purposing with my self that if I could be well I would go from thence to Heydelberg and spend this winter there But when I was gone from the Spa to Aquisgrane and so to Colein I found my self rather worse then better then I was before And therefore I resolved with my self that it was high time for me to settle my thoughts upon another world And seeing I was out of hope to enjoy the health of my body at the last to look to the health of my soule from whence both Art and experience teach me that all my bodily infirmities have their beginning For if I could by any study have proved Catholike Religion to be false or by any means have professed it to be true in England I doubt not but the contentment of my soule would have much helped the health of my body But the more I studied the Scriptures and most ancient Fathers to confute it the more I was compelled to see the truth thereof And the more I laboured to reconcile the Religion of England thereunto the more I was disliked suspected and condemned as a common enemy And if I would have been either ignorant or silent I might perhaps with the pleasures and commodities of my preferments have in time cast off the care of Religion But seeing my study forced me to know and my place compelled me to preach I had no way to avoid my grief nor any means to indure it I have therefore apprehended the opportunity of my Licence to travell that I may withdraw my self for a while from the sight and offence of those in England who hate Catholike Religion and freely and fully enioy the presence of our B. Saviour in the Unity of his Catholike Church wherein I will never forget at the daily Oblation of his most B. Body and Blood to lift up my heart unto him and to pray for the admission of your Majesty thereunto And in the meane time I have thought it my duty to write this short Treatise with my own hand wherein before I publish my self to the world I desire to shew to your Majesty these two things 1. The means of my conversion unto Catholike Religion 2. The hopes I have to do your Majesty no ill service therein I humbly crave your Majesties pardon and will rest ever Your Majesties faithfull and truly devoted Servant B. Carier Liege Decemb. 12. 1613. CHAP. I. The meanes of my Conversion to the Catholike Religion I Must confesse to Gods honour and my owne shame that if it had been in my power to choose I would never have been a Catholike I was born and brought up in Schisme and was taught to abhor a Papist as much as any Puritan in England doth I had ever a great desire to justifie the Religion of the State and had great hope to advance my self thereby Neither was my hope ever so great as by your Majesties favour it was at the very instant of my resolution for Catholike Religion and the preferment I had together with the honour of your Majesties service was greater by much then without your Majesties favour I look for in this world But though I was as ambitious of your Maiesties favour and as desirous of the honours and pleasures of my Countrey as any man that is therein yet seeing that I was not like any long while to injoy them and if I should for my private commodity speak or write or do any thing against the honour of Christ his Church and against the evidence of my owne conscience I must shortly appeare before the same Christ in the presence of the same his Church to give an account thereof Therfore I neither durst any further pursue my own desire of honour nor hazard my soule any farther in the justification of that Religion which I saw was impossible to be justified by any such reason as at the day of Judgement would go for payment and that it may appeare that I have not respected any thing so much in this world as my duty to your Majestie and my love to my friends and Countrey I humbly beseech your Majesty to give me leave as briefly as I can to recount unto you the whole course of my studies and indeavours in this kind even from the beginning of my life untill this present 2. I was born in the Year 1566. being the son of Ant. Carier a learned and devout man who although he were a Protestant and a Preacher yet he did so season me with the Principles of Piety and Devotion as I could not choose but ever since be very zealous in matters of Religion Of him I learned that all false Religions in the world were but Policies invented of men for the temporall service of Princes and States and therefore that they were divers and alwaies changeable according to the divers reasons and occasions of State But true Christian Religion was a truth revealed of God for the eternall salvation of soules and therefore was like to God alwaies one and the same So that all the Princes and States in the world never have been nor shall be able to overthrow that Religion This to me seemed an excellent ground for the finding out of that Religion wherein a man might find rest for his soule which cannot be satisfied with any thing but eternall truth 3. My next care then was after I came to years of discretion by all the best meanes I could to informe my selfe whether the Religion of England were indeed the very same which being prefigured and prophesied in the Old Testament was perfected by our B. Saviour and delivered to his Apostles and Disciples to continue by perpetuall succession in his visible Church untill his coming againe or whether it were a new one for private purposes of Statesmen invented and by humane Lawes established Of this I could not chuse but make some doubt because I heard men talk much in those dayes of the change of Religion which was then lately made in the beginning of Q. Elizabeths Reign 4. I was sorry to heare of change and of a new Religion seeing me thought in reason if true Religion were eternall then new Religion could not be true But yet I hoped that the Religion of England was not a change or new Religion but a restitution of the old and that the change was in the Church of Rome which in processe of time might perhaps grow to be superstitious and idolatrous and therefore that England had done well to leave the Church of Rome and to reform it self and for this purpose I did at my leisure and best oportunity as I came to more judgment read over the Chronicles of England and observed all the alterations of Religion that I could find therein But when I found there that the present Religion of England was a plain * What then is it now change and change upon change and that there was no cause at all of the first but onely that K. Henry 8. was desirous to change his
in the beginning and I remember M. Causabon told me when I brought him out of France that his Errand was nothing else but to mediate peace betwixt the Church of Rome and the Church of England Therefore I thought before I would submit my selfe to the Church of Rome I would write to M. Causabon such a Letter as hee might shew unto your Mdjesty containing such conditions as I thought might satisfie your Majesty if they were performed by the Church of Rome The copie of which Letter is too long here to set downe But when Mr. Causabon answered me that he knew your Majesty was resolved to have no society with the Church of Rome upon any condition whatsoever and that it would be my undoing if those my Letters should come to your Majesties hands or of those that bare the sway I began to despaire of my returne into England unlesse I would overthrow both the health of my body and the quiet of my mind and either utterly damne my own soule or greatly indanger not only my living and credit but my life it selfe also by reason of your Majesties displeasure and the severity of the Statutes made and in force against Catholikes and Catholike Religion 16. There is a Statute in England made by King Henry the 8. to make him supreme head of the Church in spirituall and Ecclesiasticall Causes which Statute injoynes all the Subjects of England on paine of death to believe and to sweare they do believe that it is true And yet all the world knowes if King Henry the 8. could have gotten the Pope to divorce Q. Katherine that he might marry Anne Boleigne that Statute had never been made by him and if that Title had not enabled the King to pull down Abbeyes and Religious Houses and give them to Lay-men the Lords and Commons of that time would never have suffered such a Statute to be made This Statute was continued by Q. Elizabeth to serve her own turne and it is confirmed by your Majesty to satisfie other men And yet your Majesty yeelds the Church of Rome to be the Mother Church and the Bishop of Rome to be the chiefe Bishop or Primate of all the Westerne Churches which I doe also verily believe and therefore I do verily thinke he hath or ought to have some spirituall Jurisdiction in England And although in my younger daies the fashion of the world made me swear as other men did for which I pray God forgive me yet I ever doubted and am now resolved that no Christian man can take that * .i. Of Supremacy Oath with a safe conscience neither will I ever take it to gaine the greatest preferment in the world 17. There is another Statute in England made by Q. Elizabeth and confirmed by your Majesty which makes it death for any Englishman to be in England being made a Priest by authority derived or pretended to be derived from the Bishop of Rome I cannot believe that I am a Priest at all unlesse I be made by authority derived from Gregory the great from whence all the Bishops in England have their being if they have any being at all 18. There is another Statute in like manner made and confirmed that it is death to be reconciled by a Catholike Priest to the Church of Rome I am perswaded that the Church of Rome is our Mother Church and that no man in England can be saved that continues wilfully out of the visible unity of that Church and therefore I cannot chuse but perswade the people to be reconciled thereunto if possibly they can 19. There is another Statute in like manner made and confirmed that it is death to exhort the people of England to Catholike Romane Religion I am perswaded that the Religion prescribed and practised by the Church of Rome is the true Catholike Religion which I will particularly justifie and make plaine from point to point if God give time and oportunity and therefore I cannot chuse but perswade the people thereunto It may be these are not all severall Statutes some of them may be members of the same for I have not my bookes about me to search but I am sure all of them do make such felonies and treasons as were the greatest vertues of the Primitive Church and such as I must needs confesse my selfe I cannot chuse if I live in England but indeavour to be guilty of and then it were easie to find Puritanes enough to make a Jury against me and there would not want a Justice of Peace to give a sentence and when they had done that which is worse then the persecution it selfe they would all sweare solemnly that Doctor Carier was not put to death for Catholike Religion but for Felony and Treason I have no hope of protection against the cruelty of those Lawes if your Majesty be resolved upon no conditions whatsoever to have any society at all or communion with the Church of Rome And therefore whilst the case so stands I dare not returne home againe But I cannot be altogether out of hope of better newes before I die as long as I do believe that the Saints in heaven do rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner to Christ and do know that your Majesty by your birth hath so great an interest in the Saints of heaven as you shall never cease to have untill you cease to be the son of such a mother as would rejoyce more then all the rest for your conversion Wherefore I assure my selfe that she with all the rest doe pray that your Majesty before you die may be Militant in the Communion of that Church wherein they are Triumphant And in this hope I am gone before to joyne my prayers with theirs in the unity of the Catholike Church And do humbly pray your Majesty to pardon me for doing that which was not in my power to avoid and to give me leave to live where I hope shortly to die unlesse I may hope to do your Majesty service and without the prejudice of any honest man in England to see some unity betwixt the Church of England and her mother the Church of Rome And now having declared the meanes of my conversion to Catholike Religion I will briefly also shew unto you the hopes I have to do your Majesty no ill service therein CHAP. II. The hopes I have to doe your Majestie no ill service in being Catholike MY first hope that your Majesty will accept of that for the best service I can do you which doth most further the glory of our Blessed Saviour and my own salvation Indeed there are Kingdomes in the world where the chiefe care of the Governor is Non quà m bonis sed quà m subditis regnent such were the heathen Kingdoms which S. Augustine describes in his 2. de Civit. Dei cap. 20. In such Common-wealths the way to be good Subjects is not to be good men but to serve the times and the turns of them that beare the sway
of their two Sacraments They had decencies in their Burialls They had severall practises outwardly religious and in brief they had so many Reliques of the old Christianity of their Countrey as did manifestly distinguish them from Jews Turks and other more prophane people All which as they were plausible stayes to with-hold men in the Protestant Religion and not to thinke on any other especially if they were born and bred in Protestancy so made they any mans conversion to Catholike Religion in those daies more remarkable more wondered at and more subject to the question what moved him to forsake the Protestant Withall D. Cariers favour with his Prince together with his great learning and good parts making him capable of the chiefest spirituall dignities and promotions in the Kingdome might well move many to take notice of his conversion and wonder he should change both his present possessions pregnant hopes of more for the poor contemptible being of an exiled Papist perhaps scanted in necessaries to live and breath But now to use the Prophet Jeremies words in his Threnes c. 4. v. 1. cap. 2. v. 2. though in a different sense Obscuratum est aurum mutatus est color optimus dispersi sunt lapides Sanctuarii in capite omnium platearum what seemed gold among the Protestants is now altogether darkned and cast off as drosse the most specious of their fair colours is faded an argument it was of no long lasting complexion the seeming corner stones of their seeming Sanctuary are dispersed in the head of all the streets The sworne supreme head of their Church though gray aged and well deserved of them is made his vassalls subject their ward their captive scarce allowed to keep his own head on his shoulders and whilst it is on is little lesse then basely foot-balled by the miscreants of his owne Subjects Their Bishops once the corner-stones of the English Sanctuary or Reformation are even levelled to the flock by their owne Disciplinated sheep yea I may say facti sunt opprobrium vicinis subsannatio illusio his qui in circuitu sunt they are truly become a reproach to their neighbours a scorne and mock to all about them The Reformation now thought best for England can subsist they say as well without Bishops as their neighbour Churches Their old Ordination of Ministers and as old as it is onely invented in King Edward the sixths daies is already laid to the wall this present Parliament hath found a newer way to supply the Bishops Office there is no pretence to Mission derived by any order from the Apostles all claime an equall right to the Pulpit Tinkers Weavers Taylors Fidlers Souldiers nor do any faile of novell-hunting auditors some of the old Protestant Preachers silenced by the Parliament others fallen to silence of themselves as not knowing what to preach to day for fear they be driven to contradict it in the next Sermon or to fight for their Pulpit others preach according to the times though against their owne consciences to save their livings And good God! what non-sense ignorances seditious rebellious Doctrines yea Blasphemies do the Tubs and Pulpits ring with whilst they are knocks and belaboured by those new Mountebank Predicants or Praters who decry and contemn the Lords Prayer the Apostles Creed and ten Commandements as rags and reliques of Popery and Superstition Their Liturgie which began in the nonageraign of Edw. the 6. and after some years interruption got stronger footing by an Act of Parliament in Q. Elizabeths daies and so was become almost of fourscore years prescription half as old as one of our Grandfathers is decryed antiquated by the present Parliament contemned by the people and succeeded by a new thing called a Directory of 4. or 5. yeares unquiet standing which begins already to lose credit with its first accepters though as yet the stronger Faction not without frequent scuffles and blood-shed keeps it perforce in many Churches and what is kept in perforce it neither likely to breed devotion unlesse it be of the new garb nor to be of long durance if the old Proverb faile not Nihil violentum diuturnum Their former marke of thirty nine Articles is little regarded if not quite out of date yea which is worse the Apostles Creed the perpetuall marke or symbol of a Christian is questioned and hath stood these six or seven yeares subjected to the disquisition of the Parliaments subpedancan Divines without determination as yet whether it be to be imbraced all and intirely for truth or only part Concerning the solemnities of their Sacraments I need not tell you into what omission and confusion they are fallen about their Lords Supper some Churches having had no Communion at all these six or seven years some using it after the old fashion others after the new some receive it kneeling some standing some sitting none of the new-modell'd Ministers some of the old did others derided it claiming more power to consecrate then the Layicks of the Parliament can give them which they know to be no more then the Bakers that sell them bread can sell with it As for their Sacrament of Baptisme besides their novelty in the manner and circumstances it is certaine they are defective in some places even in the essentialls I meane in the words of Institution and application of water some saying instead of I baptize thee in the Name of the Father c. We take thee into the Congregation of the faithfull Whether all apply the water either at all or rightly is more then my distance out of the Countrey permits me to learne but not more then I have reason to doubt of And where any of the essentialls are wanting there certainely the child is not baptized but left as he was borne a child of perdition by the state of originall sin The Burialls now among the Reformed in England are in a manner prophane in many places the dead being throwne into the ground like dogs and not a word said nor have they willingly more differences of daies by holy or fast in memory of Christian mysteries then Turks and Infidells nor finally is there any thing almost out of the Catholikes hands left in the Countrey that can perswade a travelling stranger to think England to be rather Christian then Turkish excepting the outward shape of Churches which of the charges to alter them be not a Remora may be also reformed ere long To these metamorphosies or changes of late inventions into the present of a little fresher coine adde the confounded Chaos we see now in matters of Religion throughout the Kingdome God Almighty permitting the monster of Reformation to reveale its owne turpitude and to betray its selfe by its cloven feet of Sects and Divisions to be what indeed it is that men might more easily discern it to beat it down and detest it Luther himselfe at the first and afterwards his followers of whatsoever Reformation were mightily tormented with those questions
old Bed-fellow that he might leave some heires male behind him for belike hee feared that Females would not be able to withstand the tile of Scotland and that the change was continued and increased by the posterity of his later wives I could not choose but suspect somthing but yet the love of the world and hope of preferment would not suffer me to believe but that all was well and as it ought to be 5. Thus I satisfied my self at School and studied the Arts and Phylosophy and other humane learning untill being Master of Arts and Fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in Cambridge I was at the last by the Statutes of that House called to the studie of Divinity and bound to take upon me the order of Priesthood then I thought it my duty for the better satisfaction of my owne soule and the saving of other mens to look as farre into the matter as possible I could that I might find out the truth And having the oportunity of a very good Library in that Colledge I resolved with my selfe to study hard setting aside all respect of men then alive or of Writers that had moved or mainteined controversies farther then to understand the question which was betwixt them I fell to my prayers and be took my selfe wholly to the reading of the Church History and of the Ancient Fathers which had no interest in either side and especially I made choice of S. Augustine because I hoped to find most comfort in him for the confirming of our Religion and the confuting of the Church of Rome 6. In this sort I spent my time continually for many yeares and noted downe whatsoever I could gather or rather snatch either from the Scriptures or the Fathers to serve my turne But when after all my paines and desire to serve my selfe of Antiquity I found the Doctrine of the Church of Rome to be every where confirmed and by most profound demonstrations out of holy Scripture made most agreeable to the truth of Christs Gospel and most conformable to all Christians soules and saw the current opinions of our great Preachers to be every where confuted either in plaine termes or by most unanswerable consequence although my understanding was thereby greatly edified for which I had great cause to render immortall thanks to our Blessed Saviour who by these meanes had vouchsafed to shew himselfe unto me yet my heart was much grieved that I must be faine either not preach at all or else to crosse and varie from the Doctrine which I saw was commonly received 7. Being thus perplexed with my self what course I were best to take I reflected back againe upon the Church of England and because most of those Preachers who drew the people after them in those daies were Puritans and had grounded their Divinity upon Calvins Institutions I thought peradventure that they having gotten the multitude on their side might wrong the Church of England in her Doctrine as well as they desired to doe in her Discipline which indeed upon due search I found to be most true For I found the Common-Prayer Booke and the Catechismes therein contained to hold no point of Doctrine expresly contrary to Antiquity but only that it was very defective and contained not enough And that for the Doctrine of Predestination Sacraments Grace Free-will Sin c. the new Catechismes and Sermons of those Preachers did run wholly against the Common-Prayer Book and Catechismes therein and did make as little account of the Doctrine established by Law as they did of the Discipline but in the one they found opposition by those that had private Interest in the other they laid what they list because no man thought himselfe hurt 8. This truely was a great increase of my griefe for knowing divers of those Preachers to be very honest men and such as I did love with all my heart I was exceeding loath to discent from them in private much more loath to oppose them in publike And yet seeing I must needs preach I was loathest of all to oppugne my own conscience together with the faith wherein I was baptized and the soules of those to whom I preached Neverthelesse having gotten this ground to worke upon I began to comfort my selfe with hope to prove that the Religion established by Law in England was the same at the least in part which now was and ever had been held in the Catholike Church the defects whereof might be supplied whensoever it should please God to move your Maiesty thereunto without abrogating of that which was already by Law established which I still pray for and am not altogether out of hope to see and therefore I thought it my duty as far as I durst rather by charitable constructions to reconcile things that seemed different that so our soules might for ever be saved in unity then by malicious calumniations to maintaine quarrells that so mens turnes might for a time be served in dissention 9. In this course although I did never proceed any further then Law would give me leave yet I alwaies found the Puritanes and Calvinists and all the Creatures of Schisme to be my utter enemies who were also like the Sonnes of Zerviah too strong for David himselfe but I well perceived that all temperate and understanding men who had no Interest in the Schisme were glad to hear the truth honestly and plainely preached unto them And my hope was that by patience and continuance I should in the end unmaske Hypocrisie and gaine credit to the comfortable Doctrine of Antiquity even amongst those also who out of misinformation and prejudice did as yet most dislike it And considering with my selfe that your Right to the Crowne came only from Catholikes and was ancienter then the Schisme which would very faine have utterly extinguished it and that both your disposition by nature your amity with Catholike Princes your Speeches and your Proclamations did at the beginning all tend to peace and unity I hoped that this endeavour of mine to inforce Catholike Religion at the least as far as the Common Prayer Booke and Catechisme would give me leave should be well accepted of your Majesty and be as an Introduction unto farther peace and unity with the Church of Rome 10. But when after my long hope I at at the last did plainely perceive that God for our sins had suffered the Devill the Author of dissention so far to prevaile as partly by the furious practise of some desperate Catholikes and partly by the fiery suggestions of all violent Puritans he had quite diverted that peaceable and temperate course which was hoped for and that I must now either alter my judgement which was impossible or preach against my conscience which was untolerable Lord what anxiety and distraction of soule did I suffer day and night what strife betwixt my judgement which was wholly for the peace and unity of the Church and my affection which was wholly to injoy the favour of your Majesty
and the love of my Friends and Countrey This griefe of soule growing now desperate did still more and more increase the infirmities of my body and yet I was so loath to become a professed Catholike with the displeasure of your Majesty and of all my honourable and loving friends as I rather desired to silence my judgement with the profits and pleasures of the world which was before me then to satisfie it with reconciling my selfe unto the Catholike Church But it was Gods will that ever as I was about to forget the care of Religion and to settle my selfe to the world among my neighbours I met with such humors as I saw by their violence against Catholikes and Catholike Religion were like to waken my soule by torture rather then bring it asleep by temper And therefore I was driven to recoile to God and to his Church that I might find rest unto my soule 11. And yet because I had heard often that the practise of the Church of Rome was contrary to her Doctrine I thought good to make one triall more before I resolved and therefore having the advice of diverse learned Physitians to goe to the Spa for the health of my body I thought good to make a vertue of necessity and to get leave to go the rather for the satisfaction of my soule hoping to find some greater offence in the Service of the Church of Rome then I had done in her Bookes that so I might returne better contented to persecute and abhorre the Catholikes at home after I should find them so wicked and Idolatrous abroad as they were in every Pulpit in England affirmed to be For this purpose before I would frequent their Churches I talked with such learned men as I could meet withall and did of purpose dispute against them and with all the wit and learning I had I did both justifie the Doctrine of England established by Law and object the Superstition and Idolatry which I thought they might commit either with the Images in the Church or with the Sacrament of the Altar 12. Their common answer was that which by experience I now find to be true viz. that they doe abhorre all Idolatry and Superstition and do diligently admonish the people to take heed thereof And that they use Images for no other purpose but only for a devout memory and representation of the Church Triumphant which is most sit to be made in the time and place of prayer where after a more speciall manner we should with all reverence have our conversation amongst the Saints in Heaven And for the B. Sacrament they do not worship the Accidents which they see but the substance which they believe and surely if Christ be there truly and really present as your Majesty seems to grant he is he is as much to be worshipped as if we saw him with our bodily eyes Neither is there any more Idolatry in the one then in the other If our B. Saviour himself should visibly appeare in person as he was upon the earth Jewes and Infidells would hold it for Idolatry to worship him and would crucifie him again and so would all Heretikes also who refuse to worship him in the Sacrament where he is really present 13. After divers other objections which I made not so much because I was not as because I desired not to be satisfied I came to the Popes supposed pride and tyranny over Kings and Princes and told them of the most horrible Treason intended and practised by Catholikes against your Majesty which hath not yet been judicially condemned by the Church of Rome They all seemed to abhor the fact as much as the best Subjects in the world and much more to favor and defend the authority of their Kings and Witnesse their loyalty to the King in these late warres Princes then Hereticks do And they said that although your Majesty were out of the Church yet they doubted not but if complaint were made in a Judiciall proceeding that fact should be judicially condemned In the mean time it was sufficient that all Catholike Writers did condemne it and that the Pope by his Breve had condemned it exhorting the Cathelikes of England to all Christian patience and obedience As for any other authority or superiority of the Pope then such as is spirituall and necessary for the unity of the Church I have met with none that doe stand upon it 14. So that whereas my hope was that by finding out the corruptions of the Church of Rome I should grow farther in love with the Church of England and joyfully return home and by inveighing against the Papists both enjoy my present preferments and obtaine more and more I saw the matter was like to fall out cleane contrary It is true indeed that there are many corruptions in all States God hath no wheat-field in this world wherein the Devill hath not tares growing and there are no tares more rank then those that grow among the wheat For optimi corruptio pessima and where grace abounds if it be contemned there sin abounds much more But seeing both my reading and experience hath now taught me that the truth of Christian Religion now taught and practised at this day in the Church of Rome and all the obedient Members thereof is the very same in substance which was prefigured and prophesied from the beginning of the world perfected by Christ himself delivered to his Apostles and by them and their Successors perpetually and universally in one uniformity practiced untill this day without any substantiall alteration And that the new Religion of England wherein it doth differ hath no ground but either the pleasure of the Prince and Parliament or the common cry and voice of the People nor no constancy or agreement with it selfe what should I now do It is not in my power not to know that which I do know nor to doubt of that which I have spent so much time and taken so much paines and bestowed so much cost and made so many trialls to find And yet I know if I should yeeld to be reconciled to the Church I should be for this world in all likelihood utterly undone and that which grieved me more I should be rejected of your Majesty my most redoubted Lord and Master and despised by all my deare friends and lovers in England 15. These were in my thoughts at the Spa which did so vex and afflict my soule as that the waters could do my body no good at all but rather much hurt Neverthelesse I avoided the company of Catholikes abstained from the Church and did both dispute and write against the Church of Rome as occasion was offered I still hoped that time would give me better counsell and therefore resolved to go from the Spa to Heidelberg to do my duty there In the meane time I thought with my self it may be God hath moved His Majesties heart to think of peace and reconciliation I know his disposition was so
whatsoever they are But if it be true as some holy learned Fathers teach that in a well-ordered Government there is cadem faelicitas unius hominis ac totius civitaiis then I am sure that it must follow that in a Common-wealth truly Christian there is eadem virtus boni viri ac boni Civis And therefore being a Minister and Preacher of England if I will rather serve your Majesty then my self and rather procure the good of your Kingdome then my own preferment I am bound in duty to respect and seek for those things above all other that may advance the honour of God and the salvation of my own soule and the soules of those who do any way belong to my charge and being sufficiently resolved that nothing can more advance the honour of our Saviour and the common salvation then to be in the unity of his Church I have done you the best service I could at home by preaching peace and reconciliation and being not able for the malice of the times to stand any longer in the breach at home I think it safest in this last cast to look to mine own game and by my daily Prayers and dying to doe your Majestie the same service in the unity of the Church which by my daily preaching and living I did indeavour to do in the midst of the Schisme 2. And though it be sufficient for a man of my profession to respect only matters of heaven and of another world yet because this world was made for that other I have not regarded my owne estate that I might respect your Majesties therein and after long and serious meditation which Religion might most honour your Majesty even in this world I have conceived undoubted hope that there is no other Religion that can procure true honour and security to your Majesty and your Posterity in this world but the true Catholike Romane Religion which is the very same whereby all your glorious Predecessors have been advanced and protected on earth and are everlastingly blessed in heaven 3. The first reason of my hope is the promise of God himselfe to blesse and honour those that blesse his Church and honour him and to * No question but this will come home in the end to the Church-Prophaners of our times curse and confound those that curse his Church and dishonour him which he hath made good in all ages There was never any Man or City or State or Empire so preserved and advanced as they that have preserved the unity and advanced the prosperity of the Church of Christ nor ever any been made more miserable and inglorious then they that have dishonoured Christ and made havock of his Church by Schism and Heresie 4. If I had leisure and bookes it were easie for me to inlarge this point with a long inumeration of particulars But I think it needlesse because I cannot call to mind any example to the contrary except it be the State of Q. Elizabeth or some one or two other lately fallen from the unity of the Catholike Church or the State of the great Turk that doth still persecute the Church of Christ and yet continues in great glory in this world But when I consider of Q. Elizabeth I find in her many singularities she was a woman and a Maiden Queen which gave her manie advantages of admiration she was the last of her race and needed not care what became of the world after her owne daies were ended She came upon the Remainders of Devotion and Catholike Religion which like a Bowle in his course or an Arrow in his flight would go on for a while by the force of the first mover and she had a practise of maintaining warres among her neighbours which became a woman well that she might be quiet at home And whatsoever prosperity or honour there was in her daies or is yet remaining in England I cannot but ascribe to the Church of Rome and to Catholike Religion which was for many hundred yeares together the first mover of that Government and is still in every setled Kingdome and hath yet left the steps and shadow thereof behind it which in all likelihood cannot continue many yeares without a new supply from the fountain 5. As for the honor and greatnesse of the Turke and other Infidells as it reacheth no farther then this life so it hath no beginning from above this world and if we In Luc. 4. alibi may believe S. Ambrose those honors are conferred rather by Gods permission then by his donation being indeed ordained and ordered by his providence but for the sins of the people conferred by the Prince that rules in the ayre It is true the Turkish Empire hath now continued a long time but they have other principles of State to stand upon The continuall Guard of 100000. Souldiers whereof most of them know no parents but the Emperor The Tenure of all his Subjects who hold all in capite ad voluntatem Domini by the service of the sword their injoyned silence and reverence in matters of Religion and their facility in admitting other Religions as well as their owne to the hope of salvation and to tolerate them so that they be good Subjects These and such like are principles of great importance to increase an Empire and to maintaine a Temporall State But there is no State in Christendome that may indure these principles unlesse they meane to turne Turks also which although some be willing to do yet they will neither hold in Capite nor hold their peace in Religion nor suffer their King to have such a guard about him nor admit of Catholike Religion so much as the Turk doth 6. It is most true which I gladly write and am ready with all the honour I can of your Majesty to speak that I thinke there was never any Catholike King in England that did in his time more imbrace and favour the true bodie of the Church of England then your Majesty doth that shadow thereof which is yet left and my firm hope is that this your desire to honour our Blessed Saviour in the shadow of the Church of England will move him to honour your Majesty so much as not to suffer you to die out of the body of his true Catholike Church and in the mean time to let you understand that all honour that is intended to him by Schisme Heresie doth redound to his great dishonour both in respect of his Reall and of his Mysticall Body 7. For his Reall Bodie it is not as the Ubiquitaries would have it every where as well without the Church as within but only where himselfe would have it and hath ordained that it should be and that is onely amongst his Apostles and Disciples and their Successors in the Catholike Church to whom he delivered his Sacraments and promised to continue with them untill the worlds end So that though Christ be present in that Schisme by the power of
his Deity for so he is present in hell also yet by the grace of his humanity by participation of which grace onely there is hope of salvation he is not present there at all except it be in corners and prisons and places of persecution And therefore whatsoever honour is pretended to be done to Christ in Schisme and Heresie is not done to him but to his utter enemies 8. And for his mysticall Body which is his Church and Kingdome there can be no greater diâ—honor done to Christ then to maintain schisme and dissention therein What would your Majesty think of any Subjects of yours that should go about to raise civill dissention or warres in your Kingdome and of those that should fâ—ster and adhere unto such men It is the fashion of all Rebells when they are in Armes to * You know who have done so of late pretend the safety of the King and the good of the Countrey but pretend what they will you cannot account such men any better then Traytors And shall we beleeve that our B. Saviour the King of Kings doth sit in heaven and either not see the practises of those that under colour of serving him with Reformation do nothing else but serve their owne turnes and distract his Church that is his Kingdome on earth with sedition Or shall we think that he will not in time revenge his wrong Verily he sees it and doth regard it and will in time revenge it 9. But I hope and pray that he may not revenge it upon you nor yours but rather that he will shew that your desire to honour him is accepted of him and therefore will move you to honour your selfe and your posterity with bestowing the same your favour upon his Church in the unity thereof which you do now bestow in the Schisme and that he will reward both you and yours for the same according to his promise not only with everlasting glory in heaven but also with long continued temporall honour and security in this world And this is the first reason of my hope grounded upon the promise of God The second Reason of my hope that Catholike Religion may be a great meanes of honour and security to your Majesties posterity is taken from the consideration of your neighbours the Kings and Princes of Christendome among whom there is no State ancient and truly honourable but only those that are Catholike The reason whereof I take to be because the Rules of Catholike Religion are eternall universall and constant unto themselves and withall so consonant unto Majestie and greatnesse as they have made and preserved the Catholike Church most reverent and venerable throughout the world for these 1600. yeares and those Temporall States that have been conformable thereunto have been alwaies most honourable and so are like to continue untill they hearken unto Schisme And as for those that have rejected and opposed the Rules of Catholike Religion they have been driven in short time to degenerate and become either tyrannicall or popular your Majestie I know doth abhor Tyranny but if Schisme and Heresie might have their full swing cover the Seas the very shadow and Reliques of Majesty in England should be utterly * God grant this prove not too true defaced and turned into Helvetian or Belgian popularity For they that make no conscience to prophane the Majesty of God and his Saints in the Church will after they feel their strength make no bones to violate the Majesty of the King and his Children in the Common-wealth 10. I know well that the Puritanes of England the Huguenots of France and the Gueses of Germany together with the rest of the Calvinists of all sorts are a great faction of Christendome and they are glad to have the pretence of so great a Majesty to be their chief and of your posterity to be their hope but I cannot be perswaded that they ever will or can joyne together to advance your Majesty or your Children farther then they may make a present gaine by you They are * One may sweare it not agreed of their own Religion nor of the principles of Universall and Eternall Truth and how can they be constant in the rules of particular and transitory honor where there is Nullum Principium ordinis there can be Nullum Principium honoris such is their case there is a voice of Confusion among them as well in matters of State as of Religion Their power is great but not to edification but destruction They joyne together only against good order which they call the Common Enemy and if they can destroy that they will in all likelihood turn their fury against themselves and like Devills torment like Serpents devoure one another In the meane time if they can make their Burgers Princes and turn old Kingdomes into new States it is like enough they will do it but that they will ever agree together to make any one Prince King or Emperour over them all and yeeld due obedience unto him further then either their gaine shall allure them or his Sword shall compell them that I cannot perswade my selfe to believe And therefore I cannot hope that your Majesty or your posterity can expect the like honour or security from them which you might do from Catholike Princes if you were joyned firmly to them in the unity of Religion 12. The third reason of my hope that Catholike Religion should be most available for the honour and security of your Majesty and your children is taken from the consideration of your Subjects which can be kept in obedience to God and to their King by no other Religion and least of all by the Calvinists for if their principles be received once and well drunk in and digested by your Subjects they will openly maintaine that God hath as well predestinated men to be * Is not this now openly professed by those who would have the King called to an account c. Traytors as to be Kings and he hath as well predestinated men to be Theeves as to be Judges and he hath as well predestinated that men should sin as that Christ should die for sin which kind of disputations I know by my experience in the Countrey are ordinary among your Countrey Calvinists that take themselves to be learned in the Scriptures especially when they are met in the Ale-house and have found a weaker brother whom they think sit to be instructed in the profound mysteries And howsoever they be not yet all so impudent as to hold these conclusions in plain termes yet it is certain they all hold these principles of Doctrine from whence working heads of greater liberty do at their pleasures draw these consequences in their lives and practises And is * It now appears it is not this a Religion sit to keep Subjects in obedience to their Soveraigns 13. Here I know the great Masters of Schisme will never leave objecting the horrible treason of certaine Catholikes against your
thing to think upon such exhortations and all one as if a phantasticall fellow finding a herd of young Cattell in a close should first break downe the hedges and then cry loud to the Cattell not to venture to go out nor to seek any fatter pasture for fear they be put into the pound and if they chance to feed where they are because they have no experience of other and to tarry in the Close for an houre or two then the unhappy fellow should run to the owner of the Cattell and tell him what great service he had done him and how he had kept his Cattell in the Close by his goodly charmes and exhortations Let them say what they list of their own honesty and of their exhortations to obedience as long as they do freely infect the peoples soules with such false opinions in Religion they do certainly sow the seeds of disobedience and Rebellion in mens understandings which if they be not prevented by your Majesties giving way to Catholike Religion will in all likelihood spring up in the K. Charles feels the sad effects of this predictioÌ„ next generation to the great prejudice and molestation of your Majesty and your posterity So that whether I doe respect heaven or earth my own soule or the service of your Majesty God or your Neighbours or your Subjects my assured hope is that by joyning my selfe to the Catholike Church I neither have done nor ever shall do any ill duty or service unto your Majesty 18. But perhaps there is such opposition both in matter of Doctrine and in matter of State as it is unpossible that ever there should be any reconcilation at all betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome of which I humbly pray your Majesty to give me leave to shew you what I have observed 19. It is true the breach hath continued now these many yeares and it is much increased by so long continuance so that it was never greater then it seems to be at this day nor ever more dangerous to deal withall For if a man do but go about to stop it there ariseth presently a great and fearfull noise and roaring of the waters against him but yet neverthelesse the greatnesse of the noise ought not to discourage us but rather to give us hope that although it be wide yet it is but shallow and not far from the bottome as proceeding from affection which is sudden and violent and not from judgement which is quiet constant and alwaies like it self for if a man ask in cold blood whether a Romane Catholike may be saved the most learned Church-man will not deny it And if a man aske whether a Romane Catholike may be a good Subject the most wise States-man will easily grant it May we be both saved then we are not divided in God May we be both good Subjects then we are not divided in the King What reason is there then that we should be thus hotly and unplacably divided 20. Truly there is no reason at all but only the violence of affection which being in a course cannot without some force be staied The multitude doth seldome or never judge according to truth but according to customes and therefore having of purpose been bred and brought up in the hatred of Spaniards and Papists cannot chuse but think they are bound to hate them still and that whosoever speaks a word in favour of the Church of Rome or of Catholike Religion is their utter enemy And the Puritannicall Preacher who can have no being in charity doth never cease by falsifications and slanders to blow the coales that he may burn them and warm himselfe But if your Majesty shall ever bee pleased to command those make bates to hold their peace a while and to say nothing but what they are able to prove by sufficient authority before those who are able to judge and in the mean time to admit a conference of learned and moderate men on either side the people who are now abused and with the light of the Gospell held in extreme ignorance are not yet so uncapable but they will be glad to heare of the truth when it shall be simply and evidently delivered by honest men and then they will plainly see that their Light of the Gospell which they so much talk of is but a counterfeit light in a Theeves lantern whereby honest mens eyes are dazzled and their Purses robbed And it will also appear that there is not indeed any such irreconcileable opposition betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome as they that live by the Schisme do make the world believe there is neither in matter of Doctrine nor matter of State 21. For matter of Doctrine there is no reason that your Majesty or the Kingdome should be molested or burdened for the maintenance of Calvinisme which is as much * Indeed a true Protestant and a Papist are now almost equally odious against the Religion of England as it is against the Religion of Rome and will by necessary consequence overthrow not only the Catholike Church the Communion of Saints and the forgivenesse of sinnes but also all the Articles of the Creed saving only so much as the Turk himselfe will be content to believe which will be easie to prove upon better leisure The Doctrine of England is that which is contained in the Common Prayer Book and Church Catechisme confirmed by Act of Parliament and by your Majesties Edict wherein all English men are Baptized and ought to be confirmed and therefore there is some reason that this should be stood upon But this Doctrine in most of the main points thereof as hath been touched before and requireth a just treatise to set down in particular doth much differ from the current opinions and Catechismes of Calvinisme or doth very neer agree with or at least not contradict the Church of Rome if we list with patience to hear one another And those points of Doctrine wherein we are made to be at warrs with the Church of Rome whether we will or not do rather argue the Corruptions of that state from whence they come then are argued by the grounds of that Religion whereupon they stand and the contradiction of Doctrine hath followed the alteraâ—ion of State and not the alteration of State been grounded upon any truth of Doctrine 22. For when the breach was resolved upon for the personall and particular ease of King Henry the eight and the Children of his later Wives it was necessary to give every part of the Common-wealth contentment for which they might hold out in the heat of affection and study to maintain the breach otherwise it was likely that in the clearnesse of Judgement it would quickly have grown together again and then the Authors thereof must have been excluded and given account of their practise 23. Therefore to the Lords and * In like manner the Members of Parliament and their Adherents have
children whom I am so far from condemning and disliking as that I do account my selfe one of them and I desire nothing more in this world then in the toleration of Catholike Religion to live die among them And therefore I have had so great care in this point as before I did submit my self to the Catholike Church I received assurance from some of the greatest that if your Majesty would admit the Ancient subordination of the Church of Canterbury unto that Mother Church by whose authority all other Churches in England at the first were and still are subordinate unto Canterbury and the free use of that Sacrament for which especially all the Churches in Christendome were first founded the Pope for his part would confirme the Interest of all those that have present possession in any Ecclesiasticall living in England And would also permit the free use of the Common Prayer Book in English for Morning and Evening Prayer with very little or no alteration And for the contentment and security of your Majesty he would give you not only any satisfaction but all the honor that with the unity of the Church and the safety of Catholike Religion may be required which seemed to me so reasonable as being before satisfied of the truth of Catholike Religion I could ask no more So that I am verely perswaded that by yeilding to that truth which I could not deny I have neither neglected my duty and service to your Majesty and your Children nor my respect and honor to your Lords and Commons nor my love and kindnesse to my honest friends and brethren of the Clergy but rather that my Example and my Prayers shall do good unto all 47. But that which I must trust to when all the rest will faile me is the service of God and saving of my soule in the unity of that Church which was founded by Christ himselfe and shall continue untill his coming againe wherein all the Saints of God have served him on earth and do enjoy him in heaven without which Holy Catholike Church there is no Communion of Saints no forgivenesse of sinnes no hope of Resurection unto life everlasting I beseech your Majesty let not Calvins Ecclesia Praedestinatorum deceive you it may serve a Turk as well as a Christian it hath no faith but opinion no hope but presumption no Charity but lust no faith but a fancie no God but an Idoll For Deus est omnibus Religionibus commune Nomen All Religions in the world begin their Creed with I believe in God But homini extra Ecclesiant Religio sua est cultus phantasmatum suorum and error suus est Deus suus as S. Augustine affirmeth Epist. 64. 48. I have more things to write but the hast of answering your Majesties Commandement signified to me by Sir Thomas Lake his Letters hath made me commit many faults in writing this very suddenly for which I crave pardon and cut off the rest But for my returning into England I can answer no otherwise but thus I have sent you my soule in this Treatise and if it may find entertainment and passage my body shall most gladly follow after And if not I pray God I send my soule to heaven and my body to the grave assoon as may be In the mean time I will rejoyce in nothing but only in the Crosse of Christ which is the glory of your Crown And therefore I will triumph therein not as being gone from you to your adversary but as being gone before you to your Mother where I desire and hope for ever to continue Your Majesties true Servant and Beadsman B. CARIER Liege Decemb. 12. Anno 1613. Multum incola fuit anima mea Cum his qui oderunt pacem eram pacificus Cum loqucbar illis impuguabant me gratis FINIS