but that you may perceive the sin whereof it is the off-spring that you may draw your self from the one and from the other by the knowledge which he gives you of the horrour you should have for the Cause by the grief you resent by its Effect You shall see it Sir clearly enough by the consequents of the Maxims upon which the Authors of the Reformation which your Fathers embraced have laid their Foundations The Foundations of the Reformation of Calvin are laid upon these two Maxims which he and all those which have forsook the Church as himself hath delivered as indubitable to the People which have followed him The first is That the Church was fallen into ruine and desolation by Errour in its Faith by Idolatry in its Service and by Tyrannie in its Government The second That to reform and re-establish it â—…n its Original Purity the Faith of its Doctrine of its Service and of its Government was to be reduced to the onely precepts of the Scripture ' of the sense whereof every Believer ought to be Judge for his own proper salvation by the light of the Holy Ghost which conducts him They saw that if they did not suppose these Maxims for the causes of their Reformation they could not pretend any which might oblige them to forsake the Church which they had a mind to leave that they might frame a Contrary Party and make war against her For they could not deny the Church from which they separated the Title of the True Church but in accusing of it as they have done of Errour Idolatry and of Tyrannie And if we suppose this accusation for true they could not bring in the necessity of a Separation to make their Reformation but in excluding the Authority of Tradition and the Judgement of the Church and by reducing the rule of the Reformation to the Scripture it self interpreted by every mans Judgeâ—…ent Your Majestie Sir shall now see that of those Maxims which the Bishops of your Realm already become Schismaticks receiv'd for the causes of the Reformation which they admitted there was first of all Formed the Sect of Puritan-Presbyterians against the Protestant-Episcopalians who could not subsist against them upon the Foundation of these Maxims And that at length the Brownists the more Reformed Puritans did raise themselves upon the same Foundations who have since begot the Independents for the ruine of the Presbyterians by the same reasons by which the others had ruined the Protestants and Episcopacy and with Episcopacy Royalty it self In such sort that all this dreadful disorder which makes your Kingdoms to be a Chaos of lamentable disorder in which your authority finds it self put out comes from these Principles of Reformation which are the natural source thereof That this is so your Majestie Sir may clearly perceive it When the Bishops consented to these Principles of Reformation they abandoned by them the Faith of the Catholick Church concerning the Sacrifice of the Mass concerning Transubstantiation in the holy Eucharist concerning the number and vertue of the seven Sacraments concerning Justification real and inherent in the faithful and of their Merits and the Invocation of Saints concerning Prayer for the Dead and of Purgatory concerning the Authority of the Pope and of the adhering of all the Faithful to the See of St. Peter at Rome But they retain nevertheless the Episcopal Dignity and Authority with a part of the Liturgie and Ceremonies of the Catholick Church But the Puritan-Presbyterians have cast away all Form of Hierarchy and community of the Liturgie and Ceremonies with the Church of Rome as pernicious remainders of the Papal Tyrannie and Idolatry as they call them That they might oppose both Parties according to the first Maxim of their Reformation they brought in a Form of Government altogether novel and composed a Form of Service altogether new Upon which they have had so much advantage against the Protestants in combating them with the reasons of their common Principles and in stirring up the People heated with the zeal of Reformation that it was impossible for them to subsist if the Puritans could but once be supported by the Authority of Parliament against the Authority of the King who onely did support the Protestant Cause not by arguing but by command For Controversy by their Principles was all for the Puritans against the Protestants Could they without Tradition and by the holy Scripture alone interpreted by the judgement of every one find Episcopal Dignity and its Authority with distinction and superiority of power above the other Pastors and Ministers They could certainly without doubt by the Authority of the holy Scripture assisted by Tradition which declares the lawful sense But in doing this the victory which it gives them obligeth them to consent likewise to the Authority and Primacy of the Pope for the Government of the Universal Church as founded in the Primacy St. Peter receiv'd in the College of the Apostles as well for the Form of the Government of the Universal Church as of every particular Church from whence every Bishop derives his Authority Then thus it must be either that the Protestants abandon Episcopacy as a seed of Tyrannie and become Presbyterians or in retaining it to enter again into the Communion of the Pope and Bishops who adhere to him Though there be no need to speak here that their sole Division makes it impossible for them to subsist by the reason which the great Bishop and Martyr St. Cyprian represents to all Bishops in declaring the obligation they have strongly to retain the Unity of the Church by the not to be divided Unity of Episcopacy whereof every one doth solidly possess his share Upon which he admonisheth them that if any one goes to separate himself it shall happen unto him as to a Beam drawn from the body of the Sun which shall have no more part through its division in the unity of the light which continues in the body As to a Bough broken from the Tree which shall spring no more having no more share in the sap which remains in the body and in the root of the Tree Even like a Rivolet cut off from the Fountain which will dry up having no more to do with the course of the water which runs from the Spring This is that also Sir which your Bishops cannot avoyd It must be that being separated from the Mother-Church they should be extinguished and should vanish away as it s come to pass It must be that their very pain â—…as the proper work of the cause of â—…hier errour That their Reformation made them lose their Form But if the Puritans have had this advantage upon the Protestants by the Common Principles of their Reformation that which the same Principles have given the Brownists to withdraw themselves from the Puritans of the Genevian Discipline in the more exact purity which their spirit Interpreter of the sense of the Scripture suggests unto them is yet more great Behold
uncertain or fallible rule the more dangerous is the error So our right foundation purgeth away our error in superstruction And your wrong foundation lessens the value of your truths and doubles the guilt of your errors I will by your leave requite your demonstration and turn the mouths of your own Canoâ—…s against your self That Church which hath changed the Apostolical Creed the Apostolical Succession the Apostolical Regiment and the Apostolical Communion is no Apostolical Orthodox or Catholick Church But the Church of Rome hath changed the Apostolical Creed the Apostolical Succession the Apostolical Regiment and the Apostolical Communion Therefore the Church of Rome is no Apostolical Orthodox or Catholick Church They have changed the Apostolical Creed by making a new Creed wherein are many things inserted that hold no Analogie with the old Apostles Creed The Apostolical Succession by ingrossing the whole succession to Rome and making all other Bishops to be but the Popes Vicars and Substitutes as to their Jurisdiction The Apostolical Regiment by erecting a visible and Universal Monarchy in the Church And lastly the Apostolical Communion by excommunicating three parts of the holy Catholick Apostolick Church Again That Church which resolves its Faith not into divine Revelation and Authority but into Humane infallibility or the Infallibilitie of the present Church without knowing or according what that present Church is whether the Virtual or the representative or the essential Church or a body compounded of some of these hath no true faith But the Church of Rome resolves its Faith not into divine Revelation and Authority but into the Infallibility of the present Church not knowing or not according what that present Church is whether the Virtual Church that is the Pope or the Representative Church that is a general Council or the Essential Church that is the Church of Bâ—…lievers diffused over the world or a body compounded of some of these that is the Pope and a General or Provincial Council Therefore the Church of Rome hath not true faith The greater number of your Writers is for the Pope that this infallibility is fixed to his Chair But of all other Judgements that is most fallible and uncertain for if Simony make a Nullity in a Papal Election we have great reason to doubt that that Chà ir hath not been filled by a right Pope these last hundred years These are no other but your own Mediums Such luck you have with your irrefragable demonstrations In case his Majesty will turn Roman Catholick you promise him restitution to his Kingdoms Great undertakers are seldom good performers when you are making your Proselytes you promise them golden Mountains but when the work is done you deal with them as he did with his Saint who promised a Candle as big as his Mast and offered one no bigger than his finger Do you however think it reason that any man should change his Religion for temporal respects though it were for a Kingdom Jeroboam did so you may remember what was the success of it You propose this as the readiest means to restore him Others who penetrate deeper into the true state of his affairs look upon it as the readiest way to ruin his hopes by the alienation of his friends by the confirmation of his foes and in some sort the justification of their former feigned fears Do you think all Roman Catholick Princes desire this change as earnestly as your self Give them leave first to consult with their particular Interests A common Interest prevails more with Confederates than a common faith The Sword distinguâ—…sheth not between Protestants and Papists But what is the ground of this your great Confidence no less than Scripture Seek ye first the kingdom of God and the righteousness of it and all other things shall be added unto you You say the word of God deceives no man True but you may deteive your self out of the word of God The Conclusion alwaies follows the weaker part such as this are commonly your mistaken grounds when they come to be examined The text saith Seek the kingdom of God You would have his Majesty deseâ—…t the kingdom of God The promise is of all things necessary or convenient you will be your own Carver and oblige God Almighty to Kingdoms and particular conditions The promise is made as all tempral promises are with an implicite exception of the Cross unâ—…ess God see it to be otherwise more expedient for us He that denies us gold and gives us patience and other graces more precious than Gold that denies a temporal Kingdom to give an eternal doth not wrong us Tâ—…s was out of your head That the Scots had an antienter Obligation to fidelity towards his Majesty and that Royal Family than the English is a truth not to be doubted or disputed of I think I may safely adde than any Nation in Europe or in tâ—…e known world to their Prince his Majesty being the hundred and tenth Monarch of that line that hath swayed the Scepter of that Kingdom successively The more the pitty that a few treacherous Shebas and a pack of bawling seditious Orators under the vizard and shadow of pure Religion to the extreme scandal of all honest professors should be able to overturn such an antient fabrick and radicated succession of Kingly Government But take heed Sir how you beleeve that any ingagement of the Presbyterian faction in Scotland proceeded either from conscience or gratitude or fidelity or aimed at the resetling of his Majesty upon his throne No no their hearts were double their treaties on their parts were meer treacheries from the beginning I mean not any of those many loyal patriots that never bowed their knees to Baal-berith the God of the Covenant in that Nation Nor yet any of those serious converts that no sooner discoveâ—…ed the leger de main of a company of canting impostors but they sought to stop the stream of Schism and sedition with the hazard of their own lives and estates Nor even those whose eyes were longer held with the Spirit of slumber by some stronger spels of disciplinarian charmers but did yet later open their eyes and come in to do their duties at the sixth or ninth hour All these are expunged by me out of this black Roll. Let their posterities enjoy the fruit of their respective loyalties And let their memories be daily more and more blessed But I mean the obstinate Ring-leaders and Standard-bearers of the Presbyterian Covenant of both robes and the setters up of that mishapen Idol It is from these I say that no help or hope could in reason be expected They who sold the Father and such a Father were not likely to proove loyal to the Son They who hanged up one of the most antient Gentlemen in Europe the gallant Marquâ—…ss of Montrose being then their lawful Vice-roy like a dog in such base and barbarous manner together with his Maâ—…esties Commission to the publike dishonour of
THE VICTORY OF TRUTH FOR The Peace of the CHURCH To the King of GREAT BRITAIN To invite him to embrace the Roman-Catholick Faith By Monsieur De la Militiere Counsellour in Ordinary to the King of France With an Answer thereunto Written by the Right Reverend John Bramhall D. D. and Lord Bishop of London-Derry Printed at the Hague 1653. To the King of Great Britain to invite his Majestie to embrace the Catholick Faith SIR THE Wisedome of Gods Counsels is far above the prudence of men who are altogether void of the knowledge of his grace One sort who know neither God nor his providence look upon all the events of humane life as if they happened by chance They imagine that that which we call good luck or ill luck hath no other cause than hazard and that which every mans prudence or imprudence brings to the conduct of his life Others who acknowledge a Divine providence but onely after the manner that God hath manifested it to the world by the instructions and judgements of his Law think that all the goods which heap prosperities upon them are the effects and testimonies of the favour where with God cherisheth those that are his And that the Ils that oppress mans life with miseries are arguments of the anger and hatred of God upon those he handles after that manner But Christians to whom God hath revealed by the Gospel the counsel of his mercy in Jesus Christ know that in his Cross on which for satisfying the Justice of of the Law he hath bore the pain of our sinnes he hath changed for those he calls to his Communion the use of Afflictions And that he imployes them first to humble them and acknowledge their sin that they may desire deliverance to the end they may come by this way to the Faith of his grace which doth deliver them And when they are entred into Communion with him by faith and that the exercise of the same afflictions accomplisheth in them the work of his grace in giving them by his consolation in their patience the hope of the glorious happiness which he hath promis'd them and which carries over all their affections to the loving of him Those therefore that have this faith and this hope are of a judgement far differing from the opinion of men of the world upon the event of Goods and Evils which accompany mans life Considering Sir the present fortune of your serene Majestie far removed from the Majestick condition of your Birth I humble my self with you in the sight of the powerful hand of God who is the onely Judge and onely Master of Monarchs to ascend by the steps whereto the Gospel addresses us even into the counsel of his infinite mercy And I find there that the disaster of this great calamity which environs you is a work of the wisdome of the King of Kings who will shew in you whom he hath honoured with his Unction and his Image an admirable effect of his grace and of his power I say Sir that under the Cloak of so many sad adventures which try you by revolutions so strange that all the Universe doth tremble the King of Heaven and of the Earth who hath humbled himself for you infinitely more low than you are draweth himself near unto you He comes to take you by the hand not onely to reâ—…stablish you in your Throne but to make you sit in his that you may reign with him eternally after you have imployed the Scepter which he shall put again into your hand to re-establish his Kingdome among your people It is very easy for me Sir to give you a reason of this judgement I make of thaâ—… of God upon your sacred Person and to explicate unto you not onely the causes and effects of the ill which is come upon you but also the way the use and the success of the remedy which the hand of God will give you to accomplish in you this work of his mercy If we seek the Cause for which we behold that the hand of God hath made it self so grievously heavy upon the sacred head of the King your Father and which pursues yet after him your Royal Person with so many sinister accidents which hath caused this great desolation to come upon all your Kingdomes this confusion and this subversion of their peace and former prosperity this change into which they are so blindly precipitated to part with the form of Government that God had established amongst them under which they had lived so happily for so many Ages past to become slaves of the yoke which the armed hand of a Tyrant hath put upon their head under the false name of Liberty it will be very easy for us to find the Cause and to acknowledge it by the Effects You are not ignorant Sir and all the world knows it with you that the subject for which this Paricidal Parliament hath so cruelly persecuted the King your Father hath been the Ecclesiastical Government of which they desired to change the form by abolishing Episcopacy and suppressing the Liturgie and the Ceremonies by which the Protestants of your Kingdome had yet retained some image of the Catholick Church Those which they call Puritans and Presbyterians who would live under the form of the Genevian Discipline could not endure the form of that Antient Order which the Royal Authority had retained as instituted by Divine Authority and for this very thing necessary for its conformity to preserve in Christian Estates the form of a Monarchical Government From thence it is come that the Puritan and Presbyterian Faction hath conceiv'd and alwaies kept in its breast an implacable hatred against Monarchical Government by reason of their aversion from the Episcopal That which the prudence of King James your Majesties Grandfather Sir having judiciously taken notice of did as wisely inform his posterity by an express Book to take heed of it And this King knowing Church as well as State matters foreseeing the inconvenience that might arise expressing from his mouth that which touched him at the heart had this familiar speech No Bishop no King which is become a lamentable Prophesie under his Successour But O good God! what Successour Such an one certainly that had neither cause nor pretext capable to stir up the hatred of Subjects against a King so merciful so just and so loyal so amiable to his People so venerable to his Neighbours that upon this onely prejudication wherein the Puritan Faction had instructed them in making them believe that under that Form of Government and Antient Service the King and the Bishops had an intention to re-establish in the Realm the Catholick Religion This is the poyson which the Puritan Faction hath blown into the hearts of the People to fill them with hatred against a King so love-worthy And this Republican Parliament endeavouring to erect it self in a Sovereign Authority by annihilating that of the King hath not thought any occasion more favourable to
how they combat the one party against the other and the victory of the last The Puritans of the Genevian Discipline have determined of Articles of Faith and have form'd their Confession to which they oblige all those that receive their Communion But this Law which prescribes by Authority a common belief among all the Communicants cannot agree with the judgement â—…at every Believer can and ought to make of the sense of the Scriptures by the assistance of the Holy Ghost according to the second common Maxim of their Reformation For if one supposes it true no other Authority can bear rule over the Conscience nor prescribe it any thing beyond the sense that the Spirit suggests to it in the interpreting of the Scripture Upon which the Brownists also set upon the Presbyterians by all the same Authorities upon which they have founded theirs to separate themselves from the Church and abandon its determinations They maintain That to oblige the Faith of faithful men to a formular confession which can have no other than an humane authority is to bring them forthwith under the Papal Tyrannie from which the Holy Ghost hath freed them Against this the Calvinists have no reply which doth not wound themselves with their own hands and which is not their condemnation pronounced by themselves For they can answer nothing pertinently if they do not borrow the reasons the Church hath against them So God perpetual Protector of his Church causes her Enemies to pronounce her Victory with their own mouths whilst that they issued from the teeth and the mouth of the Serpent to make war with her do wage it among themselves and kill one another From these Brownists as your Majestie Sir knows much better are come the Independents which are not risen but since the advantage the Puritan-Presbyterians had upon the Protestants by the Authority of the Parliamentiers It is those that have produced this false-prophet of blood and slaughter to end this last Act of Infernal Reformation that he himself preaches to his Musulmans with his Sword in his hand after he hath broke the Cross and changed the Episcopal Crosier into a Murtherer's Axe By this same spirit of the Brownists in which he hath been originally instructed by using Disputes he deduces Fundamental Maxims of the common Reformation among them he wars against the Presbyterians with much more advantage than he did against the Protestants From whence he promises himself to make them all submit to his opinion which is an indifference of all opinion of Religion Which shall fall out without doubt according to his own mind if they will follow the Consequences of their own Maxims For the reason of which he gives liberty to every man to believe and prophesie that which they think the Spirit suggests to them But he thinks in making these People separated from the Church taste the Liberty of Conscience he shall rally all their different Sects into one Body to set them against the Body of the Catholick Church to the end he may destroy the Pope and the Bishops that conduct her and may exterminate the Kings that defend her He calls that the great work of God He assures the success to all them that follow him by the revelations which he makes them believe he had at his Fasts his Prayers and his reading the holy Scriptures But it is no marvel he can assemble such a number of Followers by the arguing of their Maxims For since they had already produced these different bodies of reform'd Battalions and reforming even to infinity Protestants Presbyterians and Brownists who in a perpetual war cannot agree among themselves He comes further as more fit to serve himself of their Maxims to put them to the Ho there by the indifference and by abolishing all Lawes that rule upon the Conscience and leaving every mans thoughts free and the liberty to prophesie and interpret the Scriptures according to the sense his spirit dictates to him For as to the remainder he troubles not himself to see by this spirit the prodigious number of Sects and Insects to swarm about who daily vomit for more monstrous opinions than caâ—… come from the bottomless pit For lâ—… there be what difference there will among them they all agree in his indifferency By this Catastrophe of the Reformation undertaken by those that havâ—… divided the Church in these latter Ages you see Sir what hath been both thâ—… Design and Genius This is not I thaâ—… represent the truth of it to you God hath set it before your eyes or I may rather say in your heart written in Characters which shall never be blotted out And to write them with his own hand he himself is descended from Heaven environed with the fire and thunder of his anger which appears enlightned upon you But from the middle thereof you hear the voyce of his mercy recalling you to him and declaring to you that all this he hath done to let you know the sins of your Fathers by drawing you out of them that he may call you back into his Church where all benediction shall be given you For true Piety and Religion whereof she hath been made the Guardian finds there as the Apostle speaks the promises of present life and of that which is to come And your Faith which God will work in you by the vertue of the Cross in the present affliction wherein you are submitting all your desires to the Wisdome of his Counsel and power of his strength shall meet there the comfort of your patience conformable to the hope you shall put in him You will say then Sir when you consider your self and the work that God shall have wrought in you That the Wisdome of the Judgements of God is without bottome That the Knowledge thereof is very difficult That it is impossible to find it out if he himself doth not manifest it He will manifest it to you Sir and you may see it if you consider the great abyss that was between you and God how far you were drawn from him before he came to you after thiâ—… manner and drew himself near to you that he might draw you to him When the King your Father had the Crown upon his Head and was sitting upon his Throne in the middle of his flourishing Kingdomes in the abundance of all prosperity and glory And that you Heir to this Majestie and Royal Pomp bred up your spirit among these mundane delights of the desire and hope of adding to the lustre of your Grandfathers the splendor of your brave Actions wherewith your politick and military virtues should adorn your life and the Historie of your Reign What 's this then when all the reasons of State as well as those wherewith your Conscience had been onely instructed would have kept you engaged in this new Religion the errour whereof you have suckt in with the milk of your infancy your eyes and your ears should have been capable of seeing and hearing the
which the Holy Spirit hath caused Piety and Charity to spring flourish and fructifie in Believers From whence it follows by the same reason that the true and lawful Reformation which all good men of the Church desire in the Church doth depend no otherwise than upon the understanding and practice of these same Truths by the duty to which they address all Believers in the different vocations whereto God calls them In all which the end which is proposed them is no other than to live united among them and with Jesus Christ by the grace of the Holy Ghost to serve God under the obedience of the Government which he hath put into the hands of the Bishops which feed the Flock with an unanimous consent under the Authority of the espeâ—…ial Chair of St. Peter established at Rome by two Principals of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul from which whosoever separates himself is a Schismatick and out of the Communion of the Church Upon this Sir I am imboldened to speak for this last time to your Majestie that as you may if you will by the way which I propose to you lay the Foundation of this work by your Conversion and entrance into the Catholick Church You will find also that the success shall be in the hand of God the indubitable way of re-establishing you in your Throne Certainly all will agree with me that this work is upon such conditions that if it had receiv'd its accomplishment in Paris with the Ministers and People separated from the Church there 's no place in all France wherein they would refuse to do the like And if once the love of the Peace and re-union of the Church had thus gained the heart of our separated Brethren which are in this Kingdome acknowledging in this manner that the onely safe and necessary Reformation ought to be this which by the truth of the definitions of the Faith of the Church in her Doctrine in her Service and in her Government shall re-establish a Christian life among Christians the other People and Pastors and the Pastors for the love and by the very motion of the People which are in the same Communion in other parts of Europe will without doubt do the same thing Think you Sir that if your Subjects of Scotland and those which are in England and Ireland faithful and affectionate to your Crown and Person seeing the success of this project hapned in France to which your Conversion shall have given the beginning and motion they will resist the call of the same grace and that they can be able to find in their hearts in their mouths and in their hands either reason or means for to hinder themselves to follow that which all those of their Communion shall have done here And after this will you doubt that the blessing of God who is never wanting to his promises will not accomplish in you fully that which he hath promised to those that believe in him by the mouth of his own Son when he tels them Search the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and all things shall be added unto you Will you doubt that in thus searching of his Kingdome you shall not find also your own And that Heaven will not likewise render unto you upon the Earth this temporal recompence for a token of that you shall have sought and which you shall receive in Heaven for eternity Yes Sir the Word of God deceives no man it is more firm and immovable than the Heaven and the Earth for the one and the other shall vanish away but one sole Iota of the Word uttered from the mouth of the Son of God shall not pass away When I tell you these things founded upon the Truth which he hath spoken unto us believe that this is he himself that addresses them to you by my mouth It is he himself that calls you It is he himself that stretcheth forth his hand towards you It is he himself that by his hand hath conducted you for this end to the place where you are Recollect again your self upon all the thoughts of your heart since the time your Majestie parted from hence to the time your Majestie returned back Think upon all that you have been willing to do and upon all that which it hath pleased God to do with you For he hath done all the things both what you see and what you suffer upon your Person and upon your Estate He hath put you into the Estate you are to make you understand his voyce and for to oblige you to say to him Lord what wilt thou that I do You have thought to be able to reascend upon your Throne by the means of those of your Subjects who appear'd to retain for you and for your Crown that fidelity to which a more antient Bond held them obliged more straitly than all others God would not have it so They had a design to bind your Conscience to the Lawes of their Reformation by an oath to observe the conditions of their Covenant and by abjuring your opinions that drew more near the Catholick Religion They hoped by this means that in conserving upon your head some Form at least apparent of the Royal Government under which they had so happily obeyed your Fathers for so many Ages they should avoyd the falling under the slavage of the Tyrannie which is called Cromwel's Commonwealth And that they should defend by this way the factiousness of their Religion from giving place to his Independency What is it come to God hath destroyed all their Counsels He hath routed all their Armies by the Arm of this False-prophet by whose mouth he convinces and confounds in the face of their Ministers by mouth and by writing the rules of their Covenant by the proper Maxims of their Reformation God hath delivered them into his hands and imposed upon them the yoke of his absolute domination They must now submit to the Lawes of his Independency and of his Common-wealth the name whereof serves for a Masque to his Tyrannie But God hath delivered you Sir and by a conduct of his Providence full of trembling and admiration he hath withdrawn your Sacred Person from a thousand dangers which threatned it from the fury and cruelty of this Monster who spared neither the force of Iron nor the value of Gold to find the means of violently taking away your life You have seen Sir the anger of God to descend upon your head who according to the terms of the Scripture hath loosned the Belts of Kings and bound their Reins with Cords You have seen his Arm armed with his rage to defeat your Armies Combating at their head you have done bravely with your hand and with your courage all that the generosity of a valiant and magnanimous Prince could do to associate Victory to the justice of your Arms. You have there shed your Blood and seen that of your faithful Subjects to stream through the fields covered with their bodies
give others leave to â—…tile them the Heads of the Church within their Dominions But no man can be so simple as to conceive that they â—…ntended a spiritual headship to infuse â—…he life and motion of grace into the â—…earts of the faithful such an head is Christ alone No nor yet an Ecclesiaâ—…ical headship We did never believe â—…hat our Kings in their own persons â—…ould exercise any act pertaining either â—…o the power of Order or Juriâ—…ction Nothing can give that to another which it hath not it self They meant oneâ—…y a Civil or Political Head as Saul is called the Head of the Tribes of Israel to see that pubâ—…ick peace be presâ—…rved to see that all Subjects as well Eccâ—…esiastiques as others do their duties in their several places to see that all things be managed for that great and Architectonical end that is the weal and benefit of the whole body politique both for soul and body If you will not trust me Hear our Church it self When we attribute the Sovereign Government of the Church to the King we do not give him any power â—…o administer the Wâ—…rd or Sacraments but onely that Prerogative which God in holâ—… Scripture hath alwaies allowed to Godly Princes to see that all States and Orders of their Subâ—…ects Ecclesiastical and Civil do their duties and to punish those who are delinquent with the civil Sword Here is no power ascribed no punishment inflicted but meerly political and this is approved and justisied by S. Clara both by reason and by the examples of the Parliament of Paris Yet by vertue of this Political power he is the Keeper of both Tables the preserver of true Piety towards God as weâ—…l as right Justice towards men And is obliged to take care of the souls as well as the skins and carkasses of his Subjects This power though not this name the Christian Emperours of old assumed unto themselves to Convocate Synods to preside in Synods to confirm Synods to establish Ecclesiastical Lawes to receive Appeals to nominate Bishops to eject Bishops to suppress Heresies to compose Ecclesiastical differences in Councils out of Councils by themselves by their delegates All which is as clear in the Historie of the Church as if it were written with a beam of the Sun This power though not this name the Antient Kings of Englaâ—…d ever exercised not onely before the Reformation but before the Norman Conquest as appears by the Acts of their great Councils by their Statutes and Articles of the Clergy by so many Lawes of provision against the Bishop of Romes conferring Ecclesiastical dignities and benefices upon Foreiners by so many sharp oppositions against the exactions and usurpations of the Court of Rome by so many Lawes concerning the Patronage of Bishopricks and Investitures of Bishops by so many examples of Church-men punished by the Civil Magistrate Of all which Jewels the Roman Court had undoubtedâ—…y robbed the Crown if the Peers and Prelates of the Kingdome had not come into â—…he rescue By the Antient Lawes of England it is death or at lest a forfeiture of all his goods for any man to publish the Popes Bull without the Kings Licence The Popes Legate without the Kings leave could not enter into the Realm If an Ordinary did refuse to accept a resignation the King might supply his defect If any Ecclesiastical Court did exceed the bounds of its just power either in the nature of the cause or manner of proceeding the Kings Prohibition had place So in effect the Kings of England were alwaies the Political heads of the Church within their own Dominions So the Kings of France are at this day But who told you that ever King Charles did call himself the Head of the Church thereby to merit such an heavy Judgement He did not nor yet King James his Father nor Queen Elizabeth before them both who took Order in her first Parliament to have it lest out â—…f her Title They thought that name did sound ill and that it intrenched too far upon the right of their Saviour Therefore they declined it and were called onely Supreme Governours in all Causes over all persons Ecclesiastical and Civil which is a Title de jure inseparable from the Crown of all Sovereign Princes Where it is wanting de facto if any place be so unhappy to want it the King is but half a King and the Commonwealth a Serpent with two Heads Thus you see you are doubly and both waâ—…es miserably mistaken First King Charles did never stile himself Head of the Church nor could with patience endure to hear that Title Secondly a Political Headship is not injurious to the Unity or Authority of the Church The Kings of Isâ—…ael and Judah the Christian Emperours the Engâ—…ish Kings before the Reformation yea even before the Conquest and other Sovereign Princes of the Roman Communion have owned it signaâ—…ly But it seems you have been toâ—…d or have read this in the virulent writings of Sandâ—…rs or Parsons or have heard of a ludicrous scoffing proposition of a Mâ—…rriage between the two Heads of the two Churches Sixâ—…us Quintus and Queen Elizabeth for the re-uniting forsooth of Christendome All the satisfaction I shâ—…uld enjoyn you is to perswade the Bishop of Râ—…me if Gregory the Great were living you could not fail of speeding to imitate the piety and humility of our Princes that is to content himself with his Patriarchical dignity and primacy of Order Principâ—…m unit at is and to quit that much more presumptuous and if a Popes word may pass for current Antichristian term of the Head of the Catholick Church If the Pope be the Head of the Catholique Church then the Catholique Church is the Popes Body which would be but an harsh expression to Christian ears then the Catholick Church should have no Head when there is no Pope two or three Heads when there are two or three Popes an unsound Head when there is an heretical Pope a broken Head when the Pope is censured or deposed and no Head when the See is vacant If the Church must have one Universal Visible Ecclesiastical Head a general Council may best pretend to that Title Neither are you more successful in your other Reason why the Parliament persecuted the King Because he maintained Episcopacy both out of Conscience and Interest which they sought to abolish For though it be easily admitted that some seditious and heterodox persons had an evil eye both against Monarchy and Episcopacy from the very beginning of these troubles either out of a fiery zeal or vain affectation of Novelty like those who having the green-sickness prefer chalk and meal in a corner before wholsome meat at their Fathers table or out of a greedy and covetous desire of gathering some sticks for themselves upon the fall of those great Okes yet certainly they who were the contrivers and principal actors in this business did more malign
Truths which now make known to you the fault and the condemnation which God by the wisdome and power of his Judgements hath drawn from it self and his proper works that you may feel the effects How should you have been able to have discovered under this fair shew of Reformation whereof she hath taken the Title under this splendid lustre which she hath put upon her face of Knowledge and Eloquence the gifts whereof shine in her Doctors and Ministers of the reading and particular regard she commands them to have towards the holy Scriptures of the familiar Texts which adorn their Pastors Discourses and Preachings of the popular exercises of her Psalms and Canticles of the Prayers and Orisons which are extracted and interwoven with the Understanding which gives consolation Should you have been able to have discovered I say that under this appearance of Piety she had dis-avow'd her strength if God had not at present let you see it in the works of horrour and confusion deadly to Christian piety and charity destructive to all Form of Religion Enemies to all Order of God which she hath produced by the consequences of her Fundamental Maxims Sir Had your Majestie taken notice of the imposture and deceit which the Father of Lyes hath hidden under these Baits that they themselves whom he made the first Instruments and Authors of the division of the Church did not perceive for they would have abhorred it had they known it would have been such This is then truly the great work of God whereof this false prophet understands not the reason when he speaks thus God hath certainly done this work And God hath raised him up himself to put this confusion among them which have forsaken the Unity of the Church in dividing themselves into a thousand Sects of which they acknowledge at present that no one can call himself the Church For the Sect of the Protestants cannot pretend to it since she her self subsists no more but that every one sees her justly perished by the same Maxims that separated her from the Church and that the Presbyterians which seduced them have now destroyed them Nor the Sect of the Presbyterians which is under the yoke of the Independents who cut their throats with the same Swords wherewith they warred against the Church For they brought them by their own Maxims to renounce all Discipline all Government all Law and all Rule of Unity and by consequence all Form of the Church This cursed Cham hath then discovered his Father's filthiness that is to say of the first Author of this pretended Reformation who being drunk with the wine of his errour did not himself know â—…t But if God pleases the impudence of his brazen face who hath lost all shamefac'dness being not afraid to discover by his Independence the Foundations of this preposterous Reformation shall now touch his brethren with compunction and shame that they may return to their common Father He will cause the Presbyterians and Protestants to understand that it was the spirit of senslesness and errour which made Luther conceive and undertake the design of dividing the Church under pretext of a false Reformation From whence they will perceive if they can but come to themselves that one ought not to desire neither that any one can do any thing true or lawful but in the union and by the consent of the Church and the rule of Tradition which she hath receiv'd from the Apostles and conserved by a continued succession As God Sir draws light out of darkness so your Majestie sees that he makes your salvation to come out of your calamity But this is not for you alone That which he will do in your Person he will bring to pass in all your Kingdomes by your Person And not onely in all your Kingdomes but in all the places and in all those which are separated from the Church as your Kingdomes are That which you have singular in this cause is by being the greatest King of the party divided from the Church and that your Kingdomes are the greatest and most flourishing Estate that hath receiv'd this novelty of Religion where she hath found the most powerful Sanctuary and where she hath planted her seat the most eminent and most assured This is likewise a reason why God hath put her into this confusion in destroying her by the different Sects which she her self hath ingendred that all the world may know the spirit of errour from whence she hath taken her Original For all the world at present sees what this spirit is and its nature if it is the Spirit of Christ it is the Spirit of peacâ—… and truth if it be the spirit of Satan it is the spirit of trouble and errour which hath raised the trouble and errouâ—… which rules at present in your Kingdomes Since such is the spirit of this new Reformation and its Maxims such arâ—… its works that are at this day discovered and made evident who is that man that can defend it that can preserve iâ—… in his conscience that can have reposâ—… or comfort in his soul by adhering to it There 's no more need of Disputes or Arguments to convince it She is convinc'd by her self according to the character the Spirit of God hath stamp'd upon the Heretical man by the Pen of the Apostle St. Paul who commands us to depart for these reasons There is saith he a perverted spirit that is condemned by it self This is the imagâ—… that all the world doth see at present in this Reformation and its Genius But there rests now one thing to do which is to apply this remedy of Salvation to the Conscience of the People seduced by the errour There is no more to do than to anoint the wound the Scorpion hath made with the oyl where it hath been bruised For the way to heal them is now very easy by reason their Reformation hath receiv'd such a miserable success There is nothing more easy than to make the People know thereupon by the conviction of their Pastors upon the very Foundations and Maxims of their Reformation that they have neither Church nor Faith But then when they supposed contrary to the promise of Jesus Christ the Church was fallen into ruine for pretext of reforming it they have not been able to form an other which hath the conditions of the true Church but an infinity of different and contrary Sects among them none of which can be the Church but in rejecting the authority of Tradition for interpreting the Scripture and the judgement of the Church for the declaration of her Faith They have abandoned the Unity of the Faith that every one might abound in his own sense by the different opinions they have conceived That which of necessity must cast them as it is come to pass into the Independence of all rule and the indifference of all opinion in Religion And as modesty to accuse the Church of Errour in all the Ages hath been the
Episcopacy for Monarchies sake than Monarchy for Episcopacies What end had the Nuncio's Faction in Ireland against Episcopacy whose mutinous courses apparently lost that Kingdome When the Kings consent to the Abolition of Episcopacy in Scotland was extorted from him by the Presbyterian faction which probably the prime Authors do rue sufficiently by this time were those Presbyterian Scots any thing more favourable to Monarchy To come to England the chief Scene of this bloody Tragedy If that party in Parliament had at first proposed any such thing as the Abâ—…ition either of Monarchy or Episcopacy undoubtedly they had ruined their whole design untill daily tumults and uncontrollable uproars had chased away the greater and sounder part of both Houses Their first Protestation was solemnly made to God both for King and Church as they were by Law established Would you know then what it was that Conjur'd up the storm among us It was some feigned jealousies and fears which the first broachers themselves knew well enough to be fables dispersed cunningly among the People That the King purposed to subvert the Fundamental Lawes of the Kingdome and to reduce the free English Subject to a condition of absolute slavery under an Arbitrary Government For which massy weight of malitious untruth they had no supporters but a few Bull-rushes Secondly that he meant to apostate from the Protestant Religion to Popery and to that end had raised the Irish Rebellion by secret encouragements and Commissions For which monstrous calumny they had no other foundation except the solemn Religious Order of Divine Service in his own Chapel and Cathedral Churches than some unseasonable disputes about an Altar or a Table and the permission of the Popes Agent to make a short stay in England more for reason of State than of Râ—…ligion And some sensless fictions of some Irish Rebels who having a Patent under the Great Seal of Ireland for their Lands to colour their barbarous murthers shewed it to the poor simple people as a Commission from the King to leavy Forces And lastly some impious pious frauds of some of your own party whose private whispers and printed insinuations did give hopes that the Church of England was coming about to shake hands with the Roman in the points controverted Which was meerly devised to gull some silly Creatures whom they found apt to be catched with chaff for which they had no more pretext of truth than you have for your groundless intimations in this unwelcome dedication These suspitions being compounded with Covetousness Ambition Envy Emulation desire of Revenge and discontent were the sourse of all our Calamities Thus much you your self confess in â—…ffect that this supposition that the King and Bishops had an intention to re-establish the Roman Catholique Religion was the venome which the Puritan Faction insused into the hearts of the people to fill them with hatred against a King worthy of love And the Parliament judged it a favourable occasion for their design to advance themselves to Sovereign Authority Be Judge your self how much they are accessary to our sufferings who either were or are the Authors or fomenters of these damnable slanders There was yet one cause more of this cruel persecution which I cannot conceal from you because it concerns some of your old acquaintance There was a Bishop in the world losers must have leave to talk whose privy Purse and subtil Counsels did help to kindle that unnatural war in his Majesties three Kingdomes Our Cardinal Wolsey complained before his death That he had served his King better than his God But certainly this practise in your friend was neither Good service to his God to be the author of the effusion of so much innocent blood nor yet to his King to let the world see such a dangerous president It is high time for a man to look to himself when his next neighbours house is all on a flame As hitherto I have followed your steps though not altogether in your own method or rather your own confusion So I shall observe the same course for the future Your discourse is so full of Meanders and windings turnings and returnings you congregate Heâ—…erogeneous matter and segregate that which is Homogeneous as if you had made your Dedication by starts and snatches and never digested your who'â—… discourse On the contrary where I meet with any thing it shall be my desire to dispach it out of my hands with whatsoever pertains unto it once for all I hope you expect not that I shou'd amuse my self at your Rhetoâ—…cal flowers and elegant expressions they agree well enough with the work you were about The Pipe plays sweetly whilst the Fowler is catching his prey Trappings are not to be condemned if the things themselves are good and useful but I prefer one Pomegranat-Tree loaden with good fruit before a whole row of Cypresses that serve onely for shew Be sure of this that where any thing in your Epistle reflects upon the Church of England I shall not miss it first or last though it be but a loose unjoynted peâ—…ce and so perhaps hitherto untouched Amongst other things which you lay to our charge you glance at the least twelve times at our supposed Schism But from first to last never attempt to prove it as if you took it for granted I have shaped a Coat for a Schismatick and had presented it to you in this Answer but considering that the matter is of moment and merits as much to be seriously and solidly weighed as your naked Crimination without all pretext of proof deserves to be sleighted lest it might seem here as an impertinent digression to take up too much place in this short Discourse I have added it at the Conclusion of this Answer in a short Tract by it self that you may peruse it if you please You fall heavily in this Discourse upon the Presbyterians Brownists and Independents if they intend to return you any answer they may send it by a messenger of their own As for my part I am not their Proctor I have received no Fee from them And if I should undertake to plead their Cause upon my own head by our old English Law you might call me to an accompt for unlawful maintenance Onely give me leave as a by-stander to wonder why you are so cholerique against them for certainly they have done you more service in England than ever you could have done for your selves And I wonder no less why you call our Reformation a Calvinistical Reformation brought into England by Bucer and Peter Martyr a blind Reformation yea the intire ruin of the Faith of the very form of the Church and of the civil Government of the Common-wealth instituted by God Though you confess again in our favour that if our first Reformers had been interrogated whether they meant any such thing they would have purged themselves and avouched their Innocence with their hands upon the new Gospel The
proper value But a friend or child will more esteem the Picture of a Benefactor or Ancestor for its relation The respect of the one is terminated in the Picture that of the other is radicated in the exemplar Yet still an Image is but an Image and the kinds of respect must not be confounded The respect given to an Image must be respect proper for an Imâ—…ge not Courtship not Worship not Adoration More respect is due to the person of the meanest beggar than to all the Images of Christ and his Apostles and a 1000. Primitive Saints or Progenitors Hitherto there is either no difference nor peril either of Idolatry or Superstition Wherein then did consist this guilt of Idolatry contracted by the Roman Church I am willing for the present to pass by the private abuses of particular persons which seem to me no otherwise chargeable upon the whole Church than for Connivence As the making Images to counterfeit tears and words and gestures and complements for advantage to induce silly people to believe that there was something of divinity in them and the multitude of fictitious Relicks and supposititious Saints which credulity first introduced and since covetousness hath nourished I take no notice now of those remote suspitions or suppositions of the possibility of want of intention either in the Priest that consecrates the Sacrament or in him that Baptized or in the Bishop that ordained him or in any one through the whole line of succession in all which cases according to your own principles you give divine worship to corporeal Elements which is at least material Idolatry I will not stand now to examine the truth of your distinctions of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet you know well enough that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no religious worship and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is coin lately minted that will not pass for current in the Catholick Church Whilst your common people understand not these distinctions of degrees of honour what holds them from falling downright into Idolatry Neither do I urge how you have distributed the Patronage of particular Countries the Cure of several Diseases the protection of all distinct professions of men and all kinds of Creatures among the Saints just as the Heathen did among their Tutelary Gods nor how little warrant you have for this practice from experience nor lastly how you build more Churches erect more Altars offer more presents pour out more prayers make more vows perform more offices to the Mother than to the Son Yet though we should hold our peace methinks you should ponder these things seriously and either for your own satisfaction or ours take away such unnecessary occasions of scandal and dis-union But I cannot omit that the Council of Trent is not contented to enjoyn the Adoration of Christ in the Sacrament which we never deny but of the Sacrament it self that is according to the common current of your Schoolmen the Aâ—…cidents or Species of Bread and Wine because it contains Christ. Why do they not adde upon the same grounds that the pix is to be adored with divine worship because it contains the Sacrament Divine honour is not due to the very Humanity of Christ as it is abstracted from the Deity but to the whole person Deity and Humanity hypostatically united Neither the Grace of Union nor the Grace of Unction can conferr more upon the Humanity than the Humanity is capable of There is no such Union between the Deity and the Sacrament neither immediately nor yet mediately mediante corpor Neither do you ordinarily ascribe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or divine worship to a Crucifix or to the Image of Christ indeed not Terminatively but transâ—…untly so as not to rest in the Image or Crucifix but to pass to the exemplar or person crucified But why a piece of Wood should be made partaker of divine honours even in 〈◊〉 or in be passage passeâ—…h my undeâ—…nding Thâ—… Heathens â—…ted not the same 〈◊〉 for all their gross Idolatry Let them plead for themselves Non ego c. I do not worship that stone which I see but I serve him whom I do not see Lastly whilst you are pleased to use them I may not forget those strange insolent forms of prayer contained in your books even ultimate prayers if we take the words as they sound directed to the Creatures that they would protect you at the hour of death and deliver you from the Devil and confer spiritual graces upon you and admit you into Heaven precibus meritisque by their prayers and merits You know what Merit signifies in your language a Condignity or at least a Congruity of desert The exposition of your Doctors is that they should do all this for you by their praâ—…ers as improper a form of speech as if a Suppliant intending onely to move an ordinary Courtier to mediate for him unto the King should fall down upon his knees before the Courtier and beseech him to make him an Earl or a Knight or to bestow such an Office or such a Pardon upon him or to do some other Grace for him properly belonging to the Prerogative Royal. How agrees this with the words Precibus meriâ—…que A beggar doth not deserve an Alms by asking it This is a snare to ignorant persons who take the words to signifie as they sound And it is to be feared do commit downright Idolatry by their Pastors faults who prescribe such improper forms unto them Concerning Tyrannie which makes up the arrear of the first supposed Maxim We do not accuse the Roman Church of Tyrannie but the Roman Court If either the unjust usurpation oâ—… Sovereign power or the extending thereof to the destruction of the Laws and Canons of the Church yea even to give a Non obstante either to the Institution of Christ or at least to the uniform practice of the Primitive Ages or to them both If the swallowing up of all Ecclesiastical Jurisdâ—…ction and the arrogating of a supercivil power paramount If the causing of poor people to trot to Rome from all the Quarters of Europe to wast their livelyhoods there If the trampling upon Emperours and the disciplining of Monarchs be Tyrannical either the Court of Rome hath been Tyrannical or there never was Tyrannie in the world I doubt not but some great persons when they have had bloody Tragedies to act for their own particular ends have sometimes made the Roman Church a stalking horse and the pretence of Catholick Religion a blind to keep their Policies undiscerned But if we consider seriously what cruelties have been really acted throughout Europe either by the Inquisitors General or by persons specially delegated for that purpose against the Waldenses of old and against the Protestants of later daies against poor ignorant persons against women and children against mad men against dead carkasses as Bueâ—…r c. upon pretence of Religion not onely by ordinary forms of punishment and of death
but by fire and faggots by strange new-devised tortures we shall quickly find that the Court of Rome hath died it self red in Christian blood and equalled the most Tyrannical persecutions of the Heathen Emperours The other Maxim whereupon you say that our Reformation was grounded was this Tâ—…at the onely way to reform the Faith anâ—… Liturgie and Government of the Church was to conform them to the dictates of holy Scripture of the sense whereof every private Christian ought to be the Judge by the light of the Spirit excluding Tradition and the publiâ—…k Judgement of the Church You adde That we cannot prove Episcopacy by Scripture without the Help of Tradition And if we do admit of Tradition we must acknowledge the Papacy for the Government of the Catholick Church as founded in the Primacy of St. Peter Your second supposed ground is no truer than the former we are as far from Anarchy as from Tyranme As we would not have humane Authority like Medusa's head to transform reasonable men into sensless stones So we do not put the reigns of Government into the hands of each or any private person to reform according to their phantasies And that we may not deal like blunderers or deceitful persons to wrap up or involve our selves on purpose in confused Generalities I will set down our sense distinctly When you understand it I hope you will repent of your rash censuring of us of whom you had so little knowledge Three things offer themselves to be considered First concerning the Rule of Scripture Secondly the proper Expounders thereof and Thirdly the manner of Exposition Concerning Scripture we believe That it was impossible for humane reason without the help of divine Revelation to find out those supernatural truths which are necessary to Salvation 2. That to supply this defect of natural reason God out of his abundant goodness hath given us the holy Scriptures which have not their authority from the writing which is humane but from the Revelation which is divine from the Holy Ghost Thirdly that this being the purpose of the Holy Ghost it is blasphemy to say he would not or could not attain unto it And that therefore the holy Scriptures do comprehend all necessary supernatural truths So much is confessed by Bellarmine that All things which are necessary to be believed and to be done by all Christians were preached to all by the Apostles and were all written Fourthly that the Scripture is more properly to be called a Rule of supernatural truths than a Judge or if it be sometimes called a Judge it is no otherwise than the Law is called a Judge of civil Controversies between man and man that is the rule of judging what is right and what is wrong That which sheweth what is strait sheweth likewise what is crooked Secondly concerning the proper Expounders of Scripture we do believe that the Gospel doth not consist in the words but in the sense non in superficie sed in medullâ And therefore that though this infallible Rule be given for the common benefit of all yet every one is not an able or fit Artist to make application of this Rule in all particular cases To preserve the common right and yet prevent particular abuses we distinguish Judgement into three kinds Judgement of Discretion Judgement of Direction and Judgement of Jurisdiction As in the former Instance of the Law the ignorance whereof excâ—…seth no man every Subject hath Judgement of Discretion to apply it particularly to the preservation of himself his estate and interest The Advocates and those who are skilful in the Law have moreover a Judgement of Direction to advise others of less knowledge and experience But those who are Constituted by the Sovereign power to determine emergent difficulties and differences and to distribute and administer Justice to the whole body of a Province or Kingdome have moreover a Judgement of Jurisdiction which is not onely discretionary or directive but authoritative to impose an Obligation of obedience unto those who are under their charge If these last shall transgress the rule of the Law they are not accountable to their Inferiours but to him or them that have the Sovereign power of Legislative Judicature Ejus est legem interpretari cujus est condere To apply this to the case in question concerning the exposition of the holy Scripture Every Christian keeping himself within the bounds of due obedience and submission to his lawful Superiours hath a Judgement of Discretion Prove all things hold fast that which is good He may apply the Rule of holy Scripture for his own private instruction comfort â—…dification and direction and for the framing of his life and belief aceordingly The Pastors of the Church who are placed over Gods people as watchmen and guides have more than this a judgement of Direction to expound and interpret the holy Scriptures to others and out of them to instruct the ignorant to reduce them who wander out of the right way to confute errours to foretell dangers and to draw sinners to repentance The chief Pastors to whose care the Regiment of the Church is committed in a more special manner have yet an higher degree of judgement a Judgement of Jurisdiction to prescribe to enjoyn to constitute to reform to censure to condemn to bind to loose judicially authoritatively in their respective charges If their Key shall erre either their Key of Knowledge or their Key of Jurisdiction they are accountable to their respective Superiours and in the last place to a general Council which under Christ upon Earth is the highest Judge of Controversies Thus we have seen what is the Rule of Faith and by whom and how far respectively this rule is to be applied Thirdly for the manner of expounding holy Scriptures for there may be a privacy in this also and more dangerous than the privacy of the person many things are necessary to the right interpretation of the Law to undeâ—…stand the reason of it the precedents the terms the forms the reports and an ability to compare Law with Law He that wants all these Qualifications altogether is no interpreter of Law He that wants but some of them or wants the perfection of them by how much the greater is his defect by so much the less valuable is his exposition And if he shall out of private fancy or blind presumption arrogate to himself without these requisite means or above his capacity and proportion of Knowledge a power of expounding Law he is a mad-man So many things are required to render a man capable to expound the holy Scriptures some more necessarily some less some absolutely some respectively As First to know the right Analogy of Faith to which all interpretations of Scripture must be of necessity conformed Secondly to know the practice and tradition of the Church and the received expositions of former Interpreters in the successive ages which gives a great light to
the finding out of the right sense Thirdly to be able to compare Texts with Texts Antecedents with Consequents without which one can hardly attain to the drift and scope of the Holy Ghost in the obscurer passages And lastly it is something to know the Idiotisms of that language wherein the Scriptures were written He that wants all these requisites and yet takes upon him out of a phanatique presumption of private illumination to interpret Scripture is a doting Enthusiast fitter to be refuted with Scorn than with Arguments He that presumes above that degree and proportion which he hath in these means and above the talent which God hath given him as he that hath a little Language yet wants Logick or having both Language and Logick knows not or regards not either the Judgement of former Expositors or the practice and tradition of the purest Primitive Ages or the Symbolical Faith of the Catholick Church is not a likely workman to build a Temple to the Lord but ruine and destruction to himself and his seduced followers A new Physician we say requires a new Church-yard But such bold ignorant Empericks in Theology are ten times more dangerous to the Soul than an ungrounded unexperienced Quacksalver to the Body This hath alwaies been the doctrine and the practice of our English Church First it is so far from admitting Laymen to be Directive Interpreters of holy Scripture that it allows not this Liberty to Clergy-men so much as to gloss upon the Text untill they be Licenced to become Preachers Secondly for Judgement of Discretion onely it gives it not to private persons above their Talents or beyond their last It disallows all phantastical and Enthusiastical presumption of incompetent and unqualified Expositors It admits no man into holy Orders that is to be capable of being made a Directive Inâ—…erpreter of Scripture howsoever otherwise qualified unless he be able to give a good account of his Faith in the Latin tongue so as to be able to frame all his Expositions according to the Analogy thereof It forbids the Licenced Preachers to teach the people any doctrine as necessary to be religiously held and believed which the Catholick Fathers and old Bishops of the Primitive Church have not collected out of the Scriptures It ascribes a Judgement of Jurisdiction over Preachers to Bishops in all manner of Ecclesiastical duties as appears by the whole body of our Canons And especially where any difference or publick Opposition hath been between Preachers about any point or doctrine deduced out of Scripture It gives a power of determining all emergent Controversies of faith above Bishops to the Church as to the witness and keeper of the Sacred Oracles And to a lawful Synod as the representative Church Now Sir be your own Judge how infinitely you have wronged us and your self more suggesting that temerariously and without the Sphere of your knowledge to his Majestie for the principal ground of our Reformation which our souls abhorr Is there no mean between stupidity and madness Must either all things be lawful for private persons or nothing Because we would not have them like Davids Horse and Mule without understanding do we therefore put both Swords in their hands to reform and cut off to plant and to pluck up to alter and abolish at their pleasure We allow them Christian liberty but would not have them Libertines Admit some have abused this just liberty may we therefore take it away â—…rom others So we shall leave neither a â—…un in Heaven nor any excellent Creaâ—…ure upon Earth for all have been abused â—…y some persons in some kinds at some â—…imes We receive not your upstart supposititious traditions nor unwritten fundamentals But we admit genuine Universal Apostolical traditions As the Apostles Creed the perpetual Virginity of the Mother of God the Anniversary Festivals of the Church the Lenton fast Yet we know that both the duration of it and the manner of observing it was very different in the Priâ—…nitive times We believe Episcopacy to an ingenuous person may be proved out of Scripture without the help of Tradition but to such as are froward the perpetual practice and tradition of the Church renders the interpretation of the Text more authentique and the proof more convincing What is this to us who admit the practice and tradition of â—…he Church as an excellent help of Exposition Use is the best interpreter of Laws and we are so far from believing that We cannot admit tradition without allowing the Papacy that one of the principal moâ—…ives why we rejected the Papacy as it is now established with Universality of Jurisdiction by the Institution of Christ and superiority above Oecumenical Councils and Infallibility of Judgement was the constant tradition of the Primitive Church So Sir you see your demonstration shaken into â—…ces You who take upon you to remove whole Churches at our pleasure have not so much ground left you as to set your Instrument upon Your two main ground-works being vanished all your Presbyterian and Independent superstructions do remain like so many Bubbles or Castles in the Air It were folly to lay closer siege to them which the next puff of wind will disperse ruâ—…at subductis tecta Columnis Howsoever though you have mistaken the grounds of our Reformation and of your discourse yet you charge us that we have renounced the Sacrifice of the Mass Transubstantiation the seven Sacraments Justification by inherent righteousness Merits Invocation of Saints Prayer for the Dead with Pâ—…rgatory and the Authority of the Pope Are these all the necessary Articles of the new Roman Creed that we have renounced Surely no you deal too favourably with us We have in like manner renounced your Image-worship your half Communion your Prayers in a tongue un known c. It seems you were loth to mention these things First you say we have renounced your Sacrifice of the Mass. If the Sacrâ—…fice of the Mass be the same with the Sacrifice of the Cross we attribute more unto it than your selves we place our whole hope of Salvation in it If you understand another Propitiatory Sacrifice distinct from that as this of the Mass seems to be for confessedly the Priest is not the same the Altar is not the same the Temple is not the same If you think of any new meritorious satisfaction to God for the sins of the world or of any new supplement to the merits of Christs Passion you must give us leave to renounce your Sacrifice indeed and to adhere to the Apostle By one offering he hath persected for ever them that are sanctified Surely you cannot think that Christ did actually sacrifice himself at his last Supper for then he had redeemed the world at his last Supper then his subsequent sacrifice upon the Cross had been superfluous nor that the Priest now doth more than Christ did then We do readily acknowledge an Eucharistical sacrifice of prayers and
the unity of the Church You collect as a Corollary from our supposed principal of the right and sufficiency of private judgement enlightned by the Spirit that no humane Authority can bind the Conscience of another or prescribe any thing unto it I have formerly shewed you your gross mistake in the premises Now if you please hear our sense of the Conclusion Humane Lawes cannot be properly said to bind the Conscience by the sole authority of the Law-giver But partly by the equity of the Law every one being obliged to advance that which conduceth to a publick good thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self And especially by Divine Authority which commands every soul to be subject to the higher powers for conscience sake not prudentially onely The question is soon decided just Lawes of lawfuâ—…l Superiours either Civil or Ecclesiastical have authority to bind the Conscience in themselves but not from themselves How shall we believe that it is not you but God that represents these things to his Majestie that addresseth them to him by your mouth that calleth him that stretcheth out his hand to him that hath set these things before his eyes in Characters not to be defaced What That his Majestie should turn Roman Catholick Are they like Belshazars Characters and are you the onely Daniel that can read them we do not see a Cloven Tongue upon your head nor a Dove seemâ—…ng to whisper in yâ—…ur ear Be not too consident lest some take it to be a little taint of Anabaptism perhaps you have had as strange phantasies as this heretofore whilst you were of a contrary party Be it what it will be you cannot offer it to his â—…ajestie with more confidence or preâ—…end more intimacy with God or to be more familiarly acquainted with his Cabinet Counsail than a Scotch Presbyter And yet your self would not value all his confidence at a Button Wise men are not easily gained by empty shews oâ—… pretences that signifie nothing but the pretenders vanity nor by Enthusiastical interpretation of occurrences It is onely the weight of reason that depresseth the scale of their judgement and maketh them to yield and submit unto it Howsoever it be God or you thaâ—… represent these things to his Majestie you tell us that the end is to reduce him from those errours which he sucked in with his milk which in thâ—… dayes of Peace and abundance it had been disficult for him to discover But now his Eyes and his eares do see and hear those Truths which makâ—… it evident to him that God hath condemned them to reduce him to the Communion of the Church wherein you promise him all manner of blessings Who told you of his Majesties new illumination or what have you seen to believe any such thing when you daâ—…e avoâ—…ch such gross untruths of himself to himself how should he credit your private presumptions which you tell him as a new Mercury dropped down from Heaven You tell us that it is necessary for every one to adhere to the true Church which is the keeper of saving truth That is true but nothing to his Majesty who hath more right already in the Catholick Church than your self You tell us moreover that this Church is the Roman Church That is not trâ—…e but suppose it were most true as it is most false what should a man be beter or more neerer to the knowledge of the Truth and consequently to his salâ—…ation for his submission to the Roman Church As long as you cannot agree among your selves either what this Roman Church is or whâ—…t this infallible Judge is One saith it is the Pope alone Another saith no but the Pope with his Conclave of Cardinals A third will go no less than the Pope and a Provincial Council A fourth will not be contented without the Pope and a General Council A Fifth is for a general Council alone â—…ither with or without the Pope A Sixth party and they are of no small esteeme amongst you here at this present is for the Essential Church that is the Company of all faithfull people Whose reception say they makes the true ratificationof the Acts of its representative Body It were as good to have no infallible Judge as not to know or agree who it is Be not so censorious in condemning others for not submitting to your Roman Church or infallible Judge nor so positive to make this submission so absolutely necessary to salvation untill you agree better what this Judge or Church is It is five to one against you that you your self miss the right Judge Whatsoever becom of your Church you say Ours is perished by the proper Axioms of our own Reformation and hath no more any 〈◊〉 in the world nor pretence to the Privilege of a Church This is hard He perisheth twice that peri sheth by his own weapons Even so Iosephs brethren told Joseph himself with Consciences guiâ—…ty enough one is not This is that which the Court of Rome would be content to purchase at any rate This hath been the end of all their Negotiations and Instructions by all means to support the Presbyterian Faction in England against Episcopacy Not that they loved them more than us but that they feared us more than them There was an Israelitish Church when Elias did not see it but he must be as blind as Bartimaeus that cannoâ—… see the Eâ—…glish Church Wheresoever there is a lawfull English Pastor and an English Flock and a subordination of this â—…lock to that Pastor there is a Branch of the true English Protestant Church Do you make no difference between a Church persecuted and a Church extinguished Have patience and expect the Catastrophe It may be all this while the Carpenters Son is making a Coffin for Juliâ—…n If it please God we may yet see the Church oâ—… England which is now frying in the fire come out like Gold out of the Furnace more pure and more full of lâ—…ster If not his Will be done Just art thou O Lord and Righteous are all thy judgements The Primitive Church was as glorious in the sight of God when they served him in Holes and Corners in Cryptis Sacellis Conventiculis Ecclesiolis as when his worship was more splendidly performed in Basilicis and Cyriacis in goodly Churches and magnificent Cathedralls Your Design stops not at the King of Great Britain but extends it self to all his subjects yea to all Protestants whatsoever I wonder why you stay there and would not adde all the Eastern Churches and the great Turk himself fince you might have done it with another penfull of Ink and with as much pretence of Reason to secure himself from the joint Forces of Christendom thus united by your means A strong Phaâ—…tasie will discover Armies and Navies in the Clouds men and Horses and Chariots in the fire and hear Articulate Dictates from the Bells This is is not to write wakeing but dreaming Yet you
make it an easy worke to effect which there needs no Disputation but only to behold the Hereticall Genius of our Reformation which is sufficiently condemned by it self if men will onely take the pains to compare the Fundamentall Principles thereof with the Consequences Great Houses and Forts are builded at an easy charge in Paper When you have consulted with your Aâ—…chitects and Enginiers you will find it to be a work of more difficuâ—…ty And your Adversaâ—…ies Resolution may teach you to your cost what it is to promise to your self suâ—…h an easy Conquest before the Fight and let you see that those golden Mountains which you phantasied have no subsistance but in your Brain and send you home to seek that selfConviction there which you sought to fasten upon others When you are able to prove your Universal Monarchy your new Cannon of Faith your new Treasury of the Church your new Roman Purgatory whereof the Pope keeps the Keyes your Image worship your Common-Praiers in 〈◊〉 toung unknown your deteining of the Cup from the Laity in the publike Administration of the Sacrament and the rest os your new Câ—…eed out of the four first General Councils or the Universal Tradition of the Church in those daies either as principles or Fundamental Truths which you affirm or so much as ordinary points of Faith which we deny we will yield our selves to be guilty both of Contradiction and Schism Untill you are able to make these Innovations good it were best for you to be silent and leave your vaporing Desparate undertakings do easily forseit a mans Reputation Now are we come to the most specious piece of your whole Epistle that is the Motion or proposition of a Conference by Authority of the King of France at the instance of the King of great Britain before the Arch-Bishop of Paris and his Coadjutor between some of your Roman Catholike Doctors and the Ministers of the Reformed Church at Paris whom you do deservedly commend â—…or their sufficiency and Zeal You further suppose that the Ministers of the Reformed Church will accept of such a Disputation or by their Tergiversation betray the weakness of their Cause And you conclude confidently beyond â—…upposition that they will be conâ—…uted and convicted and that their conversion or conviction will afford sufficient ground to the King of Great Britain to embrace the Communion of the Roman Catholike Church And that his conversion will reduce all conscientious Protestants to Unity and due obedience I will contract your larger Palm to a Fist. If the King of Great Britain desire a solemn Conference the King of France will enjoyn it If he enjoyn it the Ministers will accept it It they do accept they are sure to be convicted If they be convicted the King of Great Britain will change his Religion If he 〈◊〉 his Religion all conscientious Pâ—…nts will be reduced And all this 〈◊〉 be done not by the old way of Dâ—…ting No take heed of that the burnt Child dreads the fire But by a proper new way of refuting old Protestant Principles by new Independent Practises Why was this Remedy found out no sooner This might have eased the Cardinals in their Consultations about propagating the Faith This might have saved Cardinal Allen all his Machiavillian Instructions to his English Emissaries This may in a short time â—…vrne the Inquisitors out of their employment for want of an Object and not leave such a thing as Hereticall pravity in the World How must men praise your Fortune and applaud your Invention But stay the second thoughts are wiser what is this Chain supposed to be of Adamant should prove a rope of Sand And so it is I have seen a Sorites disgraced and hissed out of the Schools for drawing but one lame leg after it this is foundred of all four from the begining to the end there is nothing in it but future Contingents which are known only to God noâ—… one Grain of necessary Truth First Sir be not angry if a man take away the subject of your whole discourse It is but your officiousness the King desires no such Conâ—…erence Let them desire Conferences who waver in their Faith All these blustering Stormes have radicated him deeper in his Religion And chiefly that which you make the chiefest motive to his Apostating the Martirdom of his Royall Father and an hereditary love to that Church which he hath 〈◊〉 with his Blood Secondly if his Majesty should incline to such a Conference do you think he would desert the English Clergy who have forsaken their Country their Friends their Estates out of their Conscience out of their dâ—…ty to God and their Soveraign who understand the constitution oâ—… the English Church much better than your self or any Forrainers how susficent soever and cast himselâ—… wholy upon Strangers whose Reformation you say is different from that of England in the points of Episcopacy Liturgy and the Ceremonies of the Church Say what was the Reason of this gross Omission were you afraid of that Image of the Church as you call it in a sleighting manner which they retained Oâ—… did you not think any of the English Nation worthy to bear your Books at a Conference It hath been otherwise heretofore and you will find it otherwise now when you come to prove it I know not whether England hath been more fortunate or unfortunate since the Reformation in breeding as many able Pâ—…lemique Writers on both sides as any Nation in Europe Stapleton Harding Parsons Sanders Reynolds Bishop c. for the Roman Church Jewell Andrews Abbot Lawd White Field Montague Reynolds Whitaker c. for the English Church I forbear to name those that are living and many mo e who come not short of these if they had pleased to communicate their Talents to the World This is such a câ—…ntumely that 〈◊〉 upon the Nation and you must be contented to be told of it Thirdly how are you sure that the King of France and his Counsell would give way to such a publike Conference Private Insinuations use to prevail much when a man may Lavere tack to and again to compass his Ends. Auâ—…hority or the Sword may put an end â—…o Controversies But publike Conferences for the most part do but start new Qâ—…estions and revive old forgotten Animosities What were the Donatists the better for the Collation at Carthage The Mind of a man is generous and where it looks for Opposition it fortifies it self against it Urban the Eighth was the wisest Pope you have had of late who by his Moderation and Curtesie cooled much of that Heat which the violence of his Predecessors had raised against the Court of Rome The mild beaâ—…es of the Sun were more prevalent than the blustring Blasts of the North Wind. Multiplying of Words more commonly engenders strite than peace Fourthly upon what Grounds are you so confident that the Ministers of the Reformed Church would admit of such a publike
Disputation upon those terms which you propose That is â—…o accept of the Arch-Bishop of Paris and his Coadjutor two persons interessed for competent Judges I am as confident of the contrary that they would rather chuse to suffer than wrong their Cause so much Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora It were a readier way for them and but the same in effect to subscribe to a blank paper and to submit without Disputation Fifthly suppose all this notwithstanding such a Conference should hold what reason have you to promise to your self such success as to obtain so easy a Victory You have had Conferences and Conferences again at Poisye and other places and gained by them just as much as you might put in your eye and see never the worse When Conferences are onely made use of as Pageants to grace the Introduction of some new Proselite and to preserve his Reputation from the aspersion of Desultorious Levity they seem much more efficatious than they are As they know well enough who are privie to what is acted in the withdrawing Room The time was when you have been as confident in a contrary Opinion that such a Free Conference would have sealed the Walls of Rome and levelled the Popes Triple Crown Sixthly whether the Ministers â—…hould accept of such a partial unequall Conference or not or whatsoever should be the succes thereof you trespas too boldly upon his Majesties patience to dictate to him so pragmatically so Magisterially what he should do or would do in such a case which is never like to be Doth his Fathers constancy en ourage you to believe that he is a Reed shaken with the Wind Qui pauca considerat sacile pronunciat He that weighs no more Circumstances or Occurrances than serve for the advancement of his Design pronounceth sentence easily but temerariously and sor the most part unsoundly When such a thing as you dream of should happen it were good manners in you to leave his Majesty to his Christian Liberty But to trouble your self and others about the Moons shining in the water so unseasâ—…nably so impertinently or with what will come to pâ—…ss when the sky falls is unbeseeming the Counseller of a King Lastly consider how your Pen doth over-run your Reason and over-reach all grounds of probability to ascribe unto his Majesties chang such an infallible Iâ—…fluence upon all Protestants as to reduce them to the Roman Communion not onely his own subjects but Foreiners His blessed Fathers example had not so much influence upon the Scots his Native Subjects He was no Changling indeed neither to the right hand nor to the left Henry the Fourth his Grandfather did turn indeed to the Roman Church Had his change any such influence upon the Protestant party in France I know no followers such a change would gain him but I foresee cleerly how many Hearts it would lose him Certainly Sir if you would do a meritorious piece of service to his greatest Adversaries you could not fix upon any thing that would content them more highly than to see you successfull in this undertaking I have done with your Proposiâ—…ion He that compares it and your Demonstration together will easily judge them to be twins at the first sight As a Motive to his Majtsties Conversion you present him with a Treatise of Transubstantiation and desire that it may appeare un to the World under his Royal name I meddle not with your Treatise some of your learned Adversaries friends will give you your hands full enough But how can h s Majesty protect or patronise a Treatise against his judgement against his Conscience so contrary to the doctrin of the Church of England not onely â—…nce the Reformation but before About the year seven hundred The Body of Christ wherein he suffered and his Body Conseorated in the Host differ much The Body wherein he suffered was born of the Virgin consisting of flesh and bones and humane members his Spiritual body which we call the Host â—…onsists of many Grains without blood bones or human Members wherefore nothing is to be under stood there Corporally but all Spiritually Transubstantiation was neither held for an Article of Falth nor a point of Faith in those daies You charge the Protestants in divers places That they have neither Church nor Faith but have lost both And at the later end of your Treatise you undertake to demonstrate it But your Demonstration is a meer Parologism You multiply your Terms you confound your terms you chang and alter your Terms contrary to the rules of right arguing and vainly beat the air concluding nothing which you ought to prove nothing which your Adversary will deny You would prove that Protestants have no Church That you never attempt Bâ—…t you do attempt to prove how pittifull God knowes that they are not the onely Church that is the one Holy Catholique Church This they did never affirm they did never think It susficeth them to be a part of that Universall Church more pure more Orthodox more Catholique than the Roman alwaies professing Christ visibly never lurking invisibly in another Communion which is another of your mistakes I should advise you to promise us no more evident Demonstrations either your skill or your luck is so extremly bad In the second place you affirm that Faith is founded upon divine Authority and Revelation and deposited with the Church All that is true But that which you add that it is founded in the Authority of Christ speaking by the mouth of his Church By this Church understanding the Church of this Age and which is yet worse the Church of one place and which is worst of all the Bishop of that one Church is most false And so is that which you add that the faith of Protestants is founded upon their own reasonings which makes so many differences among them Reason must be subservient in the application of the Rule of Faith It cannot be the foundation of Faith Bad reasoning may bring forth differences and errors about Faith both with you and us but the abuse of Reason doth not take away the use of Reason We have this Advantage of you that if any one of us do build an erroneous Opinion upon the holy Scripture yet because our adherence to the Scripture is firmer and neerer than our adherence to our particular error that full and free and universal assent which we give to holy Scripture and to all things therein conteined is an implicite Condemnation and retractation of our particular error which we hold unwittingly and unwillingly against Scripture But your foundation of Faith being composed of uncertainties whether this man be Pope or not whether this Pope be Judge or not whether this Judge be infallible or not and if infallible wherein and how far the faith which is builded thereupon cannot but be fallible and uncertain The stricter the adherence is to a false