not the most antient § With all wise and sober-minded persons Custome and Usage obtaineth that reverence and esteem as to yield a just ground for deliberation before it be altered or abrogated though not of absolute direction and adherency All Constitutions and ordinances concern the Church or State be they never so pure in their first institution may corrupt and degenerate and why the Civil State should be purged and reformed by new Laws devising remedies as fast as times breed and discover inconveniences and mischiefs And the Ecclesiastical State of this or that Kingdom should still continue on its lees or dreggs without refining or purifying by new Canons and Constitutions is beyond the comprehension of all sober minds and reason H. Grotius makes this observation on the 2 Kings 18.14 He removed the High places and brake the Images cut down the Groves and brake in pieces the Brazen Serpent that Moses had made Nota quem secerat Moses Egregium Regibus documentum ut quamvis bene instituta sed non necessaria ubi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 male usurpanturè conspectu tollant ne parant offendiculum caecis This H. Grotius notes as an excellent document for Kings that things never so well never so lawfully instituted as the Brazen Serpent was by Moses himself if not necessary and grow to be abused ought to be taken away as King Hezekiah did the Serpent least they prove a Snare and an offence unto the weaker Brethren Moreover if an absolute necessity be laid upon all men to subscribe and conform to the present established Religion and Worship by the very self same reason the next year he may be obliged to subscribe and conform to the contrary and so unto all Religions in the world successively § As a perverse and a morose retaining of Customes and Usages may be as prejudicial to right Reformation as Innovations so to remove Abuses nay Customs or Rights that may be spared without prejudice unto true Worship and the Doctrine of Faith doth not impeach good Orders nor lawful Authority but ratify and establish them Gods Church is compared to a Vineyard and a good Husband who is ever pruning therein not unseasonably not unskilfully but lightly and prudently he findeth ever somewhat to do If men were peaceably minded methinks it were not hard to agree in this That every Church be it of England France Sweden c. do that which is convenient for the State of it self and of the Common-wealth The antient and true bounds of Unity being one Faith one Baptism and not one Ceremony one Policy suppose another were a better form yet not always that which is best but of good things that which is best and may be had with least prejudice is to be embraced Our Church is not now to plant it is settled and established In Civil States suppose a Republick in the opinion of some to be a better policy than a Kingdom yet God forbid that lawful Kingdoms should be obliged to innovate and make alterations as often as men given to change desire or plead for it Gods Providence is to be consulted as well as his Word There are Schismatical Customs as well as Schismatical Doctrines and Opinions So as the Civil Magistrate take care that the general Rules be observed viz. That Christs Flock be duly fed that there be authentick Ordination a Succession in Bishops and Ministers that there be a due and reverend use of the Keys a due Administration of the Sacraments that those that preach the Gospel do live by the Gospel that all things tend to Edification and that all things be done in order and with decency the rest may be left to the discretion and prudence of inferiour Labourers and we ought to acquiesce The President of that City is very severe which permitteth none to propound new Laws that had not a cord about their Necks ready for vengeance if it were found unprofitable but by their leaves all Innovations are not to be rejected for divine Plato teacheth us in all Common-wealths on just grounds there ought to be some changes and that States-men therein ought to imitate skilful Musicians Qui artem Musices non mutant sed Musices modum And it is not unworthy our observation that even evil forms of Policy have been sometimes well ordered and rectified by good Governours and Commanders and so the State of Boetia flourished once under Epaminondas and Pelopidas and yet it owed this Prosperity not to the Government of the City for that was ill constituted but to the Governours for they were wise and virtuous The contrary also happened to Lacedemon for that fared ill sometimes and suffered much distempers because though its fundamental Laws were good yet its Kings and Ephori were many times tyrannous and unjust § More particularly the Congregational Government though ab initio it were in use and may be again if the National Church thought it convenient And I do not know but that it will suit now with any Government as well as when Christ did institute it but the truth is it hath been quite of date and doors as they would now set it up ever since whole Cities Commonwealths and Kingdoms became Christian and have been mutually incorporated and interwoven one with the other however the Doctrine and Tenet thereof is as sound and as practicable now as ever The Arguments which the Independents bring to prove the consistency of their Congregational way with our Kingly and Civil Government are only prudential and probable which I shall not go about to contradict or examin but exmantissa grant not only their Consistency with our Government but that also the Civil Magistrates may so govern if they please they submitting to Indubitable Ordination as I take Episcopal to be for it is not sit that any Ordinance so very essential to the very making and perpetuating of a Gospel Ministry should be left upon a Moot point as it would be if either Presbyterian or Independent Ordination should take place But then I hope the Congregational men will be as ingenuous and confess that the Ecclesiastical Discipline and Government already established is as consistent with our Civil Laws and Government and that the legislative power may continue the same Government or alter it to any other form so it be of force to suppress Vice and to maintain true Faith and Religion even to that Gallintaufrey Platform establishing Presbytery which is but a minced or cantonized Papacy in point of Rule and Domination by order and ordinance of that demy-parliament 29. August 1648. which hath no good foundation in Scripture no ground in Reason no Authority beyond Jo. Calvin to make it good But Christian Common-wealths and Civil Magistrates may establish what Government so qualified they please the thing I contend for It s true that the Priests of divers perswasions will highly caress Majesty in words But if the Civil Magistrate offer to impose but a Cap a Surplice a cross in
earnestly but inconsiderately pleaded for again But what did this Liberty produce but Factions Schisms and variety of Fashions and Modes in Celebrating the common Service and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rights and Ceremonies of the Church nay it is observed as intimated before in the Register of Petworth that many at this time affirmed the most blessed Sacrament to be of little regard that in many places it was irreverently used and cast out of the Church and many other great enormities committed nay many of the Licensed Preachers appear'd as Active against the Kings proceedings as any of the unlicensed Preachers had been found to be now what security can this our Author give to our Prince that if the like Liberty should now be Indulged to him and others that it shall not be abused nor produce the like or worse effects All which together with the Insurrections in Cornwall Devon Norfolk Suffolk and other Counties springing therefrom the King and his Council seeing the dangerous consequence thereof concluded that Uniformity was the best remedy against Schisme Heresie Faction and for the quiet State and Weal of the Kingdom and therefore gave Order to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and other Learned and Pious Men rather than to use Severity against his Subjects that a publick Liturgy should be drawn and Confirmed by Parliament with several Penalties to be Inflicted on all those who should not readily conform to the Rules and appointments of it and accordingly it was so signified unto the Kingdom by Proclamation Queen Elizabeth who was not unacquainted with such Sollicitations nor with the Consequences of them gave that reason in her time for not suffering any deviation from the established Form viz. that the English Angli beliâ— intrepidi as they were Zealous in their Religion so they were a Stout and Warlike Nation and the difference in Rites and Worship would unavoidably beget words and disputes which would certainly beget Animosities and consequently Blows and Insurrections the experience whereof she had seen in the first years of her Brothers Reformation for the Commissioners attending the Kings Injunctions met in many places with Scorn and Reproach and Railing and the farther they went from London the worse they were handled in somuch that as one of them was pulling down Images in Cornwall was Stabbed by a Priest who tho Hanged in Smithfield which quieted all matters for a time yet the next year the Storm arose more violently than before not only in the Western parts but in a manner all the Kingdom over which great Commotions the Council foreseeing as the most probable consequence of such Alterations especially when they are sudden and pressed too fast did let the People understand that there was no Intention to abolish their Antient Ceremonies which might consist with Piety or the Peace or Prosit of the Nation and therefore the King both by his Proclamation dated in Jan. 1548. commanded a strict observance of Lent and also pursued it by his own observance thereof in his Court by which and other like Innocent complyances did the King make good and established his most happy Reformation and yet is he and his work and his prudent Innocent Complyances evil spoken of by some Boarnarges hot and fiery spirits because forsooth there were some that had a Beam of Light of equal Lustre that would have had it otherwise The most eminent whereof were Bonner Calvin John Alasco and Hooper the very first Anti-Liturgists Pardon I beseech you that I name that Sanguinary Bonner the same day with those Pious Men. John Alâ—sco and Hooper having suffered very much for the truth and Bonner having made the truth highly to suffer and Calvin who setting aside the fondness of his own Brat the Chimera of his own Invention his Church discipline and also his rigid opinions concerning Election and Reprobation now even in this our Age become the Darling arguments of our Atheists or which is as bad of all those that live as it were without God in the World who tho they profess God with their Mouths yet in their Works do deny him was both as wise a Man and as orthodox in points of Doctrine as any as that age did afford and did Write so much yet so it is that the Beam of light which Bonner and his Gang enjoyed led him and his Complices as much to make the Liturgy a Bone of Contention to them in that it took away so much and retained so little as the Beam of Light of the others did make it a Bone of Contention to them because it took away no more and retained so much For Bonner did still suffer sundry Idolatrous private Masses of peculiar Names as the Apostles Mass the Ladies Mass and the like to be daily solemnly sung within certain particular Chappels of St. Paul cloaking them with the Names of the Apostles Communion and our Ladies Communion not once finding any fault therewith until commanded by the Council and that by several Letters 1265. Tho I am far from thinking that any Person or any Reformation can be too pure when God hath commanded us to be Holy as he is Holy and perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect it can then be but an accursed modesty even next unto Atheism to believe that any Man or any Reformation can have a Nimis of Purity and Piety yet I can no more renounce moderation reason and Prudence in guiding and Governing Church than State Assairs nor yet subscribe unto Calvins Counsel unto Bucer viz. to take heed of his old fault viz. of running a moderate course in his Reformations nor yet his Advice to the Protector Advising him to take away all Ceremonies and to Reform the Church without regard unto peace at home or Correspondency abroad such considerations being only to be had in Civil matters but not in matters of the Church wherein not any thing is to be exacted which is not warranted by the Word and in managing whereof there is not any thing more distastsul in the eyes of God than Worldly Wisdom either in moderating cutting off or going backwards but meerly as we are directed by his Will revealed Ep. ad Protect More particularly for example sake see the ill Fruits and Effects of such Liberty as our Discourser Pleads for being granted unto John Alasco A Polonian born and unto his Congregation of Germans and other Strangers by Edw. 6th about the year 1550. who being persecuted in their own Country for the same Religion which was then here professed fled hither for Succour to whom the King by the Advice of his Council out of great Zeal to the propagation of the true Religion and out of most wonderful Commiserations unto those that were persecuted for the profession and exercise thereof most graciously afforded them Favour Entertainment and Protection and did assign them the West part of the Church then lately belonging unto the Augustine Fryers for their Exercising of Religious Duties and made them a
or our Abilities It is one thing to stifle Books in the womb before ever they are permitted to see light or that before they are either known or understood and that perhaps by one single person who happily may be much less learned honest or orthodox then the Author and another thing to condemn both Author and Book when examined and found faulty and erroneous For it is most just and reasonable that all and every State should consider how Books as well as men do behave themselves and punish or not punish accordingly accordingly one Carter a Printer suffered in Queen Elizabeths days § Consider matter of Fact by looking a little back Although it was early foretold that Antichrist would come nay that many Antichrists were already come yet until after the 800th year about which time the Eastern Empire divided from the Western there were not many Hereticks found in the Western parts for 300 years after But after the year 1100. by reason of the continual Jars which for 50 years before had been between the Popes and the Emperors which continued unto the year 1200. with frequent Wars there did arise many Hereticks as the Popes were pleased to call them by as good Logick as the Lion is fabled to call the Foxes Ears Horns whose most common Heresies were against the Pope's usurped Authorities over Clergie and Laity This moved the Popes and their Conclaves for Ends not good to establish the two Religious Orders of St. Francis and St. Dominick pure Fanaticks which were soon filled with the most zealous and learned Persons that that Age could afford altogether devoted to the maintaining of the Court of Rome and the Authority of the Pope to which two Orders the care of the Inquisition newly erected was committed and what hath followed since is obvious to every intelligent man which soon spawned the first sanguinary Law against Hereticks by the help of the Emperor Frederick the 2d 1244. imposing fire on Hereticks § But before this we had no Charm nor Lock upon the Press no Purgatory for Books no Limbus Patrum for their Authors we had no proper real and propitiatory Sacrifice in the Mass for the living and the dead nor dry or demi-Communions no Conventicle at Trent no new Creed with 12 new Articles either of Trent or of Johannes Baptista Posa a Spanish Jesuit never heard of before newly printed newly come forth no blotting out of the second Commandment no dividing of the tenth Commandment into two to amuse and cheat the People no Doctrine of Infallibility nor yet of Probability no Penance Sacramental no Satisfaction no Sacramental Confession as now used no Hurtado no Filliucius no Bauny no Lessius no Escobar no Jesuits Morals no power to depose Kings no dissolving Oaths of Allegiance no Gunpowder-Treasons and an Iliad more of such damnable Errors and Heresies I conclude therefore that it bears no shew that forbidding men to write tends to any good end but really to the end to conceal the Truth and to shew it to the World only under a Mask or some deceitful Light I shall conclude with this Observation concerning Printing it self That in the days of Luther and Troubles of Germany about Religion and Vices of the Clergie it was suggested unto Clement the 7th that the occasion of them all was from the new Invention of Printing By Faust and Guttenburg scarce 80 years found out and now not possible to be suppressed which though it had brought to light many Books and much Learning yet they found that in this short time it had made a great discovery of their Arcana Imperii their jugling Arts and Legerdemains much to their prejudice which whilst the Laity were kept ignorant of all went for currant on their side and imputed thereto all the Troubles of Germany about those Centum gravamina then complained of for that now men being better enlightned by printed Books began to call in question the present Faith and Tenets of the Church of Rome and to examine how far Religion was departed from its primitive Institution and Purity Among which one great Crime was that the Laity and vulgar sort of men were taught and exhorted to read the Scriptures and pray every one in their own native Language A great Crime I confess and much to be dreaded for if this were permitted to pass for currant Doctrine the Vulgar would quickly discover their Cheats and Usurpations and believe that the Clergie had abused and cheated them hitherto For if men were once perswaded that they could make their own way and court to God by their own prayers and addresses in their own Tongues which they understood and that they would be heard and be more prevalent in Heaven than mumbled in Latin without understanding what they prayed for it would certainly bring Contempt on the Mass and Mass-Priests on Pardons and Pardon-mongers on auricular Confession and Confessors and on the power of the Keys and in sum would impeach all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which by sinister Artifices had been got and kept secret by the Clergie for many generations For without all doubt the keeping of these and the like Mysteries rather of Iniquity than of Religion wickedly obtained and as wickedly kept in the hands of Priests only participes Criminis parties to their Cheats have given that esteem the Priests now have amongst the Romanists through many Ages to this very day Now since Printing hath made such Discoveries of such Mysteries of Iniquity and brought to light the more pure Word and Doctrine so that their Traditions their Indulgences their false Glosses and their other like Trumperies could not prevail as formerly Romish Craft sought out other pestilent Inventions to maintain their Impieties whereof padlocking the Press was not the least to keep the Laity ignorant And though they could not wholly suppress Printing yet in Romish Territories they ordained that no Book should be printed without an Imprimatur first obtained from some Inquisitor or some such like Myrmidon digging deep to hide their Counsels from all the Laity and to stifle any Light or Truth that was not suitable to their deeds of Darkness hence hath proceeded the obstructions of many Truths fit to be made common but have not been able to appear in the light but by stealth Instead thereof they now set up heathen Philosophy and Metaphysicks against Scripture to make good their mysterious Juglings disputing and reasoning more out of them than out of holy Writ Thus they set up Learning or rather quirks of Learning against Learning and old musty Traditions of former Times and such obscure passages as needed their Interpretations and Explanations and all to keep the Laity in suspence between fear and controversal Juglings and Equivocations Nay they rather have recourse to Tropes and Allegories where none are needful if not to Cabala it self than allow that all the parts of Religious Worship tho' never so clear and plain to every Understanding as to fall easily within common Understandings should be without their Explications or Expositions so that they cannot monopolize the Mysteries of their Church-Government so closely and wholly within their Ecclesiastick Circle but discoveries are made of their Cheats These things well weighed and considered the Conclusion is natural that it bears no shew that forbidding men to write tends to any good end but really to the end to conceal the Truth and to shew it to the World in Mascarata or some deceitful Light only ERRATA PAG. 1. l. 20. for Spiritual r. Scriptural p. 2. l. 9. for neiter r. neither p. 17. for pro r. per in the Margin p. 20. l. 37. after Christians r. to Bethphage John 12. p. 29. l. 9. in the Margin dele Deo p. 78. in the Margin for Soozm r. Sozom. p. 98. Margin for satisfactoriis r. satisfactionis ut p. 146. l. 8. for peace r. piece l. 29 for absolete r. obsolete p. 151. l. 7. dele p. 152. l. 44. for absolete r. obsolete p. 153. l. 34. for ramanded r. remanded p. 160. l. 4. 8. for St. r. Sir p. 163. l. 7. for coenatori nuptialio r. coenatorio nuptiali p 166. l. 18. for Prosica r. persica p. 171. l. 5. for were r. was p. 173. l. 24. for no. r. any p. 183. l. 6. for perspect r. prospect p. 217. l. penult for thing r. think p. 219. l. 18. for pare r. pari l. 37. after Jupiter r. and Venus their p. 234. l. 6. for Alieno r. Aheno l. 9. for dignity r. divinity p. 236. l. 17. for hariretur r. hauriretur l. 37. for Apello r. Apella p. 239. l. 8. for and r. c. l. 13. next unto to r. be
Civil Magistrate to be Custos utriusque tabulae unless be meant by Keeper the Defender only And averrs That it is a false and deceivable Maxime not to be defended or maintained by any Proof or Argument which hath not in that his Treatise been first or last refuted Therein also averring That there can be no place left for the Magistrate or his Force in the settlement of Religion by appointing either what we shall believe in divine or practice in religious things And that to compel but outward Profession is to compel Hypocrisie not to advance Religion And that Christian Liberty sets us free not only from the Bondage of Ceremonies but also from the forcible Imposition of Circumstances of Place and Time in the Worship of God though imposed with a confident perswasion of morality in them which he holds to be impossible in Place and Time And that the settlement of Religion belongs only to each particular Church by perswasive and spiritual means within it self And that the defence of things religious setled in the Churches within themselves and the repressing of their Contraries determinable by the common light of Nature only belongs to the Magistrate All which he endeavours to make good by four Spiritual Reasons as he calls them as on a firm square 1st That Protestants have no other Divine Rule or Authority from without them warrantable to one another as a common ground but the Scripture and no other within them but the illumination of the Spirit so interpreting that Scripture as warrantable only to our selves and to such whose Consciences we can so perswade can have no other ground in matter of Religion but only from the Scriptures And these being not possible to be understood without the Divine Illumination which no man can know at all times to be in himself much less to be at any time for certain in any other it must follow That no Man or Body of Men can be the infallible Judges or Determiners in matters of Religion to any other Mens Consciences but their own f. 6. Wherefore if we count it a crime for Papists to believe only as the Church believes how much greater crime will it be for a Protestant to believe as the State believes And it being the general consent of all Protestant Writers That neither Traditions nor Councils nor Canons of any visible Church much less any Edicts of any Magistrate or Civil Session but the Scripture only can be the sinal Judge or Rule in matters of Religion f. 7. and that only in the Conscience of every Christian to himself which Protestation made by the first publick Reformers of our Religion against the Imperial Edicts of Charles the 5th imposing Church-Traditions without Scripture gave first beginning to the Name of Protestant And therefore the Conscience not being the Magistrates Province he ought not to force or impose because he hath no right to judge and yet when he comes to the Toleration of Popery he seems to be of another mind averring § But as for Popery and Idolatry why they also may not hence plead to be tolerated I have much less to say For that their Religion the more considered the less can be acknowledged a Religion but a Roman Principality rather he might have said an entire Apostacy from the Apostolick Faith endeavouring to keep up her old universal Dominion under a new Name and meer Shadow of Catholick Religion being more rightly named a Catholick Heresie against the Scripture supported mainly by a Civil and except in Rome by a Forreign Power Justly therefore to be suspected not tolerated by the Magistrate of another Country besides of an implicit Faith which they profess the Conscience also becomes implicit and so by voluntary servitude to Mans Law doth forfeit her Christian Liberty who then can plead for such a Conscience as being implicitly enthralled to Man in stead of God almost becomes no Conscience as the Will not free becomes no Will Nevertheless if they ought not to be tolerated it is for just reason of State more than of Religion which they who force though professing to be Protestants deserve as little to be tolerated themselves being no less guilty of Popery in the most Popish Point And for Idolatry who knows it not to be evident against all Scripture Old and New and therefore a true Heresie or rather Impiety wherein a right Conscience can have nought to do and the work thereof so manifest that a Magistrate can hardly err in prohibiting and quite removing at least the publick and scandalous use thereof The Second Scriptural Reason is If we should grant the Civil Magistrate were able to judge in those things yet as a Civil Magistrate he hath no right because Christ hath a Government of his own sufficient of it self to all its ends and purposes in governing his Church and is much different from that of the Civil Magistrate 1st Because it deals only with the Inward Man and his Actions which are all Spiritual and to outward force not liable 2dly To shew us the Divine Excellency of his Spiritual Kingdom able without worldly force to subdue all the Powers and Kingdoms of this World which are upheld by outward force only That the Inward Man is nothing else but the Inward part of Man his Understanding and his Will and that his Actions thence proceeding yet not simply thence but from the Work of Divine Grace upon them are the whole matter of Religion under the Gospel The Third Scriptural Reason is from the wrong the Civil Power doth with its Force or Imposition by violating the Fundamental Priviledge of the Gospel the new birth-right of every true Believers Christian Liberty The Fourth Scriptural Reason is from the consideration of all those ends which the Magistrate can pretend to the interposing of his force therein which can hardly be other than 1st The Glory of God 2dly The Spiritual good of them whom he forceth or 3dly The Temporal punishment of their scandal to others § Mr. P. N. in his Treatise of the same Subject P. N. his Opinion P. 22. with the other of J. M. is far more ingenious herein not only asserting the Supremacy and Authority of all Kings and Civil Magistrates in general over all persons and things Ecclesiastical both by Scripture Reason and Authentick Authors but also of our Kings in particular most pertinently and particularly out of our own Municipal Laws and Constitutions to boot He doth therein also as strongly assert Independency which rightly stated and rightly understood is without doubt the Tenent and Practice of our Church both by Scripture and by the Opinion of sound Judicious and Orthodox Divines very great Friends unto and Contenders for Episcopacy as Bishop Bilson Dr. Jackson Mr. Hooker and others But the Independency of Churches which these Men and others as Orthodox as themselves plead for is not altogether the same with that which P. N. and other his Associates do contend for These Men maintain that
each esteem other better than themselves § Having thus precautioned the Readers by a General and Impartial Admonition being as lyable to the lash thereof my self if a transgressor as any other without any particular reflection and much less upon the Scriptures immediately foregoing brought by the Independants upon which it may seem to have most reflection as being inserted in the very rear and next adjoyning unto them yet I must say that unto my apprehension there is generally a vein of fallacy or to express it as modestly as the case will bear of Misapplication runs through very many of their Scriptural quotations applying that which is meant of the Church in one sence unto that which is to be understood of the Church in another sence or that which is meant of a National Church or of a City Church as of that of Jerusalem or of those famous Churches of Asia unto every petit Congregation and the like concerning the powers of Churches and the use of the term Liberty and the like Though I am thus Opiniated yet I must say withal that were the Scene of the Church laid in Turkey or any Heathenish Gentile or Savage Country professed enemies to the Gospel and Cross of Christ where no Legislative power taketh Gods pure Religion into their protection I could have much less to say against them but until better information must acknowledge them a very plausible if not a full proof of their Independency but the Scene being laid here in a Christian Common-wealth I suppose they will come very short of proof § As of one and the same litteral sense of some words or texts of Scripture Daille lic â— c. 11. f. 1â—â— there may be and usually are two or more objects the one more the other less principal and proper among which the word Church hath a great variety of significations and importances and by consequence it must have one principal object of which all the principal Powers Attributes and Titles of the Church are punctually and accurately verified and other objects less principal to which notwithstanding the same name or title are in some measure often communicated So there is nothing which sooner precipitates both the more and less learned into errors than Identity of names or words including in them diversity of significations or importances and consequently each several signification or importance is always incroaching upon the Powers Attributes or Prerogatives which most properly appertain to some other more prime and principal Now the best way to prevent the inconveniences whereunto the multiplicity and diversity of its significations or acceptations do expose us is in reading first to consider of the Powers Attributes Prerogatives or Royalties which belong either solely or principally unto it and then to value the other significations or importances and rate their several Attributes or Properties by the nearness or remoteness of their affinity with it or reference unto it § The Church of Christ which we term his Body mystical can be but One and that only apprehensible by the intellectual conceipt of our minds and not sensibly to be discerned by any of us for that some are in Heaven and some on Earth and though the persons of those on earth be visible yet we cannot know that they are truly and infallibly of that Body the sincerity of their hearts and Faith being to us invisible and to God only distinctly and individually known yet may we rationally know that there is such a reall Body a Body collective consisting of many a Body mystical because the mystery of their conjunction is removed altogether from our senses All are not Israel that are of Israel Rom. 9.6 and no mortal can infallibly distinguish them It was Christ only that knew Nathaniel to be a true Israelite indeed in whom was no guile John 21.15 Many may prophesie cast out Devils and do wonderful works in Christs Name Matth. 22. and yet be deceivers whom God only can know and distinguish But this Church is not the proper subject of this discourse § As the everlasting promises of love mercy and blessedness belongs unto the mystical Church even so when we read of any duty which the Church of God is obliged unto the Church which this doth concern is a sensibly known Company and this visible Church in like sort is but one successively continued from the beginning of the World and will continue untill time shall be no more and which consists partly of Members before and partly of Members since the coming of Christ and which have already and which shall hereafter embrace the Christian Religion we term as by a more proper Name the Church of Christ whereof there are many Members yet but one Body 1 Cor. 12.27 And therefore the Apostle affirmeth plainly all men Christian be they Jews or Gentiles bond or free they are all incorporated into one Company they all make but one Body that he might reconcile both unto God in One Body Eph. 2.16 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs also and of the same Body Eph. 3.6 And they all professing one Lord one Faith one Baptism Eph. 4.5 Neither is this Church the Visible Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only proper subject matter of this discourse though it be not altogether exclusive § For preservation even of Christianity and of Christian unity peace and concord there is not any thing more needful and requisite than that such as are of the Visible Church have mutual fellowship and society one with another In which consideration to use their own simile As the Sea or Collection of waters Gen. 1.10 being one one in nature yet not one in name and number for that within divers precincts it hath divers names as the Baltick the Mediterranean the Red Sea so the Catholick Visible Church is in like sort divided into a number of distinct Societies every of which is termed a Church within it self In this sense the Church is always a visible Society of men not meerly an Assembly but a Society For though the name of Church be given unto Christian Assemblies and though any number of Christian men congregated may quodam sensu be termed a Church yet Assemblies properly are rather things that belong to the Church than the Church it self men are assembled for performance of publick Actions which Actions being ended the Assembly dissolveth it self and is no longer in being whereas the Church which was assembled doth no less continue afterwards than before Where but three are and they of the Laity also there is a Church a Christian Assembly But a Church as in this discourse we ought to understand it is a Society or a Fraternity to use their own terms still i. e. a number of men belonging unto some Christian Fellowship the place and limits whereof is certain and who are endued with sufficient powers attributes and properties to govern it self and this Church is the most proper subject of this discourse which doth neither exclude
and Judicature one of the other is not denied by any Protestant Divines that I know of and it is or ought to be as little gain-said that it could not then be otherwise And why Christ knew that the Messengers which he sent to gather a People to himself out of Saracens and Insidels Jews and Gentiles by perswasive means only were to build up his Church within the Bosom of Kingdoms which were and would continue avowed Enemies to his Gospel every where for a long time then to come And therefore he gave them such Doctrines and such Commissions for Doctrine and Discipline as they might any where publish and exercise in a quiet and peaceable manner the Subjects of no Common-wealth being any where therein concerned in goods or person by vertue of that spiritual regiment whereunto Christian Religion once embraced did make them lyable And indeed if they had not a Government within themselves they could have none at all concerning Christian Religion For Princes and all Nations were then professed and bitter enemies to Christian Religion which Government did also extend it self unto small matters even such as were otherwise impleadable and remediable in the Civil Courts and Judicatures of the Kingdome or State though heathenish wherein and under whom they lived as Subjects Dare any of you saith St. Paul having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the Saints do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world and if the world shall be judged by you are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters 1 Cor. 6.1 2. So that upon the whole matter the Sum total of Religion that Christ committed to his Apostles and they to their successors consisted in the Doctrin and Discipline thereof viz. to preach him and him crucified and to perswade others to become Christians through the belief of one Lord one Faith and one Baptisme and when once admitted by the door of Baptism into the Christian Church then to become and to be accounted Members of the visible Church Christian As for Discipine that concerns moral righteousness and honesty of life and their contraries unrighteousness and dishonesty and therefore Christ gave them this General Precept viz. to love one another even our neighbours as our selves and if any did transgress the Vertues and Laws which belong unto moral righteousness and honesty of life which are not proper and peculiar unto Christian men as Christians but as Men what then the transgressors were first privatly to be admonished if the offence were private those that sinned openly were to be rebuked openly if they did not then repent and amend then to be admonished by two or three if still they remained incorrigible then to acquaint that Congregation of Christian Brethren of which they were Members and if still they continued refractory after private and publick Admonitions Warnings and Prayers then not to own them as Brethren nor to keep company with them with such no not to eat with them and in the end to pursue them as if Publicans and Heathens as not being worthy of the Name and Profession of Christians which they had put on they not living to the adorning but to the shame of the Gospel And this is the sum of the whol Government or Discipline which Christ after the death of the Apostles who having gifts extraordinary had also powers extraordinary which died with them left to his Church for ought appears by any Scripture extant And what need of more For if the Ministers of the everlasting Gospel have liberty to Instruct break Bread Baptize and Pray the Civil Christian Magistrat hath sufficient power by Gods own Ordinance to order all the rest § To me indeed it seems marvelous nay monstrous that out of so plain so intelligible so easily practicable directions for the Government of Christian Churches that so various so meerly wordly and pompous nay imperious and impious forms of Church Government should be drawn into use as have been hundreds of years practised both in the Eastern and Western Empires and all held forth to be according to the Gospel when in truth they all differ from the true Gospel Discipline as far as the East is from the West they being all degenerated into meer worldly forms set up for meer worldly self-ends and interests If any man can more plainly make out any other form from the Gospel it would be a favour my self I must confess to be Impar Negotio it is past my understanding Indeed to me it seems wonderful whilst I consider that though Histories are ful and plain how and when the several forms crept in and got Accruments partly by the supineness and negligence of the Brethren of their own Rights and Priviledges partly by the craft and subtlety of proud covetous and ambitious Clergy and partly by the carelesness of Princes who not willing to trouble themselves with the care of Religion devolved it upon others that they should yet endeavour to keep us hoodwinkt though they know that our eyes are now open If there be any other Gospel-form of Government let it plainly appear without offering violence to any Texts of Scripture if not why should we be wiser than Christ our Head and Lawgiver God only is truth and all men are subject to errors what remains but that all his Servants and more especially the Priests of the most high God whose lips above others should more especially preserve knowledg do abandon humane errors and fals superstructures and keep the praecepts of God only that they may remain stedfast in the truth only § Some are of opinion that there is no need at all of any Ecclesiastical Government as distinct from the Civil if Christian and Orthodox and if there be that yet the Body of the Church is to govern it self and not the Clergie or Officers the Body they are to teach them their duty but the provisionary coercive and executive power is seated in the Body and not in the Pope or Presbyter I know the grand objection against Independency is that it is destructive to Government and tends to Anarchy a meer slander rather than a just objection for if rightly considered it would be found the least Chagreen to any Civil Government of any Ecclesiastical Government at this very day in use in any Nation and if not mistaken I have Christ who was the Wisdom of the Father and his Apostles to justify me herein For the Government that is herein stated may be exercised under any Government how averse soever to Christianity it self without clashing or interfeering therewith And if Christ left no other Government as for certain he did not why should we pretend to be wiser than Christ himself The same was exercised by the Apostles and long after and how incroachments of power were gained to the Clergy Stories are full Vide Fra Paolo Sarpi his Treatise of Beneficiary Matters § On the contrary how thwarting Popish or Presbyterian Governments are to
Friends the one to persecute the other for slight pretences about things owned to be indifferent Were it not better and more secure to allow them publick places only I do not say preferments that all the World might hear their Doctrines and Preachments and punish or not punish accordingly if Papalins their Doctrines Tenets and Vows of Obedience to another Head and forreign Power being publickly known to all the World and as publickly professed and avowed by them for sound and true though in truth salse and erroneous Doctrines render them uncapable of Toleration because in their own very Nature they are destructive unto our Government King and Nation unto our Laws Liberties Religion and Worship and what were it else but to establish Idolatry and Superstition by a Law Besides the Pope pretends Right and Title to our very Church and Kingdoms In the dayes of Henry 8. the Earl of Desmond profered Ireland to the French K. the Instrument whereof yet remains on Record in the Court of Paris and the Pope afterwards transferred the Title of all our Dominions unto Charles 5th which by new grants was confirmed unto his Son Philip in the time of Queen Elizabeth with a resolution to settle this Crown on the Spanish Infanta c. and when times serve makes no bones by his Bulls and his Assassinates as much as in him lies to Crown and Vncrown our Kings and Queens and absolve their Subjects of their Obedience to them and to exhaust our Treasury as part of his own Patrimony to maintain the pride and luxury of his Court and Prelates And since we have in great part shaken off his Antichristian Yoak and Usurpations he yet continues to keep his Agitators and Spies here even at our charge and hath not ceased by his Bulls Jesuits Assasinates and Emissaries at once to destroy both King and Parliament and by the bold and impudent Impostures of his Priests and Jesuits perpetually to seduce corrupt and pervert from the right wayes of the Lord as many as they can of our Nobility Gentry and Pesantry not sparing the Royal Family making them turn Tenants for their Lives and Souls which they hold only at the will and pleasure of their Lord God the Pope and Tributary for their estates Whether therefore it be fit or reasonable to tollerate Men thus desperately set and Principl'd against this Church and State I submit to the wisdome of King and Parliament who are best able to provide for their own and the publick safety of our King and Kingdom As to that they nick-name and miscal their Catholick Religion more justly the most Catholick Heresie in the World it is such a piece of Linseywolsey-stuff interwoven with so many ridiculous Ceremonies borrowed from Jews Turks Heathens peculiar Absurdities Blasphemies Superstitions and Idolatries imposing not only on our Understandings but on our very Senses V. les Conformitez des Ceremonies c. A Leyde 1667. Traite des Anciennes Ceremonies c. 1 is 73. in owning the Scriptures to be the word of God and yet denying the free and common use thereof commanding to believe very Bread and Wine to be Flesh and Blood attributing infallibility to his Holiness by vertue whereof he may take away the Bread in the Eucharist from the Laity as well as he hath already deprived and cheated them of the Wine may make lying with other mens Wives no Adultery Robbing no Theft Killing Innocent men even Kings and Queens under pretence of Heresie no Murder whereof we have had sad experience even in these our dayes in sum who ever submits to the Popes infallibility renders himself Captive to be led into all Heresie and even to Hell it self as if the Scripture in good earnest had come from Heaven meerly to make the Pope optimum maximum et supremum numen in terris that he is sole Interpreter of all Scriptures and Judge of all Controversies and that his Tribunal and Gods are all one and 1000 more absurdities which in effect is to renounce Christianity and to yield blind obedience and implicite Faith to his ipsedixit and to become Antichristians For by their own Doctrines of Intention they have given us just cause to question their very Christianity for if they hold true to that Doctrine it 's impossible they should infallibly know that they have either true Pope true Bishop true Priest or that they are true Christians and therefore they may thank themselves and their own Doctrines if we allow them at best to be but Mungril Christians like those of Samaria who feared God yet served Idols and like those of Israel who swore by the Lord and Melcom And therefore not worthy to be called a Religion at least Christian unless by way of Complement and civility they Exalting the Pope above all that is called God endeavouring by the impudent impostures of Baals Priests to enslave whole Nations to his vile ends and purposes quo jure quâve injuriâ and all this under the Vizard of his false Religion All which considered I humbly conceive that no Tolleration is to be allowed Papists whether we respect either Church or State policy tho there are those among our selves for what good ends is past my understanding except to make us as very Mungrils as the Papists that would lead and wheedle us into a fair way of reconciliation by a School-trick of distinguishing between the Court and Church of Rome What Is it possible that Righteousness can have fellowship with Unrighteousness Can light have Communion with darkness Can Christ and Belial agree together What agreement can the Temple of God have with Idols Can we joyn our bodies to the very Mother of Harlots and not be one body with her From such we are commanded to come out and seperate not tollerate 52 Esay 11.31 Jerem. 1. 1 Cor. 6.16 2 Cor. 6.14.15 16 17 18. And then God will be a Father unto us and we shall be his Sons a d Daughters We are seperate we are come out for shame then let us not hanker after nor talk of returning to Onyons and Garlick nor with the Dog to his Vomit we are washed and cleansed from the dregs and silth of Rome and therefore never to return with the nasty and beastly Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire If Quakers they are as little to be indulged for reasons diametrically opposite for that the very Scriptures are not heartily and throughly owned by them nor are they a Rule of Faith unto them Indeed they have no known Rules no established Principles no Doctrine infallible to be Governed by the light within them being only the Rule and Guide of their Consciences which may be Hosanna to day and Crucifige tomorrow no Connivence no Tolleration due to those Religions whose Principles are unknown or destroy our Government If Presbyter or Independents the case as to them is far different they owning the same Scriptures for their Rule and Guide professing the same Articles of
the Ephesians c. 6.18 19 20. that they would always pray with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watch thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for him for what I pray that he might have a Dispensation not to preach or not to attend his Flock and be Non-resident or having put his hand to the Plough that he might look back or that he might have great Employments in Civil Affairs in Princes Courts that would necessarily hinder his preaching Nothing less What then Even that Vtterance might be given unto him that he might open his mouth boldly to dispence and make known the Mysteries of the Gospel for which he was an Ambassador Eph. 6.18 19 20. The like unto the Colossians c. 4.2 3. And did not the same Paul most solemnly and most severely charge Timothy before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom to preach the Word to be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke c. 2 Tim. 4.1 2. By which it demonstratively appears that in St. Paul's Grammar and Construction to dispense and make known are Terms Synonimous and Equivalent maugre the false Glosses of the Papalins And when think you would Paul unto whom by Revelation was made known the Mystery of Christ whereof he was made a Minister that he should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable Riches of Christ and to make all men see what is the Fellowship of the Mystery c. Eph. 3.2 3 8 9. or any other of the Apostles have besought Peter or any of his Successors of Rome for a Dispensation not to Preach They were better taught than so than to take other Civil Employments which must necessarily hinder them from preaching and declaring the Mystery of the Gospel for in true understanding to be a Priest and not to preach is to be no Priest having as much as in them lies un-priested themselves after the Character imprinted for Christ never gave any Authority to his Ministers but what was meerly and purely Spiritual Yet so it was that the Judgment of the whole Church or Congregation as is necessary and natural to all Societies Civil and Ecclesiastick for the sake of Order was fit to be conducted and managed by some one who should preside and guide the Actions and Deliberations propose the Matters and collect the Results of the Assembly which Care being always due to the most worthy and best qualified person for such an Action was mostly committed to the Bishop not of right but of choice § This kind of Judicial Proceeding was observed and kept on foot unto the Year 250 Ep. 5. f. 12 13 14. as is plainly to be seen by the Epistles of St. Cyprian who in the matter concerning those who did eat of Meats offered to Idols and subscribed to the Religion of the Gentiles writeth to the Presbytery that he doth not think to do any thing without their Counsel and the Consent of the People and writeth to the People that at his return he will examine the Causes and Merits thereof in their Presence and under their Iudgment And he wrote to those Priests who of their own heads reconciled some that they should give an Account unto the People Soon after this time of the Day these kinds of Proceedings begun to lose of their Purity and Simplicity and to degenerate into Empire For indeed as before so more especially and more confidently soon after Constantines Days and Donations the succeeding Bishops not without some Artifices and some Usurpations quickly began to set up for themselves and indeed in short time mounted so high that they became suspected of Princes and terrible to the People their Tribunals became a common Pleading-place having obtained Execution by the Ministry of the Civil Magistrate Petr. AErodius and to obtain the Name of Episcopal Jurisdiction and Episcopal Audience and the like This Rome was not built in one Day nor in one Age the Piety and Charity of that more pure Age made them and their Judgments to be had in great veneration which insensibly was the Cause that the Church in the truest sence not regarding the Charge given and laid upon them by Christ and his Apostles did supinely leave the Care to the Bishops who readily and with great care embraced it and soon erected their Tribunals This kind of Judgment though it were not like to the first in regard of the former viz. to determine all by the Opinion of the whole Church yet it had some semblance with it and Constantine finding some Ease and Conveniency to have Causes determined by the Authority of Religion added this to his other Powers granted to them viz. That no Appeal should lie from the Sentence of the Bishop and Valence the Emperor inlarged them in the Year 365. But those Judicial Proceedings and Negotiations did not please the best and most pious Bishops being of St. Pauls mind who deemed such Employments and Powers not fit for a Preacher of the Gospel and therefore would not take such himself But Arcadius and Honorius 70 years after the Law of Constantine finding the Bishops to degenerate and to abuse their Power revoked that Law in part ordaining that they should judge Causes of Religion not Civil except by consent and that they should not be thought to be a Court which not being observed in Rome by reason of the great power the Bishop there had Valentinian being there in the Year 452. did renew it but the succeeding Emperors restored some part of it and Justinian established unto them a Court and Audience c. By which means and gradations the Popes had got the Knack of encroaching and were thereby the better enabled to crave and get more and that not without making the world believe that those and more were their due and that not Jure Ecclesiastico only but Divino also a Band so sure and strong that it would hardly be loosed though Posterity should find Inconveniences and would redress them 200 years were not fully elapsed ere they claimed absolutely all Judicature Criminal and Civil over the Clergy and in some things over the Laity also pretending the Cause was Ecclesiastical Besides they contrived another kind of Judicature which they termed Mixt whereby they hooked in all Judicature to themselves so that after the Year 1050. having with much Art and Industry Monopolized all the Causes of the Clergy to themselves and very many of the Laity under the Title of Spirituality and almost all the rest under the Title of a Mixt Judicature and placing themselves above the Secular Magistrates upon pretence of Justice denied they were at length so bold as to say that the Bishop had the power to judge not by the grant or favour of Princes or by the will or concession of the People or the whole Church or by Custom or Vsage but that it was essential to the Episcopal Dignity and given to it by Christ whereby
when differences about Doctrine and Worship have been broached and disorders in Church and State have ensued § About the year 1548. Paul 3. when the Emperor Charles the 5th had by â—is own Authority Published a Reformation of the Clergy which contained about 130 Precepts so just and Equitable that scarce any former Reformation was more exact or less partial without Subtilties or Snares to inâ—rap the unadvised and which might have been acceptable to Rome her self except in a point or two but being made by the Emperor it seemed more insupportable than the Interim which Rome could by no means indure it being a fundamental maxime of that Court that the Seculars of what degree or honesty soever cannot give Laws to the Clergy tho to a good end and because the Pope and his Conclave were not able to endure such an affront or Tyranny as they called it nor yet able to resist it he presently so for humbled himself to Heresie as that he quickly dispatch't Nuncio after Nuncio into Germany first the Bishop of Fano and then the Bishop of Verona and Terentino for his Nuncij with a Bull of large Faculties and Pâ—â—â—â—rs dated the last of August to Pardon and Embrace all to remit some things of the old Discipline giving them faculty fully to absolve in both Courts all secular Persons tho Kings or Princes Regulars Câ—llâ—â—ges and Communities from all Excommunications and Censures even from Temporal Punishments incurred for matter of Heresie tho relapsed 〈◊〉 to diâ—â—ence with Irregularities in what case soever even for Bigamy to restore them to Fame Honour and Dignity to remit every abjuration and Penance due to absolve from Oaths and Homages made and Perjuries committed and to absolve the Regulars from Apostacy giving them Power to wear the Regular Habit under the Habit of a Secular Priest to give leave to every Person tho Ecclesiastick to eat flesh and forbidden Meats in Lent and fasting dayâ—s to moderate the number of Feasts to grant the use of the Chalice indeed any thing rather than to approve of a Reformation made by the Emperor or any Secular Prince tho never so Potent and conducing to the saving of Souls To descant upon the Absurdities and Contradictions of this Bull in taking upon him to restore Kings and Princes to Honours Fame and Dignity to absolve from unlawful Oaths which need none and from just Oaths which no Man can obsolve to absolve the Friars which forsook their Cloysters to wear the Habit covered as if the Kingdom of God did consist in a Colâ—â—r or vestment which not being worn in shew yet it was necessary to have it in secret is not to my purpose but it is observable and remarkable to shew that if Rome her self that proud Imperious Usurper of Powers Omnipotent could so far humble her self even to her Hereticks and Heresies as to dispence with so much of her old Discipline and to grant such Liberties to them rather than to admit of a Reformation made by a Secular Prince may it not suffice England and be Honourable just and becoming her Protestant self to Reform things which are a shame to the Church and a scandal to the People and that having Power over the Goods and Lives of Nonconformists and of Dissenters Hereticks Schismaticks Separatists names not justly applycable either to them or to their Opposites each equally differing one from the other but neither one from the other in Doctrines fundamental but in things indifferent and Ceremonial only which neither Conformists nor yet Non conformists can Infallibly know who Infallibly hath or hath not the truth on their side and therefore ought to bear with each other the stronger with the Infirmities of the weaker not accounting and reviling each other as Enemies but admonishing each other as Brethren those Ignominious separating terms of Schismaticks Separatists c. more properly belonging to Papists who err not in Ceremonials Circumstantials and Superstructures only but in Doctrines Fundamental and therefore may justly separate from such to let them make publick Profession of the same Gospel the same Religion with the Church of England to avoid suspicion by Private Conventicles or Assemblies and to suffer their Consciences to be free and to belong to God and themselves only who desire only to save Souls the most precious thing that ever God Created § About the year 1559. the Duke of Savoy sent one expresly to desire Pope Pius the 4th that by his favour he might make a Colloquy of Religion within his own Dominions to instruct his People of the Vallies who were generally Alienated from the Old Religion of Rome these were a part of those Waldenses who 400 years before forsook the Church of Rome and in regard of their persecutions fled into Polonia Germany Puglia Provence and some of them into the Valleys of Montesenis Lâ—cernia Angrovia Perosa and St. Martin but the Pope answered that he would by no means consent thereunto but offered to send a Legate with Divines to instruct and Authority to absolve his Subjects when Converted yet said withal that he had little hope to Convert them because the Hereticks were obstinate and whatsoever is done to exhort them to acknowledge their fault they expound to be a want of force to Compel them that it cannot be remembred that any good was ever done by moderation and that experience hath taught that the sooner Justice is used and force of Arms when the other is not sufficient so much the better the Success is and if he would proceed to Arms he would send him assistance Your Servant Sir Ghostly Council I wot more becoming a Wolf or an Hireling than a good Shepherd and it is a shrewd sign that he never entred into Christs Sheepfold by the Door which is Christ but climbed up some other way to Steal and to Kill and to Destroy 10 of John 1.10 But the Duke not liking at all the sending of a Legate because it would have provoked his Subjects the more and forced him to have proceeded according to the Interests of others thinking it better to take Arms which the Pope Commended more and promised Assistance wherefore the Duke resolving to make them receive the Catholick Religion rectius Heresy he caused many to be Burned and to be put to death by other means and to be condemned to the Gallies being more especially instigated thereunto by Inquisitor Thomaso Jacamello a Dominican Fryer which strange Persecution forced them * Here note that in the Church of Rome the Popes were the first Preachers of Force and Violence and that St. Dominick was one of the first that Preached the Doctrine of Death and Tortures for Opinions in Religion he was the Founder of the begging Orders of Friers Preachers and therefore in honour of him the Inquisition is intrusted only to the Friers of his Order And if their own Legends speak truth his own Mother the Night before he was born Dreamed that she was brought to Bed of a great
Dog with a fire Brand in his Mouth the signification and application whereof I leave to every Reader to make Only his deportment towards the Albigenses is storied to be rabying against whom he so Preached adeo quidem ut câ—ntum haereticorum millia uh octo Millibus catholicorum fusa intersercta fuisse perhibeantur saith one of him and of those who became Captives 180 were Burnt to Death the first Example that I find in the Church of Rome of putting Dissenting Bretheren to Death Of this order was this precious Inquisitor Jacomello to Arms alleadging for their Justification that Magistrates were set over them by God and themselves for the good and behoof of the Governed and not the Governed Ordained for the Lusts of Magistrates to be destroyed and killed at pleasure that their Condition being desperate they might use Arms in their own Defence and that in their Condition their appeal unto Arms was not so much against the Prince as against the Pope who usurped more Authority than did Dejure belong unto him and did also abuse the Authority of their Prince by subtle and crafty seducements for his own sinister ends Hence there were War all this year and part of the next And the Duke having made more than a years tryal to reduce them by Wars and Punishments being therein assisted with Money from the Pope and at last after many Skirmishes an Appeal being made unto the Lord of Hoasts by a formal pitcht Battel the Duke lost 7000 men slew but 14 of his Enemies and tho he did often recruit his Army yet had he always the worst Therefore the Duke wisely considering that he did thereby only make his Subjects the more Warlike and teach and inure them more Stoutly to Offend him Consume his own Country and VVast his Treasury he resolved to receive them into favour and made an agreement with them 5º Junij in which he pardoned all past faults gave them Liberty of Conscience appointed them places where they might meet gave leave to those that were Fled to return and restitution of Goods to those that were Banished Which Agreement very much distasted the Pope that an Italian Prince who had been Assisted by him and might have more need of him should yet permit Hereticks to Live freely in his Territories and for that the example would be urged by greater Princes when they inclined to permit another Religion whereof he bitterly complained in the Consistory comparing the Ministers of the most Catholick King with the Duke who having about the same time discovered 3000 Lutherans who went out of Cosenza and retired themselves to the Mountains to Live according to their Doctrine did Hang some Burn others and put the rest into the Gallies but the Duke justifying his Cause with such Reasons which the Pope not being able to answer did Acquiesce And are not such Councils such Advisocs greater marks of an Hireling or a Butcher than Obedience to the Pope a true Mark of the Church Appello ad Caesarem Deum Deorum Dominum Dominorum qui non accipit personam neque recipit munus 10 of Deut. 17. § About the same time there were great Troubles and Disorders in France for cause of Religion Multitudes disdaining to see poor Innocent Christians drawn every day to the Stake to be Burned Guilty of nothing but of Zeal to Worship God to keep a more intimate near and dear Communion with their God and to fave their own Souls These Humors were not Purged nor yet allaied neither by Punishments nor Pardons proferred and Proclaimed but that greater Tumults were raised in Province Languedoc and Poicton whether the Preachers of Geneva were called and came willingly by whose Sermons the number of the Protestants did daily increase examples of great fear being always joyned with others of equal boldness for the quieting of which Humors Francis the 2d the 11º Aprilis 1559. intimated a National Synod as a proper Remedy But the same Hireling Pius the 4th as before in the cause of the Duke of Savoy did most severely complain that the King had Pardoned Hereticks and Errors committed against Religion wherein none had Power but himself and that he would not by any means Consent to an Assembly of Prelates either in France or elsewhere for that a National Council of that or of any other Kingdom would be a kind of Schism from the universal Church give bad example to other Nations and make Prelates proud assuming greater Authority with Diminution of his own and that to consent to a National Synod was to consent that the Axe should be laid to the Root of the Papacy and that by consequence it was an Alienation from the Apostolick See As if God had not given to every National Church and State all things necessary to Govern themselves by but that they must all run to Rome and Romish Priests for redress nay this good Shepherd commanded his Nuntio to intimate farther to the King that if he would resolve to compel his Subjects by force that he would assist him with all his Power and Labour that the King of Spain and Princes of Italy should do the like But if he refused to compel his Subjects by force then his Nuntio was to insinuate to him that all the mischief and Poyson came from Geneva that the extirpation of that root would take away great part of the nourishments of the Evils that disquieted his Dominions § Dissentions and Troubles Fears and Jealousies still increasing in France the King maugre all the Popes Arguments and Interests called a great Assembly at Fountain Bleau 21 Aug. 1560. who being Petitioned by the Reformatists desired nothing but a moderation of their cruel Punishments and that they might make publick profession of their Religion to avoid suspition which might arise by Conventicles or private Assemblies John Monluc the Bishop of Valence did therein complain that Provision had not been made against them because the Popes had no other aim but to hold the Princes in Wars and the Princes thinking to suppress the Evil with Racks and Tortures having not attained their desired end nor the Magistrates and Bishops justly performed their Duty the principal Remedy was to fly unto God to assemble Godly Men to find a way to root out the Vices of the Clergy to forbid Infamous and Immodest Songs and instead of them to Command the Singing of Psalms and Holy Hymns in the Vulgar Tongue And farther shewed that they did grievously erre who troubled the Publick with Arms upon pretence of Religion and that their error was as great who Condemned to Death those that adhered to the New Doctrine only for the Opinion of Piety During these disorders Francis the first Dying the 5th of Dec. 1560. and Charles the 9th Aged 10 years Succeeding he more like the good Shepherd than he that Styled himself Pius by the mature advice of his Council after Solemn and great Consultations and deliberations about the Troubles and Disorders in
Religion Ordained that all that were in Prison for Religion should be set at Liberty their Processes made void their Offences pardoned and their Goodsrestored and tho the Pope and Parliament did much regret and repine at these Liberties yet in the year 1561. the King by his Edict did Command that no man under pretence of discovering the Congregations for Religion which were forbid should enter with many or few into another Mans House that Prisoners for Religion should be set at Liberty and that those that fled since the time of Francis the 1st might return and repossess their Goods § And in the year 1562. the Queen of Navar Prince of Conde Admiral and the Dutchess of Ferrara having long made request that Places should be allowed to the Huguenots for their Sermons and Worship which being mainly opposed by the Pope and his Papalins Tumults did arise as in other places so more especially in Dyon and Paris most notorious for the Death of many for quieting whereof the King and his Council called the Presidents of all the Parliaments to consider of a remedy that might be sit and Adaequate to the troubles of the whole Kingdom these being all Assembled on the 17th of January it was resolved tho not without great Opposition that the Edict of July should be in part remitted and that the Protestants have leave to exercise their Religion without but not within the City and that they should not be molested in their Sermons and Assemblies Congregated out of the City nor hindred by the Magistrates tho the Magistrates and Officers might be present at their Sermons and Meetings if they pleased Tho the Parliament could hardly be brought to accept of this Edict yet it did take effect and was Published the 6th of March but with this Proviso that it was not to approve the New Religion but only by way of provision until it was otherwise ordained by the King which was soon after For the Enemy of all Righteousness full of all subtilty and all mischief like the Child of the Devil did not cease to pervert the right wayes of the Lord by whose Instigation the Parliament of Paris made a Sanguinary Decree in July following viz. that it should be lawful to slay all the Hugonots which by publick order was to be Read every Sunday in every Parish Thus you see Indulgences have frequently been granted by the Papalins that crudele genus even unto Protestants Hereticks in their esteem when the Peace of the Kingdom and obedience of Subjects become questionable non obstante the Bishop of Rome who cannot think no Persecution severe enough that is less than fire and faggot or what was formerly used against the Albigences of whom Philippus Augustus put to Death 600 in one day and against the Waldenses who were choaked in the Caves whither they fled to hide themselves Herein I desire to be fairly understood that I do not by thus arguing Plead for Tolleration or Connivence towards any Perswasion or Religion who either have no sound Gospel Principles of good Life and good Doctrine or whose Principles and Doctrine are averse and chag-reen to the Publick and Just Interests of States and Kingdoms or whose Morals are like those of the Jesuits or who fail in fundamentals but for those on whom are obtruded or required more performances as necessary than ever God made necessary whereby the Door into the Church and the Gates of Heaven are by the Commands of Men made narrower than ever God made them Opinions and Problems about things indifferent and not fundamental nor yet absolutely necessary ought to keep their just Forms and Bounds and not to be Imposed as Oracles which being of doubtful disputation and the truth of them not to be made evident by any infallible Power of Judicature ought not to be brought into the Family or Tribe of Faith and therefore not to be obtruded or Imposed necessarily because they cannot be made clear Infallibly and because they have no Warrant from Scripture so to do Some Doctrines are absolutely necessary others as clearly not necessary let those be urged as necessary these only left to Men indifferently because indeterminate by Scripture Both Governors and Governed are like Men and subject to like Passions and Biasses peevishness and Impatience of Contradiction or Glory of Conquest may bear sway in either the best of Men are but Men at the best To be free from all Ignorance and error is the great Priviledge of the Church Triumphant when our Faith shall be turned into vision and our dark knowledge into clear Comprehension and therefore to expect an absolute and general assent in all particles of truth is a marvelous Vanity and to exact it a greater Tyranny of pernitious Consequence in the Church Heretofore Wise Princes unless some times over born by the unreasonable importunities of proud and haughty Popes and Prelates indulged Tolleration unto dissenting Brethren whose opinions did not disturb the Publick Peace and Interest of Nations And these latter Ages have given us an undeniable Argument from the good success thereof not without this great reason that prudent Indulgence doth not disturb but secure publick Peace because by so doing there is not so much as the pretence of Religion left to make quarrels withal because it is indulged unto them see the fruits of it in our neighbour Nations whilst France fought against the Hugonots it did but spill her own blood exhaust her own Treasure weaken her own strength and could do no great things abroad but becoming wiser how powerful at home how formidable abroad both by Sea and Land I need not tell but the most remarkable instance is to be collected from the different success of the different tempers of Margaret of Parma in the Government of the Neatherlands and the Duke de Alva when she by her moderation and Clemency had almost quencht the great fire and flame therein kindled He her Successor in that Government managed it with that fury that it proved too hot both for him his Prince and his Religion to abide it He did not consider him that said Fury is not in me 27 of Esay 4th and where is the Fury of the oppressor 51 of Isa 13. him that loveth Violence his Soul hateth 11 Psal 5th for thy Violence against thy Brother Jacob shame shall cover thee and thou shalt be cut off for ever Obad 10. For the Dukelike Jehu most furiously did drive on the designs concluded on at Bajon for the extirpation of the Protestant Religion § Some others not Papalins nor yet Phanaticks are much against any Connivence and not altogether without some shew of reason As that to give Dissenters satisfaction in some requests will but give them encouragement and pretence to prepare more and to think they are their due and that it is easier and more secure to deny their demands than being once gratified tho but in part to prescribe them a measure or a Non Vltra and that the granting
home Friends and good Friends I hope tho of different perswasions having had no greater design than by modest arguing to discover which of those several Doctrines and Practices they would severally obtrude upon us are most true It is all one to me which are the truest Opinions so I could be so happy as to know the right that I might be certain to embrace them and them only Having I say thus done with our Friends at home I am now to parly and combat more particularly with a very strange Generation of Men Men who tho very quick sighted yet will not see will not understand be the Evidence of the truth never so demonstrative What hope can mortal wights have to prevail with them who prevaricate with God himself under pretence of a Spirit Infallible and unerring So that the Popes sence of Scripture must without examinations be submitted unto tho he Interpret and Act contrary to the very plain words and Texts of Scripture and contrary to our very Sences witness their Prayers and Services in an unknown Tongue contrary to the very words whole Scope and design of the fourteenth Chapter of the First of Corinthians Concil Lateranens verum Christi corpu◠Sanguis c witness also their believing and maintaining the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist to be the very Flesh and Blood of Christ's Body contrary to our very Sences and not the Sences of a few but of all the Christian World for 1600 years together and this forsooth must be done under the notion of a Miracle of Transubstantiation by the miraculous omnipotent power of God who yet never revealed that he would Juggle with his People by any Dedalean Jugling Arts and alwayes practised the clean contrary and therefore to believe this to be done by a Miracle is to believe it a Miracle contrary to the very nature of all the Miracles that ever God wrought For the true nature of a Miracle is to make that evident to our very Senses which no reason can Fathom or comprehend and such were all Gods Miracles viz. the standing still of the Sun in Joshua 10.12 13. The going back of the Sun ten Degrees in the Sun-dial of Ahaz Isay 38.8 The dividing of the Water and making them to stand on an heap that they might be a Sanctuary unto Israel and to return again to be a Grave unto Egypt Exod. 15.8 the dry and the wet Fleece Judges 6.37.40 the preserving of the Three Children in the fiery Furnace Daniel 3. so that the fire had no power over their bodies not so much as a hair of their heads singed or their Coats changed or so much as the smell of fire had passed upon them and yet consumed their Persecutors in the sight of them all The delivery of Daniel out of the Lions Den which yet brake all the bones of his accusers in pieces or ever they came to the bottom of the Den Dan. 6. was it ever known that a man born blind was made to see John 9. or that the dead were raised Yet did Christ cure the blind raised the dead caused the dead Stones of the Temple to rend in sunder and put blackness on the face of the Sun at mid-day All these indeed have the true nature of Miracles and were made manifest to the very sences of those Nations where they were wrought and were not otherwise to be made credible But to believe Bread to be Flesh and Wine to be Blood participates more with Hocus Pocus with the Art of Jugling than of doing Miracles What is this but to be bruitish in knowledg they will not understand Is not this to reproach their Maker that when he hath given them eyes and ears and reasonable Souls that they will yet neither see nor hear nor understand Have you not read the four and fortieth of Isay describing the Sottish dotage of Idolatrous Jews He burneth part thereof in the fire with part thereof he eateth flesh he rosteth rost and is satisfied he warmeth himself and the residue thereof he maketh a God even his Graven Image he falleth down to it and worshipeth it and prayeth unto it and saith Deliver me for thou art my God And none considereth in his heart neither is there knowledge or understanding to say I have burnt part thereof in the fire I have baked on the Coals thereof I have roasted flesh and eaten thereof and shall I make the residue thereof an Abomination Shall I fall down to the Stock of a Tree A deceived heart hath turned him aside Praetiosa grandia sonant veri effoeta defendunt Deum loquuntur simulachra Adorant Ambres ad Symachum § Is Romish Infatuation less Semble and fancy to your selves a Papist prostrate before his breaden God At which Hildebrand so strangely angry for that he answers not how the Emperor Henry the Fourth might be destroyed throws him into the fire Benno Vrsperg Math. Paris He knows it to be the Art of the Confectioner the Composition of the Baker Valera 66. sees toucheth tasteth it Bread and Wine cannot be ignorant goes out at the draught yet adores it prayeth unto it saying deliver me for thou art my God so fast glewed are their eyes that they will not see so obdurate are their hearts they will not understand Like may be observed in many other their absurd opinions contrary to sence reason all sound Authority and what not Why thus infatuated Why thus seduced by Antichristian Mystery Why thus given up to strong delusions to Infatuation and besottedness so great as that errors palpable and such as may be felt are entertained for truth And why so stiff and perverse in adhering to them so incorrigible that no perswasion nor affrightment from God or Man can reclaim them from The reason is assigned viz. because they will not receive the love of the Truth that they might be saved 2 Thes 2.10 what hope have I then to perswade or convince whom neither Evidence of Scripture nor demonstration of Sences nor Suffrage of Antientest Fathers nor Consent of most Antient Councils nor blood of Martyrs nor Sword of Magistrates nor discovery of Antichrist nor consumption of his Kingdom or I am perswaded ruine of that Babylon can win from palpablest errors § Though all the wisest and most sober men of the World have ever taught that Kingdoms Cities Companies cannot long continue nor prosper where Religion and Piety are slighted or neglected yet there are some and those no small Fools though great Wits in their own esteem who have so little of the fear of God before their eyes that they think that Princes are so much the more firm and established in their Thrones by how much more ignorant and wicked their Subjects are and Religion vilified and set at naught because say they they are thereby more proper and as it were born to Servitude and the Yoak Patientiores servitutis quos non decet nisi esse servos Plin. Pan. when as the contrary is
were altogether unacquainted with the Doctrines of Ecclesiastical greatness Liberties or Licence rather Immunities and Jurisdictions that are now claimed by the now degenerate and Bastardized Romanists who tho of Rome yet are not true Romanists indeed who under a Spiritual pretence but with a secret ambitious end and desire of Worldly Wealth and Domination would free themselves from the obedience due unto the Prince and by false insinuations take away the love and reverence due by the people unto their Prince and cement it unto themselves And to bring these things to pass they have lately invented a Doctrine of Vniversal Monarchy and have erected an Order of Jesuits and a Court of Inquisition whose main concern and design is to maintain the Popes Power to be above that of Kings which Doctrine was unheard of till the dayes of Hildebrand I. Gregory the Seventh 1073. neither is there any Book found concerning it till about the year 1300. then did they begin to write of it scatteringly Vide Gold astum but there were not above two Books which treated of nothing else but this until about the year 1400. and three until the year 1500. after this the number encreased a little but it was tolerable But after the year 1560. this Doctrine began to encrease in such manner that they gave over writing of other Doctrines and little was printed in Italy but Books in diminution of Secular Authority and exaltation of the Ecclesiastical The Confessors likewise need no other learning to be approved of whence is universally spread a perverse opinion that Princes and Magistrates are humane Inventions yea and Tyrannical that they ought only by compulsion to be obeyed that the disobeying of Laws and defrauding the Publick Revenues is no sin and he that doth not pay if he can but fly from it remains not guilty before God And contrarywise that every beck of Ecclesiastical persons without any other thought ought to be taken for a Divine Precept and binds the conscience And this Doctrine above all others is the chiefest cause of most or of all the Inconveniencies which have happened in these latter Ages In Italy Books that defend the Princes Temporal Authority and affirm that Ecclesiastical Persons are also subject to publick Constitutions and punishable if they violate the publick tranquillity these are condemned Books and suppressed more than any others They have gelded the Books of Antient Authors by new Printing of them and taken out all which argue or plead for Temporal Aurhority so that if in Authors we find no good Doctrine favouring Temporal Authority we know who hath taken it away If we find any that exalteth the Ecclesiastical we know who hath put it in and in truth we can be assured of the truth of no Book that hath been under their censures And it is also most evident that those who desire to have an unquestionable liberty to brand the lawful Temporal Power and that Doctrine which opposeth it self to their attempts with the name of Tyranny do design that under pretence of Religion they may become Arbitrators of all Government From henceforth these Doctrines and Tenets did wonderfully increase and multiply spawning out others as prodigious and Monstrous as themselves so that in the Sixteenth Century and in the dayes of Paul the Fifth more especially they arrived unto most admirable perfection for in his dayes Books were Printed as one well observes by hundreds Padre Paolo nay by thousands the purports of which being summarily collected by a diligent Observator and Contemporary of the same time he hath Recorded them to be that the Temporal Power of Princes is subordinate to the Power Ecclesiastical and subject to it consequently that the Pope hath Authority to deprive Princes of their Estates for their faults and errors which they commit in Government yea tho they have not committed any fault when the Pope shall judge it fit for the good of the Church that the Pope may free Subjects from their obedience and from their fidelity which they owe unto their Princes in which case they are obliged to cast off all subjection and even to pursue the Prince if the Pope command it and altho they all agreed to hold these maximes yet they were not all at Accord touching the manner for they that were touched with a little shame said so great an Authoriy did not reside in the Pope because Jesus Christ had not given him any Temporal Authority but because this was necessary for the Spiritual Wherefore Jesus Christ giving Spiritual Authority had given also indirectly the Temporal which was a vain shift seeing they made no other difference than of words But the greater part of these men spake plainly that the Pope hath all Authority in Heaven and Earth both Spiritual and Temporal over all Princes of the World no otherwise than over his Subjects and Vassals that he might correct them for any fault whatsoever that he is a Temporal Monarch over all the Earth that from any Temporal Soveraign Prince men might appeal to the Pope that he might give Laws to all Princes and annul those which were made by them for the exemption of Ecclesiasticks they all with one voice denied that they held it by the Grace and Priviledges of Princes altho their Laws to that purpose Constitutions and Priviledges be yet extant but they were not agreed how they had received it some of them affirming that it was de Jure Divino others that it came by constitutions of Popes and Councils But all consented upon this that they are not subject to the Prince no not in case of Treason and that they are not bound to obey the Laws unless it were vi directivâ And some passed so far as to say that the Ecclesiasticks ought to examine whether the Laws and Commands of the Prince be just and whether the People be obliged to obey them and that they owe not unto the Prince either contributions customs or obedience that the Pope cannot erre or fail because he hath the assistance of the Holy Spirit and therefore that it is necessary to obey his Commandments whether they be just or unjust That to him appertains the clearing of all difficulties so as it is not lawful for any to depart from his resolution nor to make reply tho the resolution be unjust That tho all the World differ in opinion from the Pope yet it is meet nevertheless to yield to him and he is not excused from sin who follows not his advice tho all the World judge it to be false Their Books were full also of such other Maxims that the Pope is a God upon Earth a Son of Justice a light of Religion that the Judgment of God and the Pope is one and the same thing as also the Tribunal and the Court of the Pope and God That to doubt of the Power of the Pope is as much as to doubt of the Power of God And it is notable what Cardinal Bellarmine hath
this Life and in that which is to come meer Vassals they and their Subjects likewise in no better condition than the Sheep in Demosthenes where the Dogs were to be banished and the Wolves to be their Guardians for they endeavor to make the World believe that they have power over their Souls and Bodies at their pleasure both in this Life and after Death These have been the Collections and Observations of Fra. Paolo and other learned and faithful Writers and eye-witnesses The best is Ab initio non fuit sie there are no such Doctrines in Bibliis Sacris but the contrary And our Doctrines concerning these points and indeed our Religion is the same which is contained in the Scriptures in General Councils and in the Fathers of the First Three I might say Five Ages which have not been purified in their Purgatory their Indices expurg and agrees with the Articles of Faith and only differs in those which they have lately invented and added which he that examines them one by one shall find that none of them make for the Glory of God but all for the Increase of the Grandeur Wealth worldly Power and Jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Order so that in truth the true Roman Religion such as it was in the dayes of the Apostles and some Centuries next succeeding is insensibly but manifestly Bastardized and become spurious at Rome and all reduced to a new fashioned Religion which chiefly if not only makes for the pomp and Interest of the Court of Rome So that in truth these latter Popes are no more nor otherwise the true Possessors or Successors of St. Peter's Doctrines at Rome than the Grand Signior is of the Doctrines of St. James's at Jerusalem or of St. Paul's in those famous Churches of Asia In the dayes of Sixtus Quintus that Great Prince there lived in Italy that famous Alchymist and Impostor Nick-named Mamugna who was verily believed that he could make Gold not by the Vulgar only but by Cardinals Princes nay by the Pope himself One more wise and more merry than the rest habiting himself like this famous Alchymist went up and down the City of Venice in a Gondelo well fraught with a Cargo of fire Bellows Crucible Glasses c. crying Al Magmugna A tre lire il soldo del loro sino who buyes a shillings worth of pure Gold for nine pence which being told the Turkish Chiaus made this short answer Il gran signore dumque verra a servirlo if he can make Gold the Great Turk shall come to be his Servant I shall make no other Application or inference of this Mountebank Story than what is natural qui vult decipi decipiatur if Princes will be content to let false and base Coin go for currant be it so But in truth all the Papalins were not of the same mind and opinions with those famous Cardinals and Jesuits the Popes Partisans nor with the Court of Rome but Books were Printed Pro and Con by Papalins themselves in great numbers For besides the Papalins within the State of Venice the Sorbonists were very Orthodox and maintained the Defence of the lawful Secular Power opposing themselves against the Usurpations of Rome and maintaining the Liberty of the Gallican Church for that Kingdom holds it for a matter most certain and apparent that Popes have no power over Princes and that they ought not to proceed by Censures against them or their Officers in things which concern the State And as soon as the King knew of the publication of the Monitory at Rome he complained greatly of the too hasty proceedings of the Pope and sent a dispatch to him with speed requesting him to accommodate the differences The King of Polonia absolutely denyed the publishing of the Popes Monitory for that it did not stand with reason to govern themselves after another fashion towards that Republick of Venice whose Cause was common with his own Kingdom The Catholick King of Spain on whom the Pope relyed for Succors for that he had sometime before made liberal offers unto His Holiness from which he retreated in time of necessity and advised him to neglect his own private Interests for the universal good of Christendom and said that it did not beseem the Father of all Christendom to ground a War so cruel and pernitious to Christian People upon a King so pious and that His Holiness would abase the Apostolick Dignity if he sustained by humane means the Authority which God had given him Quarrels of Paul the Fifth pag. 374 375 376. Thus you see Rome it self divided the Pope and Court of Rome differing in this their greatest point and Diana Jurisdiction both from the old and from the more Novel Church of Rome as well as from that of the Church of the Protestants And thus you may perceive the unquiet and uncertain State that all Princes are like to be in and their Condition never like to be better whilst such monstrous State-destroying-Principles are held for Gospel at Rome For it matters not whether these Doctrines are true or false or received and believed by others or no nor yet whether Protestants or Papists it is all a case so long as so believed at Rome You see the State of Venice a Popish Republick no more safe nor quiet than England a Protestant Kingdom Had the Popes Swords been keen and powerful enough no doubt but that they would have brought both those States in their respective differences and quarrels as once Frederick Barbarossa the Emperor to that Brute Alexander the Third creeping on their knees to obtain Absolution from their Sentences of Excommunication or as Henry the Fourth whom Hildebrand would not release from his Excommunication till he came bare-foot to Canusium in a bitter cold Winter waiting three dayes before the Popes Palace for his Absolution which he hardly obtained by the Intercession of the Dutchess Matilda The Pope besides that he is the Head of Romish Religion is also a Prince who hath for more than 600 years by past aspired to the Monarchy of all Italy at least I might say at an universal Monarchy Temporal and Spiritual which he hath been some time so near to obtain that it is a wonder that he hath misled of it seeing he leaves no stone unturned quacunque arte to enlarge his Jurisdiction He hath three great charges upon him 1. That of Religion 2. That of Ecclesiastical affairs 3. The Temporalty of his Estate The care of all which I shall not grudge him as of right belonging unto him in one or other of his Capacities so he kept within his own Dominions and Territories tho happily all of the Romish Religion will not allow him so much for that all Bishops ought to be governed by the Canons and in which both Pope and all Bishops antiently in the best and purest dayes did acknowledge the Supream power to be to which they all submitted and not by the Pope alone there being also three kinds of
England and letting John see the danger he was in advised him to become the Popes Foedatary John enforced by the present peril accepted the advice and made his Kingdom Tributary to the Pope to pay him yearly 1000 Marks of Gold Pandulphus hereupon returned into France and commanded Philip upon pain of Excommunication that he should molest John no longer as being now become the Foedatary of the Church but Philip refused to obey and the War continued whereupon in the year 1215. in the Council of Lateran Pope Innocent sent out an Excommunication against all those that molested John King of England And for that Cause in the year 1216. Another Legate called Guallo went to Paris who by vertue of that Sentence of Excommunication commanded Philip and Lewis his Son to forbear to pass with an Army into England which they were then prepared to do But notwithstanding all this Lewis desisted not but entred John's Kingdom with a great power altho the same Guallo was gone over into England and there ceased not dayly to thunder out his Excommunications This War continued unto the death of John after which Lewis had gotten many places of that Kingdom into his hands made Truce for five years with Henry the Son of John who succeeded his Father Thus you see how the very Holiness of Rome can Handy Dandy play fast and loose with Kings themselves § Concerning the desperate damnable Doctrines of this Chapter Novit little ought to be said for that they rather deserve a Spunge than an answer to be obliterated out of all Records minds and memories and because Gabriel Biel a man of their own Leaven hath taken great pains on that Can. Lec 75. to give some tollerable interpretation but can find none but this viz. that this Decretal and all other of the same tenor must be understood in foro poenitentiae A lame shift to help a lame Dog over a stile But Bellarmine will not be so consined he will extend it farther Frier Paolo and mark what follows even according to men of Rome that whoever will affirm as Bellarmine doth that they are to be understood in foro exteriori shall have much ado to avoid the absurdities and the utter overthrow of the Secular Power ordained of God and the confusion of the World which will arise out of these Doctrines For his purpose is to conclude that where Princes use their Power to the hurt of their own Souls or their Peoples and to the prejudice of Christian Religion the Pope may take the matter in hand to redress it If this must go for currant Doctrine mark what will follow viz. There is no action of man in Individuo but it is either a good work or it is a sin Now if it belongs to the Pope to exercise Jurisdiction over all Sins and withall to take upon him to determine what is sin and what not I say there is no longer any Prince but the Pope nay farther there is no place left for any private Government In sum the Pope may by this Doctrine examine all Laws all Edicts all Parliaments all Councils all Successions all Translation of Princes he may call in question and examine all Inheritances and Contracts of all private Men all Marriages all Treatises of Peace and War between Prince and Prince because it belongs to the Shepherd to have a care of his Sheep And this inference doth not only necessarily follow of this supposition but it is also allowed by the Canonists that write upon that Chapter Novit And yet nevertheless have the wisest men and of the most understanding noted and taxed it to be full of Absurdities which to avoid some have out of that Chapter Novit framed a distinction where there can be none viz. that it is one thing to judge of the matter or of the Action or of the contract and another to judge of the sin for if it be the Pope's right to judge of all things as they are sins and to forbid them and to enforce all men to obey his determinations therein what is there more left then for the Prince to do Not one of Democritus's Moats for Bellarmine hath taught us a very general Doctrine that to judge whether any Law contain in it sin or not it belongs to the Pope as it belongs to the Ecclesiastical Judge to determine whether a Civil Contract contain in it the sin of Vsury Hence it will necessarily follow Che il giudicare st una lege centient pâ—ccato è pregiudicio alla chiâ—â—a tocca alt ' isteslo sommo Pontifice che è gindice supren o si come il giudlcare se un contratto civile contengo peccato di usura appertiene al medisimo Giudice Ecclesiallico quals appertient la cognitione de i pâ—ccati f. 330 331. that not only the Pope but every Ecclesiastical Judge shall have Power to determine all matters for it can belong no more to him to judge whether a Contract offend in Usury than whether it contain any other wrong or Injury to his neighbor for all that do so are sins as well as the other And by the same reason it will belong to the Ecclesiastical Judge to determine of all manner of sin And in brief because there is no Action or Affair either Publick or Private whereunto sin is not Incident if it shall be in the Power of the Ecclesiastical Judge to determine and judge of it and either to allow it or forbid it and to enforce obedience to his own determinations All transactions about Contracts all Courts of Justice and all private Families may well be transferred into the Bishops Palace good grist to that Mill But the true Christian Doctrine and the common practice all the World over avoids all these absurdities subjecting all Crimes and Offences unto the Temporal Jurisdiction according to the example of Christ and his Apostles who never pretended to have or exercise any Temporal coertion or coactive Authority over mens sins And if the Pope were Christ's true Vicar indeed he would never usurp more than ever Christ exercised himself or gave him Authority to do The main business of Peter and of the rest of the Apostles was to Teach and Preach dayly in the Temple and in every House Jesus Christ Acts 5.42 Thus you see that these very Doctrines contained in the Chapter Novit need little of our Confutation it is done to our hands by several of themselves and according to their own St. Thomas they are too general because there must be excepted all internal motions of the mind whereof the Pope hath no power at all to judge unless it be in foro Poenitentiae in which also every Priest hath equal power with himself no pleasing Doctrine at Rome and of this sort are the greatest number of sins And their own Divines and Canonists do generally agree that in the Excommunications granted against Hereticks those are not comprized which err mentally so that they which attempt to defend as
Lord and the Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost v. 19. and non obstante to avoid Fornication Marriage was Ordained 1 Cor. 7.2 can they be so ignorant trow you as not to know that our Bodies are the Members of Christ or can they be so peerlesly wicked as to justifie the making of the Members of Christ to be the Members of an Harlot Know they not that he which is joyned to an Harlot is one Body 1 Cor. 6.15 16. and yet such are they and such are their Abominations All this and much more non obstante Fornication is enrolled in that black and dismal Catalogue Gal. 5.19 with those horrid sins of Murder Idolatry witch-craft c. which all Nations abhor and make Laws against and tho branded with the dismal irreversible decree that such shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 1 Cor. 6.9 and non obstante we are commanded to mortifie the very lusts thereof Colos 3.5 and non obstante the variety of Judgments for the guilt thereof shews its hainousness viz. wast of goods Job 31.12 blemish of name Prov. 6.33 rottenness of bones Hos 4.11 hardness of heart and plagues of all sorts threatned to deter us And non obstante executions of such Judgments have been grievous on Sodom the old World Israelites of whom there fell in one day 23000. 1 Cor. 10.8 and Sodom and Gomorrha are set for an example suffering the vengeance of Eternal Fire for giving themselves over to Fornication Jude 7. nay fire and Brimstone hath not to this very day so cleansed Sodom and Gomorrha of it but that the venom thereof still appears there in a poysonous and stinking Lake A sin which the Lord hath severely threatned grievously punished from Heaven cursed to the Pit of Hell and yet generally reckoned by our Holy Fathers at Rome amongst Leviora delicta venial sins tho it brought in the Flood upon the World of the ungodly Gen. 6. Fire and Brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrha Pestilence on Israel Besides this mischief naturally attends this sin more especially above others viz. those sins are most dangerous that are most delightsome in which this sin hath a more principal and natural share above others because the affections are most ravished and held captive by it above others which made Solomon who was first luxurious then slackned devotion then tollerated the Idolatries of his strange Wives say of Harlots their Hearts are Snares and their hands are bands Eccl. 7.26 so easily are men ensnared so hardly rescued being once bewitched and Captivated by Harlotish and Adulterous embraces This is not all they are not content to allow of Fornication but also with the Apostolici old Hereticks of Pisidia 255 years and those other Haeretici Origiani 274 years after Christ to condemn and prohibit Marriage whilst they with them committed all uncleanness and silthiness and Pelagius Anno 578. Bishop of Rome Decreed that Sub-deacons should leave their Wives or their Offices the like was practiced here in Queen Maries dayes Bonner's Orders are yet extant whereby the Clergy were appointed to bring their Wives within a Fortnight that they might likewise be divorced from them as they were deprived of their Livings and Benefices and this done non obstante St. Paul hath declared Marriage Honorable in All and the Bed undefiled but Whore-mongers and Adulterers God will Judge departing from Faith and giving heed to seducing Spirits speaking Lyes in Hypocrisie having their consciences scared with a hot Iron The whole Bulk and Body of Romish Religion being but a Dunghill of Lyes the greatest and most Catholick Heresie in the World an intire Apostacy from Gospel truths not worthy the name of Religion nor to be mentioned with that civility as is decent to be used in Disputes about Religion Bethel being now become Bethauen once a Faithful City now become the Mother of Fornications and of all abominations of the Earth having forsaken her first love commanding to abstain from meats as the Pope doth which God hath created to be received with Thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth All which Doctrines are stigmatized by Paul himself for Doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. and therefore I hope I shall not be thought falsly to Calumniate them whilst I only with St. Paul paint them and their Off-spring their Lineage and Parentage To these give farther Testimony their prohibiting their Laity to read the Bible in their own Tongue acknowledged by all to be from Heaven and the only record by which poor mortal Wights can lay any claim to their Inheritance in Heaven and yet at the same time sequestring in into the hands and management of Priests Participes Criminis the better to keep the Laity ignorant of their Impostures and cheats which as St. Paul said to Timothy who had known them from a Child are able to make wise unto Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 And Paul hath written the whole 14. Chap. 1 Cor. designed to demonstrate the impossibility of Edification without understanding And yet so notoriously Impudent and Blasphemous have some of Rome's Janizaries been as scurrillously and disdainfully to call the Scriptures a Dumb a Pighius 3. de Hier. Eccl. Judge a Black b Eccius Gospel Inken Dignity and that the People wâ—re permitted to read the Bible was the Invention of the c Peres de tradit par assert 3. Devil That if they were not supported by the Authority of the Church they were of no more value than Aesop 's d V. Chemnit ex 5. can p. 47. Fables And therefore they have placed the Bible in the Front of Prohibited Books and thereby in as much as in them lieth taken away the Key of knowledge from the Laiety What is this less or other than Blasphemously to make God I tremble to mention it that D. For if to permit the People to read the Bible be the invention of the Devil what must then be the Conclusion For all the World knows 2 Tim. 3.16 John 5.39 Acts 17.11 that all Scripture was given by the Inspiration of God and that Christ himself commanded all to search the Scriptures and the Bereans were esteemed more noble than those of Thessalonica because they dayly searched the Scriptures And that all the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament were written for the use of all the World tho more particularly directed to the Romans Corinthians c. and recommended to all to read Then what the undeniable Conclusion from such premisses must be I tremble to name Of the same Father the Devil is their prohibiting the Cup to the Laity tho Christ Instituted and commanded all to eat the Bread and drink the Cup Matth. 26.26 Mark 14.23 Nay they themselves confessing in the very Body of the Canon it self at Trent 21. Sess c. 1.2 that altho at the beginning of Christian Religion the Communion of both kinds was very much used yet the Holy Mother or rather Step-dame hath decreed that it
Pyramids erected with Superscriptions for their perpetual infamy and Banishment not only demolished and solemn Laws ordained against them revoked but to prevail to be re-admitted nay so re-established and re-ingratiated as to become their Chief Preachers Confessors Favorites and fully so to possess themselves of their hearts and affections as they have been and still are in Popish Nations and Courts and Prime Ministers of all affairs I am half perswaded that tho the Four Evangelists should rise from the dead and become Competitors for the more special favors of those Kings and States with whom the Jesuits have got their Sure-sooting that they would yet keep themselves Chief Lords of their Ascendents and lead them Captive as they use to do Not to trouble you with many Stories Pierre Cotton Confessor to Henry the Fourth of France that great Prince may suffice whence grew that Proverb amongst them Les Oreilles du Roy sont Buschees de Cotton The Kings eares are stopt with Cotton And that Pasquill Le Roy ne scauroit fair un Pas Que le Pere Cotton l'accompane Mais le bon sire ne scait pas Que le sin Cotton vient de espagne The King no where can step a Foot But Father Cotton finds him out Yet the good King is not aware That fine Cotton is Spanish ware To which I shall add the Quadrane to the Queen Regent If you desire your state continue may Then chase these evil Tygers far away Who cutting their Kings life Apart Are their own paymasters with his Heart This most excellent faculty of theirs puts me in mind of the man in the Parabâ—e â—â—t of whom an unclean Spirit having been cast Mat. 12. Luke 11. and after long wa◠〈…〉 finding no rest took with him seven other Spirits more wicked than hâ—â—sâ—â—f of and returned into the same House from whence he came out and finding it swept and garnished entred and dwelt there whereby the last estate of that man became worse than the first § Si fas sit divinare may we not probably conjecture that Confession tho insignificant in it self yet by the most excellent management of those of the Church of Rome together with some apprehensions on one side and happily some Menaces on the other of being sent the same way after their Predecessors to be one of their chief Charmes For tho Confession practised as it ought may be both convenient and useful yet that it cannot be performed but by a Priest is besides all reason and common sense It is storied that if a man struck with a Scorpion Plin. lib. 28. c. 10. do immediately whisper it in the ear of an Ass he shall find sudden ease A story as credible as that without Confession to a Priest no Absolution can ensue The Common-law of Nature and Civil Law of Man kind teacheth that unto every man justly offended satisfaction is justly due Our neighbor is satisfied by Confession and Restitution of the wrong done to the offended without the help of a Priest And if a Priest do wrong to one of his Parishioners the Priest is obliged to Confess to him and not to his fellow-Priest and Absolution will follow accordingly If a Prince offend or wrong but one of his Black Guard and he confess and restore the wrong done to him he hath more Authority to forgive and absolve him V. p. 96 97. than all the Popes and Priests of Rome Confess and Absolve as they please I know they pretend Scripture to justifie their insignificant Sacramental Confession there being nothing of a Sacrament in it but their ill hap is such that there is not one plain Text in all the Bible that warrants it and therefore they fly unto conjectural consequences in which they have the same ill fate for that the Premises cannot possibly yield the Conclusions they draw from them Besides they would very much oblige us if they would but impart unto us any good intent they have or possibly can have to pry into other mens bosom-sins when they do no way concern them nor can they remedy or pardon them more than any other private man He that confesseth to God and forsaketh his sins they are forgiven whether a Priest be concerned therein or not and without forsaking confess or not confess no Pardon ensues Scire secreta domus cannot then be to any good intent and can only be designedly to make themselves Masters of the very souls and bodies lives and fortunes of the confessed that they may lead them Captive at their pleasure to accomplish their own wicked designs tho to Hell it self in pursuit of them And to make Confession yet a more compleat Instrument and Mystery of Iniquity they pin and hang upon it another Buckram Sacrament of Penance by which the worst and vilest sins that are may be pardoned on very easie terms and then who that can be perswaded to believe these Doctrines will not adventure to kill Kings or do any thing that is worse if worse can be When on a slight Confession and as slight a Penance they shall as easily be absolved by those that set them a work Sad and lamentable examples liereof were Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth of France brave Princes fearless and undaunted in War and in all Heroick Actions how difficult soever yet cow'd daunted and Butcher'd by these men notwithstanding their compliances with them changed the best Religion in the World in which they had been brought up and imbraced the worst even Romish Superstitions to gratifie them designing thereby to save their lives but in vain Whereas Elizabeth Queen of England professed the same Religion they were brought up in withstood the Papists to their faces and notwithstanding all their Dags and Daggers dyed in Peace and in her Bed full of dayes and full of Honour Besides Henry the Fourth did not only change his Religion but recalled the Jesuits solemnly banished by the first seat of Justice with the Erection of a Pillar with Inscriptions to their perpetual Infamy readmitted them into his very bosom gave them his House at Le Fleshe for a Colledge with indowments and all this contrary to the advice of the Duke of Sully giving no other reason than demanding then security for his life What got he by all these favors First a stab in the mouth by Chastel then a stab to his heart by Ravilliac plain demonstration that no obligations can secure against their Butcheries And which is yet more wonderful that after this dismal fatal blow that Pierre Cotton Confessor to the said Henry the Fourth his Declaratory Letter to the Queen Regent Apologizing for the Jesuits did more prevail with her for favoring of the Jesuits than the Refutation of that Letter and the Supplication of the University of Paris against them and the Discourse to the Lords of Parliament touching the very Murder of the said Henry the Great all demonstrably proving the Jesuits to have been the Plotters and Contrivers of
in vogue and as prevalent amongst them as ever And is it now time a day to plead for favors connivences and Indulgences for such a Generation of such Hellish-minded and Principled men after so many more fresh diabolical contrivances and plottings now in agitation against King and Kingdom Laws Liberties Religion what not And suffer our selves to be wheedled into compliance and association with them upon what C. H. H. and E. C. write or what Rome dreads men famous indeed in their Generation the one for Antient Noble Birth the other for plotting his own and the King and Kingdoms ruine but he was snared by the work of his own hands and in the Net that he made was his own foot taken and so let all the implacable and irreconcileable Enemies of God and the King be snared Very pretty a very fine whim to make all England as very Mungril-Christians as Rome it self like those of Samaria who feared God yet served Idols and like those of Israel who swear by the Lord and Melcom their right hand of Fellowship being but the right hand of falsehood Psalm 144.8 11. that they may be snares and traps unto us Is this the way for the Sons of God to purifie themselves even â—s he is pure and to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect 1 John 3.3 Is it not rather to toss us to and fro like Children and to carry us about with every wind of Doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive Eph. c. 14. is it not rather to pervert the right wayes of the Lord and to invite us to joyn in Abominations with other men Is this the right way and method to hold the Mystery of Faith 〈…〉 consciences And to keep our selves unspotted of the world 1 Tim. â— â— 2 James 15 16 17. and pure by not pertaking of other mens sins 2 Timothy 5.22 Whence is this wisdom which is not pure but Sensual Earthly Devillish No better than Jeroboam's Politick device of setting up two Calves in Dan and Bethel The narrow rules of the Apostles viz. to abstain from all 〈◊〉 of evel to resist unto blood striving against sin will not allow 〈◊〉 dâ—â—bing with such untempered Morter 〈◊〉 the ill consequences and fruits of this wisdom this Politick 〈…〉 First We hazzard our selves and Posterity to Infection 〈…〉 5 6 13. A little Leaven leaveneth the whole lump 2. Unto the â—â—ath of God Come out of her my People that ye be not partakers of her â—â—ns and that ye receive not of her Plagues Apoc. 18.4 3. We hazard and encourage even the Papalins themselves to obstinate Impiety 4. We blemish our own sincerity and heavenly-mindedness 5. Quantum in nobis we encourage others to the like Linsey-wolsey-medly-mongril-worship Saints of old were more scrupulous more wary David would not sit with vain Persons neither would he go in with Dissemblers but hated the Congregation of evil doers and would not sit with the wicked Psalm 26.4 5. so Jeremy sate not in the Assembly of Mockers nor rejoyced Jer. 15.17 The Lord himself commanded that if any Person Son Brother Daughter the Wife of thy bosom or thy Friend which is as thy own soul shall intice to Idolatry as by sad experience we know they dayly do Importunately Indefatigably or any City shall set up a new Worship the one shall he killed the other destroyed Deut. 13.6.9.13.15 and the undoubted Precept is to separate the pretious from the vile and let them return unto thee but return thou not to them Jer. 15.19 the Gospel confirms the same is it possible that righteousness can have Fellowship with unrighteousness or that light should have communion with darkness Or can Christ have concord with Belial Or can the Temple of God have Agreement with Idols 2 Cor. 6.15 which Temple we are wherefore come out from among them and be separate v. 16.17 And in truth what is it less or other than to have Fellowship with Devils 1 Cor. 10.20 David expelled not courted the Idolatrous Jebusites out of Jerusalem 2 Sam. 5.8 Asa put Maacha his Mother from her Regiment because she was an Idolatress and brake down her Idols 2 Chron. 15.16 the Law was Thou shalt make no Covenant with them nor with their Gods they shall not dwell in thy Land lest they make thee sin against me Exod. 23.32 33. Deut. 7.2 3 4. Where Gods Ark is there Dagon shall be thrust out of his place and fall down before it Sam. 1.5 To Conclude this point having treated more fully of this Subject elsewhere Have we not had above an hundred years experience of their incessant evil Machinations and deportments towards us and our Religion Have they ever been quiet Was Queen Elizabeth ever five years without a design against her Life Was King James free from their Conspiracies either here or in Scotland Do they not boast at this very day that notwithstanding all that hath been done discovered and executed that still their Plot drives on and boast that it is so deeply laid that it cannot be discovered nor prevented Besides what security can they possibly give for their peaceable deportment They are Devotees sworn to another Forreign Head and Oaths made to us are not of any force to oblige them according to their own Maxim Nulla Fides servanda cum Haereticis and therefore we have no reason to confide in them but to secure our selves Do they not compass Sea and Land and dayly pervert the right wayes of the Lord by making divers Proselytes and them thereby two fold more the Children of Hell than they were before Have they changed their Principles Or are their Contrivances and Plottings against Church and State even at this very day less numerous or less dangerous than at any time heretofore Can we be so blind as not to see not to perceive that they are playing their old Games over again and that they will Iterate and Reiterate them again and again as from Age to Age they have hitherto successively done And is it not then profound reason of State in us and pure Religion to boot to give this Crudele genus these unreasonable blood-thirsty men more Countenance more freedom more power amongst us by nourishing them in our bosoms qui vult decipi decipiatur my Prayer shall be from this ill kind of men Libera nos Domine and I do not doubt but that all true and sincere English Protestants having Souls Bodies and Estates to save loving God their King and their Country will think themselves highly oblidged by all these obligations and Tenures to the best of their power and knowledge to maintain the true Protestant Established Religion which stands Diametrically opposite to all the forementioned abominable Errors and will not hazard their Temporal Estates much less the Eternal wellfare of their immortal Souls by a sinful compliance and Kings and Princes least of all for that there is no Prince nor Nation that
Catholicorum haec explicantium citantium inseruntur By this holy Inquisition also these men so wise are they in their Generation have endeavoured to appropriate and monopolize unto themselves the whole power of the Press and as much as in them lyes to cajole the secular power thereof and not without grand reason of State Ecclesiastick for they have been so dexterous at it that they have already expunged the ancient Authors and Councils of all that makes for temporal Authority Ab initio non fuit sic The matter of Fact stands thus the reasonableness of the Practice shall follow In the primitive Church Heretical Books were examined and declared to be such by the Councils but not prohibited by them nor by the Pope but by the Prince The first Council of Nice condemned the Heretical Doctrine of Arius but Constantine the Emperor did forbid his Books by Imperial Law The second Council of Constantinople did declare Eunomias to be an Heretick but the Emperor Arcadius did prohibit the Books of the Eunomians and Maniches by a Law which is in the Theodosian Code The third Council of Ephesus declared Nestorius to be an Heretick and his Books were forbidden by a Law of Theodosius which is in the body of the Civil Laws The fourth Council of Chalcedon condemned the Eutychians and their Books were forbidden by a Law of the Emperor Martian which is in the same aforesaid Book and in Spain the King Ricaredus those of the Arrians This was the manner of the Church until the year 800. since which Times the Popes of Rome have by Usurpation declared divers Writers to be Hereticks and heretical that will not subscribe to the Canons of that Conventicle of Trent But all this while the Press was not guarded nor Transcribing forbidden but left free Books only and those but few censured and prohibited until after the year 1200. and then also but sparingly until about the time of Wickliff H-usse and Jerome of Praghe which was about 1371. in the days of Edw. 3d. Rich. 2d and Pope Martin 5th who by his Bull excommunicated all Sects of Hereticks in their esteem especially Wicklefists and Hussites and had recourse also unto a stricter Guardianship of the Press and also to Excommunication nay to Fire and Fagot also against them and their Books and good reason and high time it was so to do for that their Doctrines touched to the quick the Reformation of the Heretical Doctrines and lewd practices of the Court of Rome and therefore that faithless and jugling Council of Constance in a time of Schism did condemn them their * Counted to be 200 Volumes by Aenaeas Sylisias and Jo. Cocleus in his Book de Historia Hussitarum Books and Bones though Wickliffe had been quiet in his Grave above 40 years before causing them to be taken up burned and their Ashes to be thrown into the River such was their rancour of heart since which Times the Popes succeeding have made it their grand Concern to prosecute the same design which is still on foot at this very day viz. to lay Foundations to maintain and make great the Authority of the Court of Rome by depriving men of knowledge which is absolutely necessary to defend themselves from Abuses Vsurpations and Delusions with which the Court of Rome is full fraught And therefore Paul 4th caused an Index to be composed which being perfected Anno 1659. was so severe and strict that there scarcely remained a Book to be read if rightly observed for that therein many Authors and Books were condemned which for 1 2 or 300 years had usually been read by the Romanists with the privity and without the Contradiction of the Popes then ruling and amongst the Modern some of those which were Printed in Italy even in Rome it self with approbation of the Inquisition and allowed also by the Brief of the Pope himself are forbidden as Erasmus on the New Testament which Leo 10th having read approved by his Brief dated the tenth day of September One thousand five hundred and eighteen But which is most considerable as to the main of my intent and purpose is to shew that where the Hogen Mogen Pontiff not unlike the chief Musty doth domineer there the very bowels of orthodox and sound Books wherein the Authority of Kings and Civil Magistrates is defended from the Vsurpations of the Clergy and in which the Hypocrisies and Tyrannies of the Clergie are manifested are hellishly raked into purged prohibited and condemned with strange Cruelties and which is yet more abominable this is done under the colour of Faith and Religion by which the people under that very pretence of Religion are miserably cheated and deluded A greater mystery of Iniquity was never broached then to use Religion so dirtily as under pretence thereof to make men as much as in them lyes insensible nay brutish by keeping them from the knowledge and consequently from the love of the truth What is this less then Antichristian and like men abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate and to sit as God in the Temple of God as Judex vivorum mortuorum working after the working of Satan with all power and deceivableness of unrighteousness But though the Court of Rome hath assumed to it self to prohibit Books whether they concerned Religion or other Matters yet before these latter years they have not been so impudent as to dare to say that the Prince also hath not power to forbid Books Cardinal Baronius was the first that spake that boldly but was not seconded by any a long time after but he in the beginning of the year 1605. printing the 11th Tome of his Ecclesiastical Annals libelled therein the Monarchy of Sicily with much bitterness and against many Kings of Arragon and especially against King Ferdinand the Catholick and the Progenitors of the Fathers side of him who then reigned which Book coming to Naples and Millan were prohibited by the King's Officers whereof the Cardinal having notice made a bitter Invective against those Officers unto the Colledge of Cardinals assembled in the vacancy of the See of Clement the 8th for that in so doing they had forsooth laid hands on Ecclesiastical Authority And afterwards when Paul the 5th was chosen Pope he wrote unto the King of Spain the 13th of June the same year wherein amongst other things he concluded that to the Pope only did belong the approving of Books of all kinds much more Ecclesiastical ones Notwithstanding the King of Spain was so wise as to abett and continue the Prohibition of his Officers at which the Cardinal was so netled that he could not contain himself but printing his 12th Tome 1607. he inserted a Discourse stigmatizing that Prohibition as abominable and impious affirming that Princes do it because the Books rebuke their unjust acts and that it was to take out of St. Peter's hands and putting into the Prince's one of the Keys given him by Christ viz. the Key of knowledge to