birth and that she had a Revelation that if she dipt her self in such a Well whilst a Priest said Mass by the place she should be recovered The Plot thus laid and accordingly executed she comes halting to the Well but returns out of it perfectly sound which was a miracle to the people and got the contriver a great Sum of mony and confirmed many in their Superstition after some time the woman had some remorse of conscience and came to the Author of this Relation o confession in order to absolution which he would not grant till an accompt of the cheat should be given to the Congregation which she did accordingly Yet for matter of Fact against which there 's no arguing they will tell you Mat. Paris 880 Lew. 9. both out of History and by daily experience too that many have been recovered out of desperate sicknesses by having a piece of the Holy Cross or some other * But of all reliques the most admirable is the Hem of the Carpenter Joseph inclosed in a Set of boxes to be seen at Nints in Britany the first a Wainscot within that a Silver box within that a golden or guilt box within that a Chrystal box conteining a wooden plain one visible through the Chrystal which conteins the Holy Hem and reason enough for so many boxes for if it should get loose after so many hundred of years confinement it would be as boistrous as the Liquor so fam'd by a Poet of our own when It bounces foams and froths and flitters As it were troubled with the Squitters Virg. Travesty l. 1. Relique applyed to them and therefore those things are not to be derided In answer I will give you the reply of Diagoras of Samothrace to a friend weakly though truly arguing for providence from the pictures of a great many persons hung up in a certain Temple that had by prayers escaped Ship-wrack * Pet. Gaâ—â— in Diog. Laer. an imad p. 739. Ita fuit illi enim nunquam picti sunt qui naufragium fecerunt in marique perierunt Very likely for there are no pictures for them who have suffred Shipwrack and are lost in the Sea So they generally apply to all sick persons some relique or other and if any live 't is forsooth by the merit and intercession of some Saint or other but if the party dye then no story of the Application Paralel to this the Portugals have a custom after praying to St. Anthony to give them a good wind to attempt or bind a little Image of the Saints but commonly upon the Pilot's intercession who passes his word for the Saint telling them he is so honest he will do it without being bound Travels of Ped della valle into the E. Indies p. 550. they forbear A barbarous superstition says my Author but yet such as sometimes through the Faith and simplicity of those that practise it uses to be heard a very worthy observation and fit for Pope Vrban viii his Chamberlain of honor ibid. pag. 218. As the Heathens had their particular Gods for particular things as Cuna for Cradles Hebe for Youth Morpheus for Sleep c. so they with an equal reason as well as devotion have their Saints for particulars as to offices persons diseases callings Countrys and brute Animals too as St. Patrick for Ireland St. Luke for Painters Sr. Hubert for hunters St. Gertrude for Rat-catchers St. Clare for sore Eyes St. Roch for Coblers St. Iue for Lawyers St. Gallus for Geese derogating thereby from the worth and honor of those blessed Saints as if they could not and that implys weakness or as if they would not and that implies spight benignly concern themselves in the general affairs of mankind One especial Argument they have for the truth of their Religion especially against us the many severities in order to mortification that many of their orders impose upon themselves but if they would consider that herein they are quite out-done by the Chinese and other Eastern Idolaters and that Baals Priests had no great applause from the Prophet for the like they would not much press that point Lucian tells us of strict severities that the Priests of Hieropolis a Town in Syria were guelded Now if there was so sharp a ceremony to their admittance into England It would keep this Land as safe from them especially the Jesuits as the flaming Sword did Eden from our Ancestors Thus have I hinted the most considerable Doctrines of that Church for Purgatory Prayers for the dead Indulgencies or Pardons for forty thousand years to come sometimes are but as indeed many of the rest the wanton excrescencies of Infallibility which was not in Pope Alex. vi when he was poysoned by mistaking the cup of Wine that he and his hopeful Son Caesar Borgia had prepared to poyson Cardinal Carnete with I will now superadd a little of their Principles of morality which are such as cannot be grateful to Society for the Jesuits have sound out a way by directing the intention to sanctify the most Flagitious act imaginable I will not excuse their other orders neither for a Franciscan lately converted declares thus F. Egan I thought it a meritorious action to murder either Prince or Protestant Subject provided I was commissioned so to do by the Pope And this cannot be concluded to be a single opinion when one considers the Assasinations of the two Henrys of France though Papists the many attempts upon Queen Elizabeth the Gun-powder Treason and the late Rebellion in Ireland none of which was ever yet by any Publique instrument of that Church disavow'd Now comparing all what has been sayd together it will be easy to determin what Religion makes most for a peaceable conversation and that I am sure is the true Interest both of Prince and People Now considering what hath been discourst on you will conclude I suppose that penal Laws about Religion will be given in Charg which some kind natur'd man may perhaps say were made only in terrorem and therefore not to be strictly executed but as that is but a weak Argument to defend those Felonies that are made so by Statute so ought it not to be of more force here for the Magistracy is rationably in point of prudence though there was no other obligation bound to do it For the Congregations or troupes of Dissenters filling every day by reason of the Itching ears of the Populace especially the Independants may possibly encourage their Ledders by their number that being the ordinary way to take measures of strength by to attempt upon the Government which we have reason to think not impossible when the attempt of Venner and his complices with that of the Anabaptists a tribe of the Independents upon Germany is considered and all Casuists do agree it is as lawful to levy war against this King as it was against his Father and though something may be pleadded for those Sects if any such be amongst us that like the * Bramans or Banians amongst the East Indians hold it sin to destroy any creature though of never so mischievous a kind and strictly practise it even in their diet yet nothing can be said for such who like the Mahometan Dervices hold it an acceptable service to God if not meritorious to destroy any person of an erroneous perswasion as they count all who are not of their Judgment And as at the Council of Clermont about the holy War Holy W. c. 8. l. 1. the whole assembly said God willeth it so to encourage you further in your presentments the Bench says the King willeth it which is sufficiently made out when you consider the Law for as there is no ordinary way of knowing Gods Will but by the Scriptures So the most proper way of knowing the Kings will especially at this Distance is by his Laws from whence is that Principle in Law that the King can do no wrong because he is still presumed to act the Law which is the only true Standard of wrong and right 'T is true it was a maxime amongst the Civilians Ulpian when the Government was arbitrary Quicquid placuit Regi legis habet vigorem Whatsoever pleases the King has the force and vigor of a Law But such is the happy constitution of our Government his Majesties Grace concurring that it may pass for a Maxime in England Quicquid est lex Placet Regi whatsoever is Law pleaseth the King which his Majesty hath sufficiently evidenced by not attempting in the least upon either Religion or property The Laws being the King of Englands Edicts by which he reigns more in the hearts of his then others over the fortunes of their Subjects You are therefore to present Recusants of all sorts because disobedient to the Laws under which we enjoy more happiness than any Nation whatsoever FINIS
THE RELIGION Established by Law asserted to conduce most to the true Interest of Prince and Subject As it was delivered in a Charge at the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace held at the Borough of Newark for the County of Nottingham by adjournment for taking the Oaths of Supremacy c. July 21th 1673. According to the late Act of Parliament By Peniston Whalley Esq I. Esdr 3.12 Truth overcometh all things LONDON Printed for John Place at Furnivals-Inne-Gate in Holbourn and Thomas Bassett at the George near Cliffords-Inn in Fleet-street 1674. TO THE READER I Did not intend to have given thee the trouble of an Epistle very well knowing that men are not to be perswaded by Argument to like any thing of this nature that they have an aversion from But that on Sunday Aug. 24. 1673. a day as famous in our English Kalender as the French A Quaker came to discourse with me There were present at the Discourse the chief Constable of the Hundred the Parson of the Town an eminent Physitian besides others about executing the penal Laws wherein he had a five shillings concern I askt him the reason of his opinion knowing that he had been a rational Country-man before he fell into those fopperies He replyed That he had a call from above and the words were Obey the Lord and from that hour he turn'd Quaker and I have reason to believe with as much resolution as any man of any perswasion in the world Now I do not see but it s as good an authority as St. Benets single Testimony of seeing his Sister Scholasticas soul go to Heaven Nay it is as good an Authority and as argumentative as the Independents unintelligible notions about Conversion Sanctification and Grace for they arise but from a self-satisfaction within them as they say which is no more to be urged to a stranger then my Quakers voice nor is this the single saying of this Quaker but if it be inquired you will have the like account from most of them and therefore for ought an indifferent person can judg as good or better authority witnesses Viva Voce being alwaies of more credit then Here-say evidence then the many Revelations about the immaculate conception now made an Article of Faith Cited by Stil or Bell armin's vision to prove auricular confession or Urban the 4th instituting of the Feast of Corpus Christi in confirmation of Transubstantiation upon the Revelation of a certain woman or old Symon Stockes Revelation from the Blessed Virgin for the habit of the Carmelites or as John 19th instituting the Feast of all Souls 1004 upon the dream of the Abbot Odilo Ex Becanth in prol 4 Lib. Sect. who dreamt that he heard the Devils roar for the Souls taken from them by Masses and Dirges By this thou mayst easily see that most of the many differences betwixt Us and the Romanists with the Independents and their Adherents are resolved into Revelations and Fancies and so of no more Authority to indifferent persons than the Enthusiasms of the Quakers But the Church of Rome can by no means fall justly under such a censure considering she is as we say a true Church and acknowledged by all to be ancient and how all along she has been like Syon a City that is at unity in it self but that unity will not be much admired when this short Ecclesiastical History of twenty years commencing 1030 is considered In the Church sate Benet the ninth twelve years Benet is deposed and Silvester the third comes in by Symony and is expelled by Benet and he by the people Ros Chron. he resigneth to Gregory the sixth so now three Popes in Rome all deposed at Sutrium and Clement the second chosen who flyes into Germany and is poysoned Benet again eight months And is not here a blessed harmony for fifteen years Then Leo the ninth succeeds five years but least I should enlarge my volume to the rate of a Play and so undo the Stationer I will only tell thee that I gave it in Charge because I thought it my duty and Printed it because it may from my hands be more indifferently lookt on as one known to have no worldly Advantage by the Church then from a known or suspected Divine who will by prejudiced men which are now too many be looked upon as partial and so may have a better effect then ordinary for though the world generally be Sermon-proof yet possibly it may not be Charge-proof and that encouraged me to make this venture Yet because of a thing like a text which like one of your old fashioned Sermons chimes in every Paragraph some to discredit it will according to their scoffing way call it a Preachment well be it so it was neither preached in a Church nor according to the Liturgy and so consequently a Conventicle a name amongst many so sacred that it apologizes like Corban amongst the Jews for omitting the duties of the fifth commandement and so then there is no great fear of well coming of but let all conventicles take Example a thing more revered now than Precepts and assert the Laws and Religion established as I have done and it s very probable they may get a bill of comprehension and in the mean time his Majesties Justices I believe will be unwilling to disturb them Gentlemen THis being a time that the true Sons of our Church might devoutly wish for but could not Morally few months ago hope so soon to have seen wherein as by a Touch-stone gold is distinguished from baser mettals the true Protestant Religion from Fanaticism and Popery it may not be improper to say something to you by way of Preamble of Religion and the rather because you know there are so many professions all pretending to an Equal and Apostolical Right Now to enable you the better to distinguish I lay this down for a just and true measure of it That Religion is the best and safest that most magnifies God and likewise most advances a peaceable Christian conversation amongst men I shall not say much of the former at present considering that all professions equally pretend to it but make the main subject of my discourse concerning the latter Our blessed Lord and Saviour left this for a standing rule to his Church Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you even so do to them By the strict following of which so much advancing a Peaceable Conversation amongst men she triumph't o're the Roman world in less than three hundred years notwithstanding the opposition of all her Legions The Professours of Christianity amongst us may be reduced to five heads Quaker Independent under which may be comprehended all the Rabble of Sects as Familists Anabaptists Fifth Monarchy men c. for Independency is like a Mathematical line divisibilis in semper divisibilia Presbyterian Church of England and Papist Now when I have set forth the Principles and Practices of all severally it will not
should fall under their lash The Story lies thus which for the Novelty I have translated Amongst all the Reports that had been raised in the world concerning the said Emperour Vite Don Carlo viz. Charles the fifth's retreat the strangest was that the continual commerce he had with the German Protestants inclined him to their opinions and that he had retired himself only that he might have liberty to end his days in the exercises of piety conformable to his secret dispositions it was said he could not forgive himself the ill usage which so many brave Princes of that party which the chance of war had put into his power had received from him their Vertue which in their greatest unhappiness shamed his fortune had insensibly rais'd in his soul some sort of esteem for their opinions he durst no longer condemn a Religion to which so great persons thought it their duty to sacrifice all that mankind holds most pretious this esteem appeared by the choice that he made of persons much suspected of Heresie for his spiritual conduct C.T. p. 417. call'd his confessions as Dr. Ca Calla his preacher the Arch-Bishop of Toledo and above all Constantius Ponce Bishop of Drosse his Director It hath been since known that in the Cell in which he died at St Just was filled of all sides with writings wrote by his own hand upon Justification and Grace which were not much different from the opinion of the Novellists but nothing so much confirmed this Report as his Will there were no pious Legacies nor foundations for prayers as made it so different from those of the zealous Catholicks that the Inquisition of Spain thought they had reason to be offended at it they durst not for all that break out before the Kings arrival but that Prince having signalized his first coming into the Country by the death of all Abettors of the new opinion the Inquisition becoming bolder by his Example first attacht the Arch-Bishop of Toledo then the Emperors Preacher and at last Constant Ponce the King suffering them all to be imprisoned the people lookt upon his patience as the excess of his zeal for the true Religion but all the rest of Europe saw with horror the Confessor of Charles the fifth the Emperor in whose arms the Prince had deceased and who had as it were received that great Soul into his bosome delivered by the hands of his own Son to the most cruel and shameful of all punishments In fine the Inquisitors in the process having accused the said persons to have had their hands in the Emperors Will they had the boldness to condemn them with it to the fire The King awakned at this Sentence as with a Clap of Thunder at first the envy that he bore to the glory of his Father made him take pleasure in seeing his memory exposed to this affront but having more maturely considered the consequences of the attempt he by the safest and securest ways that he could choose hindred the effects of it that so he might save the honour of the Holy Office and make no breach in the Authority of the Tribunal in short the Dr. Ca Calla was burnt alive and with him the Effigies of Constant Ponce dead some days before in Prison the King was constrained to suffer the execution that so he might oblige the Holy Office to consent that the Arch Bishop of Toledo * C. Tr. ibid. He had notwithstanding his profits seased on for life so it s humbly conceived that the vast revenues of that See were the best mediatours for that unfortunate Prelate might appeal to Rome and that there might be no more speech about the Emperors last Will Testament But they left not there for taking advantage of the credulousness of that Priest-Peckt Prince Philip the second they never left imposing upon him that Don Carlo his son was dangerous to his Estate and intimated too much familiarity with his Mother in Law so that at length the Prince though heir apparent to the Crown for shewing too indiscreet an indignation at that affront to his Grandfathers memory and some other demonstrations of his ill sentiments of their tyranny was given up to them who did him only the favour to give him the choice of his death the mischief ended not there neither for the jealous Prince in a manner commanded his Queen though great with Child to be poysoned to expiate the supposed Crime * How far that Office had to do in it I 'le not determine but it s no great breach of charity to think that those persons who would not spare the Heir apparent of his Catholique Majesty would not be very scrupulous in attempting upon Heretical Princes especially when the Inquisition preferred that barbarous and unnatural murder of Don Carlo before the obedience of Abraham and in a Blasphemous Zeal compared the King all with one voice to the Eternal Father who had not spared his own Son for the salvation of mankind now what sins will not they pass by for the advance of the Papal authority when so black a crime has got such an extravagant encomium There was a design upon the Queen of Navarre and her son after ward Henry the fourth of France to seize them when they lived at Pan by the villany of one Captain Dominick a Bernois but by the kindness of the Queen before mention'd the generosity of Don Carlo concurring which might be one thing that cost her her life it was discover'd but what they failed in at that time their Factors afterwards brought to pass upon one with a knife and upon the other with poyson by this you may see what they would be at none must make a Will except they have a share or else his memory must be exposed to contempt and scorn for had the Emperor given according to his quality a good sum of money for foundations for prayers as my Author terms it the Will nor any thing else had been questioned and the Dr. had escaped Spitchcocking and though the Inquisition is a stranger in most of the Popish Countries yet this abates but little of the force of my argument for who knows not that it is none of the Popes fault When †C.T. 405.416 De seres in vita H. 3. Paul the fourth said that it was the principal secret and mystery of the Papacy and at his last gasp recommended it to the Cardinals exhorting them to establish it where ever they could and his Successors have always been ready to shew their good will to it witness the endeavours to introduce it into France by vertue of the Holy League under the ministration of that bloody and perfidious Prince the Duke of Guise and afterwards of his Brother the Duke de Main How many horrid murders were perpetrated in order to it but above all the murder of Henry the third by a Jacobin Monk at St. Cloud is most admirable for in the same room at St.