THE LOYALTY OF Popish Principles EXAMIN'D In Answer to a late Book Entituled STAFFORD'S Memoirs With some Considerations in this present Juncture offer'd to Protestant Dissenters By ROB. HANCOCK Fellow of Clare-Hall in Cambridge and Rector of Northall in Bedfordshire LONDON Printed by S. Roycroft for Thomas Flesher at the Angel and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1682. The PREFACE to the Christian READER IT may be expected that I should according to Custom say something towards the Recommendation of the following Discourse to the perusal of the Reader and tell him what Motives I had to undertake this work But the truth is I have neither studied nor ever seen any great Effects of this kind of Courtship I know the Weight and Importance of the Subject the Honesty and Charitableness of the Design the Truth and Evidence of the Matter the Importunity of Friends and the Authority of others whose Judgment we value above our own are the common heads of Excuse in such Cases If any or all of these will serve for an Apology I hope I have some right to them if they will not it must undergo the Readers Censure However I shall acquaint him with the Scope of the whole Treatise viz. To make a Faithful Representation of such Principles and Designs as under a colour of Religion do naturally tend to disturb the Publick Peace Settlement of this Church and Kingdom subvert the true Reformed Religion Destroy Christian Charity by fomenting Intestine Commotions or Foreign Vsurpations And if there be such a thing in the World I am loath to call it Religion as teaches men to advance it self by Treason and Bloodshed by Falshood and Treachery it is our Duty and Interest to detect the Fraud and Hypocrisy of it In the treating of this Subject 1. I have not only justified the Charge of Disloyalty and Cruelty against the Court and church of Rome but also examined and confuted the most plausible Arguments of Romish Loyalty and Charity 2. Because the Doctrines and Practises of some reputed Protestants have given a deep Wound to the Reputation of our Religion and some most horrid things have been taught and acted in this Nation out of a real or pretended zeal for the Protestant Cause I have vindicated the Honour Peaceableness of the Reformation and shewed from whence the most Fanatick Sectaries derived their Principles by whom they were Influenced and whom they gratified in that management of them 3. I have given a brief account of Comprehension and Toleration so far as they fell within the compass of the late Lord Staffords Design and I am sensible it would have been an Argument of weakness or arrogance in me to have entred upon a larger Discourse upon those Heads so soon after the late Proposals of a great and learned Man for the satisfaction of Dissenters (A) Preface to the unreasonableness of Separation printed 1681. Lastly I have concluded with such Important Considerations to all sober Dissenting Protestants whom I distinguish from wild Fanaticks as I believe are necessary for the keeping out of Popery In the Prosecution of the whole Argument I have neither made any uncharitable Reflections nor charged any persons with the remote Consequences of their Doctrines And though I will not answer for all little Mistakes or Inadvertencies in the Writing or Printing I have neither taken any Quotations upon trust nor misrepresented the words or sense of the Authors which I make use of But I must here informe the Reader that in my Animadversions upon Staffords Memoirs I have not meddled with the Life and Actions the Charge or Arraignment of the late Lord Stafford the Depositions of the Witnesses or the Observations upon them For I am not angry with the person of any Roman Catholick nor do I love to trample upon the Grave of a dead man besides it doth not become me to go out of my own Profession or discuss such matters as do not concern Religion And yet I think I may safely say that I have not omitted any thing which looks like an Imputation in the Reformed or a Vindication of the Roman Church and Religion If this Book should fall into the Hands of any of that Communion I confess I have not much hope of convincing them who by the very Principles of their Religion are bound to disbelieve their own Senses If any of the Dissenting Protestants shall please to look into it I have only this kindness shall I say or justice to beg of them that they would read the two last Chapters with the same sincerity and freedom from Passion with which they were written and then let them judge whether those Considerations and Advices are not as necessary to their own as to our Safety Farewel The Contents CHAP. I. THe Principles of the R. Church and Religion destructive of piety and vertue Three Cases wherein it is possible for R. Catholiques to be better than their Religion inclines or allows them to be Of the Principles and Practises of his Majesties R. Catholique Subjects in the time of the late Rebellion Of their Rebellion in Ireland and the Advantage which the Kings Enemies in England made of it Since his Majesties Restauration they refused to give him any reasonable security of their Allegiance for the future Many Papists actually in Arms against King Charles the First in England many others did him no Service Vpon what Motives the rest adhered to him A Consult of the English Jesuits about taking away his Life Of the Principles and Behaviour of the R. Catholiques under the Usurped Powers Of Mr. White 's Book CHAP. II. The Treasons and Seditions in other Countries especially the Bloody Wars in England and the Murder of King Charles the First charged upon the Protestants The Reformed Churches abroad and the Church of England vindicated from this Imputation The King brought to the Block by a prevailing Faction against the Consent of the Nobility and People of England The Romish Faction had a great Influence on the beginning and progress of the Rebellion The Troubles in Scotland fomented by Cardinal Richlieu's Agents The Letter of the Scotch Covenanters to the French King The Design of the Papists against the King discover'd Ann. 1640. What Influence they had on the War which followed in England and upon the Kings death Two Propositions added to the foregoing Discourse 1. That the Grounds on which the War against the King was justified were first laid by the prevailing Faction of the Roman Church This Proposition proved from Gregory 1. Zachary Gregory the 7th c. From Parsons Creswel Suarez Bellarmine Bouchier Mariana Fr. de Verone Reynolds They which have written in defence of the War or of the Kings death go upon the same Principles 2. That in the Reign of King Charles the First the Pope animated his Subjects to rebel and sent over divers Bulls to that purpose CHAP. III. Doctrines and Principles of the Roman Church 1. The Doctrine of Deposing Princes
upon the first intimation of displeasure from the Internuntio De Vecchiis and their General Superiors beyond the Seas (E) History of the Irish Remonstrance p. 577 578. In England many Roman Catholiques were actually in Arms against King Charles the First His Majesty himself that had most reason to know informs us That great numbers of that Religion were entertain'd in the Army of the Rebels that others were seduced to whom he had formerly denied employment that twenty or thirty at a time of one Troop or Company had been taken Prisoners (F) See His Majesties Declaration to all his loving Subjects in his Kingdom of Scotland But were not many of the Roman Catholiques in the Kings Army They were indeed but not so many as his Enemies would make the World believe His Majesty tells us in His Declaration That sometimes in a Month together there had not been one Papist near his Court I am sure he was not much beholden to them for their Company at any time His Majesty knew it was the Policy of his Enemies to hunt them into his Camp that they might bring an Odium upon the Royal Cause and confirm the People in that groundless Jealousie of the Kings adherence to Popery which made him by His Proclamation to inhibit all men of that Religion to repair to Him Besides we are told by one of the Roman Church That 't is a Maxim of the Jesuits who have long bore the greatest sway in England in the Quarrels of Princes and great Men to have some of their Fathers on one part and some for the contrary that they may work for their own Interests on both sides (G) The Author of the Jesuits Reasons unreasonable Printed 1662. And whatever boasts they now make of their Loyalty to the late King we have not yet forgotten how they pleaded to the late Usurpers That for the Preservation of their Lives they were forced to flee into the Kings Garrisons without ever acting against the State (H) The Christian Moderator printed 1652. p. 60. That a great part of them were never in actual Arms against the Parliament but only fled to the Enemies Garrisons for Shelter c. (I) Christian Moderator p. 18 But I have so much charity as to believe that some Roman Catholiques offer'd their Lives and Fortunes to the King upon more generous Motives that they served him faithfully and suffer'd for him because as a great Man of that Religion said of himself They valued the Favour and Esteem of their Country above all Earthly things or were true English men as to this World (K) The Earl of Bristol in his Speech made July 1. 1673. We have known some tempers that have conquer'd the malignity of Poyson and some men have a greater love for their King and Country than for their Priests and Confessors some have too much honesty and some too little zeal for Religion to be intrusted with the State-Mysteries of Jesuits and Bigotted Papists A reverend and learned Person of our Church hath divers times told the World in print (L) Dr. Du. Moulin Aus to Philanax Anglicus p. 56. Ed. 1679. This certain Intelligence shall be justified whensoever Authority will require it that the year before the Kings death a select number of English Jesuits were sent from their whole party in England first to Paris then to Rome with this Question in writing That seeing the state of England was in a likely posture to change Government whether it was lawful for the Catholiques to work that change for the advancing and securing the Catholique Cause in England by making away the King whom there was no hope to turn from his Heresie and p. 61. As for my being defied by the Papists I have defied them now seventeen years to call me in question before our Judges and so I do still That there was a Consult in England of the whole Faction of Jesuites about bringing his Sacred Majesty to the Block But what number of the Laity were privy to that execrable Design we are not able to learn But if ever the English Papists had any reason to boast of their Obedience to the Government it was under the late Usurped Powers For they basely flatter'd the most Infamous Rump (M) See the Petition of the Roman Catholiques to the Supream Authority of this Nation the Parliament of the Common wealth of England Christian Moderation p 59 60. p. 51. Divers Papists had taken the Oath of Abjuration and Engagement c. Part 2. p. 41. The Roman Catholiques have generally taken and punctually kept the Engagement c. Dr. Baily in the Life of B. Fisher as I find him quoted by Mr. Fowlis is very zealous in asserting the Loyalty of the Papists and yet at the same time bravely tells us what good Subjects they were to O. Cromwel Whereas saith he all other Sorts and Sects excepting those who are for all Sorts and Sects appear against the present Government like Aries Scorpio c. the Roman Catholiques like Pisces the Emblem of the Fisherman are contented to remain quiet under Foot They publiquely own'd them for the Supream Authority of the Nation and pleaded the Merit of their Fidelity to them And if generally to take and punctually to keep the Engagement if to flatter the great Tyrant if to offer that for a Toleration they would renounce the Interest of the Stuarts be Arguments of firmness of Loyalty to the Crown then I will grant That the Roman Catholiques are the Kings Most Loyal and Dutiful Subjects But I will conclude this Head with this Observation That Mr. White in the height of Olivers Tyranny set out a Book under the Title of The Grounds of Obedience and Government This moderate Roman Catholique as he is esteemed labours not only to disengage the People of England from all Obligation to his present Majesty then in Exile but his Majesty too from laying any further claim to his Crown but blessed be God the King was restored to his Government to which his Roman Catholique Subjects according to this Gentleman ought not to endeavour his Restitution CHAP. II. The Treasons and Seditions in other Countries especially the Bloody Wars in England and the Murder of King Charles the First charged upon the Protestants The Reformed Churches abroad and the Church of England vindicated from this Imputation The King brought to the Block by a prevailing Faction against the Consent of the Nobility and People of England The Romish Faction had a great Influence on the beginning and progress of the Rebellion The Troubles in Scotland fomented by Cardinal Richlieu's Agents The Letter of the Scotch Covenanters to the French King The Design of the Papists against the King discover'd Ann. 1640. What Influence they had on the War which followed in England and upon the Kings death Two Propositions added to the foregoing Discourse 1. That the Grounds on which the War against the King was justified were first laid by
the prevailing Faction of the Roman Church This Proposition proved from Gregory 1. Zachary Gregory the 7th c. From Parsons Creswel Suarez Bellarmine Bouchier Mariana Fr. de Verone Reynolds They which have written in defence of the War or of the Kings death go upon the same Principles 2. That in the Reign of King Charles the First the Pope animated his Subjects to rebel and sent over divers Bulls to that purpose STaffords Memoires p. 12 13 To the Instances given of Popish Malice and Bloodiness (A) This resers to the printed Tryal of the late Lord Stafford P. 9. from former Examples he answers That by the same reason and to as good purpose the traiterous Seditions and Outrages in Germany France Bohemia and Holland authorized and fomented by Calvin Zuinglius Beza and other Reformers the late bloody Wars in England the almost yesterdays Remonstrances and Practises in Scotland but above all that never to be paralell'd hellish Murder of the Lords Anointed our Glorious Soveraign Charles the First in cold blood by outward form of Justice on pretence of Reformation might be imputed to the Protestant Religion for all these horrid Villanies were committed by Protestants Protestants who gloried in being more than ordinarily refined from Popish Errors and Superstitions If it be said as most justly it may the Churth of England never taught such Practises the same say and protest the Papists in behalf of their Church Let this Author bestow as hard names as he pleases upon the Contrivers and Actors in these horrid Villanies and let that Religion if so wicked a thing must be called Religion which gave encouragement to them go as it deserves for Infidelity and Irreligion I am sure there are no greater Enemies to the Christian Religion than those which endeavour to pretend to promote it by such ways as are contrary to the very Nature and Design of all true Religion Indeed our Adversaries of the Roman Communion lay as bad things to the charge of the Protestants as we can do to their Church and Religion and as often as we put them in mind of the Fifth of November they are ready to reproach us with the Thirtieth of January And that I may not make any cause or persons look either better or worse than they are I shall make a faithful representation of the Doctrines and Practises of both sides so far as they are pertinent to the present Debate viz. Whether the traiterous Seditions and Outrages in England and other Parts of Christendom may be imputed to the Protestant Religion with as much reason as the Instances of Popish Malice and Bloodyness from former Examples may be to the Roman Church and Religion Some years ago was published a Seditious Libel under the Title of Philanax Anglicus wherein the Author taxes not only some Protestant Reformers but the very Reformation it self with Rebellion charges the English Reformers with Treason against Queen Mary and with a Roman boldness asserts That the Seditious Doctrines are allow'd by the generality of them that call themselves Protestants But this Book having had a solid and substantial Answer by Dr. Du Moulin I will not trouble my self or the Reader with any thing which he hath written in vindication of the Protestant Religion and the Reformed Churches and Divines abroad But I cannot but take notice of the ignorance or rather the Malice of the Author of the Controversial Letters out of whom the substance of the present imputation is taken who tells us He doth not know that the Church of England hath proceeded so far as the Roman Church hath done in the Council of Constance or condemned those Errors by any Authentick Censures And our Author is not afraid or ashamed to say that some Roman Catholiques are most remarkable peradventure of all others for firmness of Loyalty I shall endeavour therefore with as much brevity as the Subject will allow to vindicate the Honour of the Reformation of our own Church and Nation from this unjust and malicious Charge 1. The Confessions of the several Reformed Churches abroad are so full and clear in asserting the Obedience of Subjects to their Princes that I do not find our Adversaries of Rome have much to say against them (B) V. Corpus Syntagma Confessionum c. Aurei Allob. 1662 V.G. The Bohemian the Helvetian the French the Augustine the Saxon the â—…gick Confessions in the Articles concerning the Civil Powers We are told that the Protestants of France had towards the beginning of the War resolved upon a Declaration against the Parliament and Subjects of England taking Arms against the King and hâ—… published it if it had not been dasht by Cardinal Richlieu 〈◊〉 Englands Complaint by L. Gatford Printed 1648. pag 10. And 't is observable That upon the reprinting of all the Confessions of the Reformed Churches at Geneva An. 1654. it was moved That instead of the 39 Articles of the Church of England which do with the greatest plainness and sincerity assert the Duty of Subjects to Princes they would insert the Confession of the Assembly of Divines but the motion was utterly rejected by the University Senate and Church of Geneva and the 39 Articles put in as before (C) Durell vind Eccles-Angl c. 2. As to the Sayings of particular Doctors of the Reformation I cannot indeed I need not defend them they are no Pillars of our Faith nor do their Writings bear the stamp of publick Authority And since none of our Adversaries have proved that any of the Reformed Churches have by any Authentick Act approved of Seditions and treasonable Principles as I shall prove the Roman Church doth they cannot be imputed to the Protestant Religion with the same reason that we charge them upon the Roman Church Let the Papists say and Protest that their Church never taught any Seditious Practises yet I shall sooner trust my own Senses than such men as by the Principles of their Religion are under no Obligation of speaking Truth 2. No Church under Heaven did ever more expresly declare against all Seditious and Disloyal Practises than the Church of England Our Reformation was begun and carried on in a peaceable and legal manner and our Reformers proposed to themselves that excellent Rule of our Saviour They restored to God the things that were Gods and to the Kings the full exercise of their lawful Power We are Members of a Church whose just Glory it is not only to have constantly taught the Duty of Subjects to their Princes but suffered for her Loyalty to them Our Kings and the Church of England have always rejoyced and wept together and none ever forsook the Royal Cause in its Distress which had not first forsaken the Church or at least lost all their Zeal and Affection to her In Fine our late Royal Martyr declared That he died for maintaining the true Protestant Religion he acquitted not only the Church of England but all the true Sons of the Church from
the Guilt of his Blood scarce any one of which he said had been a Beginner or an active Prosecutor of the War If then by the Protestant Religion our Author mean the Christian Religion as it is professed in the Church of England or in the best reformed Churches abroad his Charge is most unjust and malicious if he mean any thing else by it he might better have called it the Popish or Fanatick than the Protestant Religion What a potent Faction of men which they may call Protestants as they call themselves Catholiques did in these Kingdoms all men know But of all men living the Romanists have the least reason to call them Traitors and Rebels as I shall shew afterwards But though the King was arraigned in the name of the Commons of England yet it was well observed by his Majesty at his Tryal That they never asked the Question of the tenth man of the Kingdom much less of the major part of the Nation They had no consent of the House of Peers the Ordinance for trying the King being rejected by the Lords They were no free or full House of Commons for that House being freed from the Insolence of the Army resolved upon a Treaty with his Majesty recalled their Votes of Non-Addresses and voted that he should be in Honour freedom and safety And after the major part of the House had voted the Kings Concessions to be a sufficient ground for Peace the Army Officers seized and committed some of the Members as they were coming to the House accused others of inviting the Scots the last Summer and required that they might be excluded Thus many of the Commons being forced out and others absenting themselves they restored the Votes of Non-Addresses and voted the drawing up a Charge of Treason against his Majesty This is that Venerable Assembly a mere unparliamentary Juncto which in obedience to these Masters damn'd all former Votes in Favour of the King and brought him to the Block against the Laws of the Kingdom the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy the Sense of the Church of England of the House of Peers and of the greater part of the House of Commons But if we trace the Footsteps of this Rebellion as far as we can it will appear that the Romish Faction had a great Influence both on the first Beginnings and Progress of it What is it that they have more maligned than the Government and Constitution of this Church and Kingdom Or how could the Roman Conclave find out a safer if not a quicker way to ruin the Protestant Religion than by breaking in pieces that Church which is the Strength and Beauty that Kingdom whose Soveraign was under God the Defender of the Reformation It was the Judgment of Bishop Bramhall That the Popes Privy Purse and Subtle Councils helped to kindle our Civil Wars which ended in the Tragical Murder of the Lords Anointed The intemperate Heat of the Seditious Spirits in Scotland had fermented a great part of the Kingdom but before they broke out into open Hostilities they made secret Applications to Cardinal Richlieu the great Minister of France and Favourite of Rome which made use of all his Interest and Policy to embroyl his Majesties Affairs in that Kingdom This great Statesman knowing that it was the Interest of England to hold the Ballance even between France and Spain and that his Majesty had in the year 35 hindred the French from making themselves Masters of the Spanish Netherlands resolved to blow the Coals in Scotland and practise upon the Male-contents whom he found so well prepared for an Insurrection To this purpose he sends Chamberlain a Scot to exasperate the Confederates against the King appoints one of his Secretaries to reside among them to be present in their Councils of War and to direct their Proceedings and some of the Covenanters had free access to Con the same Countryman whilst Chamberlain was Negotiating for the Cardinal This is certain the Court of Rome and the Jesuites those inveterate Enemies of our Religion and Government could not have thought of a more effectual and easie Method to bring us to ruin than by making us do their Work for them and the Cardinal who had formed those vast Designs of enlarging the French Monarchy observing if not raising the Tumults in that Kingdom laid hold of the Advantage which men of ambitious and restless Spirits had put into his Hands Ann. 1639. came to light a Letter of the Scotch Covenanters written to the French King wherein they desired his Protection and Assistance The Lord Lowdon being by the Kings Command examined about it confessed it was his hand-writing and that it was framed before the Pacification which being agreed to the Letter he said was never sent (D) The Memoires of D. Hamilton And The Memorials of the English Affairs ad an 1639. The late Author of the Impartial Collection hath furnished us with a more exact Discovery of the secret Influence which those Foreign Councils and Assistances gave both to the Scottish Commotions and English Rebellion The Letter to the French King is set down by him in English (E) An Impartial Collection of the great Affairs of State c. vol. 1. Published 1682. p. 276 277. which I will here transcribe SIR YOur Majesty being the Refuge and Sanctuary of afflicted Princes and States we have found it necessary to send this Gentleman Mr. Colvil to represent to your Majesty the Candour and Ingenuity as well of our Actions and Proceedings as of our Intentions which we desire to be engraved and written to the whole World with a beam of the Sun as well as to your Majesty We therefore most humbly beseech you Sir to give Faith and Credit to him and to all that he shall say on our part touching us and our Affairs being most assured Sir of an Assistance equal to your wonted Clemency heretofore and so often shewed to this Nation which will not yield the Glory to any other whatsoever to be eternally Sir your Majesties most Humble most Obedient and most Affectionate Servants Subscribed by divers of the Principal Covenanters At the Meeting of the Parliament in England Apr. 13. 1640. the Lord Keeper in his Speech to both Houses acquaints them Since his Majesty came from Berwick it came to his certain knowledge That they the Scots have addressed themselves to Foreign States and treated with them to deliver themselves up to their Protection and Power as by Gods great Providence and Goodness his gracious Majesty is able to shew under the Hands of the prime Ringleaders of that Faction than which nothing could be of more dangerous consequence to this and his Majesties other Kingdoms Whosoever they be that do or shall wish England ill they may know it to be of too tough a complexion and courage to be assailed in the Face or to be set upon at the Fore-door and therefore it is not unlikely but they may as in former times find
This is the Doctrine of all the approved Writers of that Church Of their General Councils of their Publique Offices and Breviaries An Account of those persons who have appear'd against the Deposing Doctrine 2. The King-killing Doctrine It is a necessary consequent of the Deposing Doctrine The Roman Divines equivocate in this Question The Jesuites generally assert it divers of the Popes and the Canon Law approve of it 3. Of destroying mens Lives for Religion The true State of the Question The Church of Rome damns all Haeretiques All Protestants are Haeretiques in her account She enjoyns all Christians to endeavour the Extirpation of them All Bishops of her Communion sworn to destroy them The Laws of the Church deliver them up to the Secular Power to be put to death 4. Of absolving his Majesties Subjects from their Allegiance CHAP. IV. Testimonies of the Loyalty of the Roman Church and Religion considered The first from St. Math. 22.21 The second from the Decree of the General Council of Constance The third from the Annotations of the Divines of Rhemes on Rom. 13. The fourth from the Censure of the Doctors of the Faculty of Sorbon against a Book of Sanctarellus CHAP. V. The Fifth Testimony of the Loyalty of the Roman Church from a late Treatise of a Romish Priest The Principles of that Treatise examined Of the Principles and Authority of the General Councils of that Church Of licensing men to lie and forswear themselves Of the Doctrine of Aequivocation and mental Reservation with a brief Account of the Propositions lately censured at Rome Of the Simplicity and Godly Sincerity of the Roman Church Of the Design of dividing the Papists Of the Distinction between the Church and the Court of Rome the grounds of that Distinction examined and confuted Of Dispensations c. CHAP. VI. Of the late Lord Staffords Declaration and Address to the House of Peers concerning a Comprehension for the Dissenting Protestants and a Toleration for the Papists 1. Of the Comprehension for the Dissenting Protestants Three Propositions concerning Comprehension 'T is neither the Duty nor Interest of any Roman Catholicks continuing true to their Principles to promote a firm and lasting Vnion of Protestants What Influence the Romish Agents had on the first Separation from our Church Of the late Declaration of Indulgence 2. Of the Toleration for the Papists Of their endeavours to procure a Toleration under Queen Elizabeth King James King Charles the First the late Vsurped Powers and his present Majesty What the Design of that Faction is in endeavouring to procure a Toleration They have been the worse for Favour and Indulgence as is evident from their Behaviour towards Queen Elizabeth King James King Charles the First and his present Majesty This Chapter concluded with the Protestation of King Charles the First CHAP. VII A short Reflection on the foregoing Discourse Some things offered to all such as desire to prevent the Designs of the Papists 1. Beware of Seditious Doctrines and Practises A brief Account of them This Consideration recommended to all Protestants especially to the Dissenters from the Established Church of England Of the Secluded Members and of the Solemn League and Covenant 2. Beware of being Instrumental to the weakning or subverting of the Church of England Popery can never enter into our Church so long as the Established Articles Liturgy and Government are maintained The Difference between the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome and those of the Church of England Three Considerations to them that charge our Church and Episcopal Clergy with Inclining to Popery Some other things propounded to the Dissenters by way of Consideration and Advice The Conclusion of the whole CHAP. I. The Principles of the Roman Church and Religion destructive of Piety and Vertue Three Cases wherein it is possible for R. Catholiques to be better than their Religion inclines or allows them to be Of the Principles and Practises of his Majesties R. Catholique Subjects in the time of the late Rebellion Of their Rebellion in Ireland and the Advantage which the Kings Enemies in England made of it Since his Majesties Restauration they refused to give him any reasonable security of their Allegiance for the future Many Papists actually in Arms against King Charles the First in England many others did him no Service Vpon what Motives the rest adhered to him A Consult of the English Jesuits about taking away his Life Of the Principles and Behaviour of the R. Catholiques under the Usurped Powers Of Mr. White 's Book THe ensuing Treatise is not intended for those weak and credulous persons that suffer themselves to be charmed with specious Titles and flattering Prefaces and therefore without any reflection on our Author's Arts of Insinuation I shall come to the Matter of the Book called by an odd kind of Antiphrasis A Brief and Impartial Account c. So far as it falls within the Compass of my Design The former Part of the Book is for the most part made up of Allegations in proof of the Plot in general and Reflections on the Depositions The Process against the late Lord Stafford in particular with the Evidence against him and his Lordships Exceptions the Observations of the Managers of the Tryal and the Papists Answers to them the Consideration of all which I leave to others But that I may not seem to pass over any thing which looks like a Proof of the Loyalty and Peaceableness of the Roman Church or of his Majesties Roman Catholique Subjects I shall fairly set down all such Passages as are material to that purpose Staffords Memoires p. 2. His Lordship was ever held to be of a generous disposition very Charitable Devout addicted to Sobriety inoffensive in his Words and a Lover of Justice During the time of the last bloody Rebellion he suffered much for his Loyalty to the King Of the Popish Plot he saith p. 8. This Plot must be managed by persons of Quality most remarkable peradventure of all others for firmness of Loyalty Again The whole Body of Roman Catholiques men before this hour of known worth vertue integrity and unblemished Reputation must all be involved by Vows and Sacraments in a Design so black and execrable that God and Nature abhor to think on p. 52. Certain I am Catholiques Roman Catholiques he means both taught and practised Principles of Loyalty at a time when the King and Kingdom felt the dire Effects of contrary Persuasions That I may proceed with all possible clearness in my Answer to these bold Assertions I shall reduce what I have to say to two Debates I. Concerning the Piety and Vertue of Roman Catholiques II. Concerning their Principles and Practices in the time of the late Rebellion I. I begin with the Piety and Vertue of Roman Catholiques That the Principles of the Roman Church and Religion do naturally tend to make men wicked and disloyal I shall prove in the following Discourse And yet I freely grant That some men of that
out a Postern-Gate After his Speech was ended the King produced the Original Letter which he intercepted as it was going to the French King and ordered it to be read (F) Impartial Collections p. 309 c. As to the later Insurrections in Scotland I will only observel That besides the Information of some Romish Priests being sent thither to prepare them for a Rebellion their very Declaration shews they were acted by a Popish Spirit for the Act of Supremacy was condemned and the Kings Authority in Ecclesiastical Affairs call'd an Vsurping Power But to return So true were the Romish Emissaries to their good Old Cause that having set the factious Party to work in Scotland they took advantage from that conjuncture to stir up a National Rebellion and barbarous Massacre in Ireland of which I have spoken already I cannot pass over the Conspiracy against the King in the Year 1640 because it gives some further light into the Designs of Cardinal Richilieu and the Jesuites Whilst his Majesty resided at York he was acquainted by the Archbishop of Canterbury with the Information he had received from Sir W. Boswel his Majesty's Ambassadour at the Hague By the discovery of this Plot it is evident that the Jesuitical Party exasperated the King and his Subjects one against another labouring to incense his Majesty against them as conspiring against his Crown and Government and them against their Soveraign as aiming at the subversion of their Laws Liberties and Religion That they stirred up the Scots to rebel hindred all accommodation between the King and them and endeavoured to bring his Majesty under a necessity of craving the Assistance of the Papists which he should neither obtain without yielding to their own terms nor refuse without the hazard of his life That for the compassing of their Ends Cardinal Barbarino was engaged fifty Scotch Jesuites were maintain'd in London Cuneus in quality of the Popes Legate Chamberlain Chaplain and Almoner to Cardinal Richlieu Sir T. Matthew a Jesuited Priest Captain Read a Secular Jesuite and that all the Papists in England did contribute to the carrying on the design Here was a Plot against the King and Kingdom and Protestant Religion of which he that desires a full account may consult Mr. H. Lestrange and Mr. Sanderson in their Histories Prinn's Romes Master-piece and others of later time What great numbers of Priests Jesuites and other Romish Agents afterwards flocked into England what various shapes they assumed how they insinuated into the Councils and Armies of the Kings Enemies Mr. Gatford Prinn Dr. du Moulin and others informs us to whom I refer the Reader And even some of the Members in the Long Parliament were sensible how active our Enemies of Rome had been in raising and fomenting the War as we learn from a late Writer who sate in that Assembly I will barely relate what he saith without making any Collections or Inferences from his words The Parliament Vote That which was done at York for a Guard to the King to be a preparation for War against the Parliament a breach of the Trust reposed in him by his People contrary to his Oath and tending to the dissolution of his Government and all such as serve him there to be Traytors to the Laws of the Kingdom Upon the debate for raising an Army one of the Members declared his sense Our Enemies of the Popish Church have left no Evil Arts unessayed to bring us to our present posture and will yet leave none unattempted to make our breaches wider well knowing that nothing will more advance their Empire than our Divisions Our Misery whom they account Hereticks is their Joy and our Distractions will be their Glory and all Evil arts and ways to bring Calamities upon us they will esteem Meritorious (A) Memorials of the English Affairs ad An. 1642. Sanderus de Schism Angl. 1585 p. 188. Quo Haereticorum ut fit bello Catholici indies plures constantioresque in fide fiunt Campanella de Mon. Misp Amst 1641. p. 204. Jam verò ad enervandos Anglos nihil tam conducit quam dissensio discordia inter illos excitata perpetuóque nutrita quod citò occasiones meliores suppeditabit P. 207. Verum ab alia parte instiget primores Comitiorum aut Parliamenti ut Angliam in formam reipublicae reducant Nor did the design of Cardinal Richlieu die with him it was vigorously pursued by Mazarine to whom he left his Instructions at his death and what an intimate Correspondence was maintain'd between him and the Grandees of Derby House we are told by the Author of the History of Independency (B) Hist of Indep p. 114 115. His words are these To negotiate which the detaining of the Prince in France the Grandees of Derby House and the Army have an Agent lying Lieger with Cardinal Mazarine the great French Instrument of State who is so well supplied with Money and so open handed that it hath been heard from Mazarines own Mouth That all the Money the Queen and Prince have cost the Crown of France hath come out of the Parliaments Purse with a good advantage It is likewise said Mazarine hath an Agent here to drive on the Interests of France in England To all which we may add That the King having assented in the Isle of Wight to pass five strict Bills against Popery the Jesuites in France at a General Meeting there resolved to bring him to Justice by the power of their Friends in the Army And this resolution of the Fathers was agreeable to the sense of the Roman Conclave For the Question being sent to Rome from the whole Party of Jesuites in England the year before the Kings death whether considering the present posture of Affairs it was lawful for the Catholicks to work a change in the Government by making away the King whom there was no hope to turn from his Heresie It was answered affirmatively (C) Answer to Philanax Anglicus p. 59 65. To what I have said upon this Argument I will add these two Propositions 1. That the grounds on which the War against the King was maintain'd so far as it was maintained under a colour of Religion were laid by the prevailing Faction of the Roman Church and the most dreadful effects of Fanaticism which were the consequents of it may be justified by their Principles And here I could make it evident That the same Maxims of Political Divinity the same Arguments and many times the same Phrases and Expressions are to be found in the heads of both Factions I know it is disputed whether the Ring-leaders of Sedition amongst us poysoned the Jesuites or the Jesuites them but I do not envy the Bishops of Rome the honour of having first poysoned them both with Antimonarchical Doctrines If Milton the great Oracle of one of the Factions had owned himself to be a Papist there had been no reason to wonder at the Impiety of his Doctrines which he
might add Paul the 4th and Sixtus the 5th Bellarmine de R. Pont. l. 5. c. 1. quotes some others of this Opinion For the latter see the Authors quoted by Bellarmine de R. Pont. l. 5. c. 1. and ad versus Barclaeium in his Opuscula Salmeron Tom. 4. p. 413. Fr. Romulus Resp ad Apol. Ed. 1591. p. 41 42 43. Cardinal Perron in his Oration to the third Estate at Paris tells us That unless this Doctrine were approved it follows that the Church of Rome for many ages hath been the Kingdom of Antichrist and Synagogue of Satan And to let you see that his Majesties Roman Catholique Subjects are no Honester than the rest of the World I appeal to two very late Writers of our own Country Some years since three Treatises were published under the Title of The Jesuites Loyalty The Author of the first roundly asserts what the other two slily insinuate this Deposing Doctrine and proves it by as great Authority as they can bring for any Article of the present Roman Faith The other is an English Jesuite too and he without any mincing of the matter tells us this Doctrine was long ago taught by almost all Orders and Professions Seculars Regulars (B) See D. Stilling fleets Answer serveral late Treatises in the Preface And whether they teach the Popes Power to be direct or indirect 't is all one for if Princes may be deposed in some cases if there be no standing Court Independent on that at Rome which is to Judge when it is necessary to depose them they had as good tell us in plain terms that no Prince is to wear his Crown any longer than the Pope and other Princes or his own Subjects will give him leave that the Pope never wants Authority to depose a King but when he wants strength or courage a fair excuse or a fit opportunity (C) Bellar. recognit lib. 5. de Pont. c. 8. Ecclesia non semper privat Principes dominio vel qui a vires non habet vel qui a non judicat expedire And therefore there is no reason why they should have the reputation of moderate men that seem to restrain and qualifie the abuse of the Popes direct temporal power or to write against it with some pomp and vanity when indeed they do but abuse the world with a distinction which serves only to veil the impiety of the former assertion and make Princes secure and inapprehensive of their danger Again the assertors of the Pope's indirect Power are not agreed whether a Prince may forfeit his Crown for misgovernment or unfitness to govern or whether only for Apostacy or Heresie The Doctrine of deposing Kings for misgovernment is approved by the Authentick Canon Law of the Roman Church (D) Decret par 2. Can. Alius Caus 15. qu. 6. Zacharias Regem Francorum non tam pro suis iniquitatibus quam pro eo quod tantae potestati crat inutilis à regno deposuit If a Prince become a manifest Apostate he falls from all power and dignity in the Judgment of all their approved Divines and Canonists (E) Parsons or Creswel or both under the name of Philopater Sect. 2. n. 157. That a Prince may be deposed for Heresie is so generally received that those very persons of the Roman Church which have written against it in other cases do except the case of Heresie And 't is observable that in their General Council of Lyons wherein Frederick the Emperor was deposed for Heresie his Advocate endeavoured to vindicate him from the guilt of that crime but neither the Emperor nor he excepted against the power of the Church to depose him in the case of Heresie 3. This is the Doctrine of the General Councils and lawful Representatives of the Roman Church as the Reader may find in the Margent (F) Conc. Lat. 4 c. 3 an 1215. de haereticis tom 28. p. 161 162. Conc. Lugdun an 1245. tom 28. p. 424 c. Conc. Constant tom 29. an 1414 p. 458. I know the Council of Trent made no express Decree about the deposing of Princes but he that considers the State of Christendom at that time how many Princes had been already driven out of the Roman Church and how many more were ready to follow them will rather wonder they said so much than that they durst say no more For though it was no time for them to speak their minds yet so true were the Fathers of that Council to their Master at Rome as to keep up his claim to a temporal power over Princes For did they not make bold to Excommunicate and deprive Emperors Kings and Princes of all their Dominions held in Fee of the Church (G) Concil Trident tom 35. Sess 25. c. 19. in the Decree against Duels By this Canon saith a Royal Author the Kingdom of Naples had need look well to it self (H) K. James his works p. 449. For one Duel it may fall into the Exchequer of the Roman Church because that Kingdom payeth a relief to the Church as a Royalty or Seignorie that holdeth in Fee of the said Church And had not the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland need look well to themselves too For if we believe the Popes and their dependents they are the Dominions of the Church the Pope is our Soveraign Lord the King is but his Vassal and did not King John grant to Pope Innocent and his Successors the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and receive them back again upon paying yearly a relief to the Church Did not Innocent the Third and Innocent the Fourth call the Kings of England their Vassals (I) Mat. Paris Ed. Lon. 1640. ad an 1216. p. 280. ad an 125. p. 272. Did not the Pope declare to Queen Elizabeths Resident that England was held in Fee of the Papacy (S) History of the Reformation part 2. P. 374. Since his Majesties restauration the Lovaine Divines insisted on this title of the Pope to the Kings Dominions and it seems his Holiness was well enough pleased with it (M) History of the Irish Remonstrance p. 117. and p. 101. placuit Pontifici reservat in sua tempora Baronius endeavours to make out the Popes title Tom. 12. ad an 1159. ad an 1172. And Spondanii Continuat Baronii Paris 1658. tom 1. p. 327. ad an 1299. Bellarmine Apol. pro resp c. ed. 1610. p. 33 34 35. That the Kingdoms of England and Ireland are Tributary to the Pope Again did not the Fathers of Trent confirm all the Canons of Popes and Councils in favour of Ecclesiastical persons and liberties and against the insringers of them (N) Concil Bid. Sess 25 de Ref. c. 20. Did they not take care to preserve the Authority of the Roman See in all things (O) Conc. Trid. Sess 25. de Ref. c. 21. And confirm the Capitula of the Council of Lateran in which the deposing Power is asserted But that I may
Communion may have a great and just Sense of their own Honour and that Duty which they owe to their King and Country They may be better Men and better Subjects than the Principles of their Church and Religion do either incline or allow them to be This may come to pass any of these three ways 1. When they do not understand the Sense of the Roman Church or the natural tendency of the Principles of their Religion for the Confessors and Guides of Souls which have the Faith and Consciences of the Laity in their keeping do not think fit at all times and in all places to instruct their Disciples in such Doctrines 2. When their natural Tempers and Dispositions are stronger than the Principles of their Church and Religion For I do not think the worst Religion in the World can root out all common Reason and natural Conscience all good Nature and Humanity and make all men Bloody and Disloyal whom Nature hath made Kind and Peaceable Some men have more of the Generosity of the English Man than of the Treachery of the Papist the very names of Murder and Treason strike a kind of Horror into the minds of men and natural Conscience if it be not bribed or biassed by a bad Religion or a vicious Life will startle at the thoughts of Assassinations and Rebellions the violation of Oaths and Contracts 3. When they have not much Zeal for Religion For if men be cool and indifferent in that Religion which they profess they may be over-ballanced with the Love of their King and Country And yet after all no man knows just how much ignorance good-nature or indifferency in Religion will serve to ballance the Fury of a misguided Zeal II. I come to consider the Principles and Practices of the Roman Catholiques in the time of the late Rebellion And though I would not lessen the Services which some persons of that Religion have done to his Majesty or Royal Father of Blessed Memory yet I must say there are many things which overthrow all the Pretences of Loyalty to the Crown that are made by the main Body of Roman Catholiques That this is no uncharitable Surmise will appear if we look back as far as the Irish Rebellion wherein the Roman Catholiques of that Kingdom were almost universally engaged I know the Seditious Practices of such as called themselves Protestants were by so much the more inexcusable by how much Protestant Principles are more inconsistent with Religion than these of the Papists But the Tumults in Scotland were now in a great measure suppressed and the King had by some Acts of Grace and Additions of Honour to the Malecontents of that Kingdom quieted if not obliged his Enemies when he was surprized with the news of a desperate Rebellion and barbarous Massacre of many thousand Protestants in Ireland And as his Majesties Affairs were hereby put into a much worse condition than before so the Parliament in England became more unreasonable in their Demands more resolute in their Answers than otherwise they either would or durst have been For the King conjures them by all that is or can be dear to them or him to take into consideration the case of his distressed Protestant Subjects but to use his Majesties own Words The Distractions and Jealousies here in England made most men rather intent to their own Safety or Designs they were driving than to the Relief of those who were every day inhumanely butcher'd in Ireland (A) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 printed 1649. p. 92. The Parliament in England pass a Vote That the Kingdom be forthwith put into a posture of Defence and soon after another That the Ordinance for the Defence of the Kingdom is not prejudicial to the Oath of Allegiance They Vote That what was done at York for a Guard to the King was a Preparation for War against the Parliament a breach of the Trust reposed in him by his People c. (B) Memorials of the English Affairs printed 1682. ad an 1641 1642 But to return to Ireland Here was a Plot and Design against the Crown and Government of which his Majesty expressed the greatest Abhorrence and Detestation and offer'd to go in Person to reduce the Rebels to Obedience A Plot in which the main Body of the Papists and no others were actually concerned (C) In the Preamble to the Bill of Settlement in Ireland an 1662. it is called An Unnatural Insurrection against his Majesties Royal Father his Crown and Dignity which first broke out Octob. 23.1641 and afterwards spreading it self over the whole Kingdom it became a formed and almost National Rebellion of the Irish Papists And in an Act of Parliament for keeping the 23d of October as an Anniversary Thanksgiving It is said That many malignant and rebellious Papists and Jesuits Seminary Priests and other Superstitious Orders of the Popish pretended Clergy most disloyally treacherously and wickedly conspired to surprize the Castle and City of Dublin and all other Cities and Fortifications of that Realm and that all Protestants and English throughout the whole Kingdom which would not joyn with them should be cut off c. See the late History of the Irish Rebellion in Folio And F. Walsh in the Dedication of his History of the Irish Remonstrance tells us of an Universal Rebellion or Insurrection of all the Catholiques in Ireland a very few excepted against his Majesties Laws Authority and Deputies of that Kingdom An. 1641. Of their Confederacy formed and a War continued by them for many years after of two several Peaces the first 1646. the second 1648. with his Majesties Lord Lieutenant in that Interim scandalously violated by the prevailing party among them Yea to that prodigious height did the Insolence of the rebellious Faction arise that at length they banished his Majesties Lieutenant and took the Royal Authority upon themselves But it may be since his Majesties happy Restauration they have repented of their former Wickedness Repented of a Rebellion that was Blessed and Sanctified by the Pope A Catholique Army for so they stiled themselves repent of fighting for the Catholique Cause They were so far from repenting that the Popish Clergy of that Kingdom assembled in a National Synod Ann. 1666. refused to petition the King for Pardon though there were at least thirty then present and above five hundred more of them alive which were obnoxious to the Laws for their carriage during the late Wars of the Roman Catholique Confederates (D) History of the Irish Remonstrance p. 667 671 672. Indeed since his Majesties Return some of the Irish Clergy and Laity agreed to present such a Remonstrance to his Majesty as might seem to give him some tolerable security of their Loyalty for the future But the whole number of Ecclesiastical Subscribers was only Sixty nine the Opposers being two thousand or thereabouts besides all others in the Irish Colleges and Seminaries abroad And of these few Subscribers some fell off immediately
Pont. l. 1. c. 7. Sect. Praeterea principatus c. The Cognizance of Church Matters belongs not to Secular Princes they have no judgment in Ecclesiastical Matters because Civil Peace and Tranquility is the proper object of their Care If they do not their duty they are to be brought under the Lash and be compelled to it by Excommunication The Ecclesiastical Power is to the Secular as the Spirit is to the flesh which rules moderates and sometimes restrains it but the Flesh hath no command over the Spirit neither can it direct or judge or restrain it in any thing (A) L. 1. c. 7. tit Quod non sit Ecclesiasticum regimen penes Principes Seculares Vid.l. 5. c. 7. de Clericis l. 1. c. 29. Sect. Alterum Argumentum c. Et Bellar. contra Barclaium 6. Though the Cardinal hath not in express Terms asserted the lawfulness of putting Kings to death and I know very few of any Perswasion that have expresly asserted it yet he hath furnished the Regicides both with Precedents for their practice and Warrants for their Doctrine For he teaches That the Church may exercise a Coercive power over Kings and Princes by any ways and methods that are necessary for the good of the Church That Kings may be Deposed and there is no great difference as I shall shew afterwards between Deposing and putting them to death He proves his Doctrine from the practice of Jehoiada the High Priest that commanded the Souldiers to put Athaliah to death not only for Tyranny but for adhering to a false Religion (B) Id. de R. Pont. l. 5. c. 7 8. In his Book against King James he commends the Murther committed by J. Clement on Henry the Third of France calls the Regicide a Sacred Person and admires the miraculous Providence of God in bringing him to death (C) Bell. in Torto p. 71. Ed. 1608. Deus ultus est Christum suum dum per alium sacratum virum alioqui militiae imperitum inermem Regem tundem non sine manifesto divinae Providentiae miraculo intersecit But what if Heaven will not work a Miracle for them The Cardinal is so well skilled in the Art of King-killing that he can dispatch a Prince with less hazard to his own Party He would not have Ecclesiastical Men put them to death with their own hands but the Pope must first admonish them then deprive them of the Sacraments next absolve their Subjects from the Oaths of Allegiance and if need be deprive them of their Royal authority The Execution belongs to others (D) Id. contra Barclaium Thus I have given a short account of the Antimonarchical Principles of this great Man that was first Reader of Controversial Divinity at Rome afterwards sent by Pope Sextus the Fifth into France with his Legate Cardinal Cajetan where he stir'd up the People to a Rebellion against their Sovereign (E) Qui Lutetiae egit per illos annos publici furoris totius conjurationis Ligam vocant approbator fautor fax perpetua Is Casauboni ad Fr. Duc. Epistola p. 21. and was advanced to the dignity of a Cardinal by Clement the Eighth (F) Alegambe Bibl. Script Soc. Jes p. 410 411. I might now shew that these are the common Principles of the Society but this would afford matter enough for an entire Discourse (G) See Parsons under the counterfeit name of Doleman in his Conference about the next Succession to the Crown of England part 1. Creswel under the name of Philopater and Reynolds under the name of Rossary De justa Christianae reipublicae in Reges impios haereticos autoritate He was no Jesuite but of the same Principles Suarez Def. fid Cath. c. A Book written against King James Bouchier de justa Hen. 3. abd è Francorum Regno A small Book but almost every page is full of Treasonable Principles Mariana de Rege Regis Institutione or as some call it Institutio principum occidendorum Fr. de Verone Apol. pro J. Chasiello A Book that if it be possible outstrip Mariana's in Villany To which I could add Endem Johannes Molina Lessius Em. Sa Greg. de Valentia Tolet. c. Whether Junius Brutus was a Protestant or no is not certain I find King James suspects the Book was set out by a Papist The Positions of Knox and Buchanan are summed up by B. Bancroft in his dangerous Positions l. 1. c. 4. The later Patrons of these Principles are well known These are the Men that furnish'd the leading Faction amongst us with Principles and precedents with Arguments and Texts of Scripture as will appear to any one that compares the Books cited in the Margent with the Speeches Declarations and Pamphlets of the late Times Out of them they either did or might have derived the grounds of the War against the King of erecting an High Court of Justice and of bringing him to the Block Out of them I could easily deduce all the Materials of that Bloody Ordinance to erect an High Court of Justice for the Trial of the King the Impeachment against his Majesty in the name of the Commons of England the Speech of Bradshaw President of that Mock-court of Justice and Milton's Vindication of the Proceedings against the King But because Bellarmine did not in express terms justifie the putting of Kings to Death I will add That Mariana doth not only defend the lawfulness of a formal and aggressive War against a Soveraign Prince but also sets down a Method of destroying him either with or without the Formality of Justice His Book was written An. 1599. which was divers years after he had read Tho. Aquinas in the University of Paris (H) Alegambe p. 258. It was approved by Aquaviva the General of the Jesuites by Hoyeda Visitor of the Society in the Province of Toledo by divers other grave and Learned Jesuites It was commended or justified by Ribadeneira Scribanius Gretser and Becanus of the same Society It was ordered to be burnt by the Parliament of Paris but F. Cotton could never be induced to write against it The Authors of the Apology publish'd at Paris in the name of the Society soon after the Murder of Henry the Fourth durst not plainly and honestly condemn it and whatever some credulous People are now made to believe neither the Pope nor Superiours of the Jesuites ever passed any publick Censure upon this most pestilent and Treasonable Book But to return 1. Suppose there be a competent Strength and interest then the readiest and safest way (F) Mariana Edit Moguntie 1605. p. 58 59 c. is for the People to meet in a publick Assembly to deliberate by publick Consent what is to be done and then to keep inviolably that which is agreed upon by Common consent The Prince must first be admonished and exhorted to amend but if he refuse the Remedy and there be no hopes of his amendment the Sentence being
once pronounced it will be lawful for the Commonwealth to deny Obedience to him And because a War must necessarily follow the Counsels how to maintain it must be sit down Arms must be quickly provided and Taxes laid upon the People to defray the Expences of the War And if it be requisite and the Commonwealth cannot otherwise maintain it self it will be lawful both by the right of Defence and more by the Authority proper to the People to declare publiquely the King to be the common Enemy and then to kill him with the Sword The Commonwealth from which the Royal Power hath its Original may when the case requires it bring the King to Judgment and deprive him of his Soveraignty for the Commonwealth hath not so transferr'd the Right of Power to the Prince but it hath reserved a greater Power to it self 2. But if there be no opportunity for the States of the Kingdom to assemble in this case of necessity they may dispense with the Formalities of Law any man may do that which the Commonwealth is supposed to desire should be done the common voice of the People shall be his Warrant that cuts of the Kings Head 3. But what if this be like to endanger the Traytors Neck Then he may take away the King by conveying a strong and subtile Poyson into 〈◊〉 Garment or Saddle as the Moors have kill'd their Enemies with poysoned Presents But 't is time to draw to a conclusion of this Head J. Goodwin in one of his Pamphlets hath this remarkable expression As for offering violence to the person of a King or attempting to take away his Life we leave the proof of the lawfulness of it to those profound Disputers the Jesuites c. And one of his Adversaries in a Letter to him declares that J. Goodwin is for ought he knows the first and only Minister of any Reformed Church that ever was of that Jesuitical Opinion as himself stiles it (L) Nethersole in a Letter to J. Goodwin Printed Jan. 8 1648. And though I will not undertake to make good that Assertion yet to the Positions of any of our Sectaries I can oppose the Authorities of a whole Herd of Jesuites and other Divines of the Roman Church But to all these Observations I will only add one more That as a Preparative to the Murder of King Charles the First a Book was printed An. 1648. licensed by G. Mabbot bearing this Title Several Speeches delivered at a Conference concerning the Power of Parliaments to proceed against their King for Misgovernment The Heads upon which these Speeches are pretended to be made and the very Matter and Expressions excepting only some few not material Passages are wholly taken out of the Book of Parsons an English Jesuit the great Design of which was to baffle the Title of King James to the Crown of England animate the People to Rebellion and introduce the Roman Catholique Religion All the difference is Parsons published his Book by way of Dialogue these turned it into Speeches This Parsons was Rector of the English College at Rome missed very narrowly of a Cardinals Cap of how great esteem he was at Rome may be gather'd from that famous Inscription on his Monument (M) Aligambe p. 413 414. And he hath furnished the Seditious Spirits amongst us with Arguments and Precedents for their Practises against the King This false new Title they are the words of Mr. Prinne ' published at this Season intimated to the World that this Discourse of a Jesuit for which he was condemned of High Treason was nothing else but Speeches made by some Members of the Commons House at a Conference with the Lords of which Book though himself and divers others complained there was nothing done to vindicate the Houses from this gross Imputation (N) Prinne's Speech in the House of Commons Decemb. 4. 1648. p. â—00 By all which we see that the Popes and Jesuites though at a distance contributed very much to the late Bloody Wars in England and the dismal consequences of them All the difference I can find between the Heads of both Factions is only this Whether the Power of Deposing and Chastising Kings belongs to the People or to the Pope The Fanatique Sectaries allow the People by their Representatives to resume the Power into their own hands whereas some of the Popish Fanatiques reserve this Power to the Pope as the Common Father of Christendom Some I say for the greater part of them invest the Commonwealth with this Authority And so much of the first Proposition 2. In the Reign of King Charles the First the Pope stirr'd up his Subjects of the Roman Communion to Rebel forbad them to take the Oath of Allegiance and absolved them from their Obedience In the beginning of his Majesties Reign the Pope by his Bull strictly forbids the taking the Oath of Allegiance (O) Urban 8. Dilectis filiis Catholicis Angliae Romae Maii 30. 1126. An. 1642. The Pope persuades Eugenius Oneal to give proofs of his Valour in joyning with the Irish Catholiques against the Haeretiques grants to him and all his Adherents the Apostolical Benediction and Plenary Indulgence (P) In a Bull dated Octob. 8. 1642 to Eugegenius Oneal An. 1643. he grants a Bull of Plenary Indulgence to all the Roman Catholiques of Ireland who had joyned in the Rebellion began in the year 1641. (Q) This Bull is dated May 25 1643. all which Bulls are extant in the Histories of those times and therefore need not be transcribed When the Irish Papists submitted to the King subscribed and swore to the observation of the Articles agreed upon the Pope absolved them from their Oath took upon himself to be their General in the person of his Nuntio assumed the exercise of the Regal Power imprisoned those Roman Catholiques and threatned to take away their Lives who had promoted the Peace and desired to return to their Allegiance to his Majesty And 't is observable That soon after the most Infamous Rump had crowned all their Wickedness with the Murder of his Sacred Majesty they nulled the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and so made themselves as Innocent as the Child unborn (R) Feb. 9. The House voted that the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy should be Null and Void Memorie 's of the English Affairs ad an 1648. Thus I have proved with as much brevity as a Discourse of this consequence would admit That neither the Reformed Churches abroad nor the Church of England gave any encouragement to the late Bloody Wars in England or the Murder of the Lords Anointed and I have shewed what Influence the Principles and Practises of the prevailing Faction of the Roman Church had upon them I have omitted nothing that deserves our Consideration except the Gunpowder Treason which having been the Subject of many Sermons and Books I shall pass it over only with these two Observations 1. The late Lord Stafford at his Tryal
declared That he never heard any of the Church of Rome speak a good word of it (S) In the printed Tryal p. 53. The truth is there is nothing to defend such a Master-piece of Villany but the Sword what the English Papists speak of it concerns not me to enquire but was not the rise of that Horrid Treason from the Breves of Pope Clement the 8th in which he required the Roman Catholiques not to admit any but a Catholique to the Crown Did not the same Pope by a Bull sent to the Superiors of the Regulars for bid them to make use of any thing revealed in confession to the benefit of the Secular Government and is it not at least highly probable that the said Bull had a particular respect to the Gun-powder Treason (T) See The Case put by Delrio the Jesuit Disqu Mag. c. I. sect 2. Did not Sir E. Digby call it the best Cause Was not Garnett's name inserted into the English Martyrology Was not one of the Conspirators made the Popes Paenitentiary and another a Confessor in St. Peters at Rome 2. He saith That the Plot was owned by the Traytors themselves at their death But did not Garnette and Tresham deny it with the most bitter Imprecations make the most solemn Protestations of their own Innocency and avow the Lawfulness of denying and forswearing any thing whereof they were guilty in case either the Judges be incompetent or the Proofs against them defective And 't is observable that Garnette never owned any thing which was laid to his Charge till as himself confessed the clearness and unexpectedness of the Proofs made him ashamed to persist any longer in his Denial (V) If. Casauâ—…ni Ep. ad Fr. Duraeum p. 117 118 120 121 122 c I have now done with the Court of Rome and its Adherents Of the Doctrines of the Church of Rome and General Councils I shall speak in the next Chapter by which it will appear whether the Instances of Popish Malice and Bloodiness are Justifiable by the Principles of the Roman Church and Religion CHAP. III. Doctrines and Principles of the Roman Church 1. The Doctrine of Deposing Princes This is the Doctrine of all the approved Writers of that Church Of their General Councils of their Publique Offices and Breviaries An Account of those persons who have appear'd against the Deposing Doctrine 2. The King-killing Doctrine It is a necessary consequent of the Deposing Doctrine The Roman Divines equivocate in this Question The Jesuites generally assert it divers of the Popes and the Canon Law approve of it 3. Of destroying mens Lives for Religion The true State of the Question The Church of Rome damns all Haeretiques All Protestants are Haeretiques in her account She enjoyns all Christians to endeavour the Extirpation of them All Bishops of her Communion sworn to destroy them The Laws of the Church deliver them up to the Secular Power to be put to death 4. Of absolving his Majesties Subjects from their Allegiance I come now to his Lordships Principles of Faith and Loyalty as they are called p. 44. But first he declares As to the damnable Doctrine of King-killing if he were of any Church whatsoever and found that to be its Principle he would leave it Doubtless saith our Author the thing which most weighed to my Lords Prejudice c. was a prepossest Opinion of wicked Principles supposed to be held and practised by my Lord as the matter of his Faith and Religion It is by many taken for granted the Papists hold it an Article of Faith that to depose and murder Kings to Massacre their Neighbours and destroy their native Country by Fire and Sword when the interest of their Religion requires it are Acts dispensable by the Pope and meritorious of Heaven Now what thing so wicked however slenderly proved will not easily be believed against men so principled My Lord therefore to clear himself and his Religion from this heavy and as the Papists say injurious Aspersion pretested and declared in the presence of God and their Lordships his hatred and detestation of such Principles That he acknowledged the King his lawful Soveraign and knew no Person or Authority on Earth could absolve him from his Allegiance From hence I shall take occasion to discourse on the following Heads 1. Concerning the Doctrine of Deposing Kings 2. Concerning the Moctrine of King-killing 3. Concerning the Massacring of their Neighbours and destroying their Native Country when the Interest of their Religion requires it 4. Concerning his Lordships acknowledging the King to be his Lawful Soveraign and that he knew no Person or Authority on Earth could absolve him from his Allegiance And here I shall fairly represent the Doctrines of the Roman Church and then leave all men to judge of the natural Tendency of them 1. I begin with the Doctrine of Deposing Kings Where I shall prove these three things 1. That it is the Doctrine of all the Approved Writers of the Roman Church 2. That it is the Doctrine of their General Councils and lawful Representatives of the Roman Church 3. That this Doctrine is taught in the Breviaries and publique Offices of the Church 1. That it is the Doctrine of all the Approved Writers of the Roman Church And here to do our Adversaries right I acknowledge that there are some things wherein they agree and some wherein they differ That Soveraign Princes may in some cases be deprived of their Crowns and Dignities is a Doctrine wherein their Divines are so universally agreed that I do not know any Book published according to the Order of the Roman Church which hath plainly and honestly condemned it But they are not agreed whether by vertue of a direct temporal Power over all at least Christian Princes the Pope may depose them at his pleasure or whether he hath only an indirect power whereby he may depose them when it is necessary for the good of the Church The former Doctrine is current at Rome and hath been avowed by many Popes and their Creatures The latter is Matter of Faith as many of their own Writers prove by as good Arguments and Authority as any man can produce for Transubstantiation it self (A) Of the former l. sacr Caeremon Aed Romae 1560. p. 36 col 1. Figurat Pontifical is hic gladius potestatem summan tomporalem a Christo ejus Vicario collatam And this Power was challenged by Pope Gregory the 7th as of Divine right Platina de vitis Pontificum Colon. 1568. p. 176. By Boniface the 8th id p. 247. By Paul the Third in his Damnatory Bull against Henry the 8th King of England Bullarium Cherubinis Tom. 1. p. 619. Ed. Romae 1632. By Pius the 5th in his Damnatory Bull against Queen Elizabeth Tom. 2. p. 304. Both which Bulls begin thus Regnans in excelsis c. bunc unum super omnes gentes omnia Regna Principem constituit qui evellat deftruat dissipet c. To which I
common Christianity is such a Religion I will not here insist on the Gunpowder Treason the horrour of Queen Maries dayes the dreadful stories of the Inquisition the Parisian and Irish Massacres the infinite slaughters of the poor Albigenses and Waldenses the more than Heathenish barbarities exercised on millions of the Americans upon the account of Religion these would afford matter for an entire History and therefore I shall summ up what I have to say under four heads 1. The Church of Rome doth as much as in her lies damn all Heretiques make them the members of the Devil I speak their own words whilest they live and send them to hell when they die The fourth General Council of Lateran damns all Heretiques and what doth that Council mean by Heretiques but all such as do not submit to the Roman Faith as it is there set down and particularly all which do not own the monstrous Doctrine of Transubstantiation which that Council makes an Article of Faith (X) Conc. Lat. 4. c. de fide Catholica et c. 3. de Haretlcis Besides the general Anathemaes of the Councils all Heretiques are solemnly cursed every Maundy Thursday Good God! that any thing which is called Religion should teach or allow men to damn their Brethren even whilst they are commemorating our blessed Saviour who died for them But I do not wonder that they should condemn our bodies to be burnt who condemn our souls to everlasting fire (Y) Decret Greg. l. 5. tit 7. de Haereticis c. 3. Nullatenús dubites omnem haereticum vel Schismaticum cum diabolo angelis ejus aeterni ignis incendio participadum nisi ante finem vitae Catholicae fuerit incorporatus redintegratus Ecclisiae c. And what the Canon Law understands by Hereticks you may see c. 9. 2. All Christians are enjoyned by the Church to endeavour the extirpation of Heretiques to the uttermost of their power as they desire to be accounted Christians About the latter end of the Twelfth and beginning of the Thirteenth Century Dominick and his brethren persuaded the Civil Magistrates in France to burn all such as were condemned for Heresie and that their cruelties might be acted by a Law the Holy General Councils promised their blessing and protection to them that should root them out Decreed that all Heretiques should be delivered up to the Secular Magistrate who if he refused to do his duty should be compelled to it by Ecclesiastical Censures by absolving his Subjects from their Allegiance and by giving away his Dominions to other Princes (Z) Conc. Lat. 3. Concil tom 27 c. 27. de haereticis this was an 1180. Conc. Lat. 4. c. 3. de baereticis an 1215. And even that sober piece of Popery as the Council of Constance is called invited J. Husse and Jerome of Prague two good and learned men thither to dispute with them for their Religion whom they quickly silenced with the Catholick Arguments of fire and fagot Thus a Romish General Council and that none of the worst of them owned the most inhuman cruelty and breach of publick Faith in the sight of the Sun From whence we learn these two points of R. Catholique Divinity 1. That no Secular Prince hath any right to promise safety to Hereticks 2. If he do the Church may declare his promise null and void and demand justice against them notwithstanding the most solemn promise to the contrary And what greater honour can be done a Soveraign Prince than to be made the Churches Executioner 3. All the Bishops in the Roman Church are bound under pain of perjury to destroy their Christian brethren (A) In the Oath before cited which every Bishop takes at his Consecration Is this clause Haereticos Schismaticos et rebelles Domino nostro vâ—… Successoribus praedictis pro posse persequar impugnabo A very fit employment for Spiritual Fathers 4. By the Laws of the Roman Church all men condemned for Haeresie are to be put to death (B) Haeretiques condemned by the Church are to be dellvered up to the Civil Power Animadversione debita puniendi pro viribus extirminare c Conc. Lat. 4. c. 3. But what the Punishment is all men know which have read the History of the Council of Constance In iâ—…is persistens J. Husse apatribus de baeresi damnatus vivus exastus est In the History of the Council Council tom 29. p. 238. Vid. Decret Greg. 9. l. 5. tit 7. de Haereticis Sexti Decretal l. 5. tit 2. de Haereticis Extrav Com. l. 5. tit 3. de Hersticis Indeed the Church could only damn the Souls the burning the Bodies of Haeretiques belongs to the Civil Power for if they refused to abjure or were relapsed they were to be delivered to the Secular Arm and the Magistrates were to burn them in some publique place In the Second year of Henry the Fourth King of England a Law was made whereby if any Haeretiques being convict did refuse to abjure or after Abjuration did fall into relapse they were to be left to the Secular Court according to the Holy Canons and the Major Sheriffs or Bayliffs after the Sentence were to receive and cause them to be burnt in an high place before the People But the common course of the Law was to certifie into the Chancery the conviction of an Haeretique upon which the Writ De Haeretico comburendo was issued out for the burning of him Afterwards all Civil Officers were sworn to use their utmost diligence and power for the destroying of Errors and Haeresies and to assist the Ordinaries and their Commissaries in their Proceedings against them In Queen Mary's Reign hundreds of the Clergy and Laity were burnt alive upon no other account but their Religion there was nothing else either in their Accusation or in their Sentence (C) See Statut. â—…n 2. Hen 4. c. 15. An. 25. Hen. 8. c. 14. Also the History of the Reformation c. An. 1679. part 1. lit 1. The Writ for burning of Archbishop Cranmer may be seen in the second part of the same History l. 2. In the Collection of R. cords Numb 27. 4thly and Lastly I consider his Lordships Declaration That he acknowledged the King his lawful Soveraign and knew no Authority on Earth could absolve him from his Allegiance That the General Councils of the Roman Church have arrogated to themselves a Power of absolving Subjects from their Allegiance to Soveraign Princes is so evident from the forecited Testimonies that I need not trouble either the Reader or my self with transcribing the Decrees of those Councils but to the former authorities I will only add that of the third Council of Lateran which did expresly absolve the Subjects of Princes from their Oaths of Allegiance (D) Conc. Lat. 3. c. 27 de Haereticis Council tom 27. p. 461. Relaxatos autemse noverint a debito fidelitatis hominii c. Whether that Council did include
words Hoc est Corpus meum are in their Bibles If mens Senses are not to be trusted in plain sensible Matters he will hardly prove any of these things but if they are then it is evident that such Principles are asserted in some of their General Councils What follows p. 47. shall be considered afterwards P. 47 48. Paragraph 1. Of the Catholique Faith and Church in General Which Paragraph doth not fall within the compass of my present Design Paragraph 2. Of Spiritual and Temporal Authority P. 48 c. General Councils which are the Church of God Representative have no Commission from Christ to frame new matters of Faith but only to explain and ascertain unto us what anciently was and is received and retained as of Faith in the Church upon arising Debates and Controversies about them The definitions of which General Councils in matters of Faith only and proposed as such oblige under pain of Heresie all the Faithful to a submission of Judgment It is no Article of Faith to believe that General Councils cannot err either in matters of Fact or Discipline c. Hence it is deduced If a General Council much less a Papal Consistory should undertake to depose a King and absolve his Subjects from their Allegiance no Catholique as Catholick is bound to submit to such a Decree Hence also it followeth The Subjects of the King of England lawfully may without the least breach of any Catholick Principle renounce even upon Oath the Doctrine of Deposing Kings Excommunicate for Heresie c. General Councils are the Church of God Representative And hath the Church of God diffusive intrusted them with a Power of concluding in some things and not in others or of obliging particular persons so far and no further Where hath the Church of Rome warranted any such distinction as this Author makes between matters of Faith and Practise or confined the whole Power of General Councils to matters of Faith only Lastly suppose there were as indeed there is not some ground for such a distinction yet why must Transubstantiation be a matter of Faith and the deposing of Princes be none when both came out of the same Forge the General Council of Lateran How doth it appear that the Council did not propose this as matter of Faith as well as the other But I will appeal to the General Council of Constance both because the Author of the Controversial Letters urges a Decree of that Council to prove That the Church of Rome teaches the Duty to Princes to be a direct point of Faith (B) Controvers Let. Ed. 2. 1674. p. 36. And because we are told That all Roman Catholiques are bound to submit to the Decrees of the Council of Constance (C) Staffords Memoirs p. 44. And doth not this Council challenge a Power immediately from Christ which all persons of whatever state and dignity are bound to obey both in things pertaining to Faith and the extirpation of Schism and the General Reformation of the Church in the Head and Members (D) Concil Const Concil tom 29. p. 257. Ipsa Synodus in spiritu Sancto congregata legitimé Generale Concilium faciens Ecclesiam Catholicam militantem repraesentans potestatem a Christo immediaté habet cui quilibet cujuscunque status vel dignitatis etiamsi papalis existat obedire tenetur in his quae pertinent ad fidem extirpationem dicti Schismatis Reformationem generalem Ecclesiae dei in Capite Membris Did not this Council define against an Error in Practise 't is their own expression challenge a Power of dispensing with the Institution of Christ and even of Excommunicating all such Presbyters as should presume to obey his Institution rather than their Decree (E) Conc. Const Sess 13. p. 372 373. Hot Generale Concilium declarat decernit definit contra hune errorem viz. Of the peoples receiving the Sacrament in both kinds and after Supper quod licet Christus post coenam instituerit suis discipulis adminiftraverit sub utraque specie panis vini boc venerabile sacramentum tament hoc non obstante c. praecipit sub poena Excommunicationis quod nullus Presbyter communicet populum sub utraque specie panis vini And now to bring this whole matter to a short Issue By whatever Arguments this Author can prove that Roman Catholicks as such are bound to receive the Sacrament in one kind only by the same it may be proved 1. That if a General Council or a Papal Consistory by Authority derived from a General Council should depose a King and absolve his Subjects from their Allegiance all Roman Catholiques as such are bound to submit to such a Decree 2. That the Subjects of the King of England may not without breach of a Roman Catholique Principle renounce the Doctrine of deposing Kings Excommunicated for Heresie I confess there is a Roman Catholique Principle of Aequivocation and Mental Reservation by the benefit of which they may renounce the deposing of Kings but so they may the receiving the Sacrament in one kind also P. 49. Nor do Catholiques as Catholiques beleive that the Pope hath any direct or indirect Authority over the Temporal Power and Jurisdiction of Princes c. This he asserts with his usual considence gives Bellarmine the lie and out-faces all the Arguments and Authorities of the Cardinal and others without offering at the least proof of his Position It is an Article of Catholick Faith that no Power on Earth can license men to lie to forswear and perjure themselves c. on pretence of promoting the Catholick Cause or Religion But let him prove if he will prove any thing to the purpose That it is an Article of Roman Catholick Faith to believe Either that there are no Venial Sins such as do not put a man out of the Favour of God and hazard his Salvation Or that an Officious Lie is a Mortal Sin in their account Or that that which otherwise would be a Lie or Perjury may not in some cases be excused by a Mental Reservation or Equivocation The Doctrine of Equivocation however wrong fully imposed on the Catholick Religion is neither taught nor approved by the Church as any part of her Belief But if this be not a part of the Practical Divinity of the Roman Church either she hath none at all or else hath not let the World know where to find it Indeed it is not taught in their General Councils for they do not use to descend to particular Rules of Conscience and Practise but it is taught by the generality of those Divines whom the Church hath entrusted with the Souls of men Are either the Books censured or the Authors punished Are not the Books published with Approbation and those Authors most countenanced which maintain this Doctrine Hath the Church given any Caution or made any Declaration against it And if after all this the Church doth not approve of it what must
Interest and the Imputation of Popery was the great Engine by which they rendred the King and his Adherents odious and robb'd him of the Hearts of his People for by this Suggestion they abused the credulity of many well-meaning but intemperate Zealots persuaded them to engage in the Defence of the Protestant Religion and kept others so long from his Majesties Assistance till they too late saw and lamented their own weakness and the Treachery of a lesser but more active party whom they had followed in the Simplicity of their hearts Not long before the Muder of the King many Jesuites and other Priests daily flocked into this Kingdom and so far insinuated themselves into some prime Commanders of the Army and others of the House of Commons then at the Devotion of the Army that they were in a fair way to obtain their share in that Toleration or Liberty of Conscience which was so agreeable to the Judgment of the Times as Mr. Gatford saith upon his own immediate knowledge (F) Englands Complaint p. 17 18. And Mr. Prinne in the Appendix to his forecited Speech tells us that after the Army had imprisoned and removed his Majesty to bring him to Tryal They voted at their General Council of War carried by two Voices That the Papists should have Free Liberty and Toleration of Conscience and all Sequestrations and Forfeitures as Papists only taken off Under the Usurped Powers they offer'd to renounce their Loyalty and Allegiance to the Royal Family for ever upon condition of a free Toleration of their Religion And certainly those times of disorder and confusion gave them a mighty advantage for the re-establishing their Religion in England when Episcopacy was voted down and 't is well known what rejoycing that Vote brought to the Romish party the Defender of the Faith put to death and we are not ignorant with what Joy and Triumph the news of his death was received in the English Convents and Seminaries The Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy repealed and it was put to the Vote in the Little Parliament Whether all the Parochial Ministers should not be put down at once What endeavours have been used since his Majesties Happy Restauration to procure or purchase a Toleration Mr. Coleman and the late Lord Stafford have informed us And yet some men ask Why may not Roman Catholicks enjoy the Freedom of their Consciences and Religion But they have never read or never considered Colemans Tryal and the Collection of Letters lately published What made him lament the Fatal Revocation of the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience What is the meaning of such Expressions as these That if they could carry the Design of getting an Act for Liberty of Conscience they should in effect do what they list afterwards That the prevailing in these things would give the greatest blow to the Protestant Religion here that ever it received since its Birth That they had a mighty Work upon their hands no less than the Conversion of three Kingdoms and by that perhaps the subduing of a Pestilent Heresie which had domineer'd over a great part of the Northern World a long time (G) And yet the Author of Staffords Memoirs p. 10. would persuade us That the Letters of Mr. Coleman and others do only shew that they desired perhaps in some measure a Liberty of Conscience yet without confronting much less destroying the King or Government And the Lord Stafford himself acknowledged before the House of Peers That if he had known any such Design as Colemans Letters do hint he would not have continued in England (H) See the Printed Tryal p. 292. How miserably then are those poor men imposed upon that think the Design at least of the Active Men of this Faction was meerly to enjoy the Freedom of their Consciences or the private Exercise of their Religion It is not the Ease of their own Consciences but a Power to lay insupportable Burthens on other mens Consciences which they aim at What they call Indulgence and Toleration is indeed Rule and Dominion they first strengthen their own party and weaken the Established Religion and Government by all the Arts of Fraud and Treachery and when they have once gotten the Power into their Hands they deprive all others of the Enjoyment of their Religion and Consciences and this is notorious in all places where they have had Strength and Opportunity to compass their Designs Indeed some good-natur'd People are willing to believe that they are a very harmless and peaceable sort of Creatures and others that pretend to some kind of Insight into Mysteries of State look upon an Indulgence as the best way to oblige and make them sure to the Government But it were no hard matter to prove that the former are very much mistaken in their Charity and the latter in their Politicks All the Connivence and Favours of our Princes since the Reformation have been so far from making them true to the Crown that they have always been the worse for Indulgence In the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign she treated them with the greatest Mercy and Clemency which had dealt most Insolently and Cruelly with her before she came to the Crown For the first ten years of her Majesty by the Confession of the Secular Priests (I) Important Considerations c. the State of Catholicks in England was tolerable and after a Sort in some good quietness Parsons and Creswel the Jesuites tell her Majesty That in the beginning of her Kingdom she dealt something more gently with Catholicks that none were then urged by her or pressed either to her Sect or to the denial of their Faith all things seemed to proceed in a far milder course no great Complaints were heard of Yea her Majesty suffered Bonner that Man of Blood after all his Butcheries quietly to live and dye amongst us Heath to live securely at his own House in Surrey Tonstall Thirlby and Fecknam to live in ease and freedom she reserved Pensions to such of the Popish Clergy as quitted their Benefices by Resignation (L) Hist of the Reformation part 2. p. 396. c. In Fine some Roman Catholicks were highly obliged none provoked by any greater Severity than the requiring of 12 d. a Sunday for not coming to Church and yet they were continually giving fresh Proofs of their Loyalty and Gratitude to the Queen by dispersing of Libels against her Person Crown and Dignity procuring of Bulls from Rome fomenting of Treasons and Conspiracies at home or tampering with the King of Spain to invade her Majesties Dominions as besides our Writers their own Secular Priests do acknowledge (M) Important Considerations c. King James at his first coming to the Crown of England was so far from putting the Laws in Execution against the Papists that he remitted the Arrears of their Penalties in Queen Elizabeths time and pardoned divers of the Conspirators he suffer'd them to enjoy their Estates and Consciences and admitted
of England have done Have they not always been the Principal I had almost said the only Champions in this Nation to maintain the Protestant Cause Did they when under the Heaviest Persecution ever truck with the Papists for a General Toleration Or have they since the Kings Return endeavoured to procure an Indulgence or Abolition of the Laws against them Did they not boldly and honestly give the Nation Warning of the Danger of Popery before the breaking out of the Popish Plot I remember that a few Years since some Eminent Dissenters from the Church of England instead of joyning with us against the Assaults of a Common Enemy spoke very kindly of the Common and Innocent Papists as they were pleased to stile them And yet God forbid I should either charge this on the Body of Dissenters or say those very persons were Popish or Popishly affected I pray God open their eyes to see the Danger of Joyning with the Papists for a General Toleration and taking the same Course to keep out Popery which the Papists do to bring it in (R) Since the Declaration of Indulgence a little Book was drawn up by one Man but with the Consent of several Non-conformists with a Design to present it to the Parliament and published under this Title The Peaceable Design or an Account of the Non-conformists Meetings by some Ministers of London An. 1675. In this Book an Objection is put But what shall we say then to the Papists The Answer is The Papist in our Account is but one Sort of Recusants and the Consciencious and Peaceable among them must be held in the same Predicament with those among our selves that likewise refuse to come to Common Prayer But as for the Common Papist who lives Innocently in his Way he is to us as other Separatists and so comes under the like Toleration This Book was reprinted an 1680. and with some small Alterations Since the breaking out of the Plot Mr. Baxter as I find him quoted in the forementioned Book called The unreasonableness of Separation part 2 tells us Mr. H. is a Man of Latitude and tyeth himself to no Party or Opinions of other men and I so little fear the Noise of the Cenlorious that even now while the Plot doth render them most Odious say freely 1. That I would have Papists used like Men. I hope this Adrice is needless to English Protestants 2. I would have no man put to death for being a Priest 3. I would have no Writ De Excommunicato Capiendo or any Law compel them to our Communion and Sacraments 2. You cannot have forgotten That they which first joyned Popery and Prelacy quickly saw the Romish Papacy and Scottish Presbytery linked together Presbytery is Babylon Egypt a Limb of Antichrist a Tyrannycal Lordly Government a worse Bondage than that under the Bishops ' Antichristian Tyranny under the name of a Christian Presbyterian Church-Government ' An Episcopal Tyranny exchanged for a Presbyterian Slavery The Presbyterian is a Bloody Vnpeaceable and Persecuting way Presbytery is more Tyrannical than Episcopacy because one Tyrant is not so bad as many together The Divines of the Assembly are Anti-Christian Romish Bloody Baals Priests c. This was the Language of the Sectaries in the late Times 3. Have you never heard what Advantage Parsons Kellison and others have made of such Calumnies as these to the disgrace of the Reformed Religion Is not this the Way to gratifie the Romish Faction Will they not be emboldened in their Attempts against us and our Religion when the Governours of our Church and the Body of the Episcopal Clergy are represented as their Secret Friends or at least as not Hearty and Zealous in the Protestant Cause Sure it must raise their Hopes of reducing the Romish Religion to hear that they are now marching towards Popery which used to be looked upon as their most Formidable Adversaries But so much of this unreasonable and groundless Charge I will now sum up this whole Argument as briefly as I can You that dissent from the established Church of England are concerned in good earnest as I believe many of you are to maintain the Reformed Religion against the Abominations of Popery I would then offer to your consideration That you cannot reasonably hope to keep out Popery without a National settlement for how can a multitude of petty Sects and divided Interests maintain their ground against the Roman Forces that according to the Principles of the present Separation a National Settlement can hardly be expected V. G. If things Indifferent are unlawful in the Worship of God the same Objection will for ever lie against any Constitutions that should succeed in the room of ours and you must divide and subdivide to the Worlds end The same Principle which first led Men to the decrying of Kneeling at the Sacrament wearing a Surplice and the Cross in Baptism afterwards led them into Independency Quakerism c. They which cryed out against the Impositions of our Church could never set up a better or any Established Church or agree upon one way of Worship and Government among themselves Some of the Dissenters did ingenuously confess in the late Times that upon the pulling down the Establishments of our Church more Sects and Heresies sprang up within a very few years than were ever known in the Kingdom before But I will only appeal to the Testimonies of two Eminent Persons of the Presbyterian Persuasion some of whose words I have transcribed in the Margent (S) Gangraena by Th. Edwards Ed. 3. 1646. In the Epistle Dedicatory to the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament You have most Noble Senators done worthily against Papists Prelates and Scandalous Ministers in casting down Images Altars Crucifixes throwing out Ceremonies c. but what have you done against other kinds of growing Evils Heresie Schism Disorder against Seekers Anabaptists Antinomians Brownists Libertines and other Sects You have made a Reformation but with the Reformation have we not a Deformation and worse things come in upon us than ever we had before Were any of those Monsters heard of heretofore which are now common among us as denying the Scriptures pleading for a Toleration of all Religions and Worships yea for Blasphemy and denying there is a God You have put down the Book of Common Prayer and there are many among us have put down the Scriptures c. You have cast out the Bishops and their Officers and we have many that cast down to the ground all Ministers in all the Reformed Churches You have cast out Ceremonies in the Sacraments as the Cross kneeling at the Lords Supper and we have many cast out the Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper c. If Schism Heresie c. be let alone and rise proportionably for one year longer we shall need no Cavaliers nor Enemies from without to destroy us Mr. Baxter's Preface to the Cure of Church Divisions I have long stood by while Churches have been
divided and subdivided one Congregation of the Division labouring to make the other contemptible and odious and this called The Preaching of Truth and the Purer worshipping of God I have seen this grow up to the height of Ranters in horrid Blasphemies and then of Quakers in disdainful Pride and Surliness and into the way of Seekers that were to seek for a Ministry a Church a Scripture and consequently a Christ I have lived to see it put to the question in that which they called the Little Parliament Whether all the Ministers of the Parishes of England should be put down at once ' Two ways especially said Mr. Baxter since the Restauration of the King and the Church of England Popery will grow out of our Divisions 1. By the Odium and Scorn of our Disagreements Inconsistency and multiplied Sects they will persuade People that we must come for Vnity 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 persuaded 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 c. 2. Who knoweth not how fair a Game the Papists have to play by the means of our Divisions Who is so blind as not to see their double Game and Hopes viz. That either our Divisions and Alienations will carry men to such distances and practices as shall make us accounted Seditious Rebellious and dangerous to the Publick Peace and so they may pass for better Subjects than we or else that when so many Parties under Sufferings are constrained to beg and wait for liberty the Papists may not be shut out alone but have Toleration in the rest And shall they use our Hands to do their works and pull their freedom out of the fire We have already unspeakably served them both in this and in abating the Odium of the Gunpowder-Plot and their other Treasons Insurrections and Spanish Invasion c. (T) Defence of the Cure c. p. 52 53 54. Printed 1671. But we cannot joyn with the Church of England as now Established with a safe Conscience and we ought not to provide for the security of our Religion by sinning against God I Answer Since you are under Laws and Government 1. You may with a safe Conscience submit to all such conditions of Communion as you do not believe to be sinful And either all the Gospel Precepts of Obedience signifie nothing at all or they signifie thus much That you ought to come up to Authority as far as you can without disobeying the Commands of God 2. You may with a safe Conscience make the most favourable construction of all doubtful things which they are fairly capable of 3. You are not bound in Conscience to affront the Established Religion and Government 4. You are bound to make Conscience of one Duty and one Sin as well as another Are not the Obedience and Peaceableness doing Justly loving Mercy and walking Humbly with God matters of Duty Are not Spiritual Pride and Censoriousness False Accusations and Slanderings Schism and Sedition forbidden by the Law of God Could Men be perswaded thus far and there is all the reason in the World that they should they would seek out for Information and not take up Objections upon trust they would proportion their Zeal to the nature of things and yield to a restraint of their liberty in all things not sinful for the Peace of the Church the number of Dissenters would be lessened and they would joyn with us in opposing the Common Enemy they would take the most effectual course to incline their Superiours to pity them and secure the Peace of their own Consciences But it is time to draw to a Conclusion of the Whole Let us not express our Zeal against Popery by Swearing and Hectoring against it by Cursing and Drinking to its Confusion by Sedition and Faction by Vices or Immoralities of what kind soever for these are the ready ways to bring it in But as the Piety and Zeal of our first Reformers banished Popery out of our Confessions of Faith and Publick Offices so let us banish it out of our Hearts and Lives and particularly let us sincerely put in practise those Vertues which the Reformed Religion teaches as opposed to Popery viz. Serious Devotion to God and inflexible Loyalty to our Soveraign Christian Meekness and Charity Truth and Fidelity toward all Men. Let us first make use of all lawful Means for the Divine Providence supposeth the use of all honest Means for the prevention of impendent Dangers and then make our fervent and constant Addresses to the Throne of Grace for a Blessing upon our just Endeavours But what good and wholesom Laws are fit to be made for the strengthning the Protestant Interest and the keeping out of Popery doth not become Persons of a private Capacity too nicely to determine I am not speaking to Law-Makers but to such as are tied up to the Laws in being nor do I think my self able to determine what further Laws may be made for the securing the Church and Kingdom against all future Machinations of the Papists or promoting a firm and lasting Union amongst our selves These Considerations are to be left to Authority In fine Let us lay aside all private Animosities and secular Ends in matters of Religion and study the true Celestial Wisdom which is first pure then peaceable mild and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good works without partiality and without hypocrisie So shall we confute the Calumnies of the Romish Emissaries and adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour engage the Divine Providence to take care of us and our Religion and be rewarded with the fruit of Righteousness which is sown in peace for them that make peace ERRATA Pag. 37 lin 27. read Murderer p. 49. in the Margent Roffaeus p. 63. in the Marg. Cherubini p. 67. in the Margent Spondanus p. 70. l. 29. Men p 78. l. 6. after must add not FINIS