above those who design mischief when they are awake and dream of nothing that is good when they are asleep above Popish Priests up to the Ears in Legends Fanaticks in Pulpits or Witches upon Bromstaves for his fancies are for the real good of others as well as for to please himself Parables are lively Pictures of significant truths and Morality was excellently described in Fables by a Heathen but it does not a little trouble me that the Beasts in Aesop should shame some men now a days who will not be convinc'd of the Errors and Mischiefs they are engaged in when they have the opportunity of being better taught by the truly ancient and Catholick Doctrine of the Church of England but her Adversaries the Jesuits and Fanaticks who deny the King to be Head of the Church do likewise reject the Reformation by his Authority the Papists Sham it and would make it a ridiculous Schism the Presbyterians though they renounce the Pope yet retain to themselves that Usurpation which was above 500 years a gaining by the Popes finding that such a Discipline was not consistent with the Doctrine of the Church of England Preach't up a Reformation more pure and primitive as they pretended the reasons we shall know afterwards Therefore the Emblem of the Church we saw in the last Vision having vanquish't and discovered the unjust Stratagems both of the Council of Trent and of the Assembly of Divines ordered her own Convocation of Orthodox and Learned Church-men to defend her for the future against both Papists and Presbyterians They were no sooner fat but in came Harding and boldly told them That they were a small obscure meeting of Calvinists that reformed the Church As soon as Bishop Jewel espied him That is very false said he I will tell you the truth and tell you otherwise in the Epistle I wrote concerning the Council of Trent to a Venetian Noble man my words relating to our Reformation are these For our selves we have done nothing but with very good reason nothing but what we saw to be lawfull and to have been practised by the Ancient Fathers without any reprehension at all wherefore we called a full Synod of Bishops and by common consent of all estates purged our Church as it were Augeas 's Stable of all superfluities which either the negligence or malice of men had brought in this was justly in our power to doe and because we could doe it we did it faithfully At this I was so encouraged as to ask Harding whether or no they were Calvinists or a small obscure meeting that signed the Judgment of the Convocation that the Pope cannot call them without the King's consent in the year 1536 there being present the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of London 13 Bishops 49 Abbots c. Now the fatal blow was given to the Papal Authority in England and yet these could not be Calvinists nor were they few or contemptible indeed you Popish Writers are great adversaries to National Councils because they will look after the Civil Rights that the Court of Rome do not encroach upon them which a General Council wherein the Pope is what he pleases cannot therefore Cardinal Palavicini profoundly tells Lib. 14. cap. 12. us that Concilio Nazionale sempre abhorrito dà Pontifici That the Pope did always abhor a National Council and good reason because it sometimes stops that Torrent of Money which he says is so necessary to maintain the carnal felicity of the Church therefore we know why you stickle so much against the Methods of our Reformation which Mr. Shaw has well justified and Origo Protest which Dr. Burnet says was advanced with such deliberation in King Henry the Eight and King Edward the Sixth's time as is as great an evidence of the ripeness Part 1. Pag. 289. of their proceedings as can be shewed in any Church in any Age So that we were Reformed without that violence the German Divines were as the Letters between Osiander and Cranmer testifie or without Rebellion which is always the consequence of Popish Reformations At this he march't off and made room for Raynolds a Rhemish Renegado who came Busling up And although said he ye have fob'd off Mr. Harding yet I suppose I shall prove your Reformation to be a wicked Separation from the Roman Communion which the irreconcilable divisions among you testifie for hear what I say to Whitaker Pag. 481. Have you not at this present among you a great murmuring even amongst the Protestants against the Communion-Book and State of Religion which in the beginning of her Majesties Reign was Queen Elizabeth brought in If the Catholicks said nothing have you not the Puritans detesting your Faith and were it not for the Prince's Sword ready to dispossess you of Chairs and Churches I was mightily amazed to hear this for 't is 99 years ago since these words were Printed which a Gentleman observing See you not said he what a scandal these rascally Schismaticks are to our Reformation indeed the man foretold what too certainly came to pass but he must know that we do not acknowledge that any of their Principles had any share or part in it any more than they had in bringing in the King for in the days of Queen Mary Knox that peevish Puritan was as malicious towards the Orthodox in Francfurt as the Papists were to them in England And moreover 't is no wonder that they agree not with us for they disagree among themselves and are not the same they were Those in King Edward's time scrupled only some Ceremonies as Bucer Rogers and Hooper those in Queen Elizabeths time excepted against some Prayers Canons and Articles but now they are for Abolishing Supremacy and Episcopacy they have lay'd the Ax to the root and are gone so far from the Church of England that they are come round about to the Church of Rome and are worse Papists than any before the Reformation We perceive by Raynolds that the Jesuits very well knew this and therefore whilst the Presbyterians were busie to advance their Discipline they thought them fit tools to carry on their Fifth Monarchy their Principles being both alike destructive both of Church and State in order to which they quarrel with our Reformation and as the Pope and the Devil would have it Cry up a thorough one of their own Of which I will give you such a full sight if you will go along with me that you shall never forget it untill you are in heaven Pray Sir said I before you doe that let me know by what methods they brought their Discipline to that perfection in 48. I will not trouble you said he with a long relation of their several Cabals they had all King James his Reign he himself was sufficiently sensible of their restless humour and said What his Son King Charles found by experience that there were not greater thieves and cut-throats among the Highlanders and Borderers for as soon
that there is more of the Old City than of the Ancient Church in Rome Lastly If the Papal Supremacy be so absolutely necessary to Christ's Kingdom here on Earth Whether the Cardinals be not strange Men that they by their long Janglings and Disputes upon a Vacancy and at an Election should so long debar him from the Administration of that Power by his Vicar And whether it be not more suitable to a Monarchy that suffers no Interregnum And consequently since Rex Angliae non moritur The King of England is said not to dye according to our Law whether the King be not according to the 37th Article the Supreme Governour in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil in all his Dominions and whether the Bishop of Rome hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction in any of them At this a Jesuit stood up and looking earnestly upon some newly proselyted Papists Regard not said he what any prating Heretick of them all says Have we not made you sufficiently sensible that all the Protestant Religion is an Innovation that King Henry the 8th a mere Julian was the first that apostatiz'd from the Holy Catholick Faith the first that arrogated to himself the Pope's incommunicable Dignity of being Head of the Church 'T is false replyed one of the Church of England King Henry the 8th onely reassum'd what some of his Predecessours own'd what none of them ever could or any of his Successours ever can give away from the Crown of England But the Papal Supremacy is an Usurpation and an Innovation too 't was never heard of in the World untill above 600 Years after Christ nay Pope Boniface the 3 d was the first that ever pretended to be the Vniversal Bishop The Christians in * Tertull. ad Scap. cap. 2. Tertullians's time acknowledg'd the Emperour to be Hominem a Deo secundum solo Deo minorem And †Opt. Lib. 3. Optatus has the same Strain Super Imperatorem non est nisi solus Deus qui fecit Imperatorem What need I mention what Cyril and Chrysostome and Gregory the Great and Pope Agatho have clearly and plainly said and written upon this Point you have been told often enough nay in that Council which you call the Eighth General Council the Emperour Basilius publickly professeth none of the Bishops contradicting him * Epag Basilii in Conc. quod vocat Act. 8. 1. Gubernacula Ecclesiasticae navis sibi a Deo commissa That the Government of the Church was committed to him by God There was no reply made of a long time for a great bustle that was among the Papists at last three or four lusty Fellows came dragging in a mighty tall Statua almost resembling the old Image of St. Christopher in Nostre Dame in Paris he held in his Hand a long Scroll which was a Catalogue of all the Popes and was hung from Head to Foot with all manner of old fashion'd Trumpery Before it march'd an aged Hermit with a Scyth in his Hand and looking upon the Protestants as if he would have mowed them down at once Ye base Innovatours cryed he that have troubled the World with new Doctrines where was your Religion before Luther See here the ancient and undeniable Records of ours see here the infallible Traditions of many Ages by which we clearly know that we profess the same Fundamental Truths the first Martyrs asserted who were so very old that their Beards help'd to burn them and which none but a Company of new fangled Hereticks in the last Century ever denyed Good Father grey-Beard replyed Bishop Montague don 't think to afright us out of our Senses with an old Worm-eaten Idol over-run with Cobwebs you might as well have brought a Tom of Bedlam with the Luggage of the Gibeonites to prove the Antiquity of your Doctrines as this old wither'd Hercules for assure your self we cannot onely prove them the spurious Inventions of your Cabalistical Innovatours but we can tell you the very Time and Occasions of the introducing every one of them into the Christian Church we have not onely the Scriptures Fathers and Councils maintaining all the grounds of the Protestant Religion according to the Reformation of our Church of England but before it even in the darkest days of Popery we meet with many the learned'st Men that those Ages afforded inveighing against the Corruptions both in Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of Rome as Robert Grosthead Bishop of Lincoln William Occham John Gerson Picus Mirandula Hierom Saveranola Hus and Hierom the Followers of Waldo and in the Year 1260 Nicholas Gallique wrote a Book upon that Subject entituled the Fiery Dart But since we cannot convince you of the Antiquity of Protestantism we will be so complemental for this once as to allow Popery to be older than Christianity it self it is no difficult thing to prove several of your Legends out of Livie and Valerius Maximus what a dull Theologue was Lipsius not to remember that several of the fine Stories he tells concerning our * Just â—ips de Virg. Hallu cap 6. Lady at Hall were long before recorded of the †Val. Max. lib. 1. cap 8. Statua of Claudia plac'd in the Temple of the Mother of the Gods the speaking and Miracles of Images are all Ethnick Illusions and the friskings of Monkish Puppets the Artificial Contrivances of Heathenish Oracle-mongers many of your Saints are slipt into places of Trust held by the old Deities but I wonder that since Diana had so noble an Office as to hunt the Stag and the Wild-Bore that St. Gertrude should get no better Preferment in your Legends than that of a paltry Rat-catcher But we will talk no more of the Antiquity of your Religion As for that Jesuit who boasts so much of it although he is the greatest Innovatour amongst you yet rather than fail upon occasion he can learnedly prove his own Order to be the eldest as well as the richest in the World nay contemporary with the very Hivites and Perizzites for Numb 26. 44. we reade Of Jesui the Family of the Jesuits He had a great deal more to say to them but that he was interrupted with a great Crowd and Noise of Clergy-men coming in from all parts of the Kingdom who made great Complaints against the Presbyterians and other Dissenters for that they in a time when the Government both in Church and State was in such danger by reason of the Papists were then more ungovernable restless and insolent than at any other time and indeed so it plainly appeared for those there present began to be troublesome and mutinous pretending great Fears of Popery but levelling all their Invectives against Persons the most remarkable for Loyalty and Conformity and clamouring for a speedy Reformation of I do not know what holding a great many Seditious Pamphlets in their Hands complaining railing petitioning threatning which when the Papists observed they very cunningly slipt away well knowing that they had too much alarm'd
and devour one another Or lastly a Generation that will either curse them or laugh at them who will fill all their Stages with one anothers Grandsires and to convince them of this show them only what has been done by ours that were before us both by true Papists and true Protestants as they call themselves either under the pretence or notion of a thorow Reformation you will find that though they have two faces that look different ways yet they have both the same Lineaments the same Principles the same Practices and both impudently deny them like the two men that stole the piece of Flesh from the Butcher in the Fable He that took it swore he had it not he that had it swore he did not take it who took it or who has it I do not know quoth the Butcher but by Jove ye are a couple of Knaves this was one of the first Associations but now the Mystery of Iniquity is compleat because they both make it a Mystery and untill the time to come discover fully the truth of things present pray give the World an Impartial Account of what has been done by the Papists first and then by the Presbyterians and then ye may guess for the future why they are so like one another who they are that Reform Murther it self that can stab men without spilling a drop of Blood or secretly rejoyce at it when 't is done without being guilty that can Rebell without Plotting and Plot without Rebelling by observing what has past in the last Age you will know what a great and glorious Reformation they are endeavouring now With that he put his hand to my head and I expected that he would have clapt a face to the nape of my neck and have made a Janus of me but he only stroak'd me o're the forehead and then vanish'd Right Worshipfully His hand was so very cold and put my head into such a dizziness that I could not tell where I was for the first thing I stumbled at was the Threshold of St. Peter's Church in Rome and I fell backward into the year 1534 it was on St. Peter's day Pope Clement was seated in his Throne in his Pontificalibus and all the Cardinals with Generals of Orders Bishops Abbots c. which made a very splendid show the Anthems then sung were excellent Composures and the Musick extraordinary to carry on the Solemnity of the day when on a sudden a great Groan was heard as if some Infernal spirit had howl'd in Disdiapason and as well as I could distinguish it cryed Reform At this the Eunuchs could not sing one Note more but made noises like hoarse Cuckows the Cardinals Hats began to flag and the Gems in the Triple Crown were in an Eclipse and there was so great an Earth-quake that the Church had like to have fallen on their heads had not a lame fellow whom no body then knew but afterwards proved to be Ignatius Loyola stept out and like another St. Dominick * Who slew 120000 of the Albigenses and therefore the Pope fancied he saw him uphold the Lateran Church upheld it At this they hasted in great amazement to the Consistory in Monte Cavallo as soon as I got in there entred several Nuncio's from England and Germany that lookt as if they had been affrighted and sent home with Bottles tied to their tails for one brought the sad Message that there was no more Peterpence to be Coyn'd in Histor Con. Trid. England that that King denied the payment of Annales that a Comedy had been acted before him to the disgrace of the Pope and his Court who had used too great precipitation in the Case of the Divorce not out of Conscience for those Dispensations were very usual and found advantageous to the Old Vicar but to keep on the profitable debate Another brought the News of the Liberty of the Augustan Confession And a third of the Victory of Wittenberg A fourth related how solicitous Charles the Fifth was for a General Council These things so troubled Clement the Seventh that calling him a great He Emperour he fell sick and dyed and was succeeded by Cardinal Farnese named Paul the Third The first business he took in hand was to stop those spreading alterations which threatned Rome it self for in Faenza a Town belonging to the Pope there was Preaching against the Church of Rome Anno 1528 and therefore as soon as the Consistory met a Cardinal who seemed much dejected stood up and said The holy City of Rome which has been famous for Prodigies ever since the days of Livie the Recorder was never more threatned with them than now for 't is certain that the Statua of the Blessed Virgin in Sancta Maria Magior wept Icicles for the Revolt of the frigid Zone and not knowing what those German Hereticks who threatned to eat the Pope might doe she had got the holy Wafer in her Armes to protect the Corporal Presence Her Ladyship of Loretto was packing up for Damascus and if she had once gone your Holiness might have whistled long enough in St. Peter's Keys for her several Images have had a Quartan Ague and what is more than all several souls come chattering their Teeth out of Purgatory and complain that they have had a very deep Snow lately therefore we ought to take a speedy course to prevent our ruine and I know no better way than Fryar James Hogostrate's a Dominican Inquisitor who advised Leo the Tenth to prosecute Luther with Chains and Gibbets For since Piety and Miracles ceased all great Actions are to be done with Fire and Sword by these we consumed the Hussits Lollards and Waldenses and all other Modern Goths and Vandals have been so far kept from sacking Rome that they have been buried from time to time in their own Country for rather than they should damn their souls and we lose our money I think your Holiness should thunder out Excommunications overturn all set the World on fire kindle the North-pole with Piles of flaming Hereticks make the frozen Seas boil over with heat untill sodden Whales make them greasie with their fat and swim for coolness under the Aequator He strain'd so fiercely that Leeches crept out at his Eyes and Nose which was taken for a Miracle to confirm the truth of what he said but Pope Paul the Third whose chief vertue was dissimulation being a subtile Fox and not willing to bark loud untill he could bite having composed his Whiskers that his mouth became a solemn Parenthesis was pleased most Infallibly to say We in vain cut off the member that is Gangreen'd if we neglect to take care of the head which is fatally ill The splendour of our Church cannot hide the extravagancy of our lives and not only bold Hereticks will be peeping into our Transgressions but even the Sons of the Church will be seeing what their Fathers doe with so much money as they drein from the veins of the living
impartiality could they doe any thing being limited and confined if not over-awed to doe and declare what they did How did the Cabals of Presbyterians and the Consistory jump in the methods of their Consultations And as the Pope either made or found Bishops enough in Italy to prevail in that Council so likewise did they by the same ways gain enough to compose their Decrees of Faith and Discipline and to silence all opposition With what a glorious Reformation did they a long time amuse the world as the Pope did in his Council and what did it come to Why as the Jesuits a small party at first which pretended to live by begging have got the start of them and do now threaten to overthrow the whole Hierarchy of the Romish Church so the Independents broke in upon them and routed their Discipline Did they not compose a solemn Covenant which is sufficiently shown to be exactly parallel with the Holy League And as the pretence of that in France was to destroy the Hugonots when as indeed it more immediately tended to the pulling down the Kingly Authority and the Liberty of the Gallican Church so this in England was pretended against the Papists under which notion they ruined Monarchy and Episcopacy Did not the Council of Trent tax Charles the Ninth as Hist Con. Trid. pag. 726. a favourer of Hugonots and did not our Assembly accuse the King as a Defender of Papists how did they Libel all honest Divines The Authour Mr. White Nov. 17. 1643. which opposed their wickedness as the Courtiers of Rome did the honest Fathers in the Council of Trent The Assembly ordered publick Thanksgivings when their Forces were beaten by the Kings So the Fathers assembled in Trent made Processions sung Mass and the Archbishop of Metz made an Oration for the Victory as they called it which the Duke of Guise had over the Hugonots when as there was 5000 Catholicks and but 3000 Protestants Hist Coun. Trent p. 606. slain The Assembly to make the good Old Cause look big vaunted that all foreign Churches of Protestants View of the late Troubles p. 564. sided with them but when they sent to know their opinions and expected that they would assent to and encourage them in their Proceedings Verdict upon Mel. Inquirendum they all condemned them So Cardinal Amulius brought Letters concerning the Oriental Christians that they did own the Pope and his Religion but the Portugal Ambassador confuted Hist Counc Trent 535. them as forgeries If they thus agree in their Plots certainly the issue will be almost alike replyed the French man Just as I was going to answer him I was interrupted with such a noise of sighing groaning and sobbing that I thought the wild Irish had got under a Tub at their Funeral Lamentations whenas a Scene opened and discovered a great number of men who looked so devout and so Saint-like that I fancied the very Flies about their heads ready to turn into Seraphims their hands were lifted up to catch their eyes that were ready to fly out of their heads and their faces with white Caps turned up made them look as if they were sick of the world But that which amazed me most of all was to see Salmasius and Grotius come stumbling in at a back door and as soon as Salmasius saw them Was there ever such a pack of hypocritical fools said he since the invention of Nonsense as this Assembly of Divines Good Lord how was Grotius amazed when he understood that they came from Trent for he always fancied that they came from Geneva Whence soever they come cry'd Salmasius they are plotting some Villany for now they are busie about a Fast that they may the more greedily devour the flesh of Kings and mighty men as they strain it these are the sober godly party that occasioned the Civil Wars of England Is the Authour of Melius Inquirendum among them replyed Grotius No Myn Heer said I he is busie in procuring another to succeed this Who is that said Salmasius Another Milton Sir said I I hope the King of England will thank him according to Law one of these days for the great and timely pains he took in his Book in which he says that yours which you wrote de Jure Belli Pacis has occasioned all the Civil Wars that have been in Europe ever since He may as well say replyed Grotius that Mare Liberum is Latin for Liberty of Conscience for why should my Book which was written in Latin move the Rabble the chief instruments of that Rebellion to those unparallell'd Exorbitancies who understood not a word of it therefore 't is their fault For there Aug. de Util. Cred. Tom. 6. cap. 1. will ever be a difference between an Heretick and a plain well meaning man that believes an Heretick saith St. Austin who taught them as many Treasonable Doctrines in English as ever Lucifer could invent in Hell And although he seems very tender of Hurting Loyal Ears upon the account of my Writings yet he prosesses the same Loyalty his Predecessors did in the late Rebellion which he lays at my door that he may with the more impudence proceed in those very practices which directly tend to the same end But since he is for sprinkling in a sentence or two of my Writings to justifie his own pray let him take this along with him too wherein I clearly show my opinion concerning the Causes of Rebellion Circumferamus oculos per omnem Historiam quod unquam vidit soeculum tot subditorum in principes Grot. de Antich bella sub Religionis titulo Et horum Concitores nunc reperiuntur Ministri Evangelii uti se vocant Let us look through all History what Age ever saw so many Rebellions against Princes and those that raise them are now found to be Ministers of the Gospel as they stile themselves Such as himself now is such as were this Blessed Assembly of Divines and that holy Council of Trent which first shew them the way to suppress Episcopacy and Monarchy who first taught them the sanctified methods of Reforming Princes and Prelates wherein they have infinitely out-done their Masters for the Fathers in Trent were forced to disguise themselves under many Stratagems before they could get those Decrees pass which was the end and scope of that most Popish Council but our Assembly-men fell upon them first with the greatest impudence and violence imaginable deluding the Nation with a fair pretence of thorough Reformation and the Suppression of Popery The Devil always provides a Vizard for his Agents and Murtherers can cry A Race a Race when they are running quite away Murtherers quoth Salmasius I think this Assembly will not own that they were guilty of the Murther of the King no more were the Jesuits of the Death of the King of France that fell by the hands of Raviliac they in the Council of Trent procured the King-killing Decrees they
Cardinals and Jesuits to burn them in Effigie in remembrance of the execrable Design of the Jesuits on the 5th of November it was very pleasant to hear the Porters out-rail the Factious Preachers and to see the Rabble warming themselves in the flaming Relicts of the Beast fancying the Whore of Babylon a kind of old Witch that was put to pain with the burning her Imps but I was most of all surprized to see a great many Papists in disguise as active and chearfull as any of the Company untill I perceived that although the Pope was burnt in Effigie yet several Protestants of the Church of England were the Persons that were aimed at to be sacrificed in Propriis Personis So that I withdrew as fast as I could but by the way I had a Copy of Verses put into my Hands which because they came from the warm Fancy of some Zealous Mongrel design'd for a Post of a Conventicle I have here set down as a Specimen of his Future Hopes Upon the Gun-Powder Treason Tell me the Man that can divulge the Traitour That under-ground did build this damn'd Theatre Had but this Plot stay'd untill to Morrow We had been like to Sodom and Gomorrah Iron Bars Gun-Powder Faggots and Deal Board They heapt up for to destroy thy People O good Lord. Whilst I was laughing with my Companion and descanting upon these Lines I wondred to see such a sudden and strange Change in the vast Multitude there met together the common People as if weary of idle Tumults began quietly to retire to their Business the Romish Priests sculk'd about and betray'd a world of Despair in their Looks the Fanaticks had put on their Suffering Complexions and look'd as heavy as smoak'd Beef so the People being dispersed some of the Company had unfortunately drop'd a strange new-fashion'd Idol which had a Belt on upon which was embroidered in Letters of Bloud the Association Good Lord what striving their was to keep it from being at first seen as if it had been the Cub of some hopefull Basilisk There was a small Company of the new-instituted Order of St. Ignoramus great Reformers of the third Commandment who proferr'd to wash their Hands in scalding Lead to swallow Fire and Brimstone and to doe harder things than the trial of the Ordeal to testify its Innocency nay its very non Entity But when that would not doe a couple of Foreigners endeavoured to take Possession of two considerable Forts that they might protect it and in order to that they would have accepted of the Votes of their very Country Puppets in Rare-Showes but all in vain for a numerous Company of Loyal and true hearted Englishmen broke in upon them and being made sensible of the several un-christian Artifices both of the Papists and Fanaticks to alter and destroy the establish'd Government lay'd their several Addresses at his Sacred Majestie 's Feet wherein they Religiously vow and promise to defend it At this time there came a Gentleman to me and pulling me by the Sleeve That our Fears and Jealousies said he might for ever vanish and our future Peace and Prosperity be real and lasting not onely the Loyal and true-hearted Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of the Realm but the Learned Clergy too are now doing their utmost endeavours to confute the Principles as well as prevent the Practices both of Papists and Fanaticks and if you will go along with me you shall see them as pleasantly baffled and exposed as your Heart can imagine or desire We went untill we came to a stately Theatre like that at Oxford wherein I was infinitely pleased to see such a number of Learned Writers of the Church of England on one hand of them sate those who had written in defence of the Romish Doctrines on the other sate Smectymnuus with many more late Writers of the Presbyterians The Solemnity began with Consorts of Musick and an Anthem sung by those of the Church of England the Subject of it was the Gun-Powder Treason the Martyrdom of King Charles the First and the Birth and Return of King Charles the Second which because it was in a strein something differing from that of our late Poet I have here set down Novemb. the 5th I. The Law came down and spoke Of Old in Fire and Smoak The terrible Thunder from around it broke Sure those Wretches vow'd To send up one as loud With the Law-giver in a smoakie Cloud Had our meek Moses gone To God and left us here alone Streightway some Calves as God's had sate Calves which Rome's Bulls would have begat How soon should we Have lost our new got Liberty And strangely have slidden back to th' old Idolatry Januar. the 30th II. Oh wondrous strange it was decreed That the Great Charles should bleed Not burn that Trial he Alas Did'scape because he was a worse to pass The Quintessence of Inhumanity Charles Ah! Charles that Sacred Name Our Pride and yet Eternal Shame Had'st thou an Infant Martyr been None had the Glory of thy setting seen Immortal Honour was design'd to Thee A Free-Will Offering to be So the Child Jesus was preserv'd From Herod's Cruelty Sad Bethlehem Massacre And for Mount Calvary reserv'd Chorus Long may we sing God save the King The Royal Martyr's Son By Wonders plac'd upon his Father's Throne Traytours in vain their Plots do lay Traytours do but themselves betray In vain their Treacherous Foes their Malice show His Crown of Light shall ne'er wax old His e'er will flourish that 's of Gold Charles now triumphs above Charles now triumphs below As soon as the Anthem was ended one in long Scarlet Robes stood up and turning to the Papists said Since so many Grave and Reverend Divines of the Church of England have so frequently confuted the Doctrines and Positions of your Church of Rome and yet you still perservere in your perfidious and rebellious Practices We therefore demand that the Fundamental Principles of such fatal Bigottry may be here openly exposed that the World may know what ridiculous Consequences and foolish Absurdities those Opinions are subject to for which you so zealously disturb the Peace of Christendom and give such occasion of Scandal to Turks and Infidels The Papists were so provok'd that they soon accepted the Challenge for immediately a Lane was made among them to give way for a Monster much like a Chinese Hieroglyphick in Kirker with a great many Hands Feet and Eyes and a Head representing the Terrestrial Globe on the top of which stood a Cupola As soon as one of our Church saw it he cryed out it is not lawfull to bring Briareus into a Christian Assembly Briareus said one of the Papists know you not that by this Emblem we represent the Universality of the Church of Rome do not you know that the Bishop of Rome is the Vniversal Bishop of the whole Catholick Church No replyed he I know it no more than the Pope of Rome Gregory the Great did not
Greg. Epist lib. 6. cap. 3. know it he detested it as a Symptome of Antichrist and Phocas who bestowed it upon Pope Boniface did not doe it untill he had an occasion to bestow his Master the Emperour Mauritius in the other World But now said he you may plainly see it with your Eyes look you there there is the Globe of the whole Earth of which the Pope is the Lord and Governour 't is true you Hereticks wander in some little bye Places as in England and in some petty Hans-Towns of Germany but his Authority is extended over all the World all the Indies acknowledge him all Italy France Spain Poland Hungaria Transylvania Gallicia Valentia Granada Andalusia Hold Hold Sir cryed he if you should stumble o'er the Straits Mouth you will beat out your Brains against Hercules's Pillars Pray let us examine this Monster 's Noddle what a grievous bruise has Martin Luther given him with his High Dutch Knuckles he has broken I do not know how many Degrees of Longitude and Latitude all Great Britain is quite beat out and the Low-Countries are so sunck in that I believe he must be trepan'd before he can recover in short the Protestants are almost as numerous as the Papists But suppose we grant him that thumping Appellation why did Pope Paul the 5th in his Bull wherein he excommunicated Queen Elizabeth use that sneaking Title of Servant of Servants your Triple Servant He should have sent a good deep-mouth'd Nuncio that should have stretch'd his Muzzle to the uttermost and have roar'd like a crack of Thunder among the Alpes and have cryed Paolo quinto Papa Monarcha di Regno di Vaticano Segnor del mondo supremo santissimo Vmano magistrato c. This would have conjur'd down all the Protestants and have put them into such a trembling Fit that they would have shak'd all their Heresie out of the Knees of their Breeches this would have better suited him who is the most serene and invincible Sultan of Contradictions the Grand-Seignior of all Mental Reservations and Equivocations the Sophi of Legends and Romances the Great Mogul of Indulgences the Czar of Holy Impostures and Pious Cheats the Great Cham of the Inquisition c. Hold Sir cryed one of the Papists this is Railery and Abuse 't is as true replyed he as that the Pope is Vniversal Bishop let him but keep within his own Diocese and not meddle any more with the Rights of Sovereign Kings and Princes and there is no body that I know of will be so ready to complement him from the Artick to the Antartick Pole for the Future But we hope cryed several of them you will allow our Church to be the Catholick Church For this word Catholick there has been much scrambling these many Years replyed he and you have taken much pains to monopolize it to your See of Rome in order to which for the great number of humane Hereticks whom you excommunicate you take all manner of Beasts Fowles and Fishes into the Pale of your Church St. Francis first converted the Birds and then afterwards he fully convinc'd and satisfied a Wolf that had a very tender Conscience nor was he the onely Apostle to the Brutes but the Bishop Book of Conf. p. 114. of Canaglion managed as difficult a Diocess in the Year 1593 for he Catholickly accused the Fishes so that afterwards they without all doubt believed the Doctrine of Holy Water St. Bernard in a Fit of Popery is reported by * Pet. de Nat. in vit Bern. Petrus de Natalibus to have excommunicated the Flies and therefore several Species of Creatures observing that all Regular Orders had put themseves under the Protection of some considerable Saints have likewise listed themselves the Dogs under St. Hubert a Huntsman the Horses under St. Loys their Ostler-General and because the Geese once preserved the Capitol there was an Order from the Vatican that St. Feriol should take care of them And so said he I hope we are all satisfied as to the Vniversality of the Romish Church pray set forth the Antiquity of it Upon this all the Papists desired that they might save that Argument untill the last fancying that it gathered strength every Moment and desired the Assembly to take into their consideration the Vnity of their Church and the Supremacy of the Pope as for the Protestants cryed one of them they are divided into as many Factions as there are days in the Year and make an Anarchy of the Kingdom of Grace but the Roman Catholicks are all united under one Head the Pope so making the true Hierarchy of the Holy Catholick Church Upon this one of the Church of England stood up and said as for our Church it has no more to doe or answer for the Factions among Protestants than yours nor so much neither when did ever any Minister of the Church of England preach the Doctrines of Fanaticks to promote its Interest when did any of them ever preach that which in their Consciences they knew to be a Lye for the sake of the Truth and if you look into your own you will find those Divisions which never were in our Church as the differences betwixt the Dominicans and Franciscans betwixt the Jansinists and Mollinists which have been continued with the greatest heats imaginable 't is true the Pope hath sometimes interposed his Authority but to no great purpose but where was the Papal Authority in the days of the Anti-Popes or what will become of it if the Jesuits gain their designs will all other Orders acknowledge the Papal Authority if the Jesuits confine it to their own the Church of England can never be subject to such a Fatal Division so long as the King of England is acknowledged to be in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil Supreme Governour As for the Pope's Supremacy that has been so sufficiently pelted with good Greek and Latin by many of these Learned Authours that I will onely humbly drop a few Queries concerning it at this time First then We desire to know Whether our Saviour ever granted it to St. Peter Secondly Whether the present Pope be his Successour Thirdly Suppose it was granted to St. Peter Whether there was any need of forging the Donation of Constantine afterwards Fourthly If it was granted to St. Peter because he first confess'd him to be Christ the Son of the living God Whether Pope Leo the 10th had any right to it for saying to Cardinal Bembo * Crispinus Quantum nobis nostrique ea de Christo fabula prosuerit satis est omnibus secuâ— notum Fifthly we desire to know whether any Bishoprick in Christendom remaining can shew a Succession so disordered and corrupted as that of Rome Not to mention their strange Schisms let any Person but consider the Stratagems and impious Intrigues of the Conclave the Factions of the Nepotism contrary to that Solemn Oath they take enough to make Angels tremble and he will conclude
rather chuse to be non-suited than comply with such determinations which may be to your advantage much good may it doe you Moreover it is generally believed by all natural Philosophers that a man may walk into a Church though it stands East and West if all the doors be open though some Hypocondrical people would fancy they could not and that the door is either too little for their Noses or their Noses too big for the Door Now Sir you will say that Conscience though erroneous is not melancholy and that the cases we talk of are not Civil but Ecclesiastical therefore say you 't is certain that Conscience though false obliges but that 't is uncertain whether such Commands do or no. But that your Conscience may not be erroneous we will prove they certainly do oblige Whig If the Commands of a Father or Master of a Family do not in such Circumstantials for many reasons I have given how then can such Commands of a Supreme Magistrate whose Dominions may be so large that they cannot punctually be observed Suppose a strict Law were made at Paris that every particular Church in the Nation should commence their publick Service on the Lord's day precisely at nine a clock it is Mathematically certain that some would have done and got half through their dinners before others would be half way in their devotions they in the farthest Eastern Parts would have come to their Amen before those on the Calabrian Ocean would be at their Oremus Pamph. They would be pretty well out of the hearing and interrupting one another that 's the comfort of it If the Man in the Almanack though pelted with all the Signs of the Zodiack had not brought a better Argument I would sentence him to be stuck in the Pillory that his Noddle might be influenc'd with rotten Eggs and therefore keep your Mathematical Certainty for your Sunday Pudding But Sir though the Clock of a Family may sometimes go wrong it can't go far and therefore I suppose the Master of a Family may determine a time by that clock for family-duty ay and many other Circumstantials too Nay I fancy that he may enjoyn his Family to abstain from Wine all Lent Whig That would be a Breach of Christian Liberty Pamph. Was not that more a Breach of the Jewish Privileges when the Rechabites were commanded to drink no Wine they nor their sons for ever by their Father Jonadab there lay no such obligation from the Law of Moses yet what says the Text Jerem. 35. 18 19. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Because ye have obeyed the Commandment of Jonadab your Father and kept all his Precepts and done according to all that he hath commanded you Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever Whig But the consequence from the power of a Master of a Family to the Civil Magistrate's Power is not very clear and that by reason of the incapacity and unfitness of the Matter the bulkiness of the Aggregate for as c. Pamph. Away with these rumbling Similitudes you draw but foisty Arguments from such swelling words of vanity I say the Supreme Magistrate particularly the King of England is better qualified to govern in all cases Civil and Ecclesiastical in his Dominions than any Master can be for domestick in his Family God has furnish'd him with means suitable to the greatness and variety of his charge for Ecclesiastical affairs Rex Angliae est persona mixta cum Sacerdote in the same sense that Constantine the Great vouch'd himself to be a Bishop and the Church of Christ acknowledged him He is custos utriusque Tabulae And as he can command you to hold up your hand at the Bar of God's Justice whose Vicegerent he is in case you break any one Commandment so can he command you to kneel before the Throne of Grace in token of your Obedience So that indeed I grant you that the power of a Master of a Family may not be compared with that of the Supreme Magistrate indeed if you look into the late Rebellion the Supreme Magistrate was made low enough but if you look into the Present State of England you will find by Common Civil Canonical Apostolical by all manner of Law that our Sovereign Lord King Charles the Second is by the grace of God in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil Supreme Governour Look into the late Rebellion and you will find that they were such scrupulous Buffoons as your self that broke the Boundaries of Order and Obedience under the pretence of Reformation and Conscience and turned the Nation Topsy-turvy in Blood and Gore I have formerly shewn what was their Reformation As for their Consciences they were not very tender when they made none you are mightily offended that such a Tender Conscience should be thought a melancholy delusion or a superstitious qualm But with what confidence are you so brisk upon that instance of David's heart smiting him when he cut off Saul's skirt when you are Pag. 375. pleading for the Consciences of those Dissenters that cut off King Charles his Head You are merrily prophane when you say pag. 381. that you wonder that among all the Apocryphal Epistles of our Saviour to Agbarus or Paul to Seneca that we meet with none of the Apostles to Nero That whereas their Lord and Master either through the hurry of business had forgotten or the littleness of the things had neglected to settle his Churches c. That therefore they humbly beseech his Imperial Majesty that he would review and revise their Religion and such other mystical Ceremonies significant of Gospel-grace wherewith his well-known Piety could not but be intimately acquainted c. And his Petitioners shall humbly pray c. Sir Had you drawn a Petition according to the strain and humour of those Dissenters you plead for it should have run thus That whereas their Lord and Master whose Kingdom was not of this world had not left them Amunition enough to settle his Churches c. That therefore they humbly beseech his Protectorship to grant them the Militia of the Empire the Pretorian Bands and to add such other things significant of Gospel-power wherewith c. And his Petitioners shall heartily fight c. Whig Hark you Sir have you nothing to say to the Authour of Julian the Apostate Pamph. Yes I suppose he is one of your disciples and has learn'd both his Loyalty and his Modesty from you one would think that you had spit into his mouth that very Complement you by the way of Similitude pass upon the Supreme Magistrate Page 361. It was say you a Malicious Artifice of Julian the Apostate to erect the Images of the Heathen gods in the Forum near his own Statue reducing hereby the Christians to this Dilemma either to seem to worship the Images