to give no candid allowance to others in many failings this is utterly inexcusable The way indeed may not be broad in respect of practice or sensual indulgence yet it hath a latitude in respect of judgment and circumstantial opinion A middle moderate paâ—ifick way He that stands in the middle path may extend the arms of his charity on both sides Extreams are dangerous Our affections ought to meet though our judgmenâ—s cannot Christian love is necessary but agreement in opinion is neither necessary nor possible Love and goodness prevail Where nothing else will these win and captivate the Soul And such conquests are more noble and better than either those of arts or arms Now to attain this excellent Catholick temper we are to love virtue in a Heathen and S. Paul 1 Cor. 7. saith If any brother hath a wife an Infidel and she consent to dwell with him let him not put her away what can be said more to oblige Christians to charity and meekness to forbear one another than an injunction of an Apostle to live peaceably even with an Infidel The excellency of christian love is preferred before all gifts and natural perfections Cor. 13. it is the image of God it is his vital Spirit infused into us and renders us most like to our Maker It is the Spirit of Angels and glorified Souls The Celestial Inhabitants live and abide in love sweetness and benignity Nor is that love confined to the blessed and glorified company but it sheds it self abroad upon the neather world And they are ministring Spirits for our good Heb. 1. 14. They so far love us that they can stoop from heaven to serve us for there is joy at the conversion of a sinner and consequently love to converted Saints care and pity for the rest of men Love and charity is the vital grace of Christian Religion and though mens understandings are convinced already that charity is their duty yet there is too much need to represent some of the vast heap of Injunctions that make it so to incline their wills I shall therefore briefly lay together a few of the chief instances of this kind Our Saviour urgeth it in his command John 13. 34. he maketh it a distinguishing note of his Disciples 13. 35. and enjoins them to love their enemies Mat. 3. 24. And the want of it the reason of the curse pronounced on those on the left hand at the solemn judgment Mat. 41. 42. This love and union was so recommended to all Christians by the Apostles that they inculcated nothing more than the necessity thereof Saint Paul attributed thereto all the persecution of Christian Religion saying qui diligit proximum legem implevit Rom. â—3 3. and Galat. 3. 22. reckons it five times over under the names of peace long-suffering gentleness goodness and meekness Gal. 22. 23. He advanceth it above all gifts and graces 1 Cor. 13. above prophecy and mysteries and knowledge of faith And the beloved Disciple Saint John attributes unto it our being born of God And the want of this an evidence of not knowing God and a sign of one that abideth in death 1 John 3. 14. he calls him a murderer that hates another 11. 15. a lyar if he pretend to love God and loveth not his brother 1 John 4. 20. we are commanded to be kindly affected one towards another and to be pitiful and courteous 11. 10. S. Peter exhorteth to mutual charity above all things mutuam charitatem ante omnia c. Pet. 1. 8. and 4. 14. This our charity gentleness goodness meekness c. ought to extend to all men universally without limitation but especially to all Christians as Christians because such are the more special objects It must not be consined by names and the interest of parties or sects but ought to reach as far as Christianity it self To love those that are of our way humour and opinion is not charity but self-love and it is not for Christs sake but our own It is rare to meet with serious Christians who are not so deeply engaged in some party or other as to darken their judgments and pervert their affections as to all the rest What company can you come into but all their discourse is to stigmatise dissenters what bitter lyes what invectives have been raised against most grave solid and ancient Christians how blindly do they look on all that is good in those that differ from them how partially do they aggravate the faults of all that are against their way and how small a thing will serve their turn to excuse the faults of their own party and they think all this is a part of Christian zeal as if Christians engaged in a war against themselves And when all men should know them to be Christs Disciples by loving one another most men may perceive that contrary to the essence of Christianity they endeavour to make each other odious So that though I see never so much eagerness for an opinion I shall never call that zeal or religion without the conscience of christian love Yea though such men should sacrifice their lives I should not think them martyrs and in this I have the warrant of the great Apostle 1 Cor. 13. 3. though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth nothing Even those that killed Christ and his Apostles did it as a duty and a part of service of God John 16. but believe it it is Apostacy to fall from love your Souls die when charity dyeth that which killeth love and charity killeth all grace and holiness The opinions principles sidings practices which destroy love destroys your Souls O what a loathsome sacrifice is it to the God of love if we must leave our gift at the altar till we are reconciled to our offended brother what a gift is theirs who are unreconciled to almost all Churches of Christianity Young unexperienced Christians are ignorant of Satans wiles thinking when a wrathful enemies heat is kindled in them even against men of ancient principles that it is a zeal of Gods exciting spirit and that it is your duty or that you should be luke-warm in the cause of God and truth if you did it not when alas it hath more of wrath than love The white Devil is a killer of Souls as well as the black And now considering the express recommends and injunctions of all the aforesaid and many other places of holy writ to this grand duty of Religion if any can quiet their Consciences and yet continue in the contrary persecuting spirit and practice they have found a way to escape all Laws of God and may conceit themselves religious though they live in the works of the flesh hatred variance sedition c. Gal. 3. 22. There was never a more seasonable time to tell men of this great sin than when the temptation to it is greatest when God hath been so frequently dishonoured by it when the world doth ring of it
hath caused the slaughter of 200000 in Germany hath caused at least occasioned most of the wars devastations and bloodshed the great alterations tumults troubles in most places of Christiandom our late Bishop of Exeter saith impositions on mens Consciences and Judgments in matters of Religion to tye them by penal and coercive Statutes which like Persian sheep carry tails of incurious mulcts after them that are heavier then their bodies To come with swords to put Religion into our heads with main force is like the watering of Plants with salt streams or the lighting of a Candle with gun-powder Never was Christian Religion planted or propagated by wars by the civil and martial Sword for God is not pleased with hypocrital and unwilling worshippers forced thereto by outward violence nor are Christian Societies bettered by such force but oft-times the contrary Too much severity maketh men desperate sheweth a will to oppress the offendor rather then cure the offence and nothing sheweth more evidently that authority inclineth to tyranny then the multitude of Promoters continual informations and the name of treason made as a Livery to put upon all offences Unchristian persecution like a violent Chrysis more frequently taketh away the Patient then Contributes to his recovery nourisheth a wrathful devouring spirit one against another makes us transgressors of that Royal law which forbids us to do that one to another we would not have them do to us were we in their condition and by this rule whosoever is not against the cruelty of persecution hath nothing to say against justice of his being a slave for what measure he would mete unto others he deserves himself If to hate our brother is murder as he is man 1 John 3. 16. sure not only to hate but even for Religion sake to kill our brother a Christian and to be destroyers of Christians are rather deicides then homicides and if nothing can have more of Christian then Charity nothing can have more of Antichristian then such uncharitableness which many nourishing for zeal mistake a Cockatrice for a Dove and fiery Serpent for a Phenix Outward violence in Cause of Religion is also condemned by holy Write and dâ—vine authority Christ commanded both the tares and the wheat should remaine togâ—ther in the world Mat. 13. 30. he repâ—oved his Disciples who would have had fiâ—e come down from heaven ro destroy the Sâ—maritans that would not entertain him in these word you know what spirit you are of the son of man came not to destroy Luke 9. 54. the servant of God must not strive but be gentle to all men 2 Rom. 2. 24. as God hath called every one so let him walk 1 Cor. 7. 17. they who now are tares may become wheat who are blind may see some there be that come not till the eleventh hour Mat. 20. 6. let your moderation be known unto all men Phil. 4. 5. who art thou that judgest anothers servant c. Rom. 4. now I shall beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ 2 Corin. 10. Wo unto them that make a man an offender for a word or lay a snare for him Esay The Fathers of the primitive times pleaded against all force in Religion The Christian Church saith Saint Hillary against Auxentius doth not persecute but is persecuted No man is forced against his will by the Christians saith Lactantius S. Hierom in paenit cap. 4. saith that heresie must be cut off by the Sword of the Spirit And Tertullian saith seeing he that wants faith and devotion is unserviceable to God for God being not contentious would not be worshipped by the unwilling The Arrians were the first introducers of persecution Let all the Canons of the Church be examined and searched if one be found that justifies the shedding of blood meerly on the score of Religion S. Augustine complaineth how the Donatists filled with blood and desolation all Africa persecuting the Orthodox under Julian the Apostate Docendo magis quam jubendo monendo quam minando veritatem agnoscant Aug. Epist 63. Fides siquidem suadenda est non imperanda ait S. Bernard The Churches of the East grievously complained of the Arrians persecution Athan. Epist ad Solicar speaketh much of their inhumane cruelty Nil tam voluntarium quam Religio cogi non potestdiversa sunt carnifex charitas non potest veritas cum vi aut justitia cum credulitate conjungi in primitiva Ecclesia saith learned Becanus haeretici non puniebantur morte corporali alius est spiritus legalis saith he qui consistebat in severitate alius est spiritus Evangelicus qui consistit in mansuetudine hunc debetis imitari Et Apost ad Titum 3. haereticum hominem devita post unam secundam correptionem Sciens quia subversus est ubi notantur dixit devita non occide Esay 11. 9. non occiderit in universo monte sancto meo id est in Ecclesia ubi Propheta praedixit doctrinam Evangelii propogandam in Ecclesia sine sanguine caede See Becanus Dominicus a Soto in his 4. Sent. dist 5. saith every man hath a natural right to instruct others in things that are good but cannot compell Strifes about Religion saith Grotius are pernicious and destructive where provision is not made for dissenters Persecution overturns the practice of Religion from Abel to Moses and the Prophets even to the meek example of Jesus Christ The Apostles and their Successors for 300 years confirmed their Religion with their own blood and not with the blood of their opposers External force in matter of Faith and Worship is repugnant to the nature of Christian Religion which is meekness To the practice which is suffering To the promotion of it go teach all Nations Christian Religion intreats all compels none Force never yet made a good Christian or a good Subject It subverts all Religion because men believe not because it is true or false but because they are Commanded for to do their interest and security oblige them rather to obey then dispute It is very unreasonable to force men to declare or swear where their judgments are not fully satisfied to require Faith where they cannot choose but doubt to punish them for disobedience if they go not against their consciences and to be punished hereafter if they do For an erroneous Conscience bindeth a man to follow it according to the learned of all Religions Persecution destroyeth the noble principle of reason for no man can believe before he understands and no man can understand before he is taught for Faith in all acts of Religion is necessary Now to believe we must first will to will we must judge to judge any thing we must understand which cannot be forced How can the leprous disease of the mind be cured with corporal catoplasts or mens judgments be convinced of the truth by tormenting their Bodies the inflictions then of external punishments for meer mental errors not wilful is
and dust as every one hath received a several external figure of Face and every one a diverse internal form of mind every one a Cogitation and fancy distant from whence it cometh that there is so great diversity of Opinions so strange a contrariety of inclinations so different affections and passions in mortal men that no ordinary means is forcible enough to perswade them to any thing to which their private Spirits or imaginations are not inclined Hence so many Scripture interpretations so many quarrels and divisions in Religion even to Massacres Evils unknown to the very Heathens Hence we have often seen good by false representations may pass for abominable in the sight of sober men Hence the inconsiderate multitude prejudiced by education passion interest or false Teachers representing the Roman Church to them as a Monster composed of all sort of abomination having their Ears perpetually beaten with seven Hills Antichrist Idolatry Superstition by many unchristian aspersions false pretences by private forgeries and publick impressions wounding most Christian and innocent men How can they otherwise but hate them they know no better and even suck from their first Milk such an ill Opinion or odium of them as if they were Turks or Jews and had principles destructive to common Society Peace and Concord What a Wonder and what a Lamentation is it that those men who cry out so much for forbearance to Magistrates should themselves be so rigid and can less forbear dissenters or see the same sin in themselves So justifie all their Cruelties and think persecution to be their Duty Whence is persecution but from thinking ill of others abhorring and not loving them condemning them without hearing bearing them down not with sincere and plain dealing becoming Christians with inveterate malice filling Books with trivial Stories and Fables pickt up out of Authors without discretion make it their business to seek calumnies and reproaches in the Sepulchres and Common-shores of Schismaticks with untrue reporting of Doctrins false and unjust Criminations and other indirect wayes unseemly and unworthy the Cause of Truth to the dishonour of God and disparagement of Christian Religion Reading a Treatise lately Printed against Toleration by an university Schollar Had this Dilemma if Liberty or Toleration may be granted either an universal Toleration or particular not an universal for then saith he Papists may be tolerated which is against all As if all the Monsters of Aegypt may be admitted so the Papists be excluded Yet we must know if there had been no Papists in the World no other Sect among us had ever heard of Christianity If we knew all the Evils may ensue we should then be forced to Check the People from railing and let them feel our anger who would deceive us with Lies Nor can we look on those men as either of wit or honesty who are ever promoting the harassing of a faithful party needlesly to disoblige their fellow Subjects and Sufferers Wherefore to undeceive the so long abused and deluded multitude I will endeavour in the ensuing discourse to wipe of the Paint and Fucus that so things may appear in their true complexion unadulterated with the slights and subtilties of deluders I have chosen rather to expose these lines to Censure than to forbear to speak or be silent in the Cause and Defence of the Innocent Silui a bonis saith the Prophet dolor meus renovatus est in the following lines shall be shewed that the Law of God Christian Religion nature reason and our own principles doth oblige us to more charitable censures of the Roman Religion And that they are as highly if not more entitled to the true Christian Liberty of Conscience than any other Sect or Religion whatsoever all objections to the contrary cleared and evinced to any rational or impartial Reader If it remains as a Probatum est that no Christian ought to be compelled in matters of Faith or Religion provided it broacheth forth no new Sects or Schisms or that it be not in Case of Scandal or open blasphemy And if the Fundamental Laws and Government were established as a Defence and Protection to all sober peaceable Christians that immunity and freedom of Conscience ought to be indulged to Dissenters in this sense it being their due right and not only granted in policy to some persons or to oblige a party or to be enjoyed by the strongest and subtilest only to curb and subiect the rest as is shewed before there can be no ground able to convince any rational man why Papists should be excluded this priviledge unless we infringe the Laws and Government by not distributing equal and impartial justice nay the truth of this assertion is more evident and convincing for them then any Primo It is against reason and all examples of antiquity for men to be punished for adhering to the Religion of their Fore-fathers Now the Roman-Catholick Religion was the first Christian Religion planted in our native Country from whom we had and have our very Christianity the first universally spread and preached by Government permitted and encouraged by Counsels and Parliaments confirmed and approved a thousand years there continued even by our deceased kindred and parents not long since professed by our Universities established and defended against all Adversaries From whence we derive even the Scripture â—t self our ordinations most of our material Churches Colledges Inns of Court Hospitals c. and shall Charity ever be so buried in Oblivion in England that the Posterity of those from whom we must confess to have received these and other great advantages never be remembred and used with equity and common Justice They are linked in Religion to all Catholick Princes and Countries about us who will be more loving Neighbours if they see their Brethren find favour from us To persecute this Religion is to War against our Progenitors It is this Church in which so many Martyrs have dyed so many Doctors have taught and preached so many Virgins have lived in flesh like Angels so many Saints wrought wonders and miracles so many Councils called so many Ecclesiastical Laws enacted so many Nations converted so many Kings and Emperors lived and died and hope to be saved against which so many persecutors Machiavels and Tyrants in vain have used torments and contrived all imaginable force wicked policy or cruelty could invent This Faith hath the best evidence as taught and instituted by Christ his Apostles and Successors in an uninterrupted series and delivery down to us Set before your eyes those glorious Champions of Christs Church Constantines Theodos Pepines Charles all sirnamed Great more Glorious for Victories over Heresies and Idolatries than for conquests of Countries more renowned for propagating Catholick Religion than enlarging their Dominions See the Catologue of noble Kings of England Lucius Ethelbert Egbert Oswald Oswine Alfred Edgar before the conquest William the Conqueror and so many Henries Edwards Richards after the Conquest mighty of force rich of
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
well of her as the Dutchess of Sommerset to Sir John Cheeke to Sir Edward Mountague Lord chief Justice who had subscribed and counselled her disinheriting to Sir Roger Cholmey to the Marqness of Northampton to the Lord Robert Dudley to Sir Henry Dudley to Sir Henry Gates c. who stood attainted and the Duke of Suffolke all obnoxious to her Justice she knew very well neither affected her Religion nor Title they being her prisoners in the Tower she released them all But for all this the Zealots of her time would not be quieted they libel against the Government of Women they pick quarrels and murmur at her Marriage they publish invectives and scurrilous Pamphlets against Religion yet forbear not to plot and conspire her deprivation Goodman writ a pernitious Book to have her put to death William Thomas a Gospeller conspires to Out of Fox his Martyrs kill the Queen and when hanged said he died for his Country Stow in Queen Mary p. 1056. On the contrary in Queen Elizabeths time although Catholicks then were the chief Ministers in Church and State and might have used indirect means against her she being of a contrary Religion and not of so clear a Title yet Catholick Bishops who set the Crown upon her head are commended by Holinshed a Prot. Hist ann Eliz. 26. pag. 1358 1360. for peaceable quiet Bishops and the Catholick temporal Lords there by him recorded to be far from opposing themselves against her interest as they are said there to offer her Majesty in her defence to impugne and resist any â—orreign force though it should come from the Pope himself Insomuch that they are commended by Holinshed for loyalty and obedience And Stow testifies how diligent Catholicks were to offer their service in that great action 88. neither were they altogether refused by her Majesty How the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellour of England Doctor Heath a Catholick Bishop instead of inveighing against her or casting forth of Libels as Cranmer did against Q. Mary her entrance and Government made a publick oration in her behalf to perswade the people to obedience and to acknowledg her power and authority Holin ib. 1170. whence the said Archbishops faithfulness was left to commendation also by Protestant Bishop Goodman in his Catalogue of Bishops How all Catholick Lords and Bishops repaired to London to proclaim her Queen who not long after turned them out of several Offices and Bishopricks Holinshed p. 1171. To use Cambdens own words and phrase the world stood Cambdens Britann p. 163. amazed and England groaned at it what would flesh and blood move him to was it not strange in the beginning to behold Abbies destroyed Bishopricks gelded Chaunteries Hospitals Colledges turned to profaneness change of Liturgies Rites c. to see people renounce their pious vows such unexpected alterations it being a pitiful thing as Stow saith to hear the Lamentations in the Country for religious Houses Stâ—w p. 964. Notwithstanding the loyalty and obedience of Catholicks towards her appeared undeniable in all things not only in their humble petitions but by their constant and general conformity unto her temporal Government in 88. and by their Protestations made at Ely 1588. as by other offers made to the Lord North the Queens Lieutenant there and by their just actions afterwards by their submission as to the Lords of the Privy Council and profession of all due acknowledgment to her Majesty notwithstanding the Sentence of Excommunication Whence the Author of Execution of English Justice acknowledges their obedience and loyalty to Elizabeth in a time when they wanted no matter of complaint Any man of candour and integrity may easily convince the vulgar error the unevenness of Queen Elizabeths nature and severity to that of Queen Marys Queen Elizabeth made new Laws against Catholicks and put them to death for not embracing a new heresie which has been condemned to the fire here and in all other Christian Countries She embrued her hands in the blood royal of Mary Stewart lawful Heir to the Crown put to death many noble persons by their blood to colour her Supremacy raised up upstarts Hereticks from nothing annihilated the antient Nobility and Gentry c. to use a Protest Historiographers words the bloody practices of Queen Eliz. if not so barbarous in appearance though more wicked in substance as being exhibited under the colour and pretext of Law in the starving and racking so many innocent worthy learned persons tearing out their hearts and bowels in publick view upon suborned witnesses base vagabond and perjured Catchpoles hired to swear Neither was there any reason then for persecution on the account of the Catholicks misdemeanours For as Cambden her own Historiographer noteth The reason of the penal Statutes in Eliz. was 1. the opinion of the Queens Illegitimation abroad 2. Jealousies had of the Queen of Scots her nearness to the Crown 3. the Bull of Pius 5. 4. the doubt of the house of Guise in behalf of their Neece 5. the offence given to the King of Spain in assisting Orange These causes induced the Queen with her Pauculi intimi saith Cambden We cannot excuse the persecution therefore under Queen Elizabeth against Catholicks for any cause given by them or just fear of their fidelity nor from the example of Christian Emperours and Kings that both for zeal of Religion and human policy to avoid danger of Rebellion made Laws and Statutes against Hereticks and innovators of the antient faith and sense of Scripture which descended to them by Tradition from the Apostles Queen Elizabeth taking a contrary way made Laws and Statutes against the ancient Religion and known sense of Gods word delivered from age tâ— age which practice destroys the order of Justice to persecute Christians for professing a Religion confirmed by the publick testimony and practice of the Christian world from the first propaâ—â—tion of Christianity to this present tâ—â—e No part of their Dectrine being â—â—er judged an heresie or novelty by antiquity otherwise they had not escaped the rigour of penal Laws made against Hereticks and Novelists in former ages But no History did or can ever mention any person that suffered as an Heretick for broaching or maintaining any one point which they now believe and profess Whereas Q. Mary her predecessors Emperours and Kings punished Novelists only that made Religons of their own heads condemneâ— as Hereticks by the Church in ancient times The disparity therefore was great Catholick Princes standing as defenders of their ancient Faith others as invaders and introducers of a new Belief They seek to keep what de jure they had Calvinists what they had not they possessors of the traditum and depositum left by Christ and his Apostles others descissors and injurious infringers of those Apostolick tyes and regulations so carefully delivered to all posterity Laws indeed have been made in Catholick Countries very severe against those the Church calleth Hereticks but they were none of the Churches
burnt by a Decree in the face of the world by publick Justice did not a General Council of Constance sentence the Deposing Power as erroneous and scandalous although he were a Tyrant Have any other reformed Churches proceeded so far The Doctor doth well to cry Whore first and take no notice of the many standing objections in this and other things against his own Calvinistical party But what need I trouble Ink and Paper to examine this mans absurdities when I had taken but three hours to run them over they are encreased to so many I am come into a Labyrinth you may judg by his first ten lines wherein he committeth three first he saith His Majesty found it necessary for good of his affairs to grant freedom to all Dissentors If His Majesty found it necessary is not he presumptuous being a private man and a subject to make this invective he calls seasonable Discourse to impeach it to offer weak and lying motives to obstruct it Secondly what confidence hath he to utter so notorious an untruth as to say Now Priests openly act in all parts their functions In what City or Countrey Town hath he found them publckly preaching or praying Thirdly is it not absurd that being an ecclesiastick he should so mind us of Capital punishment who by the Canons should have no hand in blood He is much troubled at the Coâ—â—iers Crred viz. to believe as the Church believes Which gives a suspition he doth not believe or would not have his Parishoners believe one article of the Creed He calls charity and love but tempting charms as if he did not know or believe the Gospel where there be innumerable commands for it But then he comes a canting being suspitious his Book tends to Sedition and to breed feuds amongst us saith no price can be to great for peace but truth But what truth doth he mean the many imputed slanders in his Book or would he have truth separated from love peace and charity He cites Authors falsely as Thomas Aquinus Peron c. he hath false supposals viz. that Catholicks take away the Scripture give a half Communion make new Articles of Religion c. that indulgencies remit the guilt of sin and that the gifts of God are bought with money c. who ever writ more against such Simony than Catholick Authors or hold more plainly that sin is never forgiven without sorrow and repentance from God by the Merits and Passion of Jesus Christ So much for the Vnseasonable Discourse Now to overthrow from the foundation all other aspersions in this kind Let all impartial men consider first those criminations proceed originally from enemies and grand animosities of parties adverse Secondly Papists universally disown them Thirdly unrepentant traytors and implacable enemies are amongst their accusers and which most encourages them is their constant fidelity they might easily vindicate themselves from all such imputations by the putting their adversaries to the proof had they but liberty to question them and bring them to a trial For they never durst appear or shew their faces in an open and impartial audience We might admire where such deep malice could be found but much more how any prudence could believe them and that no reason or experience will restrain them How strange a wickedness is then the groundless censuring so highly and publickly so many noble and honourable personages so many eminently deserving subjects of his Majesty so many grave most venerable and most sacred personages in the world What account shall such give at the last day what is this less than persecution what mischiefs flow and are apt from such libelling by sad experience we have tasted the bitterness of the fruit The dreadful ruin of Hierusalem was brought about by such furious ones Josephus calleth the Zealots And should they still be countenanced it unavoidably bringeth incurable divisions for there is no certain rule of Justice with such persons Secondly It breeds an ill correspondence between our fellow subjects and makes them ill looked upon which violates civil unity so necessary for the peace and strength of a Kingdom Thirdly It disincourages Loyalty to see that after such testimonies it may be lawful for any at pleasure to brand them as Traytors publickly in Print Fourthly It tends to excite our Governours that they are not fit to be endured in any State Fifthly It must breed fouds between private persons all over England Scotland and Ireland 6. It is a reproach to Christian Religion when the world must see we have not so much justice and equity as Heathens have in their worldly Societies Seventhly It is a great cause of the persecution of Christians and the damnation of Persecutors being foolisher than the Devil who would build Christ's house or Kingdom by dividing it Mat. 12. And that which must sanctifie all this sin is the seeming interest of God and Religion to hinder the growth and increase of Popery If it was an untruth they spake it was for Religion if they did backbite and revile it was to preserve the hearers from errors aud infection If they used their reputation to murder love and make others odious and rejoiced in their sufferings and afflictions all this is but for defence of truth They think all this is a part of Christian zeal And this is a mark of Satans way of Reformation he doth it by dividing and teaching Christians to form odious thoughts of one another And when his meaning is to save you from heaven and truth he takes upon him he is only saving you from sin or errors or corruptions of the Church By these notes and signs saith an English Divine you may easily perceive how the dividing zeal of such differs from the true genuine Christian Catholick Zeal If your zeal be raised for some singular opinion not for the common salvation moved by some personal interest honour or dishonour for strengthning a party c. And not to promote godliness the common cause of Christianity or general cause of pedce and piety A hurting burning zeal for execution of penal Statutes When it causeth you to revile backbite despise censure and zealously to make dissenters odious that hearers may abate their love When your zeal tendeth to hurt and cruelty and is greater for the adversaries destruction than your desire and prayer for his conversion It s a false zeal more inclined to their sufferings reproach or hurt with some secret desire of fire from heaven c. when it tendeth to separations divisions distances from our ancient Brethren This is the complexion of the proud false conceited and surly sort of professors which flyeth outward against the sins of other men and can live with pride selfishness and sensuality at home a contemptuous persecuting zeal kinled by inflaming censures of rash passionate Preachers First it is an ill sign when their censures are beyond the proportion of their understandings and their experience and prudence much less then others whom they censure