then in the world had put a period to the night of ignorance in which the Beasts of Prey had domineer'd and to their Monastic denns themselves The enlighten'd part of mankind was weary of growing pale among papers and sometimes red hot with arguing about terms of art and all those barbarous too that had formerly hid the God of nature and would no longer account implicit faith the only justifying one and could not more esteem the imposing of such a blind faith commendable that was made previous to mens quest after pabulum for their Souls then that practice of the boy of Athens who did put out the eyes of birds and then expose them to fly abroad for food The Learning then introduced into the world shew'd that the hierarchical grandeur of the Roman Church was not extant formerly in the learned times when the old Roman Empire flourish'd but was contrived in the times of ignorance between the Bishops of Rome and the Leaders or Princes of the Barbarians and that it had its beginning from the Inundations of the Northern people so that with Mr. Colemans leave by the way Popery may be call'd too a pestilent Northern heresy and that to the end that those Barbarians might not find out the original of the papal power and see how narrow the stream of it was at its fountain when every Bishop was call'd Papa as every woman is now with us call'd Madam and Lady that the Pope by affronting the Emperors power effected a strangeness between the Greeks and Latines by means whereof the Barbarians being brought up in prejudice against the Graecians neglected their Language to the decay whereof in the world not only the decay of the purity of the Latine Tongue may be imputed but also of History Geography Geometry skill in antiquity and even the worlds not knowingly then conversing with the Latine Fathers It was in an age of non-sense when a Canonist venturing to be a Critic told the world concerning the Greek word Allegoria istud vocabulum fit ex duobus vocabulis ab allo quod est alienum goro sensus and when an old Schoolman Thomas de Argentina thus gave the derivation of latria istud vocabulum fit ex duobus vocabulis à La quod est laus tria quod est trinitas quia latria est laus trinitatis But the very understanding of two ordinary Greek words namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal priviledges in ecclesiastical matters to the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople allow'd by a General Councel that were obvious to every enquirer into history did quite blow up all pretences of the Popes supremacy and one versicle in that long unknown Greek Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. Luke 24. 47. which shews that the teaching of Repentance and remission of sins in the name of Christ by his own order began at Ierusalem did surprize thinking men with amazement when they heard a Pope and General Councel calling Rome the Mother and Mistress of all the Churches and anathematising all who think otherwise and saying further extra hanc fidem nemo potest esse salvus for this the Trent Councel did Thus then the abolition of the papal power here brought the world at the first step out of a blind Chaos into a Paradise of Knowledge and help'd Christians to demonstrate to themselves and to Jews and Pagans the truth of the Christian Religion for the certainty of the doctrine of which during that time of papal darkness the world had only the assertion of the present age that call'd it self the tradition of the Church but by the introduction of the Greek Tongue and other learning Christians had the sense of the Greek and Latine Fathers and those historical Records that brought down to them the certainty of the Miracles that were wrought in the founding of Christianity from the Primitive Christians who saw them 'T was the restoration of learning in general help'd them to say with Tertullian fidem colimus rationalem and with St. Paul I know whom I have believed and without the introducing of humane learning the Protestant Religion could no more have been advanced to its height in the world then men can be perfected in Astronomy without the knowledge of Arithmetic Luther came into the field arm'd with the Knowledg both of the Greek and Hebrew Tongues when he was to contest with the Errors of the Papacy and he having for his Antagonist Cardinal Cajetan who was the Legate in Germany and an eminent School Divine and who made a home thrust at Luther out of the Scripture according to the Vulgar Latine translation Luther told him in plain terms That that translation was false and dissonant to the original and hereupon the Cardinal thô he and the Papacy too had one foot in the grave Cato â—like fell eagerly on the studying of Greek that he might be able so confute Luther and his followers out of the Scriptures and was put to it to make his weapon when he was in the field And can any one think now that in this present state of England when we see so many that are Critical Masters of Experimental Philosophy and who by means of the great useful pains formerly taken by Erasmus Sir Thomas Moore and others in restoring Philological Learning have now entire leisure to devote their Studies to the substantial Knowledge of things and whose Motto is Nullius in verba and who know that if they would have every one trust them they must take nothing on trust from any one and who know that since truth doth always sail in sight of error they must all the way go sounding by experiment I say can any one think that it was less easie for the Sun to go back Ten degrees on Ahaz his Dial then 't is to make this Age run back to implicit faith and ignorance and barbarisme And is it to be thought that men who weigh Silver in Scales will not weigh Gold I mean not examine notions of Religion with care when they are so cautious in others Can we think that men who will not part with those Notions that salve the phaenomena will quit those that save their Souls and especially considering the proverbial addiction of the English genius to Religion and considering too that men by long use and Custom have been habituated to the profession of a rational Religion and that it can plead here a hundred years prescription It is certainly more easie to unteach men the use of the Sea-Compass in Navigation then the use of Reason in Religion and the inclination of the Needle to the North is not likely to be more durable then the tendency of mens affection in England to the Northern heresy so call'd and it is more easie to teach all Mankind the use of Letters then to unteach it to any one man and when the temper of an inquisitive Age is like a Trade-wind carrying men toward Knowledge and toward a rational Divinity they may
innocency which yet perhaps may be necessary to be done for the use of those who know you not hereafter when the heat of the day and your Services in this critical juncture shall be over and would now shew as meanly as if a General in the time of Battel having some dirt or dust lighting on his face should while he was among the bullets employ his barbers washballs to cleanse it and that too when the fate of the battel seems to totter and is near decision one way or other and while there is hardly room for the Quid agendum to wedge it self in and he that saith consider is almost a foe and therefore once when a great Commander had no way to save himself and his Army but by their swimming with their horses through a River to attack their Enemy he did only to that question of quid agendum put to him by his Officers suddenly eccho back the reply of agendum and with his horse took the River and while now 't is with us as on board a Ship in the time of Fight or of a Storm when they are Fighting with the Elements and the Master or Steersman orders any thing to be done the case will bear no dilatory answer of words and the answer there is Done it is I say after all this that there is a reason which in my opinion renders any mans writing unnecessary now either to the World or himself and that is this That words and Language the which formerly having the stamp of common usage and of reason on them passed as currant coine for the Signification of mens minds and as a medium of commerce are in this juncture as useless that way and of as little value as lether coine called in and this Age wherein both the word and thing called shamme hath been brought in use and shamme calls it self an answer to that great question What is wit tho with as little reason as if a lye should call it self an answer to that old great question What is truth hath inforced those that do not love to be shamm'd upon not to measure mens actions by their words but their words by their Actions And tho a mans written books are called his works yet have I observed an occasion of Sarcasme given thereby when one speaking of a particular Divines excellent writings said he loved his works but hated his actions And written works are now indeed but actings as when a man doth agree gestum in scena on the Stage of the World and for them he finds but only a Theatrical applause Nor so much as that when like the Actor crying O heavens he looks down on the Earth As he is alwaies accounted but a smatterer in knowledge who is a pedant or petty-Chapman in words so he playes but at small games in politicks who is a pedant or trader in words or who indeed will give any thing for them He who doth verba dare has bad morals and who gives any thing else for them has bad intellectuals and according to that old Monkish verse they said Res dare pro rebus pro verbis verba solemus The only real security therefore that the World hath for its quiet is mens only giving a seeming belief to seeming professions and protestations for as Ayr out of its place makes Earth-quakes so if the articulate air of mens words gets beyond my hearing into my belief it may there raise those commotions of passion that may make me trouble both my self and the World and particularly by the passion of jealousie before-mentioned on my desire where I have a kindness that it should be mutual and when positive words brought me into the fools paradise of believing it possible a thing perhaps not possible in nature that two bodies and minds whose faculties must needs be different should have an equal intenseness of love for each other no president of friendship particularly that of Ionathan and David having shewn it and in the conjugal love the passions of the weaker Sex being observed to be the strongest and that of jealousie as well as Love jealousie particularly being most potent in minds most impotent and in persons most diffident of themselves And this may in some sort console your Lordship after all your restless endeavours to merit the love of all your Countrymen if it be not exactly mutual But this by the way The great names of Protestant and Religion began to adorn each other in the year of our Lord 1529 when some of the Electors and Princes of the Empire with a protestation opposed the Decree relating to the Mass and Eucharist made at Spiers and when some of the Capital Cities of Germany joyn'd with them to protest the same thing But every one knows that a protestation is a revocable thing and that a Protestation contrary to actions revokes it self And that the word Protestant hath not been in the World as the Poets term is of calling grass green or the like otiosum epitheton I believe the Papists will grant and 't is not one Protestation made and not revoked either by words or actions that can make that term consistent with our Religion or render a man worthy to be call'd one 'T is not a good continual claim to our Religion that yet is for land we are disseis'd of that is made only once a year whilst we live No the Protestation that the Protestant Religion requires is such a continual one as is reiterated upon every fresh act and attempt of the Papal Religion against ours 't is not a going to our Cells and saying Lord have mercy upon us but 't is our watching in our Stations and our shewing no mercy to the principles of Popery that are alwaies attacking the quiet of the World either by Storm or Siege or undermining 't is like the Protestation required when the defendant hath declined a Judge that must be made toties quoties as any new Act is done by the Judge without which the first Protestation grows insignificant 't is not one Act of protesting the Popes Bills of Exchange for good money we paid him and his giving us bank-tickets upon purgatory or giving us some fantastick Saints pretended Hair or Nailes protested with so much scorn by our Popish Ancestors in Henry the 8th's time that a piece of St. Andrews finger covered with an ounce of Silver pawn'd by a Monastery for forty pound was left unredeemed at the dissolution of it which shewed that that commodity would even then yeild nothing and was a meer drug in Scotland of which Country he is call'd the Saint Protector but 't is further like a protestation against the Sea at the next Port made toties quoties goods in a Ship are damnified by its rage which the law requires the Skipper to make or else leaves answerable for the dammage And if a poor Tarpauling who must alwaies plough the Sea for his bread during life and there still contest with the angry Elements
shall when he comes on shore by a protestation bid defiance to the pride of the whole Ocean he deserves not the name of a Hero that Safe-guarded by both the Land and the Law of the Land shall not on occasions offered continually have the courage to protest against the dammages both his King and Country have from the Rage of Popery My Lord I have been the longer in discoursing of the insignificancy of words or indeed ought but the emphasis of works requisite to shew a Protestant faith at this Juncture because I am sure you are willing as you may well be to joyne issue on that point and to be judged a Protestant in mans day by your works as you must in Gods stand or fall by the Test of them at the last Audit and to appear a Protestant too by works above the poor level of a dull opus operatum by works that represent the continual employment of your life with an Heroical vigour and your going from strength to strength as the Scripture expression is in the defence of Protestancy by works that speak you like the heavenly bodies incessant in your influence and haveing rest only in Motion 'T is not without wisdom ordered by the Pope That no men shall be Cannonised till after death for fear of Apostacy nor then likewise unless it shall appear that they wrought Miracles And the truth is our people were all so far born with Popes in their bellies as to this point that they will not now Cannonize any Great Men for Protestant Saints unless at this time they do Miracles and indeed I think they have reason to insist on their doing as great miracles for our Religion as any Papal Saints dead or alive have done against it And when I consider the real Great Things that have been by the heads and hands of your Lordship and other Noble Persons performed for the Statuminating of the Protestant cause and enabling us to say to our underminers with the confidence of the Psalmist As a bowing wall shall ye be and as a tottering fence I do think you may expect with Justice that which is greater then our praise the acclamations of our blessing as Aristotle saith that to heroick qualities in men not praise but pronouncing blessed is due 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as St. Paul saith it is more blessed to give then to receive And here my Lord going by this exact Rule of measuring things by things and not by words your Life hath enabled me to give the strictest Aeropagus of Censurers the world can produce and who would damn the use of Proems and the art of moving passions by words an irrefragable instance how you have secured the Nation formerly from being enslaved to and by Popery and at that time when we seemed to our selves as secure from it as from Mahumetanisme which was when you were the great Conductor of the Publick Councels in the Conjuncture that brought in the King and hindred Lambert's usurpation of the English Scepter who tho at that time he was not generally suspected to be a Papist was on very rational grounds believed to be such then by many very knowing particular persons and that too to be not only a Papist but a Iesuited one He was at that time suspected by some for having advised at a military cabal of the then great ones that the Cavaleers should be Massacred a cruelty that could enter into no breast but one abandoned to Jesuitisme And as on such a Monster your Lordship then had your eye on him and of his being such some of the depositions and examinations took about the late plot have been very particular and satisfactory Nor is his haveing petition'd some few years before the discovery of the late Plot That he might have his Liberty and of a very great Roman Catholic Lord's having then offer'd to be security for his quiet demeanor Now unknown so that the Kingdom then scaped falling into Popery before the danger was by it apprehended like the Man who in the Night scaped that of Rochester Bridge and whom the light of the following day almost confounded with his deliverance Your Lordships activity and prudence appearing in the public Councels and in your Secret correspondences to the defeating of the councels of that Romish Achitophel and seisure of his person will no more be forgiven you by the Papists of England then it either by the Papists of England or Ireland will be forgiven or forgot that you shew'd your self a true Father of your Country in Ireland in the Conduct foremention'd of that great Affair of the Metropolis and many Garrisons of that Kingdom being wholly put into the hands of the Parliament rather than the Child as I may say should be divided between any of his Majesties Subjects and the Pope the pretended supream Father of that Country and that you preserved it to come into the hands of the true Supream One. Your Lordship and other well-wishers to the Crown then were not of the humour of some of our young vulgar Protestants who as the Papists parrots have been by them taught to speak it commonly That they love a Papist better than a Presbyterian 'T is sinful not to love the persons of both but ridiculous to love the Yoke of either opinion and it seems his late Majesty of glorious Memory and his Councel and his noble Lieutenant of Ireland and your Lordship thought it safer for the Crown for Ireland to be trusted with that sort of disobedient Children that depended on no forraign Ecclesiastical Head then on such as did And it is to be acknowledged to your Lordships care of the freedom of your Country that when you sat in the long Parliament till you and other Members thereof were torn thence by Cromwel's Souldiers you crusht the Iure-divinity of Presbytery in the Egg by its being ordered to be setled only for three years so that it saw it was to be expeditated at the end of three years and had no power to trample upon the consciences of others and in effect had but a tolleration I think that no Church-Government at all is better then that rigid one of Presbytery intended then by some Zealots As the good and learned Dean of Canterbury said in his Sermon on the Fifth of November before the House of Commons That as to Popery 't were better there were no revealed Religion and that humane Nature were left to the conduct of its own principles and inclinations then to be acted by a religion that inspires men with so wild a fury and prompts them to commit such outrages c. and there renders Popery worse then Infidelity or no Religion and so indeed in fact the Kingdom had then no Church-Government paramount at all in it and instead of the imagined fierce pedagogy of the Scotch Presbytery that made every Levite a Rabby Busy every Pulpit Rhetor a Consul and every Lay-Elder Major General of the Parish we had a tame insignificant
by his dying breath to make it evaporate for ever There was no guile found in his mouth and his followers were only then wise as Serpents while they were innocent as Doves and the first Crying in the Cradle of the Puer Hebraeus of the holy child Iesus was as Thunder to strike the old Equivocating Oracles Dumb that had so long cheated the credulous World. When he branded the Scribes and Pharisees with sharper language he calls them Hypocrites He alarms us of false Prophets coming in the Masquerade of Sheeps clothing tells us That he who calls his Brother fool shall be in danger of hell fire and therefore he may much more fear that danger who makes a Fool of him and plays the Knave with him he Commands us not to Calumniate or kill but to bless those that curse us which is more than to praise them as I said before of blessing being the tribute due to Men heroically Virtuous To shew that he intended nothing of Artifice in the Propagation of his Doctrine a hated Publican and a few poor Fishermen and a Tent-maker are used in his Embassy to the World men not likely to be able Mentiri pro patriâ coelesti if such a Commission as Go Cheat all Nations had been given them And lest it might be thought that with Oratorical Harangues that he or they led Men by the Ears as an implicit faith is said to lead them by the Nose he us'd no hony of Phrase or sting of Epigram no Politic Remarks nor scarce more lenocinium of words than is in He that hath an ear to hear let him hear He tells us That for every Idle word we must give an account and therefore certainly abhorr'd Equivocation which makes all words and speech Idle and of no effect and since as I think 't was truly said Eloquentia non nisi stultos Movet Eloquence moves none but Fopps he did as I may say put that generous Complement on mens understandings not to Commission his Ministers to try to sooth men out of one belief into another by bribing their imaginations with the excellency of speech or the inticing words of man's Wisdom but the contrary He thought it worthy of God to be worship'd by the world in Spirit and in Truth and not to encrease the number of his Homagers by Lies Legends and Impostures It was for the honour of the Christian Religion that the Son of God chose to take flesh in the time when Augustus Reign'd when the Roman World being freed from a long Civil War had leisure to â—â—ltivate the Arts of Wit and Reason and had brought them to their highest Perfection and took not the advantage of a dark and barbarous Age to surprize the World in as afterward both Papism and Mahumetanism did and 't is therefore no Marvel if either of those two Hypotheses of Religion did in one Point so much resemble the Christian Religion in so soon with its ferment levening so Great a lump of the World. But the Christian Religion came not into the World like a Fireship with prepar'd smoke to blind mens eyes as it was assailing them No for to the end that the Christian reveal'd Doctrine might like a great Pyramid be conspicuous to the whole world and last together with it and reach from Earth to Heaven the Divine Providence was long laying its Foundation very deep in Nature and very wide in the world I mean Iustice and Reason so agreeably to Humane Nature then at their height appearing in the Laws of the Roman Empire and its subjugating the World and its reducing Mankind to the Law of Nature first imprinted on Man's heart were by the Care of Heaven used as previous in qualifying the World to receive the Glorious Superstructure of the Christian Religion the which would certainly not have been so much as res unius aetatis if at that time when the Roman Laws inculcating the Natural Cognation between all Mankind and placing Actions that wound Piety or Reputation or good Manners in the Number of things Impossible and intimating their abhorrence of Collusion Combining Circumvention and Disanulling things done thereby and branding of those acts that do fraudem facere legi and rendring that to be but a pittiful innocence that is but as good as the Law requires and making him in the eyes of the Law to be still in Possession of any thing who is actually trickt out of it quia pro possessione dolus est providing against Calumny by an Oath in all litigations and when a person is render'd to do a thing infamously expressing it by dolo facit having the regard of Pudor verecundia Humanitatis ac Religionis ratio and other such words of the like charming signification which were like Trees in the Body of the Roman Laws planted as thick by one another as they could well stand the Christian Religion had in the Congruity of its Precepts to Humane Nature come short of those of the Romans who as Cicero says did not Calliditate ac Robore sed Pietate ac Religione omnes gentes nationesque superare and especially if in those against Calumny Fraud and Circumvention the Christian Faith had not reach'd as high as the bona fides of the Heathens and much more if the Model of Christian Morality had been in that Knowing Age like that of the Jesuits in this But certainly since it hath often proved fatal to the Ministers of Kings to be or seem wiser than their Masters the Iesuits by affecting in their Platforms of Morality to be wiser than him who in the style of the Scripture of God is made to us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption may easily take a prospect of their ruine and as the Serpents trying to out-wit Heaven and its Poisoning the Morals of our first Parents with its subtlety made the Scene of its motion to be in the Dust and it to be more accurs'd than any brute Animal such is likely to be the fate of this Serpentine Order after they have been by their subtle Casuistical distinctions so long nibbling at the Sacred word a thing the old Serpent did and tempting Men in a fool's Paradise according to their several Palates by their Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil I mean the Experiments of Vice by their pretended Moral Theology but what is so far from deserving the Name of Theology that if it were imagin'd that a general Counsel of Devils were by their Chief call'd to debate of a Model of credenda and agenda for the world 't is likely they would unanimously agree to set up this and no other for no doubt they would pass no Article to deny the existence of a God for they believe that and tremble nor yet any Article that might be controul'd by Natural light or of which any Matter of Fact would be over-rul'd by Authentic History but they would among the unwary Judges of things and such whose Judgments are choak't up with the fumes
Scene of Merchandizing was not open'd in Europe till about 6 or 7 hundred years ago and till then none were there worthy the names of Merchants except some few in the Republicks of Italy who lived in the Mediterranean parts trading with the Indian Caravans in the Levant or driving some inland Trade and then and some hundreds of years afterward the Nations in the worst Soil of Europe being the greatest breeders and having superfluity of nothing but people had no invention for living but by being Murderers and by the boysterous Trade of Fighting their way into better Quarters and during that dark and Iron Age that produced Herds of Men void of knowledge there was nothing in humane Conversation or discourse valuable and in our European World it was scarce worth Men a few steps to gain one anothers acquaintance but on the gradual encrease of knowledge there Men found a readier way at once with delight and profit to exchange Notions and Commodities of Traffick and the Protestant Religion at last drawing up the Curtain that kept all things obscure on that Stage of the World Men being better taught the knowledge of the God of Nature and of Nature it self were grown worth one anothers knowledge and were for the surprizing brightness of their intellectual Talents gazed on by the wondring World like in Machines Gods coming down out of Clouds and it was worthy of the bounty of Heaven then to spread on the Earth the Commerce of Men and the Medium of Commerce too and to allow them to converse together with more splendor by the Donative of the American Mines when the dawn of the knowledge a little before that of the Reformation had rendred them conversable Creatures and fit for the interviews of one another and shortly afterwards by a mighty encrease of Navigation many did pass to and fro and knowledge was more and more encreased Thus as I have some where read of a saying of one of the Fathers Deus ambit nos donis formâ suâ the Divine Goodness provided that the World should Espouse the beauty of the Reformation with a great Dowry and that it should appear particularly in England with the great Figure that Wisdom makes in the Proverbs Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour And the truth is conspicuous in our English History that former intervals of some Efforts of Trade and of some of withstanding the Papal Encroachments were alway contemporary and liv'd and dy'd together and they were no sooner risen out of the Grave where the barbarity of former times depressed them but they were again found in one anothers Embraces That the Stock and Wealth of the Kingdom is vastly encreased since Harry the 8ths time is visible to any one who considers what Stow saith in his Annals on the Year 1523 the 15th Year of his Reign That when in a Parliament held at Black-Fryers and where Sir Thomas More was Speaker 800000 l. was required to be raised of the fifth part of every mans Goods and Lands that is 4 s of every Pound to be paid in 4 years but it was denyed and it was proved manifestly that if the fifth part of the substance of the Realm were but 800000 l and if Men should pay to the King the fifth part of their Goods in Money or Plate that there was not so much Money out of the Kings hands in all the Realm for the fifth part of every Mans Goods is not in Money or Plate c. And then consequently if all the Money were brought to the Kings hands then Men must barter Cloath for Victuals c. And there it was further Argued that the King had by way of Loan 2 s. in the Pound which is 400000 l. and if he had 4 s. more in the Pound 't would amount to 1200000 l which is almost the 3 d part of every Mans Goods which in Coyn cannot be had within the Realm That the Merchandizing Trade of England was before the Reformation and sometime after managed chiefly by Forraigners we Learn out of Heylin's Edward the 6 th p. 108 where he saith that Edward the 6 th Supprest the Corporation of Merchant Strangers the Merchants of the Stilyard concerning which we are to know that the English in the times foregoing being neither strong in Shipping nor much accustomed to the Sea received all such Commodities as were not of the growth of their own Country from the hands of Strangers resorting hither from all parts to upbraid our laziness namely Merchants known by the name of Easterlings who brought hither Wheat and Rye and Grain c. for their encouragement wherein they were amply priviledged and exempted from many impositions I shall here deduce a proof of the growth of the Revenue of the Nation from the growth of that of the Church and to prove that the Revenue of the Church Nation of England were in the year 1660 about Quintuple to what they were at the time of the Reformation I shall say first that Godwin in his Catalogue of Bishops makes the Revenue of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops to be valued at the time of the Reformation near 22000 l. per Annum and if we admit the Revenue of the Deans and Chapters to be double the Sum viz. 44000 l. then will the whole Revenue of the Hierarchy appear to have been then 66000 l. per Annum But Dr. Cornelius Burgess a Man vers'd in the speculative and practick part of Sacriledge doth in his Book concerning Sacriledge call'd Two Replies and Printed Anno 1660 affirm that the Bishops Deans and Chapters Lands were at the end of the late Civil War sold for two Million three hundred thousand pounds and he saith there was offer'd since his Majesties Restoration seven hundred thousand pounds more to confirm that Sale whereby the value of the said Land is made to be in the year 1660 3 Millions And Mr. Prynne in his Printed Speech in the House of Commons on Monday the 4th of December 1648. touching the satisfactoriness of the Kings Answers to the Propositions of both Houses doth in Page 68 there affirm That near one half of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops Possessions and Revenues consists in Impropriations Tithes Pensions and the like and if we may suppose the like as to the Revenues of the Deans and Chapters then according to that Estimate will the value of the whole Revenue of the Hierarchy of our Church be about 6 Millions the twentieth part whereof viz. at twenty years Purchase is 300,000 l. per Annum and the 12 th part of the same viz. at 12 years purchase is 500,000 l. per Annum so that what at the time of the Reformation was worth but 66000 l. per Annum was in the Year 1660 worth between 300 and 500000 l. as aforesaid In the next place I shall prove the Remainder of my Position that the Revenue of the whole Nation is about Quintupled also for that the
could not have been conducted so far as it was by any private persons the Book called Popery absolutely destructive to Monarchy printed in London in the year 1673. shews the danger of ordinary Magistrates intermedling with the numbers of Papists in particular Parishes by instancing p. 115. how when the long Parliament was first call'd Iustice Howard was ordered to deliver up a Catalogue of all Recusants within the Liberties of Westminster to prevent which Mr. John James a Zealous Popist stabb'd the Iustice in Westminster-hall and Sir George Wharton in his Gesta Britannorum saith Anno 1640. November 21. Iustice Howard assaulted and stabb'd in Westminster-hall It seems that Iustice of Peace as well as Iustice Godfry found what it was to anger St. Peter and so has that Noble Earl done I believe by some Papists murdering his reputation and shamming the Blood of Godfry on him in vallanous Pamphlets of which I hear that 32000 were dispersed in one Week and that it appeared at an Honourable Committee that no inconsiderable quantity of them was dispers'd by Celier 'T is probable that the time that was taken for discovering the number both of Papists and other Dissenters was most proper in regard that the Declaration of Indulgence visiting them as with a Sun-shine after the Rain invited them out of their Recesses to appear abroad visibly and as the words of the Scripture in another sence are To move out of their holes like Worms of the Earth And as if any man would give himself the trouble to essay the numbring of the Worms that are in the Earth the properest time for that his affected Curiosity would be after the Rain making the earth soft and the Sun then warming it had invited those Animals to come out of the Earth the which lye within a few Foot of the Surface of it so for the above reason was the investigation of the numbers of the Papists most properly timed I am therefore of opinion with the aforesaid Dr. That the number of the Papists was near the matter retain'd with truth and that their number is still waining and will be so more and more but in some accidental Conjunctures of time A late Author hath publish't it That in England in these twenty years last past 250 Families of the Gentry and 12 of the Nobility have quitted the profession of Popery And if any one shall affirm as some considerate Papists have done that the number here of secret Papists and who go not to Mass is as great as the number of the professed ones I shall say that the number of the people of England having been in this Discourse represented so much greater then it was in former Estimates the number of secret Papists cast into that of the known ones will perhaps signifie little more then the dust in the Ballance of the Nation Their Numbers that did somewhat encrease in the beginning of the Conjuncture of their petulant Insolence that went before the time of the Popish Plot as the Purples Small-pox and other Malignant Diseases fore-run the Plague did sensibly and suddenly decay by the change of the Air that the Loyal long Parliament and its Act of the Test made just as the Observator of the Bills of Mortality hath let us see that by the reason of the changes and dispositions in the Air the Plague doth by sudden Jumps start back in a very few days time from vast numbers to very small ones insomuch that presently after the breaking out of the Plot they took the advantage of the detection of the paucity of their Numbers that the Earl of Danby's aforesaid Prudence had made as thence to raise an Argument ab impossibili that they should design a Plot to turn the Tide of Nature in the Nation And thus as Men once pass'd the valuing themselves on the Charmes and Vigour of Youth do it for the Reverence of their Old Age and hope to be the better treated as Guests in the World for the shortness of the time they are to stay in it they did resemblingly too look big upon the smallness of their Numâ—eâ—s The Author therefore of the Compendium printed Anno 1679 tells us à propos p. 85 That there are not 50000 of the Roman Catholick Religion in England Men Women and Children and that agrees well enough with the Surveys of the Numbers of those of that Religion in the Province of Canterbury of the Age of Communicants and admitting the Total of such to be doubled on the account of Papists below the Age of Sixteen an account that ought to be admitted the Observator on the Bills of Mortality having taught us as aforesaid that there are in nature about as many under the Age of 16 as above it and with the making the Total of all the Papists in the Province of York according to Fuller equal to that in the Province of Canterbury the number of the Papists throughout England will appear to be probably near what the Author of the Compendium hath estimated That their Numbers did considerably decrease after the fermentation in peoples minds relating to Religion followed the Declaration of Indulgence and after the severity of the Parliament to Papists thereby occasion'd a convincing Argument may be had from the Letters of Mr. Coleman the which did confute several impâ—tations of it in Mr. Marvel's Growth of Popery to the King's Ministers better than any Apologies could have done and has enabled Fame to Trumpet them forth to Posterity as Confessors whom Envy here whisper'd to be Traditors and let the present Age see that their alledged Closing with Popery was but in the way of contending Wrestlers and not of friendly Embracers And no doubt then but the many Dependants and Followers those Ministers had and the Candidates for their favour and expectants of Offices thereby were then Enemies to all implicit Faith but only for what they thought the Religion of their Chiefs In his Letter to le Cheese of September 29 1675 He saith That the Lord Treasurer Lord Keeper and Duke of Lauderdale were become as fierce Apostles and as Zealous for Protestant Religion and against Popery as ever my Lord Arlington was before them and in pursuance thereof perswaded the King to issue out those severe Orders and Proclamations against Catholicks which came out in February last by which they did as much as in them lay to extirpate all Catholicks and Catholick Religion out of the Kingdom And he in his Letter to the Internuntio of the 5th of February 1674 5 tells him That the King had sign'd a Proclamation last Wednesday to banish all the Priests Natives of this Kingdom to forbid all Subjects to hear Mass in the Queens Chappel and at the Houses of Ambassadors to bring home all the Youth that is now out of the Kingdom in any Popish Colledges to prosecute all Persons as to their Estates according to the Laws which are so insupportable that 't is impossible for any that is reach'd by them
used then by some of our well-meaning Church-men who thought that the use of some Ceremonies more than our Law required would have brought the Church of Rome over to us ' T is aut Caesar aut Nullus that the Pope would be and he will here keep as many Subjects as he can since not able to acquire as many as he would And the truth is as the attempt of an excellent Swimmer to save one totally inexpert therein usually proves fatal so likely will the generous and charitable design of a Church of a rational Discipline interposing to save one of an irrational and that can do nothing by vigour of reason to bear up it self and is therefore meer dead weight Since the Epoche of the Popish Plot that the Press has been to all writing Mankind so much unrestrain'd the World hath seen little of the Papists Learned Writings or scarce any thing writ with Art and Wit except the Compendium and instead of proving in Volumes that the Church of England is no true Church or that St. Peter was ever at Rome they have extended all the Nerves of their Wit in Pamphlets only to prove that Doctor Oates is no true Doctor and that he was never a â—alamanca And I believe that as the asserting of Popery here per viam Thomae or in the way of the Schools is in the Course of Nature Eternally over so will the adorning it by the way of Curiosity of Wit or Fancy grow obsolete But here it is proper to be observed that in all the Conjunctures before mention'd and in those wherein our former Protestant Princes for deep reason of State have been most favourable to their Popish Subjects by the Relaxation of the Penal Laws and when some Papists made great Figures in the Court and got the Ballance of Court-preferment a while by stealth into their hands and that Holy Church being anew Whiten'd over with some temporary Prosperity many Proselytes did Flock to it as Doves to their Windows yet the Ground that Popery got then was but Made Ground and not natural and was too chargeable to be kept And as the vulgar have falsly imagined that a great Plague has happen'd in the beginning of every Princes Reign so has it been obvious to the more refined observers that in the Reign of every new Protestant Prince Popery has made a fresh essay to augment it self in the Epocha of a new Conjuncture And that as in the most Pestilential times of Mortality even in our Metropolis almost only the poorer sort of People are swept away by it Thus was it too in in those Conjunctures here when Popery boasted of its many Converts But Nemo decipit lumbos and Popery when pamper'd did but Counterfeit a sound strength and as Quintilian's words are Verum robur inani saginâ mentiri and was but in bad travelling Case by that washy adventitious flesh and soon tired in its furious Race while Protestancy had that permanent Motion which Dr. Iackson on the Creed supposeth the Heavens would have if God should move them in an instant and which if he did were he saith more properly to be called A vigorous permanency alluding perhaps to things seeming to stand still when they move fastest Dr. Twisse in answer to him doth to the Expression of a Permanent Motion with a mirth and raillery unusual in him apply that Verse of a Poet whose Horse being tired and not moveable by the Spur said to his fellow Traveller who Rein'd in his Horse to go easily Your Horse stands still faster then mine will go And thus raillery apart I do believe that Protestancy will stand still faster than Popery can go let it be never so high mounted And we may properly resemble the course of Protestancy in any Conjuncture to the Sun which enjoys its Natural Motion at the same time it suffers its Forced and according to Mr. Cowley's Expression doth at the same time run the day and walk the year And we may as properly resemble the height and greatness of Popery in any former Conjuncture and the greatness of Peoples fears of its Growth and Continuance to the dreadful Entrance and dull Exit of a Comet Many Comets have hung over our heads and lasted some considerable time that were bigger than the Globe of the Earth which as they appear'd on a sudden so hath that great Mass of Matter of which they consisted and which threat'ned destruction to the Earth by little and little dwindled to nothing or disappear'd And this hath been the Event of the Growth of Popery and over-growth of its Fears here and I believe will be in any Conjuncture that can come I believe that if such an extremely improbable thing should ever happen as that the Legislative Power should allow the Papists a publick place for their Devotion in every great City in England the very sight of their Ceremonies would encrease and sharpen the Popular aversion against their Church Du Fresnes in his Learned Glossary in three Tomes as to the Scriptores mediae infimae Latinitatis mentions the origination of the use and name of the Surplice and quotes Durand in Ration lib. 3. c. 1. n. 10. 11. for it viz. Eo quod antiquitùs super tunicas pelliceas de pellibus mortuorum animalium factas induebatur quod adhuc in quibusdam Ecclesiis observatur And cites many Authorities about its being used by the Clergy and while the Antient Monks lived upon the labour of their hands and wore such Leathern Clothes as labouring Rusticks in the Towns with whom they wrought it was but a necessary piece of decency when they retired to their Oratories to Worship God together to have that covering of Linnen that might hide the sordidness of their Clothes and so probably that Linnen Surplice appearing in it self decent and carrying with it more respect from the just Reverence those Innocent Ancient Monks attracted it came by that means first in fashion in the Church to be worn by the better habited Priests and being here enjoyn'd by the Laws of our Sovereign and therein declared to be a thing not in its own nature necessary it seems to me to be an uncivil humour in our Dissenters so much to quarrel the use of it and do suppose that the Civility of the French Nation appearing in the Protestants of that Realm who are here and to whom it is natural not only to comply with Princes but even their fellow Subjects in the use of all Ceremonies they expect to be treated with may instill such a humour of Complaisance into some of those here who were aggrieved at our Churches or as I may say our Kings Ceremonies as all the Learned Books of our Divines have not yet done But if after the disuse of our Ceremonies in the late Usurpation the sight of a Surplice doth fright them so much from our Church how would they be disgusted to see one with a shaven Crown with his Amice Girdle Aube Maniple Stole
the solid weight of their Fortunes or Industry are come to their Center of Rest must necessarily hate all Projectors of Earthquakes in Church and State and being well on their terra firma will never care to walk on the high Rope with the Poise of a drawn Sword in their hands and who will never venture their heads by wearing any discriminating Ribbands in their Hats nor give their heads for the washing or the rebaptising themselves with little Names of the distinctions of Parties and who generously valuing themselves on unmercenary Loyalty and unbribed Orthodoxy will neither rob Caesar or God of the things that are theirs and not expect that their Prince should impoverish himself by paying Tribute to them and taking them off by Gifts more then the Patriots in Queen Elizabeths days did and when I consider that the more thinking and knowing part among these and whose ease is only infringed by seeing so many objects that are uneasie must needs think and know that solid Trade and Industry can never thrive nor the Kingdom by it till the false Trade of Religion shall be exterminated I do fancy to my self that we shall shortly by the strength of this sound part of the Nation be able to weather the Crisis or decretory days of our feavourish distemper and that our disease will end in a natural cool and that as some fermentation may be said to be perfective as well as destructive and indeed life it self is but a Continuation of the vigorous fermentation of the Blood which is so long maintained as the Mass of Blood is kept hot and Circulating through the Veins and Arteries so we shall find this fermentation that has been in the Kingdom prove perfective to it and a continuer of the life of it For as one very useful property of fermentation is that while it separates all heterogeneous parts it leaves the basis as it were or main Ingredient of the Mass clear and pure and discards from it recrements or superfluities and another noble property thereof is that it exalts the Body fermented to what perfection it is capable of these effects do I expect of our Political Fermentation that hard word that is generally used in expressing the present distracted State of the Kingdom and that it will naturally cause in the Body of the People that superfluity of folly as well as naughtiness to be thrown off which will leave the substantial part of the Nation more clear and pure and will end in England's Ballancing it self first and then the World all our useless Religion-Traders having been swept away as the dust of our Ballance I grant that the Animosities among many Protestants of narrow Souls and Principles may last too long on the account of Religion and a great many deluders will make a great many deluded desperately obstinate against their Ecclesiastical Rulers but the People of England are too many to be crowded into the Prisons of such narrow Principles and this great and active thing called Nature that is always busie and which sometimes doth its business even by mens Idleness and the necessary effect thereof their Poverty will by the general necessitous condition of Luxuriants and Religion-Traders force them to be industrious and that industry will bring us to the State of a Britannia florens and too of a Britannia triumphans and rescue a populous Kingdom from the decay of its Trade that hath happen'd by our having been embarrass'd with a Holy Kirk or Holy Church Militant against the State and that affirmation which appeared so senseless in the Theology of a Popish Priest namely that Respublica est in Ecclesia instead of the Church being in the Common-wealth will equally appear so in the Writings of Mr. Carâ—wright for that he there affirmed and to be in any man's writings as absurdly said as it is in the Lexicon Geographicum in Folio Cantabrigia est quoddam oppidum in quo est Academia If any Dissenter should now trouble the Press with ingenious Books to perplex the Layety about the lawfulness of the ordination by Bishops he would want ingenious Readers for 't is now as much out of fashion for People to concern themselves about knowing the demonstrative certainty of the true ordination of their Pastors almost as 't was among the Iews of old to question who were the true Sons of Levi by natural Generation a thing that none but the Mother knew Our English World is likely to the end of time to be too busie to mind nice Questions of the uncertain Genealogies of Churches and each Protestant now will admit of the Credo Ecclesiam Catholicam without quarrelling about the Latinity of the expression and as in the History of the Council of Trent where the Thred of the Controversie about proponentibus legatis runs through the whole Council when it was told the Pope that Vargas granted that if the thing designed were only that the Legates shall propose no man would have complained but the Ablative proponentibus legatis did deprive the Bishops of Power to propose and therefore 't was fit to change it into to another kind of Speech the Pope replyed That 't was now no time to think of cujus generis cujus casus so in our Realm all Policy it self whether Civil or Ecclesiastical will now be accounted but Pedantry that by any previous questions puts off the debate of Capital Ships and their Maintenance and Equipage and the consideration of the necessity of great Supplies for that purpose will carry the Vote with a Nemine Contradicente among the People diffusive here that they will give no more Supplyes to Religion-Traders and that in order to the Nations being able as a Britannia florens in point of Trade to keep great Fleets at Sea 't is necessary that mens expectation should be bankrupt of gain by Castles in the Air or in fine that the very Corporation of the Trade of all Beggars should be broken which has so much diminished our other Trade The great States-man of this latter Age Mazarine projecting the growing Power and Glory of France did not long before he dyed wisely lay the Foundation of it by the extirpating out of the Metropolis and other Cities of that Kingdom those publick Nusances there called Beggars and since all Religion-Traders are in truth and reallity of the Trade of Beggars and the Multitude of them at present diminisheth the shame of that very Trade the destruction of it will probably by all be judged as the first thing necessary for the advancement of other Commerce And as the wisest course I ever heard of taken for breaking the Trade of Beggars in the Streets was that by the Iustices of Middlesex in their Printed Papers sent to the Church-Wardens Overseers of the Poor and Constables of the respective Parishes in the Suburbs whereby all Persons are desired and required by their Order to forbear to relieve any Beggars at their doors or in any other kind about the Streets so in
like manner will nature probably by the real Poverty of People cause them to forbear to give relief to these Religious Mendicants and will thereby break their Trade And moreover tho there hath in all Ages been another sort of Traders and who too were but splendid Beggars and by their importunity in Courts and with artifice representing the Sores and Maims of their Estates have moved the Royal Commiseration to exhaust its Revenue on them yet the vast publick charge likely to be impendent over us as well as our Neighbours will shew those First-rate Mendicants the vanity of the Science of begging a Science that Agrippa doth very well Animadvert upon in his Book de Vanitate Scientiarum And there being no way for the Heirs and Children of our many Luxuriants to get from under the loads of debts and Incumbrances bequeath'd them but by industry and frugality I account that they will be necessitated to mend the Genius of the Age and so to contribute to the advancement of Trade When the Author of Britannia languens doth I fear too truly tell us p. 139. That our late wealthy Yeomanry are impoverished or so much reduced in their Stocks that a man shall hardly find three in a County able to Rent 3 or 400 l. per Annum and that our Poor are encreased to near ten times their late number within these last twenty years and that their maintainance doth cost the Nation 400000 l. per Annum constant Tax and had before in p. 138 shew'd That the Trades of Tillage Grazing Dairy Cloathing Fulling that formerly enriched the Occupiers of them have in these latter years been the usual Shipwracks of Mens Stocks and Estates in most parts of England and in p. 27. That we have in a manner lost the Eastland and Northern Trades and in p. 240 shews That the cheapness of Interest doth not proceed from the plenty of Mony but scarceness of security and there observes That Personal Security for Mony being in a manner lost and that there is not one Land security in twenty that is good and in p. 291. I hear of no new improving Manufactures in England but that of Periwigs we may well account that the Ebb of our Trade is at the very lowest point and that under so good a Prince in so good and populous a Land nature will hasten its improvement Tho the understandings of the English have in all Arts and Sciences appear'd as sharp as those of any Nation and particularly in the Science of the Politics yet so it has happen'd that since the Reformation our States-men have been so put to it by the efforts of Popery and other Religion-Trades to stand continually upon their Guard and have been so worn out by continual duty that they have not had time to make Platforms of improvement of Political Discipline or to acquaint the World with their Memoires as many of the States-men of France have done and the great Ship of the Nation in its Trading Voyages as I may say under Sail and making a great figure in the Sea of time and having experienced Pilots at the Helm of State hath yet been so clog'd in its motion by the little fantastick Remora of a pretended Religion sticking to its side in several Conjunctures that our making no more way in the World hath appeared a Jest to Critical Spectators and no doubt but pending the Authority of a Religion-Trade as paramount over others in this or any Country its fate will be like Reubens never to excel Not only our States-men but our Princes in former times tho their abilities were very great and adequate to support the weight of the Government had it been greater were yet exposed to perpetual toyl by ballancing the Religionary Contest viz. of the Parties of Papists and Puritans which minds me how it hath been wondered at that a strong Horse should not draw a one wheel'd Coach with a great deal of ease considering that he only bears up part of the weight and keeps it upright to a Ballance by thills on either side of him and that by experience 't is found that this Horse becomes weary sooner then expectation and the reason of it is conceived to be that tho he bears not so much burthen nor draws so much draught as a Coach or other Carriage with two or more Wheels yet he is so bruised and banged on either side with the unusual motion of the thills to keep the one Wheel'd Coach upright that he is thereby much sooner spent and wearied then by ordinary drawing or bearing he would have been and thus neither better nor worse hath been the fate of our Monarchs and their Ministers to be continually throughout the Journey of their Lives hit on this and 'tother side and bruised with the Thills of Popery and Presbytery while they were keeping up Religion to a Ballance but I believe 't will appear a shame to us that they should be thus the Ludibria of Fortune any longer The Author of the present State of England Part. 2. saith That the yearly Charge of his Majesty's Navy in times of Peace continuing in Harbor is so well regulated that it amounts to scarce 70000 l. Had he heard my Lord-Keeper Bridgeman's Speech to the Parliament Anno 1670. he would there have been informed That His Majesty finds that by his Accounts from the year 1660 to the late War the ordinary Charge of the Fleet Communibus annis came to 500000 l. a year and that it cannot be supported with less His Lordship in that Speech mentioning to what proportion our Neighbours had augmented their Fleets and how it imported His Majesty to keep pace with them if not to outgo them in number and strength of Shipping minds me of the Force of that saying of Cicero to Atticus L. 10. Ep. 7. Qui mare tenet eum necesse est rerum potiri and the truth of it is much more applicable to the State of the World now then that in his time and we shall always be but damnati ad insulam if we do not by a vigorous industry so supply our selves as to be able to supply our Princes and so as to enable them to make the Naval Strength of England as proportionable to that of other Nations as it can be made As the ordinary charge of the Fleet for several years came to the great above mentioned Sum so I believe that the ordinary Naval Charge never since amounted to less then 200,000 l. per Year beside the vast Charge in building new Ships and rebuilding old and the Charge of Summer and Winter Guards and of Convoys and of Ships against Algeers and His Majesties most exact care of the defence of the Walls of the Kingdom hath been such while he beheld the emulous endeavours of Nations to excell in Naval Power that he hath enrich'd his Realm since the Year 69 with a more valuable Fleet then it had before and the great Cordial that Nature allows us
hold that he still retaineth and ought to retain entirely and solidly all that aforesaid Supreme Power and Authority over the Churches of this Dominion in as ample a manner as if he were the most Christian Prince in the World. If therefore any shall think it reasonable to pronounce that the substantial Interest of Protestancy and of the Kingdom doth Stare moribus antiquis virisque I have pointed them to Arch-Bishop Abbot to Bishop Andrews the Antagonist to Bellarmine under the weight of whose Arguments Bellarmine fell in the Certamen and to others of our old Counsellors of State and particularly Arthur Baron Chichester of Belfast Lord Treasurer of Ireland your Lordships Noble God-Father in comparison of many of whom when we look on some of our great Politic and Protestant-would-be's of this Age and who would let none be Protestants but themselves we may well cry out In qualem paulatim fluximus urbem and have shewn how those great Confessors by their Overt Acts provided against the belief of the Doctrine of Popery without the barring any of the Royal Line from the inheriting the Crown And when I see some of our till of late unheard of Statists so eager to dispossess the Land of the Evil Spirit of Popery by illegal means and the use of the great Name of Protestancy as a Spell I fancy to my self that they may be call'd on by it as the Iewish Exorcits were in the Acts of the Apostles who taking on them to call over them which had evil Spirits the Name of the Lord Iesus saying we adjure you by Iesus whom Paul preacheth the evil Spirit answered and said Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye Thus to any who shall say that there is no way possible to secure English Mens continuing Protestants but by breaking in on the Succession in the Right Line may it be returned by Popery the old Protestants of the Church of England I know and the old Nonconformist Protestants and the old Covenanting Presbyterian Protestants I know who knew otherwise to secure Protestancy and likewise the French Protestants I know who never practised any Out-rage against the Great Harry the 4th of France's Government after he had left Protestancy but who are ye The truth is the Protestants in France so vastly numerous in his time which any one may imagine who considers that the most careful thinking men in that Realm make them now to be two Millions and that a judicious French Author hath writ that the Iesuites have lately computed them to be above a Million and a half have shewn the World a great example of their Protestant Loyalty in that they were ready as chearfully to obey their Prince when he was a Papist as when they served him in set Battles against the Power of the holy League and the majority of his Nobles and of his Metropolis and of the chief Cittadels in his Realm After they saw him go to Mass they never call'd him Iulian or Lampoon'd him in Hymns or demurred to his Beard or had any fears or jealousies of his touching a hair of their heads nor threatned him that the Galilean would foil him and no Language could have more truly expressed their Sentiments then that of the Famous Pierre du Moulin in his defence of the Faith Nous sommes prests d' exposer nos vies pour la defence de nos Rois contre qui que ce soit fust-il de nostre Religion Quiconque feroit autrement ne defendroit point la Religion mais serviroit son ambition attireroit un grand blame sur la verite de l' evangile i. e. We are ready to expose our lives for the defence of our Kings against whomsoever it be although of our own Religion And whosoever should do otherwise should not defend Religion but serve his own ambition and would draw a great reproach on the truth of the Gospel Considering the indeleble Character of Hary the 4 ths Protestant Good Nature his Subjects of that Religion did prepare their thoughts to be Lachrymists for him rather then themselves and knew that by his Coversion to Popery if in this life only he had hopes he was of all men most miserable and that his absolution left him only in the State of a Crown'd Victime I have before mentioned the Apology for that Scholar of the Jesuites Iohn Chastel which endeavours to prove that Harry the 4 th was by that Assassin not only wounded very fairly according to the Language of the Brothers of the Blade but in the Style of their Honour according to the Iesuites Morals very heroically and as the Contents of Cap. 1. Part. 3 d of the Apology expresses it Actus Castelli heroicus est in substantiâ suâ He moreover tells us in plain terms Part. 2. Cap. 7. that Excommunicatio quae â—b haeresim irrogatur remedium potius est ecclesiae quam excommunicato c. and that Excommunication for Heresie doth quite take away any Regal Right And in Cap. 8. before mentioned viz. Neque etiam à Papa absolutus Rex esse potest he asketh Quod si quaeratur quid ergo absolutio praestet si jus amissum non redeat And it followeth Quòd si absolutus impaenitens existat effectus alius non foret quam is de quo supra ita si quod Deus velit paenitentia foret vera certe effectus propterea non exigâ—us esset futurus utpote in spiritualibus remittendo illum in ecclesiae gremium regni Caelorum Capacem reddendo temporalium vero respectu quicquid illa operari posset foret ad reddendum eum compotem novi juris per electionem auferendo impedimentum in foro fori quo durante is ille esse non posset And then he saith The Pope cannot confer such new Right to the same Kingdom on him for that it depends not simply on the power of the Keys so to do and in fine makes the Right to the Crown irrevocably devolv'd on the next person capable who has a right to it quum saith he ratum sit inter jurisconsultos incapacem haberi ut mortuum non impedire sequentes In the 3d Chapter of the 2d Part namely That Henry of Bourbon cannot be called King by reason of his pretended Conversion the vile Apologist derides the Conversion of this Great King and labours to prove by fifteen Instances That after his Conversion he did favour the Cause of Heresy more then ever and particularly by his observance of his Leagues and Agreements with the Queen of England and other Hereticks ut experientia saith he per novas ejus actiones locupletissime testatur Etenim primò faederum pacta cum haereticis sarta tectaque servat quibus ut hactenus nondum renunciavit ita neque dum renunciare cogitat Secundò ipsi haeritici in Germaniâ Genevae alibi ejus actiones comprobant Tertio contemnit Catholicos promovet haereticos illos repudiat atque rejicit hos
are somewhat disguised but are as well known as the Ecclesiasticks are in France and are not in the least assaulted c. There was one day in a Long-boat or Ship a Priest dressed in black Cloths who was not otherwise disguised than that his Coat was short who said his Breviary before a hundred persons with as much Liberty as he could have done in France And yet perhaps the number of those who in Holland fear them or who pretend to fear them is but the least of numbers I think too in this sharp sighted age where Art among the Inquisitive follows Nature as carefully as Equity doth Law one may safely predict that in the Dividend of our time little will come to the share of Metaphysicks or the considering how Metaphysica agit de iis quae sunt supra naturam and that the World being infinitely busie will not trouble it self with Arriagà s infinitum infinito infinitius and Christendom's being universally employed in preparing its defence against War and giving us time only for real Learning will divert us from either much opposing or defending the old point whether Vniversale be ens reale or whether Vniversalia are res extra singularia If by Metaphysicks we could find a real Answer to the Question what is truth or what is time of which it hath devoured so much or learn how to measure it by knowing what 's a Clock we might go on with its entitas which Mr. Hobs well englisheth the isseness of a thing but since it resolves not what things are as aforesaid but as Hudibrass saith only what is what I think as Filesac de authorit opiâ—c c. 1. mentions that the Council in France forbad Aristotle's Metaphysicks and punished with Excommunication the exscribing reading or having that Book our time will hold little Communion hereafter with Second Notions on those who Trade in them and that as it will seem very absurd to sacrifice much time to the enquiry if Vniversale is a real being and whether Vniversalia are res extra singularia and to sacrifice men for believing the contrary so it will likewise seem to enquire Whether there be one Catholick or Vniversal Apostolick Church existent apart from particular Churches which sense and reason tell us are and must be many tho the Catholick Church be but one and for the want of considering which so many People have been decoyed into the Church of Rome Many are the things that an ordinary Philosopher may predict concerning Rome and particularly varying from the Prophecy that it was to be destroyed by Fire may soretel Romam fore luce delendam and as Tully's words are in his Book de Naturâ Deorum Opinionem Commenta delebit dies veritatis judicia confirmabit And thus too it is easie to predict that the light of Reason and Experience will forever blot out here the Innovations that came from Geneva as well as those from Rome The Jewish Rabbins have from the words of the Sol Iustitiae arising with healing in his wings introduced a Proverb of The Sun ariseth the infirmity decreaseth meaning thereby that the Diseases that make Mortals groan and languish in the Night are somewhat abated by the rising Sun and thus the State of our Nation will be attended with greater health on the decay of Presbytery's Kingdom of Darkness The Walls of its Iericho are fallen down flat with the sound of the Trumpets of the Dissenters own Sayings so usefully published Tho I have said enough to speak my opinion of all Dissenters to the Discipline of our Church not owning such sanguinary Principles as are chargeable on some Papists yet the Dissenters Sayings have proved enough what some of their Principles were Nor can it be forgot that King Iames did very justly in the Conference at Hampton Court accuse the Notes in the Geneva Bible to be Seditious and to savour of Traiterous Conceits and that he instanced there in the Notes on Exodus 1. 19. Where they allow of disobedience to Sovereign Kings and Princes As absurd as that Tenet beforementioned in the Decrets and there founded on the 13th of Deuteronomy is I would wish no Presbyterian to insult over any Papists for it for it is visible in no meaner a Book than the Assemblies Annotations on Zechary 13. 3. where the Father and Mother of a false Prophet are commanded to say to him thou shalt not live and 't is said his Father and Mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he Prophesieth The Comment on the words Thou shalt not live affirms that the equity of the Law of Deut. 13. 6. 9. remains under the Gospel and with less danger is a Thief an Adulterer a Witch tolerated than such an Heretick and Seducer The present pleading for liberty of Conscience in Preaching and Practice is a thing extremely shameful dangerous and destructive and the Comment on the the words His Father c. is His Parents themselves shall not spare him preferring therein their Zeal and Piety towards God before the Affection and Love which naturally they bear toward their own Children See Deut. 13. 6. 9. No less Zeal is required under the Gospel than was under the Law. I pray God deliver all Mankind from the cruel rigour of the Equity as those Divines term it of that Iudicial Mosaic Law binding under the Gospel and from that kind of Zeal binding under the Gospel that did under the Law by virtue of the 6th and 9th Verses of that Chapter and from the 16th V. of which Chapter the Obligation for firing Heretical Cities was as well deduced by the Pope The Church of England illuminates us with better Doctrine and our Reverend Bishop Sanderson tells us in his 4th Lecture De obligatione conscientiae that no Law given by Moses doth directly and formally and per se â—ind the Conscience of a Christian i. e. as it was given by Moses for that every Mosaic Law as such was positive and did oblige those only it was put upon i. e. the Iews and shews that the Precepts of the Decalogue oblige not because Moses commanded them but because of their being consentaneous to nature and confirmed by the Gospel and so doth manumit the Christian World from the Yoke of the Iudicial Law that was made only for the stiff necks of Jews Calvin himself on that place of Zachary 13. 3. doth blunder as shamefully as did our Assembly men for he there makes the Penal Jewish Laws to bind under the Gospel His words there are these Sequitur ergo non modo legem illam fuisse Iudaeis positam quemadmodum nugantur fanatici homines sed extenditur etiam ad nos eadem lex and himself was in this point the Fanatick and not the contrary opinors and deniable it is not that several of the Calvinistick and Lutheran Divines beyond Sea did imbibe the error of hereticidium from the same mistaken Principle of Monk Gratians namely that the Penalâ—severe Jewish Laws were obligatory
to have wherewithal to eat Bread if they be executed according to the said Proclamation It was but about October 1673 that the House of Commons in an Address to the King took occasion to say It is now more then one Age that the Subjects have lived in continual apprehensions of the encrease of Popery and the decay of the Protestant Religion but what Mr. Coleman's apprehensions were of the Growth of Popery on the 5th of February 1674 I have shewn before and am of opinion That though possibly in the following course of time to the birth of the Popish Plot the coming of many Romish Missionaries here might make some accession to the Number of the Papists that however the Laity of them here Inhabitants hath in its Numbers sensibly decreased and will do so more and more till the most timid Protestants shall be no more aggrieved at their Number then of that of the Muggletonians or of the Sweet Singers of Israel That the discovery of the Popish Plot hath had a natural Tendency to the abating the Number of their perswasion must be granted by all who believe there was one and who know that the blustring attempts of the Conspirators to subvert the Protestant Religion and which have therein failed must end in the better settlement of it as all Storms that do not overthrow a Tree confirm its growth Mr. Care in his History of the Popish Plot mentions That the Iesuites and Seminary Priests in England at the time of the Plot were about 1800 a Number far inferior to that in the Conjuncture in King Iames ' s time before mention'd And short of the Number mention'd by Prynne in a Book of his Printed Anno 1659 called A True and Perfect Narrative of what was done spoken by and between Mr. Prynne the old and new forcibly Secluded Members and those now sitting c. where he saith p. 44 That an English Lord return'd from Rome about four years since averr'd that the Provincial of the English Iesuites when he went to see the Colledge in Rome assured him That they had then above 1500 of their Society of Iesuites in England able to work in several Professions and Trades which they had there taken upon them the better to Support and Secure themselves from being discovered and infuse their Principles into the vulgar People Mr. Coleman complains of a Conjuncture as to Popery that he writ in that tho the Harvest was great the Labourers were very few but Mr. Prynne supposeth the Labouring Jesuites who wrought in the Trade of Religion and in other Trades too were here after the year 50 above 1500 and it may therefore be well conceived that there were many Jesuites here beside who could only manage their Tools in the former Trade and perhaps as many Seminary Priests as Jesuites And no doubt without some hint of notification from some one of the Iesuits Provincials their Number in any Protestant State can hardly be conjectured in regard of their Proteus-like varying their Shapes accordingly as a Description of them is given in the Book called The Emperor and the Empire betray'd where 't is said There are in the Society of Iesus Men of several sorts some of which are dispens'd with not only to lay aside the Habit but to marry and bear all sorts of Dignities and he further presumes to say That the Emperor was thus in this Order in his younger days Mr. Prynne in p. 42. of that Book averrs That Oliver Cromwel declared to his Parliament Anno 1654 That the Emissaries of the Iesuites then came over in great swarms and that they had then fixed in England an Episcopal Power with Arch-Deacons and other Persons to pervert the People a thing they never since the Reformation I think attempted in any Conjuncture till Quarto Caroli and then as appears out of Rushworth ' s Collections in a Conference between the Lords and Commons and managed by Secretary Cook he said There was at that time a Popish Hierarchy established in England that they had a Bishop Consecrated by the Pope and that Bishop had his subalternate Officers of all kinds as Vicars General Arch-Deacons Rural Deans Apparitors and that they were not Nominal or Titular Officers only but they all Executed their Iurisdictions and made their ordinary Visitations throughout the Kingdom kept Courts and determin'd Ecclesiastical Causes But it appears not that they had any such Hierarchy here at the time of the Plot or that they have any thing like it at this time in this Realm Mr. Prynne tells us in p. 49. of that Book That in that Conjuncture in Cromwel's time above 30000 Popish Pamphlets were permitted to be Printed and Vended in England and that of this the London Stationers complain'd in Print But 't is very little that they have Printed here since the King's Restauration and the same private Presses which gave Birth to the few Pamphlets they printed would have done it to as many Volumes as ever Tostatus as Mr. Prynne writ if they had pleased The great Number of the Protestants must still be naturally attractive of the lesser to it for the preservation of their Persons tho at the price of the diminution of their Numbers as a drop is best preserved in the Sea tho it be there swallowed up This Notion is well confirm'd by Edmund Spencer in his Observations of the History of Ireland in former times where he shews in what course of time a handful of English planted among the Numerous Irish must of necessity become Irish as indeed his own Family there did as I am told and that Cromwel speaking to the Grand-child of Spencer in English that on the account of the Fame of his Ancestor he should enjoy his Estate was not by him understood And there is no doubt but time will illuminate the Papists as to the Pope's Politicks being inconvenient to them and only convenient to himself For the same Principle in Politicks that makes every lesser State have a regret against being United to a greater namely for fear of its being absorbed thereby a Notion lately in vogue when the Union of England and Scotland was agitated engageth the Pope to keep the Papists from a Coalition with the Protestants here that would drown the visibility of their Numbers and consequently the appearance of the Numbers of his Subjects in this Realm for so in effect they are The true Cause therefore in Nature that made the Pope by his Bull in Queen Elizabeth's time prohibit the Papists from continuing to come to our Churches and to our Common-Prayer a thing they would else still have done was the Pope's being enabled by such Prohibitions to put Marks on his Sheep whereby to know them and their Numbers And which had he forborn there had probably been no Number of them returnable in the Bishops Survey 'T is therefore not to be wondred that our Church got nothing but the destruction of its Hierarchy in the last Age by the Policy