Election of Bishops purporting that a Cathedral being vacant the Metropolitan should write unto the Chapter the Name of him who was to be promoted who should afterwards be published in Pulpit in all the Parish-Churches of the City on Sunday and hanged on the Door of the Church and afterwards the Metropolitan should go to the City vacant and examine Witnesses concerning the Qualities of the Person and all his Letters Patents and Testimonials being read in the Chapter every one should be heard that would oppose any thing against his Person of all which an Instrument should be made and sent to the Pope and read in the Consistory But such a Decree was too good to pass in that Packt Council which having too much publick respect to the publick Good even of their own Catholick Church Protestant Churches having not the same reasons to complain was oppsed by all Arts and Industry by the Bishop of Bertinoro General Laynez and by all the Pentioners and Favourites of the Court of Rome which by much was the major part for the many and great inconveniences that would ensue thereby And what were they Forsooth that such a Decree would be a Cause of Calumnies and Seditions and that thereby some Authorities long since taken away would be restored to the People Vâ—â— Ao 870. Distinct 73. Padre Paolo Defence 75. with which they would usurp the Election of Bishops which formerly they were wont to have that this was to bind the Authority of the Pope that he could not gratifie any one Just and pregnant Reasons I must confess to perswade unto Usurpation of the Right of others and therefore it could not pass The like Opposition was made against the Article concerning those who were to be promoted to the greater Orders in which it was also said that their Names ought to be published to the People three Sundays and affixed to the doors of the Church and that their Letters Testimonial ought to be subscribed by four Priests and four Laicks of the Parish alledging that no Authority ought to be given to the Laicks in these Affairs which are purely Ecclesiastical 725 726. what Right soever they had unto them In the Discourse also of the Reformation of Cardinals a Congregation was ordained on purpose to consult and find a means that Princes might not intermeddle in the Conclave in the Election of the Pope so jealous and unwilling are they to have any Laick great or small to come within their Verge their Scrinia sacra or to intermeddle in such their Concerns though they have none de Jure but their Priesthood but what they have either obtained by Power or usurped by Fraud or by the Supineness or Favours of Pious Princes But when some of the Council thought in order to Reformation to make a Constitution that no Bishop should have any Temporal Offices either in Rome or in the Ecclesiastical Dominions that even that also would be a great prejudice to the Ecclesiasticks of France Polonia and of other Countries and Kingdoms where they are Councellors of Kings and have the Principal Offices of which they would soon be deprived by the instigation of the Secular Nobility for their own Interests and therefore that String was not to be touched upon but left unto the Popes ordering Furthermore the Bishop of St. Mark in the Dispute about the Title of the Council of Trent had the boldness to aver that the Laicks are most improperly called the Church for that the Canons determine that they have no Authority to command but Necessity to obey and that the Council ought to Decree that the Seculars ought humbly to receive the Doctrine of Faith which is given them by the Church without disputing or thinking of it Petro Soave Polano 141. That is in Romish understanding that that Religion which the Pope Obedience unto him being made by them a true Mark of the Church doth please to give them ought to be embraced by the Laicks without dispute What is this else but plainly and grosly to mock the world and to think all men Fools and Cuddens but themselves and to perswade themselves that all their Absurdities should be believed without more ado What is this less than to perswade Rational men that they are Bruits Horses or Asses void of all understanding or that hearing they do not hear or that seeing they do not see or that perceiving they do not understand Qui vult decipi decipiatur § Thus have I unto the meanest Capacities made plain and evident both by Precept and Practice out of the Word of Truth the Title and Interest which the whole Congregation of Believers have unto the Appellation and Powers of the Church and unto Ecclesiastical Concerns without wresting or perverting any one Text of Scripture § Now the Pope would very much oblige us if he would vouchsafe unto us but only one plain Text to warrant the Powers he exerciseth and lays claim unto over the Laity or how he comes to be so essential to the Church as to be put into the very definition thereof It being plain downright nonsence if it be good manners to say so to aver that any one single person alone how great soever can suffice to make a Church a Congregation for that at least two or three are necessarily required to make an Assembly or Congregation Ecclesia or the Church even in its Natural and Grammatical Construction signifying a Plurality or Multitude be it Civil or Ecclesiastical And as it is a new so it is an absurd kind of Trope devised by the Romanists to make the Pope a single person to signifie the Church I know the Papalins are most excellent Artists most rare Alchymists surpassing even those our Brethren Roseae Crucis who are modest Mountibanks in respect of these Audaces Jesuitae for they took the whole Book of Genesis to found their Phanatick Chymaeraes upon but these can extract their extravagancies out of two or three words only viz. Pasce oves meas i.e. Feed my Sheep out of this Word Pasce Bellarm. hath extracted so many Quintessences so many Elixirs so many Legions of Diabolical or Antichristian Arguments for the Popes Pride and Grandeur that he can hardly desire any thing that these would not afford him will he be a King as well as a Bishop and will he have Temporal Power to be as extensive as his Spiritual Bellarmine assures him that it is so for that Christ said to Peter Pasce i.e. Regio more Impera Play the Rex at pleasure In the ancient Church when any Heresie disturbed the Truth and publick Peace a grave Assembly of Bishops and others were called and the Book of God fairly laid open before them and out of it were all Doubts determined Now Scriptures and Councils are needless Will the Pope be supreme Judge of all Controversies Lib. 4. De Rom. Pontif. C. 1. C. 3. Bellarmine thinks the Claim to be well grounded upon this Pasce Joh. 21.17 And it is
Year 1484. the King of Spain admitted it into his Dominions yet so cautionate and jealous was he as he reserved himself to be Lord paramount thereof of choosing the Inquisitor General whom the Pope confirms And for the rest the Court of Rome was not admitted to intermeddle any farther so that though the King seemed willing to gratifie the See Apostolick yet did he reserve his Supremacy of Power over all Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical to himself and so doth the State of Venice by their Coadjutors and Inspectors of the Tribunals Inquisitory In which Republick the Inquisition doth not depend on the Court of Rome but properly belongs to the Republick Independent set up and constituted by the same and established by contract and agreement with Pope Nicholas the fourth prout in his Bull of 28. Aug. 1289. wherein is inserted the very determination of the greater Council made the fourth of the same Month. And therefore as they ought are to be governed by their own Customs and Ordinances without being obliged to receive Orders from the Pope And indeed before the admittance of the Inquisition there was in effect the same Office though meerly Secular to which Noble-men were raised to enquire after Hereticks and this the Republick made good afterwards against the See-Apostolick in the Years 1289. 1301. 1605. 1606. and 1607. upon Disputes maintaining their Civil Authority in Ecclesiasticis to be their undoubted Right and cannot be taken away by any Bull or Decree made in any manner by any Pope to whom soever Hist. Inquisit § By all which it appears that neither Monarchs nor Free States would be juggled out of their just Right of Commanding over Persons and Causes Ecclesiastical and that those Condescentions of the Civil Magistrates were only to gratifie some Popes out of special favour to them and not for any just Right the Popes had unto them For let Pope or Presbyter pretend what they please to the contrary they do as much as in them lies endeavour to erect Regnum in Regno by giving Temporal Monarchy only an imperfect broken Right in some things but controlable and defeasible by the Spiritual Monarchy in other things And the World hath had a long and sad experience of this whilst Kings had the Popes and Presbiters their Superiors in any thing they remained Supream in nothing whilst their Rule in Popish Countries was by Division diminished in some things they found it insufficient in all things so that they did command joyntly with the Pope but were commanded wholly unless by force they extricated themselves out of their snares So Calvin and his Followers complain and grumble much at the Power that the Civil Magistrate assumes in England France and Germany over Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical holding Princes incompetent for Spiritual Regency accounting the intermedling of Princes therein as an Abolition or Prophanation of the same § But let us not doubt to submit all things under one Supream on Earth submitting and recommending him by our Prayers unto his Supream in Heaven for it is no small thing in such a Case to be left to the searching Judgment of God nor need we doubt or hold our selves utterly remediless whilst we can truly say Omne sub Regno graviore Regnum est And let us not mistake our Supream on Earth for if God had intended to have left us a Spiritual Sword or miraculous Judicatory never before known or useful to the World and that to be of perpetual necessity sans doubt he would have left us some clear command in Scripture and not have involved and mantled his meaning in Metaphors so intricate and ambiguous But to let pass this Theam of Excommunication so unpleasant to Popish and Presbyterian Ears let us examine the Magistrates Power as it relates to Religion in commanding Liturgies and concerning Toleration Compulsion and Government c. § All just Dominion and Empire is founded on true Religion and Piety i. e all Governours and Governments were ordained for the good of the Governed and they are obliged by the Law of God to govern according to Rules of Religion and Piety no Nation under Heaven having Statutes and Judgments so just and righteous as are prescribed by God himself and who act not according to them an Iliad of Curses will attend them and their Plagues shall be wonderful Deut. 28.58 It is Righteousness and Judgment that is the Establishment of Thrones A Kingdom is translated from one People to another for unrighteousness Eccles 10.8 And The King that faithfully judgeth the Poor his Throne shall be established for ever Prov. 29.14 If I am not much mistaken the necessity of a Liturgy and the warrantableness of establishing the use thereof is easily deducible nay doth naturally flow from the Charge and Right of Government which Kings have in the Government of the Church and granted unto them by their great Charter from Heaven their Command from God For Kings and all other just Governments being granted to be Custodes utriusque Tabulae it must necessarily follow that the Government of the Church is their Duty and consequently ought to be their chief Care And that they be so what need we other Proof or Argument than that through the whole Scripture Kings have been charged therewith and according to their countenancing or discountenancing Idolatry and other sins or abetting and supporting Gods true Religion or establishing or but conniving at Idolatry or other Impieties so they received from God by his Messengers the Prophets praise or dispraise reward or punishment accordingly and those of no less concern than the establishment or deprivations of their Kingdoms And it will as naturally follow that if the care of the Church be the Duty of Kings that then they both may and ought to set up and establish a publick Standard and Test within their Dominions to measure and try all Mens Religion by as to the outward profession thereof and outward conformity thereunto and to appoint and allow publick consecrated or to speak more inoffensively to all Parties seperated Places or Churches for publick Divine Worship and Service and administration of Gods Holy Sacraments and Ordinances to the frequenting of which they may make strict Laws or else how is it possible for the Magistrate to have cognisance of them and of their Religions and why else should the Magistrate be blamed for the Idolatry or other sins of his Subjects if he have no power to inspect take cognisance and to restrain from sinful practises nor yet to force unto the reading of the Law and the Prophets and the Gospel nor to the frequenting of Gods Holy Ordinances Now this Standard or Test I call a Liturgy without which or something equivalent how is it possible for Kings to give a good account to God of their Care and well-governing of the Church within their respective Dominions which Liturgy in general ought to contain so many Fundamentals of Christian Religion to the Belief of which if Christians joyn
Preachings they did censure the affairs of the State and Council convocate general Assemblies without his Licence conclude what they thought good not once desiring his Allowance and Approbation and in their Synods Presbyteries and particular Sessions meddle with every thing upon colour of scandal Besides divers other disorders which at an other time he would propound and have reformed else it was vain to think of any agreement or that the same being made could stand and continue any while Whilest these conferences lasted these just complaints of the King were verifyed and made good by all the Presbyteries in the person of Mr. David Blake one of the Ministers of St. Andrews with whom they sided and whom they defended to their utmost This David Blake in a Sermon uttered divers spightful speeches against the King and Queen the Lords of the Council and Session and had called the Queen of England an Atheist a Woman of no Religion of which her Ambassador complaining to the King he was cited to appear before the Council 10. Novemb. Mr. Andrew Melvil accompanying him to Edenburgh did labour to make this a common cause giving out that the same was done only as a preparative against the Ministers to bring their Doctrine under the censure and controulment of the King and Council and so far he prevailed with the Commissioners of the Church as they sent certain of their number to entreat the deserting of the Diet saying it would be ill taken to draw Ministers in question upon trifling delations very trifling matters as you will see by the Articles against him when as the enemies of the truth were spared and overseen Proud Presbyters Paul himself submitted his doctrines to the Test and judgment of his Auditory Judge ye what I say and yet these insolent Priests may defame Princes Councils Parliaments and say and do what they please impune No man must say why do ye so a shrewd sign their Coyn is not currant when it will not abide the Touch-stone They farther gave out that the Ministers were troubled for the free rebuke of sin and sinners and the Scepter of Christs Kingdom sought to be overthrown The process they said intended against Mr. Blake was but a Policy to divert the Ministers from prosecuting their Suit against Popish Earles and if he should submit his doctrine to the tryal of the Council the liberties of the Church and spiritual Government of the House of God would be quite subverted and therefore they concluded that in any case a Declinator should be used and protestation made against these proceedings whereupon a Declinator was framed and presented by Blake viz. that seeing he was brought thither to be judged by his Majesty and Council for his doctrine and that his answering to the pretended accusation might import a Prejudice to the liberties of the Church and be taken for an acknowledgment of his Majesties Jurisdiction in matters meerly spiritual He was constrained in all Humility to decline that Judicatory because the Lord Jesus of whom he had the grace of his calling had given him his Word for a Rule for his Preaching and that he could not fall in the reverence of any Civil Law but in so far as he should be tryed to have passed his instructions which Tryal belonged only to the Prophets and Pastors the spirit of the Prophets being subject to them alone For this and other reasons in the said Declinator alledged He for himself and in the name of the Commissioners of the general Assembly who had subscribed the same Declinator by which it appears that Blake was not herein a single but a publick person and that these desperate Tenets were the Tenets of the whole Presbytery and not of Blake singly did humbly beseech his Majesty not to infringe the liberty of the Church but manifest his care in maintaining the same i. e. in words at length and not in figures that his Majesty would subject his Regality to their Presbytery and be to them a King indeed but yet no otherwise then the stump of Wood was to the Frogs in the Fable a quiet and tame Idol whom every Frog every waspish Presbyter may play upon and securely dance about Now let us see his Peccadilloes not only charged but strongly proved against him viz. 1o. That he affirmed in Pulpit that the popish Lords were returned into the Country with his Majesties knowledge and on his Assurance and said that in so doing he had detected the Treachery of his Heart 2ly that he had called all Kings the Devils Barnes adding that the Devil was in the Court and in the Guiders of it 3ly In his Prayer for the Queen he had used these words We must pray for her for the Fashion but we have not cause for she will never do us good so that we have little reason to pray for her 4ly That he had called the Queen of England an Atheist 5ly That he had discuss'd a suspention granted by the Lords of the Session in Pulpit and called them Miscreants and Bribers 6ly That speaking of the Nobility he said they were degenerated Godless Dissemblers and Enemies to the Church likewise speaking of the Council he called them Holy-glasses Cormorants men of no Religion 7ly That he had convocated divers Noblemen Barons and other within St. Andrews in June 1594. caused them to take Armes and divide themselves in Troops of Horse and Foot and had thereby usurped the Power of the King and Civil Magistrate The Summons being read he desired to be remitted to his own Ordinary hereby meaning the Presbytery where the Doctrine was taught contending that speeches delivered in Pulpit all be it alledged to be Treasonable could not be judged by the King till the Church by which term they always mean themselves first took cognisance thereof and thereupon delivered the Declinator The King notwithstanding in favour of him deferred farther proceedings herein till the last of November In the mean time the Commissioners for the Church took advantage of his favour and sent a Copy of the Declinator with a Letter to all the Presbyteries requiring them to subscribe the same and to commend the cause in hand in their publick and private Prayers to God using their best credit with their flocks and employing all their labours for the maintenance thereof This their stirring up of Subjects against their King extorted from the King by the advice of his Council a Proclamation discharging the said Commission as unlawful in it self and more unlawfully executed by the said Commissioners commanding six of them to depart to their several Flocks within 24 hours and not to return to act therein under pain of Rebellion Upon notice of this intended Proclamation the Commissioners resolved that since they were convened by the Warrant of Christ in a most needful and dangerous time to see unto the good of the Church ne quid ecclesia detrimenti caperet they should obey God rather than Man notwithstanding any charge that should be given
The Prince on the other side though he pretend not to Preach Baptise impose hands administer Sacraments use the Keys or the like yet deems it more particularly and more especially within his Province to take care of these Priests and Priestly things to see that the Persons be able and well quallified and that they execute the Mandat according to the Doctrine of Faith and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ And as to countenance and maintain these that do perform their Function accordingly so to silence and punish those that do not else why should he be blamed for giving liberty to a Popish Priest or Phanatick Quaker more than unto an Independant or Presbyterian § A King is he that Ruleth others and the relation of the Word doth teach us that there can be no King but in respect of his Subjects and his duty towards them is to direct to command and punish in all things needful Where God chargeth the King to keep and observe all the words of the Law keeping and observing are not there referred to his private Actions as a Man but to his publick Functions as a King and therefore the Kings in these words received the charg and oversight of the whole Law that is an express command from God to see the Law kept and every part thereof observed of all men within his Dominions and the breakers of it Prophets Priests and People to be punished Now the Law contained all things that any way touched the true Service and Worship of God and therefore the Kings had one and the self same power to command and punish as well in the Precepts of Piâ—ty as other points of Policy neither did God favour or prosper any of the Kings of Israel or Judah but such as chiefly respected and carefully maintained the Ordinances of Religion prescribed unto them in Moses Law This Power is granted to belong to Princes even by some Papists themselves witness that moderate and learned Servite Padre Paolo throughout his History of the Inquisition where he complains and avers that amongst the perverse opinions of which this our unhappy Age is full this also is preached that the care of Religion doth not belong to the Prince that in other times Holy Bishops did not preach nor recommend any thing more to Princes than the care of Religion they warned them of nothing nor modestly rebuked them for any thing more than for their carelesness in it And now nothing is more preached than that to the Prince belongeth not the charge of Divine things though contrariwise the Holy Scripture be full of places wherein Religion is commended to the protection of Princes by the Divine Majesty which also promiseth Peace and Prosperity to those States where Piety is savoured and Desolation and Destruction threatned to those States wherein Divine things are held as Alien David though being entred into a Kingdom out of Order both internally and externally and being very busie both in Wars and framing a politick Government yet did set his chief care on matters of Religion Solomon entring into a quiet and exceeding well ordered Kingdom regarded also Religion more than any other part of the Government The Princes most applauded in former Ages as Constantine Theodosius Charlemain St. Lewis and others made it their chief care and travail to protect and rule the Affairs of the Church It is a great deceit to set forth this part as a thing of less moment since the neglect of this doth provoke the divine wrath experience tells that a State cannot stand untroubled where change of Religion cometh for that true Religion is the foundation of States He that ruleth over Men must be just ruling in the fear of God 2 Sam. 23.3 It is an abomination to Kings to commit wickedness for the Throne is established by righteousness 16. Prov. 12.14 It were a great absurdity to leave the total care of it to others under pretence that they are spiritual where temporal Authority will not reach or that a Prince hath any greater charge or imployment than this § As it is manifest that the Prince is not Pretor nor Prefect nor Proveditore no nor Priest nor Bishop So it is as true that he is to oversee and cause them to do their duties both the one and the other And here lieth the deceit that the particular care of Religion is proper to the Officers of the Church as the Civil Government is to the Prince who ought to do neither the one nor the other but is to direct all and to take heed that none do fail in his Office This being the Princes charge as well in matters of Religion as in any other part of the Government And as in other matters the Prince is to be informed of all occurrences so ought he to be particularly advertised of all that happeneth in matters of Religion And I conceive that therefore a Prince is more bound than a private Subject to fear and to serve God to be both zealous and jealous of his holy Faith to honour cherish and defend Gods true Church that he as Pope Eleutherius writ to King Lucius being Christs Vicar in his own Dominions should discharge Christs Place and Commands and also more bound to avoid Hypocrisie Superstition and all open and scandalous sins to preserve his Dignity and maintain his State and Royalty in the exercise of Religion Because Regis exemplum in numerabiles populos catervatim secum ducit and least that happen to his People which sometime fell out to the Jews through Moses long absence who thinking that in him they were deprived of the true God made themselves one of Gold § It is agreed by all That God hath not left humane Nature destitute of such remedies as are necessary to its conservation and that Rule and Dominion being necessary to the conservation where that Rule and Dominion is granted there all things necessary for the support of that Rule and Dominion are granted also It is farther granted also that supreme power ought to be entire and undivided and cannot else be sufficient for the protection of all if it do not extend over all without any other equal power to controul or diminish it and that therefore the supreme Temporal Magistrate ought to command Ecclesiastical persons as well as Civil Look back a little into the old Testament and consider the Jewish Church and Republick of which the Lord himself doth testify 4. Deut. 7.8 That his people hath Statutes and Laws so just and wise that the Institutes of no people that the Sanctions of no Republick that no Ordinances howsoever wisely constitute were able to compare with them therefore methinks that the Church and State should be most divinely and wisely ordered that cometh as near as the circumstances of the present matter will permit to the Constitution of the Jewish Church and State in which matters were so ordered by God that we find not any where two diverse Judicatories concerning manners the one
snug and played least in sight as long as the six Articles were in force and afterwards was Corrected by the Kings own Hand and approved by the Convocation Assembled 1543. and published under the Title of a necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man He likewise commanded all Curates to teach the Lords Prayer the Creed Avy Mary and the ten Commandments in English and also the Bible in English to be placed in every Parish Church by his Injunctions Anno 1536 1541. Then by his Injunctions May 6. 1546. he caused an Extract to be drawn out of the Latine Service containing many of the best and most edifying Prayers which with the Letany he caused to be made English that the People might the better understand the Prayers of the Church which was called his Primer so far and farther did this great Spirited Prince proceed towards Reformation sweeping away some of those many Romish Rubbish and Corruptions wherewith Religion was then Tainted with a fierce Beesom of Destruction which none durst to have attempted or gone about as the posture of things then stood at home and abroad but a Prince able to match the very Mother and Mrs. of those very Abominations in sierceness and haughtiness of Spirit of whom it is storied that he never spared Man in his Anger nor Woman in his Lust And thus did God by fomenting an evil spirit between two such fierce Enemies unto the truth and purity of his Church and worship turn the malice and mischief of his Churches Enemies unto his own Glory and his Churches use and advantage and by his providence and disposal made use both of their Persons and Purposes even against their own wills to his own most Righteous and wonderful ends secretly and mightily directed their wicked designs and Machinations to the Comfort of his Church and chosen in the Accomplishing whereof he shall ever be admired by all those that Believe that they who in succeeding Ages shall gather themselves against Syon and say let her be defiled and let our eyes see it may themselves fear and tremble to be gathered as Sheaves into the Floor and the Daughter of Syon to arise and thrash them with Horns of Iron and Hoofs of Brass Henry 8. Having by thus breaking the Ice made some way towards Reformation tho happily not Intentionally unto what followed marched of the Stage of this World unto the Generation of his Fathers to give an Account unto the King of Kings and Lord of Lords as all his Predecessors had before done and all his Successors must do of all the things he had done in the Flesh whether they were good or whether they were evil his Son Edw. 6. Ascends the Throne Inheriting his Fathers Crown but not his Vices who Josiah-like both in Minority and Piety took care in Cunabulis in the very Infancy of his Reign that his Council should consult and use all their endeavours to make a more Gospel-like and through Reformation in which he did not patrizare as his Sister Queen Mary did after him march furiously with Fire and Faggot nor yet according to the advice that Calvin who fond of his own Chymara and Pettish at all Princes that in Reformation would not tread in his Steps gave to the Protector viz. to go on without fear or wit but proceeded therein pacatè and consultò well knowing that his Father by the rough handling of his Wives of the Pope and of other great Princes and Persons provoked and lest many great and bitter Enemies to his Crown and that more he should raise against himself on the score of his intended Reformation but he considered withal that Dimidium facti qui bene coepit habet that Alterations begun and founded in Wisdom and prosecuted with care would continue firm and durable Therefore he and his Grave sages were not as some of more puny dayes were for the violent pulling up of root and branch plant and build who would and who could but they took all things into consideration As that tho Reformation ought to be yet could not be without the Alteration of long received and Established Laws and Orders Rites and Ceremonies such as had been from Generation to Generation an Impediment unto Piety and true Gospel Worship and unto which the generality of the People were wedded having been Trained up therein from their Cradles that as the change of all Laws and more especially of such as related to Religion ought very circumspectly to be proceeded in Laws as all other sublunary things being subject to Imperfection and many times grounded and made on Sandy and unsure Foundations and wrong Suggestions that many times tho they be enacted as behooful yet in Experiment and Practise prove very Inconvenient and dangerous if continued that Experience daily finds just reason to abrogate many Laws tho of long standing and Laws that are expedient for one Age not to be so for another that sometimes alteration of Laws tho from the worse to the better which was the case of our Reformers and Reformation is many times attended with Inconveniences and those very considerable and therefore wise Legislators do not always choose nor enact that nor all which is most behooful but that which is most behooful and may be practised with least disturbance to the quiet State of the Church or Kingdom David knew many things fit to be done in his Kingdom yet for great reasons of State would not do them himself but when he lay on his Death Bed left them in Charge with his Son to do saying thou art a wise Man do thou according to thy wisdom 1 King 2.6.9 Therefore our prudent and pious Josiah did as early as he could abolish such things as might be abolished and establish others as might be received with least disturbance and most approbation of the Peoples minds and without danger leaving other some to be cancelled and abrogated by himself if God had lent him longer life and sit opportunities or by his Successors if God so pleased or by disusage through tract of time Did not Christ and his Apostles Steer the same moderate course when they introduced Gospel Worship whilst they dispensed for a season with Circumcision and other Ceremonies in the Proselites of the Gate which afterwards became absolete meerly through tract of time and disusage Did not Circumcision continue in the Church for the Succession of 15 Bishops next Succeeding the Apostles having been all Circumcised And might not our Reformers for the same reasons justly retain such Innocent Ceremonies as they did declaring as they did declare might not Naaman the Syrian go Innocently into the House of Rimon the Idol Temple not to VVorship but to do his Master service declaring publickly as he did I know that there is no God in all the Earth but in Israel thy Servant from henceforth will offer neither burnt Offering nor Sacrifice unto other Gods but only to the Lord. 2 King 5.15.17 This most excellent Prince tho he were
Canons 1. Of Spiritual things 2. Of Temporal things 3. Of those that are mixt of both the Care of the first belongs to the Pope within his own Territories and to the Ecclesiastical Order observing the Canons With the Second he hath nothing to do out of his own Dominions quatenus a Bishop And Princes ought to take as much care of the third as Church-men if not more And those Princes are too unworthy ignorant and mean that will suffer themselves to be excluded or usurped upon And if the Pope of Rome use all his power to make men believe that Princes ought to be excluded why then do they which have the advantage of many clear Texts of Scripture of the Judgments of Councils and Fathers together with the practice of all times suffer themselves to be so abused If they did understand and would maintain in them the power which God and the people hath given them they would quickly put off the Mask and make those blush that design so to abuse the goodness and simplicity of others and would vindicate themselves from the constant injuries which are offered them and not suffer themselves to be led by the Nose as they are as if they had offended Religion by defending the power which God had granted unto them and the Jurisdiction whereof a Prince ought not to suffer the least diminution but rather put a Flook into their Nostrils as Henry the Eighth did Certainly not only for truth and conscience sake but even for necessity and reason of good Government every Faithful Man but most especially Princes ought carefully to defend and to make the preservation of Religion their chiefest concern and business For this end God hath appointed Princes as his Lieutenants and conferred Greatness and Majesty upon them to make them Protectors Defenders Conservators and Nursing Fathers of his Church in which calling the greatest of them can never give a good account to God neither can it answer the ends of Government they are intrusted withall by God and Man except it be by a continual and Vigilant care in matters of Religion And how be it there be many abuses yet that is not to be imputed to the fault of Religion which is in it self true James 1.4 pure and Holy but unto them that abuse it Perfection and absolute purity endeavoring to be perfect and intire wanting nothing is the very end whereunto the Church and every Individual thereof ought to pretend and aspire unto tho it be not the path wherein they alwayes tread Tho divers Times do require divers Laws and Orders and tho Popes for the more excellent Government should make more reasonable Laws than other Princes which is not reasonable to believe and should impose them to be received which he ought not to do yet as in the World nothing can be held unchangeable and every custom ought to be accommodated to the time and persons so it is to be done by them only whom in reason and of just right it concerns to do it and by no others viz. by the lawful and natural Prince by the advice and consent of his people and not by the Pope If any one not lawfully called thereunto could rule common business of himself which tho he did do with good intent and happy Issue yet did he nevertheless transgress Divine and humane Laws For to give just force unto a Law it is not sufficient that it be convenient and reasonable for that it is essential that it be made by those who have full power to make them and this not only for the preservation of Power and Jurisdiction but also for the necessity of a good Government It is a strange piece of Jesuitical non-sensical Polity to hearken unto them when they tell us that Laws in all Kingdoms may be without confusion because they are of force and in use at Rome and yet things are there in a quiet and peaceable condition the State of Rome being different from that of other Princes For that the Romans most impudently and against all reason affirm that they are above these Ordinances if they think sit they may or may not observe them or dispence with them and they do wonderfully serve for their ends as well when they are observed as when they are disobeyed because they are not to be ruled by the Laws but they do rule and govern the Laws In other Kingdoms when the Laws are once published and received they are no more in the Princes power they must then run to Rome to seek a Remedy where they regard not what is behooful to another State but to their own and what will serve their own Turn and Ends best Their great Design being to monopolize under colour of Religion the Administration of some certain things without which States cannot be governed by which means Rome would become Mistress of the World and judge of all Governments proposing that if there be any Inconvenience they should have recourse to the Pope and he will redress But the Remedy which comes not from the same Prince but from them who have their proper and distinct Interests is worser than the disease God whose works are perfect and who is the Author of all Principalities and Order gives to every Government as much power as is necessary to Govern it self well neither will he have it acknowledged from any other but from his Divine Majesty All that which Kings acknowledge from others but from God and their own Subjects is meer Slavery and Subjection whether in Civil or Ecclesiastick concerns § As it is destructive to Kings to acknowledge the Pope to have the least power in the making of their Laws so it is no less destructive to allow him any priviledge to suspend them it being nothing less than to confess a want of Wisdom or of Authority to ordain them which in effect is to cut the very sinews of Government which must needs be hazarded if they grant him but a power by his Censures to constrain them but unto a Suspension a thing deadly pernitious to the liberty of all Soveraign Princes who must necessarily rest deprived of all Soveraignty when they submit themselves unto the Pope who shall have power by his Excommunications or Interdicts to force them to regulate or suspend their Laws and Ordinances after his Will and pretence of Ecclesiastical libâ—rty will produce this monstrous effect that no Law shall be exempt from the Censure of the Pope seeing he attributeth to himself Authority to define and determine even against the opinion of all the World what Laws are just or unjust nay but to suspend the least Law for fear or at the menace of another necessarily infers a Subjection And to give Popes never so little in things of this nature is but to make them more Insolent and to give them encouragement to demand and stuggle for more and to minister occasions to conceive pretensions above all Princes for what power soever they now enjoy beyond Preaching
or our Abilities It is one thing to stifle Books in the womb before ever they are permitted to see light or that before they are either known or understood and that perhaps by one single person who happily may be much less learned honest or orthodox then the Author and another thing to condemn both Author and Book when examined and found faulty and erroneous For it is most just and reasonable that all and every State should consider how Books as well as men do behave themselves and punish or not punish accordingly accordingly one Carter a Printer suffered in Queen Elizabeths days § Consider matter of Fact by looking a little back Although it was early foretold that Antichrist would come nay that many Antichrists were already come yet until after the 800th year about which time the Eastern Empire divided from the Western there were not many Hereticks found in the Western parts for 300 years after But after the year 1100. by reason of the continual Jars which for 50 years before had been between the Popes and the Emperors which continued unto the year 1200. with frequent Wars there did arise many Hereticks as the Popes were pleased to call them by as good Logick as the Lion is fabled to call the Foxes Ears Horns whose most common Heresies were against the Pope's usurped Authorities over Clergie and Laity This moved the Popes and their Conclaves for Ends not good to establish the two Religious Orders of St. Francis and St. Dominick pure Fanaticks which were soon filled with the most zealous and learned Persons that that Age could afford altogether devoted to the maintaining of the Court of Rome and the Authority of the Pope to which two Orders the care of the Inquisition newly erected was committed and what hath followed since is obvious to every intelligent man which soon spawned the first sanguinary Law against Hereticks by the help of the Emperor Frederick the 2d 1244. imposing fire on Hereticks § But before this we had no Charm nor Lock upon the Press no Purgatory for Books no Limbus Patrum for their Authors we had no proper real and propitiatory Sacrifice in the Mass for the living and the dead nor dry or demi-Communions no Conventicle at Trent no new Creed with 12 new Articles either of Trent or of Johannes Baptista Posa a Spanish Jesuit never heard of before newly printed newly come forth no blotting out of the second Commandment no dividing of the tenth Commandment into two to amuse and cheat the People no Doctrine of Infallibility nor yet of Probability no Penance Sacramental no Satisfaction no Sacramental Confession as now used no Hurtado no Filliucius no Bauny no Lessius no Escobar no Jesuits Morals no power to depose Kings no dissolving Oaths of Allegiance no Gunpowder-Treasons and an Iliad more of such damnable Errors and Heresies I conclude therefore that it bears no shew that forbidding men to write tends to any good end but really to the end to conceal the Truth and to shew it to the World only under a Mask or some deceitful Light I shall conclude with this Observation concerning Printing it self That in the days of Luther and Troubles of Germany about Religion and Vices of the Clergie it was suggested unto Clement the 7th that the occasion of them all was from the new Invention of Printing By Faust and Guttenburg scarce 80 years found out and now not possible to be suppressed which though it had brought to light many Books and much Learning yet they found that in this short time it had made a great discovery of their Arcana Imperii their jugling Arts and Legerdemains much to their prejudice which whilst the Laity were kept ignorant of all went for currant on their side and imputed thereto all the Troubles of Germany about those Centum gravamina then complained of for that now men being better enlightned by printed Books began to call in question the present Faith and Tenets of the Church of Rome and to examine how far Religion was departed from its primitive Institution and Purity Among which one great Crime was that the Laity and vulgar sort of men were taught and exhorted to read the Scriptures and pray every one in their own native Language A great Crime I confess and much to be dreaded for if this were permitted to pass for currant Doctrine the Vulgar would quickly discover their Cheats and Usurpations and believe that the Clergie had abused and cheated them hitherto For if men were once perswaded that they could make their own way and court to God by their own prayers and addresses in their own Tongues which they understood and that they would be heard and be more prevalent in Heaven than mumbled in Latin without understanding what they prayed for it would certainly bring Contempt on the Mass and Mass-Priests on Pardons and Pardon-mongers on auricular Confession and Confessors and on the power of the Keys and in sum would impeach all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which by sinister Artifices had been got and kept secret by the Clergie for many generations For without all doubt the keeping of these and the like Mysteries rather of Iniquity than of Religion wickedly obtained and as wickedly kept in the hands of Priests only participes Criminis parties to their Cheats have given that esteem the Priests now have amongst the Romanists through many Ages to this very day Now since Printing hath made such Discoveries of such Mysteries of Iniquity and brought to light the more pure Word and Doctrine so that their Traditions their Indulgences their false Glosses and their other like Trumperies could not prevail as formerly Romish Craft sought out other pestilent Inventions to maintain their Impieties whereof padlocking the Press was not the least to keep the Laity ignorant And though they could not wholly suppress Printing yet in Romish Territories they ordained that no Book should be printed without an Imprimatur first obtained from some Inquisitor or some such like Myrmidon digging deep to hide their Counsels from all the Laity and to stifle any Light or Truth that was not suitable to their deeds of Darkness hence hath proceeded the obstructions of many Truths fit to be made common but have not been able to appear in the light but by stealth Instead thereof they now set up heathen Philosophy and Metaphysicks against Scripture to make good their mysterious Juglings disputing and reasoning more out of them than out of holy Writ Thus they set up Learning or rather quirks of Learning against Learning and old musty Traditions of former Times and such obscure passages as needed their Interpretations and Explanations and all to keep the Laity in suspence between fear and controversal Juglings and Equivocations Nay they rather have recourse to Tropes and Allegories where none are needful if not to Cabala it self than allow that all the parts of Religious Worship tho' never so clear and plain to every Understanding as to fall easily within common Understandings should be without their Explications or Expositions so that they cannot monopolize the Mysteries of their Church-Government so closely and wholly within their Ecclesiastick Circle but discoveries are made of their Cheats These things well weighed and considered the Conclusion is natural that it bears no shew that forbidding men to write tends to any good end but really to the end to conceal the Truth and to shew it to the World in Mascarata or some deceitful Light only ERRATA PAG. 1. l. 20. for Spiritual r. Scriptural p. 2. l. 9. for neiter r. neither p. 17. for pro r. per in the Margin p. 20. l. 37. after Christians r. to Bethphage John 12. p. 29. l. 9. in the Margin dele Deo p. 78. in the Margin for Soozm r. Sozom. p. 98. Margin for satisfactoriis r. satisfactionis ut p. 146. l. 8. for peace r. piece l. 29 for absolete r. obsolete p. 151. l. 7. dele p. 152. l. 44. for absolete r. obsolete p. 153. l. 34. for ramanded r. remanded p. 160. l. 4. 8. for St. r. Sir p. 163. l. 7. for coenatori nuptialio r. coenatorio nuptiali p 166. l. 18. for Prosica r. persica p. 171. l. 5. for were r. was p. 173. l. 24. for no. r. any p. 183. l. 6. for perspect r. prospect p. 217. l. penult for thing r. think p. 219. l. 18. for pare r. pari l. 37. after Jupiter r. and Venus their p. 234. l. 6. for Alieno r. Aheno l. 9. for dignity r. divinity p. 236. l. 17. for hariretur r. hauriretur l. 37. for Apello r. Apella p. 239. l. 8. for and r. c. l. 13. next unto to r. be
Civil Magistrate to be Custos utriusque tabulae unless be meant by Keeper the Defender only And averrs That it is a false and deceivable Maxime not to be defended or maintained by any Proof or Argument which hath not in that his Treatise been first or last refuted Therein also averring That there can be no place left for the Magistrate or his Force in the settlement of Religion by appointing either what we shall believe in divine or practice in religious things And that to compel but outward Profession is to compel Hypocrisie not to advance Religion And that Christian Liberty sets us free not only from the Bondage of Ceremonies but also from the forcible Imposition of Circumstances of Place and Time in the Worship of God though imposed with a confident perswasion of morality in them which he holds to be impossible in Place and Time And that the settlement of Religion belongs only to each particular Church by perswasive and spiritual means within it self And that the defence of things religious setled in the Churches within themselves and the repressing of their Contraries determinable by the common light of Nature only belongs to the Magistrate All which he endeavours to make good by four Spiritual Reasons as he calls them as on a firm square 1st That Protestants have no other Divine Rule or Authority from without them warrantable to one another as a common ground but the Scripture and no other within them but the illumination of the Spirit so interpreting that Scripture as warrantable only to our selves and to such whose Consciences we can so perswade can have no other ground in matter of Religion but only from the Scriptures And these being not possible to be understood without the Divine Illumination which no man can know at all times to be in himself much less to be at any time for certain in any other it must follow That no Man or Body of Men can be the infallible Judges or Determiners in matters of Religion to any other Mens Consciences but their own f. 6. Wherefore if we count it a crime for Papists to believe only as the Church believes how much greater crime will it be for a Protestant to believe as the State believes And it being the general consent of all Protestant Writers That neither Traditions nor Councils nor Canons of any visible Church much less any Edicts of any Magistrate or Civil Session but the Scripture only can be the sinal Judge or Rule in matters of Religion f. 7. and that only in the Conscience of every Christian to himself which Protestation made by the first publick Reformers of our Religion against the Imperial Edicts of Charles the 5th imposing Church-Traditions without Scripture gave first beginning to the Name of Protestant And therefore the Conscience not being the Magistrates Province he ought not to force or impose because he hath no right to judge and yet when he comes to the Toleration of Popery he seems to be of another mind averring § But as for Popery and Idolatry why they also may not hence plead to be tolerated I have much less to say For that their Religion the more considered the less can be acknowledged a Religion but a Roman Principality rather he might have said an entire Apostacy from the Apostolick Faith endeavouring to keep up her old universal Dominion under a new Name and meer Shadow of Catholick Religion being more rightly named a Catholick Heresie against the Scripture supported mainly by a Civil and except in Rome by a Forreign Power Justly therefore to be suspected not tolerated by the Magistrate of another Country besides of an implicit Faith which they profess the Conscience also becomes implicit and so by voluntary servitude to Mans Law doth forfeit her Christian Liberty who then can plead for such a Conscience as being implicitly enthralled to Man in stead of God almost becomes no Conscience as the Will not free becomes no Will Nevertheless if they ought not to be tolerated it is for just reason of State more than of Religion which they who force though professing to be Protestants deserve as little to be tolerated themselves being no less guilty of Popery in the most Popish Point And for Idolatry who knows it not to be evident against all Scripture Old and New and therefore a true Heresie or rather Impiety wherein a right Conscience can have nought to do and the work thereof so manifest that a Magistrate can hardly err in prohibiting and quite removing at least the publick and scandalous use thereof The Second Scriptural Reason is If we should grant the Civil Magistrate were able to judge in those things yet as a Civil Magistrate he hath no right because Christ hath a Government of his own sufficient of it self to all its ends and purposes in governing his Church and is much different from that of the Civil Magistrate 1st Because it deals only with the Inward Man and his Actions which are all Spiritual and to outward force not liable 2dly To shew us the Divine Excellency of his Spiritual Kingdom able without worldly force to subdue all the Powers and Kingdoms of this World which are upheld by outward force only That the Inward Man is nothing else but the Inward part of Man his Understanding and his Will and that his Actions thence proceeding yet not simply thence but from the Work of Divine Grace upon them are the whole matter of Religion under the Gospel The Third Scriptural Reason is from the wrong the Civil Power doth with its Force or Imposition by violating the Fundamental Priviledge of the Gospel the new birth-right of every true Believers Christian Liberty The Fourth Scriptural Reason is from the consideration of all those ends which the Magistrate can pretend to the interposing of his force therein which can hardly be other than 1st The Glory of God 2dly The Spiritual good of them whom he forceth or 3dly The Temporal punishment of their scandal to others § Mr. P. N. in his Treatise of the same Subject P. N. his Opinion P. 22. with the other of J. M. is far more ingenious herein not only asserting the Supremacy and Authority of all Kings and Civil Magistrates in general over all persons and things Ecclesiastical both by Scripture Reason and Authentick Authors but also of our Kings in particular most pertinently and particularly out of our own Municipal Laws and Constitutions to boot He doth therein also as strongly assert Independency which rightly stated and rightly understood is without doubt the Tenent and Practice of our Church both by Scripture and by the Opinion of sound Judicious and Orthodox Divines very great Friends unto and Contenders for Episcopacy as Bishop Bilson Dr. Jackson Mr. Hooker and others But the Independency of Churches which these Men and others as Orthodox as themselves plead for is not altogether the same with that which P. N. and other his Associates do contend for These Men maintain that
Friends the one to persecute the other for slight pretences about things owned to be indifferent Were it not better and more secure to allow them publick places only I do not say preferments that all the World might hear their Doctrines and Preachments and punish or not punish accordingly if Papalins their Doctrines Tenets and Vows of Obedience to another Head and forreign Power being publickly known to all the World and as publickly professed and avowed by them for sound and true though in truth salse and erroneous Doctrines render them uncapable of Toleration because in their own very Nature they are destructive unto our Government King and Nation unto our Laws Liberties Religion and Worship and what were it else but to establish Idolatry and Superstition by a Law Besides the Pope pretends Right and Title to our very Church and Kingdoms In the dayes of Henry 8. the Earl of Desmond profered Ireland to the French K. the Instrument whereof yet remains on Record in the Court of Paris and the Pope afterwards transferred the Title of all our Dominions unto Charles 5th which by new grants was confirmed unto his Son Philip in the time of Queen Elizabeth with a resolution to settle this Crown on the Spanish Infanta c. and when times serve makes no bones by his Bulls and his Assassinates as much as in him lies to Crown and Vncrown our Kings and Queens and absolve their Subjects of their Obedience to them and to exhaust our Treasury as part of his own Patrimony to maintain the pride and luxury of his Court and Prelates And since we have in great part shaken off his Antichristian Yoak and Usurpations he yet continues to keep his Agitators and Spies here even at our charge and hath not ceased by his Bulls Jesuits Assasinates and Emissaries at once to destroy both King and Parliament and by the bold and impudent Impostures of his Priests and Jesuits perpetually to seduce corrupt and pervert from the right wayes of the Lord as many as they can of our Nobility Gentry and Pesantry not sparing the Royal Family making them turn Tenants for their Lives and Souls which they hold only at the will and pleasure of their Lord God the Pope and Tributary for their estates Whether therefore it be fit or reasonable to tollerate Men thus desperately set and Principl'd against this Church and State I submit to the wisdome of King and Parliament who are best able to provide for their own and the publick safety of our King and Kingdom As to that they nick-name and miscal their Catholick Religion more justly the most Catholick Heresie in the World it is such a piece of Linseywolsey-stuff interwoven with so many ridiculous Ceremonies borrowed from Jews Turks Heathens peculiar Absurdities Blasphemies Superstitions and Idolatries imposing not only on our Understandings but on our very Senses V. les Conformitez des Ceremonies c. A Leyde 1667. Traite des Anciennes Ceremonies c. 1 is 73. in owning the Scriptures to be the word of God and yet denying the free and common use thereof commanding to believe very Bread and Wine to be Flesh and Blood attributing infallibility to his Holiness by vertue whereof he may take away the Bread in the Eucharist from the Laity as well as he hath already deprived and cheated them of the Wine may make lying with other mens Wives no Adultery Robbing no Theft Killing Innocent men even Kings and Queens under pretence of Heresie no Murder whereof we have had sad experience even in these our dayes in sum who ever submits to the Popes infallibility renders himself Captive to be led into all Heresie and even to Hell it self as if the Scripture in good earnest had come from Heaven meerly to make the Pope optimum maximum et supremum numen in terris that he is sole Interpreter of all Scriptures and Judge of all Controversies and that his Tribunal and Gods are all one and 1000 more absurdities which in effect is to renounce Christianity and to yield blind obedience and implicite Faith to his ipsedixit and to become Antichristians For by their own Doctrines of Intention they have given us just cause to question their very Christianity for if they hold true to that Doctrine it 's impossible they should infallibly know that they have either true Pope true Bishop true Priest or that they are true Christians and therefore they may thank themselves and their own Doctrines if we allow them at best to be but Mungril Christians like those of Samaria who feared God yet served Idols and like those of Israel who swore by the Lord and Melcom And therefore not worthy to be called a Religion at least Christian unless by way of Complement and civility they Exalting the Pope above all that is called God endeavouring by the impudent impostures of Baals Priests to enslave whole Nations to his vile ends and purposes quo jure quâve injuriâ and all this under the Vizard of his false Religion All which considered I humbly conceive that no Tolleration is to be allowed Papists whether we respect either Church or State policy tho there are those among our selves for what good ends is past my understanding except to make us as very Mungrils as the Papists that would lead and wheedle us into a fair way of reconciliation by a School-trick of distinguishing between the Court and Church of Rome What Is it possible that Righteousness can have fellowship with Unrighteousness Can light have Communion with darkness Can Christ and Belial agree together What agreement can the Temple of God have with Idols Can we joyn our bodies to the very Mother of Harlots and not be one body with her From such we are commanded to come out and seperate not tollerate 52 Esay 11.31 Jerem. 1. 1 Cor. 6.16 2 Cor. 6.14.15 16 17 18. And then God will be a Father unto us and we shall be his Sons a d Daughters We are seperate we are come out for shame then let us not hanker after nor talk of returning to Onyons and Garlick nor with the Dog to his Vomit we are washed and cleansed from the dregs and silth of Rome and therefore never to return with the nasty and beastly Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire If Quakers they are as little to be indulged for reasons diametrically opposite for that the very Scriptures are not heartily and throughly owned by them nor are they a Rule of Faith unto them Indeed they have no known Rules no established Principles no Doctrine infallible to be Governed by the light within them being only the Rule and Guide of their Consciences which may be Hosanna to day and Crucifige tomorrow no Connivence no Tolleration due to those Religions whose Principles are unknown or destroy our Government If Presbyter or Independents the case as to them is far different they owning the same Scriptures for their Rule and Guide professing the same Articles of
not the most antient § With all wise and sober-minded persons Custome and Usage obtaineth that reverence and esteem as to yield a just ground for deliberation before it be altered or abrogated though not of absolute direction and adherency All Constitutions and ordinances concern the Church or State be they never so pure in their first institution may corrupt and degenerate and why the Civil State should be purged and reformed by new Laws devising remedies as fast as times breed and discover inconveniences and mischiefs And the Ecclesiastical State of this or that Kingdom should still continue on its lees or dreggs without refining or purifying by new Canons and Constitutions is beyond the comprehension of all sober minds and reason H. Grotius makes this observation on the 2 Kings 18.14 He removed the High places and brake the Images cut down the Groves and brake in pieces the Brazen Serpent that Moses had made Nota quem secerat Moses Egregium Regibus documentum ut quamvis bene instituta sed non necessaria ubi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 male usurpanturè conspectu tollant ne parant offendiculum caecis This H. Grotius notes as an excellent document for Kings that things never so well never so lawfully instituted as the Brazen Serpent was by Moses himself if not necessary and grow to be abused ought to be taken away as King Hezekiah did the Serpent least they prove a Snare and an offence unto the weaker Brethren Moreover if an absolute necessity be laid upon all men to subscribe and conform to the present established Religion and Worship by the very self same reason the next year he may be obliged to subscribe and conform to the contrary and so unto all Religions in the world successively § As a perverse and a morose retaining of Customes and Usages may be as prejudicial to right Reformation as Innovations so to remove Abuses nay Customs or Rights that may be spared without prejudice unto true Worship and the Doctrine of Faith doth not impeach good Orders nor lawful Authority but ratify and establish them Gods Church is compared to a Vineyard and a good Husband who is ever pruning therein not unseasonably not unskilfully but lightly and prudently he findeth ever somewhat to do If men were peaceably minded methinks it were not hard to agree in this That every Church be it of England France Sweden c. do that which is convenient for the State of it self and of the Common-wealth The antient and true bounds of Unity being one Faith one Baptism and not one Ceremony one Policy suppose another were a better form yet not always that which is best but of good things that which is best and may be had with least prejudice is to be embraced Our Church is not now to plant it is settled and established In Civil States suppose a Republick in the opinion of some to be a better policy than a Kingdom yet God forbid that lawful Kingdoms should be obliged to innovate and make alterations as often as men given to change desire or plead for it Gods Providence is to be consulted as well as his Word There are Schismatical Customs as well as Schismatical Doctrines and Opinions So as the Civil Magistrate take care that the general Rules be observed viz. That Christs Flock be duly fed that there be authentick Ordination a Succession in Bishops and Ministers that there be a due and reverend use of the Keys a due Administration of the Sacraments that those that preach the Gospel do live by the Gospel that all things tend to Edification and that all things be done in order and with decency the rest may be left to the discretion and prudence of inferiour Labourers and we ought to acquiesce The President of that City is very severe which permitteth none to propound new Laws that had not a cord about their Necks ready for vengeance if it were found unprofitable but by their leaves all Innovations are not to be rejected for divine Plato teacheth us in all Common-wealths on just grounds there ought to be some changes and that States-men therein ought to imitate skilful Musicians Qui artem Musices non mutant sed Musices modum And it is not unworthy our observation that even evil forms of Policy have been sometimes well ordered and rectified by good Governours and Commanders and so the State of Boetia flourished once under Epaminondas and Pelopidas and yet it owed this Prosperity not to the Government of the City for that was ill constituted but to the Governours for they were wise and virtuous The contrary also happened to Lacedemon for that fared ill sometimes and suffered much distempers because though its fundamental Laws were good yet its Kings and Ephori were many times tyrannous and unjust § More particularly the Congregational Government though ab initio it were in use and may be again if the National Church thought it convenient And I do not know but that it will suit now with any Government as well as when Christ did institute it but the truth is it hath been quite of date and doors as they would now set it up ever since whole Cities Commonwealths and Kingdoms became Christian and have been mutually incorporated and interwoven one with the other however the Doctrine and Tenet thereof is as sound and as practicable now as ever The Arguments which the Independents bring to prove the consistency of their Congregational way with our Kingly and Civil Government are only prudential and probable which I shall not go about to contradict or examin but exmantissa grant not only their Consistency with our Government but that also the Civil Magistrates may so govern if they please they submitting to Indubitable Ordination as I take Episcopal to be for it is not sit that any Ordinance so very essential to the very making and perpetuating of a Gospel Ministry should be left upon a Moot point as it would be if either Presbyterian or Independent Ordination should take place But then I hope the Congregational men will be as ingenuous and confess that the Ecclesiastical Discipline and Government already established is as consistent with our Civil Laws and Government and that the legislative power may continue the same Government or alter it to any other form so it be of force to suppress Vice and to maintain true Faith and Religion even to that Gallintaufrey Platform establishing Presbytery which is but a minced or cantonized Papacy in point of Rule and Domination by order and ordinance of that demy-parliament 29. August 1648. which hath no good foundation in Scripture no ground in Reason no Authority beyond Jo. Calvin to make it good But Christian Common-wealths and Civil Magistrates may establish what Government so qualified they please the thing I contend for It s true that the Priests of divers perswasions will highly caress Majesty in words But if the Civil Magistrate offer to impose but a Cap a Surplice a cross in
was his dumb Asse and like Micha's Leuite for a little better reward swallow down theft and Idolatry together § Authority it self hath not so rigorous a sway over the souls of men as to obtrude disliked Religions universally it must perswade as well as compel and convince as well as command or else great alterations cannot easily and suddenly be perfected And in this respect Proclamations of Princes and commanding Edicts mostly prove more efficacious Sermons than those from out of the Pulpits look back on former times and it is evident that before Constantine favoured Religion the Gospel spread but slowly and that not without a wondeful confluence of Heavenly Signs and Miracles wrought by our Saviour and his Disciples all which we may probably conjecture had never been in such plentiful manner manifested to the World had it not been to countervail the enmity and opposition of secular Authority And it may be conjectured nay presumed that had the Caesars heartily by command and example joyned in the propagation of Christs Doctrine more might have been effected towards the propagation of the Gospel by their Cooperation than all Christs Apostles Bishops and other Presbyters did effect by their extraordinary gifts and supernatural endowments we see also that Constantines Conversion was of more moment and did more conduce to the prosperity and propagation of Christianity than all the labours and endeavours of thousands of Preachers and Confessors and Martyrs which before had attempted the same We see Ed. 6. though a Minor in a short time very much dispelled the mists of Popish errors and superstition and when no men were more averse to the truth than the Clergy yet he set up the banner thereof in all his Dominions and redeemed millions of souls from the thraldom of Hell and Rome So Queen Elizabeth though a single woman was a most admirable instrument in the same design and what she did in England other Princes did the like in their Dominions whatsoever was effected by the labour of Ministers after our Saviour the same if not greater matters were sooner expedited by the ordinary Power and Wisdome of Princes when Ministers were generally opposite thereunto And as we see the spiritual power of Princes how strangely prevalent it is for the truth so we see most woful effects thereof against the truth Religion was not sooner reformed by E. 6. than it was deformed again by Q. M. And although many godly Ministers were here then setled as appears by the numerous Martyrs yet all those Ministers could not uphold Religion with all their labours and hands so strongly as Q. M. could subvert it with the least of her Fingers one fierce King of Spain bound himself in a cursed Oath to maintain the Popish Religion and to extirpate all contrary Doctrines out of his confines which taking effect accordingly It demonstrates and confirms that one Kings Enmity or supineness towards Religion is more pernitious than a thousand Ministers zeal is or can be advantagious to the spreading of the Gospel which consequence alone ought to sway and prevail very much with Princes to act very vigorously and very circumspectly in matters of Religion as being most eminently to accompt for it and for that their countenance or discountenance of the true or false Religion of sin or piety is next unto or a kind of an establishing the one or the other by a Law according to that antient received Maxim Regis ad exemplum totus componitur Orbis Therefore the examples of Kings and chief Magistrates being of such wonderful avail and indeed of more consequence than 20000 Pulpits no doubt if they would put in practice and follow the example of King Davids resolution in the 101 Psal to walk in their Houses with a perfect heart to behave themselves wisely in a perfect way to set no wicked thing before their eyes to hate the work of them that turn aside not to know a wicked person to shew no favour to give no countenance no preferment to any wicked person but to let their eyes be upon the faithful of the Land and on them that excel in virtue that they may dwell with them and that they and only they that walk in a perfect way do serve them that they that work deceit should not dwell in their Houses nor they that tell lies tarry in their Sght. No doubt I say but such Princes by such pious practices and examples would by such discountenancing of Sin and Sinners quickly destroy the wicked of the Land and cut off all wicked doers from the City of the Lord and would conduce much even to the making of a high way of holiness throughout the Land that wayfaring Men though Fools might noterre therein For who knoweth not that example doth as certainly kill Souls as Fire and Fagot do bodies and that an exemplary life of Men in Authority doth incline and invite their Subjects and Servants to the same whether it be holy or unholy more much more than Pulpits or any verbal Rhetorick St. Peter did not Preach Judaism but only for fear of offending the Jews did forbear to eat with the Gentiles yet St. Paul reproveth him for it to his face and interpreteth that fact of his as an effective and almost compulsive seducement Cogis Judaizare 2. Gal. 14. Why compellest thou the Gentiles to Judaize so Nehemiah 13. c. v. 17. Contended with the Nobles of Judah saying What evil thing is this that ye do and profane the Sabbath day and yet the Rulers had not sinned by personal commission but by partial Connivence and toleration of the sins of others Besides it is not the Clergy only that is so immediately and so universally responsable for the publick discountenancing of Religion being chiefly responsable for their particular Flocks only for even the abuses of the very Clergy it self will one day be set on the Magistrates account and according to that vast spiritual Power which God hath put into the hands of Princes so will God certainly require at their hands § Preaching is not the only means of Salvation nor Ministers the only Preachers nor Sacraments only efficacious because the Clergy only may administer them Though Pope and Presbyter call themselves only spiritual persons the Church and Lot of Christ and put Princes into the number of Temporal and Laymen and limit them to secular things yet God will not be so mocked they ought to acknowledge the character of Divinity which is so much more fairly stamped on Princes than it is on them and let them not rob Princes of that influence in sacred things which they themselves can never enjoy For as Princes must answer for wilful or negligent permitting a wicked Clergy so must Pope Presbyter and Independent answer for endeavouring to cajol Princes out of their Supream Power on pretence that Gods Message is so delivered to them Let Ministers assist Princes in their Spiritual and Religious Offices as Aaron and Hur did Moses let them not contend
rows another pretends to argue only against Liturgies in general how consonant soever they be to Gospel-Truths and Doctrines for against such he must dispute or he hath no Adversary that I know of I am sure I am no defender of any other and their Imposition whilst he shoots many envenomed Arrows against our established Liturgy wherein his own consent is involved because established by Act of Parliament and Convocation and perhaps subscribed unto by himself and then concludes That on these and no better terms is that prescribed Liturgy we treat of introduced and imposed which Terms are 1. That it is not appointed of God 2. Not practised in the Purer Times 3. An Humane Invention 4. Hinders Edification 5. An Abridgement of Christian Liberty 6. That it is made necessary by the Commands of Men and then admires with what peace and satisfaction to their own Souls Men can pretend to Act as by Commission from Christ as the chief Administrators of his Gospel and Worship on the Farth and make it their whole business almost to teach Men to do and observe what he never commanded and rigorously to enquire after into the observation of their own commands whilst those of the Lord Jesus are openly neglected I 'le make no exasperating Comment on these and other the like severe Reflections on our Anti-Liturgists because he pretends to use it only by way of Instance neither will I as I said at first go about to defend every thing relating to this or that Liturgy my design being only to defend the Composition Use and Imposition of a wholesom Form of sound words formed into that which we now call a Liturgy It 's enough for me if such a Liturgy may be composed against which there can be no just exception and that there may be such I have never read or heard to the contrary § The Ends of Liturgies our Author reduces singly into one viz. That the Ordinances and Institutions of Christ may be publickly administred and solemnized in the Church with Decency and Order unto the Edification of Assemblies wherein they are used But because he confesseth that there is no other assigned that he knows of I shall take liberty to Assign one or two more though this alone be sufficient 1. That so many Fundamental Truths the necessary and common Food of all the Sons and Daughters of the Church should be daily and purely read and taught as well as the Ordinances and Institutions administred without corrupt Glosses or Comments as may be sufsicient to make the Comers thereunto wise unto Salvation And that our English Liturgy contains such Truths needs no proof it 's Matter of Fact and proves it self And if it doth not appear to be so unto the Author let him discover its desiciency the radical necessary Truth that is not there taught or not rightly taught therein and I shall acknowledge it and yet if it were defective it can only be a just exception against this Liturgy but not against Liturgies in general that may be otherwise composed 2. One other and great End of Liturgies relates to the Civil Magistrates who impose Liturgies as the best Medium to justifie their Pastoral Care pardon the Expression it as rightly belongs to them as to Popes or Presbyters of the Souls as well as of the Bodies of their Flocks their Subjects in that they command them to be daily fed with the sincere Milk and other stronger Meat of the Word Ezek. 34.23 Now Princes are as truly Pastors as Priests and that of Christs Flock yea Pastors of the Pastors as a Bishop once called King Edgar whose principal charge and care is or ought to be that Divine Things may be rightly ordered and the Salvation of Men procured Hence it was that Constantine called himself a Bishop and other Emperors had the Title of Renowned Pontiffs or Priests In the Emperor Martianus the Roman Bishop extols his Priestly Mind and Apostolical Affection and Theodoret mentions the Apostolical Cares of Theodosius wherefore the Kings Power is also Spiritual as it is conversant about Religion which is a Spiritual thing as it is also Military Naval or Maritime c. though he be neither Mariner nor Soldier And Balsamo Bishop of Antioch observes that in those times the Emperors did instruct the People in Religion And how good Josiah went up into the House of the Lord and all the Men of Judah and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem and the Priests and the Levites and all the People great and small and how he read in their Ears all the words of the Book of the Covenant and how he made a Covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord c. and how he caused all that were present to stand to it c. is recorded 2 Chron. 34. and is worthy of the Imitation of all Princes Such and many other prudent Considerations no doubt made our good Josiah Edw. 6. and his Counsellors however this Author writes slightingly as to the Case of Liturgies f. 37. of that never to be forgotten Reformation to take care that as there is a Common Salvation Jud. 3. and a Common Faith Tit. 1.4 which is alike precious 2 Pet. 1.1 in the highest Apostle and meanest Believer for we may not think that Heaven was prepared for deep Clarks only a Rule of Faith besides that large measure of Knowledge whereof all are not capable common to small and great which they moulded into the Form of a Liturgy if he please to give me leave so to express it and not wrest my words beyond my meaning containing so many Credenda and Agenda so many things to be believed and done by all Christians of such weight and moment that if believed and a Life led accordingly would doubtless bring all such Believers in their appointed times to Eternal Bliss and such Credenda are contained in our Liturgy deny it that can without a Slander For indeed Liturgies have a more special regard to the weaker sort and meanest Capacities Ignorance of Scripture and of the Principles of Catholick Faith that are absolutely necessary to Salvation being a dangerous Gulfe and the chiefest support of Popery and therefore is it so plainly so methodically and in such few apt and Scripture Expressions composed both for the Credenda and the Agenda that the meanest may understand all necessary Truths and not mistake and they are so often read and taught by the frequent use thereof that even Babes do suck them in almost with their Milk and can hardly be forgotten nay the very Solemn Days which by the Ancient Institution of the Church are celebrated for the Commemoration of the Blessed Trinity the Nativity Passion Resurrection Silvest in summa verb. sidei §. 6. Tho. in secunda secundae q. 3. Art 7. and Ascention of our Saviour Christ doth so preserve the memory of these things among the Common People that by the Popish Doctors themselves it is made an Argument of gross and supine Ignorance
earnestly but inconsiderately pleaded for again But what did this Liberty produce but Factions Schisms and variety of Fashions and Modes in Celebrating the common Service and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rights and Ceremonies of the Church nay it is observed as intimated before in the Register of Petworth that many at this time affirmed the most blessed Sacrament to be of little regard that in many places it was irreverently used and cast out of the Church and many other great enormities committed nay many of the Licensed Preachers appear'd as Active against the Kings proceedings as any of the unlicensed Preachers had been found to be now what security can this our Author give to our Prince that if the like Liberty should now be Indulged to him and others that it shall not be abused nor produce the like or worse effects All which together with the Insurrections in Cornwall Devon Norfolk Suffolk and other Counties springing therefrom the King and his Council seeing the dangerous consequence thereof concluded that Uniformity was the best remedy against Schisme Heresie Faction and for the quiet State and Weal of the Kingdom and therefore gave Order to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and other Learned and Pious Men rather than to use Severity against his Subjects that a publick Liturgy should be drawn and Confirmed by Parliament with several Penalties to be Inflicted on all those who should not readily conform to the Rules and appointments of it and accordingly it was so signified unto the Kingdom by Proclamation Queen Elizabeth who was not unacquainted with such Sollicitations nor with the Consequences of them gave that reason in her time for not suffering any deviation from the established Form viz. that the English Angli beliâ— intrepidi as they were Zealous in their Religion so they were a Stout and Warlike Nation and the difference in Rites and Worship would unavoidably beget words and disputes which would certainly beget Animosities and consequently Blows and Insurrections the experience whereof she had seen in the first years of her Brothers Reformation for the Commissioners attending the Kings Injunctions met in many places with Scorn and Reproach and Railing and the farther they went from London the worse they were handled in somuch that as one of them was pulling down Images in Cornwall was Stabbed by a Priest who tho Hanged in Smithfield which quieted all matters for a time yet the next year the Storm arose more violently than before not only in the Western parts but in a manner all the Kingdom over which great Commotions the Council foreseeing as the most probable consequence of such Alterations especially when they are sudden and pressed too fast did let the People understand that there was no Intention to abolish their Antient Ceremonies which might consist with Piety or the Peace or Prosit of the Nation and therefore the King both by his Proclamation dated in Jan. 1548. commanded a strict observance of Lent and also pursued it by his own observance thereof in his Court by which and other like Innocent complyances did the King make good and established his most happy Reformation and yet is he and his work and his prudent Innocent Complyances evil spoken of by some Boarnarges hot and fiery spirits because forsooth there were some that had a Beam of Light of equal Lustre that would have had it otherwise The most eminent whereof were Bonner Calvin John Alasco and Hooper the very first Anti-Liturgists Pardon I beseech you that I name that Sanguinary Bonner the same day with those Pious Men. John Alâ—sco and Hooper having suffered very much for the truth and Bonner having made the truth highly to suffer and Calvin who setting aside the fondness of his own Brat the Chimera of his own Invention his Church discipline and also his rigid opinions concerning Election and Reprobation now even in this our Age become the Darling arguments of our Atheists or which is as bad of all those that live as it were without God in the World who tho they profess God with their Mouths yet in their Works do deny him was both as wise a Man and as orthodox in points of Doctrine as any as that age did afford and did Write so much yet so it is that the Beam of light which Bonner and his Gang enjoyed led him and his Complices as much to make the Liturgy a Bone of Contention to them in that it took away so much and retained so little as the Beam of Light of the others did make it a Bone of Contention to them because it took away no more and retained so much For Bonner did still suffer sundry Idolatrous private Masses of peculiar Names as the Apostles Mass the Ladies Mass and the like to be daily solemnly sung within certain particular Chappels of St. Paul cloaking them with the Names of the Apostles Communion and our Ladies Communion not once finding any fault therewith until commanded by the Council and that by several Letters 1265. Tho I am far from thinking that any Person or any Reformation can be too pure when God hath commanded us to be Holy as he is Holy and perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect it can then be but an accursed modesty even next unto Atheism to believe that any Man or any Reformation can have a Nimis of Purity and Piety yet I can no more renounce moderation reason and Prudence in guiding and Governing Church than State Assairs nor yet subscribe unto Calvins Counsel unto Bucer viz. to take heed of his old fault viz. of running a moderate course in his Reformations nor yet his Advice to the Protector Advising him to take away all Ceremonies and to Reform the Church without regard unto peace at home or Correspondency abroad such considerations being only to be had in Civil matters but not in matters of the Church wherein not any thing is to be exacted which is not warranted by the Word and in managing whereof there is not any thing more distastsul in the eyes of God than Worldly Wisdom either in moderating cutting off or going backwards but meerly as we are directed by his Will revealed Ep. ad Protect More particularly for example sake see the ill Fruits and Effects of such Liberty as our Discourser Pleads for being granted unto John Alasco A Polonian born and unto his Congregation of Germans and other Strangers by Edw. 6th about the year 1550. who being persecuted in their own Country for the same Religion which was then here professed fled hither for Succour to whom the King by the Advice of his Council out of great Zeal to the propagation of the true Religion and out of most wonderful Commiserations unto those that were persecuted for the profession and exercise thereof most graciously afforded them Favour Entertainment and Protection and did assign them the West part of the Church then lately belonging unto the Augustine Fryers for their Exercising of Religious Duties and made them a
Administration of Sacraments Christ prescribed set Forms which all Christian Churches in all Ages have used and they and we ex precepto Christi bound to use them 28 Mat. 19. Go and Baptize in the name of the Father Son and Holy-Ghost So in the Lords Supper take eat this is my Body c. 5o. Justin Martyr in Apologia pro Christianis expresly tells us that in their publick Assemblies they had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Common Prayers no Directory and among other things Singing of Psalmes 6o. Missa Latina Antiqua published first by Flac. Illiricus afterwards by Card. Bona was in use in the 6th Century and is the freest from all Popish Errors and Superstition of any extant 7o. the Antient Liturgies of James Chrysostome Ambrose c. have been Interpolated and Corrupted is evident and that they had such Liturgies may be as evident from the Words of Cyril of Jerusalem for the Liturgy of James Chrysostome Ambrose others What more sure or sollid Foundation for the Building up Propagating and Establishing of Religion in these our Kingdoms even amongst those of meanest Capacities could be laid than this already laid in our Liturgy by the Fathers of our Church And yet so perverse and froward have many of her Sons been that they have even scorned to Build thereon which frowardness of theirs together with the Idleness and Insufficiency of other Conformists and Non-Conformists conspiring with the Frozen Zeal of the People and together with the open Prophanation of the Sabbath and not putting the Laws in Execution against open and scandalous sins against which there can be no excuse and countenance given to Sin and Sinners either by Sinful Examples or not discountenancing them and a temporising fearfulness in others and out of a cursed modesty not daring to call Vices by their proper names a shrewd sign as one observes of their Raign and Commonness and that great Persons whom it is not safe nor prudent to anger are Infected therewith have very much prejudiced and impeded the growth and spreading of the purity of Religion and Piety within these Realms and Dominions as well as in others for with what considence can we rebuke others for sins that we are Guilty of our selves or Perswade Invite or draw others to our Church If we cannot agree where and how to lay our Foundations and make superstructures § Of old it was the Imputation of Brownists that our Church held it a Piaculum not to wear a Surplice and a Venial Sin to be a Lewd-lived Minister and many late Ichabods and Coblers of Glocester and naked truths make many heavy Complaints against our Clergy Immerito I hope of Jehosaphat it is said that when he went to plant Religion among the People and to prevent Idolatry he sent Levites abroad into Cities of Judah to teach and instruct the People in the ways of the Lord 2 Chr. 17.8.9 The like have our Kings done by their Laws and Bishops yet if notwithstanding all the care to make Laws against Sin and Sinners none do execute them and to furnish his People with able and Laborious Pastors that may feed them with knowledge and understanding the present store of able well-lived-Conformists serve not may I not in compassion to the Churches necessity and to stop the Mouths of all Jchabods modestly wish the removal of some Injunctions that may be spared without prejudice to pure Faith and Worship and some Connivence granted to those that dissent from the Conformers in Judgment for matters of Circumstance and Ceremony whilst yet they Preach true Doctrine and carry themselves peacibly in the Church The Lord would not have the Canaanites at once cast out least the Wild Beasts should increase upon his People Exod. 23.29 Suffer me then having thus totis viribus asserted Liturgies to Plead for Israelites Scrupulous Conscientious Israelites indeed that it may suffice them to lack Livings and the Churches not be deprived of their pains at least let them help to bear part of the Burthen and draw Water for the People out of the Wells of Salvation let them be as Priscilla and Aquilla and Vrbane to Paul Rom. 16. Helpers in Christ Jesus or as Gaius to John who thought himself bound in duty 3 Joh. 8. To receive him and such like that they might be fellow-helpers to the truth And what inconvenience can insue by such Permission or Connivence I cannot foresee so that they Preach in Publick and that Conformity be still reserved as the Qualification to all Publick Ecclesiastical Prefermonts § In the great differences between the Romanists and the Lutherans which began about the beginning of the 16th Century about 1517. It seemed good to the Emperor about 1532. to settle a Peace of Religion called the Interim which was the first tho very small Liberty of Religion which those that adhered to Luthers Confession called the Augustine obtained by Publick Decree for which the Emperor was reproved at Rome as putting his Sickle as they said into another mans Harvest every Prince being obliged by the strictest Bond of Censures to the extirpation of those that were Condemned by the Pope as Luther and his Adherents were by Leo the 10th and also by the Emperor 1520 1521 wherein they ought to spend their Goods Estates and Lives and the Emperors much more because they do so Solemnly Swear unto it but others Commended the Piety and Wisdom of the Emperor for his so doing thereby securing the Lutherans unto him by granting some small Indulgences to them who were Christians tho dissenting from them in some particulars being tolerable differences lest they might have crossed him in his other great Concernments and Wars They said also that the Maxime so renowned in Rome viz. That it is more meet to Prosecute Hereticks Lutherans then Infidels was well fitted to the Popes Dominion and Meridian but not to the benefit of Christendome Alleadging also that Kingdoms and Principalities ought not to be Governed by the Laws and Interests of Priests who are partial for their own Greatness and Profits but according to the exigence of the Publick good of Church and State which requireth now and then some Connivence and Toleration of some defects Moreover that it was the duty of every Christian Prince to endeavour equally that his Subjects and every Bishop his Flock do maintain the true Faith as also that they observe all the Commandments there being no greater Obligation to punish Hereticks or Dissenters than Fornicators and Drunkards or Swearers which all Nations abhor and make Laws against And the Inconveniences by giving some Indulgences to some that do not defend or hold all our Opinions cannot be great but they may be very great by denying them some convenient Liberties and Priviledges thereby keeping up a considerable Party in Animosity that cannot Religiously Conform to every Minute particular § Let us look a little back and abroad and consider what other States even where the Pope and Inquisition do Domine have done
Dog with a fire Brand in his Mouth the signification and application whereof I leave to every Reader to make Only his deportment towards the Albigenses is storied to be rabying against whom he so Preached adeo quidem ut câ—ntum haereticorum millia uh octo Millibus catholicorum fusa intersercta fuisse perhibeantur saith one of him and of those who became Captives 180 were Burnt to Death the first Example that I find in the Church of Rome of putting Dissenting Bretheren to Death Of this order was this precious Inquisitor Jacomello to Arms alleadging for their Justification that Magistrates were set over them by God and themselves for the good and behoof of the Governed and not the Governed Ordained for the Lusts of Magistrates to be destroyed and killed at pleasure that their Condition being desperate they might use Arms in their own Defence and that in their Condition their appeal unto Arms was not so much against the Prince as against the Pope who usurped more Authority than did Dejure belong unto him and did also abuse the Authority of their Prince by subtle and crafty seducements for his own sinister ends Hence there were War all this year and part of the next And the Duke having made more than a years tryal to reduce them by Wars and Punishments being therein assisted with Money from the Pope and at last after many Skirmishes an Appeal being made unto the Lord of Hoasts by a formal pitcht Battel the Duke lost 7000 men slew but 14 of his Enemies and tho he did often recruit his Army yet had he always the worst Therefore the Duke wisely considering that he did thereby only make his Subjects the more Warlike and teach and inure them more Stoutly to Offend him Consume his own Country and VVast his Treasury he resolved to receive them into favour and made an agreement with them 5º Junij in which he pardoned all past faults gave them Liberty of Conscience appointed them places where they might meet gave leave to those that were Fled to return and restitution of Goods to those that were Banished Which Agreement very much distasted the Pope that an Italian Prince who had been Assisted by him and might have more need of him should yet permit Hereticks to Live freely in his Territories and for that the example would be urged by greater Princes when they inclined to permit another Religion whereof he bitterly complained in the Consistory comparing the Ministers of the most Catholick King with the Duke who having about the same time discovered 3000 Lutherans who went out of Cosenza and retired themselves to the Mountains to Live according to their Doctrine did Hang some Burn others and put the rest into the Gallies but the Duke justifying his Cause with such Reasons which the Pope not being able to answer did Acquiesce And are not such Councils such Advisocs greater marks of an Hireling or a Butcher than Obedience to the Pope a true Mark of the Church Appello ad Caesarem Deum Deorum Dominum Dominorum qui non accipit personam neque recipit munus 10 of Deut. 17. § About the same time there were great Troubles and Disorders in France for cause of Religion Multitudes disdaining to see poor Innocent Christians drawn every day to the Stake to be Burned Guilty of nothing but of Zeal to Worship God to keep a more intimate near and dear Communion with their God and to fave their own Souls These Humors were not Purged nor yet allaied neither by Punishments nor Pardons proferred and Proclaimed but that greater Tumults were raised in Province Languedoc and Poicton whether the Preachers of Geneva were called and came willingly by whose Sermons the number of the Protestants did daily increase examples of great fear being always joyned with others of equal boldness for the quieting of which Humors Francis the 2d the 11º Aprilis 1559. intimated a National Synod as a proper Remedy But the same Hireling Pius the 4th as before in the cause of the Duke of Savoy did most severely complain that the King had Pardoned Hereticks and Errors committed against Religion wherein none had Power but himself and that he would not by any means Consent to an Assembly of Prelates either in France or elsewhere for that a National Council of that or of any other Kingdom would be a kind of Schism from the universal Church give bad example to other Nations and make Prelates proud assuming greater Authority with Diminution of his own and that to consent to a National Synod was to consent that the Axe should be laid to the Root of the Papacy and that by consequence it was an Alienation from the Apostolick See As if God had not given to every National Church and State all things necessary to Govern themselves by but that they must all run to Rome and Romish Priests for redress nay this good Shepherd commanded his Nuntio to intimate farther to the King that if he would resolve to compel his Subjects by force that he would assist him with all his Power and Labour that the King of Spain and Princes of Italy should do the like But if he refused to compel his Subjects by force then his Nuntio was to insinuate to him that all the mischief and Poyson came from Geneva that the extirpation of that root would take away great part of the nourishments of the Evils that disquieted his Dominions § Dissentions and Troubles Fears and Jealousies still increasing in France the King maugre all the Popes Arguments and Interests called a great Assembly at Fountain Bleau 21 Aug. 1560. who being Petitioned by the Reformatists desired nothing but a moderation of their cruel Punishments and that they might make publick profession of their Religion to avoid suspition which might arise by Conventicles or private Assemblies John Monluc the Bishop of Valence did therein complain that Provision had not been made against them because the Popes had no other aim but to hold the Princes in Wars and the Princes thinking to suppress the Evil with Racks and Tortures having not attained their desired end nor the Magistrates and Bishops justly performed their Duty the principal Remedy was to fly unto God to assemble Godly Men to find a way to root out the Vices of the Clergy to forbid Infamous and Immodest Songs and instead of them to Command the Singing of Psalms and Holy Hymns in the Vulgar Tongue And farther shewed that they did grievously erre who troubled the Publick with Arms upon pretence of Religion and that their error was as great who Condemned to Death those that adhered to the New Doctrine only for the Opinion of Piety During these disorders Francis the first Dying the 5th of Dec. 1560. and Charles the 9th Aged 10 years Succeeding he more like the good Shepherd than he that Styled himself Pius by the mature advice of his Council after Solemn and great Consultations and deliberations about the Troubles and Disorders in
most true pessimus quisque asperrime rectorem patitur contra facile imperium in bonos qui metuentes magis quam metuendi Salust ad Caesarem the most wicked are the most impatient of Authority and contrarily the best men are the most obedient fearing others more than they are to be feared themselves And therefore that great Prince Augustus had wont to say that Religion and Piety did Deisie Princes The Piety of a Soverain consisteth in his care for the maintenance and preservation of Religion as the Propagator and Protector thereof This conduceth unto his own honour and Preservation for they that truly fear God dare not attempt nor think of any thing either against their Prince who is the Image of God upon Earth or against the State Nothing but Religion can maintain humane Society without it all manner of wickedness and Savage Cruelties would abound Religion only doth bridle and keep in Order Common-weals The State of the Romans saith Cicero himself did increase and flourish more by Religion than by all other means wherefore it ought to be the Princes chiefest care that Religion be preserved in its purity according to the just Laws and Ceremonies of the same He must likewise endeavor to hinder Innovations and Controversies therein For that change in Religion and a wrong done thereunto draweth along with it a change and declination in the Common-wealth as Mecenas well discourseth to Augustus Dion Religion of all Weapons is most potent overcometh all affections and charity it self and is the surest bond of Humane Society Kingdoms are more bounded and more divided by Religion than by any other Confines and Boundaries whatsoever He that is bigot in his Religion contemneth Wife Children Kindred nay his own Life if there be difference in Religion in the same Family the Father is against the Son and the Son against the Father The Mother against the Daughter and the Daughter against the Mother the Mother in Law against the Daughter in Law and the Daughter in Law against the Mother in Law Luke 12.5 3. it is storied to be the Observation of King James of ever Blessed Memory that the Puritans of that Age were not to be obliged and that not without great reason for that no obligation can be Paramount to that of Religion and Conscience wherein God hath the chief Throne As it is not to be tollerated that every one should shape out his own Religion and bring in new Rites at his pleasure and consequently trouble the publick peace so it is most necessary that every one both Kings Priests and People should amend themselves because a good life is a most vehement Orator to perswade And Magistrates are more bound than private men to fear God He that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the fear of God 2 Sam. 23.3 and it is an Abomination to Kings to commit Wickedness for the Throne is Established by Righteousness Pet. 16.12.14 to be zealous of Holy Faith that they discharge Christ his place in whose stead they are And they are also more bound to avoid Hypocrisie and Superstition to maintain their Power and State in the exercise of Religion to take great heed that that does not happen to their People which sometime fell out to the Jews through Moses long absence who thinking that in him they were deprived of the true God they made them one of Gold A thing which if it were well considered the World would not be at that pass which now it is at He that ruleth with the best Arts of peace useth this as a chief instrument to cause the people to believe this as a firm truth viz. that the Prince is ordained by God for the good of his people and ruleth with approbation of Divine Authority and the Subject consequently is obliged to obey him in all his lawful commands Princes of all others have most reason to justifie and advance Religion as having no other right or title consent excepted to Govern by that is Obligatory If they disclaim that Adieu to all other rights and pretentions For that over any one single person and much less over a multitude and such is every Politick Society in the World no one man nor yet any number of men have compleat lawful Authority to be Lord or Judge Paternal Government excepted which even nature it self hath Established from the very Creation of man all men having ever been taken as lawful Lords and Kings in their own Houses all the World over but by consent of men or by immediate appointment of God unto whom all the World is subject Hook Eccl. Pol. f. 70. As all Princes and Civil Magistrates whether of Kingdoms or Republicks have two callings the one of Christian the other of Governors so in both of them they are obliged by the strictest Bonds of Divine Precepts to serve God both as Christians in observing the Divine Precepts in general as every other private person with all their hearts minds and souls and as Princes also with well ordering of Laws and exemplarily encouraging and exhorting their Subjects to Piety Honesty and Justice punishing all such as transgress Gods Commandements especially those of the Decalogue This Power God hath given to Princes not peculiarly for their own use only so that they may not suffer it to be impaired without sin for that it proceedeth from God and is given by him for the good and benefit of the Governed and therefore they ought to be marvellous careful not to suffer it in the least to be diminished or Impeached by Pope or any other Ecclesiastick who for many Centuries under a shew of Zeal have quo jure quave injuriû endeavoured to make way for their Ambition and to usurp and monopolize that power to themselves which of indubitable Right belongeth to the civil Magistrate least it thereby become insufficient for good and intire Government and thereby both Prince and People suffer Injury and God be offended For if Princes be not bound to the governed yet to God it is a debt and duty which cannot be fully and truly paid but by preserving his publick Authority intire and by no means suffering it to be impeached or diminished which Power is not Arbitrary so as to govern according to fancy quod libet licet and so one mans will may become the cause of all mens misery such an apprehension might cause even a Saint to be misled and to walk besides his rule which is the word of God by me Kings Raign and Princes decree Justice Prov. 8.15 It is unknown to few how Ecclesiasticks for some hundreds of years by-past have with all their might laboured to Usurp Temporal Jurisdiction from Princes and how great progress they have made in it tho not without great disturbances of the Civil Governments wherein they have endeavored it and which the revolution of many Ages hath not as yet wholly recovered and for want of which whole Nations fare the worse unto this very day And of
latter years Cardinal Bellarmine set forth a Book wherein he is so bold as to labour to make Princes subject to the Pope in Causes Temporal and most impudently dares to treat them all as Hereticks which say that the Prince in Temporal Affairs hath no Superior but God only thereby preferring the Ambitious ends of the Court of Rome before the Publick ends of Gods Holy Truth and of his Vice-gerents He pretends therein to write against Barclay but his main drift and design is to advance the Popes Power to the Zenith and top of omnipotency it self In this Book he treats of nothing but of the Popes Power over Princes wherein it is more than five and twenty times inculcated viz. That when the Pope judgeth a Prince for faults or unfitness unworthy to Govern or that he knows that it is profitable for the Church he may deprive him of his Government And he sundry times affirms therein That when the Pope commands that Obedience be not given to a Prince that is deprived by him that then he is no more a Prince but a private Person Nay he is so bold as to affirm That the Pope if he shall deem it expedient may dispose of all the goods of any Christian whatsoever and all must go for nothing if he only say it is his opinion Nay farther averrs That it is an Article of the Catholick Faith viz. that he is a Heretick that doth not believe the same and all this with strange impudence scarce to be parallel'd This Book was written by Bellarmine presently after the Murther of Henry the Great of France before whose death such Doctrines were but whispered and covertly broached but soon after his death they vomited them out most impudently leading Princes then as it were in Triumph as that they might be Excommunicated by the Pope deprived of their Kingdoms for unskilful Governing weakness of strength or any other cause or ineptitude that His Holiness shall deem just This Book was so offensive to some of the Roman Catholicks themselves not only because of those false Doctrines so broached but because he asserted those Doctrines to be the Doctrines and Faith of the Catholick Church and pronounceth all those that did think otherwise to be temerarious and scandalous Hereticks Parasites of Princes Ethnicks and Publicans Notwithstanding all these bold Averments the wise State of Venice fore-seeing the evil consequences of such Doctrines might follow to the disturbance of the Peace of a Nation they presently forbid the coming in of that Book into their Dominions lest their Subjects thereby should be seduced into the same errors Whoever shall wisely consider that Murder perpetrated by Ravillac 1610. throw the Instigation of the Jesuits and the Decree of the Sorbon clearing themselves and laying all the guilt thereof and of all Assassinating Doctrines and Principles on the Jesuits and shall also consider Anti-cotton's Refutation of Father Cotton a Jesuit and Confessor to the said Henry the Fourth who had highly oblidged him and the Society by giving them his House at La Flesche for a Colledge with 1000 Crowns yearly Pension for Twenty years and had otherwise marvellously obliged them by many favors thereby hoping to secure his Life but all in vain his Declaratory Letter to the Queen and shall also consider the Discourse to the Lords of Parliament at Paris touching the said Murther all manifestly proving the Jesuits to be the Plotters and Actors in that horrible Murther all printed soon after that detestable stroak viz. 1610. and shall also consider that the said Book of Bellarmine was the very same year Printed at Rome under the Popes Nose with an Imprimatur by Fr. Ludovicus Ystelli Magistri Sacri Palatii Apostolici And shall also consider the Popes silence and calmness in all these great concerns may well conclude that if the Pope were not Particeps Criminis yet he seemed to be accessory by his silence and to be content and very well pleased and that there was a right understanding between him and the Jesuits About this time also viz. 1610. as if Hell-hounds had been breaking loose the Jesuits were so insolent fierce and zealous to make His Holiness Almighty on Earth that there being in Rome a very great number above 150 Catchpoles Serjeants or Bayliffs whom they perceiving to be men of dissolute lives of profligated honesty and living very little like Christians the fitter for their turns they designed to erect in their Church a Society of them only pretending to teach them Christian Doctrine and to exercise them in frequent Confessions which the Governor and Court of Rome understanding and suspecting so strict a Practice of the Jesuits with such their Ministers they complained with the Pontiff Wherefore the Bishop of who had advanced them 30000 Crowns in order thereunto being near to death and died soon after then the Apostolick Chamber not approving the Donation took the Money as a Booty and applied it as they thought fit § That Reverence which is due and deservedly given to Religion hath been the cause that many abuses which came under the Vmbrage of that Sacred Canopy have had such easie admittance whereby the evil designs that have lain couchant under that pretence and the true ends of the designers have not appeared until time hath made a discovery when â—â— hath been too late to remedy them without great disturbances The Covetous desire of inlarging Phylacteries Wealth and Authority doth so naturally blind men even Ecclesiasticks that without any respect to plainness and sincerity of Gods own Holy Writ they betake themselves to Cavils only pittiful Blasphemous Cavils Averring that if God doth punish and hath punished Sinners the Pope and Inquisitors his delegates may and ought also to punish them Certainly to say no worse to draw Arguments from the Divine Omnipotency to Humane Authority agrees in no proportion with the Reverence due to the Divine Majesty Nothing more frequent and ordinary than for Judges whose Jurisdictions and Powers are limited by Paramount Authority to seek the enlargement thereof tho by the disabling of the General Jurisdiction as well Civil as Ecclesiastick And this proceedeth as well from the natural Inclination which all men have to command in chief as also from the profit and Grandeur which necessarily attends Soveraignty But if such Ecclesiasticks or others do seek enlargement of their Power beyond their Commission and natural duty the Supream Civil Magistrate is most to blame if he suffer it tho sometimes with good intent and success for that it can never be with Wisdom Therefore if Ecclesiastical persons shall fail in their duties the power will return to that Body who gave it without depriving it self of it Wherefore it is no wonder if the secular person ought to be an Overseer of him that exerciseth a charge which he himself hath given him The old and true Legitimate Romanists for the first 300 years and more whose Faith and Doctrine the Protestants at this day both own and defend
this Life and in that which is to come meer Vassals they and their Subjects likewise in no better condition than the Sheep in Demosthenes where the Dogs were to be banished and the Wolves to be their Guardians for they endeavor to make the World believe that they have power over their Souls and Bodies at their pleasure both in this Life and after Death These have been the Collections and Observations of Fra. Paolo and other learned and faithful Writers and eye-witnesses The best is Ab initio non fuit sie there are no such Doctrines in Bibliis Sacris but the contrary And our Doctrines concerning these points and indeed our Religion is the same which is contained in the Scriptures in General Councils and in the Fathers of the First Three I might say Five Ages which have not been purified in their Purgatory their Indices expurg and agrees with the Articles of Faith and only differs in those which they have lately invented and added which he that examines them one by one shall find that none of them make for the Glory of God but all for the Increase of the Grandeur Wealth worldly Power and Jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Order so that in truth the true Roman Religion such as it was in the dayes of the Apostles and some Centuries next succeeding is insensibly but manifestly Bastardized and become spurious at Rome and all reduced to a new fashioned Religion which chiefly if not only makes for the pomp and Interest of the Court of Rome So that in truth these latter Popes are no more nor otherwise the true Possessors or Successors of St. Peter's Doctrines at Rome than the Grand Signior is of the Doctrines of St. James's at Jerusalem or of St. Paul's in those famous Churches of Asia In the dayes of Sixtus Quintus that Great Prince there lived in Italy that famous Alchymist and Impostor Nick-named Mamugna who was verily believed that he could make Gold not by the Vulgar only but by Cardinals Princes nay by the Pope himself One more wise and more merry than the rest habiting himself like this famous Alchymist went up and down the City of Venice in a Gondelo well fraught with a Cargo of fire Bellows Crucible Glasses c. crying Al Magmugna A tre lire il soldo del loro sino who buyes a shillings worth of pure Gold for nine pence which being told the Turkish Chiaus made this short answer Il gran signore dumque verra a servirlo if he can make Gold the Great Turk shall come to be his Servant I shall make no other Application or inference of this Mountebank Story than what is natural qui vult decipi decipiatur if Princes will be content to let false and base Coin go for currant be it so But in truth all the Papalins were not of the same mind and opinions with those famous Cardinals and Jesuits the Popes Partisans nor with the Court of Rome but Books were Printed Pro and Con by Papalins themselves in great numbers For besides the Papalins within the State of Venice the Sorbonists were very Orthodox and maintained the Defence of the lawful Secular Power opposing themselves against the Usurpations of Rome and maintaining the Liberty of the Gallican Church for that Kingdom holds it for a matter most certain and apparent that Popes have no power over Princes and that they ought not to proceed by Censures against them or their Officers in things which concern the State And as soon as the King knew of the publication of the Monitory at Rome he complained greatly of the too hasty proceedings of the Pope and sent a dispatch to him with speed requesting him to accommodate the differences The King of Polonia absolutely denyed the publishing of the Popes Monitory for that it did not stand with reason to govern themselves after another fashion towards that Republick of Venice whose Cause was common with his own Kingdom The Catholick King of Spain on whom the Pope relyed for Succors for that he had sometime before made liberal offers unto His Holiness from which he retreated in time of necessity and advised him to neglect his own private Interests for the universal good of Christendom and said that it did not beseem the Father of all Christendom to ground a War so cruel and pernitious to Christian People upon a King so pious and that His Holiness would abase the Apostolick Dignity if he sustained by humane means the Authority which God had given him Quarrels of Paul the Fifth pag. 374 375 376. Thus you see Rome it self divided the Pope and Court of Rome differing in this their greatest point and Diana Jurisdiction both from the old and from the more Novel Church of Rome as well as from that of the Church of the Protestants And thus you may perceive the unquiet and uncertain State that all Princes are like to be in and their Condition never like to be better whilst such monstrous State-destroying-Principles are held for Gospel at Rome For it matters not whether these Doctrines are true or false or received and believed by others or no nor yet whether Protestants or Papists it is all a case so long as so believed at Rome You see the State of Venice a Popish Republick no more safe nor quiet than England a Protestant Kingdom Had the Popes Swords been keen and powerful enough no doubt but that they would have brought both those States in their respective differences and quarrels as once Frederick Barbarossa the Emperor to that Brute Alexander the Third creeping on their knees to obtain Absolution from their Sentences of Excommunication or as Henry the Fourth whom Hildebrand would not release from his Excommunication till he came bare-foot to Canusium in a bitter cold Winter waiting three dayes before the Popes Palace for his Absolution which he hardly obtained by the Intercession of the Dutchess Matilda The Pope besides that he is the Head of Romish Religion is also a Prince who hath for more than 600 years by past aspired to the Monarchy of all Italy at least I might say at an universal Monarchy Temporal and Spiritual which he hath been some time so near to obtain that it is a wonder that he hath misled of it seeing he leaves no stone unturned quacunque arte to enlarge his Jurisdiction He hath three great charges upon him 1. That of Religion 2. That of Ecclesiastical affairs 3. The Temporalty of his Estate The care of all which I shall not grudge him as of right belonging unto him in one or other of his Capacities so he kept within his own Dominions and Territories tho happily all of the Romish Religion will not allow him so much for that all Bishops ought to be governed by the Canons and in which both Pope and all Bishops antiently in the best and purest dayes did acknowledge the Supream power to be to which they all submitted and not by the Pope alone there being also three kinds of
will not submit to the Pope that is not marked out for destruction under the Notion of Hereticks which notion as soon as a neat opportunity presents tho misapplyed which is not seldom serves his turn for all Assassinations Wars Massacres what not What hath been written with reflection on the State of our Neighbor Nations and on the interest and incessant workings of the Jesuits in all their Courts and Councils doth manifest sufficiently our happiness without any such sinful compliance and spares me the labor of farther characterizing them Jesuiticum Fidei Symbolum veluti Canticum novum ex Jo. Baptistae Pozae Libris conflatum c. 1. CRedo in duos Deos quorum unus ' Filii Pater Mater est Metaphoricè in Generatione Aeterna alter Metaphoricè Mater Pater est in Generatione Temporali cui consequens est ut tam Deo Patri quam B. Virgini nomen Matri-Pater conveniat tanquam uterque Hermaphroditus essel vel Androgynus 2. Credo in Jesum Christum unicum utriusque filium Metaphoricum secundùm aeternam Temporalem Generationem 3. Credo Jesum Christum ut hominem fuisse conceptum Natum de Maria Virgine tanquam Patre Matre Metaphoricè per virtutem Paternam Maternam 4. Credo eundem passum mortuum non verè realiter eo quod mori non potuit 5. Credo eum fuisse sepultum etsi verè realiter non mortuum 6. Credo animum ejus descendisse ad Inferos Metaphoricè cum à Corpore â—on fuit separata 7. Credo eà dem Metaphorâ eum à mortuis resurrexisse qua fuit mortuus 8. Credo eum ascendisse in Coelos sedere ad dextram Patris venturum â—â—â—â—dicet alios viventes alios etiamnum mortuos 9. Credo in Spiritum Sanctum qui locutus est per Prophetas nonnunquam deâ—â—ptos 10. Credo Ecclesiam ex majore parte Sanctam Sanctorum communionem 11. Credo Remissionem peccatorum per repentinum Spiritus Sancti Adventum super impios 12. Credo Resurrectionem Carnis ex majore ejus parte vitam aeternam non sine aliqua oppositi formidine A new Jesuitical Creed gathered out of the works of Johannes Baptista Poza a Spanish Jesuit by Franciscus Roales Dr. at Salamanca and Chaplin to His Catholick Majesty of Spain It is to be found in Latin digested into Twelve Articles v. Alphons Devargas Printed Anno Dom. 1665. cap. 18. pag. 59 60. 1. I Believe in two Gods whereof one is Father and Mother of the Son Metaphorically according to an Eternal Generation the other Metaphorically Mother and Father according to a Temporal Generation and what is consequent hereto that the common term Mother-Father may be equally attributed to God and the Blessed Virgin as if they were both Hermophradites Hermophraditus vel Androgynus 2. I believe in Jesus Christ the only Metaphorical Son of both according to an Eternal and Temporal Generation 3. I believe that Jesus Christ as man was conceived and Born of the Virgin Mary Metaphorically as of Father and Mother by a Maternal and Paternal Virtue 4. I believe that he suffered and was dead not truly and really because it was impossible that he should dye 5. I believe that he was buried though not truly and really dead 6. I believe that his Soul descended into Hell Metaphorically whereas it was never separated from his Body 7. I believe that he rose from the dead by a Metaphor suitable to that whereby I believed him dead 8. I believe he ascended into Heaven that he sitteth at the right hand of God the Father and that he will come to Judge some alive and some already dead 9. I believe in the Holy Ghost who spake by the Prophets though those were sometimes mistaken and deceived 10. I believe the Church to be as to the better part of it Holy and the Communion of Saints 11. I believe the Remission of sins effected by a sudden Collation of the Holy Ghost upon the wicked 12. I believe the Resurrection of the Body as to the better part of it and life everlasting not without some fear of the Contrary AN APOLOGY FOR THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS THough I cannot with truth aver that stealing out in Print sine permissu superiorum is as justifiable as stealing a Nap or stealing away from Company at pleasure yet I hope it is not to be numbred inter graviora delicta And that I may with much truth say that to padlock the Press is but a new Trick or Tyranny rather devised by those whom for shame we cannot own for pious in their Lives or orthodox in their Doctrines and indeed whom it is a reproach to imitate A Romish Practice or at best but a new Canonical Slight unknown to the first and purest Men and Times forged in and crept out of the Saincted Inquisition by the Holy Fathers thereof who to shew their wonderful zeal to Religion and divine Truths have put the Bible it self in the Front or first rank of prohibited Books and so corrupted the Fathers by their Additions and Substractions that those of their Inquisitory Editions can no otherwise be esteemed the true Off-spring of their Natural Fathers then Theseus's Ship could be called his Ship after it had so often been hack'd and hewed patch'd and mended that there was scarce a whole Rib or Plank that did remain the same that it was when it was first built which because it still kept the same form though little of the old matter did still retain the Name of Theseus his Ship Tho' Christians have no other divine Rule or Authority without them warrantable to one another as a common Ground or Rule either for holy Living or determination of Controversies in matters of Religion unto which all ought to submit but the Scriptures nor any other Evidence or Patent to make out their title or claim to Heaven and heavenly things nor unto their great Gospel-Priviledges but the Scriptures yet so just and tender have the heretical Fathers of all Christendom the Popes been that contrary to all express Apostolical Commands by their Indices Expurgatorii whereof there are seven if not more extant in the very front of prohibited Books placed the Bible forbidding it to be printed or read in any vulgar Tongue printed or written and they account all Languages vulgar but Latin Greek Hebrew Chaldaick Syriack Aethiopick Persian Arabick as may be seen in the fifth general Rule in the Index printed at Madrid 1667. viz. Cum experientia docuerit ex permissione sacrorum Bibliorum lingua vulgari plus inde ob hominum temeritatem ignorantiam aut malitiam detrimenti quam utilitatis oriri prohibentur Biblia lingua vulgari extantia cum omnibus eorum partibus impressis aut manuscriptis pariter Summaria Compendia quamvis Historica corundem Bibliorum aut Librorum Sacrae Scripturae Idiomate aut lingua vulgari non tamen clausulae sententiae aut eapita quae libris
home Friends and good Friends I hope tho of different perswasions having had no greater design than by modest arguing to discover which of those several Doctrines and Practices they would severally obtrude upon us are most true It is all one to me which are the truest Opinions so I could be so happy as to know the right that I might be certain to embrace them and them only Having I say thus done with our Friends at home I am now to parly and combat more particularly with a very strange Generation of Men Men who tho very quick sighted yet will not see will not understand be the Evidence of the truth never so demonstrative What hope can mortal wights have to prevail with them who prevaricate with God himself under pretence of a Spirit Infallible and unerring So that the Popes sence of Scripture must without examinations be submitted unto tho he Interpret and Act contrary to the very plain words and Texts of Scripture and contrary to our very Sences witness their Prayers and Services in an unknown Tongue contrary to the very words whole Scope and design of the fourteenth Chapter of the First of Corinthians Concil Lateranens verum Christi corpu◠Sanguis c witness also their believing and maintaining the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist to be the very Flesh and Blood of Christ's Body contrary to our very Sences and not the Sences of a few but of all the Christian World for 1600 years together and this forsooth must be done under the notion of a Miracle of Transubstantiation by the miraculous omnipotent power of God who yet never revealed that he would Juggle with his People by any Dedalean Jugling Arts and alwayes practised the clean contrary and therefore to believe this to be done by a Miracle is to believe it a Miracle contrary to the very nature of all the Miracles that ever God wrought For the true nature of a Miracle is to make that evident to our very Senses which no reason can Fathom or comprehend and such were all Gods Miracles viz. the standing still of the Sun in Joshua 10.12 13. The going back of the Sun ten Degrees in the Sun-dial of Ahaz Isay 38.8 The dividing of the Water and making them to stand on an heap that they might be a Sanctuary unto Israel and to return again to be a Grave unto Egypt Exod. 15.8 the dry and the wet Fleece Judges 6.37.40 the preserving of the Three Children in the fiery Furnace Daniel 3. so that the fire had no power over their bodies not so much as a hair of their heads singed or their Coats changed or so much as the smell of fire had passed upon them and yet consumed their Persecutors in the sight of them all The delivery of Daniel out of the Lions Den which yet brake all the bones of his accusers in pieces or ever they came to the bottom of the Den Dan. 6. was it ever known that a man born blind was made to see John 9. or that the dead were raised Yet did Christ cure the blind raised the dead caused the dead Stones of the Temple to rend in sunder and put blackness on the face of the Sun at mid-day All these indeed have the true nature of Miracles and were made manifest to the very sences of those Nations where they were wrought and were not otherwise to be made credible But to believe Bread to be Flesh and Wine to be Blood participates more with Hocus Pocus with the Art of Jugling than of doing Miracles What is this but to be bruitish in knowledg they will not understand Is not this to reproach their Maker that when he hath given them eyes and ears and reasonable Souls that they will yet neither see nor hear nor understand Have you not read the four and fortieth of Isay describing the Sottish dotage of Idolatrous Jews He burneth part thereof in the fire with part thereof he eateth flesh he rosteth rost and is satisfied he warmeth himself and the residue thereof he maketh a God even his Graven Image he falleth down to it and worshipeth it and prayeth unto it and saith Deliver me for thou art my God And none considereth in his heart neither is there knowledge or understanding to say I have burnt part thereof in the fire I have baked on the Coals thereof I have roasted flesh and eaten thereof and shall I make the residue thereof an Abomination Shall I fall down to the Stock of a Tree A deceived heart hath turned him aside Praetiosa grandia sonant veri effoeta defendunt Deum loquuntur simulachra Adorant Ambres ad Symachum § Is Romish Infatuation less Semble and fancy to your selves a Papist prostrate before his breaden God At which Hildebrand so strangely angry for that he answers not how the Emperor Henry the Fourth might be destroyed throws him into the fire Benno Vrsperg Math. Paris He knows it to be the Art of the Confectioner the Composition of the Baker Valera 66. sees toucheth tasteth it Bread and Wine cannot be ignorant goes out at the draught yet adores it prayeth unto it saying deliver me for thou art my God so fast glewed are their eyes that they will not see so obdurate are their hearts they will not understand Like may be observed in many other their absurd opinions contrary to sence reason all sound Authority and what not Why thus infatuated Why thus seduced by Antichristian Mystery Why thus given up to strong delusions to Infatuation and besottedness so great as that errors palpable and such as may be felt are entertained for truth And why so stiff and perverse in adhering to them so incorrigible that no perswasion nor affrightment from God or Man can reclaim them from The reason is assigned viz. because they will not receive the love of the Truth that they might be saved 2 Thes 2.10 what hope have I then to perswade or convince whom neither Evidence of Scripture nor demonstration of Sences nor Suffrage of Antientest Fathers nor Consent of most Antient Councils nor blood of Martyrs nor Sword of Magistrates nor discovery of Antichrist nor consumption of his Kingdom or I am perswaded ruine of that Babylon can win from palpablest errors § Though all the wisest and most sober men of the World have ever taught that Kingdoms Cities Companies cannot long continue nor prosper where Religion and Piety are slighted or neglected yet there are some and those no small Fools though great Wits in their own esteem who have so little of the fear of God before their eyes that they think that Princes are so much the more firm and established in their Thrones by how much more ignorant and wicked their Subjects are and Religion vilified and set at naught because say they they are thereby more proper and as it were born to Servitude and the Yoak Patientiores servitutis quos non decet nisi esse servos Plin. Pan. when as the contrary is