Religion as if they were so many Articles of our Faith or at least were the common doctrines of our Churches They will not give us leave to do so by them when yet we have much more reason for it For 1. They teach the People that they are bound to believe as their Teachers bid them and they reproach us for confessing that we are not in all points of Doctrine infallible And yet we still confess this fallibility and say in plain terms that we know but in part 2. Divers of their particular Doctors that we use to cite are such as the Pope hath Canonized for Saints and they tell us that in Canonizing he is infallible And therefore an Infallibly Canonized Saint must not be supposed to err in a point of faith 3. They boast so much of Unity and Concent among themselves that we may the better cite particular Doctors And yet we think our selves bound to stand to their own Law in this and to charge nothing on them as the faith of their Church but what their Church doth own and therefore while they refuse to stand to particular Doctors we will not urge them to it for its good reason that all men should be the Professors of their own belief But what reason is there then that we may not have the same measure from them which they expect We profess to take no man nor Council of men for the Lords of our faith but for the Helpers of our faith They tell us that they know not where to find our Religion We tell them it is entirely in the written word of God and that we know no other Infallible Rule because we know no other Divine Revelation supposing what in Nature is revealed They tell us that All Hereticks do pretend to Scripture and therefore this cannot be the Test of our Religion I answer that so all cavillers and defrauders and extortioners may pretend to the Law of the Land to undo poor men by quirks of wit or tire them with vexatious suits And yet it follows not that we must seek another Rule of Right and take the Law for insufficient And what if Hereticks pretend to Tradition to General Councils and the Decretals of the Popes as you know how frequently they do Will you yield therefore that these are an infufficient Rule or Test of your own Religion Open your eyes and judge as you would be judged But I will come to some of the particular Opinions which they charge us with And because I know not a more weighty renowned Champion of their cause then Cardinal Richleiu then Bishop of Lucion I shall take notice of his twelve great errors which he so vehemently chargeth on the Reformed Churches as contrary to the Scripture And sure I shall do much to make clean our Churches if I fully wipe off all the pretended blots of errour that so wise a man could charge upon them In his Defens contra script 4. Ministr Charenton cap. 2. pag. 12. c. he begins his enumeration thus 1. The Scripture saith Jam. 2. that a man is not Justified by Faith only but you say that he is Justified by Faith alone and by Faith only which is found in no place of Scripture and do you not then resist the Scriptures Answ 1. We believe both the words of Paul and James that a man is Justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law and saved through Faith not of works lest any man should boast Rom. 3. 28. Ephes 2. 8 9. and also that a man is Justified by works and not by Faith only Jam. 2 Did not this Learned man know that we believe all the Bible why then should he charge us with denying that which we retain and publickly read in our Churches as the word of God Did he think that we set so much by Luthers or any mans writings as by the Bible 2. But if he can prove that we understand not these words aright he should have evinced it better then by the use of the words Faith alone For our Churches by Faith alone do profess openly to mean no more then Paul doth by Faith without works And can they find fault with Paul 3. Indeed we are not all agreed upon the fittest Notion of the interest of Faith and works in our Justification but our difference is more in words and notions then matter of which see my Disput of Justification 4. And. why do you not quarrel with your own Cardinal Contarenus de Justif and others of your own that joyn with us in the doctrine of Justification His second Accusation is The Scripture saith that we can Love God with all the heart you say that no man can Love God with all the heart which is no where read in Scripture and yet do you not resist the Scriptures Answ 1. Unprofitable Confusion we distinguish between Loving God with all the Heart as it signifieth the sincerity and predominant degree of Love and so every true Christian hath it and as it signifieth some extraordinary degree above this meer sincerity and so some eminent stronger Christians have it and as it signifieth the highest Degree which is our duty and which excludeth all sinful imperfection And thus we say that no man actually doth Love God perfectly in this life nor do we think he speaks like a Christian that dare say Lord I Love thee so much that I will not be beholden to thee to forgive the imperfection of my Love or to help me against any sinful imperfection of it Your own Followers whom you admire as the highest Lovers of God do oft lament the imperfections of their Love as M. de Renty for instance in his Life But now if the question be only of the posse and not the act we say that the Potentia naturalis is in all and the Potentia Moralis which is the Habit is in the sanctified but this Moral Power is not perfect it self that is of the highest degree and without any sinful imperfection though yet it hath the perfection of sincerity and in some the perfection of an eminent degree And will not this content you His third Accusation is The Scripture saith that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ with the adjunction of those words that signifie a true Body and Blood you say that it is not Christs Body and Blood but only a figure sign and testimony which the Scripture no where saith Answ 1. The Scripture saith not that it is his Body and Blood substantially or by Transubstantiation And we say not as you feign that it is not his Body and Blood but a figure c. For we say that it is his Body and Blood Sacramentally and Representatively as he that personateth a King on some just account is called a King and as in actions of Investiture and Delivery the delivering of a Key is the delivering of the House and the delivery of a twig and turf is the delivery of the Land and the deliverer
my Lecture-day from Thursday to Friday that I change my Religion or the worship of God These are our great changes Well I will you now hear whether the Papists or we be the greatest Changlings 1. Some just changes they have made themselves that they know well enough are as great as ours It was so common in the antient Church to Pray only standing on every Lords day and not to kneel at all in any part of the worship of that day that it was taken for an universal Tradition and to kneel was taken for a great sin and condemned by General Councils many hundred years after Christ and yet the Church of Rome and other Churches as well as we have cast off this pretended Tradition violated this Decree of General Councils and forsaken this universal Custom of the Church And the Papists receive the Eucharist kneeling for all this Law and Custome In the primitive Church and in Tertullians dayes a Common Feast of the Church was used with the Lords Supper and the Sacrament taken then But now this Custom is also changed It was then the Custom to sing extempore in the Congregation to Gods praise But now Rome it self hath no such Custom It was once the Custom to give Infants the Lords Supper but now Rome it self hath cast off that Custom Once it was a Canon that Bishops must not read the books of Gentiles Concil Carthag 4. which yet Paul made use of and the Papists now do too much value Abundance such changes might be mentioned greater then ours in which we are justified by the Papists themselves 2. But they have yet other kind of changes then these They have changed the very Essence of the Catholick Church in their esteem they have changed the Officers the Doctrine the Discipline the Worship and what not as though they had been born for change to turn all upside down In the Primitive times the Church had no universal Monarch but Christ but they have set up a new universal Monarch at Rome In the primitive times the Catholick Church was the Universality of Christians and they have changed it to be only the subjects of the Pope In the Primitive times Rome was but a particular Church as Jerusalem and other Churches were but they have changed it to be the Mistris of all Churches For many hundred years after Christ the Scripture was taken to be a sufficient Rule of faith but they have changed it to be but part of the Rule In the antient Church all sorts were earnestly exhorted to read or hear and study the Scripture in a known tongue but they have changed this into a desperate restraint proclaiming it the cause of all Heresies In the antient Church the Bread and Wine was the Body and Blood of Christ Representative and Relative but they have changed it into the real Body and Blood Heretofore there was Bread and Wine remaining after the words of Consecration but they have changed so that there remaineth neither Bread nor Wine but the qualities and quantity without the substance and this must be believed because they say it against Scripture and Antiquity and in despight of sense it self In the antient Church the Lords Supper was administred in both kinds bread and wine to all but they have lately changed this into one kind only to the people denying them one half of the Sacrament Of old the Lords Supper was but the Commemoration of the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross and a Sacrament of our Communion with him and his members but now they have changed it into a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the quick and dead and in it they adore a piece of Bread as very God with Divine worship Of old men were taught to make daily confession of sin and beg pardon and when they had done all to confess themselves unprofitable servants but now they are so changed that they pretend not only to be perfect without sin and to Merit by the Condignity of their works with God but to supererogate and be more perfect then innocency could make them by doing more then their duty Of old those things were accounted sins deserving Hell and needing the blood of Christ for pardon which now are changed into venial sins which properly are no sins and deserve no more then temporal punishment Of old the Saints had no proper merits to plead for themselves and now men have some to spare for the buying of souls out of Purgatory Of old the Pastors of the Churches were subject to the Rulers of the Commonwealth even every soul not only for wrath but for Conscience sake was obliged to be subject but now all the Clergy are exempted from secular Judgement and yet the secular power is subject to them for the Pope hath power to depose Princes and dispossess them of their Dominions and put others in their rooms and dissolve the bonds of Oaths and Covenants in which the subjects were obliged to them and to allow men to murder them by stabbing poysoning c. If you do not believe me stay but till I come to it and I shall give you yet some further proof Would you have any more of the Popish Changes Why I might fill a volume with them Should I but recite all the changes they have made in Doctrines and all that they have made in Church Orders and Discipline and Religious Orders and their Discipline and in Worship and Ceremonies I should be over tedious their very Liturgy or Mass-book hath been changed and made by changes such abundance of additions it hath had since the beginning of it What changes Sixtus the fift and Clement the eighth made in their Bibles I told you before as also what changes they have had in the election of their Popes And now I am content that any impartial man be judge whether Papists or the Reformed Churches are the more mutable and unsetled in their Religion and which of them is at the greater certainty firmness and immutability CHAP. XXIV Detect 15. ANother fraud of the Papists which they place not the least of their confidence in is this They perswade the people that our Church and Religion is but new of the other dayes invention and that theirs is the only old Religion And therefore they call upon us to give them a Catalogue of the professors of our Religion in all ages which they pretend we cannot do and ask us where our Church was before Luther To this we shall give them once more a brief but satisfactory answer I. We are so fully assured that the oldest Religion is the best since the date of the Gospell that we are contented that our whole cause do stand or fall by this tryall Let him be esteemed of the true Religion that is of the oldest Religion This is the main difference between us and the Papists We are for no Religion that is not as old as the dayes of the Apostles but they are for the Novelties and Additions of
end the. p. 288. l. 24. for left r. lest p. 297. l. 17. for them r. the. p. 314. r. Paulus 5. p. 356. l. 31. r. hatchets p. 362. l. 28. r. at last p. 365. l. 8. for may r. many l. 33. r. Maldonate p. 397. l. 30. r. the other of l. 32. for parties r. straw p. 409. l. 32. r. in the. l. 36. blot out none p. 422. l. 13. r. presided p. 426. l. 17. blot out of p. 432. l. 33. for had r. had not p. 434. l. 4. for to r. as p. 435. l. 1. r. members p. 433. l. 29. blot out a. p. 452. l. 20. r. But when the. A Key for Catholicks To open the juglings of the Jesuits and satisfie all that are but truly willing to understand whether the cause of the Romane or the Reformed Churches be of God and to leave the Reader utterly unexcusable if after this he will be a Papist CHAP. I. THE thoughts of the divided state of Christians have brought one of the greatest and constantest sadness to my Soul that ever it was acquainted with especially to remember that while we are quarrelling and plotting and writing and fighting against each other so many parts of the world about five of six remain in the Infidelity of Heathenism Judaism or Mahometanism where millions of poor souls do need our help and if all our strength were joyned together for their Illumination and Salvation it would be too little Oh horrible shame to the face of Christendom that the Nations are quietly serving the Devil and the Turk is in possession of so many Countries that once were the Inheritance of Christ and that his Iron yoak is still upon the necks of the persecuted Greeks and that he stands up at our doors in so formidable a posture still ready to devour the rest of the Christian world and yet that instead of combining to resist him and vindicate the cause and people of the Lord we are greedily sucking the blood of one another and tearing in pieces the body of Christ with furious hands and destroying our selves to save the enemy a labour and spending that wit that treasure that labour and that blood to dash our selves in pieces on one another which might be nobly and honestly and happily spent in the cause of God These thoughts provoked me to many an hours consideration How the wounds of the Church might be yet healed And have made it long a principal part of my daily Prayers that the Reconciling Light might shine from Heaven that might in some good measure take up our differences and that God would at last give healing Principles and dispositions unto men especially to Princes and the Pastors of the Church But the more I studied how it might be done the more difficult if not impossible it appear'd and all because of the Romane Tyranny the Vice-Christ or pretended Head of the Church being with them become an essential part of it and the Subjection to him essential to our Christianity it self So that saith Bellarmine de Eccles l. 3. c. 5. No man though he would can be a Subject of Christ that is not subject to the Pope and this with abundance of intolerable corruptions they have fixed by the fancy of their own Infallibility and built upon this foundation a worldly Kingdom and the temporal Riches and Dignity of a numerous Clergy twisting some Princes also into the Interest so that they cannot possibly yield to us in the very principal points of difference unless they will deny the very Essence of their New Christianity and Church and pluck up the foundations which they have so industriously laid and leave men to a suspicion that they are fallible hereafter if they shall confess themselves mistaken in any thing now and unless they will be so admirably self-denying as to let go the temporal advantages which so many thousands of them are interested in And whether so much light may be hoped for in so dark a generation or so much love to God and self-denyal in millions of men so void of self-denyal is easie to conjecture And we cannot in these greatest matters come over to them unless we will flatly betray our Souls and depart from the Unity of the Catholick Church and from the Center of that Unity to unite with another called the Romane Catholick Church in another Center And if we should thus cast away the Truth and Favour of God and sin against our Knowledge and Conscience and so prove men of no Faith or Religion under pretence of desiring a Unity in Faith and Religion yet all would not do the thing intended but we should certainly miss of these very ends which we seek when we had sold the Truth and our Souls to obtain them For there is nothing more certain then that the Christian World will never unite in the Romane Vice-Christ nor agree with them in their Corruptions against plain Scripture Tradition Consent of the ancient Church against the Reason and common sense of Mankind This is not by any wise man to be expected Never did the universal Church or one half of it center to this day in the Romane Soveraignty And why should they hope for that which never yet was done When they had their Primacy of Place to be the Bishop of the first Seat and first of the Patriarcks it made the Pope no more a Soveraign and a Vice-Christ then the King of France is Soveraign to the Duke of Saxony or Bavaria or then the Senior Justice on the Bench is the Soveraign of the rest and yet even this much he never had but from the Romane Empire What claim did he ever lay in his first Usurpations to any Church without those bounds It was the Empire that raised him and the Empire limited his own Usurpations Saith their own Reinerius or whoever else Cont. Waldens Catal. in Biblioth Patr. To. 4. pag 773. The Churches of the Armenians and Aethiopians and Indians and the rest which the Apostles converted are not under the Church of Rome Yea in Gregories days they found the Churches of Brittain and Ireland both strangers and adversaries to their Soveraignty insomuch as they could not procure them to receive their Government nor change so much as the time of Easter for them no nor to have Communion with them at last Anno 614. Laurentius their Arch-Bishop here wrote this Letter with Mellitus and Justus to the Bishops and Abbots in all Scotland that is Ireland While the Sea Apostolick after its manner directed us to preach to the Pagan Nations in these Western parts as in the whole world and we happened to enter this Island called Brittain before we knew them believing that they walked after the manner of the universal Church we reverenced both the Brittains and the Scots in great Reverence of their Sanctity But when we knew the Brittains we thought the Scots were better But we have learnt by Daganus the Bishop in this forementioned Island and by
to doubt whether I have the love of God my self then to conclude all the Christians in the world save the Papists to be the heirs of damnation CHAP. IV. Argum. 2. THat Doctrine is not true nor of God which teacheth men to renounce all Christian Love and Works of Christian Love towards most of the Christians upon earth But so doth the Doctrine of Popery therefore it is not of God If their Error were meerly speculative it were the less but here we see the fruits of it and whither it tends The major Proposition is plainly proved from John 13. 35. By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another Col. 1. 4. It must be a Love to all the Saints 1 Thess 4. 9. But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you for ye your selves are taught of God to love one another This special Love is the Commandment of Christ the new Commandment without this no man can be a Lover of God nor be loved of him as a Member of Christ as you may see 1 John 3. 11 12 14 23. 4. 7 8 11 12 20 21. 2 John 5. John 13. 34. 15. 12 17. 1 Pet. 1. 22. He that loveth not a Christian as a Christian with a special love you may see in these Texts is none of the Sons of God And that the Papists teach men to deny this special Christian Love to most Christians in the world I prove They that teach men to take most true Christians in the world for no true Christians but for Hereticks or ungodly persons that shall be damned do teach them to deny the special love and works of love to most true Christians But thus do the Papists therefore c. How can a man love him as a Christian or a godly man whom he must take to be no Christian or an ungodly man It s true they may yet love them as Creatures and so they must the Devils and they may love them as men and so they must the Turks and Heathens But no man can love him as a member of Christ whom he believes to be no member of Christ but of the Devil And all Papists are bound to this uncharitableness by their Religion even by the Pope and general Council And so as Christ bindeth his servants to Love one another with a special Love so the Pope and Council bind the Papists not to love the most true Christians with a special Christian love they cannot do it without being Hereticks themselves or overthrowing the foundation of Popery And here you have a taste of the Popish Charity when they boast above all things of their Charity I must profess it is their horrible inhumane uncharitableness that seems to me their most enormous crime And also you may see here the extent of their Good works which they so much Glory in He that is bound not to love me as a Christian is bound to do nothing for me as a Christian So that they will not give a cup of cold water to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple unless he be also a Disciple of the Pope nor can they love or relieve Christ in his servants when they are bound to take them as none of his servants and so the special Love and Charity of a Papist extendeth to none but those of their own Sect and such a Charity the Quakers and Anabaptists and Familists have as eminently as they Let them take heed lest they hear In as much as you did it not to one of the least of these you did it not to me CHAP. V. Argum. 3. THat Doctrine which teacheth men to destroy or undo them whom Christ hath bound them to love as Christians and absolveth Subjects from their Allegiance to their Princes and requireth the deposing of them and committing the Government of their Dominions to others because they are judged to be Hereticks by the Pope yea or if they will not destroy and extirpate such as he calleth Hereticks I say this Doctrine is not of God nor such as Christian Princes should smile upon But such is the Doctrine of Popery therefore c. I know that a Paper entituled An explanation of the Roman Catholikes Belief and other the like do seem to renounce the opinion of breaking faith with Hereticks and of promise breaking with Magistrates It seems they think they owe no more obedience to their Magistrates then they promise But as I refer the Reader to what King James and his defenders have said on this point besides many more so I shall now give you but the words of one of their own approved General Council 12. the fourth at the Laterane under Innocent 3. as Binnius and others of their own record it In the first Chapter they set down their Catholike faith two Articles of which are 1. That no man can be saved out of their Universal Church And 2. That the bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar are transubstantiate into the Body and Blood of Christ the appearances remaining And in the third Chapter they say We excommunicate and anathematize every heresie extolling it self against this holy orthodox Catholike faith which we have before exponed condemning all hereticks by what names soever they be called And being condemned let them be left to the present secular Powers or their Bailifs to be punished the Clergy being first degraded of their Orders and let the goods of such condemned ones be confiscate if they be Lay-men but if they be Clergy men let them be given to the Churches whence they had their stipends And those that are found notable only by suspition if they do not by congruous purgation demonstrate their innocency according to the considerations of the suspition and the quality of the person let them be smitten with the sword of Anathema and avoided by all men till they have given sufficient satisfaction and if they remain a year excommunicate let them then be condemned as hereticks And let the secu'ar powers in what Office soever be admonished and perswaded and if it be necessary compelled by Ecclesiastical censure that as they would be reputed and accounted Believers so for the defence of the faith they take an Oath publikely that they will study in good earnest according to their power to exterminate all that are by the Church denoted hereticks from the Countries subject to their Jurisdiction So that when any one shall be taken into Spiritual or Temporal power he shall by his Oath make good this Chapter But if the temporal Lord being required and admonished of the Church shall neglect to purge his Countrey of heretical defilement let him by the Metropolitan and other Comprovincial Bishops be tyed by the bond of Excommunication And if he refuse to satisfie within a year let it be signified to the Pope that he may from thenceforth denounce his Vassals absolved from his fidelity and may expose his Countrey to be seised
not the subject of the Pope as universal Monarch Nor can any other be saved as being without the Church 3. And that the Church of Rome is by Gods appointment the Mistris of all other Churches 4. And that the Pope of Rome is Infallible 5. That we cannot believe the Scriptures to be the word of God or the Christian doctrine to be true but upon the Authoritative Tradition of the Roman Church and upon the knowledge or belief of their Infallibility that is we must believe in the Pope as Infallible before we can believe in Christ who is pretended to give him that infallibility 6. That no Scripture is by any man to be interpreted but according to the sence of the Pope or Roman Church and the unanimous consent of the Fathers 7. That a General Council approved by the Pope cannot err but a General Council not approved by the Pope may err 8. That nothing is to us an Article of faith till it be declared by the Pope or a General Council though it was long before declared by Christ or his Apostles as plain as they can speak 9. That a General Council hath no more validity then the Pope giveth it 10. That no Pastor hath a valid Ordination unless it be derived from the Pope 11. That there are Articles of faith of Necessity to our Salvation which are not contained in the Holy Scriptures nor can be proved by them 12. That such Traditions are to be received with equal pious affection and reverence as the holy Scriptures 13. That Images have equal honour with the Holy Gospel 14. That the Clergy of the Catholick Church ought to swear obedience to the Pope as Christs Vicar 15. That the Pope should be a temporal Prince 16. That the Pope and his Clergy ought to be exempted from the Government of Princes and Princes ought not to judge and punish the Clergy till the Pope deliver them to their power having degraded them 17. That the Pope may dispossess Princes of their Dominions and give them to others if those Princes be such as he judgeth hereticks or will not exterminate Hereticks 18. That in such cases the Pope may discharge all the subjects from their allegiance and fidelity 19. That the Pope in his own Territories and Princes in theirs must burn or otherwise put to death all that deny Transubstantiation the Popes Soveraignty or such doctrines as are afore expressed when the Pope hath sentenced them 20. That the people should ordinarily be forbidden to read the Scripture in a known tongue except some few that have a license from the ordinary 21. That publick Prayers Prayses and other publick worship of God should be performed constantly in a language not understood by the People or only in Latine Greek or Hebrew 22. That the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist is Transubtantiate into the very body and blood of Christ so that it is no more true Bread or Wine though our eyes tast and feeling tell us that it is 23. That the consecrated host is to be worshipped with Divine worship and called our Lord God 24. That the Pope may oblige the people to receive the Eucharist only in one kind and forbid them the Cup. 25. That the sins called venial by the Papists are properly no sins and deserve no more but temporal punishment 26. That we may be perfect in this life by this double perfection 1. To have no sin but to keep all Gods Law perfectly 2. To supererogate by doing more then is our Duty 27. That our works properly merit salvation of God by way of Commutative Justice or by the Condignity of the works as proportioned to the Reward 28. That Priests should generally be fordidden Marriage 29. That there is a fire called Purgatory where souls are tormented and where sin is pardoned in another world 30. That in Baptism there is an implicite vow of obedience to the Pope of Rome 31. That God is ordinarily to be worshipped by the Oblation of a true proper propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead where the Priest only shall eat and drink the body and blood of Christ while the Congregation look on and partake not 32. That the Canon of Scripture is the same that is declared by the Council of Trent I will pass by abundance more to avoid tediousness And I will not stay to enquire which of these are proper to the Papists But I am resolved so to receive many of them as they can prove a Catholick succession of that is that they were in all ages the Doctrine of the Universal Church And I crave the charity of such a proof from some Papist or other if they have any charity in them and that they will no longer keep universal Tradition in their purses And I would desire H. T. to revise his Catalogue and instead of twenty or thirty dead and silent names that signifie no more then Blanks or Cyphers he would prove that both those persons and the Catholick Church did in every age hold these thirty two forementioned doctrines And when hath done then let him boast of his Catalogue Till they will perform this task let them never more for shame call to us for Catalogues or proof of succession But if they are so unkind that they will not give us any proof of such a Catholick succession of Popery we shall be ready to supererogate and give them full proof of the Negative That there hath been no such succession of these thirty two points as soon as we can perceive that they will ingeniously entertain it though indeed it hath been often done already But certainly it belongeth to them that superinduce more Articles of Faith to prove the continuation of their own Articles through all ages of which anon Well! but one of these Articles at least the Popes Soveraignty H. T. will prove successively if you will be credulous enough In the first age he proves it from Peters words Act. 15. 7 8 9 10. God chose Peter to convert Cornelius and his company therefore the Pope is the Universall Monarch Are you not all convinced by this admirable argument But he forgot that Bellarmine Ragusius in Concil Basil and others of them say that no Article can be proved from Scripture but from the proper literall sence To say somewhat more he unseasonably talks of the Council of Sardis and Calcedon an 400. 451. lest the first age have but a blank page In the second age he hath nothing but the names of a few that never dreamt of Popery and a Canon which you must believe was the Apostles that Priests must communicate Of which we are well content In the third Age he nameth fifteen Bishops of Rome of whom the last was deposed for offering incense to Saturn Jupiter c. But not a syllable to prove that one of these Bishops was the universal Monarch Much less that the Catholick Church was for such Monarchy But to excuse the matter he tells you that
Rob. Amstrowther Chaplain to the King of Englands Embassadors with the Emperour being at Vienna heard the Jesuites and other repeating confidently this slander of Calvin Whereupon he opened to them this Evidence against it and satisfied them of the flashood so that they told him they never knew so much before and promised him they would never mention it more If any would see the very words of their own Records and Doctor Vasseur he may read them in Rivets Sum. Contr. against Baily and again in his Jesuita Vapulans Cap. 2. And as for the life of Calvin after he forsook the Papists if you will but believe that the City of Geneva and all the Ministers and others that were about him in his life and at his death did know better then Bolseck a fugitive Apostate Papist that was his enemy and then far off you may see at large in Melchior Adamus and Beza the description of such a shining burning light as Rome hath not to boast of He was a man of admirable wit judgement industry and piety When he had forsaken his own Countrey for the Gospel sake and taken up in Geneva and planted the Gospel there with Farellus and Viretus at last the ungodly part getting the Head the Ministers were banished And so he setled in in another City The four Bayliffs of Geneva that banished the Ministers within two years were ruined by the judgements of God One of them accused of sedition seeking to scape through a window fell and was broken to death Another was put to death for murder The other two being accused of Mal-administration fled and were condemned Calvin is sent for and intreated to return to Geneva which by importunity and Bucers perswasion he yieldeth to There was he continually molested by the ungodly and loved by the good The Malignants whom he would restrain by Discipline from Whoredom drunkenness and other wickedness were still plotting or raging against him and called their Dogs by his name But shame was still the end of their attempts His revenge was to tell them I see I should have but sorry wages if I served man but it s well for me that I serve him that alway performeth his promises to his servants As for his work he preached every day in the week each second week and besides that he read three dayes a week a Divinity Lecture And every Thursday he guided the Presbyterie and every Friday at a meeting he held an Expository conference and Lecture so that the whole came to almost twelve Sermons a week Besides this he wrote Epistles to most Countries of Christendom in Europe to Princes Divines and others And he wrote all those great volumes of most Learned judicious Controversies Commentaries and other Treatises which one would have thought might have been work enough for a man that had lived an hundred years if he had done no other And many Hereticks he confuted and some convinced and reduced He set up among the Ministers a course of teaching every Family from house to house of which he found incredible fruit For all this his labour he endured the affronts contradictions and reproaches of the rabble yea and sometime hath been beaten by them because he would not administer the Sacrament to ungodly men that were rulers in the place he was at first banished and after threatned and continually molested by them and railing fellows set to preach and write against him And whether he were an Epicure you may soon judge He alwayes used a very spare dyet and for ten years before his death did did never taste one bit but at supper as his constant course so that every day was with him a better fast then the Papists use to make on their fasting dayes By this extream labour speaking and fasting and watching for he dictated his writings as he lay in bed much he overthrew his body and falling first into a Tertian and then into a Quartan after that he fell into a Consumption with the gout and stone and spitting of blood and the disease in the Hemorrhoid veins which at last ulcerated by over much fasting speaking and use of Aloes besides the head-ach which was the companion of his life In these sickness he would never forbear his labour but when he he was perswaded to it he told them that he could not bear an idle life And when he was near to death was still at work asking those that intreated him to forbear Whether they would have God find him idle Under all these pains of Gout Stone Collick Head-ach Hemorrhoids Consumption c. those that were about him testified to the world that they never heard him speak a word unbeseeming a patient Christian The worst was that oft repeated word How long Lord how long as being weary of a miserable world Witnesses he had enough for he could scarce have rest for people crowding to him to visit him On Mar. 23. he went among the Ministers to their Meeting and took his farewell of them there The next day he was wearyed by it but the twenty seventh day he was carryed to the Court to the Senate of the City where he made a speech to them and took his farewell of them with many tears on both sides April 2. he was carryed to Church and staid the Sermon and received the Sacrement Afterward the Senate of the City came to him and he made an heavenly Exhortation to them On April 25. he dictated his Will which I would his slanderers would read His Library it self and all his goods being prized came scarce to three hundred Crowns May 11. he wrote his farewell to Farellus May 19. all the Ministers came to him with whom he sate and did eat and cheerfully take his leave of them On the twenty seventh of May his voice seemed to be stronger and so continued till his last breath that day which was with such quietness as men compose themselves to sleep The next night and day the City Magistrates Ministers Schollars people and strangers were taken up in weeping and lamentation Every one crowded to see the Corps among whom the Queen of Englands Embassador to France was one He was buryed according to this desire in the common Church-yard without any Monument or Pomp and hath left behind him such a Name as in despight of all the Devils in Hell and all the Papists on earth shall be precious till the coming of Christ and such writings hath he left as are the comfort of the Disciples of Truth and the shame of the reproaching Adversaries Reader this is that Calvin that is so hated by the bad and loved and honoured by the good whom these Papists have called an Epicure and Sodomite and said that he died blaspheming and calling upon the Devil and was eaten with lice and worms Is not God exceeding patient that will suffer such wretches to live on the Earth What man could they have named since Augustine yea since the Apostles dayes that was more unfit
Albaspinaeus before cited saith he knows not whether ever any one was kept away in his age 5. The Protestants hold that men are not to be let alone in scandalous sin but admonished privately and then openly before the Church and if yet they Repent not and Reform not to be cast out and not to be absolved or re-admitted without a Publick Confession and Penitence answerable to the sin And this wicked people hate at the very heart and will not endure But the Papists have got a device to please them by Auricular secret Confession to a Priest where if he will but confess and sin and sin and confess again he may have a pardon of course without any open shame or true Reformation If we durst but imitate the Papists in this one particular we should do much to please the people that are now exasperated for I find that almost any of them will confess in secret that they have sinned that will not endure the open shame 6. The Protestants hold that every sin deserveth death and that every breach of the Law is such a sin though God will not inflict the Punishment on them that have a pardon But the Papists tell us of a multitude of sins that are but venial that is sins that deserve pardon and yet deserve not Hell and are indeed no sins but analogically so called And they make those to be such venial sins which Protestants account abominably gross as some lying some swearing in common talk some drunkenness some fornication and the like are with them but venial sins which are properly no sins And yet here also they are by the ears among themselves some saying that venial sins are properly sins and most denying it Yea all sins that are not deliberated on are with them but venial sins So that if they will but sufficiently brutifie themselves by suspending the exercise of reason and will swear curse murder without deliberation they are then free from sin and danger And how easie and pleasing is this to the ungodly Those are but Evangelical Counsails with the Papists that are the Precepts or Laws of Christ to the Protestants 7. The Protestants teach men that it is their duty to seek the understanding of the holy Scripture and to meditate in it day and night but the Papists do forbid the Common people to read it in a language which they understand and save them all that labour that Protestants put them on Nothing can win the people more then cherishing them thus in sloth and ignorance 8. The Protestants say that a man cannot be justified or saved without an actual faith in Christ or being the Infant of a believer Dedicated to Christ and that this faith must extend to all things that are Essential to Christianity But what the Papists say of the Justification and Salvation of Infidels if they believe in the Pope you heard in their own words in the last Detection A comfortable doctrine to the unbelieving world to whom God hath spoken no such Comfort We confess that those that never had the Gospel are under the Law of nature or works and that the penalty of this is such as God can in some cases dispense with or else we could not be saved by Christ and so that all Pagans are not under the Peremptory undispensable threatning of the Gospel against final Privative unbelievers But yet though God may pardon some of these he hath made them no promise that he will and therefore they can have no positive hope grounded on a promise nor can any man say that God will save any of them or that he will not it being certain that they are under the condemnation of the Law which God can dispense with in wayes of security to his Justice and Ends but uncertain whether he will or not and therefore is to be left among his unrevealed things The true believer is under a certain promise of salvation The unbeliever that hath had the Gospel or might have had it and would not is under the Gospel sentence of damnation which is certain and irreversible if he die in that Condition The negative unbeliever that never had or could have the Gospel is under the Condemning sentence of the Law of works or nature that is his sin Deserveth eternal death but this sentence is not peremptory and indispensable but yet it is such as God will not dispense with rashly but on terms that may secure his Ends and Justice This is the true mean between extreams in this weighty point 9. The Protestants say that all our best works are imperfect and the sin that adhereth to them deserves Gods wrath according to the Law of works though he pardon it by the Law of Grace and that when we have done all we are unprofitable servants and properly Merit nothing of God for the worth of our works or in Commutative Justice But the Papists take those very works to Merit heaven ex Condigno and for here they are by the ears again say some of them by the Proportion of the work and in Commutative Justice which the Protestants say deserve damnation for their sinful imperfections and therefore need a pardon through the blood of Christ Yea they take these works to be perfect and the man to be perfect and say that by such works as these they may Merit for others as well as for themselves And how easie and pleasing is this to proud corrupted Nature 10. The Protestants think that no Faith Justifieth but that which is accompanyed with unfeigned Love and Resolution for Obedience But the Papists make Faith that 's separated from Charity and joyned with Attrition to be sufficient for admission to the Sacrament which shall be instead of Love or Contrition and so shall put away all sin 11. The Protestants knowing that God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit and truth do teach people a spiritual way of worship which Carnal men are undisposed to and unacquainted with But the Papists do accommodate them by a multitude of Ceremonies Images and a Pompous histrionical kind of worship which is easie and pleasant to flesh and blood To have an Image before them and Copes and Ornaments and abundance of formalities and to drop so many Beads and be saved for saying over so many Ave Maries or such like words what an easie kind of Religion is this and how agreeable to flesh and blood How much easier is it to say over their offices then to Love God above all and desire after Communion with him in the spirit and to delight in him and to pray in Faith and heavenly fervour 12. Protestants tell men of Hell-fire as the remediless punishment of those sins which Papists say deserve but a Purgatory and they have hopes of coming out of Purgatory but there 's none of coming out of Hell 13. Protestants tell them of no hope of ease or pardon of sin after this life if it be not pardoned here But Papists tell
may say Take this is my House this is my Land which I deliver thee If you be among many Images in a room you will not blame him that saith This is Peter and this is Paul and this is the Virgin Mary 2. The Scripture often calls it Bread after the Consecration which you condemn us for therefore we are taught to call it so 3. The Scripture saith 1 Cor. 10. 4. That Rock was Christ and he saith I am the door John 10. 7. I am the true Vine John 15. 1. David saith I am a worm and no man Psal 22. 6. we believe all this But must we be therefore reproached if we say that David was a man that the Rock was Christ typically that he was a Vine and Door Metaphorically only And yet these are as plain as This is my Body and This is my Blood His fourth Accusation is The Scripture saith that Baptism saveth us and that we are cleansed and regenerate by the washing of water On the contrary you say that Baptism doth neither save us nor regenerate us but is only to us a symbol of salvation ablution and regeneration which is no where said in Scripture Answ A childish contest about words we say that two things go to our full possession of our state of Regeneration Justification and Cleansing One is our fundamental Right which the Promise of the Gospel gives us upon our Heart consent or Covenant with God the other is our Solemn Investiture in regard of the former we are Christians and Regenerate and Justified before Baptism In regard of the later we are made Christians regenerate justified saved by Baptism This we commonly hold and so never denyed what you falsly say we deny As a man is made a King by his Coronation that yet in a sort was one before or as Marriage makes them Husband and Wife by publick solemnization that were fundamentally so before by Private Covenant or as possession is given by a Key a twig and a turf as I said of that which a man had right to before so are we solemnly invested with those benefits by baptism which we had a fundamental Title to before Do not your own writers confess this of a man that is Baptized many years after he had Faith and Charity Do you think Cornelius and the rest that had the Holy Ghost before Baptism Act. 10. had not Justification before Do you think that Constantine the great was unpardoned unregenerate and no Christian till he was Baptized Or rather would you make quarrels against your own Confessions His fifth Accusation is Scripture saith that Priests do forgive sin on the contrary you say that they do not remit them but only testifie that they are remitted which the Scriptures no where say Answ As if Testification could not be a Remission We say that whose sins the Pastors of the Church remit they are remitted Do you not know that these very words were used to every Presbyter in our Ordination here in England We say 1. That Pastors do as Gods Embassadors proclaim his General Conditional Pardon unto all 2. That they are Gods Ministers to make a particular Application and delivery of pardon in Baptism on supposition that the Baptized be qualified for pardon 3. That they are as his Ministers to make the same Application by Declaration and Delivery in the Absolution of the Penitent on supposition that their penitence be sincere 4. And as Church Governours they may on good considerations sometimes remit some humbling disgraceful acts that were imposed on the penitent for the testification of his repentance and the satisfaction of the Church And are not these four concessions enough Or are you minded to pick quarrels that your selves and others may have fewel for the rancour and uncharitableness of your minds But indeed we do not think that any man can primarily as the chief Agent forgive sins but God must be the first pardoner Nor that any man can pardon the sins of the dead and abate or shorten the pains of the soul in a fire called Purgatory Here we leave you And verily if the Pope have power to remit but the very temporal punishment he is a cruel wretch that will not forgive men even good men the torments of the Gout and the Stone and an hundred diseases nay that will not remit them to himself no nor the pains of death when he is so loath to die But I forgot that the Pope hath no body to forgive him because none above him He that connot remit the punishments which we see and feel how shall we believe him without any Divine Testimony that he can remit a penalty that he never saw nor felt nor no man else that can be proved His sixth Accusation is Scripture saith If a Virgin marry she sinneth not but you say that the just sin in all works which Scripture mentions not Answ 1. Do you believe in your Conscience that the Scripture meaneth that a Virgin sinneth not at all in any circumstance or defect in the manner or Concomitants of her Marriage Then I pray tell your Nuns so that if they marry they sin not Tell Priests so that if they marry they sin not Your own reason can expect no other sense in the words but that Marriage as such is no sin to the Virgin And this we grant But yet if you think that in this or in any other work you see God as apprehensively and believe as strongly and restrain every wandring thought as exactly and Love God as much as you are bound to do by the very Law of Nature it self so that you are perfectly blameless and need not be beholden to the blood of Christ to the Mercy of God to the Spirit of Grace either for the forgiveness of these failings or the cure of them you shew then a proud Pharisaical spirit unacquainted with it self and with the Gospel Do you go on and say Lord I thank thee that I am not as other men and I will rather say Lord be mercifull to me a sinner and which shall be rather justified Christ hath told us The streams cannot be perfectly sinless till the fountain be so and Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Prov. 20. 9. For there is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccl. 7. 20. Christ telleth us that the fruit will be like the Tree the actions like the heart and therefore an imperfect Heart will have imperfect duties If you dare say there is no remnant of sin in your hearts you have so much of it that hindereth you from seeing it Humility and self-knowledge would soon end this controversie We say not that all our works are sins that is either materially forbidden or done in wickedness and from vicious predominant habits But that the same works which Materially are good are tainted with our sinfull imperfections having not in them that measure of knowledge faith love c. as
as gross as common even an abuse of Cyprians words l. 1. Ep. 3. where Cyprian speaks for the necessity of obeying One in the Church meaning a particular Church as the whole scope of his Epistle testifieth And this man would make them simple believe that he speaks of the Universal Church His Reasons proceed thus First p. 128. c. he tells us that the invisible God thinks meet to Govern the world by visible men Answ And who denies that Christ also governeth his Church by men But he concludeth hence Num alia ratione c. Shall we believe that Christ doth govern his Church in another way then God governeth the whole world Answ Reader doth not this man give up the cause of the Pope and say as much against it fundamentally as a Protestant Saith Boverins We must not believe that Christ doth govern the Church in another way then God doth govern the world But saith common sense and experience God doth not govern the whole world by any one or two or ten Universal Vice-monarch Therefore Christ doth not Govern the Church by any one Universal Vice-monarch His next Reason is Because Christ was a visible Monarch once on earth himself And if the Church had need of a visible Monarch then it hath need of it still Answ 1. Here the Reader may see that it is to no less then to be Christs successor or a Vice-christ that the Pope pretendeth And then the Reason if it were of any worth would as well prove that there must be one on earth still that may give the Holy Ghost immediately and make Articles of Faith de novo and Laws for the Church with promise of Salvation and may appoint new Offices and orders in the whole Church c. And why not one also to live without sin and to die for our sins and rise again and be our Saviour And why not one to give us his own body and blood in the Sacrament 2. Christ himself doth oppose himself to all terrestrial inhabitans saying One is your Master even Christ And what then why Be not ye called Masters But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant And Be not ye called Rabbi for one is your Master even Christ and all ye are Brethren Mat. 23. 8. 9 10 11 12. where most evidently he shews that neither Peter or any of his own Disciples were to be called Masters as Christ was nor was any such to be on earth and so no Vice-christ yea that all his Apostles being Brethren were not to be Masters one to another but servants so that here is a plain bar put in against any of Peters Mastership or Headship of the Universal Church 3. We do on these and many other Reasons deny your consequence It follows not that we must still have a Christ on earth because we once had 4. Christ hath chosen another Vicar though invisible as Tertullian calls him and that is the Holy Ghost whom he sent to make such supply as was necessary by various gifts proportioned to the several states and members of the Church 5. If Christ would have left a Vice-christ upon earth which should have been an Essential part even the Head of his Church he would doubtless have plainly expressed it in Scripture and described his Office and Power and given him directions to exercise it and us directions how to know which is he and to obey him But there is not a word of any such matter in the Scripture nor Antiquity when yet it is a point if true of such unspeakable importance 6. You might at well feign that if it were then necessary to have twelve or thirteen Apostles it is so still and if then it was necessary to have the gift of tongues and miracles it is so still which yet the Pope himself is void of 7. It is not enough for your silly wit to say its fit that Christ have a Successor therefore he hath one but let him that claimeth so high an honour as to be the Vice-christ produce his Commission and prove his claim if he will be believed 8. Christ is still the visible Head of his Church seen in Heaven and as much seen over all the world except Judea and Egypt as ever he was When he was on earth he was not visible at Rome Spain Asia c. He that is Emperor of the Turkish Monarchy perhaps was never personally an hundred miles from Constantinople The King of Spain is no visible Monarch in the West-Indies And if all the world except Judea might be without a Present Christ then why that may not as well as the rest you must give him an account if you will tie him to be here resident 9. And yet if the Pope would usurp no more Power then Christ exercised visibly on earth it would not be all so bad as it is or hath been He would not then divide inheritances nor be a temporal Prince nor wear a Triple Crown nor keep so glorious a Court and Retinue nor depose Princes nor deny them tribute nor exempt his Prelates from it nor from their judgement Seats nor absolve their Subjects from their fidelity c. nor trouble the world as now he doth He would not exercise the power of putting any to death much less would he set up Inquisitions to burn poor people for reading the Scriptures or no being of his mind Pag. 133. He makes Christ the visible Pope while he was on earth and tells us that Promulgating the Gospel sending Apostles instituting Sacraments c. were Pontificalia munera Papal Offices Answ And indeed was Christ a Pope and is the Pope a Christ Jesus I know and Peter and Paul I know but this Vice-christ I know not If indeed the Vice-christ have power to do these Papal works to promulgate a new Gospel to send out Apostles to institute Sacraments c. as Christ did let us but know which be the Popes Sacraments and which be Christs which be the Popes Apostles and which be Christs and which is the Popes Gospel and which is Christs and we shall use them accordingly The Law and Testimony will help us to distinguish them Pag. 134. He comes to prove that Christ hath a Successor and his first proof is from Mic. 2. Let the Reader peruse it and judge without any help of mine what proof there is that the Pope is a Vice-christ The next is in Hosea 1. which speaketh of the return of the Israelites from Captivity Let the Reader make his best on it for the Pope for I think it not worth my labour to confute the Papists impudent perverting such Texts as these By the way he tells us as Card. Richlieu and the rest commonly do that its no dishonour to Christ to have a Deputy no more then for the King of England to have a Deputy or Vice-king in Ireland Answ 1. But our first question is Whether de facto such a thing be Prove that Christ hath Commissioned a
hath Articles besides those of the Creed But the Synod of Dort hath more But those in the Bull are new as Dr. Rivet will have it But very many learned men think otherwise that they are not new if they be rightly understood and that this appeareth by the places both of holy Scripture and of such as have ever been of great authority in the Church which are cited in the Margin of the Canons of Trent Pag. 35. And this is it which the Synod of Trent saith that in that Sacrament Jesus Christ true God truly man is really substantially conteined under the form of those sensible things yet not according to the naturall manner of existing but Sacramentally and by that way of existing which though we cannot express in words yet may we by cogitation illustrated by faith be certain that to God it is possible And the Council hath found words to express it that there is made a change of the whole substance of the bread into the Body and the whole substance of Wine into the Blood which conversion the Catholick Church calleth Transubstantiation Pag. 79. When the Synod of Trent saith that the Sacrament is to be adored with Divine worship it intends no more but that the Son of God himself is to be adored I le add no more but that which tells you who is a Papist with the Grotians and who is none Pag. 15. In that Epistle Grotius by Papists meant those that without any difference do approve of all the sayings and doings of Popes for honor or lucre sake as is usual Ibid. He tells us that by Papists he meaneth not them That saving the right of Kings and Bishops do give to the Pope or Bishop of Rome that Primacy which ancient custom and Canons and the Edicts of ancient Emperors and Kings assign them Which Primacy is not so much the Bishops as the very Roman Churches preferred before all other by common consent It 's well it hath so mutable a foundation so Liberius the Bishop being so lapsed that he was dead to the Church the Church of Rome retained its right and defended the cause of the Universal Church This and much more I had given the Reader before in Latine but because Mr. Pierce thinks that I wrong Grotius if you have it not in English I have born so much respect to his words and to the Reader as to remove the wrong and thus far to satisfie his desire Having told you some of the Occasion of this writing I shall add somewhat of the Reasons of it but the less because I have given you so much of them already in my foresaid Discovery of the Grotian Religion 1. My principal Reason is that before expressed that Popery may be pulled up by the very roots For Italians French and all build on this that the Church must have one visible Head 2. That I might take in those parties of the Papists that I have past by or said less to in the former Part of the Book 3. Because I see what Influence the conceit that I dispute against hath on the minds of many well-meaning less judicious people 4. Because I perceive in part what influence the design of Grotius had upon England in the changes that were the occasion of our late wars He saith himself Discuss pag. 16. That the labors of Grotius for the Peace of the Church were not displeasing to many equal men many know at Paris and many in all France many in Poland and Germany and not a few in England that are placid and lovers of peace For as for the now-raging Brownists and others like them with whom Dr. Rivet better agreeth then with the Bishops of England who can desire to please them that is not touched with their venom So that he had Episcopal Factors here in England And whereas some tell me that Grotius was no Papist because he professed his high esteem of the Church of England and say they had Church-preferment here offered him and thought to have accepted it I answer 1. Either it was Grotius in the first Edition or the Church of England in the second Edition then in the Press that this must be spoken of if true 2. Was not Franciscus a Sancta Clara still the Queens ghostly Father a Papist for all he reconciled the Doctrine of the Church of England to that of Rome Grotius and he did plainly manage the same design 3. Mr. Pierce assures you by his Defence that Grotius hath still his followers in England of the party that he called the Church of England And is it any more proof that Grotius was a Protestant for joyning with them then that they are Papists that joyn with him Is not his Doctrine here given you in his Englished words Do you doubt whether the Council of Trent were Papists This makes me remember the words of the late King to the Marquess of Worcester when the Marbuess came into the room to an appointed conference about religion with him leaned on D. Bayly's arm he told the King that he came leaning on a Doctor of his own Church and the King replyed My Lord I know not whether I should think the better of you for the Doctors sake or the worse of the Doctor for your sake or to this purpose And indeed the Doctor quickly shew'd by professing himself a Papist what an Episcopal Divine he was And I think we have as fair advantage to resolve us whether to think the better of Grotius for the Church of Englands sake or the worse of those that he called the Church of England and that were of his mind for Grotius sake In a late Treatise De Antiqua Ecclesiae Brittanicae libertate Diatribe written by I. B. a Divine of the Church of England and printed at Bruges 1656 pag. 34 35. Thes 4. it is averred That since the ancient liberty of the British Church was by the consent of the whole Kingdom resumed remaining Catholick in all other things it may retain that Liberty without losing its Catholicism and without any note of Schism or Heresie This Liberty then was the Reformation And this he saith was maintained by Barnes a Papist and Benedictine Monk and Priest in a M. S. entituled Catholico-Romanus Pacificus c. 3. and that for this sober work of his the Peaceable Monk though of unblamed life and unspotted fame was snatch out of the midst of Paris and stript of his habit and bound on a Horse-back like a Calf and violently carryed into Flanders and so to Rome and so to the Inquisition and then put among the Bedlams where he dyed and not contented with his death they defamed him to have dyed mad Though Rome give Peace no better entertainment the Learned Author thinks that France will and therefore adds concerning the French Church Quâcum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 optanda foret etiamnum veteris redintegratio concordiae quam constat plus mille ab hinc annis amicissime intercessisse inter
Letters of the Agents of the Agitators from France telling us how good men the Jesuites were and how agreeable to them in their principles for a Democracy which they vainly call a Republick as if there were no Common-wealth but a Democracy and telling us what exceeding meet materials for such a Common-wealth the Jesuites would be The Agencies of particular men with Jesuites I shall purposely omit 11. Whence came it that all the maddest dividing parties had their liberty and the reproach and envy was most against the united Ministry and if the Lord Protector had not stept in they had been likely to be taken down 12. And whence came it that Sexby and others that have been Souldiers in our Armies have confederated with Spain to murder the Lord Protector And whence came their Jesuitical Treasonable Pamphlets such as Killing no Murder provoking men to take away his life Much more may be proposed tending to a discovery how far the Papists have crept in among us and had to do in our affairs But I think God hath yet much more in season to discover Truth is the daughter of time As concerning the death of the King I shall not meddle at this time with the Cause nor meddle with the Reasons brought for it or against it But suppose as bad of it as you can the Providence of God hath so contrived it that nothing but ignorance or blind malice can lay it upon the Protestants Episcopal or Presbyterian that strove so much against it and suffered so much for it as they have done When many on the other side charged the Scots and the imprisoned Ministers of London with those that were put to death for going too far on the other side in manifesting their distastes Of which I take not on me to be judge but mention it only as Evidence that clears them from the deed And to vindicate the Protestants openly before all the world and to all posterity from that Fact it is most publikely known 1. That both Houses of Parliament in their Protestations engaged themselves and the Nations to be true to the King 2. That they openly professed to mannage their war for King and Parliament Not against his Person or Authority but against Delinquents that were fled from Justice and against evill Counsellors 3. That the two Nations of England and Scotland did in the midst of the wars swear in the Solemn League and Covenant to he true to the King 4. That the Committees Commanders Ministers and people through the Land professed openly to go only on these terms as managing but a defensive war against the Kings miscarriages but an Offensive against Delinquent subjects 5. In that it was known that the Army was quite altered not only by a new modelling but by an intestine Jesuitical corrupting of multitudes of the Souldiers before this Odious fact could be done 6. And it was known that the corrupted part of the Army though the fewer did so excell the rest in industry and activity that thereby they hindered their opposition 7. And it is known that the Jesuited part that afterward so many of them turn'd Levellers did draw into them the Anabaptists Libertines and other Sects upon a conjunction of Interests and by many sly pretenses especially tying all together by the predicated Liberty for all Religions 8. And yet after all this the world knows they were fain before they could accomplish it to Master the City of London to Master the Parliament to imprison and cast out the Members and to retain but a few that were partly of their mind and partly seduced or over-awed by them to joyn with them in the work 9. It is known that before they were put out and imprisoned by the Army the Commons voted the Kings Concessions in the Treaty to be so far satisfactory as that they would have proceeded on them towards a full Agreement See Mr. Prins large Speech in the House to that end And if they had not suddenly been secluded and imprisoned they had agreed with the King 10. And it is well known to all that dwell in England that before and since the doing of it the thing is disowned distasted and detested by the main Body of the English Nation Nobility Gentlemen Ministers and people Yea to my knowledge multitudes that are now firm and loyal to the present Power supposing it to be set over us by God and therefore would abhor the like practises against them do yet detest that fact that intervened and made way to it So that experience may satisfie all men that Protestants even those called Puritans were the Enemies and not the Actors of it 11. And it is well known how the Protestant Ministers that had engaged in the war for King and Parliament were so great Adversaries to the putting of the King to death that they opposed it and disswaded from it and thereby drew the Odium of the Corrupted part of the Army upon them and that the London Ministers unanimously concuered in an Address to the Lord Fairfax to prevent it and printed their abhorrence of it and published it to the world And that many of them were imprisoned and Mr. Love beheaded and many others put to death or other sufferings for being against these designs and endeavouring to oppose the progress of them 12. And lastly it is known that the Kingdom of Scotland disowned it from first to last and so far proceeded in opposition to it and in adhesion to the ancient line as cost them the miseries of a grievous war and a conquest of their Kingdom I speak but of the matter of fact that is known to the world So that it is against all humane Reason and Equity that when we have all sworn to the contrary and endeavoured it and the Parliament men of one Kingdom are secluded and Imprisoned for it and the other Kingdom conquered for it and the Protestants still generally disown it that yet it should be charged on the Protestants or their Religion that they put to death their King This is most unreasonable in justice especially from those men that were the causers of it I do therefore leave it here to posterity having been my self a member of the Army four years or thereabouts that it was utterly against the mind and thoughts of Protestants and those that they called Puritans to put the King to death the twelve Evidences fore-mentioned are undenyable Arguments that it was the work of Papists Libertines Vanists and Anabaptists and that the Protestants deeply suffered by opposing it as the face of Scotland and England sadly testifie to this day And yet though we have such open Evidence that this cannot be charged on our Religion or us I must needs adde that every wise man sees that the Case it self much differs from the Papists If the Body of a Common-wealth or those that have part in the Legislative Power and so in the Supremacy should unwillingly be engaged in a war with the Prince and
after many years blood and desolations judicially take away his life as guilty of all this blood and not to be trusted any more with Government and all this they do not as private men but as the remaining Soveraign Power and say they do it according to the Laws undoubtedly this case doth very much differ from the Powder-plot or Papists murdering of Kings and teaching that its lawful for a private hand to do it if he be but an Heretick or be but deposed yea or excommunicated by the Pope A war and a treacherous murder are not all one Nor is a part of the Soveraign Power all one with a private hand or forreign Prelate pretending to a Dominion over the lives and states of Princes and over the Kingdoms of the world and that the Vice-christ and Vice-God on earth It is a grievous case that the Senate or Body of a Nation should think themselves necessitated to defend themselves and the Church and State against their Prince or any that act by his commands It will strongly tempt them to think that the end is to be preferred before the Means and that it ceaseth to be a Means which is against and destructive to the End and that it is essentiall to a Governing Power to be for the common good and therefore that it is no Authority which is used against it It will tempt them also to think that God never gave power to any against himself or above his Laws or against the Ends of Government And a Senate or the Body of a Nation will be apt to think themselves fit to discern when the publick safety is dangerously assaulted and will hardly be brought to trust any One to be the final Judge of their Necessity as thinking such a publike Necessity proves it self and needs no judge but sence and reason to discern it And if they also think that the fundamental Constitution of the Government doth make the Senate the highest Judge of the safety or danger of the Republick and so that the Law is on their side and that it is Treason against the Common-wealth and as Politicians say against the Majestas Realis to rise against them the temptation then is much the stronger And where the Legislative power and highest Judiciall power is by the Constitution of the Government divided between the Prince and Senate and so the Soveraignty divided many will be ready to think with Grotius de jure Belli lib. 1. § 13. p. 91. that the Prince invading the Senates right may justly be resisted and may lose his right Quod locum saith Grotius habere censeo etiamsi dictum sit belli potestatem penes Regem fore Id exim de bello externo intelligendum est cum alioqui quisquis Imperii summi jus partem habeat non possit non jus habere eam partem tuendi Quod ubi fit potest Rex etiam suam Imperii partem belli jure amittere And indeed when a war is once begun the difficulty of re-uniting is exceeding great If a Prince engage either hired strangers or fugitives or home-bred delinquents or others to rise up against the Senate or people either its lawfull to Defend themselves by Arms or not If not especially if they have a share in the Soveraignty then is his power absolute and unlimited and neither Laws nor any thing below are any security against his will to the common safety The contrary whereto our late King declared in his notable Answer to the nineteen Propositions But if their Defence be lawfull then if their Souldiers must know before hand that if they do purchase a victory by their blood when they have all done they must be all Governed by him whom they have conquered and lye at his Mercy they would hardly ever have an Army to defend them For who will do the utmost that is possible to exasperate him that he knows must rule him when all is done I speak not this by way of Justification or any way deciding such cases as these but leaving that as a controversie that I am not here to decide to the judgement of others I only shew the world again that there 's a great deal of difference between such a war and conquest of a Prince by the Senate and Body of the people and their allowing Popes to depose them and alienate their Dominions and private men to rebell and to murder them if the Pope consent or excommunicate them Whether they were in the right or wrong I am not the judge but surely it was the judgement of the Parliament that upon the Division the power was in them to defend themselves and the Commonwealth and suppress all subjects that were in Arms against them and that those that did resist them did resist the higher powers set over them by God and therefore were guilty of the damnation of resisters And this they assured the people was the Truth And the forecited concessions of the King against the nineteen Propositions acknowledging their part in the Legislative power and defence of the people which is known to be the highest part of Soveraignty did much incline many to believe the Parliament Especially knowing that they had so long exercised the said Legislative power and that we were all governed by Laws of their making So that those that did obey the Parliament did verily think that they obeyed the highest power that upon the division was left in the Common-wealth and that they had the Laws on their side and did adhere to the Common good which is the end of Government And as they have thus caused our wars and miseries and scandals so have they continued to multiply sects among us of all sorts so that there is scarce a sect but is a spawn of the Jesuites and Fryars and scarce an honest party but they creep in among them to work their ends And here I shall briefly mention some of the parties with whom they have insinuated to work their ends and then some of the sects that they have bred or animated 1. As for the old English Bishops and conformable Ministers who were of the faith and doctrine publikely here professed I confess I find but little evidence that ever the Papists had much to do with them save only to instigate them against the Puritans and draw some of them to a complyance with such as did out-go them Yet in their times Bishop Goodman of Glocester was suspected to be a Papist and so professed himself by his last Testament at his death since the wars 2. As for the Presbyterians I do not see any reason to think that ever the Papists had any interest in them of any men there being none that they more hate then these two sorts the old sound Episcopal men and the Presbyterians But yet both in France and Scotland they have cunningly wrought upon them ab extra alarming them into disturbances by the wild-fire which they have cast in 3. As for the new Episcopal party