the succesful execution thereof is received at Rome with joy and triumph as the Murtherers in the Parisian Massacre were highly extolled by the Pope and rewarded with such spiritual Graces as his Holiness useth to bestow SECT V. That wheresoever it finds Encouragement it is restless till it bears down all before it or hath put all in disorder MAy we judg by these things how a Party devoted to the See of Rome are to be trusted and cherished in a Protestant Nation who mind the securing of themselves and their posterity from the sharpest Persecutions especially considering the Third Branch of the Charge That in any State where they find advantage or fit matter to work upon they are restless till they bear down all or put all in disorder Popery hath its formed Combinations and seâ—led Correspondencies over all Christendom under the Supreme Direction and Government of the Congregation at Rome for the propagation of the Faith which sent over swarms of Seminary Priests Jesuits and Fryars of all sorts who made their Hives in England The several PARLIAMENTS of the later times of King James represented to the King how the Popish Recusants had dangerously increased their Numbers and Insolencies having great expectation from the Treaties with Spain and the interposing of Foreign Princes for Indulgence to them how they openly and usually resorted to the Churches and Chappels of Foreign Ambassadors their more then usual concourse to the City and their frequent Conventicles and Conferences there how their children were educated in many Foreign Seminaries appropriated to the English Fugitives what swarms of Priests and Jesuits came into the Land many Popish and Seditious Books licentiously printed and dispersed From which Causes as from bitter Roots most dangerous Effects both to Church and State would follow For the Popish Religion is incompatible with ours it draws with it an unavoidable dependance upon Foreign Princes it opens a wide gap for popularity in any who shall draw too great a party it hath a restless spirit and will strive by these gradations If it once get connivance it will press for Toleration if that should be obtained it must have an Equality from thence it will aspire to a Superiority and never rest till it hath wrought the subversion of true Religion In the several PARLIAMENTS of King Charles the First not one Publick Grievance was more insisted on then the Growth of POPERY In the Third PARLIAMENT of that King at a Conference between the Lords and Commons about Popish Recusants one of the Principal Secretaries of State spake thus Give me leave to tell you what I know That These now both vaunt at home and write to their Friends abroad they hope all will be well and doubt not to prevail and win ground upon us And a little to awaken the Care and Zeal of our Learned and Grave Fathers it is fit that they take notice of that Hierarchy which is already Established in competition with their Lordships For they have already a Bishop consecrated by the Pope This Bishop hath his subalternate Officers of all kinds as Vicars General Arch-Deacons Rural Deans Apparitors and such like neither are these nominal and titular Officers alone but they all execute their Jurisdiction and make their ordinary Visitation throughout the Kingdom keep Courts and determine Ecclesiastical Causes and which is an argument of more consequence they keep ordinary intelligence by their Agents at Rome and hold correspondencies with the Nuncio's and Cardinals both at Bruxels and in France Neither are the Seculars alone grown to this height but the Regulars are more active and dangerous and have taken deep root They have already planted their Societies and Colledges of both Sexes They have setled Revenues Houses Libraries Vestments and all other necessary provisions to travel or stay at home nay even at this time they intend to hold a concurrent Assembly with this Parliament In Ireland a Popish Clergy far more numerous then the Protestant was in full exercise of all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Arch-Bishops Bishops Vicars General Officiats and a Vicar Apostolical And they had a special Cardinal at Rome for their Protector Among other Projects a Consultation and Overture of reconciling England and Rome was set on foot Some of Eminency in the Church of England gave advantage to the Project by declaring That only the Puritans among the Protestants and the Jesuits among the Papists obstructed the Peace of Christendom Some prime Agent of the Pope made a solemn offer of a Cardinalship to Bishop Laud at the time of his translation to the See of Canterbury Sancta Clara presumed to dedicate his Book to the King wherein the Articles of the Church of England were examined by the Roman Standard and distorted to the sense of the Council of Trent The Pope had Three Nuncio's Panzani Con and Roseti successively residing in England to work upon this State by advantage of the Project of Reconciliation This Faction had many Irons in the Fire and many strings to their Bow They had their Agents in Court City and Country They had their Spyes in the Houses of great men and such as kept continual watch over them that had the chief sway of Publick Affairs Their work was to raise and foster Jealousies between the King and His People to cast things into the hurry of Faction Prejudice and confused Motion And whether the Court or Popular Faction prevailed they thought it equally advantagious to their Designs which was to unsettle the present State and work Mutations Such Incendiaries are the Factors of Rome and such busie Engineers in the Confusions of Christendom Can any that considers the foregoing passages doubt of the powerful and special Agency of the Court of Rome in the Commotions that followed A Venetian Agent in England intimate with Nuncio Panzani and privy to all his Negotiations made this Observation If one may make judgment of things future by things past this Realm so divided into many Factions in matter of Religion and that of the Catholick increasing daily will in time be troubled and torn with Civil Warrs SECT VI. The PAPISTS pretension of Loyalty and Merit in the King's Cause Examined THE great Plea and boasting of the Romanists is Their pretension of Merit in the King's Cause The truth is the Papists knew that the PARLIAMENT was fully bent and deeply engaged against them and therefore despaired of any good to themselves by a direct and open compliance with them whatever undiscerned influence they might have on their Counsels So that Necessity made them to serve the King in that Warr. And they brought neither Success nor Reputation to His Majesties Affairs nor did He care to own their Assistance more then as justified by the present necessity And they have little reason to upbraid the Protestants with the scandal of that Warr for whatsoever was alledged in defence thereof by the PARLIAMENT and their Adherents as much hath been written by very Eminent School-men and Doctors
the PARLIAMENT judged the Matter worthy of their Search and appointed a Committee to receive Informations This Party hath high pretensions of Merit towards the King and all that are called Royallists and they seek apparently more then Indulgence and Safety even High Power and Trust as if they were the true and sure Confidents of this State Such Claims as these challenge a serious Debate For a Charge of a high nature as themselves have taken notice hath been of a long time prosecuted against Popery viz. That it disposeth Subjects to Rebellion That it persecutes all other Religions within its reach That wheresoever it finds incouragement it is restless till it bear down all or hath put all in Disorder Till they make a better Defence then the world hath yet seen we take the just liberty of insisting upon this Charge and examining first How benign or safe the influence of Popery is upon any State or Kingdom whatsoever and then how it doth comport with the State of England whose Basis is the Protestant Religion setled by Law and by length of time generally spred and deeply rooted in the Nation and solemnly and constantly avowed by Prince and People SECT III. That POPERY disposeth Subjects to Rebellion VVHat hath been the constant practice of the Popes who are the Head of the Roman Faith the Universal consent of History bears record What continual thundering of Excommunications hath sounded throughout the Christian world in all Ages since the beginning of the Papal Reign against Kings Emperors and other Princes and States that presumed to dispute their Dictates or cross their Designs to the loosing of Subjects from the Bonds of Allegiance and the deposing of Soveraigns What unexampled Abasements hath the Imperial Majesty suffered in the Persons of sundry Emperors by prodigious instances of Papal Pride which though enough to stir up the indignation of mankind are applauded by famous Writers Champions of the Court of Rome The Popes Temporal Dominions began and grew up in Rebellion and Usurpation for which cause they have nourished Factions and filled the world with Warrs and Tumults and maintained most outragious and tedious Conflicts with many Emperors even till they had crippled and broke the back of the Empire it self And these practices are justified by their Decretals and Canons and Divines of greatest Authority and some of their Councils ascribing to the Pope a Power of Deposing Princes that are Heretical or favourers of Hereticks The Jesuits Doctrine of KING-KILLING hath made them odious and if some passages can be alledged out of their Writings against taking away the Lives of Princes their declared meaning is That a King deposed by the Pope becomes Tirannus titulo and is no more a Lawful King and then what follows is easily understood Those of the Church of Rome that disavow these things should mind their contradiction to the Faith they own in leaving their Popes Divines and Canonists in a point of such importance But how potent the influence of the Court of Rome and the Agency of the Jesuits is for the diffusing of those Principles into the most and chiefest of the Roman-Catholicks is not unknown If the undisturbed Government of the Emperor and of the King of Spain in later times be brought forth as an instance of the Loyalty of Popish Subjects or an argument of the soundness of Popish Principles it must be considered That the House of Austria have made their devotion to the See of Rome their grand and appropriate Interest and that See hath a main dependance on those Princes and both it and they have the same active Votaries throughout Christendom the Jesuits and their Adherents As for the Kingdom of France the State of Venice and others acknowledging the Popes Headship they have had enough to do and they would have more if either themselves were weak and less formidable to the Pope or the Popes lightning and thunder were now as dreadful as in former Ages Even in Popish Countreys the abuses of Papal Power and the Intrigues and Interests of the Court of Rome are a little better discerned therefore those Princes and States can make the better terms for themselves yet if either the former degree of ignorance and stupid devotion to that See shall return upon their people or the like occasions of embroiling or breaking States shall revive they must accept the Popes conditions and submit to the former yoke But if the Princes of that Profession can in this our more knowing Age with much ado hold their Subjects in obedience against the Acts of Rome yet the question concerning England remains intire Whether a Protestant Prince can with good reason confide or repose himself in the Loyalty of his Popish Subjects and more especially Whether the fore-mentioned Popish Claims do in any wise comport with the State of England whose Basis is the Protestant Religion No other Religion gives the Priests such an Empire over the Conscience as the Popish doth The Principles of that Belief and the Order and Frame of that Church are directed to this end and the people are miserably inthralled to the will of their Clergy By Auricular Confession the Priests have a constant inlet into the hearts of men by injoyning Penances and works of Devotion they exercise a spiritual Dominion over them Hereby they have dayly opportunity and advantage enough to excite them to any notable Exploits for the Catholick Cause unto which kind of services they fix an Opinion of the highest Merit either for discharge from the pains of Purgatory or for the acquest of a greater Reward in Glory Yea dissolute persons may be easily drawn to such Attempts in hope of making compensation for a loose and lewd life and when they suffer for Sedition or Treason they are held to acquire the glory of Martyrs and Confessors Add hereunto their Belluine hatred of Hereticks and vile esteem of their persons And in all this their Church's supposed Infallibility warrants this blind obedience and brutish confidence And to make void all the security that can be given between Prince and people the Pope under pretence of Equity and Necessity undertakes to dispence with Oaths and with all Laws both Civil and Divine Besides all this there is the Jesuits peculiar Discipline most exquisite for blind obedience and resolution and consequently for any great and strange Attempts Things past may afford prognosticks of thing to come May Englands constant Experience be taken for Evidence in the case The Reign of Queen Elizabeth after the Protestant Reformation had gotten the stated possession of this Kingdom was infested with a continued succession and series of Treasons for the re-introducing of Popery carried on by the English Papists with an indefatigable and implacable Spirit proceedings from Causes peculiar to that Religion During the first ten years they conformed to the Church of England but afterwards to testifie their union with the Pope they became a divided party in this State For them the Queen
preaching only the indubitable truths of Christianity would undermine it If any should preach what is Schismatical and Seditious they are liable to Restraints and Censures according to their demerits Why will the established Clergy refuse their Brethren and set them at such a distance Is it their honour strength or safety that such men should be numbred among their opposites The intrinsick and permanent State of Prelacy is not advanced by these present Rigors It is not more rooted in the hearts of people nor are many gained over that would stick close to it in a time of tryal The dread that is of its Censures ariseth from the subsequent temporal Penalties And however it be its Chariot drives but heavily It cannot measure its strength by the number of Conformists among whom there are many that are a reproach unto it and many that are very indifferent men and there are the Latitudinarians that are accounted but luke-warm Conformists and many that submit may not like the imposing and men may think divers Injunctions that are not simply unlawful to be burdensome and inconvenient and would be glad to shake off the yoke A great Prelate before the late Warrs is reported to say That the Conforming Puritan was the Devil of the Times And of those that zealously affect the established Order there are not a few that disgust the behaviour of Church-men and are ready to upbraid them with the known moderation of many whom they have ejected yea the more considerate Sons of the Church do observe and bewail such dangerous miscarriages by Simony Pluralities Non-residency and Profaneness as threaten a second downfall The world takes notice what men are cast out and what is the condition of multitudes that are retained in the Service of the Church There are a sort of men of great Worth and Reputation in the several Orders of this Kingdom that indeed affect Episcopacy but see the inconvenience and danger of this Severity and would have things carried with Discretion and Equity and are ready to do good offices for the depressed Party If the Affairs of the Commonwealth should go backwards can the Clergy alone be at rest in their Honour Power and Wealth Though of later times it hath been said No Bishop no King yet it is not evident That the present frame of Prelacy hath an immutable Interest in the Regal Name and Power The Religion of any State will sink if it be not held up in its venerable Estimation among the people and it cannot be long held in reverence if it hath neither the reality nor appearance of Devotion and Sanctity That which is divested of the Disguises and Impostures of Romish Superstition had need to be spirited with Life and Power Minds touch'd with Devotion will look either to the way of true and real Godliness or to the Popish Bodily Exercise It is here sincerely wish't That the Clergy may hold their state in safety and honour That they may never be laid low for want of meet Revenue or Dignity That they may always preserve a reverend esteem of their Persons and Office But then the Bishops must not be the Head of such Ministers as for ignorance and lewdness are a scandal and scorn to their Neighbours nor of such as incourage profaneness and deprave seriousness and diligence in Religion and strictness of life under the scandal of Puritanism Fanaticism or such like names of reproach They must so manage their Government that under it the sound knowledg of God may encrease through the Land that holiness and righteousness may flourish that their influence may dispose men to do those things that are honest and pure and comely and vertuous and praise-worthy To this may be added the setling of the Church in a due extent that it may incompass so much as may enable it to vanquish whatsoever is inconsistent with it and to keep within compass whatsoever may be tollerated under it The great danger and damage which may be dreaded to ensue this moderation which nevertheless may possibly not ensue it is but the cutting off some Luxuriances from some in the Highest Order or the sharing among many what was ingrossed by a few And the Church doth not change for the worse if some diminution of greatness in a very few persons makes way for a more general amplitude stability and peace and the Clergy enjoy an Estate of Power Plenty and Honour with less envy and hazard of undermining SECT XXII Thirdly To the Interest of the Nobility and Gentry THere is another Interest that of the Nobility and Gentry which is worthy of regard in this Inquiry The Latitude and Liberty here discoursed is thought to give too great advantage to the Citizens and the Commonalty as also to make all sorts more knowing and less servile and consequently less obsequious to the wills of great men And the doubt is whether the Nobles and Gentlemen of England can maintain their Authority and Splendor with the Freedom of Citizens and the common people Surely in the times of their Ancestors they were in as much splendor and power as they have been in the memory of this Age and yet in those times both Citizens and Yeomanry were rich and free brave and worthy in their own rank And it may be the higher Degrees in England would never be so advanced as some have conceited if the meaner sort were reduced to the condition of the French Peasantry For there is another Spirit in the English People which peradventure may not be vanquished at less charges then dissipation of the strength and riches and all the glory of this Land Besides Trade which is the Life of England must be managed by a people not of a slavish and sordid condition And in a Trading Nation things do so pass to and fro and run from one hand to another that New Men by their Wealth will be always getting up into the rank of Gentlemen and former Gentile Families will be decaying There is a Liberty for every Native to purchase Lands and though some of our Tenures began in the Vassalage of meaner men to great ones yet they are now by custom of later Ages become so far free that they are fit for any ingenuous persons to take them up Moreover the English Gentry are Commons according to the main frame of this Polity and that great Convention where they meet in their chiefest Power is the Commons House of Parliament in which they represent the universality of the Commons of all Counties and Cities and Burroughs And therefore the free Estate of the Commons is the true Interest of Gentlemen And how groundless and fruitless is all evil emulation between the Gentry and Citizens or Traders For they mutually uphold each other or both must fall to the ground Many Gentile Families are the Off-spring of former Citizens and many Citizens are the sons of Gentlemen And when the Estates of ancient Gentry are sinking their Marriage with Citizens is an ordinary means of underpropping them And if Traders fail the Revenue of the Gentry must fail also whose Lands did never bear that Price nor yeeld that Annual Rent that of late they have done till the Nation became great in Foreign Trade If emulation of Gallantry be any matter of grudg between them the Citizens may leave the Gentry to their own Garbs and retain a grave habit to themselves in which they may sufficiently express their Wealth as their Predecessors did before them For it is generous so to do And as for the Nobility and Gentry their Honour lyes in upholding their Families and bearing sway in their Countries and they do the one by discreet and liberal Frugality and the other by having and using greater Abilities then the vulgar for their Countries Service SECT XXIII The general Security that comes by this Latitude THE chief Prejudices have been considered and these three Important Interests being known aright are found not to oppose but to require this Latitude of Religion Furthermore our common Security and Freedom earnestly perswades it For the Severities of Law against Dissenters may at length come home to them or theirs who take themselves to be far out of the reach thereof And the inforcing of those Penalties may need such ways and means as may trouble them who are tender of the Lawful Rights and Liberties of English-men But the Common Peace being once firmly setled in this Comprehensive state all Necessity of Powers and Proceedings extraordinary will disappear and vanish away Finally The more Pacifick we are at home the more Powerful and Formidable shall we be abroad But our Breaches are too well known and make little for our Reputation or Advantage in Foreign parts What can it avail to disturb a People that would settle in peace and whose Peace is accommodated to the Publick Weal and bound up together with it It must needs be fruitless and unfortunate and cause perplexities and miscarriages in the chiefest Affairs of State It is a saying of the wisest of Kings He that troubles his own House shall inherit the wind FINIS * In the Reign of Edward the sixth a formidab'e Rebellion was raised for recovery of the Mass. * Dr. Parry confessed that having promised at Rome to kill the Queen he was troubled in Conscience about it till he had read Dr. Allen's Book which taught That Princes excommunicate for Heresie were to be deprived of Kingdom and Life which Book he said did vehemently excite him to prosecute his Enterprise