it This argument I urge no further than to evince in their justification that their unwillingness to swear is no evidence to prove their want of allegiance or any backwardness to lay down their lives and fortunes in his Majesties service For the practical part of the Subjects allegiance is that which only concerns the security of a Prince which all Catholicks will gladly swear unto Therefore I hope a true and real tenderness of Conscience which can have no ill consequence with it in relation to his Majesties safety will give no offence to them that are over them nor be a motive to hold a rigorous hand upon them Especially seeing these threescores years since the Oath was first established it hath been refused by Catholicks to be taken upon the score of Conscience though universally taken by others of any dignity conferred upon them in Church or State Yet no Catholick in England of any note or quality that all this time did act contrary to their allegiance sworn unto in the Oath On the other side I could wish it were as difficult to name those amongst the takers of the Oath who have so fatally broken them half the Kingdome being in rebellion contrary to what they had sworn to the ruine of the best King and the best man which perhaps this Nation had ever cause to glory in As for the Oath of Supremacy Luther Calvin Knox Gilby all pretended Reformers disliked it Calvin in his Commentary on Osee saith who advanced Hen. 8. to such a height did not well for they no less than blasphemed when they called him Supream Head under Christ Chemnitius a learned Lutheran in his Epist ad eloc. Briard of Queen Eliz. Supremacy saith quod foeminae a saeculis inaudito fastu se papissam caput Ecclesiae facit So Gilby in Admonit ad Angl. Our Cartwright also teacheth against Supremacy So do Presbyterians generally here and beyond Sea Henry the eighth once acknowledged the Supremacy more than ever any King did as appeared by Cardinal Campeius and Wolsey Legates he being called before them After his will being not executed made the Oath against Supremacy This Oath of Supremacy as it is worded and according to the sense of the first Lawgiver cannot lawfully be taken by any Christian or assembly without contradicting his belief understanding it Grammatically according to the proper and natural sense of the words at least ambiguous if not formally contradictory or the cause or reason of framing this Oath by Hen. 8. and what power was exercised by virtue of it and of the Parliament enjoining it appears to be a jurisdiction purely spiritual was communicated to him and assumed by him It s evident also by the many practises it was only a spiritual by-title of Supremacy he sought for to deprive the Pope for he stood in need of such a power to justifie his divorce and dispense with his intention of taking Ecclesiastical livings of Abbies Monasteries into his hands The Protection in King Edward the sixth continued the Oath to make new Church-Laws Institutions and commit new Sacriledges changes ubique arti contrary to which King Heâ— 8. published and declared Queen Mary renounces this jurisdiction and restores it to the Church Queen Elizabeth re-assumes it having a greater necessity for it then her Brother because her marriage was declared null by the Pope This Oath consists of two parts the affirmative as that the King is only Supream Head as well in Temporal as Spiritual c. Secondly the Negative that no Prince Prelate c. hath any jurisdiction or spiritual Power c. This Negative part of the Oath is contrary to a point of their Faith wherein not only all spiritual authority of the Pope but of a general Council or Western Church is disclaimed Is all jurisdiction purely spiritual only in the Kings right are Princes Pastors of Souls hath not a Heathen King the same spiritual right How could King James then call the Pope Patriarch of the West or how can a free general Council oblige Christians and to which learned Protestants profess to submit to as the chiefest authority under God And although in Queen Elizabeths time the Oaths were explicated that only civil and Kingly authority in causes Ecclesiastical was intended yet this negative clause cannot be by such expositions eluded Secondly An Oath to Catholicks and tender Consciences is so dreadful that they dare not call God to witness they sincerely swear the Pope ought not to have any Superiority in spiritual causes unless it might be permitted them at the same time and the same breath to signifie that it is intended of civil and Kingly authority in causes Ecclesiastical They tremble to swear at words ambiguous but formally contradictory Thirdly In the thirty nine Artticles of the Church of England it is defined that the Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Kingdome and these Articles are confirmed by Act of Parliament Whereby it appears their intention is to require a renuntiation of a Catholick point of Faith and the Popes being Head of the Western Church This Act being made since the said exposition The Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance if the former were so expressed as to require an acknowledgement of a civil Supremacy in his Majesty and Ecclesiastical to the Church-Governours and if the unfortunate word Heretical and speculative points were left out of the other no Catholick would refuse either And more then this no Protestant Presbyterian c. that freely take them can intend by them an Oath being in it self a religious affirmation with Gods Seal Whosoever takes these Oaths absolutely must swear to take Almighty God to witness as he shall answer at the dreadful day of Judgment that he believes the Pope hath no Power c. now this word believe being in a matter of Religion and Profession of the same can signifie nothing but a Christian belief or Faith and imports thus much I N. N. do swear in the presence of Almighty God that the Pope hath no Power c. As I believe there is a God in Heaven or any other Article of Faith all this is virtually and really comprehended in the word believe Now what man of Conscience of what Opinion soever that feareth an Oath to use the Preachers words Eccles 9. 2. will venture his Soul so far as to swear all this are we all of us so certain that no forraign jurisdiction c. or that its Heretical c. as we are certain there is a God Heaven Hell c. and so make it a part of and Article of our Belief when it is not expresly nor plainly revealed in Scripture or declared by the Church and so not fundamental to our Belief or absolutely necessary to our Salvation If you say it may be obscurely delivered in Scripture then at least the unlearned cannot be able to discover it How then shall such dare to swear as in effect they do when they take the Oaths that
disloyalty from them that have freely taken them and none in Catholicks that have refused For the Oaths by none more readily taken and earnestly imposed on others than by those who began the Wars and promoted the Covenant and on the contrary by none more scrupled and refused than by those who always assisted the King ¶ Thirdly it may be objected as lately by Doctor Denton c. That Papists suffer not for Religion but because they are not obedient to the Laws c. Resp 1. By a Proviso of the Act 25 and 27. of Eliz. if any Priest committed shall submit to the Laws and take the Oaths they shall be freed from the penalty and not adjudged Traytors if they renounce their Religion Resp 2. Suppose that in the Apostles time a Law had been made by any King or Emperour of a contrary Religion to them that if any of the said Apostles or Priests should enter into their Dominions to preach a contrary Doctrine to to the Religion there received and to exercise any of their Apostolical or Priestly Functions it should be treason and under pain of death Would or could the Apostles have obeyed those Laws or did they obey the Governours of the Jews their lawful Superiours when they commanded them to preach no more in the name of Jesus Christ or to disperse Christian Doctrine which they held for Treason or did they fly out of their Dominions lest their sufferings should be imputed to disobedience and not for the name of Christ Is there not another blood to be respected called by the Prophet the blood of the Soul whereof the Pastor shall be guilty if he fly for fear or forsake his flock in time of danger and persecution Have not the English Priests the same Obligation of Conscience to help their Country-men in spiritual necessities as had the Apostles and Apostolick men to strangers for whose help they were content to offer their lives and incur any danger whatsoever ¶ Fourthly It may be demanded why cannot Papists come to our Churches Resp Unity and Vniformity are two things one being internal the other external therefore if they should conform yet they can have no verity faith or truth but as forced by which Religion is never better'd Truth and falshood are like the clay in Nebuchadonosors Image they may cleave but they will never incorporate Christ's Coat had no seam though the Churches vesture was of divers colours whence a learned Father saith in veste varietas sit scissura non sit The true God hath this attribute that he is a jealous God and therefore his worship and religion will endure no mixture or partner ¶ Fifthly To say or object the Popes Supremacy is dangerous This reflects not only upon the honour of Catholicks but the safety of all the Professors of it They acknowledg the Pope as Successor to Saint Peter is head of the Church and hath supream Authority in matters spiritual but how this can be offensive to the Temporalities of Princes is not understood by me nor those great Monarchs that are of his Church and submit to his authority and and yet are zealous and jealous of their own power and temporal Regalities as any Princes can possible be Our graver and more learned Divines distinguish between the inward power of the Keys and the outward jurisdiction by temporal penalties this they assign to the King in all causes and over all persons that they reserve to the Clergy as neither derived from or dependent of the Civil Magistrate And if I rightly understand the Religion of the English Church although they allow the King to be supream Governour of their Church yet they do not confer any Pastoral Office or Jurisdiction upon him and consequently he is one of the Flock and therefore as such he is subject to Pastors Wherefore if this be not looked on by Protestants as derogatory to the Kings authority I hope by the same reason Roman Catholicks will not be found guilty for owning the Popes Supreamacy in matters meerly spiritual There can be no just fear or jealousie that spiritual jurisdiction should supplant secular obedience because the Church-Discipline in it self is so innocent and passive We our selves acknowledg a spiritual authority in the Bishops promise a Canonical obedience to them and not to the King admit Jurisdiction in their spiritual Courts c. nay the Presbyterians in their Consistory and ecclesiastical Courts will allow the King no authority at all more than the meanest Subject and so do other Sects Now if a Subject v. g. the Bishop of Canterbury may be supream in Spirituals without any derogation to the Prince may not the Pope with less danger and inconvenience be truely called as King James did the Patriarch or Superintendent of the West For if that power be purely spiritual being of a different nature as is said before it cannot in the least degree be prejudicial to the Kings civil power but rather oblige those that acknowledg it faithfully to obey the King Therefore it ought to be no obstacle to Toleration otherwise no Christians or Sect whatsoever ought to be tolerated for let them be Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists c. do not they depend upon and own a power distinct from his Majesties Civil Power I mean a Power meerly spiritual or pastoral not subordinate to the King but to which the King himself if he be of your Religion ought to be subject as no Pastor but a Sheep no Teacher but a Hearer no Administer of Sacraments but a Receiver Such a Power all Sects and Religions seem to own no Catholick depends on or can own more The spirituall Primacy of the chief Pastor preserves peace and unity and is a greater defence to them than many Armies in subduing their minds to civil obedience without such a spiritual authority there is no influence on the people all preaching and Laws are but shaking Bulwarks to support Monarchy No Kingdom hath been more happy at home or glorious abroad than when the Pope was their spirituall Father When such a Primacy purely spiritual was acknowledged in England the Church here was never torn in pieces with Schismes nor poisoned with Heresies the honour and safety of our Dominions were far from being prejudiced or invaded It is denied then the owning Supremacy should worse their condition shall notions convince experience when a demonstration it self often gives way to practice Let 's summon the Kings of Europe of Catholick Profession to decide the contrary unanimously and proclaim their people are not rebellious by reason of any ecclesiastical dependance abroad Roman Catholicks did ever renounce any temporal power or jurisdiction belonging to the Pope over any Subject of his Majesties But since there is a Power purely spiritual as is shewed before from which Princes are not exempted Is it not more for their temporal security that the spiritual power should reside in one single person that usually is both learned and discreet and withal is a thousand
unreasonable and inadaequate for as corporal penalties cannot convince the understanding so neither can they be proportionable mulct for faults purely intellectual Before we can with justice inflict penalties upon any different profession we ought to use all means possible to recover them to truth Arguments to rational creatures as Christians are to instruct admonish warn and finally to reject to come to them full of compassion of their misery full of affection of their Salvation by reasonable and persuasive motives suitable to their own nature by somethng can resolve its doubts answer its objections tenets and Propositions Whence our first work should be to collect a Body of positive articles evidently contained in Scripture and absolutely necessary to salvation for its improper to pen the form of Faith in the negative because my believing Christian truths makes me a Christian and not my disbelieving the errors that oppose it else he that believes nothing at all would be the best Christian We must fight against Antichrist by lawful ways prescribed by the Word of God by the spirit of his mouth in preaching instructing in Charity Patience humility according to the example of Christ and his Apostles The weapons of Christian warfare are not Carnal but Spiritual 2 Cor. 10. For as they were not the warlike engines of Joshua but the trumpets of the Sanctuary that made the walls of Jericho to fall down So it is not the Canon but the trumpet of the Gospel which is required to pull down the walls of Babylon True Religion was never advanced by these ways but propagated by patient sufferings the Example of Jesus Christ is so far from persecuting that he would not revile his persecutors prayed for them saith go teach all nations c. The Text directs Christs procedure in teaching not in devouring Wherefore all wise humble and charitable Christians should so Order their judgments and Censures if at any time they are forced to declare them they must above all things take heed they nourish not nor discover any uncharitable fewds antipathies distances against others after the rule of those passions which were the common source of Schism and Heresies The free meek and solid piety feeds it self on the substance of Religion without picking quarrels at the shell free from the superstition and hypochondriacal Zeal of some who pretend to advance the Kingdom of Christ by cutting the throats of his Disciples and cementing his temples with blood instead of the Cement of charity CAP. II. Persecution is against Policy and Piety THe grand fomenters of persecution can be no friends to the English State for what but imposition immoderation and restraint in the cause of Religion as a learned divine Noteth hath turned Episcopacy into Presbytery Presbytery into Independancy Independancy into Quakerism Religion into Policy Reformation into Innovation Profession into Pretence Ministery into Souldiers Souldiers into Preachers Churches into Stables Pulpits into Tubs Degrees into Parity Pastors into Hirelings Apostolical Hierarchy into Anarchy with abusive fumes and flames to build Babels of their own I am not able to express saith another great Doctor of our English Church how high an impiety it is that at this time when Gods hand is out against us justly for our sins to be disposed and fixed upon a resolution that to redeem external peace we will persecute c. I admire to see too too many in Parliament here amongst us where is great plenty of able Gentlemen of excellent learning worth wit and other perfections and endowments as any nation besides to be inclinable if not actually resolved in all meetings to feud about the Rom. Religion especially now after this tryal of their honesty more is to be admired the preposterous machinations and motions even of Churchmen who by the Canons are forbid to have any hand in blood when they forsake the ancient refuges of Christians which were preaching and tears and betake themselves to swords and helmets plots conspiracies and pursuivants Wisemen have seen those obscurities and disgraces which as black shadows have attended even Churchmen Persecution is fitter for the hands of Cyclops who forged Jupiters Thunderbolts then the Priests of the Gods Bishops should always be tender of good consciences and of the honour of Christian Religion which was not wont to see Ministers rough and targetted as the Rhinoceroes bâ—â— soft and gentle cloathed as the Sheep and Sheepheards of Christ There is not a more portentous sight then to see galeatos Clericos Christ long ago in the person of Saint Peter commanded them to put up their Swords nor was he ever heard to repeal that word or Bid them draw their Swords no not in Christs Cause that is meerly for Religion who hath legions of Angels armies of Truth gifts of Graces of the Spirit to defend himself and his true interest in Religion withal and a little after Indeed our Ecclesiastical Rulers have reason to steer us cautiously since they sit at the Helm in such a Ship as hath thrown very many Pilots over board it becomes those Bishops now got up newly to be most calm quiet and sedate Spirits The great alteration of the Body of the People since these last twenty years require that our old ends of promoting the welfare of the Church of England should be attained by the conduct of new means Bishops should compose the affections of the People by Liberty of Conscience and not Acts of Vniformity for the greatest assertors of Episcopacy and Ceremonies of the Church are lodged in their Graves and the present major part of this Land consists in those to whom the introducing of the old Church Prelatical Government will seem an Innovation It s the interest of the Clergy here to temper the Government of the Church for its irrational to think that any Church Government in a Protestant Country of Sectaries can be accommodated to the content and satisfaction of all which restraineth a large and almost absolute power to the heads of a few Protestant Bishops It s the concern of none but Souldiers of Fortune to oppose due Liberty of Conscience Whence the wise King James had wholly repealed the penal Statutes engaged so to do and Papistry then was declared tolerable had he not been diverted from it by Cecil and other Upstarts and Politicians whose interest was begun and grounded upon Heresie and destruction of the ancient Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdome For in his Speech Sess 1. Printed 161â— My mind saith he was ever free from persecuting and thralling my Subjects in matters of Conscience and in his next words I was so far from increasing their burdens with Roboam as I have so much as either time occasion or law would permit me to have lightened them And in his Censure against Conradus Vorstius the Dutch Heretick recounting the difference between Protestants and Catholicks he findeth not any for which Papists may be persecuted but rather the contrary You may object persecution is necessary in Policy of
Bohemia and Poland That imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots That authorized Mountebank and Rochel to stand in defiauce against their King That begot so many conspiracies against Queen Mary of England as appears in our Chronicles That ravished from their lawful Governours the Low Countries and Transylvania and many Towns now called free Was it from any of their Books you have drawn these vile Maximes viz. that the authority of the Soveraign Magistrate is of humane right That the People are above the King That the People can give Power to the Prince and take it away That Kings are not anointed of the Lord That if a King fail in performing his Oath at Coronation the Subjects are absolved from their allegiance That if Princes fall from the grace of God the people are loosed from their subjection Do not these doctrines proceed from Wickliffe Waldenses and other Sectaries Doth not Belforrest sufficiently prove the like maximes from Luther Calvin Melancton Peter Martir c. What Buchanan and Knox did against Queen Mary their lawful Soveraign is evident in History and Beza in Epist 78. ad Buchanan approves their actions Calvin l. 4. c. 3. Instit from his high Consistorian gives this absolution to all Oaths of that nature Quibuscunque hujus evangelii lux effulgeat ab omnibus laqueis juramentisque absolvitur And the famous Minister Surean called Rosiers writ a Book expresly that it was lawful to kill Charls the ninth and the Queen Mother if they would not obey the Gospel Belforrest is sufficient witness See more in Althusius Politicks c. 35. Dausus l. 6. Polit. c. 3. In all the Councils Synods writings of any Roman Divines no such matters are found and allowed but only such as teach Subjects loyalty humility obedience More Princes have been deposed by Sectaries in sixty years than by Papists in six hundred years and that deposing of Kings is no doctrine nor practice of Catholicks shall be proved hereafter and that others have been more faulty in each of their respective Sects in all kind of disorders at home or abroad History and experience testifie In no Country or City in Christendome but Catholick Religion ever entred by meekness and suffering in no Country of Christendome but other Sects entred by sedition rebellion disobedience or murdering of great Princes or Persons by vast destruction of Cities Countries Kingdomes As in France Holland several States in Germany Scotland twenty years in England c. Consider what was done against France Holland several States in Germany Mary Queen of Scots or the late unparallel'd Rebellion In Catholick Religion I find they learn their duty towards God cannot be complied with without an exact performance of their duty towards their Soveraign to obey him not for advantages or temporal concerns but out of Conscience For no Roman Catholick can be true to his Religion who is not true to his Prince Whom they obey for Conscience sake whose Person they love and honour and whose prosperity they always pray for Though stript of their Estates or loaden with stripes It is in the power of great ones to make them suffer but not to make them guilty Their Religion tells them that Caesar's due ought not to be kept from him be he of what religion he pleaseth This is the will of God in Scripture preached by the Apostles and from them derived to us this doctrine is instilled in their Catechisms confirmed by their Sermons and conferences Insomuch that a Papist that is not truly loyal is not truly a Papist if to believe not what they are taught by the Church makes a man cease to be of it From the Saxons to Edward the sixth to be a Catholick was never taken as a bar to loyalty Nor doth it seem possible a Religion which governed England with glory so many hundred years can teach a doctrine destructive to Princes or infuse Maximes that will breed Commotion in the People They are ready by Oath in the face of Heaven to profess loyalty a divine command and an indispensable duty and any who pretend to know what Catholick doctrine is must know this to be a part of it In matters of fact their actions have given indubitable testimonies even by their Enemies own Concessions If Catholicks had been disloyal either the King or his Council or at least the States-men under Cromwel or the Rump must know it They appeal to the Council in all discoveries of their Treacheries against the King whether ever any constant Catholick was accessary or concurred in any design against his Majesty They appeal and challenge all the black Catalogue of Cromwells favorites and the whole Rumpists to discover if they can any Papist who concurred in any plot or action If Catholicks refuse to go to Protestant Churches in respect of Conscience They will far more refuse for Conscience sake to commit Treason a sin of a higher degree will hardly attempt or consent to any desperate act against their State and Country and commit such Crimes as hazard Body and Soul Nay what other Sectaries will boggle at If the King should be a Heathen and make Laws against them they hold it not lawful to resist but peaceably to endure During the time of the late King of France there was proposed by an Assembly of Catholick Divines and Bishops this question or Probleme If it were supposed the King of France became a Mahometan and by his Power endeavoured to force his Subjects to that infidelity whether they might lawfully according to the Principles of Christianity by arms resist him to which question the unanimous consent of the Assembly was that such a resistance would be unlawful since Christian Religion allowed no other way of maintaining Faith against lawful Soveraigns but prayers tears and sufferings When shall we find such a result from a Synod of Presbyterians Compare these primtive Doctrines with new the Evangelists and we shall find them quite contrary to the rules of Wiâ—liffians Waldenses Paraeus Knox and Buchanan c. who teach that Subjects may not only defend by Arms their Religion but offend also And lately Baxter in lib. of Rest p. 258. saith we may fight against Kings if it were for cause of Religion to purge the Church from Idolatry and Superstition The Genova Notes of the Bible 2 Chron. c. 5. allow the deposing of Queen Macha See more in Belforrest On the contrary the Doctors and Casuists of the Roman Church hold it as an Article of Faith that neither Heresie nor Turcism can be opposed by Rebellion Belloy in Apol. part 2. plainly saith Arms against Princes have no warrant Orationibus tantum pugnandum Navar Cunerus and all other Catholick Doctors agree in the same as most conformable to the doctrine and practice of the Primitive Fathers The General Council of Constance Sess 5. concludes it an error in Faith to maintain Subjects may kill their Kings being Tyants nuper accepit Synodus c. Cardinal Tolet in his Summolies l. 3. c. 6. affirms