Religion even themselves being Judges For they had all or most of them taken it before some of them had taken it many times over two or three of them had writ in defence of it nay were at the first composing of it But there was a greater difference than either of these if the Bishops then turned out by Queen Elizabeth had been most of them Canonically deprived under King Edward VI and were never since Canonically restored which may deserve a further Consideration The mean while it is certain that this Act outed not two hundred more of all the Clergy in this Kingdom And their places being filled with such as had been banished in Queen Maries days it is not hard to judge how all things else to be done in Church matters might pass any Obstruction as they did afterwards in full Convocation 3. As to Doctrinal things it was generally observed in those times by the Advantage of Ecclesiastical learning that in those many former Ages which wanted it many errors and some very gross ones had crept into the Church And those errors having the Papacy on their side for Reasons which I have already shewn had so far prevailed that they were growing to be Articles of Faith Many of them were already defined so and more were like to be by the Council of Trent Therefore now the Church of England being free from the Yoke of the Papacy and having an Absolute Power to act for her self thought fit to use the Right of a National Church that is to Reform her self by declaring against those errors and to rid Christianity from them here in England without taking upon her to prescribe to other Churches And withal she thought it needful to set such bounds to the Reformation that men might not by their heats against Popery be transported so far as to run into contrary errors For these causes that famous Summary of Christian Doctrines which we call the XXXIX Artielés was drawn up and approved by Convocation The Compiling and Publishing of these Articles was properly the Act of the Church of England And these Articles being many of them opposed to those Doctrines which the Roman Church holds to be of Faith and being either in Terminis or at least in the sense of them the same which their Trent Council hath branded with Heresie it is therefore evident that upon the account of these Doctrines neither the Queen nor Church of England can be justly charged with Schism unless the Doctrines themselves are first proved to be Heretical as they are judged by those decrees of the Trent Council For the trial of these Doctrines they will not allow our Church that resort which she would make immediately to the Scriptures And we cannot go along with the Roman Church whither she would have us that is to the Council of Trent or which is all one to the judgment of their present Church Therefore there is no possible way to end disputes but by some known equal Standard between us And that can be no other than Catholic Tradition Which they of the Roman side cannot well decline for it is that from which the Council of Trent has pretended to receive all her Doctrines Nor have we any cause to decline it for the Primitive Fathers who were the Original Conveighers of this Tradition did profess to know no other Faith than what was contained in the Scriptures Why we cannot stand to the judgment of the Council of Trent for the trial of our Doctrines we have all the same Reasons that they have in the French Church why they reject it in matters of Discipline That is if they deny it to have the Authority of a General Council the English though of their Communion may as well deny it to have Infallibility Nay much more this than the other For we may give to whom we please an Authority over us but we cannot give Infallibility to any but to them to whom God has promised it that is if to any Council to such a one as represents the whole diffusive Church And we have one reason more than the French have and which signifies more than all theirs to shew that though they did yet we ought not to look upon this as such a Council For the French Church was represented at Trent in some sort though they were not at all satisfied with it but Ours neither was Represented nor could be as I have shewn neither after nor before the Reformation And though as it is said the French have since received the Doctrinal Decrees of that Council that is they have allowed them to be Antecedently true in those Terms in which the Council defined them though not a whit the more true for having been defined in that Council ours cannot pretend that here in England it ever had so much as that lowest Degree of Reception Before the Reformation of which we now speak that is before the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign the Council of Trent had sate not much more than half its Sessions And though it was quoted with respect by the Synod of London in Queen Marys days yet it does not appear that there was then any Formal Reception of the Council Nor if there had been could that have obliged aftercomers to receive whatsoever should pass afterward in that Council Thus much I think ought to be considered by them if there be any that hold themselves obliged by that Synod But much less would it have signified to our Reformers who did not hold themselves obliged by that Synod For beside that they differed in point of Faith they had other Canonical Objections against it That it was composed of Bishops who had been Deprived as was said in King Edwards days and had not been duly Restored since for ought that appears And it was Headed by the Popes Legate in that Quality as representing Him against whom they had an Appeal yet in force Now to him that considers the Case in these Circumstances it cannot seem reasonable that King Edwards Bishops should have thought themselves obliged by the Synodical Act of them that sate there in their Injury or that they who adhered to their Appeal from the Pope should be concluded by any thing that passed under his Legate Since the Reformation it cannot be imagined that the Council of Trent should be received here in England by any other than by them of the Roman Communion And whether they have Received it or no they best know But if they have it must be their own voluntary Act for no power whatsoever could oblige them to receive it If any could it must be either the Council it self or the Pope by his Universal Authority But for the Popes Power they understand themselves so well that they know he cannot oblige them to the reception of a Council For he cannot bring them under what Government he pleases I say not without their own Consent as they have judged and shewed
Souls Some even of themselves have written of late that no punishment should be inflicted on men for opinions that are not dangerous to the State They who are of this mind have no reason to take offence at this Book because the favour desired in it is for Persons as Innocent in that Respect as themselves And for them that think Errors are punishable by the State on Account of the hurt that they do to mens Souls they will not find so great occasion of Offence as they may possibly expect For the Author does not plead for any other Exemption of Roman-Catholick than such as will leave them still liable to as much severity as themselves if they are obnoxious to the Laws can think fit to be inflicted on men barely for Differences in Opinion Here is nothing proposed for their Exemption from any Incapacitating Laws or from the Penalties against saying Mass publickly or against their endeavouring to make Proselytes which last thing is Death to Roman-Catholicks and not at all penal to any other These things being considered together their Condition will not be to be envied by any other Dissenters if they should have all the favour that is propounded for them in this Book But the Common Protestant Religion will be better secured by it which ought to satisfie any one that pretends to that Name For that Part which concerns the Controversies it is suggested by another which otherwise the Author could scarce have expected that some may think him too favourable to the Romish Opinions or too much unconcerned for the Defence of other Protestant Churches He does not see how any one that minds what he reads can suspect him of favour to the Principles of the Roman Communion having given sufficient reason why he cannot embrace them without losing his hopes of Salvation In the managing of the Controversie if he seem not to write in the Defence of any other Reformed Church his Answer is that he does not write to the Adversaries of the Reformed Religion in any other than in his Majesties Dominions And if his Defence of our Church be sufficient it will overthrow that Infallibility of the Roman Church by which she pretends a Iurisdiction over all others and by which alone all her particular Impositions are Iustifiable Which will afford an easie Apology to other Churches who do not think themselves oblig'd to submit to those Impositions THE CONTENTS THat there are many false Notions of Popery Page 1. Wherein the true Notion of it consists 2. Viz. Chiefly in owning the Popes pretended Authority and consequently in submitting to his Terms of Communion 3. This proved I. In that all the other points of Popery were establisht by this pretended Authority 5. II. The owning of it is that on which the Papists chiefly insist 7. III. It is the most hurtful to Church and State 13. And therefore worst in Construction of our Laws 18. That there is therefore a real difference between Papists 24. For that they are not properly called so that deny the Popes Supremacy 25. And they that own it in spirituals only are less perfectly Papists than they that own it both in Spirituals and Temporals 26. That accordingly to distinguish between them by Laws is the only true way for the suppressing of Popery 27. That undistinguishing Severity is not the way For I. It is a way that being taken would not be effectual 28. II. It would not seem Iust and Equal 33. III. It would be against the Interest of England 42. And would promote the Roman Interest Pgae 49. A Toleration of all Sects among us would be most pleasing to them at Rome 52. But next to it an undistinguishing Severity against all Roman Catholics 57. That to distinguish between such of them as will give Security to the State and such as will not I. Would be an effectual way to suppress Popery 61. II. That it would be Iust and Equal 71. III. That it would be for the Interest of England 76. It would cause many to fall under the Pope's Censures 78. And thereby give them occasion to consider How groundless the Pope's pretence is to an Authority over us 81. How justly it was thrown out of England by K. Henry VIII 90. And afterward by Q. Elizabeth 108. The Iustifiableness of the Reformation 111. If it should fail of this Effect yet it would make them sure to our Civil Interests 133. Objections against this way of Discrimination as not being Practicable 135. I. The Roman Church and Court are all one in their Principles being obliged to own the Popes Authority 137. 1. in Spiritual things 138. 2. and also in Temporals 144. Answer to this Objection 150. II. They have ways to elude all the Assurance they can give us 152. Answer to this Objection 154. III. We can have no Assurance of their Constancy 158 Answer to this 158 Conclusion 160. The Reader is desired to take notice that the Quotations out of L. Herbert's History of K. Henry VIII were taken at distant times out of two Books of different Editionâ— and not Paged alike and that this was not observed till those sheets in which the Quotations are had past the Press The ERRATA of any Moment are to be Corrected as follows PAg. 2. lin 13. anciently famous p. 14 l. 25. of this p. 17. l. 31. And yet that p. 29. l. 14 15. no Parenthesis p. 46. l. 33. in the margin Ib. ann 1602. p. 276. p. 47. l. 1. in the margin put out the same words ibid. l. 24. dependance on the. p. 53. l. 33. undistinguishing execution of Laws p. 58. l. 33. convince such a one that all his p. 64. l. 9. in their streets p. 67. l. 27. pretence to the. p. 81. l. 6. Christ he p. 84. l. 14. Churches Epistle to p. 85. margin last line Anno 445. p. 91. l. 8. in margin Schism p. 103. b. Edit 1585. p. 92. l. 19. he would never l. 15. in marg L. Herb. Anno 1529. p. 271. l. 26. in marg the First l. 29. Pallavic Hist. Conc. Trent II. 15.5 p. 94. marg l. 4. Camd. Ib. p. 1. 2. p. 94. l. 20. delays and either p. 100. l. 2. Three p. 101. l. 28. 29. to use his own words p. 102. l. 12. large an account p. 104. l. 29. Particularly should begin a Paragraph p. 107. l. 30. had his Traitorous p. 113. l. 26. in marg Camd. Eliz. p. 13. l. 29. in marg she put out p. 115. l. 30. pass without any Considerations About the true way of Suppressing POPERY IN THIS KINGDOM AMong the ignorant Vulgar there are many false and wild Notions of Popery some of which being admitted to be true would render the Church of England and all other Reformed Churches Popish Other Notions of it would in like manner stigmatize all those Famous Churches in the more remote parts of the World which have not been in Communion with the Pope these eight hundred years And others in the last place
be made Criminals nor should any Criminal suffer more by any Law than was meant by the Legislator Now 't is commonly said there are very many RomanCatholicks I hope the far greater number of them in England who maintain no Principles or Opinions which destroy the Fundamentals of Government or disturb the peace of the Kingdom nor hold any of those Opinions which are essential to Popery namely which assert any undue Authority in the Pope or as it is exprest in the Statute which withdrawSubjects from their naturalObedience or move them to promise Obedience to the pretended Authority of theSee of Rome There are many of that Communion who profess that they hate detest all such Doctrines And therefore to indifferent Judges how can it but seem very hard to extend the severity of theLetter of our Penal Laws against the Legislators intention to all Roman Catholicks universally and indistinctly without any exception in favour of those many that hold no such Opinions and that are in all respects truly Loyal and peaceable Surely the punishment cannot seem just or equitable which has not theLaw for it and that has not theLaw for it which is against the intention of the Legislator Next I say with submission that granting the intention of the Statute-Laws of our Land and of the Legislators by whom they were made to have been against all Roman Catholicks indistinctly and not only against the mere Papalins yet according to the Eternal Law of Reason and ancient practice of Christianity it may seem in such case than an undistinguishing execution of the Laws would neither be just nor equitable For first it seems very unreasonable to go about to force men to change their judgments in any thing that hurts none but themselves and especially in so weighty a matter as is that of Religion It is confess'd that the Religion of Roman Catholicks differs very much from that which is established by Law and I am much to blame if I know not it is Erroneous in those points in which it differs For which Reason I doubt not they ought to be restrain'd from publick exercise of it and as far as it is possible from hurting others by the Propagation of their Errours I also grant that by some kind of Punishment less than death or ruine men that err may and ought to be awaken'd and stirr'd up to seek better Information and to attend to the means of it that they may be reclaim'd from their Errours I also grant that it belongs to the Legislative Power to define how far and by what means all this should be done without which I see no way to preserve established Truth or to suppress Heresie in any Kingdom But all the punishment that is necessary for this purpose may be inflicted without any force upon Conscience as I shall have occasion to shew toward the end of this Paper Much less is that any force upon Conscence when men are punish'd for Treason or for treasonable Principles For those Principles are Treason in Bullion and will be coyn'd out whensoever the Pope pleases to set the Mint going and that he will do whensover he thinks it time to pay off any King that does not please him But I cannot say so when men that have no such Principles are punish'd as if they had and are either put to death or made unable to live unless they will part with those things in their Religion which are purely and simply erroneous and which have no ill influence upon the State any otherwise than as it is inconvenient to have different Religions in being together in the Kingdom This Severity is truly a force upon Conscience And 't is very unreasonable besides that the simply erroneous should be made to feel the weight of that punishment than which no greater could be inflicted by Law if their Errours were heightned and envenom'd with all the Malignity of that which we call properly Popery 'T is also against the ancient practice of Christianity For the Christians when they came to have power in their hands did not punish either Pagans or Jews with either Sanguinary or Mulctative Laws nor for ought that appears thought it reasonable for them so to do I confess they did after a while punish Donatists with pecuniary penalties and kept both them and all the rest under divers incapacities and the same reason they had for so doing is enough to induce the Church and State of England to deal as they do now with Dissenters and especially with Roman Catholicks in keeping them under incapacitating Laws If it be objected that those who were so favourably dealt with in those first Christian times did not communicate with any that were dangerous to the State as those do who pretend to the like favour amongst us and that while they communicate with men of disloyal Principles it may be thought not unfit to involve them in the same punishment that is due to men of those Principles It will be answer'd that they do not communicate with them in any disloyal Doctrine or Practice and therefore they ought not to be joyn'd with them in the punishment of those Doctrines or Practices God forbid that Innocents should be handled as Nocents for being of the same Communion with them We should think it very hard and unreasonable that honest men and good Protestants who communicate in the Church and Worship of God with such as prove to be Traytors or Felons must therefore partake with them in suffering for their misdeeds If it be farther objected that among the Roman Catholicks there are many who are faln off from the Church of England and that such men at least deserve punishment for their Apostacy and much more the Priests or others that wheedled them away I cannot deny that in this case we have a just provocation to Severity And we have an example before us in the Roman Church which if we should follow it would go hard with such persons They which turn from them to us find no mercy in those Popish Countries where the Inquisition is setled nor much favour in any other But we are not bound to follow those examples And therefore setting them aside and considering things without Provocation I must needs say that the simplicity of most of their Converts seems to me to deserve rather pity than any hard punishment They are generally such as understood not their own Religion before they suffer'd themselves to be fool'd out of it Otherwise if they are learned and knowing men who thus leave our Communion which I think rarely happens and specially if they are Converts to downright Popery it cannot but argue that such persons are vehemently lead by their affections and therefore they may be justly suspected of ill design and of forming to themselves some interest against the Laws And if that be true it cannot be deny'd that they deserve to suffer all that the Laws have ordain'd for such persons Yet if men of knowledge and
there was one of that party F. F. compiled a Treatise in Italian to advise his Holiness That it was not good nor profitable to the Catholick Cause that any liberty or toleration should be granted by the State of England to Catholicks Secondly what their judgment is at present concerning this matter I know not who can inform us better than the Pope's Nuncio's He that now is or lately was at Brussels Falconieri the Internuncio of Burgundy and the Low-Countries I suppose has a power given him over our Roman Catholicks for his immediate Predecessor Airoldi had it and came over hither in hope to establish his Jurisdiction in England This Falconieri was inform'd while the Parliament were yet sitting in March was twelve month that divers Roman Catholick Peers had taken the Oath of Allegiance which provoked him so far that he lash'd out these words It were better there were not a Catholick left in England than that they should take that Oath to free themselves from Persecution This Relation I had from one of that Communion whom I have very much reason to credit And yet if any one doubts of his Testimony he may see as much written by a Nuncio himself who was also this man's Predecessor I think his words go something beyond those of Falconieri unless they like the Oath of Allegiance better than the Irish Remonstrance which whosoever compares them will judge they cannot well do according to their Principles And yet of that Remonstrance it was that the former Nuncio Vecchii gave his judgment in these words It may do more hurt and mischief to the Church of God viz. to the Popish Faction in it than any Persecution that ever was from the Hereticks I doubt not the late Pope's Nuncio that waged war in Ireland against our late King if he had lived to these times would have been of the same mind He would have endeavoured to keep his party together and not let them be separated by a Test. He would have told them they were as good have ask'd Pardon for what they had done as Promised to do so no more which promise in fewer words was the effect of that Remonstrance By these Indications we may guess at that which might otherwise have been a mystery to us namely why so many Leading-men of that Communion in England who refuse to take the Oath of Allegiance are so much against the framing of any other Test. It might seem very strange that they who are so loud above all others in crying out of Persecution are yet so extremely averse from doing that which is the only sure way to avoid it namely from giving publick Security to the State But their meaning is plain They would not have Popery garbled out of their Religion nor those Principles forsworn that may be useful when time serves If 't were known who are the Pope's and who are the King's Subjects it were to be feared the Pope's would be left single and that they themselves would be found to be of that number I cannot blame them that they had much rather keep themselves in the Herd and therefore perswade all men of their Church rather to run the hazard of a general undistinguishing Persecution than to submit to such a Test as may enable the State to know its Enemies It is plain that He whom they serve may despair of arriving at his ends upon England any otherwise than by one of these two ways viz. Either by an undistinguishing execution of the Laws against all Roman Catholicks in general or by an undistinguishing Toleration to them all and for their sakes to all other Dissenters whatsoever By the former way Popery properly so called would be kept from appearing in the Light which it does not love It would pass undiscovered in the Croud among Principles of Religion And the people by little and little would come to be perswaded that they ought to suffer as much for their Obedience to the Pope as for their belief in God Than which there is no one thing that our Hildebrandists drive at with more zeal and no doubt the Pope would buy it with all his heart at the hazard of leaving not one Roman Catholick in England Though the hazard would not be so great to them that should be his prime Agents in this business For they would be sure to keep themselves out of harms way And all the danger should light on Bigots and such hot-headed men who though living they are worth nothing yet when they dye leave Treasures to the Church For they must presently be cryed up for Martyrs And then What can be said enough to the glory of the Apostles that sent them forth and of the Apostolick See and of Christ's Vicar that sits in it Happy men that are sure to have their Bodies work Miracles wheresoever their Souls be And Blessed Cause for which such Men did not stick to sacrifice their lives If there happens a Leading-man a Garnet to be taken among them there is a loss indeed for which perhaps the straw makes not a sufficient recompence Yet this loss falls on Persons only and not on the Cause The Tenets which do all the mischief not only escape but gain ground If they were not de Fide before now they are being seal'd with the blood of Martyrs and attested with Miracles And this Faith is not like to want Preachers worthy of it self For there will be always men enough left of the worse sort The most subtle and dangerous will save themselves one way or other They 'll be sure to get out of the way till they see their own time to shew themselves And then they will appear the more Venerable to the party as being the Brethren and Successors of them that died for their Religion By the other way of undistinguishing Toleration they would have divers advantages more than I shall mention in this place For it is not my business here to write against Toleration but rather against an undistinguishing of Laws But that I may not seem by this means to desire to perswade a Toleration which I take to be much worse than the other I shall shew the danger of it in these following particulars For first they look upon Toleration as a sure way to destroy the establish'd Religion And therefore in all Countries where Popery is establish'd they are so far from admitting any Toleration that they look upon him that speaks for it as their Enemy and count none their sure Friends but them that set up the Inquisition By which also here in England if England were theirs they would make a short work with all those other Dissenters whom now they seem to look upon with compassion and to plead against Persecution and wish Liberty of Conscience for their sakes They would not have the Thorn be disturb'd while it is in their Enemies sides but if it were out they would burn it for fear it should be a
diligence in our intestine Divisions and in the growth of Atheism which we cannot but be sadly sensible are both much increased since the late Toleration In these and the like practises they plainly declare that rather then not bring in Popery they would drive out Christianity before them and not leave the name of Christ to the people that will not receive the Pope as his Vicar How those Churches where he is so received and bears rule as he would do among us are blessed in it we may partly guess by the means that he employs to get us under him For it is seldom known that they who are so greedy of power use it well when they have it But not to go by guess when we have a Map before us We may see the condition of his Subjects describ'd by some of themselves that writ in those times when men durst write of such things when there was no Inquisition for them nor no Index Expurgatorius for their Writings I believe a more cruel Bondage a more miserable Thraldom and Yoke then they describe never was among the barbarous Nations I believe also the Inquisition where it is introduc'd hath not made their condition easier since And that it is not introduc'd in some Countreys as namely in France and Flanders they may thank the poor Protestants for it Where such are the Pope will have a care not to make too much noise for fear of frighting away the Birds that he would take And yet in France where there is no Inquisition he found other ways not long since to make the Iansenists feel the weight of his hand and that severely for no other reason but because in certain School-points they presum'd to oppose another party that were more firm to his Interests If this be his way of keeping Unity for which they so much cry up his Government though men do not speak so well of the Russian which keeps Unity better I see no reason why we should not be content and endure our dissentions or rather find some other way to compose them than by putting our necks into a yoke which being once fastned it will be too late for us to complain afterward We must either draw as he would have us or else go to the Shambles For the Temporal State how it hath been turmoild with this Papal Usurpation would ask a large Book to describe as the matter deserves I shall only say this that ever since it began it hath hung like a Comet over Kingdoms and Nations and shed forth direful Influences on all that have been any way obnoxious to it But it came not to its height till Pope Hildebrand's days whom their heavenly Muster-Roll calleth St. Gregory VII A Saint no doubt worthy of Red Letters for he caused the shedding of more Christian Blood than Mahomet himself and as Mahomet did he taught his Sect to do the same and merit Heaven by it His Dictates are commonly known being publish'd both in his Books and in the Councils I appeal to any one that hath read them whether Antichrist at his coming if he be yet to come can speak greater things Sure I am nothing can be more contrary to the humble and meek spirit of Christ. Among these there is one Doctrine briefly expressed but more amply declared in his Bulls and in his actions pursuant to them It is concerning a power that he assumes to himself to depose Kings and to dispose of their Kingdoms Which Arrogant Claim such as none but the Devil ever made before him hath ever since been continued by his Successors and yet is as often as they see occasion both declared and manifested by the like Bulls and actions The woful effects of it throughout this Western part of Europe are notoriously known to all that read History having torn the Bowels of this part of Christendom like an Earthquake for these last six hundred years having shaken the Foundations of all Empires Kingdoms and States involving all of them at one time or other in bloody and cruel Wars accursed and unnatural Rebellions and all other consequent Calamities In Germany particularly where it first began to operate The two next Emperours were fain to fight no less than sixty Field-battels to keep their Crowns upon their Heads In France it hath wrought proportionably Other Countreys have suffered their share But none more than England in King Iohn's miserable days And that had been forgotten in 88. if the design had taken which God only could and did defeat when otherwise this Doctrine in all probability had destroyed the English Kingdom and Nation we had been gone and our name had scarce remained upon the face of the Earth The sad experience of the manifold mischiefs and dangers both to Church and State from this pretended Authority taught our Fore-fathers at sundry times to provide against it by Laws with such Penalties annex'd to them as they found needful to prevent the like mischiefs and dangers for the future It appears that the ancientest Laws of this kind were made by them that lived and died in the Roman Communion I mean the Laws of Provisors and Praemunire enacted some hundreds of years since by Roman Catholick Kings and their Parliaments who could have no design against any other of those things we call Popery for they held the same erronious Opinions which our now-Papists do though they held them not as Articles of Faith But they endeavoured by those Laws to secure themselves against the daily Encroachment of the Pope and his Faction in the Roman Church When those Banks were found insufficient to restrain the growing Torrent within its bounds they found it needful to stop the Channel to exclude the Papacy it self and turn it out of the Kingdom This was done by King Henry VIII upon such a Provocation as perhaps would have moved a much gentler Prince to do the same For he was made to dance Attendance upon the Court of Rome five or six years for Sentence in a Cause which he commenced not of himself but by advice of the Popes Legat and his Confessor A Cause which the Pope himself at first had encouraged in which he had the judgment of the whole Church of England and divers Foreign Universities of his side His exclusion of the Papal Authority was by Acts both of Parliament and of Convocation almost no man dissenting They both form'd the Oath of Supremacy and took it themselves and joyn'd with him in imposing it in direct opposition to this grand point And yet this King himself and all the Members of those Bodies were firm to all things else that we call Popery It was otherwise in the time of Queen Elizabeth of blessed Memory who at the entrance of her Reign not only repair'd her Father's Fence against the Papal Authority but also purged the Church of all those Errours and Corruptions which are yet retain'd and own'd by all them of the Roman Communion And yet she
or more Popes since And yet many of their Church took that Oath and some of them defended it in writing and 't is taken and defended in like manner to this day By many others it is and hath been refused Whether as being contrary to the Principles of their Sect or whether in Reverence to the Popes Prohibition and possibly some may have refused to take the Oath upon some scruple which they have conceived against the wording of it But whatsoever the cause of their refusal may be the State hath no way left to distinguish and therefore being assured of the lawfulness of the Oath in these Terms and being aware of the wicked design with which it is forbidden hath just cause to secure it self by their peril It hath surely no cause to look on them as Friends that prefer their own scruples to its safety much less that break its just Commands to serve or to please its open Enemy And for this cause that wise and gracious Prince suffered some of their Clergy that were obnoxious otherwise to fall under the edge of the Law But never in his nor his Sons days did any one of that Communion suffer death for any Crime against the State that would clear himself of it by taking the Oath of Allegiance From what I have said it sufficiently appears that the asserting an undue Authority in the Pope or Bishop of Rome is properly to be called Popery 't is the chief thing and the only thing in the Popes esteem 't is most hurtful and dangerous and the worst thing in the Construction of the Law From whence I shall infer that among Roman Catholicks some are properly Papists and some are improperly called so And however they are both of one Communion and meet together in the same Offices of Worship and therefore cannot easily be distinguished unless they please to distinguish themselves yet there is a great difference between them As great a difference in relation to the State as there is between Wens and useful Members in the Body They that wholly deny the Popes Supremacy cannot properly be called Papists but Vnreformed Catholicks as men generally were here in England in the later part of King Henry VIII's days And they as I believe were the first that used the word Papists to denote the Assertors of that outed Supremacy Nor can they properly be called so in France or other Countreys who deny the Pope to have any Authority over them by Divine Right but grant it only by such Canons and Laws as being made upon good Considerations may on better be abrogated and repealed I know there are some of this mind in England and do believe there would appear to be many if they found sufficient cause to declare it Now though such men believe the same erroneous Tenets and use the same Superstitious and Idolatrous Rites that Papists do namely such as the Pope himself has made the Terms of his Communion and therefore they are properly in Communion with him yet those Tenets and Rites are not properly Popery Though they are bad enough otherwise yet if they keep them to themselves they are not hurtful to Humane Society As being consistent with the safety of the Kingdom and with obedience to Government and with Justice of Contracts and love of Neighbours with all which at least collectively taken Popery in the proper Notion of it is inconsistent and generally held so not only by all other Christians but by a very great and considerable part of the Roman Catholicks themselves They are properly Papists that hold the Pope as Vicar of Christ by Divine Right to have a Power and Authority over all Christians And yet if they give him this power in Spirituals only and not also in Temporals they are but half-Papists And so they will find the Pope accounts them if they have occasion to make use of him They only are thorough-Papists that acknowledge his Authority in both First directly in Spiritual things and then in Temporals also whether directly or whether indirectly in order to Spirituals it matters not Let him have the Power and he will trust himself with the use of it Now this thorough-Papist being a man after the Popes own heart I shall from him take the perfect measures of Popery He is one that asserts and maintains or at least practically submits to the Popes pretended Power and Usurpation over all Kings and People in their Temporals and over all Bishops and Churches in their Spirituals and in all things over all persons on earth not only separately but collectively in their Parliaments or Councils and consequently over all their Canons Laws and Definitions In few words that owns him to be the Infallible Oracle and Universal Vicar of God a kind of God upon Earth who has no limits to his Commission or to the execution of it but his own will and pleasure This most excellent Systeme it is that only passes at Rome for the Catholick Doctrine This is authorized by the Pope this is taught in his own Church at Rome and elsewhere by his Stipendiaries or other Dependants And this is properly Popish for it belongs not to any other Christians of whatsoever Church Sect or Denomination Nor is it owned by the far greater number of them that are or call themselves Roman Catholicks I have given my own private Opinion as well of the true as of the false Notion of Popery and have intimated withal though but occasionally what my Opinion is as well of the great Concernment of the Christian World if not of all Mankind to suppress Popery truly such as of the little occasion there is for any great severity to be used against that for Name-sake which in truth is not Popery nor has any essential or necessary conjunction with it Now to enter upon the main design of this Paper which according to the title is a Consideration or Search for the true way of suppressing of Popery I declare my design to be against Popery in its proper Notion And whereas I have shewn a lower degree of it to consist in owning the Popes power in Spirituals only by suppressing of this I intend at least such a restraint upon it as may suffice to keep it from being hurtful or troublesom For the other degree which cannot but be hurtful wheresoever it is in being I declare my design to be no less than the extinguishing of it at least out of England and if it were possible from the face of the Earth Of this matter to deliver my thoughts with all freedom I confess it seems to me that undistinguishing Severity whether of Laws or of the execution of them against all Roman Catholicks in general cannot be the true way to suppress Popery much less to rid it out of this Kingdom or any other of his Majesties Dominions The general Motives which induce me to think so are these three 1. That such
And if they have no Dispensation before hand they can have a Pardon for it afterward For they know where those things are to be had which any honest man though of that Religion abhors either to ask or need And if a Jesuite should have so over-slept himself that he is taken napping with other Catholicks he is sure to have Friends to bring him off If none in England can do it he has them abroad to help If he be put to fly his Country he knows whither to go If he step short and fall into a Prison there at least he is sure not to want either relief or means for his deliverance While the man of Loyal principles if he fall into any of those Circumstances is stuck and knows not which way to look for help For from whence should he have it At home he has no Friend that dares know him abroad he has no manner of interest For all there depend upon the Pope who is so far from concerning himself for any whom he knows to be no Papists that he does not own them for Catholicks And especially if any such be men of parts whom he hears to be in Prison or the like he only wishes them hanged out of the way that he may have the rest the more intirely at his Devotion Much more might be said on this head but what I have said may suffice And therefore to insist no longer on that Question Whether undistinguishing Severity would be effectual or no I come now to shew that if it should prove effectual yet it would be very far from seeming just or equitable to indifferent men And of this I am strongly assured first by all the judgment I can make of the Intention of our Laws secondly by Arguments from the rule of right Reason and the Ancient Practise of Christianity I begin with the former and observe That although the Severity of our Penal Statutes according to the bare letter of them generally not distinguishing between Papists and Roman Catholicks falls indifferently on both yet by the wording of them in several places and by other Circumstances it appears that they were intended against the Abettors of undue Authority in the Pope and against no other For what appears in the wording of the Statutes I shall instance only two viz. 23 Eliz. and 3 Iacobi Whereof the former namely that of Queen Elizabeth expresses the crime to be punished by the Statute in these terms An intent to withdraw Subjects from their natural Obedience The other namely that of King Iames which was very severe as it ought to be on so great an occasion mentions this as the crime to be punished by it The withdrawing Subjects from their natural Obedience and moving them to promise Obedience to the pretended Authority of the See of ROME That the Sanguinary Laws were intended against Popery in this sense and no other it may further appear by the Account I have given before where I briefly set forth on what occasions they were made and in what manner they were executed It is evident that none ever suffer'd Death as a Papist who could be brought to take the Oath of Supremacy or Allegiance Now it is certain that those Oaths were primarily designed to be a suffient Test to distinguish Papists from others And yet in either of them there is no mention made of any Doctrines but only those which concern Government that is the external Government both of Church and State It is indeed objected by Papists against the Oath of Supremacy and it sticks with some of those Roman Catholicks who are not Papists that by the Oath of Supremacy the King is made a spiritual Head of the Church But he that reads the Oath will find no such thing in it and it is expresly declar'd by the Church of England in her Articles That she ascribes to the King no other Jurisdiction over the Church than what is meerly external even the same that was exercised by the Kings of Iudah and the Christian Emperours over the Church in their Kingdoms and Empires To this I may add the constant Profession and Answer of all Protestant Writers Whensoever any Complaint has been made of the severity used to Roman Catholicks it has been always said that they suffered not for Religion but Treason And this is a very plain and satisfactory Answer while those only suffer who do those things or hold those Tenets which involve Treason in them But if they who do no such thing and who renounce all such Tenets are yet made to suffer in like manner though they suffer for that which the Law declares to be Treason it will bear some dispute whether Law-makers may not miscall things However it shews the general sense of the Church and State of England I mean for what concerns the design or intention of those Penal Laws And here by the way it may be observed how very different our dealing with the Roman-Catholicks is from their dealing with Protestants in Q. Mary's days That then all profest Protestants were handled severely and that many of them were put to death I think none will deny But to avoid the Odium of this some of that Communion in our Age would persuade us that their suffering was not upon the Account of Religion And to colour this Evasion they endeavour to show that Cranmer and two or three more had deserved death for Treason which is more than they are able to prove But admit this were true that these men had deserved it yet they did not suffer death for Treason but Religion as they would have it believed that made them dye For they declared this throughout the whole course of their Criminal Proceedings And it concerned them so to do For otherwise by the Laws then in force they had murthered as many as they burnt there being no Law to Burn men for Treason but for Heresie And so far they were from using any Moderation that they rather extended the Letter of the Law by inflicting it on many poor Creatures who had nothing to provoke any Jealousie against them but enough to move pity if there had been any in their Adversaries It has been the glory of our Church that we have not been like them in this nor can be without altering the Design of them that made all our Laws against Popery The intention of our Laws appearing so manifestly as I conceive against Papists only and not against any other Roman Catholicks it seems not reasonable that any other butPapists should suffer by the Letter of those Laws For it is a Maxim That not the bare Letter of any one or more Clause or Clauses but the Intention of the whole Law is the Life and Soul of it I mean it is that which gives signification to words w ch ought where itis evident to interpret theLaw It is also a Maxim That all Penal Laws should be interpreted favourably and therefore more should not
parts though they have deserted our Church can content themselves to be Strangers and not Enemies and will prove it by declaring against all the Popes Usurpations which will be a certain bar to their preferment and therefore may be a good proof of their sincerity in this case I do not see but we may live quietly with them and perhaps the more safely by their means What Laws are now in force against them that shall be reconcil'd or that shall reconcile others to the Church of Rome were intended to keep men from being poyson'd with Popery against which those Laws were severe enough and yet not more than there was cause And yet according to the wording of those Laws he is equally to suffer the penalty of them that draws others or that is drawn himself into the Roman Communion though not into Popery as we have defin'd it I do not know that those penalties have been inflicted on any one Offender these many years nor has it been considered what the Principles were either of them that were seduced or of them that seduced them and 't were hard that the impunity of them who have directly transgress'd the intent of those Laws should be a snare to them that have only transgress'd the letter of them Therefore I humbly conceive that whatsoever Retrospection is made it ought to be with some kind of Discrimination And it were to be wish'd for the future that the old Laws may be put in ure against them that seduce others or are seduced into Popery and that some gentler Laws may be made against them that shall enter into that Communion though they do acquit themselves of those dangerous Principles But how this may be done I humbly leave to the wisdom of the State to consider The third Reason which I mention'd against an undistinguishing Severity was this That it would be against the interest of the Church and State of England Both those great Interests are united together in the preservation of the Monarchy For Monarchy is essential to the State as is visible in the Constitution of it And for the Church of England as she is the best support of the Monarchy so she is supported by it and must either fall with it or be brought into a very low condition as we have seen by the experience of late years Now of all sorts and parties among us that dissent from the Church of England there is none but has Principles which seem to look ill upon Monarchy nor is there any that has not explain'd the meaning of them by their practices at one time or other within our memory To specifie this in Instances of all would be needless for I know no sort of Dissenters that go about to justifie themselves wholly in this matter except only Roman Catholicks Among them some late Writers would bear us down that they are and have been always faithful to the Monarchy It were better said by others of that Church than by some of them that have written this But the truth is they are a mixt Communion whereof the governing part of the Clergy are thorough-Papists and therefore neither they nor any of their Faction can be right Friends to such a Monarchy as we speak of whatsoever they pretend Many of the inferior Clergy and of the Laiety of that Communion are no Papists as I have shewn in this Paper and they have shewn it themselves in adhering to Monarchy against the Pope himself Of both these sorts of Roman Catholicks we have lately seen the tryal in Ireland where for some years they agreed in nothing but that some times they went to Church together Their Bishops and the rest of the chief of their Clergy were indeed the Pope's Creatures and Subjects For they had sworn Allegiance to him and received a Right from him as well to the Temporalties as to the Spiritualties of their titular Preferments What the Pope's meaning was in preferring them we may guess by what follow'd For as soon as they saw an opportunity for it they formed a Rebellion in that Kingdom against the King And when the Pope sent his Nuncio to head it they joyn'd with him and drove the King's Lieutenant out of the Kingdom Which accursed Rebellion of theirs lost the King not only that Kingdom but the other two Kingdoms and his life in the end And yet they of that Faction in Ireland are so far from acknowledging that they did any ill in all this that within these ten years the General-Assembly of the Clergy of that Nation in plain terms refus'd to ask His Majesties pardon for any thing that had been done in the late War by any of the Clergy of that Kingdom This was a sufficient Demonstration of the Prevalence of those Popish Principles among them and of the ill Influence they have upon Monarchy Yet there was even then as plain a Demonstration of better Principles in others of that Communion For some there were though much fewer in number who kept their Allegiance to the King throughout that whole Rebellion and fought for him against the Pope himself in the person of his Nuncio and having one while got a great part of the Laity to joyn with them they prevail'd so far as to drive him out of the Kingdom But they and all the rest that serv'd the King in that Nation were excommunicated for it by the Nuncio and his Clergy in Ireland And that Sentence being judicially ratified at Rome I am assured that many of them do continue under it to this day In England it is to be observ'd in all our Histories That even in Popish times there were those that stood up for the Rights of the Crown against the Pope's Usurpations and that they which did so were the generality of the People of this Nation How else came those Laws of Provisors c. to pass in Parliament though the Spiritual Lords oppos'd them with all their might and protested against them as oft as such Laws came before them How came King Henry VIII to pass his Law against the Papal Supremacy which in effect contain'd no more than those former Laws did And yet the Bishops at that time not only voted for it but set their hands to a Book that was writ in defence of it and some of the most Learned among them writ besides on that subject as good Discourses as were written in that Age. And how came the whole Kingdom to stand by him as they did both before and after the Dissolution of Monasteries against the Pope's Bull of Excommunication and Deprivation which Bull I conceive was that which first made the Schism Though this Breach was made up again by Queen Mary who restor'd the Pope's Authority to strengthen her own Right to the Crown which otherwise had hung by the single thred of an Act of Parliament yet by what pass'd before it sufficiently appears to have been the judgment of our Forefathers in former Ages that Popery is no
part of the Catholick Doctrine That it has more obtained since and that the number of Papists has increas'd among the English of that Communion I partly ascribe to the great offence which was taken at first here in England against the Reformation The Horse is said to have first taken up Man upon his back to hunt down his Enemy And for the same end I conceive the Roman Catholicks suffer'd the Pope to saddle them in Queen Mary's days They could not have gratified him more than by letting him ride and hunt together both which he loves dearly Soon after the Pope having by his Council of Trent made Articles of Faith of their controverted Opinions it could not but oblige them to look kindly on all that he did for himself in that Council After which 't is no wonder that Queen Elizabeth found the World so much alter'd since her Father's time I think 't is observable that when He was curs'd and bann'd by the Pope as She afterwards was yet he had not one attempt made against his life Some Rebellions he had against him but those not so much in the Pope's quarrel as in the Common People's who were enrag'd at him for dissolving the Monasteries But Queen Elizabeth who had little to do of that kind and who generally pleas'd the People otherwise and was therefore not so liable to be shockt with Rebellions yet for all that when the Pope mark'd her out for destruction some or other of her Subjects were continually driving practices to take away her life I mention this as a great Instance of the growth of Popery among the People of that Communion And yet no doubt she knew those among them that were no Papists or else she would not have made visits to them as she did in the most dangerous times nor have protected their Priests without sufficient assurance of their Loyalty Yet she had not that way of assurance which K. Iames found out afterwards and which the Pope himself help'd to make the more satisfactory For when as I have said upon occasion of the Gunpowder Treason K. Iames requir'd the Oath of Allegiance to be taken by all his Subjects and Pope Paul V. requir'd all his Subjects to refuse it It was easie from thenceforward among the Roman Catholicks to know which were the Pope's and which were the King's Subjects for each of them would do the will of their Lord and what they did they maintain'd on both sides I think there needs no better defence for the Rights of the Crown against the Pope and his Faction than has been made by one of their Priests namely Preston in his Books for the Oath of Allegiance Now this being the only Test appointed by Law and this being already taken by many Roman Catholicks who profess themselves ready to take any other that the State shall prescribe for the securing it self against Popery I conceive that such persons being taken off by this means from all dependance of the Pope ought in reason to be accounted good Subjects For if their Principles be such as they swear they are as well their Principles as their Oath will make them firm to the Monarchy And nothing can be imagin'd to make them against it or to loosen them from it but the Pope's Dispensation against which they secure us as the Law directs them to do For they both swear expresly that they will not take any such Dispensation and that they believe the Pope has no power to give it I do not say but while they continue in that Communion they are continually liable to be tempted and drawn from these Principles And I know no way the State has to help it but by making them often renew their Security as I shall humbly propose in due place But while they keep to their Principles which in relation to Monarchy are the same that the Church of England holds though she ought to desire their Conversion and to seek it by all lawful means yet I see not why she should desire to have them driven away or disabled from assisting her in defence of the Monarchy Now there is nothing more plain than that this party of Roman Catholicks must be utterly disabled and destroy'd by an undistinguishing execution of the Laws For if they have no favour at home they are sure to find worse abroad There they must learn to hate their own Country by suffering for having loved it too well When they have spent what they can carry over with them they must want and may perish ere they find relief While their zealous Antagonists the true Sons of the Pope are received with all kindness wheresoever they come and when they have weathered out the storm they are sure to be sent back with full pockets and fresh supplies and such Instructions as may fit the change of times Then we shall if it should happen which God forbid see the fruit of an undistinguishing Severity We shall see the destruction of a considerable number of men that were friends to the Government and that would have been useful at such a time Or we shall see them return with other Principles and become Enemies to the Government which used them as Enemies and wholly joyn'd in affection to them that fed them in their exile In few words we shall see the Popish Faction truly so called return with more hope to do mischief and with more power to do it than ever they had before They could never yet make all of their Communion to joyn with them in any design against the Government But then undoubtedly they will if there be not a sufficient number left of the other side to oppose them They at Rome are thought to understand their own Interest well And there is reason they should for it is the Study of that place And I suppose 't is not in favour to the Church or State of England but for the interest of Rome that they are very well pleas'd with an undistinguishing execution of the Penal Laws in England against the Roman Catholicks and are so far from desiring to have it otherwise that they hate and detest all distinction and declare him their Enemy that desires it This might be proved by more instances than are proper for this place But I shall give one or two that are sufficient And first of former days Widdrington a Priest of the Roman Communion gives this following Relation That Q. Elizabeth having discovered that she was minded to shew favour to as many Roman Catholick Priests as should give her assurance of their Loyalty and to exempt them from suffering the penalties of her Laws some well-meaning men went to Rome to carry the good news as they thought it But when they were come thither they found themselves much mistaken Instead of thanks they were reproach'd by the governing party and branded with the name of Schismaticks Spies and Rebels to the See Apostolic And moreover saith our Author
Thorn in their own Another use of Toleration among us would be to weaken the Government as needs it must if the strength of the Government consists in the hearts of the Subjects A most unjust and wickedly manag'd jealousie of our late blessed King's inclination to Popery first lost him the hearts of his People Which jealousie being confirm'd by his granting as it was said a Toleration of Popery in Ireland they grew wild upon it and would never come at him more Or if they would it was too late when his Enemies had gotten him in their hands I think 't is visible now that as well as all parties among us love Liberty there is none of them wish it to Roman Catholicks unless it be with design to blow up the like jealousie again God forbid there should be any such design now on foot But if there be they that drive it are not altogether Fools They have reason to think that if the Government were away they might be able to make their party good against the Roman Catholicks Nor can our Papists be such fools to imagine that they alone can make head against the other Dissenters It is possible they may hope that if it should come to that the men of our Church would joyn with them But that wiâ—l never be unless they get the Government of their side Which they very ill deserve if they ask a Toleration before they have converted at least half the Kingdom And this they would consider if it were any part of their care to preserve the Government of the Nation But there is but one Government in the World for which thorough-Papists are concern'd All the rest are to be brought under this and those that will not bend to it must be broken It matters not into what Form they are reduced whether of Kingdom or Free-States or Common-wealth Much less are those of Hildebrand's Sect concern'd for this or that Family A Cromwel would have serv'd their turn when time was as well as a Stuart For I suppose they that courted him to be the Restorer of the Catholick Religion would not have dealt so coursly with him as to turn him out for his pains But that which makes their teeth ake against the present Government is to see it united with the Church of England Which Church being likely enough to be destroy'd by a Toleration if the same means will embroyl the Kingdom too they will like it never the worse The old Fisherman whom they serve fishes best in troubled waters He never made such a draught here in England as he did in the late times of Confusion And then also in Ireland he had almost a whole Kingdom in his Net though for want of strength he could not draw it ashore But in case a Toleration should not have that most desirable effect of blowing up a Civil War nor any other way weaken the Government which to me seems impossible yet at least there would be hope that it might some way strengthen the party If they could but have the face which they seldom want and that colour withal which this would give them to say that this Liberty was granted in favour to Popery and that this favour was an earnest of more and that now all would be theirs very speedily no doubt many would believe them And not a few by the power of this belief would be drawn to joyn with them and to be the more welcome would present them as well with their Loyalty as with their Religion It would also be a means to wear off the strangeness between them and the other Sects For those who were content to enjoy Toleration with them though with design to try it out who should be Masters at last when they had trod down the Church of England between them yet would have some conversation with them the mean while And I suppose a cunning Jesuite would be able now and then to convince a simple Sectary Howsoever that might succeed they would be united together in one common Interest though with different designs They would both be concern'd to keep up the Toleration They would engage together against the Enemies of it And there insensibly grows a kindness between men that sail in the same ship together though they are bound for different Ports But although this good effect may be procur'd by a general suspension or rather a Repeal of the Penal Laws yet if that cannot be had the same will follow in some measure upon an undistinguishing execution of them And therefore if there be no remedy but that they must be executed it is the interest of the Popish Faction to have them felt by as many as is possible Perhaps it were for their turn to have them fear'd rather than felt For the smart of the Rod would cure many of their distempers that are enrag'd by having it shaken over them But either the threatning of the Law or a light execution of it being extended to all would suffice to do their business And if that Severity which were a means to cure many would exasperate all the rest I conceive that would do it much better For all other Dissenters being brought under the Lash as well as Roman Catholicks no doubt would be as much dissatisfied with the Government and Laws They would joyn with them in aspersing the State with injustice and cruelty They would add to their noise by crying out of Persecution for Conscience And all men loving naturally to be pitied they that study popular Arts can easily find how to take men by this handle and to draw them nearer themselves and to make a mischievous use of them I know I do not teach them by saying that such Accidents may arise in which 't were very possible for the Jesuites to make such a conjunction with some of our Fanaticks as might create no small trouble and danger to Church and State But if other Dissenters are not yet angry enough with the Government or if they know the Jesuits so well that they will not deal with them or if they will give nothing for the priviledge of being eaten last for any of these things may very well happen then these Gentlemen have none left to work upon but Roman Catholicks And of them they have all reason to be secure unless they are very loyally principled The only way to work on such is by drawing them off from their Principles And that they may hope to do when they find them uneasie and out of humour As it cannot be expected but they will be if they are made to suffer the Severity of the Laws They that have been faithful to the Government and know themselves to intend no other and are ready to give any proof of it yet to see themselves ruin'd by the Government or to be kept in continual fear of it must needs be discompos'd and think themselves very hardly dealt with Then if a Jesuite step in and endeavour
to convince him that all their suffering is for Religion and not for treasonable Principles if he instance in that Loyal Person himself and bids him judge by his own experience he cannot but feel himself suffer he knows himself free from disloyalty therefore his suffering can be for nothing else but his Religion He must be a man of more than ordinary Abstraction that can discern the fallacy of this reasoning And he that cannot find that had need stop his ears with a resolution to hear nothing against the Government or else the Jesuite will be too hard for him He had need be as resolute in his Loyalty as in his Religion For the proof being made as well to his Sense as to his Reason it looks like an Argument against Transubstantiation If the person so attack'd be a very Iob in holding his integrity if no Argument will move him nor no other temptation draw him from it Yet he must yield to Want which can neither be hid nor resisted There are many good men that live from hand to mouth and that hardly enough while they enjoy their Estates If any of these be deprived of so much as the Law would take from him he cannot live with that which he has left And then if a Pension be offer'd him out of the Jesuites Bank or out of the Pope's Coffers he will scarce know how to refuse it Necessity will make a generous man do that which he would hate to think of in better circumstances And having eaten their bread he will find it a hard matter to keep himself disengag'd from their Interests Much more if he suffer himself once to be engag'd he will find it impossible to untwist himself afterwards And 't is next to impossible for him that has been oblig'd by their benefits and as it were listed in Service and taken pay on the Enemies side to have any kindness left for his Country that drove him to all this I know but one instance that of David in Gath of a man that was put to all these streights and yet not corrupted in his Principles I shew but one way of many how men that are very good Subjects and desire nothing more than to continue so may be spoil'd with hard usage and made Enemies against their Inclinations Which being added to those things said before on this head may be more than enough to make good my third Reason against an undistinguishing execution of the Laws on Roman Catholicks as being against the interest of the Church and State of England And this seems so evident to me that I have no manner of doubt that as the best news we could send to Rome would be of a general Toleration of all Religions and Sects whatsoever so next to that which I know would please them best the most welcome news would be to assure them that all the Laws here in England against Roman Catholicks were severely and indifferently put in execution And I am as sure that nothing would trouble them more than to hear of such a Discrimination or Distinction of Roman Catholicks as I come now to propound For now to speak on the Affirmative side of the Debate this seems to be the only way for suppressing of Popery if the State will be pleas'd to distinguish btween Papists and other Roman Catholicks and so to shew favour to the one upon security given of their Loyalty as that the other who will not give that security may have no part of that favour but be left to the severity of all those Laws that have been or shall be made against their Principles and Practices My Reasons are 1. Because this course being taken would be effectual to the end above-mentioned 2. It would be equitable in it self 3. And it would be for the interest of the Church and State of England I shew'd before that the undistinguishing way had not any of those three properties or qualities Now the way which I propound being contrary to it must have all the three by the Rule of Contraries and I conceive I need no other proof But to make the matter more plain I shall resume these three Reasons and prove them severally in the order propos'd 1. This course would be Effectual For it would take away the causes of Popery The only immediate causes which have either propagated or preserved Popery so long in this Kingdom notwithstanding all Laws that have been made against it as well anciently as of late times are chiefly these two On one side the great boldness and business of the truly Popish Clergy in asserting and crying up all Papal pretences whatsoever On the other side the tameness of the other Clergy of that Communion or whatsoever else their fault is and has been in not opposing those Papal pretences For the former of these I think 't is very visible in all the Iesuites that come among us and in most of the other Regular Orders and not a few of the Seculars that their chief business amongst us is to advance the Pope's Authority in all things and to reduce all men under the obedience of it 'T is true they have not yet seen their time to attempt this by open War They have not set up the holy Banner in England and plac'd the Pope's Nuncio in the head of an Army against the King as their Brethren did in Ireland and do not repent of it But neither will our Popish Clergy say that those in Ireland did ill in it They have neither declared their dislike of that Rebellion by any publick act Nor among all the Books they have writ since the King's Restauration has any one of their Writers writ so much as one line against it that ever I could see or hear of But their Books abound with those principles out of which that Rebellion was hatch'd They are slily insinuated in those which are to be had at every Stall And there are those that pass from hand to hand in which this Treason is the main scope of their writing By which we may guess what wholesome Doctrine it is that they infuse upon occasion in private when they are among their own people What kind of preaching and catechising they use What information of their Penitents What ghostly counsel they give and what loyal directions of Conscience And if we had nothing else to discover them to us we may soon find what kind of spiritual Offices they perform by the Fruit of them in the perversness and obstinacy of so many of their Laity who choose to do or endure any thing rather than take the Oath of Allegiance I deny not that there are other Priests of that Communion who as far as we can judge by their private discourse seem to be rightly principled and well inclined towards the Civil Government There are those that seem to be heartily for the Independency of the Crown of England and that hold that the external Government of the Church ought to be in
could remain here but only Hypocrites and Equivocators And their stay would be very uncomfortable if they kept silence but worse if they discovered themselves for then they must expect to suffer the Severity of the Laws They must either hang like bare-fac'd Traytors without any pretence of the Crown of Martyrdom or they must take it for a favour that they may have leave to go after their Fellows And they that are once out of the Kingdom will have no hope to come in again To be sure they shall not if the Priests of their own Church can keep them out or can discover them lurking in it Nor I suppose will any of the Laity be very forward to harbour them We have no reason to think that any man should be so unreasonable to venture neck or purse for the Reception of them for whom his Soul is not concern'd when he might without danger or any apprehension of it enjoy the exercise of his Religion when he might have all the Offices of it performed by other Priests as Canonical in their Mission and as exemplary in their lives men free from exception every way save that they have no tincture of Hildebrand's Doctrine If that be it that makes them so in love with a Jesuite that nothing seems sacred that comes out of any other hand the State has just cause to suspect from whence that niceness proceeds and to treat them as those that hold correspondence with its Enemies Nor can they in this case have any colour to pretend that they suffer for their Religion who might have enjoy'd their Religion without mingling it with that Treason for which they suffer And however the matter may be thought of by Him at Rome whose judgment we ought not to value in this case I believe no Foreign Prince will think this a Persecution of Roman-Catholicks France thought it none when time was to banish the Jesuites Nor Venice to turn out three Orders together which were all that submitted to the Pope's Interdict and Excommunication There is no reason to doubt that any other State of that Communion would have done the like upon as great an occasion So that if any of those States should interpose in favour of those against whom the State of England has so just an exception it might seem as if they did not so much desire to have them taken in here as to rid their own Country of such Vermin as they would not be willing to harbour They have reason to apprehend that those that we send over to them would teach their own people to do like them and put the Authority there to the trouble of doing the same thing that ours have done here and which themselves have been fain to do in former times I say not but any Prince that were in hostility or that thought himself likely ere long to break with England might be ready to receive this sort of men as he would do other Spies and Traytors to their Country There were very great Reason that a Prince in those circumstances should consider these men as being most compleatly qualified for all such purposes And because the Pope is a sure Enemy to all them that are for the suppressing of Popery I doubt not they would find him ready to mingle his quarrels with theirs and his Instruments would work much the better when they received their impulse from his hand But all this would last no longer than until those Princes thought it their best way to be at peace with us And that would soon be if we were at Unity among our selves As we should be if none were suffered to live among us but such as might live in an easie or very tolerable condition Then those Princes would soon ease themselves of the burthen and give the Pope leave to find some other way to keep his Vermin Which after a while he would do with such Italian Frugality that if their Rents were stop'd here in England they would soon look as thin as Fauxes Lanthorn or to describe them to the life they would be like Envy in the Poet. I need not trouble the Reader with minding him That in case of such a Discrimination there could be no danger of the increase either of Priests or Seminaries abroad and as little danger of any Commiseration or Pity at home to hinder it from being effectual It is obvious to every apprehension that the removal of these dangers would be one of the necessary consequences of it For who does not see that if the Roman Catholicks on such terms as I have describ'd might enjoy their Religion and their Estates and their liberty they would not count them their Friends that would perswade them to throw away that enjoyment Doubtless if some few did not know when they were well the generality of them would understand it And both they of their own Church and much more the Protestants would think them not to be pitied that should lose what they had thrown away with their own hands especially when they considered for what end these men did it that it was out of a restless desire to bring a Foreign Tyrannical Yoke upon their Country Therefore since by this and what else has been said on this head we cannot but see That the only immediate causes not only of the Propagation but Preservation of Popery in this Kingdom viz. the great business and boldness of them of the Popish Faction and the great tameness and fearfulness of the other Clergy of that Communion among us would be quite removed by such a Discrimination of Roman Catholicks We cannot but conclude with the same evidence That such a Discrimination would be effectual to suppress Popery in this Kingdom For nothing can be more clear in Natural Reason then that wheresoever the only immediate causes both of the Propagation and Conservation of any thing ceases there that thing it self must cease to be And after all that has been said already we cannot rationally doubt whether by such a Discrimination those only immediate causes of the Preservation and Propagation of Popery would cease to be any longer in England 'T is manifest to every considering man That in case of such a Discriminating Course duly and constantly held the busie Agents for Popery must either give up their Cause or fly their Country And either way will do our business If any of them stay they will do their part toward it by giving security to the State Which cannot be without the renouncing of Popery If they all go it will be a blessed riddance of them and Popery together For the active part or soul of it will depart with the Jesuites And the Body or Scheme of Doctrines will be interr'd by those whom they leave behind them or rather hang'd up for it does not deserve Christian Burial 2. Such a Discrimination would also be just and equitable For it would be according to the intention of the Laws of this Kingdom and most
agreeable to the eternal Law of Reason and the ancient practice of the Christian World By all these Rules I have shewn that it is not just nor equitable that the penalties of the Laws as now they are should be inflicted on all Roman Catholicks indifferently without any respect of Loyal or Disloyal And in proving this I have sufficiently shewn For it follows by the Rule of Contraries above-mention'd That it is both just and equitable that all of that Religion who being faulty in nothing else shall give such assurance of their Loyalty as the State shall think fit to require should enjoy an exemption from those penalties which were never intended for such persons But of this more shall be spoken in due place For them on the other hand who refuse to give such an assurance and by their obstinacy therein would keep the State in perpetual jealousie and expose it to the danger of unknown Enemies who cannot be known from good Subjects but by such a way of distinction as they endeavour to obstruct I conceive 't is just and equitable that the State should look upon them either as Enemies or at least as the Concealers of Enemies If they are only Concealers of such Enemies as our Papalins are it is just that they should suffer for it in the same degree as they transgress against the Law and as they hinder the security of the State And it is no small transgression in them that not only disobey the Law but as far as in them lies make many Laws utterly useles For those Laws being provided for the security of the State against a Sect or rather Faction of men who are dangerous in the highest degree and for whom the Law has therefore procured the highest punishment it is certainly a great presumption of those who in spight and as it were in defiance of the Law will keep them not only from being punisht but from being so much as distinguisht Now it is evident that the Papalins are such a Faction whose Principles lead them when they see their opportunity to subvert the present Government and Laws both of the Church and Kingdom of England It is certain that in pursuance of these Principles they have attempted to do all this more than once within these last hundred years And this in favour to the pretences of a Foreiner who has more than one dormant Title to the Sovereignty of England who actually invaded Ireland in Queen Elizabeths days and usurpt the Royal Power there by his Nuncio in our Age who assumes to himself in some cases whereof he makes himself the only Judge a right to dispose of all States and Kingdoms whatsoever If therefore any State may justly endeavour to preserve it self against a Forein Enemy and may make Laws to restrain their own people from joyning with them and may punish with death or otherwise as many as shall presume to break those Laws England has all this right within it self as well as any other State and may use it as well against the Pope as against any other Enemy And therefore the State may require all its Subjects to declare against his Usurpation and to renounce all those Principles that are any way favourable to it If any of them shall refuse to do do this the State may justly punish them whether with death or otherwise according to its Laws which in this point are enacted with the highest reason and backt with all other Laws Divine and Humane c. with the practice not only of other Christian States but of all other Nations in the world I know the Refusers will be ready to say their Conscience will not suffer them to declare against that Power which the Pope assumes to himself nor to renounce those ill Principles which they say are a part of their Religion No doubt they that are through-Papists have great reason to say this For Popery as I have shewn does consist of such Principles which though as to the matter of them they are truly Secular and Political yet go veiled under the sacred name of Religion They whose interest it is to have them believed are pleased to make them Articles of the Catholick Faith And no doubt it takes with many For we see there are those that do not stick to sacrifice their lives for those Principles And what can be dearer to men than their Lives but Religion We see they do not spare the lives of men of opposite Principles against whom they profess to have no other Quarrel but Religion And we have reason to believe them for 't is what our Saviour said When they kill you they shall think they are doing God service But what Religion is that which teaches men to do things which are so evidently against the light of Nature as Murder especially when joyned with Rebellion and acted upon the persons of their own Princes and tending to the dissolution of humane Society and destruction of mankind Whatsoever Religion this be sure enough 't is not Christian nor such as ought to be allow'd among Christians And therefore if their Conscience binds them not to renounce it so does the Magistrates Conscience bind him to punish them for it 'T is the duty of him that bears the Sword to punish all Immorality though never so lawful or necessary in the judgment of him that commits it If a Jew or a Turk come to live in this Kingdom and marry many Wives which he may safely do by his Law 't is just by our Law to hang him for it Much more if one be guilty of such immorality as tends immediately to the subversion of the Kingdom it is both just and necessary to send him away or not let him live in it but at his peril And if he complain that this is persecution for Conscience which by the way cannot but sound very odly from one of that Sect that burn men only for Conscience his complaint in this case would be very unreasonable And we ought to be no more moved with it than we should be if he complain'd that we would not stand still and have our throats cut in compliance with his Conscience There is nothing that can secure State or People against this Religious Distemper of the fiery Papalins and that can also preserve the Civil Rights and Proprieties of good Subjects of that Communion but only such a discrimination between them as may distinguish the Loyal from the Disloyal the Turbulent from the Peaceable in such manner that they both may have what they deserve This is in effect to render to every one his due according to Law and Reason Which is the very definition of Justice and Equity For the administration whereof God has ordain'd the Civil Power and put the Sword into the Magistrates hand to employ it as the Apostle says to the praise of them that do well and for the terror of evil doers By what has been said on this last Head it sufficiently
appears that such a discrimination is also for the Interest of the Church and State of England For that Interest is preserv'd by Justice and Equity which will entitle it to that blessing from God which he hath promis'd in his Word and which are naturally apt to be instrumental to the Divine Providence in producing that good which he has promised For a just distribution of Rewards and Punishments makes the Government venerable in the eyes of the people and secures it at home by their chearful obedience It also acquires that Reputation abroad which will make it either loved or feared by all the neighbour Nations Our Neighbours of the Roman Communion who are now possest by the clamours of those among us that say they are persecuted for Religion and who can judge no otherwise when they see men severely handled that are criminal no other way will be soon disabused by such a discrimination And it will right us to those Protestants abroad to whom the State has been ill represented by fome on the other hand for not executing all the Penal Laws against Popery It will save England the trouble of making Apologies either way to vindicate the Justice of its proceedings to other Nations For it is manifest that no Government can tolerate such as hold Tenets inconsistent with its own safety nor on the contrary deny the protection of the Laws to men whose Principle it is to obey the Government and to do all that in them lies to support it To venture their lives in defence of the Authority not only of the Legislators but of those very Laws which they make against them till those Laws are repeal'd by the same power by which they were made It were easie to bring hither all those reasons with which I shewed before that undistinguishing Laws and execution of Laws are against the Interest of the Church and State of England and to prove by the same reasons that nothing of this kind can be more for it than such a Discrimination as is here propounded For if it be for the Interest of England to support and strengthen the Government then it is not to weaken the Friends of the Government nor to strengthen or preserve the Enemies of it I shew'd that such would be the effect of an undistinguishing way which is therefore desired by them of the Popish Faction as being next to a Toleration the most likely means to unite and to encrease their party among us Now taking those things for granted which are already proved it follows that upon the account of Interest this way of Discrimination should be as desirable to us as 't is hateful and detestable to them Sure enough they apprehend it and not without visible cause to be the likeliest way both to stop the further growth of Popery and to lessen the number of Papists among us I may add which is visible in the nature of the thing that a Discrimination between them that are of the same Communion will be a sure way to divide them among themselves Which may be a means to do some of them the greatest spiritual good or at least to keep us from taking that hurt which we have reason to fear from so numerous and powerful a Combination against us For the way of Distinction between Papists and other Roman Catholicks must be by some test or mark of Distinction And that either by the passing of some new Law for it especially when there is a new mark of Distinction or by the strict execution of those Laws that are in force for the taking of any Test that is already made In either of these Cases the Papalins who are men of intelligence will take an early alarm and try their Friends here in England if they can to prevent the passing of any such Law or the execution of any that is past If their Friends fail them here their next resort is to Rome where they have an old Friend that never fails them The Pope if he has not forgotten the old trick sends out his Censures against all that shall submit to those Laws and take the Test which is prescribed in them If it be no more than the Oath of Allegiance that is forbidden already by divers Popes and condemned by them as having many things in it which are contrary to the Catholic Faith And the reason of this severity is as well to guard their own Temporal Power as to keep their Creatures and Friends from discovery If any here and especially if any Priests of that Communion are so bold notwithstanding all this to take the Test then upon the next information or soon after the Pope sends to tell nofes And if he finds they are but few that transgress which will scarce be in our case he delays not to cite them to Rome and if they come thither woe be to them if not he curses them afresh and particularly But if they are many he considers their strength and being Curse-proof he forbears them for the present only leaving them under his general Censures Otherwise if they are a weak and obnoxious multitude he proceeds to further Censures against them And if some few have been more forward than the rest in doing that which the Law requires and specially if any dares justifie what they have done he denounces them Excommunicate by name and therein both sacrifices them to his own angry Deity and gives his discovered Creatures some kind of revenge on those poor men to ease their hearts till he and they can find how to be reveng'd on the State for which they are to wait their opportunity When any of these things happens as it has done in like cases and as it will do in these above-mentioned if Popes are constant to themselves For there is nothing here said but what I could prove both by Rule and Example we have reason to hope that some of those censur'd men who are able to right themselves or rather their Religion will do it by declaring against the horrible injury that is done both to it and them And specially their Priests who have hitherto alledg'd that the reason they have not done it all this while has been their continual fear of a Proclamation to send them beyond Sea where they are sure to be call'd to a severe account for whatsoever they have said or done against the Interest of Rome When that fear is over as it will be upon their giving security to the State it may justly be expected that they will both speak and write their minds freely as occasion shall be offered for the instruction of their people and for the Vindication of themselves and their Religion If the general Censures be objected as it is certain they will by those that procur'd them they will be oblig'd to shew the injustice and the invalidity of those Censures If they are Excommunicated by name for so doing they will be further engag'd to consider the Authority of him that lays
from the Pope to the next lawful General Council Which Appeal the Pope rejected as being unlawful and against the constitution of one of his Predecessours He also declared that there should be a General Council but that the calling of it belonged not to the King but to himself And soon after the term that he had set for the restoring of Queen Katharine being now expired he caused his Sentence against the King to be openly set up at Dunkirk which was then in the Emperours Dominions This was only a declarative Sentence in the case of Attentates as they term it but this being passed there was no doubt but soon after he would proceed to a Definitive Sentence in the cause The King was now concerned to look about him and to provide for the worst that could happen Therefore first with the advice of his Council he acquainted his Subjects with his Appeal which he caused to be set up on every Church door throughout his Kingdom And that his people might understand the validity of it he commanded that they should be taught that a General Council is above the Pope and that by Gods Law the Pope has no more to do in England than any other Forein Bishop Next he sent to engage as many Forein Princes as he could into a stricter Allyance with him And yet lastly to shew that he sought not these ways but was driven to them he desired the Bishop of Paris who was then Embassadour in England to get his Prince to deal effectually with the Pope and to promise in his name that if the Pope would forbear to pass any definitive Sentence till the cause might be heard before indifferent Judges he would also forbear what he had otherwise purposed to do that is to withdraw his obedience from the See of Rome The Bishop gladly took the office of Mediation upon himself and though it was now the dead of Winter yet he went post to Rome to discharge it There in Consistory he delivered his Message to the Pope and so far prevailed that at his earnest request there was a present stop of proceedings on condition that the King should send a Ratification of his promise precisely by such a day In prefixing the day they seemed not to have considered the time of the year For though the Messenger whom the Bishop sent into England found a present dispatch there yet being hindered by weather he did not return within his day The Pope as if he had watcht for that advantage resolved immediately to proceed to a definitive Sentence There being a Consistory called for that purpose the Bishop once more came in and pressed for a longer time He begg'd no more but six days which as he said might be granted to a King that had waited on them with patience for six years It was put to the vote where through the eagerness of the Imperial Cardinals not only that small request was denied but such precipitation was used that as much was done at once in that Consistory as would have askt no less than thrice according to their usual forms Such hast they were in to cut off and to destroy him whom three Popes successively had entitled their Defender and Deliverer When they had done their will within less than fix days that is the second day after this rash and hasty Sentence the Post returned from the King with a Ratification of all that had been promised in his name And he brought this further offer from the King that he would submit to the Judgment of that Court on condition that the Imperial Cardinals who had made themselves Parties against him should be none of his Judges There was an Authority sent for Proctors to appear for him on that condition At which great submission of the King compared with their precipitation the wiser Cardinals were astonished and petitioned the Pope for an arrest of Judgment Which could not well be denied him in those Circumstances And yet it was as if it had not been granted for they that got the Sentence passed by majority of Votes had the same will and power to get it confirmed And confirmed it was with this advantage that the Execution of the Sentence was committed to the Emperour who would be sure to see it done thoroughly as well to enrich himself with the Spoyls as to take his revenge in the ruine of a Prince that had provoked him no way more than in his zeal for the deliverance of this Pope out of his hands In this series of things I cannot but observe the hand of God and adore that unsearchable wisdom by which he made way to bring in the Reformation of this Church There was no King in that Age so zealous for Popery as he had been that came now to throw it out of his Kingdom Whosoever considers him from first to last in this business cannot but see he had no intention to do this He did all things to avoid it that could be done by one who was perswaded of the Justice of his cause And those Princes and Prelates who were perswaded as he was did their parts to hinder things from coming to this extremity None desired it but the Spanish and Imperial Faction unless perhaps the Pope himself could desire to lessen the Papacy by cutting off a whole Kingdom from the Church but he seemed to mind nothing but the raising of his Family and in order to that let the Imperialists do what they would with him Perhaps he might think when his own turns were served to give the King satisfaction afterwards as it may seem by what one says that when the Sentence was past he suspended the Execution of it till the end of September next But he died before that time and so his Sentence continued in force The next Pope that came after him did not approve what he had done for to use his own words he had urged him to right the King in his Divorce and would have perswaded the Emperour to have born it patiently But as then he could not prevail on that side so now he came too late to be heard on the other For on the day of his Coronation at Rome the Parliament met here in England that made the Act of Supremacy The edge of which Law falling severely on the Friends of the Papacy even while the Pope was offering at a reconciliation he was thereby provoked to curse the King afresh by a Bull which yet was not published till some years after When the King having presumed to Un-saint Thomas Becket the Pope thereupon pronounced him no King which made the breach quite unreconcileable I have given so large account of this matter because it is brought into common discourse and as it is told serves to blacken many other beside the King who was only or chiefly concerned in it Otherwise it would serve for our
present occasion to show which I think I have sufficiently done that he had cause to Appeal from the Pope to a Council that he did Appeal in due form of Law and prosecuted it with great Moderation which was enough to acquit him from Schism as far as we are concerned in it That on the other hand the Pope rejected his Appeal to the affront of that Supreme Tribunal among Christians and not only proceeded against the Appellant in which case the Appellant might and ought to resist him but he also took a course that the case should never be otherwise For whereas the Pope assumes to himself the only power to call Councils and whereas there had been none in Ten years to say no more and therefore a Council ought to have been then according to the Canons yet the Pope would have no Council then nor afterwards till he had tried all other ways to destroy both the King and his Kingdom When at last after many years talk and deliberation a Council was called that at Trent which pretends to be a General Council it was such as the King could not think himself bound to acknowledge nay he was bound to oppose it as well for his own preservation as to maintain the Common Right of Christians according to the Principles then received in the Western Church By his Appeal he was not bound to submit to any other than he expressed in it that is a Lawful General Council Such the Councils of Constance and Basil were then generally acknowledged to have been And it was the cry of the Western Church as well in this as the foregoing Ages for such a Council as those were to reform abuses as well in the Head as in the Members But the Head was as it would be and therefore being to chuse would take no Physick to cure it self This was visible in the Popes extreme averseness to a Council till he saw that without it the Nations were likely to Reform themselves Then he began to think it needful to call one himself But at first he named no time or place Then he named first one Town and then another When men began to think he was in earnest for they had been often fooled with reports the King declared he would not own a Council called by the Popes single Authority It was the Judgment of the Church of England that he ought not to own it for so their Synod declared that neither the Bishop of Rome nor any one Prince whatsoever may by his own Authority call a General Council without the express consent of the residue of Christian Princes When afterwards it appeared that the Pope was intent upon it the King on the same grounds made his publick Protestation shewing that the Indiction of a Council belonged not to the Bishop of Rome but to the Emperour and Princes which should send or come thither The like Protestation he sent abroad into all forein Countries And he afterward made it good by not sending one Bishop to the Council when it met though one of his Subjects was there whom the Pope was pleased to make a Bishop with a Title in this Kingdom Having thus no obligation to own this for a General Council he was therefore obliged to oppose it as being the Mockery and Abuse of that Supreme Judicatory joyned with the defrauding all Christians of their right in it and particularly himself of the benefit of his Appeal to it Which things he ought to have considered had it been held in the most innocent manner But much more being held as it was with most apparent design to establish those abuses which all Christendome cried out to have reformed to deprive the diffusive Church of that which was the only remedy for them to bring it to pass that there should be no more General Council as now we see there is like to be none while the world stands particularly as to himself he had cause to oppose the Trent Council as far as he was able For it was originally designed to please the Emperour and thereby to oblige him to head the Party of Christian Princes whom the Pope was then uniting to make War against England And as that Council was framed in all its circumstances the King could consider it no otherwise than he did the Pope himself who was his open and implacable Enemy For as the Pope called it by his single Authority so he always presided in it by his Legates He had it filled with his Creatures Italians and others who were sure to carry every thing by their Number And yet for fear they should forget themselves every thing must be examined at Rome before it could pass through their hands And being past yet it was of no force till it had the Pope's Approbation By which means he made himself so far Lord of this Council that though perhaps he could not pass whatsoever he pleased yet nothing could pass that should displease him in it And least by taking all this care the Pope might seem to intend no more but only to secure himself without doing the King a farther injury there was one thing which made it appear that he had as great a mind to plague the King as to provide for his own preservation For among all his number of Cardinals he could find none fitter to preside in the Council and there to judge the King's cause if he were so unwise as to send it thither than one that was the King's Enemy more than the Pope himself if it were possible That was Cardinal Pool the King 's unnatural Subject and Kinsman who being brought up by him and sent to travel for his farther improvement and while he was abroad being intrusted by him in his cause forsook it and joined himself to the Imperial party In which though he might pretend that he followed his Conscience yet nothing could excuse him for practising against his King and his Country He was the man employed to write against the King's Divorce and out-did other Writers in this that he stirred up the Emperour to revenge his Aunts injury for fear he should forget it and not only so but went about from Prince to Prince and from Country to Country to stir them up to War against this Realm For which so unworthy and so officious a disloyalty he was declared Traitor at home by Act of Parliament and had a price set upon his Head not to mention other instances of the King 's extreme displeasure against him When this had so far endeared him to the Pope that being not content to have made him one of his Cardinals he must also have this man to preside in his Council the English had so much the more cause to be jealous and to stand upon their guard as well against his Council as himself A General Council they could not hold it to be for their Church was not allowed to
it by their practice When he impowered an Archpriest to govern them the Seculars would not receive him And when he would have placed a Bishop over them the Regulars would not receive him So the Seculars and Regulars as it were with one consent have given us their Judgment in the Case and that by no Indeliberate Act on either hand for they contended about it a great part of the last Age. And therefore unless their Principles are altered since the same Right which they exercised in not submitting to a Government they may exercise as well in not receiving a Council though the Pope should presume to impose it And that the Council of it self has no power to oblige them it appears in that judged case of the Egyptian Church The Bishops whereof would not subscribe to a Decree of the Fourth General Council because they had then no Archbishop to give them an Authority for it This was allowed to be a Reasonable excuse though the Decree which they were to have subscribed was in a matter of Faith I suppose they of the Roman Communion here in England have had the same Reason ever since the Reformation They have had no lawful Primate nor no declared Bishops all this while And during this imperfect state of their Church if there had been a General Council and any of their Clergy had been there they might have been excused from subscribing though in matters of Faith What difference there is in the Case makes wholly on our side For there is a wide difference indeed between Subscribing and Receiving The first is only the declaring ones own personal assent to the Decrees of any Council the other is to give them the force of Laws in the National Church And if according to that Canon the Bishops where they are in a Council are not bound to subscribe without their Primate how much less can any National Church be Obliged to receive things for Law without her Bishops Nay more how can she Lawfully receive them Especially such a Church as owns there is no Jurisdiction without Bishops She cannot do it without a Synod of Bishops according to the ancient Canons And therefore the English Church of Roman Catholics is so far from being bound to receive the Trent Council that in her present condition she could not Lawfully receive it I say still according to the ancient Canons which ought to be of some force with them of the Roman Communion But let them do as they please The case is plain that the Reformed Church of England ought not to receive it if she can prove her charge that that Council has innovated in the Christian Faith or rather unless that Council can discharge her self of it by proving that what we call her New Faith is not new but received from Catholick Tradition We think we are sure they cannot bring this Tradition for those Doctrines which are laid as Foundations for all the rest in that Council namely their making unwritten Tradition to be of Divine Authority and therefore equal with the holy Scriptures their bringing those which we call the Apocryphal Books into the Canon of Scripture their making the Vulgar Latine Translation Authentick in all matters of Faith and good life For these and all the rest of their Doctrines of Faith as they are called in the Roman Church which we call Innovations and Errors We are not afraid to refer our selves to Catholic Tradition If they of the Roman side would submit to it as well there would be no difference between us in matters of Faith whatsoever there might be in Opinion And therefore they would have no cause in their own private judgment to conclude us for Heretics much less would they find us condemned for such by any competent Judicature If they think otherwise than we do in this matter the reason must be because they do not mean what we do by Catholic Tradition It is plain that too many of that Church have a wrong notion of it taking that for Catholic Tradition which is only presumed to be so by a Party in these latter Ages For though they call themselves the Catholic Church and perhaps really take themselves to be no other yet they are but a handful to the body of Christians especially considered in our notion of Catholic which as we take it extends to all the Christians of all Ages We plainly profess to take the Catholic Tradition in that sense of Vincentius Lyrinensis and before him of Tertullian in his Prescriptions who make this to be the Standard of all Doctrines of Faith quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus First that which has gone for Christian Faith in all Ages from the beginning of Christianity Secondly which has been taken for such by the whole diffusive Church comprehending all those particular Churches which have not been Canonically condemned either of Schism or Heresie And lastly that which has not only been the Faith of some persons though contradicted by others but that which has been the constant belief of the generality in all those Christian Churches To bring our differences to this standard betwixt us I conceive that first they of the Roman Communion will not find such evidence for their Articles of Faith as they think of in the Primitive Records I say such evidence as will make it appear that they were of Faith antecedently to the Definitions of Councils They will find that those Councils which first defined them to be of Faith were not such against which we have no just exception nor that their Definitions have been generally received throughout the diffusive Catholic Church For the Primitive Records I suppose they of the Roman Church that have read them will scarce pretend to shew how they convey all those Articles to us as of Faith And where they fail to shew this of any Article they must excuse us if we cannot allow it to be a Catholic Tradition Much more when we shew from those Records that there are strong presumptions to the contrary Whereof not to trouble my Reader with more instances I have given some proof in that which Bellarmine calls Caput Fidei namely in that Doctrine of the Popes Supremacy over all Christians For the Councils by which their new Articles have been defined the most they can rationally pretend to by their Definitions is to deliver the sense of the present diffusive Church Which they are presumed to do when they have power to represent it or when their Decrees are received in all parts of it and not otherwise But how few of their General Councils can pretend to either of these Conditions It appears that the Eldest of them could not I mean the Second Council of Nice which first imposed the worship of Images For about thirty years before there was an Eastern Council held at Constantinople which Condemned that very thing And not ten years after there was a Western Council at Francford which
clear themselves nor satisfie us by any form of profession they can make Because we must still suspect that such persons do prevaricate even in those forms by which they seem to renounce Prevarication This Objection hath been made and it is not without visible cause Now in answer to this it cannot be denied but that many of them have maintained such Principles of this kind as would destroy all possible trust in dealing with them And if they had stood to these Principles in their Actions this would have given us cause to suspect all the rest of their Communion while they continue in it But whatsoever they say in their disputes we have reason to judge of their belief by what they shew of it when they come to the trial of Action And thus even the Papalins themselves have not ventured to act upon these Principles even where they could have nothing to hinder them from it but convictions of Conscience They who have died rather than they would take that Oath which according to these Principles they might have taken and prevaricated in it have plainly shewn that even they durst not trust their own subtilties when they came to be practised Nay the Pope himself who hath forbidden them to take these Oaths and hath animated them to be Martyrs rather than take them would not have exposed his dearest friends to such extreme hazards if in earnest he himself could have approved the practising of these Principles The utmost therefore that we may fear in dealing with them seems only this that whilst they renounce one form of Prevarication they may make use of another If they renounce Equivocation they may at the same time believe themselves obliged not to Equivocate and yet not renounce the belief of the Popes Authority to dispense with their Oath if that be not expresly contained in the Form But we have no Reason to believe that men of such Politics as the Court of Rome are known to be can possibly when they come to practise own fuch Principles as are like to prove so prejudicial to their own Interest Or if they should be overseen so far as to do this yet the mischief that would follow upon it being likely to prove more dangerous to themselves than to us we have no reason to fear running the hazard of it For if there are any that believe that they may prevaricate in the very same form of prevarication which they renounce How is it possible that the Roman Court it self can be assured of such persons That Court it self hath found by experience that it hath had many real enemies that still pretended to live in its Communion How can they be assured but that many of these who pretend to be their Servants and Subjects may prove to be their dangerous Enemies If in earnest they may prevaricate even coram Iudice in a thing not belonging to his Jurisdiction how can the Court secure themselves that persons persuaded of the injustice of the Popes Claim to a power in temporal things upon any pretence whatsoever may not prevaricate with him since they believe that these matters belong not to his Jurisdiction How can they secure themselves but that multitudes of such persons may therefore still keep to their Communion purposely to form Intrigues against them which they could not do if they were out of it It is certain that not only the Papalins have owned these Doctrines but even those who have been the greatest Adversaries of the Papacy among themselves Particularly the Council of Constance is that which gave Authority to the Doctrine of breaking Faith with known Heretics And according to the definition of that same Council the Pope himself and all they who challenge for him the Supremacy over Councils are Heretics for doing so And therefore why may they not break Faith with him as well as with any other Heretic This is a just reason for him to suspect and they who are once suspected can give him no assurance by these Principles Since therefore the belief of this liberty of using Reflexive Prevarication is neither for the Interest nor agreeable to the practice of the Roman Court it self and since the danger that may follow in the trust of it must be more theirs than ours for it destroys the Faith of all whom they have to employ either to defend themselves or to prejudice us we have reason to believe that Forms whereby they renounce prevarication may oblige them to bar themselves the use of those Prevarications which they do therein expresly renounce So that for giving us compleat security nothing more can be desired but that the Forms to be tendred to them may take in all the cases wherein any celebrated Doctors among them do allow them this liberty of prevaricating And therefore the drawing up of this Test would be more properly a work of Divines than of Statesmen and more particularly of such Divines as have been most conversant in the Casuists of the Roman Church If this will not suffice how is it possible that even Protestants who are once suspected of inclining to Popery can ever purge themselves of this Imputation We have had too many Instances of unjust Accusations of this kind It hath been generally the Fate of them who have been most zealous for the Church of England or for any thing of Order and Discipline in it to have been thus represented to the people by men who have desired to make them odious And the mischief which must follow upon this distrust among our selves even of those who are our most zealous Patriots and therefore most eminently capable of doing service is a mischief much greater than we can fear from any thing that can follow on such a trust of the Romanists as have been here described It will make us uncapable of driving on any great design either for our own defence or to defeat their machinations against us And therefore it must be much more mischievous to us than any hurt we can suffer from those of the Roman Communion especially from those who desire not our trust but protection If it be farther suspected that when they have taken all the Tests that can be given them still their minds may alter after all this and that so long as their Priests are near them and have their ear we have too just reason to suspect that they may actually change It will be easie to reply that a change may be possible when all diligence hath been used to the contrary But we have no reason to believe it probable of them who by a Test that hath been before propounded shall profess themselves more obliged to theirDuty to King and Country than to any Judgment or Interest of their Church to the contrary For whosoever they are that are ready to oppose the Judgment of their Church it self if she should declare any thing contrary to their duty it cannot in reason be supposed that they should be so far
influenced by a Priest as to do that for his sake which they would not do in obedience to the Church But if yet it be farther suspected that their Priests may be enabled to work such a change in their Penitents by their Intimacy and Assiduity with them and by that Reverence that is usually born to their Persons which being alway present with them may perhaps prevail more than the dumb Definitions of the Church Yet this danger the State may very easily remedy and will do it by the making of a just and prudent discrimination For that being to be made by such a Test as the State shall require no other Priests will be allowed but only such as have taken it And the Test being made with such a Clause as hath been proposed the Priests that take it will be upon the same terms with their Laity and will be equally obliged in behalf of the State to oppose any pretence that can be brought by any person or power whatsoever to draw them from their Allegiance And if there be any fear of Practices against the State by them that having taken the Test have been secretly changed by some means against which no provision is made the danger of this also may be prevented as far as any thing may be done by Obligations of Conscience Not to say that their Interest will oblige them likewise in great measure It may be done by a frequent Repetition of this Test which may discover any change in some short time after it is made and so may give an early stop to any practices which might follow upon it The Priests also may be obliged by their Oath to declare the Independent Right of Kings in their Sermons as expresly and as oft as the State shall prescribe And it may be so ordained that they shall continue in their charge no longer than while they can bring sufficient Testimony that they have done it These expedients will suffice in all likelihood to prevent the defection of them who have given security to the State or at least will secure it in time from receiving any dangerous hurt by their defection CONCLVSION TO conclude all with a brief Summary of what I conceive advisable in this whole affair I think it is not so proper to make the distinction between Regulars and Seculars Because many Seculars are more addicted to these Principles than many of the Regulars and some of the Regulars have declared against these Principles and suffered for it more than any Seculars in our age Besides that it may seem very partial to prejudge men by their Ranks when they may distinguish themselves sufficiently otherwise Yet withal whereas there are divers of those Regular Orders that were never received in England even by the Romanists themselves and who have here intruded themselves as well against their own Canons as against the known Laws of the Land it is but reasonable that we should take that Advantage against them which not only our Laws but even their own Canons will allow Especially where we have Reason in other regards to suspect them above others of being active and industrious in driving on dangerous defigns And this Advantage may be taken against three eminent Orders among them which have been founded since the Reformation and were never Canonically received here in England and yet are as Active as any other in designs for the advancing of Popery For the rest who are not thought fit to be totally excluded the most equal way for them and as secure a way for us to distinguish them is to do it by such a Test as has been more than once before mentioned That this is a safe way may appear from what hath been already shewn that even the high Papalins themselves cannot prevaricate in renouncing Prevarication and therefore may be capable of giving assurance to the State by submission to Tests if they are known to be consciencious otherwise But antecedently to any Test for some of them it would be requisite that they should first renounce their former Oaths and Obligations or explain them so as to secure us that they will not be induced by them to any dangerous practice against the State Those of them as their Bishops and others who have taken Oaths to the Pope as they are prescribed by their Pontifical either to explain them if they can possibly do it so that we may be satisfied of their Innocency or to retract them where they will not admit of such an Explication And here also it ought to be considered what Oaths are taken by those Proselytes whom they gain into the Roman Communion When this is done and not till then they may be capable of being admitted to take the Test. Which ought in reason to contain all that which the Law hath already prescribed as being that which the wisdom of our Law-makers have judged fit and sutable to their condition It is not reasonable for them to expect that any of those trials should be waved which have been made even since the Reformation as long as the same Reason continues which prevailed with our Legislators to prescribe them But if they were to make a Test for themselves I do not see how they can with any confidence decline those professions which were made by their Ancestors before the Reformation They have so frequently boasted of them and alledge them as Arguments of the Consistence of their Religion with their Loyalty And therefore it were fit that the Test should take in all those Doctrines concerning the Rights of Kings which are contained or supposed in the Ancient Laws Especially in those which themselves have produced for the honour of their Communion as namely the Assize of Clarendon the Statutes of Provisors and Premunire These they cannot with any confidence refuse if they will but pretend to deal ingenuously and to let us see that they have been in earnest in those Elogies which they have given their Predecessors for making them Beside the forementioned particulars it were also needful for our satisfaction that they would profess themselves so far convinced in Conscience of their Obligation to their Prince and Country that no Ecclesiastical Judge or Judicatory whatsoever shall be able to draw them either from the belief or from the practice of their Duty This will fully secure us of their Loyalty if they deal sincerely in it And for satisfying us of their sincerity it hath already been advised to renounce all their pretences to Dissimulation And great care should be taken that no Doctrine be left out of this Test which would leave them any liberty of this kind in the Judgment of any celebrated or uncensured Casuist in their Church This will be not only a sufficient but also a just ground to distinguish between them For when a Test being thus contrived shall be prescribed by Authority it will then appear that none are like to suffer the severity of the Laws but they who either are
truly Criminal or are justly suspected of being so even for their refusing of such a Test. And then that due severity which may be thought necessary to preserve the State from their practising against it may be executed on them with less colour of exception to the Penalties They who have extolled the Loyalty of their forefathers in making those Laws already mentioned cannot except against the Penalties mentioned in those Laws They cannot pretend that there was any other Cause of severity in them but their care for the security of the Public for they were otherwise of their own Communion and therefore could not be liable to any suspition of that rigour against them of which they may suspect us in regard of our differences of Communion For other penalties I say no more but leave them to the wisdom of the State who best know that due measure of severity that is requisite in our present Circumstances For as their case may in some Reasons vary from the condition of them against whom those Laws were made so it is fit that their punishments should do so too whether their case be more excusable now or then that also I do not take upon me to determine For them who will take the Test so contrived and that as oft as the State shall require it were fit that such favour be shewn to them as may consist with the safety of the State And all the favour which themselves have desired is their exemption from Sanguinary Laws and protection against their Popish Adversaries and permission to live in their Country upon the same terms as other dissenters do who are as Innocent as themselves will be upon this supposal As for Places of trust they do not pretend to them Which may be a security against all reasonable jealousies For other Laws which have been made against the forein Education of their Children they will not then have the pretence of any necessity for it when they may have them taught at home by persons well affected to the State and yet otherwise of their own Religion And they will have no excuse if they do it without any necessity So that they cannot object against any Determination that the State shall think fit to make in that particular whether the Laws now in force shall be continued or changed and if continued under whatsoever Conditions and Penalties it should be done And if it be thought fit to impose on them such small pecuniary Penalties as may only oblige them in Interest to endeavour the farther satisfaction of their Conscience it might be convenient that those sums were applied to maintain converts to the Church and to reward them that shall inform the State how these things are observed among them This will be likely to keep up the practice of these Laws when they cannot be secured from discoverers among themselves And may also be a means by degrees to reduce them to the Communion of the Church in order to the capacitating of them for farther favours Thus much was in Prudence necessary to be said to shew as well the Practicableness as the Convenience of this Proposal The Convenience has appeared in the Discourse it self and the Practicableness in the Answer to the Objections For other more particular Expedients I leave them to the Prudence of the State whose most proper Office it is and who are best acquainted with all particular Circumstances to determine FINIS a P. 44. these ten years P. 50. March was twelve month P. 66 M. Luzance 's case b Chiefly from p. 80. till the Conclusion All Churches and Sects are Popish according to some mens Notions of Popery No Rites nor Doctrines common to other Churches which are not in Communion with the Pope can be Popish but in a false Notion of the word The true Notion of Popery describ'd Of the Pope's Authority over all Christians This Authority was the first thing in Popery All other Popish Errours were brought in by it This Authority is the chief thing in Popery a Poli. Reformatio Angliae decr 1. b Ib. decr 2. c Conc. Lateran V. Sess. 2. d Sess. 3. e Sess. 4. f Sess. 11. g Conc. Trident. Sess. 25. decr de Reform c. 21. h Ib. c. 2. i Ib. in Contin decr 5. Obedience to this Authority the only sure property of Roman Catholicks Camd. Eliz. anno 1560. It is also the worst thing in Popery * Martyrolog Roman Maii 25. * Rev. 13.5 * Luke 4.6 It is worst in the Construction of the Law Camd. Eliz. Anno 1571. Ib. Anno 1577. Ib. Anno 1581. * Rishton says it of himself in his virulent Cont. of Sand. de Schism Angl. Papist an equivocal word Improperly Papists * R. C. i. e. Ricardus Chalcedonensis alias Dr. Smith the last Roman Catholick Bishop that pretended Jurisdiction here in England was of this mind as appears by his Book against the Bishop of Derry entituled A Brief Survey c. Vid. cap. 5. p. 55. where he says 't is no point of Faith whether the Pope be St. Peter's Succeffor Iurâ— Divino or Humano Half-Papists Throrough-Papists Their Description Zenzelini Glossa Dominus Deus noster Papa Vid. Glos. Extravag Cum inter de verb. signif Edit Paris An. 1585. The main Argument Undistinguishing Severity is not the way to suppress Popery It would be ineffectual 2. It would not seem just and equitable It is so expresly provided in 27 Eliz. for fthe Oath of Supremacy and 3 Iac. for the Oath of Allegiance Justitia Britannica 8 o. Lond. 1584. and K. Iames works p. 252. 336. and K. Charles I. vol. 1. p. 384. * 1666 Iun. 11. V. Hist. of Irish Remonstrance part 2. page 671. * Dated 1533. Aug. 30. Camden Eliz. an 1592. Ibid. an 1602. pag. 276. * He writ his Books in the name of Widdrington The Pope and his party are against the distinguishing of Roman Catholicks * Pref. of his Book against Fitz Herbert the Jesuite * Father Fitz Herbert Hist. of the Irish Remons Part 1. p. 515. Two ways useful to the Pope's design against England I. An undistinguishing execution of the Laws agaiâ—st Popery II. Toleration Toleration is a way to destroy the establish'd Religion Toleration would weaken the Civil Government V. Dr. Baily's Life of B. Fisher about the end of it A Toleration would increase the number of Papists The true way to suppress Popery is by Severity to Papists and Clemency to other Roman Catholicks John 16.2 1 Pet. 2.14 Prov. 14.34 Isa. 28.19 Euseb. Hist. Eccl. V. 24. Vales. in locum Firmilians Epistle among Cyprian's Epist. 75. pag. 166. edit Rigaltii Cypr. Epist. 74. 75. Vide Rigalt in Cyprian Epist. 75. Iuly 28. and August 2. * Cyprian Ep. 74. 75. †Rigalt Obs. in Ep. 75. * Almost 22 years after the Reign of Alexander Severus Cyprian Epist. 75. p. 160. * In their Synodical Epist. * See in the Codex Canonum Universalis Ecclesiae or in the Councils Concil
the King in such manner as the Laws of the Land do or shall prescribe and who are firmly perswaded that the contrary Positions of Popery are as bad as they are declared to be in the Oath of Allegiance And some of them have declared this very honestly and publickly in their Writings both heretofore and of late days I think I should do them no service in naming them For as things now are it would only provoke and enable those of the former sort to do them mischief Which we see they are prone enough to do by their traducing them publickly though Priests of the same Church and branding them with the Characters of Schism Heresie Apostacy c. and thereby setting the people of their Communion against them But whereas those honest men of that Communion tell us that there are many more of their Principles among the Secular Clergy and also among the Regulars of inferior rank and condition I cannot but say that if they are not mistaken there is a great fault among them on the other hand Those many good men of whom they tell us are much to blame that they do not declare against the Pope's Usurpation but rather strengthen it by their sinful compliance and silence Either they do not think it so bad as they pretend or else what Wretches are they to juggle with the Consciences of their People How can they answer it to God from whom they pretend to have these Souls given them in charge that they do not warn them of so dangerous a sin that has slain its thousands and ten thousands in our streets Why do they suffer so great a scandal to lye upon their Church and such a danger to hang over the Civil State while they that are the Spiritual Watchmen see it and yet hold their peace Nay worse than so the Dog fawns upon the Wolf These honest men if they may yet be so called hold very good quarter and fellowship with those whom they know to be Zealots for Popery They make their Court to them of whom they cannot be ignorant that both their Principles and their Interest lead them to it that is in effect they are so officious to stand by and hold the horses of them that are committing a Robbery or worse employ'd in doing all those evils above-mentioned I cannot see how they can excuse this any otherwise than by alledging That all their Compliance is for fear of being ruin'd and imprison'd and starv'd as some of their Brethren have been for doing their duty and more are like to be if some course be not taken to protect them against the rage of their implacable Enemies Not to judge of the sufficiency of this excuse I confess there is reason for what they say For 't is visible what became of those Church-men of their Communion who have given the highest Test of their Loyalty who have scorn'd all those servile Compliances and who have declared against Popery by their Actions and Writings 'T is the easier to observe this because there have been so few of them I think not above two or three in an Age. They have been fain to stand the mark of a violent endless Persecution both from the Court of Rome and from all its Faction in England And however it came to pass they did not find that countenance which they might have expected from the State in defence of whose Rights they drew all that wrath upon themselves We have a great example of this in Preston who having both taken the Oath of Allegiance himself and maintain'd it against all the great Champions of Popery was fain to take Sanctuary in the Clink and glad to hide his head there for many years before he died Another Learned man Dr. Barnes the famous Author of Romano-Catholicus Pacificus had not leave to choose a Prison to dye in For he was spirited by the Pope's Emissaries and carried away to Rome and thrown into the Inquisition there What became of him since we shall know at the day of Judgment If these be their ways to maintain and to propagate Popery we cannot be to seek for our way to suppress it For it is manifest that this cannot be more effectually done than by such a Discrimination as has been propounded On the one hand it would be a means to preserve those few men of that Communion among us who have already declared against the Popes Vsurpations And the same course that should be taken to keep them out of danger would also be a means to free all other men of their Principles from the fear under which they have been kept so many years Whether at this present they have more or less cause to apprehend the Popish Faction they will be the better able to judg when they see what is done in Monsieur Luzance's case For as there is no reason to doubt that those Gentlemen if they find they may do what they please will do no less to those of their own Communion that oppose their grand design than they attempted on him that had deserted their Communion So if the State shall think fit to check their audacious Insolence in this case by some exemplary punishment though I doubt they will not forsake the Land upon it yet it is to be hoped that they will upon some other Act of State to which this may be a very good Introduction Sure enough if the Laws were duly executed on all those that will not give sufficient Security to the State we should soon be rid of all or most part of their Company And then it would be a time for better men to shew themselves Those that did give Security would be obliged in their own defence if no otherwise to own the Principles by which they were warranted to give it Besides it would be as well their interest as their duty to disabuse that great part of the Laity whom those Hildebrandists had fed with lies these fourscore years It would concern them to possess themselves as well of their Consciences as of their Chappels and therefore to make them see how vast a distance there is between that Faith which had been chiefly inculcated into them I mean the properly Popish Faith and the Primitive Christian and to convince them what a cursed Immorality they have been taught all this while under the name of Obedience to the Church and to shew them that the way which their former Guides have conspired to miscal by the glorious name of Holy Martyrdom is the down-right way to Hell Having thus declar'd that most necessary Truth to which both their Interest and Conscience led them the same Reasons would oblige them to love home and to study the Peace of their Country They would have little business at Rome and that would be so ill done there that they would not be encourag'd to send thither again On the other hand of the Pope's Faction in England if the Laws were so executed as I have said none