Ecclesiasticam jurisdictionem habuisse consequitur It is agreed of all hands that no man can appropriate any Church with cure of souls because it is wholly an Ecclesiastical affair and to be appropriated to an Ecclesiastical person except one that hath Ecclesiastical jurisdiction but William the first King of England did do it from whence it must follow that he had jurisdiction Ecclesiastical Now if the Kings of England had Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as it appears they had by the exercising of it notwithstanding the decree of a little Council or Conventicle to the contrary which decreed that no spiritual person should enter into any Church by any secular person Con. Mant. where was the Popes Almighty Power almost that he pretended to about that time in every thing By the ancient Laws of the Church of Rome the issue born before marriage is as lawful inheritable marriage following as otherways yet that was never allowed in England for all the Popes power as may appear by the Statute of Merton 20 H. 3. when the Bishops instanted the Lords that they would assent that the Custome of England should conform to that of Rome in that particular received this for answer Nolumus Leges Angliae mutare Cooke 5. Rep. we will not change the Laws of England By this may be seen what a small influence the Popes had even at that time upon our Parliament notwithstanding the assistance of the Bishops and mitred Abbots Yet afterwards P. Inno. 4. occasionally with a great deal of Magisterial Indignation being very angry that Grosted Bishop of Lincoln refused a Nephew or nearer Kinsman Fox p. 407. for a Prebend of that Church said that the King of England was his Vassal Mancipium his Page his Slave reflecting I suppose upon that submission that King John as the Emperour Frederick said in his Letter to Henry the third his son more like a woman than a man made to Pandolphus the Legate yet Edward the first that Heroick Grandchild of that unfortunate Prince was of another sort of mettal for in his Reign a Subject brought a Bull of Excommunication against another Subject of this Realm and published it to the Lord Treasurer of England and this was adjudged Treason by the Ancient Common Law of England against the King his Crown and Dignity for which the offender should have been drawn and hang'd but at the great instance of the Chancellor and the Treasurer he was only abjur'd the Realm for ever Certain Messengers had from the Pope serv'd Process upon an Officer of Chancery then held at York Vid. le Regist f. 224. to command him by those Bulls to appear at Rome for this contempt the party that served the Process was committed to York Castle and at length the Kings Majesty by the entreaty of divers great men of the Realm was content upon taking bond that he should answer the said contempt ad proximum Parliamentum nostrum ubicunque illud summoneri contigerit at our next Parliament where ever it happens to be assembled or summoned to deliver him out of Prison Edward the first presented his Clerk to a Benefice within the Province of York who was refused by the Arch-Bishop for that the Pope by way of Provision had conferred it upon another the King thereupon brought a Quare non admisit the Bishop pleaded that the Bishop of Rome had long time before provided to the said Church as one having supream authority in the Case and that he durst not nor had power to put him out who by the Popes Bull was in possession For which high contempt against the King his Crown and Dignity in refusing to execute his Soveraigns command fearing to do it against the Provision by judgment of the Common Law the Lands of his whole Bishoprick were seized into the Kings hands and lost during life So all these Presidents considered it is no wonder if that bold Briton who publish't the Excommunication against Queen Elizabeth in Pius Quintus his time met with the sinister accident of a Halter For if it be treason in a Subject to do so against a Subject as it was adjudged in Edward the first his time a fortiori as my Lord Cooke says it is treason for a Subject to do so against his Soveraign It may very well be asked now considering these high Practices and some strict Laws to abate the power of the See of Rome how the Pope could possibly have so considerable an Interest as we know or at least believe he had in Henry the eighth's time The Statute of Provisors of Benefices of 27 Ed. 3. gives you a reason to that time in these words That though the Statute of Ed. 1.25 * Which Statute is not in the printed Statutes either by negligence or probably because it was made at Carlile the Roll was not transmitted to London stands good yet by sufferance and negligence it hath been attempted the contrary The Pope afterwards got ground by the remiss latter end of Edward the third's Reign and the whole one of Richard the second who though he made the strict Law of premunire yet it did much abate of the strictness of the Common Law before spoken of which unhappy Prince was deposed and murthered by his Cosen and Vassal Henry of Lancaster who though the murthered Prince left neither Children nor Friends yet by reason that the murtherer was not next Heir at Law he was a little uneasie all his Reign so that he was forced to comply by reason of the badness of his title contrary to the humor of his great Father with the ill designs of the Roman Clergy who of all are the best at soldering crackt titles and make bloody Laws against the Lollards under the notion of Heretiques H. 42. c. 15. yet Henry his son who had no fault but his title let them know other I will not say better things by suppressing the Priory Aliens which was all that was done to shew the Courage of the English Kings in that particular till H. 8. who was if you peruse the Chronicles the first that had leasure to question his Holinesses encroachments upon this Monarchy Neither was the Supremacy much more ancient abroad Ros Hist W. Chronolog for the first that had any thing like it was Boniface the third to whom Phocas about 606 granted that he should be the head of all Churches 't was that Phocas that murther'd his Lord and Master Mauritius and to say the truth the Popes have arrived to that height they now pretend to by the wickedness of Usurpers who having no title themselves made little regard what they gave to others to countenance their own Rapine yet this grant was not so authentique as to make the succeeding Popes stand upon their own legs for the first downright opposer of the Emperour was Constantine the first who opposed Phillipicus about Images and not only so but for the greater affront Stilling Fanat
be hard for a Rational unbyast man to judge which is the safest Religion that is which most advances a peaceable conversation amongst men The Quaker hath a plausible pretence by his Principles of the unlawfulness either of Swearing or Fighting and his practice accordingly which if so as he may very well be suspected to have none considering their being still acted by a light within them are absolutely inconsistent with Government and consequently with peace which will be easily granted when it is considered that the first moment a man turns Quaker the King loses a Subject as to the being useful to him and every man a Neighbour for he that will not fight in an honourable and just War of which no private person is judge is as dead to his Prince And likewise he that will not assert truth by oath thereto lawfully called in vindication of his Neighbours Interest there being no other way to do it by the Constitution of the Law is worse to him As for their pretensions to perfection contrary to Scripture and their own impure practice I shall leave to the Divines to consider of and conclude that Quakers are like salt that hath lost its savour Mar. 5.13 and thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men For it is not at all consistent with the prudence of Princes to connive at much less to tolerate an opinion that renders the abettors useless if not worse to all the ends of Government The Independent now pretends to a kind of Call or Election into the Pastoral Office as they tearm it by a Company of people who say they are Saints and that 's all the reason we have to believe it I should wonder how it can come into any mans head to accept of an Office according to their own opinion sacred too upon such a title but that we see ambitious men will accept of Power upon any terms it being a principle in Law Nemo potest plus juris in alium transferre quam ipse habet None can transfer or give a greater right then he hath And I think all sober men will grant that the people viz. Tom Dick and Cis originally have no such power as to confer Holy Orders Electo then may be a fitter name then Pastor for those Boanergeses I have heard of a Garrison that in a high mutiny turn'd out the Officers and chose out of the Commonalty others into their rooms by the name of Electoes to supply their places in martial conduct who acted their parts stubbornly enough against their General as fearing to return to a private condition if not worse So our pretended Saints have thrown off their Spiritual Governors and Directors and have done worse then the Idolatrous Israelites Exod. 32.23 for they so far observed the Decency of Order as to desire the High-Priest to make them Gods which should go before them But ours have of themselves chose their Gods or Electoes who are not likely to return in haste to the Communion of the Church and consequently to the condition of Private men being that they exercise as absolute an Episcopal and Despotical power over the Estates and Consciences of their respective Congregations or Troops of Bandetti as ever any Pope pretended to in the days of the greatest Ignorance and Bigotery it being their design I suppose to take the Kingdom from men and to give it to Jesus Christ and then the Saints and the secret ones shall work destruction J. Owen p. 22.165 T. Goodw. P. Nye Skid Symson W. Bridge Jer. Burrows Apol to the Parliament as the same Author elegantly hath it Now what may be the end of that is not hard to say when a Club of them have jointly declared This Principle we carried along with us not to make our present judgment and practice a binding Law for the future Now if these be not as slippery Chapmen by vertue of this as either the Papists with their Fides non est servanda cum Haereticis Faith is not to be kept with Heretiques or the Quaker with his Light within I am much mistaken Now that something has been said of their Principles 't is fit you should know likewise of their Practices which have been such as have not at all shamed their Principles For all our late Civil War and Bloodshed with the never to be too much deplored Fate of the best of Kings then or many ages before living was the result of their most holy Faith and all justified by following Divine Providence Caryll and not only so but they persisted in their Rebellion to the last too as is evident to all knowing men of that time nay they were so generally involved in it that Capua it self was comparatively loyal Sir W. R. Hist World Pun. War 2. For there were upon a strict scrutiny two found not guilty of Rebellion but to these Gentlemen the saying of the Psalmist may be applied There is none that doth good no not one And none that is loyal can take the application of that Scripture amiss that considers that in the year 1648 a Book was printed and licensed by the then Authority with this Title Several Speeches delivered at a Conference concerning power of Parliament to proceed against their King for mis-government which is word for word taken out of Parsons the Jesuites book as the learned Dr. Stillingfleet hath observed which Book was written under the name of Doleman as I take it to invalidate the Scotch succession and consequently our Kings Title to the Crown of England so harmoniously did the Independent and Jesuite agree against the common enemy Herode and Pilate were not so unanimous in crucifying the Lord of Glory as these were and probably will be again upon occasion in quenching the light of Israel And yet a modern Author Rehear Trans that takes himself for no small fool has the confidence to say that the Cause meaning the Rebellion 1642. was too good to be fought for But it may be presumed by what over acts we see of their Allegiance that had they the same opportunity again they would not have so Venerable an opinion of it It will not now be difficult from what has been said to conclude that Independent Principles and Practices notwithstanding the unintelligible Jargon that their Sermons and other printed discourses are full of are far from making any thing towards a peaceable conversation amongst men and so to be lookt on accordingly Now what severity soever is shewed them must come far short because the Laws are not strict enough for 't of what they have shewed to others For it passed for Orthodox amongst them Th. Case That God would have Judges to shew no mercy when the quarrel was against Religion The Presbyterians pretend to a constant succession of Holy Orders or Ordination by imposition of hands from the Apostles time as well as we but by the Medium of Presbyters as
should fall under their lash The Story lies thus which for the Novelty I have translated Amongst all the Reports that had been raised in the world concerning the said Emperour Vite Don Carlo viz. Charles the fifth's retreat the strangest was that the continual commerce he had with the German Protestants inclined him to their opinions and that he had retired himself only that he might have liberty to end his days in the exercises of piety conformable to his secret dispositions it was said he could not forgive himself the ill usage which so many brave Princes of that party which the chance of war had put into his power had received from him their Vertue which in their greatest unhappiness shamed his fortune had insensibly rais'd in his soul some sort of esteem for their opinions he durst no longer condemn a Religion to which so great persons thought it their duty to sacrifice all that mankind holds most pretious this esteem appeared by the choice that he made of persons much suspected of Heresie for his spiritual conduct C.T. p. 417. call'd his confessions as Dr. Ca Calla his preacher the Arch-Bishop of Toledo and above all Constantius Ponce Bishop of Drosse his Director It hath been since known that in the Cell in which he died at St Just was filled of all sides with writings wrote by his own hand upon Justification and Grace which were not much different from the opinion of the Novellists but nothing so much confirmed this Report as his Will there were no pious Legacies nor foundations for prayers as made it so different from those of the zealous Catholicks that the Inquisition of Spain thought they had reason to be offended at it they durst not for all that break out before the Kings arrival but that Prince having signalized his first coming into the Country by the death of all Abettors of the new opinion the Inquisition becoming bolder by his Example first attacht the Arch-Bishop of Toledo then the Emperors Preacher and at last Constant Ponce the King suffering them all to be imprisoned the people lookt upon his patience as the excess of his zeal for the true Religion but all the rest of Europe saw with horror the Confessor of Charles the fifth the Emperor in whose arms the Prince had deceased and who had as it were received that great Soul into his bosome delivered by the hands of his own Son to the most cruel and shameful of all punishments In fine the Inquisitors in the process having accused the said persons to have had their hands in the Emperors Will they had the boldness to condemn them with it to the fire The King awakned at this Sentence as with a Clap of Thunder at first the envy that he bore to the glory of his Father made him take pleasure in seeing his memory exposed to this affront but having more maturely considered the consequences of the attempt he by the safest and securest ways that he could choose hindred the effects of it that so he might save the honour of the Holy Office and make no breach in the Authority of the Tribunal in short the Dr. Ca Calla was burnt alive and with him the Effigies of Constant Ponce dead some days before in Prison the King was constrained to suffer the execution that so he might oblige the Holy Office to consent that the Arch Bishop of Toledo * C. Tr. ibid. He had notwithstanding his profits seased on for life so it s humbly conceived that the vast revenues of that See were the best mediatours for that unfortunate Prelate might appeal to Rome and that there might be no more speech about the Emperors last Will Testament But they left not there for taking advantage of the credulousness of that Priest-Peckt Prince Philip the second they never left imposing upon him that Don Carlo his son was dangerous to his Estate and intimated too much familiarity with his Mother in Law so that at length the Prince though heir apparent to the Crown for shewing too indiscreet an indignation at that affront to his Grandfathers memory and some other demonstrations of his ill sentiments of their tyranny was given up to them who did him only the favour to give him the choice of his death the mischief ended not there neither for the jealous Prince in a manner commanded his Queen though great with Child to be poysoned to expiate the supposed Crime * How far that Office had to do in it I 'le not determine but it s no great breach of charity to think that those persons who would not spare the Heir apparent of his Catholique Majesty would not be very scrupulous in attempting upon Heretical Princes especially when the Inquisition preferred that barbarous and unnatural murder of Don Carlo before the obedience of Abraham and in a Blasphemous Zeal compared the King all with one voice to the Eternal Father who had not spared his own Son for the salvation of mankind now what sins will not they pass by for the advance of the Papal authority when so black a crime has got such an extravagant encomium There was a design upon the Queen of Navarre and her son after ward Henry the fourth of France to seize them when they lived at Pan by the villany of one Captain Dominick a Bernois but by the kindness of the Queen before mention'd the generosity of Don Carlo concurring which might be one thing that cost her her life it was discover'd but what they failed in at that time their Factors afterwards brought to pass upon one with a knife and upon the other with poyson by this you may see what they would be at none must make a Will except they have a share or else his memory must be exposed to contempt and scorn for had the Emperor given according to his quality a good sum of money for foundations for prayers as my Author terms it the Will nor any thing else had been questioned and the Dr. had escaped Spitchcocking and though the Inquisition is a stranger in most of the Popish Countries yet this abates but little of the force of my argument for who knows not that it is none of the Popes fault When †C.T. 405.416 De seres in vita H. 3. Paul the fourth said that it was the principal secret and mystery of the Papacy and at his last gasp recommended it to the Cardinals exhorting them to establish it where ever they could and his Successors have always been ready to shew their good will to it witness the endeavours to introduce it into France by vertue of the Holy League under the ministration of that bloody and perfidious Prince the Duke of Guise and afterwards of his Brother the Duke de Main How many horrid murders were perpetrated in order to it but above all the murder of Henry the third by a Jacobin Monk at St. Cloud is most admirable for in the same room at St.