boody to the true Professors of the Gospell thereupon the Statute of 1. Ed. 6. c. 12. repeald and utterly made void all Lawes and Statutes formerly made concerning Hereticks or opinions in Religion and so they continued repealed during all King Edward the sixt his Reigne But Queene Mary comming to the Crowne and restoring the Popes and Prelates exploded Jurisdictions thereupon The Statute of 1. 2. Phil. and Maryâ— 6. revived them all in whose Reign they were put in vigorus execution to the destruction of many Godly Christians as we may read at large in Mr. Fox his Acts and Monuments vol. 3. But shee deceasing and Queene Elizabethâ—â—cceding â—â—cceding The Statute of 1. Eliz. c. 1. repealed all these Lawes againe revâ—ed by Queene Mary and leaves Ordâ—… and the High Commissioners liberty to proceed against Heretickes only by Ecclesiasticall Censures with thes provisoes Provided alwayes and be it enacted as is aforesaid that no manner of Order Act or determination for any matter of Religion or cause Ecclesiasticall had or made by the Authority of this present Parliament shall be accepted deemed reputed or adjudged at any time hereafter to be any Errour Heresie Schisme or Schismaticall opinion any Order Decree Sentence Constitution or Law whatsoever the same be to the contrary notwithstanding Provided always be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid that such person or Persons to whom your Highnesse your Heires or Successors shall hereafter by Letters Patents under the Great Seale of England give Authority to have or execute any Jurisdiction Power or Authority Spirituall or Temporall or to visi Reforme Order or Correct any Errors Heresies Schismes Abuses or Enormities by vertue of this Act shall not in any wise have Authority or power to order determine or adjudge any matter or cause to be Heresie but only such as heretofore have beene determined ordered or adjudged to bee Heresie by the Authority of the Canonicall Scriptures or by the first 4. Generall Councells or any of them or by any other Generall Councells wherein the same was declared Heresie by the expresse and plaine words of the said Canonicall Scriptures or such as hereafter shall be Ordered judged or determined to be Heresie by the High Court of Parliament of this Realme with the assent of the Clergie in their Convocation any thing in this Act contained to the contrary notwithstanding So as this Act defines what shall be adjudged and punished as Heresie by the High Commissioners and may serve for a good Rule to the Judges and Parliament now to proceed by in judging what shall be reputed reall Haeresie and Blasphemy in future times But this clause of this Act is now repealed by an Act of this present Parliament which takes away the High Commission and so all Statutes concerning Heretickes or Heresie are now wholly repealed and the Ordinaries power to punish them totally abolished by the Ordinances abolishing Episcopacy Yet this is observable that both before and after the repeale of all Statutes concerning Haeresie by 1 Eliz. c. 1. some reall Heretickes and Anabaptists were condemned and burnt for Haeresie by vertue of the Common Law of England I read if Fox his Acts and Monuments that in King Henry the 8. his Reigne in the yeare of our Lord 1535. ten Datch men accounted for Anabaptists were put to death in sundry places of the Realme and that other tenne repented and were saved and two of the said Company pardoned by the King albeit the definitive sentence was read And well might they deserve this sentence if our learned Martyr John Philpot may be credited who writes in a godly Letter to a friend of his That Axentius one of the Arrian Sect with his Adherents was one of the first that denyed the Baptisme of Children and next after him Pelagius the Hereticke and some others that were in St. Bernards time and in our dayes the Anabaptists an inordinate kinde of men stirred up by the Devil to the destruction of the Gospel So he o An. 1538. Two Anabaptists were burned in Smithfield three then bore fagots and abjured the Realme but this was before these Acts repealed After their repeale in the 17. yeare of Queene Elizabeth Anno 1575. A congregation of Anabaptists being Dutch-men was discovered in a House without the Barres of Aldgate LONDON 27 of them were taken and sent to Prison 4. of them bearing Fagots recanted their Haereticall opinions at Pauls Crosse the 5th day of May The 21. of May one man and two women Anabaptists Dutch were in the Consistory at Pauls condemned to be burnt in Smithfield after great paines taken with them the Women were converted and the Man banished Nine Women of them and a Man were publikely Carted and whipped by the Sheriffs Officers on the first of Iune and then carried to the Water side from Newgate and shipped and banished never to returne more into England The 22. of Iuly two Dutchmen Anabaptists were burned in Smithfield who died with great horror roaring and yelling And by this meanes England was then preserved from their infection Anno 1579. being 21. Eliz. Mathew Hamant for execrable Haeresie and Blasphemy not fit to repeat against Christ and the Holy Ghost and denying their Deity and the use of Baptisme and Sacraments in the Church was on the 13. day of April condemned at Norwich by the Bishop of the Diocesse in his Consistory as an Haeretick and on the 20th of May burned publikly in the Castle of Norwich his Eares being first cut off in the Market place for horrible blasphemy against the Queene r Anno. 25. Eliz. on the 18. day of September one Iohn Lewes who named himselfe Abdeit an obstinate Haereticke denying the Godhead of Christ and holding divers other damnable Haeresies much like his Predecessor Hamant WAS BVRNED AT NORWICH Hil. 9. Jacobi one Legat was juditially convented convicted and condemned by the Bishop of the Diocesse for his Heresie and it was resolved by the Judges of the Kings Bench that a Writ De Haeretico comburendo lay upon the judgement and some say he was burnt accordingly 9. Jacobi 19. Novembris Anno Dom. 1611. one Edward Wrightman of Burton upon Trent was convented before Richard Neale Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield for denying the Trinity the Deity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost and affirming himselfe to be Christ and the Holy Ghost and the Scriptures spoken of them to be meant of himselfe all which he affirmed and justified in his Answers to his Articles and persisted in the same after many conferences whereupon on the 5th of December following he was condemned for an obstinate and incorrigible Haereticke and excommunicated with the great Excommunication and adjudged by the Bishop to be delivered over to the secular power to be capitally punished according to the Atrocity and haynousnes of his crimes and Blasphemies whose Articles and sentence I have in my custody Whether he were actually burnt or reprived as one frantique
imprisoning tormenting banishing burning destroying of many godly Christians under the name of Hereticks is at large recorded in Mr Fox his Acts Monuments and the French book of Martyrs I shal wholy pretermit them and proceed to some Presidents of Protestant Stares in forraign parts Valentinus Geutiles born in Campania for his execrable Blasphemies violent expressions and damnable Heresies against the Trinity and Christs Divinity was first imprisoned by the Magistrates of Geneva and upon his Recantation released Afterwards coming to Berne and there broaching the Errors and Blasphemies formerly abjured by him at Geneva he was imprisoned by the Magistrates An. Dom. 1556. After which his Blasphemous and Hereticall Books were perused by the Senate of Bernes appointment and Articles drawn out of them against him to which he was put to answer After many conserences and disputations he continuing obstinately in his Heresies from the 5. of August to the 9. of September he was then condemned to death by the Senate to prevent dissentions and exterminate such horrid Errors Blasphernies and thereupon beheaded and so by Gods just Judgement at once ceased both to blaspheme and live The Heretical Schismatical and Seditious Anabaptists and Dippers who now swarm every where among us yea dare boast publickly in Print of their multitudes and numerous congregations publishing their Confessions in Print and tendring them openly to the Parliament have been imprisoned banished nay corporally and capitally punished in former times in sundry places as a most dangerous unsufferable Sect as these Presidents demonstrate The Protestant Senate of Zuricke made a Decree against the Anabaptists after they had been dealt withall by ten publick and private Disputations and continued obstinate that whosoever dipped any a new who had been formerly baptized he should himself be dipped and drowned in the waters for this offence A fit punishment for our new lustful Dippers In the year of our Lord 1531. Certain Anabaptists coming out of Germany into the Netherlands to Amsterdam the Proctor General of the Hague caused nine of them to be apprehended who afterwards by Sentence given against them lost their heads An. Dom. 1528. The Anabaptists creeping into Embden in Frisia and there encreasing and lifting up their heads Melchior Hoffman being their Teacher proceeded so far as to professe their Anabaptism in a publick place whereupon the Magistrates banished Melchior and some of his followers An. Dom. 1533. The Senate of Breme commanded all Anabaptists and prophaners of the Sacraments to be banished the City by a publick Decree which they presumptuously contemned The Senate of Osnaburge did the like An. 1543. An. Dom. 1534. The Tragedy of the Anabaptists began at Munster which gave occasion to all the Cities of Saxony to make publick Laws against the Anabaptists and to appoint certain Senators to take care that no Anabaptists or persons infected with fanatical opinions of the like kind should privily creep into their City and if any did that they should presently be sent away and banished And good reason for these Munster Anabaptists putting themselves sodainly into arms seised and fortified the Market-place and breaking their faith with the Prince Townsmen and Country-people who came against them as soon as they retired home and laid up their arms they presently demanded and received the keys of the City-gates which done they domineer over the City at their pleasure banish all good and honest Citizens that were not of their faction out of the City seise upon all their goods fortifie the City fearing a siege and call it the New Jerusalem they desie the Churches prophane all sacred things cast out the Consuls and Senators and set up most wicked wretches of their own in their places and soon after removing them likewise they chose twelve Judges for emergent causes whom they called Elders in Israel to whom the power of all things was committed After which they changed the forme of Government into a Monarchy John Beakly of Leyden a crafty companion making himself their King and Knipper Dolling his Vicar which done he invades and seises on all the wealth of the City introduceth polygany and defends it coyns gold and silver money sends forth preaching Emissaries nto divers parts of the world to propagate his sect who were all slain At last fearing the City would be betrayed he created twelve Captains between whom he divided all the Bishopricks and Principalities of Germany before they were ained and made them keepers of the City gates At last the City being besieged they were driven to that extremity that all their provisions being spent they did eat doggs cats rats froggs mice yea those things which human nature abhorrs and their own children so as many dyed of famine After a long siege the City being entred and taken on Saint John Baptist day An. Dom. 1535. all the Anabaptists besides women and children were slain without distinction The heads of this their faction Bernard Knippor Dolling Bernard Brâ—chiting and John of Leyden himself with his royal Ensignes Crown Scepter Spurs Rings and golden chains are all taken Bernard Rothman the Author and Ringleader of this Sect was slain and cut in pieces with a pollax The Anabaptists goods were all confiscate and sold to recompence the dammages they had done John of Leyden their King Knipper Dolling and Bernard Creehcing the heads of the Sedition were brought to a Scaffold in the midst of the Market-place and there in the sight of the people had their flesh torn from them with hot pinchers for an hours space or more and then stabbed and run through with swords and their carcasses put into new cages and hanged upon the top of Saint Lamberts steeplâ— the King according to his royal dignity hanging higher then the Consul and the Prophet After which 150000. of this seditious and pernicious Sect were slain through Germany Alsatia and Stiria and rebaptized in their own blood by the just hand of divine vengeance executed by men as Gods instruments Servetus an Anabaptist and an Arian as an Arian received the sentence of death at Geneva Phifer at Mulhus Thomas Muncer was put to the rack by George Duke of Saxony and the Lantgrave of Hesse where he roared most fearfully and in the end had his head cut off and put upon an high pole in the field Three hundred Anabaptists that rifled the Monastery of Bilsund in Frizland were all but sixty two that fled either killed in the ruines of the Monastery or put to death by the hangman Into what most execrable practises cruelties outrages Tyrannies Murders impious and detestable opinions Heresies Blasphemies of all sorts these Anabapcistical Sectaries out of a pretended Zeal and Separation fell into by Gods just Judgement for their Schism Hypocrisy and Spirituall pride and what dismal ends the Ringleaders of them came unto by the hand of publick Justice their followers and all others may read at large in Chytraeus Chron. Saxoniae l. 12. 14. Sleidans Comment
c. And if he will deny it I am ready to prove it for the King as belongs to the King to do Chap. 4. Sect 11. p. 42. he defines that deadly sinnes are to be punished with death and mortall paine and that such punishments are warranted by the old Testament and to be inflicted to prevent eternall death After which Sect. 14. p. 252. Of the punishment of Treason he determines thus That Sodomy is to be punished with burying the party alive under ground Sorcery by burning in the fire The JVDGEMENT OF HERESY is fourfold The 1. is Excommunication the 2. Degradation the 3. Disinherison the 4. dee' ARSE en Cinders TO BE BVRNED TO ASHES By this punctuall Authority of Horne it is most cleare to me First that Hereticks and Apostates as well as Sodomites and Sorcerers even as they were Hereticks were inditable and triable at the Kings suite in the King Courts by the very common Law of England without any precedent conviction of Heresie by the Ordinary of the Diocesse or by a Nationall or Provinciall Synod and that the Judges of the common Law when any Heretick or Apostate was to be proceeded against criminally and capitally for his life were to judge what was Heresie and what not not the Bishops or Synod only as well as in the case of a r Prohibition or Habeas Corpus 2. That such Inditements were usuall and a set forme of them used and pursued in Edward the first his raigne and were then to be found in the Rolls of ancient Kings long before him therefore were then of long of ancient use and warranted by the ancient common Law of England before his raigne 3. That the Bishops and Clergy could punish heresie onely with Excommunication and Degradation not with death ◠4. That by the ancient Common Law of England in Edward the first his reign and in the reigne of ancient Kings before him Heresy as heresy and Sorcery only as Heresie and a branch thereof and under the name of heresy was inditable in the Kings Court at the Kings suite and punished with burning to death and so the writ De Haeretico Comburendo if necessary when grounded upon the Judges sentence warranted by the common Law and the judgement of burning given by it long before any Statute made against Heresy in the reigne of Richard the second or Henry the fourth 5. That Hereticks and Apostates who are such indeed may at this day be indicted for their heresy and Apostacy in the Kings Bench or at the Assises by the very common Law of England and upon sufficient proofes be there convicted condemned and adjudged to be burnt this power of the Judges at common Law to try and condemne Hereticks being not now restrained by any Statute nor taken away by the Statute of 1. Eliz. cap. 1. which repeales all former Statutes against Hereticks or Heresy which only concerned Bishops Ordinaries and their proccedings in case of Heresie grounded on them not the King or his Judges The next Authority I shall cite is that of Fleta written by a learned Lawyer imprisoned in the Fleet as Sir Edward Cooke informes us in Edward the third his raigne and taken for the most part out of Bracton lib. 1. cap. 3. Christiani Apostatae Sortilegii hujusmodi DEBENT COMBVRI Contrahentes verò cum Judaeis vel Judaeabus pecorantes Sodomitae in terra vivi confodiantur per testimonium legale vel publicè convicti A cleare Authority that Apostates which comprehends all such as fall into Heresy Judaisme or Paganisme after they have embraced the true Christian orthodox faith South-sayers and such like which comprehends Hereticks likewise OVGHT TO BE BURNT even by the common Law then in use and that Christian who turned Jewes and Sodomites were to be buried alive After this Wickliffe and his followers called Lollards infesting the Pope and Prelates with their Doctrines and invectives against their Antichristian Tenets and impostures they being greatly favored by some Nobles and eminent Knights about the end of the reigne of King Edward the 3. and beginning of Richard the second the Prelates bearing then great sway in the Kingdome not daring to trust the Judges with the Triall of these New Hereticks as they stiled them taking hold of the President in the Councell at Oxford in King Henry the seconds raigne forecited and of the practise of the Pope and Popish Prelates in forraign parts took upon them in their Synods Convocations and likewise in private Consistories to condemne these Lollards for hereticks and upon their sentence there passed without any Inditement or triall at the common Law procured a writ which they might easily do being then Lord Chancellors and Lord Privie Seales for the most part De Haeretico comburendo to be directed in the Kings name to the Sheriffes of Counties and Mayors of Towns to burn such for Hereticks whom they alone had thus condemned before there was any Statute chiefly upon this ground that hereticks by the judgment of the common Law upon Inditements and Convictions in the Kings Courts were to be burned This is evident not onely by the Bishops proceedings in their Consistories against John Wickliffe John Aston Philip Repington Nicholas Harford William Swinderby and Walter Brute but also by that forme of writ de Haeretico Comburendo mentioned in Fitzherberts Natura Brevium f. 269. c. which was made in Parliament by the King and Lords for the burning of William Sautre a godly Martyr condemned of heresie in the Convocation at the earnest sollicitation of Thomas Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury in the 2. year of King Henry the fourth and burned by vertue of this writ the first Martyr we read of burnt by vertue of such a writ granted meerly upon a sentence given by the Prelates themselves without an Inditement and Judgment at Common Law This writ for his burning made without the Commons is thus translated into English by Mr. Fox The King c. to the Mayor and Sheriffs of Loadon greeting y Whereas the reverend Father Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of England and Legate of the Apostolike Sea by the assent consent and counsell of other Bishops his Brothers Suffragans and also of all the whole Clergy within his Province gathered together in his provinciall Councell the DUE ORDER OF LAW BEING OBSERVED in all points in this behalfe hath denounced and declared by his definitive sentence William Sautre sometimes Chaplaine fallen again into damnable heresie the said William had abjured thereupon to be A MOST MANIFEST HERETICK and therefore hath decreed that he should be degraded and hath for the same cause degraded him from all prerogative and priviledge of the Clergy decreeing to leave him unto the secular power and hath really so left him ACCORDING TO THE LAWES AND CANONICALL SANCTIONS SET FORTH IN THIS BEHALFE We therefore BEING ZEALOVS IN RELIGION and REVEREND LOVERS OF THE CATHOLIKE FAITH and of Justice
willing and minding to maintain and defend the holy Church and the Lawes and Statutes of the same TO ROOT ALL SVCH ERRORS and HERESIES OUT OF OUR KINGDOME OF ENGLAND as much as in us lies and the hereticks so convicted to punish WITH CONDIGNE PUNISHMENT and considering that such hereticks convicted and condemned in forme aforesaid both ACCORDING TO THE LAW OF GOD AND MAN AND THE CANONICALL INSTITUTIONS IN THIS CASE ACCUSTOMED OUGHT TO BE BURNED WITH FIRE We command you as straitly as we may or can firmely injoyning you that you do cause the said William being in your custody in some publike and open place within the Liberties of your City aforesaid the cause aforesaid being published to the people TO BE PVT INTO THE FIRE and IN THE SAME FIRE REALLY TO BE BVRNED to the great horror of his offence and the manifest example of other Christians and this upon the perill that will fall thereupon you may by no means omit Teste Rege apud Westm 26. Febr. Anno Regni sui 2. This condemnation of Sautry and writ for his burning was in time before the Statute of 2. H. 4. passed in Parliament and was made by advise of the Lords Temporall in Parliament only without the Commons as the Parliament roll demonstrates Soone after which one John Badby was likewise burned by vertue of a like writ and sundry others after him From this writ I shall observe First that by the Canonicall Law and Sanctions generally used and received in England and in forraign parts Bishops both in their Synods and Consistories usurped authority to convict condemn Hereticks and deliver them over to the secular power to be corporally punished which is further cleared by the expresse words of the Statute of 2. H. 4. cap. 15. but they could neither attach nor imprison them before that Act in this Kingdome 2. That the burning of Hereticks with fire was not introduced by the Statute of 2. H. 4. or this writ then first made by advise of the Temporall Lords but was a punishment accustomed in this case according to the Law of God and man and canonicall institutions used in this Realme long before this Act made as the very words of the writ compared with this Statute of 2. H. 4. made in Parliament in the same yeare soone after this Writ attest 3. That this writ framed in Parliament for Sautry onely not others made in time somewhat before this Statute the same Parliament makes no recitall at all of this Statute as it ought to do if grounded on it therfore not ordained by it What alterations then did this Statute make of the Law in former times used in this case only these First it gave power to Ordinaries and Diocesans to cause to be arrested and kept in safe custody such who were suspected or defamed of Heresy or keeping hereticall Bookes and writings till they did canonically purge themselves or abjure their heresies 2. It gave them power to fine such persons to the King 3. If any person convicted before them of heresie refused to abjure his Heresy or relapsed againe into it after abjuration it gave them Authority to turne him over to the secâ—lar Court and after sentence of Heresie passed against him in the presence of the Sheriffe of the Shiere or Mayor or Sheriffes and Bayly of the Corporation where such Heretick was proceeded against whom this Act enacted the Diocesan or his Commissary to summon to be personally present at the sentencing of Hereticks it enjoyned these secular Officers to give assistance to the Diocesan of the same place and his Commissaries in this case and without any further Inditement triall or judgement at common Law formerly used in cases of heresie when capitally proceeded against after such sentence pronounced without any writ de Haeretico Comburendo to receive the same person so sentenced into their custody and to cause him to be burnt in an high place before the people that such punishment might strike feare into the minds of others to deterre them from such wicked Doctrines and hereticall erroneous opinions and the said Sheriffs Majors and Bayliffs of Counties Citties Burroughs and Townes were to be attending ayding and assisting to the Diocesans and Commissaries in such cases which they were not bound to be before as appeares by the expresse words of the Act. 4ly It gave every Bishop and his Commissary power to question and condemne Hereticks in their Consistories and then to deliver them over to the secular powers to be burned which none but a Synod or Convocation for ought appeares by any Presidents could do before So as the maine alteration wrought by this Act was That these temporall Officers were to be â—…ending ayding and assisting to the Ordinaries and their Commissaries and present at their sentence given against Hereticks and after sentence passed by them alone without any indictment Iudgement verdict at Common Law or Writ of the Kings to burne them to Ashes by which the lives of all were made subject to the Convocations yea to every Ordinaries and Commissaries power alone and that without and before any lawfull triall by their Peers or any legall indictment or conviction â—ccording to the Law of the Land contrary to Magna Charta ch 29. 5. Ed. 3. â— 9. 25. E. 3. Stat. 5. c. 4. 28. E. 3. c. 3. 15. E. 3. Stat. 1. c. 3. 4. 37. E. 3. c. 18. 42. E. 3. c. 3. This was the great grievance introduced by this Act and the cause of its repeale and of all other Statutes of this kinde by 1. Eliz. c. 1. So as this Statute of Hen. the fourth was no â—â—tâ—oduction of a new Law but only a confirmation of the Common Law as to the punishment it selfe of burning Hereticks as is evident by the premiâ—e though introductive of a new Law in the manner of proceeding and other precedeâ—t reâ—pect And in this sence Mr. Fox his words are tâ—â—e That hithe to â— till the making of 5. R. 2. 2 H. 4. The Popish Clergie had not authority sufficient by any Politick Law or Statute of this Land to proceed unto death against any person whatsoever in case of Religion but only by the usurped tyranny and example of the Court of Rome But yet the King and his Iudges had power to proceed against imprison and burne Hereticks to death by the Common Law though the Ordinary had not as I have proved This law gave the Ordinaries and Clergy a new power in this respect to condeme and burn such as they held Herticks which they had not before Hence the Pope sent his Letters to King Richard the second to suppresse Wiccliffe and his followers and bring them to condigne punishment and to be assistant to the Bishops herein qui in prosecutione istius negotij noscuntur favore AVXILIO TVAE CELSITVDINIS INDIGERE Whereupon the King writ Letters to the Vniversity and Chauncellor of Oxford to apprehend imprison and convict them
Christ for that they being his Disciples not Magistrares would themselves have commanded fire to come downe from heaven in a miraculous way to destroy the Samaritans onely for not receiving his person as he was travelling to Ierusalem because he was going up thither and for none other cause and that out of private malice and reveng Ergo Christian Kings Magistrates and the Powers of the world have no place at all in the Churchesreformation vnder the Gospell and may not parish any Hâ—riâ—ick Schismatick Blasphemer or Malefactor with death or corporall punishments and to do it is to change Christ from a Saviour to a Destroyer and is Antichrist Triumphant Was ever such a crasy Argument propounded by any man in his right sences before such a presence the conclusion having not the least Coherence with the Premises on which it is grounded When Ma. Dell can prooue that these very Disciples then had as much power to punish Malifactors as Majestrates that there was the same ground for them to use miraculous corporall punishments as for Majestrates to inflict ordinary ones upon offenders and the same reason for these Disciples to punish the least neglect of Christs person as a Traveller only with fire from heaven and extraordinary death for which there was no written Law of God at all as there were and are for Majestrates to punish Herisie Idolatry Blasphemy obstinate Schisme and other offences with ordinary corporall and capitall punishments for which there are written precepts then I shall give further answer to this obiection till then I shall forbeare and proceede to answere that which is most considerable in this text to wit Christs speech to these furious Disciples Whence the Argument stands thus The Sonne of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Lu. 9. 56. Ergo Christian Kings Majestrats under the Gospell must not destroy the lives of Haeretickes Blasphemers nor yet of Traytors Murderers or any Malefactors whatsoever as wel as of Heretickes Blasphemers c. as the Anabaptists usually presse it nor yet punish Hereticks or Blasphemers with any outward or corporall censures and if they do this is to make Christ no Saviour but a Destroyer and is Antichrist Triumphant Surely Mr. Dell is an excellent Chymist who can extract quodlibet ex quolibet and draw any conclusion out of whatsoever premises even by head and shoulders as here For first will it follow that because Christ himselfe in his owne person as a Saviour came not to destroy mens naturall lives but to save them Ergo the civill Christian Magistrate who is Gods owne avenger and is oft expresly commanded by Gods word to put Idolaters Blasphemers Murderers and other Malefactors to death is to punish no Malefactors at all with death now under the Gospell If Mr. Dell should preach such Doctrine in our Armies might not all our Souldiers of his New-way by like or better Logick conclude thus from this Text Christ came not to destroy mens lives but to save them Ergo we who are christian Souldiers who must imitate our Capt. Jesus Christ must now lay down our Armes repent of all the blood we have shed of all the Cavaliers lives wee have already destroyed and hence forth kill no more publike Enemies destroy no more Irish Rebells in the field neither by way of Defence nor Offence because Kings Magistrates themselves who have more authority then we Souldiers cannot inflict any corporall or capitall punishment of death on any Malefactors by Mr. Dells Argumentation hence though legally convicted of capitall Crimes especially if they fight for defence of their Religion as the Papists and Irish Rebells pretend they doe and Cavaliers too heretofore If Mr. Dell dare propose or presse no such Argument from this Text unto our Souldiers in the Campe I wonder he durst so boldly inforce the like with so much earnestnes upon our Parliament and Magistrates in the Church and present it to them in the Parliament house in print 2dly Will it follow hence that because Christ used this Speech as a Prophet a Saviour only not a Magistrate Ergo he came not to punish or destroy mens lives at all as a King when there is just cause for him to do it How then will Mâ— Dell reconcile or answer this expresse text to the contrary in the same Evangelist Luke 19. 17. But those mine Enemies that would not that I should raigne over them bring them hither AND SLAY THEM BEFORE ME together with Psal 89 23. Psal 110 5. 6. Rev. 17. 16. 17. c. 19. 17. 18. Math. 21. 41. to omit other quotations Or how can he justifie Peters extraordinary miraculous killing and destroying the Lives of Ananias and Saphyra under the Gospell only for lying to the Holy Ghost Acts 5. 1. to 12 If then Christ himselfe as a King will slay and destroy his Enemies lives when they give him just occasion though he came to destroy no mans life as a Saviour may not Christian Kings and Magistrates by like reason kill and destroy the lives of capitall Heretickes and Malefactors in a legall manner though Christ as a Minister or Saviour came not to destroy their lives but save them If so then this grand argument is a meere inconsequent from this Text. Hence the Rhemists in their Annotations on the New-Testament have this Note on this very text Notjustice nor al rigorous punishment of sinners is here forbidden nor Elias fact reprehended nor the Church nor Christian Princes blamed FOR PVTTING HERETICKS TO DEATH but that none of these should be done for desire of particular revenge or without discretion or regard of their amendment or example to others Therefore Saint Peter used his power upon Ananias and Saphyra when he struck them even to death for defrauding the Church which Doctor Fulke and Mr. Cartwright both approve and reply not thereto 3ly If the objected words of our Saviour bee rightly qualified in his owne sence farre different from that Mr. Dell would thrust upon them the absurdity of the Argument will more visibly appeare To cleare therefore their true meaning I shall compare them with a like speech of his Iohn 12. 47. For I came not to judge the world but to save the world and Math. 18. 11. Luke 9. 10. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost From whence it is evident First that these words of Christ were principally meant of destroying and saving mens lives in a spirituall not Naturall sence and that for all eternity For to make the end of Christs comming only to save mens lives from temporall destruction and preserve men from temporall death by the hand of humane Justice especially when they offend as Mr. Dell interprets it is infinitely to derogate from the prime end of his comming the rather because Christ saved only a few diseased persons lives not any Malefactors no not the penitent Theefes crucified with him from temporall death but saved all his
death as unlawfull in it self but admits it lawfull and that they may deserve it Secondly That he speaks here onely of making a Law to put false Teachers and Seducers to death in that Age which he would by no meanes then admit of not because it was unlawfull but onely inconvenient at that time because it was likely to be abused to the shedding of innocent blood Thirdly that he held it then sufficient and lawfull too for the Magistrates to banish Seducers and false Teachers though they did not put them actually to death and by consequence held it lawfull to imprison and fine them too which is lesse then banishment yea him selfe writ to Methusum very earnestly that they should not receive the Anabaptists into their City but expell them so that Luther is point blank against Master Dell in that for which he cites him and for the Magistrates suppressing banishing Hereticks Schismaticks and Seducers I shall onely adde one passage more out of Luther point-blank against Master Dels opinion and quotation * Postil Dominica 5. post Epiphaniam .44 where interpreting the Parable of the Tares he resolves That the Masters bidding the servants let them alone till the Harvest doth neither inhibit nor restraine Church-Officers or the Civill Magistrate from restraining and punishing of Hereticks and other Malefactors with Ecclesiastical and temporall punishments concluding thence in these words Reliquae deindè sunt scandalorum cohertiones poenes Magistratum familiarum Patres morum disciplinae Magistros Hic adeò nulla phohibitio in suis officiis per hoc Christi praeceptum statuitur ut sunt haec omnia cum acerimis sanctissimis mandatis à Deo sancita Custodit Magistratus non solum secundam verùm OMNIUM MAXIME PRIMAM TABULAM Idololatrias Blasphemias Execrationes Perjuria ULCISCITUR Oblatas HAERETICAS in verum Deum contumeliosas atque alias eas BLASPHEMIAS DOCENTES COERCET Praefractiores atque in errore pertexendo contumaciores cum certissimo plurimum EXITIO pro malificiis PUNIENDOS SUSCIPIT Nequè cum boc facit Zizania evellere intelligitur quia cum suo officio in eo regno non versatür ubi interdictum de evellendis Zizaniis positum est Non igitur Magistratus hujus generis vitae corporalis Officiales quùm se scandalis perturbantibus tranquilitatem severa vindicatione obviam eunt Zizania contra Christi mentem evellunt sed id praestant pro parte sua ut verum Triticum in Ecclesia à Zizaniis non prorsus opprimatur Regnum Dei in terris non penitus exolescat Master Dell therefore might in wisdome have forborne his extravagant quotation of Luther whose Works I presume he never read which he tels us not where we may find among his numerous Volumes as he should have done His next quotation is a saying of Augustine out of Polanus but Augustine is most expresse against him not onely in his forecited passages against Petilian and the Donatists but in many others mustred up by Gratian Causa 23. quest 4 5. where you may read them at large to which I shall adde this sentence in his 166. Epistle where thus he writes To whom is it said Serve the Lord with feare c. is it not to Kings But how doe Kings serve the Lord with feare unlesse it be by a religious severity in prohibiting those things which are done against the Lords commands For every one of them serves him after one manner as be is a man after another manner as he is a King For as he is a man he serves him in living faithfully but as he is a King he serves him in prescribing Lawes commanding just things and prohibiting the contrary CONVENIENTI RIGORE SANCIENDO with convenient rigor and punishments like as Hezekiah served him in destroying Idols Groves and high Places And as Josiah served him And he addes this as a Reason elswhere Rex a Regendo dicitur non autem regat QUI NON CORRIGIT If Kings then be Kings of Hereticks Schismaticks Seducers Blasphemers Idolaters or Apostates as well as of other Subjects they must not onely governe but correct and punish them too by enacting severe Lawes against them and seeing them put in execution as this Father informes us That the devout and orthodox Roman Emperours not onely made severe Lawes against the Donatists and other Hereticks and Schismaticks but likewise appointed Dulcitius an eminent Colonel and Notary to take speciall care to see them executed Unhappy Master Dell to quote such a Father out of Polanus who is so pointblank against him and refutes his whole Sermon in his Books against the Epistles of Parmenianus and Petilian the Donatist Contra Cresconium Gram. Epist 48 50 as those who will take paines to peruse them may discover I wish this learned Gentleman hereafter to peruse and read Authors well before he quotes them and not to take them upon trust with such disadvantage to his cause and reputation too His other Authority out of Master Tyndal is nothing to purpose who speaks not one word against Kings Emperours or Christian Magistrates suppressing or punishing Hereticks and reforming the Church by outward power but writes expresly for it at large in his Books Intituled THE OBEDIENCE OF A CHRISTIAN MAN and THE PRACTICE OF POPISH PRELATES where he asserts That Kings and Magistrates are in the room of God that their Lawes are Gods Lawes and that they are to punish all evill doers and any sinne that shall break out and though he blameth them for being the Popes and Bishops Hangmen in his dayes to kill whomsoever they condemned without more adoe vpon their bare commandement without any due examination of the cause Yet if upon their owne examination they shall find them to be Heretecks or false Teachers he then admits They may justly punish and put them to death without any danger exciting both Emperours and kings to reforme the Church and to shake off the Yoake both of the Pope and Prelates together with their Canons Superstitions and false Doctrines So that this holy Martyr oppugnes Master Dels opinion for which he quotes him and speaks only of forcing Infidels by the Sword of war without instruction to embrace the Christian Faith His last Authority is Vlricus Ab Hutten but where his words are recorded he makes no mention neither are they pertinent being spoken to a Councell of Priests as he confesseth not to Christian Magistrates which yet he foisteth into his English translation of his words not being in the Latin Surely as this foisting is unsufferable so I must acquaint Master Dell that this quotation was very unhappy and fatall to his cause since this very Author hath written a Book DE SCHISMATE EXTINGUENDO wherein he refutes that very opinion he would fasten on him And thus I have given you a briefe account of Master Dels great skill and learning in mistaking mis-citing perverting every Author which he cites whose