KING JAMES HIS LETTER AND DIRECTIONS TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY; Concerning Preaching and Preachers; With the Bishop of Canterbury's Letter to the Bishop of Lincoln, Lord Keeper, desiring him to put in practise the King's desires, that none should preach but in a Religious form.  
And not that every young man should take to himself an exorbitant Liberty, to preach what he listeth, to the offence of his Majesty, and the disturbance and disquiet of the Church and commonwealth.  
Printed for Thomas Walkeley, 1642.   

KING James HIS LETTER And Directions to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, concerning Preaching and Preachers.  
MOst reverend Father in God, right trusty, and right entirely beloved counsellor, we greet you well;  
for as much, as the abuses and extravagancies of Preachers in the Pulpit, have been at all times redressed in this realm by some act of council, or State, with the advice, and resolution of Grave and learned Prelates, insomuch, as the very licensing of Preachers had a beginning by an order of Starchamber, the 8. day of July, in the 19 year of the reign of King Henry the eight our Noble predecessor. And whereas at this present divers young Students, by reading of late Writers and ungrounded Divines, do broach many times unprofitable, unsound, seditious and dangerous Doctrines to the scandal of this Church, and disquieting of the State, and present Government. We upon the humble representation unto us of these inconveniences, by sundry Grave, and reverend, Prelates of this Church, as also of our Princely care and zeal for the extirpation of schism, and descension, growing from these Seeds, and for the settling of a Religious and peaceable Government, both of the Church and State; do by these our special Letters straightly charge and command you to use all possible care and diligence, that these limitations and cautions herewith sent unto you, concerning Preachers, be duly and strictly from henceforth observed, and put in practice by the several Bishops, of their several dioceses within your jurisdiction. And to this end our pleasure is, that you send them forth copies of these directions; to be by them speedily sent and communicated to every Parson, Vicar, Curate, and Lecturer in every cathedral and Parish Church, within their several dioceses, and that you earnestly require them to employ their uttermost endeavours in the performance of this so important a business, letting them know, that we have a special eye to their proceedings, and expect a strict account both of you, and every of them. And these our Letters shall be your sufficient warrant in this behalf.  
Given under our Signet at our Castle of Windsor the 4. day of August, in the 20. year of our reign, of England, France, and Ireland, and of Scotland, the six and fiftieth, 1622.   

His majesty's Orders and Directions, concerning Preaching and Preachers.  
1 THat no Preacher under the degree and calling of a Bishop, or Deane of a cathedral or Collegiate Church, (and they upon the King's days only, and set Festivals,) do take occasion by the expounding of any Text of Scripture whatsoever, to fall into any set course or Common place, otherwise then by opening the coherence and division of his Text, which shall not be comprehended and warranted in essence, substance, effect, or natural inference, within some one of the Articles of Religion set forth, 1562. Or in some, one of the Homilies set forth by authority in the Church of England, not only for a help of none preaching, but withal for a pattern, as it were, for the preaching Ministers, and for their further instruction for the performance thereof: that they forthwith read over and peruse diligently the said book of Articles, and the two books of Homilies.  
2 THat no Person, Vicar, Curate, or Lecturer shall preach any Sermon or collation hereafter upon Sundays and holidays in the after noons in any cathedral or Parish Church throughout the kingdom. But upon some part of the catechism, or some Text taken out of the Creed and commandments, or the Lord's prayer, (Funeral Sermons only excepted,) and that those Preachers be most encouraged, and approved off, who spend their afternones' exercise in the examination of Children in their catechisms, and in the expounding of the several points and heads of the catechism, which is the most ancient and laudable custom of teaching in the Church of England.  
3 THat no Preacher of what title soever, under the Degree of a Bishop or Deane, at the least, do from hence forth presume to preach in any popular auditory, the deep points of Predestination, Election, Reprobation, or of the universality, efficacity, restibility or irrestibility of God's grace, but rather leave those themes to be handled by learned men, and that modestly and moderately by use and application, rather than by way of positive Doctrine, as being fitter for schools and universities then for simple auditories.  
4 THat no Preacher, of what title or denomination soever shall presume from henceforth in any auditory within this kingdom to declare limit or bound out by way of positive Doctrine in any Lecture or Sermon, the Power, Prerogative, jurisdiction, Authority, or Duty of sovereign Princes, or therein meddle with these matters of State and the reference between Princes and the People; then as they are instructed in the Homily of obedience, and in the rest of the Homilies and articles of Religion set forth, as before is mentioned by public authority; but rather confine themselves wholly to these two heads of faith and good life, which are all the Subject of the ancient Sermons and Homilies.  
5 THat no Preacher, of what title or denomination soever shall causelessly, and without any invitation from the Text, fall into any bitter invective and undecent railing speeches against the Papists or Puritans, but wisely and gravely, when they are occasioned thereunto by the Text of Scripture, free both the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England from the aspersions of either adversary, especially, where the auditory is suspected to be tainted with the one or the other infection.  
6 LAstly, that the Archbishop and Bishops of the kingdom, (whom his Majesty hath good cause to blame for their former remissness) be more wary, and chose in licensing of Preachers; and revoke all grants, made to any chancellor, official, or Commissary, to pass licences in this kind: and that all the Lectures throughout the kingdom; (a new body severed from the ancient Clergy of England, as being neither Parson, Vicar, nor Curate,) be licenced hence forward in the Court of Faculties, only upon recommendation of the party from the Bishop of the diocese under his Hand and seal, with a fiat from the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and a Confirmation under the great seal of England, and that such, as transgress any one of these directions be suspended by the Bishop of the diocese, or in his default by the Lord Archbishop of the Province, Ab officio & beneficio, for a year and a day, until his Majesty by the advice of the next convocation prescribe some further punishment.   

The Archbishop of Canterbury's Letter, to the Archbishop of York.  
MY very good Lord,  
I doubt not, but before this time, you have received from me the Directions of his most excellent Majesty, concerning Preaching and Preachers, which are so graciously set down, that no godly or discreet man can otherwise then acknowledge, that they do much tend to edification, if he do not take them up upon report, but do punctually consider the tenure of the words as they lie, and do not give an ill construction to that, which may receive a fair interpretation. Notwithstanding, because some few Churchmen, and many of the people, have sinisterly conceived as we here find, that those instructions do tend to the restraint of the exercise of preaching, and do in some sort abate the number of Sermons and so consequently, by degrees do make a breach to ignorance and superstition; His Majesty in his Princely wisdom, hath thought fit, that I should advertise your Lordship of the grave and weighty reasons, which induced his highness to prescribe that which is done.  
You are therefore to know, that his Majesty being much troubled and grieved at the heart, to hear every day of so many defections from our Religion, both to Popery and Anabaptism, or other points of separation in some parts of this kingdom; and considering with much admiration; what might be the cause thereof, especially in the reign of such a King, who doth so constantly profess himself an open Adversary to the Superstition of the one, and madness of the other; his Princely wisdom could fall upon no one greater probability, than the lightness, affectedness, and unprofitableness of that kind of preaching, which hath been of late years too much taken up in Court, university, City, and country.  
The usual scope of very many Preachers, is noted to be soringe up in points of divinity, too deep for the cap●city of the people, or a mustering up of much reading, or a displaying of their own wit, or an ignorant meddling with civil matters, as well in the private of several Parishes and Corporations, as in the public of the kingdom; or a venting of their own distaste, or a smoothing up of those idle fancies, which in this blessed time of so long a peace, do boil in the brains of an unadvised people, or lastly, a rude or undecent railing not against the Doctrines (which when the Text shall occasion the same, is not only improved, but much commended by his royal Majesty;) but against the Persons of Papists and Puritans. Now the people bred up with this kind of teaching, and never instructed in the catechism and fundamental grounds of Religion, are for all this airy nourishment, no better than (abrajae tabulae;) new table books ready to be filled up, either with the Manuals and catechisms of the Popish Priests, or the Papers and Pamphlets of Anabaptists, Brownists, and Puritans.  
His Majesty therefore calling to mind the saying of Tertullian, (Id verum quod primum;) and remembering, with what Doctrine the Church of England in her first and most happy Reformation, did drive out the one, and keep out the other from poisoning and infecting the people of this kingdom: doth find that the whole scope of this Doctrine, is contained in the articles of Religion, the two books of Homilies, the lesser and the greater catechism, which his Majesty doth recommend again in these Directions as the themes and proper Subjects of all sound and edifying preaching.  
And so far are these Directions from abating, that his Majesty doth expect at our hands, that it should increase the number of Sermons by renewing upon every Sunday in the afternone in all Parish Churches throughout the kingdom, that Primitive, and most profitable exposition of the catechism, where with the people, (yea) very Children may be timely seasoned and instructed in all the heads of Christian Religion, the which kind of teaching (to our amendment be it spoken,) is more diligently observed in all the reformed Churches of Europe, then of late it hath been here in England. I find his Majesty much moved with this neglect, and resolved; (if we that are his Bishops, do not see a Reformation hereof, which I trust we shall) to recommend it to care of the civil Magistrate. So far is his highness from giving the least discouragement to solid preaching, or discreet, or religious Preachers.  
To all this, I am to add, that it is his majesty's Princely pleasure, that both the former Directions, and those reasons of the same, be fairly written in every Registers office; to the end, that every Preacher of what denomination soever, may if he be so pleased take out copies of either of them with his own hand (gratis;) paying nothing in the name of fee and expedition. But if he do use the pains of the Register, or his clerks, then to pay some moderate fee, to be pronounced in open Court by the chancellors and Commissaries of the place, taking the direction and approbation of my Lords, the Bishops. Lastly, that from hence forward a course may be taken, that every Parson, Vicar, Curate, or Lecturer, do make exhibit of these his majesty's Directions, and the reasons for the same at the ensuing visitation of the Bishops and Arch-Deacons, paying to the Register by way of fee, but two pence at the time of the exhibit; and so wishing, but withal, in his majesty's name, requiring your Lordship to have a special and extraordinary care of the premises. I leave you to the Almighty.  
From Croyden, Sept. 4. 1622. Your lordship's very loving Brother, G. CANT.   

The Lord archbishops Letter, to the Lord Keeper.  
BY this you see, his majesty's Princely care, That none should preach CHRIST crucified, obedience to the Higher Powers, and Honest, and Christian conversation of life, but in a Religious form; and not, that every young man shall take unto himself an exorbitant liberty to teach what he listeth, to the offence of his Majesty, and the disturbance and disquiet of the Church and commonwealth. I can give your Lordship no better directions for the pursuance hereof, then are prescribed to you in his majesty's Letter, and the Schedule herewith sent unto you, whereof I pray your Lordship to be very careful, since it is the Princely pleasure of his highness to require an account both of you and me for the same. And so not doubting, but by your Register, or otherwise, you will cause these instructions to be communicated to your Clergy. I leave you to the Almighty and remain.  
Your loving Brother, G. CANT.  
FINI●.