Innovations unjustly charged upon the present church and state. Or An ansvver to the most materiall passages of a libellous pamphlet made by Mr. Henry Burton, and intituled An apologie of an appeale, &c. By Christopher Dow, B.D.

CHAP. V.

Of the supposed Innovations in Doctrine. Of King James his Order to the Vniversities for reading the Fathers: done long since: unjustly charged upon the present Bishops. By whomsoever procu∣red, upon just grounds. Not Popish, but against Popery. King James's other Order for preaching, of Election, &c. justified.

FIrst, saith he, they (the Prelats) have la∣boured to bring in a change of Doctrine, as appeareth by these instances. 1. By procuring an Order from King James of famous memory to the Vniversities, that young students should not read our Moderne learned Writers, as Calvin, Beza, and others of the reformed Churches but the Fathers and Schoolemen.

This first crimination is farre fetcht, being (if I mistake not) a thing acted above twenty yeeres agoe; so that it seemes hee meanes to take him compasse enough, the times present not affording him sufficient store; and, if hee had gone backe but twice as many more, hee might have found the reading of Calvin and Beza accounted as great an Innovation, as now he holds the debar∣ring of men from reading of them; and that by those that were as good Protestants as Mr. Burton, and as farre from Popery.

But secondly, being so long agoe done, I cannot see how hee can lay it upon the present Prelates, especially upon those whom hee most strives to make odious, none of them being Bishops at that time. But, if they must inherit the guilt and pu∣nishment of their Predecessors faults:

In the third place, how doth it appeare that it was the Bishops doing? Marry because, King Iames approved and magnified those Orthodox Au∣thors, and gave the right hand of fellowship to those reformed Churches which those Authors had plan∣ted or watered: calling that the Orthodox faith which those Churches did professe: and in particu∣lar did commend Calvin as the most judicious and sound expositor of Scripture: And therefore it were impious to imagine that King James should doe any act in prejudice of Calvin, &c.

Well; But might not that judicious King, or any man else approve the Authors in the general, and yet dislike some things in them, for which hee might thinke them not so fit for young stu∣dents in Divinity to lay them for the foundation of their studies? It is no prejudice to the best of them, nor indeed to any man, as being a com∣mon infirmity of humane nature, to say that in some things they erred: Much lesse can it wrong them to have the ancient Fathers (from whose torches, they lighted their candles) preferred as the more worthy: And it is one thing to give the right hand of fellowship to a particular Church, (which we willingly doe to all the re∣formed Churches beyond the Seas) and another

to like and approve every Tenet that any man in that Church shall hold or deliver. I suppose Mr. Burton is not so uncharitable as to deny the Lu∣therane Churches the right hand of fellowship, and to exclude them from being a true Church; and yet I beleeve hee would bee loath to agree with them in all opinions which they maintaine; especially if hee knew (for I have heard that, in place where, not many yeeres agoe, he bewrayed his ignorance, and was faine to be informed by a brother Minister then in presence) that they held all those Tenets about Predestination, Freewill, and falling from grace, which hee so much con∣demnes in those, whom hee termes Arminians. Neither can it be imagined that King Iames, when hee acknowledged Calvin (and therein did him but right) to bee a most judicious expositour of Scripture, ever intended to exempt him from er∣rour, when it is most manifest that hee did utter∣ly condemne many opinions of his; and that though he had been bred and brought up among those who received their doctrine and discipline from Calvin, yet (as himselfe professed in the Conference at Hampton-Court) from the time that he was tenne yeeres old, hee ever disliked their * 1.1 opinions, and that, though he lived among them, he was not of them: And therefore might, without crossing his owne judgement, enjoyne young students rather to looke into the Fathers, and ac∣quaint themselves with the judgement of the Ancient Church, than to take up opinions upon trust of those moderne Authors, who though (as

he after addes) they were not without their Naevi or spots, yet no man (without betraying insuffe∣rable pride and ignorance) will account their workes a dunghill, or heape of mud, where hap∣ly with much raking and prying a man may chance to light upon a Pearle, so as they that reade them must Margaritas è caeno legere, gather pearles out of the mud, as Mr. Burton is pleased to speake. I am sure other men (as sound and ju∣dicious as himselfe every whit) have held it a point of wisedome, to draw water as neere as they can from the well-head, rather than from lakes and cisternes. And the truth is, that King Iames of famous memory (whether by the pro∣curement of the Bishops or not, it matters not, for neither the Author, nor the procurers need blush for it) having taken some just distaste at some novell points delivered by some young Di∣vines, which trenched upon his Regall power and dignity, and knowing from what pits that water was drawne, and that those moderne Au∣thors mentioned, were ill affected to Monarchicall Government, and injurious to the just right of Kings, going hand in hand with the Iesuites in the principles of popularity: Did in his Princely wisedome, for the preventing of so great a dan∣ger as might ensue, if such principles were drunk in at the first, by young and injudicious Novices, give charge to the Heads of the University of Cambridge (I am sure, and whether of Oxford too, I know not) that they should take order that young students should bee well seasoned at

the beginning, and well grounded in the princi∣ples of Our owne Catechisme, and the Articles and Doctrine of our Church, and that they should not ground their studies upon those men, where they might with their first milke in Divinity sucke in such unsound opinions and dangerous to the State: But rather, that they would search into Antiqui∣ty, and study the writings of the Fathers, whose consentient Doctrine is (without doubt) the best and soundest Divinity. And if Mr. Burton had taken this course in his studies, hee had learned better obedience to his Superiours, and beene lesse troublesome to himselfe and others. This then is but a fetch, and brought in onely to increase the heape of odium upon the Bishops, with those * 1.2 who judge of things not by weight or worth, but by noise and number: For there is no colour for that which he suggests, that it should be done, the more easily to make way for the accomplishing of their [the Prelats] plot, so long a hammering for the reinducing of Popery; seeing neither that which was done, nor the end for which it was done, have the least affinity with Popery, but was intended for the opposing and preventing of that point of Popery or Jesuitisme, which ani∣mates and armes the people against their Princes.

But further: To this purpose (saith he) they pro∣cure * 1.3 another order in King James his name, for the inhibiting of young Ministers to preach of the Do∣ctrines of Election and Predestination, and that none but Bishops and Deanes shall handle those points. And is it not great reason that those high points

should bee handled with great wisedome and so∣briety? And who are then fitter so to handle them, than the Bishops and Deanes? who (how contemptible soever Mr. Burton esteemes of them) are presumed, in reason, and in the judge∣ment of the King, from whom they receive their dignities, to bee the most discreet and judicious Divines.

Hitherto wee have no Innovation in Doctrine, and much lesse, any Popery. For the Doctrine may bee, and is still the same that it ever was, from what Authors soever it is fetched, and by what persons soever it be delivered. So that Mr. Burton is beside the matter, and hath not yet come home to the point by him proposed; which was: Innovations in Doctrine.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Confer. p. 20.
• * 1.2

  Pag. 114.
• * 1.3

  Pag. 114.