesse unto this honorable Court, that he looked for no ill usage of the Prelats for this his indeavour, vvhich vvhen he found at their hands it vvas the occasion of the vvriting of manie other books since that time, amongst the vvhich there is one called Apolo­geticus ad Praesules Anglicanos, &c. dedicated unto the privie Counsell; but vvhether the booke that is annexed unto the Bill bee the same, that the defendent knovveth not, but a booke vvith that Title he confes [...]eth, he vvrit, vvherein he set dovvne the proceedings of the Prelats against himself, and their dealings tovvards others of their brethren; the theame of vvhich booke he the Defendent desireth the honorable Court [...] to take a briefe relation of, at this time, that they may the better be informed of the falsitie of the information. And first, for the principall theame and matter of the booke, it is the State of the questions in his Flagello Pontificis for vvhich he suffered, vvith the summe of the Arguments he produced for the confirmation of the trueth. The questio [...]s arising be­tvveen the Babylonian and the defendent, concerning the autoritie of the Pope, were these. The first, whether Christ did constitute Peter sole Monarch of the Catholick Church? The second, vvhether the Pope of Rome (if hee bee a Bishop,) as hee is a Bishop, hath Auto­ritie & jurisdiction over Kings & Emperors? Third­lie, vvhether Popish Bishops be true Bishops or no? and of the discussing of these questios, the defendent saith, his adversarie vvas the sole cause. In the handling of the which, the Defenden [...] f [...]rther affirmeth, that he used all the caution that vvas possible, as he supposed for man to use, prefacing in his booke, that being to dispute about the Autority of the Bishop of Rome, he desired can­didly to be understood, of all men [...] for while he disputed of Episcopall autoritie, he medled nor contended not against such Bishops as ackovvledge their autoritie & ju­risdiction from Kings and Emperors, into vvhose hands the government of States, Kingdomes [...] and Common­vvealths is by God committed. For if the Popes them­selves vvould acknovvledge their immense and unlimited autoritie from Kings and Emperors, he the defendent there said, if they commanded nothing contrarie to the vvill and Word of God, that he for his part out of the re­verence, duty, & [...] loyaltie to his Prince vvould obey it. The Words in the Original are these. Verum de Epis­coporum autoritate locutus à bonis bene intelligi cu­pio. Non enim litis litem moveo quatenus ab Im­peratoribus & Regibus & Principibus. Terre quo­rum interest salutem civium tueri, potestatem, [...]us & Imperium in socios totumque Dei gregem adepti sunt. Nam si Romani Episcopi imm [...]n­sam illam & nullis limitibus circumscriptam au­toritatem, indulgentia Principum acceptam fer­rent, voluntati Episcopali, nihil voluntati di­vinae inimicum jubenti obtemperandum putem ob reverentiam Principi si volenti debitam, &c. So that the defendent having thus playnlie set downe his minde before, & knowing that all the jurisdiction that the Bishops in England now exercise over others is [...]rom the King, he thought himself not onely secure from danger, but expected fav [...]ur at least from the Bishops & their helping hand, especially, when the opposing the Popes Autority in England, is a thing that the King and State have ever so well allowed of.

And that this honorable Court may yet be f [...]rther in­formed of the speciall cause for which the Prelats are so displeased with the defendent, it was for the truely and narrowlie disputing and discussing of the second question, to wit, whether the Pope of Rome (if he be a Bishop) as he is a Bishop, have Autoritie & jurisdiction not onelie over his fellow breth [...]en but over Kings and Emperors? which the Defendent there denyed for many warrantable Arguments. The summe of which he desireth here to relate unto this honorable Court, for his just and neces­sarie defence & justification. For by the ve [...]ie light of nature and unanswerable reason, it is evident and manifest that where there is an equalitie and pari [...]ie amongst men there the one doth not exceed the other in power, or Dominion, Paris enim in Parem non esse imperium inter Naturae [...] est. Novv, Divine constitu­tion hath made Bishops and Presbyters or Elders a like and equall, vvhich that it might the better appeare, the Defendent propounded there tvvo things to be proved. The first vvas, That Bishops and Presbyters vvere by the Word of God one and the same. Secondlie, That Presbyters had equall Autoritie of Government [...] Ordina­tion & Excommunication vvith Bishops vvherein onely consists their preeminency & Autoritie above their bre­thren vvhich things being proved: it vvill necessarilie follovv, That the Pope of Rome as he is Bishop doth no vvay exceed other Bishops, and Presbyters they being in all things a like and equall unto him, much lesse hath any Autoritie and povver over Kings and Emperours. And for the proofe of the first position, the vvords Pres­byter & Bishop do sufficientlie evince i [...], vvhich in holy Scripture, though diverse in sound, signifie one and the same thing, as not to cite the vvords themselves vvhich would be large. The Apostle Paul to Titus in the first chap­ter doth sufficientlie shew, vvhere the words Bishop & Presbyter are confounded. And likevvise in the first Epi­stle of Peter and the fift Chapter, there Presbyter and Bishop signifie one and the same thing. And the Epistl [...] to the Philippians the first Chapter and the [...]irst verse do [...]h apparentlie demonstrate it [...] and diverse other places might be produced dilucidating the same thing. But the 20 [...] of the Acts puts all out of controversie, where Presby­ter and Bishop signifie one & the same thing [...] for office [...] honour and function, so that the identity of their office [...] is signifyed by those tvvo expressions. Neither is there a confusion of their names, with a difference still of their functions & administrations, as some vvould cavill: for in these places vvhere Presbyters are cal­led Bishops, the disputation is not about the title, but about the office signified and specified by the title. For vvhen S. Paul exhorts the Presbyters to have an eye to their duty & charge, he useth this reason, that the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops [...] And the trueth of [...]his [Page 8] is so evident, that the Rhemists themselves, as learned men as any Bishops in England, and as able to mayntayne an error, are forced ingen [...]ouslie to confesse it, saying in expresse vvords in their No [...]es upon the 28. vers. of that Chapter. That in the Apostles times there vvas no diffe­rence betvveen Presbyter and Bishop [...] so that for the first position, it is not onely by the Word of God clear­lie evident, but by the very confession of the adversaries of the trueth granted, as a thing without controversy. Novv for proofe of the second position, that Presbyters as vvell as the Bishop of Rome, have the povver and right of Government, Ordination and Excommunica­tion, by vvhich in these times Bishops onely exceed. Presbyters, the defendent vvill here brieflie demonstrat it, referring those of this honorable Court, that have a desire to search into the full trueth of it, to his booke. And for proofe that the Government vvas committed un­to them, and that they exercised the same, it is most per­spicuous out of the first of Timothie 5. vvhere the Apo­stle sayth, The Presbyters that rule vvell are vvorthie of double honour, especially those that labour in Word and Doctrine. By this testimonie it is evident, that they had rule and government in their hands. And that they had povver also of ordination and imposition of hands, it is likevvise apparent out of the first Epistle of Paul to Timothy the first Chapter. For the Apostle speaking to Ti­mothy sayth, Doe not neglect the gift that is in thee vvhich is given thee for prophesy by the imposition of the hands of the Presbyterie. Here allso the Presby­ters had the right of imposition of hands. And that they had the povver of Excommunication and Absolution, it is likevvise manifest from the 5. of the 1. of the Co­rinthians and the 2. Chapter of the 2. Epistle, vvhere the Apostle gives them the povver of casting the inces­trous person out, and upon his repentance receiving of him in againe. By all vvhich Autorities of sacred vvrit it is sufficiently cleare and evident, That the Presbyters had the Autoritie and povver of government and rule in the Church, vvith the facultie also and abilitie of ordina­tion & excommunication, and all this by Divine institu­tion and expresse vvords of holy Scripture, hovvsoever this right and their due, vvas through the fraud and de­ceit of the Bishop of Rome, and Romish Bishops after­vvards taken avvay from the Presbyters. Wherefore the Defendent concluded [...] That if there were any difference betweene Presbyters and the Bishop of Rome (which hee denyed) that then the Presbyters in dignitie and honour exceeded, and that greatly the Bishop of Rome & Romish Bishops, for all these Privileges of governement, ord [...]nation and excommunication are in formall vvords given unto the Presbyters, and no vvhere granted unto the Bi­shops. And for farther illustration and proofe of this, the Defendent, with many other Arguments proved, That Presbyters were better men then the Bishop of Rome, if there were any difference. The summe of which hee desire [...]h this Honorable Court, to take notice of, [...]hat they may more ponderously wa [...]gh the businesse in hand, and see the vanitie of the information. And for the Argu­ments in briefe, they are these:

They who are most obedient to the Precepts [...] Commands, and Prohibitions of Christ, and doe most diligently obey the Apostles admo­nitions, they are, and so ought to bee estee­med, more worthy and excellent, then such, as regard neither of both.

But the Presbyters are more obedient to the Commands of Christ, and doe more dili­gently obey the Apostles admonitions then the Romish Bishops.

Therefore they are more worthy & excellent.

For the major, no man can deny, that knovves loyall and obedient Subiects to their Prince and his Officiers just commands, are to bee preferred before Rebels, and them that regard neither of both. Novv Christ and his A­postles have commanded, That all Ministers should feed the Flock of Christ deligently in preaching of the vvord, & administration of the Sacraments, and that they should not be Lords over his inheritance; Both which precepts and prohibitions the Presbyters do more exactly observe then Romish Bishops: for they neither preach themselves nor will let others, and are Lords over Christs inheri­tance, which the Lord Iesus and his Apostles have pe­ [...]emptorily forbid. Ergo, the Presbiters are more wor­thie then Romish Bishops. Againe:

That name which is and hath ever bene a name and title of Dignitie and Honour, is to bee preferred before that which is a name of paine, labour, and sollicitude.

But the name of Presbyter or Senior, is & hath beene ever a name of Honour and dignitie, and a title of mightie Emperors and Prin­ces, and the name of Bishop is a name and title of labour and travell.

Ergo, the title and name of Presbyter is to be preferred before that of the Romish Bishops.

For the major, none that are truly noble and learned can deny. And for the minor to omit many other places, it vvil evidently appeare to any that vvill looke upon the [...]irst Epistle to Tim. and the 5. There the Apostle sayth, The Presbyters that rule well are vvorthy of double ho­nour. So that it is apparent enough, That honour and di­gnity is contayned in that name, vvhich deserveth both reward, reverence [...] & respect. And in the same Epistle the Apostle sayth, Rebuke not a Presbyter, but honour him as a Father [...] and speaking of Bishops, he sayth, He that desi­reth the Office of a Bishop, desireth a good worke: Hee sayth indeed a good vvorke, but a work notwithstandig full of care, watchfullnes, toyle, and labour. From all which it is ratifyed, That the name and title of Presbyter is a name full of dignity, honour, and splendour, and the title of Bishop a compellation or name full of labour, [Page 9] anhelation, & solicitude; and therefore to be preferred before the title of Bishop, being farre more excellent. Againe:

That name which whensoever it is ioyned with the name of Bishop, hath alwayes the first place and precedencie, that name is most excell [...]nt.

But the name of Presbyter, when it is ioyned with the title of Bishop, hath ever the pre­cedencie.

Ergo, it is to be preferred before it.

For the major, the adversaries cannot deny it, For they conclude and establish the precedency and preminency of Peter, before the o [...]her Apostles, because he is often first named. And for the minor, the vvord of God declares it illustriously, as may be seene in the 20. of the Acts, and the first of Titus, and the fif [...]h chapter of the first of Pe­ter. In all vvhich places the names of Presby [...]er and Bishop being ioyned together, Presbyter is ever first named. To all this, Peter calls himselfe a Presbiter. The same doth Saint Iohn, as if all Ecclesiasticall dignity vvere placed in that name. But there are many arguments yet remayning to prove the dignitie of Presbyters to bee above that of Bishops, if there be any difference betvveen them. For,

They to whom in the most difficult controversies of the Church, and greatest dissentions, the Primitive Christians had ever recourse, and who the spirit of God did in a special maner assist, and who made Decrees by which the Church of God to this day is to be regulated and governed, and who the Apostles them­selves made their sociats and companions in both Generall and Provinciall Counsels, and the which had the next place unto the Apostles in their Assemblies: they are more worthy, and to be had in greater ho­nour and veneration then the other Mini­sters of the Church, which are neither by name nor place knowne in those holy mee­tings.

But the Presbyters are such, and

Therefore the Presbyters are more worthy and excellent then Bishops.

As for the major, the adversaries cannot doubt of that, vvhich bestovv dignity and honour upon their Bishops, according to the place and degree they had in the first Councels. And for the minor, none can doubt of it, vvho hath read the 15 of the Acts [...] and the twentyeth chap­ter of the same book: But they that desire to be satisfied concerning this argument at large, the Defendent desi­reth vvould read any of his books [...] Lastly, That the dignity of the Presbyters may yet appeare, above [...]he title of Bishops, it is thus evident:

Those to whom the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven by name are committed, those are more vvorthy & honorable then those tha [...] have not that Priviledge.

But for the Presbyters, they have the Privi­ledge of the Keys granted unto them by name:

Ergo, the Presbyters are more honorable then Bishops.

For the major, no good Christian vvill or rationall man can deny it. And for the minor, he that readeth the last of Iames shall finde it manifestly enough confirmed and proved. By all vvhich Arguments, the Defendent did sufficiently beat dovvne the Bishop of Romes autority, and by the very light of reason overthew it. For if that every Presbyter be by the word of God as good a man as the Bishop of Rome if not better; and vvithall, if the Presbyters neither can nor may usurp autority over their fellovv brethren, much lesse may they doe it over Kings and Emperors, and by consequence and necessity of re­son it follovve [...]h, that the Bishop of Rome hath no cause to arrogate such autority to himselfe over the vvhole Church as he doth: and therefore that his rule & Govern­ment is a meere usurpation and an abominable tyranny over the vvhole Church of God, and ought of all men to be defyed, abominated, and abhorred vvith all his com­plices, as impious and blasphemous against, God [...] [...]njuriou [...] to Kings & Princes, and nocent to all the faithfull mem­bers of Iesus Christ. The recapitulation of all the vvh [...]ch Arguments, this Defendent thought fit to make knovvne to this honourable Court, that their illustricityes might in every respect see his innocency, vvho first exemted all Bishops that acknovvledge their autorityes from Kings and Emperors out of the number of those against vvhich he disputed: and secondly, never by name fought against any other but Romish Bishops, and vvi [...]h their ovvne arguments vvounded them [...] And therefore he could not but take it unkindly, that when in this combat they should have helped him against the common enimie, they de­fending him, fell upon the poore Defendent, to his per­dition, saying, that he meant [...]hem, and that he vvas erro­nious and factious in his opinions. Novv if the Defendent hath erred in the discussing of these truthes, the Scripture, that Word of Life, hath brought him to it, vvhich vvere blasphemie to thinke; and therefore vvhen they adjudged his booke to be burnt, they might as vvell have burnt th [...] Scripture also, yea all antiquitie and the gravest and lear­nedest of auncient Fathers, vvhose testimonies also hee hath made publick for the greater vindication of the truth against error and cruelty. But that the integritie of the defendent may yet more clearlie appeare, he most humbly entreateth this Illustrious Tribunall to heare hovv the bu­sines vvas carried against him at his Araignment before the Prelats Barre at Lambeth, and hovv submissively he de­meaned himself there, and hovv superciliously they car­ried [Page 10] themselves towards the Defendent on the contrary side. When it came to his part to speake for himselfe, the Advocat having formerly denied to plead his case any far­ther then about the vvitnesses testimonie, vvhich he also did very jejunely, beeing an Advocate of such excellent parts of learning and eloquence as he vvas, and also at the Bar [...]enouncing i [...], saying, That the Defendent should plead himselfe, which, vvhen it vvas put upon him, he then first related vnto the Assemblie the Theame of the booke, vvhich vvas the mayntenance of the Kings prerogative royall. Then he told them the occasion of his vvriting of it, that he vvas provoked thereunto by a Pontifician, vvho often had dared him into the list of dispute [...] which a [...] last he could not deny, as he vvas a Christian, and as he vvas a Subiect; for by the Word of God he told them, and by the Law of the Land, and his speciall oath, he vvas bound unto it; vvhich Oath he also read at large in open Court, the vvhich also all the Bishops of England, and all the Iud­ges of the Kingdome had taken, and vvere equally bound vvith him to observe. Then before he entred into the combat vvith the adversarie, he shevved, vvhat caution he used that being to vvrite against the Bishop of Rome & Italian Bishops, it vvas onely as they arrogate their au [...]o­ritie over their Brethren and the Church of God, yea, over Kings and Emperors jure divino, against such Bishops onely hee affirmed he did dispute & read the vvords of exception formerly cited at the Barre, as for such Bishops as acknovvledge their jurisdiction, povver and autority from Kings and Emperors; he sayd, he ha [...] no controversy against them, as he there againe and againe declared him­self, in the number of vvhich he the Defendent sayd ours were, for all the Bishops of England and in his Majst. Do­minions, had; and received (or at leastvvise ought so to doe) their autoritie & jurisdiction over their brethren from him; For proofe of vvhich, he cited & read pu­blickly the Statuts and Acts of Parlament as follow:

First, that of the first of Queene Elizabeth of famous memorie, vvherein the Oath of Allegiance vvas ratifyed, In the which Statute there are these words, That all juris­diction, all Superiorities, and all Privileges and Premi­nencies spirituall and temporall are annexed to the Impe­riall Crovvne, vvhich by Oath he being bound to mayn­tayn [...] could doe no lesse being provoked by an adversary of regal dignity: He read also the Statute vvhich was inac­ted in the 37. of Henrry the eight, vvhich is, that Archb and Bish. and all other Ecclesiasticall persons, have no other Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction but that vvhich they received and had by the King, from the King, and under his Royall Majest. He read also the Statute made in the first of King Edward the sixt, in these vvords; That all jurisdiction and Autori [...]ie Spirituall and Temporall, is derived and doth come frō the Kings Majest. as supreme Head in the Churches and Kingdomes of England and Ireland, and that by the Clergy of both the Kingdomes, it ought no o­therwise to be held or esteemed of, and that all Ecclesiasti­call Courts, vvithin the sayd Kingdomes ought to be held and kept by no other povver and autoritie eyther domesticall or forrain, then that vvhich comes from his most excellent Majestie. And that vvhosoever did not ac­knovvledge and venerate this autoritie, that the same men are ipso facto in a praemunire, & under the Kings high displeasure and indignation; as the vvords of the Statute run, and the mouth of the lavv speaks: and then vvith some reason [...] also vvhich the Defendent produced, besides the Word of God, hee shevved, That no Romish Bishops had autoritie over their fellovv brethren, nor could jure divino challenge it, much lesse over Kings and Emperors: and therefore so long as the defendent had the Word of God, the Lavves of the Kingdome, and reason it self on his side, he told them, he thought himself reasonably secure from all danger in that place. And then applying his speech unto the right honorable and noble Lord the Earle of Dorset then present, the Defendent tolde his honour, that he could not but vvonder, that hee should stand there at the Barr as a Delinquent, for mayntayning the Religion established by publick Autority, the honour of the King, and the glory of his Majestie: and that one Chouny a Sussex man a laick as vvell as himselfe, should vvrite a Booke and set it forth by publicke autoritie, mayntayning the Church of Rome to be a true Church, and never to have had so much in her, as the suspition of error in fundamentall poynts, and that this booke should be dedicated to the Pre­late of Canterbury, & patrionized by him (vvhich Book [...] the Def [...]ndent both read and exhibited in Court) by vvhich notwithstandig the King himselfe and all his Subiects were made Schismaticks and hereticks, to the infinit dishonour of God, our Gratio [...]s King, and King Iames of blessed memorie, and our most holie profession and religion. This as the defendent told the Lord of Dorset, struck an amaze­ment in him, & especially vvhen the author of it must be favoured and co [...]ntenanced by Canterburie, and for the defending of the honour and dignitie of our Church and the honour of the King, the Defendent should stand as an evill doer. Novv vvhen the defendent vvas come thus far­re, and vvas then approaching more closely unto them all, intending more fullie in the pleading of his cause to have set forth their unjust dealing, they tolde him, that he ray­led, and imperiouslie commanded him to hold his peace, vvhich vvas the reason of his Apologeticus ad Praesules An­glicanos, vvhere he tooke libertie to vvrite that, and pu­blish it to the vievv of all the vvorld, vvhich he vvould have then spoke. But after that they had silenced him, they then fell a thundering against him everie one as he pleased, all of them joyning in this, (one onely excepted) that they censured him onely for his Booke; and in their cen­sure, they unanimously agreed, that the Defendent should pay the costs of suite, a thousand pounds unto the King for a fine, be debarred of his practice, that his booke should be burnt; and that the Defendent should lye in prison till recantation, and in the meane time be delivered unto Satan. And thus did the Sublime Court deale with the Defendent for doing his duty. But here the Defendent craveth favour againe of the honorable Court, that he may briefly letting the puny Iudges and their nonsen [...]e dye in silence, say something of the Pre­lats haranges, because they onely were the men that found themselves aggreeved a [...] his writing: & to say the trueth, all the other are Officiers under them, and are the Prelats hangbyes (he meanes the Doctors) to doe what they would have thē, as hourely experience teache [...]h all [Page 11] men. And so much the more earnestly he desireth this li­berty, because it will make much for the demōstration of the justice of his accusation against the Prelats, both in respect of the dishonor they have don unto God by it, the dishonour of the King their Master, & King Iames of pre­cious memory, and the wrong done to himself in parti­cular. Now the first that entred this combat was Francis White Bishop of Ely, who in the first place most blasphe­mously and with many contumelyes reproached the ho­ly Scriptures, making nothing of their divine Autority, (as all the standers by can witnes) for he reviling the Defendent, sayd, That he had nothing in his booke but Scripture, which was (as he tearmed it) the refuge of all Hereticks and Schismaticks; openly averring withall, That the Scrip [...]ures could not be knowne to be the Word of God, but by the Fathers, and Saint Augustin would not have beleeved the Scriptures to be the Word of God, had not the Church told him so. Further he sayd, That the Scripture could not be knowne & distinguish­ed from [...]he Apocrypha, but by the Fa [...]hers: nor the mea­ning of the Scripture found out but by the Fathers & that all the Fa [...]hers from all Antiquity (which is most false, as the defendent in a speciall booke hath sufficiently she­wed) made and proved a vast difference between Bishops and Presbyters, and that there was ever a greater excel­lency and Autority in the Bishop then in Presbyters; And this with an unan [...]mous cōsent they all agreed in, till a base fellow Calvin (for so he tearmed that ever to be honoured Divine) rose up in an obscure corner of the World, & vi [...] ­lated and overtrew all order & Autority in the Church, and would allso have demolished the Autority of the Ma­gistrates. And then turning his speech to the Defendent unhumanly: he called him Base fellow, Brasen faced Fel­low, Base Dunce, and sayd in the face of the Court, That if he could not mayntayne his Episcopall Autority to be Iure Divino, he would fling away his Rotchet; And so concluding with those that had gone before him in his censure, he sat downe in a very great fu [...]y and passion.

Af [...]er him came forth the Bishop of Yorke, and in that numerous Assembly, proclaymes; That Iesus Christ made him a Bishop, and the holy Ghost consecrated him, and that he had not his Autority from the King, for Bishops were before Kings and that Bishops held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads, and so peremptorily aver­ring, that the Defendent ought to be knockt downe with club-Law for his ignorance, assenting with the rest in their Censure, he fell a sleep. In the third place the Bishop of London advanced forwards, speaking very loud and temerarious words against the Holy Scriptures saying, That he had thought to have found some great Matters in the Defendents booke, seeing him so confident and so peremptory, but diligently reading of it, he met with no­thing in it but Scripture, which, as he sayd, was the re­fuge of all Schismeticks & Hereticks; & so according with his predecessors in their opinion and censure, he conclu­ded his part of speech. But last of all came forth the Prelat of Canterbury, who with, a frontlesse boldnes avouched his Episcopall Autority & preeminency over his bre [...]hren to be onely from God, very much blaming Calvin for his fa [...]tious Spirit, saying: That their Eccle­siasticall Autority & the power they exercised, was from Christ Iesus, and produced Timothy and Titus to prove [...] the same assertion and that Bishops were before Chri­stian Kings, and they held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads; For, no Bishop no King, & those that would have no Bishops, sought to overthrow all Government, & in his censure he jumped in all things with the rest, sa­ving in the Fine, which (as he sayd) hee thought too lit­tle and therefore ought of meere conscience, as he told the other Iudges, hee fined the Defendent a Thousand pounds more. But he had one thing more to speake as he sayd, concerning the Ch [...]rch of Rome, and about that he resolved publickly there to declare himself, in regard the Defendent had cast Chounyes book unto him in open Court, and of the Synagogue of Rome he spake verie honorably, affirming, That shee was a true Church, and that shee did not erre in fundamentall poynts; and all this hee spake in that publick Sessions.

All which the Defendent hath beene forced to re­cite, because it makes very much for the justification of what hee writ in his Apology, and that hee had good ground greatly to blame the Prelates, aswell for these as for many other of their proceedings, as afterwards this honorable Court shall well perceive: And now that the Defendent may come to the things that he is char­ged with in the Information, as to have accused the Bishops of, in his Apology, which by the informers is termed a Libell, though it contayneth nothing but a true Narration of the passages of the High-Commission Court; which he never spake nor writ against, but one­ly, against the abuses of the Iudges in it, who have tur­ned that Court, which was of purpose appoynted by the State for the suppressing of Heresy [...] Popery and vice [...] to the beating downe of the Religion established by Autority, and the promotion and advancement of super­stition and the molestation and undoing of the Kings faithfullest Subjects, and the deare servants of God, as daylie experience teacheth us, and the whole King­dome can witnes. In the writing of which booke he the Defendent thinketh himself so far from being a de­linquent; as he conceiveth he hath done good service to King, Church, and State, having in it vindicated and mayntayned regall Autoritie against the tyranny of the Pope, discovered also the Prelats lawlesse usurpations with their ungratitude to the King, and cruelties again [...] their brethten, mayntayned the ho [...]our likewise of the Lawes of the Land and the dignity of sacred Writ, (both which they slight and make nothing of) and by inn [...]merable testimonyes of learned men, proved the assertion for which he is thus traduced and envyed, to be neither novell nor hereticall but according to both the Divine Scriptures and all Antient trueth, & the vetustest Bishops, and by the whole clergy of England in King Henry the eights day [...]s, as all the learned and inge­nuous do well perceive and know; both at home and abroad. So that if [...]he Informers with the Prelats will make this Booke a libell, then let them make holy Scri­pture, the Lawes of the Kingdome, and all the an­tient record [...] of learned Bishops libells also: for the De­fendent in [...]hat, ha [...]h sayd nothing concerning the Pre [...] ­bytery, which is not agreeable to them all. And for [...]he [Page 12] matters in spec [...]all he is charged wi [...]h in the informa­tion, Viz. That he hath causlesly enveighed against the oath ex officio and other antient formes of proceedings in that Court, and against the sacred Hierarchy & orders of Bishops, Priests and Deacons, preferring a Presbyte­ [...]ian parity before it. And [...]at he hath falsly and scan­dalously defamed the witnesses produced against him, & falsly & maliciously taxed the High Commission Court it self, and the Iudges therein in generall, and some of them particularly and pe [...]sonally with cruel [...]y and inju­stice, with want of wisdome and temperance, and that they are perswaders of his Majest. to bloudshed, and are upholders of idolatry, superstition, Popery and Pro­phanesse, and further most maliciously, and falsly, affir­meth, that Canterbury, London and Ely, are disgracers and contemners of holy Scriptures, and falsly traduceth them and the rest of the Bishops for traytors and inva­ders of his Majest. Prerogative, and that in the sayd booke there are contayned diverse other unlawfull and scandalous passages against the established government and se [...]led discipline of the Church of England, the Bishops and Clergy, and their proceedings, which being many, and of various na [...]ure, is delivered into his Majest [...] Court of Starchamber.

To all which things that he is here charged with, the Defendent will answer with what brevi [...]y [...] and the best Method he can, & doubteth nothing but whatsoever he hath writ in his Apology against the Prelats & their pro­ceeding, shall be made evidently appeare to this Court to be most true. And to begin with the things layd to his charge in the last place, that hee accuseth, the Bishops to be disgracers and contemners of holy Scripture, to be invaders of his Majest. prerogative upholders of idola­try, Poperie, superstition and prophanesse, All which is most true, for so they are, as he hath sufficientlie pro­ved against them in that booke, and doth here also add, that they have greatly dishonoured the King their Ma­ster, and King Iames his Father of perpetuall memory [...] all which he will briefly declare, and demonstrat to this noble Court. And that they are contemners & disgra­cers of holy Scripture, what can be more manifest? when they say that the Scriptures are the refuge of all Schismaticks and Hereticks as much as if they should say, [...]he good Lawes and Statuts of a Kingdome and the Kings Edicts and Proclamations, are the cause of all disorder and wickednes! withall, what is it to be con­temners and disgracers of the holy Scriptures, if this be not? to say, That they can neither be knowen to bee the Word of God; nor distinguished from the Apo­crypha and Prophane Authors, nor be understood and the meaning of them attayned unto for their obscu­rity but by the Fathers? If this be not to contemne sacred writ, then all Or [...]hodox writers both in ours & all reformed Churches, and King Iames himself, have ac­cused the Church of Rome most falsly, whom they prove blasphemous against God, and disgracers of the Holy Scriptures, for the same assertions, as all their learned wri [...]ings witnes wi [...]h innumerable Arguments in them for proofe of the same.

The Defendent desireth to know, what it is to pro­phane and contemne holy Scripture, of th [...]s be not, to slight and vily [...] the autority of it, and to proferre hu­mane authority before it, which the Bishops did blas­phemously, saying, that they cou [...]d not be knowne to be the Word of God, without the help of the Fathers, when every page and leafe of those sacred monuments breath a divine Spirit, and they are called the lively oracles, Act. 7. vers. 38. as if the Scripture had lost his ancient luster, [...]ife, and Divinity by its antiquity, & were inferior to al [...] other things bo [...]h Naturall and Artifi­ciall. When notwi [...]h standing there is such a Maiesty and Splendor in the Scripture as it dazleth the eyes of all those that looke into it, with hi [...] transcendent and heavenly clarity, and brightnes, the eyes of whose minds the God of this world hath not blinded, yea vnder the very law, wh [...]n there was a vayle before the eyes of men, so that they could not so clearly see into them as now Christians may, yet then such dignity and excellency was discerned in them, that at the first reading of them, men cryed out the voice of God and not of man, & tore their garments for very anguish and feare of the threats in them, and never were so ungra­tious and impious to say, How shall wee know these books to be the Word of God? For the holy Scriptures had ever such an innate and Domesticall light, beauty, & goodnes in them, and caryed such testimony and witnes within thems [...]lves, ever able to declare them­selves Divine and holy [...] & to be the very word of the everliving God, that they needed borrow no help from without them, or fetcht in humane witnesse for the de­claring of their Divinity. There was no need to send unto the Prophets or the Church, in old time, to in­quire whether the Scriptures were the Word of God, amongst any that were but any [...]hing acquaynted with the language of Canaan, as is manifestly evident in the 2 of the Kings. 22. vers. 8.10. and the 2. of the [...]hron. 34. vers. 14, 15.19 [...] where it appeareth, that when the booke of the law was found by Helchia the Priest in the house of the Lord, he knew it at the first reading of it, to be the Word of God; the same did the King, they were neither of them told by the Church, or any Prophets or Fathers that it was the book of the law; neither did the King send unto Hulda the Prophetesse to know whether it were a true & authentick Copy; all this needed not; it needed then no Godfathers & Godmothers to Christen and give it the name of the law of God and holy Scripture, as without the with it could not have been knowne; there was no need of any such thing, or any humane autority for the proofe of that in those times; all that were then true Israelits knew it by its owne testimony to be the Word of God, and shall any man now thinke, that the Scriptures are more obscure and darke [...] and harder to be discerned by their owne testimony to be Divine and holy, then when they had a vaile before them, and their sacred treasuries of Divine trueths were muffled up in so many types & mysteries? Certainly, this is not onely great ingratitu­de to Gods bounty, but very contempt and disgrace of holy Scriptures, that their most excellent self autority can have no credit amongst Christians without adven­ticiall [Page 13] assistance of vaine man. Is not the witnes & testimony of God greater then the testimony of man [...] If we receive the witnes of men, the witnes of God is greater, sayth S. Iohn in his first epistle chap, 5. vers. 9. But the Pre [...]ats affirme [...] the testimony of man is to be preferred before the witnes of God, so that we ought not beleeve [...]he Spirit witnessing but the testi­mony of the Fathers: for they say, the Scriptures can no [...] beknowne without the Fathers. Christ who was tru [...]h it selfe sai [...]h in the 5. of Iohn. vers. 36. I have a greater witnesse then that of Iohn, and what was that witnes? his works, the witnes and approbation of h [...]s Father & the Scriptures. Christ here preferres the testimony of the Scripture before the testimony of Iohn [...] which was the greatest of all the Prophets, and the Prelats preferre the testimony of the Fathers before the Scriptures, and is not this to contemne the holy Scriptures? S. Peter in that glorious transfigu­ration of Christ upon the mount, heard the voice of God the Father, & notwithstanding he sayth in his 2 [...] epistle chap. 1. vers. 19. we have also a more sound word of prophesy. And Christ himselfe so reverenced the holy Scriptures, that he seemeth to preferre Mo­ses his words b [...]fore his owne, saying, if yee beleeve not his writings, how shall yee beleeve my words? and in the person of Abraham, when Dives desired one might be sent to his Fathers house, to warne his brethren. of the danger of torment that he was in, Christ sayth, they have Moses and the Prophets, let them heare them. and he sayd nay Father Abraham; but if one-went unto them from the dead, they will repent [...] and he sayd unto him, If they heare not Mo­ses and the Prophets, neither will they be perswaded, though one rise from the dead. By all which testi­monies of sacred writ it is evident, that if the Scrip­ture of it self cannot prevaile with men, that then there is little hope that very miracles will doe them any good, for the begetting of faith in them, or brin­ging of them to the truth, much lesse the Fathers; and this by Christs owne words is confirmed unto us: yet the Prelats nevertheles, esteeme of the Fathers auto­rity, more then of the sacred Scriptures. But can any man that hath but the name of a Christian thinke, that those that will not be mo [...]ed by the Majest. and autority of the Scriptures speaking in the name of the Lord of hosts, that the autority of the Fathers will prevaile with them, who are not [...]o be beleeved, but as they speake out of the holy Scriptures and by their Divine autority? Christ denyes it, and therefor we are rather to beleeve that, then the phantasies and im­pious grolleries of a few ungodly men. Is not the Scripture [...] and of his owne & self sufficiency so able to declare its owne mind and mea­ning, that it hath no need of the Fathers help? without doubt, unles prophane mouthes will make it a pack of nonsense. Truly one would thinke that very rea­son might be able to convince these wretched wran­glers, if they had not hardened themselves, to fight against the truth, yea and sett themselves to resist th [...] holy Spirit of God; for if we looke upon very na­ture, art and reason, they would convince us: for there is no naturall thing but will prove and shew it selfe what it is, and declare its owne nature, as the Sun, Moone & Starrs declare their owne nature, and tell what they are to every beholder of them; fire by it self and of its owne nature & es [...]ence is knowne what it is, earth and water doe the same: and the same may be sayd of gold and silver & all other metals, they are able to witnes for themselves what they are, and to distinguish their owne natures from each others to any rationall man. Againe, All artificiale things are knowne what they are by their proper formes, and so are discriminated the one from the other, every one of them carrying a sufficient indication of it self. yea all humane [...] writings [...]hew from whence they come [...] by the spirit they are writ with, and doe shew, whether the Authors & Writers of them be learned or unlearned, or be men in autority & place or not, and there needs no Commentaries upon them to tell whose they are.

The Proclamations & Edicts of Kings and Prin­ces doe sufficiently without either marginall notes or annotations declare of themselves, that they come from imperiall autority; and the Majest. & the di­gnity of their phrase and expression proclame to all men that the authors of them are sacred persons, and hee that should call them in question without a Coun­cell or Parlament, or the Fa [...]hers and Iudges of [...]he lawes autority, would be thought no loyall Subject and not worthy to live, and that deservedly: for the very maner of their penning & writing doe ever con­vince their Readers both of the dignity of their matter, and of the excellency of the personages that set them forth. And shall any in this age of light, be found so darkened in his judgment [...] as to thinke the Word of God inferior to all naturall artificiall & hu­mane things? yet so it is, to the infinit dishonour of our great God blessed for ever.

Truely, besides the sparkles of Divinity and the Spi­rit of God illuminating in the Scriptures which writ them; the excellency and goodnes of their object and matter, the purity, the perfection, the Antiquity, the universall consent and agreement of them [...] the ma­jesty, and simplicity of the languages and speech they are writ in, the conviction that is in them of wic­ked & rebellious consciences, beating downe & hum­bling the strongest Spirits, the certayne event of things foretold in them, the integrity of the Writers, being farre from all fraud and guile setting downe their owne infirmities and the weaknesses of their families, which human reason would never have done, the pre­servation of these Holy Scriptures in all ages from the fury of the persecuters, and out of the hands of those that studyed to destroy them, the constancy of the Martyrs allwayes that beleeved & kept them, and the fearfull & tragicall ends of such as were enimies of them, These the Defendent sayth, and many more [Page 14] reasons there are to prove the Scriptures to be the word of the ever living God by themselves, without any Autoritie of Fathers. But yet one reason more [...] the Defendent thought fit to add, before he returneth againe to the Holy Scriptures owne Autority [...] which is sufficiently able to declare it to be the Word of God. And that is this, All things that are mens owne, whe­ther counsayles, Lawes, ordinances, inventions, Poli­tyes or projects, orders of government, &c. they are a­greeable ever to the corrupt nature of man or els to car­nall reason, & men commonly hugg their owne devices. Now if the religion that is set downe in Holy Scriptures or the Scriptures themselves, had ever been the fiction & excogitation of mens braines, as some prophane & Atheisticall men thinke, who suppose and say, [...]hat re­ligion was by Policy invented to keep men in awe, then the Defendent sayth, that all men would willingly and without reluctation have embraced and received them and given them ever admittance and free entertayn­ment: for the world ever loveth his owne. Now it is notoriously knowne that no carnall men either love the Sc [...]iptures or regard them; nay it hath been allwayes the endeavor, and the greatest plot and conspiracy of wicked and ungodly men and the adversaryes of the trueth either totally to extinguish them or to vilify their Autority, as K. Iames of renowned memory in his Apology to all Christian Princes sufficiently declareth, discovering therein, the Popes double diligence in that busines. So that were there no other reason but this alone, it were of conviction enough to prove the Holy Scripture to be [...]he Word of God, because it so much opposeth impiety, wickednes, cruelty, unrigh­tuous dealing, errors and darknes, which carnall and sensuall men love mo [...]e then light. And whereas the Prelats with the Papists produce the Autority of the Fa­thers for the mayntayning of what they speake, and in Court alledged that of Augustin, Where he sayth, that he would not have beleeved the Scripture; if the Church had not told him it was the Scripture. The De­fendent for his part is sorry to see such a profane Sym­pathy between the Prelats & Papists in these things, who deale with true Christians as the Gibeoni [...]s dealt with the Israëlits in the 9. of Iudges, who pretended they were Ambassadors, & tooke olds sacks upon their asses, and old tattered bottles, and clouted shooes, and ragged clothes, and pretended they came from a farre Country, and so the Israëlits not taking counsell of the Lord were cosened and deluded by them: Even so the Papists and Prelats under pretence of the ancien [...] Wri­ters, and with their old shooes and moldy bread of uncoth antiqui [...]y, rob us of [...]he trueth, and take away from us [...]he bread and staffe of life, by which wee should safely, and comfortably walke to Heaven and happines: and under the pretence of the Fathers & their Autority they abuse and deceive the simple. But in this cause Augustin is not very usefull unto them: for his Autority in this, so waigh [...]y a mat [...]er, is to ra­tionall men of no great validity: for the Defendent demands of any, that hath but the grace of understan­ding, that if Augustine would never have beleeved that there had been a God, without the Church had told him so, must his infideli [...]y make others A [...]heists also? this will not be thought good reason amongst the learned [...] for then one mans imperfections should be a rule for multitudes to goe to hell, & unbelief should be a vertue. And yet it is not altogether denyed, but that the perswasion and report of men may be a mo­tive to stirre up men many times to the hearing & per­usell of a thing, which of it self doth not alwayes beget faith or but very little as dayly experience tea­cheth us, but the thing it selfe seene or heard, is that that worke [...]h and affecteth it, and makes their faith so firme and stedfast, that all though the same par­tyes should a thousand times after deny that to be so, yet they to the death would persever in that their true believe. As for example, vve see in the people of Sama­ria that were by the womans perswasions brought ou [...] to see Christ, and in some small measure beleeved in him, from her relation, that he was the Messiah, yet when they had talked with him themselves, they open­ly affirmed that then they beleeved not because the woman had told them, but from more excellent rea­sons and grounds that they themselves had heard him. And should the Samaritan woman a thousand times after that, have denyed that he had been the Messiah, they would never have been removed from their faith in Christ for all that.

The same may be sayd of Nathaniel, in the first of Iohn; to whom Philip sayd [...] That he had found him of whom Moses spake in the Law and the Prophets Iesus of Nazarreth; and Nathaniel sayd unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip sayd, Come and see. Iesus saw Nathaniel comming unto him, and saith to him, Behold an Israelit indeed in whom is no guile. Nathaniel sayd unto him, whence kno­west thou mee? Iesus answered and sayd unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wer [...] under the Fig tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel answereth, & saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the son of God, thou art the King of Israel. And howsoewer Philip here was an occasion of bringing Nathaniel to Christ, yet the sight of Christ and his Miracles were the things onely, that begat true faith in him, and such a faith as all the Phi­lips in the world could never after have removed him from it againe, And so was it with Augustine perhaps, that being a learned infidell or little better a Manichee, through the perswasions of learned Christia [...]s, he came to looke in the Word of God, as all faith commeth by hearing; but doth it therefore follow, that that was onely the cause of his faith, and perseverance in it? or if the Church had not told him so, there had been no other meanes for him to have come to the knowledge of the Scripture, this doth not necessarily follow. But were it granted, that had not the Church told Augu­stine which was the Scripture and Word of God, that he had then never beleeved it to be the Word, must [...]his conclusion of necessity be gathered from thence, That all men must be like Augustin in this, or that the Autority of men is greater and above the Scripture? [Page 15] all [...]hese are poore & lame consequences and not besee­ming the worthy Fa [...]hers of the Church in open Court to publish to the infinit dishonour of holy Scripture & advancing human Autority above it, which indeed is meere blasphemy against the Holy Word of God. For would not every man accuse one of folly, if an other being a stranger and never seeing the King, and mee­ting him in a journey with all his Nobles richly clad, as it beseemeth noble Peeres so to be, for the honour of their Master and the Majes [...]y of his Court, and in this company where there are so many brave perso­nages and all so excellently apparrelled [...] and he not knowing vvhich vvas the King; should aske some of his retinue or some Cour [...]ier, vvhich of those vvere the King? Novv doth it follovv, because at that time, the man should not have knovvne the King vvithout this information from some of the attendant [...], that the King could no other way have beene knowne unto him or that Kings could be knowne no other wayes but by such informatiōs? No rational creatures wil so conclude: at that time he in part beleeved from the Courtiers re­lation that it vvas the King. But after that he seeth the King in his Court or upon his th [...]one vvith his crovvne upon his head. and vvith all his State and Magnificence, and his Nobles in their service; vvith the reverence that is yeilded unto him, then hee beleeveth no lon­ger, because the Servant told him that it vvas the King, but because by his ovvne reason he is evinced of it, kno­vving that such attendance & such a guard [...] so great pomp dignity, and State belongeth to none but Kings. And it vvould be thought not madnes only but treason, to say, if one had not told him that it was the King, othervvise the King could not be knovvne, or that he that told him, vvas greater then the King, or his Au­tority greater.

The same may be sayd of the Holy and ever ble [...]sed Word of God, that it is a great madnes & impiety to conclude. That the Holy Scripture cannot be knovvne to be the Word of God vvithout the Autority of the Fathers, or Church, or that the Autority of either is greater then the Scriptures; vvhich to affirme is vvith­out doubt blasphemy in a High degree against Almigh­ty God, and his blessed revealed vvill, & able to provoke his indignation upon us, because it is an error against the very light of Nature, art and reason, and the appa­rent Words of the Scripture: vvhere the Word of God is called the immortall seed, 1. Pet. chap. 1. v. 23. vvhich liveth & abideth for ever. Novv all seed by its invvard vertue sproutet into a blade & is by it self and his ovvne fruits knovvn to be vvhat it is: So is the Scripture of it self knovvne to be the Word of God, and as Paul sayth in the 1. of [...]he Cor. chap. 2. ver. 4. the Word of God is in the Demonstration of the Spi­rit & in povver, and maketh the hearts of the belee­vers burne vvith in them, as it did to those, that [...]vent vvith Christ to Emmaus. Luke the 2 [...]. vers. 32. and as the Apostle sayth in the first to the Thessalonians the 2. chap. vers. 3. that they received the Word of God not as the vvord of man, but (as it is in the trueth) the Word of God vvhich effectually vvorketh in those that beleeve: and in the 4. of the Hebr. 12. Paul sayth, that the Word of God is quick and povverfull & shar­per then a tvvo edged Svvord, piercing even to the di­viding asunder the soule and Spirit, and of the raines and marrovv, and is a discerner of the thoughts and in­tents of the heart. So that by these testimonies and thousands more that might be produced, it is suffi­ciently evident, that the Scriptures of themselves are declaratory, and by their ovvne native and inbred splendor doe conciliat Autority, & credit to themsel­ves; neither have they any need of [...] from man, or the Fathers Autority to prove them [...]e Word of God. For before there vvere any Fathers the Scriptu­res had their Autority and vvere knovvne to be Di­vine. Neither did the Fathers or Church make them Authentick or the Word of God, no more then a Piller maketh a proclamation to bee the Kings vvill and pleasure, because it stands upon it, but the Church or Fathers declared them so to bee, neither doth or can the very Synagogue of Rome deny this.

How impious then and blasphemous are [...]he Prela [...]es, that they dare thus vilify the holy Scriptures and make their autority nothing? And can any man of judgment see any reason, why one should beleeve the Fathers more then the Scriptures? or why one should beleeve that these are the works of Augustin or Am­brose & should, doubt that this is the Gospell of Luke Iohn, or that these are the Epistles of Paul? Of these things the Defendent for his part can see no reason. Neither can there any solid reason be yeelded why one should beleeve the Fathers more thē the Scriptures themselves [...] when the Fathers are not to be c [...]d [...]ted [...] but as they accord with Scripture, as the very Popish Canons & Papists themselves acknowledge; for in the Canon law thus speakes the Pope, Pa [...]rum quanta­libet doctrina & sanctitate pollentium Scripta, ex Canon [...] & sacris consideranda, nec cum credendi necessitate sed cum judicandi libertate legenda sunt, Neither is Baronius his opinion other, concerning the autority of the Fathers [...] as at large may be seen in his Annals, an. 34. §. 213. and an. 44. §. 42. And for Bellarmine he is of the same mind in his 2 booke concerning Councels in the 12 chapter in these words, Sacra Scripta Patrum non sunt regula, nec hab [...]nt autoritatem obligandi. And when the very adversaries doe thus fully expresse themselves, that whatsoever autority is in the Fathers books and writings it is onely as they harmonise and accord with the Scripture, shall any man then thinke or suppose, that there should yet be more autority in the writings of the Fathers, or in the Decrees of Councels then there is in the holy Scriptures, from whence as the Foun­taine, those streames doe issue? very reason will con­found the fatuity of this devillish doctrine; for the streames & brookes are never so pure nor good as the fountaine: for it is ever the fountaine that gives autho­rity of goodnes, and the name of excellency to the little sucking rivers as all men know [...] and they commend the waters ever from the fountaine they come, so that [Page 16] the spring hath ever the precedency and is of greatest autority, and without all controversy, as it overthro­we [...]h all reason; so it is exceedingly impious against our great God the fountayne of all good and the giver of every good and perfect gift, and they that shall speake so contumeliously as the [...]i [...]ps doe of these Fountaynes of living waters [...]he holy Scriptures, as they did, the Defendent w [...]ll euer mayntaine they are contemners and despisers of the holy Scriptures, and in this opinion he will live and die.

Nei [...]her did they lesse offend in saying, that the Scriptures could not be knowne from the Apocry [...]ha, without the help and au [...]hority of the Fathers: which poynt also the Defendent desireth this honorable Court to heare a little discussed, it being a thing of so high nature, concerning not onely the glory of God, bu [...] the good of every mans Soule, the peace of the Church, and the tranquillity of the whole Kingdom. And there­fore he humbly craveth favour that he may agitate it here a little; for the furthe [...] Demonstration of the iustnes of his accusa [...]ion hee chargeth the Prelats with: viz: That they are disgracers and contemners of the holy Scriptures. They say, that the Scriptures can not be distinguished from the Apocrypha, but by the Fathers: which assertion is against sense and rea­son it self, & too impious for Prelats to speake: Is not this an essentiall property of the Scriptures of the old Testament, that they were written in the Hebrew tongue, and that they did give witnes of Christ, and received autority from him, and that they were put into the hands & keeping of the elect & chosen peo­ple of God as a Treasury?

Now the Apocrypha had none of all this honour, Neith [...]r did ever the Jews account of them as Scri­pture, yea to this day they reject them, Neither for these reasons onely are they distinguished from the Apocrypha, but for many others, the divinity, purity [...] sublimity appeares in the Canonicall Scriptures; the futility, folly and falsity in the Apocrypha are too too manifest: and is there any man so stupid & blockish, to thinke that this age wherein we live, cannot distin­guish or discerne gold from lead, without the autority of the Fathers? There is a vaster difference between the Apocrypha and the Canonicall Scriptures, then is between gold and lead. Every mans reason will tell him an apparent difference between brasse & beanes. But if any be desirous of autority to distinguish them, will not Christs and the Apostles suffice? The very Papists that have not abiured all honesty & goodnes [...] do freely acknovvledge and confesse, that those onely are Cano­nicall Scriptures, which the Apostles did ei [...]her write or approve of. But th [...]y did never approve of the Apo­crypha. The Canonicall Scriptures of the old Testa­ment, did in sh [...]dows and fig [...]res sett f [...]rth that which th [...] new Testament cle [...]rly speaks. They did ad [...]m­ [...]rate, the new Testament expresseth in lively colours one an [...] the same thing. They consent one with an other, and yeild each other mutuall ayde and help. Now the Apocrypha do neither foretell the new, nor are by their autority and approbation illustrated and declared. Christ commends Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalmes, as books without all exception, Luc. 24. and grounds his doctrine upon them, but never honours nor graceth the Apocrypha with his Commendations or wi [...]nes. How then can the Prela [...]s without great con [...]umely un [...]o the sacred Scriptures say, they cannot be distinguished and knowne from [...]he Apocrypha but by the Fathers especially after the judgment of Christ himself is given and hath passed upon the Scriptures, for the autorizing of them to be [...]he word and will of God? The Fathers as the learned acknowledge, were for their times many of them worthy of honour, but yet they vvere subject not to a fevv errors, and often agreed not vvith themselves, and are ever at variance vvith others, and have been indeed the originall and cause of allmost all the co [...]troversies vvith vvhich the Churches are novv tormented. And therefore to con­clude this poynt, the Defendent sayth, that the Prelats are disgracers and contemners of holy Scripture, vvhen against so much light of reason and Divine autority, they say they cannot be distinguished and knovvne from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers. Neither [...]s the third Thesis & Position freer from impudency and out­rage against the Scriptures, then the tvvo former. In that they say, the meaning of the Scripture could not be knovvne, but by the Fathers. For in this they doe as much as playnly affirme, there is an other vvay to heaven, then by [...]he Scriptures; vvhich, if it be not a contemning and disgracing of holy Scripture, then there never vvas any. Nay, if it be not blasphemy the Defendent knovveth not vvhat blasphemy is [...] and there­fore all those that desire salvation and to goe to heaven, must come to the Schoole of the Fathers, and not to the Doctrine of the Scriptures. And hovv then vvill the poore people doe, to be saved, that never knevv vvhat a Father vvas? Nay, hovv did all those goe to heaven that dyed before the Fathers? For the Prelats, say that the meaning of the Scripture cannot be knovvn vvith­out the Fathers, & vvithout the knovvledge of the Scripture there is no salvation. It is most manifest by these expressions of the Prelats, that they vvith their untempered morter vvould put out the light of the Scriptures [...] & make them not onely inferior to all mens vvritings, but a very pack of Non-sense; for vvheresoever th [...]re is any sense, there can something be gathered out of it, especially if it be so large a Booke. And hovvsoever there bee many depths in Scripture, there is also great perspicuity: so that ac­cording to the ancient saying, as an eliphant may svvimme, a lamb may vvade th [...]re also. But if it should be so as the Prelats say, that without the auto­rity and interpretation of the Fathers, the meaning of them could not be knowne & found out: then the D [...]fendent affirmeth, they should be inferior to all other writings, yea to every Letter and Epistle that men penn with understanding: for they ever carry their owne sense and meaning along with them. or to what end are they otherwise writ? If the letter that [Page 17] discovered the gunpouder treason had not had a match and light of understanding in it, that Popish plot had never been discovered [...] till by its cruell flames it had declared it self, and by the funerall of the vvhole Kingdome had been made knovvne, and left those that survived and lived in perpetuall mourning. If every Letter-vvriting and booke then that is penned vvith judgment carry its ovvne sense and meaning in it, and the books for vvhich the Defendent is novv questio­ned, and if all Proclamations, Lettres and Edicts of Princes are easily to be understood, and carry their ovvne interpretation vvith them so that none after their publication may pretend ignorance; dare any man be so bold and audacious as to say that the Letters and Proclamations of the King of heaven and God of the whole world can not bee understood? when not­withstanding David sayth they give light and under­standing to the simple, and that by reading and medi­tating in the law & testimonies of the Lord he grew wiser then his Teachers; and Paul, that Timothy knew the Scriptures from his youth, 2 [...] Tim. chap. 3. vers. 13. and notvvithstanding all this, dare the Prelats affirme, that the meaning of this Scripture cannot be knovvne vvithout the interpretation of the Fathers? We have great cause to praise and blesse God that hath so graciously afforded us better Masters to be taught by. It is good ever therefore to listen unto them. Let us heare novv then vvhat the Prophets, Christ and his Apostles have taught us concerning [...]his vvaighty matter and of so great consequence: & let us follovv their example and instruction, vvhich lead us into all truth: and not listen to the contemners of holy Scripture. They send those that are studious of the vvayes to heaven, to the lavv and to the testimonyes, Esai. 8. to Moses, the Prophets and the Scriptures, not to the traditions of the Elders and custome of anti­quity. And they that bring an other doctrine are not to be listened unto, neither may vve bid them God Speed. The Word of the Lord is the vva [...], light and Lanthorne to our Feet, vvhich send forth sufficiently the beames of truth, and shines so clearly of it self as it may be both knovvne, proved, expounded, and unfol­den by its ovvne brightnesse. T [...]ey do as it vvere lend luster unto the Sun from a smoaking snuffe, that from the mist of the Fathers vvould bring light unto [...]he Scriptures. God is the Author of the Scriptures, vvho is the originall and fountayne of all light, & in vvhom there is no darknes. For the Prophesie came not in old time by the vvill of man, but holy men of God spake as they vvere moved by the holy Ghost. 2 Pet. chap. 1. vers. 21. we have also a more sure vvord of Prophesy, sayth the same Apostle, vvhereunto you doe vvell, that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a darke place, vers. 19. So that the Scriptures vvere of purpose penned by holy men, inspired by God him­ [...]elfe, for a direction & light to the Saints, to be guided by, and so they are termed by the holy Ghost. So that as Peter sayd unto Christ in the sixt of Iohn, vvhen he asked his tvvelve Disciples, if they also would goe away, To whom shall wee goe, sayth he? thou hast the Words of eternall life. Even so we may truly say, whither shall wee goe for light and direction to get to heaven, but to the holy Scriptures, for they have the Words of eternall life in them? and this [...]ayth Christ and his Apostles; and yet notwithstan­ding all this excellent light, that shineth in the Scrip­ture, the Prelats averre, they are but blind guides, and preferre humane darknes before the splendor of these sacred Oracles the Scrip [...]ures, and say, without the interpretation of the Fathers [...]hey can not be knowne; which is unsupportable blasphemy; and as much as to tell the everliving God, and truth it selfe, hee lyes. It is most veritable, that they see not the light of the Scripture, the eyes of whose minds are blinded; nei­ther doe they see the light of the Sun whose eyes are plucked out. If our Gospell be hid, sayth Saint Paul, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded their minds, that is in infidels, least the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ which is the image of God, should shine upon them, 2 Cor. chap. 4. vers. 3.4 [...] every one knoweth the voice of that man with whom he is acquaynted, as soone as the sound of it commeth to his eares: and shall we not know the voice of God so clearly and perspicuously speaking unto us in the Scriptures? Those that are taught of God, know it, [...]he true worshippers of him know and understand it, those that have any familiar commerce with heaven and in heavenly things: But wordly men and those that are given to the love of the same & are carelesse of heaven and happines, they understand not the Divine language nor heavenly voice: Canany heare the voice of God, and not assent unto it without the aide and autority of the Fathers: what a contumely is this to holy Scripture! Shall God have lesse autority & credit among men then the Fathers? Shall vve not beleeve God speaking unto us, and shall we beleeve the Fathers? Shall we not give credit to Gods word, and shall wee beleeve men? Let the dis­honor of so great a contumacy against God be farre from Christian obedience! Truly, the Fathers being conscious of their owne imbecillity and vveaknesse [...] never thought themselves worthy of so great dignity as to suppose that any honour came unto the Scriptures from their interpretations and expositions, who in their writings frequently exhort their Readers not to listen what they say, but what the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles speake in them, and no farther to receive their autority and doctrine, then it is groun­ded upon the holy Scriptures, & expressions to this purpose, the Defendent saith, he could accumulate in­finite out of the Fathers, which for brevity he omitteth, fearing to be over tedious, though it be a matter of greatest importance.

Such was the modesty of [...]he Fathers, fearing to be vvise above that vvhich vvas vvritten, ever making the holy Scripture the rule and measure to be guided by. And in this moderation the Fathers imitated Christ, the Prophets and Apostles, vvho ever fetch the proofe [Page 18] & testimony of their doctrine from the Scriptures & not as novv the Prelats doe, preposterously bringing autority to the Scriptures from the interpretation of the Fathers according to their ovvne sense. To the Lavv and to the Prophets sayth Esay. 8. vers. 20. vvho­soever speaketh not according to that, hath no light in him. And Iosua that great Commander, is inioyned by God to order and governe himselfe and the people and the whole Common wealth according to the rule of the Scripture, Iosua 1. ver. 7, 8. Onely be thou strong and very couragious that thou mayst observe to doe according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee, turne not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayst prosper whither soever thou goest. This Booke of the Law shall not goe out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to doe according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good suc­ [...]sse. And in the 23 chapter vers. 6. he sayth: Be yee therefore very couragious to keepe and to doe all that is written in the Booke of the Law of Moses, that you turne not asides therefrom, to the right hand nor to the left. And Christ himselfe our great Master sayth Ioh. 5. vers. 38. Search the Scriptures, for in them yee thinke to have eternall life, & they testifie of mee. And in the 3. of the Acts ver. 22, 23. S. Peter brings all men unto Christ to be taught by him, not in some­things onely, but that Prophet must be heard in all things, and no other in Gods matters must be listened unto, the words are these: For Moses truely sayd unto the Fathers, a Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, of your brethren, like unto mee, him shall you heare in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shal come te passe, that every Soule, which will not heare that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. And in the 12. of Iohn vers. 48. our Saviour sayth: He that rejecteth mee, and re­ceiveth not my Words, hath one that judgeth him: the Word that I have spake, the same shall judge him in the last day. And therefore doth it not stand with all good reason that we should guide & square our lives and actions by that word and rule onely, by which we shall at the last day be judged? Paul in the 2. of the Rom. ver. 16. sayth, That the secrets of mens hearts shall at that day be judged according to his Gospell, & shall not all our doctrines yea and our whole Religion be squared and regulated by the same? all good reason vvould dictate so. They have Moses & the Prophets sayth Abraham [...] let them heare him, saith he, Luc. 16. ver. 29. We have Christ and his Apostles, we are onely to heare them in all things, not the Fa [...]hers, not the traditions of the Elder [...], not the use & customes of former ages, if they dissent from the holy Scriptures and vvritten word of God. For the great Doctor of his Church telleth the Saduces, saying, Yee erre, not knovving the Scriptures, Matth. 12. vers. 24. & in­deed from the ignorance of the Scriptures commeth all error, they that follovv the Scripture for their guide, can never stray or straggle from the right vvay, neither have they need to borrovv the candle of the Fathers to be directed by, so long as the glorious Sun of the vvord shineth so clearly, and it was the eter­nall praise and commendations of the more noble Bereans that they did dayly search the Scriptures vvhe­ther the things the Apostles taught, vvere so or no. Acts 17, ver. 11. and Paul is greatly honored vvith this applause in the 26. of the Acts ver. 22. that he taught no other things, then those vvhich the Prophets and Moses did say should come te passe. And so Christ taught his Apostles Luc. 24, that all things ought to be fullfilled concerning him vvhich vvere vvrit in Mo­ses, the Prophets and the Psalmes.

So that the Scriptures alone are the Foundation of all our religion; and to say that the meaning of the Scriptures can not be knowne without the Fathers, is an unsufferable wickednes done unto that holy booke, and an infinite contempt and disgrace of it, to say it hath need of the ayde of man to support it, Christ vanquished the Devill by the Scriptures Matth. 4. dro­ve away the Saduces Matth. 22, and S. Iames, by the Scriptures put an end unto the great controversy of the Churches at Ierusalem, & set the Churches of the Gentiles free for ever from all Ceremonyes vvhatso­ever, but those God himselfe had appoynted, Acts 15. and onely by the Scriptures did Paul resolve all que­stions. So that according to Gods ovvne instruction and direction vvhich must ever be obeyed and liste­ned unto, the Scriptures onely & soly must bee the Iudge, Law, square & rule of all our religion, vvords, & actions. Not the Autority of the Fathers, not the traditions of men, not the practice & custome of the ancient and the name of Antiquity. For they that shall preferre these things before the Word of God, or at least affirme that these Holy Oracles and Divine records cannot be understood vvithout the Fathers, do not only blasphemously disgrace and contemne the Holy Scriptures, but neglect the great Prophet vvhom vve ought to heare in all things, so that liste­ning unto the voice of men before the vvords of this great Prophet, & accusing the Scriptures of obscurity and saying they are the refuge of all Schismaticks and Hereticks, is great impiety & contumacy against God, & most injurious to the Holy Scriptures. All which the Prelats being so highly guilty of, the Defendent will never be a frayd to charge them with it, that they are disgracers & contemners of Holy Scripture: withall that they are very ungratefull to the King their master, & invaders of his Prerogative Royall; all which he shall make also evidently appeare to this honorable Court, and how unwor [...]hily yea prophanely they have abused not onely the King their now Soveraigne, but his most excellent Father of pious memory. And that they are invaders of his Prerogative it i [...] most cer­tayne, not onely by the Statuts & Lawes of the King­dome, but by this very information. For by the Lawes & Statuts specified before with many others, it is so­lemnly inacted, That whatsoever Autority is here [Page 19] exercised under the King, in his Dominions, whether it be Spirituall or Temporall, whether by Archbishops, Bishops or any Ecclesiasticall men, it is meerly in, by, and from the King, and so ought to be acknowledged; and that all jurisdictions, superiorities; all privileges and preeminencies spirituall and Ecclesiasticall, are an­nexed unto the Imperiall Crowne, & so to be acknow­ledged. And whosoever doth not acknowledge, that all jurisdiction and Autoritie both Spirituall and Tem­porall is derived and doth flow immediatly from the Kings Majest [...] as supreme head under Christ in these Churches and in his Kingdomes, as the Statutes de­clare at large, is ipso facto in a praemunire and under his Majest. high displeasure. For it is the Preroga­tive of Princes and the priviledge that onely agrees to Kings and Potentates to be absolute in their Domi­nions, and that all other jurisdictions & superiorityes exercised by any other in their Kingdomes, are derived from them, and that of themselves they have none, but as from the Kings. So that it is arbitrary and in the Princes power to have or not to have such jurisdi­ctions and preeminencies under them: And that they may abdicat or annihilate them when they please. And whosoever shall deny this, or clayme any right of Go­vernment to themselves in Princes Dominions jure Di­vino, are delinquents against their Kings and Masters: and by our Lawes and Statutes they are proclaymed enimyes of the King and his Prerogative Royall, & that is true, the mouth of the Law hath spake it. And therefore the Defendents booke cannot be called a Li­bell, without the Lawes first be proclamed such: for the lawes say, That all such persons as shall challenge any Autority unto themselves in his Majest. Domi­nions but from the King are delinquents against his Majest. and invaders of his prerogative Royall, & his Highnesses enimyes, and so they are. Now that the Prelats are such, they sufficiently declared it in the cen­sure of the Defendent. For he reading the Statuts at the Barr, they notwitstanding affirmed, that they had not their Autority and jurisdiction from the King, but that Iesus Christ made them Bishops, and bestowed their Autority upon them, and that they were jure Divino; and that they were before Christian Kings, & held the Crovvnes of Kings upon their heads; for no Bishop no King, and all this in a publick Court of judi­cature and in a most crouded assembly: So that it see­meth the King is beholding to them, and not they to his Majest. And if this bee not to invade the Preroga­tive, and to be enimyes of it, and to be ungratefull un­to his Highnes, the Defendent knovveth not what it is to bee enimies of the prerogative. The Lavves say it; and therefore if the Defendent hath erred, the Lavves have brought him into this error. Neither did the Prelats ovvne Words at the Bart onely, declare their disloyalty to the King, and their independency on him, but this very information vvhich comes from the Prelats in the name of the Attorney Generall, suf­ficiently, demonstrates it. For in it, the Defendent is accused as guilty of a great crime for vvriting against the Hierarchy, and prefer [...]ing a Presbyterian pa [...]ity be­fore the Sacred Orders of Bishops, Priests and Dea­cons. What the Defendent hath Writ & the occasion of it concerning the Presby [...]e [...]y, the honorable Court hath been informed in part, and vvithall, if so vvriting be libello [...]s, and the Defendent have erred in it, the Holy Scripture is also libellous which vvere impiety to thinke, and hath been the cause of it, from vvhich he varied nothing at all in that discourse: & further, the Defendent resolveth to live and die in that error con­cerning the parity of Ministers and Presbyters, vvhich he is ready to prove and make good against all the host of Prelats, Doctors, Proctors, Commissaries, Offi­cials, and Surrogats this day living.

But the thing that the Defendent desireth the ho­norable Court, to take notice of, is, the contumacy of the Prelats: for they call their Hierarchy, and the Orders of their Bishops, Priests and Deacons, Sac [...]ed: which, if it bee graunted, and so bee indeed, then the Prelats are from God, and not from the King, of whom they have no depence: For, speaking of the King, wee say, His sacred Majestie, because God himselfe hath appointed Him over us; for by mee, saith GOD, Kings raigne: and all Authority is from God: and Kings are called Gods, so that Kings are sacred Persons. But that Hierarchy should be sacred, and that there should be a holy Principa­lity of Pastors and Ministers, the prime and forman of which should have the Keyes of Heaven, Earth, and Hell, and that hee should dispose of Kingdomes and Empires, and make the greatest Potentates and Rulers his Subjects and Vassals, and should have his domineering servants under him in all Common­wealths, and Princes Courts, to pry into their royall proceedings, to their revenues riches and treasuries, to know their powers, their allyes, and confederates, and be Counsellors of their most secret admission, & should have an autority and jurisdiction indepen­dent over their Subjects, and Lawes, and Canons of their owne making to rule by, and by them to per­secute and undoe them at pleasure, in the number of which are Cardinals, Patriarchs, Prime-mates, Me­tropolitans, Arch [...]Bishops, Bishops, Deanes, and innumerable such like vermin, a member of which monstrous body our Hyrarchy is, the Defendent saith this is not knowne in Sacred Writ, nor never came from God, but rather from the Pope and the Devill Diabolus cacavitillos. Yea the Word of God is absolu­tely against it. And that our Arch-Bishops, Prime-mates, and Metropolitans, are members of that body, let not onely our Martyrs writings and speeches, & Henry Stubbridge his exhortatory Epistle, but even Ma­sons Booke be looked into, concerning the Succession of Bishops, and it will be [...]ound, That hee derives their pedigree from Rome, and so doth P [...]cklington in his Booke Sunday no Sabbath, wherein hee saith [...] That our Prelats are lineally descended from Saint Peters Chaire at Rome, they being therefore a branch of that Synagogue and standing by the same autority [Page 20] the Pope pretends to stand, which is, as they all chal­ [...]nge, jure divino, they are enemies to the King, and [...]vaders of his prerogative, and so they are justly g [...]ilty of all those crimes they accuse the Pope of, and as great enemies of God as hee is, all which the Defendent hath sufficiently proved in his Apo [...]ogy. For they challenge their Autoritie jure divino, and say, That Iesus Chr [...]t made them Bishops, and the holy Ghost consecrated them, and that they we [...]e before Kings, and held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads, and the Pope sayes no more.

They call also their Hierarchy Sacred; the Pope doth no more; and for the erecting of this sacred Hierarchie, Emperors & Kings must be thrust down, and made vassals of, and all Kingdomes that are un­der their jurisdiction, made slaves to it, and all those stinking slavelings that depend upon it, as the whole Christian world by woefull experiēce daily findeth. But this same tearme of Sacred Hierarchie, and sa­cred orders of Prelats, ought here a little to be dis­cussed.

That which is sacred, is from God. But the Hie­rarchie is not from God. Ergo, it is not sacred. For the minor, it is evident [...] That vvhich God hath peremptorily forbid to his Ministers and Servants, and is an enemie to, that is not of God and by his in­stitution: but hee hath forbid Lord [...]y dominion to all the Ministers of the Gospell, saying, The Prin­ces of the Gentiles beare rule over them, but it shall not be so among you, you shall not Lord it over your Brethren: Ergo, th [...] Hierarchie is not of God, but of the Devill, that is the cause of all disorder and ig­norance. For God forbad his Apostles, and in them all Ministers to be Lords over one an other, and set his owne example before them of service, and com­manded them to immitate him, and to bee humble and meeke, and told them plainly, That the office of Principalitie and Dominion belonged unto Kings and Princes; and that their imployments consisted in their obedience to Kings, in praying for them, that they might live in all godly peace under them, and that they should diligent [...]y feed the flock of Ie­sus Christ, committed to their charge, in season and out of season, as they love him, and will answere it at his last appearing [...] and this was all the businesse that Christs Ministers & Servants vvere to be taken up in, they were not to be intangled with the things and affaires of this life, nor to bee incombred with worldly matters, they have speciall commands and presidents to the contrary, and their charge and du­tie assigned unto them, from which station they must not goe, which is onely to feed the flocke with all care and diligence vvith the sincere milke of the Word, to preach unto them day and night, and to goe before them in godly and holy example, and to neglect th [...]s, and to be taken up vvith domination, and ove [...]ruling their brethren, and beating their fel­low servants, is to bee rebels against Christ, and to usurp that vvhich belonge [...]h not unto them, and vvhich th [...]y ought not to meddle with: and there­fore vvhen the Prelats doe not onely eate up and de­voure this forbidden fruit, but challenge a right un­to it from God himselfe, and say they have no depen­cie from the King, the Defendent maintaineth, that it is intollerable arrogancie against God & the King, and by vvhich they are delinquents in an elevated de­gree of contumacie against them both. What an hor­rible impudencie is this in the Prelats, or any Subject that vindicats their quarrell, that they dare call the Hierarchie sacred, especially, when they derive it from Rome? whom King IAMES of famous memorie calls Babylon, and the Pope Antichrist, and can any man th [...]nke, that those that are lineally de­scended from Babylon, and Antic [...]rist (that great enemie of Christ, his kingdome and members) can be holy and sacred?

Certainly, if the fountaine be not holy, the streames cannot be holy; Yea King Iames is very large in that his Booke to all Christian Princes, in discovering the im­piety of the Hierarchy of Rome, and proves the Pope to be that man of Sin, and all the Prela [...]s of that Sea, to be the Frogs that came out of the bottomles pit. For the Nature of Frogs (they being Amphibia) is to live upon the Earth, and in the vvater. Novv King Iames sayth, That the Prelats are the Frogs; for they seeme to be Church men and are ever medling in States af­fayres, creeping out of their stinking gu [...]ters, & are such mighty busy bodies in other mens matters, as they trouble all the Nations and Kingdomes vvhere they dvvell, and inslave them all. So that if the Hierarchy be sacred, and the Prelats be the chiefe members of it, then they are a generation of sacred frogs, the holy­nesse notvvithstanding of the vvhich is such as fevv mens impiety is greater or more dangerous to Church and State, and their usurpation upon both Autorityes deserving severely to be punished, especially for that they so abuse his sacred Mast. Autority in oppressing his poore Subjects, and trampling upon his preroga­tive; so that to any eye of understanding it may suffi­ciently appeare by that the Defendent hath sayd, that the Prelats are not onely contemners and disgrace [...]s of Holy Scripture; but also invaders of the Kings prerogative Royall, and enimyes of his imperiall di­gnity!

It yet remaynes to pove also, that they have farther dishonoured the King their Master, and King Iames of famous memory, yea our most Holy religion and profession, and all this in the D [...]fendents Censure. For vvhat any one of the Prelats did, all the other assented to, they being one Body, & it vvas the action of them all, though acted in the person of the Prelat of Canter­bury, vvhich vvas this, to magnify the Church of Rome, & defend the purity of her Doctrine, affirming openly, that she never erred in fundamental points, and vvas a true Church; as much, as to proclayme the King and all his Subjects Schismaticks and Hereticks, and that, by the mouth of the Prelate of Canterbury: vvhich the Defendent sayth is not onely injurious to the King their Master, but to King Iames of famous memory his renovvned Father, vvith vvhom for piety [Page 21] and learning all the Prelats together are not to be named the same yeare his Royall excrements are men­tioned. King Iames that glorious and learned Prince in his Apology to all Christian Princes and States, proves the Pope of Rome to be Antichrist and the man of Sinne, by many unansvverable arguments.

He proves likevvise the Church of Rome to be the vvhore of Bab [...]lon for her abominations; Spirituall Sodome for her fil [...]hines and uncleannes. Spirituall Egypt for her inslaving the Saints and Servants of God, and all this he evinceth by irrefragable Autority, & thus taught he the whole vvorld, his Royall Son, and all his Subjects; & persvvadeth all Christian Prin­ces, to come out of Babylon, & to shake of the yoke of the Pope. And in this faith he lived and dyed. And this faith is King Charles his Son and our gra­cious Soveraigne, novv Defender of, and all this is Or­thodox Doctrine, vvhich our King did preach unto us, and our Royall King novv professeth; and vvhich all his Loyall Subjects to God and his Majest. vvill seale vvith their blouds. This heroicall King notvvithstan­ding and his Divine Doctrine is stamped under foot by the Prelats, to the infinit dishonour of our most pious & clement Prince, the eternall disgrace of his most incomparable Father, and the discredit indeed of the vvhole Church and Kingdome, if not indange­ring the same: to the great hardening of the Papists in their Hereticall wayes, & the perverting of the Kings most Loyall Subjects, and teaching the Papists to rebell. And to all this the dignity and glory of the Scripture is offuscated by their sable mouths. So that, what can any man either say or thinke, of this pro­geny of Prelats, whose contumacy and rebellion rea [...]cheth to the very clouds, and what can men think of this degenerating of-spring of this age? The one, that they dare against God and the King openly breath out their blasphemies, and call evill good, and good evill. The other, that they should out of cowardise suffer their Royal King, and his most excellent Father, to be thus abused.

But this Defendent hopeth, that this honorable Court like that noble Nehemiah vvith other true-hear­ted loyall Subjects, remayning about the King, vvill novv at last informe his Majest [...] of the intollerable in­solency of the Prelats, of vvhich he beleeveth they vvere formerly ignorant, or not so vvell acquaynted, and seeke by his Autority for redresse, against their impudency. As for this Defendent for his part, he is resolved, though left alone, ever to say, LET THE KING LIVE FOR EVER. And although he should suffer a thousands torments from the Prelats, living and dying, hee will ever cry, LET THE KING LIVE FOR EVER. And let the name of his learned and transcendent Father li [...]e to perpe­tuity. And let the enemies of the King and Gospell perish. Neither will hee ever suffer to the uttermost of his power, That either the Kings Honour, or the Dignity of his most illustrious Father, or the glory of our most Holy profession, or the honour of the Holy Scriptures, shall be contaminated, or Babylon or super­stition advanced in his Dominions, and crue [...]ly and in­justice exercised by the Prelats over his poore Sub­jects, and hold his peace.

All vvhich evidently appeare in the daylie procee­dings of the Prelats in their High Commission; and from their speech hourelie there, & their practises through the vvhole Kingdome. Some of vvhich he desireth in order to prove [...] that the honorable Court may be the fuller informed that he hath not causlesly in his Apology layd any crime unto their charge, vvhich they are not guilty of.

And novv to proceed to the other thing [...], the De­fendent is charg [...]d vvith, Viz: that he taxeth the High Commission Court, of crueltie, injustice, vvant of vvisdome and temperance, and that they are per­swaders of his Majest. to bloudshed, and are the uphol­des of idola [...]rie, superstition, & prophanesse; [...]hat he scandalously defame [...]h the vvitnesses produced against him, and that he hath causleslie and boldlie inveighed against the oath ex officio and other the ancient formes of proceedings of the High Commission Court. To all these the Defendent ansvvereth as they lie. And first, vvhereas the Defendent chargeth them, vvith crueltie injustice, vvant of vvisdome & temperance [...] he conceiveth he hath very good reason for that his charge, both in respect of himself and others, and in regard both of the soules and bodies & estates of men; all which they captive, enslave, or dissipate & scatter at pleasure, and in as much as in them lyes, seeke the ruine of.

To say nothing of their daylie practises, who con­demne men without either exhibiting articles, produ­cing of witnesses, or any legall proceedings against them, as if a man should be hanged without evidence given or indictment framed, which is the hight of in­justice: the Defendēt saith, that their very proceedings against himselfe sufficiently shew their crueltie, inju­stice, want of wisdome and temperance, & their very speeches apparently prove all these things. Neither is there such a president of wrong and cruelty in the whole world, that any man of what ranke, order or degree soever he be, that shall write a Booke in De­fence of that religion that is established by publick Autority, for the honour of the King & in Defence of his prerogative against a common enimy that for this indeavour of his should be ruined, he, his wife, & children cast into prison, deprived first of all possibility of livelyhood, rayled upon, & reviled publickly, and after all this given to the Devill, and that onely for writing a Booke which had nothing in it but Scri­pture, and in the which the Defendent thought they meant him; and that they should still prosecute him & seek his eares and the defacing of him, which they threaten. Such a President of wrong & crueltie the Defendent sayth cannot be produced in toto Macrocosm [...] & therefore the Defendent in respect of his owne par­ticular, justlie chargeth them with crueltie, injustice and intemperance. And in respect of all other honest [Page 22] men, that come under their jurisdiction, the same may be sayd and proved by thousands, whether one respect their soules, bodyes, or goods, for they use cruelty in regard of all, sparing neither age or sex, poore or rich, youg or old, bond, or free: but upon every triviall occasion, or for the meanest neglect of any one of their idlest and impious Ceremonies, or for any misprision, it is enough to have them hoisted into the High Commission Court, & brought from the re­motest parts of the Kingdome, to the utter undoing of them & their familyes, when as the greatest breach of any of the Commandements of the first table, is not once thought of.

And in the bringing of them into troubles they deale with those poore men as they doe with Beares & Bulls at Paris Garden: they first, by violence, and their Officers to their mightie expenses hale them into their Courts, and then with bands of two or three hun­dred pounds they tie them to their stakes & bait them three or foure yeares together with all maner of con­tumelyes & reproaches, vexations, expenses, calami­ties & torments; till they have wearied them to death, and made their lives tedious unto them, & after all this they fling him into one jayle or other destitute of friends & monies. And as if this were not enough, e [...]en as the persecutors of the Martyrs in the primitive times, as histories relate, dealt with the Saints, when they brought them to the slaughter, they were wont to cloth them with the skinnes and hides of wilde Beasts, that so they might make them the more formidable, and the better animate their dogs and curres against them to teare them in peeces.

In like maner doe the Prelats & their complices in these our times deale with poore honest Christians and the true and faithfull servants of the Lord, and the Kings most loyall Subiects, they make them mon­strous, ugly and deformed unto all men, King & No­bles, by their relations and informations they cloth them with: saying of them, That they are maligners and enimies of government, troublers of Church and State, Seducers of the Kings Subjects, making them disloyall unto their Prince, stirrers up of sedi­tion & faction, and a thousand such crimes, setting all the people against them & in their open Courts have their orators to blanch over their defamatory false ac­cu [...]ations, charging them with foule crimes, the thought of which never came into their heads; as this pre­sent information may witnes. Yea in the very Court-Sermons they incense the King & Nobles dayly against those, they brand with the name of Puritans and Sectaries, which all this honorable Assembly can witnes; and the Defendent hath heard many Court-Sermons with his owne eares in the time of his li­berty, but never heard one where the Puritans as they terme them, were not brought up in the Pulpit, & most shamefully & unchristianly traduced, as those that opposed the Kings proceedings, and such as ma­ligne his government and trouble the peace of Church and State, and humbly besought his Majest. that some severe course might bee sought & taken against them.

These & such like sprincklings of their brotherly Rhetorick the defendent himselfe hath often heard, nei­ther can this honorable Court be ignorant of the truth of this. And what is all this but great cruelty & in­justice to abuse thus their brethren by malicious and false accusations, to the incensing of their Gracious King and Soveraigne against them; when they are most innocent & harmlesse, desiring nothing more then the life, safety, prosperity & happines of his Majesty and of his royall progeny & his florishing rai­gne, and would lose ten thousand lives if they had them for the honour of his crowne & dignity? for they desire nothing more then to bee found loyall; neither do they seeke any thing more then the peac [...] and wellfare of the Church, & the good of this com­monwealth [...] And therefore if there be any, this is cruel­ty and injustice in a high degree, to deale thus mer­cilesly with their too too much allready afflictid bre­thren, of whom they are ever making sinister relations to King, Councell and State, to the depriving of them many times of their libert [...], livelyhoods and states, to the making of them & theirs ever miserable, and all this also they doe in their Courts every day, defaming them as enimies of government and enimies of the Church, and casting them into prison with great Fines on their backs. And this is the cruelty they dayly use in respect of their bodies, lives and estates. But yet their cruelty is greater in respect of their soules, for they have through the Kingdome of England and VVales taken away allmost all their glorious paynfull Ministers, and [...]hose that with most diligence taught the people, and sent droanes and loyterers amongs [...] them, dumb dogs, that can not barke: and is not this great cruelty to the poore Soules of men to deprive them of the food of life and to starve them?

See what Paul sayth to Bariesus the Sorcerer in the 13. of the Acts, when Sergius Paulus the Deputy of the Country a prudent man, called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to heare the word of God; it is sayd, that Elemas the Sorcerer withstood them, seeking to turne away the Deputy from the faith, to whom Saul, filled with the holy Ghost, setting his eyes on him, sayd: O full of all subtility and all mischiefe! thou childe of the devill, thou enimy of all righteousnes, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right wayes of the Lord? Those then that take away the meanes of sal­vation, and hinder others from the hearing of the word, they are most cruell unto them, hindering of them of salvation it selfe, and such are the children of the devill, the enimies of all rightnousnes, & perver­ters of the wayes of the Lord, the holy Ghost hath spake it, and Christ himselfe sayth Matth. 23. and the 13. Woe unto you Scribes & Pharisies hypocri [...]s, for yee shut up t [...]e Kingdome of heaven against men: for you neither goe in your selves, neither suffer you them that are entring, to goe in. And in Luke the 11. and verse the 52. hee sayth, Woe unto you Lawyers: for yee have taken away the key of knowledge: yee [Page 23] enter not in your selves, and them that were entring you hindred. Christ himselfe pronounces woe here, to all such Soule-murtherers as take away the key of know­ledg from the people, and shut up the Kingdome of heaven against them, which is the greatest cruelty that can be exercised over miserable men: and yet this is the dayly occupation of the Prelats, of which the whole Kingdome can witnes, how that they have made most places desolate, depriving them of the bread of life, the preaching of the Gospell, and taking away the key of knowledge from them, and in stead of [...]rue nourishing food they give them the huskes of cere­monyes, and vaine traditions, and idle superstitious observations. Neither doe they onely extinguish and put out all their shi [...]ing lights, but they severely pu­nish those that seeke it, or goe after it where it is; so that, if one do but goe out of his owne parish, where he hath no preaching, & where perhaps there hath not been a sermon seven yeares together, as there are many such parishes in this Kingdome; he is forth­with haled into their Courts & tormented to death, and is not this horrible cruelty? yea, if one neigh­bour doe but goe to an other, and that but to heare a Sermon repeated, when he dare not goe out of his owne parish, he is immediatly haled into their Courts as a Keeper of Conventicles, and miserably there tormen­ted: and is not this also great cruelty? Especially when any of their lewd parishioners may goe from yeare to yeare, out of their owne parishes a drinking & quaf­fing, and that on the Lords day and holy dayes, as they call them, and have their meetings in troopes and great assemblyes in drinking Schooles, tippling there to the great dishonour of God, and many times to the great mischiefe of o [...]hers, and the perpetrating of many [...]innes, and all such though they never heare Service neither divine nor humain, find favour in their Courts, and serve for wi [...]nesses against the gene­ration of the just and those that feare God, & they are esteemed good Sons of the Church, though in all other things they be also never so impious.

Neither is there any law against those children of Be [...]iall: neither can any man deny this that knoweth any thing, for they are the defenders of such fellows & tormentors of the most godly. And if this be not also insufferable tyranny and crue [...]ty let every reasona­ble man judge. In this i [...]formation his most excellent Majest. is truely and deservedly commended, that he is an enimy to Popery and all innovation of religion, as his Highnes hath often declared himselfe, and that he doth dayly frequent the Church and is diligent in hearing of Sermons. And this most eminent piety in our noble King and Soveraigne, we his loyall, though poore Subjects, heartily reioyce at, desiring the Lord of heaven still to inflame his royall heart with a zeale for the glory of God & the propagation of the Gospell, and to continue in him an increase a love unto his holy word.

Now, all men know, that Kings examples have been ever the paterne for their Subjects, and it is the duty of all good Citizens & Subjects to imitate their King in all well doing, and men use commonly to say: Regis ad exemplum, the Kings example is ever to be fol­lowed, and it is his royall hearts desire, that his Subjects should imitat him in that his piety. Now what a great & unexpressible cruelty is this in the Prelats towards the poore people and how great a dishonour is done to the Ki [...]g in it, that they will not let his Subjects be good? for it is good in the King and hightly com­mendable before God & men to heare the Word of God often preached, and to be diligent in the hearing of Sermons, or els the Informers would not have set it downe as so singular a vertue in our royall King: and yet they punish this good in his Subjects, and it is a cause of the utter undoing of many of them if they goe to Sermons, and when they are found to bee dili­gent at the hearing of the word, & the going to a ser­mon into the next Parish when they have none in their owne, is matter sufficient to mount them up into the high Commission, which is none of the smallest cruel­tyes that holy and pious men in these our dayes groane under, to the infinit dishonour of God and the King, and the needles vexation and molestation of his duti­fullest Subjects, who desire to follow in that their godly Princes example. In S. Iohn Baptists time, it is sayd, That Ierusalem, Iudea and the region round about [...] came all out to heare him, running after Sermons, and so they did after Christ, And it stands recorded in sa­cred Writ to their eternall honour, and for our imita­tion. For all the Saints godly examples are set downe for us to imitate, and wee never read that any were by the very enimies of the Gospell in those dayes, the Scribes, Pharises and High-Priests, molested or trou­bled for the same; and it is sayd of them that they tooke the Kingdome of heaven with a kind of holy violence, and their diligence in hearing the word is related [...]nd told of them as a thing very honorable and praise worthy; and so it is very well related in the information of our gracious King to his immortall honour and great praise, and so it is and ever to be honoured in his Maj [...] and his example in this to be followed of all his obe­dient Subjects. And is it not a transcendent cruel [...]y then in the Prelats, that poore Christians in our age may nei­ther obey the commandement of God who inioyneth us to heare in season and out of season, nor imitate the Saints of olde in their pious indeavours in building up themselves in their most holy faith, nor follow the good paternes of their Kings and Governors, but they must be severely punished for it, yea undone & traduced [...]or it a [...] evil doers? if this be not great cruelty & tyranny it selfe in the Prelats, there was never none: for they robb them of Heaven & ear [...]h, & all other comforts in as much as in them lyeth. Nay, which is yet more, to shew their cruelty, injustice & unrightuous dealing: the Prelats in the Baptisme of infants constraine the Godfathers & Godmothers there solemnly to promise that they wil call upon them that are baptised when they come to yeares of discretion of [...]en to heare Sermons, & to this duty are also the baptized tyed.

[Page 24]Now, when they are come to yeares of under­standing, and in obedience of their promise they made by their God. Fathers and God-Mothers, and perhaps beeing stirred up also by their exhortation to this good duty of hearing the Word, if [...]hey goe out to heare Sermons when they have none in their owne Parishes, they are first punished in their pur­ses and liberties, and then given to the Devill for this good worke, which they notwithstanding have tied them to by speciall promise in their baptisme and if all this be not unspeakeable cruelty, tyranny and injustice there was never none in the world, and yet this is the dayly practise of the Prelates through the Kingdome, as all men know. And which is yet more to be observed, in the same Sacrament of Bap­tisme children promise there by their God-Fathers and God-Mothers, or they doe it for the children to be baptized; that they will forsake the Devill and all his works, the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and are there signed with the signe of the Crosse, that innocent Ceremony, as they call it, that he shall continue Christs Faithfull Souldier & fight under his banner all the dayes of his life against the World, the Flesh and the Devill, by the which promise he is bound to the utmost of his power al­wayes to oppose all errors, wickednes, and pro­phanenesse. Now if any in conscience of his promise either speake or write in defence of the truth, as it ought to be defended, or if he doe but put in practice that which he hath promised, in opposing of Error, Superstition, Prophanesse, Idolatry, or the iniqui­ties of the times, the Prelates severely punish them for it, as their dayly proceedings witnes, and if this be not a daring crueltie also, and great injustice, there is none exercised upon the earth: for what is unju­stice and crueltie, if punishing of men for doeing their duty, and keeping their promise, and perfor­ming that which the Prelates themselves have tied them to by speciall promise, be not?

They teach all Christians in an other Ceremonie of standing up at the Gospell and at Gloria Pa [...]ri, and at the Creed, to shew their readinesse and prompti­tude in fighting for [...]he Faith of Iesus and their Ho­ly Religion against Heresie, Poperie, and all Inno­vations, all which, our Gracious King declares him­se [...]fe, that he will never al [...]ow of or suffer, and the neglect of this Ceremonie will cost a man an un­doeing. Now if any beeing taught by this Ceremonie come forth to the combat, and but oppose them­selves against Popery, Errors, or Innovations, in defence of the Faith, and the Honour of their King, they are punished most severelie for it by the Prelates both in the High-Commission and other Courts, and Bils and Informations and Articles are exhibited and made against them as evil doers and troublers of the State, and all for doing that th [...]y teach them by their Ceremonies, and bind them by promises & oath to doe, which is Hyperbolicall tyrannie [...] un­justice and cruelty in those reverend Fathers. It seemes they would have Christians like Saint George a horsebacke ever mounted but never moving, and if they doe chance to sti [...]re or dare bee so bold as to move, they immediatelie are cast downe and breake either their eares, or their noses, or their foreheads, and it may be [...]hey are also wh [...]pped to the ba [...]gaine for beeing so bold, some mischief for the most part followes their endeavours, and that for doing their dutie, and that which they were taught by Ceremo­nies, and is not this arrogant tyranny [...] cruelty and inju [...]ice in the Prelates to punish and that severely both the neglect and the doing also of their duty, and that they are injoyned to doe? without all doubt there is no such crueltie in the world as is daily pra­ctised by the Prelates and in their Courts, of the which there might mightie volumes bee made, but the Defendent hath instanced in these few things onely, because [...] they are knowne to most men and ob­vious every day, and the Defendents condi [...]ion and his cause can sufficiently witnes their unrighteous dealings, and that in divers respects, for they dealt, with him against the very law and light of nature and as they would not bee done by, to make him ac­cuse himselfe, to admit his sworne and capital eni­mies, and which first informed them against him out of meere malice, as was proved by many, to bee prosecutors and witnesses against him; yea to speake as it is, that the Prelates themselves should be Accu­sers, Parties, Witnesses, Iury and Iudge in their owne [...] cause, as they all were: this the Defendent saith is unrighteous dealing, to which may bee added the defending of the Popes quarrell, to condemne him for one thing and putting those things likewise in the records of the Court, for which by the whole Court he was freed from. As for example, the De­fendent was condemned onely for his booke, now in the order of the Court or Sentence, it is put in [...] that he was condemned for the other things also [...] which howsoever they were in themselves verie ridi­culous, yet it is great injustice to superadde them, and so to deale with him. Neither is that a small part of injustice to punish and condemne the inno­cent and justify the wicked, both which are an abo­mination to the Lord.

Now they condemned the Defendent for writing against the Pope, & adjudged his Booke to be burnt, and justified his adversaries and Chouny who writ in defence of the Church of Rome; and it is their daily practice to condemne bookes that are writ for the Honour of Religion, accusing them to bee fa­ctious pamphlets: but Bookes that are writ for the advancement of Poperie and Superstition, and in defence of the Pontificalitie of Prelats and the mag­nification of the Church of Rome, [...]o the trampling downe of regall autoritie, and for the murdering & killing of Kings, for the bringing in of Innovations into a Kingdome and for suppressing of true Reli­gion, many of which are not to bee named, of these Bookes a man may buy shipfuls of them in Pauls [Page 25] Church yard, all which tend to the ruine of the King­dome, and perver [...]ing of Re [...]igion, and the seducing of the Kings good Subjects. And all other Bookes of Arminians, Sosinians, and a thousand such blasphe­mous treatises are bought and sold publikely in every Stationars shop, with the Prelates very good liking. And the greatest enimies of the truth, such as Bellar­mine, Baronius, Tyrrian, Ca [...]etan, are not onely publicklie vented but are before the King, and in the Vniversities, and indeed in every Pulpit magnified with glorious titles, as, the learned Cardinal, incomparable Bellarmine, those grand impostors and perverte [...]s of the wayes of God, and such as have abused King IAMES of fa­mous memory, and blasphemously defamed our most Holy Religion; All these Authors and many more with their Bookes, the Defendent saith, are dailie ap­proved of, and commended by the Prelates [...] and such as extoll the Church of Rome patronized by them and maintained. And what is it then to advance Poperie, if all these doings of the Prelates bee not? and what is it to favour prophanesse and irreligion, if the pu­nishing and silencing of those that write and speake against the iniquitie of the times, be not? let all men judge of this with serious reason, and they will soone perceive, that in this accusation of the Prelats, the De­fendent hath no way wronged them. And for their in­temperance and want of wit, it is notoriouslie also knowne who raile most shamefully and unhumanelie upon all honest men that come before them, as their very speeches in their censure may witnes. Iudges of old were wont to give Sentence in lesse matters beeing full of compassion, with teares in their eyes; neither doe wee read of any Iudges since Christs time but of Ananias the High Priest, and Festus the Governor that they ever did revile those that were brought before them, or give them any ill language. And the one was a Iew, and the other a Heathen, both enimies of Christ and Christians. But for Christian Iudges and them spirituall ones, for such contumeliouslie to abuse their brethren, as they did the Defendent, and dailie doe others, and to give them over to the Devill and to perpetuall chaines for every triviall thing, yea even for a misprision or a very surmise, and to make a man an offender for a word, and to ruine them, their wives, and children for such things, and that with scoffes, re­proaches, tants and mocks, this the Defendent affir­meth, in the Prelates is both crueltie, injustice, intem­perance, and want of wisdome, and so hee nothing doubteth but this honorable Court and all rationall men will judge.

Neither doth his gracious [...] Majest. or this honorable Court as he truelie believeth, know, how they abuse his poore Subjects; neither will God take this well at their hands, for it no way beseemeth those would bee thought the Fa [...]hers of the Church so to doe. For if wee looke upon Timothy and Titus whose successors they would be thought to bee, and the rules that they fol­lowed and were guided by, wee shall find a vast diffe­rence betweene them. Saint Paul in his 2. epistle to Ti­mothy chap. 2. telleth him, That the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men [...] apt to teach, patient, in meeknes instructing those that oppose them­selves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the trueth, &c. And in an other place, the same Apostle sayth, A Bpp. must be pa­tient and no brawler. Now when the Prelats so exorbi­tantly, behave themselves, trampling all Apostolicall Canons under their feet, and so basely revile the good Subjects of the King and their brethren, trampling also the sacred Scriptures under their fee [...], and that with as great contempt as the Papists themselves doe, advan­cing Poperie everie way, and the Defenders of it, can any denie that these are intempera [...], imprudent, unjust men, and furtheres & upholders of Poperie? & vvhereas the Defendent is charged in the information [...] That he accuseth the Prelats as upholders of idolatry superstition and prophanesse, and that h [...] defameth the witn [...]sses brought against him, and hath causlesly and boldlie inveighed against the oath Ex officio.

The Defendent humbly intreateth the honorable Court that vvith patience they vvould heare his ansvver to these things, & then he vvill come to the last thing that con­cerne [...]h him, the Letany, and the occasion of the vvri­ting of it. What he himself hath done, he is ever resol­ved to seale vvith his best bloud, & to justifie and make good vvhatsoever he shall accuse the Prelats of. Amongst the vvhich he acknovvledgeth, that he chargeth them to be advancers of Poperie, idolatrie, superstition & pro­phanesse. And so they are, as hath been alreadie suffi­ciently evinced, and by that vvhich follovveth shall yet more illustriously appeare. For what is it, to aduance Popery and idolatry if that the Prelats dayly doe be it not? without, men will thinke that Poperie onely, that advanceth the Popes Supremacy, and they Protestants onely, that goe no farther in opposing that Hereticall religion, when that is among many Divines counted one of [...]he least controversies in Theology between Papists and us true Catholicks. Greater matters I wosse, hun­dreds there are between us. And howsoever the King blessed be God & his predecessors by the blood of their Subjects and the sacrificing of themselves, have shaken off the yoake of the Pope: yet his poore Subjects are under many Popes which deale worse with them then ever Popes did to Kings in the middest of their swelling [...] pride & arrogancy, yea every parish Priest and base fel­low that is but a Prelats Servant, can ruine and undoe the honestest man upon any information; So that for the Subjects cōdition it is worse, & they are in a farre more deplorable predicament then they were in under the Pope, by this change; for now they have neither their consciences, their libertyes, their purses, their bodyes, their limbs or lives in any security but as the Prelats & their creatures please are deprived of all, who seek con­tinually for their bloud and starve many of them in pri­sons, and expose them to infinit miseries and calamityes [...] so that they are as sheep to the slaughter, slayne all the day long. And of their deadly crueltie against those that feare God the whole Kingdome can witnes, and [Page 26] how that they make them every where most odious. But now to the matter the Defendent c [...]argeth the Prelats with, viz. that they are advancers of Idolatry, supersti­tion and pr [...]phanesse. And that [...]hey are advancers of idolatry, who can doubt of it, that knoweth that very rudiments of Divinity or in the least measure [...]a [...]h been acquaynted with the lawes of God? For as God onely is and must be the object of all Divine worship, as t [...]e first commandement teacheth, for him onely we are to serve Matth. 4. as Christ also commandeth, & to wor­ship any other or to trust in any thi [...]g els is idolatry in a high degree: for we must love him with all our hearts and all our Soul [...]s and trust on [...]ly in him. So likewise for the maner of his worship that must also bee as he commandeth, not as wee vainly conceive. For he hath sayd. Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven image, or t [...]e likenes o [...] any thing in Heav [...]n above, or in the earth beneath, thou shalt not bow downe to it or wor­ship it. By which precept for the very maner of his worship it is not le [...]t to our disposing, that we should [...]fter our inventions serve him, Neither is [...]ee to bee served any other way, or by any other meanes then hee hath in his Word prescribed, which is a large commentary upon th [...]t text; So that no man that hath eyes can pretend any longer that hee seeth not the trueth. And among all learned and Orthodoxe Divines this is accorded and assented unto [...] That [...]hose, that by their owne inventions, as by Images, Cr [...]cifixes, Altars, Ceremonies, or Syllable [...] and letters, or whatsoever other meanes serve him, without expresse command from God goe about to worship him, are Ido­laters [...] and such worship is idolatry; and of this kind of service & adoration are the Samaritans guilty, of whom it is sayd, that they vvorshipped the true God, and so they did in many things, according to the Lavv of Moses, and had Circumcision and the Passeover, and looked for the Me [...]sias to come. B [...]t because they added their ovvne inventions to that vvorship, and brought in their ovvne devices vvith it, and set up a vvill vvorship, t [...]ere­fore the [...] vvere esteemed the enimies of God and pro­clamed idolaters. Yee vvorship sayth Christ you knovv no [...] vvhat. So that they that according to their ovvne pretences and inventions serve God, worship they kno [...] not vvhat, and therefore are idolaters and all such Divine vvorship as is not prescribed by God such service is idolatry, Of vvhich kind & nature is altar-vvorship, crucifix-vvorship, image-vvorship, table-vvorship, place vvorship, ceremony-vvorship, bread-vvorship, [...]yl [...]able vvorship and all such like-worship and indeed all vvill-vvorship, and vvhether or no the Prelats be not advancers of altars and crucifixes & place-vvorship, ceremony & bread-vvorship, and such trash, let all the Kingdome judge, And all t [...]ese are Popery, saving t [...]e vvorshipping of altars: for the Defe [...]dent yet never savv the Papists so basely idolatrous as to vvorship a naked altar: indeed vvhere there is a Crucifix upon an altar, they bovv, but never to the altar or table alone, as he is most confident the Papists themselves vvill acknovvledge, and therefore so grosse the Prelats are in their Popish performances that they exce [...]d them in idolat [...]y. And so it is [...] that those that are most vainly superstitious amongst them, they are in the readyest vvay to prefermen [...], and others of a contrary minde, most contemned and vilipended, vvhich shevveth suffi­ciently vvhat favoures of Popery the Prelats are. Yea for all maner of Poperie, they affect it, defend it [...] & mayntayn it, and the Authors and abe [...]ters of it. As for a president, a base esteeme of Holy Scriptures, prefer­ring the Fathers Autority before them, in vvhich they are as impiously Popish as Bellarmin himself, or any other Papist. They hold also their ovvne Episcopall Autority to be Iure Divino. Likevvise, they hold a reall presence in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, and that the Church of Rome is a true Church and vvhat hold they not, that the Church of Rome hold [...]th not? And for all maner of superstition, they so advance it, as no man, that vvill not be superstitious can live among them or can enjoy either his Ministry if he be in orders; or if hee bee a laick (as they terme him) his libertie. Novv for superstition, it is described amongst the lear­ned to bee, vvhen men doe any thing in religion supra id quod statutum est, to be vvise in Gods mat [...]ers above that vvhich is vvritten, and vvhere can any of them shevv, their cappings, and crouchings, and standings, & kneelings, and a thousand such Iackanaps tricks com­manded in Scripture, as they novv use; in vvhich not­vvithstanding they place all holinesse and religion, and the neglect of the least of vvhich fopperies, makes all men thought not onelie prophane, but causeth unto them severe punishment, yea utter ruin many times. Where hath God commanded in any place, to kneele in the re­ceiving of the Sacrament? to leave Christs example and the blessed Apostles and to follovv Antichrists & his vvicked Disciples, vvho are the cursed enimies of [...]e Lord Iesus? vvhere hath he commanded to turne ta­bles into altars and to doe vvorship unto them? or to venerat the Table or the vvals of a Church? or to turne their faces to the East? or to cap and bovv at [...]he name of Iesus? As for that text vvhich is often abused in the 2. of the Philippians, there is no ground in that for that impious adulation and vaine Ceremony; for if as they vvould have it, by that, an outvvard vvorship of the body be at the name of Iesus to be yeilded: then by the same text also, there is a [...] orall and audible confession to be made in the publick assembly: for as it is sayd at the name of Iesus every knee shall bovv, so it is there like­vvise sayd, at the name of Iesus every tongue shall con­fesse Iesus is the Lord, vvhich thing vvas never yet prac­tised in any Church of the vvorld, nor by the Prelats themselves, and vvould bring such a confusion into all Congregations, as vvould perturbat all Holy duties, and bring men into an inevitable bondage and circu­lation of obedience vvhich could never bee ended, and by vvhich the Heresy of the Entichites vvould againe of necessity be revived, vvhich the Defendent doth not thinke the Prelats as vvell as they seeme to love prayer, vvould vvillingly assent unto: and yet by severe consequence it vvould necessarily follovv, if that Cere­mony [Page 27] upon that text be founded: and this part of obe­dience the Prelats have yet fayled in, and therefore have served God hitherto to the halves.

Withall this is a great indignitie to Iesus Christ, to worship him more by one name and title, then an o [...]her, and indeed it is a meete mockerie of the Lord Iesus, so to trifle with some of his attributes, who is equallie by all to be honoured and reverenced, beeing one and the same person God blessed for ever, by which or in which of his titles soever his dignitie is expressed. And no Kin [...] or Prince would take it we [...]l at his Subjects hands, if they should slight any of his Royall titles or give lesse veneration to the one then to the other. Neither is that all, but he would also take it for a great contumelie and ind [...]gnitie done to him, and thinke it not far from treason as he well might if his Subjects should give equall reverence and honour to any of his Subjects that they doe to him, much more if they should honour his greatest enimie with the same veneration that they doe him. Yet all this is per­petrated by this idle Ceremonie against the Lord Iesus, and that Divine Honour which is given to God him­se [...]fe, is given not onely to his Servants, beeing crea­tures, but to his very greatest enimie a child of the De­vill, as dailie experience witnesseth. For, when Iesus that is ca [...]led Iustus, is named they cap & bēd, & when Iesus of Siracke is named, they doe the same, and when Iesus that is called Iosua, is pronounced, they likewise worship, yea when Bariesus the Conjurer that enimie of all righteousnes and child of the Devill is read in the Churches, they also cap and crouch, as the Defendent himself [...] hath often seene. So that not onelie the creature, but the Devill himselfe must com­municate with the Lord of life in his divine worship by these vaine, idle, and hypocriticall inventions of the Prelates, which is a damnable and unsufferable wickednes in them. Yet these and innumerab [...]e more inconveniences and impieties vvill necessarilie follovv upon all humane inventions and ridiculous supersti­tions, of all vvhich the Prelates are advancers to the miraculous dishouour of God, hardening of Idolaters in their hereticall courses, and to the great molesta­tion and vexation, yea and to the undoeing of thou­sands of good Christians and the true Subjects of the King in a yeare. And to speake the truth, they are more superstitious in all their apish performances, (as all Trave [...]lers knovv) not onely in their Cathedrals, but novv in every Parish Church, then they are among the Papists themselves, as all Papists vvill tell you vvith derision, vvho among themse [...]ves mocke at their folly. And vvh [...]ther they be not likevvise favourers of prophanesse, and impie [...]ie, let their daily proceedings in their Courts bee examined and looked into, vvho sell all maner of filthenesse for money, and by commu­ting give a kinde of toleration for uncleanesse and vil­lan [...]e: and as for their Officers and Servants in gene­rall, they are the most ungodlie ribbald svvearing fel­lovves, and for all manner of excesse the basest in the vvhole land, [...]ho make no conscience of svvearing in their open assemblies, and are to speake the trueth [...] more like a company of Ruffians then Saints, be [...]ing deriders of all goodnes and pietie, vvhich all those that have any commerce vvith them, can vvitnesse. Withall, that the most [...]icked [...]y and impiouslie dis­posed varlets, are most honoured, hugged and esteemed amongst them, and vvill ever finde more favour at their hands, then the honestests men.

And vvhereas the Defendent is charged [...] to have causle [...]lie defamed the vvitnesses, he saith, that for them it is notoriouslie knovvne, that they are a companie of Sonnes of Beliall, sold over to vvorke mischief [...] beeing vio [...]aters of the very lavves of nature and hos­pitalitie, and such as have spake so barbarousli [...] of the Prelates, in the time of their familiaritie, as the De­fendent dareth not expresse; and they stand upon tvvo records in the Court of Chancerie for Calumniators & malicious Traducers & vexatious men, and were there expugned with costs given to the Defendent for their basenesse. And at the Informations at the Doctors com­mons, they were by the Iudges thought unfit witnes­ses, and the chiefest of them tolde to his face, that his testimonie was not to be admitted, for malice had set him a worke; and withall hee was proved prodi­giouslie prophane and wicked, which can yet be easily verified, as that hee is an unlearned fellow: and there­fore by the power of the Prelate of Canterburie, in whose eyes such wretches ever find grace, and by the meanes of Mr. Sir Iohn Lambe, they procured hi [...] wickednes to bee covered, which was fully set out in the depositions. But all the Iudges notwithstanding the favour he found with Canterburie, (one onely excepted) at the Defendents censure, freed him from those poo [...]e and frivolous things they laid to his charge, and ab­jored their witnesses [...] and cond [...]mned him onely for hi [...] Booke, and the Defendent hath the depos [...]ions yet to shew, under the h [...]d of the Court [...] Where they have most apparentlie sworne one against the other, & while they laboured to accuse hi [...], they justifie his honestie and proclaime themselves knaves, neither is there such another packe of villaines, in the whole Country, and that doe more molest and trouble their neighbours, and the place where they dwell, which they can easilie doe beeing backt by the High-Commission Court, and the Prelates. And such agents are ever fit [...]est for their im­ployme [...]ts, that will sweare or doe any thing either for money or malice [...] and therefore the Defendent in his Apology, beeing to make a true relation of things, could not omitt the witnesses, beeing his prosecutors also, and the originall of all his troubles, with their bar­barous ingratitude unto him, who had been next no­der God the onely meanes to preserve them from [...]he jawes of famine [...] as the whole Towne can tell: who thus requited him for all.

And whereas the Defendent is said causlesly and boldly to h [...]ve inveighed against the oath ex officio, he desireth now to say something concerning that, it being put upon him. As for the oath ex officio he there onely by the way spake of it, telling the danger hee was brought into by [Page 28] it, and how that Trajan the Emperour would not have his Subjects oppressed with it as thinking it a cruelty unsufferable. And to speake the truth, it is an oath against the Law of Nature, the Law of Nations, the Law of God, and the Law of the Land, yea the Defendent is able to cōfute it by their owne Canon Law. But that it is against the Law of Nature and the Land it is evident: for by neither is any man forced to accuse and condemne him­selfe, & a learned lawyer not long since proved it to be against the lawes of the land. And the very Heathens con­demned no man, but by sufficient witnesses, as wee may see when Paul was brought before Felix, hee taketh not an oath of him to accuse himselfe, buth sayth, when thy accusers come I will heare thee. Festus likewise sayd, It was not the maner of the Romans to deliver any man to dye, before that he which is accused, have the [...]ccusers face to fave, and have licence to answer for himselfe concerning the crime layd against him. But by the oath ex officio a man is condemned without either, as all the prisons almost through the Kingdome can witnes. Nay, the law of God sayth, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every thing shall be confirmed; now here without any witnesses, a man is condemned. And Christ himselfe being questioned concerning his doctrine, he sends them to be informed of that, of those that heard him, & would not in any thing answer them, & when the woman was brought before him, being found in the fact of adultery he asketh her, saying where are thy accusers? They are gone sayth she, and Iesus sayd, I accuse thee not, neither did he force her to accuse her­selfe. And Christ bids us if any man offend us, goe and [...]ell him of it privatly; and then if he heare us not, after that to take witnesses, and after conviction by witnesses then to shun him. He doth not command to force them to accuse themselves. Besides, he that will sweare accor­ding to Gods command, must svveare in right [...]ousnes, in judgment and in truth. Novv by this damnable oath ex officio, he can doe none of all this. For he knovveth not vvhat to svveare to, and by that oath he makes that evill vvhich is good many times, and that good vvhich is evill, vvhich is great unrighteousnes and untruth: he is also to accuse himselfe and his brethren, to the utter undoing of them all, vvhich is horrible injustice and vvant of vvisdom & judgment.

Besides, an oath by Gods ovvne appointment, is to bee [...]he end of all controversy. It is the last thing in a con­troversy and the conclusion of it, & vvhere this end is not in an oath, it is not to svveare according to Gods ovvne appoyntment, but sinfully. Now the oath ex officio, is not such an oath: for that is the beginning of all mo­lestation and strife, mischief & vvicked debate, and the cause of infinit brabbles and needles vexations to [...]hem­selves and others, and therefore ought to be de [...]ested and abominated. Further, no man is to take the name of God in vaine, novv in the oath ex officio, every man takes the name of God in vaine. For they vvil never beleeve him though he svveare by the day and by the night, vvhatsoever he svveareth or sayth in his ovvne defence and justification, let it be never so true as dayly expe­rience can testifie; but onely make it a trap and a snare farther to intangle and involve him: & therefore it being an oath against the Lavv of God, of charity, love & nature, it is to be detested as the devill, and so the De­fendent for his part doth abhorre it as he doth the devill and all his vvorks, and as he doth all the other cu [...]sed and abominable proceedings of the Prelats, vvho spend the vvhole patrimony of their vvit, to molest the deare servants of God, and the Kings best and loyallest Subjects; By all vvhich unrighteous dealing, they manifest them­selves to bee the enimies of God and the King, and as, such the Defendent vvrites against them, and so he yet vvill for the many reasons above alledged esteeme of them, by vvhat names or titles soever they be called; or whatsoever place of dignity they are in, and in this mind the Defendent will persever, till they have acknovv­ledged their contumacy to God and the King, and re­pented of the same. And thus much the Defendent had to say in his owne defence, concerning the things hee was charged with in his Apology; and with al desireth of this honourable assembly that the o [...]her matters that the informers say are of divers natures in it, may be spe­cified: For it is an easy thing, to pick here and there a word out of best books, to doe a man a mischeife, & all men know Spiders will gather poison where Bees find hony, and he knoweth very vvell he hath many malig­nant enimies, and therefore desireth the favour of the honorable Court for his better defence. And now he comes to the second booke, called the Letany, occasioned by the Bishops cruelty, for they threatning him not onely to starve him out of his opinion: but also vvith the pil­lory the losse of his eares the one at Colchester, the other at London, vvith the slitting of his nostrills, & branding of him in the forehead, and he allso hearing that this decree vvas gone out before September last, & divulged and spread abroad by the Prelats favourits as all the Country vvill testify: it put him upon his devotions and made him vvrite a Letany vvherein he prayeth for deli­verance from them. But vvhether that vvhich is annexed to the information, be the same he knovveth not, for the informers say, that that is a prophane Letany. As for the Letany the defendent made, it was a good & godly Letany, and in that ridentem dicere verum. Quid vetat? And con­cerning the Christening hee doth confesse he did invite CANTERBURY AND LONDON IN HIS WIVES NAME, AND THE WHORE OF BABYLON TO BE WITNESS [...]S. Which he vvas constrayned to by reason of the penury of his freinds, for the Prelats had driven avvay all his acquayntance, so that every body vvas affrayd of them, nor no man durst intertayne his poore vvife, nor give her houseroome, though she vvas then great vvith child, and in much misery as the vvhole Country vvill justifie, and in this distresse and calamity he did it, & vvi [...]hall he thought he did the Prelats a great deale of honour, that he the Defendent, should vouchsafe to have such men as they were to his Christe­ning, & that he did joine so honorable a Gossip as the Ma­trone of Rome with them whom they so much honoured & adored, and pleaded for in this De [...]endents cause as [Page 29] Christs true Church and Spouse, and their best beloved Mistris, presuming that he could no way disparage them by joyning this Spirituall Mother with these Spirituall Fathers: and in this, the Defendent thinks he did very much grace them, inviting such a Catholicke companie to the baptising of his child, who he hopeth will live and die a true Christian Catholick. And wonders, that the Prelates should be so peevish as to misinterpret his [...]eale to them all, especiallie, when he did give them their titles most magnificently, as, FATHER WIL­ [...]IAM OF CANTERBVRIE HIS HOLINESSE, AND WILLIAM LONDON MAGNIFICVS REC­TOR OF THE TREASVRIE. Neither did hee see any reason why he should detract from Canterburie his titles: for as he is Pope of Canterburie, he is holy, and for the title of Pope it was given antientlie to all or most Bishops, and in speciall to his predecessor Anselmus that rebell, as all Histories doe relate, and the title of Grace, is but the title of a Cardinall. Besides, that title is now revived, if fame be not a liar, which is a good plea in their Courts, and false copies from both th [...] universities bee not dispersed and spred abroad. For the Vniversity of Cambridge in their letters greet him with Sanctissim [...] Pater, most holy Father the title of the Pope, & which onely belongeth to the first person of the glorious Tri­nity, God blessed for ever, and from Oxford they give him the stile of Sanctitatis his Holynesse, and Edmund Reeve in his exposition of the Catechisme in the Com­mon-Prayer Booke, gives the title of Holinesse of times to the Bishops, & cals them Holy Fathers by their owne allowance and approbation.

Now he is a Father of the Church, and that of Can­terbury, and he is VVilliam, and he is Holy, at leastwise vvould bee so reputed, and vvould deeme it a Scandalum magnatum to be stiled prophane or unholy, Ergo, Father VVilliam of Canterburie, his Holynesse, and the Defendent is resolved never to detract any thing from his Holinesse, but shall daily pra [...], that hee may grow and evermore increase in Holinesse, And for the Prelate of London, he should be feeding of Christs flocke in the Pulpit, and he is at the receipt of custome telling of mony, like Mat­thew the Publican before his calling to the Apostleship, the love of vvhich is the roote of all evill, and hath got himselfe no small honour by it, vvhich the Defendent vvould not in the least diminish, and therefore beeing [...] skilfull H [...]rald, nor acquainted vvith the titles of Honour they usually stile men in that place, he vvas constrained to make use of a little of his Roman Rhetoricke, and cal­led him Magnificus Restor of the Treasury, a fi [...]ting hono­rable title as he conceived, vvhich he doth not nor ever shall repute a Scandall, nor repent of that invitation.

And for any other passages that are in the Letany that he made, he the Defendent is most assured, if the hono­rable Court heard it all, not by peeces and scrips vvhich hee most humbly desireth, they vvould vvell perceive the Defendent had good reason, for vvhat he hath both done and vvrit. For this Honorable Court vvould then vvell perceive, that the Defendent never medled vvith any of them, nor in the least thing impeached their di­gnities, till they by their delinquency against God and the King, did manifestly demonstrate they were fallen from Grace, and then as they had proclaimed themselves enimies of God and the King, he did set himselfe against their pro­ceedings and vvill continue in so doing, though it bee through all misery to the last gasp of breath, and vvill continually say, LET THE KING LIVE FOR EVER, AND THE ENIMYES OF THE KING PERISH, and dying, he will devoutly pray from plague, pestilence & fa­min, from Bishops [...] Priests and Deacons, good Lord deliver us. Ever meaning from usurping Popish Bishops, Priests & Deacons, and such as challenge their standing and Auto­ [...]itle jure Divino, and not from the King, as our Prela [...] do. And as to all other the residue of the offences and misdemeanors complayned of in the sayd information & examinable in this honorable Court, this Defendent saith, that he is not guiltie of them or any of them in maner and forme, as by the said information is supposed. All vvhich matters this Defendent is ready to averte and prove as this honorable Court shall a vvard. And humblie prayeth to be dismissed out of the same vvith his costs and charges against the Pre­lats, by vexation in this & his former suite in the High Commission most vvrongfullie su­steyned.