Now to shew that he is a forger of new opinions by which he would faine make himselfe singular see but his wordes immediately preceding those which a little before wee mentioned where hee boasteth and is wonderfully in loue with a new name which he hath taken vpon himselfe that is to say Purus putus Euangelicus A mainly pure Gospeller although indeed the word pure was neuer yet taken in a good part For amongst the ancient Heretiques there was a Sect that called themselues Catharoi and there was also another Sect among the Anabaptists that were called Puritanes from whence the Precisians of our Kingdomes who out of selfe-will and fancie refuse to conforme themselues to the Orders of our Church haue borrowed their name And for the word Gospeller although it hath bene assumed in diuers places by some of our Religion yet hath it this ill fortune that it is more vsually receiued in those parts of Hungary and Boheme where there are such infinite diuersities of Sects agreeing in nothing but in their Vnion against the Pope then in any other place The holy Scripture it selfe in the Actes of the Apostles mentioneth the name of Christians and the ancient Primitiue Church did attribute vnto the faithfull the names of Catholique and Orthodox So as for such a fellow as Vorstius to affect new Titles for his Religion it hath surely no good relish his intention without doubt being no other then by this meanes to make a distinction and in time a rupture betwixt himselfe and the Orthodox professors of our Religion And for proofe that hee is stedfastly resolued to persist in all these nouelties and not to retract any thing of that which he hath written see what hee saith in the last page saue one of his said Preface Opinor enim ipse vt magni illius Erasmi verba hìc aemuler in libris meis nihil reperiri quo deterior quispiam reddi possit For I am of opinion to vse the words of that great Erasmus that there is nothing to be found in my Bookes that can make any man the worse that reads them As for his Booke which followes this Preface it verifies the Prouerbe Dignum patellà operculum A couer fit for such a dish For it is so full of distinctions and sophisticall euasions so stuft with As it weres in some sorts in my sence and such words as these as euen in that poynt hee hath also a tincture of Bellarmine But God is Vnity it selfe and Veritie is One and naked and in our vsuall manner of speech we call it the simple Verity but neuer was it yet called the double veritie Wee haue thought good to set downe here two places of his sayd Booke that thereby the Reader may iudge of the rest whereof one is in the twelfth page in these words Argumenta quae adferuntur à Patribus vel à recentioribus Theologis pro aeterna Christi generatione aut fallacia sunt aut friuola The arguments which are vsed both by the Fathers and by the moderne Diuines for the eternall generation of Christ are either sophisticall or friuolous These words as he saith he is charged to haue vsed and he cannot bethinke him of any other euasion but to adde the word Quaedam some arguments c. Now wee shall desire thee good Reader here to obserue that this man condemning some arguments which the Fathers had gathered out of the holy Scripture to prooue the eternall generation of Christ as deceitfull and friuolous hee will bee sure howsoeuer not to alleadge any other arguments either out of the Fathers or of his owne brayne which shall be stronger then those which he hath reiected And in the same fashion he behaues himselfe throughout his whole Booke for we shew you this but for a scantling In the other place he directly denies that euer he affirmed in his other Booke that Feare and Desperation were incident to God his wordes are these in the eighth page Nam metum desperationem ne quidem vspià m nominaui For I did neuer so much as name Feare and Desperation in any place And yet neuerthelesse let any man looke vpon his other Booke Tract Theol. de Deo pag. 114. and pag. 450. and hee shall find two seuerall Discourses of a good length concerning these two points Herein hauing no other shift he betakes himselfe to an absolute and flat Negatiue But to the intent that the Reader may iudge of his maner of speaking through his whole last Booke intituled A Christian and modest Answere and how he playes the Sophister therein we haue set downe diuers of his phrases in manner of a Table which we haue caused to be extracted out of his said Booke ¶ 1. Estne Deus essentialiter immensus vbique presens 1 Pag. 16. lin 16. NVsquam disertè scriptum est substantiam Dei simpliciter seu quouis modo immensam infinitam esse 2 Pag. 16. lin 23. Et non pauca in S. Literis occurrunt quae contrarium non dico clarè asserunt sed tamen asserere videntur Interim aliud est videri aliud reuerâ esse Respondeo tamen ex sensu meo 1 Pag. 22. lin 23. Quoad Thesin seurem ipsam est Tametsi non quoad 2 Pag. 4. l. 19. specialem modum seu 3 Pag. 22. l. 26. hypothesin scholasticam 4 Pag. 23. l. 1. Quae tamen falsa non est verùm aliquatenùs hactenus infirmiùs asserta sic aliquatenùs dubia Is God essentially immense and euery where present It is in no place clearely set downe that the substance of God is simply and euery way immense and infinite And there be many places in the holy Scripture which I doe not say clearely affirme yet seeme to affirme the contrary In the meane time it is one thing to seeme and another thing to be indeed Yet in mine owne sense I answere thus Simply and positiuely it is Howsoeuer not in that speciall maner and sort as the Scholemen hold Which opinion neuerthelesse I doe not say is false but I say it hath hitherto bene somewhat weakely proued therefore in some sort doubtful ¶ 2. Estne in Deo quantitas Est sed 1 Pag. 2. l. 28. non physica Verùm 2 Pag. 23. l. 12. hyperphysica Attamen 3 Pag. 2. l. 29. nobis planè imperceptibilÃs merè spiritualÃs Is there Quantitie in God There is but not a naturall Quantitie But a supernaturall Neuerthelesse not possible to be perceiued by vs but meerely spirituall ¶ 3. Estne Deus infinitus 1 Pag. 3. l. 16. Omnia Entia certam definitam essentiam habent id quod Deo ipsi alìquatenus aptare licet 2 Pag. 3. l. 18. Deum quolibet sensu rectè infinitum dici non posse quum infinitudo illa quae definitioni certae oponitur in Deum reuerâ non cadat Is God infinite Euery thing that hath a being hath
be more cruel or more voyd of reason then to seeke to stop the strong and violent streame of tyrannie by sedition These words me thinke doe make very strongly and expresly against butchering euen of Tyrannical Kings And whereas a little after the said passage he teacheth to expell Tyrannie he hath not a word of expelling the Tyrant but onely of breaking and shaking off the yoke of Tyrannie Yet for all that he would not haue the remedies for the repressing of Tyrannie to be fetcht from the Pope who presumeth to degrade Kings but from Philosophers Lawyers Diuines and personages of good conuersation It appeareth now by all that hath bin said before that whereas Gerson in the 7. Considerat against Flatterers doeth affirme Whensoeuer the Prince doeth manifestly pursue and prosecute his naturall subiects and shew himselfe obstinately bent with notorious iniustice to vexe them of set purpose and with full consent so farre as to the fact then this rule and law of Nature doeth take place It is lawfull to resist and repell force by force and the sentence of Seneca There is no sacrifice more acceptable to God then a tyrant offered in sacrifice the words doeth take place are so to be vnderstood as he speaketh in another passage to wit with or amongst seditious persons Or else the words doeth take place doe onely signifie is put in practise And so Gerson there speaketh not as out of his owne iudgement His Lordship also should not haue balked and left out Sigebertus who with more reason might haue passed for French then Thomas and Occam whom hee putteth vpon vs for French Sigebertus in his Chronicle vpon the yeere 1088. speaking of the Emperours deposing by the Pope hath words of this tenour This Heresie was not crept out of the shell in those dayes that his Priests who hath said to the King Apostata and maketh an hypocrite to rule for the sinnes of the people should teach the people they owe no subiection vnto wicked Kings nor any alleagiance notwithstanding they haue taken the oath of alleagiance Now after the L. Cardinal hath coursed in this maner through the histories of the last aages which in case they all made for his purpose doe lacke the weight of authority in stead of searching the will of God in the sacred Oracles of his word and standing vpon examples of the ancient Church at last leauing the troupe of his owne allegations he betakes himselfe to the sharpening and rebating of the points of his aduersaries weapons For the purpose he brings in his aduersaries the champions of Kings Crownes makes them to speake out of his own mouth for his Lordship saith it will be obiected after this maner Pag. 52. sequentibus It may come to passe that Popes either caried with passion or misled by sinister information may without iust cause fasten vpon Kings the imputation of heresie or apostasie Then for King-deposers he frames this answere That by heresie they vnderstand notorious heresie and formerly condemned by sentence of the Church Moreouer in case the Pope hath erred in the fact it is the Clergies part adhering to their King to make remonstrances vnto the Pope and to require the cause may be referred to the iudgement of a full Councel the French Church then and there being present Now in this answere the L. Cardinall is of another mind then Bellarmine his brother Cardinall Aduers Barclaium For hee goes thus farre That a Prince condemned by vniust sentence of the Pope ought neuerthelesse to quit his Kingdome and that his Pastors vniust sentence shall not redound to his detriment prouided that hee giue way to the said sentence and shew himselfe not refractarie but stay the time in patience vntil the holy Father shall renounce his error and reuoke his foresaid vniust sentence In which case these two material points are to be presupposed The one That he who now hath seized the kingdome of the Prince displaced wil forthwith if the Pope shall sollicit and intercede returne the Kingdome to the hand of the late possessor The other That in the interim the Prince vniustly deposed shall not need to feare the bloody murderers mercilesse blade and weapon But on the other side the Popes power of so large a size as Bellarmine hath shaped is no whit pleasing to the L. Cardinals eye For in case the King should be vniustly deposed by the Pope not well informed he is not of the minde the Kingdome should stoupe to the Popes behests but will rather haue the Kingdome to deale by remonstrance and to referre the cause vnto the Council Wherein he makes the Council to be of more absolute and supreme authority then the Pope a straine to which the holy father will neuer lend his eare And yet doubtlesse the Council required in this case must be vniuersall wherein the French for so much as they stand firme for the King and his cause can be no Iudges and in that regard the L. Cardinal requireth onely the presence of the French Church Who seeth not here into what pickle the French cause is brought by this meanes The Bishops of Italie forsooth of Spaine of Sicilie of Germanie the subiects of Soueraignes many times at professed or priuie enmitie with France shall haue the cause compremitted and referred to their iudgement whether the Kindome of France shall driue out her Kings and shall kindle the flames of seditious troubles in the very heart and bowels of the Realme But is it not possible that a King may lacke the loue of his owne subiects and they taking the vantage of that occasion may put him to his trumps in his owne Kingdome Is it not possible that calumniations whereby a credulous Pope hath beene seduced may in like maner deceiue some part of a credulous people Is it not possible that one part of the people may cleaue to the Popes Faction another may hold and stand out for the Kings rightfull cause and ciuill warres may be kindled by the splene of these two sides Is it not possible that his Holinesse will not rest in the remonstrances of the French and will no further pursue his cause And whereas now a dayes a Generall Councill cannot be held except it be called and assembled by the Popes authority is it credible the Pope will take order for the conuocation of a Council by whom he shall be iudged And how can the Pope be President in a Councill where himselfe is the party impleaded and to whom the sifting of his owne sentence is referred as it were to Committies to examine whether it was denounced according to Law or against Iustice But in the meane time whilest all these remonstrances and addresses of the Council are on foot behold the Royall Maiestie of the King hangeth as it were by loose gimmals and must stay the iudgement of the Council to whom it is referred Well what if the Councill should happe to be two or three yeeres in assembling and
doctrine and therefore are called here a Crowne of twelue starres vpon her head How soone I say that she thus arayed did bring forth CHRIST in the flesh who is that man-child who rules the Gentiles with an Iron rod as Dauid saith in his Psalmes That great red and ancient Dragon for in our first forefather he vttered his malice to wit the diuell who is ruler of infinite numbers of men which is signified by his seuen heads and seuen diadems or Crownes vpon them and who hath innumerable meanes and instruments to be executors of his malicious will which is signified by the tenne hornes alluding to Daniel and who is so mighty in deceipt that he doeth not onely allure the infidels to follow him but euen a part of the Pastours and the visible Church to their destruction which is signified by his drawing after him with his taile as followers of his intisements the third part of the Starres of heauen and casting them to the earth This dragon hauing waited to destroy her birth and for earnestnesse gaping for it before it was borne and not able to preuaile but by the contrary seeing CHRITS rising from the dead and then his ascending into heauen which is signified by the Childs pulling vp to GOD and his Throne and seeing the Church to flourish though vnder persecution which is signified by her flying to a place in the wildernesse which God had prepared for her where thereafter she must lurke for the space of the dayes ye heard reckoned to wit the Church shal be vnknowne and as it were vnregarded and no man shall know how it shal be sustained for GOD shall nourish it the space of the Antichrists kingdome which is the number of dayes ye heard counted before The Dragon I say hauing found this that both CHRIST and his Church did escape his hands and not onely that but that himselfe also by the vertue of CHRISTS renewing of vs was no moreable to accuse the Saints of God as he did in time of the old Law since now we are made righteous which is signified by the battell in heauen where GOD to declare that none is like vnto him made CHRIST here called Michael whose name imports Who is like GOD with his Angels to fight and ouercome the diuel and his angels and to cast them on the earth Satan I say finding himselfe thus debarred from further accusing of the Saints hauing found that he should neuer haue place to doe that in any time thereafter as on the one part it reioyced all the Angels and Saints in heauen for their bretherens cause on the earth as is witnessed by the song that the voyce did sing in Heauen praising God therefore and extolling the deed of Michael and his Angels who fought so earnestly for the Saints on earth as if they had bene mortall they would not haue spared their liues in that cause for their sakes whom CHRIST had redeemed with his blood and of whose clection he had borne witnesse to his Father so on the other part it enraged the Dragon so that he became the crueller tempter of men vpon the earth aswell for that his place of accusing in heauen was taken away by the mysterie of the redemption which is signified by this fight as for that he knew within short space he was by CHRISTS second comming to be cast downe from the earth into hell there to be chained in eternall captiuitie and misery euen as by the first comming he was cast from the heauen which is signified by the last part of the Song so as he pursueth the Church with heresie and ciuil powers which both are signified by the floods of waters which he spewed out of his mouth after that the Eagle wings were giuen the woman to flie to that place appointed for her in the wildernes where she must remaine the number of dayes ye haue heard to wit after that God had giuen his Church a sufficient swiftnesse to eschew the rage of Satan and to lurke the space of Antichrists raigne which lasteth three times or three yeeres and a halfe that is a time prefixed by GOD and vnknowne to men as ye haue sundry times heard already But seeing that all this vanisheth as if the earth had swallowed and dried vp that flood suddenly 17 The Dragon therefore or the diuel became more wrathfull and enraged then before against the woman or the Church and went about by some other way to make warre against the rest of the womans seed who kept the Commandements of GOD and had the testimonies of CHRIST to GOD the Father that they were chosen and called for these are onely the true posteritie of the Church to wit the successours in grace faith and trewth 18 And I stood vpon the Sea shore I meane it seemed to me that I stood vpon the Sea shore because I did wait to see come out of it which represented all peoples and nations such powers as Satan would imploy to fight against the Church for the declaring whereof this Vision was shewen vnto me and whereof these two last great wonders were but the introduction that by these things past as the roote I might the better vnderstand the branches which are to bud forth thereof as followeth CHAP. XIII ARGVMENT The Popes arising His description His rising caused by the ruine of the fourth Monarchie the Romane Empire The rising of the false and Papisticall Church her description her conformitie with her Monarch the Pope The great reuerence borne to the Pope by many nations and not onely to him but to his Legates A generall defection so great as there shall not be an other visible Church but the Popedome Of the first Pope who did take to himselfe all their blasphemous and arrogant styles ANd then I saw a beast rising out of the Sea to wit from among the number of Nations and peoples I saw a Monarchie chosen and erected vp by this Dragon the deuil and it had seuen heads and tenne hornes and tenne diadems vpon the tenne hornes the signification of these heads and hornes was declared vnto me by an Angel as ye shall heare in the place conuenient hereafter Chap. 17. and vpon these heads was the name of blasphemie for they by the persecution of the Saints and adoring false gods shall both by word and deed blaspheme the name of the Eternall 2 This beast or Monarchie Daniel 7. is the fourth King or Monarchie wherof Daniel prophesied to wit euen that Monarchie which presently reignes and hath the power of the other three reuiued in it for it is farre greater then they And therefore as that Monarchie of the Leopard gat that name because of the swiftnes of the conquest and that of the Lion because of the mightines and cruelty therof and that of the Beare because of the strength and long standing thereof so this is called like the Leopard to wit in shape whereof commeth her agilitie headed like a Lion because his strength is
meanes they shall allure and compell the people to obey their commands and this Church shall also entise the earth and the inhabitants of the same to wit all nations which beleeue the false doctrine that it teacheth to adore this other beast whose deadly wound was healed for it shall perswade them that this hereticall Monarchie ought for conscience sake to be obeyed by all persons in whatsoeuer it commandeth as if it could not erre 13 And to perswade men thereof it makes great signes or wonders yea euen causeth fire to fall out of heauen vpon earth in the sight of men vpon whom because they shall swarue from the loue of the trewth to beleeue lies God shall iustly by the meanes of this false Church as his instrument of reuenge send a strong illusion and deceit with great efficacie of miracles and woonders 2. Thess 2. 2. Kings 1. yea as mightie and strong as that of Elias was calling for fire from heauen which here is repeated 14 And all these miracles it did in the presence of the beast to make the beast to be adored therefore by the inhabitants of the earth and it perswades them to make an image of the beast which was wounded by the sword and reuiued againe for not onely shall this hereticall Monarchy haue power in his owne person to command absolutely many nations but euen the nations shall consent by the perswasion of this false Church to obey the absolute command of his Lieutenants Legats and Embassadors in euery countrey so as they shall not onely be exempted from the lawes of euery countrey wherein they liue but shall euen be fellowes and companions in all honours and priuiledges to the princes or kings thereof And this willing consent of nations vnto this by the perswasion of this false Church is signified here by the making of this image at the Churches perswasion 15 And power was giuen vnto it to wit vnto this false Church to quicken this image and to make it speake and to cause that all those who will not adore this image should be slaine corporally for as the consent vnto this authoritie of the image must be giuen by the nations and so they to be the makers thereof so the authoritie which is meant by the quickening of it and making it speake must be giuen it by the working of this false Church whose rage shall be so great as it shall persecute any who will not thinke the commands whatsoeuer of this Monarches embassadours and images to be an infallible Law as well as his owne 16 And so this false Church makes that all small or great rich or poore bond or free in short all men of whatsoeuer degree shall take the Character or seale of this Monarchie into their right hand or into their forehead to wit publikely professe obedience thereto and assist the maintenance thereof and downe-throwing of all resisters 17 And that none may buy and sell except they haue the Character or the name of the beast or the number of his name for this defection shall be so vniuersall and so receiued by all degrees of men as it shall not be possible to any neither shal that hypocriticall church permit any to be partakers of their ciuill societie which is meant here by buying and selling except they be knowen to be of his fellowship in religion which is meant by the character and his name and the number thereof Then since you see that this defection shall be so generall beware of euery one that shall say Lord Lord thereby to deceiue you for you see by this that false prophets shall for a time so triumph as they shall vaunt themselues to be the trew Church because there shall be no other Church visible at that time although there shall euer besome that shall not bow their knee to Baal for the woman shall not be deuoured by the dragon 1. Kings 19. Chap. 12. but hid and nourished in the wildernesse out of sight for a space as ye heard before Retaine well in memorie these words for the time shall come in the latter dayes that this doctrine shall be thornes in the eyes of many 18 Now as to the number of the beast here is wisedome let him that is endued with knowledge number it for the number of the beast or Monarchie is the number of the man to wit of the first Monarch of this seat who shall first vsurpe all these styles of blasphemie and who in the fourth Monarchie shall reuiue a spirituall supremacie and tyrannie and his number to wit the date of yeeres that he shall begin to reigne in reckoning from the time of this Reuelation is sixe hundred sixtie and sixe Benedictus the 2. Platine CHAP. XIIII ARGVMENT The happie estate of the faithfull in the meane time of the Popes Tyrannie His destruction The faithfull onely are all saued NOw so soone as the tyrannicall gouernment of these two beasts to wit the false church and their king had bene declared by this last Vision vnto me euen as before after the denouncing of the fearefullest plagues the happy estate of Christ and his Church was declared to comfort me as ye heard before so now the plagues that are to be wrought by this spirituall Tyrannie being declared the estate of Christ and his followers in the meane time is next set forth as followeth Then I did looke and loe I saw the Lambe standing vpon Mount Sion and with him a hundred fourtie and foure thousand hauing the Name of his Father written vpon their foreheads for in the meane time that this Tyrannie was raging on the earth this Lambe Christ was standing vpon Mount Sion to wit vpon his holy place out of which he promised saluation to the faithfull as Dauid saith and is accompanied with this great number of faithfull which number was composed of twelue thousand of euery Tribe as ye heard before but this number comprehends in this place all the faithfull aswell of Gentiles as of Iewes although it seeme to be vnderstood of the Iewes onely which is done for continuing of the Metaphore because as Sanctum Sanctorum which was a part of the materiall Temple of Ierusalem did signifie before all the faithfull as ye haue heard so now this number of Iewes here signifies the faithfull both of Gentiles and Iewes as I haue said who now are described here making publike profession of Christ by bearing his marke on their forehead an eminent part euen as the wicked beare on their forehead the Character of their king the angel of the bottomlesse pit These faithfull followers of Christ did beare now his Marke to testifie thereby that they were preserued by it euen in the very time that this Tyrannie was raging all the fastest 2 And I heard a voyce from heauen like the sound of many waters in greatnesse and like the roaring of the thunder in terriblenesse And I also heard the voyce of many harpers playing on their harpes 3 And singing
that followed thereupon The signification of the Arke of the Couenant As to the Arke it selfe we know it was built by Moyses at the cōmand of God in the wildernes of Sinai This Arke was made of Shittim wood which admits no corruption It was of most comely shape and forme two cubits and a halfe in length a cubit and a halfe in height and a cubit and a halfe in breadth ouerlaid within and without with pure beaten gold and was not only a figure of Iesus Christ our perfect Sauiour in whom all the promises of God are yea and Amen 2. Corinth 1.20 and in whom as a sure Arke all abundance of Gods blessings are placed that out of his fulnesse we may all receiue grace vpon grace Iohn 1.16 seeing he is made vnto vs of God wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption 1. Corinth 1.30 but also a sure pledge of Gods continuall presence in Christ with his people to blesse them with all maner of blessings And to signifie this purpose more particularly within the Arke was placed the Tables of the Couenant and Law written by God for which cause also it was called the Arke of the Couenant Rom. 10.4 to teach them in Christ promised the perfection of the whole Law to be found for all that beleeue in him Aboue the Arke was a couer or lid called The Mercie Seate and aboue the lid the figures of two Cherubins couering with their wings the Mercie Seat betwixt the which two the liuing God did louingly speake to the instruction and comfort of his people to assure them that all Gods mercifull dealings with man either in communicating his knowledge to them or in sending his Angels ministring Spirits for their comfort Heb. 1.14 Ioh. 1.4 11. hath the ground and foundation in CHRIST IESVS eternally This Arke then being a sure Sacrament of Gods fauour towards them and a Couenant of IESVS CHRIST wherein corporally Gods mercifull promises did insue followes the third part the forme of doing vsed therein by these persons Generally the action was to bring vp the Arke of the Couenant of the Lord from the house of Obed Edom with ioy and to be placed in the Tabernacle built for it by the King in Mount Sion The forme of doing vsed by euery person is The Priests offer Bullocks and Rammes because that God blessed the worke The King clad in a linnen garment dances and playes before the Arke Chenaniah the chiefe of the singers with his fellowes praises God with Psalmes and all the estates in Israel bring the Arke of the Couenant with showting sound of Cornet Trumpet cymbals violes and harpes and place it in the citie of Dauid Briefly then Dauid vpon his victories doeth transport to his house the same to testifie hereby his care to receiue Gods fauour towards him and his people Not thinking it enough to haue once or twise proofe thereof but also to procure a continuance by the presence of his holy Arke esteeming this the worthiest trophee or triumph he could make or erect for his notable victories A triumph indeed farre surpassing the Egyptian Piramides the Grecian trophees or yet the Romane triumphall chariots As to the harmonie and musicall instruments that accompanied this holy Arke I trust no man is ignorant of the custome that was among the Iewes in praising God with all kind of instruments as Dauids Psalmes innumerable times beare witnesse But in case some would demand wherefore the Church of God should more extraordinarily reioyce at one time then at another seeing we are assured that all Gods actions towards vs are for our weale either spiritually or corporally suppose wee cannot at euery time comprehend it I answere that although I must confesse that sentence to bee most orthodoxe yet must I also confesse that whensoeuer it shall please God to manifest by outward signes to the world as at one time more then another the great loue to his Church by some notable worke for their deliuerance We are then of duty bound in the highest degree to praise God as well for confirming of the weake ones amongst vs as for stopping of the mouthes and dashing of the proud wicked without vs to make the glory of his Name as farre as in vs lieth to resound The manifold examples of the Saints of God through the whole Scriptures prooue this more then euidently besides the examples of the prayers of sundry of the godly who for the glory of his Name more then for their particular weale haue prayed him to giue publike testimonie of his loue towards them So did Moses Ioshua Dauid Elias Elizeus and innumerable others of the Prophets and seruants of God As to the dancing of Dauid dancing playing and such like actions we know are of themselues indifferent and good or euil according to their vse and the intention of the vser and therefore being vsed at this time with a comely zeale for the setting foorth of Gods glory are not onely to be borne with and excused but euen most highly to be praysed and commended although that Michal dispraysed the same Moreouer it is to be marked that Dauid in this doing did nothing without the special motion of the spirit of God as an extraordinarie worke which so fully possessed his soule at this present that forgetfull as it were of the actions of his bodie hee gaue his whole person ouer to be gouerned as it pleased him alwayes seeking in all the honour and glorie of his God without respect to himselfe Christ is the ground of all true Religion And thus farre for the third part Whereof wee haue to note first in the Arke The ground of all true and ancient religion and the body of the whole seruice of God that brings saluation is to bee situate in Iesus Christ onely as is plainely set downe Act. 4.12 Ioh. 14.6 1. Cor. 2.11 1. Ioh. 1.7 Next that they which will be saued by this Arke must beare this Arke in their heart by faith in their mouth by open confession Rom. 1. and in their actions confirming their whole doing in their calling to his will Matth. 7.21 22 23. Thirdly that they who are sincerely ioyned with Christ reioyce in the bearing of Christ and count it their highest ioy to be occupied continually in his bearing THE FOVRTH PART AS to the person of Michal Michals hypocrisie shee was Sauls daughter and Dauids wife a woman appearandly euill brought vp by amost wicked father which the Spirit of God will signifie by calling her Sauls daughter as she was in hypocrisie his daughter in deed as well as by nature yet shee was ioyned with the body of the Church visible which is signified by the stile giuen her when she was called Dauids wife And so she was outwardly a person ioyned by mariage in societie with the Church yet in effect a lurking hypocrite within the bowels of the same Such kinde of folkes hypocrites I meane are a malum necessarium inseparably and continually
why Christ bade Pater pascere oues and also what a cloude of witnesses there is both of Ancients and euen of late Popish writers yea diuers Cardinals that do all agree that both these speeches vsed to Peter were meant to all the Apostles represenred in his person 1. Cor. 5.4 Otherwise how could Paul direct the Church of Corinth to excommunicate the incestuous person cum spiritu suo whereas he should then haue sayd cum spiritu Petri And how could all the Apostles haue otherwise vsed all their censures onely in Christs Name and neuer a word of his Vicar Peter wee reade did in all the Apostles meetings sit amongst them as one of their number And when chosen men were sent to Antiochia from that great Apostolike Councel at Ierusalem Acts 15. Act. 15.22 23. The text saith It seemed good to the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church to send chosen men but no mention made of the Head thereof and so in their Letters no mention is made of Peter but onely of the Apostles Elders and Brethren And it is a wonder why Paul rebuketh the Church of Corinth for making exception of Persons because some followed Paul some Apollos some Cephas if Peter was their visible Head 1. Cor. 1.12 for then those that followed not Peter or Cephas renounced the Catholike faith But it appeareth well that Paul knew little of our new doctrine since he handleth Peter so rudely Galat. 2. as he not onely compareth but preferreth himselfe vnto him But our Cardinall proues Peters superioritie Galat. 1.18 by Pauls going to visite him Indeed Paul saith hee went to Ierusalem to visite Peter and conferre with him but he should haue added and to kisse his feet To conclude then The trweth is that Peter was both in aage and in the time of CHRISTS calling him one of the first of the Apostles In order the principall of the first twelue and one of the three whom CHRIST for order sake preferred to all the rest And no further did the Bishop of Rome claime for three hundred yeeres after CHRIST Subiect they were to the generall Councels and euen but of late did the Councell of Constance depose three Popes and set vp the fourth And vntill Phocas dayes that murthered his master were they subiect to Emperours But how they are now come to be Christs Vicars nay Gods on earth triple-crowned Kings of heauen earth and hell Iudges of all the world and none to iudge them Heads of the faith Absolute deciders of all Controuersies by the infallibility of their spirit hauing all power both Spirituall and Temporall in their hands the high Bishops Monarches of the whole earth Superiours to all Emperours and Kings yea Supreme Vice-gods who whether they will or not cannot erre how they are now come I say to the toppe of greatnesse I know not but sure I am Wee that are KINGS haue greatest neede to looke vnto it As for me Paul and Peter I know but these men I know not And yet to doubt of this is to denie the Catholique faith Nay the world it selfe must be turned vpside downe Bellar. de Rom. Pont. li. 1. cap. 17. and the order of Nature inuerted making the left hand to haue the place before the Right and the last named to bee the first in honour that this primacie may bee maintained Thus haue I now made a free Confession of my Faith And I hope I haue fully cleared my selfe from being an Apostate and as farre from being an Heretike as one may bee that beleeueth the Scriptures and the three Creedes and acknowledgeth the foure first generall Councels If I bee loath to beleeue too much especially of Nouelties men of greater knowledge may well pitie my weakenesse but I am sure none will condemne me for an Heretike saue such as make the Pope their God and thinke him such aspeaking Scripture as they can define Heresie no otherwise but to bee whatsoeuer Opinion is maintained against the Popes definition of faith And I will sincerely promise that when euer any point of the Religion I professe shal be proued to be new and not Ancient Catholike and Apostolike I meane for matter of Faith I will as soone renounce it closing vp this head with the Maxime of Vincentius Lirinensis Libello adnersus hareses that I will neuer refuse to imbrace any opinion in Diuinity necessary to saluation which the whole Catholike Church With an vnanime consent haue constantly taught and beleeued euen from the Apostles dayes for the space of many aages thereafter without any interruption But in the Cardinals opinion I haue shewed my selfe an Heretike I am sure in playing with the name of Babylon and the Towne vpon seuen hilles as if I would insinuate Rome at this present to be spiritually Babylon And yet that Rome is called Babylon 1. Pet. 5.13 both in Saint Peters Epistle and in the Apocalyps our Answerer freely confesseth As for the definition of the Antichrist I will not vrge so obscure a point as a matter of Faith to bee necessarily beleeued of all Christians but what I thinke herein I will simply declare That there must be an Antichrist and in his time a generall Defection wee all agree But the Time Seat and Person of this Antichrist are the chiefe Questions whereupon wee differ and for that we must search the Scriptures for our resolution 2. Thes 2. As for my opinion I thinke S. Paul in the 2. to the Thessalonians doeth vtter more clearely that which Saint Iohn speaketh more mystically of the Antichrist First that in that place hee meaneth the Antichrist it is plaine since hee saith Verse 3. There must bee first a Defection and that in the Antichrists time onely that eclipse of Defection must fall vpon the Church all the Romish Catholikes are strong enough otherwise their Church must be daily subiect to erre Verse 3 4. which is cleane contrary to their maine doctrine Then describing him hee saith that The man of Sinne Filius perditionis shall exalt himselfe aboue all that is called God But who these be whom of the Psalmist saith Dixi vos Dij estis Psal 82.6 Bellarmine can tell In old Diuinitie it was wont to bee Kings Bellarmine will adde Churchmen Let it bee both It is well enough knowen who now exalteth himselfe aboue both the swords And after that S. Paul hath thus described the Person he next describeth the Seat 2. Thess 2.4 and telleth that He shall sit in the Temple of God that is the bosome of the Church yea in the very heart thereof Now where this Apostolike Seat is I leaue to bee guessed And likewise who it is that sitting there sheweth himselfe to be GOD pardoning sinnes redeeming soules and defining Faith controlling and iudging all men and to be iudged of none Anent the Time S. Paul is plainest of all For hee calleth the Thessalonians to memorie Verse 5. That when hee was with
peccauerit modò semper rationes suorum dictorum modestè reddere paratus sit That is to say Euery man is a lyer yea more vaine then vanity it selfe God onely is trew c. Which seeing wee ought euer humbly to acknowledge in all great and weighty causes most of all ought we to confesse it in the most holy cause of our Faith insomuch as we should not therefore easily condemne euery thing which at the first seemes strange yea false and absurd vnto our eares nor on the contrary side ought wee foorth-with to approoue and that with an opinion of precise necessitie whatsoeuer is commonly receyued especially in matters abstruse and intricate whereof the knowledge is not necessarie to saluation In such poynts as these if any man shall say that such a King or Prince howsoeuer otherwise most godly and religious yea that many such Kings and Princes nay I will not except Bishops or the like Doctors of the Church haue in some sort erred I am of opinion hee shall not giue any iust cause of offence either to the Maiestie of Kings or to the dignitie of Princes and Bishops so as hee bee alwaies ready modestly to yeeld a reason for that which hee shall affirme In which words hee maintaineth two Principles First that euery man is a lyar aswell in matter of Faith as in any thing else and next that wee must not euer esteeme the vulgar opinion and that which is generally receiued in matter of Faith to be the trewest nor alwayes condemne euery opinion for absurd which at the first seemes vnto vs vncouth and new Now we pray you obserue that this man is not accused of small scapes and therefore beeing not charged with lesser peccadillos then those which before wee haue mentioned it necessarily followes that in his excuse hee must vnderstand the same points whereof he is accused And wee hope by the mercy of GOD that no Christian wee speake in this particular as well for the Papists as for our selues shall euer be found to erre in any of those maine points at the least wee will answere by the grace of God for one of those Kings whom he names in general And as for his new opinions which he would so gladly vent abroad the ancient Faith needes not be changed like an old garment either in substance or fashion Furthermore in the third page of his Preface hee vseth these words Sed neque plures vno aliquo semper hîc ditiores sunt Nemo igitur vnus sibi arroget omnia Nec numero plures vni alicui singulare quidquam inuideant Neither are many men alwayes richer in knowledge then some one man Let not therefore any one man arrogate all things to himselfe Nor let the greater multitude enuie a particular man for hauing some singularitie more then his fellowes The trew principle and foundation of the error of the Anabaptists taking away by this meanes all maner of gouernment from the Church For hauing first ouerthrowen the Monarchicall power of the Pope he sweepes away next all manner of power both Aristocraticall and Democraticall from the Church cleane contrary to the Apostles institution which ordeineth that the spirits of the Prophets should bee subiect to the Prophets For if one particular man may take vpon him such a singularitie as this how shall he bee subiect to Generall Nationall and Synodicall Councels For straight will he say vnto them Sirs yee haue no authoritie to iudge mee for I haue a singular gift aboue you all And in the fift Page these are his words Plamssimè enim persuasus sum Serenissimo Regi nunquam in animo fuisse nunquam in animo fore alienae conscientiae quod ne Apostoli quidem sibi vnquam arrogârunt fiue directè fiue indirectè siue per seipsum siue per alios vllatenùs dominari vel fidem nostram vlli humanae authoritati alligare velle For I am absolutely perswaded that it was neuer his Maiesties meaning nor euer will bee either directly or indirectly by himselfe or by others in any sort to ouer-rule another mans conscience which euen the Apostles neuer challenged to themselues nor did or will his Maiestie euer seeke to tie our Faith to any humane authoritie Whereby hee is plainely discouered to bee resolued not to bee subiect in any sort to the iudgement of the Church in those matters whereof hee is accused For hee knowes too well that the ancient Church hath established vpon necessary consequences drawen from the holy Scripture both a forme of beliefe and a forme of speach concerning the holy Mysteries aforesaid And this is the reason why hee will not in these points submit himselfe to the iudgement of any mortall man But vpon this occasion in the seuenth page of his Preface maintaines his Christian libertie in this maner Qui quidem humanas decisiones à Diuinis mysterijs scrupulosé segregem praesertim in audaces Scholarum hypotheses pro Christiana libertate interdum diligentiùs inquiram I who curiously make a separation betwixt the iudgements of men and the Diuine mysteries and especially according to Christian libertie doe sometimes more narrowly looke into the bold supositions of the Schoolemen As if the Schoole Diuines had bene too ventrous to explaine and to defend the Articles aforesaid already so established by the Church But we may trewly wish in that point as Bellarmine did touching Caluin Vtinam semper sic errassent Scholastici Would God the Scholemen had alwayes so erred For in the maine grounds of Christian Religion they are worthy of all commendation Reade Aquinas against the Gentiles But in matters of controuersie where they were to flatter the Pope in his resolutions and to auow the new ordinances and traditions of their Church there they yeelded alas vnto the iniquitie of the time and the mysterie of iniquitie which was euen then in working got likewise the vpper hand ouer them And as for this Christian libertie which he doeth vrge so much certainely he doeth it with no other intention but onely vnder this faire pretext to haue the better meanes and with more safetie to abuse the world For Christian libertie is neuer meant in the holy Scripture but onely in matters indifferent or when it is taken for our deliuerance from the thraldome of the Law or from the burden of humane traditions and in that sense S. Paul speaketh in his Epistle to the Colossians Quare oneraminiritibus Why are ye burdened with traditions But to abuse Christian libertie in presuming to propound a new doctrine vnto the world in point of the highest and holiest mysteries of GOD is a most audacious rashnesse and an impudent arrogancie Concerning which S. Paul saith Though an Angel from heauen preach vnto you otherwise then that which we haue preached vnto you let him bee accursed And Saint Iohn likewise commandeth vs that wee should not so much as say God speed to that man which shall bring vs any other doctrine as wee haue obserued before
excommunication and deposition against the Emperour Henry IIII. after he had enterprised this act without all precedent example after he had filled all Europe with blood this Pope I say sunke downe vnder the weight of his affaires and died as a fugitiue at Salerne ouerwhelmed with discontent and sorrow of heart Here lying at the point of giuing vp the ghoast Sigeb ad an 1085. calling vnto him as it is in Sigebert a certaine Cardinall whom he much fauoured He confesseth to God and Saint Peter and the whole Church that he had beene greatly defectiue in the Pastor all charge committed to his care and that by the Deuils instigation he had kindled the fire of Gods wrath and hatred against mankind Then hee sent his Confessor to the Emperour and to the whole Church to pray for his pardon because hee perceiued that his life was at an end Likewise Cardinall Benno that liued in the said Gregories time doth testifie That so soone as he was risen out of his Chaire to excommunicate the Emperour from his Cathedrall seate by the will of God the said Cathedrall seate new made of strong board or plancke did cracke and cleaue into many pieces or parts to manifest how great and terrible Schismes had beene sowen against the Church of Christ by an excommunication of so dangerous consequence pronounced by the man that had fit Iudge therein Now to bring and alleadge the example of such a man who by attempting an act which neuer any man had the heart of face to attempt before hath condemned all his predecessors of cowardise or at least of ignorance what is it else but euen to send vs to the schoole of mightie robbers and to seeke to correct and reforme ancient vertues by late vices Which Otho Frisingensis calling into his owne priuate consideration Otho Frisingens in vita Hen. 4. lib. 4. cap 31. hee durst freely professe that hee had not reade of any Emperour before this Henry the IIII. excommunicated or driuen out of his Imperiall Throne and Kingdome by the chiefe Bishop of Rome But if this quarrell may be tryed and fought out with weapons of examples I leaue any indifferent reader to iudge what examples ought in the cause to be of chiefest authority and weight whether late examples of Kings deposed by Popes for the most part neuer taking the intended effect or auncient examples of Popes actually and effectually thrust out of their thrones by Emperours and Kings The Emperour Constantius expelled Liberius Bishop of Rome out of the citie banished him as farre as Beroe and placed Foelix in his roome Theo. lib. 2. Hist cap. 16. Indeed Constantius was an Arrian and therein vsed no lesse impious then vniust proceeding Neuerthelesse the auncient Fathers of the Church doe not blame Constantius for his hard and sharpe dealing with a chiefe Bishop ouer whom hee had no lawfull power but onely as an enemie to the Orthodoxe faith and one that raged with extreame rigour of persecution against innocent beleeuers In the raigne of Valentinian the I. and yeare of the Lord 367. Ammia lib. 27 the contention betweene Damasus and Vrcisinus competitors for the Bishopricke filled the citie of Rome with a bloody sedition in which were wickedly and cruelly murdered 137. Decret dist 79. persons To meet with such turbulent actions Honorius made a law extant in the Decreetalls the words whereof be these If it shall happen henceforth by the temeritie of competitors that any two Bishops be elected to the See we straitly charge and command that neither of both shall fit in the said See Platina Sigebertus By vertue of this Law the same Honorius in the yeare 420. expelled Bonifacius and Eulalius competitors and Antipopes out of Rome though not long after he reuoked Bonifacius and setled him in the Papall See Theodoric the Goth King of Italy Anastatint Platina Lib. Pontifi Diaconus sent Iohn Bishop of Rome Embassador to the Emperour Iustinian called him home againe and clapt him vp in the close prison where he starued to death By the same King Peter Bishop of Altine was dispatched to Rome to heare the cause and examine the processe of Pope Symmachus then indited and accused of sundry crimes King Theodatus about the yeare 537. had the seruice of Pope Agapetus as his Embassadour to the Emperour Iustinian vpon a treatie of peace Agapetus dying in the time of that scruice Syluerius is made Bishop by Theodatus Not long after Syluerius is driuen out by Belisarius the Emperour his Lieutenant and sent into banishment After Syluerius next succeedeth Vigilius who with currant coine purchased the Popedome of Belisarius The Emperour Iustinian sends for Vigilius to Constantinople and receiues him there with great honour Soone after the Emperour takes offence at his freenesse in speaking his mind commands him to bee beaten with stripes in manner to death and with a roape about his necke to be drawne through the city like a thiefe as Platina relates the historie Nicephorus in his 26. booke and 17. chapter comes very neere the same relation The Emperour Constantius Platina Baronius Sigeberius in the yeere 654. caused Pope Martin to be bound with chaines and banished him into Chersonesus where he ended his life The Popes in that aage writing to the Emperours vsed none but submissiue tearmes by way of most humble supplications made profession of bowing the knee before their sacred Maiesties and of executing their commaunds with entire obedience payed to the Emperours twenty pound weight of gold for their Inuestiture which tribute was afterward released and remitted Iustin Authent 123. cap. 3. by Constantine the Bearded to Pope Agatho in the yeere 679. as I haue obserued in an other place Nay further euen when the power and riches of the Popes was growne to great height by the most profuse and immense munificence of Charlemayne and Lewis his sonne the Emperours of the West did not relinquish and giue ouer the making and vnmaking of Popes as they saw cause Pope Adrian 1. willingly submitted his necke to this yoke and made this Law to be passed in a Councill that in Charlemayne should rest all right and power for the Popes election and for the gouernement of the Papall See This Constitution is incerted in the Decretals Distinct 63. Can. * Note that in the same Dist the Can of Greg. 4. beginning with Cum Hadrianus 2. is false and supposititious because Gregorie 4. was Pope long before Hadr. 2. Triateterrima monstra Hadrianus and was confirmed by the practise of many yeeres In the yeere of the Lord 963. the Emperour Otho tooke away the Popedome from Iohn 13. and placed Leo 8. in his roume In like maner Iohn 14. Gregory 5. and Siluester 2. were seated in the Papall Throne by the Othos The Emperour Henrie 2. in the yeere 1007. deposed three Popes namely Bendict 9. Siluester 3. and Gregorie 6. whom Platina doeth not sticke to call three most detestable
to display the colours and ensignes of their censures against Princes who violating their publike and solemne oath doe raise and make open warre against Iesus Christ I grant yet againe that in this case they need not admit Laics to be of their counsell nor allow them any scope or libertie of iudgement Yet all this makes no barre to Clerics for extending the power of their keyes many times a whole degree further then they ought and when they are pleased to make vse of their said power to depriue the people of their goods or the Prince of his Crowne all this doeth not hinder Prince or people from taking care for the preseruation of their owne rights and estates nor from requiring Clerics to shew their cards and produce their Charts and to make demonstration by Scripture that such power as they assume and challenge is giuen them from God For to leaue the Pope absolute Iudge in the same cause wherein hee is a partie and which is the strongest rampier and bulwarke yea the most glorious and eminent point of his domination to arme him with power to vnhorse Kings out of their seates what is it else but euen to draw them into a state of despaire for euer winning the day or preuailing in their honourable and rightful cause It is moreouer granted if a King shall command any thing directly contrary to Gods word and tending to the subuerting of the Church that Clerics in this case ought not onely to dispense with subiects for their obedience but also expresly to forbid their obedience For it is alwayes better to obey God then man Howbeit in all other matters whereby the glory and maiestie of God is not impeached or impaired it is the duety of Clerics to plie the people with wholesome exhortation to constant obedience and to auert by earnest disswasions the said people from tumultuous reuolt and seditious insurrection This practise vnder the Pagan Emperours was held and followed by the ancient Christians by whose godly zeale and patience in bearing the yoke the Church in times past grew and flourished in her happy and plentifull increase farre greater then Poperie shall euer purchase and attaine vnto by all her cunning deuices and sleights as namely by degrading of Kings by interdicting of Kingdoms by apposted murders and by Diabolicall traines of Gunne-powder-mines The places of Scripture alleadged in order by the Cardinal Pag 66. in fauour of those that stand for the Popes claime of power and authoritie to depose Kings are cited with no more sincerity then the former They alledge these are his words that Samuel deposed King Saul or declared him to bee deposed because hee had violated the Lawes of the Iewes Religion His Lordship auoucheth elsewere that Saul was deposed because he had sought prophanely to vsurpe the holy Priesthood Both false and contrary to the tenour of trewth in the sacred history For Saul was neuer deposed according to the sense of the word I meane depose in the present question to wit as deposing is taken for despoiling the King of his royall dignitie and reducing the King to the condition of a priuate person But Saul held the title of King and continued in possession of his Kingdome euen to his dying day 1. Sam. 23.20 24.15 2. Sam. 2.5 Yea the Scripture styles him King euen to the periodicall and last day of his life by the testimony of Dauid himselfe who both by Gods promise and by precedent vnction was then heire apparant as it were to the Crown in a maner then ready to gird and adorne the temples of his head For if Samuel by Gods commandement had then actually remooued Saul from his Throne doubtlesse the whole Church of Israel had committed a grosse errour in taking and honouring Saul for their King after such deposition doubtlesse the Prophet Samuel himselfe making knowen the Lords Ordinance vnto the people would haue enioyned them by strict prohibition to call him no longer the King of Israel Doubtlesse Dauid would neuer haue held his hand from the throat of Saul 1. Sam. 26.11 for this respect and consideration because he was the Lords Anointed For if Saul had lost his Kingly authority from that instant when Samuel gaue him knowledge of his reiection then Dauid lest otherwise the Body of the Kingdome should want a Royall Head was to beginne his Reigne and to beare the Royall scepter in the very same instant which were to charge the holy Scriptures with vntrewth in as much as the sacred historie begins the computation of the yeeres of Dauids Reigne from the day of Sauls death Trew it is that in the 1. Sam. cap. 15. Saul was denounced by Gods owne sentence a man reiected and as it were excommunicated out of the Kingdome that hee should not rule and reigne any longer as King ouer Israel neuerthelesse the said sentence was not put in execution before the day when God executing vpon Saul an exemplarie iudgement did strike him with death From whence it is manifest and cleare 1. Sam. 16.23 that when Dauid was annointed King by Samuel that action was onely a promise and a testimony of the choice which God had made of Dauid for succession immediately after Saul and not a present establishment inuestment or installment of Dauid in the Kingdome Wee reade the like in 1. King cap. 19. where God commandeth Elias the Prophet to annoint Hasael King of Syria For can any man bee so blinde and ignorant in the sacred historie to beleeue the Prophets of Israel established or sacred the Kings of Syria For this cause 2. Sam. 2.4 when Dauid was actually established in the Kingdome hee was annointed the second time In the next place he brings in the Popes champions vsing these words Rehoboam was deposed by Ahiah the Prophet 1 King 12. from his Royall right ouer the tenne Tribes of Israel because his father Salomon had played the Apostata in falling from the Law of God This I say also is more then the trewth of the sacred history doeth afoard For Ahiah neuer spake to Rehoboam for ought we reade nor brought vnto him any message from the Lord As for the passage quoted by the L. Cardinal out of 3. Reg. chap. 11. it hath not reference to the time of Rehoboams raigne but rather indeed to Salomons time nor doeth it carry the face of a iudicatorie sentence for the Kings deposing but rather of a Propheticall prediction For how could Rehoboam before hee was made King be depriued of the Kingdome Last of all but worst of all to alleadge this passage for an example of a iust sentence in matter of deposing a King is to approoue the disloyall treacherie of a seruant against his master and the rebellion of Ieroboam branded in Scripture with a marke of perpetuall infamie for his wickednesse and impietie He goes on with an other example of no more trewth 1. King 19. King Achab was deposed by Elias the Prophet
of our Catholike Religion then if it should bee granted the Church hath decided the said points without any authoritie c. Mee thinkes the L. Cardinal in the whole draught and course of these words doeth seeke not a little to blemish the honour of his Church and to marke his religion with a blacke coale For the whole frame of his Mother-Church is very easie to be shaken if by the establishing of this Article she shall come to finall ruine and shall become the Synagogue of Satan Likewise Kings are brought into a very miserable state and condition if their Souereigntie shall not stand if they shall not bee without danger of deposition but by the totall ruine of the Church and by holding the Pope whom they serue to be Antichrist The L. Cardinall himselfe let him be well sifted herein doeth not credit his owne words For doeth not his Lordship tell vs plaine that neither by Diuine testimony nor by any sentence of the ancient Church the knot of this controuersie hath bene vntied againe that some of the French by the Popes fauourable indulgence are licensed or tolerated to say their mind to deliuer their opinion of this question though contrary to the iudgement of his Holinesse prouided they hold it onely as problematicall and not as necessary What Can there be any assurance for the Pope that hee is not Antichrist for the Church of Rome that she is not a Synagogue of Satan when a mans assurance is grounded vpon wauering and wilde vncertainties without Canon of Scripture without consent or countenance of antiquitie and in a cause which the Pope by good leaue suffereth some to tosse with winds of problematicall opinion It hath beene shewed before that by Gods word whereof small reckoning perhaps is made by venerable antiquitie and by the French Church in those times when the Popes power was mounted aloft the doctrine which teacheth deposing of Kings by the Pope hath bene checked and countermanded What did the French in those dayes beleeue the Church was then swallowed vp and no where visible or extant in the world No verely Those that make the Pope of Soueraigne authoritie for matters of Faith are not perswaded that in this cause they are bound absolutely to beleeue and credit his doctrine Why so Because they take it not for any decree or determination of Faith but for a point perteining to the mysteries of State and a pillar of the Popes Temporall Monarchie who hath not receiued any promise from God that in causes of this nature hee shall not erre For they hold that errour by no meanes can crawle or scramble vp to the Papall See so highly mounted but grant ambition can scale the highest walls and climbe the loftiest pinacles of the same See They hold withall that in case of so speciall aduantage to the Pope whereby he is made King of Kings and as it were the pay-master or distributer of Crownes it is against all reason that hee should sit as Iudge to carue out Kingdomes for his owne share To bee short let his Lordship be assured that he meeteth with notorious blocke-heads more blunt-witted then a whetstone when they are drawen to beleeue by his perswasion that whosoeuer beleeues the Pope hath no right nor power to put Kings beside their Thrones to giue and take away Crownes are all excluded and barred out of the heauenly Kingdome But now followes a worse matter For they whom the Cardinall reproachfully calls heretikes haue wrought and wonne his Lordship as to mee seemeth to plead their cause at the barre and to betray his owne cause to these heretikes For what is it in his Lordship but plaine playing the Praeuaricator when he crieth so lowd that by admitting and establishing of this Article the doctrine of Cake-incarnation and priuie Confession to a Priest is vtterly subuerted Let vs heare his reason and willingly accept the trewth from his lips The Articles as his Lordship granteth of Transubstantiation auricular Confession and the Popes power to depose Kings are all grounded alike vpon the same authoritie Now he hath acknowledged the Article of the Popes power to depose Kings is not decided by the Scripture nor by the ancient Church but within the compasse of certaine aages past by the authoritie of Popes and Councils Then he goes on well and inferres with good reason that in case the point of the Popes power be weakened then the other two points must needs bee shaken and easily ouerthrowen So that hee doeth confesse the monstrous birth of the breaden-God and the blind Sacrament or vaine fantasie of auricular confession are no more conueyed into the Church by pipes from the springs of sacred Scripture or from the riuers of the ancient Church then that other point of the Popes power ouer Kings and their Crownes Very good For were they indeed deriued from either of those two heads that is to say were they grounded vpon the foundation of the first or second authoritie then they could neuer bee shaken by the downefall of the Popes power to depose Kings I am well assured that for vsing so good a reason the world will hold his Lordship in suspicion that he still hath somesmacke of his fathers discipline and instruction who in times past had the honour to be a Minister of the holy Gospel Howbeit he playeth not faire nor vseth sincere dealing in his proceeding against such as he calls heretikes when hee casts in their dish and beares them in hand they frowardly wrangle for the inuisibilitie of the Church in earth For indeed the matter is nothing so They freely acknowledge a visible Church For howsoeuer the assembly of Gods elect doth make a body not discerneable by mans eye yet we assuredly beleeue and gladly professe there neuer wanted a visible Church in the world yet onely visible to such as make a part of the same All that are without see no more but men they doe not see the said men to be the trew Church Wee beleeue moreouer of the vniuersall Church visible that it is composed of many particular Churches whereof some are better fined and more cleane from lees and dregs then other and withall we denie the purest Churches to be alwayes the greatest and most visible THE FOVRTH AND LAST INCONVENIENCE EXAMINED THE Lord Cardinall before he looketh into the last Inconuenience vseth a certaine preamble of his owne life past and seruices done to the Kings Henry the III. and IIII. Touching the latter of which two Kings his Lordship saith in a straine of boasting after this manner I by the grace of God or the grace of God by mee rather reduced him to the Catholike religion I obtained at Rome his absolution of Pope Clement 8. I reconciled him to the holy See Touching the first of these points I say the time the occasions and the foresaid Kings necessary affaires doe sufficiently testifie that he was induced to change his mind and to alter his religion vpon the strength of other
manner of arguments then Theologicall schooles or the perswasions of the L. Cardinals fluent Rhetoricke doe vsually afford or could possibly suggest Moreouer who doeth not know that in affaires of so high nature and consequence resolutions once taken Princes are to proceede with instructions by a formall course As for the Kings absolution pretended to bee purchased of Clement 8. by the L. Cardinals good seruice it had beene the part of so great a Cardinall for the honour of his King of the Realme and of his owne place to haue buried that piece of his notable seruice in perpetuall silence and in the darke night of eternall obliuion For in this matter of reconcilement it is not vnknowne to the world how shamefully and basely hee prostituted the inuiolable dignity of his King when his Lordship representing the person of his King and couching on the ground by way of sufficient penance was glad as I haue noted in the Preface to my Apologie to haue his venerable shoulders gracefully saluted with stripes and reuerently worshipped with bastonados of a Pontificiall cudgell Which gracefull or disgracefull blemish rather it pleased Pope Clement of his rare clemencie to grace yet with a higher degree of spirituall graces in giuing the L. Cardinall then Bishop of Eureux a certaine quantity of holy graines crosses and medals or little plates of siluer or some other mettall to hang about the necke or to bee borne about against some euill Which treasures of the Popes grace whosoeuer should graciously and reuerently kisse they should without faile purchase vnto themselues a pardon for one hundred yeeres These feate and prety gugawes for children were no doubt a speciall comfort vnto the good Kings heart after his Maiestie had beene handsomely basted vpon the L. Bishops backe But with what face can his Lordship brag that he preuailed with Pope Clement for the Kings absolution The late Duke of Neuers not long before had solicited his Holines with all earnest and humble instance to the same purpose howsoeuer the Kings affaires then seeming desperate in the Popes eye he was licensed to depart for France without any due and gracious respect vnto his errand But so soone as the Pope receiued intelligence of the Kings fortunes growing to the full and the affaires of the League to be in the wane and the principall cities the strongest places of garrison through all France to strike tops and tops gallant and to hale the King then the holy Ghost in good time inspired the holy Father with a holy desire and tender affection to receiue this poore wandring sheep againe into the flocke of Christ and bosome of holy Church His Holinesse had reason For he feared by his obstinate seuerity to prouoke the patience of the French and to driue that Nation as they had many times threatned before then to put in execution their auncient designe which was to shake off the Pope and to set vp some of their owne tribes or kinreds for Patriarch ouer the French Church But let his Lordshippe vouchsafe to search the secret of his owne bosome and no doubt he wil not sticke to acknowledge that before he stirred one foote out of France he had good assurance of the good successe and issue of his honourable embassage Now the hearers thus prepared by his Preface the L. Cardinall proceedeth in his purpose namely to make proofe how this Article of the third Estate wherein doubtfull and questionable matters are mingled and confounded with certaine and indubitable principles doth so debilitate and weaken the sinewes and vertue of any remedy intended for the danger of Kings as it maketh all remedies and receipts prescribed for that purpose to become altogether vnprofitable and without effect He yeelds this reason take it forsooth vpon my warrant a reason full of pith and substance The onely remedie against parricides is to thunder the solemne curses of the Church and the punishments to be inflicted after death which points if they be not grounded vpon infallible authoritie will neuer be setled in mens perswasions with any certaine assurance Now in the solemne curses of the Church no man can attaine to the said assurance if things not denied be mingled with points not graunted and not consented vnto by the Vniuersall Church By a thing not denied and not contested the L. Cardinall meanes prohibiting and condemning of King-killing and by points contested he meanes denying of the Popes power to depose Kings In this whole discourse I find neither pith of argument nor course of proofe but onely a cast of the L. Cardinalls office by way of counsell whereunto I make this answere If there be in this Article of the third Estate any point wherein all are not of one mind and the same iudgement in whom lieth all the blame from whence rises the doubt but from the Popes and Popish parasites by whom the certaintie of the said point hath bin cunningly remooued and conueied away and must be restored againe by publike authority Now the way to restore certainty vnto a point which against reason is called into doubt and question is to make it vp in one masse or to tie it vp in the same bundle with other certaine points of the same nature Here I am forced to summon the consciences of men to make some stand or stay vpon this point and with me to enter into deepe consideration how great and vnuanquishable force is euer found in the trewth For these two questions Whether Kings may lawfully be made away by assassins waged and hired for the act and Whether the Pope hath lawfull power to chase Kings out of their Thrones are by the L. Cardinals owne confession in so full aspect of coniunction that if either bee brought vnder any degree of doubt the other also is fetcht within the same compasse In which words he directly pointeth as with a finger to the very trew source of the maine mischiefe and to the basilique and liuer veine infected with pestilential blood inflamed to the destruction of Basilicall Princes by detestable parricide For whosoeuer shall confidently beleeue that Popes are not armed with power to depose Kings will beleeue with no lesse confidence and assurance it is not lawful by sudden assaults to flie at their throats For are not all desperate villaines perswaded when they are hired to murder Kings that in doing so damnable a feate they doe it for a piece of notable and extraordinary seruice to the Pope This maxime therfore is to be held for a principle vnmooueable and indubitable that If subiects desire the life of their Kings to bee secured they must not yeeld the Pope one inch of power to depriue their Kings of their Thrones and Crownes by deposing their Kings The Lord Cardinall testifieth no lesse himselfe in these words If those monsters of men and furies of hell by whom the life-blood of our two last Kings was let out had euer beene acquainted with Lawes Ecclesiasticall they might haue read themselues
World euen our Aduersaries as Moses said being Iudges And praysed be GOD the present time passeth a long with the like felicity and much more Securitie for let me recount a little for the Glory of GOD and encouragement of his Maiestie to goe on in his happie Course begunne the Blessings of GOD we receiue by him And then let our Aduersaries tell vs whether we be a miserable People or no as some of late haue gone about to perswade vs. Neither doe J stand in feare of any mans reprehension for J will speake nothing but trewth and I haue my President from GOD his owne Booke wherein the good Actes of euery good King are to their eternall praises trewly recounted First to beginne with Religion as the Generall to the Armie Of all Gods Blessings wee haue it without any alteration or change contynued vnto vs. His Maiesties first Care was for the Confirmation of the Gospell for at his Maiesties first comming in who knowes not the endeauours of men to haue made a change either to the Papists or to the Puritanes His Maiestie therefore to quiet the State and Peace of the Church called a Conference at Hampton-Court where passing ouer the one as being neuer in his heart to giue the least way vnto He so tempered the other as the Harmony hath bene the better euer since The Religion thus ratified His Maiesties next Care was for the Translation of the Bible it being the ground of our Religion His Maiestie was desirous his People should haue it in as much perfection as the Jndustrie and Labors of the best Learned were able to afford it them Hauing done what was necessary for the Spirituall part of the Church his Maiestie tooke into consideration the Temporal State thereof No sooner came the Parliament but finding what spoile had bene made of the Lands thereof in the tyme of his Predecessors by a libertie they had to take the Landes of the Church for a longer Terme then others could doe Cut himselfe off from that libertie and equalled himselfe to a common person in the taking of any State in the Churches Landes When his Maiestie had done this in England he looked backe into Scotland and reforming the State of the Church there as farre as in his Princely-Wisedome he thought conuenient for the time restored the Bishops there as to their Spirituall Keies so to their temporall Estates though it were to the great losse and dammage of his owne Reuennue and Crowne From Scotland his Maiestie came to Ireland that forlorne Kingdome both for Temporall and Spiritual estate till be looked into it There his Maiestie hath reduced the Bishoppricks not only to their old Rents but added vnto them many new Reuennues so that many places there are answerable to the best Liuings here Neither hath his Care bene onely on these high places of the Church but hath descended to the lowest in the same hauing both protected the Benefices from being raysed to any higher Taxe and hindred all courses that might giue his Cleargie molestation or trouble His Maiesties Bountie hath not bene wanting to Colledges and Hospitalls hauing parted with his owne Tenures to giue them power of larger Indowments whereby there hath bene works of more sumptuousnes and cost done in his Maiesties time then there hath bene in any one aage before J may not forget one thing that since his Maiesties comming to this Crowne he hath neuer put into his Coffers the meane proffitts of any Ecclesiasticall liuing but hath bene a Fidus-Depositarius and euer giuen them to the next Jncumbent Let me descend a little from these workes of Piety to Peace Neuer hath there bene so vniuersall a Peace in Christendome since the time of our Sauiour Christ as in these his Dayes And I dare say as much if not more by the procurement of his Maiestie then by any other earthly meanes in this world A Peace to let forraigne partes passe so entertayned at home that in his Maiesties three Kingdomes apt enough by constitution and not vnaccustomed by practise to be at variance there hath bene no Ciuill dissension at all With Peace GOD hath giuen vs Plentie So that if Peace and Plenty haue not made vs too too wanton I know not what wee want Neither is there any crying out for lacke of Iustice in our Courtes for neuer was there Iustice administred with more liberty from the King nor more vprightnes from the Judges And yet in the free dispensation of Iustice Mercie did neuer more triumph If this bee to bee miserable J know not what on earth they call Happinesse GOD continue these still vnto vs and then let them call Happinesse what they please But I know wherefore all is miserable because there is no more Mercy shewed to their Catholiks J will put it as a Crowne vpon all his Maiesties Mercies There was neuer King that had so great a cause giuen him that euer tooke so little bloode extending his Mercy to all that were not personall workers in that Powder-Plot And before that you had hatched that Monster neither was the person or purse of any your reputed Catholicks touched And since that time you may doe well to complaine of your Miseries but the Church and Comonwealth both doe trauaile and groane vnder the burthen of your disobedience But the worst J wish you is that at length by his Maiesties long Patience you may bee drawne to Repentance for as we are come out from you lest we should bee partakers of your plagues so we pray for you that you may come in to vs that you may be participants of our felicities To Conclude this Preface GOD hath giuen vs a Solomon and GOD aboue all things gaue Solomon Wisedome Wisedome brought him peace Peace brought him Riches Riches gaue him Glory His wisedome appeared in his wordes and Workes his Peace he preserued by the power of his Army His riches he raysed as by his Reuennue so by the Trade of his Nauie His Glory did accrue from them all Now as in these GOD exalted him beyond all the Kings that euer were or should be after him So had he in other things Humiliations not farre behind the proportion of his Exaltations the fearefullest fall that the Scripture affords an Example of the most vnchast life and immoderate excesse of Women that we read of the weakest Posterity for Wisedome and Gouernment that we finde in all the Line of his Succession GOD would haue it so that he should no more be set out as a Type of the Glory of his owne Sonne in the felicity of his State one way then he would haue him proposed as a patterne of Humane frailty an other way Therefore though we may not approach him in his Typicall State yet GODS Name be blessed that hath giuen vs to goe farre beyond him in his personall Condition For we haue already blessed be GOD seene the Constancie and perseuerance of his Maiesty in his Holy Profession without any Eclipse or Shaddow of
deceipt as composed of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gnarma Geddon which may very well agree with the History because it is the name of the place saith Iohn where the wicked being assembled together by the alluring and deceipt of Satan and his three spirits of Diuels to make warre with the faithfull were all destroyed by God and so their destruction came and was procured by deceipt Yet others interpret it to signifie destruction by waters as composed of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Harma Geddon which also may very well agree with the Historie For waters indeed in this Booke signifie oft many people and Nations as appeareth by the very Text in the 17. Chapter And others take it to be an allusion to the destruction that Ioshua made of Gods enemies vpon the hill of Mageddon and therefore to bee composed of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Harr which is called a Hill and Mageddon which may also very well agree with the Historie And as J speake of this so J speake the like of Gog and Magog in the 20. Chapter and of all other ambiguous places in this Booke Jt rests then that what ye finde amisse in this Paraphrase yee impute it to my lacke of yeeres and learning and what ye find worthy to be allowed in it that yee attribute the full praise thereof to GOD to whom onely all praise appertaineth Fare-well THE ARGVMENT OF THIS WHOLE EPISTLE THIS Booke or Epistle of Reuelation was called in doubt aswell for the incertaintie of the Author as also for the canonicalnesse of the Booke it selfe by sundry of the ancients and specially by Eusebe For soluing whereof I need not to insist since it is both receiued now of all Christians and also diuers of the Neoteriques in speciall Beza in his Preface vpon it hath handled that matter sufficiently already So that this doubt onely rests now in men that this Booke is so obscure and allegorique that it is in a maner vnprofitable to be taught or interpreted Whereunto I will shortly make answere and then goe forward to set downe the methode of the same And therefore to make a deduction from the beginning let vs vnderstand in what seuerall or principall parts the whole Scriptures may be diuided in and then which of them this Booke is How soone Adam being made perfect in his Creation and hauing the choise of Life and Death Good and Euill did by his horrible defection make choise of Death and cast off Life and by that meanes infected his whole posteritie with double sinne to wit Originall and Actuall God notwithstanding had such a Loue to mankinde as being his most Noble workemanship and Creature made to his owne Likenesse and Image that he selected a Church amongst them whom first because of their weakenesse and incredulitie he with his owne mouth taught and next instructed and raised vp notable men amongst them to be their Rulers whom he endued with such excellent gifts as not onely their example in life preached but also by Miracles they strengthened and confirmed their Faith But lest this ministrie of men should make them to depend onely vpon their mouthes forgetting Him and making Gods of them he at length out of his owne mouth gaue them his Law which he caused them to put in Writ and retaine still amongst them And then lest they should forget and neglect the same he raised vp godly Rulers as well Temporall as Spirituall who by their holy liues and working of Miracles reuiued and strengthened the Law in their hearts But seeing that notwithstanding all this they cast themselues headlong in the gulfe of vices such is the vnthankefull and repining Nature of Man hee raised vp Prophets as especially Ieremie and Daniel to accuse them of their sinnes and by Visions to forewarne them of the times to come whereby the godly might turne and arme themselues and the wicked might be made inexcusable And thus much for the Old Testament But then God seeing that notwithstanding this there crept in such a generall corruption amongst them that scarce one might be found that bowed not his knee to Baal Hee then by his vnsearchable Wisedome incarnated his Eternall Sonne and Word THE LORD IESVS who by his death and Passion accomplished the faith of the Fathers whose Saluation was by the beleeuing in him to come as also made an open and patent way of Grace to all the world thereafter And then as vpon a new world and a new Church Gods Fatherly care to Mankind was renued but in a more fauourable forme because hee looked vpon the Merits of his deare Sonne Then first Christ with his owne mouth did instruct men and confirmed his Doctrine by Miracles and secondly raised vp the Apostles to giue the Law of Faith confirming it by their liues and Miracles And last that notwithstanding this Defection was beginning to creepe in againe hee inspired one of them to wit IOHN to write this Booke that hee might thereby euen as Ieremie and Daniel did in the old Law aswell rebuke them of their sinnes as by forewarning them to arme them against the great tentations that were to come after Then of it selfe it prooues how profitable this Booke is for this aage seeing it is the last Reuelation of Gods will and Prophesie that euer was or shall bee in the World For wee shall haue no more Prophesies nor Miracles hereafter but must content our selues with the Law and Prophecies already giuen as Christ in his Parable of Lazarus and the rich man teacheth Now as to the Methode this holy Epistle is directed to the seuen Churches of Asia Minor whom hee names and writes to particularly in the first three Chapters of the same and vnder their Names to all their trew Successors the whole Church Militant in the World The whole matter may bee diuided in sixe parts to wit The praise or dispraise of euery one of these Churches according to their merits wherein they merit good or euill what way they ought to reforme themselues and this is contained in the three first Chapters And to make them inexcusable in case they slide againe hee shewes the estate of the whole Church Militant in their time he tells them what it shall be vntill the end of the World and what it shal be when it is Triumphant and immortall after the dissolution These three last parts are declared by Visions in the rest of the Epistle first the present estate of the Church then and what it should be thereafter vnto the later day is summarily declared by the first sixe of the seuen Seales in the sixt and seuenth Chapters and afterwards more at large by the seuen Trumpets that came out of the seuenth Seale in the 8. 9. 10. 11. Chapters And because through Tirannie and abuse of the Popedome Poperie is the greatest temptation since Christes first comming or that shal be vnto his last therefore he specially insists more at large and cleerly in the declaration and painting forth of the
burden and yet willingly sustainest it and for the loue of my Name hast thou trauailed much and yet weariest not 4 But in this I must finde fault with thee that thy former charitie is waxed cold Destruction to the Church of Ephesus except they repent Chap. 1. Ioh. 12. v. 35. Nicolates Pouerbs 15. 5 Remember then from whence thou hast fallen and repent turning thy selfe to thy first workes otherwise I wil turne against thee soone and will remoue thy Candlesticke out of the place it is in to wit the light of the Gospel from thy Church if thou repent not in time 6 But this againe thou doest well to hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans which also I hate Matth. 23. 7 Let all who haue eares or are willing to be followers of me heare and take example by this which the Spirit of God sayes to the seuen Churches or their seuen Pastours in the name of them 1. Iohn 2. 1. Iohn 5. Prou. 3.5.18.22 And to him who is Victor in the battell against Satan and the flesh I shall giue to eate of the Tree of Life which is in the middest of the Paradise of God to wit I shall make him liue eternally in Heauen 8 To the Angel or Pastour of the Church of Smyrna write thou This sayes the first and the last Ephes 1.3 who was dead but now liues 9 I know thy workes thy trouble and pouertie but thou art rich to wit in graces I know also what blasphemies are vsed against thee by them who call themselues Iewes but are not but by the contrary are of the Synagogue of Satan The Church of Smyrna afflicted and troubled yet doeth continew Psal 91. 10 Feare not when yee shall be troubled by the deuil for he will persecute and trouble some of you in the flesh that your constancie may be tried and ye shall haue great affliction for the space of tenne dayes to wit for a certaine space but be yee faithfull vnto the death and for your continuance I shall giue you the Crowne of life immortall 11 Hee that hath an eare let him heare what the Spirit saith to the Churches and he that ouercommeth shall not be hurt by the second death which is Hell Pergame the principall Citie in Attalia 12 And to the Angel or Pastour of the Church of Pergame write thou Thus saith he that hath the two edged sword 13 I know thy workes and where thou dwellest euen where the throne of Satan is to wit among a great number of wicked Yet hast thou not denied thy Faith in me no not in straightest times Antipas Martyr when Antipas my faithfull Martyr and witnesse was slaine among you where Satan to wit many wicked remaine 14 Yet haue I some few things to lay to your charge to wit That yee permit them to remaine amongst you who retaine the doctrine of Balaam 1. Cor. 10.14 who perswade men to eate of things immolate to Idoles and to commit fornication and filthinesse in the flesh For the very same did Ba laam to Balac to cause the Israelites stumble 15 Thou offendest also in suffering some to be amongst you who retaine the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which I hate 16 Repent therefore in time otherwise I will come against thee soone and I will fight and ouercome them who are amongst you with the sword of my mouth to wit by the force of my word 17 He that hath an eare let him heare what the Spirit saith to the Churches And to the Victour shall I giue to eate of that secret and hidden Manna to wit of Me the spirituall food of the faithfull of whom that Manna which was hid in the Arke was a figure And I will also giue him a White stone or a Marke of his election and righteousnesse through imputation and in it a New name written to wit his name shall be written vp in the Booke of life which no man knoweth but he who receiues it for no other may know the certaintie of ones Election but onely he who is elected 18 And to the Angel or Pastour of the Church of Thyatire write This saith the Sonne of God whose eyes are like flames of fire and whose feet are like to glistering brasse 19 I know thy workes thy charitie thy almes and carefull helping of the weake thy faith thy patience and shortly all thy workes but in speciall I praise thy great constancie and firme continuance euen so as thy last workes are better then the first 20 Yet some few things haue I to lay to thy charge to wit that thou sufferest a woman like to Iezebel in wickednesse and Idolatrie who calls her selfe a Prophetesse to teach and seduce my seruants to commit fornication and filthinesse of the flesh and to eate of things immolate vnto Idols 21 Yet gaue I her a time to repent from her filthinesse but she would not 22 Therefore loe I shall cast her into a bed to wit I shall destroy her in the puddle of her sinnes and I shall trouble with great affliction all them who commit adulterie to wit spirituall adulterie with her if they repent not of their euill workes in time 23 And I will kill and destroy her sonnes to wit all the followers of her doctrine that all the Churches and faithfull may know me to be the searcher out of the secrets of all hearts and the iust renderer and recompencer of euery man according to his workes 24 But I say vnto the rest of you who are at Thyatire who haue not receiued that false doctrine nor know not the depth nor secrets of Satan or wickednesse whereof the other falsely did purge themselues I will not lay any other burthen vpon you then that which already constantly yee beare 25 But that which yee haue holde it out valiantly vntill my comming againe 26 For vnto him who is victour and beares out to the end that burthen which I lay vpon him I will giue power ouer Nations to wit hee shall triumph ouer the world 27 And he shall rule them with an yron rod and they shall be broken like vessels of earth according as I haue receiued the power from my Father 28 And I shall giue vnto him the Morning starre for as the morning starre shines brighter then the rest so shall he shine brighter in glory then his fellowes 29 He that hath an eare let him heare what the Spirit sayth to the Churches CHAP. III. ARGVMENT Admonition and exhortation to the Churches of Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea ANd to the Angel or Pastour of the Church of Sardis write thou Thus sayth he who hath the seuen Spirits of God Sardis to wit hee with whom the holy Spirit is vnseparably ioyned and who hath the bestowing of all the graces of Gods Spirit on the Elect and hath the seuen Starres to wit who is the head of you the seuen Pastours I know thy workes for ye say ye liue and yet are dead for
vpon the backe of the Booke It is not lawfull to him to manifest it By foreknowing things to come which is signified by swallowing the booke he is mooued to a great ioy in the instant time but it turneth in great bitternesse to him thereafter THen I saw another strong Angel comming downe from heauen hee was clothed with a cloud and at his head was the raine-bow and his face was like the Sunne and his feet like the pillars of fire This strong Angel was Christ clothed with a cloude for in a cloud hee ascended and in the clouds shall he come againe at the latter day Which cloud was a guide to the people of Israel by day while they trauailed through the wildernesse and out of that cloud hee powres the raine and dew of his graces in abundance vpon his chosen His head was clothed with the rainebow which signifies his couenant he made with his Elect as ye heard before His face was like the Sunne and his feet like pillars of fire yee heard these two described in the beginning of my Epistle 2 And he had in his hand an open Booke this was the Booke of the Euangel or glad tidings And he set his right foote or strongest on the Sea to make stable that liquid Element so vnstable of nature and his left vpon the earth which is sooner made firme by this to shew the power he hath ouer all things contained in them who hath no power to passe the bounds and order which he hath prescribed vnto them and therefore the earth is called his footstoole by Dauid in his Psalmes 3 And he cryed with a mighty voice like a roaring Lyon for they were terrible things and great which hee was to denounce 4 And when he had cryed the seuen thunders spake their voices These were the seuen Spirits of God who by his direction did speake and I was to haue written what they did speake of purpose to haue set it downe with the rest But I heard a voice from heauen saying Seale what the seuen thunders haue spoken but write them not For the holy Spirit hauing declared vnto me by them the exposition of the sixe trumpets the voice of God commands me not to manifest that vnto the world with the rest but by sealing of it to keepe it close vnto the due time 5 And the Angel to wit Christ whom I saw standing on the sea and on the earth lifted vp his hand towards heauen 6 And swore by him that created heauen the earth the sea and all that is in them that the time should be no longer 7 But in the dayes of the seuenth Angels voice when he begins to blow the mysterie of God should be consummate according as he tolde to his seruants the Prophets This oath he made to assure me that the world should end immediatly after the accomplishing of these things mentioned in the sixe Trumpets and that the seuenth declares the things which are to be done at the consummation the forme whereof will be as hee hath declared to his Prophets 8 Then that voice which I heard spake to me from heauen to wit the voice of God the Father spake againe vnto me and said Goe and take that open booke which is in the hand of the Angel who stands on the sea and the earth 9 And so I went vnto the Angel and desired him to giue me the booke and hee answered Take and swallow it and it shall bring a bitternesse vnto thy belly but in thy mouth it shall be as sweete as honie 10 Then I tooke the booke and found that which he said to me of it to be true for indeed I thought it delightfull vnto me to know the mysteries of God by swallowing the booke and so it was sweet in my mouth but so soon as by the digestion hereof I must preach it to the world and for that cause become to be hated contemned and persecuted by the wicked and see but a small increase of my great labours then surely it will be bitter to my belly as it was to Ionas and shall be to all the true preachers thereof thereafter 11 Then he said vnto me Thou must prophesie againe before people nations tongues and many kings for my children in Christ to wit my successours in doctrine who shall be in the time of these plagues shall haue the same commission to teach ouer againe the same Euangel to the saluation of all the beleeuers these shall haue such boldnesse giuen vnto them as they shall constantly declare their commission not only before the people but euen before many kings and shall not be afraid of their faces CHAP. XI ARGVMENT Babylon the Popes Empire is the outward part of the Temple The trew Church is in Sancto Sanctorum but vnder the persecution of these hypocrites for a certaine space Faithfull Pastours are sent from time to time to witnesse the trewth They are persecuted condemned and slaine by Antichrist God raiseth vp at the last stronger preachers who shall describe the Popedome and foretell the destruction thereof In the seuenth Trumpet is the day of Iudgement described ANd then was a long reede like a rod giuen vnto me and the Angel who gaue me the booke stood before me and said Arise and measure the Temple of God and the Altar and all them that adore in it with that reede that is giuen thee 2 But the court that is without the Temple exclude thou and measure it not for it is giuen vnto the Gentiles who shall tread down the holy Citie for the space of two and fourtie moneths Now lest I should despaire of any profit which my successors could haue made in doctrine in their time because as it appeareth by the sixt Trumpet the whole world should be subdued to these two Monarchies Christ aswell to assure me some should still remaine pure and vnspotted as also to shew mee and by me to forewarne the Church that this most dangerous Monarch called Apollyon should corporally succeede in the Church and should sit in the Temple of God giues me a reede for that cause and commands me to measure the Temple for he will saue all them that are of the true Church for they are the inward parts of the Temple and the rest by reason of their hypocrisie shal be accounted of as Gentiles and this diuision shal be made by my successours in doctrine of whom I spake already for they by the measure and triall of the word signified by the reede shall separate that holy Sanctum Sanctorum from the rest of the outward Temple of God to wit the hypocriticall and Antichristian Church which shall tread downe and persecute the true Church for the space of two and fourtie moneths or three yeeres and an halfe for it is both one number This space prescribed by Christ alludeth to Daniels prophecie of two times a time and halfe a time for as Daniel meant thereby the halfe of his propheticall weeke so Christ meanes
by this that the persecution of this Destroyer shall last the halfe to wit it shall reigne about the midst of the last aage of this whole weeke which begins at his incarnation and first comming and ends at his last comming againe which because it is the last period it is here compared to a weeke 3 But I shall giue that holy towne to two witnesses of mine who clothed with sackecloth shall prophesie the space of one thousand two hundred and threescore dayes for these my successours he shall raise vp as witnesses to wit a sufficient number of them for out of the mouth of two or three witnesses euery word is confirmed to witnesse that their doctrine is false who persecute the Church which he shal giue vnto them for he shall make them their patrons to defend and feed them by the power of the true word and they shall preach repentance to that counterfeit Church and therefore they are said to be clothed in sackecloth And to assure vs to our great comfort that in all the time of blindnesse God shall euer be raising vp some of these two witnesses against the hypocriticall Destroyer and to comfort and confirme his true Church it is said They shall prophesie the number of dayes that yee haue heard which is correspondent iustly to the moneths before mentioned to wit they shall not leaue off to witnesse all the time of the Antichristian kingdome 4 These witnesnesses are two greene Oliues who anoint the Elect with that holy oyle and two Candlestickes as Christ said to enlighten the world with their brightnesse who are set downe and doe their office in the presence of him who is Lord and ruler of the earth 5 And if any shal presse to harme them fire shall come out of their mouthes and deuoure their enemies for whosoeuer will doe them any hurt himselfe must be slaine so to wit the holy Spirit who is the fire in their mouth shall accuse and cause to be destroyed with the second death all them that either persecute them or will not heare or obey their doctrine 6 These witnesses haue power to shut heauen that it raine not in the dayes of their prophesie and they haue power ouer the waters to turne them into blood and to strike the earth with euery kinde of plague so often as they please for hee shall authorize them and their message with as sure testimonies as the shutting of the heauen and stay of the raine was vnto Elias so long as he forespake it should be so and as vnto Moyses the turning of the waters into blood and the striking of the earth of the land of Egypt with diuers and sundry plagues 7 But these shall be witnesses by their death as well as by their life For how soone any of them shall haue runne that course in the earth which God hath appointed them they shall be persecuted ouercome and slaine by that beast the Angel of that bottomlesse pit and king of the locusts and that great towne seat of the Monarchy shal publikely put them down as malefactours 8 So as their dead bodies or carkeises shall lie in the streets thereof And this towne is spiritually called Sodom because of the spirituall adultery to wit Idolatrie that it shall commit and maintaine and spiritually Egypt because it shall oppresse and intollerably burthen the soules of the chosen euen as Egypt captiuated the bodies and burthened the backes of the people of Israel and in that towne also was our Lord crucified for where Christs members are put to death for their Masters cause as this towne and Kings therof shal do there is Christ himselfe crucified in effect and his crucifying shal be as wel imputed to them as to Iudas who betrayed him 9 And men of all tribes peoples tongues and nations shall see their carkeises the space of three dayes and a halfe and they shall not be suffered to be buried in sepulchres 10 And the inhabitants of the earth shall be glad and reioyce for their slaughters and shall send gifts one to another in token of ioy because they are made quit of these two prophets who tormented the indwellers of the earth for the whole world who are not in Sancto Sanctorum shall not onely suffer but allow that these witnesses be not onely slaine but also be so cruelly vsed an contemned as not to be suffered to be buried amongst others And the whole earth shall reioyce at their death because that euen as Achab blamed Elias for troubling of Israel so shall the world thinke these witnesses troublesome vnto them because they discouer vnto them their shamefulnesse and call them to the repentance thereof 11 And thus shall they be contemned for the space of three dayes and a halfe to wit of three yeeres and a halfe which signifies that during the space of the Antichrists reigne they shall be thus vsed but after the space of three dayes and an halfe the Spirit of life comming from God shall enter into them and they shall be set vpon their feete and a great feare shall fall vpon them that did see them before 12 And they heard a great voice from the heauen saying vnto them Come vp bither then they ascended vp into heauen and their enemies saw them doe so for although that during the flourishing of this hereticall and bypocriticall Monarchie the trew Pastours no sooner appeared then they were put to death yet at the last this Monarchie shall begin to decay when the three yeeres or the three dayes and an halfe thereof shall be expired and then shall the Spirit of life from God to wit the holy Spirit sent from God worke mightier in the latter Pastours of these dayes so as in them shall the by-past Martyrs be reuiued and their doctrine shall take roote in the hearts of many and their reasons shal be so pithie as the Antichristian sect and the rest of the world shall know as perfectly that they shall preuaile as if they heard God call them to heauen to reward them there for their victory Neither shall they haue power of their liues for God shall mooue the hearts of many to defend them in such glory and safetie as if they were mounting vp to heauen in a cloud and they not able to hinder them 13 And then at that time shall be a great earthquake to wit great tumults among nations and the tenth part of the citie shall fall This citie is diuided in tenne parts to shew it is the same Monarchie that shall afterwards be described by a beast with ten heads And by the falling of the tenth part thereof is meant that diuers nations shall shake off the yoke of that Monarchie and so a part of the strength of that citie shall decay and there was slaine in that earthquake seuen thousand men to wit a great number of men shal be slaine in these tumults and the rest were afraid and gaue glory vnto the God of Heauen for these tumults
with a measure of glory conformed thereunto and so their workes follow them to obtaine that measure in that place wherof they were already assured by the meanes of faith in Christ onely For although the Sunne and the Moone and the starres be all bright lampes and lights of the heauen yet are they not all alike bright but the brightnesse of euery one of them is different from the other Alwayes let vs assure our selues that although our measures shall be vnequall yet from the greatest to the least all the vessels of mercie shall enioy in all fulnesse as much glory as they shal be able to containe and the vnequalitie of the measure shal be because they are notable euery one of them to containe alike in quantitie and the like shal be done with the measures of paines to the reprobate in hell 14 Then I beheld and loe I saw a white cloud and vpon the cloud sate one like a man hauing on his head a crowne of gold and in his hand a sharpe sickle 15 And an other Angel came out of the temple cried with a lowd voice to him that sate vpon the cloud Thrust in thy sickle to reape for the houre of thy reaping is come and the haruest of the earth is withered for ripenesse and readinesse to be cut He who was like the Sunne of man and was sitting on a white cloud was Christ in a bright cloud of glory crowned with a Crowne of victory all that was spoken of him here was to declare to me that the last dayes wherein his comming againe shal be shall be next following to the reuealing of Babylon by the reuiuing of the witnesses as ye heard in the end of the sixt Trumpet 16 At what time Christ shall gather his haruest of the elect together as I heard himselfe say while he was yet on earth among vs. 17 Then another Angel came forth of the Temple that is in heauen and he had an other sharp sickle in his hand 18 And an other Angel came from the Altar who had power ouer the fire and he cried with a lowd voice to him that had the other sharpe sickle saying Put downe thy sharpe sickle and gather the clusters of the Vine-trees for the grapes are ripe 19 Then the Angel put downe his sickle on the earth and gathered the Vines of the earth and cast them in the winepresse of the wrath of God For so soone as Christ hath gathered his haruest together then the reprobate are fully to be destroyed as is declared here by the Anges command who came from the Altar to wit as directed by Christ Thiâ— Angel had power ouer the fire to wit he had direction to destroy as he commanded the messenger of Gods plagues who had the sickle to doe it who at his command cut the Vines and cast them in the great Winepresse of Gods wrath to wit destroyed the reprobate in the abundance of the writh of God 20 And the Winepresse was troden without the Citie and the blood came out of the Winepresse euen to the horse bridles and spred to the bounds of one thousand and sixe hundred furlongs This is surely a great comfort to all the chosen that notwithstanding all the rest of the world except such as are Christes haruest whom he hath gathered together in the holy Citie the rest I say shal be destroyed in such a great number as their blood shall of deepenesse come to the horse bridles and ouerflow the whole land of Canaan whereof the number of furlongs or eight parts of miles ye heard is the length Yet though it ouerflow the whole earth which is signified by Canaan it shal be without the holy Citie which is in the middest of the land to wit although the trew Church shal be in the middest of the world as Ierusalem was in Canaan yet that destruction shall not make a haire of one of their heads to fall but it shal be without them and they fully exempted from it as the land of Goshen was from the plagues of Egypt CHAP. XV. ARGVMENT The faithfull praiseth God for the Popes destruction and their deliuerance The plagues which are to light on him and his followers is to be declared by the powring forth of the seuen Phials THen I saw another signe in heauen great and wonderfull to wit seuen Angels hauing the seuen last plagues for by them is fulfilled the wrath of God for the Spirit of God hauing already declared vnto me the generall destruction of the whole world which is without the holy citie hee next declared vnto me vnto my greater comfort the particular plagues that are to light vpon spirituall Babylon as a iust recompense of her sinnes and of the plagues that shee is to loade the earth withall and these are the seuen hinmost which are in the hands of the seuen Angels of whom there is here mention made 2 And I saw as it had beene a glassie Sea mixed with fire and they that had wonne the victory ouer the beast and ouer his image or embassadours and his character and the number of his name to wit from that time that the last beast rose out of the ruines of the other I saw these victours I say standing aboue or vpon this sea of glasse and they had the harpes of God For now hauing declared on the one part how vnhappie the state of Babylon shall be by the seuen last plagues which shall fall vpon it so on the other part by these who stand on the sea of glasse mixed with fire he declared vnto me what should be the blessed estate of the chosen at that time that these plagues shall fall vpon Babylon to wit of these victours for they shall reueale the Antichrist and deface him they shall hen behold the rest of the world which is here signified by the sea of glase and they shall haue the harpes of God to wit the praises of God in their mouthes because he hath mixed this glassie sea with fire to wit hath destroyed and made his iudgements to fall vpon this wicked world as their sorg which followes will declare 3 And they sung the song of Moses the seruant of God the song of the Lambe It was called the song of Moses as well because they did sing the praises of Gods iustice vpon this glassie Sea to the reuenge of the blood of his chosen as Moses sayth in the very last wordes of his Canticle as because Moses praised God for the deliuerance of his people from the corporall thraldome of Egypt and the song of the Lambe because they praised him for doing the like by relieuing the Church from the thraldome of the spirituall Egypt in the times of the Euangel and their song was this Great and wonderfull are thy workes O Lord God Almightie iust in punishment and trew for the performance of thy promises are thy wayes O King and defender of all thy Saints and trew followers 4 Who will notfeare O Lord
from the sinceritie of the trewth enticed thereunto though not by Apollyon himselfe for hee was not yet risen yet by the qualities whereof hee is composed and therefore is he here punished for the same And as Moses troubled by the hote Easterne winde the land of Egypt by the breeding of grashoppers so shall the fierie spirit of God in the mouthes of his witnesses so trouble Babylon with the burning sunne of Gods trewth as men shall be troubled with a great heat to wit she and her followers shall be tormented and vexed therewith 9 But they blasphemed the name of God who had power ouer these plagues and repented not that they might giue him glory for such is the nature of the wicked and so hardened are their hearts that the same scourges and afflictions which make the godly turne themselues to God and so are the sauour of life vnto them to their eternall saluation they by the contrary make the wicked to runne from euill vnto worse and so are the sauour of death vnto them to their iust and eternall condemnation 10 Then the fifth Angel powred forth his phiale euen vpon the very throne of the beast and his kingdome was made darke and they to wit he and his followers gnawed their tongues for dolour for as this beast did breed and was nourished by the smoake and darkenesse that came foorth of the bottomlesse pit whereof he is the Angel and messenger as was declared in the fift Trumpet And as Moses made a great darkenesse to come vpon the land of Egypt so now after the witnesses reuealing him which yee heard signified by the heat in the fourth phiale shall follow that this kingdome shall become obscure by the light of the trewth and shall come to be despised by many whereby he and his followers shall be mooued to a great rage which I meant by gnawing their tongues for dolour 11 And they blasphemed the God of heauen for their dolours and griefes and repented them not of their workes for as I said before neither corporall punishments signified by sores nor spirituall signified by dolours can moue them to repent but to a greater obstinacie and rage as ye shall see by their actions immediatly after the powring foorth of the sixt phiale vpon the great water Euphrates 12 Then the sixt Angel powred foorth his phiale vpon the great riuer of Euphrates and the waters thereof were dried vp that the passage of the Kings comming from the East might be prepared so as that beast by the meanes of many people signified by waters did tyrannize ouer the Church of God and as Moses by Aarons rod made a dry and safe passage through the Red-sea to the people of Israel Exod. 14. so God by this plague dries vp that great water Euphrates which compasseth Babylon during his will to wit he makes now the power of this Monarchie to decay and layes it open to inuasion and destruction as ye shall heare This water was dried to make passage for the Kings comming from the Sun rising alluding to Daniel as I shewed in the sixt Trumpet for euen as the Persians and Medes came from the East Chap. 9. crossed Euphrates ouercame Babylon and slew Balthasar King thereof so immediately after that the Witnesses haue begun to reueale spirituall Babylon as is declared in the fourth phiale and that thereupon hath followed that the kingdome thereof is become darke as is declared in the fift phiale then shall follow that God shall prepare the destruction thereof by drying Euphrates ' whereupon shall ensue that such instruments as God shall appoint directed by that Sunne rising to wit Christ as ye heard in the sixt Seale shall destroy that King and sacke that great Citie to the perpetuall confusion of all her followers as ye wil heare more clearely declared hereafter 13 And then I saw from the mouth of the dragon and from the mouth of the beast and from the mouth of the false prophet three vncleanespirits come foorth like to froggs for this is all the repentance that these three phials shall worke in the heart of Babylon as I said before to wit for the last remedie the diuel or dragon shall inuent him a fresh order of Ecclesiasticall factours and Agents as the diuels last brood These are the same that I called horse in the vision in the sixt Trumpet three in number to correspond to their threefold armour as ye heard in the said Trumpet because there came out of their mouthes three sorts of persecutions and destructions And themselues came out of three mouthes out of the dragons because the diuel is the inuenter of them out of the beasts because the beast or King of Locusts commands ouer them directs and employes them for the standing of his kingdome as the last refuge when now he sees the decay thereof euidently comming on out of his false prophets or false Churches because it authorises them for the aforesaid effects These vncleane spirits and teachers of false and hereticall doctrines and wicked policies resembling frogges as well for that they are bred of an old filthy and corrupted false doctrine which for a long space haue blinded the world before their comming as frogges breed of rotten and slimie corruption as also for that they goe craftily about to vndermine and condemne all Ecclesiasticall orders preceding them as vnperfect and vnprofitable because their kingdome is darkenesse But howsoeuer they thus craftily insinuate themselues in the fauours of the people surely their doctrine is nothing else but the very same filthy puddle of vncleane and wicked heresies and impieties taught by the grashoppers before euen as the yong frogges grow like the former 14 For they are spirits of diuels to wit wicked and craftie like them doing myracles of deceipt for they shall wonderfully deceiue men and they goe to all the Kings of the earth and to the whole world to gather them together to the battell of that day of God Almightie for they shall haue such credit of a great part of the Princes of the earth as I also shewed you in the sixt Trumpet as they shall gather great forces together as the last brood of the diuel as I told you before to fight against his Church who notwithstanding shall ouercome them as will after more clearely be declared 15 Happy are they then that swarue not nor despaire in the meane time but awake and keepe their garments cleane and vndefiled from the generall corruption lest otherwise they walke naked not clothed with the garment of righteousnes and so their shamefull parts or naturall inclination to euill be discouered For loe I come as a thiefe for no man shall know the houre no time of my comming 16 And the place whereunto these vncleane spirits gathered the Kings to this battell against Gods Church in Hebrew is called Armageddon for by deceipt they assembled the Kings and nations to their owne destruction 17 Then the seuenth Angel powred out his phiale
lest ye be participants of her sinnes and of the plagues which are to fall vpon her for them For if but outwardly ye haunt with her and seeme to beare with her abominations yee shall bee accounted guiltie of her sinnes for if ye will haue Christ to professe you publikely at the latter day before his Father and his Angels and reward both your body and soule with eternall felicitie yee must not bee ashamed to serue him both in body and soule before men And this warning I giue you before-hand to make you inexcusable who will otherwise doe 5 For her sinnes are come to such a height as they haue touched the heauen and God is mindfull of them then not onely haunt not with her as I haue said for it is not enough not to doe euil but 6 Rayse your selues vp against her and render the like that she hath done to you yea pay her with the double of her owne workes and in the cup which she propined vnto others render her the double to wit trouble and destroy her by all meanes and in all things euen as she troubled and destroyed others before and according to her pride and wantonnesse recompence her with torment woe and wailing 7 For she sayes in her mind I fit a Queene or am a stabled Monarch neither am I a widow or shall euer bee desolate nor shall euer see dolour or taste destruction 8 And therefore because she thus builds her felicitie vpon her worldly strength by worldly instruments shall shee bee plagued with death with dolour with hunger and burnt with fire to wit after suffering all sorts of torments shee shall in the end be vtterly destroyed for strong is the Lord God who shall condemne her 9 And then shall the kings of the earth who were her hornes and had committed whoredome and riotousnesse with her before weepe and lament for pittie when they see the smoake of her burning for although some of themselues shall be the destroyers as ye heard before yet shall her destruction be so great as their hearts shall pittie the worke of their hands when they shall see the great smoake of her destruction 10 And they shall stand farre off from her torment to wit her torment shall put them in memorie of their guiltinesse of her sinnes which shall afray them wonderfully and shall say in great admiration Alas Alas for that great Citie Babylon that strong Citie whose iudgement and destruction is all come in one howre and at once 11 And the Merchants of the earth shall weepe and mourne for her because their merchandise wil no more bee bought for her pompe shall make the Merchants rich by getting readie sale of all fine wares 12 Such as gold siluer precious stones pearles fine linnen purple silke and scarlet for her garments and all kind of vessels to doe her idolatrous seruice of Iuorie costly wood brasse iron or marble stone 13 Cynamome and all kind of odours for her Church with oyntments and incense for the same purpose and the fine flower of wheat and all kind of victuals and cattell and sheepe for her sumptuous banquets and horse and Chariots and slaues for her triumphes and processions and soules of men for shee shall haue many that shall be Merchants vnto her of the soules of men by selling for mony Pardons giuen by that Monarch which shall bee thought to haue power to saue redeeme and free mens soules but ye shal heare more shortly of this hereafter 14 And the fruits of the desire of thy soule O Babylon shall goe from thee to wit thy ioyes and delights shall all turne to sorrow and all fat and faire things are gone from thee to wit thou shalt leaue all profit and pleasure neither shalt thou euer find them any more for thou shalt be destroyed for euer 15 And so the Merchants of these stuffes being made rich by the buying and selling of them they shall stand afarre off from thy torments and weepe and waile 16 saying Alas Alas for that great Citie that was clothed with fine linnen purple and scarlet and was of so glistering a pompe as was gilded with gold and decked with pretious stones and pearles 17 For loe now how in one houre all her riches and pompe is evanished and all the gouernours and owners of ships and all the multitudes of men in the ships and all the marriners in them and all these who gaine their liuing vpon the sea shal stand afarre off for feare 18 And cry seeing the smoke of her burning saying with a great admiration Who was like in power or shining glorie to this Citie 19 And for pittie of her decay and sorow for wanting by that meanes the carrying to her from all other countries all sorts of merchandise they shall cast dust and ashes vpon their heades and say Alas Alas for that great Citie wherein was made rich all these that had shippes vpon the sea by the prices and trade shee made vs haue and now she is made desolate in one houre 20 But although the earthly men bee sorrowfull for her fall as yee haue heard because they want their earthly commodities and pleasures thereby which she whose religion was earthly to wit founded vpon mens traditions and inuentions and maintained by earthly pompe and power did make them enioy yet reioyce yee heauens for her fall and ye holy Apostles and Prophets be glad thereof for God in punishing her hath reuenged your cause 21 Then for confirmation of this Prophesie of her destruction I sawe a strong Angel take a great stone like a milstone and cast it in the sea saying Euen with such a force shall Babylon that great Citie be casten downe and the very place thereof shall no more be found as Ieremy prophesied of corporall Babylon 22 And the sound of harpers and musitians and players on pipes and trumpets shall no more be heard in thee for no ioy nor mirth shall any more bee in that Monarchie or the seate thereof nor no craftes-man of any craft shall bee found in thee neither shall the grinding of the mill be heard any more in thee for that Citie or seate and Monarchie shall no more bee inhabited 23 And the light of a candle shal be no more found in thee and the voice of the husband and the wife shall no more be heard in thee for as it shall not be inhabited any more by the wicked so neither shall the godly dwell therein so accursed shall it be so as the lampes of the fiue virgins shall not burne there neither shall Christ and his spouse the true Church any more be there although that during the standing of that Monarchie some chosen though few and secret were and at all times shall be euen within that City the seate thereof whose merchants were the great men of the earth and with whose witchcrafts all nations wereseduced 24 And the blood of the Prophets and of the Saints was found in her and of all them
word of God as I did shew you in the beginning of my Euangel 14 And the hostes of Angels and Saints in heauen followed him vpon white horses clothed in white and pure linnen whereof yee heard alreadie 15 And from his mouth came foorth a sharpe sword as ye heard in the beginning of this Epistle that he might strike the Gentiles therewith for hee shall rule them with a rod of yron as Dauid sayth and he treadeth to wit giueth command and power to tread the lake or sea of the vine of the fury and wrath of God Almightie as ye heard in the seuenth Trumpet 16 And he hath vpon his garment and vpon his thigh as the strongest part of his body this name written The King of kings and Lord of lords 17 And I saw an Angel standing in the Sunne that there he might be seene publikely of all and that the Whole world might take heed to that which he was to proclaime and he cried with a loude voice to all the fowles flying through the middest of heauen Come and gather your selues to the supper of the Lord 18 To eate the flesh of Kings of Tribunes of mightie men of horses and of their riders in short come eate the flesh of all free-men and slaues great and small This was to declare that the day of Iudgement was come wherein should that destruction ensue signified by fowles eating their flesh because fowles vse to eate the flesh of dead men vnburied which should ouerwhelme all sorts of men excepting alwayes these that were marked who were sundry times excepted before as ye heard 19 Then I saw that beast to wit Babylon together with the kings of the earth who tooke her part and their armies gathered together to make warre with him that sate vpon the white horse and with his armie 20 But the Beast was taken together with the false prophet or false Church which by her false miracles seduced the nations that did beare the Character of the Beast and adored his image as ye heard before and they were both cast quicke in the lake of fire burning with brimstone 21 And the rest were slaine by the sword which came out of his mouth that sate vpon the horse and the fowles were filled with their flesh for how soone Christ shall come to Iudgement then shall all the enemies of God be destroyed and so full victory obtained of this battell whereof yee heard in the sixt Trumpet and sixt phiale and shall heare farther hereafter And chiefly Babylon and the false Church shall be cast into hell because they merit double punishment for the abusing of men although they shall not also want their damnation that followeth them as is signified by their slaughter with the sword of his mouth whereof yee heard in the beginning of this Epistle and by the fowles eating their flesh as ye presently perceiue CHAP. XX. ARGVMENT The summe and recapitulation of all the former visions to wit the first estate of the Church in all puritie after Christ The heresies and specially the Popedome that followed The destruction thereof in their greatestrage The latter day The saluation of the Elect and condemnation of all others THe Spirit of God hauing now shewen vnto me the estate of the Church militant with the speciall temptations and troubles of the same from the death of Christ to the consummation of the world and their ioyfull deliuerance and victory at that time by the first sixe Seales and next more amply by the seuenth Seale wherin were the seuen trumpets and thirdly her greatest temptations and troubles more cleerely and at large by the vision of the woman persecuted by the Dragon and lastly the cleere and ample description and damnation of Babylon that great persecuter the sorrow of the earth and ioy of heauen therefore This vision now that ye shall presently heare was next shewen vnto me to serue for a summe as it were and a short recapitulation of the whole Prophecie so often reiterated before which is here diuided in three parts First the happy estate of Christes Church though not in the eyes of the world from his first comming to a long time after as was declared by the first Seale Next the grieuous troubles and temptations vnto the which shee shall be subiect thereafter as was declared by the third and fourth Seale and by the third fourth fift and sixt blastes of the Trumpets And thirdly the destruction of all her enemies her ioyfull deliuerance and the consummation as was declared by the sixt Seale the seuenth Trumpet the seuenth phiale and the comming downe of the white horse which in my last words before these yee heard described But specially in this vision is declared the punishment at the latter day of the deuill himselfe before the destruction onely of his instruments being mentioned as ye formerly heard The vision then was this 1 I saw an Angel come downe from heauen and he had the key of the bottomlesse pit and a great chaine in his hand 2 And hee tooke the dragon to wit the ancient serpent who is the deuill and Satan to wit the Tempter and bound him for the space of a thousand yeres 3 And did cast him in the bottomlesse pit and closed him in there that it should not be opened that he might come foorth and seduce the nations till the space of a thousand yeeres were completed and past for thereafter he must be loosed for a short space 4 Then I saw seats and persons sitting vpon them and iudgment or power of iudging was giuen vnto them And I also saw the soules of them who were beheaded or otherwise put to death for the testimonie of Christ and the word of God and adored not the Beast nor tooke his image neither his character on their foreheads nor on their hands These shal liue and reigne with Christ the space of the thousand yeres ye heard 5 But the rest of the dead shal not reuiue till the space of these yeres be complete This is the first resurrectiō 6 Blessed and holy is he that is partaker of the first resurrection for ouer such the second death shal haue no power but they shal be Priests of God and Christ shal reigne with him for euer This is the first part of the diuision wherof I presently told you to wit Christ by his passion did bind the deuill who before was raging in the world and closed him in hell by the remouing of the vaile of blindnes from the whole earth which remained so the space of a thousand yeres to wit a long space all that time the deuil remained bound and casten into hell by Christ who only hath power of it so as in all that space the nations were not seduced for the efficacie of heresies was not yet cropen in and the Saints and Church visible shal so increase albeit in the midst of persecution all this time and so retaine the purity of the trewth as by the glory of
their constancie and patience in the time of their persecution they shall as it were reigne ouer the earth and by their Martyrdome be Iudges therof for it is called Christs reigning and the Saints vpon the earth when his word and trew professours thereof shine visibly therein as I haue said and these were they who adored not the beast to wit they are the elect who were predestinate before all beginnings to be preserued from all infections and heresies which is generally represented by this part of them that the beast or Babylon shal raise and maintaine as the greatest and most perillous that euer shall be raised by Satan And the honourable sitting of the Saints and soules of Martyrs was shewed to me to assure me that how soone the soule of any faithfull man is parted from the body it ascendeth immediatly vnto heauen there abiding in all glory the reioyning againe of his glorified body at the latter day coniunctly to possesse all glory in heauen eternally like as by the contrary the reprobate soule how soone it parteth from the body of the wicked goes down immediatly to hell there abiding in all torment the knitting again with his cursed body at the latter day there iointly to be subiect to eternall paine neither is there any resting place by the way for any of them and the rest of the dead to wit all the wicked shal not be reuiued while this space be complete for the wicked shall neither during this space nor at any time thereafter taste of the regeneration which is the first resurrection and second birth as Christ said to Nicodemus and therfore as I said already Blessed and happy are they who are partakers of the first resurrection for the second death to wit hell shall haue no power of them but they shall be Priests of God and Christ and reigne with him these thousand yeeres to wit they shal eternally in heauen offer vp that Eucharisticall Sacrifice of praise to God and so be ioyned in fellowship with the chosen which were vpon the earth in that aforesaid time This first part of this vision is begun alreadie now followeth the next part 7 And when these happy dayes are expired then shal the deuill be loosed out of his prison 8 And he shal go forth with greater liberty to seduce the nations which are in the four airths of the earth to wit he shal not only after the spreding of many heresies cause a general blindnes defection but also make a great persecution vpon the faithful Church by gathering Gog and Magog to battell against them whose number is like the sand of the sea to wit after innumerable troubles at last he shall gather to the great day of the battell of the Lord of the which ye heard in the sixt Trumpet and sixt phiale and last immediately before this Vision Gog and Magog to wit two great seates of Monarchies and Tyrannies ouer the Church who both at one time shall rise in the latter dayes and both at another time shal be destroyed by the blast of Christes breath as ye shall heare whereof the one is the auowed and professed enemie of GOD and his CHRIST but the other is Babylon the hypocriticall and most dangerous aduersary Of these two ye heard in the sixt Trumpet and so these two although pride and enuie shall still keepe a rooted malice betwixt them yet they shall both with innumerable forces make warre against the trew Church as Herod and Pilate did band themselues against Christ notwithstanding the particular dislikes which were betwixt them It is these and their forces that must fight against the Saints at Arma-geddon as ye heard in the sixt phiale and the special drawers on of this battell shal be the three frogs who are the last vermin bred of the smoake of the bottomlesse pit as ye also heard in the said phiale 9 These great forces then went vp vpon the earth for the diuel raised them out of the bottomlesse pit and they spread themselues vpon the breadth of the earth so great was their number and compassed the Tents or dwellings of the Saints and the holy Citie for they were prepared to inuade the trew Church on all sides and by all meanes but the fire came downe from heauen and deuoured them for God by his Almighty power euen when their power was greatest and nothing so like as an apparant rooting out of all the faithfull in rebus desperatis did miraculously confound all the aduersaries of his Church And now comes in the third and last part of this Vision to wit the description of the Consummation 10 For I did see the diuel who seduced these wicked cast into a lake of fire and brimstone to wit in hell out of the which he shall neuer come againe where also the beast and the false prophet were as ye heard before Here now I saw the diuel punished eternally to my greater comfort for troubling the Church where before I saw onely his instruments punished as I said in the beginning of this Vision and he and his instruments shall be tormented there day and night to wit incessantly for euer and euer 11 Then I saw a great white Throne and one sitting thereupon in all glory and brightnesse to wit IESVS CHRIST now comming from heauen to iudge the earth and from his sight fled the earth and the heauen and their place was not found for the whole earth and much of the heauen shall be destroyed and renewed at his last comming 12 And I saw all the dead great and small standing in GOD his sight for then is the resurrection of the dead who at that time must be iudged And the bookes were opened to wit the counsels and secrets of all mens hearts and another booke to wit the booke of Life was opened to the effect that all those whose names were written into it to wit predestinated and elected for saluation before all beginnings might there be selected for eternall Glory And the dead were iudged out of these things which were written in the bookes according to their workes for as God is a Spirit so iudgeth he the thoughts of man and so by faith onely iustifies him which notwithstanding is done according to his workes because they as the fruits of faith cannot be separated from it and beare witnesse of the same to men in the earth 13 And the Sea gaue vp all the dead she had for all the dead must then rise as I haue shewed already And death and hell gaue vp all they had for not onely the bodies but euen the soules of the wicked shal be iudged there and euery one was iudged according to his workes as I presently did shew you 14 And hell and death were casten in the Lake of fire which is the second death to wit hell and death shall then be closed vp for euer within themselues and shall neuer againe come forth to trouble the Saints for death which is the last
me vp Psal 69.9 But more largely expressed in the 132. Psalme composed at the same time while this worke was a doing The externall was a notable victorie newly obtained by the power of God ouer and against the Philistines olde and pernitious enemies to the people of God expressed in the last part of the 14. chapter preceding By this victorie or cause externall the internal causes and zeale in Dauid is so doubly inflamed that all things set aside in this worke onely he will be occupied These are the two weightie causes mouing him Wherof we may learne first that the chiefe vertue which should be in a christian Prince and which the Spirit of God alwayes chiefly praises in him is a feruencie and constant zeale to promote the glorie of God that hath honoured him Next that where this zeale is vnfained God leaues neuer that person without continuall powring of his blessings on him thereby to stirre vp into him a double measure of zeale and thankfulnesse towards God The Church euer troubled by men hath a ioyfull end Thirdly that the Church of God neuer wanted enemies and notable victories ouer them to assure them at all times of the constant kindnes of God towards them euen when as by the crosse as a bitter medicine he cureth their infirmities saueth them from grosse sinnes and trieth their faith For we find plainely in the Scriptures that no sooner God himselfe choosed Israel to be his people but assoone euer therafter as long as they remained his the diuell so enuied their prosperity as hee hounded out his instruments the nations at all times to trouble and warre against them yet to the comfort of his Church afflicted and wrack of the afflicters in the end This first was practised by Pharao in Egypt and after their deliuerance first by the Ammonites and then by the Philistines continually thereafter vntill the rising of the Monarchies who euery one did exercise themselues in the same labour But to note here the rage of all prophane Princes and nations which exercised their crueltie vpon the Church of God were superfluous and tedious in respect of that which I haue set downe in my former meditation Wherefore I onely goe forward then in this As this was the continuall behauiour of the Nations towards Israel So it was most especially in the time of Dauid and among the rest at this time here cited at what time hauing newly inuaded Israel and beeing driuen backe they would yet assemble againe in great multitudes to warre against the people of God and not content to defend their owne countries as the Israelites did would needes come out of the same to pursue them and so spread themselues in the valley But Dauid by Gods direction brings foorth the people against them who fights and according to Gods promises ouercomes them onely by the hand of God and not by their power as the place it selfe most plainely doeth shew So the Church of God may be troubled but in trouble it cannot perish and the end of their trouble is the very wracke and destruction of Gods enemies THE SECOND PART NOw followes secondly the persons who did concurre with Dauid in this action Three rankes of persons concurre with Dauid in this worke The Spirit noteth three rankes of them In the first are the Elders of Israel In the next are the captaines ouer thousands In the third are the Priests and Leuites of whom summarily I will speake These Elders were substituted vnder Dauid in the kingdome and as his hands in all parts of the countrey ministring iustice and iudgement to the Kings subiects And they were of two sorts maiestrates in walled townes who in the gates of the cities executed iudgement and chiefe in Tribes and fathers of families who in the countrey did iudge and minister iudgement as the Scripture reports They were not vnlike to two of the estates of our kingdome the Baron and the Burgesse The Captaines ouer thousands were godly and valiant men who vnder the King did rule in time of warre had the custodie of the Kings person and fought his battailes These were necessarie officers for Dauid who was appointed by God in his time as wee are taught out of Gods owne words speaking by Nathan to Dauid to fight Gods battailes to subdue the enemies of his Church and to procure by so doing a peaceable kingdome for Solomon his sonne who should in peace as a figure of Christ the Prince of peace build the Lords Temple These are spoken of here to teach vs first that their calling is lawfull next that in their calling they should be earnest to honour God and thirdly that these Captaines chiefly were lawfully called and lawfully walked therein as we haue plaine declaration out of Dauids owne mouth expressed well in the whole 101. Psalme seeing none were admitted in his seruice or houshold but such as vnfainedly feared God And without all question godly and zealous Dauid would neuer haue committed the guard of his person nor the fighting of Gods battailes to the enemies of God or men of warre of whose godlinesse and vertue he neuer had proofe See then their names and praise 1. Chron. 11.26 The third ranke of Priests and Leuites are set downe in the same chapter vers 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. So men of all estates were present in this godly worke This is to be marked well of Princes and of all those of any high calling or degree that hath to doe in Gods cause Dauid doth nothing in matters appertaining to God without the presence and speciall concurrence of Gods Ministers appointed to be spirituall rulers in his Church and at the first meant to conuey the same Arke to Ierusalem finding their absence and want of their counsell hurtfull now in this chapter vers 12 13. he saith to them Ye are the chiefe Fathers of the Leuites sanctifie your selues and your brethren and bring vp the Arke of the Lord God of Israel vnto the place that I haue prepared for it For because ye were not there at the first the Lord our God made a breach among vs for we sought him not in due order And thus farre for the second part concerning persons Wherein we may learne first that a godly king findes as his heart wisheth godly estates concurring with him Next a godly king of his godly foresight in choosing good vnder-rulers reapeth this profit and pleasure that as hee goeth before so they with zealous hearts doe follow THE THIRD PART THe summe of this ioyfull conuoy may be digested in three actions The Arke is transported with ioy to Ierusalem which are these The transporting of the Arke the harmony of musicall instruments and Dauids dancing and reioycing before it He built a Tabernacle for the Arke in mount Sion transported it therunto to signify his thankfulnes for the many victories God had put in his hands and this transporting was the occasion of all this solemnitie and reioycing
ioyned with the trew Church neuer to be sifted while the Master of the Haruest come with the fanne in his hand THE FIFT PART HEr doings are being quiet in her lodging Michals doings al the time of her husbands great and publike reioycing with the people not comming out for not being able as appeareth to counterfeit finely euough a dissimulate ioyfull countenance And therefore looking out at a window shee spies her husband dancing before the Arke incontinent interprets shee this indifferent action in malam partem as not being touched with a true feeling of the cause of his ioy and so despises she his doing in her minde as onely proceeding of a lasciuious wantonnesse A marueilous case shee that before of naturall loue to her husband did preserue him although to her owne great perill from the hands of her owne father Saul cannot now abide to see him vse aright that indifferent action which she her selfe I doubt not did oft through licentiousnes abuse By this we may note the nature of the hypocrites and interiour enemies of the Church who although in their particulars not concerning Religion there will be none in shew more friendly to the godly then they yet how soone matters of Religion or concerning the honour of God comes in hand O then are they no longer able to containe or bridle their passions euen as here Michal defended her husband euen in the particulars betwixt him and her owne father but his dancing before the Arke to the honour of God she could no wise abide Now thus farre being said for the methodicall opening vp of the Text The application of the purpose to vs. It rests onely to examine how pertinently this place doeth appertaine to vs and our present estate And first as to the persons the people of God and the nations their enemies together with their pridefull pursuite of Dauid and Gods most notable deliuerance Is there not now a sincere profession of the trewth amongst vs in this Isle oppugned by the nations about haters of the holy word And doe we not also as Israel professe one onely God and are ruled by his pure word onely on the other part are they not as Philistines adorers of legions of gods and ruled by the foolish traditions of men Haue they not as the Philistines beene continually the pursuers and we as Israel the defenders of our natiue soile and countrey next haue they not now at the last euen like the Philistines come out of their owne soiles to pursue vs and spread themselues to that effect vpon the great valley of our seas presumptuously threatning the destruction and wracke of vs But thirdly had not our victory beene farre more notable then that of Israel and hath not the one beene as well wrought by the hand of God as the other For as God by shaking the tops of the mulbery trees with his mightie windes put the Philistines to flight hath hee not euen in like maner by brangling with his mightie windes their timber castles scattered and shaken them asunder to the wracke of a great part and confusion of the whole Now that we may resemble Israel as well in the rest of this action what triumph rests vs to make for the crowning of this blessed comedy Euen to bring amongst vs the Arke with all reioycing What is the Arke of Christians vnder grace but the Lord Iesus Christ whom with ioy wee bring amongst vs when as receiuing with sinceritie and gladnesse the new Testament in the blood of Christ our Sauiour in our heart we beleeue his promises and in word and deede wee beare witnesse thereto before the whole world and walke so in the light as it becomes the sonnes of the same this is the worthiest triumph of our victory that we can make And although there will doubtlesse be many Michals amongst vs let vs reioyce and praise God for the discouerie of them assuring our selues they were neuer of vs accounting all them to be against vs that either reioyce at the prosperitie of our enemies or reioyce not with vs at our miraculous deliuerance For all they that gather not with vs they scatter And let vs also diligently and warily trie out these craftie Michals for it is in that respect that Christ recommends vnto vs the wisedome of Serpents not thereby to deceiue and betray others no God forbid but to arme vs against the deceit and treason of hypocrites that goe about to trap vs. And lest that these great benefits which God hath bestowed vpon vs be turned through our vnthankfulnesse into a greater curse in seruing for testimonies at the latter day against vs to the procuring of our double stripes let vs now to conclude bring in the Arke amongst vs in two respects before mentioned seeing we haue already receiued the Gospel first by constant remaining in the puritie of the trewth which is our most certeine couenant of saluation in the only merits of our Sauior And next let vs so reforme our defiled liues as becomes regenerate Christians to the great glory of our God the vtter defacing of our aduersaries the wicked and our vnspeakeable comfort both here and also for euer AMEN His Maiesties owne Sonnet THe nations banded gainst the Lord of might Prepar'd a force and set them to the way Mars drest himselfe in such an awfull plight The like whereof was neuerseene they say They forward came in monstrous aray Both Sea and land beset vs euery where Bragges threatned vs a ruinous decay What came of that the issue did declare The windes began to tosse them here and there The Seas begun in foming waues to swell The number that escap'd it fell them faire The rest were swallowed vp in gulfes of hell But how were all these things miraculous done God laught at them out of his heauenly throne Idem Latinè INS ANO tumidae gentes coiere tumultu Ausae insigne nefas bello vltro ciere tonantem Mars sese accinxit metuenda tot agmina nunquam Visa ferunt properare truces miro ordine turmae Nosque mari terra saeuo clasere duello Exitium diraque minantes strage ruinam Irrita sed tristi lugent conamina fine Nam laceras iecit ventus ludibria puppes Et mersit rapidis turgescens montibus aequor Foelix communi qui euasit clade superstes Dum reliquos misero deglutit abyssus hiatu Qui vis tanta cadit quis totque stupenda peregit Vanos Ioua sacro conatus risit Olympo Per Metellanum Cancellarium DAEMONOLOGIE IN FORME OF A DIALOGVE Diuided into three Bookes WRITTEN BY THE HIGH AND MIGHTIE PRINCE IAMES by the Grace of GOD King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. ¶ THE PREFACE TO THE READER THe fearefull abounding at this time in this Countrey of these detestable slaues of the Diuel the Witches or enchaunters hath mooued mee beloued Reader to dispatch in post this following Treatise of mine not in any wise as J
as ye haue heard For that is the office properly belonging to God and besides that the soule once parting from the body cannot wander any longer in the world but to the owne resting place must it goe immediately abiding the coniunction of the body againe at the latter day And what Christ or the Prophets did miraculously in this case it can in no Christian mans opinion be made common with the diuel As for any tokens that they giue for prouing of this it is very possible to the diuels craft to perswade them to these meanes for he being a spirit may he not so rauish their thoughts and dull their senses that their body lying as dead he may obiect to their spirits as it were in a dreame and as the Poets write of Morpheus represent such formes of persons of places and other circumstances as he pleases to illude them with Yea that he may deceiue them with the greater efficacie may he not at that same instant by fellow angels of his illude such other persons so in that same fashion whom-with hee makes them to beleeue that they mette that all their reports and tokens though seuerally examined may euery one agree with another And that whatsoeuer actions either in hurting men or beasts or whatsoeuer other thing that they falsly imagine at that time to haue done may by himselfe or his marrowes at that same time be done indeed so as if they would giue for a token of their being rauished at the death of such a person within so short space thereafter whom they beleeue to haue poisoned or witched at that instant might he not at that same houre haue smitten that same person by the permission of GOD to the farther deceiuing of them and to mooue others to beleeue them And this is surely the likelyest way and most according to reason which my iudgement can finde out in this and whatsoeuer other vnnaturall points of their confession And by these meanes shall we saile surely betwixt Charybdis and Scylla in eschewing the not beleeuing of them altogether on the one part lest that draw vs to the errour that there is no Witches and on the other part in beleeuing of it make vs to eschew the falling into innumerable absurdities both monstrously against all Theologie diuine and Philosophie humane CHAP. V. ARGV Witches actions towards others Why there are more women of that craft then men What things are possible to them to effectuate by the power of their master The reasons thereof What is the surest remedy of the harmes done by them PHILOMATHES FOrsooth your opinion in this seemes to cary most reason with it and since ye haue ended then the actions belonging properly to their owne persons say forward now to their actions vsed towards others EPI In their actions vsed towards others three things ought to be considered First the maner of their consulting thereupon Next their part as instruments And last their masters part who puts the same in execution As to their consultations thereupon they vse them oftest in the Churches where they conueene for adoring at what time their master enquiring at them what they would be at euery one of them propones vnto him what wicked turne they would haue done either for obtaining of riches or for reuenging them vpon any whom they haue malice at who granting their demaund as no doubt willingly he will since it is to doe euill hee teacheth them the meanes whereby they may doe the same As for little trifling turnes that women haue adoe with he causeth them to ioynt dead corpses and to make powders thereof mixing such other things there amongst as he giues vnto them PHI. But before ye goe further permit me I pray you to interrupt you one word which ye haue put me in memorie of by speaking of Women What can be the cause that there are twentie women giuen to that craft where there is one man EPI The reason is easie for as that sexe is frailer then man is so is it easier to be intrapped in these grosse snares of the diuell as was ouer-well prooued to be trew by the Serpents deceiuing of Eua at the beginning which makes him the homelier with that sexe sensine PHI. Returne now where ye left EPI To some others at these times he teacheth how to make pictures of waxe or clay that by the roasting thereof the persons that they beare the name of may be continually melted or dried away by continuall sickenesse To some he giues such stones or ponders as will helpe to cure or cast on diseases And to some hee teacheth kindes of vncouth poysons which Mediciners vnderstand not for he is farre cunninger then man in the knowledge of all the occult proprieties of nature not that any of these meanes which he teacheth them except the poysons which are composed of things naturall can of themselues helpe any thing to these turnes that they are employed in but onely being GODS ape as well in that as in all other things Euen as God by his Sacraments which are earthly of themselues workes a heauenly effect though no wayes by any cooperation in them And as Christ by clay and spettle wrought together Iohn 9. opened the eyes of the blinde man suppose there was no vertue in that which he outwardly applied so the diuel will haue his outward meanes to be shewes as it were of his doing which hath no part or cooperation in his turnes with him how farre that euer the ignorants be abused in the contrarie And as to the effects of these two former parts to wit the consultations and the outward meanes they are so wonderfull as I dare not alleadge any of them without ioyning a sufficient reason of the possibilitie thereof For leauing all the small trifles among wiues and to speake of the principall points of their craft for the common trifles thereof they can doe without conuerting well enough by themselues these principall points I say are these They can make men or women to loue or hate other which may be very possible to the diuel to effectuate seeing he being a subtile spirit knowes well enough how to perswade the corrupted affection of them whom God wil permit him so to deale with They can lay the sicknesse of one vpon another which likewise is very possible vnto him For since by Gods permission he laide sickenesse vpon Iob why may he not farre easilier lay it vpon any other For as an old practitian hee knowes well enough what humour domines most in any of vs and as a spirit he can subtillie waken vp the same making it peccant or to abound as hee thinkes meet for troubling of vs when God will so permit him And for the taking off of it no doubt he will be glad to relieue such of present paine as he may thinke by these meanes to perswade to be catched in his euerlasting snares and fetters They can bewitch and take the life of men or women by roasting
first part vpon that subiect should haue ditted the mouth of the most enuious Momus that euer hell did hatch from barking at any other part of my booke vpon that ground except they would alledge me to be contrarie to my selfe which in so small a volume would smell of too great weakenesse and sliprinesse of memory And the second part of my booke teaches my Sonne how to vse his Office in the administration of Iustice and Politicke Gouernment The third onely containing a Kings outward behauiour in indifferent things what agreeance and conformitie hee ought to keepe betwixt his outward behauiour in these things and the vertuous qualities of his minde and how they should serue for trunsh-men to interprete the inward disposition of the minde to the eyes of them that cannot see farther within him and therefore must onely iudge of him by the outward appearance So as if there were no more to be looked into but the very methode and order of the booke it will sufficiently cleare me of that first and grieuousest imputation in the point of Religion since in the first part where Religion is onely treated of I speake so plainely And what in other parts I speake of Puritanes it is onely of their morall faults in that part where I speake of Policie declaring when they contemne the Law and souereigne authoritie what exemplare punishment they deserue for the same And now as to the matter it selfe whereupon this scandall is taken that I may sufficiently satisfie all honest men and by a iust Apologie raise vp a brasen wall or bulwarke against all the darts of the enuious I will the more narrowly rip vp the words whereat they seeme to be somewhat stomacked First then as to the name of Puritanes I am not ignorant that the style thereof doeth properly belong onely to that vile sect amongst the Anabaptists called the Family of loue because they thinke themselues onely pure and in a maner without sinne the onely trwe Church and onely worthy to be participant of the Sacraments and all the rest of the world to be but abomination in the sight of God Of this speciall sect I principally meane when I speake of Puritans diuers of them as Browne Penry and others hauing at sundrie times come into Scotland to sow their popple amongst vs and from my heart I wish that they had left no schollers behinde them who by their fruits will in the owne time be manifested and partly indeede I giue this style to such brain-sicke and headie Preachers their disciples and followers as refusing to be called of that sect yet participate too much with their humours in maintaining the aboue mentioned errours not onely agreeing with the generall rule of all Anabaptists in the contempt of the ciuill Magistrate and in leaning to their owne dreams and reuelations but particularly with this sect in accounting all men profane that sweare not to all their fantasies in making for euery particular question of the policie of the Church as great commotion as if the article of the Trinitie were called in controuersie in making the scriptures to be ruled by their conscience and not their conscience by the Scripture and he that denies the least iote of their grounds sit tibi tanquam ethnicus publicanus not worthy to enioy the benefite of breathing much lesse to participate with them of the Sacraments and before that any of their grounds be impugned let King people Law and all be trode vnder foote Such holy warres are to be preferred to an vngodly peace no in such cases Christian Princes are not onely to be resisted vnto but not to be prayed for for prayer must come of Faith and it is reuealed to their consciences that GOD will heare no prayer for such a Prince Iudge then Christian Reader if I wrong this sort of people in giuing them the stile of that sect whose errours they imitate and since they are contented to weare their liuerie let them not be ashamed to borrow also their name It is onely of this kinde of men that in this booke I write so sharply and whom I wish my Sonne to punish in-case they refuse to obey the Law and will not cease to sturre vp a rebellion Whom against I haue written the more bitterly in respect of diuers famous libels and iniurious speaches spred by some of them not onely dishonourably inuectiue against all Christian Princes but euen reprochfull to our profession and Religion in respect they are come out vnder coulour thereof and yet were neuer answered but by Papists who generally medle aswell against them as the religion it selfe whereby the skandale was rather doubled then taken away But on the other part I protest vpon mine honour I meane it not generally of all Preachers or others that like better of the single forme of policie in our Church then of the many Ceremonies in the Church of England that are perswaded that their Bishops smell of a Papall supremacie that the Surplise the cornerd cap and such like are the outward badges of Popish errours No I am so farre from being contentious in these things which for my owne part I euer esteemed as indifferent as I doe equally loue and honour the learned and graue men of either of these opinions It can no wayes become me to pronounce so lightly a sentence in so old a controuersie Wee all God be praised doe agree in the grounds and the bitternesse of men vpon such questions doeth but trouble the peace of the Church and giues aduantage and entry to the Papists by our diuision But towards them I onely vse this prouision that where the Law is otherwayes they may content themselues soberly and quietly with their owne opinions not resisting to the authoritie nor breaking the Law of the Countrey neither aboue all sturring any rebellion or schisme but possessing their soules in peace let them preasse by patience and well grounded reasons either to perswade all the rest to like of their iudgements or where they see better grounds on the other part not to bee ashamed peaceably to incline thereunto laying aside all praeoccupied opinions And that this is the onely meaning of my Booke and not any coldnesse or cracke in Religion that place doeth plainely witnesse where after I haue spoken of the faults in our Ecclesiasticall estate I exhort my sonne to be beneficiall vnto the good-men of the Ministrie praising God there that there is presently a sufficient number of good men of them in this kingdome and yet are they all knowne to be against the forme of the English Church Yea so farre I am in that place from admitting corruption in Religion as I wish him in promoouing them to vse such caution as may preserue their estate from creeping to corruption euer vsing that forme through the whole Booke where euer I speake of bad Preachers terming them some of the Ministers and not Ministers or Ministrie in generall And to conclude this point of Religion
committer Here would I also eike another crime to bee vnpardonable if I should not be thought partiall but the fatherly loue I beare you will make mee breake the bounds of shame in opening it vnto you Stayning of the blood It is then the false and vnreuerent writing or speaking of malicious men against your Parents and Predecessors Exod. 20.12 ye know the command in Gods lawe Honour your Father and Mother and consequently sen ye are the lawful magistrate suffer not both your Princes and your Parents to be dishonoured by any especially sith the example also toucheth your selfe Plat. 4. de Legib. in leauing thereby to your successors the measure of that which they shal mete out againe to you in your like behalfe I graunt wee haue all our faults which priuately betwixt you and God should serue you for examples to meditate vpon and mend in your person but should not be a matter of discourse to others whatsoeuer And sith yeare come of as honourable Predecessours as any Prince liuing represse the insolence of such as vnder pretence to taxe a vice in the person seeke craftily to staine the race and to steale the affection of the people from their posteritie For how can they loue you that hated them whom-of ye are come Wherefore destroy men innocent young sucking Wolues and Foxes but for the hatred they beare to their race and why wil a coult of a Courser of Naples giue a greater price in a market then an Asse-colt but for loue of the race It is therefore a thing monstrous to see a man loue the childe and hate the Parents as on the other part the infaming and making odious of the parent is the readiest way to bring the sonne in contempt And for conclusion of this point I may also alledge my owne experience For besides the iudgments of God that with my eyes I haue seene fall vpon all them that were chiefe traitours to my parents I may iustly affirme I neuer found yet a constant biding by me in all my straites by any that were of perfite aage in my parents dayes but onely by such as constantly bode by them I meane specially by them that serued the Queene my mother for so that I discharge my conscience to you my Sonne in reuealing to you the trewth I care not what any traitour or treason-allower thinke of it And although the crime of oppression be not in this ranke of vnpardonable crimes Of oppression yet the ouer-common vse of it in this nation as if it were a vertue especially by the greatest ranke of subiects in the land requireth the King to be a sharpe censurer thereof Arist 5. polit Isocr de reg Cic. in Of. ad Q. fr. Be diligent therefore to trie and awfull to beate downe the hornes of proud oppressours embrace the quarrell of the poore and distressed as your owne particular thinking it your greatest honour to represse the oppressours The trew glorie of Kings care for the pleasure of none neither spare ye anie paines in your owne person to see their wrongs redressed and remember of the honourable stile giuen to my grand-father of worthie memorie A memorable and worthie patterne in being called the poore mans King And as the most part of a Kings office standeth in deciding that question of Meum and Tuum among his subiects so remember when ye sit in iudgement that the Throne ye sit on is Gods Deut. 1. as Moyses saith and sway neither to the right hand nor to the left either louing the rich or pittying the poore Iustice should be blinde and friendlesse it is not there ye should reward your friends Plat. in polit Câ—â—a Q. frat Arist 1. Ret. Plat. in Is or seeke to crosse your enemies Here now speaking of oppressours and of iustice the purpose leadeth me to speake of Hie-land and Border oppressions As for the Hie-lands Of the Hielands I shortly comprehend them all in two sorts of people the one that dwelleth in our maine land that are barbarous for the most part and yet mixed with some shewe of ciuilitie the other that dwelleth in the Iles and are alluterly barbares without any sort or shew of ciuilitie For the first sort put straitly to execution the Lawes made alreadie by me against their Ouer-lords and the chiefes of their Clannes and it will be no difficultie to danton them As for the other sort follow forth the course that I haue intended in planting Colonies among them of answerable In-lands subiects that within short time may reforme and ciuilize the best inclined among them rooting out or transporting the barbarous and stubborne sort and planting ciuilitie in their roomes But as for the Borders because I know if ye enioy not this whole Ile Of the Borders according to Gods right and your lineall discent yee will neuer get leaue to brooke this North and barrennest part thereof no not your owne head whereon the Crowne should stand I neede not in that case trouble you with them for then they will be the middest of the I le and so as easily ruled as any part thereof And that yee may the readier with wisedome and Iustice gouerne your subiects by knowing what vices they are naturallie most inclined to A necesiarie point in a good gouernment Plato in polis as a good Physician who must first know what peccant humours his Patient naturallie is most subiect vnto before he can begin his cure I shall therefore shortly note vnto you the principall faults that euery ranke of the people of this countrey is most affected vnto And as for England I will not speake be-gesse of them neuer hauing been among them although I hope in that God who euer fauoureth the right before I die to be as well acquainted with their fashions As the whole Subiects of our countrey by the ancient and fundamentall policie of our Kingdome are diuided into three estates A consideration of the three estates so is euerie estate hereof generally subiect to some speciall vices which in a maner by long habitude are thought rather vertue then vice among them not that euerie particular man in any of these rankes of men is subiect vnto them for there is good and euill of all sorts but that I meane I haue found by experience these vices to haue taken greatest holde with these rankes of men And first that I prejudge not the Church of her ancient priuiledges reason would shee should haue the first place for orders sake in this catalogue The naturall sickenesse that hath euer troubled The diseases of the church and beene the decay of all the Churches since the beginning of the world changing the candlesticke from one to another as Iohn saith hath beene Pride Ambition and Auarice and now last these same infirmities wrought the ouerthrow of the Popish Church in this countrey and diuers others But the reformation of Religion in Scotland being
tyrant whom they can obiect nor was here fore-warned to the people of God and yet all rebellion countermanded vnto them if tyrannizing ouer mens persons sonnes daughters and seruants redacting noble houses and men and women of noble blood to slauish and scruile offices and extortion and spoile of their lands and goods to the princes owne priuate vse and commoditie and of his courteours and seruants may be called a tyrannie And that this proposition grounded vpon the Scripture may the more clearely appeare to be trew by the practise often prooued in the same booke we neuer reade that euer the Prophets perswaded the people to rebell against the Prince how wicked soeuer he was When Samuel by Gods command pronounced to the same king Saul 1. Sam. 15. that his kingdome was rent from him and giuen to another which in effect was a degrading of him yet his next action following that was peaceably to turne home and with floods of teares to pray to God to haue some compassion vpon him And Dauid notwithstanding hee was inaugurate in that same degraded Kings roome not onely when he was cruelly persecuted for no offence but good seruice done vnto him would not presume hauing him in his power skantly but with great reuerence to touch the garment of the annoynted of the Lord and in his words blessed him but likewise 1. Sam. 2 4. 2. Sam. 1. when one came to him vanting himselfe vntrewly to haue slaine Saul hee without forme of proces or triall of his guilt caused onely for guiltinesse of his tongue put him to sodaine death And although there was neuer a more monstrous persecutor and tyrant nor Achab was yet all the rebellion that Elias euer raised against him was to flie to the wildernes where for fault of sustentation he was fed with the Corbies And I thinke no man will doubt but Samuel Dauid and Elias had as great power to perswade the people if they had liked to haue employed their credite to vproares rebellions against these wicked kings as any of our seditious preachers in these daies of whatsoeuer religion either in this countrey or in France had that busied themselues most to stir vp rebellion vnder cloake of religion This farre the only loue of veritie I protest without hatred at their persons haue mooued me to be somewhat satyricke And if any will leane to the extraordinarie examples of degrading or killing of kings in the Scriptures thereby to cloake the peoples rebellion as by the deed of Iehu and such like extraordinaries I answere besides that they want the like warrant that they had if extraordinarie examples of the Scripture shall bee drawne in daily practise murther vnder traist as in the persons of Ahud and Iael theft as in the persons of the Israelites comming out of Egypt lying to their parents to the hurt of their brother as in the person of Iacob shall all be counted as lawfull and allowable vertues as rebellion against Princes And to conclude the practise through the whole Scripture prooueth the peoples obedience giuen to that sentence in the law of God Thou shalt not rayle vpon the Iudges neither speake euill of the ruler of thy people To end then the ground of my proposition taken out of the Scripture let two speciall and notable examples one vnder the law another vnder the Euangel Ier. 27. conclude this part of my alleageance Vnder the lawe Ieremie threatneth the people of God with vtter destruction for rebellion to Nabuchadnezar the king of Babel who although he was an idolatrous persecuter a forraine King a Tyrant and vsurper of their liberties yet in respect they had once receiued and acknowledged him for their king he not only commandeth them to obey him Iere. 29. but euen to pray for his prosperitie adioyning the reason to it because in his prosperitie stood their peace And vnder the Euangel that king whom Paul bids the Romanes obey and serue for conscience sake Iere. 13. was Nero that bloody tyrant an infamie to his aage and a monster to the world being also an idolatrous persecuter as the King of Babel was If then Idolatrie and defection from God tyranny ouer their people and persecution of the Saints for their profession sake hindred not the Spirit of God to command his people vnder all highest paine to giue them all due and heartie obedience for conscience sake giuing to Caesar that which was Caesars and to God that which was Gods as Christ saith and that this practise throughout the booke of God agreeth with this lawe which he made in the erection of that Monarchie as is at length before deduced what shamelesse presumption is it to any Christian people now adayes to claime to that vnlawfull libertie which God refused to his owne peculiar and chosen people Shortly then to take vp in two or three sentences grounded vpon all these arguments out of the lawe of God the duetie and alleageance of the people to their lawfull king their obedience I say ought to be to him as to Gods Lieutenant in earth obeying his commands in all things except directly against God as the commands of Gods Minister acknowledging him a Iudge set by GOD ouer them hauing power to iudge them but to be iudged onely by GOD whom to onely hee must giue count of his iudgement fearing him as their Iudge louing him as their father praying for him as their protectour for his continuance if he be good for his amendement if he be wicked following and obeying his lawfull commaunds eschewing and flying his fury in his vnlawfull without resistance but by sobbes and teares to God according to that sentence vsed in the primitiue Church in the time of the persecution Preces Lachrymae sunt arma Ecclesiae Now as for the describing the alleageance that the lieges owe to their natiue King out of the fundamentall and ciuill Lawe especially of this countrey as I promised the ground must first be set downe of the first maner of establishing the Lawes and forme of gouernement among vs that the ground being first right laide we may thereafter build rightly thereupon Although it be trew according to the affirmation of those that pryde themselues to be the scourges of Tyrants that in the first beginning of Kings rising among Gentiles in the time of the first aage diuers common-wealths and societies of men choosed out one among themselues who for his vertues and valour being more eminent then the rest was chosen out by them and set vp in that roome to maintaine the weakest in their right to throw downe oppressours and to foster and continue the societie among men which could not otherwise but by vertue of that vnitie be wel done yet these examples are nothing pertinent to vs because our Kingdome and diuers other Monarchies are not in that case but had their beginning in a farre contrary fashion For as our Chronicles beare witnesse this I le and especially our part of it
or Doctors in Physicke which iolly comparisons are vsed by such writers as maintaine the contrary proposition I leaue it also to the readers discretion And in case any doubts might arise in any part of this treatise I wil according to my promise with the solution of foure principall and most weightie doubts that the aduersaries may obiect conclude this discourse And first it is casten vp by diuers that employ their pennes vpon Apologies for rebellions and treasons that euery man is borne to carry such a naturall zeale and duety to his common-wealth as to his mother that seeing it so rent and deadly wounded as whiles it will be by wicked and tyrannous Kings good Citizens will be forced for the naturall zeale and duety they owe to their owne natiue countrey to put their hand to worke for freeing their common-wealth from such a pest Whereunto I giue two answeres First it is a sure Axiome in Theologie that euill should not be done that good may come of it The wickednesse therefore of the King can neuer make them that are ordained to be iudged by him to become his Iudges And if it be not lawfull to a priuate man to reuenge his priuate iniury vpon his priuate aduersary since God hath onely giuen the sword to the Magistrate how much lesse is it lawfull to the people or any part of them who all are but priuate men the authoritie being alwayes with the Magistrate as I haue already proued to take vpon them the vse of the sword whom to it belongs not against the publicke Magistrate whom to onely it belongeth Next in place of relieuing the common-wealth out of distresse which is their onely excuse and colour they shall heape double distresse and desolation vpon it and so their rebellion shall procure the contrary effects that they pretend it for For a king cannot be imagined to be so vnruly and tyrannous but the common-wealth will be kept in better order notwithstanding thereof by him then it can be by his way-taking For first all sudden mutations are perillous in common-wealths hope being thereby giuen to all bare men to set vp themselues and flie with other mens feathers the reines being loosed to all the insolencies that disordered people can commit by hope of impunitie because of the loosenesse of all things And next it is certaine that a king can neuer be so monstrously vicious but hee will generally fauour iustice and maintaine some order except in the particulars wherein his inordinate lustes and passions cary him away where by the contrary no King being nothing is vnlawfull to none And so the olde opinion of the Philosophers prooues trew That better it is to liue in a Common-wealth where nothing is lawfull then where all things are lawfull to all men the Common-wealth at that time resembling an vndanted young horse that hath casten his rider For as the diuine Poet DV BARTAS sayth Better it were to suffer some disorder in the estate and some spots in the Common-wealth then in pretending to reforme vtterly to ouerthrow the Republicke The second obiection they ground vpon the curse that hangs ouer the common-wealth where a wicked king reigneth and say they there cannot be a more acceptable deed in the sight of God nor more dutiful to their common-weale then to free the countrey of such a curse and vindicate to them their libertie which is naturall to all creatures to craue Whereunto for answere I grant indeed that a wicked king is sent by God for a curse to his people and a plague for their sinnes but that it is lawfull to them to shake off that curse at their owne hand which God hath laid on them that I deny and may so do iustly Will any deny that the king of Babel was a curse to the people of God as was plainly fore-spoken and threatned vnto them in the prophecie of their captiuitie And what was Nero to the Christian Church in his time And yet Ieremy and Paul as yee haue else heard commanded them not onely to obey them but heartily to pray for their welfare It is certaine then as I haue already by the Law of God sufficiently proued that patience earnest prayers to God and amendment of their liues are the onely lawful meanes to moue God to relieue them of that heauie curse As for vindicating to themselues their owne libertie what lawfull power haue they to reuoke to themselues againe those priuiledges which by their owne consent before were so fully put out of their hands for if a Prince cannot iustly bring backe againe to himself the priuiledges once bestowed by him or his predecessors vpon any state or ranke of his subiects how much lesse may the subiects reaue out of the princes hand that superioritie which he and his Predecessors haue so long brooked ouer them But the vnhappy iniquitie of the time which hath oft times giuen ouer good successe to their treasonable attempts furnisheth them the ground of their third obiection For say they the fortunate successe that God hath so oft giuen to such enterprises prooueth plainely by the practise that God fauoured the iustnesse of their quarrell To the which I answere that it is trew indeed that all the successe of battels as well as other worldly things lyeth onely in Gods hand And therefore it is that in the Scripture he takes to himselfe the style of God of Hosts But vpon that generall to conclude that hee euer giues victory to the iust quarrell would prooue the Philistims and diuers other neighbour enemies of the people of God to haue oft times had the iust quarrel against the people of God in respect of the many victories they obtained against them And by that same argument they had also iust quarrell against the Arke of God For they wan it in the field and kept it long prisoner in their countrey As likewise by all good Writers as well Theologues as other the Duels and singular combats are disallowed which are onely made vpon pretence that GOD will kith thereby the iustice of the quarrell For wee must consider that the innocent partie is not innocent before God And therefore God will make oft times them that haue the wrong side reuenge iustly his quarrell and when he hath done cast his scourge in the fire as he oft times did to his owne people stirring vp and strengthening their enemies while they were humbled in his sight and then deliuered them in their hands So God as the great Iudge may iustly punish his Deputie and for his rebellion against him stir vp his rebels to meet him with the like And when it is done the part of the instrument is no better then the diuels part is in tempting and torturing such as God committeth to him as his hangman to doe Therefore as I said in the beginning it is oft times a very deceiueable argument to iudge of the cause by the euent And the last obiection is grounded vpon the mutuall paction
For before Pius Quintus his excommunication giuing her ouer for a prey and setting her Subiects at libertie to rebell it is well knowne she neuer medled with the blood or hard punishment of any Catholique nor made any rigorous Lawes against them And since that time who list to compare with an indifferent eye the manifold intended inuasions against her whole Kingdome the forreine practises the internall publike rebellions the priuate plots and machinations poysonings murthers and all sorts of deuises quid non daily set abroach and all these wares continually fostered and fomented from Rome together with the continuall corrupting of her Subiects as well by temporall bribes as by faire and specious promises of eternall felicitie and nothing but booke vpon booke publikely set foorth by her fugitiues for approbation of so holy designes who list I say with an indifferent eye to looke on the one part vpon those infinite and intollerable temptations and on the other part vpon the iust yet moderate punishment of a part of these hainous offendors shall easily see that that blessed defunct LADIE was as free from persecution as they shall free these hellish Instruments from the honour of martyrdome 5. But now hauing sacrificed if I may so say to the Manes of my late Predecessour I may next with Saint PAVL iustly vindicate mine owne fame from those innumerable calumnies spread against me in testifying the trewth of my behauiour toward the Papists wherein I may trewly affirme That whatsoeuer was her iust and mercifull Gouernement ouer the Papists in her time my Gouernement ouer them since hath so farre exceeded hers in Mercie and Clemencie as not onely the Papists themselues grewe to that height of pride in confidence of my mildnesse as they did directly expect and assuredly promise to themselues libertie of Conscience and equalitie with other of my Subiects in all things but euen a number of the best and faithfulliest of my sayde Subiects were cast in great feare and amazement of my course and proceedings euer prognosticating and iustly suspecting that sowre fruite to come of it which shewed it selfe clearely in the Powder-Treason How many did I honour with Knighthood of knowen and open Recusants How indifferently did I giue audience and accesse to both sides bestowing equally all fauours and honours on both professions How free and continuall accesse had all rankes and degrees of Papists in my Court and company And aboue all how frankely and freely did I free Recusants of their ordinarie paiments Besides it is cuident what strait order was giuen out of my owne mouth to the Iudges to spare the execution of all Priests notwithstanding their conuiction ioyning thereunto a gracious Proclamation whereby all Priests that were at libertie and not taken might goe out of the countrey by such a day my generall Pardon hauing beene extended to all conuicted Priestes in prison whereupon they were set at libertie as good Subiects and all Priests that were taken after sent ouer and set at libertie there But time and paper will faile me to make enumeration of all the benefits and fauours that I bestowed in generall and particular vpon Papists in recounting whereof euery scrape of my penne would serue but for a blot of the Popes ingratitude and iniustice in meating me with so hard a measure for the same So as I thinke I haue sufficiently or at least with good reason wiped the * Magno cum anims moerore c. teares from the Popes eyes for complaining vpon such persecution who if hee had beene but politickely wise although hee had had no respect to Iustice and Veritie would haue in this complaint of his made a difference betweene my present time and the time of the late Queene And so by his commending of my moderation in regard of former times might haue had hope to haue mooued me to haue continued in the same clement course For it is a trew saying that alledged kindnesse vpon noble mindes doeth euer worke much And for the maine vntrewth of any persecution in my time it can neuer bee prooued that any were or are put to death since I came to the Crowne for cause of Conscience except that now this discharge giuen by the Pope to all Catholiques to take their Oath of Allegiance to me be the cause of the due punishment of many which if it fall out to be let the blood light vpon the Popes head who is the onely cause thereof As for the next point contained in his Breue concerning his discharge of all Papists to come to our Church or frequent our rites and ceremonies I am not to meddle at this time with that matter because my errand now onely is to publish to the world the Iniurie and Iniustice done vnto me in discharging my subiects to make profession of their obedience vnto mee The intendement of this discourse Now as to the point where the Oath is quarrelled it is set downe in fewe but very weighty wordes to wit That it ought to be cleare vnto all Catholiques that this Oath cannot bee taken with safetie of the Catholique Faith and of their soules health since it containeth many things that are plainely and directly contrarie to their faith and saluation To this the old saying fathered vpon the Philosopher may very fitly bee applied Multa dicit sed pauca probat nay indeed Nihil omnino probat For how the profession of the naturall Allegiance of Subiects to their Prince can be directly opposite to the faith and saluation of soules is so farre beyond my simple reading in Diuinitie as I must thinke it a strange and new Assertion to proceede out of the mouth of that pretended generall Pastor of all Christian soules I reade indeede and not in one or two or three places of Scripture that Subiects are bound to obey their Princes for conscience sake whether they were good or wicked Princes So said the people to 1 Iosh 1.17 Ioshua As wee obeyed Moses in all things so will wee obey thee So the 2 Iere. 27.12 Prophet commanded the people to obey the King of Babel saying Put your neckes vnder the yoke of the King of Babel and serue him and his people that yee may liue So were the children of Israel vnto 3 Exod. 5.1 Pharaoh desiring him to let them goe so to 4 Ezra 1.3 Cyrus obtaining leaue of him to returne to build the Temple and in a word the Apostle willed all men 5 Rom. 13 5. to bee subiect to the higher powers for conscience sake Agreeable to the Scriptures did the Fathers teach 6 August in Psalm 124. Augustine speaking of Iulian saith Iulian was an vnbeleeuing Emperour was hee not an Apostata an Oppressour and an Idolater Christian Souldiers serued that vnbeleeuing Emperour when they came to the cause of CHRIST they would acknowledge no Lord but him that is in heauen When hee would haue them to worship Idoles and to sacrifice they preferred GOD before
hencefoorth I shall beare faith and trew Allegiance to the Kings Highnesse his Heires and lawfull Successours and to my power shall assist and defend all Iurisdictions Priuiledges Preeminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highnesse his Heires and Successours or vnited and annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of the Realme So helpe me God and by the Contents of this booke And that the iniustice as well as the error of his grosse mistaking in this point may yet be more clearely discouered I haue also thought good to insert here immediatly after the Oath of Supremacie the contrary conclusions to all the points and Articles whereof this other late Oath doeth consist whereby it may appeare what vnreasonable and rebellious points hee would driue my Subiects vnto by refusing the whole body of that Oath as it is conceiued For he that shall refuse to take this Oath must of necessitie hold all or some of these propositions following That I King IAMES am not the lawfull King of this Kingdome and of all other my Dominions That the Pope by his owne authoritie may depose me If not by his owne authoritie yet by some other authoritie of the Church or of the Sea of Rome If not by some other authoritie of the Church and Sea of Rome yet by other meanes with others helpe he may depose me That the Pope may dispose of my Kingdomes and Dominions That the Pope may giue authoritie to some forreine Prince to inuade my Dominions That the Pope may discharge my Subiects of their Allegiance and Obedience to me That the Pope may giue licence to one or more of my Subiects to beare armes against me That the Pope may giue leaue to my Subiects to offer violence to my Person or to my gouernement or to some of my Subiects That if the Pope shall by Sentence excommunicate or depose mee my Subiects are not to beare Faith and Allegiance to me If the Pope shall by Sentence excommunicate or depose me my Subiects are not bound to defend with all their power my Person and Crowne If the Pope shall giue out any Sentence of Excommunication or Depriuation against me my Subiects by reason o◠that Sentence are not bound to reueale all Conspiracies and Treasons against mee which shall come to their hearing and knowledge That it is not hereticall and detestable to hold that Princes being excommunicated by the Pope may be either deposed or killed by their Subiects or any other That the Pope hath power to absolue my Subiects from this Oath or from some part thereof That this Oath is not administred to my Subiects by a full and lawfull authoritie That this Oath is to be taken with Equiuocation mentall euasion or secret reseruation and not with the heart and good will sincerely in the trew faith of a Christian man These are the trew and naturall branches of the body of this Oath The affirmatiue of all which negatiues Touching the pretended Councell of Lateran See Plat. In vita Innocen III. doe neither concerne in any case the Popes Supremacie in Spirituall causes nor yet were euer concluded and defined by any complete generall Councell to belong to the Popes authoritie and their owne schoole Doctors are at irreconciliable oddes and iarres about them And that the world may yet farther see ours and the whole States setting downe of this Oath The Oath of Allegiance confirmed by the authoritie of ancient Councels did not proceed from any new inuention of our owne but as it is warranted by the word of GOD so doeth it take the example from an Oath of Allegiance decreed a thousand yeeres agone which a famous Councell then together with diuers other Councels were so farre from condemning as the Pope now hath done this Oath as I haue thought good to set downe their owne wordes here in that purpose whereby it may appeare that I craue nothing now of my Subiects in this Oath which was not expresly and carefully commaunded then by the Councels to be obeyed without exception of persons Nay not in the very particular point of Equiuocatiō The ancient Councels prouided for Equiuocation The difference betweene the ancient Councels and the Pope counselling of the Catholiques which I in this Oath was so carefull to haue eschewed but you shall here see the said Councels in their Decrees as carefull to prouide for the eschewing of the same so as almost euery point of that action this of ours shal be found to haue relation agreeance one with the other saue onely in this that those old Councels were careful and strait in cōmanding the taking of the same whereas by the contrary he that now vanteth himselfe to be head of al Councels is as careful strait in the prohibition of all men from the taking of this Oath of Allegiance The words of the Councell be these Heare our Sentence Whosoeuer of vs Concil Tolet. 4 can 47. Anno 633. or of all the people thorowout all Spaine shall goe about by any meanes of conspiracie or practise to violate the Oath of his fidelitie which he hath taken for the preseruation of his Countrey or of the Kings life or who shall attempt to put violent handes vpon the King or to depriue him of his kingly power or that by tyrannicall presumption would vsurpe the Soueraigntie of the Kingdome Let him bee accursed in the sight of God the Father and of his Angels and let him bee made and declared a stranger from the Catholique Church which hee hath prophaned by his periurie and an aliant from the companie of all Christian people together with all the complices of his impietie because it behooueth all those that bee guiltie of the like offence to vnder-lie the like punishment Which sentence is three seuerall times together and almost in the same wordes repeated in the same Canon After this the Synode desired That this Sentence of theirs now this third time rehearsed might bee confirmed by the voyce and consent of all that were present Then the whole Clergie and people answered Whosoeuer shall cary himselfe presumptuously against this your definitiue sentence let them be Anathema maranatha that is let them bee vtterly destroyed at the Lords comming and let them and their complices haue their portion with Iudas Iscarioth Amen And in the fifth 1 Concil Tolet. 5. Can. 7. anno 636. Councell there it is decreed That this Acte touching the Oath of Allegiance shall bee repeated in euery Councell of the Bishops of Spaine The Decree is in these wordes In consideration that the mindes of men are easily inclined to euill and forgetfulnesse therefore this most holy Synode hath ordained and doeth enact That in euery Councell of the Bishops of Spaine the Decree of the generall 2 Synod Tolet 4. vniuersalis magna Synodus dicta Synod Tolet. 5. cap 2. Councell which was made for the safetie of our Princes shall bee with an audible voyce proclaimed and pronounced after the
conclusion of all his examples The Cardinals paire of Martyrs weighed he reckoneth his two English Martyrs Moore and Roffensis who died for that one most weightie head of doctrine as he alledgeth refusing the Oath of Supremacie I must tell him that he hath not been well informed in some materiall points which doe very neerely concerne his two said Martyrs For it is cleare and apparantly to be prooued by diuers Records that they were both of them committed to the Tower about a yeere before either of them was called in question vpon their liues for the Popes Supremacie And that partly for their backwardnesse in the point of the establishment of the Kings succession whereunto the whole Realme had subscribed and partly for that one of them to wit Fisher had had his hand in the matter of the holy 8 Called Elizabeth Barton See the Act of Parliament maide of Kent hee being for his concealement of that false prophets abuse found guiltie of misprision of Treason And as these were the principall causes of their imprisonment the King resting secure of his Supremacie as the Realme stood then affected but especially troubled for setling the Crowne vpon the issue of his second mariage so was it easily to be conceiued that being thereupon discontented their humors were thereby made apt to draw them by degrees to further opposition against the King and his authoritie as indeede it fell out For in the time of their being in prison the Kings lawfull authoritie in cases Ecclesiasticall being published and promulged as well by a generall decree of the Clergie in their Synode as by an Acte of Parliament made thereupon they behaued themselues so peeuishly therein as the olde coales of the Kings anger being thereby raked vp of new they were againe brought in question as well for this one most weighty head of doctrine of the Pope his supremacy as for the matter of the Kings mariage and succession as by the confession of one of themselues euen Thomas Moore is euident For being condemned he vsed these words at the barre before the Lords Non ignoro cur me morti adiudicaueritis videlicet ob id Histor aliquet Martyrum nostri seculi Anno 1550. quòd nunquam voluerim assentiri in negotio matrimonij Regis That is I am not ignorant why you haue adiudged mee to death to wit for that I would neuer consent in the businesse of the new mariage of the King By which his owne confession it is plaine that this great martyr himselfe tooke the cause of his owne death to be onely for his being refractary to the King in this said matter of Marriage and Succession which is but a very fleshly cause of Martyrdome as I conceiue And as for Roffensis his fellow Martyr who could haue bene content to haue taken the Oath of the Kings Supremacie with a certaine modification which Moore refused as his imprisonment was neither onely nor principally for the cause of Supremacie so died hee but a halting and a singular Martyr or witnesse for that most weighty head of doctrine the whole Church of England going at that time in one current and streame as it were against him in that Argument diuers of them being of farre greater reputation for learning and sound iudgement then euer he was So as in this point we may well arme our selues with the Cardinals owne reason where he giueth amongst other notes of the trew Church Vniuersalitie for one wee hauing the generall and Catholique conclusion of the whole Church of England on our side in this case as appeareth by their booke set out by the whole Conuocation of England called The Institution of a Christian man the same matter being likewise very learnedly handled by diuers particular learned men of our Church as by Steuen Gardiner in his booke De vera obedientia with a Preface of Bishop Boners adioyning to it De summo absoluto Regis Imperio published by M. Bekinsaw De vera differentia Regiae Potestatis Ecclesiasticae Bishop Tonstals Sermon Bishop Longlands Sermon the letter of Tonstall to Cardinall Poole and diuers other both in English and Latine And if the bitternesse of Fishers discontentment had not bene fed with his dayly ambitious expectation of the Cardinals hat which came so neere as Calis before he lost his head to fill it with I haue great reason to doubt if he would haue constantly perseuered in induring his Martyrdome for that one most waighty head of doctrine And surely these two Captaines and ringleaders to Martyrdome were but ill followed by the rest of their countreymen for I can neuer reade of any after them being of any great accompt and that not many that euer sealed that weighty head of doctrine with their blood in England So as the trew causes of their first falling in trouble whereof I haue already made mention being rightly considered vpon the one part and vpon the other the scant number of witnesses that with their blood sealed it a point so greatly accompted of by our Cardinal there can but smal glory redound thereby to our English nation these onely two Enoch and Elias seruing for witnesses against our Antichristian doctrine And I am sure the Supremacie of Kings may The Supremacy of Kings sufficiently warranted by the Scriptures wil euer be better maintained by the word of God which must euer be the trew rule to discerne all waighty heads of doctrine by to be the trew and proper office of Christian Kings in their owne dominions then he will be euer able to maintaine his annihilating Kings and their authorities together with his base and vnreuerend speaches of them wherewith both his former great Volumes and his late Bookes against Venice are filled In the old Testament Kings were directly 1 2. Chron. 19.4 Gouernours ouer the Church within their Dominions 2 2. Sam. 5.6 purged their corruptions reformed their abuses brought the 3 1. Chron. 13.12 Arke to her resting place the King 4 2. Sam. 6.16 dancing before it 5 1. Chron. 28.6 built the Temple 6 2. Chron. 6. dedicated the same assisting in their owne persons to the sanctification thereof 7 2. King 22.11 made the Booke of the Law new-found to bee read to the people 8 Nehe. 9.38 Dauid Salomon renewed the Couenant betweene God and his people 9 2. King 18.4 bruised the brasen serpent in pieces which was set vp by the expresse commandement of God and was a figure of Christ destroyed 10 1. King 15.12 2. king 13.4 all Idoles and false gods made 11 2. Chron. 17.8 a publike reformation by a Commission of Secular men and Priests mixed for that purpose deposed 12 1. King 2.27 the high Priest and set vp another in his place and generally ordered euery thing belonging to the Church-gouernment their Titles and Prerogatiues giuen them by God agreeing to these their actions They are called the 13 2.
all aswell strangers as naturall subiects to whose eyes this Discourse shall come may wisely and vnpartially iudge of the Veritie as it is nakedly here set downe for clearing these mists and cloudes of calumnies which were iniustly heaped vpon me for which end onely I heartily pray the courteous Reader to be perswaded that I tooke occasion to publish this Discourse A PREMONITION TO ALL MOST MIGHTIE MONARCHES KINGS FREE PRINCES AND STATES OF CHRISTENDOME TO THE MOST SACRED AND INVINCIBLE PRINCE RODOLPHE THE II. by GODS Clemencie Elect Emperour of the ROMANES KING OF GERMANIE HVNGARIE BOHEME DALMATIE CROATIE SCLAVONIE c. ARCH-DVKE OF AVSTRIA DVKE OF BVRGVNDIE STIRIA CARINTHIA CARNIOLA and WIRTEMBERG c. Earle of TYROLIS c. AND TO ALL OTHER RIGHT HIGH AND MIGHTIE KINGS And Right Excellent free Princes and States of CHRISTENDOME Our louing BRETHREN COSINS ALLIES CONFEDERATES and FRIENDS IAMES by the Grace of GOD King of GREAT BRITAINE FRANCE and IRELAND Professour Maintainer and Defender of the Trew Christian Catholique and Apostolique FAITH Professed by the ancient and Primitiue CHVRCH and sealed with the blood of so many Holy Bishops and other faithfull crowned with the glory of MARTYRDOME WISHETH cuerlasting felicitie in CHRIST our SAVIOVR TO YOV MOST SACRED AND INVINCIBLE EMPEROVR RIGHT HIGH AND MIGHTIE KINGS RIGHT EXCELLENT FREE PRINCES AND STATES MY LOVING BRETHREN AND COSINS To you I say as of right belongeth doe I consecrate and direct this Warning of mine or rather Preamble to my reprinted Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance For the cause is generall and concerneth the Authoritie and priuiledge of Kings in generall and all supereminent Temporall powers And if in whatsoeuer Societie or Corporation of men either in Corporations of Cities or in the Corporation of any mechanicke craft or handie-worke euery man is carefull to maintaine the priuiledges of that Societie whereunto he is sworne nay they will rather cluster all in one making it a common cause exposing themselues to all sorts of perill then suffer the least breach in their Liberties If those of the baser sort of people I say be so curious and zealous for the preseruation of their common priuiledges and liberties as if the meanest amongst them be touched in any such point they thinke it concerneth them all Then what should wee doe in such a case whom GOD hath placed in the highest thrones vpon earth made his Lieutenants and Vice-gerents and euen seated vs vpon his owne Throne to execute his Iudgements The consideration hereof hath now mooued mee to expone a Case vnto you which doeth not so neerely touch mee in my particular as it doeth open a breach against our Authoritie I speake in the plurall of all Kings and priuiledge in generall And since not onely all rankes and sorts of people in all Nations doe inuiolably obserue this Maxime but euen the Ciuil Law by which the greatest part of Christendome is gouerned doeth giue them an interest qui fouent consimilem causam How much more then haue yee interest in this cause not beeing similis or par causa to yours but eadem with yours and indeed yee all fouetis or at least fouere debetis eandem causam mecum And since this cause is common to vs all both the Ciuill Lawes and the municipall Lawes of all Nations permit and warne them that haue a common interest to concurre in one for the defence of their common cause yea common sense teacheth vs with the Poet Ecquid Ad te pòst paulò ventura pericula sentis Nam tua res agitur paries cùm proximus ardet A wake then while it is time and suffer not by your longer sleepe the strings of your Authoritie to be cut in singulis and one and one to your generall ruine which by your vnited forces would rather make a strong rope for the enemie to hang himselfe in with Achitophel then that hee should euer bee able to breake it As for this Apologie of mine it is trew that I thought good to set it first out without putting my name vnto it but neuer so as I thought to denie it remembring well mine owne words but taken out of the Scripture in the beginning of the Preface to the Reader in my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that nothing is so bid which shall not bee opened c. promising there which with GOD his grace I shall euer performe neuer to doe that in secret which I shall need to be ashamed of when it shall come to be proclaimed in publique In deed I thought it fit for two respects that this my Apologie should first visite the world without hauing my name written in the forehead thereof First because of the matter and next of the persons that I medled with The matter it being a Treatise which I was to write conteining reasons and discourses in Diuinitie for the defence of the Oath of Alleagiance and refutation of the condemners thereof I thought it not comely for one of my place to put my name to bookes concerning Scholasticke Disputations whose calling is to set forth Decrees in the Imperatiue mood for I thinke my selfe as good a man as the Pope by his reuerence for whom these my Answerers make the like excuse for that his Breues are so summary without yeelding any reason vnto them My next reason was the respect of the persons whom with I medled Wherein although I shortly answered the Popes Breues yet the point I most laboured being the refutation of Bellarmines Letter I was neuer the man I confesse that could thinke a Cardinall a meet match for a King especially hauing many hundreth thousands of my subiects of as good birth as hee As for his Church dignitie his Cardinalship I meane I know not how to ranke or value it either by the warrant of God his word or by the ordinance of Emperours or Kings it being indeed onely a new Papall erection tolerated by the sleeping conniuence of our Predecessours I meane still by the plurall of Kings But notwithstanding of this my forbearing to put my name vnto it some Embassadours of some of you my louing Brethren and Cousins whome this cause did neereliest concerne can witnesse that I made Presents of some of those bookes at their first printing vnto them and that auowedly in my owne name As also the English Paragraphist or rather peruerse Pamphleter Parsons since all his description must runne vpon a P. hath trewly obserued that my Armes are affixed in the frontispice thereof which vseth not to bee in bookes of other mens doing whereby his malice in pretending his ignorane that hee might pay mee the soundlier is the more inexcusable But now that I finde my sparing to put my name vnto it hath not procured my sparing by these answerers who haue neither spared my Person directly in naming me nor indirectly by railing vpon the Author of the Booke it is now high time for me no longer to conceale nor disauow my selfe as if I were ashamed of
my owne deed And therefore that ye may the better vnderstand the nature of the cause I will begin at the first ground thereof The neuer enough wondered at and abhorred POVVDER-TREASON though the repetition thereof grieueth I know the gentle hearted Iesuite Parsons this Treason I say being not onely intended a gainst mee and my Posteritie but euen against the whole house of Parliament plotted onely by Papists and they onely led thereto by a preposterous zeale for the aduancement of their Religion some of them continuing so obstinate that euen at their death they would not acknowledge their fault but in their last words immediatly before the expiring of their breath refused to condemne themselues and craue pardon for their deed except the Romish Church should first condemne it And soone after it being discouered that a great number of my Popish Subiects of all rankes and sexes both men and women as well within as without the Countrey had a confused notion and an obscure knowledge that some great thing was to bee done in that Parliament for the weale of the Church although for secrecies cause they were not acquainted with the particulars certaine formes of prayer hauing likewise beene set downe and vsed for the good successe of that great errand adding heereunto that diuers times and from diuers Priestes the Archtraitours themselues receiued the Sacrament for confirmation of their heart and obseruation of secrecie Some of the principall Iesuites likewise being found guiltie of the foreknowledge of the Treason it selfe of which number some fled from their triall others were apprehended as holy Garnet himselfe and Owldcorne were and iustly executed vpon their owne plaine confession of their guilt If this Treason now clad with these circumstances did not minister a iust occasion to that Parliament house whome they thought to haue destroyed courageously and zealously at their next sitting downe to vse all meanes of triall whether any more of that minde were yet left in the Countrey I leaue it to you to iudge whom God hath appointed his highest Depute Iudges vpon earth And amongst other things for this purpose This Oath of Allegiance so vniustly impugned was then deuised and enacted And in case any sharper Lawes were then made against the Papists that were not obedient to the former Lawes of the Countrey if ye will consider the Time Place and Persons it will be thought no wonder seeing that occasion did so iustly exasperate them to make seuerer Lawes then otherwise they would haue done The Time I say being the very next sitting downe of the Parliament after the discouerie of that abominable Treason the Place being the same where they should all haue bene blowne vp and so bringing it freshly to their memorie againe the Persons being the very Parliament men whom they thought to haue destroyed And yet so farre hath both my heart and gouernment bene from any bitternes as almost neuer one of those sharpe additions to the former Lawes haue euer yet bene put in execution And that ye may yet know further for the more conuincing these Libellers of wilfull malice who impudently affirme That this Oath of Allegiance was deuised for deceiuing and intrapping of Papists in points of Conscience The trewth is that the Lower house of Parliament at the first framing of this Oath made it to containe That the Pope had no power to excommunicate me which I caused them to reforme onely making it to conclude That no excommunication of the Popes can warrant my Subiects to practise against my Person or State denying the deposition of Kings to be in the Popes lawfull power as indeed I take any such temporall violence to be farre without the limits of such a Spirituall censure as Excommunication is So carefull was I that nothing should be contained in this Oath except the profession of natural Allegiance and ciuil and temporall obedience with a promise to resist to all contrary vnciuill violence This Oath now grounded vpon so great and iust an occasion set forth in so reasonable termes and ordained onely for making of a trew distinction betweene Papists of quiet disposition and in all other things good subiects and such other Papists as in their hearts maintained the like violent bloody Maximes that the Powder-Traitours did This Oath I say being published and put in practise bred such euill blood in the Popes head and his Cleargie as Breue after Breue commeth forth vt vndam vnda sequitur prohibiting all Catholikes from taking the same as a thing cleane contrary to the Catholike faith and that the taking thereof cannot stand with the saluation of their soules There commeth likewise a letter of Cardinall Bellarmines to Blackwell to the same purpose but discoursing more at length vpon the said Oath Whereupon after I had entred in consideration of their vniust impugning that so iust and lawfull an Oath and fearing that by their vntrew calumnies and Sophistrie the hearts of a number of the most simple and ignorant of my people should bee misse-led vnder that faire and deceitfull cloake of Conscience I thought good to set foorth an Apologie for the said Oath wherein I prooued that as this Oath contained nothing but matter of ciuill and temporall Obedience due by Subiects to their Soueraigne Prince so this quarrelling therewith was nothing but a late vsurpation of Popes against the warrant of all Scriptures ancient Councels and Fathers vpon the Temporall power of Kings wherewith onely my Apologie doeth meddle But the publishing of this Booke of mine hath brought such two Answerers or rather Railers vpon mee as all the world may wonder at For my Booke being first written in English an English Oath being the subiect thereof and the vse of it properly belonging to my Subiects of England and immediatly thereafter being translated into Latine vpon a desire that some had of further publishing it abroad it commeth home to mee now answered in both the Languages And I thinke if it had bene set foorth in all the tongues that were at the confusion of Babel it would haue bene returned answered in them all againe Thus may a man see how busie a Bishop the Diuell is and how hee omitteth no diligence for venting of his poysoned wares But herein their malice doeth clearely appeare that they pay mee so quickly with a double answere and yet haue neuer answered their owne Arch-priest who hath written a booke for the maintenance of the same Oath and of the temporall authoritie of Kings alledging a cloud of their owne Scholemen against them As for the English Answerer my vnnaturall and fugitiue Subiect I will neither defile my pen nor your sacred eyes or eares with the describing of him who ashames nay abhorres not to raile nay to rage and spew foorth blasphemies against the late Queene of famous memory A Subiect to raile against his naturall Soueraigne by birth A man to raile against a Lady by sexe A holy man in outward profession to insult vpon the dead nay to
Platina and a number of the Popes owne writers beare witnesse And 3 Lib. de Clericis Bellarmine himselfe in his booke of Controuersies cannot get it handsomely denied Nay the Popes were euen forced then to pay a certaine summe of money to the Emperours for their Confirmation And this lasted almost seuen hundreth yeeres after CHRIST witnesse 4 In Chron. ad ann 680. Sigebert and 5 In vit Agathen Anast. in vit eiusd Agath Herm. Contract ad ann 678. edit poster dist 63. c. Agathe Luitprandus with other Popish Historians And for Emperours deposing of Popes there are likewise diuers examples The Emperour 1 Luitpr Hist lib 6. ca. 10.11 Rhegino ad an 963. Platin. in vit Ioan. 13. Ottho deposed Pope Iohn the twelfth of that name for diuers crimes and vices especially of Lecherie The Emperour 2 Marianus Scot. Sigeb Abbas Vrsp ad ann 1046 Plat in vit Greg. 6. Henry the third in a short time deposed three Popes Benedict the ninth Siluester the third and Gregorie the sixt as well for the sinne of Auarice as for abusing their extraordinarie authoritie against Kings and Princes And as for KINGS that haue denied this Temporall Superioritie of Popes First wee haue the vnanime testimonie of diuers famous HISTORIOGRAPHERS for the generall of many CHRISTIAN Kingdomes As 3 Walthram Naumburz in lib. de inuest Episc Vixit circa ann 1110. Walthram testifieth That the Bishops of Spaine Scotland England Hungarie from ancient institution till this moderne noueltie had their Inuestiture by KINGS with peaceable inioyning of their Temporalities wholly and entirely and whosoeuer sayeth hee is peaceably solicitous let him peruse the liues of the Ancients and reade the Histories and hee shall vnderstand thus much And for verification of this generall Assertion wee will first beginne at the practise of the KINGS of France though not named by Walthram in this his enumeration of Kingdomes amongst whom my first witnesse shall bee that vulgarly knowne letter of 4 See Annales Franciae Nicolai Gillij in Phil. Pulchro Philip le Bel King of France to Pope Boniface the eighth the beginning whereof after a scornefull salutation is Sciat tua maxima fatuitas nos in temporalibus nemini subesse And likewise after that 5 Anno 1268. ex Arrestis Senatus Parifiens Lewes the ninth surnamed Sanctus had by a publique instrument called Pragmatica sanctio forbidden all the exactions of the Popes Court within his Realme Pope Pius 6 Ioan. Maierius lib. de Scismat Concil the second in the beginning of Lewes the eleuenth his time greatly misseliking this Decree so long before made sent his Legate to the saide King Lewes with Letters-patents vrging his promise which hee had made when hee was Dolphin of France to repeale that Sanction if euer hee came to bee King The King referreth the Legate ouer with his Letters-patents to the Councell of Paris where the matter being propounded was impugned by Iohannes Romanus the Kings Atturney with whose opinion the Vniuersitie of Paris concurring an Appeale was made from the attempts of the Pope to the next generall Councell the Cardinall departing with indignation But that the King of France and Church thereof haue euer stoken to their Gallican immunitie in denying the Pope any Temporall power ouer them and in resisting the Popes as oft as euer they prest to meddle with their Temporall power euen in the donation of Benefices the Histories are so full of them as the onely examples thereof would make vp a bigge Volume by it selfe And so farre were the Sorbonistes for the Kings and French Churches priuiledge in this point as they were wont to maintaine That if the Pope fell a quarrelling the King for that cause the Gallican Church might elect a Patriarch of their owne renouncing any obedience to the Pope And Gerson was so farre from giuing the Pope that temporall authority ouer Kings who otherwise was a deuoute Roman Catholike as hee wrote a Booke de Auferibilitate Papae not onely from the power ouer Kings but euen ouer the Church And now pretermitting all further examples of forraigne Kings actions I will onely content me at this time with some of my owne Predecessors examples of this kingdome of England that it may thereby the more clearely appeare that euen in those times when the world was fullest of darkened blindnes and ignorance the Kings of England haue oftentimes not onely repined but euen strongly resisted and withstood this temporall vsurpation and encrochment of ambitious Popes And I will first begin at 1 Matth. Paris in Henr. 1. anno 1100. King Henry the first of that name after the Conquest who after he was crowned gaue the Bishopricke of Winchester to William Gifford and forthwith inuested him into all the possessions belonging to the Bishopricke contrary to the Canons of the new Synod 2 Idem ibid. anno 1113. King Henry also gaue the Archbishopricke of Canterbury to Radulph Bishop of London and gaue him inuestiture by a Ring and a Crosiers staffe Also Pope 3 Idem ibid. anno 1119. Calixtus held a Councell at RHEMES whither King Henry had appointed certaine Bishops of ENGLAND and NORMANDIE to goe Thurstan also elected Archbishop of YORKE got leaue of the King to goe thither giuing his faith that hee would not receiue Consecration of the Pope And comming to the Synode by his liberall gifts as the fashion is wanne the ROMANES fauour and by their meanes obtained to bee consecrated at the Popes hand Which assoone as the King of ENGLAND knewe hee forbade him to come within his Dominions Moreouer King Edward the first prohibited the Abbot of 4 Ex Archiuis Regni Waltham and Deane of Pauls to collect a tenth of euery mans goods for a supply to the holy Land which the Pope by three Bulles had committed to their charge and the said Deane of Pauls compeering before the King and his Councell promised for the reuerence he did beare vnto the King not to meddle any more in that matter without the Kings good leaue and permission Here I hope a Church-man disobeyed the Pope for obedience to his Prince euen in Church matters but this new Iesuited Diuinitie was not then knowen in the world The same Edward I. impleaded the Deane of the Chappell of Vuluerhampton because the said Deane had against the priuiledges of the Kingdome giuen a Prebend of the same Chappell to one at the Popes command whereupon the said Deane compeered and put himselfe in the Kings will for his offence The said Edward I. depriued also the Bishop of Durham of all his liberties for disobeying a prohibition of the Kings So as it appeareth the Kings in those dayes thought the Church-men their Subiects though now we be taught other Seraphicall doctrine For further proofe whereof Iohn of Ibstocke was committed to the goale by the sayde King for hauing a suite in the Court of Rome seuen yeeres
many and many a time besides his last kisse so did the villaines that buffeted and crucified him and yet I may safely pronounce them accursed that would bestow any worship vpon their reliques yea wee cannot denie but the land of Canaan itselfe whereupon our Lord did dayly tread is so visibly accursed beeing gouerned by faithlesse Turkes full of innumerable sects of hereticall Christians and the very fertilitie thereof so farre degenerated into a pitifull sterilitie as hee must bee accursed that accounteth it blessed Nay when a certaine 2 Luk. 11.28 woman blessed the belly that bare CHRIST and the breastes that gaue him sucke Nay rather saith hee Blessed are those that heare the Word of God and keepe it Except then they could first prooue that CHRIST had resolued to blesse that tree of the Crosse whereupon hee was nailed they can neuer proue that his touching it could giue it any vertue And put the case it had a vertue of doing miracles as Peters shadow had yet doeth it not follow that it is lawful to worship it which Peter would neuer accept of Surely the Prophets that in so many places curse those that worship Images that haue eyes and see not that haue eares and heare not would much more haue cursed them that worship a piece of a sticke that hath not so much as any resemblance or representation of eyes or eares As for Purgatorie and all the * Iubilees Indulgences satisfactions for the dead c. trash depending thereupon it is not worth the talking of Bellarmine cannot finde any ground for it in all the Scriptures Onely I would pray him to tell me If that faire greene Meadow that is in Purgatorie haue a brooke running thorow it Lib. 2 de Purgat cap 7. that in case I come there I may haue hawking vpon it But as for me I am sure there is a Heauen and a Hell praemium poena for the Elect and reprobate How many other roomes there be I am not on God his counsell Iohn 14. Multae sunt mansiones in domo Patris mei saith CHRIST who is the trew Purgatorie for our sinnes But how many chambers and anti-chambers the diuell hath they can best tell that goe to him But in case there were more places for soules to goe to then we know of yet let vs content vs with that which in his Word he hath reuealed vnto vs and not inquire further into his secrets Heauen and Hell are there reuealed to be the eternall home of all mankinde let vs indeauour to winne the one and eschew the other and there is an end Now in all this discourse haue I yet left out the maine Article of the Romish faith and that is the Head of the Church or Peters Primacie for who denieth this denieth fidem Catholicam saith Bellarmine That Bishops ought to be in the Church I euer maintained it as an Apostolique institution and so the ordinance of God contrary to the Puritanes and likewise to 1 Boll lib. 4. de Rom. Pont. cap. 25. Bellarmine who denies that Bishops haue their Iurisdiction immediatly from God But it is no wonder he takes the Puritanes part since Iesuits are nothing but Puritan-papists And as I euer maintained the state of Bishops and the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchie for order sake so was I euer an enemie to the confused Anarchie or paritie of the Puritanes as well appeareth in my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heauen is gouerned by order and all the good Angels there nay Hell it selfe could not subsist without some order And the very deuils are diuided into Legions and haue their chiefetaines how can any societie then vpon earth subsist without order and degrees And therefore I cannot enough wonder with what brasen face this Answerer could say That I was a Puritane in Scotland and an enemie to Protestants Page 98. I that was persecuted by Puritanes there not from my birth onely but euen since foure moneths before my birth I that in the yeere of God 84 erected Bishops and depressed all their popular Paritie I then being not 18. yeeres of aage I that in my said Booke to my Sonne doe speake tenne times more bitterly of them nor of the Papists hauing in my second Edition thereof affixed a long Apologetike Preface onely in odium Puritanorum and I that for the space of sixe yeeres before my comming into England laboured nothing so much as to depresse their Paritie and re-erect Bishops againe Nay if the dayly Commentaries of my life and actions in Scotland were written as Iulius Caesars were there would scarcely a moneth passe in all my life since my entring into the 13. yeere of my aage wherein someaccident or other would not conuince the Cardinall of a Lye in this point And surely I giue a faire commendation to the Puritanes in that place of my booke Where I affirme that I haue found greater honestie with the high-land and border theeues then with that sort of people But leauing him to his owne impudence I returne to my purpose Of Bishops and Church Hierarchie I very well allowe as I said before and likewise of Ranks and Degrees amongst Bishops Patriarches I know were in the time of the Primitiue Church and I likewise reuerence that Institution for order sake and amongst them was a contention for the first place And for my selfe if that were yet the question I would with all my heart giue my consent that the Bishop of Rome should haue the first Seate I being a westerne King would goe with the Patriarch of the West And for his temporall Principalitie ouer the Signory of Rome I doe not quarrell it neither let him in God his Name be Primus Episcopus inter omnes Episcopos and Princeps Episcoporum so it be no otherwise but as Peter was Princeps Apostolorum But as I well allow of the Hierarchie of the Church for distinction of orders for so I vnderstand it so I vtterly deny that there is an earthly Monarch thereof whose word must be a Law and who cannot erre in his Sentence by an infallibilitie of Spirit Because carthly Kingdomes must haue earthly Monarches it doeth not follow that the Church must haue a visible Monarch too for the world hath not ONE earthly temporall Monarch CHRIST is his Churches Monarch and the holy Ghost his Deputie Luke 22.25 Reges gentium dominantur eorum vos autem non sic CHRIST did not promise before his ascension to leaue Peter with them to direct and iustruct them in all things Iohn 14.26 but he promised to send the holy Ghost vnto them for that end And as for these two before cited places whereby Bellarmine maketh the Pope to triumph ouer Kings Matth. 18.18 I meane Pasce oues and Tibi dobo claues the Cardinall knowes well enough that the same words of Tibi dabo are in another place spoken by Christ in the plurall number And he likewise knowes what reason the Ancients doe giue
diuers others and fiue strange and as I thinke erroneous points of Doctrine with sundry falsifications of Histories are set downe in a Table by themselues in the end of this my Epistle hauing their Refutation annexed to euery one of them But as for the particular answering of his booke it is both vnnecessary and vncomely for me to make a Reply Vnnecessary because as I haue already told you my Booke is neuer yet answered so farre as belongeth to the maine question anent the Oath of Alleagiance the picking of aduantages vpon the wrong placing of the figures in the citations or such errors in the Print by casuall addition or omission of words that make nothing to the Argument being the greatest weapons wherewith hee assaults my Booke And vncomely it must needs be in my opinion for a King to fall in altercation with a Cardinal at least with one no more nobly descended then he is That Ecclesiasticall dignitie though by the sloath of Princes as I said before it be now come to that height of vsurped honour yet being in the trew originall and foundation thereof nothing else but the title of the Priests and Deacons of the Parish Churches in the towne of Rome at the first the stile of Cardinals being generally giuen to all Priests and Deacons of any Cathedral Church though the multitude of such Cardinal Priests and Deacons resorting to Rome was the cause that after bred the restraining of that title of Cardinall Priests and Deacons onely to the Parish-priests and Deacons of Rome And since that it is S. Gregorie who in his Epistles sixe hundreth yeeres after CHRIST maketh the first mention of Cardinals and so these now Electours of the Apostolike Sea beeing long and many hundreth yeeres vnknowen or vnheard of after the Apostolik aage and yet doeth hee speake of them but in this sence as I haue now described I hope the Cardinall who calleth him the Apostle of England cannot blame mee that am King thereof to acknowledge the Cardinall in no other degree of honour then our said Apostle did But how they should now become to bee so strangely exalted aboue their first originall institution that from Parish-priests and Deacons Priests inferiours they should now come to bee Princes and Peeres to Kings and from a degree vnder Bishops as both 1 Lib. de Clericis cap. 16. Bellarmine and 2 Lib. de Episcopatibus Titulis Diaconijs Cardinalium Onuphrius confesse to bee now the Popes sole Electours supplying with him the place of a Generall Councell whereby the conuening of Generall Councels is now vtterly antiquated and abolished nay out of their number onely the Pope to be elected who claimeth the absolute Superioritie ouer all Kings how this their strange vsurped exaltation I say should thus creepe in and bee suffered it belongeth to all them in our place and calling to looke vnto it who being GOD his Lieutenants in earth haue good reason to bee iealous of such vpstart Princes meane in their originall come to that height by their owne creation and now accounting themselues Kings fellowes But the speciall harme they do vs is by their defrauding vs of our common Christian interest in General Councels they hauing as I said vtterly abolished the same by rolling it vp making as it were a Monopoly thereof in their Conclaue with the Pope Whereas if euer there were a possibilitie to be expected of reducing all Christians to an vniformitie of Religiō it mustcome by the means of a Generall Councel the place of their meeting being chosen so indifferent as all Christian Princes either in their owne Persons or their Deputie Commissioners and all Church-men of Christian profession that beleeue and professe all the ancient grounds of the trew ancient Catholike and Apostolike Faith might haue tutum accessum thereunto All the incendiaries and Nouelist fire-brands on either side being debarred from the same as well Iesuites as Puritanes And therefore hauing resolued not to paine my selfe with making a Replie for these reasons heere specified grounded as well vpon the consideration of the matter as of the person of the Answerer I haue thought good to content my selfe with the reprinting of my Apologie hauing in a manner corrected nothing but the Copiers or Printers faults therein and prefixed this my Epistle of Dedication and Warning thereunto that I may yet see if any thing will be iustly said against it Not doubting but enow of my Subiects will replie vpon these Libellers and answere them sufficiently wishing YOV deepely to consider and weigh your common interest in this Cause For neither in all my Apologie nor in his pretended Refutation thereof is there any question made anent the Popes power ouer mee in particular for the excommunicating or deposing of mee For in my particular the Cardinall doeth mee that grace that hee saith The Pope thought it not expedient at this time to excommunicate mee by name our question being onely generall Whether the Pope may lawfully pretend any temporall power ouer Kings or no That no Church-men can by his rule bee subiect to any Temporall Prince I haue already shewed you And what Obedience any of you may looke for of any of them de facto hee plainely forewarneth you of by the example of Gregory the Great his obedience to the Emperour Mauritius not being ashamed to slaunder that great Personages Christian humilitie and Obedience to the Emperour with the title of a constrained and forced obedience because hee might or durst doe no otherwise Whereby he not onely wrongs the said Gregory in particular but euen doeth by that meanes lay on an heauie slaunder and reproach vpon the Christian humilitie and patience of the whole Primitiue Church especially in the time of persecution if the whole glory of their Martyrdome and Christian patience shall bee thus blotted with that vile glosse of their coacted and constrained suffering because they could or durst doe no otherwise like the patience and obedience of the Iewes or Turkish slaues in our time cleane contrary to Saint Paul and Saint Peters doctrine of obedience for conscience sake Rom. 13.5 1. Pet. 2.13 and as contrary to Tertullians Apologie for Christians and all the protestations of the ancient Fathers in that case But it was good lucke for the ancient Christians in the dayes of Ethnicke Emperours that this prophane and new conceit was then vnknowen among them otherwise they would haue beene vtterly destroyed and rooted out in that time and no man to haue pitied them as most dangerous members in a Common-wealth who would no longer be obedient then till they were furnished with sufficient abilitie and power to resist and rebell Thus may ye see how vpon the one part our Cardinall will haue all Kings and Monarchs to bee the Popes Vassals and yet will not on the other side allow the meanest of the Pope his vassals to be subiect to any Christian Prince But he not thinking it enough to make the
Pope our Superior hath in a late Treatise of his called the Recognition of his bookes of Controuersies made the people and Subiects of euery one of vs our Superiors For hauing taken occasion to reuisite againe his bookes of Controuersies and to correct or explaine what he findeth amisse or mistaketh in them in imitation of S. Augustine his retractions for so he saith in his Preface he doth in place of retracting any of his former errours or any matter of substance not retract but recant indeed I meane sing ouer againe and obstinatly confirme a number of the grossest of them Among the which the exempting of all Church-men from subiection to any Temporall Prince and the setting vp not onely of the Pope but euen of the People aboue their naturall King are two of his maine points As for the exemption of the Clerickes he is so greedy there to proue that point as he denieth Caesar to haue beene Pauls lawfull Iudge Acts. 25.10 contrary to the expresse Text and Pauls plaine Appellation and acknowledging him his Iudge besides his many times claiming to the Roman priuiledges Actes 22.28 and auowing himselfe a Roman by freedome and therefore of necessitie a Subiect to the Roman Emperour But it is a wonder that these Romane Catholikes who vaunt themselues of the ancientie both of their doctrine and Church and reproch vs so bitterly of our Nouelties should not be ashamed to make such a new inept glosse as this vpon S. Pauls Text which as it is directly contrary to the Apostles wordes so is it without any warrant either of any ancient Councell or of so much as any one particular Father that euer interprets that place in this sort Neither was it euer doubted by any Christian in the Primitiue Church that the Apostles or any other degree of Christians were subiect to the Emperour And as for the setting vp of the People aboue their owne naturall King he bringeth in that principle of Sedition that he may thereby proue that Kings haue not their power and authoritie immediatly from God as the Pope hath his For euery King saith he is made and chosen by his people nay they doe but so transferre their power in the Kings person as they doe notwithstanding retaine their habituall power in their owne hands which vpon certaine occasions they may actually take to themselues againe This I am sure is an excellent ground in Diuinitie for all Rebels and rebellious people who are hereby allowed to rebell against their Princes and assume libertie vnto themselues when in their discretions they shall thinke it conuenient And amongst his other Testimonies for probation that all Kings are made and created by the People he alledgeth the Creation of three Kings in the Scripture Saul Dauid and Ieroboam and though hee bee compelled by the expresse words of the Text to confesse that God by his Prophet Samuel annointed both 1 1. Sam. 10.1 Saul and 2 1. Sam. 16.12.13 Dauid yet will he by the post-consent of the people proue that those Kings were not immediatly made by God but mediatly by the people though he repeat thrise that word of Lott by the casting whereof he confesseth that Saul was chosen And if the Election by Lott be not an immediate Election from God then was not Matthias Actes 1. who was so chosen and made an Apostle immediatly chosen by GOD and consequently he that sitteth in the Apostolike Sea cannot for shame claime to be immediatly chosen by God if Matthias that was one of the twelue Apostles supplying Iudas his place was not so chosen But as it were a blasphemous impietie to doubt that Matthias was immediatly chosen by GOD and yet was hee chosen by the casting of Lots as Saul was so is it well enough knowen to some of you my louing Brethren by what holy Spirit or casting of Lots the Popes vse to be elected the Colledge of Cardinals his electors hauing beene diuided in two mightie factions euer since long before my time and in place of casting of Lotts great fat pensions beeing cast into some of their greedy mouthes for the election of the Pope according to the partiall humours of Princes But I doe most of all wonder at the weakenesse of his memorie for in this place he maketh the post-consent of the people to be the thing that made both these Kings notwithstanding of their preceding inauguration and anoyntment by the Prophet at GODS commandement forgetting that in the beginning of this same little booke of his answering one that alledgeth a sentence of S. Cyprian to prooue that the Bishops were iudged by the people in Cyprians time he there confesseth that by these words the consent of the people to the Bishops Election must be onely vnderstood Nor will he there any wayes be mooued to graunt that the peoples power in consenting to or refusing the Election of a Bishop should be so vnderstood as that thereby they haue power to elect Bishops And yet do these words of Cyprian seeme to bee farre stronger for granting the peoples power to elect Churchmen then any words that he alledgeth out of the Scripture are for the peoples power in electing a King For the very words of Cyprian by himselfe there cited Cyprian lib. 1. Epist 4. are That the very people haue principally the power either to chuse such Priests as are worthy or to refuse such as are vnworthie And I hope hee can neuer prooue by the Scripture that it had beene lawfull to the people of Israel or that it was left in their choise to haue admitted or refused Saul or Dauid at their pleasure after that the Prophet had anoynted them and persented them vnto them Thus ye see how little he careth euen in so little a volume to contradict himselfe so it may make for his purpose making the consent of the people to signifie their power of Election in the making of Kings though in the making of Bishops by the peoples consent their approbation of a deed done by others must onely be vnderstood And as for his example of Ieroboams election to bee King 1 King 12.20 hee knoweth well enough that Ieroboam was made King in a popular mutinous tumult and rebellion onely permitted by God and that in his wrath both against these two Kings and their people But if he will needs helpe himselfe against all rules of Diuinitie with such an extraordinary example for proofe of a generall Rule why is it not as lawfull for vs Kings to oppose hereunto the example of Iehu his Inauguration to the Kingdome 2. King 9.2 3. who vpon the Prophets priuat anointment of him and that in most secret manner tooke presently the Kings office vpon him without euer crauing any sort of approbation from the people And thus may ye now clearely see how deepe the claime of the Babylonian Monarch toucheth vs in all our common interest for as I haue already told the Pope nor any of his Vassals
of this businesse and of their sincere intention therein hee would according to his high wisedome prudence and benignitie conceiue fauourably of them and their proceedings whereof the Lords States Generall are no lesse confident and the rather for that the said Deputies haue assured them that the Lords States of Holland and Westfrizeland their Superiors would proceede in this businesse as in all others with all due reuerence care and respect vnto his Maiesties serious admonition as becommeth them And the Lords States Generall doe request the said Lord Ambassadour to recommend this their Answere vnto his Maiestie with fauour Giuen at the Hage in the Assembly of the said Lords States Generall 1. October 1611. BVt before wee had receiued this answere from the States some of Vorstius books were brought ouer into England and as it was reported not without the knowledge and direction of the Authour And about the same time one Bertius a scholler of the late Arminius who was the first in our aage that infected Leyden with Heresie was so impudent as to send a Letter vnto the Archbishop of Canterbury with a Booke intituled De Apostasia Sanctorum And not thinking it sufficient to auow the sending of such a booke the title whereof onely were enough to make it worthy the fire hee was moreouer so shamelesse as to maintaine in his Letter to the Archbishop that the doctrine conteined in his booke was agreeable with the doctrine of the Church of England Let the Church of CHRIST then iudge whether it was not high time for vs to bestirre our selues when as this Gangrene had not onely taken holde amongst our neerest neighbours so as Nonsolùm paries proximus iam ardebat not onely the next house was on fire but did also begin to creepe into the bowels of our owne Kindome For which cause hauing first giuen order that the said bookes of Vorstius should be publikely burnt as well in Pauls Church-yard as in both the Vniuersities of this Kingdome wee thought good to renew our former request vnto the States for the banishment of Vorstius by a Letter which wee caused our Ambassadour to deliuer vnto them from vs at their Assembly in the Hage the fifth of Nouember whereunto they had referred vs in their former answere the tenor of which Letter was as followeth HIgh and mightie Lords Hauing vnderstood by your answere to that Proposition which was made vnto you in our name by our Ambassadour there resident That at your Assembly to bee holden in Nouember next you are resolued then to giue order concerning the businesse of that wretched D. Vorstius Wee haue thought good notwithstanding the declaration which our Ambassadour hath already made vnto you in our name touching that particular to put you againe in remembrance thereof by this Letter and thereby freely to discharge our selues both in point of our duetie towards God and of that sincere friendship which wee beare towards you First We assure Our selues that you are sufficiently perswaded that no worldly respect could moue Vs to haue thus importuned you in an affaire of this nature being drawen into it onely through Our zeale to the glory of God and the care which Wee haue that all occasion of such great scandals as this is vnto the trew reformed Church of God might bee in due time foreseene and preuented Wee are therefore to let you vnderstand that Wee doe not a little wonder that you haue not onely sought to prouide an habitation in so eminent a place amongst you for such a corrupted person as this Vorstius is but that you haue also afforded him your license and protection to print that Apologie which he hath dedicated vnto you A booke wherein he doeth most impudently maintaine the execrable blasphemies which in his former hee had disgorged The which wee are now able to affirme out of our owne knowledge hauing since that Letter which wee wrote vnto our Ambassadour read ouer and ouer againe with our owne eyes not without extreme mislike and horrour both his bookes the first dedicated to the Lantgraue of Hessen and the other to you We had well hoped that the corrupt seed which that enemie of God Arminius did sowe amongst you some few yeeres since whose disciples and followers are yet too bold and frequent within your Dominions had giuen you a sufficient warning afterwards to take heed of such infected persons seeing your owne Countrey men already diuided into Factions vpon this occasion a matter so opposite to vnitie which is indeed the onely prop and safetie of your State next vnder God as of necessitie it must by little and little bring you to vtter ruine if wisely you doe not prouide against it and that in time It is trew that it was Our hard hap not to heare of this Arminius before he was dead and that all the Reformed Churches of Germanie had with open mouth complained of him But assoone as Wee vnderstood of that distraction in your State which after his death he left behind him We did not faile taking the opportunitie when your last extraordinary Ambassadors were here with Vs to vse some such speeches vnto them concerning this matter as We thought fittest for the good of your State and which we doubt not but they haue faithfully reported vnto you For what need We make any question of the arrogancie of these Heretiques or rather Atheisticall Sectaries amongst you when one of them at this present remaining in your towne of Leyden hath not onely presumed to publish of late a blasphemous Booke of the Apostasie of the Saints but hath besides beene so impudent as to send the other day a copie thereof as a goodly present to Our Arch-Bishop of Canterbury together with a letter wherein he is not ashamed as also in his Booke to lie so grossely as to auowe that his Heresies conteined in the said Booke are agreeable with the Religion and profession of Our Church of England For these respects therefore haue Wee cause enough very heartily to request you to roote out with speed those Heresies and Schismes which are beginning to bud foorth amongst you which if you suffer to haue the reines any longer you cannot expect any other issue thereof then the curse of God infamy throughout all the reformed Churches and a perpetuall rent and distraction in the whole body of your State But if peraduenture this wretched Vorstius should denie or equiuocate vpon those blasphemous poynts of Heresie and Atheisme which already hee hath broached that perhaps may mooue you to spare his person and not cause him to bee burned which neuer any Heretique better deserued and wherein we will leaue him to your owne bristian wisedome but to suffer him vpon any defence or abnegation which hee shall offer to make still to continue and to teach amongst you is a thing so abominable as we assure our selues it will not once enter into any of your thoughts For admit hee would proue himselfe innocent which neuerthelesse he cannot
doe in most of those points wherewith hee is charged yet were it but the scandall of his person which will still remaine it were cause more then enough for you to remooue him out of your Dominions You know what is written of Caesars wife that it was not sufficient for her to be innocent but she must also bee free from all occasion of suspicion how much more then ought you to bee warie and cautious in a matter of so great importance as this which concerneth the glory of God the saluation of your soules the soules of your people and the safetie of your State and not to suffer so dangerous a sparke to lie kindling amongst you For a man may easily coniecture that feare and the horrour of his owne actions will make him boldly denie that poyson which boyleth at his heart For what will not bee denie that denieth the Eternitie and Omnipotencie of God And howbeit hee were innocent as we haue said before the Church of God is not so ill furnished with men of sufficiencie for that place as that you need bee vnprouided of some other who shall not be subiect to that scandall wherewith hee is so tainted as it must bee a long penance and many yeeres of probation that must weare it away But especially ought you to bee very carefull not to hazard the corruption of your youth in so famous an Vniuersitie by the doctrine of so scandalous a person who it is to bee feared when hee findeth himselfe once well setled there will returne againe to his ancient vomite We will therefore conclude with this request vnto you that you will assure your selues that the affection onely which wee beare vnto your State hath enforced vs to vse this libertie towards you not doubting for our part but that as this which wee haue written vnto you proceedes from the sinceritie of our conscience so our good God will bee pleased to giue you a due apprehension thereof and that your resolution in a matter of so great consequence may tend to his glory to your owne honour and safetie to the extirpation of these springing Atheismes and Heresies and to the satisfaction not onely of vs but of all the reformed Churches who haue bene hitherto extremely scandalized therewith But if on the contrary part we faile of that wee expect at your hands which God forbid and that you suffer hereafter such pestilent Heretiques to nestle among you who dare take vpon them that licentious libertie to fetch againe from Hell the ancient Heresies long since condemned or else to inuent new of their owne braine contrary to the beliefe of the trew Catholike Church wee shall then bee constrained to our great griefe publikely to protest against these abominations and as God hath honoured vs with the Title of Defender of the Faith not onely to depart and separate our selues from the vnion of such false and heretical Churches but also to exhort all other reformed Churches to ioyne with vs in a common Councel how to extinguish and remand to hell these abominable Heresies that now newly begin to put foorth againe And furthermore for our owne particular we shall be enforced strictly to inhibite the youth of our Dominions from repairing to so infected a place as is the Vniuersitie of Leyden Sed meliora speramus ominamur We hope and expect for better assuring our selues in the mercie of our good God that as he hath a long time preserued you from your temporall enemies and at this time is beginning to establish your Estate to the contentment of all your friends but especially to ours who haue neuer beene wanting to assist you vpon all occasions that the same God will not leaue you for a prey to your spirituall aduersaries who gape at nothing but your vtter destruction And in this confidence wee will recommend you and the prosperitie of your affaires to the protection of God remaining as we haue euer beene Your good friend IAMES R. Giuen at our Pallace of Westminster the 6. of October 1611. Wee writ likewise at the same time another Letter to our Ambassadour for his direction in the whole businesse the Copie whereof is this which followeth TRustie and welbeloued Perceiuing by the States their answere to your Proposition deliuered to them in our name concerning the matter of Vorstius that they haue taken time for their proceeding with him and hauing some reason to thinke that his fauourers amongst them are stronger then were to bee wished Wee haue thought good to renew our Admonition vnto them in this matter by a Letter of our owne written at good length and in earnest maner which you shall heerewith receiue and at the time of their meeting for this purpose present vnto them in our name Insisting with them with all the earnestnesse you can both for the remoouing of this blasphemous Monster as also that they may now at least take some such solid order as this licentious libertie of disputing or arguing such vnprofitable questions whereby new opinions may bee dayly set abroach against the grounds of Diuinitie may hereafter bee restrained as well at Leyden as in all the rest of their Dominions And for the better strengthening of this motion wee doe herewith send you a Note of some of the most speciall Atheisticall points wherewith his booke is full farced But if contrary to our expectation all our labour cannot mooue them to giue satisfaction not to vs but to the whole Church of God in this case Then are you if no better may be to renew our Protestation vnto them which wee sent you in our former Letter assuring them that our first labour shall be to publish to the world their defection from the Faith and trew Church of Christ Wee meane the defection of them whom they maintaine and harbour in their bosomes though wee purposely omitted this point in our Letter vnto them for being too harsh except all other remedies were desperate But we both wish and hope for better Theobaldes 6. October 1611. BVt before our Ambassadour had opportunitie to deliuer our Letter to the States there were not onely certaine people more cunning then zealous who caused a rumour to bee spread amongst the States that we were become exceeding cold in the businesse nay that wee had almost quite giuen it ouer but also in the meane time the said Vorstius was setled at Leyden lodged in the qualitie of a publike Reader and his wife his familie there arriued as he himselfe witnesseth in his Booke called Christiana modestarespōsio For his own words in his preface are these Quum igitur Diuinâ vocatione sic ferente in eâvrbe ac Prouinciâ sedem fixerim cunque domo totâ nunc habitem quae supremam in terrâ iurisdictionem vestram agnoscit c. That is to say Since therefore God so disposing of me I haue setled my selfe and with my whole family do now inhabite in that City and prouince which acknowledgeth your supreme authority
shall at this time follow their example and my Sentence shall be this Si peccauerit in te frater tuus argue eum inter te ipsum solum si audiuerit te lucratus es fratrem tuum si non audiuerit te adhibevnum atque alterum vt in ore duorum vel trium stet omne verbum si non audiuerit eos dic Ecclesiae If thy brother trespasse against thee goe and tell him his fault betweene him and thee alone if he heare thee thou hast wonne thy brother but if hee heare thee not take yet with thee one or two that by the mouth of two or three witnesses euery word may bee confirmed and if hee refuse to heare them tell it vnto the Church There is not any one of you as I suppose in this Assemblie that will not acknowledge the brotherly loue wherewith the King my Master hath alwayes affected the good of your Prouinces and the fatherly care which hee hath euer had to procure the establishment of your State In which respect his Maiestie hauing vnderstood that my Lords the States of Holland were determined to call vnto the place of Diuinitie Professour in the Vniuer sitie of Leyden one Doctor Conradus Vorstius a person attainted by many witnesses iuris facti of a number of Heresies the shame whereof would light vpon the Church of God and consequently vpon his Maiesties person and Crownes is therewith exceedingly offended And for the more timely preuention of an infinitie of euils which necessarily would thereupon ensue did giue mee in charge by expresse Letters to exhort you which I did the 21. of September last to wash your hands from that man and not to fuffer him to come within your Countrey To this exhortation your answere was that in the carriage of this businesse all due obseruance and regard should be had vnto his Maiestie Neuerthelesse so it is that his Maiestie hath receiued so little respect heerein as that in stead of debarring Vorstius from comming into the Countrey which euen by the lawes of friendship his Maiestie might haue required the proceedings haue beene cleane contrary for he is suffered to come vnto Leyden hath beene receiued there with all honour hath there taken vp his habitation where he is treated and lodged in the qualitie of a publique Professour His Maiestie then perceiuing that his first motion had so little preuailed thought good to write himselfe a Letter vnto you to the same purpose full of zeale and affection perswading you by many reasons there set downe at length not to staine your owne honour and the honour of the reformed Churches by calling vnto you that wretched and wicked Atheist These Letters were presented in this Assembly the fifth of Nouember a great number of the Deputies of the Townes of Holland being then present At which time as I was commanded by his Maiestie I vsed some speach my selfe to the same effect Some sixe weekes after I receiued an Answere to my Proposition but an Answere confused ambiguous and wholly impertinent by which I haue reason to conceiue that there is no meaning at all to send Vorstius away who is at this present in Leyden receiued and acknowledged respected and treated as publique Professour whether it be to grace that Vniuersitie in stead of the deceased Ioseph Scaliger I cannot tell or whether it bee to giue him meanes to doe more mischiefe in secret which perhaps for shame hee durst not in publique For these reasons according vnto that charge which I haue receiued from the King my Master I doe in his name and on his behalfe Protest in this Assembly against the wrong iniurie and scandall done vnto the reformed Religion by the receiuing and reteining of Conradus Vorstius in the Vniuersitie of Leyden and against the violence offered vnto that Alliance which is betwixt his Maiestie and your Prouinces the which beeing founded vpon the preseruation and maintenance of the reformed Religion you haue not letted so much as in you lies absolutely to violate in the proceeding of this cause Of which enormous indignities committed against the Church of GOD and against his Maiesties person in preferring the presence of Vorstius before his Amitie and Alliance the King my Master holds himselfe bound to bee sensible and if reparation thereof bee not made and that speedily which cannot be by any other meanes then by sending Vorstius away his Maiestie will make it appeare vnto the world by some such Declaration as he will cause to be printed and published how much he detests the Atheismes and Heresies of Vorstius and all those that maintaine fauour and cherish them This is my charge which if I had failed to performe I had failed in my duetie both towards the Seruice of GOD which is now in question as also toward the honour of the King my Master who will alwayes bee ready to maintaine the puritie of the reformed Religion though it were with the profusion of his owne blood the blood of his children and subiects This Protestation being made the States after some deliberation framed vs an answere in these termes That howsoeuer His Maiestie of GREAT BRITAINE had not yet receiued that contentment which Hee might expect in this businesse of Vorstius neuerthelesse they did not doubt but that at the Assembly of the States of Holland in February next His Maiestie should receiue entire satisfaction Which answere gaue some life to our hope that at the said assembly of the States to bee holden the fifteenth day of the next moneth of Februarie GOD will vouchsafe so to open the eyes of those of Holland as that they may be able to discerne what a Cockatrice egge they hatch within their bosome and that seeing the smooth speaches of Vorstius doe but verifie the old Prouerbe Latet anguis in herbâ There lurkes a snake in the grasse they will at that assembly resolue to purge their Territories from the poison of his Heresie Wee mention Holland because the other Prouinces namely Frizeland and Zeland and some part of Holland likewise are already so distasted with his Heresies as of themselues they haue desired Holland to banish him out of the Countrey And certainely wee are no lesse sorie then amazed that the Curators of Leyden as appeareth by a long letter which they haue written to the States Ambassador resident with vs can haue their vnderstanding so stupified as to haue made choice of the person of Vorstius for a man well qualified to appease the Schismes and troubles of their Church and Vniuersitie and as an apt instrument of peace For to shew their blindnesse in this they need no other answere then Exitus acta probat The issue tries the action Seeing to our great griefe it cannot bee denied but that there hath bene more distraction of spirits and a greater diuision in their State since the comming of Vorstius then was for many yeeres before witnesse so many Bookes and Accusations written against him and his answeres thereunto
a certaine and definite Essence which may be applied in some kinde vnto God That God cannot rightly in euery sence be said to be infinite seeing that infinitenesse which is opposite to certaine definitenesse cannot indeed be attributed vnto God ¶ 4. Estne Deus in aliquo loco Est sed non 1 Pag. 3. l. 22 23. physico Verùm in spatio abstractissimè sumpto quod Deus suo diuino modo adimplet Is God in a place He is but not in a naturall place But in spatio abstractissimè sumpto which God after his Diuine maner doeth fill ¶ 5. Estne Deus corporeus 1 Pag. 3. l. 34. Propriè loquendo minimè corporeus est 2 Pag. 15. l. 6. Sed tamen nihil absurdi erit si Deo impropriè loquendo corpus ascribamus 3 Pag. 4. l. 3. nempè quatenus vocabulum Corporis impropriè latissimè pro verâ substantiâ 4 Pag. 15. l. 14. non prorsus absurdè sumitur 5 Pag. 15. l. 10. 3. iuxta latam significationem quae figurata impropria seu mauis catachrestica est Hath God a body If we will speake properly he hath none Yet is it no absurditie speaking improperly to ascribe a body vnto God that is to say as the word Body is taken improperly and generally and yet not very absurdly for a trew substance in a large signification which is figuratiue and improper or if you will abusiue ¶ 6. Estne Deus compositus è materiâ formâ 1 Pag. 5. l. 3. Nullo modo propriè loquendo Est tamen in sensu quodam improprio vel si mauis per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quandam per quam vocabulum Corporis item quasi materiae formae seu quasi compositionis ex genere differentiâ aliquando eidem attribui posse non immeritò alicui videatur Is God compounded of matter and forme By no meanes speaking properly Although it bee trew in a certaine improper sence or if you please by a certaine Catachresis by the which the word Body and as it were materia forma or as it were a Composition ex genere differentia may sometimes seeme to some and not without cause to be fitly attributed to God ¶ 7. Estne Deus immutabilis vt essentiâ sic voluntate Non est 1 Pag. 15. l. 15. vt essentiâ sic voluntate Id est non est aequaliter Is God vnchangeable in his Will as he is in his Essence He is not vnchangeable in his will as he is in his Essence That is not alike vnchangeable in the one as he is in the other ¶ 8. Estne Deus subiectus accidentibus 1 Pag 7. l. 8. Non vllis veris. 2 Pag. 7. l. 9. Tametsi per liberam voluntatem quaedam accidentia latissimè sic dicta tum ad se tum in se recipit Deus Is God subiect to accidents Not to any trew accidents Although God doeth by his Free will take to himselfe and into himselfe certaine accidents so called in the largest sense ¶ 9. An Deus per discursum conijcit de futuris Interdum 1 Pag. 7. l. 24. aliquatenus 2 Pag. 8. l. 9. discursum quendam instituit quasi de incertis conijcit 3 Pag. 7. l. 22. sed impropriè metaphoricè citraque omnem imperfectionem 4 4 Pag. 8. l. 2. Conijcit autem non coniecturâ qualis hominum esse solet sed planè diuinâ Doeth God coniecture of things to come by discourse Sometimes in some sort he frameth to himselfe a certaine discourse and doeth as it were coniecture of things vncertaine but improperly and metaphorically and without all imperfection And he doeth coniecture not in such sort as men doe but after a meerely diuine maner ¶ 10. Affectus amoris odij c. Deone propriè attribuuntur Propriè sed 1 Pag. 8. l. 16. vt pro veritate potiùs quà m pro vsitatâ nobisque notâ proprietate accipiendum sit 2 Pag. 9. l. 1. Nulli affectus cum humanâ infirmitate coniuncti propriè Deo attribuuntur verè tamen suo modo propriè hoc est pro suae non pro naturae nostrae proprietate The affections of loue hatred c. be they properly attributed vnto God or not Yes but so as ye take it rather for a veritie then for that property which is vulgarly vnderstood and knowne vnto vs. No affections accompanied with humane infirmitie are properly attributed vnto God yet trewly and in his owne kinde properly that is to say as they are proper to his nature and not to ours ¶ 11. Pater habetne peculiarem quandam seu quasi restrictam essentiam 1 Pag. 21. l. 13. Vox essentiae perinde vt Entis amplissimam significationem habet sic nihil omninò vetat vtramque non minùs ad personas diuinas quà m ad ipsam Deitatis naturam in sano sensu referri Hath the Father a certaine peculiar or as it were limited Essence The word Essence as well as Ens hath a very large signification and we may apply both of them safely in a good sence as well to the Diuine persons as to the nature of the Deitie it selfe ¶ 12. Suntne Patrum argumenta friuola pro aeternâ Christi generatione Siquidem 1 Pag. 14. l. 3. vnica vox quaedam ab initio inseratur argumenta à Patribus hactenùs aptata aut fallacia aut friuola sunt Be those arguments which the Fathers haue vsed to proue the Eternall generation of Christ friuolous or no If this one word quaedam some were added to the beginning of that position it were then trew that the arguments which the Fathers haue at any time applied to prooue the Eternall generation of Christ are either deceitfull or friuolous ¶ 13 Estne in Deo visio praesentium praeteritorum magis certa quà m futurorum praeuisio 1 Pag. 18. l. 19 20. Nota modestiam meam in verbo videntur opinionem duntaxat probabilem hîc afferri non autem dogmaticam assertionem Futura 2 Pag. 18. l. 29. contingentia comparatiuè loquendo etiam coram Deo dici possunt minus certa quà m praeterita praesentia Whether doeth God see things past and present more certainely then things to come Note here my modestie in this word videntur for in this place I deliuer onely a probable opinion and not a dogmaticall assertion Things future contingent speaking comparatiuely may be said to bee lesse certaine euen vnto God then things past and present By this may the Reader manifestly discerne that there is nothing which a man speaking in this fashion shall not be able to maintaine and by this meanes easily prooue quidlibet ex quolibet And certainely his manner of excuses and euasions are framed iust after the mould of the ancient Heretiques and namely of Arrius and Paulus Samosatenus when they saw themselues
blanching it onely with some poore excuses And to the other two points his answers are doubtfull yet neither condemning the act of his schollers nor the last wicked booke called Dominicus Lopez Hauing now therefore briefly laied open the subtilties friuolous distinctions and excuses of the said Vorstius we will conclude this point with this protestation That if he had bene our owne Subiect we would haue bid him Excrea spit out and forced him to haue produced and confessed those wicked Heresies that are rooted in his heart And in case he should stand vpon his Negatiue we would enioyne him to say according to the ancient custome of the Primitiue Church in the like cases of Heretiques I renounce and from my soule detest them Anathema Maranatha vpon such and such Heresies And not to say For peace sake I caused this booke to be suppressed And these bookes are to bee read with great iudgement and discretion S. Hierome liketh not that any man should take it patiently to be suspected of Heresie And now to make an end of this Discourse we doe very heartily desire all good Christians in generall and My Lords the States in particular to whom the managing of this affaire doeth most specially belong to consider but two things First what kinde of people they be that slander vs and our sincere intention in this cause And next what priuate interest wee can possibly haue in respect of any worldly honour or aduancement herein to engage our selues in such sort as we haue done Concerning the first point There are but three sorts of people that seeke to calumniate vs vpon this occasion That is to say either such as are infected with the same or the like Heresies wherewith Vorstius is tainted ideo fouent consimilem causam and therefore doe maintaine the like cause or else such as be of the Romane Religion who in this confusion and libertie of prophesying would thrust in for a part conceiuing it more reasonable that their doctrine should be tolerated by those of our Religion then the doctrine of Vorstius or else such as for reason of State enuie peraduenture the good amitie and correspondencie which is betwixt vs and the Vnited Prouinces Touching our owne interest the whole course of our life doeth sufficiently witnesse that we haue alwayes bene contented with that portion which GOD hath put into our hands without seeking to inuade the possessions of any other Besides in two of our bookes as well in our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the Preface to our Apologie we haue shewed the same inclination For in the first booke speaking of warre we say that a King ought not to make any inuasion vpon anothers Dominions vntill Iustice be first denied him And in the other booke hauing shewed the vsurpation of the Pope aboue all the Kings and Princes of Christendome our conclusion is that we will neuer goe about to perswade them to assault him within his Dominions but onely to resume and preserue their owne iust Priuiledges from his violent intrusion So as thankes be to GOD both our Theorique and Practique agree well together to cleare vs from this vniust and slanderous imputation And as for the States in particular it is very vnlikely that we who haue all our life time held so strict an amitie with them as for their defence wee haue bene contented to expose the liues of many of our Subiects of both Nations would now practise against then State and that vpon so poore a subiect as Vorstius especially that so damnable a thing could euer enter into our heart as vnder the vaile and pretext of the glory of GOD to plot the aduancement of our owne priuate deseignes The reasons which induced vs to meddle in this businesse we haue already declared We leaue it now to his owne proper Iudges to consider what a nursling they foster in their bosome A stranger bred in the Socinian Heresie as it is said often times accused of Heresie by the Churches of Germanie one that hath written so wicked and scandalous bookes maintaining and seriously protesting in the preface of his Apologie to the States for the libertie of prophecying and twice or thrice insisting vpon that libertie in the Preface of his Modest Answere a dangerous and pernitious libertie or rather licentiousnesse opening a gap to all rupture Schisme and confusion in the Church yea hauing had some disciples that be Heretiques themselues and others that accuse him of Heresie And though there were no other cause then the silly and idle shifts wherewith hee seekes to defend himselfe in his last bookes it were enough to conuince him either to haue maintained a bad cause and in that respect worthy of a farre greater punishment then to be put by his place of Professour or at the least to be a person vnworthy of the name of a Professour in so famous an Vniuersitie for hauing so weakely maintained a cause that is iust For our part GOD is our witnesse we haue no quarrell against his person he is a Stranger borne farre from our dominions he is a Germane and it is well knowen that all Germanie are our friends and the most part of the great Princes there be either neerely allied vnto vs or our Confederates he doth outwardly professe the same Religion which we do he hath written against Bellarmine and hath not mentioned vs either in speach or writing for any thing we know but with all the honour and respect that may be GOD knowes the worst that we do wish him is that he may sincerely returne into the high beaten path-way of the Catholique and Orthodoxall Faith And for my Lords the States seeing wee haue discharged our conscience we will now referre the managing of the whole Action vnto their owne discretions For wee are so farre from prescribing them any rule herein as we shall be very well contented so as the businesse be well done that there be euen no mention at all made of our intercession in their publique Acts or Records Their maner of proceeding we leaue absolutely to their owne Wisedomes Modò praedicetur Christus so as CHRIST bee preached let them vse their owne formes in the Name of GOD. For we desire that GOD should so iudge vs at the last Day as we affect not in this Action any worldly glory beseeching the Creatour so to open their eyes to illuminate their vnderstandings direct their resolutions and aboue all to kindle their zeale sanctifie their affections at the last so to blesse their Actions and their proceedings in this cause as the issue thereof may tend to his Glory to the comfort and solace of the Faithfull to the honour of our Religion to the confusion and extirpation at the least profligation of Heresies and in particular to the corroboration of the Vnion of the sayd Prouinces A REMONSTRANCE FOR THE RIGHT OF KINGS AND THE INDEPENDANCE OF THEIR CROVVNES AGAINST AN ORATION OF THE MOST ILLVSTRIOVS CARD OF PERRON PRONOVNCED IN
learned Lecture Now it is no wonder that in so good an office and loyall cariage towards their King the third Estate hath outgone the Clergie For the Clergie denie themselues to haue any ranke among the Subiects of the King they stand for a Soueraigne out of the Kingdome to whom as to the Lord Paramount they owe suite and seruice they are bound to aduance that Monarchie to the bodie whereof they properly apperteine as parts or members as elsewhere I haue written more at large But for the Nobilitie the Kings right arme to prostitute and set as it were to sale the dignitie of their King as if the arme should giue a thrust vnto the head J say for the Nobilitie to hold and maintaine euen in Parliament their King is liable to deposition by any forreine power or Potentate may it not passe among the strangest miracles and rarest wonders of the world For that once granted this consequence is good and necessarie That in case the King once lawfully deposed shall stand vpon the defensiue and hold out for his right he may then lawfully be murthered Let mee then here freely professe my opinion and this it is That now the French Nobilitie may seeme to haue some reason to disrobe themselues of their titles and to transferre them by resignation vnto the third Estate For that body of that third Estate alone hath caried a right noble heart in as much as the could neither be tickled with promises nor terrified by threatnings from resolute standing to those fundamentall points and reasons of State which most concerne the honour of their King and the securitie of his person Of all the Clergie the man that hath most abandoned or set his honour to sale the man to whom France is least obliged is the Lord Cardinall of Perron a man otherwise inferiour to few in matter of learning and in the grace of a sweete style This man in two seuerall Orations whereof the one was pronounced before the Nobilitie the other had audience before the third Estate hath set his best wits on worke to draw that doctrine into all hatred and infamie which teacheth Kings to be indeposeable by the Pope To this purpose hee termes the same doctrine a breeder of Schismes a gate that openeth to make way and to giue entrance vnto all heresies in briefe a doctrine to bee held in so high a degree of detestation that rather then he and his fellow-Bishops will yeeld to the signing thereof they will bee contented like Martyrs to burne at a stake At which resolution or obstinacie rather in his opinion I am in a manner amased more then I can be mooued for the like brauado in many other forasmuch as hee was many yeeres together a follower of the late King euen when the King followed a contrary Religion and was deposed by the Pope as also because not long before in a certaine Assemblie holden at the Iacobins in Paris hee withstood the Popes Nuntio to his face when the said Nuntio laboured to make this doctrine touching the Popes temporall Soueraigntie passe for an Article of Faith But in both Orations hee singeth a contrary song and from his owne mouth passeth sentence of condemnation against his former course and profession J fuppose not without sollide iudgemen as one that heerein hath well accommodated himselfe to the times For as in the reigne of the late King hee durst not offer to broach this doctrine such was his fore-wit so now he is bold to proclaime and publish it in Parliament vnder the reigne of the said Kings sonne whose tender yeeres and late succession to the Crowne doe make him lie the more open to iniuries and the more facill to be circumuented Such is now his afterwisedome Of these two Orations that made in presence of the Nobilitie he hath for feare of incurring the Popes displeasure cautelously suppressed For therein he hath beene somewhat prodigall in affirming this doctrine maintained by the Clergie to bee but problematicall and in taking vpon him to auouch that Catholikes of my Kingdome are bound to yeeld me the honour of obedience Whereas on the other side he is not ignorant how this doctrine of deposing Princes and Kings the Pope holdeth for meerely necessarie and approoueth not by any meanes Alleagiance to bee performed vnto mee by the Catholikes of my Kingdome Yea if credit may be giuen vnto the abridgement of his other Oration published wherein he paralells the Popes power in receiuing honours in the name of the Church with the power of the Venetian Duke in receiuing honours in the name of that most renowned Rebublike no marueile that when this Oration was dispatched to the presse he commanded the same to be gelded of this clause and other like for feare of giuing his Holinesse any offensiue distaste His pleasure therefore was and content withall that his Oration imparted to the third Estate should be put in Print and of his courtesie he vouchsafed to addresse vnto me a copie of the same Which after J had perused J foorthwith well perceiued what and how great discrepance there is betweene one man that perorateth from the ingenuous and sincere disposition of a sound heart and an other that flaunteth in flourishing speech with inward checkes of his owne conscience For euery where he contradicts himselfe and seemes to be afraid lest men should picke out his right meaning First In 12. seuerall passages the L. Card. seemeth to speake against his owne conscience Pag. 85. he grants this Question is not hither to decided by the holy Scriptures or by the Decrees of the ancient Church or by the analogie of other Ecclesiasticall proceedings and neuerthelesse hee confidently doeth affirme that whosoeuer maintaine this doctrine to be wicked and abhominable that Popes haue no power to put Kings by their supreame Thrones they teach men to beleeue there hath not bene any Church for many aages past and that indeed the Church is the very Synagogue of Antichrist Secondly he exhorts his hearers to hold this doctrine at least for problematicall and not necessary and yet herein he calls them to all humble submission vnto the iudgement of the Pope and Clergie by whom the cause hath bene already put out of all question as out of all hunger and cold Thirdly he doeth auerre in case this Article be authorized it makes the Pope in good consequence to bee the Antichrist Pag. 99. and yet he grants that many of the French are tolerated by the Pope to dissent in this point from his Holinesse prouided their doctrine be not proposed as necessary and materiall to faith As if the Pope in any sort gaue toleration to hold any doctrine contrary to his owne and most of all that doctrine which by consequence inferres himselfe to be the Antichrist Fourthly he protesteth forwardnesse to vndergoe the flames of Martyrdome rather then to signe this doctrine which teacheth Kings Crownes to sit faster on their heads then to be stirred by any
Religion as beeing instructed by their schoolemasters in Religion And who were they but Ecclesiasticall persons All this presupposed as matter of trewth I draw this conclusion Howsoeuer no small number of the French Clergie may perhaps beare the affection of louing Subiects to their King and may not suffer the Clericall character to deface the impression of naturall allegiance yet for so much as the Order of Clerics is dipped in a deeper die and beareth a worse tincture of daungerous practises then the other Orders the third Estate had beene greatly wanting to their excellent prouidence and wisedome if they should haue relinquished and transferred the care of designements and proiects for the life of their King and the safety of his Crowne to the Clergiealone Moreouer the Clergie standeth bound to referre the iudgement of all matters in controuersie to the sentence of the Pope in this cause beeing a partie and one that pretendeth Crownes to depend vpon his Mitre What hope then might the third Estate conceiue that his Holinesse would passe against his owne cause when his iudgement of the controuersie had beene sundrie times before published and testified to the world And whereas the plot or modell of remedies proiected by the third Estate and the Kings Officers hath not prooued sortable in the euent was it because the said remedies were not good and lawfull No verily but because the Clergie refused to become contributors of their duty and meanes to the grand seruice Likewise for that after the burning of bookes addressed to iustifie rebellious people traytors and parricides of Kings neuerthelesse the authors of the said bookes are winked at and backt with fauour Lastly for that some wretched parricides drinke off the cuppe of publike iustice whereas to the firebrands of sedition the sowers of this abominable doctrine no man saith so much as blacke is their eye It sufficiently appeareth as I supose by the former passage that his Lordship exhorting the third Estate to referre the whole care of this Regall cause vnto the Clergie hath tacked his frame of weake ioynts and tenons to a very worthy but wrong foundation Page 9. Howbeit he laboureth to fortifie his exhortation with a more weake and feeble reason For to make good his proiect he affirmes that matters and maximes out of all doubt and question may not be shuffled together with points in controuersie Now his rules indubitable are two The first It is not lawfull to murther Kings for any cause whatsoeuer This he confirmeth by the example of Saul as he saith deposed from his Throne whose life or limbs Dauid neuerthelesse durst not once hurt or wrong for his life Conc. Constan Sess 15. Likewise he confirmes the same by a Decree of the Councill held at Constance His other point indubitable The Kings of France are Soueraignes in all Temporall Soueraigntie within the French Kingdome and hold not by fealtie either of the Pope as hauing receiued or obliged their Crownes vpon such tenure and condition or of any other Prince in the whole world Which point neuerthelesse he takes not for certaine and indubitable but onely according to humane and historicall certaintie Now a third point he makes to be so full of controuersie and so farre within the circle of disputable questions as it may not be drawne into the ranke of classicall and authenticall points for feare of making a certaine point doubtfull by shuffling and iumbling therewith some point in controuersie Now the question so disputable as he pretendeth is this A Christian Prince breakes his oath solemnely taken to God both to liue and to die in the Catholique Religion Say this Prince turnes Arrian or Mahometan fals to proclaime open warre and to wage battell with Iesus Christ Whether may such a Prince be declared to haue lost his Kingdome and who shall declare the Subiects of such a Prince to be quit of their oath of allegiance The L. Cardinall holds the affirmatiue and makes no bones to maintaine that all other parts of the Catholique Church yea the French Church euen from the first birth of her Theologicall Schooles to Caluins time and teaching haue professed that such a Prince may bee lawfully remooued from his Throne by the Pope and by the Councill and suppose the contrarie doctrine were the very Quintessence or spirit of trewth yet might it not in case of faith be vrged and pressed otherwise then by way of problematicall disceptation That is the summe of his Lordships ample discourse The refuting whereof I am constrained to put off and referre vnto an other place because he hath serued vs with the same dishes ouer and ouer againe There we shall see the L. Cardinall maketh way to the dispatching of Kings after deposition that Saul was not deposed as he hath presumed that in the Councill of Constance there is nothing to the purpose of murthering Soueraigne Princes that his Lordship supposing the French King may be depriued of his Crowne by a superiour power doth not hold his liege Lord to be Soueraine in France that by the position of the French Church from aage to aage the Kings of France are not subiect vnto any censure of deposition by the Pope that his Holinesse hath no iust and lawfull pretence to produce that any Christian King holds of him by fealtie or is obliged to doe the Pope homage for his Crowne Well then for the purpose he dwelleth onely vpon the third point pretended questionable and this hee affirmeth If any shall condemne or wrappe vnder the solemne curse the abettours of the Popes power to vnking lawfull and Soueraigne Kings the same shall runne vpon foure dangerous rocks of apparent incongruities and absurdities First he shall offer to force and entangle the consciences of many deuout persons For he shall binde them to beleeue and sweare that doctrine Pag. 14. the contrary whereof is beleeued of the whole Church and hath bene beleeued by their Predecessors Secondly he shall ouerturne from top to bottome the sacred authoritie of holy Church and shall set open a gate vnto all sorts of heresie by allowing Lay-persons a bold libertie to be iudges in causes of Religion and Faith For what is that degree of boldnesse but open vsurping of the Priesthood what is it but putting of prophane hands vpon the Arke what is it but laying of vnholy fingers vpon the holy Censor for perfumes Thirdly hee shall make way to a Schisme not possible to bee put by and auoyded by any humane prouidence For this doctrine beeing held and professed by all other Catholiques how can we declare it repugnant vnto Gods word how can wee hold it impious how can wee account it detestable but wee shall renounce communion with the Head and other members of the Church yea we shall confesse the Church in all aages to haue bene the Synagogue of Satan and the spouse of the Deuill Lastly by working the establishment of this Article which worketh an establishment of Kings Crownes He shall
not onely worke the intended remedy for the danger of Kings out of all the vertue and efficacie thereof by weakening of doctrine out of all controuersie in packing it vp with a disputable question but likewise in stead of securing the life and estate of Kings he shall draw both into farre greater hazards by the traine or sequence of warres and other calamities which vsually waite and attend on Schismes The L. Cardinall spends his whole discourse in confirmation of these foure heads which wee now intend to sift in order and demonstratiuely to prooue that all the said inconueniences are meere nullities matters of imagination and built vpon false presuppositions But before wee come to the maine the reader is to be enformed and aduertised that his Lordship setteth a false glosse vpon the question and propounds the case not onely contrary to the trewth of the subiect in controuersie but also to the Popes owne minde and meaning For he restraines the Popes power to depose Kings onely to cases of Heresie Apostasie and persecuting of the Church whereas Popes extend their power to a further distance They depose Princes for infringing or in any sort diminishing the Priuiledges of Monasteries witnesse Gregorie the first in the pretended Charter granted to the Abbey of S. Medard at Soissons the said Charter beeing annexed to his Epistles in the rere The same hee testifieth in his Epistle to Senator by name the tenth of the eleuenth booke They depose for naturall dulnesse and lacke of capacitie wether in-bred and trew indeed or onely pretended and imagined witnesse the glorious vaunt of Gregory VII that Childeric King of France was hoysted out of his Throne by Pope Zachary Caus 15. Can. Alius Qu. 6. Not so much for his wicked life as for his vnablenesse to beare the weightie burden of so great a Kingdome They depose for collating of Benefices and Prebends witnesse the great quarrels and sore contentions betweene Pope Innocent III. and Iohn King of England as also betweene Philip the Faire and Boniface VIII They depose for adulteries and Matrimoniall suites witnes Philip I. for the repudiating or casting off his lawfull wife Bertha and marrying in her place with Bertrade wife to the Earle of Aniou Paul Aemil. in Phil. 3. Finally faine would I learne into what Heresie or degree of Apostasie either Henry IV. or Frederic Barbarossa or Frederic II. Emperours were fallen when they were smitten with Papall fulminations euen to the depriuation of their Imperiall Thrones What was it for Heresie or Apostasie that Pope Martin IV. bare so hard a hand against Peter King of Arragon that he acquitted and released the Aragonnois from their oath of Alleagiance to Peter their lawfull King Was it for Heresie or Apostasie for Arrianisme or Mahumetisme that Lewis XII so good a King and Father of his Countrey was put downe by Iulius the II Was it for Heresie or Apostasie that Sixtus V. vsurped a power against Henrie III. euen so farre as to denounce him vnkingd the issue whereof was the parricide of that good King and the most wofull desolation of a most flourishing Kingdome But his Lordship best liked to worke vpon that ground which to the outward shew and appearance is the most beautifull cause that can be alleaged for the dishonouring of Kings by the weapon of deposition making himselfe to beleeue that he acted the part of an Orator before personages not much acquainted with ancient and moderne histories and such as little vnderstood the state of the question then in hand It had therefore beene a good warrant for his Lordship to haue brought some authenticall instrument from the Pope whereby the French might haue beene secured that his Holinesse renounceth all other causes auouchable for the degrading of Kings and that he will henceforth rest in the case of Heresie for the turning of Kings out of their Free-hold as also that his Holinesse by the same or like instrument might haue certified his pleasure that hee will not hereafter make himselfe Iudge whether Kings bee tainted with damnable Heresie or free from Hereticall infection For that were to make himselfe both Iudge and Plaintiffe that it might be in his power to call that doctrine Hereticall which is pure Orthodoxe and all for this end to make himselfe master of the Kingdome and there to settle a Successour who receiuing the Crowne of the Popes free gift and grant might be tyed thereby to depend altogether vpon his Holinesse Hath not Pope Boniface VIII declared in his proud Letters all those to be Heretiques that dare vndertake to affirme the collating of Prebends appertemeth to the King It was that Popes grosse errour not in the fact but in the right The like crime forsooth was by Popes imputed to the vnhappy Emperour Henrie IV. And what was the issue of the said imputation The sonne is instigated thereby to rebell against his father and to impeach the interrement of his dead corps who neuer in his life had beate his braines to trouble the sweet waters of Theologicall fountaines Annal. Beio Lib. 3. Iâ—â—â—anen Episcop It is recorded by Auentine that Bishop Virgilius was declared Heretique for teaching the Position of Antipodes The Bull Exurge marching in the rere of the last Lateran Councel sets downe this Position for one of Luthers heresies A new life is the best repentance Optima poenitentia noua vita Conc. Constan Sess 2. Among the crimes which the Councel of Constance charged Pope Iohn XXIII withall one was this that hee denied the immortalitie of the soule and that so much was publiquely manifestly and notoriously knowen Now if the Pope shall be caried by the streame of these or the like errours and in his Hereticall prauitie shall depose a King of the contrary opinion I shall hardly bee perswaded the said King is lawfully deposed THE FIRST INCONVENIENCE EXAMINED THE first inconuenience growing in the Cardinall his conceit by entertaining the Article of the third Estate whereby the Kings of France are declared to be indeposeable by any superiour power spirituall or temporall is this It offereth force to the conscience vnder the penaltie of Anathema to condemne a doctrine beleeued and practised in the Church in the continuall current of the last eleuen hundred yeeres In these words he maketh a secret confession that in the first fiue hundred yeeres the same doctrine was neither apprehended by faith nor approoued by practise Wherein to my vnderstanding the L. Cardinall voluntarily giueth ouer the suite For the Church in the time of the Apostles their disciples and successors for 500. yeeres together was no more ignorant what authoritie the Church is to challenge ouer Emperours and Kings then at any time since in any succeeding aage in which as pride hath still flowed to the height of a full Sea so puritie of religion and manners hath kept for the most part at a lowe water marke Which point is the rather to be considered for that during the first
500. yeeres the Church groned vnder the heauy burthen both of heathen Emperours and of hereticall Kings the Visigot Kings in Spaine and the Vandals in Affrica Of whose displeasure the Pope had small reason or cause to stand in any feare beeing so remote from their dominions and no way vnder the lee of their Soueraigntie But let vs come to see what aide the L. Cardinall hath amassed and piled together out of latter histories prouided wee still beare in mind that our question is not of popular tumults nor of the rebellion of subiects making insurrections out of their owne discontented spirits and braine-sicke humors nor of lawfull Excommunications nor of Canonicall censures and reprehensions but onely of a iuridicall sentence of deposition pronounced by the Pope as armed with ordinary and lawfull power to depose against a Soueraigne Prince Now then Exampl 1. pag. 18 Enag hist Eccles lib. 3. cap. 32. The L. Cardinall sets on and giues the first charge with Anastasius the Emperour whom Euphemius Patriarke of Constantinople would neuer acknowledge for Emperour that is to say would neuer consent he should be created Emperour by the helpe of his voice or suffrage except he would first subscribe to the Chalcedon Creed notwithstanding the great Empresse and Senate sought by violent courses and practises to make him yeeld And when afterward the said Emperour contrary to his oath taken played the relaps by falling into his former heresie and became a persecutor he was first admonished and then excommunicated by Symmachus Bishop of Rome To this the L. Cardinall addes that when the said Emperour was minded to choppe the poison of his hereticall assertions into the publique formes of diuine seruice then the people of Constantinople made an vproare against Anastasius their Emperour and one of his Commanders by force of armes constrained him to call backe certaine Bishops whom he had sent into banishment before In this first example the L. Cardinall by his good leaue neither comes close to the question nor falutes it a farre off Euphemius was not Bishop of Rome Anastasius was not deposed by Euphemius the Patriarch onely made no way to the creating of Anastasius The suddaine commotion of the base multitude makes nothing the rebellion of a Greeke Commaunder makes lesse for the authorizing of the Pope to depose a Soueraigne Prince The Greeke Emperour was excommunicated by Pope Symmachus who knowes whether that be trew or forged For the Pope himselfe is the onely witnesse here produced by the L. Cardinall vpon the point and who knowes not how false how suppositious the writings and Epistles of the auncient Popes are iustly esteemmed But graunt it a trewth yet Anasta sius excommunicated by Pope Symmachus is not Anastasius deposed by Pope Symmachus And to make a full answere I say further that excommunication denounced by a forraine Bishop againsta party not beeing within the limits of his iurisdiction or one of his owne flocke was not any barre to the party from the communion of the Church but onely a kind of publication that he the said Bishop in his particular would hold no further communion with any such party For proofe whereof I produce the Canons of the Councils held at Carthage In one of the said Canons it is thus prouided and ordained * Nomecan Affric Can. 77. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any Bishop shall wilfully absent himselfe from the vsuall and accustomed Synodes let him not be admitted to the communion of other Churches but let him onely vse the benefit and libertie of his owne Church In an other of the same Canons thus * Can. 81. eiusd Nomo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a Bishop shall insinuate himselfe to make a conuciance of his Monasterie and the ordering thereof vnto a Monke of any other Cloister let him be cut off let him be separated from the communion with other Churches and content himselfe to liue in the communion of his owne flocke In the same sense Hilarius Bishop of Poictiers excommunicated Liberius Bishop of Rome for subscribing to the Arrian Confession Anathematibi à me Liberi Faber in frag Hilarij In the same sense Iohn Bishop of Antioch excommunicated Caelestine of Rome and Cyrill of Alexandria Bishops for proceeding to sentence against Nestorius without staying his comming to answere in his owne cause In the same sense likewise Victor Bishop of Rome did cut off all the Bishops of the East not from the communion of their owne flocks but from communion with Victor and the Romane Church What resemblance what agreement what proportion betweene this course of excommunication and that way of vniust fulmination which the Popes of Rome haue vsurped against Kings Examp. 2. but yet certaine long courses of time after that auncient course And this may stand for a full answere likewise to the example of Clotharius This ancient King of the French fearing the censures of Pope Agapetus erected the Territorie of Yuetor vnto the title of a Kingdome by way of satisfaction for murdering of Gualter Lord of Yuetot For this example the L. Cardinall hath ransackt records of 900. yeeres antiquitie and vpward in which times it were no hard piece of worke to shew that Popes would not haue any hand nor so much as a finger in the affaires and acts of the French Kings Gregorie of Tours that liued in the same aage hath recorded many acts of excesse and violent iniuries done against Bishops by their Kings and namely against Praetextatus Bishop of Roan for any of which iniurious prankes then played the Bishop of Rome durst not reprooue the said Kings with due remonstrance But see heere the words of Gregorie himselfe to King Chilperic If any of vs O King shall swarue from the path of Iustice him hast thou power to punish But in case thou shalt at any time transgresse the lines of equitie who shall once touch thee with reproofe To thee wee speake but are neuer heeded and regarded except it be thy pleasure and bee thou not pleased who shall challenge thy greatnesse but hee that iustly challengeth to bee Iustice it selfe The good Bishop notwithstanding these humble remonstrances was but roughly entreated and packt into exile being banished into the Isle of Guernsay But I am not minded to make any deepe search or inquisition into the titles of the Lords of Yuetot whose honourable priuiledges and titles are the most honourable badges and cognizances of their Ancestours and of some remarkeable seruice done to the Crowne of France so farre I take them to differ from a satisfaction for sinne And for the purpose I onely affirme that were the credit of this historie beyond all exception yet makes it nothing to the present question Wherein the power of deposing and not of excommunicating supreme Kings is debated And suppose the King by Charter granted the said priuiledges for feare of Excommunication how is it prooued thereby that Pope Agapetus had lawfull and ordinary power to depriue him of
vnking'd by deposition is not killing of a King For the present I haue one of that Iesuiticall Order in prison who hath face enough to speake this language of Ashdod and to maintaine this doctrine of the Iesuites Colledges The L. Cardinall harpes vpon the same string He can like subiection and obedience to the King whilest he sitteth King but his Holinesse must haue all power and giue order withall to hoyst him out of his Royall Seat I therefore now answer that in very deed the former passages of S. Paul and S. Peter should come nothing neere the question if the state of the question were such as he brings it made and forged in his owne shop But certes the state of the question is not whether a King may doe some acte by reason whereof hee may fall from his right or may not any longer be acknowledged for King For all our contention is concerning the Popes power to vn-authorize Princes wheras in the question framed and fitted by the L. Cardinal not a word of the Pope For were it granted and agreed on both sides that a King by election might fal from his Kingdom yet stil the knot of the question would hold whether he can be dispossessed of his Regal authoritie by any power in the Pope whether the Pope hath such fulnes of power to strip a King of those Royall robes rights and reuenewes of the Crowne which were neuer giuen him by the Pope as also by what authoritie of holy Scripture the Pope is able to beare out himselfe in this power and to make it good But here the L. Card. stoutly saith in his owne defence by way of reioinder Page 71. As one text hath Let euery soule be subiect vnto the higher powers in like maner an other text hath Obey your Prelates and be subiect vnto your Pastors for they watch ouer your soules as men that shall giue an accompt for your soules This reason is void of reason and makes against himselfe For may not Prelates be obeyed and honoured without Kings be deposed If Prelates preach the doctrine of the Cospell will they in the pulpit stirre vp subiects to rebell against Kings Moreouer whereas the vniuersall Church in these daies is diuided into so many discrepant parts that now Prelates neither doe nor can draw all one way is it not exceeding hard keeping our obedience towards God to honour them all at once with due obedience Nay is not here offered vnto me a dart out of the L. Cardinals armorie to cast at himselfe For as God chargeth all men with obedience to Kings and yet from that commaundement of God the L. Cardinall would not haue it inferred that Kings haue power to degrade Ecclesiasticall Prelates euen so God giueth charge to obey Prelates yet doeth it not follow from hence that Prelates haue power to depose Kings These two degrees of obedience agree well together and are each of them bounded with peculiar and proper limits But for so much as in this point we haue on our side the whole auncient Church which albeit she liued and groned for many aages together vnder heathen Emperours heretikes and persecuters did neuer so much as whisper a word about rebelling and falling from their Soueraigne Lords and was neuer by any mortall creature freed from the oath of allegiance to the Emperour the Cardinall is not vnwilling to graunt that ancient Chrisuans in those times were bound to performe such fidelity and allegiance for as much as the Church the Cardinall for shame durst not say the Pope then had not absolued them of their oath No doubt a pleasant dreame or a merry conceit rather to imagine the Bishop of Rome was armed with power to take away the Empire of the world from Nero or Claudius or Domitianus to whom it was not knowen whether the citie of Rome had any Bishop at all Is it not a master-iest of a straine most ridiculous to presuppose the Grand-masters and absolute Lords of the whole world had a sent so dull that they were not able to smell out and to nose things vnder their owne noses that they saw so little with other mens eies and their owne that within their capitall citie they could not spie that Soueraigne armed with ordinary and lawfull authority to degrade and to turne them out of their renowned Empire Doubtlesse the said Emperours vassals belike of the Popes Empire are to be held excused for not acknowledging and honouring the Pope in quality of their Lord as became his vassals because they did not know there was any such power in the world as after-times haue magnified and adored vnder the qualitie of Pope For the Bishops of Rome in those times were of no greater authoritie power and meanes then some of the Bishops are in these daies within my Kingdomes But certes those Popes of that primitiue aage thought it not expedient in the said times to draw their swords they exercised their power in a more mild and soft kind of carriage toward those miserable Emperours for three seuerall reasons alledged by the L. Cardinall The first because the Bishops then durst not by their censures whet and prouoke those Emperours for feare of plunging the Church in a Sea of persecutions But if I be not cleane voide of common sense this reason serueth to charge not onely the Bishops of Rome but all the auncient professors of Christ besides with deepe dissimulation and hypocrisie For it is all one as if he had professed that all their obedience to their Soueraignes was but counterfeit and extorted or wrong out of them by force that all the submissiue supplications of the auncient Fathers the assured testimonies and pledges of their allegiance humilitie and patience were but certaine formes of disguised speech proceeding not freely from the suggestions of fidelity but faintly and fainedly or at least from the strong twitches and violent conuulsions of feare Whereupon it followes that all their torments and punishments euen to the death are wrongfully honoured with the title and crowned with the crowne of Martyrdome because their patience proceeded not from their owne free choice and election but was taught by the force of necessitie as by compulsion and whereas they had not mutinously and rebelliously risen in armes to asswage the scorching heat and burning flames of tyrannicall persecuters it was not for want of will but for lacke of power Which false and forged imputation the Fathers haue cleared themselues of in their writings Tert. Apol. cap. 37. Hesterni sumus omnia restra impleuimus Tertullian in his Apologet All places are full of Christians the cities isles castles burroughs armies c. If we that are so infinite a power and multitude of men had broken from you into some remote nooke or corner of the world the cities no doubt had become naked and solitarie there had beene a dreadfull and horrible filence ouer the face of the whole Empire the great Emperours had beene driuen
other weapons of defence I neither can resist nor ought in any other maner to make resistance Iustinian the Emperour in his old aage fell into the heresie of the Aphthartodocites Against Iustinian though few they were that fauoured him in that heresie the Bishop of Rome neuer darted with violence any sentence of excommunication interdiction or deposition The Ostrogot Kings in Italie the Visigot in Spaine the Vandal in Africa were all addicted to the Arrian impietie and some of them cruelly persecuted the trew professours The Visigot and Vandall were no neighbours to Italie The Pope thereby had the lesse cause to feare the stings of those waspes if they had bene angred The Pope for all that neuer had the humour to wrestle or iustle with any of the said Kings in the cause of deposing them from their Thrones But especially the times when the Vandals in Affricke and the Goths in Italie by Belisarius and Narses professours of the Orthodoxe Faith were tyred with long warres and at last were vtterly defeated in bloody battels are to bee considered Then were the times or neuer for the Pope to vnsheath his weapons and to vncase his arrowes of deposition then were the times to draw them out of his quiuer and to shoot at all such Arrian heads then were the times by dispensations to release their subiects of their oathes by that peremptorie meanes to aide and strengthen the Catholique cause But in that aage the said weapons were not knowne to haue bene hammered in the Pontificall forge Gregorie the I. made his boasts that he was able to ruine the Lombards for many yeeres together sworne enemies to the Bishops of Rome their state present and the hope of all their future prosperitie But he telleth vs that by the feare of God before his eyes and in his heart he was bridled and restrained from any such intent as elsewhere we haue obserued In Apol. pro iuram fidel His owne words lib. 7. Epist. 1. If I would haue medled with practising and procuring the death of the Lombards the whole nation of the Lombards at this day had bene robbed of their Kings Dukes Earles they had bene reduced to the tearmes of extreame confusion He might at least haue deposed their King if the credit of the L. Cardinals iudgement be currant without polluting or stayning his owne conscience What can we tearme this assertion of the L. Cardinal but open charging the most ancient Bishops of Rome with crueltie when they would not succour the Church of CHRIST oppressed by tyrants whose oppression they had power to represse by deposing the oppressors Is it credible that IESVS CHRIST hath giuen a Commission to S. Peter and his successors for so many aages without any power to execute their Commission or to make any vse thereof by practise Is it credible that hee hath giuen them a sword to bee kept in the scabbard without drawing once in a thousand yeeres Is it credible that in the times when Popes were most deboshed abandoning themselues to all sorts of corrupt and vitious courses as is testified by their owne flatterers and best affected seruants is it credible that in those times they began to vnderstand the vertue strength of their Commission For if either feare or lacke of power was the cause of holding their hands and voluntarie binding of themselues to the Peace or good behauiour wherefore is not some one Pope at least produced who hath complained that he was hindered from executing the power that CHRIST had conferred vpon his Pontificall See Wherefore is not some one of the ancient and holy Fathers alledged by whom the Pope hath bene aduised and exhorted to take courage to stand vpon he vigor and sinewes of his Papall Office to vnsheath and vncase his bolts of thunder against vngodly Princes and grieuous enemies to the Church wherefore liuing vnder Christian and gracious Emperours haue they not made knowne the reasons why they were hindred from drawing the pretended sword lest long custome of not vsing the sword so many aages might make it so to rust in the scabbard that when there should be occasion to vse the said sword it could not be drawne at all and lest so long custome of not vsing the same should confirme prescription to their greater preiudice If weakenesse be a iust let how is it come to passe that Popes haue enterprised to depose Philip the Faire Lewis the XII and ELIZABETH my predecessor of happy memorie to let passe others in whom experience hath well proued how great inequalitie was betweene their strengths Yea for the most part from thence grow most grieuous troubles and warres which iustly recoile and light vpon his owne head as happened to Gregorie the VII and Boniface the VIII This no doubt is the reason wherefore the Pope neuer sets in for feare of such inconueniences to blast a King with lightning and thunder of deposition but when hee perceiues the troubled waters of the Kingdome by some strong faction setled in his Estate or when the King is confined and bordered by some Princemore potent who thirsteth after the prey and is euer gaping for some occasion to picke a quarrell The King standing in such estate is it not as easie for the Pope to pull him downe as it is for a man with one hand to thrust downe a tottering wall when the groundsill is rotten the studdes vnpind and nodding or bending towards the ground But if the King shall beare downe and breake the faction within the Realme if hee shall get withall the vpper hand of his enemies out of the Kingdome then the holy Father presents him with pardons neuer sued for neuer asked and in afathers indulgence forsooth giues him leaue still to hold the Kingdome that hee was not able by all his force to wrest and wring out of his hand no more then the club of Hercules out of his fist How many worthy Princes incensed by the Pope to conspire against Soueraigne Lords their Masters and by open rebellion to worke some change in their Estates haue miscarried in the action with losse of life or honour or both For example Rodulphus Duke of Sueuia was eg'd on by the Pope against Henry IIII. of that name Emperour How many massacres how many desolations of Cities and townes how many bloody battels ensued thereupon Let histories bee searched let iust accompts be taken and beside sieges layde to Cities it will appeare by trew computation that Henry the IIII. and Frederic the fist fought aboue threescore battels in defence of their owne right against enemies of the Empire stirred vp to armes by the Pope of Rome How much Christian blood was then spilt in these bloody battels it passeth mans wit penne or tongue to expresse And to giue a little touch vnto matters at home doeth not his Holinesse vnderstand right well the weakenesse of Papists in my Kingdome Doeth not his Holmesse neuerthesesse animate my Papists to rebellion and forbid my Papists to take
what purpose Onely to die vpon the points of the Saracens pikes or by the edge of their barbarous courtelasses battle-axes fauchions and other weapons without any benefit and aduantage to themselues or others Then the Nobles were driuen to sell their goodly Mannors and auncient demaines to the Church-men at vnder prises and low rates the very roote from which a great part of the Church and Church-mens reuenewes hath sprung and growne to so great height Then to be short See the Bull of Innoc. 3. at the end of the Lat. ter Conc. his most bountifull Holinesse gaue to any of the riffe-raffe-ranke that would vndertake this expedition into the Holy land a free and full pardon for all his sinnes besides a degree of glory aboue the vulgar in the Celestiall Paradise Military vertue I confesse is commendable and honourable prouided it bee employed for iustice and that generous noblenesse of valiant spirits bee not vnder a colour and shadow of piety fetcht ouer with some casts or deuises of Italian cunning Now let vs obserue the wisedome of the Lord Cardinall through this whole discourse His Lordship is pleased in his Oration to cite certaine few passages of Scripture culls and picks them out for the most gracefull in shewe leaues out of his list whole troupes of honourable witnesses vpon whose testimonie the Popes themselues and their principall adherents doe build his power to depose Kings and to giue order for all Temporall causes Take a sight of their best and most honourable witnesses Peter said to Christ See here two swords and Christ answered It is sufficient Christ said to Peter Put vp thy sword in to thy sheath God said to Ieremie Ier. 1. I haue established thee ouer Nations and Kingdomes 1. Cor. 2. Paul said to the Corinthians The spirituall man discerneth all things Christ said to his Apostles Whatsoeuer yee shall loose vpon earth by which words the Pope hath power forsooth to loose the oath of allegiance Moses said In the beginning God created the heauen and the earth Vpon these passages Pope Boniface 8. Extrauag Vnam Sanctam grapling and tugging with Philip the Faire doth build his Temporall power Other Popes and Papists auouch the like authorities Christ said of himselfe All things are giuen to me of my Father and all power is giuen vnto me in heauen and in earth The Deuils said If thou cast vs out send vs into this herd of swine Christ said to his Disciples Yee shall finde the colt of an asse bound loose it and bring it vnto me By these places the aduersaries prooue that Christ disposed of Temporall matters and inferre thereupon why not Christs Vicar as well as Christ himselfe The places and testimonies now following are very expresse Psal 45. In stead of thy fathers shall be thy children thou shalt make them Princes through all the earth Item Iesus Christ not onely commaunded Peter to feed his lambs but said also to Peter Arise kill and eat the pleasant glosse the rare inuention of the L. Ioh. 12. Cardinall Baronius Christ said to the people If I were lift vp from the earth I will draw all things vnto me who lets what hinders this place from fitting the Pope Paul said to the Corinthians Know ye not that we shall iudge the Angels how much more then the things that pertaine vnto this life A little after Haue not we power to eate These are the chiefe passages on which as vpon maine arches the roofe of Papall Monarchie concerning Temporall causes hath rested for three or foure aages past And yet his Lordship durst not repose any confidence in their firme standing to beare vp the said roofe of Temporall Monarchie for feare of making his auditors to burst with laughter A wise part without question if his Lordship had not defiled his lips before with a more ridiculous argument drawne from the leprosie and drie scab Let vs now by way of comparison behold Iesus Christ paying tribute vnto Caesar and the Pope making Caesar to pay him tribute Iesus Christ perswading the Iewes to pay tribute vnto an heathen Emperour and the Pope dispensing with subiects for their obedience to Christian Emperours Iesus Christrefusing to arbitrate a controuersie of inheritance partable betweene two priuate parties and the Pope thrusting in himselfe without warrant or Commission to bee absolute Iudge in the deposing of Kings Iesus Christ professing that his Kingdome is not of this world and the Pope establishing himselfe in a terrene Empire In like manner the Apostles forsaking all their goods to followe Christ and the Pope robbing Christians of their goods the Apostles persecuted by Pagan Emperours and the Pope now setting his foote on the very throate of Christian Emperours then proudly treading Imperiall Crownes vnder his feete By this comparison the L. Cardinals allegation of Scripture in fauour of his Master the Pope is but a kind of puppet-play to make Iesus Christ a mocking stocke rather then to satisfie his auditors with any sound precepts and wholefome instructions Hereof he seemeth to giue some inckling himselfe For after he hath beene plentifull in citing authorities of Scripture and of newe Doctors which make for the Popes power to depose Kings at last he comes in with a faire and open confession Pag. 85. that neither by diuine Oracles nor by honourable antiquitie this controuersie hath beene yet determined and so pulls downe in a word with one hand the frame of worke that he had built and set vp before with an other discouering withall the reluctation and priuie checkes of his owne conscience There yet remaineth one obiection the knot whereof the L. Cardinall in a maner sweateth to vntie His words be these Page 84. The champions for the negatiue flie to the analogie of other proceedings and practises in the Church They affirme that priuate persons masters or owners of goods and possessions among the common people are not depriued of their goods for Heresie and consequently that Princes much more should not for the same crime bee depriued of their estates For answere to this reason he brings in the defendants of deposition speaking after this maner In the Kingdome of France the strict execution of lawes decreed in Court against Heretikes is fauourably suspended and stopped for the preseruation of peace and publike tranquilitie He saith elsewhere Conniuence is vsed towards these Heretikes inregard of their multitude because a notable part of the French Nation and State is made all of Heretikes I suppose that out of speciall charitie he would haue those Heretikes of his owne making forewarned what courteous vse and entreaty they are to expect when he affirmeth that execution of the lawes is but suspended For indeed suspensions hold but for a time But in a cause of that nature and importance I dare promise my selfe that my most honoured brother the King of France will make vse of other counsell will rather seeke the amitie of his neighbour Princes and
trāsgressors of diuine humane lawes If the French king in the heart of his kingdom should nourish and foster such a nest of stinging hornets and busie wasps I meane such a pack of subiects denying his absolute Soueraignty as many Romane Catholiks of my Kingdome do mine It may wel be doubted whether the L. Cardinal would aduise his king stil to feather the nest of the said Catholiks stil to keep them warme stil to beare them with an easie and gentle hand It may wel be doubted whether his Lordship would extol their constancie that would haue the courage to sheath vp their swords in his Kings bowels or blow vp his King with gun-powder into the neather station of the lowest regiō It may wel be doubted whether he would indure that Orator who like as himselfe hath done should stir vp others to suffer Martyrdome after such examples and to imitate parricides traitors in their constancy The scope then of the L. Cardinall in striking the sweet strings and sounding the pleasant notes of praises which faine he would fil mine eares withal is only by his excellent skil in the musick of Oratory to bewitch the harts of my subiects to infatuate their minds to settle them in a resolution to depriue me of my life The reason Because the plotters and practisers against my life are honoured and rewarded with a glorious name of Martyrs their constancie what els is admired when they suffer death for treason Wheras hitherto during the time of my whole raigne to this day I speake it in the word of a King and trewth it selfe shall make good the Kings word no man hath lost his life no man hath indured the Racke no man hath suffered corporall punishment in other kinds meerely or simply or in any degree of respect for his conscience in matter of religion but for wicked conspiring against my life or Estate or Royall dignitie or els for some notorious crime or some obstinate and wilfull disobedience Of which traiterous and viperous brood I commanded one to be hanged by the necke of late in Scotland a Iesuite of intolerable impudencie who at his arraignment and publike triall stiffely maintained that I haue robbed the Pope of his right and haue no manner of right in the possession of my Kingdome His Lordship therefore in offering himselfe to Martyrdome after the rare example of Catholiks as he saith suffering all sort of punishment in my Kingdome doeth plainely professe himselfe a follower of traytors and parricides These be the Worthies these the heroicall spirits these the honourable Captaines and Coronels whose vertuous parts neuer sufficiently magnified and praysed his Lordshippe propoundeth for imitation to the French Bishops O the name of Martyrs in olde times a sacred name how is it now derided and scoffed how is it in these daies filthily prophaned O you the whole quire and holy company of Apostles who haue sealed the trewth with your dearest blood how much are you disparaged how vnfitly are you paragoned and matched when traytors bloody butchers and King-killers are made your assistants and of the same Quorum or to speake in milder tearmes when you are coupled with Martyrs that suffer for maintaining the Temporall rites of the Popes Empire with Bishops that offer themselues to a Problematicall Martyrdome for a point decided neither by the authorities of your Spirit-inspired pens nor by the auncient and venerable testimonie of the Primitiue Church for a point which they dare not vndertake to teach otherwise then by a doubtfull cold fearefull way of discourse and altogether without resolution In good sooth I take the Cardinall for a personage of a quicker spirit and clearer sight let his Lordship hold mee excused then to perswade my selfe that in these matters his tongue and his heart his pen and his inward iudgement haue any concord or correspondence one with another For beeing very much against his minde as hee doeth confesse thrust into the office of an Aduocate to pleade this cause he suffered himselfe to bee carried after his engagement with some heat to vtter some things against his conscience murmuring and grumbling the contrary within and to affirme some other things with confidence whereof hee had not beene otherwise informed then onely by vaine and lying report Of which ranke is that bold assertion of his Lordship That many Catholiks in England rather then they would subscribe to the oath of allegiance in the forme thereof haue vndergone all sorts of punishment For in England as we haue trewly giuen the whole Christian world to vnderstand in our Preface to the Apologie there is but one forme or kind of punishment ordained for all sorts of traytors Hath not his Lordship now graced me with goodly testimonialls of prayse and commendation Am I not by his prayses proclaimed a Tyrant as it were inebriated with blood of the Saints and a famous Enginer of torments for my Catholikes To this exhortation for the suffering of Martyrdome in imitation of my English traytors and parricides if wee shall adde how craftily and subtilly hee makes the Kings of England to hold of the Pope by fealty and their kingdome in bondage to the Pope by Temporall recognizance it shall easily appeare that his holy-water of prayses wherewith I am so reuerently besprinkled is a composition extracted out of a dram of hony and a pound of gall first steeped in a strong decoction of bitter wormewood or of the wild gourd called Coloquintida For after he hath in the beginning of his Oration Page 10. spoken of Kings that owe fealtie to the Pope and are not Soueraignes in the highest degree of Temporall supremacie within their Kingdomes to explaine his mind and meaning the better he marshals the Kings of England a little after in the same ranke His words be these When King Iohn of England not yet bound in any temporall recognizance to the Pope had expelled his Bishops c. His Lordship means that King Iohn became so bound to the Pope not long after And what may this meaning be but in plaine tearmes and broad speach to call me vsurper and vnlawfull King For the feudatarie or he that holdeth a Mannor by fealty when he doeth not his homage with all suit and seruice that he owes to the Lord Paramount doeth fall from the propertie of his fee. This reproach of the L. Cardinals is seconded with an other of Bellarmines his brother Cardinall That Ireland was giuen to the Kings of England by the Pope The best is that his most reuerend Lordship hath not shewed who it was that gaue Ireland to the Pope And touching Iohn King of England thus in briefe stands the whole matter Betweene Henry 2. and the Pope had passed sundry bickerments about collating of Ecclesiasticall dignities Iohn the sonne after his fathers death reneweth vndertaketh and pursueth the same quarrell Driueth certaine English Bishops out of the Kingdome for defending the Popes insolent vsurpation vpon his Royall prerogatiue and Regall rights
Sheweth such Princely courage and resolution in those times when all that stood and suffered for the Popes Temporall pretensions against Kings were enrowled Martyrs or Confessors The Pope takes the matter in fowle scorne and great indignation shuts the King by his excommunicatory Bulls out of the Church stirres vp his Barons for other causes the Kings heauy friends to rise in armes giues the Kingdome of England like a masterlesse man turned ouer to a new master to Philippus Augustus King of France bindes Philip to make a conquest of England by the sword or else no bargaine or else no gift promises Philip in recompence of his trauell and Royall expences in that conquest full absolution and a generall pardon at large for all his sinnes to bee short cuts King Iohn out so much worke and makes him keepe so many yrons in the fire for his worke that he had none other way none other meanes to pacifie the Popes high displeasure to correct or qualifie the malignitie of the Popes cholericke humour by whom he was then so entangled in the Popes toyles but by yeelding himselfe to become the Popes vassal and his Kingdome feudatary or to hold by fealty of the Papall See By this meanes his Crowne is made tributary all his people liable to payment of taxes by the poll for a certaine yeerely tribute and he is blessed with a pardon for all his sinnes Whether King Iohn was mooued to doe this dishonourable act vpon any deuotion or inflamed with any zeale of Religion or inforced by the vnresistable weapons of necessitie who can be so blind that he doeth not well see and clearely perceiue For to purchase his owne freedome from this bondage to the Pope what could he bee vnwilling to doe that was willing to bring his Kingdome vnder the yoake of Amirales Murmelinus a Mahumetan Prince then King of Granado and Barbaria The Pope after that sent a Legat into England The King now the Popes vassall and holding his Crowne of the Pope like a man that holds his land of another by Knights seruice or by homage and fealtie doeth faire homage for his Crowne to the Popes Legat and layeth downe at his feet a great masse of the purest gold in coyne The reuerend Legat in token of his Masters Soueraigntie with more then vsuall pride falls to kicking and spurning the treasure no doubt with a paire of most holy feet Not onely so but likewise at solemne feasts is easily entreated to take the Kings chaire of Estate Heere I would faine know the Lord Cardinals opinion whether these actions of the Pope were iust or vniust lawfull or vnlawfull according to right or against all right and reason If he will say against right it is then cleare that against right his Lordship hath made way to this example if according to right let him then make it knowen from whence or from whom this power was deriued and conueyed to the Pope whereby hee makes himselfe Souereigne Lord of Temporalties in that Kingdome where neither he nor any of his predecessours euer pretended any right or layd any claime to Temporall matters before Are such prankes to be played by the Pontificiall Bishop Is this an act of Holinesse to set a Kingdome on fire by the flaming brands of sedition to dismember and quarter a Kingdome with intestine warres onely to this end that a King once reduced to the lowest degree of miserie might be lifted by his Holinesse out of his Royall prerogatiue the very soule and life of his Royall Estate When began this Papall power In what aage began the Pope to practise this power What! haue the ancient Canons for the Scripture in this question beareth no pawme haue the Canons of the ancient Church imposed any such satisfaction vpon a sinner that of a Souereigne and free King he should become vassall to his ghostly Father that he should make himselfe together with all his people and subiects tributaries to a Bishop that shall rifle a whole Nation of their coine that shall receiue homage of a King and make a King his vassall What! Shall not a sinner be quitted of his faults except his Pastor turne robber and one that goeth about to get a booty except hee make his Pastour a Feoffee in his whole Estate and suffer himselfe vnder a shadow of penance to freeze naked to be turned out of all his goods and possessions of inheritance But be it granted admit his Holinesse robs one Prince of his rights and reuenewes to conferre the same vpon another were it not an high degree of tyrannie to finger another mans estate and to giue that away to a third which the second hath no right no lawfull authoritie to giue Well if the Pope then shall become his owne caruer in the rights of another if he shall make his owne coffers to swell with anothers reuenewes if he shall decke and aray his owne backe in the spoiles of a sinner with whom in absolution he maketh peace and taketh truce what can this be else but running into further degrees of wickednesse and mischiefe what can this be else but heaping of robbery vpon fraud and Impietie vpon robbery For by such deceitfull craftie and cunning practises the nature of the Pontificiall See meerely spirituall is changed into the Kings-bench-Court meerely temporall the Bishops chaire is changed into a Monarchs Throne And not onely so but besides the sinners repentance is changed into a snare or pit-fall of cousening deceit and S. Peters net is changed into a casting-net or a flew to fish for all the wealth of most flourishing Kingdomes Moreouer the King a hard case is driuen by such wiles and subtilties to worke impossibilities to acte more then is lawfull or within the compasse of his power to practise For the King neither may in right nor can by power trans-nature his Crowne impaire the Maiestie of his Kingdome or leaue his Royal dignitie lesse free to his heire apparant or next successor then he receiued the same of his predecessour Much lesse by any dishonourable capitulations by any vnworthy contracts degrade his posteritie bring his people vnder the grieuous burden of tributes and taxes to a forreine Prince Least of all make them tributary to a Priest vnto whom it no way apperteineth to haue any hand in the ciuill affaires of Kings or to distaine and vnhallow their Crownes And therefore when the Pope dispatched his Nuntio to Philippus Augustus requesting the King to auert Lewis his sonne from laying any claime to the Kingdome of England Philip answered the Legat as we haue it in Matth. Paris No King no Prince can alienate or giue away his Kingdom but by consent of his Barons bound by Knights seruice to defend the said Kingdome and in case the Pope shall stand for the contrary error his Holines shall giue to Kingdomes a most pernicious example By the same Author it is testified that King Iohn became odious to his subiects for such dishonourable and vnworthy
inthralling of his Crowne and Kingdome Therefore the Popes right pretended to the Crowne of England which is nothing else but a ridiculous vsurpation hath long agoe vanished into smoake and required not so much as the drawing of one sword to snatch and pull it by violence out of his hands For the Popes power lying altogether in a certaine wilde and wandring conceit or opinion of men and being onely an imaginary castle in the ayre built by pride and vnderpropped by superstition is very speedily dispersed vpon the first rising and appearing of the trewth in her glorious brightnesse There is none so very a dolt or block-head to deny that in case this right of the Pope ouer England is grounded vpon Gods word then his Holinesse may challenge the like right ouer all other Kingdomes because all other Kingdomes Crownes and Scepters are subiect alike to Gods word For what priuiledge what charter what euidence can France fetch out of the Rolles or any other treasurie of her monuments or records to shew that she oweth lesse subiection to God then England Or was this yoke of bondage then brought vpon the English Nation was it a prerogatiue whereby they might more easily come to the libertie of the sonnes of God Or were the people of England perswaded that for all their substance wealth and life bestowed on the Pope his Holinesse by way of exchange returned them better weight and measure of spirituall graces It is ridiculous onely to conceiue these toyes in thought and yet with such ridiculous with such toyes in conceit his Lordship feeds and entertains his auditors From this point hee falleth to another bowt and fling at his heretikes with whom he played no faire play before Pag. 105. There is not one Synode of ministers as he saith which would willingly subscribe to this Article whereunto wee should bee bound to sweare But herein his Lordship shooteth farre from the marke This Article is approoued and preached by the Ministers of my Kingdome It is likewise preached by those of France and if need bee I asssure my selfe will bee signed by all the Ministers of the French Church The L. Cardinall proceedeth for hee meaneth not so soone to giue ouer these heretikes All their Consistortes beleeue it as their Creed that if Catholike Princes at any time shall offer force vnto their conscience then they are dispensed withall for their oath of alleagiance Hence are these modifications and restricitions tossed so much in their mouthes Prouided the King force vs not in our conscience Hence are these exceptions in the profession of their faith Prouided the Soueraigne power and authoritie of God bee not in any sort violated or infringed I am not able to conceiue what engine can bee framed of these materialls for the bearing of Kings out of their eminent seates by any lawfull authoritie or power in the Pope For say those of the Religion should be tainted with some like errour how can that be any shelter of excuse for those of the Romish Church to vndermine or to digge vp the Thrones of their Kings But in this allegation of the L. Cardinall there is nothing at all which doeth not iumpe iust and accord to a haire with the Article of the third Estate and with obedience due to the King For they doe not professe that in case the King shall commaund them to doe any act contrarie to their conscience they would flie at his throat would make any attempt against his life would refuse to pay their taxations or to defend him in the warres They make no profession of deposing the King or discharging the people from the oath of allegiance tendred to the King which is the very point or issue of the matter in controuersie and the maine mischeife against which the third Estate hath bin most worthily carefull to prouide a wholesome remedie by this Article There is a world of difference betweene the termes of disobedience and of deposition It is one thing to disobey the Kings commaund in matters prohibited by diuine lawes and yet in all other matters to performe full subiection vnto the King It is another thing of a farre higher degree or straine of disloyaltie to bare the King of his Royall robes throne and scepter and when he is thus farre disgraced to degrade him and to put him from his degree and place of a King If the holy Father should charge the L. Cardinal to doe some act repugnant in his owne knowledge to the Law of God I will religiously and according to the rule of charitie presume that his Lordship in this case would stand out against his Holinesse and notwithstanding would still acknowledge him to be Pope His Lordship yet prosecutes and followes his former purpose Hence are those armes which they haue oftentimes borne against Kings when Kings practised to take away the libertie of their conscience and Religion Hence are those turbulent Commotions and seditions by them raised as well in the Low-countryes against the King of Spaine as in Swethland against the Catholike King of Polonia Besides he casteth Iunius Brutus Buchananus Barclaius and Gerson in our teeth To what end all this I see not how it can bee auaileable to authorize the deposing of Kings especially the Popes power to depose And yet his Lordship here doth outface by his leaue and beare downe the trewth For I could neuer yet learne by any good and trew intelligence that in France those of the Religion tooke armes at any time against their King In the first ciuill warres they stood onely vpon their guard they stood onely to their lawfull wards and locks of defence they armed not nor tooke the field before they were pursued with fire and sword burnt vp and slaughtred Besides Religion was neither the root nor the rynde of those intestine troubles The trew ground of the quarrell was this During the minority of King Francis II. the Protestants of France were a refuge and succour to the Princes of the blood when they were kept from the Kings presence and by the ouer powring power of their enemies were no better then plaine driuen and chased from the Court I meane the Grand-father of the King now raigning and the Grand-father of the Prince of Conde when they had no place of safe retreate In regard of which worthy and honourable seruice it may seeme the French King hath reason to haue the Protestants in his gracious remembrance With other commotion or insurrection the Protestants are not iustly to be charged But on the contrary certaine it is that King Henry III. raysed and sent forth seuerall armies against the Protestants to ruine and roote them out of the Kingdome howbeit so soone as they perceiued the said King was brought into dangerous tearms they ranne with great speed and speciall fidelitie to the Kings rescue and succour in the present danger Certaine it is that by their good seruice the said King was deliuered from a most extreame and imminent perill
of his life in the city of Tours Certaine it is they neuer abandoned that Henry 3. nor his next successor Henry 4. in all the heat of reuolts and rebellions raised in the greatest part of the Kingdome by the Pope and the more part of the Clergie but stood to the said Kings in all their battels to beare vp the Crowne then tottering and ready to fall Certaine it is that euen the heads and principalls of those by whom the late King deceased was pursued with all extremities at this day doe enioy the fruit of all the good seruices done to the King by the said Protestants And they are now disgraced kept vnder exposed to publike hatred What for kindling coales of questions and controuersies about Religion Forsooth not so but because if they might haue equall and indifferent dealing if credit might be giuen to their faithfull aduertisements the Crowne of their Kings should bee no longer pinned to the Popes flie-flap in France there should bee no French exempted from subiection to the French King causes of benefices or of matrimonie should bee no longer citable and summonable to the Romish Court and the Kingdome should bee no longer tributarie vnder the colour of annats the first fruits of Benefices after the remooue or death of the Incumbent and other like impositions But why doe I speake so much in the behalfe of the French Protestants The Lord Cardinall himselfe quittes them of this blame when he telleth vs this doctrine for the deposing of Kings by the Popes mace or verge had credit and authoritie through all France vntill Caluins time Doth not his Lordship vnder-hand confesse by these words that Kings had beene alwaies before Caluins time the more dishonoured and the worse serued Item that Protestants whom his Lordship calls heretikes by the light of holy Scripture made the world then and euer since to see the right of Kings oppressed so long before As for those of the Low Countries and the subiects of Swethland I haue little to say of their case because it is not within ordinary compasse and indeed serueth nothing to the purpose These Nations besides the cause of Religion doe stand vpon certaine reasons of State which I will not here take vpon me like a Iudge to determine or to sift Iunius Brutus Whom the Lord Cardinall obiecteth is an author vnknowne and perhaps of purpose patcht vp by some Romanist with a wyly deceit to draw the reformed Religion into hatred with Christian Princes Buchanan I reckon and ranke among Poets not among Diuines classicall or common If the man hath burst out here and there into some tearmes of excesse or speach of bad temper that must be imputed to the violence of his humour and heate of his spirit not in any wise to the rules and conclusions of trew Religion rightly by him conceiued before Barclaius alledged by the Cardinall meddles not with deposing of Kings but deals with disavowing them for Kings when they shal renounce the right of Royalty and of their owne accord giue ouer the Kingdome Now he that leaues it in the Kings choice either to hold or to giue ouer his Crowne leaues it not in the Popes power to take away the Kingdome Of Gerson obtruded by the Cardinal we haue spoken sufficiently before Where it hath beene shewed how Gerson is disguised masked and peruerted by his Lordship In briefe I take not vpon me to iustifie and make good all the sayings of particular authors We glory and well we may that our religion affordeth no rules of rebellion nor any dispensation to subiects for the oath of their allegiance and that none of our Churches giue entertainement vnto such monstrous and abhominable principles of disloyaltie If any of the French otherwise perswaded in former times Richcrius now hauing altered and changed his iudgement doth contend for the Soueraignty of Kings against Papall vsurpation He doubtles for winding himselfe out of the Laborinth of an error so intricate pernicious deserueth great honour and speciall praise He is worthy to hold a place of dignity aboue the L. Cardinall who hath quitted and betrayed his former iudgement which was holy and iust Their motions are contrary their markes are opposite The one reclineth from euill to good the other declineth from good to euill At last his Lordship commeth to the close of his Oration and bindes vp his whole harangue with a feate wreath of praises proper to his King He styles the King the eldest Sonne of the Church a young shoot of the lilly which King Salomon in all his Royaltie was not able to match He leades vs by the hand into the pleasant meadowes of Histories there to learne vpon the very first sight and view That so long so oft as the Kings of France embraced vnion and kept good tearmes of concord with Popes and the Apostolike See so long as the spouse of the Church was pastured and fed among the lillies all sorts of spirituall and temporall graces abundantly showred vpon their Crownes and vpon their people On the contrary when they made any rent or separation from the most holy See then the lillies were pricked and almost choaked with sharpe thornes they beganne to droope to stoope and to beare their beautifull heads downe to the very ground vnder the strong flawes and gusts of boystrous windes and tempests My answere to this flourishing close and vpshot shall be no lesse apert then apt It sauours not of good and faithfull seruice to smooth and stroake the Kings head with a soft hand of oyled speech and in the meane time to take away the Crowne from his head and to defile it with dirt But let vs try the cause by euidence of Historie yea by the voice and verdict of experience to see whether the glorious beauty of the French lillies hath beene at any time blasted and thereupon hath faded by starting aside and making separation from the holy See Vnder the raigne of King Philip the Faire France was blessed with peace and prosperity notwithstanding some outragious acts done against the Papall See and contumelious crying quittance by King Philip with the Pope Lewis 12. in ranged battell defeated the armies of Pope Iulius 2. and his Confederates proclaimed the said Pope to be fallen from the Popedome stamped certaine coynes and pieces of gold with a dishonourable mot euen to Rome it selfe Rome is Babylon yet so much was Lewis loued and honoured of his people that by a peculiar title he was called the Father of the Country Greater blessings of God greater outward peace and plenty greater inward peace with spirituall and celestiall treasures were neuer heaped vpon my Great Brittaine then haue beene since my Great Brittaine became Great in the greatest and chiefest respect of all to wit since my Great Brittaine hath shaken off the Popes yoke since she hath refused to receiue and to entertaine the Popes Legats employed to collect S. Peters tribute or Peter-pence since the Kings of England
Inheritance to his children at his pleasure yea euen disinherite the eldest vpon iust occasions and preferre the youngest according to his liking make them beggers or rich at his pleasure restraine or banish out of his presence as hee findes them giue cause of offence or restore them in fauour againe with the penitent sinner So may the King deale with his Subiects And lastly as for the head of the naturall body the head hath the power of directing all the members of the body to that vse which the iudgement in the head thinkes most conuenient It may apply sharpe cures or cut off corrupt members let blood in what proportion it thinkes fit and as the body may spare but yet is all this power ordeined by God Ad aedificationem non ad destructionem For although God haue power aswell of destruction as of creation or maintenance yet will it not agree with the wisedome of God to exercise his power in the destruction of nature and ouerturning the whole frame of things since his creatures were made that his glory might thereby be the better expressed So were hee a foolish father that would disinherite or destroy his children without a cause or leaue off the carefull education of them And it were an idle head that would in place of phisicke so poyson or phlebotomize the body as might breede a dangerous distemper or destruction thereof But now in these our times we are to distinguish betweene the state of Kings in their first originall and betweene the state of setled Kings and Monarches that doe at this time gouerne in ciuill Kingdomes For euen as God during the time of the olde Testament spake by Oracles and wrought by Miracles yet how soone it pleased him to setle a Church which was bought and redeemed by the blood of his onely Sonne Christ then was there a cessation of both Hee euer after gouerning his people and Church within the limits of his reueiledwill So in the first originall of Kings whereof some had their beginning by Conquest and some by election of the people their wills at that time serued for Law Yet how soone Kingdomes began to be setled in ciuilitie and policie then did Kings set downe their minds by Lawes which are properly made by the King onely but at the rogation of the people the Kings grant being obteined thereunto And so the King became to be Lex loquens after a sort binding himselfe by a double oath to the obseruation of the fundamentall Lawes of his kingdome Tacitly as by being a King and so bound to protect aswell the people as the Lawes of his Kingdome And Expresly by his oath at his Coronation So as euery iust King in a setled Kingdome is bound to obserue that paction made to his people by his Lawes in framing his gouernment agreeable thereunto according to that paction which God made with Noe after the deluge Hereafter Seed-time and Haruest Cold and Heate Summer and Winter and Day and Night shall not cease so long as the earth remaines And therefore a King gouerning in a setled Kingdome leaues to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant assoone as he leaues off to rule according to his Lawes In which case the Kings conscience may speake vnto him as the poore widow said to Philip of Macedon Either gouerne according to your Law Aut ne Rexsis And though no Christian man ought to allow any rebellion of people against their Prince yet doeth God neuer leaue Kings vnpunished when they transgresse these limits For in that same Psalme where God saith to Kings Vos Dij estis hee immediatly thereafter concludes But ye shall die like men The higher wee are placed the greater shall our fall be Vt casus sic dolor the taller the trees be the more in danger of the winde and the tempest beats sorest vpon the highest mountaines Therefore all Kings that are not tyrants or periured wil be glad to bound themselues within the limits of their Lawes and they that perswade them the contrary are vipers and pests both against them and the Common-wealth For it is a great difference betweene a Kings gouernment in a setled State and what Kings in their originall power might doe in Indiuiduo vago As for my part I thanke God I haue euer giuen good proofe that I neuer had intention to the contrary And I am sure to goe to my graue with that reputation and comfort that neuer King was in all his time more carefull to haue his Lawes duely obserued and himselfe to gouerne thereafter then I. I conclude then this point touching the power of Kings with this Axiome of Diuinitie That as to dispute what God may doe is Blasphemie but quid vult Deus that Diuines may lawfully and doe ordinarily dispute and discusse for to dispute A Posse ad Esse is both against Logicke and Diuinitie So is it sedition in Subiects to dispute what a King may do in the height of his power But iust Kings wil euer be willing to declare what they wil do if they wil not incurre the curse of God I wil not be content that my power be disputed vpon but I shall euer be willing to make the reason appeare of all my doings and rule my actions according to my Lawes The other branch of this incident is concerning the Common Law being conceiued by some that I contemned it and preferred the Ciuil Law thereunto As I haue already said Kings Actions euen in the secretest places are as the actions of those that are set vpon the Stages or on the tops of houses and I hope neuer to speake that in priuate which I shall not auow in publique and Print it if need be as I said in my BASILICON DORON For it is trew that within these few dayes I spake freely my minde touching the Common Law in my Priuie Chamber at the time of my dinner which is come to all your eares and the same was likewise related vnto you by my Treasurer and now I will againe repeate and confirme the same my selfe vnto you First as a King I haue least cause of any man to dislike the Common Law For no Law can bee more fauourable and aduantagious for a King and extendeth further his Prerogatiue then it doeth And for a King of England to despile the Common Law it is to neglect his owne Crowne It is trew that I doe greatly esteeme the Ciuill Law the profession thereof seruing more for generall learning and being most necessary for matters of Treatie with all forreine Nations And I thinke that if it should bee taken away it would make an entrie to Barbarisme in this Kingdome and would blemish the honour of England For it is in a maner LEX GENTIVM and maintaineth Intercourse with all forreme Nations but I onely allow it to haue course here according to those limits of Iurisdiction which the Common Law it selfe doeth allow it And therefore though it bee not fit for the
pinched with the Arguments of the Orthodoxe Church and had no power to resist The same also doeth more plainely appeare by an other little booke which he hath published intituled Theologicall positions which booke he hath made of purpose to blinde the world withall because they are indeed but the same Theses or Positions vpon which he hath disputed in his first wicked booke that beareth the title Of God and his Attributes For in the Theses themselues there is but little harme but in his disputations thereupon are couched all the horrible Heresies And therefore in this booke hath hee published onely his Theses which are iustifiable and left out his disputations vpon the Theses wherein all the poison is conteined It is moreouer somewhat suspicious in such a tainted person as he is that in an Appendix which hee hath placed at the end of his Theses he taketh occasion to name a number of Heretiques who are aduersaries to the doctrine of his Theses and those especially who haue erred concerning the Diuinitie Humanitie Person or Office of CHRIST as the Ebionites Cerinthians Arrians Praxians Sabellians Marcionites Manichees Docites Apollinarists Mennonites Swenkfeldians Nestorians Monothelites Eutychians Monophysites Iewes Millenaries Papists Amongst which rabble he doeth not once make mention of Paulus Samosatenus nor of Photinius who succeeded him as well in his Bishopricke as in his errour Yet neuerthelesse it is reported that Vorstius in his heart is not very farre from their erronious opinion Now in the Preface of this little booke hee hath taken vpon him very succinctly to make answere to fiue Articles which he confesseth were layd to his charge by which answere in our opinion hee discouers himselfe very plainely The first point is That hee was once accused as himselfe saith of the Samosatenian Heresie because he had sometime both written and receiued letters from diuers of that Sect which he confesseth he did indeed in his youth to this end that by that meanes hee might the more easily come by some of their bookes but that afterward hee did forbeare all correspondencie with them First of all then we would be glad to know why hee forgot the Heresie of Samosatenus in his Appendix where he names so many others and yet confesseth in the Preface of his said booke that he himselfe was accused of that errour Secondly to what end had hee in his youth so great traffique with these Heretiques was it to enable him the better to confute them We heare him not say so much as indeed it was neuer his end Surely this fellow would be an excellent cleanser of a Pest-house for he feares no infection Picem contrectare non timet he dares handle any pitch And yet for all that the Prouerbe is trew Qui ambulat in Sole colorabitur He that walketh in the Sun-shine shall bee Sun-burnt It followes then seeing his intention was not to arme himselfe against them that it must be of necessitie to make himselfe worthy of their Schoole the which hee almost confesseth in the last words of his Answere to that point where he saith thus Non enim quod multi solent alienis sensibus hîc fidendum putaui aut temerè quidquam in causa Fidei damnandum For I doe not thinke it fit as many others doe to relie in these cases vpon other mens constructions or rashly to condemne any thing which concernes matter of Faith To the second Article of his Accusation hee confesseth that hee gaue some of his Samosatenian bookes vnto his schollers Surely a goodly gift But the caution was prettie which he gaue withall vnto them when he deliuered them the bookes which was that they ought to reade them with iudgement not rashly reiecting the doctrine commonly receiued What an Epithite is heere for our holy Orthodoxe Faith to terme it no otherwise then the doctrine commonly receiued And as for his caution not rashly to forsake the old doctrine it is no more then the Turkes would giue vnto any Christian that should suddenly offer to become a Mahometist Nay what Christian did euer sollicite a Pagan or Heretique to bee conuerted but with this caution Who Would perswade a man to receiue the holy Sacrament rashly S. Paul commands euery man to examine himselfe diligently before hee come to that holy Table But on the other side an Orthodoxe Christian would in this case haue said to his schollers If you will reade these wicked bookes reade them with horrour and detestation and with an intent to arme your selues against such wiles and subtilties of Sathan and withall pray vnto GOD to keepe you constant in the holy Catholique and Orthodoxe Faith that these Heresies may haue no power once to mooue you trusting in his mercy and not in your owne strength To the third Article he confesseth that his schollers did publish bookes of the Socinian Heresie and his excuse is that it was without his knowledge But howsoeuer he condemnes them not for hauing done it onely this he saith That they declared vpon their oathes they did not fauour the Heresie To the fourth point he confesseth that about ten yeeres since he wrote a booke De Filiatione Christi for which Title onely an Authour so suspected as he is worthy of the fagot and all his excuse is That he wrote an Epitome vpon Bellarmine Wee doubt not but hee did it for his recreation Forsooth a prety conceit Yet it appeares not by his wordes that he detests the subiect of that Booke but saith That no man can thereby coniecture what his opinion is of that argument no more then they can vpon his Epitome of Bellarmine which was likewise his worke For to condemne it had beene contrary to that which hee auowed in his other booke neuer to repent himselfe of any thing that he hath once written as already we haue obserued As for the fift and last point he will neither confesse nor deny the accusation onely hee saith That a certaine booke intituled Dominicus Lopez which is as we haue heard a very blasphemous Treatise was suppressed by him pacis ergò for peace sake but he is so farre from condemning it as that he alleadgeth the booke hath bene maintained by others which in time shall appeare Two things are here to bee obserued First that hee suppressed it pacis ergò for quietnesse sake Not therefore for the wickednesse of the subiect The next that in his due time the trewth thereof shall appeare In which last point onely we will willingly ioyne with him beseeching our good GOD for his CHRISTS sake that hee will bee pleased to discouer the trewth of this mans intentions as well for his owne Glory as to purge the scandall and to auoyd the danger which may ensue vnto Christendome by the darnell of Heresies which he hath sowne It is therefore to bee noted That to all these fiue Articles his answeres are so silly and weake as in three of them we haue found him planè confitentem reum plainely pleading guiltie