present Age no Sectaries can be lawful Witnesses for their own lately modelled Religion or against the ancient Catholick because their testimonies cannot be valid against so constant an universal Tradition and practice Secundo It s ridiculous and unjust in a Judge to pronounce sentence against Roman Catholick upon the evidence and testimony of Calvin Luther c. as in open Court to condemn men to forfeit their Estates and ancient inheritances upon the word of a mad fellow that produceth no other evidence to confirm his claim but interior motions of the Spirit or some obscure Text of Law appliable to all Cases and Subjects for all the Protestant evidence is reduced to the private Spirit and the pretended clearness of Scripture Tertio The Legislative power ought to be subordinate to Christian Religion but Statutes against Catholicks are evidently against the Law of God and Christian Religion if we may credit Antiquity and stick to the Faith and practice of the Church and Princes that went before us not only in England but all other Christian Kingdomes This way therefore of proceeding is different from all other Nations and altereth the Stile of natural reason humane nature and the practice of all Antiquity and consequently destroyes the foundation of justice and form of Judicature Quarto The common temporal Municipal Laws which Science above all others next to Divinity doth confirm and evince unto the understanding of an Englishman the Truth of Catholick Religion Forasmuch as from our first Christian Kings and Queens which must needs be the origin and beginning of all Christian Common Laws in England unto the reign of Henry the eight all our Princes and People being of one and the same Catholick Religion their Laws must needs be presumed to have been conformed to their sense and judgment in that behalf and our Lawyers to our Laws So as now to see an English temporal Lawyer to impugn the said Catholick Religion by the antiquity of the common Laws throughout the times and reigns of the said Kings and Queens to favour and countenance Luther Calvin c. or any new Opinions not known before is as great an absurdity novelty and wonder as to see a Philosopher brought up in Aristotles School to impugn Aristotle by Aristotles learning in favour of Petrus Ramus Descartes or some other new Adversary Catholick Religion never prejudiced any Nation or State where it had free passage in the least degree but hath ever been their safety happiness and honour No People or Church in the World so great a friend to loyalty and obedience they have the repute of honest men patient and charitable carry themselves civilly and religiously nothing is heard from their mouths of Blasphemy or Atheism or that may have ground of not believing or adoring God alone or of not hoping to be saved by the merits of Jesus Christ They have lived without just complaint sociable and amicable If they meet you not at Church they meet you at Market Do they not buy and sell with you Are ready to perform all Offices of good neighbourhood and civility Do they refuse any kind of temporal duties or payments Do ye not find them at home and abroad as strict to their promises as any others you converse withall They cannot be persecuted by any Government that understands its own interest unless first abused by false Teachers nor can we deny them what ancient and good Laws have ever allowed theâ— being no innovators but Professors of the same Religion which made this Nation Christian If there were no other Apology for peaceable men but only those Pleas of Conscience tendered to publick view those ought not to be unconsidered by such as profess Christianity Never any Acts of Vniformity could expel Papists out of heretical Countries Do ye know what you ask when you are still urging the execution of pressures against Catholicks even their blood life and fortunes can any Christian zeal be so irregular Can this come from the Spirit of the Gospel Is this wisdome from above Whence comes all this anger What evil have they done What maximes have they so rough and unreasonable that they must be taken away by the Sword Why should we be so bloody in our Tenets How can our passions be so intemperate Our mercies so cruel To them whose Faith was established by our Fundamental Laws and maintenance of it sworn to at least by twenty of our Monarchs even by Queen Elizabeth her self Why must the Papists be thus singled out from all the rest and forced to forfeit all advantages or forsake his Conscience They only exposed to publick hatred and rigour though they only least deserve it Shall we extinguish all considerations of equity and charity towards them of whose honesty we are assured by their Long and Patient Sufferings rather than they would renounce their Conscience towards God who are ready to abjure what is or may be objected as only dangerous in their Religion who have given evidences already they will perform those Oaths and that they cannot be absolved from them If we apprehend their principles and doctrines are inconsistent with the Gospel or Civil Government grant them a free Conference about the points in question which are those Tenets carry an opposition to either and if upon impartial enquiry they are found so Heterodox as represented then inflict penalties If their Ecclesiasticks are not able to justisie both their Religion and Principles let them renounce all mercy This offer is very fair and equal a Vindication of Justice and a legal proceeding against the Criminal And the contrary how plausible soever represented pretending thereby to do God good service is most injurious to the Peace Christian meekness Reason Religion or Charity and destructive to that prudential Ballance the wisest and best States have ever carefully observ'd Who always after questions of Religion freely discussed relieved the distresses of tender and innocent Consciences We must not judge of them or any other by the private and perhaps misinterpretable assertions of some particular Doctors but by the avowed principles of their belief This is the basis on which they build the rule by which they walk in point of obedience to God and man or if you would judg of them by their proceedings and addresses their frequent petitions professions protestations of all just obedience will sufficiently clear them If by their practice and manner of lives their quiet deportment and manner of living and conversing with all men yea even their prayers and wishes which they dayly make unto Almighty God in behalf of their Prince and Country do shew how innocent they are and how little they deserve those black aspersions and calumnies some rash Satyrists are so diligent to cast upon them In charity we are bound to believe the best of others and also to think they speak true when we cannot prove the contrary Some destine them to destruction and extirpation as Agapete did the Jews Are so eager declaimers
it This argument I urge no further than to evince in their justification that their unwillingness to swear is no evidence to prove their want of allegiance or any backwardness to lay down their lives and fortunes in his Majesties service For the practical part of the Subjects allegiance is that which only concerns the security of a Prince which all Catholicks will gladly swear unto Therefore I hope a true and real tenderness of Conscience which can have no ill consequence with it in relation to his Majesties safety will give no offence to them that are over them nor be a motive to hold a rigorous hand upon them Especially seeing these threescores years since the Oath was first established it hath been refused by Catholicks to be taken upon the score of Conscience though universally taken by others of any dignity conferred upon them in Church or State Yet no Catholick in England of any note or quality that all this time did act contrary to their allegiance sworn unto in the Oath On the other side I could wish it were as difficult to name those amongst the takers of the Oath who have so fatally broken them half the Kingdome being in rebellion contrary to what they had sworn to the ruine of the best King and the best man which perhaps this Nation had ever cause to glory in As for the Oath of Supremacy Luther Calvin Knox Gilby all pretended Reformers disliked it Calvin in his Commentary on Osee saith who advanced Hen. 8. to such a height did not well for they no less than blasphemed when they called him Supream Head under Christ Chemnitius a learned Lutheran in his Epist ad eloc. Briard of Queen Eliz. Supremacy saith quod foeminae a saeculis inaudito fastu se papissam caput Ecclesiae facit So Gilby in Admonit ad Angl. Our Cartwright also teacheth against Supremacy So do Presbyterians generally here and beyond Sea Henry the eighth once acknowledged the Supremacy more than ever any King did as appeared by Cardinal Campeius and Wolsey Legates he being called before them After his will being not executed made the Oath against Supremacy This Oath of Supremacy as it is worded and according to the sense of the first Lawgiver cannot lawfully be taken by any Christian or assembly without contradicting his belief understanding it Grammatically according to the proper and natural sense of the words at least ambiguous if not formally contradictory or the cause or reason of framing this Oath by Hen. 8. and what power was exercised by virtue of it and of the Parliament enjoining it appears to be a jurisdiction purely spiritual was communicated to him and assumed by him It s evident also by the many practises it was only a spiritual by-title of Supremacy he sought for to deprive the Pope for he stood in need of such a power to justifie his divorce and dispense with his intention of taking Ecclesiastical livings of Abbies Monasteries into his hands The Protection in King Edward the sixth continued the Oath to make new Church-Laws Institutions and commit new Sacriledges changes ubique arti contrary to which King Heâ— 8. published and declared Queen Mary renounces this jurisdiction and restores it to the Church Queen Elizabeth re-assumes it having a greater necessity for it then her Brother because her marriage was declared null by the Pope This Oath consists of two parts the affirmative as that the King is only Supream Head as well in Temporal as Spiritual c. Secondly the Negative that no Prince Prelate c. hath any jurisdiction or spiritual Power c. This Negative part of the Oath is contrary to a point of their Faith wherein not only all spiritual authority of the Pope but of a general Council or Western Church is disclaimed Is all jurisdiction purely spiritual only in the Kings right are Princes Pastors of Souls hath not a Heathen King the same spiritual right How could King James then call the Pope Patriarch of the West or how can a free general Council oblige Christians and to which learned Protestants profess to submit to as the chiefest authority under God And although in Queen Elizabeths time the Oaths were explicated that only civil and Kingly authority in causes Ecclesiastical was intended yet this negative clause cannot be by such expositions eluded Secondly An Oath to Catholicks and tender Consciences is so dreadful that they dare not call God to witness they sincerely swear the Pope ought not to have any Superiority in spiritual causes unless it might be permitted them at the same time and the same breath to signifie that it is intended of civil and Kingly authority in causes Ecclesiastical They tremble to swear at words ambiguous but formally contradictory Thirdly In the thirty nine Artticles of the Church of England it is defined that the Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Kingdome and these Articles are confirmed by Act of Parliament Whereby it appears their intention is to require a renuntiation of a Catholick point of Faith and the Popes being Head of the Western Church This Act being made since the said exposition The Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance if the former were so expressed as to require an acknowledgement of a civil Supremacy in his Majesty and Ecclesiastical to the Church-Governours and if the unfortunate word Heretical and speculative points were left out of the other no Catholick would refuse either And more then this no Protestant Presbyterian c. that freely take them can intend by them an Oath being in it self a religious affirmation with Gods Seal Whosoever takes these Oaths absolutely must swear to take Almighty God to witness as he shall answer at the dreadful day of Judgment that he believes the Pope hath no Power c. now this word believe being in a matter of Religion and Profession of the same can signifie nothing but a Christian belief or Faith and imports thus much I N. N. do swear in the presence of Almighty God that the Pope hath no Power c. As I believe there is a God in Heaven or any other Article of Faith all this is virtually and really comprehended in the word believe Now what man of Conscience of what Opinion soever that feareth an Oath to use the Preachers words Eccles 9. 2. will venture his Soul so far as to swear all this are we all of us so certain that no forraign jurisdiction c. or that its Heretical c. as we are certain there is a God Heaven Hell c. and so make it a part of and Article of our Belief when it is not expresly nor plainly revealed in Scripture or declared by the Church and so not fundamental to our Belief or absolutely necessary to our Salvation If you say it may be obscurely delivered in Scripture then at least the unlearned cannot be able to discover it How then shall such dare to swear as in effect they do when they take the Oaths that
miles removed than in many thousand within his own Kingdom not all of them Angels The King of France esteems it a priviledg granted him in a Concordate by the Pope that no particular Bishop should have power in any case to excommunicate him Never was there greater supporters to the Crown than English Catholicks have been ever against the least encroachment offered by the Bishop of Rome himself as it is to be seen in the Statâ—t Laws of King Richard the Second wherein you find in many businesses the Pope was interessed the Roman Catholicks flatly denying the Crown of England to be subject to any immediately but to God yet acknowledged in the very same Parliament the Bishop of Rome's spiritual Jurisdiction And Bishop Bilson in his Defence between Christ and Antichrist brings in the Parliament consisting then altogether of Roman Catholicks expressing their loyalty to their Soveraign Prince in these words we will with our said Soveraign the King and his said Crown and Regality in cases aforesaid and in all other cases attempted against Him his Crown or Dignity in all points live and dye p. 3. p. 243. And in Holinshed 2. Volume of the last Edition p. 309. we find in the Reign of King Edward the First all the Catholick Lords assembled in Lincolne in Parliament in the name of all estates did answer the Popes right to judg c. that they would not consent their King should do any thing tending to the disinheriting of the Crown or right of England And that it was never known and consequently never practised that the King of this Land had answered or ought to answer for their rights in the said Realm before any Judg ecclesiastical or secular Yet at the same time they stiled Pope Boniface the high Bishop of the Roman universal Church and themselves his devout sons c. Therefore Catholick Religion hath no headship prejudicial to temporal Supremacy If this were a Check to the Glory of Kings why do the Kings of France Spain Poland Portugal the Emperour and other great Princes in Germany uphold it and glory in it the Duke of Savoy with the Florentine and the rest of Italian Princes living under the Popes Nose absolute and arbitrary in their Dominions dispute with Sword in their hand for their Temporalities And for the Catholick Church in England in Catholick times Stat. 25. Edward 3. Statut. 16. Richard did not admit the Pope's deposing power in temporals made it a preeminence to appeal to Rome or to submit to a Legates jurisdiction without the Kings License or on the Popes summons to go out of the Kingdom or receive any mandates or brief from Rome or purchase Bulls for Preserments to Churches c. and the reason was given because the Crown of England is free from earthly subjection and immediately subject to God Our Catholick Lords of England have in the name of the whole Body made oft protestations of eternal fidelity to the King and renouncing all dependance of any forreign power that can any way be prejudicial to him Many Protestations Professions Declarations have been printed by several Catholicks that no authority on earth can absolve them from their necessary and natural Allegiance and that his fidelity was a duty of their Religion have made and will be ready to give all security of peaceable obedience and sincere integrity that any words or actions can confirm But you will object and say they allow a power in the Pope to excommunicate Princes and thence follows a train of pernicious consequences of deposing raising his Subjects against him c. Resp That the power of Excommunication is indeed necessarily annexed to the pastoral Function and therefore to be allowed in the cheife Bishop over his Flock But they deny and renounce any further extent of that power unto those things which appertain to Caesar 5 and therefore they declare as firmly that notwithstanding any such excommunication they will bear true faith to our Prince and him maintain and defend against all opposers whatsoever You may again object the Council of Lateran decreed Princes that savoured Hereticks after admonition given the Pope might discharge the Subjects from allegiance and give away the Kingdom to some Catholick to root out Heresie Resp 1. Councils are not infallible in every point even in matter of fact and other Constitutions not concerning faith or doctrine being but human Laws are changeable and oft admit exceptions 2. Council's Ordinations are to be taken according to the prudent meaning of the Legislators which bear another sense than the words taken lye In this case suppose the Emperours of the East and West Kings of England France Hungary Hierusalem Cyprus Arragon c. agree together to purge their Kingdoms of Heresies and upon forfeiture the Church should give their Dominions to another that will perform their Compact these Princes being present by their Embassadors at the Councils and what was there done was done by their consent The Albigensian Heresie beginning to be so numerous and even dangerous those Monarches thought themselves in no worse a condition for that decree nor did any Catholick King since complain or protest against this Council for it 3. Note the Decrees of some Councils not received or acknowledged universally by the Catholick Church are not obligatory but that which is principally to be considered is that in the Decree of this Lateran under Innocent the Third it is ordained not Supream Princes but temporales potestates dominos which bear Offices in States and Kingdoms to take Oaths to root out all Hereticks under the penalty of being denounced to be deprived of their Estates c. yet reserving the right of the supream Lord. 4. This pretended Article of Faith hath been disclaimed by a world of unquestionable Catholicks and all allegations confuted by learned Authors of our Nation Doctor Bistop writ a Book purposely against it 5. No proof can be given that it was ever received or executed by any Catholick Kingdom out of Italy The reason is because those decrees were never published by Pope Innocent nor a Copy of them extant either in the body of the Councils or Vatican Library or elsewhere till a certain German three hundred years after said he found them in a Manuscript compiled he knows not by whom 6. By testimony of all Historians at that time Pope Innocent suffered in Reputation having convoked so many Prelates to no purpose 60 Capitula were recited in the Assembly and many penned in a stile as if they had been concluded but nothing at all could plainly be decreed no Conciliary determinations made but one or two viz. about the recovery of the holy Land and subjection of the Greek Church to the Roman for a War began then between them of Pisa and Genua which called the Pope from the Council 7. Be it granted a conciliary decree it is so far from looking like an Article of Faith which saith Bellarmine and Canus may easily be discovered by
the stile Here is nothing proposed to be believed no Anathema fulminated no signification that the contrary is against the Scripture c. therefore at most it is a meer ecclesiastical ordinance touching external discipline and as such what is more ordinary and permitted than for Princes to refuse admittance therein we see some Churches of France reject the decrees of reformation made in the Council of Trent and also practised in England 8. Suppose it be an ordinance yet supream Princes and Kings are not named but excluded and only their Officers and Substitutes c. 9. No example can be produced in the Empire or other Catholick State that such an Oath in succeeding times was imposed or threatned But on the contrary we know Charls the fifth by a Law of the Empire publickly permitted Lutherans in several Provinces and all the Kings of France sinâ—e Hen. 3. permitted the Calvinists yet the Pope never threatned deposition or they feared it Therefore this doctrinal point of Faith is shamefully pretended to be involved on that or the like Decrees viz. the Popes power of deposing c. What State Kingdome or City received or taught the People this even as a probable Opinion It is well known in practice and doctrine other Sects and their accusers have been more faulty in this point then they as History and experience testifie of Princes actually deposed in Scotland Denmark Sweden Geneva c. and absolute rebellion following their doctrine in Poland Bohemia England France Hungary Germany c. Obj. Innocent the third who presided in this Council actually deposed King John and Otho the Emperour Resp Popes as private Doctors may err in matters of fact their Decrees and Bulls are not always held as infallible and may be opposed as often they have been by Papists nor will they scruple to do it especially about temporal affairs We do not approve whatsoever Popeâ— do in fact in deposing c. If some Popes have been exorbitant have not Papist themselves defended their Princes against all pretended illegal impositions of Rome If some Popes have transgressed and been passionate men it doth not follow all have as some Princes have been Tyrants not all This King John Protestant Histories conclude passing by his youthful Rebellion murthering his Nephew his Atheism c. they record he lost our whole interest in France discontenting all his people not defending their Rites and Priviledges c. So Heylin Daniel Martin Sir Robert Cotton Hist And Stow in his Chronicle 170. relates it thus King John being dissolute and perfidious and would not grant the Laws or Liberties of the Charter had as many enemies as Nobles Clergy and Layty petitioned against him for the Pope to depose him an opinion then in practice the Pope would not but sent Paendulph his Legate who comes over to Dover to King John to counsel the King's peace and reconcile him to God and the Church The King living then in great jeopardy to loose his Kingdome The King of France being invited by the Nobles and Clergy to invade the Kingdome saved the Kingdome by it after this the Clergy came over and all was in peace The Pope after this excommunicates the Barons for the disobeying the King and calling in the French King Lewis into the Realm And Gaule the Legate was sent from the Pope to forbid Lewis to go into or invade England to excommunicate him if he did But Lewis of France arrived in England whom the Barons assisted against King John John soon after died his eldest son Hen. 3. at nine years old was crowned King by the Bishops of Winchester and Bath c. and the Government of the King was committed to the Popes Legate the Bishop of Winchester and Earl of Pembroke The Legate maintained the King's part admonished prayed and commanded the disobedient to do as he did called a Council at Bristol caused the Bishops to incline to the King's part notwithstanding Lewis did what he could to the contrary Seeing Lewis and his complices were excommunicated every Sunday by the Legate though they had London and all the East parts of England Lewis had notice from Rome except he went out of England the sentence of excommunication of the Legate should be confirmed by the Pope For this cause saith Stow 175. a truce was taken between Lewis and King Henry Philip of France called his son Lewis to return he being passed over the Earl of Salisbury Earl Warren c. revolted to the Kings side and this by industry and virtue of the Pope's Legate Lewis being absolved from the excommunication went into France but his complices were by the Legate deprived of all benefit by their disobedience See Stow 170. Thus we see how for want of knowledge things are carried on and reported very frequently in the worst sense and construction it may be easily collected out of our own Authors and Chronicles that Popes have been great friends to our Princes and this Nation Take in short out of Stow 883. that Pope Adrian the fourth an Englishman invested Hen. 2. with the Dominion of Ireland and had it confirmed with an Assembly at Waterford Pope Vrbane who sent a Legate the Bishop Sabrine into England with sentence of excommunication against the City of London and Cinque-Ports and all those that troubled the King's peace King Richard of England being taken Prisoner unjustly by Leopold Duke of Austria in return from the Wars with the Saladine demanding a great ransome and misusing him The Pope excommunicated the Duke of Austrich and injoyned him to release the Covenants that he constrained our King to make and send home the Pledges The Duke refusing this Order shortly after broke his Leg and in great anguish ended his life and was kept unburied till his Son released the English Pledges Thus were the Pledges restored and the money behind released How oft did the Pope grant to the King of England the Tenth of all Ecclesiastical Goods as to Edward the first and second Sent the Abbot of Saint Denis Legat to request Edward the second to remove from him Pierce Gaveston without which the Kingdom could not be in peace nor the Queen injoy the Kings true love Vide Stow 213. Edw. 2. The Pope sent Ganelinus and Lucius de Flisco by the Kings request to make peace between England and Scotland and reconcile to the King Thomas Earl of Lancaster who brought Bulls from the Pope to excommunicate the Scots except they returned to peace with the King of England William Longshamp Bishop of Ely and Legate to the Pope and Chancellour of England was made Governour of the Realm by Richard the first Afterward the Archbishop of Roan was made Regent of England then being made Archbishop of Canterbury Then you see there was no jealousie of the Pope or his Clergy but on the contrary for many hundred years our Princes and Nation reposed as with just reason they might the greatest trust and confidence in their loyalty faith and
it not lawful to attempt the life of a Prince although he never so much abuse his Power And that it is flat Heresie to maintain the contrary So Greg. de Valent. part 2. Bellar. l. 3. of his Apology Learned Lessius lib. de Scientia jure Serarius in cap. 3. Azor. in his Instit Becanus in his answer to the 9. Aphor. Gretzer in his Vespertilio Heretico confutes all Mariana's grounds Saint Thomas tells expresly Tyrannus non potest a quopiam privatâ Authoritate occidi The Canon Law and Decrees Decret 2. part 10. de Episcopis ac clericis quod nec sua authoritate nec authoritate summi Pontificis arma valeant accipere c. And the Canon Law of England explains it more fully in the Council held at Oxford by Stephen of Canterbury 1228. and anno Hen. 3. where Excommunication is decreed against those who perturb the peace and tranquillity of our Lord the King and Kingdome Bellarmine himself maintains the Laws of Magistrates bind even the Consciences of Christians Lib. de Laicis So the Rhemenses in this Annotat. in 1 Pet. c. 2. Condemn treason and disobedience and say Subjects are bound in temporal things to obey the Heathens being lawful Kings and even for Conscience sake to keep their temporal Laws pay tribute pray for them and other natural duties And Doctor Kellison in his Learned Survey gives a good reason for it because saith he Faith is not necessarily required to jurisdiction nor is authority lost by the loss of Faith The Bishop of Armagh confesseth the English Papists in Ireland were faithful in all the Invasion of Spain or Pope Sand. K. C. p. 88. Calvin himself their greatest enemy on the first of Hosea and ninth of Amos saith quam multi sunt in Papatu qui regibus accumulant quicquid possint juris potestatis Whence King James in his Basilicon doron Epist to the Reader saith Puritans had put out many Libels against all Christian Princes and that no body answered them but the Papists that they were their only Vindicators And the late King himself in his excellent Book of Meditations saith I am sorry Papists should have a greater sense of their allegiance than many Protestants The Loyalty and Obedience of Catholicks towards Princes appears undeniable in all things by their constant and general conformity unto temporal Government Have shewed all the duty that men can fancy to own Where shall we find better Subjects How much they are faulty and how much others have been let the world judg They may lay to our charge ten Seditious Authors for one and that more Villanies have been perpetrated since the Reformation than in nine hundred years before I must provoke both Angels and men saith a Divine of the English Church to consider their wrong How we load them with Crimes of which they are innocent I might wonder how so wild calumnies could be laid to their charge When their constant Doctrine teacheth and their own persons have shewed all duty imaginable Experience hath proved their great integrity that no advantages offered can betray their fidelity to their King or Country what wrong have done what peace have they broken what plots have they fomented to the prejudice of the present Government or occasions given to hatch new jealousies treason is now left out of their charge What discoveries were made against them either in the Rump or Olivers time when the Press was free were they not still owned as the most loyal and constant Royalists and none of them could ever be suspected for the least defection from our Soveraign And yet these are the men that are traduced as inconsistent with civil polity and regality Yet none more inoffensive then they Judg then whether it be not a superlative injustice to incense the world against them As if they delighted in blood and persecuting of men were a part of their doctrine Now because the contrary opinion hath possessed the imaginations of so many by a self-deceiving wilfulness predominant passion or partiality I shall clear and lay open the truth of this assertion in the sequent Chapter So plainly and Orthodoxally that none but who can lay aside all reason charity honesty and morality may contradict and oppose CAP. IX Principles and Doctrines of Roman Catholicks are consistent with Peace and Government wherein a different Religion is established by Law LEt Politicians say what they will there is no greater support to Monarchy than Catholick Religion whence one of our own Doctors saith The Fanaticks did conjecture and were tenacious of opinion that the late Acts put out a-against Papists and Priests were but to bring others more easily into the snare So good and deserving opinion they know Papists merited from those times that no security need to tye them deeper How all the Catholicks of England have comported themselves at least these sixty years last past needs no further vindication those that have been witnesses of their actions can testifie I shall only intimate that I have heard them profess that if at any time they have exposed their lives and fortunes in defence of their Soveraign and Countrey they did but do that duty which they shall be ready to do again notwithstanding any disincouragement can be put upon them Now in this Chapter I adventure to fight against a popular prejudice and the obstinacy of long verted opinions considering the number of my Adversaries who so loudly and resolutely charge them with destructive Doctrines and Principles to the publick good and safety that they seem to make it an Article of their Creed objecting Positions of some private and disavowed persons and words only when others rebelled indeed and their Battels were real but every mans work will bear a better testimony of him than other mens words do against him I know great difficulties may be overcome by truth and time And vulgar and very general errors have oft been easily detected by prudent and unbiasled men Whence to overthrow from the very foundation all such aspersions let all impartial men consider first these calumnies proceed originally from enemies Secondly they are untruths forged against them and taken upon trust what their Antagonists teach you For it hath been a course often practised against them by many of their opponents First to frame Articles of their belief according to their own fancy or out of private and unapproved Authors as if they were the true and real Articles of their Faith Who being oft pressed to justifie the accusations could never do it or durst not shew their faces in a free or publick conference about the points in question This way of proceeding is against all Law and Equity to condemn them before you hear them No Judg sends men to be hanged before they speak for themselves and Sentence given Secondly According to the rule of reason they themselves should make the Confession and Profession of their own Faith and that of others especially their adversaries should
Parliament and chief Secretary printed at that time and neither could any noted or known Catholick by any device be drawn into this matter Those that were up in tumult with Catesby were by our Prot. Hist Howes never full fourscore and those made up with servants horse-boys and houshouldattendance as Saunders and Speed confirm For if Priests and Recusants so many thousands then in England would have entertained it no man can be so malitious and simple to think that there would not have been a greater assembly to take such an action in hand and the Council could not have been so ill-sighted but that they would have found some other culpable as some by all imaginable craft and industry endeavoured and desired But to confirm their innocency King James in his own Declaration saith that the generality of Catholicks did abhor such a detestable Conspiracy no less than himself And he was so kind to Catholicks the last half of his Reign of which Wilson complains in several places Wils K. of 193. which was impossible he should have been so favourable had he not been convinced they never had had any design of destroying him or his Secondly the King in his second Proclamation 1605. and in his third Proclamation 1605. when they were all discovered in which Proclamation we plainly see the King and Council knew the Complices and partakers of that villanie yet never taxed any Priest or Papist therewith Thirdly the King in publick Parliament did free Catholiks as much as Protestants when he plainly saith as truth is if it had taken effect Protestants and Papists should have all gone away and perished together The King in his second Proclamation against the Conspiracy calleth the Confederates Men of lewd life insolent dispositions and of desperate estates And to demonstrate from the publick Act their innocency as well Protestants he declares by Proclamation Proclamatione die 7. Novemb. 1605. We are by good experience so well perswaded of the loyalty of diverse Subjects of the Romish Religion that they do as much abhor this detestable conspiracy as our self and will be ready to do their best endeavours though with expence of their blood to suppress all attempters against our safety and the quiet of our State and discover whomsoever they shall suspect to be rebellious This by good experience he pronounceth Priests and Catholicks notwithstanding were upon this pretence persecuted though besides all these reasons aforesaid by publick consent both of their Clergy and Layety Catholicks presented and offered to maintain their cause and innocency in many humble Petitions whereof two were printed to the King The first begins To the most excellent and mighty Prince our gracious and dread Soveraign James King of England c. justifying of Catholicks and the Truth of their Religion against their Adversaries Most Gracious Soveraign THe late intended Conspiracy against the Life of your Royal Majesty the Life Vnion Rule and Direction to these united Kingdoms was so heinous an impiety that nothing which is holy can make it legitimate no pretence of Religion can be alleadged to excuse it God in heaven condemns it men on earth detest it innocents bewail it and your dutiful Subjects Catholicks Priests and others which have endured most for their Profession hold it in greatest detestation and horror c. Yet this is the miserable distressed state of many thousands of your most loyal and loving Subjects dread Leige for their faithful duty to God and Religion taught in this Kingdom and embraced by all your Progenitours and our Ancestors so many hundred years that every adversary may preach and print against us and make their challenge as though either for ignorance we could not or for distrust of our cause we were not willing to make them answer or come to trial when quite contrary we have often earnestly and by all means we could desired to have it granted c. And at this time when your chief Protestant Clergy Bishops and others is assembled we most humbly entreat this so reasonable a placet that although they will not as we fear ever consent to an indifferent choice opposition and defence in questions yet at least to avoid the wonder of the world they will be content we may have publick audience of those Articles Opinions ond Practises for which we are so much condemned and persecuted If we shall not be able to defend or prove any position generally maintained in our Doctrine to be conformable to those rules in Divinity which your Majesty and the Protestant Laws of England we can offer no more have confirmed for holy Canonical Scripture the first four General Councils the days of Constantine and the primitive Church let the penalties be imposed and executed against us c. in fine Your Royal person and that honourable Consistory now assembled are holden in your Doctrine to be Supream Sentencers even in Spiritual businesses in this Kingdome we therefore hope you will not in a Court from whence no appeal is allowed and in matters of such consequence proceed to Judgment or determine of execution before the arraigned is summoned to answer hath received or refused trial is or can be proved guilty c. Deny not that to us your true and obedient Subjects in a Religion so ancient which your colleagued Princes the King of Spain and Archduke do offer to thee so many years disobedient Netherlands upon their temporal submittance in so late an embraced doctrine That which the Arrian Emperors of the East permitted to the Catholick Bishops Priests Churches toleration What the Barbarian Vandals often offered and sometimes truly perforformed in Africk what the Turkish Emperour in Greece and Protestant Princes in Germany and other places conformable to the example of Protestant Rulers not unanswerable to your own Princely piety pity and promise no disgust to any equally minded Protestant or Puritan at home a Jubilee to us distressed a warrant of security to your Majesty in all opinions from all terrors and dangers from which of what kind soever we most humbly beseech the infinite mercy of almighty God to preserve your Highness and send you your children and Posterity all happiness and felicity both in Heaven and Earth Amen Another Petition to the King and Parliament from the Cath. in Eng. allowed by the Priests was presented by Sir Franc. Hastins and Sir Richard Knightly which urged likewise for a Disputation Another to the same tenure was then with the same assent subscribed with three and twenty hands of the greatest Catholick Gentry of England and presented to the chief Secretary of State potent in those times in Court and Council and as Recusants feared not equally affected towards them though never so innocent And the same Recusants were more than jealous that this practice of Conspiracy was no great secret to that Secretary long before divers of them that were actors in it by him named Catholicks were acquainted with it an invention to entrap those he did not
Laws nor made by the principles of Catholick Doctrine The Arrians were the first introducers of persecution they were not I say enacted by Ecclesiasticks but by civil Governours only We know that by the Canons of the Church ever in force their Clergy under the penalty of irregularity are forbidden to have any hand in blood And whatsoever civil Laws have been made by Catholick civil Governours were but as prudent means to prevent Sedition or Rebellions justly apprehended And though for some later ages civil Magistrates in some Countries exercise greater severities than anciently were used must England imitate the rigidest of other Countries Neither can our hatred or persecution against Catholicks be any more excused by the proceedings of the Spanish or Italian Inquisitions than our penal Statutes have been by the Laws of ancient Kings and Emperours against Hereticks First Because the Inquisition proceeds according to the rules and forms of justice none is declared an Heretick or guilty by any new Law or Oath made only to the end that by them men may be entrapped both in Soul in Body and Estate It was no crime in England to be a Roman Catholick before the penal Laws were enacted but it was a crime to be an Heretick or an Apostate or broacher of new Doctrines before the ancient Emperors and Kings made penal Laws against Heresie The Law supposed and did not make the crime As penal Statutes do in England making a crime of Christian Religion Secondly Hereticks are never condemned by the Inquisition without the testimony of many lawful witnesses both living and dead All the ancient Fathers Councils and the Christian Church of former ages testifie their errors are new and contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles No Rebel was ever more evidently convicted of Rebellion against his Prince then Hereticks are by the Inquisition of Heresie against God and the old Apostolical Church Catholicks cannot obtain so fair a Plea they are condemned by a new Law because they are not Hereticks and separate from the ancient Faith Thirdly The Inquisition practiceth all imaginary means towards the accused to reduce his judgment Fourthly The Inquisition it self is permitted in no Kingdome where Heresie is numerous nor can it be in justice they strive to keep out Sects and new Opinions in Countries totally of one Belief We do not morally blame the very Moors in Africa being of one profession for keeping out the Gospel it self In England where all fell not from the Papacy there is not the same just motive for severity as if it brought an upstart Religion never heard of or spread over the Nation Fifthly The Inquisition medleth not with those who never were Catholicks but the penal Statutes comprehend them who never were of their Church or Communion Sixthly The Inquisition condemns no Hereticks to death but only declares their heresie to the end the faithful may avoid their conversation its true the Secular power executes the sentence of death against them notwithstanding the Inquisition doth protest against the rigour and desireth that Hereticks may not be punished with death Seventhly Though the Inquisition were rigorous and unjust as adversaries pretend it is not a blemish to Catholick Religion because it is not an universal practice but limited to Spain and Italy at the instance of secular Princes looked upon as a necessary means to keep their Subjects in awe of their 〈◊〉 Eighthly The Inquisition â—oth seriously wish and endeavour the conâ—ersion and amendment of Hereticks imploâ—ing learned Divines to convince them and by fair ways and reason to win them Neither can the Muthers or Massacres in Ireland so much and so often exaggerated in Protestant Pamphlets and Pulpits be any pretext of rigour or austerity to English Catholicks What hath an English Catholick to do with an Irish Massacre Can we our selves excuse all the extravagancies by some of our natives and party Doth Catholick Religion either incline him to or teach murther or rebellion Have they not a setled sense of Scripture for loyalty and obedience Which none can alter without breach of his Catholick Faith And they are not their own interpreters and and judges in points controverted that 's the priviledge of others I only say and wish from my soul that some indiscreet Zealots had not a greater hand in them than Catholick Religion whose tenets are contrary to cruelty and murther on any pretence whatsoever Is it not notorious that the Reformed Zealots in Ireland signed a bloody Petition offered to the Parliament in England that all Irish that would not go to Church might be extirpated or banished This was done before the Irish Catholicks did stir Suppose that in Vlster some of the rascality or Kerns being exasperated by so many and continual injuries had murthered some persons must that reflect upon the English Catholicks and all the Irish Nation or what is the Irish Râ—â—ellion to English Catholicks who detest it more than the Amboyna to Reformists it is too much ascertained that the Murthers and Massacres done in Ireland by Reformists furious zeal against Catholicks exceeded those committed by Catholicks witness their murthers about Dublin the County of Wicko and Fingcole by the transplantation of them into Canaught and by the transporting them into the Plantations of America forcing them to the Oath of Abjuration and almost starving them in those places contrary to the Publick Faith given them by printed Declarations in the Name of the English Parliament to Irish Catholicks Anno 1649. 1652. that the Oath of Abjuration shall not be administred to any in Ireland Baxter in his Cure of Church-Division confesseth and saith they put the Irish to death that went to defend themselves and stand for the King and Country yet they who seemed so godly themselves Massacred millions of their own Country that were for the Country and King and gave God many humiliation days and thanks for their success killing after so many Scots in cold blood after they were taken at Worcester Fight See Baxter But whosoever desires to be better satisfied in this of Ireland let him read the printed Remonstrance of the Irish Confederate Catholicks delivered by their Commissioners the Lord Vicount Preston and Sir Robert Talbot the seventeenth of March 1642. to his Majesties Commissioners at Trim. There he will see how the Irish desired the murthers on both sides might be punished and how they were forced to take up arms by the wicked practices of Sir William Persons Sir Charls Coot and other fiery Protestants who governed the Kingdom Therefore whatsoever may be said in passion of the Irish war its evident that the Calvinistical Zealot had great influence upon their injurious provocations murthering seven or eight hundred women children Ploughmen and labourers in a day in the Kings Land whensoever the Army went abroad the poor Country-people did betake themselves to the Firrs where the Parliament Officers did besiege them and set the Fâ—rrs on fire and such as escaped that element were
All Sides and Nations reproach us for it when the sensual and partial are so hardened in their self ishness that no warning can take off the Bias of their Judgments There is a kind of spirit in some which is so different from that charity which thinketh no evil that it thinketh nothing 1 Cor. 13. else concerning those that differ from them this is contrary to that charity which is not puffed up and doth not behave it self unseemly In that almighty God hath put enmity between the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent we may gather that as the Seed of the Woman should be at enmity with the Seed of the Serpent so should it be at unity with it self If even with Infidels and Heathens the Servant of God must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach c. 2 Tim. 2. 24. How much more is Gods family and inheritance to be used with love and tenderness There is in many Christians a strange inequality of partiality Alas how often have I heard wise and otherwise prudent persons cry out against pride and partiality in others who in their next discourse have shamefully shewed it themselves making much of their own inconsiderable reasonings and vilifying urgent evidence And being so intent on their own cause that they could scarce have patience to hear another speak and when they have heard them their first words shew that they never well weighed the strength of his arguments but were all the while thinking what to say against him or how to go on as they had begun Many an errour is taken up by going too far from others Some giddy and heady Professors saith Doctor Gauden have been so eager to come out of Babylon that they are almost run out of their wits so jealous of superstition that they are pandors for confusion so scared with the name of Rome that they are afraid of all right reason and sober Religion so fearful of being over-righteous by following traditions of men that they fear not to be over-wicked by overthrowing the good â—oundations of honour order peace and charity fierce enemies indeed against the Idolatry of Antichrist but fast friends to Belial and Mammon to Schism and Sacriledg And thus mens judgments and practices are depraved by flying indiscreetly from others while they think more from whence they go than whether More favouring the separate zeal of Pharisees than the winning zeal of Christ calling themselves a godly people and are but a company of superstitious Pharisees or a sort of melancholy humorists who must sit because their neighbour stands or must go out of the way because their neighbour goeth in it They that will find out the bottom of any Religion must prepare themselves to carry a spirit thoroughly discharged of all animosities passions and false apprehensions which corrupt the judgment and raise a mist upon the most resplendent lights of truth If we were impartially willing to know the truth and did pray God in meekness of spirit we would avoid and not choose deceits and resist the light and provoke God to forsake our understandings Many Christians are as children tossed too and sro fluctuating 'twixt wind and water there is no other remedy for such or satisfaction or peâ—ce to their Consciences but Christ's precept and prescript to hear the Church to be of the number and in the community of the generality of agreeing Christians seing the generality of those that have a long and constant delivered Series of their Doctrines is more unlikely to be in error or forsaken of Christ than a few odd-conceited new opinions And this may be one rational means left us to find out the truth as Baxter confesseth in cure of Church c. to submit to that the most religious the most learned the major part of Christians ever taught or submitted to Whence Bishop Gauden noteth The primitive Churches were as careful to act in their outward Order and Government of the Church according to Apostolical pattern and traditional constitutions which were first the rule of the Churches practice as they were faithful to preserve the Canon of Scriptures which were after written and delivered without corruption to posterity Every one will confess that the true spirit of Christianity is meek peaceable gentle and yet how contrary is the practice the people of God are realous but of what not to consume and destroy one another not to hate and vilifie one another but they are zealous to love one another to forbear what is contrary to love zealous of good works patient temperate gentle c. the way of heavenly wisdom is meek peaceable and easie to be entreated by all offices of Rom. 12. 18. love inclined to good to all The spirit of false zeal is censorious hurtful dividing following the works of the flesh which are hatred malice Galat. 5. 12. variance leading the way to cruelty and persecution Where is persecution but from thinking ill of others abhorring and not loving them robbing men of the priviledges of Christians not leaving them common liberty of men and subjects nor to plead for themselves This destroying cruelty leaveth them neither and will not suffer them to enjoy so much liberty as Heathens and Infidels may enjoy or as S. Paul did under such condemning them to the loss of the greatest Act. 28. priviledges on earth and to be left out with the dogs publicans and heathens Is persecution worthy all the calamitous divisions in Christendom and the blood of so many thousands shed for conscience sake and enduring the outcries of the imprisoned and banished and their prayers to Heaven from mens hands and the leaving such a name upon record to posterity as is usually left in History on the authors of such sufferings besides the present regret of mind in the calamities of others and sad divisions and destructions of charity which cometh hereupon Will force cure disagreements and errors better than evidence of truth and love will do will they be so cured without a greater mischief Is not the work to be done for saving mens Souls and shall any be saved against his will will penalties change the judgment in matters of religion is he any better than a knave or hypocrite who will say or swear to do that through fear which he thinketh God forbiddeth him and feareth may damn his Soul is it the honour of Church or Kingdom to be composed of such and are the lives of Kings peace of Kingdoms Estates c. competently secured where God is not feared more than fines or corporal punishments Is this to teach in love to instruct in meekness it is certain whosoever swerves from the dictate of his Conscience commits a sin Rom. 14. So they that endeavour to force or draw any man to profess or act contrary to what his Soul believes are as deeply guilty of the same crime We are all infirm and of imperfect understandings therefore we ought not to be too imperious or too censorious toward other dissenters lest you James 3. 12. receive a greater condemnation take heed you fall not into the hands of the living God They shall be judged without mercy who have shewed no mercy The rod of discipline must be used but it must be done only to the scandalous and so done that it may appear to be Christs own work and upon his interest and his command and not either arbitrarily or for our selves Christ teacheth us not to use violence when we speak for him but to beseech men in his name to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5. And men would more easily be perswaded to believe that Religion to be from God whose Professors they saw to be god-like The whole Gospel is a revelation of the love of God and a Messias of peace and very opposite to envy and animosity all principles which are against universal love are against God and holiness it is Love which is predominant Fear is subservient and that fear which is contrary to love is vice I dare proclaim true piety love humility and prudence may happily heal a great many dissentions and the wounds which rash injudicious zeal hath made that to the proud carnal and uncharitable seem incurable and the cessation of unnecessary impositions might cease the saddest distractions of the Nation Oppression maketh a wise man mad saith the Preacher Eccles 7. 7. Conscience Persecution then among Christians is clearly repugnant to the Law of God the Light of Nature and evidence of our own principles For the sake then of Christ who purchased the weakest with his blood for the sake of those who are in danger of turning to Atheism for the sake of the poor distracted Nation for the sake of the King that he may have comfort in his Subjects of governing a quiet peaceable people and for your own sakes that you may give up account to God of your principal and most Christian duty and not make Apocriphal all those Texts of Scripture and plain injunctions to charity and love above cited and Rom. 14. 2 3 4. and 15. 34. Matt. 25. 40. 1 Phil. 15 16 17. Let then the Scripture Reason and Experience the Petitions and Tears of the distressed intreat you to moderation Rom. 3. 16. let the deformity and unreasonableness of the cruel maxims of persecution bringing nothing but destruction and misery be a determent to all tempestuous spirits let the conscientious and godly-minded people out of the bowels of mercy and compassion sollicite the Governours of the earth and pray unto heaven for an impartial freedom That eternal Majesty who raised so brave a fabrick of such indisposed materials that controuls the waves and checks the tumults of the people let his mercy be implored for speedy succour to the distressed for unity and charity to the divided That the rod of Aaron may blossom that the Tabernacle of David may be raised that the subtil and envious may be caught in their own snare that the result of all afflictions may be the greatening of his Glory and the exalting of his Scepter Amen FINIS