the Laws quia illas elingues elumbesque gladio defendant because they being speechless and heartless should be defended with their edicts and sword and they with that famous Emperor protest and practise Ferdin Nec me regnante licebit Gunt Has cuiquam nostras impune lacessere leges At â—si quis tumidus praesumpserit obvius i re Supplicium praesens manifestaque poena docebit Non magis invictum bello quam legibus essâ— It lawfull shall not be whilst we do reign That any one should slight our Laws in vain And whosoere shall proudly them oppose Present and publick punishment shall disclose Us both by Laws and Arms to be invincible Which also hath been the Soveraign care of our Albion Princes who by oath protested themselves Protectors of the Laws some of them using all diligence to abbreviate their volumes and purge them from irregularities for which Edward the Confessor is magnified who out of an indigested rapsody and cento of numerous Laws which the Romans Cook 3. rep ep ad Lect. English and Danes had ordained selected the best and compiled them into a compendious systeme some of which William the Conqueror approved disallowed others and added some new and so did Henry the third abolish some decree others Baker and was the first constituted Parliaments for which also the indulgent care of our present Prince is to be extolled who hath proved himself a reall Protector of the Law which when it was totally to be abrogated by the violent part of the last Assembly he through the assignment of the rest Delphico suo gladio dissolved it and routed them the peoples inheritance as well as the Lawyers advancement being by it preserved Ployd Com. Wisbish ca. f. 55. and like another Justinian hath his Highness called together persons of great ability and integrity as are in these Nations to consider how the Laws may be made plain short and less chargeable to the people by whom the Courts of the Upper Bench and Common Pleas are judiciously reformed and the Chancery more accurately regulated and which might have been exactly compleated by the last Parliament if they had left the Government as they found it there being Bills prepared to that purpose to some of which though the Government seemed a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet according to the direction of the Philosopher Lawes are to be conformed according to the condition of the present State Clap. de arc imp f. 66. which is warranted by approved Praesidents Augustus the most râ—nowned of all the Emperors as Tacitus in the name of the Romans relates potentiae securas quae in triumviratu gesserat abolevit deditque jura quae pace principe uteremur being secured by power abolished whatsoever he had enjoyned in his Triumvirate and gave Laws which we should use for the peace of the Common-weal and safety of the Prince And so did William the Conqueror who after the establishment of his royalty Cook 3. Rep. ad Lectorem as Sir Edward Cook introduced some new Laws quae ad regni pacem tuendam efficacissimae viderentur which were efficacious for the settlement of peace in the Kingdome which Laws are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clap. de art Imp. l. 1. c. 10. fundamenta imperii the elements and fundamentals of the Empire and Government and are conversant about assemblies and Parliaments Magistrates and Jurisdiction and concerning Armes and the Exercise of them which as the Philosopher Arist l. 4 Pol. appertain to him is the head and chief of the Commonweal CAP. X. 1. Monarchy was the first Government 2. It is ordained by God and setled by nature 3. It is the best Government THe Government of one was the first Government on earth by man Barc cont Monarch ib. Chrysost as it is the Government in heaven and earth by God for God created Adam alone out of whom all Nations should arise and made not woman of the earth but of man that there should be one head and father of man-kind so as Adam the father of all men had a Monarchical power over them by a general ordinance setled by God in him and therefore as Chrysostom Monarchy is more excellent than other formes because first ordained by God Adam then was the first Monarch and King of his family 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Homer said of Telemachus Homer Odyss α. which Government continued in families untill the reign of Nimrod who first changed the paternall Monarchy into National Though by Herodotus the Egyptians are reported to be the Antients of all mortals Herod l. 2 and that they never lived without a King of whom Menes was the first And that Monarchy was the first Government appeareth also by the Testimony of other approved authors Principio rerum gentium nationumque imperium penes reges erat saith Iustine and Salust Justin l. 1. Catal. lu teuris nomen imperii primum fuit and Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Government of all Countries Cities and Nations first resided in Kings and therefore is it feigned saith he that all the Gods were ruled by one King Pol. l. 1. c. 1. which continued as a custome among all Nations and therefore doth Aristotle adde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Nationâ— also now do In Abrahams time not three ages distant from the flood there were five Kings at one time Gen. 14. in a small part of Asia and Ioshua in the same Country which God gave unto the Israelites subdued 31. Kings and in those days Abimelech forced seventy Kings to his subjection and not many ages after there were thirty two Kings auxiliaries to Benadab King of Syria and it is related Josh 8.12 that in Greece no less than seventy Kings joined their forces to invade the Trojans and that before Caesars expedition into France Caesar câ—m de bell Gall. 10. there were more Kings than Provinces and that in Kent which is but one of the thirty seven Counties in England at one time there reigned four Kings and though the Government of Gods own people varied under the several titles of Patriarchs Captains Iudges and Kings yet in all these the supream power rested still in one person onely which is the same with Monarchy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being the Government of one alone as the notation of the word declares Which Government of one proceedeth from a natural inclination man hath thereunto or as if the soul of man is a parcell of the divine essence â—velâ—ti Deus in humano corpore habitans so is there an innate propensity in man Seneca to applicate himself to that divine form of Government to which all Nations though rude and barbarous are and have been by it incited which moved the Israelites to desire such a King as the Nations then had and if we survey the present State of Europe we shall finde the Emperors from Julius Caesar
saith he undoubtedly to observe that the Royal Power is not only conferred on you for the Government of the world but especially for the rule and safeguard of the Church And as another Demetrius Comatenu Clap. ib. Solo sacrificandi excepto ministerio reliqua Pontificalia privilegia imperator repraesentat The ministeriall exercise of sacred duties onely excepted the Emperour representeth all other Pontificall priviledges who is to dispose and order the affairs of the Church a relique of which in these corrupted times still remains of which Mr. Herbert Herbert Hen. 8. fo 291. maketh mention that the Emperour must first put on the habit of a Canon of Sancta Maria Dellate in Rome and after that of a Deacon before he can be compleatly invested in his Imperial Dignity And heretofore the Popes when they were installed Pier. de Moulin b. d. l. foy paid to the Emperour as their Soveraign Prince for their investiture twenty pounds in gold and were by the Emperour punished and deposed as subjects to the Emperour As Constantius the Son of Constantine the Great chased Pope Liberius out of Rome and substituted Faelix in his place Whence it is probable the English Maxime as many other dimaned Rex est persona mixta cum sacerdote The King is a mixt person with a Priest in whom is comprised both Jurisdictions as well Ecclesiastical as civil which caused William the Second to urge the said priviledge of the Emperours against Anselm desiring to be an Arch-bishop conspiring to have his Pale from the Pope as Mathew Paris historizeth it Rex Willielmus Secundus allegavit quod nullus Archiepiscopus aut Episcopus Regni sui curiae Romanae aut Papae subessent praecipus cum ipse omnes libertates haberet in Regno suo quas imperator vindicabat in imperio King William alledgeth that no Arch-bishop or Bishop should be subject to the Pope or the Court of Rome especially seeing he should have all the liberties in his Kingdome which the Emperour challenged in his Empire which was to chose Popes and Bishops when he would Yet though the Scepters of Kings and Princes were primitively free by all right and honored with the Supreme authority in all causes whatsoever yet hath the Pope in these later daies blown up with boiling ambition through the lenity and piety of Princes involated on their Rights and Liberties and not only arrogated to himself Ecclesiastical Supremacy but encroached also on the civill Jurisdiction claiming to himself the deposing of Princes and disposing of their Kingdomes Bellar. either in ordine ad bonum spirituale in order or relation to a spiritual good or else in regard of his Pastorall Authority from Christ under which notion he conceiveth all the world to be subject to him Azorius In quo alii sunt actu ut Christiani alii potestate jure ut Pagani In which some are actually subject to him as Christians and others in possibility and right as Pagans and by such subtil relations is he maintained to be Totius orbis Dominus The Lord of all the earth Europ spe And to that purpose doth he take upon him the highest place of honor far above all Princes and Monarchies of the world Pier. de Moulin praef ib. Buck de le foy setting the Emperours at his feet ordaining and declaring that all Kings ought to kiss his feet and that there is no other name under heaven but that of the Pope Thus doth he labour to mancipate the divine liberty of Princes to his humane inventions and usurped Dominion and as Christs Vicar which title he affects would be reputed Lord of all the world whereas Christs Kingdome was not of the world An insufferable tyranny imposed on this Royal freedome of Princes which the Pope from the times of Gregory the seventh hath injuriously usurped and for the space of two hundred and threescore years nothing hath been more frequent with him then the Excommunications of Kings and Emperours and the Oblations and Donations of their Empires and Kingdomes Pier. de Moulin b. d. l f 7◠unless of such who have by might maintained their rights and liberties against his usurpations whence proceeded infinite bloody wars above one hundred battels and the surprizing and sacking innumerable Cities Clap. de arc imp f. 32. from whence proceeded the common Proverb as by Guichardine is observed Caesares timere odisse proprium est Ecclesiae It is proper to the Church to feare and hate all Princes John White in the way to the Church and that truly for the Pope hath excommunicated deposed and murthered forty several Princes And I deem it neither exorbitant nor impertinent to give you a tast of some of his notorious and abominable tyrannies and primarily of that against John King of England whom for maintaining his priviledge in nominating the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the Monks of that Convent Innocent Third he menaced to excommunicate and interdict his Kingdome and the King in requitall threatned to abolish the Popes authority and to expell the Clergy which they both acted but the Pope not only excommunicated him but conferred his Kingdome on the King of France to conquer it at his own charge and perill by whose invasion he was inforced to renounce his rights and liberties and to subscribe to the Popes tyrannical demands who gave him Absolution upon condition to yeeld himself Vassal to the Pope Math. Par. and his Kingdome fewdary to the Church of Rom and that he should pay yearly a thousand mark in silver as an obligation of his servitude And most presumptuous was the arrogancy of Julius the Second God Hist Hen. 8. f. 1. who was more like to Julius Caesar whose name he assumed then to Peter whose Successor he pretended to be but indeed was like to him in nothing more then in cutting of Malcus his ear of whom the Poet pithily Gunterus Jam nec ferre crucem Domini sed tradere Regna Gaudet Augustus mavult quam praeses haberi To bear the Cross of Christ he doth not now rejoyce But to give earthly Kingdomes is his heavenly choice He deposed the King of Navarre and gave his Kingdome to Ferdinand King of Castile the which he obtained and his Successors as yet retaine who having Spain on the one side and the Pyrenaean Mountains on the other was unequal to the Popes fury and the Spanish force He also vain-gloriously enterprized to crush and suppress Lewis the XII King of France God Hist Hen. 8. to which designe he invited many Princes and more especially Henry the Eight King of England into a confederacy against him but Lewis swifter then opinion marched with all celerity to Ravenna and in one battel defeated him and his Allies Primum Pontificium fulmen à Gallis removit Barr. and boldly assembled a Councel at Pisa against him and rounded his French Crowns with this inscription Perdam Babylonem
the Lord hath poured on him cannot believe he will leave him but compleat and accomplish this wondrous work in him For the great works of the Lord are contrary to the conceits of men and though extraordinary miracles be ceased yet the divine power is alwayes assistant to the ordinary power of nature by which many times are produced extraordinary acts above the reach of humane apprehension which is apparent in the various and marvellous victories obtained by him in the name of the Lord of Hosts whose providences among us are not to be out matched by any story And if we impartially and judiciously examine the present postures of the State we shall clearly see the Lords workmanship shining in it according to the power of nature or rules of policy For though the malignant and incessant enemy is sedulous in forging stratagems to its disturbance and distraction yet is it by the divine finger so firmly founded on the faithfull and pious affections of the more potent party that they are presaged before conceived and prevented before perpetrated For though there remain in it many factions of which the Royal and Papistical party are most seditious and both numerous the one containing in number forty thousand fighting persons Europ Spec. and the other perhaps more yet are the first by their just censures of sequestrations discouraged and by their late compositions so obliged that they tremble to enterprise any publike act against the State unlesse such as are fugitives whose estates are exposed to sale and no way considerable As also the second is much diminished by their recantations and acceptance of the oath of abjuration Many and some of the chiefest preferring the blessings of their estates before the curses of Rome and both the lesse perillous because irreconciliably divided as Opposites in Religion which hath a potent sway over the minds of men and besides are unarmed and upon any pregnant suspition safely secured either by transporting them into forraign Islands or by removing them to remote places according to the antient custome of the Romans who were wont so to dispose of their seditious Delinquents The considerable party only remaineth which generally profess themselves Protestants and concord for the most part in the principal Doctrine of Salvation by Faith in Christ though they otherwise vary concerning some disputable questions and less material and are the less turbulent bâ—cause permitted severally without restraint to exercise their consciences Besides most of them are by strong and Politique tyes linked unto the State either by publique imployments or private interests many of them having at a considerable rare purchased the Revenues and Lands of the late King Praelates or Delinquents that though some of them through envy or other sinister conceit distast the present proceedings and others vary among themselves concerning some niceties of Religion yet will they upon any turbulent or seditious occasion as one man unite their forces to repell the common enemy Compellit in unum commune periculum etiam inimicissimos Ar. Pol. l. 5. c 5. as common dangers use to dâ—aw and force together the greatest adversaries and not to expose themselves and estates to the cruelty and tyranny of merciless Invaders and the rapine and spoil of a necessitous and ravenous rabole of desperate male-contents who suborn furious Emissaries to scatter the seeds of discord and sedition in every place which may make all things opportune for their rebellious incursions of which we have received an ocular testimony in the last tumultuous hurley-burley which was but momentary by reason that the Royal Party for fear of future censures were dismaid and the confiding party by rewards and interests incited whereby that tempestuous sedition was suddenly suppressed and like a thundering storm after a clap or two vanished into vanity So stable is the settlement of this State founded on the rock of a confident and trusty party with the true-hearted Militia that the impetuous winds of commotions and outragious tempests of rebellions cannot shatter or shake it but the more violently they beat upon it the more miserably are they dissipated which is opposite to the conceit of the Royallists who are led with a fond hope that the inheritance of the Crown is indissolubly entailed to the issue and cannot be cut off whereas succession was lately invented to avoid competition and interregnum and hath often been interrupted by arms and that Gordian knot cut in pieces by the Sword As Canutus with his Sword did cut off the right of Edmond and was by it crowned King of England and so by it did Stephen disinherit Maud the right heir and in the bloody wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster wherein fourscore of the Royal blood perished he who had the sharpest sword carried the Crowne and as Baron Thorp of all those five and twenty Kings and Queens which have since William the Conquerours time ruled among us there were scarcely seven of them who could pretend legally to succeed their former Predecessors either by lineal or collateral title and it is malum omen Turselius to the Royal Issue that such Princes as have been for tyranny expelled by their Subjects have never been remitted though they had stronger forces to attempt it Though Tarquinius Superbus had valiant sons to second him Florus and the redoubted King of Porsenna with a proud Army to assist him and force Rome to his subjection yet were they ignominiously repelled and for fear forced to retreat And after that he through the powerful Alliance of Manlius had drawn into a confederacy with him thirty several Potentates to restore him to his Royalty yet were they by the Dictator Aurelius Posthumus vanquished and forced to flight and the Tarquinian hopes thereby utterly frustrated The like was attempted by Hippias the brother of the Tyrant Pisistratus for his tyranny slain by Harmodius and Aristogiton who endeavouring to vindicate his brothers slaughter was expelled Athens and thereupon procured Darius with formidable forces to invade Athens in his behalf and for his restitution yet were they by the invincible virtue of Miltiâ—des proflâ—gated and two hundred thousand of the enemies destroyed Atque horret animus meus memoria repetere and it makes my heart tremble and bleed to remember how many horrible and deadly battels which the large and copious pen of Livy is scarce able to repeat the late King and Prince have undertaken to regain their forfeited and lost Royalty wherein they have been continually discomfited to the destruction of the one and exclusion of the other and to the lamentable ruine of a great part of the Nobility and Gentry Quicquid delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi Quae igitur intemporiae illos tenent What kind of phrensie therefore possesseth these men who being not void of reason will not be instructed by experience the Mistress of unreasonable creatures for the Fish escaping the hook will carefully beware of the fatal bait And as the Satyrist
I will destroy Babylon who was the first that removed the Pontifical thunder from France whose glorious steps the Duke of Saxony follows and became the Popes terrible Antagonist who animated by the powerfull pen of Luther and principally moved with the ridiculous impostures of his avaricious indulgences first in Germany opposed him and abandoned his usurped authority and within a few years after through Luthers fowl discoveries of his abominable impieties and Antichristian inventions he grew so odious and obnoxious to the pious and devout Princes of Germany that his Papal power was slighted and exploded by the better part of it Then Henry the Eight of England the Popes Quondam Champion who by his pen and sword protested to defend him having by various experiments discovered his perfidious and ambitious practises and that he made use of his power for his own designs shook off the Pontifical yoke and declared himself Supreme Head of the Church God Hist Hen. 8. f. 98. maugre his fulminant Bulls called him Tyrannum praedonem orbis terrarum incentorem Bellorum A Tyrant for his presumptuous usurpation on the priviledges and liberties of Princes contending by his Excommunications to force their consciences to his tyrannical will and a plunderer of the Christian world by his Masses Auxiliary and Propitiatory visiting of Reliques Obits fees of dispensation for prohibited Marriages and especially by his Indulgences of Grace to remit sins and free souls out of Purgatory by which spiritual Monopolies he had raked to himself and Clergy the most flourishing Mannours of England besides huge masses of money which therefore in the Statute of Henry the Eight against the Papal Authority are called 28. c. 16. the great impoverishing of the Realm of England And lastly an Incendiary or an Alarum of war God Hen. 8. f. 4. dividing the Christian Princes and moving them to denounce war against those he disaffects Vt tanquam Nero alter sedens otiosus orbem terrarum incendiis conflagraret That as another Nero sitting in his Chaire should fire the world with the flames of war encreasing his own strength by diminishing others For which detestable enormities he abolished the Popes authority demolished their superstitious Convents and conferred their Revenues and substances on his deserving Subjects and so became the terror and Quartane Fever of the Papall power that whereas England in derision by it was reputed the Popes Ass is now transform'd into a Lion and is an horror to the Pope whose magnanimous resolution his vertuous Heir Edward the Sixt pursued and had utterly extirpated all the Reliques of Popery had he not been unfortunately prevented by an immature fate yet was it after prosecuted by the incomparable Spirit of a Feminine Regent Queen Elizabeth who stoutly withstood the Popes ambition whom though he degraded and deposed exposing her Dominions to conquest yet did she subdue Sanders and others his Substitutes in Ireland and sink and rout the Spanish invincible Armado destinated by him to her destruction So as that famous Queens Motto Honi soit qui mal y pense Evil be to him that evil thinks and the common proverb Malum consilium Consultori pessimum Evil counsel is worst to the Councellor square fitly with the Popes evil resolutions and deserved confusion for he that enterprized and expected with his tyrannical Bulls to have enslaved the consciences of Christian Princes was by the divine power prevented and his usurped authority abandoned abolished and abhorred by the better part of Christendome and by vindicating to himselfe an extorting power over Princes lost a main part of his own which like Sejanus his horse overthrew his own Master Jean de Seres In whom is exemplified the observation of Henry the third King of France Que ceux que veulent les consciences Mastister pensens Conquerir le ciel perdont souvent ceque pâ—ssede en la terre That those who would master the consciences of men thinking to conquer heaven lose often that which they possess on earth As the Pope besides all the reformed Churches hath lost the Supremacy of Venice the Spaniard the rule of the Netherlands and the Emperour the command of the Helvetians and Basileans and all for Tyrannical Impositions on free conscientious minds And which also is abundantly verified in the deserved confusion of the late King which calamity originally proceeded froÌ„ the prelatical tyrannizing over mens consciences who not onely chased some sincerely pious persons out of their native country into foraigne parts and howling wildernesses and imprisoned others but also attempted to subject the rigid and resolved consciences of the Scots to the Prelaticall Discipline which fomented and bred a dangerous and tempestuous storm in the North though happily calmed by the prudence of moderate Mediators yet upon the like occasion for liberty the eradicating of Episcopacy and abrogating the Pontificall authority an implacable war was raised by the provocation of the Prelates and the publike pretence No Bishop no King which therefore is truly by Mr. Needham called Bellum Episcopale as derived from the corruption and tyranny of the Bishops and which the late King being Episcoporius with all his might maintained so as by degrees it infested all the parts and corners of this Commonweal For which our puissant Armies and victorious Generall opposed him marching with this Motto in his mouth Liberty to all tender and oppressed consciences his army also for the most part being composed of such conscientious devout and piously disposed persons whom all the money of this Nation would not have tempted to have passed through such desperate dangers if they had not had confident hopes of an uncontrouled freedome of conscience the which after many fierce encounters and dismall disputes with his conquering arm supported by the divine power he obtained and which at this time by many Declarations Ordinances and Acts is setled in this State worthily permitting liberty to those who have won it with their blood and gained civill and religious liberty also whence proceeded the Tragical Catastrophe of the capitall Actor and the expulsion of his issue out of these flourishing Islands which is by act irrevocable and by reason unalterable Virg. Dicam equidem licet arma mihi mortemque minantur For God doth not an extraordinary act without an extraordinary end Now how the Lord hath favoured the acts of our renowned General and worthy Protector none can better perceive then his enemies who by their impatient zeal to introduce Popery protect Prelacy and to corrupt and confound the purity of Religion have setled the one and extirpated the other and whom in their scurrile rimes they derided with the name of a Scenicall King have been a means to raise him to this height of dignity and may say as Iuno said of Hercules In laudes suas mea vertit odia Do you think that God did all these things for nothing For whosoever shall in his heart ponder and consider the evident graces and blessings
Hor. l. 2. Sat. 7. Quae belluaruptis Cum semel effugit reddit se prava catenis But these vanquished subdued captived do still persist in their obstinacy and daily subject themselves to inevitable hazards and mischiefs how much better and safer were it for them to submit to Gods providence and not to fight against heaven and his Ordinance or kick against the prick How happy would they be to live in peace and unity and under the Soveraign wings of his Highness protection to enjoy the publique blessings of peace plenty liberty and prosperity by which mutual intercourse his Highness may be the more incouraged to make this Commonwealth the most glorious Empire in the Christian world the which through the Omnipotent assistance his Highness with all his nerves both by Sea and Land contendeth to accomplish and perform that which was heretofore proffered to the late King by him and others whereby maugre the might of any forraign force he may render Britain incomparable as well as invincible which indeed in it self it is as the Roman Poet acknowledgeth Tib. El. 4. Invicti Romano Marte Britanni Alb Gent. de armis Ro. Unless that it be betrayed by our selves Per dolos malos aut per malitias malas by wicked treacheries and malitious practises which may by providence and a stable settlement of the State be prevented as now it is As also by an offensive and defensive league with some forraign Nation which is easily obtained because by it advanced according to the Motto of Henry the Eight Cui adhaereo praeest Herb Hâ—n 8. whose part I take prevaileth by which policy he became an honor to his Allies and horror to his enemies comparing Spain and France to a pair of Scales and England to the Tongue which turned either of them it assisted Howsoever England with his wooden brazen walls hath not been unable to withstand them both and to defeat the Spanish invincible Armado which at this present never were more potent and victorious being daily augmented by the care and providence of our Themisthocles CAP. VI. 1. Mans understanding is imperfect especially in spirituall things 2. It is the cause of many sects in Philosophy and more in Theologie 3. Among Philosophers arguments not torments were their moderators 4. Among Christians in the primitive times admonitions not persecutions were the weapons of their warfare 5. The Arrians and other Heretiques first used force to maintain their opinions and afterwards the Pope and his adherents THe object of the mind is verity which is properly attributed to the divine mind as that which is credible to the humane For truth is the adequation of the notions of the mind with the very nature of things and that is said to be true when the mind representeth the expresse image of the very thing which the wife Artifex of the Universe had with him from eternity and therefore cannot be ignorant of any thing But there is so great obscurity in the nature of things and in the minds of men such obliquity and variety that oftentimes they assent to falsities and uncertainties which they conceive to be true and firm and therefore he is said to be happy and wise who can apprehend the causes of things And because sempiternall spirituall and matters of faith are remote from sense therfore is the knowledge of them more uncertain and obscure Scalig. de Sub. Exer. 1. and as it were umbratilis To the intellection of which the sharpnesse of our conceit being directed is as weak as the eye of an Owl to the beholding of the Sun and which the naturall man receiveth or discerneth not 1 Cor. 1.14 and are such as no natural light doth reach unto Which naturall imbecillity hath been the impulsive cause of all the Sects in Philosophie and heresies in Divinity And though never so strange or absurd yet have their authors and founders invented probable arguments or inferred sacred sentences in their defence There are several sects in Philosophy and more in Theologie because more remote from sense The first amounts to the number of ten and the other to ten times more Epiphanius writes against 80. heresies in his time and Augustine against 90. generall Councils have erred The Council of Nice condemned Arrianisme and the Council of Arminium confirmed it Pier. du Moulin in his preface to the Boucl d'le Foy. And the day is not more contrary to the night then the antient Councils are to the new Et fuit hoc omnium aetatum commune malum saith one truly And this hath been the common calamity of all ages heresies and schisms daily sprouting up in the Church and like Africa Perpin aliquid novi semper pariens alwayes bringing forth one new error or another Among Philosophers arguments were their arms who friendly contended to find out the truth So did the Prince of the antient Philosophers deal with Socr. Plato Arist 1. Ethic. c. 6. professing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though they were both his friends De Sub. yet he deemed it more sacred to honour the truth and so the Prince of the modern Philosophers Scaliger protested Amicus Plato amicus Aristoteles sed magis amica veritas Plato was his friend Aristotle his friend but truth his dearest friend Such inquisitors of the truth used no torments to extort it but arguments non bacillinis sed Philosophicis to find it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was their victory Among Christians also in the primitive time though there were sometimes divisions questions envy and strife of words yet were they through the Apostles admonitions contained in charity And after the Apostles age their Successors did not use armes and violence to propagate and settle the Gospel the weapons of their warfare were not carnal but spiritual who did not contend with Bands of Disciplin'd Souldiers but with aid implored of God not with armes but with the Spirit not by beating but by admonishing and reproving But after the Church was corrupted and disceded from the Apostolical Doctrine and that by divine Authority they could not maintain their novelties arms and all instruments of cruelty were invented for the establishing of their strange Doctrine and became more barbarous and inhumane then ever Nero Domitian Niceph. l. 11. c. 3. Decius and Dioclesian were As the Arrians and the Donatists under the Raign of Valens and tyranny of the Vandals exceeded all the Heathen Persecutors in cruelty and immanity And in these last and worst daies whenas the Bishop of Rome had usurped the pre-eminency and began to lord it over other Christian Churches imposing greater and heavier burthens on Christian consciences as Prayers for the Dead Purgatory Indulgences and other impostorious trumperies Then began the Popes tyranny imperiously to raign over Christendome which did not only infest the priviledges of Princes as hath been asserted but afflict the purest professors of the Gospell Then did his Phalaris Bulls thunder and roar about the
Christian Horizon fire and sword were the arguments he ejaculated against devout consciences The Hussits first come upon the Stage who submissively imploring of Ferdinand the Emperour to be admitted to receive the Sacrament under both Species Ludov. Aurel. Ann. Eccles f. 460. were by Pope Martin interdicted and a sacred war denounced against them wherein Zisca their blind yet quick-sighted Captain who saw as much in military affairs as Homer did in Poetical Layes and became so terrible to the enemy that he supposed a Drum of his skin would fright an Army behaved himself so skilfully and stoutly that he overthrew the Emperors Army and forced him to vail to their conscientious demands and not only to grant them the sacred mysteries under both kinds Id. 46◠but to permit them to possess those goods they had taken out of Popish Churches until they were with the value redeemed with many other reformed immunities Next ensued the Scene of the Lutherans the Hussits Successors who were as one stileth them Id. f. 445. Lutheranorum Antesignani They likewise marched under their Sacred Banners and were confident propugnators and defenders of the Primitive purity and in spite of the Popes thundering power acted their parts so couragiously and piously that they withdrew Denmark Swethland and Norway with the Duke of Saxony Lantsgrave of Hesse and some other Princes of Germany from the Popes Sup emacy whose pious president the Hugonets in France and the Protestants in England with the reformed Netherlands did follow to the Popes perpetual detriment and preparation to his downfal the which he fearing and finding upon this defeat many in all his Jurisdictions to fall from him repaired to his Vulcanian Conclave Europ Spec. f. 112. and there forged the infernal Inquisition which he per antiphrasin calls the Holy House wherein is executed the more then barbarous tortures on mens consciences apprehending any upon the least suspition of any their supposed Heresies of affinity or connivance which Hereticks and the bare reproving sometimes of the Clergy's lives or the having any book or edition prohibited and especially a Bible in the vulgar language discovering men by the pressing of all mens Consciences whom they charge under an high degree of mortal sin Ib. v. 113. and damnation to appeach their neerest and dearest friends and if they know or suspect them to be culpable therein proceeding against the detected with such secrecy and severity as that they never shall have notice of their accusers but shall be urged to reveale their very thoughts and affections The which though he intended to have propagated through all the Catholick Dominious yet was it not onely rejected by Germany and France Europ spe ib. and solely retained in Italy and Spain but also most of the Catholicks within their Precincts who perhaps if need were would die for Religion abhored the very name and mention of the Inquisition as being the greatest slavery the world hath tasted And which inhumane and unnatural violence of planting and propagating of Religion was execrably detested of the vertuous Heathens and is abominated of devout Christians as opposite to pious Principles For if it were aproved and grateful to God why did he send his Son unarmed and indigent of any external power why did he restrain and rebuke Peter endevouring with his drawn Sword to defend his Master why did he send his Disciples as Sheep among the midst of Wolves and naked into all parts of the World as his Father sent him And when did it come into the minde of the Apostles to perswade and allow of any such violence or their Successors in the Primitive Church to practice any such force neither is the distinction of any force that the Christians deposed not Nero Dioclesian Julian and Valens because they were unequal to them in Military power otherwise it was a strange dissimulation in Paul to instruct the Romans to obey the power of Nero if he lawfully having had power might have deposed him Prayers were their armes and admonitions their Inquisitors The Churches Cheif Master prayed for his enemies and Paul his Selected Apostle exhorteth us to pray for all men which is acceptable to God our Saviour who would have all men come to the knowledge of the truth And it is also his admonition instruct with meeknesse those that oppose themselves if God peradventure would give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth 2 Tim. 9.25 For they who like lost sheep goe astray may be drawn to the fold and the ranke Tares may become sweet Corn. CAP. VI. 1. Knowing and obstinate Hereticks are after the first or second admonition to be rejected 2. What Excommunication is 3. It was rarely executed in the Primitive Church 4. Qui argumentis convicti persistunt tamem in heresie propugnanda Whit. de sacra script l. 1. c. 2. Grot. de Jur. Bel. pac f. 505 The abuse of it by the Pope and Prelacy hath caused it to be neglected in most reformed Churches and to be utterly abrogated in ours THere are Hereticks Scientes who know themselves to be Hereticks and who convinced by arguments as Whitaker persist in the defence of heresie either for some temporal commodity or desire of vain glory And who being carried away with selfe-love ambition or popular applause build the City of the Devil upon false and new opinions not respecting the truth but their positions because their own inventions whom Augustine onely placeth in his Catalogue of Hereticks Such Hereticks after the first and second admonition are to be avoided and rejected as the Apostle prescribeth 1. Tim. 3 10. who offend not from ignorance and infirmity but from voluntary malice and obstinate industry From the admonishment of such a one we are to abstain and to leave him to himselfe as one condemned by himselfe as the Apostle speaketh and Turtullian interpreteth Elegit sibi in quo damnetur He hath chosen to himselfe his own damnation Excommunication is a separation from the Communion and Congregation of the Church C. 8. and of it is understoood that of Matthew If he shall not hear the Church let him be as an Heathen and a Publican 1. Tim. whose body as the Apostle speaketh is delivered to Satan That is put out of the Church out of which Satan is Lord and Master as among the Jewes greivous offenders aposynagogi fiant were cast out of the Church which was to shun their Communion as the Jewes did the Samaritans Neither doth Anathema the greater and more greivous Excommunication signifie much more of which in the Gospel we have no example onely a general Precept 1 Cor. 13. Whosoever loveth not our Lord Jesus Christ let him be an Anathema which by the Glossary is expounded Esse execrationem extra Communionem honorum usque ad adventum domini To be a vehement spitting out from the Communion of the good until the comming of the Lord and it is rendered by Hesychius 〈◊〉