A Praefatory DISCOURSE TO A late PAMPHLET Entituled A MEMENTO FOR English PROTESTANTS c. BEING An ANSWER to that Part of the Compendium which reflects upon the Bishop of Lincoln's Book The Second Edition with several Additions and Amendments TOGETHER With some Occasional Reflections on Mr. L'Estrange's Writings LONDON Printed by Tho Dawks for the Author 1681. THIS IS HUMBLY DEDICATED TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD THOMAS LORD BISHOP OF LINCOLN THE PREFACE THE Papists have of late given us such fresh Occasions by their horrid and damnable Conspiracies against the Person of our King our Government and our Religion to renounce and detest the Communion of that Church which does not only allow men but teaches them to be Murderers and Traytors And we have yet so great Reason to apprehend the dismal Consequences of their Secret and Hellish Machinations that I am confident no Discourse which tends to heighten and improve the just Prejudices of English men against that impious and absurd Religion will be thought at this time unnecessary by any good Protestant I shall not therefore make any Apology for the Collecting and Printing this Epitome of the three great Massacres in Piedmont France and Ireland which is intended chiefly for the Instruction of ignorant and unlearned People for we fear not that Scholars and men of Sence should be made Papists except such whose Morals are so wretchedly debauch'd that they are ready at all times to sacrifice their Consciences to their Civil Interests and I hope there are not so many of these desperate Prostitutes as the Papists are apt to imagine and as the Manners of the Age we live in may I confess give us just cause to fear No 't is the ordinary Rank of men who have not had the Advantage of Learning and a generous Education to defend themselves against the studied Fallacies and specious pretences of the Romish Agents who commonly become the Prey of those Wolves in Sheeps cloathing To provide therefore for their Security that they may not fall into the snares that are laid for them ought to be our chiefest Care since as 't is more Charity to strengthen the hands of the weak than to add force to the strong so in this case 't is more prudent too in order to the support of the common cause of Protestant Religion the ignorant being by far the greater number Nor is this to be done a better way then by furnishing them with such plain Arguments as they are able to apprehend and manage themselves to the confusion of the common Enemy And these can be no other than such as are drawn from matters of Fact they being easiest to be understood and hardest to be answer'd For this Reason it was that this short Narrative of the bloody Butcheries and inhumane Murders heretofore committed upon the persons of Protestants by Italian French and Irish Papists in cold blood and by the Instigation of their Church was prepared for the Press at the desire of a worthy Gentleman whose Zeal for the Interest of his Country and the Protestant Religion deserves a publick mention would his Modesty permit it in order to the being by him bestow'd among his Country Neighbours who some of them perhaps have never heard of and others may have forgot the Story of these holy Popish Cruelties these religious Villanies the design being to let such sort of People see what a horrid thing Popery is when her Vernish is taken off what a deform d and frightful face this gaudy painted whore With whom the Kings of the earth have committed Fornication this Mother of Abominations made drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus I say What a deform'd and frightful face she has when her Paint is laid by and she appears by true Lights in her proper Colours What monstrous and abominable Actions Papists are capable of when the Interest of that Idol of theirs their Church requires them By which as well as by their late Plots here in England 't is not hard for men of the meanest Capacities to perceive That their Religion cannot be the Religion of Christ while it justifies them in the grossest Immoralities and engages them in the most unchristian Practices That those detestable Doctrines of Deposing and Killing Kings and extirpating Hereticks which have been so often objected to the Church of Rome by Protestant Divines are not Speculative Notions and Propositions Problematical as some of the Popish Writers and particularly the Author of that lying Libel called The Compendium would make us believe But such settled Maxims of their barbarous Ecclesiastical Policy as too often have been and again will be put in practice whenever that proud uncharitable Church has a safe occasion to do it though at other times they must be disown'd with the usual Popish Impudence especially to such Protestants as have so little wit to take what they say on Trust or so little Reading not to be able to disprove them I hope no man will understand me here as if from the bare Actions of Papists and nothing else I argued to the Principles of Popery and conclude the one from the other this were bad Charity and worse Logick and one of their own constant Topicks in their Writings against Protestants 't were to say the worst that can be of it to fall directly into the ridiculous way of Reasoning used by the Compendianist when he pretends to answer the Bp. of Lincoln's Book that admirable and learned Discourse a Discourse of so great use at this time and which does with such undeniable Evidence convince the Religion of Papists to be guilty of all their traiterous and bloody Designs against Kings and Protestants that I cannot but take this occasion to correct that troublesome Impertinent who has made such a sencelesse Buzze and rais'd such a dust about it with design to puzzle and darken those Truths which the Bishop has there made so plain and clear especially since the Bishop himself has not thought him as indeed he is not worthy of his Notice and no body else that I know off has yet expos'd that part of his impudent Pamphlet which concerns this truly Venerable and Excellent Person First then what a foolish Flourish dos he make against the Bishop endeavouring to throw that wicked Principle of Deposing Kings upon Protestants with this grosse Fallacy of Arguing from mens Practices to the Principles of their Religion Is not his Lordships meaning says he in truth this that Protestant Principles when really believ'd are destructive to all Kings especially to Catholick ones since we see that the lawful Monarchs of England Scotland Swaedland Denmark the Vnited Provinces Transylvania Geneva c. have been actually depos'd by their Protestant Subjects This c. here I guesse to be a Lye of the lowest price in their Book of Rates for Sin t is so pitifull and inconsiderable a trick He puts it down as if there
and so weak an Adversary Let us suppose then for once That Luther Calvin and as many more as he has a mind to take into his c. have held That Princes may be depos'd upon the Account of Religion By what new Logick can he make this pertinent to the present Discourse Does he thinke it the same thing to hold indefinitely That Princes may be depos'd upon the Account of Religion and to hold That the Church has a Right to depose them upon that Account To hold that they may be deposed by an Authority Civil and to hold that they may be depos'd by an Authority Ecclesiastical Let him now speak his Conscience without a Dispensation Does he in good earnest think these two Propositions equivalent or at least equivalent as to the point in controversie between him and the Bishop of Lincoln and that they equally disgrace the profess'd Religion of him who affirms them He cannot sure be so void of the ordinary reason of a Man though he has swallow'd down never so many Roman Catholick Doctrines as not to perceive a palpable difference between them 'T is not but that the former of these Positions is a very bad Principle dangerous to Princes and destructive to the Peace and Settlement of a Nation though not so much as the latter because it wants the Enforcement of Conscience and Religion to fix it in the Mind and thrust it out upon occasion into action with that Violence which usually accompanies a pretended Zeal for the Honour of God But how bad soever it may be still 't is a Civil not a Religious Principle and though it may be Sedition in the highest degree it can never be Heresie a mans Life and Estate who maintaines it is answerable for it not his Religion To make this a little clearer I say 'T is one thing to hold That Princes may be dedepos'd by the State though upon the Account of Religion i. e. for being of a Religion different from the establish'd grounding this Opinion upon the Laws and Customs of some particular Civil Constitutions or upon the ends of Government in general and quite another thing to hold that they may be depos'd by the Church grounding this Opinion upon the Laws of Religion and a Power suppos'd to be delegated to her by Christ This last is the Principle we charge and the Bishop of Lincoln has prov'd upon the Church of Rome which makes her Religion it self dangerous to Princes On the other side though Luther Calvin or any other Protestant Divines should hold the first though it be a false and a bad yet as I said before 't is a Civil Principle and their holding it could no more reflect on the Protestant Religion than an Error they might be guilty of in History or Mathematicks The Protestant Religion therefore remaines clear from any suspicion of allowing the Doctrine of Deposing Princes the point I undertook to make good though it should be granted the Compendianist that Luther and Calvin c. have had ill Principles in Relation to Civil Governments If he could prove indeed That Luther and Calvin or any other Protestant Divines have held The Lawfulness of Deposing Princes as a Principle of their Religion and plac'd the power of doing it the Church he would say something that were to the purpose and parallel to what we accuse the Church of Rome off but in the Method he has taken he does but beat the Air and fight with Shadows I shall explain this Distinction a little further by some famous Examples in order to meet with the other Cavils of this idle wrangler and make the Inconsequence of his Arguings if it be possible yet more apparent He may remember then That here in England Edward the II. and Richard the II. were actually depos'd in times of Popery and by Papiits yet did our Writers never charge the Church of Rome though she held then the same doctrines and had the same Pride to trample on Princes that now she has with those two disloyal and unjust Usurpations upon the Sovereignty of the Kings of England And for what imaginable reason but this only viz. because they were both acts of the Civil Power and carried on by men who grounded what they did upon Principles though grosly false and mistaken drawn from the Constitution of the English Government and the Rights of the two Houses of Parliament and the Church of Rome contrary to her Custom upon such occasions was only a bare Spectator neither her Authority nor her Principles being made use of to further or justifie those proceedings I would now a k this Collector of Impertinences this teadious Compendianist whether he thinkes this a good reason to clear the Church of Rome from being concern'd in the deposing of these two unfortunate Princes If he sayes T is as no doubt he will with what face can he pretend to charge the Church of England as he would be understood to do pag. 76 lin 38. with the Endeavours that were us'd to keep Queen Mary from the Crown the Death of the Queen of Scots and the Bill of the late House of Commons against the Duke of York's succession since the Cases are directly parellel I mean parallel in all that concernes the present Question Were they not every one of the Acts of the Civil Power and carried on by men who grounded what they did on Civil not Religious Principles Was not the setting up of the Lady Jane Grey and the raising an Army to oppose Queen Mary an Act of the Privy Council in persuance of King Edward's Will and a Law made in the Reign of Henry the VIII for the Illegitimating of this Princess as the Lords of the Council themselves declare in their Answer to her Letter writ from Framingham Castle Was not the Death of the Queen of Scots most notoriously an act of the State and justified by the Laws of the Land Was she not indicted for Treason and known to pretend a better Title to the Crown than Queen Elizabeth Lastly was not the Bill against the Duke of York grounded on a suppos'd Legal Power in the King and the Two Houses to alter the Course of the Succession when they think fit Have not all the Pamphlets that have been writ in Vindication of that Bill argued the Lawfulnesse of it from the Constitution of the Civil Government and wholly disclaim'd the Interesting of Religion at all in the businesse as to the justifying of it in the least degree endeavouring with great paines to prove That true Religion does not meddle with the Civil Rights of Princes but leaves them to be determin'd by the Laws and Customs of particular Countries By what strange consequence then can he entitle the Church of England or the Protestant Religion to things that are so perfectly of a Civil nature unless he will make them answerable for all the Actions of Protestants of what kind soever and resolve to maintaine that childish Sophisme I
take this occasion to inform the ignorant Reader for none else can need it how much the Monarchy has gotten by the Reformation in point of Civil Advantage and consequently how great a Loser it will be every way if by some fatal Infatuation any Successor of his Majesty should again bring the Crown and the Nation under the Romish Yoke that worse than Aegyptian Darknesse and Slavery which neither our Fathers nor We are able to beare In the first place the The Monarchy has by the Reformation gotten an absolute Freedom from the Tyranny of the Popes Spiritual Supremacy and his pretended Temporal Power in ordine ad Spiritualia to which it was before subject and in persuance of which several of our Kings have been summon'd to appear personally at Rome and King John forc'd to resigne his Crowne to a Legate to the high Dishonour of the Regal Majesty and the apparent Prejudice of that Reverence it ought to have in the mindes of the People Nay further all that Part of the Pope's Spiritual Power which was either Necessary or useful for the Government of the Church is by the Reformation become the King's so that no Authority but God Almighty's is now above him nor any in England independent of him He is equally Head both of the Church the State No Appeales can be made from his Courts nor any sort of Persons priviledg'd from his Justice In a word He is no longer a Feauditary Vassall to the Popes as in effect all Popish Princes are since the Pope has an allow'd Right to command them in whatever he will call Spirituall or will say has any relation to Spiritual Matters and by declaring them Hereticks he can according to the Romish Religion depose them and destroy them when he pleases Now the being deliver'd from such a low unworthy Servitude and the acquiring such a large Increase both of Honour and Power is certainly no small addition to the Monarchy yet this it has gotten purely by the Reformation Secondly The Monarchy has by the Reformation gotten a greater Security than it had before both for the King's Person and his Crowne those Hellish Papal Doctrines which I have been hitherto discoursing off did in times of Popery perpetually hang over their Heads like Damocles's Sword ready to doe Execution upon the least irregular Motion and they were neither of them any longer safe than the Pope pleas'd But since the Reformation the Popes Excommunications and Bulls of Deposition are of no Force and can have little effect in England some they will have while Papists are suffered to live among us and by enjoying Estates to have an Interest in the Kingdom as the present popish PLOT does but too plainly prove however by many degrees less than if Popery were again the establish'd Religion so that I say The King of England has by meanes of the Protestant Religion at least a greater Security for his Life and his Crown than he had before an absolute one he must not expect while he has any popish Subjects Thirdly The Monarchy has by the Reformation gotten to the King of England the Government of all English men of what Order or Profession soever which heretofore he had not the Ciergy being exempt from the Civil Jurisdiction and depending chiefly on the Pope who bestow'd most of the Bishopricks and great Benefices both for Protection and Preferment the King had little power either to punish or reward them as the Historyes and Records of those times do sufficiently demonstrate But 't is notoriously knowne to what a degree the Reformation has alter'd the state of things in that point and how much the Interests of Clergy men do now tye them more than others to the Service of the Crowne as also how well they undestand and how zealously they pursue those Interests whenas heretofore they were the constant Raisers of Factions against their Princes in favour of Rome and obstinate maintainers of the Pope's Encroachments upon their Regal Rights Nay the Laity themselves were the Pope's Subjects in Spiritual matters and for the most Part wholely guided by their Priests the Pope's Dependants by Reason of the great command they had over their Consciences in their Civil concernes also Soe that the King under these and other circumstances of Popery was but a Servant to the Church and little more in Effect than the Popes Vice-Roy But the Reformation has freed both him and his people from this base dishonorable Subjection aud most inconvenient Dependance on a foreign Power These are things which all the World must acknowledge to be very considerable in themselves and very great acquisitions to the Monarchy yet are they such as have naturally and necessarily fallen into it upon the establishment of Protestant Religion in the room of Popery and that too as 't is this particular form of Government call'd a Monarchy distinguish'd from all other Kindes if I should take notice of the Advantages it has receiv'd by this change as 't is a Civil Government in general I might observe many more as first an Increase of the Trade and consequently of the Riches of the Kingdom as well by the taking away that vast number of unnecessary sencelesse Holydaies impos'd on the People by the Church of Rome which must needs be a great hinderance to the carrying on of publick Business and Commerce as by the application of many Thousands of Persons to the waies and means of raising a Fortune to maintain themselves who were heretofore maintain'd and liv'd wholely like idle Drones upon the labour and industry of others and by being shut up in a Cloyster and sequestred from the common Employments of other men were made every way useless Members of the State and a burden to it Secondly Another advantage the Monarchy consider'd in the general as a body Politick has receiv'd by this Change is an Increase of the Strength and Safety of the Kingdom by the great Increase of People which also alwayes increases Trade since the Clergy have been allow'd to marry and the Folly of Monkery and Vowes of pepetual Caelibacy as they call it in either Sex has been both forbidden and scorn'd 'T were easy for me to enlarge upo this Argument and further shew how friendly an Institution and how highly serviceable the Protestant Religion when rightly understood is to the Civil Interests both of this and all other Kingdomes and States as well by the great gentleness and moderation of her external Discipline as by the peaceable temper and Loyalty of her Doctrines And that on the other side Popery does not only make the Prince himself a Dependant and unsafe but his people few ignorant and poor She robbes him first of his Authority and then of his Subjects her Monasteries decoy the zealous her Inquisitions drives away the wise and both together enslave and beggar the foolish Issachars that stay behend to bow down their servile shoulders to the Burden of an oppressive Government But I think what I
as was possible from Themselves upon the Fanaticks and to stir up an ignorant outragious clamour against them the Presbyterian Plot sound in the Meal Tub and all the late Pamplets and discourses of the popish Agents are but so many continued and undeniable Proofs of this Now were L'Estrange their Pensioner as 't is not improbable but he is and as much ingag'd in their Service as Nevil-Payne he could not have more effectually assisted them in the carrying on of this base and Villanous Project than he has along done How earnestly has he labor'd to revive the Memory of forty in contemptof the Act of Oblivion and terrifi'd the people with groundlesse Apprehensions of a new Fanatick Warr How constantly has he patch'd up his loose Discouses with unseasonable thread-bare Comments on the Disorders of the late times and colour'd his malicious enmity to the Liberties of England with violent Invectives against Fanaticks Their Defamation has been the chief aime of all his Writings since the Plot the Burden of his overflowing Impertinence and the Common place Topick of his Railing Now let us suppose the Fanaticks as errant Devils as this Inquisitionman has a mind to paint them yet what have they done of late what new provocation have they given since his Majesties Restanartion nay since the PLOT I meane the Fanaticks of England that we should thus fall upon them Pell Mell without either Fear or wit Rhime or Reason I say what is the matter That just after the Discovery and in the midst of the Examination of a Horrid Popish PLOT we should all of a suddain be hounded on Fanatickes There is sure some Mystery in this Alas The Artifice is evident and grosse Who sees not that the Designe of it is to save the Papists from the growing Rage of the Peoples Hate with which their whole Faction was almost run downe and brought to a Bay by starting and inviting their Prosecutors to fresh Grame This it seems is the Under-PLOT to their great Tragedy and Mr. L'Estrange next to some Provincial Jesuite the chief Manager Can there be any Doubt then however he appear a Protestant in shew and Profession but that he is a PAPIST either in Principle or Interest if not in both and these Interest-Papists are the most dangerous ol all For his Panegyrick of the Religion establish'd and his high Expressions of Zeale for it with which at every turne he flourishes his Mischievous Pamphlets and guilds the poyson he would have the People Swallow they are like the Complement of Judas when he betray'd his Master and like the Courtesie of Joab when he murder'd Abner But God be thank'd Protestants now know him too well to believe in his Flatery or be wheadled to their Ruine by his soft Words His Writings have discover'd soe palpable an ill-Will to the true Interest of the true Protestant Cause and the Constitution of the Government for they are at present both wound up in the same Bottom and he has pursu'd his Malice with so restlesse a diligence and so furious a Zeal that he 's grown a Common Nusance to all good Englishmen and ripe for 〈◊〉 Correction I doubt not therefore besides what he may expect from a Parliament but some new Marvell will rise to bridle the Intemperance of his Mercenary Pen and put his poor prostitute wit out of countenance an Adversary who shall baffle him more notoriously than Mr. Bagshaw and persecute him worse than my Lady Boltinglasse who shall crush his little Plausibilities with a Masterly Reason and shame him into silence by the Justnesse of his Satyre I shall leave him then to the Fate of Bayes which he cannot long escape and to the severe Reprimands of his own Conscience that full confutation of all his Works and that only one too which he wants confidence to reply to and begging the Reader 's pardon for this long but perhaps useful Digression returne to the Compendianist And as to what concernes the present Argument between him and me I question not but upon an impartial weighing of what is here offer'd it will appear to every reasonable man That nothing is more perfectly opposite to our Civil as well as Religious Interests than Popery that nothing could be more prejudicial to the Mona rchy nor more fatal to the prosperity of England than if after having with soe just abhorrence spew'd up that filthy Load of Superstition and Idolatry with which she was so long oppress'd she should be forc'd either by conquest from abroad or by a Popish Succession at home to returne once more like the Dog to his Vomit or like the Sow when she has been wash'd to her wallowing in the Mire For his Objections of the Protestant Rebellion in Hungary the late Rising in Scotland the Murder of the Archbishop of Saint Andrews and that Home-Blow of his the Gazette Advertisement of The Tryalk of twenty nine Protestant Regicides they are of the same nature and grounded on the same pitiful Fallacy with those I have already answer'd and when he can shew us any Principle of the Prostant Religion that justifies Rebellion or Murder especially that of Princes or does but in the remotest degree encourage men to commit those Detestable Crimes I shall again consider them In the mean time let him not waste his Paper and tire his Reader with the Repetition of such fulsome Sophistry But perhaps it may not be amisse to give a more particular Answer to his Home-blow because he has such an opinion of its force and does so triumph with the conceit of his Victory I shall endeavour therefore to take him down in the height of his Rapture and shame his ignorant Malice The Reader will remember the Point he should prove is That Protestant Principles are destructive to Kings for those are the very words of the Introduction to his terrible Argument of Instances of Fact Now did the Twenty nine Protestant Regicides ever pretend to justifie their abominable Villany by any Principle of their Religion Nay did they not pretend the quite contrary and ground it wholly upon a Civil Authority Did they not argue the lawfulnesse and justice of it from a Power they fancied in the People to call the King to an Account for his Actions Though in this they were as absurd Logicians as the Compendianist has all along shew'd himself and reason'd not only against the very first Principle of Civil Policy but point blank contrary to the most fundamental Maxims of the Law of England which says That the King can do no wrong and therefore makes his Ministers questionable for the miscarriages in Government because he himself is in his own Person inviolable and sacred but this concerns not the present businesse These men I say as bad as they were had not the impudence to interest the Protestant Religion or any Protestant Church whatever in the guilt of their impious Treason by pretending to derive any Warrant or Encouragement for it from them or