out I say of their Seas of Government their Seats in Parliament out of their meanes and liberty into poverty and prison Why not trench on all mens proprieties and violently despoile them of their fortunes as well as former times for Reformation sake impropriated to themselves the Church and Abby-lands from their first true owners casting the Monks Friers and vowed Nuns a begging into the world D. Carier observed nor did he alone that Church and Abbey lands did seldome thrive with their new holders If I tell you now that the present ruine of a flourishing Kingdome is but the naturall off-spring of the old injurious depopulations of the Churches and Abbies you will hardly know how to refute me Why may not this present Parliament damne the Common Prayer Book first invented in Edward the sixths daies and afterwards confirmed by Act of Parliament in Q. Elizabeths Raigne since the birth of many now alive no long prescription as well as those of their times damned the Masse which was as ancient in England and generally throughout the world as Christianity it selfe Why may not King Charles that now is whom I honour and love from my heart as it is the duty of all Subjects to do in whatsoever Countrey they live overthrow the Reformation he swore at his Coronation to maintain as well as King Henry the eighth and Queen Elizabeth introduced their severall Reformations contrary to the old Religion which they found in the Kingdome and swore at their Coronations to preserve with all her Rights Liberties and Priviledges would King Charles be more perjured then they or his perjury worse then theirs why may not this Parliament yea particular Subjects rebell against their Soveraigne for a better Reformation as well as the Lutherans in Germany rebelled against their Soveraigne Charles the fifth to bring in their Reformation and to abolish Popery or to omit others all applauded justified and abetted by those of the reformed Churches as the Scots rebelled for the same end against Queen Mary our Kings Grandmother afterward beheaded in pursuance of the same cause you tell me I do Câ—meâ—inâ—m movere I desist with the proposall of one onely question more when the present Agitators of Reformation have purged themselves of all the pretended Religion they had eight or nine yeares ago and raised their work to a higher pitch then they have 〈◊〉 thought on will it not still be subject to a Babilonian confusion Why may not the children of the present Reformers cut the throats of their fathers and condemne them for ignorants or superstitious and rescind all the Acts of their predecessours for a better Reformation according to their new spirits as well as these present cut the throats of their forefathers undoing at a breath what bad been so long a doing in the Kingdome Damnosa quid non imminuit dies Aetas parentum pejor avis tulit Nos nequiores mox datura Progeniem vitiosiorem Joel ch 1. Where Grandsires Erukes are their issue may Wild Locusts prove next comes in Joels list The Bruke a plague of worse and greater sway And what comes then a blast or burning mist Thus men in tract of time from bad do fall To what is worse from worse to worst of all To pretend that what the present or past Reformers did was all done for the truth for the glory of the Lord for the light and liberty of the Gospell to abolish Idolatry and Superstition to â—nthrone Antichrist the whore of Babylon the Beast of the Apocalyps and the like is more then childish simplicity there is no Reformer so forgetfull or stupid but by his spirit pretends Scripture the glory of the Lord the light and liberty of the Gospell the planting of saving truth c. and whosoever is opposite to his spirit is Antichrist the Whore of Babylon the Beast of the Apocalypse and therefore must be pulled down whosoever he be Nor can it availe at any time to say that hitherto the work of Reformation hath been in fieri or in doing as some say Qu. Elizabeths broome did not sweep clean but now is in facto esse Now it is come to a Non plus ultra perfected beyond all addition or alteration this I say can never availe nor stop the confusions as long as the reforming private spirits for the pretences already specified which will never be at an end or the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination sayes No. Perhaps the present pretended Bishops and the Party suffering with them may say The old Reformations against the Catholikes were good and necessary but the meanes used to begin and promote them naught and not to be imitated And that if there be any farther Reformation to bee made it must not be by prosecution of the old unlawfull meanes Their suffering by the meanes used for the present further Reformation makes them condemne the old This comes now too late they should have condemned them long ago before their testimony became invalidated by their private interest Certainly Luther and the first late Reformers never acknowledged the meanes they used to be naught or unlawfull And why should wee think the present or future Reformer will ever hold the meanes necessary for his ends unlawfull Endlesse then is the confusion of Church and State in England to be no end of sticklings and rebellions no end of our wounds and bloudshed no inheritance more intailed upon our posterity then violation of humane and divine Lawes nothing more certain then eternall damnation of mens souls as long as the first Reformers principles stand in force and their Reformations applauded Behold more then sufficient cause not onely not to wonder at the late conversion of divers learned Schollers to the Roman Faiâ—h but to admire that more do not follow their examples Behold more then sufficient cause for those that pretend to any feare of God or care of their own soules by regard to Religion or manners to the spirituall or politike weale utterly to anathematize all Reformation in Faith with the damnable principles of the late Reformers the sources of all the evills our Kingdome now groanes under Consequently behold more then sufficient cause for all to rank themselves into the number of Catholikes who have now the same unchanged Religion they had before this present Parliament and then had the same they had in the reigne of K. James â—u Elizabeth Qu. Mary K. Edward 6. and Henry the 8. in whose dayes the Reformation was commenced in Germany and through too generall a loosenesse in manners and desire of sensuall liberty began to creep into England as all Histories can evidence unto you Nor can any desire a more pregnant testimony of our being now and in former dayes of the same Faith without variation of one tittle then our reformed Adversaries are ready to afford us who have for the times past and still doe persecute us not as new Sactaries with old Lawes but with new Statutes for non-conformity to their new Reformation and
old Bed-fellow that he might leave some heires male behind him for belike hee feared that Females would not be able to withstand the tile of Scotland and that the change was continued and increased by the posterity of his later wives I could not choose but suspect somthing but yet the love of the world and hope of preferment would not suffer me to believe but that all was well and as it ought to be 5. Thus I satisfied my self at School and studied the Arts and Phylosophy and other humane learning untill being Master of Arts and Fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in Cambridge I was at the last by the Statutes of that House called to the studie of Divinity and bound to take upon me the order of Priesthood then I thought it my duty for the better satisfaction of my owne soule and the saving of other mens to look as farre into the matter as possible I could that I might find out the truth And having the oportunity of a very good Library in that Colledge I resolved with my selfe to study hard setting aside all respect of men then alive or of Writers that had moved or mainteined controversies farther then to understand the question which was betwixt them I fell to my prayers and be took my selfe wholly to the reading of the Church History and of the Ancient Fathers which had no interest in either side and especially I made choice of S. Augustine because I hoped to find most comfort in him for the confirming of our Religion and the confuting of the Church of Rome 6. In this sort I spent my time continually for many yeares and noted downe whatsoever I could gather or rather snatch either from the Scriptures or the Fathers to serve my turne But when after all my paines and desire to serve my selfe of Antiquity I found the Doctrine of the Church of Rome to be every where confirmed and by most profound demonstrations out of holy Scripture made most agreeable to the truth of Christs Gospel and most conformable to all Christians soules and saw the current opinions of our great Preachers to be every where confuted either in plaine termes or by most unanswerable consequence although my understanding was thereby greatly edified for which I had great cause to render immortall thanks to our Blessed Saviour who by these meanes had vouchsafed to shew himselfe unto me yet my heart was much grieved that I must be faine either not preach at all or else to crosse and varie from the Doctrine which I saw was commonly received 7. Being thus perplexed with my self what course I were best to take I reflected back againe upon the Church of England and because most of those Preachers who drew the people after them in those daies were Puritans and had grounded their Divinity upon Calvins Institutions I thought peradventure that they having gotten the multitude on their side might wrong the Church of England in her Doctrine as well as they desired to doe in her Discipline which indeed upon due search I found to be most true For I found the Common-Prayer Booke and the Catechismes therein contained to hold no point of Doctrine expresly contrary to Antiquity but only that it was very defective and contained not enough And that for the Doctrine of Predestination Sacraments Grace Free-will Sin c. the new Catechismes and Sermons of those Preachers did run wholly against the Common-Prayer Book and Catechismes therein and did make as little account of the Doctrine established by Law as they did of the Discipline but in the one they found opposition by those that had private Interest in the other they laid what they list because no man thought himselfe hurt 8. This truely was a great increase of my griefe for knowing divers of those Preachers to be very honest men and such as I did love with all my heart I was exceeding loath to discent from them in private much more loath to oppose them in publike And yet seeing I must needs preach I was loathest of all to oppugne my own conscience together with the faith wherein I was baptized and the soules of those to whom I preached Neverthelesse having gotten this ground to worke upon I began to comfort my selfe with hope to prove that the Religion established by Law in England was the same at the least in part which now was and ever had been held in the Catholike Church the defects whereof might be supplied whensoever it should please God to move your Maiesty thereunto without abrogating of that which was already by Law established which I still pray for and am not altogether out of hope to see and therefore I thought it my duty as far as I durst rather by charitable constructions to reconcile things that seemed different that so our soules might for ever be saved in unity then by malicious calumniations to maintaine quarrells that so mens turnes might for a time be served in dissention 9. In this course although I did never proceed any further then Law would give me leave yet I alwaies found the Puritanes and Calvinists and all the Creatures of Schisme to be my utter enemies who were also like the Sonnes of Zerviah too strong for David himselfe but I well perceived that all temperate and understanding men who had no Interest in the Schisme were glad to hear the truth honestly and plainely preached unto them And my hope was that by patience and continuance I should in the end unmaske Hypocrisie and gaine credit to the comfortable Doctrine of Antiquity even amongst those also who out of misinformation and prejudice did as yet most dislike it And considering with my selfe that your Right to the Crowne came only from Catholikes and was ancienter then the Schisme which would very faine have utterly extinguished it and that both your disposition by nature your amity with Catholike Princes your Speeches and your Proclamations did at the beginning all tend to peace and unity I hoped that this endeavour of mine to inforce Catholike Religion at the least as far as the Common Prayer Booke and Catechisme would give me leave should be well accepted of your Majesty and be as an Introduction unto farther peace and unity with the Church of Rome 10. But when after my long hope I at at the last did plainely perceive that God for our sins had suffered the Devill the Author of dissention so far to prevaile as partly by the furious practise of some desperate Catholikes and partly by the fiery suggestions of all violent Puritans he had quite diverted that peaceable and temperate course which was hoped for and that I must now either alter my judgement which was impossible or preach against my conscience which was untolerable Lord what anxiety and distraction of soule did I suffer day and night what strife betwixt my judgement which was wholly for the peace and unity of the Church and my affection which was wholly to injoy the favour of your Majesty
and the love of my Friends and Countrey This griefe of soule growing now desperate did still more and more increase the infirmities of my body and yet I was so loath to become a professed Catholike with the displeasure of your Majesty and of all my honourable and loving friends as I rather desired to silence my judgement with the profits and pleasures of the world which was before me then to satisfie it with reconciling my selfe unto the Catholike Church But it was Gods will that ever as I was about to forget the care of Religion and to settle my selfe to the world among my neighbours I met with such humors as I saw by their violence against Catholikes and Catholike Religion were like to waken my soule by torture rather then bring it asleep by temper And therefore I was driven to recoile to God and to his Church that I might find rest unto my soule 11. And yet because I had heard often that the practise of the Church of Rome was contrary to her Doctrine I thought good to make one triall more before I resolved and therefore having the advice of diverse learned Physitians to goe to the Spa for the health of my body I thought good to make a vertue of necessity and to get leave to go the rather for the satisfaction of my soule hoping to find some greater offence in the Service of the Church of Rome then I had done in her Bookes that so I might returne better contented to persecute and abhorre the Catholikes at home after I should find them so wicked and Idolatrous abroad as they were in every Pulpit in England affirmed to be For this purpose before I would frequent their Churches I talked with such learned men as I could meet withall and did of purpose dispute against them and with all the wit and learning I had I did both justifie the Doctrine of England established by Law and object the Superstition and Idolatry which I thought they might commit either with the Images in the Church or with the Sacrament of the Altar 12. Their common answer was that which by experience I now find to be true viz. that they doe abhorre all Idolatry and Superstition and do diligently admonish the people to take heed thereof And that they use Images for no other purpose but only for a devout memory and representation of the Church Triumphant which is most sit to be made in the time and place of prayer where after a more speciall manner we should with all reverence have our conversation amongst the Saints in Heaven And for the B. Sacrament they do not worship the Accidents which they see but the substance which they believe and surely if Christ be there truly and really present as your Majesty seems to grant he is he is as much to be worshipped as if we saw him with our bodily eyes Neither is there any more Idolatry in the one then in the other If our B. Saviour himself should visibly appeare in person as he was upon the earth Jewes and Infidells would hold it for Idolatry to worship him and would crucifie him again and so would all Heretikes also who refuse to worship him in the Sacrament where he is really present 13. After divers other objections which I made not so much because I was not as because I desired not to be satisfied I came to the Popes supposed pride and tyranny over Kings and Princes and told them of the most horrible Treason intended and practised by Catholikes against your Majesty which hath not yet been judicially condemned by the Church of Rome They all seemed to abhor the fact as much as the best Subjects in the world and much more to favor and defend the authority of their Kings and Witnesse their loyalty to the King in these late warres Princes then Hereticks do And they said that although your Majesty were out of the Church yet they doubted not but if complaint were made in a Judiciall proceeding that fact should be judicially condemned In the mean time it was sufficient that all Catholike Writers did condemne it and that the Pope by his Breve had condemned it exhorting the Cathelikes of England to all Christian patience and obedience As for any other authority or superiority of the Pope then such as is spirituall and necessary for the unity of the Church I have met with none that doe stand upon it 14. So that whereas my hope was that by finding out the corruptions of the Church of Rome I should grow farther in love with the Church of England and joyfully return home and by inveighing against the Papists both enjoy my present preferments and obtaine more and more I saw the matter was like to fall out cleane contrary It is true indeed that there are many corruptions in all States God hath no wheat-field in this world wherein the Devill hath not tares growing and there are no tares more rank then those that grow among the wheat For optimi corruptio pessima and where grace abounds if it be contemned there sin abounds much more But seeing both my reading and experience hath now taught me that the truth of Christian Religion now taught and practised at this day in the Church of Rome and all the obedient Members thereof is the very same in substance which was prefigured and prophesied from the beginning of the world perfected by Christ himself delivered to his Apostles and by them and their Successors perpetually and universally in one uniformity practiced untill this day without any substantiall alteration And that the new Religion of England wherein it doth differ hath no ground but either the pleasure of the Prince and Parliament or the common cry and voice of the People nor no constancy or agreement with it selfe what should I now do It is not in my power not to know that which I do know nor to doubt of that which I have spent so much time and taken so much paines and bestowed so much cost and made so many trialls to find And yet I know if I should yeeld to be reconciled to the Church I should be for this world in all likelihood utterly undone and that which grieved me more I should be rejected of your Majesty my most redoubted Lord and Master and despised by all my deare friends and lovers in England 15. These were in my thoughts at the Spa which did so vex and afflict my soule as that the waters could do my body no good at all but rather much hurt Neverthelesse I avoided the company of Catholikes abstained from the Church and did both dispute and write against the Church of Rome as occasion was offered I still hoped that time would give me better counsell and therefore resolved to go from the Spa to Heidelberg to do my duty there In the meane time I thought with my self it may be God hath moved His Majesties heart to think of peace and reconciliation I know his disposition was so
thing to think upon such exhortations and all one as if a phantasticall fellow finding a herd of young Cattell in a close should first break downe the hedges and then cry loud to the Cattell not to venture to go out nor to seek any fatter pasture for fear they be put into the pound and if they chance to feed where they are because they have no experience of other and to tarry in the Close for an houre or two then the unhappy fellow should run to the owner of the Cattell and tell him what great service he had done him and how he had kept his Cattell in the Close by his goodly charmes and exhortations Let them say what they list of their own honesty and of their exhortations to obedience as long as they do freely infect the peoples soules with such false opinions in Religion they do certainly sow the seeds of disobedience and Rebellion in mens understandings which if they be not prevented by your Majesties giving way to Catholike Religion will in all likelihood spring up in the K. Charles feels the sad effects of this predictioÌ„ next generation to the great prejudice and molestation of your Majesty and your posterity So that whether I doe respect heaven or earth my own soule or the service of your Majesty God or your Neighbours or your Subjects my assured hope is that by joyning my selfe to the Catholike Church I neither have done nor ever shall do any ill duty or service unto your Majesty 18. But perhaps there is such opposition both in matter of Doctrine and in matter of State as it is unpossible that ever there should be any reconcilation at all betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome of which I humbly pray your Majesty to give me leave to shew you what I have observed 19. It is true the breach hath continued now these many yeares and it is much increased by so long continuance so that it was never greater then it seems to be at this day nor ever more dangerous to deal withall For if a man do but go about to stop it there ariseth presently a great and fearfull noise and roaring of the waters against him but yet neverthelesse the greatnesse of the noise ought not to discourage us but rather to give us hope that although it be wide yet it is but shallow and not far from the bottome as proceeding from affection which is sudden and violent and not from judgement which is quiet constant and alwaies like it self for if a man ask in cold blood whether a Romane Catholike may be saved the most learned Church-man will not deny it And if a man aske whether a Romane Catholike may be a good Subject the most wise States-man will easily grant it May we be both saved then we are not divided in God May we be both good Subjects then we are not divided in the King What reason is there then that we should be thus hotly and unplacably divided 20. Truly there is no reason at all but only the violence of affection which being in a course cannot without some force be staied The multitude doth seldome or never judge according to truth but according to customes and therefore having of purpose been bred and brought up in the hatred of Spaniards and Papists cannot chuse but think they are bound to hate them still and that whosoever speaks a word in favour of the Church of Rome or of Catholike Religion is their utter enemy And the Puritannicall Preacher who can have no being in charity doth never cease by falsifications and slanders to blow the coales that he may burn them and warm himselfe But if your Majesty shall ever bee pleased to command those make bates to hold their peace a while and to say nothing but what they are able to prove by sufficient authority before those who are able to judge and in the mean time to admit a conference of learned and moderate men on either side the people who are now abused and with the light of the Gospell held in extreme ignorance are not yet so uncapable but they will be glad to heare of the truth when it shall be simply and evidently delivered by honest men and then they will plainly see that their Light of the Gospell which they so much talk of is but a counterfeit light in a Theeves lantern whereby honest mens eyes are dazzled and their Purses robbed And it will also appear that there is not indeed any such irreconcileable opposition betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome as they that live by the Schisme do make the world believe there is neither in matter of Doctrine nor matter of State 21. For matter of Doctrine there is no reason that your Majesty or the Kingdome should be molested or burdened for the maintenance of Calvinisme which is as much * Indeed a true Protestant and a Papist are now almost equally odious against the Religion of England as it is against the Religion of Rome and will by necessary consequence overthrow not only the Catholike Church the Communion of Saints and the forgivenesse of sinnes but also all the Articles of the Creed saving only so much as the Turk himselfe will be content to believe which will be easie to prove upon better leisure The Doctrine of England is that which is contained in the Common Prayer Book and Church Catechisme confirmed by Act of Parliament and by your Majesties Edict wherein all English men are Baptized and ought to be confirmed and therefore there is some reason that this should be stood upon But this Doctrine in most of the main points thereof as hath been touched before and requireth a just treatise to set down in particular doth much differ from the current opinions and Catechismes of Calvinisme or doth very neer agree with or at least not contradict the Church of Rome if we list with patience to hear one another And those points of Doctrine wherein we are made to be at warrs with the Church of Rome whether we will or not do rather argue the Corruptions of that state from whence they come then are argued by the grounds of that Religion whereupon they stand and the contradiction of Doctrine hath followed the alteraâ—ion of State and not the alteration of State been grounded upon any truth of Doctrine 22. For when the breach was resolved upon for the personall and particular ease of King Henry the eight and the Children of his later Wives it was necessary to give every part of the Common-wealth contentment for which they might hold out in the heat of affection and study to maintain the breach otherwise it was likely that in the clearnesse of Judgement it would quickly have grown together again and then the Authors thereof must have been excluded and given account of their practise 23. Therefore to the Lords and * In like manner the Members of Parliament and their Adherents have
now purchased the Bishops Lands at easie rates c. Favourites of the Court were given the Lands and Inheritance of the Abbeys and religious Houses that having once as it were washed their hands in the bowells and blood of the Church both they and their posterity might be at utter defiance therewith And so having overthrowne and prophaned the good works of the Saints it was necessary for them to get them Chaplains that might both dispute preach and write against the merits of good works the Invocation of Saints the sacrifice of the Altar Prayer for the dead and all such points of Catholike Doctrine as were the grounds of those Churches and Religious Houses which they had overthrowne and prophaned And it was not hard for those Chaplains by some shew of Scripture to prove that which their Lords and their followers were so willing to believe 24. To the Commons was given great hope of reliefe for their poverty case of Subsidies and of the burden of so great a Clergie and many other goodly gay nothings And for the present they should have liberty and the benefit of the Common-Law that is leave to live by such Lawes as themselves list to make and to contemne the Authority of the Church which although it were for their benefit every way yet because it crossed their affections like wayward Children they could never abide it And was not this reason enough for them to hold out the breach and to study Scripture themselves that they might be able to confute Confession Satisfaction Penance and to declaime against all that Tyranny of the Church of Rome whereby themselves and their fore-fathers had been kept in awe and obedience unto God and their Kings 25. To the Clergy men that would turne with the times besides the possibility of present preferment by the alteration was given shortly after leave to marry and to purchase and injoy the profit and pleasure of the world as well as the Laity And what carnall minded Monk or Priest would not with might and maine keep open the breach after he was once plunged in it rather then be in danger to forgo so pleasing a commodity Hence did arise a necessity of speaking and writing against Vowes Virginity Poverty Fasting Praying Watching Obedience and all that austerity of life which is by the Lawes of the Church required in a Monasticall and Priestly Conversation 26. Upon these conditions the Lords the Commons and the Clergie were content to believe that the King was supreme Head of the Church of England not that they did think so indeed or that they desired to augment his authority but that they might be protected by him and freely injoy those commodities So our Purchasers love not to hear of peace or unity lest they should come to lose their so easie bought Bishops lands other profits which they thought Schisme had brought unto them and feared the unity of the Church might again take from them Hence did arise a necessity of inveighing against the Pope and the Church of Rome as against Antichrist and Babylon and the greatest enemies of the State of England Insomuch that that Clergie-man was most acceptable to them and in their opinion most worthy of preferments that could most confidently preach and write the most foule and monstrous assertions of the Pope and the Church of Rome though they were never so false These and such like are those temporall respects which would faine seem the daughters of those Doctrines which themselves have brought forth and to be divided from the Catholike Church by Doctrine when they themselves have caused the Doctrine of Division 27. In all these and all other Doctrines of Division men have received great countenance and incouragement from Geneva For although â— John Calvin were never any good Subject or friend to Bishop Duke or King yet he did so fit the common people with new Doctrine that no Gospell can be so pleasing to them nor so lightsome as his For finding Geneva to be fallen out both with their Bishop who was their ancient Prince and their Duke to whom they pretended against their Bishop and to be all in a combustion among themselves for want of government although he were then a stranger and a very young man of some 26. or 27. years old at the most yet he thought good upon the oportunity to give the venture and to step in himselfe to be the founder of a new Church and State amongst them and for that purpose he found them out such a Catechisme as they might easily contemn all ancient Learning and authority and save themselves by a strong fancy which he called Faith And this pleased the Burgers of Geneva so well that they called a meering and caused all the Citizens to sweare that that Catechisme was true and that all Popery was false as may appeare in Calvins life written by Beza himselfe and prefixed to his Epistles And although the Ministeriall Presbytery of Geneva hath lost much of M. Calvins greatnesse yet the City hath had the fortune ever since by the help of their neighbours to hold out against their Bishop and their Duke and all their ancient Governours 28. Now it is the nature of all common people especially of Islanders not only still to * These late times witnesse this truth sufficiently affect more and more novelty and liberty and to be wearie of their old Clergie but also to admire any thing that comes from beyond the Seas to cherish and comfort one another with reporting the good successe which Schismaticks and Rebells happen to have against their lawfull Prelates and ancient Governours to impute all their good fortune to their new Religion Hence it comes to passe that that Doctrine which is indeed the lawfull Doctrine of the Church of England is neglected and contemned as a Relique or a Rag of Popery and Calvins Institutions being come from Geneva and fairly bound up with the Preface of the Gospell is dispersed throughout all Schooles Cities and Villages of England and hath so infected both Priest and People as although it be against Law yet it is cried up by voices to be the only current Divinity in Court and Countrey In hope belike that it may one day serve the turn in England as well as it hath done in Geneva and in other places where it hath prevailed 28. These reasons or rather Corruptions of State have so confounded the Doctrine of the Church of England and so slandered the Doctrine of the Church of Rome as it hath turned mens braines and made the multitude on both sides like two fools who being set back to back do think they are as far asunder as the Horizons are which they look upon But if it might please your Majesty to command them to turne but each of them a quarter about and looke both one way to the Service of God and your Majesty and to the salvation of soules they should presently see themselves to be
a great deale more neer together in matters of Doctrine then the Puritannicall Preachers on both sides doe make them believe they are I cannot in the brevity of this discourse descend into particulars but if it please your Majesty to command me or any other honest man that hath taken paines to understand and observe all sides freely and plainely to set downe the difference betwixt Calvinisme and the Doctrine of England established by Law and and then to shew Locos concessos and Locos controversos betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome I doubt not but the distance that will be left betwixt for matter of Doctrine may by your Majestie be easily compounded 30. But perhaps there is so great opposition in matter of State that although the Doctrine might be compounded yet it is unpossible to heare of agreement And if there be the same reason of State which there was in the beginning and continued all Q. Elizabeths daies there is as little hope now that your Majestie should hearken to reconciliation as there was that King Henry 8. or Q. Elizabeth would But when I doe with the greatest respect I can consider the State of your Majesty your Lords your Commons and your Clergie I do find as little cause of holding out in reason of State as I do in truth of Doctrine 31. King Henry the 8. although he had written that book against the Schisme of Luther in the defence of the Sea Apostolike for which he deserved the Title of Defensor Fidei yet when he gave way to the lust of Anne Bolen and the flattery of his Favourites and saw he could not otherwise have his will he excluded the Pope and made himselfe supreme Head of the Church that so he might not only dispense with himselfe for his lust but also supply his excesse with the spoile of the Church which was then very rich But when he saw God blessed him not neither in his wiving nor in his thriving he was weary of his Supremacy before he died and wished himselfe in the Church again but he died in the Curse of his Father whose foundatitions he overthrew and hath neither child to honour him nor so much as a Tomb upon his grave to remember him which some men take to be a token of the Curse of God 32. Q. Elizabeth although she were the daughter of Schisme yet at her first coming to the Crown she would have the Common-Prayer Booke and Catechisme so set down that she might both by English service satisfie the Commons who were greedy of alteration and by Catholike opinions give hope to her Neighbour Princes that she would her selfe continue Catholike And all her life long she carried her selfe so betwixt the Catholikes and the Calvinists as she kept them both still in hope Yet being the daughter of the breach-maker and having both her Crowne and her life from the Schisme it was both dishonourable and dangerous for her to hearken to reconcilement And therefore after she was provoked by the excommunication of Pius Quintus she did suffer such Laws to be made by her Parliaments as might cry quittance with the Pope and the Church of Rome And this course seemed in policy necessary for her who was the daughter of King Henry the 8. by Anne Bolen born with the contempt of Rome the disgrace of Spaine and the prejudice of Scotland 33. But now that your Majesty is by the consent of all sides come to the Crown and your undoubted Title setled with long possession the case is very much altered for your Majesty hath no need of dispensations nor no will to pull down Churches nor no dependence at all on Henry the 8. and if this Schisme could have prevented your Title with the divorce of one wife and the marrying of five more neither your Mother nor your self should ever have made Q. Elizabeth afraid with your right to the Crown of England And therefore although it were necessary in reason of State to continue the Doctrine of division as long as the fruit of that Doctrine did continue yet now the fruit of Schism is all spent and that Parenthefis of State is at an end there is no reason but that the old sentence may return againe and be continued in that sense as if the Parenthesis had been clean left out and that God had of purpose crossed the fleshly pretence of Schisme and raised your Majesty to restore it as your most wise and Catholike Progenitor King Henry the 7. did leave it 34. But perhaps the Schisme though it serve you to no use at all for your Title yet it doth much increase your authority and your wealth and therefore it cannot stand with your honour to farther the unity of the Church of Christ Truly those your most famous and renowned Ancestors that did part with their authority and their wealth to bestow them upon the Church of Christ and did curse and execrate those that should diminish them and take them away againe did not think so nor find it so and I would to God your Majesty were so powerfull and so rich as some of those Kings were that were most bountifull that way You are our Soveraigne Lord all our bodies and our goods are at your command but our souls as they belong not to your charge but by way of protection in Catholike Religion so they cannot increase your honour or authority but in a due subordination unto Christ and to those that supply his place in iis quae sunt Juris divini It was essentiall to heathen Emperors to be Pontifices as well as Reges because they were themselves Authors of their owne Religion But among Christians where Religion comes from Christ who was no worldly Emperor though above them all the Spirituall and Temporall Authority have two beginnings and therefore two supremes who if they be subordinate doe uphold and increase one another but if the temporall authority doe oppose the spirituall it destroyes it selfe and dishonours him from whom the spirituall authority is derived Heresie doth naturally spread it self like a Canker and needs little help to put it forward So that it is an easie matter for a mean Prince to bee a great man amongst Heretikes but it is an hard matter for a great King to * K. Cha. knows this to be true by wofull experience govern them When I have somtimes observed how hardly your Majesty could effect your most unreasonable desires amongst those that stand most upon your Supremacy I have been bold to be angrie but durst say nothing only I did with my selfe resolve for certaine that the Keyes were wont to do the Crowne more service when they were in the Armes of the Mâ—â—er then they can do now they are tied together with the Scepter and that your Title in spirituall affaires doth but serve other mens turnes and not your own 35. As for your wealth it is true that the Crown hath more pence paid unto it
same ship and it is not possible to weild so great a vessell against wind and tide And therefore although it do not concern your Majesty in your own estate yet if your Lords and your Commons and your Clergie do reap any great benefit by the Schisme it will be very hard for your Majesty to effect unity But if upon due examination there be no such matter then it is but the cry of the passengers who for want of experience are afraid where there is no danger and that can be no hinderance to any course your Majesty shall think to be best for the attaining of the haven 39. For my own part for the discharge of my duty and conscience I have considered of all their states â—nd can resolve my self that I have not prejudiced the state of any good Subject of yours but mine own in coming to the Catholike Church And first for your Lords and Nobles It is true that many of their Ancestors were allowed a very good share in the division of the Church when the Schism began and therefore it concerned them in reason of their state to maintaine the doctrine of division But I think there are very few in England either Lords or other now possest of Abbey lands which have not paid well for them and might not as well possesse them in the unity of the Church as in the Schisme And there was a Declaration made by the Pope to that purpose in Queen Maries dayes so that there is now no need at all to preach against the merits of good works nor the vertue of the Sacraments nor the Invocation of Saints nor the rest of that Popery that built Churches unlesse it be to help the Huguenots of France to pull them down 40. But perhaps the Commons of England do gain so much by the Schisme as they cannot abide to heare of unity Indeed when the Puritan Preacher hath called his flock about him and described the Church of Rome to be so ignorant so idolatrous and so wicked as he hath made himself believe she is then is he wont to congratulate his poor deceived Audience that they by the means of such good men as himself is are delivered from the darknesse idolatry and wickednesse of Popery and there is no man dare say a word or once mutter to the contrary But the People have heard these lies so long as most of them begin to be weary and the wisest of them cannot but wonder how these Puritan Preachers should become more learned and more honest then all the rest that lived in ancient times or that live still in Catholike Countries or then those in England whom these men are wont to condemne for Papists Neverthelesse I confesse there be many honest men and women amongst them that being carried away with prejudice and pretext of Scriptures do follow these Preachers out of zeale and devotion to the truth as my selfe did untill I knew it was but counterfeit And these good People if they might be so happy as to heare Catholikes answer for themselves and tell them the truth would be the most devout Catholikes of all other But most of the People were never led by Sermons if they were the Catholike Church is both able and willing to supply them far better then the Schisme But it was an opinion of wealth and liberty which made them break at the first and if they doe duly consider of it they are never the better for either of both but much the worse 41. For wealth the Puritan unthrift that looks for the overthrow of Bishops and Churches Cathedrall hopes to have his share in them if they would fall once and therefore he cannot chuse but desire to increase the Schisme that he may gain by it but the honest Protestant that can endure the State of the Church of England as it is could be content it were as it was for he should receive more benefit by it every way The poore Gentleman and Yeoman that are burdened with many Children may remember that in Catholike times the Church would have received and provided for many of their sonnes and daughters so as themselves might have lived and died in the service of God without posterity and have helped to maintain the rest of their Families which was so great a benefit to the Common-wealth both for the exoneration and provision thereof as no humane policie can procure the like The Farmer and Husbandman who labors hard to discharge his payments and hath little or nothing left at the years end to lay up for his Children that increase and grow upon him may remember that in Catholike times there were better penny-worths to be had when as the Clergie had a great part of the land in their hands who had no need to raise their Rents themselves and did what they might to make other Lords let at a reasonable rate which was also an inestimable benefit to the Commons So that whereas ignorant men carried with envy against the Clergie are wont to object the multitude of them and the greatnesse of their provisions they speak therein as much against themselves as is possible For the greater the number is of such men as are Mundo mortui the more is the exoneration of the Commons and the more the lands are of such as can have no propriety in them the better is the provision of the Commons For themselves can have no more but their food and regular apparell all the rest either remaines in the hands of the Tenants or returnes in Hospitality and relief to their Neighbours or is kept as in a living Exchequer for the service of Prince and Country in time of necessity So that the Commons do gain no wealth at all but rather lose much by the Schisme 42. And as for liberty they are indeed freed from the possibility of going to shrift that is of confessing their sinnes to God in the eare of a Catholike Priest and receiving comfort and counsell against their sinnes from God by the mouth of the same Priest which duty is required of Catholike People but only once in the yeare but performed by them with great comfort and edification very often so that a man may see and wonder to see many hundreds at one Altar to communicate every Sunday with great devotion and likely no day passe but divers do confesse are absolved and receive the blessed Sacrament The poor Commons of England are freed from this comfort neither is it possible unlesse their Ministers had the seat of Secrecie for them to use it And what is the liberty that they have instead thereof Surely the servants have great liberty against their Masters by this meanes the Children against their Parents the People against their Prelates the Subjects against their King and all against the Church of Christ that is against their own good and the Common salvation for without the use of this Sacrament neither can Inferiors be kept in awe but by the Gallowes
A MISSIVE TO His Majesty of Great Britain KING JAMES Written divers yeers since By Doctor CARIER Conteining the Motives of his Conversion to Catholike Religion VVith a notable fore-sight of the present distempers both in the Church and State of His Majesties Dominions And his Advice for the prevention thereof Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum dico ego opera mea Regi Psal 44. First printed at LIEGE and novv re-printed at PARIS VVith some Marginall Notes And a previous Discourse to the like purpose M. DC XLIX To the Reader of what Reformation soever in matters of Religion LIghting casually of late on the ensuing Letter written above thirty yeares ago by one of the most learned of his time among English Divines Doctor Carier Chaplain to King James and sent to His Majesty by him as a justification of his then deserting the Protestant Cause and conversion to the Catholike Church as a submissive testimony of his loyalty to his Soveraigne and as a faithfull Servants advice to his royall Master for his future safety both in this and the world to come I could not but sigh with a groaning Utinam that the King had entertained his suggestion with a more yeelding regard Had he been so happy I dare boldly pronounce the temporall State of his left Kingdome to say nothing of the other world and posterity had not been so deplorable as now with mournfull countenances we are forced to behold it Dr. Carier being a man born and bred from his infancy in the Protestant Profession orderly promoted to his academicall degree and above others indeared to his Prince for his greater proficiency in the literature and principles of the English Church .i. in the grounds of Luther or Calvin or both with others of the late Reformers of the old Christian world fore-saw to what tragicall conclusions their premises did dispose and what Cockatrices would be conuaturally hatch'd out of their eggs when time served to sit long upon them he foresaw they would certainely prove destructive to Church and State where ever they found good acceptance Nor can I say the Doctor was a Prophet by that fore-sight more then he who seeing the heavens over-cast with clouds prognosticates a tempest or he who seeing Gunpowder enough laid under the corner stones of a building and the match fired fore-tells a quick subversion of that Fabrick A man becomes not a Prophet by such a prediction but contrarily he is to be esteemed short-sighted and of little consideration that sees not those necessary effects if he sees the cause Take first for example sake those Doctrines of your first Generall in the late Reformation Luther in his Comments upon S. Paul to the Galat. in his bookes de libertate Christiana and de seculari potestate That Christians are not tied to the observance of the Decalogue but freed by faith from all Laws That among Christians there must be no Superiority That there is no hope of salvation or safety as long as the Common-wealth is governed by humane or civill Lawes That God is to be prayed unto that Magistrates be not obeyed by their Subjects These Doctrines are impugned and execrated by all Catholikes as their Books do every where testifie but take them I say and digest them once for truths and then tell me what sequeles will naturally follow or rather what will not follow tell me if you can to what end Ecclesiasticall or Civill Lawes are enacted what obedience can Princes or Magistrates of either sort expect from those they count their Subjects who scoure in his owne possessions what curb for vice To those points of reforming Doctrine add his scornfull sawcy censure of temporall Princes in the cited book de Seculari Potest Scire debetis quod ab initio Mundi rara admodum avis est princeps prudens ad huc multò rarior Princeps probus sunt communiter maximè fatui ac pessimi nebulones super terram sunt Lictores Carnifices Dei It is a thing that all ought to take notice of that from the beginning of the world a prudent Prince hath been a very rare bird and much rarer a Prince morally honest they are most commonly the veriest fools and greatest knaves on earth they are the Catchpoles and Hangmen of God Whether this proceeding as Doctrine from the mouth and pen of one reputed a reforming Saint be not apt to breed disrespect of Princes in their Subjects and to stir these to disobedience contempt and rebellion against them I appeale to others judgement Adde again his spirited incouragements against Bishops in his Bulla contra ordinem Ecclesiasticum Quicunque opem ferunt saith he corpus bona famam in hoc impendunt ut Episcopatus Devastentur c. And again Evangelium quocunque venit oportet ut tumultuetur nisi id faciat non est verum Whosoever afford their assistance and imploy their strength goods and credit to wast and destroy Bishopricks and to root out Episcopall Government they are the beloved children of God and true Christians obedient to God and resisting the Ordinances of the Devill and on the contrary side whosoever maintaine E-Episcopall Government and obey it they are the Ministers of Satan wheresoever the Gospell comes it must breed tumults unlesse it do so it is a signe it is not the right or true More might be added out of his booke Contra Regem Angliae of his insulting foule language against Princes Church and Bishops but what I have already produced is sufficient to demonstrate that one conversant in his Schoole must quickly discover him altogether destructive of all order in Church and State But before I go any further I cannot but wonder that the pretended Bishops in England did not see themselves Mar-Prelates I mean destroyers of their owne Government put Deane and Chapter to boot and consequently of their Church whilest they sided so strongly with Luther and magnified his reformation which to do was co ipso as you may read in his words utterly to abolish Episcopacy and to cut their owne throats O insensari◠O senslesse and unwise men what bewitcht you into so blind a stupidity as not to see so palpable an error and contradiction in your practise Secondly take this Dogmaticall point of your other grand Reformer Calvin all Catholikes declaime against it as most execrable blasphemy touched by D. Carier in his Letter That God predestinates to evill That he is the Author willer and promoter of what men call evill as well as of those they call good actions and then tell me what rationall check you can find against any crime how enormous soever be it treason or rebellion against Church or Prince with the slaughter of both be it blasphemy against God or Deicide it self as far as humane malice can reach towards it hath not the perpetrator a ready protection to justifie his fact God predestinated him unto it God would have it so who must not obey God or who may lawfully resist
his decrees tell me again what Church or Prince or private person can promise himselfe security whilst every villaine hath that principle to justifie his attempt against them These and the like Doctrines dispersed up and downe in the written works of the late Reformers obvious to be met withall both in the Authors themselves and in others that write of them did D. Carier ponder and in them saw cleerly the effects that by an unavoidable connexion as long as the causes were kept in their vigour were to flow out of them and these were the overthrow of Church and State Nor did he see these effects only in their cause but really extant in themselves he saw the Germans till then commended for loyall to their Princes and obedient to their spirituall Pastors presently upon Luthers firing and blowing the coales with a pretence of Reformation divided among themselves in open Rebellion against their Liege Emperour Charles 5. without regard to Ecclesiasticall Superiours He saw their Churches wasted and prophaned and mens manners in a moment altered into worse he saw the Genevean tumults against their true Prince and Bishop their Reformer Calvin that so he might be more absolutely independent of all and chiefe over all being the Incendiary Nor can I thinke him ignorant of the Councell held at Geneva in the yeer 1560. for the murdering of the King and Queen of France the Queen Mother with the royall issue the Catholike Peers Magistrates of the Kingdom the two great Reformers Calvin and Beza being Authors and principalls in the Conspiracy as Bolsecus in the life of Calvin makes appeare out of a Letter of the said Calvin to his trusty friend Viretus he saw the ruinous devastations that fell upon the flourishing Kingdome of France from the same fiery spirit of Reformation which Herod-like was most malicious against the venerable Antiquities of the nation He saw again to omit others the rebellion of the Scots against their Soveraigne Queen Mary our present Kings Grandmother who afterwards by the arm and axe of the old cause was beheaded at Fodringham Castle in England the common Hang-man of London by publike authority O eternall shame to the English and Scottish Nation imbruing his hands in her royall blood And observing how hand in hand reall destruction rebellion with their issue out-rages and their sister preâ—ence of Reformation traversed other Countreyes he saw that one could not stand long parted from the other throughout King James his Dominions so gave him a seasonable warning of it and as a provident Noe shewed his Majesty a safe Arke to prevent the Deluge if he pleased But to the present woe of his posterity and their loyall Subjects through ill private choice or counsell from others he neglected the wholesome advice of his knowing and faithfull servant the Doctor Now though the publishing of this Epistolar Treatise comes too late for the effect first intended to King James yet seeing the old principles still standing and the authority of their founders still maintained by the Reformed Church of England And againe seeing our Kingdome in blood from Sea to Sea with wounds inflicted doubled and redoubled by them though few reflecting whence the blowes do originally proceed I thought it no ill office of a Patriot though now in a kind of exile to endeavour a stop to my Countreyes evills as far forth as the reading of a sheet or two of printed paper might contribute thereunto by presenting all whom it may concern and whom doth it not concern with a fresh view of D. Cariers advice The old proverb out of the Prophet Isay cap. 28. v. 19. is Vexatio dat intellectum vexation gives understanding it sometimes cures mad men and brings them to themselves againe Perhaps the smart of so many blowes may make men reflect whence they have good and bad derived unto them and render them more capable to regard the Doctors remedy then whilst they were blinded with fulnesse ease and prosperity His remedie in a word is an obedient return of all unto that Church whence those Reformers rebelliously apostated the charge of which Church is to execrate to the pit of hell the blasphemies and seditious principles of Luther and Calvin to reduce all to a sound saveing beliefe with a good conscience to order all into their due postures of obedience to temporall and spirituall Superiours and in a word not to live prophanely as men destitute of the knowledge of the true God nor thirsting one anothers blood nor invading one anothers rights as Wolves and Tygers but as the Apostle saith Tit. cap. 2. v. 12. sobriè justè piè soberly for our selves justly towards our neighbour and piously to God or as the true patterne of all Justice Christ Jesus hath taught us reddentes quae sunt Caesaris Caesari quae sunt Dei Deo By this you have one reason why D. Cariers Letter is republished Another reason is to shew the world that the late conversion of D. Tho. Vane late Chaplaine to the Kings Majesty that now is and of Dean Cressey so much talked of in England and the more by reason of their learned bookes printed to satisfie all why they became Roman Catholikes and of many other prime wits of our Universities some whereof are hereafter particularly mentioned who have lately trodden the same paths utterly forsaking thir former Tenets in Religion not for temporall gain as all men know unlesse it be of poverty and persecution is not a thing new strange or to be wondred at When D. Carier listed himself into the Militia of the Roman Church choosing rather as Moses did in Exodus to be afflicted with the true Israelites then prosper among the Aegyptians and to be according to the Psalmists Dialect an abject in the House of God rather then inhabite the Tabernacles of sinners there were many circumstances that might make some inconsiderate people to wonder at it The Church then called Protestant whereof it seems he counted himselfe a member was at that time most flourishing in England they had a visible supreme head of above forty yeares standing without interruption after the title was first taken by Henry the eight to legitimate his Marriage with Anno Bolen whilest his first wife lived it ceased during the reigne of his daughter Q. Mary and so was interrupted in whom by Oath they acknowledged the supremest power in all things under heaven They gloried in their Prelats Bishops not found in any reformed Churches out of their Kings Dominions they had some colourable pretence to a succession of Ministeriall Ordinations and Missions from the Apostles and Christ They thought they had their Church well and properly marked by thirty nine Articles They boasted of a Liturgie consecrated with the blood of Martyrs more compleat for all uses and satisfactory to the people thou any of the neighbouring Reformations injoyed They had differences of daies some kept holy others fasted They used some solemnities in the administration
of the Catholikes Where the Church afterwards called the Lutheran or Reformed was in the yeare of Christ 1512. when Luther was an Augustine Frier in his Monastery a Catholike in communion with the Pope of Rome Who was then a Protestant In what Countrey did he live What was his name the question is not Who was then a Protestant in name without asking them we know by Histories that the Lutherans had the name of Protestants some yeares after the Reformation begun from their Covenants and Protestations first made at Spire and afterwards at Smalcald in Germany when finding their party growing strong they began to take head against their Catholike Soveraigne Charles the fifth Nor was the question who was then before Luthers forsaking his cloistre and former Religion opposite to the Church of Rome or of a different beliefe from hers This question had been easily answered by naming the Hussits Wicklesians Berengarians Arrians and others which for particular points of Doctrine were as different from Luther as he from the Catholike but the meaning of the question was and still is Who did then believe all those points of Faith and onely those which Luther or any other after-Reformer did afterwards believe and wherein they differed from the beliefe of Catholikes which they pretended to reforme this hath been from the beginning and still is a tormenting question to all of the Reformed Churches and though daily asked by Catholikes Writers and Discoursers yet to this day could never be answered with any satisfaction or probability worthy a Schollers pen. If now in this November 1648. I should aske who is a Protestant in England .i. one holding all those points of faith and only those what other definition of a Protestant to give I know not but desire the learned Protestants to agree in it and to set it downe that he who desires to be one of their number may know what he desires which Luther the supposed Grandfather of Protestancy and Enemy to Catholikes professed to believe perhaps it would prove as troublesome or unsatisfiable a Quaere as the former yea if I should aske what three or four Schollers speaking of those that are come to some eminency in learning and to have some conceit of themselves for it are to be found in the Kingdome justly agreeing in all matters of faith yea to come closer to the purpose if the question were what one man setting the Catholikes aside is there to be found of the same opinion now in matters of saith that he was of on the second of November 1640 the day before the present Parliament began perhaps it would put you to a long search before you met a sure satisfactory answer Lest you should think I speake too much at random consider I beseech you how frequently you meet with men seriously and deliberately saying Pox on it rather then hazard my life liberty or fortunes I 'le be of any profession I 'le keep my conscience to my self but I 'le never lose my land for want of outward compliance or conformity with the prevailing Multitude And really their practice both in Religion and Loyalty is squared by that Dictamen Of what Religion I pray you do you count these Are they Protestants Weighing them in the true scale of the Sanctuary I take them to be Nullisidians indifferent for Christianity or the Turkish Turbant in evident state of damnation for their soules and that Tyre and Sidon may escape with a more remisse damnation in the day of Judgment then they Mat. ch 11. v. 22. Consider secondly the multitude of Sects lately sprung up in the Kingdom what divisions and subdivisions are there known to be of the old Anabaptists besides the two main Factions of Presbyterians and Independents new things and names that have almost quite abolished their Protestant Progenitor their zeale and number ebbing and flowing by successe of the Sword Some you know are servent Zelots of the Scottish Reformation others detest it as pestiferous and hereticall Some retain the old denomination of Protestants yet have much of the new Modell Some hold Episcopacy essentiall to the true Protestant Church others deny it holding Bishops altogether unnecessary to the reformed Churches and demonstrating it by the not being and non-use of them in any Reformation even from the beginning out of the King of Englands Dominions Some againe as you know either of curiosity or to prevent Penalties frequent the Parish Churches on Sundayes and on other dayes frequent Conventicles of another Communion utterly detesting that of the Parish Church as superstitious or hereticall and so on the Week daies outwardly disavow the profession they avowed on the Sunday Consider thirdly the little regard that is now given to the 39. Articles heretofore the distinctive difference of the old English Protestant And fourthly the questioning of the Apostles Creed which implies a doubt of its truth at least in some points Before this Parliament it was every where used throughout the Kingdome as an outward profession of every ones beliefe Now it is questioned and consequently doubted of by the Representative Body of the whole Kingdome and their Synodicall Divines Add to this the old true saying Dubius in fide infidelis est he that doubts in matters of faith is no right believer and then draw you the consequence Put all together and you will see that the questions I made you are not so easily answerable as perhaps you thought at the first S. Augustine lib. de haeres numbereth ninety severall Heresies so many Reformations were they sprung up betwixt Christs time and his i. in about four Centuries So many more rose betwixt S. Augustines daies and Luthers i. 180. Heresies in 1500. yeares according to the observation of others Betwixt Luthers apostacie from S. Austins Rule and defection from the Catholike Church in the yeare 1517. and the year 1595. which is but the intervall of 78 modern Authors Staphilus Hosius Pâ—ateolus and others do reckon 270 new Sects all Reformations of what was some daies or houres before But if any man would number all the Reformations or Sects that these last 8. yeares have hatcht in England perhaps the probablest rule of his Arithmetick would be quot capita tot sententiae as many opinions in matters of Religion as heads of men no common name being to be found sit to comprehend our Sectaries but that of a Suist one that followes his own dreams or fancy in choice of Scripture in the interpretation of it and in every particular concerning Religion without profession of agreement or communion which any follow unlesse it be the communion of non-agreement The Scrofa Alba of Reformation hath been so fertile these later dayes that to use Stanislaus Roscius his words Lib. de Atheismis Errans nescit quid velit neec quid nolit The erring Reformer doth neither know what he would nor what he would not let it be but new it sufficeth S. Hilarie lib. ad Constantium Constantem Imperat.
for our constancy to the profession of our forefathers from which had we stincht but the breadth of a naile and taken upon us some new denomination we had been as hard to be found out as other Sectaries and as free from penalties as they which forefathers of ours living before Luthers dayes in communion with the Catholikes of France Spaine Italic and all the Christian world as we do now did deliver faithfully it stood upon their salvation so to do unto their children those of the rest of the Christian World did the like unto their children that Depositum of Christianity which they had received from their predecessors and they from theirs by a continued successive line of Tradition from the Apostles and Christ no reforming enemy being able to shew when the Catholike Faith now professed by us and persecuted in us began in the world nor when the successive Tradition we and all Catholikes pretend unto was intercepted an infallible argument of our persecuted Religions being from the Apostles Christ More then sufficient cause I say for all to return to the Catholike Church setled by Christ the divine Architect upon a rock never to be prevailed against by humane or Devills powers never subject to fall from her self in points of faith nor consequently to be reformed in them from which Church your first Reformers fell Ex nobis exeuntes one of the marks by which we are to discern Hereticks as the Apostles teach us in their Acts chap. 15. ver 24. going out from among us to gain sensuall liberty to themselves to be revenged on their superiors or for private by-ends troubling the world with words subverting mens soules without commission or mandate from any superior for their facts or pretended Reformations And finally cause enough for the world to reflect how ill advised they were in times past and what an ill president they shewed posterity in their former greedy acceptance of new reforming spirits so prejudiciall to saving truth to orderly government in Church and State and to particular mens properties And withall to take warning for the future not to remit the work of Reformation even in things subject thereunto as Ceremonies humane practices manners and the like to every giddy pretending spirit if you do so you shall certainly have more holes made then mended but to such as are lawfully ordered and commissioned for it by the visible Church the pillar and ground of truth that all things be done according to her prescript honestè secundum ordinem 1 Cor. 14. 40. But fearing lest I should make this Prefatory Discourse like the gates of the City Myndus or like a great portall to a little house I 'le first present you with the names of some late Converts and then deteine you no longer from my promised re-impression of Doctor Cariers learned Letter to King James which is here rendred verbatim according to the Originall excepting onely the addition of some few marginall Notes I desire you to read it with attention reflecting from those to these times and not permit your mind to bee so prejudicate as to give censure before you have well pondered the matter the scope of which mutato tempore is the same with this which comes from one who unfeignedly would have all men saved and come to the knowledge of and imbrace the truth N. STRANGE From Paris 1. Novemb. 1648. stylo novo PSAL. 2. Et nunc Reges intelligite erudimini qui judicatis terram Attendite disciplinam nè pereatis The names of some who have lately been Ministers or Vniversity men in England and Scotland and are now converted to the Catholike Faith Tho. Vane Doctor of Divinity of Christs Colledge Cambridge lately Chaplain Extraordinary to His Majesty and Parson of Crayford in Kent Hugh Paulin de Cressy of Cambridge lately Prebend of Windsore in England and Deane of Laghlin in Ireland now entred into the Religious Order of S. Benedict at Doway Hen. Ireson of All-Soules Oxford Doctor of the Civill Law N. Read of New Colledge Oxford Doctor of the Civill Law Mr. Rich. Nicholls Bachelor of Divinity of Peter-house Cambridge Mr. Rich. Crashaw Master of Arts of Peter-house Cambridge now Secretary to a Cardinall in Rome well known in England for his excellent and ingenious Poems Mr. William Rowlands Minister of S. Margarets Westminster Master of Arts of Exeter Colledge Oxford Mr. Tho. Normington Master of Arts of Pembroke Hall Cambridge now in Italy a very able man in divers Sciences Mr. Joyner Bachelor of Arts and Fellow of S. Mary Magdelens Colledge Oxford Mr. Blakiston Bachelor of Arts of Cambridge who died last yeare in the English Colledge at Rome Mr. Edward Barker of Caius Colledge Cambridge Bachelor of Arts. Mr. Eaton of Cambridge now Priest in the English Colledge at Rome Mr. Peter Glu Minister of Ballioll Colledge in Oxford now Priest Mr. Jackson Minister Mr. Cooper Minister Mr. Daniel Minister now entred into a Religious Order Of Scots Mr. John Chrighton a famous man in his Country late Preacher of Parson in Scotland afterwards eminent in Languedos and lastly Chaplain to the Marquesse of Ormond Mr. Andrew Youngston late Regent of Aberdein now in a Colledge in Spain Mr. William Simple late Regent in Glascow now also in Spain Mr. Hugh Rosse late Regent in Aberdein now also in Spain Mr. Tho. Johnston c. Besides these there are divers both learned and unlearned lately entred into Communion with the Church of Rome whose names you may more easily learne then I discreetly publish Nor do I doubt but one more commerced with England Scotland and Ireland with other parts of France and with the promises of the low Countries might easily furnish you with a larger Catalogue of Convertites of as good fame for their learning and good parts in your Universities and in their respective countries as these I have been bold to name their understanding being now better disposed to discern and reflect upon their former errours by the palpable confusion and unconsciable effects they saw e-every where sprouted and sprouting out of the late Reformation begun by Luther Errata in the Preface PAge 6. line 13. read pretence of p. 12. l. 6. r. the bread l. ult r. of a little ERRATA PAge 3. line 28. read title p. 7. l. 13. dele one at p. 11. l. 15. dele in p. 21. l. 24. r. swinge over p. 23. l. 13. r. in these p. 39. l. ult r. reasonable Other lesse materiall faults with some false pointings the discerning Reader will easily discover and correct Most Excellent and renowned Soveraign IT is not unknown to all that know me in England that for these many years I have had my health very ill And therfore having from time to time used all the meanes and medicines that England could afford last of all by the advice of my Physitians I have made it my humble suit unto your Majesty that I might travell unto the Spa for the use of those waters
purposing with my self that if I could be well I would go from thence to Heydelberg and spend this winter there But when I was gone from the Spa to Aquisgrane and so to Colein I found my self rather worse then better then I was before And therefore I resolved with my self that it was high time for me to settle my thoughts upon another world And seeing I was out of hope to enjoy the health of my body at the last to look to the health of my soule from whence both Art and experience teach me that all my bodily infirmities have their beginning For if I could by any study have proved Catholike Religion to be false or by any means have professed it to be true in England I doubt not but the contentment of my soule would have much helped the health of my body But the more I studied the Scriptures and most ancient Fathers to confute it the more I was compelled to see the truth thereof And the more I laboured to reconcile the Religion of England thereunto the more I was disliked suspected and condemned as a common enemy And if I would have been either ignorant or silent I might perhaps with the pleasures and commodities of my preferments have in time cast off the care of Religion But seeing my study forced me to know and my place compelled me to preach I had no way to avoid my grief nor any means to indure it I have therefore apprehended the opportunity of my Licence to travell that I may withdraw my self for a while from the sight and offence of those in England who hate Catholike Religion and freely and fully enioy the presence of our B. Saviour in the Unity of his Catholike Church wherein I will never forget at the daily Oblation of his most B. Body and Blood to lift up my heart unto him and to pray for the admission of your Majesty thereunto And in the meane time I have thought it my duty to write this short Treatise with my own hand wherein before I publish my self to the world I desire to shew to your Majesty these two things 1. The means of my conversion unto Catholike Religion 2. The hopes I have to do your Majesty no ill service therein I humbly crave your Majesties pardon and will rest ever Your Majesties faithfull and truly devoted Servant B. Carier Liege Decemb. 12. 1613. CHAP. I. The meanes of my Conversion to the Catholike Religion I Must confesse to Gods honour and my owne shame that if it had been in my power to choose I would never have been a Catholike I was born and brought up in Schisme and was taught to abhor a Papist as much as any Puritan in England doth I had ever a great desire to justifie the Religion of the State and had great hope to advance my self thereby Neither was my hope ever so great as by your Majesties favour it was at the very instant of my resolution for Catholike Religion and the preferment I had together with the honour of your Majesties service was greater by much then without your Majesties favour I look for in this world But though I was as ambitious of your Maiesties favour and as desirous of the honours and pleasures of my Countrey as any man that is therein yet seeing that I was not like any long while to injoy them and if I should for my private commodity speak or write or do any thing against the honour of Christ his Church and against the evidence of my owne conscience I must shortly appeare before the same Christ in the presence of the same his Church to give an account thereof Therfore I neither durst any further pursue my own desire of honour nor hazard my soule any farther in the justification of that Religion which I saw was impossible to be justified by any such reason as at the day of Judgement would go for payment and that it may appeare that I have not respected any thing so much in this world as my duty to your Majestie and my love to my friends and Countrey I humbly beseech your Majesty to give me leave as briefly as I can to recount unto you the whole course of my studies and indeavours in this kind even from the beginning of my life untill this present 2. I was born in the Year 1566. being the son of Ant. Carier a learned and devout man who although he were a Protestant and a Preacher yet he did so season me with the Principles of Piety and Devotion as I could not choose but ever since be very zealous in matters of Religion Of him I learned that all false Religions in the world were but Policies invented of men for the temporall service of Princes and States and therefore that they were divers and alwaies changeable according to the divers reasons and occasions of State But true Christian Religion was a truth revealed of God for the eternall salvation of soules and therefore was like to God alwaies one and the same So that all the Princes and States in the world never have been nor shall be able to overthrow that Religion This to me seemed an excellent ground for the finding out of that Religion wherein a man might find rest for his soule which cannot be satisfied with any thing but eternall truth 3. My next care then was after I came to years of discretion by all the best meanes I could to informe my selfe whether the Religion of England were indeed the very same which being prefigured and prophesied in the Old Testament was perfected by our B. Saviour and delivered to his Apostles and Disciples to continue by perpetuall succession in his visible Church untill his coming againe or whether it were a new one for private purposes of Statesmen invented and by humane Lawes established Of this I could not chuse but make some doubt because I heard men talk much in those dayes of the change of Religion which was then lately made in the beginning of Q. Elizabeths Reign 4. I was sorry to heare of change and of a new Religion seeing me thought in reason if true Religion were eternall then new Religion could not be true But yet I hoped that the Religion of England was not a change or new Religion but a restitution of the old and that the change was in the Church of Rome which in processe of time might perhaps grow to be superstitious and idolatrous and therefore that England had done well to leave the Church of Rome and to reform it self and for this purpose I did at my leisure and best oportunity as I came to more judgment read over the Chronicles of England and observed all the alterations of Religion that I could find therein But when I found there that the present Religion of England was a plain * What then is it now change and change upon change and that there was no cause at all of the first but onely that K. Henry 8. was desirous to change his
in the beginning and I remember M. Causabon told me when I brought him out of France that his Errand was nothing else but to mediate peace betwixt the Church of Rome and the Church of England Therefore I thought before I would submit my selfe to the Church of Rome I would write to M. Causabon such a Letter as hee might shew unto your Mdjesty containing such conditions as I thought might satisfie your Majesty if they were performed by the Church of Rome The copie of which Letter is too long here to set downe But when Mr. Causabon answered me that he knew your Majesty was resolved to have no society with the Church of Rome upon any condition whatsoever and that it would be my undoing if those my Letters should come to your Majesties hands or of those that bare the sway I began to despaire of my returne into England unlesse I would overthrow both the health of my body and the quiet of my mind and either utterly damne my own soule or greatly indanger not only my living and credit but my life it selfe also by reason of your Majesties displeasure and the severity of the Statutes made and in force against Catholikes and Catholike Religion 16. There is a Statute in England made by King Henry the 8. to make him supreme head of the Church in spirituall and Ecclesiasticall Causes which Statute injoynes all the Subjects of England on paine of death to believe and to sweare they do believe that it is true And yet all the world knowes if King Henry the 8. could have gotten the Pope to divorce Q. Katherine that he might marry Anne Boleigne that Statute had never been made by him and if that Title had not enabled the King to pull down Abbeyes and Religious Houses and give them to Lay-men the Lords and Commons of that time would never have suffered such a Statute to be made This Statute was continued by Q. Elizabeth to serve her own turne and it is confirmed by your Majesty to satisfie other men And yet your Majesty yeelds the Church of Rome to be the Mother Church and the Bishop of Rome to be the chiefe Bishop or Primate of all the Westerne Churches which I doe also verily believe and therefore I do verily thinke he hath or ought to have some spirituall Jurisdiction in England And although in my younger daies the fashion of the world made me swear as other men did for which I pray God forgive me yet I ever doubted and am now resolved that no Christian man can take that * .i. Of Supremacy Oath with a safe conscience neither will I ever take it to gaine the greatest preferment in the world 17. There is another Statute in England made by Q. Elizabeth and confirmed by your Majesty which makes it death for any Englishman to be in England being made a Priest by authority derived or pretended to be derived from the Bishop of Rome I cannot believe that I am a Priest at all unlesse I be made by authority derived from Gregory the great from whence all the Bishops in England have their being if they have any being at all 18. There is another Statute in like manner made and confirmed that it is death to be reconciled by a Catholike Priest to the Church of Rome I am perswaded that the Church of Rome is our Mother Church and that no man in England can be saved that continues wilfully out of the visible unity of that Church and therefore I cannot chuse but perswade the people to be reconciled thereunto if possibly they can 19. There is another Statute in like manner made and confirmed that it is death to exhort the people of England to Catholike Romane Religion I am perswaded that the Religion prescribed and practised by the Church of Rome is the true Catholike Religion which I will particularly justifie and make plaine from point to point if God give time and oportunity and therefore I cannot chuse but perswade the people thereunto It may be these are not all severall Statutes some of them may be members of the same for I have not my bookes about me to search but I am sure all of them do make such felonies and treasons as were the greatest vertues of the Primitive Church and such as I must needs confesse my selfe I cannot chuse if I live in England but indeavour to be guilty of and then it were easie to find Puritanes enough to make a Jury against me and there would not want a Justice of Peace to give a sentence and when they had done that which is worse then the persecution it selfe they would all sweare solemnly that Doctor Carier was not put to death for Catholike Religion but for Felony and Treason I have no hope of protection against the cruelty of those Lawes if your Majesty be resolved upon no conditions whatsoever to have any society at all or communion with the Church of Rome And therefore whilst the case so stands I dare not returne home againe But I cannot be altogether out of hope of better newes before I die as long as I do believe that the Saints in heaven do rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner to Christ and do know that your Majesty by your birth hath so great an interest in the Saints of heaven as you shall never cease to have untill you cease to be the son of such a mother as would rejoyce more then all the rest for your conversion Wherefore I assure my selfe that she with all the rest doe pray that your Majesty before you die may be Militant in the Communion of that Church wherein they are Triumphant And in this hope I am gone before to joyne my prayers with theirs in the unity of the Catholike Church And do humbly pray your Majesty to pardon me for doing that which was not in my power to avoid and to give me leave to live where I hope shortly to die unlesse I may hope to do your Majesty service and without the prejudice of any honest man in England to see some unity betwixt the Church of England and her mother the Church of Rome And now having declared the meanes of my conversion to Catholike Religion I will briefly also shew unto you the hopes I have to do your Majesty no ill service therein CHAP. II. The hopes I have to doe your Majestie no ill service in being Catholike MY first hope that your Majesty will accept of that for the best service I can do you which doth most further the glory of our Blessed Saviour and my own salvation Indeed there are Kingdomes in the world where the chiefe care of the Governor is Non quà m bonis sed quà m subditis regnent such were the heathen Kingdoms which S. Augustine describes in his 2. de Civit. Dei cap. 20. In such Common-wealths the way to be good Subjects is not to be good men but to serve the times and the turns of them that beare the sway
whatsoever they are But if it be true as some holy learned Fathers teach that in a well-ordered Government there is cadem faelicitas unius hominis ac totius civitaiis then I am sure that it must follow that in a Common-wealth truly Christian there is eadem virtus boni viri ac boni Civis And therefore being a Minister and Preacher of England if I will rather serve your Majesty then my self and rather procure the good of your Kingdome then my own preferment I am bound in duty to respect and seek for those things above all other that may advance the honour of God and the salvation of my own soule and the soules of those who do any way belong to my charge and being sufficiently resolved that nothing can more advance the honour of our Saviour and the common salvation then to be in the unity of his Church I have done you the best service I could at home by preaching peace and reconciliation and being not able for the malice of the times to stand any longer in the breach at home I think it safest in this last cast to look to mine own game and by my daily Prayers and dying to doe your Majestie the same service in the unity of the Church which by my daily preaching and living I did indeavour to do in the midst of the Schisme 2. And though it be sufficient for a man of my profession to respect only matters of heaven and of another world yet because this world was made for that other I have not regarded my owne estate that I might respect your Majesties therein and after long and serious meditation which Religion might most honour your Majesty even in this world I have conceived undoubted hope that there is no other Religion that can procure true honour and security to your Majesty and your Posterity in this world but the true Catholike Romane Religion which is the very same whereby all your glorious Predecessors have been advanced and protected on earth and are everlastingly blessed in heaven 3. The first reason of my hope is the promise of God himselfe to blesse and honour those that blesse his Church and honour him and to * No question but this will come home in the end to the Church-Prophaners of our times curse and confound those that curse his Church and dishonour him which he hath made good in all ages There was never any Man or City or State or Empire so preserved and advanced as they that have preserved the unity and advanced the prosperity of the Church of Christ nor ever any been made more miserable and inglorious then they that have dishonoured Christ and made havock of his Church by Schism and Heresie 4. If I had leisure and bookes it were easie for me to inlarge this point with a long inumeration of particulars But I think it needlesse because I cannot call to mind any example to the contrary except it be the State of Q. Elizabeth or some one or two other lately fallen from the unity of the Catholike Church or the State of the great Turk that doth still persecute the Church of Christ and yet continues in great glory in this world But when I consider of Q. Elizabeth I find in her many singularities she was a woman and a Maiden Queen which gave her manie advantages of admiration she was the last of her race and needed not care what became of the world after her owne daies were ended She came upon the Remainders of Devotion and Catholike Religion which like a Bowle in his course or an Arrow in his flight would go on for a while by the force of the first mover and she had a practise of maintaining warres among her neighbours which became a woman well that she might be quiet at home And whatsoever prosperity or honour there was in her daies or is yet remaining in England I cannot but ascribe to the Church of Rome and to Catholike Religion which was for many hundred yeares together the first mover of that Government and is still in every setled Kingdome and hath yet left the steps and shadow thereof behind it which in all likelihood cannot continue many yeares without a new supply from the fountain 5. As for the honor and greatnesse of the Turke and other Infidells as it reacheth no farther then this life so it hath no beginning from above this world and if we In Luc. 4. alibi may believe S. Ambrose those honors are conferred rather by Gods permission then by his donation being indeed ordained and ordered by his providence but for the sins of the people conferred by the Prince that rules in the ayre It is true the Turkish Empire hath now continued a long time but they have other principles of State to stand upon The continuall Guard of 100000. Souldiers whereof most of them know no parents but the Emperor The Tenure of all his Subjects who hold all in capite ad voluntatem Domini by the service of the sword their injoyned silence and reverence in matters of Religion and their facility in admitting other Religions as well as their owne to the hope of salvation and to tolerate them so that they be good Subjects These and such like are principles of great importance to increase an Empire and to maintaine a Temporall State But there is no State in Christendome that may indure these principles unlesse they meane to turne Turks also which although some be willing to do yet they will neither hold in Capite nor hold their peace in Religion nor suffer their King to have such a guard about him nor admit of Catholike Religion so much as the Turk doth 6. It is most true which I gladly write and am ready with all the honour I can of your Majesty to speak that I thinke there was never any Catholike King in England that did in his time more imbrace and favour the true bodie of the Church of England then your Majesty doth that shadow thereof which is yet left and my firm hope is that this your desire to honour our Blessed Saviour in the shadow of the Church of England will move him to honour your Majesty so much as not to suffer you to die out of the body of his true Catholike Church and in the mean time to let you understand that all honour that is intended to him by Schisme Heresie doth redound to his great dishonour both in respect of his Reall and of his Mysticall Body 7. For his Reall Bodie it is not as the Ubiquitaries would have it every where as well without the Church as within but only where himselfe would have it and hath ordained that it should be and that is onely amongst his Apostles and Disciples and their Successors in the Catholike Church to whom he delivered his Sacraments and promised to continue with them untill the worlds end So that though Christ be present in that Schisme by the power of
his Deity for so he is present in hell also yet by the grace of his humanity by participation of which grace onely there is hope of salvation he is not present there at all except it be in corners and prisons and places of persecution And therefore whatsoever honour is pretended to be done to Christ in Schisme and Heresie is not done to him but to his utter enemies 8. And for his mysticall Body which is his Church and Kingdome there can be no greater diâ—honor done to Christ then to maintain schisme and dissention therein What would your Majesty think of any Subjects of yours that should go about to raise civill dissention or warres in your Kingdome and of those that should fâ—ster and adhere unto such men It is the fashion of all Rebells when they are in Armes to * You know who have done so of late pretend the safety of the King and the good of the Countrey but pretend what they will you cannot account such men any better then Traytors And shall we beleeve that our B. Saviour the King of Kings doth sit in heaven and either not see the practises of those that under colour of serving him with Reformation do nothing else but serve their owne turnes and distract his Church that is his Kingdome on earth with sedition Or shall we think that he will not in time revenge his wrong Verily he sees it and doth regard it and will in time revenge it 9. But I hope and pray that he may not revenge it upon you nor yours but rather that he will shew that your desire to honour him is accepted of him and therefore will move you to honour your selfe and your posterity with bestowing the same your favour upon his Church in the unity thereof which you do now bestow in the Schisme and that he will reward both you and yours for the same according to his promise not only with everlasting glory in heaven but also with long continued temporall honour and security in this world And this is the first reason of my hope grounded upon the promise of God The second Reason of my hope that Catholike Religion may be a great meanes of honour and security to your Majesties posterity is taken from the consideration of your neighbours the Kings and Princes of Christendome among whom there is no State ancient and truly honourable but only those that are Catholike The reason whereof I take to be because the Rules of Catholike Religion are eternall universall and constant unto themselves and withall so consonant unto Majestie and greatnesse as they have made and preserved the Catholike Church most reverent and venerable throughout the world for these 1600. yeares and those Temporall States that have been conformable thereunto have been alwaies most honourable and so are like to continue untill they hearken unto Schisme And as for those that have rejected and opposed the Rules of Catholike Religion they have been driven in short time to degenerate and become either tyrannicall or popular your Majestie I know doth abhor Tyranny but if Schisme and Heresie might have their full swing cover the Seas the very shadow and Reliques of Majesty in England should be utterly * God grant this prove not too true defaced and turned into Helvetian or Belgian popularity For they that make no conscience to prophane the Majesty of God and his Saints in the Church will after they feel their strength make no bones to violate the Majesty of the King and his Children in the Common-wealth 10. I know well that the Puritanes of England the Huguenots of France and the Gueses of Germany together with the rest of the Calvinists of all sorts are a great faction of Christendome and they are glad to have the pretence of so great a Majesty to be their chief and of your posterity to be their hope but I cannot be perswaded that they ever will or can joyne together to advance your Majesty or your Children farther then they may make a present gaine by you They are * One may sweare it not agreed of their own Religion nor of the principles of Universall and Eternall Truth and how can they be constant in the rules of particular and transitory honor where there is Nullum Principium ordinis there can be Nullum Principium honoris such is their case there is a voice of Confusion among them as well in matters of State as of Religion Their power is great but not to edification but destruction They joyne together only against good order which they call the Common Enemy and if they can destroy that they will in all likelihood turn their fury against themselves and like Devills torment like Serpents devoure one another In the meane time if they can make their Burgers Princes and turn old Kingdomes into new States it is like enough they will do it but that they will ever agree together to make any one Prince King or Emperour over them all and yeeld due obedience unto him further then either their gaine shall allure them or his Sword shall compell them that I cannot perswade my selfe to believe And therefore I cannot hope that your Majesty or your posterity can expect the like honour or security from them which you might do from Catholike Princes if you were joyned firmly to them in the unity of Religion 12. The third reason of my hope that Catholike Religion should be most available for the honour and security of your Majesty and your children is taken from the consideration of your Subjects which can be kept in obedience to God and to their King by no other Religion and least of all by the Calvinists for if their principles be received once and well drunk in and digested by your Subjects they will openly maintaine that God hath as well predestinated men to be * Is not this now openly professed by those who would have the King called to an account c. Traytors as to be Kings and he hath as well predestinated men to be Theeves as to be Judges and he hath as well predestinated that men should sin as that Christ should die for sin which kind of disputations I know by my experience in the Countrey are ordinary among your Countrey Calvinists that take themselves to be learned in the Scriptures especially when they are met in the Ale-house and have found a weaker brother whom they think sit to be instructed in the profound mysteries And howsoever they be not yet all so impudent as to hold these conclusions in plain termes yet it is certain they all hold these principles of Doctrine from whence working heads of greater liberty do at their pleasures draw these consequences in their lives and practises And is * It now appears it is not this a Religion sit to keep Subjects in obedience to their Soveraigns 13. Here I know the great Masters of Schisme will never leave objecting the horrible treason of certaine Catholikes against your
which will not save them from hell nor Superiors be ever told of their Errors but by Rebellion which will not bring them to heaven These such like be the liberties that both Prince People do enjoy by the want of Confession and of Catholike Religion 43. As for the liberty of making Lawes in Church-matters the Common Lawyer may perhaps make an advantage of it and therefore greatly stand upon it but to the common people it is no pleasure at all but rather a great burthen For the great Multitude of Statutes which have been made since the Schisme which are five times more then ever they were before since the name of Parliament was in England hath caused also an infinite number of Lawyers all which must live by the Commons and raise new Families which cannot be done without the decay of the old And if the Canons of the Church and the Courts of Confession were in request the Lawyers market would soon be marred And therefore most of your Lawyers in this point are Puritans do still furnish the Parliament with grievances against the Clergie as knowing very well that their own glory came at the first from the Court Infidell and therefore cannot stand with the Authority of the Church which came at the first from the Court Christian I speak not against the Ancient Lawes of England which since King Ethelberts time were all Catholike nor against the honest Lawyers of England I know many and honour all good men among them and do hope for better times by the learning wisedom moderation of the chiefest But I am verily perswaded that the pretended liberties of the Commons to make Lawes in matter of Religion doth burthen the Common wealth and both prejudice your Majesty and pleasure none at all but the Puritan and petty-fogging Lawyer that would faine fetch the antiquity of his Common Law from the Saxons that were before King Ethelbert So that whether we respect the spirituall instruction and comfort or the temporall wealth and liberty of the Commons of England if the Puritan Preacher and Puritan Lawyer who both do seek the overthrow of the Church and deceive and consume the people would let them alone there would quickly appeare no reason of their Staâ—e at all why they should hate the Catholike Church that is so comfortable and beneficiall unto them or maintain the Schisme that with sugred speeches and counterfait faces doth so much abuse them 44. I am therefore in very assured hope that by my coming to the Catholike Church besides the satisfying and saving of my own soule I shall do no ill service to your Majesty neither in respect of your selfe nor your Children nor in respect of your Lords and Commons and that there is no reason concerning the State in any of these that is sufficient to disswade unity There is only the * The Protestant Clergie are now like to find this a true prediction Clergy left which if Calvinisme may go on and prevaile as it doth shall not in the next age be left to be satisfied And there is little reason that any man that loves the Clergie should desire to satisfie such Clergie men as do under hand favour Calvinists and maintain such points of Doctrine as if your Majesties favour were not would out of hand overthrow the Clergie and instead of them set up a few stipendary Preachers 45. There never was is or shall be any well setled State in the world either Christian or Heathen but the Clergie or Priesthood was is and must be a principall part of the Government depending upon none but him only whom they suppose to be their God But where Calvinisme prevailes three or four stipendary Ministers that must preach as it shall please Mr. Mayor and his Brethren may serve for a whole City And indeed if their opinions be true it is but a folly for any State â—o maintain any more For if God hath predistinated a certain Number to be saved without any condition at all of their being in the visible Church by Faith or their persevering therein by good works If God hath reprobated the greatest part of the world without any respect at all of their infidelity heresie or wicked life If the Faith of Christ be nothing els but the assured perswasion of a Man 's own Predestination to glory by him If the Sacraments of the Church be nothing but signes and badges of that grace which a man hath before by the carnall Covenant of his Parents faith If Priesthood can do nothing but preach the Word as they call it which Lay-men must judge of and may preach too if they will where occasion serves If the studie an I knowledge of Antiquity Universality and Consent be not necessary but every man may expound Scripture as his own spirit shall move him If I say these and such like opinions be as true as they are among Calvinists in the world common and in England too much favoured and maintained there will certainly appear no reason at all to your Parliament whensoever your Majesty or your Successor shall please to ask them why they should be at so great a charge as they are to maintain so needlesse a party as these opinions do make the Clergy to be They can have a great many more How right this points upon the Doctrine of these times Sermons a great deale better cheap and in the opinion of Calvinisme the Clergy do no other service They that do in England favour and maintain those opinions and suppresse and disgrace those that do confute them they although themselves can be content to be Lords and go in Rochets are indeed the greatest Enemies of the Clergy And it were no great matter for the Clergy they might easily turn Lay and live as well as they do for the most part But it is a thing full of compassion and commiseration to see that by these false and wicked opinions the Divell the the Father of these and all other lies doth daily take possession of the soules of your Subjects both of Clergy and Laity These kind of Clergy men I confesse I do not desire to satisfie any other way then as I have alwaies done that is by the most friendly and plain confutation of their errors to shew them the truth As for other Clergy men that are conformable to the Religion established by Law as well for their Doctrine as for their Discipline if they be good Schollers and temperate men as I know many of them are they cannot but in their judgements approve the truth of Catholike Religion and if it were not for fear of losse or disgrace to their wives and Children they would be as glad as my selfe that a more temperate course might be held and more liberty afforded unto Catholikes and Catholike Religion in England These Clergy-men I am and ever shall be desirous to satisfie not only in respect of themselves but also in respect of their wives and
children whom I am so far from condemning and disliking as that I do account my selfe one of them and I desire nothing more in this world then in the toleration of Catholike Religion to live die among them And therefore I have had so great care in this point as before I did submit my self to the Catholike Church I received assurance from some of the greatest that if your Majesty would admit the Ancient subordination of the Church of Canterbury unto that Mother Church by whose authority all other Churches in England at the first were and still are subordinate unto Canterbury and the free use of that Sacrament for which especially all the Churches in Christendome were first founded the Pope for his part would confirme the Interest of all those that have present possession in any Ecclesiasticall living in England And would also permit the free use of the Common Prayer Book in English for Morning and Evening Prayer with very little or no alteration And for the contentment and security of your Majesty he would give you not only any satisfaction but all the honor that with the unity of the Church and the safety of Catholike Religion may be required which seemed to me so reasonable as being before satisfied of the truth of Catholike Religion I could ask no more So that I am verely perswaded that by yeilding to that truth which I could not deny I have neither neglected my duty and service to your Majesty and your Children nor my respect and honor to your Lords and Commons nor my love and kindnesse to my honest friends and brethren of the Clergy but rather that my Example and my Prayers shall do good unto all 47. But that which I must trust to when all the rest will faile me is the service of God and saving of my soule in the unity of that Church which was founded by Christ himselfe and shall continue untill his coming againe wherein all the Saints of God have served him on earth and do enjoy him in heaven without which Holy Catholike Church there is no Communion of Saints no forgivenesse of sinnes no hope of Resurection unto life everlasting I beseech your Majesty let not Calvins Ecclesia Praedestinatorum deceive you it may serve a Turk as well as a Christian it hath no faith but opinion no hope but presumption no Charity but lust no faith but a fancie no God but an Idoll For Deus est omnibus Religionibus commune Nomen All Religions in the world begin their Creed with I believe in God But homini extra Ecclesiant Religio sua est cultus phantasmatum suorum and error suus est Deus suus as S. Augustine affirmeth Epist. 64. 48. I have more things to write but the hast of answering your Majesties Commandement signified to me by Sir Thomas Lake his Letters hath made me commit many faults in writing this very suddenly for which I crave pardon and cut off the rest But for my returning into England I can answer no otherwise but thus I have sent you my soule in this Treatise and if it may find entertainment and passage my body shall most gladly follow after And if not I pray God I send my soule to heaven and my body to the grave assoon as may be In the mean time I will rejoyce in nothing but only in the Crosse of Christ which is the glory of your Crown And therefore I will triumph therein not as being gone from you to your adversary but as being gone before you to your Mother where I desire and hope for ever to continue Your Majesties true Servant and Beadsman B. CARIER Liege Decemb. 12. Anno 1613. Multum incola fuit anima mea Cum his qui oderunt pacem eram pacificus Cum loqucbar illis impuguabant me gratis FINIS