Treasure so noble of birth so fortunate in Wars zealous in Religion who builded so many Hospitals founded so many Monasteries enacted such wholsome Laws and Statutes got so many Victories in Fâ—ance c. even to Palestine it Self all professed Roman Catholicks Secundo It deserves one observation that when Christianity became the ruling Religion of the World under the great Constantine and Emperours his immediate Successors the very Heathens themselves were exempt from all manner of severity upon the score of their Religion Because they were in possession of it by discent from Father to Son and not by usurpation or intrusion And we have the like president in our own Country For when King Ethelbert had embraced the Christian Faith by the preaching of Saint Austin he would not force his own Subjects though Pagans to receive it Bedâ— l. 1. c. 260. For this reason it was that the great Apostles treated the Synagogue whose Religion at that time was vacuated and consequently void of Truth with so much respect and condescendency and that afterwards the most primitive Fathers used so often this expression that the Synagogue ought to be buried with honour Whence one of our Protestant Divines saith even by the Law of Seniority Catholicks might exspect some favour For what priviledges or immunities have we but the old Church gave us whence had we our Bible Creed Honors Donations commendable Ceremonies charitable Foundations had not they preserved them faithfully we never had found them The first possession of a man is a good title by the Law of Nature until an elder or the Law of Reason which with mankind is to have pre-eminence dispossesses it The Roman Church had a possession unquestionable for above a thousand years and the Pope enjoyed jurisdiction a longer time than any succession of Princes can pretend to and submitted to by all our Ancestors In Catholick Religion they stand as defenders others as invaders they as possessors others as disseisors they seek to keep what de jure they had Calvin and others what they had not There is a vast difference in these two Cases to oppose by force the introducement of innovations and to attempt by force the extinguishment of an ancient Religion of which the People are universally in a quiet and immemorial possession The one drives others out of possession the other maintains himself the one invades his neighbours rights the other defends his own Apostacy and innovation with some colour of right have been oft in several ages persecuted by rigour of Laws even by Protestants and the reason is because innovation in Religion most commonly breeds disturbance in the Common-wealth Natural reason teaches that no particular man is to be condemned much less deprived of what he stands possessed till his cause be judiciously heard and sentenced Nor ought any man to be Judg in his own Cause But penal Laws and Oaths made in contempt and derogation of that Religion which through all Christendom abounds with learning civility and loyalty whose Doctrin amongst the primitive greatest and most learned societies hath been and is avouched in most Nations and Kingdoms allowed and more freely exercised and permitted established by the Laws in which our Predecessors were born and continued wherein all our Progenitors all the Peers Ecclesiast Nobles and Princes of our Realm in precedent ages thought themselves happy and honourable If they had imagined that in future times their Posterity would revile that Religion with Epithets unbeseeming humane much less Christian Ears what an opinion would they have preconceived of us It was said by King James one of the most learned Princes not in private but in open Parliament represented I acknowlege the Roman Church to be our Mother Church although defiled with infirmities and corruptions Is it not then a kind of Spiritual Parracide in the Daughter not only to revile the Mother or which is worse scratch her by the Face call her Whore Superstitious Idolatrous c. on whose Knees you have been dandled nourished by her Breasts and carried in her Womb Hear O you Heavens and give ear O earth I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me Isa 1. 2. Let it be allowed some corruptions be of our aged Mother this should be no warrant for cruelty but rather a motive of compassion especially considering that by confession of all her adversaries those pretended failings are of no modern date but such as they are now such likewise they were when first Christianity was received by English-men under King Ethelbert The Church of England who Glory in their succession of Bishops and in this is singular from other Reformers acknowledge they immediately derive their true and lawful Ordination and mission and from whom their first Mininistry viz. Cranmer Baker c. were Consecrated and consequently that the Roman Church conveyed divine right and authority from Christ to them the very essence and being of Religion Which Church notwithstanding they call Antichristian Idolatrous c. abusing tender Consciences sâ—â—press that which themselves confess to be divine Truth condemn as Trayâ—â—rs and persecute to death with pâ—â—munire loss of fortunes c. those from whom such Apostolical Graces and Functions proceed and were continued and preserved If our succession from the Roman be the glory of the English Church it s our scorn and ignominy to persecute and revile them Tertio Penal Laws and Statutes against the Catholick Religion destroyes the ground and foundation of Justice and the form Judicature Because the Witness can have no evidence for their Testimony the Judges not any for their sentence and the Legislator as little for the Law Primo There must be evidence of lawful Witnesses In matters of Faith we go by hearing Rom. 10. The best evidence then of any Religion is the testimony of our deceased Predecessors and Ancestry whose Faith and Doctrine is fresh in the memories and testimonies of the Christian posterity of the present Church For besides the Authority of the present Church we can have no greater evidence in foro externo for the Law of God and Religion then the testimony of precedent ages confirmed with supernatural Signs v. g. the fourteenth Age delivered to the fifteenth the Roman Faith which now they profess assuring them that it was the true sense and Letter of Scripture which they had learned from the thirteenth age and so forward to the Apostles No reformers can produce one lawful Witness against Catholick Religion and their sense of Scripture yet the Greatest Crimes require at least one lawful Witness For what evidence had the first Reformers to oppose the testimony of all former Ages confirmed with so many miracles and to make Statutes against the known practiced Religion at least for nine hundred years Antiquity affords them none because though in diverse Ages some odd men did testifie sometimes an errour they were in those very times contradicted by the Church and declared impostors and innovators In this
Title of Constantinople was but intruded and usurped and when the Council of Nice gave such honour to the Church of Rome there was not so much as mention made of Constantinople Doctor Sutcliffe subver p. 51. is witness Irenaeus saith that every Church ought to have respect to the Church of Rome for hâ—â— eminent principality and Subvers 19. telleth how Saint Gregory commanded in England instituting Saint Augustine Archbishop of Canterbury a See of that preeminency Downam lib. Antich c. 3. doth not deny but that Justinian the Emperor and the general Council of Chalcedon did attribute to the Pope of Rome to be head of the Church For the real presence Jacobus Accontius a learned Protestant saith though one part err yet both are in the way of Salvation Whitaker Bucer and Hooker say the Body is really given to the Mouth of the faithful So Doctor Reynolds in his Conference 722. Prayer for the dead and free will Cartwright Fulke and Sparke say are not so necessary Worship of Images is indifferent saith Master Bunny and Bilney and is defended by Protestants in Germany as Beza relates Bowing at the Name of Jesus is affirmed and commanded by Queen Elizabeths Injunctions By Doctor Whitgift in defence Musâ—â—lus in loc com Zanchius in Epist ad Ephes c. But if bowing at thâ— Name of Jesus being read or heard be lawful it followeth the honouing of Christs Image is also lawful since the Name of Jesus is to the Ear as his Image is to the Eye Communion in one kind Luther in Epist ad Bohem. saith is of indifferency That the present Roman Church and Religon continued and flourished during the whole time of the primitive Church in the first six hundred years after Christ from Christ and his Apostles to Constantine the great and from Constantine to Gregory the great Calvin Zuinglius Zâ—nchius Danaeus Beza Brocord Nâ—pper Perkins Whitaker Powel Fulke Reynolds Cartwright Field Willet Whiteguift Midleton Morton the most renowned Protestant Writers acknowledg in their Words and Books as I could easily shew and cite their words and places to that purpose if it were not for brevitys sake you may find it at large in a Treatise dedicated to Dr. Morton of the Progeny of Catholicks and Protestants And the continuance of the Roman Religion those last 1000 years is acknowledged by Oslander Danaeus Magdeburgenses Holinshed Stow Cambden Fox Bale Bilson Whitaker Mason Cartwright Godwine Martin c. it being evident to all that do not stupidly deny whatever was said or done in former ages To conclude I propose this Dilemma either with extream impiety you damn the Souls of the whole race of your Progenitors who till the later end of Henry the Eighth lived and died Roman Catholicks or else with no less cruelty you punish them for professing the Religion of your forefathers in which by your own Concessions Salvation may be attained Whence a learned Protestant saith The wrong which Protestants commit in afflicting Catholicks and unnaturally trampling upon their dejected Estates only for matters of Religion Alas by our own Doctrine they are neither Babylonians nor Egyptians but they and we as we teach being Israelites Why then should Israel thus persecute Israel are we not become a gaze of Christendom thus to fight without an Enemy for kindred to wound his own kindred inciting our Governours to great severity in Religion in which we our selves teach they may be saved I speak sincerely I hold morally it s most improbable that such as have been conversant in Study of Controversies must have a respect to Catholick Religion unless they break with all Authority humane and divine Bishop Gauden in the Sighes of the Church p. 202. saith The Dilemma and distressed choice of Religion is now reduced to this that peaceable and well-minded Christians wise c. so long harassed and wearied with novel Factions and pretended Reformations would rather chuse their posterity should return to the Roman Party which hath something among them setled orderly uniform becoming Religion than to have them ever turning and towring upon Ixius Wheel catching in vain at fanciful reformations as Tantalus at the deceitful waters rowling the reformed Religion like Sysiphus his Stone sometimes asserting it by Law and power otherwise exposing it to popular liberty and loosness then to have them tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine with the foedities blasphemies animosities Anarchies danger and confusions attending fanatick fancies and quotidian Reformations which like Botches and Boyls from surfeited and unwholsom bodies so daily break out among those Christians who have made no rule of Religion but their own humour and no bounds of reformation but their own interests The first makes them ridiculous the second pernitious to all sober Christians whereas the Roman Church however tainted with errors yet it cannot be denied without a brutish blindness and injurious slander which only serves to gratifie the gross Antipathies of the gaping vulgar that the Church of Rome amongst its tares and cockles hath many wholesom hearbs and holy Plants growing much more of Reason and Religion of good Learning and sober Industry Order and Polity of Morality and Constancy of Christian Candour and Civility of common Honesty and Humanity becoming grave men and Christians by which to invite after-ages and your posterity to adhere to it and them rather than to be everlastingly exposed to the profane bablings endless janglings miserable wranglings childish confusions atheistical indifferencies and sacrilegious furies of some later spirits which are equally greedy and giddy making both a play and a prey of Religion who have nothing comparable in them to the papal party to deserve yours or your posterities admiration or imitation but rather their greatest caution and prevention CAP. VIII Roman Catholicks are not guilty of Practices or Principles destructive to Government PRotestants have set it down as a Decree against Catholicks and labour to imprint it as an eternal scandal in the hearts of the People that Catholick Doctrine and Religion is dangerous to the State and Soveraignty and therefore not allowable This being a matter of great importance I will endeavour not so much to justifie them as to inform my self in a point which hath made so many stagger Being one that desires to defend the loyalty of innocent men rather than their Opinions or Doctrins which they are best able to defend themselves In this grand charge and Hyperbolical accusation I find the contrary is proved by evidence of Fact that the Treasons Seditions factions tumults which have filled all Christendome with blood and calamity sprung not from the doctrine of Catholicks but from the Opinions and practices of Reformists not from Rome but from Wittenberg Smalcald Geneva c. Was it the Papists that induced them of Geneva to expel their Lord and Bishop That moved them of Swedeland to deprive their lawful King That procured Holland to depose their Soveraign That sollicited Subjects to depose their Emperour King of
Rom. 14. 22. hast thou faith have it to thy Self But then it may be objected seeing toleration must have its bounds and limits and those are almost indiscoverable viz. what points are necessary and what not what Sects and Opinions tolerable and what not and who must be the Judge or else we must deal partially and unjustly condemn one Sect and tolerate others I answer we must not cast away reason because there is a difficulty in using it aright What if be a hard thing to enumerate how many bits a man may eat and not be a glutton or how much drink and not a drunkard or what meats or drinks must be used to avoid excess in quality or what cloth silks fashion may be used without excess in apparel will you thence infer that men may eat and drink any think in quantity or quality or else nothing or wear any thing or else go naked as long as it is certain such a difference there is that some opinons are tolerable and some not you must distinguish and then you will find a necessity of discerning as you can according to right reason and grounds of Christianity the Tolerable from the intolerable The profession of the Creed and those who give some solid succinct and apodictical account directly grounded on Scripture rightly understood or in right regulated reason which is able to bear a superstructure of Christian Doctrin and practice as enumerated afore agreeing upon the summary of Belief in positive evident and fundamental points suitable to the Apostolical Symbol are conditions which require necessarily indulgency and toleration In these regards then there can be no prevalent objections urged why a wise State may not tolerate at least in private different Religions when otherwise the publick may be intangled or endangered or rather because the conscience cannot be compelled or Faith forced And more especially if they be such Religions as do not overthrow the fundamentals of Truth Nor such as disturbe or impugn the Government established Or if the professors thereof be such as are not factious or pertinacious but honest simple tractable obedient to Superiours having no other end in holding their Opinions in Religion than Gods glory or satisfaction of their own consciences and withall are willing to submit to better judgments when they are convinced to be Erroneous In this respect the late gratious Declaration for Liberty doth sufficiently appear to all impartial men to be prudent pious and politick For this purpose the Turks and Muscovites inhibited all disputations in matter of Religion upon pain of Death the like inhibition was made by the Emperour and Princes in Germany after their Civil Wars that there should be no Contention between Catholicks and Protestants to this end that there may be no breach of Peace and disturbance in the Government of the State Hence Leo Emperour made an Edict of union Called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that all the different Religions within his Dominions might live quietly and friendly together For the same Cause Anastasius made a Law of Amnesty and accounted those the best Preachers that were moderate Since there must be Heresies and our judgments are as different as our Faces since breeding and education doth so much sway and hath so great influence on many Religions and that Sectaries are grown numerous we ought to have a Latitude of Charity for those that dissent if they be not Impostors or turbulent Incendiaries Dissenters in Controversies are obliged to a mutual toleration We cannot be ignorant of other States and Kingdomes and now very lately in the Empire and Denmark those that Dissent from the Religion publikely authorized are permitted and secured so long as they do not affront Civil or Ecclesiastick Laws For true Christianity addeth such force and vigour to Civil Power by planting in Mens hearts the awe of Religion which is the main pillar of obedience by weeding out such Errors as humane authority would have much adoe to pluck up CAP. IV. Toleration or Liberty improperly taken and unlimited is neither reasonable nor justifiable I Dare not positively affirm that the Civil Magistrate is not to intermeddle at all in matters of Religion but how far he is to proceed and not exceed his Commission is disputable seeing learned Divines generally hold that the bond between the Magistrate and the Subject is essentially Civil Querulous persons have shown a Childishness in their complaints without telling what the very thing is that troubles them and how far they would have it removed and so complain for want of Liberty because they have not their Wills cry out before they know their own minds fully or take care the Magistrate shall know them otherwise then by inspiration It s the opinion of injudicious furious Spirits that no truth is to be silenced for Peace or forborn for spiritual advantage or true necessity For every one to hold what he pleaseth and publish and Preach what he holds confined to no rule of Order but contemning law will rule as Transcendents For as Plato saith it s a temerarious Liberty to pronounce of what is known and unknown with like confidence Tell us of obeying the Laws of God as long as you please I dare not believe you as long as you break the Laws of those appointed to rule over you it is a distinction without difference to separate and divide the Laws of Men from the Laws of God for unless we observe both we obey neither saith Hooker l. 3. c. 107. Here I confess Christian Governours are not to regard such pleas for private Liberty as overthrow the Publick Order and Peace nor to regard those Clamours against them and the Laws as persecuting when they do but oppose and restrain such perillous exorbitancies as have no savour of reason or Religion which strikes at the foundation of Christianity and openeth a gap to Atheism Profaneness and Blasphemy Here the Magistrate must interpose his Coâ—rcive Power for remedy Nor are they in this infringers of the Peoples Liberty but preservers of Freedome not oppressors of others Consciences but dischargers of their own It s a false Liberty to imagine our Liberty consists in speaking or doing what we List without regard to God or man It s no freedom for a man to think what he lists in vain erroneous Blasphemous thoughts or to bolt out and vent his raw indigested and rotten fancies or irreligious opinions to others its far from Christian Liberty for any Christian to start up loose Principles destructive to Government subverting Order violating Laws breaking Oaths and Covenants contemning Authority for every one to hold what he pleaseth and publish and Preach what he holds upon light popular and untried grounds and publickly to act according to his private perswasions passions lusts or interests wherein neither right reason nor common Order nor publick peace nor Conscience of Duty nor fear of God have any such serious tyes upon men as necessary to the common good No Christian I say can
Bohemia and Poland That imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots That authorized Mountebank and Rochel to stand in defiauce against their King That begot so many conspiracies against Queen Mary of England as appears in our Chronicles That ravished from their lawful Governours the Low Countries and Transylvania and many Towns now called free Was it from any of their Books you have drawn these vile Maximes viz. that the authority of the Soveraign Magistrate is of humane right That the People are above the King That the People can give Power to the Prince and take it away That Kings are not anointed of the Lord That if a King fail in performing his Oath at Coronation the Subjects are absolved from their allegiance That if Princes fall from the grace of God the people are loosed from their subjection Do not these doctrines proceed from Wickliffe Waldenses and other Sectaries Doth not Belforrest sufficiently prove the like maximes from Luther Calvin Melancton Peter Martir c. What Buchanan and Knox did against Queen Mary their lawful Soveraign is evident in History and Beza in Epist 78. ad Buchanan approves their actions Calvin l. 4. c. 3. Instit from his high Consistorian gives this absolution to all Oaths of that nature Quibuscunque hujus evangelii lux effulgeat ab omnibus laqueis juramentisque absolvitur And the famous Minister Surean called Rosiers writ a Book expresly that it was lawful to kill Charls the ninth and the Queen Mother if they would not obey the Gospel Belforrest is sufficient witness See more in Althusius Politicks c. 35. Dausus l. 6. Polit. c. 3. In all the Councils Synods writings of any Roman Divines no such matters are found and allowed but only such as teach Subjects loyalty humility obedience More Princes have been deposed by Sectaries in sixty years than by Papists in six hundred years and that deposing of Kings is no doctrine nor practice of Catholicks shall be proved hereafter and that others have been more faulty in each of their respective Sects in all kind of disorders at home or abroad History and experience testifie In no Country or City in Christendome but Catholick Religion ever entred by meekness and suffering in no Country of Christendome but other Sects entred by sedition rebellion disobedience or murdering of great Princes or Persons by vast destruction of Cities Countries Kingdomes As in France Holland several States in Germany Scotland twenty years in England c. Consider what was done against France Holland several States in Germany Mary Queen of Scots or the late unparallel'd Rebellion In Catholick Religion I find they learn their duty towards God cannot be complied with without an exact performance of their duty towards their Soveraign to obey him not for advantages or temporal concerns but out of Conscience For no Roman Catholick can be true to his Religion who is not true to his Prince Whom they obey for Conscience sake whose Person they love and honour and whose prosperity they always pray for Though stript of their Estates or loaden with stripes It is in the power of great ones to make them suffer but not to make them guilty Their Religion tells them that Caesar's due ought not to be kept from him be he of what religion he pleaseth This is the will of God in Scripture preached by the Apostles and from them derived to us this doctrine is instilled in their Catechisms confirmed by their Sermons and conferences Insomuch that a Papist that is not truly loyal is not truly a Papist if to believe not what they are taught by the Church makes a man cease to be of it From the Saxons to Edward the sixth to be a Catholick was never taken as a bar to loyalty Nor doth it seem possible a Religion which governed England with glory so many hundred years can teach a doctrine destructive to Princes or infuse Maximes that will breed Commotion in the People They are ready by Oath in the face of Heaven to profess loyalty a divine command and an indispensable duty and any who pretend to know what Catholick doctrine is must know this to be a part of it In matters of fact their actions have given indubitable testimonies even by their Enemies own Concessions If Catholicks had been disloyal either the King or his Council or at least the States-men under Cromwel or the Rump must know it They appeal to the Council in all discoveries of their Treacheries against the King whether ever any constant Catholick was accessary or concurred in any design against his Majesty They appeal and challenge all the black Catalogue of Cromwells favorites and the whole Rumpists to discover if they can any Papist who concurred in any plot or action If Catholicks refuse to go to Protestant Churches in respect of Conscience They will far more refuse for Conscience sake to commit Treason a sin of a higher degree will hardly attempt or consent to any desperate act against their State and Country and commit such Crimes as hazard Body and Soul Nay what other Sectaries will boggle at If the King should be a Heathen and make Laws against them they hold it not lawful to resist but peaceably to endure During the time of the late King of France there was proposed by an Assembly of Catholick Divines and Bishops this question or Probleme If it were supposed the King of France became a Mahometan and by his Power endeavoured to force his Subjects to that infidelity whether they might lawfully according to the Principles of Christianity by arms resist him to which question the unanimous consent of the Assembly was that such a resistance would be unlawful since Christian Religion allowed no other way of maintaining Faith against lawful Soveraigns but prayers tears and sufferings When shall we find such a result from a Synod of Presbyterians Compare these primtive Doctrines with new the Evangelists and we shall find them quite contrary to the rules of Wiâ—liffians Waldenses Paraeus Knox and Buchanan c. who teach that Subjects may not only defend by Arms their Religion but offend also And lately Baxter in lib. of Rest p. 258. saith we may fight against Kings if it were for cause of Religion to purge the Church from Idolatry and Superstition The Genova Notes of the Bible 2 Chron. c. 5. allow the deposing of Queen Macha See more in Belforrest On the contrary the Doctors and Casuists of the Roman Church hold it as an Article of Faith that neither Heresie nor Turcism can be opposed by Rebellion Belloy in Apol. part 2. plainly saith Arms against Princes have no warrant Orationibus tantum pugnandum Navar Cunerus and all other Catholick Doctors agree in the same as most conformable to the doctrine and practice of the Primitive Fathers The General Council of Constance Sess 5. concludes it an error in Faith to maintain Subjects may kill their Kings being Tyants nuper accepit Synodus c. Cardinal Tolet in his Summolies l. 3. c. 6. affirms
not take it upon them For any indifferent Judg would wonder you should have better intelligence of their Religion than they themselves Thirdly All examples and practices of the Primitive Churches mentioned in the Ecclesiastical Histories the custom was when any Dispute did arise concerning the integrity of the Doctrine professed in any particular Church that Church so question'd did always set down in writing a Confession of their Faith and transmit it either to the Patriarch or some general Council that so the sincerity of their belief might be tried by the touchstone of the Church universal Fourthly Faith being an internal consent of our will and subjection of our understanding to truths revealed in absolute justice none but we our selves can make an authentical manifestation of what passeth in our souls of that nature And besides it being the duty of every Christian not only to make open profession of his Faith when occasion requires it but also to make such a profession with all possible sincerity and truth for to use any falsity or dissimulation in a case of this concern were not only to deceive men but even to belye the holy Ghost It will necessarily follow first no judgment can be made of anothers faith but by the confession of the party himself and secondly that a greater assurance cannot be given between man and man of veracity and secret dealing than when we publickly declare our faith upon any point of Controversie Upon these grounds and these circumstances I presume their Antagonists will be so reasonable as not to question the truth and reality of their meaning in what they declare concerning their Tenets in the points of Allegiance or Doctrine Here I will set them down submitting to the honour and conscience of all sober men and to any indifferent Judges who will not retain the animosity and prejudice of parties to give sentence whether they are not consistent with loyalty and the duty of good Subjects and Christians v. g. They hold CHARLES the II. is their true and lawful Soveraign Secondly that no Power on earth shall absolve them from their natural Allegeance Are ready by Oath in the face of Heaven to profess their loyalty indispensable from which no power can free them Thirdly that they are bound with their lives and fortunes to defend the sacred Person of his Majesty in his just Rights against all opposers whatsoever domestick or forraign Fourthly that Faith is to be kept with all men indifferently and equally whether they be Roman Catholicks or of any other Religion And that our engagements promises and contracts cannot lawfully be broken or dispensed with by any power on earth to the prejudice of any third Person They believe the holy Scriptures to be of infallible authority and assent to it as the word of God They believe the sacred mystery of the blessed Trinity one eternal almighty and incomprehensible God whom only they adore and worship as alone having soveraign dominion over all things to whom only is due from Men and Angels all glory service and obedience abhorring to give their CREATORS honour to any creature whatsoever Whence they solemnly profess that by the Prayers they address to Angels and Saints they intend no more but to sollicite their assistance before the throne of God as we desire the Pravers of one another here upon earth not that they hope any thing from them as original authors thereof but from God through Jesus Christ our only Mediator and Redeemer Neither do they believe any Divinity or Virtue to be in Images for which they ought to be worshipped as the Gentiles did their Idols But they retain them with due and decent respect in their Churches as instruments which we find by experience do often assist our memories and excite our affections Pictures may be of good use saith our learned Bacon if the representation of divine stories as well work upon them to contemplate those things as lascivious Pictures do Obscenity Charity obligeth us no other construction of the words of men than what they profess to be their own sense but I never heard or read Images absolutely to be worshipped or Saints absolutely prayed to They firmly believe that no force of nature or dignity of our best works can merit our justification but we are justified freely by grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ and though we should by the Grace of God persevere in a godly life yet are our hopes of eternal Glory built upon the mercy of God and the merits of Christ Jesus All other merits according to the sense of that word signifie no more than actions done by the assistance of Gods Grace to which it has pleas'd his Goodness to promise a reward A Doctrine so suitable to the sense of holy Scripture that nothing is so frequently repeated in it as his gratious promises to recompence with everlasting Glory the Faith and Obedience of his Servants 1 Tim. 4. 8. Rom. 2. 6 8 13 Heb. 6. 10. Luke 16. 38. thus we believe the merit or rewardableness of holy living both which signifie the same with us arises not from the value even of our best actions but from the grace and bounty of God And for ourselves we sincerely profess when we have done all we are are able or commanded we are unprofitable servants Luke 17. 10. These they sincerely and solemnly profess as in the sight of God the searcher of all hearts taking the words plainly without any equivocation or mental reservation And now let them that judg so severely lay their hands on their hearts and with the same justice and equity with which they expect to be judged themselves at the last day Let them pronounce whether or no their Doctrine or Principles are inconsistent with the duty of good Christans or Subjects and the peaee and safety of Government In Law and Reason every man à fortiori a society of men ought to be esteemed honest and just till the contrary appear to be proved but nothing hath hitherto appeared to be proved against the loyalty of Catholicks therefore in reason and justice they ought to be esteemeed good Subjects and Neighbours and it is a meer Calumny to asperse them That nothing can be proved is evident their accusers being often pressed thereunto were never able to produce any particular or any proof sufficient to satisfie any rational man But dwelling in vain general suspicions triflings and false presumptions laying to their charge extravagant crimes that have not the least proof or probability objecting positions of some private and disavowed persons the crimes and indiscretions of particular men to all the party to traduce and defame the whole we aggravate the failings of a few The world knows it were no difficulty to recriminate in this kind and repay them with the same dirt If such accusations pass current who would or could be innocent No people on the earth can be safe at this rate Would not this Logick make the
Church of England guilty of Fanatick Principles because Taylor one of their renowned Doctors and Bishops writes for liberty of Prophecying And of Murder and Theft c. because some of them are condemned every Sessions Whence an English Divine ingenuously speaketh We cast an aspersion on a sort of people whose tried loyalty in all vicissitudes of dangerous troubles as it should have altered your judgments so their grievous sufferings for loyalty should from the Charity of our Profession have found rather pity for their afflictions than aspersion on their innonence So good deserving an opinion they know Papists deserve from these times that no security needs to tye them deeper Nor can there be any apprehension of the least danger from them to his Majesties Person or State for in point of fidelity they have given unquestionable proofs by their actions as their enemies witness Needham in his Book Interest will not lye saith ' Papists adhered generally 'to the King Oliver pressed by Cardinal Mazarine for liberty to Papists said they were his greatest enemies lib. Of Treaty at St. John de Luze They can say two things no profession else can viz. that no person of Honour or Estate among them was ever against the King and on the contrary hardly any one so qualified but did assist him Who can therefore look on those men as to have any honesty wisdom or charity who are ever grudging and repining at the least favour indulged to a faithful loyal and sociable people and can never rest satisfied with their own unlimited immunities unless they see others contemned afflicted and abused When by all the Apostolick Rules of Christianity we should help and compassionate and not make it our business to supplant one another Before I answer the vulgar objections and undeserved clamours so confidently though without any legal examination and process according to justice and judgment laid upon them and so frequently though disingenuously urged against them I will shew more largely what they teach concerning loyalty and fidelity to their King and Country 1. It is an undoubted verity generally taught in all their Councils Canons Synods Divines Civilians c. that our duty to God cannot be complied with without an exact performance of our duty towards our Soveraign to obey him not for advantage private interest or temporal concerns but of Conscience Nay what other Sectaries have bogled at if the King should be a Heathen and make Laws contrary to the Gospel we ought not to resist but patiently endure No Roman Catholick can be true to his Religion who is not true to his Prince and Country Saint Peter and Saint Paul did vehemently press obedience to the Emperours in Nero and Claudius times who were Idolaters No Divinity can be warranted from Scripture against evil Princes but Prayers and Tears Whatsoever they command which is not contrary to the great Charter of the word of God I am bound in Conscience to obey If they command any thing repugnant evidently to Gods revealed Will I must obey them still though not actively in doing what they command yet passively in submitting to those penalties they shall inflict He that proclaimed the Prerogative of Kings vos estis Dii taught the World People are to obey Xephlon in vita Mar. Anton. tells us Solus Deus est Index Principum God alone is the Judg of Kings I know no sin against the second Table set forth in more bloody colours by Catholick Authors than this of disobe dience to Governours they saying it is compounded of Homicide Parricide Christicide and Deicide They compare it to Witchcraft where the partie intends and covenants with the Devil himself God commanded the Amalekite who had a hand in Sauls death to be slain before his eyes Sheba blowing a Trumpet against David is stiled a Son of Belial What made Jeroboâ—m so infamous in Scripture but because he lifted up his hand against the King 1 King 11. 26. an irreverent or wry word against the King is in Scripture called Blasphemy Proverb 27. thou shalt not blaspheme the Gods And Naboth was accused in that he did blaspheme God and the King Curse not the King no not in thy thoughts for a bird in the air shall carry the voice is it fit to say to the King thou art wicked and to Princes ye are ungodly Job 34. 18. It hath been observed God hath signally punished those wrongs have been done to his Vicegerents What an unluckie time was it and accompanied with a deluge of miseries when Kings were taken away from Rome and Consuls set up We read in our Annals after Richard the Second was deposed followed a War wherein a hundred thousand were slain besides what of late in our memorie What more hurtful and hateful Creature than the Locusts Yâ—â— they are observed only to have no King if we obey not the King who is a visible God how shall we obey God who is an invisible King Since the lines of our peace and happiness do meet and center in him as in our common Father Who can think that any natives of a Land professing themselves followers of Christ who in the days of his humiliation was obedient to Caesar that he wrought a miracle to give him his due and expecting a protection from a lawful Prince should once demur to swear and yield Obedience Mens ears are open saith a learned Divine to receive any tragical complaints concerning their Governours Sheba's Trumpet is pleasant Musick to that great Beast the common people they hearken with both ears to Detractions and Calumnies against Governours that they are tyrannical Bishops are Antichristian Popery is coming in apace the Gospel is adulterated Justice obstructed Profaneness countenanced What Hurricanes will these men raise I even tremble any should profane the Pulpit poison the Air or which is worse the very hearts of men with such seditious and devilish Doctrines Who can chuse but renounce that way of Discipline which startles at renouncing War with the King For my part as Lactantius said to Constantine the same say I of our Soveraigns Restauration Ille dies foelicissimus illuxit c. Whose Person if we be not worse than Heathens we ought to love and honour and whose prosperity we ought to pray for His unquestionable Title and most noble and high Descent and Birthright cannot but strike a reverential aw upon us for it may lineally and successively be derived from the British Scottish Danish Saxon and Norman Princes above two thousand years which is more antient and truly noble than any Prince in the World caâ— shew A Prince whose great Judgment Gentility Educarion candid Nature Meekness Generosity Benignity and justness in Dealing all the world cannot but know and may imitate And his very enemies if he can contract any must if not injudiciously passionate or deserve in some measure to be ranged in the Categories of fools and mad men acknowledg But we our selves his Subjects are more pathetically sensible of the
ages she hath had some glorious company professing her Religion even in points their adversaries now impugne There makes for them all that may or can be of any Christian man required Literal Text of holy Scripture approved Tradition general Councils ancient Fathers Ecclesiastical Histories Christian Laws Conversion of Nations divine miracles heavenly Visions Vnity Vniversality Antiquity Succession their true Mission Ordination c. all Monuments all Substance all accidents of Christianity No wit of man can find out Arguments more convincing in themselves the truth of Religion than plain Texts and literal Sense of holy Writ the infallible Decrees of Church and general Councils the indubitable Writings and unanimous consent of ancient Fathers the credible Histories of all times and places and often the common light of Nature and Reason it self And ad hominem for prevention of all evasions no victory more certain no objection more unanswerable than the plain confession of their adversaries themselves The Volumes of Fathers and Councils in the eldest and purest times be so clear in themselves for Romish Faith that the primest and most learned Reformists studying the same are enforced through evidence of their words and deeds to acknowledg as Master Bierly in King James's time produceth clear testimonies If that Church erred or changed by little and little or that the true Church was invisible c. they require some humane reason to shew it catigorically In what time in what Articles what Pope changed what tumults rise thereupon what Councils withstood c. which in all innovations they can shew easily a total change and in what particular points as by Arrians Sabellians Donatists Pelagians Protestants c. What places what Countries changed with them what Catholicks set against them what kept the old paths To say the Church was extinct a thousand years or unknown is expresly against the Scripture Christs Promises and Providence and Reason it self If the Church were invisible whether should Gentiles address for their Conversion or the doubtful for resolution or all faithful for their direction was our Saviour who was promised to all Nations brought to that streight that he had not a visible Chappel reserved to him in the whole world Is it not good reason God would preserve his Church which he had planted and watered with his Blood Is it not a denyal of Gods Providence and to say Jesus Christ was unjust or an Impostor to oblige all men to indispensible obedience to her if erroneous or invisible if men were changed into beasts they may be thus perswaded Is not the Church compared to a City to a Light to the Sun c. can the Church which is a Sun be drawn into a chinâ—k or all her Beams into the center of a Burning-glass Can any Proposition be more reasonable than to ask of those who maintain a thing to be in former ages to produce some marks thereof to shew where they had a being or a Company successively holding the same Articles with them The Building is perpetual where God layeth the Foundation The Church is the Pillar of truth 1 Tim. 3. cannot err Irenaeus l. 3. c. 4. Mat. 28. Act. 3. Go teach all Nations and I am with you all days to the consummation John 17. Father keep them in â—hy name whom thou hast given me See his Petition to keep his Church gathered of all Nations and his continual protection I will give you another Comforâ—â—â— â—o aâ—iâ—e with you for ever John 16. When the spirit of truth cometh he shall â—â—ach you all truth This assistaâ—ce promisâ—d was ever in all ages no Heresie or Jew could ever prevail against it The guard and strength of Truth in point also of antiquity is ever such that she resteth still accompanied attended and fortified with surest friends strongest towers and best munition Priority and ancestry is so specially affected by the Wisdom of God and maligned by the enemy of man that in first planting the Church it s said Mat. 4. 13 24 25. 5. Mat. 13 17. Luk. 8. 12. that he first sowed good seed in the field and after the enemie came and oversowed Cockle not obscurely intimating true Faith and Religion that is good seed was first and ancient to Sects and Heresies Even as temporal nobility is most honourable which is derived from the aâ—cientest Blood and in earthly possessions that Title strongest which pleadeth longest prescription or ancientest evidence So it cannot be denied but truth was before falshood substance before shadows the Gospel Faith Religion c. which is first and eldest is only the true Gospel Faith Church and other Congregations afterwards arising or going out from thence are only malignant inventions of the enemy In which respect to find out truth in all occurring difficulties we are specially forewarned to recurre to antiquity to suspect novelty Moses Deut. 32. before his death leaving documents to the Children of Israel saith Remember the old days ask thy Father c. so Bildab Jobs friend 1 Job 8. advised him in greatest extremities ask the old generation and search diligently Solom Eccl. 9. 8. 11 12. let not the â—â—rration of the ancient escape thee c. and Jer. c. 16. stand upon the ways and ask the old paths which is the good way c. on the contrary God reproveth such as walk in a way not trodden and Solomons lesson is Transgress not the ancient bounds which thy Father hath put So Saint Paul to Timothy to keep the Depositum avoiding profane novelties It 's very ordinary with the Fathers to confute Hereticks by their innovation So Tertullian reproveth Novelists of his time saying to them who are you when and from whence came you what do you in my grounds by what right Marcion didst thou cut down my woods by what licence Valentine dost thou overthrow my Fountains c. It is my possession long since I possessed it I possessed it first So Saint Hierom. of the Luciferians Why do you go about after four hundred years to teach that we knew not before until this day the world was Christian without that Doctrine So Athan. confuteth the Arrians Saint Hilarie and Saint Aug. Donatists These reasons may induce us to take new measures of that ancient Church and may easily perswade persons as Doctor Taylor in his Treatise of Liberty of Prophecying of much reason and more piety to retain that which they know to have been the Religion of their forefathers especially when her Soveraign Rights Titles and Prerogatives are admitted and acknowledged by her professed enemies Whence Chillingworth confesseth that Protestants cannot with coherence to their own grounds require of others the belief of any thing besides Scripture and the plain irrefragable and indubitable consequences of it without most high and schismatical presumption Dr. Bramh. Reply p. 264. We do not saith he hold our 39 Articles to be such necessary truths extra quas non est salus without which there is no salvation nor enjoin ecclesiastical
miles removed than in many thousand within his own Kingdom not all of them Angels The King of France esteems it a priviledg granted him in a Concordate by the Pope that no particular Bishop should have power in any case to excommunicate him Never was there greater supporters to the Crown than English Catholicks have been ever against the least encroachment offered by the Bishop of Rome himself as it is to be seen in the Statâ—t Laws of King Richard the Second wherein you find in many businesses the Pope was interessed the Roman Catholicks flatly denying the Crown of England to be subject to any immediately but to God yet acknowledged in the very same Parliament the Bishop of Rome's spiritual Jurisdiction And Bishop Bilson in his Defence between Christ and Antichrist brings in the Parliament consisting then altogether of Roman Catholicks expressing their loyalty to their Soveraign Prince in these words we will with our said Soveraign the King and his said Crown and Regality in cases aforesaid and in all other cases attempted against Him his Crown or Dignity in all points live and dye p. 3. p. 243. And in Holinshed 2. Volume of the last Edition p. 309. we find in the Reign of King Edward the First all the Catholick Lords assembled in Lincolne in Parliament in the name of all estates did answer the Popes right to judg c. that they would not consent their King should do any thing tending to the disinheriting of the Crown or right of England And that it was never known and consequently never practised that the King of this Land had answered or ought to answer for their rights in the said Realm before any Judg ecclesiastical or secular Yet at the same time they stiled Pope Boniface the high Bishop of the Roman universal Church and themselves his devout sons c. Therefore Catholick Religion hath no headship prejudicial to temporal Supremacy If this were a Check to the Glory of Kings why do the Kings of France Spain Poland Portugal the Emperour and other great Princes in Germany uphold it and glory in it the Duke of Savoy with the Florentine and the rest of Italian Princes living under the Popes Nose absolute and arbitrary in their Dominions dispute with Sword in their hand for their Temporalities And for the Catholick Church in England in Catholick times Stat. 25. Edward 3. Statut. 16. Richard did not admit the Pope's deposing power in temporals made it a preeminence to appeal to Rome or to submit to a Legates jurisdiction without the Kings License or on the Popes summons to go out of the Kingdom or receive any mandates or brief from Rome or purchase Bulls for Preserments to Churches c. and the reason was given because the Crown of England is free from earthly subjection and immediately subject to God Our Catholick Lords of England have in the name of the whole Body made oft protestations of eternal fidelity to the King and renouncing all dependance of any forreign power that can any way be prejudicial to him Many Protestations Professions Declarations have been printed by several Catholicks that no authority on earth can absolve them from their necessary and natural Allegiance and that his fidelity was a duty of their Religion have made and will be ready to give all security of peaceable obedience and sincere integrity that any words or actions can confirm But you will object and say they allow a power in the Pope to excommunicate Princes and thence follows a train of pernicious consequences of deposing raising his Subjects against him c. Resp That the power of Excommunication is indeed necessarily annexed to the pastoral Function and therefore to be allowed in the cheife Bishop over his Flock But they deny and renounce any further extent of that power unto those things which appertain to Caesar 5 and therefore they declare as firmly that notwithstanding any such excommunication they will bear true faith to our Prince and him maintain and defend against all opposers whatsoever You may again object the Council of Lateran decreed Princes that savoured Hereticks after admonition given the Pope might discharge the Subjects from allegiance and give away the Kingdom to some Catholick to root out Heresie Resp 1. Councils are not infallible in every point even in matter of fact and other Constitutions not concerning faith or doctrine being but human Laws are changeable and oft admit exceptions 2. Council's Ordinations are to be taken according to the prudent meaning of the Legislators which bear another sense than the words taken lye In this case suppose the Emperours of the East and West Kings of England France Hungary Hierusalem Cyprus Arragon c. agree together to purge their Kingdoms of Heresies and upon forfeiture the Church should give their Dominions to another that will perform their Compact these Princes being present by their Embassadors at the Councils and what was there done was done by their consent The Albigensian Heresie beginning to be so numerous and even dangerous those Monarches thought themselves in no worse a condition for that decree nor did any Catholick King since complain or protest against this Council for it 3. Note the Decrees of some Councils not received or acknowledged universally by the Catholick Church are not obligatory but that which is principally to be considered is that in the Decree of this Lateran under Innocent the Third it is ordained not Supream Princes but temporales potestates dominos which bear Offices in States and Kingdoms to take Oaths to root out all Hereticks under the penalty of being denounced to be deprived of their Estates c. yet reserving the right of the supream Lord. 4. This pretended Article of Faith hath been disclaimed by a world of unquestionable Catholicks and all allegations confuted by learned Authors of our Nation Doctor Bistop writ a Book purposely against it 5. No proof can be given that it was ever received or executed by any Catholick Kingdom out of Italy The reason is because those decrees were never published by Pope Innocent nor a Copy of them extant either in the body of the Councils or Vatican Library or elsewhere till a certain German three hundred years after said he found them in a Manuscript compiled he knows not by whom 6. By testimony of all Historians at that time Pope Innocent suffered in Reputation having convoked so many Prelates to no purpose 60 Capitula were recited in the Assembly and many penned in a stile as if they had been concluded but nothing at all could plainly be decreed no Conciliary determinations made but one or two viz. about the recovery of the holy Land and subjection of the Greek Church to the Roman for a War began then between them of Pisa and Genua which called the Pope from the Council 7. Be it granted a conciliary decree it is so far from looking like an Article of Faith which saith Bellarmine and Canus may easily be discovered by
well of her as the Dutchess of Sommerset to Sir John Cheeke to Sir Edward Mountague Lord chief Justice who had subscribed and counselled her disinheriting to Sir Roger Cholmey to the Marqness of Northampton to the Lord Robert Dudley to Sir Henry Dudley to Sir Henry Gates c. who stood attainted and the Duke of Suffolke all obnoxious to her Justice she knew very well neither affected her Religion nor Title they being her prisoners in the Tower she released them all But for all this the Zealots of her time would not be quieted they libel against the Government of Women they pick quarrels and murmur at her Marriage they publish invectives and scurrilous Pamphlets against Religion yet forbear not to plot and conspire her deprivation Goodman writ a pernitious Book to have her put to death William Thomas a Gospeller conspires to Out of Fox his Martyrs kill the Queen and when hanged said he died for his Country Stow in Queen Mary p. 1056. On the contrary in Queen Elizabeths time although Catholicks then were the chief Ministers in Church and State and might have used indirect means against her she being of a contrary Religion and not of so clear a Title yet Catholick Bishops who set the Crown upon her head are commended by Holinshed a Prot. Hist ann Eliz. 26. pag. 1358 1360. for peaceable quiet Bishops and the Catholick temporal Lords there by him recorded to be far from opposing themselves against her interest as they are said there to offer her Majesty in her defence to impugne and resist any â—orreign force though it should come from the Pope himself Insomuch that they are commended by Holinshed for loyalty and obedience And Stow testifies how diligent Catholicks were to offer their service in that great action 88. neither were they altogether refused by her Majesty How the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellour of England Doctor Heath a Catholick Bishop instead of inveighing against her or casting forth of Libels as Cranmer did against Q. Mary her entrance and Government made a publick oration in her behalf to perswade the people to obedience and to acknowledg her power and authority Holin ib. 1170. whence the said Archbishops faithfulness was left to commendation also by Protestant Bishop Goodman in his Catalogue of Bishops How all Catholick Lords and Bishops repaired to London to proclaim her Queen who not long after turned them out of several Offices and Bishopricks Holinshed p. 1171. To use Cambdens own words and phrase the world stood Cambdens Britann p. 163. amazed and England groaned at it what would flesh and blood move him to was it not strange in the beginning to behold Abbies destroyed Bishopricks gelded Chaunteries Hospitals Colledges turned to profaneness change of Liturgies Rites c. to see people renounce their pious vows such unexpected alterations it being a pitiful thing as Stow saith to hear the Lamentations in the Country for religious Houses Stâ—w p. 964. Notwithstanding the loyalty and obedience of Catholicks towards her appeared undeniable in all things not only in their humble petitions but by their constant and general conformity unto her temporal Government in 88. and by their Protestations made at Ely 1588. as by other offers made to the Lord North the Queens Lieutenant there and by their just actions afterwards by their submission as to the Lords of the Privy Council and profession of all due acknowledgment to her Majesty notwithstanding the Sentence of Excommunication Whence the Author of Execution of English Justice acknowledges their obedience and loyalty to Elizabeth in a time when they wanted no matter of complaint Any man of candour and integrity may easily convince the vulgar error the unevenness of Queen Elizabeths nature and severity to that of Queen Marys Queen Elizabeth made new Laws against Catholicks and put them to death for not embracing a new heresie which has been condemned to the fire here and in all other Christian Countries She embrued her hands in the blood royal of Mary Stewart lawful Heir to the Crown put to death many noble persons by their blood to colour her Supremacy raised up upstarts Hereticks from nothing annihilated the antient Nobility and Gentry c. to use a Protest Historiographers words the bloody practices of Queen Eliz. if not so barbarous in appearance though more wicked in substance as being exhibited under the colour and pretext of Law in the starving and racking so many innocent worthy learned persons tearing out their hearts and bowels in publick view upon suborned witnesses base vagabond and perjured Catchpoles hired to swear Neither was there any reason then for persecution on the account of the Catholicks misdemeanours For as Cambden her own Historiographer noteth The reason of the penal Statutes in Eliz. was 1. the opinion of the Queens Illegitimation abroad 2. Jealousies had of the Queen of Scots her nearness to the Crown 3. the Bull of Pius 5. 4. the doubt of the house of Guise in behalf of their Neece 5. the offence given to the King of Spain in assisting Orange These causes induced the Queen with her Pauculi intimi saith Cambden We cannot excuse the persecution therefore under Queen Elizabeth against Catholicks for any cause given by them or just fear of their fidelity nor from the example of Christian Emperours and Kings that both for zeal of Religion and human policy to avoid danger of Rebellion made Laws and Statutes against Hereticks and innovators of the antient faith and sense of Scripture which descended to them by Tradition from the Apostles Queen Elizabeth taking a contrary way made Laws and Statutes against the ancient Religion and known sense of Gods word delivered from age tâ— age which practice destroys the order of Justice to persecute Christians for professing a Religion confirmed by the publick testimony and practice of the Christian world from the first propaâ—â—tion of Christianity to this present tâ—â—e No part of their Dectrine being â—â—er judged an heresie or novelty by antiquity otherwise they had not escaped the rigour of penal Laws made against Hereticks and Novelists in former ages But no History did or can ever mention any person that suffered as an Heretick for broaching or maintaining any one point which they now believe and profess Whereas Q. Mary her predecessors Emperours and Kings punished Novelists only that made Religons of their own heads condemneâ— as Hereticks by the Church in ancient times The disparity therefore was great Catholick Princes standing as defenders of their ancient Faith others as invaders and introducers of a new Belief They seek to keep what de jure they had Calvinists what they had not they possessors of the traditum and depositum left by Christ and his Apostles others descissors and injurious infringers of those Apostolick tyes and regulations so carefully delivered to all posterity Laws indeed have been made in Catholick Countries very severe against those the Church calleth Hereticks but they were none of the Churches
Laws nor made by the principles of Catholick Doctrine The Arrians were the first introducers of persecution they were not I say enacted by Ecclesiasticks but by civil Governours only We know that by the Canons of the Church ever in force their Clergy under the penalty of irregularity are forbidden to have any hand in blood And whatsoever civil Laws have been made by Catholick civil Governours were but as prudent means to prevent Sedition or Rebellions justly apprehended And though for some later ages civil Magistrates in some Countries exercise greater severities than anciently were used must England imitate the rigidest of other Countries Neither can our hatred or persecution against Catholicks be any more excused by the proceedings of the Spanish or Italian Inquisitions than our penal Statutes have been by the Laws of ancient Kings and Emperours against Hereticks First Because the Inquisition proceeds according to the rules and forms of justice none is declared an Heretick or guilty by any new Law or Oath made only to the end that by them men may be entrapped both in Soul in Body and Estate It was no crime in England to be a Roman Catholick before the penal Laws were enacted but it was a crime to be an Heretick or an Apostate or broacher of new Doctrines before the ancient Emperors and Kings made penal Laws against Heresie The Law supposed and did not make the crime As penal Statutes do in England making a crime of Christian Religion Secondly Hereticks are never condemned by the Inquisition without the testimony of many lawful witnesses both living and dead All the ancient Fathers Councils and the Christian Church of former ages testifie their errors are new and contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles No Rebel was ever more evidently convicted of Rebellion against his Prince then Hereticks are by the Inquisition of Heresie against God and the old Apostolical Church Catholicks cannot obtain so fair a Plea they are condemned by a new Law because they are not Hereticks and separate from the ancient Faith Thirdly The Inquisition practiceth all imaginary means towards the accused to reduce his judgment Fourthly The Inquisition it self is permitted in no Kingdome where Heresie is numerous nor can it be in justice they strive to keep out Sects and new Opinions in Countries totally of one Belief We do not morally blame the very Moors in Africa being of one profession for keeping out the Gospel it self In England where all fell not from the Papacy there is not the same just motive for severity as if it brought an upstart Religion never heard of or spread over the Nation Fifthly The Inquisition medleth not with those who never were Catholicks but the penal Statutes comprehend them who never were of their Church or Communion Sixthly The Inquisition condemns no Hereticks to death but only declares their heresie to the end the faithful may avoid their conversation its true the Secular power executes the sentence of death against them notwithstanding the Inquisition doth protest against the rigour and desireth that Hereticks may not be punished with death Seventhly Though the Inquisition were rigorous and unjust as adversaries pretend it is not a blemish to Catholick Religion because it is not an universal practice but limited to Spain and Italy at the instance of secular Princes looked upon as a necessary means to keep their Subjects in awe of their 〈◊〉 Eighthly The Inquisition â—oth seriously wish and endeavour the conâ—ersion and amendment of Hereticks imploâ—ing learned Divines to convince them and by fair ways and reason to win them Neither can the Muthers or Massacres in Ireland so much and so often exaggerated in Protestant Pamphlets and Pulpits be any pretext of rigour or austerity to English Catholicks What hath an English Catholick to do with an Irish Massacre Can we our selves excuse all the extravagancies by some of our natives and party Doth Catholick Religion either incline him to or teach murther or rebellion Have they not a setled sense of Scripture for loyalty and obedience Which none can alter without breach of his Catholick Faith And they are not their own interpreters and and judges in points controverted that 's the priviledge of others I only say and wish from my soul that some indiscreet Zealots had not a greater hand in them than Catholick Religion whose tenets are contrary to cruelty and murther on any pretence whatsoever Is it not notorious that the Reformed Zealots in Ireland signed a bloody Petition offered to the Parliament in England that all Irish that would not go to Church might be extirpated or banished This was done before the Irish Catholicks did stir Suppose that in Vlster some of the rascality or Kerns being exasperated by so many and continual injuries had murthered some persons must that reflect upon the English Catholicks and all the Irish Nation or what is the Irish Râ—â—ellion to English Catholicks who detest it more than the Amboyna to Reformists it is too much ascertained that the Murthers and Massacres done in Ireland by Reformists furious zeal against Catholicks exceeded those committed by Catholicks witness their murthers about Dublin the County of Wicko and Fingcole by the transplantation of them into Canaught and by the transporting them into the Plantations of America forcing them to the Oath of Abjuration and almost starving them in those places contrary to the Publick Faith given them by printed Declarations in the Name of the English Parliament to Irish Catholicks Anno 1649. 1652. that the Oath of Abjuration shall not be administred to any in Ireland Baxter in his Cure of Church-Division confesseth and saith they put the Irish to death that went to defend themselves and stand for the King and Country yet they who seemed so godly themselves Massacred millions of their own Country that were for the Country and King and gave God many humiliation days and thanks for their success killing after so many Scots in cold blood after they were taken at Worcester Fight See Baxter But whosoever desires to be better satisfied in this of Ireland let him read the printed Remonstrance of the Irish Confederate Catholicks delivered by their Commissioners the Lord Vicount Preston and Sir Robert Talbot the seventeenth of March 1642. to his Majesties Commissioners at Trim. There he will see how the Irish desired the murthers on both sides might be punished and how they were forced to take up arms by the wicked practices of Sir William Persons Sir Charls Coot and other fiery Protestants who governed the Kingdom Therefore whatsoever may be said in passion of the Irish war its evident that the Calvinistical Zealot had great influence upon their injurious provocations murthering seven or eight hundred women children Ploughmen and labourers in a day in the Kings Land whensoever the Army went abroad the poor Country-people did betake themselves to the Firrs where the Parliament Officers did besiege them and set the Fâ—rrs on fire and such as escaped that element were