but think that a sad profession of Religion which enforceth men to decry the use and excellency of that which let them pretend what they please is the only infallible Revelation of all that Truth by obedience whereunto we become Christians I do heartily pity Learned and Ingenious men when I see them enforced by a private corrupt Interest to engage in this woful work of undervaluing the word of God and so much the more as that I cannot but hope that it is a very ingrateful work to themselves Did they delight in it I should have other thoughts of them and conclude that there are more Atheists in the World than those whom our Author informs us to be lately turned so in England This then is the Remedy that Protestants have for their evils This the means of making up all their differences which they might do every day so far as in this World it is possible that that work should be done amongst men if it were not their own fault That they do not so blame them still blame them soundly lay on Reproofs till I cry Hold but let not I pray the word of God be blamed any more Methinks I could beg this of a Catholick especially of my Countrey-men That whatever they say to Protestants or however they deal with them they would let the Scripture alone and not decry its worth and usefulness It is not Protestants Book it is Gods who hath only granted them an use of it in common with the rest of men And what is spoken in disparagement of it doth not reflect on them but on him that made it and sent it to them It is no Policy I confess to discover our secrets to our Adversaries whereby they may prevent their own disadvantages for the future But yet because I look not on the Romanists as absolute Enemies I shall let them know for once that when Protestants come to that head of their Disputes or Orations wherein they contend that the Scripture is so and so obscure and insufficient they generally take great contentment to find that their Religion cannot be opposed without casting down the word of God from its excellency and enthroning somewhat else in the room of it Let them make what use of this they please I could not but tell it them for their good and I know it to be true For the present it comes too late For another main Principle of our Authors Discourse is VIII That the Scripture on sundry accounts is insufficient to settle us in the Truth of Religion or to bring us to an agreement amongst our selves and that 1. Because it is not to be known to be the word of God but by the Testimony of the Roman Church And then 2. Cannot be well Translated into any vulgar Language And is also 3. In its self obscure And 4. We have no way to determine of what is its proper sense Atqui hic est nigrae sumus Caliginis haec est Aerugo mera I suppose they will not tell a Pagan or a Mahumetan this story At least I heartily wish that men would not suffer themselves to be so far transported by their private Interest as to forget the general concernments of Christianity We cannot say they know the Scripture to be the word of God but by the Authority of the Church of Rome And all men may easily assure themselves that no man had ever known there was such a thing as a Church much less that it had any Authority but by the Scripture And whither this tends is easie to guess But it will not enter into my head that we cannot know or believe the Scripture to be the word of God any otherwise than on the Authority of the Church of Rome The greatest part of it was believed to be so before there was any Church at Rome at all and all of it is so by Millions in the World who make no account of that Church at all Now some say there is such a Church I wish men would leave perswading us that we do not believe what we know we do believe or that we cannot do that which we know we do and see that millions besides our selves do so too There are not many Nations in Europe wherein there are not Thousands who are ready to lay down their lives to give testimony that the Scripture is the word of God that care not a rush for the Authority of the present Church of Rome And what further evidence they can give that they believe so I know not And this they do upon that innate evidence that the word of God hath in it self and gives to its self the testimony of Christ and his Apostles and the teaching of the Church of God in all Ages I must needs say There is not any thing for which Protestants are so much beholding to the Roman Catholicks as this That they have with so much importunacy cast upon them the work of proving the Scripture to be of Divine Original or to have been given by inspiration from God It is as good a work as a man can well be imployed in and there is not any thing I should more gladly en professo ingage in if the nature of my present business would bear such a Diversion Our Author would quickly see what an easie Task it were to remove those his Reproches of a private spirit of an inward testimony of our own Reason which himself knowing the advantage they afford him amongst vulgar unstudied men trisles withal Both Romanists and Protestants as far as I can learn do acknowledge That the Grace of the Spirit is necessary to enable a man to believe savingly the Scripture to be the Word of God upon what Testimony or Authority soever that faith is founded or resolved into Now this with Protestants is no private Whisper no Enthusiasm no Reason of their own no particular Testimony but the most open noble known that is or can be in the World even the voice of God himself speaking publickly to all in and by the Scripture evidencing it self by its own Divine innate light and excellency taught confirmed and testified unto by the Church in all Ages especially the first founded by Christ and his Apostles He that looks for better or other Testimony Witness or Foundation to build his faith upon may search till Dooms-day without success He that renounceth this shakes the very root of Christianity and opens a door to Atheism and Paganism This was the Anchor of Christians of old from which neither the Storms of Persecution could drive them nor the subtilty of Disputations entise them For men to come now in the end of the World and to tell us That we must rest in the Authority of the present Church of Rome in our receiving the Scripture to be the word of God and then to tell us That that Church hath all its Authority by and from the Scripture and to know well enough all the while that no man can know
the life which will be maintained in it springing only from secular advantages and inveterate prejudices would together with them decay and disappear Neither can any thing but a confidence of the ignorance of men in all things that are past yea in what was done almost by their own Grandsyres give countenance to a man in his own silent thoughts for such insinuations of quietness in the World before the Reformation The Wars Seditions Rebellions and Tumults to omit private practises that were either raised occasioned and countenanced by the Pope's absolving Subjects from their Allegiance Kings and States from their Oaths given mutually for the securing of Peace between them all in the pursuit of their own worldly interests do fill up a good part of the Stories of some ages before the Reformation What ever then is pretended things were not so peaceable and quiet in those dayes as they are now represented to men that mind only things that are present nor was their Agreement their vertue but their sin and misery being centred in blindness and ignorance and cemented with bloud V. That the first Reformers were most of them sorry contemptible Persons whose Errors were propagated by indirect means and entertained for sinister ends is in several places of this Book alledged and consequences pretended thence to ensue urged and improved But the truth is the more contemptible the Persons were that begun the work the greater glory and lustre is reflected on the work it self which points out to an higher cause then any appeared outwardly for the carrying of it on It is no small part of the Gospels glory that being promulgated by persons whom the World looked on with the greatest contempt and scorn imaginable as men utterly destitute of whatever was by them esteemed noble or honourable it prevailed notwithstanding in the minds of men to eradicate the inveterate prejudices received by Tradition from their Fathers to overthrow the antient and outward glorious Worship of the Nations and to bring them into subjection unto Christ. Neither can any thing be written with more contempt and scorn nor with greater under-valuation of the abilities or outward condition of the first Reformers then was spoken and written by the greatest and wisest and learnedst of men of old concerning the Preachers and Planters of Christianity Should I but repeat the biting Sarcasms contemptuous reproaches and scorns wherewith with plausible pretences the Apostles and those that followed them in their work of preaching the Gospel were entertained by Celsus Lucian Porphyry Julian Hierocles with many more men learned and wise I could easily manifest how short our new Masters come of them in facetious wit beguiling eloquence and fair pretences when they seek by stories jestings calumnies and false reports to expose the first Reformers to the contempt and scorn of men who know nothing of them but their names and those as covered with all the dirt they can possibly cast upon them But I intend not to tempt the Atheistical wits of any to an approbation of their sin by that complyance which the vain fancies of such men do usually afford them in the contemplation of the wit and ingenuity as they esteem it of plausible calumnies The Scripture may be heard that abundantly testifies that the Character given of the first Reformers as men poor unlearned seeking to advantage themselves by the troubling of others better greater and wiser than they in their Religion was received of the Apostles Evangelists and other Christians in the first budding of Christianity But the truth is all these are but vain pretences those knew of old and these do now that the Persons whom they vilifie and scorn were eminently fitted of God for the work that they were called unto The receiving of their Opinions for sinisters end reflects principally on this Kingdom of England and must do so whilst the surmises of a few interested Fryers shall be believed by English-men before the solemn Protestation of so renowned a King as he was who first casheer'd the Popes Authority in this Nation For what he being alive avowed on his Royal word and vowed as in the sight of the Almighty God was an effect of Light and Conscience in him they will needs have to be a consequent of his lust and levity And what honour it is to the Royal Government of this Nation to have those who swayed the Scepter of it but a few years ago publickly traduced and exposed to obloquy by the Libellous Pens of obscure and unknown persons wise men may be easily able to judge This I am sure there is little probability that they should have any real regard or reverence for the present Rulers farther then they find or hope that they shall have their countenance and assistance for the furtherance of their private Interest who so revile their Predecessors for acting contrary unto it And this Loyalty the Kings Majesty may secure himself of from the most Seditious Fanatick in the Nation so highly is he beholding to these men for their duty and obedience VI. That our departure from Rome hath been the cause of all our Evils and particularly of all those Divisions which are at this day found amongst Protestants and which have been since the Reformation is a supposition that not only insinuates it self into the hidden Sophistry of our Authors Discourse but is also every where spread over the face of it with as little truth or advantage to his purpose as those that went before So the Pagans judged the Primitive Christians so also did the Jews and do to this day Here is no new task lyes before us The Answers given of old to them and yet continued to be given will suffice to these men also The truth is our Divisions are not the effect of our Leaving Rome but of our being there In the Apostasie of that Church came upon men all that darkness and all those prejudices which cause many needless Divisions amongst them And is it any wonder that men partly ledd partly driven out of the right way and turned a clean contrary course for sundry Generations should upon liberty obtained to return to their old paths somewhat vary in their choice of particular Tracts though they all agree to travail towards the same place and in general steer their course accordingly Besides let men say what they please the differences amongst the Protestants that are purely religious are no other but such as ever were and take away external force ever will be amongst the best of men whilst they know but in part however they may not be mannaged with that prudence and moderation which it is our duty to use in and about them Were not the Consequences of our Differences which arise meerly from our solly and sin of more important consideration then our differences themselves I should very little value the one or the other knowing that none of them in their own nature are such as to impeach either our present tranquillity
c. THe Title of this Chapter was proposed the persuit of it now ensues The first Paragraph is a declamation about sundry things which have not much blame-worthy in them Their common weakness is that they are common They tend not to the furtherance of any one thing more then another but are such as any Party may flourish withal and use to their several ends as they please That desire of honour and applause in the world hath influenced the minds of men to great and strange Undertakings is certain That it should do so is not certain nor true so that when we treat of Religion if we renounce not the Fundamental Principle of it in Self-denyal this consideration ought to have no place What then was done by Emperours and Philosophers of old or by the later School-men on this account we are little concerned in Nor have I either desire or design to vellicate any thing spoken by our Author that may have an indifferent interpretation put upon it and be separated from the end which he principally persues As there is but very little spoken in this Paragraph directly tending to the whole end aimed at so there are but three things that will any way serve to leaven the mind of his Reader that he may be prepared to be moulded into the form he hath fancyed to cast him into which is the work of all these previous Harangues The first is his inâ—â—nuation That the Reformation of Religion is a thing pretended by aemulous Plebeians not able to hope for that Supervisorship in Religion which they see intrusted with others How unserviceable this is unto his Design as applyed to the Church of England all men know for setting aside the consideration of the influence of Soveraign Royal Authority the first Reformers amongst us were persons who as they enjoyed the right of Reputation for the Excellencies of Learning and Wisdom so also were they fixed in those places and conditions in the Church which no Reformation could possibly advance them above and the attempt whereof cost them not only their dignities but their lives also Neither were Hezekiah Josiah or Ezra of old aemulous plebeians whose lasting glory and renown arose from their Reformation of Religion They who fancy men in all great undertakings to be steered by desire of applause and honour are exceeding incompetent judges of those actions which zeal for the glory of God love to the Truth sense of their duty to the Lord Jesus Christ and compassion for the souls of others do lead men unto and guide them in and such will the last Day manifest the Reformation traduced to have been The Second is a gallant commendâ—tion of the Ingenuity Charity Candor and sublime Science of the School-men I confess they have deserved good words at his hands These are the men who out of a mixture of Philosophy Traditions and Scriptureâ— all corrupted and perverted have hammâ—â—ed that faith which was afterwards confirmed under so many Anathemaes at Trent So that upon the matter he is beholden to them for his Religion which I find he loves and hath therefore reason to be thankful to its Contrivers For my part I am as far from envying them their commendation as I have reason to be which I am sure is far enough But yet before we admit this Testimony hand over head I could wish he would take a course to stop the mouths of some of his own Church and those no small ones neither who have declared them to the world to be a pack of egregious Sophisters neither good Philosophers nor any Divines at all men who seem not to have had the least reverence of God nor much regard to the Truth in any of their Disputations but weâ—â— wholly influenced by a vain Reputation of Subtility desire of Conquest of leading and denominating Parties and that in a Barbarous Science barbarously expressed untill they had driven all Learning and Divinity almost out of the World But I will not contend about these Fathers of Contention let every man esteem of them as he seems good There is the same respect in that bitter reflection which he makes on those who have managed differences in Religion in this last Age the Third thing observable That they are the Writers and Writings that have been published against the Papacy which he intends he doth more than intimate Their Disputes he rells us are managed with so much unseemly behaviour such unmanerly expressions that discreet sobriety cannot but loath and abhor to read them with very much more to this purpose I shall not much labour to perswade men not to believe what he sayes in this matter for I know full well that he believes it not himself He hath seen too many Protestant Books I suppose to think this Cenâ—â—re will suit them all This was meet to be spoken for the advantage of the Catholick cause for what there hath been of real offence in this kind amongst us we may say Iliacos intra muros peccatur et extra Romanists are Sinners as well as others And I suppose himself knows That the Reviling and Defamations used by some of his Party are not to be paralleld in any Writings of man-kind at this day extant About the Appellatioâ—s he shall think meet to make use of in reference to the Persons at variance we will not contend with him Only I desire to let him know That the reproach of Galilean from the Pagans which he appropriates to the Papists was worn out of the World before that Popery which he pleads for came into it As Roman-Catholicks never tasted of the sufferings wherewith that Reproach was attended so they have no special right to the honour that is in its remembrance As to the sport he is pleased to make with his Countrey-men in the close of this Paragraph about losing their wits in Religious contests with the evils thence ensuing I shall no further reflect upon but once more to mind the Reader that the many words he is pleased to use in the exaggerating the evils of mannaging differences in Religion with animosities and tumults so seemingly to perswade men to moderation and peace I shall wholly pass by as having discovered that that is not his business nor consequently at present mine It is well observed by him in his second Paragraph that most of the great Contests in the world about perishing things proceed from the unmortified lusts of men The Scripture abounds in Testimonies given hereunto St. James expresly From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight and warr yet you have not chap. 4.1 2. Mens lusts put them on endless irregularities in unbounded desires and foolish sinful enterprizes for their satisfaction Neither is Satan the old Enemy of the well-fare of mankind wanting to excite provoke and stir up these lusts by mixing himself
is a fair way to question another which came by the same hand and this a third till the very Authority of the first Revealer be at stake which can no more defend himself then he can his Law For the same Axe and Instrument that cut down the branches can cut up the root too and if his reverence for which all the rest was believed defend not their truth it must needs at length utterly fail in his own for all the Authority they had was purely from him and he fails in them before he falls in himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Papists or Roman-Catholicks first brought Christ and his Christianity into this Land is most untrue and I wonder how any one that hath read any story of the Times that are past should so often averre what he cannot but know to be untrue The Gospel might have been brought into England by Romans and yet not by Papists for I cannot find nor can this Gentleman shew that the Romans St. Paul wrote unto were any one of them in any one poynt Papists But neither was it brought hither by Romans but came immediately out of the East from whence also about the same time it came to Rome Nor is it any jot truer That we no sooner heard news of Christianity than Popery with its Crucifixes Monasteries Reliques Sacrifice that is the Mass and the like Apage nugas What do we talk of tother-day things when we speak of the first news of Christianity The first planting and watering of these things was in after-Ages and their growing up to that consistency wherein they may justly be called Popery a work of many Centuries And yet I shall grant that most of them got the start in the World of that Papal Soveraignty whence Popery is peculiarly denominated But the first news we hear of Christianity is in the Gospel where there is not the least tidings of these trifles nor was there in some Ages that next succeeded the publication of it If this Gentleman give any further occasion the particulars shall be evinced to him For my part I know not how nor to whom a Papist is become odious which nextly he complains of I can and do love their persons pitty them in their mistakes hate only their vices But yet certain it is a Papist may be odious that is men may not love those parts of his Religion from whence he is so denominated without the least impeachment of that faith that extirpated Gentilism in the World It is for that faith which ruined Gentilism that we contend against Papists Let us have that and no more and there is an end of all our Contests The things we strive about sprang up since Gentilism was buryed the most of them out of its grave some from a deeper place if there be a deeper place For the practical Truths of the Papists which he complains to be abolished I was in good hope he would not have mentioned them their speculations are better then their practises whether he intends their moral Divinity or their agenda in Worshâ—p I would desire this Gentleman to mention them no more lest he hear that of them which I know he is not willing to do As for the Practical Truths of the Gospel they are maintained and asserted in the Church of England and by all Protestants and about others we are not solicitous What tendency then the Rejection of Popery which had no hand in supplanting Gentilism and which is no part of the Religion of Christ hath to the leading of men into Atheism is as hard to discover as the quadrature of a Circle or a Subterranean passage into the Indies But he gives his reasons If one truth be denyed a fair way is made to question another which came by the same hand and this a third till the very Authority of the first Revealer be at stake which can no more defend himself then he can his Law This first Revealer I take to be the Lord Christ he that grants a thing or doctrine to be taught and delivered by him yet denyes it to be true doth indeed deny his Authority However he will defend himself and his Law let men do what they please But he that denyes such a thing to be truth because it is not revealed by him nor consistent with what is revealed by him doing this out of subjection of soul and conscience to his Authority is in no danger of questioning or opposing that Authority Nay be it that it be indeed a truth which he denyes being only denyed by him because he is perswaded that it is not of Christ the first Revealer and therefore not true there is no fear of the danger threatned But the matter is That all that is brought from Christ by the same hand must be equally received It is true If it be brought from Christ by the same hand it must be so not because by the same hand but because from Christ They that preached Christ and withall that men must be circumcised had put men into a sad condition if in good sooth they had been necessitated to embrace all that they taught the same men teaching Christ to be the Messias and Circumcision to be necessary to life eternal Amongst those that were converted to the Gospel by the Jews that were zealous of the Law how easie had it been for their Teachers to have utterly frustrated St. Paul's Doctrine of Christian liberty by telling them that they could not forgo Circumcision but they must forgo Christ also for all those things they received by the same hand If indeed a man comes and delivers a Systeme of Religion upon his own Authority and Reputation only he that denyes any one point of what he delivers is in a fair way of everting all that he asserts But if he come as sent from another and affirm that this other commanded him to declare that which he delivers for Truth in his Name and produce for that end his Commission wherein all the Truths that he is to deliver are written if he deliver what he hath not received in Commission that may honestly be rejected without the least impeachment of any one Truth that was really committed unto him by him that sent him And this was the way this the condition of them who planted the Gospel in the Name of Christ not being themselves divinely inspired So that if in the second Edition of Christianity in some parts of this Nation by Austine and his Associates any thing was taught or practised that was not according to the Rule and Commission given by Christ it may be rejected without the least impeachment to the Authority of the first Revealer nay his Authority being once received cannot be preserved entire without such rejection I confess I do almost mistrust that by this Revealer of Christianity and his Authority which he discourses about our Authour intends the Pope which if so what we have discoursed of Christ is I confess to
or do deserve not the least notice from men who will seriously contemplate the hand power and wisdom of God in the work accomplished by them The next thing undertaken by our Author is the ingress of Protestancy into England and its progress there The old story of the love of King Henry the Eighth to Ann Bullen with the divorce of Queen Katharine told over and over long ago by men of the same principle and design with himself is that which he chooseth to flourish withall I shall say no more to the story but that English-men were not wont to believe the whispers of an unknown Fryer or two before the open redoubled Protestation of one of the most famous Kings that ever swaid the Scepter of this Land before the union of the Crowns of England and Scotland These men whatever they pretend shew what reverence they have to our present Soveraign by their unworthy defamation of his Royal Predecessors But let men suppose the worst they please of that great Heroick Person What are his miscarriages unto Protestant Religion for neither was he the Head Leader or Author of that Religion nor did he ever receive it profess it or embrace it but caused men to be burned to death for its profession Should 〈◊〉 by way of Retaliation return unto our Author the lives and practices of some of many not of the great or leading men of his Church but of the Popes themselves the Head sum and in a manner whole of their Religion at least so farre that without him they will not acknowledge any he knows well enough what double measure shaken together pressed down and running over may be returned unto him A work this would be I confess no way pleasing unto my self for who can delight in raking into such a sink of Filth as the lives of many of them have been yet because he seems to talk with a confidence of willingness to revive the memory of such ulcers of Christianity if he proceed in the course he hath begun it will be necessary to mind him of not boxing up his eyes when he looks towards his own home That Poysonings Adulteries Incests Conjurations Perjuries Atheism have been no strangers to that See if he knows not he shall be acquainted from stories that he hath no colour to except against For the present I shall only mind him and his friends of the Comaedian's advice Dehinc ut quiescunt porro mâ—neo desinant Maledicere malefactae ne noscant suâ— The declaration made in the days of that King that he was Head of the Church of England intended no more but that there was no other person in the world from whom any Jurisdiction to be exercised in this Church over his Subjects might be derived the Supreme Authority for all exterior Government being vested in him alone That this should be so the Word of God the nature of the Kingly Office and the antâ—ent Laws of this Realm do require And I challenge our Author to produce any one Testimony of Scripture or any one word out of any general Council or any one Catholick Father or Writer to give the least countenance to his assertion of two heads of the Church in his sense an head of Influence which is Jesus himself and an head of Government which is the Pope in whom all the sacred Hierarchy ends This taking of one half of Christs Rule and Headship out of his hand and giving it to the Pope will not be salved by that expression thrust in by the way under him For the Headship of influence is distinctly ascribed unto Christ and that of Government to the Pope which evidently asserts that he is not in the same manner head unto his Church in both these senses but He in one and the Pope in another But whatever was the cause or occasion of the dissention between King Henry and the Pope it 's certain Protestancy came into England by the same way and means that Christianity came into the World the painful pious Professors and Teachers of it sealed its truth with their bloud and what more honourable entrance it could make I neither know nor can it be declared Nor did England receive this Doctrine from others in the days of King Henry it did but revive that light which sprung up amongst us long before and by the fury of the Pope and his adherents had been a while suppressed And it was with the blood of English-men dying patiently and gloriously in the flames that the truth was sealed in the dayes of that King who lived and dyed himself as was said in the profession of the Roman faith The Truth flourished yet more in the dayes of his pious and hopefull Son Some stop our Author tels us was put to it in the dayes of Queen Mary But what stop of what kind of no other than that put to Christianity by Trajan Dioclesian Julian a stop by fire and sword and all exquisite cruelties which was broken through by the constant death and invincible patience and prayers of Bishops Ministers and People numberless a stop that Rome hath cause to blush in the remembrance of and all Protestants to rejoyce having their faith tryed in the fire and coming forth more pretious than Gold Nor did Queen Elizabeth as is falsly pretended indeavour to continue that stop but cordially from the beginning of her Reign embraced that faith wherein she had before been instructed And in the maintenance of it did God preserve her from all the Plots Conspiracies and Rebellions of the Papists Curses and Depositions of the Popes with Invasions of her Kingdomes by his instigation as also her renowned Successor with his whole Regal posterity from their contrivance for their Martyrdom and ruin During the Reign of those Royal and Magnificent Princes had the Power and Polity of the Papal world been able to accomplish what the men of this innocent and quiet Religion professedly designed they had not had the advantage of the late miscarriages of some professing the Protestant Religion in reference to our late King of glorious Memory to triumph in though they had obtained that which would have been very desirable to them and which we have but sorry evidence that they do not yet aim at and hope for As for what he declares in the end of his 10th Paragraph about the Reformation here that it followed wholly neither Luther nor Calvin which he intermixes with many unseemly taunts and reflexions on our Laws Government and Governours is as far as it is true the glory of it It was not Luther nor Calvin but the Word of God and the practise of the primitive Church that England proposed for her rule and pattern in her Reformation and where any of the Reformers forsook them she counted it her duty without reflexions on them or their wayes to walk in that safe one she had chosen out for her self Nor shal I insist on his next Paragraph destined to the advancement of his interest
by a proclamation of the late Tumults Seditions and Rebellions in these Nations which he ascribes to the Puritans He hath got an advantage and it is not equal we should perswade him to forego it only I desire prudent men to consider what the importance of it is as to this case in hand for as to other considerations of the same things they fall not within the compass of our present discourse It 's not of Professions but of persons that he treats The crimes he insists on attend not any avowed Principles but the men that have professed them And if a rule of chusing or leaving Religion may from thence be gathered I know not any in the world that any can embrace much less can they rest in none at all Professors of all Religions have in their seasons sinfully miscarried themselves and troubled the world with their lusts and those who have professed none most of all And of all that is called Religion that of the Romanists might by this rule be first cashiered The abominable bestial lives of very many of their chief Guids in whom they believe the Tumults Seditions Wars Rebellions they have raised in the World the Treasons Murders Conspiracies they have countenanced encouraged and commended would take up not a single Paragraph of a little Treatise but innumerable Volumes should they be but briefly reported they do so already and which renders them abominable whilest there is any in the world that see reason not to submit themselves unto the Papal Soveraignty their professed Principles lead them to the same courses and when men are brought to all the bestial subjection aimed at yet pretences will not be wanting to set on foot such practises They were not in former dayes when they had obtained an uncontrouleable omnipotency If our Author supposeth this a rational way for the handling of differences in Religion that leaving the consideration of the Doctrines and Principles we should insist on the vices and crimes of those who have professed them I can assure him he must expect the least advantage by it to his party of any in the world nor need we chuse any other Scene than England to try out our contests by this rule I hope when he writes next he will have better considered this matter and not flatter himself that the crimes of any Protestants do enable him to conclude as he doth that the only way for Peace is an extermination of Protestancy and so his tale about Religion is ended he next brings himself on the stage CHAP. XIV Popish Contradictions THis is our last task our Author 's own Story of himself and rare observations in the Roman-Religion make up the close of his Discourse and merit in his thoughts the title of Discovery The design of the whole is to manifest his Catholick Religion to be absolutely unblameable by wiping off some spots and blemishes that are cast upon it indeed by gilding over with fair and plansible words some parts of their profession worship which he knew to be most liable to the exceptions of them with whom he intends to deal His way of managing this Design that he may seem to do something new is by telling a fair tale of himself and his Observations with the effects they had upon him which is but the putting of a a new tune to an old Song that hath been chanted at our doors these 100. years and some he hopes are so simple as to like the new tune though they were sick of the old Song His entrance is a blessing of the world with some knowledg of himself his Parentage Birth and Education and proficiency in his Studies as not doubting but that great enquiry must needs be made after the meanest concernments of such an Hero as by his acchievements and travails he hath manifested himself to be And indeed he hath so handsomly and delightfully given us the Romance of himself and Popery that it was pitty he should so unhappily stumble at the threshold as he hath done and fall upon a misadventure that to some men wil render the design of his discourse suspected For whereas he doth else-where most confidently averr that no trouble ever was raised amongst us by the Romanists here at unawares he informs us that his own Grand-father lost both his life and his estate in a Rebellion raised in the North on the account of that Religion Just as before attempting to prove that we received Christianity originally from Rome he tells us that the first Planters of it came directly from Palestina It is in vain for him to perswade us that what hath been can never be again unless he manifest the Principles which formerly gave it life and being to be vanished out of the world which as to those of the Romanists tending to the disturbance of these Kingdoms I fear he is not able to doe There is not any thing else which Protestants are universally bound to observe in the course of his life before he went beyond the Seas but only the offence he took at men's preaching at London against Popery not that he was then troubled if we may believe him that Popery was ill reported of but the miscarriage of the Preachers in bringing in the Papal Church hand over-head in their Sermons speaking all evil and no good of it and charging it with contradictions was that which gave him distaste He knows himself best what it was that troubled him nor shall I set up conjectures against his assertions The triple evil mentioned so farr as it is evil I hope he finds now remedyed For my part I never liked of mens importune diversions from their Texts to deal with or confute Papists which is the first part of the evil complained of I know a farr more effectual way to preserve men from Popery namely a solid instruction of them in the Principles of Truth with an endeavour to plant in their hearts the power of those Principles that they may have experience of their worth and usefulness That nothing but evil was spoken of Popery by Protestants when they spake of it I cannot wonder they account nothing evil in the Religion of the Romanists but Popery which is the name of the evil of that Religion Noe Protestants ever denyed but that the Romanists retained many good things in the Religion which they profess but those good things they say are no part of Popery so that our Author should not by right have been so offended that men spake no good of that which is the expression of the evil of that which in its self is good as Popery is of the Papists Christianity The last parcel of that which was the matter of his trouble and offence he displayes by sundry of the contradictions which Protestants charged Popery withal To little purpose for either the things he mentions are not by any charged on Popery or not in that manner he expresseth or the contradiction between them consists not in the assertions