Murderers from entring their Dominions who came upon the most Bloudy and Mischievous designs either to Assassinate their sacred Persons or to Seduce their People from their Allegiance and Animate them to Rebell or take Arms against them And therefore if the Romish Priests and Jesuites who have nothing to do here will venture to come they can blame none but them-themselves if they suffer for it they receive the Reward of their Sin and Folly but have no Injustice done them If they stay away they are safe but if they will Run into Danger when they need not they Destroy themselves fall into the Pit are taken in the Snare which they came to dig and lay for their Prince whose Natural Subjects they are though they become Voluntary Vassals to a Forreign Power that imploys them against their own Prince for whose Safety and Preservation they ought by all Laws both Divine and Humane to expose themselves to the greatest Dangers freely Venture their own Lives to save his And seeing the Excluders attempt and would do that to his Royal Highness which our Laws do to no Ordinary Subject meerly for his Religion and which they would not have done to themselves that attempt must needs be a manifest Affront to and Violation of this Law of Christ and therefore most Wicked and Unjust To say they are of the true and the Duke as a Papist of the false Religion makes no difference in the Case because Christ excepts no Man but Commands us to do to Men Indefinitely that is to all Men whether they be Orthodox or otherwise believe Aright or Err from the Truth Christians or Heathens All things whatsoever we would that they should do unto us And also because no Man that owns the Principles of Natural Religion that believes there is a God Eternal Rewards Punishments after this Life will be a Disciple of that which he is perswaded is a false Religion and Renders the Salvation of them that are of it hazardous and doubtful and seeing he thinks the Church and Religion he is of to be true and the best though he be deceiv'd and thinks amiss 't is to lay aside both the Justice and Mercy our Lord Requires of us to Treat such a Person with the Rigour and Severity which the Excluders offer to his Royal Highness because he follows the best Light he hath his Conscience duly instructed by Scripture explain'd and apply'd as he apprehends by Right Reason for 't is certain a Man can use but his best care in the choice of his Religion that is he can but Pray and Read and Meditate and Obey as far as he understands and Consult the Learned or Advise with those he thinks best able to direct him but because all the Learned of the World are not of one Opinion he must imploy his Reason to Judg which of them is in the Right and if he do it sincerely though he chuses amiss mistakes his way yet he is to be Pitied not Ruin'd to be Restored in the Spirit of Meekness not Degraded nor Undone for following his Conscience God t is certain will be Merciful to a Christian so Erring and therefore if Men be extreme to Mark what such an one doth amiss they Treat him as they would not be used themselves and so bid Defiance to this great Law of Christ all things whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you do ye even so unto them Compare it Secondly with that Noble Precept of our Lord which requires all Christians to Love their Enemies and you will soon see the Impiety of it I say unto you Love your Enemies St. Mat. 5. 44. Bless them that Curse you do Good to them that Hate you and Pray for them which Despitefully use you Persecute you this is my Will and Pleasure this I enjoyn you that you Love not only your Friends or those that Love you as the practice of the Jews and Heathens is but your Enemies what are our Enemies is fully declared in this Law even they that Curse and Hate that Despitefully use and Persecute us Every Man thinks him his Enemy that offers any of these things to him but he that doth them all is the worst most Cruel and bitter Enemy any Man can have and yet how bravely every Christian is to behave himself towards such an Enemy our Lord tells us he must Love or bear him good Will desire his Welfare or Happiness do him all the Good and Charitable Offices he can Pray to God to give or bestow all manner of Blessings upon him and to Forgive all the Wrongs he hath done him This because it is a Duty that hath some Difficulty in it he presseth us to the Performance of with the most weighty and perswasive Arguments Love your Enemies That ye may be the Children Vers 45. of your Father which is in Heaven for he maketh his Sun to Rise on the Evil and on the Good and sendeth Rain on the Just and on the Unjust hereby you will prove your selves be the Children of God shew that you resemble or are like that most excellent Being who is kind and bountiful to all Men even the most Prophane and Wicked that are his Enemies and Discover themselves so to be by their wilful and open contempt of his Laws who though they received their Being and all their Injoyments from his Bounty will hardly give him a good Word or pay him any Respect at all but Blaspheme oftner than they Praise him Curse him more than they Pray unto him Affront him oftner than they Adore him and yet so admirable is his Goodness that he not only lets such Vile and Ungrateful Wretches as these Live and Injoy the Light though they are Unworthy of it but showers down his Blessings upon them gives them an equal share at least if not greater Plenty of these outward Injoyments than he Communicates to the Good and Righteous Propose therefore his great example to your selves think it your Glory to Love and do Good to your Enemies because the God you Worship is pleased to Treat his so and cannot but take great Delight in those brave and generous Souls that Imitate him therein own them for his Children and give them a Blessed Portion in his Heavenly Kingdom but if you refuse to do this saith Christ you Dishonour me and Degrade your selves For if ye Love them which Love you what Reward have ye Do not even the Publicans the same If you confine all your Love and Kindness to your Friends to them that bear you good Will and do you good Offices you can expect but a small Reward from my Father Me for such Love as this it being that to which Nature it self inclines and Common Gratitude prompts you Besides this Low and Abject Charity which is produced and preserved by Mutual Offices of Friendship and Respect Ranks you amongst the Worst and most Impious Men the very Publicans whom all the Pious Men of your
is to dread and fly from damnation one way and to run into it another But that their hatred of it is most just appears from the causes of it which are the Errours and Corruptions of the Romish Church in Doctrine and Worship and the intolerable Rapines Exactions and Cruelties of it The Errours and Corruptions of its Doctrine and Worship our People know very well that the Church of Rome locks up the Holy Scriptures which contain that most precious Treasure the words of eternal life in a forreign language which they do not understand and casts the greatest contempt upon them by denying their sufficiency and perfection by inlarging the Faith which they propound by setting up such a way of worship as they forbid and say God abhors and against which they denounce the most dreadful curses and horrible punishments by giving Men Dispensations to do what they condemn and to omit what they require These and their other Errours are such an heap of dirt and rubbish as hath made not only our People but other Nations hate so foul a Church which being often reproved and chidden for it will not reform or cast it out of doors but retains or keeps it as tenaciously as if it were an heap of Silver or pure Gold Our People have no mind to worship Images to creep to a Crucifix to pray to Saints that can neither hear nor help them to kiss and fall down to their mouldy Reliques nor to adore a consecrated Wafer but would fain that they may please God and save their Souls keep themselves from Idols believe and live and worship their Creator as he commands them in the Holy Scriptures and therefore they abominate the Church of Rome because it would not allow them if they were Members of it so to do but would force them to make shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience and that which is the result of these Eternal Happiness and Salvation The other things that disgust our People and render them such implacable enemies to the Romish Church are its intolerable Rapines Exactions and Cruelties Our People are not ignorant nor is it possible they should so long as we have so many Records and Histories relating them what spoil and havock the Romish Clergy made of the Estates of their Forefathers cheated them of their Money by selling them Pardons and Indulgences by telling them they might be redeemed if not from Hell yet from Purgatory a Prison of the Popes making and in a manner as disconsolate and uneasy for the time the poor captives stay there as Hell it self if they were to be believed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold How they exhausted the Treasure drain'd away the wealth of the Nation by Peter Pence and First-fruits and Tenths and Fees for Dispensations and investing Bishops and Appeals and I know not how many other ways so that the Kingdom groan'd under their insatiable avarice and beg'd of God and his Anointed to ease them of such an intolerable burthen and oppression not to suffer our Silver Thames as it is called to be the unhappy Channel to carry out the English Treasure and cast it upon the banks of Tyber to support the pride and grandeur of a Forraign Patriarch And indeed the Flux was so violent that if it had not been stop'd in time it would have destroy'd the Body Politick have let out the Bloud and Spirits of the Nation discouraged their industry and thereby beggar'd the People for seeing their land devoured by Strangers and Forreigners reap the fruit of their labours being forced to send great sums abroad and haunted continually with lazy Monks and begging Friars at home the miserable People had no encouragement to imploy their time and labour to get Wealth for such Caterpillers to Devour And if Popery produce such oppressions lay such grievous or heavy burthens upon them 't is no wonder that the People are no fonder of it and being by our Laws freed from such ravening Wolves as the Romish Clergy were when they had the Rule or Authority here have no mind they should return any more lest their long and forced abstinence render them more hungry then formerly and whet their appetites so that a moderate morsel or revenue cannot satisfie them But Mony is not the only thing they thirst after for they delight in Bloud and Cruelty think they do God good service and offer him the most acceptable Sacrifice when they kill those they falsly call Hereticks and root them out of the Land of the Living Men of such a fiery or burning Zeal that when they have Power in any measure equal to it they make Living Bonefires or Burnt Offerings of all that dissent from them and will not truckle to their Superstition Their horrid Massacres in France their savage Executions by Duke Alva and others in the Low Countries their Inhumane Butchering and cutting Peoples Throats in Ireland their Gunpowder Plots their Racks and Inquisitions the Fires they make for the Living and their Damning the dead Saints or Christians as far as the Popes Anathema's or Curses can do it to the everlasting Flames of Hell are sufficient Instances and Monuments of their bitter Zeal and barbarous Cruelty These have enlightened and convinced a great part of the Christian World that they are not of Christ have none of his good Spirit in them who came not to destroy mens lives but to save them Their Law against Hereticks as the Learned 1 Epist ad Wading Jesu Ant. Chap. 8 Pag. 126. Episcopis observes is so Cruel Bloudy and Nesarious so contrary to the mild and merciful Genius of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and that Royal Law of Charity which he would have extended to our very Enemies that I doubt not to affirm that cannot be the Holy Church as they call and would have it believed to be in which so barbarous a Law so cruel a Discipline so inconsistent with right reason and common humanity is in force and practice These things have created in our People a mighty aversion to and hatred of Popery and if their hatred kept within its due bounds and shewed it self in just and lawful ways they would deserve great honour and commendation for it but to be so inflamed at every discovery of any Popish Plots or Designs or by the impious frauds and artifices of the Seditious who are always spreading false rumours of Popery to do mischief as to cast off the Loyalty Justice and Honesty which our Lord requires of all that profess his Religion this instead of haters of Popery proves them to be the Enemies of Christ and equal Criminals with the worst of Papists for every wise and good man therefore hates Popery because it prompts the Zealots for it to do such evil and wicked things as are destructive of Salvation but if Zeal against Popery put men upon any sinful and therefore damnable Practices these are certainly as bad if not worse then those and both of them
go about to satisfie Men that will never be satisfied A time may come and I hope it is approaching when such a Declaration will not only be believ'd but receiv'd with the joyful Acclamations and grateful Acknowledgments of both Houses and if it be thy Blessed will Oh God let such a time a time so much desired by all good Men come and that quickly But for my part I do not think it civil or decent for those that are unacquainted with the greatest affairs of State to take upon them to prescribe to his Royal Highness or to tell him when or in what manner he should declare himself because this would Savour of Rudeness and Presumption and therefore they must leave it to his own Prudence and the Wise Determinations of those Great and Honourable Personages that understand and conduct the weighty concerns of the Government it being for Them to know the times and seasons of so important an Action and not for Men of privacy and low degree Stay a while then and consider what you are doing be not too confident Oh ye Excluders make not so much hast nor such a stir to shut the door upon a Prince that you are not sure is gone from you believe it possible for you to Err or be Mistaken in your Opinions of him you see he hath no Reason to be a Papist and the Arguments for it are insufficient do not prove it therefore be not too confident he is so SECT IV. So far I have consider'd the first Question Whether his Royal Highness be a Papist The next and great Enquiry is Whether if he be so that Forfeits his Right That it doth not I assert and am now to prove In order to which I affirm That it is possible for a Good Conscientious and well meaning Man one that desires to go the Right way to Heaven to turn Papist Errour may look so like Truth and Superstition be so adorn'd with the paint and fair colours of true Piety that Men of good understanding and great integrity may be deceived and deluded by it Thus the excellent Chillingworth a Pious and Learned Man was seduced to the Romish Church though by the Grace of God he saw his errour return'd to our Church and lived and died in the Holy and Apostolical Faith which it professeth and not long after his return to it mindful of that sacred precept of our Lord to St. Peter when thou art converted strengthen by Brethren writ his excellent Book St. Luke 22. 32. in which he fully and unanswerably proves that which is the Subject or Title of it That the Religion of Protestants is a safe way to Salvation a Book highly meriting the perusal of all that either need or desire satisfaction in that Great and most weighty point In the Preface to it he tells his Readers the Motives that perswaded him to turn Papist which though they were as he truly calls them and to which he there gives full and satisfactory answers silly Sophisms and false Suppositions yet they so abused that good Man as to Proselyte him to the Church of Rome And why may not others as Pious Prudent and Conscientious as he be deceiv'd and misled into Popery by these or such fallacious Arguments or Reasons 'T is very well known that the Jesuits and Missionaries of the Roman Church are Persons Learned and Subtile trained up by the most expert Masters and not suffer'd to go abroad till they are thoroughly skil'd and instructed in the controversies between them and us and furnish'd with all manner of Arts and Abilities to seduce and deceive People And cannot Persons so prepared and fitted for it make gross errours and the foulest practices look fair and plausible varnish them over so with Apologies or Excuses extenuate their guilt pare off the Absurdities adhereing to them with Distinctions and set them out to such advantage that an honest Man shall not only think them Innocent things such as have no harm nor venome in them but be very much enamour'd of or taken with them They that read their Books must acknowledg if they will speak the truth that nothing is wanting in them that either Wit or Zeal can invent to defend or put a fair gloss upon the errours of their Church though what they plead in Justification of them be false or deceitful Argumentations poor idle Sophisms meer Paint Varnish no better than Gilding a Rotten Post or Cloathing Errour in the dress and vestments of Truth yet they seem so plausible look so fair and inviting that a Good Conscientious and well meaning Man as I said before may be so abus'd and deluded by them as to become a Proselyte to the Roman Church And being so is he not a Christian A Papist I suppose cannot truly be deny'd to be a Christian because the Church of which he is a Member is a Christian Church though lapsed into great Errours and Impieties a Christian Church it must needs be because it makes Profession of the Faith and Religion of Christ ascribes enough to him to secure to it self the Glorious Title and Denomination of Christian for the Council of Trent in the Explication of the Article of Justification gives this account of it Hujus Justificationis causae sunt c. Session 6. cap. 7. page 35. The Causes of this Justification are these The Final Cause is the Glory of God and of Christ and Eternal Life The Efficient Cause is the Merciful God who freely washeth aod sanctifieth signing and anoynting with the Holy Spirit of promise who is the the earnest of our Inheritance The Meritorious cause is the most beloved and only begotten Son of God who when we were Enemies for his great Love wherewith he Loved us did by his most holy passion upon the Cross Merit Justification and give Satisfaction to God his Father for us By which it is Evident that the Church of Rome holds That the Merits of Christ are the moving or procuring Cause of our Justification so absolutely necessary to it that as that Council speaks a little after Nemo possit esse justus nisi cui page 36. merita Passionis Domini nostri Jesu Christi Communicantur no Man can be Just or Righteous but He to whom the Merits of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ are Communicated Now they that acknowledg or own this Great and Fundamental Truth that we are justified by the Merits of Christ and consequently that he is our only Saviour and do adore him as the Christ or Son of God which they cannot be deny'd to do though that Acknowledgment this Worship of theirs be mixt and accompany'd with many and those very dangerous Errours must be acknowledg'd to be a Christian Church And if the collective Body be such the particular Members must be so too I suppose then it will be easily granted me by the greatest Zealots against Popery it being but a reasonable concession and such as I shall not
constant custom hath been to invocate or call upon God and in all their dangers and necessities to make addresses to him in hopes to be heard protected and supply'd by his Infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness for if this had not been their hope or expectation they would never have done the other for to what purpose should men supplicate such a Being as hath no kindness for and refuses to help them takes no notice of makes no return to the petitions that are put up to him 'T is true indeed most Nations of the World have been so ignorant as to present their Prayers to a wrong Object to invocate false and imaginary Deuties that could neither hear nor help them but they thought them to be wise and powerful and the dispensors of all manner of blessings otherwise they would never have gone to their Temples nor approach'd their Altars nor lifted up their hands and hearts and voices to them But we thanks be to God understand better than to be guilty of such gross and impious Errours we direct our Prayers to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is pleased to be called as by one of his most eminent titles of honour a God hearing Prayer and commands us to make our devout addresses to him nay invites us to do it with great and gracious promises It shall come to pass that before they call I Esa 65. 24. will answer and whilst they are yet speaking I will hear So propense is the Divine Goodness to help all Pious People that it will not stay to be asked but prevents them many times with great and eminent blessings and therefore much more will he do it when they humbly beg such favours of him as their present exigences require Are they in trouble or danger Call upon me saith this most merciful Being in the time of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me And lest any man should think his condition not capable of help suppose his dangers or wants too great to be averted or reliev'd by his Prayers our Lord hath given us that most large and comprehensive promise verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my name he will give it you St. Jo. 16. 23. Not every thing indefinitely but whatsoever good thing holy and good men rightly ask of him for a good End he assures us God will give it if the persons praying be pious and holy the things pray'd for just and lawful the end for which they are desired good if they be asked in Faith with submission to his holy will and pleasure with a pious importunity and dependance upon him then the Prayer is within our Saviours promise and of great efficacy with God so St. James affirms The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man Chap. 5. 16. Phil. 4. 6. availeth much is of such mighty Power with God that St. Paul commands us to be careful of nothing not to vex or disquiet trouble or torment our selves with dreadful apprehensions of the dangers that threaten and incompass us not to say how shall we escape what shall we do to decline the rage and cruelty of our Enemies but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with thanks-giving let our requests be made known unto God do but recommend your selves to God in holy and frequent Prayer with thankful acknowledgments of his former Mercies and you need trouble your selves no farther but leave the event to him who will either give you deliverance here or that which is better and more desirable eternal happiness and Salvation hereafter The more and greater our dangers are the more frequent and fervent our Prayers and Devotions ought to be for when all other helps and means have failed these have procured the most eminent blessings and deliverances the Church in all Ages hath experienced the benefit and advantage of them for the Prayers of holy men have saved Cities and Kingdoms from Ruin obtain'd Victories done Miracles shut and opened Heaven By the Prayer of Moses the Amalekites the most malicious Enemies of the People of Israel were vanquish'd by the Prayer of Asa the Ethiopians their most numerous Enemies were discomfited And by the Prayer of Isaiah and Hezekiah the vast Army of Sennacherib was destroy'd by an Angel the Seige of Jerusalem raised and he return'd into his own Land where he fell by the Swords of his own Sons And if the devout Prayers of holy men have been so advantageous and successful in former Ages how come they to have lost their power and efficacy now or to be of such small credit with Christians that they dare not trust to them and other lawful means but seek to secure themselves by those that are sinful and unrighteous May not we expect the same help and benefit by them which they have afforded others in their dangers and distresses yes certainly And therefore let it be our care as it is both our wisdom and duty to make use of these to put up Supplications Prayers and Intercessions First for the King that God will give him along Life a secure happy Reign save or deliver him from all his Enemies hide him from the gathering together of the froward and from the Insurrection of the wicked doers discover and defeat all the Councels and Conspiracies of Traytors that they may fall into the Pit which at any time they dig and be taken in the Snare which they are so Impious as to lay for him For his Royal Highness that God will preserve him from the hands of Violence from the cruel bloudy Zeal of Fanatick Spirits that he will be graciously pleased if he be a Papist to inlighten him with the knowledg of the Truth to convert him to this Pure and Holy Church that he may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus For our Religion humbly beseeching the great and glorious Author of it that he will be pleased to preserve and continue it to us and our posterity for ever that though our sinful and unsuitable lives deserve so sad and fearful a Judgment yet that he will be merciful to us not suffer his Truth to fail amongst nor his Gospel to be taken from us And that he will be pleased to keep us from dishonouring our Religion by using any unjust or unlawful means for the Defence and Preservation of it lest whilst we appear Zealous in such a way for the true we run into such errours extravagancies as will give the World just cause to think that we have really no Religion at all If these things were piously and frequently recommended to the Divine Goodness both in publick and private by all that in this Nation profess the Reformed Religion we should soon see the Blessed effects of and obtain a Gracious answer to such Prayers And therefore before we trouble our selves about any more let us try this most excellent Expedient which hath in all Ages done such wonders in the