the well-merited death of a Traitor or if a Lay-man all the Law has in that case too easily provided I need not instance which Bulls I mean they are so often brought against the Catholick Religion it self by Protestant Writers and sufficiently to the shame though not of the Popish Religion yet of those Popes who granted them and of those Papists that adhere to or defend such Roman Court Doctrines But from such Catterpillers of the Christian Faith as those did arise amongst many more dangerous new Positions this of being not lawful for Roman Catholicks to go to Church as the Law requires in England And for the sakes and on the wise Authority of such desperate Casuists have many of our foolish Forefathers lost two thirds of their Estates rendred themselves suspected to the people and incapable of serving as they ought to do their lawful Prince in his extraordinary occasions which when they have attempted to do this their open unnecessary dissention has cast an Odium unjustly both on himself and his actions for imploying them Now if it be inquired by you or your Confessaries what Arguments could move Pope Pius Quintus or his immediate Successor to send a Bull of Prohibition to the Catholicks in England for going to Church the thing being in it self no fault and as I affirm so positively against the Rules and Practices of their Predecessors nay against the Fundamentals of their Government To this I must answer There were divers Motives in Policy as they observed things of this Island in Rome though none in Religion First they were perswaded by such Traitors as fled hence thither that almost the whole Nation remained Catholicks notwithstanding the Queen had altered the Government And that they would find them such ignorant ones too as their Holy Predecessors had known them when they made this Nation the Pack-horse to their pride and a perpetual Fountain of Money to their Treasuries which some of them with admiration boasted could never be exhausted Upon these suppositions they were made to believe that such a Bull would cause this mighty Party to be visible not only to their Enemies but themselves to the terrour of one and incouragement to the uniting of the other Party This was one and it may be the grand motive of that Proceeding so contrary to all President The next and in all likelihood not the least motive might be the perswasion of those Traitors that there would be found in England many as desperate as themselves to bandy together take Arms against or assasinate the Queen when they saw their Party so considerable as this would prove it besides the blessing must needs attends such pious endeavours warranted by his Holinesses care and direction But all these Policies and Practices did by the wisdom of that Queen and her Council only tend to the discovering such desperates as being of the like Principles thereon took Arms and were for it deservedly executed or forced to increase the numbers of those Fugitives in voluntary Banishment But notwithstanding this might like a Message from Heaven sufficiently have warned the Catholicks of England from hearkening any more after News from Rome at least till the Popes should have been so charitable to re-admit them into the Congregation of the Faithful by taking off the Excommunication from them yet have the private Missionaries being all sent into the Nation under the title of Traitors by the Law so adhered to the Tenets of the Court as well as Church of Rome which sends them that they have by degrees instilled into the Laity here many Principles of Adherence to the Pope that would be laught at in France and some few other rational Catholick Kingdoms Amongst which this of thinking the Popes Commands can make that a sin which in it self is none ought to be accounted one Upon which ground alone they refuse to obey the Law in the thing now in debate for which I think they are but justly punisht with the loss of their Estates But Brother be you wiser study the Catholick Doctrine as it is taught by Fathers and Councils and not as it would fain be made by the novel Positions of Ignatius's Followers between whom and you there is a vast difference both in the duty you owe to the King and his Laws as likewise in those you stand obliged in to Rome For first they and all other Missionaries being the hour they set foot here become Traitors and so consequently in all the business they come about not only out of the protection but under the severest censure of the Law no wonder they have not the same respect for it other Subjects ought to have but dare practise lesser contradictions that offend in the greater Nay it may be against their going to Church Scandal would prove a good Argument since they pretend to be ready always to lay down their lives for the increase of their Faith but this is no ways your or any other Lay Catholicks case the Law if you obey in some particulars prescribed giving you equal protection with others of the National Principles Another thing to be considered is That the hour they receive Holy Orders they take an Oath of Subjection to the Pope and so by the same Act become Renouncers of their Allegiance to the King and Subject to his Holiness Now how far this may be consonant to Christian Religion I will not examine here but I am sure it puts them in a very different posture as to the Popes designs to what any other Catholicks are in They being according to their vow upon the least summons to leave the Country and to go where his Holinesses good pleasure appoints them which I hope none of them will be so impudent to say you are obliged to do Brother except it be such as hold the mad Doctrine of Popes having power to depose Princes For though the other doth not sound so ill yet is it in effect the same for to be able to command a Princes Subjects out of his Dominions doth imply a power of leaving him none there which would produce an effectual deposing of him in the end Another considerable difference between Lay Catholicks and Missionary Priests in this Kingdom arises from the ones having Estates and the other none For no body can blame the last sort of Gentlemen to desire their power over the Consciences of the other should be as far extended as might be if one consult as most of mankind does their private interest Alas what is it to Mr. Politick your Ghostly Father that you shall lose by your Conviction 2000 l. a year his Allowance will be never the less he knows but his power will be much more For in the first place that is a sure sign you are as firmly resolved to live and die a Catholick as if he saw you at the stake to receive Martyrdom for it Do you think after that he will not take upon him to direct you what Servants it is
this by saying the Argument would hold all the World over and so make it a sin as well in France as here then they reply That in Catholick Countries though you hear Heresie in a Protestant Sermon yet you have a Catholick Sermon presently clears the point and makes it indubitable on the Churches side Now this by the Prohibition of Religion is prevented in England and therefore the case very different One would think this a very subtile Argument so notably put together that there would be no possibility of answering it if one did but very much stand in awe of the Magisterial Mountebank that it may be with a world of Rhetorical flourishes and grave Quotations out of Scotus doth positively affirm this to be the opinion of all School-men nay the Catholick Church it elf But Heaven knows examine it a little and you will find it a meer rope of sand as solidly compacted as their ridiculous though politick Doctrine of Probabilities and no better For will not they or any observing man confess that the Romanists of England take them one with another are ten for one more learned and confirmed in the Principles of their Religion than those of France or any Catholick Country indeed are He that considers that most of the Natives of this Kingdom who are of that Faith be either Persons of Quality who have had great advantages by Education or Converts from the Protestants will easily believe there must be a great disparity between such and the general herd of Vulgars bred in Countries under a Religion no ways famous for making the common people too knowing But suppose it is not so and that those who have so long strugled under difficulties in their Fortunes for Conscience sake have done it more out of ignorance the Mother as some say of Popish devotion than of understanding yet will the former Argument wash away in that part which says those in Catholick Countries have more opportunity of being untaught what they might prejudicially have suckt in For none will deny but more Doctrine is collected from rational discourses Pro and Con than from such set Speeches as Sermons are Therefore considering there are few Gentlemen in England of the Romish Religion who have 500 l. per Ann. but keep a Priest in their Houshold How is it likely if good Arguments be to be found against every thing the Protestants teach contrary to the Romish Faith but that they should presently upon inquiry have their new-raised scruples at Church by such sooner and stronger wip't off than a person that it may be in a Catholick Country may go to Church both Sunday and other Holy-day a year before he hears any Sermon casually to glance upon that point whereon such doubt of his arose And I dare affirm so sweet is the profit the Jesuits and Missionaries find in England that there resides and is like to do constantly so many here that few Papists need to be a day from speaking with one of them and that is an advantage equal to the most Catholick Nations But suppose all here said nothing to the purpose but that 't is likely many would be changed in time and become Protestants What is that to you or I Brother or indeed to any rational Lay Catholick in England for he whose case it should be need not much repine that his conscience should lead him into a more advantageous Religion as to this World and for the other he would no doubt be as confident of a good place there if he acted purely upon the score of Faith as ever he was whilst he remained Papist But I confess many such accidents as those would shrewdly inconvenience the Priests and in time lessen their number But still what is that to you or I Brother I find no Canon of any General Council commanding you to give two thousand pound a year to increase the number of Priests or to maintain those that be Nor can I believe Christian Religion ever obliged its Professors to such remote considerations No all men were not bound like S. Paul to love to that extremity as to wish damnation for their Country-mens sakes They that can let them but still say I Brother keep your money you 'l repent it else one day take my word for it Another Argument I have heard started which is that if Catholicks should go to Church yet the Parliament would at last find out something like the late Test for Imployments by which they would be found out and so consequently be no ways the better but suffer equally to what they should do by Recusancy To this I answer that I ought as a Christian to obey the Government as far as I can in Conscience and that for Conscience sake and to trust the Divine Providence in whose hands are the hearts of Princes and Rulers for any thing by them for the future to be commanded which if I cannot then comply with I must either follow the direction of flying in persecution from city to city or patiently suffer for my sins what God shall please by the Law to impose upon me But this supposition how well grounded soever it may seem ought not to hinder me from complying as far as I am able at the present such test when if ever it comes will then with its penalties be time enough to submit to But I am of the opinion and not without some colour of reason that such a Test may never be especially if Catholicks would leave off Recusancy The grounds for my conceptions are these The People of England boast of this Priviledge beyond most European Nations if not all that no person is bound by Torture or Oath to accuse himself of any thing which by the Law is penal but that proof ought to come of matter of Fact before he suffer Now this so rational a Priviledge which frees us from the slavish subjection of those governed by the Civil Law all English Parliaments hitherto have been extremely tender of as appears by those Laws provided for security of Religion since the Reformation For every person knows they who incur punishment by not complying in Forms of Worship or matters of Faith do it out of tenderness of Conscience though it may be misguided Now such persons one may well believe would scruple above all things a false Oath Therefore if our Law-makers had not been very careful of this English Free-mans Priviledge they might have quickly left a latitude to Judges and other inferiour Magistrates by Interrogatories upon Oath to have found out all persons that had through Conscience offended against any Ecclesiastical Law as Whether have you heard Mass within a year or no have you asserted or taught the Popes Supremacy or brought in Crosses Beads or Images c. But we find no such Method allowed which can spring from nothing but the care of this Sacred English Priviledge always firmly rooted in the breasts of the Compilers of English Statutes For I should think
by running into perfect confusion which would quickly have produced its perfect extirpation So that Oaths of this kind were not invented to create but to keep in memory our duty And where upon great confusions in and alterations of a Common-wealth they have seemed to be otherways in such cases they will fall under the next Head Which are Compacts ratified by Oath for mutual convenience These no power on Earth neither ever could or had Authority to dispense with except by consent of all Parties to the Bargain or Agreement for to affirm the contrary would imply some one person still remaining in Mr. Hobbs State of Nature presiding over all his Leviathans who should not only have a right to every thing in the World but to break and dissolve all the Government of it at his pleasure and indeed to annihilate humane Nature it self But though no single person simply can have this Power of dispensing the performance of Compacts yet have the Compactors themselves the undoubted Right of releasing one the other without consultation of any person unconcerned in the World Yet have Popes not only in the first but likewise in the last often put in their fingers as particularly in the Hungarians fatal breach of solemn Faith to the which punishment visibly showr'd from Heaven on the perjur'd Army owned by many Catholick Divines almost as miraculous has sufficiently evidenced to the World what little confirmation above is of such impious and destructive Dispensations But when the Compactors themselves dispense one the other no body bogles or starts at the breach of the Oath as we see lately in Holland where the States General dispensed the Prince of Orange themselves and the Country of an Oath taken against State-Holders which I have not yet heard of any man so say was not lawful for them by mutual consent to do Though I know had it been a Popish Country there would have been some Fees expected at the Apostolick Chamber for his Holinesses unnecessary Dispensation Thus we see that Oaths in themselves dispensable are easily by the proper persons dispensed without the Authority of a heavenly Delegate who can never arrive to a greater Dominion rightfully in the matter than as a person whose discretion is proper to advise with and can only be that too to such as are pleased freely to think him so But as for the last branch of Religious Vows the Author or Prescriber of the form and fashion of the thing to which they swear may have power to absolve at discretion from the performance of it and I will not say but in our Church this may be the Popes Province which if he pleases to keep within he may but if he will be still medling without being called with other mens concerns let him for me but I fear it will be but to very little purpose Kings and Governours being now wiser than to be over aw'd too much by his Pragmatical censures Dear Brother think not I have treated thus long upon Vows and Dispensations to inform you or any man else in this Age who are wise enough without my help to know that all this boasted Power of the Popes to dispense men from Oaths or their Allegiance has no foundation in Reason or Religion and is only bolster'd up with Examples of the success of some former Bishops of Rome in their insolencies which way of arguing is just of the same Authority as if I should to prove the piety of High-way robbing tell you the story of the late famous Hind who living many years on that profession yet had the honour to dye for his Loyalty to his Prince and not as a Thief But passing all these things over I do conclude it is not only lawful to take the Oath of Allegiance but to keep it when we have done nay that we are obliged to do the last under pain of eternal damnation let the Pope say or dispense the contrary how he please And further I do affirm no rational man can prove the contrary sufficiently of the other Oath notwithstanding its Bugbear name of Supremacy Nay now he 's quite gone beyond recovery I am afraid you your self will say notwithstanding all brotherly affection and then you 'll go on in crying there was some hopes of recovering me to the Catholick Religion whilst I only pleaded for going to Church and the Oath of Allegiance but to say it is lawful to take that horrible terrible Oath of Supremacy shews me a confirmed Heretick ready to take the Test on the first opportunity for an Imployment But Brother I desire you to suspend your censure of damnation against me lest you prove as rash in it as the Pope was that first Excommunicated this whole Nation in Queen Elizabeth's time For no doubt he and several of his Successors since have in their minds secretly repented so inconsiderate an act though they will not acknowledge it by taking off that censure till some previous Action of the Nation requires it which I am not like to live to see My reason for this Supposition is one of the motives of my asserting the lawfulness for us of taking the Oath of Supremacy For what reason can there be for our refusing to do so since he refuses all spiritual Superiority over us and the King accepts it and in these two points consists the whole scope of this Oath It requires me to swear the Pope has no Authority over this Kingdom And if I will take his own honest word he has not nor will not have What can be better than his own most solemn Excommunication to prove it The next Point I am to swear is That the King is Head of all Persons and Affairs as well Ecclesiastical as Civil in these his Dominions which no person that hath his right wits I think can deny as the case now stands For if ever the Popes were Heads or Supreme in Ecclesiastical Affairs within this Nation they have long since by an Act of their own as well as of the Nations ceased to be so Therefore if any be it must be the King since the Law says so though it be worth inquiring as to this point how the Law means him Head of Ecclesiastical matters First I suppose it means Head of that Church and the Ecclesiastical Affairs therein that is established by Law For it cannot mean any other since we see a power of Dispensation contrary to Law for the most minute dissenters to meet in another Form of serving God has been controverted Not to say more of the point therefore if there must be but one Religion established and no other tolerated then the Law only intends him Head of that which the Pope himself will not deny him to be So I suppose I may lawfully swear him that which no other person ever did or can pretend to besides Now this matter having been excellently well treated of and handled in former times by some learned Casuists when the Intention of the Law in
A LETTER FROM A GENTLEMAN OF THE Romish Religion To his BROTHER a Person of Quality of the same RELIGION Perswading him to go to Church and take those Oaths the Law directs Proving the lawfulness thereof by Arguments not disagreeable to Doctrines of the ROMAN CHURCH LONDON Printed for John Starkey at the Mitre within Temple-Bar MDCLXXIV Dear Brother THE business of your pleasant Letter I can no ways judge could be the motive of its jocular style Is conviction for Recusancy so slight a matter that it is only to be laught at or is it that you have a mind to give his Majesty two of your three thousand a year I fear not but it may be then you have been reading Mr. Cowley's Verses out of Hesiod lately Vnhappy they to whom God han't reveal'd By a strong light which must their sense controul That half a great Estate 's more than the whole Vnhappy from whom still conceal'd does lye Of Roots and Herbs the wholesom luxury But truly Brother believe me if these Verses were Canonical Scripture yet would they be too little to keep body and soul together when the seisure is made by the Sheriff Yet is not 2000 a year worth inquiring after at least to know some small reason for parting with it Methinks it should be so I 'm sure if it was mine I should cry two words to a Bargain before I parted with a souse of it except some body would secure me Terra firma in Heaven for Reprisals And for your sake I am resolved to argue the point with our Holy Father the Pope a little to know why we his poor despised Children in England are bound to do some things at his commands he no ways expects from his more indulged ones in other Nations and such things too that practised produce our utter ruines Now good honest Friend Mr. Jesuit mind not me but follow your more necessary Imployments of answering the Doctors Stilling fleet Tilleson and Floyd with the rest of the Papist-Grinders For I am no ways denying the Popes Infallibility but will give him fair play and allow him to be a more considerable person of Honour than consists with the posture of the times or my present affairs Nay if it will do him any service I will grant him at present to be not only Supreme Bishop chief Ruler universal Head or sole Head of the universal Church but let him be as great magnificent and powerful as his most flattering Courtiers would have him that is as great indeed as the Devil himself pretended when he proffered the whole Earth and consequently universal Monarchy to our Saviour for a little worship Let him be all this at present if he pleases say I yet I hope to prove that an English Roman Catholick and consequently you Brother may go to Church as the Law directs nay ought to do it notwithstanding any commands or pretended commands from him or his holy Predecessors to the contrary For let us consider that this Omnipotency of his power be it more or less must needs terminate in this that he has no power where he will have no power and cannot command where he will not command Nay I may safely conclude That a good Catholick may believe he does not command where he plainly openly and solemnly says he will not command till he unsays that saying This in plain terms is the Popes fate now in England they have long since by an unrepeal'd publick Act of their Authority Excommunicated in the highest manner this whole Nation interdicting to the very ground that feeds us and the air we breath any spiritual Blessings or Benefits Now this solemn Excommunication not only casts out of the Fatherly protection and care of the Pope those who fall under it but deprives them of the use of Sacraments Masses Indulgences Churches Succession of Bishops Priests and Holy Orders and all other Christian Rights and Priviledges whatsoever as plainly appears from the very form used in doing it as likewise in the practice of this Kingdom in King John's Time as is proved by our Histories when for six years this Kingdom remained under it and lately in Venice when the Jesuits left that State rather than obey the Senate in performing Holy Offices contrary to his Holinesses intention which Act of theirs they to this day justifie I might instance many more Examples to prove the sad Condition of Countries Excommunicated if the Exalters of the Popes Authority were Infallible Heavenly Oracles But I having nothing to do in that point shall only glance at those things necessary to my present purpose which is to save your Estate Brother and therefore shall still allow the Pope his most extended Infallibility since that makes not at all against me in this Argument For 't is not material to me that Father Paul Author of the History of the Council of Trent does in his defence of the State of Venice against the proceedings of Pope Paul the Seventh prove that Excommunication is a spiritual punishment which implies there ought to be an offence and that except there be the Censure cannot reach the Person against whom it was intended I say though this be reasonable nay may be unanswerable as to the thing then pleaded for yet it will be no ways satisfactory to the point now in hand which is whether the Pope has any Authority left in England or no for that is plain he has not for though at first it may be all our Grandfathers did not justly incur so rigorous a sentence as to be wholly lopt off from the Catholick Church yet that Pope that excommunicated them and those ever since have absolutely refused to have any Spiritual care of them and consequently command over them renouncing it then and Annually renewing that Renunciation ever since so that there has been no continuation of Bishops in this Kingdom nor cannot be according to the Institutions of the Roman Catholick Church till that solemn Excommunication be taken off In this Condition is England and Scotland put by the Pope whilst Ireland our neighbour and fellow Subject Kingdom still continuing in his Holinesses good Grace enjoys all the Priviledges from him of the most Catholick Country So that I conclude the Pope's Infallibility will certainly reach this at least That he has Power to refuse to Govern Command or Protect all he pleases and wheresoever he pleases amongst which Places I take England to be since he and all his Predecessors since Pius Quintus's Time have solemnly declared it to be so Then Good Father Clement since you will have nothing to do I desire you will still stand by and let us shift for our selves as well as we can As for the Gentlemen Missionaries you have sent to convert us I hope we shall be able to deal with them well enough for all we go to Church which I am about to prove to you Dear Brother we may lawfully do First The thing in it self is by all Casuists in the World
directed to obey for conscience sake he would commit a grievous sin against God Now what excuse can we make for our obstinacy in refusing to go to the Churches at times commanded The Popes pretended Commands will not do for were they more binding than the Laws of a Nation which certainly they are not yet can we have none such from him having no Bishops or Spiritual Superiours left whom we might or ought to trust for the truth of them when they came and we have his too too solemn promise that he will have nothing to do with us This being so I am afraid the private discourses and false pretences of private mercenary Jesuits and Missionaries will not be a sufficient Basis to rely upon before the last Tribunal for such obstinate resistance against lawful Authority in things in themselves wholly indifferent Now Brother I know Mr. Politick the Jesuit if you shew him this will presently bless himself with the sign of the Cross desire all to joyn in a Pater noster and Ave Maria against the infection and then dogmatically affirm I am turned a rank nay dangerous Heretick Your Daughters must be desired to visit me no more for fear of perversion nay you will be perswaded to double my Annuity on condition I never see your face again Well if these afflictions should happen I cannot help it but for the mind I am in it must be stronger Arguments shall hinder me from avoiding conviction as long as with a safe conscience I can And I think there are none such for I have considered all I ever hitherto have heard and to me they appear weak and impertinent But that I may not be thought only to affirm this I will sum up all I know any thing to the purpose To begin first then with scandal which is one Argument mainly urged I suppose it can never be intended that if a weak Brother id est perhaps a Fool shall be troubled in mind that I have six dishes of meat at my Table and himself and many better Christians than I have it may be scarce half a one That I must therefore for fear of being an eye-sore to him retrench my self to his fragments And yet S. Paul as to his own practice seemed to resolve this since he says he would never eat meat whilst he lived rather than offend the weak brethren So I suppose and reasonably that his Doctrines of Scandals were calculated for the use of Christian Teachers and those that sought to be Rulers in the Church For had he intended them for all Christians I am afraid they would have proved heavier burdens on Believers than ever were imposed on the Primitive observers of the Mosaical Law and would have but ill accorded with the great Argument for Conversion which was Christian liberty from duties which they and their forefathers were not able to undergo Nor is it reasonable to think I am bound to part with two thirds of my Estate because some fool my neighbour may think me an Heretick by my going to Church no let him think on the sin is his not mine who do nothing but what in it self is lawful and what becomes my duty by the Laws commanding it But he judges amiss of my interiour Faith by my outward actions though lawful and therefore sins in want of Charity Thus much I believe may serve for Scandal though much more might be said The next Objection proceeds from this that it is made the sign of Faith and therefore he that complies in it owns the Church of Englands Doctrine but this must be by all rational men positively denied if they will consider these following Circumstances First when going to Church was commanded in England by a Penal Statute it was designed rather for opportunity to instruct people educated Roman Catholicks in the Principles of the Protestants than as an Act of general Uniformity in Faith which could not so suddenly be expected Next it would have been a vain way of trying the Faith of Papists by a thing they might lawfully according to their own Religion do nor can we believe the people of England assembled in Parliament could be so ignorant had they been minded then to have known the hearts of persons as to have fallen upon so impertinent a test For to my sorrow we find when they intended that they knew a ready and infallible way to do it But suppose the worst that the Law designed it as a tryal of Faith and a discovery of persons Popishly inclined permitting still the thing in it self to be no sin that can no ways oblige you to the refusal of it for I would desire Mr. Jesuit to tell me why you are more obliged openly to declare your self a Catholick than he is to owne himself a Priest fear of death I am sure should not deter him since if he dyes his Faith calls it Martyrdom which gains a Crown of Glory a temptation sufficient and much beyond what any of them will secure you for your Estate But if he like S. Paul thinks it lawful to get down in a Basket you may as advisedly come to Christ by night For is it reasonable that because the Law says Every Popish Recusant shall be convicted that therefore I should be bound presently to run and confess my self a Papist at the next Sessions For 't is as rational to affirm that as to say I am bound when the Law prescribes a thing to be done for tryal of my Faith which I may in Conscience do presently to cry out against it and refuse it for that cause only If that were so then it would be no hard matter by another trick to banish us all the Realm by declaring whosoever should be within this Kingdom on the 25 of March next should be esteemed to all intents and purposes no Roman Catholicks but good Sons of the Church of England whether they communicated in it or no. Now I am afraid Brother if such a sign of Faith as this were by the Law made yet Mr. Jesuit would find many excuses for staying after that time But if he would not I wish with all my heart the Parliament would make such a Statute that we might be rid of them But they know better their Principles than to hope so fair a riddance by so easie a way no these are but weak Arguments to lead the too believing Laity by the noses it must be stronger toyls that shall catch their Elephant understandings Therefore good Brother let you and I be no longer held by them For 't is plain neither scandal nor signum fide ought to be a hindrance to me from doing a thing in it self indifferent and which becomes my duty by the Law 's commanding it The next material Objection I have from some of our Spiritual misleaders met with is That as Faith comes by hearing so does Heresie therefore we ought to avoid the place where it is taught lest we should be misguided into it If you answer
wants only opportunity for Catholicks to renew all those bloody Stratagems against the State the Predecessors of the Refusers of that Oath did unsuccessfully attempt though we in our private discourses do never so much pretend to abhor them For when they reflect that few or none of us but hold the Pope can absolve us from any Oath we have or can take and that many of us resolve not to stand in need of that but to refuse all Oaths that should oblige us to the performance of our duty to the King how can such not having any violent propensity of love to us but believe that there is some damnable design lockt up in the breasts of such Refusers in which the others may close when it is ripe there being no more hold of them than of a wet Eel by the tail since an absolving Bull upon the Gates or for a need on the ruines of Pauls makes the Government and us as much strangers as if we never had seen one the other Now I protest when I have seriously reflected on ancient Popish Plots on some sorts of Tenets which we almost think Catholick as this of the Popes Power of Absolving from Oaths which Protestants believe nay and some Catholicks too means from Allegiance and on the obstinacy of us to refuse the Commands of the Law in things indifferent I say when I have reflected on these things without the prejudice given me by my Education I have wondred the Laws against us have not been more severe than they are nay that they almost suffered a people of whom they could have no more certainty in State-affairs and so apparently declared humble Servants to a Foreign Authority to live at all amongst them Now Brother I will not at all dispute the lawfulness in Religion to take the Oath of Allegiance since I know you have taken it and are not yet so absolutely bigotted to the Obedience of the spiritual Commands of your Ghostly Tyrant but that you be ready on requiring to do it again so that a discourse of that nature would be needless to you But for all that I will a little glance on that Proposition so generally accepted of the Popes having power to absolve at pleasure any person from an Oath he hath taken Now that he has undertook to do this is beyond contradiction and that several changes and revolutions in Affairs of the World both private and publick have thereupon happened is as plain But by what Authority he at first assumed that Power I believe is not and may be worth a rational Catholicks inquiring after that he may the better know how with a good Conscience that will hold test before the Popes Superiour at the last Tryal to demean himself in a Country whose Magistrates are of another Religion Now as a step towards this matter I will beg leave of his Holiness to believe there were men in the World and Governments too before there were Popes and that there were too amongst them certain Moral Rules by which they began continued and increased in the World Now no doubt amongst many others there were solemn Compacts confirmed by overt Acts which they accounted Sacred and whosoever after having entred into such Holy obligations did violently break them were by the rest of mankind either extirpated if dangerous or despised and never more trusted if weakly so perjur'd Now it will as certainly follow that new Accidents and Revolutions in Common-wealths or Families might make it morally necessary that the obligations lying upon one or many persons therein by such sacred tyes ought to be broke for the safety it is possible of the whole An observation of which Mankind soon found out Methods to distinguish persons so necessarily acting against those sacred tyes which we call Oaths from such as wilfully despised them That the first sort though breaking their Vows literally might be kept from the scandal and punishment of Covenant-breakers whilst the last should remain still under the lash of the Law or contempt of their fellow Creatures Humane Nature falling necessarily under these circumstances it was requisite to appoint or agree upon some Judgment which should be absolute in the point of determining when men were perjur'd by breaking their Vows and when not to which persons naturally would have recourse before they attempted the doing of it Now these Compacts Oaths or Vows were usually either in Temples with the assistance of the sacred Ministers made or at least sworn by the Deity or Deities to which such people were devoted and therefore Consultations concerning the necessity of altering those Resolutions were usually had with the chiefest of those Heavenly Officers and for this reason amongst some other Princes of large Kingdoms did in ancient time keep the chief Celestial Character united to the Regal For Experience shewed that men naturally seeking liberty began to pervert that obligation which Nature taught of omitting the performance of Vows extremely prejudicial to society into a belief that there resided a power in these Spiritual Judges of the necessity absolutely to absolve at their discretion any person they pleased So quickly the one through ambition of having such an Authority and the other finding a convenience to satisfie their loose appetites if they bribed the Possessors of this Divine good pleasure did almost acquiesce in this unreasonable belief that there was a Power delegated from Heaven to certain men which made them Gods below And that such persons had a power to make that at their good pleasure no sin which in it self if there be any good thing or bad must naturally be so This indeed was the general practice of the ancient World before Christianity insomuch that Moses the most Divine Law-giver amongst them did take it to himself though he is far from being commended for it by our Saviour when he speaks of the Jewish Priviledge or general Dispensation from one natural Oath which is Marriage that Moses was pleased by virtue of this Authority he assumed to himself to leave to that whole Nation For our Saviour plainly says this Power did not come from God but was assumed by Moses for the hardness of their hearts and that all that Dispensation notwithstanding to put away a Wife except for the case of Adultery which seems a natural dissolution of the compact was a sin So that I conclude Our Saviour who had almost as much Authority as the Pope never did pretend to any like that of making things in their own natures sinful to become none but taught that it was not in the power of Moses nor any man else to do it Then let us descend to times succeeding that fulness of it which produced the Redemption of Mankind S. Paul teaches sufficiently the necessity of keeping Vows and I do not find his Holinesses Predecessor S Peter very frequent with his Dispensations But leaving them and hastening to those Ages in which through the Piety of Christian Emperours the Popes had arrived to a
competency of temporal as well as plentitude of Spiritual Authority in the World We do not find for some Ages after that though several Emperours turned Arrian any Pope pretended to an Authority of dispensing their Subjects from the Oaths of Fidelity they had taken to them But it is possible some may and not impertinently answer There was then scarce such a thing in the World as an Oath of Allegiance therefore Dispensations from what were not in being could not be expected To this I assent and do well know Christian Religion in its Primitive Innocency taught obedience from the Laws of Nature which some called Conscience and did not suppose any persons truly toucht with its divine Doctrines could need any other obligation to perform their duties either to God or their Neighbour than what their sacred Initiating Vow of Baptism laid upon them And so far I believe the Quakers not without a true hint that they needed one amongst another no other affirmations but Yea and Nay and that they guided their Conversations by the true Rule Nature had taught them which the Quakers call the Light within them But when Religion became National and that many wicked people took the name of Christianity more for worldly than heavenly advantage then were they forced to have recourse to new sort of solemn Oaths taken either in Publick Churches where Kings did likewise condescend to take new invented Coronation Oaths and the People Oaths of Subjection in return In the management of which Ceremony the Bishops were the chief Officers which by degrees hankt a great respect to them and they not a little ambitious of more taught the dependency of Subjects and Princes one upon the other not to be from the Laws of Nature but from these Compacts which their Authority and nothing else could make Sacred These dangerous Tenets Princes not only at first connived at but made use of For the greatest part of the World being then shifting Subjection from the Roman Empire to native or more neighbouring Dominions was shatter'd into petty Regencies so that the Bishops who preserved a kind of Unity of their distinct Authorities in that of the Roman Sees had a greater power over the common peoples minds than those Kings of Counties had So that indeed Dominion was often transferred from lawful Princes that durst stomach these spiritual Usurpations to Usurpers that would truckle to the Clergy for their good word to prefer them Thus all things becoming again as in the first corruruption of humane Nature where every body were forced to secure themselves from violence and oppression by obligations they believed most sacred Oaths invented or formed by Popes and other Bishops became the Method which when there was a necessity of breaking then they were consulted with as persons best able to judge of that necessity and above all of them the Pope as the most eminent and then thought most disinterested Bishop he being well provided for in Temporalties and very much eased from such entire subjection to the Civil Magistrate as other Bishops in particular still remained under so from an unprejudiced assistant to Conscience he by frequency of Addresses became at length an Umpire then in a manner sole Judge of what Oaths or Compacts remained sacred and what by contingencies ceased to be obligatory So by degrees as naturally all men aspire after Power he took upon him to give and the World accepted from him of course Dispensations from any Vows were troublesom either to their affairs or appetites and it may be if he could have stopt here the World and most Princes in it would have been contented still to have made use of this impossible Power he had assumed but at last they flew to such Practices as disturbed nay destroyed their own Soveraign the Emperours that opposed their insolencies and attempted no less against most Christian Kingdoms nay to such a height were they arrived that few Kingdoms but must owne they did at one time or other receive a new Race of Kings from their appointment And though several of them as particularly this Kingdom have by Gods Providence received again their natural Princes yet was it long first and perhaps not truly in this Nation till King James's assuming the Crown But this excess as well in their extention as execution of their usurp't Authority alarm'd the World and put that upon new Consultations for its safety against a Power which pretended to the deposing of Princes and alteration of Governments without so fair a warning as the beat of Drum This produced our Statute of Praemunire against any person that should bring a Bull from Rome and that as early as Richard the Second's days wherein it is likewise provided That if any Nuntio Legate c. should presume to set foot in this Nation on a Message from the Pope without having first procured the Kings Licence he should be proceeded against as an Enemy to the State This and many other Laws of the like kind made both in this Nation and other Kingdoms about those times sufficiently shew how weary and afraid the Catholick World were grown of the Popes Pride and Usurpations But to return to the matter If we will be so foolish to allow all things may lawfully be done that have successfully been so then the Popes have not only a Power to absolve all persons from their Oaths and Compacts but likewise to alter the Government of Nations and dispense to Subjects their natural obediences to their lawful Soveraigns which are Tenets few Roman Catholicks in the World do hold to the full and such as do it is pity should be suffered to breathe any Air in safety but that of S. John's de Lateran or the Vatican But not to leave the matter fully as I found it upon doubtful Suppositions whether they have any Authority or no to dispense with any sort of Vows whatsoever I will proceed to divide all sorts of Oaths in the World under these three several kinds First Oaths to declare ones assent or to strengthen ones duty in performance of such things as the Law imprinted in every rational Soul does require should however be done Secondly Oaths of Compact between Prince and Prince State and State or private person and private person c. Thirdly Voluntary Vows or Oaths to perform some Religious exercise or function c. Under these three Heads I conceive all Oaths that have ever seemed to need or require Dispensation do fall As from Oaths in Evidence those come not under our consideration Now in the first kind neither the Pope nor any Power that is or ever was visible on Earth could or can dispense for that implies an Authority to give leave to commit things malas in se and under this Head does clearly fall obedience of Subjects to their Princes Children to their Parents c. things that if there never had been Religion would have no sooner lost their respect but humane Nature would have lost its being
the point which commands the Oath was not so plain as the Law-makers by late passages seem to make it I say since many good Catholick Casuist Priests have writ in defence of the taking it in former times I will omit to press that further which to me appears plain resolving however if you shall send me your doubts of this or any other point discussed herein that I will readily answer them to the best of my skill being satisfied in my Conscience that I have said nothing herein scandalous to Catholick Religion it self nor to any one but such that make that the sheeps raiment for wolvish designs So Brother once again I desire you to take into your serious consideration what it is to lose a good Estate not for conscience but ignorance to make your self uncapable of doing service to your Prince when there may be occasion but above all what scandal you stamp on the Religion you profess if you obstinately and without reason shall persist in disobedience to every thing the Law appoints the Subjects of this Nation to do As for your expectation of assistance from the King it is one of the most unreasonable things examine it rightly that can enter into the heads of men whether you take it quadrate to his personal or rational Interest For alas to say the Catholicks of this Nation were all loyal or rather truly not disloyal to his Father and him is but to make a History of a very short Age. For all the World knows that it is as possible for Catholicks to be Rebels if it consists with their Interests as any other men for he that should deny this might as well affirm we had no such thing as Rebellions in England before Henry the Eighth's time which I suppose if he would consider how King Johns Charter of Priviledges was extorted from him he would by no means assert But alas let us say what we will on this side the Water our Brethren in Ireland we know too well led the dance to all the late mischiess except now I reflect on it they were out-posted by the Covenanters of Scotland But indeed it is a folly to expect that any Religion being once become an Art will refuse to have recourse to the Sword against being opprest and I am afraid it is much for want of numbers proportionable the best of them are quiet in such circumstances But however supposing the best that all Catholicks were loyal and that their Principles made them so is that an Argument sufficient to make the King provoke all his other Subjects to be otherways by his Indulgence to them who are not as one man to a hundred of the Nation Which is most reasonable that you dear Brother should strive as far as you can by the Rules of your Religion to comply with the Law for your own advantage or that the King should be forced to stop the course of it to his own prejudice to comply with your nice obstinacy meerly because he has your bare word that you will be very serviceable to him If another Rebellion shall on that account arise I am confident the case thus stated as certainly it does at present stand all rational men nay the Pope himself would conclude that the King in not medling but letting the Law and you tug for it is much in the right Nor could he himself were he a Subject of any Catholick Country expect more friendship or favour So for whose sake this happens to you is not material so it is and is like to be Therefore let me once again advise you go to Mass at seven to Church at nine and if Mr. Politick scruples giving you Absolution for your sins except you confess that for one send to me I 'le find you one shall venture his neck in the point to serve you for twenty pounds a year which you may easily save out of the two thousand that is demitia except you follow my counsel and deal with none but honest Catholick Priests not Roman Courtiers Men that aspire to be Provincials nay perhaps General of their Orders for their sturdy tricks in opposition to our Laws These things I have said are great truths that you will thank me for one day if you follow the advice if not you will repent your self when you shall be ashamed not to persist contrary to reason in what you so unreasonably began I could Brother have said much more to the Point which it may be I will add as I find you relish this till when I shall remain saying Paters and Aves for the opening of your understanding to your own good So farewel FINIS