least I should offer both violence and wrong with my vnskilfull pensil to limme out more largely this most beautifull and well proportioned Image of a Princes vertuous mynd But I dare say which I referre to the best judgement of Your Majestie ablest to judge of Your owne noble sayings it is an exquisite Aphorisme or Abstract of that divine Rule prescribed to Kings by the Lord and Iudge of Kings It shall be when the King sitteth vpon the throne of his Kingdome that he shall write him h copy of this Law in a Booke out of that which is before the Priests and Leuites and it shall bee with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that hee may learne to serue the Lord his God to keepe all the words of this Law and these Statutes to doe them that his heart be not lift vp aboue his brethren and that hee turne not aside from the Commandement to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdome hee and his children in the midst of Israell Now what is the summe of all this but Honesty is the best Pollicy From this Root to wit Honesty the heathen deriued all the branches of vertue As those foure Cardinall vertues Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance the subiect of those three bookes of Offices Tully draweth from the force and nature of Honestie as himselfe expresseth And those foure also Iethro Moses father in law in his direction to his Sonne requireth to bee in all Magistrates saying Thou shalt prouide out of all the people men of Courage such as feare God men of truth and hating Couetousnesse Still the summe totall is Honestie is the best Policy Thus neede wee goe no further then Your Maiesty to learne the rule of all good policy whereof Honestie is the ground as containing all duties both to God and man in Prince or people Thus haue I though slenderly for the which I most humbly craue Your Maiesties generall pardon discharged my faithfull dutie in discovering so great a danger towards Your Maiestie It pertaines to the wisdome of Your Maiestie to provide speedy meanes for the prevention that Your Kingdomes may not become a prey to the enemie nor Your sacred Person exposed to the perill of beeing forsaken by Your owne Subiects whom the Pope instigateth by the authority of his Bull and by the incessant industrie of his Iesuites to stand closse to his Holinesse against Your Maiestie when occasion serveth His Breeue also mentioneth what anxious prayers the Church of Rome now maketh for hir Catholicke Sonnes in England There is some waighty cause in hand sure Wee poore Ministers hope that Your Maiestie will bee pleased to call a generall Fast to frustrate all Romes prayers Wee haue all fared the better for the last publicke Fast which Your Maiestie proclaimed for the averting of vnseasonable weather against the last harvest And it is memorable that on the same day wherein the Fast was kept generally over all England began the heavens to cleare vp their clowdy countenance and so continued till they had brought vs in a plentifull harvest in stead of a feared famine Not that wee place any vertue in a Fast but because a Fast with humble prayer preuaileth much with God not onely as being commanded by him and hauing a promise annexed but for the necessity of it to bee joyned with true repentance and reformation not onely of mens manners and all raigning sinnes publicke and private but also of the worship of God being purged from all the pollutions of Idolatry and superstition which are an abomination in Gods sight and especially a clearing the Coast of all Romish Iesuites and Idolatrous Priests whose religion is treason against Your Majesty and God himselfe When the good King Hezechiah had received the blasphemous letter of Senacherib King of Assyria he went into the Temple of the Lord humbled himselfe and prayed spreading the Letter for the Lord to read and revenge all the blasphemies contained in it both against God and the King perswading his subjects to defection from him But loe here a letter sent into England from the King of the spirituall Babylon full of most impious blasphemies against Your Maiesty most Antichristianly vsurping a power over Your subiects charging them to disavowe their fidelity vnto Your Maiesty shall not this iustly provoke Your Maiesty with Hezechiah to go into the Lords Temple and there publickly intreat the Lord to take revenge on such blasphemies and to turne the mischiefe which Rome and her confederates now intend and machinate against Your Person and Crowne vpon their owne head as Ezechias obtained of the Lord yea Your Maiestie thus doing all Gods faithfull Ministers as so many Esayes to King Ezechiah as so many Azariahs to King Asa dare promise Your Maiestie both certaine victory ouer Your enemies and a constant peace with prosperity while You constantly follow the worthy examples of those religious Kings of Juda which grace the Lord giue vnto Your Maiestie in abundance Amen Your Maiesties most loyall subiect though vnworthy servant HENRY BVRTON TO THE LORD DVKE OF BVCKINGHAM his Grace Right Honorable THE Dutifull zeale I beare to the safety of my dread Soueraigne and deare Country inforceth mee otherwise loth to put my finger into the fire in the second place to sollicite Your Grace to bee the more carefull to preuent the danger When King Saul and Abner with the whole guard were in a dead sleepe so that Dauid had the opportunity to take away the Kings speare and Pot of water by him onely to testifie his fidelity to the King hee called alowd to Abner and awakening him said Art not thou a valiant man and who is like to thee in Israell wherefore hast thou not kept thy Lord the King surely yee are worthy to dye c. But neither can I say so altogether nor neede I cry so loud to your Grace vnlesse these many businesses which will scarce suffer you to sleepe so soundly as did Abner will neither suffer such a dwarfe as my selfe easily to bee heard But speaking for the King I hope I shall not be denied Audience Nor are they good subiects persecuted as Dauid of whom the King is in danger but such as though they haue small cause to complaine of persecution yet are instigated to deny vnto their Soueraigne that loyalty and Allegiance which all true subiects owe vnto their lawfull Prince Doth not your Grace erect your most earnest attention to this But who dare thus instigate the Kings subiects against him No lesse then the Pope and that by a Breeue or Bull lately sent ouer into England wherein he straitly chargeth his Catholique Sonnes as hee termes them vpon no termes to take the Oath of fidelity to the King inciting and animating them as against their Enemy as the Breeue can testify Nor had I I confesse beene thus bold to meddle in such a matter if
of God secure themselues from all Devills and Devills incarnate as the bloudy Iesuites His Promise is which is specially made to Christian Princes Hee hath giuen his Angells charge ouer thee and they shall keepe thee in all thy wayes which In all thy wayes teacheth vs how necessary it is to haue the wisdome of the Serpent combined with the Doues simplicity in the vse of due meanes to prevent dangers For if Iesuiticall malice will not spare the lowly shrubb how much lesse the lofty Cedar If a poore subiect may bee the obiect of Popish revenge for standing for the truth much more a noble King the Defender of the Faith Which hath possessed me with the greater iealousie and feare for your Maiesties safety Nor is it a Panicke or causelesse feare If I did but dreame of any danger towards Your Maiesty how should I feare it waking But here is neither Dreame nor Diuination but plaine demonstration of imminent if not rather present danger such as is worthy to possesse Your Naiestie with a most prudent and vigilant feare such as the learned Bishop in his Tortura wished to abound in your royall Father of famous memory and wee no lesse in Your Maiestie The cause I say of all is the Popes Bull or Breeue even now perswading and straightly charging his Catholique Sonnes in Enland as hee calls them vpon no termes to take the Oath of Allegiance to Your Maiestie as being not their King but their enemie Such Breeues never come but they betoken some notable mischiefe not farre off Like the Coote which flying to the shore crying prognosticates a sharpe storme at hand or as the Owle which being seene in the City portends destruction to it or as a prodigious Comete presaging the fatall periods of Princes or States specially where they exercise theyr maliguant influence Yet howsoeuer these may proue vncertaine as being Signes only but no causes of future euents yet the Popes Bull being not only a Signe but a cawse conducing to and producing mischiefe and that even exprofesso ought not slightly to be regarded Omne malum à Breuibus Breuia a Pontifice sayde the foresayd Bishop vpon the same occasion A Breeue was sent from the Pope to prepare the way for the Spanish Inuasion in 88. Another for the Gunpowder Treason Remarkable instances sufficeent if any to admonish England euer to looke for a terrible thunderclap vpon such a flash of Lightning Nor euer came Bull from Rome more cunningly couched and fuller of subtill insinuations then this as being the expresse Image and Modell of the Mistery of iniquity Formerly in the darker night of ignoraÌ„ce the Owle of Rome durst fly and flutter about seasing pluÌ„me vpon the prey but here where the Gospell shineth she is faine to winke with her eyes and to retire her selfe in the reserued corners of her ambiguous and twi-light Equiuocations Such is the curious frame of this Breeue being such as Paul 5 said of his written post lâ—ngam et grauem deliberasionem de omnibus quae in illis continentur adhibitam No doubt but this Beere was a long time a licking into this forme it hath But the summe is the Breeue containeth nothing but matter of high Treason against Your Maiesty inciting Your Subiectes to defection from You and erecting their hopes for Trophees and triumphs which the Pope plentifully promiseth to them I haue adventured the weakest of ten thousand to vnty this Gordian knot vnmasking the mystery thereof in a convenient brevety but all is of no force without Your Maiesties sword like that of Alexanders to hew it in sunder The lesuits at this present like Sampsons foxes with their firebrands are busy kindling combustion every where in your Kingdom vsing this Breeue as Bellowes to blow to the fier A man would thinke that seeing the foxes woules are so rife the dogges should be muzzled and tied vp Or when theeues are so briefe and bold the sword of Iustice shouldly rusting in the sheath But howsoeuer wee are sure Your Maiesty hath not beene wanting in publishing Proclamation vpon Proclamation to banish them the Land Only they learne thereby to walke the more invisible hoping by Gyges his Ring to obtaine their desire And when they are taken no ligatures of lawes can long hold them but Proteus like they haue their evasions Something is the reason that our Lawes haue lost their sting and become Drones and the Iesuites proue the waspes to robb vs of our honey It was wittily sayd of Polydor Virgil Regnum Angliae Regnum Dei his meaning was because none seemed to take care of England but God And true it is his diuine Prouidence hath from time to time beene a miraculous preseruer of it Yet some meanes must be vsed In 88 that Masculine Queene slept not At the Powder-plot Your royall Father by commanding dililigent search prevented the blow God gaue a happy successe to both And no doubt but he will be the same God to defend Your Majesty blessing Your pious zeale in the rooting out of his and Your enemies whose prime Article of their faith is treason to Kingdomes and States Salomon sayth How shall a man carry fire in his bosome and not bee burned What should I need to propouud to Your Majesty the examples of those noble and religious Kings of Iuda who setting themselues resolutely to reforme the decayed and disordered state of Gods worshippe proued through Gods speciall blessing miraculously victorious ouer all their enemies Your Majestie knowes them of a childe which imitating now being a Man and a King God shall bee with You as hee was with them and You with him King Ahashuerus setting apart but one night to more sad contemplations and reading ouer the Chronicles a worthy Precedent for a prince sometimes so to breake his sleepe how was it a meanes to cawse the light of Gods people to breake forth from obscure darknesse Wee poore swaines espying the storme comming to whom should we runne but to our Pilot Or being sicke but to the Phisitian Vnder God Your Maiesty is the great Pilot of this Iland which like a goodly shipperides at Anchor in the midst of the Sea now in danger to be tossed with terrible stormes which the leakes will hardly brooke yf they bee not the sooner stopt You are vnder God the great Phisitian who onely can cure as the Kings euill so the inveterate Gangrene of this body whereof Your Maiesty is the head Giue vs leaue dread Soveraigne in our extremity of danger to cry out to Your Maiesty for helpe We know as God hath dignified You with a Diademe so he hath qualified Your Maiesty with most excellent Princely indowments For instance vouschsafe leaue to Your poore old servant to remember a most Princely speach vsed often by Your Highnesse HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY A Motto for a King and worthy to be ingraven in the lasting Monuments of Your Kingly Actes even with Your owne royall hands I may not presume
I had seene but some publique Edict for the burning of the Breeue as also for the effectuall banishing of all Iesuites the onely Factors for the Pope in such Adventures for Treason and Rebellion But be like notice hath not as yet beene giuen thereof to your Grace And that you may bee not the lesse sensible of the danger of a Papall Breeue You may be pleased to know that such neuer appeareth but as some prodigious Comet not signifying only but designing and producing some sad fatality Thus did the Pope in 88 thus at the Gunpowder plott Thus now This Romish Lightning may warne vs of a Crack not farre off God keepe vs from the Thunderbolt If it were only a bare prognosticating signe it were the lesse Sapiens dominabitur Astris but being an operatiue Instrument wherein the Iesuites are Agents to improue it to the vtmost of their Masters aduantage it is not so to be slited Iesuits why are not all Iesuits packed away long since by Proclamation Alas Sir you may be pleased to know they are like cunning Iugglars that can passe and repasse at pleasure They say England is fuller of them at this day then euer And now while the Popes yron is in the fire how doe they sweat in beating it to perfection But if they be catcht they are put in prison Alas they are there but as a bird tyed to the nett to call in other birds which seeming to come to releiue the prisoner they are more intangled themselues But thence they are quickly dismist to bee gone and voyd the Land Alas they doe but play the cunning Duck which sent out doth by her wily insinuation tolle and traine hundreds and thousands into her Masters Nett Thus cunningly can they play at fast and loose How then shall these Proteus-like Foxes be taken Certainly there is no other way but to hunt them out with the Kings owne doggs Your Grace is the great Iusticiarius Forestae And anciently Iustices in Eyre were sent with Commission into sundry Counties to heare such causes especially as were termed Plees of the Crowne Lo here a great plee of the Crowne yea such as wher in the title of the Kings Crowne is not onely questioned but strongly vsurped by the Claime of a forraigne Power What English eares can with patience heare such an insolencie When King Ahashuerus did but vnderstand of the desperate estate of the Iewes wherein that wicked Haman as Hester told the King had brought them the good King by and by sent forth his Edicts by Post into euery Prouince to incourage and arme the poore people of God to stand vpon their guard and so they preuented and ouercame the perill Now who stand more deeply charged with the care of the Kings Crowne then your Grace So that I neede not I trow in such a case vse spurres to your agility and readines for the putting of all dull courses in speedy execution for not onely the apprehension but the condigne punishment of such kinde of Malefactors Why what Malefactors such as Iesuits are not onely of factious treacherous traiterous spirits as they are men possessed with the spirit of Iesuitisme but euen by vertue and force of their Order and Profession Traitors ex professo They must be so they are bound to bee so else they are no Iesuits else must they renounce their Holy Order of the society of Iesu And is it possible that such should roust in England Nay reuell and riot Nay not onely bee profest traitors themselues but drawing Parties to their side continually euen to the diuiding of the limmes the armes and shoulders legges and feete from the Head of this goodly Politicke body It is the fashion indeed in other neighbour Popish States publickely to allow and auow such kinde of Creatures in the State But none haue more reason to vphold them then the Spaniard their good Master For certainly in time if they be suffered to goe on they will bring all Christendome vnder the Spanish yoake God forbid Yet if they should so do I make a question whether the Spaniard would suffer such pragmatical spirits any longer in Christendome lest as the restles sea hauing wrought as far as it can one way it worke as far as fast the contrary way It is likly then that he would send them into the Turks Dominions into Persia all those Easterne Empires to make compleat the Monarchy of Spaine that ioyning the two Indies together and circling in whole globe of the earth his Motto may then be Ne plus vltra But why doe I roue so farre when our home is in such danger What is to bee done shall I shoot a fooles bolt Shall I bee bold with your Grace Why not I haue heard men say you are of a noble disposition which will easily pardon a fooles bluntnesse In briefe then Your Grace knowes the King wants money extreamely You know againe that Treason is vnsufferable to wink at it to conceale it brings a man within Misprision of treason You may be pleased all to know that all Iesuites as by their profession so in their practise are high Traitors to Kings and States You know againe that all Iudges and Iustices of peace in this land are sworne to the King to see the lawes duly executed but especially vpon fellons and traitors You know that all such as shall bee found guilty of such Periury or Misprision of treason are punishable not onely in their persons but in their purses and estates Can the King then lacke money so long as there are as they say so many Iesuits in the land which passe euery where vnpunished O that your Grace would finde out the Delinquents in this kinde Nay let your Grace be assured if you will but take a round course with the Iesuites in rooting them out according to their demerits as it would bring safety security to the Kings Person and State so being the faithfull discharge of that trust reposed in you what a comfort will it be to your conscience what a blessing from God might you expect yea what loue also from all the Kings louing subiects Then would all things proceed succeed happily whereas on the contrary so long as Iesuits with their factions and treasons are suffered in this land what can wee expect but that euery thing we take in hand should proue very vnprosperous crosse For God is highly displeased with vs for suffering such miscreants to practise their impieties on this his Church to the great dishonour of his Name and Religion And how shall we be worthy to inioy such a King such a Country such a Church so many blessings of God if we be so prodigall of them All the world admires the wonderfull trust that the King hath reposed in you I pray God your Grace may answer it in your faithfull prudent and vigilant care I remember a speech which his Highnesse when he was Prince vttered among vs that were his seruants that when he
this is the holy Ghosts vsuall phrase to say They that shall be accompted worthie of that life not They that shall be worthie thereof But this accompt here mentioned is not according to Gods account but the Popes accompt such as the Pope accompts worthie to suffer reproches for the name of Iesu to wit for his Iesutish doctrines teaching the lawfulnesse of rebellion against Princes For vnder this name of Iesu doth that society of the Iesuites the more easily play the Iudasses as hee did with Haile Master no man easily suspecting that there should bee the least affinity betweene that sweet sauing name of Iesus and the massacring Abaddon or Appollyon But the reward of such is They seeme to possesse onely The Pope dares not say They do possesse it c. for then he should seeme to grant the certainty of saluation if men in this life were in possession of it But he must not ouerthrow that Canon of Trent which dischargeth a sulphurious Anathema against the doctrine of the certaintie of remission of sinnes as an Arch-enemy vndermining the golden mines of his Purgatorie Well what seeme they to haue The bill of exchange of Gods loue and abound with that price wherewith they purchase the Diadem of eternitie Here the Pope fals downe right vpon his doctrine of selfe merits so derogatory from yea so destructory of that most precious and pearlelesse ransome payde for the purchase of those Diadems of glory Although the Church of Rome makes little difference betweene Christs paying of our debts himselfe and his inabling vs our selues to pay them sauing that they choose rather to haue the fingering of the money themselues then to trust to Christ for the payment of it As here the Pope they pretend Gods loue Christs merits but all is to enable them by graces infused their Bill of exchange to merit ex condigno the kingdome of heauen or thereby to purchase the Diadems of eternitie Well But ô yee Pontificians doe you not teach that those graces of yours infused may bee altogether and irreuocably lost if then by the way as you are trauailing to make your purchase and so to take possession of those heauenly diadems yee chance to meete with theeues that robbe you of your treasure and take your purse from you what will become of your purchase then were it not therefore safer for you to follow Christs counsell Lay not vp your treasures on earth where the moth and canker corrupt and where theeues breake through and steale but lay vp for your selues treasures in heauen where it is out of all danger what is this to lay vp for your selues treasures in heauen Is not Christ our treasure Is not he in heauen is not the laying vp of this treasure for our selues in heauen our laying hold on Christ by faith aske the ordinary Glosse In Goelo 1. Omnem spem in calestibus ponite lay vp all your hope in heauen fide gradientes charitatem amplectantes walking by faith imbracing charity or following the Apostles practise 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I haue beleeued and I am perswaded that he is able to keepe that which I haue committed vnto him against that day Aske Lyra the meaning Depositum meum c. my pledge that is my reward which by faith I haue laid vp to be kept with him against the day of my dissolution when my soule shall be glorified against the day of iudgement when my body shall be made immortall So the ordinary glosse excellently quia potens est Dominus Depositum meum seruare spe c. the Apostle is secure in the hope and magnificence of his Sauiour because what he committeth vnto him is in safety and that which he committeth vnto him is his saluation This was the ancient Catholique doctrin of the Church to trust in Christ wholly for their saluation But now from this ancient faith the present Church of Rome is vtterly fallen trusting her selfe for saluation which being in hir owne custody she confesseth not without iust cause that she may come vtterly to loose it No doubt of that yea they haue altogether shut themselues out of the kingdome of heauen already by this their doctrine of Iustification by their grace infused For betweene faith and justification they make such a separation as they decree in their Trent Councill that though by euery mortall sinne the grace of iustification receiued is lost although faith be not lost calling it a Doctrine of Gods Law which excludeth not onely vnbeleeuers but the faithfull also such as they call their fideles fornicarios adulteros molles masculorum concubitores fures c. out of the kingdome of God This is that doctrine of Romes Apostacy from the faith shutting hir selfe out of Gods kingdome as hauing expressely renounced and abandoned that faith in Christ the onely purchase of our saluation as might more abundantly bee shewed But this may suffice for the present occasion so punctually offered by the Pope in this place and that in his owne expresse words which no doubt were throughly scanned in his Conclaue betweene himselfe and his Cardinalls before they should come to see the light as Paul the fift confessed of the contents of his Breeue sent hither Anno 1607. So that in nothing doth the Pope vary from himselfe but in all points shewes himselfe to be that great Apostate that Antichrist from toppe to toe But to conclude this clawse if Treason if rebellion if disloyaltie of subjects against their Prince whereat the Pope here aimeth be so meritorious as to purchase the Diadems of Eternitie then let no malefactor neuer so notorious feare hell or iudgement so hee can but intile his villanies as committed for the Catholique cause The old heathen Rome had hir Culleus for Parracides but Catholique Rome his Diadems would not this startle and astond the very Indian when he should be told that the Kingdome of heauen is full of such gracelesse vnnaturals as for betraying their lawfull Soueraigne their natiue sweete Countrey for blowing vp the beautie and glory of their Nation yea of the whole world at a blast doe now raigne in heauen wearing eternall Diadems would not he make a solemne vow neuer to come there Nay more would Iesus Christ trow you trust such Parricides and Traytors to come neere his person now in heauen lest with Iudas they should againe betray him and with the Iewes and Romanes kill and crucifie him afresh for how could he be perswaded that such would spare his person in heauen who accounted it the speciall point of their religion to Martyr and massacre him in his members heere on earth or that they would yeeld obedience and reuerence to his Royail Majestie in heauen that stucke not to deface and defile his image imprinted vpon his annointed Vicegerents here below Certainly that heauenly Ierusalem is compassed with higher and stronger wals then to be scaled by such Gyant-like assaylants Lucifer was cast out
of heauen for his rebillious pride and shall his sonnes thinke to gaine heauen by the merit of their proud rebellions Suffice it Cain when his very conscience gaue him to be a vagabond and exile from that city aboue and justly for his bloody fratricide he was the first that founded and built a city on earth for his habitation Cain was a figure of the Pope and his city of Rome the Popes eternall habitation And for the Popes diadems of eternitie we reade of a certaine kind of Locusts arising out of the bottomlesse pit hauing a scorpion-like power to sting yet whose power was limitted not to hurt but onely those which haue not the seale of God in their foreheades which Locusts like horses prepared to battell had on their heads as it were crownes of gold Such Diadem may the Pontifician priests merit to weare who not onely resemble these Locusts but are those very froggs spoken of Reu. 16 13 14. which are vncleane spirits comming out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet being the spirits of Deuils working miracles and go forth vnto the Kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battaile of that great daie of God Almightie But passe we to the next Indeed we had rather being mindfull of humane frailty that glory and riches were in the Tabernacles of the righteous but when we contemplate your miseries Beloued Sonnes we put so much confidence in your vertue and Christs defence that we dare gratulate vnto you plenty of triumphs Answer INdeede wee cannot blame your father-hood â—o wish all prosperity to your Beloued Sonnes and for your selfe and your triumphall chaire wee are not ignorant how prouident you haue beene in your Pontificall Decrees to estblish a triumphant state in that your palace at Rome to be free from all incursions and inuasions and that by your Apostolicke irrefragable constitution Onely wee cannot but admire to see how in the midst of all your Pontificiall pleasures and pompe you can reflect the bcames of your contemplation vpon the miseries of your afflicted Sonnes in England But herein yee show the bowells of a father But you are sensible thereof onely in your contemplation If you contemplate this out of some propheticall vision foreseeing the calamities which your sonnes impieties through your fatherly instigation may further pull vpon them if they shall attempt some speciall service for your father-hood wherein they shall faile of their purpose herein wee desire and hartily pray you may bee as true a Prophet as Balaam was who though you would neuer so faine to obtaine an housefull of gold and siluer which you haue formerly had out of England yet the curse in the end shall fall vpon your own Moabites But if you contemplate and such great present calamitie vpon your sonnes among vs wee are giuen hereby to perceiue that your holinesse may erre vnlesse you will excuse it that you speake it by the figure Iroma you are able to contemplate more herein then all wee can discerne with open eyes Yea on the contrary whereof your holinesse cannot bee ignorant your sonnes are so kindly intreated among vs as though wee might thinke thereby to winne them the more to loue vs and our religion yet forasmuch as they are your holinesse owne sones wee meane the Jesuites and Preists especially the truth is we haue the more cause to feare them We know of old what recompence to expect of the snake if wee foster him in our bosomes Thus doe your sonnes recollect their strength among vs and such vertue wherein to repose your confidence Herevpon it is in plaine truth that your holinesse dare congratulate to your sonnes such plenty of triumphs you may bee confident of it so long as your frogs are suffered to friske and range vp and downe among vs at pleasure without controwle in defiance of Lawes and Proclamations to seduce the Kings Liege people to increase their number daily to strengthen their partie to weaken vs by sowing their seeds of faction that no lesse then a rich plenty of triumphs must needes insue But herein wee comfort our selues that your Papall confidence in your sonnes vertue is preferred before Christs defence you set that in the first place and surely if you had not more confidence in your sonnes vertue then in Christs defence it were very small for wee know that in Christs defence you haue no confidence at all your owne apostatized heart can tell you so much Except yee trust at all in Christs defence because our sinnes haue so much prouoked God against vs and none more then that your sonnes haue beene too indulgently intreated among vs not onely to the damage and murther of many soules if the Lord bee not the more mercifull to giue them repentance to returne to the truth but to the endangering of this noble State if the same our God no lesse mightily then mercifully preuent it not You know too well the Kings of Israeil are mercifull Kings but wee know againe that many times pitie though it is pitie yet being shewed to Amileck and Aramites may redound to the Authors hurt witnesse these * Kings of Israell On the other side wee know what Elias did and afterward what Jehu did to the Prophets of Baal and what a blessing came vpon them from the Lord Iehues Sonnes sate vpon the throne to the fourth generation and had done longer if hee had not cleaued to the sinnes of Ieroboam And Jezabell for all her vengeable malice and impotent fury yet could not wreck it vpon Elias though one single poore Prophet no more then the Pope with all his pontificall and imperiall power could preuent poore Luther of dying peaceablely in his bed so miraculously mightie is the Lord in preseruing his poorest seruants that are zealous for his cause Yf we shew the like zeale now in this frozen age wee may with comfort hope for the like blessing and protection Then put you neuer so much confidence in your sonnes vertue our confidence shall bee in the defence of Christ whose cause wee defend and so wee doubt not but through Gods neuer failing goodnesse to his people all you confidence and daring promises of plentifull tryumphs will vanish into the ayre whereof they were ingendred It followeth The Church well hoped indeed that the minde of the most potent King who of a Catholique wife wished to beget heires that might rule his Countrey kingdomes being mollified by the sighes of his wiues ✚ pietie would permit the dowry of royall wedlocke to bee the libertie of faith but now the vowes and counsels of your enemies are feared and whereas the oxthodox Religion is crowned with a royall diadem in that most Excellent Queene yet there are not wanting those which dare threaten imprisonment and punishments to our sonnes Answer YOu meane the Church of Rome what may it not hope
betweene the Byshops of Rome and the Popes of Rome yea the Pope of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Byshops of Rome till Constantine the Great were all or most of them Martyrs all of them were of equall jurisdiction with other Patriarches onely preceding them in order of place not of power till Boniface the 3. vsurped his Supremacie over all Byshops with his Papall Motto Volumus Jubemus we will and command after this also all were subiect to the Emperour till Gregory the 7. None of them wore any such thing as a single Diadem till Syluester none the triple crowne till Boniface the 8. Yet now forsooth all Papall power and Pompe must be deriued from blessed Peter which alas good man he never had But to incist in the present purpose where or when or whence had blessed Peter any such Souerainety and authority over Kinges and their Kingdomes you haue pregnant proofes for it as Christ said to Peter Feede my sheepe that is saith your Bellarmine Regiâ— more Impera Raigne as Kings But Peter was of another minde as where he teacheth Byshops not to be as Lords ouer Gods heritage but as examples to the flocks And submit your selues to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme What saith your Holinesse to this we know you want not shiftes as here to accept and exempt Peter himselfe What can yee not say while yee can abuse the Scriptures themselues as you list Peters feeding of Christs flocks you can turne to Kingly raigne and convert Peters sheepehooke into a papall Scepter Christ bid Peter launch out into the deepe here say you the Pope hath power giuen him to fish all the world Thus yee neede never want Scripture to proue your Papall Paradoxes But what say you to Peters paying of Tribute to the Emperor for Christ and himselfe at Christs appointment Is not Tribute a token of subiection But from this very place your Bellarmine can learnedly proue Peters Supremacie over all But over Princes too Yes by the bye in directly at least in ordine ad spirituali yea the Pope Vrban himselfe no lesse learnedly then Papally interprets that place of the Tribute in the fishes mouth saying that by the piece of money in the fishes mouth is meant onely the exteriour things of the Church which she giueth to Kings to defend Her in peace but not the Pontificall Apex or Supremacie which is supereminent in the mouth of the head of the Church So the Pope Though Christ said Pay that for Me and Thee speaking expressely of their persons implying the subiection of Ecclesiasticall persons to Emperours and Kings And as the Glosse confesseth Tributum est signum subiectionis Tribute as a signe of subiection And yet more rather then faile Cardinall Baronius hath taken in hand to proue the Popâ—s Supremacie as well Papall as Sacerdocall from the very shadow of Peter Act. 5. 15. which shadow the Pope retaining in himselfe makes him a complete Lord Paramount Thus by hooke or by crooke you will haue it though all proue to bee but a shadow But will you nill you both Peters practise and Peters doctrine are flatte contrary to yours and crosseth all your Glosses nor haue you so much as a shadow for it Yet if your plea from Peter as his Successor will not hold water yee adde ad corroborandum titulum your plea from Christs Vicarship You say that is not all that fidelitie be kept vnto the King but that the sacred Scepter of the Catholike Church bee wrung from the Vicars of God Almightie That you here againe sleight our gracious King not vouchsafing him the title of King of England or your sonnes King wee maruell not we smell your secret reseruation either that he is no King that holds not his crowne of your holinesse or that the Kingdome of England in speciall is none otherwise to bee holden but as in King Iohns time in see of the Pope But great reason you should haue regard to your Catholike or rather your Romane Catholike Church For sure the Catholike Church of Christ neuer had any such sacred Septer as you speake of to which the disposall of Kings and Kingdomes is subiect But your Romane hath and therefore not Catholike Whence then haue you this sacred Septer by vertue of your Vicarship of God Almightie Doe not now equiuocate with vs or goe not about to found a new Vicarship yet this is not the first time you and your Predecessours of late dayes haue entituled your selues Gods Vicars As in that inscription or Dedication to Paul 5. whom by and by yee name Paulo V. Vice Deo to Paul V. vice God whereof the numerall letters as well in the Latine as in the English make vp the number of the beast 666. you were wont formerly to content your selues with the title of Christs Vicar but now must yee be the Vicars of God of God Almightie that from thence you may deriue an omnipotencie to your selues as it was added to that former inscription Paulo V. vice Deo totius orbis Christiani Monarchae Pontificiae omnipotentiae defensori acerrimo To Paul 5. vice God the Monarch of the whole Christian world and the most stout defender of the Papall omnipotencie No maruell then if you entitle your selues the Vicars of God Almightie rather then of Christ But you will say all comes to one reckoning sith Christ is God Almightie and therefore it is all one to be the Vicar of Christ of God almightie By your fauour no for although Christ be God almightie yet in this case of your pretended Vicarship it is one thing to say Christs Vicar another God Almighties Vicar Christs Vicar here on earth wee acknowledge none but his owne and the Fathers holy Spirit him Christ sent to supply his stead at his ascension This Spirit gouernes and directs his Church into all truth This is that other Comforter the spirit of truth By this spirit Christ is present with his Church to the end of the world But for any one visible and singular Vicar Christ hath appointed none the Church acknowledgeth none As for any Vicar generall visible of God almightie simply considered as God and gouernour and iudge of all here on earth wee acknowledge not any Onely all lawfull Magistrates as Kings and Princes are as so many Vicegerents of God almightie to gouerne and moderate their peculiar Dominions in for and according to God and his word these be Gods Lieutenants here on earth and therefore called Gods Now giue me leaue to tell you that the iurisdiction of God almighty here on earth is distinct from that of Christ Gods iurisdiction is also in things temporall Christs iurisdiction as Mediator is in things spirituall These two iurisdictions are not compatible not coincident or concurrent in their totall extent in any one man Onely the outward politie of the Church both as touching persons and causes
if his Master had conquered England in 88. the English should haue had the fauour to be transported to digge in his Indian Mines and by the way sâ—w you vp close in the old Romaine Culleus a leather sack the ancient reward of 〈◊〉 casting you into the Sea as vnworthy to touch any Element that would vnnaturally betray that sweet Country wherein you first receiued your Being and breath The Spaniard 〈◊〉 his lesson ad vnguem Amo proditionem odi Proditorem I loue the Treason but hate the Traytor Or say that necessity may inforce him for the present to allow you to breath still in England to be his Drudges and Vassals as it was with 〈◊〉 at the Captiuity in Babilon to till the ground for him to carry him in prouision for the warres in his conquest of the rest of Christendome and to feed his hungry pround Spaniards sucking the sweet of your swâ—â—t continually yet 〈◊〉 whither you will account this a condign recompense for such a foule treason yea consider also what yee haue now purchased in comparison of that which yee were before when yee liued like free English men euery man vnder his owne Vine and vnder his owne Figtree But why do I so much as suppose or imagine the least probabilitie of the comming to passe of any such prodigious 〈◊〉 God forbid I assure my selfe none of you will euer 〈◊〉 such vnnatural Miscreants to betray your natiue Country to the Spaniard neither if any would be so mad will our good God ever forsake this his inheritance wherein he hath so many thousands of his faithfull and vowed seruants who haue not bowed the knee to Bâ—â—l or kissed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And you cannot but know so much as little acquaintance as is allowed 〈◊〉 to haue with the Scriptures that so long as but one 〈◊〉 was in wicked Sodome euen the power of the Omnipotent himselfe was suspended from taking reuenge vpon it till Lot was safely provided fir and if but one righteous had beene found in the Citie God had spared it for their sakes Therefore neuer let any Romish or Spanish hopes feed themselues with such a vaine conceit of Englands Conquest vnlesse the conniuence at your innumerable 〈◊〉 Idols may indanger 〈…〉 place your chiefe confidence 〈…〉 more zealous then wise and 〈…〉 alleadge the Catholicke cause and the libertie of conscience as preponderating all other mischiefes the freedome of Religion and of the soule being to be preferred before the thraldome of the body yea and the betraying of your earthly Country not to be forborne for the meriting of an heauenly this indeed may seeme a waighty point and therefore not vnworthy altogether in this place of our deepest considerations for the discussing of such a difficulty To begin then at the head-spring of this our discourse it is no newes vnto you that the Pope of late hath sent his Bull or Brieue into England recommended to all his Catholicke sonnes of England wherein he chargeth you by no meanes to take the Oath of Allegeance or fidelity to your King but rather that you should account him for your Enemy the summe is that you should bee armed with the spirit of rebellion against your King and Country when occasion of the Catholicks cause should serue to show your valour in the open field as ye may all more plainely see in this briefâ— vnfolding of the Brieue How to charge subiects to disauow their fidelity to their Prince by what authority who hath such power ouer men to dispense to dissolue to absolue from the bonds of duty and obedience which naturall subiects owe to their King By what lawe or example God in his word hath taught the contrary But Christ Vicar hath this power but Christ practised the contrary But the Apostolicke successour of Peter may doe it but Peter Paul both preached practised the contrary so all the Patriarckes and Prophets Yet Christs Vicar Peters successor are titles not lightly to be regarded to which is added also Head of the Church Oracle of the world to whom is committed all power in heauen and earth who cannot erre to whom all must be subiect vnder paine of damnation and much more then I can tell Huge titles enough to intoxicate and infatuate silly and simple soules yea and to dazzle the eyes euen of the acutest wits with their glorious luster where they are attended or entertained but with credulity But if there be any truth at all in these things concerning the Pope whence in the name of God hath he these titles From what ground of truth He dare plead from Scripture From Scripture Hold you there we desire no better euidence or vmpire in this cause you will graunt then that the Scripture is of authority in it selfe to challenge our faith to rest vpon it as a most sure rule Yes but with condition as you are taught if it haue authority from the Church From what Church What Church Of Rome From whose mouth who must pronounce the verdict The Pope forsooth if so then the Popes power is not built primarily vpon the Scriptures but vpon himselfe and so he is Iudge in his owne cause The Pope belike lendeth authority to the Scriptures and they againe repay him with his owne minted coyne by confirming his supremacy This is pretty Iust as Boniface confirmed Phocas in his vsurped Empire and Phocas reciprocally settled him in his Papall supremacy Or as the Pope makes Saints who by that meanes receiuing a power and merit are by their Canonization qualified to become intercessors for their Canonizer his Holinesse What a coniuration-circle is here but pitch we vpon the center If the Pope giue the authority to the Scriptures prescribing and limiting them their sence whence then hath the Pope this authority From Christ as his Vicar How proues he that From Scripture But what authority hath the Scripture for this till first it receiue it from the Popes brest Come come let such popish jugglings impose vpon fooles and such turn-sicke windings cause the braines of young children to runne round and to conceit that the whole earth runnes round when it standeth still vnmoued But let men be guided by reason vnderstanding iudgement He that denyeth principles is to be detested not disputed with It is a Principle in Divinity that the Scripture is and euer hath beene the rule of Faith Yes say your Pontificians a Partiall rule but not Totall the vnwritten word is to be added What is that Apostolicke traditions Apostolicke That sounds well Well let not Apostolicke Traditions crosse Apostolicke writings and haue with you But otherwise looke not that your penny of Traditions should passe for current siluer with vs for waight and purenesse as the Scriptures in point of rule of Faith for all the Pope stampeth them with the Image and Superscription of Apostolicke Abrahams wells are now digged so deepe so large as not all your Philistian rubbidge can stop them vp not Apostolicke not all Romes holy