miles removed than in many thousand within his own Kingdom not all of them Angels The King of France esteems it a priviledg granted him in a Concordate by the Pope that no particular Bishop should have power in any case to excommunicate him Never was there greater supporters to the Crown than English Catholicks have been ever against the least encroachment offered by the Bishop of Rome himself as it is to be seen in the Statâ—t Laws of King Richard the Second wherein you find in many businesses the Pope was interessed the Roman Catholicks flatly denying the Crown of England to be subject to any immediately but to God yet acknowledged in the very same Parliament the Bishop of Rome's spiritual Jurisdiction And Bishop Bilson in his Defence between Christ and Antichrist brings in the Parliament consisting then altogether of Roman Catholicks expressing their loyalty to their Soveraign Prince in these words we will with our said Soveraign the King and his said Crown and Regality in cases aforesaid and in all other cases attempted against Him his Crown or Dignity in all points live and dye p. 3. p. 243. And in Holinshed 2. Volume of the last Edition p. 309. we find in the Reign of King Edward the First all the Catholick Lords assembled in Lincolne in Parliament in the name of all estates did answer the Popes right to judg c. that they would not consent their King should do any thing tending to the disinheriting of the Crown or right of England And that it was never known and consequently never practised that the King of this Land had answered or ought to answer for their rights in the said Realm before any Judg ecclesiastical or secular Yet at the same time they stiled Pope Boniface the high Bishop of the Roman universal Church and themselves his devout sons c. Therefore Catholick Religion hath no headship prejudicial to temporal Supremacy If this were a Check to the Glory of Kings why do the Kings of France Spain Poland Portugal the Emperour and other great Princes in Germany uphold it and glory in it the Duke of Savoy with the Florentine and the rest of Italian Princes living under the Popes Nose absolute and arbitrary in their Dominions dispute with Sword in their hand for their Temporalities And for the Catholick Church in England in Catholick times Stat. 25. Edward 3. Statut. 16. Richard did not admit the Pope's deposing power in temporals made it a preeminence to appeal to Rome or to submit to a Legates jurisdiction without the Kings License or on the Popes summons to go out of the Kingdom or receive any mandates or brief from Rome or purchase Bulls for Preserments to Churches c. and the reason was given because the Crown of England is free from earthly subjection and immediately subject to God Our Catholick Lords of England have in the name of the whole Body made oft protestations of eternal fidelity to the King and renouncing all dependance of any forreign power that can any way be prejudicial to him Many Protestations Professions Declarations have been printed by several Catholicks that no authority on earth can absolve them from their necessary and natural Allegiance and that his fidelity was a duty of their Religion have made and will be ready to give all security of peaceable obedience and sincere integrity that any words or actions can confirm But you will object and say they allow a power in the Pope to excommunicate Princes and thence follows a train of pernicious consequences of deposing raising his Subjects against him c. Resp That the power of Excommunication is indeed necessarily annexed to the pastoral Function and therefore to be allowed in the cheife Bishop over his Flock But they deny and renounce any further extent of that power unto those things which appertain to Caesar 5 and therefore they declare as firmly that notwithstanding any such excommunication they will bear true faith to our Prince and him maintain and defend against all opposers whatsoever You may again object the Council of Lateran decreed Princes that savoured Hereticks after admonition given the Pope might discharge the Subjects from allegiance and give away the Kingdom to some Catholick to root out Heresie Resp 1. Councils are not infallible in every point even in matter of fact and other Constitutions not concerning faith or doctrine being but human Laws are changeable and oft admit exceptions 2. Council's Ordinations are to be taken according to the prudent meaning of the Legislators which bear another sense than the words taken lye In this case suppose the Emperours of the East and West Kings of England France Hungary Hierusalem Cyprus Arragon c. agree together to purge their Kingdoms of Heresies and upon forfeiture the Church should give their Dominions to another that will perform their Compact these Princes being present by their Embassadors at the Councils and what was there done was done by their consent The Albigensian Heresie beginning to be so numerous and even dangerous those Monarches thought themselves in no worse a condition for that decree nor did any Catholick King since complain or protest against this Council for it 3. Note the Decrees of some Councils not received or acknowledged universally by the Catholick Church are not obligatory but that which is principally to be considered is that in the Decree of this Lateran under Innocent the Third it is ordained not Supream Princes but temporales potestates dominos which bear Offices in States and Kingdoms to take Oaths to root out all Hereticks under the penalty of being denounced to be deprived of their Estates c. yet reserving the right of the supream Lord. 4. This pretended Article of Faith hath been disclaimed by a world of unquestionable Catholicks and all allegations confuted by learned Authors of our Nation Doctor Bistop writ a Book purposely against it 5. No proof can be given that it was ever received or executed by any Catholick Kingdom out of Italy The reason is because those decrees were never published by Pope Innocent nor a Copy of them extant either in the body of the Councils or Vatican Library or elsewhere till a certain German three hundred years after said he found them in a Manuscript compiled he knows not by whom 6. By testimony of all Historians at that time Pope Innocent suffered in Reputation having convoked so many Prelates to no purpose 60 Capitula were recited in the Assembly and many penned in a stile as if they had been concluded but nothing at all could plainly be decreed no Conciliary determinations made but one or two viz. about the recovery of the holy Land and subjection of the Greek Church to the Roman for a War began then between them of Pisa and Genua which called the Pope from the Council 7. Be it granted a conciliary decree it is so far from looking like an Article of Faith which saith Bellarmine and Canus may easily be discovered by
the stile Here is nothing proposed to be believed no Anathema fulminated no signification that the contrary is against the Scripture c. therefore at most it is a meer ecclesiastical ordinance touching external discipline and as such what is more ordinary and permitted than for Princes to refuse admittance therein we see some Churches of France reject the decrees of reformation made in the Council of Trent and also practised in England 8. Suppose it be an ordinance yet supream Princes and Kings are not named but excluded and only their Officers and Substitutes c. 9. No example can be produced in the Empire or other Catholick State that such an Oath in succeeding times was imposed or threatned But on the contrary we know Charls the fifth by a Law of the Empire publickly permitted Lutherans in several Provinces and all the Kings of France sinâ—e Hen. 3. permitted the Calvinists yet the Pope never threatned deposition or they feared it Therefore this doctrinal point of Faith is shamefully pretended to be involved on that or the like Decrees viz. the Popes power of deposing c. What State Kingdome or City received or taught the People this even as a probable Opinion It is well known in practice and doctrine other Sects and their accusers have been more faulty in this point then they as History and experience testifie of Princes actually deposed in Scotland Denmark Sweden Geneva c. and absolute rebellion following their doctrine in Poland Bohemia England France Hungary Germany c. Obj. Innocent the third who presided in this Council actually deposed King John and Otho the Emperour Resp Popes as private Doctors may err in matters of fact their Decrees and Bulls are not always held as infallible and may be opposed as often they have been by Papists nor will they scruple to do it especially about temporal affairs We do not approve whatsoever Popeâ— do in fact in deposing c. If some Popes have been exorbitant have not Papist themselves defended their Princes against all pretended illegal impositions of Rome If some Popes have transgressed and been passionate men it doth not follow all have as some Princes have been Tyrants not all This King John Protestant Histories conclude passing by his youthful Rebellion murthering his Nephew his Atheism c. they record he lost our whole interest in France discontenting all his people not defending their Rites and Priviledges c. So Heylin Daniel Martin Sir Robert Cotton Hist And Stow in his Chronicle 170. relates it thus King John being dissolute and perfidious and would not grant the Laws or Liberties of the Charter had as many enemies as Nobles Clergy and Layty petitioned against him for the Pope to depose him an opinion then in practice the Pope would not but sent Paendulph his Legate who comes over to Dover to King John to counsel the King's peace and reconcile him to God and the Church The King living then in great jeopardy to loose his Kingdome The King of France being invited by the Nobles and Clergy to invade the Kingdome saved the Kingdome by it after this the Clergy came over and all was in peace The Pope after this excommunicates the Barons for the disobeying the King and calling in the French King Lewis into the Realm And Gaule the Legate was sent from the Pope to forbid Lewis to go into or invade England to excommunicate him if he did But Lewis of France arrived in England whom the Barons assisted against King John John soon after died his eldest son Hen. 3. at nine years old was crowned King by the Bishops of Winchester and Bath c. and the Government of the King was committed to the Popes Legate the Bishop of Winchester and Earl of Pembroke The Legate maintained the King's part admonished prayed and commanded the disobedient to do as he did called a Council at Bristol caused the Bishops to incline to the King's part notwithstanding Lewis did what he could to the contrary Seeing Lewis and his complices were excommunicated every Sunday by the Legate though they had London and all the East parts of England Lewis had notice from Rome except he went out of England the sentence of excommunication of the Legate should be confirmed by the Pope For this cause saith Stow 175. a truce was taken between Lewis and King Henry Philip of France called his son Lewis to return he being passed over the Earl of Salisbury Earl Warren c. revolted to the Kings side and this by industry and virtue of the Pope's Legate Lewis being absolved from the excommunication went into France but his complices were by the Legate deprived of all benefit by their disobedience See Stow 170. Thus we see how for want of knowledge things are carried on and reported very frequently in the worst sense and construction it may be easily collected out of our own Authors and Chronicles that Popes have been great friends to our Princes and this Nation Take in short out of Stow 883. that Pope Adrian the fourth an Englishman invested Hen. 2. with the Dominion of Ireland and had it confirmed with an Assembly at Waterford Pope Vrbane who sent a Legate the Bishop Sabrine into England with sentence of excommunication against the City of London and Cinque-Ports and all those that troubled the King's peace King Richard of England being taken Prisoner unjustly by Leopold Duke of Austria in return from the Wars with the Saladine demanding a great ransome and misusing him The Pope excommunicated the Duke of Austrich and injoyned him to release the Covenants that he constrained our King to make and send home the Pledges The Duke refusing this Order shortly after broke his Leg and in great anguish ended his life and was kept unburied till his Son released the English Pledges Thus were the Pledges restored and the money behind released How oft did the Pope grant to the King of England the Tenth of all Ecclesiastical Goods as to Edward the first and second Sent the Abbot of Saint Denis Legat to request Edward the second to remove from him Pierce Gaveston without which the Kingdom could not be in peace nor the Queen injoy the Kings true love Vide Stow 213. Edw. 2. The Pope sent Ganelinus and Lucius de Flisco by the Kings request to make peace between England and Scotland and reconcile to the King Thomas Earl of Lancaster who brought Bulls from the Pope to excommunicate the Scots except they returned to peace with the King of England William Longshamp Bishop of Ely and Legate to the Pope and Chancellour of England was made Governour of the Realm by Richard the first Afterward the Archbishop of Roan was made Regent of England then being made Archbishop of Canterbury Then you see there was no jealousie of the Pope or his Clergy but on the contrary for many hundred years our Princes and Nation reposed as with just reason they might the greatest trust and confidence in their loyalty faith and
well of her as the Dutchess of Sommerset to Sir John Cheeke to Sir Edward Mountague Lord chief Justice who had subscribed and counselled her disinheriting to Sir Roger Cholmey to the Marqness of Northampton to the Lord Robert Dudley to Sir Henry Dudley to Sir Henry Gates c. who stood attainted and the Duke of Suffolke all obnoxious to her Justice she knew very well neither affected her Religion nor Title they being her prisoners in the Tower she released them all But for all this the Zealots of her time would not be quieted they libel against the Government of Women they pick quarrels and murmur at her Marriage they publish invectives and scurrilous Pamphlets against Religion yet forbear not to plot and conspire her deprivation Goodman writ a pernitious Book to have her put to death William Thomas a Gospeller conspires to Out of Fox his Martyrs kill the Queen and when hanged said he died for his Country Stow in Queen Mary p. 1056. On the contrary in Queen Elizabeths time although Catholicks then were the chief Ministers in Church and State and might have used indirect means against her she being of a contrary Religion and not of so clear a Title yet Catholick Bishops who set the Crown upon her head are commended by Holinshed a Prot. Hist ann Eliz. 26. pag. 1358 1360. for peaceable quiet Bishops and the Catholick temporal Lords there by him recorded to be far from opposing themselves against her interest as they are said there to offer her Majesty in her defence to impugne and resist any â—orreign force though it should come from the Pope himself Insomuch that they are commended by Holinshed for loyalty and obedience And Stow testifies how diligent Catholicks were to offer their service in that great action 88. neither were they altogether refused by her Majesty How the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellour of England Doctor Heath a Catholick Bishop instead of inveighing against her or casting forth of Libels as Cranmer did against Q. Mary her entrance and Government made a publick oration in her behalf to perswade the people to obedience and to acknowledg her power and authority Holin ib. 1170. whence the said Archbishops faithfulness was left to commendation also by Protestant Bishop Goodman in his Catalogue of Bishops How all Catholick Lords and Bishops repaired to London to proclaim her Queen who not long after turned them out of several Offices and Bishopricks Holinshed p. 1171. To use Cambdens own words and phrase the world stood Cambdens Britann p. 163. amazed and England groaned at it what would flesh and blood move him to was it not strange in the beginning to behold Abbies destroyed Bishopricks gelded Chaunteries Hospitals Colledges turned to profaneness change of Liturgies Rites c. to see people renounce their pious vows such unexpected alterations it being a pitiful thing as Stow saith to hear the Lamentations in the Country for religious Houses Stâ—w p. 964. Notwithstanding the loyalty and obedience of Catholicks towards her appeared undeniable in all things not only in their humble petitions but by their constant and general conformity unto her temporal Government in 88. and by their Protestations made at Ely 1588. as by other offers made to the Lord North the Queens Lieutenant there and by their just actions afterwards by their submission as to the Lords of the Privy Council and profession of all due acknowledgment to her Majesty notwithstanding the Sentence of Excommunication Whence the Author of Execution of English Justice acknowledges their obedience and loyalty to Elizabeth in a time when they wanted no matter of complaint Any man of candour and integrity may easily convince the vulgar error the unevenness of Queen Elizabeths nature and severity to that of Queen Marys Queen Elizabeth made new Laws against Catholicks and put them to death for not embracing a new heresie which has been condemned to the fire here and in all other Christian Countries She embrued her hands in the blood royal of Mary Stewart lawful Heir to the Crown put to death many noble persons by their blood to colour her Supremacy raised up upstarts Hereticks from nothing annihilated the antient Nobility and Gentry c. to use a Protest Historiographers words the bloody practices of Queen Eliz. if not so barbarous in appearance though more wicked in substance as being exhibited under the colour and pretext of Law in the starving and racking so many innocent worthy learned persons tearing out their hearts and bowels in publick view upon suborned witnesses base vagabond and perjured Catchpoles hired to swear Neither was there any reason then for persecution on the account of the Catholicks misdemeanours For as Cambden her own Historiographer noteth The reason of the penal Statutes in Eliz. was 1. the opinion of the Queens Illegitimation abroad 2. Jealousies had of the Queen of Scots her nearness to the Crown 3. the Bull of Pius 5. 4. the doubt of the house of Guise in behalf of their Neece 5. the offence given to the King of Spain in assisting Orange These causes induced the Queen with her Pauculi intimi saith Cambden We cannot excuse the persecution therefore under Queen Elizabeth against Catholicks for any cause given by them or just fear of their fidelity nor from the example of Christian Emperours and Kings that both for zeal of Religion and human policy to avoid danger of Rebellion made Laws and Statutes against Hereticks and innovators of the antient faith and sense of Scripture which descended to them by Tradition from the Apostles Queen Elizabeth taking a contrary way made Laws and Statutes against the ancient Religion and known sense of Gods word delivered from age tâ— age which practice destroys the order of Justice to persecute Christians for professing a Religion confirmed by the publick testimony and practice of the Christian world from the first propaâ—â—tion of Christianity to this present tâ—â—e No part of their Dectrine being â—â—er judged an heresie or novelty by antiquity otherwise they had not escaped the rigour of penal Laws made against Hereticks and Novelists in former ages But no History did or can ever mention any person that suffered as an Heretick for broaching or maintaining any one point which they now believe and profess Whereas Q. Mary her predecessors Emperours and Kings punished Novelists only that made Religons of their own heads condemneâ— as Hereticks by the Church in ancient times The disparity therefore was great Catholick Princes standing as defenders of their ancient Faith others as invaders and introducers of a new Belief They seek to keep what de jure they had Calvinists what they had not they possessors of the traditum and depositum left by Christ and his Apostles others descissors and injurious infringers of those Apostolick tyes and regulations so carefully delivered to all posterity Laws indeed have been made in Catholick Countries very severe against those the Church calleth Hereticks but they were none of the Churches
unreasonable and inadaequate for as corporal penalties cannot convince the understanding so neither can they be proportionable mulct for faults purely intellectual Before we can with justice inflict penalties upon any different profession we ought to use all means possible to recover them to truth Arguments to rational creatures as Christians are to instruct admonish warn and finally to reject to come to them full of compassion of their misery full of affection of their Salvation by reasonable and persuasive motives suitable to their own nature by somethng can resolve its doubts answer its objections tenets and Propositions Whence our first work should be to collect a Body of positive articles evidently contained in Scripture and absolutely necessary to salvation for its improper to pen the form of Faith in the negative because my believing Christian truths makes me a Christian and not my disbelieving the errors that oppose it else he that believes nothing at all would be the best Christian We must fight against Antichrist by lawful ways prescribed by the Word of God by the spirit of his mouth in preaching instructing in Charity Patience humility according to the example of Christ and his Apostles The weapons of Christian warfare are not Carnal but Spiritual 2 Cor. 10. For as they were not the warlike engines of Joshua but the trumpets of the Sanctuary that made the walls of Jericho to fall down So it is not the Canon but the trumpet of the Gospel which is required to pull down the walls of Babylon True Religion was never advanced by these ways but propagated by patient sufferings the Example of Jesus Christ is so far from persecuting that he would not revile his persecutors prayed for them saith go teach all nations c. The Text directs Christs procedure in teaching not in devouring Wherefore all wise humble and charitable Christians should so Order their judgments and Censures if at any time they are forced to declare them they must above all things take heed they nourish not nor discover any uncharitable fewds antipathies distances against others after the rule of those passions which were the common source of Schism and Heresies The free meek and solid piety feeds it self on the substance of Religion without picking quarrels at the shell free from the superstition and hypochondriacal Zeal of some who pretend to advance the Kingdom of Christ by cutting the throats of his Disciples and cementing his temples with blood instead of the Cement of charity CAP. II. Persecution is against Policy and Piety THe grand fomenters of persecution can be no friends to the English State for what but imposition immoderation and restraint in the cause of Religion as a learned divine Noteth hath turned Episcopacy into Presbytery Presbytery into Independancy Independancy into Quakerism Religion into Policy Reformation into Innovation Profession into Pretence Ministery into Souldiers Souldiers into Preachers Churches into Stables Pulpits into Tubs Degrees into Parity Pastors into Hirelings Apostolical Hierarchy into Anarchy with abusive fumes and flames to build Babels of their own I am not able to express saith another great Doctor of our English Church how high an impiety it is that at this time when Gods hand is out against us justly for our sins to be disposed and fixed upon a resolution that to redeem external peace we will persecute c. I admire to see too too many in Parliament here amongst us where is great plenty of able Gentlemen of excellent learning worth wit and other perfections and endowments as any nation besides to be inclinable if not actually resolved in all meetings to feud about the Rom. Religion especially now after this tryal of their honesty more is to be admired the preposterous machinations and motions even of Churchmen who by the Canons are forbid to have any hand in blood when they forsake the ancient refuges of Christians which were preaching and tears and betake themselves to swords and helmets plots conspiracies and pursuivants Wisemen have seen those obscurities and disgraces which as black shadows have attended even Churchmen Persecution is fitter for the hands of Cyclops who forged Jupiters Thunderbolts then the Priests of the Gods Bishops should always be tender of good consciences and of the honour of Christian Religion which was not wont to see Ministers rough and targetted as the Rhinoceroes bâ—â— soft and gentle cloathed as the Sheep and Sheepheards of Christ There is not a more portentous sight then to see galeatos Clericos Christ long ago in the person of Saint Peter commanded them to put up their Swords nor was he ever heard to repeal that word or Bid them draw their Swords no not in Christs Cause that is meerly for Religion who hath legions of Angels armies of Truth gifts of Graces of the Spirit to defend himself and his true interest in Religion withal and a little after Indeed our Ecclesiastical Rulers have reason to steer us cautiously since they sit at the Helm in such a Ship as hath thrown very many Pilots over board it becomes those Bishops now got up newly to be most calm quiet and sedate Spirits The great alteration of the Body of the People since these last twenty years require that our old ends of promoting the welfare of the Church of England should be attained by the conduct of new means Bishops should compose the affections of the People by Liberty of Conscience and not Acts of Vniformity for the greatest assertors of Episcopacy and Ceremonies of the Church are lodged in their Graves and the present major part of this Land consists in those to whom the introducing of the old Church Prelatical Government will seem an Innovation It s the interest of the Clergy here to temper the Government of the Church for its irrational to think that any Church Government in a Protestant Country of Sectaries can be accommodated to the content and satisfaction of all which restraineth a large and almost absolute power to the heads of a few Protestant Bishops It s the concern of none but Souldiers of Fortune to oppose due Liberty of Conscience Whence the wise King James had wholly repealed the penal Statutes engaged so to do and Papistry then was declared tolerable had he not been diverted from it by Cecil and other Upstarts and Politicians whose interest was begun and grounded upon Heresie and destruction of the ancient Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdome For in his Speech Sess 1. Printed 161â— My mind saith he was ever free from persecuting and thralling my Subjects in matters of Conscience and in his next words I was so far from increasing their burdens with Roboam as I have so much as either time occasion or law would permit me to have lightened them And in his Censure against Conradus Vorstius the Dutch Heretick recounting the difference between Protestants and Catholicks he findeth not any for which Papists may be persecuted but rather the contrary You may object persecution is necessary in Policy of
and dust as every one hath received a several external figure of Face and every one a diverse internal form of mind every one a Cogitation and fancy distant from whence it cometh that there is so great diversity of Opinions so strange a contrariety of inclinations so different affections and passions in mortal men that no ordinary means is forcible enough to perswade them to any thing to which their private Spirits or imaginations are not inclined Hence so many Scripture interpretations so many quarrels and divisions in Religion even to Massacres Evils unknown to the very Heathens Hence we have often seen good by false representations may pass for abominable in the sight of sober men Hence the inconsiderate multitude prejudiced by education passion interest or false Teachers representing the Roman Church to them as a Monster composed of all sort of abomination having their Ears perpetually beaten with seven Hills Antichrist Idolatry Superstition by many unchristian aspersions false pretences by private forgeries and publick impressions wounding most Christian and innocent men How can they otherwise but hate them they know no better and even suck from their first Milk such an ill Opinion or odium of them as if they were Turks or Jews and had principles destructive to common Society Peace and Concord What a Wonder and what a Lamentation is it that those men who cry out so much for forbearance to Magistrates should themselves be so rigid and can less forbear dissenters or see the same sin in themselves So justifie all their Cruelties and think persecution to be their Duty Whence is persecution but from thinking ill of others abhorring and not loving them condemning them without hearing bearing them down not with sincere and plain dealing becoming Christians with inveterate malice filling Books with trivial Stories and Fables pickt up out of Authors without discretion make it their business to seek calumnies and reproaches in the Sepulchres and Common-shores of Schismaticks with untrue reporting of Doctrins false and unjust Criminations and other indirect wayes unseemly and unworthy the Cause of Truth to the dishonour of God and disparagement of Christian Religion Reading a Treatise lately Printed against Toleration by an university Schollar Had this Dilemma if Liberty or Toleration may be granted either an universal Toleration or particular not an universal for then saith he Papists may be tolerated which is against all As if all the Monsters of Aegypt may be admitted so the Papists be excluded Yet we must know if there had been no Papists in the World no other Sect among us had ever heard of Christianity If we knew all the Evils may ensue we should then be forced to Check the People from railing and let them feel our anger who would deceive us with Lies Nor can we look on those men as either of wit or honesty who are ever promoting the harassing of a faithful party needlesly to disoblige their fellow Subjects and Sufferers Wherefore to undeceive the so long abused and deluded multitude I will endeavour in the ensuing discourse to wipe of the Paint and Fucus that so things may appear in their true complexion unadulterated with the slights and subtilties of deluders I have chosen rather to expose these lines to Censure than to forbear to speak or be silent in the Cause and Defence of the Innocent Silui a bonis saith the Prophet dolor meus renovatus est in the following lines shall be shewed that the Law of God Christian Religion nature reason and our own principles doth oblige us to more charitable censures of the Roman Religion And that they are as highly if not more entitled to the true Christian Liberty of Conscience than any other Sect or Religion whatsoever all objections to the contrary cleared and evinced to any rational or impartial Reader If it remains as a Probatum est that no Christian ought to be compelled in matters of Faith or Religion provided it broacheth forth no new Sects or Schisms or that it be not in Case of Scandal or open blasphemy And if the Fundamental Laws and Government were established as a Defence and Protection to all sober peaceable Christians that immunity and freedom of Conscience ought to be indulged to Dissenters in this sense it being their due right and not only granted in policy to some persons or to oblige a party or to be enjoyed by the strongest and subtilest only to curb and subiect the rest as is shewed before there can be no ground able to convince any rational man why Papists should be excluded this priviledge unless we infringe the Laws and Government by not distributing equal and impartial justice nay the truth of this assertion is more evident and convincing for them then any Primo It is against reason and all examples of antiquity for men to be punished for adhering to the Religion of their Fore-fathers Now the Roman-Catholick Religion was the first Christian Religion planted in our native Country from whom we had and have our very Christianity the first universally spread and preached by Government permitted and encouraged by Counsels and Parliaments confirmed and approved a thousand years there continued even by our deceased kindred and parents not long since professed by our Universities established and defended against all Adversaries From whence we derive even the Scripture â—t self our ordinations most of our material Churches Colledges Inns of Court Hospitals c. and shall Charity ever be so buried in Oblivion in England that the Posterity of those from whom we must confess to have received these and other great advantages never be remembred and used with equity and common Justice They are linked in Religion to all Catholick Princes and Countries about us who will be more loving Neighbours if they see their Brethren find favour from us To persecute this Religion is to War against our Progenitors It is this Church in which so many Martyrs have dyed so many Doctors have taught and preached so many Virgins have lived in flesh like Angels so many Saints wrought wonders and miracles so many Councils called so many Ecclesiastical Laws enacted so many Nations converted so many Kings and Emperors lived and died and hope to be saved against which so many persecutors Machiavels and Tyrants in vain have used torments and contrived all imaginable force wicked policy or cruelty could invent This Faith hath the best evidence as taught and instituted by Christ his Apostles and Successors in an uninterrupted series and delivery down to us Set before your eyes those glorious Champions of Christs Church Constantines Theodos Pepines Charles all sirnamed Great more Glorious for Victories over Heresies and Idolatries than for conquests of Countries more renowned for propagating Catholick Religion than enlarging their Dominions See the Catologue of noble Kings of England Lucius Ethelbert Egbert Oswald Oswine Alfred Edgar before the conquest William the Conqueror and so many Henries Edwards Richards after the Conquest mighty of force rich of
present Age no Sectaries can be lawful Witnesses for their own lately modelled Religion or against the ancient Catholick because their testimonies cannot be valid against so constant an universal Tradition and practice Secundo It s ridiculous and unjust in a Judge to pronounce sentence against Roman Catholick upon the evidence and testimony of Calvin Luther c. as in open Court to condemn men to forfeit their Estates and ancient inheritances upon the word of a mad fellow that produceth no other evidence to confirm his claim but interior motions of the Spirit or some obscure Text of Law appliable to all Cases and Subjects for all the Protestant evidence is reduced to the private Spirit and the pretended clearness of Scripture Tertio The Legislative power ought to be subordinate to Christian Religion but Statutes against Catholicks are evidently against the Law of God and Christian Religion if we may credit Antiquity and stick to the Faith and practice of the Church and Princes that went before us not only in England but all other Christian Kingdomes This way therefore of proceeding is different from all other Nations and altereth the Stile of natural reason humane nature and the practice of all Antiquity and consequently destroyes the foundation of justice and form of Judicature Quarto The common temporal Municipal Laws which Science above all others next to Divinity doth confirm and evince unto the understanding of an Englishman the Truth of Catholick Religion Forasmuch as from our first Christian Kings and Queens which must needs be the origin and beginning of all Christian Common Laws in England unto the reign of Henry the eight all our Princes and People being of one and the same Catholick Religion their Laws must needs be presumed to have been conformed to their sense and judgment in that behalf and our Lawyers to our Laws So as now to see an English temporal Lawyer to impugn the said Catholick Religion by the antiquity of the common Laws throughout the times and reigns of the said Kings and Queens to favour and countenance Luther Calvin c. or any new Opinions not known before is as great an absurdity novelty and wonder as to see a Philosopher brought up in Aristotles School to impugn Aristotle by Aristotles learning in favour of Petrus Ramus Descartes or some other new Adversary Catholick Religion never prejudiced any Nation or State where it had free passage in the least degree but hath ever been their safety happiness and honour No People or Church in the World so great a friend to loyalty and obedience they have the repute of honest men patient and charitable carry themselves civilly and religiously nothing is heard from their mouths of Blasphemy or Atheism or that may have ground of not believing or adoring God alone or of not hoping to be saved by the merits of Jesus Christ They have lived without just complaint sociable and amicable If they meet you not at Church they meet you at Market Do they not buy and sell with you Are ready to perform all Offices of good neighbourhood and civility Do they refuse any kind of temporal duties or payments Do ye not find them at home and abroad as strict to their promises as any others you converse withall They cannot be persecuted by any Government that understands its own interest unless first abused by false Teachers nor can we deny them what ancient and good Laws have ever allowed theâ— being no innovators but Professors of the same Religion which made this Nation Christian If there were no other Apology for peaceable men but only those Pleas of Conscience tendered to publick view those ought not to be unconsidered by such as profess Christianity Never any Acts of Vniformity could expel Papists out of heretical Countries Do ye know what you ask when you are still urging the execution of pressures against Catholicks even their blood life and fortunes can any Christian zeal be so irregular Can this come from the Spirit of the Gospel Is this wisdome from above Whence comes all this anger What evil have they done What maximes have they so rough and unreasonable that they must be taken away by the Sword Why should we be so bloody in our Tenets How can our passions be so intemperate Our mercies so cruel To them whose Faith was established by our Fundamental Laws and maintenance of it sworn to at least by twenty of our Monarchs even by Queen Elizabeth her self Why must the Papists be thus singled out from all the rest and forced to forfeit all advantages or forsake his Conscience They only exposed to publick hatred and rigour though they only least deserve it Shall we extinguish all considerations of equity and charity towards them of whose honesty we are assured by their Long and Patient Sufferings rather than they would renounce their Conscience towards God who are ready to abjure what is or may be objected as only dangerous in their Religion who have given evidences already they will perform those Oaths and that they cannot be absolved from them If we apprehend their principles and doctrines are inconsistent with the Gospel or Civil Government grant them a free Conference about the points in question which are those Tenets carry an opposition to either and if upon impartial enquiry they are found so Heterodox as represented then inflict penalties If their Ecclesiasticks are not able to justisie both their Religion and Principles let them renounce all mercy This offer is very fair and equal a Vindication of Justice and a legal proceeding against the Criminal And the contrary how plausible soever represented pretending thereby to do God good service is most injurious to the Peace Christian meekness Reason Religion or Charity and destructive to that prudential Ballance the wisest and best States have ever carefully observ'd Who always after questions of Religion freely discussed relieved the distresses of tender and innocent Consciences We must not judge of them or any other by the private and perhaps misinterpretable assertions of some particular Doctors but by the avowed principles of their belief This is the basis on which they build the rule by which they walk in point of obedience to God and man or if you would judg of them by their proceedings and addresses their frequent petitions professions protestations of all just obedience will sufficiently clear them If by their practice and manner of lives their quiet deportment and manner of living and conversing with all men yea even their prayers and wishes which they dayly make unto Almighty God in behalf of their Prince and Country do shew how innocent they are and how little they deserve those black aspersions and calumnies some rash Satyrists are so diligent to cast upon them In charity we are bound to believe the best of others and also to think they speak true when we cannot prove the contrary Some destine them to destruction and extirpation as Agapete did the Jews Are so eager declaimers
visible executioners This premised I argue thus Where there is a liberty of examining and judging there must be a freedome of election upon such judgment but the Church of England v. g. in her Doctrine alloweth men to search the Scriptures and examine whether her Doctrine be agreeable to Scripture or no Therefore the Church of England and other Reformed cannot in reason and equity persecute such men as in foro conscientiae shall upon such due examination of judgment dissent from their Doctrine If this principle pass current amongst us that every one may read judg and interpret Scripture which is by us the judg of Controversies the only rule to guide us to Faith we are bound to give Liberty of Conscience to others Whence one of our own Doctors saith Our Bishops who have declared the Doctrine of giving freedome of Conscience what every one in their private judgments do of discretion hold to be most conformable to Gods Word yet they very inconsequently and disingenuously excite our Governours to force their Conscience to an exterior Conformity Secondly We confess the Church of England and all Churches may erre and for ought we know do erre and lead into error and such an uncertain and fallible guide or ground to rely on is not proportionable to the nature and quality of Faith which must be certain and infallible with an internal consent of the Will and subjection of our understandings to revealed Truths Our Senses may be deluded but Faith not for it must be more firm and certain than any thing we see or feel Supposing then the Reformed Churches fallible will it not be a most unreasonable thing to be still exacting of Recusants by rigorous Sequestratious Oaths and what other penalties they think fit to leave and forsake the Church and Faith which they so groundedly hold to be the infallible guide appointed by God himself as the only means to direct them securely to eternal Salvation And to yield exterior conformity to our own new moulded Church we all profess to be fallible Or to be forced to embrace a Doctrine deduced by fallible interpretations out of Scripture which interpretations the far greater and learneder part of this very age reject as Heretical and which as such were rejected by almost all visible Christianity for these thousand years And which perhaps may shortly be rejected by us We having oft-times rejected that which we cryed up before for verity and the Religion now in vogue not many years ago was cryed down If our Church be not then infallible in what we teach against them but may embrace a lye for a divine Truth they need not to vindicate and justifie their most just recusancy in refusing to submit when we provide them no better security but force them to refuse due submission to that infallible direction appointed by divine Writ to bring them securely to their end To which the most religious the most learned and the major part of Christians ever yet thought and submitted too If I should disobey the sentence of the Church upon what other authority can I more prudently rely What Labyrinths and Abysmes should I fall into How can we force and draw others to our Churches if we cannot agree where and how to lay our Foundation How can we impose upon and restrain others whom we are so far from assuring of Truth as we pretend to be but uncertain of it and are not able to do so much for our selves being liable to change and no ways certain of our own belief to be the most infallible as our multiplied Concessions are pregnant instances What is this but to put certain penalties upon an uncertain Faith And if our Teachers agree not in all points of Religion the Dissenters in controversie are obliged to allow a mâ—tual toleration If we say the Roman Church erred for 900. years till our Reformation we exclude our selves from all possible assurance of true Faith or Salvation And to arrogate to our Selves or to attribute to private persons or Pastors the all-defining Spirit which we deny to the whole Church represented in a general Council is absurd His presumption must needs be vast that builds more on his own tenet then the mature judgment of all successive Fathers While he cryes down others for infallible he lifts himself up to be so as if God revealed more to him than all the Doctors and Propagators of his Church Now let us hear what our own Divines acknowledge Doctor Taylor saith but alas notwithstanding our Religion thus framed by our Divines yet it seems not sufficiently marked or the cognizance of Schism taken away for yet we have no particular positive points among us setled for undoubted Truths those being rather a medley of all Religions and new Sects professed among us or a negation of those tenets of the Church we went out of and which stood a thousand years before us as Histories and Monuments witness which is but a negative Faith in effect for what is positive or of Order and Government is wholly derived and taken from that Religion which not long since we pulled down abominated and so violently persecuted Doctor Gauden saith I see not why Papists may not in reason of State have and enjoy that liberty without perturbing the Publick Peace which Presbyterians and Independents do enjoy in their new ways For nothing will savour more of an imperious or impotent Spirit whose Faith and Charity are Slaves to Secular Interests than for those who have obtained liberty to their Novelties to deny the like freedome to other mens Antiquity which hath Ecclesiastical practise and precedency of a thousand years besides the preponderancy of much reason Scripture and holy examples All which to force godly grave and learned men to renounce or comply with other ways against their judgments must be a crying Self-condemning sin in those men who lately approved the ancient Church way and after dissenting at first desired but a modest toleration And in another place saith To Fleece and depress Popish Recusants by pecuniary mulcts exactions c. is to set Religion to sale and make Merchandize of Conscience and mens errors rather than fairly to perswade and win them by proper and perswasive engines of true Religion Thorndike a learned Divine saith also Cerâ—ainly it may be justiâ—â—able for the secular power to grant Papists exercise of their Religion in private places under such moderate penalties as disobeying the Laws of a mans Country requires For Persecution to Death in that case the whole Reformation condemns the Church of Rome And I conceive there is no reason for that which will not condemn Persecution to Banishment The State may easier be secured of Papists against all such power in the Pope then of our Sectaries against that Dispensation to their allegiance which the pretence of Gods Spirit may import when they please Whereas it is manifest that many Papists hold against those equivocations and reservations which destroy all confidence in the
Soveraign in Allegiance Though not secured in those that pretend Gods Spirit Besides Recusants being for the most part of the good Families of the Nation will take it for a part of their Nobility freely to profess themselves in Religion whereas the Sectaries are People of mean quality cannot be presumed to stand so much on their reputation And in another place he saith to proceed to divide the Church more and more with Persecutions is more destructive to the substance of Christianity than all that corruption Reformation pretendeth to cure Osborne a Protestant Hist mem Q. E. p. 17. 〈◊〉 that against the poor Catholicks nothing in relation to the generality remaineth upon due proof sufficient to justifie the severity of Laws dayly enacted and put in execution against them All other Sects saith he oppose the Roman with more spleen and animosity then ordinary yet they defend themselves and prevail against all still continue and have been the most grand and principal Body of all Christian Societies and the greatest force and Forâ—ress of Christianity against Turks and Heathenish impieties and chiefest Propagators of the Gospel in all Nations c. I see no reason saith another Doctor of our English Church why Papists in England should not as well deserve hope and enjoy as any other order or rank of men freedome to their Consciences Nor can I think but those men who are so hardned in their Malice and persecution against them do often hear a voice secretly call within them O ye Souls why do ye persecute me in my Servants It s a kind of injustice and an uncharitable course as I conceive saith he when we spare them that have no Religion at all and censure those that can give an account of somewhat tending to that purpose Shall Atheists and Socinians Enemies of the blessed Trinity be not looked after And shall others following the Heresie of Aerius directly opposing the order of Bishops and their Jurisdiction that is the whole frame of the Church of God assembled in the first four general Councils asserted and affirmed to be of divine right by Scripture and the Church of England be winked at And must we only incite our Governours against Papists Force them upon Banishments Prisons Persecutions Pressures and Calamities and use such severity against that Religion we our selves hold Salvation to be acquired in who hold all the positive Articles with us I may loudly proclaim saith Bishop Gauden with Samuel 12. 3. this Protestation in their behalf Behold the Servants of the Lord and his Church O Christians causless Enemies witness against them and before the Lord and before the People Whose Oxe or Ass have they taken Whom have they defrauded or oppressed Whose hurt or damage have they procured Whose evil of sin or misery have they not pitied What is the injury for which so desolating a vengeance must pass upon them and their whole Profession What is the Blasphemy against God or man for which these Naboths must loose their lives liberties and liveâ—â—hoods Wherein have they deserved so ill of former and later Ages that they should be so used as Ahab commanded of Miâ—heas and the Jews did to Hieremias to be cast into Prisons to â—ordid and â—bsâ—ure restraints or to be exposed to Mendicant liberty to be fed only with Bread and water of Affliction What necessary Truths of God or righteousness have they detained What error have they broached revived or maintained What true Christian liberty have they impeached A little after They have not light conjectures not partial Customes not bare Profession not uncertain Tradition not blind Antiquity but evident grounds Scripture Succession Conversion of Nations planting of Churches all over the known World crowning their Doctrine with Martyrdome Authors of best credit undeniable famous in Church through all the first Ages shewing us Catholick Religion And uncontradicted consent constant and uninterrupted Succession their great abilities Add those Credential letters the testimonies and seals which God hath given of his holy Spirit Lastly the Civil rights and priviledges the piety of the Nation and the Laws of this Land have always given to them by the fullest and freest consent of all Estates in Parliament these ought to be regarded much of men of Justice honour and conscience as not to break all these Sanctions and Laws asunder by which their forefathers have bound to God c. Whence Doctor Taylor in his Book concerning the unreasonableness of prescribing to other mens Faith in liberty of prophecying § 2. 249. that Considerations to a charitable Toleration concerning the Roman Church which saith he may easily perswade persons of much reason and more piety to retain that which they know to have been the Religion of their forefathers which had actual possession and seizure of men's understanding before the opposite Profession had a name Another learned Protestant Doctor saith the humble peaceable and discreet carriage of them may justly plead for favour and protection against this calumny of proneness to Sedition Faction or illegal disturbance in civil affairs Even in all the unhappy troubles of the late years have generally behaved themselves and shewed they had no other design than to live a quiet life in all godliness and honesty If they could not help in fair ways to steer the Ship as they desired they did not seem to set it on fire and overwhelm it If at any time relating to publick variations and tossings they could not act with satisfied and good Consciences they humbly bear with silence and suffer with patience Intentive chiefly and fearful to offend God tender of Conscience and their own Religion Whence The late Bishop of Exeter saith in these christian bounds of peaceable subjection humility and holiness if the Papists in England may but obtain so much declared favour and publick countenance which all other fraternities and Professions have as to be sure to enjoy their callings liberties and properties which seem to be so many times in great uncertainties under the protection and obedience of the Laws it would encourage them and redeem them from those menaces insolencies and oppressions of unreasonable men who look upon them like publick Enemies and perdue because they have little of publick favour and encouragement Christian usage will no doubt win more upon them than those rough storms and winds wherewith they are dayly threatened and are still distressed Which makes them wrap themselves up as Elias in his hairy Mantle when they think their lives liberties and livelyhoods are sought after and no such protection like to continue over them they thought in a Christian State and Church they might have obtained and deserved through their quiet conversation As a just protection infers our due subjection so no men pay more willingly then they who besides the Iron-rod of fear have softer cords of love and favour upon them How can we with justice honour or humanity inflict severe penalties upon Papists as refusing to conform to our Church
Title of Constantinople was but intruded and usurped and when the Council of Nice gave such honour to the Church of Rome there was not so much as mention made of Constantinople Doctor Sutcliffe subver p. 51. is witness Irenaeus saith that every Church ought to have respect to the Church of Rome for hâ—â— eminent principality and Subvers 19. telleth how Saint Gregory commanded in England instituting Saint Augustine Archbishop of Canterbury a See of that preeminency Downam lib. Antich c. 3. doth not deny but that Justinian the Emperor and the general Council of Chalcedon did attribute to the Pope of Rome to be head of the Church For the real presence Jacobus Accontius a learned Protestant saith though one part err yet both are in the way of Salvation Whitaker Bucer and Hooker say the Body is really given to the Mouth of the faithful So Doctor Reynolds in his Conference 722. Prayer for the dead and free will Cartwright Fulke and Sparke say are not so necessary Worship of Images is indifferent saith Master Bunny and Bilney and is defended by Protestants in Germany as Beza relates Bowing at the Name of Jesus is affirmed and commanded by Queen Elizabeths Injunctions By Doctor Whitgift in defence Musâ—â—lus in loc com Zanchius in Epist ad Ephes c. But if bowing at thâ— Name of Jesus being read or heard be lawful it followeth the honouing of Christs Image is also lawful since the Name of Jesus is to the Ear as his Image is to the Eye Communion in one kind Luther in Epist ad Bohem. saith is of indifferency That the present Roman Church and Religon continued and flourished during the whole time of the primitive Church in the first six hundred years after Christ from Christ and his Apostles to Constantine the great and from Constantine to Gregory the great Calvin Zuinglius Zâ—nchius Danaeus Beza Brocord Nâ—pper Perkins Whitaker Powel Fulke Reynolds Cartwright Field Willet Whiteguift Midleton Morton the most renowned Protestant Writers acknowledg in their Words and Books as I could easily shew and cite their words and places to that purpose if it were not for brevitys sake you may find it at large in a Treatise dedicated to Dr. Morton of the Progeny of Catholicks and Protestants And the continuance of the Roman Religion those last 1000 years is acknowledged by Oslander Danaeus Magdeburgenses Holinshed Stow Cambden Fox Bale Bilson Whitaker Mason Cartwright Godwine Martin c. it being evident to all that do not stupidly deny whatever was said or done in former ages To conclude I propose this Dilemma either with extream impiety you damn the Souls of the whole race of your Progenitors who till the later end of Henry the Eighth lived and died Roman Catholicks or else with no less cruelty you punish them for professing the Religion of your forefathers in which by your own Concessions Salvation may be attained Whence a learned Protestant saith The wrong which Protestants commit in afflicting Catholicks and unnaturally trampling upon their dejected Estates only for matters of Religion Alas by our own Doctrine they are neither Babylonians nor Egyptians but they and we as we teach being Israelites Why then should Israel thus persecute Israel are we not become a gaze of Christendom thus to fight without an Enemy for kindred to wound his own kindred inciting our Governours to great severity in Religion in which we our selves teach they may be saved I speak sincerely I hold morally it s most improbable that such as have been conversant in Study of Controversies must have a respect to Catholick Religion unless they break with all Authority humane and divine Bishop Gauden in the Sighes of the Church p. 202. saith The Dilemma and distressed choice of Religion is now reduced to this that peaceable and well-minded Christians wise c. so long harassed and wearied with novel Factions and pretended Reformations would rather chuse their posterity should return to the Roman Party which hath something among them setled orderly uniform becoming Religion than to have them ever turning and towring upon Ixius Wheel catching in vain at fanciful reformations as Tantalus at the deceitful waters rowling the reformed Religion like Sysiphus his Stone sometimes asserting it by Law and power otherwise exposing it to popular liberty and loosness then to have them tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine with the foedities blasphemies animosities Anarchies danger and confusions attending fanatick fancies and quotidian Reformations which like Botches and Boyls from surfeited and unwholsom bodies so daily break out among those Christians who have made no rule of Religion but their own humour and no bounds of reformation but their own interests The first makes them ridiculous the second pernitious to all sober Christians whereas the Roman Church however tainted with errors yet it cannot be denied without a brutish blindness and injurious slander which only serves to gratifie the gross Antipathies of the gaping vulgar that the Church of Rome amongst its tares and cockles hath many wholesom hearbs and holy Plants growing much more of Reason and Religion of good Learning and sober Industry Order and Polity of Morality and Constancy of Christian Candour and Civility of common Honesty and Humanity becoming grave men and Christians by which to invite after-ages and your posterity to adhere to it and them rather than to be everlastingly exposed to the profane bablings endless janglings miserable wranglings childish confusions atheistical indifferencies and sacrilegious furies of some later spirits which are equally greedy and giddy making both a play and a prey of Religion who have nothing comparable in them to the papal party to deserve yours or your posterities admiration or imitation but rather their greatest caution and prevention CAP. VIII Roman Catholicks are not guilty of Practices or Principles destructive to Government PRotestants have set it down as a Decree against Catholicks and labour to imprint it as an eternal scandal in the hearts of the People that Catholick Doctrine and Religion is dangerous to the State and Soveraignty and therefore not allowable This being a matter of great importance I will endeavour not so much to justifie them as to inform my self in a point which hath made so many stagger Being one that desires to defend the loyalty of innocent men rather than their Opinions or Doctrins which they are best able to defend themselves In this grand charge and Hyperbolical accusation I find the contrary is proved by evidence of Fact that the Treasons Seditions factions tumults which have filled all Christendome with blood and calamity sprung not from the doctrine of Catholicks but from the Opinions and practices of Reformists not from Rome but from Wittenberg Smalcald Geneva c. Was it the Papists that induced them of Geneva to expel their Lord and Bishop That moved them of Swedeland to deprive their lawful King That procured Holland to depose their Soveraign That sollicited Subjects to depose their Emperour King of
honesty It would fill a volume it self to recount all the benefits priviledges honours and advantages this Nation hath received from the Popes and See of Rome See Bishop Smith in his Epist Histor ad regem Jacobum of the Pope's favours to England Hence our first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury Parker in Eliz. lib. antiq Britan. ait hanc insulae nobilitatem atque gloriam Dei providentiae atque beneficentiae c. The nobleness of this Island for being the first of all Provinces of the World that received the Christian Faith and the glory thereof is to be acknowledged to have proceeded from the providence and goodness of God yet the way it self and means by which this nobility and glory was won unto it it was first and always laid open unto us from the See of Rome we have always from that time persevered in the unity of the Roman Faith and our subjection to the Roman Church is most ancient Haec ille Abbot Fecknam in his Oration to the Parliament of the first of Eliz. saith thus Damianus and Fugatianus as Embassadours from the See of Rome did bring into this Realm a thousand four hundred years past the very same Apostolical Religion we are now in possession of For then the Roman Religion was not voted down he would not have dared to have uttered in that time and place but that he could produce good witness and antiquity to his warrant Let not now their Adversaries be so unreasonable as to quote Mariana Suarez or Bellar. or any other private Author that may have enlarged the jurisdiction of Popes to the prejudice of Kings and then lay their particular Opinions to the charge of all For were this a just and fair way of dealing they could with as much ease requite them with Text for Text out of Luther Calvin Knox Buchanan and many more whose Opinions are at least as dangerous to the safety of Monarchy The difference betwixt them being only this whereas the former lodge the deposing power in the Pope only whose person is at a safe and sufficient distance at least from us the latter bring the danger home to the doors of Princes and place it in the people whom they make both judges and parties in the case Secondly Mariana's personal fault and his opinion were condemned by a Provincial Council of the same Society held at Paris 15 16. and that confirmation ratified by Claudius Aquaviva the General of the Order and the Doctors of Sorbon in the same year declared it an ungodly position Thirdly Mariana was not resolute in that opinion neither but handled it problematically Fourthly It was not for deposing of Kings but Tyrants which alters the case In France 1614. a Book written by Suarez against the Oaths in which the deposing power was asserted was by Decree of the Parliament of Paris condemned to be burnt by the publick Executioner as containing scandalous seditious positions c. and Armandus Cotton Front and Symond four chief Jesuits were to take order their General should renew a prohibition to teach like Doctrines and the whole Order after disavowed them Eight Universities viz. Paris Valentia Tholouse Poicteirs Burdeaux Burges Reims and Caen did of their own accord not expecting a command from the Court 1626. brand this Doctrine of Pope's deposing power with titles of impious seditious infamous c. And Fossart of the Society in a publick Act advancing the proposition although it was interpreted to extend only to Tyrants by decree of the whole University of Caen the Proposition and Expositions were censured impious and condemned Fossart imprisoned and sentenced bareheaded to acknowledg the said positions false and contrary to the decrees of Councils c. But to silence all impertinent objections in this nature or in any other matter they declare to the whole world that no private authors but only the Decisions of lawful general Councils have any influence upon their Faith or Doctrin in any point whatsoever Therefore if their adversaries will conclude any thing against them from their own Principles they must do it from their own proper uncontradicted confession or from the Decrees of General Councils from which they only take the Rule of their Faith The Project of the Gunpowder Treason undertaken only by a few male-contents in justice might rather be burned in oblivion with the offenders than objected perpetually to innocent men who abhor the fact and were publickly acquitted thereof by the King himself in the Parliament following See the Kings Speeches That the Catholick Body had no hand in this Treason appears by the quality of the actors and number of them being but four Gentlemen The Catholick Noblemen then were the most considerable of the Nation their first Marquess viz. Winchester The first Earl viz. Arundel Their first Vicount viz. Mountague Their first Baron viz. Abergaveny c. Now none of these or any chief of the party had any intrigue in the design though all imaginable industry was used by the Commons Lords and Privy Council and by Cecil their plotting enemy to bring them in Therefore to call this an universal Popish plot is in it self a contradiction because no plot can be looked on as geneneral when no number of the chiefest part are intrigued in the design If then some four necessitous or loose persons have been of the Gun-powder Treason to infer thence all other of the same profession are of the same stamp Do not all rational men see this inference is irrational That it may be retorted against any other profession in England in other things Is it not unreasonable and uncharitable to infer from thence an imputation upon all others Can any one in his right senses accuse the whole Church of England for incestuous or drunkards because some of them have been guilty of those crimes Stow Chron. p. 882. noteth by many factious people it was given out this Treason was attempted by consent of the King of Spain French King and Archduke Catesby at his Death said the plot and practice of this Treason was only his and that others were but his assistants saith Stow. And the Council perceived it was practiced by some discontented Papist Staw 879. many untruths were divulged hoping to have drawn into their rebellion those of their Religion and other malecontents In all their examinations none else were discovered though they revealed several secret particulars as is seen in their printed confessions they would not have spared others seeing they accused their Confessour Garnet saith Stow Provincial of the Jesuits for concealing it in confession only was executed Acknowledged to God his offence was heartily sorry asked God and the King forgiveness and beseeched God to bless the King and his issue exhorted all Catholicks not to attempt any Rebellion or Treason c. for all such courses said he are utterly against Catholick Faith and Religion Vide Stow. To find out the depth of the plot they left no stone unrolled to shew how nice they
burnt by a Decree in the face of the world by publick Justice did not a General Council of Constance sentence the Deposing Power as erroneous and scandalous although he were a Tyrant Have any other reformed Churches proceeded so far The Doctor doth well to cry Whore first and take no notice of the many standing objections in this and other things against his own Calvinistical party But what need I trouble Ink and Paper to examine this mans absurdities when I had taken but three hours to run them over they are encreased to so many I am come into a Labyrinth you may judg by his first ten lines wherein he committeth three first he saith His Majesty found it necessary for good of his affairs to grant freedom to all Dissentors If His Majesty found it necessary is not he presumptuous being a private man and a subject to make this invective he calls seasonable Discourse to impeach it to offer weak and lying motives to obstruct it Secondly what confidence hath he to utter so notorious an untruth as to say Now Priests openly act in all parts their functions In what City or Countrey Town hath he found them publckly preaching or praying Thirdly is it not absurd that being an ecclesiastick he should so mind us of Capital punishment who by the Canons should have no hand in blood He is much troubled at the Coâ—â—iers Crred viz. to believe as the Church believes Which gives a suspition he doth not believe or would not have his Parishoners believe one article of the Creed He calls charity and love but tempting charms as if he did not know or believe the Gospel where there be innumerable commands for it But then he comes a canting being suspitious his Book tends to Sedition and to breed feuds amongst us saith no price can be to great for peace but truth But what truth doth he mean the many imputed slanders in his Book or would he have truth separated from love peace and charity He cites Authors falsely as Thomas Aquinus Peron c. he hath false supposals viz. that Catholicks take away the Scripture give a half Communion make new Articles of Religion c. that indulgencies remit the guilt of sin and that the gifts of God are bought with money c. who ever writ more against such Simony than Catholick Authors or hold more plainly that sin is never forgiven without sorrow and repentance from God by the Merits and Passion of Jesus Christ So much for the Vnseasonable Discourse Now to overthrow from the foundation all other aspersions in this kind Let all impartial men consider first those criminations proceed originally from enemies and grand animosities of parties adverse Secondly Papists universally disown them Thirdly unrepentant traytors and implacable enemies are amongst their accusers and which most encourages them is their constant fidelity they might easily vindicate themselves from all such imputations by the putting their adversaries to the proof had they but liberty to question them and bring them to a trial For they never durst appear or shew their faces in an open and impartial audience We might admire where such deep malice could be found but much more how any prudence could believe them and that no reason or experience will restrain them How strange a wickedness is then the groundless censuring so highly and publickly so many noble and honourable personages so many eminently deserving subjects of his Majesty so many grave most venerable and most sacred personages in the world What account shall such give at the last day what is this less than persecution what mischiefs flow and are apt from such libelling by sad experience we have tasted the bitterness of the fruit The dreadful ruin of Hierusalem was brought about by such furious ones Josephus calleth the Zealots And should they still be countenanced it unavoidably bringeth incurable divisions for there is no certain rule of Justice with such persons Secondly It breeds an ill correspondence between our fellow subjects and makes them ill looked upon which violates civil unity so necessary for the peace and strength of a Kingdom Thirdly It disincourages Loyalty to see that after such testimonies it may be lawful for any at pleasure to brand them as Traytors publickly in Print Fourthly It tends to excite our Governours that they are not fit to be endured in any State Fifthly It must breed fouds between private persons all over England Scotland and Ireland 6. It is a reproach to Christian Religion when the world must see we have not so much justice and equity as Heathens have in their worldly Societies Seventhly It is a great cause of the persecution of Christians and the damnation of Persecutors being foolisher than the Devil who would build Christ's house or Kingdom by dividing it Mat. 12. And that which must sanctifie all this sin is the seeming interest of God and Religion to hinder the growth and increase of Popery If it was an untruth they spake it was for Religion if they did backbite and revile it was to preserve the hearers from errors aud infection If they used their reputation to murder love and make others odious and rejoiced in their sufferings and afflictions all this is but for defence of truth They think all this is a part of Christian zeal And this is a mark of Satans way of Reformation he doth it by dividing and teaching Christians to form odious thoughts of one another And when his meaning is to save you from heaven and truth he takes upon him he is only saving you from sin or errors or corruptions of the Church By these notes and signs saith an English Divine you may easily perceive how the dividing zeal of such differs from the true genuine Christian Catholick Zeal If your zeal be raised for some singular opinion not for the common salvation moved by some personal interest honour or dishonour for strengthning a party c. And not to promote godliness the common cause of Christianity or general cause of pedce and piety A hurting burning zeal for execution of penal Statutes When it causeth you to revile backbite despise censure and zealously to make dissenters odious that hearers may abate their love When your zeal tendeth to hurt and cruelty and is greater for the adversaries destruction than your desire and prayer for his conversion It s a false zeal more inclined to their sufferings reproach or hurt with some secret desire of fire from heaven c. when it tendeth to separations divisions distances from our ancient Brethren This is the complexion of the proud false conceited and surly sort of professors which flyeth outward against the sins of other men and can live with pride selfishness and sensuality at home a contemptuous persecuting zeal kinled by inflaming censures of rash passionate Preachers First it is an ill sign when their censures are beyond the proportion of their understandings and their experience and prudence much less then others whom they censure