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
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
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
either did or might have learned from the Popes and greatest Divines of the Roman Church It was truly alledged by Salmasius that the Doctrine of the Sacred and inviolable Authority of Princes was preserved pure and uncorrupt in the Church till the Bishops of Rome attempted to set up a Kingdom in this World paramount to all Kings and Emperours But he with his usual confidence acquits the Popes and charges his Antimonarchical Principles on Luther Zuinglius Calvin Bucer Martyr Paraeus and all the Reformed Divines (D) Pro populo Anglicano defensio p. 33. Quot sunt Ecclesiae Reformata praestantissimi Doctores tot videi acerimos sibi adversarios fore frustra id in Papam deonerare at que transsure contendis quod omnes liberae Nationes omnis Religio omnes Orthodoxi sibi sumunt in se suscipiunt I might oppose to the Authority of Milton a very late Author of the Roman Church who was well acquainted with the Doctrine of it A reverend and learned Divine of our Church charged this Seditious Principle on the Jesuites that Government is so originally in the People that they by their Representatives may call their Soveraign to an Account and alter the Form of the Government he returns this Answer That this Principle whatsoever truth it may have in speculation is by no means to be preacht to the People who are apt enough of themselves to stretch Cases and pick Quarrels with their best Governours yet it was taught many Ages before the Jesuites were so much as thought of (E) Answer to several late Treatises in the Preface Ed. 2. 1674. By Dr. Stillingsleet And this was the Fundamental Principle of the Seditions Spirits in Scotland at the first beginning of the Trouble viz. That all Authority is Originally in the Collective Body derived from thence to the Prince and that not only in case of negligence it is Suppletive in the Collective Body as being Communicate from the Commonalty to the King Cumulative not Privative but also in case of Male-administration to return to the Collective Body so that Rex excidit jure suo and that they may refuse Obedience See the Declinator of the Bishops of Scotland against the pretended General Assembly holden at Glasgow Novemb. 21.1638 It seems the Doctrine is true and hath been taught for many Ages in the Roman Church but the People are not fit to have the management of it This latter part of his Assertion I could make good but because I study brevity I shall only set down the Principal Heads of Antimonarchical Divinity as I find them in the Writings of some of the Popes which lived divers Ages before the rise of the Jesuites 1. I begin with Gregory the first who lived above a thousand years since The Story of Phocas one of the greatest Villains and Rebels in the World is well known This man from a Centurion became the Ringleader of a Rebellion against Mauritius his Soveraign Lord caused the Emperors Children the Heir Apparent to the Crown divers of the Loyal Nobility and the Emperor himself to be put to death and yet he was no sooner gotten into the Imperial Throne but Pope Gregory writes an Epistle to him wherein he basely and perfidiously courts the Tyrant congratulates his Success in the same words the Angels did our Saviours Nativity blesses God and admires the Divine Providence in exalting him to the Empire This canting flattering Letter might with a little variation have served for an Address to any late Usurpers (F) S. Gregorii Magni Opera Farisi is 1619. c 11. Ep. 38. Gloria in excelsis Deo qui juxta quod scriptum est mut at tempora transfert regna et qui hoc cunstis innotuit quod per prophitam suum loqui dignatus est dicens qui a dominatur excelsus in regno hominum et cui voluerit ipse dat illud aliquando cum misericors Deus merentium multorum cord a sua decrevit collatione resovere unum ad regiminis culmen provehit per cujus misericordie viscera in cunctorum mentibus exultationis suae gratiam insundit De qua exultationis abundantia roborari nos citius credimus qui benignitatem vestrae pietatis ad imperiale fastigium pervenesse gaudemus Laetentur coeli exultet terra c. 2. The next is Zachary that about 900 years ago deposed Childerick the French King and absolved his Subjects from their Allegiance not so much for his Iniquities as because he was not fit to Govern And this is attested by divers Authors of good Credit and by their own Authentick Canon-Law (G) Decret Par. 2. Caus 15 qu. 6. c. 4. However Milton pretends there was no need of a Pope the King by his perfidiousness having discharged the people from their Oath made to him (H) Pro pop Angl. def c. 4. But Milton and others of better credit acknowledge as much as is sufficient to my present purpose That the Pope declared it was the Peoples right to make and un make their Kings and that he should be King which was fittest to discharge that Trust The Nobility of France were sensible say their Historians of the Kings idleness and unfitness to Govern and of the great Vertue of Pipin and upon Pipin's consulting the Pope what was fit to be done in this case his Determination was that He should be King who was fittest to discharge the Office of a King Whereupon the Nobility and People in a full Assembly depose Childerick and choose Pepin Thus the People of France with the Popes Consent and Advice took off the Crown from their Kings Head gave it to one of his own Subjects and changed the Kingdom from one Family to another And what unpardonable Crime was this poor King guilty of What Acts of cruelty had he committed Indeed there is no such thing laid to his Charge Some say he was a good and religious King others that he was a good natur'd and easie Prince His Enemies say he was not fit to govern and this is the principal reason which the Canon-Law gives for his being deposed It may be he was not so wise as some of his Neighbours I am sure he was not so Crafty as his Holiness at Rome or his own Subjects at home 3. I challenge any man to shew me a more pernicious Account of the rise of Kingly Government than is to be seen in Gregory the seventh that lived about six hundred years since The Kings and Princes of the Earth were at first no better than other Mortals but by the Instigation of the Devil by Pride Rapine Perfidiousness Murder intolerable Presumption and all manner of Wickedness they got the Power into their hands Rare Divinity for the Head of the Church But had his Holiness put in Popes instead of Kings he had not been much out either in his Divinity or History He that has a mind to see any more such wicked stuff may consult the places quoted in the
General Councils and by the Publique Breviaries And this is no mere Speculative Doctrine but a kind of State-Engine fitted to raise and support the Papal Monarchy Have not the Bishops of Rome made use of it as often as it was in their Power and served their Interest Have they not trampled on the Necks of Princes and absolved their Subjects from their Allegiance Disposed of their Crowns and Dominions animated their own Subjects and other Princes to take up Arms against them Cast them out of the Church and out of their Kingdoms Yea so true have they been to this Principle that not only such as were very Prodigies of Pride and Tyranny but even the more prudent and moderate Popes have so often put it in practise that the troubles and Confusions the Wars and Treasons which have followed in Christendom make up a great part of the History of some Ages (Z) See the Catalogues of Princes excommunicated and deposed by Popes in their own Authors V.G. Bellar. de R. Pont. l. 5. c. 8. Bzovius de Pont. Rom. c. 46. p. 613. to 620. Paul the third Excommunicated and deposed our Henry the Eighth Bullarium tom 1. p. 619. Pius the Fifth Excommunicated and Deposed Queen Elizabeth tom 2. p. 305. Clement the Eighth sent two Breves into England to debar King James from succeeding to the Crown See King James his Works p. 257. And yet after all the Complaints and Sufferings of Princes under this Usurped Power not the least care is taken either by the Church or Court of Rome to secure their Rights Why did not the Council of Trent make a plain and Honest Explication of the Popes Power and the Rights of Princes when they had so fair an opportunity to vindicate themselves and their Religion And in what request this Doctrine is at Rome may appear from hence that since the breaking out of the Popish Plot in England the present Pope was pleased to condemn sixty five Propositions but as great a Scandal as their Religion lay under amongst us could not find in his heart to speak one unkind word of this Doctrine (A) A Decree made at Rome March 2. 1679. condemning some Opinions of the Jesuites and other Casuists I know some private persons and some Assemblies of Church-men of the Roman Communion have at some times taught the contrary Doctrine but it concerns them not me to reconcile their Determinations with the Doctrine of their Church However I will say these three things 1. They have been such as were over-awed by Princes or in expectation of Favours and Preferments from them 2. They have been censured and excommunicated by the Teaching Governing part of the Church and as much as in them lay shut out of her Communion 3. Where Princes Excommunicated and deposed for other real or pretended Crimes have procured any Advocates to plead for them yet they have either excepted the case of Haeresie or not undertaken to prove the Unlawfulness of deposing Princes for it 2. The next thing to be considered is the Doctrine of King-killing Concerning which the late Lord Stafford did indeed declare That if he were of any Church whatsoever and found that to be its Principle he would leave it But this Patron of the Roman Cause did not think fit to acquaint us with that expression of his Lordship in the printed Tryal p. 53. As to the Doctrine of King-Killing and absolving Persons from their Allegiance I cannot say the Church of Rome does not hold it I never heard it did hold it it may be it does it may be not I say not one thing or other From which words we may learn these two things 1. That his Lordship knew not that the Church of Rome had any where condemn'd this wicked Doctrine 2. That the English Priests and Confessors do not plainly and honestly difavow and condemn it or instruct their Proselites in the Principles of Loyalty Indeed the Church of Rome hath not in express terms asserted the Lawfulness of putting Kings to death but there is so little difference between the deposing and putting Kings to death that whosoever allows of the one can be no Enemy to the other if he understand the Consequences of his own Doctrine For when a King is deposed by any lawful Authority he is a King no longer If he take up Arms to recover his Dominions you may fight against him with as good a Conscience as against an Usurper And will a King be so tame as to lay down his Crown at the Popes or his Peoples Feet Will he suffer himself to be stript of his Royal Dignity without striking a stroke or solliciting the Assistance of other Princes I would not imitate the uncharitable Spirit of the Roman Church whilst I am writing against it nor dare I charge all men with the Consequences of their own Doctrines but I am sure many of the greatest Divines and Casuists of that Church have both seen and vindicated them and I do not find that the rest are able to confute them But saith Cardinal Perron in his forecited Orations a King deposed being once Reformed and become a new Man may be restored to the lawful use and practise of his Regality And what if he will not reform what if he be more hardned in disobedience than Childerick was and prefer his own Honour and Conscience above the Bull of a Pope or the Act of a Rebellious Faction in his own Kingdom truly then he may lose his Head as well as his Crown notwithstanding any care the Church of Rome hath taken of him If he take the Field so may his Enemies it may be they have been before hand with him But suppose the poor disarmed man a King you cannot call him if he have no right to the Crown be not able to raise Forces and therefore resolves to trudge to his Holiness and there bare-headed bare-footed as we know who did humbly beg Absolution of the Pope Perhaps he may be in a good Humour grant him Absolution upon such terms as he did Henry the 4th that he submit himself to the Judgment of an Assembly of the States But what if it be now too late to reforme It may be his Kingdoms are already given away to another for the Popes are free enough in giving what is none of their own or perhaps the Estates of the Kingdom have turned it into a Commonwealth In Fine Princes deposed from their Soveraignty are liable to so many hazards that they have seldom survived their deprivation unless it were in exile or in a Prison But I must pass over the Jugglings and Equivocations of men of King-killing Principles Ask them if it be lawful to kill a King They tell you no and many of them call God to Witness the Integrity of their Hearts and Loyalty of thier Practises But if a King fall from the Faith and become an Enemy to Gods Church and People If he do regis personam exuere turn Tyrant and
Protestants call it by what name you please but it must be such a one as will only serve a present turn and is inconsistent with a lasting Settlement such a one as tendeth not to the lessening but the encreasing our Differences and will in the conclusion ruin the beauty if not the very being of the Church of England (A) See the Letter of Advice given to F. Young concerning the best way of managing the Popish Interest in England upon his Majesties Restauration The first Advice is To make the Obstruction of Settlement the great Design especially upon the Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom The Letter is cited by the Dean of S. Pauls in his Preface to the Unreasonableness of Separation A Church against which as their Attempts have been more frequent so they have been carried on with more Art and Industry than against any Church in the Christian World A Church that is free from Impostures and Innovations from Superstition and Enthusiasm which are the principal Ingredients of Popery A Church that endeavours to reduce all things to their Antient Limits and so long there can be no room for Papal Usurpations And I appeal to all wise men Whether it be either the Interest or Duty of the Romish Faction continuing true to their Principles to strengthen or repair such a Church as this which they are bound to pull down or break in pieces All the Service that I could ever find they did the Church of England was to raise and support Sects and Factions amongst us to creep in among them under various disguises to weaken the Government to lay us open to the Assaults of Foreign and Domestick Enemies and to bring us into such a disorder and confusion as was more likely to end in Atheism or Popery than in the Vnion of Protestants If we look back as far as the first beginning of the Separation from our Church we shall see many strong probabilities that the busie Factors for Popery the Jesuites and Jesuited Papists had a great Influence on it and what advantages they have ever since made of our unnatural Heats and growing Schisms we are not wholly ignorant They knew the safest though not the quickest way to reduce their Religion was by fomenting domestick Factions And when some of the Exiles in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign returned home with a dislike of some things in our Church they laid hold of this Opportunity of dividing the Protestants and enflamed the differences in hope of making them destroy one another and fall a Prey to the common Adversary Whilest Harding Sanders and others of the Roman Communion attacked our Church on one side saith a learned and faithful Historian Coleman Butten Hallingham and others were as busie on the other And it hath been lately published to the world from the Lord Burleighs Papers that Faithful Commin a Dominican Friar and Thomas Heath a Jesuite were employed by the Pope and Jesuites under the disguise of zealous Protestants to draw men off from the Communion of the Church of England Such wonderful Friends are the Emissaries of Rome to order and unite amongst English Protestants But I will conclude this Head with the Declaration of Indulgence An. 1671 2 concerning which the Author of the Letter from a Person of Quality to his Friend in the Country tells us That when the War was to be made with Holland the Lord C. advised to quiet all Dissenters in Religion at home with granting the Declaration of Indulgence and the E. of S. though a man of Principles and Interest opposite to the other presently closed with his Advice And Coleman own'd that the Fatal Revocation of this Declaration for Liberty of Conscience was that to which the Papists owed all their late Miseries and Hazards We all know that from this time Licenses were accepted and Meeting-houses built People were withdrawn from the Parochial Assemblies and Books written to justifie their Practises upon such Principles as naturally lead to endless Separations and the destroying the very being of our Church Whole Herds of Priests and Jesuites have lurked in these Kingdoms and the Roman Church hath had a most plentiful Harvest amongst us If this be called the Vniting of Protestants it must be by the same Figure by which the destroying mens Rights is call'd the defending their Liberties 2. I come to consider the Endeavours which have been used by the Roman Catholicks to procure a Toleration for themselves At Queen Elizabeth's first coming to the Crown the Pope threatned to Excommunicate her the Emperor and other Foreign Princes moved by their Ambassadors for a free and open Exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion (B) Cambden Eliz. ad an 1558. In King James his time Cardinal Bellarmine roundly tells his Majesty That if he desired to consult his own and his Peoples Safety he must give Liberty to their Religion (C) Bel. Resp. ad Apol. Ed. Câ—… Agripp 1610. p. 21. Si â—ex secure regnare vitae suae ac suorum consulere cupit sinat caâ—…os frui antiqua possessione religionis suae And the Lord Herbert in a Letter to the King An. 1623. tells him The Pope will never grant his Consent to the Marriage of the Prince with the Infanta of Spain unless his Majesty grant some not able Privileges and Advantages to the Roman Catholicks in his Dominions He adds The King of Spain would never insist on obtaining these Privileges but that he desires to form a Party in your Majesties Kingdoms which he may always keep obsequious to his will c. (D) Cabala printed 1654. In the beginning of King Charles the First his Reign the Irish Papists taking advantage of the Emptiness of the Kings Treasury proffered to maintain Five Thousand men at their own Charge if they might enjoy a Toleration but that Motion was crushed by the Bishops The Project failing in Ireland the English Papists offer'd but with no better Success to buy the free Exercise of their Religion at the expence of maintaining a certain proportion of Ships (E) Fullers Church History l. 11. p. 128 129. It is well known how that restless Faction fed their Disciples with continual expectations of a Change and though these two Excellent and Pious Princes did inviolably maintain the established Protestant Religion yet they gained this mighty Advantage that notwithstanding all the Writings and Speeches Declarations and Protestations of King James against Popery the Fears and Jealousies of his Subjects occasioned only by some short Relaxations were never cured in his days And in the Reign of King Charles the First whatever Indulgence either the Gentleness of his own Disposition prompted him to or the necessity of his Affairs extorted from him was looked upon as the Effect of his Majesties Inclination to Popery For though the War was raised by discontented covetous and ambitious men and carried on by a leading Faction yet it was necessary to make Religion a Stalking Horse to their
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
Margent (I) Greg. 7. Ep. l. 8. Ep. 21. Itant dignitas à secularibus etiam Deum ignorantibus inventa non subjicietur ti dignitati quam omnipotentis Dei providentia c. quis nescit Reges Duces ab iis habuisse Principium qui Deum ignorantes superbia rapinis perfidia homicidiis postremo universis paené sceleribus mundi principe diabolo videlicet agitante super pares scilicet homines dominari caeca cupiditate intolerabili praesumptione affectaverint V. l. 2. Ep. 5. Ep. 13. Ep. 18. l. 3. Ep. 10. Also his famous Dictares published in a council at Rome are to be seen in Baronius Annal Eccles Tom. 11. ad An. 1076. sect 31 32 33. V. Baron ad An. 1080. sect 62 63 64 65. ad an 1073. sect 73 24. Kingly Government in his Judgment is nothing else but the contrivance of evil Spirits to abridge men of that Liberty which God and Nature have given them and if so what we call Rebellion is a very harmless if not a meritorious thing For why should not the People endeavour to recover their ancient Rights and Liberties which were so unjustly taken from them Miltons Inference from such Premisses is this If it were my happiness to set free the Minds of Englishmen from longing to return under the Captivity of Kings from which the Strength and Supream Sword of Justice hath delivered them I shall have done a Work not much inferiour from that of Zorobabel (L) Iconoclastes towards the latter end And now I cannot shew without exceeding my intended brevity how true the other Popes have been to these Principles V. G. in the 9th Century Adrian the Second salutes the Pious and Orthodox Basilius that 's the Roman Catholique Title for Traytors and congratulates the Murder of his Soveraign Prince About the 1090th year Vrban the second sate in the Holy See of whom I need say no more than that he was the Author of that Impious Decree That an Oath made to an Excommunicate Person is not to be kept His Successor Paschal the Second commanded the Son of Henry the 4th to take up Arms against his Father Alexander the Third which lived in the same Century trod upon the Neck of the Emperor The Decrees of Innocent the Third and Fourth are well known But I am not writing an History of the Bishops of Rome Since the rise of Jesuites the Roman Catholiques in France entred into a clandestine Combination the Holy League they call'd it without their Kings Consent under a colour of opposing the Progress of Heresie but in truth to reduce the Catholique Forces into one Body and strip the King of his Royalty And how specious soever the Design of it might appear to some men of more Zeal than Judgment yet in its very Nature and Tendency it was of most fatal Consequence to the King and Government and being prosecuted with Force and Armes against Henry the Third and Fourth it cost one of them his Life and the other his Religion The Principal Instrument of the League was Mathew a Jesuite and the Fathers of that Order would give no Absolution to the Gentry of France unless they would vow and promise to band themselves against their Soveraign The secret Counsels and Conspiracies were holden in the Jesuites College Where did the Agents and Ambassadors of Spain the two Cardinals that termed themselves Legates in France assemble their Counsels but among the Jesuites Was not the Provincial of the Jesuites sent to Rome and Father Sammier into Spain where they acquitted themselves so well that both Gregory the 13th and the King of Spain promised large Sums of Money for carrying on the War In Fine the Holy League and the War of Subjects against their Kings in prosecution of it were promoted by Pope Gregory the 13th Sixtus the 5th Gregory the 14th Innocent the 9th c. by the Jesuites and most of the Preachers and Confessors of all Orders who soon drew in the main Body of the Papists into this Combination against Henry the Third a King of their own Religion but unjustly suspected to be Haeretically affected The Design of this Holy League may be seen in Thuanus l. 63. Ed. Genevae p. 164. c. more largely in Davila's History of the Civil Wars of France ad An. 1576. c. out of whom I will transcribe part of it Art 2. For preservation of the King and his Successors in the State Honour Authority Duty Due to them by their Subjects as it is contained in those Articles which shall be presented to him in the Assembly of the States c. Art 4 and 5. If there be any Impediment Opposition or Rebellion be it from whom it will or from whencesoever it may c. In case any of the Covenanters be molested oppressed or questioned for this Cause be it by whom it will the King himself is not excepted they shall employ their persons and goods estates and lives to take revenge on them either by Justice or Force without any exception of persons whatsoever Art 6. If any of the Confederates shall wilfully break this Promise and Oath they shall be punished in Bodies and Goods by all means that can be thought of c. Art 7. They shall swear to yield ready Obedience to the Head of the League to the ruin of all Opposers of it without partiality or respect of persons Art 8. All the Catholiques of all places shall be secretly advertised by their particular Governours to enter into this League and to concur in providing of Men Arms and other Necessaries Art 10. All to be held as Enemies that will not enter into this Covenant It would be too large a digression to enter upon a Discourse concerning the Solemn League and Covenant in these Kingdomes and therefore I will only subjoyn the two following Observations as a further Proof of the Loyalty and Peaceableness of the Reformed Churches abroad 1. The first is that of his Majesty in his Excellent Manifesto or late Declaration concerning the late Tumults in Scotland by the King An. 1639. p. 74. This Covenant was resented abroad by Papists with infinite joy in hopes it might oblige the King and his Successors to hate the Protestant Religion for the sake of those Seditious Zealots and the Priests and Jesuites from Doway and other Seminaries came over in great numbers upon that Encouragement But by Foreign Protestants the Covenant was received with most offensive scandal and grief as his Majesties Publick Ministers abroad gave him an account for they were afraid it should bring an indelible Scandal upon the Reformation and alienate the minds of Princes from it Thus it became Joy and Triumph to our Enemies Grief and Scandal to our Friends 2. We are told That the English Divines and Scotch Commissioners sent a Copy of their Covenant with a solemn Invitation to Seventeen Reformed Churches beyond the Seas but notwithstanding all the unjust Calumnies cast upon his Majesty we never heard
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
abuse his Power to the hurt of the Church and Commonwealth If he be deposed for his Sins against God and man by the Pope or the Estates of his Kingdom Then he ceases to be a King any longer he is to be used as a publique Enemy the Tyrant the man of Blood the Apostate the Haeretique may be put to death without killing the King And to do them Justice I confess some of them are so kind to a King that they will not allow any private person to put him to death but he that is Commissionated by the Pope or Subordinate Magistrates is no private person in the sense of these men This is the Divinity of those Politicians and Divines which either promoted the hellish Murder of the late King or afterwards wrote in Vindication of it And there are scarce any Treasonable Positions or Distinctions Presidents or Arguments to be found in their Books or Pamphlets which are not either expresly contain'd or at least to be parallel'd in the Works of the Jesuites and other Romish Doctors They are not for killing a King but before they put him to death they will be sure to Un-King him and he shall suffer not as a King but as a Malefactor They will not resist the Authority of a King but if he betray the Trust reposed in him the wicked Person placed in Authority may be punished not as a King but as a Tyrant To look for an express determination of this Point in the General Councils of the Roman Church is to seek it where there can be no reason to expect it but the General Councils have taught the World the distinction between the Kings Person and Authority and according to their Principles a lawful Prince doth by his Wickedness or Misgovernment fall from his Authority and cease to be a King (B) Concil Gen. Ludg. Conciliorum Tom. 28. p. 431. Memoratum Principem Fredericum qui se imperio regnis omnique honore ac dignitate reddidit tam indigaum quique propter suas iniquitates à Deo ne regnet vel imparet est abjectus c. And Milton speaks not only the sense but the very words of the Jesuites Pro pop Angl. def p. 103. Jus Populi communi ab injusto Regum dominatu assererem non id quidem Regum odio sed Tyrannorum c. P. 104. Evincere potestis non vos amentia aut furore percitos Regem trucidasse sed amore libertatis religionis justitiae honestatis patriae Charitate accensos Tyrannum punisse If the Councils speak doubtfully or in general terms Whom should the People resort unto for Instruction but their Confessors What Books should they consult but such as are published with Authority and approbation of the Governing part of the Church And as the Roman Church hath left the particular Directions for Conscience and Practise to the Practical Divines and Casuists so above all others the Jesuites have for many years been entrusted with the conduct of Mens Souls and bore the greatest sway in his Majesties Dominions At their first coming over which was about an hundred years ago they quickly insinuated themselves into the Affections of some of the prime Nobility and of multitudes of the Common People (C) Sanders de Schism Angl. p. 188. Within twenty years after they had almost devoured all the Secular Clergy (D) See the Important Considerations by the Secular Priests An. 1601. And since his Majesties happy Restauration they made their boasts That many of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry were Penitents of the Society (E) See the Jesuites Paper presented to divers Persons of Honour and printed 1662. I know one of the Jesuites not long since Executed for High Treason did with his dying breath declare That the King-killing Doctrine was falsly charged upon the Jesuites In Answer to which bold Assertion I will only say these two things 1. That most of the Divines of that Order which have had occasion to treat of this Argument do expresly teach That a lawful Soveraign Prince may in some cases be put to death i. e. If he fall from the Faith and endeavour to pervert his Subjects If he abuse his Power and Rule in a Tyrannical manner If he be Excommunicated and Deposed by the Pope or declared a publick Enemy and deprived by the Estates of his Kingdom 2. That amongst a great number of Books written by Jesuites and Licensed according to the Rules of the Society I could never meet with one which hath freely and sincerely condemn'd this Doctrine But saith Cardinal Perron never any Pope went so far as to give consent or Counsel for the desperate Murdring of Princes 1. And yet the first Christian Bishop that ever approved of the Murder of a lawful Soveraign Prince was Gregory the first 2. The Fundamental Principles of Treason against Kings and Princes were laid by Zachary Gregory the Seventh c. 3. The Rebellion against Henry the Third and Fourth of France was encouraged and abetted by the Bishops of Rome (F) Cambden Eliz. par 2. p. 13. ed. Lond. 1627. Cum Rex problem non haberet nec habiturum spes ulla esset regnum Navarro post Condeo Reformatae religionis propugnatoribus jure deberetur Pontificii Principes Pontifice Hispano consciis conjurationem pernitiosam oecultè inierunt sub Religionis Catholicae tuendae velo nomine S. Unionis sive Ligae ad Regem pissundandum publicam in illum invidiam accendendo ad Reformatam religionum funditùs extirpandam praevertendo legitimam in regno successionem For the Leaguers in that Kingdom under a pretence of Zeal for the Roman Catholick Religion entred into a wicked Combination against their Soveraign And Gregory the 13th hearkned to their Proposals with much reaediness (G) Davila An. 1576 P. 452. But Sixtus the Fifth Excommunicates the next Heir of the Crown declares him uncapable of the Succession absolves his Vassals from their Oaths and Excommunicates all such as adhered to him This Declaration of the Pope pierced Henry the Third very deeply without whose Privity it had been propounded in the Consistory subscribed by the Cardinals posted up and published (H) Davila l. 7. p. 574 575. Three years after his Holiness writes Letters to the Duke of Guise the Head of the League full of infinite Praises compares him to the holy Macchabees the Defenders of Israel exhorts him to fight for the advancement of the Church and total extirpation of the Hugonots (I) Davila l. 9 An. 1588 p. 715. Afterwards the Pope publishes a Monitory against the King (L) L. 10 p. 811. And that infamous Regicide which embrued his hands in the Royal Blood Murdered Henry the Third without killing the King which was now un-King'd by the Pope Upon the News of the Kings Murder the Pope makes a Panegyrick Oration and solemn Thanksgiving in the Consistory and in his Canting Sermon perverts the Holy Scriptures admires the
and yet after he had been some weeks at Constance the poor Man is contrary to his safe Conduct cast into Prison This being done in the Emperours absence he comes to the Council argues the case with them upon which they pass that In famous Decree contained in the 19th Session from which it is plain that in the case of Heresie no Prince is bound to keep Faith with any persons whatsoever And this Act of the Council so fully satisfied the Emperours Conscience that he looked on himself as discharged from his obligation and not only concurred in the Sentence against the Prisoner but gave order for his Execution J. of Prague was trepann'd by a safe Conduct granted by that Council and being unacquainted with their Arts and Treachery ventures to Conftance where understanding the Jugglings of his Adversaries he thought to shift for himself by flight but being taken was burnt to death Again The Council of Constance Excommunicates and deprives of all Secular honour and dignity all that should presume to hinder Sigismund from meeting with the King of Arragon whether they be Kings Dukes Princes c. as all men know which have been conversant in the Acts of that Council But I come to the Decree produced by his Lordship a Decree which some Roman Catholicks of these Kingdoms know how to make their advantage of when others of greater Authority and Eminency in the Roman Church that dare speak their minds freely acquaint us with the true Catholick meaning of it Tell them of the Council of Constance It meddles not saith one (D) Suartz def fid Cath. l. 6. c. 4. p. 417. with Heretical Princes Excommunicated and Deposed by the Pope or by the Commonwealth and States of the Kingdom A Lawful King ruling in a Tyrannical manner may be punished only by publick Authority saith a Second (E) Greg. de Valentia Tom. 3. disp 5. qu. 8. punct 3. In his resolution of this Question utrùm liceat privato cuilibet civi occidere Tyrannum that is by the Commonwealth as himself expounds it This Decree extends not to Tyrants which conspire against the Publick good or against the Roman Catholick Religion saith a Third (F) Verone Apol. par 2. c. 13. A Commonwealth that is oppressed by a Prince ruling Tyrannically may and ought to have recourse to a Superiour Prince as the Pope of Emperour for the punishment of him but if this remedy cannot be had without danger the Commonwealth may by her own Power pass Judgment on such a Prince and if he be incorrigible either depose him or put him to death saith a Fourth (G) Dom. Bannes Scholast Comment Tom. 4. p. 174. Ed. 1614. qu. 64. Act. 3. Another wrote a Book in the time of the French League (H) I mean Bouchier the French Jesuite in that Treasonable Book which I quoted before in the compiling whereof as he tells us in the Preface he was assisted by many Lawyers and Divines In this Book he asserts the lawfulness of putting a King to death after he is condemned by Publick Authority Lastly our Country-man Parsons justifies the Doctrine of Bouchier and because Mr. Morton is charged with misrepresenting his sense let us take Parson's Account of Bouchier's meaning (I) Parsons in his quiet and sober reckoning c. p. 318 319 321. He holdeth That a Private man may not kill a Tyrant which is not first judged and declared to be a Publick Enemy by the Commonwealth and he proveth the same by the Decree of the Council of Constance But Bouchier grants saith Mr. Morton That when the Commonwealth hath condemned and declared any Tyrant for a publick Enemy he may be slain by a private Man Whereunto I Answer That then he is no Private man for that he doth it by the publick Authority of the Commonwealth as doth the Executioner that cutteth off a Noble-mans Head by Order and Authority of the Publick Magistrate These are not the Opinions of private Doctors their Books are Licensed according to the Order of the Roman Church and approved by Divines of great Learning and Authority they prove the Orthodoxy of their Doctrine from this very Decree of the Council of Constance which is now alledged as an Argument of Roman Catholick Loyalty And are not Kings and Princes wonderfully beholden to this Council They must be put to death with a little more solemnity than other Mortals and fall by the Sentence of a Papal Consistory or of an High Court of Justice 'T is not lawful for a common Parricide to Stab or Pistol the Lord 's Anointed of his own head No but his Holiness may hire Souldiers against him with Mony or with Indulgences He may invade his Country with his own Armies or with the Forces of Catholick Princes he may stir up a Rebellion within his Dominions or Authorize his own standing Army of Jesuites Monks and Friars to kill him with the approved Catholick Weapons with Pistol or Poyson Lastly the Common-wealth by its own or the Popes Authority may try and pass sentence upon him These things considered I cannot but conclude that it was a poor Security which the Irish Remonstrants offered to his Majesty since his Restauration by declaring against the killing of Kings by any private Subjects (L) We do hold it impious and against the Word of God to maintain That any private Subject may kill or murder the Anointed of God his Prince though of a different Belief and Religion from his And we abhor and derest the practise thereof as damnable and wicked Irish Remonstrance in F. Walsh his History p. 8. 3. P. 45. My Lords third Testimony was taken from the Annotations upon Rom. 13. in the English Catholick Edition of the New Testament set forth by the Colledge of Divines at Rhemes The words are these upon the Text He that resisteth c. ver 2. Whosoever resisteth or obeyeth not his lawful Superior in those Causes wherein he is subject to him resisteth Gods Appointment and sinneth deadly and is worthy to be punished both in this World by his Superiour and by God in the next life for in Temporal Government and Causes the Christians were bound in Conscience to obey even the Heathen Emperours And upon v. 4. some Protestants of our time care neither for the one the Prince nor for the other the Prelate though they extol only Secular Power when it maketh for them The Catholicks only most humbly obey both according to Gods Ordinance the one in Temporal Causes and the other in Spiritual In the Rhemish Testament it is the not some Protestants of our time c. A mighty Testimony of Roman Catholique Loyalty You are not to resist your Lawful Superior But if a Prince be lawfully deposed then he is no longer your Lawful Superior If you be Clergymen then he is none of your Soveraign and you are none of his Subjects In those Causes wherein you are Subject to him But what if a King challenge as
by the Word of God he may the Supream Government in all causes Ecclesiastical and Civil In those Causes you are not Subject to him for doth not the Pope claim the Supremacy in all Ecclesiastical and even in Temporal Causes at least in ordine ad Spiritualia Let the Rhemists complain that the Protestants extol only the Secular Power We acknowledge the King to be Supream Governour in all Causes and over all Persons within his Majesties Dominions for this is all that we attribute to the Secular Power and 't is the Glory of our Church to have taught and suffered for this Doctrine But for the Loyalty of the Rhemish Divines I refer the Reader to some of their Annotations as they are cited in the Margent (M) The Rhemish Testament was see forth by that Traiterous Seminary of English Papists and printed at Rhemes An. 1582. See the former part of their Annotations on ver 4. of this 13th Chapter to the Romans where they complain That now all is given to the Secular Power and nothing to the Spiritual which expresly is ordained by Christ and the Holy Ghost The exemption of the Clergy is asserted Annot. on S. Matth. 17.26 The Popes Infallibility Annot. on S. Luke 22.31 And in the Margent they say Popes may err personally not judicially or definitively The Popes Supremacy Annot. on S. John 21.17 And on 1 Pet. 2.12 They say Although all Power be of God and Kings Rule by him yet this is no otherwise than by his ordinary Concurrence and Providence He that desires to see a true Character of the English Seminaries may consult a Treatise penn'd by the direction of one of the greatest Statesmen and wisest men of his Age under this Title The Execution of Justice in England c. Reprinted An. 1675. My Lords 4th Testimony was taken from the Censure of the Doctors of the Famous Faculty of Sorbon against a Book of Sanctarellus particularly against the 30th and 31th Chapters In those two Chapters these Propositions are contained That the Pope can punish Kings and Princes with Temporal Penalties and depose and deprive them of their Kingdoms for the Crime of Haeresis and free their Subjects from their Obedience and that is hath been always the Custom in the Church and for other Causes also as for Faults if it be Expedient if the Princes be Negligent for the insufficiency and unprofitableness of their Persons Likewise That the Pope hath Right and Power over Spirituals and all Temporals also and that both the Powers Temporal and Spiritual are in him by Divine Right That it was to be believed that Power was granted to the Church and its Chief Pastors to punish with Temporal Penalties Princes the Transgressours of Divine and Humane Laws especially if the Crime be Haeresie Likewise that the Apostles were subject to Secular Princes de facto non de jure by Fact not by Right Moreover that as soon as the Pope is installed all Princes begin to be subject to him Lastly That he expounded the Words of Christ Whatsoever ye shall bind upon Earth c. to be understood not only of the Spiritual but of the Temporal Power c. The Faculty after mature deliberation disapproved and condemned the Doctrine contained in these Propositions and other like Expressions in the same Chapters as new false erroneous and contrary to the Word of God Given in the Sorbon Apr. 4. 1626. In Answer to all which I have many things to say but that I may not exceed my intended brevity I shall reduce them to the following Heads 1. That this Book of Sanctarellus was revised and approved by persons of greater Authority in the Roman Church than the Divines of Sorbon (N) Alegambe Bibl. script soc Jes in the life of Sanctarellus gives us this Character of him Vir moribus apprimé religiosis modestissima mansuetudine The Title of the Book is A. Sanctarelli soc Jes Tract de Haeres c. Ed. Romae 1625. In the License of the Master of the Sacred-Palace are these words In eo omnia religioni consona atque utilia adinvenerim In another of the Licenses In quo nihil reperi quod Sanctae Fidei aut bonis moribus adversetur It was printed at Rome permissu Superiorum approved by three Divines of the Society licensed by the General of the Order by the Master of the Sacred Palace and several other Divines By which we see what kind of Divinity was then in request at Rome But it may be the Divines of the Roman Church have one Conscience at Rome and another at Paris as was once said of the Jesuites 2. Since the breaking out of the Popish Plot in England when so many of that Religion were in danger of their Lives the Pope thought fit to condemn 65 Propositions as I shewed before but did not speak one word against the Power of deposing Princes though it was asserted in the same Divines and Casuists with the 65 Propositions And whether the Judgment of his Holiness or of the Divines of Sorbon be of greater value with Roman Catholiques let all men judge 3. Why do the Church and Court of Rome suffer an hundred as bad Books as this of Sanctarellus in which the same or worse Propositions are maintained to pass not only without Censure but with publique Anthority and Approbation 4. There are no Propositions in the places censured by the Sorbonists which he might not justifie by the Principles of the Bishops of Rome the most correct Editions of the Canon Law and in the Sentence of Excommunication and Deprivation of Frederick the Emperor with the Approbation of a General Council the Pope expounds the words of Christ as Sancturellus since did not only of the Spiritual but of the Temporal Power also (O) In the General Council of Lyons Concil tom 28. ut supra Innocent the 4th with the consent of the Council denounces Sentence of Deprivation against Frederick the Emperor Nobisque in B. Petri Apostoli persona sit dictum quodcunque ligaveris c. S. Marth 16. Also M. Paris ad An. 1245. p. 672. 5. What hath Sanctarellus said more than the Doctors of the Famous Faculty of Sorbon did both before and since the Publishing of his Book I know that Ancient College of Sorbon did for many years keep up a great reputation and was esteemed the Bulwark of Regal Authority but ever since the rise of the Jesuites many of their Determinations have been carried by Interest and Faction An. 1589 a little before the Murder of Henry the third of France the People of that Kingdom proposed these two queries to the Divines of Sorbon 1. Whether the People of France may not be discharged and set free from their Oaths of Allegiance made to Henry the Third 2. Whether they may not with a safe Conscience Arm and Vnite themselves collect and raise Money for the Defence and Preservation of the Roman Catholiques in that Realm against the wicked
Counsels and Practises of the said King and all other his Adherents and against the breach of Publique Faith committed by him at Bloys to the prejudice of the said Roman Religion and Edict of Holy Vnion and the natunal Liberty of the Assembly of the three Estates of that Kingdom After mature deliberation upon the said Articles it was concluded nemine refragante That the said People were discharged from the said Oath of Allegiance and that they may with asase Conscience unite and Arm themselves against the King Moreover the said Faculty thought fit to send their Decree to the Pope that it might be ratified and confirmed by the Authority of the Holy Apostolick See (P) Davila l. 10. And Fowlis History of Romish Treasons Ed. 1671. p. 530 551. In the same year the Loyal Doctors of Sorbon declared their Approbation of the damnable Doctrine of King-killing For a short Paper was drawn up containing the Reasons of taking up Arms against the King in the Conclusion of which it is said That because Childerick King of France had caused one Bodille to be publiquely whipped the said Bodille took occasion thence to kill the King for which he is commended by Historians and therefore may not the injury done to a better than Bodille viz. to a brave Prince Guise be also avenged The Doctors of Sorbon having read over the Tract approved it affirming that nothing was in it contrary to the Roman Church About the same time it was Decreed by the Sorbonists That the Name of Heary the third should be dashed out of all publique Prayers and that if any of the Faculty of Paris agree not to it they should be Excommunicated Accordingly instead of those Prayers for the King others were drawn up for the Catholique Leaguing Princes (Q) Fowlis p. 537. An. 1590. The Royalists had spread abroad such Propositions as these That Henry of Bourbon the lawful Heir of the Crown might or ought to be King that the People might with a safe Conscience adhere to him and pay him Tribute That the Pope had no Power to Excommunicate the King That an Haretique though relapst and put out of the Communion of the Church may have right to the Crown of France All which Propositions were presently condemned by the Faculty of Sorbon (R) Spondani Contin Baronii tom 2. ad An. 1590. p. 860. par 3. Sorbonici Theologi in publicis turbis ad rerum instantium statum vota sua accommodare coacti rogatu Faederatorum Cajetani impulsu nec non Cardinalis Montalti ipsiusquemet Pontificis literis ad fidem religionem tuendam unionem confirmandam incitati partes suas interponentts congregati sanxerunt propositiones quae passim a pluribus seminabantur viz. Henricum Borbonium regis titulo infigniri posse aut debere tuta conscientia es adbarere ac decimas vectigalia persolvere debere c. Has tjusmodi enuntiationes damnantes c. An. 1629. They publish a Decree That for the Future the Ancient and Laudable Practise be revived that every Batchelour of Divinity swear to observe the Decrees of the Popes of Rome (S) Spondani Contin Baronii Tom. 2. p. 982. ad Ann. 1629. par 10. An. 1647. The Sorbonists in Answer to a Question sent to them in Writing from the Jesuites in England resolved that it was Lawful for the Roman Catholiques to work the Change in the Government by making away the King (T) Du Moulin Answ to Philanax p. 59. I know P. Walsh hath printed from the Originals six Declarations of the Divines of Sorbon presented to the French King An. 1663. which seem more worthy of that Society than these which I have produced But however significative they might be of their Loyalty to the French King they do not reach the Case of his Majesties Roman Catholique Subjects For in France the King is of the same Religion His Kingdoms are under no Ecclesiastical Censures the Pope challenges no direct Temporal Right to them But I need say no more of them than F. Walsh himself doth These Declarations of Sorbon did neither protest against Equivocation nor descend to the particular Cases either of Excommunication or the pretended Exemption of Clergymen or Condemnation of the Contrary Doctrines c. (V) Hist of the Irish Remonstrance p. 662 663 and 678. And now let all men judge whether the Doctors of Sorbon were not as good at irritating the People of France as the most Seditious Preachers and Pamphleteers were at Animating those of England against their King 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 for swear 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. P. 46. MY Lords Fifth Testimony was taken from a little Treatise writ as my Lord said by a Priest of the Church of Rome and entituled Roman Catholique Principles in reference to God and the King (A) In the printed Tryal p. 53. There is lately come out a Book written by a Priest of the Church of Rome tried for his life for being in the Plot but acquitted c. The chief Contents of which Treatise because it in short explains the above-named Principles and clears the Objections usually made on this Subject I shall here insert in the Authors own Words In answer to which I shall briefly examine all the Passages of this little Treatise which may seem to vindicate the Romish Faith and Religion from the imputation of Disloyalty In the beginning he tells us We abhor we renounce we abominate such Principles Of Treason Rebellion Murder c. But of this I shall speak in its proper place That a Priest of the Church of Rome should before God and the World deny the plainest matters of Fact is an Argument either of the grosseft Ignorance of his own Religion or which I rather suspect of the most exact skill in the Arts of Prevarication V. G. I have been instructed saith he in the Articles of my Faith and I acknowledge the lawful Authority of General Councils yet I profess I never learnt or sound asserted in any of them any such Principles A Speech of so much assurance that were it not for dis-believing my own Senses I might be apt to give credit to it But I would fain know how he proves that there are any such things in the world as the Decrees and Canons of Councils Or that Transubstantiation and Communion in one kind were ever taught in any of them Or that these
conscientious persons is only this That we may hope they do not yet know their Churches Sense in this matter at present they do not know the repugnancy between their Duty to Princes and the Principles of their Communion And if so how we shall discover whether these men think themselves more obliged to their Duty to their King and Country than to the Judgment and Interest of their Church I am yet to learn But I cannot without too great a digression enter upon this Debate which would afford matter enough for an entire Discourse And yet I cannot pass by a very plausible pretence which some Roman Catholiques of late have very much insisted upon to vindicate themselves and their Religion A Roman Catholique Peer maintain'd a Distinction some years ago in the House of Lords between the Catholiques of the Church and those of the Court of Rome part of whose Speech I will here transcribe My Lords Give me leave to remind you what kind of Catholick I am that is a Catholick of the Church of Rome not a Catholick of the Court of Rome A distinction if I am not much deceived worthy of your memory and reflexion whenever any severe Proceedings against those whom you call Papists shall come in question since Catholicks of the Court of Rome do only deserve that Name (H) E. of Bristols Speech in the House of Peers March 15. 1673. The Publisher of his Lordships Speech refers us to the Dedication of Peter Walsh his History for a Proof of the Reasonableness of this Distinction And if this Distinction be just and reasonable as they say it is then it must be acknowledged that a man may be a true Son of the Roman Church that he may understand and act according to the Principles of that Religion and yet abhor the Abominations of the Court of Rome of its Adherents and Flatterers I am therefore obliged to examine the Grounds of this Distinction because it is inconsistent with the Principles laid down in the beginning of this Treatise For though I do not involve every person of the Romish Religion in the guilt of those horrid Doctrines and practises yet I charge them on the Roman Church and all such as both understand and act in conformity to her Principles I have perused and considered the Dedication of F. Walsh his Book and yet I cannot see that we are beholden to that Church for the Goodness and Loyalty of any Roman Catholicks but either to their Lukewarmness in Religion or to their Ignorance of the natural Tendency of its Principles either to the prevalence of common Reason and Christianity or of their natural Dispositions above their Religion Nor can I understand what they mean by the Church of Rome distinct from the Court where this Church is to be found What Judge of Controversies she hath established what Judicatory she hath erected to which an Appeal may be made from the Court of Rome or how they can maintain an external Communion with the Church if they lye under the Censures of the Court of Rome I speak of such times when no General Council is to be had and according to the present constitution of the Roman Church we are not like to see another so long as the World endures But waving these difficulties I shall endeavour to make the whole Matter obvious to a common Understanding Let us therefore put that very Case which we find in the Dedication of F. Walsh his History It is too evident from the Dedication and History of his Remonstrance that they which offer his Majesty the least Pledge of their Duty and Allegiance are in danger of being Censured and as much as lies in the Court of Rome cast out of the Communion of the Church The Irish Remonstrance was condemned in formal Terms as Vnlawful Detestable Sacrilegious yea in effect as Schismatical and Heretical by the publick Letters of the Internuntioâ—'s and of the Roman Cardinals de propaganda Fide They have not ceased for many years last past to persecute and defame the few remaining constant Ecclesiastical Subscribers they have kept them in continual châ—ce with Monitories Citations Depositions Excommunications and even publick affixion or Posting of them Of all which there was no Cause pretended but a manifest Design to force them to renounce their Allegiance (I) F. walsâ—… Ep. Ded. p 2 3. And though some Romanists in Ireland continued Loyal to the King during the late Rebellion in these Kingdoms yet they were all Excommunicated for their Honesty by the Popes Nuntio and his Irish Clergy (L) The Popes Bull against the Loyal Irish Catholâ—… was dated Rome Augâ—… 1665. by which they are required to do publique Penance their Obedience to the King Walsh Ep. Ded. p. 31.32 And that Sentence being judicially ratified at Rome we were very lately assur'd that many of them then continued under it (M) Considerations touching the true way to suppress P c. Ed. 1677. p. 44. Besides The Author of the Controversial Letters in his 8th Letter acknowledges That the Court of Rome and its Dependents are so diligent in suppressing all Books written against the Popes Power that a private man cannot write without hazard of a Censure on his Book and possibly on his Person Were not Barclay and Widdrington formerly condemned at Rome for opposing the Popes Power of Deposing Princes And have not those few English and Irish Writers which have since had the boldness to speak the Truth been branded and censured for that unpardonable Crime And now I shall bring this whole Matter to a short Issue 1. The Church Diffusive is no Body Politick nor can do any Act as such It can neither judge of Persons or Causes but as assembled in a Council and what if a General Council after all the Complaints of the injured Parties be hindred or deferred for many years and for many more sometimes assembled sometimes dissolved as the Council of Trent was During the Intervals of Councils there is no Authority that doth or can act in contradiction to the Court of Rome for neither the Church Representative nor the Authentick Laws of the Church have entrusted any Judicatory Independent on that Court with the Exposition or Execution of the Canons and Decrees of the Church No Council can be called but by the Popes Authority (N) Decret par 1. dist 17. c. 5. The Title is Non est Concilium sed Conventiculum quod sine sedis Apostolicae auctoritate celebratur And in the Intervals of Councils all matters of Importance are to be referred to the Papacy by the Laws of the Roman Church (O) Decret par 1. Dist. 17. c. 5. Majores vero difficiliores quaestiones ut sancta Synodus statuit beata consuetudo exigit ad sedem Apostolicam semper referantur I know the Council of Constance decreed That General Councils should for ever be held once in ten years and made as they thought a sufficient Provision for
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
be imputed to Religion which proceed either from the Ignorance or the Want of it The True Reformed i. e. Christian Reiigion is the strongest Bond of Humane Society the best Friend in the World to Civil Government 't is a better Security to the Throne of a King than all his Treasures and Magazines all his Guards and Armies It never licensed any Treasons or Murders any Insurrections or Massacres though it were for the best Ends for God and Religion and why should such a Religion suffer in our esteem for the Doctrines or Actions of men which under the disguise of Zeal against Popery have weakned the Reformation Of the Church of England I will only say It hath established the Righth of Kings upon such sure and unalterable Foundations that it is the Interest as well as the Duty of the Civil Power to support and defend it But I cannot dismiss this Subject without offering some things by way of Consideration and Advice to all such as out of a just regard to the Honour of God and the Tranquillity of this Church and Kingdom desire to prevent the Designs of our Enemies and transmit the True Religion to Posterity I speak to Men that have seen or heard of the Ways and Means by which the Monarchy and Church of England were once overthrown to men that have felt both the Calamities of an Intestine War and the Happiness of a long Peace and therefore I need not trouble the Reader or my self with those things which are fresh in our Memories We have of late been alarm'd with the Apprehensions of Popery and we are loth to put our Necks under that Yoak which our Fathers were not able to bare But do we detest Popery for the sake of the Church and Kingdom as well as our own Estates and Liberties Do we hate Popery for the Immorality as well as the Destructiveness of its Principles Are we Zealous for the Reformed Religion because it teaches us to fear God and honour the King to be just and merciful to our Brethren humble and obedient to our Lawful Governours If these be not the Motives of our preferring the Protestant before the Romish Religion we better deserve the name of Hobbists than of Protestants Protestants and no Christians Protestants only because 't is against our Humour or Interest to be Papists But if we have indeed a greater regard to our Souls than our Fortunes if we value the honour and security of our Religion above our temporal Concernments and the common cause of the Reformation above our private Fancies and Passions then we shall be infinitely fearful of giving any Advantages to our Enemies of Rome of serving the Designs of the Papists really and eventually to use the words of a late reverend Author though not designedly and intentionally 1. Then let us beware of those Seditious Doctrines and Principles which were first set on foot and have been since kept up by the prevailing Faction of the Roman Church What Doctrines were taught by some of the Popes before the breaking out of an avowed Design for an Universal Monarchy I have shewed already But for the last six hundred years all things have been contrived and carried on for the setting up a Kingdom in the Church to which all the Princes of the Earth are to submit The Bishops of Rome have usurped upon the Crowns of Kings and Emperors under the pretence of a direct or indirect Supremacy over them Excommunicated and deposed them for Tyranny and Heresie absolved their Subjects from their Allegiance and animated them to take up Arms against them The General Councils of that Church have established Treason by a Law their Decrees are entred into the Body of the Canon Law alledged by their Schoolmen justified by their Divines and Casuists refined and improved by the Jesuites And 't is said that Buchanan transplanted those Antimonarchical Doctrines which he had learnt of one of these Masters from the Church into the State but with this difference only that he invested the People with that Authority over Princes which the other had placed in the Pope But to omit many particulars of lesser moment these are properly Popish Principles and Jesuitical Tenents and they have been the main Pillars to support the Papal Interest That the Original of all Civil Power is from the People and derived from them to the Prince by way of Mutual Compact That a King is the Peoples Trustee and their duty to him only Conditional That his Person and Authority are separable and that the Cognizance of Ecclesiastical Matters belongs not to him That the Church hath Power to Excommunicate the King and in certain Cases to denounce Sentence of Deprivation against him that it is lawful for Subjects to enter into Confederacies and take up Arms against him for their Religion and Liberties and that the Commonwealth may curb and restrain him bring him to Tryal and Condign Punishment I can hardly meet with any Seditious Antimonarchical Doctrines or any specious Arguments to maintain them in the Pamphlets of the last Forty years but they are either expresly contained in the Writings of the Popes and Jesuites or at least may be parallell'd in the approved Divines and Canonists of the Roman Church Certainly the Enemy hath sown these Tares in the Field (A) St. Math. 13.28 The implacable restless Enemy of Rome hath cunningly sown these Principles of Sedition amongst us and industriously fomented such Practises as are consonant to them And now let all men which call themselves Protestants consider That it was not the least part of the Design of our Reformers to assert and retrieve the Ancient Rights of the Crown and how can it be for the Honour of the Reformation to maintain such Doctrines as naturally tend to the weakning or subverting that Authority which they Established They have left us a more holy and peaceable Religion than that of the Papists and if we would shew our selves true Protestants our Doctrines and Practises must protest against Popery and prove us better Christians and better Subjects than they If you are Protestants of the Church of England as it is established amongst us I need only put you in mind that you have been Educated in a Faith of Loyalty and Obedience and you can never be tempted by any the most plausible pretences to desert it without either forsaking or being false to that Church whereof you are Members If you are Dissenters from the Church of England I know not how it can consist with your Zeal against Popery to contribute any thing towards the breaking in pieces that Government which you acknowledge the present as well as former Designs of the Papists are levelled against You glory in the Name of Protestants but where do you find any one Protestant Church in the World that hath by any publick Act asserted any of these Doctrines I speak not either to Hobbists and Libertines or to furious and wild Fanaticks but only to men of Conscience
and Sobriety to such as I believe have a real tho misguided Zeal for the protestant Religion for their King and Country To such as have not forgotten that a War was raised for the Preservation of Religion and Liberty but ended in the ruin of them both That an Army turned their Arms against them from whom they received their Commission (B) Prinnes Epistle before his Speech of Decemb. 4. 1648. It is clear that the very Officers and the Army being not our Masters but Servants particularly raised waged and engaged by Solemn League and Covenant among other things to protect and defend the Parliaments and Members Rights Priviledges and Persons from all force and violence whatsoever in such manner as both Houses and the Committee of both Kingdoms should approve cannot pretend the least shadow of Reason or Authority from the Law of God or Man thus traiterously to seize imprison and seclude 〈◊〉 without the Houses License before any particular Charge against â—… That a Covenant was first entred into for the Defence of the King and afterwards to the astonishment of many that had taken it made use of by others against his Person and Authority (C) See the Declaration of the Army at St. Albans Novemb. 16. 1648. presented to the House by the Army Officers wherein they demand the bringing the King to a speedy Tryal In this Remonstrance they say Whereas It might be objected that by the Covenant they were obliged to the Preservation of his Majesties Person and Authority it was with this Restriction In the Preservation of the True Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom So that considering Religion and the Publick Interest were to be understood the Principal and Supream Matters engaged for and the Kings Person and Authority as Inferior and Subordinate thereto And whereas the Preservation of his Person and Authority was not consistent with the Preservation of Religion and the Publick Interest they were therefore by the Covenant obliged against it The Clause in the Covenant to which they refer is Art 3. On the other side the Secluded Members remind the Army Officers of the Solemn League and Covenant by which they say they were obliged to preserve the Kings Person and Dignity from violence and give this among other Reasons for their Voting the Kings Answer Satisfactory c. I know 't is unreasonable to charge men with all the Consequences of their Principles when they not only declare against those Consequences which are charged upon them but also protest against them by their Practise as many Gentlemen did especially after they were surprised with the Votes of No further Addresses to the King And therefore I shall not here enquire into the Nature and Tendency of the Covenant Declaration Remonstrances c. of those times which have been so often quoted both for and against adhering to the King However all men of Conscience and Loyalty may from hence learn how easie it is for a Leading and Potent Faction to strein the Consequences of things and how little all Arguments signifie to them them that have gotten the Sword into their Hands (D) Mr. Baxter in his Preface to the Cure of Church-Divisions I have seen how confidently the Killing of the King the Rebellious demolishing of the Government of the Land the killing of many thousands of their Brethren the turnings and overturnings of all kinds of Rule even that which they themselves set up have been committed and justified and prophanely Fathered upon God To conclude this Head Let it be the peculiar honour of Papists and Turks to propagate their Religion with Sword and Bloodshed Let us regulate our Zeal with Prudence Obedience and Charity which make up the truly Christian Temper of English Protestants Let no private Passion or Interest transport us beyond the bounds of our Duty to God and our Allegiance to our Soveraign For if they do we shall convince all Impartial men that we have as little sense of True Religion as ous Adversaries of Rome You have seen the Operation of these Principles in the inciting and animating the People to Tumults and Commotions Evil Principles brought forth Seditious Words and they were quickly followed with Seditious Practises against the Government But those Holy Scriptures which blessed be God you have in your own Language forbid you To curse the King in your thought (E) Eccles 10.20 To despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities (F) St. Jude ver 8. They command you to pray for the King and for all that are in Authority (G) 1 Tim. 2.1 and to be Subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake (H) Rom. 13.5 2. As we desire to keep out Popery and strengthen the Interest of the Reformation let us beware of contributing any thing towards the subverting of the Church of England A Church which is the most Impregnable Bulwark of the Protestant Cause A Church which hath the Support of Scripture and Antiquity of purity of Doctrine and Piety of Devotion and therefore the busie Factors for the Roman Religion have made use of more Arts and Instruments for destroying this than any other Church in Christendom But whether will the misguided Zeal of some men transport them Whilst one Faction labours to break it in pieces as the most probable means of introducing Popery the other strives to overthrow the Constitution of it out of Zeal against Popery Our Liturgy for they have not much to say against our Articles of Doctrine is but the Masse-Book translated into English Our Church-Government Antichristian and our Ceremonies but Popish Trumpery And yet the Compilers of our Liturgy the Bishops and Episcopal Divines suffered Martyrdom by the hands of the Papists they had the Substance of our Liturgy the same kind of Episcopacy the same Rites and Ceremonies with us I do not say That no Constitutions of our Church are capable of being explained or amended for what Church under Heaven is perfect in all matters of Doctrine and Worship of Order and Discipline But did we lay aside all Prejudices and groundless Disaffections did we allow to them the same Favour shall I say or Common Equity which is allowed to all other things of Humane Composure we should not only be freed from the loud clamours of Antichristianism and Popery but we might assure our selves that Popery can never enter into our Church whilst the Established Doctrine and Liturgy Government and Order are preserved For 1. Doth the Church of England impose any other Doctrines as necessary to Salvation besides That Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Is our Creed swelled of late by the Addition of any of the new Articles of the Roman Church (I) See Article the 6th Of the sufficiency of the Holy Scripture for Salvation 9th Of Original Sin 11th Of the Justification of Man 14th Of works of Supererogation 15th Of Christ alone without Sin 19th and 20th Of the Church 21st Of the Authority of