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A97182
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Anti-Fimbria, or, An answer to the animadversions upon the last speeches of the [f]ive Jesuits executed at Tyburne June 20. 30. 1679. / By A.C.E.G.
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Warner, John, 1628-1692.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing W904A; ESTC R186273
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19,942
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28
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weake thred seing your darling and Champion makes it depend 1. On the king's keeping the Law of God 2. On his banishing all those who doe not keepe it Fimbria p. 7. J doe not well understand their Prayers for the king They would haue it thought they had no designe to kill the king who can pray for his prosperous reigne But doe they think that his Majesty can truly prosper till he turne Roman Catholick This they hartily wish no doubt whither they can pray or no j know not Answer You are more moderate here in your censure then you were in your Reflections on the speeches where you boldly affirme they were not prayers of Charity but curses of their malice In which words you deliuer the disposition of your hart not theirs who neuer gaue you any ground for it Now hauing better considered them you say You doe not well understand them Whence it euidently follows that your former judgment was rash and uncharitable But how comes it that your greatwit cannot wel understand them Are not their words plaine Inglish Is not the construction easy The sense and meaning obuious Wherein then lyes the difficulty the obscurity At least we expected soe much Charity which thinks no euill from a Christian and a Bishop as to interpret in a good sense what is dubious But that is not what you seeke nor answers your desires Had they Blasphemed God cursed which God forbid any should doe the king reuiled their Judges Jury and Witnesses called fire from heauen to destroy the Citty and Kingdome dyed like desperados and damned their souls for an eternity you had had your harts wishes their words would haue beene understood which because they dyed like tru Disciples of Christ Jesus like tru Jesuits you cannot wel understand J hope no Jesuit will euer purchace that aduantage at soe deare a rate And as for these good mens j am confident all good men who haue not soe thicke a cloud of enuy and malice in their minds will easily understand their tru Christian meaning not withstanding all the mist you cast before their eyes to preuent it They would have it thought say you they designed not to kil the king for whose prosperous reigne they prayd But how doe you know that was their designe Did they tell it to you Had you it from God by Reuelation J know no third way to know what designes a man has in his hart Jf you doe blesse the world with communicating it But j weygh your words in the scales of Reason whilest you consult not Reason but only your Passion in what you write J think their designe cleare enough out of their words to such as seeke to find and doe not study to misse it viz. that hauing payd their duty to God by professing their Faith and to justice in asserting their Jnnocency to comply with the command of the Apostle 1. Timo. 2.2 they proceeded to pray for the king the kingdome their freinds themselues You ask whither they thought that his Majesty could truly prosper till he turne Roman Catholick A wise question for a Doctor of Diuinity J answer no Catholick in his senses euer thought temporall prosperity depended on Faith We all acknowledge with S. Austin that the Roman Empire was for many ages prosperous that the Ottoman doth still prosper that Augustus had a prosperous Reigne as well as Constantin and that Henry VI. though a Catholik was unfortunate as well as Darius a Pagan Jt is tru that when we compare the Blessings of this life with those of the next all temporall prosperity is not considerable and we may with reason fay that the rich Glutton was miserable and poore Lazarus fortunate And the Psalmist Psal 143.15 denyes those to be happy who enjoy Temporall Prosperity and assures none ought to be esteemed such but those who adore the tru God Beatum dixerunt popolum cui haec sunt Beatus populus cujus Dominus Deus ejus And j grant what you say that they hartily wisht for this vâ—â— that his Majesty were in the tru and only way to eternall Blesse And you cannot blame them for that wish without condemning S. Paul who offred a like Prayer for Agrippa and his whole Auditory Act. 26.29 But when you adde Whither they can pray or no j know not you bring to my mind the words of Festus to that Glorious Apostle You are mad studyes haue besotted you And j leaue to the Readers consideration whither they may be applyed to you who hauing owned that they prayd and laboured in vaine to peruert the sense of their prayers doubt whither they could pray or no. As if when you haue heard me speake and discanted uppon my words you should after question whither j could speake or no. Sir the scripture mentions a Drunkennesse which proceedes not from wine because some Passions haue the same effect as to the hindring the use of reason Consider whither or no that is befallen to you Then you tell us that Garnet prayed for the successe of the Gun powder-treason And Charles V. for the Popes deliuery whome he kept prisonner J adde and soe did the Parliament and Cromwell and probably you your selfe with them for the deliuery of the King and Peace of the Kingdome than which nothing was Lesse intended by them But what is this though tru to the fiue Jesuits or me Then you fall againe uppon Equiuocation and from pag. 7. to pag. 12. You persue it To all which j answer 1. we condemne Equiuocation as well and more seuerely then you 2. By our constant practice it appeares we neuer owned it as is aboue sayd Soe j passe to the 12. pag. where j find some thing new Fimbria p. 12. My Authour says it is Lawfull in defence of ones reputation to kill another ..... He that reades this will not wonder if they did not scruple to murther Sir E. Godfrey or that some Preists were so forward to be his executioners Answer The Authour you mention Amicus being after the first impression in Germany reprinted at Doway An. 1642. that whole proposition was blotted out By which the Jesuits who ouersaw the Print sufficiently declared their dislike of it And 23. yeares after this second Edition viz 24. Sept. 1665. Alexander VII condemned 28. propositions of which the 17. is that you charge on us in this place According to this decree we frame our consciences and direct our actions and not by the priuate sentiment of any particular Anthout As for the death of Sir E. Godefrey j pray God from the bottom of my hart to grant tru Repentance to the Authours of that horrid and crying sin Some haue already suffred on that score who were in the judgment of wise men jnnocent of the fact Some discoueryes haue beene made of the tru Authour and those soe conuincing that all art and craft of such scriblers as you are will not confute them But j designe not to accuse any body and notwithstanding
all that j and others haue suffred on that score j desire the murtherers no other harme then what through sense of their detestable crime they shal inflict uppon themselues to appease the wrath of Gôd and preuent the heauy stroke of Diuine Justice Fimbria p. 14.15 and 16. You start againe Equiuocations and follow the game hotly and soe you may for me who know no Papist a liue that will defend or practice them since they are condemned by the sea Apostolick Fimbria p. 16. and 17. The Jesuits had great motiues to use Equiuocations the Plot could not be more effectually promoted It makes Protestants stagger in the beleife of it it Weakns the credit of the Witnesses it allays the spirit of the Nation it incenses foraigne Princes against Protestants and in fine it entitles the sufferers to Martyrdome When on the contrary by acknowledging their conspiracy they had broken the necke of the Plot endangered the Lords in the Towre silenced those who question the King's euidence made Popery odious and spoyled their expectation of Martyrdome Answer In all this discourse you discouer a mind filled with thoughts more becoming a Pagan or Atheist then a Christian. A Pagan or Atheist beleiuing nothing of the life eternall to come settles all his hopes all his feares all his thoughts and all his affections on things of this life and is ambitious euen at his last breath of the Plaudite which attends the exit of a good Actor on the stage of this world A Christian on the contrary knows this life to be but a moment if compared with that to come that all earthly glory is vanity pleasures deceitfull health unconstant and life it selfe uncertaine so embracing the aduice of our Blessed Redeemer Mat. 6.19.20 Regards not any treasure on earth where it is subject to soe many casualtyes but prepares one in Heauen where he is certaine he shal neuer be defrauded of it He is certaine it will auayle him nothing to gaine all the world with the losse of his soul Mat. 16.26 And if any be soe unfortunate as to be engaged during his life in some designes worldly and Politick contrary to the Law of God yet these vanish at the gastly sight of approaching Death All hopes and feares of this life then vanishing and those of the life to come taking entire possession of the soul Now consider what thoughts you fancy in these executed Jnnocents of malice in Promoting the Plot spite against the Witnesses reuenge against Protestants in all countryes vanity and folly in purchacing the name of Martyrs in this world with the losse of their souls in the other as if they would fry in Hell fire really for an eternity prouided men uppon earth for a time myght say they were braue boys What ground haue you to surmise such Antichristian Dispositions in their minds At a much easier rate and with lesse sin or rather no sin at all as you say they myght haue purchaced their Pardon and liued contentedly in this world and dyed happily for the next by only owning the crime of which they were really guilty What reason haue they giuen you to judge them soe silly or soe mad rather Did they whilest at liberty discouer any signes of that vanity No. Did they during the time of their imprisonment No. Did any such thing appeare at their Tryall or execution Nor then nether All who conuerst with them when abroad and when Prisoners all the spectators of the last period of their liues agree in a far different character of them from what you soe confidently assert of their inclinations althô possible you neuer saw their faces What ground can you haue then for this hard censure Without your selfe nothing occurres wherefore j am forced to surmise that all the ground you haue is taken from your owne hart which is taken up and possessed with thoughts of this life and worldly designes and that you judged of others by your selfe Fimbria p. 17. Uppon far lesse account Equiuocation in words or Oathes is in the judgment of their best Casuists lawfull at any time the hour of Death not excepted Answer 1. J challenge you to shew one Casuist who since that Decree of Jnnocent XI condemning Equiuocation euer taught it Lawfull at any time Answer 2. These fiue Jesuits declare they use no Equiuocation but take their words in their naturall and obuious sense which must be a Lye and consequently no jnnocent action in the opinion of all Jesuits if their words were not true in their proper signification Fimbria p. 18. The greatest Lye and falsest Oath that euer was heard in the mouth of a Jesuit would become as tru as the Ghospel by a secret cast of his mind Answer What opinion you haue of the truth of the Ghospel j can not tell but this comparison giues ground to suspect more then j will say At least that transforming quality of the Jesuit turning falshood in to Truth is much better then your turning good things into bad and Truth into Falshood changing as the Prophet says judgment into wormewood Amos 5.7 Fimbria p. 18. What the Jesuits were charged with may be reduced to three heades a designe to introduce Popery to massacre or destroy the Protestants of these kingdomes and to kill the King Now in their judgment if we can discerne it by their Doctrine no one of these is a sin And can you wonder they dyed impenitent when the saw nothing to be repented of Answer You would be a formidable aduersary were your Proofes as strong as your Assertions are bold But hitherto we haue found you promise much and performe nothing Let us see whither your attempt be more successefull here Fimbria p. 18. Could they count it a sin to restore the Popish Religion in three kingdomes and establish it by aduancing a Prince to the Throne who would count it his glory utterly to extinguish Heresy Answer There are none but the factious Presbiterians who dislike the uniting all the world into one exterior communion All good Christians as well as Jesuits wish it done and professe their sincere endeauours to promote it by all Lawfull meanes not other wise for as the Apostle sayth we are not to doe euill that good may come of it But you malitiously hint at something which you dare not speake out and j am Dauus not Oedipus soe cannot unriddle your misterious meaning Yet in expectation of your discouery j declare that j know no Papist nor Jesuit aliue who thinks it Lawfull to aduance any Prince to a Throne which is not due to him 〈◊〉 that we doe not think it due to him whilest it is possest by another lawfully When you shal further discouer your meaning it shal â—â—nd a fuller answer Fimbria p. 18. Doe they count it a sin to destroy or roote out all whome they count Hereticks as they count many hundred thousands in these nations and then you cite a decree of the Councel of Latran ordering Princes to roote out