be hard for a Rational unbyast man to judge which is the safest Religion that is which most advances a peaceable conversation amongst men The Quaker hath a plausible pretence by his Principles of the unlawfulness either of Swearing or Fighting and his practice accordingly which if so as he may very well be suspected to have none considering their being still acted by a light within them are absolutely inconsistent with Government and consequently with peace which will be easily granted when it is considered that the first moment a man turns Quaker the King loses a Subject as to the being useful to him and every man a Neighbour for he that will not fight in an honourable and just War of which no private person is judge is as dead to his Prince And likewise he that will not assert truth by oath thereto lawfully called in vindication of his Neighbours Interest there being no other way to do it by the Constitution of the Law is worse to him As for their pretensions to perfection contrary to Scripture and their own impure practice I shall leave to the Divines to consider of and conclude that Quakers are like salt that hath lost its savour Mar. 5.13 and thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men For it is not at all consistent with the prudence of Princes to connive at much less to tolerate an opinion that renders the abettors useless if not worse to all the ends of Government The Independent now pretends to a kind of Call or Election into the Pastoral Office as they tearm it by a Company of people who say they are Saints and that 's all the reason we have to believe it I should wonder how it can come into any mans head to accept of an Office according to their own opinion sacred too upon such a title but that we see ambitious men will accept of Power upon any terms it being a principle in Law Nemo potest plus juris in alium transferre quam ipse habet None can transfer or give a greater right then he hath And I think all sober men will grant that the people viz. Tom Dick and Cis originally have no such power as to confer Holy Orders Electo then may be a fitter name then Pastor for those Boanergeses I have heard of a Garrison that in a high mutiny turn'd out the Officers and chose out of the Commonalty others into their rooms by the name of Electoes to supply their places in martial conduct who acted their parts stubbornly enough against their General as fearing to return to a private condition if not worse So our pretended Saints have thrown off their Spiritual Governors and Directors and have done worse then the Idolatrous Israelites Exod. 32.23 for they so far observed the Decency of Order as to desire the High-Priest to make them Gods which should go before them But ours have of themselves chose their Gods or Electoes who are not likely to return in haste to the Communion of the Church and consequently to the condition of Private men being that they exercise as absolute an Episcopal and Despotical power over the Estates and Consciences of their respective Congregations or Troops of Bandetti as ever any Pope pretended to in the days of the greatest Ignorance and Bigotery it being their design I suppose to take the Kingdom from men and to give it to Jesus Christ and then the Saints and the secret ones shall work destruction J. Owen p. 22.165 T. Goodw. P. Nye Skid Symson W. Bridge Jer. Burrows Apol to the Parliament as the same Author elegantly hath it Now what may be the end of that is not hard to say when a Club of them have jointly declared This Principle we carried along with us not to make our present judgment and practice a binding Law for the future Now if these be not as slippery Chapmen by vertue of this as either the Papists with their Fides non est servanda cum Haereticis Faith is not to be kept with Heretiques or the Quaker with his Light within I am much mistaken Now that something has been said of their Principles 't is fit you should know likewise of their Practices which have been such as have not at all shamed their Principles For all our late Civil War and Bloodshed with the never to be too much deplored Fate of the best of Kings then or many ages before living was the result of their most holy Faith and all justified by following Divine Providence Caryll and not only so but they persisted in their Rebellion to the last too as is evident to all knowing men of that time nay they were so generally involved in it that Capua it self was comparatively loyal Sir W. R. Hist World Pun. War 2. For there were upon a strict scrutiny two found not guilty of Rebellion but to these Gentlemen the saying of the Psalmist may be applied There is none that doth good no not one And none that is loyal can take the application of that Scripture amiss that considers that in the year 1648 a Book was printed and licensed by the then Authority with this Title Several Speeches delivered at a Conference concerning power of Parliament to proceed against their King for mis-government which is word for word taken out of Parsons the Jesuites book as the learned Dr. Stillingfleet hath observed which Book was written under the name of Doleman as I take it to invalidate the Scotch succession and consequently our Kings Title to the Crown of England so harmoniously did the Independent and Jesuite agree against the common enemy Herode and Pilate were not so unanimous in crucifying the Lord of Glory as these were and probably will be again upon occasion in quenching the light of Israel And yet a modern Author Rehear Trans that takes himself for no small fool has the confidence to say that the Cause meaning the Rebellion 1642. was too good to be fought for But it may be presumed by what over acts we see of their Allegiance that had they the same opportunity again they would not have so Venerable an opinion of it It will not now be difficult from what has been said to conclude that Independent Principles and Practices notwithstanding the unintelligible Jargon that their Sermons and other printed discourses are full of are far from making any thing towards a peaceable conversation amongst men and so to be lookt on accordingly Now what severity soever is shewed them must come far short because the Laws are not strict enough for 't of what they have shewed to others For it passed for Orthodox amongst them Th. Case That God would have Judges to shew no mercy when the quarrel was against Religion The Presbyterians pretend to a constant succession of Holy Orders or Ordination by imposition of hands from the Apostles time as well as we but by the Medium of Presbyters as
we of Bishops They that is the sober part Clevel for There is a Church as well as Kirke of Scots wave enthusiasms and such like dreams and make the Scripture the rule of Faith as well as of manners all the difference then lies in the construction of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they say signifies a preaching ruling and sometimes a lay-elder and our Divines and doubtless with more reason say a Bishop and such an one as hath superintendency over Presbyters too but this having been the subject of the learned pens pro and con I shall say no more but that many of them are worthy in their generations and eminent both for Learning and Piety and have been instrumental too in the Kings and consequently the Churches Restauration let them now come into her bosome who is always willing to receive them and reap at least the fruits of those worthy labours least the controversie betwixt us and them be decided by a third party as that of the Mouse and the Frog in the Fable was to the ruine of both the gladiators And I hope there may be an expedient found out for it for I am sure the Church of England is not of the humor of Pope Paul the fourth Cor. Trid. p. 406. who said rather then he would loose one jot of his due he would see the whole world ruin'd It cannot be said that they were ever immediately guilty of any Soveraign Princes blood yet they were a little School-men like too nice in the distinction betwixt the Politique and the Personal capacities of Princes and did a little too inconsiderately swallow the Vulgar Error of the Kings being one of the three * I humbly propose to those worthy persons of that judgment whether the making the King an Estate makes him not a co-ordinate power and where such is then in reason all matters are to be decided by majority of suffrages and how that will lesson Majesty he is very shallow that cannot discern Estates not having a due regard to the ill consequences of both which naturally are such as must render the assertours of those opinions liable at least to a suspition that they have been far from being zealous in every thing that may advance a peaceable conversation amongst men The next in order is the Church of England whose Credenda matters of Faith are according to the holy Scriptures and the first four general Councils and are such as all her opposers but the buzzardly Quakers believe or at least pretend so to be true and Orthodox she claims a succession of Bishops from the Apostles and hath as much authority for it notwithstanding the Fryer-like tale of the Nags-head-Tavern as any of the most potent of her adversaries she directs Prayers to God according to his command and not to the uncertain ear of a Creature intercessor in fine she believes according as they believed in the purest primitive times and directs mens practice accordingly and though her directions are not so successful perhaps as then yet then there were immoralities as may be seen by the irregularities in the infant Church of Corinth and the impurities amongst the Nicholaitans and filthy Gnostiques it can no more be attributed to her then the Idolatry of the old Israelttes could be to Moses who directed them otherways I shall not use many Arguments for truth needs not many Champions but only say That if Loyalty and Obedience to Lawful Authority be an argument of a peaceable conversation the Church of England is to be preferred before all others of our Cognizance witness her brave and patient suffering during the almost 20 years of tumult and tyranny in which her sons asserted their allegiance with so much chearfulness to the loss of their lives and fortunes as is not to be parallel'd in any age to whose restless endeavours and constant struglings against the pretended powers his Majesties happy return may more justly be attributed then to any other second Cause Independency it self was not more eminent for Rebellion then she for Loyalty which is as inseparable from her as light from colour for it s as well known as a Negative can be that never any of her sons ever made defection as to that except one Apostate Bishop which is the less to be wondered at considering there was a Judas amongst the twelve since the Reformation from Rome and though many did pay obedience to the late powers yet it was for wrath not conscience sake All this considered it will appear no great wonder if her sons be still kindly lookt on by his Majesty according to the saying of his Royal Unkle to his Cardinal upon another occasion There was no reason he should forsake them that loved him Lust Ludo. p. 169. to humor the Caprichio's of those that did not love him So what the Spirit said to the Church of Philadelphia may I hope without presumption be applied to that of England Rev. 3.10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the Earth Now we come to the Church Triumphant that of Rome whose Grandeur hath o're gone all the Churches that ever were in the pomp and vanity of this wicked world she professes the well-bred that is the Travelling Religion and thinks I suppose that we are as discerning in the point of Religion as we are in that of Cloaths in love with every thing that is Forraign she would never offer else to impose all her little tricks upon us The two Pillars or Staves Zec. 11. v. 7. on which this mighty Machine of Popery is supported are not Gods staves of beauty and bands but Supremacy and Infallibility Pope Boniface the 8th was a great Asserter of the former when he made it Authentick Law in these words We say and define and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary to salvation for every humane Creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome A new Article of Faith never heard of amongst the Ancient Creeds Antiquity making out the contrary Cited by L. Cook Re. 5. For S. Edw. Laws c. 19. delivers this for Law Rex autem qui vicarius summi Regis est ad hoc constitutus est ut Regnum populum Domini super omnia sanctam Ecclesiam regat defendat ab inimicis maleficos autem destruat By this you may see that the King was owned by the Law then to be Gods Vicar or Vicegerent not foreseeing the proud decree of Boniface Inter omnes convenit quod nemo possit appropriare ullam Ecclesiam cui animarum cura incumbit cum sit res Ecclesiastica Ecclesiastica personae approprianda nisi ille qui jurisdictionem habet Ecclesiasticam sed Gulielmus primus ex se sine quovis alio Ecclesiarum curam personis Ecclesiasticis ut Rex Angliae appropriavit unde ipsum
should fall under their lash The Story lies thus which for the Novelty I have translated Amongst all the Reports that had been raised in the world concerning the said Emperour Vite Don Carlo viz. Charles the fifth's retreat the strangest was that the continual commerce he had with the German Protestants inclined him to their opinions and that he had retired himself only that he might have liberty to end his days in the exercises of piety conformable to his secret dispositions it was said he could not forgive himself the ill usage which so many brave Princes of that party which the chance of war had put into his power had received from him their Vertue which in their greatest unhappiness shamed his fortune had insensibly rais'd in his soul some sort of esteem for their opinions he durst no longer condemn a Religion to which so great persons thought it their duty to sacrifice all that mankind holds most pretious this esteem appeared by the choice that he made of persons much suspected of Heresie for his spiritual conduct C.T. p. 417. call'd his confessions as Dr. Ca Calla his preacher the Arch-Bishop of Toledo and above all Constantius Ponce Bishop of Drosse his Director It hath been since known that in the Cell in which he died at St Just was filled of all sides with writings wrote by his own hand upon Justification and Grace which were not much different from the opinion of the Novellists but nothing so much confirmed this Report as his Will there were no pious Legacies nor foundations for prayers as made it so different from those of the zealous Catholicks that the Inquisition of Spain thought they had reason to be offended at it they durst not for all that break out before the Kings arrival but that Prince having signalized his first coming into the Country by the death of all Abettors of the new opinion the Inquisition becoming bolder by his Example first attacht the Arch-Bishop of Toledo then the Emperors Preacher and at last Constant Ponce the King suffering them all to be imprisoned the people lookt upon his patience as the excess of his zeal for the true Religion but all the rest of Europe saw with horror the Confessor of Charles the fifth the Emperor in whose arms the Prince had deceased and who had as it were received that great Soul into his bosome delivered by the hands of his own Son to the most cruel and shameful of all punishments In fine the Inquisitors in the process having accused the said persons to have had their hands in the Emperors Will they had the boldness to condemn them with it to the fire The King awakned at this Sentence as with a Clap of Thunder at first the envy that he bore to the glory of his Father made him take pleasure in seeing his memory exposed to this affront but having more maturely considered the consequences of the attempt he by the safest and securest ways that he could choose hindred the effects of it that so he might save the honour of the Holy Office and make no breach in the Authority of the Tribunal in short the Dr. Ca Calla was burnt alive and with him the Effigies of Constant Ponce dead some days before in Prison the King was constrained to suffer the execution that so he might oblige the Holy Office to consent that the Arch Bishop of Toledo * C. Tr. ibid. He had notwithstanding his profits seased on for life so it s humbly conceived that the vast revenues of that See were the best mediatours for that unfortunate Prelate might appeal to Rome and that there might be no more speech about the Emperors last Will Testament But they left not there for taking advantage of the credulousness of that Priest-Peckt Prince Philip the second they never left imposing upon him that Don Carlo his son was dangerous to his Estate and intimated too much familiarity with his Mother in Law so that at length the Prince though heir apparent to the Crown for shewing too indiscreet an indignation at that affront to his Grandfathers memory and some other demonstrations of his ill sentiments of their tyranny was given up to them who did him only the favour to give him the choice of his death the mischief ended not there neither for the jealous Prince in a manner commanded his Queen though great with Child to be poysoned to expiate the supposed Crime * How far that Office had to do in it I 'le not determine but it s no great breach of charity to think that those persons who would not spare the Heir apparent of his Catholique Majesty would not be very scrupulous in attempting upon Heretical Princes especially when the Inquisition preferred that barbarous and unnatural murder of Don Carlo before the obedience of Abraham and in a Blasphemous Zeal compared the King all with one voice to the Eternal Father who had not spared his own Son for the salvation of mankind now what sins will not they pass by for the advance of the Papal authority when so black a crime has got such an extravagant encomium There was a design upon the Queen of Navarre and her son after ward Henry the fourth of France to seize them when they lived at Pan by the villany of one Captain Dominick a Bernois but by the kindness of the Queen before mention'd the generosity of Don Carlo concurring which might be one thing that cost her her life it was discover'd but what they failed in at that time their Factors afterwards brought to pass upon one with a knife and upon the other with poyson by this you may see what they would be at none must make a Will except they have a share or else his memory must be exposed to contempt and scorn for had the Emperor given according to his quality a good sum of money for foundations for prayers as my Author terms it the Will nor any thing else had been questioned and the Dr. had escaped Spitchcocking and though the Inquisition is a stranger in most of the Popish Countries yet this abates but little of the force of my argument for who knows not that it is none of the Popes fault When †C.T. 405.416 De seres in vita H. 3. Paul the fourth said that it was the principal secret and mystery of the Papacy and at his last gasp recommended it to the Cardinals exhorting them to establish it where ever they could and his Successors have always been ready to shew their good will to it witness the endeavours to introduce it into France by vertue of the Holy League under the ministration of that bloody and perfidious Prince the Duke of Guise and afterwards of his Brother the Duke de Main How many horrid murders were perpetrated in order to it but above all the murder of Henry the third by a Jacobin Monk at St. Cloud is most admirable for in the same room at St.