did it because they that are in the flesh cannot please God which is in effect sending all married persons to Hell This was one part of the pretended mortification of false Teachers about Marriage the other was about Meats S. Paul knew no such holiness in one sort of Meat above another as though men could fast their bellies full of one but the least taste of the other destroyed it What a pleasant thing it is to account that fasting which the unmortified Epicures of old accounted their most delicious feasting viz. Fish and Wine This is not doing so much as the Pharisees did for they appeared unto men to fast but in the Church of Rome they cannot be said to do that unless fasting and eating be the same thing But may not the Church call not eating prohibited meat fasting No doubt it may as well as call that no bread which we see and taste and handle to be bread However I cannot understand but if their Church had so pleased the eating Flesh and abstaining from Fish might have been called fasting and so they might have made one entire Fast of a whole years eating and notwithstanding all the pretence of fasting and mortification in that Church I cannot see that any man is bound by the Laws of it to keep one true fast all the dayes of his life But if all the mortification required lyes only in a distinction of meats the false Apostles went beyond them in it for they utterly forbid some sorts saying touch not taste not handle not and not meerly to shew their obedience to the commands of the Church but that they might not gratifie the desires of the flesh and therefore the Apostle saith these things had on that account a shew of wisdom in them being in all probability taken from the severe precepts of the Pythagorean Philosophy which makes him bid them Beware lest they were spoiled through Philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men and the principles of the world and not after Christ. For if this sort of mortification were a thing so pleasing to God the Heathen principles were more agreeable to his nature than the doctrine of Christianity This only requires the subduing our inward lusts and in order to that to keep the body in subjection but in the mysteries of the Heaten Religion far greater severities were to be undergone in order to their participation of them And the hardships were so great in some of their initiations especially those of Mithras that some dyed before they could pass through them and yet for any to be admitted without them was present death to them They were to make confession of their sins shave their heads change their habits lye upon the bare ground fast for several dayes and when they eat it was to be only of some certain meats these and many other severities they were to go through in order to the purifying their souls as they thought and bringing them to the state they were in before they came into the body Some part of these hardships the Pythagoreans took into their Philosophy and from them the Colossians began to be infected with them but S. Paul calls them only vain deceits the commandments and doctrines of men things that made a fair shew but he looks upon them as corruptions of the doctrine of Christ. Yet afterwards the Montanists and Encratitae and others were much stricter and more frequent in these fasts and abstinence than the Catholick Christians but the Church thought fit to condemn them as corrupters of Christianity By all which we see how apt men are to be deceived by false Teachers when they pretend to so much Mortification above what Christianity requires from them 3. They pretended to know the mind of Christ better than the Apostles did they pretended that they had conversed familiarly with Christ upon earth and understood his meaning better than the Apostles did And therefore their Disciples in the Church of Corinth were neither for Paul nor Apollos nor Cephas but they were only for Christ and gave out that from him they understood that what he had said concerning the Resurrection was only to be understood of the state of Regeneration which doctrine it seems had gotten great footing in the Church of Corinth by their means They reported that the Apostles understood only some common and ordinary things but the deeper and more hidden mysteries were only made known to them which makes S. Paul in his Epistles to those Churches which they had corrupted speak so often of his understanding the mysteries of God But we speak the wisdom of God in a mysterie even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world to our glory having made known unto us the mysterie of his will whereby ye may understand my knowledge in the mysterie of Christ. The true Apostles declared that they kept back nothing of the counsel of God but delivered it openly and plainly to make all men see and understand what that mysterie was the false Apostles pretended that the Doctrine and Writings of the Apostles did not contain all the great mysteries of the Gospel but they were received from Christs own mouth and conveyed to others by a secret and oral tradition The things written by the Evangelists they could not deny to be true but they were dark and obscure and could not be understood but by the help of their Oral Tradition and upon this principle Cerinthus Basilides Valentinus and Marcion went as appears by Irenaeus For when they saw they could never make good their Doctrines by the writings of the New Testament they sought to blast the reputation of these and set up the Authority of an Oral Tradition above them Men do not use to pick quarrels with their Friends and therefore when we find any charging the Scripture with obscurity and imperfection we have reason to believe they hope for no comfort from it 4. They made use of the most subtle and crafty methods of deceiving To this end they were very busie and active watching every opportunity therefore S. Paul charges them with sleight and cunning craftiness lying in wait to deceive i.e. with using all the arts and tricks of deceivers as 1. By deep dissimulation and disguising themselves not appearing at first to be what they really are nor letting them understand what their true doctrine and design is If any of those they hope to gain object any thing against them how do they pity their ignorance and revile their Teachers that did so foully misrepresent their Doctrines to them Alas for them poor men they neither understand us nor our Religion They have taken up things upon trust their prejudice will not suffer them to examine things as they are Have you not been told thus and thus concerning us and not one word of it is true Never trust such men more come be perswaded by us and then you shall be truly
for complying with this blessed Doctrine called the Commons or Deputies of the third Estate Nebulones ex faece plebis a pack of Knaves of the very dregs of the People Very obliging language from the Head of the Church When all that the Commons desired was only to have this Opinion condemned That the Pope hath power to depose Princes and that killing of Kings is an act Meritorious to the purchase of the Crown of Martyrdom but this by all their instances and arguments they could never obtain but the Nobility and Clergy over-ruled them in it For the Clergy King Iames saith He did not wonder so much because they look on themselves as properly Subjects to the Pope and therefore are bound to advance that Monarchy to which they belong But for the Nobility saith he the Kings right arm to prostitute and set as it were to sale the Dignity of their King as if the arm should give a thrust unto the head I say for the Nobility to hold and maintain even in Parliament their King is lyable to deposition by any forreign Power or Potentate may it not pass for one of the strangest Miracles and rarest Wonders of the World For that once granted this consequence is good and necessary that in case the King once lawfully deposed shall stand upon the defensive and hold out for his right he may then be lawfully murthered Which consequence is very well understood at Rome and allowed to be good by the Roman Casuists and yet the eloquent Cardinal calls that Doctrine which makes Princes indeposable by the Pope A breeder of Schisms a gate that makes way for all Heresie to enter and a Doctrine to be held in such detestation that rather than he and his fellow Bishops will yield to the signing thereof they will be contented like Martyrs to burn at a stake Blessed Martyrs the mean while and fit to be put in the same Calendar with the Gunpowder Traitors who suffered as I shall shew presently on the same principle methinks they might have chosen a better Cause to have dyed Martyrs for But surely it must be an Article of faith and a main point of their Religion which makes men Martyrs who suffer for it And such no doubt it is accounted among them when the same Cardinal saith That it leads men not only to unavoidable Schism but manifest Heresie to deny it and that it obliges men to confess that the Catholick Church hath for many ages perished from the earth for he confidently avows it that all parties in the Catholick Churh have held it and the whole French Church till the time of Calvin that if this Doctrine be not true the Pope is so far from being Head of the Church and Vicar of Christ that he is a Heretick and Antichrist and all the parts of their Church are the Limbs of Antichrist And if they be so we cannot help it but think we have great reason to secure our selves against the infection of such pernicious principles both to Christianity and the Civil Government And what can be more opposite to the design of Christianity when that requires men to obey even Infidel and Heathen Governours for conscience sake this Doctrine makes it lawful to depose destroy and murder Christian Princes for the Pope and the Churches sake This is the first thing we are to examine false Teachers by viz. the design of their Doctrines 2. By the means made use of to accomplish this design If things in themselves evil repugnant to the principles of humane nature and those of civil societies as well as to the precepts of Christianity are made lawful only for the carrying on their design we need not go farther to examine them for by these fruits we may know them There are three things which mainly uphold Civil Societies Truth Obedience and a care of the good of others but if men fall not through any sudden infirmity or surprize but openly and avowedly justifie the lawfulness of falshood treason and cruelty when they are intended for the carrying on their design what could they invent more contrary to the Laws both of God and man where in could they better discover themselves notwithstanding their Sheeps clothing to be meer ravening Wolves 1. Falshood and that both in their words and dealings 1. In their words by asserting the lawfulness of aequivocation and mental reservation in their most solemn Answers as Father Garnett when the Lords asked him Whether he had any conference with Hall denyed it upon his Soul and reiterated it with such horrible execrations as wounded their hearts that heard him and immediately upon Hall 's confessing it he excused himself by the benefit of aequivocation which being objected against Garnett after his Execution the Roman Jesuite Eudaemon Iohannes defends him in it and saith it is lawful for a man to swear and take the Sacrament upon it when he knows in his conscience what he saith to be absolutely false if he doth not help himself by a mental reservation And Tresham a little before his death in the Tower subscribed it with his own hand That he had not seen Garnett in sixteen years before when it was evidently proved and Garnett confessed they had been together but the Summer before and all that Garnett had to say for him was that he supposed he meant to aequivocate Lord that men going into another world should think thus grosly to impose upon God and men What was speech intended for if not that others might understand our meaning by it Did ever any man tell a lye to himself Truth in words consists in an entire proposition and not of one half-spoken and half-concealed and if it be lawful thus to abuse mankind it was to no purpose ever to forbid lying for any but meer fools may help themselves in their most solemn protestations by some secret reserve in their own minds and so this principle makes way for all the lyes or perjuries in the world if a man thinks that he is not bound to betray himself or if he judges his own damage will be greater by discovering the truth than the others damage will be by concealing it 2. Falshood in dealings and that notwithstanding the most solemn Promises nay the Safe-conducts of Princes For notwithstanding all their shifts and evasions in this matter no man that regards his safety will ever put his life into their hands for the sake of the Council of Constance All that they have to say is that The Emperour did as much as lay in him to do but it belonged to the Council to proceed upon Hereticks and the Emperour could not hinder that And what is this but plainly to say that Princes are to keep their words with Infidels and Catholicks but they have nothing to do to keep their words with Hereticks And if this be their principle we must have a care how far we trust them 2. Treason It is the honour of our Church of
who were foretold by the Prophets that should come for the redemption of his People for many shall come in my Name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many Not as though they pretended to be sent by Christ but that they would assume to themselves the Dignity and Authority of the true Messias and of this sort there were many that arose among the Jews such as Theudas Jonathas Barchochebas and many others But besides these there were false Prophets some of which did openly oppose Christianity such as that Bar-Jesus mentioned in the Acts but there were others who pretended to own Christianity and to prophesie in the Name of Christ whom S. Peter calls false Teachers and whom S. Paul describes by the same character that our Saviour here doth But I know that after my departing shall grievous Wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them whom he elsewhere sets forth by their Sheeps clothing when he saith that by good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple whom he calls false Apostles deceitful workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ which carryed so fair a shew and appearance among the people that S. Paul was very full of jealousie and apprehension concerning them lest they should by degrees draw away his Disciples from the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ. For I am jealous over you saith he with godly jealousie but I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. It may seem strange that after the Apostles had with so much care and diligence planted the Gospel of Christ in several Churches they should express so much fear as they did and especially S. Paul of their being so soon corrupted by these false Teachers as he doth not only of the Corinthians but of the Galatians too I marvel saith he that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ. And O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth and of the Ephesians That we henceforth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carryed about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive and of the Colossians Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. And Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels and of the Hebrews Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines But we shall see this great Caution delivered here first by our Saviour and afterwards by his Apostles was no more than necessary if we consider under what pretences they came and what Arts and Methods these false Teachers used to delude and seduce the people 1. They pretended to the same infallible Spirit which the Apostles had And this may be the reason why our Saviour doth not here call them false Teachers but false Prophets For Prophecy in its proper notion doth not relate to future events but to divine Inspiration So S. Chrysostom saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Prophet saith he is the same with Gods interpreter so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in Greek Authors as in the Author of the Book de Mundo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendered by Apuleius effari caeteris and Festus saith that the Latines called those Prophets which were oraculorum interpretes and so the Hebrew words are taken in the same sense without any relation to foretelling things to come So Moses is said to be a God to Pharaoh and Aaron thy Brother shall be thy Prophet i. e. thy interpreter Abraham is called a Prophet and the Patriarchs are all called Prophets in regard that Divine Revelations were more common before the written Law but the reason why the name of Prophecy came to be restrained to the prediction of things to come was because future events lying most out of the reach of mens knowledge the fore-telling of these was looked upon as the greatest evidence of divine inspiration But in the New Testament prophesying is often taken for the gift of interpreting the hard places of the Old Testament as Themistius calls one that interpreted the hard places in Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thence Prophesying is reckoned among the spiritual gifts and so these false Prophets were not men who pretended to fore-tell future events but to the assistance of an infallible Spirit in giving the sense of Scripture and by this pretence they transformed themselves into the Apostles of Christ giving out that they enjoyed equal priviledges with them whereby three things may be observed which deserve our consideration 1. That nothing is more easie than for false Teachers to pretend to an infallible Spirit such whom our Saviour and his Apostles did warn men especially against pretended to be Prophets and Apostles and to know the mind of Christ better than they who truly had the assistance of the Holy Ghost Some think the bare pretence to Infallibility ought in such a divided state of the Christian world to be entertained as the best expedient to end Controversies and that Church which doth alone challenge it ought on that account to be submitted to as though the most confident pretenders were to be soonest believed so they will be do what we can by the weakest sort of mankind but by none who have and use their judgements If bare pretences were sufficient Simon Magus did bid the fairest to be Head of the Church for he pretended to be Gods Vicar upon earth or the divine Power sent down from Heaven which none of the Apostles pretended to Why then did not the Christian Church submit to Montanus his Paraclete when no other Christians pretended to such an immediate inspiration as he did And certainly Prisca and Maximilla were better Oracles than a Crucifix was to a late Pope If there be any thing beyond a bare pretence to an infallible Spirit we desire to see better arguments for it than the false Apostles could produce for theirs if there be nothing but a bare pretence we must leave the Pope and Quakers to dispute it out 2. That the pretence to Divine Inspiration is very dangerous to the Christian Church For we see what mischief it did in the Apostolical times when there was a true infallible Spirit in the Apostles of Christ to discover and confute it yet notwithstanding all the care and diligence of the Apostles many were seduced by it For those who have the least ground do commonly use the greatest confidence and denounce Hell
enlightned 2. By raising prejudices against their Teachers as they did in the Church of Corinth against S. Paul representing him as a man of a mean and contemptible presence and rude in speech Come say they and hear our Preachers with what admirable eloquence and moving expressions they speak how they dart beams of light into mens minds and strike through the souls of men you would never care for this dull and obscure way of S. Paul more But this is a small thing to disparage only his gifts Observe say they his doctrine and see whither it tends is not he against those that forbid to marry and abstain from meats Judge now whither these loose doctrines lead men So S. Paul tell us that they had represented him as one that walked after the flesh and had prevailed so far upon the people by these sly insinuations as though all he aimed at was only for his own advantage viz. that he might be popular and get himself an interest among that rich people of Corinth so that he tells them he was fain to live upon other Churches to do them service and he tells us afterwards the false Apostles gave the occasion of it in the Churches of Galatia they had turned his greatest friends to be his enemies and he give this account of it they would exclude us that you might affect them 3. By sowing Schisms divisions among them This was their master-piece to beget contentions where they could not prevail themselves What joy was it to them to see in the Church of Corinth such parties and factions made among them some for Paul some for Apollos some for Cephas from hence proceeded envying and strife and divisions among them and this gave them a fair opportunity of breaking them in pieces one against another And therefore the Apostle saw it necessary to use the utmost means to cure these divisions among them and elsewhere beseeches the Christians to mark them that cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple i.e. they carry on their own designs and interests by these means and therefore study all the wayes to foment and increase them Why should the disciples of Peter yield to those of Paul and why should not those of Apollos be regarded as much as either And such was the unhappy success of these mens arts in this divided Church of Corinth that notwithstanding all the care of S. Paul to put an end to their factions they brake out with greater fury afterwards as appears by the Epistle of Clemens to them and he takes notice of those who did cast the arrows of contention among them and therefore he makes that the chief argument of his Epistle to defeat the design of the false Teachers by perswading them to peace and unity among themselves 4. By the most plausible insinuations By good words and fair speeches saith S. Paul they deceive the hearts of the simple they might find by their softness and gentleness that they were in Sheeps clothing How meek and humble and insinuating are they where they have any hopes of a prey how do the bowels of these ravening Wolves yearn towards the silly sheep that look only on their outsides They would not hurt a limb of them for all the world Nothing but meer zeal for their good could make them run such hazards and venture so much as they do What end could they have in following such stray Sheep but to reduce them to the true sheepfold Thus if the Wolves may be believed there is no danger to the Sheep but from their Shepherds let them but forsake them and then see what admirable love and peace and unity they would live together in but the Apostle well adds to all this deceiving the hearts of the simple for none else are capable of being thus deceived by all their fair pretences and plausible insinuations 5. The false Teachers were for a more pompous and easie way of Religion than the true Apostles were These were for the purity and simplicity of the Gospel of Christ the other were for joyning the Iewish Ceremonies and the Heathen Customs together with it and by this means they hoped with much more ease to gain Proselytes to them especially when to this they added a greater liberty in mens lives so that by these offers they hoped to gain the vain the superstitious and the profaner sort wholly to them See how S Paul describes them having a form of godliness but denying the power of it for of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins led away with divers lusts These were subjects rightly disposed to be deceived by them their folly made them capable and their lusts very tractable to such a formal pompous easie Religion It was by this indulgence of men in their sins that vile Sect of the Gnosticks gained so much ground in the beginnings of Christianity S. Chrysostom thinks these words of our Saviour have a particular respect to the foregoing words Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Now these words coming immediately after seem to imply that these false Prophets were for making the gate wider and the way to Heaven larger than Christ hath done and such need not fear they shall have many followers and especially of those who are farthest from the Kingdom of Heaven All the blessedness our Saviour promises is to the humble and contrite to the meek and righteous to the merciful pure and peaceable but if others make easier conditions of blessedness no wonder if their doctrine be entertained by those who are willing to be happy but unwilling to leave their sins As if false Teachers should turn our Saviours Beatitudes into such as these Blessed are ye if ye confess your sins to a Priest and receive the Sacrament of Penance for your sins are forgiven Blessed are ye if ye vow poverty and leave the world for ye shall inherit the earth Blessed are ye if ye go in Pilgrimages and visit the seven Churches especially in a year of Iubilee and receive the Popes benediction for ye shall be called the Children of God Blessed are ye if ye do or suffer evil for the Catholick Churches sake for great shall be your reward in Heaven Blessed are they that howsoever they live dye in S. Francis his habit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven For so Gregory the ninth saith that S. Francis obtained this priviledge of God that whosoever had that habit on could not dye ill and S. Francis adds himself That whosoever loved his Order in his heart how great a sinner soever he was should obtain mercy of God And are
not these much easier terms of blessedness than those our Saviour layes down Besides that which makes the way to Heaven more narrow is that our Saviour declares he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it and adds precepts of his own to it But do not they make the way to Heaven much opener that teach men to dissolve both the Law and the Precepts of Christ For this is the language of these false Teachers if we bring their doctrine to the manner of our Saviours expressions Ye have heard that it hath been said of old Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve but we say unto you that ye are to give worship both to Saints and Angels Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image nor the likeness of any thing c. but we say unto you that this Command may be left out among Christians You have heard that it hath been said of old Thou shalt not kill but we say unto you that to murder Princes blow up Parliaments destroy Hereticks is lawful for the good of the Catholick Church You have heard that it hath been said of old Thou shalt not commit adultery but we say unto you that marriage in a Priest is worse than fornication Thus far for the Law now let us see the liberty they take as to the precepts of the Gospel Ye have heard that it hath been said by Christ Drink ye all of this but we say unto you that notwithstanding this precept of Christ the Laity must not do it You have heard that it hath been said by the Apostle that men ought to pray with understanding but we say unto you that men need not understand what they pray for Ye have heard that ye have been commanded both by Christ and his Apostles to Read the Scriptures but we forbid the people to read the Scriptures and say that more hurt than good comes by it Judge now whether the character of false Teachers do not belong to them who have found another way nay a contrary way to Heaven to that which our Saviour directed And so much for the Caution here given and the Reason annexed to it Beware of false Prophets for they come to you in Sheeps clothing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves I come now 2. To the Rule laid down by our Saviour for the judging of them By their fruits ye shall know them He doth not send men to an infallible Judge to know the true and false Teachers from each other but layes down such a Rule as he supposed might be sufficient to direct men in their judgement of them If Christ had ever intended to have left such a Vicar upon Earth whose judgement all Christians are bound to follow he would never have put them to such a needless tryal of mens Doctrines by their Fruits the short and plain way had been to have said thus There will false Teachers arise but remember that you are to obey and follow the Bishop of Rome and if you will be saved I command you to hold in communion with him This had been the fullest and clearest direction in the world and no doubt if our blessed Saviour had meant any such thing such was his care of the souls of men this would have been one of the first and plainest precepts of the Gospel But so dark and obscure so remote and impertinent are the proofs brought from Scripture for the Popes Supremacy that I dare say that Aristotles Politicks do prove it much better than any Text in the Bible and those I suppose have been of my opinion who slightly passing over the passages of Scripture have been large in proving that Monarchy is the best Government and therefore ought to be in the Church Which argument if it have any force for an Universal Monarchy in the Church I should not at all wonder to see the same persons zealous to promote an Universal Monarchy in the World too For if the argument in the Canon Law be good That the Pope is above the Emperour because God created two great Lights the Sun and the Moon I hope the same reason which will prove it necessary for the Sun to rule the day will equally hold that the Moon should rule the night And I shall easily agree that when it will be thought reasonable for all the Kings and Princes in the world to submit themselves to one Universal Monarch it may be then expedient for all particular Churches to give up their rights to the Pope In the mean time we think it most convenient to follow our Saviours Rules to judge of mens pretences how great and haughty soever by the fruits they produce Which Rule is not to be understood concerning the particular actions of men which have no respect to their doctrines for as S. Chrysostom observes many Hereticks have been men of excellent lives and so on the contrary but we are to understand it of those fruits which their doctrines have a direct influence upon And therefore this Rule hath a particular respect to two things by which we are to examine the fairest pretences viz. 1. The design they tend to 2. The means made use of for the accomplishing this design If therefore the design be quite of another nature from that of the Gospel if the means be such as are directly contrary to it we may from thence justly inferr that how plausible soever the pretences are how fine and soft soever the Sheeps clothing be yet inwardly they are ravening Wolves 1. I begin therefore with the design of their doctrines Nothing is more easie than for men to understand the design of Christianity viz. the exercise of all Christian vertues to fit men for the Kingdom of Heaven for our Saviour declares That his Kingdom is not of this world that he came not to meddle with the rights of Princes or to dispose of Crowns and Dominions all that he aimed at was to possess men with a firm belief of another world and by the most powerful motives to perswade men to repentance and a sober righteous and a godly life And if they did these things what ever troubles and difficulties they met with in this world should be abundantly recompensed in that to come This is the main scope and design of the Christian Religion and the great art of the false Prophets lay in this that they pretended still to own Christianity which was their Sheeps clothing but withal by secret and pernicious mixtures of their own doctrines to undermine and pervert the whole design of it So S. Paul saith of them not that they did oppose but that they did pervert the Gospel of Christ. I marvel saith he that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ to another Gospel which yet is not another but there be some that trouble you and would
pervert the Gospel of Christ. Now I desire it may be considered whether any thing doth more effectually pervert the design of the Gospel than the setting up a Kingdom in this world under the pretence of it that should be paramount to all Princes and Potentates and to which they owe subjection and obedience And yet this hath been the open and avowed design of the prevailing Faction in the Church of Rome for the last six hundred years I do not deny but there were some tendencies to it before and wise men might easily guess what it would come to if the design came once to be managed by a man of Spirit and courage as it was by Gregory the Seventh who in a Council at Rome published his famous Dictates viz. That there is but one Name in the World viz. that of the Pope that it was in his power to depose Emperours and absolve Subjects from obedience to their Princes Now the grand design breaking out all other things were contrived and carried on which were thought necessary to accomplish it and there being two things needful for the maintenance of such a pretended Monarchy viz. sufficient numbers of men whose interest should lye in upholding it and great revenues to support the dignity of it These two were taken care of with all the art and industry imaginable For the first it was necessary to disengage them from all Civil interests and yet to preserve their honour and reputation with the people The former could not be done while the Clergy gave hostages of their fidelity to the Civil Government by the interest of their Families and Children therefore this Pope did most severely forbid all Clergy mens marrying that as the old Roman Souldiers were forbidden marriage while they received pay lest their domestick interests should abate their courage so the Celibate of the Clergy was strictly enjoyned to make them more useful and hearty for this design But lest the number of these should not be thought sufficient great swarms of Monks and Friers were encouraged and dispersed in all Countreys and to make them more faithful to this interest because Princes might oblige particular Bishops who might curb and restrain these spiritual Ianizaries therefore they were exempt from their jurisdiction and kept in immediate dependence on the Pope To give yet further encouragement to both Orders the Doctrine of Ecclesiastical Liberty was set on foot not a liberty from the Law of Moses or the power of Sin or the dominion of Satan which is all the Liberty the Gospel speaks of but an exemption from the power of the Civil Magistrate in so much that the Popish Casuists determine that Rebellion in a Clergy-man is no Treason because he is not subject to the Civil power And this doctrine of Liberty is no invention of the Iesuits but it is determined by the famous Councils of Constance Lateran and Trent that Lay persons have no Iurisdiction over Ecclesiastical But besides this the Pope hath other tyes upon them every Bishop is at this day sworn to obey the Pope at his Consecration all the Regular Clergy are under a Vow of blind obedience to their Superiours who are more immediately influenced by the Court of Rome Now such an infinite number of persons being made thus sure to the Papal Interest it must be so ordered that these persons may preserve their reputation among the people to this end they are told that they must depend wholly upon the Priesthood for matters of faith and salvation and it is of mighty concernment to them to have the good will of the Priests for that upon their good or bad intention depends the making or marring of their Sacraments But that no designs might be carried on which they should not understand never was there such an invention to that purpose as Auricular Confession and yet that the people may have greater reverence to their Priests they are told that they can make their God at any time by pronouncing the Five Words of Consecration And what cannot they do as one of them bravely said while they have their God in their hands and their Prince on his knees And both these doctrines of Confession and Transubstantiation were defined by the same Pope Innocent the third a man of the same spirit and undertakings with Gregory the seventh And lastly that no supplies should be wanting to support the Grandeur of the Papal See besides the pretended Donations and Concessions of Princes all arts imaginable were used to drain money out of all Countreys in subjection to the Pope and to empty it into the Popes Treasury This very Kingdom of ours was a remarkable instance of this during its Vassallage under the Popes Tyranny For an account being taken in Henry the Eighths time it was found that in the compass of forty years foregoing no less a sum than 160000 l. was carried to Rome upon the sole account of Investiture of Bishops besides the vast summs that were raised by Peter-pence Dispensations and Indulgences which were a kind of Contribution upon the sins of the People Thus we see how the design was laid and managed for an Universal Monarchy in the Church But some will say that the world is grown wiser now I heartily wish it were so for nothing would be more prejudicial to the Papal Interest than its being so But let us not deceive our selves the pretensions are as high and as great at Rome to this Monarchy as ever they were And what ever some vainly distinguish of the Court and Church of Rome in this matter it is certain those of the Court of Rome not only assert but prove it too that this doctrine hath been the doctrine of the Roman Church for six hundred years and they produce for it besides a great number of Authors no fewer than ten Councils whereof two are allowed by them to be general viz. those of Lyons and Lateran But this is not all but they contend for it not as a probable opinion but as a thing certain and of faith and that not barely at Rome but even in France For in the memory of many yet alive after a hot debate in a general Assembly of the three Estates at Paris the Popes Power of deposing Princes was assented to by all the Nobility and Clergy of that Kingdom Some particular persons among them may and do oppose it of late but they are excommunicated at Rome for doing it and thereby declared as much as they can be not to be members of their Church for daring to oppose so Orthodox and Catholick a Doctrine as the Popes power of deposing Princes Nay Cardinal Perron saith in his eloquent Oration to the third Estate at Paris who opposed this Doctrine That unless it were approved it followed that the Church of Rome for many Ages hath been the Kingdom of Antichrist and Synagogue of Satan and King Iames tells us That the Pope in his Letter of thanks to the Nobility
Plot. This I know is suggested and believed by some who think it a fine thing to talk out of the common road and to be thought more skilful in Mysteries of State than other men But I would fain understand from whence they derive this profound intelligence at such a distance of years If King Iames may be believed if the Popish Historians and Apologists at that time may be credited there was not the least intimation given either by the Actors or Sufferers from abroad or at home of any such thing Was not the world sufficiently alarm'd at the news of this dangerous and unparallel'd Conspiracy Were not men very inquisitive into all the particulars and those of the Church of Rome especially the Iesuits concerned in point of honour to wipe off the stain from themselves and to cast the odium of it on a great Minister of State Were not two of the Iesuits who were conscious of the Plot preferred afterwards at Rome and how many Writings came from thence about it and yet not one man discovered the least suspicion of any such thing If they go on in this way without the least shadow of proof to lay the contrivance of this Plot on a professed Protestant for all that I know by the next age they may hope to perswade men that it was a Plot of Protestants to blow up a Popish King and Parliament 2. That they had all their Motives and encouragements from the principles of their Religion to undertake such a design And Philostratus contends that the murder of Domitian ought rather to be attributed to the doctrines of Apollonius than to the hands of Stephanus and Parthenius For which we are to consider that they were fully possessed with this as a principle of their Religion That it was absolutely in the Popes power to deprive heretical Princes of their dominions which had been rooted in them especially after that Pius the Fifth had fully declared it in his Bull against Queen Elizabeth In her case they made no scruple to destroy her if they could and thought they should do it with a good conscience And there are no Villains in the world like those who are Villains out of conscience But as to the Queens Successor the Pope had declared nothing till such time as Garnett being Provincial of the Iesuits had received two Briev's from Rome wherein he declared That in case they should suspect the Queens Successor would not be true to their Religion it was lawful for them to use their endeavours to keep him from the Crown These Briev's Garnett shews to Catesby who took the rise of his design from hence And when afterwards in conference Garnett desired him to know the Popes opinion in it he replyed That he needed not ask that for if it were lawful to exclude him before he came to the Crown it was lawful to take him away when he was in possession of it Which argument was so strong that Garnett either had no mind or was not able to answer it All the scruple Catesby had after this was whether it were lawful to destroy the innocent and guilty together which Garnett fully resolved him in so it were for the greater good of the Church Upon these two grounds as Widdrington a Roman Catholick well observes Catesby laid the Foundation of his whole conspiracy After this it 's evident by manifest proofs and Garnetts own confession under his hand that he and other Iesuits did understand the particulars of the Plot and Tesmond another Iesuit and he discoursed the circumstances walking together in Moor-Fields and that not in confession as is pretended for the Iesuit did not confess it as a fault but advised with him about particulars and asked him who should be Protector of the Kingdom after the Plot took effect as Garnett himself confessed But suppose it had been in confession why might not Treason be discovered as well as Heresie and their Casuists acknowledge that Heresie may be revealed There is only this difference that Treason is only against Secular Princes but Heresie against the interest of their Church which is dearer to them than all the Princes lives in the World Yea so busie were the Iesuits in encouraging this Plot that they not only debated it among themselves but one of them gave them the Sacrament upon the Oath of Secrecy and then absolved them after the discovery another prayed for good success another comforted them after it was discovered by the examples of good designs that had wanted success And must we after all this believe that only a few discontented Laicks were engaged in it and that it was nothing at all to their Church when the Iesuits gave all the encouragement to them in it in point of conscience so that it was truly as well as wittily said of one That the Iesuits double garment might well be called Charity because it covered a multitude of sins 3. But if the Church of Rome give no encouragement to such actions why hath it not detested the principles upon which it was grounded Why hath it not removed all suspicion in the minds of Princes and People of giving any countenance to such treasonable designs But on the contrary the same doctrines are still avowed and the persons of the Conspirators honoured Widdrington saith that Garnetts name was inserted into the English Martyrology though he gave it under his hand that he dyed for Treason That his bones were kept for Reliques and his Image set over Altars as of a holy Martyr Is this the honour of Regicides and Traytors in the Roman Church When in the late prosperous Rebellion the prevailing Faction had proceeded to such a height of Wickedness as to take away the life of our Gracious Soveraign how did the Church and Nation groan and grow impatient till they could vindicate the honour of our Religion and Countrey not only by an execution of Justice on the persons of the Regicides but by declaring in Parliament against the principles that led to it What hath there been done like this in the Court or Church of Rome against the principles or actors of this Gunpowder-Treason If it had succeeded by all that we can see Paul the Fifth might have admired the providence of God in it as much as Sixtus the Fifth did in the murder of Henry the Third of France and we may guess his mind shrewdly by the Bulls he published against the Oath of Allegiance which the King was forced for his own security to impose on the Papists after this Conspiracy With what scorn and contempt doth Bellarmine treat the King in his Writings against him and tells him in plain terms if he would be secure he must give liberty to their Religion It seems then their principles are dangerous to Princes where they have it not What mark of dishonour was there set by their own part on any one of the Conspirators Two of the Iesuits upon their arrival at Rome met with