Episcopacy for Monarchies sake than Monarchy for Episcopacies What end had the Nuncio's Faction in Ireland against Episcopacy whose mutinous courses apparently lost that Kingdome When the Kings consent to the Abolition of Episcopacy in Scotland was extorted from him by the Presbyterian faction which probably the prime Authors do rue sufficiently by this time were those Presbyterian Scots any thing more favourable to Monarchy To come to England the chief Scene of this bloody Tragedy If that party in Parliament had at first proposed any such thing as the Abâ—…ition either of Monarchy or Episcopacy undoubtedly they had ruined their whole design untill daily tumults and uncontrollable uproars had chased away the greater and sounder part of both Houses Their first Protestation was solemnly made to God both for King and Church as they were by Law established Would you know then what it was that Conjur'd up the storm among us It was some feigned jealousies and fears which the first broachers themselves knew well enough to be fables dispersed cunningly among the People That the King purposed to subvert the Fundamental Lawes of the Kingdome and to reduce the free English Subject to a condition of absolute slavery under an Arbitrary Government For which massy weight of malitious untruth they had no supporters but a few Bull-rushes Secondly that he meant to apostate from the Protestant Religion to Popery and to that end had raised the Irish Rebellion by secret encouragements and Commissions For which monstrous calumny they had no other foundation except the solemn Religious Order of Divine Service in his own Chapel and Cathedral Churches than some unseasonable disputes about an Altar or a Table and the permission of the Popes Agent to make a short stay in England more for reason of State than of Râ—…ligion And some sensless fictions of some Irish Rebels who having a Patent under the Great Seal of Ireland for their Lands to colour their barbarous murthers shewed it to the poor simple people as a Commission from the King to leavy Forces And lastly some impious pious frauds of some of your own party whose private whispers and printed insinuations did give hopes that the Church of England was coming about to shake hands with the Roman in the points controverted Which was meerly devised to gull some silly Creatures whom they found apt to be catched with chaff for which they had no more pretext of truth than you have for your groundless intimations in this unwelcome dedication These suspitions being compounded with Covetousness Ambition Envy Emulation desire of Revenge and discontent were the sourse of all our Calamities Thus much you your self confess in â—…ffect that this supposition that the King and Bishops had an intention to re-establish the Roman Catholique Religion was the venome which the Puritan Faction insused into the hearts of the people to fill them with hatred against a King worthy of love And the Parliament judged it a favourable occasion for their design to advance themselves to Sovereign Authority Be Judge your self how much they are accessary to our sufferings who either were or are the Authors or fomenters of these damnable slanders There was yet one cause more of this cruel persecution which I cannot conceal from you because it concerns some of your old acquaintance There was a Bishop in the world losers must have leave to talk whose privy Purse and subtil Counsels did help to kindle that unnatural war in his Majesties three Kingdomes Our Cardinal Wolsey complained before his death That he had served his King better than his God But certainly this practise in your friend was neither Good service to his God to be the author of the effusion of so much innocent blood nor yet to his King to let the world see such a dangerous president It is high time for a man to look to himself when his next neighbours house is all on a flame As hitherto I have followed your steps though not altogether in your own method or rather your own confusion So I shall observe the same course for the future Your discourse is so full of Meanders and windings turnings and returnings you congregate Heâ—…erogeneous matter and segregate that which is Homogeneous as if you had made your Dedication by starts and snatches and never digested your who'â—… discourse On the contrary where I meet with any thing it shall be my desire to dispach it out of my hands with whatsoever pertains unto it once for all I hope you expect not that I shou'd amuse my self at your Rhetoâ—…cal flowers and elegant expressions they agree well enough with the work you were about The Pipe plays sweetly whilst the Fowler is catching his prey Trappings are not to be condemned if the things themselves are good and useful but I prefer one Pomegranat-Tree loaden with good fruit before a whole row of Cypresses that serve onely for shew Be sure of this that where any thing in your Epistle reflects upon the Church of England I shall not miss it first or last though it be but a loose unjoynted peâ—…ce and so perhaps hitherto untouched Amongst other things which you lay to our charge you glance at the least twelve times at our supposed Schism But from first to last never attempt to prove it as if you took it for granted I have shaped a Coat for a Schismatick and had presented it to you in this Answer but considering that the matter is of moment and merits as much to be seriously and solidly weighed as your naked Crimination without all pretext of proof deserves to be sleighted lest it might seem here as an impertinent digression to take up too much place in this short Discourse I have added it at the Conclusion of this Answer in a short Tract by it self that you may peruse it if you please You fall heavily in this Discourse upon the Presbyterians Brownists and Independents if they intend to return you any answer they may send it by a messenger of their own As for my part I am not their Proctor I have received no Fee from them And if I should undertake to plead their Cause upon my own head by our old English Law you might call me to an accompt for unlawful maintenance Onely give me leave as a by-stander to wonder why you are so cholerique against them for certainly they have done you more service in England than ever you could have done for your selves And I wonder no less why you call our Reformation a Calvinistical Reformation brought into England by Bucer and Peter Martyr a blind Reformation yea the intire ruin of the Faith of the very form of the Church and of the civil Government of the Common-wealth instituted by God Though you confess again in our favour that if our first Reformers had been interrogated whether they meant any such thing they would have purged themselves and avouched their Innocence with their hands upon the new Gospel The
world know to have been none of yours VVhat Faith he professed living he confirmed dying In the Communion of the Church of England he lived and in that Communion at his death he commended his soul into the hands of God his Saviour That which you have confessed here concerning King Charls will spoil your former demonstration that the Protestants have neither Church nor Faith But you confess no more in particular here than I have heard some of your famous Roman Doctors in this City acknowledge to be true in general And no more than that which the Bishop of Chalcedon a man that cannot be suspected of partiality on our side hath affirmed and published in two of his Books to the world in Print That Protestantibus credentibus c. persons living in the Communion of the Protestant Church if they endeavour to lâ—…arn the truth and are not able to attain unto it but hold it implicitely in the preparation of their minds and are ready to receive it when God shall be pleased to reveal it which all good Protestants and all good Christians are they neither want Church nor Faith nor Salvation Mark these words well They have neither Church nor Faith say you If they be thus qualified as they all are they want neither Church nor Faith nor Salvation saith he Lastly Sir to let us see that your intelligence is as good in Heaven as it is upon Earth and that you know both who are there and what they do you tell us That the Crown and Conquest which his late Majestie gained by his sufferings was proâ—…ured by the intercession of his Grandmother Queen Mary We should be the apter to believe this if you were able to make it appear that all the Saints in Heaven do know all the particular necessities of all their posterity upon Earth St. Austin makes the matter much more doubtfull than you that 's the least of his Assertion or rather to be plainly false faâ—…endum est nescire quidem â—…ortuos quid hic agatur But with presumptions you did begin your Dedication and with presumptions you end it In the mean time till you can make that appear we observe that neither Queen Maries constancy in the Roman Catholick Faith nor Henry the Fourths change to the Roman Catholick Faith could save them from a bloody end Then by what warrant do you impute King Charles his sufferings to his errour in Religion Be your own Judge Heu quanta de spe decidimus Alas from what hopes are we fall'n Pardon our errour that we have mistaken you so long You have heretofore pretended your self to be a moderate person and one that seriously endeavoured the reuniting of Christendome by a fair Accommodation The widest wounds are closed up in time and strange Plants by Inoculation are incorporated together and made one And is there no way to close up the wounds of the Church and to unite the disagreeing members of the same mystical body Why were Caleb and Joshua onely admitted into the Land of promise whilst the carkasses of the rest perished in the VVilderness but onely because they had been Peace-makers in a time of Schism VVell fare our learned and ingenuous Country-man St. Clara who is altogether as perspicacious as your self but much more charitable You tell us to our grief that there is no accommodation to be expected that Cardinal Richelieu was too good a Christian and too good a Catholique to have any such thought that the one Religion is true the other false and that there is no society between light and darkness This is plain dealing to tell us what we must trust to No Peace is to be expected from you unless we will come unto you upon our knees with the words of the Prodigal Child in our mouths Father forgive us we have sinned against Heaven and against thee Is not this rare Courtesie If we will submit to your will in all things you will have no longer difference with us So we might come to shake a worse Church by the hand than that which we were separated from If you could be contented to wave your last four hundred years determinations or if you liked them for your selves yet not to obtrude them upon other Churches If you could rest satisfied with your old Patriarchal power and your Principium unit at is or Primacy of Order much good might be expected from free Councils and Conferences from moderate persons And we might yet live in Hope to see an Union if not in all Opinions yet in Charity and all necessary points of saving truth between all Christians to see the Eastern and Western Churâ—…hes joyn hand in hand and sing Ecce quà m bonum quam jucundum est habitare fratres in unum Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity But whilst you impose upon us daily new Articles of Faith and urge rigidly what you have unadvisedly determined we dare not sacrifice Truth to Peace nor be separated from the Gospel to be joyned to the Roman Church Yet in the point of our separation and in all things which concern either doctrine or discipline we profess all due obedience and submission to the judgement and definitions of the truly Catholique Church Lamenting with all our hearts the present condition of Christendome which renders an Oecumenical Council if not impossible mens judgements may be had where their persons cannot yet very difficult wishing one as general as might be and untill God send such an Opportunity endeavouring to conform our selves in all things both in Credendis Agendis to whatsoever is uniform in the belief or practice in the doctrine or discipline of the Universal Church And lastly holding an Actual Communion with all the divided parts of the Christian world in most things in voto according to our desires in all things FINIS Plut. Sir Henry wotton No differences in the Church directly about the Sacrament for the first 800 years 1 Cor. 11. Theod. ex Ignatio Leo. Ser. 4. de Quad. Epiph. hâ—…r 30. 46. Aug. l. de Hâ—…re c. 64. â—…el l. 1. de Sac. Euch. 〈◊〉 1. Bel. ibid. Syn. Nic. 2 Act 6. Disp. 179. c. 1 Yet different Observations And different expressions The first difference about the presence of Christ in the Sacrament Exact Syn. Rom. sub Nich. 2. Dâ—… Cons. dist 2 cap. Egâ—…â—…er Alex. Gab. Bonâ—…v c. Scot. in 4. sent dist 11. q. 3. T. 3. q. 75. d. 81. c. 1. The determination of the manner of the presence opened a flood-gate to a Deluge of Controversies Lib. de câ—…r Theol. Schol. Gloss. de Con. d. 2. cap. Timâ—…rem Guidmâ—…nd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de ver Vasq. disâ—… 184. 6. 8. Uasq T. 3. q. 75. d. 181 c. 4. Bel. l. 3. de Euc. c. 3. in fine In 4 d. 44 q. 7. art 〈◊〉 q. 3. I. ib. 4. de Euch. c. 25 Chap. 27. Conc. Uien Bâ—…ll 4. de
Euch. c. 29. quodam modo â—…q p. 3. 1. 76. Aâ—…t 7. Deut. 29. 29. Durand Against multiplying of questions and Controversies The occasion of this Discourse P. 37. The Authors indiscretion To no pur pose The King is already a better Catholick than himself Discursus modestus Jesuitarâ—… p. 13. Watsons quodlib l. 2. Art 4. Par. 2. Act. 6. c. 7. Not lawful to add to the old Creed Concil Flo. Sess. 10. prof fil in bulla pii quarti What are additions to the Creed and what are onely explications Aq. 2. 2. q. 1. Art 10. Gal. 1. 〈◊〉 P. 4. Crosses arâ—… not alwaieâ—… punishments buâ—… sometimes corrections or trials Which the Author presently forgets P. 〈◊〉 P. 14. Joh. 9. 2. Better grounds of his Majesties sufferings than those of the Author Ps. 128. 3. The Authors rash censure upon the Archbishop of Cant. Sovereigns may be taken away for the sinâ—… of their Subjects Pro. 28. 2. Not above two or three of our Princes called Heads of the Church That is onely political heads 1 Sam. 15. 17. Art 37. Expos. Paraphâ—… art Conf. Ang. Aâ—…t 37. The Chrâ—…stian Emperours political heads The old Kings of England political heads See Auâ—…horities for all these in Cawdries Case in Judge Cook his Reports Neâ—…ther K. Charles K. James nor Q. Elizabeth stiled heads of the Church The Authâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pope to leave that vain Title Hatred of Episcâ—…pacy not â—…he true â—…ause â—…hy â—…he 〈◊〉 persecuâ—…d thâ—… King The true causes of the troubles in England P. 11. We are onely accused of Schism Presbyterians and Brownists have been Romes bst friends P. 16. P. 19. P. 14. P. 17. L. Cant. 1643. C. I. The English Reformation not Calvinisticâ—… P. 9. P. 10. M. Thâ—… Sq. P. 19. Reformaâ—…n is someâ—…imes necessary Reformation not agreeable to all persons especially the Court of Rome There is danger in Reformation The right rule of Reformation Our Reformation not the ruin of Faith Church or Common-wealth Our 〈◊〉 supposed Maxim The Catholick Church cannot come to ruin or bâ—… guilty oâ—… Idolatry or Tyranny Chrys. â—…holick â—…nd Roman not Convertibles Rev. 2. 5. The Roman Church it self not absolutely faln to ruin Whether the Roman Church be guilty of Idolatry The Roman Court most Tyrannical Our second supâ—…osed Maxim P. 21. P. 26. Much mistaken The Scripture 〈◊〉 rule of supernatural truths L. 4. de verbo Dei cap. 11. Who are the proper expounders of Scripture and how far 1 Thes. 5. 21. The manner of expounding Scripture This is conformable to the doctrine and practice of our Church Can. 1603. Can. 49. Seâ—… the Pâ—…eface to the Bishops Bible Can. 34. Can. 1571. tit Concionatores Can. 1631. Can. 53. Art 20. Can. 1603. Can. 139. The English Church an enemy to upstart not to Apostolical traditions P. 24. Of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Heb. 10. 14 In the Collects for these Feasts Of Transubstantiation Of 7. Sacraments Anno 1439 1528 1547. Jam. 5. 14. Of Justification Rom. 8. 33. Of Merits 1 Tim. 4. 8 Disert Eecles lib. 2. c. 4. Of Invocation of Saints S. Clara â—…robl 37. â—…x Horantio Rev. 22. 9. Of Prayer for the Dead with Purgatory Tarâ—… The Authority of the Pope P. 27. Whether humane Laws bind the Conscience P. 34. 69. The Author a little Enthusiastical The Romanists râ—…quire submission to their Church as necessary to salvation Yet cannot agree anâ—…ong themselves what this Roman Church is The English Chuâ—…ch not perished Gen. 42. 13. P. 42. The Authors vain Dreams P. 43. 44. P. 47. c. His vainer Proposition of a consâ—…quence The King of England desires no such Conference If he should he had neither Reason nor need to desert his English Clergy Such a Conference not â—…t to be granted by â—…he King of France Nor to be accepted by the Min sters of the Reformed Church Nor could any such Success be expected from it The ' Authors importinence and saucinese with the King His Pen over runâ—… his Wit His improper choise of a Pation for his Treatise Serm. Sâ—…xon in 〈◊〉 Paschat P. 62. P. 222. His unâ—…kilfulnes or his unfortunateâ—…ess in his Demonstrations The great advantage of the Protestant above the Roman Catholick in the choice of his foundation P. 68. His Majesties Apostacy is not the way to his restitution 1 〈◊〉 1. 7. P. 70. The obligation of the Scots to his Majâ—…sty the greatest of any Subjects in the known world Their Treachery The loyal Scots excepted The disloyal Scoâ—…s deciphered No hope from that party until they â—…epent P. 73. God must not be limited to time or means of deliverance P. 74. 75. His Majesties escape ouâ—… of England almost miraculous And seems to presage that God hath something to do with him P. 76. Prayers and tears the 〈◊〉 Aâ—…ms of women Especially of Mothers Yet not so powerful as his Fathers intercession now in Heaven P. 77. The Authors instance of Henry the great not pertinent Pluâ—…rch P. 77. 78. The just commendation of K. Charls It is gross impâ—…dence to feign that he dyed a Roman Catholick The Authors confession confutes his demonstration that Protestants have no faith His intelligence as good in Heaven 〈◊〉 upon Earth Aug. de â—…ra pro mortâ—…s c. 15. No faith sufficient armour against bloody attempts The Author much fall'n from his former charity in seeking the reunion of Christendome P. 204. The way to a generâ—…l Accommodation
grace the Kingdome of Jesus Christ. To these prayers which all the Angels and Saints which are in the Church in Heaven and in Earth make to God for your Majestie I joyn Sir my vows and supplications with this testimony of my devotion to your most humble service in a Subject which I have esteemed the most important and most worthy to gain me the honour of the good favour of your Majestie and that to stile my self SIR Of your Majestie the most humble most faithfull and most obedient Servant La Militiere AN ANSWER TO Monsieur de la Militiere his Impertinent Dedication of his Imaginary Triumph To the KING of Great Britain to invite him to embrace the Roman Catholick Religion By John Bramhall D. D. and Lord Bishop of Derry HAGUE Printed in the Year 1653. An Answer to Monseiur de la Militiere his Fpistle to the King of Great-Brittain wherein he inviteth His Majesty to forsake the Church of England and to embrace the Roman Chatholick Religion SIR YOU might long have disputed your Question of Transubstantiation with your learned Adversary and proclamed your own Triumph on a silver Trumpet to the World before any Member of the Church of England had interposed in this present exigence of our Affairs I know no necessity that Christians must be like Cocks that when one Crows all the rest must crow for company Monseiur Aubertine will not want a surviving friend to teach you what it is to teach you what it is to sound a Triumph before you have gain'd the Victory He was no fool that desired no other Epitaph on his Tomb than this Here lies the Author of this sentence Prurigo disput andi scabies Ecclesiae the itch of disputing is the scab of the Church Having viewed all your strength with a single eye I find not one of your Arguments that comes home to Transubstantiation but only to a true Real Presence which no genuine Son of the Church of England did ever deny no nor your Adversary himself Christ sayd This is my Body what he sayd we do stedfastly believe he said not after this or that manner neque con neque suh neque trans And therefore we place it among the Opinions of the Schools not among the Articles of our Faith The holy Eucharist which is the Sacrament of Peace and Unity ought not to be made the matter of strife and Contention There wanted not abuses in the Administration of this Sacrament in the most pure and primitive times as Prophaness and Uncharitableness among the Corinthians The Simonians and Menandrians and some other such Imps of Sathan unworthy the name of Christians did wholly forbear the use of the Eucharist but it was not for any difference about the sacrament it self but about the Naturall Body of Christ They held that his Flesh and Blood and Passion were not true and real but imaginary and phant astical things The Maniches did forbear the Cup but it was not for any difference about the sacrament it self They made two Gods a good God whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Light and an evill God whom they tearmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Darknes which evill God they sayd did make someCreatures of the Dreg or more feculent parts of the Matter which were evil and impure and among these Evil Creatuâ—…es they esteemed VVine which they called the Gaul of the Dragon For this cause not upon any other scruple they wholly abstained from the Cup or used water in the place of wine which Epiphanius recordeth among the Errors of the Ebionites and Tacians And St Augustine of the Aquarians Still we do not find any clashing either in word or writing directly about this sacrament in the universall Church of Christ much less about the presence of Christ in the sacrament Neque ullus veterum disputat contra hunc errorem primis sexcentis Annis The first that are supposed by Bellarmine to have broached any Error in the Church about the Real presence were the Ichonomachi after 700 years Primi qui veritatem corporis Domini in Eucharistia in quaestionem vocarunt fuerint Ichonomachi post Annum Domini 700. only because they called the Bread and Wine the Image of Christs body This is as great a mistake as the former Their difference was meerly about Images not at all about the Eucharist so much Vasques confesseth that In his judgment they art not to be numbred with those who deny the presence of Christ in the Eucharist We may well find different observations in those daies as one Church consecrating leavened Bread another unleavened One Church making use of pure wine another of wine mixed with water One Church admitting Infants to the Communion another not admitting them but without Controversies or Censures or Animosity one against the other we find no Debates or Disputes concerning the presence of Christs Body in the Sacrament and much less concerning the manner of his presence for the first 800 years Yet all the time we find as different expressions among those Primitive Fathers as among our modern writers at this day some calling the Sacrament the sign of Christs Body the figure of his Body the Symbol of his Body the mystery of his Body the exemplar type and representation of his Body saying that the Elements do not recede from their first Nature Others naming it the true Body and Blood of Christ changed not in shape but in nature yea doubting not to say that in this Sacrament we see Christ we touch Christ we eat Christ that we fasten our teeth in his very Flesh and make our Tongues red in his Blood Yet notwithstanding there were no Questions no Quarrells no Contentions amongst them there needed no Councils to order them no Conferences to reconcile them because they contented themselves to believe what Christ had said this is my Body without presuming on their own heads to determine the manner how it is his Body neither weighing all their own words so exactly before any controversie was raised nor expounding the sayings of other men contrary to the Analogy of Faith The first doubt about the presence of Christs Body in the Sacrament seems to have been mooved not long before the year 900. in the dayes of Bertram and Paschasius but the Controversie was not well formed nor this new Article of Transubstantiation sufficiently concocted in the dayes of Berengarius after the year 1050. as appeareth by the grosse mistaking and mistating of the Question on both sides First Berengarius if we may trust his Adversaries knew no mean between a naked Figure or empty sign of Christs presence and a Corporeal or Local presence and afterwards fell into another extreme of impanation on the other side the Pope and the Councill made no differrence between Consubstantiation and Transubstantiation they understood nothing of the spiritual or indivisible being of the Flesh and Blood of Christ in the
of this nature I will not now dispute Thirdly some things are neither of the Faith nor against the Faith but onely besides the Faith That is opinions or truths of an inferiour nature which are not so necessary to be actually known for though all revealed truths be alike necessary to be believed when they are known yet all revealed truths are not alike necessary to be known It is not denied but that General or Provincial Councils may make constitutions concerning these for unity and uniformity and oblige all such as are subject to their jurisdiction to receive them either actively or passively without câ—…ntumacy or opposition But to make these or any of these a part of the Creed and to oblige all Christians under pain of damnation to know and believe them is really to adde to the Creed and to change the Symbolical Apostolical Faith to which none can adde from which none can take away and comes within the compass of St. Paul's Curse If we or an Angel from Heaven shall Preach unto you aâ—…y other Gospel or Faith than that which we have Preached let him be accursed Such are your Universality of the Roman Church by the institution of Christ to make her the Mother of her Grandmother the Church of Jerusalem and the Mistress of her many elder Sisters Your Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences and the Worship of Images and all other novelties defined in the Council of Trent all which are comprehended in your New Roman Creed and obtruded by you upon all the world to be believed under pain of damnation He that can extract all these out of the old Apostolick Creed must needs be an excellent Chymist and may safely undertake to draw water out of a Pumice That afflictions come not by chance that prosperity is no evidence of Gods favour or adversity of his hatred that crosses imposed by God upon his servants look more forwards towards their amendment than backwards to their demerits and proceed not from a Judge revenging but from a Father correcting or which you have omitted from a Lord Paramount proving and magnifying before the world his own graces in his Servants for his Glory and their Advantage are undeniable Truths which we readily admit As likewise that the dim eye of man cannot penetrate into the secret dispensations of Gods temporal judgements and mercies in this life so as to say this man is punished that other chastised this third is onely proved But you forget all this soon after when you take upon you to search into yea more to determine the grounds and reasons why the hand of God as well as the Parliament hath been so heavy upon the Head of his late Majestie and his Royal Son Namely on Gods part because he called himself the Head of the Church God purposing by his punishment to teach all other Princes that are in the Schism with what severity he can vindicate his glory in the injury done unto the Unity and Authority of his Church And on the Parliaments part because he would not consent to the Abolition of Episcopacy and suppression of the Liturgie and Ceremonies established in the Church of England First what warrant have you to enquire into the Actions of that bâ—…essed Saint and Martyr which of them should be the causes of his sufferings Not remembring that the Disciples received a check from their Master upon the like presumption Who sinned this man or his Parents that he was born blind Jesus answered neither hath this man sinned nor his Parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in him The Heroical Virtues the flaming Charity the admirable Patience the rare Humility the exemplary Chastity the constant and frequent Devotions and the invincible Courage of that happy Prince not daunted with the ugly face of a most horrid death have rendred him the Glory of his Country the Honour of that Church whereof he was the chiefest Member the admiration of Christendome and a Pattern for all Princes of what Communion soever to imitate unto the end of the world His Sufferings were Palms his Priâ—…on a Paradise and his Death-day the Birth-day of his happiness whom his Enemies advantaged more by their Cruelty than they could have done by their Courtesie They deprived him of a corruptible Crown and invested him with a Crown of glory They snatched him from the sweet society of his dearest Spouse and from most hopeful Olive branches to place him in the bosome of the holy Angels This alone is ground enough for his sufferings to manifest unto the world those transcendent and unparallel'd graces where with God had enriched him to which his sufferings gave the greatest lustre as the Stars shine brightest in a dark night The like liberty you assume towards the other most glorious Martyr the late Archbishop of Canterbury a man of profound learning and exemplary life of clean hands of a most sincere heart a Patron of all good Learning a Professor of Antient Truth a great friend indeed and earnest pursuer of Order Unity and Uniformity in Religion but most free from all sinister ends either avaritious or ambitious wherewith you do uncharitably charge him as if he sought onely his own Graudeur to make himself the head of a Schismatical body In brief you therefore censure him because you did not know him I wish all your great Ecclesiastiques had his Innocency and fervent zeal for Gods Church and the peace thereof to plead for them at the day of Judgement By applying these particular Afflictions according to your own ungrounded Fancy what a wide gap have you opened to the liberty and boldness of other men who if they should assume to themselves the same freedome that you have done might say as much with as much reason concerning the pressures of other great Princes abroad that God afflicts them because they will not become Protestants as you can say that God afflicted our late King because he wou'd not turn Papist But if you will not allow his Majesties sufferings to be meerly probatory And if for your satisfaction there must be a weight of sin found out to movâ—… the wheel of Gods Justice why do yoâ—… not rather fix upon the body of hiâ—… Subjects or at least a disloyal part of them We confess that the best of us did not deserve such a Jewel that God might justly snatch him from us in his wrath for our ingratitude Reason Religion and Experience do all teach us that it is usual with Aâ—…mighty God to look upon a body politick or Ecclesiastick as one man and to deprive a perverse people of a good and gratious Governour as an expert Physician by opening a vein in one member cures the distempers of another For the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes â—…hereof It may be that two or three of our Princes at the most the greater part whereof were Roman Cathoâ—…iques did 〈◊〉 themseâ—…ves or
gifts of Enemies are no gifts If such as these are all your courtesies you may be pleased to take them again Our first Reformers might safely swear upon any Gospel old or new that they meant no such thing And we may as securely swear upon all the books of God old or new that there is no such thing But why our Gospel should be younger or newer than Sixtus Quintus his Gospel or Clemens Octavus his Gospel passeth my understanding and yours also Comparisons are odious therefore I will not say that the true English Protestant standing to his own grounds is the best subject in the world But I do say that he is as good a subject as any in the wortd and our principles as Innocent and as auxiliary to civil Government as the maxims of any Church under Heaven And more than yours where the clashing of two Supreme Authorities and the exemption of your numerous Clergy from the Coercive power of the Prince and some other novelties which I forbear to mention do alway threaten a storm Tell me Sir if you can what Church in Europe hath declared more fully or more favourably for Monarchy than the poor Church of England That the most high and sacred Order of Kings is of Divine Right being the Ordinance of God himself founded in the prime Laws of Nature and clearly established by express Texts both of the old and new Testament Moreover that this power is extended over all their Subjects Ecclesiastical and Civil That to sâ—…t up any Independent coactive power above them either Papal or popular either directly or indirectly is to undermine their great royal Office and cunningly to overthrow that most Sacred Ordinance which god himself hath established That for their subjects to bear Arms against them Offensive or defensive upon any pretence whatsoever is to resist the powers which are ordained of God And why do you call our Reformation Calvinistical contrary to your own Conscience contrary to your own confession That in our Reformation we reteined the antient Order of Episcopacy as Instituted by divinâ—… authority and a Liturgy and Ceremonies whereby we preserved the face or Image of the Catholick Church And that for this very causâ—… the disciplinarians of Geneva and the Presbyterians did conceive an implacable hatred against the King for the Churches sake and out of their aversion to it Did they hate their own Reformation so implacably If these things be to be reconciled reddat mihi minam Diogenes He that looks more in disputation to the Advantage of his party than to the Truth of his grounds had need of a strong memory We reteined not onely Episcopacy Liturgy and Ceremonies but all things else that were conformable to the Discipline and publick service of the Primitive Church rightly understood No Sir we cannot pin our faith upon the sleeve of any particular man as one used to say We love no nismes neither Calvinism nor Lutheranism nor Jonsenianism but onely one that we derive from Antioch that is Christianism We honour Learning and Piety in our fellow servants but we desire to wear no other badge or Cognizance than that we received from our own Master at our Baptism Bucer was as fit to be Calvins Master as his Scholar So long as Calvin continued with him in Germany he was for Episcopacy Liturgy and Ceremonies and for assurance thereof subscribed the Augustane Confession and his late learned Successor and assertor in Geneva Monsieur Deodate with sundry others of that Communion were not averse from them Or why do you call Reformation blind It was not blindness but too much affectation of knowledge and too much peeping into controverted and new fangled Questions that hath endamaged our Religion It is you that teach the Colliers Creed not we Howsoever you pretend to prove that our Reformation was the ruin of the Church and Common-wealth wee expect you should endeavour to prove it You cannot so far mistake your self as to conceive your authority to be the same with us that Pythagoras had among his Scholars to have his Dictates received for Oracles without proof what did I say that you pretend to prove it That 's too low an expression you promiâ—…e us a demonstration of it so lively and evident that no reason shall be able to contradict it Are you not afraid that too much expectation should prejudice your discourse by diminishing our applause Quid tanto dignum feret hiâ—… proneissor hiaâ—…u Do you think of nothing now but Triumphs Lively and evident demonstration not to be contradicted by reason is like the Phenix much talked of but seldom seen Most men when they see a man strip up his sleeves and make too large promises of fair dealing do suspect jugling No man proclameth in the Market that he hath rotten wares to sell And therefore we must be careful notwithstanding your great promises to keep well Epicharmus his Jewel Remember to distrust By your permission your glistering demonstration is a very counterfeit not so valuable as a Bristol Diamond when it comes to be examined by the wheel Sometimes nothing is more necessary than Reformation Never was house so well builded that now and then needed not reparation Never Garden so well planted but must sometimes be weeded Never any order so well instituted but in long tract of time there will be a bending and declining from its Primitive perfection and a necessiâ—…y of reducing it to its first principles Are your Houses of Religion which are Reformed therefore the less Religious Why then did all the Princes and Common-wealths in Europe Yea the Fathers themselves in the Council of Trent cry out so often so earnestly for a Reformation yet were forced to content themselves with a vain shadow for the substance as Ixion embraced a Cloud for Juno or Children are often stilled with an empty bottle But Reformation is not agreable to all persons Judas loved not an Audit because he kept the Bag. Dull Lethargick people had rather sleep to death than to be awaked and mad phrenetick Bigots are apt to beat the Chirurgion that would bind up their wounds but none are so a verse from Reformation as the Court of Rome where the very name is more formidable than Hannibal at the Gates yea than all the five terrible things No mervail they are afraid to have their Oranges squeesed to their hands if they were infallible as they pretend there was no need of a Reformation we wish they were but we see they are not On the other side it cannot be denyed that Reformation when it is unseasonable or inordinate or excessive may do more hurt than good when Reformers want just Authority or due information or have sinister ends or where the remedy may be of worse consequence than the abuse or where men run out of one extreme into another therefore it is a rule in prudence Not to remove an ill custom when it is well setled unless it
the unity of the Church You collect as a Corollary from our supposed principal of the right and sufficiency of private judgement enlightned by the Spirit that no humane Authority can bind the Conscience of another or prescribe any thing unto it I have formerly shewed you your gross mistake in the premises Now if you please hear our sense of the Conclusion Humane Lawes cannot be properly said to bind the Conscience by the sole authority of the Law-giver But partly by the equity of the Law every one being obliged to advance that which conduceth to a publick good thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self And especially by Divine Authority which commands every soul to be subject to the higher powers for conscience sake not prudentially onely The question is soon decided just Lawes of lawfuâ—…l Superiours either Civil or Ecclesiastical have authority to bind the Conscience in themselves but not from themselves How shall we believe that it is not you but God that represents these things to his Majestie that addresseth them to him by your mouth that calleth him that stretcheth out his hand to him that hath set these things before his eyes in Characters not to be defaced What That his Majestie should turn Roman Catholick Are they like Belshazars Characters and are you the onely Daniel that can read them we do not see a Cloven Tongue upon your head nor a Dove seemâ—…ng to whisper in yâ—…ur ear Be not too consident lest some take it to be a little taint of Anabaptism perhaps you have had as strange phantasies as this heretofore whilst you were of a contrary party Be it what it will be you cannot offer it to his â—…ajestie with more confidence or preâ—…end more intimacy with God or to be more familiarly acquainted with his Cabinet Counsail than a Scotch Presbyter And yet your self would not value all his confidence at a Button Wise men are not easily gained by empty shews oâ—… pretences that signifie nothing but the pretenders vanity nor by Enthusiastical interpretation of occurrences It is onely the weight of reason that depresseth the scale of their judgement and maketh them to yield and submit unto it Howsoever it be God or you thaâ—… represent these things to his Majestie you tell us that the end is to reduce him from those errours which he sucked in with his milk which in thâ—… dayes of Peace and abundance it had been disficult for him to discover But now his Eyes and his eares do see and hear those Truths which makâ—… it evident to him that God hath condemned them to reduce him to the Communion of the Church wherein you promise him all manner of blessings Who told you of his Majesties new illumination or what have you seen to believe any such thing when you daâ—…e avoâ—…ch such gross untruths of himself to himself how should he credit your private presumptions which you tell him as a new Mercury dropped down from Heaven You tell us that it is necessary for every one to adhere to the true Church which is the keeper of saving truth That is true but nothing to his Majesty who hath more right already in the Catholick Church than your self You tell us moreover that this Church is the Roman Church That is not trâ—…e but suppose it were most true as it is most false what should a man be beter or more neerer to the knowledge of the Truth and consequently to his salâ—…ation for his submission to the Roman Church As long as you cannot agree among your selves either what this Roman Church is or whâ—…t this infallible Judge is One saith it is the Pope alone Another saith no but the Pope with his Conclave of Cardinals A third will go no less than the Pope and a Provincial Council A fourth will not be contented without the Pope and a General Council A Fifth is for a general Council alone â—…ither with or without the Pope A Sixth party and they are of no small esteeme amongst you here at this present is for the Essential Church that is the Company of all faithfull people Whose reception say they makes the true ratificationof the Acts of its representative Body It were as good to have no infallible Judge as not to know or agree who it is Be not so censorious in condemning others for not submitting to your Roman Church or infallible Judge nor so positive to make this submission so absolutely necessary to salvation untill you agree better what this Judge or Church is It is five to one against you that you your self miss the right Judge Whatsoever becom of your Church you say Ours is perished by the proper Axioms of our own Reformation and hath no more any 〈◊〉 in the world nor pretence to the Privilege of a Church This is hard He perisheth twice that peri sheth by his own weapons Even so Iosephs brethren told Joseph himself with Consciences guiâ—…ty enough one is not This is that which the Court of Rome would be content to purchase at any rate This hath been the end of all their Negotiations and Instructions by all means to support the Presbyterian Faction in England against Episcopacy Not that they loved them more than us but that they feared us more than them There was an Israelitish Church when Elias did not see it but he must be as blind as Bartimaeus that cannoâ—… see the Eâ—…glish Church Wheresoever there is a lawfull English Pastor and an English Flock and a subordination of this â—…lock to that Pastor there is a Branch of the true English Protestant Church Do you make no difference between a Church persecuted and a Church extinguished Have patience and expect the Catastrophe It may be all this while the Carpenters Son is making a Coffin for Juliâ—…n If it please God we may yet see the Church oâ—… England which is now frying in the fire come out like Gold out of the Furnace more pure and more full of lâ—…ster If not his Will be done Just art thou O Lord and Righteous are all thy judgements The Primitive Church was as glorious in the sight of God when they served him in Holes and Corners in Cryptis Sacellis Conventiculis Ecclesiolis as when his worship was more splendidly performed in Basilicis and Cyriacis in goodly Churches and magnificent Cathedralls Your Design stops not at the King of Great Britain but extends it self to all his subjects yea to all Protestants whatsoever I wonder why you stay there and would not adde all the Eastern Churches and the great Turk himself fince you might have done it with another penfull of Ink and with as much pretence of Reason to secure himself from the joint Forces of Christendom thus united by your means A strong Phaâ—…tasie will discover Armies and Navies in the Clouds men and Horses and Chariots in the fire and hear Articulate Dictates from the Bells This is is not to write wakeing but dreaming Yet you
make it an easy worke to effect which there needs no Disputation but only to behold the Hereticall Genius of our Reformation which is sufficiently condemned by it self if men will onely take the pains to compare the Fundamentall Principles thereof with the Consequences Great Houses and Forts are builded at an easy charge in Paper When you have consulted with your Aâ—…chitects and Enginiers you will find it to be a work of more difficuâ—…ty And your Adversaâ—…ies Resolution may teach you to your cost what it is to promise to your self suâ—…h an easy Conquest before the Fight and let you see that those golden Mountains which you phantasied have no subsistance but in your Brain and send you home to seek that selfConviction there which you sought to fasten upon others When you are able to prove your Universal Monarchy your new Cannon of Faith your new Treasury of the Church your new Roman Purgatory whereof the Pope keeps the Keyes your Image worship your Common-Praiers in 〈◊〉 toung unknown your deteining of the Cup from the Laity in the publike Administration of the Sacrament and the rest os your new Câ—…eed out of the four first General Councils or the Universal Tradition of the Church in those daies either as principles or Fundamental Truths which you affirm or so much as ordinary points of Faith which we deny we will yield our selves to be guilty both of Contradiction and Schism Untill you are able to make these Innovations good it were best for you to be silent and leave your vaporing Desparate undertakings do easily forseit a mans Reputation Now are we come to the most specious piece of your whole Epistle that is the Motion or proposition of a Conference by Authority of the King of France at the instance of the King of great Britain before the Arch-Bishop of Paris and his Coadjutor between some of your Roman Catholike Doctors and the Ministers of the Reformed Church at Paris whom you do deservedly commend â—…or their sufficiency and Zeal You further suppose that the Ministers of the Reformed Church will accept of such a Disputation or by their Tergiversation betray the weakness of their Cause And you conclude confidently beyond â—…upposition that they will be conâ—…uted and convicted and that their conversion or conviction will afford sufficient ground to the King of Great Britain to embrace the Communion of the Roman Catholike Church And that his conversion will reduce all conscientious Protestants to Unity and due obedience I will contract your larger Palm to a Fist. If the King of Great Britain desire a solemn Conference the King of France will enjoyn it If he enjoyn it the Ministers will accept it It they do accept they are sure to be convicted If they be convicted the King of Great Britain will change his Religion If he 〈◊〉 his Religion all conscientious Pâ—…nts will be reduced And all this 〈◊〉 be done not by the old way of Dâ—…ting No take heed of that the burnt Child dreads the fire But by a proper new way of refuting old Protestant Principles by new Independent Practises Why was this Remedy found out no sooner This might have eased the Cardinals in their Consultations about propagating the Faith This might have saved Cardinal Allen all his Machiavillian Instructions to his English Emissaries This may in a short time â—…vrne the Inquisitors out of their employment for want of an Object and not leave such a thing as Hereticall pravity in the World How must men praise your Fortune and applaud your Invention But stay the second thoughts are wiser what is this Chain supposed to be of Adamant should prove a rope of Sand And so it is I have seen a Sorites disgraced and hissed out of the Schools for drawing but one lame leg after it this is foundred of all four from the begining to the end there is nothing in it but future Contingents which are known only to God noâ—… one Grain of necessary Truth First Sir be not angry if a man take away the subject of your whole discourse It is but your officiousness the King desires no such Conâ—…erence Let them desire Conferences who waver in their Faith All these blustering Stormes have radicated him deeper in his Religion And chiefly that which you make the chiefest motive to his Apostating the Martirdom of his Royall Father and an hereditary love to that Church which he hath 〈◊〉 with his Blood Secondly if his Majesty should incline to such a Conference do you think he would desert the English Clergy who have forsaken their Country their Friends their Estates out of their Conscience out of their dâ—…ty to God and their Soveraign who understand the constitution oâ—… the English Church much better than your self or any Forrainers how susficent soever and cast himselâ—… wholy upon Strangers whose Reformation you say is different from that of England in the points of Episcopacy Liturgy and the Ceremonies of the Church Say what was the Reason of this gross Omission were you afraid of that Image of the Church as you call it in a sleighting manner which they retained Oâ—… did you not think any of the English Nation worthy to bear your Books at a Conference It hath been otherwise heretofore and you will find it otherwise now when you come to prove it I know not whether England hath been more fortunate or unfortunate since the Reformation in breeding as many able Pâ—…lemique Writers on both sides as any Nation in Europe Stapleton Harding Parsons Sanders Reynolds Bishop c. for the Roman Church Jewell Andrews Abbot Lawd White Field Montague Reynolds Whitaker c. for the English Church I forbear to name those that are living and many mo e who come not short of these if they had pleased to communicate their Talents to the World This is such a câ—…ntumely that 〈◊〉 upon the Nation and you must be contented to be told of it Thirdly how are you sure that the King of France and his Counsell would give way to such a publike Conference Private Insinuations use to prevail much when a man may Lavere tack to and again to compass his Ends. Auâ—…hority or the Sword may put an end â—…o Controversies But publike Conferences for the most part do but start new Qâ—…estions and revive old forgotten Animosities What were the Donatists the better for the Collation at Carthage The Mind of a man is generous and where it looks for Opposition it fortifies it self against it Urban the Eighth was the wisest Pope you have had of late who by his Moderation and Curtesie cooled much of that Heat which the violence of his Predecessors had raised against the Court of Rome The mild beaâ—…es of the Sun were more prevalent than the blustring Blasts of the North Wind. Multiplying of Words more commonly engenders strite than peace Fourthly upon what Grounds are you so confident that the Ministers of the Reformed Church would admit of such a publike
Disputation upon those terms which you propose That is â—…o accept of the Arch-Bishop of Paris and his Coadjutor two persons interessed for competent Judges I am as confident of the contrary that they would rather chuse to suffer than wrong their Cause so much Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora It were a readier way for them and but the same in effect to subscribe to a blank paper and to submit without Disputation Fifthly suppose all this notwithstanding such a Conference should hold what reason have you to promise to your self such success as to obtain so easy a Victory You have had Conferences and Conferences again at Poisye and other places and gained by them just as much as you might put in your eye and see never the worse When Conferences are onely made use of as Pageants to grace the Introduction of some new Proselite and to preserve his Reputation from the aspersion of Desultorious Levity they seem much more efficatious than they are As they know well enough who are privie to what is acted in the withdrawing Room The time was when you have been as confident in a contrary Opinion that such a Free Conference would have sealed the Walls of Rome and levelled the Popes Triple Crown Sixthly whether the Ministers â—…hould accept of such a partial unequall Conference or not or whatsoever should be the succes thereof you trespas too boldly upon his Majesties patience to dictate to him so pragmatically so Magisterially what he should do or would do in such a case which is never like to be Doth his Fathers constancy en ourage you to believe that he is a Reed shaken with the Wind Qui pauca considerat sacile pronunciat He that weighs no more Circumstances or Occurrances than serve for the advancement of his Design pronounceth sentence easily but temerariously and sor the most part unsoundly When such a thing as you dream of should happen it were good manners in you to leave his Majesty to his Christian Liberty But to trouble your self and others about the Moons shining in the water so unseasâ—…nably so impertinently or with what will come to pâ—…ss when the sky falls is unbeseeming the Counseller of a King Lastly consider how your Pen doth over-run your Reason and over-reach all grounds of probability to ascribe unto his Majesties chang such an infallible Iâ—…fluence upon all Protestants as to reduce them to the Roman Communion not onely his own subjects but Foreiners His blessed Fathers example had not so much influence upon the Scots his Native Subjects He was no Changling indeed neither to the right hand nor to the left Henry the Fourth his Grandfather did turn indeed to the Roman Church Had his change any such influence upon the Protestant party in France I know no followers such a change would gain him but I foresee cleerly how many Hearts it would lose him Certainly Sir if you would do a meritorious piece of service to his greatest Adversaries you could not fix upon any thing that would content them more highly than to see you successfull in this undertaking I have done with your Proposiâ—…ion He that compares it and your Demonstration together will easily judge them to be twins at the first sight As a Motive to his Majtsties Conversion you present him with a Treatise of Transubstantiation and desire that it may appeare un to the World under his Royal name I meddle not with your Treatise some of your learned Adversaries friends will give you your hands full enough But how can h s Majesty protect or patronise a Treatise against his judgement against his Conscience so contrary to the doctrin of the Church of England not onely â—…nce the Reformation but before About the year seven hundred The Body of Christ wherein he suffered and his Body Conseorated in the Host differ much The Body wherein he suffered was born of the Virgin consisting of flesh and bones and humane members his Spiritual body which we call the Host â—…onsists of many Grains without blood bones or human Members wherefore nothing is to be under stood there Corporally but all Spiritually Transubstantiation was neither held for an Article of Falth nor a point of Faith in those daies You charge the Protestants in divers places That they have neither Church nor Faith but have lost both And at the later end of your Treatise you undertake to demonstrate it But your Demonstration is a meer Parologism You multiply your Terms you confound your terms you chang and alter your Terms contrary to the rules of right arguing and vainly beat the air concluding nothing which you ought to prove nothing which your Adversary will deny You would prove that Protestants have no Church That you never attempt Bâ—…t you do attempt to prove how pittifull God knowes that they are not the onely Church that is the one Holy Catholique Church This they did never affirm they did never think It susficeth them to be a part of that Universall Church more pure more Orthodox more Catholique than the Roman alwaies professing Christ visibly never lurking invisibly in another Communion which is another of your mistakes I should advise you to promise us no more evident Demonstrations either your skill or your luck is so extremly bad In the second place you affirm that Faith is founded upon divine Authority and Revelation and deposited with the Church All that is true But that which you add that it is founded in the Authority of Christ speaking by the mouth of his Church By this Church understanding the Church of this Age and which is yet worse the Church of one place and which is worst of all the Bishop of that one Church is most false And so is that which you add that the faith of Protestants is founded upon their own reasonings which makes so many differences among them Reason must be subservient in the application of the Rule of Faith It cannot be the foundation of Faith Bad reasoning may bring forth differences and errors about Faith both with you and us but the abuse of Reason doth not take away the use of Reason We have this Advantage of you that if any one of us do build an erroneous Opinion upon the holy Scripture yet because our adherence to the Scripture is firmer and neerer than our adherence to our particular error that full and free and universal assent which we give to holy Scripture and to all things therein conteined is an implicite Condemnation and retractation of our particular error which we hold unwittingly and unwillingly against Scripture But your foundation of Faith being composed of uncertainties whether this man be Pope or not whether this Pope be Judge or not whether this Judge be infallible or not and if infallible wherein and how far the faith which is builded thereupon cannot but be fallible and uncertain The stricter the adherence is to a false
their King in the chief City of that Kingdom in a time of Treaty They who purged the Army over and over as loth on their parts willingly to leave one dram of honesty or loyalty in it who would not admit their fellow subjects of much more merit and courage than themselves to assist them They who would not permit his Majesty to continue among the Souldiery lest he should grow too popular They who after they had proclamed to the world his Title and right to that Crown yet sought to have him excluded from the benefit of it and from the execution of his Kingly Office until he should abjure his Religion cast dirt upon his Parents alienate his loyal subjects and ratifie the usurpations of his Rebels These these I say were most unlikely persons to be his restorers Was it ever heard before that subjects acknowledged a Soveraign and yet endeavoured to exclude him from his rights until he had granted whatsoever seemed good in their eyes Others may be more severe in their judgements but I for my part could be well contented that God would give them the Honour to be the repayrers of the breach who have been the makers of the breach to be the restorers of Monarchy who have been the ruiners of Monarchy to be the re-establishers of peace who have been the chiefest Catalines and promoters of VVar. But that can never be whilst they justifie their former rebellious practises and after they have eaten and devoured wipe their mouths and say what have we done until they acknowledge their former errors Repentance onely is able to knit the broken bone why should they be more afraid to confess their faults and shame the Devil than to commit them Yet I cannot say with you that this hath robbed his Majesty of all hopes and means of recovery VVe may not limit God to any time who commonly with-holds his hâ—…lp until the Bricks be doubled until the edge of the razor doth touch the very throats of his servant that the glory of the work may wholy redound to himself VVe may not limit God to those means which seem most probable in our eyes So long as Joseph trusted to his friend in Court God did forget him when Pharaohs Butler had quite forgotten Joseph then God remembred him God hath nobler wayes of restitution than by Battails and bloudshed that is by changing the hearts of his creatures at his pleasure and turning Esau's vowed revenge into love and kindness I confess his Majesties resolution was great so was his prudence that neither fear which useth to betray the succours of the soul nor any indiscreet Action or word or gesture in so long a time should either discover him or render him suspected VVhen I consider that the Heir of a Crown in the midst of that Kingdom where he had his breeding whom all mens eyes had used to Court as the rising Sun of no common features or physiognomy at such time when he was not onely believed but known to be among them when every Corner of the Kingdom was full of Spys to search him and every Port and Inne full of Officers to apprehend him I say that he should travail at such a time so long so far so freely in the sight of the Sun exposed to the view of all petsons without either discovery or suspition seems little less than a miracle That God had smitten the eyes of those who met him with blindness as the â—…yes of the Sodomites that they could not find Lots door or the Syrian Souldiers that were sent to apprehend Elisha This strange escape and that former out of Scotland where his condition was not much better nor his person much safer do seem strangely to presage that God hath yet some great work to be done by him in his own due time You attribute this rare deliverance and the hopes of his conversion in part to the prayers and tears of his Mother prayers and tears were the onely proper Arms of the old Primitive Christians more particularly they are the best and most agreeable defence of that sex but especially the prayers and tears of a Mother for the Son of her desires are most powerful As it was said of the prayers and tears of Monica for St. Austine her Son fieri non pâ—…tuit ut filius istarum lacrymarum periret It could not be that a Son should perish for whom so many tears were shed God sees her tears and hears her prayers and will grant her request if not according to her will and desire we often ask those things which being granted would prove prejudicial to our selves and our friends yet ad utilit atem to his Majesties greater advantage which is much better She wisheth him a good Catholick and God will preserve him a good Catholick as he is We do not doubt but the prayers of his Father who now follows the Lamb in his whiâ—…es for his perseverance will be more effectual with God than the prayers of his Mother for his change Your instance of his Majesties Grandfather your grand King Henry the fourth is not so apposite or fit for your purpose He gained his Crown by turning himself towards his people you would perswade his Majesty to turn from his people and to cast away his possibilities of restitution that is to cut off a natural leg and take one of wood To the tears of his Mother you adde the blood of his Father whom you justly stile happy and say most truly of him that he preferred the Catholick Faith before his Crown his liberty his life and whatsoever was most dear unto him This faith was formerly rooted in his heart by God not secretly and invisibly in the last moments of his life to unite him to the Roman Catholick Church but openly during his whole Reign all which time he lived in the bosom of the true Catholick Church Yet you are so extremely partial to your seif that you affirm that he died invisibly a Member of your Roman Catholick Church as it is by you contre-distinguished to the rest of the Christian world An old pious fraud or artifice of yours learned from Machiavel to gain credit to your Religion by all means either true or false but contrary to his own profession at his death contrary to the express knowledge of all that were present at his murther Upon a vain presumption that Talem nisi vestra Ecclesia nulla pareret filium And because you are not able to produce one living witness you cite St. Austin to no purpose to prove that the elect before they are converted do belong invisibly to the Church Yea and before they were born also But St. Austine neither said nor thought that after they are converted they make no visible profession or profess the contrary to that which they beleeve Seek not thus to adorn your particular Church not with borrowed but with stollen Saints VVhom all the