his Sheath and he healed the Ear of Malchus But by this he gives us to understand that tho' he has right to repel force with force yet he would have his Disciples make use of it only as a proper time and occasion may require And he there gives the reason of it 't is because that ought to be accomplish'd which was ordained by the Father And that which he adds to St. Peter when he bid him put up his Sword into the Sheath viz All they that take the Sword shall perish by the Sword cannot signifie that using the Sword is always unlawful or chiefly when it is employed upon the account of Religion it cannot I say signifie any thing like it For First 't is false since there are an hundred occasions where the use of the Sword is notoriously known to be lawful Secondly Jesus Christ would have contradicted himself upon the very spot for there he says Let him that hath a Sword take it Behold two it is enough So that this must signifie that he who strikes unjustly with the Sword shall perish by the Sword. Now one may strike unjustly with the Sword upon these two accounts either when he does it that he has no right or when this right is made use of upon some occasion that is not agreeable to the Pleasure of God. St. Peter had not used his Sword in a proper season not but that he had a right which it was not then a time to exercise for then God would have Jesus Christ die and St. Peter ought to have understood it In a word Jesus Christ commanded to take the Sword for establishing the Right which the Church has to defend herself against unjust Oppressors and he forbid Peter to strike to teach the Church that she ought to submit when God has made known his Will that she must suffer If Mr. Bossuet the present defender of this severe Moral That we are forbidden to maintain the Gospel by Arms finds our Morality to loose in this point he will do well to call into his help for our Correction Escobar Tambourin Caramuel and all the Tribe of new Casuists who are very good Catholicks and as good Catholicks as they are make it lawful to kill a Man for a Crown-piece or an Apple Nevertheless we have no design at all to inspire with the sentiments of Revenge those who have suffer'd so cruel a Persecution in France upon the account of Religion God forbid we do on the contrary render thanks to God that not one of them has been prevail'd upon to do any Action of Violence for though they could not have destroyed others without having been destroyed themselves yet it is a surprizing consideration that among so many people of different Characters there should not be found a great number who would act the part of Sampson to bury themselves and their Enemies under the same Ruins which was easie for them to have done But the Patience wherewith they have suffer'd is an Argument that the Spirit of God hath sustained them in their Calamities Nor do we pretend here to make a defence for all the Wars which have been undertaken upon the account of Religion nor all those which were for the Defence of a good Religion As the taking up Arms has always dreadful consequences it is certain that of two Evils the greatest is to be avoided and that it is better to suffer moderate Oppressions than to run to extreme Remedies But my Design is to let Mr. Bossuet see that he does not know what he says when he would make it so criminal in our People to approve those who bear Arms to maintain the Gospel As if in this they had done any foolish and odious Action There are some Extremities beyond which Christian Morality does not oblige us to carry our Patience And I think no one can imagine a greater Extremity than when it comes to massacring When the first War of Religion began in the last Age the Massacre of Vassy had given the signal to all France There was no longer any place wherein the Protestants could be with safety And by consequence it was time to make use of the Right of Self-preservation which no Prescription no Usurpation of the Mighty can ever annihilate But when only the Preservation or Death of some particular Persons is the concern as it was in the Reigns of Francis the 1st and Henry the 2d then was it a time for Patience but when the Life of a whole People is in hazard and in extream hazard then there must be a recourse to extream Remedies There may be also certain Circumstances when People are not oblig'd to attend the most extream Evils before they run to Redress them When the whole Nation sees the Prince in a Resolution to extirpate the established Religion a stop ought to be put at the beginning 'T is therefore that the English Nation cannot be blamed in their present Conduct against their King except it be by those People who are full of their Prejudices or Slaves to the great ones under whom they live or else altogether ignorant of the Laws of England When the King had once made himself Master of the Laws and Religion it would then have been too late to have sought for a Remedy REFLECTIONS UPON THE Affairs of England WE know very well my Brethren that in the Kingdom where you are 't is made a point of Honour and of Conscience to speak all that can be imagin'd cruel and outragious against the English Nation against the Church of England and against all those illustrious Persons who are at the head of that Action which is now brought to pass in England This great and sudden Revolution which is at this day the astonishment of all Europe is the execration of Bigots who discharge their fury upon those names which will one day make them tremble Behold say they the Spirit of your Religion 't is Rebellion a Revolt from Soveraigns 't is a black Invasion of the powers ordain'd by God. I know well that you ought upon this occasion to have a strict guard over the measures you take and to conduct yourselves with a great deal of discretion and I fear there are some amongst you ill enough inform'd to give an ill account of an Affair not only most innocent but even the most glorious and the greatest that has been atchieved for many Ages To convince you of this Truth you ought to know principally that the Qualification of the King of England is as inconsistent with that of a Roman Catholick as the Qualification of a Lutheran or Calvinist is with that of a Pope Nothing is more opposite to the Fundamental Laws of the State. I. It is forbidden under the pain of High Treason to perform any Exercise of the Romish Religion within the Kingdom How can this be consistent with a Popish King who requires Mass to be said publickly in the most eminent places of the State in his
Monsieur JVRIEV's Judgment Upon the Question of Defending our Religion by Arms WITH REFLECTIONS UPON THE Affairs of England IN HIS Ninth Pastoral LETTER of the Third Year Faithfully Translated out of French. Licensed and Entered according to Order LONDON Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey and are to be sold by Richard Baldwin next the Black Bull in the Old-Bayly MDCLXXXIX THE Translator TO THE READER 'T IS said by the Prophet Daniel That many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be encreased The Commerce of Nations the Translating from one Language to another is this running to and fro whereby Mankind communicate their general Sentiments improve by the Correspondence and are absolved from the Curse of Babel People that only measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves among themselves take very scanty measures and make very fond comparisons when they are mistaken they have no way of rectifying themselves but enjoy a very great satisfaction in being positive and immovable tho' they are never so much in the wrong In opposition to this the World has always had a great deference to a Catholick Sence so soon as ever Christianity enjoyed its liberty under the Glorious Emperour Constantine there was such an assembling of Councils communicating the Judgment of particular Churches for Agreement of the whole that the Heathens were wont to deride the Christians for tiring the Post-horses and wearing out the Stage-Coaches of the Empire When Christianity was Transubstantiated into Popery and all the Methods of Religion turn'd against it self then was Catholicism made use of as the grand Instrument of its own Ruine The general falling away which was the Prediction of a false Religion prevailing was the chief argument why that Religion was not false which had prevailed So that we have the Judgment both of Friends and Enemies those who first setled Religion and those who afterwards overthrew it that the general Opinion of the Church of God ought to be of the greatest esteem especially in those difficult Cases where we are not our selves able to determine our Duties out of the Holy Scriptures 'T is then only disputed which is the Catholick Church that which shone bright immediately after our Saviour's time or that prevailing Faction of Apostates which clouded the Heavens and cast a mist over the face of the Earth But the Light of Truth is so sprung forth again that the Question vanishes 't is easy to distinguish between Day and Night Now if the Christians had so great an Opinion of their common Agreement before their Religion was corrupted why should not we honour the same way And since Reformation is but the Restoration of Primitive Religion be glad to hear what foreign Churches say of those Doctrines which are disputed amongst us He is an Enemy to the Church of England who would set it up against the Reform'd Churches of France and Germany and of the Northern Crowns where God is worshipped also after the manner which his Enemies call Heresy Why should not the Church of God be esteemed one Catholick Church since its Reformation as well as before its grand Depravation There were as many Heresies and Schisms and Errours within its bowels then as now but the common Agreement of the greater part in substantial Truths made the Advice of one Church to another to be very much reverenced and regarded The Judgment of Monsieur Jurieu is not to be looked upon as his private Opinion but as the general Sence of the good Christians of France for the Papists had an Intrigue to destroy the whole Reform'd Religion all over Europe by perswading the Protestants to stand still while they were ruined and to this purpose Monsieur de Meaux picks up and ridicules the Decisions of their Synods That it was lawful to make use of Arms in favour of Religion So that this is a Defence of their ancient Doctrine and rescuing the Right of Self-preservation from the hands of their Enemies in a most needful time when they would have taken it away from all men in order to an Vniversal Destruction of the Truth Certainly the French have demonstrated such eminent Loyalty and Patience that they well deserved to be heard upon the Question We may in England look back with some horror upon the danger we have escaped this piece of Policy was framed also for the finest and strongest Intrigue that could bring about our Destruction it was the presumption of Arbitrary and Irresistible Power of Absolute and undeniable Obedience which heartned our Enemies to such attempts as they durst not otherwise have thought upon They had the advantage of many Years to make preparation by preferring such to Places of Honour and Power who were themselves generally the greatest Slaves and so were willing to enslave others The choice was made with a great deal of Judgment and Curiosity either of such whose Atheism and Debauchery made them ready to do any thing or of such who had suffer'd under the Pretenders to Liberty and therefore were inclined to an excess of Duty The former run into all the extravagancies of Blasphemy having their mouths full of great swelling words That the King was above Jesus Christ that Tyranny and Oppression themselves if acted by Persons in Authority were the Ordinances of God and not to be resisted under pain of Damnation But Death has eased some places of their burdens and called those Followers of Balaam before a Tribunal where they shall behold him whom they pierced The better part consider'd the Glories of suffering Relion how much it was able to bear and that Passive Obedience had first made its triumphant entry into the World they therefore encouraged the inferiour Clergy to such a degree that it was almost received as the Doctrine of the Church of England that an Vnlimited Authority was of Divine Right and that tho' Religion was never so much our Property yet it had a property in it to yield up itself and every thing else to the will of the first Invader But so soon as the Rights of our Religious and Civil Liberties were found to be mortally wounded and that its Interest was to be destroyed by such Sufferings as neither the Laws of God or Man required then could the Fathers of the Church no longer conceal a Truth the neglect whereof had near cost them that which was dearer to them than their Lives the tenderness they bore to their Children would not expose them to an unnecessary Destruction After their personal Sufferings and the Day-break of our Deliverance appear'd the late King James was alarm'd with an expression in the Prince of Orange's Declaration That he was most earnestly Invited hither by divers of the Lords both Spiritual and Temporal and by many Gentlemen and others He therefore sent for the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Peterborough and Rochester to sign an Abhorrence under their hands of the intended Invasion But this they refused to do not being
able to give up a Church which by the Providence of God was by Law established and which they had the Care of committed to them They durst not discountenance a Deliverance which every body was then sensible was so divinely offer'd and wherein all the Protestant Interest of Europe was embarked This Refusal the Bishop of Rochester has lately published and the Archbishop of Canterbury has favoured with a License under his own hand So soon as the late King James had thrown up the Government cancell'd the Writs of Parliament and withdrawn himself from the Kingdom then did the Archbishops of Canterbury and York the Bishops of Winchester St. Asaph Ely Rochester and Peterborough with the Lords Temporal that were about London assembled at Guild-hall devolv'd themselves upon the Prince of Orange acknowledging his great Kindness his vâ—ss Expence his Hazard to Rescue them from Popery and Slavery The Convocations of England had formerly assisted the foreign Protestants both with their Prayers and Purses now was the happy day of Retribution come when we were to eat that Bread which was cast upon the Waters an hundred Years before It had been a renouncing of the ancient Church of England and the old Charity laid up in store for us if we had not accepted so great a Deliverance The common pertness of young Divines and the inveterate prejudice of some elder will not be able to rencounter the more ancient Judgment and this late authentick Practice of the Church of England It will be satisfaction to behold here the concurrence of a foreign Church for we have always valued Catholicism but now we much more desire it now we are under the Head of the Protestant Interest and hope that our present Soveraign of Great Britain will be another British Constantine to the World. Those Churches which never had the Favour of Princes cannot but want many advantages and we who were Reform'd by a Prince who did not only shake off the Pope's Vsurpations but reserved several of them to himself are capable of being made more happy Those that have travell'd abroad and searcht the Archieves of the Protestant Churches find how the principal Reformers and Establishers of our Religion consulted them and how greivously they were afflicted to be over-ruled by secular Men in the Establishment of those things which were not to be found in the Catholicism of the Reform'd Religion And we have sadly found the mischief thereof for men who are the Authors and Abettors of those things which are particular to themselves are apt to be more fond of their own Institutions than of the Catholick and Divine Ordinances and so the zeal of a particular Church has been in danger of spending it self without being concern'd for and sometimes in opposition to the Vniversal As I began with one Prophet so I 'll conclude with another let Isaiah now revive us with an Assurance that God will at last give Kings to be Nursing-fathers and Queens to be Nursing-mothers to his Church And such as we now have England never had before He hath prophesied also That the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be seven-fold as the light of seven days in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people and healeth the stroke of their wound We have such a litteral accomplishment of this that 't is hard not to believe it the design of the place we have such a seven fold influence of our Sun to revive and comfort the distressed part of the World and our Moon is equally Soveraign with him Shall not all this make us happy the greatest Authority and the best Examples if not 't is because we are the worst People that ever enjoy'd the Sun shine THE Ninth Pastoral Letter of the Third Year Wherein this Question is Examined Whether it be Lawful to Defend our Religion by Arms WITH REFLECTIONS UPON THE Affairs of England Our most Dear Brethren Grace and Peace be given to you by our God and Saviour Jesus Christ WE did in our last leave Monsieur Bossuet endeavouring with all his might to overthrow Doctor Burnet by making him contradict himself he was also labouring to render the Reformation of England Odious and seeking for some Variations upon the Article of the Lord's Supper But these Variations being laid aside and reserv'd for Volumes and perhaps for future Ages Mr. Bossuet in the remaining part of his tenth Book enters upon the Wars of Religion The conspiracy of Amboise comes upon the Stage drest up with I don't know how many Reflections and as many Demonstrations to prove that it ought entirely to be imputed to the Huguenots and had no other cause but Religion All the Civil Wars of the 〈◊〉 Age are made to re-appear both the Assassination of the Duke of Guise before Orleans by Poltrot and that of the President Minard by Stuart are remembred And amongst all this are inserted some Decisions of Synods and other Arguments to prove that the Calvinists think well of maintaining the Gospel by Arms. All this fine parcel of History is composed of many matters of Fact and one question of Right The Fact relates to the Civil Wars of the last Age upon which it is not here my business to discourse an Answer may be given if it be thought requisite and for me that which hath been already said in my Answer to the Jesuit Mainburg's History of Calvinism may be sufficient The Question of Right is concerned in the taking up and using Arms for the Defence of Religion which Monsieur Bossuet proposes as a great Crime in the Protestants For since the Gospel acknowledges no other Arms but those that are Spiritual the Church is not to attempt any thing but by the Word nor to defend itself but by Patience Thus the Primitive Christians defended themselves we cannot find that they repell'd force by force Their Prayers and their Tears were the only Bucklers they opposed to the Violence of their Persecutors but behold now a new sort of Christians of Reformers of the Church and the World who take up Arms that they may repel the Violences of others by Violences of their own These are the fine common places wherewith the Protestants of all Europe are at this day entertain'd to perswade them that they ought patiently without any Emotion to suffer the utmost Efforts of Popery to their Ruin. The circumstances of the present time oblige us to enlarge a little upon this Question not only in way of Answer to Monsieur de Meaux and his Friends but principally with a design to satisfie some who are truly Conscientious and not well instructed as to the sense of this Maxim That it is not lawful to make use of Arms in favour of Religion First does it not well become M. the Bishop of Meaux and in general the whole Papistry to raise the Reputation of this Maxim that the Conduct of the Protestants might be rendred