Year 1484. the King of Spain admitted it into his Dominions yet so cautionate and jealous was he as he reserved himself to be Lord paramount thereof of choosing the Inquisitor General whom the Pope confirms And for the rest the Court of Rome was not admitted to intermeddle any farther so that though the King seemed willing to gratifie the See Apostolick yet did he reserve his Supremacy of Power over all Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical to himself and so doth the State of Venice by their Coadjutors and Inspectors of the Tribunals Inquisitory In which Republick the Inquisition doth not depend on the Court of Rome but properly belongs to the Republick Independent set up and constituted by the same and established by contract and agreement with Pope Nicholas the fourth prout in his Bull of 28. Aug. 1289. wherein is inserted the very determination of the greater Council made the fourth of the same Month. And therefore as they ought are to be governed by their own Customs and Ordinances without being obliged to receive Orders from the Pope And indeed before the admittance of the Inquisition there was in effect the same Office though meerly Secular to which Noble-men were raised to enquire after Hereticks and this the Republick made good afterwards against the See-Apostolick in the Years 1289. 1301. 1605. 1606. and 1607. upon Disputes maintaining their Civil Authority in Ecclesiasticis to be their undoubted Right and cannot be taken away by any Bull or Decree made in any manner by any Pope to whom soever Hist. Inquisit § By all which it appears that neither Monarchs nor Free States would be juggled out of their just Right of Commanding over Persons and Causes Ecclesiastical and that those Condescentions of the Civil Magistrates were only to gratifie some Popes out of special favour to them and not for any just Right the Popes had unto them For let Pope or Presbyter pretend what they please to the contrary they do as much as in them lies endeavour to erect Regnum in Regno by giving Temporal Monarchy only an imperfect broken Right in some things but controlable and defeasible by the Spiritual Monarchy in other things And the World hath had a long and sad experience of this whilst Kings had the Popes and Presbiters their Superiors in any thing they remained Supream in nothing whilst their Rule in Popish Countries was by Division diminished in some things they found it insufficient in all things so that they did command joyntly with the Pope but were commanded wholly unless by force they extricated themselves out of their snares So Calvin and his Followers complain and grumble much at the Power that the Civil Magistrate assumes in England France and Germany over Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical holding Princes incompetent for Spiritual Regency accounting the intermedling of Princes therein as an Abolition or Prophanation of the same § But let us not doubt to submit all things under one Supream on Earth submitting and recommending him by our Prayers unto his Supream in Heaven for it is no small thing in such a Case to be left to the searching Judgment of God nor need we doubt or hold our selves utterly remediless whilst we can truly say Omne sub Regno graviore Regnum est And let us not mistake our Supream on Earth for if God had intended to have left us a Spiritual Sword or miraculous Judicatory never before known or useful to the World and that to be of perpetual necessity sans doubt he would have left us some clear command in Scripture and not have involved and mantled his meaning in Metaphors so intricate and ambiguous But to let pass this Theam of Excommunication so unpleasant to Popish and Presbyterian Ears let us examine the Magistrates Power as it relates to Religion in commanding Liturgies and concerning Toleration Compulsion and Government c. § All just Dominion and Empire is founded on true Religion and Piety i. e all Governours and Governments were ordained for the good of the Governed and they are obliged by the Law of God to govern according to Rules of Religion and Piety no Nation under Heaven having Statutes and Judgments so just and righteous as are prescribed by God himself and who act not according to them an Iliad of Curses will attend them and their Plagues shall be wonderful Deut. 28.58 It is Righteousness and Judgment that is the Establishment of Thrones A Kingdom is translated from one People to another for unrighteousness Eccles 10.8 And The King that faithfully judgeth the Poor his Throne shall be established for ever Prov. 29.14 If I am not much mistaken the necessity of a Liturgy and the warrantableness of establishing the use thereof is easily deducible nay doth naturally flow from the Charge and Right of Government which Kings have in the Government of the Church and granted unto them by their great Charter from Heaven their Command from God For Kings and all other just Governments being granted to be Custodes utriusque Tabulae it must necessarily follow that the Government of the Church is their Duty and consequently ought to be their chief Care And that they be so what need we other Proof or Argument than that through the whole Scripture Kings have been charged therewith and according to their countenancing or discountenancing Idolatry and other sins or abetting and supporting Gods true Religion or establishing or but conniving at Idolatry or other Impieties so they received from God by his Messengers the Prophets praise or dispraise reward or punishment accordingly and those of no less concern than the establishment or deprivations of their Kingdoms And it will as naturally follow that if the care of the Church be the Duty of Kings that then they both may and ought to set up and establish a publick Standard and Test within their Dominions to measure and try all Mens Religion by as to the outward profession thereof and outward conformity thereunto and to appoint and allow publick consecrated or to speak more inoffensively to all Parties seperated Places or Churches for publick Divine Worship and Service and administration of Gods Holy Sacraments and Ordinances to the frequenting of which they may make strict Laws or else how is it possible for the Magistrate to have cognisance of them and of their Religions and why else should the Magistrate be blamed for the Idolatry or other sins of his Subjects if he have no power to inspect take cognisance and to restrain from sinful practises nor yet to force unto the reading of the Law and the Prophets and the Gospel nor to the frequenting of Gods Holy Ordinances Now this Standard or Test I call a Liturgy without which or something equivalent how is it possible for Kings to give a good account to God of their Care and well-governing of the Church within their respective Dominions which Liturgy in general ought to contain so many Fundamentals of Christian Religion to the Belief of which if Christians joyn
for Supremacy over Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical and Civil but let them accompt it their most Supreme Service to attend on that Supremacy so shall more honour and sanctity pass from Pope and Presbyter to Kings and Emperors and more efficacy and vertue from Kings to Ministers more Grace and happiness from both to the People § Excommunication The main Argument used both by Pope and Presbyter to raise the Miter and Consistory above the Crown is drawn from the power of the Church in Excommunication which Sword Church men only claim and wherewith they think they may as freely strike Princes as Princes may strike them with their Temporal Sword of both which a word in general and also in particular as it relates to Princes Excommunication that great Popish and Presbyterian Thunderboult and Diana of their Discipline claimed to be their due Jure Divino and so highly exalted by them that it is not more monopolized nor advanced higher at Rome than it would be here by them within their Precincts if not curbed by the Civil Magistrate so apt it is to be tyrannically abused by Pope and Presbyter for experience tells us that if they might have their Will they would by virtue thereof put such a Spiritual Pad-lock upon the Temporal Sword and by their In ordine ad Spiritualia take such fast hold of it themselves that if they and Christian Princes should chance to differ they may be sure so long as their Doctrine concerning it will be believed to have the drawing of it themselves and leave poor Christian Princes to whom the Sword of Right more antient than Papacy or John Calvins Presbytery more properly belongs to defend themselves with the Scabbard for which several of them have paid dear witness amongst others those 17 Scotish Ministers who being convented before the Council of Scotland for holding a solemn Assembly at Aberdeen without the Kings leave 2. July 1605. utterly denied the Authority both of King and Council in that behalf affirming that in matters Ecclesiastical they neither ow nor ought to acknowledge themselves in any subjection either to the King or to his Council and that all spiritual differences should be tryed and determined by the Church meaning thereby themselves the Clergy for which cause and for denying the Kings Supremacy 6 of the chief of them were arraigned and condemned at Blackness in Scotland January 10. 1605. and how insolently some of the same Tribe vsed King James more than once he himself hath published in Print and their imperious exhorbitances may be read as in several other Books so in Presbytery Displayed printed 1644. and how they used King Charles the first I. M. hath demonstrated in his Tenure of Kings therein manifesting that they founded the Premises that enabled the Phanaticks to conclude that sanguinary and unparalled Catastrophe And that their good deeds also may be remembred we do recount them to have been very instrumental in the restoration of the Son which is some kind of expiation for their injuries done unto the Father Some and those of no small esteem in the Church are of opinion that the exercise of Excommunication was then only needful when no visible Church had any legal or civil remedy to preserve its unity or purge it self of gross Offenders or that the right or power of Excommunication which the Apostles and immediate Successors had did utterly expire when once whole Cities and Common-wealths became Christian and were enabled from the Supreme Civil Magistrate to punish Offenders and to enact coercive and penal Laws and other means necessary for the spreading and promulgating of the Gospel Sure I am that experience hath made it more than probable that after the Church and Common-wealths were so linked and interwoven together that every Member of the Common-wealth was enforced to become a Member of the Church and to be so admitted by the Church Governours the edge of this spiritual Sword was very much abated and the force of former spiritual Ordinances became stifled with the multitude of those persons against whom they were directed whether the defect be in the power it self or in such as have but to do not use it as they ought certain it is that this branch of discipline is not in our days so effectual as in former times it hath been The meer spiritual Power with which alone the Apostles and their Immediate Successors were endued was of greater efficacy than both the remainder of the like spiritual Power in Dermier Bishops and Pastors and all the strength of secular Civil Power wherewith Princes States or Kingdoms since the mutual incorporation of Common-wealths and Churches have as they were in conscience and Jure Divino bound assisted Prelates and Church Governours of this nature seems to be the Apostolical Rod. 1. Cor. 4.21 wherewith Paul threatneth the Corinthians whereby is meant as he explains himself 2. Cor. 13.10 ch 10.16 ch 13.2 To use sharpness to revenge all unrighteousness not to spare all which are expressions of a certain miraculous vertue of impossing punishment Thus Annanias and Saphira fell down dead 14. Acts 13. Elymas was smitten with blindness 1. Tim. 1.2 Himeneus Alexander and the Incestuous Corinthian were delivered to Sathan 1. Cor. 55. § To deliver to Sathan was plainly a point of miraculous Power which inflicted torment on the Body such as Saul in former times felt after his departure from God as Chrisostome and other Fathers interpret This is certain when the earthly powers used not their right of punishing God had given them to purge and defend the Church what was wanting in human aid God himself supplied by divine assistance After the Emperors took on them the Patronage of the Church whose office was to punish them that troubled the Church without or within the forenamed divine punishment expired And most properly that divine execution of revenge was the jurisdiction of God not of Men because the whole work was Gods not the Apostles God that he might give testimony to the truth of the Gospel preached as at the Apostles Prayers or presence or touch he healed diseases and cast out Divils so at their imprecation commanded men to be vexed with Diseases and seized by Divils Nor did Paul more by delivering men to Satan than did Peter and John by curing the lame man who say they did nothing by their own Power Acts 12. and ascribe the whole effect to God At the Prayers also of the Church did God often shew the like signs of his displeasure therefore are the Corinthians 1. Cor. 5.2 blamed that they mourned not to the end the Incestuous person might be taken away from among them And to the same effect is that wish not command of the Apostles to the Galatians 5.12 would they were cut off that trouble you This kind of Excommunication if it may be so called was a Corporal punishment and there is no appearance of any internal obduration by the binding power of Pope or Presbyter and
but with great and exquisite Judgment the which wanting Power only takes no effect The Canonists themselves say That the Power of Binding and Loosing is intended by a Key not erring and Pope Leo expresly affirmeth it in a Canon speaking of this Priviledge given by St. Peter Manet ergo Petri privilegium ubicunque ex ipsius fertur aequitate Judicium nec nimia est vel severitas vel remissio ubi nihil erit ligatum vel solutum nisi quod Beatus Petrus solverit aut ligaverit 24. q. 1. c. Manet § Of old the Holy Bishops did preach and teach Princes that they having two Callings the one of Christians the other of Princes were bound in both of them to serve God as Christians in observing the Divine Precepts as every other private Person but as Princes to serve God by ordaining just and good Laws and directing their Subjects to Piety Honesty and Justice by having his Eyes on the Faithful of the Land that they that excel in Vertue and Piety may dwell with him by not countenancing wicked Persons by erecting publick Places of Worship and as much as in them lyeth by chalking out a High-way of Holiness throughout their Dominions by their Good and Pious Example that way-faring Men though Fools might not erre therein by punishing all such as transgress Gods Commandments especially those of the Decalogue wherein those that sin against the first Table which more immediately concern the Divine Honour are worse than those that sin against the Second which concern Justice amongst Men Wherefore Kings are more bound to punish Blasphemies Heresies and Perjuries than Murders and Thefts For this cause were divers Laws made against such Crimes as are Registred in the Justinian and Theodosian Codes imposing on the guilty Pecuniary Mulcts Banishment Privation of Part or of all their Goods according to the Circumstances of the Offence the execution of which Laws are committed to their Secular Officers And accordingly this our Kingdom from its Original of being Christian hath been accustomed to sentence and punish in case of grievous offence any Person Ecclesiastical of what Degree or Order soever by which means it hath hitherto preserved the Ancient and Independent Liberty of its true Dominion and Empire § Every Criminal Judgment hath three parts 1. For Example Criminal Judgment hath three parts The Cognisance of the Cause 2. The Cognisance of the Fact 3. The Sentence 1. For Example In the Judgment of Heresie or the Cognisance of the Reason is whether such an Opinion be Heretical or no 2. The Cognisance of the Fact is whether the Person so accused or denounced hath defended or held the same 3. The Sentence consisteth either of Absolving or Condemning The first Cognisance what Opinion was Heretical was mostly Ecclesiastical but not absolutely exclusive of Secular Learned Men appointed by the Emperors And when there grew any difficulty of some Opinion the Emperor did require the Judgment of Bishops and if need were did call Councils For the Cognisance of the Fact whether the accused Person were Innocent or Guilty that he might have the punishment ordained by the Laws of the Emperor and the Sentence of Condemnation or Absolution did all belong to the Secular Power Thus were matters ordered for Causes of Heresie c. in the Church under the Roman Empire until about 800 Years after Christ when the Eastern Empire being divided from the Western this Form rested in the Eastern till the end of it In the Western the Princes needed not make any Laws nor take much care about this Business seeing for the space of 300 Years from 800 to 1100 there were very few Hereticks found in those Parts and when any Case did happen which chanced but very seldom the Bishop did judge of it in the same manner as he proceeded against Ecclesiastical Persons as against Infringers of Holy-days Breakers of Fasts and such like judging and punishing them themselves in those Places where they had Jurisdiction granted them by the Princes and where they had not the like Power they did implore the Secular Aid to punish them After the Year 1100. by reason of the continual differences which for about fifty Years before had been between the Emperors and Popes and lasted afterwards for a whole Age until about 1200 Years with frequent Jars and Wars and the wicked life of the then Clergy there did arise an infinite number of Hereticks as the Papists are pleased to call them whose most common Heresies were against the Popes Authority and where the Multitude of them exceeded there was a forced Toleration About this time of the day Pope Innocent the fourth subtilly designed by introducing the Inquisition Inquisition more Authoritatively to deprive the Civil Magistrates of their Rights over Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical to whose Judgment was committed the punishment of Heresie c. by the Ancient Laws of the Empire and by the Laws of Frederick the second and by particular Statutes which each City was forced to make for the preservation of their own indubitable and independent Right of Governing Ecclesiastical Causes and Persons according to their great Charter from Heaven But the Pope sinding great opposition from all Places he offered one Expedient which in shew made the Civil Magistrate the Inquisitors Companion but in Substance and Effect his Lacquey This Opposition grew so strong and was so universal that the Pope could not introduce his Tribunals Inquisitory except it were in the Provinces of Lombardy Romania and Marca Trevisana nor in them neither for all his Bulls and severe Edicts as he desired no nor yet as he did without great reluctancy and opposition from the Civil Magistrates though in those three Provinces his Authority was very great they having no Prince and each City governing it self and where the Pope also had a part because he had assisted them in their late Wars And although the said Frederick Anno 1244. set forth four Proclamations receiving the Fathers Inquisitors into his protection and imposing the Penalty of Fire the first Law that imposed death upon obstinate Hereticks for which kindness and assistance of his he was admirably well requited by the same Pope who first excommunicated and then deposed him and as Hier-Marius reports corrupted one to poison him which not taking effect corrupted another to strangle him so that Alexander the fourth his Successor Anno 1259. and Clement the fourth 1265. were constrained to moderate the Edicts of Innocent the fourth And four other succeeding Popes employed themselves in overcoming the difficulties which thwarted them in setling the Inquisition After some moderation it being setled in those three Provinces it afterwards crept into Tuscany and so into Arragon and into some Cities of Germany and France out of which it was soon exiled and in Arragon they were reduced to a very small number Into the Kingdom of Naples it was not brought there being little correspondence between the Popes and the Kings thereof In the
teach his Body the Church all things and should continue with them unto the end of the World § For soon after his Ascention the Apostles together with the rest of the Body being met together in a great Assembly and after they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and great Grace was upon them all 4. Act. 31.32.33 and accordingly the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every Man to profit withal to one the Word of Wisdome to another the Word of Knowledge to another faith c. and all by the same Spirit 1. Cor. 12.7.8 and all these for the edifying of the Body of Christ 4. Eph. 12 For though the Body be one yet hath it many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body whereof Christ is the head 1. Cor. 12.12 In the visible Government of the Church Christ appointed and instituted a Priesthood in which likewise it is dissimilar to all temporal Governments which quodam sensuis Independent of the Church though touching the application of the Authority to the Person it is elective and depending of the Body of the Church under this Priesthood is comprehended Bishops and Presbiters now what their Authority and Powers are vide their Commission 28. Mat. 19.20 go teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and loe I am with you always unto the end of the world other Powers besides these and laying on of hands especially coercive I know none derived unto them by any text of Scripture These Bishops these Presbiters these Ministers or Pastors are not Lords and Masters as in the Roman Church but are Servants to the Body of the Church For we preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your Servants for Jesus sake 2. Cor. 4.5 and these Authorities are not coercive but are given them to exhort reprove rebuke beseech intreat for Christs sake and by the mercies of God c. 12. Rom. 3. chap. 15.30 1 Thes 4.1 according to the Doctrines Precepts Rules and Commands set down in Scripture which are able to make us wise unto Salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus and which is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for Correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfected throughly furnished to all good works 2 Tim. 3.16.17 These and such like only are all the Powers that belong unto the Priesthood by any Law of God and there is no need of any other for what concerns punishment for Sins or the breach of moral Duties or municipal laws the Body hath Power to make laws and ordain punishments for any of its Members § I know that they have a long time hooked in by Head and shoulders a kind of coercive Power Excommunication by usurping to themselves the Power of Excommunication a thing I must confess that hath made a great noise and buzz in the world but in truth a magnificum nihil a meer ignis fatuus there being no such thing in the whole new Testament as now used and that which Pope and Presbiter would have to be it is as much in the Power of the Laicks against them as in them against the Laicks and most truly in the Body of the Church In the Romish Church the Bishop or his Vicar excommunicateth without the advice or participation of any many times also the Register only and that which is most important by Authority deligated a Clark of the first Tonsure deputed Comissary in some slight Cause doth excommunicate a Priest Yea Leo. 10. in the Council of Lateran in the 11. Session by a perpetual constitution of his hath granted faculty to a secular person to excommunicate the very Bishops and that which doth more import Navar saith c. 27 no. 11. that if any man shall obtain an excommunication of some Prelate if the obtainer shall not have an intent that the party be excommunicated he shall not be excommunicated moreover he saith ch 23. num 104. that the excommunication pronounced by the Law it self against him that payeth not a Pension for example sake on the Vigil of the Nativity is not incurred by him that payeth it not no not in many month's and years after if the Creditor thereof would not have it incurred But if on the other side after many Month's or Years he would have it incurred it is reputed to have been incurred from the day of the debt from the Vigil of the Nativity and so is the stile of the Court but the Council of Trent hath now expresly provided otherwise Ses 25. c. 3 forbidding secular Princes that they hinder not Prelates to excommunicate nor command that any excommunication be revoked considering that this is no part of their Office by this you may in little see what a nose of wax is made of excommunication and all this and much more grounded and occasioned from wrong Glosses put upon plain Texts But of this more fully hereafter § Though the Congregational men have not fully modelled out unto us the Platform of their Government and Discipline as the Presbyterians have done yet in general they do affirm Independency and Church-Government that to each gathered Church Christ hath given all Power and Authority requisite unto that Order and Discipline which he hath instituted for them to observe and to execute the same with Commands and Rules as before And negatively that there is not instituted by Christ any person or Church more extensive or Catholick entrusted with Power over other Churches and that each particular Church consists of Officers and Members which Members they call Brethren and the Officers they stile Pastors Teachers Elders and Deacons and that there are no stated Synods in a fixed combination of Churches nor any Synods appointed by Christ in any way of sub-ordination to one another nor no one Church to have Power of Censures but of inspection only over other Churches and Members thereof that Counsel and Advice might mutually be communicated That it was so in the days of the Apostles and continued so for some Generations after every Individual gathered Church every Christian Societie as it is natural to all Societies as well Christian as Civil governing it self by its own Laws and Constitutions whithout being obliged to any other superintendency hapily is so manifest that it would not be gainsaid But when the Church became planted and spread its Branches and took root in divers Nations and whole Common-wealths became Christian and Kings and Queens and other Civil Governments became Nursing-Fathers and Mothers of the Church then of necessity for the quiet state of the whole the case came to be altered it being then impossible that every individual Member or Brother of any Christian Kingdom or Common-wealth should personally meet to make Laws
Preachings they did censure the affairs of the State and Council convocate general Assemblies without his Licence conclude what they thought good not once desiring his Allowance and Approbation and in their Synods Presbyteries and particular Sessions meddle with every thing upon colour of scandal Besides divers other disorders which at an other time he would propound and have reformed else it was vain to think of any agreement or that the same being made could stand and continue any while Whilest these conferences lasted these just complaints of the King were verifyed and made good by all the Presbyteries in the person of Mr. David Blake one of the Ministers of St. Andrews with whom they sided and whom they defended to their utmost This David Blake in a Sermon uttered divers spightful speeches against the King and Queen the Lords of the Council and Session and had called the Queen of England an Atheist a Woman of no Religion of which her Ambassador complaining to the King he was cited to appear before the Council 10. Novemb. Mr. Andrew Melvil accompanying him to Edenburgh did labour to make this a common cause giving out that the same was done only as a preparative against the Ministers to bring their Doctrine under the censure and controulment of the King and Council and so far he prevailed with the Commissioners of the Church as they sent certain of their number to entreat the deserting of the Diet saying it would be ill taken to draw Ministers in question upon trifling delations very trifling matters as you will see by the Articles against him when as the enemies of the truth were spared and overseen Proud Presbyters Paul himself submitted his doctrines to the Test and judgment of his Auditory Judge ye what I say and yet these insolent Priests may defame Princes Councils Parliaments and say and do what they please impune No man must say why do ye so a shrewd sign their Coyn is not currant when it will not abide the Touch-stone They farther gave out that the Ministers were troubled for the free rebuke of sin and sinners and the Scepter of Christs Kingdom sought to be overthrown The process they said intended against Mr. Blake was but a Policy to divert the Ministers from prosecuting their Suit against Popish Earles and if he should submit his doctrine to the tryal of the Council the liberties of the Church and spiritual Government of the House of God would be quite subverted and therefore they concluded that in any case a Declinator should be used and protestation made against these proceedings whereupon a Declinator was framed and presented by Blake viz. that seeing he was brought thither to be judged by his Majesty and Council for his doctrine and that his answering to the pretended accusation might import a Prejudice to the liberties of the Church and be taken for an acknowledgment of his Majesties Jurisdiction in matters meerly spiritual He was constrained in all Humility to decline that Judicatory because the Lord Jesus of whom he had the grace of his calling had given him his Word for a Rule for his Preaching and that he could not fall in the reverence of any Civil Law but in so far as he should be tryed to have passed his instructions which Tryal belonged only to the Prophets and Pastors the spirit of the Prophets being subject to them alone For this and other reasons in the said Declinator alledged He for himself and in the name of the Commissioners of the general Assembly who had subscribed the same Declinator by which it appears that Blake was not herein a single but a publick person and that these desperate Tenets were the Tenets of the whole Presbytery and not of Blake singly did humbly beseech his Majesty not to infringe the liberty of the Church but manifest his care in maintaining the same i. e. in words at length and not in figures that his Majesty would subject his Regality to their Presbytery and be to them a King indeed but yet no otherwise then the stump of Wood was to the Frogs in the Fable a quiet and tame Idol whom every Frog every waspish Presbyter may play upon and securely dance about Now let us see his Peccadilloes not only charged but strongly proved against him viz. 1o. That he affirmed in Pulpit that the popish Lords were returned into the Country with his Majesties knowledge and on his Assurance and said that in so doing he had detected the Treachery of his Heart 2ly that he had called all Kings the Devils Barnes adding that the Devil was in the Court and in the Guiders of it 3ly In his Prayer for the Queen he had used these words We must pray for her for the Fashion but we have not cause for she will never do us good so that we have little reason to pray for her 4ly That he had called the Queen of England an Atheist 5ly That he had discuss'd a suspention granted by the Lords of the Session in Pulpit and called them Miscreants and Bribers 6ly That speaking of the Nobility he said they were degenerated Godless Dissemblers and Enemies to the Church likewise speaking of the Council he called them Holy-glasses Cormorants men of no Religion 7ly That he had convocated divers Noblemen Barons and other within St. Andrews in June 1594. caused them to take Armes and divide themselves in Troops of Horse and Foot and had thereby usurped the Power of the King and Civil Magistrate The Summons being read he desired to be remitted to his own Ordinary hereby meaning the Presbytery where the Doctrine was taught contending that speeches delivered in Pulpit all be it alledged to be Treasonable could not be judged by the King till the Church by which term they always mean themselves first took cognisance thereof and thereupon delivered the Declinator The King notwithstanding in favour of him deferred farther proceedings herein till the last of November In the mean time the Commissioners for the Church took advantage of his favour and sent a Copy of the Declinator with a Letter to all the Presbyteries requiring them to subscribe the same and to commend the cause in hand in their publick and private Prayers to God using their best credit with their flocks and employing all their labours for the maintenance thereof This their stirring up of Subjects against their King extorted from the King by the advice of his Council a Proclamation discharging the said Commission as unlawful in it self and more unlawfully executed by the said Commissioners commanding six of them to depart to their several Flocks within 24 hours and not to return to act therein under pain of Rebellion Upon notice of this intended Proclamation the Commissioners resolved that since they were convened by the Warrant of Christ in a most needful and dangerous time to see unto the good of the Church ne quid ecclesia detrimenti caperet they should obey God rather than Man notwithstanding any charge that should be given
would continue together so long as conveniently they might They sent also some of their Number to the Octavians or Councellors that were trusted with the management of all affairs of the Kingdom for their assistance but the President with some Choller answered that as these Controversies were begun so they should end without their advice Having failed herein they sent to the King humbly entreating a surcease of the Process against Mr. Blake c. to which the King returned this gracious Answer that if yet they would pass by the Declinator or declare at least that it was not a general but particular Declinator used in the case of Mr. David Blake as being a cause of flander and pertaining to the judgment of the Church he should also pass from the Summons and surcease the Suit This not pleasing they resolve to stand to the Declinator unless the King would pass by the Summons and remitting the Suit to the Ecclesiastical Judge make an act of Council that no Minister should be charged for his Preaching at least before the meeting of the general Assembly Whereupon the Proclamation was published the Commissioners charged to depart out of the Town and Mr. Blake by a new Summons cited to the last of November The Commissioners being advertised thereof they advised a Petition to the King and Noblemen praying the King that he would remit the determination of the differences to a lawful Assembly and not to incroach upon the limits of Christs Kingdom upon any pretence exhorting the Noblemen that as they had been so they would still keep themselves free from working any prejudice to the liberty of the Gospel and being Executionres of the Malicious devices of those who sought the thraldome of the Gospel and that they would procure by their credit a continuation of all Controversies unto a free and lawful Assembly This Petition prevailing nothing Blake appeared and was convicted it being sound that the crimes and accusations contained in the Summons were seditious and treasonable and that his Majesty his Council and other Judges substituted by his Authority were competent Judges in all matters either Criminal or Civil as well to Ministers as other Subjects Though Robert Pont after the Summons were read protested that the Process in hand and whatsoever followed thereupon should not prejudice the liberty of the Church in matters of Doctrine whereunto the King answered he would only censure Treasonable Speeches of a Minister in a Sermon which he and his Council would judge Notwithstanding all this so gracious was the King that he sought by all gentle means and sound reasons prosering Pardon Amnesty and Restauration to Blake c. But the more gracious his condescentions were which were not a few the more refractory stubborn and insolent were the Presbyters insomuch that when the King sent to them that he did not intend to use Blake with rigor Mr. Robert Bruce in the Name of the rest answered that if the matter had concerned Blake alone the offer might be accepted But the liberty of Christs Kingdome had received such a wound by the said proceedings usurping spiritual Judicatory as if Blakes life and the lives of twenty others had been taken it would not have grieved the hearts of good Brethren so much as these injurious proceedings had done and that either these things behoved to be retreated or they would oppose so long as they had breath Brave Blades still and they were as good as their words standing it out to the uttermost by somenting sedition and raising tumults till at last some of the chiefest of them were forced to fly to New-Castle Upon all these Conferences with the King and answers returned of his Messages the Burden of their Song was still That their Messages and Commission ought not to be controuled in a Civil Judicature nay tho they preached seditiously or rebelliously for which tho they ought to be punished yet it ought to be first cognossed by the Church unto which the King once replied and shall not I have power to call and punish a Minister so preaching but must come to your Presbytery and be a Complainer I have good proof in the Process of Gibson and Ross what justice you would do me When nothing would satisfie them on the second of December sentence was given that Blake had fasly slandred and treasonably calumniated the King and his Queen Queen Elizabeth the Lords of his Council and Session therefore his punishment being remitted to the King it was ordained that till his Majesties pleasure should be declared he should be confined beyond the North Water and enter into his ward within six days There were several Treaties after this Sentence in order to an accommodation but still the same spirit reigned in them and they returned as proud and insolent answers in so much that the Lord Lyndsey told the King on their behalf that they durst convene against his Proclamation and do more than so and that they would not suffer Religion to be overthrown at which the King leaving the room Lyndsey returned to the Church and said there was no course but one Let us stay together that are here and promise to take one part and advertise our Friends and the Favourers of Religion to come unto us for it shall be either Theirs or Ours Hence a great clamour to Arms to bring out Haman others cryed The Sword of the Lord and Gideon so great was the fury of the People This produced new Petitions and new Conferences yet all but second parts to the same tune Great is Diana of the Ephesians the Liberties and Prerogatives and Scepter of the Church they will cry some hours some weeks together rather than they will lose their spiritual Independent Monarchy and Judicatory over King Council and People and during this furious contest Mr. John Welch preaching in the High Church said the King was possessed of a Devil and one Devil being cast out seven more was entred in place And that the Subjects might lawfully rise and take the Sword out of his hand which he confirmed by the example of a Father that falling in a frenzy might be taken by the Children and Servants of the Family and tied hand and foot from doing violence Brave Gospel Doctrine fit for Antichrist and his Pulpits who may perhaps grant Priviledges and Prerogatives to his Church exempting his Clergy and Ministers from all questioning But my Creed is that happily such Priviledges and Liberties may be in their Books or in their Alcoran but not in Bibliis sacris Thus the Chorus and Burden of the Song is that every Contradiction of a waspish Priest is an incroachment upon the limits of Christs Kingdom a prejudice to the liberty and seeking the thraldom of the Gospel c. whereas in truth it is the Priests that have incroached and usurped upon the Priviledges and Rights of the Church truly so called Deus bone as slight as they make of the King and his Council and other the Laity
acquiesce till then we are justly to be excused and I hope you will not blame us if we prefer the universal judgment of the Primitive Church touching the Church Government by Bishops before particular and late dreams They were nearer the Apostles times than Calvin whom for his other great pains and Abilities for the good of Christ's Flock I do much honour who broached not his new Church Polity until about Anno 1500. Was it possible I appeal to your selves that all the Churches of Christ dispersed far and near over the face of the Earth should at one time and that immediately after the last surviving Apostle and as it were Momento temporis joyn or jump in one and the self same Government Episcopal had it not been delivered and setled by the Apostles and their Disciples that converted the World We construe the Apostles Writings by their doings others measure the Scriptures by their own humours first framing Churches to their fancies and then conceit that the Scriptures answer and favour their Chimaera's and by their so doing come within the Verge of the Paroenesis If Bishops claim or usurp more than is their due or abuse the power which Gods Law or the favour of Princes justly alloweth to them and Pastors in Nomine Dei spare them not let the world know it but do not attempt to put out the lights of our Firmament because Phanatics and Men intoxicated stumble or miss their way whilst they shine § Gods promise to his People is Dabo vobis Pastores juxta cor meum 3 Jer. 41. pascent vos scientia doctrina It is evident that the firm of all Pastoral charge consisteth in preaching of the Gospel in administration of Sacraments and by mistake according to some in the punishment of such offences as absolutely exclude us out of the Kingdom of God These being the main things which Christ recommended to his Apostles committing them to their charge the which things only were practised by them as also by their immediate Successors and I hope our Bishops will not be found insufficient for these great Mysteries nor will be found to have warped or swerved from them though we have not wanted Coblers of Glocester the vanity of the present Churches and many other Ichabods heavily complaining § Besides for great and just reasons of State Concerning Innovators in general prudent Magistrates ought to be very circumspect and jealous and to fear the sequels of Church Innovations and Combinations even beyond all apparent cause of fear for that they who believe the Attempts for new Discipline without the licence of Civil Powers are lawful as most Innovators and Men given to change do and that not without some design as well to remove some persons out of the Saddle that themselves might be therein seated as to reform some errors will easily dispute what may be attempted against Superiors which will not have the Scepter of their new Discipline to rule over them For they that will not stick to affirm Amat â—ai ranam ranam nuit else Dianam That the Discipline which they say they have and we want is one of the essential parts of Gods Worship and therefore the better to introduce a good opinion of their own Diana they have not stuck andaciter calumniari and to style Episcopal Regiment Antichristian will as little scruple to affirm withal That the People themselves upon peril of Salvation without staying for the Magistrate may gather themselves into it always having in a readiness to say that they never found that God ever made any Precept or Command which to perform we must needs have leave of another § Moreover as every order of Religious men so every Form of Church-Government that only excepted which Christ instituted besits not every Civil Government nor Kingdom nor every State and therefore the Kingdom of France and renowned State of Venice for great reasons of State banished the Jesuits And we have an excellent example of this in the famous Government of the Kings of Castilia where without the Kings licence no new Religious Order and of such nature is every differing Church-Discipline from the Discipline by Law established could have entrance into those Kingdoms and therefore the Capuchin Friers could not be admitted thither The Foundations of these and the like Decrees are no less equal reasonable and lawful than most necessary and most antient For Cicero in oratione pro domo sua sheweth that no man could consecrate an Altar injussu populi so that the equity of such Laws hath time out of mind been apparently known unto the World And Mecoenas his counsel to Augustus in Dione was very prudent Eos qui in divinis aliquid innovant odio habe coerce non Deorum solum causa sed quia nova numina hi tales introducentes multos impellunt ad mutationem rerum unde conjurationes seditiones conciliabula existunt res profecto minime conducibilis-principatui legibus quoque expressum est quod in religionem committitur in omnium sertur injuriam For it would not in any wise be permitted to a great Number of a strange State and such are all Papists having sworn obedience to another Head contrary to their customs of life and divers ends from those of the present Governments to enter into the state of such a Common-wealth Gather themselves together into one or divers places to make amongst them one or more Heads or Governors and in secret to practise with the Princes Subjects seeing this would be presently accounted as one or more Conventicles of very dangerous consequence and accordingly would be prohibited and interrupted so under the pretext of some new Church Polity be it Popish Presbyterian or Quaking all alike as to the thing in question not by that State established many very many not only of the same but of other Nations also may frequently assemble and gather together under one or more Heads Presbyters or Teachers contrary in Customs and Affections to the established Church-Discipline and perhaps unto true Doctrine also and the many opportunities they have through Confessions Meetings Sermons and other spiritual Conferences insinuating with the Princes Subjects they may by such secret vast diffused scarcely to be discerned and powerful means and opportunities corrupt them in their sidelity and withdraw them from their Allegiances of which we are not without sad experience of elder and later days both from Papists and others not a few of several perswasions And the danger of union in an united confederacy or conspiracy is to be avoided for that it prevails more than number besides discontented minds in the beginning of tumults when any happen occasioned by themselves or others will easily agree though their ends be divers each one hoping thereby to get uppermost or to turn up that Trump that they have most mind to follow and so endanger the State For these many excellent causes all Church Congregations ought very diligently and narrowly to be
Politick the other Ecclesiastick what then hindereth that the Church now also on whom God hath bestowed a Christian Magistrate should be less content with one Government To me it seemeth monstrous to place two heads upon one body of a visible Church whose Commands Decrees and Government are divers so that the rule of one is not subject to the care of the other For the Ecclesiastical Senate or Presbytery would have the Supream Power of Punishing Vices even in Magistrates themselves though not with Corporal Punishment yet with Excommunication and debatring them from the Sacraments whereas one Magistrate appointed by God may now as well bridle all transgressions as he could of old was it not so in the Kingdom of Solomon which was as it were a Type of Christs Church reigning on this Earth And I do not find either under Moses or under the Judges or Kings or under the Government of those which were called Rulers such two discrepant Judicatories Nature denies saith Musculus two Authentick Governments in the same People whereof one is not subject to the other It is manifest that David did dispose of all Offices and Ministers of the Church 1 Ch. 22.27 Afterwards Solomon did not only build but consecrate the Temple and not a Priest Hitherto belongeth that famous History of Jehosaphat in the 2 Chr. 19. which doth perfectly clear this cause as also doth the History of Ezekias and indeed the whole Old Testament It is too well known that though Papists and Presbyters do allow something to secular Magistrates in the Rule of the Church yet the Supremacy of Power they do utterly and in very terms deny And having obtained possession of power in the Church and that as they hold out by Christs own institution they are very loath to resign the same again at the demand and into the hands of Princes It is true that when our Saviour first gave Commission to his Disciples to Preach Baptize and Propogate the true Faith in the World secular Authority being universally averse thereunto he was of necessity to commit for the present both Doctrines and Discipline to the charge of his Apostles yet not without a promise That Kings should be their Nursing Fathers and Queens the Nursing Mothers of his Church who though now they are come in and become friendly to Religion and willing to advance the spiritual prosperity of the Church as well as of the Temporal of the State yet both Papists and Presbyters having got possession are loath to be disquietted dreaming of a Spiritual Empire belonging to Priests more worthy and Sacred than that of the Emperors and so secretly preferring the Crosier before the Crown § Power and Government are things most awful and honourable and the truest owners thereof next under God are Princes whom the true legitimat Church ever looked upon as Cods immediate Vicegerents Deputies and Governours thereof St. Peter 1.2 Writing to the Church in the time of a Heathen and Impious Emperor commandeth every Soul to be Subject to the higher Powers He acknowlegeth power in a very Nero and that to be the higher Power And to that Power of that Nero he subjects every soul Christian and Heathen Priest and Layman and it may not seem strange that meer Power and Rule in an unbeliever and wicked Prince should be so sacred and inviolable We must take notice that the wickedness of Princes in ill Commands though it discharge us as to those ill Commands yet it doth not discharge their power or Rule either in those or any other For when Princes rule well they are to be obeyed when ill they are to be endured and this very endurance is an effect of obedience and subjection The violence of this or that Nero may be Tyrannous but the lawful Authority whereby the same violence is done is not Tyranny Neither is the Office of Kings the less Glorious because they can use force nor yet that of Ministers the more Glorious because they may use none but perswasive Motives and Allurements For Power it self being a Glorious Divine thing it must be most honourable to use it in Gods Cause and his Glory and the advance and increase of his Flock and Kingdom and therefore we see Iosiah and other good Kings are commended for using compulsion and on the contrary other Kings which used it not for the suppressing of Idolatry removing the high places and the like did draw curses on themselves and their subjects And whereas it is objected by I. M. and others that Force and Compulsion restrain only from the act of sin but not the Will from the liking thereof and that to compel outward profession is to compel Hypocrisy not to advance Religion But we see common experience teacheth us better effects thereof For Scotland Holland Denmark Sweden Bohemia England c. suffered great changes of Religion in a short space and these changes were wrought by the force of Civil Magistrates and could never else without strange Miracles from Heaven have been so soon compassed and these Changes have not proved the less sincere because Civil Authority wrought them as the Samaritan first believed Christ on the Womans word but then for his own sake so those that were compelled to the Wedding so many Papists in Queen Elizabeths dayes which came to our Churches first to save their Purses afterwards came out of liking of which the Pope being advertised forbad it and made it a Signum Distinctivum It s a shrewd sign that that Babe is spurious which the Mother is ashamed to bring to light and that is Falshood and Dross not Truth and Gold which dares not abide any Test and that those Masses are not of a Divine Origine that must be celebrated in an unknown Tongue and trusted only with the Priests who are parties to the Cheat. Besides the means used in all Laws of God and man to induce obedience are rewards and punishments both which may occasion Hypocrisie Corrupted man is as inclinable to dissemble Religion which he believes not as well for hope of reward as for fear of punishment which is vitio personae non praemii vel poenae else God would not have appointed them as mounds of his laws and motives of obedience The pious example of a good King is of mervelous inducement towards Religion yet one may hypocritically dissemble his Religion to please his Prince Example is so powerful a motive that it is said to compel 2 Gal. 14. Peccant magistratus cum minis paenis alios peccare non prohibent 13 Nehem. 17.21.22 If Nebuchadnezar erect his prodigious Idol and upon pain of a Fiery Furnace require all to worship it all People Nations and Languages are presently upon their faces If persecution be but threatned Demas-like we presently forsake the fellowship of Saints and imbrace this present world On the other side rewards of honour and preferment will cause some Balaam-like to run and ride and become more sensless of Gods wrath and indignation than
it was miraculous and therefore it might be of use then when the Keys of Church-men could not err and when a Temporal Sword was wanting yet now it is utterly useless and abolished § For any other Excommunication of present or perpetual necessity in Ecclesiastical Regiment there is very little indeed no plain proof in Scripture if any at all it is the spiritual Scepter of the Pope and Presbyter without which their Empire would appear meerly Imaginary and therefore their Zeal is fierce and strong for it though their reasons be weak It seems to me a very obscure and lame deduction that the Keys of Heaven in the Gospel must needs import real Power and jurisdiction in Clergy men and in them only and that that Sword is as miraculous as it was or as useful as if it were miraculous and that the stroak of it is meerly Spiritual and not to be supplied by the Temporal Sword and that Princes are as well liable to it as other Laymen § In case of utter impenitency of open and obstinate perverseness Heaven is shut without the Pope or Presbyters Power and in case of feigned penitence neither the Popes nor Presbyters Keys can open effectually though they discern or discern not the hypocricy and in case of true penitence if Pope or Presbyter be mistaken yet Heaven will not remain shut § Some excellent writers against the usurped power of the Romish Church in use or exercise of St. Peters Keys as well before Luther as since have been of opinion that the visible Church hath only power to declare who are separated or excommunicated ipso facto from the holy Catholick Church and that she hath no power so to separate or excommunicate any unless they have first excommunicated themselves or voided their hopes or interests in the holy Catholick Church by heretical positions or opinions or by lewd and scandalous misdemeanors Of this opinion was that famous Wesselius which was intituled Lux Mundi before Luther arose or the so pure Light of the Gospel which we now enjoy Besides Divines themselves have not hitherto agreed nor are ever like to agree what this excommunication is or what the extent of it is or whether the Presbyter alone or joyned with the Laity or Lait without the Presbyter have power to execute it or whether it be so spiritually inherent in the Pope or Presbyter as that they can or cannot depute the execution thereof to Deligates or Proxies In these great straights and uncertainties concerning excommunication held out to be of such high concern as to make the excommunicated as it were accursed and cut off from the Church what shall poor Laicks do who are well assured that be their Commission what it will that it extends not to impower them to teach and much less to impose any Doctrines but what are undoubtedly and meerly true the Apostles themselves pretending to no other § Some endeavour to support this feigned pillar of their discipline by Arguments drawn from the Jewish manner of excommunication which according to some was twofold 1º called Niddui and was only a temporary separation commonly for 30 dayes from all commerce or society with any man within a certain distance This is it which is thought to be that which is called in the New Testament a casting out of the Synagogue 2o. The second more severe and terrible than the former was when a scandalous ossender with curses out of the Law of Moses in the publick audience of the whole Church without any limitation of time was excluded from the Communion of it This is that which is thought to be that which is called in the New Testament a delivering up unto Sathan in Hebrew this is called Cherim and in Greek Anathema which was twofold 1o. Simple when what I have now mentioned was performed 2o. with an addition of Anathema Maranatha or as the Syrian pronounce it Moranetho when besides all other maledictions out of the Law they added this clause Our Lord cometh by which form the excommunicated person as desperate without all hope of pardon or restitution was left unto the Lord to receive from him a heavy doom at his coming In imitation of this Jewish excommunication which generally is defined by almost all to be an exclusion of the Fellowship and Communion of Believers the Popish Divines have also framed 2 kinds of excommunication viz. 1o. A lesser 2o. the greater 1o. the lesser That the excommunicated is to be debarred not from the profession of the same Faith nor from giving his consent to the same Doctrine with the present Church whereof he is a visible Member but from the soel participation of the Sacraments have added also another which they term the greater Excommunication and Anathema and have against the clear sence of Scripture I wish the Presbyterians could herein plead not guilty defined it to be an interdiction of Churches private commerce and all other lawful converse because the Apostle Cor. 14. openly sheweth that neither the heathen nor any person whatsoever were forbidden from hearing of the Divine word from the Reading Thanksgivings and Prayers of Christians And I have not found extant in the Scripture any Precept or Example whereby it is commanded or taught that they who err only in life and manners should be removed from the Sacraments I do not read that any person at any time amongst the Jews was for such causes forbid by the Priests Levites Prophets Scribes or Pharases to come unto the Sacrifices Ceremonies or Sacraments The high Priests esteemed Christ and his Apostles most wicked persons yet we do not find that during Christs life or after his death that ever they went about to debar them of the Sacraments and Sacrifices instituted by God they reprehended indeed Christ for eating and drinking with Publicans and Sinners but not for praying in the Temple with them nor for going up with them and all others to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover neither did they debar any Publican Jew no nor the most cruel Hereticks the Sadduces from their Temple or Ceremonies but permitted them the honour to ascend the high Priest-hood and I do not indeed well see how the Priests could hinder the Scandalous sinners from eating of the Passover if they would for that they did not eat before the Priests but in their private Houses and I have not observed that the presence of a Priest was absolutely necessary to that matter And certainly if the law had permitted them to debar any from their Sacraments and Sacrifices but the Leprous and unclean they would certainly have debarred Christ and his Apostles such was their desperate and inveterate malice towards him and them presuming his design to have been to destroy their City and Temple their Name and Nation § Upon these and other like reasons and grounds there are some who do not stick to affirm that the Clergy hath not so much power to excommunicate the Laity as the Laity the Clergy all power being
the Church the Body thereof whom the Apostles themselves called into Council with them 1. Acts 12.13.2 ch 2.3.4.5.6 gave them power to have a share or part in the choice of Apostles 1. Acts 12.26 to choose Deacons 2. Acts 2.34 to seperate persons for the work of the Ministry 13. Acts. 1.2 to whom the Apostles gave an account from time to time of their travels of successes in their Ministry of their treatments good or bad 12. Acts 12.17.14 Acts 27. and whose assistance and company along with them unto Hierusalem they require about the assair of Circumcision 15. Act. and to mark them which cause divisions and to avoid them 16. Rom 17. to whom Paul addressed his advice concerning the Incestuous person 1. Cor. 5. and required them to forgive and comfort the excommunicate 2. Ch. 6.10.11 required their aid in the choice of Messengers and to restore persons overtaken in a fault in the spirit of meekness 6. Gal. 12. to whom he commits the care to see that his Epistle to the Colossians be read and sent to the Laodiceans and that they read the Epistle from Laodicea 4. Coloss 16. and that they should mind their Guides of their duty v. 17. who contended with Peter about his demeanour towards the circumcised until he had cleared himself by rehearsing the whole matter 11 Acts 1.18 whom the Apostles commanded to warn them that are unruly and to comfort the feeble minded to support the weak and to see that none render evil for evil unto any man and to prove all things 1. Thess 1.1 and 5. ch 12.13.14.15.21 and to judge of Doctrine 1. Cor. 10.15 and to note those that obey not the word and to have no company with them that they may be ashamed 1. Thess 36. and to know them which labour among them and are over them in the Lord and to admonish them and to esteem them in love To whom most of St. Pauls Epistles were written only that to the Philippians was written to these together with the Bishops and Deacons and some unto private persons as to Titus Philemon to the elect Lady and her Children Now I say who can be so blind after such clear Apostolical evidence as not to see the power interests or concerns the Laity or Brethren have in the Government and Affairs of the Church and that not without this great moral and fundamental right and reason peculiar to every Society quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet to which St. Paul seems to allude and have respect 2. Cor. 1.11 you also helping together by prayer for us that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf and therefore he writes to all the Church at Corinth to forgive the excommunicate person because it was inflicted of many 2. c. 6. for though the body be one yet hath it many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body 1. Cor. 12.12 and whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it or one member be honoured all the members rejoyce with it we are the Body of Christ and members in particular 26.27 And according to St. Cyprian it seemeth most equal and of Institution moral and unchangeable that the commonalty fearing God and keeping his Commandements should have the special hand either in choosing a worthy Priest or of rejecting the unworthy which also saith he we see to be founded upon Divine Authority Cypr. ep lib. 4.1 A. sec edit Parisiis ep 68. p. 113. which is not St. Cyprians Epistle only A. viz. Ad Clerum plebes in Hispania consislentis de Basilide Martiale c. propter quod plebs obsequens praeâ—â—ptis Dominicis Dâ—um metuens a peccatore praeposito sâ—perare se debet nec se ad sacrilegi sacerdotis sacrisicia miscere quando ipsa maxime habeat potestatem vâ—l cligendi dignos sacerdotes vel indignos recusandi quod ipsum videmus de Divina Authoritate descendere ut sacerdos plebe praesente sub omnium oculis deligatur dignus atque Idoneus publico judicio ac testimonio comprobetur sic ut in Numeris 20. c. 25. Moysi praecepit dicens apprebende Aaron fratrem tuum Eleazarum silium ejus Et Aaron appositus moriatur illic Coram omni synagoga jubet Deus constitui sacerdotem i.e. instruit ostendit ordinationes sacerdotales non nisi sub populi assistentis conscientia sieri oportere ut plebe praesente vel detegantur malorum crimina vel bonorum merita praedicentur c. sit ordinatio justa legitima quae omnium sussragio judicio fuerit examinata quod observatur in Actis Apostolorum 1.15 quando in ordinando in locum Judae Episcopo Petrus ad plebem loquitur surrexit inquit Petrus in medlo discentium fuit autem turba in uno Nec hoc in episcoporum tantum sacerdotum sed in Diaconorum ordinationibus observasse Apostolos animadvertimus de quo ipso in actis eorum Scriptum est convocaverunt inquit illiduodecem totam plebem Discipulorum dixerunt iis quod utique idcirco tam diligenter caute convocata plebe tota gerebatur ne quis ad altaris ministerium vel ad sacerdotalem locum indignus obreperet Ordinari enim nonnunquam indignos non secundum dei voluntatem sed secundum humâ—nam praesumptionem haec deo displicere quae non veniant ex legitima justa ordinatione Deus ipse manifestat per Osee Prophetam 8.4 dicens sibimetipsis constituerunt Regem non per me propter quod diligenter de traditione divina Apostolica observatione observandum est tenendum quod apud nos quoqe fere per provincias universas tenetur ut ad ordinationes rite celebrandas ad eam plebem cui Praepositus ordinatur episcopi ejusdem provinciae proximi quique conveniant episcopus deligatur plebe praesente quae singulorum vitam plenissime novit uniuscujusque actum de ejus conversatione perspexit quod apud vos factum videmus in Sabini Collegae nostri ordinatione ut de universae fraternitatis suffragio ut de episcoporum qui in praesentia convenerant quique de eo ad vos literas secerant judicio episcopatus ei deferretur manus ei in locum Basilidis imponeretur Est enim Deus verax omnis autem homo mendax 3. Rom. si autem omnis homo mendax 3. Rom. est solus Deus verax quid aliud servi maxime sacerdotes dei sacere debemus nisi ut humanos errores mendacia relinquamus praecepta dominica custodientes in Dei veritate maneamus Cypriani Epist 68. edit Parisiis per Rigalt 1666. vel ep 4. edit Basiliae M. D. xxx f. 18. And it is observable that this is not St. Cyprians Epistle alone but the Epistle of 36 Bishops more viz. Caecilius Primus
Member of the Militant Church is ordinarily a Member of the Christian Commonwealth or Kingdom wherein he lives and è contra That which differenceth the Church properly so called from a Society or Body meerly Civil is the diversity of Laws and Ordinances and the different manner of Union betwixt the Members of it A Church A Commonwealth or Body Civil are not necessarily two Bodies contra-distinct or Opposite as the Romanists often dream or presuppose in their Arguments brought for the Prerogatives of the Roman Church alledging that those have first their being and then they frame their Government and therefore are free and that all Jurisdiction is originally in them which they do communicate to Magistrates without depriving themselves of it But the Church did not make it self and its Government but Christ did first Institute Laws by which it should be Governed and then did Christ assemble it but rather one Body endowed with several or distinct Powers or Perfections when a Kingdom or Commonwealth becomes Christian and Consequently a Church it looseth nothing of what it had but rather acquires a New Perfection and Accomplishment by the Accrument of Divine Powers added to the Civil It may be true that when the Church was first Founded by Jesus Christ that it was altogether distinct from the Commonwealth for indeed it could not be then otherwise for that all Kingdoms and Commonwealths were then open and professed Enemies to the Gospel and therefore the Regiment given unto the Church by Jesus Christ was accordingly such as might be exercised by the Members thereof in any Nation and among any People be their Government what it would or their Enmity to the Gospel never so great without clashing or interfeering with it or with them and without the least disturbance of the quiet State of the Kingdom or People whereunto they were sent for their Conversion But when that Prophesie that Kings should be the Nursing Fathers and Queens the Nursing Mothers of the Church was to be fulfilled and whole Kingdoms embraced the Gospel and became Christians then the Church and Commonwealth became one and were no longer contra distinct Certainly the Justifying of Excommunications or Church Censures in this manner on such grounds and Positions is to speak modestly scarce safe or defensible For that they seem too much to Countenance and to approach too near unto the Positions of the Papists which are 1º that the Spiritual Power is above all Secular and Civil Power which Assertion were it rightly limited and Stated is in it self Orthodox as here is declared but the more Orthodox it is in it self the more Pernitious and deadly it makes the second Position unto which they seek to Wed it viz. 2º that this Supream and Spiritual Power is totally Stated in the Clergy as in a Body distinct from the Body Politick And the most of them hold the plenitude of this Power to be in the Pope from whom all Spiritual Power of Jurisdiction is derived unto the rest of the Clergy after the same manner as Jurisdiction in causes Temporal is derived unto the Inferior Magistrates from the Civil Monarch in each Kingdom And that the Regiment of the Church is Regimen Monarchicum a Visible Monarchy of which the Pope is the visible Monarch therefore without all doubt it is not only less Obnoxious to Cavils and Sophisms but also more truly Orthodoxal and more Justisiable to aver and maintain that the Church and Commonwealth Christian tho happily like Man and Wife before their Intermarriage were two Bodies two contradistinct Societies but being once Incorporated by mutual and reciprocal Wedlock do become one Body one Society endowed with several Powers and several Perfections newly acquired by such Intermarriage wherewith she was not endowed before her Intermarriage and so consequently the Powers of the Church do escheat into that of the Commonwealth whensoever it becomes Christian whereof the Pastors and Teachers are special Members and Officers according to their Commission but for no other ends nor purposes above the Laity though the Authors of these Positions do fully acknowledg that the Person of the Supream Magistrate must and ought to be exempted as to any outward effects of the Power of Excommunication Yet these Positions are subject unto so many nice and School distinctions that it is much to be feared that perverse and subtle wits would strongly Combate with us with our own Weapons and find or make a way to render the Power of the Magistrate only serviceable unto the Power or Interest of the Clergy Do but a little consider how subtelty Bellarmine in his tract against Gerson of Excommunication doth endeavour to erect and prove Regimen Ecclesiasticum to be Monarchicum upon the like fundamental right f. 4.142 whilst he affirms that the holy Church is not like to the Commonwealth of Venice or of Geneva or of other Cities which confer upon their Dukes and Princes that Power which themselves please in regard whereof it may be said that the Commonwealth is above the Prince neither yet is it like to an earthly Kingdom in which the People transfer their own Authority unto the Monarch and in certain Cases may free themselves from Royal Dominion and reduce themselves to the Government of Inferior Magistrates as did the Romans when they changed from Dominion Royal to Consular Government for the Church of Christ is a most perfect Kingdome and an absolute Monarchy which hath no dependance on the People neither from them had its Original but dependeth only upon the Divine Will and that this Kingdom doth not depend on Men Christ sheweth when he saith you chose not me but I chose you 15 John 16. thou hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall Reign on the Earth 5. Apoc. 10. And this is the cause why this Kingdom is in the Scripture resembled to a Family who then is a faithful and wise Servant whom his Lord hath made Ruler over his Houshold 24. Matth. 25. Because the Father of the Family doth not depend on the Family neither from them hath his Authority So by consequence the Vicar general of Christ doth not depend on the Church but only on Christ from whom he hath his Authority and doth affirm that Christ doth declare that a Bishop in his particular Church and the Pope in the Church Vniversal is as it were a high Steward in Gods Family quis enim fidelis dispensator et prudens 12 Luke 42. and hath Power over the Family and not the Family over him contra-Gers Yet by the leave of so great a Prelate St. Cyprian tho no Cardinal yet of greater reputation saith that the practise of those times which were freest from Corruption even when the Holy Martyrs were Bishops was that Pastors were subject to the Censures of the Church And lib. 1. c. 4. giveth an express Testimony where speaking of the People he saith Quando ipsa plebs maxime habeat potestatem vel eligendi dignos sacerdotes
Dog with a fire Brand in his Mouth the signification and application whereof I leave to every Reader to make Only his deportment towards the Albigenses is storied to be rabying against whom he so Preached adeo quidem ut câ—ntum haereticorum millia uh octo Millibus catholicorum fusa intersercta fuisse perhibeantur saith one of him and of those who became Captives 180 were Burnt to Death the first Example that I find in the Church of Rome of putting Dissenting Bretheren to Death Of this order was this precious Inquisitor Jacomello to Arms alleadging for their Justification that Magistrates were set over them by God and themselves for the good and behoof of the Governed and not the Governed Ordained for the Lusts of Magistrates to be destroyed and killed at pleasure that their Condition being desperate they might use Arms in their own Defence and that in their Condition their appeal unto Arms was not so much against the Prince as against the Pope who usurped more Authority than did Dejure belong unto him and did also abuse the Authority of their Prince by subtle and crafty seducements for his own sinister ends Hence there were War all this year and part of the next And the Duke having made more than a years tryal to reduce them by Wars and Punishments being therein assisted with Money from the Pope and at last after many Skirmishes an Appeal being made unto the Lord of Hoasts by a formal pitcht Battel the Duke lost 7000 men slew but 14 of his Enemies and tho he did often recruit his Army yet had he always the worst Therefore the Duke wisely considering that he did thereby only make his Subjects the more Warlike and teach and inure them more Stoutly to Offend him Consume his own Country and VVast his Treasury he resolved to receive them into favour and made an agreement with them 5º Junij in which he pardoned all past faults gave them Liberty of Conscience appointed them places where they might meet gave leave to those that were Fled to return and restitution of Goods to those that were Banished Which Agreement very much distasted the Pope that an Italian Prince who had been Assisted by him and might have more need of him should yet permit Hereticks to Live freely in his Territories and for that the example would be urged by greater Princes when they inclined to permit another Religion whereof he bitterly complained in the Consistory comparing the Ministers of the most Catholick King with the Duke who having about the same time discovered 3000 Lutherans who went out of Cosenza and retired themselves to the Mountains to Live according to their Doctrine did Hang some Burn others and put the rest into the Gallies but the Duke justifying his Cause with such Reasons which the Pope not being able to answer did Acquiesce And are not such Councils such Advisocs greater marks of an Hireling or a Butcher than Obedience to the Pope a true Mark of the Church Appello ad Caesarem Deum Deorum Dominum Dominorum qui non accipit personam neque recipit munus 10 of Deut. 17. § About the same time there were great Troubles and Disorders in France for cause of Religion Multitudes disdaining to see poor Innocent Christians drawn every day to the Stake to be Burned Guilty of nothing but of Zeal to Worship God to keep a more intimate near and dear Communion with their God and to fave their own Souls These Humors were not Purged nor yet allaied neither by Punishments nor Pardons proferred and Proclaimed but that greater Tumults were raised in Province Languedoc and Poicton whether the Preachers of Geneva were called and came willingly by whose Sermons the number of the Protestants did daily increase examples of great fear being always joyned with others of equal boldness for the quieting of which Humors Francis the 2d the 11º Aprilis 1559. intimated a National Synod as a proper Remedy But the same Hireling Pius the 4th as before in the cause of the Duke of Savoy did most severely complain that the King had Pardoned Hereticks and Errors committed against Religion wherein none had Power but himself and that he would not by any means Consent to an Assembly of Prelates either in France or elsewhere for that a National Council of that or of any other Kingdom would be a kind of Schism from the universal Church give bad example to other Nations and make Prelates proud assuming greater Authority with Diminution of his own and that to consent to a National Synod was to consent that the Axe should be laid to the Root of the Papacy and that by consequence it was an Alienation from the Apostolick See As if God had not given to every National Church and State all things necessary to Govern themselves by but that they must all run to Rome and Romish Priests for redress nay this good Shepherd commanded his Nuntio to intimate farther to the King that if he would resolve to compel his Subjects by force that he would assist him with all his Power and Labour that the King of Spain and Princes of Italy should do the like But if he refused to compel his Subjects by force then his Nuntio was to insinuate to him that all the mischief and Poyson came from Geneva that the extirpation of that root would take away great part of the nourishments of the Evils that disquieted his Dominions § Dissentions and Troubles Fears and Jealousies still increasing in France the King maugre all the Popes Arguments and Interests called a great Assembly at Fountain Bleau 21 Aug. 1560. who being Petitioned by the Reformatists desired nothing but a moderation of their cruel Punishments and that they might make publick profession of their Religion to avoid suspition which might arise by Conventicles or private Assemblies John Monluc the Bishop of Valence did therein complain that Provision had not been made against them because the Popes had no other aim but to hold the Princes in Wars and the Princes thinking to suppress the Evil with Racks and Tortures having not attained their desired end nor the Magistrates and Bishops justly performed their Duty the principal Remedy was to fly unto God to assemble Godly Men to find a way to root out the Vices of the Clergy to forbid Infamous and Immodest Songs and instead of them to Command the Singing of Psalms and Holy Hymns in the Vulgar Tongue And farther shewed that they did grievously erre who troubled the Publick with Arms upon pretence of Religion and that their error was as great who Condemned to Death those that adhered to the New Doctrine only for the Opinion of Piety During these disorders Francis the first Dying the 5th of Dec. 1560. and Charles the 9th Aged 10 years Succeeding he more like the good Shepherd than he that Styled himself Pius by the mature advice of his Council after Solemn and great Consultations and deliberations about the Troubles and Disorders in
were altogether unacquainted with the Doctrines of Ecclesiastical greatness Liberties or Licence rather Immunities and Jurisdictions that are now claimed by the now degenerate and Bastardized Romanists who tho of Rome yet are not true Romanists indeed who under a Spiritual pretence but with a secret ambitious end and desire of Worldly Wealth and Domination would free themselves from the obedience due unto the Prince and by false insinuations take away the love and reverence due by the people unto their Prince and cement it unto themselves And to bring these things to pass they have lately invented a Doctrine of Vniversal Monarchy and have erected an Order of Jesuits and a Court of Inquisition whose main concern and design is to maintain the Popes Power to be above that of Kings which Doctrine was unheard of till the dayes of Hildebrand I. Gregory the Seventh 1073. neither is there any Book found concerning it till about the year 1300. then did they begin to write of it scatteringly Vide Gold astum but there were not above two Books which treated of nothing else but this until about the year 1400. and three until the year 1500. after this the number encreased a little but it was tolerable But after the year 1560. this Doctrine began to encrease in such manner that they gave over writing of other Doctrines and little was printed in Italy but Books in diminution of Secular Authority and exaltation of the Ecclesiastical The Confessors likewise need no other learning to be approved of whence is universally spread a perverse opinion that Princes and Magistrates are humane Inventions yea and Tyrannical that they ought only by compulsion to be obeyed that the disobeying of Laws and defrauding the Publick Revenues is no sin and he that doth not pay if he can but fly from it remains not guilty before God And contrarywise that every beck of Ecclesiastical persons without any other thought ought to be taken for a Divine Precept and binds the conscience And this Doctrine above all others is the chiefest cause of most or of all the Inconveniencies which have happened in these latter Ages In Italy Books that defend the Princes Temporal Authority and affirm that Ecclesiastical Persons are also subject to publick Constitutions and punishable if they violate the publick tranquillity these are condemned Books and suppressed more than any others They have gelded the Books of Antient Authors by new Printing of them and taken out all which argue or plead for Temporal Aurhority so that if in Authors we find no good Doctrine favouring Temporal Authority we know who hath taken it away If we find any that exalteth the Ecclesiastical we know who hath put it in and in truth we can be assured of the truth of no Book that hath been under their censures And it is also most evident that those who desire to have an unquestionable liberty to brand the lawful Temporal Power and that Doctrine which opposeth it self to their attempts with the name of Tyranny do design that under pretence of Religion they may become Arbitrators of all Government From henceforth these Doctrines and Tenets did wonderfully increase and multiply spawning out others as prodigious and Monstrous as themselves so that in the Sixteenth Century and in the dayes of Paul the Fifth more especially they arrived unto most admirable perfection for in his dayes Books were Printed as one well observes by hundreds Padre Paolo nay by thousands the purports of which being summarily collected by a diligent Observator and Contemporary of the same time he hath Recorded them to be that the Temporal Power of Princes is subordinate to the Power Ecclesiastical and subject to it consequently that the Pope hath Authority to deprive Princes of their Estates for their faults and errors which they commit in Government yea tho they have not committed any fault when the Pope shall judge it fit for the good of the Church that the Pope may free Subjects from their obedience and from their fidelity which they owe unto their Princes in which case they are obliged to cast off all subjection and even to pursue the Prince if the Pope command it and altho they all agreed to hold these maximes yet they were not all at Accord touching the manner for they that were touched with a little shame said so great an Authoriy did not reside in the Pope because Jesus Christ had not given him any Temporal Authority but because this was necessary for the Spiritual Wherefore Jesus Christ giving Spiritual Authority had given also indirectly the Temporal which was a vain shift seeing they made no other difference than of words But the greater part of these men spake plainly that the Pope hath all Authority in Heaven and Earth both Spiritual and Temporal over all Princes of the World no otherwise than over his Subjects and Vassals that he might correct them for any fault whatsoever that he is a Temporal Monarch over all the Earth that from any Temporal Soveraign Prince men might appeal to the Pope that he might give Laws to all Princes and annul those which were made by them for the exemption of Ecclesiasticks they all with one voice denied that they held it by the Grace and Priviledges of Princes altho their Laws to that purpose Constitutions and Priviledges be yet extant but they were not agreed how they had received it some of them affirming that it was de Jure Divino others that it came by constitutions of Popes and Councils But all consented upon this that they are not subject to the Prince no not in case of Treason and that they are not bound to obey the Laws unless it were vi directivâ And some passed so far as to say that the Ecclesiasticks ought to examine whether the Laws and Commands of the Prince be just and whether the People be obliged to obey them and that they owe not unto the Prince either contributions customs or obedience that the Pope cannot erre or fail because he hath the assistance of the Holy Spirit and therefore that it is necessary to obey his Commandments whether they be just or unjust That to him appertains the clearing of all difficulties so as it is not lawful for any to depart from his resolution nor to make reply tho the resolution be unjust That tho all the World differ in opinion from the Pope yet it is meet nevertheless to yield to him and he is not excused from sin who follows not his advice tho all the World judge it to be false Their Books were full also of such other Maxims that the Pope is a God upon Earth a Son of Justice a light of Religion that the Judgment of God and the Pope is one and the same thing as also the Tribunal and the Court of the Pope and God That to doubt of the Power of the Pope is as much as to doubt of the Power of God And it is notable what Cardinal Bellarmine hath
repugnant to good Government Certainly those Princes are much very much to blame and guilty of a great sin that neglect to preserve that Jurisdiction and Power that God and the Governed have given them because their Authority is given unto them not for themselves but for the benefit of the People they being the depositaries the Custodes and Executors not the Patrons of that Authority to change impeach or diminish it at their own Will and pleasure Wherefore it is a gross ignorance and a most wretched sin not to maintain that which God hath conferred upon them and Princes are not peradventure guilty of a greater sin and offence before God than out of an ignorant Zeal to have suffered so great a part of their power to be usurped from them by Ecclesiasticks and that they are no longer able to rule their people committed to their Charge without admitting and intermixing an Ecclesiastical Government to bear some sway of which all Popish Princes are highly guilty The long negligence of Princes in this particular hath been pernitious to the true legitimate Church of God truly so called and to all Ecclesiastical Order and happily the true Original found of all those mischiefs which by gradations hath brought into the Church the most Worldly politick and selfish Government that ever was and thereby busied the Ecclesiasticks in things not only different but also contrary to the Instituted Ministery of Christ keeping Christendom in perpetual discord and even the Divisions that are at this day amongst Christians so irreconcileable by any other means than the Omnipotent and miraculous hand of God which were not bred so much by Obstinacy in diversity of Opinions and Contrariety of Doctrine as from the strife about Jurisdiction which after by degeneration and growing into Factions hath taken up the Mask of Religion And it is observable that the best Princes from time to time have been they that have kept their Jurisdiction most intire and the negligent Princes they that have given away or lost a great part or by their Insufficiency suffered others to Usurp or Metamorphize it with a deformation from its purity which it first had in the Church And for a probate of this it is not necessary to run back to the examples of the Constantines the Theodosioes the Justinians whose Laws and Codes whoever will read shall find this to be true but to those that are nearer to our own Age and to those whom the Roman Church this day acknowledgeth to be even the Basis of their Temporal Greatness Charles the Fifth Philip the Second and other Catholick Kings It will be hard to find such a Government amongst Christians which at some time or other hath not suffered by Encounters with the Court of Rome about its Jurisdiction It was about 1100 years since the abuse of imploying Spiritual Arms to Worldly ends crept in to maintain their usurped Powers whereby they have given an Eternal Scandal to Religion and are now grown so Kâ—gnaviter impudentes That the Catholick Religion with them is no other but what their own pride ambition interests will and pleasure do dictate Memorials are in all Histories of the lamentable Tragedies that have succeeded when Popes have proceeded to Excommunicate Princes and publish Interdicts against Kings and States and what hath been the occasion of the quarrels but Jurisdiction witness the centum gravamina of Germany During the Quarrels between Pope Paul the Fifth and the State of Venice there wanted not Writers that reckoned up the intollerable oppression of Princes by Popes who both in times past and present make lamentable and continual complaints of them A Catalogue of which Books may be seen at the end of the Memoires of Philip de Canay and also in Goldastus The dayly vexation which they have by the Nuntioes treating with Princes as imperiously and insolently as if they were his Slaves carrying alwayes before them the Medusaes head Pretence of Religion to fright the fearful and such as do not dive and penetrate into the depth of their Secrets the Arcana of the Papacy which happily the profoundest Polititians are not able to do so dark are their works and so deep even unto Hell do they dig to hide their Councils a shrewd sign that they are deeds of darkness and cannot abide the light They farther shewed that nothing would content the Pontificians but the Servitude and Subjection of all Italy at least So easily and ordinarily is Religion made a Stalking Horse or Instrument of the greatest wickedness by those who are either fallen from Truth or else fascinated by some more potent error suffering themselves to be guided or blinded by corrupt and worldly Byasses Paul the Fifth was so bent upon his own Jurisdiction and of that Pontificial Chair that his great design was to Establish a Congregation in Rome whose only study and charge should be to consider of the means whereby Ecclesiastical Authority might be maintained and enlarged and to mortifie the presumptions of Secular Princes In order whereunto he sent into all Courts and Kingdoms such Nuntioes and Agitators as were inclinable to like thoughts His Nuntio in Venice was so passionate in this Cause that he blushed not to say unto the Duke in full Assembly that Almes and other works of Piety the frequenting of Sacraments and all other good and Christian Actions ad nihilum valent ultra were nothing available if men did not favor the Ecclesiastical liberty these were his words And in his ordinary discourse would often say that Christian perfection doth not consist in Almes-Deeds and Devotions but in exalting the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which is the true Cement of that perfection No wonder that the Nuntio was so peremptory when the Pope himself would say that he was placed in that Chair for to sustain the Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical that he would not endure Secular Princes to Judgâ— Ecclesiastical Persons who are not subject unto Kings and whom they cannot Chastise tho they be Rebellious that he had power over all and could deprive Kings and to this end had Legions of Angels for his aid and assistance that tho he should lose his skin yet would maintain the Cause of God and his own Reputation and in defence whereof he would think himself happy to lose his blood Trim Tram like Master like Man Moreover they are arrived at the Quintescence of Policy as to maintain in all places a terrible faction and pay them with the Purses of that State whereof they Plot the utter Ruine Whither all these Doctrines tend he that will but open his eyes may see even to make the Pope the Head and Confaloniere the chief Standard-bearer of the Church and Emperors Kings and Princes their Caudataries only to carry their Traines after them In plain English if these Doctrines be received as true and Censures and Excommunication of any force or virtue as they are but mear vanity and Bug-beares All Princes were in a sad condition nay utterly undone both in
this Life and in that which is to come meer Vassals they and their Subjects likewise in no better condition than the Sheep in Demosthenes where the Dogs were to be banished and the Wolves to be their Guardians for they endeavor to make the World believe that they have power over their Souls and Bodies at their pleasure both in this Life and after Death These have been the Collections and Observations of Fra. Paolo and other learned and faithful Writers and eye-witnesses The best is Ab initio non fuit sie there are no such Doctrines in Bibliis Sacris but the contrary And our Doctrines concerning these points and indeed our Religion is the same which is contained in the Scriptures in General Councils and in the Fathers of the First Three I might say Five Ages which have not been purified in their Purgatory their Indices expurg and agrees with the Articles of Faith and only differs in those which they have lately invented and added which he that examines them one by one shall find that none of them make for the Glory of God but all for the Increase of the Grandeur Wealth worldly Power and Jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Order so that in truth the true Roman Religion such as it was in the dayes of the Apostles and some Centuries next succeeding is insensibly but manifestly Bastardized and become spurious at Rome and all reduced to a new fashioned Religion which chiefly if not only makes for the pomp and Interest of the Court of Rome So that in truth these latter Popes are no more nor otherwise the true Possessors or Successors of St. Peter's Doctrines at Rome than the Grand Signior is of the Doctrines of St. James's at Jerusalem or of St. Paul's in those famous Churches of Asia In the dayes of Sixtus Quintus that Great Prince there lived in Italy that famous Alchymist and Impostor Nick-named Mamugna who was verily believed that he could make Gold not by the Vulgar only but by Cardinals Princes nay by the Pope himself One more wise and more merry than the rest habiting himself like this famous Alchymist went up and down the City of Venice in a Gondelo well fraught with a Cargo of fire Bellows Crucible Glasses c. crying Al Magmugna A tre lire il soldo del loro sino who buyes a shillings worth of pure Gold for nine pence which being told the Turkish Chiaus made this short answer Il gran signore dumque verra a servirlo if he can make Gold the Great Turk shall come to be his Servant I shall make no other Application or inference of this Mountebank Story than what is natural qui vult decipi decipiatur if Princes will be content to let false and base Coin go for currant be it so But in truth all the Papalins were not of the same mind and opinions with those famous Cardinals and Jesuits the Popes Partisans nor with the Court of Rome but Books were Printed Pro and Con by Papalins themselves in great numbers For besides the Papalins within the State of Venice the Sorbonists were very Orthodox and maintained the Defence of the lawful Secular Power opposing themselves against the Usurpations of Rome and maintaining the Liberty of the Gallican Church for that Kingdom holds it for a matter most certain and apparent that Popes have no power over Princes and that they ought not to proceed by Censures against them or their Officers in things which concern the State And as soon as the King knew of the publication of the Monitory at Rome he complained greatly of the too hasty proceedings of the Pope and sent a dispatch to him with speed requesting him to accommodate the differences The King of Polonia absolutely denyed the publishing of the Popes Monitory for that it did not stand with reason to govern themselves after another fashion towards that Republick of Venice whose Cause was common with his own Kingdom The Catholick King of Spain on whom the Pope relyed for Succors for that he had sometime before made liberal offers unto His Holiness from which he retreated in time of necessity and advised him to neglect his own private Interests for the universal good of Christendom and said that it did not beseem the Father of all Christendom to ground a War so cruel and pernitious to Christian People upon a King so pious and that His Holiness would abase the Apostolick Dignity if he sustained by humane means the Authority which God had given him Quarrels of Paul the Fifth pag. 374 375 376. Thus you see Rome it self divided the Pope and Court of Rome differing in this their greatest point and Diana Jurisdiction both from the old and from the more Novel Church of Rome as well as from that of the Church of the Protestants And thus you may perceive the unquiet and uncertain State that all Princes are like to be in and their Condition never like to be better whilst such monstrous State-destroying-Principles are held for Gospel at Rome For it matters not whether these Doctrines are true or false or received and believed by others or no nor yet whether Protestants or Papists it is all a case so long as so believed at Rome You see the State of Venice a Popish Republick no more safe nor quiet than England a Protestant Kingdom Had the Popes Swords been keen and powerful enough no doubt but that they would have brought both those States in their respective differences and quarrels as once Frederick Barbarossa the Emperor to that Brute Alexander the Third creeping on their knees to obtain Absolution from their Sentences of Excommunication or as Henry the Fourth whom Hildebrand would not release from his Excommunication till he came bare-foot to Canusium in a bitter cold Winter waiting three dayes before the Popes Palace for his Absolution which he hardly obtained by the Intercession of the Dutchess Matilda The Pope besides that he is the Head of Romish Religion is also a Prince who hath for more than 600 years by past aspired to the Monarchy of all Italy at least I might say at an universal Monarchy Temporal and Spiritual which he hath been some time so near to obtain that it is a wonder that he hath misled of it seeing he leaves no stone unturned quacunque arte to enlarge his Jurisdiction He hath three great charges upon him 1. That of Religion 2. That of Ecclesiastical affairs 3. The Temporalty of his Estate The care of all which I shall not grudge him as of right belonging unto him in one or other of his Capacities so he kept within his own Dominions and Territories tho happily all of the Romish Religion will not allow him so much for that all Bishops ought to be governed by the Canons and in which both Pope and all Bishops antiently in the best and purest dayes did acknowledge the Supream power to be to which they all submitted and not by the Pope alone there being also three kinds of
and Administration of Sacraments they have had from the largess and good graces of good and Pious Emperors tho now so grateful as to scorn to acknowledge them but to claim them by the most potent claim in the World Jure Divino and to fight against the Sons and Successors with the very Weapons which their Fore-Fathers and Predecessors had put into their hands In sum the Popish claim of such enormous and exorbitant Jurisdiction over all Kings and Bishops hath certainly been the grand cause of all the discords troubles and wars in all Countries of these latter Ages Both the Eastern and Western Churches lived in Brotherly Communion and Christian Charity for 900 years or more In which time the Pope of Rome was complemented both by the Greeks and Latins as the Successor of St. Peter and to be the first of the Eastern Catholick Bishops more out of respect of Rome being the Imperial City than of any Divine right he had above his fellow Bishops In the Persecution of Hereticks his help as also the help of the other Italian Bishops was implored and peace was easily preserved because the Supream power was in the Canons to which both Greeks and Latins professed to owe subjection the Ecclesiastical Discipline was exactly maintained in both Churches by their own proper Prelates as it seemed best unto them but absolutely according to the disposition and tenour of the Canons no intruding into one anothers Government but each mutually assisting other in the observation of the Canons In those dayes never any Pope of Rome pretended so much as to confer a Benefice within the Diocess of another Bishop nor had the Court of Rome as yet introduced the Custom of drawing Moneys from others by way of Bulls and Dispensations But immediately after the Court of Rome began to challenge a Freedom from being subject to the Canons and that at their pleasure they might change all Antient Constitutions of the Fathers Councels yea and of the Apostles themselves and endeavored in the room of the Antient Primacy of the See Apostolick to introduce an absolute Monarchy and Dominion not bounded or regulated by any Law or Canons the Division soon sprang up and tho 700 years past Peace and Re-union have been divers times attempted yet could it never be effected because disputes have ever been intended and promoted more than the taking away of that abuse which was the true Cause that brought Divisions in and made the Rupture and is the only Cause that still maintains them Whilst the Churches were united the Doctrine of St. Paul was held by both Churches and observed that in affairs of publick Government all men ought to pay subjection to the Prince because God commands it should be so whom he doth disobey who will not yield obedience to the secular power by him appointed for the Government of all Mankind never did any pretend that he might not be punished for misdeeds holding it for certain that exemption to do evil is a thing condemned both by God and Man the words of St. Paul in those dayes were held for good and sound Doctrine viz. wilt thou not be afraid of the Temporal Power Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise for the same but if thou dost evil be afraid for he beareth not the Sword in vain for he is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Rom. 13.1 2 3 4 5. After the Division of those Churches the same opinion still remained in the East and continues to this day The truth of these things being so undeniable methinks that it would not be unbeseeming him who accounts himself the Father of all Christendom to put off the Mask of Religion and abandon all his pretentions unto unlimited Powers which would in good earnest be for the good of all Christendom considering he hath but one Soul and that he ought to do any thing to save it and nothing to destroy it and that it is not made of any better or other mould or mettal than the Souls of his Brethren in both Capacities of Prince or Bishops and that Heaven and Hell must divide the whole World and therefore he should wave his own private sublunary Interests for the universal good of all Christendom If such considerations move not yet methinks they should consider that the World is now grown wiser and have made a full discovery of the Vanity of all his Excommunications Censures of his Bulls Interdicts c. nay they themselves have made them all Ridiculous in many particulars witness themselves at Rome who Annually with great formality and Solemnity Excommunicate their most Catholick King of Spain every Maunday Thursday for keeping away part of St. Peters Patrimony and with as great Formality and Solemnity absolve him again on Good Friday without giving any satisfaction witness also the Venetians who upon the close with Paul the Fifth so slighted all his Monitories Interdicts Excommunications and Censures that they did not only refuse Absolution and Apostolick Benediction offered by him but also refused to give him the Ordinary satisfaction of words and of all Pontilles Subtleties Ceremonies that might have the least Semblance or appearance of any such thing The Pope finding himself thus baffled and slighted did not desist but had recourse unto little pittiful tricks and Subterfuges and therefore suffered to go abroad and to be divulged Four Counterfeit Writings 1. A Breve to Cardinal Joyeuse which gave faculty to take away Censures 2. An Instrument of Absolution dated April 21 3. An Instrument of the Delivery of the Prisoners 4. A Decree of the Senate for the restitution of the Religious c. which tho they did not dare to divulge in formal Copies yet under-hand dispersed Breviates of them designing that after a while when they might not be so easily detected and discovered they might be produced and pretended to be true and so to be believed of necessity And this Policy hath often succeeded well to these men who have many times given colour to many such false Writings prejudicial to divers Princes So Gregory the Second served Alphonsus King of Spain about the Office of Mozarabes So Innocent the Third Anno Dom. 1 199. saith that the Interdict against France because King Philip Augustus had put away his Wife Isemberge was observed in the Kingdom when there was no such thing So Adrian the 20. Anno 870. sent a severe Monitor to Charles the Bald King of France which afterwards he was fain to recall with many submissive excuses Stories are full of such Artifices § What Pitty nay what shame is it that so great Princes as Popes esteeming themselves Gods on Earth and Vicars of Christ should by taking such wrong measures of their Authority and Jurisdiction be driven to such pittiful tricks to uphold Powers so exorbitant and which were never given unto them by any Law of God or Man Did they but seriously consider 1. That they like Gods
England and letting John see the danger he was in advised him to become the Popes Foedatary John enforced by the present peril accepted the advice and made his Kingdom Tributary to the Pope to pay him yearly 1000 Marks of Gold Pandulphus hereupon returned into France and commanded Philip upon pain of Excommunication that he should molest John no longer as being now become the Foedatary of the Church but Philip refused to obey and the War continued whereupon in the year 1215. in the Council of Lateran Pope Innocent sent out an Excommunication against all those that molested John King of England And for that Cause in the year 1216. Another Legate called Guallo went to Paris who by vertue of that Sentence of Excommunication commanded Philip and Lewis his Son to forbear to pass with an Army into England which they were then prepared to do But notwithstanding all this Lewis desisted not but entred John's Kingdom with a great power altho the same Guallo was gone over into England and there ceased not dayly to thunder out his Excommunications This War continued unto the death of John after which Lewis had gotten many places of that Kingdom into his hands made Truce for five years with Henry the Son of John who succeeded his Father Thus you see how the very Holiness of Rome can Handy Dandy play fast and loose with Kings themselves § Concerning the desperate damnable Doctrines of this Chapter Novit little ought to be said for that they rather deserve a Spunge than an answer to be obliterated out of all Records minds and memories and because Gabriel Biel a man of their own Leaven hath taken great pains on that Can. Lec 75. to give some tollerable interpretation but can find none but this viz. that this Decretal and all other of the same tenor must be understood in foro poenitentiae A lame shift to help a lame Dog over a stile But Bellarmine will not be so consined he will extend it farther Frier Paolo and mark what follows even according to men of Rome that whoever will affirm as Bellarmine doth that they are to be understood in foro exteriori shall have much ado to avoid the absurdities and the utter overthrow of the Secular Power ordained of God and the confusion of the World which will arise out of these Doctrines For his purpose is to conclude that where Princes use their Power to the hurt of their own Souls or their Peoples and to the prejudice of Christian Religion the Pope may take the matter in hand to redress it If this must go for currant Doctrine mark what will follow viz. There is no action of man in Individuo but it is either a good work or it is a sin Now if it belongs to the Pope to exercise Jurisdiction over all Sins and withall to take upon him to determine what is sin and what not I say there is no longer any Prince but the Pope nay farther there is no place left for any private Government In sum the Pope may by this Doctrine examine all Laws all Edicts all Parliaments all Councils all Successions all Translation of Princes he may call in question and examine all Inheritances and Contracts of all private Men all Marriages all Treatises of Peace and War between Prince and Prince because it belongs to the Shepherd to have a care of his Sheep And this inference doth not only necessarily follow of this supposition but it is also allowed by the Canonists that write upon that Chapter Novit And yet nevertheless have the wisest men and of the most understanding noted and taxed it to be full of Absurdities which to avoid some have out of that Chapter Novit framed a distinction where there can be none viz. that it is one thing to judge of the matter or of the Action or of the contract and another to judge of the sin for if it be the Pope's right to judge of all things as they are sins and to forbid them and to enforce all men to obey his determinations therein what is there more left then for the Prince to do Not one of Democritus's Moats for Bellarmine hath taught us a very general Doctrine that to judge whether any Law contain in it sin or not it belongs to the Pope as it belongs to the Ecclesiastical Judge to determine whether a Civil Contract contain in it the sin of Vsury Hence it will necessarily follow Che il giudicare st una lege centient pâ—ccato è pregiudicio alla chiâ—â—a tocca alt ' isteslo sommo Pontifice che è gindice supren o si come il giudlcare se un contratto civile contengo peccato di usura appertiene al medisimo Giudice Ecclesiallico quals appertient la cognitione de i pâ—ccati f. 330 331. that not only the Pope but every Ecclesiastical Judge shall have Power to determine all matters for it can belong no more to him to judge whether a Contract offend in Usury than whether it contain any other wrong or Injury to his neighbor for all that do so are sins as well as the other And by the same reason it will belong to the Ecclesiastical Judge to determine of all manner of sin And in brief because there is no Action or Affair either Publick or Private whereunto sin is not Incident if it shall be in the Power of the Ecclesiastical Judge to determine and judge of it and either to allow it or forbid it and to enforce obedience to his own determinations All transactions about Contracts all Courts of Justice and all private Families may well be transferred into the Bishops Palace good grist to that Mill But the true Christian Doctrine and the common practice all the World over avoids all these absurdities subjecting all Crimes and Offences unto the Temporal Jurisdiction according to the example of Christ and his Apostles who never pretended to have or exercise any Temporal coertion or coactive Authority over mens sins And if the Pope were Christ's true Vicar indeed he would never usurp more than ever Christ exercised himself or gave him Authority to do The main business of Peter and of the rest of the Apostles was to Teach and Preach dayly in the Temple and in every House Jesus Christ Acts 5.42 Thus you see that these very Doctrines contained in the Chapter Novit need little of our Confutation it is done to our hands by several of themselves and according to their own St. Thomas they are too general because there must be excepted all internal motions of the mind whereof the Pope hath no power at all to judge unless it be in foro Poenitentiae in which also every Priest hath equal power with himself no pleasing Doctrine at Rome and of this sort are the greatest number of sins And their own Divines and Canonists do generally agree that in the Excommunications granted against Hereticks those are not comprized which err mentally so that they which attempt to defend as
a sin as great as the former not to wrest and misapply the New Testament only but to hook in the Old Testament also by Head and Ears to serve a wicked turn and to make that intend the Pope also questo dispregiare Dio nel suo Vicario si chiama da Samuel Profeta 1 Sam. 15.23 una sorte d' Idolatria And this despising God in his Vicar is called by Samuel a kind of Idolatry If one should retort and say that so to expound Samuel is a kind of Nonsence what could be said against it The Text and Story is so well known that it requires no repetition There Samuel as a Prophet by Gods express Precept sharply rebukes Saul telling him that Obedience was more acceptable to God than Sacrifice and that it was as the sin of Idolatry not to rest upon his Commandment And shall Bellarmine now put a humane Precept subject to errors in the Ballance with an express Precept from God by a slight of wresting of Scripture Impune Can any Man that hath any spark of Grace bear it with patience that Humane Precepts should be thus equalled with Divine It is horrid Impiety thus to match and rank any man with God Almighty It is Gospel-like to perswade due obedience and reverence to the word of God in the Mouths of Prelates but to enhaunce and inlarge it beyond its just bounds is rather to abuse and villifie than advance it Who can but wonder and stand amazed that Samuel above 1100 years before there was any Pope or Prediction that there should be one or any description what manner of Person this omnipotent Vicar should be should yet by saying that not to obey Gods express Precept delivered by the mouth of his Prophet is as it were Idolatry should thereby intend the Pope And that Bellarmine should conclude from hence that to despise God in his Vicar is called by Samuel a kind of Idolatry Put all this together 1. That Samuel spake of Saul a King because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord not of a Pope or of his Vicar he hath also rejected thee from being King 2. That under the Law God had no Vicar 3. That Peter was Christ's first Vicar according to their own Confession 4. That the Authority of a Prophet in the Old Testament was Infallible yea even in the least things 5. That Christ's Vicar in the New Testament may by their own Confession err except in matters of Faith è Cathedra With what colour or shew of ingenuity or reason can this their great Goliah Bellarmine aver that Samuel terms this despising of God in his Vicar a kind of Idolatry Deus bone Unto what Absurdities will not Pride Ambition Interest drive men unto Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith But they shall proceed no farther for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was 2 Tim. 3.8.9 without doubt one abuse of Power and Authority gives a greater Scandal to the World and is a cause of greater mischiefs than a hundred disobediences of the subject and the person of the Superior as more eminent is much more bound by his greater obligation to God to do his duty quo major sum eo plus laborabo ut Sol. § Tho it cannot be denied that to err manifestly against the Scriptures be the most dangerous and greatest blindness that can possibly besall any Christians and the greatest Chastisement that God can impose in punishment of them whosoever shall make use of the Divine Authority to serve their own turns in any Worldly Interests yet so Cative is their Zeal of inlarging the greatness and Impery of the Roman Pontiffs that Bellarmine and his Crew make no bones of wresting and perverting any Scripture Old or New to make it serve their turns as hath been Intimated before Bellarmine to prove the Pope's Power to be a Supream Power given of God Mat. 16.10 John 21.16 examined he produceth Mat. 16.19 whatsoever thou shalt bind c. and whatsoever thou shalt loose c. and that this power is universal and over all Christ's Sheep he produceth John 21.16 Feed my Sheep which Texts taken in their true and right sence we heartily imbrace i.e. bounded and limited unto things only belonging to the Kingdom of Hâ—â—â—â—n and â—â— the Edification of the Church according to Evangelical Rules Hebr. 5.1 2. c. For every High Priest taken from among Men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and Sacrifices for sins c. But from hence to ground a new term of Vniversalium and by this ambiguous term to extend and strain it even to Worldly matters is a Doctrine not true nor peaceable nor according to Christ's meaning Nay Pope Gregory Lib. 7. Ep. 30. held this very word Vniversal supercilious and in very great Jealousie when he was first stiled Papa Vniversalis and said it was a proud Title and imported as much as if he were the only Bishop and no other man Bishop but himself And so to have Authority most Universal is sec quid to say that there is no other Authority but it For if the stile of Papa Vniversalis according to Gregory take away all other Bishops a most Universal Authority Pari ratione must needs take away all other Authorities Now to prove this Vniversal Authority it is said to Peter Matth. 16.19 and in his person to all Popes whatsoever thou shalt bind c. and whatsoever thou shalt loose c. ergo their Authority is most Universal Be it so but then by the same Logick in Matth. 18.18 it is said to all the Disciples and in their persons to all Priests their Successors whatsoever ye shall bind c. and whatsoever ye shall loose c. ergo there shall be sundry most Vniversal Authorities which implies a flat contradiction jam sumus ergo pares Indeed the Whatsoever is Vniversal but it is bounded and restrained by the words before viz. the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven so that what pertains to the Kingdom of Heaven was committed to Peter and to the other Apostles but what pertains to the Kingdoms of the Earth Christ never committed to him and consequently to no Priest or Bishop or Pope whatsoever The Genuine sense of this Text is before delivered The other proof by feed my Sheep is also Vniversal in respect of my Sheep but God denieth by Ezek. 34. that to eat the Fat and to feed themselves and to Cloath themselves with the Wool is to feed his Sheep he denieth that to kill them that are fed that to domineer over thom with force and with Cruelty is to feed his Sheep he denieth that to eat up the good Pasture themselves and to tread down with their feet the residue of the Pastures that to drink up the clear water and to foul the residue with their feet is
his Cause that he prohibited a Treatise of Gerson's that had been printed above 100 years before and many other Books by Name then printed and all other Writings which should be made against his Interdict against the Venetians O! much many ways First It had the Fate of all such dishonourable and disingenuous Practices Effects contrary to expectation viz. that the most understanding persons did from such a practice conclude that Reason could not stand nor be on their side who would not suffer the Reasons on both sides to be made manifest and come to the Lydius lapis the Test of right Reason It was also judged marvellous strange that all Writings which might be made were prohibited which was to prejudge before they knew or could understand as if endued with the Spirit of Pithon or of Prophecy they did foresee that men could write nothing on their side that could abide the touch or the light or else that they were such Plenipotentiaries as that they had full Authority to extinguish indifferently the good with the evil Preposterous ways and therefore that wise Republick deem'd it more for their honour and justification and advantage not to imitate his Holiness nor the Advisoes of his sacred Conclave in that which they reprehended in them and therefore they permitted to print and read who would that thereby appealing unto all the World all the World might see on their part that nothing was palliated or disguised and that they did not distrust the judgment of the Universe on what they had done and this was done like a State full of Gravity and full of Wisdom Full contrary did those magnificent Cardinals Bellarmine Baronius and Colonna act whilst they imployed all their Wits and Learning not only to blot out those Hand-writings that were and would have made against them but by pitiful Sophistry and Querks to raise a dust or mist in the minds of their Readers by their own Writings to disguise and obscure the Truth that it might not be discovered nor ever come clearly to the Test and what honour they atchieved thereby Historians are full and such Fates commonly attend such pitiful Policies and Practices The truth is every Government is or ought to be such as to be above all little dirty Intrigues and this is no great one Nitimur in vetitum Books like Poma Adami the more forbidden the more desired it being ever suspected in such Cases that some Truths lye therein hidden which if discovered would fly in the faces of such Opponents as subtlely endeavour to trample them under foot besides such licensed Books are but the language of the present Times and have their Vicissitudes and alternate Fates We have experienced it in our own days and times when Episcopacy was to be pulled up root and branch then forsooth all Presses ought to be open and free it was the Peoples Birth-right and priviledge and the dawning of the day of Truth appearing after the Sun had gone down upon our Prophets and the day had been dark over them for some years past But no sooner had they unmitred the Prelates and minced Episcopacy as small as Herbs to the Pot that every Priest might be a Prelate in his several Parish under another title and vizard but that the old Acts were new broacht and trumpt up again March 2. 1642. and the freedom of the Press must be beleagured with a Committee forsooth of Examinations and a Commission of twenty and learning to her old Barnacles again This device was first set on foot by Antichristian mystery and design to smother Light and Truth that the Contrivers might the more cleverly set up the Kingdom of Antichrist in Cimerian darkness of ignorance and if it were possible to hinder all reformations of their Lives and Doctrines and to insinuate and establish Falshood Turkish policy To uphold their Aleoran they prohibit Learning and Printing worthy of Romish not Protestant Imitation Protestants need it not Truth which is their Shield and Buckler is as strong as the Almighty Magna enim veritas praevalebit Who ever knew her put to the worse Let Truth and Error enter like fair Combatants and Wrestlers into the Lists confuting by dint of Reason is the only Cornish Hug that can lay flat It is Error not Truth that stands in need of such lame Crutches write that write will Licensing or not Licensing may make Truth more or less visible or diffusive but not less victorious Contraria juxta se posita magis elucescunt Rectum est Index sui obliqui the crookedness of Error will the more appear if once brought to the light and true Rule Why are we then so be-Jesuited seeing by locking up the Press Truth is much more likely to be supprest then Falshood and Error The great and usual Clamour and Out-cry against the Liberty of the Press is that it encourageth Libellers against Kingdoms States and men in Authority If they characterize and represent falsly it is then a Libel and a Crime to be and may be punished by the Judges If they despise Dominion and wrong fully speak evil of Dignities quā tales it is a Crime of the same nature But if publication or declaration of Truths shall be esteemed Libels there 's no Law no Logick nor yet Divinity for that Nay it is derogatory even to the God of Truth Go tell Judah of her sins and Israel of her transgression If Ahab and his Fathers house trouble Israel it 's no crime for Elijah to tell him so nor in Nathan to say unto David Thou art the man And the prophane Prophets of Israel must be prophesied against All Governments were instituted by God for the good of the governed and it is not Libelling to tell them so Forbidding publication of Books without an Imprimatur first obtained is to make the Licensers Judges of all Truths and Opinions and it's odds that they will let nothing pass but what is calculated and fitted to their own Interest and the Interest and Genius of the present Times And is not this a Crime of the same nature with the Indices expurgatorii which all honest wise and pious men abhor It is at best but an oblique Art servant only to Times Parties and Interests destructive to Learning and Ingenuity to suppress Monuments of Reason used by their Adversaries on whose side happily Truth is The more noble and warrantable way is to abandon all such little and disingenuous Tricks and Devices and labour by all holy means and endeavours to suppress Vice To punish and discountenance sin and sinners is more glorious before God and man then to padlock Presses it being a shrewd sign that Truth is not on their side that suppress the adverse Reasons Truth is able to justifie it self and acquire its own glory and reward of Ingenuity and Christian Simplicity when suppressing or expunging betrays that we either distrust God for the maintenance of his own Truths or that we distrust the Cause or our selves
or our Abilities It is one thing to stifle Books in the womb before ever they are permitted to see light or that before they are either known or understood and that perhaps by one single person who happily may be much less learned honest or orthodox then the Author and another thing to condemn both Author and Book when examined and found faulty and erroneous For it is most just and reasonable that all and every State should consider how Books as well as men do behave themselves and punish or not punish accordingly accordingly one Carter a Printer suffered in Queen Elizabeths days § Consider matter of Fact by looking a little back Although it was early foretold that Antichrist would come nay that many Antichrists were already come yet until after the 800th year about which time the Eastern Empire divided from the Western there were not many Hereticks found in the Western parts for 300 years after But after the year 1100. by reason of the continual Jars which for 50 years before had been between the Popes and the Emperors which continued unto the year 1200. with frequent Wars there did arise many Hereticks as the Popes were pleased to call them by as good Logick as the Lion is fabled to call the Foxes Ears Horns whose most common Heresies were against the Pope's usurped Authorities over Clergie and Laity This moved the Popes and their Conclaves for Ends not good to establish the two Religious Orders of St. Francis and St. Dominick pure Fanaticks which were soon filled with the most zealous and learned Persons that that Age could afford altogether devoted to the maintaining of the Court of Rome and the Authority of the Pope to which two Orders the care of the Inquisition newly erected was committed and what hath followed since is obvious to every intelligent man which soon spawned the first sanguinary Law against Hereticks by the help of the Emperor Frederick the 2d 1244. imposing fire on Hereticks § But before this we had no Charm nor Lock upon the Press no Purgatory for Books no Limbus Patrum for their Authors we had no proper real and propitiatory Sacrifice in the Mass for the living and the dead nor dry or demi-Communions no Conventicle at Trent no new Creed with 12 new Articles either of Trent or of Johannes Baptista Posa a Spanish Jesuit never heard of before newly printed newly come forth no blotting out of the second Commandment no dividing of the tenth Commandment into two to amuse and cheat the People no Doctrine of Infallibility nor yet of Probability no Penance Sacramental no Satisfaction no Sacramental Confession as now used no Hurtado no Filliucius no Bauny no Lessius no Escobar no Jesuits Morals no power to depose Kings no dissolving Oaths of Allegiance no Gunpowder-Treasons and an Iliad more of such damnable Errors and Heresies I conclude therefore that it bears no shew that forbidding men to write tends to any good end but really to the end to conceal the Truth and to shew it to the World only under a Mask or some deceitful Light I shall conclude with this Observation concerning Printing it self That in the days of Luther and Troubles of Germany about Religion and Vices of the Clergie it was suggested unto Clement the 7th that the occasion of them all was from the new Invention of Printing By Faust and Guttenburg scarce 80 years found out and now not possible to be suppressed which though it had brought to light many Books and much Learning yet they found that in this short time it had made a great discovery of their Arcana Imperii their jugling Arts and Legerdemains much to their prejudice which whilst the Laity were kept ignorant of all went for currant on their side and imputed thereto all the Troubles of Germany about those Centum gravamina then complained of for that now men being better enlightned by printed Books began to call in question the present Faith and Tenets of the Church of Rome and to examine how far Religion was departed from its primitive Institution and Purity Among which one great Crime was that the Laity and vulgar sort of men were taught and exhorted to read the Scriptures and pray every one in their own native Language A great Crime I confess and much to be dreaded for if this were permitted to pass for currant Doctrine the Vulgar would quickly discover their Cheats and Usurpations and believe that the Clergie had abused and cheated them hitherto For if men were once perswaded that they could make their own way and court to God by their own prayers and addresses in their own Tongues which they understood and that they would be heard and be more prevalent in Heaven than mumbled in Latin without understanding what they prayed for it would certainly bring Contempt on the Mass and Mass-Priests on Pardons and Pardon-mongers on auricular Confession and Confessors and on the power of the Keys and in sum would impeach all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which by sinister Artifices had been got and kept secret by the Clergie for many generations For without all doubt the keeping of these and the like Mysteries rather of Iniquity than of Religion wickedly obtained and as wickedly kept in the hands of Priests only participes Criminis parties to their Cheats have given that esteem the Priests now have amongst the Romanists through many Ages to this very day Now since Printing hath made such Discoveries of such Mysteries of Iniquity and brought to light the more pure Word and Doctrine so that their Traditions their Indulgences their false Glosses and their other like Trumperies could not prevail as formerly Romish Craft sought out other pestilent Inventions to maintain their Impieties whereof padlocking the Press was not the least to keep the Laity ignorant And though they could not wholly suppress Printing yet in Romish Territories they ordained that no Book should be printed without an Imprimatur first obtained from some Inquisitor or some such like Myrmidon digging deep to hide their Counsels from all the Laity and to stifle any Light or Truth that was not suitable to their deeds of Darkness hence hath proceeded the obstructions of many Truths fit to be made common but have not been able to appear in the light but by stealth Instead thereof they now set up heathen Philosophy and Metaphysicks against Scripture to make good their mysterious Juglings disputing and reasoning more out of them than out of holy Writ Thus they set up Learning or rather quirks of Learning against Learning and old musty Traditions of former Times and such obscure passages as needed their Interpretations and Explanations and all to keep the Laity in suspence between fear and controversal Juglings and Equivocations Nay they rather have recourse to Tropes and Allegories where none are needful if not to Cabala it self than allow that all the parts of Religious Worship tho' never so clear and plain to every Understanding as to fall easily within common Understandings should be without their Explications or Expositions so that they cannot monopolize the Mysteries of their Church-Government so closely and wholly within their Ecclesiastick Circle but discoveries are made of their Cheats These things well weighed and considered the Conclusion is natural that it bears no shew that forbidding men to write tends to any good end but really to the end to conceal the Truth and to shew it to the World in Mascarata or some deceitful Light only ERRATA PAG. 1. l. 20. for Spiritual r. Scriptural p. 2. l. 9. for neiter r. neither p. 17. for pro r. per in the Margin p. 20. l. 37. after Christians r. to Bethphage John 12. p. 29. l. 9. in the Margin dele Deo p. 78. in the Margin for Soozm r. Sozom. p. 98. Margin for satisfactoriis r. satisfactionis ut p. 146. l. 8. for peace r. piece l. 29 for absolete r. obsolete p. 151. l. 7. dele p. 152. l. 44. for absolete r. obsolete p. 153. l. 34. for ramanded r. remanded p. 160. l. 4. 8. for St. r. Sir p. 163. l. 7. for coenatori nuptialio r. coenatorio nuptiali p 166. l. 18. for Prosica r. persica p. 171. l. 5. for were r. was p. 173. l. 24. for no. r. any p. 183. l. 6. for perspect r. prospect p. 217. l. penult for thing r. think p. 219. l. 18. for pare r. pari l. 37. after Jupiter r. and Venus their p. 234. l. 6. for Alieno r. Aheno l. 9. for dignity r. divinity p. 236. l. 17. for hariretur r. hauriretur l. 37. for Apello r. Apella p. 239. l. 8. for and r. c. l. 13. next unto to r. be