but that you may perceive the sin whereof it is the off-spring that you may draw your self from the one and from the other by the knowledge which he gives you of the horrour you should have for the Cause by the grief you resent by its Effect You shall see it Sir clearly enough by the consequents of the Maxims upon which the Authors of the Reformation which your Fathers embraced have laid their Foundations The Foundations of the Reformation of Calvin are laid upon these two Maxims which he and all those which have forsook the Church as himself hath delivered as indubitable to the People which have followed him The first is That the Church was fallen into ruine and desolation by Errour in its Faith by Idolatry in its Service and by Tyrannie in its Government The second That to reform and re-establish it â—…n its Original Purity the Faith of its Doctrine of its Service and of its Government was to be reduced to the onely precepts of the Scripture ' of the sense whereof every Believer ought to be Judge for his own proper salvation by the light of the Holy Ghost which conducts him They saw that if they did not suppose these Maxims for the causes of their Reformation they could not pretend any which might oblige them to forsake the Church which they had a mind to leave that they might frame a Contrary Party and make war against her For they could not deny the Church from which they separated the Title of the True Church but in accusing of it as they have done of Errour Idolatry and of Tyrannie And if we suppose this accusation for true they could not bring in the necessity of a Separation to make their Reformation but in excluding the Authority of Tradition and the Judgement of the Church and by reducing the rule of the Reformation to the Scripture it self interpreted by every mans Judgeâ—…ent Your Majestie Sir shall now see that of those Maxims which the Bishops of your Realm already become Schismaticks receiv'd for the causes of the Reformation which they admitted there was first of all Formed the Sect of Puritan-Presbyterians against the Protestant-Episcopalians who could not subsist against them upon the Foundation of these Maxims And that at length the Brownists the more Reformed Puritans did raise themselves upon the same Foundations who have since begot the Independents for the ruine of the Presbyterians by the same reasons by which the others had ruined the Protestants and Episcopacy and with Episcopacy Royalty it self In such sort that all this dreadful disorder which makes your Kingdoms to be a Chaos of lamentable disorder in which your authority finds it self put out comes from these Principles of Reformation which are the natural source thereof That this is so your Majestie Sir may clearly perceive it When the Bishops consented to these Principles of Reformation they abandoned by them the Faith of the Catholick Church concerning the Sacrifice of the Mass concerning Transubstantiation in the holy Eucharist concerning the number and vertue of the seven Sacraments concerning Justification real and inherent in the faithful and of their Merits and the Invocation of Saints concerning Prayer for the Dead and of Purgatory concerning the Authority of the Pope and of the adhering of all the Faithful to the See of St. Peter at Rome But they retain nevertheless the Episcopal Dignity and Authority with a part of the Liturgie and Ceremonies of the Catholick Church But the Puritan-Presbyterians have cast away all Form of Hierarchy and community of the Liturgie and Ceremonies with the Church of Rome as pernicious remainders of the Papal Tyrannie and Idolatry as they call them That they might oppose both Parties according to the first Maxim of their Reformation they brought in a Form of Government altogether novel and composed a Form of Service altogether new Upon which they have had so much advantage against the Protestants in combating them with the reasons of their common Principles and in stirring up the People heated with the zeal of Reformation that it was impossible for them to subsist if the Puritans could but once be supported by the Authority of Parliament against the Authority of the King who onely did support the Protestant Cause not by arguing but by command For Controversy by their Principles was all for the Puritans against the Protestants Could they without Tradition and by the holy Scripture alone interpreted by the judgement of every one find Episcopal Dignity and its Authority with distinction and superiority of power above the other Pastors and Ministers They could certainly without doubt by the Authority of the holy Scripture assisted by Tradition which declares the lawful sense But in doing this the victory which it gives them obligeth them to consent likewise to the Authority and Primacy of the Pope for the Government of the Universal Church as founded in the Primacy St. Peter receiv'd in the College of the Apostles as well for the Form of the Government of the Universal Church as of every particular Church from whence every Bishop derives his Authority Then thus it must be either that the Protestants abandon Episcopacy as a seed of Tyrannie and become Presbyterians or in retaining it to enter again into the Communion of the Pope and Bishops who adhere to him Though there be no need to speak here that their sole Division makes it impossible for them to subsist by the reason which the great Bishop and Martyr St. Cyprian represents to all Bishops in declaring the obligation they have strongly to retain the Unity of the Church by the not to be divided Unity of Episcopacy whereof every one doth solidly possess his share Upon which he admonisheth them that if any one goes to separate himself it shall happen unto him as to a Beam drawn from the body of the Sun which shall have no more part through its division in the unity of the light which continues in the body As to a Bough broken from the Tree which shall spring no more having no more share in the sap which remains in the body and in the root of the Tree Even like a Rivolet cut off from the Fountain which will dry up having no more to do with the course of the water which runs from the Spring This is that also Sir which your Bishops cannot avoyd It must be that being separated from the Mother-Church they should be extinguished and should vanish away as it s come to pass It must be that their very pain â—…as the proper work of the cause of â—…hier errour That their Reformation made them lose their Form But if the Puritans have had this advantage upon the Protestants by the Common Principles of their Reformation that which the same Principles have given the Brownists to withdraw themselves from the Puritans of the Genevian Discipline in the more exact purity which their spirit Interpreter of the sense of the Scripture suggests unto them is yet more great Behold
Disputation upon those terms which you propose That is â—…o accept of the Arch-Bishop of Paris and his Coadjutor two persons interessed for competent Judges I am as confident of the contrary that they would rather chuse to suffer than wrong their Cause so much Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora It were a readier way for them and but the same in effect to subscribe to a blank paper and to submit without Disputation Fifthly suppose all this notwithstanding such a Conference should hold what reason have you to promise to your self such success as to obtain so easy a Victory You have had Conferences and Conferences again at Poisye and other places and gained by them just as much as you might put in your eye and see never the worse When Conferences are onely made use of as Pageants to grace the Introduction of some new Proselite and to preserve his Reputation from the aspersion of Desultorious Levity they seem much more efficatious than they are As they know well enough who are privie to what is acted in the withdrawing Room The time was when you have been as confident in a contrary Opinion that such a Free Conference would have sealed the Walls of Rome and levelled the Popes Triple Crown Sixthly whether the Ministers â—…hould accept of such a partial unequall Conference or not or whatsoever should be the succes thereof you trespas too boldly upon his Majesties patience to dictate to him so pragmatically so Magisterially what he should do or would do in such a case which is never like to be Doth his Fathers constancy en ourage you to believe that he is a Reed shaken with the Wind Qui pauca considerat sacile pronunciat He that weighs no more Circumstances or Occurrances than serve for the advancement of his Design pronounceth sentence easily but temerariously and sor the most part unsoundly When such a thing as you dream of should happen it were good manners in you to leave his Majesty to his Christian Liberty But to trouble your self and others about the Moons shining in the water so unseasâ—…nably so impertinently or with what will come to pâ—…ss when the sky falls is unbeseeming the Counseller of a King Lastly consider how your Pen doth over-run your Reason and over-reach all grounds of probability to ascribe unto his Majesties chang such an infallible Iâ—…fluence upon all Protestants as to reduce them to the Roman Communion not onely his own subjects but Foreiners His blessed Fathers example had not so much influence upon the Scots his Native Subjects He was no Changling indeed neither to the right hand nor to the left Henry the Fourth his Grandfather did turn indeed to the Roman Church Had his change any such influence upon the Protestant party in France I know no followers such a change would gain him but I foresee cleerly how many Hearts it would lose him Certainly Sir if you would do a meritorious piece of service to his greatest Adversaries you could not fix upon any thing that would content them more highly than to see you successfull in this undertaking I have done with your Proposiâ—…ion He that compares it and your Demonstration together will easily judge them to be twins at the first sight As a Motive to his Majtsties Conversion you present him with a Treatise of Transubstantiation and desire that it may appeare un to the World under his Royal name I meddle not with your Treatise some of your learned Adversaries friends will give you your hands full enough But how can h s Majesty protect or patronise a Treatise against his judgement against his Conscience so contrary to the doctrin of the Church of England not onely â—…nce the Reformation but before About the year seven hundred The Body of Christ wherein he suffered and his Body Conseorated in the Host differ much The Body wherein he suffered was born of the Virgin consisting of flesh and bones and humane members his Spiritual body which we call the Host â—…onsists of many Grains without blood bones or human Members wherefore nothing is to be under stood there Corporally but all Spiritually Transubstantiation was neither held for an Article of Falth nor a point of Faith in those daies You charge the Protestants in divers places That they have neither Church nor Faith but have lost both And at the later end of your Treatise you undertake to demonstrate it But your Demonstration is a meer Parologism You multiply your Terms you confound your terms you chang and alter your Terms contrary to the rules of right arguing and vainly beat the air concluding nothing which you ought to prove nothing which your Adversary will deny You would prove that Protestants have no Church That you never attempt Bâ—…t you do attempt to prove how pittifull God knowes that they are not the onely Church that is the one Holy Catholique Church This they did never affirm they did never think It susficeth them to be a part of that Universall Church more pure more Orthodox more Catholique than the Roman alwaies professing Christ visibly never lurking invisibly in another Communion which is another of your mistakes I should advise you to promise us no more evident Demonstrations either your skill or your luck is so extremly bad In the second place you affirm that Faith is founded upon divine Authority and Revelation and deposited with the Church All that is true But that which you add that it is founded in the Authority of Christ speaking by the mouth of his Church By this Church understanding the Church of this Age and which is yet worse the Church of one place and which is worst of all the Bishop of that one Church is most false And so is that which you add that the faith of Protestants is founded upon their own reasonings which makes so many differences among them Reason must be subservient in the application of the Rule of Faith It cannot be the foundation of Faith Bad reasoning may bring forth differences and errors about Faith both with you and us but the abuse of Reason doth not take away the use of Reason We have this Advantage of you that if any one of us do build an erroneous Opinion upon the holy Scripture yet because our adherence to the Scripture is firmer and neerer than our adherence to our particular error that full and free and universal assent which we give to holy Scripture and to all things therein conteined is an implicite Condemnation and retractation of our particular error which we hold unwittingly and unwillingly against Scripture But your foundation of Faith being composed of uncertainties whether this man be Pope or not whether this Pope be Judge or not whether this Judge be infallible or not and if infallible wherein and how far the faith which is builded thereupon cannot but be fallible and uncertain The stricter the adherence is to a false
their design than to act the Puritan that they might come to the execution of their desires which they have done at last by the Sacrilegious Paricide of their Archbishop and of their King This was Sir the grand work of mans malice and the Devils stratagem which caused the ils which are fallen upon your Crown and Person by the pitiful fate of that succession which ought to have befallen you But the Justice and Wisdome of God in this conjuncture hath other ends Every one knows that this Archbishop â—…ourished in the Schism from the Catholick Church had no other thought noâ—… inclination than to re-unite in one body the People divided into Sects among themselves as well as from the Church and to make himself Chief Head of this Schismatical Body And we see God hath permitted that his own People divided against it self hath caused his Head to be cut off The King otherwise accomplished in all royal and moral virtues did use in the Schism by the Law of his Predecessours the Authority which God had given him in temporal matters for governing of spiritual and called himself the Head It is for that reason that God chastizing in his person the fault of his Predecessours would let us know by the tragical spectacle of an unheard of Death in a King no less innocent than lawful that so strange an effect of his anger hath had no other cause than to instruct all other Princes that are in the Schism with what severity God will revenge his glory for their injuring the Unity and Authority of his Church But if such is the Effect of Divine Justice and Wisdome in the cause of your misfortune Sir his Mercy goes far before it and this is the effect that concerns you For God makes it here plainly appear unto your Majestie that the Reformation which the Authors of the Schism in this latter age have pretended to make hath been under the pretext of so good an outside no otheâ—… thing in effect than the entire ruine as well of the Faith and form of the Church as of the Order it self instituted by God for the governing of men This is the Lesson which God sets before your eyes in the historie of this sad Revolution which hath given you a wound the feeling whereof is to be your instruction You shall see Sir through all the circumstances of these tragical effects which have produced the trouble and changed the form of your Estates and which have ravished from you the Crown That the new Religion which your Predecessours embraced after the Schism is the onely efficient cause by the very maxims and foundations of the design which its Authors have called the Reformation of the Church Their new opinions did very easily sside themselves under this apparent colour through the clefts of the Schism into the spirit of the Bishops who made themselves culpable But neither they themselves that received this novelty nor the Kings that authorized them did think they should charge themselves with Uria's packet which would abolish both the authority of the Bisâ—…ops and the Sovereignty of Kings For men are alwaies blind in the works of Darkness which they do by the instinct of the Devil who goes disguizing himself into an Angel of Light that he may induce them for to commit them And their passions which do blind them do insensibly draw them into precipices of mis-haps whereof neither the extraordinary steepness nor depth is by them discerned Certainly whosoever should have demanded of Peter Martyr himself and Martin Bucer who carried Calvin's Reformation into England if they went to bring in the Brownists opinions who by maxims receiv'd from their hands did a little after think upon a more exact purity by the motions which they suppose the Holy Ghost suggests unto them from whence it is that they esteem themselves more Reformed Puritans Whosoever likewise should have enquired of them if they came to tell them they might be of what Religion they pleas'd and for the extinction of all Ecclesiastical Discipline of all rule and form of a common Faith according to the opinion of the Independents Whosoever should at last have ask'd them whether the Sword of the Word they carried in their mouths was to cut off their King's and Bishop's heads that they might give a Form altogether new as well to the Kingdom as to the Church what would they have answered They would have sworn without doubt with their hands upon the new Gospel they carried about them that their intentions were further distant from these thoughts than the Earth is from Hell And nevertheless this thing is no waies to be doubted of and altogether apparent at present that â—…alvin Martyr Bucer and the Bishops which admitted their Reformation and the Kings which authorized it have brought in by the maxims of their Foundations not onely Protestants but also Brownists and Independents The Bishops that receiv'd this Reformation saw not that of it would be bred the Sect of the Presbyterians Enemies to the Hierarchy of the Church and all the Order of its institutions as well for the Service as for the Government and would ruine their Authority that they might abolish Royalty it self But neither did Calvin Martyr nor Bucer know that from the maxims of their Reformation would spring up the Brownists and Indepâ—…ndents who would ruine their Reformation by introducing an indifference concerning all opinion in Religion This is that Sir which the historie of things hapned in the progress of this Reformation the knowledge whereof your Majestie at this present carries engraven in your heart by too bitter feelings represents unto your eyes to the end all the world may see the nature and Genius by the effects of its maxims I will represent them Sir to the eyes of your Majestie and by a demonstration so lively and evident that no reason can contradict it You shall see that the pain you suffer and under which your Estate groans is the true effect as the very punishment of the sins your Fathers committed and transâ—…itted unto you then when under the pretext of this blind Reformation they abandoned the Faith of the Church and her Communion For it is after thiâ—… mâ—…nner the just vengeance of God punishetâ—… sin by it self and that its own proper work becomes the punishment it deserves This Religion for which the Bishops the Kings and the People have forsook the Church hath destroyed the Bishops and the Kings and reduced the People to live without Bishops without Kings without a Form of Government and without Discipline in Religion under the Tyrannie of a Monster who without being either King or Bishop attributes to himself all Authority both in State and in Religion This which I declare unto your Majestie Sir is to make you understand that this terrible work of the hand of God which afflicts you after this manner is nevertheless a judgement of his mercy for you For you may see he sends you not this trouble
how they combat the one party against the other and the victory of the last The Puritans of the Genevian Discipline have determined of Articles of Faith and have form'd their Confession to which they oblige all those that receive their Communion But this Law which prescribes by Authority a common belief among all the Communicants cannot agree with the judgement â—…at every Believer can and ought to make of the sense of the Scriptures by the assistance of the Holy Ghost according to the second common Maxim of their Reformation For if one supposes it true no other Authority can bear rule over the Conscience nor prescribe it any thing beyond the sense that the Spirit suggests to it in the interpreting of the Scripture Upon which the Brownists also set upon the Presbyterians by all the same Authorities upon which they have founded theirs to separate themselves from the Church and abandon its determinations They maintain That to oblige the Faith of faithful men to a formular confession which can have no other than an humane authority is to bring them forthwith under the Papal Tyrannie from which the Holy Ghost hath freed them Against this the Calvinists have no reply which doth not wound themselves with their own hands and which is not their condemnation pronounced by themselves For they can answer nothing pertinently if they do not borrow the reasons the Church hath against them So God perpetual Protector of his Church causes her Enemies to pronounce her Victory with their own mouths whilst that they issued from the teeth and the mouth of the Serpent to make war with her do wage it among themselves and kill one another From these Brownists as your Majestie Sir knows much better are come the Independents which are not risen but since the advantage the Puritan-Presbyterians had upon the Protestants by the Authority of the Parliamentiers It is those that have produced this false-prophet of blood and slaughter to end this last Act of Infernal Reformation that he himself preaches to his Musulmans with his Sword in his hand after he hath broke the Cross and changed the Episcopal Crosier into a Murtherer's Axe By this same spirit of the Brownists in which he hath been originally instructed by using Disputes he deduces Fundamental Maxims of the common Reformation among them he wars against the Presbyterians with much more advantage than he did against the Protestants From whence he promises himself to make them all submit to his opinion which is an indifference of all opinion of Religion Which shall fall out without doubt according to his own mind if they will follow the Consequences of their own Maxims For the reason of which he gives liberty to every man to believe and prophesie that which they think the Spirit suggests to them But he thinks in making these People separated from the Church taste the Liberty of Conscience he shall rally all their different Sects into one Body to set them against the Body of the Catholick Church to the end he may destroy the Pope and the Bishops that conduct her and may exterminate the Kings that defend her He calls that the great work of God He assures the success to all them that follow him by the revelations which he makes them believe he had at his Fasts his Prayers and his reading the holy Scriptures But it is no marvel he can assemble such a number of Followers by the arguing of their Maxims For since they had already produced these different bodies of reform'd Battalions and reforming even to infinity Protestants Presbyterians and Brownists who in a perpetual war cannot agree among themselves He comes further as more fit to serve himself of their Maxims to put them to the Ho there by the indifference and by abolishing all Lawes that rule upon the Conscience and leaving every mans thoughts free and the liberty to prophesie and interpret the Scriptures according to the sense his spirit dictates to him For as to the remainder he troubles not himself to see by this spirit the prodigious number of Sects and Insects to swarm about who daily vomit for more monstrous opinions than caâ—… come from the bottomless pit For lâ—… there be what difference there will among them they all agree in his indifferency By this Catastrophe of the Reformation undertaken by those that havâ—… divided the Church in these latter Ages you see Sir what hath been both thâ—… Design and Genius This is not I thaâ—… represent the truth of it to you God hath set it before your eyes or I may rather say in your heart written in Characters which shall never be blotted out And to write them with his own hand he himself is descended from Heaven environed with the fire and thunder of his anger which appears enlightned upon you But from the middle thereof you hear the voyce of his mercy recalling you to him and declaring to you that all this he hath done to let you know the sins of your Fathers by drawing you out of them that he may call you back into his Church where all benediction shall be given you For true Piety and Religion whereof she hath been made the Guardian finds there as the Apostle speaks the promises of present life and of that which is to come And your Faith which God will work in you by the vertue of the Cross in the present affliction wherein you are submitting all your desires to the Wisdome of his Counsel and power of his strength shall meet there the comfort of your patience conformable to the hope you shall put in him You will say then Sir when you consider your self and the work that God shall have wrought in you That the Wisdome of the Judgements of God is without bottome That the Knowledge thereof is very difficult That it is impossible to find it out if he himself doth not manifest it He will manifest it to you Sir and you may see it if you consider the great abyss that was between you and God how far you were drawn from him before he came to you after thiâ—… manner and drew himself near to you that he might draw you to him When the King your Father had the Crown upon his Head and was sitting upon his Throne in the middle of his flourishing Kingdomes in the abundance of all prosperity and glory And that you Heir to this Majestie and Royal Pomp bred up your spirit among these mundane delights of the desire and hope of adding to the lustre of your Grandfathers the splendor of your brave Actions wherewith your politick and military virtues should adorn your life and the Historie of your Reign What 's this then when all the reasons of State as well as those wherewith your Conscience had been onely instructed would have kept you engaged in this new Religion the errour whereof you have suckt in with the milk of your infancy your eyes and your ears should have been capable of seeing and hearing the
Truths which now make known to you the fault and the condemnation which God by the wisdome and power of his Judgements hath drawn from it self and his proper works that you may feel the effects How should you have been able to have discovered under this fair shew of Reformation whereof she hath taken the Title under this splendid lustre which she hath put upon her face of Knowledge and Eloquence the gifts whereof shine in her Doctors and Ministers of the reading and particular regard she commands them to have towards the holy Scriptures of the familiar Texts which adorn their Pastors Discourses and Preachings of the popular exercises of her Psalms and Canticles of the Prayers and Orisons which are extracted and interwoven with the Understanding which gives consolation Should you have been able to have discovered I say that under this appearance of Piety she had dis-avow'd her strength if God had not at present let you see it in the works of horrour and confusion deadly to Christian piety and charity destructive to all Form of Religion Enemies to all Order of God which she hath produced by the consequences of her Fundamental Maxims Sir Had your Majestie taken notice of the imposture and deceit which the Father of Lyes hath hidden under these Baits that they themselves whom he made the first Instruments and Authors of the division of the Church did not perceive for they would have abhorred it had they known it would have been such This is then truly the great work of God whereof this false prophet understands not the reason when he speaks thus God hath certainly done this work And God hath raised him up himself to put this confusion among them which have forsaken the Unity of the Church in dividing themselves into a thousand Sects of which they acknowledge at present that no one can call himself the Church For the Sect of the Protestants cannot pretend to it since she her self subsists no more but that every one sees her justly perished by the same Maxims that separated her from the Church and that the Presbyterians which seduced them have now destroyed them Nor the Sect of the Presbyterians which is under the yoke of the Independents who cut their throats with the same Swords wherewith they warred against the Church For they brought them by their own Maxims to renounce all Discipline all Government all Law and all Rule of Unity and by consequence all Form of the Church This cursed Cham hath then discovered his Father's filthiness that is to say of the first Author of this pretended Reformation who being drunk with the wine of his errour did not himself know â—…t But if God pleases the impudence of his brazen face who hath lost all shamefac'dness being not afraid to discover by his Independence the Foundations of this preposterous Reformation shall now touch his brethren with compunction and shame that they may return to their common Father He will cause the Presbyterians and Protestants to understand that it was the spirit of senslesness and errour which made Luther conceive and undertake the design of dividing the Church under pretext of a false Reformation From whence they will perceive if they can but come to themselves that one ought not to desire neither that any one can do any thing true or lawful but in the union and by the consent of the Church and the rule of Tradition which she hath receiv'd from the Apostles and conserved by a continued succession As God Sir draws light out of darkness so your Majestie sees that he makes your salvation to come out of your calamity But this is not for you alone That which he will do in your Person he will bring to pass in all your Kingdomes by your Person And not onely in all your Kingdomes but in all the places and in all those which are separated from the Church as your Kingdomes are That which you have singular in this cause is by being the greatest King of the party divided from the Church and that your Kingdomes are the greatest and most flourishing Estate that hath receiv'd this novelty of Religion where she hath found the most powerful Sanctuary and where she hath planted her seat the most eminent and most assured This is likewise a reason why God hath put her into this confusion in destroying her by the different Sects which she her self hath ingendred that all the world may know the spirit of errour from whence she hath taken her Original For all the world at present sees what this spirit is and its nature if it is the Spirit of Christ it is the Spirit of peacâ—… and truth if it be the spirit of Satan it is the spirit of trouble and errour which hath raised the trouble and errouâ—… which rules at present in your Kingdomes Since such is the spirit of this new Reformation and its Maxims such arâ—… its works that are at this day discovered and made evident who is that man that can defend it that can preserve iâ—… in his conscience that can have reposâ—… or comfort in his soul by adhering to it There 's no more need of Disputes or Arguments to convince it She is convinc'd by her self according to the character the Spirit of God hath stamp'd upon the Heretical man by the Pen of the Apostle St. Paul who commands us to depart for these reasons There is saith he a perverted spirit that is condemned by it self This is the imagâ—… that all the world doth see at present in this Reformation and its Genius But there rests now one thing to do which is to apply this remedy of Salvation to the Conscience of the People seduced by the errour There is no more to do than to anoint the wound the Scorpion hath made with the oyl where it hath been bruised For the way to heal them is now very easy by reason their Reformation hath receiv'd such a miserable success There is nothing more easy than to make the People know thereupon by the conviction of their Pastors upon the very Foundations and Maxims of their Reformation that they have neither Church nor Faith But then when they supposed contrary to the promise of Jesus Christ the Church was fallen into ruine for pretext of reforming it they have not been able to form an other which hath the conditions of the true Church but an infinity of different and contrary Sects among them none of which can be the Church but in rejecting the authority of Tradition for interpreting the Scripture and the judgement of the Church for the declaration of her Faith They have abandoned the Unity of the Faith that every one might abound in his own sense by the different opinions they have conceived That which of necessity must cast them as it is come to pass into the Independence of all rule and the indifference of all opinion in Religion And as modesty to accuse the Church of Errour in all the Ages hath been the
which the Holy Spirit hath caused Piety and Charity to spring flourish and fructifie in Believers From whence it follows by the same reason that the true and lawful Reformation which all good men of the Church desire in the Church doth depend no otherwise than upon the understanding and practice of these same Truths by the duty to which they address all Believers in the different vocations whereto God calls them In all which the end which is proposed them is no other than to live united among them and with Jesus Christ by the grace of the Holy Ghost to serve God under the obedience of the Government which he hath put into the hands of the Bishops which feed the Flock with an unanimous consent under the Authority of the espeâ—…ial Chair of St. Peter established at Rome by two Principals of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul from which whosoever separates himself is a Schismatick and out of the Communion of the Church Upon this Sir I am imboldened to speak for this last time to your Majestie that as you may if you will by the way which I propose to you lay the Foundation of this work by your Conversion and entrance into the Catholick Church You will find also that the success shall be in the hand of God the indubitable way of re-establishing you in your Throne Certainly all will agree with me that this work is upon such conditions that if it had receiv'd its accomplishment in Paris with the Ministers and People separated from the Church there 's no place in all France wherein they would refuse to do the like And if once the love of the Peace and re-union of the Church had thus gained the heart of our separated Brethren which are in this Kingdome acknowledging in this manner that the onely safe and necessary Reformation ought to be this which by the truth of the definitions of the Faith of the Church in her Doctrine in her Service and in her Government shall re-establish a Christian life among Christians the other People and Pastors and the Pastors for the love and by the very motion of the People which are in the same Communion in other parts of Europe will without doubt do the same thing Think you Sir that if your Subjects of Scotland and those which are in England and Ireland faithful and affectionate to your Crown and Person seeing the success of this project hapned in France to which your Conversion shall have given the beginning and motion they will resist the call of the same grace and that they can be able to find in their hearts in their mouths and in their hands either reason or means for to hinder themselves to follow that which all those of their Communion shall have done here And after this will you doubt that the blessing of God who is never wanting to his promises will not accomplish in you fully that which he hath promised to those that believe in him by the mouth of his own Son when he tels them Search the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and all things shall be added unto you Will you doubt that in thus searching of his Kingdome you shall not find also your own And that Heaven will not likewise render unto you upon the Earth this temporal recompence for a token of that you shall have sought and which you shall receive in Heaven for eternity Yes Sir the Word of God deceives no man it is more firm and immovable than the Heaven and the Earth for the one and the other shall vanish away but one sole Iota of the Word uttered from the mouth of the Son of God shall not pass away When I tell you these things founded upon the Truth which he hath spoken unto us believe that this is he himself that addresses them to you by my mouth It is he himself that calls you It is he himself that stretcheth forth his hand towards you It is he himself that by his hand hath conducted you for this end to the place where you are Recollect again your self upon all the thoughts of your heart since the time your Majestie parted from hence to the time your Majestie returned back Think upon all that you have been willing to do and upon all that which it hath pleased God to do with you For he hath done all the things both what you see and what you suffer upon your Person and upon your Estate He hath put you into the Estate you are to make you understand his voyce and for to oblige you to say to him Lord what wilt thou that I do You have thought to be able to reascend upon your Throne by the means of those of your Subjects who appear'd to retain for you and for your Crown that fidelity to which a more antient Bond held them obliged more straitly than all others God would not have it so They had a design to bind your Conscience to the Lawes of their Reformation by an oath to observe the conditions of their Covenant and by abjuring your opinions that drew more near the Catholick Religion They hoped by this means that in conserving upon your head some Form at least apparent of the Royal Government under which they had so happily obeyed your Fathers for so many Ages they should avoyd the falling under the slavage of the Tyrannie which is called Cromwel's Commonwealth And that they should defend by this way the factiousness of their Religion from giving place to his Independency What is it come to God hath destroyed all their Counsels He hath routed all their Armies by the Arm of this False-prophet by whose mouth he convinces and confounds in the face of their Ministers by mouth and by writing the rules of their Covenant by the proper Maxims of their Reformation God hath delivered them into his hands and imposed upon them the yoke of his absolute domination They must now submit to the Lawes of his Independency and of his Common-wealth the name whereof serves for a Masque to his Tyrannie But God hath delivered you Sir and by a conduct of his Providence full of trembling and admiration he hath withdrawn your Sacred Person from a thousand dangers which threatned it from the fury and cruelty of this Monster who spared neither the force of Iron nor the value of Gold to find the means of violently taking away your life You have seen Sir the anger of God to descend upon your head who according to the terms of the Scripture hath loosned the Belts of Kings and bound their Reins with Cords You have seen his Arm armed with his rage to defeat your Armies Combating at their head you have done bravely with your hand and with your courage all that the generosity of a valiant and magnanimous Prince could do to associate Victory to the justice of your Arms. You have there shed your Blood and seen that of your faithful Subjects to stream through the fields covered with their bodies
of this nature I will not now dispute Thirdly some things are neither of the Faith nor against the Faith but onely besides the Faith That is opinions or truths of an inferiour nature which are not so necessary to be actually known for though all revealed truths be alike necessary to be believed when they are known yet all revealed truths are not alike necessary to be known It is not denied but that General or Provincial Councils may make constitutions concerning these for unity and uniformity and oblige all such as are subject to their jurisdiction to receive them either actively or passively without câ—…ntumacy or opposition But to make these or any of these a part of the Creed and to oblige all Christians under pain of damnation to know and believe them is really to adde to the Creed and to change the Symbolical Apostolical Faith to which none can adde from which none can take away and comes within the compass of St. Paul's Curse If we or an Angel from Heaven shall Preach unto you aâ—…y other Gospel or Faith than that which we have Preached let him be accursed Such are your Universality of the Roman Church by the institution of Christ to make her the Mother of her Grandmother the Church of Jerusalem and the Mistress of her many elder Sisters Your Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences and the Worship of Images and all other novelties defined in the Council of Trent all which are comprehended in your New Roman Creed and obtruded by you upon all the world to be believed under pain of damnation He that can extract all these out of the old Apostolick Creed must needs be an excellent Chymist and may safely undertake to draw water out of a Pumice That afflictions come not by chance that prosperity is no evidence of Gods favour or adversity of his hatred that crosses imposed by God upon his servants look more forwards towards their amendment than backwards to their demerits and proceed not from a Judge revenging but from a Father correcting or which you have omitted from a Lord Paramount proving and magnifying before the world his own graces in his Servants for his Glory and their Advantage are undeniable Truths which we readily admit As likewise that the dim eye of man cannot penetrate into the secret dispensations of Gods temporal judgements and mercies in this life so as to say this man is punished that other chastised this third is onely proved But you forget all this soon after when you take upon you to search into yea more to determine the grounds and reasons why the hand of God as well as the Parliament hath been so heavy upon the Head of his late Majestie and his Royal Son Namely on Gods part because he called himself the Head of the Church God purposing by his punishment to teach all other Princes that are in the Schism with what severity he can vindicate his glory in the injury done unto the Unity and Authority of his Church And on the Parliaments part because he would not consent to the Abolition of Episcopacy and suppression of the Liturgie and Ceremonies established in the Church of England First what warrant have you to enquire into the Actions of that bâ—…essed Saint and Martyr which of them should be the causes of his sufferings Not remembring that the Disciples received a check from their Master upon the like presumption Who sinned this man or his Parents that he was born blind Jesus answered neither hath this man sinned nor his Parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in him The Heroical Virtues the flaming Charity the admirable Patience the rare Humility the exemplary Chastity the constant and frequent Devotions and the invincible Courage of that happy Prince not daunted with the ugly face of a most horrid death have rendred him the Glory of his Country the Honour of that Church whereof he was the chiefest Member the admiration of Christendome and a Pattern for all Princes of what Communion soever to imitate unto the end of the world His Sufferings were Palms his Priâ—…on a Paradise and his Death-day the Birth-day of his happiness whom his Enemies advantaged more by their Cruelty than they could have done by their Courtesie They deprived him of a corruptible Crown and invested him with a Crown of glory They snatched him from the sweet society of his dearest Spouse and from most hopeful Olive branches to place him in the bosome of the holy Angels This alone is ground enough for his sufferings to manifest unto the world those transcendent and unparallel'd graces where with God had enriched him to which his sufferings gave the greatest lustre as the Stars shine brightest in a dark night The like liberty you assume towards the other most glorious Martyr the late Archbishop of Canterbury a man of profound learning and exemplary life of clean hands of a most sincere heart a Patron of all good Learning a Professor of Antient Truth a great friend indeed and earnest pursuer of Order Unity and Uniformity in Religion but most free from all sinister ends either avaritious or ambitious wherewith you do uncharitably charge him as if he sought onely his own Graudeur to make himself the head of a Schismatical body In brief you therefore censure him because you did not know him I wish all your great Ecclesiastiques had his Innocency and fervent zeal for Gods Church and the peace thereof to plead for them at the day of Judgement By applying these particular Afflictions according to your own ungrounded Fancy what a wide gap have you opened to the liberty and boldness of other men who if they should assume to themselves the same freedome that you have done might say as much with as much reason concerning the pressures of other great Princes abroad that God afflicts them because they will not become Protestants as you can say that God afflicted our late King because he wou'd not turn Papist But if you will not allow his Majesties sufferings to be meerly probatory And if for your satisfaction there must be a weight of sin found out to movâ—… the wheel of Gods Justice why do yoâ—… not rather fix upon the body of hiâ—… Subjects or at least a disloyal part of them We confess that the best of us did not deserve such a Jewel that God might justly snatch him from us in his wrath for our ingratitude Reason Religion and Experience do all teach us that it is usual with Aâ—…mighty God to look upon a body politick or Ecclesiastick as one man and to deprive a perverse people of a good and gratious Governour as an expert Physician by opening a vein in one member cures the distempers of another For the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes â—…hereof It may be that two or three of our Princes at the most the greater part whereof were Roman Cathoâ—…iques did 〈◊〉 themseâ—…ves or
give others leave to â—…tile them the Heads of the Church within their Dominions But no man can be so simple as to conceive that they â—…ntended a spiritual headship to infuse â—…he life and motion of grace into the â—…earts of the faithful such an head is Christ alone No nor yet an Ecclesiaâ—…ical headship We did never believe â—…hat our Kings in their own persons â—…ould exercise any act pertaining either â—…o the power of Order or Juriâ—…ction Nothing can give that to another which it hath not it self They meant oneâ—…y a Civil or Political Head as Saul is called the Head of the Tribes of Israel to see that pubâ—…ick peace be presâ—…rved to see that all Subjects as well Eccâ—…esiastiques as others do their duties in their several places to see that all things be managed for that great and Architectonical end that is the weal and benefit of the whole body politique both for soul and body If you will not trust me Hear our Church it self When we attribute the Sovereign Government of the Church to the King we do not give him any power â—…o administer the Wâ—…rd or Sacraments but onely that Prerogative which God in holâ—… Scripture hath alwaies allowed to Godly Princes to see that all States and Orders of their Subâ—…ects Ecclesiastical and Civil do their duties and to punish those who are delinquent with the civil Sword Here is no power ascribed no punishment inflicted but meerly political and this is approved and justisied by S. Clara both by reason and by the examples of the Parliament of Paris Yet by vertue of this Political power he is the Keeper of both Tables the preserver of true Piety towards God as weâ—…l as right Justice towards men And is obliged to take care of the souls as well as the skins and carkasses of his Subjects This power though not this name the Christian Emperours of old assumed unto themselves to Convocate Synods to preside in Synods to confirm Synods to establish Ecclesiastical Lawes to receive Appeals to nominate Bishops to eject Bishops to suppress Heresies to compose Ecclesiastical differences in Councils out of Councils by themselves by their delegates All which is as clear in the Historie of the Church as if it were written with a beam of the Sun This power though not this name the Antient Kings of Englaâ—…d ever exercised not onely before the Reformation but before the Norman Conquest as appears by the Acts of their great Councils by their Statutes and Articles of the Clergy by so many Lawes of provision against the Bishop of Romes conferring Ecclesiastical dignities and benefices upon Foreiners by so many sharp oppositions against the exactions and usurpations of the Court of Rome by so many Lawes concerning the Patronage of Bishopricks and Investitures of Bishops by so many examples of Church-men punished by the Civil Magistrate Of all which Jewels the Roman Court had undoubtedâ—…y robbed the Crown if the Peers and Prelates of the Kingdome had not come into â—…he rescue By the Antient Lawes of England it is death or at lest a forfeiture of all his goods for any man to publish the Popes Bull without the Kings Licence The Popes Legate without the Kings leave could not enter into the Realm If an Ordinary did refuse to accept a resignation the King might supply his defect If any Ecclesiastical Court did exceed the bounds of its just power either in the nature of the cause or manner of proceeding the Kings Prohibition had place So in effect the Kings of England were alwaies the Political heads of the Church within their own Dominions So the Kings of France are at this day But who told you that ever King Charles did call himself the Head of the Church thereby to merit such an heavy Judgement He did not nor yet King James his Father nor Queen Elizabeth before them both who took Order in her first Parliament to have it lest out â—…f her Title They thought that name did sound ill and that it intrenched too far upon the right of their Saviour Therefore they declined it and were called onely Supreme Governours in all Causes over all persons Ecclesiastical and Civil which is a Title de jure inseparable from the Crown of all Sovereign Princes Where it is wanting de facto if any place be so unhappy to want it the King is but half a King and the Commonwealth a Serpent with two Heads Thus you see you are doubly and both waâ—…es miserably mistaken First King Charles did never stile himself Head of the Church nor could with patience endure to hear that Title Secondly a Political Headship is not injurious to the Unity or Authority of the Church The Kings of Isâ—…ael and Judah the Christian Emperours the Engâ—…ish Kings before the Reformation yea even before the Conquest and other Sovereign Princes of the Roman Communion have owned it signaâ—…ly But it seems you have been toâ—…d or have read this in the virulent writings of Sandâ—…rs or Parsons or have heard of a ludicrous scoffing proposition of a Mâ—…rriage between the two Heads of the two Churches Sixâ—…us Quintus and Queen Elizabeth for the re-uniting forsooth of Christendome All the satisfaction I shâ—…uld enjoyn you is to perswade the Bishop of Râ—…me if Gregory the Great were living you could not fail of speeding to imitate the piety and humility of our Princes that is to content himself with his Patriarchical dignity and primacy of Order Principâ—…m unit at is and to quit that much more presumptuous and if a Popes word may pass for current Antichristian term of the Head of the Catholick Church If the Pope be the Head of the Catholique Church then the Catholique Church is the Popes Body which would be but an harsh expression to Christian ears then the Catholick Church should have no Head when there is no Pope two or three Heads when there are two or three Popes an unsound Head when there is an heretical Pope a broken Head when the Pope is censured or deposed and no Head when the See is vacant If the Church must have one Universal Visible Ecclesiastical Head a general Council may best pretend to that Title Neither are you more successful in your other Reason why the Parliament persecuted the King Because he maintained Episcopacy both out of Conscience and Interest which they sought to abolish For though it be easily admitted that some seditious and heterodox persons had an evil eye both against Monarchy and Episcopacy from the very beginning of these troubles either out of a fiery zeal or vain affectation of Novelty like those who having the green-sickness prefer chalk and meal in a corner before wholsome meat at their Fathers table or out of a greedy and covetous desire of gathering some sticks for themselves upon the fall of those great Okes yet certainly they who were the contrivers and principal actors in this business did more malign
gifts of Enemies are no gifts If such as these are all your courtesies you may be pleased to take them again Our first Reformers might safely swear upon any Gospel old or new that they meant no such thing And we may as securely swear upon all the books of God old or new that there is no such thing But why our Gospel should be younger or newer than Sixtus Quintus his Gospel or Clemens Octavus his Gospel passeth my understanding and yours also Comparisons are odious therefore I will not say that the true English Protestant standing to his own grounds is the best subject in the world But I do say that he is as good a subject as any in the wortd and our principles as Innocent and as auxiliary to civil Government as the maxims of any Church under Heaven And more than yours where the clashing of two Supreme Authorities and the exemption of your numerous Clergy from the Coercive power of the Prince and some other novelties which I forbear to mention do alway threaten a storm Tell me Sir if you can what Church in Europe hath declared more fully or more favourably for Monarchy than the poor Church of England That the most high and sacred Order of Kings is of Divine Right being the Ordinance of God himself founded in the prime Laws of Nature and clearly established by express Texts both of the old and new Testament Moreover that this power is extended over all their Subjects Ecclesiastical and Civil That to sâ—…t up any Independent coactive power above them either Papal or popular either directly or indirectly is to undermine their great royal Office and cunningly to overthrow that most Sacred Ordinance which god himself hath established That for their subjects to bear Arms against them Offensive or defensive upon any pretence whatsoever is to resist the powers which are ordained of God And why do you call our Reformation Calvinistical contrary to your own Conscience contrary to your own confession That in our Reformation we reteined the antient Order of Episcopacy as Instituted by divinâ—… authority and a Liturgy and Ceremonies whereby we preserved the face or Image of the Catholick Church And that for this very causâ—… the disciplinarians of Geneva and the Presbyterians did conceive an implacable hatred against the King for the Churches sake and out of their aversion to it Did they hate their own Reformation so implacably If these things be to be reconciled reddat mihi minam Diogenes He that looks more in disputation to the Advantage of his party than to the Truth of his grounds had need of a strong memory We reteined not onely Episcopacy Liturgy and Ceremonies but all things else that were conformable to the Discipline and publick service of the Primitive Church rightly understood No Sir we cannot pin our faith upon the sleeve of any particular man as one used to say We love no nismes neither Calvinism nor Lutheranism nor Jonsenianism but onely one that we derive from Antioch that is Christianism We honour Learning and Piety in our fellow servants but we desire to wear no other badge or Cognizance than that we received from our own Master at our Baptism Bucer was as fit to be Calvins Master as his Scholar So long as Calvin continued with him in Germany he was for Episcopacy Liturgy and Ceremonies and for assurance thereof subscribed the Augustane Confession and his late learned Successor and assertor in Geneva Monsieur Deodate with sundry others of that Communion were not averse from them Or why do you call Reformation blind It was not blindness but too much affectation of knowledge and too much peeping into controverted and new fangled Questions that hath endamaged our Religion It is you that teach the Colliers Creed not we Howsoever you pretend to prove that our Reformation was the ruin of the Church and Common-wealth wee expect you should endeavour to prove it You cannot so far mistake your self as to conceive your authority to be the same with us that Pythagoras had among his Scholars to have his Dictates received for Oracles without proof what did I say that you pretend to prove it That 's too low an expression you promiâ—…e us a demonstration of it so lively and evident that no reason shall be able to contradict it Are you not afraid that too much expectation should prejudice your discourse by diminishing our applause Quid tanto dignum feret hiâ—… proneissor hiaâ—…u Do you think of nothing now but Triumphs Lively and evident demonstration not to be contradicted by reason is like the Phenix much talked of but seldom seen Most men when they see a man strip up his sleeves and make too large promises of fair dealing do suspect jugling No man proclameth in the Market that he hath rotten wares to sell And therefore we must be careful notwithstanding your great promises to keep well Epicharmus his Jewel Remember to distrust By your permission your glistering demonstration is a very counterfeit not so valuable as a Bristol Diamond when it comes to be examined by the wheel Sometimes nothing is more necessary than Reformation Never was house so well builded that now and then needed not reparation Never Garden so well planted but must sometimes be weeded Never any order so well instituted but in long tract of time there will be a bending and declining from its Primitive perfection and a necessiâ—…y of reducing it to its first principles Are your Houses of Religion which are Reformed therefore the less Religious Why then did all the Princes and Common-wealths in Europe Yea the Fathers themselves in the Council of Trent cry out so often so earnestly for a Reformation yet were forced to content themselves with a vain shadow for the substance as Ixion embraced a Cloud for Juno or Children are often stilled with an empty bottle But Reformation is not agreable to all persons Judas loved not an Audit because he kept the Bag. Dull Lethargick people had rather sleep to death than to be awaked and mad phrenetick Bigots are apt to beat the Chirurgion that would bind up their wounds but none are so a verse from Reformation as the Court of Rome where the very name is more formidable than Hannibal at the Gates yea than all the five terrible things No mervail they are afraid to have their Oranges squeesed to their hands if they were infallible as they pretend there was no need of a Reformation we wish they were but we see they are not On the other side it cannot be denyed that Reformation when it is unseasonable or inordinate or excessive may do more hurt than good when Reformers want just Authority or due information or have sinister ends or where the remedy may be of worse consequence than the abuse or where men run out of one extreme into another therefore it is a rule in prudence Not to remove an ill custom when it is well setled unless it
given us such assurance of his love or done so much for us as Christ. No Saint is so willing or able to help us as Christ. And secondly we have no command from God to invocate them So much your own Authors do confess and give this reason for it Lest the Gentiles being converted should belâ—…eve that they were drawn back again to the worship of the Creature But we have another command Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will hear thee We have no promise to be heard when we do invocate them But we have another promise Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name ye shall receive it We have no example in holy Scripture of any that did invocate them but rather the contrary See thou do it not I am thy fellow-servant worship God We have no cerâ—…ainty that they do hear our particular prayers especially mental prayers yea a thousand prayers poured out at one Instant in several parts of the world We know what your men say of the gâ—…ass of the Trinity and of extraordinary Revelations But these are bold conjectures without any certainty and inconsistent the one with the other We do sometimes meet in Antient Authors with the Intercesfion of Saints in General which we also acknowledge Or an oblique invocation of them as you term it that is a prayer directed to God that he will hear the intercession of the Saints for us which we do not condemn Or a wish or a Rhetorical Apostrophe or perhaps something more in some single Antient Author But for an Ordinary Invocation in particular necessities and much more for publick Invocation in the Liturgies of the Church we meet not with it for the first six hundred years or thereabouts All which time and afterwards also the common principles and tradition of the Church were against it So far were they from obtruding it as a necessary fundamental Article of Christian Religion It is a common fault of your wriâ—…ers alwaies to couple Prayer for the Dead and Purgatory together as if the one did necessâ—…rily suppose or imply the other In whose steps you tread Prayer for the Dead hath often proceeded upon mistaken grounds often from true grounds both inconsistent with your Purgatory Many have held an Opinion that though the souls were not extinguished at the time of their separation from the body yet they did lye in secret reâ—…eptacles in a profound or dead sleep untill the Resurâ—…ection doing nothing suffering nothing in the mean time but onely the delay of their glory Others held that all must pass through the fire of Conflagration at the day of judgement These opinions were inconsistent with your Purgatory yet all these upon these very grounds used Prayer for the Dead Others called the merâ—…ifull Doctors held that the very pains of Hell might be lessened by the prayer of the living Such a prayer is that which we meet with in your own Missal O King of Glory deliver the souls of all the faithfull deceased from the pains of Hell from the deep Lake from the mouth of the Lion that is the Devil that the bottomless pit of Hell do not swallow them up A man may lawfully pray for that which is certain if it be to come but one cannot lawfully pray for that which is past The souls which are in Purgatory by your learning are past the fear of Hell Nor can this petition be any waiâ—…s so wrested as to become appliable to the hour of death This prayer is not for the man but for the soul separated nor for the soul of a sick man or a dying man but for the souls of mâ—…n actually deceased Certainly this prayer must have reference either to the sleeping of the souls or to the pains of Hell To deliverance out of Purgatory it can have no relation Neither are you abâ—…e to produce any one prayer publick or private neither any one indulgence to that purpose for the delivery of any one soul out of Purgatory in all the Primitive times or out of their own antient Missals or Records Such are the Innovations which you would impose upon us as Articles of Faith which the greatest part of the Catholick Church never received untill this day Moreover though the sins of the faithfull be privately and particularly remitted at the day of death yet the publick promulgation of their pardon at the day of judgement is to come Though their â—…ouls be alwaies in an estate of blessedness â—…yet they want the consummation of this blessedness extensively at least untill the body be re-united unto the soul and as it is piously and probably believed intensively also that the soul hath not yet so full and clear a vision of God as it shall have hereafter Then what forbids Christians to pray for this publick acquittal for this Consummation of blessedness So we do pray as often as we say thy Kingdome come or come Lord Jesus come quickly Our Church is yet plainer That we with this our Brother and all other departed in the faith of thy holy name may have our perfect Consummation of blessedness in thy everlasting Kingâ—…me This is far enough from your more gainfull prayers for the dead to deliver them out of Purgatory Lastly concerning the Authority of the Pope It is he himself that hath renounced his lawfull Patriarchal Authority And if we should offer it him at this day he would disdain it VVe have onely freed our selves from his tyrannical usurped Authority But upon what terms upon what grounds how far and with what intention we have separated our selves or rather have suffered our selves to be separated from the Church of Rome you may find if you pâ—…ease in the Treatise of Schism I cannot choose but wonder to see you cite St. Cyprian against us in this case who separated himself from you as well as we in the daies of a much better Bishop than we and upon much weaker grounds than we and published his dissent to the world in two African Councils He liked not the swelling Title of Bishop of Bishops nor that one Bishop should tyrannically terrifie another into â—…edience No more do we He gave a primacy or principality of order to the Chair of St. Peter as Principium unit at is so do we But he believed that every Bishop had an equall share of Episcopal power so do we He provided a part as he thought fit in a Provincial Council for his own safety and the safâ—…ty of his Flock so did we He writ to your great Bishop as to his Brother and Collegue and dared to reprehend him for receiving but a Letter from such as had been â—…ensured by the African Bishops In Saint Cyprians sense you are the Beam that have separated you selves from the body of the Sun you are the Bough that is lopped from the Tree you are the stream which is divided from the Fountain It is you principally you that have divided
make it an easy worke to effect which there needs no Disputation but only to behold the Hereticall Genius of our Reformation which is sufficiently condemned by it self if men will onely take the pains to compare the Fundamentall Principles thereof with the Consequences Great Houses and Forts are builded at an easy charge in Paper When you have consulted with your Aâ—…chitects and Enginiers you will find it to be a work of more difficuâ—…ty And your Adversaâ—…ies Resolution may teach you to your cost what it is to promise to your self suâ—…h an easy Conquest before the Fight and let you see that those golden Mountains which you phantasied have no subsistance but in your Brain and send you home to seek that selfConviction there which you sought to fasten upon others When you are able to prove your Universal Monarchy your new Cannon of Faith your new Treasury of the Church your new Roman Purgatory whereof the Pope keeps the Keyes your Image worship your Common-Praiers in 〈◊〉 toung unknown your deteining of the Cup from the Laity in the publike Administration of the Sacrament and the rest os your new Câ—…eed out of the four first General Councils or the Universal Tradition of the Church in those daies either as principles or Fundamental Truths which you affirm or so much as ordinary points of Faith which we deny we will yield our selves to be guilty both of Contradiction and Schism Untill you are able to make these Innovations good it were best for you to be silent and leave your vaporing Desparate undertakings do easily forseit a mans Reputation Now are we come to the most specious piece of your whole Epistle that is the Motion or proposition of a Conference by Authority of the King of France at the instance of the King of great Britain before the Arch-Bishop of Paris and his Coadjutor between some of your Roman Catholike Doctors and the Ministers of the Reformed Church at Paris whom you do deservedly commend â—…or their sufficiency and Zeal You further suppose that the Ministers of the Reformed Church will accept of such a Disputation or by their Tergiversation betray the weakness of their Cause And you conclude confidently beyond â—…upposition that they will be conâ—…uted and convicted and that their conversion or conviction will afford sufficient ground to the King of Great Britain to embrace the Communion of the Roman Catholike Church And that his conversion will reduce all conscientious Protestants to Unity and due obedience I will contract your larger Palm to a Fist. If the King of Great Britain desire a solemn Conference the King of France will enjoyn it If he enjoyn it the Ministers will accept it It they do accept they are sure to be convicted If they be convicted the King of Great Britain will change his Religion If he 〈◊〉 his Religion all conscientious Pâ—…nts will be reduced And all this 〈◊〉 be done not by the old way of Dâ—…ting No take heed of that the burnt Child dreads the fire But by a proper new way of refuting old Protestant Principles by new Independent Practises Why was this Remedy found out no sooner This might have eased the Cardinals in their Consultations about propagating the Faith This might have saved Cardinal Allen all his Machiavillian Instructions to his English Emissaries This may in a short time â—…vrne the Inquisitors out of their employment for want of an Object and not leave such a thing as Hereticall pravity in the World How must men praise your Fortune and applaud your Invention But stay the second thoughts are wiser what is this Chain supposed to be of Adamant should prove a rope of Sand And so it is I have seen a Sorites disgraced and hissed out of the Schools for drawing but one lame leg after it this is foundred of all four from the begining to the end there is nothing in it but future Contingents which are known only to God noâ—… one Grain of necessary Truth First Sir be not angry if a man take away the subject of your whole discourse It is but your officiousness the King desires no such Conâ—…erence Let them desire Conferences who waver in their Faith All these blustering Stormes have radicated him deeper in his Religion And chiefly that which you make the chiefest motive to his Apostating the Martirdom of his Royall Father and an hereditary love to that Church which he hath 〈◊〉 with his Blood Secondly if his Majesty should incline to such a Conference do you think he would desert the English Clergy who have forsaken their Country their Friends their Estates out of their Conscience out of their dâ—…ty to God and their Soveraign who understand the constitution oâ—… the English Church much better than your self or any Forrainers how susficent soever and cast himselâ—… wholy upon Strangers whose Reformation you say is different from that of England in the points of Episcopacy Liturgy and the Ceremonies of the Church Say what was the Reason of this gross Omission were you afraid of that Image of the Church as you call it in a sleighting manner which they retained Oâ—… did you not think any of the English Nation worthy to bear your Books at a Conference It hath been otherwise heretofore and you will find it otherwise now when you come to prove it I know not whether England hath been more fortunate or unfortunate since the Reformation in breeding as many able Pâ—…lemique Writers on both sides as any Nation in Europe Stapleton Harding Parsons Sanders Reynolds Bishop c. for the Roman Church Jewell Andrews Abbot Lawd White Field Montague Reynolds Whitaker c. for the English Church I forbear to name those that are living and many mo e who come not short of these if they had pleased to communicate their Talents to the World This is such a câ—…ntumely that 〈◊〉 upon the Nation and you must be contented to be told of it Thirdly how are you sure that the King of France and his Counsell would give way to such a publike Conference Private Insinuations use to prevail much when a man may Lavere tack to and again to compass his Ends. Auâ—…hority or the Sword may put an end â—…o Controversies But publike Conferences for the most part do but start new Qâ—…estions and revive old forgotten Animosities What were the Donatists the better for the Collation at Carthage The Mind of a man is generous and where it looks for Opposition it fortifies it self against it Urban the Eighth was the wisest Pope you have had of late who by his Moderation and Curtesie cooled much of that Heat which the violence of his Predecessors had raised against the Court of Rome The mild beaâ—…es of the Sun were more prevalent than the blustring Blasts of the North Wind. Multiplying of Words more commonly engenders strite than peace Fourthly upon what Grounds are you so confident that the Ministers of the Reformed Church would admit of such a publike
uncertain or fallible rule the more dangerous is the error So our right foundation purgeth away our error in superstruction And your wrong foundation lessens the value of your truths and doubles the guilt of your errors I will by your leave requite your demonstration and turn the mouths of your own Canoâ—…s against your self That Church which hath changed the Apostolical Creed the Apostolical Succession the Apostolical Regiment and the Apostolical Communion is no Apostolical Orthodox or Catholick Church But the Church of Rome hath changed the Apostolical Creed the Apostolical Succession the Apostolical Regiment and the Apostolical Communion Therefore the Church of Rome is no Apostolical Orthodox or Catholick Church They have changed the Apostolical Creed by making a new Creed wherein are many things inserted that hold no Analogie with the old Apostles Creed The Apostolical Succession by ingrossing the whole succession to Rome and making all other Bishops to be but the Popes Vicars and Substitutes as to their Jurisdiction The Apostolical Regiment by erecting a visible and Universal Monarchy in the Church And lastly the Apostolical Communion by excommunicating three parts of the holy Catholick Apostolick Church Again That Church which resolves its Faith not into divine Revelation and Authority but into Humane infallibility or the Infallibilitie of the present Church without knowing or according what that present Church is whether the Virtual or the representative or the essential Church or a body compounded of some of these hath no true faith But the Church of Rome resolves its Faith not into divine Revelation and Authority but into the Infallibility of the present Church not knowing or not according what that present Church is whether the Virtual Church that is the Pope or the Representative Church that is a general Council or the Essential Church that is the Church of Bâ—…lievers diffused over the world or a body compounded of some of these that is the Pope and a General or Provincial Council Therefore the Church of Rome hath not true faith The greater number of your Writers is for the Pope that this infallibility is fixed to his Chair But of all other Judgements that is most fallible and uncertain for if Simony make a Nullity in a Papal Election we have great reason to doubt that that Chà ir hath not been filled by a right Pope these last hundred years These are no other but your own Mediums Such luck you have with your irrefragable demonstrations In case his Majesty will turn Roman Catholick you promise him restitution to his Kingdoms Great undertakers are seldom good performers when you are making your Proselytes you promise them golden Mountains but when the work is done you deal with them as he did with his Saint who promised a Candle as big as his Mast and offered one no bigger than his finger Do you however think it reason that any man should change his Religion for temporal respects though it were for a Kingdom Jeroboam did so you may remember what was the success of it You propose this as the readiest means to restore him Others who penetrate deeper into the true state of his affairs look upon it as the readiest way to ruin his hopes by the alienation of his friends by the confirmation of his foes and in some sort the justification of their former feigned fears Do you think all Roman Catholick Princes desire this change as earnestly as your self Give them leave first to consult with their particular Interests A common Interest prevails more with Confederates than a common faith The Sword distinguâ—…sheth not between Protestants and Papists But what is the ground of this your great Confidence no less than Scripture Seek ye first the kingdom of God and the righteousness of it and all other things shall be added unto you You say the word of God deceives no man True but you may deteive your self out of the word of God The Conclusion alwaies follows the weaker part such as this are commonly your mistaken grounds when they come to be examined The text saith Seek the kingdom of God You would have his Majesty deseâ—…t the kingdom of God The promise is of all things necessary or convenient you will be your own Carver and oblige God Almighty to Kingdoms and particular conditions The promise is made as all tempral promises are with an implicite exception of the Cross unâ—…ess God see it to be otherwise more expedient for us He that denies us gold and gives us patience and other graces more precious than Gold that denies a temporal Kingdom to give an eternal doth not wrong us Tâ—…s was out of your head That the Scots had an antienter Obligation to fidelity towards his Majesty and that Royal Family than the English is a truth not to be doubted or disputed of I think I may safely adde than any Nation in Europe or in tâ—…e known world to their Prince his Majesty being the hundred and tenth Monarch of that line that hath swayed the Scepter of that Kingdom successively The more the pitty that a few treacherous Shebas and a pack of bawling seditious Orators under the vizard and shadow of pure Religion to the extreme scandal of all honest professors should be able to overturn such an antient fabrick and radicated succession of Kingly Government But take heed Sir how you beleeve that any ingagement of the Presbyterian faction in Scotland proceeded either from conscience or gratitude or fidelity or aimed at the resetling of his Majesty upon his throne No no their hearts were double their treaties on their parts were meer treacheries from the beginning I mean not any of those many loyal patriots that never bowed their knees to Baal-berith the God of the Covenant in that Nation Nor yet any of those serious converts that no sooner discoveâ—…ed the leger de main of a company of canting impostors but they sought to stop the stream of Schism and sedition with the hazard of their own lives and estates Nor even those whose eyes were longer held with the Spirit of slumber by some stronger spels of disciplinarian charmers but did yet later open their eyes and come in to do their duties at the sixth or ninth hour All these are expunged by me out of this black Roll. Let their posterities enjoy the fruit of their respective loyalties And let their memories be daily more and more blessed But I mean the obstinate Ring-leaders and Standard-bearers of the Presbyterian Covenant of both robes and the setters up of that mishapen Idol It is from these I say that no help or hope could in reason be expected They who sold the Father and such a Father were not likely to proove loyal to the Son They who hanged up one of the most antient Gentlemen in Europe the gallant Marquâ—…ss of Montrose being then their lawful Vice-roy like a dog in such base and barbarous manner together with his Maâ—…esties Commission to the publike dishonour of
Euch. c. 29. quodam modo â—…q p. 3. 1. 76. Aâ—…t 7. Deut. 29. 29. Durand Against multiplying of questions and Controversies The occasion of this Discourse P. 37. The Authors indiscretion To no pur pose The King is already a better Catholick than himself Discursus modestus Jesuitarâ—… p. 13. Watsons quodlib l. 2. Art 4. Par. 2. Act. 6. c. 7. Not lawful to add to the old Creed Concil Flo. Sess. 10. prof fil in bulla pii quarti What are additions to the Creed and what are onely explications Aq. 2. 2. q. 1. Art 10. Gal. 1. 〈◊〉 P. 4. Crosses arâ—… not alwaieâ—… punishments buâ—… sometimes corrections or trials Which the Author presently forgets P. 〈◊〉 P. 14. Joh. 9. 2. Better grounds of his Majesties sufferings than those of the Author Ps. 128. 3. The Authors rash censure upon the Archbishop of Cant. Sovereigns may be taken away for the sinâ—… of their Subjects Pro. 28. 2. Not above two or three of our Princes called Heads of the Church That is onely political heads 1 Sam. 15. 17. Art 37. Expos. Paraphâ—… art Conf. Ang. Aâ—…t 37. The Chrâ—…stian Emperours political heads The old Kings of England political heads See Auâ—…horities for all these in Cawdries Case in Judge Cook his Reports Neâ—…ther K. Charles K. James nor Q. Elizabeth stiled heads of the Church The Authâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pope to leave that vain Title Hatred of Episcâ—…pacy not â—…he true â—…ause â—…hy â—…he 〈◊〉 persecuâ—…d thâ—… King The true causes of the troubles in England P. 11. We are onely accused of Schism Presbyterians and Brownists have been Romes bst friends P. 16. P. 19. P. 14. P. 17. L. Cant. 1643. C. I. The English Reformation not Calvinisticâ—… P. 9. P. 10. M. Thâ—… Sq. P. 19. Reformaâ—…n is someâ—…imes necessary Reformation not agreeable to all persons especially the Court of Rome There is danger in Reformation The right rule of Reformation Our Reformation not the ruin of Faith Church or Common-wealth Our 〈◊〉 supposed Maxim The Catholick Church cannot come to ruin or bâ—… guilty oâ—… Idolatry or Tyranny Chrys. â—…holick â—…nd Roman not Convertibles Rev. 2. 5. The Roman Church it self not absolutely faln to ruin Whether the Roman Church be guilty of Idolatry The Roman Court most Tyrannical Our second supâ—…osed Maxim P. 21. P. 26. Much mistaken The Scripture 〈◊〉 rule of supernatural truths L. 4. de verbo Dei cap. 11. Who are the proper expounders of Scripture and how far 1 Thes. 5. 21. The manner of expounding Scripture This is conformable to the doctrine and practice of our Church Can. 1603. Can. 49. Seâ—… the Pâ—…eface to the Bishops Bible Can. 34. Can. 1571. tit Concionatores Can. 1631. Can. 53. Art 20. Can. 1603. Can. 139. The English Church an enemy to upstart not to Apostolical traditions P. 24. Of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Heb. 10. 14 In the Collects for these Feasts Of Transubstantiation Of 7. Sacraments Anno 1439 1528 1547. Jam. 5. 14. Of Justification Rom. 8. 33. Of Merits 1 Tim. 4. 8 Disert Eecles lib. 2. c. 4. Of Invocation of Saints S. Clara â—…robl 37. â—…x Horantio Rev. 22. 9. Of Prayer for the Dead with Purgatory Tarâ—… The Authority of the Pope P. 27. Whether humane Laws bind the Conscience P. 34. 69. The Author a little Enthusiastical The Romanists râ—…quire submission to their Church as necessary to salvation Yet cannot agree anâ—…ong themselves what this Roman Church is The English Chuâ—…ch not perished Gen. 42. 13. P. 42. The Authors vain Dreams P. 43. 44. P. 47. c. His vainer Proposition of a consâ—…quence The King of England desires no such Conference If he should he had neither Reason nor need to desert his English Clergy Such a Conference not â—…t to be granted by â—…he King of France Nor to be accepted by the Min sters of the Reformed Church Nor could any such Success be expected from it The ' Authors importinence and saucinese with the King His Pen over runâ—… his Wit His improper choise of a Pation for his Treatise Serm. Sâ—…xon in 〈◊〉 Paschat P. 62. P. 222. His unâ—…kilfulnes or his unfortunateâ—…ess in his Demonstrations The great advantage of the Protestant above the Roman Catholick in the choice of his foundation P. 68. His Majesties Apostacy is not the way to his restitution 1 〈◊〉 1. 7. P. 70. The obligation of the Scots to his Majâ—…sty the greatest of any Subjects in the known world Their Treachery The loyal Scots excepted The disloyal Scoâ—…s deciphered No hope from that party until they â—…epent P. 73. God must not be limited to time or means of deliverance P. 74. 75. His Majesties escape ouâ—… of England almost miraculous And seems to presage that God hath something to do with him P. 76. Prayers and tears the 〈◊〉 Aâ—…ms of women Especially of Mothers Yet not so powerful as his Fathers intercession now in Heaven P. 77. The Authors instance of Henry the great not pertinent Pluâ—…rch P. 77. 78. The just commendation of K. Charls It is gross impâ—…dence to feign that he dyed a Roman Catholick The Authors confession confutes his demonstration that Protestants have no faith His intelligence as good in Heaven 〈◊〉 upon Earth Aug. de â—…ra pro mortâ—…s c. 15. No faith sufficient armour against bloody attempts The Author much fall'n from his former charity in seeking the reunion of Christendome P. 204. The way to a generâ—…l Accommodation