they can alleadge some speciall priviledge to the contrary but divers generall Councels have erred A generall Councel of Prophets 1 Kings 22.12 erred saying The Lord shall deliver Ramoth Gilead into the Kings hand a generall Councel of Priests Matthew 26.65 erred damnably in condemning Christ for a blasphemer guiltie of death The generall Councel held at Arminum erred denying the Sonnes equalitie with the Father at Ephesus confounding the two natures in Christ at Nice under Irene decreeing that Angels are to be painted because they are of a corporeall nature at Constance denying the Laitie to be bound to receive the communion in both kindes against the expresse precept of Christ Matth. 26.28 and Iohn 6.53 And of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.28 At Florence and after at Trent defining that the effect of the Sacrament depends upon the intention of the Priest or Bishop who administreth it Which if it were true no man in the Roman Church could ever be assured either of his baptisme or of his confirmation or of his absolution or of his ordination or of the validitie of his matrimonie or of his safe adoration of the Host or of the vertue of his extreme unction For how can he certainly know the intention of the Bishop or Priest who administred unto him these rites all which they account sacraments Neither can they evade by saying that these Councels might erre because they were not confirmed by the Pope for the Popes were present at all these later either in person or by their Legates and it is for certain that their second Councel at Nice was confirmed by Pope Adrian at Constance by Pope Martine at Florence by Pope Eugenius at Trent by divers Popes Lastly if Councels had an immunitie from error the prayer which they made at their Councels registred by Gregory the Great l. 7. Epist. were a meere mockerie The prayer was conceived in this forme Quia conscientià remordente tabescimus ne aut ignorattia nos traxerit in errorem aut praeceps forsitan voluntas impulerit a iustitia declinare ob hoc te poscimus te rogamus ut si quid offensionis in hac concilii celebritate attraximus condonare et remissibile facere digneris Because we pine away through remorse of conscience fearing lest either ignorance have drawn us into error or a headie will driven us to swerve from justice for this we pray thee we beseech thee that if we have done any thing amisse in this great and famous assembly thou wouldest vouchsafe to pardon it I conclude therefore with the words of Leo in his Epistle to Anatolius who lightly phillips off the authoritie of the generall Councel held at Ephesus in which there were above 600. Fathers In one word Tanquam refutari nequeat quod illicitè voluerit multitudo as if that could not be refuted which a multitude hath unlawfully determined giving withall most wholesome conusell to all Councels nulla sibi de multiplicitate congregationis concilia blandiantur Let no Councels flatter themselves with the great multitude of persons assembled in them as if that might priviledge them from errour n Here least the Reader should before he be aware be bitten by a snake lying under the grasse I hold it necessary to distinguish between two questions which may seem to be a like but indeed are very different The first whether Papists may goe to Protestant Churches The second whether a Protestant may goe to a Popish Church He that shall give the same solution to both these questions shall give a greater wound to the Protestant cause in the latter then his plaister will salve in the former The Protestants and Papists in this stand not upon even tearmes for there is nothing in the Protestant Liturgie or Service which the Romanists doe or by their own Rules can except at The Confession forme of Absolution Prayers Hymnes Collects Lessons Epistles and Gospels are either such as the Papists themselves use or at least such as they dislike not whereas it is farre otherwise in the Romane Missall For there is sprinkling exorcised water censing books and pictures worshipping images invocation of Saints prayers for the dead intercession by the prayers and merits of souls departed and which is the height of all idolatry adoration of their Host or breaden God and all this service performed in an unknowne tongue contrary to the expresse order of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14. all which the Reformed Churches condemne and abhorre and whereas this Author alleadgeth there can be no text of Scripture brought forbidding Papists to come to our Church I beleeve him but on the other side there are many expresse Texts of holy Scripture from whence it may be strongly inferred that no Protestant whose conscience is convinced of the manifold idolatries and superstitions wherewith the Romish Liturgie is polluted can with a safe conscience goe to Masse as namely Psal. 26.4 I have not sate with vaine persons neither will I goe in with dissemblers I have hated the congregation of evill doers and will not sit with the wicked 1 Cor. 10.7 Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them vers 14. Wherefore my dearely beloved flee from idolatrie 1 Ioh. 5.21 Keepe your selves from idols 2. Cor. 6.14 What fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse or what communion hath light with darknesse vers 16 What agreement hath the Temple of God with idols vers 17. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the uncleane thing and I will receive you o Although I have no meaning to drive away Papists from our Churches nor purpose to enervate the kindly and right arguments which this Priest bringeth to perswade them thereunto yet I cannot let passe this wherwith true Professours may be very much scandalized For what religious heart doth not tremble to thinke of going in and bowing in the temple of an â—doll in which as the Apostle teacheth the service that is done and the sacrifice that is offered is to devils 1 Cor. 10.20 and no better was this Rimmon the Syrian idoll I answer therefore 1 that the case of conscience Naaman put was not whether he might goe with his Master into the house of Rimmâ—n and offer sacrifice with him unto the idoll but whether he might not waite upon his Master thither and performe a civill for the bowing spoken of was as Câ—iâ—tan well noteth genuflexio obsequii non imitativa a bowing to the King not to the Idoll oâ—â—ice to him or make an obeysance whilest the King leaned on his hand and yet his heart smote him for this and his conscience misgave him that the Lord would be displeased with him for it for so much his prayer importeth The Lord pardon thy servant in this thing Secondly the words of the Prophet Elisha Goe in peace doe not necessarily import an approbation or permission of that which Naaman proâ—ounded but either a meere forme of valediction as if he had said in our
their originall Fountaine sith the most of them if not all might be gathered out of more ancient Liturgies For which See Biblioth Patru to 1. And if it be so then it may be said That the mud of Popery fell into them but they sprang not from Popery but from purer fountains * It hath been I confesse a long custome in the Latine Church ever since Pope Vitalian to celebrate the Church Service in the Latine tongue but it was never the custome of the Catholique or Vniversall so to doe The Greeke and Syrian and African and other Churches had from the beginning and have at this day their Service in their own languages Neither is the reason the Priest alleadgeth here of any force namely That w as the Catholike Religion is universall so it should be exercised in an universall language which he will have to be the Latine For first there is no necessitie that the Catholike Religion which is universall should be exercised in an universall language but rather in all languages Secondly since the division of tongues at the tower of Babell there was no language universall in all the world the Greeke was for a time the furthest spread and after the Romane but neither of them nor any other was spoken or understood by all Christians and at this day if we may beleeve travellers no language is so generally knowne and spoken as the Slavonian Thirdly the unity of language maketh nothing to the unitie of Religion or the Church neither doth the Apostle require that the Divine Service be performed in any one tongue but that it be done in a knowne tongue to the edification of the Church 1 Cor. 14.4.12.14.16 And to that end among others was the gift of tongues given x See page 28. Letterr. y See the lettero. pag. 17. z See the letter R pag. 28. a This definition of an heretique is both defective redundant defective for every obstinate deniall of an article of faith makes not an heretique unlesse his conscience be clearely convinced of his errour out of the word of God it is redundant also for a man may be an heretique by denying any article of faith though that article be not proposed to him by the Catholike Church to be beleeved though but his pastour or any other religious Christian out of Gods word clearely propound it to him and prove it or it be read by himselfe in the Scripture if he obstinately persist in the denyall thereof after his conscience is convinced he becomes an heretique b The Protestants of England know other Churches besides their own and some have learnedly discoursed of all the Churches in the Christian world as Purchas Brierwood Mocket Mr. Paget and others 〈◊〉 true it is they acknowledge no infallibilitie in the Roman or any particular Church nor receive any Church for true and Orthodoxe which consenteth not with them in all points of faith either expresly set downe or by cleare and necessarie consequence deduced from holy Scriptures c The Protestants hold nothing contrary to the Catholique Church though they hold many things contrary to the present Romane Church which is neither the Catholike Church nor a sound member thereof as is proved invincibly by Iohn Reynolds praefat thesium Sect. 12. Thes. ss 27. Apol. 5.23 And Bilsons answer to Cardinall Allen part 4. And Abbot against Bishop in a Treatise intituled The true ancient Romane Catholike to which none answer hath yet beene given nor sufficient can be d With what face can he say that the Protestants are incredulous and beleeve not the truth Who entirely beleeve the whole doctrine of the Scriptures together with the three Creeds that which beares the name of the Apostles the Nicene and that of Athanasius together with the foure first generall Councels in which time the Church most flourished as also the joynt Doctrine and unanimous consent of all the Fathers both of the Greeke and Latine Church for five hundred yeeres after Christ our Lord came into the flesh Let this traducer of the reformed Churches answer punctually whether he beleeveth that the learned Doctors Confessours and Martyrs who lived and died within the first 500. yeeres held the entire Catholique faith necessary to salvation or no If they held it not how were they saved upon what good ground or warrant are so many of them canonized for Saints even by the Roman Church but on the other side if they beleeved all things necessary to salvation how can we be esteemed incredulous or defective in our faith who beleeveth all that can be proved to have beene joyntly beleeved and unanimously professed by them e Is this the holy Romane Religion to make a May-game of Religion and to goe to Sermons as to a play to make themselves merry and dispell a Melancholly dumpe Besides their owne third commandement enjoynes them to keepe Holy-dayes and their owne Casuists allow the Lords day to be a day that is holy And is this a piece of holynesse to goe on such dayes to a play yet neither doe I beleeve that he can readily name the man much lesse many men that spake fustian with gravity in our Pulpits but I am sure he who patched up this Safeguard out of rags of Religion and falshood speaks Linsewoolsey through his whole Discourse and contrary to the law ploweth with an Oxe and an Asse The later of which here brayeth irrationally and unjustly against the generalitie of Protestant Preachers and Sermons Forsooth we are silly weake and ignorant men but they are all profound Gamaliels nay Angelicall and Seraphicall Doctors Whereunto I answer as Saint Paul did to the calumnies of the false Apostles 2 Cor. 10.12 We dare not make our selves of the number to compare our selves with them that commend themselves but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves amongst themselves understand not The Catholiques he saith are Hounds â—lood Hounds I grant and our Ministers timorous Hares they dare not encounter the weakest Romane Catholique they neither understand the controversies of Religion nor dare meddle with any in their Sermons If this were true which all our hearers know to be most false yet me thinks Iuvâ—nal speaks very good reason Loripedem rectus derideat Aethiopem albus And what great Clarks I pray were those of whom Boniface Bishop of 〈◊〉 â—pâ—ke in his time heretofore we had woodden Chalices and golden Priests â—ut now we have golden Chalices and woodden Priests what great Gamaliels were they of whom Bonaventure complaines Quidam sacerdotum â—lavem habent he speaketh of the Key of knowledge quidam claviculam quidam nullam what was he upon whom Sir Thomas Moore thus playes in his â—pigrâ—m tu bene cavisti ne te ulla occidere possit litera nam nulla est lâ—tera nota tibi Be not frighted at the words of the Apostle the letter killeth thou hast taken good order that it shall not kill thee for thou knowest not a lettâ—â— What was he
were to the injury of the Gospell retained and Christ himselfe blasphemed which no Christian eare ought to endure a See page 22. letter Q b If Papists trusted not in their owne merits it would goe better with them then I feare it will with many who the more they arrogate to themselves the more they derogate from our Saviour and the further they go from salvation I confesse many of them upon their death-beds have renounced their own merits and wholly stucke to our Saviours yet certaine it is that the generall doctrine of the Church of Rome is for trust in their own merits For they teach that faith alone doth not justifie us before God that good works are not only satisfactory for sin but also meritorious of eternall life and supererogatory also for others Consil. Trid. in sess 16. Bellar. l. 5. de iustif c. 16. and they who beleeve that they can so farre stead them do commonly confide in them Let them returne to the more ancient and true tenent with Bernard saying Meritum meum est miseratio Domini Gods mercy is my merit and if their be any worke of our own meritorious it is the renouncing our owne merits and flying meerely to Christ sufficit ad meritum scire quod non sufficiant merita Let them confesse with holy Iob Iob. 9.3 that they cannot answer one of a thousand and professe with Esay Esa. 64.6 All our righteousnesse is as filthy clowts and pray with David Psal. 143.2 Lord enter not into iudgement with thy servants for in thy sight shall no man living be iustified and close up their last Will and breath also as Bellar. is said to have done For Papists often dye in another faith then they lived with that holy ejaculation Lord vouchsafe to receive me into the number of thy Saints non meriti estimator sed veniae largitor not weighing my merits but pardoning my offences and we will not only cleare them of Pharisaicall pride and trusting in themselves but also conceive a better hope of their salvation c See a spunge to wipe out this false aspersioÌ„ upon that worthy servant of Christ and great Instrument of Gods glory pag. 59. letter H. d See the Advertisement to the Reader f The head of controversies betweene the Romish and Reformed Churches is the controversie about the Head of the Church which the Papists will have the Pope to be but reformed Churches Christ alone I say head of the Vniversall or Catholique Church but of particular Churches sovereigne Princes within their severall Realmes may be termed Heads that is chiefe Governours which this Priest here acknowledgeth For the acknowledgement of this supreame authoritie and power of the King in his dominions of England and Ireland the Oath of Supremacie was appointed by Act of Parliament in the 35. of Henry the eighth to be taken by all his Majesties subjects this Act was continued in the reigne of Edward the sixth but repealed in the first and second of Philip and Mary and revived the first of Queene Elizabeth now the question here is whether the Oath of Supremacie thus confirmed by divers Acts of Parliament exclude not that Spirituall jurisdiction which all Papists beleeve to be in the Pope Iure divino or which comes all to one whether a Papist ut siâ— that is remaining a Papist and holding his Popish religion may salvâ— conscientiâ take this Oath of Supremacie this Priest affirmeth he may but we shall demonstrate the contrary hereafter by impregnable arguments drawne from the intention of the Law-makers the letter of the Acts of Parliament and the Queenes Injunctions the judgement of the Church of Rome and the confession of the adversarie himselfe g Not the same authoritie which the Pope had in all things but so farre as it is expounded and limited in the Queenes Injunctions in the first yeere of her reigne the Queene as her brother and father before onely resumed that power which the Pope had unjusty taken from the Crowne and usurped it himselfe a power which is and was of ancient time due to the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme that is under God to have the Sovereigntie and rule over all manner of persons borne within these Realmes and Dominions and Countries of what estate either Ecclesiasticall or temporal soever they be See admonition to the Injunctions in the Appendix h Calvine conceived that King Henry the eighth by the Title of Head of the Church challenged a farre greater power then what the Act of Parliament acknowledged in him or he ever exercised but after the Title of Head of the Church was publikely declared and expounded by Q. Elizabeth boâ—h he and all the Reformed Churches rested satisfied in the lawfulnesse of that Title which imported not Supreame teacher or directer unto Trtuh but Supreame commander for the Truth in all causes and over all Persons i The intention of Henry the eighth and Queene Elizabeth was the selfe same as is expressed in the Act of Parliament 35. Henry the eighth and the Admonition annexed to the Injunctions of the 1 Elizabeth namely the extirpation and extinguishment of the usurped and pretended authoritie power and iurisdiction of the See and Bishop of Rome and the recovery of their owne right by adorning the Crowne with a flowre before wrongfully taken from it and here I cannot sufficiently admire the impudence of this Priest who so confidently affirmes that the intention of Queene Elizabeth was divers from her father in prescribing and requiring this Oath whereas she her selfe in the above named Admonition declareth to all her loving subjects That nothing was is or shall be meant or inâ—ended by the same Oath to have any other dutie allegiance or bond required by the same then was acknowledged to be due to the most noblâ— King of famous memory K. H. 8. her Maiesties father or K. Ed. 6. her Maiesties broâ—â—er k The liberty he speakes of was given by the approbation of the chief Vniversities beyond the Sea of the Romish Religion l Not to forme another Church but to reforme that Church which was before and restore Religion to her puritie by the example of Ezekiah Iosiah and other religious Kings m No power at all excepted but the former power explained onely how farre it extended viz Not to the authoritie and power of Ministrie of divine Office in the Church which none of the Kings or Queenes of this Realme possessours of the Crowne ever challenged Nor I in this place by what authoritie your Bishops anoynt your thumbes and ordaine your Priests to offer the unbloody sacrifice of the Masâ—e for the living the dead There is nec vola nec vestigium of any such calling in the Scripture or purer Antiquitie as for our Ministry it is â—o clearely justified together with the succession thereof out of your own best records and tenents by Francis Mason de succes Episc. Ministerio Angl. that ever since the printing therof all your Romish cavillers
Die Sabbathi 22. Octob. 1642. IT is this day Ordered by the Commons House of Parliament That none other besides Mr. Nicholas Bourne Stationer or whom he shall appoint shall upon any pretence whatsoever presume to Print the Book called A Safeguard from Shipwrack to a Prudent Catholike with Animadversions upon the same by Dr. Featley called Virtumnus Romanus Ordered to be Printed and published by the said House H. Elsing Cler. Parl. D. Com. Vertumnus Romanus OR A DISCOVRSE PENNED BY A ROMISH Priest wherein he endevours to prove that it is lawfull for a Papist in England to goe to the Protestant Church to receive the Communion and to take the Oathes both of Allegiance and Supremacie To which are adjoyned Animadversions in the in the margin by way of Antidote against those places where the rankest poyson is couched By Daniel Featley Dr. in Divinitie 2 Cor. 11 13 14. Such are false Apostles deceitfull workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ. And no marvell for Satan himselfe is transformed into an Angel of light Horat. Ep. Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo Tertul. in apol Nefas est ulli de sua religione mentiri ex eo enim quod aliud à se coli fingit quam colit negat quod colit etiam non colit quod negavit LONDON Imprinted by I. L. for Nicholas Bourne and Iohn Bartlet and are to be sold at the South entrance at the Royall Exchange and at the gilt Cup neere Austins Gate in Pauls Church-yard 1642. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO the Reader touching the Author and the Argument of the insuing Discourse AND THE REASONS FOR WHICH it is thought fit to be published to the view of the world AS the ignorance of good is evill so the knowledge even of evill is good for knowledge is nothing but the light and irradiation of the understanding by the beames of truth which herein resemble the rayes of the Sun that neither defile any thing nor can themselves be defiled Set aside curiositie and all kinds of vicious affection and indirect ends and you shall finde that the knowledge even of sinfull impuritie is cleane of naturall corruption is sound of worldly vanities serious and of all kinde of maladies of the minde and body healthfull And as it is the depth of Satans malice è bono malum elicere to draw evill out of good as the Spider sucks poyson out of sweet flowers and wholesome herbs so it is a high point of Gods goodnesse è malo bonum elicere to draw good out of evill light out of darknesse and order out of confusion it self Where it not for this that God who is the Soveraigne and Omnipotent Good knoweth that it more redoundeth to the glory of his infinite wisdome and power to worke good out of evill then quite to take it away there never had been there never should be any evill in the world as St. Augustine piously argueth the case There could be no evill in the world if God suffered it not and he suffereth it not against his will but with his wiâ—l neither would he which is so good nay rather goodnesse it selfe willingly suffer any evill to be but that by his omnipotencie he can and doth extract much good out of all sorts of evill This worke of Divine providence Gregory Nyssen fitly tearmeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the abuse of evill for what is aâ—-uti to abuse a thing but to use it contrary to the nature and condition thereof which if it be good such an use is an abusive use if it be evill such use thereof is an usefull and commendable abuse as whâ—n a Gramarian makes a rule of Anomalas a Rhetoritian a figure of a Solaecisme a Musitian an harmonie of discord a Logitian a true use of fallacies and a Physician a wholesome treacle of poyson Such a use Christian Reader thou mayst make of the unchristian Treatise ensuing Wherein the Author thereof now in bold endeavoureth to shew all Romane Catholikes a way to escape not only all bonds and imprisonment but all other penalties of the law against Popish Recusants by making their religion and conscience a leadeâ— and lesbian rule to comply with the religion professed by the Staâ—â— wheresoever they live This Booke together with the Authour thereof was sent to the Honourable House of Commmos by the care of some members of that House employed in a Committee neere Portsmouth and it hath beene thought fit to be published for sundrie reasons First to discover the craft of the Iesuits in procuring upon uniust grounds and by indirect meanes a â—ull from the Pope prohibiting all Romane Catholiques to resort to the protestant Churches in â—ngland under pain of his Holinesse curse and dreadfull thunderbolt of excommunication whereby as this Priest affirmeth they gained to themselves more disciples more money and more Colledges For bee thou pleased Christian Reader to take notice that in the reigne of King Edward the sixth of blessed memory and during the space of the first tenne yeeres of Queene Elizabeth the Phoenix of her sexe and age the Papists in England did usually goe to Church and there was no such thing as Popish Recusancie heard of But after the â—ame souldier Ignatius Loyola with his new regiment began to out-run all other orders and rancks of Monks and the Iesuits name was up and many Colledges built for them beyond the Seas the English Iesuits began to lay about how their Colledges and Seminaries might be maintained and furnished by those of the Romish partie in England and they finde this the ready way to offer to the richer sort of them the education of their children they paying a good round rate for it but because the parents then repairing to the Protestant Church might breed up their children at a farre easier rate in our Schooles of England the secular Priests willingly undertaking the care and tuition of them the Iesuits were never quiet till they had obtained from the Pope upon such suggestions as they thought would most take with his Holinesse the Bull above mentioned which frighted all Romish Catholiques from our Churches See here the beginning and originall of Popish Recusancie in England and the depth of the Myne which hath since enriched their English Colledges beyond the Sea No wonder if the name of an Author called Diana often cited in the ensuing Discourse be in great request The benefit accruing to those of the Societie of Iesus by the Recusancie of Romish Catholiques in England necessitated by them is a Diana which hath brought no small gaine to these craftsmen Demetrius with his fellow artificers cry out for many houres great is Diana of the Ephesians not so much honour to that heathenish Deitie but because they knockt and hammered out their living out of the silver shrines they made for her Sirs know ye not saith Demetrius that by this craft we have our wealth And in like manner the Iesuits stickle mainly for Recusancie
not out of any zeale to the Catholique cause as this Author in his Preface clearely demonstrateth but because they suckt out of this forced Recusancie no small advantage For the transporting of the children of Romish Recusants beyond the Seas ensuing thereupon both filled their Colledges with Schollars and their coffers with money And in this respect these Iesuits may rightly be called Suits as Ieconias in the Prophet is called in disgrace Conias not only in respect of their swinish and Epicurean lives in their Styes beyond the Seas but because their societie herein resembles that Sow in Martiall which farrowed in the Theater by a wound there received so this Order by the wound received from the State I mean the penalties inflicted upon Romish Catholiques for Recusancie hath growne fruitfull and exceedingly multiplyed But in the meane while are not Iesuits consciences seared with a hot iron who every where in their Printed Pamphlets and Libels most bitterly exclaime against the State for inflicting penalties upon Papists in England for Recusancie whereof they themselves have not only been the Authors but chiefe Actors therein to enforce it by the rescript of his Holines procured by them meerely for their advantage as this Author sheweth Secondly to detect likewise the craft of the Secular Priests verè seculares true worldlings who for their owne advantage counterplot against the Iesuits and endeavour by subtill fetches and straines of conscience to evacuate and frustrate their opposites designes Sic ars eluditur arte The Iesuits out of pretended zeale to the Romane faith and religion mainely contend for Recusancie fearefully adiuring all English Papists with whom they have any power that by no means either themselves resort to our publique service or send their children to any Protestant Churches or Schooles on the contrary the secular Priests out of pretended care and love to those of their religion perswade them to make no scruple of repairing to our Churches or Schooles that so they may save both the mulct of the law and great charges by sending their children beyond the Seas there to be brought up in the Colledges and Schooles of the Iesuits As for instructing them in the principles of their Catholique religion that they will take care of if the parents be pleased to commend them to their tuition Thus both make religion a stalking horse to their worldly ends the Iesuit is for Recusancie the secular Priest for Conformitie neither of them truly to gaine soules to Christ but to draw toll to their own mill If there be no necessitie of Recusancie the Iesuits may shut up their shops beyond the Seas and if their be a necessitie of Recusancie the Secular Priests may shut up their shops in England And what care the Iesuits though many Families of Romish Catholiques in England sensibly decay in their estates partly by reason of the penaltie of the law inflicted upon them for Recusancie and partly in respect of the great expence they are at in the education of their children and transportation beyond the Sea so long as the Iesuits Colledges by this means thrive and flourish and what care the Secular Priests though their proselytes run a hazard of their soules by frequenting the Churches and Schooles of those they account quite out of the way of salvation so long as they themselves are well paid for the education of their children and a good amends is made by the Masters temporall gaine for the danger of the Schollers spirituall losse When I read this Authors Preface and Discourse evidently discovering the Iesuits myning and the Secular Priests counter-myning me thinks I see Pseudolus and Simias in the Poet out-vying one the other in craftie fetches deceitfull subtilties practised by them with dissembling lyes and periuries Thirdly to lay open to the view of the world the detestable and damnable doctrine of Romish Priests and Iesuits who straine and weaken the strongest sinew which holdeth the members of all Ecclesiasticall and Politicke Bodies together who cancell that bond which being made on earth is Registred in the high Court of Heaven and the three Persons in the blessed Trinitie are called as witnesses thereunto The Iesuits teach that a man may without scruple of conscience or guilt of sinne affirme that upon oath in words which he knoweth to be false and deny upon oath that which he knoweth to be true so he be sure to have some clause in his minde which added thereunto in his inward intention though not uttered may make what he saith true in a sense And this Priest here in his last Chapter teacheth it to be lawfull to forge and fasten a meaning to the words of an Oath cleane contrary to the meaning of the Law-givers who first made the Oath and the Magistrate who lawfully requireth that Oath of them as I will make it evidently appeare when I come to scan his last Chapter Now what is this else then to use the name of the God of truâ—h in taking publique and solemne Oathes to confirme a lye either in words or meaning what is it else then to mocke with Religion and play fast and loose with the most sacred bonds of Pietie and Loyaltie Verily if Religion be derived à religando from binding the conscience or our faith to God or man he should not slander these men who sayes they have no Religion For the surest and strongest bonds of Religion can no more tye them then the greene withes could Sampson which he brake at pleasure Let there be an Oath advisedly penned in tearmes most expresse and significant with all the cautions that the wit of man can devise against all manner of evasions and backed with never so many direfull imprecations and anathema maranathaes upon the soule of him that shall by any slight cunning falshood or periurie either violate or invalidate and evacuate this Oath yet these men can with a wet finger either loosen it by a forged and forced interpretation or untie the knot by a mentall reservation or cut it asunder by Papall dispensation ô ubi estis fontes lachrymarum Suppose a Romish Priest or Iesuit be brought before a Magistrate to be examined if the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacie be tendered unto him thereby to discover who he is he will take them both in his own sense though neither in the sense of him who ministreth these Oathes nor in the sense of the Parliament which appointed them If hee farther demand of him upon Oath whether he be a Priest or no he will say he is not reserving in his minde of Apollo if he question him further whether he lately came from beyond the Seas he will forsweare it reserving in his minde the red or dead Sea if he farther require of him whether he have received holy Orders from a Romish Bishop he will denie it reserving in his minde without a Miter if the Examiner aske him further whether he had any speech with any English Nun at Liâ—borne he
will make no bones to denie it reserving in his mindâ— chast Lastly if the Iudge or Iustice charge him to use no equivocation or mentall reservation he will say and sweare he useth none reserving in his minde to tell you and so he slips all knots and it may be truly said of him what Pseudolus in the Poet spake of Ballio non potest pietate obsisti huic ut res sunt caeterae this man is oath proofe All heretiques and miscreants deliver mendacia doctrinarum lyes of doctrine but these only doctrinam mendaciorum a doctrine of lyes sodered by mentall reservation these only define doctrinally the lawfulnesse of a lye so that which is untrue in words be salved up with a mentall reservation This is the strange monstrous brat of the Iesuits like a childe halfe in halfe out of the mothers wombe for so is their mixt proposition halfe uttered and halfe concealed or reserved to themselves This is conceived to be the invention of a Iesuit at the first and therefore is tearmed by those who have learnedly impugned it the Iesuits new art of lying and true it is if we peruse the Catalogues of heretiques drawne by Epiphanius Augustine Philastrius together with Alfonsus à Castro Ambrosius de Rusconibus you shall light upon no hereticke who doctrinally maintained such a kinde of equivocation especially in matter of oath to be taken before a lawfull Magistrate It is true the Priscillianists held it to be lawfull to lye and forsweare and some Catholiques in St. Austines time to feigne themselves Priscillianists that they might the better entrap them and discover them but this was fraudulent simulation not mentall reservation the Arch-hereticke Arius when he was demanded whether he had subscribed or would to the Orthodox faith concerning the consubstantialitie of the sonne answered he had or would pointing to a paper in his bosome in which he had written his beliefe touching that point but this was a fraudulent gesture and false significatiin of his minde not a mentall reservation Give therefore the Devill his due this quaint kinde of lye was his prime invention as we may see in the Poet. When the Devill required of the Pagan King who was about to sacrifice unto him Cut me off a head Numa instructed by his familiar appearing to him in the likenesse of the Nymph Oegeria answered I will doe it adding by aequivocation of an Onion when the Devill added nay but thou shalt take of a mans Numa saith he will but addeth what he reserved in his minde haires when the Devill yet farther replyed nay I will have the soule or life you shall saith the King adding what he reserved in his minde of a fish and so plowing with the Devill his owne heifer resolved all diabolicall riddles See here the prototypon of Iesuiticall equivocation by addition and mentall reservation and after what copie either Garnet or Valentia or Navarrus or any other of the like sect wrot who first in our age published in writing and after in print the doctrine of equivocation by mentall reservation Fourthly to descrie to those that sit at the sterne in Church and Common wealth the maine scope and marke at which this Romish Priest and his associates â—ime in perswading all Romish Catholiques within this Realme to resort to our Churches and take the Oathes both of Allegiance and Supremacie It is as be professeth not so much for their indempniâ—iâ— from penall Statutes as to qualifie them for other preferments and even votes in Parliament to the indangering of our Religion and governmâ—nt For what should hinder them whose parts estate and friends are able to raise them from attaining their desires herein sith their Religion is now made no barre unto them and these Oathes he mentions now serve no more for a partition Wall betâ—eene loyall Protestants and dislâ—yall Papists Now the Ephraimites have learned to speake Shiboleth as plaine as the Gileadites whereas before they could but lispe Siboleth And if these Ephraimites by this slight come to be admitted to places of greatest trust in this Kingdome and as their birth and Baronies entitle divers of them to the House of Peeres so they should be chosen indifferently to the House of Commons what a loose end all things would be at How suddenly might we be cheated of our Religion Liberties Lawes yea and lives to Wherefore it were to be humbly desired of those that love the truth in sinceritie even with bended knees that his Maiestie and the high Court of Parliament would make some more certain distinctive signe between Papists and Protestants then monethly coming to Church and taking the Oathes above mentionâ—d This Authour points at such a thing while he speakes of some Articles of thâ—ir faith which it is not lawfull for them in any case to deny If therefore it should seeme good to the wisedome of the State to prescribe such a Confession of faith to be drawn wherein all or the most fundamentall points of their Trent faith are renounced and by name the twelve new Articles added to the Apostles Creede in the Bull of Pope Pius the fourth we should either soone see certainely who were Papists and who were not or at least give the Romish Religion a smarter blow then it ever yet received For though this Authour speake of a Fox craft to be used by Prudent Catholiques and though the Priests and Iesuits and the cunningest heads among the Papists would set their wits on the racke to finde out some Eshapatoir or evasion whereby they might goe beyond the State yet they must then be inforced to denie their Religion to save it and to alter the tenets which have hitherto beene held for currant both among their Schoole Divines and Casuists namely that it is a damnable sinne to equivocate when a man is called to give an account of his faith For this cannot be denied to be a plaine deniall of Christ and in their owne sense whosoever so denieth him before men shall be denied by him before his Father in heaven Lastly to shew the great strength of truth and the cleare evidence of the Protestant Religion which convinceth the conscience of most obstinate Papists For this Authour a man of learning and well versed in the booke cases of the Romanists though in some places he jeares at our Preachers and scoffes at our Religion yet in other where he is most serious he lets fall those passages from him which are worthy the taking up namely pag. 6. Recusancie was first brought aâ—ong Catholiques into England by a certaine companie of men for temporall ends procured covertly and by indirect meanes from twelve Fathers of the Councel of Trent and certaine Popes upon false suggestions The false suggestions pag. 7. et deinceps were these viz. That the Protestants of England were idolatrous and blasphemous heretiques hating God and his Church that the commerce with them especially at Church would be an occasion of the
and Supremacie Matth. 10.16 Be ye wise as Serpents and Simple as Doves LONDON Printed by I. L. for Nicholas Bourne at the South entrance to the Royall Exchange 1642. A Preface to the Reader Gentle Reader I Am to write of a point of Controversie wherein I know that I shall undergoe the censure of divers sorts of people yea amaze some at the strangenesse of the thing Yet my intention being good as tending to the safeguard as well of souls as bodies of all and I my selfe being constrained by a kinde of naturall necessitie thereto as suffering much not only by the severitie of the Laws for my Religion which is the least but likewise both spiritually and temporally by the malice and treachery of some evill spirits instigating others to take advantage by Religion doe hope to finde approbation therein at least of the wiser sort Although I cannot see but why in reason not pretending the least prejudice to Religion but rather the good of Gods Church as I shall make appeare the weakest sort of Catholiques should not be likewise pleased therewith For although Religion as it is taken for Christian beliefe ought of every man to be professed according to St. Thomas Aquinas and other Doctors 2a. 2ae q. 3. at two particular times viz. when and as often as the glory of God shall conduce therunto or the spirituall good of our neighbour shall be either conserved or augmented thereby grounding themselves upon the words of our Saviour Matth. 10.32 Qui me confessus fuerit coram hominibus confitebor ego eum coram patre meo qui in caelis est Every one that shall confesse me before men I also will confesse him before my Father which is in heaven Yet it is not necessary to salvation that any man at all times and in all places doe confesse his Religion without necessitie Whence if a man should goe out into the Market place and cry himselfe to be of such and such a Religion or should write upon the frontispice of his house in a countrey contrary to his Religion here liveth a Christian a Protestant or Catholike his act would be thought so farre from vertue or religion as that it would be rather deemed presumption or the height of indiscretion Hence it is that although a Catholike be bound under paine of damnation to professe his religion in the twice before assigned yet he is not bound to professe a Recusancy of a thing of its own nature indifferent thereby at all times and in all places to discover his Religion for this were as much in effect as to cry himselfe over the whole kingdome or to write over his doore that he were A Catholike or at least some Sectary For as I shall hereafter say Recusancy is common both to Catholikes Brownists and other Sectaries different in opinion from Protestants which would be an occasion to call himselfe in question for the Religion he professeth whence I may rightly describe the Recusancy of Catholikes no otherwise then to be an indiscreet discovery of a mans Religion without necessitie or obligation whereby he makes himselfe lyable to the penall laws of England for not going to Church Which was brought first amongst them into England by a certaine company of men for temporall ends procured covertly and by indirect means from twelve Fathers of the Councell of Trent and certaine Popes upon false suggestions to the ruine of many men That I proove what I have said it is necessary that I relate the manner how it was brought in In the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign and the alteration of Religion in England Catholikes went to Church to conforme themselves to the State as they did in K. Edward the sixths time yet privately kept to themselves the exercise of their owne Religion Which some Priests perceiving not convenient for the propagation of their owne family then newly hatched wrought in the Councel of Trent that twelve Fathers of the said Councel not all Bishops yet favourers of the said family might be selected to declare to English Catholikes upon these suggestions following viz. that the Protestants of England were idolatrous and blasphemous hereticks hating God and his Church that their commerce especially at Church would be an occasion of the subversion and ruine of their soules denying and betraying of the true faith giving of scandall to men of tender conscience as breaking that signe which was distinctive betweene the people of God and not his people that it was altogether unlawfull for them to goe any longer to the Protestant Church as appeareth by the words of the said declaration which if I had by me I would willingly have here inserted This declaration being thus obtained they possessed certain Popes to wit Paul the fourth Pius the the fifth the two last Gregories Sixtus Clement and Paul the fifth so strongly with the same and the aforesaid suggestions that the said Popes likewise declared as it is said by certaine rescripts which I never yet could see their going to Church to be likewise unlawfull Which said suggestions had they beene or were they true I should likewise say and grant it unlawfull but not being true as I shall hereafter shew the common opinion of Divines in this point is to be followed to wit that it is a thing indifferent and therefore may be lawfull to frequent the Churches of Schismaticks Now to prove what I have said that it was first brought in by a certaine company of men It is evident in it selfe by the carriage of the businesse for it is altogether improbable that one mans authoritie to wit Doctor Sanders who is named to be the onely Agent herein a man alwaies ill relished in our state and therefore in this point to be esteemed partiall could select so many Fathers out of the said Councel in a matter of such importance upon his owne bare suggestion or that the said Fathers would or ought to have declared the same unlesse they had been made beleeve that the aforesaid suggestions were true in the common opinion of most of the Priests then in our kingdome That it was wrought for temporall ends by the said company the event shewes the same for there is none that have got or do get thereby but onely the said company as appeares by their abundant treasure and rich Colledges for Recusancie begets persecution and persecution almes deeds that God may assist the afflicted in their distresses And by this Recusancie great mens children can get no learning or science within this kingdome but must be sent beyond the Seas each at twentie five or thirtie pound per annum by which their said family was and is propagated and their heape increased Further the politicall invention of recusancie was so sweet and pleasing by reason of the great gaine which it brought that one of the said company Authour of the answer to the libell of Justice all besmeared with wonted pietie so
moral cap. 11. 27 punctâ— 2.4 5. who saith It is lawfull for Catholiques to prâ—y together with Protestants to heare their Service and goe to their Sermons And for this opinion he citeth Navarr lib. 5. Con. 10. 12. de haeret who as all men know was a pious Divine and a man of a tender conscience Againe the said Azorius saith in the said cap. 27. puncto 5. That if an hereticall Prince commands his Subjects that are Catholiques to goe to Church upon paine of death or losse of goods if he doe this only because he will have his lawes obeyed and not to make it Symbolum hereticae pravitatis nor have a purpose to discern thereby Catholiques from Hereticks they may obey it Gregory Martin one of the translators of the Bible into English cited by the said R. P. in his book aforesaid pag. 101. 109. Diana 5. part tract de scandal pag. 191. resol 33. where he saith a man may use the habit and ceremonies of a false law being in danger of death See Hurtado de Mendoza and others by him cited And Paulus Comitolius Resp. moral lib. 1. q. 47. when he comes to handle the question whether a Professour of the Romane faith being sent into those parts where the Greeke Church observes other rites may goe to their service he allows it and builds upon this reason That by the Law of God and nature it is lawfull and the precepts of the Church if any there were that forbid this doe not binde Christians in cases of great detriment to the life or soule or honour or fame or outward things See Azor. above cited for going to the Schismaticall Church of the Greeks where he saith that a Catholique hearing Masse in a Schismaticall Church there on a Sunday fulfilleth the precept of the Church commanding the same See further the Decree of the Councell of Constans and Martin the 5. which beginneth In super ad evitanda scandala c. for the communicating with hereticks as well in service as otherwaies Which Decree extends it selfe further then to our purpose For by the same we may communicate with Hereticks fallen in a Catholike countrey if it be not in point of heresie Yea receive the Sacraments of Priests excommunicated either by law or any sentence of man so they be tolerated and not by name excommunicated See Diana pag. 175. col 1. and the said Hurtado whom he citâ—th If then we may communicate with such men where there may be some danger of sin why should we not communicate with Protestants where there can be no danger of sinne as shall be hereafter prooved It is fourthly proved by the practice of all Catholikes in forreigne Countries for Germany See for Germany and France Navarr lib. 5. Consil. 12. de Heret and see the foresaid Author of the answer his words are these cap. 9. pag. 216. And indeed if the German Catholiques had beene so restrained persecuted and put to death as the English have beene these yeers and had not gone by halfes with the Protestants as in some places the have done they had had perhaps farre more Catholiques at this day and them more zealous and their whole Nation perchance reduced ere this Thus he Where is to be noted that his perhaps and perchance are nothing worth For by their going to Church as he termeth it by halfes with the Protestants their countrey became Catholike long since whereas his zeale of persecution hath not converted ours yet neither is yet like to doe For Scotland it is confessed by the said R. P. pag. 69. with his judgement of their miserie insâ—ing thereby but the truth of the miserie I shall shew hereafter who yet in plaine termes doth not deny my assertion but here and there granteth that some learned discreete man where there is no scandall and in whom there is no danger of subversion may goe to the Church of heretiques and heare their Sermons Much more say I then to the Church of Protestants most of whom are not to be called properly formall hereticks for to heresie as it is a sinne against faith and maketh a formall hereticke is required obstinacie or pertinacie against the doctrine declaration and sence of the Church See Saint Thomas of Aquin. 2â— â—ae q. 11. ar 2o. Cajetan Bannes idem Aragona art 1o. Suares disput 19. de fide sect 3. Now what obstinacie can Protestants be said to have in their opinions with relation to a Church they know not for they know none other but their owne so that although they beleeve amisse whereby they may suffer in the next world and speake hereticall propositions yet because they proceed not from an hereticall mind or consent they are not perfectly heretiques Adde that I my selfe in Germany with other Catholiques of the same countrey have gone to a Synagogue of Iewes without any scandall or having beene judged to have done amisse Ergo I and others may go to a Church of Protestants without any scandall or being judged in reason to have done amisse And I can assure my selfe whatsoever others may thinke of my assurance that the lawfulnesse of going to Church is the common opinion of all forreign Divines that ever I conversed with in any Vniversitie Which in part may be proved by the fact of a certaine Catholique Lady who going to Church in England sent her Priest to Paris to have this case resolved by the Sorbon Doctors who all Subscribed That a Catholique in England might lawfully goe to the Protestant Church That this is true it may be justified by some persons of great qualitie yet alive If any English Scholler shall answer that we went to the Synagogue of Iewes out of curiositie and when they did not exercise their rites and ceremonies I reply that to choose we would have gone if we might have had private conveniencie unknowne to them to have seene their rites and ceremonies neither doe we set downe our intention of going for if it may be done with any intention lawfully especially where the whole matter of all their rites and ceremonies is alwaies conserved to wit a burning lampe with oyle for the soules departed now as they conceive in Limbo patrum a place where the oblation of oyle to that purpose is alwaies kept the tenne Commandements placed in veneration a number of linnen rolles or bands wrote with Hebrew letters wherwith they binde the tenne Commandements according to their distinction of feasts the knife of Circumcision and the like Which may be stumbling blocks to some weake Christians although the men to performe these rites should not be present why should wee not goe to the Protestant Church with some intention lawfully where there are onely men within bare wals saying some Catholique service by them pieced up together without any Catholique forme not to the possible hurt of any but themselves and whether I went to the said Synagogue out of curiositie or out of the love of science to reason
it will be the Scandall of Pharisees as is aforesaid Now to proove the assertion which is the first branch of the Minor Scandall is a word or deed lesse right apt to give occasion to another of spirituall ruine â—ut to goe to Church is no deed lesse right but prudently and chiefely right all circumstances considered Ergo to goe to Church is no scandall and consequenter to goe to Church can yeeld no occasion to my neighbour of spirituall ruine but rather an occasion of both his temporall and spirituall conservation and edification This Minor I prove To goe to heare a piece of a Masse in English is no deed lesse right But to goe to Church is to goe to heare a piece of a Masse in English Ergo to goe to Church is no deed lesse right The Major I prove thus to goe to heare a whole Masse in English the nature of the thing considered and abstracting from the constitution of the Church is not evill For the diversitie of the language takes nothing from the goodnesse of the thing As is manifest in the Greeke Church where Masse is alwayes said in Greeke So that if it be not evill in it selfe to goe to heare a whole Masse in English it is not evill to goe to heare a piece of a Masse in English And consequently not to goe to Church Adde that in the whole Latine Church where it is not lawfull to say Masse in any other language then in Latine becâ—use of the long custome of the Church kept alwayes on foot for this reason that as the Catholique Religion is universall so should it be exercised in an universall language yet it is lawfull and in use to say a piece of the Masse as Collects Prayers Psalmes Epistles and Gospels in any Language of any Countrey whatsoever within the said Church It may be here objected first that although to go to Church be of its own nature a thing indifferent yet hic nunc it is evill For considering the circumstances of time and place it hath a shew appearance of evill apt to occasion sin in another From which we are commanded to abstain by St. Paul 1 Thess. 5.22 saying From all shew of evill refraine your selves To which I answer first That all the appearance of evill which going to Church hath is that in England above other countreys Priests have not been freely left to the Principles of Divinitie or Lay-men to their Christian libertie but it hath been procured to have bin declared unlawfull upon false suggestions and continued thus thought unlawfull by some erroneous judgements Which my neighbour likewise phantasing erroneously apprehends it a species cast from going to Church which indeed is not so nor otherwise then if a man with a blood-shotten eye should behold glasse say it were red when a parte rei it were white It were very hard if I eating fish in the lent and one purblind seeing me eate apprehending it flesh because he goes away scandalized as thinking me to have eaten flesh by reason of his false eyes that I should be said to have given him scandall So it would seeme likewise as hard if a broken phansie or an erring minde should conceive evill species from mine actions which a parte rei are no species at all of them but quite contrary to thâ—ir species that I should thereby be judged to give scandall to little ones No I hope as the erroneous eyes shall beare their owne imperfections so the erroneous judgement shall beare its owne mistake and neither shall accuse me before God of the scandall of little ones Hence I answer secondly to the place of the Apostle before objected thaâ— the appearance or shew of evill is to be understood first that it proceeds really from the act done and that it be not only a conjecturall appearance but morally certaine That no man play Tom-foole in striking him that stands next him without a cause Secondly that the appearance proceeds not from a deed to be done of necessitie either by the Law of God or nature Otherwise we might inferre the Apostle to command contradictories to refraine and not to refraine from such a deed whence proceeds the appearance For if the thing be commanded by the Law of God it must necessarily be done or otherwise sinne And if it were to be done by the Law of Nature the blessed Apostle was not so unreasonable as to bid us refraine from a thing in its owne nature lawfull and of necessitie to be done without admittance of some way to avoyd scandall Although by reason of some circumstance place or person it might have a shew of evill and so for some time be suspended as some things of naturall necessitie yea the Evangelicall counsels may have But in such cases we are to instruct and admonish the weake as I by these presents doe that although it should seeme to them to be evill or to have some shew of evill yet in very deed it is not evill but good And I am constrained under paine of death to do the same After which instruction and admonition if they still persist in their scandall it is not a scandall of little ones but of Pharisees and great ones Neither doth it proceed from infirmitie or ignorance but from malice and is not to be regarded So that it seemes a thing unreasonable and in the strength of judgement against nature that a man shall more regard the trouble of his neighbours conscience at a thing lawfull then the hazard of his own life and ruine of his own family and fortunes in the execution of the same See Diana for this Doctrine and all the Authors by him above cited If any shall here reply to my first answer of the objection that the shew of evill is really in the act of going to Church and not as falsely imagined and that this shew of evill appeares not only to weake and ignorant people but to men of understanding of all sorts and not only to Catholiques but likewise to Schismaticks of all sorts who in going to Church to save their goods confesse that they doe it against their conscience as conceiving it to be unlawfull by reason of the aforesaid Declaration of the twelve Fathers in the Councell of Trent and the foresaid Popes which whether it were gotten by false suggestions or no they discerne not neither doe they dispute but simply obey To make up the rime in reason the more simple they For reason may teach great ones and men seeming of understanding that are Schismaticks or Lay-Catholiques the contrary because nothing is done at Church which is either evill or hurtfull and both reason and learning Priests And therefore I rejoyce with Aristotle Propter illorum cogitare nihil mutatur in re and say that the shew of evill proceeds not from the act of going to Church For in all King Edwards time and the beginning of Queene Elizabeths time untill the thirteenth yeere of her
Raigne when all Catholiques did or might goe to Church going to Church by Catholiques then being in fashion none took scandall thereby because there was then no shew of evill And why should there be now more shew of evill in the act then at that time If ye answer by reason of the aforesaid Declaration I reply that then the species of evill ought to be in the said Declaration as gotten upon false grounds and not in the act of going to Church which any man might easily perceive considering the nature of the act it selfe And the experience of our distressed countrey teacheth us that those indirect proceedings are more apt to generate scandal then the act of going to Church which of its own nature is lawfull and hath been lawfully practised and approved by the common opinion of all Divines of any indifferency in other countreyes and so might have been in ours had it not been for turbulent people who for their owne ends have more troubled the Church in procuring of breves and rescripts then all other nations besides of our condition To Schismaticks I say they sin not in simply going to Church but in going to Church with an ill conscience as thinking that to be sin and doing the same which indeed is not so and the ground of their errour they have had from the misunderstanding of Catholiques To weake ones I answer desiring them to be satisfied because I have and shall prove the thing in it selfe to be lawfull and that I am as I have said in danger and hazard of my life in not doing the same So that by a naturall necessitie I am bound to it Which necessitie if it were not I might peradventure rest in the common Maxime of Philosophers Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora It is in vain done by more that may be done by lesse It may be objected secondly that it is as much scandall to goe to Church as it was to eate of those meats offered to Idols Of which Saint Paul speaks 1 Cor. 8. the eating of which in it selfe considered although the Apostle thought no sin in Wise men or great ones because they did eate the same without any relation at all to the Idoll as he seemeth to intimate verse 4. yet because some ignorant Christians seeing the said Wise men eate did likewise eate the same meats with conscience and devotion as if the said meats had received some vertue or sanctification from the Idol Saint Paul exhorted the Wise men to abstaine from eating the said flesh for that out of mistake and misunderstanding of their eating the aforesaid Christians then newly converted did take offence and sin Whereupon in great zeale he said vers 13. If meate scandalize my brother I will never eate flesh lest I scandalize my brother So that one would thinke that the blessed Apostle would rather have chosen to die as the aforesaid words may import then by eating the said meats or any flesh to have scandalized his brother And St. Augustine in expresse termes lib. de bon conjugali cap. 16. saith It was farre better to have dyed then to have eaten of those meats so offered to Idols conformable to himselfe elsewhere who likewise saith That a man may not commit or occasion so much as a veniall sinne to gaine the whole world Which he that giveth scandall must needs at the least commit Therefore what the said Apostle and St. Augustine said and thought of the eating of the said meats the same ought every Catholique to take as said of the act of going to Church I answer denying the consequence and say that there is a great disparitie betweene the said meats offered to Idols and eaten in the temple with Infidels and the act of going to Church First because in the meats so offered there was not only a shew and appearance of evill but a morall malignitie therein as well to great as to little ones Which although the wise did take away that the said malignitie touched not them yet the weake neither did or had understanding so to doe Whence the Apostle said vers the 7. that there was not knowledge in all For the morall malignitie that was in those meats to all was a prophanation and impuritie in them as being things dedicated to the Idol or the Devill So that as a man receiveth good by holy bread or things sanctified so he receiveth evill by a thing prophaned or maligned Which morall malignitie the Wise taking away as I have said by blessing the said meats to the use of their bodies and conceiving both them and the Idoll as they were in themselves meere creatures both created for the use of man did eate what was usefull to eate without sinne Whereas the weake not so much as considering the prophanenesse of the meats but seeing the Wiser eate with error of judgement conceived vertue and sanctification in the same as being eaten in the temple and offered to the Idol by Infidels and so with conscience and devotion they received the same and were as the Apostle saith in the said seventh vers polluted thereby Now in going to Church their is no morall malignitie at all in so much that scarce the weakest man can invent how to sin by any thing that is there done It being of its owne nature so indifferent and to a good intention good that a parte rei their is no appearance of evill therein If any one say that there is appearance of evill and scandall by reason of disobedience in that the act is done contrary to the declaration of the said twelve Fathers and certain Popes I answer that the declaration is as if it were not because gotten upon most false suggestions as I have and shall say and consequently the minds of the said Fathers and wils of the said Popes is to us in this matter as yet unknowne and the species or shew of evill from thence proceeding rather to be lamented then regarded If the reply be made as before that the suggestions are not examined but the will of the aforesaid Superiors hath alwaies beene held as declaring that which hath been best for the soule and dehorting from going to Church and that so by reason and vertue hereof there results a certaine shew of evill in doing the same which maketh it appeare to most men unlawfull and consequently scandalous I rejoyce as before that the instruction and admonition of the indifferencie and necessitie of the act ought to take away all scandall howsoever apprehended and that such as apprehend it unlawfull and will not be satisfied cannot doe it And lastly such as will not be satisfied but scandalized are not to be regarded as I have said before Adde out of Navar Man c. 23. n. 38. That it is not a sinne in a man not to obey his superiour when he hath probable reasons to thinke that his superiour was deceived in so commanding or that he would not have given
himselfe disdained This reason seemes to me very strange that a man may goe to Church to serve his King and may not goe to Church to serve himselfe when as charitie alwayes beginneth at home and if a man be naught in or to himselfe to whom can he be good or that feare of displeasure through apprehended disdaine can excuse a man from doing that which were otherwise unlawfull as though a man were not bound rather to suffer the displeasure of his King with losse of his life then suffer wrack of his owne conscience and if feare of displeasure did excuse Naaman why should not the danger of death losse of fortunes ruine of posteritie and the like excuse Catholiques 4. The fourth reason and most especiall difference is say they that Naaman made a promise before the Prophet and his own train that he would from thence forth serve onely the true God and to that purpose carried earth with him to make an Altar for sacrifice Whereas those that goe to the Protestant Church doe not renounce all heresies nor professe to frequent Masse c. But pray give me leave to say they doe and that herein there is no difference at all For Catholikes that goe to Church are knowne to their Confessaries and their minde and intention is likewise to him knowne as Naamans was to the Prophet And if they be knowne Catholiques their beliefe is likewise knowne at leastwise to their traine if not to others by their communion with the See of Rome so that herein there is no disparitie at all And if they be not knowne it is prudence to keepe themselves so more then to their Confessaries which is a sufficient protestation in these troublesome times For I wonder by what law a mâ—n is bound to make any other Protestation of his beliefe for the doing of a thing indifferent So that as I have said for the said foure reasons and likewise because there is Idolatrie committed at Protestant Churches which I never yet could finde as often as I have frequented the same and doe hope to prove the contrarie the aforesaid Doctors make it unlawfull and scandalous to goe to Church and our case different from Naamans Hence they liken it to that of Eleazarus and the other Maccabees 2 Mac. 6.7 who were commanded by eating Swines flesh to depart from the law of God and their fathers Which say they by no meanes was lawfull to doe or to make shew of doing the same And a man may sweare it true For Swines flesh being forbidden by the law they were bound under sinne to abstaine from the same And if they should have made their brethren beleeve in words that they had eaten they would have told an untruth with dissimulation in a matter forbidden by the law both which were mortall sinnes which is as farre different from our case as light from darknesse For we contend that to goe to a Protestant Church is by no law forbidden but a thing indifferent and by a good intention may be made really good without any dissembling And they bring us an example of a thing which in doing many sinnes are committed so that for the reasons which I have given I conceive that the authoritie of the said rewoned Doctors concludeth nothing against our assertion unlesse the Protestants were an assembly of fallen heretiques where there were danger of sinne by subversion or the like which can never be proved It may be fourthly objected that it is the common opinion of men that to go to Church is scandalous because it is a signe of hereticall falshood and a man so doing is reputed as fallen both of Catholiques and Protestants I answer that it is false and experience teacheth us the contrary For who made it such a signe and Schismaticks that goe to Church with an ill conscience only to save their goods notwithstanding in this they are accounted to hurt onely themselves yet of all Catholiques they are trusted and esteemed as honest men and of Protestants they are esteemed no other And they sinne not as I have said in going to Church but in going with an ill conscience and being barred of simple Priests from other meanes of salvation and in doing so give scandall But you will say they deny their faith in this act I deny that They deny onely recusancie with an ill conscience and not religion Yet I grant that such Schismaticks professe no faith at all And if there be any other opinion of men concerning them it is malicious and pharisaical generated by the craft and deceit of others under the species of pretended piety making people beleeve that there is sinne and scandall in the act when there is none and if any Protestant thinketh otherwise of this they have it from the erroneous customary opinion of some Catholiques revealing the same It may be objected fifthly To communicate with heretiques is sinne and scandall but to goe to Church is to communicate with heretiques Ergo. It is sinne and scandall To which I answer first distinguishing the Major to communicate with hereticks publikely and particularly denounced to be such or in their heresie I grant the Major but deny the Minor in the same sence but to communicate with heretiques not denounced such not in point of heresie to be sinne that is most false for then we should neither eate drinke buy or sell with Protestants which is most absurd Which absurditie to take away and all scruple rising from thence by communicating with heretiques as well in service as otherwaies was the before mentioned constitution of Martin the fifth prudently made Adde that if we may not communicate with Protestants in going to Church we must communicate with Brownists in refraining the Church and so be thought the same with them or else every one must be bound to get himselfe convicted for a Popish Recusant that so Protestants may know him to be a Catholique and no Brownist and so to avoyd water he must runne into the fire If you answer that so he goeth not to Church it maketh no matter what Protestants thinke of him for Catholiques know what he is I reply then by the same reason that if he goe to Church it maketh no matter what Protestants thinke of him for Catholiques may likewise know what he is I answer secondly that the Major supposeth what is not granted viz. That Protestants with whom I goe to Church are formall heretiques which I desire to be first proved For an heretique is he that obstinately denieth any article of faith proposed by the Catholique Church to be beleeved How can a Protestant be said obstinately which includes a knowne infallibility rejected to deny an article proposed by the Catholique Church as I have said before when he beleeves none other Church but his owne For although Protestants hold divers tenets contrary to the Catholike Church which have been justly condemned in their Authours as heretiques Yet whether obstinately held in them the contrary not
being sufficiently proposed at leastwise to most of them I much doubt For as Diana saith 5a. parte pag. 240. col 1a. A man speaking heresie that is a proposition condemned by the Church without an hereticall consent is no heretique neither in curreth excommunication denounced against heretiques so that although they be incredulous and beleeve not the truth yet they are not properly and in rigor formall heritiques Adde that there is no more sin to goe to the Protestant Church then to goe to them to dinner or to goe with them to a play or other sports And I for my part had rather give twelue pence to heare a Sermon then take five shillings to see a play For there is no such sport as to heare a weake fellow speake fustian with gravitie or tell a fable of the whore of Babylon or Babylonians for so now they terme Catholiques with erected eyes in earnest Or why should it be more lawfull to see a play where most commonly intercedes scurrilitie and obscene gestures and the end of which is nothing but vanitie then to heare a Sermon where perhaps in some places or by some simple men their may be some untruth told of the Pope to please their Auditory although most commonly nothing but moralitie which is the end and intention of the same I pray resolve me § 2. It is not unlawfull to goe to Church because Recusancie is a distinctive signe Which is the second branch of the Minor THat Recusancy is a distinctive sign of a Catholique from a Protestant is most false Which is thus proved If Recusancie be a distinctive signe it is a signe naturall or by institution but neither can be said Ergo it is no signe The Minor is proved Not naturall for as Hurtado above cited well observeth Actions and things are not of their own nature significant but have naturall and politicall uses independent of any signification For a bush hung out at a Taverne doore doth naturally signifie no more wine to be sold then any other creature whatsoever Nor doth the habit of a Bishop naturally signifie a Bishop more then a Judge and so of other things No more doe naturally the actions of men But admit that Recusancy were improperly said a naturall signe yet it would naturally signifie no more a Catholique then a Brownist for he refuseth likewise to goe to Church or any other Sectary Although a posteriori it might be thought by discourse to signifie some one displeased with the Protestant Church but why or wherefore it would never signifie Not by institution for if so who instituted the same God or man Not man for it is out of his power to signe the people of God from not his people It is only the owner of the flocke that must signe the sheepe and none other unlesse it be by speciall order from him Hence when God would signe his people in the old Testament from the people of other Nations he himselfe instituted Circumcision Gen 17. as a distinctive signe betweene them and others that whosoever had that signe should be of his people and who so had it not was to be rejected Neither was it sufficient that any man had accidentally and by the institution of Abraham any other signe by which he might be knowne from others because he was not thought sufficiently marked nor accounted any one of Gods people by any other sign then Circumcision Which was the sole marke of God saying All the male kinde of you shall be Circumcised And this is consonant to reason For one man may get a distinctive signe of another mans institution shall God therefore own him Brownists as I have said have Recusancie doth it therefore follow that they are likewise Catholiques If a sheepe in my neighbours flocke should teare an eare in a bramble or bush or accidentally breake an horne this sheepe is hereby distinct from the rest yet the owner doth not own it by that marke but by a marke of his own institution and ruddle So it is in the present That God did not institute the same it is so evident that it needs no proofe For where may we finde his institution Vnlesse we should run to the all-knowing spirit of hereticks Hence it follows that Recusancie is no distinctive signe If you aske me what is then the signe to know a Catholique from any other Sectary I answer His beleefe of the Creed of the Catholique Church and his lâ—fe at all times in communion with the See Apostolique So Stratford lib. 2. de Eccles. cap. 6. pag. 188. It may be here objected first the common opinion of Divines as the said R. P. saith 2a. 2ae q. 3. To use a distinctive signe of a false religion that properly is such is a deniall of faith and evill in it selfe But the Service said in a Protestant Church is such Ergo. I grant the Major For if the signe be proper of a people rejected of God as since the promulgation of the Gospel Circumcision is to a Jew the Major must needs be true But if the signe be garments or the like used to the worship and ceremonies of a false law which some fondly call a proper signe then the Major meaning the use of such a signe to be a denyall of faith is false according to Diana resol 34. pag. 191. above cited Azorius Sanches and many others there Because such signes being naturall things may be lawfully used as I have said before independent of any such signification and so not properly signes whatsoever R. P. saith to the contrary upon his own bare word The Minor proposition I deny For who instituted that service to be such a signe not God as all Catholiques will confesse but rather the contrary it being Catholique Not themselves for it would savor too much weakenesse to thinke that they would institute to themselves a signe of a false religion And if it be taken for a signe naturally although improperly signifying then I say of its own nature it signifies no more a false Religion in a Protestant then a pious ceremony in a Catholique For Catholiques say the same service Catholiques preach moralitie and each may if hee please receive bread and wine once in a day in a weeke or a moneth in remembrance that Christ dyed for him and this shall be better done then to eate bread and wine without such remembrance For receiving bread and wine See that deduced out of Azorius tom 1. lib. 8. instit moral c. 11. Navar. consil 15. de haeret num 2. Which were but to renew in an urgent point of necessitie the old custome in the Apostles time as appears by the Corinthian Christians in Saint Paul 1 Cor. 11. who did eate and drinke in the Church besides what they received of Christs institution as his true and reall body and blood For after the Sacrifice and Eucharist was ended there were kept Church feasts for the reliefe of the poore upon
of the common wealth which is the chiefe thing that States men aime at mens consciences being left to themselves they may be obeyed as I hâ—ve said out of Azorius tom 1o. lib. 8. instit moral cap. 27. puncto 5o. And for as much as concerned the abrogation of Masse which by the law of God was unlawfull they did consequenter to the State government then for having rejected the authoritie â—f the Pope they likewise rejected the Masse as knowing that there could be no Masse without Priests nor Priests without the Pope And therefore taking as much of the Masse as would serve for their Service and to be independent of the Pope they left the rest But that they did it in hatred of God and his Church or for any distinction sake it is altogether improbable For what would a man get by hating of God or the Church of which himselfe must be a member to be saved or how could they make a distinction of that they knew not for the Protestant Church was not then knowne or scarce established And therefore without wholly granting the Major or distinguishing the Minor I answer that every one ought under paine of damnation to obey his temporall Prince in matters lawfull Yet to suffer for his religion and abstracting from all obedience either to Statute or Rescâ—ipt not for Recusancie It may be objected thirdly that of S. Paul to the Romans 10.10 With the heart we beleeve unto justice but wâ—th the mouth confession is made to salvation Ergo No man can goe to Church I deny the sequele and to the Antecedent I answer that according to Divines a man is bound to confesse his religion Semper sed non ad semper alwaies but not at all waies that is not at all times and in all places but as I have said before out of Saint Thomas of Aquin in the said two cases viz. as often as the honour and glory of God requires the same or the spirituall profit of our neighbour shall exact it as likely to be impaired by silence which to be requisite I have before granted Yet hence it doth not follow that I am bound to goe into the Market place and cry out I am a Catholike who will punish me or before I am called to publish my religion to make my selfe be called or to live and converse to the same time as having a setled being and not going to Church I read that Saint Faelix going to martyrdome S. Adaucâ—us came to the Officers that led him thither and said to them that he lived in the same law with Saint Faelix and therefore that they should likewise put him to death Yet I conceive that he had a speciall revelation for the same and that it is no warrant for our indiscretion If it be replyed that so a man shall professe no religion I answer the inference to be naught for suppose a mans recusancie were never discovered this man professeth some religion for he doth not live a heathen Why then recusancie being rejected should he not professe the same If it be said that it is written that no man can serve two masters rightly Yet a man may serve one Master and have a servant to serve him or he may serve one master and keepe or use that Masters picture howsoever ill it be drawne It may be objected fourthly that the Rescript of Pope Paul the fifth in which he writes to the Catholiques of England declareth that they ought not to goe to the Churches of Heretiques or heare their Sermons without detriment of the divine worship and their owne salvation To which I answer that the said Pope wrote both piously fatherly and Apostolically according to the aforesaid suggestions by him received and if he had had the truth of the state of England I beleeve he would have written as piously the contrary For put the case that those zealous suggestors had presented to the consideration of the Councel of Trent or the Pope himselfe the truth and lawfulnesse of Catholiques going to Church with these seven reasons following supposing an absolute necessitie 1. First that there is no evill or harme done or said in the Protestant Churches to the prejudice of any Catholike soule that may not either be hindred or prevented very well by the instruction of Priests for they preach not against any notable point of doctrine held in the Catholique Church although some simple Minister for want of matter may glance at some of our tenets by halfes understood or in these daies to please his auditorie may raile against the Pope which he doth so irrationally that few Protestants of any judgement do beleeve him for if he should seriously preach controversies as insisting seriously upon the true doctrine of both sides his Auditors or at lest some of them would be apt to doubt and so to search and dive further into the truth for as Saint Augustine saith doubt begets science which might be an occasion of somes falling from him which fearing he is silent in doctrine and onely teacheth moralitie which why a man may not heare in urgent extremity from any man I cannot conceive 2. Secondly that their going to Church would be a conservation and a preservation of their lands and goods with a prevention of ruine to the family and posterity 3. That it would be a means to obtaine and purchase the love of their neighbours and a meanes of their conversion by an affable conversation by which likewise they might beare the greatest Offices in the common wealth and become Parliament men as well as others of whom and whose power and force in matters of Religion these dayes can somewhat declare 4. Fourthly that it would be a meanes that whereas Priests leave their Colledges and now live in private mens houses to the benefit of one or two and to the great danger of themselves and their Patrons they might by this meanes more freely converse with all sorts of people after an Apostolicall manner and convert many to the honour of God the increase of his Church and good of their owne soules Whereas now they doe little good out of that private house unlesse maintaine some decayed gentlewomen in good clothes to gossip up and downe and like bels to ring their praises that they may fish one in a yeere to the disparagement of their function and great prejudice of their Mission 5. Fifthly that divers Schismaticks that now goe to Church with an ill conscience and thinke themselves in state of damnation doe suffer spirituall detriment and oftentimes being prevented with sudden death everlastingly perish 6. Sixthly many thousands that are very morall and well affected Protestants were it not for the stop of Recusancie would become Catholiques Which rather then they will undoe themselves and Family now will not heare of it 7. Seventhly that no poore Catholique that is not able to give twenty pound per annum with their children to some Colledge beyond the Seas can bring
partialitie and then they should see whether having this meane of beliefe in a balanced judgement they would attribute their heresies to Gods revelation and deny his revelation to Orthodoxe Articles or no. To the authoritie of St. Thomas I answer that he meaneth such as attribute heresies quatenus tales to Gods revelation and deny his revelation to Orthodox Articles quâ tales as Arch-hereticks did in this reduplicative sense to be blasphemers But not such as take Scripture for the revealed word of God and misunderstand the same in a specificative sense through their own ignorance or infirmitie to be blasphemers Neither did St. Thomas or any other temperate and solid Divine ever inteâ—d to say It may be here first objected that Catholiques in the beginning of Queene Elizabeths Raigne went to Church and so did likewise the Catholiques in Scotland and they were all in a short time subverted Ergo there is danger of subversion in going to Church I deny the later part of the antecedent and say that while the plot of Recusancie was working there was a command got upon the former suggestions that no Catholiques should goe to the Protestant Church So by barring them of their Christian libertie by degrees to bring in Recusancie as a pretended signe betweene a good Christian and a bad Which some few Catholiques then beleeving themselves bound to obey as indeed they were not but might as well withall reverence and obedience have beseeched the Pope to have recalled his command refused the Church Others and those the most part of the kingdome as appeares by the afore Author of the Answer to the Libell of Justice cap. 8. pag. 172. 182. fearing the penalties of the said Statutes did not refuse but continued to goe to Church who being neglected by Priests being but a few then in England and those of most power being for the said recusancy as having no spirituall comfort or instructions in what sense they might truely and lawfully doe what they did to avoyd the said penalties of the Law and likewise thinking that those Priests thought them to doe ill in what themselves found no hurt they dyed as they lived But whether in Protestant tenents or Catholique or whether they would not have dyed Catholiques if they had had helpe especially such as lived before in Queene Maries time I present to any wise and pious mans judgement truly considering the state of those times And afterwards their children being still neglected upon this point of Recusancy and living in ignorance ingendred the Protestant Reâ—igion now on foot So that the cause of their falling was not their subversion as may be proved by witnesses yet alive but over indiscreet zeale in Priests the chiefest heads of whom ayming as is evident at a temporall end neglecting and rejecting such as would not obey their unreasonable command and in the same manner it hapneth with Catholiques that now goe to Church in these dangerous times Who going to Church only to save themselves from ruine and being rejected as judged to be fallen from the true faith by ignorant Priests and therefore not looked after with any Christian instructions or admonitions faine themselves Protestants rather then they will bee thought to live against their conscience Whence I may truely say and prove by the Authour last before cited who confesseth that in the thirteenth yeere of Queen Elizabeths reigne the third part of this Kingdome at least was Catholique that since the fall of Religion in England by this onely Cheate of recusancie tenne soules have beene lost for one gained which is both lamentable and damnable to those that were the first Authors of the same As for the Scots their fall was neither subversion or Recusancie which was never generally admitted because not covertly procured by the Clergie of that Kingdome but want of Priests to administer the Sacraments and give them other spirituall comfort who seeing the soyle not so fertile as ours and the lawes more severe those few that were rather chose to converse on the Northern borders of England then in their owne Countrey And Catholiques there seeing themselves destitute of all spirituall comfort went to Church to save their inferiour portion from ruine who if they had had but plenty or sufficiencie of priests to have instructed them I doubt not but they would have still remained Catholiques And it had been farre more easie so to have conserved them then fallen now to convert them And thus came the bane of Catholique religion into both Kingdomes which are like so to continue remedilesse unlesse they be assisted by Gods infinite and miraculous power It may be objected secondly that divers Popes as Paul the fourth Pius the fifth both the last Gregories Sixtus Clement and Paul the fifth granted to priests their faculties with an intention that they should administer the Sacraments to onely such as abstained from Protestant Churches I answer that it is so said by R. P. but whether it be so in truth or no I know not peradventure such faculties might be granted to such as received them from the aforesaid suggestors hands and to none others Neither did I ever see any faculties as yet so limited nor I hope ever shall For although the aforesaid Popes might be inclined to the said suggestors tribe so admit of their suggestions thinking them to proceed from zeale and not from hypocrisie who likewise thought their pretenses holy and what a Christian like thing it was to suffer persecution for Gods sake and what a number of Martyrs were made in England sanguinem martyrum esse semen Ecclesiae that the blood of the Martyrs was the seed of the Church Further what an abominable people Protestants were Idolaters blasphemous heretiques subversive of soules and many other the like exaggerating speeches upon which any Pope living unlesse he had foreknowne their drift would have done the like Whereas certainly had they but made known the true State of England in those dayes and sought the good of souls and not themselves in truth they ought to have done the said Popes would never have done as they did to us more then to the Scots Hollanders Germans and other nations by subjecting us and all posteritie by this device of Recusancie to all misery and slavery Neither hath his Holinesse that now is ever declared any such thing for I perceive that he better knowing by experience the said suggestors tribe and their plots with their moth-like dealings in most Kingdomes will be advised hence forward how he granteth any more Rescripts or limiteth any faculties upon their importune suggestions As for our Martyrs of England I hope them truely Martyrs because they died not so much for recusancie as for Religion and a good conscience although that might be a meanes to bring them to their death sooner then otherwise Yet I dare not call all of them Saints untill the holy Church doth bid me as having approved of their miracles but most of them I
Canons soever forbid Communication with hereticks they are to be understood of notorious hereticks in point of their heresie or particularly denounced excommunicated for heresie and fallen in Catholique countreyes or from amongst Catholiques And not of such as are not formall and subversive hereticks but borne incredulous in a countrey to be converted and not knowing the Catholique Church After all this some may yet say that it hath been a long custome with them to abstain from the Protestant Church above these threescore yeers and they have suffered and lost much by refusing the same and can I have so little judgement as to thinke upon mine own bare word or opinion to make them leave this their custome I answer how small soever my judgement be that it is not only my opinion but the common opinion of Divines in the Catholique Church and I never spake with any Priest in England about this point in my life that was able to give me satisfaction to the contrary Some indeed have answered me that it were lawfull if it were not for scandall Others if it were not a distinctive signe and when I have urged that scandall may be avoyded as I have before said and for a distinctive signe I knew none for who should institute that signe then they have answered that a long custome had brought it in I have blessed my self to thinke that men should so unjustly deale with poore Catholiques as to bring upon them a yoake or fetters which they can keepe upon them by no other law then that they themselves cunningly got them on or chained them about threescore yeeres since and now to kicke of these chaines or their devises would prove forsooth scandall because they would seeme refractary and disobedient to their suggestive humours but to give me a reason why going to Church was unlawfull before the refusall thereof became this supposed distinctive signe or before the same could be cause of scandall I could never yet heare any man give but only the aforesaid R. P. hath given in writing the aforesaid suggested untruths with a great deale of passion that this my opinion was thought rationall â—or almost fortie yeers agoe and since recusancy was brought in as appears by his said booke of many most prudent men in this kingdome which is to me no reason at all For let us propose to any Divine in Christendome these three following questions relating the true state of the Protestant Church in exterior actions for we meddle not as I have said with their opinions in matters of faith and withall adding that we are constrained to them under paine of death and losse of all temporall fortunes 1. Whether it be lawfull for a Catholique to heare the Prayers Epistles Gospels and Psalmes of the Catholique Church among Protestants in their Church 2. Whether it be lawfull to heare a Protestant preach in the same place some moralitie although it should by chance happen that some ignorant Minister should speake of some point of mistaken doctrine as that Catholiques trust in their own merits or the like falshood 3. Whether it be lawfull for a Catholique to receive bare bread and wine in remembrance that Christ dyed for him as a pious ceremony and whether not better so taken then without such remembrance I dare say that there is no impartiall Divine but will answer Yes And for these opinions I make no question but if I had been as well backed in Rome as the said R. P. was I would have got as great approbation to the same as he had to the same questions after his subdolâ—us manner proposed as followeth 1. Whether it be lawfull to frequent the Churches of hereticks where there is both imminent danger of subversion and scandall 2. Whether it be lawfull to heare the blasphemous and idâ—latrous Sermons of hereticks in which both God and his Church is notoriously and highly abused 3. Whether it be lawfull to receive Calvines Communion of bread and wine which they hold a Sacrament and is a signe of hereticall perfidiousnesse whereby a man betrayeth and denyeth his faith To which every Cathoâ—ique whatsoever would and must answer No but this in truth is not our case For the beliefe of Catholiques is not questioned nor subversion or blasphemie or denyall of faith either apprehended or feared Neither can they scarce possibly happen in the Protestant Church as I have before said but the question only is what Catholiques may exteriorly doe for the safeguard of life with a good intention and how and in what manner they may best converse and preserve themselves from ruine with most securitie Therefore I pray forgive the said R. P. who proposed the said questions in Rome out of his aboundant zeale of money and youth to propagate his family not once considering that it is an impossible thing for them to be hereticks who never were Catholiques As for their custome of Recusancie I say first that it is no custome for a custome is a continuance of a thing time out of minde without any interruption Now recusancy hath been interrupted oftentimes first by Doctor Wright who wrote against the same Ann. 1607. and since him Master Broughton and now my selfe Neither hath it been time out of minde for there are some yet alive borne in Queene Maries dayes who have knowne when our recusancie was not in England and thereupon in these troublesome times doe now goe to Church I say secondly that an inconvenient custome with imprudencie is better broken then kept and the prescripâ—ion of threescore yeeres not good Yet if they will needs claime a right in and to their actions by the same I doe hereby promise not to take it from them by any suit in law For I doe write more to avoyd the scandall of the weake then that I do thinke thereby to satisfie the weake or rob them of their said custome As for their sufferings and losses I am sorry for them and doe assure my selfe that they will receive a great reward for the same because they suffered not so much for the love of recusancie as for the love of God for whosoever doth the meanest worke no indiscretion therein being apprehended by the doer either for Gods sake or for vertue sake although of some considering the act it selfe and not knowing the doers intention it may be judged indiscreet yet the worke may have a reward from God and yet another that doth not the same no punishment Thus the three branches of the said Minor proposition being proved the Conclusion standeth good for the lawfulnesse of going to the Protestant Church Me thinks here I heare some storme that if this my opinion should be admitted as lawfull it would follow that they must likewise take all the oathes that are made against Catholiques which will tend to perjurie To which I answer that I would have them to do things consequenter and any thing for safeguard of life wherein their is no sinne And to
other forrein Potentates as afore And also aswell the said Statute made in the said eight and twentieth yeer as the Statute made in the said Session of the Parliament holden the 35. yeere of the Kings Majesties Reigne for establishment and declaration of His highnesse succession and all Acts and Statutes made and to be made in confirmation and corroboration of the Kings Majesties power and Supremacie in earth of the Church of England and Ireland and of other the Kings Dominions I shall also defend and maintaine with by body and goods and with all my wit and power and this I shall doe against all manner of persons of what estate dignitie degree or condition they be and in no wise doe nor attempt nor to my power â—uffer or know to be done or attempted directly or indirectly any thing or things privily or apertly to the let hinderance damage or derogation of any of the said Statutes or of any part of them by any manner of means or for or by any manner of pretence And in case any Oath hath been made by me to any person or persons in maintenance defence or favour of the See and Bishop of Rome or his authoritie jurisdiction or power or against any Statutes aforesaid I repute the same as vaine and annihilate and shall wholly and truly observe and keepe this Oath so helpe me God all Saints and the holy Evangelists The Oath of Supremacie enacted 1 â— Elizabeth cap. 1o. I A. B. Doe utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Queenes highnesse is the onely Supreame governour of this Realme and of all other her Highnesse Dominions and Countries as well in all Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall things or causes as Temporall and that no forreigne Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction power superioritie preheminence or authoritie Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall within this Realme and therefore I doe utterly renounce and forsake all forraigne jurisdictioâ—s powers superiorities and authorities and doe â—â—omise that from henceforth I shall beare faith anâ—â—rue Allegiance to the Queenes Highnesse her 〈◊〉 and lawfull Successour and to my power shall assâ—st and defend all jurisdictions priviledges preheminences and authorities granted or belonging to the Queenes Highnesse her Heires and Successours or united and annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme So helpe me God and by the Contents of this Booke A Proviso in an Act 5 o. Elizabeth c. 1o. for expounding this Oath PRovided also that the Oath expressed in the said Act made in the said first yeere shall be taken and expounded in such forme as is set forth in an Admonition annexed to the Queenes Majesties Injunctions published in the first yeere of her Majesties reigne that is to say to confesse and acknowledge in her Majestie her Heires and Successours none other authoritie then that was challenged and lately used by the noble King Henrie the eighth and King Edward the sixth as in the said Admonition more plainly may appeare The Admonition annexed to the Injunctions Elizabeth 1o. followes with this Title An Admonition to simple men deceived by malicious THe Queenes Majestie being enformed that in certaine places of this Realme sundry of her native subjects being called to Ecclesiasticall Ministrie in the Church be by sinister perswasion and perverse construction induced to finde some scruple in the forme of an Oath which by an Act of the last Parliament is prescribed to be required of divers persons for the recognition of their Allegiance to her Majestie which certainly neither was ever meant ne by any equitie of words or good sense can be thereof gathered would that all her loving subjects should understand that nothing was is or shall be meant or intended by the same Oath to have any other Dutie Allegiance or Bond required by the same Oath then was acknowledged to be due to the most noble Kings of famous memorie King Henry the eight her Majesties Father or King Edward the sixt her Majesties Brother And further her Majestie forbiddeth all manner her subjects to give eare or credit to such perverse and malicious persons which most sinisterly and maliciously labour to notifie to her loving subjects how by the words of the said Oath it may be collected that the Kings or Queenes of this Realme possessours of the Crowne may challenge authoritie and power of Ministrie of Divine Offices in the Church wherein her said subjects be much abused by such evill disposed persons For certainly her Majestie neither doth ne ever will challenge any other authoritie then that was challenged and lately used by the said noble Kings of famous memory King Henrie the eight and King Edward the sixth which is and was of ancient time due to the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme that is under God to have the Sovereigntie and rule over all manner of persons borne within these her Realmes Dominions and Countries of what estate either Ecclesiasticall or Temporall soever they be so as no other forreigne power shall or ought to have any superioritie over them And if any person that hath conceived any other sense of the forme of the said Oath shall accept the same Oath with this interpretation sense or meaning her Majestie is well pleased to accept every such in that behâ—lfe as her good and obedient subjects and shall acquit them of all manner penalties contained in the said Act against such as shall peremptorily or obstinately refuse to take the same Oath The Conclusion of the Authour of the Animadversions to the Reader THis Treatise Christian Reader penned by a learned and intelligent Romanist resembles Ortwhinus his Booke intituled Fasciculus rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum or the two baskets of figgâ—s Ier. 24.1.2 set before the Temple one basket had very good figges and the other very naughtie Among the very good are these assertions That in the Protestant Church there is no Idolatrie committed That the Liturgie of the Church of England hath not any malignitie in it that may â—ustifie Popish Recusancie That the Oathes of Allâ—giance and Supremacie are iustifiable by the law of God But among the very naughtie are these that when we are questioned about our Religion before a Magistrate we may vulpizure cum vulpibus goe beyond the foxe if wee can in fox-craft that in taking an oath we may frame a meaning to our selves which is proved contrary to the meaning of him that made or ministreth the Oath that we may by our outward gestures and actions make shew of that Religion of which indeed we are not that a Prudent Catholique may both frequent the Protestant Church in publique as this Priest sâ—ith he hath done often and goe to Masse â—r say Masse in private This is no better then to weare a garment not on our bodies â—ut on our soules made of 〈◊〉 and to plough in Christs â—ield with an Oxe and an Asâ—e and to 〈◊〉 betweene two opinions reproved by the holy Prophet Eliah tâ—is is to be of the
men why not as Popes surely if the Pope doe any thing as Pope it is sending forth his Buls and Rescripts whereby he governeth and instructeth the Pseudo-Catholike Church and decides cases of conscience and if in such he be subject to errour and mistaking even in a matter of as great weight as any was agitated in the Councell of Trent as this Priest affirmeth pag. 7. upon what a sandie foundation is the Romish Babell built and how loose and weake is the maine ground of a Papists faith l It cannot be the common opinion of Divines that it is lawfull for a man to goe to Church and communicate with those who are of a different Religion For seven Popes alleadged by him two Cardinals Bellarmine and Baronius twelve Fathers of the Councell of Trent R. P. and other Iesuits for the Roman partie and of the Protestant beliefe George Abbot Archbishop of Canterburie in his Lectures at Oxford Calvine in his tract adversus Pseudo-Nicodemitas and the Doctors of the reformed Churches generally in their expositions upon the second Commandement and in their commentaries upon the second of the Corinthians 6. Chapter 15 16 17. ver determine the contrary m No infallibilitie in any generall Councel since the dayes of the Apostles much lesse in the Councel of Trent which was neither a generall Councel nor lawfully called nor free nor at all an assembly of Catholike Bishops but of Images moved like the statues of Dedalus by the sinewes of others See the historie of the Councel of Trent written in Italian by Petro Soave Polano and the Epistle Dudith quinque Eccles. ad Maximilianum 2. Caes. But were the Councel of Trent a generall Councel lawfully called consisting of eminent Doctors and Pastours as it were starres of the first magnitude yet they could not without horrible presumption arrogate to that their Synod infallibilitie for that not onely Provinciall but even oecumenicall Councels may erre and be fouly mistaken and that in matter of faith may thus be demonstrated First every assemby which consisteth of members subject to errour may be seduced and deceived but generall Councels are assemblies consisting of members subject to errour for all men are so Rom. 3.4 Therefore generall Councels may be seduced and deceived This reason is strongly backed by the authoritie of the most judicious of all the Fathers Saint Augustine and that in many places namely Ep. 112. c. 1. Si Divinarum scripturarum earum scilicet quae canonicae in Ecclesia nominantur perspicua firmatur autoritate sine ulla Dub. tationâ— credendum est aliâ—s vero testibus vel testimonies quibus aliquid credendum esse suadetur tibi credere vel non credere liceat quantum ea momenti ad faciendam fidem vel habere vel non habere perpenderis If any thing be confirmed by cleare and evident authoritie of Canonicall Scripture that must be beleeeved without all doubting but for other witnesses and testimonies whereby ye are perswaded to beleeve any thing you may give credit unto them or not as you see cause de natura et grat cont Pelag. c. 61. solis canonicis debeo sine ulla recusatione consensum In the writing of any such men I hold my selfe at libertie namely to give my assent unto them or not for I owe consent without any stay or staggering to the Canonicall Scriptures alone therefore not to the Popes Rescripts or Decrees of generall Councels And in his second booke De bapt cont Donat. c. 3. Quis nesciat scripturam canonicam omnibus posterioribus Episcoporum literis ita praeponi ut de illa omnino dubitari et disceptari non possit utrum vel verum rectum sit quicquid in eâ scriptum esse constiterit Episcoporum autem literas quae post confirmatum canonem vel scriptae sunt vel scribuntur et per sermonem fortè sapientiorem cuiuslibet in ea re peritioris et per aliorum Episcoporum graviorem authoritatem doctioremque prudentiam et per concilia licere reprehendi si quid in eis fortè a veritate deviatum est Et ipsa concilia quae per singulas regiones vel provincias fiunt plenariorum conciliorum authoritati quae fiunt ex universo orbe christiano sine ullis ambagibus cedere ipsaque plenaria saepe priora posterioribus emendari cum aliquo experimento rerum aperitur quod clausum erat et cognoscitur quod latebat Who knowes not that the canonicall Scriptures are so farre to be preferred above the latterr letters of Bishops that whatsoever is found written in it may neither be doubted nor disputed of whether it be true or right but the letters of Bishops may not only be disputed of but censured by Bishops that are more wise and learned then they if any thing in their writings swerve from the truth or by Provinciall Synods and these also must give place to plenarie and generall Councels and even plenarie and generall Councels may be amended the former by the latter and it is to be noted that he speaketh of errour in matter of faith For these words are part of his answer to an Objection of the Donatists out of the letters of Saint Cyprian concerning the point of rebaptizing Secondly If the determinations of generall Councels were infallible all Christians were necessarily bound to stand unto them and to submit to their authoritie but this Saint Augustine peremptorily denies l. 3. Cont. Maxim c. 14. Nec ego Nicenum nec tu debes Ariminense tanquam preiudicaturus proferre concilium nec ego huius authoritate nec tu illius detineris Neither ought I to alleadge the Councel of Nice nor thou the Councel of Ariminum in prejudice to either part For neither am I bound to the authoritie of the one nor thou to the authoritie of the other and it is worth the observation that Saint Augustine speaketh of the first most famous Councel of Nice whose authoritie was greater and held more sacred and venerable then any Councel since and if that Councel concluded not Saint Augustine shall the authoritie of a late Conveticle at Trent conclude all Christians Thirdly If generall Councels may contradict one the other they may certainly erre For it is impossible that both parts of a contradiction should be true But generall Councels contradict one the other Ergo. For the Councel held at Ariminum contradicteth the first generall Councel held at Nice in the point of consubstantialitie of the Sonne with the Father The generall Councel held at Chalcedon contradicteth the generall Councel held at Ephesus in the point of Eutychianisme The generall Councel at Frankeford contradicteth your second generall Councel held at Nice in the point of Image worship Your generall Councel held at Lateran under Leo the tenth contradicteth your Councel of Constance in the point of the Councels superioritie above the Pope Fourthly Cuivis contingere potest quod cuiquam potest that which hath befallen some generall Councels may befall any other unlesse
for ever be cleerely extinguished and never to be used or obeyed within this Realme or any other your Maiesties Dominions and Countries may it please your Highnesse that it may be enacted as followeth c. Hence I thus argue No Papist with a good conscience can take an Oath prescribed by an Act of Parliament made purposely and with an expresse intention for the extirpation of the Popes jurisdiction and Supremacie over the whole Church which he claimeth by vertue of Christs promise made to Peter tibi dabo claves But such is the Oath of Supremacie as appeares by the Statutes above cited Ergo No Papist with a good conscience may take it 2. Secondly from the letter of the law and formalâ— and expresse words of the Oath which are these That neither the See nor Bishop of Rome nor any forreigne Potentate hath or ought to have any Iurisdiction power or authoritie within this Realme neither by Gods Law nor by any other iust law or meanes Henry 8.35 yeere hereunto adde the Admonition to the Queenes Injunctions Hence I thus argue No Papist may take an Oath which containeth in it the renouncing a prime Article of his faith necessary to salvation in his Religion and the iudgement of his Church But every Papist taking the Oath of Supremacie renounceth a prime Article of his faith necessarie to salvation For so we reade in the Extravagans cap. unam sanctam de maior et obed Subesse Romano pontifici omni humanae creaturae declaramus dicimus definimus et pronunciamus omnino esse de necessitate salutis We saith Boniface the eighth declare say define and pronounce that it is altogether or absolutely necessary to salvation for every humane creature to be subiect to the Bishop of Rome Ergo no Papist may take the Oath of Supremacie 3. Thirdly from the judgement of the Church of Rome which accounteth Fisher Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas Moore sometimes Lord Chanâ—ellour of England blessed and glorious Martyrs because both these lost 〈◊〉 heads â—ather then they would acknowledge the King Supreame Head 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 the Popes Headship To omit the testimonies 〈…〉 â—ovius Bishop in Italie Iohn Cochleus of Germanie William Paradine a learned Historian of France Cardinall Poole living in the Court at Rome and writing to the King in the defence of Ecclesiasticall unitie saith thus by the figure of Apostrophâ— Thy Father O England thy ornament thy deâ—â—nce was brought to his death being innocent in thy sight and a little after he lefâ— his life for thy sake left he should overthrow and bâ—tray thy salvation and Cardinall Bâ—llarmine in his Booke De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis ab Anno 1400. ad 1500. thus writeth of Fisher Bishop of Rochester Iohannes Fischerus natione Anglus Episcopus Roffensis posteà S. R. E. Cardinalis et quod longe gloriofius est Martyr Christi occisus est Henrici octavi Regis anglorum iussu Anno 1535. Iohn Fisher an English man Bishop of Rochester and afterwards Carâ—inall and which makes him farre more glorious a Martyr of Christ was slaine by the coommandement of King Henrie the eighth in the yeere of our Lord one thousand five hundred thirty five Whence I thus argue To his evasion that it was not the same Oath See the answer p. 119. letter R. and the Appendix p. 141. Either Fisher and Moore were no Martyrs who died for refusing to take this Oath or they are no good Papists who take it But Fisher and Moore were famous and glorious Martyrs in the opinion of the Romane Church as hath beene prooved Ergo they who take the Oath of Supremacie are no good Papists 4. Fourthly from the confession of this Priest pag. 118. The Oath of Supremacie when it was made in the dayes of King Henry 8. was unlawfull to be taken by any Catholique and pag. 119. If any had sworne the King to be Supreame Head of that Church he would have sworne false as making the Church a monster having two heads or depriving the Pope of his authoritie granted him by God Whence I thus argue The Oath of Supremacie prescribed by that Act of Parliament in the 35. of Henry 8. was unlawfull to be taken by any Roman Catholique as this Priest confesseth But the Oath of Supremacie prescribed by Act of Parliament in the first of Elizabeth in force at this day is the same with the Oath prescribed by Act of Parliament in the 35. of Henrie the eighth as appeareth by comparing both the Oathes together with a proviso in an Act the fifth of Elizabeth for expounding this Oath where it is said That we confesse and acknowledge in her Maiestie her Heires and Successours no other authoritie then that which was challenged and lately used by the noble King Henrie the eighth and King Edward the sixth as in the Admonition to the Qeenes Injunctions more plainly appeares The Queenes Maiestie would that all her loving subiects should understand that nothing was is or shall be meant or intended by the same Oath to have any other Dutie Allegiance or Bond required by the same Oath then was acknowledged to be due to the most noble King of famous memorie King Henrie the eighth her Maiesties father or King Edward the sixt her Maiesties brother Ergo the Oath of Supremacie prescribed by Act of Parliament the first of Elizabeth is unlawfull to be taken by any Romane Catholique I conclude therefore super tota materia that the taking of the Oath of Supremacie is an abrenunciation of the Romish faith and consequently that we wrong no Papist that takes the Oath if we beleeve him a forswearer who forsweares his beliefe De memorando irrotulatâ— * The Helâ—esaus wâ—re condâ—mned for heretikes for holâ—ing a man might deny his faith with his mouth so hee keepe it in his heart Euseb. hâ—st l. 6. c. 31. a Rom. 10.10 Cic. pro 〈◊〉 Amâ—r vultu saepe ladâ—tur 〈◊〉 Ep. â—â— contamiâ—ari se 〈…〉 aâ—am illam vidâ—â—i◠〈◊〉 ibid. Feâ—endâ—m ne est ut gentilis sacrifâ—câ—t christianus inter sit Sâ—zo hist. eccles l. 5. c. 16. prejecto ad pedes auâ—o c. * Suidas in Auxent * Marcus Bishop of Arrethusa Theod. hist. l. 3 c. 6.