Queen of Scots is made Queen of England upon the Hypothesis of the Paternal Right when upon that Hypothesis she was disinherited and foreclosed from the Crown of England by two successive Patriarchs Henry the 8th and Edward the 6th I should think for that very reason that the Hypothesis of the Laws had been a much better Hypothesis In the opening a little and shewing these Absurdities I suppose I shall meet with all that is remarkable in that Paper 1. The Articles and Canons of the Church of England are set aside and some few Addresses in this present Reign are made the standard of the Doctrine of the Church of England p. 3. and 5. Is this arguing from the Church of England's Own Principles which he says is the design of his Paper p. 6. Is it the Principle of any one Clergyman in England that the Doctrine of the Church of England is to be sought for and found out in Addresses Or in any thing but the Liturgy and Homilies the Articles and Canons of the Church which have the publick Sanction and the Universal consent of the whole Clergy If he had found materials out of any of these to make good his charge of disloyalty he had done like a Man and the Church of England had been condemned out of her own mouth but if he cannot do this at present we will have patience to stay till he can and in the mean time he had done wiselier to have said nothing 2. The Bishops aad Clergy of several Convocations who have been dead these hundred years are rendred disloyal for not governing themselves by these Addresses two years ago which they knew not of This is a great hardship indeed that men shall be tryed and condemned by Laws which were not promulged till an hundred years after their death The present Church of England has a very great Reverence for those Bishops and Clergy who were the Restorers of the Protestant Religion to this Kingdom and who had formerly hazarded their lives for it and will be very loth to see them pass under the Character of Traytors and Rebels And when we demand what Laws of the Land or what Principles of the Church of England they had transgressed we are in effect told that they were Rebels against some chosen expressions in very modern Addresses The instance which he gives is the Church of England's behaviour towards Mary Queen of Scots above an hundred years ago now mark his words p. 5. But yet because I am about to give a notorious instance of their Receding from this Principle namely the Divine Right of Succession when the practice of it thwarted their Interest it will not be amiss to observe that they have acknowledged in their several Addresses to his present Majesty upon his Accession to the Crown the Unalterable and Inherent Right of Succession Now this is the Reasoning which as I said before would make a Man stand upon his Head. Besides How could they Recede or go back from a Principle which they never came to and were never nearer it than at an Hundred years Distance For their Opinion or Principle call it what you will was this as appears by the 27. Eliz. That in case an Heir in Remainder killed the present lawfull Possessor of the Crown that person had not a Divine Right of Succession And that neither God nor the Laws ever meant to Reward the falshood of Treason and the bloody Usurpation of a Crown with so much the Earlier possession of it My business is not to concern my self about either of these Principles or Opinions but only to shew the absurd Reasoning of this Writer 3. Mary Queen of Scots is made Queen of England by such an Argument as makes her no Queen of Scots and by giving her another's Kingdom takes away her own The Argument is this That Queen Elizabeth being Illegitimate and only an Act-of-Parliament-Queen could not interpose betwixt the Crown of England and Mary Queen of Scots who was Heir by Inherent Birth-right Now does not all the World know That all the Title that Mary Queen of Scots had to the Kingdom of Scotland was an Act of Parliament made at Scone in the time of Robert the First whereby his Issue by Elizabeth Moore his Concubine whom he never Married but who was afterwards Married to one Giffard a Gentleman of Louthien were made Inheritable to the Crown and at the same time all his legitimate Children by his lawfull Queen Eupheme were set aside These men take just the same measures as their Father Garnet did in the Gun powder Treason who Resolved That in order to blow up the Hereticks they might lawfully blow up their Catholick Friends too Nay all that this Instancer says against Queen Elizabeth admitting it to be True which we do not bears much harder upon the Title of Mary Queen of Scots Was Queen Anns Marriage with Hen. 8. naught But in Elizabeth Moores Case there was no Marriage at all Or was King Edward set aside to make way for Illegitimate Elizabeth But so it was done by the Act at Scone Every body understands the English of Queen Ann Bolens Precontract when they remember That King Henry the 8th was Married again to the Lady Jane Seymour within Three days after the Beheading of that Queen 4. Mary Queen of Scots is made Queen of England upon the Hypothesis of the Paternal Right p. 3. and 5. when upon that Hypothesis she was disinherited and foreclosed from the Crown of England by two Successive Patriarchs Henry the 8th and Edward the 6th Henry the 8th by his last Will and Testament excluded the House of Scotland and Edward the 6th by his Will excluded both that and his own Sisters likewise But as the Bishop of Ross argued against the first Will that it was not subscribed by his Graces own hand-writing as was directed by the Act of Parliament but only signed with a stamp of his Name so King Edward was never enabled by an Act of Parliament to dispose of the Crown at all And so neither of these Wills signified any thing because the Prince has no Power but what the Law gives him Whereas if these foresaid Princes had been Patriarchs and full of Inherent Paternal Power they could have Disinherited without an Act of Parliament For if a Father cannot Disinherit much less has he Power of Life and Death It were endless to reckon up all the awkerd and wilfull mistakes which fill up that Sheet of Paper As where he insinuates p. 7. That the 3th of Elizabeth was owing to the Queens Consciousness of the Insufficiency of her Title It is nothing so But it was made for the Preservation of her Person and that no body presuming upon an Unalterable and Unforfeitable Title in Reversion might immediately destroy her An Act it is which is Law to this day and was recited 13 Caroli 2. and there Expresly made a Pattern for the 13th of his Reign And whereas he says p. 8. That before
AN Eighth Collection OF PAPERS Relating to the Present Juncture of Affairs in England VIZ. I. The Tryal and Examination of the Test of the Church of England's Loyalty II. Some Reflections upon the Additional Libel intituled An Instance of the Church of England 's Loyalty III. The Pedigree of Popery or Genealogy of Antichrist IV. A Letter to a Person of Quality occasion'd by the News of the Ensuing Parliament V. Father La Chaise's Project for the Extirpation of Hereticks In a Letter from him to Father Petres VI. An Account of the Papers that have been Collected relating to the present Juncture of Affairs Licensed according to Order LONDON Printed Anno Domini 1689. The Tryal and Examination of a late Libel intituled A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty With some Reflections upon the Additional Libel intituled An Instance of the Church of England's Loyalty THE Church of England has of late years especially been on the charitable side towards the Papists and has allowed them to be Christians and not Anti-Christians nay to be a true Church and not the Synagogue of Satan and seemed to have utterly forgotten the two fundamental points of Popery That Hereticks are to be pursued with Fire and Sword which was determined by the Lateran Council under Innocent the Third and conscientiously practised ever since And that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks which the Council of Constance determined in the case of John Huss and Jerome of Prague And in this excess of Charity which hopeth all things and believeth all things they have hoped against hope and have exercised strong acts of Faith where no Faith is neither have they had any apprehensions of being destroyed but rather of being saved and protected with Fire and Sword. But finding in great measure their Charity mistaken to the end that all their disappointments may seem just upon them they are presently taxed with Disloyalty So Aesops Lamb when she was to be eaten was charged by the Wolf for muddying the upper part of the stream which was far above her In Vindication therefore of the Church of England and to shew her innocency in this point I shall examine this new Test of the Church of England's Loyalty where she is tried and cast weighed in the Balance and found light but to our comfort it is by deceitfull weights and measures The first device is to pretend That the Church of England appropriate to themselves alone the principles of true Loyalty and that no other Church or Communion on earth can be consistent with Monarchy or indeed with any Government This is a presumption of so high a nature that it renders the Church of England a despicable Enemy to the rest of mankind To which I answer That the Church of England is here represented by that which is the true Character of the Church of Rome which has all along been a known Engrosser Which pretends to have all Faith and all Holiness and will have all Heaven to her self and pretending to have the Keys of it will suffer none other to come thither Whereas the Church of England allows not only that all Protestants have true Faith and true Loyalty as well as she and the same Faith and Loyalty as appears by the Harmony of their Confessions but also that Pagans are capable of moral vertue such as Loyalty is and have heretofore been great examples of it Many of them have lookt upon themselves as not born for themselves but for their Country and were strict observers of the Laws And it is well known that Socrates in particular had that Reverence for the Laws that though he was put upon it by his Friends yet he would not break them to save his Life His Bones and Sinews as his words are in Plato's Phaedo could easily have carried him into a Foreign Country but he would not suffer them to do it And therefore this Author in saying that the Church of England averrs That no other Sect or Community on Earth from the Rising to the Setting Sun can be capable of this singular gift of Loyalty betrays his malice and ignorance together and plainly shews that though he make new Tests of Loyalty yet he does not know what Loyalty is The word Loyal is a Term of Law and is indifferently applied to things as well as Persons So a Loyal Judgment is a Judgment according to Law and is opposed to a false Judgment A Loyal contract is a lawfull bargain A Man buys an Horse in a Market and then he has a Loyal Title a Legal Title to him So again a Person behaves himself according to Law and observes the Laws of the Land and then he is a Loyal Man he is Legalis Homo as a Juryman is required to be that is such a one as cannot be challenged for a Criminal or a breaker of the Laws And in case a Man's Behaviour be according to Law it is Loyal whether it respect a Superiour or an Inferiour Action nest autre chose que Loial demand de son droit An action is nothing else but the Loyal Demand of a Man's Right Mirror p. 115 and p. 122. A Serjeant at Law shall not use any deceits in his practice nor consent to them mes Loyalment maintiendra le droit de son Client c. But shall Loyally maintain the Right of his Client so that it be not overthrown by any folly negligence or default of his From hence it follows that Loyalty can have no other rule or measure but the Law for though some Men love to have confused notions of things and speak of Loyalty as if it were a thing in the Clouds and some abstruse matter over our Heads yet it appears to be plain thing and of easie comprehension for it is nothing else but Conformity to the Laws The plain English of Loyalty is lawfulness and it is utterly impossible that there should be any other Test or Touchstone any other measure or standard of lawfulness but the Law it self For if there had been no Law as there had been no Transgression nor Violation of it so there had been no Loyalty nor Conformity to it And therefore Loyalty against Law is a contradiction it is obedience made up of disobedience The Law is that which makes the King our Liege Lord and us his Liege People and accordingly both Prince and People are mutually sworn to the keeping of it and our Allegiance binds us to an obedience according to Law and not otherwise To obey the King himself contrary to Law is Disloyalty and to disobey the King in obedience to the Laws is Loyalty If it be not thus then all the Judges of England for these 340 Years and upwards have been all Sworn to be Disloyal For they are sworn to proceed according to Law though the King by his Letters or Writs under the great Seal or under the little Seal or by his own mouth should command them the contrary 2. 18. 20. Ed.
in this point Which the Church of England will hardly trouble her self about because she likes her old Principles of Loyalty very well and is not given to change but knows when she is well In the mean time this Author tells us very plainly and expresly enough that till the Church of England change their old Principles of Loyalty and take example by their Catholick Neighbours they are to be lookt upon as a Snake in his Majesties Bosome and cannot expect to be protected Alas this Gentleman is utterly mistaken For a Legal Establishment has a Right to a Legal Protection and the King is bound both by his Oath and by the duty of his Kingly Office to protect the Church of England as it is by Law established And therefore to talk of withdrawing Protection from the Church of England is to talk of removing the Thames to York But we are so much used to such empty threatnings and flashes in the Pan that we know they will not kill So the Reply to the Oxford Reasons against Addressing threatens the Church of England that by the Prerogative in Matters Ecclesiastical it may be in great measure Legally Subverted p. 4. A Legal Establishment even while it remains such Legally Subverted They would make us believe that the Laws of England were made up of Jesuitical Equivocations and did blow Hot and Cold with the same mouth But besides That Replyer should be told that a thousand more of his pompous Quotations which were written in the time of the High Commission will not Revive that Branch of the Statute 1 Eliz. upon which the High Commission Court was erected And likewise he should be told that a Power given by One Statute and taken away afterwards by Two is certainly reduced to its Primitive nothingness But I return to our present Author only to take my leave of him which he has done of the Church of England in these words And now let us leave the Holy Mother Church at liberty to consult what new Measures of Loyalty she ought to take for her own dear Interest and for ought I know it may be worth her serious consideration I am in hopes That this Church of God which he hath purchased with his own Blood though this Author be pleased to trample upon her with so much Scorn and Insolence will take occasion even at an Enemies bidding to consult what New Measures of Loyalty she ought to take for her own dear Interest and for the Interest of Posterity which is much dearer and for the Everlasting Interest of both which is dearest of all And will humbly and heartily Bewail her Disloyalty to her great Lord and Master and those many and great and open Transgressions and Violations of his most Holy and Righteous Laws which are amongst us And O that every member of that Communion in particular would speedily repent and return to his Duty and persevere in a course of Holy Obedience to his lives end This is the Loyalty that is too much wanting in the Church of England which is due to the Laws of our Blessed Saviour who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords As for her Earthly Lords They cannot charge her with any Disobedient or Lawless carriage towards them or with any Disregard to the Laws unless perhaps in some unwarrantable Officious Instances which it would hardly be Proper for them to Object against her And to the end that both we and our Children after us may be Better Subjects to our Blessed Lord than hitherto we have been I am in hopes That the Church of England will lay a dead Hold upon that great Depositum which the Laws have put into her hands which is the only Instrument of our Reformation I mean the English Bible We are very bad now But what would become of us if we should likewise be deprived of the only means to make us better If all the Laws of the Land were Abolished there could be no Loyalty And if the Gospel were taken away which is the Laws and Statutes of Heaven how were it possible for us to be the Subjects of Jesus Christ We might indeed be the Servants of Men and Vassals to the Pope but we could not possibly obey the Gospel of Christ if it were taken and hid from us We remember full well who they were that would not suffer an English Bible to be in this Kingdom for very many Ages together And if any Devout and Religious Soul who desired to know his Master's will had gotten but the Lord's Prayer or Ten Commandments in English it cost him his life We shall never forget the Seven Coventry Martyrs who were Burned all together in the little Park the 4th of April 1519. for teaching their Children and Family the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments in English Nor shall we ever forget how the poor Children were sent for and charged in no wise to meddle any more with those very small Scriptures upon pain of suffering the same Death with their Parents What is once made Heresie by an Infallible Church must be always and every-where Heresie though Heresie indeed is not every-where Burning for want of opportunity Thanks be to God and our good Laws that it is not so here And I hope the Church of England will always be careful to assert the Authority and Majesty of the Laws which are so much to be preferred and valued above our Lives in as much as by them we enjoy both our Lives and the Protestant Religion together May God be entreated to continue this Unvaluable and Undeserved Blessing to us and to our Posterity Amen Some Reflections upon the Additional LIBEL intituled An Instance of the Church of England 's Loyalty IT is a just Judgment upon those who have Renounced their Reason to embrace Transubstantiation and thereby have distorted their natural faculties that their Understandings stand awry for ever after and we cannot expect so much as Common sense from them any more From thenceforward they Write as well as Believe contradictious Mysteries and he that means to comprehend their awkerd and perverse Reasonings must stand upon his Head. We need not go far to fetch Examples of this for the late Instance of the Church of England 's Loyalty is a remarkable Instance of all that I have said Wherein there are these following Absurdities delivered in a way of much smartness and with the appearance of very close Reasoning 1. The Articles and Canons of the Church of England are set aside and some few Addresses in this present Reign are made the Standard of the Doctrine of the Church of England 2. The Bishops and Clergy of several Convocations who have been Dead these Hundred years are rendred Disloyal for not governing themselves by these Addresses two years ago which they knew not of 3. Mary Queen of Scots is made Queen of England by such an Argument as makes her No Queen of Scots and by giving her anothers Kingdom takes away her own 4. Mary
the Queen of Scots was taken off and so the Succession pretty well secured against Popery the Church of England never Persecuted any of her Protestant Dissenters but as soon as that Work was done and the Court likely to continue on their side then out flies the 35 Eli2 cap. 2. against Sectaries In those very few words there are a great many Blots For first I hope the 23 of Elizabeth was several years before the Death of the Queen of Scots and if that Act was not made against the Protestant Dissenters they have had the more wrong done them in having been since Prosecuted upon that Act. Second He words it as if the 35 of Elizabeth came out the next day or at least very shortly after the Death of the Queen of Scots whereas it was not till many years after 3d. Whereas the present Church of England is upbraided with the 35 Eliz. it is not beyond the memory of Man since in this Church a Bill passed both Houses of Parliament for the Repeal of that Act but when it came to the Royal Assent the Bill was not to be found and they say there was foul play in the losing of that Bill But I think the greatest blot and blunder of all is a little above in the same page in these words After the Queen of Scots Condemnation the Parliament Petition'd for her Execution each House apart and the Bishops gave their Reasons why it ought to be If the Bishops had Reasons why it ought to be then they were no Traytors nor Rebels as they are all along branded then they did not kill the Heir that the Inheritance might be theirs for that we are very sure ought not to be And if their Reasons are weak and Insufficient and in effect no Reasons why then are they not Answerd For the bare mentioning of them without answering them will leave a suspicion in all mens minds that there is somewhat in them which is unanswerable And truly this is just such another piece of work as a very young and unskilful Conjurer uses to perform in raising what he cannot lay In a word I do not see one true and close thing in this Paper unless it be this p 3. That the Church of England-men themselves do not Obey their own Canons Which if they had Obeyed and particularly the 114. Canon whereby they are bound to present all Popish Recusants and all that are Popishly given every year They had not this day been troubled with New Tests and Instances of their Loyalty But failing in that part of their Loyalty and Obedience they are now Questioned for all the rest However it is never too late for men to return to their Duty To conclude I would advise these Popish Scriblers to let the Church of England alone which has both the Truth of God and the Laws of the Land on her side and having Heaven and Earth on her side all the Powers of Hell cannot prevail against her much less is she to be run down by a few Impotent Libels which can never attain their End nor arrive at their Conclusion though we should grant them all their own Premisses For supposing Queen Anns Confession of a Precontract yet that does not make Queen Elizabeth Illegitimate And supposing her Illegitimate and only an Act-of-Parliament-Queen yet that does not make her an Unlawfull Queen And supposing her an Unlawfull Queen and without a legal Title and only Queen for the time being yet the Church of England were not Rebels and Traytors for Assisting her but did their true Duty of Allegiance as is expresly said in the 11 Hen. 7. c. 1. which Act was made on purpose to save the Peoples Allegiance in that Case who had like to have been Ruined but a little before by the cross Pretensions and Alternately prevailing Titles of York and Lancaster Nay to go farther supposing that Queen Elizabeth was an Usurper and the Church of England over and above Traytors and Rebels and thereupon all the Laws made in her time of no Authority for that I know is the point that they would be at and the only meaning of all this Scurrility poured forth upon that Queen and her Clergy yet still they would lose their Aim those Laws having been confirmed in so many Parliaments since and by such Princes as now they list not to bark at Though heretofore the Jesuite Parsons in his Book of the Succession under the Name of Doleman shewed himself and his Fraternity to be as much Devoted to K. James's Title as this Author is now to Q. Elizabeths In short being nothing is to be gotten by Railing against Q. Elizabeth and by making her Illegitimate they may as well let her rest in Peace or pass for Legitimate And they may save the foul spittle they are daily casting upon her which will serve much better for the making of their Holy Water The PEDIGREE of POPERY OR The GENEALOGY of ANTICHRIST THE DEVIL begat Sin Sin begat Ignorance Ignorance begat Error and his Brethren Error begat Pride Pride begat Free-will Free-will begat Merit Merit begat Forgetfulness of Grace Forgetfulness of Grace begat Transgression Transgression begat Distrust Distrust begat Dissatisfaction Dissatisfaction begat the Sacrifice of the Mass The Sacrifice of the Mass begat Superstition Superstition begat Hypocrisie Lying Hypocrisie begat Gain of her that was the Wife of the Offertory Gain begat Purgatory Purgatory begat Anniversary or yearly Masses or Trentals Anniversary being a foundation begat the Patrimony of the Church The Patrimony of the Church begat Wicked Mammon Mammon begat Luxury Luxury begat Usurpation Usurpation begat Cruelty Cruelty begat Immunity Immunity begat Lordship Lordship begat Pomp Pomp begat Ambition Ambition begat Simony Simony begat the POPE and his Brethren the Cardinals in the Transportation into Babylon and after the Transportation into Babylon The POPE begat the Mystery of Iniquity The Mystery of Iniquity begat School-Divinity School-Divinity begat the Casting away of Holy Scripture The Casting away the Holy Scripture begat the Legend The Legend begat Monkery Monkery begat Blind Zeal Blind Zeal begat the Murthering of Saints The Murthering of Saints begat the Contempt of God Contempt of God begat Dispensation Dispensation begat Licence to Sin Licence to Sin begat Carnal Policy Carnal Policy begat Jesuitism Jesuitism begat Four Monsters Equivocation Mental Reservation Probable Opinion and Direction of the Intention These Four Monsters survive to this day and begat a Multitude of Sons and Daughters viz. Atheism Tyranny Treason Assassination Perjury Inquisition Massacre Masquerade and Open Popery City-Burning Chequer-Stopping Charter-Catching Large Finings Severe Whippings Non obstante Closetings Subscribings Member-makings Addressings and all kind of Abominations which walking abroad in a Dress of Religion and Dissimulation complete the whole Train of Antichrist c. To the perpetual Establishing and Setting up of POPERY and the putting down of and for ever subverting and casting away all Christianity A LETTER TO A PERSON of QUALITY Occasion'd by the
Laws and if this Law be at this time thought reasonable I may say necessary what need we enquire into the occasion of its making A Law may be continued for better and perhaps juster reasons than those for which it was first Enacted Indeed 't is ill manners to fall foul upon any thing for the faults of its Production the reflection would come home to him for evensome men have been so unhappy in their Extraction that they would deserve but little esteem if the Blemishes of their birth were always to be remembred His second Reason Why the Test out to be abrogated is Because of the incompetent Authority by which the Law was Enacted it is a Law of an Ecclesiasticall Nature made without the Authority of the Church contrary to the practice of the Christian World in all Ages c. Tho by this Argument against the Test this Reverend Authour might have imposed upon us as to the practice of other Countries in Laws of the like nature yet if he thought to delude us in the Customs of our own Nation he ought at least to have timed his Reasons so well as not to have published them in the same Gazette wherein there is an eminent instant against him We read there an Order made by nine men whereof six are Lay-men surely a much inferiour Authority to that by which the Test was Enacted whereby feven and twenty men of as liberal Education as any of their Successors are made uncapable of being admitted into any Ecclesiastical Promotion or receiving Holy Orders If any thing be of an Ecclesiasticall nature surely receiving Holy Orders is I am sure it has been longer in the Church than Transubstantiation In short this Argument through the whole course of it is a little too severe upon the Honourable Persons that made the Order and whatever other men might think of their proceedings it was unpardonable in him to reflect upon a Court by whose Authority he now enjoys the best part of his sustenance so that must either forsake his Argument or leave his place and when he is left to such an easie choice 't is no hard matter to guess which will be first relinquished The last Reason he brings against the Test is Because of the uncertainty and falshood of the matters contained in the Declaration it self as first That there is no Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of our Saviour's Body and Bloud And 2ly That the Invocation of Saints and Mother of God is Idolatry In handling of these points which makes up a formal Treatise for Transubstantiation though he calls it Reasons for abrogating the Test he has indeed labouriously proved that he himself ought not to have taken the Tests but not why others of a different opinion should not I must confess this Reason above all the rest seems to be the most designing and though it be here brought against the Test it is really levelled against our Religion for the same Argument which proves That because of the uncertainty of Transubstantiation the deniall of it ought not to be made a Test will as directly conclude that it ought not to be made an Article so that whenever this Authour and his Friends have thought they have proved the uncertainty and falshood of any of our established Doctrines by parity of reason they will expect we should consent that they may be abolished But since his Argument against the Test depends upon the falshood as he thinks of the matters contained in it Our Nobility and Gentry are for that very reason obliged to continue it they must not be now for repealing the Test lest the World should believe they are likewise for Transubstantiation and that this Argument of all others cannot prevail upon them since at the same time they are made Repealers they must be made Papists And therefore I hope our Prostant Nobility and Gentry will not hearken to such weak reasoning but think themselves bound to take care of their Religion though this Authour by the Specimen he has given of his Faith does appear to lie under the same Obligations If then Sir you should consent to repeal the Tests I beseech you to consider what persons you would disoblige by so fatall a condescention As for the Dissenters I hope by this time they are generally convinced that our Dangers are equall and that therefore we ought to join for our common security Protestants of all sorts are included in the same sentence denounced against Hereticks and if at this time there are some Acts of Kindness extended to some divisions of them they must look upon it no more than reprieving of one Malefactour for the Execution of another The Dissenters have been always apprehensive of Popery even when it lay at farther distance and surely they cannot now be so unreasonably courageous as to fear no danger when the Leprosie does not only stick to our Walls but is come into our very Houses they ought not to dwell so much upon their present Ease as to neglect all future Securities and to be so prodigal of their felicity during this Politick Cessation as not carefully to distinguish betwixt a short Truce and a perpetual Alliance If they think that their endeavours in repealing the Tests will secure them a lasting interest in the Papists it will require no great fore-sight in Affairs to tell them that they will be mistaken for if it were in the nature of Popery to return kindnesses the Church of England-Men have laid in a stock that seemed to be inexhaustible but we see that as soon as they began to put a stop to Popery their vigorous opposing the Bill of Exclusion and the Rebellion in the West were soon forgotten as if their Services and other mens Faults had been put in the same Act of Oblivion But for once we will suppose that Popery is not ungratefull and that whatsoever becomes of the Church of England their promises to the Dissenters shall be unalterable yet this will not justifie the Dissenters for engaging in any concern that may advance the Popish Interest for all Protestants abroad who cast a diligent Eye upon our present Circumstances must take offence at so unseasonable an Alliance and they who have so severely felt such contrary effects of Popish Power will have no reason to think well of those who will now contribute to advance it So that the Dissenters cannot join with the Papists without scandal though they might doe it with security it would make all different men fall in the opinion they had conceived of their Wisdom and Integrity and by so unskilfull a management of their present Ease they would lose all the pity and compassion which their former Sufferings and extorted 'T is indeed observed that His Majesties late Declaration has raised in some of the Dissenters an unusual affection for the contrivers of it but to the most thinking men of all sides the publishing of this Instrument was so far from being a surprize that they wondred
Whereas the Law of God only required Forefold Restitution in those cases and in some Countries Stealing was not only lawfull but was encouraged as an Accomplishment But on the other hand in God's own Government Idolatrous Priests were to be put to death And by the Law of Nations in all Countries whatsoever Spies Deserters Adherents and Emissaries of a publick Enemy as by our Law the Pope is to us and by his Law all Hereticks are declared to be to him are all to be hanged up And then as for the Mass Priests being called the Priests of the living God I appeal to the senses and understanding of all mankind whether the Lord God the Maker the former and the Creator of a Mass Priest whom he carries in his Box and Worships be a living God or no Nay according to the School of the Eucharist I will be judged by the very Rats and Mice which often run away with him III. The next thing the Church or rather the State of England is charged with for it was a Parliament business at least thirteen Years is the Execution of Mary Q. of Scots for Treason against Q. Elizabeth Wherein if they did any thing contrary to Law and the Allegiance due to their then present Q. Elizabeth they are chargeable with disloyalty otherwise not And whereas this Author calls it a Barbarous Murther and an Execrable Fact I would desire him to speak low for if the Laws should over-hear him they would call this Arraigning the Justice of the Nation And in saying that this Fact was the first of the kind he betrays great Ignorance he might as well have said that the Emperour Licinius Colleague with Constantine the Great and Q. Joan of Naples are still living And as yet I have never read that what Constantine did in that case was to the scandal and reproach of Christianity or even of those Christians who lived under Licinius and joyned with Constantine the Great in that Affair But fourthly I find which is the Substance of the sixth and seventh Pages that the Church of England might have all her old scores cleared and all her former faults forgotten and might pass for Loyal still if she would now consent to the Repeal of the Sanguinary Penal Laws which were purposely enacted to maintain the Usurpation of Queen Elizabeth and the late impious Tests Which puts me in mind of the conditions of peace which the Wolves sent to the Sheep The main Article was that the Sheep should deliver up their Dogs which they kept for a Guard and which were the great hindrance to a firm and lasting Peace But every body knows how long the Peace lasted But to proceed If the Sanguinary Penal Laws were purposely enacted to maintain the Usurpation of Queen Elizabeth how came they to be enacted afresh in the first year of King James when that Usurpation was over How came they two years after 3 Jac. c. 1. to be called Religious and necessary Laws And how came more of these Religious and necessary Laws to be made in the same Parliament and in succeeding Parliaments As for the late impious Tests choice Epithets for the Laws of the Land they were made as appears by the Title of the Acts To prevent dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants Now the sheep might safely have parted with their Dogs if the Peaceable Wolves at the same time would have parted with their Fangs 5. In the last page he says As for the Tests themselves it is not my Province to shew the Absurdities of them in point of Doctrine It is well it is not for he must get abundance of help whenever he goes about that Work. However he offers at it in these words Though by the by I must hold it a great folly to say that Transubstantiation is not a probable opinion at the least considering the number and Learning of those who maintain it which is the best part of Christendom And if it be a probable opinion it must be a great Temerity in any man to swear there is no such thing I had always thought that a probable opinion must be made out by proofs and probable reasons and not by numbers and telling of Noses But it seems the cause of Transubstantiation runs very low when it must be maintained by such Arguments as hold much stronger for Paganism and for Diana of the Ephesians whom all the World worshipped The Religion of the Heathens was of a larger extent and of longer standing than Popery and was maintained by all the learning of Athens and of Ancient Rome and yet we dare be Sworn that it was a false Religion I think we do not renounce Transubstantiation upon Oath but only by publick Declaration and Subscription but if we did it would by no means be a rash Oath For may not I safely swear that there is no such Figure as a Square Circle when the thing involves manifold contradictions and it is plainly demonstrable that the properties of a Square and of a Circle are utterly Inconsistent Now we have a thousandfold more Evidence and are able to make as clear proof and demonstration of it a thousand times over that there never was nor is nor can be any such thing as Transubstantiation which is nothing else but a heap of Contradictions Absurdities and impossible Falshoods And therefore we have the same assurance that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation never came nor could come from God as we have of this clear and evident Truth That it is impossible for God to Lye. VI. And now we are come to the conclusion and upshot of the business which is in these words So that upon the whole matter the Loyal Church of England must either change her old Principles of Loyalty and take example by her Catholick Neighbours how to behave her self towards a Prince who is not of her perswasion or she must give his Majesty leave not to nourish a Snake in his own Bosome but rather to withdraw his Royal Protection which was promised upon the account of her constant Fidelity I wish this Author had been more express and particular in this Dilemma and difficulty to which he thinks he has reduced the Church of England either to turn over a new leaf and learn a new lesson of Loyalty from her Catholick Neighbours or else to do worse For he does not tell us which of our Catholick Neighbours we must take example by whether Mrs. Celier and Mr. Sclater who have both published to the World that they turned Papists that is have made themselves High-Traytors for the improvement of their Loyalty or whether we should take example by this Author himself to call Queen Elizabeth Bastard to ridicule an Infallible English Parliament as he calls it in Scorn to deprave and vilifie several Statutes which are and will be the standing Laws of the Land till such time as they are repealed by Act of Parliament And therefore he has not been so clear as he might have been