same ship and it is not possible to weild so great a vessell against wind and tide And therefore although it do not concern your Majesty in your own estate yet if your Lords and your Commons and your Clergie do reap any great benefit by the Schisme it will be very hard for your Majesty to effect unity But if upon due examination there be no such matter then it is but the cry of the passengers who for want of experience are afraid where there is no danger and that can be no hinderance to any course your Majesty shall think to be best for the attaining of the haven 39. For my own part for the discharge of my duty and conscience I have considered of all their states â—nd can resolve my self that I have not prejudiced the state of any good Subject of yours but mine own in coming to the Catholike Church And first for your Lords and Nobles It is true that many of their Ancestors were allowed a very good share in the division of the Church when the Schism began and therefore it concerned them in reason of their state to maintaine the doctrine of division But I think there are very few in England either Lords or other now possest of Abbey lands which have not paid well for them and might not as well possesse them in the unity of the Church as in the Schisme And there was a Declaration made by the Pope to that purpose in Queen Maries dayes so that there is now no need at all to preach against the merits of good works nor the vertue of the Sacraments nor the Invocation of Saints nor the rest of that Popery that built Churches unlesse it be to help the Huguenots of France to pull them down 40. But perhaps the Commons of England do gain so much by the Schisme as they cannot abide to heare of unity Indeed when the Puritan Preacher hath called his flock about him and described the Church of Rome to be so ignorant so idolatrous and so wicked as he hath made himself believe she is then is he wont to congratulate his poor deceived Audience that they by the means of such good men as himself is are delivered from the darknesse idolatry and wickednesse of Popery and there is no man dare say a word or once mutter to the contrary But the People have heard these lies so long as most of them begin to be weary and the wisest of them cannot but wonder how these Puritan Preachers should become more learned and more honest then all the rest that lived in ancient times or that live still in Catholike Countries or then those in England whom these men are wont to condemne for Papists Neverthelesse I confesse there be many honest men and women amongst them that being carried away with prejudice and pretext of Scriptures do follow these Preachers out of zeale and devotion to the truth as my selfe did untill I knew it was but counterfeit And these good People if they might be so happy as to heare Catholikes answer for themselves and tell them the truth would be the most devout Catholikes of all other But most of the People were never led by Sermons if they were the Catholike Church is both able and willing to supply them far better then the Schisme But it was an opinion of wealth and liberty which made them break at the first and if they doe duly consider of it they are never the better for either of both but much the worse 41. For wealth the Puritan unthrift that looks for the overthrow of Bishops and Churches Cathedrall hopes to have his share in them if they would fall once and therefore he cannot chuse but desire to increase the Schisme that he may gain by it but the honest Protestant that can endure the State of the Church of England as it is could be content it were as it was for he should receive more benefit by it every way The poore Gentleman and Yeoman that are burdened with many Children may remember that in Catholike times the Church would have received and provided for many of their sonnes and daughters so as themselves might have lived and died in the service of God without posterity and have helped to maintain the rest of their Families which was so great a benefit to the Common-wealth both for the exoneration and provision thereof as no humane policie can procure the like The Farmer and Husbandman who labors hard to discharge his payments and hath little or nothing left at the years end to lay up for his Children that increase and grow upon him may remember that in Catholike times there were better penny-worths to be had when as the Clergie had a great part of the land in their hands who had no need to raise their Rents themselves and did what they might to make other Lords let at a reasonable rate which was also an inestimable benefit to the Commons So that whereas ignorant men carried with envy against the Clergie are wont to object the multitude of them and the greatnesse of their provisions they speak therein as much against themselves as is possible For the greater the number is of such men as are Mundo mortui the more is the exoneration of the Commons and the more the lands are of such as can have no propriety in them the better is the provision of the Commons For themselves can have no more but their food and regular apparell all the rest either remaines in the hands of the Tenants or returnes in Hospitality and relief to their Neighbours or is kept as in a living Exchequer for the service of Prince and Country in time of necessity So that the Commons do gain no wealth at all but rather lose much by the Schisme 42. And as for liberty they are indeed freed from the possibility of going to shrift that is of confessing their sinnes to God in the eare of a Catholike Priest and receiving comfort and counsell against their sinnes from God by the mouth of the same Priest which duty is required of Catholike People but only once in the yeare but performed by them with great comfort and edification very often so that a man may see and wonder to see many hundreds at one Altar to communicate every Sunday with great devotion and likely no day passe but divers do confesse are absolved and receive the blessed Sacrament The poor Commons of England are freed from this comfort neither is it possible unlesse their Ministers had the seat of Secrecie for them to use it And what is the liberty that they have instead thereof Surely the servants have great liberty against their Masters by this meanes the Children against their Parents the People against their Prelates the Subjects against their King and all against the Church of Christ that is against their own good and the Common salvation for without the use of this Sacrament neither can Inferiors be kept in awe but by the Gallowes
old Bed-fellow that he might leave some heires male behind him for belike hee feared that Females would not be able to withstand the tile of Scotland and that the change was continued and increased by the posterity of his later wives I could not choose but suspect somthing but yet the love of the world and hope of preferment would not suffer me to believe but that all was well and as it ought to be 5. Thus I satisfied my self at School and studied the Arts and Phylosophy and other humane learning untill being Master of Arts and Fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in Cambridge I was at the last by the Statutes of that House called to the studie of Divinity and bound to take upon me the order of Priesthood then I thought it my duty for the better satisfaction of my owne soule and the saving of other mens to look as farre into the matter as possible I could that I might find out the truth And having the oportunity of a very good Library in that Colledge I resolved with my selfe to study hard setting aside all respect of men then alive or of Writers that had moved or mainteined controversies farther then to understand the question which was betwixt them I fell to my prayers and be took my selfe wholly to the reading of the Church History and of the Ancient Fathers which had no interest in either side and especially I made choice of S. Augustine because I hoped to find most comfort in him for the confirming of our Religion and the confuting of the Church of Rome 6. In this sort I spent my time continually for many yeares and noted downe whatsoever I could gather or rather snatch either from the Scriptures or the Fathers to serve my turne But when after all my paines and desire to serve my selfe of Antiquity I found the Doctrine of the Church of Rome to be every where confirmed and by most profound demonstrations out of holy Scripture made most agreeable to the truth of Christs Gospel and most conformable to all Christians soules and saw the current opinions of our great Preachers to be every where confuted either in plaine termes or by most unanswerable consequence although my understanding was thereby greatly edified for which I had great cause to render immortall thanks to our Blessed Saviour who by these meanes had vouchsafed to shew himselfe unto me yet my heart was much grieved that I must be faine either not preach at all or else to crosse and varie from the Doctrine which I saw was commonly received 7. Being thus perplexed with my self what course I were best to take I reflected back againe upon the Church of England and because most of those Preachers who drew the people after them in those daies were Puritans and had grounded their Divinity upon Calvins Institutions I thought peradventure that they having gotten the multitude on their side might wrong the Church of England in her Doctrine as well as they desired to doe in her Discipline which indeed upon due search I found to be most true For I found the Common-Prayer Booke and the Catechismes therein contained to hold no point of Doctrine expresly contrary to Antiquity but only that it was very defective and contained not enough And that for the Doctrine of Predestination Sacraments Grace Free-will Sin c. the new Catechismes and Sermons of those Preachers did run wholly against the Common-Prayer Book and Catechismes therein and did make as little account of the Doctrine established by Law as they did of the Discipline but in the one they found opposition by those that had private Interest in the other they laid what they list because no man thought himselfe hurt 8. This truely was a great increase of my griefe for knowing divers of those Preachers to be very honest men and such as I did love with all my heart I was exceeding loath to discent from them in private much more loath to oppose them in publike And yet seeing I must needs preach I was loathest of all to oppugne my own conscience together with the faith wherein I was baptized and the soules of those to whom I preached Neverthelesse having gotten this ground to worke upon I began to comfort my selfe with hope to prove that the Religion established by Law in England was the same at the least in part which now was and ever had been held in the Catholike Church the defects whereof might be supplied whensoever it should please God to move your Maiesty thereunto without abrogating of that which was already by Law established which I still pray for and am not altogether out of hope to see and therefore I thought it my duty as far as I durst rather by charitable constructions to reconcile things that seemed different that so our soules might for ever be saved in unity then by malicious calumniations to maintaine quarrells that so mens turnes might for a time be served in dissention 9. In this course although I did never proceed any further then Law would give me leave yet I alwaies found the Puritanes and Calvinists and all the Creatures of Schisme to be my utter enemies who were also like the Sonnes of Zerviah too strong for David himselfe but I well perceived that all temperate and understanding men who had no Interest in the Schisme were glad to hear the truth honestly and plainely preached unto them And my hope was that by patience and continuance I should in the end unmaske Hypocrisie and gaine credit to the comfortable Doctrine of Antiquity even amongst those also who out of misinformation and prejudice did as yet most dislike it And considering with my selfe that your Right to the Crowne came only from Catholikes and was ancienter then the Schisme which would very faine have utterly extinguished it and that both your disposition by nature your amity with Catholike Princes your Speeches and your Proclamations did at the beginning all tend to peace and unity I hoped that this endeavour of mine to inforce Catholike Religion at the least as far as the Common Prayer Booke and Catechisme would give me leave should be well accepted of your Majesty and be as an Introduction unto farther peace and unity with the Church of Rome 10. But when after my long hope I at at the last did plainely perceive that God for our sins had suffered the Devill the Author of dissention so far to prevaile as partly by the furious practise of some desperate Catholikes and partly by the fiery suggestions of all violent Puritans he had quite diverted that peaceable and temperate course which was hoped for and that I must now either alter my judgement which was impossible or preach against my conscience which was untolerable Lord what anxiety and distraction of soule did I suffer day and night what strife betwixt my judgement which was wholly for the peace and unity of the Church and my affection which was wholly to injoy the favour of your Majesty
his decrees tell me again what Church or Prince or private person can promise himselfe security whilst every villaine hath that principle to justifie his attempt against them These and the like Doctrines dispersed up and downe in the written works of the late Reformers obvious to be met withall both in the Authors themselves and in others that write of them did D. Carier ponder and in them saw cleerly the effects that by an unavoidable connexion as long as the causes were kept in their vigour were to flow out of them and these were the overthrow of Church and State Nor did he see these effects only in their cause but really extant in themselves he saw the Germans till then commended for loyall to their Princes and obedient to their spirituall Pastors presently upon Luthers firing and blowing the coales with a pretence of Reformation divided among themselves in open Rebellion against their Liege Emperour Charles 5. without regard to Ecclesiasticall Superiours He saw their Churches wasted and prophaned and mens manners in a moment altered into worse he saw the Genevean tumults against their true Prince and Bishop their Reformer Calvin that so he might be more absolutely independent of all and chiefe over all being the Incendiary Nor can I thinke him ignorant of the Councell held at Geneva in the yeer 1560. for the murdering of the King and Queen of France the Queen Mother with the royall issue the Catholike Peers Magistrates of the Kingdom the two great Reformers Calvin and Beza being Authors and principalls in the Conspiracy as Bolsecus in the life of Calvin makes appeare out of a Letter of the said Calvin to his trusty friend Viretus he saw the ruinous devastations that fell upon the flourishing Kingdome of France from the same fiery spirit of Reformation which Herod-like was most malicious against the venerable Antiquities of the nation He saw again to omit others the rebellion of the Scots against their Soveraigne Queen Mary our present Kings Grandmother who afterwards by the arm and axe of the old cause was beheaded at Fodringham Castle in England the common Hang-man of London by publike authority O eternall shame to the English and Scottish Nation imbruing his hands in her royall blood And observing how hand in hand reall destruction rebellion with their issue out-rages and their sister preâ—ence of Reformation traversed other Countreyes he saw that one could not stand long parted from the other throughout King James his Dominions so gave him a seasonable warning of it and as a provident Noe shewed his Majesty a safe Arke to prevent the Deluge if he pleased But to the present woe of his posterity and their loyall Subjects through ill private choice or counsell from others he neglected the wholesome advice of his knowing and faithfull servant the Doctor Now though the publishing of this Epistolar Treatise comes too late for the effect first intended to King James yet seeing the old principles still standing and the authority of their founders still maintained by the Reformed Church of England And againe seeing our Kingdome in blood from Sea to Sea with wounds inflicted doubled and redoubled by them though few reflecting whence the blowes do originally proceed I thought it no ill office of a Patriot though now in a kind of exile to endeavour a stop to my Countreyes evills as far forth as the reading of a sheet or two of printed paper might contribute thereunto by presenting all whom it may concern and whom doth it not concern with a fresh view of D. Cariers advice The old proverb out of the Prophet Isay cap. 28. v. 19. is Vexatio dat intellectum vexation gives understanding it sometimes cures mad men and brings them to themselves againe Perhaps the smart of so many blowes may make men reflect whence they have good and bad derived unto them and render them more capable to regard the Doctors remedy then whilst they were blinded with fulnesse ease and prosperity His remedie in a word is an obedient return of all unto that Church whence those Reformers rebelliously apostated the charge of which Church is to execrate to the pit of hell the blasphemies and seditious principles of Luther and Calvin to reduce all to a sound saveing beliefe with a good conscience to order all into their due postures of obedience to temporall and spirituall Superiours and in a word not to live prophanely as men destitute of the knowledge of the true God nor thirsting one anothers blood nor invading one anothers rights as Wolves and Tygers but as the Apostle saith Tit. cap. 2. v. 12. sobriè justè piè soberly for our selves justly towards our neighbour and piously to God or as the true patterne of all Justice Christ Jesus hath taught us reddentes quae sunt Caesaris Caesari quae sunt Dei Deo By this you have one reason why D. Cariers Letter is republished Another reason is to shew the world that the late conversion of D. Tho. Vane late Chaplaine to the Kings Majesty that now is and of Dean Cressey so much talked of in England and the more by reason of their learned bookes printed to satisfie all why they became Roman Catholikes and of many other prime wits of our Universities some whereof are hereafter particularly mentioned who have lately trodden the same paths utterly forsaking thir former Tenets in Religion not for temporall gain as all men know unlesse it be of poverty and persecution is not a thing new strange or to be wondred at When D. Carier listed himself into the Militia of the Roman Church choosing rather as Moses did in Exodus to be afflicted with the true Israelites then prosper among the Aegyptians and to be according to the Psalmists Dialect an abject in the House of God rather then inhabite the Tabernacles of sinners there were many circumstances that might make some inconsiderate people to wonder at it The Church then called Protestant whereof it seems he counted himselfe a member was at that time most flourishing in England they had a visible supreme head of above forty yeares standing without interruption after the title was first taken by Henry the eight to legitimate his Marriage with Anno Bolen whilest his first wife lived it ceased during the reigne of his daughter Q. Mary and so was interrupted in whom by Oath they acknowledged the supremest power in all things under heaven They gloried in their Prelats Bishops not found in any reformed Churches out of their Kings Dominions they had some colourable pretence to a succession of Ministeriall Ordinations and Missions from the Apostles and Christ They thought they had their Church well and properly marked by thirty nine Articles They boasted of a Liturgie consecrated with the blood of Martyrs more compleat for all uses and satisfactory to the people thou any of the neighbouring Reformations injoyed They had differences of daies some kept holy others fasted They used some solemnities in the administration
of the Catholikes Where the Church afterwards called the Lutheran or Reformed was in the yeare of Christ 1512. when Luther was an Augustine Frier in his Monastery a Catholike in communion with the Pope of Rome Who was then a Protestant In what Countrey did he live What was his name the question is not Who was then a Protestant in name without asking them we know by Histories that the Lutherans had the name of Protestants some yeares after the Reformation begun from their Covenants and Protestations first made at Spire and afterwards at Smalcald in Germany when finding their party growing strong they began to take head against their Catholike Soveraigne Charles the fifth Nor was the question who was then before Luthers forsaking his cloistre and former Religion opposite to the Church of Rome or of a different beliefe from hers This question had been easily answered by naming the Hussits Wicklesians Berengarians Arrians and others which for particular points of Doctrine were as different from Luther as he from the Catholike but the meaning of the question was and still is Who did then believe all those points of Faith and onely those which Luther or any other after-Reformer did afterwards believe and wherein they differed from the beliefe of Catholikes which they pretended to reforme this hath been from the beginning and still is a tormenting question to all of the Reformed Churches and though daily asked by Catholikes Writers and Discoursers yet to this day could never be answered with any satisfaction or probability worthy a Schollers pen. If now in this November 1648. I should aske who is a Protestant in England .i. one holding all those points of faith and only those what other definition of a Protestant to give I know not but desire the learned Protestants to agree in it and to set it downe that he who desires to be one of their number may know what he desires which Luther the supposed Grandfather of Protestancy and Enemy to Catholikes professed to believe perhaps it would prove as troublesome or unsatisfiable a Quaere as the former yea if I should aske what three or four Schollers speaking of those that are come to some eminency in learning and to have some conceit of themselves for it are to be found in the Kingdome justly agreeing in all matters of faith yea to come closer to the purpose if the question were what one man setting the Catholikes aside is there to be found of the same opinion now in matters of saith that he was of on the second of November 1640 the day before the present Parliament began perhaps it would put you to a long search before you met a sure satisfactory answer Lest you should think I speake too much at random consider I beseech you how frequently you meet with men seriously and deliberately saying Pox on it rather then hazard my life liberty or fortunes I 'le be of any profession I 'le keep my conscience to my self but I 'le never lose my land for want of outward compliance or conformity with the prevailing Multitude And really their practice both in Religion and Loyalty is squared by that Dictamen Of what Religion I pray you do you count these Are they Protestants Weighing them in the true scale of the Sanctuary I take them to be Nullisidians indifferent for Christianity or the Turkish Turbant in evident state of damnation for their soules and that Tyre and Sidon may escape with a more remisse damnation in the day of Judgment then they Mat. ch 11. v. 22. Consider secondly the multitude of Sects lately sprung up in the Kingdom what divisions and subdivisions are there known to be of the old Anabaptists besides the two main Factions of Presbyterians and Independents new things and names that have almost quite abolished their Protestant Progenitor their zeale and number ebbing and flowing by successe of the Sword Some you know are servent Zelots of the Scottish Reformation others detest it as pestiferous and hereticall Some retain the old denomination of Protestants yet have much of the new Modell Some hold Episcopacy essentiall to the true Protestant Church others deny it holding Bishops altogether unnecessary to the reformed Churches and demonstrating it by the not being and non-use of them in any Reformation even from the beginning out of the King of Englands Dominions Some againe as you know either of curiosity or to prevent Penalties frequent the Parish Churches on Sundayes and on other dayes frequent Conventicles of another Communion utterly detesting that of the Parish Church as superstitious or hereticall and so on the Week daies outwardly disavow the profession they avowed on the Sunday Consider thirdly the little regard that is now given to the 39. Articles heretofore the distinctive difference of the old English Protestant And fourthly the questioning of the Apostles Creed which implies a doubt of its truth at least in some points Before this Parliament it was every where used throughout the Kingdome as an outward profession of every ones beliefe Now it is questioned and consequently doubted of by the Representative Body of the whole Kingdome and their Synodicall Divines Add to this the old true saying Dubius in fide infidelis est he that doubts in matters of faith is no right believer and then draw you the consequence Put all together and you will see that the questions I made you are not so easily answerable as perhaps you thought at the first S. Augustine lib. de haeres numbereth ninety severall Heresies so many Reformations were they sprung up betwixt Christs time and his i. in about four Centuries So many more rose betwixt S. Augustines daies and Luthers i. 180. Heresies in 1500. yeares according to the observation of others Betwixt Luthers apostacie from S. Austins Rule and defection from the Catholike Church in the yeare 1517. and the year 1595. which is but the intervall of 78 modern Authors Staphilus Hosius Pâ—ateolus and others do reckon 270 new Sects all Reformations of what was some daies or houres before But if any man would number all the Reformations or Sects that these last 8. yeares have hatcht in England perhaps the probablest rule of his Arithmetick would be quot capita tot sententiae as many opinions in matters of Religion as heads of men no common name being to be found sit to comprehend our Sectaries but that of a Suist one that followes his own dreams or fancy in choice of Scripture in the interpretation of it and in every particular concerning Religion without profession of agreement or communion which any follow unlesse it be the communion of non-agreement The Scrofa Alba of Reformation hath been so fertile these later dayes that to use Stanislaus Roscius his words Lib. de Atheismis Errans nescit quid velit neec quid nolit The erring Reformer doth neither know what he would nor what he would not let it be but new it sufficeth S. Hilarie lib. ad Constantium Constantem Imperat.
and the love of my Friends and Countrey This griefe of soule growing now desperate did still more and more increase the infirmities of my body and yet I was so loath to become a professed Catholike with the displeasure of your Majesty and of all my honourable and loving friends as I rather desired to silence my judgement with the profits and pleasures of the world which was before me then to satisfie it with reconciling my selfe unto the Catholike Church But it was Gods will that ever as I was about to forget the care of Religion and to settle my selfe to the world among my neighbours I met with such humors as I saw by their violence against Catholikes and Catholike Religion were like to waken my soule by torture rather then bring it asleep by temper And therefore I was driven to recoile to God and to his Church that I might find rest unto my soule 11. And yet because I had heard often that the practise of the Church of Rome was contrary to her Doctrine I thought good to make one triall more before I resolved and therefore having the advice of diverse learned Physitians to goe to the Spa for the health of my body I thought good to make a vertue of necessity and to get leave to go the rather for the satisfaction of my soule hoping to find some greater offence in the Service of the Church of Rome then I had done in her Bookes that so I might returne better contented to persecute and abhorre the Catholikes at home after I should find them so wicked and Idolatrous abroad as they were in every Pulpit in England affirmed to be For this purpose before I would frequent their Churches I talked with such learned men as I could meet withall and did of purpose dispute against them and with all the wit and learning I had I did both justifie the Doctrine of England established by Law and object the Superstition and Idolatry which I thought they might commit either with the Images in the Church or with the Sacrament of the Altar 12. Their common answer was that which by experience I now find to be true viz. that they doe abhorre all Idolatry and Superstition and do diligently admonish the people to take heed thereof And that they use Images for no other purpose but only for a devout memory and representation of the Church Triumphant which is most sit to be made in the time and place of prayer where after a more speciall manner we should with all reverence have our conversation amongst the Saints in Heaven And for the B. Sacrament they do not worship the Accidents which they see but the substance which they believe and surely if Christ be there truly and really present as your Majesty seems to grant he is he is as much to be worshipped as if we saw him with our bodily eyes Neither is there any more Idolatry in the one then in the other If our B. Saviour himself should visibly appeare in person as he was upon the earth Jewes and Infidells would hold it for Idolatry to worship him and would crucifie him again and so would all Heretikes also who refuse to worship him in the Sacrament where he is really present 13. After divers other objections which I made not so much because I was not as because I desired not to be satisfied I came to the Popes supposed pride and tyranny over Kings and Princes and told them of the most horrible Treason intended and practised by Catholikes against your Majesty which hath not yet been judicially condemned by the Church of Rome They all seemed to abhor the fact as much as the best Subjects in the world and much more to favor and defend the authority of their Kings and Witnesse their loyalty to the King in these late warres Princes then Hereticks do And they said that although your Majesty were out of the Church yet they doubted not but if complaint were made in a Judiciall proceeding that fact should be judicially condemned In the mean time it was sufficient that all Catholike Writers did condemne it and that the Pope by his Breve had condemned it exhorting the Cathelikes of England to all Christian patience and obedience As for any other authority or superiority of the Pope then such as is spirituall and necessary for the unity of the Church I have met with none that doe stand upon it 14. So that whereas my hope was that by finding out the corruptions of the Church of Rome I should grow farther in love with the Church of England and joyfully return home and by inveighing against the Papists both enjoy my present preferments and obtaine more and more I saw the matter was like to fall out cleane contrary It is true indeed that there are many corruptions in all States God hath no wheat-field in this world wherein the Devill hath not tares growing and there are no tares more rank then those that grow among the wheat For optimi corruptio pessima and where grace abounds if it be contemned there sin abounds much more But seeing both my reading and experience hath now taught me that the truth of Christian Religion now taught and practised at this day in the Church of Rome and all the obedient Members thereof is the very same in substance which was prefigured and prophesied from the beginning of the world perfected by Christ himself delivered to his Apostles and by them and their Successors perpetually and universally in one uniformity practiced untill this day without any substantiall alteration And that the new Religion of England wherein it doth differ hath no ground but either the pleasure of the Prince and Parliament or the common cry and voice of the People nor no constancy or agreement with it selfe what should I now do It is not in my power not to know that which I do know nor to doubt of that which I have spent so much time and taken so much paines and bestowed so much cost and made so many trialls to find And yet I know if I should yeeld to be reconciled to the Church I should be for this world in all likelihood utterly undone and that which grieved me more I should be rejected of your Majesty my most redoubted Lord and Master and despised by all my deare friends and lovers in England 15. These were in my thoughts at the Spa which did so vex and afflict my soule as that the waters could do my body no good at all but rather much hurt Neverthelesse I avoided the company of Catholikes abstained from the Church and did both dispute and write against the Church of Rome as occasion was offered I still hoped that time would give me better counsell and therefore resolved to go from the Spa to Heidelberg to do my duty there In the meane time I thought with my self it may be God hath moved His Majesties heart to think of peace and reconciliation I know his disposition was so
thing to think upon such exhortations and all one as if a phantasticall fellow finding a herd of young Cattell in a close should first break downe the hedges and then cry loud to the Cattell not to venture to go out nor to seek any fatter pasture for fear they be put into the pound and if they chance to feed where they are because they have no experience of other and to tarry in the Close for an houre or two then the unhappy fellow should run to the owner of the Cattell and tell him what great service he had done him and how he had kept his Cattell in the Close by his goodly charmes and exhortations Let them say what they list of their own honesty and of their exhortations to obedience as long as they do freely infect the peoples soules with such false opinions in Religion they do certainly sow the seeds of disobedience and Rebellion in mens understandings which if they be not prevented by your Majesties giving way to Catholike Religion will in all likelihood spring up in the K. Charles feels the sad effects of this predictioÌ„ next generation to the great prejudice and molestation of your Majesty and your posterity So that whether I doe respect heaven or earth my own soule or the service of your Majesty God or your Neighbours or your Subjects my assured hope is that by joyning my selfe to the Catholike Church I neither have done nor ever shall do any ill duty or service unto your Majesty 18. But perhaps there is such opposition both in matter of Doctrine and in matter of State as it is unpossible that ever there should be any reconcilation at all betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome of which I humbly pray your Majesty to give me leave to shew you what I have observed 19. It is true the breach hath continued now these many yeares and it is much increased by so long continuance so that it was never greater then it seems to be at this day nor ever more dangerous to deal withall For if a man do but go about to stop it there ariseth presently a great and fearfull noise and roaring of the waters against him but yet neverthelesse the greatnesse of the noise ought not to discourage us but rather to give us hope that although it be wide yet it is but shallow and not far from the bottome as proceeding from affection which is sudden and violent and not from judgement which is quiet constant and alwaies like it self for if a man ask in cold blood whether a Romane Catholike may be saved the most learned Church-man will not deny it And if a man aske whether a Romane Catholike may be a good Subject the most wise States-man will easily grant it May we be both saved then we are not divided in God May we be both good Subjects then we are not divided in the King What reason is there then that we should be thus hotly and unplacably divided 20. Truly there is no reason at all but only the violence of affection which being in a course cannot without some force be staied The multitude doth seldome or never judge according to truth but according to customes and therefore having of purpose been bred and brought up in the hatred of Spaniards and Papists cannot chuse but think they are bound to hate them still and that whosoever speaks a word in favour of the Church of Rome or of Catholike Religion is their utter enemy And the Puritannicall Preacher who can have no being in charity doth never cease by falsifications and slanders to blow the coales that he may burn them and warm himselfe But if your Majesty shall ever bee pleased to command those make bates to hold their peace a while and to say nothing but what they are able to prove by sufficient authority before those who are able to judge and in the mean time to admit a conference of learned and moderate men on either side the people who are now abused and with the light of the Gospell held in extreme ignorance are not yet so uncapable but they will be glad to heare of the truth when it shall be simply and evidently delivered by honest men and then they will plainly see that their Light of the Gospell which they so much talk of is but a counterfeit light in a Theeves lantern whereby honest mens eyes are dazzled and their Purses robbed And it will also appear that there is not indeed any such irreconcileable opposition betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome as they that live by the Schisme do make the world believe there is neither in matter of Doctrine nor matter of State 21. For matter of Doctrine there is no reason that your Majesty or the Kingdome should be molested or burdened for the maintenance of Calvinisme which is as much * Indeed a true Protestant and a Papist are now almost equally odious against the Religion of England as it is against the Religion of Rome and will by necessary consequence overthrow not only the Catholike Church the Communion of Saints and the forgivenesse of sinnes but also all the Articles of the Creed saving only so much as the Turk himselfe will be content to believe which will be easie to prove upon better leisure The Doctrine of England is that which is contained in the Common Prayer Book and Church Catechisme confirmed by Act of Parliament and by your Majesties Edict wherein all English men are Baptized and ought to be confirmed and therefore there is some reason that this should be stood upon But this Doctrine in most of the main points thereof as hath been touched before and requireth a just treatise to set down in particular doth much differ from the current opinions and Catechismes of Calvinisme or doth very neer agree with or at least not contradict the Church of Rome if we list with patience to hear one another And those points of Doctrine wherein we are made to be at warrs with the Church of Rome whether we will or not do rather argue the Corruptions of that state from whence they come then are argued by the grounds of that Religion whereupon they stand and the contradiction of Doctrine hath followed the alteraâ—ion of State and not the alteration of State been grounded upon any truth of Doctrine 22. For when the breach was resolved upon for the personall and particular ease of King Henry the eight and the Children of his later Wives it was necessary to give every part of the Common-wealth contentment for which they might hold out in the heat of affection and study to maintain the breach otherwise it was likely that in the clearnesse of Judgement it would quickly have grown together again and then the Authors thereof must have been excluded and given account of their practise 23. Therefore to the Lords and * In like manner the Members of Parliament and their Adherents have
now purchased the Bishops Lands at easie rates c. Favourites of the Court were given the Lands and Inheritance of the Abbeys and religious Houses that having once as it were washed their hands in the bowells and blood of the Church both they and their posterity might be at utter defiance therewith And so having overthrowne and prophaned the good works of the Saints it was necessary for them to get them Chaplains that might both dispute preach and write against the merits of good works the Invocation of Saints the sacrifice of the Altar Prayer for the dead and all such points of Catholike Doctrine as were the grounds of those Churches and Religious Houses which they had overthrowne and prophaned And it was not hard for those Chaplains by some shew of Scripture to prove that which their Lords and their followers were so willing to believe 24. To the Commons was given great hope of reliefe for their poverty case of Subsidies and of the burden of so great a Clergie and many other goodly gay nothings And for the present they should have liberty and the benefit of the Common-Law that is leave to live by such Lawes as themselves list to make and to contemne the Authority of the Church which although it were for their benefit every way yet because it crossed their affections like wayward Children they could never abide it And was not this reason enough for them to hold out the breach and to study Scripture themselves that they might be able to confute Confession Satisfaction Penance and to declaime against all that Tyranny of the Church of Rome whereby themselves and their fore-fathers had been kept in awe and obedience unto God and their Kings 25. To the Clergy men that would turne with the times besides the possibility of present preferment by the alteration was given shortly after leave to marry and to purchase and injoy the profit and pleasure of the world as well as the Laity And what carnall minded Monk or Priest would not with might and maine keep open the breach after he was once plunged in it rather then be in danger to forgo so pleasing a commodity Hence did arise a necessity of speaking and writing against Vowes Virginity Poverty Fasting Praying Watching Obedience and all that austerity of life which is by the Lawes of the Church required in a Monasticall and Priestly Conversation 26. Upon these conditions the Lords the Commons and the Clergie were content to believe that the King was supreme Head of the Church of England not that they did think so indeed or that they desired to augment his authority but that they might be protected by him and freely injoy those commodities So our Purchasers love not to hear of peace or unity lest they should come to lose their so easie bought Bishops lands other profits which they thought Schisme had brought unto them and feared the unity of the Church might again take from them Hence did arise a necessity of inveighing against the Pope and the Church of Rome as against Antichrist and Babylon and the greatest enemies of the State of England Insomuch that that Clergie-man was most acceptable to them and in their opinion most worthy of preferments that could most confidently preach and write the most foule and monstrous assertions of the Pope and the Church of Rome though they were never so false These and such like are those temporall respects which would faine seem the daughters of those Doctrines which themselves have brought forth and to be divided from the Catholike Church by Doctrine when they themselves have caused the Doctrine of Division 27. In all these and all other Doctrines of Division men have received great countenance and incouragement from Geneva For although â— John Calvin were never any good Subject or friend to Bishop Duke or King yet he did so fit the common people with new Doctrine that no Gospell can be so pleasing to them nor so lightsome as his For finding Geneva to be fallen out both with their Bishop who was their ancient Prince and their Duke to whom they pretended against their Bishop and to be all in a combustion among themselves for want of government although he were then a stranger and a very young man of some 26. or 27. years old at the most yet he thought good upon the oportunity to give the venture and to step in himselfe to be the founder of a new Church and State amongst them and for that purpose he found them out such a Catechisme as they might easily contemn all ancient Learning and authority and save themselves by a strong fancy which he called Faith And this pleased the Burgers of Geneva so well that they called a meering and caused all the Citizens to sweare that that Catechisme was true and that all Popery was false as may appeare in Calvins life written by Beza himselfe and prefixed to his Epistles And although the Ministeriall Presbytery of Geneva hath lost much of M. Calvins greatnesse yet the City hath had the fortune ever since by the help of their neighbours to hold out against their Bishop and their Duke and all their ancient Governours 28. Now it is the nature of all common people especially of Islanders not only still to * These late times witnesse this truth sufficiently affect more and more novelty and liberty and to be wearie of their old Clergie but also to admire any thing that comes from beyond the Seas to cherish and comfort one another with reporting the good successe which Schismaticks and Rebells happen to have against their lawfull Prelates and ancient Governours to impute all their good fortune to their new Religion Hence it comes to passe that that Doctrine which is indeed the lawfull Doctrine of the Church of England is neglected and contemned as a Relique or a Rag of Popery and Calvins Institutions being come from Geneva and fairly bound up with the Preface of the Gospell is dispersed throughout all Schooles Cities and Villages of England and hath so infected both Priest and People as although it be against Law yet it is cried up by voices to be the only current Divinity in Court and Countrey In hope belike that it may one day serve the turn in England as well as it hath done in Geneva and in other places where it hath prevailed 28. These reasons or rather Corruptions of State have so confounded the Doctrine of the Church of England and so slandered the Doctrine of the Church of Rome as it hath turned mens braines and made the multitude on both sides like two fools who being set back to back do think they are as far asunder as the Horizons are which they look upon But if it might please your Majesty to command them to turne but each of them a quarter about and looke both one way to the Service of God and your Majesty and to the salvation of soules they should presently see themselves to be
a great deale more neer together in matters of Doctrine then the Puritannicall Preachers on both sides doe make them believe they are I cannot in the brevity of this discourse descend into particulars but if it please your Majesty to command me or any other honest man that hath taken paines to understand and observe all sides freely and plainely to set downe the difference betwixt Calvinisme and the Doctrine of England established by Law and and then to shew Locos concessos and Locos controversos betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome I doubt not but the distance that will be left betwixt for matter of Doctrine may by your Majestie be easily compounded 30. But perhaps there is so great opposition in matter of State that although the Doctrine might be compounded yet it is unpossible to heare of agreement And if there be the same reason of State which there was in the beginning and continued all Q. Elizabeths daies there is as little hope now that your Majestie should hearken to reconciliation as there was that King Henry 8. or Q. Elizabeth would But when I doe with the greatest respect I can consider the State of your Majesty your Lords your Commons and your Clergie I do find as little cause of holding out in reason of State as I do in truth of Doctrine 31. King Henry the 8. although he had written that book against the Schisme of Luther in the defence of the Sea Apostolike for which he deserved the Title of Defensor Fidei yet when he gave way to the lust of Anne Bolen and the flattery of his Favourites and saw he could not otherwise have his will he excluded the Pope and made himselfe supreme Head of the Church that so he might not only dispense with himselfe for his lust but also supply his excesse with the spoile of the Church which was then very rich But when he saw God blessed him not neither in his wiving nor in his thriving he was weary of his Supremacy before he died and wished himselfe in the Church again but he died in the Curse of his Father whose foundatitions he overthrew and hath neither child to honour him nor so much as a Tomb upon his grave to remember him which some men take to be a token of the Curse of God 32. Q. Elizabeth although she were the daughter of Schisme yet at her first coming to the Crown she would have the Common-Prayer Booke and Catechisme so set down that she might both by English service satisfie the Commons who were greedy of alteration and by Catholike opinions give hope to her Neighbour Princes that she would her selfe continue Catholike And all her life long she carried her selfe so betwixt the Catholikes and the Calvinists as she kept them both still in hope Yet being the daughter of the breach-maker and having both her Crowne and her life from the Schisme it was both dishonourable and dangerous for her to hearken to reconcilement And therefore after she was provoked by the excommunication of Pius Quintus she did suffer such Laws to be made by her Parliaments as might cry quittance with the Pope and the Church of Rome And this course seemed in policy necessary for her who was the daughter of King Henry the 8. by Anne Bolen born with the contempt of Rome the disgrace of Spaine and the prejudice of Scotland 33. But now that your Majesty is by the consent of all sides come to the Crown and your undoubted Title setled with long possession the case is very much altered for your Majesty hath no need of dispensations nor no will to pull down Churches nor no dependence at all on Henry the 8. and if this Schisme could have prevented your Title with the divorce of one wife and the marrying of five more neither your Mother nor your self should ever have made Q. Elizabeth afraid with your right to the Crown of England And therefore although it were necessary in reason of State to continue the Doctrine of division as long as the fruit of that Doctrine did continue yet now the fruit of Schism is all spent and that Parenthefis of State is at an end there is no reason but that the old sentence may return againe and be continued in that sense as if the Parenthesis had been clean left out and that God had of purpose crossed the fleshly pretence of Schisme and raised your Majesty to restore it as your most wise and Catholike Progenitor King Henry the 7. did leave it 34. But perhaps the Schisme though it serve you to no use at all for your Title yet it doth much increase your authority and your wealth and therefore it cannot stand with your honour to farther the unity of the Church of Christ Truly those your most famous and renowned Ancestors that did part with their authority and their wealth to bestow them upon the Church of Christ and did curse and execrate those that should diminish them and take them away againe did not think so nor find it so and I would to God your Majesty were so powerfull and so rich as some of those Kings were that were most bountifull that way You are our Soveraigne Lord all our bodies and our goods are at your command but our souls as they belong not to your charge but by way of protection in Catholike Religion so they cannot increase your honour or authority but in a due subordination unto Christ and to those that supply his place in iis quae sunt Juris divini It was essentiall to heathen Emperors to be Pontifices as well as Reges because they were themselves Authors of their owne Religion But among Christians where Religion comes from Christ who was no worldly Emperor though above them all the Spirituall and Temporall Authority have two beginnings and therefore two supremes who if they be subordinate doe uphold and increase one another but if the temporall authority doe oppose the spirituall it destroyes it selfe and dishonours him from whom the spirituall authority is derived Heresie doth naturally spread it self like a Canker and needs little help to put it forward So that it is an easie matter for a mean Prince to bee a great man amongst Heretikes but it is an hard matter for a great King to * K. Cha. knows this to be true by wofull experience govern them When I have somtimes observed how hardly your Majesty could effect your most unreasonable desires amongst those that stand most upon your Supremacy I have been bold to be angrie but durst say nothing only I did with my selfe resolve for certaine that the Keyes were wont to do the Crowne more service when they were in the Armes of the Mâ—â—er then they can do now they are tied together with the Scepter and that your Title in spirituall affaires doth but serve other mens turnes and not your own 35. As for your wealth it is true that the Crown hath more pence paid unto it