present Age no Sectaries can be lawful Witnesses for their own lately modelled Religion or against the ancient Catholick because their testimonies cannot be valid against so constant an universal Tradition and practice Secundo It s ridiculous and unjust in a Judge to pronounce sentence against Roman Catholick upon the evidence and testimony of Calvin Luther c. as in open Court to condemn men to forfeit their Estates and ancient inheritances upon the word of a mad fellow that produceth no other evidence to confirm his claim but interior motions of the Spirit or some obscure Text of Law appliable to all Cases and Subjects for all the Protestant evidence is reduced to the private Spirit and the pretended clearness of Scripture Tertio The Legislative power ought to be subordinate to Christian Religion but Statutes against Catholicks are evidently against the Law of God and Christian Religion if we may credit Antiquity and stick to the Faith and practice of the Church and Princes that went before us not only in England but all other Christian Kingdomes This way therefore of proceeding is different from all other Nations and altereth the Stile of natural reason humane nature and the practice of all Antiquity and consequently destroyes the foundation of justice and form of Judicature Quarto The common temporal Municipal Laws which Science above all others next to Divinity doth confirm and evince unto the understanding of an Englishman the Truth of Catholick Religion Forasmuch as from our first Christian Kings and Queens which must needs be the origin and beginning of all Christian Common Laws in England unto the reign of Henry the eight all our Princes and People being of one and the same Catholick Religion their Laws must needs be presumed to have been conformed to their sense and judgment in that behalf and our Lawyers to our Laws So as now to see an English temporal Lawyer to impugn the said Catholick Religion by the antiquity of the common Laws throughout the times and reigns of the said Kings and Queens to favour and countenance Luther Calvin c. or any new Opinions not known before is as great an absurdity novelty and wonder as to see a Philosopher brought up in Aristotles School to impugn Aristotle by Aristotles learning in favour of Petrus Ramus Descartes or some other new Adversary Catholick Religion never prejudiced any Nation or State where it had free passage in the least degree but hath ever been their safety happiness and honour No People or Church in the World so great a friend to loyalty and obedience they have the repute of honest men patient and charitable carry themselves civilly and religiously nothing is heard from their mouths of Blasphemy or Atheism or that may have ground of not believing or adoring God alone or of not hoping to be saved by the merits of Jesus Christ They have lived without just complaint sociable and amicable If they meet you not at Church they meet you at Market Do they not buy and sell with you Are ready to perform all Offices of good neighbourhood and civility Do they refuse any kind of temporal duties or payments Do ye not find them at home and abroad as strict to their promises as any others you converse withall They cannot be persecuted by any Government that understands its own interest unless first abused by false Teachers nor can we deny them what ancient and good Laws have ever allowed theâ— being no innovators but Professors of the same Religion which made this Nation Christian If there were no other Apology for peaceable men but only those Pleas of Conscience tendered to publick view those ought not to be unconsidered by such as profess Christianity Never any Acts of Vniformity could expel Papists out of heretical Countries Do ye know what you ask when you are still urging the execution of pressures against Catholicks even their blood life and fortunes can any Christian zeal be so irregular Can this come from the Spirit of the Gospel Is this wisdome from above Whence comes all this anger What evil have they done What maximes have they so rough and unreasonable that they must be taken away by the Sword Why should we be so bloody in our Tenets How can our passions be so intemperate Our mercies so cruel To them whose Faith was established by our Fundamental Laws and maintenance of it sworn to at least by twenty of our Monarchs even by Queen Elizabeth her self Why must the Papists be thus singled out from all the rest and forced to forfeit all advantages or forsake his Conscience They only exposed to publick hatred and rigour though they only least deserve it Shall we extinguish all considerations of equity and charity towards them of whose honesty we are assured by their Long and Patient Sufferings rather than they would renounce their Conscience towards God who are ready to abjure what is or may be objected as only dangerous in their Religion who have given evidences already they will perform those Oaths and that they cannot be absolved from them If we apprehend their principles and doctrines are inconsistent with the Gospel or Civil Government grant them a free Conference about the points in question which are those Tenets carry an opposition to either and if upon impartial enquiry they are found so Heterodox as represented then inflict penalties If their Ecclesiasticks are not able to justisie both their Religion and Principles let them renounce all mercy This offer is very fair and equal a Vindication of Justice and a legal proceeding against the Criminal And the contrary how plausible soever represented pretending thereby to do God good service is most injurious to the Peace Christian meekness Reason Religion or Charity and destructive to that prudential Ballance the wisest and best States have ever carefully observ'd Who always after questions of Religion freely discussed relieved the distresses of tender and innocent Consciences We must not judge of them or any other by the private and perhaps misinterpretable assertions of some particular Doctors but by the avowed principles of their belief This is the basis on which they build the rule by which they walk in point of obedience to God and man or if you would judg of them by their proceedings and addresses their frequent petitions professions protestations of all just obedience will sufficiently clear them If by their practice and manner of lives their quiet deportment and manner of living and conversing with all men yea even their prayers and wishes which they dayly make unto Almighty God in behalf of their Prince and Country do shew how innocent they are and how little they deserve those black aspersions and calumnies some rash Satyrists are so diligent to cast upon them In charity we are bound to believe the best of others and also to think they speak true when we cannot prove the contrary Some destine them to destruction and extirpation as Agapete did the Jews Are so eager declaimers
Church of England guilty of Fanatick Principles because Taylor one of their renowned Doctors and Bishops writes for liberty of Prophecying And of Murder and Theft c. because some of them are condemned every Sessions Whence an English Divine ingenuously speaketh We cast an aspersion on a sort of people whose tried loyalty in all vicissitudes of dangerous troubles as it should have altered your judgments so their grievous sufferings for loyalty should from the Charity of our Profession have found rather pity for their afflictions than aspersion on their innonence So good deserving an opinion they know Papists deserve from these times that no security needs to tye them deeper Nor can there be any apprehension of the least danger from them to his Majesties Person or State for in point of fidelity they have given unquestionable proofs by their actions as their enemies witness Needham in his Book Interest will not lye saith ' Papists adhered generally 'to the King Oliver pressed by Cardinal Mazarine for liberty to Papists said they were his greatest enemies lib. Of Treaty at St. John de Luze They can say two things no profession else can viz. that no person of Honour or Estate among them was ever against the King and on the contrary hardly any one so qualified but did assist him Who can therefore look on those men as to have any honesty wisdom or charity who are ever grudging and repining at the least favour indulged to a faithful loyal and sociable people and can never rest satisfied with their own unlimited immunities unless they see others contemned afflicted and abused When by all the Apostolick Rules of Christianity we should help and compassionate and not make it our business to supplant one another Before I answer the vulgar objections and undeserved clamours so confidently though without any legal examination and process according to justice and judgment laid upon them and so frequently though disingenuously urged against them I will shew more largely what they teach concerning loyalty and fidelity to their King and Country 1. It is an undoubted verity generally taught in all their Councils Canons Synods Divines Civilians c. that our duty to God cannot be complied with without an exact performance of our duty towards our Soveraign to obey him not for advantage private interest or temporal concerns but of Conscience Nay what other Sectaries have bogled at if the King should be a Heathen and make Laws contrary to the Gospel we ought not to resist but patiently endure No Roman Catholick can be true to his Religion who is not true to his Prince and Country Saint Peter and Saint Paul did vehemently press obedience to the Emperours in Nero and Claudius times who were Idolaters No Divinity can be warranted from Scripture against evil Princes but Prayers and Tears Whatsoever they command which is not contrary to the great Charter of the word of God I am bound in Conscience to obey If they command any thing repugnant evidently to Gods revealed Will I must obey them still though not actively in doing what they command yet passively in submitting to those penalties they shall inflict He that proclaimed the Prerogative of Kings vos estis Dii taught the World People are to obey Xephlon in vita Mar. Anton. tells us Solus Deus est Index Principum God alone is the Judg of Kings I know no sin against the second Table set forth in more bloody colours by Catholick Authors than this of disobe dience to Governours they saying it is compounded of Homicide Parricide Christicide and Deicide They compare it to Witchcraft where the partie intends and covenants with the Devil himself God commanded the Amalekite who had a hand in Sauls death to be slain before his eyes Sheba blowing a Trumpet against David is stiled a Son of Belial What made Jeroboâ—m so infamous in Scripture but because he lifted up his hand against the King 1 King 11. 26. an irreverent or wry word against the King is in Scripture called Blasphemy Proverb 27. thou shalt not blaspheme the Gods And Naboth was accused in that he did blaspheme God and the King Curse not the King no not in thy thoughts for a bird in the air shall carry the voice is it fit to say to the King thou art wicked and to Princes ye are ungodly Job 34. 18. It hath been observed God hath signally punished those wrongs have been done to his Vicegerents What an unluckie time was it and accompanied with a deluge of miseries when Kings were taken away from Rome and Consuls set up We read in our Annals after Richard the Second was deposed followed a War wherein a hundred thousand were slain besides what of late in our memorie What more hurtful and hateful Creature than the Locusts Yâ—â— they are observed only to have no King if we obey not the King who is a visible God how shall we obey God who is an invisible King Since the lines of our peace and happiness do meet and center in him as in our common Father Who can think that any natives of a Land professing themselves followers of Christ who in the days of his humiliation was obedient to Caesar that he wrought a miracle to give him his due and expecting a protection from a lawful Prince should once demur to swear and yield Obedience Mens ears are open saith a learned Divine to receive any tragical complaints concerning their Governours Sheba's Trumpet is pleasant Musick to that great Beast the common people they hearken with both ears to Detractions and Calumnies against Governours that they are tyrannical Bishops are Antichristian Popery is coming in apace the Gospel is adulterated Justice obstructed Profaneness countenanced What Hurricanes will these men raise I even tremble any should profane the Pulpit poison the Air or which is worse the very hearts of men with such seditious and devilish Doctrines Who can chuse but renounce that way of Discipline which startles at renouncing War with the King For my part as Lactantius said to Constantine the same say I of our Soveraigns Restauration Ille dies foelicissimus illuxit c. Whose Person if we be not worse than Heathens we ought to love and honour and whose prosperity we ought to pray for His unquestionable Title and most noble and high Descent and Birthright cannot but strike a reverential aw upon us for it may lineally and successively be derived from the British Scottish Danish Saxon and Norman Princes above two thousand years which is more antient and truly noble than any Prince in the World caâ— shew A Prince whose great Judgment Gentility Educarion candid Nature Meekness Generosity Benignity and justness in Dealing all the world cannot but know and may imitate And his very enemies if he can contract any must if not injudiciously passionate or deserve in some measure to be ranged in the Categories of fools and mad men acknowledg But we our selves his Subjects are more pathetically sensible of the
disloyalty from them that have freely taken them and none in Catholicks that have refused For the Oaths by none more readily taken and earnestly imposed on others than by those who began the Wars and promoted the Covenant and on the contrary by none more scrupled and refused than by those who always assisted the King ¶ Thirdly it may be objected as lately by Doctor Denton c. That Papists suffer not for Religion but because they are not obedient to the Laws c. Resp 1. By a Proviso of the Act 25 and 27. of Eliz. if any Priest committed shall submit to the Laws and take the Oaths they shall be freed from the penalty and not adjudged Traytors if they renounce their Religion Resp 2. Suppose that in the Apostles time a Law had been made by any King or Emperour of a contrary Religion to them that if any of the said Apostles or Priests should enter into their Dominions to preach a contrary Doctrine to to the Religion there received and to exercise any of their Apostolical or Priestly Functions it should be treason and under pain of death Would or could the Apostles have obeyed those Laws or did they obey the Governours of the Jews their lawful Superiours when they commanded them to preach no more in the name of Jesus Christ or to disperse Christian Doctrine which they held for Treason or did they fly out of their Dominions lest their sufferings should be imputed to disobedience and not for the name of Christ Is there not another blood to be respected called by the Prophet the blood of the Soul whereof the Pastor shall be guilty if he fly for fear or forsake his flock in time of danger and persecution Have not the English Priests the same Obligation of Conscience to help their Country-men in spiritual necessities as had the Apostles and Apostolick men to strangers for whose help they were content to offer their lives and incur any danger whatsoever ¶ Fourthly It may be demanded why cannot Papists come to our Churches Resp Unity and Vniformity are two things one being internal the other external therefore if they should conform yet they can have no verity faith or truth but as forced by which Religion is never better'd Truth and falshood are like the clay in Nebuchadonosors Image they may cleave but they will never incorporate Christ's Coat had no seam though the Churches vesture was of divers colours whence a learned Father saith in veste varietas sit scissura non sit The true God hath this attribute that he is a jealous God and therefore his worship and religion will endure no mixture or partner ¶ Fifthly To say or object the Popes Supremacy is dangerous This reflects not only upon the honour of Catholicks but the safety of all the Professors of it They acknowledg the Pope as Successor to Saint Peter is head of the Church and hath supream Authority in matters spiritual but how this can be offensive to the Temporalities of Princes is not understood by me nor those great Monarchs that are of his Church and submit to his authority and and yet are zealous and jealous of their own power and temporal Regalities as any Princes can possible be Our graver and more learned Divines distinguish between the inward power of the Keys and the outward jurisdiction by temporal penalties this they assign to the King in all causes and over all persons that they reserve to the Clergy as neither derived from or dependent of the Civil Magistrate And if I rightly understand the Religion of the English Church although they allow the King to be supream Governour of their Church yet they do not confer any Pastoral Office or Jurisdiction upon him and consequently he is one of the Flock and therefore as such he is subject to Pastors Wherefore if this be not looked on by Protestants as derogatory to the Kings authority I hope by the same reason Roman Catholicks will not be found guilty for owning the Popes Supreamacy in matters meerly spiritual There can be no just fear or jealousie that spiritual jurisdiction should supplant secular obedience because the Church-Discipline in it self is so innocent and passive We our selves acknowledg a spiritual authority in the Bishops promise a Canonical obedience to them and not to the King admit Jurisdiction in their spiritual Courts c. nay the Presbyterians in their Consistory and ecclesiastical Courts will allow the King no authority at all more than the meanest Subject and so do other Sects Now if a Subject v. g. the Bishop of Canterbury may be supream in Spirituals without any derogation to the Prince may not the Pope with less danger and inconvenience be truely called as King James did the Patriarch or Superintendent of the West For if that power be purely spiritual being of a different nature as is said before it cannot in the least degree be prejudicial to the Kings civil power but rather oblige those that acknowledg it faithfully to obey the King Therefore it ought to be no obstacle to Toleration otherwise no Christians or Sect whatsoever ought to be tolerated for let them be Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists c. do not they depend upon and own a power distinct from his Majesties Civil Power I mean a Power meerly spiritual or pastoral not subordinate to the King but to which the King himself if he be of your Religion ought to be subject as no Pastor but a Sheep no Teacher but a Hearer no Administer of Sacraments but a Receiver Such a Power all Sects and Religions seem to own no Catholick depends on or can own more The spirituall Primacy of the chief Pastor preserves peace and unity and is a greater defence to them than many Armies in subduing their minds to civil obedience without such a spiritual authority there is no influence on the people all preaching and Laws are but shaking Bulwarks to support Monarchy No Kingdom hath been more happy at home or glorious abroad than when the Pope was their spirituall Father When such a Primacy purely spiritual was acknowledged in England the Church here was never torn in pieces with Schismes nor poisoned with Heresies the honour and safety of our Dominions were far from being prejudiced or invaded It is denied then the owning Supremacy should worse their condition shall notions convince experience when a demonstration it self often gives way to practice Let 's summon the Kings of Europe of Catholick Profession to decide the contrary unanimously and proclaim their people are not rebellious by reason of any ecclesiastical dependance abroad Roman Catholicks did ever renounce any temporal power or jurisdiction belonging to the Pope over any Subject of his Majesties But since there is a Power purely spiritual as is shewed before from which Princes are not exempted Is it not more for their temporal security that the spiritual power should reside in one single person that usually is both learned and discreet and withal is a thousand
Parliament and chief Secretary printed at that time and neither could any noted or known Catholick by any device be drawn into this matter Those that were up in tumult with Catesby were by our Prot. Hist Howes never full fourscore and those made up with servants horse-boys and houshouldattendance as Saunders and Speed confirm For if Priests and Recusants so many thousands then in England would have entertained it no man can be so malitious and simple to think that there would not have been a greater assembly to take such an action in hand and the Council could not have been so ill-sighted but that they would have found some other culpable as some by all imaginable craft and industry endeavoured and desired But to confirm their innocency King James in his own Declaration saith that the generality of Catholicks did abhor such a detestable Conspiracy no less than himself And he was so kind to Catholicks the last half of his Reign of which Wilson complains in several places Wils K. of 193. which was impossible he should have been so favourable had he not been convinced they never had had any design of destroying him or his Secondly the King in his second Proclamation 1605. and in his third Proclamation 1605. when they were all discovered in which Proclamation we plainly see the King and Council knew the Complices and partakers of that villanie yet never taxed any Priest or Papist therewith Thirdly the King in publick Parliament did free Catholiks as much as Protestants when he plainly saith as truth is if it had taken effect Protestants and Papists should have all gone away and perished together The King in his second Proclamation against the Conspiracy calleth the Confederates Men of lewd life insolent dispositions and of desperate estates And to demonstrate from the publick Act their innocency as well Protestants he declares by Proclamation Proclamatione die 7. Novemb. 1605. We are by good experience so well perswaded of the loyalty of diverse Subjects of the Romish Religion that they do as much abhor this detestable conspiracy as our self and will be ready to do their best endeavours though with expence of their blood to suppress all attempters against our safety and the quiet of our State and discover whomsoever they shall suspect to be rebellious This by good experience he pronounceth Priests and Catholicks notwithstanding were upon this pretence persecuted though besides all these reasons aforesaid by publick consent both of their Clergy and Layety Catholicks presented and offered to maintain their cause and innocency in many humble Petitions whereof two were printed to the King The first begins To the most excellent and mighty Prince our gracious and dread Soveraign James King of England c. justifying of Catholicks and the Truth of their Religion against their Adversaries Most Gracious Soveraign THe late intended Conspiracy against the Life of your Royal Majesty the Life Vnion Rule and Direction to these united Kingdoms was so heinous an impiety that nothing which is holy can make it legitimate no pretence of Religion can be alleadged to excuse it God in heaven condemns it men on earth detest it innocents bewail it and your dutiful Subjects Catholicks Priests and others which have endured most for their Profession hold it in greatest detestation and horror c. Yet this is the miserable distressed state of many thousands of your most loyal and loving Subjects dread Leige for their faithful duty to God and Religion taught in this Kingdom and embraced by all your Progenitours and our Ancestors so many hundred years that every adversary may preach and print against us and make their challenge as though either for ignorance we could not or for distrust of our cause we were not willing to make them answer or come to trial when quite contrary we have often earnestly and by all means we could desired to have it granted c. And at this time when your chief Protestant Clergy Bishops and others is assembled we most humbly entreat this so reasonable a placet that although they will not as we fear ever consent to an indifferent choice opposition and defence in questions yet at least to avoid the wonder of the world they will be content we may have publick audience of those Articles Opinions ond Practises for which we are so much condemned and persecuted If we shall not be able to defend or prove any position generally maintained in our Doctrine to be conformable to those rules in Divinity which your Majesty and the Protestant Laws of England we can offer no more have confirmed for holy Canonical Scripture the first four General Councils the days of Constantine and the primitive Church let the penalties be imposed and executed against us c. in fine Your Royal person and that honourable Consistory now assembled are holden in your Doctrine to be Supream Sentencers even in Spiritual businesses in this Kingdome we therefore hope you will not in a Court from whence no appeal is allowed and in matters of such consequence proceed to Judgment or determine of execution before the arraigned is summoned to answer hath received or refused trial is or can be proved guilty c. Deny not that to us your true and obedient Subjects in a Religion so ancient which your colleagued Princes the King of Spain and Archduke do offer to thee so many years disobedient Netherlands upon their temporal submittance in so late an embraced doctrine That which the Arrian Emperors of the East permitted to the Catholick Bishops Priests Churches toleration What the Barbarian Vandals often offered and sometimes truly perforformed in Africk what the Turkish Emperour in Greece and Protestant Princes in Germany and other places conformable to the example of Protestant Rulers not unanswerable to your own Princely piety pity and promise no disgust to any equally minded Protestant or Puritan at home a Jubilee to us distressed a warrant of security to your Majesty in all opinions from all terrors and dangers from which of what kind soever we most humbly beseech the infinite mercy of almighty God to preserve your Highness and send you your children and Posterity all happiness and felicity both in Heaven and Earth Amen Another Petition to the King and Parliament from the Cath. in Eng. allowed by the Priests was presented by Sir Franc. Hastins and Sir Richard Knightly which urged likewise for a Disputation Another to the same tenure was then with the same assent subscribed with three and twenty hands of the greatest Catholick Gentry of England and presented to the chief Secretary of State potent in those times in Court and Council and as Recusants feared not equally affected towards them though never so innocent And the same Recusants were more than jealous that this practice of Conspiracy was no great secret to that Secretary long before divers of them that were actors in it by him named Catholicks were acquainted with it an invention to entrap those he did not
well of her as the Dutchess of Sommerset to Sir John Cheeke to Sir Edward Mountague Lord chief Justice who had subscribed and counselled her disinheriting to Sir Roger Cholmey to the Marqness of Northampton to the Lord Robert Dudley to Sir Henry Dudley to Sir Henry Gates c. who stood attainted and the Duke of Suffolke all obnoxious to her Justice she knew very well neither affected her Religion nor Title they being her prisoners in the Tower she released them all But for all this the Zealots of her time would not be quieted they libel against the Government of Women they pick quarrels and murmur at her Marriage they publish invectives and scurrilous Pamphlets against Religion yet forbear not to plot and conspire her deprivation Goodman writ a pernitious Book to have her put to death William Thomas a Gospeller conspires to Out of Fox his Martyrs kill the Queen and when hanged said he died for his Country Stow in Queen Mary p. 1056. On the contrary in Queen Elizabeths time although Catholicks then were the chief Ministers in Church and State and might have used indirect means against her she being of a contrary Religion and not of so clear a Title yet Catholick Bishops who set the Crown upon her head are commended by Holinshed a Prot. Hist ann Eliz. 26. pag. 1358 1360. for peaceable quiet Bishops and the Catholick temporal Lords there by him recorded to be far from opposing themselves against her interest as they are said there to offer her Majesty in her defence to impugne and resist any â—orreign force though it should come from the Pope himself Insomuch that they are commended by Holinshed for loyalty and obedience And Stow testifies how diligent Catholicks were to offer their service in that great action 88. neither were they altogether refused by her Majesty How the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellour of England Doctor Heath a Catholick Bishop instead of inveighing against her or casting forth of Libels as Cranmer did against Q. Mary her entrance and Government made a publick oration in her behalf to perswade the people to obedience and to acknowledg her power and authority Holin ib. 1170. whence the said Archbishops faithfulness was left to commendation also by Protestant Bishop Goodman in his Catalogue of Bishops How all Catholick Lords and Bishops repaired to London to proclaim her Queen who not long after turned them out of several Offices and Bishopricks Holinshed p. 1171. To use Cambdens own words and phrase the world stood Cambdens Britann p. 163. amazed and England groaned at it what would flesh and blood move him to was it not strange in the beginning to behold Abbies destroyed Bishopricks gelded Chaunteries Hospitals Colledges turned to profaneness change of Liturgies Rites c. to see people renounce their pious vows such unexpected alterations it being a pitiful thing as Stow saith to hear the Lamentations in the Country for religious Houses Stâ—w p. 964. Notwithstanding the loyalty and obedience of Catholicks towards her appeared undeniable in all things not only in their humble petitions but by their constant and general conformity unto her temporal Government in 88. and by their Protestations made at Ely 1588. as by other offers made to the Lord North the Queens Lieutenant there and by their just actions afterwards by their submission as to the Lords of the Privy Council and profession of all due acknowledgment to her Majesty notwithstanding the Sentence of Excommunication Whence the Author of Execution of English Justice acknowledges their obedience and loyalty to Elizabeth in a time when they wanted no matter of complaint Any man of candour and integrity may easily convince the vulgar error the unevenness of Queen Elizabeths nature and severity to that of Queen Marys Queen Elizabeth made new Laws against Catholicks and put them to death for not embracing a new heresie which has been condemned to the fire here and in all other Christian Countries She embrued her hands in the blood royal of Mary Stewart lawful Heir to the Crown put to death many noble persons by their blood to colour her Supremacy raised up upstarts Hereticks from nothing annihilated the antient Nobility and Gentry c. to use a Protest Historiographers words the bloody practices of Queen Eliz. if not so barbarous in appearance though more wicked in substance as being exhibited under the colour and pretext of Law in the starving and racking so many innocent worthy learned persons tearing out their hearts and bowels in publick view upon suborned witnesses base vagabond and perjured Catchpoles hired to swear Neither was there any reason then for persecution on the account of the Catholicks misdemeanours For as Cambden her own Historiographer noteth The reason of the penal Statutes in Eliz. was 1. the opinion of the Queens Illegitimation abroad 2. Jealousies had of the Queen of Scots her nearness to the Crown 3. the Bull of Pius 5. 4. the doubt of the house of Guise in behalf of their Neece 5. the offence given to the King of Spain in assisting Orange These causes induced the Queen with her Pauculi intimi saith Cambden We cannot excuse the persecution therefore under Queen Elizabeth against Catholicks for any cause given by them or just fear of their fidelity nor from the example of Christian Emperours and Kings that both for zeal of Religion and human policy to avoid danger of Rebellion made Laws and Statutes against Hereticks and innovators of the antient faith and sense of Scripture which descended to them by Tradition from the Apostles Queen Elizabeth taking a contrary way made Laws and Statutes against the ancient Religion and known sense of Gods word delivered from age tâ— age which practice destroys the order of Justice to persecute Christians for professing a Religion confirmed by the publick testimony and practice of the Christian world from the first propaâ—â—tion of Christianity to this present tâ—â—e No part of their Dectrine being â—â—er judged an heresie or novelty by antiquity otherwise they had not escaped the rigour of penal Laws made against Hereticks and Novelists in former ages But no History did or can ever mention any person that suffered as an Heretick for broaching or maintaining any one point which they now believe and profess Whereas Q. Mary her predecessors Emperours and Kings punished Novelists only that made Religons of their own heads condemneâ— as Hereticks by the Church in ancient times The disparity therefore was great Catholick Princes standing as defenders of their ancient Faith others as invaders and introducers of a new Belief They seek to keep what de jure they had Calvinists what they had not they possessors of the traditum and depositum left by Christ and his Apostles others descissors and injurious infringers of those Apostolick tyes and regulations so carefully delivered to all posterity Laws indeed have been made in Catholick Countries very severe against those the Church calleth Hereticks but they were none of the Churches
Laws nor made by the principles of Catholick Doctrine The Arrians were the first introducers of persecution they were not I say enacted by Ecclesiasticks but by civil Governours only We know that by the Canons of the Church ever in force their Clergy under the penalty of irregularity are forbidden to have any hand in blood And whatsoever civil Laws have been made by Catholick civil Governours were but as prudent means to prevent Sedition or Rebellions justly apprehended And though for some later ages civil Magistrates in some Countries exercise greater severities than anciently were used must England imitate the rigidest of other Countries Neither can our hatred or persecution against Catholicks be any more excused by the proceedings of the Spanish or Italian Inquisitions than our penal Statutes have been by the Laws of ancient Kings and Emperours against Hereticks First Because the Inquisition proceeds according to the rules and forms of justice none is declared an Heretick or guilty by any new Law or Oath made only to the end that by them men may be entrapped both in Soul in Body and Estate It was no crime in England to be a Roman Catholick before the penal Laws were enacted but it was a crime to be an Heretick or an Apostate or broacher of new Doctrines before the ancient Emperors and Kings made penal Laws against Heresie The Law supposed and did not make the crime As penal Statutes do in England making a crime of Christian Religion Secondly Hereticks are never condemned by the Inquisition without the testimony of many lawful witnesses both living and dead All the ancient Fathers Councils and the Christian Church of former ages testifie their errors are new and contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles No Rebel was ever more evidently convicted of Rebellion against his Prince then Hereticks are by the Inquisition of Heresie against God and the old Apostolical Church Catholicks cannot obtain so fair a Plea they are condemned by a new Law because they are not Hereticks and separate from the ancient Faith Thirdly The Inquisition practiceth all imaginary means towards the accused to reduce his judgment Fourthly The Inquisition it self is permitted in no Kingdome where Heresie is numerous nor can it be in justice they strive to keep out Sects and new Opinions in Countries totally of one Belief We do not morally blame the very Moors in Africa being of one profession for keeping out the Gospel it self In England where all fell not from the Papacy there is not the same just motive for severity as if it brought an upstart Religion never heard of or spread over the Nation Fifthly The Inquisition medleth not with those who never were Catholicks but the penal Statutes comprehend them who never were of their Church or Communion Sixthly The Inquisition condemns no Hereticks to death but only declares their heresie to the end the faithful may avoid their conversation its true the Secular power executes the sentence of death against them notwithstanding the Inquisition doth protest against the rigour and desireth that Hereticks may not be punished with death Seventhly Though the Inquisition were rigorous and unjust as adversaries pretend it is not a blemish to Catholick Religion because it is not an universal practice but limited to Spain and Italy at the instance of secular Princes looked upon as a necessary means to keep their Subjects in awe of their 〈◊〉 Eighthly The Inquisition â—oth seriously wish and endeavour the conâ—ersion and amendment of Hereticks imploâ—ing learned Divines to convince them and by fair ways and reason to win them Neither can the Muthers or Massacres in Ireland so much and so often exaggerated in Protestant Pamphlets and Pulpits be any pretext of rigour or austerity to English Catholicks What hath an English Catholick to do with an Irish Massacre Can we our selves excuse all the extravagancies by some of our natives and party Doth Catholick Religion either incline him to or teach murther or rebellion Have they not a setled sense of Scripture for loyalty and obedience Which none can alter without breach of his Catholick Faith And they are not their own interpreters and and judges in points controverted that 's the priviledge of others I only say and wish from my soul that some indiscreet Zealots had not a greater hand in them than Catholick Religion whose tenets are contrary to cruelty and murther on any pretence whatsoever Is it not notorious that the Reformed Zealots in Ireland signed a bloody Petition offered to the Parliament in England that all Irish that would not go to Church might be extirpated or banished This was done before the Irish Catholicks did stir Suppose that in Vlster some of the rascality or Kerns being exasperated by so many and continual injuries had murthered some persons must that reflect upon the English Catholicks and all the Irish Nation or what is the Irish Râ—â—ellion to English Catholicks who detest it more than the Amboyna to Reformists it is too much ascertained that the Murthers and Massacres done in Ireland by Reformists furious zeal against Catholicks exceeded those committed by Catholicks witness their murthers about Dublin the County of Wicko and Fingcole by the transplantation of them into Canaught and by the transporting them into the Plantations of America forcing them to the Oath of Abjuration and almost starving them in those places contrary to the Publick Faith given them by printed Declarations in the Name of the English Parliament to Irish Catholicks Anno 1649. 1652. that the Oath of Abjuration shall not be administred to any in Ireland Baxter in his Cure of Church-Division confesseth and saith they put the Irish to death that went to defend themselves and stand for the King and Country yet they who seemed so godly themselves Massacred millions of their own Country that were for the Country and King and gave God many humiliation days and thanks for their success killing after so many Scots in cold blood after they were taken at Worcester Fight See Baxter But whosoever desires to be better satisfied in this of Ireland let him read the printed Remonstrance of the Irish Confederate Catholicks delivered by their Commissioners the Lord Vicount Preston and Sir Robert Talbot the seventeenth of March 1642. to his Majesties Commissioners at Trim. There he will see how the Irish desired the murthers on both sides might be punished and how they were forced to take up arms by the wicked practices of Sir William Persons Sir Charls Coot and other fiery Protestants who governed the Kingdom Therefore whatsoever may be said in passion of the Irish war its evident that the Calvinistical Zealot had great influence upon their injurious provocations murthering seven or eight hundred women children Ploughmen and labourers in a day in the Kings Land whensoever the Army went abroad the poor Country-people did betake themselves to the Firrs where the Parliament Officers did besiege them and set the Fâ—rrs on fire and such as escaped that element were
so apt to deceive men as Religion which always presents a shew of Divinity and for that Cause it behooved to be very wary in Chastising the professors thereof least any indignation should enter into the peoples minds that somewhat was derogated from the Majesty of God Others More freely have not spared to place Religion I mean that which is ignorantly Zealous amongst the kind of frenzies which cannot be cured otherwise then by time given to divert and qualify the humour of the conceit Whence Levia said to Augustus Visne Muliebre Concilium Let severity sleep a while and try what what alteration the pardonning of Cinna may procure The Emperor hearkned to her Counsel and thereby found his enemies mouths stopped and their Malice abated A soft gale of wind oft allaies a great storm the warm Sun will prevail more with the traveller then cold and boisterous winds The Goats blood will break the Adamant which the hardest hammers cannot do Chronical diseases are not cured by physick and motion but by time and rest It fals out many times that the remedy is worse then the disease and while we go about to cure the State we kill it and instead of purging out the peccant humour of the body politick we cast it into a Calenture or burning feaver This was not unknown to that wise and good Emperor Theodosius who could not be perswaded to extirpate or use violent courses against the Arrians knowing how dangerous it would prove to the state if the quietness thereof should be disturbed Lucretius the Poet when he beheld the act of Agamemnon that could endure the sacrificing of his own daughter exclaimed tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum what would he have said if he had known and seen the Christian Bloodshed and Violence in Religion in these times he would have been ten times more Epicure then he was We read of Sabbacus a Heathen King of Aethiopia who being by dreams admonished that he could not possess himself of the Kingdom but by the slaying of the Priests he chose rather to lay aside the Claim and to refer the government to twelve wise men How much more will it become Christians not to lay the foundation of Religion upon the Carkasses spoils and ruins of their distressed neighbors relations and fellow Subjects It hath been an ancient aphorism of State and Wisdome of the greatest Princes punire raro it was ascribed to Augustus Caesar as a title of honour nunquam Civilem sanguinem fudisse and Seneca who lived under a Tyrant saith frequens vindicta paucorum odium reprimit omnium irritat Aristotle saith those are ever held to be most godly Laws that are least Sanguinary and yet maintain Order The Kingdome of Christ is not carried on after the fashion of this World with arms and engines of War to be erected on the bones and Sepulchres of our Brethren and Fathers The Throne of Christ is not supported as Solomons on both sides with Lyons and Tygres Bears and Wolves instead of Lambs and Doves as if we should change our meek patient crucified Messias and had got some Muzzian a Mahometan God of Forces who is to be served in Buff Coats and Armour It was a great blasqhemy when the Devil said I will ascend and be like to the highest but it is a greater blasphemy to personate God to bring him saying I will descend to be like the Prince of Darkness with furies and persecutions nay what is worse to make the Cause of Religion as is proved by experience this last Century descend to the Cruel and inhumane murthering of Princes butchering of the People racking of Consciences by Oaths and Sequestrations surely this is to bring down the Holy Ghost instead of likeness of a Dove into the shape of a Vulture or Raven and to set out for the Barque of a Christian Church a Flag of a Barque of Pirats and Assasinates or to bring in an armatum Evangelium Christian Religion in Compleat Armour and Christ marching like Alexander Hannibal or Caesar it is hard to pick out Letters of Mart from the Gospel or to have any Commission to kill or slay Jesus Christ in order to reform Whence a learned divine of our English Church saith it is a squalid reformation that is besmeared with the blood of Christians it is against the honour order unity and majesty of a reformed Church to persecute and to be like those canes sepulchrales violating the bones and ashes of the dead Persecution setteth a man as far from a true Christian temper as burning Feavers do from natural heat and health when once a male contented member is grieved then the rest of the body is sensible and secretly arm for opposition all cry pity any should suffer for their conscience and silently say among themselves sors hodierna mihi Cras erit illa tibi there being necessary connexion between Civil Liberty and that which is Spiritual and who would divest any of their spiritual do alarm them with just Causes of loosing their Civil The nature of man however in hot blood it be thirsty of revenge yet in a cooler temper it hath a kind of nausea or distaste of taking the lives even of the most Nocent insomuch that in Assizes or Sessions an Offender can hardly be condemned whom the pity of many will not after a sort excuse with laying of impositions on the Judge part on the Jury and much on the accusers Hence the name of a Serjeant or Pursuivant is odious and the Executioner esteemed no better then an enemy of mankind and if such as are tender of their reputations be very scrupulous personally to arrest men for civil actions of debt they will be more unwilling instruments of drawing their Bodies to the Rack and Gallows especially when any colour of Religion is pretended in defence In Counsels concerning Religion that advise of the Apostle should be prefixed ira hominis non implet justitiam we are to consider we deal with men and not with beasts man is to be treated humanly and a Christian christianly with all reason and charity and of tender Consciences ought to be had a tender respect man is sensible of gentleness may be obliged to quietness by humanity Whereas if you take violent courses and fight against the errors of the times with prisons dungeons fetters oaths c. they will make men the greater hypocrites and be occasion of intestine division and bloodshed experience can speak somewhat in this behalf which hath evidently desâ—ryed within the current of few years that severity in Religion hath years caused the long known and manifest miseries of this Nation Hence one of our late Divines saith it is sufficiently known what the immoderation of a preposterous zeal male contentedness ambition and force hath both machinated and perpetrated to the destraction well nigh destruction of Church and State The impudence and imprudence of inconsiderable rash spirits in their actions passions and pretences for the Gospel
State I answer who is swayed by this motive runs but the indirect way of State-Policy and makes use of a title of that name only to support what his ambition malice or interest inforces him too and is guilty not only of his own Evils but whatever others are thereby occasioned in oppression of others These mysteries of Machiavel have been to far discovered to be of no use in this Nation for the future This Cloak of formal Godliness is now worn thredbare and almost all men sees it to be but a Cloak Such specious devises appear now to be but like Flock-work upon Canvas scattered over with glittering Copper or Tinsel Experience hath made almost every Body able to look not only on the Colours and Pretext but the depth and motive of every such design The infinite eye and wisdome of God doth pierce through all our pretences and his justice doth require no other accuser then our own consciences which neither the false beauty of our actions nor all the formality which to pacifie the opinions of men we put on can in the least kind cover from his knowledge We know that a good pretence cannot justifie a bad action and therefore we ought to be as sollitous about the lawfulness of the means as about the goodness of the end it is a maxime in morality that bonum oritur ex integris and in Christianity that we must not do evil that good may come of it There is nothing that God's pure and undeluded eye looks on with more abhorrence then Pseudopolicy we may deceive men but it s in vain to put Ironies upon God A Counterfeit Religion shall find a real hell And who have conspired with the wrath of God in the stupefaction of their consciences though they may for a time struggle with those inward checks yet there will be a day if not in this life when that Witness that Judge that Jury will not be bribed Let it be part of our dayly orisons that God would banish this cursed Policy out of Europe and the whole World and damn it down to Hell from whence it originally came and such as delight to abuse others think of that self-cousenage with which in the interim they abuse themselves God permitting the Devil to wrong the Impostor Admit that for some worldly respect Laws were necessary in State-Policy for the time wherein they were enacted yet the time changing and those causes entirely ceasing which made them seem necessary now it will not only be safe but necessary to repeal them when after such triaâ—s there is no cause of suspition remaining nâ—r â—olour of jealousie at least none but what may easily be removed by the wisdom of the State and plenary satisfaction in behalf to themselves Wary superpoliticks are over curious Spirits plead policy against Piety and prefer outward safety before inward peace subject Faith and Truth to Policy our private and civil good to interest Religion is suited to Government and Conscience to connivency What is Policy against Religion If it be iniquity injustice and oppression to treat men so without cause or demerit it is not any feigned imaginary reason of State will excuse those who act and give counsel to such unchristian acts lest the Blood of Souls lie upon their account another day More Families have been ruined more persons imprisoned more moneys spent by the cruelty of persecution than by all Law-Suits in the Courts of Judicature or payments and ordinary Taxes Our Church-wardens are perjured that swear to present them to every Sessions though imposing of such an Oath is breach of the Fundamental Laws of the Land and those Church-wardens that are not perjured but pursue the Oath in persecuting their neighbors are plunged with a horrid guilt of Conscience Now there are above 9285 parishes in England and seventy four thousand Church-wardens and Sides-men in England every year and what a dreadful thing is it to have all these yearly either perjured persecuted or Persecutors I am by many reasons induced to conclude that this severe ungospellary way of proceeding hath been the cause of ruin of Trade impoverishing and many afflictions of this Nation It hath made us an Obloquy to all our Neighbors hinders Traffique becomes a prejudice to the Reformed beyond Seas a discontenting our Friends at Home a Scandal to all the World a disheartning of a great many good Subjects Persecution stops all our Friends mouths weakens their hands and droops their hearts on this account many families have left the Land to remove into some country where they may have liberty by this means the trading stock of the Nation is conveyed away To use external force in matters purely of Faith and Religion you must side with and support all corrupt interest tire and weary out your selves with never-failing troubles and anxious difficulties attended with a hundred fears and in conclusion if you prosper in such practices you would but leave Posterity partakers of the Bondage you entail upon the People What benefit or credit was ever got by persecution these eighty years have not many noble persons on that account left the Land many Religious men and women cloistered to retire to spend their means and lives in other Countreys have not Princes and States of that Religion expressed much disatisfaction to see them unmercifully used hath not a general consumption of comfort unity affection settlement and content and many sad mischiefs befallen us the last Century on this only score hath not God shewed his just chastisements judgments upon the chief actors complices contrivers and abetters of such inhumane proceedings as in Cromwel Cecil Dudley Leicester Somerset Walsingham Bacon c. We deceive our selves to promise or exspect to King or Kingdome Prince or Subject Peace or Safety or Deliverance from our Troubles if we subordinate Fundamentals in Religion and necessary Truths of Faith to our private or civil Interest If he be an unwise man who provides means where he designs no end persecutors will never be able to accomplish their end For experience tells us that punishments and persecutions never lessens the resolution of Christians but alwaies heightens Zeal and sometimes draws men into leagued Factions which indulgence and favour would prevent It is observed by all lookers into Antiquity that Christian Religion still got ground in the world not by persecuting but by being persecuted And our penal Laws rather increased then hindred the growth of Popery Whence King James observed that Sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae the spilling of Christian Blood is but the watering of Christ's Vineyard This Pine-Tree the more it is pressed the higher it groweth This Camomile the more it is troden the thicker it cometh up This Walnut-Tree the more it is beaten the more fruitful it waxeth Yea even the Non-Conformists are likely still to increase as from Edward the sixts time to this they have gradually done notwithstanding the rigour of Ecclesiasticks agaâ—nst them and that which we cannot
without horror observe is the not allowing of a due and regular Liberty of Conscience hath instead of advancing the Cause of Religion propagated Atheism in this Nation It hath been an old Stratagem of Satan to oppose Religion against Religion to leave us none at all It hath been likewise observed as a shuffling hypocritical distinction of Lawyers invented to deceive the innocent pretending none are executed or suffer for Religion or Conscience but for Treason or offending the Laws Who doth not see but by this rule those Bloody Tyrants Nero Dioclesian Maximine c. must be conscientious because they judged according to the Law and those glorious Martyrs must be counted Traitors nay even the cursed Jews who crucified Christ alledged the self-same reason we have a Law and by our Law he ought to die John 19. 7. Treason must alwaies be some action or intention discovered prejudicial to the Soveraign or State not an Opinion or Profession of Religion For this reason Sir John Old-Castle in the Reign of Henry the fifth for his Treason was condemned in one Court and for his Heresie in another So were Cranmer and Ridley in Queen Maries time And therefore also it is by the statute provided 22 and 27 Eliz. that if a Priest conforms he is actually discharged of all imputation of treason no further proceeding can lye against him If Priest-hood be no treason a Priest in that he is a Priest can be no Traytor unless we will account Apostles and all ancient Priests both of England all Countries whom Kings and Emperors have honoured and loved as their faithful friends and subjects So far thought them from being enemies to their Crown that from their hands all Princes received their Crowns Consecrations and Scepters CAP. III. Liberty or Toleration Rightly understood is equitable just or necessary to several Religions I Have viewed most of the Tracts concerning Toleration pro and con Some I find over strict and nice austere and rigid others profane and loose arbitrary and remiss and betwixt them both toleration ever scrapes the imputation of calumnie either of too much restriction or profane relaxation neither of them will know that true liberty is a middle kind of equity indulgency benignity betwixt both extreams not curst and cruel but tender and compassionate hath her commendation for moderative rather than vindicative minding rather to amend than confound not rash and arbitrary dispensing with the Law as if it were but a leaden rule but circumspectly and benignly interpreting it that it might not prove an Iron-Rod We plead then only for such a Liberty of Conscience as preserves the Nation in Trade Peace and Commerce which preserves a fair entercourse and correspondency one with another and with their respective members and would not exempt any man or party of men from not keeping those excellent Laws that tend to sober just and industrious living in a due Christian regulation consistent with the evident Laws of God and quiet Government and that indulging Dissenters in the sense defended is not only most Christian and rational but prudent also and conformable to his Majesties Gracious Declaration It appears of neither pace to drive on furiously with Jehu in matters of Policy nor that he go softly with Ahab in matters of Piety In matters of Scruple or Controversie it likes well of nothing but walking with a Right Conscience Gal. 2. 24. and that also of free choice like the Israelites among the Edomites Numâ— 22. 26. above all it hates to remove the ancient Land-Marks whether of Law or Religion Deut. 19. 14. not thirsting one anothers Blood nor invading anothers rights as Wolves and Tygers but as the Apostle saith sobrie juste pie It being an apt Mediety or mediocrity betwixt the Rigid contention of a furious Zeal or emulation and the Luke-warm disposition of a reachless indifferency or neutrality and though it be tender and compassionate as a mother yet she is far from being over remiss Licentious or irregular whence some wise men take it for a Master-piece of prudence wisely discerning 'twixt what is just and fit and so giving sentence rather congruously then severely School-men and Moralists make it to be a potential part of justice bringing not severely the Fact home to the Law but rather in equity the Law down to the Fact regulating the strict words and rigour for the common good and particular relief of pesons in certain facts times contingencies and circumstances 'T is a part of temperance amiable and amicable 'T is severally translated and hath many Epithets in holy Scripture Modesty equity 2 Cor. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 10. Phil. 4. 5. 2 Tim. 2. humanity gentleness clemency courtesie patience of Spirit 'T is the blessing and comfort of peace and unity in the Church of plenty and tranquillity in the Common-wealth of plain satisfaction to the Conscience and of plenary contentation to all sorts and conditions of rational men Nothing can be easie sweet and safe in our lives Religion Consciences or liberties to God or man without it without it we be tedious to our selves and troublesome one to another This virtue is not a little illustrated by its contrary opposit Persecution immoderation austerity rigidness inexorableness compulsion imposition c. which is an extream vitiousness in persons in their judgments opinions passions affections pretences actions and designs of which we have been more pathetically sensible in the effects than in the qualities This medium therefore or middle kind of equity indulgency or liberty betwixt both extremities aforesaid is the most just and reasonable unto which all Christians have a right and title too by virtue and purchase of Christ's Blood Death and Resurrection who is become sole Lord over the Soul unto whom we are to give account only as our proper Judg in matters purely internal and Spiritual for in this the Judicatures of men are not capable to make a clear judgment or declare certainly who are in the right or wrong This Freedome of Conscience is of so high concern to all and not only to be enjoyed by the strongest party as well for the Magistrates sake as the Peoples common good and it consists in the Magistrates forbearing to impose pressures and penalties in matters of Faith and Conscience lest they intrude into the Office of Christ to whose decision such actions are only liable The ancient original Fundamental Laws by which other Laws of less extent are to be regulated were intended as a Defence and Protection to all providing one injure not another and that Common Peace and Safety be secured no other subsequent inferiour Law can therefore debar any peaceable Christian that answers the necessities of Church and State Civil Spiritual and Political in equal justice and in foro Conscientiae from this priviledge originally due to all For they that are contributaries to the peace and maintenance of Government are intitled to a protection from it according to the just nature of government which consists
religiously plead for a Liberty seditiously and factiously to broach to others any new opinions he pleaseth Nor may any part of men though never so godly carry on any design though it may be better than what at present may be by any violent irregular and disorderly ways For every Christian duty hath its Bounds beyond which it is not true and virtuous Liberty but inordinateness and excess Some mens pedantick incivilities to the Consciences of others may be instructive to us as to convince the necessity of setting out true bounds of Liberty which should not be granted on other terms then as far as it conduceth to Gods honour and the Peoples good For if publick power should suffer arrogant ignorance excess of passion perversness of will to come to its full rudeness and extent tumultuary numbers and brutish Power will soon make good private presumptions and cover over the most impotent Lusts passions and ambitions of men with the pleas and outcryes of Christian Liberty For that is no other freedome then that as water enjoys when it overbears and overflows her Banks and Bounds and such as the envious and malitious Devils affects and are most impatient not to enjoy nor may they be touched or curbed by any authority in Church or State be their extravagancies never so blasphemous but presently they make great clamours of persecution as if all were persecutors who helped to bind a Mad-man or put a roaring drunkard into the Cage The vitious are not to be counted into the sort of meer Dissenters Socinians who are enemies to the Blessed Trinity Atheists who hold Principles destructive to Christianity and those Parties whose Religion forbids subjection and carries an opposition to civil Government and Commands by Fire and Sword to erect their new Spiritual Kingdom And those who hold forth notions and conceptions reforming or wholly changing the state of Religion and Government and in order to that shake even the frame of Civil things to which they think themselves no longer bound in subjection then they want a party strong enough for opposition nor will they easily be perswaded that it is the sin of Rebellion carries the face of reformation easily dispensing with obedience to men where they pretend amendment before God putting on Sheeps Cloathing to no other purpose but the renting of Christs seemless Coat Sow to themselves leaves of frivolous pretences dispute Preach Plead Clamour about moderation and Liberty when all the immoderation is in themselves contend to have priviledges prerogatives freedome regulated so and so yet would they examine themselves nothing needs more regulation then their own judgments opinions and humours There be others of hotter tempers more Cholerick Constitutions and feaverish complexions have such ferocious Spirits like pampered Horses whom no ground will hold dayly neighing after novelties who love to be moving in the troubled waters of secular affairs who seem most impatient of any order or publick rule in which they have not some stroak or influence ready to undo whatever is done without them their Brest is full of turbulent and seditious Spirits as the Cave of Aeolus of Winds Forgetting what Spirit becomes followers of the Gospel whose heads are prone to move their hearts with Specious novelties quick excitations and zealous resolutions which soon after like salt-streams descend and fall upon their Lungs provoking them violently to the spreading their opinions to others till they see the Children of their brains prove meer abortions To the misguided activity of such even Ministers the Commonalty may owe much of its troubles These only and the like most truly forfeit their Christian private Liberty to the publick discretion and power who will not or cannot use it but to the publick detriment Beware then of Compliances with and indulgence to all sorts Sects and Schisms pleaded for as if it were a part of Christs Legacy and Peoples Liberty to be tolerated in any Actions or Opinions never so pernicious Saint Paul beseecheth the Romans to mark those that Cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine received Rom. 4. 6 17. As an absolute unity in judgment is not to be attained in this Life so an universal or absolute Liberty is not to be permitted or indulged in things injurious to God Toleration of all things is a destructive principle to State and Church a Cloak to Licentiousness ushereth in Atheism and Libertinism Transports Men oft-times to such excesses beyond those bounds of duty which as Subjects we ought to observe Hath many Latitudes evasions and distinctions to unravel the Cords of any Oaths and untwist the Bonds of any Covenant or Protestations Those who are most pregnant and impatient of holding in their Opinions on the pretence of Truth do but proudly esteem their own understandings pretious to vend some raw and indigested notions The Devil usually pretends Truth to Cover his Lyes Clamour must not prevail but reason Is it to follow the direction of Christ to Preach on the House-top If there were a Nero or Dioclesian at the Helm who should threaten to mingle our Blood with our Sacrifices if you had your Antelencana and should flock into Caves of the Earth to worship Christ your zeal would be more tolerable True Christian toleration extends not to matters of an extern nature wherefore Magistrates may use a Coercive hinderance from publick Meetings without impeaching it When Subjects have expressed a due Regulation in it then is a King in Capacity to shew a God-like benignity and Power in granting the things they ask as conducing to God's honour and the Peoples Good nor is it rational to be granted on other terms For Religion cannot be defended by transgression of God's Commands which are the rule of it The true Liberty of conscience of any man consists in a Constant tendency or intention to the Supream end and those holy regulations which God hath prescribed as it stands in referrence to God its Creator and its Neighbour Wherein a Christian is free to declare and utter them to know consider meditate of and believe whatever Truth God hath revealed When he is free to declare and utter them in such a holy way which Charity Sobriety Modesty Order and Gravity allow or conferring so with others as may have some savour of Reason and Religion in an humble and holy desire to learn or teach in a regular not in a rude insolent and imperious way A wise humble Christian is never far from his refuge and when pursued and urged beyond what he thinks agreeablt to good Conscience he is not to seek for or take Foxes shifts subtil windings or sinful coverts Is more willing to hear then earnest to object and labours to acquiesce in others satisfaction as well as his own becomes all things to all men in regard of things Civil and extern CAP. V. Whether the Romanists have not a just and equal title to Toleration SUch is the multiplying of that breath giving Life which God hath cast upon slime
Treasure so noble of birth so fortunate in Wars zealous in Religion who builded so many Hospitals founded so many Monasteries enacted such wholsome Laws and Statutes got so many Victories in Fâ—ance c. even to Palestine it Self all professed Roman Catholicks Secundo It deserves one observation that when Christianity became the ruling Religion of the World under the great Constantine and Emperours his immediate Successors the very Heathens themselves were exempt from all manner of severity upon the score of their Religion Because they were in possession of it by discent from Father to Son and not by usurpation or intrusion And we have the like president in our own Country For when King Ethelbert had embraced the Christian Faith by the preaching of Saint Austin he would not force his own Subjects though Pagans to receive it Bedâ— l. 1. c. 260. For this reason it was that the great Apostles treated the Synagogue whose Religion at that time was vacuated and consequently void of Truth with so much respect and condescendency and that afterwards the most primitive Fathers used so often this expression that the Synagogue ought to be buried with honour Whence one of our Protestant Divines saith even by the Law of Seniority Catholicks might exspect some favour For what priviledges or immunities have we but the old Church gave us whence had we our Bible Creed Honors Donations commendable Ceremonies charitable Foundations had not they preserved them faithfully we never had found them The first possession of a man is a good title by the Law of Nature until an elder or the Law of Reason which with mankind is to have pre-eminence dispossesses it The Roman Church had a possession unquestionable for above a thousand years and the Pope enjoyed jurisdiction a longer time than any succession of Princes can pretend to and submitted to by all our Ancestors In Catholick Religion they stand as defenders others as invaders they as possessors others as disseisors they seek to keep what de jure they had Calvin and others what they had not There is a vast difference in these two Cases to oppose by force the introducement of innovations and to attempt by force the extinguishment of an ancient Religion of which the People are universally in a quiet and immemorial possession The one drives others out of possession the other maintains himself the one invades his neighbours rights the other defends his own Apostacy and innovation with some colour of right have been oft in several ages persecuted by rigour of Laws even by Protestants and the reason is because innovation in Religion most commonly breeds disturbance in the Common-wealth Natural reason teaches that no particular man is to be condemned much less deprived of what he stands possessed till his cause be judiciously heard and sentenced Nor ought any man to be Judg in his own Cause But penal Laws and Oaths made in contempt and derogation of that Religion which through all Christendom abounds with learning civility and loyalty whose Doctrin amongst the primitive greatest and most learned societies hath been and is avouched in most Nations and Kingdoms allowed and more freely exercised and permitted established by the Laws in which our Predecessors were born and continued wherein all our Progenitors all the Peers Ecclesiast Nobles and Princes of our Realm in precedent ages thought themselves happy and honourable If they had imagined that in future times their Posterity would revile that Religion with Epithets unbeseeming humane much less Christian Ears what an opinion would they have preconceived of us It was said by King James one of the most learned Princes not in private but in open Parliament represented I acknowlege the Roman Church to be our Mother Church although defiled with infirmities and corruptions Is it not then a kind of Spiritual Parracide in the Daughter not only to revile the Mother or which is worse scratch her by the Face call her Whore Superstitious Idolatrous c. on whose Knees you have been dandled nourished by her Breasts and carried in her Womb Hear O you Heavens and give ear O earth I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me Isa 1. 2. Let it be allowed some corruptions be of our aged Mother this should be no warrant for cruelty but rather a motive of compassion especially considering that by confession of all her adversaries those pretended failings are of no modern date but such as they are now such likewise they were when first Christianity was received by English-men under King Ethelbert The Church of England who Glory in their succession of Bishops and in this is singular from other Reformers acknowledge they immediately derive their true and lawful Ordination and mission and from whom their first Mininistry viz. Cranmer Baker c. were Consecrated and consequently that the Roman Church conveyed divine right and authority from Christ to them the very essence and being of Religion Which Church notwithstanding they call Antichristian Idolatrous c. abusing tender Consciences sâ—â—press that which themselves confess to be divine Truth condemn as Trayâ—â—rs and persecute to death with pâ—â—munire loss of fortunes c. those from whom such Apostolical Graces and Functions proceed and were continued and preserved If our succession from the Roman be the glory of the English Church it s our scorn and ignominy to persecute and revile them Tertio Penal Laws and Statutes against the Catholick Religion destroyes the ground and foundation of Justice and the form Judicature Because the Witness can have no evidence for their Testimony the Judges not any for their sentence and the Legislator as little for the Law Primo There must be evidence of lawful Witnesses In matters of Faith we go by hearing Rom. 10. The best evidence then of any Religion is the testimony of our deceased Predecessors and Ancestry whose Faith and Doctrine is fresh in the memories and testimonies of the Christian posterity of the present Church For besides the Authority of the present Church we can have no greater evidence in foro externo for the Law of God and Religion then the testimony of precedent ages confirmed with supernatural Signs v. g. the fourteenth Age delivered to the fifteenth the Roman Faith which now they profess assuring them that it was the true sense and Letter of Scripture which they had learned from the thirteenth age and so forward to the Apostles No reformers can produce one lawful Witness against Catholick Religion and their sense of Scripture yet the Greatest Crimes require at least one lawful Witness For what evidence had the first Reformers to oppose the testimony of all former Ages confirmed with so many miracles and to make Statutes against the known practiced Religion at least for nine hundred years Antiquity affords them none because though in diverse Ages some odd men did testifie sometimes an errour they were in those very times contradicted by the Church and declared impostors and innovators In this
Bohemia and Poland That imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots That authorized Mountebank and Rochel to stand in defiauce against their King That begot so many conspiracies against Queen Mary of England as appears in our Chronicles That ravished from their lawful Governours the Low Countries and Transylvania and many Towns now called free Was it from any of their Books you have drawn these vile Maximes viz. that the authority of the Soveraign Magistrate is of humane right That the People are above the King That the People can give Power to the Prince and take it away That Kings are not anointed of the Lord That if a King fail in performing his Oath at Coronation the Subjects are absolved from their allegiance That if Princes fall from the grace of God the people are loosed from their subjection Do not these doctrines proceed from Wickliffe Waldenses and other Sectaries Doth not Belforrest sufficiently prove the like maximes from Luther Calvin Melancton Peter Martir c. What Buchanan and Knox did against Queen Mary their lawful Soveraign is evident in History and Beza in Epist 78. ad Buchanan approves their actions Calvin l. 4. c. 3. Instit from his high Consistorian gives this absolution to all Oaths of that nature Quibuscunque hujus evangelii lux effulgeat ab omnibus laqueis juramentisque absolvitur And the famous Minister Surean called Rosiers writ a Book expresly that it was lawful to kill Charls the ninth and the Queen Mother if they would not obey the Gospel Belforrest is sufficient witness See more in Althusius Politicks c. 35. Dausus l. 6. Polit. c. 3. In all the Councils Synods writings of any Roman Divines no such matters are found and allowed but only such as teach Subjects loyalty humility obedience More Princes have been deposed by Sectaries in sixty years than by Papists in six hundred years and that deposing of Kings is no doctrine nor practice of Catholicks shall be proved hereafter and that others have been more faulty in each of their respective Sects in all kind of disorders at home or abroad History and experience testifie In no Country or City in Christendome but Catholick Religion ever entred by meekness and suffering in no Country of Christendome but other Sects entred by sedition rebellion disobedience or murdering of great Princes or Persons by vast destruction of Cities Countries Kingdomes As in France Holland several States in Germany Scotland twenty years in England c. Consider what was done against France Holland several States in Germany Mary Queen of Scots or the late unparallel'd Rebellion In Catholick Religion I find they learn their duty towards God cannot be complied with without an exact performance of their duty towards their Soveraign to obey him not for advantages or temporal concerns but out of Conscience For no Roman Catholick can be true to his Religion who is not true to his Prince Whom they obey for Conscience sake whose Person they love and honour and whose prosperity they always pray for Though stript of their Estates or loaden with stripes It is in the power of great ones to make them suffer but not to make them guilty Their Religion tells them that Caesar's due ought not to be kept from him be he of what religion he pleaseth This is the will of God in Scripture preached by the Apostles and from them derived to us this doctrine is instilled in their Catechisms confirmed by their Sermons and conferences Insomuch that a Papist that is not truly loyal is not truly a Papist if to believe not what they are taught by the Church makes a man cease to be of it From the Saxons to Edward the sixth to be a Catholick was never taken as a bar to loyalty Nor doth it seem possible a Religion which governed England with glory so many hundred years can teach a doctrine destructive to Princes or infuse Maximes that will breed Commotion in the People They are ready by Oath in the face of Heaven to profess loyalty a divine command and an indispensable duty and any who pretend to know what Catholick doctrine is must know this to be a part of it In matters of fact their actions have given indubitable testimonies even by their Enemies own Concessions If Catholicks had been disloyal either the King or his Council or at least the States-men under Cromwel or the Rump must know it They appeal to the Council in all discoveries of their Treacheries against the King whether ever any constant Catholick was accessary or concurred in any design against his Majesty They appeal and challenge all the black Catalogue of Cromwells favorites and the whole Rumpists to discover if they can any Papist who concurred in any plot or action If Catholicks refuse to go to Protestant Churches in respect of Conscience They will far more refuse for Conscience sake to commit Treason a sin of a higher degree will hardly attempt or consent to any desperate act against their State and Country and commit such Crimes as hazard Body and Soul Nay what other Sectaries will boggle at If the King should be a Heathen and make Laws against them they hold it not lawful to resist but peaceably to endure During the time of the late King of France there was proposed by an Assembly of Catholick Divines and Bishops this question or Probleme If it were supposed the King of France became a Mahometan and by his Power endeavoured to force his Subjects to that infidelity whether they might lawfully according to the Principles of Christianity by arms resist him to which question the unanimous consent of the Assembly was that such a resistance would be unlawful since Christian Religion allowed no other way of maintaining Faith against lawful Soveraigns but prayers tears and sufferings When shall we find such a result from a Synod of Presbyterians Compare these primtive Doctrines with new the Evangelists and we shall find them quite contrary to the rules of Wiâ—liffians Waldenses Paraeus Knox and Buchanan c. who teach that Subjects may not only defend by Arms their Religion but offend also And lately Baxter in lib. of Rest p. 258. saith we may fight against Kings if it were for cause of Religion to purge the Church from Idolatry and Superstition The Genova Notes of the Bible 2 Chron. c. 5. allow the deposing of Queen Macha See more in Belforrest On the contrary the Doctors and Casuists of the Roman Church hold it as an Article of Faith that neither Heresie nor Turcism can be opposed by Rebellion Belloy in Apol. part 2. plainly saith Arms against Princes have no warrant Orationibus tantum pugnandum Navar Cunerus and all other Catholick Doctors agree in the same as most conformable to the doctrine and practice of the Primitive Fathers The General Council of Constance Sess 5. concludes it an error in Faith to maintain Subjects may kill their Kings being Tyants nuper accepit Synodus c. Cardinal Tolet in his Summolies l. 3. c. 6. affirms
miles removed than in many thousand within his own Kingdom not all of them Angels The King of France esteems it a priviledg granted him in a Concordate by the Pope that no particular Bishop should have power in any case to excommunicate him Never was there greater supporters to the Crown than English Catholicks have been ever against the least encroachment offered by the Bishop of Rome himself as it is to be seen in the Statâ—t Laws of King Richard the Second wherein you find in many businesses the Pope was interessed the Roman Catholicks flatly denying the Crown of England to be subject to any immediately but to God yet acknowledged in the very same Parliament the Bishop of Rome's spiritual Jurisdiction And Bishop Bilson in his Defence between Christ and Antichrist brings in the Parliament consisting then altogether of Roman Catholicks expressing their loyalty to their Soveraign Prince in these words we will with our said Soveraign the King and his said Crown and Regality in cases aforesaid and in all other cases attempted against Him his Crown or Dignity in all points live and dye p. 3. p. 243. And in Holinshed 2. Volume of the last Edition p. 309. we find in the Reign of King Edward the First all the Catholick Lords assembled in Lincolne in Parliament in the name of all estates did answer the Popes right to judg c. that they would not consent their King should do any thing tending to the disinheriting of the Crown or right of England And that it was never known and consequently never practised that the King of this Land had answered or ought to answer for their rights in the said Realm before any Judg ecclesiastical or secular Yet at the same time they stiled Pope Boniface the high Bishop of the Roman universal Church and themselves his devout sons c. Therefore Catholick Religion hath no headship prejudicial to temporal Supremacy If this were a Check to the Glory of Kings why do the Kings of France Spain Poland Portugal the Emperour and other great Princes in Germany uphold it and glory in it the Duke of Savoy with the Florentine and the rest of Italian Princes living under the Popes Nose absolute and arbitrary in their Dominions dispute with Sword in their hand for their Temporalities And for the Catholick Church in England in Catholick times Stat. 25. Edward 3. Statut. 16. Richard did not admit the Pope's deposing power in temporals made it a preeminence to appeal to Rome or to submit to a Legates jurisdiction without the Kings License or on the Popes summons to go out of the Kingdom or receive any mandates or brief from Rome or purchase Bulls for Preserments to Churches c. and the reason was given because the Crown of England is free from earthly subjection and immediately subject to God Our Catholick Lords of England have in the name of the whole Body made oft protestations of eternal fidelity to the King and renouncing all dependance of any forreign power that can any way be prejudicial to him Many Protestations Professions Declarations have been printed by several Catholicks that no authority on earth can absolve them from their necessary and natural Allegiance and that his fidelity was a duty of their Religion have made and will be ready to give all security of peaceable obedience and sincere integrity that any words or actions can confirm But you will object and say they allow a power in the Pope to excommunicate Princes and thence follows a train of pernicious consequences of deposing raising his Subjects against him c. Resp That the power of Excommunication is indeed necessarily annexed to the pastoral Function and therefore to be allowed in the cheife Bishop over his Flock But they deny and renounce any further extent of that power unto those things which appertain to Caesar 5 and therefore they declare as firmly that notwithstanding any such excommunication they will bear true faith to our Prince and him maintain and defend against all opposers whatsoever You may again object the Council of Lateran decreed Princes that savoured Hereticks after admonition given the Pope might discharge the Subjects from allegiance and give away the Kingdom to some Catholick to root out Heresie Resp 1. Councils are not infallible in every point even in matter of fact and other Constitutions not concerning faith or doctrine being but human Laws are changeable and oft admit exceptions 2. Council's Ordinations are to be taken according to the prudent meaning of the Legislators which bear another sense than the words taken lye In this case suppose the Emperours of the East and West Kings of England France Hungary Hierusalem Cyprus Arragon c. agree together to purge their Kingdoms of Heresies and upon forfeiture the Church should give their Dominions to another that will perform their Compact these Princes being present by their Embassadors at the Councils and what was there done was done by their consent The Albigensian Heresie beginning to be so numerous and even dangerous those Monarches thought themselves in no worse a condition for that decree nor did any Catholick King since complain or protest against this Council for it 3. Note the Decrees of some Councils not received or acknowledged universally by the Catholick Church are not obligatory but that which is principally to be considered is that in the Decree of this Lateran under Innocent the Third it is ordained not Supream Princes but temporales potestates dominos which bear Offices in States and Kingdoms to take Oaths to root out all Hereticks under the penalty of being denounced to be deprived of their Estates c. yet reserving the right of the supream Lord. 4. This pretended Article of Faith hath been disclaimed by a world of unquestionable Catholicks and all allegations confuted by learned Authors of our Nation Doctor Bistop writ a Book purposely against it 5. No proof can be given that it was ever received or executed by any Catholick Kingdom out of Italy The reason is because those decrees were never published by Pope Innocent nor a Copy of them extant either in the body of the Councils or Vatican Library or elsewhere till a certain German three hundred years after said he found them in a Manuscript compiled he knows not by whom 6. By testimony of all Historians at that time Pope Innocent suffered in Reputation having convoked so many Prelates to no purpose 60 Capitula were recited in the Assembly and many penned in a stile as if they had been concluded but nothing at all could plainly be decreed no Conciliary determinations made but one or two viz. about the recovery of the holy Land and subjection of the Greek Church to the Roman for a War began then between them of Pisa and Genua which called the Pope from the Council 7. Be it granted a conciliary decree it is so far from looking like an Article of Faith which saith Bellarmine and Canus may easily be discovered by
honesty It would fill a volume it self to recount all the benefits priviledges honours and advantages this Nation hath received from the Popes and See of Rome See Bishop Smith in his Epist Histor ad regem Jacobum of the Pope's favours to England Hence our first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury Parker in Eliz. lib. antiq Britan. ait hanc insulae nobilitatem atque gloriam Dei providentiae atque beneficentiae c. The nobleness of this Island for being the first of all Provinces of the World that received the Christian Faith and the glory thereof is to be acknowledged to have proceeded from the providence and goodness of God yet the way it self and means by which this nobility and glory was won unto it it was first and always laid open unto us from the See of Rome we have always from that time persevered in the unity of the Roman Faith and our subjection to the Roman Church is most ancient Haec ille Abbot Fecknam in his Oration to the Parliament of the first of Eliz. saith thus Damianus and Fugatianus as Embassadours from the See of Rome did bring into this Realm a thousand four hundred years past the very same Apostolical Religion we are now in possession of For then the Roman Religion was not voted down he would not have dared to have uttered in that time and place but that he could produce good witness and antiquity to his warrant Let not now their Adversaries be so unreasonable as to quote Mariana Suarez or Bellar. or any other private Author that may have enlarged the jurisdiction of Popes to the prejudice of Kings and then lay their particular Opinions to the charge of all For were this a just and fair way of dealing they could with as much ease requite them with Text for Text out of Luther Calvin Knox Buchanan and many more whose Opinions are at least as dangerous to the safety of Monarchy The difference betwixt them being only this whereas the former lodge the deposing power in the Pope only whose person is at a safe and sufficient distance at least from us the latter bring the danger home to the doors of Princes and place it in the people whom they make both judges and parties in the case Secondly Mariana's personal fault and his opinion were condemned by a Provincial Council of the same Society held at Paris 15 16. and that confirmation ratified by Claudius Aquaviva the General of the Order and the Doctors of Sorbon in the same year declared it an ungodly position Thirdly Mariana was not resolute in that opinion neither but handled it problematically Fourthly It was not for deposing of Kings but Tyrants which alters the case In France 1614. a Book written by Suarez against the Oaths in which the deposing power was asserted was by Decree of the Parliament of Paris condemned to be burnt by the publick Executioner as containing scandalous seditious positions c. and Armandus Cotton Front and Symond four chief Jesuits were to take order their General should renew a prohibition to teach like Doctrines and the whole Order after disavowed them Eight Universities viz. Paris Valentia Tholouse Poicteirs Burdeaux Burges Reims and Caen did of their own accord not expecting a command from the Court 1626. brand this Doctrine of Pope's deposing power with titles of impious seditious infamous c. And Fossart of the Society in a publick Act advancing the proposition although it was interpreted to extend only to Tyrants by decree of the whole University of Caen the Proposition and Expositions were censured impious and condemned Fossart imprisoned and sentenced bareheaded to acknowledg the said positions false and contrary to the decrees of Councils c. But to silence all impertinent objections in this nature or in any other matter they declare to the whole world that no private authors but only the Decisions of lawful general Councils have any influence upon their Faith or Doctrin in any point whatsoever Therefore if their adversaries will conclude any thing against them from their own Principles they must do it from their own proper uncontradicted confession or from the Decrees of General Councils from which they only take the Rule of their Faith The Project of the Gunpowder Treason undertaken only by a few male-contents in justice might rather be burned in oblivion with the offenders than objected perpetually to innocent men who abhor the fact and were publickly acquitted thereof by the King himself in the Parliament following See the Kings Speeches That the Catholick Body had no hand in this Treason appears by the quality of the actors and number of them being but four Gentlemen The Catholick Noblemen then were the most considerable of the Nation their first Marquess viz. Winchester The first Earl viz. Arundel Their first Vicount viz. Mountague Their first Baron viz. Abergaveny c. Now none of these or any chief of the party had any intrigue in the design though all imaginable industry was used by the Commons Lords and Privy Council and by Cecil their plotting enemy to bring them in Therefore to call this an universal Popish plot is in it self a contradiction because no plot can be looked on as geneneral when no number of the chiefest part are intrigued in the design If then some four necessitous or loose persons have been of the Gun-powder Treason to infer thence all other of the same profession are of the same stamp Do not all rational men see this inference is irrational That it may be retorted against any other profession in England in other things Is it not unreasonable and uncharitable to infer from thence an imputation upon all others Can any one in his right senses accuse the whole Church of England for incestuous or drunkards because some of them have been guilty of those crimes Stow Chron. p. 882. noteth by many factious people it was given out this Treason was attempted by consent of the King of Spain French King and Archduke Catesby at his Death said the plot and practice of this Treason was only his and that others were but his assistants saith Stow. And the Council perceived it was practiced by some discontented Papist Staw 879. many untruths were divulged hoping to have drawn into their rebellion those of their Religion and other malecontents In all their examinations none else were discovered though they revealed several secret particulars as is seen in their printed confessions they would not have spared others seeing they accused their Confessour Garnet saith Stow Provincial of the Jesuits for concealing it in confession only was executed Acknowledged to God his offence was heartily sorry asked God and the King forgiveness and beseeched God to bless the King and his issue exhorted all Catholicks not to attempt any Rebellion or Treason c. for all such courses said he are utterly against Catholick Faith and Religion Vide Stow. To find out the depth of the plot they left no stone unrolled to shew how nice they
killed by the Army These cruelties were ordinary not only neer Dublin but in all other parts of the Kingdome where the Parliamentarians were As may be read in divers Remonstrances and Relations published in the beginning of the late troubles Massacre in France so much objected also against Catholicks in general The world knows was a Cabinet Plot condemned by Catholick Writers there and in other Countries Although it was evident in matter of fact their powerful Rebellion drew them into that Machinated destruction and the King was moved to it by Interest of State and security to himself not for Religion They fought many Battels with their Prince fortified Towns against him And Coligni their great Commander known to be a grand Rebell They brought forreign Forces into France as Rutyers from Germany and English from us They delivered Havra de grace to Queen Elizabeth Nay they began first to murther Catholicks in Paris and also Coligni and Beza got Poltrot to murther the Duke of Guise as Davila l. 3. Hist who is thought by Protestants an authentical and impartial Author And Poltrot confessed so at his death for the Fact so Davila Moreover there were other motives that caused the King and Councils dipleasure against these rebellious People For Baxter in his Cure of Church-Divisions p. 365. who is known to be no friend to Catholicks confesseth in these words Historians tells us saith he that when King Francis of France had forbid the reproaching of Papists way of worship and silenced the Ministers for not obeying him Many of of hot-brain'd people took up the way of provoking them by scornful Pictures and Libels hanging up and down in Streets such ridiculous and reproachful Rhimes and Images but this which was none of the way of God began that persecution by provoking the King which cost many thousand lives before it ended and the Protestant Synod at Rochel refused the Council of du Plessis du Moulin and many others was stirred up by the Peoples zeal and ended in the blood of a thousand and ruin and power of the Protestants in France See Baxter How false therefore and malitious it was to affirm that a Jubilee was kept for this Massacre let the world be witness When even Thuanus a malitious and partial Writer as ever undertook History as Doctor Heylin confesseth writ in spleen and Faction against Popes first belched out this notorious Fable yet he himself confesseth p. 1069. The Jubilee was to thank God for the victory at Lepanto for the Election of a Catholick King of Poland c. Another Calumny and not long since spread abroad by many ignorant and illiterate people and imprudently reassumed by Doctor Stilling Tillot c. that many Quakers and Tub-Preachers among the Sectaries were disguised Jesuits Friars c. or had their Fanatick principles from them This weak childish if not malignant slander is refuted and known to be a manifest untruth by all understanding men Since such wicked dissimulation is clearly against the principles of their Religion damnable in it self and by no power on earth upon whatsoever pretence dispensable Secondly It is known false by the Sectaries themselves who are always well acquainted with their Preachers Education former Profession Trade Family c. Thirdly Those disguised Preachers after so many years could never be detected by themselves or any others or brought to trial 'T is yet uncertain whether this charge doth proceed from impotent malice or desperate impudence This Imposture is now so transparent that the meanest capacity now begins to see through it and discover the Legerdemain therein I ask was there ever any such thing duly proved was there ever any such Priest or Jesuit taken under such disguise let any man of honour or conscience mark the proceedings of these men I mean the Authors and spreaders of such reports and stories They are challenged to make discovery to prosecute the business The Papists disclaim the imputation as a most injurious slander suggested against them meerly by the malice of their enemies Insomuch that I dare confidently assure my self that if an Oath were tendered to all the Papists in the Nation they would willingly swear that neither they themselves nor ever any they knew did ever use any such practices or ever thought them lawful What man in his right senses can believe such gross calumnies so groundless so full of contradictions insipid accusations which seem to cheak reason If these and the like can be thought to deserve credit ere it be long no mans innocence will be able to protect him against suspition and slander But who is acquainted with antiquity will find their accusers in such points to imitate the old Heathens who imputed the unluckâ— mischievous accidents that happen'd amongst themselves to the primitive Christians We have seen of late to the regret of all moderate and judicious men how some unquiet and uncharitable Spirits by false insinuations have abused the Nation into most antichristian thoughts suspitions and jealousies of the greatest most prudent and peaceable Society of Christianity Never did Jacob Behmen Stifeler or any of their Fraternity write more malitious self-contradictions or that had more inference of confusion and disorder then a late calumniating Polypragâ—us What candour morality or justice or charity can there be in a person for accusing the whole Catholick Church Western and Eastern for practice of Idollatry which must unchurch this great Body and divorce this Adultress from Christ it being a fundamental error Can any think it agreeable to the gratious nature design and office of Christ to cast of and condemn for so many ages the visible Body of Christianity have not the Egyptians Aethiopians Syrians Armenians Abyssines and Greeks almost all the same manner of worship in those things we so much censure the Roman Is it not a gross injustice that most mens Christianity and Church-Rites should be judged null upon the censures and rumours of suspitious men without any just proof or trial to traduce and defame almost all the whole world to judge the generality of Christians visible members of the Devil doth not this â—acerate and defame all Religion and make all Christian Churches lubricous and uncertain shadows that any such man that is unconscionable enough to say they are profane idolatrous c. may unchurch at his pleasure and what you say of others another may say of you and as justly exspect to be beleived You have great errors your selves ex concessis should you be made odious for them to hearers you must all put up your pipes and find your artifice would first silence your selves What if any should say of you that you are antichristian seditious bloody-minded superstitious c. would you not think they should every one personally appear before the accused and proof brought against them and that they should speak for themselves before they are condemned Seeing in this age men censure and persecute most where they are acquainted least Can such Champions hope
Secondly When it is hardly restrained it sheweth the World and the Flesh are too much it friends Thirdly When it burneth where lust pride and malice burn Fourthly When it carrieth you from those holy rules prescribed and pretendeth to come from a spirit which will not be tried but by Scripture It s a suspicious sign when it is contrary to the judgment experience and zeal of the generality of most well experienced sober godly Christians And so contrary to the ordinary working of Gods Spirit in others who are as good as you for this zeal cometh not from heaven For Gods Spirit is not contrary to it self But the true Catholick genuine Christian zeal appeareth in its own likeness in wisdome love humility meekness and and sobriety Provoketh hearers to love and good works Is not contentious reproachful injurious loveth virtue in a heathen Is kindled by humble meditations of Christs example to study and imitate him and his Saints in forbearance patience forgiving others and doing good Promoting Christian Religion with sincere and plain dealing winning men by Morality justice and charity and offending them by no unnecessary thing by no imputed calumnies sticking closer to justice and peace than to any party Owneth virtue and goodness that is in all parties and opinions Which will be a means to remove the animosities we are so apt to receive against dissenters and lessen our differences and disagreements The true means of gaining souls to God is the Gospellary way of meekness perswasion c. Christ and his Apostles appeared without words of mans wisdome assistance of Kings or Princes without fines imprisonments oaths c. By his admirable mildness he condemned all these politick Religions by using cruelty to support them If it had been otherwise I would have told you John 14 if the way of planting or preserving my faith had been by imposing penalties by cruel Oaths or watering it with the blood of Refusers I would have told you The son of man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them To wind up all in few words of what is said in this Book I desire no prudent man to give any credit further than his experience shall find true after diligent search made as concerns every one before he pass sentence If this be not enough to disabuse your credulity of criminations imputed without proof or probability let all impartial men judge whether you have not shaked hands with all morality For who can pretend any charity that will harbour detected calumnies or who can love truth that will not acknowledge it when represented The reasons above given I doubt not which would serve to clear the Catholicks from such aspersions before any just or reasonable Judg Pagan or Mahometan How much more ought they to serve among Christians who profess not only truth but charity which is the life of Religion and bond of perfection Hence saith the great Siracides blame no man before thou hast enquired the matter understand first and then reform righteously CONCLUSION IN Conclusion now of this Apologetick Discourse it will not be improper once again to mind you of the necessity we have to Christian love Seing the neglect of it and a persecuting hurtful spirit mistaken for zeal hath been and is the issue and consequence of all the immoderation feuds and antipathies we have one against another It is then the duty of every serious Christian to lay aside all vain jealousies idle suspitions rude severities and much more forged calumnies against any perswasion whatsoever The Authors and Meditators of such aspersions though they may pretend much Conscience and Religion can have none For S. James assures us that whosoever would seem religious and tempers not his tongue that mans religion is vain And in Leviticus 19. 15. It s commanded thou shalt not calumniate thy neighbour nor oppress him by violence It s against a divine precept to bear false witness or detect our brother it s against the lustre of Christian Religion it gives scandal abroad to the very Heathens it s against the peace and settlement of the Nation at home which must be conserved by mutual concord and unity of affection No moderate man that hath left any room in his breast for truth or charity in his heart can abet such fierce censorious unchristian tempers which have appeared of late which have made and still keep open our divisions and distances if the same sins are continued without repentance and if after such warning as the whole world ever scarce had the like we remain still self-conceited and arrogantly ignorant How heynous is our crime and how dreadful is the prognostick of our greater ruin and how guilty are those Ministers of the blood of Souls who tell not men of this sin and danger When I consider Christs precept of mutual love and the Apostle abridging it the whole duty of a Christian I cannot sufficiently wonder to see Christians in this present age so furiously to persecute and hate one another only on the account of Religion If we reflect upon the difficulties that encounter us in the way of truth and withall consider the shortness of our sight for here we see but in part and understand but in part There will appear more reason to endeavour the mutual assistâ—nâ—e and support than malitious destruction and ruin of one another To hate and vilifie others for their opinions is repugnant to Scripture which commands us to love our brother and not persecute him To despise our brother for his innocent mistakes or to constrain him to profess more than he is convinced of proceeds from a great tyranny and presumption I searched Evangelical records and there was nothing but mildness and soft doctrine I enquired into the breathings of the Spirit and they were all pacificatory I wondred from what Scripture-encouragement these men deducted their practices At last I was forced to conclude they were only pretended Chaplains to the Prince of peace And those Teachers that should have been saving lights were degenerated into firebrands Different Opinions in Religion might consist well enough with peace and publick safety would men be perswaded to be modest to keep them to themselves and not to fancy their conceits necessary to the rest of mankind to vex their neighbours provoke their rulers dissettle the government and disturb the peace for the propagation of them Unity and affection might be preserved amidst diversity of opinions if we do but consider that errors are infirmities of the understanding and no man is willing to be deceived So are not objects of our hatred but our pity We hate no man for being blind poor lame c. ignorance and infirmity require our compassion and our charity but nothing can justifie our rage and malice If we were infallible and all our opinions were certainties and demonstrations we might then have more pretence for our stifness rigidness and severities But to confess the infirmities of our own faith and understanding and
and dust as every one hath received a several external figure of Face and every one a diverse internal form of mind every one a Cogitation and fancy distant from whence it cometh that there is so great diversity of Opinions so strange a contrariety of inclinations so different affections and passions in mortal men that no ordinary means is forcible enough to perswade them to any thing to which their private Spirits or imaginations are not inclined Hence so many Scripture interpretations so many quarrels and divisions in Religion even to Massacres Evils unknown to the very Heathens Hence we have often seen good by false representations may pass for abominable in the sight of sober men Hence the inconsiderate multitude prejudiced by education passion interest or false Teachers representing the Roman Church to them as a Monster composed of all sort of abomination having their Ears perpetually beaten with seven Hills Antichrist Idolatry Superstition by many unchristian aspersions false pretences by private forgeries and publick impressions wounding most Christian and innocent men How can they otherwise but hate them they know no better and even suck from their first Milk such an ill Opinion or odium of them as if they were Turks or Jews and had principles destructive to common Society Peace and Concord What a Wonder and what a Lamentation is it that those men who cry out so much for forbearance to Magistrates should themselves be so rigid and can less forbear dissenters or see the same sin in themselves So justifie all their Cruelties and think persecution to be their Duty Whence is persecution but from thinking ill of others abhorring and not loving them condemning them without hearing bearing them down not with sincere and plain dealing becoming Christians with inveterate malice filling Books with trivial Stories and Fables pickt up out of Authors without discretion make it their business to seek calumnies and reproaches in the Sepulchres and Common-shores of Schismaticks with untrue reporting of Doctrins false and unjust Criminations and other indirect wayes unseemly and unworthy the Cause of Truth to the dishonour of God and disparagement of Christian Religion Reading a Treatise lately Printed against Toleration by an university Schollar Had this Dilemma if Liberty or Toleration may be granted either an universal Toleration or particular not an universal for then saith he Papists may be tolerated which is against all As if all the Monsters of Aegypt may be admitted so the Papists be excluded Yet we must know if there had been no Papists in the World no other Sect among us had ever heard of Christianity If we knew all the Evils may ensue we should then be forced to Check the People from railing and let them feel our anger who would deceive us with Lies Nor can we look on those men as either of wit or honesty who are ever promoting the harassing of a faithful party needlesly to disoblige their fellow Subjects and Sufferers Wherefore to undeceive the so long abused and deluded multitude I will endeavour in the ensuing discourse to wipe of the Paint and Fucus that so things may appear in their true complexion unadulterated with the slights and subtilties of deluders I have chosen rather to expose these lines to Censure than to forbear to speak or be silent in the Cause and Defence of the Innocent Silui a bonis saith the Prophet dolor meus renovatus est in the following lines shall be shewed that the Law of God Christian Religion nature reason and our own principles doth oblige us to more charitable censures of the Roman Religion And that they are as highly if not more entitled to the true Christian Liberty of Conscience than any other Sect or Religion whatsoever all objections to the contrary cleared and evinced to any rational or impartial Reader If it remains as a Probatum est that no Christian ought to be compelled in matters of Faith or Religion provided it broacheth forth no new Sects or Schisms or that it be not in Case of Scandal or open blasphemy And if the Fundamental Laws and Government were established as a Defence and Protection to all sober peaceable Christians that immunity and freedom of Conscience ought to be indulged to Dissenters in this sense it being their due right and not only granted in policy to some persons or to oblige a party or to be enjoyed by the strongest and subtilest only to curb and subiect the rest as is shewed before there can be no ground able to convince any rational man why Papists should be excluded this priviledge unless we infringe the Laws and Government by not distributing equal and impartial justice nay the truth of this assertion is more evident and convincing for them then any Primo It is against reason and all examples of antiquity for men to be punished for adhering to the Religion of their Fore-fathers Now the Roman-Catholick Religion was the first Christian Religion planted in our native Country from whom we had and have our very Christianity the first universally spread and preached by Government permitted and encouraged by Counsels and Parliaments confirmed and approved a thousand years there continued even by our deceased kindred and parents not long since professed by our Universities established and defended against all Adversaries From whence we derive even the Scripture â—t self our ordinations most of our material Churches Colledges Inns of Court Hospitals c. and shall Charity ever be so buried in Oblivion in England that the Posterity of those from whom we must confess to have received these and other great advantages never be remembred and used with equity and common Justice They are linked in Religion to all Catholick Princes and Countries about us who will be more loving Neighbours if they see their Brethren find favour from us To persecute this Religion is to War against our Progenitors It is this Church in which so many Martyrs have dyed so many Doctors have taught and preached so many Virgins have lived in flesh like Angels so many Saints wrought wonders and miracles so many Councils called so many Ecclesiastical Laws enacted so many Nations converted so many Kings and Emperors lived and died and hope to be saved against which so many persecutors Machiavels and Tyrants in vain have used torments and contrived all imaginable force wicked policy or cruelty could invent This Faith hath the best evidence as taught and instituted by Christ his Apostles and Successors in an uninterrupted series and delivery down to us Set before your eyes those glorious Champions of Christs Church Constantines Theodos Pepines Charles all sirnamed Great more Glorious for Victories over Heresies and Idolatries than for conquests of Countries more renowned for propagating Catholick Religion than enlarging their Dominions See the Catologue of noble Kings of England Lucius Ethelbert Egbert Oswald Oswine Alfred Edgar before the conquest William the Conqueror and so many Henries Edwards Richards after the Conquest mighty of force rich of