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A50573
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A Memento for English Protestants ... together with a preface by way of answer to that part of the Compendium, which reflects on the Bishop of Lincoln's late book.
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Sixtus V, Pope, 1520-1590. De Henrici Tertii morte sermo. English.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing M1658; ESTC R9391
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45,461
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60
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Beast and so buried in the midst of his triumph and victory This Man lookt for a certain death and expected nothing but unknown and most cruel torments and did not doubt before but that he should want a Grave to rest within But there be many other things wherein these two Instances can suffer no comparison The famous History of the holy Woman Judith is sufficiently known who determined with her self God no doubt immediately moving her to it that the might deliver the City and the People of God to Kill … phernes the General and Chief Commander of the Enemies 〈◊〉 which she most effect … y accomplished Wherein although appear many and most manifest signs of Heavenly Direction yet far greater Arguments of God's Providence are to be seen in killing of this King and the delivering of the City of Paris far more difficult and harder to be brought to pass than was the Enterprise of Judith For this holy Woman discovered her intention to some of the Governours of the City and passed through in sight and presence of the Elders and Princes of that place and by that means was not subject unto their examination and searching which is always us'd so strictly in time of Siege and War that a Fly can hardly without examination escape them She being come to the Enemy through whose Company and Watches she was to go and oftentimes searched and examined being a Woman and carrying no Letters nor Weapons about her from whence any Suspicion might arise and withall yielding Reasons for her coming thither and abandoning her Relations was easily discharged and not onely upon the forementioned causes but also for her Sex and exquisite Beauty being brought before this lewd and unchast Prince she might perform that which she had determined before This is Judith's Case But this Religious Man undertook and perform'd a matter of greater weight encompassed with so many Impediments Difficulties and Dangers that no Subtilty of Man no humane policy nor any worldly wisdom but onely the clear and visible Providence of God and his special Aid could bring it to pass First Letters Commendatory were to be procured of the contrary party then was he constrained to go through that Gate of the City that led to the Enemy's Camp the which without doubt was so narrowly kept and watched in the Extremity of that Siege that every trifle bred suspicion and none were suffered to go forth without narrow searching before touching their Letters Messages Business and Affairs they â—ad But he a wonderful thing passed through the Watch unexamined yea with Letters Credential unto the Enemy which if they had been intercepted by the Citizens without any delay and further tryal he should have been executed presently And therefore this is a manifest Argument of Gods Providence But this is a far greater Miracle that he without searching went also through the Enemies Camp by divers Watches and Centinels and which is more through the King's Guard du Corps and finally through the whole Army which was made up mostly of Hereticks he being a Religious Man and clad in the Habit of his Order which was so odious a Garb to those men that they either killed or severely treated all those Friers whom they found in those places which not long before they had taken about Paris Judith was a Woman and nothing odious yet examined often she carried nothing that might have turned to her danger and destruction This man a Frier and therefore hated and most suspected having also a Knife prepared for that purpose not in a Scabbard which might have made his Excuse probable but naked and concealed in his Sleeve which if it had been found about him he would questionless have been put to death Immediately All these are such clear Arguments of the particular Providence of God that they cannot be denied neither could it otherwise be but that God blinded the Eyes of the Enemy that they could not see nor know him For as we have said before although some do absurdly ascribe this unto Fortune or Chance yet none can refer the whole matter to no other cause but the will and holy purpose of God And indeed I could not believe this to have been done otherwise unless I should captive or submit my Understanding to the Obedience of Christ who determined by these miraculous means to deliver and set at liberty the City of Paris which as we have heard was in great danger and extremity and to punish the notorious sins of that King and to deprive him of this Life by such an unhappy and infamous kind of Death and we truly not without great inward grief have oft-times foretold that as he was the last of his Name and Family so was he like to have and make some strange and shameful end of his Life And that I have several times said this thing not onely the Cardinals Jâ—iosa Lenocortius and … siensis but also the Orator at that time here resident can sufficiently testifie For we mean not to call the dead to attest our words but the living some whereof at this very present do yet well remember them But whatsoever we have been forc'd to speak against this unfortunate King we would by no means have it thought to be intended against the noble Realm of France which we shall emâ—race and foster hereafter as we have hitherto always done with all Fatherly Love Honour and Affection This therefore which we with grief have spoken concerns the King's Person onely whose unhappy and unlucky End deprives him also of those Honourable Offices and Respects which this Holy Seat the tender Mother of all Faithful but especially of Christian Princes is wont to pay to Emperours and Kings which we most willingly would likewise have bestowed on him if the Holy Scriptures in this case had not altogether forbidden it There is saith S. John a sin unto death I say not that any should pray for it which may be understood either of the Sin it self as if he should say for that Sin or for the remission of that Sin I will that none should pray because it is not pardonable Or else which comes to the same sence for that Man who committeth such a Sin unto death I say not that any should pray for Of which Sin our Saviour himself has spoken in S. Matthew saying That he that sinneth against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come where he setteth down three sorts or kinds of Sins to wit against the Father against the Son and against the Holy Ghost and that the two first are less heinous and pardonable but that the third is altogether unpardonable All which difference proceedeth from the distinction of the Attributes as the Schools teach us out of the holy Scriptures which severally are appropriated to every several Person of the holy Trinity For although as the Essence of all the three Persons is but one so also is their Power
Wisdom and Goodness as we have learned out of S. Athanasius his Creed when he says Tho Father Almighty the Son Almighty and the Holy Ghost Almighty yet by Attribution Power is ascribed unto the Father Wisdom unto the Son and Love unto the Holy Ghost whereof every several as they are termed Attributes are so proper unto every several Person that they cannot be attributed and referred unto any other By the Contraries of which Attributes we come to discern the distinction and greatness of Sin the Contrary to Power which is attributed to the Father is Weakness or Infirmity and therefore that which we do amiss through Infirmity or Weakness of Nature is said to be committed against the Father The opposite unto Wisdom is Ignorance through which when any man sinneth he is said to sin against the Son and therefore what we commit through natural Infirmity or Ignorance is more easily forgiven us The third Attribute which is the Holy Ghost's is Love and hath for its Contrary Ingratitude a Vice most detestable and odious which causeth men not to acknowledge the Love of God and his Benefits bestowed upon them but to forget despise yea and to hate them and from hence at last it comes to pass that they prove obstinate and impenitent And thus to sin against God is far more dangerous and dreadful than if it were done either through Ignorance or Natural Infirmity and therefore it is termed a sin against the Holy Ghost and because such Sins are seldom and hardly and not without great abundance of Grace pardoned in some sort they are said to be unpardonable Whereas Final Impenitence onely is really and simply unpardonable For whatsoever is done amiss in this Life although it be against the Holy Ghost yet by Repentance it may be wip'd out or done away before we die but they that persevere therein till Death are excluded from all grace and mercy hereafter And therefore for such Sins or Sinners the Apostle hath forbidden to pray after their Decease Now therefore because we understand not without great grief that the aforesaid King departed this Life without repentance or impenitent to wit in the Communion and Fellowship of Hereticks for all his Army was made up almost of none other but of such men and that by his last Will he commended and made over his Crown and Kingdom to the Succession of Navar long since declared an Heretick and Excommunicated as also in his Extremity and now ready to yield up the Ghost desired of him and such as he was then standing by him that they would revenge his Death upon those whom he judged to be the Cause thereof For these and such like manifest Tokens of his Impenitency we have decreed not to solemnize his Death with Funerals not that we presume any thing by these concerning God's secret Judgment against him or his Mercies towards him who could according to his good pleasure convert and turn his Heart even when his Soul was leaving the Body and deal mercifully with him but this we have spoken being thereunto moved by these external Signs and Tokens God grant that all being admonished and warned by this fearful Example of Heavenly Justice may repent and amend and that it may further please him to continue and accomplish that which he hath thus mercifully begun for us as we firmly hope he will to the â—â—d we may give everlasting thanks to him that hath delivered his Church from such great and imminent Dangers When His Holiness had thus ended his Speech he brake up the Consistory and dismist them with his Benediction From this Speech I shall onely infer two things First That it is the Interest of all Protestant Princes if they love their Lives to suppress Popery in their Dominions Secondly That it is more particularly the Interest of His Majesty of Great Britain utterly to extirpate the Romish Religion out of England Scotland and Ireland there being a most damnable Hellish Plot against His Majesty's Royal Person and Government and his Protestant Subjects still carried on by the Papists Some of the most Remarkable Passages of Q. Maries Reign HAving given you the most famous Instances of the execrable Principles and Practices of Papists that I have met with in Forein History and shewed you that these Principles and Practices are derived from the Diabolical Doctrines of the Romish Church I shall now conclude with some Instances of the like nature that occur in the Reign of Q. Mary being the most considerable on Record in our own Chronicles As soon as Q. Mary heard of her Brother K. Edward's Death and that he had by his Will with the consent of his Council excluded her and nominated the Lady Jane Grey to succeed him the said Q. Mary having been before Bastardiz'd by her Father K. Henry VIII she rode 40 miles in one day from Norfolk to her Castle of Framingham in Suffolk where taking upon her the Name and Title of Queen she gave notice to the Protestant Nobility and Centry of the County That if they would assist her ingetting the Crown she would not any ways attempt the least Alteration of the Religion established by her Brother K. Edward VI. This Declaration caused many of the prime Protestants to repair to her and she having given them her Royal Word and her Faith for performance thereof did likewise as a further Confirmation sign certain Articles of Agreement to that effect Whereupon the Protestants assisted her and she presently wrote Letters to the Council in which she claimed the Crown and required them to proclaim her Queen of England in London which was done accordingly But she was no sooner got into the Throne than she broke her Word and Faith given to these Protestants and which is very strange and remarkable did afterward prosecute them more severely than she did any other Protestants in the Kingdom though she kept her Faith with all of them alike as you will see by and by In the mean time I shall give you a particular Instance of her Ungratitude and Breach of Faith toward a Protestant that hath faithfully served her and the story is briefly thus Sir James Hales a Justice of the Common Pleas who had been a great and eminent Stickler for her Succession having given a Charge at a Quarter Sessions in Kent upon the Statutes of Henry VIII and Edward VI. in derogation of the Primacy of Rome he was by her order committed to prison of which ill requital of his Services he grew so sensible that through discontent and trouble of Mind he once endeavoured to stab himself and though he was then prevented in his design yet not long after he drowned himself Now you shall see how she proceeded by degrees against the Protestants 1. On the third of August 1553 she rode through London to the Tower and on the fourth and fifth began to turn out the Protestant Bishops and to put Papists in their places and presently after she displaced all