we will promise not to go beyond them and take in any more and so shall you so that if some of us confine our selves to the Holy Scripture and others will go further as far as all those Canons do extend we will yield to live as Brethren in Christian Love and forbear the censuring of one another And herein you may well condescend to us when in many things you have cast off the Canons of those Councils your selves and abundance of them concern not our times or Countries and so many of your own Writers confess that all things necessary to Salvation are in the Scriptures and that Canons are mutable and Churches may vary in these lesser things CHAP. LIII COuld the former terms of Peace be yielded to it would be happy for the Churches and I am perswaded were it not for the Italians the French would yield to them And some Protestants will go further and yield to Rome that if Papists will confine their Faith and Government and Worship but to those limits as the Greeks Armenians Ethiopians c. do they will readily hold this Catholick Communion with them But then we must still remember 1. That we will not be bound to approve of all that they do 2. Nor shall they go about to force all others to rise up to their pitch nor do as the English Bishops would have done to silence and cast out all those Ministers that will not go beyond the Scriptures You shall bear with all that will be Ruled by the Scripture and we will bear with all that will not go beyond the said General Councils or Codex Canonum Ecclesiae universalis Yea and admit such to our Society and Assemblies But now supposing that Rome will not yield to this though me thinks France and other Nations may do it without them the next Degree desirable is that At least we may take one another for Christians and Churches that have such corruptions as yet leave us good hopes of the salvation of multitudes though we suppose salvation more rare and difficult where those corruptions are then where they are not and though we are forced to suspend that Communion with such which with sound members we should hold And indeed the obtaining of this much Peace requireth no more but Christian Charity conducted by a right understanding of each other And for my part I have already this much peace with the Church of Rome and so have many millions more of Protestants as well as I and I think the generality of them But Rome hath not so much Charity for us But we shall not answer nor be condemned for other mens uncharitableness I need not therefore propose any means for that peace which we have already attaired to or may if we will But then let this be accompanyed by the following forbearances CHAP. LIV. THE fourth Degree of Peace desirable whether the last mentioned be attained or not is That we may so far lay by our hatred wrath and striving about the Controverted-points as to consult together of the terms on which we may manage our differences with the least disturbance to the Peace of Christendom and the least disadvantage to the Truths that we are agreed in and to the peoples souls Religious Reason must needs confess the Reasonableness of this proposal in the General But all the difficulty lyeth in the particulars If you ask me what the particular terms are on which we should agree I answer There are many at hand that Reason must needs approve of but because there is no likelyhood of accepting them I shall spare the labour of proposing them And the rather because we have much ado to agree on this much among our selves or the Papists among themselves with what hope can we move that the Agreement should be Universal But this much I may propose 1. That a Consultation of the Agents of Christian Princes and Divines might do much to further such a thing And till that can be had some few of the more Peaceable Princes and Divines should lead the way and give the rest a good example 2. And that an Universal Liberty of Conscience with necessary restrictions might be a probable way Where note 1. That it is an Universal Liberty only that we move for or at least on equal terms It is not that the Papists may have Liberty in England and we have none in Spain and other Countries The Author of the Image of both Churches maketh a long and subtile perswasive for Liberty of Conscience But where would he have it Let them take this equal motion and yield to it if they dare Let the Protestants have liberty in Italy Spain Flanders Portugal Austria Bavaria c. and we shall consent that the Papists have as much Liberty in England Holland Sweden Denmark c. But it must in reason be on equal terms Yet this advantage we know they have that their Agents and Missionaries are incomparably more numerous then ours by reason of the multitude of their Fryars Jesuites c. and their doctrines are more suitable to corrupted nature and carnal interest and the people are more engaged by worldly obligations to their ways And yet we are so confident of the Power of Truth that I would this Proposal were accepted The Bible it self without any Preachers would shrewdly shake the Kingdom of the Pope where men have liberty to use it 2. The limitations of this Liberty are 1. That one party have no more of it then the other 2. That it extend not to allow a disturbance of Ministers and Churches in Gods Worship nor any unpeaceable tumultuary proceedings 3. That no Party be tolerated under this pretence to teach any thing against the Essentials or Necessary points that we are agreed on nor any thing that is against the peace of the Common-wealth or lives or dignities of the Governors thereof Two parties among our selves will dislike this proposal 1. Some will say If Liberty be desirable why may not we grant it in England though Spain Italy c. will not Answ This Liberty is not Desirable for it self but as a means to that end which is so Desirable And therefore it is no further desirable then it tendeth to that end And a partial Toleration of them that tolerate not us is so far from being such a means as that it is the next way to destroy the end that we desire it will but put our necks under their feet and open our bosoms to their Swords and so make our desired Peace impossible No friend of the Gospel and Reformed Churches will prosecute that motion 2. Others will say It is unlawful to grant such a Liberty to Papists because it is false doctrine which they will preach and Idolatry which they will exercise and we must not do evill that good may come by it Answ We may do no evill but we may omit that which at another time is a duty in a season when it is no duty To punish such
are together by the ears who say that Merit of Condignity is but ex pacto by vertue of Gods Promise And now I leave it to the Conscience of any sober Papist whether we be guilty in any one point that this great Cardinal chargeth us with And whether Papists and Protestants were not in a fair way for reconciliation if we differed not more in other things then in these And here again I must let them know that Scripture only is the Rule and Test of our Faith and Religion Their Polidor Virgil in this speaks truly of us saying They are called Evangelical because they maintain that no Law is to be received in matters of Salvation but what is delivered by Christ or his Apostles so sapless and putid is their scorn of the Evangelium quintum If therefore Luther Calvin or any man speak in any word amiss blame the man that spoke it for that word but blame not all or any others for it if you are men Austin Retracted his own errors and which of us dare Justifie every word that hath faln from our mouths or pen before God How many hundred points do Schoolmen and Commentators charge on one another as Erroneous among yourselves shall all the errors of the Fathers be charged on the Catholick Church or all your writers errors upon yours And that we do well to stick to the Holy Scriptures as the sufficient Rule we are the more encouraged to think by the concessions of our adversaries of greatest Note as well as by the Testimony of the Scripture it self and the concent of the ancient Doctors of the Church and the unprovedness of of their pretended additonals Among others even this great Cardinal Richlieu saith thus pag. 38. Nos autem nullam aliam c. i. e. As for us we put or assert no other Rule but Scripture neither of another sort nor totall Yea we say that it is the Whole Rule of our Salvation and that on a double account both because it containeth immediately and formally the summ of our salvation that is all the Articles that are necessary to mans salvation by necessity of means N. B. and because it mediately containeth whatsoever we are bound to believe as it sends us to the Church to be instructed by her of whose infallibility it certainly confirmeth us Note here that 1. He grants us that all Articles necessary to our Salvation as Means are immediately and formally in the Scripture And then surely they may be saved that believe no more then is in the Scripture 2. That we are to believe no Church but that which the Scripture sends us to and to believe its infallibility no further then the Scripture doth confirm it And that the Scripture is our whole and only Rule O that all Papists would stand to this But let them not blame us now for standing to it Had this Cardinall done no more by Policie and Power then by Disputing against the Reformation he might easily have been dealt with CHAP. XL. Detect 31. ANother of their frauds is By ranking the Protestants among the rabble of Sects and Heresies that are in the world and then asking ignorant souls If you will needs be of any sect how many are here before you and what reason have you rather to be of the Protestants then of any other Answ Indeed this question is worth the considering by a Papist or any sectary but the true Catholick is quite out of the reach of it The Church of Christ is one and but One. This one Catholick Church containeth all the true Christians in the world This is the Church that I am a member of which is far wider then the Roman Church The Church that I profess my self a member of containeth three parts 1. The most sound and healthfull part and that is the Reformed Churches 2. The most unsound in doctrine though possest of many Learned men and that is the Papists themselves not as Papists simply but as Christians though infected with Popery 3. The middle part which is sounder then the Papists in doctrine but less learned and below the Protestants in both and that is all the Greeks and other Eastern and Southern Churches that are no subjects of the Pope All these even all true Christians are members of the Church that I belong to though some of them be more sound and some be leprous or lamentably polluted To these I may add many particular lesser sects that subvert not the foundation as some Anabaptists and divers others And will you ask me now why I will not be of another sect as well as of the Protestants Why my answer is ready A Sect divided from the body I abhor I am of no Sect It is the Unity Universality and Antiquity of the Church that are its honourable attributes in my eyes Protestants that unchurch all the rest of the world and count themselves the whole Church of Christ do in some sort make themselves a Sect But where is there any such I know none such nor I hope ever shall do And therefore I may say that Protestants are no more a sect then the Patients in an Hospital that are almost healed or then the higher form of Scholars in a school or then the Merchants or richer sort of Tradesmen in a City And such a Sect God grant that I may be of even one in the Church that shall be of soundest understanding and of purest worship and of the most carefull holy honest life But still I shall acknowledge them of the lowest form even them that learn the A. B. C. to be in the same School with me And if they Papists or any others will disclaim me that shall not unchurch me as long as Christ disclaims me not Nor shall it provoke me to disclaim them any further then I see Christ leading me the way So that the Papists may see that if they will deny the Church that I am of they must deny their own and all the Christian world But how will they answer this themselves Seriously I profess that besides their other errors it is one of the greatest reasons why I dare not be a Papist because then I know I must be a Sectary What is a Papist but as meer a sectary as any that retaineth a name in the Church They are a company of men that have set up a Humane Usurping Head or Vice-christ over the Catholick Church owning him themselves and unchurching and condemning all the Church that will not own him The Church that I am of is neer thrice as big as the Papists Church is Theirs is but a piece and a polluted piece that would divide it self from all the rest by condemning them And now I would seriously desire any Papist living to resolve the question If he will needs be of a sect and forsake the Universal Church why of the Popish sect rather then another If because it is the greatest I answer it s less then the whole If because it
at least be at a greater distance from them then before For such a war will never out of his mind nor will he think himself safe till he hath disabled them from doing the like again But if one part conquer it will be the King or the Puritans for so the Protestants must now be caled If the King prevail then will the Puritans be totally trod down and we by whose help the victory was got shall certainly be incomparably better then we are if not have presently all our will For our fidelity will be predicated the Rebells will be odious So that their very names will be a scorn and there will be no great resistance of us For saith Mr. Middleton in his Letter to the A. B. of Canterb. in Prins Introduct p. 142 143. The Jesuite at Florence lately returned from England who pretends to have made a strict discovery of the state of England as it stands for Religion saith that the Puritans are shrewd fellows but those which are counted good Protestants are fair conditioned honest men and think they may be saved in any Religion But if the Puritans get the day which is a most unlikely thing yet shall we make great advantage of it For 1. They will be unsettled and all in pieces and not know how to settle the Government And saith the Jesuites Letter found in the A. B. of Cant. Study in Prins Introduct pag. 89 90. Our foundation must be Mutation this will cause a Relaxation which serves as so many violent diseases as the Stone Gout c. to the speedy destruction c. 2. We shall necessitate the Puritan Protestants to keep the King as a Prisoner or else to put him to death If they keep him as a Prisoner his diligence and friends and their own divisions will either work his deliverance and give him the day again by our help or at least will keep the State in a continual unsettledness and will be an Odium on them If they cut him off which we will rather promote lest they should make use of his extremities to any advantage then 1. We shall procure the Odium of King-killing to fall upon them which they are wont to cast upon us and so shall be able to disburden our selves 2. And we shall have them all to pieces in distractions For 3. Either they will then set up a new King or the Parliament will keep the power changing the Government into a Democracy The first cannot be done without great concussions and new wars and we shall have opportunity to have a hand in all And if it be done it may be much to our advantage The second will apparently by factions and distractions give us footing for continual attempts But to make all sure we will secretly have our party among the Puritans also that we may be sure to maintain our Interest which way ever the world go The event with common reason and many full discoveries shew that this was the frame of the Papists plot And what power and interest they had in the Kings Armies and Counsels in the wars is a thing that needs no further discovery But had they any Interest in the Councils and Forces of the Parliament Answ It will be expected that he that asserteth any thing in matters of this moment should prove it by more then moral evidence of greatest probabilities and therefore I shall be sparing in my Assertions but yet I shall say in general that though the business would be troublesome chargeable and tedious to call together the Witnesses that are necessary yet Witnesses and Evidences may be had to prove that the Papists have had more to do in our affairs then most men are aware of without any positive Assertions therefore I desire them that can see a cause in its effects but to follow these streams till they find the Fountain 1. Whence came those motions against the Ministry and Churches into our Councils Whence was it that so many men of note did call the friends of the Ministry Priest ridden fellows and the Ministers Iack Presbyters to teach the Nation to bring them into scorn I well know that all this came from Hell But whether by the way of Rome I leave to your inquiry Yea whence was it that motions have been made to pull down all the Ministry at once Was this by Protestants 2. Whence came the doctrine contended for by Sir H. V. and others against the Power of the Magistrate in matters of Religion and for Universal Liberty in Religion I know the Papists are not for such liberty in Spain or any where where they can hinder it but with all I know that it is one of their fundamentals that such matters belong only to the Pope and Prelates and Magistrates must but be their Executioners and I know that its truly the Magistrates Power for which the usurping Pope contendeth and I know that the Papists are most Zealous for Liberty of Conscience in England though deadly enemies to it elsewhere 3. And whence came the Hiders Body of Divinity that hath infected so many high and low How come so many called Seekers to seem to be at a loss whether there be any Scripture Church or Ministry or which be they 4. How came we contrived into a war with Scotland and Holland when we could keep Peace with Spain with them or us or both there was some sorry cause 5. How came our Armies so corrupted with principles of impiety Licentiousness and Anarchy that so many turned Levellers to say nothing of all the rest and rose up against their Commanders and were fain to be subdued by force and some of them shot to death and many cashiered c. 6. How came it to pass that Papists have been discovered in our Armies and in the several parties in the Land 7. And where are the swarms of the English Jesuites and Fryars that are known to have emptyed themselves upon us from their Colledges beyond Sea 8. How came it to pass that the Petitions of the Protestant Presbyters of London and of other Protestants for the Life of the King could not be heard but that the Levelling party carryed on their work till they had set the forreign and domestick Papists on reproaching the Protestants as King-killers and had though very falsely turned the odium of that horrid kind of crime upon the innocent Protestants which the Papists are known to be most deeply guilty of And now in all Nations they make the ignorant people believe that the death of that King was the work of the Protestants or Presbyterians and the blot of their Religion 9. Whence came it to pass that Levelling went on with continued success till the House of Lords with the Regal Office was taken down and an engagement put on all those ductile souls that would take it to be True to the Common-wealth as established without a King or House of Lords 10. Whence came it that the Weekly News Books contained the
but of this one sect and the products of it 1. By this means our Councils Armies Churches have been divided or much broken 2. By this trick they have engaged the minds and tongues of many and their hands if they had power against the Ministry which is the enemy that standeth in their way 3. They have thus weakned us by the loss of our former adherents 4. They have found a Nursery or Seminary for their own Opinions which one half of the Anabaptists too greedily receive 5. By this they have prepared them for more and worse 6. By this means they get an Interest in our Armies or weakned our own 7. By this they have got Agents ready for mischievous designs as hath been lately too manifest 8. By this they have cast a reproach upon our Profession as if we had no unity or consistence but were vertiginous for want of the Roman pillar to rest upon 9. By this they have loosned and disaffected the common people to see so many minds and waies and hear so much contending and have loost them from their former stedfastness and made them ready for a new impression 10. Yea by this means they have the opportunity of Predicating their own pretended unity and hereby have drawn many to their Church of late All this have they got at this one game What then have they got by all the rest I shall next tell you of some of those Heresies or parties among us that are the Papists own Spawn or progeny Either they laid the Egg or hatched it or both And 1. It is most certain that Libertinism or Freedom for all Religions was spawned by the Jesuites who hate it in Spain and Italy but love it in England I have met with the masked Papists my self that have been very zealous and busie to promote this Liberty of Conscience as they deceitfully called it For by this means they may have Liberty for themselves and Liberty to break us in pieces by sects and also Liberty under the Vizor of a Sectary of any tolerated sort to oppose the Ministry and doctrine of truth 2. But the principal design that the Papists have upon our Religion at this day is managed under a sort of Juglers who all are confederate in the same grand principles and are busie at the same work and are agreed to carry it on in the dark and with wonderfull secrecy do conceal the principal part of their opinions but yet they use not all one vizor but take on them several shapes and names and some of them industriously avoid all names The principal of these Hiders are these following 1. The Vani whose game was first plaid openly in America in New England where God gave in his Testimony against them from Heaven upon their two Prophetesses Mrs. Hutchinson and Mrs. Dyer The later brought forth a Monster with the parts of Bird Beast Fish and Man which you may see described in Mr. Welds Narrative with the discovery the concomitants and Consequents The former brought forth many neer 30. monstrous births at once and was after slain by the Indians This providence should at least have awakened England to such a Godly Jealousie as to have better tryed the doctrines which God thus seemed to cast out before they had so greedily entertained them as in part of Lincolnshire Cambridgeshire and many other parts they have done At least it should have wakened the Parliament to a wise and Godly Jealousie of the Counsels and designs of him that was in New England the Master of the game and to have carefully searcht how much of his doctrine and design were from heaven and how much of them he brought with him from Italy or at least was begotten by the Progenitor of Monsters Such extraordinary providences are not to be despised They had a great Operation in New England among those wise and godly men that saw them or were neer them and knew the wayes of them that God thus testified against That which healed them should have warned us But God had a judgement for us and therefore we were left in blindness to overlook that Judgement that should have warned us They are now dispersed in Court City and Country and what God will suffer them and the Papists by them further to do time will discover 2. The next sort of Hiders are the Paracesians Weigelians and Behmenists who go the same way in the main with the former and are indeed the same party but think meet to take another name and fetch their vizor from Jacob Behmen of their life of Community and Chastity and Visible converse as they profess with Angels you may see somewhat in the Narrative of Dr. Pordidge of himself together with Mr. Fowlers of him The most clean and moderate piece of their doctrine that hath been lately published is Mr. Bromleyes way to the Sabbath of Rest or Treatise of Regeneration 3. Another sort of the Hiders are those called Seekers among whom I have reason to believe the Papists have not the least of their strength in England at this day They practise the lesson that Boverius in Apparat. ad Consultat taught Prince Charls long ago Primum est ut quoniam vera Religio tibi inquirenda est antequam ad eam investigandam accedas omnem prius Religionem apud te suspectam habeas lubeatque tamdiu à Protestantium fide ac Religione animum ac voluntatem suspendere quamdiu in veri inquisitione versaris We must suspect all Religion it seems and be first of no Religion if we will become Papists A fair begining We must then be unchristned and suspect Christ and Scripture that we may be espoused to the Pope And this is the Papists work by the Seekers to take us off from all or from our former Religion and blot out all the old impressions that we may be capable of new And if they can accomplish this they have us at a fair advantage For he that is not a stark Atheist or Infidel but believes that he hath a soul to save or lose must needs know the Necessity of seeking his Salvation in some Religion or other and therefore take him off from this and you must needs bring him to some other And he that could prevail to take him off his old Religion is likeliest to have so much interest in him as may also prevail to bring him to another And the Papist thinks that on the pretence of Unity Antiquity and Universality of which indeed they have but a delusory shew they can put as fair for him that is once indifferent as any other can Of these Seekers there are these Sub-divisions or Sects The first and most moderate do only profess themselves to be Seekers for the true Church and Ministry holding that such a Church and Ministry there is but they are at a loss to know which is it A likely thing it is indeed that men that take themselves for extraordinary wise should think there is existent
the New proselites especially such as are of any power and interest in the world and may do them more service in a masked way and can fairly avoid the Imputation of Popery these shall have leave to come to our Assemblies when their cause may make advantage of it That you may see I feign not all this of them besides the proof from certain experience which we daily see let me lay before you the Decisions of one of their principall Directors in this work of propagating their faith and that is Thom. Ã Jesu de Convers Gentium How far they are for favouring of Heathens and Infidels and Liberty of Conscience for them for all their cruelty to Protestants you may see him lib. 5. Dub. 4. pag. 207. Where he tells you that the sentence commonly received in the Schools is that it is not lawfull for Christian Princes to use any force against Infidels for sins against the Law of Nature it self and citeth Caject Victoria Covarruv Greg. de valent And himself decides it in the middle way of Azorius That Pagans may not be punished for despising the honour and worship of God though they may for not giving every man his own and for theft murder false witness and other sins that are against mens right Compare this with Sir H. Vane's doctrine of Liberty And lib. 5. part 1. Dub. 6. pag. 220. he teacheth that A Catholick living among Hereticks may when the scandalizing of others forbids it not for fear of death go to the Temples of bereticks and be among them in their meetings and assemblies because of it self it is a thing indifferent For a man may for many causes go to the Temples of hereticks and be among them in their assemblies as that he may the easilyer and more effectually and commodiously confute their errors or on other just occasions unless accidentally it scandalize others Yea as Azorius saith he may do it to obey a Prince though he be an heretick when he feareth the loss of his honour maintenance or life For in this he only obeyeth his Prince especially if among the faithfull that is the Papists he openly affirm that he doth it only to obey his Prince and not to profess the heretical sect For by that open attestation he avoideth the offence and danger of Catholicks and well declineth the unjust vexation of the Prince And that Papists may eat flesh on dayes when their Church forbids it to hide themselves among hereticks he determineth in Dub. 5. p. 218 219. So that the Papists are abundantly provided for their security against such as would discover them when it stands not with their ends to disclose themselves 3. Another most effectual way of Hiding themselves is by Equivocation or mental reservations which we use to call Lying when they are examined about their Religion their Orders or their actions Lying that hurteth not another they commonly maintain to be but a venial sin which say most of them is properly no sin at all And to equivocate or reserve one half of your answer to your selves say the Jesuites is not Lying nor unlawfull in case a mans interest requireth him to do it See the words of their own Casuists cited for this by Montaltus the Jansenist Were it a thing that needed proof I would give you enough of it Thom. Ã Jesu the Carmelite ubi sup Dub. 4. pag. 218. secureth them sufficiently His Question is Whether one that denyeth it when he is asked of a Heretick whether he be a Priest or a Religious man or whether he heard Divine service do sin against the confession of faith He answereth No for that is no denying himself to be a Christian or Catholick For it is lawfull to dissemble or hide the person of a Clergy man or a Religious man without a lye in words lest a man be betrayed and in danger of his life and for the same cause he may lay by his Habit omit prayers c. because N. B. humane Laws for the most part bind not the subjects conscience when there is great hazard of life as in this case Azorius hath well taught Just Mor. Tom. 1. lib. 8. c. 27. So that by the consent of most there is no danger to a Papist in any such case from his own confession Another way of Hiding their Religion and themselves is by false Oaths which we called wilfull perjury but the Jesuites take for a Lawfull thing when a mentall Reservation or Equivocation supplyeth the want of verbal truth as their words cited by the forementioned Jansenian testifie And who will ever want so easie so obvious so cheap a Remedy against all danger of perjury as a mental Reservation is Yea that the Pope can sufficiently dispense with any of their Oaths of fidelity or Allegiance or the like I shall shew you under the last Detection The Parliament hath imposed on them an Oath of Abjuration but do they not know how little the Clergy and such as have their countenance will stick at that such Nets are too wide to catch them in Hear the words of one of their own Priests Io. Browns Voluntary Confess in Prins Introduct p. 203. saith he Its strange to see the Stratagems which they use with their penitents concerning the Oath of Allegiance If they be poor they tell them flatly when they are demanded to take the Oath that it is damnable and no wayes to be allowed by the Church If they be of the richer sort they say they may do as their conscience will inspire them And there be some of them that make no conscience at all to have it taken sooft as they are demanded What would you have more then such discoveries by themselves 2. But what get they by this Hiding of themselves Answ 1. They hereby secure themselves from danger 2. They do the more easily prevail for the multiplication of their sect For worldly persons would not so easily flock into them without some such security from suffering 3. They preserve those that are come over to them from revolting by the discouragement of suffering especially the Rich and Honourable 4. They angle for souls with the less suspition when they stand behind the bush Papists are become so distasted with the people by the Power-plot and many other of their pranks that they may take more with them if they come masked under another name 5. By this means they may openly revile and oppose the Ministry and Ordinances and Churches and Protestant doctrine without disturbance by the Magistrate A Papist in the Coat of a Quaker an Anabaptist a Seeker or the like may rail at us and our doctrine in the open Streets and Market place and call us all to naught and teach abundance of their own Opinions without a controul And many a poor soul will take an Anabaptist Papist or Seeker into their bosome and familiarly hear them and easily swallow down what they say that would be afraid of them if he knew them