conclusion of all his examples The Cardinals paire of Martyrs weighed he reckoneth his two English Martyrs Moore and Roffensis who died for that one most weightie head of doctrine as he alledgeth refusing the Oath of Supremacie I must tell him that he hath not been well informed in some materiall points which doe very neerely concerne his two said Martyrs For it is cleare and apparantly to be prooued by diuers Records that they were both of them committed to the Tower about a yeere before either of them was called in question vpon their liues for the Popes Supremacie And that partly for their backwardnesse in the point of the establishment of the Kings succession whereunto the whole Realme had subscribed and partly for that one of them to wit Fisher had had his hand in the matter of the holy 8 Called Elizabeth Barton See the Act of Parliament maide of Kent hee being for his concealement of that false prophets abuse found guiltie of misprision of Treason And as these were the principall causes of their imprisonment the King resting secure of his Supremacie as the Realme stood then affected but especially troubled for setling the Crowne vpon the issue of his second mariage so was it easily to be conceiued that being thereupon discontented their humors were thereby made apt to draw them by degrees to further opposition against the King and his authoritie as indeede it fell out For in the time of their being in prison the Kings lawfull authoritie in cases Ecclesiasticall being published and promulged as well by a generall decree of the Clergie in their Synode as by an Acte of Parliament made thereupon they behaued themselues so peeuishly therein as the olde coales of the Kings anger being thereby raked vp of new they were againe brought in question as well for this one most weighty head of doctrine of the Pope his supremacy as for the matter of the Kings mariage and succession as by the confession of one of themselues euen Thomas Moore is euident For being condemned he vsed these words at the barre before the Lords Non ignoro cur me morti adiudicaueritis videlicet ob id Histor aliquet Martyrum nostri seculi Anno 1550. quòd nunquam voluerim assentiri in negotio matrimonij Regis That is I am not ignorant why you haue adiudged mee to death to wit for that I would neuer consent in the businesse of the new mariage of the King By which his owne confession it is plaine that this great martyr himselfe tooke the cause of his owne death to be onely for his being refractary to the King in this said matter of Marriage and Succession which is but a very fleshly cause of Martyrdome as I conceiue And as for Roffensis his fellow Martyr who could haue bene content to haue taken the Oath of the Kings Supremacie with a certaine modification which Moore refused as his imprisonment was neither onely nor principally for the cause of Supremacie so died hee but a halting and a singular Martyr or witnesse for that most weighty head of doctrine the whole Church of England going at that time in one current and streame as it were against him in that Argument diuers of them being of farre greater reputation for learning and sound iudgement then euer he was So as in this point we may well arme our selues with the Cardinals owne reason where he giueth amongst other notes of the trew Church Vniuersalitie for one wee hauing the generall and Catholique conclusion of the whole Church of England on our side in this case as appeareth by their booke set out by the whole Conuocation of England called The Institution of a Christian man the same matter being likewise very learnedly handled by diuers particular learned men of our Church as by Steuen Gardiner in his booke De vera obedientia with a Preface of Bishop Boners adioyning to it De summo absoluto Regis Imperio published by M. Bekinsaw De vera differentia Regiae Potestatis Ecclesiasticae Bishop Tonstals Sermon Bishop Longlands Sermon the letter of Tonstall to Cardinall Poole and diuers other both in English and Latine And if the bitternesse of Fishers discontentment had not bene fed with his dayly ambitious expectation of the Cardinals hat which came so neere as Calis before he lost his head to fill it with I haue great reason to doubt if he would haue constantly perseuered in induring his Martyrdome for that one most waighty head of doctrine And surely these two Captaines and ringleaders to Martyrdome were but ill followed by the rest of their countreymen for I can neuer reade of any after them being of any great accompt and that not many that euer sealed that weighty head of doctrine with their blood in England So as the trew causes of their first falling in trouble whereof I haue already made mention being rightly considered vpon the one part and vpon the other the scant number of witnesses that with their blood sealed it a point so greatly accompted of by our Cardinal there can but smal glory redound thereby to our English nation these onely two Enoch and Elias seruing for witnesses against our Antichristian doctrine And I am sure the Supremacie of Kings may The Supremacy of Kings sufficiently warranted by the Scriptures wil euer be better maintained by the word of God which must euer be the trew rule to discerne all waighty heads of doctrine by to be the trew and proper office of Christian Kings in their owne dominions then he will be euer able to maintaine his annihilating Kings and their authorities together with his base and vnreuerend speaches of them wherewith both his former great Volumes and his late Bookes against Venice are filled In the old Testament Kings were directly 1 2. Chron. 19.4 Gouernours ouer the Church within their Dominions 2 2. Sam. 5.6 purged their corruptions reformed their abuses brought the 3 1. Chron. 13.12 Arke to her resting place the King 4 2. Sam. 6.16 dancing before it 5 1. Chron. 28.6 built the Temple 6 2. Chron. 6. dedicated the same assisting in their owne persons to the sanctification thereof 7 2. King 22.11 made the Booke of the Law new-found to bee read to the people 8 Nehe. 9.38 Dauid Salomon renewed the Couenant betweene God and his people 9 2. King 18.4 bruised the brasen serpent in pieces which was set vp by the expresse commandement of God and was a figure of Christ destroyed 10 1. King 15.12 2. king 13.4 all Idoles and false gods made 11 2. Chron. 17.8 a publike reformation by a Commission of Secular men and Priests mixed for that purpose deposed 12 1. King 2.27 the high Priest and set vp another in his place and generally ordered euery thing belonging to the Church-gouernment their Titles and Prerogatiues giuen them by God agreeing to these their actions They are called the 13 2.
that of the Workes of GOD for workes of Nature haue their roote from within vs and bring with them a radicall kinde of vertue that neuer suffers them to rest till they haue produced their fruite to perfect forme and perfection Workes of deliberation and Art haue their foundation from without vs and giue vs occasion to worke vpon them as our phantasies thinke fittest for the present time Hence proceeds it that the workes of Nature haue so few errors in them those of Art so many They of Nature so constant they of Arte so variable they of Nature so permanent they of Art so soone perish they of Nature so well accepted and approued of all they of Art accepted or reiected as it pleaseth the seuerall apprehensions of men to conceiue of them Now albeit the workes of men be of Errors so full of nature so different subiect to so many Jnterpretations published at so diuers times Yet hath it bene euer esteemed a matter commendable to collect them together and incorporate them into one Body that we may behold at once what diuers Off-springs haue proceeded from one braine and how various Conceptions the wit of man is able to afford the world To instance in a few of them beginning a little higher then the writings of ordinarie Men. The seruants of Hezekiah are commended in Scripture for collecting together the Sentences of Solomon Iesus the sonne of Sirach is praised for searching out the Copies of his Grandfathers workes But principally Ezra is had in great honour for setting in order the whole Bookes of the Old Testament and deuiding them into Chapters and Verses which before were caried along in a scroule by a continuall Series without any distinction at all S. Iohn is reported to haue searched out the Copies of the three former Euangelists and to haue added his owne for the fourth in that order as now they are extant And the Primitiue Church was curious to gather together the Epistles of the Holy Apostles which they being not able by reason of persecution perfectly to performe in euery place gaue occasion to after-times to call the authority of so many of them into question But to descend How are we bound to those who haue laboured in setting out the Counsells and Works of the Fathers together Jnsomuch that we thinke our selues as much bound to Eusebius and Hierom and of later times to Peter Crab and Erasmus and diuers others who haue laboured in that kinde as wee doe almost to the Authors themselues Traian commended Plutark for gathering the Apothegmes of wise men together Constantinus the sonne of Leo collected out of all Histories both in the East and West one Corpus Historicum which they counted an inestimable Treasure Iustinian by the helpe of Tribonianus did the like in the Lawes Gratian compiled the Decrees out of the Epistles of Popes Councells and Fathers Damascen collected into one body of Diuinitie the Sentences of the Greeke Fathers And Peter Lumbard 400. yeeres after him by his example did the like in the Latine Fathers And how doe wee labour to recouer Bookes that are lost The Bookes of Origen that amounted to sixe thousand as Epiphanius witnesseth were much laboured for by Eusebius and others The Bookes of Cicero de Repub. were much sought for by Cardinall Poole and great summes of money haue bene spent to recouer the lost Decades of Liuie Wherefore since it hath beene heretofore the practise of all aages to collect the workes of Men of worth and preserue them from perishing to labour much in recouering those that haue bene lost to giue to euery childe the owne Father to euery Booke the trew Author for there neuer had bene halfe so many birds to haue flowen about the world with false feathers if euery Author had set out his owne workes together in his owne time J hope then it shall not be now a matter of reproofe in a Seruant to trauaile in the setting foorth of the Works of his Master and for giuing you that together which before yee could hardly get asunder and for preseruing that in a Masse from perishing that might easily be lost in a Mite But while I am collecting workes one way I heare others scattering wordes as fast an other way affirming it had beene better his Maiestie had neuer written any Bookes at all and being written better they had perished with the present like Proclamations then haue remayned to Posterity For say these Men Little it befitts the Maiesty of a King to turne Clerke and to make a warre with the penne that were fitter to be fought with the Pike to spend the powers of his so exquisite an vnderstanding vpon paper which had they beene spent on powder could not but haue preuayled ere this for the Conquest of a Kingdome For a King say they to enter a Controuersie with a Scholler is as if he should fight a Combate with a Kerne he doth no more descend from his Honour in the one then he bringes vpon himselfe Disgrace by the other And since that Booke-writing is growen into a Trade It is as dishonorable for a King to write bookes as it is for him to be a Practitioner in a Profession Jf a King will needs write Let him write like a King euery Lyne a Law euery Word a Precept euery Letter a Mandate Jn good trewth I haue had my eares so oft dung through with these Obiections and the like as I know not whether I conceiued amisse of my selfe or no thinking I had more ability to answere these Calumnyes then I had patience to heare them And therefore hauing so fit opportunity J shall not let to deliuer my opinion Whether it may sorte with the Maiestie of a King to be a writer of Bookes or no. First I could neuer reade that there was any Law against it and where we haue no Law the best is to follow good Examples And many Diuines are of opinion that examples that are not contrary to any Precept doe binde vs in practise at least so farre that though they doe not inforce vs to the doing yet they warrant the deede when it is done And if Examples will serue the turne wee haue Examples enough First to beginne with the King of Kings God himselfe who as he doth all things for our good So doeth he many things for our Jmitation Jt pleased his Diuine wisedome to bee the first in this Rancke that we read of that did euer write Hee wrote and the writing was the writing saith Moses of God the maner was after the maner of engrauing the matter was in Stone cut into two Tables and the Tables were the worke of God written on both sides Diuines hold that the Heart is the principall Seate of the Soule which Soule of ours is the immediate worke of God as these Tables were the immediate worke of his owne fingers The Stone the expresse represent of the hardnesse of our heart the engrauing the worke of God so deepely impressed
come and when hee commeth hee shall continue a short space Verse 11. And the Beast that was and is not is the eight and yet one of the seuen By which Beast hee meaneth the Antichrist who was not then come I meane in the Apostles dayes but was to come after So as betweene the time of the Apostles and the ende of the worlde must the Time of the Antichrists comming be and with this the Papists doe also agree Whereby it appeareth that Babylon which is Rome shall bee the Seate of the Antichrist Reuel 1.1 chap. 4.1 but not that Ethnicke Rome which was in the Apostles dayes for Iohn himselfe professeth that hee is to write of nothing but that which is to come after his time Nor yet that turning Christian Rome while shee was in the conuerting which immediatly followed the Apostles time glorious by the Martyrdome of so many godly Bishops But that Antichristian Rome when as the Antichrist shal set downe his seat there after that by the working of that Mysterie of iniquitie Christian Rome shall become to be corrupted and so that deadly wound which the Gothes and Vandales gaue Rome shall bee cured in that Head or King the Antichrist who thereafter shall arise and reigne for a long space But here it may bee obiected that the Antichrist cannot reigne a long space since S. Iohn saith in two or three sundry places that the Antichrist shall worke but the space of three yeeres and a halfe Surely who will but a little acquaint himselfe with the phrases and Stile of S. Iohn in his Apocalyps shall finde that he doth ordinarily set downe numerum certum pro incerto Chap. 7. Chap. 9.16 18. So doeth hee in his twelue thousand of euery Tribe that will bee safe so doeth he in his Armie of two hundred thousand that were sent to kill the third part of the men and so doeth he in diuers other places And therefore who will but remember that in all his Visions in the said Booke hee directly imitates the fashions of the Prophet Ezekiels Daniels and Zacharies Visions borrowing their phrases that prophecied before CHRIST to vtter his Prophecies in that was to speake of the last dayes shall finde it very probable that in these three dayes and a halfe hee imitated Daniels Weekes accounting for his Weeke the time betweene CHRISTS first and second comming and making Antichrist to triumph the halfe of that time or spirituall Weeke For as to that literall interpretation as all the Papists make it of three yeeres and a halfe and that time to sall out directly the very last dayes saue fiue and fourtie before CHRIST his second comming it is directly repugnant to the whole New TESTAMENT For CHRIST saith That in the latter dayes men shall be feasting marrying and at all such worldly businesse when the last houre shall come in a clap vpon them One shall be at the Mill One vpon the top of the house Matth. 24.41 and so foorth CHRIST telleth a Parable of the fiue foolish Virgins Matth. 25. to shew the vnlooked-for comming of this houre Nay hee saith the Sonne of man nor the Angels in heauen know not this time S. Peter biddeth vs WATCH AND PRAY euer awaiting vpon that houre And S. Iohn in this same Apocalyps doeth 1 Reuel 3.3 and 16. â—5 twise tell vs that CHRIST will come as a thiefe in the night And so doeth CHRIST say in the 2 Matth. 24.44 Euangel Whereas if the Antichrist shall reigne three yeeres and a halfe before the Latter day and that there shall bee but iust fourtie fiue dayes of time after his destruction then shall not the iust day and houre of the Latter day bee vnknowne to them that shall be aliue in the world at the time of Antichrists destruction For first according to the Papists doctrine all the world shall know him to be the Antichrist both by the two Witnesses doctrine and his sudden destruction And consequently they cannot be ignorant that the Latter day shall come iust fourtie fiue dayes after and so CHRIST shall not come as a thiefe nor the world bee taken at vnawares contrary to all the Scriptures before alleadged and many more And thus haue we proued Rome to be the Seat of the Antichrist and the second halfe of that spirituall Weeke betweene the first and second comming of CHRIST to be the time of his Reigne For in the first halfe thereof the mysterie of iniquitie began to worke but the man of Sinne was not yet reuealed But who these Witnesses should be is a great question The generall conceit of the Papists is that it must bee Enoch and Elias And heerein is Bellarmine so strong as hee thinketh him in a great errour if not an Heretike that doubteth of it But the vanitie of the Iewish fable I will in few words discouer The Cardinall Bellar. de Rom. Pont. lib. 3. cap. 6. in his booke of Controuersies bringeth foure places of Scripture for probation of this idle dreame two in the Old Testament Malachie and Ecclesiasticus and two in the New CHRIST in Matthew hee might haue added Marke too and Iohn in the xj of the Apocalyps First for the generall of all those places I dare boldly affirme That there is not a word in them nor in all the rest of the Scriptures that saith that either Enoch or Elias shall returne to fight against Antichrist and shall bee slaine by him nor any such like matter Next as to euery place in particular to begin with Malachie I know not who can better interpret him then CHRIST Matt. 11.14 and 17.12 Mar. 9.13 who twise in Matthew Chap. xj and xvij and once in Marke tels both the multitude and his owne Disciples that Iohn Baptist was that promised Elias And heerein doeth Bellarmine deale most vnfaithfully with CHRIST for in his demonstration that Antichrist is not yet come because Enoch and Elias are not yet returned hee for his probation thereof citeth these wordes of CHRIST in the xvij of Matthew Elias shall indeed come and restore all things but omits his very next wordes interpreting the same That bee is already come in the person of Iohn Baptist Nay whereby hee taketh vpon him to answere Biblianders obiection that CHRIST did by Iohn the Baptist vnderstand the prophecie of Elias comming to be accomplished he picketh out the words Qui habet aures audiat in the xj of Matthew immediatly following that purpose of Elias making of them a great mysterie and neuer taketh knowledge that in the xvij by himselfe before alleaged CHRIST doeth interpret Malachie in the same maner without any subioyning of these words Qui habet aures audiat adioyning shamelesly hereunto a foule Paraphrase of his owne telling vs what CHRIST would haue said nay in my conscience he meant what CHRIST should and ought to haue said if he had bene a good Catholike setting downe there a glosse of Orleance that destroyes the Text.
haue bene so long agone free from sinne as I thinke they shall neede no more such maceration for sinne For they must be now either in Heauen or Paradise If in heauen as doubtlesse they are their bodies must bee glorified for no corruptible thing can enter there Reuel 21.27 and consequently they can no more bee subiect to the sensible things of this world especially to death But if they be in earthly Paradise we must first know where it is Bellarmine indeed in his Controuersies is much troubled to finde out the place where Paradise is Lib de Grat. primi hominis and whether it bee in the earth or in the ayre But these are all vanities The Scriptures tell vs Gen. 2. that Paradise and the garden of Eden therein was a certaine place vpon the earth which GOD chose out to set Adam into and hauing thereafter for his sinne banished him from the same it is a blasphemie to thinke that any of Adams posteritie came euer there againe For in Adam were all his posteritie accursed and banished from the earthly Paradise like as all the earth in generall and Paradise in speciall were accursed in him the second Adam hauing by grace called a certaine number of them to bee Coheritours with him of the heauenly Paradise and Ierusalem And doubtlesly the earthly Paradise was defaced at the Flood if not before and so lost all that exquisite fertilitie and pleasantnesse wherein it once surpassed all the rest of the earth And that it should be lifted vp in the ayre is like one of the dreames of the Alcoran Surely no such miracle is mentioned in the Scriptures and hath no ground but from the curious fancies of some boyling braines who cannot be content Sapere ad sobrietatem Rom. 12.3 In heauen then for certaine are Enoch and Elias Gen 5.24 2. King 2.10 11. for Enoch saith the Text walked with GOD and was taken vp and Elias was seene catied vp to heauen in a fierie chariot And that they who haue beene the In-dwellers of Heauen these many thousand yeeres and are freed from the Lawes of mortalitie that these glorious and incorruptible bodies I say shall come in the world againe preach and worke miracles and fighting against the Antichrist be slaine by him whom naturall death could not before take hold of as it is a fabulous inuention so is it quite contrary to the nature of such sanctified creatures Especially I wonder why Enoch should bee thought to bee one of these two Witnesses for CHRIST For it was Moses and Elias that were with CHRIST at the transsiguration signifying the Law and the Prophets which would be the fittest witnesses for conuincing of Antichrist But why they haue exempted Moses and put Enochs head in the yoake I cannot conceiue So as I haue too much laboured in the refuting of this foolish and indeed childish fable which I am so farre from beleeuing in any sort as I protest in GODS presence I cannot hold any learned Diuine in our aage now to be a Christian that will beleeue it but worthy to bee ranked with the Scribes and Pharises that raued and dreamed vpon the comming againe of Elias though CHRIST told them the contrary As for some of the Ancients that mistooke this matter I doe not censure them so hardly for the reason that I haue already alleaged concerning them And hauing now refuted that idle fable that those two Witnesses were Enoch and Elias it falleth mee next to guesse what in my opinion should bee meant by them I confesse it is farre easier to refute such a groundlesse fable as this is contrary to all grounds of Diuinitie and Reason then to set downe a trew interpretation of so high and darke a Mistery And therefore as I will not presume to bind any other man to my opinion herein if his owne reason leade him not thereunto so shall I propone such probable coniectures as I hope shall be free from Heresie or vnlawfull curiositie In two diuers fashions may the Mysterie of these Witnesses be lawfully and probably interpreted in my opinion Whereof the one is that by these two Witnesses should be meant the Old and New Testaments For as the Antichrist cannot chuse but bee an aduersary to the Word of GOD aboue all things so will hee omit no endeuour to disgrace corrupt suppresse and destroy the same And now whether this Booke of the two Testaments or two Witnesses of CHRIST haue suffered any violence by the Babylonian Monarchie or not I need say nothing Res ipsaloquitur I will not weary you with recounting those Common Places vsed for disgracing it as calling it a Nose of waxe a dead Letter a leaden Rule a hundreth such like phrases of reproch But how farre the Traditions of men and authoritie of the Church are preferred to these Witnesses doeth sufficiently appeare in the Babylonian doctrine And if there were no more but that little booke Cardinall Peâ—on with that prettie Inscription De l'Insuffisance de l'Escriture Sainte it is enough to proue it And as to the corrupting therof the corruptions of the old Latine transltion must not be corrected Luke 15.8 though it bid euertere domum in stead of euerrere Iohn 21.22 23. for seeking of a penie and though it say of Iohn Sic eum volo manere donec veniam in place of Si though it be knowne a plaine Lie and that the very next words of the Text disproue the same Nay so farre must wee be from correcting it as that the Vulgar Translation must be preferred by Catholikes to the Bible in the owne Originall tongue And is it a small corrupting of Scriptures to make all or the most part of the Apocrypha of equall faith with the Canonicall Scriptures contrary to the Fathers opinions and Decrees of ancient Councels And what blasphemous corrupting of Scripture is it to turne Dominus into Domina throughout the whole Psalmes Made by Boneuentura Doctor Seraphicus And thus our Ladies Psalter was lately reprinted in Paris Is not this to confound CHRISTS person with hers And as for suppressing of the Scriptures how many hundreth yeeres were the people kept in such blindenes as these Witnesses were almost vnknowne for the Layicks durst not being forbidden and the most part of the Cleargie either would or could not meddle with them Thus were these two Witnesses of CHRIST whom of himselfe saith Scrutamini Scriptur as Iohn 5.39 illae enim testimonium perhibent de me These 1 Reuel 11.4 two Oliues bringing peace to all the beleeuers euen peace of Conscience These 2 Ibid. two Candlesticks standing in the sight of GOD and giuing light to the Nations represented by Candlesticks euen in the very order of the Roman Masse See Expositio Missae annexed to Ordo Romanus set forth by G. Cassander Thus were these two Witnesses I say disgraced corrupted and suppressed nay so suppressed and silenced as he was brent
that it can neuer be blotted out the writing the writing of the Law in our hearts In two Tables for our double duty to God and Man on both sides to take vp our heart so wholly that nothing contrary to those Precepts should euer haue any place in our Soules And certainely from this little Library that God hath erected within vs is the foundation of all our Learning layd So that people Ciuillized doe account themselues depriued of one of the best abilities of nature if they be not somewhat inabled by writing to expresse their mindes And there is no Nation so brutish or Barbarous that haue not inuented one kinde of Character or other whereby to conuey to others their inward Conceptions From these Tables of God wee may come to the writing of our Blessed Sauiour which we may put in the next place though not for order yet for Honour His Diuine Maiestie left behinde him no Monument of writing written by his owne hand in any externall Booke for he was to induce and bring in an other maner of the writing of the Law of Loue not in Tables of stone written not with incke and paper but in the Tables of our fleshly hearts written by the Spirit of the Liuing God Yet did he once with his owne finger write on the Pauement of the Temple of Ierusalem What he writ J will not now discusse S. Ambrose saith he wrote this Sentence Festucam in oculo fratris cernis trabem in tuo non vides Beda thinkes he wrote that Sentence that he spake He that is without sinne let him cast the first stone at her Haymo hath a pretty Conceit He thinketh he wrote certaine Characters in the Pauement which the Accusers beholding might see as in a glasse their owne wickednesse and so blushing at it went their wayes What euer it was sure we are our Sauiour would haue false accusations written in dust to bee troden vnder foote of them that passe by But howsoeuer I say our Blessed Sauiour did leaue behind him no writing of his owne hand Yet we may not deny but that God in the old Testament and our Sauiour in the New haue left vs many bookes of their owne inditements For all the Bookes of holy Scripture were written by inspiration and the Prophets and Apostles were but their Amanuenses and writ onely as they were led and actuated by the Spirit of God So that we may not make the Author of any of those Bookes any other then God Himselfe The old world before the flood wil afford vs no writings neither did that aage require them for the liues of Men of that aage were liuing Libraries and lasted longer then the labors of Men doe in this aage Yet S. Iude doeth insinuate somewhat of the writings of Enoch who though he were not in Stile a King Yet there is no reason to contend with him for that Title for his Dominion would beare it standing Heire-Apparent to the greater part of the world Origen Tertullian and Augustine report many things out of the supposititous writings that went vnder his name And Iosephus and that Berosus that wee haue tell vs that hee erected two pillars the one of Stone the other of Bricke wherein he wrote of the two-fold destructions of the world the one by Water the other by Fire But howsoeuer that be trew it is very probable he wrote something of that matter which though it perished with that world yet doubtlesse the memory thereof was preserued by Tradition vnto the dayes of the Apostles J will not here insist vpon the writings of Moses who was not onely a Priest and a Prophet but was as himselfe records amongst the people a King and was the first that euer receiued authoritie from GOD to write in Diuinitie Neither will J insist vpon the Example of King Dauid in whose Psalmes and Himnes are resounded out the praises of GOD in all the Churches for that J finde nothing that these men writ but what they writ as the Scribes of GOD acted as I said euen now by GOD his Spirit and not guided by their owne Yet I suppose wee may safely collect thus much from them that if GOD had thought it a matter derogatory to the Maiestie of a King to bee a Writer he would not haue made choice of those as his chiefe Instruments in this kinde who were principalls in that other Order J would easily beleeue that such men as haue had the honour to be GOD his Pen-men should neuer vouchsafe to write any thing of their owne for as we hold in a pious opinion that the blessed Virgine hauing once conceiued by the holy Ghost would neuer after conceiue by man So surely men that had deliuered nothing but the conceptions of that Spirit should hardly be drawne euer to set out any of their owne labours But we see the flat contrary both in Samuel and Solomon the one the greatest Iudge the other the most glorious King that euer that Kingdome had Samuel who writ by GODS appointment the greatest part of those two Bookes that beare his name writ also by his owne accord a Booke contayning the Law of a King or Institution of a Prince whereby hee laboured to keepe the King as well from declining to Tyrannie as the people from running into Libertie Solomon besides the Bookes of Scripture which remaine writ many likewise of his owne accord which are lost For to say nothing of his 3000. Parables his 5000. Songes that ingens opus as the Hebrues call it of the nature of all things Birds and Beasts Fowles and fishes Trees and plants from the Hysop to the Cedar All these were rather workes to manifest humane wisedome then Diuine knowledge written rather for the recreation of his owne spirit then for the edification of the Church For I cannot conceiue but those Bookes would rather haue taught vs the learning of Nature for which GOD hath left vs to the writings of men then edified vs in the gifts of Grace for which hee hath giuen vs his owne Booke Neither let any man suggest that these writings that are lost and as they say were destroyed in the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians were of the same authoritie as those that doe remaine for J can hardly be induced to beleeue that the writings that were indited by the Spirit of GOD layed vp in the Arke receiued into the Canon read publikely in the Church are vtterly perished Jt is a desperate thing to call either the prouidence of GOD or the fidelity of the Church in question in this point For if those that haue bene are perished then why may not these that remaine as well be lost which is contrary to our Sauiours assertion that one Iota shall not perish till all bee fulfilled Therefore J rather incline to thinke that what euer was Scripture still is then that any is lost Neither is this opinion so curious to hold as the other is dangerous to beleeue Better it
Raylers I leaue them to God his Iudgment whose hand hath bene vpon the most of them Thirdly his Maiesties Confession of faith hath bene so generally approued as it hath conuerted many of their partie And had it not bene as J haue bene informed by diuerse for the Treatise of Antichrist many more would easily haue bene induced to subscribe to all in that Preface Fourthly Kings and Princes haue by his Maiesties Premonition had a more cleare insight and a more perfect discouery into the Iniury offered them by the Pope in the point of their temporall Power then euer they had Jnsomuch as that point was neuer so throughly disputed in Christendome as it hath bene by the occasion of his Maiesties Booke Fiftly and lastly for the point of Antichrist I haue heard many confesse that they neuer saw so much light giuen to that Mysterie neuer descerned so much trewth by the vniforme consent of the Text and strength of Interpretation of places as they haue done by his Maiesties Booke So that though Controuersies be fitter subiects for Schollers ordinarily then for Kings Yet when there was such a necessitie in vndertaking and such a successe being performed I leaue it to the world to iudge whether there were not a speciall hand of GOD in it or no. Now since I haue begunne with this point of Antichrist J will make bolde to proceed a little with his Maiesties Paraphrase vpon the Reuelation wherein that Treatise of Antichrist is principally grounded His Maiesties singular vnderstanding in all points of good Learning is not vnknowne But yet aboue all other things GOD hath giuen him an vnderstanding Heart in the Interpretation of that Booke beyond the measure of other men For this Paraphrase that leades the way to all the rest of his Maiesties Workes was written by his Maiestie before hee was twenty yeeres of aage and therefore iustly in this Volume hath the first place the rest following in order according to the time of their first penning Anciently Kings drempt dreames and saw visions and Prophets expounded them So with King Pharaoh and Ioseph in Egypt So with Nabuchodonosor and Daniel in Babylon Jn this aage Prophets haue written Visions and Kings haue expounded them GOD raised vp Prophets to deliuer his People from a temporall captiuitie in Egypt and Babylon by the Jnterpretation of the one And GOD hath in this aage stirred vp Kings to deliuer his People from a Spirituall Egypt and Babylon by the Interpretation of the other It is an obseruable thing that GOD neuer made his People any great promise but he added vnto his promise a famous Prophecie Three great promises we reade of that runne through all the Scriptures The first of the Messiah the second of the land of Canaan the third of the Kingdome of Heauen To these three promises are reduced all the Prophecies Of the promise of the Messiah prophecied all the Prophets from the fall of the first Adam to the comming of the second Of the promise of the Land of Canaan prophecied Iacob and Ioseph and the rest from the promise made to Abraham to the possessing of it by Iosuah and the children of Israel Of the promise of the Kingdome of Heauen made by our Sauiour CHRIST ' prophecied the Apostles principally S. Paul and S. Iohn in the Reuelation Now though all were to lay hold on the promises yet few were able to vnderstand the Prophecies And surely though all the people of GOD are to lay hold on the promises of that Glorious Kingdome described in that Booke yet few are able to vnderstand the Prophecies therein contained comprehending in them a perfect History and State of the Church euen from the destruction of Ierusalem till the consummation of the whole world Yet this I thinke I may safely say That Kings haue a kinde of interest in that Booke beyond any other for as the execution of the most part of the Prophecies of that Booke is committed vnto them So it may be that the Interpretation of it may more happily be made by them And since they are the principall Instruments that GOD hath described in that Booke to destroy the Kingdome of Antichrist to consume his State and Citie I see not but it may stand with the Wisedome of GOD to inspire their heart to expound it into whose handes hee hath put it to excute vntill the LORD shall consume both him and it with the Spirit of his mouth and shall abolish it with the brightnesse of his comming For from the day that S. Iohn writ the Booke to this present houre I doe not thinke that euer any King tooke such paines or was so perfect in the Reuelation as his Maiestie is which will easily appeare by this Paraphrase by his Maiesties Meditation on the 20. Chap. and his Monitorie Preface Jt was my purpose to haue past through all his Maiesties Books to haue expressed the Argument and the occasion of their writing But I find by that J haue already said I should be ouer tedious vnto you This therefore in generall They are all worthy of a King and to be kept to Posterity For if Ouid could imagine that no time should eate out the memory of his Metamorphoseis which were but fictions J hope no time shall see an end of these Books that carry in them so much diuine trewth and light And as in this first worke of the Paraphrase his Maiestie hath shewed his Piety So in this last Pearle I meane his Maiesties Speach in the Starr-Chamber his Maiestie hath shewed his Policy The first sheweth hee vnderstands the Kingdome of GOD this last that hee as well apprehends the State of his Kingdomes in this World The first sheweth him to haue a large Portion in that of Heauen and this last sheweth him to haue a great Power and experience in these Kingdomes hee hath on earth Therefore let these men that delight so much in Detraction and to vilify him whom GOD hath exalted and to shed his blood whose Soule GOD hath bound vp in the Bundle of life Let them J say write what euer the Subtilty of the olde Serpent can put into their heads or the Malice of Sathan infuse into their hearts Let them speake what the poyson of Aspes is able to put into their lippes they are not all able to make his Maiestie to appeare lesse then he is nor to shew that euer they had of theirs a King so accomplished It is trew that wee haue not had many Kings in this Kingdome of our Profession But for those we haue had this Iland of ours neuer saw the like either for partes of Nature giftes of Learning or Graces of Piety The little time of life that God lent to King Edward must needs lessen his prayses But neuer did there appeare beginnings of more rare perfection then in him The length of Queene Elizabeths dayes together with the felicity of her time was not only a Glory to her owne People but a wonderment to the
change longer then we are well able to deduce the whole life and reigne of Solomon We haue not the Daughter of Pharao an Idolatrous King nor feare we strange women to steale away his heart from the Seruice of GOD But a Queene as of a Royall so of a Religious Stocke professing the Gospell of Christ with him A Mirrour of trew Modestie a Queene of Bounty both beloued and admired of all his People A Posterity that we need not feare for folly in the one Sexe nor for leuitie in the other Both which made Solomon speake so much as the Iewes say in his Prouerbes of a foolish sonne because his owne was not wise and of wanton Women because he feared the vanity of his owne Daughters But GOD hath left his Maiestie a Sonne a Prince as in outward Liniaments so in inward Abiliments I need say no more an Alter-Idem a second-Selfe A Daughter a Princesse of that Piety singular vertue and Modestie as makes her both beloued at home and admired abroad J haue done Only I desire the Readers of these Workes to pray to GOD that as he hath so farre aduanced vs as to bestowe vpon vs with the Heauenly Treasures of his trewth the riches of his earthly Iewels in so Sacred a King so admired a Queene so hopefull a Prince so vertuous a Princes He would for his Mercies sake for his Sonnes sake continue this the Light of his Countenance vpon vs in them and their Posterity till the comming of that Kingdome which neuer shall haue end AMEN Thine in the Lord IA. WINTON THE SEVERALL TREATISES ACCORDING TO THE TIME WHEREIN THEY WERE WRITTEN AND THEIR PLACE IN THIS Collection c. A PARAPHRASE vpon the Reuelation Pag. 7. Two Meditations The First vpon the 7. 8. 9. and 10. Verses of the 20. Chap. of the Reuelation Pag. 73 Second vpon the 25. 26. 27. 28. and 29. Verses of the 15. Chapter of the first Booke of the Chronicles Pag. 81 Daemonologie First Booke Pag. 94 Second Booke Pag. 108 Third Booke Pag. 123. Basilicon-Doron First Booke Pag. 148 Second Booke Pag. 155 Third Booke Pag. 180. The trew Law of Free Monarchies AnonymΩs Pag. 193 A Counter-blast to Tobacco AnonymΩs Pag. 214 A Discourse of the Powder Treason AnonymΩs Pag. 223. An Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance first set out AnonymΩs and afterwards published with the Praemonition vnder His Maiesties owne name Pag. 247 A Praemonition to all Christian Monarches Free Princes and States written both in English and Latine by his Maiestie Pag. 289 A Declaration against Vorstius written by His Maiestie first in French after translated into English by His Maiesties leaue Pag. 349 A Defence of the Right of KINGS against Cardinall Perron written by His Maiestie in French and thereafter translated into English by His Maiesties leaue Pag. 392 Fiue Speaches THE First in Parliament ANNO 1603. Pag. 485. Second in Parliament ANNO 1605. Pag. 499. Third at White-hall ANNO 1607. Pag. 509. Fourth at White-hall ANNO 1609. Pag. 527. Fift in the Starre-Chamber ANNO 1616. Pag. 549. THE EPISTLE TO THE WHOLE CHVRCH MILITANT in whatsoeuer part of the Earth TO whom could I haue so fitly directed Christian Readers this Paraphrase of mine vpon the Reuelation as vnto you who are the very and true posteritie of those Churches to whom the Booke it selfe was dedicated and for whose instruction and comfort the said Epistle was endited by the Holy Spirit and written by that great Theologue IOHN the Apostle whom our Master beloued deerely J doubt not but it will seeme strange to many that any of my aage calling and literature should haue medled with so obscure Theologicall and high a subiect But let my earnest desire by manifesting the Trueth as well to teach my selfe as others serue for excuse considering also that where diuers others in our aage haue medled with the interpretation of this Booke pressing with preoccupied opinions onely to wrest and conforme the meaning thereof to their particular and priuate passions J by the contrary protest that all my trauailes tend to square and conforme my opinions to the trew and sincere meaning thereof Which causes mooued me to vndertake this worke not thereby to despise infinite others who to the glory of God and great comfort of his Church hath giuen it a great light already but rather that by oft perusing and dew considering therof whereto this worke hath led mee J might be the better acquainted with the meaning of this Booke which J esteeme a speciall cannon against the Hereticall wall of our common aduersaries the Papists whom I would wish to know that in this my Paraphrase vpon it J haue vsed nothing of my owne coniecture or of the authoritie of others but onely haue interpreted it in that sense which may best agree with the methode of the Epistle and not bee contradictorie to it selfe The meaning whereof I expound partly by it selfe and partly by other parts of the Scriptures as the worke it selfe will beare witnesse And therefore this one thing J must craue of our Aduersaries that they will not refute any part of my Interpretation till they finde out a more probable themselues agreeing with the whole context cum serie temporum and where their consciences beare them witnesse that J speake the Trueth that they will yeeld vnto it and glorifie God therein and this is all the reward I craue for my paines But of one thing I must forewarne you Christian Readers to wit that yee may vnderstand that it is for the making of the Discourse more short and facile that I haue made IOHN to be the Speaker in all this Paraphrase and not that I am so presumptuously foolish as to haue meant thereby that my Paraphrase is the onely trew and certaine exposition of this Epistle reiecting all others For although through speaking in his person I am onely bounded and limitted to vse one and not diuers interpretations of euery seuerall place yet I condemne not others but rather allow them to interpret it diuersly so being it agree with the analogie of faith with the methode of the Text cum serie temporum as I said before for those three being obserued it may fall out that diuers diuersly expound one place and yet all be according to the trueth and very meaning of the Spirit of God as may easily be proued by the Text it selfe For in the 17. Chapter the Angel expounding to Iohn the seuen heads of the beastes that came out of the Sea hee saith the seuen heads which thou sawest vpon the beast are the seuen Hills and they are also seuen Kings Here ye see one thing is expounded in two very farre different fashions and yet both true And therefore let wise men take their choice in these things obseruing alwayes these rules I haue spoken of as specially for example This Hebrew word Arma geddon in the 16. Chapter and sixt Phiale although I expound it to signifie destruction by
same by Vision of the woman in the wildernesse and of the Beasts that rose out of the sea and the earth in the 12. 13. and 14. Chapters And then to comfort men that might otherwise despaire Chap. 15.16 because of the greatnesse of that temptation he declares by the next following Vision of the Phials what plagues shall light vpon the Pope and his followers Next he describes him againe Chap. 17.18.19 Chap. 20. farre clearer then any time before and likewise his ruine together with the sorrow of the Earth and ioy of Heauen therefore And then to inculcate and ingraue the better the foresaid Visions in the hearts and memories of Men hee in a Vision makes a short summe and recapitulation of them to wit of the present estate of the Church then and what it should bee thereafter vnto the Day of Iudgement together with a short description of the said Day And last he describes by a Vision the glorious reward of them who constantly persist in the Trueth resisting all the temptations which he hath forespoken To wit he describes the blessed estate of the holy and Eternall Ierusalem and Church Triumphant and so with a short and pithie Conclusion makes an end A PARAPHRASE VPON THE REVELATION OF THE APOSTLE S. IOHN CHAP. I. ARGVMENT The Booke the Writer and the Inditer the end and vse thereof The dedication of this Epistle to the Churches and Pastors vnder the vision of the seuen Candlesticks and seuen Starres GOD THE FATHER hath directed his Sonne and Word IESVS CHRIST to send downe an Angel or Minister to me Iohn his seruant and by him to reueale vnto mee certaine things which are shortly to come to passe to the effect in time the chosen may be forewarned by me 2 Who haue borne witnes that the word of God is true and that IESVS CHRIST is and was a faithfull witnesse and haue made true report of all I saw 3 Happy are they that read and vnderstand this Prophesie and conforme themselues thereunto in time for in very short space it will be fulfilled 4 I am directed to declare the same specially to you the seuen Churches of Asia with whom be grace and peace from the Eternall the Father and from the Holy Spirit 5 And IESVS CHRIST that faithfull witnesse the first borne of the dead the Mightie King of the world and head of his Church Who for the loue he bare vs hath made vs innocent by his blood in the worke of Redemption 6 To him then we whom hee hath made Spiritual Kings and Priests in Honour and Holinesse and ordained to serue and praise his Father giue all glory and power for euer so be it 7 Assure your selues of his comming againe from Heauen in all glory and all eyes shall see him Yea the wicked shal be compelled to acknowledge that it is euen very he whom so they did persecute Christ crucified And the whole world shall haue a feeling before him of their vnthankefulnesse So be it 8 I am Eternall saith the Lord before whom all things which is or was are present and I am only the worker of all I who euer Was and still am shall surely come againe according to my promise 1. Cor. 2. And as I am Eternall and true so I am Almighty preordinating all things before all beginnings 9 I Iohn your brother in the flesh Iohn banished to Pathmos for the trueth writeth the Reuelation and companion with you aswell in the seruice of Christ as in the patient suffering of the Crosse being for that word of God and witnessing of Christ whereof I spake so persecuted that for safety of my life I was constrained to flie all alone to the solitarie I le of Pathmos 10 Then was I bereft in spirit vpon the Sunday which is hallowed to the Lord Then heard I behind me turne about and take heed the mighty voyce of the Lord as a Trumpet because he was to declare the estate of the battell of the Church Militant vnto me 11 Saying these wordes I am A and Ω to wit the first and the last write thou in a Booke what thou seest and send it to the Seuen Churches in Asia the names of which are these Ephesus Smyrna Pergamos Thyatyra Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea 12 And when I turned mee to see the voyce Vers 10. I did see seuen Candlesticks representing these seuen Churches 13 And in the middest of them the figure of the Sonne of man representing him clothed with a side garment for grauitie and girded about the paps with a girdle of Gold for glory 14 His head and haire were white as white Wooll Psal 51. Esay 4. Matth. 3. Ierem. 1.15 Esay 17. or Snow for innocencie and his eyes were bright like flames of fire to signifie his all-seeing knowledge 15 His feet were of brasse brightly flaming as in a furnace to declare his standing in Eternity And his voice like the sounding of many waters representing his Maiestie in commanding 16 And hee had in his Right hand the side that the Elect are on Hebr. 1.10 Vers 10. seuen Starres for you the seuen Angels that is Pastors of the seuen Churches Ephes 6. Esay 60. Matth. 7. And from his mouth came a two-edged sword to wit the Sword of the word which comes onely from him and his face was as the Sunne shining bright for from his Face comes all light to illuminate blind Man 17 And when I thus did see him I fell dead at his feet for astonishment Psal 63. Psal 139. but he lifted mee vp againe with his right and fauourable hand and comfortably said vnto mee Feare not be not astonished for I am the first and the last Christ is risen from death to life Timoth. 1. Hebr. 2. 18 Who as verily as now I liue was once dead as thou thy selfe beares witnesse and yet now doe liue for euer and euer and by my death onely I haue ouercome Hell and Death and I onely and no other keepe the Keyes that haue the power of them both 19 And now I came to charge thee to write these things which thou hast now seene because they are afterwards to come to passe CHAP. II. ARGVMENT Admonition and exhortation to the Churches of Ephesus Smyrna Pergamos and Thyatira WRite then this to the Angel or Pastour of the Church of Ephesus He that hath the seuen Starres Chap. 1. v. 10. or seuen Pastours in his Right hand or fauourable power or protection and who walkes among the seuen Golden Candlesticks or watches ouer the seuen Churches euen hee I say Chap. 1. sayes thus vnto thee 2 I know thy workes thy trauaile and patience that thou suffrest not the wicked to walke with thee but hast learned them out False apostles in the Church of Ephesus that call themselues Apostles in the Church of Ephesus and are not and hast tried them to be lyers 3 Thou art also loaded with a great
glory that is in heauen at the receiuing of my Commission contained in the following Visions which I did see of the things present and to come in the generall Church militant CHAP. V. ARGVMENT The description of the Booke wherein was conteined all the Misteries which were reuealed to this Writer Christs opening of them vnder the figure of a Lion and of a Lambe The praises giuen him by the Saints and Angels therefore who offer without any Intercessour euery one his owne thankesgiuing and praises to the Mediatour THen first I did see in the Right hand of him that sate on the Throne Dan. 12.4 a Booke the Booke wherein these mysteries are contained Esay 24 11. and all the Booke was written vpon aswell on the backe as within on the backe was written these Visions that I did see Ezek. 2.10 and am presently to declare vnto you within was written the plaine exposition and the very proper names of all things which these Visions did represent which are inclosed there to signifie that the Lord hath not permitted me to manifest the same to the world for the time thereof is not come yet which Booke was sealed with seuen Seales aswell to keepe euery part thereof vnreuealed to any as also to giue the greater certaintie that these things shall come to passe which are prophesied therein 2 And I saw a strong Angel proclayming with a loud voice Who is worthy to open this Booke and to loose the Seales thereof 3 But there could none be found worthy to doe it neither in heauen nor in earth nor beneath the earth no not to looke on it much lesse to open it for neither Angel nor deuil either knows or dare meddle with the high mysteries of God and things future except so farre as pleaseth him to commit and reueale vnto them 4 Then wept I very sore that none could be found worthy to open and read that Booke no not to looke vpon the same for I was very sorrowfull that I could not haue it reuealed vnto me 5 At last one of the Elders said vnto mee Weepe not Loe the Lion of the Tribe of Iuda hath preuailed to wit he who is come of Iuda and hath admirable force in his flesh deriued from the Tribe of Iuda by which he ouercame Sinne Death and Hell and is the roote of Dauid for Dauid was his figure and fore-beer in the flesh is worthy and onely worthy to open the Booke and loose the Seales thereof 6 And then I tooke heed and behold I did see in the middest of the Throne and the foure beasts a second person of the Trinitie sitting with God and in the middest of the Elders as a man and our brother a Lambe standing like as hee had bene slaine to signifie that once indeed hee was slaine but had risen againe and had seuen Hornes and seuen Eyes representing the innumerable times mighty and holy Spirit of God which after his Resurrection he sent out through the whole earth to direct instruct and rule the same by his prouidence and power 7 This Lambe then came and tooke the Booke out of the Right hand of him that did sit on the Throne 8 And so soone as he had taken the Booke in his hand these foure beasts and these foure and twentie Elders fell vpon their faces before the Lambe and adored him and euery one of them had in his hand Harpes and golden Phials full of sweet odours these are the prayers of the Saints which the foure beasts comprehending all the degrees of Angels and the foure and twentie Elders comprehending the whole Church as well Militant as Triumphant perceiuing that CHRIST is to reueale all the tentations which are to fall vpon the earth and Church before the latter dayes doe powre forth aswel on the Church triumphants part thankesgiuing that by the reuealing or opening of the Booke he armeth the Militant Church to resist all the tentations contained therein as also on the Church Militants part to pray him to hasten the end and dissolution for the hastening whereof all creatures sigh and grone to their Creator Euery one of these beasts and Elders presents their owne praiers vnto him who sits on the Throne to teach vs as he is Mediatour and therefore our prayers must be offered vnto him onely that so there is no Intercessour betweene him and vs but euery one of vs must present our owne prayers before him after the example of the beasts and Elders These prayers were inclosed in harpes to signifie the sweet and pleasing sound that faithfull prayers make in the eares of God they were inclosed in golden Phials to teach vs that acceptable prayers must come from an vndefiled heart and pure as gold and they themselues are called incense because their smell is pleasant and sweet like incense in the nostrils of God Exod. 30.7 This did the incense at the sacrifice in the old Law signifie and figurate and of this incense speakes Dauid in his Psalmes Psal 141.2 9 And they to wit the foure and twenty Elders did sing a new Canticle for the matter of their Canticle to wit the accomplishment of the Mysterie of redemption is new Psal 144. and euer ought to be new and fresh in the hearts of all them that would be accompted thankefull Their song then was this Thou art worthy O Lord to receiue the Booke and open the Seales thereof for thou hast bene slaine though innocent and by thy precious Blood hast redeemed vs to God thy Father and hast chosen vs out of all Tribes tongues people and nations aswell Iewes as Gentiles 10 And thou hast made vs Kings and Priests spiritually to our God And we shall reigne ouer the earth at the last and generall Iudgement and as Kings shall be participant of the glory of the holy and new Citie Ierusalem 11 Then I beheld and heard round about the Throne the beasts and the Elders the voyces of many Angels to the number of many thousand thousands Dan. 7.10 to wit innumerable Legions of them 12 Who said all with a loud voice The Lambe who was slaine is worthy to haue all power riches wisedome strength honour glory and blessing for euer 13 I also heard all creatures in Heauen in earth and beneath the earth and in the seas euen all that are in them I heard saying in one voyce vnto him that sits vpon the Throne and vnto the Lambe be Blessing Glory Honour and Power for euer and euer And the foure beastes said Amen and the foure and twenty Elders fell on their faces and adored him that liues for euer and euer CHAP. VI. ARGVMENT The opening of the first sixe Seales The spreading of the Euangel signified by the white horse in the first seale The great Persecution by the red horse in the second The number of diuers heresies by the blacke in the third The Popedome and Tyrannie thereof by the pale in the fourth The complaint of the Saints
first part vpon that subiect should haue ditted the mouth of the most enuious Momus that euer hell did hatch from barking at any other part of my booke vpon that ground except they would alledge me to be contrarie to my selfe which in so small a volume would smell of too great weakenesse and sliprinesse of memory And the second part of my booke teaches my Sonne how to vse his Office in the administration of Iustice and Politicke Gouernment The third onely containing a Kings outward behauiour in indifferent things what agreeance and conformitie hee ought to keepe betwixt his outward behauiour in these things and the vertuous qualities of his minde and how they should serue for trunsh-men to interprete the inward disposition of the minde to the eyes of them that cannot see farther within him and therefore must onely iudge of him by the outward appearance So as if there were no more to be looked into but the very methode and order of the booke it will sufficiently cleare me of that first and grieuousest imputation in the point of Religion since in the first part where Religion is onely treated of I speake so plainely And what in other parts I speake of Puritanes it is onely of their morall faults in that part where I speake of Policie declaring when they contemne the Law and souereigne authoritie what exemplare punishment they deserue for the same And now as to the matter it selfe whereupon this scandall is taken that I may sufficiently satisfie all honest men and by a iust Apologie raise vp a brasen wall or bulwarke against all the darts of the enuious I will the more narrowly rip vp the words whereat they seeme to be somewhat stomacked First then as to the name of Puritanes I am not ignorant that the style thereof doeth properly belong onely to that vile sect amongst the Anabaptists called the Family of loue because they thinke themselues onely pure and in a maner without sinne the onely trwe Church and onely worthy to be participant of the Sacraments and all the rest of the world to be but abomination in the sight of God Of this speciall sect I principally meane when I speake of Puritans diuers of them as Browne Penry and others hauing at sundrie times come into Scotland to sow their popple amongst vs and from my heart I wish that they had left no schollers behinde them who by their fruits will in the owne time be manifested and partly indeede I giue this style to such brain-sicke and headie Preachers their disciples and followers as refusing to be called of that sect yet participate too much with their humours in maintaining the aboue mentioned errours not onely agreeing with the generall rule of all Anabaptists in the contempt of the ciuill Magistrate and in leaning to their owne dreams and reuelations but particularly with this sect in accounting all men profane that sweare not to all their fantasies in making for euery particular question of the policie of the Church as great commotion as if the article of the Trinitie were called in controuersie in making the scriptures to be ruled by their conscience and not their conscience by the Scripture and he that denies the least iote of their grounds sit tibi tanquam ethnicus publicanus not worthy to enioy the benefite of breathing much lesse to participate with them of the Sacraments and before that any of their grounds be impugned let King people Law and all be trode vnder foote Such holy warres are to be preferred to an vngodly peace no in such cases Christian Princes are not onely to be resisted vnto but not to be prayed for for prayer must come of Faith and it is reuealed to their consciences that GOD will heare no prayer for such a Prince Iudge then Christian Reader if I wrong this sort of people in giuing them the stile of that sect whose errours they imitate and since they are contented to weare their liuerie let them not be ashamed to borrow also their name It is onely of this kinde of men that in this booke I write so sharply and whom I wish my Sonne to punish in-case they refuse to obey the Law and will not cease to sturre vp a rebellion Whom against I haue written the more bitterly in respect of diuers famous libels and iniurious speaches spred by some of them not onely dishonourably inuectiue against all Christian Princes but euen reprochfull to our profession and Religion in respect they are come out vnder coulour thereof and yet were neuer answered but by Papists who generally medle aswell against them as the religion it selfe whereby the skandale was rather doubled then taken away But on the other part I protest vpon mine honour I meane it not generally of all Preachers or others that like better of the single forme of policie in our Church then of the many Ceremonies in the Church of England that are perswaded that their Bishops smell of a Papall supremacie that the Surplise the cornerd cap and such like are the outward badges of Popish errours No I am so farre from being contentious in these things which for my owne part I euer esteemed as indifferent as I doe equally loue and honour the learned and graue men of either of these opinions It can no wayes become me to pronounce so lightly a sentence in so old a controuersie Wee all God be praised doe agree in the grounds and the bitternesse of men vpon such questions doeth but trouble the peace of the Church and giues aduantage and entry to the Papists by our diuision But towards them I onely vse this prouision that where the Law is otherwayes they may content themselues soberly and quietly with their owne opinions not resisting to the authoritie nor breaking the Law of the Countrey neither aboue all sturring any rebellion or schisme but possessing their soules in peace let them preasse by patience and well grounded reasons either to perswade all the rest to like of their iudgements or where they see better grounds on the other part not to bee ashamed peaceably to incline thereunto laying aside all praeoccupied opinions And that this is the onely meaning of my Booke and not any coldnesse or cracke in Religion that place doeth plainely witnesse where after I haue spoken of the faults in our Ecclesiasticall estate I exhort my sonne to be beneficiall vnto the good-men of the Ministrie praising God there that there is presently a sufficient number of good men of them in this kingdome and yet are they all knowne to be against the forme of the English Church Yea so farre I am in that place from admitting corruption in Religion as I wish him in promoouing them to vse such caution as may preserue their estate from creeping to corruption euer vsing that forme through the whole Booke where euer I speake of bad Preachers terming them some of the Ministers and not Ministers or Ministrie in generall And to conclude this point of Religion
righteousnesse that their persons as bright lampes of godlinesse and vertue may going in and out before their people giue light to all their steps Remember also that by the right knowledge and feare of God which is the beginning of Wisedome Prou 9.10 as Salomon saith ye shall know all the things necessarie for the discharge of your duetie both as a Christian and as a King seeing in him as in a mirrour the course of all earthly things whereof hee is the spring and onely moouer Now the onely way to bring you to this knowledge The meanes to know God is diligently to reade his word and earnestly to pray for the right vnderstanding thereof Search the Scriptures sayth Christ for they beare testimonie of me and Iohn 5.39 the whole Scripture saith Paul is giuen by inspiration of God and is profitable to teach 2. Tim. 3.16.17 to conuince to correct and to instruct in righteousnesse that the man of God may be absolute being made perfite vnto all good workes And most properly of any other belongeth the reading thereof vnto Kings Deut. 17. since in that part of Scripture where the godly Kings are first made mention of that were ordained to rule ouer the people of God there is an expresse and most notable exhortation and commandement giuen them to reade and meditate in the Law of God I ioyne to this the carefull hearing of the doctrine with attendance and reuerence for faith commeth by hearing Rom. 10.17 sayth the same Apostle But aboue all beware ye wrest not the word to your owne appetite as ouer many doe making it like a bell to sound as ye please to interprete but by the contrary frame all your affections to follow precisely the rule there set downe The whole Scripture chiefly containeth two things a command Wherein chiefely the whole Scripture consisteth and a prohibition to doe such things and to abstaine from the contrary Obey in both neither thinke it enough to abstaine from euill and do no good nor thinke not that if yee doe many good things it may serue you for a cloake to mixe euill turnes therewith And as in these two points the whole Scripture principally consisteth Two degrees of the seruice of God so in two degrees standeth the whole seruice of God by man interiour or vpward exteriour or downward the first by prayer in faith towards God the next by workes flowing therefra before the world which is nothing else but the exercise of Religion towards God and of equitie towards your neighbour As for the particular points of Religion I need not to dilate them I am no hypocrite follow my footsteps A regardable paterne and your owne present education therein I thanke God I was neuer ashamed to giue account of my profession howsoeuer the malicious lying tongues of some haue traduced me and if my conscience had not resolued me that all my Religion presently professed by me and my kingdome was grounded vpon the plaine wordes of the Scripture without the which all points of Religion are superfluous as any thing contrary to the same is abomination I had neuer outwardly auowed it for pleasure or awe of any flesh And as for the points of equitie towards your neigbour because that will fall in properly vpon the second part concerning a Kings office I leaue it to the owne roume For the first part then of mans seruice to his God Religion which is Religion that is the worship of God according to his reuealed will it is wholly grounded vpon the Scripture as I haue alreadie said quickened by faith and conserued by conscience For the Scripture I haue now spoken of it in generall but that yee may the more readily make choice of any part thereof for your instruction or comfort remember shortly this methode The whole Scripture is dyted by Gods Spirit The methode of Scripture thereby as by his liuely word to instruct and rule the whole Church militant to the end of the word It is composed of two parts the Olde and New Testament The ground of the former is the Lawe which sheweth our sinne and containeth iustice the ground of the other is Christ who pardoning sinne containeth grace The summe of the Law is the tenne Commandements more largely delated in the bookes of Moses Of the Law interpreted and applied by the Prophets and by the histories are the examples shewed of obedience or disobedience thereto and what praemium or poena was accordingly giuen by God But because no man was able to keepe the Law nor any part thereof it pleased God of his infinite wisedome and goodnesse to incarnate his only Sonne in our nature for satisfaction of his iustice in his suffering for vs that since we could not be saued by doing we might at least bee saued by beleeuing The ground therefore of the word of grace Of Grace is contained in the foure histories of the birth life death resurrection and ascention of Christ The larger interpretation and vse thereof is contained in the Epistles of the Apostles and the practise in the faithfull or vnfaithfull with the historie of the infancie and first progresse of the Church is contained in their Actes Would ye then know your sinne by the Lawe Vse of the Law reade the bookes of Moses containing it Would ye haue a commentarie thereupon Reade the Prophets and likewise the bookes of the Prouerbes and Ecclesiastes written by that great patterne of wisedome Salomon which will not only serue you for instruction how to walke in the obedience of the Lawe of God but is also so full of golden sentences and morall precepts in all things that can concerne your conuersation in the world as among all the prophane Philosophers and Poets ye shall not finde so rich a storehouse of precepts of naturall wisedome agreeing with the will and diuine wisedome of God Would ye see how good men are rewarded and wicked punished looke the historicall parts of these same bookes of Moses together with the histories of Ioshua the Iudges Ezra Nehemiah Esther and Iob but especially the bookes of the Kings and Chronicles wherewith ye ought to bee familiarly acquainted for there shall yee see your selfe as in a myrrour in the catalogue either of the good or the euill Kings Would yee know the doctrine life and death of our Sauiour Christ Vse of the Gospel reade the Euangelists Would ye bee more particularly trained vp in his Schoole meditate vpon the Epistles of the Apostles And would ye be acquainted with the practises of that doctrine in the persons of the primitiue Church Cast vp the Apostles Actes And as to the Apocryphe bookes I omit them because I am no Papist as I said before and indeed some of them are no wayes like the dytement of the Spirit of God But when ye reade the Scripture How to reade the Scripture reade it with a sanctified and chaste heart admire reuerently
thereof since those which immediatly follow are so much derogatorie to the diuine Maiestie And againe My 6 Epist 52. writings be strengthened by the authoritie and merit of my Lord most blessed S. Peter We 7 Epist 89. beseech you to keepe the things decreed by vs through the inspiration of God and the Apostle most blessed S. Peter If 8 In serm 2. in die anniuer assum suae any thing be well done or decreed by vs If any thing be obtained of Gods mercy by daily prayers it is to be ascribed to S. Peters workes and merits whose power doeth liue and authoritie excell in his owne Sea Hee 9 Serm. 3. in die anniuer assump suae was so plentifully watered of the very fountaine of all graces that whereas he receiued many things alone yet nothing passeth ouer to any other but hee was partaker of it And in a word hee was so desirous to extoll Saint Peter that a messenger from him was an 10 Epist 24. embassage from Saint Peter 11 Epist 4. any thing done in his presence was in S. Peters presence Neither did he vse all this Rhetoricke without purpose for at that time the Patriarch of Constantinople contended with him for Primacie And in the Councell of 12 Concil Chalceden Act. 16. Can. 28. Chalcedon the Bishops sixe hundred and more gaue equall authoritie to the Patriarch of that Sea and would not admit any Priuiledge to the Sea of Rome aboue him but went against him And yet he that gaue so much to Peter tooke nothing from Caesar but gaue him both his Titles and due giuing the power of calling a Councell to the Emperour as it may appeare by these one or two places following of many If it may please your 13 Epist 9. Theodosie godlinesse to vouchsafe at our supplication to condiscend that you will command a Councell of Bishops to be holden within Italy And writing vnto the Bishop of Constantinople Because the most clement 1 Epist 16. Flan. Emperour carefull of the peace of the Church will haue a Councell to be holden albeit it euidently appeare the matter to be handled doeth in no case stand in neede of a Councell And againe Albeit 2 Epist 17. Theodosie my occasions will not permit me to be present vpon the day of the Councell of Bishops which your godlinesse hath appointed So as by this it may well appeare that hee that gaue so much to Peter gaue also to Caesar his due and prerogatiue But yet he playeth not faire play in this that euen in all these his wrong applied arguments and examples hee produceth no other witnesses but the parties themselues bringing euer the Popes sentences for approbation of their owne authoritie Now indeed for one word of his in the middest of his examples I cannot but greatly commend him that is that Martyrs ought to endure all sorts of tortures and death before they suffer one syllable to be corrupted of the Law of God Which lesson if hee and all the rest of his owne profession would apply to themselues then would not the Sacrament be administred sub vnâ specie directly contrary to Christs institution the practise of the Apostles and of the whole Primitiue Church for many hundred yeeres then would not the priuate Masses be in place of the Lordes Supper then would not the words of the 3 Bellar. de sacra Encharist lib. 4. cap. 14. Canon of the Masse be opposed to the words of S. Paul and S. Luke as our Aduersarie himselfe confesseth and cannot reconcile them nor then would not so many hundreths other traditions of men be set vp in their Church not onely as equall but euen preferred to the word of God But sure in this point I feare I haue mistaken him for I thinke hee doeth not meane by his Diuina Dogmata the word of the God of heauen but onely the Canons and Lawes of his Dominus Deus Papa otherwise all his Primacie of the Apostolike Sea would not be so much sticken vpon hauing so slender ground in the word of God And for the great feare he hath that the suddennes of the apprehension the bitternesse of the persecution the weaknesse of his aage and other such infirmities might haue been the cause of the Arch-priests fall in this I haue already sufficiently answered him hauing declared as the trewth is and as the said Blackwell himselfe will yet testifie that he tooke this Oath freely of himselfe without any inducement thereunto either Precibus or Minis But amongst all his citations Some of Sanders his worthy sayings remembred hee must not forget holy Sanderus and his visibilis Monarchia whose person and actions I did alreadie a little touch And surely who will with vnpartiall eyes reade his bookes they may well thinke that hee hath deserued well of his English romane-Romane-Church but they can neuer thinke but that hee deserued very ill of his English Soueraigne and State Witnesse his owne books whereout I haue made choice to set downe heere these fewe sentences following as flowers pickt out of so worthy a garland 4 Sand de visib Monar lib. 6. cap. 4. Elizabeth Queene of ENGLAND doeth exercise the Priestly acte of teaching and preaching the Gospel in ENGLAND with no lesse authority then Christ himselfe or Moses euer did The supremacie of a 5 Sand de clau Dauid li. 6. c. 1. woman in Church matters is from no other then from the Deuill And of all things in generall thus he speaketh The 1 Sand. de visib Monar lib. 2. cap. 4. King that will not inthrall himselfe to the Popes authoritie be ought not to be tolerated but his Subiects ought to giue all diligence that another may be chosen in his place assoone as may be A King that is an 2 Ibidem Heretike ought to be remooued from the Kingdome that hee holdeth ouer Christians and the Bishops ought to endeauour to set vp another assoone as possibly they can Wee doe constantly 3 Ibidem affirme that all Christian Kings are so farre vnder Bishops and Priests in all matters appertaining to faith that if they shall continue in a fault against Christian Religion after one or two admonitions obstinately for that cause they may and ought to be deposed by the Bishops from their temporall authoritie they holde ouer Christians 4 Ibidem Bishops are set ouer temporall kingdomes if those kingdomes doe submit themselues to the faith of Christ We doe iustly 5 Sand. de clan Dauid li. 5. c. 2. affirme that all Secular power whether Regall or any other is of men The 6 Ibidem anoynting which is powred vpon the head of the King by the Priest doeth declare that hee is inferiour to the Priest It is altogether against the will of 7 Sand. de clan Dauid li. 5. c. 4. Christ that Christian kings should haue supremacie in the Church And whereas for the crowne and
Platina and a number of the Popes owne writers beare witnesse And 3 Lib. de Clericis Bellarmine himselfe in his booke of Controuersies cannot get it handsomely denied Nay the Popes were euen forced then to pay a certaine summe of money to the Emperours for their Confirmation And this lasted almost seuen hundreth yeeres after CHRIST witnesse 4 In Chron. ad ann 680. Sigebert and 5 In vit Agathen Anast. in vit eiusd Agath Herm. Contract ad ann 678. edit poster dist 63. c. Agathe Luitprandus with other Popish Historians And for Emperours deposing of Popes there are likewise diuers examples The Emperour 1 Luitpr Hist lib 6. ca. 10.11 Rhegino ad an 963. Platin. in vit Ioan. 13. Ottho deposed Pope Iohn the twelfth of that name for diuers crimes and vices especially of Lecherie The Emperour 2 Marianus Scot. Sigeb Abbas Vrsp ad ann 1046 Plat in vit Greg. 6. Henry the third in a short time deposed three Popes Benedict the ninth Siluester the third and Gregorie the sixt as well for the sinne of Auarice as for abusing their extraordinarie authoritie against Kings and Princes And as for KINGS that haue denied this Temporall Superioritie of Popes First wee haue the vnanime testimonie of diuers famous HISTORIOGRAPHERS for the generall of many CHRISTIAN Kingdomes As 3 Walthram Naumburz in lib. de inuest Episc Vixit circa ann 1110. Walthram testifieth That the Bishops of Spaine Scotland England Hungarie from ancient institution till this moderne noueltie had their Inuestiture by KINGS with peaceable inioyning of their Temporalities wholly and entirely and whosoeuer sayeth hee is peaceably solicitous let him peruse the liues of the Ancients and reade the Histories and hee shall vnderstand thus much And for verification of this generall Assertion wee will first beginne at the practise of the KINGS of France though not named by Walthram in this his enumeration of Kingdomes amongst whom my first witnesse shall bee that vulgarly knowne letter of 4 See Annales Franciae Nicolai Gillij in Phil. Pulchro Philip le Bel King of France to Pope Boniface the eighth the beginning whereof after a scornefull salutation is Sciat tua maxima fatuitas nos in temporalibus nemini subesse And likewise after that 5 Anno 1268. ex Arrestis Senatus Parifiens Lewes the ninth surnamed Sanctus had by a publique instrument called Pragmatica sanctio forbidden all the exactions of the Popes Court within his Realme Pope Pius 6 Ioan. Maierius lib. de Scismat Concil the second in the beginning of Lewes the eleuenth his time greatly misseliking this Decree so long before made sent his Legate to the saide King Lewes with Letters-patents vrging his promise which hee had made when hee was Dolphin of France to repeale that Sanction if euer hee came to bee King The King referreth the Legate ouer with his Letters-patents to the Councell of Paris where the matter being propounded was impugned by Iohannes Romanus the Kings Atturney with whose opinion the Vniuersitie of Paris concurring an Appeale was made from the attempts of the Pope to the next generall Councell the Cardinall departing with indignation But that the King of France and Church thereof haue euer stoken to their Gallican immunitie in denying the Pope any Temporall power ouer them and in resisting the Popes as oft as euer they prest to meddle with their Temporall power euen in the donation of Benefices the Histories are so full of them as the onely examples thereof would make vp a bigge Volume by it selfe And so farre were the Sorbonistes for the Kings and French Churches priuiledge in this point as they were wont to maintaine That if the Pope fell a quarrelling the King for that cause the Gallican Church might elect a Patriarch of their owne renouncing any obedience to the Pope And Gerson was so farre from giuing the Pope that temporall authority ouer Kings who otherwise was a deuoute Roman Catholike as hee wrote a Booke de Auferibilitate Papae not onely from the power ouer Kings but euen ouer the Church And now pretermitting all further examples of forraigne Kings actions I will onely content me at this time with some of my owne Predecessors examples of this kingdome of England that it may thereby the more clearely appeare that euen in those times when the world was fullest of darkened blindnes and ignorance the Kings of England haue oftentimes not onely repined but euen strongly resisted and withstood this temporall vsurpation and encrochment of ambitious Popes And I will first begin at 1 Matth. Paris in Henr. 1. anno 1100. King Henry the first of that name after the Conquest who after he was crowned gaue the Bishopricke of Winchester to William Gifford and forthwith inuested him into all the possessions belonging to the Bishopricke contrary to the Canons of the new Synod 2 Idem ibid. anno 1113. King Henry also gaue the Archbishopricke of Canterbury to Radulph Bishop of London and gaue him inuestiture by a Ring and a Crosiers staffe Also Pope 3 Idem ibid. anno 1119. Calixtus held a Councell at RHEMES whither King Henry had appointed certaine Bishops of ENGLAND and NORMANDIE to goe Thurstan also elected Archbishop of YORKE got leaue of the King to goe thither giuing his faith that hee would not receiue Consecration of the Pope And comming to the Synode by his liberall gifts as the fashion is wanne the ROMANES fauour and by their meanes obtained to bee consecrated at the Popes hand Which assoone as the King of ENGLAND knewe hee forbade him to come within his Dominions Moreouer King Edward the first prohibited the Abbot of 4 Ex Archiuis Regni Waltham and Deane of Pauls to collect a tenth of euery mans goods for a supply to the holy Land which the Pope by three Bulles had committed to their charge and the said Deane of Pauls compeering before the King and his Councell promised for the reuerence he did beare vnto the King not to meddle any more in that matter without the Kings good leaue and permission Here I hope a Church-man disobeyed the Pope for obedience to his Prince euen in Church matters but this new Iesuited Diuinitie was not then knowen in the world The same Edward I. impleaded the Deane of the Chappell of Vuluerhampton because the said Deane had against the priuiledges of the Kingdome giuen a Prebend of the same Chappell to one at the Popes command whereupon the said Deane compeered and put himselfe in the Kings will for his offence The said Edward I. depriued also the Bishop of Durham of all his liberties for disobeying a prohibition of the Kings So as it appeareth the Kings in those dayes thought the Church-men their Subiects though now we be taught other Seraphicall doctrine For further proofe whereof Iohn of Ibstocke was committed to the goale by the sayde King for hauing a suite in the Court of Rome seuen yeeres
vs as he who is the searcher of the heart and reines can witnesse to make sundry Instances and Requests vnto the States Generall of the Vnited Prouinces for the banishment of a wretched Heretique or rather Athiest out of their Dominions named D. Conradus Vorstius hath bene so ill interpreted or rather wrested to a peruerse sence by a sort of people whose corrupted stomacke turnes all good nourishment into bad and pernitious humors as if it had bene some vanitie and desire of vaine glory in vs or else an Ambition to encroach by little and little vpon the libertie of their State which had caried vs headlong into the businesse As both to cleare our owne honour from the darke mists of these false and scandalous imputations as also to make it trewly appeare vnto the Christian world in what sort wee haue proceeded herein Wee haue thought good to publish this present Declaration containing as well the discourse of our whole Negotiation hitherto with the States in this cause as also the reasons which haue mooued vs to take it so to heart and to perseuere therein as we haue done and will doe God willing vntill it please him to bring it to some good and happy end In Autumne last about the end of August being in our hunting Progresse there came to our hands two bookes of the said Vorstius the one intituled Tractatus Theologicus de Deo dedicated to the Lantgraue of Hessen imprinted in the yeere 1610. the other his Exegesis Apologetica vpon that booke dedicated to the States and printed in the yeere 1611. Which books assoone as we had receiued and not without much horror and detestation cast our eye onely vpon some of the principall Articles of his disputations conteined in the first booke and his Commentary thereupon in the second God is our witnesse that the zeale of his glory did so transport vs as to say with S. Paul We stayed not one houre but dispatched a Letter presently to our Ambassadour resident with the States to this purpose following TRustie and welbeloued c. You shall repaire to the States Generall with all possible diligence in our name telling them that wee doubt not but that their Ambassadours which were with vs about two yeeres since did informe them of a forewarning that we wished the said Ambassadours to make vnto them in our name to beware in time of seditious and hereticall Preachers and not to suffer any such to creepe into their State Our principall meaning was of Arminius who though himselfe were lately dead yet had hee left too many of his disciples behinde him Now according to that care which wee continually haue of the weale of their State wee haue thought good to send vnto them a new aduertisement vpon the like occasion which is this That there is lately come to our handes a piece of worke of one Vorstius a Diuine in those parts wherein hee hath published such monstrous blasphemie and horrible Atheisme as out of the care that a Christian Prince and Defender of the Faith as we haue euer bene ought to haue of the good of the Church wee hold not onely such a scandalous booke worthy to bee burnt but euen the Authour himselfe to bee most seuerely punished This notwithstanding wee are informed that the States are so farre from beeing sensible of so great a scandall to the Church as that the most part of them haue already yeelded him their free consents and voyces for the obteining of the place of Diuinitie Reader in the Vniuersitie of Leyden which the aboue-named Arminius of little better stuffe lately enioyed and though himselfe be dead hath left his sting yet liuing among them Hauing therefore vnderstood that the time of Election will be about Michaelmas next and holding our selues bound in honour and conscience as a Christian Prince and one who hath vouchsafed the States our Royall fauour and support in respect of their Religion to preuent so great a mischiefe so farre as we are able Wee will and require you to let them vnderstand how infinitely wee shall bee displeased if such a Monster receiue aduancement in the Church And if it bee alleadged that hee hath recanted his Atheisticall opinions and that thereupon he may be capable of the place you shall tell them that wee thinke his Recantation so slender a satisfaction for so fowle an offence as that wee hold him rather worthy of punishment or at least to be debarred from all promotion Wherein though wee assure our selfe that they will of their owne discretions eschew such a viper who may make a fearefull rent not onely in their Ecclesiasticall but also in their Politique State yet notwithstanding all this if they will continue their resolution to preferre him you shall then make a protestation to them in our name That wee will not faile to make knowen to the world publikely in print how much wee detest such abominable Heresies and all allowers and tolerators of them And because the States shall know vpon what reasons we haue grounded this our Admonition you shall receiue herewith a * * This Catalogue is here purposely omitted for auoyding a needlesse repetition seeing the principall points therof are conteined in a little Collection annexed at the end of our second letter written to Wynwood Catalogue of his damnable Positions of which no one page of the booke is free Giuen vnder our Signet c. For obseruing that so prodigious a Monster began to liue among them We could do no lesse considering the infinite obligations which wee owe vnto God then to make Our zeale appeare against such an enemie to the Essence of the Deity Besides the charitie which Wee beare to the said States Our neighbors and Confederates professing the same Religion that we do did enforce Vs to admonish them to eschew and preuent in time so dangerous a contagion which dispersing it selfe might infect not onely the bodie of their State but all Christendome also the danger whereof was so much greater to our Dominions then to many others by how much the Prouinces of the said States are neerer vnto Vs in their situation Our Ambassadour therefore hauing sufficiently acquitted himselfe of that which Wee gaue him in charge by exhorting them in Our Name timely to preuent the danger which might ensue by enterteyning such a guest as VORSTIVS which at that time they might easily haue done seeing he was not yet setled at Leyden neither was he lodged in the house appointed for the publique Reader nor were his wife and family yet arriued and therefore much more easie for them to haue rid him out of their countrey sending him backe to the place from whence he came according to the old Prouerbe Turpiùs eijcitur quà m non admittitur hospes It is more honest to refuse a guest then when you haue once receiued him to thrust him out of doores Yet notwithstanding all the diligence that Our Ambassadour could vse and the oportunity which at that time
that in his last works he hath sufficiently purged himselfe from all calumnies and renounced all manner of Heresies To the first Obiection wee answere that we neuer accused him by consequences but that we find his owne words and sentences full of Heresies To the second concerning his questions or disquisitions as he termeth them wee say that in doubtfull matters and where a man may resolue either one way or other without danger of making shipwracke of Faith it is not onely tolerable but very commendable to propound questions or arguments at leastwise in Schooles But to deuise new questions vpon the principall Articles of our Faith to enter not onely into the secret Cabinet of GOD but to intrude our selues into his Essence to prie into his most inward parts and like the Physicians of Pantagruel to visite with torch-light all the most hidden places in the Essence of GOD wee may boldy pronounce Omnia haec ad destructionem planè nihil ad aedificationem All these things tend to destruction and nothing surely to edification S. Augustine speaketh against the curiositie of those people who would needs know what GOD did before hee made the Fabrique of the world The Iewes during their integritie did beare another maner of reuerence to the Diuinitie who thought themselues dead if once they should see GOD. And their great Law-giuer Moyses could obtaine no more notwithstanding his humble and instant request then to see the hinder parts of GOD. So as to call into question or to make doubts of these high points of the Essence of GOD of the Trinitie of the bypostaticall Vnion in the person of CHRIST or to speake of them in other termes then the Church of GOD hath vniformely established and in all aages successiuely approued as it is conteined in all the Orthodox Creeds and declared in the foure first Councels is by no meanes lawfull And to make any question or disquisition vpon these high mysteries is as much in effect as to make a contrary conclusion and such a disquisition deserues the punishment of the Inquision Non est bonum ludere cum Sanctis multò minùs ergo cum Deo It is not good to iest with Saints much lesse therefore with GOD and one of the first verses which our little children are taught is this Mitte arcana Dei coelùmque inquirere quid sit Let the secrets of God alone and be not too curious to enquire into heauen For what difference is there I pray you to say It may be that such a Lady is a whore or that there be probable arguments to perswade vs that she is such a one or to say absolutely that shee is a whore And wee imagine Vorstius would not hold him for his friend that should say it were a matter very disputable whether Vorstius were a damnable Heretique and should goe quicke to Hell yea or no not that he did beleeue him to bee such a one but that there were many arguments probable enough to perswade a man to take him for no lesse The nature of man through the transgression of our first parents hath lost free-will and reteineth not now any shadow thereof sauing an inclination to euill those onely excepted whom God of his meere grace hath sanctified and purged from this originall Leprosie Insomuch as it is a very perillous thing to set abroach these new and dangerous questions although they bee accompanied with good answeres For the greatest part of the world following the footsteps of our first Parents are naturally enclined to choose the euill and to leaue that which is good and therefore the Diuine Poet Du Bartas speaking of the destruction of Sodome and loath to name the sinne for which it was destroyed saith thus De peur qu' en offençant des saincts l'oreille tendre Ie ne les semble plus enseigner que reprendre For feare that in offending of good peoples tender eare I rather seeme to teach them then to wish them to forbeare And there is a report I know not how trew it is that Bellarmines bookes of Controuersies are not very well receiued in Italy because his obiections are too strong and his answeres too weake In which qualitie as also in one other whereof we will speake anon Vorstius hath a certaine tincture of Bellarmine To the third obiection where it is alleadged that perhaps hee hath not bene warie ynough in some of his phrases of speach and that it is but contention for wordes To that we answere as before we haue said That it is in no sort lawfull to speake of those great Mysteries of the Essence of God of the Trinitie of the Hypostaticall vnion of natures in the Person of Christ or any such high points vnlesse wee vse the same phrases and maner of speech which the Church of GOD hath alwayes vsed in speaking of the said Mysteries They that will talke of Chanaan must vse the language of Chanaan And the sonnes of Aaron were seuerely punished for presuming to bring strange fire vnto the Altar By the difference of lesse then one letter betweene Siboleth and Shiboleth the ten Tribes of Israel could discerne their friends from their foes and that by the pronuntiation onely And the like difference of one little letter betwixt homoousion and homoiousion serued to make a distinction betwixt the enemies of Christ in the East Church and the Church Orthodoxall As concerning the fourth and last excuse namely that Vorstius hath in his last Bookes sufficiently purged himselfe from these calumnies and renounced all Heresies Our answere is That we would very heartily request the States in their next Assembly seriously and aduisedly to consider and obserue the style which he vseth in his writings and excuses and then shall they be able to iudge what kind of spirit it is that guideth his penne For to beginne with the Preface of his Booke intituled his Christian and modest Answere he makes there so light reckoning of his questions before-mentioned as if it were but about the tale of Tobies dogge For in the second page of his said Preface these be his wordes Omnis homo est mendax immò vanitate ipsâ vanior solus verò Deus est verax c. Quod cùm in omnibus magni momenti negotijs tum maximè in sanctissimâ fidei causâ humiliter nobis semper agnoscendum est ne videlicet quidquam quod primâ fronte nobis nouum immò falsum absurdum videatur facilè damnemus nec contra quicquid vulgò receptum est in rebus praesertim abstrusis ac perplexis nec tamen ad salutem scitu necessarijs quidem cum opinione praecisae necessitatis statim approbemus In his talibus si quis Regem aut Principem alioqui pientissimum immò Reges Principes eiusmodi complures addo Episcopos seu Doctores Ecclesiae non dissimiles aliquantulum errare dixerit nihil opinor aduersus Regiam Maiestatem nihil aduersus Principum aut Episcoporum dignitatem reuerâ
pinched with the Arguments of the Orthodoxe Church and had no power to resist The same also doeth more plainely appeare by an other little booke which he hath published intituled Theologicall positions which booke he hath made of purpose to blinde the world withall because they are indeed but the same Theses or Positions vpon which he hath disputed in his first wicked booke that beareth the title Of God and his Attributes For in the Theses themselues there is but little harme but in his disputations thereupon are couched all the horrible Heresies And therefore in this booke hath hee published onely his Theses which are iustifiable and left out his disputations vpon the Theses wherein all the poison is conteined It is moreouer somewhat suspicious in such a tainted person as he is that in an Appendix which hee hath placed at the end of his Theses he taketh occasion to name a number of Heretiques who are aduersaries to the doctrine of his Theses and those especially who haue erred concerning the Diuinitie Humanitie Person or Office of CHRIST as the Ebionites Cerinthians Arrians Praxians Sabellians Marcionites Manichees Docites Apollinarists Mennonites Swenkfeldians Nestorians Monothelites Eutychians Monophysites Iewes Millenaries Papists Amongst which rabble he doeth not once make mention of Paulus Samosatenus nor of Photinius who succeeded him as well in his Bishopricke as in his errour Yet neuerthelesse it is reported that Vorstius in his heart is not very farre from their erronious opinion Now in the Preface of this little booke hee hath taken vpon him very succinctly to make answere to fiue Articles which he confesseth were layd to his charge by which answere in our opinion hee discouers himselfe very plainely The first point is That hee was once accused as himselfe saith of the Samosatenian Heresie because he had sometime both written and receiued letters from diuers of that Sect which he confesseth he did indeed in his youth to this end that by that meanes hee might the more easily come by some of their bookes but that afterward hee did forbeare all correspondencie with them First of all then we would be glad to know why hee forgot the Heresie of Samosatenus in his Appendix where he names so many others and yet confesseth in the Preface of his said booke that he himselfe was accused of that errour Secondly to what end had hee in his youth so great traffique with these Heretiques was it to enable him the better to confute them We heare him not say so much as indeed it was neuer his end Surely this fellow would be an excellent cleanser of a Pest-house for he feares no infection Picem contrectare non timet he dares handle any pitch And yet for all that the Prouerbe is trew Qui ambulat in Sole colorabitur He that walketh in the Sun-shine shall bee Sun-burnt It followes then seeing his intention was not to arme himselfe against them that it must be of necessitie to make himselfe worthy of their Schoole the which hee almost confesseth in the last words of his Answere to that point where he saith thus Non enim quod multi solent alienis sensibus hîc fidendum putaui aut temerè quidquam in causa Fidei damnandum For I doe not thinke it fit as many others doe to relie in these cases vpon other mens constructions or rashly to condemne any thing which concernes matter of Faith To the second Article of his Accusation hee confesseth that hee gaue some of his Samosatenian bookes vnto his schollers Surely a goodly gift But the caution was prettie which he gaue withall vnto them when he deliuered them the bookes which was that they ought to reade them with iudgement not rashly reiecting the doctrine commonly receiued What an Epithite is heere for our holy Orthodoxe Faith to terme it no otherwise then the doctrine commonly receiued And as for his caution not rashly to forsake the old doctrine it is no more then the Turkes would giue vnto any Christian that should suddenly offer to become a Mahometist Nay what Christian did euer sollicite a Pagan or Heretique to bee conuerted but with this caution Who Would perswade a man to receiue the holy Sacrament rashly S. Paul commands euery man to examine himselfe diligently before hee come to that holy Table But on the other side an Orthodoxe Christian would in this case haue said to his schollers If you will reade these wicked bookes reade them with horrour and detestation and with an intent to arme your selues against such wiles and subtilties of Sathan and withall pray vnto GOD to keepe you constant in the holy Catholique and Orthodoxe Faith that these Heresies may haue no power once to mooue you trusting in his mercy and not in your owne strength To the third Article he confesseth that his schollers did publish bookes of the Socinian Heresie and his excuse is that it was without his knowledge But howsoeuer he condemnes them not for hauing done it onely this he saith That they declared vpon their oathes they did not fauour the Heresie To the fourth point he confesseth that about ten yeeres since he wrote a booke De Filiatione Christi for which Title onely an Authour so suspected as he is worthy of the fagot and all his excuse is That he wrote an Epitome vpon Bellarmine Wee doubt not but hee did it for his recreation Forsooth a prety conceit Yet it appeares not by his wordes that he detests the subiect of that Booke but saith That no man can thereby coniecture what his opinion is of that argument no more then they can vpon his Epitome of Bellarmine which was likewise his worke For to condemne it had beene contrary to that which hee auowed in his other booke neuer to repent himselfe of any thing that he hath once written as already we haue obserued As for the fift and last point he will neither confesse nor deny the accusation onely hee saith That a certaine booke intituled Dominicus Lopez which is as we haue heard a very blasphemous Treatise was suppressed by him pacis ergò for peace sake but he is so farre from condemning it as that he alleadgeth the booke hath bene maintained by others which in time shall appeare Two things are here to bee obserued First that hee suppressed it pacis ergò for quietnesse sake Not therefore for the wickednesse of the subiect The next that in his due time the trewth thereof shall appeare In which last point onely we will willingly ioyne with him beseeching our good GOD for his CHRISTS sake that hee will bee pleased to discouer the trewth of this mans intentions as well for his owne Glory as to purge the scandall and to auoyd the danger which may ensue vnto Christendome by the darnell of Heresies which he hath sowne It is therefore to bee noted That to all these fiue Articles his answeres are so silly and weake as in three of them we haue found him planè confitentem reum plainely pleading guiltie
blanching it onely with some poore excuses And to the other two points his answers are doubtfull yet neither condemning the act of his schollers nor the last wicked booke called Dominicus Lopez Hauing now therefore briefly laied open the subtilties friuolous distinctions and excuses of the said Vorstius we will conclude this point with this protestation That if he had bene our owne Subiect we would haue bid him Excrea spit out and forced him to haue produced and confessed those wicked Heresies that are rooted in his heart And in case he should stand vpon his Negatiue we would enioyne him to say according to the ancient custome of the Primitiue Church in the like cases of Heretiques I renounce and from my soule detest them Anathema Maranatha vpon such and such Heresies And not to say For peace sake I caused this booke to be suppressed And these bookes are to bee read with great iudgement and discretion S. Hierome liketh not that any man should take it patiently to be suspected of Heresie And now to make an end of this Discourse we doe very heartily desire all good Christians in generall and My Lords the States in particular to whom the managing of this affaire doeth most specially belong to consider but two things First what kinde of people they be that slander vs and our sincere intention in this cause And next what priuate interest wee can possibly haue in respect of any worldly honour or aduancement herein to engage our selues in such sort as we haue done Concerning the first point There are but three sorts of people that seeke to calumniate vs vpon this occasion That is to say either such as are infected with the same or the like Heresies wherewith Vorstius is tainted ideo fouent consimilem causam and therefore doe maintaine the like cause or else such as be of the Romane Religion who in this confusion and libertie of prophesying would thrust in for a part conceiuing it more reasonable that their doctrine should be tolerated by those of our Religion then the doctrine of Vorstius or else such as for reason of State enuie peraduenture the good amitie and correspondencie which is betwixt vs and the Vnited Prouinces Touching our owne interest the whole course of our life doeth sufficiently witnesse that we haue alwayes bene contented with that portion which GOD hath put into our hands without seeking to inuade the possessions of any other Besides in two of our bookes as well in our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the Preface to our Apologie we haue shewed the same inclination For in the first booke speaking of warre we say that a King ought not to make any inuasion vpon anothers Dominions vntill Iustice be first denied him And in the other booke hauing shewed the vsurpation of the Pope aboue all the Kings and Princes of Christendome our conclusion is that we will neuer goe about to perswade them to assault him within his Dominions but onely to resume and preserue their owne iust Priuiledges from his violent intrusion So as thankes be to GOD both our Theorique and Practique agree well together to cleare vs from this vniust and slanderous imputation And as for the States in particular it is very vnlikely that we who haue all our life time held so strict an amitie with them as for their defence wee haue bene contented to expose the liues of many of our Subiects of both Nations would now practise against then State and that vpon so poore a subiect as Vorstius especially that so damnable a thing could euer enter into our heart as vnder the vaile and pretext of the glory of GOD to plot the aduancement of our owne priuate deseignes The reasons which induced vs to meddle in this businesse we haue already declared We leaue it now to his owne proper Iudges to consider what a nursling they foster in their bosome A stranger bred in the Socinian Heresie as it is said often times accused of Heresie by the Churches of Germanie one that hath written so wicked and scandalous bookes maintaining and seriously protesting in the preface of his Apologie to the States for the libertie of prophecying and twice or thrice insisting vpon that libertie in the Preface of his Modest Answere a dangerous and pernitious libertie or rather licentiousnesse opening a gap to all rupture Schisme and confusion in the Church yea hauing had some disciples that be Heretiques themselues and others that accuse him of Heresie And though there were no other cause then the silly and idle shifts wherewith hee seekes to defend himselfe in his last bookes it were enough to conuince him either to haue maintained a bad cause and in that respect worthy of a farre greater punishment then to be put by his place of Professour or at the least to be a person vnworthy of the name of a Professour in so famous an Vniuersitie for hauing so weakely maintained a cause that is iust For our part GOD is our witnesse we haue no quarrell against his person he is a Stranger borne farre from our dominions he is a Germane and it is well knowen that all Germanie are our friends and the most part of the great Princes there be either neerely allied vnto vs or our Confederates he doth outwardly professe the same Religion which we do he hath written against Bellarmine and hath not mentioned vs either in speach or writing for any thing we know but with all the honour and respect that may be GOD knowes the worst that we do wish him is that he may sincerely returne into the high beaten path-way of the Catholique and Orthodoxall Faith And for my Lords the States seeing wee haue discharged our conscience we will now referre the managing of the whole Action vnto their owne discretions For wee are so farre from prescribing them any rule herein as we shall be very well contented so as the businesse be well done that there be euen no mention at all made of our intercession in their publique Acts or Records Their maner of proceeding we leaue absolutely to their owne Wisedomes Modò praedicetur Christus so as CHRIST bee preached let them vse their owne formes in the Name of GOD. For we desire that GOD should so iudge vs at the last Day as we affect not in this Action any worldly glory beseeching the Creatour so to open their eyes to illuminate their vnderstandings direct their resolutions and aboue all to kindle their zeale sanctifie their affections at the last so to blesse their Actions and their proceedings in this cause as the issue thereof may tend to his Glory to the comfort and solace of the Faithfull to the honour of our Religion to the confusion and extirpation at the least profligation of Heresies and in particular to the corroboration of the Vnion of the sayd Prouinces A REMONSTRANCE FOR THE RIGHT OF KINGS AND THE INDEPENDANCE OF THEIR CROVVNES AGAINST AN ORATION OF THE MOST ILLVSTRIOVS CARD OF PERRON PRONOVNCED IN
because he imbraced false religion and worshipped false gods False too like the former King Achab lost his crowne and his life both together The Scripture that speaketh not according to mans fancie but according to the trewth doeth extend and number the yeeres of Achabs raigne to the time of his death Predictions of a Kings ruine are no sentences of deposition Elias neuer gaue the subiects of Achab absolution from their oath of obedience neuer gaue them the least inckling of any such absolution neuer set vp or placed any other King in Achabs throne That of the L. Cardinall a little after Pag. 68. is no lesse vntrew That King Vzziah was driuen from the conuersation of the people by Azarias the Priest and thereby the administration of his Kingdome was left no longer in his power Nor so For when God had smitten Vzziah with leprosie in his forehead 2. Chro. 26. he withdrew himselfe or went out into an house apart for feare of infecting such as were whole by his contagious disease The high Priest smote him not with any sentence of deposition or denounced him suspended from the administration of his Kingdome No the dayes of his raigne are numbred in Scripture to the day of his death And whereas the Priest according to the Law in the 13. of Leuit. iudged the King to be vncleane he gaue sentence against him not as against a criminall person and thereby within the compasse of deposition but as against a diseased body For the Law inflicteth punishments not vpon diseases but vpon crimes Hereupon whereas it is recorded by Iosephus in his Antiquities Antiq. l. 9. cap. 11. that Vzziah led a priuate and in a maner a solitarie life the said author doeth not meane that Vzziah was deposed but onely that he disburdened himselfe of care to mannage the publique affaires The example of Mattathias Pag. 69. by whom the Iewes were stirred vp to rebel against Antiochus is no better worth For in that example we finde no sentence of deposition but onely an heartning and commotion of a people then grieuously afflicted and oppressed He that makes himselfe the ringleader of conspiracie against a King doeth not foorthwith assume the person or take vp the office and charge of a Iudge in forme of Law and iuridically to depriue a King of his Regall rights and Royall prerogatiues Mattathias was chiefe of that conspiracie not in qualitie of Priest but of cheiftaine or leader in warre and a man the best qualified of all the people Things acted by the suddaine violence of the base vulgar must not stand for Lawes nor yet for proofes and arguments of ordinarie power such as the Pope challengeth to himselfe and appropriateth to his triple-Crowne These be our solide answeres Page 67. we disclaime the light armour which the L. Cardinall is pleased to furnish vs withall forsooth to recreate himselfe in rebating the points of such weapons as hee hath vouchsafed to put into our hands Now it wil be worth our labour to beate by his thrusts fetcht from the ordinary mission of the New Testament from leprosie stones and locks of wooll A leach no doubt of admirable skill one that for subiecting the Crownes of Kings vnto the Pope is able to extract arguments out of stones yea out of the leprosie and the drie scab onely forsooth because heresie is a kind of leprosie and an heretike hath some affinitie with aleper But may not his Quoniam Page 66. bee as fitly applyed to any contagious and inueterate vice of the minde beside heresie His warning-piece therefore is discharged to purpose whereby hee notifies that hee pretendeth to handle nothing with resolution For indeed vpon so weake arguments a resolution is but ill-fauouredly and weakely grounded His bulwarkes thus beaten downe Page 69. let vs now view the strength of our owne First he makes vs to fortifie on this maner They that are for the negatiue doe alleadge the authoritie of S. Paul Let euery soule bee subiect vnto the higher powers For whosoeuer resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God And likewise that of S. Peter Submit your selues whether it be vnto the King as vnto the superiour or vnto gouernours c. Vpon these passages and the like they inferre that obedience is due to Kings by the Law of God and not dispensable by any Spirituall or Temporall authoritie Thus he brings vs in with our first weapon But here the very chiefe sinew and strength of our argument hee doeth wittingly balke and of purpose conceale To wit That all the Emperors of whom the said holy Apostles haue made any mention in their diuine Epistles were professed enemies to CHRIST Pagans Infidels fearefull and bloody Tyrants to whom notwithstanding euery soule and therefore the Bishop of Rome for one is commanded to submit himselfe and to professe subiection Thus much Chrysostome hath expresly taught in his Hom. 23. vpon the Epistle to the Romanes The Apostle giues this commandement vnto all euen to Priests also and cloistered Monkes not onely to Secular be thou an Apostle an Euangelist a Prophet c. Besides it is here worthy to be noted that howsoeuer the Apostles rule is generall and therefore bindeth all the faithfull in equall bands yet is it particularly directly and of purpose addressed to the Church of Rome by S. Paul as by one who in the spirit of an Apostle did foresee that rebellion against Princes was to rise and spring from the citie of Rome Now in case the Head of that Church by warrant of any priuiledge contained in the most holy Register of Gods holy word is exempted from the binding power of this generall precept or rule did it not become his Lordship to shew by the booke that it is a booke case and to lay it foorth before that honourable assembly who no doubt expected and waited to heare when it might fall from his learned lips But in stead of any such authenticall and canonicall confirmation he flieth to a sleight shift and with a cauill is bold to affirme the foundation laid by those of our side doeth no way touch the knot of the controuersie Let vs heare him speake It is not in controuersie whether obedience be due to kings by Gods Law so long as they are kings or acknowledged for Kings but our point controuerted is whether by Gods Law it be required that hee who hath bene once recognised and receiued for King by the body of Estates can at any time be taken and reputed as no King that is to say can doe no maner of acte whereby hee may loose his right and so cease to be saluted King This answere of the L. Cardinall is the rare deuise euasion and starting hole of the Iesuites In whose eares of delicate and tender touch King-killing soundeth very harsh but forsooth to vn-king a King first and then to giue him the stab that is a point of iust and trew descant For to kill a King once
On the other side without any such Rhetoricall outcries I simply affirme It is a reproach a scandall a crime of rebellion for a subiect hauing his full charge and loade of benefits in the new spring of his Kings tender aage his King-fathers blood yet reeking and vpon the point of an addresse for a double match with Spaine in so honourable an assembly to seeke the thraldome of his Kings Crowne to play the captious in cauilling about causes of his Kings deposing to giue his former life the Lye with shame enough in his old aage and to make himselfe a common by-word vnder the name of a Problematicall Martyr one that offers himselfe to fagot and fire for a point of doctrine but problematically handled that is distrustfully and onely by way of doubtfull and questionable discourse yea for a point of doctrine in which the French as he pretendeth are permitted to thwart and crosse his Holines in iudgement prouided they speake in it as in a point not certaine and necessary but onely doubtfull and probable THE THIRD INCONVENIENCE EXAMINED THe third Inconuenience pretended by the L. Pag. 87. Cardinall to grow by admitting this Article of the third Estate is flourished in these colours It would breed and bring foorth an open and vnauoydeable schisme against his Holinesse and the rest of the whole Ecclesiasticall body For thereby the doctrine long approued and ratified by the Pope and the rest of the Church should now be taxed and condemned of impious and most detestable consequence yea the Pope and the Church euen in faith and in points of saluation should be reputed and beleeued to be erroniously perswaded Hereupon his Lordship giues himselfe a large scope of the raines to frame his elegant amplifications against schismes and schismatikes Now to mount so high and to flie in such place vpon the wings of amplification for this Inconuenience what is it else but magnifically to report and imagine a mischiefe by many degrees greater then the mischiefe is The L. Cardinal is in a great errour if hee make himselfe beleeue that other nations wil make a rent or separation from the communion of the French because the French stand to it tooth and naile that French Crownes are not liable or obnoxious to Papall deposition howsoeuer there is no schisme that importeth not separation of communion The most illustrious Republike of Venice hath imbarked herselfe in this quarrell against his Holinesse hath played her prize and caried away the weapons with great honour Doeth she notwithstanding her triumph in the cause forbeare to participate with all her neighbours in the same Sacraments doeth she liue in schisme with all the rest of the Romane Church No such matter When the L. Cardinal himselfe not many yeeres past maintained the Kings cause and stood honourably for the Kings right against the Popes Temporall vsurpations did he then take other Churches to be schismaticall or the rotten members of Antichrist Beleeue it who list I beleeue my Creed Nay his Lordship telleth vs himselfe a little after that his Holinesse giues the French free scope to maintaine either the affirmatiue or negatiue of this question And will his Holinesse hold them schismatikes that dissent from his opinion and iudgement in a subiect or cause esteemed problematicall Farre be it from his Holinesse The King of Spaine reputed the Popes right arme neuer gaue the Pope cause by any acte or other declaration to conceiue that he acknowledged himselfe deposeable by the Pope for heresie or Tyrannie or stupiditie But being well assured the Pope standeth in greater feare of his arme then hee doeth of the Popes head and shoulders he neuer troubles his owne head about our question More when the booke of Cardinall Baronius was come foorth in which booke the Kingdome of Naples is descried and publiquely discredited like false money touching the qualitie of a Kingdome and attributed to the King of Spaine not as trew proprietary thereof but onely as an Estate held in fee of the Romane Church the King made no bones to condemne and to banish the said booke out of his dominions The holy Father was contented to put vp his Catholike sonnes proceeding to the Cardinals disgrace neuer opened his mouth against the King neuer declared or noted the King to be schismaticall He waits perhaps for some fitter opportunitie when the Kingdome of Spaine groaning vnder the burthens of intestine dissentions and troubles hee may without any danger to himselfe giue the Catholike King a Bishops mate Yea the L. Cardinal himselfe is better seene in the humors and inclinations of the Christian world then to be grosly perswaded that in the Kingdome of Spaine and in the very heart of Rome it selfe there be not many which either make it but a ieast or else take it in fowle scorne to heare the Popes power ouer the Crownes of Kings once named especially since the Venetian Republike hath put his Holinesse to the worse in the same cause and cast him in Law What needed the L. Cardinall then by casting vp such mounts and trenches by heaping one amplification vpon an other to make schisme looke with such a terrible and hideous aspect Who knowes not how great an offence how heinous a crime it is to quarter not IESVS CHRISTS coat but his body which is the Church And what needed such terrifying of the Church with vglinesse of schisme whereof there is neither colourable shew nor possibilitie The next vgly monster after schisme shaped by the L. Cardinall in the third supposed and pretended inconuenience is heresie Pag. 89. His Lordship saith for the purpose By this Article we are cast headlong into a manifest heresie as binding vs to confesse that for many aages past the Catholike Church hath bene banished out of the whole world For if the champions of the doctrine contrary to this Article doe hold an impious and a detestable opinion repugnant vnto Gods word then doubtlesse the Pope for so many hundred yeeres expired hath not bene the head of the Church but an heretike and the Antichrist He addeth moreouer That the Church long agoe hath lost her name of Catholike and that in France there hath no Church flourished nor so much as appeared these many and more then many yeeres for as much as all the French doctors for many yeres together haue stood for the contrary opinion We can erect and set vp no trophey more honorable for heretikes in token of their victory then to auow that Christs visible Kingdom is perished from the face of the earth and that for so many hundred yeres there hath not bene any Temple of God nor any spouse of Christ but euery where and all the world ouer the kingdom of Antichrist the synagogue of Satan the spouse of the diuel hath mightily preuailed and borne all the sway Lastly what stronger engines can these heretikes wish or desire for the battering and the demolishing of transubstantiation of auricular confession and other like towers
violent and bloody death or some other mischiefe more intolerable then death it selfe What are we the better that parricides of Kings are neither set on nor approued by the Church in their abominable actions when shee layeth such plots and taketh such courses as necessarily doe inferre the cutting of their throates In the next place be it noted that his Lordship against all reason reckons the absoluing of subiects from the oath of alleagiance in the ranke of penalties awarded and enioyned before the Ecclesiasticall tribunall seate For this penaltie is not Ecclesiasticall but Ciuill and consequently not triable in Ecclesiasticall Courts without vsurping vpon the Ciuill Magistrate But I wonder with what face the L. Cardinall can say The Church neuer consenteth to any practise against his life whom she hath once chastised with seuere censures For can his Lordship be ignorant what is written by Pope Vrbanus Can. Excommunicatorum Can. excoâ— Caus 23. Quaest 6. Wee take them not in any wise to bee man-slayers who in a certaine heat of zeale towards the Catholike Church their Mother shall happen to kill an excommunicate person More if the Pope doth not approoue and like the practise of King-killing wherefore hath not his Holinesse imposed some seuere censure vpon the booke of Mariana the Iesuite by whom parricides are commended nay highly extolled when his Holinesse hath beene pleased to take the paines to censure and call in some other of Mariana's bookes Againe wherefore did his Holinesse aduise himselfe to censure the Decree of the Court of Parliament in Paris against Iohn Chastell Wherefore did hee suffer Garnet and Oldcorne my powder-miners both by bookes and pictures vendible vnder his nose in Rome to be inrowled in the Canon of holy Martyrs And when hee saw two great Kings murdered one after another wherefore by some publike declaration did not his Holinesse testifie to all Christendome his inward sense and trew apprehension of so great misfortune as all Europe had iust cause to lament on the behalfe of France Wherefore did not his Holinesse publish some Law or Pontificiall Decree to prouide for the securitie of Kings in time to come Trew it is that he censured Becanus his booke But wherefore That by a captious and sleight censure he might preuent a more exact and rigorous Decree of the Sorbone Schoole For the Popes checke to Becanus was onely agenerall censure and touch without any particular specification of matter touching the life of Kings About some two moneths after the said booke was printed againe with a dedication to the Popes Nuntio in Germany yet without any alteration saue onely of two articles conteining the absolute power of the people ouer Kings In recompence and for a counterchecke whereof three or foure articles were inserted into the said booke touching the Popes power ouer Kings articles no lesse wicked iniurious to Regall rights nay more iniurious then any of the other clauses whereof iust cause of exception and complaint had bene giuen before If I would collect and heape vp examples of ancient Emperours as of Henrie IV. whos 's dead corps felt the rage and furie of the Pope or of Frederic II. against whom the Pope was not ashamed to whet and kindle the Sultane or of Queene Elizabeth our Predecessour of glorious memorie whose life was diuers times assaulted by priuie murderers expresly dispatched from Rome for that holy seruice if I would gather vp other examples of the same stampe which I haue layd forth in my Apologie for the oath of alleagiance I could make it more cleare then day-light how farre the L. Cardinals words are discrepant from the trewth where his Lordship out of most rare considence is bold to auow Page 97. That neuer any Pope went so farre as to giue consent or counsell for the desperate murdering of Princes That which already hath bene alleadged may suffice to conuince his Lordship I meane that his Holinesse by deposing of Kings doeth lead them directly to their graues and tombes The Cardinall himselfe seemeth to take some notice hereof The Church as he speaketh abhorreth sudden and vnprepensed murders aboue therest Pag. 95. Doth not his Lordship in this phrase of speech acknowledge that murders committed by open force are not so much disauowed or disclaimed by the Church A little after he speakes not in the teeth as before but with full and open mouth that hee doeth not dislike a King once deposed by the Pope should be pursued with open warre Whereupon it followes that in warre the King may be lawfully slaine No doubt a remarkeable degree of his Lordships clemencie A King shall bee better entreated and more mildly dealt withal if he be slaine by the shot of an harquebuse or caleeuer in the field then if hee bee stabd by the stroke or thrust of a knife in his chamber or if at a siege of some city hee be blowne vp with a myne then by a myne made and a traine of gunpowder laid vnder his Palace or Parliament house in time of peace His reason Forsooth because in sudden murders oftentimes the soule and the body perish both together O singular bountie and rare clemencie prouokers instigators strong puffers and blowers of parricides in mercifull compassion of the soule become vnmercifull and shamefull murderers of the body This deuice may well claime and challenge kinred of Mariana the Iesuites inuention For he liketh not at any hand the poisoning of a Tyrant by his meat or drinke for feare lest he taking the poison with his owne hand and swallowing or gulping it downe in his meate or drinke so taken should be found felo de se as the common Lawyer speaketh or culpable of his owne death But Mariana likes better to haue a Tyrant poysoned by his chaire or by his apparell and robes after the example of the Mauritanian Kings that being so poysoned onely by sent or by contact he may not be found guiltie of selfe-fellonie and the soule of the poore Tyrant in her flight out of the body may be innocent O hel-hounds O diabolical wretches O infernall monsters Did they onely suspect and imagine that either in Kings there is any remainder of Kingly courage or in their subiects any sparke left of ancient libertie they durst as soone eat their nailes or teare their owne flesh from the bones as once broach the vessell of this diabolicall deuice How long then how long shall Kings whom the Lord hath called his Anointed Kings the breathing Images of God vpon earth Kings that with a wry or frowning looke are able to crush these earth-wormes in pieces how long shall they suffer this viperous brood scotfree and without punishment to spit in their faces how long the Maiestie of GOD in their person and Royall Maiestie to be so notoriously vilified so dishonourably trampled vnder foot The L. Cardinall borads vs with a like manifest ieast and notably trifles first distinguishing betweene Tyrants by administration and Tyrants by vsurpation then