into your society Was heauen made did Christ suffer his bitter death and passion left he an order in his Church that none should be admitted into a state of perfection but either rich folkes or Philosophers or Princes for howsoeuer you teach to the contrarie openly yet your practise sheweth it to be your meaning priuatly No no seditious Choristes Dathanians and Abironistes there is no such text of Scripture nor Cannon of Apostle nor Decree of ecumenicall Synode nor Tradition of the Church nor consent of Doctors nor rule nor principle nor any the least clause in the foundation of your society or confirmation of the same by the Apostolicall Romane Sea that makes for you in this point of singularity election and choice The doctrine of the Catholike Church consists of three speciall principia or causes rightly so tearmed in Christian Philosophie the one supplying locum materiae scil fides the other formae vel efficientis scil charitas and the last finalis scil spes called of Diuines the three Theologicals because they are all infused and none of them acquisite vertues The first is faith as the gate without which none can enter into Gods house either here militant on earth or triumphant in heauen for accedentem ad Deum oportet credere c. The second is charitie as the way by which poore sinners walke in their iourney towards heauen which whosoeuer wants if he haue faith able to remoue mountaines giue all he hath to the poore and his body to the fire yet without charitie shall he neuer come there Si charitatem non habuero nihil sum The third is hope as the finiall end of our entrance into the Church of God and cause of our progresse in a vertuous course of life therein which is to be partakers of a glorious resurrection and to enioy eternall blessednesse for if it were not in hope of this miserabiliores essemus omnibus hominibus Of these three the Apostle sayth manent tria haec fides spes charitas maior autem horum est charitas as much to say as this it is hope that moues vs to trot and trudge and take such paines to come to heauen it is faith that openeth the way thither without which God can neuer be pleased but charitie is the forme and cause efficient and therefore as a golden meane and chiefe of three she giues the Crowne to King and Queene and remaines in heauen for euermore Now tell me you illuminates of high aspires wherein doth your familiaritie and approximation to the inaccessible light consist I know you will not be Solifidians because you smell more of Familians And if you will be neither of both but beleeue as the Catholike Church beleeues then why doth not your words and deedes agree in one You know our sweete Sauiour died for all alike and yet neither all nor halfe nor third nor tenths of all shall be saued You know the merits of Christ Iesus extended on his part equally to Iew and Gentile Christian and Heathen faithfull and infidell Catholike and Heretike and aswell to those that liued in the time of his death and passion as to those that died in Noes time or are now or shall be borne hereafter to the worlds end and yet but one kind to wit the faithfull liuers members of the Catholike Church for vnus Deus vna fides vnum Baptisma vnica est columba mea and would God all of that one company and body mysticall might be saued You know it is not Gods will absolute but permissiue that any one soule should perish and yet herein is an insoundable deapth which a nearer friend of Gods then any of you are calling to mind the Prophets speech Iacob dilexi Esau autem semper odio habui durst neuer define vpon but concluded with nescit homo vtrum odio vel amore dignus sic You know that infirma elementa huius mundi elegit Deus vt fortia quaeque confunderet that Christ chose for his Apostles innocent plaine and simple men without gust or gaule welt or gard and that he confessed vnto his heauenly father humbly acknowledged it as a speciall fauor quia abscondisti haec sayth he à sapientibus prudentibus reuelasti ea paruulis Which paruuli I can neuer be perswaded was meant of the Iesuiticall elated spirite but rather of a Seraphicall Frier whose patron sweete S. Francis hath iustly for his innocency and true humility abounding in his charitie that Ghospell appointed for his day In few you know that if heauen were onely prepared for rich men then beggers might go abegging indeede If for Gentles Nobles and great Princes then boores pesants carters and plow-men might well intreate Peers Penilesse to make a supplication for them to the diuell If for Academickes Peripatetickes Stoickes Epicures and other Philosophers or else if for Samothists Solonists Licurgions and other Lawyers or otherwise if for Petrists Thomistes Scotists and other schoolemen learned wise and profound Clearkes then poore soules what should become of simple men and silly women they might all go hang themselues in deepe despaire If all these three be required in one person as commonly you Iesuites hunt after such buckes of the first head but yet with a veluet pawme then alas for woe how shall euer those come in heauen that haue neither qualitie of body to get it nor gift of mind to gaine it nor quillet of land to buy it nor quidditie of wit to keepe it No no proud Pharisees you are deceiued Non est personarum exceptio coram Deo neither hath he left the kingdome of heauen to be giuen to one more then to another for any humane gift or qualitie in them Sed qui potest capere capiat It is layd open to all alike and onely the truest louers carrie away the greatest trophees and charitable emulation who may loue their Lord God most deerely that is the onely spirituall strife for heauen amongst all those that euer come thither regnum caelorum vim patitur violenti rapiunt illud It is neither gotten by poyse of words by pregnancie of wit by bragge of birth by boast of wealth by dint of sword or pricke of speare Onely such a pricke doth pricke it as prickes the heart of God and man and no humane creature is exempted but all admitted to haue that heauenly Caduceus striken into their hearts Not the poorest begger nor simplest soule nor basest body that liues but hath the touch of loue and affections as naturally inserted in his will as hath the greatest Monarch vnder heauen and therefore all alike neare to God by creation by redemption by natures incline in euery one Loue diuine which we call charity making no distinction of persons but by the measure of their affections And so true it is dimissa sunt ei peccata multa quoniam dilexit multum Et qui plus diligit ei plus dimittitur Hereupon riseth the common opinion to carry
of Spaine is more intollerable then these such idle speculations before mentioned For it is grounded not only vpon the said most sottish speculation against all the kings that liue but likewise vpon a most slanderous traiterous lie in making all the kings Queenes that haue been for aboue two hundred yeeres in this land to haue bene vsurpers tyrants traitors and I wot not what And that which doth not a litle moue my patience this bastardly Iesuite doth father this traiterous assertion vpon that worthy person Cardinal Allane from whom I durst be sworn he neuer had them nor so vile a cōceit euer harbored in his brest Whilest I haue bene diuers times thinking of this fellowes writings touching these such like matters I haue wōdred with my selfe how possibly he could be so blind as not to foresee that when kings should vnderstand what a plot he hath laid for the ouerthrow of all authority by setting vp and aduancing a popular furie they should find thereby verie iust cause giuen vnto them to detest both him and all the generation of Iesuits or any other catholikes whosoeuer that should teach or defend such bloodie traiterous doctrine But I haue stood too long vpon this point if you can procure Master Charles Pagets booke against father Parsons you shall finde the foxe so vncased and left so naked of all honestie wisedome or iudgement touching these points as you may well thinke my paines herein to haue beene needlesse except you will remember that my drift is onely to let you vnderstand that father Parsons and his fellowes are great intermedlers with matters of state and succession especially concerning the English crowne which when they shall be out of all hope euer to obtaine I am verily perswaded there will some of them run mad about it they are so extremely egar vpon it and in such a desperate iealousie and feare of loosing it And therefore will I proceede therein a little further by his Masterships leaue For as the said father Parsons hath laide his plot when England shall be Spanish how the ancient lawe of this realme shall be abrogated and the ciuill law aduanced in the place thereof so hath the prouident gentleman another treatise of reformation in store how to establish amongst vs when that time shall come the ancient lawe termed Lex Agraria Bicause that as it seemeth his mastership is of opinion that the nobilitie of England haue too large and great possessions and therefore by one of his rules in the said reformation their abilities and what they shall yeerely spend must be limited vnto them as also what retinue they shall keepe and what their diet shall be The like course he hath also ordained for the Bishops and clergie they must be put to their pensions and the ouerplus is to be at the direction of the Iesuits to be imploied by the appointment of their Generall resident alwaies in Rome propter bonum societatis and ordine ad Deum Of all which follies although I haue told you in part before yet they comming so fitly to hand as best agreeing to this Quodlibet of succession they can doe no harme to be repeated againe But now if any man thinke it impossible that these fellowes should be thus bewitched with these vaine conceits let him but consider the nature of pride ambition and libertie into what a fooles paradise they are able to cast any manner of persons or professions that are possessed with them They can hardly thinke of any thing but they account themselues woorthy of it and able by their wits to effect it euen the very supreme power and church of S. Peter such is their ambition And for their libertie they are men exempted frō the iurisdiction of all the superiors of the clergie sauing to their owne officers whereby as lawlesse libertines they write doe and say what they list and dreame of I know not what Iesuiticall monarchie And thus farre of this generall point that those men doe not slander the Iesuits that charge them to be greater statists then they would be accounted and thereby to transgresse all ancient orders of religious persons and to shew themselues as runnagates and degenerated from their owne profession THE III. ARTICLE VVHether is it profitable or expedient for the church of God that the Iesuits as father Parsons in sundrie of his writings and so generally all the rest in effect of that societie and some other of their humor should oppose themselues so much as they doe against princes in extenuating their authoritie vpon euery occasion and eftsoones by telling the world what small interest and hold they haue of their kingdomes as that in this case and that case or if they doe this or will not doe that then foorthwith dominium amittitur all is lost they cease to be kings and what else if they escape with their liues it shall please their fatherhoods to tell vs. THE ANSWERE I Thinke their course therein to be neither profitable nor expedient for the church but on the contrarie very pernitious and dangerous and especially in these our daies First bicause I doe not finde that the Apostles sent by our Sauiour Iesus Christ to preach the Gospell did inculcate any such matters or points either of doctrine or policie yea in their writings for ought I see there is no such thing expressed neither doe I remember that any historie doth tell vs of any such course but rather the quite contrarie to haue beene held by them Secondly the heathen kings both before the comming of Christ and in the Apostles times did suppose their titles to their kingdomes to bee much more firme and their subiects being both learned and wise men skilfull in all humane knowledge and lawes did thereof assure them terming them to be the verie life and soules of their kingdomes And it was accounted in the primitiue Church a great slaunder to the Gospell catholike doctrine of the church of Christ when some did report that the doctrine of the Christians was iniurious to the empire or ciuill magistracy as tending to the diminishing of their right and authority Thirdly if either the Apostles in those times or their successors afterwards in the Primitiue Church should haue written or preached of these matters as now the Iesuites doe they would out of question haue beene cut off presently It is true that although they tooke a very mild course yet they indured great persecutions and were very many of them put to death But if they had beene of the Iesuites spirit it is not probable that any but the Iewes who had trayterous harts to the Empire would euer haue indured to haue heard them speake We see that if their enimies could but deuise some litle shew though most falsely that they touched Caesars authority it was sufficient to cry out against them that they were not worthy to liue Nay how sought they to haue intangled Christ himselfe by their question of tribute
which he dissolued not like a Iesuite though Caesar was an Infidell but as all true Catholike Priests ought to doe saying in direct termes giue vnto Caesar that which is Caesars and vnto God that which is his owne of due right Fourthly the Apostles followed the steps of their Master For he being suspected by king Herode to aspire by degrees to the Empire cleared himselfe thereof by paying of tribute and by teaching all other subiectes to giue vnto Caesar that which was Caesars right Then his Apostles afterwards vnderstanding that it was commonly conceiued that the doctrine of the Gospell taught such points and preceps as were very preiudiciall to the state of the Empire and other kings and Princes they to purge that suspition did so oft in their writings commend and extoll the authority of all Emperors kings and Princes shewing the same to proceede from God himselfe and to be his owne ordinance Non est potestas nisi à Deo said Saint Paule to the Romanes And Ciuill Magistrates are sent from God said Saint Peter Ministri Dei sunt thus they taught for the iustifying of the Magistracy of such as were at that time Infidels and persecutors neuer mentioning that thereby they had lost their Empire or kingdomes or that they might iustly be deposed or any such matter as our Iesuites in the like case doe now a daies affirme Fiftly the holy Fathers of the Primitiue Church following the Apostles as they followed Christ when they found that through the malice of Sathan the same obiections amongest many other were still insisted vpon against the Christians and their doctrine as if all had tended to the impeachment of the Monarchy and treachery towards the Emperors they bent themselues to refell those slaunderous imputations Iustinus Martyr Athenagoras and Tertullian succeedingly did write diuers discourses and some to the Emperors themselues wherein they acknowledged as much as the Apostles had taught them And thus these auncient fathers said of the authority of their Emperors being still Infidels and persecutors Noster est magis Caesar vt à nostro Deo constitutus Loe we quoth Tertullian in his Apologie haue more interest in Caesar then the heathen bicause he is appointed Emperor by our God and not by the false Gods whom they worship The name of an Emperor à Deo traditur Dicam plane Imperatorē dominū I will plainely call the Emperor my Lord and Master Inde est Imperator vnde est homo antequam Imperator inde potestas illi vnde spiritus He that made him a man made him an Emperor from him he hath his authority who gaue vnto him life Sciunt c. Christians know who giueth the Emperors authoritie and that they are in their Empires à Deo secundi post quem primi The second person to God himselfe and next him the first With Tertullian the other two fathers before named doe in effect very fully agree whose doctrine you see doth no way sound like the aforesaid tune of Iesuitisme Sixtly I haue not read all the rest of the auncient fathers some of them I haue but neither by mine owne reading haue I found nor euer heard it reported by any of credit that the said fathers did in their times either preach or write any otherwise of the authority of magistrates although Infidels and persecutors nay Apostataes then as you haue heard Christ his Apostles Iustinus Martyr Athenagoras Tertullian did I wil only trouble you with S. Augustine who is most plaine That whether the king be good or bad milde or tyrannous bountiful to the church or a persecutor one that imbraceth the Gospel Cath. Roman faith or is become an Apostata yet they are Gods lieuetenants their power and soueraignty are both from God of him they hold their kingdomes are to be obeyed in all things which are not against the law diuine and Gods church here militant on earth as for their paying of tribute fighting his battels defending their countries and such like Read if you please that which he writeth vpon the 13. Chapter to the Romans and in his fift booke De Ciuitate Dei Cap. 22. and vpon the 124. Psalme in which last place you shal find that he mantaineth in precise termes that Iulian by his Apostacy was not held to haue lost the Empire or his right interest and title that be had before vnto it but obeyed by the Christians propter Dominum aeternum bicause the eternal God would haue it so Now no king be he vitious a schismatike or an heretike can be thought with any reason so euill as an Apostata It is woorse to slide from the faith of Christ totaliter wholy then aliqua ex parte as it is apparant in Saint Thomas Seuenthly I am of his opinion that as the receiuing of the Catholike faith and Gospell of Christ cannot make a priuate man to be a temporall king so the reiecting of the same faith c. cannot make a king a priuate man And indeed to my vnderstanding saluo semper meliori iudicio it were against all reason it should be otherwise As for example à Simili A Farmor being a heathen man and hauing the lease of a mannor which is not good in lawe doth receiue the faith of Christ and so becommeth a Christian Were it not an absurd conceit for any man to thinke that the receiuing of the Christian faith should make the said bad lease to be sound and substantiall Likewise on the other side the said Farmer hauing as sufficient a lease as law can make it of another mannor doth returne againe to Paganisme It would seeme to me as absurd if any person should imagine that the said lease or his right vnto it were thereby any whit impaired Againe when men receiue the Gospell and are baptized be they kings or priuate men it altereth not our case they receiue thereby an interest to the kingdome of heauen but no further right to their worldly inheritance then they had before And so also for the contrary If any king or priuate person being a Christian and withall a Catholike do fall out of the Catholike church and forsake the faith of Christ it is a sufficient punishment for him to loose thereby his inheritance and right to the ioyes of heauen though for his worldly state he be left as the church in puris naturalibus did finde him And the same is in my iudgement in an other like case If the heire apparant of any Catholike king or other prince were either addicted to heresie or should become an Apostata I being borne to be his subiect would vse my vttermost endeuour to reclaime him but if that purpose would not preuaile with him which I know God hath appointed to be the ordinary meanes for mens conuersions I hold it were a very impious part either in me or in any other priuate person being his subiect if we should seeke to preuent him of his right or if it laye in
in this point of rebellion and popularitie saith that where Salomon affirmeth By me kings raigne and Saint Paul auoucheth that authoritie is not but of God and therefore he that resisteth authoritie resisteth God these places are to be vnderstood of authoritie power or iurisdiction in it selfe according to the first institution for otherwise when it is vniustly vsed it may be resisted in manie cases euen by the commons or multitude whom in his Appēdix he bindeth in conscience to rebell c. which kinde of shifts we haue euer detested and therefore nowe you shall heare what we thinke of this doctrine To speake plainely my minde in this case with all humble submission to the Catholike church and censure of my opinion herein I hold this doctrine of the Iesuits in these daies to be an open way to Atheisme so to expound the Apostles as that they might be thought to temporize which is a plaine kinde of dissimulation For there being question made concerning the doctrine of the Catholike church and Gospel of Christ as though it had impeached the authority of the ciuill Magistracie the Apostles to cleare themselues of so false an imputation did of purpose propose the contrary and prescribed such obedience and duty to all subiects as was by the lawes of God and all nations due vnto them But if the Apostles had beene of the Iesuits opinion in this matter and would haue dealt truely sincerely and directly as the Iesuits do neuer when such a doubt was made by the States where they preached they should haue answered to this effect scil If you that are Emperors kings and worldly gouernours doe meane to continue your wicked courses in opposing your selues against Christ and vs his seruants we are by the doctrine of our Master Christ and authoritie committed vnto vs to seeke your confusion and to depriue you from your Empires kingdomes and gouernments as soone as we are able to make head against you or if any of you will be content to heare and obey vs we must tell you that wherunto you must trust which is that when once you haue submitted your selues to this our said doctrine If you shall not foreuer afterwards conforme your behauiour and conuersation according to our rules and prescription we must be bold with you and do the best we can to mooue your subiects to rebellion and to depose you likewise as soone as they shall haue competent strength to incounter with you and in default thereof it is our duety to perswade by all the policies we can deuise some of your neighbour princes to take your subiects parts for your vtter ruine Inter bonos bene agere oportet We professe our selues to be teachers of the truth and therefore we cannot chuse being vrged vnto it in this particular but to signifie the truth vnto you after our plaine and direct proceedings with all men Now if such a kinde of answere to haue beene made by the Apostles do seeme most absurd then what wicked and absurd wretches are these good fathers who by their interpretations do impose it vpon them if they had dealt sincerely Or if the Apostles should haue meant indeed as these men would haue them and as it is before expressed then what might the world haue thought of them that to couer such tragicall points of blood and rebellion and to abuse princes they did pretend nothing but prayers paying of tributes honoring of kings and obeying of them for conscience sake But this course was farre from the blessed Apostles It is indeed very well befitting the puritanes the Iesuits such as Parsons Creswell c. who are the mē that teach practise it For it is their doctrine by dissimulation hypocrisie by lying equiuocating to seduce their hearers But what saith Master Blockwood to Buchanan Paulus vtendum fore precepit Laruatam hypocrisin sub persona religionis latere voluit Potestatibus obediendum edixit quia resisti non posset Christianos viribus admotos ad armacessantes ad arma concitat imperiumque frangit Did Saint Paule commaund vs to be time seruers Was it his minde that religion should be disguised with such a visard of hypocrisie Did he command men to obey the magistrates bicause they were not able to resist them Did he prouoke them to armes when their number and strength serued and bad downe with the Emperor This is right Mahumetisme tendeth to the ouerthrow of the Gospel and church Catholike the sweete spouse of Christ and therefore is to be detested cane peius angue Fiftly this Iesuiticall dreame doth derogate so much from the Maiestie of holy Scripture and the churches authority as thereby the vanity of it is very manifest and apparant For what saith Master Blockwood to Buchanan Itan ' diuinas leges vt humanas Aristotelis mensurarum similes esse putas Doest thou thinke Gods lawes as Aristotle speaketh of humane lawes that they are like measures that they should turne with the weathercocke and chaunge with the conditions of times and places No no much more truely and as it were by diuine inspiration doth he expresse the strength and constancie of diuine lawes who saith Non erit c. There shall not one lawe bee at Rome an other at Athens now one and then an other but there shal be one immortall lawe for all Nations and all times Imperator omnium Deus and God shall be Lord and Emperor of all He is the Inuenter the expounder and the giuer of this lawe which he that will not obey is his own enimy maximas poenas luet and he shal neuer escape greeuous punishments And such were Christs and his Apostles precepts not subiect to alteration and chaunge not framed to serue the time not fitted to this or that priuate person or plebian multitude one while commaunding obedience to tyrants and presently after to take vp armes against them but as we are to thinke of the very lawes of God their rules of obedience are permanent and to continue vnchangeable whilest this world endureth Furthermore it is to be supposed that the Church of God in the times of Iustinus Martyr and Tertullian did vnderstand the meaning of Christ and of his Apostles in this point as well as Parsons or any of his crue But it would haue seemed a strange doctrine both to them and all other Catholikes that had the feare of God before their eyes or any sparke of true and vnfained Catholike religion in their harts in those daies to haue heard it set down for positiue Diuinitie that notwithstanding any thing that Christ or his Apostles taught as touching obedience to kings and Princes yet it is to be accounted a pernitious and vnspeakeable sinne for subiectes being of sufficient force and ability not to resist for to that effect are father Parsons words in his Appendix and take armes against them if they be euill and wicked Instinus Martyr as I haue before obserued hauing set downe the duety of
the Puritanes may dispense with some of their confederacy to insinuate themselues into the Ministery and to vse Surplice cap crosse ring and all according to the Queenes iniunctions which is quite contrary to their doctrine but that they do it for loue of their benefices and euen so the Iesuites may dispense with some of their close confederates or society to passe vnder the name of secular Priestes for their priuate gaine and more aduantage though otherwise their profession be quite contrarie Fourteenthly the Puritanes will haue no superiours no more will the Iesuites Fifteenthly the Puritanes will acknowledge no obedience to any Ecclesiasticall dignitie no more will the Iesuites but yet both of them counterfeitly and dissemblingly do yeeld Sixteenthly the Puritanes labour to pull all Bishops downe and to haue none but Superintendents in England and haue made hauocke alreadie of all such in Scotland and the Iesuites will let no Bishop be in either Realme if they can keepe them from that superioritie ouer them Seuenteenthly the Puritanes seeke to pull downe Kings and Princes and so do the Iesuites Eighteenthly the Puritanes would bring all Kings and common-wealthes to a popularitie and Oligarchicall gouernement and so would the Iesuites Nineteenthly the Puritanes controull both Princes and Prelates as if they were their superiours and the Iesuites checke and controule both Pope and Prince as at least their equals Twentiethly the Puritane Ministers must be of counsell with the Prince in the highest affaires of his Realme so must the Iesuiticall padres or else all is out of frame One and twentiethly the Puritanes must appoint Prince Court and Counsell what to set downe and define in all matters of gouernement and state and so must the Iesuits Two and twentiethly the Puritanes must haue the perusing ratifying and confirming of whatsoeuer doth passe from the Prince or Lords spirituall or temporall of the land and so must the Iesuites or else it shall be despised reiected and holden for ridiculous and not worth the setting foorth or publishing Three and twentiethly the Puritanes must haue all Princes Nobles or other states so dutifull and seruiceable vnto them as they must not laugh they must not play they must not walke they must not talke they must not giue or receiue any gifts or vse any priuate conference or decent recreation c. without their consent or priuitie and onely so much and no more then they appoint them and euen iust so is it with the Iesuits Foure and twentiethly the Puritanes hold he cannot be a good Christian that doth resist them and the Iesuites that he cannot be a sound Catholike that speakes against them c. Fiue and twentiethly the Puritanes count themselues the new illuminates c. and the Iesuits that they are freer from errour more familiar with God more precisely and peculiarly illuminated and more specially indued with the spirit of guiding soules then secular Priests are c. Innumerable of the like comparisons may be made betwixt them in matters of life and manners and I pray God not too many in matters of faith and religion which seeing they both square and differ herein from the Protestants it followeth that the Iesuits and Puritanes do come neerest together in platformes though both opposite one to the other in intention as farre as farre may be THE III. ARTICLE VVHether the Iesuits doctrine smell of innouation and by consequent of heresie in any thing or else is it onely a singularity in matters of manners in all things done or maintained by them THE ANSWEE IT is one thing to smell of any corruption and an other to be infected with a pouant or stinke of the same and therefore that the Iesuits smell most horrible of both and that in a most dangerous manner it is cleare by all these fiue and twenty degrees comparatiue betwixt them and the Puritanes And the like may be sayd of their new institution of an Archpriest a plaine and manifest innouation as a word title and authority quite out of vse in the Church of God at this day All you deuout but maruelously seduced Catholikes for the loue of our sweete Sauiour I desire you and on Gods behalfe I charge you as you loue your owne soules to lay aside all blind affection and partial doom and conferre one of these Quodlibets with another and then weigh well with your selues what cause you haue to moue you to be so eager in defending these moâ—e dangerous aduersaries of your soule then any other professed enemy to the Romane Catholike faith and neuer at all taken or appointed to gouerne in that sense and to that intent and purpose as he is taken to be and is by them instituted and appointed How they smell of other dangerous innouations it will bewray it selfe in time THE IIII. ARTICLE VVHether any of them haue published in printed bookes or openly or in priuate conference taught any thing contrary to the beleefe of the Catholike Romane Church or not THE ANSWERE THey haue and that euerie way in printed bookes in written copies or manuscripts and but most of all in priuate conference Which contrary to their opinion will not be hardest to get witnesses of to auouch it to their face especially in matters of confession and other points which I blush to write of as I haue had relation made vnto me But to the purpose whereunto otherwise do all their libels letters and suggested slaunders spread abroad against secular Priestes the Ecclesiastical state and the resemblance betwixt them and the Puritan Zuinefeldians Anabaptists or family of loue c. tend saue onely to the broaching abroad of most abhominable heresies And in particular whereunto doth father Parsons popular doctrine in the Ciuilians discourse tend saw onely to an absurd heresie of denying free will in humane actions when as in the first part and neere the beginning thereof to cut off all right of succession by birth and bloud he sets me this downe for a generall rule maxime or exioma scil Those things that are of the law of God and nature are common to all nations as God and nature are common to all ergo if the gouernement and regall right of succession were by the law of God and nature descending by birth and bloud the same should be common and alike in and to all nations as God and nature are c. But we see that is false for some nations haue one kind of gouernement and manner of succession and some another c. ergo gouernement and succession by birth and bloud are not of the law of God and nature This Elenchiall fallacy for he will not dare stand syncategorematically to approue it denies slatly free-will putting no difference betwixt the law of God and nature in man and the same law in bruite beastes whereas there is not a boy of any wit that rightly vnderstands onely Porphiries predicables but wold hisse him out of the schooles for a fond wrangling and vnlearned
very probable to be true taking Puritanes Barrowists or Brownists Familians Anabaptists and Atheists all put together and knowing the Iesuits haue a more plausible and deceitfull meanes to deceiue poore soules then any of these yea more colourable deuises then the familie of Loue who at the first set out bookes as Catholikly written as any could be so as you should hardly haue perceiued any heresie or any other villany to haue lurked in them vntill the very vpshot Epilogue or conclusion in the last chapter leafe or paragraffe wherein my selfe once noted how cunningly they dealt to delude the simple and ignorant with a very like perswasion to this of the Iesuites scil That all being bound to seeke for perfection which consisted in renunciation of property in any thing but to haue all common as it was say they in the Apostles time when euery man and woman sold all that euer they had came and did cast downe the money at the Apostles feete and liued in common together none taking any thing of their owne but as the Apostles assigned them So this state of perfection being say the Familians quite extinct and gone out of the Christian world we are those whom God hath illuminated to repaire restore reduce and make perfect the same againe c. And doth not I pray you the Iesuits doctrine and vaunt of their perfection tend to the same end in as bad if not a worse manner then the Familians Reade the second Quodlibet of plots by doctrine for your better instruction in this matter And so to returne to the Atheall order in pollicy obserued by the Iesuites in defamation and detraction of others for their owne aduantage Although they do it by sundry meanes yet so many deuises they haue for making their platforme of aduancement to a spirituall monarchy strong and impregnable if it were possible as when I haue done with these ten Quodlibets which containe as you see each one of them ten a peece and euery one of these ten moe one with another which amounts to a thousand yet shall I be ready and perhaps put it in practise to make vp a new greater volume then this of so many moe the very complementall and historiall summe of all plots practises stratagemes pollicies and deuises that euer either art wit or mallice could or hath inuented being registred refined polished and reduced into a formall method by them But to auoide prolixity so much as I may and discouer them as they are I will onely take one principle or maxime of their mischiefes obserued by them for this matter as followeth In the practise of detraction there is great skill to be vsed many wayes but the chiefe points to be kept are these two the one that the matter haue some shew of probability in it selfe verbi gratia as to excuse a modest graue sober man of drunkennesse who neuer tasted of any wine sider or strong-beare in all his life the presumption must be this with witnesses of it to wit that he was seene twice or thrice go in or come out of a Tauerne or Alehouse c. so to accuse another though as innocent as Ioseph or Suzanna of fornication or adultery the presumption must be that he found such two together alone in a chamber or other place of suspition c. there being no man nor woman liuing but may be thus calumniated and slaundered in whatsoeuer a right Atheist listeth Then the second point is that hauing a ground ab exemplo to build vpon what kind of detraction he pleaseth he must alwayes apply the infamy in iust opposition to the true same and report Of all other sins detractation is holden of diuines to be most dangerous because fame slieth farthest and would the bâ—ckâ—iter neuer so gladly make restitution yet he can nâ—â—er possibly performe it neâ— heâ— in respect of the number to him vnknowne to whose caâ—e the slaunder is go 〈◊〉 Neither yâ—â— in â—e pect of the matter it selfe the most part perswading themselâ—es that some sâ—â—h thiâ—g there 〈◊〉 more or lesse though now it be 〈◊〉 colored 〈…〉 vp agâ—â—â—e Therefore 〈…〉 the Iesuâ—â— will be â—ble to â—â—ke amends 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—â—g so 〈…〉 â—â—dâ— hâ—rs yet on liue I leaue it to their strict actions where they shall find that animus non detractandi will not 〈◊〉 their tâ—â—nes But yet on thâ— contrary the seculars hauing animum detectendi of them in their proper colours 〈…〉 of iustice to make all men beware of them and their false doctrine in this point of casting out a slander or deâ—â—â—â—ing of any opposite to their wicked courses and be euer sure to defame a man most egregiously in that wherein either he knoweth himselfe most faulty and likely to be ouerthrowne or else whereby as by an opposite vice to that speciall vertue gift or grace noted in his aduersary he onely hopeth to ouerthrow or attaint his credite for euer For it being not more common then true that there is no fire without some vapour or smoke no man condemned without some suspition nor any slander raised without some occasion taken or giuen by one thing or other so the party once thus detracted were he as innocent as Christ himselfe yet should he neuer be able to put it out of all mens heads but that some would thinke it either was so or little otherwise or something was amisse Conformably hereunto if the party be prudent of a stirring wit a quicke spirit and a working head c. giue out that he is but a foole one that can keepe no counsell will for a faire word tell all he knoweth and hath nothing in him but a blind Bayardlike boldnesse c. and either learne out some ouersight or other committed by him or else get some one or other to supplant him in the premises which may happily be done in some small trifling matter with the wisest men in the world the common speech being most true aliquando dormitat Homerus and then let that ouersight be a current of course in generall tearmes that he is bâ—t a weake silly peeuish foolish impudent body and say for example why did he not do or tell this or that c. If he be of a good cariage gouernement discretion learning and iudgement c. giue out he is rash vnexperienced of no study learning nor quality nor of any behauiour to the purpose c. If he be to enter into any office or gouernement cry whow what he a Cardinall a Bishop a President a Doctor c. and laugh him or them that report it or wish it out of countenance for it If he write any booke or worke of worth ieast at it scoffe at it find some speciall fault or other in it as either that he brings no proofe but of his own surmize or that his author was of no reckning or such a place person time or actioÌ„ falsly alledged which in historicall discourses indeed sometimes may be amongst the soundest