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A29086 The victory of truth for the peace of the Church to the king of Great Britain to invite him to embrace the Roman-Catholick faith / by Monsieur de la Militiere, counsellour in ordinary to the King of France ; with an answer thereunto, written by the right reverend John Bramhall, D.D. and Lord Bishop of London-Derry. La Milletière, Théophile Brachet, sieur de, ca. 1596-1665.; Bramhall, John, 1594-1663. 1653 (1653) Wing B4097A; ESTC R34379 76,867 210

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their design than to act the Puritan that they might come to the execution of their desires which they have done at last by the Sacrilegious Paricide of their Archbishop and of their King This was Sir the grand work of mans malice and the Devils stratagem which caused the ils which are fallen upon your Crown and Person by the pitiful fate of that succession which ought to have befallen you But the Justice and Wisdome of God in this conjuncture hath other ends Every one knows that this Archbishop ●…ourished in the Schism from the Catholick Church had no other thought no●… inclination than to re-unite in one body the People divided into Sects among themselves as well as from the Church and to make himself Chief Head of this Schismatical Body And we see God hath permitted that his own People divided against it self hath caused his Head to be cut off The King otherwise accomplished in all royal and moral virtues did use in the Schism by the Law of his Predecessours the Authority which God had given him in temporal matters for governing of spiritual and called himself the Head It is for that reason that God chastizing in his person the fault of his Predecessours would let us know by the tragical spectacle of an unheard of Death in a King no less innocent than lawful that so strange an effect of his anger hath had no other cause than to instruct all other Princes that are in the Schism with what severity God will revenge his glory for their injuring the Unity and Authority of his Church But if such is the Effect of Divine Justice and Wisdome in the cause of your misfortune Sir his Mercy goes far before it and this is the effect that concerns you For God makes it here plainly appear unto your Majestie that the Reformation which the Authors of the Schism in this latter age have pretended to make hath been under the pretext of so good an outside no othe●… thing in effect than the entire ruine as well of the Faith and form of the Church as of the Order it self instituted by God for the governing of men This is the Lesson which God sets before your eyes in the historie of this sad Revolution which hath given you a wound the feeling whereof is to be your instruction You shall see Sir through all the circumstances of these tragical effects which have produced the trouble and changed the form of your Estates and which have ravished from you the Crown That the new Religion which your Predecessours embraced after the Schism is the onely efficient cause by the very maxims and foundations of the design which its Authors have called the Reformation of the Church Their new opinions did very easily sside themselves under this apparent colour through the clefts of the Schism into the spirit of the Bishops who made themselves culpable But neither they themselves that received this novelty nor the Kings that authorized them did think they should charge themselves with Uria's packet which would abolish both the authority of the Bis●…ops and the Sovereignty of Kings For men are alwaies blind in the works of Darkness which they do by the instinct of the Devil who goes disguizing himself into an Angel of Light that he may induce them for to commit them And their passions which do blind them do insensibly draw them into precipices of mis-haps whereof neither the extraordinary steepness nor depth is by them discerned Certainly whosoever should have demanded of Peter Martyr himself and Martin Bucer who carried Calvin's Reformation into England if they went to bring in the Brownists opinions who by maxims receiv'd from their hands did a little after think upon a more exact purity by the motions which they suppose the Holy Ghost suggests unto them from whence it is that they esteem themselves more Reformed Puritans Whosoever likewise should have enquired of them if they came to tell them they might be of what Religion they pleas'd and for the extinction of all Ecclesiastical Discipline of all rule and form of a common Faith according to the opinion of the Independents Whosoever should at last have ask'd them whether the Sword of the Word they carried in their mouths was to cut off their King's and Bishop's heads that they might give a Form altogether new as well to the Kingdom as to the Church what would they have answered They would have sworn without doubt with their hands upon the new Gospel they carried about them that their intentions were further distant from these thoughts than the Earth is from Hell And nevertheless this thing is no waies to be doubted of and altogether apparent at present that ●…alvin Martyr Bucer and the Bishops which admitted their Reformation and the Kings which authorized it have brought in by the maxims of their Foundations not onely Protestants but also Brownists and Independents The Bishops that receiv'd this Reformation saw not that of it would be bred the Sect of the Presbyterians Enemies to the Hierarchy of the Church and all the Order of its institutions as well for the Service as for the Government and would ruine their Authority that they might abolish Royalty it self But neither did Calvin Martyr nor Bucer know that from the maxims of their Reformation would spring up the Brownists and Indep●…ndents who would ruine their Reformation by introducing an indifference concerning all opinion in Religion This is that Sir which the historie of things hapned in the progress of this Reformation the knowledge whereof your Majestie at this present carries engraven in your heart by too bitter feelings represents unto your eyes to the end all the world may see the nature and Genius by the effects of its maxims I will represent them Sir to the eyes of your Majestie and by a demonstration so lively and evident that no reason can contradict it You shall see that the pain you suffer and under which your Estate groans is the true effect as the very punishment of the sins your Fathers committed and trans●…itted unto you then when under the pretext of this blind Reformation they abandoned the Faith of the Church and her Communion For it is after thi●… m●…nner the just vengeance of God punishet●… sin by it self and that its own proper work becomes the punishment it deserves This Religion for which the Bishops the Kings and the People have forsook the Church hath destroyed the Bishops and the Kings and reduced the People to live without Bishops without Kings without a Form of Government and without Discipline in Religion under the Tyrannie of a Monster who without being either King or Bishop attributes to himself all Authority both in State and in Religion This which I declare unto your Majestie Sir is to make you understand that this terrible work of the hand of God which afflicts you after this manner is nevertheless a judgement of his mercy for you For you may see he sends you not this trouble
beginning to make the Authors of this Reformation agree that the Church remained pure in Faith during the time of the four first general Councils they have afforded us a way by this to disabuse the People they do abuse when they accuse the Church at this day of Errour in the heads of her Faith which they have rejected For they can no longer avoyd falling into a manifest contradiction of the sense which they impute to the antient Fathers in points of Faith which are in controversy between us They cannot brand the Church at this day for having a different opinion in Faith from the Antient Church without cutting their throats with their own proper contradictions upon the opinion they attribute to the Fa●…hers So that there is nothing more to do for the informing the People separated from the Church of the truth and obliging them to enter again into her than to make them understand the cheat wherewith they have been surprized under the name of Reformation by convincing in their presence their Ministers of an evident contradiction of themselves by the consequences of the Fundamental Maxims of their Reformation From whence results the indubitable Demonstration which proceeds from the spirit of lying and errour If it please your Majestie Sir to imploy this way for your instruction and the satisfaction of your Conscience that your Conversion and return to t●… Church may both open the hearts and the way for all the rest to follow your example You cannot do it mor●… solemnly or commodiously than in th●… place wherein you are at the present We have in this place five Ministers of the Communion separated from the Catholick Church who have gotten themselves as much credit and authority through the esteem of their sufficiency and reputation of their zeal as any that are in their whole body Your Majestie Sir may easily obtain of the King your good Brother and Friend that they be called by his Authority to come with all those of their Communion wherewith they would be assisted and appear in presence of Monsieur the Archbishop of Paris and Monsieur his Coadjutor and the Catholick Doctors which he shall please to bring with him And there Sir you Majestie being present to speak and answer with all security and liberty that which their spirit and conscience doth suggest to them upon the evident contradictions of the principles and consequences of their Reformation that in all their different Sects which have for saken the Church under this pretext there is neither Church nor Faith And that upon the Points of Faith where they have accused the Church of Errour and have taken the opportunity to separate themselves from her they are likewise separated from the Communion of the Church of all Ages So that they cannot any waies accuse us of diversity of opinion with the Antient Church but that they again fall into an evident contradiction of themselves as well as of the Antient Fathers and of us These Ministers Sir will deny neither the desire of your Majestie nor the Commandment of the King your good Brother to render the duty both to their charge and to their conscience unless they 'll wirness by their denial the open forsaking which they make o●… their cause and the condemnation which they themselves pronounce in their hearts But they 'll love rather as I think ingenuously to present themselves to yield to the truth which they cannot contradict than to incurr the blame of being acknowledged formal enemies of the peace and re-union of the Church through the perversness of an obstinate Faith I know not what to think that they should rather love to fling themselves headlong with their people into the confusion and disorder of Independency and indifference of all opinion in Religion than to avouch the errour and blindness of those who were the first Egressors from the Church by these Maxims which have cast by their consequenc s their Followers into this abyss of irreligion whereinto we see them at this present fallen And when the Ministers would let themselves be carried away to so unlucky a thought I do no waies believe that in France the People would follow them and adhere to their opinions This is wherefore Sir I dare hope that the Ministers which are in Paris being obliged by the desire of your Majestie and the will of their Sovereign to submit to this Law which their own Conscience imposes on them for the satisfaction of their own People for the People will have no less affection and will be no less desirous to see the success of the appearance of their Ministers and the answer they shall make will yield to it and will rather choose to walk in the way of honour and a good conscience than basely to appear desertors at one and the same time both of their Cause and good Faith Whatsoever comes to pass Sir and whatsoever they do whether they follow the motion of the Spirit of Peace and Truth or whether the Spirit of Pride suggest unto them to avoyd and fly both the one and the other you●… Majestie shall alwaies have all full satisfaction for departing from the errour which you shall see forsaken or condemned by its own Ministers and entring into the Church which is the Pillar of Truth and Rock of Ages against which you see all the sail of different Sects running at every wind of Doctrine through the deceit of them that conduct them to break and shipwrack ●…hemselves And then when your Majestie shall be entred into the Church after this manner and when all the world shall see that the desire to glorifie God by the searching for the Truth by the repose of your Conscience and by the love of your Salvation shall have been your whole motive You need not doubt Sir but your example will make the like impression in all the souls that are touched with the fear of God You need not doubt Sir for so much as God hath elevated your Majestie in birth and eminent dignity above the rest ●…hat are in the Communion wherein ●…ou have lived They all seeing these ●…ircumstances of your change and en●…rance into the Sanctuary of the Church ●…pon the wings of the victory of Truth ●…hich carries you thither alone will ●…e stirred up to give glory to God for ●…he same causes for which you shall be ●…endred to him It concerns you then Sir to make ●…our entrance by this means and that ●…ou serve your self of this way to ad●…ress your self thither to the end your ●…onversion and return to the Church ●…ring to her with you by the solemn ●…onviction of the errour which hath ●…ismembred her not onely those which ●…he division of your Fathers hath torn ●…rom her but also all the rest which ●…he same cause hath separated For by ●…he power which Truth hath upon the Conscience of men when it is apparent here is no doubt but it will come to ●…ass after this manner When the People shall
THE VICTORY OF TRUTH FOR The Peace of the CHURCH To the King of GREAT BRITAIN To invite him to embrace the Roman-Catholick Faith By Monsieur De la Militiere Counsellour in Ordinary to the King of France With an Answer thereunto Written by the Right Reverend John Bramhall D. D. and Lord Bishop of London-Derry Printed at the Hague 1653. To the King of Great Britain to invite his Majestie to embrace the Catholick Faith SIR THE Wisedome of Gods Counsels is far above the prudence of men who are altogether void of the knowledge of his grace One sort who know neither God nor his providence look upon all the events of humane life as if they happened by chance They imagine that that which we call good luck or ill luck hath no other cause than hazard and that which every mans prudence or imprudence brings to the conduct of his life Others who acknowledge a Divine providence but onely after the manner that God hath manifested it to the world by the instructions and judgements of his Law think that all the goods which heap prosperities upon them are the effects and testimonies of the favour where with God cherisheth those that are his And that the Ils that oppress mans life with miseries are arguments of the anger and hatred of God upon those he handles after that manner But Christians to whom God hath revealed by the Gospel the counsel of his mercy in Jesus Christ know that in his Cross on which for satisfying the Justice of of the Law he hath bore the pain of our sinnes he hath changed for those he calls to his Communion the use of Afflictions And that he imployes them first to humble them and acknowledge their sin that they may desire deliverance to the end they may come by this way to the Faith of his grace which doth deliver them And when they are entred into Communion with him by faith and that the exercise of the same afflictions accomplisheth in them the work of his grace in giving them by his consolation in their patience the hope of the glorious happiness which he hath promis'd them and which carries over all their affections to the loving of him Those therefore that have this faith and this hope are of a judgement far differing from the opinion of men of the world upon the event of Goods and Evils which accompany mans life Considering Sir the present fortune of your serene Majestie far removed from the Majestick condition of your Birth I humble my self with you in the sight of the powerful hand of God who is the onely Judge and onely Master of Monarchs to ascend by the steps whereto the Gospel addresses us even into the counsel of his infinite mercy And I find there that the disaster of this great calamity which environs you is a work of the wisdome of the King of Kings who will shew in you whom he hath honoured with his Unction and his Image an admirable effect of his grace and of his power I say Sir that under the Cloak of so many sad adventures which try you by revolutions so strange that all the Universe doth tremble the King of Heaven and of the Earth who hath humbled himself for you infinitely more low than you are draweth himself near unto you He comes to take you by the hand not onely to re●…stablish you in your Throne but to make you sit in his that you may reign with him eternally after you have imployed the Scepter which he shall put again into your hand to re-establish his Kingdome among your people It is very easy for me Sir to give you a reason of this judgement I make of tha●… of God upon your sacred Person and to explicate unto you not onely the causes and effects of the ill which is come upon you but also the way the use and the success of the remedy which the hand of God will give you to accomplish in you this work of his mercy If we seek the Cause for which we behold that the hand of God hath made it self so grievously heavy upon the sacred head of the King your Father and which pursues yet after him your Royal Person with so many sinister accidents which hath caused this great desolation to come upon all your Kingdomes this confusion and this subversion of their peace and former prosperity this change into which they are so blindly precipitated to part with the form of Government that God had established amongst them under which they had lived so happily for so many Ages past to become slaves of the yoke which the armed hand of a Tyrant hath put upon their head under the false name of Liberty it will be very easy for us to find the Cause and to acknowledge it by the Effects You are not ignorant Sir and all the world knows it with you that the subject for which this Paricidal Parliament hath so cruelly persecuted the King your Father hath been the Ecclesiastical Government of which they desired to change the form by abolishing Episcopacy and suppressing the Liturgie and the Ceremonies by which the Protestants of your Kingdome had yet retained some image of the Catholick Church Those which they call Puritans and Presbyterians who would live under the form of the Genevian Discipline could not endure the form of that Antient Order which the Royal Authority had retained as instituted by Divine Authority and for this very thing necessary for its conformity to preserve in Christian Estates the form of a Monarchical Government From thence it is come that the Puritan and Presbyterian Faction hath conceiv'd and alwaies kept in its breast an implacable hatred against Monarchical Government by reason of their aversion from the Episcopal That which the prudence of King James your Majesties Grandfather Sir having judiciously taken notice of did as wisely inform his posterity by an express Book to take heed of it And this King knowing Church as well as State matters foreseeing the inconvenience that might arise expressing from his mouth that which touched him at the heart had this familiar speech No Bishop no King which is become a lamentable Prophesie under his Successour But O good God! what Successour Such an one certainly that had neither cause nor pretext capable to stir up the hatred of Subjects against a King so merciful so just and so loyal so amiable to his People so venerable to his Neighbours that upon this onely prejudication wherein the Puritan Faction had instructed them in making them believe that under that Form of Government and Antient Service the King and the Bishops had an intention to re-establish in the Realm the Catholick Religion This is the poyson which the Puritan Faction hath blown into the hearts of the People to fill them with hatred against a King so love-worthy And this Republican Parliament endeavouring to erect it self in a Sovereign Authority by annihilating that of the King hath not thought any occasion more favourable to