raised and foster'd by the Arts of the Court of the Rome that Jesuits profess'd themselves Independants Fifth Monarchy-men c. that they might pull down the English Monarchy and Church and that in their Committees for the Destruction of the King and Church they had their Spies and Agents The Roman Priest and Confessor is also known who when he saw thefatal stroke given to our Holy King and Martyr brandish'd his Sword and said Now the greatest Enemy we have in the World is gone When the News of that horrible Execution came to Roan a Protestant Gentleman of good Credit was present in a Company of Jesuited Persons where after great expressions of Joy the gravest of the Company spake much after this sort touching the King's Promise though it was false what he said The King of England said he at his Marriage promised us the re-establishing of the Roman Catholick Religion in England and when he delayed to fulfil his Promise we warn'd him from time to time to perform it we came so far as to tell him That if he would not do it we should bring him to his Destruction We have given him lawful warning and when no warning would serve we have kept our Word to him since he would not keep his Word to us That grave Rabbi's Sentence agreeth with this certain Intelligence which shall be justified whensoever Authority will require it That the Year before the King's Death a select number of English Jesuits were sent from their whole Party into England first to Paris to consult with the faculty of Sorbon then altogether Jesuited to whom they put this Question in Writing That seeing the state of England was in a likely posture to change Government whether it was lawful for the Catholicks to work that change for the advantage and securing of the Catholick Cause in England by making away the King whom there was no hope to turn away from his Heresie Which was answered Affirmatively After which the same persons went to Rome where the same Question being propounded and debated it was concluded by the Pope and his Council That it was both lawful and expedient for the Catholicks to promote that Alteration of State What followed that Consultation and Sentence all the World knoweth and how the Jesuits went to work God knoweth and Time the discoverer of Truth will let us know But when this horrible Parricide committed on the King's sacred Person was so universally cried down as the greatest Villainy that had been committed in many Ages the Pope commanded all the Papers about that Question to be gathered up and burnt In Obedience to which Order a Roman Catholick in Paris was demanded a Copy which he had of those Papers but the Gentleman who had time to confider and detest the Wickedness of that Project refused to give it but shew'd it to a Protestant Friend of his and related to him the whole carriage this Negotiation with great abhorrency of the Jesuits Practices At the first appearing of this Charge it struck such a terror among the Gentlemen of Somerset-House where a Man of great Note was much concerned in it that they cast themselves at the King's Feet to crave Justice against me yet upon another pretence which was the mention I had made after Mr. Prin and Mr. Foulis of the Priest flourishing with his Sword when the King's head was cut off and saying Now our greatest Enemy is cut off But upon soberer thoughts after Three or Four Days the great clamour was suddenly hush'd only they won the Queen-Mother to beseech the King that I might be forbidden to make any more Books which was expressed to me in a Letter from the Secretary of State yet in a gracious counselling way from my Great and Good Master that it was my wisest course to forbear writing Books in English because it was not my Native Language which prohibition was taken away when I caused the same Book to be Reprinted Anno Dom. 1668. And such was the violent Distraction of these guilty persons who were between anger and fear that when they seem'd most fervent to fall upon me they were cowed by their own guiltiness and they were so prudent as to take Order among themselves that none should provoke me by writing against me to write again For I heard nothing of them for Five or Six Years till a young Nobleman the Earl of Castlemain took the Field against me Mr. Cressy seeing the ice broken followed him The Earl added in a Third Edition That I was defied by Papists and sollicited by Protestants to make good my words and he says true but I have now defied the Papists Seventeen Years to call me in Question before my Judges and I do so still but instead of calling me their Accuser to bring forth my Proofs they labour to silence me and chose to lie under the Guilt instead of taking the open legal way for their Justification As for the Sollicitations of Protestants my request to them is that they would consider the first line of my Charge viz. This Intelligence shall be justified whensoever Authority shall require it so that I cannot in Duty bring forth the most essential Testimonies before I be bid by Authority Should I do otherwise the fault would be as great in point of Prudence as in that of Duty for I should thereby make my Adversaries my Judges who might detort the Testimonies This then being of so high a nature I will stand to this Resolution to answer no Summons but such as are back'd by publick Authority And here for to give them farther satisfaction he prints a Letter he received from Sir William Morrice part of it which relates to this concern followeth SIR Though I cannot give attestation to all the circumstances which you mention yet to the substance of that you desire me to bear witness to I shall say That the King my Master gave me his Command soon upon the coming forth of your Answer to Philanax Anglicus to signifie his pleasure that you should write no more in English as which being not vernacular to you he said you were not perfect Master You know in what trust and capacity I served His Majesty and what it was my duty to say and whereof to be silent but this I may say safely and will do it considently that many Arguments did create a violent suspicion very near convincing Evidences That the Irreligion of the Papists was chiefly guilty of the Murther of that Excellent Prince I applaud your pious Zeal and good Designs and vote happy success to your Vndertakings with reward proportionable c. Mr. Pryn's Intelligence confirmed mine who saith in his True and perfect Narrative pag. 46. That our late Excellent King having assented in the Treaty of the Isle of Wight to pass Five strict Bills against Popery The Jesuits in France at a general Meeting there presently resolved to bring him to Justice and take off his Head by the power of their Friends in
Brethren in Iniquity OR THE CONFEDERACY OF PAPISTS with SECTARIES For the Destroying of the True Religion as by Law Establish'd plainly detected WHEREIN Is shewed a farther Account of the Romish Snares and Intrigues for the Destroying the True Reformed Religion as Professed in the Church of England and Established by Law and for the Introducing of Popery or Atheism among us clearly shewing from very Authentick Writers and Testimonies That the principal Ways and Methods whereby the Papists have sought the Ruine of our Religion and Church from the Beginning of our Reformation to the present Times and by which they are still in hopes of compassing it are by promoting of Toleration or pretended Liberty of Conscience and that for above these Sixscore Years the Papists have so craftily Influenced our Dissenters as to make them the unhappy Instruments of effecting their most pernitious Designs which they contrived for the Subverting our Church and State Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every City or House divided against it self cannot stand Matth. xij 25. Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. xvi 17.18 These be they which separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit Jude i. 19. LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall MDCXC THE CONTENTS TWO very remarkable Letters the one from Sir Will. Boswell the other from Archbishop Bramhall shewing how much the Sectaries were Influenc'd by Papists to take off the Life of King Charles I. and to Embroil the Church c. pag. 1 3. Dr. Peter du Moulin's Narrative which confirms the Papists contriving the Death of King Charles and their putting Phanaticks upon the Execution pag. 6 Part of Father Sibthorp's a Jesuit Letter shewing their Intrigues with the Sectaries for the raising of Broils in Church and State pag. 12 Mr. Richard Baxter's Discovery and Confession of the Papists insinuating themselves among the Sectaries for the restoring of Popery pag. 14 Several material Collections to the same purpose out of the Writings of the Learned Dr. Stillingfleet now the Right Reverend Bishop of W. pag. 17 Archbishop Whitgift's Opinion That the Papist's befriend the Puritans pag. 19 Archbishop Grindall's fear of Popery and Atheism being promoted by them pag. 20 Campanella's and Father Young's Advice of bringing in Popery by means of Toleration and help of Phanaticks pag. 22 Coleman's and the Lord Viscount Stafford's Confession of bringing in Popery by Toleration and the Phanaticks help pag. 23 Bishop Saunderson's Opinion how and in what Phanaticks befriend Papists pag. 26 Some Verses to the same purpose ibid. The Judgment of Nine Learned Presbyterian Divines of Toleration pag. 31 The Votes and Reasons of the House of Commons in 1662. against it pag. 43 The Letter of the Presbyterian Ministers to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster against Toleration pag. 46 Sir Francis Walsingham's Letter concerning Severities used against Papists pag. 53 Lord Keeper Puckering's Speech to the Parliament concerning the Puritans preparing the way to the Spanish Invasion 1588. pag. 59 What good Effects the Penal Laws wronght and the Acts of Vniformity in bringing People to Church when duly executed pag. 60 Bishop Burnet's Reason why the Penal Law 's wrought no more good in making People generally conformable to the Church pag. 62 Arshbishop Whitgift's Character of the Puritans turbulent Spirits ibid. King Charles I. his Memorial of the great Numbers of Papists in the Parliaments Army and of the Papists and Phanaticks Confederating pag. 63 An Ingenuous and very true Account of the Dissenters combining with the Popish Party in the late Reign of King James II. against the Church of England pag. 64 Brethren in Iniquity OR The Confederacy of Papists with Sectaries for the destroying of the True Religion as by Law Established plainly detected A Letter from Sir William Boswell to the most Reverend William Laud late Arch-bishop of Canterbury remaining with Sir Robert Cotton's choice Papers Most Reverend AS I am here employed by our Soveraign Lord the King your Grace can testifie that I have left no stone unturned for his Majesty's Advancement neither can I omit whenever I meet with Treacheries or Conspiracies against the Church and State of England the sending your Grace an account in General I fear Matters will not answer your Expectations if your Grace do but seriously weigh them with deliberation For be you assured the Romish Clergy have gull'd the misled party of our English Nation and that under a Puritanical Dress for which the several Fraternities of that Church have lately received Indulgence from the See of Rome and Council of Cardinals or to Educate several of the young Friars of the Church of Rome who be Natives of His Majesty's Realms and Dominions and instruct them in all manner of Principles and Tenents contrary to the Episcopacy of the Church of England There be in the Town of Hague to my certain knowledge two dangerous Impostors of whom I have given notice to the Prince of Orange who have large Indulgences granted them and known to be of the Church of Rome although they seem Puritans and do converse with several of our English Factors The one James Murray a Scotch-man and the other John Napper a York-shire Blade The main drift of these Intentions is to pull down the English Episcopacy as being the chief Support of the Imperial Crown of our Nation for which purpose above sixty Romish Clergy-men are gone within these two Years out of the Monesteries of the French King's Dominions to Preach up the Scotch Covenant and Mr. Knox his Discipline and Rules within that Kirk and to spread the same about the Northern Coasts of England Let therefore His Majesty have an inkling of these Crotchets that he might be perswaded whenever Matters of the Church come before you to reserr them to your Grace and the Episcopal Party of the Realm for there be great Preparations making ready against the Liturgy and Ceremonies of the Church of England And all evil Contrivances here and in France and in other Protestant Holdings to make your Grace and the Episcopacy odious to all Reformed Protestants abroad it has wrought so much on divers of the Foreign Ministers of the Protestants that they esteem our Clergy little better than Papists The main things that they hit in our Teeth are our Bishops being called Lords the Service of the Church the Cross in Baptism Confirmation Bowing at the Name of Jesus the Communion-Table placed Altar-ways our manner of Consecrations and several other Matters which be of late buzz'd into the Heads of the Foreign Clergy to make your Grievances the less regarded in case of a change which is aimed at if not speedily prevented Your Grace's Letter is carefully
the Army as the King himself was certified by an Express from thence and wished to provide against it but two days before his removal by the Army from the Isle of Wight to his Execution It were worth the Enquiry upon what Ground the Author of Fair Warning affirmeth pag. 35 36 37. in the Second Part of 120 Prophecies concerning the return of Popery That Father Sibthorp in a Letter to Father Medcalfe acknowledgeth the Jesuits to have contriv'd the Murther of the King and that Sarabras was present and triumphing at the Murther of his sacred Majesty In pursuance of the Order from Rome for the pulling down both the Monarch and Monarchy of England many Jesuits came over who took several Shapes to go about their Work but most of them took party in the Army About Thirty of them or their Disciples were met by a Protestant Gentleman between Roan and Diepe to whom they said taking him for one of the Party That they were going into England and would take Arms in the Independant Army and endeavour to be Agitators This agrees with the Account Bishop Bramhall gave in his Letter to Bishop Vsher In the Year 1640 there was discovered to the Archbishop of Canterbury a design in which the Pope Cardinal Richlieu and many of the English Papists but especially the Jesuits were concerned in stirring up those Divisions that had just before broke out in Scotland for the Ruine of the King and of the Archbishop This may be seen at large in the Histories of those times and the very Papers themselves may be found in Mr. Rushworth's Collections vol. 3. p. 1310. c. Sir William Boswell likewise at the Hague made the like Discovery in his Letter to the Archbishop Father Salmonet declares in his History of our Civil Wars printed in France with the Allowance of the King That after the Engagement at Egdehill several Romish Papists were found among the slain of the Parliament Army And adds That the Parliament had two Companies of Walloons besides others of that Religion in their Army Salmonet Hist des troubles d'Angleterre liv 3. pag. 165. When the Rebellion also broke out in Ireland it was we know bless'd with His Holiness's Letters and assisted by his Nuntio whom he sent on purpose thither for that service And that the Papists had a flying Squadron in the Parliament Army How boldly soever this may be denied by some there is another proof beyond Exception in a Declaration of King Charles I. that he sent to the Kingdom of Scotland dated April 21. 1643. which hath been several times Printed And as an Author that wrote the History of the late Civil Wars has assured us the clean draught of it corrected in some places with the King 's own hand is yet extant so that it cannot be pretended that this was only a bold Assertion of some of the King's Ministers that might be ill affected to their Party In that Declaration the King studied to possess his Subjects of Scotland with the Justice of his Cause and among other things to clear himself of the imputation that he had an Army of Papists about him after many things said on that Head these Words are added Great Numbers of that Religion have been with alacrity entertained in that Rebellious Army against us and others have been seduced to whom we had formerly denied Employments as appears by the Examination of many Prisoners of whom we have taken Twenty or Thirty at a time of that Religion in one Troop or Company The Credit of this Testimony is not to be disputed but no Discoveries how evident soever they may be can effect some sort of Men that have a secret against Blushing This also plainly lets us see how that under the dissembled Disguise of being of their Parties the subtle Priests and Jesuits have crept in and mix'd themselves among our dividing Sectaries and cunningly made them the unhappy Tools and Instruments to effect their most pernitious Designs and Contrivances which otherwise without their aid they would not be able to compass and that the same Method not covertly but openly is still practised is too palpable to be gainsaid God grant the Eyes of our Dissenting Brethren may be timely opened for the seasonable preventing the Miseries and Evils that threaten our Government that they may not only see but follow the things that belong to the Peace and Prosperity of our Church and State before they are hid from their Eyes A Protestant Lady living in Paris in the time of our late Calamities was perswaded by a Jesuit going in Scarlet to turn Roman Catholick and when the dismal News of the King's Murther came to Paris this Lady as all other good English Subjects was most deeply afflicted with it and when this Scarlet Divine came to see her and found her melted in Tears about that heavy and common Disaster he told her with a smiling Countenance That she had no reason to lament but rather to rejoice seeing that the Catholicks were rid of their greatest Enemy and that the Catholick Cause was much furthered by his Death Upon which the Lady put the Man down the Stairs in great Anger saying If that be your Religion I have done with it for ever And God hath given her the Grace to make her Word good hitherto Many Intelligent Travellers can tell of the great Joy among the English Convents and Seminaries for the King's Death as having overcome their Enemy and done their main work for their Settlement in England of which they made themselves so sure that the Benedictines were in great care that the Jesuits should not get their Land and the English Nuns were contending who should be Abbesses in England An understanding Gentleman visiting the Friars of Dunkirk put them upon the Discourse of the King's Death and to pump out their Sence about it said That the Jesuits had laboured very much to compass that great Work to which they answered That the Jesuits would Engross to themselves the Glory of all great and good Works and of this among other Works whereas they had laboured as diligently and effectually for it as they so there was striving for the Glory of that Atchievement and the Friars shew'd themselves as much Jesuited as the Jesuits The same Gentleman who in his Travels hath found them in several places jealous of the Glory which the Jesuits ascribed to their only Order to have promoted the King's Death whereas other Orders had been as active as they in that great Atchievement I cannot leave unobserved that in the height of the late Usurpation and Tyranny two Heads of the Gun-powder Traitors that were set up upon the House of Lords were taken down not by high Winds but by the same Zeal which had plotted that Treason and with the leave of Traytors of another Feather which in time we may hear to be shrined up in Gold as Holy Relicks and working Miracles By this we see what a good Accord and friendly
Church of Rome unless they could under the same pretence of Purity and Perfection draw off Protestants from the Communion of this Church too To this purpose persons were imploy'd under the disguise of more zealous Protestants to set up the way of more spiritual prayer and greater Purity of worship than was observed in the Church of England that so the people under these pretences might be drawn into separat meetings Of this we have a considerable Evidence lately offer'd to the World in the Examination of a Priest so imploy'd at the Council-Table in the ninth Year of Queen Elizabeth 1567 published from the Lord Burleigh's Papers which were in the hands of Archbishop Vsher and from him came to the hands of Sir James Ware whose Son brought them into England and caused them to be Printed under the Title of Foxes and Fire-brands A. D. 1680. Two Years after the Examination of the said Priest one Heath a Jesuit was summon'd before the Bishop of Rochester on a like account for disparaging the Prayers of the Church and setting up extemporary or spiritual Prayers above them and he declared to the Bishop That he had been six Years in England and that he had labour'd to resine the Protestants and to take off all Smacks of Ceremonies and make the Church purer When he was seized on a Letter was found about him from a Jesuit in Spain wherein he takes notice how much he was admired by his Flock and tells him They looked on this way of dividing Protestants as the most effectual to bring them all back to the Church of Rome and in his Chamber they found a Bull from Pope Pius the fifth to follow the instructions of the Society for the Dividing the Protestants in England as also a Licence from the Fraternity There is one thing in the Jesuits Letter which the late Publisher of it did not understand which is that Hallingham Coleman and Benson are there mentioned as persons employ'd to sow a Faction among the German Hereticks which he takes to be spoken of the Sects in Germany but by the German Hereticks the English Protestants that is Lutherans are meant and these very men are mention'd by our Historians without knowing of this Letter as the most active and busie in the beginning of the Separation Of these saith Fuller Coleman Button Benson and Hallingham were the chief And Heylin saith That Benson Button Hallingham Coleman and others took upon them to be of more ardent Zeal than others c. that time is 1568 which agrees exactly with the date of the Jesuits Letter writ from Madrid October 26,1568 and both these had it from Cambden Who saith that while Harding Saunders and others attack'd our Church on one Side Coleman Button Benson and Hallingham were as busie on the other who under pretence of a purer Reformation opposed the Discipline Liturgy and Calling of our Bishops as approaching too near the Church of Rome and he makes these the beginners of those quarrels which afterwards brake out with great Violence Now that there is no improbability in this account will appear by the suitableness of these pretences about spiritual or extempore Prayer to the Doctrine and Practice of the Jesuits for they are profess'd despisers of the Cathedral service and are excused from their Attendance on it by the Constitutions of their Order And are as great admirers of Spiritual Prayer and an Enthusiastick way of preaching as appears by the History of the first Institution of their Order by Orlandinus and Maffeius This is sufficient to shew there is no Improbability that the Jesuits should be the first Setters up of this way in England And it is observable that it was never known here or in any other reformed Church before this time and therefore the beginning of it is unjustly father'd on Thomas Cartwright but by whomsoever it was begun it met with such great success in the zeal and warmth of Devotion which seemed to appear in it that no charm hath been more effectual to draw injudicious people into a Contempt of our Liturgy and admiring the way of Separation And what is it which the Papists have more envied and maligned than the Church of England What is it they have wished more to see broken in piece as the late Cardinal Barberini said in the bearing of a Gentleman who told it to Dr. Stillingfleet He could be contented there were no Popish Priests in England so there were no Bishops for then he supposed their work would do it self What is it they have used more Arts and Instruments to destroy than the Constitution of the Church of England and its Government Did not Cranmer Ridly Hooper Farrar and Latimer all Bishops of our Church suffer Martyrdom by their means Had not they the same kind of Episcopacy which is now among us and which some are so busie in seeking to destroy as unlawful and inconsistent with the primitive Institution as if it were Popish and Antichristian Is all this done for the honour of our Reformation Is this the way to preserve the Protestant Religion among us to sill mens minds with such prejudices against the first Settlement of it as to go about to make the World believe that the Church-Government then established was repugnant to Christ's Institution and that our Martyr'd Bishops exercised an unlawful authority over Diocesan Churches But whither will not mens indiscreet Zeal and love of their own Fancies carry them If such men are not set on by the Jesuits they do their work as effectually by blasting the credit of the Reformation as if they were In the Reign of Queen Elizabeth that Great and good Man Arch-Bishop Whitgist in his defence of the Answer against Cartwright pag. 605. tells the Puritans That the Papists could not have not with better Proctors than they And Pag. 55. he tells them That only did the Pope very good Service and that he would not miss them for any thing for what is his desire but to have this Church of England which he hath accursed utterly defaced and discredited to have it by any means overthrown if not by foreign means yet by domestical Dissention and what fitter and apter instruments could he have had for the purpose who under pretence of zeal overthrow that which other men have builded under colour of purity seek to bring in Deformity and under the cloak of Equality and Hamility would usurp as great Tyranny and losty Lordliness over their Parishes as ever the Pope did over the whole Church And in another place he saith They were made the Engines of the Roman Conclave whereby they intend to overthrow this Church even by these mens folly which they could not compass by all their policy His worthy Predecessour also Arch-Bishop Grindall express'd in a Letter of his his great fear of two things viz. Atheisin and Popery and both arising out of our needless Divilions and Differences He doubts not by Satan the enemy of mankind and the
Jew and gave the Anabaptists the glory of his conversion and rebaptizing who was afterwards discovered at New-castle is published and commonly known and too many others have more neatly play'd their game And though many of the more sober Anabaptists would not be so usefull to the Papists as they have expected Yet multitudes of them too far answered their expectations I shall tell you next of some of those Heresies or Parties among us that are the Papists own spawn or progeny either they laid the egg or hatch'd it or both And it is most certain that Libertinism or Freedom for all Religions was spawned by the Jesuits who hate it in Spain Italy and France but love it in England I have met with the masked Papists my self that have been very zealous and busie to promote this Liberty of Conscience as they deceitfully call it for by this means they may have liberty for themselves and liberty to break us in pieces by Sects and also liberty under the vizour of a Sectary of any tolarated sort to oppose the Ministry and Doctrine of Truth There are also some juggling Papists especially in our Councils Civil and Ecclesiastick that play their game by over-doing and making everything to be Popish and Antichristian to drive us into extreams and into opinions in which we may be easily baffled and it s not a little that they have won of us at this game In this book of Mr. Baxter a great deal more to this purpose may be seen how much the Papists work their designs by the means of our Sectaries whom they decoy And farther Mr. Baxter in 1671. a little before the Indulgence then came forth was so sensible of the mischief of Separation that he saith in his Preface to the defence of the cure of Church Divisions p. 17. That our Divisions gratify the Papists and greatly hazard the Protestant Religion and that more than most of you seemeth to believe or regard where he speaks to the separating people and among other great inconveniences which he mentions this is one That Popery will get by it so great advantage as may hazard us all and we may lose that which the several Parties do contend about And p. 52. c. He saith that two ways Popery will grow out of our divisions First By the odium and scorn of our disagrements in consistency and multiplied Sects they will perswade people that we must come for unity to them or else run mad and crumble into dust and individuals Thousands have been drawn to Popery or confirmed in it by this argument already and I am perswaded that confirmed in it by this argument already and I am perswaded that all the arguments else in Bellarmine and all other books that ever were written have not done so much to make Papists in England as the multitude of Sects among our selves yea some Professours of Religious strictness or great esteem for Godliness have turned Papists themselves when they were giddy and wearied with turnings and when they had run from Sect to Sect and found no consistency in any Secondly Either the Papists by increasing the divisions would make them be accounted seditious rebellious and dangerous to the publick peace or else when so many parties are constrain'd to beg and wait for Liberty the Papists may not be shut out alone but have toleration with the rest And saith he shall they use our hands to doe their works and pull their freedom out of the sire We have already unspeakably served them both in this and in abating the Odium of the Gunpowder-plot and their otehr Treasons Insurrections and Spanish-invasion Thus freely did Mr. Baxter write at that time and even after that Indulgence he hath these remarkable passages concerning the separating and dividing humour of their people in his sacrilegious desertion c. Pag. 103. It shameth and grieveth us to see and hear from England and New-England this common cry We are indangered by Divisions because the self-conceited part of the Religious people will not be ruled by their Pastours but must have their way and will needs be Rulers of the Church and them And soon after he saith to them You have made more Papists than ever you or we are like to recover Nothing is any whit considerable that a Papist hath to say till he cometh to your case and saith Doth not experience tell you that without papal Unity and Force these people will never be ruled or united It is you that tempt them to use Fire and Faggot that will not be ruled nor kept in concord And must you even you that should be our confort become our shame and break our hearts and make men Papists by your Temptation Woe to the World because of offences and woe to some by whom they come To shew yet farther what Insluence the Jesuitical Counsels have had upon some people as to the course of Separation I shall produce the Testimony of a very considerable Man among them who understood these affairs as well as any Man viz. Mr. Philip Nye who not long before his Death foreseeing the mischievous Consequence of these extravagant heats the people were running into wrote a Discourse on purpose to prove it lawful to hear the Conforming Ministers and answers all the Objections against it and towards the Conclusion he wonders how the differing Parties come to be so agreed in thinking it unlawful to hear us preach but he saith He is perswaded it is one constant design of Satan in the v ariety of ways of Religion he hath set on foot by Jesuits among us let us therefore be more aware of whatsoever tends that way Here we have a plain Confession of a very leading Man among the Dissenters that the Jesuits were very busie among them and that they and the Devil joined together in setting them at the greatest distance possible from the Church of England and that those who would countermine the Jesuits must avoid whatever tends to that height of Separation the People were run into And as the Reverend and Learned Doctor Stilling fleet in the Preface to his excellent Book Entituled The unreasonableness of Separation saith If we trace the foot-steps of our Separation we shall sind the Jesuitical Party had a great insluence on the very first beginnings of it for which we must consider that when the Church of England was restored in Queen Elizabeth's Reign there was no open Separation from the Communion of it for several years neither by Papists nor Nonconformists At last the more zealous Party of the Foreign Priests and Jesuits finding this compliance would in the end utterly destroy the Popish interest in England they began to draw off the secret Papists from all Conformity with our Church which the old Queen Mary's Priests allow'd them in This raised some heat among themselves but at last the way of Separation prevail'd as the more pure and perfect way But this was not thought sufficient bu these busie Factors for the
Pope the enemy of Christendom by these means c. the enemies of our Religion gain this That nothing can be established by Law in the Protestant Religion whose every part is not opposed by one or other of her own Professours So that things continuing loose and confused the Papists have their opportunity to urge their way which is attended with Order and Government And our Religion continuing thus distracted and divided some vile wretches lay hold on the Argument on one side to confute the other and so hope at last to destroy all See this Letter in Fair Warning second part printed 1663. Dr. Sutcliff Dean of Exon said also long ago that wise men apprehended these unhappy questions about indifferent things to be managed by the subtle Jesuits thereby to disturb the peace and settlement of our Church untill at last they enjoy their long expected opportunity to set up themselves and restore the exploded Tyranny and Idolatry of the Church of Rome Among Mr. Selden's Manuscripts there is mention'd an odd prophecy that Popery should decay about the Year 1500 and be restored about the Year 1700 which is there said to be most likely by means of our Divifions which threaten the Reformation upon the Interest of Religion and open advantages to the enemies of it and nothing is there said more likely to prevent it than a sirm establishment of sound Doctrine Discipline and Worship in this Church And had not some misguided Zealots out of a too great Affection to those models they had seen abroad run into unreasonable Oppositions at home which are still as unreasonably continued by obstinate headstrong People the Church of England would now be the most flourishing as it is the most primitive and pure Church in the World Who was it but a St. Omer's Priest that confessed as we are credibly informed in Foxes and Firebrands part 1. p. 7. That they were Twenty Years in hammering out the Sect of the Quakers And indeed as a very learned and good Man obseryes the principle they go upon to refuse all Oaths is a neat Contrivance for Priests and Jesuits to avoid the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy without a possibility of being discovered King Charles I. in the very first breaking out of the Wars observed rightly that the Fanaticks proceeded upon Popish Principles against him Their Maxims saith he are the same with the Jesuits Their Preachers Sermons have been deliver'd in the very Phrase and Stile of Becanus Scioppius and Eudaemon Johannis Their poor Arguments Printed or Written are taken almost verbatim out of Bellarmine and Suarez and the means which they have used to induce a Credit of their Conclusions with their Proselytes are purely and merely Jesuitical Fables false Reports false Prophecies pretended Inspirations and Divinations of the weaker Sex as if Herod and Pilate were once again reconciled for the Ruine of Christ and of his true Religion and Worship See the King 's large Declaration about the Scotch Troubles p. 3 4. and his Declaration after the Battel of Edgehill in the King's Works Part II. p. 213. And it is as observable that the Arguments which President Bradshaw made use of for the calling to an Account Sovereign Princes and subjecting of them to the People were borrowed from Parsons and other Jesuits who laid down these republican and treasonous Principles Considerable Directions for the Introducing Popery in Protestant Countries taken out of the Jesuit Contzen's Politic lib. 2. cap. 8. §. 6. and out of Campanella 1. THAT it be done under a Pretence of Ease to tender Consciences which will gain a Reputation to the Prince as done out of Kindness to his People 2. That when liberty is granted then the Parties be forbid to contend with or Preach against each other for that will make way the more easily for one side to prevail and the Prince will be commended for his Love of Peace 3. That such as suspect the Design and Preach against it be traduced as Men that Preach very Unseasonable Doctrine that they are Proud Self-opiniators and Enemies to Peace and Union 4. Let no Prince that is willing despait it being an easie thing for him to change Religion for when the Common People are a-while taken with Novelties and Diversities of Religion they will sit down and be weary and give up themselves to their Rulers Wills But the special Advice he gives to a Catholick Prince is 5. To make as much use of the Divisions of the Enemies as of the Agreement of his Friends How much the Popish Party hero hath followed these Counsels will easily appear by reflecting upon their Behaviour these last Twenty-six Years and how far the same Policies have kept up our Divisions and do still promote them is now no longer a Mystery But that which more particularly reaches to our own Case is the Letter of Advice given to Father Young by Seignior Ballarini concerning the best way of managing the Popish Interest in England upon his Majesty's Restauration wherein are several remarkable Things This Letter was found in Father Young's Study after his Death and was translated out of Italian and Printed in the Collection above-mentioned 1. The first Advice is to make the Obstruction of Settlement their great Design especially upon the fundamental Coustitutions of the Kingdom whereunto if things should fall they would be more firm than ever 2. To remove the Jealousies raised by Pryn Baxter c. of their design upon the late Factions and to set up the prosperous way of Fears and Jealousies of the King and Bishops 3. To make it appear underhand how near the Doctrine Worship and discipline of the Church of England comes to us at how little distance their Common Prayer is from our Mass and that the wisest and ablest Men of that way are so moderate that they would willingly come over to us or at least meet us half way Hereby the more staid Men will become more Odious and others will run out of all Religion for fear of Popery 4. Let there be an Indulgence promoted by the Factious and seconded by you 5. That the Trade and Treasure of the Nation may be Engrossed between themselves and other Discontented Parties 6. That the Bishops and Ministers of the Church of England be aspersed as either worldly and careless on the one hand or so factious on the other that it were well they were removed These are some of those excellent Advices then given and how well they have been followed we all know for according to this Counsel when they could not hinder the Settlement then the great thing they aimed at for many Years was the breaking in pieces the Constitution of our Churhc by a General Toleration This Coleman owned at his Trial and after Sentence declared He was of Opinion that Popery might come in if Liberty of Conscience had been granted And in several of his Letters it is to be seen how earnest the Papists were for Liberty of Conscience And the
Lord Viscount Stafford That they designed to bring in Popery by Toleration as may be seen in his Trial. And now let any impartial Person judge who did most effectually serve the Papist Designs those who kept to the Communion of the Church of England or those who fell into a course of Separation I will allow what Mr. Baxter saith That they might use their Endeavours to exasperate the several Parties against each other and might sometimes press the more rigorous Execution of Laws against them but then it was to set them at a greater distance from us and to make them more pliable to a General Toleration And they sometimes complained That those who were most averse to this found themselves under the Severity of the Law when more Tractable Men escaped which they have weakly imputed to the Bishops when they might easily understand the true causo of such a Discrimination But from the whole it appears That the grand Design of the Papists for many Years was to break in pieces the Constitution of the Church of England which being done they flattered themselves with the hopes of great Accessions to their Strength and Party and in order to this they inflamed the Differences among us to the utmost height on purpise to make all the dissenting Parties to join with them for a General Toleration which they did not question would destroy this Church and advance their Interest And it is a most unfortunate Condition our Church is in That those who design to bring in Popery and the Dissenters who made so great bustles in the late King's Reign to keep it out should now both conspire towards the Destruction of our Church and use all their Art and Industry to undermine and blow up this strongest Bullwork of the Protestant Religion This Reverend and most Learned Person hath also well observ'd how subtilly the Romanists have managed our indiscreet Dissenters Zeal against the Church of England under a pretence of opposing Popery to be one of the more likely ways to bring it in Many Instruments and Engines they made use of in this Design many ways and times they set about it and although they met with several Disappointments yet they never gave it over And is it not very strange that when they can scarce appear for themselves others out of meer Zeal against Popery should carry on their Work for them This seems to be a great Paradox to unthinking People who are carried away with meer Noise and Pretences and hope those will secure them most against the fears of Popery who talk with most Passion and least Understanding against it whereas no persons do really give them greater Advantages than these do For where they meet with intemperate Railings and gross Understandings of the State of the Controversies between them and us the more subtle Romanists will let such alone to spend their Rage and Fury and when the heat is over they will calmly endeavour to let them see how grosly they have been deceived in some things and so will the more easily make them believe they are as much deceived in all the rest And thus the East and West may meet at last and the most furious Dissenters who would be looked upon as the greatest Adversaries to Popery become the easiest Converts This I do really fear will be the case of many Thousands amongst us who now pass for the most zealous Protestants if ever which God forbid that Religion should come to be uppermost in England It is therefore of mighty Consequence for preventing the return of Popery that people rightly understand what it is for when they are as much afraid of an innocent Ceremony as of real Idolatry and think they can Worship and Adore the Host on the same grounds that they may use the Sign of the Cross or Kneel at the Communion when they are brought to see their mistake in one Case they will suspect themselves deceived in the other also For they who took that to be Popery which is not will be apt to think Popery it self not so bad as it was represented and so for want of right Vnderstanding the Differences between us may be carried from one extream to the other For when they find the undoubted Practices of the Ancient Church condemned as Popish and Antichristian by their Teachers they must conclude Popery to be of much greater Antiquity than really it is and when they can trace it so very near the Apostles times they will soon believe it setled by the Apostles themselves For it will be very hard to perswade any considering Men that the Christian Church should degenerate so soon so universally as it must do if Epsscopal Government and the use of some significant Ceremonies were any parts of that Apostacy Will it not seem strange to them that when some humane Polities have preserved their first Constitution so long without any considerable alteration that the Government instituted by Christ and settled by his Apostles should so soon after be changed into another kind and that so easily so insensibly that all the Christian Churches believed they had still the very same Government which the Apostles left them Which is a matter so incredible that those who can believe such a part of Popery could prevail so soon in the Christian Church may be brought upon the like Grounds to belives that many others did so mighty a prejudice doth the Principles of our Church's Enemies bring upon the Cause of the Reformation And those who forego the Testimony of Antiquity as all the Opposers of the Church of England must do must unavoidably run with the Papists which the Principles of our Church do lead us through For we can justly charge Popery as an unreasonable innovation when we allow the undoubted Practices and Government of the Church for many Ages after Christ And the Excellent Learned and most pious Prelate Bishop Saunderson hath observ'd That those who reject the usages of our Church as Popish and Antichristian when assaulted by Papists will be apt to conclude Popery the old Religion which in the purest and primitive Times was professed in all Christian Churches throughout the World whereas the sober Church of England Protestant is able by the Grace of God with clear Evidence of Truth to justifie the Church of England from all imputation of Heresie or Schism and the Religion thereof as it stood by Law established from the like imputation of Novelty And in this he professes to lay open the inmost thoughts of his Heart in this sad Business before God and the World And he further saith The Dissenting Brethren were great promoters of the Roman Interest among us in the late Times of Usurpation by putting their helping hand to the pulling down of Episcopacy And saith he 't is very well known to many what rejoicing that Vote brought to the Romish Party how even in Rome it self they sung their Io-Paeans upon the tidings thereof and said triumphantly Now the Day
33. c. saith Liberty of Conscience falsly so called may in good time improve it self into Liberty of Estates Liberty of Houses and Liberty of Wives and in a word Liberty of Perdition of Souls and Bodies This only would I know of you are Idolaters Hereticks Blasphemers and Seducers Evil-doers If so then look to your charge Rom. 13.4 Rulers must be a terrour to Evil-doers unless you mean to bear the Sword in vain And if you will God will not and if God take the Sword into his own hand once he will smite to purpose and execute vengeance throughly both upon the Evil-doers and upon you that have not been a terrour to them Oh therefore up and be doing that you may deliver the Kingdom out of the hand of the Lord for it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the Living God O let not your Patience be interpreted a Connivence and your Connivence be taken for a Toleration it may be the Kingdom 's ruine but it will be your Sin Also in his Sermon before the Commons February 19. 1645. pag. 25. he thus addresseth to them Fathers and Brethren how will you call this keeping of Covenant with God had we a Parliament of Apostate Julians of whom it is reported that at what time he opened the Temples of the Heathenish Gods he set open the Christian Churches called home all the Christians that were banished both Orthodox and Heretick and gave them as we call it Liberty of Conscience but as Austin more truly phraseth it Libertatem perditionis Liberty to destroy themselves for that was his policy and end namely by Liberty of all Religions to destroy the true and the Professours of it too If we had a Parliament of careless Gallio's we should not wonder c. Mr. George Hughes late Minister of Plymouth in his Sermon before the Commons May 26. 1647. p. 34 preached thus I must say that Toleration must be a destructive Principle to the State or Church where-ever it be allowed experience hath shew'd us no less in Kingdoms and Churches called by God's name Ye Servants of Christ take heed of yielding to the pretences of Conscience The Devil and not Christ hath his throne there and no stronger hold for him than Conscience if he once takeit Christ will not suffer him to shelter there therefore you may not so much as in you lieth Object Do not other States and some of the united Provinces tolerate all these Heresies and protect them and yet they prosper who more Answ I desire not to meddle with other States unless I might do them good But 1. Can any Man say that Prosperity is a sign peculiar to Truth then let Rome come in and speak more than any for outward Prosperity 2. Are not spiritual Wickednesses as odious to God as carnal and are not these Heresies such which God condemns as works of the Flesh inconsistent with Christ's Kingdom 3. Hath God made an end of visiting Nations for the Sins of them when God hath done judging were a better time to urge this Example than now I pray God the evil day may not overtake these States the good God cause the cup of trembling to pass by them and purge their inquities peaceably but I am pressed in Spirit to say God hath not spared such State polities which have sought their own rise by the ruine of God's Truth Witness Jeroboam the Son of Nebat who made Israel to sin and as Seneca saith Qui non vetat peccare cum potest jubet he bids sin that doth not hinder it when he can God's Truth my beloved and not Man's example must be the Rule If Heresies yet must be let us mourn for what we cannot help It is a miserable Necessity when not allowed It will be rejoicing in Iniquity either for Church or State wilfully to tolerate Mr. Edmund Calamy in his Sermon before the Lord Mayor January 14. 1645. pag. 3. makes this Lamentation The Churches of Christ lie desolate Church-reformation is obstructed Church-discipline unsetled and Church-divisions increased The famous City of London is become an Amsterdam Separation from our Churches is countenanc'd Toleration is cried up Authority lieth asleep And pag. 4. Divisions whether they be Ecclesiastical or Political in Kingdoms Cities or Families are infallible causes of ruine to them See Mark 3.24 25. Again pag. 14. Hereby the hearts of people are mightily distracted many are hindred from Conversion and even the Godly themselves have lost much of the power of Godliness in their lives I say the hearts of people are mightily disturbed while one Minister preacheth one thing as a Truth of the Gospel and another Minister preacheth the quite contrary with as much considence as the former Pag. 17. If Divisions be so destructive to Kingdoms Cities and Families this reproveth those that are the Authors and Fomenters of these Divisions that are now among us These are the Iincendiaries of England If he that sets one house a fire deserveth hanging much more they that set a whole Kingdom on fire If he that murders one Man must be put to death much more he that murders three Kingdoms mark them saith the Apostle Rom. 16.17 that cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them avoid them as the greatest enemies of England these are like the Salamander that cannot live but in the fire of Contention These are of a Jesuitical Spirit and no doubt the heads and hands of the Jesuits are in all our Divisions Pag. 33. Take heed of the Land-destroying opinion of those that plead for an unlimited Toleration of all Religions even of Turcism Judaism c. the Lord keep us from being poison'd with such an Errour Our Saviour's saying in Matth. 12.25 riseth up against it Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation for it will divide Kingdoms against it self it will rend it in a thousand pieces it is a Doctrine that overthroweth all Church-Government bringeth in confusion and openeth a wide door unto all Irreligion and Atheism For at the same door that all false Religions came in the true Religion-will quickly get out and if it be as good for a Man to live where nothing is lawful as where all things are lawful surely it is every way as uncomfortable to live where there are all Religions as where there is no Religion at all Pag. 37. It is your Duty right Honourable whom God hath intrusted with great Power to suppress these Divisions and Differences in Religion by your Civil Authority as far as you are able least you are accessary unto them For God hath made you Custodes utriusque Tabulae Keepers not of the Second Table only as some fondly imagine but of the First Table also and not only Keepers but Vindices utriusque Tabulae Punishers also of those that transgress against either of them For you are the Ministers of God for good and Revengers to execute wrath upon him that doth
used and the Government as in an ague divided between hot and cold sits no wonder if Laws so unsteadily executed have failed of their effect But if the Government shall think it sit to imitate that prudent excellent Princess and in instead of shewing any fear of the Dissenters put the Laws moderately in execution against them we shall no doubt in a short time find the good effects of it in the happy uniting them to the Church of England to the great disappointment and grief of the Papists And till this be done we can expect no other than Confusion and disorder in the Church and Distraction in the State And the Book that was written in the Oliverian days by a learned Presbyterian intituled Wholesome Severity reconciled with Christian Liberty licenced by Ja. Cranford will justifie such a proceeding against the several sorts of Dissenters and vindicate it from the odious Imputation of Persecution In which Book there is this memorable sentence That Liberty of Horesie and Schism is no part of the Liberty of Conscience which Christ hath purchased for us but that under these fair colours and handsome pretexts Sectaries infuse their poison their pernitious God-provoking Truth-defacing Church-ruinating and State-shaking Toleration The Character which the Great and good Arch-bishop Whitgift gave of the turbulent Spirits of the Puritans is very considerable in a Letter of his to the Privy Council which was occasion'd by a Paper of some Suffolk Ministers True it is saith he they are no Jesuits neither are they charged to be so but notwithstanding they are contentious in the Church of England and by their Contentions they minister occasion of offence to those which are seduced by Jesuits and give the Sacraments against the Form of publick Prayer us'd in this Church and by Law establish'd and thereby increase the number of them and consirm them in their willfulness They also make a Schism in the Church and draw many other of her Majesty's Subjects to the misliking of her Laws and Government in Causes Ecclesiastical so far are they from perswading Men to Obedience or at least if they perswade them to it in the one part of her Authority in Causes Civil they disswade them from it as much in the other in Causes Ecclesiastical so that indeed they pluck down with the one hand that which they seem to build with the other And is is truly observed by Doctor Tompkins in his Pleas c. Pag. 141. That notwithstanding all the Zeal which the Non-consormists doe declare against Popery it is well known that they have and as their Interest leads them can still join both Counsels and Arms together The leading Men of both Parties in Ireland were wonderfully great together all the while that the Design was managing against the Earl of Strafford And here in England in the Declaration which King Charles I. set forth concerning the Success of the Battel at Edgehill on October 23. 1643. he hath left this Memorial to all Posterity All Men know the great member of Papists which serve in their Armies Commanders and others the great Industry to corrupt the Loyalty and Affection of all our loving Subjects of that Religion the private Promises and Vndertakings that they have made to them That if they would assist them against us all the Laws made in their prejudice should be repealed The Popish Party also used the same perswasive methods in the late Days of King James the Second to allure the Dissenters to join with them for the pulling down the Established true Religion and how effectually this Bait was swallowed by them and into what a hellish Confederacy these two Brethren in Iniquity enter'd together for the Destruction of the Church of England their many scandalous Addresses and other their libellous Invectives against the Church of England which were stuffed with the most inveterate Hatred Rancour and Malice that Hell could devise against it do abundantly testifie nor can I better express suitably to their deserts how foolishly as well as criminally they acted in those Days inconsistent with Prudence Honesty and their former Clamours against Popery and Arbitrary Government Then in the Words of a late Author their Friend and Favourer who professes a great deal of kindness for them in many Pages of his Book Entitled A Representation of the threatning Dangers impending over Protestants in Great Britain before the coming of his Highness the Prince of Orange In this Book notwithstanding the good will he shews to the Dissenters and his undeserved Censures and Reproaches of the Church of England which very spitefully do abound in it yet when he came to consider the Dissenters siding so much with the Papists and the brave opposition the Members of the Church of England made against Popery it drew from him smart reflections on the one and very high Commendations of the other according to the just Merits insomuch that by reason of the Dissenters many flattering Addresses and their countenancing and defending the King 's Arbitrary unjustifiable Proceedings he says of them Pag. 44. The World has just ground to say That the Phanaticks are not governed by Principles but that the measures they walk by are what conduceth to the private and personal Benefit or what lies in a tendency to their loss and prejudice and that it was not King Charles II. his Vsurping an Arbitrary and Illegal Power that offended them but that they were not the Objects in whose favour it was Exercised And Pag. 46. he saith this of them Notwithstanding all the danger from Popery that the Nation was exposed unto and all the hazard that the Souls of Men were in of being poisoned with Romish Principles yet instead of Preaching or Writing against any of the Doctrines of the Church of Rome they agreed among themselves and with such of their Congregations as approved of their procedure not so much as to mention them but to leave the Province of defending our Religion and of detecting the falshood of Papal Tenets to the Pastors and Gentlemen of the Church of England And being asked as he knew of some that were why they did not preach against Antichrist and confute the Papal Doctrines they very gravely replied That by preaching Christ they did preach against Antichrist and that by teaching the Gospel they refuted Popery which is such a piece of fraudulent and guileful Subterfuge that I want words bad enough to express the Knavery and Criminalness of it It was but the other Day that the conformable Clergy were represented by some of the Dissenters not only as favourers of Popery but as endeavouring to hale it in upon us by all the methods and ways that lay within their Circles and yet now the whole Defence of the reformed Religion must be entirely divolved into their Hands And when all the sluces were pulled up that had been made to hinder Popery from overflowing the Nation they were left alone to stem the Inundation and prevent the Deluge They among