Poperie stand by or else let every Doctrine insisted on by you be Popish so as withall opposite to the Religion by Law established and therein you shall do very well 12. Next in your Minor I may not suffer you to jumpe out of England into Scotland as you do in this Clause of it Our Religion and Lawes Ours whose yours in Scotland shall these men subjects of England and Members of this Church be punishable for teaching some Doctrine opposite to the Religion by Law established in Scotland when did they subscribe to your Religion or Lawes you * Scota ante aliquot Annos Anglorum Auxilus è servitute Gallica liberati Religionis Cultui Ritibus cum Anglis Communibus subscripserunt The scotish being some yeares before delivered from the slavery of the French by the Aydes of the English subscribed to the same Worship and Rite of Religion which the English used Buchan hist Scot. l. 19. have subscribed to ours as coy as you are of us now we to yours never And yet would you candidly set out even your own Lawes happily they would not refuse you upon them But if you superinduce the Bookes of Discipline or Records to them utterly unknowne y Large Declar p. 270 wonderfully preserved and now after a long silence of Time no doubt as uncorruptly exhibited by you if that must be a Canon to regulate your Church and Religion then they will recoile and desire to be tryed by their owne Lawes The summe of all is they would not have you juggle and sophisticate confound and tumble together Places Persons Things as every where you do to raise Clamour not to discover Truth In all Equity then this must be your syllogisme Whosoever in the Kings Dominions respectively spreads abroad any Doctrine opposite to the Religion by Lawes established ought to be punished But Canterburie and his Dependents being subjects of England have spread abroad Doctrines opposite to The Religion by Lawes established in England Ergo. Now if you can acquite your selfe of this Minor and carry it handsomly through your whole Booke you will doe a memorable performance But you meane no such thing and therefore I desire the Reader to do it for you upon every point to bring you to this test which he must do if he will be just and impartiall For make you up your parties as you please with reformed Divines and orthodox Preachers that wil be but to call up against you other orthodoxe Preachers and all to no purpose for nothing is punishable but by Law Simul ac a jure discesseris go you from that and either in Fact or Opinion men wil think they may use a moderate liberty 13 First touching Arminianisme in relation to Fact It is but hard measure in you to represent it presently with this Odium A * Pag. 8. dangerous innovation and such a one as was found to be the readiest Engin which had ever beene used by the Pope or Spaniard to overthrow the Church and State of Holland For were this true yet sure it could bee true by no other necessity then as Medicus cantat a Physitian may be skilfull in song but it is no intrinsecall act of his Profession An Arminian may bee a seditious Citizen but it flowes not from any of the five disputed points Divines may differ about the order of Gods Predestination and yet bee good subjects to their Prince In the meane while your selfe that make this objection living in a Monarchicall State make no bones to affirme * Postscrip p. 14. That publike Assemblies and Conventions may bee held without the authority of the Civill Magistrate * Ibid. p. 8. That subjects may beare Armes against their Soveraigne * p. 14. That there is and ought to bee in a Kingdome an Ecclesiastique Power supreme in it selfe and independent on the King These Opinions touch the life of a State and tend dangerously to the dissolution of Government yet these must be borne with in you but if men doubt of absolute Reprobation or sticke at any like rigid Doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the State must looke about it is some secret Plot to betray the Kingdome to the Pope or Spaniard Ultra Sauromatas fugere hinc libet c. I take not upon me to Apologize for Arminians let them stand or fall by themselves But I thinke a dramme of equity will obtaine them thus much that they may bee as good and loyall subjects in any State or Kingdome as they which maintaine your aforesaid positions or any of them When my Lord of Canterbury that then was tooke so much care as you tell us to suppresse Barrow at Cambridge and to enact his Lambethane Articles which you ridiculously call the * Pag. 16. Synod of Lambeth the Queene even * Presat that most sacred Queene Elizabeth did not interpret it as any great service done to the State or as if the Kingdome had been thereby secured Which is plaine enough by the cold thankes shee gave him If you know not the carriage of that businesse I pray you informe your selfe better out of the story 14. The greatest Accusation that lies against my Lord of Canterbury here in this matter of Arminianisme is the preferment of men whom you suspect to encline to the opinions of Arminius wherein before you passe any Verdict you should doe well to consider First whether all Preferments be so absolutely in his Graces disposing that hee may bee truely said to preferre them all Secondly whether hee looke upon them in that Quality as they encline to such Opinions and bee not obliged to favour them for some other eminent Abilities or Merit of particular service done in Church or State Thirdly whether some others sufficiently known to be anti-Arminians be not as high in the Church as well promoted as they Fourthly whether most men promoted in the Church are not upon your own false grounds by you causelesly suspected to be Arminians Quicquid horum tetigeris Ulcus est you are not Proofe in any of these And because the Preferments of sundry men may bee upon sundry motives by sundry Meanes and Procurements Nor can it be any thing else in you but an invidious Presumption to thinke all done by his Grace in favour of Arminianisme whereas all in that kinde is not done by him nor any with an eye of favour upon Arminianisme clamour while you please my Answer is this and it is sufficient to satisfie any honest man There is no man promoted in the Church of England with or without my Lord of Canterburies helpe but subscribes to the Articles the established Doctrine of this Church Now these Articles either they condemne the Opinions of Arminius or they doe not If they doe not then is Arminianisme either a thing set by and left at liberty neither belongs it to my Lord of Canterbury or any other trusted with the Goverment of the Church to take cognisance of any mans
A Briefe Examination Of a Certaine Pamphlet lately Printed in Scotland and Intituled Ladensium Autocatacrisis c. 1. THere was written in Scotland and directed to the high Court of the Parliament of England at their last sitting a bitter and malicious Pamphlet intituled Ladensium Autocatacrisis The Canterburians selfe-conviction Or An evident Domonstration of the avowed Arminianisme Poperie and Tyrannie of that Faction by their owne Confessions The purpose of this Worke speakes it selfe in the Title namely to brand many particular Divines in this Church with Heterodoxie of Opinions and that under the name of a Faction and a Faction united in my Lo. of Canterbury as in their Common Head Which Accusation of Heterodoxie in Opinions will be here found false and frivolous and never a one of these Divines but will shake off this Pamphlet as S. Paul did the venemous Beast into the fire and feele himselfe never the worse for it But were it so that some men in their opinions and writings did depart from the established Doctrine of this Church yet to affirme they combine to doe it as a Faction and to ascribe the Conduct of that Faction to my Lo. of Canterbury without manifest and convincing Proofe is a meere Calumny and indeed but the spume of that Malice with which they prosecute him endeavouring through his sides to wound the Church of England and to draw one Line of Confusion over all Yet that the Matter may carry some Colour this Vndertaker whoever he be hath evesdropped all his Grace's Writings to see what he may possibly distort to any ill meaning Concerning which though we might briefly answer what a Ep. ad Neocaesar S. Basil speaks in like case for himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in effect A furious Zelot is no competent Iudge of the Writings of a well-affected Protestant Yet I shall endeavour to lay the Particulars before you very briefly and faithfully that so when you see the whole reckoning together you may judge whether on his Grace's part in any thing he hath written any just cause hath beene given of all this Clamour raised against him and all the unreverent Contumelies which are here cast upon him Archbishops were not wont to be thus handled but in this Age of the World it were a ridiculous thing to send these Men to the Councells of b Can. 6. Constantinople c Can. 8.11 Carthage or d Can. 21. Chalcedon to learne better manners in this behalfe Now is a time with them to hisse at all the Canons and Councels of the Christian World and instead of such superstitious and out-worne stuffe to idolize their owne new Bookes of Discipline which leave both their tongues and pens free Iud. 5.8 to despise Dominion and speake evill of dignities But whether these things proceed from hearts seasoned with the least tincture of Grace or any syncere Affection to Religion and true Piety a thing so much pretended and boasted now adayes whether it be Christian-like so barbarously and uncivilly to slander men of Place and Eminence in the face of a Kingdome wherein by Gods Ordinance and the established Lawes they are under the Kings Majesty appointed the chief Guides and Governours of the Church that any sort of men especially the meanest should be permitted such an unbridled licence against them whether I say it be Christian-like or befitting the honour of a Reformed Church though men may have forgotten to judge God will surely remember 2. But before I meddle with matters of Opinion I must expostulate some things with this Authour which come rather to the nature of Fact and serve to make up a great part of the noyse Where first Sir what meane you by this Title or Frontispice Ladensium Autocatacrisis The Canterburians Selfe-conviction Expound you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Selfe-conviction Sure the word signifies Selfe-condemning and Selfe-convicting is not Selfe-condemning But not to detaine you in this slip Why Selfe-conviction Because they have written something out of which you think you can convict them But your Convicting them is not Selfe-convicting 3. And thirdly why a Demonstration by their owne Confessions Doe they confesse the Fact Indeed you have raked together many Sayings and Sentences out of their Bookes to prove them Arminians and Papists and Maintainers of Tyranny but doe they answer guilty to all this Sure your Purpose is but to fright the poore Men with this Mormo of your Title Otherwise we know an Accusation though taken from the Parties owne mouth does not presently inferre his owne Confession for words may be misapplied or misunderstood Nor to bee convicted by another man though out of his owne mouth is to be selfe-convicted nor to be so convicted even by himselfe is presently to be selfe-condemned This is such stuffe that the Parties concerned as e De Pallio Tertullian sayes of the Camaeleon Ridebunt illicò audaciam Graeciam Nominis 4. But in your * We offer to instruct to the full satisfaction of the whole world of free and inprejudicate mindes not by fleeing reports not by probable likelihoods not by the sentences of the gravest and most solemne Iuâ—icatories of this Land our two last generall Assemblies and late Parliament All there meanes of Probation wee shall set aside and take us alone to the Mouth of our very Adversaries Preface you tell us you could have used other Proofes beside their owne Bookes 1 Flying reports 2 Probable likelihoods 3 The sentences of the two last generall Assemblies and late Parliament in Scotland where the two first are if you marke it forsooth very strong proofs and though you seeme to passe them by yet you have trusted them as much as any But for the third if my Lord of Canterbury and these his Canterburians as you please to call them were then and there in your two Assemblies and Parliament condemned of Poperie being as they stand in your Index all English-men may they not reasonably plead what he doth in the Tragedie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A subject of one Countrey ought not to be judged in another Ne usurpata altarum partium sollicitudine Bellum inter se incitarent as S. Ambrose Spartam tibi quae contigit orna Nobis fuerint Cura Mycenae But the truth is it is enough with men of your Feather to call your Adversaries Papists or Arminians or what you please your Adherents will believe it upon your bare Word Do but you say it and all the Protestations Oathes Subscriptions all the art and industry they can use shall never sufficiently purge them of it So that if now ex superabundanti you will not say it onely but prove it too very good reason you should grace your performance with some extraordinary inscription Let it be therefore Autocatacrisis a very Selfe-conviction though it be indeed neither nor one of these the other Once more If you will needs mistake these men to be Arminians and Papists and
God! upon which of the Canterburians will this Paradox fall Even upon his Grace himselfe you say whose words stand upon the blacke list of your Margin thus Cant. Relat. pag. 202. He that is not blinde may see if hee will of what little value the Popes power in France and Spaine is this day further then to serve the turnes of their Kings therewith which they doe to their great advantage Now that impudence it selfe should not blush out of these words to extort such a prodigious conclusion * Relat. of Relig. Sir Edwin Sands a man never suspected sure in the least manner to warpe towards Popery discourseth very largely with what permutation of courtesies the Pope gratifies Popish Princes and they him how hee serves them with his Dispensations and Excommunications that hee may bee served by them with their Executions In all which belike hee doth but commend the like Practices to his owne King and insinuate that the restitution of the Popes power in England would bee many wayes advantagious and in nothing prejudiciall unto him Hee that saies men of haughty spirits use proud and atheisticall Discourses Psal 33. Their tongue goeth through the world therefore fall the people unto them and thereout suck they no small advantage doth by your reasoning herein exhort men to Pride and Atheisme If these your candid Constructions may goe for solid Arguments to prove Popery upon my Lord of Canterbury nay if they induce not all reasonable men to believe him as hee is most cleare and innocent and that more effectually then any thing we can reply to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Farewell to all modesty truth and piety But let mee tell you touching these great Kings French and Spanish the experience of your Behaviour here towards our and your Gracious Soveraigne will rivet them faster into the Popes Chaire then all the Courtesies they can receive from the Pope himselfe when they shall see that to reforme Religion will not be to vindicate their own just power in the government of the Church nor to reduce their Kingdomes to the peaceable profession of Christian Truth but to expose themselves to new hazards and indeed to breake one yoake to put on another when they shall see that under pretence of Reformation some men will still bee heaving at the publike Government and induce others to expostulate espeé au poing upon every occasion when they shall see the King of Great Britaine that sustaines so much unjust envie and inconvenience with the neighbouring world for defence of the Gospell after the settlement of so many yeares at as hard a passe to satisfie his Subjects in matters of Religion as ever Themselves were When they shall observe all this to arise not from any accidentall matter of Fact but from questions of right from Principles and Doctrines infused into the people by them that will be held the onely Architects of a Reformation though God knowes they are farre from it I say when they shall observe and consider all this it may probably be thought they will keep too close where now they are And this is an immense scandall and incurable would given by you to the Truth of God which you may doe well to consider of in your cooler thoughts 29. Next it offends you P. 39. my L. of Canterbury should exempt himselfe from the jurisdiction of the Pope which he doth even by their owne Lawes and Canons But I pray let not this be a point of Poperie To any reasonable man this one period is a sufficient confutation of your whole discourse unlesse you can by some strange art conclude this contradiction That to shut out the Pope is to let him in P. 41. 30. But it offends you most of all that he says We and the Papists are of one religion yet he gives you his reason withall a Starre-Cham Speech p. 36. There have been in the world of old three Religions Paganisme Iudaisme Christianisme Two of these are false saith b Cont. Sabel Gregales Athanasius and if they oppose each other it is but as the Babylonians fought with the Egyptians the third is the true To these three saith his Grace later times have added a fourth which is Turcisme Now if these be all and Brerewood who inquired thereabout with more diligence than I beleeve ever you did can c Inquir c. 11. tell us of no more And we cannot reasonably accompt the Papists to be Iewes Pagans or Turks we must grant them Christians and so we and they fall under the same gender of Religion That in this Religion we differ and that the Difference is certaine grosse corruptions superinduced by them to the very endangering of salvation this the Archbishop defends and you take notice of it but this satisfies you not it must be toto genere a diverse Religion Now to bid us quit such an authentique division and not supply us with a new one to put the Archbishops Reason in your margin and not gainesay it with a better in your Text is but the same prudence which you have used all your booke along There is a great Schisme in the Mahumetan Religion and it begun d Paul Iovi L. 13. much at the same time that Luther stirred in Germany yet we count them all Mahumetans still and why may not dissenting Christians be all Christians That some errours and corruptions brought into a Religion should diversifie it so as to make it no more the same is alike absurd and unreasonable as if one should say an unsound man is no more a man We hold the substance of Religion in Common the Papists with us e Eph. 4. One Lord one Faith one Baptisme which are S. Paul's Fundamentals Our Faith or Belief is the same as it is contained in and explicated by the same Creeds Our Baptisme the same which is the proper Badge and Character f Vide S. Aug. cont Crescon l. 2. c. 4. of one Religion when any of them returne from their Errours to us we g Pource qui'l reste encores quclque petite trace d'Eglise en la Papauté mesme que la substance du Baptesme y est demcurce joinct que Defficace du Baptesme ne despend de celui qui Padmintstre nous Confessons que cieux qui y sont baptizez n'ont besoin d'un second Baptesme Confess Gallican iterate not this We thinke our selves bound to eschew that arrogance and singularity which h Iam illud quale est quod hominibus Christianis etiam Clericis dicitis eâ—…te Christiani Optat l. 3. Non est alius tam impius superbiae tumor apud omnes qui se à Christi unitate discindunt quà m se solos esse Christianos jactare damnare caeteros August cont Crescon lib. 4. Et in Epist 169. ad Euseb Optatus and S. Augustine reprehended so sharply in the Donatists Now if this be not to your mind I pray tell us what