much longer on this Head than I designed But I cannot Omit to give you a Copy of a Letter Written by Cardinal Woolsey to the Pope when we of the Laity began to shake our Ears and look about Us as you may find it Ld. Herb. Hist H. VIII No. 2. And now Sir Humphry what is there in all this that hinders but that you a High Church-Man and I an Occasional-Conformist or rather if you please an Occasional-Dissenter are not of Opposite Principles but of the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion Is there any particular Part of Religion in what I have Discourst under this Head in which Consideration you do not fully agree with me in all Respects Sure you cannot still think either English-Prelacy or Scotch-Presbytery Jure Divino tho' by the Civil Sanction they be justifyed in the respective Kingdoms where they are Established T' is a wonderful Thing considering for how many Ages Prelacy prevailed in the World and the many Forgeries of Pieces of Antiquities and the Indices Expurgatoriae that have been made that there are so many Things to be said against Jus Divinum out of Antiquity and on the other side 't is wonderful that if Presbyterian Government without a President Bishop had been Jure Divino that so Early as the Year 140. it should be Decreed over all the World to change it to Diocesan-Episcopacy which the Presbyterians indeavour to Prove out of St. Jerom and that in no Age since till of late the Jus Divinum of it should be Discovered And I believe it may be proved that the Albegois and Vaudois Churches which have been pure Churches from the Apostles Days have always allowed of President Bishops tho' not of Diocesans being sole Pastors of a Diocess Jure Divino But this Question is no matter of either Natural or Revealed Religion and therefore hinders me not to Conclude that you and I are not of Opposite Principles but of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion especially since we are both Members also of the National Church heartily Approve of the Laws of the Land and cheerfully pay Obedience to them tho' both you and I would be Glad to see them altered so as to restore Discipline to Establish the Church of England more firmly to make a better Provision for the small Vicarages and Curacys to Unite our Differences and heal our Breaches to Provide for Employing the Poor to Suppress Vice and Immorality more Effectually and to promote Christian Knowledge both at Home and Abroad 2. And having been too Prolix tho' far from Impoverishing the Subject of the first Question I shall be short in my Answer to the other and as to the Second Whether if the Occasional-Bill had past it had secured the Government from such who are not sincere Members of the National Church nor heartily approve of the Laws of the Land nor chearfully pay Obedience to them but are of Opposite Prinnciples and not of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion I will only say That 't is plain that altho' the Bill had passed Atheists Deists Socinians those that Value no Religion nor any Church if wise enough to avoid the late Act against Blasphemy Adulterers Common Swearers Extortioners and all those truly Scandalous Occasional-Conformists whose Lives shew that they neither heartily Approve of the Laws of God or of the Land and neither chearfully nor otherwise pay Obedience to them would be Capable of Publick Offices and Employments relating to the Government either in Countries or Corporations notwithstanding that Bill and would have been no way Affected by it a Person of Sober Life that had been in 5 or 6 Years 5 or 600 Times at Church and frequently received the Sacrament according to the Usage of the Church of England might have been removed out of an Office tho' he had also all that while laboured in doing Service to the Church as by Law Establish'd which will be of Everlasting Advantage to it and a Person of a Prosligate Life who had Publickly owned that he had not been at Church for as many Years might be Capable of a Wh. St. f. notwithstanding that Act but this is so Clear That it needs no Proof as to so much of this Question as relates to Religion and if you intend any other Laws the Defacto Men such as believe the Jus Divinum of Absolute Monarchy that take the Oaths to Her Majesty as an Ass eats Thistles that neither heartily Approve of the Laws of the Land abjuring the pretended James the III. and Establishing Her Majesty's Throne and the Protestant Succession nor the Law for Toleration nor chearfully pay Obedience to them would be all unaffected by this Bill surely the Promoters of it thought there was no Sin but going to a Protestant Meeting as one of the Characters in Timon of Athens thought there was no Sin but Murder Thirdly Whether the Administration of Publick Aflairs may not be in the Hands of Persons who are not of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion nay of Men of opposite Principles without Confusion or tearing the Government in pieces between them and whether they may not notwithstanding draw together the same way for the Publick Good Now certainly Calvinists and Arminians High-Church and Low-Church Sherlockians and Southians such as take the Articles of the Church to be Articles of Faith and such as take them only to be Articles of Peace such as are for the Occasional-Bill and such as are not such as hold the Pope to be Antichrist and such as do not are not of one and the same Perswasion in Matters of Religion but of opposite Principles and yet Sir Humphrey you will not deny that they may be all employ'd without Confusion or tearing the Government in pieces between them and may notwithstanding draw together the same way for the Publick Good but the truth is this Queens Coronation Sermon p. 24. Mixing of Heaven Earth together as his Grace the Lord Arch-bishop of York expresses it When Men for difference of Opinion about the Methods of the publick Conduct break out into Parties and Factions sacrifice the Peace of the Kingdom to their own private Resentments and mingle Heaven and Earth for the supporting of a Side 'T is this which tears the Government in pieces It were indeed desirable that all the Subjects of England were good Christians for the sake of the Publick and of their own Souls for that Christianity gives the best Rules of Morality and the Name of Jesus Christ is the only Name under Heaven given among Men whereby they can be Saved Yet Faith is the Gift of God and Men may be of great Use in this World who may be very unhappy in the next It is a Notion long since exploded That Dominion is founded in Grace and Honesty Honour Skill and Imegrity may consist with a mistaken Belief as to revealed Religion and in this respect no Religion but the Popish or
when all the ends of the Earth shall fear him Psal 67.7 and his Name will never be Hallow'd to purpose Mat. 6.9 10. nor his Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven till this Kingdom of his be come Third Proposition The Methods which Men have taken to attain Peace have been various Conquerors have endeavour'd it by making Mankind Slaves and reducing the World under an Universal Monarchy Mark 9.38 Luke 9.49 54. The Apostles themselves began to be Tempted by the Antichristian Spirit and were for bringing all under their Master by Silencing first and then by Fire from Heaven Popes have attempted it The Reason of this is Plain if the Pope be Antichrist and his Reign extended to 1260 Years by pretending to Infallibility and Councils by making Canons Some Places have labour'd to attain it by an Inquisition and others by Penal-Laws concerning doubtful Matters of Speculation And of them all except the Apostles who were afterwards better Instructed we must conclude with the Apostle The way of Peace they have not known or at least not practised to walk therein Fourth Proposition Ever since the Fall of Man this Lower Creation hath been a Stage of War Gen. 3.15 the Seed of the Woman and of the Serpent have been in constant Action 1 John 3.8 Our Saviour came to Destroy the Works of the Devil Eph. 2.2 whilst the Spirit that works in the Children of Disobedience keeps up his Works with all Diligence and therefore there is no Peace saith God Isai 57.21 to the Wicked Peace without Holiness is impossible and the World seeks it in vain The Apostle Instructs us to follow Peace with all Men and Holiness Hebr. 12.14 and the Prophet assures us Isai 32.17 That the Work of Righteousness shall be Peace and the Effect of Righteousness Quietness and Assurance for ever And that when God hath wrought all our Works in us Isai 26.12 He will Ordain Peace for us Fifth Proposition It is therefore Impudent Folly for men to Apprehend that they can have Peace with one another while they are at open Enmity with God He that hath all Mens Hearts in His hand will manage them so that his own Word shall be Establish'd if Men will not join in the Practice of Things in the Theory of which they all agree they will be still the Instruments of Divine Vengeance on one another And therefore if Magistrates would labour for Peace they must lay the Foundation thereof in the Reformation of Manners and be very Cautious of making Laws about Matters of Speculation For our Saviour hath told us John 1.17 That if any will do his Will he shall know of the Doctrine the way to know more is to Practise what we do know Otherwise Sixth Proposition While Men Dispute with Vehemency and turn Divinity into the most Abstruse and Exquisite fine Notions they make Christianity unintelligible and distinguish all Religion out of the World They Impose on the Credulous confound mean Capacities divide Christians into Sects and every Sect Adores its own Distinguishing Character till if the Question be what Religion a Man is of 'T is Answer'd A PAPIST A CHVRCH OF ENGLAND MAN A PRESBYTERIAN AN INDEPENDENT AN ANTIPOEDO BAPTIST But no Man does and who can truly answer I 'm a Christian Seventh Proposition True Religion is the Bond of Union Isai 11.9 When the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea Isai 2.4 Mich. 4.3 then Men shall beat their Swords into Plow-shares and their Spears into Pruning-hooks Then Nation shall not lift up Sword against Nation nor shall they learn War any more then nothing shall hurt or destroy in all God's Holy Mountain And since it is evident that although Actions are Belief is not within the Power and Reach of Humane Law and that the Generality of Mankind never will without a Miraculous Power and Extraordinary Revelation agree on the Matters so hotly Disputed even among Protestants 't is worth the while to consider what are the probable Means which the Scripture hath Reveal'd and which it is our Duty to Use for attaining an Universal Peace among Christians There is a Rock on which our Saviour promis'd to build his Church that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it So solemn a Promise requires a Serious Consideration for as the Papists taking it to be the Person of Peter and his Successors have by that Mistake concerning this Rock laid the Foundation of the Antichristian Kingdom so the Kingdom of CHRIST MEDIATOR is truly and surely built upon this Rock which our Saviour intends in that Promise and that is Matt. 16.18 That JESVS CHRIST IS THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD. Ye believe in God John 14.1 believe also in me was the Substance of our Saviour's Doctrine and the Apostles Creed I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God was Martha's Creed Mark 16.18 John 11.17 And he that Confesseth That Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh God dwelleth in him and he in God John 1.4 It is the end of Writing the Gospel and this saith the Apostle is the Word of Faith That if we confess with our Mouth the Lord Jesus John 20.31 Rom. 10.8 9. and believe in our Hearts that God hath raised him from the Dead we shall be saved And accordingly upon his Profession of the Creed Acts 8.37 I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Ethiopian Eunuch who before believed in God was Baptised and the words of Baptism instructed him as they do us in the Foundation of the Christian Church And before any other Creed was made the Effect of this Creed was Miraculous both with respect to the Holy Lives of those that profess'd it and the great Encrease of the Number of such Now what was sufficient in the first Ages was so to after-Ages and is so now 1 Cor. 3.11 For other Foundation can no Man lay than that which is laid already was a Truth in St. Paul's Time The Apostles Creed and the other Creeds subscribed to by the Church of England are not Additions to but Paraphrases of this Creed or Truths which necessarily follow from the Belief thereof and many of the Articles thereof were added in After-Ages in contradiction to the several Heresies which rose at several Times to the endangering that Foundation For Instance Iraeneus Adv. Haeres Lib. 1. cap. 19 20 21 22 23 c. all the Hereticks mention'd by Iraeneus wherewith the Devil vext the Church for the first Three Hundred Years were for a Plurality of Created Gods whom they held also to be Creators and for this reason it should seem were those Words MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH added which were not in the Creed called the Apostles for many Years as appears in the Symbol recited by Marcellus Ancyranus in the Confession of Faith which he
All the Christian Acts of Moderation in other Countries he takes to be Acts of Necessity not of Choice He seems to think that there are no Laws in England but those of Uniformity and the Corporation and Test Acts or otherwise he shamefully belies the Dissenters for no Men are more fond of the other Laws of England made for the Security of the Establisht Government 'T is a mighty Discovery that he has made that the Dissenters would Repeal those Laws Surely no Man ever doubted it so far as concerns good Protestants tho' it would be in Effect not a Repealing but rectifying those Laws He has confirmed my Observation that there is a strange Byass on a certain Party of Men towards Popish and French Presidents or surely he would not have troubled the Reader with the Presidents of Portugal Spain Italy Peace and Vnion Pag. 4. and France any more than of Muscovy Turkey Persia or China And for Holland they are a Wiser People than to Exclude those that Communicate with their National Church because they believe their Creed and Communicate also with other Protestants 'T is no wonder if Men that pretend to Infallibility and take the whole Web of Priestcraft to be as Sacred as our Saviours Seamless-Coat should Establish an Inquisition but that Men that pretend to no Infallibility but have rejected 19 Parts in 20 should be setting up an Inquisition to secure the Fag-end of Priestcraft from being torn off from Christianity this is wonderful especially when Constant Conformity Page 10. which as the Party would impose it is Schismatical Separation from the Catholick Church is put on the same Foot with the Oaths of Allegiance and Abjuration I hope that I have shewed that Author another way to Peace and Union than by Bribing Men by Offices to be Separalists there needs no going over of the Church to the Dissenters or the Dissenters to the Church but if both will go over to the Bible it would be well and Christendom in a little while would go over with them Let him take his Swing against all Parties that would undermine our Constitution but the things he and his Party are so fond of are rather our Excrements than our Constitution and if only one thing is to be done at once Page 16. let me Advise the Party to take Care of a Commandment an Article of the Creed or a Petition of the Lords Prayer and put an incapacity on those that trangress let God be first served at least before a Humane Ceremony or an Addition to our Saviours Institutions and as to his Controversy with D'foe I am not at all concerned whether your Offender or your Defender are against Occasional-Conformity upon the same or different Principles I hope the Precedent Sheets give a quite different Account of and defend that Practice from the misrepresentations of them both But least the word Excrement should offend you I think sit to acquaint you that I have it from that great Man eminent Church-man Dr. Henry Moor who among his Remains which I have seen written with his own Hand has this Passage That that which is good indeed should be generally relished by the World is as unlikely as that dead Men in their Graves should call out for Drink but when Goodness is revived in the World that which now goes for Food and Delicacy shall then be left as Dung and Excrement I hope Sir Humphry that Goodness is reviving in the World and I know that Sir Humphry Mackworth has his Heart and Hands engaged in its Resurrection and you know that there are Occasional Consormists who join intirely with you therein I was heartily sorry to find your Name to a Discourse which signifies to me that you take that for Food and Delicacy which I think deserves the other Name But there is another Passage among those Remains in these words There is a Natural kind of Religiousness which is but the Stamp or Character of this or the other Man's disposition some are given naturally to the magnificence of outward Ceremonies others do attend the inward motions of their Mind and think at ever moving of the Water a good Angel at least if not God himself is there But few Men are aware of their own natural Temper of Genius but let every one be assured that wherever Humility Upright-dealing and Charity are wanting both Ceremony and Inspiration are but a ridiculous piece of Gullery Humility assures me that the Oracles of God teach the true Terms of Christian Union to walk humbly with our God Mic. 6.8 is what the Prophet long since pronounc'd to be good and what God required Upright dealing teaches the publickly to my own Principles for which for some Years past I have been almost daily reproach'd and I thank God my Charity extends to the utmost limits of that Promise The Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Glory of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea Isaiab 11.9 Oh Sir Humphrey Heb. 2.14 consider of Peace on Earth Luke 2.14 as well as at Home Not what will secure your Party but what will unite the Christian World who all agree that the Scriptures are the Word of God endeavour to render the Church of England a means of this glorious Peace and you will for ever oblige Your most c. No. 2. Woolsey's Letter IT is not concealed from your Holiness what are the various Effects of the new Invention of Printing that thereby Books and Learning are introduced and restored so that they have given rise to innumerable Sects and Schisms which daily break out in the Christian World especially in Germany where Men now begin to call into doubt the present Faith and Pleasure of the Church and to bring under Examination how far the Roman Faith at this day differs from the Primitive and Apostolical Institution From whence which is greatly to be lamented it comes to pass that Lay-men and the Dregs of the People are incited to read the Scriptures in the Vulgar Tongue Which great Mischiefs if they be tolerated not only greater will follow but it will come to pass that the Vulgar will at length be brought to believe that there is no such great need or use of the Clergy for if once there comes into the Minds of Men this Perswasion and Opinion that they can find a way for themselves to God in their own Mother Tongue which will enter Heaven as well as if it were in Latin plainly all Authority of the Mass and the whole Ecclesiastical Order will be ruin'd Pag. 73. A PLEA FOR THE Holy Sacrament being an Attempt to Rescue it from some late Prophanations in Civil Matters IN A LETTER TO A Member of Parliament By a Lay-Hand Licensed March 25 1689. James Fraser A PLEA FOR THE HOLY SACRAMENT March 20. 1688 9. SIR IT hath been one of the most successful Stratagems of the Apostate Prince of Darkness to ruin Mens Souls by those very means
which were ordained for their Salvation and this Policy of his appears in no Instance more evident than in the Methods he has taken to make the Eucharist a means of Destruction while by unworthily Receiving 1 Cor. 11 29. Men Eat and Drink Damnation to themselves Hence his faithful Servants the Authors of that Mystery of Iniquity Popery have made Transubstantiation a Test of their Catholicism burning and damning Men for being Men that is for using their Sense and Reason With one hand robbing us of the Holy Sacrament and its proper uses and with the other presenting us with a piece of Pageantry and requiring our Adoration of a senseless Idol The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was instituted by our Blessed Saviour in Remembrance of Himself and as a Bond of Union among his Followers 'T is the peculiar Right of such who by sound Faith well digested Knowledge and some Experience of the Comforts and Pleasures that result from a good Conscience and Holy Conversation are made to long for further Degrees of Conformity to the Will of God clearer manifestations of the Divine Love and more evident signs of the Souls recovery from its fallen State The Motives to come to it ought to be from within or else from above and not from beneath and the things to be obtained by it ought to be increase of Spiritual Blessings and not of outward Emoluments Blessed is that Nation where the Government can find Men otherwise fitted for Publick Employments whose use of this Sacrament appears by their Conversations to proceed from such Principles And surely he who loves the Commemoration of the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Revel 1.5 in this way of his own Institution has an excellent Qualification to recommend him to those Vice-gerents of that Prince who desire and design to promote his Interest But Sir to give a plain Answer to your Question I am of Opinion That it is at least inconvenient to impose the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper on every Man that executes an Office in Publick Administrations and that among others for these Reasons 1. The Ordinance was instituted to other ends and I know not when the Warrant was signed by our Saviour to use it to such a purpose T is his great Seal and ought not to be put to any Commissions but his own 2. No Man who is fit for it needs a Law to bring him to it Heb. 2.10 All the Soldiers of the Captain of our Salvation are Voluntiers Psal 110.3 and on the contrary it is certain that he that needs a Law to bring him to it is not fit for it 3. If this Test be establish'd it is the Duty of all Men in their respective Places to keep from Oâ—â—â—es all that are guilty of Sweâ—â—ing Whoring Drinking and the other parts of a profane Life which are obvious to common Observation for those things evidently unfit Men to receive the Sacrament And if the Government should permit no Man to be in any Office that drinks to excess or mispends his time in Tipling that uses to swear in common Discourse or whose Life otherwise appears vitious what multitudes of Places would be empty which are now well filled for the Publick Interest And yet what Cruelty would it be to any vicious Man to put him under a Necessity of profaning the Sacrament by putting him into Office for it is most certain that not only every Man that lives in the practice of any known Vice but every Man that lives not in a daily endeavour to perform his Covenant made in Baptism with the most Blessed Trinity ought to keep far off from the Sacred Table I know it is objected that all Men ought to be fit for the Sacrament and that it will tend much to a good Life that they be under a Necessity to receive it But let Experience speak Mens Stomachs have scarce yet digested the Sacraments which they have prophaned for some Years past to keep their Places Men have taken the Sacrament and betrayed their Country and ruined their honest Neighbours Taken the Sacrament and introduced Popery Taken the Sacrament and murdered Men by colour of Law And who is there of a Subject among the Authors of the Grievances of the Nation that took not the Sacrament to enable him so to be Not to mention Persons of a better Rank how many Vintners Ale-house-keepers and others of like Profession have purchased their Licences at the Hazard of their souls And I dare appeal to all Men to whom these Presents shall come whether within their Knowledge any Reformation has been wrought thereby Five hundred have refused it for Conscience sake for one prophane Person that has scrupled it And who and where is he whose Life hath been reformed by being under this Necessity But if the universal Depravity of Mens Manners be compared with the universal Attendance that was paid of late at the Communion Table what dreadful Prospect is presented thereby to any considering Mind If of the Corinthians who received unworthily 1 Cor. 11.30 many were Sick and Weak and some were punished with Death What Desolations would Divine Vengeance make in England should the same Measure be meted out to us But Fifthly The Kingdom of our Lord Christ John 18.36 is not of this World Acts 3.21 at least not before the time of the Restitution of all Things And altho' the good Christian must necessarily be a good Subject yet a Man whose fitness to receive the Sacrament is known to God his own Conscience and to all good Men may be very unfit for an Office in the State and he may be exceedingly fit for a Publick Employment whose unfitness to receive the Sacrament is asâ—…vious It is an Opinion in this sence justly exploded That Dominion is founded in Grace Psal 15.16 for God has given the Earth to those Children of Men whom he designs not for Heaven And those Children of this World who are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light Luke 16.8 are by reason of that Wisdom fit to be employed therein 6. The Generations to come shall call them Blessed who instead of forcing Men to the Sacrament use all Means divinely Instituted to make them fit for it The Primitive Bishops kept Men Catechumens for a long time and admitted none to the Sacraments till they were approved and practical Christians And if the Inhabitants and especially the Children of England were every where made Catechumens by Publick Authority the next Generation may probably fill all Publick Employments with Men who would approach the Sacrament both to the Publick Advantage and their own For the Appearances of Divine Providence in the World are now conspicuous and at all times but especially in those Days wherein God is pleased more eminently to take to himself his great Power and Reign good Men are Publick Blessings Rev. 1.17 Ten Righteous had saved Sodom at such a Day Gen. 18.32 Laban's
the High-Church Party in England or the High-Kirk Party or Cameronians in Scotland can make a Man otherwise honest to tear the Government in pieces Indeed Popery is inconsistent with Allegiance to all Protestant Kings and States For as Antonius de Dominis Arch-bishop of Spolato acknowledged above 80 years ago The Church under the Bishop of Rome is no more a Church but a human Government under the Monarchy of the Pope which is wholly Temporal And this Assertion of his may be easily justified out of the Lateran and other Councils and their most celebrated Writers So Thomas Aquinas tells us That the Pope is as much above Bishops as Bishops are above Kings and Princes that the Secular Power is subjected to the Spiritual as the Body to the Soul and that therefore 't is no Usurpation when a Prelate meddles with Temporal Matters So Bonaventure his Contemporary about the Year 1274 affirms That the Pope may depose Princes and this after Edwardus Salburgensis in his Oration to the Diet at Ratisbon about the Year 1248 had thus express'd himself There are now 175 Years elasps'd since Gregory the 7th laid the Foundations of an Empire under the shew of Religion which in the same Oration he calls the Empire of Antichrist But this is a matter so plain that it cannot be denied by any learned Protestant and I wish that none who bear the Protestant Name were of the Mind of Salmero who teaches that as well the Priestly as the Kingly Power is placed in the Pastors of the Church that so Christ may reign for ever For 't is not long since the Judges of England were solemuly told in a Sermon that St. Paul was a mix'd Person Alas these and such as these are the Principles which work Confusion and tear the Government in pieces whether they got into the Heads of Prelatists or Presbyterians or of Men of any other denomination But altho' the Christian Profession with a suitable Conversation ought to be look't upon as an excellent Qualisication for an Imployment where the Person has other Qualifications proper for such an Imployment and such a Man is certainly preferable to another of equal Skill who either makes no Profession of Religion or lives not according to his Profession Yet the antient Roman Honesty with the Roman Courage Loyalty and Love to his Country and largeness of Soul may render a Man more sit for an Imployment than a Selfish Persecuting Cowardly Arbitrary narrow Soul Fellow that oves none but his own Party tho' he believed his Creed never so firmly and roar'd for the Church never so boisterously and much more if all the noise he makes be for humane Inventions and Ceremonies The Priests are now competently ashamed of the pretended Jus Divinum of absolute Monarchy and when they have been scouted out of all their Pretences under all Forms to any Jus Divinum not to be found in the Scriptures Then and not till then will the Princes and States of Christendom be secure and quiet The proof hereof would be too prolix but I can't forbear to present you with a small sample The Pope in the 13th Century sent the Christian Princes a Pilgrimage to recover the Holy Land which was in truth only to take an Opportunity to usurp upon their Rights in their Absence and to set up his pretended Jus Divinum to be Monarch of the World Thus after Gregory the 9th had by Excommunication forc'd the Emperor Frederick the Second to an Expedition into the Holy Land he invaded Naples and other parts of the Emperor's Dominions and stirred up Henry the Emperor's Son to Rebellion and called a Council to depose him Nor would he make Peace with him tho' he sued to the Pope for it and tho' the Tartars carried all before them the Emperor could not obtain Liberty to assist the Christians but was forc'd to fight it out with the Pope till the Anti-christian Monster having the worst on 't broke his Heart Some time after Pope Innocent the 4th blessed the French King Lewis about the Year 1248 and sent him on the same Errand but gathered a Council at Lyons against Frederick and thereby hindred him from assisting Lewis who sought to make Peace between the Emperor and the Pope that he might be assisted but the barbarous Pope and his pretended Jus Divinum left the poor King and his two Brothers Captives to the Saracens and the whole Christian Army to be cut off Some time after Pope Gregory the 10th engaged the Emperor Rodulph to send an Army into Asia and after the Ruin of that Army and the Captivity of the Prince of Meckleburg who commanded it being the 7th Army in this Century that was sent on the Pope's Errand It happen'd that Cassianus Prince of Tartary turned Christian and conquered Syria from the Saracens and left Governors in it with express Orders that they should enter into a Confederacy with the Christian Princes of the West But Pope Bonisuce the Eighth to whom this Offer was made was so busy in maintaining his pretended Jus Divinum against the French King Philip whom he Excommunicated and his Posterity to the Fourth Generation that he wholly slighted this Offer which occasioned oned the loss of Syria made Capeacus who governed in Damascus for Cassianus to revolt to the Soldan of Egypt and gave occasion to the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the next Age. Alass Sir were there no Princes in the Seventeenth Century ruined by Contests about those Jus Divinums I pray God the Eighteenth Century may afford no instances of any Prince undone by believing the Jus Divinum of Priestcraft These things considered it is not strange that the National Synod or Council of Gap Anno 1604 just 100 Years ago for the Reasons in their Acts mentioned and among others for that the Bishop of Rome with relation to Civil Affairs tramples on the lawful Authority of Magistrates giving taking away transferring Kingdoms thus resolve We Believe and Assert that he is the true and proper Antichrist the Son of Perdition foretold in the Word of God the Purple Whore that sits on the Seven Mountains in the Great City that has obtained Dominion over the Kings of the Earth and we wait till God as he hath promis'd and already begun to do shall break and conquer him by the Spirit of his Mouth and destroy him utterly by the brightness of his Coming But we are assured by a more infallible Authority that the Kings of the Earth shall hate the Whore and make her Desolate and Naked Rev. 17.12 16. and eat her Flesh and burn her with Fire The Kings and not the Priests are to work this Reformation and therefore tho' they had given their Power Strength Verse 13. and Kingdom to the Beast which the Kings of the Earth never gave to any but the Pope and his Church yet by re-assuming their respective Rights and asserting their just Supremacy God will some time or other
utterly root out Priestcraft Revel 11.15 the Kingdoms of this World must become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ not by turning Kingdoms into Churches and Kings into Priests or setting up Imperium in Imperio Our Saviour at first indeed appeared to St. John in the Habit of a Priest and his Sword went out of his Mouth a plain Representation how his Gospel should at first prevail But after that Anthropos and Ecclesia had set up Antichrist and the Kings of the Earth had been a long time committing Fornication with the Great Whore Revel 18.3 and the inhabiters of the Earth had been made drunk with the Wine of her Fornication when Babylon is to fall when the Marriage of the Lamb is come and his Wife hath made her self ready and the Heavens open for the utter destruction of the Beast and false Prophet Revel 19.11 he then appears as a General in the Head of an Army and tho' the Sword still comes out of his Mouth and his Name is called the Word of God Verse 15. that we may be sure to know Him Verse 13. and the true means of Reformation yet his Name written on his Vesture and on his Thigh is not Bishop of Bishops Verse 16. or chief Priest of Priests but King of Kings and Lord of Lords that we may know also who they are whom He will use as Instruments of Reformation And I dare appeal to the Reason of Mankind whether it does not agree with this Prophecy that the Civil Powers must interpose or the Priests will be quarrelling about their pretended Jus Divinum and tearing Christendom to pieces till the Day of Judgment And here I rid my hands of all the lamentable Stories that the abovementioned Woolf tells of the Presbyterian Tyranny in Scotland I have not one word to say for it if it be true which he relates and others deny I hope the Civil Power will keep them in Order as well as his Party in England The Apologetick Declaration annex'd to that Discourse says That they cannot own Princess Ann as their lawful chosen covenanted Princess such as they ought to have nor can they have any Prince or Princess but a Covenanted one Why says another Party no Prince or Princess without they maintain the Jus Divinum of Absolute Monarchy and maintain the Jus Divinum of Prelacy is not this fine work Sir Humphrey and has not our most Religious and most excellent Queen whom may the everlasting Arms support to the Age of her Predecessor Queen Elizabeth at least and with greater Glory Happiness a sine time of it amongst them for my part I most heartily wish that now Re assumptions are in fashion all Princes and States in Christendom would enter into a solema League and Covenant to re-aslume the just Rights of the Civil Power and to hold the Noses of all the Priests in Christendom to the Bible and to give them all the Honour and Respect Authority and Maintenance which is their due as the Stewards of the Mysteries of God and as the Ambassadors of Christ and to continue or derive to them by express Laws all such share of the Civil Power as the Wisdom of the Legislature shall see convenient in all Places and that all we Laymen as they call us would enter into the same solemn League and Covenant to support the Queen and all other Sovereigns therein that so the Christian World may be quiet then the Priests may enjoy the Blessing of our Saviour's Presence which is annex'd to their teaching all things whatsoever he has commanded and we may have the Benefit of being so taught otherwise many a good Christian will be ready to say with poor Melancton at his Death I desire to depart out of this Life for two Causes that I may enjoy the desired sight of the Son of God and the Church Triumphant and that I may be delivered from the most barbarous and implacable hatred of Divines and to believe that Eneas Sylvius was more infallible when he pronounc'd That all the Evil in the World either arose from Ecclesiastical Persons Omne malum in Mundo out exortum aviris Ecclesiasticis aut ab illis patratum or had been perpetrated by them than he was afterwards when about the Year 1458 he became Pope Pius the Second Those therefore who are Papists or who desire a Reunion with Popery and those that have got the same Principles tho' in an Aristocratical or Democratical form are dangerous to the Civil Government but what is this to most of the English Dissenters and to all the Occasional-Conformists who look not Abroad for any Sovereign of any sort Ecclesiastical or Temporal but Acknowledge Her Majesty to be Rightful and Lawful Queen who rejoice in the Laws Establishing the Protestant Succession and have no Interest to serve by Embroiling the Government Fourthly Whether it is sit that the Corporation and Test Acts should be enforc'd or Repealed Now as to so much of this Question as relates to the Test Act I shall choose to refer you to the Plea annext to this Discourse No. 1. only adding that since the Writing thereof your Oracle in the same Place where he Advises to the late Bill against Occasional-Conformity seems to give up the Point as to that Part of the Test that enjoins the actual Receiving of the Lords Supper for Case of the Regale Pag. 179. He sinds Faults with Bribing Men to Prophane the Holy Sacrament for an Office that an Action should be against the Minister who should refuse it to them tho' he Knows Sees and Hears them in their Conversations and Principles to be never so much Unqualified And as to the Corporation Act 't is plain that there have been vast Alterations made in the Constitution of the Government both Ecclesiastical and Civil since the making of that Act which may justly Occasion a Review of that Act without any Danger to the Government especially if made by such Persons as Her most Excellent Majesty shall Commissionate for that Purpose and in hope of living to see such an Act of Parliament as I have before mentioned and such a Commission I will say no more on that Subject And now methinks the Fifth Question is sufficiently considered already that Part of It which relates to the Practice of other wise Nations has been Effectually answered by other Hands in the Examples of most Wise Nations Heathen and Christian and I don't find any Reply is offered except a dry Discourse just come to Hand at the Writing of these Lines Indeed Sir Humphry I was comforting my Self with the thoughts of Subscribing your humble Servant when I was Interrupted by the Noise of one J S. who seems to be John at Style in whose Name we Lawyers use to put Cases from whom I expected some mighty Matter for Peace and Union are Excellent Things But alas 't is a poor Creature and I shall consider him in a few Words