A MISSIVE TO His Majesty of Great Britain KING JAMES Written divers yeers since By Doctor CARIER Conteining the Motives of his Conversion to Catholike Religion VVith a notable fore-sight of the present distempers both in the Church and State of His Majesties Dominions And his Advice for the prevention thereof Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum dico ego opera mea Regi Psal 44. First printed at LIEGE and novv re-printed at PARIS VVith some Marginall Notes And a previous Discourse to the like purpose M. DC XLIX To the Reader of what Reformation soever in matters of Religion LIghting casually of late on the ensuing Letter written above thirty yeares ago by one of the most learned of his time among English Divines Doctor Carier Chaplain to King James and sent to His Majesty by him as a justification of his then deserting the Protestant Cause and conversion to the Catholike Church as a submissive testimony of his loyalty to his Soveraigne and as a faithfull Servants advice to his royall Master for his future safety both in this and the world to come I could not but sigh with a groaning Utinam that the King had entertained his suggestion with a more yeelding regard Had he been so happy I dare boldly pronounce the temporall State of his left Kingdome to say nothing of the other world and posterity had not been so deplorable as now with mournfull countenances we are forced to behold it Dr. Carier being a man born and bred from his infancy in the Protestant Profession orderly promoted to his academicall degree and above others indeared to his Prince for his greater proficiency in the literature and principles of the English Church .i. in the grounds of Luther or Calvin or both with others of the late Reformers of the old Christian world fore-saw to what tragicall conclusions their premises did dispose and what Cockatrices would be conuaturally hatch'd out of their eggs when time served to sit long upon them he foresaw they would certainely prove destructive to Church and State where ever they found good acceptance Nor can I say the Doctor was a Prophet by that fore-sight more then he who seeing the heavens over-cast with clouds prognosticates a tempest or he who seeing Gunpowder enough laid under the corner stones of a building and the match fired fore-tells a quick subversion of that Fabrick A man becomes not a Prophet by such a prediction but contrarily he is to be esteemed short-sighted and of little consideration that sees not those necessary effects if he sees the cause Take first for example sake those Doctrines of your first Generall in the late Reformation Luther in his Comments upon S. Paul to the Galat. in his bookes de libertate Christiana and de seculari potestate That Christians are not tied to the observance of the Decalogue but freed by faith from all Laws That among Christians there must be no Superiority That there is no hope of salvation or safety as long as the Common-wealth is governed by humane or civill Lawes That God is to be prayed unto that Magistrates be not obeyed by their Subjects These Doctrines are impugned and execrated by all Catholikes as their Books do every where testifie but take them I say and digest them once for truths and then tell me what sequeles will naturally follow or rather what will not follow tell me if you can to what end Ecclesiasticall or Civill Lawes are enacted what obedience can Princes or Magistrates of either sort expect from those they count their Subjects who scoure in his owne possessions what curb for vice To those points of reforming Doctrine add his scornfull sawcy censure of temporall Princes in the cited book de Seculari Potest Scire debetis quod ab initio Mundi rara admodum avis est princeps prudens ad huc multò rarior Princeps probus sunt communiter maximè fatui ac pessimi nebulones super terram sunt Lictores Carnifices Dei It is a thing that all ought to take notice of that from the beginning of the world a prudent Prince hath been a very rare bird and much rarer a Prince morally honest they are most commonly the veriest fools and greatest knaves on earth they are the Catchpoles and Hangmen of God Whether this proceeding as Doctrine from the mouth and pen of one reputed a reforming Saint be not apt to breed disrespect of Princes in their Subjects and to stir these to disobedience contempt and rebellion against them I appeale to others judgement Adde again his spirited incouragements against Bishops in his Bulla contra ordinem Ecclesiasticum Quicunque opem ferunt saith he corpus bona famam in hoc impendunt ut Episcopatus Devastentur c. And again Evangelium quocunque venit oportet ut tumultuetur nisi id faciat non est verum Whosoever afford their assistance and imploy their strength goods and credit to wast and destroy Bishopricks and to root out Episcopall Government they are the beloved children of God and true Christians obedient to God and resisting the Ordinances of the Devill and on the contrary side whosoever maintaine E-Episcopall Government and obey it they are the Ministers of Satan wheresoever the Gospell comes it must breed tumults unlesse it do so it is a signe it is not the right or true More might be added out of his booke Contra Regem Angliae of his insulting foule language against Princes Church and Bishops but what I have already produced is sufficient to demonstrate that one conversant in his Schoole must quickly discover him altogether destructive of all order in Church and State But before I go any further I cannot but wonder that the pretended Bishops in England did not see themselves Mar-Prelates I mean destroyers of their owne Government put Deane and Chapter to boot and consequently of their Church whilest they sided so strongly with Luther and magnified his reformation which to do was co ipso as you may read in his words utterly to abolish Episcopacy and to cut their owne throats O insensari◠O senslesse and unwise men what bewitcht you into so blind a stupidity as not to see so palpable an error and contradiction in your practise Secondly take this Dogmaticall point of your other grand Reformer Calvin all Catholikes declaime against it as most execrable blasphemy touched by D. Carier in his Letter That God predestinates to evill That he is the Author willer and promoter of what men call evill as well as of those they call good actions and then tell me what rationall check you can find against any crime how enormous soever be it treason or rebellion against Church or Prince with the slaughter of both be it blasphemy against God or Deicide it self as far as humane malice can reach towards it hath not the perpetrator a ready protection to justifie his fact God predestinated him unto it God would have it so who must not obey God or who may lawfully resist
out I say of their Seas of Government their Seats in Parliament out of their meanes and liberty into poverty and prison Why not trench on all mens proprieties and violently despoile them of their fortunes as well as former times for Reformation sake impropriated to themselves the Church and Abby-lands from their first true owners casting the Monks Friers and vowed Nuns a begging into the world D. Carier observed nor did he alone that Church and Abbey lands did seldome thrive with their new holders If I tell you now that the present ruine of a flourishing Kingdome is but the naturall off-spring of the old injurious depopulations of the Churches and Abbies you will hardly know how to refute me Why may not this present Parliament damne the Common Prayer Book first invented in Edward the sixths daies and afterwards confirmed by Act of Parliament in Q. Elizabeths Raigne since the birth of many now alive no long prescription as well as those of their times damned the Masse which was as ancient in England and generally throughout the world as Christianity it selfe Why may not King Charles that now is whom I honour and love from my heart as it is the duty of all Subjects to do in whatsoever Countrey they live overthrow the Reformation he swore at his Coronation to maintain as well as King Henry the eighth and Queen Elizabeth introduced their severall Reformations contrary to the old Religion which they found in the Kingdome and swore at their Coronations to preserve with all her Rights Liberties and Priviledges would King Charles be more perjured then they or his perjury worse then theirs why may not this Parliament yea particular Subjects rebell against their Soveraigne for a better Reformation as well as the Lutherans in Germany rebelled against their Soveraigne Charles the fifth to bring in their Reformation and to abolish Popery or to omit others all applauded justified and abetted by those of the reformed Churches as the Scots rebelled for the same end against Queen Mary our Kings Grandmother afterward beheaded in pursuance of the same cause you tell me I do Câ—meâ—inâ—m movere I desist with the proposall of one onely question more when the present Agitators of Reformation have purged themselves of all the pretended Religion they had eight or nine yeares ago and raised their work to a higher pitch then they have 〈◊〉 thought on will it not still be subject to a Babilonian confusion Why may not the children of the present Reformers cut the throats of their fathers and condemne them for ignorants or superstitious and rescind all the Acts of their predecessours for a better Reformation according to their new spirits as well as these present cut the throats of their forefathers undoing at a breath what bad been so long a doing in the Kingdome Damnosa quid non imminuit dies Aetas parentum pejor avis tulit Nos nequiores mox datura Progeniem vitiosiorem Joel ch 1. Where Grandsires Erukes are their issue may Wild Locusts prove next comes in Joels list The Bruke a plague of worse and greater sway And what comes then a blast or burning mist Thus men in tract of time from bad do fall To what is worse from worse to worst of all To pretend that what the present or past Reformers did was all done for the truth for the glory of the Lord for the light and liberty of the Gospell to abolish Idolatry and Superstition to â—nthrone Antichrist the whore of Babylon the Beast of the Apocalyps and the like is more then childish simplicity there is no Reformer so forgetfull or stupid but by his spirit pretends Scripture the glory of the Lord the light and liberty of the Gospell the planting of saving truth c. and whosoever is opposite to his spirit is Antichrist the Whore of Babylon the Beast of the Apocalypse and therefore must be pulled down whosoever he be Nor can it availe at any time to say that hitherto the work of Reformation hath been in fieri or in doing as some say Qu. Elizabeths broome did not sweep clean but now is in facto esse Now it is come to a Non plus ultra perfected beyond all addition or alteration this I say can never availe nor stop the confusions as long as the reforming private spirits for the pretences already specified which will never be at an end or the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination sayes No. Perhaps the present pretended Bishops and the Party suffering with them may say The old Reformations against the Catholikes were good and necessary but the meanes used to begin and promote them naught and not to be imitated And that if there be any farther Reformation to bee made it must not be by prosecution of the old unlawfull meanes Their suffering by the meanes used for the present further Reformation makes them condemne the old This comes now too late they should have condemned them long ago before their testimony became invalidated by their private interest Certainly Luther and the first late Reformers never acknowledged the meanes they used to be naught or unlawfull And why should wee think the present or future Reformer will ever hold the meanes necessary for his ends unlawfull Endlesse then is the confusion of Church and State in England to be no end of sticklings and rebellions no end of our wounds and bloudshed no inheritance more intailed upon our posterity then violation of humane and divine Lawes nothing more certain then eternall damnation of mens souls as long as the first Reformers principles stand in force and their Reformations applauded Behold more then sufficient cause not onely not to wonder at the late conversion of divers learned Schollers to the Roman Faiâ—h but to admire that more do not follow their examples Behold more then sufficient cause for those that pretend to any feare of God or care of their own soules by regard to Religion or manners to the spirituall or politike weale utterly to anathematize all Reformation in Faith with the damnable principles of the late Reformers the sources of all the evills our Kingdome now groanes under Consequently behold more then sufficient cause for all to rank themselves into the number of Catholikes who have now the same unchanged Religion they had before this present Parliament and then had the same they had in the reigne of K. James â—u Elizabeth Qu. Mary K. Edward 6. and Henry the 8. in whose dayes the Reformation was commenced in Germany and through too generall a loosenesse in manners and desire of sensuall liberty began to creep into England as all Histories can evidence unto you Nor can any desire a more pregnant testimony of our being now and in former dayes of the same Faith without variation of one tittle then our reformed Adversaries are ready to afford us who have for the times past and still doe persecute us not as new Sactaries with old Lawes but with new Statutes for non-conformity to their new Reformation and
his Deity for so he is present in hell also yet by the grace of his humanity by participation of which grace onely there is hope of salvation he is not present there at all except it be in corners and prisons and places of persecution And therefore whatsoever honour is pretended to be done to Christ in Schisme and Heresie is not done to him but to his utter enemies 8. And for his mysticall Body which is his Church and Kingdome there can be no greater diâ—honor done to Christ then to maintain schisme and dissention therein What would your Majesty think of any Subjects of yours that should go about to raise civill dissention or warres in your Kingdome and of those that should fâ—ster and adhere unto such men It is the fashion of all Rebells when they are in Armes to * You know who have done so of late pretend the safety of the King and the good of the Countrey but pretend what they will you cannot account such men any better then Traytors And shall we beleeve that our B. Saviour the King of Kings doth sit in heaven and either not see the practises of those that under colour of serving him with Reformation do nothing else but serve their owne turnes and distract his Church that is his Kingdome on earth with sedition Or shall we think that he will not in time revenge his wrong Verily he sees it and doth regard it and will in time revenge it 9. But I hope and pray that he may not revenge it upon you nor yours but rather that he will shew that your desire to honour him is accepted of him and therefore will move you to honour your selfe and your posterity with bestowing the same your favour upon his Church in the unity thereof which you do now bestow in the Schisme and that he will reward both you and yours for the same according to his promise not only with everlasting glory in heaven but also with long continued temporall honour and security in this world And this is the first reason of my hope grounded upon the promise of God The second Reason of my hope that Catholike Religion may be a great meanes of honour and security to your Majesties posterity is taken from the consideration of your neighbours the Kings and Princes of Christendome among whom there is no State ancient and truly honourable but only those that are Catholike The reason whereof I take to be because the Rules of Catholike Religion are eternall universall and constant unto themselves and withall so consonant unto Majestie and greatnesse as they have made and preserved the Catholike Church most reverent and venerable throughout the world for these 1600. yeares and those Temporall States that have been conformable thereunto have been alwaies most honourable and so are like to continue untill they hearken unto Schisme And as for those that have rejected and opposed the Rules of Catholike Religion they have been driven in short time to degenerate and become either tyrannicall or popular your Majestie I know doth abhor Tyranny but if Schisme and Heresie might have their full swing cover the Seas the very shadow and Reliques of Majesty in England should be utterly * God grant this prove not too true defaced and turned into Helvetian or Belgian popularity For they that make no conscience to prophane the Majesty of God and his Saints in the Church will after they feel their strength make no bones to violate the Majesty of the King and his Children in the Common-wealth 10. I know well that the Puritanes of England the Huguenots of France and the Gueses of Germany together with the rest of the Calvinists of all sorts are a great faction of Christendome and they are glad to have the pretence of so great a Majesty to be their chief and of your posterity to be their hope but I cannot be perswaded that they ever will or can joyne together to advance your Majesty or your Children farther then they may make a present gaine by you They are * One may sweare it not agreed of their own Religion nor of the principles of Universall and Eternall Truth and how can they be constant in the rules of particular and transitory honor where there is Nullum Principium ordinis there can be Nullum Principium honoris such is their case there is a voice of Confusion among them as well in matters of State as of Religion Their power is great but not to edification but destruction They joyne together only against good order which they call the Common Enemy and if they can destroy that they will in all likelihood turn their fury against themselves and like Devills torment like Serpents devoure one another In the meane time if they can make their Burgers Princes and turn old Kingdomes into new States it is like enough they will do it but that they will ever agree together to make any one Prince King or Emperour over them all and yeeld due obedience unto him further then either their gaine shall allure them or his Sword shall compell them that I cannot perswade my selfe to believe And therefore I cannot hope that your Majesty or your posterity can expect the like honour or security from them which you might do from Catholike Princes if you were joyned firmly to them in the unity of Religion 12. The third reason of my hope that Catholike Religion should be most available for the honour and security of your Majesty and your children is taken from the consideration of your Subjects which can be kept in obedience to God and to their King by no other Religion and least of all by the Calvinists for if their principles be received once and well drunk in and digested by your Subjects they will openly maintaine that God hath as well predestinated men to be * Is not this now openly professed by those who would have the King called to an account c. Traytors as to be Kings and he hath as well predestinated men to be Theeves as to be Judges and he hath as well predestinated that men should sin as that Christ should die for sin which kind of disputations I know by my experience in the Countrey are ordinary among your Countrey Calvinists that take themselves to be learned in the Scriptures especially when they are met in the Ale-house and have found a weaker brother whom they think sit to be instructed in the profound mysteries And howsoever they be not yet all so impudent as to hold these conclusions in plain termes yet it is certain they all hold these principles of Doctrine from whence working heads of greater liberty do at their pleasures draw these consequences in their lives and practises And is * It now appears it is not this a Religion sit to keep Subjects in obedience to their Soveraigns 13. Here I know the great Masters of Schisme will never leave objecting the horrible treason of certaine Catholikes against your
Majesty which if the Devill had not wrought to their hands they had had little to say against Catholike Religion before this day But I humbly intreat that the fact of of some few men may not be for ever objected against the truth of a generall Rule It is not the question which Religion will make all your Subjects true but which Religion is most like to make all true It is certaine there be Traytors against God and man of all Religions and Catholikes as they are the best Subjects so when they fall to it they are the worst Traytors But if we will look upon examples or consider of reasons the Catholike is the only Religion which as it doth duly subordinate Kings unto God so doth it effectually bind Subjects to performe all lawfull obedience to their Kings I will not repeat examples because the ancient are tedious and the present are odious But if there can be but one King named in all the world that did ever receive honour from Calvinists farther then to be their Champion or Protector untill their turne were served then I may be content to believe that your Majestie and your Family shall receive perpetuity from them But if your Calvinists do professe to honor you and all other Calvinists do overthrow their Kings and Princes wheresoever they can prevaile I can hardly believe that yours do * It appears so now mean any more good earnest then the rest There is certainly some other matter that they are content for a time to honour your Majesty it cannot be their Religion that ties them to it for it doth not tie them to it selfe There is no principle of any Religion nor any Article of any Faith which a Calvinist wil not call in question and either altogether deny or expound after his owne fancy and if he be restrained he cries out by and by that he cannot have the liberty of his Conscience And what bond of obedience can there be in such Religion 14. It is commonly objected by States-men that it is no matter what opinions men hold in matters of Religion so that they be kept in awe by Justice and by the Sword Indeed for this world it were no matter at all for Religion if it were possible without it to do Justice and to keep men in awe by the Sword In Military estates whilest the Sword is in the hand there is the lesse need of Religion and yet the greatest and most Martiall States that ever were have been willing to use the conscience and reverence of some Religion or other to prepare the Subjects to obedience But in a peaceable Government such as all Christian Kingdomes do professe to be if the reines of Religion be let loose the Sword commonly is too weak and comes too late and will be like enough to give the day to the Rebell and seeing the last and strongest bond of Justice is an Oath which is a principall act of Religion and were but a mockery if it were not for the punishment of hell and the reward of heaven it is unpossible to execute Justice without the help of Religion And therefore the neglect and contempt of Religion hath ever been and ever shall be the fore-runner of destruction in all setled States whatsoever 15. The Devill that intends the destruction as well of bodies as of soules and of whole States as of particular men doth not commonly begin with mens bodies and with matters of State but being himself a spirit and the Father of lies he doth first insinuate himself into mens understandings by false principles of Religion whereunto he hath the more easie entrance because he hath perswaded their Governours to believe that it is no great matter what opinions men hold in matters of Religion so that they look well into their actions and keep them in obedience which perswasion is all one as if the Enemy that besiegeth a City should perswade the Garrison that they might surrender the Castle unto him well enough and keep the base Towne and all the people of the Towne to themselves But when the divell hath prevailed so far as by false opinions in matters of the first truth that is of Religion to get the understanding in possession which is the Castle as it were and watch-tower both of the soule and body and state and all he will peradventure dissemble his purpose for a while and by slandering of the truth and pleasing them with the trifles of the world which by Gods permission are in his power make men believe that the world is amended for Nemo repentè sit pessimus but shortly after when he sees his time he will out of his Arsenal of false apprehensions in understanding send forth such distorted Engines of life and action as will easily subdue both body and goods and states and all to his devotion 16. The Calvinisticall Preacher when he hath gotten his honest abused and misguided flock about him will cry out against me for this Popish collection and call God and them to witnesse that he doth daily in his Sermons exhort men to good works and to obedience unto the Kings Majesty and am not I and my brethren saith he and our flock as honest and as civill men as any Papist of them all For my own part I will not accuse any Calvinist though I could neither can I excuse all Papists though I would Iliacos intra muros peccator extra But I must never forget that most true wise observation which the noble learned Sir Francis Bacon makes in one of his first Essaies viz. That all Schismaticks utterly failing in the Precepts of the first Table concerning the Religion and worship of God have necessity in policie to make a good shew of the second Table by their civill demure conversation towards men For otherwise they should at the first appeare as afterwards they shew themselves to be altogether out of their ten Commandements and so men would be as much ashamed to follow them at the first as they are at the last It is a sure rule of Policie that in every mutation of State the Authors of the Change will for a while shew themselves or pretend to be honest rather of spite then of conscience that they may disgrace those whom they have suppressed but it doth never hold in the next generation You shall scarce heare of a Puritan father but his son proves either a Catholike or an Atheist Mutinous Souldiers whilest the Enemy is in the field will be orderly nor for love of their Generall but for feare of the Enemie but if they be not held in the ancient Discipline of Warrs they will upon the least truce or ceslation quickly shew themselves 17. And as for their exhortations to obedience to your Majesty when they have first infected the understanding of your Subjects with such principles of Rebellion as have disturbed and overthrown all other States where they had their will it is a ridiculous
a great deale more neer together in matters of Doctrine then the Puritannicall Preachers on both sides doe make them believe they are I cannot in the brevity of this discourse descend into particulars but if it please your Majesty to command me or any other honest man that hath taken paines to understand and observe all sides freely and plainely to set downe the difference betwixt Calvinisme and the Doctrine of England established by Law and and then to shew Locos concessos and Locos controversos betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome I doubt not but the distance that will be left betwixt for matter of Doctrine may by your Majestie be easily compounded 30. But perhaps there is so great opposition in matter of State that although the Doctrine might be compounded yet it is unpossible to heare of agreement And if there be the same reason of State which there was in the beginning and continued all Q. Elizabeths daies there is as little hope now that your Majestie should hearken to reconciliation as there was that King Henry 8. or Q. Elizabeth would But when I doe with the greatest respect I can consider the State of your Majesty your Lords your Commons and your Clergie I do find as little cause of holding out in reason of State as I do in truth of Doctrine 31. King Henry the 8. although he had written that book against the Schisme of Luther in the defence of the Sea Apostolike for which he deserved the Title of Defensor Fidei yet when he gave way to the lust of Anne Bolen and the flattery of his Favourites and saw he could not otherwise have his will he excluded the Pope and made himselfe supreme Head of the Church that so he might not only dispense with himselfe for his lust but also supply his excesse with the spoile of the Church which was then very rich But when he saw God blessed him not neither in his wiving nor in his thriving he was weary of his Supremacy before he died and wished himselfe in the Church again but he died in the Curse of his Father whose foundatitions he overthrew and hath neither child to honour him nor so much as a Tomb upon his grave to remember him which some men take to be a token of the Curse of God 32. Q. Elizabeth although she were the daughter of Schisme yet at her first coming to the Crown she would have the Common-Prayer Booke and Catechisme so set down that she might both by English service satisfie the Commons who were greedy of alteration and by Catholike opinions give hope to her Neighbour Princes that she would her selfe continue Catholike And all her life long she carried her selfe so betwixt the Catholikes and the Calvinists as she kept them both still in hope Yet being the daughter of the breach-maker and having both her Crowne and her life from the Schisme it was both dishonourable and dangerous for her to hearken to reconcilement And therefore after she was provoked by the excommunication of Pius Quintus she did suffer such Laws to be made by her Parliaments as might cry quittance with the Pope and the Church of Rome And this course seemed in policy necessary for her who was the daughter of King Henry the 8. by Anne Bolen born with the contempt of Rome the disgrace of Spaine and the prejudice of Scotland 33. But now that your Majesty is by the consent of all sides come to the Crown and your undoubted Title setled with long possession the case is very much altered for your Majesty hath no need of dispensations nor no will to pull down Churches nor no dependence at all on Henry the 8. and if this Schisme could have prevented your Title with the divorce of one wife and the marrying of five more neither your Mother nor your self should ever have made Q. Elizabeth afraid with your right to the Crown of England And therefore although it were necessary in reason of State to continue the Doctrine of division as long as the fruit of that Doctrine did continue yet now the fruit of Schism is all spent and that Parenthefis of State is at an end there is no reason but that the old sentence may return againe and be continued in that sense as if the Parenthesis had been clean left out and that God had of purpose crossed the fleshly pretence of Schisme and raised your Majesty to restore it as your most wise and Catholike Progenitor King Henry the 7. did leave it 34. But perhaps the Schisme though it serve you to no use at all for your Title yet it doth much increase your authority and your wealth and therefore it cannot stand with your honour to farther the unity of the Church of Christ Truly those your most famous and renowned Ancestors that did part with their authority and their wealth to bestow them upon the Church of Christ and did curse and execrate those that should diminish them and take them away againe did not think so nor find it so and I would to God your Majesty were so powerfull and so rich as some of those Kings were that were most bountifull that way You are our Soveraigne Lord all our bodies and our goods are at your command but our souls as they belong not to your charge but by way of protection in Catholike Religion so they cannot increase your honour or authority but in a due subordination unto Christ and to those that supply his place in iis quae sunt Juris divini It was essentiall to heathen Emperors to be Pontifices as well as Reges because they were themselves Authors of their owne Religion But among Christians where Religion comes from Christ who was no worldly Emperor though above them all the Spirituall and Temporall Authority have two beginnings and therefore two supremes who if they be subordinate doe uphold and increase one another but if the temporall authority doe oppose the spirituall it destroyes it selfe and dishonours him from whom the spirituall authority is derived Heresie doth naturally spread it self like a Canker and needs little help to put it forward So that it is an easie matter for a mean Prince to bee a great man amongst Heretikes but it is an hard matter for a great King to * K. Cha. knows this to be true by wofull experience govern them When I have somtimes observed how hardly your Majesty could effect your most unreasonable desires amongst those that stand most upon your Supremacy I have been bold to be angrie but durst say nothing only I did with my selfe resolve for certaine that the Keyes were wont to do the Crowne more service when they were in the Armes of the Mâ—â—er then they can do now they are tied together with the Scepter and that your Title in spirituall affaires doth but serve other mens turnes and not your own 35. As for your wealth it is true that the Crown hath more pence paid unto it
and the love of my Friends and Countrey This griefe of soule growing now desperate did still more and more increase the infirmities of my body and yet I was so loath to become a professed Catholike with the displeasure of your Majesty and of all my honourable and loving friends as I rather desired to silence my judgement with the profits and pleasures of the world which was before me then to satisfie it with reconciling my selfe unto the Catholike Church But it was Gods will that ever as I was about to forget the care of Religion and to settle my selfe to the world among my neighbours I met with such humors as I saw by their violence against Catholikes and Catholike Religion were like to waken my soule by torture rather then bring it asleep by temper And therefore I was driven to recoile to God and to his Church that I might find rest unto my soule 11. And yet because I had heard often that the practise of the Church of Rome was contrary to her Doctrine I thought good to make one triall more before I resolved and therefore having the advice of diverse learned Physitians to goe to the Spa for the health of my body I thought good to make a vertue of necessity and to get leave to go the rather for the satisfaction of my soule hoping to find some greater offence in the Service of the Church of Rome then I had done in her Bookes that so I might returne better contented to persecute and abhorre the Catholikes at home after I should find them so wicked and Idolatrous abroad as they were in every Pulpit in England affirmed to be For this purpose before I would frequent their Churches I talked with such learned men as I could meet withall and did of purpose dispute against them and with all the wit and learning I had I did both justifie the Doctrine of England established by Law and object the Superstition and Idolatry which I thought they might commit either with the Images in the Church or with the Sacrament of the Altar 12. Their common answer was that which by experience I now find to be true viz. that they doe abhorre all Idolatry and Superstition and do diligently admonish the people to take heed thereof And that they use Images for no other purpose but only for a devout memory and representation of the Church Triumphant which is most sit to be made in the time and place of prayer where after a more speciall manner we should with all reverence have our conversation amongst the Saints in Heaven And for the B. Sacrament they do not worship the Accidents which they see but the substance which they believe and surely if Christ be there truly and really present as your Majesty seems to grant he is he is as much to be worshipped as if we saw him with our bodily eyes Neither is there any more Idolatry in the one then in the other If our B. Saviour himself should visibly appeare in person as he was upon the earth Jewes and Infidells would hold it for Idolatry to worship him and would crucifie him again and so would all Heretikes also who refuse to worship him in the Sacrament where he is really present 13. After divers other objections which I made not so much because I was not as because I desired not to be satisfied I came to the Popes supposed pride and tyranny over Kings and Princes and told them of the most horrible Treason intended and practised by Catholikes against your Majesty which hath not yet been judicially condemned by the Church of Rome They all seemed to abhor the fact as much as the best Subjects in the world and much more to favor and defend the authority of their Kings and Witnesse their loyalty to the King in these late warres Princes then Hereticks do And they said that although your Majesty were out of the Church yet they doubted not but if complaint were made in a Judiciall proceeding that fact should be judicially condemned In the mean time it was sufficient that all Catholike Writers did condemne it and that the Pope by his Breve had condemned it exhorting the Cathelikes of England to all Christian patience and obedience As for any other authority or superiority of the Pope then such as is spirituall and necessary for the unity of the Church I have met with none that doe stand upon it 14. So that whereas my hope was that by finding out the corruptions of the Church of Rome I should grow farther in love with the Church of England and joyfully return home and by inveighing against the Papists both enjoy my present preferments and obtaine more and more I saw the matter was like to fall out cleane contrary It is true indeed that there are many corruptions in all States God hath no wheat-field in this world wherein the Devill hath not tares growing and there are no tares more rank then those that grow among the wheat For optimi corruptio pessima and where grace abounds if it be contemned there sin abounds much more But seeing both my reading and experience hath now taught me that the truth of Christian Religion now taught and practised at this day in the Church of Rome and all the obedient Members thereof is the very same in substance which was prefigured and prophesied from the beginning of the world perfected by Christ himself delivered to his Apostles and by them and their Successors perpetually and universally in one uniformity practiced untill this day without any substantiall alteration And that the new Religion of England wherein it doth differ hath no ground but either the pleasure of the Prince and Parliament or the common cry and voice of the People nor no constancy or agreement with it selfe what should I now do It is not in my power not to know that which I do know nor to doubt of that which I have spent so much time and taken so much paines and bestowed so much cost and made so many trialls to find And yet I know if I should yeeld to be reconciled to the Church I should be for this world in all likelihood utterly undone and that which grieved me more I should be rejected of your Majesty my most redoubted Lord and Master and despised by all my deare friends and lovers in England 15. These were in my thoughts at the Spa which did so vex and afflict my soule as that the waters could do my body no good at all but rather much hurt Neverthelesse I avoided the company of Catholikes abstained from the Church and did both dispute and write against the Church of Rome as occasion was offered I still hoped that time would give me better counsell and therefore resolved to go from the Spa to Heidelberg to do my duty there In the meane time I thought with my self it may be God hath moved His Majesties heart to think of peace and reconciliation I know his disposition was so
whatsoever they are But if it be true as some holy learned Fathers teach that in a well-ordered Government there is cadem faelicitas unius hominis ac totius civitaiis then I am sure that it must follow that in a Common-wealth truly Christian there is eadem virtus boni viri ac boni Civis And therefore being a Minister and Preacher of England if I will rather serve your Majesty then my self and rather procure the good of your Kingdome then my own preferment I am bound in duty to respect and seek for those things above all other that may advance the honour of God and the salvation of my own soule and the soules of those who do any way belong to my charge and being sufficiently resolved that nothing can more advance the honour of our Saviour and the common salvation then to be in the unity of his Church I have done you the best service I could at home by preaching peace and reconciliation and being not able for the malice of the times to stand any longer in the breach at home I think it safest in this last cast to look to mine own game and by my daily Prayers and dying to doe your Majestie the same service in the unity of the Church which by my daily preaching and living I did indeavour to do in the midst of the Schisme 2. And though it be sufficient for a man of my profession to respect only matters of heaven and of another world yet because this world was made for that other I have not regarded my owne estate that I might respect your Majesties therein and after long and serious meditation which Religion might most honour your Majesty even in this world I have conceived undoubted hope that there is no other Religion that can procure true honour and security to your Majesty and your Posterity in this world but the true Catholike Romane Religion which is the very same whereby all your glorious Predecessors have been advanced and protected on earth and are everlastingly blessed in heaven 3. The first reason of my hope is the promise of God himselfe to blesse and honour those that blesse his Church and honour him and to * No question but this will come home in the end to the Church-Prophaners of our times curse and confound those that curse his Church and dishonour him which he hath made good in all ages There was never any Man or City or State or Empire so preserved and advanced as they that have preserved the unity and advanced the prosperity of the Church of Christ nor ever any been made more miserable and inglorious then they that have dishonoured Christ and made havock of his Church by Schism and Heresie 4. If I had leisure and bookes it were easie for me to inlarge this point with a long inumeration of particulars But I think it needlesse because I cannot call to mind any example to the contrary except it be the State of Q. Elizabeth or some one or two other lately fallen from the unity of the Catholike Church or the State of the great Turk that doth still persecute the Church of Christ and yet continues in great glory in this world But when I consider of Q. Elizabeth I find in her many singularities she was a woman and a Maiden Queen which gave her manie advantages of admiration she was the last of her race and needed not care what became of the world after her owne daies were ended She came upon the Remainders of Devotion and Catholike Religion which like a Bowle in his course or an Arrow in his flight would go on for a while by the force of the first mover and she had a practise of maintaining warres among her neighbours which became a woman well that she might be quiet at home And whatsoever prosperity or honour there was in her daies or is yet remaining in England I cannot but ascribe to the Church of Rome and to Catholike Religion which was for many hundred yeares together the first mover of that Government and is still in every setled Kingdome and hath yet left the steps and shadow thereof behind it which in all likelihood cannot continue many yeares without a new supply from the fountain 5. As for the honor and greatnesse of the Turke and other Infidells as it reacheth no farther then this life so it hath no beginning from above this world and if we In Luc. 4. alibi may believe S. Ambrose those honors are conferred rather by Gods permission then by his donation being indeed ordained and ordered by his providence but for the sins of the people conferred by the Prince that rules in the ayre It is true the Turkish Empire hath now continued a long time but they have other principles of State to stand upon The continuall Guard of 100000. Souldiers whereof most of them know no parents but the Emperor The Tenure of all his Subjects who hold all in capite ad voluntatem Domini by the service of the sword their injoyned silence and reverence in matters of Religion and their facility in admitting other Religions as well as their owne to the hope of salvation and to tolerate them so that they be good Subjects These and such like are principles of great importance to increase an Empire and to maintaine a Temporall State But there is no State in Christendome that may indure these principles unlesse they meane to turne Turks also which although some be willing to do yet they will neither hold in Capite nor hold their peace in Religion nor suffer their King to have such a guard about him nor admit of Catholike Religion so much as the Turk doth 6. It is most true which I gladly write and am ready with all the honour I can of your Majesty to speak that I thinke there was never any Catholike King in England that did in his time more imbrace and favour the true bodie of the Church of England then your Majesty doth that shadow thereof which is yet left and my firm hope is that this your desire to honour our Blessed Saviour in the shadow of the Church of England will move him to honour your Majesty so much as not to suffer you to die out of the body of his true Catholike Church and in the mean time to let you understand that all honour that is intended to him by Schisme Heresie doth redound to his great dishonour both in respect of his Reall and of his Mysticall Body 7. For his Reall Bodie it is not as the Ubiquitaries would have it every where as well without the Church as within but only where himselfe would have it and hath ordained that it should be and that is onely amongst his Apostles and Disciples and their Successors in the Catholike Church to whom he delivered his Sacraments and promised to continue with them untill the worlds end So that though Christ be present in that Schisme by the power of