Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A25960
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The arts and pernicious designs of Rome wherein is shewn what are the aims of the Jesuits & friers, and what means they use to obtain them, to the prejudice of this nation and the future involving it in misery, together with some proposals to prevent the same / by a person of their own communion, who turned romanist about thirty years since.
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N. N.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing A3895; ESTC R16343
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30,211
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46
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from them shewing as I verily perswade my self a most wicked and hostile resolution to be taken up by the Consistory of reducing England if ever they shall be able to the Communion of the Catholick Church and obedience of the Apostolick Sea not by any fair proper Christian and Apostolick means or endeavour but by Fire and Sword Compulsion and Violence and with all the Miseries and Calamities that War and Foreign Tyranny can bring upon us unless God of his Goodness in mercy prevent it Proposition XXII That to prepare the way to this work and to facilitate the bringing about their design it is their business at present as much as may be to keep up the Divisions that are amongst us in point of Religion and by all arts and means to obstruct and hinder a perfect reconciliation and a firm Union betwixt his Majesty and the generality of his Subjects that so all Parties remaining still in the old Fewd and at distance one with another and all likewise more or less in disgust and disaffected to the Royal Government and Interest we may all for want of Union amongst our selves be the more easily subdued when time shall be to the yoke they are making for us Proposition XXIII That therefore to prevent the hideous mischief that will certainly first or last follow and fall upon this Nation through the wicked practices and industry of this Party if timely care be not taken to the contrary and to disappoint the devilish designs of those who machinate and project such misery to us the only and most effectual means under God would be if all True hearted English of what Judgment soever in point of Religion could be perswaded timely to unite both Counsels and Affections for one of These without the other will do but little good and to be jealous of every thing or motion that tends to disunion either of the Subjects from their Sovereign or of the People amongst themselves Proposition XXIV That this Union can never be permanent and cordial unless some convenient Liberty of Conscience and Free-exercise of Religion at least in private be granted to all Dissenting Parties whatsoever without exception of any that profess themselves Christians Proposition XXV That this Liberty granted and a perfect Union of all English hearts following upon it would with God's help effectually secure us against all evil practices whatsoever of this nature and more disappoint the designs and counsels of our enemies than any other courses or counsels that can be taken by us and it being likewise a thing so consonant to the common grounds of Protestant Religion it cannot well be opposed by any Protestant nor would be I verily believe if once well set on foot by any Persons but such as care not how much they Sacrifice the Peace and publick Welfare of the Nation to their own Pride Passion and worldly Interests Proposition XXVI That therefore the deposing of all animosities rancour and ill-will against one another upon the account of any differences in Religion is a thing to be wish'd pray'd for and endeavour'd by all sorts of People that pretend to Religion as a thing far more consonant to Christian Piety and Charity and most conducing to our present and future safety and espâ—cially that great prejudice which too many English are apt to have against those of the Roman Catholick perswasion if they rightly consider'd the matter both Charity and Prudence would perswade them at length to lay it aside seeing it hath hitherto serv'd for nothing nor ever will serve to any other effect than to be a plausible and easie means for Ambition Covetousness Cruelty and Hyocrisie to advance themselves into Power and to exercise their Tyranny over us A Truth which this Nation hath been taught by so late and sad experience that we cannot think many Persons will be found in the whole Nation to dispure it Proposition XXVII Wherefore verily judging it an Expedient most fit for the general and secure Settlement of the Nation in Peace and Safety I shall take the boldness to wish That Liberty of Conscience to all Christians professing Faith in God and in our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Scriptures were by Act of Parliament made such a Fundamental Law of State as that it should be Treason or a Premunire Unpardonable for any Person in time to come whether in Parliament or out of Parliament to speak against it or to wish motion or argue for the Repeal of it Proposition XXVIII That in such case it would be the duty of us Catholicks in order to our having the benefit of the general Indulgence and Liberty aforesaid to be willing and ready at all times to give the State sufficient assurance of our Fidelity and Loyal Affections to his Majesty and the present Government and of our having nothing to do with the Pope Consistory or Court of Rome in any thing relating to Temporal Affairs or the Government of State but only in Things Spiritual and pertaining to our Faith and Conscience Proposition XXIX That though the Oath of Allegiance already by Law established be in it self both sufficient and fit for this purpose and the taking thereof by us Catholicks undoubtedly consistent with the Catholick Faith which we profess and with the duty of good Subjects yet because some cavillatory Objections are made against it and the pope upon mis-information hath by some private Breves forbidden the taking of it to prevent all scrupling and dispute about the matter it might be wish'd perhaps that a new Oath might be fram'd comprehending as particularly and expresly all things pertaining to Temporal Allegiance as the Wisdom of Parliament should think fit to prescribe But withall by an express Proviso declaring that notwithstanding any words in the Oath we are left free to acknowledge and give that respect to the Pope as chief Pastour of the Church which according to the Principles of our Faith is known to belong to him that is in matters meerly spiritual and pertaining to Faith and not in Temporal Affairs wherein his Authority Jure Divino is nothing at all out of his own Territories And as for that which he claims Jure Ecclesiastico by vertue of some Canons or by Prescription Custom c. we doubt not but these being all Titles of Humane Right meerly the power grounded upon them may upon just reasons be limited suspended or abrogated by the Sovereign Authority of each Nation Kingdom or State respectively for it self and as de facto in this and divers other Christian Kingdoms and Countries even of the Roman Catholick Communion it is abrogated or not acknowledg'd Proposition XXX That as the World goes and the Inclinations of People generally are the Parliament we think needs not much to fear that upon granting Liberty of Conscience to Roman Catholicks as well as others their Numbers should much encrease in the Kingdom and though they should encrease yet the State being assured of their Allegiance and Fidelity what harm
the inviolate Conservation of all his Princely Rights Titles Dignities and Prerogatives to him and his Heirs and for the frustrating of all those desperate and destructive Counsels and Practices which are said to be carried on for the disinheriting of his Royal Highness because of his Religion than which design nothing ever was or can be thought of more Unadvised and tending to the Nations ruine or that doth more evidently proclaim it self to be the very counsel and project of those our deadly enemies here complain'd of who have by some of their hired or brib'd Agents amongst us clancularly and underhand procur'd it to be set on foot on purpose to involve us in endless and inextricable troubles contentions and mischiefs following upon them from which God in mercy deliver Us and cause us to see I say not only the iniquity injustice illegalness of the Project which are apparent to every eye but the manifest impossibility of ever carrying it on and maintaining it against so many and great oppositions both domestick and foreign as will undoubtedly appear against it when the resolution shall be once taken and form'd into an Act of State Which that it may never be nor the traiterous phansie ever be thought worthy of motion but rather be look'd upon with horrour and rejected with deserv'd indignation by all the good Members of our ensuing Great Council the Parliament as also by all Good Patriots Lovers and Well-wishers of their Countries publick and common Good Peace Tranquillity Quiet more than their own Wills private Passions Interests and Concerns is and ever shall be as both Duty and Conscience binds the daily and most earnest Prayer of Good Reader Your loving Country-man and most hearty Well-wisher of the Best Things to You from God August 25th 1679. N. N. A NOTE concerning ERRATA THe PRESS hath done its part so well in this little Thing that unless a diligent perusal deceives me much there is not to be observ'd one fault worth correcting save only in the word Hyocrisy pag. 17. Prop. 26. line 11. for which if thou readest Hypocrisy I have no more to say but Cave Vale Lector The SENTIMENTS of N. N. Touching the ROMAN Consistories DESIGNS and PRACTICES c. The First Proposition THat though the Roman Catholick Religion in the Principals thereof Viz. so much as is grounded upon Christian Tradition the Vniversal practice of the Church or the Authority and Definition of General Councils be in my perswasion undoubtedly the True Christian Religion and in all the parts thereof Good and most Acceptable to God and consequently also most worthy to be embraced and professed by all Christians Yet through the infirmities of Men and the Vicious corruption of Times hugely declining in point of Judgment as well as Manners from primitive and pristine integrity to my extream grief and scandal I find it to be here in England of all others generally speaking an affair or business most Vnfaithfully and Vnworthily managed by Those who in vertue of their respective Callings and Offices in the Church of God have the chief management thereof in their hands Note ☞ The ingenuous Protestant Reader will not I hope be offended that such a Proposition as this is set in the Front of my Sentiments it being neither by way of Challenge nor out of any private confidence or presumption set down but meerly and simply as a profession of my present Belief which being as I said sincerely Roman Catholick I thought it not Vnnecessary to intimate so much briefly in this place as well to prevent Scandal-taking by some who may be too apt to interpret things to the worst as to shew that though in the following Propositions I be to mention with great dislike many Things of private opinion and practice amongst Roman Catholicks yet I do it with a clear conscience and without any the least prejudice to that Faith which I hold in common with them upon the grounds mentioned in the said Proposition Viz. Christian Tradition the Authority of General Councils c. Proposition II. Who are meant by those who have the chief management of Catholick Religion in England is sufficiently known therefore I say in the second place That neither the Consistory of Rome nor their principal Correspondents which as I said are the Jesuits Monks and Friers with some few others of the English and Irish Clergy pension'd by procurement and help of the Jesuits c. and therefore wholly dependent on them do at all seriously desire any general advancement or liberty of Catholick Religion nor any General Conversion of the People of this Nation from the Errours of Protestantism But only make use of that pretence for their reputation sake and the better to carry on their own private and more intended Designs which are Ambition Honour with Ease Emolument Power Authority and the like Proposition III. That if any credit may be given to Persons of their Quality and to their frequent publick and most confident Asseverations it cannot be doubted but at the time of his Sacred Majestie 's most happy and long-wish'd for Restauration Things were at such a pass and the Cause of Catholicks as well as other Dissenters so favourably look'd upon by all forts of People that had Those who pretend to the chief care of Religion as well here at home as abroad seriously and in good earnest desir'd the advancement thereof it might have been procur'd even by an Act of Parliament in such good measure as that it should have been free for them I mean for all Catholicks of Loyal and moderate Principles privately to have exercised their Priestly Function in all the parts of it without danger or molestation though not perhaps to an absolute repeal of all the Statutes against it or them Now what should move both the one and the other of these Parties so deeply and hernously to prevaricate in a cause so worthy of their best endeavours and which they will seem so much to own must be left to private conjecture which yet if we consider things well it will not be hard to make Proposition IV. I say therefore that one principal Reason why Those here in England did not effectually endeavour this liberty of Religion when time was so as they might and ought to have done was without doubt in great part their Vnwillingness to be oblig'd to the duty of Preaching which would then have been generally expected of them and whereto they have so little Affection their Sufficiency I shall not question knowing it by experience in some and not doubting it in others that in all the English Orders Viz. of Jesuits Monks and Friers there were not Three Persons to be found when enquiry was made about it by some that had Authority willing or inclinable to undertake that most necessary charge in any constant manner Not to mention their like Unwillingness to conform to that more strict regularity of life manners habit and conversation which the Gospel