partialitie and then they should see whether having this meane of beliefe in a balanced judgement they would attribute their heresies to Gods revelation and deny his revelation to Orthodoxe Articles or no. To the authoritie of St. Thomas I answer that he meaneth such as attribute heresies quatenus tales to Gods revelation and deny his revelation to Orthodox Articles quâ tales as Arch-hereticks did in this reduplicative sense to be blasphemers But not such as take Scripture for the revealed word of God and misunderstand the same in a specificative sense through their own ignorance or infirmitie to be blasphemers Neither did St. Thomas or any other temperate and solid Divine ever inteâ—d to say It may be here first objected that Catholiques in the beginning of Queene Elizabeths Raigne went to Church and so did likewise the Catholiques in Scotland and they were all in a short time subverted Ergo there is danger of subversion in going to Church I deny the later part of the antecedent and say that while the plot of Recusancie was working there was a command got upon the former suggestions that no Catholiques should goe to the Protestant Church So by barring them of their Christian libertie by degrees to bring in Recusancie as a pretended signe betweene a good Christian and a bad Which some few Catholiques then beleeving themselves bound to obey as indeed they were not but might as well withall reverence and obedience have beseeched the Pope to have recalled his command refused the Church Others and those the most part of the kingdome as appeares by the afore Author of the Answer to the Libell of Justice cap. 8. pag. 172. 182. fearing the penalties of the said Statutes did not refuse but continued to goe to Church who being neglected by Priests being but a few then in England and those of most power being for the said recusancy as having no spirituall comfort or instructions in what sense they might truely and lawfully doe what they did to avoyd the said penalties of the Law and likewise thinking that those Priests thought them to doe ill in what themselves found no hurt they dyed as they lived But whether in Protestant tenents or Catholique or whether they would not have dyed Catholiques if they had had helpe especially such as lived before in Queene Maries time I present to any wise and pious mans judgement truly considering the state of those times And afterwards their children being still neglected upon this point of Recusancy and living in ignorance ingendred the Protestant Reâ—igion now on foot So that the cause of their falling was not their subversion as may be proved by witnesses yet alive but over indiscreet zeale in Priests the chiefest heads of whom ayming as is evident at a temporall end neglecting and rejecting such as would not obey their unreasonable command and in the same manner it hapneth with Catholiques that now goe to Church in these dangerous times Who going to Church only to save themselves from ruine and being rejected as judged to be fallen from the true faith by ignorant Priests and therefore not looked after with any Christian instructions or admonitions faine themselves Protestants rather then they will bee thought to live against their conscience Whence I may truely say and prove by the Authour last before cited who confesseth that in the thirteenth yeere of Queen Elizabeths reigne the third part of this Kingdome at least was Catholique that since the fall of Religion in England by this onely Cheate of recusancie tenne soules have beene lost for one gained which is both lamentable and damnable to those that were the first Authors of the same As for the Scots their fall was neither subversion or Recusancie which was never generally admitted because not covertly procured by the Clergie of that Kingdome but want of Priests to administer the Sacraments and give them other spirituall comfort who seeing the soyle not so fertile as ours and the lawes more severe those few that were rather chose to converse on the Northern borders of England then in their owne Countrey And Catholiques there seeing themselves destitute of all spirituall comfort went to Church to save their inferiour portion from ruine who if they had had but plenty or sufficiencie of priests to have instructed them I doubt not but they would have still remained Catholiques And it had been farre more easie so to have conserved them then fallen now to convert them And thus came the bane of Catholique religion into both Kingdomes which are like so to continue remedilesse unlesse they be assisted by Gods infinite and miraculous power It may be objected secondly that divers Popes as Paul the fourth Pius the fifth both the last Gregories Sixtus Clement and Paul the fifth granted to priests their faculties with an intention that they should administer the Sacraments to onely such as abstained from Protestant Churches I answer that it is so said by R. P. but whether it be so in truth or no I know not peradventure such faculties might be granted to such as received them from the aforesaid suggestors hands and to none others Neither did I ever see any faculties as yet so limited nor I hope ever shall For although the aforesaid Popes might be inclined to the said suggestors tribe so admit of their suggestions thinking them to proceed from zeale and not from hypocrisie who likewise thought their pretenses holy and what a Christian like thing it was to suffer persecution for Gods sake and what a number of Martyrs were made in England sanguinem martyrum esse semen Ecclesiae that the blood of the Martyrs was the seed of the Church Further what an abominable people Protestants were Idolaters blasphemous heretiques subversive of soules and many other the like exaggerating speeches upon which any Pope living unlesse he had foreknowne their drift would have done the like Whereas certainly had they but made known the true State of England in those dayes and sought the good of souls and not themselves in truth they ought to have done the said Popes would never have done as they did to us more then to the Scots Hollanders Germans and other nations by subjecting us and all posteritie by this device of Recusancie to all misery and slavery Neither hath his Holinesse that now is ever declared any such thing for I perceive that he better knowing by experience the said suggestors tribe and their plots with their moth-like dealings in most Kingdomes will be advised hence forward how he granteth any more Rescripts or limiteth any faculties upon their importune suggestions As for our Martyrs of England I hope them truely Martyrs because they died not so much for recusancie as for Religion and a good conscience although that might be a meanes to bring them to their death sooner then otherwise Yet I dare not call all of them Saints untill the holy Church doth bid me as having approved of their miracles but most of them I
they can alleadge some speciall priviledge to the contrary but divers generall Councels have erred A generall Councel of Prophets 1 Kings 22.12 erred saying The Lord shall deliver Ramoth Gilead into the Kings hand a generall Councel of Priests Matthew 26.65 erred damnably in condemning Christ for a blasphemer guiltie of death The generall Councel held at Arminum erred denying the Sonnes equalitie with the Father at Ephesus confounding the two natures in Christ at Nice under Irene decreeing that Angels are to be painted because they are of a corporeall nature at Constance denying the Laitie to be bound to receive the communion in both kindes against the expresse precept of Christ Matth. 26.28 and Iohn 6.53 And of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.28 At Florence and after at Trent defining that the effect of the Sacrament depends upon the intention of the Priest or Bishop who administreth it Which if it were true no man in the Roman Church could ever be assured either of his baptisme or of his confirmation or of his absolution or of his ordination or of the validitie of his matrimonie or of his safe adoration of the Host or of the vertue of his extreme unction For how can he certainly know the intention of the Bishop or Priest who administred unto him these rites all which they account sacraments Neither can they evade by saying that these Councels might erre because they were not confirmed by the Pope for the Popes were present at all these later either in person or by their Legates and it is for certain that their second Councel at Nice was confirmed by Pope Adrian at Constance by Pope Martine at Florence by Pope Eugenius at Trent by divers Popes Lastly if Councels had an immunitie from error the prayer which they made at their Councels registred by Gregory the Great l. 7. Epist. were a meere mockerie The prayer was conceived in this forme Quia conscientià remordente tabescimus ne aut ignorattia nos traxerit in errorem aut praeceps forsitan voluntas impulerit a iustitia declinare ob hoc te poscimus te rogamus ut si quid offensionis in hac concilii celebritate attraximus condonare et remissibile facere digneris Because we pine away through remorse of conscience fearing lest either ignorance have drawn us into error or a headie will driven us to swerve from justice for this we pray thee we beseech thee that if we have done any thing amisse in this great and famous assembly thou wouldest vouchsafe to pardon it I conclude therefore with the words of Leo in his Epistle to Anatolius who lightly phillips off the authoritie of the generall Councel held at Ephesus in which there were above 600. Fathers In one word Tanquam refutari nequeat quod illicitè voluerit multitudo as if that could not be refuted which a multitude hath unlawfully determined giving withall most wholesome conusell to all Councels nulla sibi de multiplicitate congregationis concilia blandiantur Let no Councels flatter themselves with the great multitude of persons assembled in them as if that might priviledge them from errour n Here least the Reader should before he be aware be bitten by a snake lying under the grasse I hold it necessary to distinguish between two questions which may seem to be a like but indeed are very different The first whether Papists may goe to Protestant Churches The second whether a Protestant may goe to a Popish Church He that shall give the same solution to both these questions shall give a greater wound to the Protestant cause in the latter then his plaister will salve in the former The Protestants and Papists in this stand not upon even tearmes for there is nothing in the Protestant Liturgie or Service which the Romanists doe or by their own Rules can except at The Confession forme of Absolution Prayers Hymnes Collects Lessons Epistles and Gospels are either such as the Papists themselves use or at least such as they dislike not whereas it is farre otherwise in the Romane Missall For there is sprinkling exorcised water censing books and pictures worshipping images invocation of Saints prayers for the dead intercession by the prayers and merits of souls departed and which is the height of all idolatry adoration of their Host or breaden God and all this service performed in an unknowne tongue contrary to the expresse order of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14. all which the Reformed Churches condemne and abhorre and whereas this Author alleadgeth there can be no text of Scripture brought forbidding Papists to come to our Church I beleeve him but on the other side there are many expresse Texts of holy Scripture from whence it may be strongly inferred that no Protestant whose conscience is convinced of the manifold idolatries and superstitions wherewith the Romish Liturgie is polluted can with a safe conscience goe to Masse as namely Psal. 26.4 I have not sate with vaine persons neither will I goe in with dissemblers I have hated the congregation of evill doers and will not sit with the wicked 1 Cor. 10.7 Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them vers 14. Wherefore my dearely beloved flee from idolatrie 1 Ioh. 5.21 Keepe your selves from idols 2. Cor. 6.14 What fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse or what communion hath light with darknesse vers 16 What agreement hath the Temple of God with idols vers 17. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the uncleane thing and I will receive you o Although I have no meaning to drive away Papists from our Churches nor purpose to enervate the kindly and right arguments which this Priest bringeth to perswade them thereunto yet I cannot let passe this wherwith true Professours may be very much scandalized For what religious heart doth not tremble to thinke of going in and bowing in the temple of an â—doll in which as the Apostle teacheth the service that is done and the sacrifice that is offered is to devils 1 Cor. 10.20 and no better was this Rimmon the Syrian idoll I answer therefore 1 that the case of conscience Naaman put was not whether he might goe with his Master into the house of Rimmâ—n and offer sacrifice with him unto the idoll but whether he might not waite upon his Master thither and performe a civill for the bowing spoken of was as Câ—iâ—tan well noteth genuflexio obsequii non imitativa a bowing to the King not to the Idoll oâ—â—ice to him or make an obeysance whilest the King leaned on his hand and yet his heart smote him for this and his conscience misgave him that the Lord would be displeased with him for it for so much his prayer importeth The Lord pardon thy servant in this thing Secondly the words of the Prophet Elisha Goe in peace doe not necessarily import an approbation or permission of that which Naaman proâ—ounded but either a meere forme of valediction as if he had said in our
and Supremacie Matth. 10.16 Be ye wise as Serpents and Simple as Doves LONDON Printed by I. L. for Nicholas Bourne at the South entrance to the Royall Exchange 1642. A Preface to the Reader Gentle Reader I Am to write of a point of Controversie wherein I know that I shall undergoe the censure of divers sorts of people yea amaze some at the strangenesse of the thing Yet my intention being good as tending to the safeguard as well of souls as bodies of all and I my selfe being constrained by a kinde of naturall necessitie thereto as suffering much not only by the severitie of the Laws for my Religion which is the least but likewise both spiritually and temporally by the malice and treachery of some evill spirits instigating others to take advantage by Religion doe hope to finde approbation therein at least of the wiser sort Although I cannot see but why in reason not pretending the least prejudice to Religion but rather the good of Gods Church as I shall make appeare the weakest sort of Catholiques should not be likewise pleased therewith For although Religion as it is taken for Christian beliefe ought of every man to be professed according to St. Thomas Aquinas and other Doctors 2a. 2ae q. 3. at two particular times viz. when and as often as the glory of God shall conduce therunto or the spirituall good of our neighbour shall be either conserved or augmented thereby grounding themselves upon the words of our Saviour Matth. 10.32 Qui me confessus fuerit coram hominibus confitebor ego eum coram patre meo qui in caelis est Every one that shall confesse me before men I also will confesse him before my Father which is in heaven Yet it is not necessary to salvation that any man at all times and in all places doe confesse his Religion without necessitie Whence if a man should goe out into the Market place and cry himselfe to be of such and such a Religion or should write upon the frontispice of his house in a countrey contrary to his Religion here liveth a Christian a Protestant or Catholike his act would be thought so farre from vertue or religion as that it would be rather deemed presumption or the height of indiscretion Hence it is that although a Catholike be bound under paine of damnation to professe his religion in the twice before assigned yet he is not bound to professe a Recusancy of a thing of its own nature indifferent thereby at all times and in all places to discover his Religion for this were as much in effect as to cry himselfe over the whole kingdome or to write over his doore that he were A Catholike or at least some Sectary For as I shall hereafter say Recusancy is common both to Catholikes Brownists and other Sectaries different in opinion from Protestants which would be an occasion to call himselfe in question for the Religion he professeth whence I may rightly describe the Recusancy of Catholikes no otherwise then to be an indiscreet discovery of a mans Religion without necessitie or obligation whereby he makes himselfe lyable to the penall laws of England for not going to Church Which was brought first amongst them into England by a certaine company of men for temporall ends procured covertly and by indirect means from twelve Fathers of the Councell of Trent and certaine Popes upon false suggestions to the ruine of many men That I proove what I have said it is necessary that I relate the manner how it was brought in In the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign and the alteration of Religion in England Catholikes went to Church to conforme themselves to the State as they did in K. Edward the sixths time yet privately kept to themselves the exercise of their owne Religion Which some Priests perceiving not convenient for the propagation of their owne family then newly hatched wrought in the Councel of Trent that twelve Fathers of the said Councel not all Bishops yet favourers of the said family might be selected to declare to English Catholikes upon these suggestions following viz. that the Protestants of England were idolatrous and blasphemous hereticks hating God and his Church that their commerce especially at Church would be an occasion of the subversion and ruine of their soules denying and betraying of the true faith giving of scandall to men of tender conscience as breaking that signe which was distinctive betweene the people of God and not his people that it was altogether unlawfull for them to goe any longer to the Protestant Church as appeareth by the words of the said declaration which if I had by me I would willingly have here inserted This declaration being thus obtained they possessed certain Popes to wit Paul the fourth Pius the the fifth the two last Gregories Sixtus Clement and Paul the fifth so strongly with the same and the aforesaid suggestions that the said Popes likewise declared as it is said by certaine rescripts which I never yet could see their going to Church to be likewise unlawfull Which said suggestions had they beene or were they true I should likewise say and grant it unlawfull but not being true as I shall hereafter shew the common opinion of Divines in this point is to be followed to wit that it is a thing indifferent and therefore may be lawfull to frequent the Churches of Schismaticks Now to prove what I have said that it was first brought in by a certaine company of men It is evident in it selfe by the carriage of the businesse for it is altogether improbable that one mans authoritie to wit Doctor Sanders who is named to be the onely Agent herein a man alwaies ill relished in our state and therefore in this point to be esteemed partiall could select so many Fathers out of the said Councel in a matter of such importance upon his owne bare suggestion or that the said Fathers would or ought to have declared the same unlesse they had been made beleeve that the aforesaid suggestions were true in the common opinion of most of the Priests then in our kingdome That it was wrought for temporall ends by the said company the event shewes the same for there is none that have got or do get thereby but onely the said company as appeares by their abundant treasure and rich Colledges for Recusancie begets persecution and persecution almes deeds that God may assist the afflicted in their distresses And by this Recusancie great mens children can get no learning or science within this kingdome but must be sent beyond the Seas each at twentie five or thirtie pound per annum by which their said family was and is propagated and their heape increased Further the politicall invention of recusancie was so sweet and pleasing by reason of the great gaine which it brought that one of the said company Authour of the answer to the libell of Justice all besmeared with wonted pietie so
moral cap. 11. 27 punctâ— 2.4 5. who saith It is lawfull for Catholiques to prâ—y together with Protestants to heare their Service and goe to their Sermons And for this opinion he citeth Navarr lib. 5. Con. 10. 12. de haeret who as all men know was a pious Divine and a man of a tender conscience Againe the said Azorius saith in the said cap. 27. puncto 5. That if an hereticall Prince commands his Subjects that are Catholiques to goe to Church upon paine of death or losse of goods if he doe this only because he will have his lawes obeyed and not to make it Symbolum hereticae pravitatis nor have a purpose to discern thereby Catholiques from Hereticks they may obey it Gregory Martin one of the translators of the Bible into English cited by the said R. P. in his book aforesaid pag. 101. 109. Diana 5. part tract de scandal pag. 191. resol 33. where he saith a man may use the habit and ceremonies of a false law being in danger of death See Hurtado de Mendoza and others by him cited And Paulus Comitolius Resp. moral lib. 1. q. 47. when he comes to handle the question whether a Professour of the Romane faith being sent into those parts where the Greeke Church observes other rites may goe to their service he allows it and builds upon this reason That by the Law of God and nature it is lawfull and the precepts of the Church if any there were that forbid this doe not binde Christians in cases of great detriment to the life or soule or honour or fame or outward things See Azor. above cited for going to the Schismaticall Church of the Greeks where he saith that a Catholique hearing Masse in a Schismaticall Church there on a Sunday fulfilleth the precept of the Church commanding the same See further the Decree of the Councell of Constans and Martin the 5. which beginneth In super ad evitanda scandala c. for the communicating with hereticks as well in service as otherwaies Which Decree extends it selfe further then to our purpose For by the same we may communicate with Hereticks fallen in a Catholike countrey if it be not in point of heresie Yea receive the Sacraments of Priests excommunicated either by law or any sentence of man so they be tolerated and not by name excommunicated See Diana pag. 175. col 1. and the said Hurtado whom he citâ—th If then we may communicate with such men where there may be some danger of sin why should we not communicate with Protestants where there can be no danger of sinne as shall be hereafter prooved It is fourthly proved by the practice of all Catholikes in forreigne Countries for Germany See for Germany and France Navarr lib. 5. Consil. 12. de Heret and see the foresaid Author of the answer his words are these cap. 9. pag. 216. And indeed if the German Catholiques had beene so restrained persecuted and put to death as the English have beene these yeers and had not gone by halfes with the Protestants as in some places the have done they had had perhaps farre more Catholiques at this day and them more zealous and their whole Nation perchance reduced ere this Thus he Where is to be noted that his perhaps and perchance are nothing worth For by their going to Church as he termeth it by halfes with the Protestants their countrey became Catholike long since whereas his zeale of persecution hath not converted ours yet neither is yet like to doe For Scotland it is confessed by the said R. P. pag. 69. with his judgement of their miserie insâ—ing thereby but the truth of the miserie I shall shew hereafter who yet in plaine termes doth not deny my assertion but here and there granteth that some learned discreete man where there is no scandall and in whom there is no danger of subversion may goe to the Church of heretiques and heare their Sermons Much more say I then to the Church of Protestants most of whom are not to be called properly formall hereticks for to heresie as it is a sinne against faith and maketh a formall hereticke is required obstinacie or pertinacie against the doctrine declaration and sence of the Church See Saint Thomas of Aquin. 2â— â—ae q. 11. ar 2o. Cajetan Bannes idem Aragona art 1o. Suares disput 19. de fide sect 3. Now what obstinacie can Protestants be said to have in their opinions with relation to a Church they know not for they know none other but their owne so that although they beleeve amisse whereby they may suffer in the next world and speake hereticall propositions yet because they proceed not from an hereticall mind or consent they are not perfectly heretiques Adde that I my selfe in Germany with other Catholiques of the same countrey have gone to a Synagogue of Iewes without any scandall or having beene judged to have done amisse Ergo I and others may go to a Church of Protestants without any scandall or being judged in reason to have done amisse And I can assure my selfe whatsoever others may thinke of my assurance that the lawfulnesse of going to Church is the common opinion of all forreign Divines that ever I conversed with in any Vniversitie Which in part may be proved by the fact of a certaine Catholique Lady who going to Church in England sent her Priest to Paris to have this case resolved by the Sorbon Doctors who all Subscribed That a Catholique in England might lawfully goe to the Protestant Church That this is true it may be justified by some persons of great qualitie yet alive If any English Scholler shall answer that we went to the Synagogue of Iewes out of curiositie and when they did not exercise their rites and ceremonies I reply that to choose we would have gone if we might have had private conveniencie unknowne to them to have seene their rites and ceremonies neither doe we set downe our intention of going for if it may be done with any intention lawfully especially where the whole matter of all their rites and ceremonies is alwaies conserved to wit a burning lampe with oyle for the soules departed now as they conceive in Limbo patrum a place where the oblation of oyle to that purpose is alwaies kept the tenne Commandements placed in veneration a number of linnen rolles or bands wrote with Hebrew letters wherwith they binde the tenne Commandements according to their distinction of feasts the knife of Circumcision and the like Which may be stumbling blocks to some weake Christians although the men to performe these rites should not be present why should wee not goe to the Protestant Church with some intention lawfully where there are onely men within bare wals saying some Catholique service by them pieced up together without any Catholique forme not to the possible hurt of any but themselves and whether I went to the said Synagogue out of curiositie or out of the love of science to reason
such a command if he had knowne the truth And if any shew of evill result or scandall arise in that he is not obeyed the necessitie of doing the contrarie act being in danger of death must excuse and take away all scandall for in such a case no humane lawes binde as I shall hereafter say I answer to this Objection secondly that there is a disparitie betweene the said meates and going to Church in that the said meates were not to be eaten of necessitie that is there was neither hazard of life or goods in abstaining or more gaine then prejudice of soules in eating And therefore it was more requisite that the wise should abstaine in a matter of so little moment or necessitie where there was scandall then that the weake should have been instructed and admonished that it might have beene done without sinne which is not so in going to Church For in abstaining from thence there is both hazard of life and fortunes and as I shall hereafter say losse of soules and therefore of necessitie the weake are to be admonished and instructed that there is no sinne in the act neither is going to Church prejudiciall but advantageous to soules as experience teacheth Adde that if there were any humane law or Ecclesiasticall law forbidding going to Church it were not to be fulfilled with hazard of life or goods as all Casuists hold See Azorius Navarr consil de haeret above cited if otherwise it doth not appeare forbidden by the law of God For all humane lawes tend to the preservation and conservation of the whole man even in the greatest state of perfection and where by reason of keeping a law disjuncture either of soule or body may probably follow there that law is for the time to be suspended as appeares in the law forbidding to eate flesh in the Lent saying the divine office with danger of being apprehended and the like where the weake ones are rather to be instructed of the necessitie of suspending the law then the body to perish by keeping the same the same say in our case And I doe with reason perswade my selfe considering the Apostles whole discourse in the aforesaid 8. Chapter to the Corinthians that notwithstanding his words verse the 13. if there had beene no other food to have beene gotten for him to have preserved him from famine then the said flesh so offered to Idols that he would rather have perswaded the weake ones that there had beene no sinne in it if with due circumstances they had eaten and how and in what manner they might safely have eaten and so have prevented his sinning against the brethren verse 12. and striking their weake consciences then by abstaining from that and as is supposed wanting all other food have perished through hunger It may be objected thirdly that those famous Doctors of Rhemes William Allen afterwards Cardinall Richard Bristoe William Reynolds and the aforesaid Gregory Martin who translated the whole Bible into English with annotations upon the same in many places as well of the Old Testament as of the new held it unlawfull for any Catholike to goe to the Protestant Church Ergo It is unlawfull and scandalous to goe to the same To the antecedent I answer that the said Doctors were reverend and learned men and their worke renowned but because they would have the same goe forth with more lâ—stre as pleasing the Pope and to avoid all opposition of the aforesaid suggestors they forsooke the common opinion of Divines in two points then agitated the one that the Pope could not depose Kings of their temporall dominions And the other that Catholiques might frequent the Churches of Schismaticks Which they might well doe for their ends being Doctâ—rs and giving some seeming probable reasâ—ns for the same the contrary opinions not being condemned by the Church but left under dispute Yet hence the consequence doth not appeare true For if the aforesaid Doctors had spoken from their hearts grounding themselves upon the Church or reason their interpretation of Scriptures with notes would with me in these poynts have had great authoritie and the conclusion have stood good Whereas now one of the said foure to wit Gregory Martin having delivered his opinion that it was lawfull for a Catholike to goe to Church as appeares by the said booke of R. P. pag. 109. and 110. it seemeth they did not speake in that point their mindes freely peradventure because it was not expedient for all sorts of people which I confesse to be the best reason Yet for Gods sake let us speake the truth in these troublesome times to men at leastwise of reason and understanding Againe the very reasons they give in their annotations upon the fifth Chapter and 19. verse of the 4. booke of Kings doe shew that they did intend but seeming reason and not wholly convincing for whereas for our opinion is and alwaies hath beene usually brought the example of Naaman the Syrian permitted as I have said before by the Prophet Elizeus to goe to the Idolatrous temple Rimmon which is most proper to our case the aforesaid good Doctors reject the said example as nothing like to the same 1. The first reason is because of the time for since the preaching of Christs Gospel say they we are more strictly commanded to professe our faith then in Naamans time Which reason I conceive under favour to be impertinent as well to Naamans case as to ours for the doing of an act indifferent may neither be a profession or a deniall of faith but a meane betweene both viz. a not discovery of the same Neither was it more lawfull in Naamans time to deny God then now 2. The second Reason is because of the place For that the Noblemans religion was not practised in the Countrey where he went to the temple and so there could no scandall arise thereby This reason is in my judgement besides the purpose for no more is Catholike religion practised in this Countrey where we goe to Church Again it proves not Naamans case hereby more lawfull then the going to Church for there may be scandall where a thing of its owne nature may be lawfully done as there might have beene scandall in our Saviours povertie Matth. 17. if he had not prevented it And there may be no scandall and yet the act unlawfull Therefore if it were lawfull abstracting from scandall that being in our case easily avoyded or taken away the thing may still remaine lawfull For if he that goeth to Church be a knowne Catholike the weake are to be admonished of the indifferencie of the thing and the urgent necessitie he hath to doe it and so scandall is avoyded If he be not knowne how can he give more scandall then Naaman did or to whom 3. The third reason is because of the difference of persons in that Naaman had an Office to serve the King in the temple and therefore he might goe lest otherwise the King should have thought
being sufficiently proposed at leastwise to most of them I much doubt For as Diana saith 5a. parte pag. 240. col 1a. A man speaking heresie that is a proposition condemned by the Church without an hereticall consent is no heretique neither in curreth excommunication denounced against heretiques so that although they be incredulous and beleeve not the truth yet they are not properly and in rigor formall heritiques Adde that there is no more sin to goe to the Protestant Church then to goe to them to dinner or to goe with them to a play or other sports And I for my part had rather give twelue pence to heare a Sermon then take five shillings to see a play For there is no such sport as to heare a weake fellow speake fustian with gravitie or tell a fable of the whore of Babylon or Babylonians for so now they terme Catholiques with erected eyes in earnest Or why should it be more lawfull to see a play where most commonly intercedes scurrilitie and obscene gestures and the end of which is nothing but vanitie then to heare a Sermon where perhaps in some places or by some simple men their may be some untruth told of the Pope to please their Auditory although most commonly nothing but moralitie which is the end and intention of the same I pray resolve me § 2. It is not unlawfull to goe to Church because Recusancie is a distinctive signe Which is the second branch of the Minor THat Recusancy is a distinctive sign of a Catholique from a Protestant is most false Which is thus proved If Recusancie be a distinctive signe it is a signe naturall or by institution but neither can be said Ergo it is no signe The Minor is proved Not naturall for as Hurtado above cited well observeth Actions and things are not of their own nature significant but have naturall and politicall uses independent of any signification For a bush hung out at a Taverne doore doth naturally signifie no more wine to be sold then any other creature whatsoever Nor doth the habit of a Bishop naturally signifie a Bishop more then a Judge and so of other things No more doe naturally the actions of men But admit that Recusancy were improperly said a naturall signe yet it would naturally signifie no more a Catholique then a Brownist for he refuseth likewise to goe to Church or any other Sectary Although a posteriori it might be thought by discourse to signifie some one displeased with the Protestant Church but why or wherefore it would never signifie Not by institution for if so who instituted the same God or man Not man for it is out of his power to signe the people of God from not his people It is only the owner of the flocke that must signe the sheepe and none other unlesse it be by speciall order from him Hence when God would signe his people in the old Testament from the people of other Nations he himselfe instituted Circumcision Gen 17. as a distinctive signe betweene them and others that whosoever had that signe should be of his people and who so had it not was to be rejected Neither was it sufficient that any man had accidentally and by the institution of Abraham any other signe by which he might be knowne from others because he was not thought sufficiently marked nor accounted any one of Gods people by any other sign then Circumcision Which was the sole marke of God saying All the male kinde of you shall be Circumcised And this is consonant to reason For one man may get a distinctive signe of another mans institution shall God therefore own him Brownists as I have said have Recusancie doth it therefore follow that they are likewise Catholiques If a sheepe in my neighbours flocke should teare an eare in a bramble or bush or accidentally breake an horne this sheepe is hereby distinct from the rest yet the owner doth not own it by that marke but by a marke of his own institution and ruddle So it is in the present That God did not institute the same it is so evident that it needs no proofe For where may we finde his institution Vnlesse we should run to the all-knowing spirit of hereticks Hence it follows that Recusancie is no distinctive signe If you aske me what is then the signe to know a Catholique from any other Sectary I answer His beleefe of the Creed of the Catholique Church and his lâ—fe at all times in communion with the See Apostolique So Stratford lib. 2. de Eccles. cap. 6. pag. 188. It may be here objected first the common opinion of Divines as the said R. P. saith 2a. 2ae q. 3. To use a distinctive signe of a false religion that properly is such is a deniall of faith and evill in it selfe But the Service said in a Protestant Church is such Ergo. I grant the Major For if the signe be proper of a people rejected of God as since the promulgation of the Gospel Circumcision is to a Jew the Major must needs be true But if the signe be garments or the like used to the worship and ceremonies of a false law which some fondly call a proper signe then the Major meaning the use of such a signe to be a denyall of faith is false according to Diana resol 34. pag. 191. above cited Azorius Sanches and many others there Because such signes being naturall things may be lawfully used as I have said before independent of any such signification and so not properly signes whatsoever R. P. saith to the contrary upon his own bare word The Minor proposition I deny For who instituted that service to be such a signe not God as all Catholiques will confesse but rather the contrary it being Catholique Not themselves for it would savor too much weakenesse to thinke that they would institute to themselves a signe of a false religion And if it be taken for a signe naturally although improperly signifying then I say of its own nature it signifies no more a false Religion in a Protestant then a pious ceremony in a Catholique For Catholiques say the same service Catholiques preach moralitie and each may if hee please receive bread and wine once in a day in a weeke or a moneth in remembrance that Christ dyed for him and this shall be better done then to eate bread and wine without such remembrance For receiving bread and wine See that deduced out of Azorius tom 1. lib. 8. instit moral c. 11. Navar. consil 15. de haeret num 2. Which were but to renew in an urgent point of necessitie the old custome in the Apostles time as appears by the Corinthian Christians in Saint Paul 1 Cor. 11. who did eate and drinke in the Church besides what they received of Christs institution as his true and reall body and blood For after the Sacrifice and Eucharist was ended there were kept Church feasts for the reliefe of the poore upon
the common charges and charitie of the rich By which the charitie and unitie of all sorts were much preserved for which cause the said feasts were called Charities of the ancient Fathers and of Saint Paul vers 20. they were called Coenae dominicae our Lords Suppers because they were made in the Churches which then were called Dominicae that is our Lords houses in which feasts because there hapned some foule abuses which the Apostle rebuking vers 22. Why have ye not houses to eate and drinke in or contemne ye the house of our Lord c. they were taken away See Con. Gang. 11. Con. 3. Laod. can 27.28 Apollorum can 39. Clemens Alex. Sâ— Iust. Sâ— August contra Faustum lib. 20. cap. 20. St. Chrysost. hom 27. in 1 St. Ambrose upon this same place by which it appeares no new thing for Catholiques to take some thing with a good intention besides what was instituted by Christ. Here some may aske whether it belongs to me out of my authoritie to institute or renew this pious ceremony in taking bread and wine in remembrance of the death of Christ generally for the prudent Catholiques of England I answer no. God forbid that I should presume to institute or renew any ceremonie in the Catholique Church but I doe onely in compassion of their miseries present to their necessitie if any be in danger of death losse of fortunes or ruine of posteritie and cannot expect leave from the supreame Pastor of our soules the doctrine of Claudius Carinnus de vi pot leg human c. 10 that even in lawes every particular man hath power to interpret the same to his advantage and to dispense with himselfe therein if there occurre a sudden case of necessitie and there be no open way and recourse to the Superiour much more then said I in a pious ceremonie against which there is no law forbidding the same And if you reply that this is taken in a strange Church I answer That in case of necessitie the plâ—ce is impertinent to the thing For Saint Bonaventure that great and pious Doctor using much jaculatory prayers and being upon the place of naturall necessitie and there uttering some of the said prayers the Devill asked him Whether that were a place to pray in to whom he answered in opusc Hic et ubique meum licet orare Deum That it was lawfull to praise God in all places and to receive bread and wine in a Protestant Church from a Minister or to receive the same in a Taverne from a Vintners boy the godly onely know the difference If you reply againe that so we may offer Incense to an Idol in a temple because we may burne perfume and the Idol we know to be nothing I deny that and the disparity is in this that in offering Incense the act and shew there tends to the honour and worship of the Devill For the place being dedicated to him whatsoever is therein done as an usuall ceremonie is taken whatsoever the intention be as done to his honour Which act as it is unlawfull in it selfe to be done because pretended Idolatrie wherein Gods worship is given to the Devill at least in outward shew so it is unlawfull to faine in words the act to be done becauâ—e it is dissembling the object it selfe being likewise forbidden by the law of God both which are great sinnes and apt to cause great scandall which I shall make appeare not to be in our case where I coâ—tend there is no sinne in the act nor yet dissembling nor the object forbidden If you reply thirdly that there is dissembling in going to Church as going two waies in Religion contrary to the Scripture for thereby I seeme to be otherwise then I am the reply is false for I professe but one religion which is Catholique and at Church I doe but observe the picture of true religion ill formed which is but a humane act not hurtfull but by a pious intention may be made good by which all hypocrisie and dissimulation may be avoyded And if I seeme to Protestants to be a Protestant what am I the worse for that I never yet could finde any law to ground an action against the censures of men If they censure me to be a Protestant I am not under their scourge for religion unlesse they will on purpose make an Act of Parliament to cut off my head which shall be no president for any other Iudges or Iustices and then I must set up my rest with a Noble man saying Contra potentiam non est resistentia There is no resistance against power But continuing alwaies loyall both to my King and Countrey and obedient to God and his Church and in so doing giving both God and Caesar their due and that without either sinne or dissembling I had rather they censure mee unjustly yet according to the lawes established for I alwaies stand pro Rege Lege and so misse their aime by an Ignoramus then I loose my life by a pure might But hence it doth not follow for all their censure that I am a Protestant for to be so I must beleeve the 39. Articles of the Church of England which is the definition of a Protestant Which Articles or any other tenents of theirs I meddle not with for if I must doe all things contrary to Protestants lest I should be thought so when they eate I must fast and when they sleep I must wake which is ridiculous As for their thinking me a Protestant it proceeds from want of knowledge for they or most of them neither knowing what a Protestant or Catholique indeed is if Catholiques went to Church they would not know how to distinguish or persecute them it being lawfull among them for every one to beleeve what he pleaseth may easily thinke amisse of me And for me to take benefit of their ignorance and to hide my selfe in persecution untill either the glory of God or good of my neighbour shall urge me to discover my selfe I cannot yet finde my selfe by any law forbidden It may be objected secondly that there were divers Statutes made upon the alteration of Religion in the 2.5 and 6. yeers of Edward the sixth and 1. and 23. of Qâ—eene Elizabeth in hatred of God and his Church as that the Masse should be abrogated and all the Kings subjects should come to Church to heare such Service as was then oâ—dained to distinguish betweene Catholiques and Protestants and that whosoever should say or heare Masse afterwards should incurre certaine penalties as by the said Statutes appeares But no man could obey these commands without sinne Ergo. I answer that I know not much to what purpose this objection can serve R. P. that made it For all Divines as well Catholiques as Protestants know that all humane lawes binde in conscience no â—urther then they are consonant and conformable to the divine law And as farre as they command lawfull unitie and uniformitie to the good
them up either in science or any other art or trade by reason of Recusancie and this to the ruine of all poore people many having a very great charge and small revenues and part of that likewise taken away for Recusancie Againe if the aforesaid suggestions had presented to their consideration the meanes and wayes of Conversions of kingdomes in generall as that they ought to be done either by miracles warre or policie And have reasoned that for miracles they were not to be expected for that those God ordinariâ—y granted but to Infidels and where by secondary causes they were not probably fezible that by warre they could not be done without a great deale of blood-shed which ought to be avoyded and most commonly with a great deale of rebellion and treachery which were utterly unlawfull And that they were fezible in policie by civilly conversing intermingling and insinuating themselves by degrees into the conversation of all sorts of people So that in time a good effect might have been wrought would not this discourse have been more consonant to truth and charitie and lesse displeasing or odious to our State of England then to suggest that they are Idolatrous hereticks blasphemers of God and his Church professours as indeed they are not because they know the true and sincere professe it of a false religion subverters of souls but poore ones God wote abominable scandalous people c. and that it was a scandal for good people to converse with them in things indifferent and therfore desire that it might be declared unlawfull coÌ„manded that no Catholike might converse w th them as in Christian libertie otherwise he might lawfully do thereby to introduce for their own ends our now goodly distinctive sign of recusancie I appeale to any wise mans judgement And whether the aforesaid rescript and other briefs were not gotten by meere suggestion the case being truly set down by me as it is I appeale likewise to the Pope himselfe who to mine owne knowledge hath been likewise lately notably abused in the like manner Ann. 1639. one Francis Damport alias a Sancta Clara. being at London and having written a booke called Deus Natura Gratia which being disliked by one Day a Franciscan and through the same dislike at Rome being there called into the Inquisition was so much displeased both with his Holinesse and the said Day that he publiquely â—eered the Pope saying that whereas before he thought him infallible which he never thought to my knowledge now he saw that he was fallible as other men were And indeavouring revenge against the said Day substituted a most ignorant and lewd man one George Perrott his ordinary Broker in seditious matters to goe with the sâ—id a Sancta Clara his instructions to Signior Gregory Pauzana then the Popes Agent in London accusing the said Day with much zealous hypocrisie that he had put forth certaine pictures to the hurt of Gods Church and infinite scandall of Protestants After went a Sancta Clara cum tanta gravitate seconding with an abominable deale of zeale and authoritie having then got himself to be Provinciall the complaint of the said Perrot Hereupon the said Signior with the said a Sancta Clara's sollicitor Luke Wadding an Irishman in Rome complaines to the Pope and obtaines upon the former mens suggestions a terrible Bull against the said Day being never cited to answer admonished or knowing any thing thereof The Bull being come to the said a Sancta Clara his lodging in Fleetstreet and safe in his deske he did me the honour to shew me the same Which I read and asking the said a Sacta Clara why he procured it he told me for the said Day his putting forth of the said pictures who likewise said that the said Day knew nothing of the same and therefore desired me to be silent At which I was much astonished and knowing very certainly the ground of the whole businesse to be false and therefore that both the said Day the Popes Agent and the Pope himselfe were most horribly abused I thought that if the said a Sancta Clara were permitted in this manner to abuse men the best men living might be censured excommunicated degraded and what not without ever being heard Which is no practise among Heathens As for the setting forth of the said pictures the matter in them contained as being from my purpose I omit Yet thus much will I speake that it was a thing approved of through the whole Catholique Church the said pictures themselves liked yea desired of the said Day his superiours who to this day doe acknowledge their approbation of the same countenanced by the said a Sancta Clara Perrott and all others ever after they were put forth for the space of above ten yeers before to mine own knowledge A booke at the same time of a Sancta Clara his complaint printed at Doway in defence of the same never proved by oath that any of the said pictures ever came to the hands of any one Protestant Neither doe I thinke that any one Protestant unlesse it might be such as a Sancta Clara had suborned for his own revenge to speake against the same ever saw any of them and therefore there could be no indiscretion or scandall by them proved Nay the said pictures being made for some particular friends devotion not so much as one Catholique to an hundred had or knew of them but contrariwise some that had them from the said Perrott were scandalized through weaknesse by the said a Sancta Clara his questioning of them in this manner as though that should be set forth for their devotion that in it selfe was false Yet notwithstanding all this the malicious suggestions of the said a Sancta Clara against this mans doings did so farre prevaile that Dayes innocency was thought worthy to be condemned by the said Bull for doing a pious and a religious act This indeed I must say that the said a Sancta Clara when he had him at his mercy through the remorse and sting of his own conscience durst not promulgate the said Bull but kept it dead in his deske for feare that those who otherwise honour the Popes Bulls honestly and lawfully gotten would have called him to the Kings Bench Barre for bringing in of this And had he not taken the benefit of the Proclamation of banishment notwithstanding his ambitious and seditious wit he would have been not only questioned for this Bull but likewise for other matters of a farre fouler nature which made it high time for him to run Let any man now judge whether the Popes Holinesse doth not suffer much by hypocriticall suggestions whether he that so notoriously abused him in words did not likewise doe it in deeds For about the same time when the said Bull came over his said booke likewise came out of the Inquisition at which newes the said a Sancta Clara again grudging that his said book should be so questioned and yet passe although by
if the latter then that which moved them to become Catholiques cannot move them to be Protestants againe If the first it were a wonderfull thing that hearing a little moralitie should make them fall from the doctrine they were brought up in all their life or hearing a small piece of controversie mentioned if it should so happen by a Minister they should be presently carried away from the doctrine they have so long knowne and never once tell it to the priests they daily converse with especially when they goe not out of any dislike of their religion but with a cleare conscience for some other ends I conceive it would rather confirme them in hearing that spoken which in their owne conscience they know to be untrue that it will be so farre from troubling or striking their consciences that they will come home rejoycing at the truth which they heard that day impugned as that they heard the Minister speake of such or such a point as that Catholiques adored pâ—ctures or the like which they knew in their owne conâ—sciences to be false and thereby stirre up an earnestnesse in them in religion as zealing their owne being opposed by falshood and this may ingender such passion or distraction in the hearer that it may be thought zeale of religion or heate of devotion Which heate if after this fight of contrarieties or opposition should not be allayed the parties being as it were swallowed up with zeale of the house of our Lord and the dislike of the Sermon as fraught with untruths seeme too troublesome they may depart the Church for there be many cases of necessitie to make a man go out of the Church and as many likewise to make him come short of the same as to Service if it stand if not there is the lesse to be done and it shall never trouble me Sermon or both for as there are many waies to the wood so there are many waies to the Protestant Church And I have alwaies observed that most commonly Catholiques converted from Protestancie have been more firme and solid in religion as knowing both then those that never knew but one And if Schismaticks of whom I have before spoken from the wisest to the meanest of capacity that notwithstanding they goe to Church and are voyd of grace are never so much as shaken from their intention of being Catholiques or their opinion of Catholique religion why should those that abound so much with Gods grace and professed Catholiques be said to be in danger or feared to swerve from a religion they so well know As for blasphemie there is likewise none If you reply as the contrary opinion useth to doe out of Saint Thomas 2a. 2ae q. 13. art 1. and 2. that Protestants out of a set intent and purpose ascribe their heresies to Gods revelation and denie his revelations to Orthodox articles of faith in which consists blasphemy and without this blasphemy they cannot preach and therefore no Catholique can goe to Church I answer the antecedent to be false and this blasphemie to be much like the Rhemists Idolatry as preferring and embracing their owne opinions before God and so honouring a creature and rejecting their Creator but in truth and charitie we ought not to make them worse then they are for blasphemie and Idolatrie being sinnes there must be some formall intention in the sinner to deny God his due in what he doth And so likewise there must be an intention of committing Idolatry that is of preferring and embracing that which is a morally knowne creature before the Creator and so to give the creature what is due to the Creator or otherwise there can be neither blasphemie nor Idolatry As no man will say that I eating flesh on a fasting day unknowne or forgotten commit Idolatry in preferring my belly before the law of Gods Church and consequently God because I had no intention thereto so no man can say that in the Protestant Church there is formall Idolatry or blasphemy because they mistake For Diana saith 5a. parte tract de par mamae resol pag. 138. that blasphemy is a sinne in that contumelious words are spoken against God with a minde or intention to dishonour God either directly or indirectly virtually or interpretative Now in the Protestant Churches what contumelious words are spoken against God with a minde c If you say as before that they ascribe their heresies to Gods revelation and deny his revelation to Orthodoxe Articles I answer thâ—t their minds and intentions are not so much as interpretativè to dishonour God thereby or indeed so to ascribe their heresies For if they knew their opinions to be heresies and the tenents they reject to be Orthodoxe Articles as we do by the light of faith it would evidently follow that they spake sometimes contumeliously against God which they doe not know but simply interpret Scripture according to their owne fancies and therein they erre and mistake And because they doe not endeavour the meanes to search and know the truth by the definitions of Councels and Doctrine of Catholique Fathers they sinne yet doe not commit Idolatrie for it is not their intention to make an Idol of their opinion unlesse you take Idolatry so largely as every sinner may be said to be an Idolater because in every sinne there is an aversion from God and a conversion to the creature and consequently in this sense all sinners are Idolaters And if it be unlawfull to converse with these Idolaters or the like blasphemers that is such as sinne by word or deed we must converse onely in spatio imaginario or as Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 5. vers 10. We must goe out of this world There were divers very learned and holy Fathers as Saint Cyprian in the question of Baptisme administred by hereticks St. Anselme and others who did mistake and erre before they knew the sense and definition of the Church whom therefore to call blasphemers or Idolaters were blasphemie indeed So likewise there are divers points this day controverted among Catholique Divines as the immaculate conception of our blessed Lady and the like the Authours of which to count blasphemers before they knew the sense of the Church were more then peevish Neither are they to be so accounted after the sense of the Church is knowne for the time they held their opinions before So it is with Protestants for although the Orthodoxe Articles are knowne to us by the Church yet to them they are unknowne and to most of them so unknowne as if they had not been revealed at all because they know none other Church but their owne And therefore what they beleeve they have by errour and mistake and not as blasphemy Whence in my opinion it were more proper and Apostolicall for such men as call them blasphemers and Idolaters to use some prudent and faire way to propose to the aforesaid Protestants the true Church and the authoritie of the same without all suspition of
she meant that she might dispose of Church matters as her Father had and have power to forme what Church she pleased and so that should suffice her Highnesse It is to be noted thirdly that the aforesaid oath when it was made was unlawfull to be taken by any Catholique as the oath before made in the dayes of King Henry the 8th Although when it was made it was not altogether so unlawfull as that of King Henry because in his dayes there was no other Church extant or like to be extant in England but the Catholique Church of which contrary to the Law of God and his own conscience he made himself head as appears by a booke set forth by the said King himself in the later end of his raigne and many yeers after he had framed his Oath of Supremacie intituled A necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian man set forth by the Kings Majestie of England c. In which he sets forth the Christian faith then to be professed in England Which was as absolutely Catholique and the self-same in every point as now it is in Rome And if any man should have sworne him the supreame head as he intended of that Church he would have sworne false as making the Church a Monster in having two heads or depriving the Pope of his authoritie granted him by God which had been to have denyed an Article of faith but when the said Oath was repealed in Queene Maries dayes And another Oath of Supremacie made in the aforesaid first yeere of Queene Elizabeth It was as I have said to inable her not so much to be head of the Church then extant and to be utterly abolished as to be Governour of a new Church distinct from the Catholique Church then out of hand to be propagated and established of which to sweare Her Head before it was or to sweare Her Head of the Church then extant which she conceived superstitious of which indeed she was not head was in a true and proper sence unlawfull And so continued unlawfull untill after the abrogation of Masse and perfect establishment of the new Protestant Church within this Realme and other His Majesties Dominions Which being established as now it is the said Oath of Supremacie ceased from being unlawfull because then there was an apparant face of a Church distinct from the members of the Catholique Church which then began scarce to appeare in respect of the greater multitude of which only she was supreame governour and chief head and no other person whatsoever had or ought to have any jurisdiction or preheminence in the same and all that were or are not of the same faith and Church were and are in a true and proper sense forreiners to the same It is to be noted fourthly that a man may be said to be a Forreiner in a twofold sence First in respect of a temporall Dominion Secondly in respect of faith whence ariseth a spirituall jurisdiction In the first sence all that are not Natives of His Majesties Dominions although some Lawyers say all that doe no homage to His Majestie are forreiners In the second sence all that are of the Protestant faith with the King are Domesticks of the same faith and within His Dominions only subject to His spirituall jurisdiction by the Laws of the Realme And all that are not of the Protestant faith are forreiners to the same conformable to St. Paul who accounted all those of whatsoever Nation or under whatsoever temporall Dominion or Iurisdiction in the world who were of the same faith with himselfe which he taught were Domesticks of that faith And those of whatsoever Nation or temporall Dominion that were not of the same faith he accounted forreiners Whence he saith Gal. 6.10 Let us doe good to all but especially to the domesticks or those of the house of faith And 1 Thess. 4. vers 12. Rogamus ut honeste ambuletis ad eos qui foris sunt nullius aliquid desideretis We desire you brethren that you walke honestly towards them that are without that is forreiners to our faith and need nothing of any mans It is to be noted fifthly and chiefly what conditions are required in every lawful oath which according to the Prophet Ieremy are three viz Truth Iudgement and Iustice for he saith in his fourth Chapter Thou shalt sweare our Lord liveth in truth and in judgement and in justice upon which place the holy Doctor S. Hierome noteth that the foresaid conditions are requisite to every oath of whom all Divines have leâ—rned the same requiring in every lawfull oath every of the said three conditions The reason hereof is because an oath being an invocation of God as witnesse that what we speake is true it is requisite that we should use judgement or discretion to see that we doe nothing rashly or without due reverence devotion and faith towards so great a Majestie but we must especially regard that we make not him who is the chiefe and Soveraigne veritie and inflexible justice either ignorant oâ— what we say or Patron of a lye as witnesse of that which either is false in assertion or unjust in promise Hence an oath wanting Iudgement or discretion and wisdome is a rash and foolish oath that which wanteth Iustice is called an unjust oath And finally where there is not truth it is adjudged a false or lying oath and is more properly then all the rest called Perjurie These notes premised I shall now prove the said Oath of Supremacie to be lawfull for any Catholique to take Every Oath that is accompanyed with the three said conditions or companions viz. veritie justice and judgement in the opinion of all Divines Canon and Civil Lawyers is a lawfull Oath but such is the Oath of Supremacie above recited in every part and particle of the same Ergo. The Minor is proved discoursing of every branch in particular and first of the first branch wherein I sweare that the King is only Supreame Governour of this Realme as well in all Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall things or causes touching the Church of the said Realm as Temporall touching the State or of any other his Dominions Which I doe sweare discreetly as a thing true and just For there is no other Supreme Governour of temporall things to be assigned but the King as all will confesse nor of Ecclesiasticall things or the Church of England as by a sufficient Enumeration may be proved For the Parliamâ—nt is not supreame governour of the Churches within this Realme when as according to the naturall light of reason the King is governour of that and therefore not supreame The Primate cannot be assigned supreame governour when as he hath all his authoritie of government from the King and so he hath a Superior A Lay-eldership cannot be supreame governour for although it be unknowne what it is or from whence it receiveth its authoritie yet I thinke no Lay-eldership so barbarous as not to
their originall Fountaine sith the most of them if not all might be gathered out of more ancient Liturgies For which See Biblioth Patru to 1. And if it be so then it may be said That the mud of Popery fell into them but they sprang not from Popery but from purer fountains * It hath been I confesse a long custome in the Latine Church ever since Pope Vitalian to celebrate the Church Service in the Latine tongue but it was never the custome of the Catholique or Vniversall so to doe The Greeke and Syrian and African and other Churches had from the beginning and have at this day their Service in their own languages Neither is the reason the Priest alleadgeth here of any force namely That w as the Catholike Religion is universall so it should be exercised in an universall language which he will have to be the Latine For first there is no necessitie that the Catholike Religion which is universall should be exercised in an universall language but rather in all languages Secondly since the division of tongues at the tower of Babell there was no language universall in all the world the Greeke was for a time the furthest spread and after the Romane but neither of them nor any other was spoken or understood by all Christians and at this day if we may beleeve travellers no language is so generally knowne and spoken as the Slavonian Thirdly the unity of language maketh nothing to the unitie of Religion or the Church neither doth the Apostle require that the Divine Service be performed in any one tongue but that it be done in a knowne tongue to the edification of the Church 1 Cor. 14.4.12.14.16 And to that end among others was the gift of tongues given x See page 28. Letterr. y See the lettero. pag. 17. z See the letter R pag. 28. a This definition of an heretique is both defective redundant defective for every obstinate deniall of an article of faith makes not an heretique unlesse his conscience be clearely convinced of his errour out of the word of God it is redundant also for a man may be an heretique by denying any article of faith though that article be not proposed to him by the Catholike Church to be beleeved though but his pastour or any other religious Christian out of Gods word clearely propound it to him and prove it or it be read by himselfe in the Scripture if he obstinately persist in the denyall thereof after his conscience is convinced he becomes an heretique b The Protestants of England know other Churches besides their own and some have learnedly discoursed of all the Churches in the Christian world as Purchas Brierwood Mocket Mr. Paget and others 〈◊〉 true it is they acknowledge no infallibilitie in the Roman or any particular Church nor receive any Church for true and Orthodoxe which consenteth not with them in all points of faith either expresly set downe or by cleare and necessarie consequence deduced from holy Scriptures c The Protestants hold nothing contrary to the Catholique Church though they hold many things contrary to the present Romane Church which is neither the Catholike Church nor a sound member thereof as is proved invincibly by Iohn Reynolds praefat thesium Sect. 12. Thes. ss 27. Apol. 5.23 And Bilsons answer to Cardinall Allen part 4. And Abbot against Bishop in a Treatise intituled The true ancient Romane Catholike to which none answer hath yet beene given nor sufficient can be d With what face can he say that the Protestants are incredulous and beleeve not the truth Who entirely beleeve the whole doctrine of the Scriptures together with the three Creeds that which beares the name of the Apostles the Nicene and that of Athanasius together with the foure first generall Councels in which time the Church most flourished as also the joynt Doctrine and unanimous consent of all the Fathers both of the Greeke and Latine Church for five hundred yeeres after Christ our Lord came into the flesh Let this traducer of the reformed Churches answer punctually whether he beleeveth that the learned Doctors Confessours and Martyrs who lived and died within the first 500. yeeres held the entire Catholique faith necessary to salvation or no If they held it not how were they saved upon what good ground or warrant are so many of them canonized for Saints even by the Roman Church but on the other side if they beleeved all things necessary to salvation how can we be esteemed incredulous or defective in our faith who beleeveth all that can be proved to have beene joyntly beleeved and unanimously professed by them e Is this the holy Romane Religion to make a May-game of Religion and to goe to Sermons as to a play to make themselves merry and dispell a Melancholly dumpe Besides their owne third commandement enjoynes them to keepe Holy-dayes and their owne Casuists allow the Lords day to be a day that is holy And is this a piece of holynesse to goe on such dayes to a play yet neither doe I beleeve that he can readily name the man much lesse many men that spake fustian with gravity in our Pulpits but I am sure he who patched up this Safeguard out of rags of Religion and falshood speaks Linsewoolsey through his whole Discourse and contrary to the law ploweth with an Oxe and an Asse The later of which here brayeth irrationally and unjustly against the generalitie of Protestant Preachers and Sermons Forsooth we are silly weake and ignorant men but they are all profound Gamaliels nay Angelicall and Seraphicall Doctors Whereunto I answer as Saint Paul did to the calumnies of the false Apostles 2 Cor. 10.12 We dare not make our selves of the number to compare our selves with them that commend themselves but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves amongst themselves understand not The Catholiques he saith are Hounds â—lood Hounds I grant and our Ministers timorous Hares they dare not encounter the weakest Romane Catholique they neither understand the controversies of Religion nor dare meddle with any in their Sermons If this were true which all our hearers know to be most false yet me thinks Iuvâ—nal speaks very good reason Loripedem rectus derideat Aethiopem albus And what great Clarks I pray were those of whom Boniface Bishop of 〈◊〉 â—pâ—ke in his time heretofore we had woodden Chalices and golden Priests â—ut now we have golden Chalices and woodden Priests what great Gamaliels were they of whom Bonaventure complaines Quidam sacerdotum â—lavem habent he speaketh of the Key of knowledge quidam claviculam quidam nullam what was he upon whom Sir Thomas Moore thus playes in his â—pigrâ—m tu bene cavisti ne te ulla occidere possit litera nam nulla est lâ—tera nota tibi Be not frighted at the words of the Apostle the letter killeth thou hast taken good order that it shall not kill thee for thou knowest not a lettâ—â— What was he
taste and other accidents of bread Fifthly If the flesh of Christ may be eaten with the mouth without faith not only infidels and reprobates but even rats and mice might sometimes through the negligence of Priests gnaw upon the consecrated Host and eate the flesh of the Son of God which were horrid to imagine and blasphemous to utter Sixthly if the Romish Priests undoubtedly beleeve this doctrine of transubstantiation as they doe other Articles of their faith why did Garnet and other Popish Priests when they were required to say these or the like words if after I have consecrated and pronounced the words this is my body there be not in stead of the bread the very flesh of Christ let me have no part in heaven they refused so to doe this profession being demanded of them but a day or two before their deaths when if ever men will clearely discharge their conscience and utter whatsoever is in their very heart it being the last time they are like ever to confesse with the mouth unto salvation Seventhly if the bread be transubstantiated into Christs body and his body truly really and properly taken from the hand of the Priest put into the mouth chawed with the teeth and swallowed down into the stomacke of all communicants either Christ of necessitie must have two bodies one visible another invisible one with the full dimensions of a man the other of a wafer one passible the other impassible one residing in one place the other filling a million of places or at least the selfe same body of Christ must at the same time be visible at the right hand of his Father and invisible in the Host with the dimensions of a man in heaven and of a wafer on earth with distinction of organs in heaven and inorganicall upon earth resting in heaven and moved on earth from the hand to the mouth and from the mouth to the stomack of millions of communicants Lastly I demand of this Priest and his pew-fellows what becomes of Christs body after it is conveighed into the stomack doth it remaine there after the forme and accidents of bread are changed or doth it some wayes remove out of the stomack or is it there converted into any other substance they dare not pitch upon any of these three nothing therefore remaineth but an annihilation or corruption in the stomack and so the holy one of God whom God would never suffer to see corruption no not in the grave shall now after his glorification suffer corruption in the stomack of all Romish Capernaits i The Apostle in that place speaketh not of Suppers in the plurall number but the Lords Supper in the singular and vers 23. delivereth the right manner of administring it according to Christs institution and so St. Cyprian in his Tract de caena Domini and the most approved interpreters both ancient and moderne understand the word and not of love feasts As for the reason this authour alleadgeth for this his exposition it is very frivolous For if the love feasts must therfore be tearmâ—d coena Dominicae our Lords Suppers because they were made in the Churches which were then called Dominicae by the same reason the Homilies and Catechisings and Songs should be called Dominicae because they were made said or sung in the Churches which were then called Dominicae k He meaneth a Romane Catholique or Papist which indeed can hardly be knowne to be a true Catholique See pag. 1. letterc. But doth he think that we know not what a Papist is Let them remember what Polycarp did answer when Marcion accoasting him said Nosti me Doest thou know me Yes saith Polycarp Novi primogenitum diaboli I know the first begotten of the devill We know you qua tales to be the naturall issue of the man of sinne and whore of Babylon and in this double and dissembling way it is hard to say of what religion you are or whether of any at all l A lewd slander it is not lawfull among us for every one to beleeve what hee pleaseth but this Priest thinketh it lawfull for him to speake what he pleaseth though against common sense and his owne conscience For within tenne lines of these words he maketh mention of the 39 Articles of the Church of England to which we all are bound to give our assent and consent and in case any Parson or Viâ—ar doe not reade these Articles and publikely testifie his approbation of them within a moneth after his induction into his Benefice he lapseth his Living Besides it is the knowne doctrine of all Protestants that the Scripture is the sole and perfect rule of faith and that as we may not beleeve any thing contrary unto it so neither any doctrine as necessarie to salvation which cannot be evidently proved out of it Of what brasse then was the brow of this slanderer made who affirmeth it to be lawfull among Protestants for every man to beleeve what he pleaseth m See page 53. Letter E. n See the Advertisement to the Reader o We are as much beholding to the stiâ—câ—er up of this Safeguard for the Relation herein closed as the Church of Rome hath little cause to con him thanke for it For hence we learne first what credit is to be given to the Popes briefes which may be so easily procured by false suggestions to the wrong and prejudice of those that deserve well of the Roman cause A cleare evidence hereof we have in Day the Franciscan who never so much as appearing before his Holinesse to answer for himselfe is censured by the Popes Bull and that for doing a pious and religious act Secondly what a silly Consistory the Papall is at this day the Pope himselfe as fallible a man as any other and the Cardinals slight and weake fellows never a skilfull Pilot sitting at the Sterne of Peters ship Thirdly what charitie there is betweene Romish Priests and Iesuits and how they heape coales of hell fire one upon anothers head Davenport otherwise Franciscus a Sancta Clara procures a Bull like to Phalaris his brazen Bull with fire in the belly of it to torment Day the Franciscan without his fault or knowledge and this Priest here condemns Sancta Clara to black darknesse for ever pallentes umbras erebi noctâ—mque profundam this man saith he is descending to Lucifer who will presume to be copartnâ—r with the holy Ghost and thus leaving him the said a Sancta Clara to him that will have him c. tantaene animis caelestibus irae are they Friers secular Priests or Devils that thus spit fire one at another Let Davenport have the day of Day at Rome what hath Sancta Clara done that in the charitaâ—le censure of this Priest Lucifer must have him He tooke upon him to draw some Rules out of Scriptures and the writings of the ancient Fathers For the direction of generall Councels in declaring matters of faith A capitall crime no doubt but what else hath this
carpers at it have been as mute as fishes o See p. 117. letter â— p A shameles untruth in his sense for he taketh Catholike as usually in this Pamphlet for the Romish and Popish Church in that sense it is most false For there were many congregations in England before this 35 of Hen. 8. of Protestants and divers crowned with martyrdome as Th. Man in the yeere 1518. Io. Browne in the yeere 1517. and divers others set down in the Acts and Monuments of the Church some before and some after Luther began the Reformation in Germanie q A notorious untruth as appeares by the very Act Ann. 35. in which the Oath of Supremacy was first required to be taken King Henry never challenged to himselfe the Style of Head of the universall Church but only to bee supreame Hâ—ad under God of the Church of England and Ireland and all other His Majesties Dominions r No other Oath at all in sense but the former only abridged in words as will appeare evidently by comparing them both which are copied out in the Appendix s A ridiculous evasion and contrary to the intention and letter of the law as shall be proved hereafter The intention of the law was to abrogate the Popes usurped jurisdiction not over the Protestant Churches which he never had but over the Romish Catholiques or Papists which he before that time enjoyed and exercised Besides the letter of the law carryeth supreame governour of the Realme and all other Her Highnesse Dominions and Countreys not only of the Protestant Church within Her Realmes This is made more evident in the Admonition to the Injunctions 1. Eliz. where Her Supremacie is described to be over all manner of persons borne within Her Realmes Dominions and Countreys therefore over Papists as well as Protestants unlesse they be no manner of persons t I acknowledge the word forreiner is sometimes taken for an opposite to domesticus fidei a stranger from the covenant of grace but in the Act of Parliament and Oath of Supremacie as it is expounded in the Admonition which is also Enacted the word forreiner can signifie no other but those who are not natives u Neither can the Pope Here we thanke him for freeing us from all subjection to the Pope and See of Rome Though he challengeth not to be the Head of the Catholike that is the universall Church of Christ scattered farre and wide over the whole face of the earth yet he challengeth to be and is Supreame Governour of all His Subjects within His Dominions whether they are members of the Romish or Reformed Church w The superstition and Idolatry of Papists practised in England doth not any way abridge His Majesties Supreame power for he exerciseth His power not in regulating those idolatrous and superstitious rites but in suppressing them and punishing those who so defile Gods worship in His Kingdome x See this Evasion refuted pag. 120. letter S. y The words of the Oath are not that no forreiner Prince or Prelate hath or ought to have any iurisdiction or spirituall authoritie within the Protestant Church but within the Realmes therefore no jurisdiction within His Majesties Dominions over any members either of the Protestant or of the Romish Church z See the Answer to this sophisme pag. 120. letter T. a It is true if the words will beare it and it be agreeable to the intention of the law lawmaker but maledicta glossa quae corrumpit contextum cursed be the Glosse which corrupts the Text quite perverts the meaning of the law as this doth See the Injunctions b Of the intention of the law and lawmaker in prescribing this oath to that which I have spoken before I shall adde something in the close of this Chapter to which â—referre the Reader for further answer c The law is just and reasonable without your forced and forged Glosse for why should not all that enjoy the benefit of his Majesties lawes as well as Protestants submit themselves to his Majesties scepter and supreame power over themselves as well as Protestants especially seeing the power is the same which the most religious Kings of Iuda and most Christian Emperours of Rome and divers of his Majesties Predecessors within this Realme have exercised upon all their subjects d See pag. 119. letter Q. e See pag. 119. letter R. f And yet his words as you cite them out of his Praemonitorie Preface pag. 9. are these The oath of Supremacie was devised for putting a difference betweene Papists and them of our profession Devised by whom but by the lawmakers and if devised by the the lawmakers for this end to put a difference betweene Papists Protestants it cannot be denied but that it was their intention to make this oath as a didinctive signe whereby to know Papists in the kingdome from Protestants g See pag. 118. letter P. h The question whether a Papist may with a safe conscience take the â—ath of Supremacie may be understood either in sensu diviso or in sensu composito in sensu diviso it is true that a Papist may and ought to take the Oath of Supremacie for he that is now a Papist may become a Protestant and then he not onely may but ought to take this Oath being lawfully tendered unto him but in sensu composito it is false that a Papist continuing in his faith and profession of popery may with a safe conscience take this Oath for this Oath implyeth the renouncing a maine Article of his faith from whence he hath the denomination of a Papist See the Notes of the Rhemists upon Act. 11.26 which fasten and assume this word or name Papist to the children of their papall Church namely the Popes Supremacie and this as before was promised shall now be demonstrated 1. â—irst from the intention of the law and lawmakers who prescribed this Oath of Supremacie as appeares both by the Preface to the Oath Whereas therâ— was a Statute made and ordained against such as would extoll and stand to the iurisdiction power and authoritie of the See and Bishop of Rome in which Statute there is comprised another oath in such wise as in the same Statute among other thinâ—â— is mentioned for as much as in both the said Oathes there lacketh full anâ— sufficient words whereby some doubts might rise Be it enacted by the authoritie of this Parliament that this Oath hereafter mentioned in this Act shall sâ—and in force and place of the same two Oathes And by these words in the bodie of the Oath I shall keepe all the contents of the Act and all other Acts and Statutes made in and for that purpose viz. the derogation the extirpation and extinguishment of the usurped and pretended authoritie power and iurisdiction of the See and Bishop of Rome As likewise by the Preface to the Act of Parliament in 1. Elizabeth viz. To the intent that all usurped and forreigne power and authoritie Spirituall and Temporall may