A Seasonable DISCOURSE SHEWING The Necessity of Maintaining THE Established Religion In opposition to POPERY LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Paul's Church-Yard M DC LXXIII 1. HIS Majesty having found it necessary for the good of his Affairs by his Declaration to grant a freedom to all sorts of dissenters from the Church of England to exercise their Religions and to suspend the execution of all penal Laws against them none can doubt but that the Papists against whom the penal Laws were most sharp are and will be watchful to improve it to their advantage so much the more industriously setting themselves to seduce Protestants since they may now securely own and defend their Perswasions and even their Priests openly act in all parts their Function which was before no less than Capital in any of his Majesties Subjects If the industry we expect from them meet not with a proportionable zeal in all true Protestants it will not be hard to conjecture the success of a vigorous and industrious attaque and a faint and negligent defence And therefore I think it cannot be unseasonable to offer a few motives to the stirring up the zeal and awakening the prudence of all such Protestants as fear God and love the King the Church or themselves as well as to arm them with some Arguments for their own confirmation in the grounds of Protestancy in opposition to Popery 2. The first Consideration shall be that of duty to Almighty God who has made us Members of a Christian Church in which we may assuredly find Salvation if we continue in it and live according to its Rules and Precepts This Christian Church our H. Mother has no other Rule of Faith and Practice than the holy Scripture of which when less was written than we have now in our hands St. Paul said then they were able to make men wise unto salvation It receives for Canonical Scripture neither less nor more than those books of whose authority there was never any doubt in the Church giving herein as much deference to Universal Tradition as any Church in the world much more than the Roman does who obtrudes her particula dictates and most notorious Innovations for the Fundamentals of the Catholick Faith It professes the same Faith and no more than what all Christians have made the Badge and Symbole of their Profession namely that which is briefly compriz'd in the Apostles Creed explain'd in those others which is called the Nicene and Athanasian and proved by the holy Scriptures taken in that sense which is evident in the Text to any indifferent judgment and approved by the consent of the Universal Church the Decrees of the first General Councils and Writings of the Fathers We are Members of a Church where are used the same Sacraments which Christ expresly left in his Church and no other We worship the only God as we are taught to believe in him and no other Our administration of this Worship and of these Sacraments is in a language understood by all those that are concerned in them being performed with such rites as are agreeable to the Word of God being for Decency and Order and we use them not as necessary in themselves but in obedience to that Authority which God has given to every particular Church over its own Members Our Discipline likewise is â—ccording to the Scripture Rule and Primitive Patterns as far as the looseness of this Age will bear and if this has weakned the Discipline of our Church we believe it has the same effect even in those of the Roman Communion and had no less in the Church of Corinth in the Apostles times And for the Persons who are employed in the Ministry of Gods Worship and Sacraments and in the feeding and governing of the Flock of Christ they are lawfully called to their Office and Ministry and are consecrated and ordained according to the Scriptures and Canons of the Universal Church and we shew the Succession of our Bishops to the Apostles of Christ as fully as it can be shewn in any other Church at this day Lastly We are Members of a Church which above all other Constitutions in the Christian World enforces the great duties of obedience and submission to the Magistrate and teaches to be subject not only for Wrath but Conscience sake In all these respects our Church holds a Communion with all true Churches of Christ that are or have been in the World and is together with them a true Member of that holy Catholic Apostolic Church which was from the beginning and will be to the end As we pass not severe censures on other Churches though exceedingly erroneous and are for that charity unworthily repaid by the most criminal that of Rome So are we excommunicated by none that we know of but Her The Pope herein dealing with us as he does with all other Christians in the World namely with most of the European Churches and all in other parts except those few whom he has gained of late by his Missionaries The common Cause for which we suffer is nothing else but the defence of the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints and of that Liberty wherewith Christ has made us free against those additional Articles which he would intrude into the one And that Anti-christian Yoke which he would impose on the other The difference between our case and that of our fellow Christians who suffer with us is only this that they are shut out from Heaven as far as the Popes Censures can do it for they know not what many of them even Millions in the remoter parts having never so much as heard of him or his pretensions whereas we know them too well by woful Experience It is not much more than an hundred years since that our Ancestors were under his Tyranny which as their Fathers had insensibly drawn upon themselves by their deference to the See of Rome from whence the Saxons had partly their Conversion so they having endured it as long as they were able after many fruitless endeavours to make it tolerable at last with one consent threw the Yoke off their necks Our Church being thus freed from the Usurpations of Rome by them who were deeply immersed in the errors and corruptions of it the best use they could make of their liberty was this to restore the primitive purity of the Christian Faith and Worship which ignorance and interest had fatally depraved Indeed 't was morally impossible that they should pass untainted thorough so many Ages of darkness when the Popes given up to profligate vice seem'd to drive on no other design but for Wealth and Dominion when scarce any in their Communion understood the Originals of Scripture when those that governed were so jealous of it that they would not suffer any Translation but the Latine which was overgrown the
Kings and dispose of Kingdoms This we learn at large from Bellarmin Suarez Turrecremata Card. Perron Thom. Aquin. Ledesma Malderius to pass by innumerable others all whose Works were publisht by Authority and so own'd as consonant to the Doctrines of the Church to which may be added the Pope's Definition who makes it authentic Law in these words We say and define and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary to salvation for every human Creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome and this Law of Pope Boniface the Eighth's making he effectually commented on himself of whom Platina says That he made it his business to give and take away Kingdoms to expel men and restore them at his pleasure All which that it might want no Sanction or Authority to render it the Doctrine of the Church is justified in the third and fourth Lateran Council the Council of Lions the Council of Constance all which call themselves General and therefore speak the Doctrine of the Church What has been done in this kind since the days of Gregory VII throughout Europe would fill a large Volume in the bare Narration whoever has a mind to see those black Annals need not consult Protestant Writers but read Baronius or Platina and there he will satisfie himself Behold at large the last and greater Triumphs of the Capitol Crowns and Scepters and the necks of Emperors and Kings trampled upon in great Self-denial by Christ's humble Vicar their Realms and Countries taken from them and involv'd in blood by the Lieutenant of the Prince of Peace Subjects discharg'd from their Allegiance in the right of him who himself disown'd the being a divider and a Judge and in a word the whole world made his Kingdom who pretends his interest deriv'd from our Lord Jesus who disclaim'd the having a kingdom of this World So that it was not said amiss by Passavantius That the Devil made tender of all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them to our Lord Christ but he refused them afterwards he made the same offer to his Viear the Pope and he presently accepted with the Condition annext of falling down and worshipping The English Reader who desires to be satisfied in matter of Fact may please to consul the History of Popish Treasons and Vsurpations not long since written by Mr. Foulis to pass by others who have also dealt in that Subject At present I shall only add that although our neighbouring Princes have difficulty enough given them by this Universal Monarch who like his Predecessors in Heathen Rome makes it a piece of his Prerogative to have Kings his Vassals yet they often help themselves by some advantages which our Sovereign is not allowed The most Christian King has his Capitularies Pragmatic Sanctions Concordats and the Priviledges of the Gallican Church to plead upon occasion And his Catholic Majesty as the eldest Son of the Church has several Rights of Primogeniture especially in the Kingdom of Sicily But the Crown of England is not to be treated with such respect it alas ever since the days of Henry the Second or at least King John is held in fee of the Pope and we are in hazard to be call'd unto account for the Arrear of 1000 Marks per An. payable ever since that time And Cardinal Allen has given it for good Canon Law that without the approbation of the See Apostolic none can be lawful King or Queen of England by reason of the antient accord made between Alexander the Third in the year 1171. and Henry the Second then King when he was absolv'd for the Death of S. Thomas of Canterbury That no man might lawfully take thâ—t Crown nor be accounted as King till he were confirmed by the Soveraign Pastor of our souls which for the time should be This accord being afterwards renewed about the year 1210 by King John who confirmed the same by oath to Pandulphus the Popes Legate at the special request and procurement of the Lords and Commons as a thing most necessary for the preservation of the Realm from the unjust usurpation of Tyrants and avoiding other inconveniences which they had proved c. But if this be but the single Opinion of a probable Doctor we may have the same asserted by an infallible one Pope Innocent the IV who before his Colledge of Cardinals and therefore in likelihood è Cathedra declares that the King of England was his Vassal nay to speak truth his Slave From hence it is that the succeeding Popes have been so free on all occasions of turning out of doors these their Tenants upon every displeasure and little pet Not to mention the old misadventures of Richard the Second King John c. Hence it was that Paul the Third sent against King Henry VIII in the Year 1538 his terrible thundring Bull as the Author of the History of the Council of Trent calls it such as never was used by his Predecessors nor imitated by his successors in the punishments to the King were deprivation of his Kingdom and to his adherents of whatsoever they possest commanding his Subjects to deny him Obedience and Strangers to have any Commerce in that Kingdom and all to take Arms against and to persecute both himself and his followers granting them their Estates and Goods for their prey and their Persons for their Slaves Upon like terms Paul the Fourth would not acknowledge Queen Elizabeth because the Kingdom was a Fee of the Papacy and it was audaciously done of her to assume it without his leave And therefore Pius the Fifth went on and fairly deposed her by his Bull dated Feb. 25. 1570. but because the stubborn Woman would needs be Queen for all this Pope Gregory XIII let his Bull loose again upon her and having two hopeful Bastards to provide for to the one he gives the Kingdom of England to the other that of Ireland Nor was she unqueen'd enough by all this but Sixtus Quintus gives away her Dominions once more to the King of Spain and after all when nothing of all this would thrive Clement the VIII sends two Breves for failing into England one to the Layty the other to the Clergy commanding them not to admit any other but a Catholic though never so near in bloud to the Succession in plain terms to exclude the Family of our Sovereign from the Crown In the year 1626 Vrban the Eighth forbids his beloved Sons the Catholics of England the pernicious and unlawful Oath of Allegiance Yet more in the late unnatural Rebellion in Ireland the Loyal Catholics as now they call themselves submitted that unhappy Kingdom to his aforesaid Holmess Pope Vrban to pass by other offers no less treasonable and after that as we are credibly informed Pope Innocent the X. bestowed it as a favour on his dear Sister and much dearer Mistris Donna Olympia And sure we have all reason in the
War with discretion After this friendly character he proceeds to shew by what ways and methods we are to be destroyed which are first to put us to the expences of a War and by raising of forces create a jealousie between the King and his people Then to amuse us with fears of invasion Thirdly To stir up the several Parties among us and to favour one Sect against another especially the Catholics promising secretly to the Benedictines as from the King of England which they will easily believe that they shall be restored to all that they formerly possest according to the Monasticon lately printed there Whereupon says this worthy Author the Monks will move heaven and earth and the Catholics will declare themselves It will not be material to transcribe the whole design laid down for our destruction by this bold Writer which with all other Machinations the providence of God and the prudence of his Sacred Majesty will we hope frustrate This is enough to shew that there are persons in the world who can yet nourish hopes of destroying the Nation and repossessing the Lands of the Church and in printed books make a publick profession of them But if one general Act of Resumption should not disseize at one stroke all the lay possessorâ— of Church Lands 't is plain that in case of Popery by retail they will be all drawn in for what Papist in his last Agonies will obtain absolution without satisfaction first made to Holy Church for the goods sacrilegiously detained Or how will he escape the lying in Purgatory at least and frying there for several thousands of years who instead of having benifit from the Indulgencies of the Church is solemnly cursed and anathematized with the worst of Heretics in the Bulla Caenae as also the Declaration of the Council of Trent upon the score of being robbers of the Church 'T is not to be hoped they should have any benefit from the Treasure of the Church who have enrich'd themselves with that real and material treasure belonging to her which is the only price that buys the other Indeed they who without the plea of a precedent right in few centuries gain'd to themselves a fifth part of the whole Kingdom will not doubt in a much shorter time having the forementioned pretences to recover it again even the six hundred forty five Abbeys whereof twenty seven had their Abbots Peers of England The ninety Colledges two thousand three hundred seventy four Chanteries and free Chappels and one hundred and ten Hospitals which besides the lesser dissolutions of Templars Hospitalers Friers Alien and others that preceded fell together under the hands of King Henry VIII 8. It would be farther weigh'd in reference to the wealth and flourishing of the Kingdom and what is necessarily required thereto the preservation of Trade and the value of Lands and Rents that the more Popery grows the more will idleness increase the more Abbey-Lubbers that is persons exempted from contributing in any kind to the uses of a State either in War or Peace and yet maintain'd as drones on others sweat and labours The more it encreases the more will Caelibate or single life prevail the more Daughters will be sent to Nunneries abroad till they can be fix'd at home the more men will turn Priests and Friers and so less people in the Nation which already has too few And that the numbers in those Societies may be sure to be full it is a known and customary practice to entice and spirit away Children from their Parents into their Covents from whence they cannot be withdrawn without Sacriledge Of this abuse complaint was made long ago in behalf of the English Nation to the Pope by Rich. Fitz-Ralph called Armachanus Anno 1360 though without redress Lay men says he refrain from sending their Sons to the Vniversities fearing to have them taken away from them chusing rather to keep their Sons at home and breed them to Husbandry than to lose them by sending them to the Schools In my time there were thirty thousand Students in Oxford and now there are not six thousand and the great cause of this decrease in numbers is the aforesaid circumventing of Youth To this Accusation William Widford a begging Frier makes answer in his Apology for his Order by undertaking to prove That it is very lawful to entice Children into their Covents without their Parents consent Since the Reformation what Arts have been used to People the Seminaries abroad is a thing too notorious to need an account if any desire satisfaction therein he may have it from Mr. Wadworths English Spanish Pilgrim By this engaging of the Youth in Monasteries and Nunneries there will be as many more idle hands so by the more Holy-days which will be kept there will be the less work done consequently what is done will be so much the dearer an ill expedient for promoting of Trade for four days work must perhaps maintain a man and his Family seven The more Popery encreases the less Flesh will be eaten a third part of the year being one way or other Fasting days besides particular Penances as good an expedient for Rents as the former was for Trade To salve this I expect the Papists should tell us that great numbers of Forreiners of that Religion will come and live among us and supply by their numbers the other inconveniences but the English Artificers and Merchants are already sensible of the mischiefs which those interloping Strangers which are here already do among us and desire no new Colonies Besides 't is obvious to any common understanding that if the admission of Popery bring in Forreigners the discouragement of Protestancy will in greater and more disadvantageous proportions drive out Natives and though it be not certain who will gain by the change 't is manifest that the true English Interest will be a loser by it 9. But to proceed Popery will bring in to private persons a vast expence in Masses Diriges Mortuaries Penances Commutations Pilgrimages Indulgences Tenths First Fruits Appeals Investitures Palls Peter-Pence Provisions Exemptions Collations Devolutions Revocations Unions Commendams Tolerations Pardons Jubilees c. paid to Priests the Pope and his Officers which upon computation amounted to three Millions per annum a great part thereof carried out of the Kingdom in a time when the Indies had not fill'd it with Gold and Silver The tyranny was so intolerable that the whole Nation protested against it in their Letter to the Council of Lyons Anno 1245. wherein among other things they declare that the Italians received hence yearly above sixty thousand Marks besides all other payments to the See of Rome and carried out of the Kingdom a greater revenue than had the King who was Tutor to the Church and was to support the charge of the State Which complaint yet had no other answer than delays and a severe example to terrifie them immediately made upon the Emperour Frederick the
Second against whom his Holiness Innocent the IV then Pope to use the words of the Acts of the Council Pronounced and thundred out the Sentence of Excommunication not without the horrour and amazement of all hearers and by-standers Only the Annats or First Fruits of Bishopricks as they were computed in Parliament Anno 1532. in a few years came to an hundred sixty thousand pound sterling it would be endless to audit the whole Account As England was by the Popes stiled an inexhaustible pit so was there no bounds set to the industry of them who attempted to drain it After a sad complaint of the Rapine Avarice and tyranny of the Pope and his Officers among us Matthew Paris breaks out into these words We might there see heart-breaking grief the cheeks of pious persons drown'd in tears the doleful moan that they made and the sighs which they multiplied saying with bleeding groans It were better for us to die than behold the calamity of our Country and pious People of it Woe to England who heretofore was Princess of Provinces and Ruler of Nations the mirrour of Excellence and pattern of Piety is now become Tributary vile persons have trampled upon her and she is a prey to the ignoble But our manifold sins have procured these judgments from God who in his anger for the iniquity of his People has made a Hypocrite and Tyrant to rule over them If Almighty God should for the like Provocations put us again under the same Egyptian Task-masters we need not doubt of the self-same usage But now for all this expence 't is pleasant to examine what is to come back to us in exchange even Parchments full of Benedictions and Indulgences store of leaden Seals Beads and Tickets Medals Agnus-Dei's Rosaries hallowed Grains and Wax-candles such Traffic that an Indian would scarce barter for such pitiful Gauds that would hardly bribe a child of a year old and yet this is the goodly price they offer for all the wealth of a whole Nation 10. After this Tyranny over our Estates in the particulars rehearsed there is a very remarkable one behind which will well deserve to be considered It is Auricular Confession where not to mention its ill aspect upon Government as being made an Engine of State and Picklock of the Cabinets of Princes sealing up all things from the notice of the Magistrate but making liberal discoveries against him hereby not only the Estate but Soul and Conscience of every private man are subjected to the Avarice and Rapine and withal the Humour and Caprice the Insolence and Pride nay Lust and Villany of a debauched Confessor Every mortal sin upon pain of Damnation must be confessed and when the Penitent after great anxieties has freed himself from this disquiet he must submit to the Penance however rigorous or chargeable or foolish which the Priest enjoyns he and his Family are entirely in the power of this Master of their secrets And if this Awe and Empire however grievous were the whole inconvenience 'twere something tolerable it being to be hoped that so severe a remedy would affright from guilt but the very contrary happens vices of the foulest kinds are hereby procured to the Priest takes often benefit of the sin which he absolves from and having the advantage of these two Points that the person whose Confession he has taken has lost modesty and that he can absolve from the crime it will be easie to perswade the repetition of that sin which his breath can easily blow away and render none I shall not here mention on the other part the perfunctory Penances which seem only imposed to invite to sin again and those authorized by a most authentic pattern that of the Popes themselves for what Markets may we not expect from a poor Priest when his Holiness in his Tax of the Apostolick Chancery has valued the most horrid crimes at so easie rates as a few grosses or a Julio and eighteen pence or half a Crown compounds for the foulest most abominable guilt Nay when a visit to a privileg'd Shrine or Altar and the bare recital of a short Prayer purchases pardon for 100 500 546 6646 days Nay for 7500 10000 1000000 years according to the grants of several Popes to be seen for our great comfort and edification in the Horae B. Virginis So that the Story of that plump Confessor who for six Acts of Adultery is said to have enjoyn'd the repetition of six Poenitential Psalms and when 't was told him that there were seven of them advised the Votary to commit Adultery once more and repeat the whole number may seem a very severe act of Discipline and besides a full attonement for past sins supererogation for future ones So that Vice being brought to this easie rate besides all other misadventures unless we will stand for the honour of being Cuckolds and have our Posterity share the Title which is Proverbial in Popish Countrys to be fils de Prestre it will concern us to look about us while 't is time and prevent these vile dishonours which are preparing for us If it shall be said that 't is not imaginable men should pervert so sacred an action as the receiving of Confessions to those purposes of villany that are suggested I answer first That we may without breach of charity suppose that thing possibly to be done which is notoriously known to have been done as also that the horrour of the crime is competently allayed by their Doctrine who think only marriage and not Fornication inconsistent with the dignity of a Clergy-man And therefore the Nephews of great Clergy-men and Popes have in all Ages been own'd and preferred and moreover Fornication has been allowed to Priests and Friers in compensation for their restraint from marriage three or four Whores as part of their spiritual preferment I say all this being put together there will be little hopes to preserve honour in Families where so many Circumstances concur together to betray it 11. After all this there still remains a farther reason why we should resist the growth of Popery even the most pressing that can be urged Self-preservation to avoid Imprisonment and Inquisition Fire and Fagot Massacres Racks and Gibbets the known Methods by which the Romanists support their Cause and propagate their Faith Should that Sect prevail the Nonconformist shall no longer complain of a Bartholomew-day the Parisian Vespers which bore that date will be resumed again and silence all complaints of them or us and as his Holiness thought fit to celebrate that barbarous villany calling together as Thuanus tells us his Cardinals solemnly to give thanks to Almighty God for so great a blessing conferred upon the Roman See and the Christian World nay a Jubilee was to be proclaimed through the Christian World whereof the cause was expressed to give thanks to God for destroying in France the enemies of the Truth and of the Church