That now the wisdom of the Parliament applying it self to establish the people of this Common-wealth in a quiet and setled condition your Petitioners take up an humble confidence that they alone shall not be excluded from so universall a benefit And therefore humbly pray that the Laws and proceedings concerning them may be taken into consideration and such clemency and compassion used towards them by Composition or otherwise as in the judgement of this honourable House may consist with the publike peace and your Petitioners comfortable lie ving in their native Country And they further humbly pray that it would please the Parliament to vouchsafe them the permission of clearing their Religion from whatsoever may be inconsistent with Government which will assuredly be done to full satisfaction if there may be a Committee appointed by this honourable House on whom they may have the priviledge to attend And your Petitioners shall ever pray c. THis to my sense bears it self with so much respect and submissiveness in the stile that it can no wayes be interpreted misbecoming the duty of good and peaceable subjects and for the matter of the Petition it seems to my eye so reasonable that I cannot believe but after a little patience till other more generall affairs afford the Parliament leisure it will certainly receive a satisfactory and relieving Answer Especially since not onely such Papists whose moderate delinquency leaves them some hope of mercy nor such who for preservation of their lives were forced to flye into the late kings Garrisons without ever acting any thing against the State but even the most innocent who all this while have sate still under so many pressures and never were charged with other accusation than their Religion yet all freely and humbly submit in this Petition to the absolute pleasure of the Parliament for Rules of Composition and this as to the single Papist for an offence which in no other society of Christians in this Nation is accounted any crime at all being meerly their different judgement in Religion a proceeding wherein certainly we shall use too much severity and partiality if we make it not onely unpardonable but unredeemable In the close of their Petition they humbly beg the favour of an opportunity to satisfy the Parliament in the point of consistency with Civil Government which being the chief Objection that without passion can be made against them surely we should not take offence at their most diligent applications and utmost endeavours to deliver themselves from so destructive a charge laid upon their Religion In order to which performance it seems divers Papists of considerable quality unanimously agreed upon this following Explanation to declare and witnes to the world the perfect consistency of their Religion both with civill society joyning also in the same paper the like expressions of their Belief concerning some few other points which they were informed to be more obnoxious to exception than the rest As the under-valuing of holy Scripture and over-valuing the authority of the Church Invocation of Saints and Angels and worship of Images and above all the proud opinion of Merits This paper they drew up as a preparatory to a more full and perfect clearing of their Faith from those prejudices and misunderstandings which ordinarily men of different perswasions entertain especially in Controversies about matters of Religion The Paper containing certain Doctrins of the Papists and by them delivered to divers persons of quality for their particular satisfaction WE believe the holy Scriptures to be of divine inspiration and infallible Authority and whatsoever is therein contained we firmly assent unto as to the word of God the Author of all Truth 1. But since in the holy Scriptures there are some things hard to be understood which the ignorant and unstable wrest to their own destruction we therefore professe for the ending of controversies in our Religion and setling of peace in our Consciences to submit our private judgments to the judgement of the Church represented in a free Generall Council 2. We humbly believe the sacred Mysterie of the Blessed Trinity one Eternal Almighty and incomprehensible God whom onely we adore and worship as alone having Soveraign dominion over all things to whom onely we acknowledge as due from men and Angels all glory service and obedience abhorring from our hearts as a most detestabbe sacriledge to give our Creators honor to any creature whatsoever And therefore we solemnly protest that by the prayers we addresse to Angels and Saints we intend no other then humbly to sollicit their assistance before the throne of God as we desire the prayers of one another here upon earth not that we hope any thing from them as originall authors thereof but from God the fountain of all goodnesse through Jesus Christ our onely Mediator and Redeemer Neither do we believe any divinity or vertue to be in images for which they ought to be worshipped as the Gentiles did their Idols but we retain them with due and decent respect in our Churches as instruments which we find by experience do often assist our memories and excite our affections 3. We firmly believe that no force of nature nor dignity of our best works can merit our Justification but we are justified freely by grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ And although we should by the grace of God persevere unto the end in a godly life and holy obedience to the Commandements yet are our hopes of eternall glory still built upon the mercy of God and the merits of Christ Jesus All other merits according to our sense of that word signifie no more then actions done by the assistance of Gods grace to which it has pleased his gooodness to promise a reward a Doctrine so far from being unsuitable to the sense of the holy Scriptures that it is their principal design to invite and provoke us to a diligent observance of the Commandements by promising heaven as the reward of our obedience 1 Tim. 4. 8. Godliness is profitable to all things having the promise of this life and of that which is to come And Rom 2. 6. God will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient confidence in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life And again Rom. 8. 13. If you live after the flesh you shall dye but if through the Spirit you mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live And Heb. 6. 10. God is not unjust to forget your work and labour of love which you have shewed for his name c. Nothing being so frequently repeated in the word of God as his gracious promises to recompence with everlasting glory the faith and obedience of his servants Nor is the bounty of God barely according to our works but high and plentifull even beyond our capacities giving full measure heaped up pressed down and running over into the bosoms of all that love him
Thus we believe the merit or reward ablenesse of holy living both which signifie the same thing with us arises not from the self-value even of our best actions as they are ours but from the grace and bounty of God and for our selves we sincerely professe when we have done all those things which are commanded us we are unprofitable servants having done nothing but that which was our duty so that our boasting is not in our selves but all our glorying is in Christ 4. We firmly believe and highly reverence the Morall Law being so solemnly delivered to Moses upon the Mount so expresly confirmed by our Saviour in the Gospel and containing in it so perfect an Abridgement of our whole duty both to God and man Which Morall Law we believe obliges all men to proceed with faithfulnesse and sincerity in their mutuall contracts one towards another and therefore our constant Profession is that we are most strictly and absolutely bound to the exact and entire performance of our promises made to any person of what Religion soever much more to the Magistrates and Civil powers under whose protection we live whom we are taught by the word of God to obey not onely for fear but for consciâ—nce sake and to whom we will most faithfully observe our promises of duty and obedience notwithstanding any dispensation absolution or any other proceedings of any forraign power or authority whatsoever Wherefore we utterly deny and renounce that false and scandalous Position that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks as most uncharitably imputed to our practices and most unjustly pinned upon our religion These we sincerely and solemnly professe as in the sight of God the searcher of all hearts taking the words plainly and simply in their usuall and familiar sense without any equivocation or mental reservation whatsoever THese expressions concerning four of the most offensive points wherein the Papists differ from us have I confesse given me a great and unexpected satisfaction And though I remain in the same mind as to the erroniousnesse of many of their Tenets yet I see we may easily be too passionate in the degree of detesting any different opinion since every error is not presently to be censured as an unsufferable abomination and too severe in the degree of persecuting the dissenters from our own judgements as if they were unworthy to breath the same air with our selves Certainly many Protestants who quietly enjoy a just and unmolested freedome approach very near to the first assertion of the Papists whilst some both writers and discoursers professe to submit their private judgements unappealably to a truly-free Generall Councell that she might once have an end of all strife and contention about matters of Religion others refer themselves without further instance to a Provinciall Assembly of Divines and very few but will prefer the judgement of the Supreme authority of this Nation before their own particular sense readily conforming to that Declaration which the Parliament shall hold forth to be the true meaning of the Scripture So that almost every one agrees in the acknowledgement of an external authority to decide such Controversies as arise out of the different interpretation of their faith upon the Churches sleeve and yield a blind obedience that is without appealing any further to her determination And for the second Branch I am sure many Protestants continue still those old customes of baring their heads when they come into a Church nay of bowing at the name of Jesus Practices that ly open to the greatest part of those objections which our more godly and conscientious penns make against the Papists in the question of Pictures yet I hope there will never be the least thought entertained of imposing penalties upon the private and unscandalous use of any such Ceremonies Rather let us apply our endeavours to open their eys with a mild and gentle hand than beat them out with the club-fist of the Law But when I reflect upon the third conclusion in the Recusants Paper I am astonished to consider how Education with a little mixture of Passion or interest makes every slight distemper amongst Christians which of it self were easily curable so desperate that it often becomes irrecoverable and endangers both the health and life of Christianity Surely in many things we strangely mistake one another I professe sincerely I should be so far from seising on the Estate of a Papist for refusing that part of the Oath of Abjuration wherein he is compelled to renounce the Doctrine of merits that I am resolved to suffer a thousand deaths rather then abjure so great and manifest a truth according to the sense wherein they explain themselves or affirm so great and manifest an Errour according to the sense wherein we explain our selves For when we censure the Doctrine of Merits we understand by that word our deserts as they exclude the merits of Christ and abstracting from the Covenant God hath been pleased to make with us in his Son and in that sense we justly condemne all opinions of Merit even of the best works as presumptuous and Luciferian But I now see when the Papists affirm that good works are meritorious they include both the promise of God and the merits of Christ Jesus and in effect when all is summed up it amounts only to this That God hath graciously promised and will faithfully keep his word to reward all those with eternall life that believe in him and obey his Commandements In this sense the Papists hold mercifulnes to be meritorious or available to salvation because the Scripture sayes Blessed are the mercifull for they shall obtain mercy Matth. 5. 7. In this sense the Papists hold patience in affliction to be meritorious or available to Salvation because the Scripture sayes Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the Kingdome of heaven Mat. 5. 10. And this as I am informed by very understanding men amongst them is the reall truth of their Doctrine concerning good works which in my judgement differs nothing from ours but onely in the unsavoury and proud-sounding word merit The last Cause of the Papists Note which I have transcribed is so full and satisfactory that if they will be as good as their words I shall neither fear to have such neighbours nor need any Magistrate fear to have such Subjects And to prove their trustinesse and fidelity in the observance of their oaths I cannot imagin a more evident demonstration then that they make a conscience of what oaths they take He that swears any thing without distinction may justly be suspected to be as false to men as he is fearlesse of God whereas no clearer argument can be alledged in the behalf of any that they intend to keep all the oaths they take then this that they will not take all the oaths you offer surely if the Pope or their own consciences could give them this extravagant priviledge to be bound by no oath
they might without difficulty take any and if they were allowed by their Religion to swear any thing certainly they are all worse then mad if they do not immediately post away to Haberdashers hall call for the oath of abjuration swallow it down quickly without any chewing and so save at least 50000 l a year in a morning In the late Kings dayes many Papists were smartly punished for not taking the oath of allegeance none for observing it nay I have heard some Papist-Delinquents argue for themselves that the utter ruine which now endangers their whole estates proceeds solely from their performing to the late King that service which he called alleagiance and this is yet a higher proof of their fidelity in their promises since they adventured with so much hazard to keep that oath in subgance which they refused with almost as much hazard to take because against their conscience in some circumstance And now let any one judge indifferently whether they that firmly believe all the holy Scriptures of the old and New Testament worship and adore onely one God rely upon Jesus Christ for their sole Mediator and professe it their duty to observe the commandements of the Morall Law may not reasonably be suffered to live in their native countrey with the peaceable enjoyment of their consciences in their private houses especially those who will quietly submit to cautions and restrictions as the common-wealth shall require for prevention of scandall or disturbance of the publick peace Besides I am perswaded a far lesse liberty will oblige the Papists than content any other because hitherto all liberty has been wholly denyed to them and wholly allowed to every one else so that they will gladly receive as a mercy and favour what others challenge as a right and their affections being once purchased at so cheap a price as a little private exercise of their conscience free from the fright and smart of penalties I am confident they will neither be such fools as to forfeit their liberty nor so ungratefull as to forget them that gave it since out of all our histories not one example can be assigned that they ever offered to move the least sedition in a time when they enjoyed but half the liberties of free-born English men Therefore I shall close my thoughts upon this Paper with a short and free conclusion which I conceive abridges in few words the whole difficulty betwixt subject and Superior The Magistrate that protects any sort of people in his Dominions may justly require their service and safely rely upon their obedience but if he persecute them whether Protestants or Papists he will soon find that as he may violently force their complyance he can never prudently rest upon their affections But I must here beg leave to be dispensed with in my promise of ending this period till I have added this observation How many Modern Authors of good account amongst us have positively held forth to the people as an unquestionable truth that the Papists by their Principles are not obliged to keep faith with Hereticks and I must acknowledge I was once of the same opinion concerning them principally relying upon the credit of Mr. Iames Howell an ingenious traveller in most of the Popish countries which makes me the more wonder that he should take such an erroneous opinion upon trust and assert it in Print near the end of the first part of Dodona's Grove where he sayes That one of the Canons of the last great Councell which must needs be the Councel of Trent was that Haereticis non est tenenda fides The esteem I had entertain'd of that Authors ingenuity permitted me not to acquiesse to some Recusants verball deniall of this assertion but for more assured satisfaction in so important a point I took the pains to peruse some of their best writers and found them unamimously agree that faith is not onely to be kept with Hereticks but even with Turks Iews and Infidels and that indispensably neither could I find one tittle to that purpose in any Canon or Session of that last great Councel as he calls it but to the contrary For both in the fifteenth and eighteenth Session the Councell saith expresly that whosoever shall violate the least point of the publick faith given for the security of all Protestants that should repair to that Councell should be subject to those penalties quas jure divino humano aut consuetudine hujusmodi salvorum conductuum violatores incurrere possunt absque omni excusatione aut quavis in hac parte contradictione By which it evidently appears that the Councell supposed as a thing known and certain that whosoever should violate his faith promised to Hereticks was not onely punishable by humane Laws but even by the divine Law it self And certainly if it had been my unhappinesse to have done any sort of Christians so much wrong in publick my conscience coming afterward to be better inform'd would oblige me to a publick reparation for though we use no such confession as the Papists practise yet the Law of naturall reason binds us to as punctuall an observance of restitution as any Papist whatsoever and that even to Papists themselves when we do them any injury But for a finall dispatch of this point concerning the Papists indispensable obligation of performing their promises it was my fortune to light upon a book of one Paul Layman a German Jesuit and an Author of great esteem amongst the Casuists who treating of dispensations lib. 2. tract. 3. cap. 12. sets down these words Dico quartò Si Catholici cum Haereticis publicum faedus ineant non potest per authoritatem Pontificiam sâ—lvi aut relaxari If Catholicks enter into any publick contract with Hereticks it cannot be dissolv'd or dispensed with by the Popes power And some few lines after proceeding upon the same question he pronounces down-right Absolutè negari debet id viz remissionem foederis à summo Pontifice fieri posse it ought absolutely to be denyed that it is in the power of the Pope to absolve from such contracts And again Fides publica haereticis data inviolabiliter sine ullo dispensationis remedio servanda est quamdiu ipsi servare parati sunt Publick saith given to Hereticks ought inviolably and without dispensation to be observed so long as they are ready to perform their part And concludes that even Iesuites as well as other Doctors hold the Popes power to be limitable and not so almighty as the world usually believes concerning them The same doctrine is repeated in the abridgement of Laymans book entituled Compendium Moralis Theologiae Pauli Layman folio 265. The Papists have given so much satisfaction by their Petition and other Papers but much more by their submission to and peaceable demeanour in this Common-wealth as it is now establisht I must appeal not onely to the Parliament and that great instrument of our freedome my Lord Generall Cromwell but
estate to swear against his Conscience or to accuse and condemn himself especially in matters that concern his inward belief 4. Since in all Religions there are still found some scandalous livers and that our Saviour pronounces the Woe against him onely by whom the scandal comes Mat. 18. 7. Luke 17. 1. It is humbly proposed That who ever shall offend against the Orders of so milde and Christian a settlement may be severely censured but that others though of the same judgment in Religion be no farther made subject to the punishment then proved guilty of the crime In stead of my opinion concerning these four proposals of the Papists because to my sense they carry in themselves both their own evidence and justification I shall beg the Readers permission to set down a particular conceit which I have often observed to be very well relisht by all that have examined it That doubtles there is no way more suitable to the first Principles of all Reformed Churches no way so probable to satisfie all Consciences as not to impose any other obligation for proof of conformity than this profession to believe the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God and to live according to the precepts plainly contained therein this acknowledgement to be exprest in generall termes without descending minutely to particular questions which hath certainly been the chief cause of so many Controversies and Divisions in the World And now I humbly appeal to the honourable and religious Committee for Propagation of the Gospel Whether the sweet Spirit of the Lord Christ who gave his Apostles no further power than to relinquish such as refused to hear them be reconcileable to the former practices of the high Commissioners or the present practices of our Sequestrators Whether when the great Apostle Paul prescribes the servants of the Lord to forbear and in meeknesse instruct those that are contrary minded he should be thus cros-interpreted that the Estates of those who are contrary minded be first secured or forborn and then after a time quite taken away to instruct them in meeknesse or how to bear patiently the losse of the vain and transitory riches of this world And now I humbly appeal to the honorable and learned Committee for Regulation of the Law whether since all those penalties which the rigorous humours of former ages have under pretence of zeal imposed upon the Conscience are either by disuse forgotten or by expresse Act of Parliament revoked the Papists alone should still be continued under the same severities nay their burthens encreased by the strange method of the new proceedings towards them their Consciences being not only punishable to the Common way of indictment but compellable even to accuse themselves by the new Presbyterian Oath of Abjuration against the known Principles of the ancient and reverend Lawes of this Land And now with an humble confidence I appeal to the renowned Parliament of the Common-wealth of England whether in this generall Goal-delivery of the Conscience from the tyranny and oppression of the Prelates the consciences of Papists alone ought still to be kept in prison Whether when all the fetters which the Rigid Kirkesmen had bought up in Scotland are broken in pieces just as they were locking them fast about our Consciences in England the Consciences of Papists alone ought still to be continued in chains Whether when all the Societies professing Christ Jesus and living obediently to the Magistrate and peaceably one with another are protected in the quiet and unoffensive exercise of their Consciences the Papists alone should be forced under the penalty of so great a ruine not only to professe but swear against their Consciences A course that in a short time will unavoidably bring them either to absolute beggery or which is worse to hypocrisie or which is worst of all to perjury All the people of this Nation look upon you as their common father all promise themselves liberty and protection under your government though some may justly be excluded from sharing in the Government Were there in my family one child that profest to find satisfaction in the way of the Papists and lived dutifully to me and lovingly with with his brethren I should account it a great unnaturalnesse to deprive him altogether of his portion much more of that which he has received from the bounty of any collateral kinsman or acquired by his own particular diligence and improvement And though some Papists have heretofore been truly chargeable with heinous crimes against their Country yet why should our justice over-reach to condemn all for the offences of a few if they have formerly abetted competitors to the Crown why should the punishments so long out-live the fault certainly the Offendours being dead their trespasses should rather be buried in their graves and not like Ghosts walk to affright and pinch their children It is time we should now mix a little mercy to allay the fumes of so much justice which otherwise will not ascend to the Almighty's Throne in the odour of sweetnesse It is time we should begin to imitate the pattern which our merciful God has set before us in his own practice when he commanded the destroying Angel to sheath his sword with this compassionate Motto It is enough It is time we should begin to answer the bounty of our God who has so freely given us the blessings of 10 thousand Talents by freely forgiving our Fellow-servants the small sum of 100 pence Let us invade or storme the Consciences of our brethren For the Lord was not in the great and strong wind that rent the Mountains and brake in pieces the Rocks Let us not shake the inward peace of any quiet and unoffensive Christian For the Lord was not in the Earth-quake Let us not kindle in our hearts a devouring flame of uncharitable zeal for the Lord was not in the fire but let us compose our affections to the soft and gentle key of love and mutuall forbearance for the Lord was in the still small voice Let us alwayes attend to this still voice of the Lord speaking with us do as you as you would be done unto let us alwayes attend to this small but sweet voice of the Lord calling upon us love your enemies blesse them that curse you doe good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your father which is in Heaven for he maketh his sun to rise on the evill and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust for if you love them which love you what reward have you do not even the Publicans the same and if you salute your brethren onely what do you more than others do not even the Publicans so be you therefore perfect as your father which is in Heaven is perfect POST-SCRIPT IT was the will and providence of the Lord to whose dispensations as well of Iustice as Mercy we must resigne our little intersts to call me suddenly into the Country upon a sad and mournful occasion which utterly defeated my purpose of reviewing these few lines And therefore after my humblest submission of them to the judgment of the Supreme Authority I am encouraged to presume the Courteous pardon of the Readers especially if since it is truly a kind of death to me to live out of London he will please to consider this as a posthumous Pamphlet containing the serious though indigested thoughts of Will Birchley I. 2 Pet. 3. 16. II. 1 Tim. 1. III. Rom. 3. 24 Luk. 6. 38. Luk. 17. 1â— IV. Exod. 20. Mat. 19. Eccles. 12. 13. Ephes. 5. 5. 1. Principles of the preâ—ent goâ—ernment 2. Scripture 1. Ancient and quiet â—ossession 2. â—nchanâ—eable 3. Education 4 â—atisfactiâ—n in their Religion 5 Tender Consciences 6 Even the most disaffected have Liberty 7 Causes of punishing ceased 8 Their Fidelity 9 Advantageâ— at home abroad Compounding more beneficial to the State 2 Tim. 4. 24. Mat. 18. 23. 1 Kings 19. 11 12. Mat. 5. 44.