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A34533 A discourse of the religion of England asserting, that reformed Christianity setled in its due latitude, is the stability and advancement of this kingdom. Corbet, John, 1620-1680. 1667 (1667) Wing C6252; ESTC R19414 29,523 57

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the succesful execution thereof is received at Rome with joy and triumph as the Murtherers in the Parisian Massacre were highly extolled by the Pope and rewarded with such spiritual Graces as his Holiness useth to bestow SECT V. That wheresoever it finds Encouragement it is restless till it bears down all before it or hath put all in disorder MAy we judg by these things how a Party devoted to the See of Rome are to be trusted and cherished in a Protestant Nation who mind the securing of themselves and their posterity from the sharpest Persecutions especially considering the Third Branch of the Charge That in any State where they find advantage or fit matter to work upon they are restless till they bear down all or put all in disorder Popery hath its formed Combinations and se●led Correspondencies over all Christendom under the Supreme Direction and Government of the Congregation at Rome for the propagation of the Faith which sent over swarms of Seminary Priests Jesuits and Fryars of all sorts who made their Hives in England The several PARLIAMENTS of the later times of King James represented to the King how the Popish Recusants had dangerously increased their Numbers and Insolencies having great expectation from the Treaties with Spain and the interposing of Foreign Princes for Indulgence to them how they openly and usually resorted to the Churches and Chappels of Foreign Ambassadors their more then usual concourse to the City and their frequent Conventicles and Conferences there how their children were educated in many Foreign Seminaries appropriated to the English Fugitives what swarms of Priests and Jesuits came into the Land many Popish and Seditious Books licentiously printed and dispersed From which Causes as from bitter Roots most dangerous Effects both to Church and State would follow For the Popish Religion is incompatible with ours it draws with it an unavoidable dependance upon Foreign Princes it opens a wide gap for popularity in any who shall draw too great a party it hath a restless spirit and will strive by these gradations If it once get connivance it will press for Toleration if that should be obtained it must have an Equality from thence it will aspire to a Superiority and never rest till it hath wrought the subversion of true Religion In the several PARLIAMENTS of King Charles the First not one Publick Grievance was more insisted on then the Growth of POPERY In the Third PARLIAMENT of that King at a Conference between the Lords and Commons about Popish Recusants one of the Principal Secretaries of State spake thus Give me leave to tell you what I know That These now both vaunt at home and write to their Friends abroad they hope all will be well and doubt not to prevail and win ground upon us And a little to awaken the Care and Zeal of our Learned and Grave Fathers it is fit that they take notice of that Hierarchy which is already Established in competition with their Lordships For they have already a Bishop consecrated by the Pope This Bishop hath his subalternate Officers of all kinds as Vicars General Arch-Deacons Rural Deans Apparitors and such like neither are these nominal and titular Officers alone but they all execute their Jurisdiction and make their ordinary Visitation throughout the Kingdom keep Courts and determine Ecclesiastical Causes and which is an argument of more consequence they keep ordinary intelligence by their Agents at Rome and hold correspondencies with the Nuncio's and Cardinals both at Bruxels and in France Neither are the Seculars alone grown to this height but the Regulars are more active and dangerous and have taken deep root They have already planted their Societies and Colledges of both Sexes They have setled Revenues Houses Libraries Vestments and all other necessary provisions to travel or stay at home nay even at this time they intend to hold a concurrent Assembly with this Parliament In Ireland a Popish Clergy far more numerous then the Protestant was in full exercise of all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by arch-Arch-Bishops Bishops Vicars General Officiats and a Vicar Apostolical And they had a special Cardinal at Rome for their Protector Among other Projects a Consultation and Overture of reconciling England and Rome was set on foot Some of Eminency in the Church of England gave advantage to the Project by declaring That only the Puritans among the Protestants and the Jesuits among the Papists obstructed the Peace of Christendom Some prime Agent of the Pope made a solemn offer of a Cardinalship to Bishop Laud at the time of his translation to the See of Canterbury Sancta Clara presumed to dedicate his Book to the King wherein the Articles of the Church of England were examined by the Roman Standard and distorted to the sense of the Council of Trent The Pope had Three Nuncio's Panzani Con and Roseti successively residing in England to work upon this State by advantage of the Project of Reconciliation This Faction had many Irons in the Fire and many strings to their Bow They had their Agents in Court City and Country They had their Spyes in the Houses of great men and such as kept continual watch over them that had the chief sway of Publick Affairs Their work was to raise and foster Jealousies between the King and His People to cast things into the hurry of Faction Prejudice and confused Motion And whether the Court or Popular Faction prevailed they thought it equally advantagious to their Designs which was to unsettle the present State and work Mutations Such Incendiaries are the Factors of Rome and such busie Engineers in the Confusions of Christendom Can any that considers the foregoing passages doubt of the powerful and special Agency of the Court of Rome in the Commotions that followed A Venetian Agent in England intimate with Nuncio Panzani and privy to all his Negotiations made this Observation If one may make judgment of things future by things past this Realm so divided into many Factions in matter of Religion and that of the Catholick increasing daily will in time be troubled and torn with Civil Warrs SECT VI. The PAPISTS pretension of Loyalty and Merit in the King's Cause Examined THE great Plea and boasting of the Romanists is Their pretension of Merit in the King's Cause The truth is the Papists knew that the PARLIAMENT was fully bent and deeply engaged against them and therefore despaired of any good to themselves by a direct and open compliance with them whatever undiscerned influence they might have on their Counsels So that Necessity made them to serve the King in that Warr. And they brought neither Success nor Reputation to His Majesties Affairs nor did He care to own their Assistance more then as justified by the present necessity And they have little reason to upbraid the Protestants with the scandal of that Warr for whatsoever was alledged in defence thereof by the PARLIAMENT and their Adherents as much hath been written by very Eminent School-men and Doctors
the Stabbing and Poysoning of Princes that stood in their way which the Jesuits teach their Disciples SECT IX The Reformed Religion is the permanent Interest of this Kingdom AS the Protestant or Reformed Religion is the true Primitive Christianity so it is the stable and permanent Interest of England and the sure Foundation of its Prosperity The King of England is the most Mighty Prince of this Profession and becomes the more Potent over Christendom by being the Head and Chief of the whole Protestant Party And it is well known That by the Support and Defence of this Cause the Nation hath encreased in Honour and Wealth and Power The Peoples rooted Aversness from Popery is most apparent and their Jealousies work upon any more then usual Insolence or Confidence of the Papists The Royallists as well as others have been Allarm'd and manifested their Zeal against it And His Majesties Aversness from it is so fully declared by His Constancy amidst Temptations in the time of His Exile and now since His Return that for His Honours sake it is made very penal for any to suggest that He would introduce it the Law presuming That such suggestion must needs proceed from an evil mind And what Prince that hath cast off the Popes yoke would willingly come under it again A Foreign Statesman of the Roman Profession hath observed it as a Barr against the projected Reconciliation between England and Rome That it could not be effected without Concessions on both sides contrary to the Maxims of both parties This Realm saith he is perversly addicted to maintain its own resolute Opinion of Excluding the Popes Authority And the Court of Rome is more sollicitous to remove whatsoever is contrary to its Temporal Grandure then to extirpate such Heresies as this Realm is infected with To instance in that one point of the Approbation or Toleration of the Oath of Allegiance though some Catholick Doctors had with their Tongues and Pens maintained the lawfulness of that Oath yet thereby and by opening some other points of high consequence they had so displeased the Pope that could they have been catch't they were sure to have been burn'd or strangled for it But what allurement is there to dispose the Monarchs of the Earth to subject themselves to the Sacerdotal Empire of Rome or to endeavour an Accommodation with it Hath Popery its advantages to dispose Subjects to security and blind obedience So it hath its advantages to loosen the Bonds of Allegiance and foment Rebellion in Subjects when Protestancy seasons them with principles of unstained Loyalty A people nuzled in ignorance and superstition are more easily seduced from their obedience to Magistrates and carried headlong by those that have dominion over their Consciences But Understanding and Knowledg makes men considerate and more easily manageable by a just and prudent Government As for the Clergy's Interest though the Protestant Religion doth not affect that excessive Pomp and Splendor of Church-men which the Popish doth yet it is taken for granted That neither Conscience nor Interest will permit the Bishops and Clergy of England to unite to the See of Rome Their Doctrine is too pure and their Judgment too clear for a full compliance with Popery And they know what it is to come under the Papal Yoke to divest themselves and receive new Orders from Rome and to be displaced and set behind the Veteran Soldiers of the Roman Camp whose turns must be first served SECT X. It is for the behoof of Religion and true Piety and for the Interest of this State That Reformed Christianity be setled in its full Extent IF it be resolved That Protestancy is the truth of Christianity and also the stability of England it follows That this Profession must not be streightned and lessened but inlarged and cherished according to its true Extent and the Rule and Square of the Ecclesiastical State must be commensurate thereunto It should be the measure of all mens Zeal and Activity in Rites and Opinions whatsoever is necessary to its support and advancement is constantly to be asserted and about things impertinent thereunto contention should utterly cease This is to advance the Kingdom of God among men and to encrease the Church's glory upon earth But by needless Schisms and Factions to weaken the common Interest of Reformed Christianity is to dissipate the Church of God and to defeat the great Ends of the Christian Religion which are Sound and strong Faith in Christ and his Promises unfeigned devotion purity of heart innocence and integrity of life common charity brotherly love humility mutual forbearance and condescention unshaken peace and concord As this Latitude promotes the great Designs of Christs Gospel so it settles this Nation and is for matter of Religion its right and sure Basis. Every good Foundation lyes adequate to the Building to be laid thereon So any Polity Civil or Ecclesiastical should be proportionate to the people to be governed thereby The people that are of moment in the Ballance of this Nation are though not universally yet more generally rooted in Protestantism as it is taken in its due latitude and not as unduly restrained by the passions and interests of men For in this they are one though divided about lesser things There hath been much discord between men of several Perswasions that throughly accord with each other in the same common Faith as almost to expunge one another out of the List of Protestants Surely this is a great error and a disadvantage on all hands as well to those that stand on the Vantage-ground as to others For they that carry it after this sort do weaken the Common Interest of true Religion and strengthen the Common Adversary that is irreconcilable and disparage themselves as a narrow Party or Faction That all those who heartily embrace the English Reformation established by Law are Protestants will not be questioned by men of temperate spirits And concerning the residue let the sober-minded judge Whether they that assent to the Doctrine of Faith contained in the Articles of the Church of England and do worship God according to that Faith have right to be esteemed Protestants Now if Protestancy taken in its due Extent doth sway the Nation and is able to settle its Peace against the Competition of any Rival should it not be encompassed according to that Extent as much as is possible in the Polity of this State SECT XI How momentous in the Ballance of the Nation those Protestants are that dissent from the present Ecclesiastical Polity VVHether cogent Reason speaks for this Latitude be it now considered How momentous in the Ballance of this Nation those Protestants are which are dissatisfied in the present Ecclesiastical Polity They are every where spred through City and Countrey they make no small part of all ranks and sorts of men by Relations and Commerce they are so woven into the Nations Interest that it is not easie to sever them without unravelling the whole