to the Scotch Prophecy The State of England Paid the Piper for the Presbyterians in pretence Religious but in reality Envious of the great Power Honors and Estates of Episcopacy never lest till by Arts and Arms perswading the Credulous Vulgar that it was Popish and Antichristian and animating their Party in their Rebellion with promises of Heaven and the Churches Revenue for a Booty God Almighty was pleased for our sins to permit them to be so successful as to overthrow that Government after it had stood above a thousand years in England No sooner had Presbytery taken Possession of Naboth's Vinyard he being stoned and dead but they became as Odious to the Independents who with more cunning and Address and less trouble gently laid them aside as Babylonish too and notwithstanding all their Exclamations from the Pulpit and the Press both in their Prayers and Sermons they could not prevail either with God or Men to hear them or support their sinking Cause but their Companions mocked them as the Priests of Baal as Elijah did and as they had done those of the Church of England And had not the God of Mercy and Compassion pitied us in our Low Estate when we lay in the Dust by miraculously restoring our Soveraign to his Crown and with him the Church to her right no doubt but the Power and Revenue of the Church would have been a perpetual Prize and England the Bloody Theatre upon which every Church would have Acted their Part and indeavoured to have their turn of being Uppermost AND if we could suppose that the present Dissenters are only influenced by mistaken Zeal for the Glory of God the Purity of Religion and the Salvation of Mens Souls and not the Destruction of their Bodies and Estates with that of the Government Yet can they give us no assurances or if they can they will not that they or their Successors shall continue in the same Undesigning Innocence And since these are such specious and taking Pretences with the Deceivable and Easy Multitude who can promise but that Ambition may put on the Cloak of Malicionsness and call it Religious Reformation that cunningly Dissembled Pride may shelter it self under the shining habit of pretended Piety and Purity and that Covetousness the root of all Evil may not appear in the borrowed Robes of Sanctity These Impostors may easily furnish a furious Jehu with Masks and Vizzards of Religion to impose upon many innocent Jehonadabs and take them up with him into the Charriot of Rebellion whilst with the same Popular and Insinuating Courtship he shall salute them kindly 2 Kings 10.15 16. with Is thy heart right as my heart is with thine if it be give me thy hand Which with him they will be ready to do and to lend their assistance to the Confederation especially upon hopes of being advanced and taken up with him into the Charriot of Government and hurried away with the tempting invitation Come with me and see my Zeal for the Lord. Though all this Zeal was meerly Interest and Ambition to Establish the Crown to himself by the utter Extirpation of the House of Ahab and not one dram of true Religion as the sequel of the story made appear And how easy is it for Hypocrisie to put on any shape and to appear an innocent Lamb when in reality it is a ravening Wolf how easy for Ambitious Spirits to pretend the Glory of God whilst they only design their own to decry all Forms of Prayer and Godliness and appear Zealous promoters of the Power of Religion only to advance themselves to Greatness and Power and under pretence of gaining Souls to God to make a Gain of Godliness and by sacrificing all to their Covetousness to make Godliness great Gain how feasible is it for Men to set up the Standard of King Jesus and make a Stale of a fifth Monarchy and under the Scepter of Christ to invade the Scepter of his Anointed and to Usurp his Throne THESE are easy Suppositions of what may be the Dangerous Consequences of that Disunion in a Nation which proceeds from admitting various Forms of Church Government in the same Nation Nor are they bare Suppositions but real Truths and what has been done and lately done among us and what may therefore be done again If there are any Persons who will own the Lawfulness of such dangerous Consequences as drown a Christian Nation in Blood Misery and Confusion or can but rationally be supposed that they may indanger it let them adhere to the Principle of tollerating diverse Forms of Church Government which is the ready Way to reduce those Suppositions into these most pernicious Realities and if it be so as no doubt can be made let all Dissenters either acknowledge that these Opinions are the Common Pests of Humane Society as well as Religion and therefore abandon them and reunite with the Government from which they are broke loose or if they will persist in maintaining defending spreading and increasing these Inhumane Principles and Practice◠〈◊〉 the minds of Men both by their Doctrine and Example Let them not think us uncharitable if as all sober and truly Pious and Judicious men must an Estimate be made of them according to the future Consequences and not their present Appearances which for any thing can be known to the Contrary may be only double-guilt Hypocrisie Simulata Pietas duplex Iniquitas and that is in truth double-di'd Iniquity IF they did not foresee these Mischiefs they are now shewn them and if upon Notice and Warning given they do not indeavour to avoid them we cannot remain Masters of common sense but we must believe they intend them and if we do believe that we may very lawfully not only Pray against them for the Peace of Jerusalem 2. Thess 3.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from such men as are out of place disorderly and not deserving therefore any place in society Exod. 21.29 To be delivered from Vnreasonable Men but the Government may and ought to take care of it self and those under its Charge who are Obedient and truly Fear God and the King to secure them from such wicked Attempts In the Law of Moses which was given by Gods Command if an Ox were wont to push and the Owner had warning and did not take Care to prevent it he was to make good the Dammage either with his Life or his Estate if a man digged a Pit and any thing fell into it he was to make restitution let me infer with St. Paul Doth God take care of Oxen and shall no care be taken of Christians 1 Cor. 9.9 10. or saith he it altogether for our sakes for our sakes no doubt this is written that we may plough in hope and sow in hope and be made partakers of our hopes by reaping the quiet and peaceable fruits of Righteousness That these Principles have pusht against Government in times past is most notorious and one may truly say of them
of Folly Pride usually sets Ambition upon Action and what the one Projects the other Executes For that any person should despise the Precepts of Virtue and Religion the Principles of Loyalty and Obedience per fas nefas the Common Ladder of Ambition aspire at high things great places of Trust Honour Dignity or Command in the World must certainly be the Effect of Pride for such Tempers are always Opiniatres of their own Merits Haughty Minds think and believe therefore that they deserve whatsoever they can Desire and more than they have and the higher they rise still the more Proud and Ambitious they grow looking upon their past Acquisitions as the just reward of their Wisdom and Conduct which still swells them with bigger Desires and larger Thoughts so that in reality Ambition knows no Hercules Pillars because Pride cannot write a Nè plùs ultrà upon their Merits for this is the Dropsie of the Mind and the more Men drink the the more they thirst Totum licet hauserit Hermum Ardebit majore siti thus the young Macedonian swell'd with his Victories over the Unfortunate Persian and his Allies and being told of more Worlds Aestuat infelix angusto limite Mundi his Ambition boil'd over at his Eyes that he was confin'd to one nay so strangely was he transported with this unruly Tumor that nothing would satisfie him but to be a God as if he had intentions to depose his adopted Father and conquer Heaven too when he came there Now it is the Constant Temper of these hot Complexions to make every thing stoop to their Designs because they think every thing ought to bow to their Merits nor will they spare even Religion it self to which they will yet seemingly bend only to bend it to their Interest and they do most frequently abuse that Sacred Name because by that Method they are inabled more easily to abuse others with their well acted Hypocrisie and double-gilt Dissimulation and it being the sole Prerogative of Heaven to know mens hearts their Great Master-piece is to cover their Ambition with the soft Mantle of Religion and to act that part of their Lives so to the Life as rather to out-do the most sincere and innocent as to what is visible than by any remissness in their outward appearance to hazard a discovery of what lodges within Nor indeed is it possible to distinguish such golden Sinners from the most splendid Saints without a narrow consideration whither their Designs must lead them and in what they will End and this is the true Reason why the innocent and well-meaning among the ordinary rank of People are so often imposed upon surprised with and carried on in a good opinion of their proud and Ambitious Leaders who cover those horrid Vices with the Glorious Names of Zeal for the Lord of Hosts Fervency of Spirit and Active Piety for the Cause of God for if they would consider whither of necessity these Principles of Disobedience which they infuse into them both against their King and their Church would at the last lead them and of what nature the Practises are which are deduced from them it were impossible that People should be seduced by such Troops to adore and almost Deifie those persons whose main Design is only to serve their own present Interest and the future Aims of their Ambitious Pride BUT lest any Person should think the Expression of Deifying too harsh I can bring Evidence from those who heard it from the persons mouth that spoak it who affirmed That be did believe that if our Saviour were upon Earth he could not speak more Heavenly than such a One naming the Person who was then the admired Orator of the Place but lest he should be Exalted above measure for his Golden and Divine Talents and to shew you how Fickle and Unconstant these Hosanna's are it was not long after that the very same Person who had so Exalted him to Heaven did as much debase him and being an illiterate Fellow who could neither Write nor Read yet he had it seems made so good use of the others Gifts and Talents in Preaching and Extempore Prayer that he offer'd to wager 20 l. that he would quote Scripture with his Master from Genesis to Revelations and you may be assured then that he would Preach and Pray with him for 40 l. having so much more confidence of Himself and his own Abilities as he wanted Learning to know Himself and his own Deficiencies THE Nature of Pride and Ambition is always to Establish its own Greatness upon the Ruine of whatsoever does oppose them and by all ways and means to lessen others in order to greaten themselves that so by trampling upon the necks of their Enemies they may Exalt their own Power and Esteem and because there is nothing that does Elevate men to that degree of Excellency in the Minds of the Multitude like an Opinion of their Sanctity and Devotion therefore it is that this is the beloved Ingine which Ambitious Minds make use of to carry on cover and effect their own Designs of Greatness by the assistance of Popular Tumults which they usually inrage like Elephants by shewing them the Scarlet Robes both of the Prince and Priest as objects of hatred to animate and inflame them against those Sacred Persons by whom they are worn I might confirm this by many Forrein Instances but I rather chuse one at home both because it nearly concerns us and ought to make the greater Impression upon us The late Usurper Cromwel was in this Art so perfect and accomplisht as not to deserve to be undervalued as a Copy but Esteemed an Original of Pride Hypocrisie and Ambition One would admire that People who many of them knew the Man and his Conversation who saw the Curious Disguise of his Dissimulation and Flattery thrown off by his own hands who are sensible how by this only Artisice of pretending Religion though by the assistance of their Blood and Money he threw down the peacable Government both of Church and State how by a bloody Civil War and the Murther of his Royal Master he himself aspired to the Throne and how he Established an Arbitrary Tyranny against which he pretended and made the People believe he fought and how to the great affliction of all Parties especially the Presbyterians he took away one Religion but set up none nor indeed had any because he was of all as they were most serviceable to his present Interest and Affairs One would I say admire that those who though they saw not these gloomy Days yet have sufficiently heard of the Horror and Confusion of those times and cannot but believe the truth of the Relations should yet swallow down the hook which is baited with Liberty and Sanctity But because it may not be unuseful in this present Age so fond of outward shews I will give a short Character of his Ambition and those Arts by which Heaven for our Sins permitted him who
and yet had they not so much as a Rebellious thought of Establishing Religion by force or violence CHAP. VII BY what has been said it appears that the Foundation of all Charity among Christians is built upon Vnity in Faith which is the necessary bond of the Catholique Church which is the Company of all faithful People which are have been or shall be in all Ages and Places of the World and that Vnity in Government as well as Faith is the Bond of Peace and Obedience a Duty therefore which all men owe to their Lawful Superiors as the Necessary Ligature of a National Church which being a Political Society of Religious Men does therefore require a Political Government in Religious as well as Civil affairs THE not well considering of this Difference between a National and the Catholique Church seems to be the chief Ground of the Quarrels among Christians for the Catholique Church being the Spiritual Body of Christ is United in it self and to him by the Spiritual Bond of the Catholique Faith which Faith may be kept Whole and Undefiled though there be great Differences in External Rites and Ceremonies For all Ceremonies are not fit for all Places as for Example Submerging of the person Baptized may do very well in the warm Climates but would be very hazardous in the more Northern Regions of Muscovy Rushia c. Thus we see it was adjudged in that Great Controversie about the Celebration of Easter between the Eastern and the Western Churches For when Anicetus Bishop of Rome and Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna differ'd in their Opinion about it they came to this amicable Determination that each Church should celebrate it according to their own Custom for which they gave this Reason Quia non oportet propter Caeremoniarum dissonantiam rumpere Fidei Consonantiam Ecclesiae Concordiam The Peace and Concord of the Church in the Harmony of Faith ought not to be broken for a disagreement in matters of Ceremony And because this Difference made a great Noise in the Church for many years â—â—d in regard it Confirms my Position of Vnity of Faith being the Bond of the Catholick Church and Vnity of Government as well as Faith that of a National Church I will relate the History of it in short as it is Recorded by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History Euseb lib. 5. c. 24 25 26. Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus and a great many of the Asian Bishops alledging the Practice and ancient Custom of St. John the beloved Disciple of our Lord who was himself Bishop of Ephesus Polycarp and several others observed Easter upon any day of the Week according to the Custom of the Jews The Christians of the Western Church observed it as we do upon the Sunday being the day of his Resurrection Upon this Victor Bishop of Rome pronounces them Excommunicate and separates from their Communion Irenoeus Bishop in Lions shews Victor his Error and that for Ceremonies and Circumstances the Vnity of the Church ought not to be broken which he manifests by the Diversity of several Churches in observing the time of Fasting before Easter some only one day some two some more to forty and yet for all this says that Excellent Father they were at Vnity one with another and as yet retain it for this Variety of Fasting commendeth the Vnity of Faith and thereupon writing to Victor he acquaints him that Anicetus Pius Hyginus Telesephorus and Xystus his Predecessors though not observing the same Custom with the Bishops of Asia yet nevertheless were at Vnity with them and sent the Eucharist unto the Brethren of other Churches that observed a Contrary Custom shewing him also how Polycarpus did not endeavour to alter the Judgment of Anicetus but told him that he ought to observe the ancient Custom of his Predecessors Upon which for the reason before-mentioned they friendly received the Holy Eucharist together the Symbol of their Vnity in Faith and parted from each other in Peace and all such adds he as held contrary Customs and Observations throughout the Vniversal Church held fast the Bond of Love and Vnity no Church endeavouring to impose upon the Liberty of others in point of Circumstances so long as they all held the Catholique Faith as the only necessary bond of Vnion in the Catholique Church and Vnity of Government as the Bond of Vnion in the several Distinct and National Churches whereof the Universal is composed and which therefore it appears had Originally a Jurisdiction among themselves over which neither Rome nor any other had a Power So that is clear that several National Churches may lawfully differ in External Rites of Government from the Catholique without the danger of Schism But now in a National Church there is a necessity of Vnity and Obedience to the Determinations of those who are the Lawful Governors of it and all Disobedience there is a Schism in regard the Peace of that Church the Order and Charity of it without this must be destroyed and therefore there is a Necessity of this Vnity in point of Government in any National Church Now every Distinct Nation as before was said being a separate Society of men Distinguished from the rest of the World by a different Government and their Obedience to it as well as by their Place of Habitation there is a Necessity that Religion should conduce all it can to the preservation of that Political Frame upon which the Well-being and Happiness of the Society depends For the Civil and Religious concerns are so mutually interwoven that no man can be a Good Citizen who is an ill Christian or an ill Christian who is Bonus Civis a good Publiquewealths-man and these do mutually support one another true Religion Improving this Interest of all Men by making the Civil part of the Polity a Duty of Religion among Christians whereas among Heathen it was only a duty of Interest and Policy For even in this sense we may truly say as our Saviour of himself Matt. 5.17 that Christian Religion came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it to conform Humane Laws to the Rule of Divine Equity Truth and Justice and for this reason our Lord himself gave that Universal Precept to Render to Caesar his Due which also he confirmed by his Practice paying him Tribute even with a Miracle NOR do we ever find the Primitive Spirit of Christianity opposing any humane Laws or Power unless they were such as directly struck at the Root of Faith and a holy Life such as were the severe Edicts of the Persecuting Emperors to compel them to renounce and Blaspheme Christ to adore the Pagan Gods or to offer Incense to the Statues of the Emperors Nay when they were treated with more than inhumanity they never had recourse to Violence or attempted to justle the Temporal Power out of the Throne or force it to a compliance with their Wills but suffered patiently even when as Tertullian Apologizes for them they were
and Religion LOUD and clamorous are the Complaints and Declamations against the vitiousness and Debauchery of the present Age and not without too evident Truth and Reason Impiety which was formerly used to wait for the twilight dare now walk bare fac't and stare upon the Sun St. Paul says of the modest Debauchees of his Age They that are drunken are drunken in the Night but now licentious men are become so impudent as to scorn to throw the Mantle of Darkness over their vitious Intemperance that they take a Pleasure and a Pride to Riot in the day time and to affront God and Men and even humane Nature it self by their prodigious and Publique Sins and Follies They who did ill formerly hated the light but now Men study to affront it and oblige that pure and innocent Blessing to become not only a Witness but an Assistant to their Brutish and shameless Disorders and would loose their greatest pleasure should they not expose themselves and their deeds of Darkness to the discovery of the Day ALL this is laid upon the Government of the Church which though it be as innocent as the light by which they are boldly acted yet must they conspire in the guilt of these horrid Crimes if we will believe Dissenters who blush not to lay this false Accusation to the Charge of the Government that thereby they may render it Criminal and Odious and themselves and Party Clear and Innocent when as in truth and reality the Guilt of these miscarriages will be found to lie at their own Doors and let them wipe their mouths never so demurely and say they have done no Evil Prov. 30.20 with Solomon's Common Woman let them wash their hands with Pilate and say they are guiltless I doubt not to make it appear to the contrary It is a bold Charge and I know they will start at it as much as the Disciples did when our Saviour told them That one of them should betray him and be as forward as they to Cry out Is it I Who we but what if it prove true and be made good against them I will indeavour it and yet with all the Christian Compassion that I am capable of for I have no design to Expose their Persons to hatred but to bring them to true Repentance by shewing them the Danger of those Ways which with the specious shew of Righteousness and Holiness deceive them into a Contempt of the terrible Authority of the Church and others by their Example into all Sensuality and Impiety THAT Christ left to the Governors of his Church the Power of the Keys is most Evident from his own plain and clear Words For when he was to leave this World he called his Apostles to him and Then said Jesus unto them again Joh. 20.23 Peace be unto you as my Father hath sent me even so send I you there is their Mission and Commission for their Function and Government and when he had said this Matth. 18.18 he breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the holy Ghost there is their Unction and Ordination their ability to perform the Duty and discharge the trust reposed in them Whos 's soever Sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained There is the Office and the Power which was put into their hands the Expedient by which they were to govern and Rule the Church of God And though the Romanists endeavour to Monopolize even in the literal and worst sence this great Power only to Saint Peter and his Successors as they pretend the Roman Bishops only are yet nothing is more clear than that our Saviour intended them all an Equal share and a Power to derive it to their Successors in all Churches to the End of the World His gracious Promise of being with them extending unto all Times Places and Persons who should succeed any of the Apostles as well as St. Peter The Church being built not only upon him but upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Christ Jesus being himself the Chief and Corner-stone in whom and by whom the whole glorious Fabrique is Vnited and Compleated THIS Power of the Keys of binding and loosing is the Power of Excommunication of Offenders and Absolution of Penitents and is indeed all the Power which Christ left with his Church and the only Jurisdiction which the Governors can exercise in and over it For all Corporal Punishments are properly and peculiarly vested by God himself in the power of the Temporal and Civil Magistrate who carries the Sword and is ordained of God for that very purpose and Design as St. Paul acquaints us Rom. 13. for he beareth not the Sword in vain but is the Minister of God a Revenger to Execute punishment upon him that doeth Evil. AN Instance of this terrible Sentence of Excommunication we have inflicted upon the Incestuous Corinthian and that with a great Formality 1 Cor. 5.5 This is my Determination saith the Apostle In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ when yeare gathered together and my Spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one to Satan as he tells us in another place that he had delivered Hymeneus and Alexander to Satan that they might learn not to Blaspheme By virtue of this dreadful Power it was that the Primitive Governors of the Church even when they had no assistance but all opposition from the Secular Powers yet kept the Flock of Christ in all Obedience Subjection good Order and Discipline Then were Christians Miracles of Charity Piety and Devotion to the wondring Pagans when they were obliged to those Duties by no Humane Laws when there were no fears of Prisons Tortures Confiscations or Banishment unless for being and owning themselves to be Christians but the only fear of Excommunication and being put out of thâ— Fellowship of the Saints here on Earth and denyed Entrance into the Congregation of the Faithful of being debarred from receiving the Holy Eucharist and joyning in the publique Service and Worship of God was more forcible to make them Holy Obedient and Vnanimous than all the Torments devised by Persecution were able â—o make them Prophane or Vitious For why They did believe that unless the Governors of the Church the Successors of the Apostles did remit their Sins on Earth they should not find remission in Heaven they therefore believed it because Christ the Eternal Truth had said it They did believe that unless they were United by Communion to the Holy Catholique Church they could never hope for the Remission of Sins the Resurrection of the Body unto Life Everlasting which is the most ancient Confession of the Christian Faith and which with great probability is supposed to be delivered by the Apostles to the Church as a short sum of Faith necessary to Salvation NOR were they more fearful of this formidable Sentence of Excommunication than desirous of the Absolution of
and in order to that to shake even the frame of the Civil Government to which they think themselves no longer bound in subjection than they want a Party strong for Opposition will not easily be perswaded that it is the Sin of Rebellion which carries the face of Reformation easily dispensing with Obedience to Men where they pretend amendment before God pag. 59. WHAT can be said more or more sharply against Tolleration than our Advocate here pleads and to joyn Issue with him upon this Plea if we can prove that these must be the Effects of Tolleration then to use his own words pag. 62. True Christian Tolleration not extending to matters of an Extern Nature Magistrates may use a Coercive hindrance from Publique Meetings without impeaching of it And by his Favour from private too such as he calls private that is in private houses which are as Capacious and Publique as some Churches For adds he Seditious Spirits Cholerique Constitutions and Feavourish Complexions who love to be moving in the troubled Waters of Secular Affairs whose Heads are prone to move their Hearts with specious Novelties quick Excitations and zealous Resolutions which soon after like Salt stream◠descend and fall upon the Lungs provoking them violently to spread their Opinions to others these most truly forfeit their Christian private Liberty to the Publique Discretion and Power who will not or cannot use it but to the publique Detriment pag. 60.61 BUT that such have been the Effects of Difference of Opinions among us is but too visible and if they grew in despight of all the Authority of the Magistrate to that prodigious height as in the times of the late Rebellion to overthrow the whole frame of Government both Civil and Ecclesiastical and if the Principles and Positions as well as Practices of the same persons or their Successors are still the same derived from Calvin Knox Buchanan c. then are they by no means to be tollerated in a Christian Common-wealth But what if yet they had never been Criminal yet if their Principles lead to those Ends must they be therefore tollerated that thereby they may the sooner and without opposition come to those Tragical Conclusions will not the Government be Felo de se and not only so but betray those under its Charge to ruine according to the Maxim Qui non prohibet Jubet and must the Magistrate lay out all his Care to oblige his Enemies those who hate both him and his Government must he put the Sword of Tolleration into the hands of Division to destroy his Friends the Loyal and Obedient who best if not only deserve his Protection and ought to be his chiefest Care DIFFERENT Opinions in the Church have always been the occasion of Quarrels and have always ended in Blood Witness the Report of Socrates of the skirmishes between the Arrians and the Orthodox at Constantinople witness the Outrages of the Donatists in Affrica And so it will be when any Party grows strong and numerous and Tolleration is the best way to make them so and for that End they desire it then the Beast which looks like a Lamb will speak like a Dragon Rev. 13.11 I know our Advocate loves the English Separatists so well and tenderly by his pleading for them that he will easily believe all this of them I could heartily wish they had not given occasion for the whole world to believe their Doctrines guilty of those barbarous Inhumanities and Unchristian Practices which have given a deeper Wound to the Reputation of the Reformed Religion than to their Native Country the Scar of which will be a perpetual Infamy to all Posterity I wish they could vindicate their Principles from the just Reproaches of their former Practices and from a Jealousie that they may occasion us the same Miseries and Mischiefs but alas it is impossible all the pains they can take will but be Aethiopem lateremvé lavare A hope to make a Negro fair Which all the salt Water in the Ocean will never be able to Effect and indeed nothing can cleanse them from but the salt streams of Repentance from their own Eyes and the blood of the Lamb of God which taketh away the Sins of the World joyned to Resolutions of future Reformation and Amendment BUT let not our Advocate think that by shewing the Guilt of those who call themselves Protestants as he does pag. 125. where he tells us More Princes have been Deposed by Sectaries in 60 years than by Papists in 600 and that History and Experience testifies that the respective Sects have been most guilty of all kind of disobedience both at home and abroad Let him not think that hereby he has vindicated his own Innocence or not forfeited that Right to Tolleration upon his own Grounds which though he pretend to plead for all he intends only for his own Party as the only Meek and Peaceable People of the Earth I will Judge as charitably of Catholiques as they love to call themselves as they can deserve and believe the honor and honesty of their Quality and Education the humanity of their Natures inclines them to be better Subjects to the Civil State than the Doctrines of their Church but what if they had never attempted any thing against the Government or having attempted have never been successful are they therefore innocent who maintain Principles destructive of the Government Civil and Ecclesiastical I would ask this Gentleman whether he and all the Romish Catholiques in England would not willingly have the Power of the Papacy restored among us if he would answer without Equivocations I am sure it must be in the Affirmative then would I demand Whether this must not make an Alteration in the Government since it is now Established and as he well observes pag. 201. ever was upon a direct opposition to the Papal Supremacy I know they will answer There would be an Alteration but it would not be to the prejudice but to the advantage of the Church and State find me any Overturners of Government who will not say the same and I will allow the Plea but then would I further demand whether he believes the Canons Decretals c. as certainly he does and would perswade us to do pag. 3. and must be a Heretick if he do not if he does what does he think of the well known Canon of Gregory the Seventh Nos sanctorum Predecessorum c. We saith that Pope observing the Statutes of our Predecessors do absolve those that are bound by Fealty and Oath to persons Excommunicated from their Oath and do forbid them to observe or keep their Fealty towards them quousque ipsi ad satisfactionem venerint till they come to make satisfaction He knows the Consequence of the Canon upon more Kings and Emperours than one I will not trouble him with the Hellish Opinions of Mariana Suarez Bellarmine Simanca Philopater Allen or Sanders Some of which for very shame pag. 215. he is forced to disown
as the Opinions of private Doctors he might have said with Charity Doctrines of Devils those Incendiaries of the World and perpetual Haters of Humane Nature and Happiness but by his favour what he condemns Mariana and Suarez for teaching a Pope was so far from being of his Opinion of condemning that he commends it in the Publique Consistory Pius Quintus was his Name who when Henry the Third of France was murthered by Jaques Clement the Monk gave his Applause to the Tragedy it was Rarum insigne memorabile facinus facinus non sine Dei Opt. Max. particulari Providentia dispositione verus Monachus Fictum occiderat A rare famous and memorable Exploit and not without the particular Providence of Almighty God that the true Monk should murder the false one Well might the Painter make St. Peter's Picture blush for the Crimes of such impious Successors as this I need not repeat the Tumults of Rome nor the Wars of Italy under Pope Boniface the Eighth nor the Reign of Julius John the 12. or 22. nor all the Disturbances occasioned by the Pride and Ambition of Popes grasping at Temporal Power and Soveraignty Here is the Root of the Matter This Canon which has stood unrepealed this 600 Years is the perpetual Foundation of Papal Usurpations to which whoever does not Swear upon Occasion must be a Heretick and whoever does must if the Pope pleases be a Rebel to his Prince and against the Lord and his Christ whose Gospel teaches the quite contrary Doctrine And though notwithstanding this the Catholique Princes and even those of Italy as he says pag. 202. who live under the Pope's nose are not affraid of being Deprived or Excommunicated but are Absolute and Arbitrary in their Dominions Those last words are a good reason of their fearlessness for themselves but an ill one for their Subjects and the subsequent words which he adds a worse for both though absolutely necessary to maintain their right for they are not obliged to the Principles of the Roman Religion or their Peoples Fidelity built upon the Sacred and Solemn Oaths of Allegiance but are obliged to make the Sword give a Constant Security to the Sceptre Whilest they dispute with Sword in hand for their Temporalities So that it seems the Pope puts them upon disputing their Right and if the Sword of Princes be not longer than St. Peters the Pope has the best Argument for even the Temporalities and the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven can open a door to the Kingdoms of the Earth Is not this a rare Principle of Peace which obliges Princes to stand continually upon their Guard against the Incroachments of the See of Rome AND whereas pag. 215. to ballance the Impious Doctrines of Bellarmine Suarez and Mariana he throws into the other Scale Luther Calvin Knox and Buchanan and tells us That their Opinions are at least as dangerous to Monarchy the difference between them being only this That whereas the former lodg the Deposing Power in the Pope only whose person is at a safe and sufficient distance at least from us the latter bring the danger home to the door of Princes and place it in the People whom they make both Parties and Judges in the Case Neither the one therefore nor the other who maintain such Doctrines fit to be Tollerated by any Prince who has not a mind to be deposed either by the Pope or the People But this distance this safe distance was a prety sweetning Parenthesis to dose a Prince with the Opium of being out of Danger As if Popes might not have as long hands now and their Bulls as long Horns as in the days of Henry the 4 th or Otho or King John And as if the Pope were not in the Case of those Soveraigns both Judg and Party particularly that of Henry where the Quarrel was whether the Pope or the Prince had the Right of Investitures of Bishops to their Temporalities BUT what if I shew him that Calvin Luther c. are as good Catholiques as he in this Point of Vesting this deposing Power in the People Vide Avent Polychron Viterben Sabellicus Nauclerus in vita Childerici and all the Historians of that Age. Pope Zachary being consulted whether Childerick being Sine liberis sine ingenio might be deposed and Pepin who was Major du palais Substituted in his room in his Answer to the Peers of France wanting a President for such Power in himself tells them at first that it was of that weight ut non auderet tam magni momenti cogitationem suscipere that he darst scarce entertain a thought of it but tells them in Conclusion That since Princes hold their Crowns and Government of the Peoples Choice in whom it resides absolutely Constituere Destituere a pretty modest word for Deposing to appoint or forsake therefore they might remove him who was unuseful and Elect him who was most Worthy So said so done See here a Lutheran Pope abandoning Supremacy for which now they contend as prò arîs and vesting this Deposing Power in the People A Position no less Treasonable than contrary to plain Scripture in a hundred places and therefore Damnable to make Princes whose Tenure is in Capite of God Almighty only become Tenants at will by Copy of Court Roll of Popular Election and Deposition If these be good Subjects good Christians who lay an Eternal Foundation for Perpetual Changes and Revolutions in Government and Governors by tossing and tumbling Crowns upon the Tempestuous Ocean of the Mobile vulgus let them be cherished let them be Tollerated LET him now which he ought to have done if he could or had meant fairly Shew in all the Doctrine of the Church of England the least Sylable that may any way be construed even by Prejudice it self to encourage Sedition Rebellion or deposing of Princes He nibbles a little at it pag. 261. with What if one should say you were Antichristian Bloody-minded Seditious c Why if he should he would be guilty of a most notorious Calumny and Falshood because he can never prove it For our Doctrine and our Practice suites with our Prayers which are Litany of Ch. of Engl. From all Sedition Privy Conspiracy and Rebellion Good Lord deliver us And if the pure Spirit of Primitive Christianity so Innocent so Vnambitious so Obedient and full of Sincerity and godly Simplicity so Pure and Peaceable and full of good Works be only to be found in the Doctrine and Practice of those who are the true Sons of the Church of England let them be accounted the best Subjects the best Christians And that therefore they deserve the Encouragement the Care and Protection of the Laws and Government and not to be given up to be Wasted Devoured and Destroyed trampled down and troden underfoot by Tolleration of those whose Principles and Practice are so directly contrary to the Peace and Prosperity of the Church and Nation CHAP. XIII THUS it appears