The English CATHOLIKE CHRISTIAN OR The SAINTS Vtopia By THOMAS de Eschallers de la MORE an unprofitable Servant of Jesus Christ Of Graies-Inne Barrister and Minister of the Gospel of eternall salvation In the Yeer of Grace and Truth 1649. A Treatise consisting of four SECTIONS 1 JOSVAHS Resolution 2 Of the Common LAW 3 Of PHYSICK 4 Of DIVINITY Josh 24.15 As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Deut. 32.45 46 47. Luke 6.31 1 Pet. 4.8 Prov. 19.29 Heb. 13.1 1 John 4.7 8. Eccles. 12. vers 13 14. Rom. 12. Chap. Chap. 13. Read these Chapters and texts of Scripture with diligencehumility and integrity of heart in the name and fear of God Sâ—â—â—â— Amen LONDON Printed by R. Leybourn in Monks-well street and are to be sold at Graies-Inne 1649. To his most excellent MAJESTY CHARLES King of Great Britain France and Ireland DRead Sovereign my Lord the King may it please your Highness onely once to look over this ensuing Treatise and it will not repent thee ô King to peruse it and read it again and again entituled a Protestation concerning the Church and Common-wealth of England written almost six yeers since viz. in June 1641. by a loyal-hearted subject and a faithfull servant now in all humility prostrate beneath your Majesties feet May your favour descend as dew upon the grass and let me not behold the messengers of death in your countenance A shrub may grow neer unto a Cedar High and low great and small The rich and poor meet together The Lord is the maker of them all I would put a knife to my throat were I man given to appetite or desirous of dainties I am not called to sit and eat with a Ruler but to attend and wait untill I have delivered mine errand to the King it behoveth me therfore to consider diligently what to say Many will intreat the favour of the Prince and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts But I was born for adversity have bin trained up in afflictioÌ„s have eaten my bread in sorrow and do desire to appear my self a true Nathanael an upright Loyalist at all times Not subjection alone but duty my dread Lord comandest my greatest observance and most obedientiall gratitude for I am a branch spronted from a root this many ages hath grown spread flourished lived and revived in the light of the countenance and sun-shine days of divers Kings of England your Royall Progenitors whose Princely bounty and most munificent constant favours unto mine Ancestors hath been as a cloud of the latter rain videlicet Sir Hugh de Pounts un chivaler que vint de Normandie ove le Conquerour transacto regimine Regis Haroldi Secundi Laurentius de la More qui erat in exercitu Willielmi Bastardi Regis in Conquestu suo Regni Angliae c. Dominus Galfridus de Scalariis miles Sir Thomas de Eschallers Sir John de Chalers Knights Scalarii isti sunt editi atavo Galfridi senioris Hardwino de Scalariis Domino totius Baroniae de Caxton in Comitate Cantabrigiae tempore Willielmi Regis Angliae c. And Sir Thomas de la More Knight who was a Courtier in the Reigns of Edward the First Edward the Second and Edward the Third and was a Servant and wrote the life of King Edward the Second And my Grandfather who was Servant to King Henry the Eighth and divers others of my Ancestors who received most Princely rewards and gifts from their Masters the Kings of England and had great possessions and lands given unto them in the County of Oxon. c. Now therefore if I should not in most humble manner acknowledge this great munificence and pay my due tribute of Loyalty for such Royall favours I should be branded with the blackest note of Infamy and be chronicled ingratefull Moreover as I am a member of the body of Christ my supream Head Christian duty binds me not onely to pray for Kings and all that are in authority but to labour with my hands and assay all lawfull means possible for the building up and repairing of the breaches which all our sins have made in that mystical Temple the Church of God If David hath committed a great wickednesse and sinned secretly and the Prophet tell him Thou art the man he must presently confesse I have sinned against the Lord and the Lord will put away his sin and he shall not die Psal 51. 2 Sam. 12. If Peter denie his Master and the Lord looke back in mercie upon him he cannot but goe forth immediately and weepe bitterly If God hath humbled Ahab King of Israel Nebuchadnezar King of Babylon the Ninivites and Manasseth King of Judah that Mirrour of mercie and miracle of Gods unchangeable love and everlasting kindnesse and good will towards sinfull men they shall make an humble acknowledgement of their transgressions repent and turn unto the Lord with fasting weeping and mourning And the Lord will turn away his fierce wrath he will cancell his decree of temporall punishment and reverse his judgements denounced against them If that wise King Solomon multiply his whoredoms commit Spirituall Fornications and Idolatry he must become an Ecclesiastes in recantation of his vanities If King Saul make an unadvised adjuration to hinder the victory to retard the successe and weaken the hands of those that fight the Lords Battels Shall Jonathan die who hath wrought salvation in Israel God forbid the people may rescue him that he die not If Joab Captain of the Host advise a disconsolate son-lamenting King to speak comfortably unto his Princes his people his friends and servants that being ashamed have gotten themselves by stealth into their Cities and habitations The Kiâ—â— will presently arise and sit in the gate that all the people throughout all the Tribes of Israel and Judah may be at strife to bring the King back to his house If the people say unto him Thou shalt not goe forth to Battell for if we fly away they will not care for us neither if halfe of us die will they care for us but now thou art worth ten thousand of us therefore now it is better that thou succour us out of the City the King will give them a gracious Answer and say unto them what seemeth you best I will doe If the Prophet Jeremy counsell the captiv'd King by yielding to save his life let him obey the voice of the Lord so it shall be well unto him and his soule shall live A wicked man hardeneth his face but as for the upright he directeth his way There is no Wisdome nor Understanding nor Counsell against the Lord. Let no man presume to touch Gods people the Servants the Prophets the Anointed of the Lord for he reproved Kings for their sakes Let no man speak evil of those things which he knoweth not lest he perish in the gain-saying of Core Let no wicked Pharoah exalt himselfe against Gods people lest the Lord
written in the Book that Hilkiah the Priest found in the House of the Lord. And like unto him was there no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soule and with all his might according to all the Law of Moses neither after him arose any like him 2 Kings 22 23. Chapters Now therefore my Lord the King arise and be doing and the Lord be with thee And command all your Children your Confederates and Allies your Nobles and your Commons and all the people of your Kingdoms to help you saying Is not the Lord your God with you And hath he not given you rest on every side for he hath given your enemies into your hands and the Land is subdued before the Lord and before his people Now set your heart and your soul to seeke the Lord your God arise therefore and build ye the Sanctuary of the Lord God establish Religion in its purity according to Gods Word settle the Church government compose the differences and heal the distempers that our sins have made repair ye the breaches and build up the waste places in the Church and State and doe you Judgement and Justice throughout all my Dominions And comand all the people to gather themselves together as one man and to make confession saying O Lord the great and dreadfull God keeping the Covenant and mercie to them that love him and to them that keepe his Comandements We have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even hy departing from thy precepts and from thy judgements Neither have we harkned unto thy servants the Ministers and Preachers of thy Word and Ordinances which spake in thy name to our King our Princes and our Fathers and to all the people of the Land O Lord to us belongeth confusion of face because we have sinned against thee To the Lord our God belongeth mercies and forgivenesses though we have rebelled against him O Lord we have been disobedient and rebelled against thee and cast thy Law behinde our backs have slain thy servants which testified against us to turn us unto thee and we have wrought great provocations therefore thou deliverest us into the hands of our enemies who vexed us in the time of our trouble when we cryed unto thee thou heardst us from heaven and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest us Saviours who saved us out of the hands of our enemies But after we had rest we did evill again before thee therefore leftest thou us in the hand of our enemies so that they had the dominion over us yet when we returned and cried unto thee thou heardst us from heaven and many times didst thou deliver us according to thy mercies Thou didst not utterly consume us nor forsake us for thou art a gracious and a mercifull God Now therefore our God the great the mighty and the terrible God who keepest Covenant and mercie Let not all the trouble seeme little before thee that hath come upon us on our King on our Princes and Nobles and on our Ministers and Elders on our fathers on all thy people since the time of the Kings departing from his Parliaments and people unto this day Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us for thou hast done right but we have done wickedly Neither have our King our Princes and Nobles our Elders and Ministers of thy Word nor our Fathers kept thy Law nor hearkned unto thy Commandements and thy Testimonies wherewith thou didst testifie against them For they have not served thee in their Kingdom in thy great goodness that thou gavest them and in the large and fatland which thou gavest before them neither turned they from their wicked works Behold we are servants this day and for the land which thou gavest unto our Fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof behold we are servants in it And it yieldeth much increase unto them whom thou hast set over us because of our sins also they have dominion over our bodies and over our cattell at their pleasure and we are in great distress And because of all this let us make a sure Covenant and write it and let the King our Princes and Nobles our Elders and Ministers of Gods Word and Ordinances our Fathers and all the people of your Majesties Dominions seal unto it And finally may it please your Excellent Majesty to attend unto the doctrine and exhortations of the Apostle 1 Thes Chap. 5. and Hebrews 13.20 21. Quench not the spirit despise not prophesyings prove all things hold fast that which is good abstain from all appearance of evill And the very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soule and body be preserved blameless unto the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ Faithfull is he that calleth you who also will do it Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Iesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant Make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ to whom be glory forever Amen I have not omitted for many yeares together my Sovereign Lord daily and constantly to pray for the temporall and eternall happiness of the King the Queen your Consort and Royall Progeny with that integrity of heart zeal and devout affection as I pray for the Church of God and the salvation of my own soul Thus rejoyceth evermore to pray without ceasing Royall Sir Your Majesties humbly devoted Oratour most dutifull loyall and faithfull Subject and Servant in the Lord Thomas de la More Cornet to his Excellencie Sir Thomas Fairfax Knight Generall of England c. From my Quarters at Spaldwick in Huntingdonshire Feb. 22. 1646. Note * Mistakes in the imprinting may be thus amended Page 1. line 7. read unrighteousness p. 4. line 23. blot out neither p. 5. l. 3. read weed p. 7. l. 11. blot out so p. 17. l. 13. read conveying p. 20. l. 10. read butt line 12. blot out the second but. p. 24. l. 8. read we are sold we were sold Imprimatur Iohn Downame A Protestation concerning the Church and Common-wealth of ENGLAND Composed 1641 By Thomas de la More of Graies-Inne Esq revised and published in the Yeer of Grace and Truth 1648. The first Part. SECT I. JOSVAH'S Resolution IEHOVAH our King who ruleth the Hoast of Heaven and scepters the hearts of Princes and great Potentates on earth with the powerfull Arme of his Justice mightily defendeth and with the sovereigne hand of his mercy graciously preserveth these our Kingdomes of great Britaine and Ireland from desolation and miserable confusion Satan rageth and his ministers fight against Christ they take the weapons of righteousnesse and smite their Reprovers like the mad Prophet with obloquie and murtherous intentions They maligne revile and
of lies though he that made it trust in it c. Habak 2.18 Shall then the Book full of lies vanities and errour be so good a book and remembrance to Lay-men Shall that which endangereth the learned nothing hurt think we the unlearned O that we knew not by experience into what fond and wicked opinions of God poore people have been brought by these painted and carved books How many hearts lament their folly and how many tongues to the praise of Gods mercy in visiting them with his light can and do tell what fond conceits they had of the Lord and heavenly matters seduced by the sight of their eyes Therefore since God hath said it and experience found it that they are so dangerous let them be books for Pagans and Heathens Surely for Christians they should not be Which of the Prophets or Apostles went about ever to have Images made either to put themselves in minde of any thing which the Lord had taught them or the people of any thing which they delivered to them from the Lâ—â—d But they used the admonition of their brethren and especially by writing down what they taught they helped this infirmity of ours signifying even by that their practise what means ought now to be to put us in mind of God and heavenly things chiefly his word The Lord himself saith Ye saw no Image but heard a voice only therfore make no Image And again You saw that I spake to you from heaven therfore you shall make no Gods of gold nor silver Deut. 4. As if he should have said my practise in speaking to you by voice not by image should teach you that by my Word and not by Image I am to be remembred And it is a notable place in Esay That when the Word shall take place with his then they shall abhor images Isai 30.21 Now hereupon it followeth that we ought to serve the Lord according to that Rule which himselfe hath laid down and prescribed only You shall not do every man what seemeth good in his own eyes for in vaine do men worship me with traditions of men saith the Lord. Deut. 12. Moses did nothing in building the materiall Tabernacle beside that was comanded and shewed him Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron died for presuming of themselves to serve the Lord with strange fire Levit. 10. The very heathenish Romanes had this reason with them that it was better for them to be quite without Christ than to worship him and others with him against his will and liking And ad placandum Deum in opus habent homines quae ille jubet that is To please the Lord saith Lactantius men have need of those things that he himselfe comandeth And a Christian minde doth not finde a sure stay but when it heareth Hoc dicit Dominus Thus saith the Lord If Saul breake the course that God doth appoint and of himselfe devise to serve the Lord be his necessity to do so as he thinketh never so great and the intent of his heart never so holy-like certainly Samuel both must and will tell him to his face he hath done foolishly for the Lord hath more pleasure in that his will is obeyed than in all the fatlings of the Amalekites offered up unto him of our own wills and heads 1 Sam. 13. and 1 Sam. 15. Intents will not serve neither voluntary religion stand accepted And therefore let us even weigh and follow the counsell of Solomon and look to our feet when we enter into the house of God being more ready to heare then to offer the sacrifice of fooles Eccles 4. Read Babington upon the second Comandement Thus we see that Popish Religion is grounded upon unwritten Traditions But no man is to follow or admit a Religion whose grounds are either contrary to Scriptures or to themselves or are new and uncertain or else depend on the credit of man as most of their Traditions do Whosoever therefore either regardeth the Laws of God or abhorreth falshood and heresie cannot choose but abhor all the abominations of the Massing Religion and never suffer any such thing within the Realm of England if he can hinder it Those Kings of Israel that together with the Law of God retained Groves and hill Altars and other Reliques of superstition never prospered The mingled Religion of the Samaritans to the ancient Jews was most odious Emanuel Commenus that linked himself with the Turke and cancelled the curses publiquely set out against Turkish Religion became afterward in all his action most unhappy and after his death most infamous If we may have no good Conditions in Spaine and Italy the Papists may do well to forbear to speak of England where Christians are better resolved of their Religion than Papists can be of their new Superstitions especially considering the diversity of our grounds And albeit France doth threaten their Protestants with like measure as is meted unto Papists here in England yet we believe and know that the same God which delivered our Nation from the bondage slavery and the Egyptian darknesse of Popery The Lord which doth continue his mercy unto us and the liberty and light of the Gospell unto this day amongst us is both able to preserve those that are godly and he will deliver his people out of the jaws of the Lion when and wheresoever they do call upon him in truth Me thinks that fatall end of Sennacherib King of Assyria who sent such a reviling Message by Rabshakch unto Hezekiah King of Judah should be a warning unto all proud spirits and vaine boasters of their Arme of flesh 1 King 18. and 19. Chapters Thus having finished this Treatise which I composed in fourteen dayes I 〈◊〉 on the whole discourse for I have laid a side two or three sheets of the Originall Copie not having leisure nor occasion for the present to transcribe them I shall humbly pray thee charitable Reader to interpret favourebly this birth of mine according to the integrity of the Author and not looking for perfection in the Worke it selfe And I hope by this modest and humble profession of my piety and good intentions to the Republique aut laudatus ero aut excusatus I shall either be approved or excused and by thy candide and impartiall judgment of me and thy pious censure of these my labours I shall be held either worthy of praise or not blame worthy or at least if I shall be no gainer let me be no loser by thee For in truth I deeme it far more unseemly and indigne to lose praise than praise-worthy to attaine it This being admitted I may confidently averte under correction and say with Tacitus Verba mea arguuntâ—r adec factorum innocens sum Tacit. l. 4. Annal. I shall onely now in the last place cleere an Objection and so conclude It may be objected thus What have young heads novices in Religion Learning and Knowledge to doe to meddle in the weighty affairs of the