to justify In the year 1651. a devout Italian Friar being appointed to preach in the Great Dome at Padua the Archbishop present and having been informed that among his Auditors there were some English Protestants that in discourse had earnestly objected as you do Idolatry to Catholicks He therefore that he might occur to such a scandal made choice of the Doctrine concerning Images for the subject of a great part of his sermon And when he came to that point holding in his hand a Crucifix he told his hearers That that Image did in one glance lively represent even to the most ignorant beholder our Lord Jesus God and Man and almost all the circumstances of his most bitter and accursed death so patiently and willingly suffered for us Thereupon with great passion and Rhetorick he magnified the Love of our Lord hanging on the Cross earnestly pressing his hearers to return a proportionable Love and Duty to him And during this discourse he often with great reverence and tenderness of affection embraced and devoutly kissed the Crucifix Having said much to this purpose after a little pause he pursued his Discourse telling them he could not believe or suspect that any one that had heard and seen what he had said and done could reasonably imagine that he had any intention to dishonour our Lord by that which he had done to the Crucifix which represented him much less that he adored it as if he thought it a kind of God that he put his trust in it as expecting any good from it as if he knew not what Divinity Vertue or Sanctity was in that carved piece of wood Notwithstanding because he had heard that such a scandalous imputation was by some misperswaded persons laid on the Church he would then and there undeceive them Thereupon he spit upon the Crucifix threw it scornfully to the ground and trampled it under his feet 36. You see Mr. Bagshaw what kind of Idolaters the Papists are Against this Idolatry let us see what express Scripture you can produce This is the great crime for which there can be no expiation but oppressions emprisonments and Gallowses Now if what hath been here said give you no satisfaction in case you have a mind to reply do not practice your old way of snatching a phrase or expression out of a single Authour a Schoolman or Controvertist and making the whole Church answerable for one mans indescretion But search what the Church her self has declared in the Council of Trent and dispute against that as well as you can and be assured you shall either be answered or else told that you are unconquerable IV. VI. That Mr. Bagshaw's whole Discourse against the Churches Infallibility is nothing to the purpose 1. HItherto of your Preface Now I come to your book which truly will afford very little businesse And in grosse concerning your grave Discourse I must tell you That if you would be as merciful to our Estates and our Lives as You are to this our fundamental Doctrine we should find You a a very commodious Adversary For notwithstanding all your blustring You have not given this Doctrine one blow that smarts at all But God bless us from Your Swords and Your Sermons 2. The Title of your book is The great Question about the Infallibility of the Pope and Church of Rome This Question you undertake to determine We are likely to have good stuff in a Book that mistakes the subject to be discoursed on You should not have said The great Question about c. but Two Questions the one a great one about the Infallibility of the Roman Catholick Church which if it be disproved destroys the foundation of that Church the other a very little question about the Popes personal infallibility in which the Church it self is not concerned at all but only Cardinal Bellarmine and a few Writers zealous for that Court. And when you had said this in all reason having a design to triumph over Roman Catholicks you ought not to have said a word about this little trifling unconcerning Question but have bent all your forces against that Great one which was only to the purpose 3. But You very wisely have spent your whole book upon it only though a subject that You your self in your Preface confess is not yet decided in the Schools amongst learned men which is as much as to say no Catholick is obliged to maintain and consequently no Protestant needs trouble himself about it Nay moreover you say the two Councils of Basil and Constance and in your Book the sixth General Council have vertually decided the contrary having preferred the Authority of a Council above the Pope which therefore may reverse his decisions and actually condemned a Pope of Heresie you might have added the seventh and eighth General Councils which ratifyed the same condemnation and to them You might have joyned Pope Agathon the successour of Pope Honorius that was condemned and his Successours Pope Leo the second and the rest till Pope Adrian the second who lived in the time of the eighth Council 4. Why do You write Books Mr. Bagshaw so confessedly to no purpose at all And why do you trouble your self about a subject that the Authour whom you pretend to confute cannot himself believe what ever opinion or suspition he may have of it For no Catholick can be said to believe any thing as a Christian Verity merely upon discourse of Reason or probable deduction from Scripture but only when such a verity appears either expressly contained in the Bible or is formally decided by a General Council or received by unquestionable Tradition of the Church Now it is apparent even out of Bellarmine himself that none of these wayes the Popes Infallibility has been confirmed Nay more Never yet has any Pope declared that himself is Infallible But you are wise in the midst of folly You write out of all danger of being confuted because no body thinks himself touched so that you have an easie and cheap triumph of it Notwithstanding by your own example I do much doubt your Honourable patron by whose command You say You wrote finds not Epist Dedic his expectation answered if he did expect any great matter and I am sure being very knowing and wise he will not believe that as you brag you have killed the Enemy having left no Argument unanswered since evidently you have mistaken your enemies person through your whole book excepting only the two last leaves where obiter and in answer to an Objection supposed to be made by moderate and ingenuous Papists you make an offer to speak de tribus capellis that is the Pope's being infallible not in himself but in and with a Councill which though it be the only matter in question you call only a Conceit of which you will speak a little and you keep your word you say very little and that little to no purpose at all 5. Therefore to what purpose should any Catholick
set pen to Paper to answer you since if you be never so evidently confuted you are excused from yielding by saying you have said a very little but could have said more and Catholicks are forbidden to yield since they have a world of proofs to demonstrat the Infallibility of the Church far more efficacious then these one or two Texts of Scripture called out by you for your best advantage And even these Texts as they are produced and made use of by Catholicks are unanswerable especially to those that think it reasonable to admit that to be the sence of Scripture which all antiquity has given which all protestants and all reasonable men do They could not foresee that there could arise a Disputant so void of reason as Mr. Bagshaw to whom the whole consent of all Ages of the Church all Councils and Fathers appeared light and inconsiderable if compared with his single reason Therefore till you have proved that Ground demonstratively that is turned sand into a Rock you are not in a capacity either to object or answer 6. And to the end you may set upon such a work to some purpose I pray please to enquire out a Book called Exomologesis or Motives of the Conversion c. where your great Lanista Mr. Chillingworths reasons for such a position are pretended to be answered and in an Appendix to that Book You will find an Examination of the Fundamental Grounds of my Lord Faulklands Discourse on that Subject These are the men you brag of in Your Preface as your great Patrons that is indeed such Protestants as you are that lay such grounds as utterly demolish the whole structure of the English church denying that any Authority upon Earth can oblige any man And this very thing I mean the destruction of the Church of England you Preface your self confesse in your Preface to have Preface been the Design of your small Treatise though written against Papists adding that Nothing can be more unreasonable ib. then this that those Churches or Church-Rulers should Lord it over the Faith or conscientious perswasion of other men who are not certain but they may err and be deceived themselves For that would be to take the Pope's Chair and succeed into his room 7. This therefore having been by your self acknowledged your Design I must repeat what I have already said That the English Bishops and Clergy are far more interessed in your Book for all the Title be only against Catholicks then Catholicks are But as to this horrible position of Yours which utterly destroys all Order and peace Let me tell You that to particular Churches and Church-Rulers if they be members of the Catholick Church infallibility is not at all necessary to make their Doctrines or Orders obliging even in conscience Because all their subjects whilest they remain so are bound I do not say to believe internally but not to contradict their declared Doctrines and to submit to their Orders the refusing of either perhaps not damning but certainly excluding the refusers from an outward communion with that Church So that here you plainly exerto Capite tell the World you are no English protestant though perhaps you would fain have an English Benefice and preach against order in English pulpits 8. Now as for that Great Question of the Infallibility of the Church which You consider only as the conceit of some few Catholicks if You have a mind to write any thing to the purpose to prevent Your mistaking if that be a possible thing give a well-wishing friend leave to informe you in general That there is extant no formal Decision of the Church touching her own infallibility Notwithstanding all Catholicks are bound to acknowledge her to be infallible by a necessary consequence of an essential Article of the Creed Which consequence You may conceive to be thus deduced viz. 9. First it is an Article of our Creed Credo unam Sanctam Catholicam Apostolicam Ecclesiam that is I believe one and but One holy Catholick and Apostolick Church By which Article sincerely professed the person declaring himself a Christian signifies a necessity of his being truly a member in Communion with that One Church and consequently renounces all other Congregations and all Ecclesiastical Communion with persons divided from that One Church 10. In the Second Place Your only Guide common sence and reason tells us that a multitude cannot be called One Society except they be joyned and linked together by a Government and Lawes common to all And therefore the whole Catholick Church being indeed one Body as St. Paul sayes and one General Congregation it must necessarily have both general Rulers and Common lawes universally obliging which does not at all hinder but that under and within that general Congregation there may be many distinct Societies enjoying particular Lawes Priviledges and Rulers upon condition they do not contradict nor refuse to submit to the said general Laws Tribunals and Governours 11. Thirdly our Lord having expressly promised to preserve and continue this Church as one Society to the end of the World so as that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against it it followes undeniably that he has provided sufficient and efficacious means to preserve this unity for otherwise one Article of the Creed might happen to fail 12. In the fourth place since universal Experience both in Humane and Divine matters testifies that never any Writing Law or Science could yet be so expressed but that being left to the wits enlightned Reason and interests of particular men to descant upon them there would follow differences of sences and interpretations and consequently Divisions and separated interests destructive to unity to provide against which the only possible remedy hath alwaies been acknowledged to be the constituting of an External lasting Authority of Judges and Magistrates Hence it is that the Supreme Tribunal of a General Council has evermore hitherto been confessed by all Christians to be the only preservative against a breach in the universal Church and because it cannot alwaies be possible to summon such an Assembly therefore by way of provision the supreme Pastour of the Church hath alwaies exercised in matters that concern the common Faith and Discipline an Authority if not to decide at least to compose and silence all differences in Opinions c. and to put in Execution the Ordinances of precedent Councils 13. Now if You will discourse to any purpose in opposition to this as I know You have a great Tooth against it You must either demonstrate that there is no need at all that controversies should be composed and Schismes healed Or if You cannot do this You must contradict the Experience of all mankind by shewing that Judges are not necessary to end Law-suites that writings alone with enlightned reason will do the business and especially that above all Lawes and Sciences the Holy Scriptures that are in some places infinitely obscure and in plain places compiled in
a popular stile far from that studied exactness of Lawes and Sciences are most proper to have their sence agreed in This must be your task and to make it good it will be expected that You should do one miracle more which is to produce but one Example during sixteen hundred years and upwards taking in the Apostles times if You please to shew that differences in Religion have been prevented or composed and separations of divided Churches re-united by disputing out of Scriptures alone without submission to a common Tribunal On the contrary side we Catholicks will be obliged to shew you that all Heresies hitherto appearing have been so far destroyed by General Councils that the Church has been preserved in Unity and we are confident will be so for ever notwithstanding even so formidable an Adversaries opposition as you are 14. In the fifth place This great Tribunal of a General Council is of an Authority so authentick that no Appeal from it must be admitted Yea moreover it has influence not on the outward actions or professions only but even the judgments and hearts of all particular Catholick persons and Churches This appears not only by the universal agreement of all Fathers and Ecclesiastical Writers past and present but by the solemn stile of the Decrees made by all such Councils in which Anathema's have been denounced against all Hereticks and Schismaticks and they separated from the Mystical Body of Christ to which alone Salvation is promised 15. In the last place therefore the Church being one and to keep it so Authority having been communicated to it by our Lord which Authority for that purpose must needs under penalty of an Eternal separation from Christ oblige all Christians to submit even their minds to it it seems to us that it followes necessarily and inevitably that the Church is infallible Unless we would say that our Lord has commanded us to hear such a Church and Guide as might lead us to Hell To prevent all suspicion of which he has expresly promised to lead not the Apostles only as you fancy but his Church into all Truth with whom he said he would be present to the end of the world thousands of years after the Apostles were dead 16. These you may suppose Mr. Bag. to be the true grounds of the Churches Infallibility It is Infallible because it is One but it is such an One from which as Separation is damnable So that if you a Presbyterian or Independent c. have a minde to assault these grounds then 1. You must first destroy that Article of our Creed I believe one Catholick Church 2. Next you must prove out of express Scripture not only that Scripture is our only Rule but that we have no other Guide to find out the sence of it but only our private reason or spirit and what these joyn'd together conclude upon will infallibly serve our turn whether it be true or false 3. That all the Antient Church and all Protestants too are mistaken when they say that Schism to you the most innocent thing in the World is a Sin a great exterminating sin for which there cannot possibly be a just cause or sufficient excuse 4. Lastly you must have the confidence befitting a Presbyterian to say that all Christians before you have been poor spirited sheepish deceived people that knew not what the Liberty of a Subject was and that all General Councils that presumed to denounce Anathema's against the private spirit or enlightned reason have been most abhorred conspiracies of Tyrants over Mens souls 17. Whereas if you were an English Protestant truly so called but the very supposition is unsufferable and therefore must be changed therefore I say whereas a true English Protestant would protest his readiness to submit both his tongue and soul to a lawful General Council and consequently would have no quarrel against the Infallibility of the Universal Church He would admit Tradition to be the best Interpreter of Scripture Only his Controversiehumour would spend it self against the Roman Churches pretention to the Title of Catholick and would maintain that the English State and Clergy had authority enough to reform themselves without consulting the Roman or any other Churches Indeed if the Eastern Church had still been in Union with the Roman the case then would be altered The English Church on such a supposition would have had a scruple to oppose both 18. Therefore since it is not in our power to oblige the Turk to permit the Eastern Bishops to meet in a General Council with the West for English Protestants sake not yours good Mr. Bagshaw I will take upon me a little more then your Book can require from me and that is to propose in the mean time a convenient mean and expedient towards the removing this scruple and that is as followeth 19. Since we cannot have speaking Judges that will please them they may I suppose do well to help themselves with Books and for that purpose pitch upon some well known time in which the Eastern and Western Churches were united and out of the Books and Monuments of that Age impartially collect the Doctrines then taught and the Church-government then in use through the whole Church For thereby it will evidently appear whether of the Churches Eastern or Western that now differ in both have deserted that which was anciently in both 20. Now I conceive a more proper time for this purpose cannot be imagined then the Age of the Church in St. Gregory the great 's time when England was converted from Paganisme by St. Augustin the Monk sent by him For it is evident that the whole Church was then in perfect Union the same Doctrines were taught and the same Government and Common laws in use all the Christian World over Besides there are extant more better and clearer Monuments both of the Doctrines and Discipline of that Age then in any other and especially in St. Gregories Epistles sent into all quarters of the World and in other of his works translated into the Greek tongue and freely embraced yea admired by the Greek Church we may find what Authority so learned and Holy a Pope exercised over other Churches according to the then received Ecclesiastical Canons Moreover besides S. Gregories Works our own Country both by wtitings of learned men Councils of Bishops and visible Marks in the foundation of Churches and Monasteries will most abundantly furnish us 21. Now when we have found what in that age was the Belief and practise of the whole Church uniformly Then we are to confront thereto the Doctrines and Discipline of the present Eastern and Western Churches Being assured that both of them have not deserted the Antient Belief and practise because if it were so there would not now be extant any Orthodox Church at all and consequently our Saviours promise of leading his Church into all Truth would have failed 21. Now when it shall appear unto us whether of these two great Churches hath
be pardon'd had you only said I fear or I suspect this But sure there is not any Christian except Mr. Bagshaw whose Religion would allow him to say I hope his Lordship thinks his Book unanswerable that is in effect I hope in God that his Lordship is both an Atheistical Hypocrite professing a Religion contrary to his conscience and withall that his Hypocrisie against the nature of that sin is sencelesly void of all worldly pretentions since he counterfeits a Religion that he knowes is ruinous to his fortunes Is this your Theological vertue of Hope Truly it becomes you well Your Faith Hope and Charity I see are all of a piece 6. It may be you knew some Great Men that for some ends you could permit to strain their consciences so far as to profess a Religion that themselves are able to confute But sure they will be no losers by it whatever becomes of ther souls care shall be taken that their worldly Estate shall thrive by it They will declare for a Sect where money abounds and where power and Offices may be shared That is of all Religions in England they will take heed of the Catholick 7. Indeed if you understood what Catholick Religion is you would never say so much as I suspect c. and if you knew what Christian Religion is you would never have said I hope such an abominable so unreasonable a thing In your Sect I conceive such an Hypocrisie may be practised at a cheaper rate But in Catholick Religion no Man can commit that sin alone it must necessarily be attended with most horrible sacriledge and a solemn profanation of two Sacraments Pennance and the Holy Eucharist Therefore I hope that you have been bold to bely your self when you said I hope his Lordship thinks his Book unanswerable I have a better opinion of you then you desire I should 8. As for the Author of Fiat Lux complained Fiat Lux Epist Deâ—â—â—â—â— of by you to your Honourable Patron in the Epistle Dedicatory where you lay to his charge Blasphemies that you good man tremble to mention If you had sincerely related those passages and were they considered not as standing alone but with the dependance on what is delivered before they will be so far from deserving to be called Blasphemies that no sober charitable Reader will deny them to be simple unstrain'd Truths And if you think good to reply to these papers I here undertake to justifie those passages in the proper true sence that the Author apparently meant them Which that it is no hard matter to do I will shew you presently His first passage related by you is this In my judgment saith he Christ our Lord hath no less shewn his Divinity and power in the Pope then in himself And all things considered I may truly say that Christ in the Pope and Church is more miraculous then in his own person My reason to demonstrate the truth of this which is the Authors too is this because the preservation of the Church in Unity and Truth under the Government of supream Pastours without interruption for sixteen hundred years and more amongst so many tryals and oppositions is a greater effect of a Divine power in Christ then he shew'd in prolonging his own personal life for about thirty three years 9. And as to the second passage viz. That the first great Fundamental of Christian Religion which is the truth and Divinity of Christ had it not been for the Pope had failed long ago in the World So that I may truly say that Christ is the Popes God For if the Pope had not been or had not been so vigilant a Pastor as he is Christ had not been taken now for any such person as he is believed this day Consult your books and the whole Series of Ecclesiastical Story will inform you that the Pope by means of Councels of the Western Church assembled by his Authority was he alone that instrumentally destroy'd Arianisme and other Heresies denying the Divinity of Christ which for some ages had in a manner poyson'd all the East 10. And lastly without much boasting I may with him conclude This I may boldly say and am assured of that if the Pope be not an unerring Guide in affairs of Religion that way I mean that I have shewn him in all ages to have exercised his Guidance by General Councils all is lost For this is no other then what with all Catholicks I have asserted and will positively justifie that the authority of the Church in her supream Tribunals is the only assured means of preserving the Church in Unity as being an Authority from which no Appeals must be admitted that is being Infallible These therefore you see are no such Blasphemies as to put you into a fit of trembling 11. I do now expect Sir unless God inspire more charity into your heart that you will make loud complaints of the presumption of your Roman Catholick adversary for daring to defend his Religion against your evident mistakes and the cause of all his profession from the trayterous imputation of a Dependence on a forreign authority most unjustly by you laid to their charge like the ancient Gladiatour you will accuse us for avoyding your blows and thrusts and because we do not recipere totum gladium But this Confidence is the effect of our Innocence only which as the Scripture says Gives the boldnesse of a lyon Nay it is for your sake if you please however it is for our Countreys sake that we beg no more innocent blood may be laid to its charge But if it must still be spilt we had rather you should be our Executioners than any other We give Almighty God and the Parliament most humble thanks that we have been permitted to wipe off the scandal of Infidelity from our Religion This we triumph in Hereafter if we suffer we call God to witness and the whole Kingdom I mean English Protestants that it will be purely our Conscience our Religion our love of Peace and Unity that we suffer for for all manner of security we have and ever will give of being faithfull quiet good Subjects all Oaths expressing only our obligation to Fidelity or acknowledgment of the Kings temporal Supreamacy we will take Does it not become then such Sufferers to be confident Does it not become such lovers of their Countrey to wish that no more guilt may lye upon it True it is we look upon your party as our Murderers you give us up into their hands you kill us with their swords They are inclin'd to mercy being satisfyed of our Innocency but you threaten to set the Kingdom on fire with your crying out Popery if they spare us We do not expect from his Majesty that for our sakes though his most loyal Subjects he should take upon himself the envy that you would raise against him We beseech him he would not indeed he ought not to do it considering the mischief that
A NON EST INVENTVS Return'd to Mr. EDWARD BAGSHAW'S ENQUIRY AND Vainly boasted DISCOVERY Of weakness in the Grounds of the CHURCHES INFALLIBILITY ALSO His Seditious INVECTIVES Against the Moderate Sincerity of PROTESTANTS and savage Cruelty against ROMAN CATHOLICKS Repressed By a Catholick Gentleman PSALM LXIII v. VI. Scrutati sunt Iniquitates defecerunt Scrutinio They made an Enquiry after Iniquities but the Enquirers failed in the Enquiry Printed in the Year MDCLXII Mr. Edward Bagshaw THe Title of your Book is not immodest being called only An Enquiry into the Grounds of the Roman Churches Infallibility But by pronouncing in the conclusion those fatall words MENE TEKEL you confidently declare it cannot be answered The destruction of the Babilonian Monarchy was not more inevitable after the writing that Decretory sentence by an invisible Angels fingers than is the Roman Churches now You have compiled and published this your Book which you judge unanswerable and to deal ingenuously with you so may I too though I be as good a Catholick as the Pope himself What would you have more A reason for it Have but a little patience and you shall not fail of one better then you expect or have knowledge to foresee 2. Yet I conceive it concerns not Catholicks only but the whole Kingdom I mean all good Subjects in it that such a book though pretendedly against Roman Catholicks only yet full of pernicious invectives malicious complaints and seditious reflexions against the State should with a barefac'd impudence stalke abroad in the publick view as fearless of a censure Nor is the Book in it self so highly provoking as in respect of the abominable Preface that no honest subject Protestant or Catholick can read without indignation no reader justify or not mislike without declaring his Thirst after the publick ruine 3. The Apostles advice of redeeming the time forbids me to mispend it by replying line after line to what you have written That therefore which I have to say to you shall be to make good these positions in direct opposition to what you have written viz. 1. That it is against the welfare of English subjects both for body and soul that you and such as you should be permitted to call your selves Protestants and members of the English Church 2. That your instilling suspicions into the peoples minds as if English Divines c. had a design to introduce Popery again is a meer acting over the late Rebellion 3. That your attempt to render Roman Catholick subjects only in an incapacity of Toleration is more groundlesse and in your mouthes most maliciously ridiculous 4. That your whole discourse against the Churches Infallibility only proves that you have nothing to say to the purpose against it I. That it is a publick mischief that Mr. Bagshaw or any such as he should be permitted to call themselves English Protestants 1. IF common fame be true Mr. Bagshaw you are the same person that published so petulant and uncivil a Libel against my Lord Bishop of Worcester and not for that fault alone have been so deservedly Disciplined by Mr. l'Estrange and so smartly whip't that the whole Town has heard your cries How then comes it to pass that you can find leasure to seek out and defy to the combat other enemies But it may be the demolishing of the Roman Church is but an excursion in a Parenthesis whilst you are for your divertisement unbending your thoughts or taking breath awhile against a new combat with an Adversary that has a great deal more zeal sharpness honesty and courage then is for your purpose who hope not to be discern'd whilst in despight of the Act of Oblivion you will not suffer either the King or any of his faithfull Subjects to forget what they have suffered and must expect but still work and preach and print almost totidem Verbis as you did when the horrible Covenant was the only Religion and Gospel of the three Kingdoms 2. These practices Mr. L ' Estrange if he cannot interrupt yet he can call company and bid them take notice of them He will not permit you to Glory as if you could once more couzen the Kingdom into a new Rebellion Never hope to find so much as one English Protestant that will once more be cheated to look upon you as the Assertors of the Subjects Liberties or maintainers of pure Protestant Religion If the Civil Authority will for ever wink at your Caballs and the Ecclesiastick leave open the Pulpits to your Sermons of the old stile and the Presses to your Pamphlets against Bishops and indifferent Ceremonies If you expect Indemnity must be interpreted to regard the future also all that can be said will be Sani Sobrii vigiles perîmus We shall not as heretofore be surprised but we make a Covenant with destruction as if we were afraid it would escape us 3. As for your Pamphlet touching Infallibility though by the Title you pretend to attacque only Roman Catholicks and to demolish the Grounds of the Churches Faith yet in the whole Book there are not quite two small leaves wherein the Church is concern'd at all either in its Grounds or Superstructure Therefore I am confident and it may be Mr. L'Estrange who knows your wayes and Arts much better then I may in a far neater that is his own stile tell you your real Design was to write a Book with the Title against Catholicks meerly to have an opportunity to stuffe the Preface with malicious glances against Protestants too and incense vulgar minds as if Popery forsooth were ready to be introduced 4. Now though my self purely as a Catholick am little concern'd in that part of your book which you purposely wrote against Catholicks and not very much in those passages against Protestants except only in this consideration that you would fain make Catholick Religion your Engine to raise troubles yet as a faithfull Subject to his Majesty and a lover of my Countries peace I cannot but inwardly bewail and must take leave thus publickly to justifie the too reasonable cause of my grief when I see an English Subject openly professing his name and pretending to the Protection of an Honourable Counsellour of State renew the old seditious practise of inflaming the Peoples minds with rage against their Teachers and murmuring suspicions against their Governours A practise that above all others contributed to the raising of the late Rebellion and to the ruine and murder of our late Soveraign of happy memory and his best Subjects and Servants the late Archbishop of Canterbury Earl of Strafford c. Here are still among us God knowes how many Sects that if any Protestant Doctours shall presume to speak or write otherwise then according to what the furious zeal of Sectaries against Ecclesiasticall Unity and peace suggests they must presently be exposed to a general suspicion the Country must be raised upon them and upon the Bishops if they not discountenance them and upon the King unless