Canons soever forbid Communication with hereticks they are to be understood of notorious hereticks in point of their heresie or particularly denounced excommunicated for heresie and fallen in Catholique countreyes or from amongst Catholiques And not of such as are not formall and subversive hereticks but borne incredulous in a countrey to be converted and not knowing the Catholique Church After all this some may yet say that it hath been a long custome with them to abstain from the Protestant Church above these threescore yeers and they have suffered and lost much by refusing the same and can I have so little judgement as to thinke upon mine own bare word or opinion to make them leave this their custome I answer how small soever my judgement be that it is not only my opinion but the common opinion of Divines in the Catholique Church and I never spake with any Priest in England about this point in my life that was able to give me satisfaction to the contrary Some indeed have answered me that it were lawfull if it were not for scandall Others if it were not a distinctive signe and when I have urged that scandall may be avoyded as I have before said and for a distinctive signe I knew none for who should institute that signe then they have answered that a long custome had brought it in I have blessed my self to thinke that men should so unjustly deale with poore Catholiques as to bring upon them a yoake or fetters which they can keepe upon them by no other law then that they themselves cunningly got them on or chained them about threescore yeeres since and now to kicke of these chaines or their devises would prove forsooth scandall because they would seeme refractary and disobedient to their suggestive humours but to give me a reason why going to Church was unlawfull before the refusall thereof became this supposed distinctive signe or before the same could be cause of scandall I could never yet heare any man give but only the aforesaid R. P. hath given in writing the aforesaid suggested untruths with a great deale of passion that this my opinion was thought rationall â—or almost fortie yeers agoe and since recusancy was brought in as appears by his said booke of many most prudent men in this kingdome which is to me no reason at all For let us propose to any Divine in Christendome these three following questions relating the true state of the Protestant Church in exterior actions for we meddle not as I have said with their opinions in matters of faith and withall adding that we are constrained to them under paine of death and losse of all temporall fortunes 1. Whether it be lawfull for a Catholique to heare the Prayers Epistles Gospels and Psalmes of the Catholique Church among Protestants in their Church 2. Whether it be lawfull to heare a Protestant preach in the same place some moralitie although it should by chance happen that some ignorant Minister should speake of some point of mistaken doctrine as that Catholiques trust in their own merits or the like falshood 3. Whether it be lawfull for a Catholique to receive bare bread and wine in remembrance that Christ dyed for him as a pious ceremony and whether not better so taken then without such remembrance I dare say that there is no impartiall Divine but will answer Yes And for these opinions I make no question but if I had been as well backed in Rome as the said R. P. was I would have got as great approbation to the same as he had to the same questions after his subdolâ—us manner proposed as followeth 1. Whether it be lawfull to frequent the Churches of hereticks where there is both imminent danger of subversion and scandall 2. Whether it be lawfull to heare the blasphemous and idâ—latrous Sermons of hereticks in which both God and his Church is notoriously and highly abused 3. Whether it be lawfull to receive Calvines Communion of bread and wine which they hold a Sacrament and is a signe of hereticall perfidiousnesse whereby a man betrayeth and denyeth his faith To which every Cathoâ—ique whatsoever would and must answer No but this in truth is not our case For the beliefe of Catholiques is not questioned nor subversion or blasphemie or denyall of faith either apprehended or feared Neither can they scarce possibly happen in the Protestant Church as I have before said but the question only is what Catholiques may exteriorly doe for the safeguard of life with a good intention and how and in what manner they may best converse and preserve themselves from ruine with most securitie Therefore I pray forgive the said R. P. who proposed the said questions in Rome out of his aboundant zeale of money and youth to propagate his family not once considering that it is an impossible thing for them to be hereticks who never were Catholiques As for their custome of Recusancie I say first that it is no custome for a custome is a continuance of a thing time out of minde without any interruption Now recusancy hath been interrupted oftentimes first by Doctor Wright who wrote against the same Ann. 1607. and since him Master Broughton and now my selfe Neither hath it been time out of minde for there are some yet alive borne in Queene Maries dayes who have knowne when our recusancie was not in England and thereupon in these troublesome times doe now goe to Church I say secondly that an inconvenient custome with imprudencie is better broken then kept and the prescripâ—ion of threescore yeeres not good Yet if they will needs claime a right in and to their actions by the same I doe hereby promise not to take it from them by any suit in law For I doe write more to avoyd the scandall of the weake then that I do thinke thereby to satisfie the weake or rob them of their said custome As for their sufferings and losses I am sorry for them and doe assure my selfe that they will receive a great reward for the same because they suffered not so much for the love of recusancie as for the love of God for whosoever doth the meanest worke no indiscretion therein being apprehended by the doer either for Gods sake or for vertue sake although of some considering the act it selfe and not knowing the doers intention it may be judged indiscreet yet the worke may have a reward from God and yet another that doth not the same no punishment Thus the three branches of the said Minor proposition being proved the Conclusion standeth good for the lawfulnesse of going to the Protestant Church Me thinks here I heare some storme that if this my opinion should be admitted as lawfull it would follow that they must likewise take all the oathes that are made against Catholiques which will tend to perjurie To which I answer that I would have them to do things consequenter and any thing for safeguard of life wherein their is no sinne And to
after their manner that which is indeed the maine question between us namely whether Papists are Catholikes For if he take Catholikes in that sense in which the word is used by the ancient Fathers for a right beleever or Orthodox Christian in opposition to all heretikes and schismatikes neither are Romanists such Catholikes and such Catholikes living within his Majesties Dominions not only may but ought to come to our Protestant Churches and take the Oathes both of Allegiance and Supremacie when they are legally tendered unto them d If the author had not here rubd his forehead hee would never have set this text in the frontispice of his book for whether we translate the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 innocent or simple in neither sense it befitteth either the person of the Author and his Associates or the argument of his book How innocent Papists are it is sufficiently known to all the world by the Massacre at Paris Powder plot in England and the present Rebellion in Ireland As for their simplicitie let the Iesuits manifold Apologies of Equivocation speak and this Priests Treatise in hand wherein he endeavoureth through the whole to proove it to be lawfull to double in point of Gods worship and juggle in matter of most sacred and solemne oathes e Rubet auditor eui frigida mens est criminibus tacitâ suÌ„dant praecordia culpâ It seemes the Authors heart smote him and his coÌ„science misgave him and his inke turned red when he set his pen to paper to apologize for hollow hearted newtralitie and halting betweene two religions If we divide his Pamphlet into two parts we shall finde the first part spent in proofe and justification of simulation the second of dissimulation in the former part he perswades the Papists of England to make shew of what they are not by frequently resorting to our Church and Communion Table in the second to deny what they are by taking the two Oathes wherein both the temporall and the spirituall power and jurisdiction of the Pope within these kingdomes are renounced f How the ensuing Treatise tendeth to the Safeguard of the bodies and estates of Papists by declining the penalties of the laws every intelligent Reader may perceive but how this way of dissimulation tends to the safeguard of souls I cannot understand sith the Saviour of our souls who is the Way the Truth Truth and the Life teacheth us in expresse words Marke 8.35 Whosoever will save his life shall loose it but whosoever shall loose his life for my sake and the Gospel shall finde it vers 38. Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinfull generation of him also shall the Sonne of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with his holy Angels and Matth. 10.32 33. Whosoever shall confesse me before men him will I confesse also before my Father which is in heaven but whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven But I subsume to make profession of communion with misbeleevers or schismaticks is not to confesse Christ and to deny any part of our Christian Faith with what art of words or pretence of good intention soever is upon the matter to deny Christ and to be ashamed of him and his Doctrine g You may thanke Pope Pius his seditious Bull against Q. Elizabeth wherein he not only excommunicateth her but exposeth her life and kingdome for a prey and the treasonable practises of Iesuits and Iesuited Papists for the severitie of our laws not indeed against your Religion but rather irreligion and disloyaltie medicum severum intemperans aeger faâ—it h Hoc veruÌ„ est priusquam Theognis nasceretur This is an extreame veritie as the French speake that it is not necessary to confesse a mans Religion without necessitie as if he should say it is not profitable for a man to drive a a Trade without profit or not pleasant to recreate himselfe without pleasure or not wholsome to take Physicke which conduceth not to his health But if this were in him lâ—psus linguae or calami I am sure his inference hereupon is deliquium mentis and argues a defect in his rationall facultie for at this issue he drives because it is not necessary at all times and in all places to confesse Religion no more then to goe out into the Market place and cry I am a Romane Catholike or to write upon the frontispice of his house here lyeth a Papist that therefore a man may sometimes make an outward profession of a contrary Religion by joyning with them publikely in their Service and Sacraments If he had staid longer at schoole he would have perfectly learned which he fumbleth at this lesson from the Schoole Divines which looseneth the sinews of this his argument that affirmative preceptes obligant semper sed non ad semper but negative semper ad semper A man is not bound alwayes to exhibit cultum latriae to God by adoration or prayer but he is bound never to exhibite Divine worship to a creature he is not bound alwayes to offer unto God or to give to the Church but he is bound never sacrilegiously to take away from God or his Church in like manner he is not bound at all times and in all places to professe his faith but he is alwayes bound not to denie his Faith and Religion either by word or deed A man is not bound alwayes to speake a truth but he is bound never to lie feigne or play the hypocrite i See the Advertisement to the Reader The Apostle saith Godlinesse is great gain if a man be contented with what he hath but by the confession of this Priest gaine is the Iesuits godlinesse the zeale of Gods house eats not them up but their zeale devoureth the houses of the welthiest Recusants in England What care they though Recusants sinke in England so long as they swim in abundance beyond the Sea what thought take they for the parents mulcts and taxes by the state so long as their Pupils scores are paid in their Colleges k If seven Popes one after another swallowed the same State gudgeons and after the swallowing of them sub annulo piscatoris sent rescripts into England forbidding all Catholikes under paine of mortall sinne to repaire to Protestant Churches which this Authour acknowledgeth to be an errour in those Popes what becomes of the infallible assistance of the holy Spirit annexed to Peters chaire if so many Popes might be deceived by false suggestions why not by false arguments and objections if they may be deceived in matter of fact why not in matter of faith which often dependeth upon matter of fact and there being more need of inerrabilitie in a visible head for matter of fact then matter of faith the later so far as it is necessary to salvation being plainely set downe in Scripture If they may be deceived as
subversion and ruine of their soules pag. 19. In the Protestant Church there is neither idâ—latrie committed nor hurt done pag. 22. Why should we not communicate with Protestants where there can be no danger of sinne and in pag. 23. Protestants are not to be called properly formall heretiques pag. 41. In going to the Protestant Church there is no morall malignitie at all in so much that scarce the weakest man can invent how to sinne by any thing that is there done it being of its owne nature so indifferent and to a good intention good that à parte rei there is no appearance of evill therein pag. 48. I never yet could finde any idolatrie committed at Protestant Churches as often as I have frequented the same pag. 52. Protestants are not properly and in rigour formall heretiques If Protestants are not formall heretiques it followeth necessarily that they are no heretiques at all for forma dat nomen et esse If it be a false suggestion that Protestants are blasphemous heretiques hating God and his Church then the truth is they are neither blasphemous heretiques nor haters of God nor his Church but lovers of both If there be no idolatrie committed in Protestant Churches then God is there purely worshipped in spirit and truth If there bee no hurt done in Protestant Churches no danger of sinne nor so much as any appearance of evill then are all Papists iustly to be punished who refuse to come to our Church and they are guilty of grievous sinne in disobeying the commands of King and State and have no pretence at all for their recusancie Thus as Virgil when he read the obsolete writings of Ennius said he sought for aurum instercore so maist thou finde here gold in a dunghill I have washed away the filth by Animadversions inserted in convenient places make thou use of the gold to enrich thy knowledge and confirme thy assurance of the doctrine of the Gospel purely taught and sincerely professed in the Church of England Octob. 1. 1642. A TABLE OF THE SPECIALL CONTENTS LOcks that are scrued with letters are most troublesome to unlocke if we know not the particular letters by the setting whereof together the wards flye open such is the ensuing discourse consisting of very many heads doubling or trebling the Alphabet as appeare by the marginall notes yet without any summaary contents premised or directorie Titles serving in stead of signall letters to open the severall parts and Sections thereof It was thought therefore requisite to supply that defect in the Romish Authour by this table wherein the Reader may readily and easily finde those remarkable points which either are professedly handled or occasionally touched therein First in the Preface pag. 3. Secondly in the Treatise pag. 16. Sect. 1. pag. 26. Sect. 2. pag. 57. Sect. 3. pag. 82. Thirdly in the Appendix pag. 143. First in the Preface The originall of Recusancie in England pag. 6. The Rescripts of seven Popes in the case all erroneous pag 7. The determination of generall Councels of great authoritie yet not infallible pag. 12. Secondly in the Treatise The state of the question touching going to Church with men of a different religion explicated pag. 16. Naamans fact bowing in the temple of Rimmonâ—iscussed â—iscussed pag. 17. The words of the Prophet 2 Kings 5.19 goe in peace diversly expounded pag. 18. None may dissemble his Religion no not in feare of death pag. 21. The resâ—lution â—f the Sorbon Doctors in the case of Recusancie pag. 24. SECT 1. The definition of scandall pag. 26. Severall divisions of Scandall pag. 27. The distinction of veniall and mortall sinne refuted pag. 28. Evangelicall Councels as they call them are not distinct from precepts pag. 29. Povertie in it selfe is not scandalous pag. 31 Whether our Liturgie be any part of the Missall pag. 33. Prayers ought to be made in a knowne tongue pag. 34. What is meant by appearance of evill 1 Thess. 5.22 pag. 35. In what case the eating meates offered unto Idols is forbidden by the Apostle 1 Cor. 8. pag. 39. The definition of an heretique pag. 51. That the faith of Protestants is no way defective pag. 53. The Romish Clergie is grosly ignorant pag. 54 The Protestants manner of preaching in many respects to be preferred before the Romish pag. 55. SECT 2. Recusancie is no distinctive signe betweene a Papist and a Protestant pag. 57. The Protestants Sacrament is not a bare signe nor the holy Eucharist common bread pag. 60. The body and blood of Christ is truly given in the Sacrament pag. 61. The popish carnall manner of eating Christs flesh with the mouth is repugnant to faith reason and common sense pag. 62. The Apostle by the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 meaneth not the Agapae or Love-feasts pag. 64. A foule practise and high misdemeanour of Davenport alias à Sancta Clara in procuring a surreptitious Bull against Day the Franciscan pag. 75. SECT 3. That Papists attribute religious worship to images themselves pag. 85. That a man being questioned of his faith though before an incompetent Iudge is bound to answer the truth pag. 98. That we may not dissemble with dissemblers nor play the Fox with Foxes pag. 99. That Papists trust in their owne merits though some at their death have renounced them pag. 104. The Oath of Allegiance divided into eight branches and every branch justified by Papists themselves pag. 109. The Oath of Supremacie divided into foure branches pag. 114. In what sense Protestants teach the King to be Head of the Church pag. 115. Who are meant by forreiners in the Statute pag. 120. That no Papist can take the Oath of Supremacie but that he must renounce a fundamentall point of his Religion pag. 138. Thirdly in the Appendix 1. A forme of Recantation injoyned the Lollards in the 19. yeere of King Richard the second taken out of the Records in the Tower pag. 143. The Resolutions of the Fathers in the Councell of Trent pag. 145. The Oathes of Supremacie Enacted 35. Hen. 8. 1 Elizabeth pag. 148.150 A proviso for Expounding the Oath 5. Elizabeth pag. 151. The Admonition annexed to the Injunctions Elizabeth 1. pag. 152. The Conclusion of the Authour of the Animadversions to the Reader pag. 154. Errata sic corrige P. 7. in marg state r. flat p. 8. lin 11. p. 7. r. 12. p. 15. l. 9. Ignorattia r. ignorantia p. 22. l. 22. the r. they p. 28. l. 15. dele the p. 42. l. 17. rejoice r. rejoyne p. 54 l. 35. proposition r. praeposition p. 64. l. 14. Apollorum r. Apostolorum p. 76. l. 6. adde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 85. l. 12. sede r. sedè p. 97. marg l. 6. doth r. doe p. 99. l. 11. marg adeo r. adde l. 12. r. wizards p. 140. marg l. 6. d the appendix A SAFEGARD FROM SHIPWRACKE TO A PRVDENT CATHOLIKE Wherein is PROOVED THAT A Catholique may goe to the Protestant Church And Take both the Oathes of Allegiance
being sufficiently proposed at leastwise to most of them I much doubt For as Diana saith 5a. parte pag. 240. col 1a. A man speaking heresie that is a proposition condemned by the Church without an hereticall consent is no heretique neither in curreth excommunication denounced against heretiques so that although they be incredulous and beleeve not the truth yet they are not properly and in rigor formall heritiques Adde that there is no more sin to goe to the Protestant Church then to goe to them to dinner or to goe with them to a play or other sports And I for my part had rather give twelue pence to heare a Sermon then take five shillings to see a play For there is no such sport as to heare a weake fellow speake fustian with gravitie or tell a fable of the whore of Babylon or Babylonians for so now they terme Catholiques with erected eyes in earnest Or why should it be more lawfull to see a play where most commonly intercedes scurrilitie and obscene gestures and the end of which is nothing but vanitie then to heare a Sermon where perhaps in some places or by some simple men their may be some untruth told of the Pope to please their Auditory although most commonly nothing but moralitie which is the end and intention of the same I pray resolve me § 2. It is not unlawfull to goe to Church because Recusancie is a distinctive signe Which is the second branch of the Minor THat Recusancy is a distinctive sign of a Catholique from a Protestant is most false Which is thus proved If Recusancie be a distinctive signe it is a signe naturall or by institution but neither can be said Ergo it is no signe The Minor is proved Not naturall for as Hurtado above cited well observeth Actions and things are not of their own nature significant but have naturall and politicall uses independent of any signification For a bush hung out at a Taverne doore doth naturally signifie no more wine to be sold then any other creature whatsoever Nor doth the habit of a Bishop naturally signifie a Bishop more then a Judge and so of other things No more doe naturally the actions of men But admit that Recusancy were improperly said a naturall signe yet it would naturally signifie no more a Catholique then a Brownist for he refuseth likewise to goe to Church or any other Sectary Although a posteriori it might be thought by discourse to signifie some one displeased with the Protestant Church but why or wherefore it would never signifie Not by institution for if so who instituted the same God or man Not man for it is out of his power to signe the people of God from not his people It is only the owner of the flocke that must signe the sheepe and none other unlesse it be by speciall order from him Hence when God would signe his people in the old Testament from the people of other Nations he himselfe instituted Circumcision Gen 17. as a distinctive signe betweene them and others that whosoever had that signe should be of his people and who so had it not was to be rejected Neither was it sufficient that any man had accidentally and by the institution of Abraham any other signe by which he might be knowne from others because he was not thought sufficiently marked nor accounted any one of Gods people by any other sign then Circumcision Which was the sole marke of God saying All the male kinde of you shall be Circumcised And this is consonant to reason For one man may get a distinctive signe of another mans institution shall God therefore own him Brownists as I have said have Recusancie doth it therefore follow that they are likewise Catholiques If a sheepe in my neighbours flocke should teare an eare in a bramble or bush or accidentally breake an horne this sheepe is hereby distinct from the rest yet the owner doth not own it by that marke but by a marke of his own institution and ruddle So it is in the present That God did not institute the same it is so evident that it needs no proofe For where may we finde his institution Vnlesse we should run to the all-knowing spirit of hereticks Hence it follows that Recusancie is no distinctive signe If you aske me what is then the signe to know a Catholique from any other Sectary I answer His beleefe of the Creed of the Catholique Church and his lâ—fe at all times in communion with the See Apostolique So Stratford lib. 2. de Eccles. cap. 6. pag. 188. It may be here objected first the common opinion of Divines as the said R. P. saith 2a. 2ae q. 3. To use a distinctive signe of a false religion that properly is such is a deniall of faith and evill in it selfe But the Service said in a Protestant Church is such Ergo. I grant the Major For if the signe be proper of a people rejected of God as since the promulgation of the Gospel Circumcision is to a Jew the Major must needs be true But if the signe be garments or the like used to the worship and ceremonies of a false law which some fondly call a proper signe then the Major meaning the use of such a signe to be a denyall of faith is false according to Diana resol 34. pag. 191. above cited Azorius Sanches and many others there Because such signes being naturall things may be lawfully used as I have said before independent of any such signification and so not properly signes whatsoever R. P. saith to the contrary upon his own bare word The Minor proposition I deny For who instituted that service to be such a signe not God as all Catholiques will confesse but rather the contrary it being Catholique Not themselves for it would savor too much weakenesse to thinke that they would institute to themselves a signe of a false religion And if it be taken for a signe naturally although improperly signifying then I say of its own nature it signifies no more a false Religion in a Protestant then a pious ceremony in a Catholique For Catholiques say the same service Catholiques preach moralitie and each may if hee please receive bread and wine once in a day in a weeke or a moneth in remembrance that Christ dyed for him and this shall be better done then to eate bread and wine without such remembrance For receiving bread and wine See that deduced out of Azorius tom 1. lib. 8. instit moral c. 11. Navar. consil 15. de haeret num 2. Which were but to renew in an urgent point of necessitie the old custome in the Apostles time as appears by the Corinthian Christians in Saint Paul 1 Cor. 11. who did eate and drinke in the Church besides what they received of Christs institution as his true and reall body and blood For after the Sacrifice and Eucharist was ended there were kept Church feasts for the reliefe of the poore upon
of the common wealth which is the chiefe thing that States men aime at mens consciences being left to themselves they may be obeyed as I hâ—ve said out of Azorius tom 1o. lib. 8. instit moral cap. 27. puncto 5o. And for as much as concerned the abrogation of Masse which by the law of God was unlawfull they did consequenter to the State government then for having rejected the authoritie â—f the Pope they likewise rejected the Masse as knowing that there could be no Masse without Priests nor Priests without the Pope And therefore taking as much of the Masse as would serve for their Service and to be independent of the Pope they left the rest But that they did it in hatred of God and his Church or for any distinction sake it is altogether improbable For what would a man get by hating of God or the Church of which himselfe must be a member to be saved or how could they make a distinction of that they knew not for the Protestant Church was not then knowne or scarce established And therefore without wholly granting the Major or distinguishing the Minor I answer that every one ought under paine of damnation to obey his temporall Prince in matters lawfull Yet to suffer for his religion and abstracting from all obedience either to Statute or Rescâ—ipt not for Recusancie It may be objected thirdly that of S. Paul to the Romans 10.10 With the heart we beleeve unto justice but wâ—th the mouth confession is made to salvation Ergo No man can goe to Church I deny the sequele and to the Antecedent I answer that according to Divines a man is bound to confesse his religion Semper sed non ad semper alwaies but not at all waies that is not at all times and in all places but as I have said before out of Saint Thomas of Aquin in the said two cases viz. as often as the honour and glory of God requires the same or the spirituall profit of our neighbour shall exact it as likely to be impaired by silence which to be requisite I have before granted Yet hence it doth not follow that I am bound to goe into the Market place and cry out I am a Catholike who will punish me or before I am called to publish my religion to make my selfe be called or to live and converse to the same time as having a setled being and not going to Church I read that Saint Faelix going to martyrdome S. Adaucâ—us came to the Officers that led him thither and said to them that he lived in the same law with Saint Faelix and therefore that they should likewise put him to death Yet I conceive that he had a speciall revelation for the same and that it is no warrant for our indiscretion If it be replyed that so a man shall professe no religion I answer the inference to be naught for suppose a mans recusancie were never discovered this man professeth some religion for he doth not live a heathen Why then recusancie being rejected should he not professe the same If it be said that it is written that no man can serve two masters rightly Yet a man may serve one Master and have a servant to serve him or he may serve one master and keepe or use that Masters picture howsoever ill it be drawne It may be objected fourthly that the Rescript of Pope Paul the fifth in which he writes to the Catholiques of England declareth that they ought not to goe to the Churches of Heretiques or heare their Sermons without detriment of the divine worship and their owne salvation To which I answer that the said Pope wrote both piously fatherly and Apostolically according to the aforesaid suggestions by him received and if he had had the truth of the state of England I beleeve he would have written as piously the contrary For put the case that those zealous suggestors had presented to the consideration of the Councel of Trent or the Pope himselfe the truth and lawfulnesse of Catholiques going to Church with these seven reasons following supposing an absolute necessitie 1. First that there is no evill or harme done or said in the Protestant Churches to the prejudice of any Catholike soule that may not either be hindred or prevented very well by the instruction of Priests for they preach not against any notable point of doctrine held in the Catholique Church although some simple Minister for want of matter may glance at some of our tenets by halfes understood or in these daies to please his auditorie may raile against the Pope which he doth so irrationally that few Protestants of any judgement do beleeve him for if he should seriously preach controversies as insisting seriously upon the true doctrine of both sides his Auditors or at lest some of them would be apt to doubt and so to search and dive further into the truth for as Saint Augustine saith doubt begets science which might be an occasion of somes falling from him which fearing he is silent in doctrine and onely teacheth moralitie which why a man may not heare in urgent extremity from any man I cannot conceive 2. Secondly that their going to Church would be a conservation and a preservation of their lands and goods with a prevention of ruine to the family and posterity 3. That it would be a means to obtaine and purchase the love of their neighbours and a meanes of their conversion by an affable conversation by which likewise they might beare the greatest Offices in the common wealth and become Parliament men as well as others of whom and whose power and force in matters of Religion these dayes can somewhat declare 4. Fourthly that it would be a meanes that whereas Priests leave their Colledges and now live in private mens houses to the benefit of one or two and to the great danger of themselves and their Patrons they might by this meanes more freely converse with all sorts of people after an Apostolicall manner and convert many to the honour of God the increase of his Church and good of their owne soules Whereas now they doe little good out of that private house unlesse maintaine some decayed gentlewomen in good clothes to gossip up and downe and like bels to ring their praises that they may fish one in a yeere to the disparagement of their function and great prejudice of their Mission 5. Fifthly that divers Schismaticks that now goe to Church with an ill conscience and thinke themselves in state of damnation doe suffer spirituall detriment and oftentimes being prevented with sudden death everlastingly perish 6. Sixthly many thousands that are very morall and well affected Protestants were it not for the stop of Recusancie would become Catholiques Which rather then they will undoe themselves and Family now will not heare of it 7. Seventhly that no poore Catholique that is not able to give twenty pound per annum with their children to some Colledge beyond the Seas can bring
them up either in science or any other art or trade by reason of Recusancie and this to the ruine of all poore people many having a very great charge and small revenues and part of that likewise taken away for Recusancie Againe if the aforesaid suggestions had presented to their consideration the meanes and wayes of Conversions of kingdomes in generall as that they ought to be done either by miracles warre or policie And have reasoned that for miracles they were not to be expected for that those God ordinariâ—y granted but to Infidels and where by secondary causes they were not probably fezible that by warre they could not be done without a great deale of blood-shed which ought to be avoyded and most commonly with a great deale of rebellion and treachery which were utterly unlawfull And that they were fezible in policie by civilly conversing intermingling and insinuating themselves by degrees into the conversation of all sorts of people So that in time a good effect might have been wrought would not this discourse have been more consonant to truth and charitie and lesse displeasing or odious to our State of England then to suggest that they are Idolatrous hereticks blasphemers of God and his Church professours as indeed they are not because they know the true and sincere professe it of a false religion subverters of souls but poore ones God wote abominable scandalous people c. and that it was a scandal for good people to converse with them in things indifferent and therfore desire that it might be declared unlawfull coÌ„manded that no Catholike might converse w th them as in Christian libertie otherwise he might lawfully do thereby to introduce for their own ends our now goodly distinctive sign of recusancie I appeale to any wise mans judgement And whether the aforesaid rescript and other briefs were not gotten by meere suggestion the case being truly set down by me as it is I appeale likewise to the Pope himselfe who to mine owne knowledge hath been likewise lately notably abused in the like manner Ann. 1639. one Francis Damport alias a Sancta Clara. being at London and having written a booke called Deus Natura Gratia which being disliked by one Day a Franciscan and through the same dislike at Rome being there called into the Inquisition was so much displeased both with his Holinesse and the said Day that he publiquely â—eered the Pope saying that whereas before he thought him infallible which he never thought to my knowledge now he saw that he was fallible as other men were And indeavouring revenge against the said Day substituted a most ignorant and lewd man one George Perrott his ordinary Broker in seditious matters to goe with the sâ—id a Sancta Clara his instructions to Signior Gregory Pauzana then the Popes Agent in London accusing the said Day with much zealous hypocrisie that he had put forth certaine pictures to the hurt of Gods Church and infinite scandall of Protestants After went a Sancta Clara cum tanta gravitate seconding with an abominable deale of zeale and authoritie having then got himself to be Provinciall the complaint of the said Perrot Hereupon the said Signior with the said a Sancta Clara's sollicitor Luke Wadding an Irishman in Rome complaines to the Pope and obtaines upon the former mens suggestions a terrible Bull against the said Day being never cited to answer admonished or knowing any thing thereof The Bull being come to the said a Sancta Clara his lodging in Fleetstreet and safe in his deske he did me the honour to shew me the same Which I read and asking the said a Sacta Clara why he procured it he told me for the said Day his putting forth of the said pictures who likewise said that the said Day knew nothing of the same and therefore desired me to be silent At which I was much astonished and knowing very certainly the ground of the whole businesse to be false and therefore that both the said Day the Popes Agent and the Pope himselfe were most horribly abused I thought that if the said a Sancta Clara were permitted in this manner to abuse men the best men living might be censured excommunicated degraded and what not without ever being heard Which is no practise among Heathens As for the setting forth of the said pictures the matter in them contained as being from my purpose I omit Yet thus much will I speake that it was a thing approved of through the whole Catholique Church the said pictures themselves liked yea desired of the said Day his superiours who to this day doe acknowledge their approbation of the same countenanced by the said a Sancta Clara Perrott and all others ever after they were put forth for the space of above ten yeers before to mine own knowledge A booke at the same time of a Sancta Clara his complaint printed at Doway in defence of the same never proved by oath that any of the said pictures ever came to the hands of any one Protestant Neither doe I thinke that any one Protestant unlesse it might be such as a Sancta Clara had suborned for his own revenge to speake against the same ever saw any of them and therefore there could be no indiscretion or scandall by them proved Nay the said pictures being made for some particular friends devotion not so much as one Catholique to an hundred had or knew of them but contrariwise some that had them from the said Perrott were scandalized through weaknesse by the said a Sancta Clara his questioning of them in this manner as though that should be set forth for their devotion that in it selfe was false Yet notwithstanding all this the malicious suggestions of the said a Sancta Clara against this mans doings did so farre prevaile that Dayes innocency was thought worthy to be condemned by the said Bull for doing a pious and a religious act This indeed I must say that the said a Sancta Clara when he had him at his mercy through the remorse and sting of his own conscience durst not promulgate the said Bull but kept it dead in his deske for feare that those who otherwise honour the Popes Bulls honestly and lawfully gotten would have called him to the Kings Bench Barre for bringing in of this And had he not taken the benefit of the Proclamation of banishment notwithstanding his ambitious and seditious wit he would have been not only questioned for this Bull but likewise for other matters of a farre fouler nature which made it high time for him to run Let any man now judge whether the Popes Holinesse doth not suffer much by hypocriticall suggestions whether he that so notoriously abused him in words did not likewise doe it in deeds For about the same time when the said Bull came over his said booke likewise came out of the Inquisition at which newes the said a Sancta Clara again grudging that his said book should be so questioned and yet passe although by
if the latter then that which moved them to become Catholiques cannot move them to be Protestants againe If the first it were a wonderfull thing that hearing a little moralitie should make them fall from the doctrine they were brought up in all their life or hearing a small piece of controversie mentioned if it should so happen by a Minister they should be presently carried away from the doctrine they have so long knowne and never once tell it to the priests they daily converse with especially when they goe not out of any dislike of their religion but with a cleare conscience for some other ends I conceive it would rather confirme them in hearing that spoken which in their owne conscience they know to be untrue that it will be so farre from troubling or striking their consciences that they will come home rejoycing at the truth which they heard that day impugned as that they heard the Minister speake of such or such a point as that Catholiques adored pâ—ctures or the like which they knew in their owne conâ—sciences to be false and thereby stirre up an earnestnesse in them in religion as zealing their owne being opposed by falshood and this may ingender such passion or distraction in the hearer that it may be thought zeale of religion or heate of devotion Which heate if after this fight of contrarieties or opposition should not be allayed the parties being as it were swallowed up with zeale of the house of our Lord and the dislike of the Sermon as fraught with untruths seeme too troublesome they may depart the Church for there be many cases of necessitie to make a man go out of the Church and as many likewise to make him come short of the same as to Service if it stand if not there is the lesse to be done and it shall never trouble me Sermon or both for as there are many waies to the wood so there are many waies to the Protestant Church And I have alwaies observed that most commonly Catholiques converted from Protestancie have been more firme and solid in religion as knowing both then those that never knew but one And if Schismaticks of whom I have before spoken from the wisest to the meanest of capacity that notwithstanding they goe to Church and are voyd of grace are never so much as shaken from their intention of being Catholiques or their opinion of Catholique religion why should those that abound so much with Gods grace and professed Catholiques be said to be in danger or feared to swerve from a religion they so well know As for blasphemie there is likewise none If you reply as the contrary opinion useth to doe out of Saint Thomas 2a. 2ae q. 13. art 1. and 2. that Protestants out of a set intent and purpose ascribe their heresies to Gods revelation and denie his revelations to Orthodox articles of faith in which consists blasphemy and without this blasphemy they cannot preach and therefore no Catholique can goe to Church I answer the antecedent to be false and this blasphemie to be much like the Rhemists Idolatry as preferring and embracing their owne opinions before God and so honouring a creature and rejecting their Creator but in truth and charitie we ought not to make them worse then they are for blasphemie and Idolatrie being sinnes there must be some formall intention in the sinner to deny God his due in what he doth And so likewise there must be an intention of committing Idolatry that is of preferring and embracing that which is a morally knowne creature before the Creator and so to give the creature what is due to the Creator or otherwise there can be neither blasphemie nor Idolatry As no man will say that I eating flesh on a fasting day unknowne or forgotten commit Idolatry in preferring my belly before the law of Gods Church and consequently God because I had no intention thereto so no man can say that in the Protestant Church there is formall Idolatry or blasphemy because they mistake For Diana saith 5a. parte tract de par mamae resol pag. 138. that blasphemy is a sinne in that contumelious words are spoken against God with a minde or intention to dishonour God either directly or indirectly virtually or interpretative Now in the Protestant Churches what contumelious words are spoken against God with a minde c If you say as before that they ascribe their heresies to Gods revelation and deny his revelation to Orthodoxe Articles I answer thâ—t their minds and intentions are not so much as interpretativè to dishonour God thereby or indeed so to ascribe their heresies For if they knew their opinions to be heresies and the tenents they reject to be Orthodoxe Articles as we do by the light of faith it would evidently follow that they spake sometimes contumeliously against God which they doe not know but simply interpret Scripture according to their owne fancies and therein they erre and mistake And because they doe not endeavour the meanes to search and know the truth by the definitions of Councels and Doctrine of Catholique Fathers they sinne yet doe not commit Idolatrie for it is not their intention to make an Idol of their opinion unlesse you take Idolatry so largely as every sinner may be said to be an Idolater because in every sinne there is an aversion from God and a conversion to the creature and consequently in this sense all sinners are Idolaters And if it be unlawfull to converse with these Idolaters or the like blasphemers that is such as sinne by word or deed we must converse onely in spatio imaginario or as Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 5. vers 10. We must goe out of this world There were divers very learned and holy Fathers as Saint Cyprian in the question of Baptisme administred by hereticks St. Anselme and others who did mistake and erre before they knew the sense and definition of the Church whom therefore to call blasphemers or Idolaters were blasphemie indeed So likewise there are divers points this day controverted among Catholique Divines as the immaculate conception of our blessed Lady and the like the Authours of which to count blasphemers before they knew the sense of the Church were more then peevish Neither are they to be so accounted after the sense of the Church is knowne for the time they held their opinions before So it is with Protestants for although the Orthodoxe Articles are knowne to us by the Church yet to them they are unknowne and to most of them so unknowne as if they had not been revealed at all because they know none other Church but their owne And therefore what they beleeve they have by errour and mistake and not as blasphemy Whence in my opinion it were more proper and Apostolicall for such men as call them blasphemers and Idolaters to use some prudent and faire way to propose to the aforesaid Protestants the true Church and the authoritie of the same without all suspition of
partialitie and then they should see whether having this meane of beliefe in a balanced judgement they would attribute their heresies to Gods revelation and deny his revelation to Orthodoxe Articles or no. To the authoritie of St. Thomas I answer that he meaneth such as attribute heresies quatenus tales to Gods revelation and deny his revelation to Orthodox Articles quâ tales as Arch-hereticks did in this reduplicative sense to be blasphemers But not such as take Scripture for the revealed word of God and misunderstand the same in a specificative sense through their own ignorance or infirmitie to be blasphemers Neither did St. Thomas or any other temperate and solid Divine ever inteâ—d to say It may be here first objected that Catholiques in the beginning of Queene Elizabeths Raigne went to Church and so did likewise the Catholiques in Scotland and they were all in a short time subverted Ergo there is danger of subversion in going to Church I deny the later part of the antecedent and say that while the plot of Recusancie was working there was a command got upon the former suggestions that no Catholiques should goe to the Protestant Church So by barring them of their Christian libertie by degrees to bring in Recusancie as a pretended signe betweene a good Christian and a bad Which some few Catholiques then beleeving themselves bound to obey as indeed they were not but might as well withall reverence and obedience have beseeched the Pope to have recalled his command refused the Church Others and those the most part of the kingdome as appeares by the afore Author of the Answer to the Libell of Justice cap. 8. pag. 172. 182. fearing the penalties of the said Statutes did not refuse but continued to goe to Church who being neglected by Priests being but a few then in England and those of most power being for the said recusancy as having no spirituall comfort or instructions in what sense they might truely and lawfully doe what they did to avoyd the said penalties of the Law and likewise thinking that those Priests thought them to doe ill in what themselves found no hurt they dyed as they lived But whether in Protestant tenents or Catholique or whether they would not have dyed Catholiques if they had had helpe especially such as lived before in Queene Maries time I present to any wise and pious mans judgement truly considering the state of those times And afterwards their children being still neglected upon this point of Recusancy and living in ignorance ingendred the Protestant Reâ—igion now on foot So that the cause of their falling was not their subversion as may be proved by witnesses yet alive but over indiscreet zeale in Priests the chiefest heads of whom ayming as is evident at a temporall end neglecting and rejecting such as would not obey their unreasonable command and in the same manner it hapneth with Catholiques that now goe to Church in these dangerous times Who going to Church only to save themselves from ruine and being rejected as judged to be fallen from the true faith by ignorant Priests and therefore not looked after with any Christian instructions or admonitions faine themselves Protestants rather then they will bee thought to live against their conscience Whence I may truely say and prove by the Authour last before cited who confesseth that in the thirteenth yeere of Queen Elizabeths reigne the third part of this Kingdome at least was Catholique that since the fall of Religion in England by this onely Cheate of recusancie tenne soules have beene lost for one gained which is both lamentable and damnable to those that were the first Authors of the same As for the Scots their fall was neither subversion or Recusancie which was never generally admitted because not covertly procured by the Clergie of that Kingdome but want of Priests to administer the Sacraments and give them other spirituall comfort who seeing the soyle not so fertile as ours and the lawes more severe those few that were rather chose to converse on the Northern borders of England then in their owne Countrey And Catholiques there seeing themselves destitute of all spirituall comfort went to Church to save their inferiour portion from ruine who if they had had but plenty or sufficiencie of priests to have instructed them I doubt not but they would have still remained Catholiques And it had been farre more easie so to have conserved them then fallen now to convert them And thus came the bane of Catholique religion into both Kingdomes which are like so to continue remedilesse unlesse they be assisted by Gods infinite and miraculous power It may be objected secondly that divers Popes as Paul the fourth Pius the fifth both the last Gregories Sixtus Clement and Paul the fifth granted to priests their faculties with an intention that they should administer the Sacraments to onely such as abstained from Protestant Churches I answer that it is so said by R. P. but whether it be so in truth or no I know not peradventure such faculties might be granted to such as received them from the aforesaid suggestors hands and to none others Neither did I ever see any faculties as yet so limited nor I hope ever shall For although the aforesaid Popes might be inclined to the said suggestors tribe so admit of their suggestions thinking them to proceed from zeale and not from hypocrisie who likewise thought their pretenses holy and what a Christian like thing it was to suffer persecution for Gods sake and what a number of Martyrs were made in England sanguinem martyrum esse semen Ecclesiae that the blood of the Martyrs was the seed of the Church Further what an abominable people Protestants were Idolaters blasphemous heretiques subversive of soules and many other the like exaggerating speeches upon which any Pope living unlesse he had foreknowne their drift would have done the like Whereas certainly had they but made known the true State of England in those dayes and sought the good of souls and not themselves in truth they ought to have done the said Popes would never have done as they did to us more then to the Scots Hollanders Germans and other nations by subjecting us and all posteritie by this device of Recusancie to all misery and slavery Neither hath his Holinesse that now is ever declared any such thing for I perceive that he better knowing by experience the said suggestors tribe and their plots with their moth-like dealings in most Kingdomes will be advised hence forward how he granteth any more Rescripts or limiteth any faculties upon their importune suggestions As for our Martyrs of England I hope them truely Martyrs because they died not so much for recusancie as for Religion and a good conscience although that might be a meanes to bring them to their death sooner then otherwise Yet I dare not call all of them Saints untill the holy Church doth bid me as having approved of their miracles but most of them I
admit the King chiefe governour of the same Neither can the Pope be any way supreame governour of the aforesaid Church because he professeth himself only supreame head and governour of the Catholique Church and of no other according to Saint Paul 1 Cor. 5.12 what is it to him to judge of them that are without of which Catholique Church His Majestie dâ—th not claime to be head Neither will he be governour of any spirituall or ecclesiasticall thing therein as conceiving the same both superstitious and idolatrous Ergo. the King must be supreame governour of the Protestant Church That the King is only Governour is proved because none other can be assigned his equall in preheminencie of government in the aforesaid Protestant Church For the second or third branch it is likewise proved For I sweare them likewise discreetly truly and justly viz. that no forrein Prince Person Prelate c. hath or ought to have any jurisdiction c. within this Realme in the said Protestant Church which I adde as before because according to the intention of the Law and Law-maker as I have before said it was so meant For neither doth His Majestie or did Queene Elizabeth claime to be chiefe Governour of the Catholique Religion or Romane Church or any jurisdiction therein It being by them both as I have often said abhorred as superstitious and abolished for the same reason by the said Queene and State of England therefore it is against reason and a kinde of pettie treason to sweare either of them governour of a Religion which they apprehend so evill but in respect of the Protestant Church established the Pope is a forrein Person and Prelate and his jurisdiction forrein Neither hath he or any other forrein Person any jurisdiction in the aforesaid Church or ought to have for as I have said in the fourth note out of Saint Paul as all those that are of the Catholique faith are domesticks of that faith and all that are not of the same faith are forreiners to it so all that are of the Protestant faith of which His Majestie is governour are domesticks of the same and all that are not of the same are forreiners to that Religion Hence appeares the truth of the said branches wherein is said in the second That no forrein Prince c. and in the third I doe utterly renounce and forsake all forrein jurisdictions c. which I doe justly and lawfully renounce as well in respect of the Protestant Church as of the Catholique for as I have said the Pope is truly a forreiner to the Protestant Church in respect of which I must by the law renounce his jurisdiction And he is no forreiner in respect of the Catholique Church in which I am bound to respect him and his jurisdiction for if all Catholiques be domesticks one to â—he other as I have proved out of Saint Paul how can the Pope who is chief of that faith be said to be a forreiner his jurisdiction being as internall and intrinsecall as innate and naturall to every Catholique in the world as it is to him that stands next him in his chamber at Rome And therefore there being no forrein jurisdiction in the Catholique Church in every sence I may lawfully renounce all forrein jurisdictions The fourth and last branch can have no difficultie at all with any Catholique So that the words of this Oath seeme to me so cleere and lawfull since the establishment of the Protestant Church that it may be taken of any Catholique without any the least danger of Perjurie or any other sinne scandall being avoyded or without mentall reservation or secret equivocation that I admire that any man hath so long scrupulized to the losse of himselfe and fortunes when as being necessitated to take the same and scandall being easily to be avoyded as I have said out of Diana and others he might have prevented his owne ruine with a safe conscience as I conceive Sir Iohn Winter and other men of estates did who are reported to have lately taken the same It may be objected first that this Oath thus explicated hath no coherencie the first branch with the second and third and therefore that it be coherent and taken conformably to the intention of the law-maker as we sweare the King to be onely Supreame Governour of the Church of England in the first branch so ought we in the second and third branch to renounce all Jurisdiction forreign to the same To which I answer first that coherencie is no condition requisite to an oath but impertinent to the truth or falshood of the same for there be many things of a different nature inserted in an oath Secondly that there is a most perfect coherencie in the aforesaid explication for as in the first branch I sweare the King Head of the Church of England so in the second and third I abjure all forreigne Jurisdictions whatsoever Which are the very direct words of the oath for there are no words in any branch signifying a renunciation of all Jurisdiction forreigne to the Protestant Church of England Whence there is a great difference between renouncing all Jurisdiction forreigne to the particular Church of England and renouncing all forren Jurisdiction For a forren Jurisdiction renounced is rightly described A power or right denied to be extent to the swearer by any law and is more generall then a Jurisdiction forreign to the Protestant Church which is onely a power not extent to a Protestant quâ talis which although it be forren to the said Church yet it may be properly extent and appertaining to the swearer So that it is intended by the said oath that as in the first branch we sweare the King onely Supreame Governor of the Protestant Church within this Realme and his Dominions so in the second and third we are to renounce all forren Jurisdictions whatsoever which either the Pope or any other forren Person hath or ought to have in the same which every Catholique may lawfully do notwithstanding that generall saying That the Pope hath Iurisdiction over all Christians for that is meant a generall Jurisdiction in the Catholique Church either actuall or potentiall extent to all which is forren to none and which by taking this oath is not denyed I answer thirdly that all penall lawes as is this law for taking the oath in doubtfull words are ever to be taken in the more favourable sense and which makes the law to containe no falshood or injustice And therefore in this law to sweare as the words lye may be done without any injâ—stice or falshood which is and ought to be presumed to be the minde of the lawmaker for no law or lawmaker intends perjurie And therefore it is a frivolous thing to invent scrupulous crotchets which the words doe not import It may be objected secondly that the oath must be interpreted according to the intention of the law and lawmaker for as Suares saith lib.
per vâ—scera misericordiae charitatem quam Christus à suis omnibus exigit ut eam paluâ— dilucide quam primùm expediatis qua multi in hoâ— regno implicatâ— torquentur Quod haec charta complectitur nullius nomine singulariter praefertur quia non ad unum aliquem pertinet quod hic petitur sed ad omnes fere nobiles quos Anglia habet Catholicos quibus jam multis modis pericula intentantur Iis universis in tua illustrissima Dominatione magna spes auxilii effulget si eadem vel Dei vel nobilitatis respectu agere dignabitur cum amicis quos in concilio habet Tridentino ut huic questioni quae totius nobilitatis nomine his adjuncta est responsum maturum Deliberatum accommodetur huc commoda tuae D. opera perferatur In quo haud dubie acquiessent perturbatae nunc conscientiae si ex tetam sancto nobili patre certiores fieri possint quid patres hac de re iudicent Quanquam fortasse tutum non fuerit hanc questionem publice in concilio proponi ne res divulgata nostrorum protestantium animos exacerbet aliquibus periculum acceleret nisi tuae prudentiae aliter videatur ideo tua prudentia consultius fecerit si ita cum selectis quibusdam hanc causam egerit ut quod ipsi in hac causa piissimi doctissimi theologi consulti significaverint id proinde valeat ac si universi patres sententias dixissent Caeterum hoc totum tuae Do judicio arbitrio relinquendi satius sit ut ipsa quod magis in rem esse prospiciat â—d libere agat Qui in Anglia â—unc sunt theologi partim metuunt partim varie respondent ideo plane omnibus satisfaciet quod te procurante ex Tridenâ—â—no huc respondebitur Pro quo vestro tam firme christiano vere religioso animo non possumuâ— non Deo opt max. agere gratias nobis magnopere gratulari Etsi enim calamitatum vestrarum sensus cunctos vehementer tangat cruciet ut Christiana charitas hortatur quae tam arcto necessitudinis vinculo omnes devinctos constrictos tenet ut mutuo afficiat membra atque fratrum commoda incommoda non aliena sed propria ducat in illo tamen non est minima consolatio quod calamitosis hisce temporibus in eo potissimum regno in quo fides religiosorum miserè jacet cernimus nullo iniuriarum concursu aut metus vi charitatis vestrae ardorem extinguâ— aut fidem convelli aut constantiam labefactari quinimò vos esse qui in tanta rerum omnium confusione ac molestiarum turbulentissimá tempestate nunquam curvaveritis genua ante Baal non sine magna Divini nominis Christianaeque disciplinae gloria Ne igitur vestris constans animus qui nullis coÌ„modis ad impietatem torqueri flective unquam potuit fallacibus rationibus ad vestram perniciem comparatis aut Divinae legis ignoratione pietatisve simulatione deciperetur minueretur quod sustinemus dignum Christiani hominis officio debitum existimavimus vestris piissimis optatis morem gerere causamque vestram examinandam accuratè diligenter maturèque commissimus gravissimis quibusdam patribus ac reverendissimis Dominis Archiepiscopo Bracharensi Archiepiscopo Lanciâ—nensi Episcopo Dombriscensi Episcopo Lerenensi reverendo patri Iacobo Laineâ— generali societatis Iesu simulque spectatissimis quibusdam Doctoribus Alphonso Salmeroni Fratri Petro de Soto quem arbitramur vobis facie nomine notissimum D. Georgio de Fr. Francisco Fercensi Doct. Melchiori Cornelio Iacobo Paiva de Andrada item Doctori quorum omnium religio pietas eruditio certissimis testimoniis explorata est Quorum sententias nostro etiam judicio comprobatas non dubitamus quin sententiae totius concilii instar sitis merito habituri Hâ—i igitur patres ac Theologi quibus haec provincia data est cum sâ—pe convenissent atque diligenter circumspectè divina oracula sanctorum patrum sententias instituta deliberando evolvissent communibus suffragiis concluserunt minime vobis sine magno scelere divinaque indignatione licere hujusmodi hereticorum precibus illorumve concionâ—bus inâ—eresse ac longe multum praestare quaevis atrocissima perpeti quam in profligatissimis sceleratissimisque ritâ—bus quovis signo illis consentire c. The Oath of Supremacie Enacted 35. Henrici octavi I A. B. Having now the vaile of darknesse of the usurped power authoritie and jurisdiction of the See and Bishops of Rome clearely taken away from mine eyes doe utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that neither the See nor the Bishop of Rome nor any forrein Potentate hath nor ought to have any jurisdiction power or authoritie within this Realme nether by Gods law nor by any other just law or means And though by sufferance and abuse in times passed they aforesaid have usurped and vendicated a fained and unlawfull power and jurisdiction within this Realme which hath been supported till few yeeres passed therefore because it might be deemed and thought thereby that I tooke or take it for just and good I therefore now doe clearely and franckly renounce refuse relinquish and forsake that pretended authoritie power and jurisdiction both of the See and Bishop of Rome and of all other forrein powers And that I shall never consent and agree that the foresaid See or Bishop of Rome or any of their successours shall practise exercise or have any manner of authoritie jurisdiction or power within this Realme or any other the Kings Realmes or Dominions nor any forrein Potentate of what estate degree or condition soever he be but that I shall resist the same at all times to the uttermost of my power And that I shall beare faith truth and true Allegiance to the Kings Majestie and to his heires and successours declared or hereafter to be declared by the authoritie of the Act made in the Session of the Parliament holden at Westminster the fourteenth day of Ianuary in the five and thirtieth yeere and in the said Act made in the eight and twentieth yeere of the Kings Majesties reigne And that I shall accept repute and take the Kings Majestie his heires and successours when they or any of them shall enjoy his place to be the only supreame Head in earth under God of the Church of England and Ireland and of all other His Highnesses Dominions And that with my body cunning wit and uttermost of my power without guile fraud or other undue means I shall observe keepe maintaine and defend all the Kings Majesties styles titles and rights with the whole effects and contents of the Acts provided for the same and all other Acts and Statutes made or to be made within this Realme in and for that purpose and the derogation extirpation and extinguishment of the usurped and pretended authoritie power and jurisdiction of the See and Bishop of Rome and all
in refut 32. artic Luth. Gersons words are with whom Almaine accords peccatuÌ„ mortale et veniale in esse tali non distinguuntur intrinsecè et essentialiter sed solum per respectum ad divinam gratiam quae peccatum istud imputat mortall and veniall sinnes are not distinguished in their intrinsicall essence but onely with a relation to the divine grace which imputes the sinne c. Roffenfis speaketh to the same purpose peccatum veniale solum ex Dei misericordia veniale est veniall sinne is onely veniall by the meere mercy of God not therefore in its owne nature s He meaneth by counsels according to the doctrine of his Romish Church such supposed good workes as are not commanded of God by the performance whereof yet they beleeve that they cannot onely merit at Gods hands but supererogate An assertion as farre from Theologicall truth as Christian modestie For first the law of God is perfect Psal. 19.7 and consequently commandeth all good and forbiddeth all evill else were it not a perfect but a scantive and defective rule of good Secondly though there may be many good workes which the law of God commandeth not to all persons at all times and in all places in every manner and measure yet neither is there any good worke nor can be which is not comprised within that great and large Commandement of loving the Lord with all our heart and all our soule and all our might Deut. 6.5 Matth. 22.37 Luk. 10.27 For it implyes a contradiction to say that we can love God more then with all our might and strength and we see that all is required by this commandement Thirdly the aspiring to perfection it selfe so farre as it is attainable by us in this life falleth under the expresse commandement of our Saviour Matth. 5.48 Be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect How can there be any counsels of perfection over and above the law when the law of Christ requireth perfection it selfe What good worke is there or can there be tending to Christian perfection which Saint Pauls Whatsoever carrieth not Phil. 4.8 Finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsosoever things are iust whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise thinke on these things Fourthly dato et non concesso admitting for arguments sake that in some one particular or other that a man might do more then God commands yet in other things the best man that is comes short of the law For in many things we offend all Iames 4.2 and even such a righteous man as Iob was cannot answer one of a thousand Iob 9.3 What then becomes of works of supererogation when a mans stock or treasure of good workes cannot hold out to pay his own debts Fifthly though we strive to the uttermost to walke exactly before God and abstaine from all knowne sinnes so farre as humane frailtie permits in this life and fulfill all righteousnesse in doing all the commandements of God with all our might may we then superarrogate any thing to our selves or supererogate to others No our Saviour teacheth us a contrarie lesson When you shall have done all these things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants for we have done that which was our dutie to doe Luk. 17.10 We are unprofitable servants therefore not deserving of our Master and we doe but that which is our dutie to doe and therefore not more then we are bound to doe t He fouly mistaketh the matter it was no scandall to Christ to bee poore that hee might make us rich no more then to be abased to exalt us to bee stript to cloth us to take the forme of a servant to make us free to be condemned to acquit us to be in an agonie to comfort us and to die to restore us to life The viler he became for our sakes the more highly ought we to esteeme of him Neither did Christ goe any way about to conceale his povertie nay he openly proclaimed it The foxes have holes and fowles of heaven neasts but the Sonne of man hath not where to lay his head Matth. 8.20 But the cause why at that time being destitute of money he wrought a miracle was as the text saith Matth. 17.27 That he might not offend them who questioned him about tribute by not paying it For though he was free yet the Iewes not taking notice of that freedome in probabilitie would have inferred from his not paying that he had denyed that tribute ought to be paid to Caesar and consequently had denyed Caesars authority soverainty See Luk. 20.20 But if povertie be scandalous why do the Fryars by a vow of perfection as they terme it undertake this scandalous povertie u I answer that the Masse being rightly understood our Liturgy ought not to bee called a piece of the Masse For though there are some passages alike in both yet they tend not to the same end nor are retained upon the same ground Every part of any thing hath a reference to the whole and consequently every part of the Romish service to their Masse as a preparatory or an appertenance or immediate part thereof whereas no part of our service tendeth at all to that end nay we are so farre from intending the sacrifice of the Masse in our service that we disclaime and abominate it and hold it no better then a Masse of superstitions and contradictions superstitions in the manner and contradictions in the matter thereof For they teach it to be a sacrifice properly so called yet nothing therein is properly sacrificed not the bread and wine for they are transubstantiated before the sacrifice not Christs body for no living thing can properly be sacrificed unlesse it be slaine but Christ as the Apostle teacheth us being once dead dieth no more Secondly they teach it to be an externall and sensible sacrifice and yet Christ there appeareth to no sense but is as they teach couched and concealed under the accidents of bread and wine Thirdly they teach that it is an unbloody sacrifice and yet Christs blood is there truely and really shed and drunke by the communicants with the mouth Fourthly that it is a perfect and all-sufficient sacrifice and yet they repeat it and reiterate it daily Fifthly Christs body is there with his humane dimensions and yet is whole in the whole and whole in every smallest part and point of the Host. Secondly I say that Christ indeed forbids us to cast pearle before swine but no where to take a pearle though out of a swines snout if we finde any such there Thirdly I answer that it cannot be prooved that any part or parcell of our Service booke was originally taken out of the Masâ—e For though there are some of the same Coâ—lects and Prayers in it yet they ought not to be said to be taken out of Missals as
were to the injury of the Gospell retained and Christ himselfe blasphemed which no Christian eare ought to endure a See page 22. letter Q b If Papists trusted not in their owne merits it would goe better with them then I feare it will with many who the more they arrogate to themselves the more they derogate from our Saviour and the further they go from salvation I confesse many of them upon their death-beds have renounced their own merits and wholly stucke to our Saviours yet certaine it is that the generall doctrine of the Church of Rome is for trust in their own merits For they teach that faith alone doth not justifie us before God that good works are not only satisfactory for sin but also meritorious of eternall life and supererogatory also for others Consil. Trid. in sess 16. Bellar. l. 5. de iustif c. 16. and they who beleeve that they can so farre stead them do commonly confide in them Let them returne to the more ancient and true tenent with Bernard saying Meritum meum est miseratio Domini Gods mercy is my merit and if their be any worke of our own meritorious it is the renouncing our owne merits and flying meerely to Christ sufficit ad meritum scire quod non sufficiant merita Let them confesse with holy Iob Iob. 9.3 that they cannot answer one of a thousand and professe with Esay Esa. 64.6 All our righteousnesse is as filthy clowts and pray with David Psal. 143.2 Lord enter not into iudgement with thy servants for in thy sight shall no man living be iustified and close up their last Will and breath also as Bellar. is said to have done For Papists often dye in another faith then they lived with that holy ejaculation Lord vouchsafe to receive me into the number of thy Saints non meriti estimator sed veniae largitor not weighing my merits but pardoning my offences and we will not only cleare them of Pharisaicall pride and trusting in themselves but also conceive a better hope of their salvation c See a spunge to wipe out this false aspersioÌ„ upon that worthy servant of Christ and great Instrument of Gods glory pag. 59. letter H. d See the Advertisement to the Reader f The head of controversies betweene the Romish and Reformed Churches is the controversie about the Head of the Church which the Papists will have the Pope to be but reformed Churches Christ alone I say head of the Vniversall or Catholique Church but of particular Churches sovereigne Princes within their severall Realmes may be termed Heads that is chiefe Governours which this Priest here acknowledgeth For the acknowledgement of this supreame authoritie and power of the King in his dominions of England and Ireland the Oath of Supremacie was appointed by Act of Parliament in the 35. of Henry the eighth to be taken by all his Majesties subjects this Act was continued in the reigne of Edward the sixth but repealed in the first and second of Philip and Mary and revived the first of Queene Elizabeth now the question here is whether the Oath of Supremacie thus confirmed by divers Acts of Parliament exclude not that Spirituall jurisdiction which all Papists beleeve to be in the Pope Iure divino or which comes all to one whether a Papist ut siâ— that is remaining a Papist and holding his Popish religion may salvâ— conscientiâ take this Oath of Supremacie this Priest affirmeth he may but we shall demonstrate the contrary hereafter by impregnable arguments drawne from the intention of the Law-makers the letter of the Acts of Parliament and the Queenes Injunctions the judgement of the Church of Rome and the confession of the adversarie himselfe g Not the same authoritie which the Pope had in all things but so farre as it is expounded and limited in the Queenes Injunctions in the first yeere of her reigne the Queene as her brother and father before onely resumed that power which the Pope had unjusty taken from the Crowne and usurped it himselfe a power which is and was of ancient time due to the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme that is under God to have the Sovereigntie and rule over all manner of persons borne within these Realmes and Dominions and Countries of what estate either Ecclesiasticall or temporal soever they be See admonition to the Injunctions in the Appendix h Calvine conceived that King Henry the eighth by the Title of Head of the Church challenged a farre greater power then what the Act of Parliament acknowledged in him or he ever exercised but after the Title of Head of the Church was publikely declared and expounded by Q. Elizabeth boâ—h he and all the Reformed Churches rested satisfied in the lawfulnesse of that Title which imported not Supreame teacher or directer unto Trtuh but Supreame commander for the Truth in all causes and over all Persons i The intention of Henry the eighth and Queene Elizabeth was the selfe same as is expressed in the Act of Parliament 35. Henry the eighth and the Admonition annexed to the Injunctions of the 1 Elizabeth namely the extirpation and extinguishment of the usurped and pretended authoritie power and iurisdiction of the See and Bishop of Rome and the recovery of their owne right by adorning the Crowne with a flowre before wrongfully taken from it and here I cannot sufficiently admire the impudence of this Priest who so confidently affirmes that the intention of Queene Elizabeth was divers from her father in prescribing and requiring this Oath whereas she her selfe in the above named Admonition declareth to all her loving subjects That nothing was is or shall be meant or inâ—ended by the same Oath to have any other dutie allegiance or bond required by the same then was acknowledged to be due to the most noblâ— King of famous memory K. H. 8. her Maiesties father or K. Ed. 6. her Maiesties broâ—â—er k The liberty he speakes of was given by the approbation of the chief Vniversities beyond the Sea of the Romish Religion l Not to forme another Church but to reforme that Church which was before and restore Religion to her puritie by the example of Ezekiah Iosiah and other religious Kings m No power at all excepted but the former power explained onely how farre it extended viz Not to the authoritie and power of Ministrie of divine Office in the Church which none of the Kings or Queenes of this Realme possessours of the Crowne ever challenged Nor I in this place by what authoritie your Bishops anoynt your thumbes and ordaine your Priests to offer the unbloody sacrifice of the Masâ—e for the living the dead There is nec vola nec vestigium of any such calling in the Scripture or purer Antiquitie as for our Ministry it is â—o clearely justified together with the succession thereof out of your own best records and tenents by Francis Mason de succes Episc. Ministerio Angl. that ever since the printing therof all your Romish cavillers