not take it upon them For any indifferent Judg would wonder you should have better intelligence of their Religion than they themselves Thirdly All examples and practices of the Primitive Churches mentioned in the Ecclesiastical Histories the custom was when any Dispute did arise concerning the integrity of the Doctrine professed in any particular Church that Church so question'd did always set down in writing a Confession of their Faith and transmit it either to the Patriarch or some general Council that so the sincerity of their belief might be tried by the touchstone of the Church universal Fourthly Faith being an internal consent of our will and subjection of our understanding to truths revealed in absolute justice none but we our selves can make an authentical manifestation of what passeth in our souls of that nature And besides it being the duty of every Christian not only to make open profession of his Faith when occasion requires it but also to make such a profession with all possible sincerity and truth for to use any falsity or dissimulation in a case of this concern were not only to deceive men but even to belye the holy Ghost It will necessarily follow first no judgment can be made of anothers faith but by the confession of the party himself and secondly that a greater assurance cannot be given between man and man of veracity and secret dealing than when we publickly declare our faith upon any point of Controversie Upon these grounds and these circumstances I presume their Antagonists will be so reasonable as not to question the truth and reality of their meaning in what they declare concerning their Tenets in the points of Allegiance or Doctrine Here I will set them down submitting to the honour and conscience of all sober men and to any indifferent Judges who will not retain the animosity and prejudice of parties to give sentence whether they are not consistent with loyalty and the duty of good Subjects and Christians v. g. They hold CHARLES the II. is their true and lawful Soveraign Secondly that no Power on earth shall absolve them from their natural Allegeance Are ready by Oath in the face of Heaven to profess their loyalty indispensable from which no power can free them Thirdly that they are bound with their lives and fortunes to defend the sacred Person of his Majesty in his just Rights against all opposers whatsoever domestick or forraign Fourthly that Faith is to be kept with all men indifferently and equally whether they be Roman Catholicks or of any other Religion And that our engagements promises and contracts cannot lawfully be broken or dispensed with by any power on earth to the prejudice of any third Person They believe the holy Scriptures to be of infallible authority and assent to it as the word of God They believe the sacred mystery of the blessed Trinity one eternal almighty and incomprehensible God whom only they adore and worship as alone having soveraign dominion over all things to whom only is due from Men and Angels all glory service and obedience abhorring to give their CREATORS honour to any creature whatsoever Whence they solemnly profess that by the Prayers they address to Angels and Saints they intend no more but to sollicite their assistance before the throne of God as we desire the Pravers of one another here upon earth not that they hope any thing from them as original authors thereof but from God through Jesus Christ our only Mediator and Redeemer Neither do they believe any Divinity or Virtue to be in Images for which they ought to be worshipped as the Gentiles did their Idols But they retain them with due and decent respect in their Churches as instruments which we find by experience do often assist our memories and excite our affections Pictures may be of good use saith our learned Bacon if the representation of divine stories as well work upon them to contemplate those things as lascivious Pictures do Obscenity Charity obligeth us no other construction of the words of men than what they profess to be their own sense but I never heard or read Images absolutely to be worshipped or Saints absolutely prayed to They firmly believe that no force of nature or dignity of our best works can merit our justification but we are justified freely by grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ and though we should by the Grace of God persevere in a godly life yet are our hopes of eternal Glory built upon the mercy of God and the merits of Christ Jesus All other merits according to the sense of that word signifie no more than actions done by the assistance of Gods Grace to which it has pleas'd his Goodness to promise a reward A Doctrine so suitable to the sense of holy Scripture that nothing is so frequently repeated in it as his gratious promises to recompence with everlasting Glory the Faith and Obedience of his Servants 1 Tim. 4. 8. Rom. 2. 6 8 13 Heb. 6. 10. Luke 16. 38. thus we believe the merit or rewardableness of holy living both which signifie the same with us arises not from the value even of our best actions but from the grace and bounty of God And for ourselves we sincerely profess when we have done all we are are able or commanded we are unprofitable servants Luke 17. 10. These they sincerely and solemnly profess as in the sight of God the searcher of all hearts taking the words plainly without any equivocation or mental reservation And now let them that judg so severely lay their hands on their hearts and with the same justice and equity with which they expect to be judged themselves at the last day Let them pronounce whether or no their Doctrine or Principles are inconsistent with the duty of good Christans or Subjects and the peaee and safety of Government In Law and Reason every man à fortiori a society of men ought to be esteemed honest and just till the contrary appear to be proved but nothing hath hitherto appeared to be proved against the loyalty of Catholicks therefore in reason and justice they ought to be esteemeed good Subjects and Neighbours and it is a meer Calumny to asperse them That nothing can be proved is evident their accusers being often pressed thereunto were never able to produce any particular or any proof sufficient to satisfie any rational man But dwelling in vain general suspicions triflings and false presumptions laying to their charge extravagant crimes that have not the least proof or probability objecting positions of some private and disavowed persons the crimes and indiscretions of particular men to all the party to traduce and defame the whole we aggravate the failings of a few The world knows it were no difficulty to recriminate in this kind and repay them with the same dirt If such accusations pass current who would or could be innocent No people on the earth can be safe at this rate Would not this Logick make the
for success that go down into Egypt for help cutting and launcing with lyes and falsities as with sharp Razors can such weapons prosper as are sharpened at the forges of Philistines is there no way to undermine Romanists but by digging as low as Hell in slandering the footsteps and traducing the persons of our Progenitors can that wisdome come from above which representeth the highest devotions practiced from antiquity as Fanaticism that makes all supernatural favours revelations extasies c. matter of drollery to term S. Francis S. Dominick c. Enthusiasts whom Tindal Act. Mon. 1338 Paâ—teleon Luther and the Centurists their very Adversaries call holy and good men and our very Almanacks these two hundred years have included in the Category of Saints The Doctor hath founded all the weight of his arguments upon false suppositions grosly imagining any inferior relative honour given to Saints Angels c. it is derogatory to the honour of God and perfect idolatry imitating therein the craft of the Devil who always covereth his malice with pretext of good impugneth the same under colour and pretence to defend Gods honour so the Serpent sâ—duced Eve So he boldly chargeth them with giving divine honour to Images accidents of bread and wine and unto Saints using the word adoration or honour for divine worship this we must suppose otherwise his whole book and arguments doth not â—ouch them or any thing to the purpose but phalerae aâ— populum Who ever that preteâ—ds to the name of a Christian but confâ—sses all religious divine worship is proper and due to God alone and no created thing whatsoever is capable of it He should have first proved his grounds solidly before he made his inferences upon them And so his large chapter of Idolatry might have seemed at least to have been somewhat ad rem whereas now it serveth to no other end but to discovery his fâ—lly and humoâ—r against Catholicks Why doth he cavil so about words all the ground of his disputation is upon the equivocation of words Can he be ignorant that the vulgar use have not words enough properly to signifie all our notions and conceptions The terms worship prayer invocation bowing down adoration c. for want of words are or may be equivocal For worship or prayer directed to God imports a total dependance in him and so our prayers c. are offered to God alone As applied to just and holy men it implies only a communion in the members of the Church militant or assistance of their prayers to him who only can give what we ask They pray not to Saints in the manner as they pray to God but desire their prayers as we do the just men on earth to pray for us How comes then the one to be idolatry and the other a recommendable action The word Adoration signifieth not only divine honour and worship but also religious and civil As may be proved out of the Scripture and Fathers The Protestants themselves grant the different kinds of worship and honour signified thereby These three Adoratious have many examples and testimonies in holy Writ as the word adoration is to be understood diversly either to God alone called Latria or to Angels and Saints holy men as servants of God and for love of him called Dulia The third a civil worship to men of dignity for some civil or temporal excellency These three kinds of adoration c. according to the different applications thereof cannot be distinguished in reading but by circumstances And because the corporeal exhibition of the same exterior acts of submission and reverence is common to all kinds of worship thence they are distinguished and diversified only by the intention and will of him that doth perform them Whence it is not to be wondred that as the ancient Fathers so Catholicks now following the custome and phrase of holy Scripture do use also the word adoration in different manner and sense The Doctor grants the civil adoration though absurdly he denies the Religious Calling that civil worship which is testified in Scripture to have been done to Angels and holy men Whence the adoration Abraham Lot and Joshua did to Angels could be only civil Which would be absurd because there was not therein any civil or temporal respect the motive of their adoration being a supernatural excellency including also a sanctity or holiness as appears by the example of Joshua's adoration of the Angel who besides his falling prostrate on the ground was commanded to do more reverence viz. to put off his shooes because the place was holy viz. in respect of the Angels presence The like is to be said of the examples exhibited by Abdias to Elias of the children of the Prophets to Elizaeus for although Abdias was in temporal dignity a greater man and more worthy than Elias the Prophet yet he fell upon his face before Elias 3 Kings 18. acknowledging thereby the spiritual excellency of Gods Prophet and did therein an act religious So the children of the Prophets did the like to Elizaeus adoraverunt â—um proni in terram 4 Reg. 2. specifying a supernatural respect of his miraculous passage over the River the motive of this adoration Therefore it cannot be only civil This I thought good to note by the way to shew by this occasion the piece of Legerdemain iâ— the Doctor who denies that Angels might be adored in any sense yet it appears that Abraham Lot Joshua adored Angels prostrate on the ground Genes 18. 19. Joshua 3. therefore there is some inferiour adoration or we must charge the holy men with Idolatry It cannot be called civil only for the spiritual excellency of Angels and sanctity of the Prophets being supernatural doth not import any temporal or civil consideration but a religious respect because it is exhibited to Angels and Saints as Servants of God for the honour and love of him so as the worship resteth not in them but hath a spicial relation to Almighty God being yielded to them for his sake because they are his Servants and to the end to honour him in them which must be a religious act This honour being finally and principally to God for whose sake they are honoured in respect of the participation of the divine excellency and abundance of Grace given them which is so far from dishonouring that we do him a special honour and service therein for seeing he said to his Disciples qui vos recipit me recipit qui vos spernit me spernit he that receiveth you receiveth me c. so that the honour done to them redounds to the honour of God This being so and most manifest in our Doctrine and Practice How impudent and unheard of a thing is it to make them idolaters whereas their Books written of Worship and Ad ration c. and their Doctrine in Schools and Pulpits do proclaim unto the world and their Consciences do witness it betwixt God and them although they honour Saints and Angels yet they hold
Rom. 14. 22. hast thou faith have it to thy Self But then it may be objected seeing toleration must have its bounds and limits and those are almost indiscoverable viz. what points are necessary and what not what Sects and Opinions tolerable and what not and who must be the Judge or else we must deal partially and unjustly condemn one Sect and tolerate others I answer we must not cast away reason because there is a difficulty in using it aright What if be a hard thing to enumerate how many bits a man may eat and not be a glutton or how much drink and not a drunkard or what meats or drinks must be used to avoid excess in quality or what cloth silks fashion may be used without excess in apparel will you thence infer that men may eat and drink any think in quantity or quality or else nothing or wear any thing or else go naked as long as it is certain such a difference there is that some opinons are tolerable and some not you must distinguish and then you will find a necessity of discerning as you can according to right reason and grounds of Christianity the Tolerable from the intolerable The profession of the Creed and those who give some solid succinct and apodictical account directly grounded on Scripture rightly understood or in right regulated reason which is able to bear a superstructure of Christian Doctrin and practice as enumerated afore agreeing upon the summary of Belief in positive evident and fundamental points suitable to the Apostolical Symbol are conditions which require necessarily indulgency and toleration In these regards then there can be no prevalent objections urged why a wise State may not tolerate at least in private different Religions when otherwise the publick may be intangled or endangered or rather because the conscience cannot be compelled or Faith forced And more especially if they be such Religions as do not overthrow the fundamentals of Truth Nor such as disturbe or impugn the Government established Or if the professors thereof be such as are not factious or pertinacious but honest simple tractable obedient to Superiours having no other end in holding their Opinions in Religion than Gods glory or satisfaction of their own consciences and withall are willing to submit to better judgments when they are convinced to be Erroneous In this respect the late gratious Declaration for Liberty doth sufficiently appear to all impartial men to be prudent pious and politick For this purpose the Turks and Muscovites inhibited all disputations in matter of Religion upon pain of Death the like inhibition was made by the Emperour and Princes in Germany after their Civil Wars that there should be no Contention between Catholicks and Protestants to this end that there may be no breach of Peace and disturbance in the Government of the State Hence Leo Emperour made an Edict of union Called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that all the different Religions within his Dominions might live quietly and friendly together For the same Cause Anastasius made a Law of Amnesty and accounted those the best Preachers that were moderate Since there must be Heresies and our judgments are as different as our Faces since breeding and education doth so much sway and hath so great influence on many Religions and that Sectaries are grown numerous we ought to have a Latitude of Charity for those that dissent if they be not Impostors or turbulent Incendiaries Dissenters in Controversies are obliged to a mutual toleration We cannot be ignorant of other States and Kingdomes and now very lately in the Empire and Denmark those that Dissent from the Religion publikely authorized are permitted and secured so long as they do not affront Civil or Ecclesiastick Laws For true Christianity addeth such force and vigour to Civil Power by planting in Mens hearts the awe of Religion which is the main pillar of obedience by weeding out such Errors as humane authority would have much adoe to pluck up CAP. IV. Toleration or Liberty improperly taken and unlimited is neither reasonable nor justifiable I Dare not positively affirm that the Civil Magistrate is not to intermeddle at all in matters of Religion but how far he is to proceed and not exceed his Commission is disputable seeing learned Divines generally hold that the bond between the Magistrate and the Subject is essentially Civil Querulous persons have shown a Childishness in their complaints without telling what the very thing is that troubles them and how far they would have it removed and so complain for want of Liberty because they have not their Wills cry out before they know their own minds fully or take care the Magistrate shall know them otherwise then by inspiration It s the opinion of injudicious furious Spirits that no truth is to be silenced for Peace or forborn for spiritual advantage or true necessity For every one to hold what he pleaseth and publish and Preach what he holds confined to no rule of Order but contemning law will rule as Transcendents For as Plato saith it s a temerarious Liberty to pronounce of what is known and unknown with like confidence Tell us of obeying the Laws of God as long as you please I dare not believe you as long as you break the Laws of those appointed to rule over you it is a distinction without difference to separate and divide the Laws of Men from the Laws of God for unless we observe both we obey neither saith Hooker l. 3. c. 107. Here I confess Christian Governours are not to regard such pleas for private Liberty as overthrow the Publick Order and Peace nor to regard those Clamours against them and the Laws as persecuting when they do but oppose and restrain such perillous exorbitancies as have no savour of reason or Religion which strikes at the foundation of Christianity and openeth a gap to Atheism Profaneness and Blasphemy Here the Magistrate must interpose his Coâ—rcive Power for remedy Nor are they in this infringers of the Peoples Liberty but preservers of Freedome not oppressors of others Consciences but dischargers of their own It s a false Liberty to imagine our Liberty consists in speaking or doing what we List without regard to God or man It s no freedom for a man to think what he lists in vain erroneous Blasphemous thoughts or to bolt out and vent his raw indigested and rotten fancies or irreligious opinions to others its far from Christian Liberty for any Christian to start up loose Principles destructive to Government subverting Order violating Laws breaking Oaths and Covenants contemning Authority for every one to hold what he pleaseth and publish and Preach what he holds upon light popular and untried grounds and publickly to act according to his private perswasions passions lusts or interests wherein neither right reason nor common Order nor publick peace nor Conscience of Duty nor fear of God have any such serious tyes upon men as necessary to the common good No Christian I say can
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
persons to swear to them but only to subscribe to them as theological truths And Stilling p. 153. saith men are herein to judg for themselves according to the Scripture because saith he ' every one is boâ—nd to take ' care of his Soul and all things that tend thereto Now if there be no absolute assent required to the 39 Articles of the Church of England as to matters of Faith as Arâ—â—â—bishop Laâ—d Bramhal Chillingworth Fulk Stâ—llingfleet c. confess do not we take hard measures of Romanists to force them â—â—â— renunciation of their positive points revealed by literal texts of Scripture Gods holy spirit residing in general Councils confirmed by much reason and authority of all persons and ages to put any abuses and reproaches upon them because they do not conform to our negative points not de fide CAP. XI Answereth more particularly all other vulgar objections and aspersions so confidently though erroneously cast upon them IN the sequent Pages I judge it little to the purpose to observe any order by Chapters or Sections Seeing these usual imputations hang together like the Tails of Sampsons Foxes being by their Antagonists urged against them with more bitterness and spleen then sincerity or verity I will therefore refer the Reply to the Censure of all judicious and honest-minded Souls how weakly and uncharitably these objections are taken up how inconclusive is the inference from them and how unreasonably they are continued and urged against peaceable people to an abusive credulity and delusion of many other sober Christians ¶ I will take the first Objection and Answer from a Divine of the Church of England Their Adversaries object saith he against the Papists as Tertullus and the Jews did against Saint Paul Act. 2. Papists are Pestilent fellows stirrers up of the People factious turbulent seditious will not conform nor are well affected to the present constitutions of power and publick affairs Against this calumny which with much cunning and eagerness is every where by some levelled against them And it is like to the policy of Julian the Apostate who to ensnare the Christians set the Statues of the Emperors with the Idols of the Gods that if Christians did civil reverence as to the Emperors they should be defamed as Idolaters if not they should be accused as despisers of the Emperors To this sharp and poysoned arrow I shall only oppose the Shield of plain dealing that in a matter so much concerning the satisfaction of others and Papists civil safety there may be no such obscurities as may harbour any jealousies The humble peaceable and discreet carriage of them may justly plead for favour and protection against this calumny of proneness to sedition faction or illegal disturbance in civil affairs who even in all the unhappy troubles of the late years have generally behaved themselves as shewed they had no other design than to live a quiet life in all godliness and honesty c. ¶ Next may be objected that Papists scruple to take the OATHS of ALLEGIANCE and SUPREMACY I answer as for the Oath of Allegiance were it not for some incommodious expressions nothing pertaining to the substance or design of the Oath it would generally be admitted There is nothing in the Oath of Allegiance which purely concerns the practical part of Allegiance but what Catholicks will most willingly swear unto But they that attentively consider the several parts of that Oath shall find that some of them are speculative points and general others practical and particular which relate to the actions and demeanour of him that swears of which he is Master and consequently can answer for them To all the propositions of this second sort relating to the practice of allegiance there is no Catholick in England but will swear unto them But as to the first sort therein contained which involve speculative points and general notions and withall controverted by several learned men I must confess I think it would be very hard to excuse such an Oath from rashness and ambiguity I humbly therefore intreat the Reader to consider An Oath is by which God is invoked as a witness to what we affirm Three Conditions are required to it expressed by the Eccl. 9. 2. Prophet jurabis mihi in aequitate veritate judicio justitia Thou shalt swear in truth judgment and justice So that if an Oath be ambiguous or false it wants the first condition viz. truth if used rashly without discretion good advice and not of just necessity it will be destitute of judgment 3. It must be sincere and conform to the eternal Law of God lest it want justice So that it is a breach of solemn Oaths if they be ambiguous entangled or contradicting one another c. Now when we come to swear in general to the speculative points of the Popes Power in deposing Princes excommunicated and authorizing one Prince to invade another c. although we suppose the assertion to be true that the Pope hath no such Power Yet how can they with a safe Conscience swear point blanck thereunto It being a matter of fact nor in our power to make true or false Secondly they cannot swear that position of the Popes deposing power is absolutely Heretical because the contrary is not evident in Scripture nor condemned by the Church Any other ill names oâ— epithets they will be content to give it Thirdly In doing so they seem to profess a Declaration of a point of Faith which a particular Christian cannot presume to do and make himself a judg and decider of a point of Faith Fourthly They would then by Oath testifie that all Popes that have exercised and all Writers that have written or maintained such a power even in some extraordinary cases and emergencies are to be esteemed Hereticks which is very rash for any particular to presume There is a great difference in swearing that I believe such a thing to be true and swearing absolutely such a thing is true in the first I swear only to my own Opinion which any that is so perswaded may lawfully do In the second I positively swear to the Truth of the thing And to do this the greatest probability in the world is not sufficient to warrant me for the greatest probability doth not amount to an absolute certainty without which an Oath is rash Papists refuse the Oath of Allegiance as 't is now worded framed by one PERKINS an Apostate Jesuit purposely mingled with uncertain speculative points ambiguous and difficult to be interpreted to make them fall within the Law of refusal charged with expressions not pertinent to the substance or intention of the Oath or relating truly to the obedience of the King nor King James ever intended to intangle the Consciences of his Subjects if he had foreseen a few unnecessary words and expressions rendred it so Nor would Catholicks as to Allegiance if an Oath were worded a hundred times more strong than this make the least scruple of
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
All Sides and Nations reproach us for it when the sensual and partial are so hardened in their self ishness that no warning can take off the Bias of their Judgments There is a kind of spirit in some which is so different from that charity which thinketh no evil that it thinketh nothing 1 Cor. 13. else concerning those that differ from them this is contrary to that charity which is not puffed up and doth not behave it self unseemly In that almighty God hath put enmity between the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent we may gather that as the Seed of the Woman should be at enmity with the Seed of the Serpent so should it be at unity with it self If even with Infidels and Heathens the Servant of God must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach c. 2 Tim. 2. 24. How much more is Gods family and inheritance to be used with love and tenderness There is in many Christians a strange inequality of partiality Alas how often have I heard wise and otherwise prudent persons cry out against pride and partiality in others who in their next discourse have shamefully shewed it themselves making much of their own inconsiderable reasonings and vilifying urgent evidence And being so intent on their own cause that they could scarce have patience to hear another speak and when they have heard them their first words shew that they never well weighed the strength of his arguments but were all the while thinking what to say against him or how to go on as they had begun Many an errour is taken up by going too far from others Some giddy and heady Professors saith Doctor Gauden have been so eager to come out of Babylon that they are almost run out of their wits so jealous of superstition that they are pandors for confusion so scared with the name of Rome that they are afraid of all right reason and sober Religion so fearful of being over-righteous by following traditions of men that they fear not to be over-wicked by overthrowing the good â—oundations of honour order peace and charity fierce enemies indeed against the Idolatry of Antichrist but fast friends to Belial and Mammon to Schism and Sacriledg And thus mens judgments and practices are depraved by flying indiscreetly from others while they think more from whence they go than whether More favouring the separate zeal of Pharisees than the winning zeal of Christ calling themselves a godly people and are but a company of superstitious Pharisees or a sort of melancholy humorists who must sit because their neighbour stands or must go out of the way because their neighbour goeth in it They that will find out the bottom of any Religion must prepare themselves to carry a spirit thoroughly discharged of all animosities passions and false apprehensions which corrupt the judgment and raise a mist upon the most resplendent lights of truth If we were impartially willing to know the truth and did pray God in meekness of spirit we would avoid and not choose deceits and resist the light and provoke God to forsake our understandings Many Christians are as children tossed too and sro fluctuating 'twixt wind and water there is no other remedy for such or satisfaction or peâ—ce to their Consciences but Christ's precept and prescript to hear the Church to be of the number and in the community of the generality of agreeing Christians seing the generality of those that have a long and constant delivered Series of their Doctrines is more unlikely to be in error or forsaken of Christ than a few odd-conceited new opinions And this may be one rational means left us to find out the truth as Baxter confesseth in cure of Church c. to submit to that the most religious the most learned the major part of Christians ever taught or submitted to Whence Bishop Gauden noteth The primitive Churches were as careful to act in their outward Order and Government of the Church according to Apostolical pattern and traditional constitutions which were first the rule of the Churches practice as they were faithful to preserve the Canon of Scriptures which were after written and delivered without corruption to posterity Every one will confess that the true spirit of Christianity is meek peaceable gentle and yet how contrary is the practice the people of God are realous but of what not to consume and destroy one another not to hate and vilifie one another but they are zealous to love one another to forbear what is contrary to love zealous of good works patient temperate gentle c. the way of heavenly wisdom is meek peaceable and easie to be entreated by all offices of Rom. 12. 18. love inclined to good to all The spirit of false zeal is censorious hurtful dividing following the works of the flesh which are hatred malice Galat. 5. 12. variance leading the way to cruelty and persecution Where is persecution but from thinking ill of others abhorring and not loving them robbing men of the priviledges of Christians not leaving them common liberty of men and subjects nor to plead for themselves This destroying cruelty leaveth them neither and will not suffer them to enjoy so much liberty as Heathens and Infidels may enjoy or as S. Paul did under such condemning them to the loss of the greatest Act. 28. priviledges on earth and to be left out with the dogs publicans and heathens Is persecution worthy all the calamitous divisions in Christendom and the blood of so many thousands shed for conscience sake and enduring the outcries of the imprisoned and banished and their prayers to Heaven from mens hands and the leaving such a name upon record to posterity as is usually left in History on the authors of such sufferings besides the present regret of mind in the calamities of others and sad divisions and destructions of charity which cometh hereupon Will force cure disagreements and errors better than evidence of truth and love will do will they be so cured without a greater mischief Is not the work to be done for saving mens Souls and shall any be saved against his will will penalties change the judgment in matters of religion is he any better than a knave or hypocrite who will say or swear to do that through fear which he thinketh God forbiddeth him and feareth may damn his Soul is it the honour of Church or Kingdom to be composed of such and are the lives of Kings peace of Kingdoms Estates c. competently secured where God is not feared more than fines or corporal punishments Is this to teach in love to instruct in meekness it is certain whosoever swerves from the dictate of his Conscience commits a sin Rom. 14. So they that endeavour to force or draw any man to profess or act contrary to what his Soul believes are as deeply guilty of the same crime We are all infirm and of imperfect understandings therefore we ought not to be too imperious or too censorious toward other dissenters lest you James 3. 12. receive a greater condemnation take heed you fall not into the hands of the living God They shall be judged without mercy who have shewed no mercy The rod of discipline must be used but it must be done only to the scandalous and so done that it may appear to be Christs own work and upon his interest and his command and not either arbitrarily or for our selves Christ teacheth us not to use violence when we speak for him but to beseech men in his name to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5. And men would more easily be perswaded to believe that Religion to be from God whose Professors they saw to be god-like The whole Gospel is a revelation of the love of God and a Messias of peace and very opposite to envy and animosity all principles which are against universal love are against God and holiness it is Love which is predominant Fear is subservient and that fear which is contrary to love is vice I dare proclaim true piety love humility and prudence may happily heal a great many dissentions and the wounds which rash injudicious zeal hath made that to the proud carnal and uncharitable seem incurable and the cessation of unnecessary impositions might cease the saddest distractions of the Nation Oppression maketh a wise man mad saith the Preacher Eccles 7. 7. Conscience Persecution then among Christians is clearly repugnant to the Law of God the Light of Nature and evidence of our own principles For the sake then of Christ who purchased the weakest with his blood for the sake of those who are in danger of turning to Atheism for the sake of the poor distracted Nation for the sake of the King that he may have comfort in his Subjects of governing a quiet peaceable people and for your own sakes that you may give up account to God of your principal and most Christian duty and not make Apocriphal all those Texts of Scripture and plain injunctions to charity and love above cited and Rom. 14. 2 3 4. and 15. 34. Matt. 25. 40. 1 Phil. 15 16 17. Let then the Scripture Reason and Experience the Petitions and Tears of the distressed intreat you to moderation Rom. 3. 16. let the deformity and unreasonableness of the cruel maxims of persecution bringing nothing but destruction and misery be a determent to all tempestuous spirits let the conscientious and godly-minded people out of the bowels of mercy and compassion sollicite the Governours of the earth and pray unto heaven for an impartial freedom That eternal Majesty who raised so brave a fabrick of such indisposed materials that controuls the waves and checks the tumults of the people let his mercy be implored for speedy succour to the distressed for unity and charity to the divided That the rod of Aaron may blossom that the Tabernacle of David may be raised that the subtil and envious may be caught in their own snare that the result of all afflictions may be the greatening of his Glory and the exalting of his Scepter Amen FINIS