visible executioners This premised I argue thus Where there is a liberty of examining and judging there must be a freedome of election upon such judgment but the Church of England v. g. in her Doctrine alloweth men to search the Scriptures and examine whether her Doctrine be agreeable to Scripture or no Therefore the Church of England and other Reformed cannot in reason and equity persecute such men as in foro conscientiae shall upon such due examination of judgment dissent from their Doctrine If this principle pass current amongst us that every one may read judg and interpret Scripture which is by us the judg of Controversies the only rule to guide us to Faith we are bound to give Liberty of Conscience to others Whence one of our own Doctors saith Our Bishops who have declared the Doctrine of giving freedome of Conscience what every one in their private judgments do of discretion hold to be most conformable to Gods Word yet they very inconsequently and disingenuously excite our Governours to force their Conscience to an exterior Conformity Secondly We confess the Church of England and all Churches may erre and for ought we know do erre and lead into error and such an uncertain and fallible guide or ground to rely on is not proportionable to the nature and quality of Faith which must be certain and infallible with an internal consent of the Will and subjection of our understandings to revealed Truths Our Senses may be deluded but Faith not for it must be more firm and certain than any thing we see or feel Supposing then the Reformed Churches fallible will it not be a most unreasonable thing to be still exacting of Recusants by rigorous Sequestratious Oaths and what other penalties they think fit to leave and forsake the Church and Faith which they so groundedly hold to be the infallible guide appointed by God himself as the only means to direct them securely to eternal Salvation And to yield exterior conformity to our own new moulded Church we all profess to be fallible Or to be forced to embrace a Doctrine deduced by fallible interpretations out of Scripture which interpretations the far greater and learneder part of this very age reject as Heretical and which as such were rejected by almost all visible Christianity for these thousand years And which perhaps may shortly be rejected by us We having oft-times rejected that which we cryed up before for verity and the Religion now in vogue not many years ago was cryed down If our Church be not then infallible in what we teach against them but may embrace a lye for a divine Truth they need not to vindicate and justifie their most just recusancy in refusing to submit when we provide them no better security but force them to refuse due submission to that infallible direction appointed by divine Writ to bring them securely to their end To which the most religious the most learned and the major part of Christians ever yet thought and submitted too If I should disobey the sentence of the Church upon what other authority can I more prudently rely What Labyrinths and Abysmes should I fall into How can we force and draw others to our Churches if we cannot agree where and how to lay our Foundation How can we impose upon and restrain others whom we are so far from assuring of Truth as we pretend to be but uncertain of it and are not able to do so much for our selves being liable to change and no ways certain of our own belief to be the most infallible as our multiplied Concessions are pregnant instances What is this but to put certain penalties upon an uncertain Faith And if our Teachers agree not in all points of Religion the Dissenters in controversie are obliged to allow a mâ—tual toleration If we say the Roman Church erred for 900. years till our Reformation we exclude our selves from all possible assurance of true Faith or Salvation And to arrogate to our Selves or to attribute to private persons or Pastors the all-defining Spirit which we deny to the whole Church represented in a general Council is absurd His presumption must needs be vast that builds more on his own tenet then the mature judgment of all successive Fathers While he cryes down others for infallible he lifts himself up to be so as if God revealed more to him than all the Doctors and Propagators of his Church Now let us hear what our own Divines acknowledge Doctor Taylor saith but alas notwithstanding our Religion thus framed by our Divines yet it seems not sufficiently marked or the cognizance of Schism taken away for yet we have no particular positive points among us setled for undoubted Truths those being rather a medley of all Religions and new Sects professed among us or a negation of those tenets of the Church we went out of and which stood a thousand years before us as Histories and Monuments witness which is but a negative Faith in effect for what is positive or of Order and Government is wholly derived and taken from that Religion which not long since we pulled down abominated and so violently persecuted Doctor Gauden saith I see not why Papists may not in reason of State have and enjoy that liberty without perturbing the Publick Peace which Presbyterians and Independents do enjoy in their new ways For nothing will savour more of an imperious or impotent Spirit whose Faith and Charity are Slaves to Secular Interests than for those who have obtained liberty to their Novelties to deny the like freedome to other mens Antiquity which hath Ecclesiastical practise and precedency of a thousand years besides the preponderancy of much reason Scripture and holy examples All which to force godly grave and learned men to renounce or comply with other ways against their judgments must be a crying Self-condemning sin in those men who lately approved the ancient Church way and after dissenting at first desired but a modest toleration And in another place saith To Fleece and depress Popish Recusants by pecuniary mulcts exactions c. is to set Religion to sale and make Merchandize of Conscience and mens errors rather than fairly to perswade and win them by proper and perswasive engines of true Religion Thorndike a learned Divine saith also Cerâ—ainly it may be justiâ—â—able for the secular power to grant Papists exercise of their Religion in private places under such moderate penalties as disobeying the Laws of a mans Country requires For Persecution to Death in that case the whole Reformation condemns the Church of Rome And I conceive there is no reason for that which will not condemn Persecution to Banishment The State may easier be secured of Papists against all such power in the Pope then of our Sectaries against that Dispensation to their allegiance which the pretence of Gods Spirit may import when they please Whereas it is manifest that many Papists hold against those equivocations and reservations which destroy all confidence in the
Bohemia and Poland That imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots That authorized Mountebank and Rochel to stand in defiauce against their King That begot so many conspiracies against Queen Mary of England as appears in our Chronicles That ravished from their lawful Governours the Low Countries and Transylvania and many Towns now called free Was it from any of their Books you have drawn these vile Maximes viz. that the authority of the Soveraign Magistrate is of humane right That the People are above the King That the People can give Power to the Prince and take it away That Kings are not anointed of the Lord That if a King fail in performing his Oath at Coronation the Subjects are absolved from their allegiance That if Princes fall from the grace of God the people are loosed from their subjection Do not these doctrines proceed from Wickliffe Waldenses and other Sectaries Doth not Belforrest sufficiently prove the like maximes from Luther Calvin Melancton Peter Martir c. What Buchanan and Knox did against Queen Mary their lawful Soveraign is evident in History and Beza in Epist 78. ad Buchanan approves their actions Calvin l. 4. c. 3. Instit from his high Consistorian gives this absolution to all Oaths of that nature Quibuscunque hujus evangelii lux effulgeat ab omnibus laqueis juramentisque absolvitur And the famous Minister Surean called Rosiers writ a Book expresly that it was lawful to kill Charls the ninth and the Queen Mother if they would not obey the Gospel Belforrest is sufficient witness See more in Althusius Politicks c. 35. Dausus l. 6. Polit. c. 3. In all the Councils Synods writings of any Roman Divines no such matters are found and allowed but only such as teach Subjects loyalty humility obedience More Princes have been deposed by Sectaries in sixty years than by Papists in six hundred years and that deposing of Kings is no doctrine nor practice of Catholicks shall be proved hereafter and that others have been more faulty in each of their respective Sects in all kind of disorders at home or abroad History and experience testifie In no Country or City in Christendome but Catholick Religion ever entred by meekness and suffering in no Country of Christendome but other Sects entred by sedition rebellion disobedience or murdering of great Princes or Persons by vast destruction of Cities Countries Kingdomes As in France Holland several States in Germany Scotland twenty years in England c. Consider what was done against France Holland several States in Germany Mary Queen of Scots or the late unparallel'd Rebellion In Catholick Religion I find they learn their duty towards God cannot be complied with without an exact performance of their duty towards their Soveraign to obey him not for advantages or temporal concerns but out of Conscience For no Roman Catholick can be true to his Religion who is not true to his Prince Whom they obey for Conscience sake whose Person they love and honour and whose prosperity they always pray for Though stript of their Estates or loaden with stripes It is in the power of great ones to make them suffer but not to make them guilty Their Religion tells them that Caesar's due ought not to be kept from him be he of what religion he pleaseth This is the will of God in Scripture preached by the Apostles and from them derived to us this doctrine is instilled in their Catechisms confirmed by their Sermons and conferences Insomuch that a Papist that is not truly loyal is not truly a Papist if to believe not what they are taught by the Church makes a man cease to be of it From the Saxons to Edward the sixth to be a Catholick was never taken as a bar to loyalty Nor doth it seem possible a Religion which governed England with glory so many hundred years can teach a doctrine destructive to Princes or infuse Maximes that will breed Commotion in the People They are ready by Oath in the face of Heaven to profess loyalty a divine command and an indispensable duty and any who pretend to know what Catholick doctrine is must know this to be a part of it In matters of fact their actions have given indubitable testimonies even by their Enemies own Concessions If Catholicks had been disloyal either the King or his Council or at least the States-men under Cromwel or the Rump must know it They appeal to the Council in all discoveries of their Treacheries against the King whether ever any constant Catholick was accessary or concurred in any design against his Majesty They appeal and challenge all the black Catalogue of Cromwells favorites and the whole Rumpists to discover if they can any Papist who concurred in any plot or action If Catholicks refuse to go to Protestant Churches in respect of Conscience They will far more refuse for Conscience sake to commit Treason a sin of a higher degree will hardly attempt or consent to any desperate act against their State and Country and commit such Crimes as hazard Body and Soul Nay what other Sectaries will boggle at If the King should be a Heathen and make Laws against them they hold it not lawful to resist but peaceably to endure During the time of the late King of France there was proposed by an Assembly of Catholick Divines and Bishops this question or Probleme If it were supposed the King of France became a Mahometan and by his Power endeavoured to force his Subjects to that infidelity whether they might lawfully according to the Principles of Christianity by arms resist him to which question the unanimous consent of the Assembly was that such a resistance would be unlawful since Christian Religion allowed no other way of maintaining Faith against lawful Soveraigns but prayers tears and sufferings When shall we find such a result from a Synod of Presbyterians Compare these primtive Doctrines with new the Evangelists and we shall find them quite contrary to the rules of Wiâ—liffians Waldenses Paraeus Knox and Buchanan c. who teach that Subjects may not only defend by Arms their Religion but offend also And lately Baxter in lib. of Rest p. 258. saith we may fight against Kings if it were for cause of Religion to purge the Church from Idolatry and Superstition The Genova Notes of the Bible 2 Chron. c. 5. allow the deposing of Queen Macha See more in Belforrest On the contrary the Doctors and Casuists of the Roman Church hold it as an Article of Faith that neither Heresie nor Turcism can be opposed by Rebellion Belloy in Apol. part 2. plainly saith Arms against Princes have no warrant Orationibus tantum pugnandum Navar Cunerus and all other Catholick Doctors agree in the same as most conformable to the doctrine and practice of the Primitive Fathers The General Council of Constance Sess 5. concludes it an error in Faith to maintain Subjects may kill their Kings being Tyants nuper accepit Synodus c. Cardinal Tolet in his Summolies l. 3. c. 6. affirms
Laws nor made by the principles of Catholick Doctrine The Arrians were the first introducers of persecution they were not I say enacted by Ecclesiasticks but by civil Governours only We know that by the Canons of the Church ever in force their Clergy under the penalty of irregularity are forbidden to have any hand in blood And whatsoever civil Laws have been made by Catholick civil Governours were but as prudent means to prevent Sedition or Rebellions justly apprehended And though for some later ages civil Magistrates in some Countries exercise greater severities than anciently were used must England imitate the rigidest of other Countries Neither can our hatred or persecution against Catholicks be any more excused by the proceedings of the Spanish or Italian Inquisitions than our penal Statutes have been by the Laws of ancient Kings and Emperours against Hereticks First Because the Inquisition proceeds according to the rules and forms of justice none is declared an Heretick or guilty by any new Law or Oath made only to the end that by them men may be entrapped both in Soul in Body and Estate It was no crime in England to be a Roman Catholick before the penal Laws were enacted but it was a crime to be an Heretick or an Apostate or broacher of new Doctrines before the ancient Emperors and Kings made penal Laws against Heresie The Law supposed and did not make the crime As penal Statutes do in England making a crime of Christian Religion Secondly Hereticks are never condemned by the Inquisition without the testimony of many lawful witnesses both living and dead All the ancient Fathers Councils and the Christian Church of former ages testifie their errors are new and contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles No Rebel was ever more evidently convicted of Rebellion against his Prince then Hereticks are by the Inquisition of Heresie against God and the old Apostolical Church Catholicks cannot obtain so fair a Plea they are condemned by a new Law because they are not Hereticks and separate from the ancient Faith Thirdly The Inquisition practiceth all imaginary means towards the accused to reduce his judgment Fourthly The Inquisition it self is permitted in no Kingdome where Heresie is numerous nor can it be in justice they strive to keep out Sects and new Opinions in Countries totally of one Belief We do not morally blame the very Moors in Africa being of one profession for keeping out the Gospel it self In England where all fell not from the Papacy there is not the same just motive for severity as if it brought an upstart Religion never heard of or spread over the Nation Fifthly The Inquisition medleth not with those who never were Catholicks but the penal Statutes comprehend them who never were of their Church or Communion Sixthly The Inquisition condemns no Hereticks to death but only declares their heresie to the end the faithful may avoid their conversation its true the Secular power executes the sentence of death against them notwithstanding the Inquisition doth protest against the rigour and desireth that Hereticks may not be punished with death Seventhly Though the Inquisition were rigorous and unjust as adversaries pretend it is not a blemish to Catholick Religion because it is not an universal practice but limited to Spain and Italy at the instance of secular Princes looked upon as a necessary means to keep their Subjects in awe of their 〈◊〉 Eighthly The Inquisition â—oth seriously wish and endeavour the conâ—ersion and amendment of Hereticks imploâ—ing learned Divines to convince them and by fair ways and reason to win them Neither can the Muthers or Massacres in Ireland so much and so often exaggerated in Protestant Pamphlets and Pulpits be any pretext of rigour or austerity to English Catholicks What hath an English Catholick to do with an Irish Massacre Can we our selves excuse all the extravagancies by some of our natives and party Doth Catholick Religion either incline him to or teach murther or rebellion Have they not a setled sense of Scripture for loyalty and obedience Which none can alter without breach of his Catholick Faith And they are not their own interpreters and and judges in points controverted that 's the priviledge of others I only say and wish from my soul that some indiscreet Zealots had not a greater hand in them than Catholick Religion whose tenets are contrary to cruelty and murther on any pretence whatsoever Is it not notorious that the Reformed Zealots in Ireland signed a bloody Petition offered to the Parliament in England that all Irish that would not go to Church might be extirpated or banished This was done before the Irish Catholicks did stir Suppose that in Vlster some of the rascality or Kerns being exasperated by so many and continual injuries had murthered some persons must that reflect upon the English Catholicks and all the Irish Nation or what is the Irish Râ—â—ellion to English Catholicks who detest it more than the Amboyna to Reformists it is too much ascertained that the Murthers and Massacres done in Ireland by Reformists furious zeal against Catholicks exceeded those committed by Catholicks witness their murthers about Dublin the County of Wicko and Fingcole by the transplantation of them into Canaught and by the transporting them into the Plantations of America forcing them to the Oath of Abjuration and almost starving them in those places contrary to the Publick Faith given them by printed Declarations in the Name of the English Parliament to Irish Catholicks Anno 1649. 1652. that the Oath of Abjuration shall not be administred to any in Ireland Baxter in his Cure of Church-Division confesseth and saith they put the Irish to death that went to defend themselves and stand for the King and Country yet they who seemed so godly themselves Massacred millions of their own Country that were for the Country and King and gave God many humiliation days and thanks for their success killing after so many Scots in cold blood after they were taken at Worcester Fight See Baxter But whosoever desires to be better satisfied in this of Ireland let him read the printed Remonstrance of the Irish Confederate Catholicks delivered by their Commissioners the Lord Vicount Preston and Sir Robert Talbot the seventeenth of March 1642. to his Majesties Commissioners at Trim. There he will see how the Irish desired the murthers on both sides might be punished and how they were forced to take up arms by the wicked practices of Sir William Persons Sir Charls Coot and other fiery Protestants who governed the Kingdom Therefore whatsoever may be said in passion of the Irish war its evident that the Calvinistical Zealot had great influence upon their injurious provocations murthering seven or eight hundred women children Ploughmen and labourers in a day in the Kings Land whensoever the Army went abroad the poor Country-people did betake themselves to the Firrs where the Parliament Officers did besiege them and set the Fâ—rrs on fire and such as escaped that element were
Soveraign in Allegiance Though not secured in those that pretend Gods Spirit Besides Recusants being for the most part of the good Families of the Nation will take it for a part of their Nobility freely to profess themselves in Religion whereas the Sectaries are People of mean quality cannot be presumed to stand so much on their reputation And in another place he saith to proceed to divide the Church more and more with Persecutions is more destructive to the substance of Christianity than all that corruption Reformation pretendeth to cure Osborne a Protestant Hist mem Q. E. p. 17. 〈◊〉 that against the poor Catholicks nothing in relation to the generality remaineth upon due proof sufficient to justifie the severity of Laws dayly enacted and put in execution against them All other Sects saith he oppose the Roman with more spleen and animosity then ordinary yet they defend themselves and prevail against all still continue and have been the most grand and principal Body of all Christian Societies and the greatest force and Forâ—ress of Christianity against Turks and Heathenish impieties and chiefest Propagators of the Gospel in all Nations c. I see no reason saith another Doctor of our English Church why Papists in England should not as well deserve hope and enjoy as any other order or rank of men freedome to their Consciences Nor can I think but those men who are so hardned in their Malice and persecution against them do often hear a voice secretly call within them O ye Souls why do ye persecute me in my Servants It s a kind of injustice and an uncharitable course as I conceive saith he when we spare them that have no Religion at all and censure those that can give an account of somewhat tending to that purpose Shall Atheists and Socinians Enemies of the blessed Trinity be not looked after And shall others following the Heresie of Aerius directly opposing the order of Bishops and their Jurisdiction that is the whole frame of the Church of God assembled in the first four general Councils asserted and affirmed to be of divine right by Scripture and the Church of England be winked at And must we only incite our Governours against Papists Force them upon Banishments Prisons Persecutions Pressures and Calamities and use such severity against that Religion we our selves hold Salvation to be acquired in who hold all the positive Articles with us I may loudly proclaim saith Bishop Gauden with Samuel 12. 3. this Protestation in their behalf Behold the Servants of the Lord and his Church O Christians causless Enemies witness against them and before the Lord and before the People Whose Oxe or Ass have they taken Whom have they defrauded or oppressed Whose hurt or damage have they procured Whose evil of sin or misery have they not pitied What is the injury for which so desolating a vengeance must pass upon them and their whole Profession What is the Blasphemy against God or man for which these Naboths must loose their lives liberties and liveâ—â—hoods Wherein have they deserved so ill of former and later Ages that they should be so used as Ahab commanded of Miâ—heas and the Jews did to Hieremias to be cast into Prisons to â—ordid and â—bsâ—ure restraints or to be exposed to Mendicant liberty to be fed only with Bread and water of Affliction What necessary Truths of God or righteousness have they detained What error have they broached revived or maintained What true Christian liberty have they impeached A little after They have not light conjectures not partial Customes not bare Profession not uncertain Tradition not blind Antiquity but evident grounds Scripture Succession Conversion of Nations planting of Churches all over the known World crowning their Doctrine with Martyrdome Authors of best credit undeniable famous in Church through all the first Ages shewing us Catholick Religion And uncontradicted consent constant and uninterrupted Succession their great abilities Add those Credential letters the testimonies and seals which God hath given of his holy Spirit Lastly the Civil rights and priviledges the piety of the Nation and the Laws of this Land have always given to them by the fullest and freest consent of all Estates in Parliament these ought to be regarded much of men of Justice honour and conscience as not to break all these Sanctions and Laws asunder by which their forefathers have bound to God c. Whence Doctor Taylor in his Book concerning the unreasonableness of prescribing to other mens Faith in liberty of prophecying § 2. 249. that Considerations to a charitable Toleration concerning the Roman Church which saith he may easily perswade persons of much reason and more piety to retain that which they know to have been the Religion of their forefathers which had actual possession and seizure of men's understanding before the opposite Profession had a name Another learned Protestant Doctor saith the humble peaceable and discreet carriage of them may justly plead for favour and protection against this calumny of proneness to Sedition Faction or illegal disturbance in civil affairs Even in all the unhappy troubles of the late years have generally behaved themselves and shewed they had no other design than to live a quiet life in all godliness and honesty If they could not help in fair ways to steer the Ship as they desired they did not seem to set it on fire and overwhelm it If at any time relating to publick variations and tossings they could not act with satisfied and good Consciences they humbly bear with silence and suffer with patience Intentive chiefly and fearful to offend God tender of Conscience and their own Religion Whence The late Bishop of Exeter saith in these christian bounds of peaceable subjection humility and holiness if the Papists in England may but obtain so much declared favour and publick countenance which all other fraternities and Professions have as to be sure to enjoy their callings liberties and properties which seem to be so many times in great uncertainties under the protection and obedience of the Laws it would encourage them and redeem them from those menaces insolencies and oppressions of unreasonable men who look upon them like publick Enemies and perdue because they have little of publick favour and encouragement Christian usage will no doubt win more upon them than those rough storms and winds wherewith they are dayly threatened and are still distressed Which makes them wrap themselves up as Elias in his hairy Mantle when they think their lives liberties and livelyhoods are sought after and no such protection like to continue over them they thought in a Christian State and Church they might have obtained and deserved through their quiet conversation As a just protection infers our due subjection so no men pay more willingly then they who besides the Iron-rod of fear have softer cords of love and favour upon them How can we with justice honour or humanity inflict severe penalties upon Papists as refusing to conform to our Church
and Religion when they protest with so much truth to our faces they cannot see any Church any Religion among us as uniform publick authentick Constant We might consider that the enacting of laws penalties and impositions against Papists is but a knotting Whipcord to lash our own posterity Seeing now there be so many Opinions in the World God knows upon whose children it may fall next For the Church of England is not a Manna that relisheth in every mans palate Secondly To use severity against Papists overturns the very ground of our retreat from Rome It is against Protestant sincerity for how can they exclaim against them for persecutors and are now the men themselves Was it an instance of weakness in their Religion and is it become a demonstration in ours Is it Antichristian in them and Christian in us For if men must be restrained upon prudential pretended considerations for their Religious exercise why not the same in France Germany Holland Constantinople c. where matters of State may equally be pleaded And if Protestants who maintain that no Councils or Church without tyranny may require belief or internal consent from their subjects to their definitions or Articles of Religion a practice much exclaimed against in the Church of Rome why then do they of the Church of England so inconsequently exact in practice such consent blamed in the Roman CAP. VII That by our own Concessions true Salvation is acquired in the Roman Church and therefore not to be persecuted THe most eminent Divines of the English Church allow the Church of Rome to be a true Church whence they acknowledge and derive their Orders Ordination Calling Mission Jurisdiction Authority to Preach c. wherein they agree Salvation may be had and all Fundamentals of Faith are profest v. g. Papists hold all positive Articles of Faith setled among Protestants as divine and undoubted Truths Protestants and Catholicks both are Christians Both Baptized in that holy name both lay hold on the promises of the Gospel have the Lords Prayer Belief the same three Creeds Apostolical Nicene Athanasian The first four General Councils They believe with the Roman Church Articles of Doctrine that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son terms of Trinity substantiality virginity of our Blessed Lady Scripture all Laws Canons Ordinances forms of Liturgy Prayer Service Discipline c. And though the Roman Church doth declare many doctrinal points as necessary to be believed being deduced from holy Writ and practice of the primitive times whch the Reformists deny Yet seeing they acknowledge all the necessary articles fundamentally required to Salvation as is by their Adversaries granted What reason or justice is it to condem them to so great cruelties for matters of their Belief I could produce innumerable testimonies from the best Authors and Writings of the English Church who teach the Roman notwithstanding her supposed errors to be the Church of Christ and therein perfect Christianity and hope of Salvation to be found To avoid prolixity I will mention a few Doctor Morton in his Treatise of King of Israel and the Church p. 24 Papists saith he are to be accounted of the Church of God because they hold the Foundation of the Gospel Hooker 5. Book of Eccles Policy saith The Church of Rome is reputed a part of the House of God and of the Family of Jesus Christ Doctor Couel in defence of Hooker p. 17. saith We affirm them of the Church of Rome to be part of the Church of Christ and those that live and dye in that Church may be saved Master White in defence c. 41. in the name of his Brethren saith We profess the Church of Rome it self in all Ages to have been the visible Church of God Field lib. 3. c. 8. saith We most firmly believe all the Churches of the World wherein our Fathers lived and died to have been the true Churches of God in which undoubted Salvation was to be had And after in the same Book We never doubted but that in the Churches wherein those holy men St. Bernard and St. Dominick lived were the true Churches of God Osiander witnesseth Bede had all Popish errors yet Dr. Humphrey in his Jesuitism acknowledges him to be in the number of the godly so doth Fulk of St. Bernard Luther the Centurists Tindal and Pantaleon title St. Francis and St. Dominick holy men though they bleieved all Papistical errors therefore Papists may be saved if Protestants may be believed Dove persuas saith in fundamental points of Doctrine the greatest Papists in the world agree with us Prot. rel affirmeth the Roman Church hath still inviolably the foundation of Religion l. 48. Downam l. 2. Antichr granteth it was a note of a good Christian to cleave to the Romish and Apostolical Church and p. 103. l. Antichr he yieldeth to Bellarmine that S. Augustine and Victor Oticensis were of opinion to adhere to the Church of Rome was a mark of a true Catholick in those times Our Stars of the first magnitude as Luther in Epist against Anabap. saith we confess that all Christian good is in the Papacy and from them it came down to us and ibid. I say in the Papacy is the true Christianity yea the true Kernel of Christianity and on the 28 of Genes we confess the Church to be among the Papists for they have Baptism Absolution the Text of the Gospel c. and there are many godly men among them Calvin Instit l. 4. confesseth in the Roman Church in the deepest of her supposed errors there ever remained inviolabile foedus Dei the Covenant of God inviolable Doth not Bunny Whitaker Junius Zanrchius Seravia and almost all Protestants generally hold as much at least that we agree in fundamentals that the Roman Church is a true Church the Mother C-hurch A thousand of learned Reformists confess in general Antiquity and the Fathers are for the Roman Church Whence a learned Writer noteth in some things or other yea in every particular Controversy Protestants grant their Assertions and there is no assertion by the Papists defended but some of the reformed yield too and confess as of great reason and authority Magdeburgenses 4. Cent. dedicated to Queen Elizabeth ad Jacobum Regem that the first purest times of the Church taught Sacramental Confession Tradition Invocation of Saints Purgatory Mass a propitiatory Sacrifice Miracles obtained at the reliques of Saints Images in Churches for the first 200 and 300 years Concerning the Primacy that one must be Cheif in the Church is taught by Melancton Luther in loc com Couel in examen Jacobus Andreas related by Hospiuian Mr. Perkins Prob. p. 237. saith Appeals were often made out of Africa to Popes of Rome in primitive days Middleton Papist p. 39. that the first general Council of Nice taught the Dignity of Rome over the West Provinces and hold p. 200. Papias living in the time of the Apostles taught Peters Supremacy Field lib. Church saith the
it not lawful to attempt the life of a Prince although he never so much abuse his Power And that it is flat Heresie to maintain the contrary So Greg. de Valent. part 2. Bellar. l. 3. of his Apology Learned Lessius lib. de Scientia jure Serarius in cap. 3. Azor. in his Instit Becanus in his answer to the 9. Aphor. Gretzer in his Vespertilio Heretico confutes all Mariana's grounds Saint Thomas tells expresly Tyrannus non potest a quopiam privatâ Authoritate occidi The Canon Law and Decrees Decret 2. part 10. de Episcopis ac clericis quod nec sua authoritate nec authoritate summi Pontificis arma valeant accipere c. And the Canon Law of England explains it more fully in the Council held at Oxford by Stephen of Canterbury 1228. and anno Hen. 3. where Excommunication is decreed against those who perturb the peace and tranquillity of our Lord the King and Kingdome Bellarmine himself maintains the Laws of Magistrates bind even the Consciences of Christians Lib. de Laicis So the Rhemenses in this Annotat. in 1 Pet. c. 2. Condemn treason and disobedience and say Subjects are bound in temporal things to obey the Heathens being lawful Kings and even for Conscience sake to keep their temporal Laws pay tribute pray for them and other natural duties And Doctor Kellison in his Learned Survey gives a good reason for it because saith he Faith is not necessarily required to jurisdiction nor is authority lost by the loss of Faith The Bishop of Armagh confesseth the English Papists in Ireland were faithful in all the Invasion of Spain or Pope Sand. K. C. p. 88. Calvin himself their greatest enemy on the first of Hosea and ninth of Amos saith quam multi sunt in Papatu qui regibus accumulant quicquid possint juris potestatis Whence King James in his Basilicon doron Epist to the Reader saith Puritans had put out many Libels against all Christian Princes and that no body answered them but the Papists that they were their only Vindicators And the late King himself in his excellent Book of Meditations saith I am sorry Papists should have a greater sense of their allegiance than many Protestants The Loyalty and Obedience of Catholicks towards Princes appears undeniable in all things by their constant and general conformity unto temporal Government Have shewed all the duty that men can fancy to own Where shall we find better Subjects How much they are faulty and how much others have been let the world judg They may lay to our charge ten Seditious Authors for one and that more Villanies have been perpetrated since the Reformation than in nine hundred years before I must provoke both Angels and men saith a Divine of the English Church to consider their wrong How we load them with Crimes of which they are innocent I might wonder how so wild calumnies could be laid to their charge When their constant Doctrine teacheth and their own persons have shewed all duty imaginable Experience hath proved their great integrity that no advantages offered can betray their fidelity to their King or Country what wrong have done what peace have they broken what plots have they fomented to the prejudice of the present Government or occasions given to hatch new jealousies treason is now left out of their charge What discoveries were made against them either in the Rump or Olivers time when the Press was free were they not still owned as the most loyal and constant Royalists and none of them could ever be suspected for the least defection from our Soveraign And yet these are the men that are traduced as inconsistent with civil polity and regality Yet none more inoffensive then they Judg then whether it be not a superlative injustice to incense the world against them As if they delighted in blood and persecuting of men were a part of their doctrine Now because the contrary opinion hath possessed the imaginations of so many by a self-deceiving wilfulness predominant passion or partiality I shall clear and lay open the truth of this assertion in the sequent Chapter So plainly and Orthodoxally that none but who can lay aside all reason charity honesty and morality may contradict and oppose CAP. IX Principles and Doctrines of Roman Catholicks are consistent with Peace and Government wherein a different Religion is established by Law LEt Politicians say what they will there is no greater support to Monarchy than Catholick Religion whence one of our own Doctors saith The Fanaticks did conjecture and were tenacious of opinion that the late Acts put out a-against Papists and Priests were but to bring others more easily into the snare So good and deserving opinion they know Papists merited from those times that no security need to tye them deeper How all the Catholicks of England have comported themselves at least these sixty years last past needs no further vindication those that have been witnesses of their actions can testifie I shall only intimate that I have heard them profess that if at any time they have exposed their lives and fortunes in defence of their Soveraign and Countrey they did but do that duty which they shall be ready to do again notwithstanding any disincouragement can be put upon them Now in this Chapter I adventure to fight against a popular prejudice and the obstinacy of long verted opinions considering the number of my Adversaries who so loudly and resolutely charge them with destructive Doctrines and Principles to the publick good and safety that they seem to make it an Article of their Creed objecting Positions of some private and disavowed persons and words only when others rebelled indeed and their Battels were real but every mans work will bear a better testimony of him than other mens words do against him I know great difficulties may be overcome by truth and time And vulgar and very general errors have oft been easily detected by prudent and unbiasled men Whence to overthrow from the very foundation all such aspersions let all impartial men consider first these calumnies proceed originally from enemies Secondly they are untruths forged against them and taken upon trust what their Antagonists teach you For it hath been a course often practised against them by many of their opponents First to frame Articles of their belief according to their own fancy or out of private and unapproved Authors as if they were the true and real Articles of their Faith Who being oft pressed to justifie the accusations could never do it or durst not shew their faces in a free or publick conference about the points in question This way of proceeding is against all Law and Equity to condemn them before you hear them No Judg sends men to be hanged before they speak for themselves and Sentence given Secondly According to the rule of reason they themselves should make the Confession and Profession of their own Faith and that of others especially their adversaries should
not take it upon them For any indifferent Judg would wonder you should have better intelligence of their Religion than they themselves Thirdly All examples and practices of the Primitive Churches mentioned in the Ecclesiastical Histories the custom was when any Dispute did arise concerning the integrity of the Doctrine professed in any particular Church that Church so question'd did always set down in writing a Confession of their Faith and transmit it either to the Patriarch or some general Council that so the sincerity of their belief might be tried by the touchstone of the Church universal Fourthly Faith being an internal consent of our will and subjection of our understanding to truths revealed in absolute justice none but we our selves can make an authentical manifestation of what passeth in our souls of that nature And besides it being the duty of every Christian not only to make open profession of his Faith when occasion requires it but also to make such a profession with all possible sincerity and truth for to use any falsity or dissimulation in a case of this concern were not only to deceive men but even to belye the holy Ghost It will necessarily follow first no judgment can be made of anothers faith but by the confession of the party himself and secondly that a greater assurance cannot be given between man and man of veracity and secret dealing than when we publickly declare our faith upon any point of Controversie Upon these grounds and these circumstances I presume their Antagonists will be so reasonable as not to question the truth and reality of their meaning in what they declare concerning their Tenets in the points of Allegiance or Doctrine Here I will set them down submitting to the honour and conscience of all sober men and to any indifferent Judges who will not retain the animosity and prejudice of parties to give sentence whether they are not consistent with loyalty and the duty of good Subjects and Christians v. g. They hold CHARLES the II. is their true and lawful Soveraign Secondly that no Power on earth shall absolve them from their natural Allegeance Are ready by Oath in the face of Heaven to profess their loyalty indispensable from which no power can free them Thirdly that they are bound with their lives and fortunes to defend the sacred Person of his Majesty in his just Rights against all opposers whatsoever domestick or forraign Fourthly that Faith is to be kept with all men indifferently and equally whether they be Roman Catholicks or of any other Religion And that our engagements promises and contracts cannot lawfully be broken or dispensed with by any power on earth to the prejudice of any third Person They believe the holy Scriptures to be of infallible authority and assent to it as the word of God They believe the sacred mystery of the blessed Trinity one eternal almighty and incomprehensible God whom only they adore and worship as alone having soveraign dominion over all things to whom only is due from Men and Angels all glory service and obedience abhorring to give their CREATORS honour to any creature whatsoever Whence they solemnly profess that by the Prayers they address to Angels and Saints they intend no more but to sollicite their assistance before the throne of God as we desire the Pravers of one another here upon earth not that they hope any thing from them as original authors thereof but from God through Jesus Christ our only Mediator and Redeemer Neither do they believe any Divinity or Virtue to be in Images for which they ought to be worshipped as the Gentiles did their Idols But they retain them with due and decent respect in their Churches as instruments which we find by experience do often assist our memories and excite our affections Pictures may be of good use saith our learned Bacon if the representation of divine stories as well work upon them to contemplate those things as lascivious Pictures do Obscenity Charity obligeth us no other construction of the words of men than what they profess to be their own sense but I never heard or read Images absolutely to be worshipped or Saints absolutely prayed to They firmly believe that no force of nature or dignity of our best works can merit our justification but we are justified freely by grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ and though we should by the Grace of God persevere in a godly life yet are our hopes of eternal Glory built upon the mercy of God and the merits of Christ Jesus All other merits according to the sense of that word signifie no more than actions done by the assistance of Gods Grace to which it has pleas'd his Goodness to promise a reward A Doctrine so suitable to the sense of holy Scripture that nothing is so frequently repeated in it as his gratious promises to recompence with everlasting Glory the Faith and Obedience of his Servants 1 Tim. 4. 8. Rom. 2. 6 8 13 Heb. 6. 10. Luke 16. 38. thus we believe the merit or rewardableness of holy living both which signifie the same with us arises not from the value even of our best actions but from the grace and bounty of God And for ourselves we sincerely profess when we have done all we are are able or commanded we are unprofitable servants Luke 17. 10. These they sincerely and solemnly profess as in the sight of God the searcher of all hearts taking the words plainly without any equivocation or mental reservation And now let them that judg so severely lay their hands on their hearts and with the same justice and equity with which they expect to be judged themselves at the last day Let them pronounce whether or no their Doctrine or Principles are inconsistent with the duty of good Christans or Subjects and the peaee and safety of Government In Law and Reason every man à fortiori a society of men ought to be esteemed honest and just till the contrary appear to be proved but nothing hath hitherto appeared to be proved against the loyalty of Catholicks therefore in reason and justice they ought to be esteemeed good Subjects and Neighbours and it is a meer Calumny to asperse them That nothing can be proved is evident their accusers being often pressed thereunto were never able to produce any particular or any proof sufficient to satisfie any rational man But dwelling in vain general suspicions triflings and false presumptions laying to their charge extravagant crimes that have not the least proof or probability objecting positions of some private and disavowed persons the crimes and indiscretions of particular men to all the party to traduce and defame the whole we aggravate the failings of a few The world knows it were no difficulty to recriminate in this kind and repay them with the same dirt If such accusations pass current who would or could be innocent No people on the earth can be safe at this rate Would not this Logick make the
understanding to examine them It 's hard for the most judicious and learned men to give a right judgment of many points and yet notwithstanding many engaged persons are ready to force Dissenters by coercive Power or blacken them with opprobrious terms The Controversies of Justification by faith or good works hath filled volumes with Arguments Definitions and Distinctions but it is hard to find whether the difference be not de nomine and of words only The Controversie of free-will since neither part doth absolutely exclude Divine Grace or concurrence of the will with it may be called verbal if understood cum grano salis and by those who carrie no partial biass on their judgments Some rigid Calvinists indeed though not all conclude an absolute fate by Predestination to Salvation or Reprobation to those I answer they need not trouble themselves but let every one go quietly to his destinie since by their own Principles all their Praying Preaching c. can neither help nor hurt Seeing it is not in their power to avoid evil or do good Worship of Images exclaimed as Idolatrous the scandal is chiefly as I conceive taken from the word Adoration which in the Grammar sense is but adorare to pray to but the generality of Rome disown that acceptation and told them chiefly as Memorials as I shewed before The Pope to be Antichrist the Etymology of the very word is repugnant to it the being by us acknowledged likewise the great Patriarch of the most Christian and Western Church and every one that hath but an ordinary reason sense or knowledge of Scripture can own but one Antichrist to come the Prophet Daniel spoke of And that he should give pardon for Sins or Sinners whatsoever without first having remission from God by Sorrow Repentance and Amendment is so great a Calumny that I pray God to pardon such malicious ignorance I tremble to hear such horrid blasphemies out of Christian mouths to derogate and scandalize their fellow Christians with more than Hâ—athenish impleties Many and other great things have been objected against them through ignorance weakness mistakes or malice which unjust men scatter too and fro as chasse to blinde the eyes of simple and credulous people The crimes of a few miserable wretches by none more detâ—sted than themselves are made their guilt but it is the fashion Papists and Popery must be brought in by head and shoulders and sit down under any affronts what ever the difference be to exasperate mens spirits and make odious and suspected those whom we can never confute It is hard they should alwaies lie under such undeserved imputations and be persecuted without liberty of a just defence The Morality of the Heathens was more equitable and less envious where the Emperor Adrian commanded unto Minutius his Proconsul of Asia as a thing of great importances ne nomen condemnaretur sed crimen A Divine of our English Church exclaiming against such proceedings saith Our affections change our thoughts and our imaginations fit the scene and what we call reason is many times but a chain of phantasms and we are guided by prejudices and overwhelmed by Authority and formed by education and suck in opinions carelesly are deeply setled before we examine them and when we examine them it is but by halfes we see but few things and judg all things by them and either seek not truth at all or are unable to manage a due and impartial search When we stumble upon it we are afraid and run away from it or stand to pelt it with dirt and vile names In the mean time we catch at shadows and grow fond of the imaginations of our own fancies Doctor Taylor one of our late and most eminent Divines in Treatise of Liberty of Propheâ—ying § 2. 10. p. 249. Collecting some considerations inducing persons saith he of much reason and more piety to retain the Religion of their forefathers Their Doctrines having had a long continuance and possession of the Church which therefore cannot easily be supposed in the present Professors to be a design for Covetousness Ambition c. since they have received it from so many ages and it is not likely that all ages should have the same purposes or that the same Doctrine should serve the several ends of diverse ages It s long prescription which is such a prejudice as cannot be retrenched as relying upon these grounds that truth is more ancient than falshood that God would not for so many ages forsake his Church and leave her in error I add not such gross errors as are imputed on them as Idolatry c. Again the beauty and splendor of that Church their pompous Service the stateliness and solemnity of the Hierarchy their name of Catholicks which they suppose and claim as their own due and to concern no other Sect of Christians The antiquity of many of their Doctrines the continual succession of their Bishops their immediate derivation from the Apostles their title to succeed Saint Peter and in this regard chiefly honoured and submitted to by antiquity the supposal and pretence of his personal prerogatives much spoken of by the Fathers the flattering expressions of minor Bishops in modester language honourable expressions which by being old records have obtained credulity The multitude and variety of people which are of their perswasion apparent consent with elder ages in many matters doctrinal the advantage which is derived by entertaining some personal opinions of the Fathers the great consent of one part with another in that which they affirm to be de fide The great differences which are commenced among their adversaries their happiness of being instruments in converting divers Nations The advantage of Monarchical Government the benefit of which they daily enjoy The piety and austerity of their religious Orders of men and women the single life of their Priests and Bishops the severity of their Fasts and their exterior observances The great Reputation of their Bishops for Faith and Sanctity The known holiness of some of those persons whose institutes the religious persons preâ—end to imitate Their Miracles false or true substantial or imaginary The causalities and accidents that have happened to their adversaries the oblique acts and indirect proceedings of some of those who departed from them To which join that of Sir Edwine Sands in his relation of the western Religion p. 29. saying Beside the Roman Church and those Churches united with her we find all other Churches to have had their end and decay as Hussits Sollards Waldenses Albigenses Berengarians c. or their beginning but of late This being founded by the Prince of the Apostles with promise to him by Christ c. much more to that purpose ibid. What Church but one can shew the fulfilling of innumerable Scriptures touching the Churches Infallibility Vniversality by time place and person Which can spread before your eyes her Line and Pedigree descendâ—ng from the Apostles to these times which can declare that in all
honesty It would fill a volume it self to recount all the benefits priviledges honours and advantages this Nation hath received from the Popes and See of Rome See Bishop Smith in his Epist Histor ad regem Jacobum of the Pope's favours to England Hence our first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury Parker in Eliz. lib. antiq Britan. ait hanc insulae nobilitatem atque gloriam Dei providentiae atque beneficentiae c. The nobleness of this Island for being the first of all Provinces of the World that received the Christian Faith and the glory thereof is to be acknowledged to have proceeded from the providence and goodness of God yet the way it self and means by which this nobility and glory was won unto it it was first and always laid open unto us from the See of Rome we have always from that time persevered in the unity of the Roman Faith and our subjection to the Roman Church is most ancient Haec ille Abbot Fecknam in his Oration to the Parliament of the first of Eliz. saith thus Damianus and Fugatianus as Embassadours from the See of Rome did bring into this Realm a thousand four hundred years past the very same Apostolical Religion we are now in possession of For then the Roman Religion was not voted down he would not have dared to have uttered in that time and place but that he could produce good witness and antiquity to his warrant Let not now their Adversaries be so unreasonable as to quote Mariana Suarez or Bellar. or any other private Author that may have enlarged the jurisdiction of Popes to the prejudice of Kings and then lay their particular Opinions to the charge of all For were this a just and fair way of dealing they could with as much ease requite them with Text for Text out of Luther Calvin Knox Buchanan and many more whose Opinions are at least as dangerous to the safety of Monarchy The difference betwixt them being only this whereas the former lodge the deposing power in the Pope only whose person is at a safe and sufficient distance at least from us the latter bring the danger home to the doors of Princes and place it in the people whom they make both judges and parties in the case Secondly Mariana's personal fault and his opinion were condemned by a Provincial Council of the same Society held at Paris 15 16. and that confirmation ratified by Claudius Aquaviva the General of the Order and the Doctors of Sorbon in the same year declared it an ungodly position Thirdly Mariana was not resolute in that opinion neither but handled it problematically Fourthly It was not for deposing of Kings but Tyrants which alters the case In France 1614. a Book written by Suarez against the Oaths in which the deposing power was asserted was by Decree of the Parliament of Paris condemned to be burnt by the publick Executioner as containing scandalous seditious positions c. and Armandus Cotton Front and Symond four chief Jesuits were to take order their General should renew a prohibition to teach like Doctrines and the whole Order after disavowed them Eight Universities viz. Paris Valentia Tholouse Poicteirs Burdeaux Burges Reims and Caen did of their own accord not expecting a command from the Court 1626. brand this Doctrine of Pope's deposing power with titles of impious seditious infamous c. And Fossart of the Society in a publick Act advancing the proposition although it was interpreted to extend only to Tyrants by decree of the whole University of Caen the Proposition and Expositions were censured impious and condemned Fossart imprisoned and sentenced bareheaded to acknowledg the said positions false and contrary to the decrees of Councils c. But to silence all impertinent objections in this nature or in any other matter they declare to the whole world that no private authors but only the Decisions of lawful general Councils have any influence upon their Faith or Doctrin in any point whatsoever Therefore if their adversaries will conclude any thing against them from their own Principles they must do it from their own proper uncontradicted confession or from the Decrees of General Councils from which they only take the Rule of their Faith The Project of the Gunpowder Treason undertaken only by a few male-contents in justice might rather be burned in oblivion with the offenders than objected perpetually to innocent men who abhor the fact and were publickly acquitted thereof by the King himself in the Parliament following See the Kings Speeches That the Catholick Body had no hand in this Treason appears by the quality of the actors and number of them being but four Gentlemen The Catholick Noblemen then were the most considerable of the Nation their first Marquess viz. Winchester The first Earl viz. Arundel Their first Vicount viz. Mountague Their first Baron viz. Abergaveny c. Now none of these or any chief of the party had any intrigue in the design though all imaginable industry was used by the Commons Lords and Privy Council and by Cecil their plotting enemy to bring them in Therefore to call this an universal Popish plot is in it self a contradiction because no plot can be looked on as geneneral when no number of the chiefest part are intrigued in the design If then some four necessitous or loose persons have been of the Gun-powder Treason to infer thence all other of the same profession are of the same stamp Do not all rational men see this inference is irrational That it may be retorted against any other profession in England in other things Is it not unreasonable and uncharitable to infer from thence an imputation upon all others Can any one in his right senses accuse the whole Church of England for incestuous or drunkards because some of them have been guilty of those crimes Stow Chron. p. 882. noteth by many factious people it was given out this Treason was attempted by consent of the King of Spain French King and Archduke Catesby at his Death said the plot and practice of this Treason was only his and that others were but his assistants saith Stow. And the Council perceived it was practiced by some discontented Papist Staw 879. many untruths were divulged hoping to have drawn into their rebellion those of their Religion and other malecontents In all their examinations none else were discovered though they revealed several secret particulars as is seen in their printed confessions they would not have spared others seeing they accused their Confessour Garnet saith Stow Provincial of the Jesuits for concealing it in confession only was executed Acknowledged to God his offence was heartily sorry asked God and the King forgiveness and beseeched God to bless the King and his issue exhorted all Catholicks not to attempt any Rebellion or Treason c. for all such courses said he are utterly against Catholick Faith and Religion Vide Stow. To find out the depth of the plot they left no stone unrolled to shew how nice they
Parliament and chief Secretary printed at that time and neither could any noted or known Catholick by any device be drawn into this matter Those that were up in tumult with Catesby were by our Prot. Hist Howes never full fourscore and those made up with servants horse-boys and houshouldattendance as Saunders and Speed confirm For if Priests and Recusants so many thousands then in England would have entertained it no man can be so malitious and simple to think that there would not have been a greater assembly to take such an action in hand and the Council could not have been so ill-sighted but that they would have found some other culpable as some by all imaginable craft and industry endeavoured and desired But to confirm their innocency King James in his own Declaration saith that the generality of Catholicks did abhor such a detestable Conspiracy no less than himself And he was so kind to Catholicks the last half of his Reign of which Wilson complains in several places Wils K. of 193. which was impossible he should have been so favourable had he not been convinced they never had had any design of destroying him or his Secondly the King in his second Proclamation 1605. and in his third Proclamation 1605. when they were all discovered in which Proclamation we plainly see the King and Council knew the Complices and partakers of that villanie yet never taxed any Priest or Papist therewith Thirdly the King in publick Parliament did free Catholiks as much as Protestants when he plainly saith as truth is if it had taken effect Protestants and Papists should have all gone away and perished together The King in his second Proclamation against the Conspiracy calleth the Confederates Men of lewd life insolent dispositions and of desperate estates And to demonstrate from the publick Act their innocency as well Protestants he declares by Proclamation Proclamatione die 7. Novemb. 1605. We are by good experience so well perswaded of the loyalty of diverse Subjects of the Romish Religion that they do as much abhor this detestable conspiracy as our self and will be ready to do their best endeavours though with expence of their blood to suppress all attempters against our safety and the quiet of our State and discover whomsoever they shall suspect to be rebellious This by good experience he pronounceth Priests and Catholicks notwithstanding were upon this pretence persecuted though besides all these reasons aforesaid by publick consent both of their Clergy and Layety Catholicks presented and offered to maintain their cause and innocency in many humble Petitions whereof two were printed to the King The first begins To the most excellent and mighty Prince our gracious and dread Soveraign James King of England c. justifying of Catholicks and the Truth of their Religion against their Adversaries Most Gracious Soveraign THe late intended Conspiracy against the Life of your Royal Majesty the Life Vnion Rule and Direction to these united Kingdoms was so heinous an impiety that nothing which is holy can make it legitimate no pretence of Religion can be alleadged to excuse it God in heaven condemns it men on earth detest it innocents bewail it and your dutiful Subjects Catholicks Priests and others which have endured most for their Profession hold it in greatest detestation and horror c. Yet this is the miserable distressed state of many thousands of your most loyal and loving Subjects dread Leige for their faithful duty to God and Religion taught in this Kingdom and embraced by all your Progenitours and our Ancestors so many hundred years that every adversary may preach and print against us and make their challenge as though either for ignorance we could not or for distrust of our cause we were not willing to make them answer or come to trial when quite contrary we have often earnestly and by all means we could desired to have it granted c. And at this time when your chief Protestant Clergy Bishops and others is assembled we most humbly entreat this so reasonable a placet that although they will not as we fear ever consent to an indifferent choice opposition and defence in questions yet at least to avoid the wonder of the world they will be content we may have publick audience of those Articles Opinions ond Practises for which we are so much condemned and persecuted If we shall not be able to defend or prove any position generally maintained in our Doctrine to be conformable to those rules in Divinity which your Majesty and the Protestant Laws of England we can offer no more have confirmed for holy Canonical Scripture the first four General Councils the days of Constantine and the primitive Church let the penalties be imposed and executed against us c. in fine Your Royal person and that honourable Consistory now assembled are holden in your Doctrine to be Supream Sentencers even in Spiritual businesses in this Kingdome we therefore hope you will not in a Court from whence no appeal is allowed and in matters of such consequence proceed to Judgment or determine of execution before the arraigned is summoned to answer hath received or refused trial is or can be proved guilty c. Deny not that to us your true and obedient Subjects in a Religion so ancient which your colleagued Princes the King of Spain and Archduke do offer to thee so many years disobedient Netherlands upon their temporal submittance in so late an embraced doctrine That which the Arrian Emperors of the East permitted to the Catholick Bishops Priests Churches toleration What the Barbarian Vandals often offered and sometimes truly perforformed in Africk what the Turkish Emperour in Greece and Protestant Princes in Germany and other places conformable to the example of Protestant Rulers not unanswerable to your own Princely piety pity and promise no disgust to any equally minded Protestant or Puritan at home a Jubilee to us distressed a warrant of security to your Majesty in all opinions from all terrors and dangers from which of what kind soever we most humbly beseech the infinite mercy of almighty God to preserve your Highness and send you your children and Posterity all happiness and felicity both in Heaven and Earth Amen Another Petition to the King and Parliament from the Cath. in Eng. allowed by the Priests was presented by Sir Franc. Hastins and Sir Richard Knightly which urged likewise for a Disputation Another to the same tenure was then with the same assent subscribed with three and twenty hands of the greatest Catholick Gentry of England and presented to the chief Secretary of State potent in those times in Court and Council and as Recusants feared not equally affected towards them though never so innocent And the same Recusants were more than jealous that this practice of Conspiracy was no great secret to that Secretary long before divers of them that were actors in it by him named Catholicks were acquainted with it an invention to entrap those he did not
All Sides and Nations reproach us for it when the sensual and partial are so hardened in their self ishness that no warning can take off the Bias of their Judgments There is a kind of spirit in some which is so different from that charity which thinketh no evil that it thinketh nothing 1 Cor. 13. else concerning those that differ from them this is contrary to that charity which is not puffed up and doth not behave it self unseemly In that almighty God hath put enmity between the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent we may gather that as the Seed of the Woman should be at enmity with the Seed of the Serpent so should it be at unity with it self If even with Infidels and Heathens the Servant of God must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach c. 2 Tim. 2. 24. How much more is Gods family and inheritance to be used with love and tenderness There is in many Christians a strange inequality of partiality Alas how often have I heard wise and otherwise prudent persons cry out against pride and partiality in others who in their next discourse have shamefully shewed it themselves making much of their own inconsiderable reasonings and vilifying urgent evidence And being so intent on their own cause that they could scarce have patience to hear another speak and when they have heard them their first words shew that they never well weighed the strength of his arguments but were all the while thinking what to say against him or how to go on as they had begun Many an errour is taken up by going too far from others Some giddy and heady Professors saith Doctor Gauden have been so eager to come out of Babylon that they are almost run out of their wits so jealous of superstition that they are pandors for confusion so scared with the name of Rome that they are afraid of all right reason and sober Religion so fearful of being over-righteous by following traditions of men that they fear not to be over-wicked by overthrowing the good â—oundations of honour order peace and charity fierce enemies indeed against the Idolatry of Antichrist but fast friends to Belial and Mammon to Schism and Sacriledg And thus mens judgments and practices are depraved by flying indiscreetly from others while they think more from whence they go than whether More favouring the separate zeal of Pharisees than the winning zeal of Christ calling themselves a godly people and are but a company of superstitious Pharisees or a sort of melancholy humorists who must sit because their neighbour stands or must go out of the way because their neighbour goeth in it They that will find out the bottom of any Religion must prepare themselves to carry a spirit thoroughly discharged of all animosities passions and false apprehensions which corrupt the judgment and raise a mist upon the most resplendent lights of truth If we were impartially willing to know the truth and did pray God in meekness of spirit we would avoid and not choose deceits and resist the light and provoke God to forsake our understandings Many Christians are as children tossed too and sro fluctuating 'twixt wind and water there is no other remedy for such or satisfaction or peâ—ce to their Consciences but Christ's precept and prescript to hear the Church to be of the number and in the community of the generality of agreeing Christians seing the generality of those that have a long and constant delivered Series of their Doctrines is more unlikely to be in error or forsaken of Christ than a few odd-conceited new opinions And this may be one rational means left us to find out the truth as Baxter confesseth in cure of Church c. to submit to that the most religious the most learned the major part of Christians ever taught or submitted to Whence Bishop Gauden noteth The primitive Churches were as careful to act in their outward Order and Government of the Church according to Apostolical pattern and traditional constitutions which were first the rule of the Churches practice as they were faithful to preserve the Canon of Scriptures which were after written and delivered without corruption to posterity Every one will confess that the true spirit of Christianity is meek peaceable gentle and yet how contrary is the practice the people of God are realous but of what not to consume and destroy one another not to hate and vilifie one another but they are zealous to love one another to forbear what is contrary to love zealous of good works patient temperate gentle c. the way of heavenly wisdom is meek peaceable and easie to be entreated by all offices of Rom. 12. 18. love inclined to good to all The spirit of false zeal is censorious hurtful dividing following the works of the flesh which are hatred malice Galat. 5. 12. variance leading the way to cruelty and persecution Where is persecution but from thinking ill of others abhorring and not loving them robbing men of the priviledges of Christians not leaving them common liberty of men and subjects nor to plead for themselves This destroying cruelty leaveth them neither and will not suffer them to enjoy so much liberty as Heathens and Infidels may enjoy or as S. Paul did under such condemning them to the loss of the greatest Act. 28. priviledges on earth and to be left out with the dogs publicans and heathens Is persecution worthy all the calamitous divisions in Christendom and the blood of so many thousands shed for conscience sake and enduring the outcries of the imprisoned and banished and their prayers to Heaven from mens hands and the leaving such a name upon record to posterity as is usually left in History on the authors of such sufferings besides the present regret of mind in the calamities of others and sad divisions and destructions of charity which cometh hereupon Will force cure disagreements and errors better than evidence of truth and love will do will they be so cured without a greater mischief Is not the work to be done for saving mens Souls and shall any be saved against his will will penalties change the judgment in matters of religion is he any better than a knave or hypocrite who will say or swear to do that through fear which he thinketh God forbiddeth him and feareth may damn his Soul is it the honour of Church or Kingdom to be composed of such and are the lives of Kings peace of Kingdoms Estates c. competently secured where God is not feared more than fines or corporal punishments Is this to teach in love to instruct in meekness it is certain whosoever swerves from the dictate of his Conscience commits a sin Rom. 14. So they that endeavour to force or draw any man to profess or act contrary to what his Soul believes are as deeply guilty of the same crime We are all infirm and of imperfect understandings therefore we ought not to be too imperious or too censorious toward other dissenters lest you James 3. 12. receive a greater condemnation take heed you fall not into the hands of the living God They shall be judged without mercy who have shewed no mercy The rod of discipline must be used but it must be done only to the scandalous and so done that it may appear to be Christs own work and upon his interest and his command and not either arbitrarily or for our selves Christ teacheth us not to use violence when we speak for him but to beseech men in his name to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5. And men would more easily be perswaded to believe that Religion to be from God whose Professors they saw to be god-like The whole Gospel is a revelation of the love of God and a Messias of peace and very opposite to envy and animosity all principles which are against universal love are against God and holiness it is Love which is predominant Fear is subservient and that fear which is contrary to love is vice I dare proclaim true piety love humility and prudence may happily heal a great many dissentions and the wounds which rash injudicious zeal hath made that to the proud carnal and uncharitable seem incurable and the cessation of unnecessary impositions might cease the saddest distractions of the Nation Oppression maketh a wise man mad saith the Preacher Eccles 7. 7. Conscience Persecution then among Christians is clearly repugnant to the Law of God the Light of Nature and evidence of our own principles For the sake then of Christ who purchased the weakest with his blood for the sake of those who are in danger of turning to Atheism for the sake of the poor distracted Nation for the sake of the King that he may have comfort in his Subjects of governing a quiet peaceable people and for your own sakes that you may give up account to God of your principal and most Christian duty and not make Apocriphal all those Texts of Scripture and plain injunctions to charity and love above cited and Rom. 14. 2 3 4. and 15. 34. Matt. 25. 40. 1 Phil. 15 16 17. Let then the Scripture Reason and Experience the Petitions and Tears of the distressed intreat you to moderation Rom. 3. 16. let the deformity and unreasonableness of the cruel maxims of persecution bringing nothing but destruction and misery be a determent to all tempestuous spirits let the conscientious and godly-minded people out of the bowels of mercy and compassion sollicite the Governours of the earth and pray unto heaven for an impartial freedom That eternal Majesty who raised so brave a fabrick of such indisposed materials that controuls the waves and checks the tumults of the people let his mercy be implored for speedy succour to the distressed for unity and charity to the divided That the rod of Aaron may blossom that the Tabernacle of David may be raised that the subtil and envious may be caught in their own snare that the result of all afflictions may be the greatening of his Glory and the exalting of his Scepter Amen FINIS
of their corruptions opinions and not considering that like Gehezi the leprosie of those Syrians câ—â—â—ves to most of their own Foreheads Nor taking any notice of the objections standing in force against themselves The Cry against the Papists is but the Prologue it was the Epidemical Frenzy in Germany a hundred years since which turned into smoke and confusion I wish it might not be truly said that those very persons against whom you so bitterly sharpen and pen your invectives as if none were Sinners but they none were more dangerous or their practices less pernicious in the Face of the Sun Such is the general inclination and temper of all English Catholicks that preces and lachrymae are their only weapons an innocent and passive People as experience of their quiet behaviour so many years of hard times have clearly shewn Suffering with that patience humility equanimity and resigned temper of Spirit imitating their grand Exemplar Jesus Christ as if those virtues were innate and most natural â—o them Nor can I think but those men who are so hardned in their malice and persecution against them do often hear a voice secretly calling within them O ye Sauls why do ye persecute me in my Servants Why should you be troubled Papists are not more troubled than your selves Why should you grudge at their peace and protection So long as they are peaceable either actively obey the Laws or else passively ready to submit to the penalties They are objects of pity rather than envy They have formerly lived in their own native Country with less priviledges than Strangers are excluded from all Offices By Laws obnoxious to greater sufferings than Enemies Have suffered loss of Goods and Livings Whose Adversaries have left no Stone unrolled no corner unsearched no Pursuivants uncommissioned to tyrannize over their Consciences burnt their Antiquaries consumed their Monuments violated their Virgins racked even the very Souls of Men with Oaths when in humane prudence there was no fear but God hath shewed his just chastisements and judgments upon the chief Actors contrivers and Abetters Can we be such publick contradictors of our own declared principles whereby we disclaim and profess against Persecution as still to continue our mulcts and penalties upon those whose condition have been such as every one might abuse them in the Streets even with satisfaction to some discredited contemned trodden under every mans foot that listeth to spoil them To lie in prisons dungeons felters to be racked bowelled and boyled alive We have seen their families impoverished their houses invaded by saucy Officers their lives forfeited as Traytors for entertaining those without whom they could not live but as Pagans Have been deprived of performing any Service to God debarred of any civil imployments in the Nation they were otherwise capable of These miseries have they groaned under without any demerit of their own part these sour hearbs have they patiently and quietly tasted Would it not be an unreasonable president and incitement towards our brethren and all Nations abroad if we should begin again in the same Cup at home Some have so blackened and put them in so strange and monstrous a dress by calling them members of Babylon Antichrist Idolaters c. that I dare boldly aver that some of the seduced herd who are ignorant of their meek humble innocent and pious documents of which the whole world is to this time witness do sâ—arce believe them to be Men or if so yet that they are some terrible Cannibals that came out of some strange Lands Be pleased to consider you asperse not one but many and those who have given best evidence of being truly tender Consciences Since they suffered so generally so constantly so deeply If your passion will not at least your charity ought to think better For if you prove not what you say against them you are guilty of the breach of the Mandate of love to your neighbour in as great a height as circumstances can improve a sin to Every Christian will have a Share in the injury and a title to be righted and demand satisfaction Must they carry all our Sins on their backs Must our faults be whipt on them and they made particular oblations for us is not this to act the part of cursed Cham over again or to be conformable to Core and his company by a wilful kind of Sophistry still casting all the odium upon them Can no Ellobore Purge this Frenzie Shall we alwaies like Flies dwell upon some particular Ulcers And for some misdemeanors miscarriages or the loose lives of a few traduce and defame the whole Profession and aggravate their failings We know it were no difficulty to recriminate in this kind and repay you with the same dirt if it were any pleasure to scramble in such a Puddle As great an aversion and Antipathy as you have against them 't is worth your labour herein to make them your own examples in point of obedience and Government and so in respect of publick Peace and Tranquillity It were to be wished by all honest men of what perswasion soever that a just and equal Liberty in matter of Conscience were granted unto all if but for this only respect viz. that so by a free confident and friendly conversation one with another void of suspition and jealousie fear or danger to one party or other and by amicable discourse and debating of things truth might come more clearly to be discovered But this is a work hath so much of God and goodin it as it must exspect many Adversaries Moderation or true Liberty meets with so many enormities exorbitancies and obstacles to resist and retard it Had we but a due latitude of candour and charity towards others or understood our own happiness and took things in the best sense Sure those billows and waves would cease roaring Were men so ingenuous to promote peaceable order as they are watchful to find knots in Bulrushes and torture their brains to find scruples in what is most plain and stood against the tempests and shakings of virulent Tongues and cankered calumnies our heats and animosities from difference in opinion would gradually decay and a foundation would be laid On which to raise a considerable Structure of Peace to Church and State and Prosperity to the Nation CAP. VI. Persecution of Recusants is against our own Principles and Concessions PRotestant Religion doth indemnifie us in the Court of Conscience for believing in matters of Religion according to the Dictates of our own private judgment or rather doth oblige us to do it For as Bishop Gauden a learned Protestant saith If it be not lawful for every one to be guided by his private Spirit and Judgement in Religion it will hardly be possible to acquit our separation from the Roman Church of the guilt of Schism Nor doth it seem worthy of Christ who hath left us a Religion full of Mysteries and not any visible Judg of them to have designed about those any
well of her as the Dutchess of Sommerset to Sir John Cheeke to Sir Edward Mountague Lord chief Justice who had subscribed and counselled her disinheriting to Sir Roger Cholmey to the Marqness of Northampton to the Lord Robert Dudley to Sir Henry Dudley to Sir Henry Gates c. who stood attainted and the Duke of Suffolke all obnoxious to her Justice she knew very well neither affected her Religion nor Title they being her prisoners in the Tower she released them all But for all this the Zealots of her time would not be quieted they libel against the Government of Women they pick quarrels and murmur at her Marriage they publish invectives and scurrilous Pamphlets against Religion yet forbear not to plot and conspire her deprivation Goodman writ a pernitious Book to have her put to death William Thomas a Gospeller conspires to Out of Fox his Martyrs kill the Queen and when hanged said he died for his Country Stow in Queen Mary p. 1056. On the contrary in Queen Elizabeths time although Catholicks then were the chief Ministers in Church and State and might have used indirect means against her she being of a contrary Religion and not of so clear a Title yet Catholick Bishops who set the Crown upon her head are commended by Holinshed a Prot. Hist ann Eliz. 26. pag. 1358 1360. for peaceable quiet Bishops and the Catholick temporal Lords there by him recorded to be far from opposing themselves against her interest as they are said there to offer her Majesty in her defence to impugne and resist any â—orreign force though it should come from the Pope himself Insomuch that they are commended by Holinshed for loyalty and obedience And Stow testifies how diligent Catholicks were to offer their service in that great action 88. neither were they altogether refused by her Majesty How the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellour of England Doctor Heath a Catholick Bishop instead of inveighing against her or casting forth of Libels as Cranmer did against Q. Mary her entrance and Government made a publick oration in her behalf to perswade the people to obedience and to acknowledg her power and authority Holin ib. 1170. whence the said Archbishops faithfulness was left to commendation also by Protestant Bishop Goodman in his Catalogue of Bishops How all Catholick Lords and Bishops repaired to London to proclaim her Queen who not long after turned them out of several Offices and Bishopricks Holinshed p. 1171. To use Cambdens own words and phrase the world stood Cambdens Britann p. 163. amazed and England groaned at it what would flesh and blood move him to was it not strange in the beginning to behold Abbies destroyed Bishopricks gelded Chaunteries Hospitals Colledges turned to profaneness change of Liturgies Rites c. to see people renounce their pious vows such unexpected alterations it being a pitiful thing as Stow saith to hear the Lamentations in the Country for religious Houses Stâ—w p. 964. Notwithstanding the loyalty and obedience of Catholicks towards her appeared undeniable in all things not only in their humble petitions but by their constant and general conformity unto her temporal Government in 88. and by their Protestations made at Ely 1588. as by other offers made to the Lord North the Queens Lieutenant there and by their just actions afterwards by their submission as to the Lords of the Privy Council and profession of all due acknowledgment to her Majesty notwithstanding the Sentence of Excommunication Whence the Author of Execution of English Justice acknowledges their obedience and loyalty to Elizabeth in a time when they wanted no matter of complaint Any man of candour and integrity may easily convince the vulgar error the unevenness of Queen Elizabeths nature and severity to that of Queen Marys Queen Elizabeth made new Laws against Catholicks and put them to death for not embracing a new heresie which has been condemned to the fire here and in all other Christian Countries She embrued her hands in the blood royal of Mary Stewart lawful Heir to the Crown put to death many noble persons by their blood to colour her Supremacy raised up upstarts Hereticks from nothing annihilated the antient Nobility and Gentry c. to use a Protest Historiographers words the bloody practices of Queen Eliz. if not so barbarous in appearance though more wicked in substance as being exhibited under the colour and pretext of Law in the starving and racking so many innocent worthy learned persons tearing out their hearts and bowels in publick view upon suborned witnesses base vagabond and perjured Catchpoles hired to swear Neither was there any reason then for persecution on the account of the Catholicks misdemeanours For as Cambden her own Historiographer noteth The reason of the penal Statutes in Eliz. was 1. the opinion of the Queens Illegitimation abroad 2. Jealousies had of the Queen of Scots her nearness to the Crown 3. the Bull of Pius 5. 4. the doubt of the house of Guise in behalf of their Neece 5. the offence given to the King of Spain in assisting Orange These causes induced the Queen with her Pauculi intimi saith Cambden We cannot excuse the persecution therefore under Queen Elizabeth against Catholicks for any cause given by them or just fear of their fidelity nor from the example of Christian Emperours and Kings that both for zeal of Religion and human policy to avoid danger of Rebellion made Laws and Statutes against Hereticks and innovators of the antient faith and sense of Scripture which descended to them by Tradition from the Apostles Queen Elizabeth taking a contrary way made Laws and Statutes against the ancient Religion and known sense of Gods word delivered from age tâ— age which practice destroys the order of Justice to persecute Christians for professing a Religion confirmed by the publick testimony and practice of the Christian world from the first propaâ—â—tion of Christianity to this present tâ—â—e No part of their Dectrine being â—â—er judged an heresie or novelty by antiquity otherwise they had not escaped the rigour of penal Laws made against Hereticks and Novelists in former ages But no History did or can ever mention any person that suffered as an Heretick for broaching or maintaining any one point which they now believe and profess Whereas Q. Mary her predecessors Emperours and Kings punished Novelists only that made Religons of their own heads condemneâ— as Hereticks by the Church in ancient times The disparity therefore was great Catholick Princes standing as defenders of their ancient Faith others as invaders and introducers of a new Belief They seek to keep what de jure they had Calvinists what they had not they possessors of the traditum and depositum left by Christ and his Apostles others descissors and injurious infringers of those Apostolick tyes and regulations so carefully delivered to all posterity Laws indeed have been made in Catholick Countries very severe against those the Church calleth Hereticks but they were none of the Churches