or Stilo Novo more modernly a Papist in disguise is one who holds Unity and Communion with the Church of England in a strict compliance subscribes to all the Protestant Professions of Faith and received Principles in the same yet in heart adheres also to the Church of Rome in all such Points and Doctrines as are agreeable to Scripture and the Apostolick Faith He is known by his high Conformity to the Liturgy Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and noted for his devout observance of all the Rights and Ceremonies used in publick Worship nor can the Church impose the thing not thwarting the Canon of holy Scripture to which he thinks it not his duty to incline his Obedience He cannot be brought to countenance those who would diminish or so much as dispute her Authority or labour to introduce Novelties and schismatical Fangles into her Government accounting such as wild Boars breaking into the Vineyard to root it up nor will he be justled out of his belief of what the cruel Experiment of the late Times have shown him that the Lambskin of Reformation harbours Wolves for Desolation He is one who will and doth take lawful Oaths of Allegiance Supremacy Test c. tendred him and is obstinate in nothing more than in keeping them He peaceably submits to the Government without dishonourable Reflections on Church or State and in defence of both dares and will venture his All He is one who esteems Obedience better than Sacrifice and prefers performing his Duty before his Life He looks upon the Governours of the Church as those whom God hath sent and through whose words we are to believe in Christ St. Joh. 17.20 and upon the Magistrate and Temporal Rulers as Ministers of God to us for our good and knoweth that the Powers that be are ordained of God and that to resist the Power is to resist the Ordinance of God and will not incur Damnation by resisting He is the same man who stilo veteri in the late Usurpation would not swallow the several unhallowed Bits against Law and Honesty tempted on him not the Vow and Covenant nor subscribe the Association publick Protestation not take the League and Covenant Abjuration of certain Doctrines Oaths c. contradictory one to another and contrary to former lawful Oaths nor close with the Engagement contrary to them all He was the chief sufferer in those times and still is the Butt at which envenomed Arrows from all corners are shot and principally aimed at by the Enemies of the Church for the first Destruction Under the like denomination of Church-Papists were then the best of men delivered to popular ignominy and Contempt preparatives for Ruine and Fore-runners of all Confusion so exposed were the greatest and best of men the Church or Nation of England ever produced pretended fears and Jealousies of being Popishly addicted assaulted the Throne and pretences of Hypocrisie in Religion made many Martyrs for the true one The Sluce of Blood first opened in the best Counsellor of State many Torrents followed the Veins of Royal Majesty it self of the great Patriarch of our Reformed Church of the most Religious of the Nobility and of many prime Christians of the Protestant Profession were launched and flowing in many streams made up a Red Sea Under such an Appellation and Reproach was the Author of this Paper in the same usurped Times particularly numbred and persecuted and by the cruelty of the pretended Reformers suffered many Calamities Plunderings Imprisonments Loss of Employment c. narrowly escaping with life and so strong was the Calumny which took away the Lives of the best Protestants in the world cast on the Churchmen that it prevailed on the belief of many who were innocent of the malicious Project that we were Papists indeed even the very Papists themselves were beguiled thereby and believed us of their perswasion insomuch that soon after the blessed Restauration of the Government the Author was accosted with their Salutes expressing their amazement in that now persecution ceased and a door opened for more freedom as they said he communicated not with them in worship but his refusal of their solemn invitation showing them their mistake one of them no mean one set upon him and made it his business to gain a Proselyte engaging him to comply with or answer the Arguments he soon after delivered in Writing which put the Author upon a serious Scrutiny and Study to know his own Religion aright and to defend it for he being a Layman had then read little of Controversie upon the Points He hapned at the very first on the best Lights the Word of God and the Word of the King Authorities rightly understood and aptly applied not to be withstood by any in the world The best direction to understand the former he received from the later even from that best of Christians and King of Protestants in his ΕΙΚΩΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ by which were framed the following Answers which have slept these many years from their first Conception and might have been dumb till the Papers had turn'd to Ashes had not the now revived term of disguised Papist been clamorous and awakned them to face the world that the well meaning Christian may not in thought joyn with the Deceiver to reproach the Innocent that the old Intrigue and Stratagem now on foot may not proceed again to trapan the Nation into an Uprore and Confusion by first rendring a man criminal by aspersion to fit him for a destruction without pity then cruelly destroy him for a Crime of which he is not guilty See here then such a Church Papist dissected and behold him and his Religion in the following Pages The aforementioned Arguments of Dr. R. S. are four in number The First from the perpetual Visibility of the Church of Rome viz. 1. That Church only that is Visible in all Ages is the true Church But only the Roman Church is Visible in all Ages Ergo only the Roman Church is the True Church The Proof THe Major is manifest which I prove by St. Matth. 18.17 Dic Ecclesiae Tell the Church But how can we tell the Church if it be invisible tanquam Idea Platonica Ergo The Church is Visible in all Ages The Minor is clear by all Church Histories Councils Fathers that the Roman Church only is Visible in all Ages for no other Church can shew her Visibility in any Kingdom City or Village from the Apostles time to Luther Ergo only the Roman Church is the True Church The Second Argument from Succession viz. 2. That Church only that hath lawful Succession is the True Church But only the Roman Church hath lawful Succession Ergo only the Roman Church is the True Church The Proof THe Major is proved by St. August That Church saith he in which is Succession is the Rock against which Hell-Gates cannot prevail And Irenaeus saith Successione confundimus omnes Succession confound all Hereticks but only the Roman Church have lawful
St. Peter's and why not St. Paul's Faith was not his as good and the other Apostles the same that St. Peter taught Was there no true Faith but what came from Rome and 't is yet a question whether St. Peter was ever there Rome could never yet make it appear Was all the Doctrine of the other Apostles invalid Was not their power equal Matth. 28.19 20. and 18.18 Joh. 20.22 23. 'T is most sure one was not above another as before is proved Christs Word was delivered to all to Preach from which our very greatest Adversary is forced to confess Summa Potestas Ecclesiastica non solum data est Petro sed etiam aliis Apostolis Bellarm. li. de Ro. Pont. ca. 1. all are Supreme Then they who pretend to be St. Peter's Successors have not Supreme Ecclesiastical Power any more than the Successors of the other Apostles for St. August Tract 50. in St. Jo. saith Si hoc Petro tantum dictum est non facit hoc Ecclesia The Keys were given to St. Peter and all the rest in a Figure of the Church as one saith to whose power and to whose use they were given not to one to Lord it over the rest It shall not be so with you c. as before And St. Augustin de Agon Chri. ca. 30. Petrus Personam Ecclesiae Catholicae sustinet huic datae sunt Claves quum Petro datae so the Power is in the Catholick Church not any single Person as is evident by the practise of the Primitive Church many hundred years after Christ when was no Universal Bishop as before is proved to St. Gregory's time St. Peter's Faith not his Person is the Rock against which c. for afterwards to his Person Christ said Get thee behind me Satan c. And a Temptation did too much prevail on him when he most horribly fell in a personal and shameful denial of his Master which cost him many bitter Tears Epiphanius li. 2. Heres 59. tells us 't is his Faith Super hanc Petram solidae Fidei edificabo Ecclesiam meam So St. Greg. Nyssen also Haec sides Ecclesiae fundamentum est de Trin. adver Judaeos The same Interpretation gives St. Hilar. li. de Trin. Super hanc igitur confessionis Petram Ecclesiae edificatio est And this Faith the whole Catholick Church hath which is the Rock against which Hell Gates shall not prevail to cause the Church to fail fundamentally If any were supreme why not the beloved Disciple to whom it was never said Get thee behind me Satan and who never denyed his Master Or St. Paul though none of the twelve yet an Apostle for whom there is more colour for He had the Right Hand of Fellowship given him Gal. 2.9 And he himself owned expresly an Authority 1 Cor. 7.17 And so ordain I in all Churches In all Churches in the Roman as well as other if Rome was then a Church Sollicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum The Care of all the Churches he saith 2 Cor. 11.28 And where was St. Peter's Supremacy yea where was his Infallibility when St. Paul rebuked and opposed him to his face in that He walked not uprightly according to the Truth of the Gospel Gal. 11.3.4 And where was his Supremacy when he was sent on Errands by the Church viz. by the other Apostles Acts 11.3 4. and Acts 15.13 And how can St. Peter's pretended Successors claim a Supremacy that St. Peter had not himself If any succeeded our Lord in the Principality of the Church Epiphanius twice tells you it is St. James the Lords Brother Ille primus Episcopalem Cathedram cepit quum ei ante caeteros omnes suum in terris Thronum Dominus tradidisset Epiphan l. 3. Haeres 78. Page 103. You go on and say What Faith the Romans had then the very same they have at this present c. Not so neither for Rome was a right Church and is now a wrong Their Faith is changed at least what Faith they have now they had not then the true Church then and many hundred years after knew not your present Errors and Superstitions not your prayer in the Church in an unknown Tongue as St. Paul witnesseth 1 Cor. 14. The Church owned no supreme Prelate no Pope above his fellows usurping a power to depose Princes no worshipping of Images no invocation of Saints no adoration of the Bread in Sacrament no breaking of Christs Institution in the Eucharist giving the holy Sacrament but in one kind no Purgatory no Decretal Epistles and Canons against Scripture to be believed as Scripture No Doctrine of Devils c. Tim. 4.1 2 3. St. Augustin whose memory is honoured through the whole Christian world in all Churches was of the true Catholick Church no man will deny and yet he was no Romanist in Opinion for he was in the separation of the Affrick Church from Rome with many other Bishops and died therein Ergo 't is possible to be of the true Catholick Church and yet out of the Roman We are taught by St. August de Bap. con Don. ca. 4. Evident Scripture before all things must take place for it is as your own man Stapleton confesseth Relict con 4. q. Ar. 3. the Foundation and Pillar of Faith Scripturam Fundamentum esse Columnam Fidei fatemur Then I shall not easily be led away from the Foundation by the subtle tradition of men seeing St. Paul gives more warning Coloss 2.8 Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain Deceit after the Tradition of men Now what my Faith is I have told you in the beginning of my first Paper which I take to be the Faith of the present Church of England I embrace the Faith which the Apostles delivered I believe the holy Scripture and the Creeds and these in the sence of the ancient Primitive Church I submit in all humility to the four great General Councils so much magnified throughout Christendom their Determinations and Interpretations and I do believe all points of Doctrine generally received as fundamental in the Church of Christ This I confess and subscribe to and seeing I so do you are bound in charity to believe me for you have all the proof that can be had or that ever Man or Church required Now shew me where I do depart from the Foundation and yet I am no Papist or shew me if you can where the Church of England doth fail in any one point fundamental in the Faith We do not Hominis consuetudinem sequi sed Dei veritatem as St. Cypr. l. 2. Epist 3. teacheth for Consuetudo sine veritate vetustas est Erroris ibid. We are bid to go to the Law and the Testimony The Word is a Light unto our Feet and Lanthorn to our Paths we are taught to Search the Scripture which is able to make the man of God perfect saith St. Paul It was proclaimed from Heaven by God the Father first at Jordan then at Mount Tabor This is my
THE Church-Papist SO CALLED HIS RELIGION AND TENETS Fully Discovered IN A serious Dispute which long since happened between a then reputed Papist and an open professed Romanist whereby the common and trite Arguments of pretended Visibility Succession Universality c. of the Roman Church Travelling the Nation to amuse and stagger the Weak and to seduce and pervert the unstable sort of People are briefly Confuted WHEREUNTO IS ADDED A short Discourse Proving Episcopacy to be of Divine Institution Kingly Government of Gods setting up and the Religion of the Church of England to be the best in the World By one of the Children of the late Captivity 1680. LONDON Printed for Robert Hartford at the Angel in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange 1680. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY Lord Jermyn EARL OF St. Albans BARON of BURY St. EDMONDS and KNIGHT of the most Noble ORDER of the GARTER MY LORD THE Occasion of the following Tract happening in your Country your Native Country between your Country-men discoursing of Religion and particularly the one defending that Religion wherein your Lordship is most eminently Principl'd and of your exemplary Piety and Devotion therein the eyes of your Country have been often witnesses hath encouraged my presumption to this Dedication Nor will your Lordship deem the Patronage of these few Leaves a diminution to your Glory seeing you have made it the Glory of your Honourable Person and the Admiration and Joy of all Protestant Professors in the Church of England that amidst and after so many Tryals and Temptations in foreign parts where you have resided you should still remain unshaken in your Faith that no self or private Conveniences no politick respects to Times or Places could allure you from the publick profession of the Religion of the Church of England of that pure Religion confirmed to be the truest on Earth by the most signal proof under Heaven even by the crimson Stream of the dear blood of Gods Vicegerent who for the Church suffered many and bitter Agonies of Life as if the Thorns which once surrounded the Temples of our Saviour had been platted anew on the Brows of this holy Martyr We often read of an innocent Lamb without spot offered in Sacrifice but here a spotless Shepherd more innocent than his Sheep became an Oblation for his Flock a Royal Shepherd too whose Holiness entitled him to an Alliance with the Majesty of Heaven and made him truly a God on Earth and Son of the Most High It cannot be deny'd but in his sufferings for the Church this great Patron of Religion came neer to those of the Eternal Saviour of Mankind whom the Jews put to Death for planting Religion in the World and a People worse than Jews slaughter'd this good King for defending the same Religion Church which was nailed to the Cross in Mount Calvary his own people too imitated the Jews in perpetrating the horrid Villany that here is a Testimony and Reputation to the Protestant Profession transcending all the Testimonies of former Ages and the greatest that ever Age or Nation could boast of In all the Romish Kalendar of Canonized Saints in their whole Roll of pretended Martyrs where is there one since the Apostles time worthy to have been a Torch bearer or born a Flambeaux at his Grave Had Rome for their Faith such a glorious Name to boast of what Pilgrimages from their utmost Confines what Processions from all parts of their Territories would be made to his Shrine Even Divine Adoration would be given at his Tomb and indeed such Devotion would come neerer to true Worship there than at all the prophane Altars they have before bowed And as in the Infant Plantation of Christs Church the holy Shepherd the Lord of Life was smitten and the Sheep were scatter'd hid and concealed for a space so likewise as if true Religion had not only been deposed but Crucified too with this Martyr on the Scaffold the true Church was forced to walk invisible as to the knowledg of her Enemies in this Land and not to be found but in Cells and silent places for then were Instructions to right Faith and good Life chain'd up and temptations to Atheism Irreligion and Prophaneness let loose upon men Then holy Guides and Pillars of the Church suffered some Death some a barbarous Captivity Persecution raged on all her Children then Treason triumphed Rebellion was rampant and with Faction and Sedition became the Epidemical Tutors of the times then nothing was dangerous for men to practise but Loyalty and Vertue or to profess but the old Protestant Religion Thence followed the fatal Necessity forevery true Protestant to be his own Priest and to fortifie himself by consulting the Divine Oracles and Writings which the Saints of old Fathers of the Church had left to Posterity for our strengthning against the Assaults of Schism And then it was that I applyed my self to a sedulous examination of those Principles in Religion which Education had instill'd and to search the bottom on which my profession of Faith was founded and it was then that I found the best direction for my task and purpose from that most excellent Advice which I apprehended might well serve every Subject as the Son of a King of that glorified Saint and holy Martyr for the same Faith left to his Son then Prince of Wales which is able to rivet the most wavering Spirit on the rock of Assurance Indeed who can remember his holy Life in that Faith and his submission to Death for the same or read his Divine Writings and be faithless And who can be so merciless to himself as not to contemplate the former and read the latter for his Confirmation in Religion in the Religion of his King the best of Kings in the Religion proved by undeniable Authority to be the best in the world The King of Kings preserve his Sacred Majesty our Soveraign and the Royal Progeny and their Posterity in the perseverance of the same profession of Religion to the perpetual honour of their Names and Crowns the safety and glory of the Church and Kingdoms And the same Divine Providence bless your Lordship with long and happy days to be still a Light in your Sphere by your Zeal and Constancy in the Protestant Profession to the still Confusion of Face of those enemies of Gods Church whose malitious Impudence continually asperse the Devotion of great and cast a suspicion on the Religion of good men and as you have fervently imitated our grand Master of adored and blessed memory in his transcendent unimitable Constancy in the true Faith which set him not as his Enemies machinated in a Cloud a Sun in full glory ever shining after death so your Lordship after Life on Earth finished may be a Star of the next Magnitude with him in the Firmament of Glory is the fervent Prayer of My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most Devoted Servant John Underwood THE CHURCH-PAPIST So Called A Church-Papist
Succession Numerate Sacerdotes vel ab ipsa Petri sede in illo ordine Patrum quis cui successit videte as saith St. August In hoc ordine successionis nullus Donatista Episcopus invenitur And our English Bishops had no succession from Roman Catholick for immediately after their Consecration Stapleton Harding c. told them to their faces they were no Bishops Ergo only the Roman Church have lawful Succession The Third Argument from pretended peculiar Privileges belonging to the Roman Church viz. 3. That Church only that have confuted and anathematiz'd all Hereticks converted Nations deprived Schismatical Bishops restored Orthodox Bishops called Councils c. that is the True Church But only the Roman is such Ergo only the Roman is the True Church The Proof THe Major is plain because these Privileges belong to the Authority of the Mother Church which is Matrix Radix omnium Ecclesiarum The Minor is proved for In Ecclesia Romana semper viguit Apostolicae Cathedrae Principatus therefore in the Oriental Councils when some Bishops would not agree divers cryed out Romam ambulent Let them go to Rome Nam a Petro inquit August ipse Episcopatus tota Authoritas nominis hujus emersit and 't is manifest no Protestant Church ever confuted Hereticks converted Nations deprived Schismaticks restored Orthodox Bishops but slept Endimion's Sleep for above a thousand years or like a Didopper dived in the Apostles time and never rose again until Squire Luther that second Elias that fift Evangelist The Fourth Argument from Universality of the Roman Church viz. 4. That Church is only Catholick which is dispersed through all Nations But only the Roman is dispersed through all Nations Ergo the Roman Church only is the Catholick Church The Proof THe Major is proved for Universality is an evident mark of the Catholick Church Si vestra Ecclesia saith St. August sit Catholica ostendite per universam terram ramos suos copia ubertatis extendere for no Heresie can be Universal no Heretick can be Catholick Protestants are so far from Universality that 't is as hard a matter to find a Protestant in fifteen hundred as motum in vacuo The Minor is as evident that the Roman Church was dispersed through all Nations by St. Paul to the Romans 3.8 where he faith that the Roman Faith was Preached in all the World that is Peter's Faith and what Faith the Romans had then the very same they have at this present for the Roman Church is not to be new bottom'd neither to be reformed of new Calciners Fidei enim Regula una omnino est sola immobilis irreformabilis as Tertullian the Doctrine of Faith once delivered to the Apostles by the prime verity Jesus Christ and assisted by the Holy Ghost for ever cannot be altered and the Church being built upon a Rock need no repairing of new Masons Soliditas illius Petrae quae Apostolorum Principe est laudata perpetua est sicut Petra permanet quod in Christo Petrus credidit ita permanet quod PetrO Christus instituit Here St. Leo saith the Church is Perpetual and cannot fail so long as Christ is the Son of the Living God And although the Protestant Church be fallible yet the Roman is infallible therefore Vivat Fides Catholica Vivat Ecclesia Romana quae fuit tempore Apostolorum est eritque per secula sempiterna THE ANSWER SIR I Derive not my Faith from Luther or Calvin as Beginners of it yet do confess with St. Paul Acts 24.14 that aften the way which they call Heresie so worship I the Lord God of my Fathers I mean as those Fathers did whom Justin Martyr calls Patres Patrûm professing the Ancient Catholick Faith all the Articles of my Faith being grounded on Scripture and the constant belief of Fathers and Couneils in the Church of Christ the first four hundred years Antiqua Ecclesia primisquingentis Aunis vera Reclssia fuit Bell. lib. 4. de not Eccl. c. 9. The Opinions of any Posterior Fathers where they vary from the Doctrine of the First I think it unsafe to follow For St. Hierom teacheth me well Nec Parentum nec majorum Error sequendus est sed Authoritas Scripturarum Dei docentis imperium nam Judaei post Baalim abierunt quos didicerunt a Patribus In Jerem. ca. 9. We are not to take error by Tradition from our Fathers or Ancestors but the true sence of holy Scriptures is to be followed and the Power of God instructing us in them for the Jews went after Baal by the example of their Fathers As your Fathers did so do ye Acts 7.51 I am of the Apostles belief and I am sure they were no Papists rather Protestants protesting the Truth and sincerity of Faith against Error and Schism So we by receiving the true Sacraments which are called Visible Signs protesting the Faith protest against those which are corrupted and against all Doctrines contrary to Scripture and the Apostolick Faith c. and so in that sence you may call me Protestant Now to prove only the Roman Church to be the True Church you say That Church only that is Visible in all Ages is the True Church but only the Roman Church is Visible in all Ages Ergo only the Roman Church is the True Church And to prove the Major you instance the words of St. Mathew Dic Ecclesiae To which I answer that 't is not said Dic Romanae Ecclesiae Tell it to the Roman Church therefore makes no more for Rome than for Greece or any other place where the Church is hath been or shall be And to prove the Minor you only say 't is cleer by Church Histories Councils and Fathers that the Roman Church only is Visible but bring not one particular proof from any of them to make it evident and evince that the Church was no where else Visible for History also tells us that the East or Greek Church though often in great misery and persecution was and is a Church from the Apostles time So that Argument which is common to others you cannot appropriate only to the Roman seeing it makes as much for the Greek Church in whose Language the Oracles of the Son of Ged were written as for it The Greek Church was first honoured with the Original written Gospel and the Latin Church had it only by Franslation from it That there was and is a Church constant in all Ages though not apparently flourishing and visible at all times to all the world I not deny but that there is no Church where 't is not Splendid and Visible to all eyes you have not yet made any ways apparent Certainly the Ark of God was not less an Ark in being in Dagon's Tent and the Hands of the Philistines Persecution the fare of the Church Militant obscured the Churches Rays in many Nations and sometimes so totally Eclipsed her as she was not visible to Humane Eyes Besides your Position that
Visibility is the only mark of the true Church you have not proved to be granted be Churches differing from the Roman therefore is a Principle of your own and a begging of the Question I deny it to be the only mark for a mark must be infallible and That mark which may possibly deceive and is common both to a True and a False Church and may as probably lead to the one as the other is no certain infallible mark to find the true Church But Visibility may deceive being common to both and may as readily lead to a False as a True Church Therefore Visibility no sure mark and unerring Rule to find the True Church The Major is undeniable bearing its own Proof Truth and Reason in it self The Minor is apparent in all Ages even from the beginning of the World to this day Go up into Paradise the Garden of Eden there was Truth and Falshood even as soon as God had laid his Church the Devil began to build a Chappel for in Genesis not long after Et Deus dixit And God said c. the Devil was busie to set up a false Worship and wrong Obedience and then comes Et Serpens dixit And the Serpent said which visibly and miserably deceived our first Parents The Church was with Moses in Egypt there were Magicians and mock Miracles Falshood ever followed the Truth or Truth found it where it went There were Calves in Dan and Bethel there were worshipers of Baal Error is almost as old in the world as Truth No sooner went the Apostles out to Preach but a false Doctrine appeared in Simon Magus and his Followers Acts 8.14 In one place or other Erroneous and false Churches have been always Visible to this day even when the true Church have been obscured by Persecutions for so it must be according to the saying of St. Paul 1 Cor. 11.19 Oportet esse Haereses Were the idolatrous People in the time of Elias Achas Manasses and others the True Church because they only were Visible to the World For where was Visibility of the True Church when the Prophet cried out and complained 1 Kings He only was left alone so a true Church may be though not visible for there were seven thousand true Worshippers which he knew not of Where was Visibility when the Shepherd was smitten and the Sheep scattered hid and concealed Zach. 13.7 Joh. 16.32 Where was Visibility of the True Church in the time of Dioclesian the Emperour when neither Church Book nor Men escaped Was she not as St. Joh. testifieth Revel 12.6 fled into a Desart where she should not be found for a space c. And St. Chrysostom in Math. 24. saith In the time of Abomination of Desolation viz. of wicked Heresie Nulla probatio potest Christianitatis c. No proof of Christianity can be made or refuge found for Christians to know the true Faith but only the Divine Scripture So the Church of Antichrist may be Visible and Flourishing when the true Church of Christ is in obscurity and hath no Lustre Therefore Visibility is not in all Ages and all times an infallible mark of the true Church but is a mark also of a false one and so a true Church hath been and may be though not Visible to Humane Eyes c. Your next Position is from Succession viz. 2. That Church that have lawfull Succession is the True Church But only the Roman have lawful Succession Ergo only the Roman Church is the True Church To prove the Major you twice instance St. Augustine but direct to no place where therefore I know not whether he speaks as you represent him or if he doth whether he denotes a Succession in Place of Persons or of Doctrine and you bring in Irenaeus to say Successione Confundimus omnes c. but there is no such saying in the manner you mention found in Irenaeus 't is only corruptly quoted by Bellarmine Bellar. li. 4. de notis Eccles ca. 8. Sect. 2. nor have I heard or found Irenaeus or any other Father make Local Personal Visible and Continued Succession a necessary Sign or Mark of the True Church in any one place as though a True Church could not be in any place without it yet the Faith was delivered over by Succession in some places or other to their time and is to our time and shall be till there be no time for a True Church may be hath been and is in places where there hath not been Continued Visible Personal Succession Were not Jerusalem Antioch c. and others in the Primitive times true Churches yet Succession of Bishops hath not continually succeeded in them to this day and later Churches are true likewise Constat omnem Doctrinam quae cum illis Ecclesiis Apostolicis Matricibus Originalibus Fidei conspiret Veritati deputandam So saith Tertullian De praescript advers Haeret. c. 21. And in the same place Ecclesiae posteriores non minus Apostolicae deputantur pro consanguinitate Doctrinae The Succession Irenaeus stood upon was of the Churches then in Asia and of Smyrna where Polycarpus sat Bishop as that of Rome Testimonium his perhibent quae sunt in Asia Ecclesiae omnes qui usque adhuc successerunt Polycarpo Iren. l. 3. advers Haeret. ca. 3. And St. Hierom tells us Ecclesia non in parietibus consistit in Psal 133. So Succession in the Fathers Account is not tyed to Place or Person but to the verity of Doctrine as Tertullian de praescript c. 32. Ad hanc formam provocabantur ab illis Ecclesiis quae licet nullum ex Apostolis vel Apostolicis Authorem suum proferunt ut multo posteriores quae denique quotidie instituuntur tamen in eadem fide conspirantes non minus Apostolicae deputantur pro cansanguinitate Doctrinae shewing that modern Churches such as are daily instituted and set up agreeing and linking together in the same true Faith are no less to be esteemed Apostolical for their neerness and consanguinity of Doctrine and to that we have as good Succession as any Christian Church this day in the whole Catholick Body the Religion professed in the Church of England being nearest of any Church now in being to the Primitive Christian Church Churches that have Doctrine that is not allied in Blood to that of Christ and his Apostles have no lawful or good Succession for Consanguinitas Doctrinae is required Irenaeus speaks plain Illis Presbyteris obediendum est qui cum Episcopatus Successione Charissima acceperunt veritatis Iren. l. 4. ca. 43. We are to obey those Priests who with their Succession in the Office of Bishop have received the Pledge or Gift of Truth whereupon Stapleton Relic cont 1. q. 4. A. 2. Notab 1. is forced to confess successio nec locorum tantum est neo personarum sed etiam verae sanae Doctrinae And why it cannot be of Pastours he again tells us Notab 4. ibid. name Pastore Lups fleri potest
which is true many great men have turned Hereticks Judas chang'd from an Apostle to a Devil so 't is the easie for others to change from Shepherds into Wolves Nor can the Roman Prelates pretend they have only this verà m et sanam Doctrinam or claim a lawful succession of Pastors continually holding entire the Unity and the Eaith for they have not kept the Unity of the Church but have had more Schisms among them than any other Church above thirty acknowledged by their own Chronologer Onuphrius Even Popes themselves have many of them by confession of several Romish Authors who have written of their Lives been very vile erroneous Heretical c. So 't is clear Rome hath no lawful Succession by confession they have only a Succession of gross Superstitions and Errors for a bout a thousand years for which they can shew no Practice on Warrant from the Apostles You further say That our English Bishops had no Succession from Roman Catholick for immediately after Conscoration Stapleton Harding c. your own men told them to their faces they were no Bishops Ergo only the Roman Church have lawful Succession I see you are put to hard straits for proof that seeing the Fathers will not speak for you you are forced to be your own Testimony which with me is less than nothing for who will or can take an Adversary's bare objections for a sufficient confutation of a matter in question for by this your Argument and Rule of proof should I tell you that any of our Party say Stapleton Harding c. were no Scholars though indeed they were great Clarks and should I say they were damnable Hereticks and forsakers of the Truth as in truth they are you ought to admit it as a convincing Testimony else why do you obtrude your sayings for proof but let that pass You confess English Bishops had Consecration from the Roman and so enabled and qualified for the service of the Church If then the Roman had any lawful power to consecrate which I deny not I do not question but their Consecration is valid enough and hold good notwithstanding Stapleton and Hardings words to the contrary for such sayings do not unordain and so we have your Succession and Consecration to boot But whether ordinary Mission or Ordination be so absolutely necessary to the being of Truth as though Truth could nor be without it is with me a question seeing Christ encouraged the Faithful that did wonders in Christ's name and was not sent St. Mark 9.39 40. forbid him not he is on our part c. nor did I ever conceive a necessity lay on the English Church to receive Orders from Rome more than on the Roman to receive Orders from it seeing we were a Church Apostolick assoon yea were a Church before any settlement of a Church in Rome The Religion of Christ was received in Brittain tempore ut scimus summo Tiberii Caesaris in the latter time of Tiberius Caesar as saith St. Gildas de excid Brit. the same is acknowledged by your own man Baronius whereas St. Peter kept in Jury long after Tiberius his death And as Theodoret and Sophronimus Patriarchs of Jerusalem affirm the Apostle St. Paul first taught in Britain Also Aristobulus mentioned Romans 16. came to this Isle and discharged the Office of a Bishop as Dorotheus witnesseth and in his Synopsis also averreth Simon Zelotes Christum praedicavit in Britannia ubi crucifixus occisus et sepultus est The same also affirmeth Nicephorus lib. 2. cap. 40. Simon Zelotes Evangelii Doctrinam ad occidentalem Oceanum Insulasque Britannicas perfert And Joseph of Arimathea An. Dom. 53. taught the Gospel in Britain as Baleus Flemingus and others affirm likewise Tertullian who lived An. Christi 200 saith Britanorum loca Romanis inapoessa Christo subdita sunt advers Judaeos cap. 7.8 After him Origin An. Christi 260. witnesseth Britanniam in Christianam consentire Religionem So it is evident and most clear that Apostles and Apostolick men delivered over the Faith to us and were the first Planters we had many Waterers after of this Plantation and a succession of Doctrine by confession on all sides St. Jerom also Anno 405. records Gallia Britanniá Africa c. unum Christum adorant unam observant Regulam veritatis In which time Bellarmine confesseth the Church was a true Apostolick Church Antiqua Ecclesia primis quingentis Annis vera Ecclesia fuit c. Bel. l. 4. de notab Eccl. cap. 9. and then viz. the first four hundred years we and Rome were of one joint Belief and Faith from one Fountain Christ Jesus and his Apostles and the same faith we had then the same we have now we hold to the old Foundation the Scripture Creed and ractice of the general Church in those times so are we a true Church and a right Member of the Catholick having lawful succession of Doctrine convey'd to us as before is proved from Apostles and Apostolick men whereby it 's evident we are no Novelists nor any of our Profession the Antiquity whereof our very Enemies do acknowledge Reinerus a Roman Inquisitor above three hundred years since speaking of the Professors at Lyons calling them Valdensae Leonistae c. in contempt saith they are more pernitious to the Church of Rome than all other Sects for three causes First being of longer continuance than any other the Sect enduring ever since the Apostles Secondly It is general creeping into all Lands Thirdly It hath a great shew of Godliness they live justly believe all things well concerning God and all the Articles contained in the Creed only they Blaspheme in hating the Church of Rome c. He calls us indeed a Sect as of old the Priests of the Jews called the Church of Christians a Sect of Nazarites Acts 24.5 but you see by Confession we had our Doctrine in former Ages and were a Church from the Beginning and are not estranged from the Church of Rome where she holds the Truth but she from us and the true Catholick Church of Christ nor do we depart from her as they charge us or are any further remote from her than she her self is from her primitive Purity antient Principles from Scripture Reason Charity Antiouity and from what she was in her best of times our present Church of England though often have been under clouds and heavy persecutions still retaining the primitive verity to this day So your second Argument is invalid in that you have not proved nor can prove that the Church of Rome hath this lawful Succession of uncorrupted Doctrine and Principles or that succession of Pastors is necessarily tied to one particular place for ever to make the being of the Catholick Church as though the universal Church of Christ could cease to be if Rome and her Prelates were extinct and turn'd to Ashes Your third Argument from pretended Privileges belonging to the Roman Church viz. 3. That Church only that have confuted and anathematized
all Hereticks converted Nations deprived and restored Bishops called Councils c. that is the true Church But only the Roman is such Ergo only the Roman is the true Church The Major you say is plain because these Privileges belong to the Authority of the Mother-Church which is Matrix Radix omnium Ecclesiarum I answer you should first have proved her to be the Mother-Church Radix c. before you exercise or can claim the Authority of a Mother I would fain know what Church is the Mother of the Roman or is Rome it self Motherless for I deny her to be the Mother of the universal Church of God yet do agree that those Privileges you mention do belong to the Authority of the Catholick Church but 't is an insolent and intolerable usurpation of the Rights and Privileges of the Universal Church for any particular Church to confine all the Catholick Privileges to her particular self I am sure she hath not this power from Christ to judge and condemn her Sisters for she is not Matrix Radix omnium Ecclesiarum as you say there were elder than she therefore she at best but a Daughter Church and Sister to others Jerusalem if any particular was it as was prophesied of old Mic. 4.2 and fulfilled Luke 24.47 and so Theodoret lib. 5. Hist Eccl. cap. 9. tells us Ecclesia Hierosolymitana quae aliarum omnium Mater And Men were first called Christians not at Rome but at Antioch Acts. 11.26 St. Gregory Nazian saith The Church of Caesaria was Mater prope omnium Ecclesiarum meaning of neighbouring Churches not of the whole Catholick Church Et Constantinopolitana Ecclesia dicitur omnium aliarum caput so in that sense and no other Rome may be called Head of those Churches in her Patriarchat Every particular Church that teacheth the Catholick Doctrine may be called Catholick as a Member of the universal and so was the particular Roman whilst it held all things true concerning the Faith but never was she Mater Radix omnium Ecclesiarum for the Universal Church hath no particular or locall Root of its being Jerusalem as I said before if any was it Or if you will have a particular Root of the Catholick Church 't is in the East not in the West at Rome se praecisam esse a Radice orientalium Ecclesiurum c. St. August Epist 170 But the Head Root Matrix Fountaine c. of Rome and all other particular Churches is the Catholick Church and her Unity and to break her Uunity by usurping a Power or Priority which Christ never gave is at the least abominable if not certainly damnable 't is against a command too The Text is clear There was a strife among the Apostles which should be greatest St. Luke 22.14 Christ answered them The Princes and Rulers exercise Dominion c. but it shall not be so with you He that will be greatest c. St Matt. 20.26 There is no Priority much less Superiority given to Churches National Tertullian tells us Omnes Primae omnes Apostolicae dum unam omnes probant unitatem de praescript advers Haeret. cap. 20. Porro unam esse primam Apostolicam ex qua reliquae hanc nulli loco affigit B. Rhenanus therefore not at Rome And it is to be observed that Tertullian long since numbering the then Apostolical Churches reckons Rome last of them Tertull. ibid. cap. 32. and Pamelius lately puts Rome after others cap. 21. num 129. what you speak out of St. Augustin In Ecclesia Romana semper viguit Apostolicae Cathedrae Principatus that in Rome there did always flourish the Principality of an Apostolick Chair in relation to the West and South parts of the Church all the other four Apostolical Chairs being in the East doth not give Rome nor the Pope thereof power to exercise this Principality beyond his Limits out of his own Patriarchate over the whole Church of Christ for in the same Epistle of St. August Epist 162. Melciades then Bishop of Rome had leave granted him to hear a matter of the Donatists adjudged by the African Bishops and other Bishops by the Emperour were sent Judges to determine with him for if he had done it without leave the Epistle tells us it had been an usurpation seeing ad cujus curam c. ibid. it belonged to the Emperours care and charge and that he is to give an account to God for it Yea a Pope himself saith 'tis Antichristian to be stiled universal Bishop St. Greg. l. 4. Epist 78 monstrous and blasphemous Absit a cordibus Christianorum Nomen illud Blasphemiae ibid. Epist 76 and further St. Greg. Epist 83. In isto scelesto vocabulo consentire nihil aliud est quam fidem perdere So the Roman was not then universal Bishop had no power over Patriarchs and National Bishops no Monarch over the whole militant Church for near six hundred years after Christ and Britain in those times was never subject to the See of Rome for it had a Primate of its own Et a Patriarcha non datur Appellatio saith the Civil Law from whom lies no Appeal Now then the general power of anathematizing Hereticks depriving Schismaticks restoring Orthodox Bishops c belong to the Catholick Church Militant and her Authority in general Councils lawfully by her called and constituted and that the Catholick Church is our Mother no man will deny that accounts God to be his Father But this Holy Catholick Church mentioned in the Apostle's Creed is not the Church of Rome nor any other particular Church on Earth The Holy Catholick Church there spoken of contains not only the whole militant Church on Earth but the whole Triumphant alive in Heaven for so St. August Euch. cap. 56. Ecclesia hic tota accipienda est non solum ex parte quae peregrinatur in terris c. verùm etiam ex illa quae in Caelis And who converted Nations originally Did not Christ send out his Apostles and seventy Disciples at another time and then after sent many more were not then Apostles Apostolick men and the general Church they that converted and confuted Nations and planted the Church of Christ in the World Now this Holy Catholick Church before ever Rome was a Church is Matrix Radix omnium Ecclesiarum of Rome as well as other The Catholick Church was ever one and the same Church viz. the Church of God spread over the whole World and as before described by St. August Rome could never be it for if Rome a particular Church can be now the Catholick Church then by the same Rule if it be not out of Rule some other particular Church before it was the Catholick Church and how came that to lose it and Rome to get it that it is now as you say translated to Rome and doth it not follow by the same rule that Rome also may transire in non Ecclesiam pass way in no Church for what Patent or holy Charter
from Heaven hath Rome above the former and above other particular Churches that it shall there remain to the end of the World Nay they that most stand for it even the greatest Champion Rome hath can only say 'T is a pious and probable Opinion to think Cathedram Petri non posse seperari a Roma proinde Romanam Ecclesiam non posse errare vel deficere Bellar. de Ro. Pont. cap. 4. so 't is but pretended probality and that is no proof able to convince However he that thinks the contrary viz. that the particular Church of Rome can err and fall away from the Faith which the true Church can never do I mean the Catholick Church before described can never fall away from the Faith and St. Peters Chair be severed from Rome is by Bellarmines own confession no Heretick for he adds Contraria sententia nec est Haeretica nec manifesta erronia Bellarm. ibid. And if the Apostolick Chair can be removed from Rome and the Roman Church fall away from the Faith then it is so far being the only Catholick that it ceaseth to be a part of the Catholick Church where it appeareth that Rome never was is or can be The only Catholick Church of Christ Your fourth Argument from Universality of the Roman Church hath its Answer already in a great measure But something more I shall particularly answer to the same which you propound thus Arg. 4. That Church is only Catholick which is dispersed through all Nations But only the Roman is dispersed through all Nations Ergo the Roman only is the Catholick Church And how comes the denomination of the Church to be changed from Christian to Roman certainly 't is no small fellony to rob the Church of the more honourable Appellation and give it your own name Men were first called Christians at Antioch and yet the Universal Church was never stiled Antiochian If you make a difference between the Christian Faith and the Roman speak out and confess it If you mean the Christian Faith why do you not say so alter your Minor Proposition and the conclusion will follow for the Church of Christ and I 'le assent to it without more ado for then your Proposition will be true and you will contend without an Adversary But have you any other Doctrine can parallel this Sacriledge in taking away the Christian Name from the universal Church of Christ As though the Spouse of Christ could become Anabaptist forget her Virgin Name and change her Beloved Is Christ and Rome convertible Is the Gospel of Christ become the Gospel of the Pope or hath the Pope a Gospel of his own that is spread over the World was there not a true Church that had Radix Essentiae and is the Root Essence and Being to Rome and other particular Churches before Rome received the Faith And what was that Church called not Roman surely And why did you not say the Church of Jerusalem or the Church of Antioch c. where the first Plantation was is dispersed through all Nations Ergo the Church of Jerusalem Antioch c. only is the Catholick Church it had been more tollerable though as little to sence The first Appellation before ever Rome was a Church viz. Christian shall stand with me for ever I dare not change from Christian to Roman in as much as Christian Religion is elder and was before ever Rome was converted therefore Christian not Roman is the primitive and right term and name of the universal Church Besides How the Roman or any particular Church can be the Catholick for at best she was but a Catholick Church is no ways apparent St. Cyril tells us Catholica est illa quae diffusa est per universum Orbem Rome is not the universal but the Christian Church is so not Catholick in extent Romana Ecclesia particularis confesseth Bellarmin lib. 4. de R. Pont. c. 4. so not the Catholick Church Rome it self must be judged by Scripture and the Catholick Church and is right no further than it agrees with the Catholick and not the Catholick Church by it Our fierce Adversary Stapleton pours out his Reason why Roman is esteemed Catholick Quia ejus Communio erat evidenter certissimè cum tota Catholica So you see the Communion of the Roman was with the Catholick not of the Catholick with it And St. Cyprian in the rent and open Schism between Cornelius and Novatian employed his Legates c. Elaborarent ut ad Catholicae Ecclesiae unitatem scissi sorpor is membra componerent Now the members of this torn Body were they of Rome then in open Schism between Cornelius and Novatian St. Cypr. li. 2. Ep. 10. And St. Cyprian endeavoured to bring Rome to the Unity of the Catholick so Rome then was not The Catholick nor is the Radix c. or can she be her own Original There is a double Root as one learnedly observes Radix Essentiae which gives Essence and Being to Rome and all other particular Churches and there is Radix Existentiae as Rome with all other particular Churches and no more than other Patriarchal Churches which was and is the Root of the Churches Existence agreeable to that known and received Rule in Art that Universals give Essence to their Particulars and Particulars supply their Universals with Existence But to shut up and confine the Universal Church of Christ as it is now spread in the narrow compass of Rome only is ridiculous Nonsence Ecclesia non in parietibus consistit saith St. Jerom in Psal 133. The Church is every where ubi fides vera c. You bring in St. Paul to say Rom. 1.8 that the Roman Faith was preached in all the World But you abuse St. Paul for 't is not said preached nor is it said Roman Faith Their Faith was spoken of as his course was to commend and encourage the faithful in every place St. Paul intending to impart to them some spiritual gift for they were not then established He only commended then the Faith of the Saints then in Rome which they had newly received viz. the Christian Faith never called it the Roman Faith and so much he spake and more of the Faith of other Nations and Persons to whom he wrote and yet never any Nation or Person usurped a Stile was never given them St. Paul Thess 1.8 witnesseth that From the Church of Thessalonica sounded out the Word of the Lord and in every place the Faith of the Thessalonians was spread abroad and were ensamples to all that believe c. ver 7. ibid. which was a true Faith and yet they never nick-named the Universal Christian Church Thessalonian nor did they ever arrogantly and audaciously adopt the Universal Church of Christ as their own Off-spring and Issue or that they only were the Catholick as Rome doth in your Position St. Paul did commend the Faith then in Rome but now 't is changed and not worthy commendation You say that is
well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him and to hear him is Life And I know They committed two Evils that forsook the Fountain of Living Waters to hew out to themselves Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water Jer. 2.13 That Episcopal and Kingly Government are inseparable in England and the Establishment of both are Jure Divino WE have in the late Tragical Revolutions been too severely taught that no Project of Government either in Church or State Episcopacy excluded is consistent with England's happiness and that Episcopacy and Monarchy are inseparable and the only props of this Nations Peace we by the same cruel Experience have been made sensible whereby it appears that 't is England's great Interest to uphold both for her safety and that the one cannot subsist without the other was well understood by that second Solomon King James of blessed memory from whom we have the Maxim in his Basil Do. Sublato Episcopo tollitur Rex no Bishop no King And no Faction or Profession though nick-naming themselves Protestants deviating from the Principles in Doctrine and Practise in Worship from the present Church of England can stand with Monarchy A right Protestant of the English Church protests not only against the errors of Rome but against all Schism and errors of every Sect and against all Doctrine not agreeing with the Primitive Profession and Practise of the antient Church of Christ There are sorts of People that are ever clamorous and designing to Reform the Reformed and even to amend Reformation it self chiefly plotting a great alteration which is more than a Reformation of Church Government by removal of Bishops from the Government but these are enemies to good Reformation for no good Reformer ever held Episcopacy unlawful the Order doth emanare ab Apostolis The Government is of Divine Right of which Christ himself the Great High-Priest Heb. 4. v. 14. and Bishop laid the Foundation was Bishop over all and the Apostles were Ministers After him every Apostle had his Charge many of them a Diocess and was Overseer that is Bishop over many Churches and they left this way of Government a Pattern for all Posterity to follow So it is manifest that Church-Government by Bishops is as old and universally practised as Christian Religion and Christian Faith was received in England soon after the Crucifixion of our Saviour and the Government of the Church by Bishops entred with it as well it ought for there was no other Government Order or Constitution in the Primitive Church Apostles Angels Bishops Patriarchs c. are Synonima one Office under several Denominations St. Paul an Apostle not of men neither by man but by God was a great Apostle or Bishop Timothy had a Jurisdiction over the Ephesians and was ordained Bishop Tim. 3.22 and so was Titus Bishop of Creet and had many Ministers under them Thus entred Episcopacy and that Order of Priesthood to the Government of the Church in the beginning There was an order of Priesthood in the old Law of which the high Priest was chief and there were Priests and Levites so in the new it seemed meet to the Eternal Builder of the Church to leave by the example set by his Apostles an Order and Method of Government therein and this divine Emanation the Universal Church hath in all Ages embraced and this Order best keeps the Presbyters and Clergy in Unity one with another and in an Union of Doctrine and Worship in the Church throughout which otherwise the order of Church-Discipline left to every Presbyter's private fancy to use after his own modelling would greatly hazard the introducing as many Novels may be Schisms and Factions as there are parochial Churches in the Land what a Medly what a Confusion what a Hydra what a Babel what an open Mockery as it were of God would there be throughout the Nation to the scandal thereof so the Church in England would have no appearance no face and constant dress to be known by Strangers would be at a loss for the true English Church finding here a Hydra of many faces not one like another But who and what generation of men are wiser and more holy than the Apostles and Fathers of old to set up a new way of Government of their own contriving in Christ's Church what Power on Earth can abrogate that Government by divine Institution reared and continued by the same right all Ages in the Church of God And what necessity is here of a change or alteration of Government in the Church from that which is Apostolical to that which peradventure may prove Diabolical for what good can be expected by pulling down that which is of Gods setting up and introducing a new we know not what of Man's absolute devising But if perchance any Irregularities have crept in or undue practices contrary to the established Order have been committed in any part of this Government which should call for or minister a Necessity of Reformation surely not unhallowed hands of the prophane Laity who should be governed by the Church and not the Church corrected by them are fit Instruments of this Work especially in a Nation that hath so lately felt the dire Effects and Issues of a popular pretended Reformation and wherein those men have shown to the World what ill Workmen they are Let the people reform their own Manners This reforming part of what is amiss in the Church belongs only to them to whom the Holy Spirit said I will be with you always to the end of the World with the Church i. e. with the Apostles whose personal continuance lasted not in the World and their Successors in the Office of Apostles Bishops Pastors Patriarchs c. in the Church who shall have the assistance of the Holy Spirit for ever As my Father sent me so send I you And as Christ sent them so they sent others so what shall seem meet to the Holy Spirit and to them whom Christ hath sent and through whose word we are to believe in Christ St. Jo. 17.20 the Governours of the Church successively to whom Christ hath promised to be with and in whom only the Jus Divinum remains may reform and alter what they judge convenient for it is of the same power that chang'd the Sabbath from the last to the first day of the week and 't is from and by the same Power and Divine Authority that the Church conveys all the Ordinances Sacraments and Holy things of God to his People from Generation to Generation These Pastors and Governours with whom Christ according to his word is always present to the end of the World may I grant transfer the Government should they deem a necessity into more hands under other names than that of Bishop which note will still be but Episcopacy degenerated into another denomination the Power will be the same not altered but translated from one to many in whom the Supremacy and Jus Divinum will remain In all
a Child than a Father for a People than their King The King hath tri'd it and whom can we trust but those that have tried and whom can a Child better trust than a Father and whom can we a People better trust than the Father of our Country our King a Nursing Father who had no end but the salvation of his Child the salvation of his People and to preserve them from Apostacy in the time of Tryal and Persecution they might meet with A King who was able to try laborious in the search judicious to discern and most wise and learned to judge who took care of us all as for his own soul was faithful before the Lord unto the death preferring his Religion before his Crowns and Life the Church and his People before his own safety no torment inflicted on his Body could make a Conquest of his Soul for his unvanquished Fortitude after many hard Conflicts bitter Afflictions and Indignities heaped on him witnessed the truth of the holy Faith and Religion of the Church of England by giving up his Life for the same so imitating his Saviour subscribed and signed the Truth with his last blood Kings are Divinely inspired as by the Actions and Writings of this Holy One is sufficiently evidenced The Eyes of God are with Kings on their Throne Job 36.7 The King is an Angel of God to discern good and bad 2 Sam. 14.17 20. An Angel of Light and to whom then should we repair for Righteous Judgment but to him who sees with Gods byes to the Angel of Light to the Light of Israel 〈◊〉 Isiah 8.19 Never was there a Test in any Age or Nation like it what doubt can there be of the purity and truth of the Profession but that every man may safely take and subscribe to our Religion upon this Tryal and Centre his Trust upon this Testimony and Evidence and Author it here for ever What better proof can the whole World produce Is it not worth ten thousaend 2 Sam. 18.3 Yet not wholly to take it upon the trust of others and be led to implicithess barely to take our Profession of Religion from other mens Custom or Tradition as he said this good King hath given us a light and marked us out a way to confirm our selves in it to make it our own by Election in weighing it with sound Reason and Judgment though hodietter Lessons than from his Divine Truths and Testimony can be offered to the World and so hath put us to School to the most Choice Learned Religious and Rational Treatises of holy Churchmen upon the point that we must acknowledg though we are owing to Education for initiating and first Principling us in our Religion we are wholly owing to his Directions convincing Arguments and Divine Testimony for the Confirmation of us in it in it in the best Religion in the world which he hath taken by Divine Inspiration from above not sole Infusion beneath by Revelation from Heaven not Education Seducement or Custom on Earth and Heaven it self hath hallowed and approved it by the late miraculous replanting the same Profession of Religion and Faith in this Land and restoring the Royal Defender thereof in peace Hope not then Oh thou full of wicked Imaginations that any Branch of that Royal and Holy Stem can be of any other Religion than the best in the world even the Reformed Religion professed and established in the Church of England Thou shalt not Revile the Gods nor speak evil of the Ruler of thy People Exod. 2.21 Acts 23. Think not then that any Child of so pious and sacred a Parent can despise the Admonition of an Angel of Light and his Book as Heretical and abandon that Religion the best Religion so recommended so proved and the Truth thereof so confirmed but will Religiously observe such Divine Admonitions and Holy Injunctions and will Bind them for a Sign upon his Hands and to the as Frontlets between his Eyes always before him Deut. 6. that it may be well with him for ever and not by following strange Gods and those ways he was warned to avoid and beware of Rob the dead the most innocent dead his Royal Father of the Glory of his Sufferings of his Crown of Martyrdom for this were to unsweeten the memory of the purest Innocence next the Saviour of the world that ever was born of a Woman This were which is a most malitious wickedness but to imagine not only to Countenance his Enemies cruelty that murthered his Body but more barbarously against all Humanity and bonds of Nature to crucifie his Honour to slay his everlasting Name and Memory to render him Inglorious his Death a Reproach to defile his Sacred Dust to raise a Persecution against him in his Grave worse than all the smarts and horrid terrors of his Life to render his Religion that Religion which he watred with his Blood a Heresie and himself a most grand Heretick so consequently to die deservedly and the destruction of him and his faithful Subjects in defence of him and the Church to be Righteous as if his Enemies depriving him of his Crowns on Earth were not sufficient but his dear Off-spring to ravish from him also that which he hath in Glory to help the Popish and Phanatick Enemies to dethrone a Saint and unsaint a Martyr that is Canoniz'd in Heaven to pull him from thence and as much as in them lies to tear his precious Name out of the Book of Life to make blacker his days on Earth than all the malice of his Enemies could ever make it to take his blessed Memory out of the Kalendar of Time to eraze it out of the Rubrick to repeal and make scandalous the Statute of the Realin that hath ordained his day his day of Glory his day of sufferings for the Church the Thirtieth of January to be observed for even to ravish his Name from the number of the Good and Vertuous on Earth to take the Head of the grand Rebel O. C. from the Pole of Infamy and to rank that Usurpers Bones again amongst the Shrines of Kings and even to marble his Herse into a Statue amongst the Worthies of England But never can the blessed Name and Honour of Holy Charles be thus stormed whilst the Earth shall bear any Successor on the British Throne descended from his sacred Loyns and God grant his Race to Sway the Scepter may be as lasting as the Sun and Moon Repent therefore Oh thou Dissenter from all Charity and Goodness of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee No Insidel that had seen the Finger of God in the late great Restauration of Church and State but would have embraced the Faith of the Church of England in the Notion and Manner as Religion is here Established upon the account of the Miracle only as may well be concluded from that credible Relation given of a great Prince or Vizier in the Ottoman