and height of an amourous passion was so blinded that to satisfy his carnal lust he assumed and annexed a spiritual supremacy to a temporal Crown may be attributed to the fondness and fancies of love That a Babe K. Edward 6. was taken with such a bable as that same supremacy may be imputed to the tenderness of his age and to the imprudence of his Vncle and Protector Somerset who by promoting that Oath and the Protestant reformation put the Kingdom into a Babylonical confusion That Dudley Duke of Northvmberland seing the Church and state so confounded did ground a title for the Lady Jane Grey and for his own son to the Crown vpon the principles and Zeal of Protestancy is but the ordinary practise of Politians that the Lady Elizabeth did reâ—â—ive her Fathers supremacy and the Protestant reformation wherby alone shee could pretend to be legitimat against two acts of Parliament never yet repeald is not so blameable in her as in them that but four years before had by an vnanimous vote in both Houses declared An Bullens marriage voyd and that same supremacy and Protestancy to be heresy That K. Iames did pardon and promote his mothers murtherers and conform himself to that Religion wherby shee and himself had bin so long excluded from their right was great clemency or a cuning compliance without which he covld hardly have compassed his ends and restored the line of the Stenarts to the British Empire That K. Charles 1. did endeavour by Ordinances and Laws to restrain and reduce the variety of Protestant opinions grounded vpon the liberty of interpreting Scripture to some kind of vniformity and subordination to Princes and Prelats had bin an act of great prudence if it had not shaken and shock't the very fundation of all Protestant Reformations that consists in an arbitrary interpretation of the obscure Texts of Scripture from which foundation and fountain necessarily floweth the priviledge of denying obedience to all civil and Ecclesiastical authority that commands any thing contrary to those interpretations of Scripture wherby every privat person or any leading men of the Protestant Congregations will be pleased to direct themselves or guide others That the Zealous and precise sort of Protestants did convene and covenant against the King and Bishops for endeavoring to deprive them of this their Evangelical liberty of the Reformation was but a natural result of the same fundamental principle of Protestancy That Oliver Cromwell by counterfaiting Zeal and piety and by humoring the privat spirits and interpretations of Protestant Sectaries did ruin his King and rais himself from a mean subject to be absolut Soveraign needs not to be enumerated among the casualties or favors of fortun there being not any thing more feasible then to dethrone a Protestant Monarch by his own Religion because it is nothing but an arbitrary interpretation of Scripture and by consequence gives such a latitud for justifying rebellion vpon the score of refining the reformation by a new sense of Scripture that every Protestant without violating the principles but rather sticking to the prerogative of Protestancy may embrace any more pleasing and popular sense of the Text however so prejudicial it prove to his lawful Soveraign or however contrary it be to the sense of Scripture established by law or by acts of vniformity But that notwithstanding so many warnings and wars as we have had so great and grave a Councel as the Parliament of England should think fit to continue the same vnsuccessfull cours of setling Monarchy the same statuts wherby Q. Elizabeth excluded the right heirs and now reigning family the same fundamental Tenet of the Reformation wherby every subject is made interpreter of Scripture and by consequence Iudge of his Soveraign and of the Government which must be subordinat to Scripture is not only to me but to the Christian world the cause of greatest admiration And becaus every Religion hath some incomprehensible mysteries I will number this among those of Protestancy but withall must beg pardon for thinking that it is rather against then above reason for to grant the principle wherupon the independency or Soveraignty of every Protestant subject is grounded and yet to make Acts of Parliament in favor of the Church of England against the same subjects independency or Soveraignty is a kind of contradiction So discerning a people as the English can hardly be hindred from seing the manifest connexion that is between the Protestant subjects liberty of interpreting Scripture and the not submitting their judgments or actions to any human laws or Government if contrary to their own interpretations And so Religious and scrupulous a people as they are will not be easily persuaded that an Act of Parliament is sufficient to dispense with their obligation and inclination of sticking to that fundamental Tenet of Protestancy I confess that in some Countreys as in France the Protestant people are now kept in so great subjection that they dare not go so far as the principles of Protestancy lead and in other more Northern Climats they are of so dull and peaceable a constitution that they want either curiosity to examin or courage to assert the priviledges of the reformation and therfore are apt to submit their Iudgments by an implicit faith to the opinions of Luther or Calvin or of their own Clergy But with us where every one thinks his own spirit as divin and his Iudgment as good as that of Luther or Calvin or of the Bishops where the stoutness and stubborness of our nature makes us venture vpon any thing wheâ—her sacred or profane where every Peasant is warranted by the law to question the prerogative of his Prince in such a Countrey I say and in such a constitution of the Government it is not to be expected that men will be less contentious in the Church then they are in the Courts nor content with less then with that supremacy of judicature allowed by the principles of Protestancy to be the spiritual-birth-right of every Protestant subject These are some of the inconveniencies whervnto the government is lyable by the principles and profession of Protestancy and though I humbly conceive that nothing but liberty of conscience can content so many dissenting parties yet I am of opinion that before such a liberty be granted some previous conferences concerning Religion like that of Hampton Court in K. James his reign be allowed but without excluding from those Conferences Papists or any party that will offer to give reason for their Religion For as to accept of a Bill of comprehension before men examin the consequences and qualifications of the Religions comprehended may breed greater confusion so to except any Christian Religion from being examined doth argue that in our Conferences we consult not conscience But it is to be feared that education and interest the two greatest prejudices not only against truth but against the examination therof will make the Bishops and their Bigots avers from any
only more â—ound in point of Christiatity but more safe in order to the government then any others And though it be a common and true saying that the greatest Clerks are not the wisest men and by consequence not so fit to prescribe rules for governing as wordlings that are not Divines or as wranglers that are Lawyers yet I humbly conceive that when the misfortunes of a government proceed not from want of judgment or resolution in the Councel but from want of faith or which is the same from an acknowledged vncertainty of faith in the Church Catholick Divines seing we are unanimous in matters of Christian belief and do persuade the best part of Christendom that our Church is infallible in the same and if heard we doubt not to prevail with these British Nations also to credit vs in that important point however improbable it may seem to them at first sight I hope this supposed we Catholick Divines may without offence pretend to be better able to shew and salve the spiritual sore of this state then any Protestant Statists or schoolmen who want sufficient unity and assurance of faith in themselves to make their cure and care credible to others Seing therfore the foundation not only of Christian Religion but of a peaceable government doth consist in a firm persuasion of the people governed that the doctrin professed and established by Law is infallible and of Divine inspiration not of human invention and by consequence that the decrees and determinations of the State which in all Governments ought to be proportioned to the doctrin of its Church are lawfull and intended for the common good not designs or devices to fool the multitude feed the ministery or favor the soveraign and that not only evidence of falshood but vncertainty of truth in matters of Christianity must needs render the Church and State that profess such an vncertainty so weak and contemptible that the subjection to either cannot be otherwise secured then by the force and fear of a standing Army and that such a subjection doth savor more of a Turkish slavery then fâ—â—a Christian Society or of a civil subordination to publick authority and therfore is the cause of continual discontents and frequent rebellions and that no Church but the Roman Catholick doth as much as pretend or can persuade it s own infallibility in matters of Religion seing I say all this is manifest by reason and our wofull late experiences I question not but that the Parliament will be pleased to take in good part this humble proposal of saving our souls and of setling this state by the doctrin of the Roman Catholick Church and by the Revenues of the Protestant Prelatick Clergy especially if the corruptions of Scripture and falsifications of Councells and Fathers wherwith I do charge that Clergy and wherby alone they maintain their Protestancy be cleerly demonstrated in this Treatise and patiently heard in a publick Trial. It 's now above a Century of years since the great Statsmen of England have employed their wit and industry in devising how to setle Monarchy vpon Protestancy but vnder favor we Catholick Divines do shew and all Protestants may suspect by the success that in so great an affair they have proceeded like vnskillfull Architects that busy themselves altogether in proportioning and adorning the superstructures without inquiring into the strength and solidity of the foundation They mistook sand for stone fals translations for true Scripture a lay ministery for a lawful Clergy a temporal soveraignty for a spiritual supremacy They layd for the first stone of their New fabrik a sworn spiritual rebellion the oath of supremacy against the chief Prelat and common Father of all Christendom S. Peters Successor No marvail then if this fundation yeelded and the whole fabrik fell to the ground in our late distempers for by an evident parity of reason it must be concluded that it is as lawful for Protestants to depose Kings as Popes by vertue of their privat and arbitrary interpretations of scripture If notwithstanding the legal and long possession or prescription of a suprem spiritual superiority the Bishop of Rome may by the principles and prerogative of Protestancy be reformed and reduced to be only Patriarck of the West or a privat Bishop what temporal soveraignity can be absolute or secure among Protestants The same arguments the same texts of Scripture the same spirit the same interpretations of God's Word that Luther Calvin Cranmer and all other Protestants objected against the Popes supreme spiritual authority did the Presbyterians and other Protestants press by an vnanswerable paralel against the late King 's temporal Soveraignty Wherfore it is much to be feared that notwithstanding the extraordinary prudence of our government we shall be frequently involved in as great troubles and dangers as formerly and that the privat spirit and English Scripture interpreted by Protestants will prevail against lawfull Monarchy whensoever the like circumstances do concurr viz. a Zealous Parliament a mild King a covetous Clergy a stubborn people and resolute Rogues to lead them and declare to the Multitude their own strength as wel as the fundamental principles and priviledges of all Protestant Reformations In Catholick Commonwealths all these circumstances do meet the principles of Protestancy only excepted and yet the Catholick subjects remain immoveable in their obedience in regard of the credit and authority of their Church and Clergy which in privat confessions and publick exhortations continualy inculcat how inconsistant any privat or arbitrary interpretation of Scripture and by consequence any pretext of superiority over the Soveraign is with the Christianity and obsequiousnes of Catholick faith and how principal a part it is of that â—aith to believe not only that the Church is infallible in its doctrin but also that temporal Soveraigns are Gods Vice-regents and absolut in their government and therfore as such ought to be revered and obeyed And when by reason of heavy taxes or other such accidents the fire of sedition somtimes breaks forth among Catholicks it is generally speaking suddenly quencht by the authority and severity of the Clergies Censures against the Authors or by the devotion and reverence which even the most Irreverent of our profession exhibit to the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar that is shewn vpon such emergencies to the mutinous people which notwithstanding their fury and madness immediatly fall down to adore their God and Redeemer and for respect of him whom they beleeve to be realy present are appeased or at least give ear to their Pastors reasons and exhortations with more patience and better success then any Protestant people in the like occasions Wherfore though we Catholicks should grant as we neither do nor can that the Protestant or Prelatick reformation is as safe a way to Heaven as the Roman Religion yet methinks such Protestants as desire to live peaceably or govern prosperously ought to preferr Popery before Protestancy That K. Henry 8. in the heat
length most vnworthily murthered by the joynt consent of a Protestant Queen and Parliament and her son and Family excluded from the British Empire in case Queen Elizabeth should have or at least own any natural issue which many suppose was the true cause why she or the Parliament would never declare her Successour King James having bin brought vp in this schoole of affliction attained to more then ordinary wisdom dissembled with his enemies in England and strengthned him-self with as many friends and Allies as he could in foreign Nations to the end he might recouer his right after Queen Elizabeths death which he and the best part of the world every day long'd son He kept faire with France Spain and even with the Pope He succord Tyrone Tirconel and the Jrish Scots in Irland against Queen Elizabeth but vnder hand He corresponded with the Catholick party in England and was civil even to that party that contrived and pressed his Mothers murther By his marriage he obtained the confederacy of Denmarck and the Protestant Princes of Germany for recovering of England Cecil and others of the English Councel observing how prudently this young King had ordered his affairs and prepared him-self for being their Master courted him and vnknown to the Queen gave him dayly intelligence and thought it their best course to fix vpon him for her Successour seing they could hardly keep him out they invited him to the Throne after his enemie's death and he finding that very Protestancy by which his mother and him-self had bin so long excluded from their right and would have bin for ever if Queen Elizabeth had bin as capable as t' is sayd she was desirous of Posterity was deeply rooted in the hearts of most of his English subjects who either did not see he chang or not observe the motives and Mysteries therof King James J say reflecting vpon this inclination of the people to Protestancy conformed him-self vnto that Reformation which had bin setled by law in England discountenanced the Puritans by whose doctrin he had bin persecuted in Scotland and would have tolerated the Catholick if the gun powder Treason wherunto some few discontented and desperat Papists were cunningly drawn by Cecil to make their Religion odious had not blasted our hopes and blotted out of his Majestie 's memory what we had suffered for his Mother and how not only our persons but our principles had bin persecuted for supporting the title of his Family to the British Empire By King James his learned works and discourses it is manifest he had a design to reform the principles of Protestancy and reduce them to some rules of reason and confine that dangerous liberty which they give to every privat Protestant of being supreme Judg in all spiritual Controversies to one certain interpretation of Scripture that might be less prejudicial to Monarchy Monarchs peace and all civil Government then the Protestant arbitrary interpretations have proved hitherto To that purpose he commanded the Bible to be truly translated and those fraudulent and foolish corruptions to be corrected which had bin imposed vpon the people for God's word by Queen Elizabeths Clergy for maintaining her title and securing the revenues of the Church to them selves But his command was not obey'd some falcifications in the ould and new Testament were corrected but very few in respect of what remain and pass now current for true Scripture He declared that Catholicks and their Religion had no hand in the gunpowder treason those few persons excepted which had bin executed He was not afraid to acknowledg that the Pope was the first Bishop of Christendom and Rome the mother Church he suspended the rigor of the sanguinary and penal Statuts commended not apostatised Priests that became Protestants as he said to get wenches and benefices These things he did not out of any inclination to Popery but out of his zeal to Protestancy which he perceived would in a short time become as infamous as it is intolerable to Monarchs in case it's principles were not corrected and brought neerer vnto Catholick Tenets After King Iames his death his son King Charles 1. pursued the Father's design but found by sad experience that the Protestant liberty of interpreting Scripture cannot be restrained to reason by any human industry of the wisest Princes especialy so long as they are guided by a fallible Church that confesseth it's own vncertainty of doctrin King Charles the 1. was persuaded by his Councel and Clergy that the Laws which had bin enacted in favour of the Prelatick fallible Church and doubtful jurisdiction were of sufficient force and authority to contain Protestant subjects in awe and obedience and to stop the cours and consequences of those fundamental and violent principles of their reformation against superiority at the Church of Rom's doore and keep them from passing further or entrenching vpon the Church of England But the mistake soon appeared they who are allowed by the Prelatick principles to rebell against their Roman Superiours vnder the pretence of a Religious interpretation of Scripture and evangelical Reformation could not then nor cannot for the future be contain'd or deterr'd by any authority from rebelling against their Protestant Kings and Bishops vpon the same score whose superiority could not be more authentick then the Roman Catholick And therfor because the King had engaged in the Bishops quarel he drew vpon himself the odium of all Protestants that with the spirit and zeal of Reformation stuck to the fundamental principles of Protestancy which is to contemn all authority both spiritual and temporal which any privat person judges contrary to his own interpretation of Scripture and seeng the Prelatick Church of England doth grant this doctrin was lawful in Luther Calvin Cranmer Parker and other particular persons Churches and States against the Pope and others their then acknowledged spiritual and temporal superiours it will be very difficult to shew why now a Presbiterian or Fanatick Congregation may not as rationally pretend and as lawfully practise the same doctrin as their primitive Protestant Predecessours had don And so in vertue of this fundamental principle of Protestancy was the sacred person of a good King judged and murthered by a rude and wicked multitude without regard to innocency or respect to Soveraignty And by a remarkable revolution of tyms and interests the grandson came to loose his head for vpholding that same Prelatick Religion and Clergy which by Q. Elizabeth had bin rays'd for the destruction of his Grand-mother and the exclusion of his family from the crown Since Christian Soveraigns have reign'd the like Tragedy hath not bin acted many Princes have bin murthered by their Subjects but never by any such formality of Law and a publick Court of Judicature pretending superiority in themselves and Scripture for their rule and warrant Wherfore they that looke into the principles and privileges for the future in so zealous and resolute a people as the English who stand much vpon
Protestancy an infallible mark of a false Church and of Hereticks whose endeavor saith Tertullian Is not to convert Pagans but to pervert Christians Negotium est illis Haereticis non Ethnicos convertendi sed nostros evertendi Their success in that particular is no argument that God approves of their Religion but is only a sign of our human frailty and perverse inclinations to vice and liberty And they who say that the Protestant Reformation needs no other miracle to prove that it is Divine but it's propagations mistake and misapply the argument the miracle consists not in that many embraâ—â— Protestancy but rather in that any at all reject or forsake a Religion so favorable to sensuality of liâ—â— and singularity of judgment Is it not an argument and a miracle of God's special and super-natural grace that any one temporal Catholick Soveraign reject so absolut and advantagious a jurisdiction over these Subjects as the spiritual supremacy That Bishops preferr the Catholick subordination to the Pope before the Protestant equality That Catholick Priests contemn the conveniences and coâ—â—â—nt which Protestant Ministers find in a married life 〈◊〉 â—hat the Catholick laytâ— change not their wives or husbands according to the principles and practises 〈◊〉 Protesâ—â—â—cy and not only contradict their senses in the 〈…〉 Transubstantiation but dis-own the Protestant pretended right of every privat person to judg according to his own sense of 〈…〉 all controversies of Christian Religion A Reformation so indulgent and obliging to every man and woman of what â—â—ate and condition soever could as litle want Proselies as the 〈◊〉 neither is the multitude of believers more a miracle 〈…〉 Pâ—â—â—estant then in the Mahometan or any other popular 〈◊〉 pleasing Religion SECT VIII Protestants mistaken in the consistency of their justifying faith with justice or civil Government Demonstrated in the new setlement of Irland and in the persecution against Catholicks in England and yet the King and his government vindicated from the note of Tyrany or the breach of publick faith because his Ministers are compell'd by a necessity of state to run with the spirit and principles of Protestancy Notwithstanding all which the Irish and English Roman Catholicks are bound in conscience not to attempt the recovery of their right or Religion by arms but rather to submit them-selves to his Majesty and suffer their crosses with Christian patience All Protestants agree in the doctrin of Iustification by only faith but seem to differ in that of good works And though all necessity of good works be in very deed excluded by the pretended sufficiency and efficacy of the Protestant justifying faith for in what need can a man stand of good works if he be sure of his justification and by consequence of his salvation by only faith But the scandal of the world at their dispensing with the observation of the ten Commandments as things not required by Christians and cleerly inferred from their Iustification by only faith was so general that they disguised but never disown'd the doctrin and do yet stick to their principle though they dare not openly allow the consequences They speak so sparingly in favour of good and gracious works that no one Protestant Church will attribute to them any merit congruity or influence vpon either justification or salvation In so much that our Prelaticks who are more modâ—â—at then any other Protestants in this particular will not grant that good works are commanded by God as if they were depending of our liberty or relating to our endeavors but only are commanded as vnavoydable effects flowing necessarily from a Protestant and justifying faith as heat from fire or fruit from the tree The Prelatick Church of England in the 11. Article of it's Religion saith We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ by faith and not for our own works or deservings Wherfore that we are justified by faith only is a most wholsom doctrin and very full of comfort And in the 12. Article declares All beit that good works which are the fruits of faith and follow after justification can not put away our sins and endure the severity of God's Judgment yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith in so much that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit This explanation concerning the necessity of good works makâ— men as carless of them as if they had bin impossible or not at all requisit Because we are not solicitous of what we are sure of he who is well clad and sits by a good fire fears not to be starv'd with could neither doth he think it necessary to vse any other exercise or diligence for keeping him-self warm If therfore good works do spring out as necessarily of a true and lively faith as heat from fire or fruit from the tree any Protestant that supposeth him-self hath that faith needs not be solicitous of good works they will spring as a necessary consequent from his faith But because experience doth shew that the Protestant who pretends to a justifying faith hath not always good works and many who are not Protestants exercise moral virtues it is further declared by the Church of England in the 13. Article for the comfort of Protestants and confusion of Papists That even the best moral works and virtues when they spring not of faith in JESUS Christ are no way pleasing to God but rather have the nature of sin Hence it is our English as well as other Protestants hould expressly with Luther That good works take their goodness of the worker and that no work is disallowed of God vnless the Author be dis-allowed before that sin is not hurtfull to him that actually believeth and therfore when the faithfull do sin they diminish not the glory of God all the danger of sin being the evell example to our neighbour That David when he committed adultery was and remained the Child of God that sin is pardoned as soon as committed the believing Protestant having received forgivness of all his sins past and to come And that there is no work better then other to make water to wash dishes to be a Sower or an Apostle all is one to please God That he who doth once truly believe cannot afterwards fall from the grace of God or loose his faith by any sins and therfore faith is either perpetual or no faith What a wide gap is opened by this wicked doctrin to all kind of vice libertinism and rebellion is more visible in it self then considered by well meaning Protestants who may tax the most dissolut of their brethren with being evill Christistians but must withall confess them to be good Protestants as not violating the principles of their Religion by which they are encouraged to justify the most wicked actions by
commission The Roman Church therfore being prudently taken for the Organ of God's voice it is as impossible we should be misledd by it's doctrin as it is that God should go against his infinit inclination to truth or should violat his own veracity Had God's veracity bin limited to his own personal or immediat speech and not extended to what-soever he delivers by the mouth and ministery of others and of his Church it had not bin infinit his credit would have ended with Christ's preaching to the Apostles and though they were bound to believe their Master non could be obliged to believe them But seing God's veracity is infinit and his words must continue for ever they can be as little confined to the persons or Pastors of any on certain age as infinit veracity to on particular truth or infinit excellency and goodness to any one degree of perfection Now seing that God's worth and veracity or his infinit inclination to speak truth cannot be greatet in on matter nor in on age then in an other and that according to on 's inclination to any thing must be the application of his power to effect it we must conclude that God is as much engaged by his worth and goodness and as much inclined by his veracity and as much applied by his omnipotency to speak truth by the mouth of the Church as by his own and in the least matter as much as in the greatest and in every succeeding age as in that of the Apostles and that vnless his worth wisdom veracity goodness and omnipotency faile that Church which beareth the miraculous marks of his authority and exerciseth his ministery must be infallible in proposing and declaring his will and word in all Controversies whatsoever So that they who grant the Church 〈◊〉 infallible only in fundamental articles of faith deny Godâ—â—oodness worth veracity and omnipotency and they who believe not the doctrin of the Roman Catholick Church as the word of God because forsooth they have not cleer evidence that it is the word of God do no more believe nor trust God in the other they assent vnto then he who says he believes and trusts a man whose word or writing he will not take for 100. pounds vnless he delivers to him at the same time that summe of money not only sealed but seen in a bag The reason of this last assertion is cleer because one of the differences between the word of God and the word of men is that you mistrust men for the truth though you heare their own voice and have evidence that they speak the imperfection of their nature making their speech subject to falshood and themselves to frailty therfore we may mistrust their veracity and doubt they be mistaken or deceive vs though they pretend and profess to speak nothing but truth It is not so with God whose nature being infinitly perfect and truth it self it is manifest by natural reason that he can neither be mistaken nor deceive vs by his words and by consequence if we knew evidently that him-self speaks or that the words or doctrin vttered by the Church are his we can no more mistrust or not believe him then mistrust his Deity or feare a flaw in his perfections and fraud in his proceedings So that Protestants resolving not to believe the doctrin of the Church of Rome made sufficiently credible by supernatural signes to be Divine vntill it be made cleerly evident to them that it is the word of God resolve their faith into heretical obstinacy because they resolve not to believe or trust God that evidence which they exact not being compatible with the merit trust obscurity and obsequiousness of Christian belief nor with the duty of rationall Creatures They may be compared to some Irish or Scotch Rebells refusing to obey the King's Lieu-tenant and Commissioners because for-sooth they have not clear evidence that the commissions and commands are signed by the King though they see his Majesty's hand and seale for the authority set over them which also is obeyd and acknowledged by the better sort and greater part of both Nations yet the Rebells will not submit to any Orders vnless the King leave England go in person to rule them and satisfie every particular fellow that he hath named such a Lieu-tenant or Commissioner or vnless his Majesty will immediatly by him-self exercise his royal Jurisdiction signe and seale his commissions in their sight c. Some will think there is a great disparity in the comparison for that God may without trouble or prejudice to him-self reveale his will and pleasure to every particular person which Kings can no more do then be in many places at one time Therfore what inconveniency can it be that God make evident to every particular person either by a clear signe of his presence or by an evident proof of his spirit which doctrin is Divine which not without obliging men to believe that the Roman Catholick or any other Church is infallible and can not propose falshood for God's word To this we answer that God might not only reveale his mysteries to every person but save us also without subordination to any Church or Pastors or dependency of Sacraments but all Christians agree that he hath bin pleased not to do so so that the question is not what he could have don but what he hath don But it appears by the light of reason that ther is a certain distance and decorum due to Majesty and superiority by virtue wherof God or even a Creature that is supreme in any government may command his inferiors and subjects by subordinat officers and warant these officer's authority by some outward signes and seales of his Soveraignty which signes though they may be possibly counterfeited yet oblige the People so governed to obey Ministers so qualified as submissively as if him-self had immediatly delivered his own commands Wherfore though it were possible that a King might without trouble write and deliver all his oâ—ders immediatly or without the assistance of Secretaries Ministers and Messengers yet it were not fit And why the Protestant Doctors that write of this subject should think fit that God ought to deprive him-self of a decency and decorum due even to human Majesty to humor their curiosity or to comply with their obstinacy J can not comprehended nor attribute to any other thing but to want of humility and excess of heresy the malice wherof consists in contemning God's authority and denying his veracity when sufficiently appearing in the Church and though not self evidently yet so convincingly as to make our obligation of submitting thervnto evident Jt is therfore agross absurdity to think or say that the reverence due to the Divine authority obligeth vs not to submit or not assent therunto vnless it be more then moraly evident and by consequence more them sufficiently evident vnto us that we can not be mistaken in our submission or assent For hence
in a protestant Commonweale or Kingdom wherby the very foundation and birth-right of Protestancy is made penal and the most Religious observers of the protestant rule of faith are rendred incapable of all employments both in Church and state And that all this violence is practised to support a Creed the 39. articles of a doubtful sense and a Clergy of a doubtful caracter even according to their own prelatick principles and according to the primitive principles of protestancy and to vphould a Church that professeth it's own fall and fallibility and therfore for all it self knows is no true Church but may be mistaken in it's doctrin and lead all that rely vpon it's ministery and instruction into eternal damnation and can give no satisfaction or security to such as are of their communion nor produce any thing for justifying the severity of these proceedings but a Parliaments Act of vniformity and other temporal statuts To which every Presbiterian and fanatick doth answer that lawes enacted in favor of Religion do suppose not make the Religion reasonable for though reason be the ground of all human lawes yet no human lawes can be the ground of Religion When all this is maturely considered it will doubtless appeare to be a sad case that a poore man who desires to be saved and informed of the true Church and of Christ's doctrin and conform himself therunto shall be compell'd by forfeitures imprisonment and banishment c. to the prelatick doâ—trin and Church of England and shall have no other reason 〈◊〉 redress given him for this violence and punishments but that he doth not conform to the Religion established by the lawes of the Land So much was alleadged for the Idolls and Religion of the Pagan Emperous and vpon the same ground of law did they persecute the primitive Christians Doubtless all Quakers Presbiterians and non Conformists think themseves as glorious sufferers as the holy primitive Martyrs and Confessors which persuasion in so great and zealous a multitude can not be voyd of daunger and ought to be remedyed more by reason then rigor for though from Roman Catholicks whose principles are peaceable and incline them to suffer persecution with patience no great prejudice may be feared if they will be directed by their profession yet experience hath taught that all Protestant sectaries have inherited from their first Patriarchs Luther Calvin Crammer c. the spirit of sedition and rebellion which is involved in the very foundation of protestancy Luther openly declared so much at the Diet of Worms in presence of the Emperour Charles 5. Who had objected against him tumults and disorders as vndeniable effects of his doctrin misapplying the words of our saviour Non veni pacem mittere sed gladium as if dissention and rebellion had bin a mark of the true Ghospel On the other side the Presbiterians do imitate the bloudy proceedings and principles of their 〈◊〉 Fathers Zuinglius and Calvin in deposing of Kings and Magistrats and make good the saying of Zuinglius Evangelium vult sanguinem the Reformation must be maintained by bloud So that the sanguinary statuts in favor of prelatick protestancy and the bloudy principles of Presbitery in in pursuance of their seditious spirit clashing togeather will make fine work among Christians and the prelatick Clergy which ought by their admonitions and censures to compose these disorders and be Authors of peace are despised as no Clergy and their caracter is made the subject of discord and dispute And the Protestant Bishops which ought to exercise the authority whervnto they pretend retire and recurr to the 〈◊〉 Courts for the spirituality as well as for the legality of their jurisdiction and function and confess in plain termes their Churches frailty and fallibility in doctrin and leave the state to shift for it self deprived of thâ—â—â— helps which Catholick Princes receive from the Roman Church and Clergys censures wherwith rebellious subjects are terrified and 〈◊〉 or return to their duty SVBSECT I. NEither is the daunger of disturbing the tranquillity of the state for supporting the Prelatick doctrin and caracter by temporal lawes confin'd only to Presbiterians and Fanatiks the Prelatiks them-selves if interest prevaile not more with them then conscience and coherency can not but change their Religion into a contrary persuasion when they observe that the mean between Popery and Presbytery wherin they place Prelatick protestancy and the truth of christianity hath no solid foundation or colour of reason For what can be more absurd then to pretend that as moral virtue is a mean or mixture of two extremes so the truth of Christian Religion is a mean between two contrary opinions or a mixture of Popery and Presbitery which are two extremes involving contradictory Tenets Morality I confess is a mediocrity and a kind of Mixture For liberality for example doth seeme to participat some thing of covetousness and some thing of prodigality which are extreme different but Christianity being truth and Divine truth is no mean between the two but one of the two extremes it is no mixture because truth admits no mixture of falshood nor division it can be but on one side Therfore when a Presbiterian or Fanatick saith that Scripture is the only rule of faith and Judge of Controversies the Catholick sayes it is not not both but one of them speaks truth Yet the Prelatick would fâ—ain stand like a Christian moderator or neuter between both parties and reconcile their Contradictions by reducing them to a third doctrin or to a mean between truth and falshood and the mean is to grant both the contradictory propositions and collogue with both sides And indeed that is the mean wherin Prelatick Protestancy doth consist when their writers defend it against Presbiterians they grant the doctrin of Papists when they answer and 〈◊〉 against Papists they maintain the doctrin of Presbiterians for there is no other mean to reconcile or be reconciled to contradictions but to maintain both And this was the custom of Luther Calvin Cranmer c. and is the ordinary practise of the ablest Prelaticks in their books of Controversy I remit you to one of their greatest Champions my Lord Bishop of Down in his Dissuasive from Popery you need not run through the whole book read but his first Section and you will heare him say first that Scripture alone is the foundation or rule of faith and after that it is not Then again that it is nothing els but Scripture together with the Creeds and the foure first Councells It is as impossible therfore that a 〈◊〉 man should be in his judgment a Prelatick Protestant as it is he should believe that God revealed contradictions Wherfore if interest and conveniency hath not a greater 〈◊〉 vpon his profession of faith then conscience or coherency even to the principles of the Reformation he will not continue a prelatick nor make temporal statuts his rule of faith but will either according to the prudent
designes against his Majesty and the Protector and though the Lord Admiral to be restored to Worcester but after Ridley was in possession of the sea of London he laught at Latimer and ioyn'd with 〈◊〉 to keep him humble without Bishoprick or benefice 〈◊〉 hath bin sayd After K. Edward 6. death Ridley was very 〈◊〉 against Q. Mary and preach't against her title adding â—ith all she was so earnest a Papist that she refused to heare 〈…〉 to her which injury notwithstanding she would have â—ardon'd him if he had given any signes of true repenâ—â—â—â—◠〈◊〉 a fair triall and confutation of his heresies he 〈◊〉 of a bag of powder which his Brother in law delivered 〈…〉 at the stake the sooner to be dispatch't of his torment 〈◊〉 Fox saith the design took no effect his martyrdom was 〈◊〉 which happened by accident and that he cryed 〈…〉 and desired the people to let the fire 〈…〉 〈…〉 of this manâ—s spirit by a part of his farewell to the 〈…〉 London set down by Fox thus Harken 〈…〉 of Babylon thou wicked limb of Anti-christ 〈…〉 staâ—est thou down and makest havock of 〈◊〉 Prophet's 〈◊〉 c. Thy God which is thy work of thy words and whom thou sayest thou hast power to make that thy dâ—â—f and dumb God I say will not in deed nor can not make 〈◊〉 to escape the revengfull hand of the high and almighty God c. O thou whâ—rish Drabbe thou shalt never escape In steed of my farewell to thee now I say Fye vpon thee fye vpon thee filty Drabbe 〈◊〉 all thy false Prophets Of Hooper Rogers Poynet Bale and Coâ—erdales hypocrisy and impiety JOhn Hooper by Fox his relation was a Priest in Oxford in the daies of King Henry 8. infected with Lutheranisme by books that came from Germany and lived in when he was arraigned for his heresies he spoke to he Lord Chancellor and Iudges so grossy carnaly and absurdly of his marriage with the Burgundian wench that his 〈…〉 though he seâ—s not down his words yet acknowledgeth that the whole Court cryed thaâ—â— vpon him calling him beast c. we shall heare more of this man in the following story of his Camerade Rogers John Rogers was a priest also saith Iohn Fox in the time of King Henry 8. when Luther's doctrin began first to be 〈◊〉 in England which he having read and finding himself by the spirit therof inclined to some novelties in Religion and to marry he went into Flanders and there became Chaplyn â—â— the English Merchants in Antverp there also he fell acquainted with VVilliam Tyndal and Miles Coverdale two other English Priests of the same humor and retired thither for the 〈◊〉 â—nd Rogers and Coverdale assisted Tyndal in falsifying the Scripture and setting forth his English Translation afterwards condemned by Act of Parliament for erronious false and wickâ—â— After that Tyndal was burned in Flanders in the yeare 1536. Rogers repaired to VVittemberg in Saxony to live with Martyn Luther by whom he was confirmed in his Religion and provided of a duch wife which as Fox testifyeth brought him forth no less then eight children in very few years with which load of wife and children after both King Henry 8. and Luther were dead for they dyed both with in the compass of one yeare Rogerâ— returned into England togeâ—ther with Friar Martyn Bucer and his wench resolved to accommodat them-selves in all points to the Protector 's will and to any Religion that should be established by the laws of the land and accordingly they forsook the Doctrin of their old Master Luther and embraced that of Zwinglius as being the more favored and countenanced by the Protector Both Hooper and Rogers came with hopes of ruling the Church of England because they thought them-selves more learned in the Reformation then Cranmer and Ridley who As Ridley had bin intruded into Bonners Bishoprick of London so Poynet was thrust into Gardiners of Winchester â— better Scholler saith Heylin pag. 161. then a Bishop He had taken a wiâ—e in Edward 6. time and not content 〈◊〉 duâ—ing her life married another whose Husband 〈◊〉 Butcher actualy living whether she had left her husband for some discontent or disease I do not know but between the Bishop and the Butcher became a great suit in law about the woman that the Bishop kept and claimed as his wife but at length he was forced to restore her to the Butcher which Bishop Gardiner hearing from some of the Lords he replyed that their Lordships he hoped would command Poynet to restore him his Bishoprick as they had ordered him to restore his wife to the Butcher It seems in those primitive times of Protestanâ—â— the purity of the reformed doctrin was practised in marâ—â—ages as wel as in other matters for though Bishop Poynet received not the benefit of that Protestant liberty which he sued for and his Lordship knew was due by the principles of that Religion yet it was granted to Sir Ralph Sadler by common consent of the English Church and Parliament for one Mathew Barrow having bin through jealousy driven beyond seas for some time his wife married her Lover Sir Ralph the husband returns and claims his wife but sentence was given in favour of Sir Ralph Sadler who was declared to be her lawfull husband and Mathew Barrow lest at liberty to marry whom â—e pleased This decree is agreable to the principles of Protestancy as may be seen in this Treatise part 2. Sect. 2. â—num 3. neither is it credible so learned a Protestant Bishop as Poynet would contest in a legal way with the Butcher for a thing not allowed by the reformed Church wherof he was so eminent a Prelat and one of the first English Reformers John Bale Bishop of Ossory was a Carmelite friar who hearing of the liberty which the Protestant Reformation gave to Priests and Religious persons to marry forsook his Monastical and Catholick profession and made a formal abjuration of the Bible condemned by act of Parliament and Fox pag. 1427. sets down the proclamation of K. Henry 8. and the publick instrument of the Bishops prohibiting again an 1â—46 Tyndal and Coverdales Translation of the new Testament notwithstanding all this Coverdale the corrupter of the Bible was by Cranmer's means made the Corrector of his own and Tyndal's Translation which went by the name of the Bible of Mathew And he set out the same again with litle or no alteration of the Text and it was called the Bible of the large Volume with which work the honest party of the Clergy were as much offended aswith Mathew's Bible as being the same or at least no less fraudulent and fals and yet it was not corrected in K. Henry 8. dayes and was imposed vpon England as authentick Scripture in K. Edward 6. and Q. Elizabeths reigns and is that in substance which was reprinted by order of the Convocation an 1562. by some caled the
to have tasted any meat or drink for the space of fiveteen years together except only the B. Sacrament of the Altar which she received with great devotion and with extraordinary Ioy and Iubily of mind every Sunday And which was most admirable she was able to find out one only consecrated Host amongst a thousand that were not consecrated Thus he and without doubt this last was no less a miracle then the former because the consecrating of one Host among many depends vpon the intention and inward determination of the Consecrator which none but God can know But from Norfolk let 's pass to London I will now relate a story saith Waldensis wherof I my self was an eye witness in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in London where the venerable Arch-bishop Thomas Arundell of happy memory the son and Brother to an Erle sat in Iudgment in his Bishops chair assisted by Alexander the Prelat of the Church of Norwich and others At which time he propounded certain Interrogatories concerning the faith of the Eucharist vnto a Taylor of the parts of Worcestershire taken in the crime of heresy but when as the obstinat fellow could not be persuaded by any reason to embrace the right faith nor would believe nor call the consecrated Host any other thing but only holy bread he was at last commanded to worship the said Host but the Blasphemous heretick answering sayd verily a Spider is more worthy to be worshipped then it is when behold a Monstrous horrible Spider came sudenly sliding down by her thred from the top of the Church directly vnto the blaspemers mouth and endeavored very busily to get entrance even as he was speaking the words neither without much adoo could the many hands of the standers by keep her from entring into the wretch whether he would or no. Thomas Duke of Oxford and Chancelor of the Realm was there present and saw this wonder Then the Arch-bishop stood vp and declared to all that were present that the revenging hand of God had denounced the man to be a blasphemer Harpsfeild relates the same miracle out of the Register of Arch-bishop Arundell but we may doubt whether that old Register was not reformed as well as the old Religion by the Protestant Prelats Such cleer evidences are seldom preserved entire by the enemies of truth We see how frequently the very law books and ancient English statuts are corrupted by our English Protestants to favor the Kings spiritual supremacy as is largely proved by Persons against Sir Edward Cook and Bishop Morton in a particular book against Cook and in his Sober and quiet Reckoning with Thomas Morton wherin he discovers the vnworthy practises of Justice Cook and others falsifying the Charters of our ancient Kings c. As for example that of King Kâ—nulphus pleaded by Humphry Stafford Duke of Buckingham 1. Henry 7. for the sanctuary of the Monastery of Abindon which as it is printed by Pinson in Catholick times says that Leo then Pope did grant the said immunities and privileges c. and is yet so read in the Lord Brooks Abridgment tit Corone pl. 129. But since King Henry 8. spiritual Headship Pope Leo hath bin left out in most printed Statuts and Iudge Cook quotes them so corrupted as good evidence against the Bishop of Romes jurisdiction pretending that the Kings and not the Popes gave spiritual jurisdictions and immunities St. Optatus Bishop who lived before St. Austin the Doctor relates how the Donatists to vex the Catholicks who did worship the Blessed Sacrament cast the consecrated Hosts to their dogs But they escaped not Gods heavy Iudgment for the raging dogs with revenging teeth saith Optatus tore their own Masters in peeces as if they had bin strangers and enemies yea as if they had known them to be theeves and men guilty of our Lords Body Miracles of the Mass. ST Austin reporteth of his own time and Countrey how that one Hesperius having his house infested with wicked Spirits to the affliction of his beasts and servants desired saith St. Austin in my absence certain of our Priests that some would go thither c. one went and offered saith he there the Sacrifice of the Body and blood of Christ praying what he might that the vexation might cease and God being therupon mercifull it ceased The like miracle doth Theodorus who lived in the fifth Century write happened to Coades King of Persia who being desirous to enter into a Castle placed in the confines of his Kingdom towards India was hindred by many wicked spirits which haunted the said Fortress and notwithstanding that as well the Persian Sorcerers as also those of the Iews had employed all their magick art yet could not entrance be obtained At last a christian Bishop was called vpon who with once saying Mass and making the sign of the Cross put forthwith to flight the infernal powers and delivered vp the Castle to the King free from all molestation Miracles for Purgatory ST Gregory the Great telleth of a Monk called Justus who saith he was obsequious to me and watched with me in my dayly sickness this man being dead I appointed the healthfull Host to be offered for his absolution thirty days together which don the said Justus appeared to his Brother by vision and said J have bin hitherto evil but now am well c. And the Brethren in the Monastery counting the days found that to be the day on which the thirtith oblation was offered for him The same St. Gregory writes how Paschasius Deacon of the Roman Church was tormented with the pains of Purgatory after death for having adhered vntil neer his death vnto Laurence the Schismatick but at length was delivered from those pains by the prayers of St. German Bp. of Capua We will not her detain the Reader with more particulars but confirm the whole bulk of our Roman Catholick Doctrin with the vndeniable miracles of St. Bernard a known Papist against the Petrobrusians Henricians and Apostolici whom Protestants claim as members of their own Church for denying the real presence sacrifice of the Mass extreme vnction Purgatory prayer for the dead prayer to Saints the Popes authority worship of Images Indulgences c. Against these hereticks St. Bernard was commanded by the Pope to preach and accompany his legat Cardinal Albericus to the Countrey of Tolosa where he wrought innumerable miracles to confute and confound the aforesaid Hereticks as may be seen in the writers of those times in so much that the Saint in his return declined all Common roads to avoyd the multitudes of people that flockt to reverence him as an Apostle Though afterwards in his 241. Epistle to the Tolosians he saith to keep them constant to the truth as St. Paul did to the Thessalonians we thank God for that our coming to you was not in vain our stay indeed was short with you but not vnfruitfull the truth being by us made manifest