Ecclesiasticam jurisdictionem habuisse consequitur It is agreed of all hands that no man can appropriate any Church with cure of souls because it is wholly an Ecclesiastical affair and to be appropriated to an Ecclesiastical person except one that hath Ecclesiastical jurisdiction but William the first King of England did do it from whence it must follow that he had jurisdiction Ecclesiastical Now if the Kings of England had Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as it appears they had by the exercising of it notwithstanding the decree of a little Council or Conventicle to the contrary which decreed that no spiritual person should enter into any Church by any secular person Con. Mant. where was the Popes Almighty Power almost that he pretended to about that time in every thing By the ancient Laws of the Church of Rome the issue born before marriage is as lawful inheritable marriage following as otherways yet that was never allowed in England for all the Popes power as may appear by the Statute of Merton 20 H. 3. when the Bishops instanted the Lords that they would assent that the Custome of England should conform to that of Rome in that particular received this for answer Nolumus Leges Angliae mutare Cooke 5. Rep. we will not change the Laws of England By this may be seen what a small influence the Popes had even at that time upon our Parliament notwithstanding the assistance of the Bishops and mitred Abbots Yet afterwards P. Inno. 4. occasionally with a great deal of Magisterial Indignation being very angry that Grosted Bishop of Lincoln refused a Nephew or nearer Kinsman Fox p. 407. for a Prebend of that Church said that the King of England was his Vassal Mancipium his Page his Slave reflecting I suppose upon that submission that King John as the Emperour Frederick said in his Letter to Henry the third his son more like a woman than a man made to Pandolphus the Legate yet Edward the first that Heroick Grandchild of that unfortunate Prince was of another sort of mettal for in his Reign a Subject brought a Bull of Excommunication against another Subject of this Realm and published it to the Lord Treasurer of England and this was adjudged Treason by the Ancient Common Law of England against the King his Crown and Dignity for which the offender should have been drawn and hang'd but at the great instance of the Chancellor and the Treasurer he was only abjur'd the Realm for ever Certain Messengers had from the Pope serv'd Process upon an Officer of Chancery then held at York Vid. le Regist f. 224. to command him by those Bulls to appear at Rome for this contempt the party that served the Process was committed to York Castle and at length the Kings Majesty by the entreaty of divers great men of the Realm was content upon taking bond that he should answer the said contempt ad proximum Parliamentum nostrum ubicunque illud summoneri contigerit at our next Parliament where ever it happens to be assembled or summoned to deliver him out of Prison Edward the first presented his Clerk to a Benefice within the Province of York who was refused by the Arch-Bishop for that the Pope by way of Provision had conferred it upon another the King thereupon brought a Quare non admisit the Bishop pleaded that the Bishop of Rome had long time before provided to the said Church as one having supream authority in the Case and that he durst not nor had power to put him out who by the Popes Bull was in possession For which high contempt against the King his Crown and Dignity in refusing to execute his Soveraigns command fearing to do it against the Provision by judgment of the Common Law the Lands of his whole Bishoprick were seized into the Kings hands and lost during life So all these Presidents considered it is no wonder if that bold Briton who publish't the Excommunication against Queen Elizabeth in Pius Quintus his time met with the sinister accident of a Halter For if it be treason in a Subject to do so against a Subject as it was adjudged in Edward the first his time a fortiori as my Lord Cooke says it is treason for a Subject to do so against his Soveraign It may very well be asked now considering these high Practices and some strict Laws to abate the power of the See of Rome how the Pope could possibly have so considerable an Interest as we know or at least believe he had in Henry the eighth's time The Statute of Provisors of Benefices of 27 Ed. 3. gives you a reason to that time in these words That though the Statute of Ed. 1.25 * Which Statute is not in the printed Statutes either by negligence or probably because it was made at Carlile the Roll was not transmitted to London stands good yet by sufferance and negligence it hath been attempted the contrary The Pope afterwards got ground by the remiss latter end of Edward the third's Reign and the whole one of Richard the second who though he made the strict Law of premunire yet it did much abate of the strictness of the Common Law before spoken of which unhappy Prince was deposed and murthered by his Cosen and Vassal Henry of Lancaster who though the murthered Prince left neither Children nor Friends yet by reason that the murtherer was not next Heir at Law he was a little uneasie all his Reign so that he was forced to comply by reason of the badness of his title contrary to the humor of his great Father with the ill designs of the Roman Clergy who of all are the best at soldering crackt titles and make bloody Laws against the Lollards under the notion of Heretiques H. 42. c. 15. yet Henry his son who had no fault but his title let them know other I will not say better things by suppressing the Priory Aliens which was all that was done to shew the Courage of the English Kings in that particular till H. 8. who was if you peruse the Chronicles the first that had leasure to question his Holinesses encroachments upon this Monarchy Neither was the Supremacy much more ancient abroad Ros Hist W. Chronolog for the first that had any thing like it was Boniface the third to whom Phocas about 606 granted that he should be the head of all Churches 't was that Phocas that murther'd his Lord and Master Mauritius and to say the truth the Popes have arrived to that height they now pretend to by the wickedness of Usurpers who having no title themselves made little regard what they gave to others to countenance their own Rapine yet this grant was not so authentique as to make the succeeding Popes stand upon their own legs for the first downright opposer of the Emperour was Constantine the first who opposed Phillipicus about Images and not only so but for the greater affront Stilling Fanat
birth and that she had a Revelation that if she dipt her self in such a Well whilst a Priest said Mass by the place she should be recovered The Plot thus laid and accordingly executed she comes halting to the Well but returns out of it perfectly sound which was a miracle to the people and got the contriver a great Sum of mony and confirmed many in their Superstition after some time the woman had some remorse of conscience and came to the Author of this Relation o confession in order to absolution which he would not grant till an accompt of the cheat should be given to the Congregation which she did accordingly Yet for matter of Fact against which there 's no arguing they will tell you Mat. Paris 880 Lew. 9. both out of History and by daily experience too that many have been recovered out of desperate sicknesses by having a piece of the Holy Cross or some other * But of all reliques the most admirable is the Hem of the Carpenter Joseph inclosed in a Set of boxes to be seen at Nints in Britany the first a Wainscot within that a Silver box within that a golden or guilt box within that a Chrystal box conteining a wooden plain one visible through the Chrystal which conteins the Holy Hem and reason enough for so many boxes for if it should get loose after so many hundred of years confinement it would be as boistrous as the Liquor so fam'd by a Poet of our own when It bounces foams and froths and flitters As it were troubled with the Squitters Virg. Travesty l. 1. Relique applyed to them and therefore those things are not to be derided In answer I will give you the reply of Diagoras of Samothrace to a friend weakly though truly arguing for providence from the pictures of a great many persons hung up in a certain Temple that had by prayers escaped Ship-wrack * Pet. Gaâ—â— in Diog. Laer. an imad p. 739. Ita fuit illi enim nunquam picti sunt qui naufragium fecerunt in marique perierunt Very likely for there are no pictures for them who have suffred Shipwrack and are lost in the Sea So they generally apply to all sick persons some relique or other and if any live 't is forsooth by the merit and intercession of some Saint or other but if the party dye then no story of the Application Paralel to this the Portugals have a custom after praying to St. Anthony to give them a good wind to attempt or bind a little Image of the Saints but commonly upon the Pilot's intercession who passes his word for the Saint telling them he is so honest he will do it without being bound Travels of Ped della valle into the E. Indies p. 550. they forbear A barbarous superstition says my Author but yet such as sometimes through the Faith and simplicity of those that practise it uses to be heard a very worthy observation and fit for Pope Vrban viii his Chamberlain of honor ibid. pag. 218. As the Heathens had their particular Gods for particular things as Cuna for Cradles Hebe for Youth Morpheus for Sleep c. so they with an equal reason as well as devotion have their Saints for particulars as to offices persons diseases callings Countrys and brute Animals too as St. Patrick for Ireland St. Luke for Painters Sr. Hubert for hunters St. Gertrude for Rat-catchers St. Clare for sore Eyes St. Roch for Coblers St. Iue for Lawyers St. Gallus for Geese derogating thereby from the worth and honor of those blessed Saints as if they could not and that implys weakness or as if they would not and that implies spight benignly concern themselves in the general affairs of mankind One especial Argument they have for the truth of their Religion especially against us the many severities in order to mortification that many of their orders impose upon themselves but if they would consider that herein they are quite out-done by the Chinese and other Eastern Idolaters and that Baals Priests had no great applause from the Prophet for the like they would not much press that point Lucian tells us of strict severities that the Priests of Hieropolis a Town in Syria were guelded Now if there was so sharp a ceremony to their admittance into England It would keep this Land as safe from them especially the Jesuits as the flaming Sword did Eden from our Ancestors Thus have I hinted the most considerable Doctrines of that Church for Purgatory Prayers for the dead Indulgencies or Pardons for forty thousand years to come sometimes are but as indeed many of the rest the wanton excrescencies of Infallibility which was not in Pope Alex. vi when he was poysoned by mistaking the cup of Wine that he and his hopeful Son Caesar Borgia had prepared to poyson Cardinal Carnete with I will now superadd a little of their Principles of morality which are such as cannot be grateful to Society for the Jesuits have sound out a way by directing the intention to sanctify the most Flagitious act imaginable I will not excuse their other orders neither for a Franciscan lately converted declares thus F. Egan I thought it a meritorious action to murder either Prince or Protestant Subject provided I was commissioned so to do by the Pope And this cannot be concluded to be a single opinion when one considers the Assasinations of the two Henrys of France though Papists the many attempts upon Queen Elizabeth the Gun-powder Treason and the late Rebellion in Ireland none of which was ever yet by any Publique instrument of that Church disavow'd Now comparing all what has been sayd together it will be easy to determin what Religion makes most for a peaceable conversation and that I am sure is the true Interest both of Prince and People Now considering what hath been discourst on you will conclude I suppose that penal Laws about Religion will be given in Charg which some kind natur'd man may perhaps say were made only in terrorem and therefore not to be strictly executed but as that is but a weak Argument to defend those Felonies that are made so by Statute so ought it not to be of more force here for the Magistracy is rationably in point of prudence though there was no other obligation bound to do it For the Congregations or troupes of Dissenters filling every day by reason of the Itching ears of the Populace especially the Independants may possibly encourage their Ledders by their number that being the ordinary way to take measures of strength by to attempt upon the Government which we have reason to think not impossible when the attempt of Venner and his complices with that of the Anabaptists a tribe of the Independents upon Germany is considered and all Casuists do agree it is as lawful to levy war against this King as it was against his Father and though something may be pleadded for those Sects if any such be amongst us that like the * Bramans or Banians amongst the East Indians hold it sin to destroy any creature though of never so mischievous a kind and strictly practise it even in their diet yet nothing can be said for such who like the Mahometan Dervices hold it an acceptable service to God if not meritorious to destroy any person of an erroneous perswasion as they count all who are not of their Judgment And as at the Council of Clermont about the holy War Holy W. c. 8. l. 1. the whole assembly said God willeth it so to encourage you further in your presentments the Bench says the King willeth it which is sufficiently made out when you consider the Law for as there is no ordinary way of knowing Gods Will but by the Scriptures So the most proper way of knowing the Kings will especially at this Distance is by his Laws from whence is that Principle in Law that the King can do no wrong because he is still presumed to act the Law which is the only true Standard of wrong and right 'T is true it was a maxime amongst the Civilians Ulpian when the Government was arbitrary Quicquid placuit Regi legis habet vigorem Whatsoever pleases the King has the force and vigor of a Law But such is the happy constitution of our Government his Majesties Grace concurring that it may pass for a Maxime in England Quicquid est lex Placet Regi whatsoever is Law pleaseth the King which his Majesty hath sufficiently evidenced by not attempting in the least upon either Religion or property The Laws being the King of Englands Edicts by which he reigns more in the hearts of his then others over the fortunes of their Subjects You are therefore to present Recusants of all sorts because disobedient to the Laws under which we enjoy more happiness than any Nation whatsoever FINIS
we of Bishops They that is the sober part Clevel for There is a Church as well as Kirke of Scots wave enthusiasms and such like dreams and make the Scripture the rule of Faith as well as of manners all the difference then lies in the construction of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they say signifies a preaching ruling and sometimes a lay-elder and our Divines and doubtless with more reason say a Bishop and such an one as hath superintendency over Presbyters too but this having been the subject of the learned pens pro and con I shall say no more but that many of them are worthy in their generations and eminent both for Learning and Piety and have been instrumental too in the Kings and consequently the Churches Restauration let them now come into her bosome who is always willing to receive them and reap at least the fruits of those worthy labours least the controversie betwixt us and them be decided by a third party as that of the Mouse and the Frog in the Fable was to the ruine of both the gladiators And I hope there may be an expedient found out for it for I am sure the Church of England is not of the humor of Pope Paul the fourth Cor. Trid. p. 406. who said rather then he would loose one jot of his due he would see the whole world ruin'd It cannot be said that they were ever immediately guilty of any Soveraign Princes blood yet they were a little School-men like too nice in the distinction betwixt the Politique and the Personal capacities of Princes and did a little too inconsiderately swallow the Vulgar Error of the Kings being one of the three * I humbly propose to those worthy persons of that judgment whether the making the King an Estate makes him not a co-ordinate power and where such is then in reason all matters are to be decided by majority of suffrages and how that will lesson Majesty he is very shallow that cannot discern Estates not having a due regard to the ill consequences of both which naturally are such as must render the assertours of those opinions liable at least to a suspition that they have been far from being zealous in every thing that may advance a peaceable conversation amongst men The next in order is the Church of England whose Credenda matters of Faith are according to the holy Scriptures and the first four general Councils and are such as all her opposers but the buzzardly Quakers believe or at least pretend so to be true and Orthodox she claims a succession of Bishops from the Apostles and hath as much authority for it notwithstanding the Fryer-like tale of the Nags-head-Tavern as any of the most potent of her adversaries she directs Prayers to God according to his command and not to the uncertain ear of a Creature intercessor in fine she believes according as they believed in the purest primitive times and directs mens practice accordingly and though her directions are not so successful perhaps as then yet then there were immoralities as may be seen by the irregularities in the infant Church of Corinth and the impurities amongst the Nicholaitans and filthy Gnostiques it can no more be attributed to her then the Idolatry of the old Israelttes could be to Moses who directed them otherways I shall not use many Arguments for truth needs not many Champions but only say That if Loyalty and Obedience to Lawful Authority be an argument of a peaceable conversation the Church of England is to be preferred before all others of our Cognizance witness her brave and patient suffering during the almost 20 years of tumult and tyranny in which her sons asserted their allegiance with so much chearfulness to the loss of their lives and fortunes as is not to be parallel'd in any age to whose restless endeavours and constant struglings against the pretended powers his Majesties happy return may more justly be attributed then to any other second Cause Independency it self was not more eminent for Rebellion then she for Loyalty which is as inseparable from her as light from colour for it s as well known as a Negative can be that never any of her sons ever made defection as to that except one Apostate Bishop which is the less to be wondered at considering there was a Judas amongst the twelve since the Reformation from Rome and though many did pay obedience to the late powers yet it was for wrath not conscience sake All this considered it will appear no great wonder if her sons be still kindly lookt on by his Majesty according to the saying of his Royal Unkle to his Cardinal upon another occasion There was no reason he should forsake them that loved him Lust Ludo. p. 169. to humor the Caprichio's of those that did not love him So what the Spirit said to the Church of Philadelphia may I hope without presumption be applied to that of England Rev. 3.10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the Earth Now we come to the Church Triumphant that of Rome whose Grandeur hath o're gone all the Churches that ever were in the pomp and vanity of this wicked world she professes the well-bred that is the Travelling Religion and thinks I suppose that we are as discerning in the point of Religion as we are in that of Cloaths in love with every thing that is Forraign she would never offer else to impose all her little tricks upon us The two Pillars or Staves Zec. 11. v. 7. on which this mighty Machine of Popery is supported are not Gods staves of beauty and bands but Supremacy and Infallibility Pope Boniface the 8th was a great Asserter of the former when he made it Authentick Law in these words We say and define and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary to salvation for every humane Creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome A new Article of Faith never heard of amongst the Ancient Creeds Antiquity making out the contrary Cited by L. Cook Re. 5. For S. Edw. Laws c. 19. delivers this for Law Rex autem qui vicarius summi Regis est ad hoc constitutus est ut Regnum populum Domini super omnia sanctam Ecclesiam regat defendat ab inimicis maleficos autem destruat By this you may see that the King was owned by the Law then to be Gods Vicar or Vicegerent not foreseeing the proud decree of Boniface Inter omnes convenit quod nemo possit appropriare ullam Ecclesiam cui animarum cura incumbit cum sit res Ecclesiastica Ecclesiastica personae approprianda nisi ille qui jurisdictionem habet Ecclesiasticam sed Gulielmus primus ex se sine quovis alio Ecclesiarum curam personis Ecclesiasticis ut Rex Angliae appropriavit unde ipsum
of the Church of Rome 362. forbad the publique use of the Emperours Name and Title his Successors Leo the third and Gregory the second wrote so after his copy that they stript the Emperors of all they had almost in Italy by absolving the Subjects of their Allegiance that they fell into Rebellion and destroyed their Provincial Governours The Popes of that time were encouraged to this insolence by correspondence with Charles Martell Major of the Pallace who more then probably had some design of usurpation upon the Crown of France at that time managed by a race of weak Princes which afterwards Pepin his son executed by the help of Pope Zachary who understanding his meaning when he sent to know whether it was not fit for him to bear the name who did all the business of a King readily absolv'd him of his oath to his Lord and Master with all his Nobles and People Pepin upon this deposed his Master Chilperick and put him into a Monastery and by some such way or worse made sure of the remaining house of Pharamond By this may easily be seen the danger that attends lawful Soveraign Princes by the exorbitant power of the Pope o're the consciences of their Subjects The successors of this Zachary notwithstanding the succors that Pepin gave them which needs must be very great having nothing to adjust his perjury and usurpations but the Popes supremacy as on the contrary they had nothing to save themselves from the fury of their justly provoked Leige Lords but the strictness of that League yet some of his Successors by reason of the Lombarde power were not free from trouble for Pope Leo the third was put into Prison for some enormities and escaped to Charles into Saxony who brought him to Rome with an Army to clear himself where calling a Synod to examine whether the matters were true or no that he was accused of the bold Pope took the Chair and jollily determined it that the Bishop of Rome was above all men and to be judged by none But to make Charles amends he Crowns him and Proelaims him Augustus and Emperor of the Romans to which he had the same title as his Father had to the Kingdom of France and Charles in requital conquer'd the Lumbards for him and bestow'd most of those Lands upon him called now the patrimony of the Church for which he was I suppose Ros p. 128. Sainted many years after having no other vertue but that to deserve such a favour and who knows but that some kind Pope hereafter may canonize the Rump-Parliament or at least the High-Court of Justice they having as much right to do what they did as Charles had to be King of France for the Fathers prosperous treason could never create a title in the Son or Emperour and I am sure they did the See of Rome more service then that great Warrier for all his enfeoffing her in those Italian Provinces And this is the Original of the Popes greatness who as long as the Empire continued in the line of Charles out of common policy if not gratitude were very mannerly to the Emperors Hist Coun. Tren 835. for they still dated their Bulls Priviledges and Grants with these formal words In the Reign of such an Emperour our Lord and Master But Hildebrand was of another temper to the German Emperours for he forced Henry the Emperour with his Lady and Prince to attend him three days at the Gates of Cannusium before he would admit him to his presence Alexander the third was not much more modest when he set his foot upon the Emperour Frederick his neck prophanely applying that saying in the Psalms super Aspidem Basiliscum ambulabis conculcabis Leonem Draconem To this submission was the Emperour forced to save the life of his Son who was lately fallen into his malitious hands by misfortune But least these Examples should by reason of their Antiquity be objected against it may not be amiss to give some later instances of their being busie-bodies in managing of Crowns Julius the third very briskly told Henry the second of France in the year 1551. Con. Trid. 314 by his Embassadour Foul. pag. 725. That if he took Parma from him he would take France from the King and in the year 1626 Vrban the eighth sent to forbid his beloved sons the Catholiques of England the taking of the pernicious and unlawful Oath of Allegiance nay more the Catholiques of Ireland submitted that unhappy Kingdom to the said Vrban and after to Pope Inno. the tenth who bestowed it as a favour upon his dearest Miss Madam Olympia In the year 1662 Cardinal Barbarino bids the Irish take heed they fall not foul upon some things condemned by holy Church in adjusting their Loyalty which they at that time stood in need of considering the then posture of affairs But these however the latter is a private Doctors opinion and the Church not at all answerable for it says the little Priest that leads the silly women captive for to give them their due they will never justifie any thing but what may conduce to their ends like them that never tell truth for truths sake but because it is fit to be so they give the best words of any people in the world to bring people into their Communion but when once in they 'l shew you another manner of Countenance especially where they have a coercive power you must then believe all their little things upon pain of being deliver'd up to the secular power that is to Fire and Fagot as it was almost in our Grandfathers days and what fair dealing can we expect from them when the Author of the History of the Council of Trent gives this Character of the Pope Paul the third that he was a Prelate endowed with good qualities C.T. p. 71. but among all his Vertues he made more esteem of none then Dissimulation But to make this more appear I 'le give you a relation of some transactions of the Inquisition related by a Romanist which clearly make out that that Holy Office as he devoutly terms it did take upon them and I 'me sure do so still if they do any thing the cognizance of things of which by their first institution they were not at all appointed Judges that Office or Court was set up at the instance of Dominick whose Mother dreamt when she was with Child of him Martyr in vit Dom. that she had a whelp vomiting fire in her womb to reduce the Waldenses about the year 1205 and afterwards brought into Spain upon the Conquest of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella Kings of Arragon and Castile as an expedient of discrimination of Christians from Jews and Moors But Charles the fifth made other use of it in the Low Countries for by its help he burnt and otherways destroyed 50000 of his poor Subjects little thinking that his memory as well as the persons of his most inward friends