ages she hath had some glorious company professing her Religion even in points their adversaries now impugne There makes for them all that may or can be of any Christian man required Literal Text of holy Scripture approved Tradition general Councils ancient Fathers Ecclesiastical Histories Christian Laws Conversion of Nations divine miracles heavenly Visions Vnity Vniversality Antiquity Succession their true Mission Ordination c. all Monuments all Substance all accidents of Christianity No wit of man can find out Arguments more convincing in themselves the truth of Religion than plain Texts and literal Sense of holy Writ the infallible Decrees of Church and general Councils the indubitable Writings and unanimous consent of ancient Fathers the credible Histories of all times and places and often the common light of Nature and Reason it self And ad hominem for prevention of all evasions no victory more certain no objection more unanswerable than the plain confession of their adversaries themselves The Volumes of Fathers and Councils in the eldest and purest times be so clear in themselves for Romish Faith that the primest and most learned Reformists studying the same are enforced through evidence of their words and deeds to acknowledg as Master Bierly in King James's time produceth clear testimonies If that Church erred or changed by little and little or that the true Church was invisible c. they require some humane reason to shew it catigorically In what time in what Articles what Pope changed what tumults rise thereupon what Councils withstood c. which in all innovations they can shew easily a total change and in what particular points as by Arrians Sabellians Donatists Pelagians Protestants c. What places what Countries changed with them what Catholicks set against them what kept the old paths To say the Church was extinct a thousand years or unknown is expresly against the Scripture Christs Promises and Providence and Reason it self If the Church were invisible whether should Gentiles address for their Conversion or the doubtful for resolution or all faithful for their direction was our Saviour who was promised to all Nations brought to that streight that he had not a visible Chappel reserved to him in the whole world Is it not good reason God would preserve his Church which he had planted and watered with his Blood Is it not a denyal of Gods Providence and to say Jesus Christ was unjust or an Impostor to oblige all men to indispensible obedience to her if erroneous or invisible if men were changed into beasts they may be thus perswaded Is not the Church compared to a City to a Light to the Sun c. can the Church which is a Sun be drawn into a chinâ—k or all her Beams into the center of a Burning-glass Can any Proposition be more reasonable than to ask of those who maintain a thing to be in former ages to produce some marks thereof to shew where they had a being or a Company successively holding the same Articles with them The Building is perpetual where God layeth the Foundation The Church is the Pillar of truth 1 Tim. 3. cannot err Irenaeus l. 3. c. 4. Mat. 28. Act. 3. Go teach all Nations and I am with you all days to the consummation John 17. Father keep them in â—hy name whom thou hast given me See his Petition to keep his Church gathered of all Nations and his continual protection I will give you another Comforâ—â—â— â—o aâ—iâ—e with you for ever John 16. When the spirit of truth cometh he shall â—â—ach you all truth This assistaâ—ce promisâ—d was ever in all ages no Heresie or Jew could ever prevail against it The guard and strength of Truth in point also of antiquity is ever such that she resteth still accompanied attended and fortified with surest friends strongest towers and best munition Priority and ancestry is so specially affected by the Wisdom of God and maligned by the enemy of man that in first planting the Church it s said Mat. 4. 13 24 25. 5. Mat. 13 17. Luk. 8. 12. that he first sowed good seed in the field and after the enemie came and oversowed Cockle not obscurely intimating true Faith and Religion that is good seed was first and ancient to Sects and Heresies Even as temporal nobility is most honourable which is derived from the aâ—cientest Blood and in earthly possessions that Title strongest which pleadeth longest prescription or ancientest evidence So it cannot be denied but truth was before falshood substance before shadows the Gospel Faith Religion c. which is first and eldest is only the true Gospel Faith Church and other Congregations afterwards arising or going out from thence are only malignant inventions of the enemy In which respect to find out truth in all occurring difficulties we are specially forewarned to recurre to antiquity to suspect novelty Moses Deut. 32. before his death leaving documents to the Children of Israel saith Remember the old days ask thy Father c. so Bildab Jobs friend 1 Job 8. advised him in greatest extremities ask the old generation and search diligently Solom Eccl. 9. 8. 11 12. let not the â—â—rration of the ancient escape thee c. and Jer. c. 16. stand upon the ways and ask the old paths which is the good way c. on the contrary God reproveth such as walk in a way not trodden and Solomons lesson is Transgress not the ancient bounds which thy Father hath put So Saint Paul to Timothy to keep the Depositum avoiding profane novelties It 's very ordinary with the Fathers to confute Hereticks by their innovation So Tertullian reproveth Novelists of his time saying to them who are you when and from whence came you what do you in my grounds by what right Marcion didst thou cut down my woods by what licence Valentine dost thou overthrow my Fountains c. It is my possession long since I possessed it I possessed it first So Saint Hierom. of the Luciferians Why do you go about after four hundred years to teach that we knew not before until this day the world was Christian without that Doctrine So Athan. confuteth the Arrians Saint Hilarie and Saint Aug. Donatists These reasons may induce us to take new measures of that ancient Church and may easily perswade persons as Doctor Taylor in his Treatise of Liberty of Prophecying of much reason and more piety to retain that which they know to have been the Religion of their forefathers especially when her Soveraign Rights Titles and Prerogatives are admitted and acknowledged by her professed enemies Whence Chillingworth confesseth that Protestants cannot with coherence to their own grounds require of others the belief of any thing besides Scripture and the plain irrefragable and indubitable consequences of it without most high and schismatical presumption Dr. Bramh. Reply p. 264. We do not saith he hold our 39 Articles to be such necessary truths extra quas non est salus without which there is no salvation nor enjoin ecclesiastical
visible executioners This premised I argue thus Where there is a liberty of examining and judging there must be a freedome of election upon such judgment but the Church of England v. g. in her Doctrine alloweth men to search the Scriptures and examine whether her Doctrine be agreeable to Scripture or no Therefore the Church of England and other Reformed cannot in reason and equity persecute such men as in foro conscientiae shall upon such due examination of judgment dissent from their Doctrine If this principle pass current amongst us that every one may read judg and interpret Scripture which is by us the judg of Controversies the only rule to guide us to Faith we are bound to give Liberty of Conscience to others Whence one of our own Doctors saith Our Bishops who have declared the Doctrine of giving freedome of Conscience what every one in their private judgments do of discretion hold to be most conformable to Gods Word yet they very inconsequently and disingenuously excite our Governours to force their Conscience to an exterior Conformity Secondly We confess the Church of England and all Churches may erre and for ought we know do erre and lead into error and such an uncertain and fallible guide or ground to rely on is not proportionable to the nature and quality of Faith which must be certain and infallible with an internal consent of the Will and subjection of our understandings to revealed Truths Our Senses may be deluded but Faith not for it must be more firm and certain than any thing we see or feel Supposing then the Reformed Churches fallible will it not be a most unreasonable thing to be still exacting of Recusants by rigorous Sequestratious Oaths and what other penalties they think fit to leave and forsake the Church and Faith which they so groundedly hold to be the infallible guide appointed by God himself as the only means to direct them securely to eternal Salvation And to yield exterior conformity to our own new moulded Church we all profess to be fallible Or to be forced to embrace a Doctrine deduced by fallible interpretations out of Scripture which interpretations the far greater and learneder part of this very age reject as Heretical and which as such were rejected by almost all visible Christianity for these thousand years And which perhaps may shortly be rejected by us We having oft-times rejected that which we cryed up before for verity and the Religion now in vogue not many years ago was cryed down If our Church be not then infallible in what we teach against them but may embrace a lye for a divine Truth they need not to vindicate and justifie their most just recusancy in refusing to submit when we provide them no better security but force them to refuse due submission to that infallible direction appointed by divine Writ to bring them securely to their end To which the most religious the most learned and the major part of Christians ever yet thought and submitted too If I should disobey the sentence of the Church upon what other authority can I more prudently rely What Labyrinths and Abysmes should I fall into How can we force and draw others to our Churches if we cannot agree where and how to lay our Foundation How can we impose upon and restrain others whom we are so far from assuring of Truth as we pretend to be but uncertain of it and are not able to do so much for our selves being liable to change and no ways certain of our own belief to be the most infallible as our multiplied Concessions are pregnant instances What is this but to put certain penalties upon an uncertain Faith And if our Teachers agree not in all points of Religion the Dissenters in controversie are obliged to allow a mâ—tual toleration If we say the Roman Church erred for 900. years till our Reformation we exclude our selves from all possible assurance of true Faith or Salvation And to arrogate to our Selves or to attribute to private persons or Pastors the all-defining Spirit which we deny to the whole Church represented in a general Council is absurd His presumption must needs be vast that builds more on his own tenet then the mature judgment of all successive Fathers While he cryes down others for infallible he lifts himself up to be so as if God revealed more to him than all the Doctors and Propagators of his Church Now let us hear what our own Divines acknowledge Doctor Taylor saith but alas notwithstanding our Religion thus framed by our Divines yet it seems not sufficiently marked or the cognizance of Schism taken away for yet we have no particular positive points among us setled for undoubted Truths those being rather a medley of all Religions and new Sects professed among us or a negation of those tenets of the Church we went out of and which stood a thousand years before us as Histories and Monuments witness which is but a negative Faith in effect for what is positive or of Order and Government is wholly derived and taken from that Religion which not long since we pulled down abominated and so violently persecuted Doctor Gauden saith I see not why Papists may not in reason of State have and enjoy that liberty without perturbing the Publick Peace which Presbyterians and Independents do enjoy in their new ways For nothing will savour more of an imperious or impotent Spirit whose Faith and Charity are Slaves to Secular Interests than for those who have obtained liberty to their Novelties to deny the like freedome to other mens Antiquity which hath Ecclesiastical practise and precedency of a thousand years besides the preponderancy of much reason Scripture and holy examples All which to force godly grave and learned men to renounce or comply with other ways against their judgments must be a crying Self-condemning sin in those men who lately approved the ancient Church way and after dissenting at first desired but a modest toleration And in another place saith To Fleece and depress Popish Recusants by pecuniary mulcts exactions c. is to set Religion to sale and make Merchandize of Conscience and mens errors rather than fairly to perswade and win them by proper and perswasive engines of true Religion Thorndike a learned Divine saith also Cerâ—ainly it may be justiâ—â—able for the secular power to grant Papists exercise of their Religion in private places under such moderate penalties as disobeying the Laws of a mans Country requires For Persecution to Death in that case the whole Reformation condemns the Church of Rome And I conceive there is no reason for that which will not condemn Persecution to Banishment The State may easier be secured of Papists against all such power in the Pope then of our Sectaries against that Dispensation to their allegiance which the pretence of Gods Spirit may import when they please Whereas it is manifest that many Papists hold against those equivocations and reservations which destroy all confidence in the
Treasure so noble of birth so fortunate in Wars zealous in Religion who builded so many Hospitals founded so many Monasteries enacted such wholsome Laws and Statutes got so many Victories in Fâ—ance c. even to Palestine it Self all professed Roman Catholicks Secundo It deserves one observation that when Christianity became the ruling Religion of the World under the great Constantine and Emperours his immediate Successors the very Heathens themselves were exempt from all manner of severity upon the score of their Religion Because they were in possession of it by discent from Father to Son and not by usurpation or intrusion And we have the like president in our own Country For when King Ethelbert had embraced the Christian Faith by the preaching of Saint Austin he would not force his own Subjects though Pagans to receive it Bedâ— l. 1. c. 260. For this reason it was that the great Apostles treated the Synagogue whose Religion at that time was vacuated and consequently void of Truth with so much respect and condescendency and that afterwards the most primitive Fathers used so often this expression that the Synagogue ought to be buried with honour Whence one of our Protestant Divines saith even by the Law of Seniority Catholicks might exspect some favour For what priviledges or immunities have we but the old Church gave us whence had we our Bible Creed Honors Donations commendable Ceremonies charitable Foundations had not they preserved them faithfully we never had found them The first possession of a man is a good title by the Law of Nature until an elder or the Law of Reason which with mankind is to have pre-eminence dispossesses it The Roman Church had a possession unquestionable for above a thousand years and the Pope enjoyed jurisdiction a longer time than any succession of Princes can pretend to and submitted to by all our Ancestors In Catholick Religion they stand as defenders others as invaders they as possessors others as disseisors they seek to keep what de jure they had Calvin and others what they had not There is a vast difference in these two Cases to oppose by force the introducement of innovations and to attempt by force the extinguishment of an ancient Religion of which the People are universally in a quiet and immemorial possession The one drives others out of possession the other maintains himself the one invades his neighbours rights the other defends his own Apostacy and innovation with some colour of right have been oft in several ages persecuted by rigour of Laws even by Protestants and the reason is because innovation in Religion most commonly breeds disturbance in the Common-wealth Natural reason teaches that no particular man is to be condemned much less deprived of what he stands possessed till his cause be judiciously heard and sentenced Nor ought any man to be Judg in his own Cause But penal Laws and Oaths made in contempt and derogation of that Religion which through all Christendom abounds with learning civility and loyalty whose Doctrin amongst the primitive greatest and most learned societies hath been and is avouched in most Nations and Kingdoms allowed and more freely exercised and permitted established by the Laws in which our Predecessors were born and continued wherein all our Progenitors all the Peers Ecclesiast Nobles and Princes of our Realm in precedent ages thought themselves happy and honourable If they had imagined that in future times their Posterity would revile that Religion with Epithets unbeseeming humane much less Christian Ears what an opinion would they have preconceived of us It was said by King James one of the most learned Princes not in private but in open Parliament represented I acknowlege the Roman Church to be our Mother Church although defiled with infirmities and corruptions Is it not then a kind of Spiritual Parracide in the Daughter not only to revile the Mother or which is worse scratch her by the Face call her Whore Superstitious Idolatrous c. on whose Knees you have been dandled nourished by her Breasts and carried in her Womb Hear O you Heavens and give ear O earth I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me Isa 1. 2. Let it be allowed some corruptions be of our aged Mother this should be no warrant for cruelty but rather a motive of compassion especially considering that by confession of all her adversaries those pretended failings are of no modern date but such as they are now such likewise they were when first Christianity was received by English-men under King Ethelbert The Church of England who Glory in their succession of Bishops and in this is singular from other Reformers acknowledge they immediately derive their true and lawful Ordination and mission and from whom their first Mininistry viz. Cranmer Baker c. were Consecrated and consequently that the Roman Church conveyed divine right and authority from Christ to them the very essence and being of Religion Which Church notwithstanding they call Antichristian Idolatrous c. abusing tender Consciences sâ—â—press that which themselves confess to be divine Truth condemn as Trayâ—â—rs and persecute to death with pâ—â—munire loss of fortunes c. those from whom such Apostolical Graces and Functions proceed and were continued and preserved If our succession from the Roman be the glory of the English Church it s our scorn and ignominy to persecute and revile them Tertio Penal Laws and Statutes against the Catholick Religion destroyes the ground and foundation of Justice and the form Judicature Because the Witness can have no evidence for their Testimony the Judges not any for their sentence and the Legislator as little for the Law Primo There must be evidence of lawful Witnesses In matters of Faith we go by hearing Rom. 10. The best evidence then of any Religion is the testimony of our deceased Predecessors and Ancestry whose Faith and Doctrine is fresh in the memories and testimonies of the Christian posterity of the present Church For besides the Authority of the present Church we can have no greater evidence in foro externo for the Law of God and Religion then the testimony of precedent ages confirmed with supernatural Signs v. g. the fourteenth Age delivered to the fifteenth the Roman Faith which now they profess assuring them that it was the true sense and Letter of Scripture which they had learned from the thirteenth age and so forward to the Apostles No reformers can produce one lawful Witness against Catholick Religion and their sense of Scripture yet the Greatest Crimes require at least one lawful Witness For what evidence had the first Reformers to oppose the testimony of all former Ages confirmed with so many miracles and to make Statutes against the known practiced Religion at least for nine hundred years Antiquity affords them none because though in diverse Ages some odd men did testifie sometimes an errour they were in those very times contradicted by the Church and declared impostors and innovators In this
and Religion when they protest with so much truth to our faces they cannot see any Church any Religion among us as uniform publick authentick Constant We might consider that the enacting of laws penalties and impositions against Papists is but a knotting Whipcord to lash our own posterity Seeing now there be so many Opinions in the World God knows upon whose children it may fall next For the Church of England is not a Manna that relisheth in every mans palate Secondly To use severity against Papists overturns the very ground of our retreat from Rome It is against Protestant sincerity for how can they exclaim against them for persecutors and are now the men themselves Was it an instance of weakness in their Religion and is it become a demonstration in ours Is it Antichristian in them and Christian in us For if men must be restrained upon prudential pretended considerations for their Religious exercise why not the same in France Germany Holland Constantinople c. where matters of State may equally be pleaded And if Protestants who maintain that no Councils or Church without tyranny may require belief or internal consent from their subjects to their definitions or Articles of Religion a practice much exclaimed against in the Church of Rome why then do they of the Church of England so inconsequently exact in practice such consent blamed in the Roman CAP. VII That by our own Concessions true Salvation is acquired in the Roman Church and therefore not to be persecuted THe most eminent Divines of the English Church allow the Church of Rome to be a true Church whence they acknowledge and derive their Orders Ordination Calling Mission Jurisdiction Authority to Preach c. wherein they agree Salvation may be had and all Fundamentals of Faith are profest v. g. Papists hold all positive Articles of Faith setled among Protestants as divine and undoubted Truths Protestants and Catholicks both are Christians Both Baptized in that holy name both lay hold on the promises of the Gospel have the Lords Prayer Belief the same three Creeds Apostolical Nicene Athanasian The first four General Councils They believe with the Roman Church Articles of Doctrine that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son terms of Trinity substantiality virginity of our Blessed Lady Scripture all Laws Canons Ordinances forms of Liturgy Prayer Service Discipline c. And though the Roman Church doth declare many doctrinal points as necessary to be believed being deduced from holy Writ and practice of the primitive times whch the Reformists deny Yet seeing they acknowledge all the necessary articles fundamentally required to Salvation as is by their Adversaries granted What reason or justice is it to condem them to so great cruelties for matters of their Belief I could produce innumerable testimonies from the best Authors and Writings of the English Church who teach the Roman notwithstanding her supposed errors to be the Church of Christ and therein perfect Christianity and hope of Salvation to be found To avoid prolixity I will mention a few Doctor Morton in his Treatise of King of Israel and the Church p. 24 Papists saith he are to be accounted of the Church of God because they hold the Foundation of the Gospel Hooker 5. Book of Eccles Policy saith The Church of Rome is reputed a part of the House of God and of the Family of Jesus Christ Doctor Couel in defence of Hooker p. 17. saith We affirm them of the Church of Rome to be part of the Church of Christ and those that live and dye in that Church may be saved Master White in defence c. 41. in the name of his Brethren saith We profess the Church of Rome it self in all Ages to have been the visible Church of God Field lib. 3. c. 8. saith We most firmly believe all the Churches of the World wherein our Fathers lived and died to have been the true Churches of God in which undoubted Salvation was to be had And after in the same Book We never doubted but that in the Churches wherein those holy men St. Bernard and St. Dominick lived were the true Churches of God Osiander witnesseth Bede had all Popish errors yet Dr. Humphrey in his Jesuitism acknowledges him to be in the number of the godly so doth Fulk of St. Bernard Luther the Centurists Tindal and Pantaleon title St. Francis and St. Dominick holy men though they bleieved all Papistical errors therefore Papists may be saved if Protestants may be believed Dove persuas saith in fundamental points of Doctrine the greatest Papists in the world agree with us Prot. rel affirmeth the Roman Church hath still inviolably the foundation of Religion l. 48. Downam l. 2. Antichr granteth it was a note of a good Christian to cleave to the Romish and Apostolical Church and p. 103. l. Antichr he yieldeth to Bellarmine that S. Augustine and Victor Oticensis were of opinion to adhere to the Church of Rome was a mark of a true Catholick in those times Our Stars of the first magnitude as Luther in Epist against Anabap. saith we confess that all Christian good is in the Papacy and from them it came down to us and ibid. I say in the Papacy is the true Christianity yea the true Kernel of Christianity and on the 28 of Genes we confess the Church to be among the Papists for they have Baptism Absolution the Text of the Gospel c. and there are many godly men among them Calvin Instit l. 4. confesseth in the Roman Church in the deepest of her supposed errors there ever remained inviolabile foedus Dei the Covenant of God inviolable Doth not Bunny Whitaker Junius Zanrchius Seravia and almost all Protestants generally hold as much at least that we agree in fundamentals that the Roman Church is a true Church the Mother C-hurch A thousand of learned Reformists confess in general Antiquity and the Fathers are for the Roman Church Whence a learned Writer noteth in some things or other yea in every particular Controversy Protestants grant their Assertions and there is no assertion by the Papists defended but some of the reformed yield too and confess as of great reason and authority Magdeburgenses 4. Cent. dedicated to Queen Elizabeth ad Jacobum Regem that the first purest times of the Church taught Sacramental Confession Tradition Invocation of Saints Purgatory Mass a propitiatory Sacrifice Miracles obtained at the reliques of Saints Images in Churches for the first 200 and 300 years Concerning the Primacy that one must be Cheif in the Church is taught by Melancton Luther in loc com Couel in examen Jacobus Andreas related by Hospiuian Mr. Perkins Prob. p. 237. saith Appeals were often made out of Africa to Popes of Rome in primitive days Middleton Papist p. 39. that the first general Council of Nice taught the Dignity of Rome over the West Provinces and hold p. 200. Papias living in the time of the Apostles taught Peters Supremacy Field lib. Church saith the
not take it upon them For any indifferent Judg would wonder you should have better intelligence of their Religion than they themselves Thirdly All examples and practices of the Primitive Churches mentioned in the Ecclesiastical Histories the custom was when any Dispute did arise concerning the integrity of the Doctrine professed in any particular Church that Church so question'd did always set down in writing a Confession of their Faith and transmit it either to the Patriarch or some general Council that so the sincerity of their belief might be tried by the touchstone of the Church universal Fourthly Faith being an internal consent of our will and subjection of our understanding to truths revealed in absolute justice none but we our selves can make an authentical manifestation of what passeth in our souls of that nature And besides it being the duty of every Christian not only to make open profession of his Faith when occasion requires it but also to make such a profession with all possible sincerity and truth for to use any falsity or dissimulation in a case of this concern were not only to deceive men but even to belye the holy Ghost It will necessarily follow first no judgment can be made of anothers faith but by the confession of the party himself and secondly that a greater assurance cannot be given between man and man of veracity and secret dealing than when we publickly declare our faith upon any point of Controversie Upon these grounds and these circumstances I presume their Antagonists will be so reasonable as not to question the truth and reality of their meaning in what they declare concerning their Tenets in the points of Allegiance or Doctrine Here I will set them down submitting to the honour and conscience of all sober men and to any indifferent Judges who will not retain the animosity and prejudice of parties to give sentence whether they are not consistent with loyalty and the duty of good Subjects and Christians v. g. They hold CHARLES the II. is their true and lawful Soveraign Secondly that no Power on earth shall absolve them from their natural Allegeance Are ready by Oath in the face of Heaven to profess their loyalty indispensable from which no power can free them Thirdly that they are bound with their lives and fortunes to defend the sacred Person of his Majesty in his just Rights against all opposers whatsoever domestick or forraign Fourthly that Faith is to be kept with all men indifferently and equally whether they be Roman Catholicks or of any other Religion And that our engagements promises and contracts cannot lawfully be broken or dispensed with by any power on earth to the prejudice of any third Person They believe the holy Scriptures to be of infallible authority and assent to it as the word of God They believe the sacred mystery of the blessed Trinity one eternal almighty and incomprehensible God whom only they adore and worship as alone having soveraign dominion over all things to whom only is due from Men and Angels all glory service and obedience abhorring to give their CREATORS honour to any creature whatsoever Whence they solemnly profess that by the Prayers they address to Angels and Saints they intend no more but to sollicite their assistance before the throne of God as we desire the Pravers of one another here upon earth not that they hope any thing from them as original authors thereof but from God through Jesus Christ our only Mediator and Redeemer Neither do they believe any Divinity or Virtue to be in Images for which they ought to be worshipped as the Gentiles did their Idols But they retain them with due and decent respect in their Churches as instruments which we find by experience do often assist our memories and excite our affections Pictures may be of good use saith our learned Bacon if the representation of divine stories as well work upon them to contemplate those things as lascivious Pictures do Obscenity Charity obligeth us no other construction of the words of men than what they profess to be their own sense but I never heard or read Images absolutely to be worshipped or Saints absolutely prayed to They firmly believe that no force of nature or dignity of our best works can merit our justification but we are justified freely by grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ and though we should by the Grace of God persevere in a godly life yet are our hopes of eternal Glory built upon the mercy of God and the merits of Christ Jesus All other merits according to the sense of that word signifie no more than actions done by the assistance of Gods Grace to which it has pleas'd his Goodness to promise a reward A Doctrine so suitable to the sense of holy Scripture that nothing is so frequently repeated in it as his gratious promises to recompence with everlasting Glory the Faith and Obedience of his Servants 1 Tim. 4. 8. Rom. 2. 6 8 13 Heb. 6. 10. Luke 16. 38. thus we believe the merit or rewardableness of holy living both which signifie the same with us arises not from the value even of our best actions but from the grace and bounty of God And for ourselves we sincerely profess when we have done all we are are able or commanded we are unprofitable servants Luke 17. 10. These they sincerely and solemnly profess as in the sight of God the searcher of all hearts taking the words plainly without any equivocation or mental reservation And now let them that judg so severely lay their hands on their hearts and with the same justice and equity with which they expect to be judged themselves at the last day Let them pronounce whether or no their Doctrine or Principles are inconsistent with the duty of good Christans or Subjects and the peaee and safety of Government In Law and Reason every man à fortiori a society of men ought to be esteemed honest and just till the contrary appear to be proved but nothing hath hitherto appeared to be proved against the loyalty of Catholicks therefore in reason and justice they ought to be esteemeed good Subjects and Neighbours and it is a meer Calumny to asperse them That nothing can be proved is evident their accusers being often pressed thereunto were never able to produce any particular or any proof sufficient to satisfie any rational man But dwelling in vain general suspicions triflings and false presumptions laying to their charge extravagant crimes that have not the least proof or probability objecting positions of some private and disavowed persons the crimes and indiscretions of particular men to all the party to traduce and defame the whole we aggravate the failings of a few The world knows it were no difficulty to recriminate in this kind and repay them with the same dirt If such accusations pass current who would or could be innocent No people on the earth can be safe at this rate Would not this Logick make the
disloyalty from them that have freely taken them and none in Catholicks that have refused For the Oaths by none more readily taken and earnestly imposed on others than by those who began the Wars and promoted the Covenant and on the contrary by none more scrupled and refused than by those who always assisted the King ¶ Thirdly it may be objected as lately by Doctor Denton c. That Papists suffer not for Religion but because they are not obedient to the Laws c. Resp 1. By a Proviso of the Act 25 and 27. of Eliz. if any Priest committed shall submit to the Laws and take the Oaths they shall be freed from the penalty and not adjudged Traytors if they renounce their Religion Resp 2. Suppose that in the Apostles time a Law had been made by any King or Emperour of a contrary Religion to them that if any of the said Apostles or Priests should enter into their Dominions to preach a contrary Doctrine to to the Religion there received and to exercise any of their Apostolical or Priestly Functions it should be treason and under pain of death Would or could the Apostles have obeyed those Laws or did they obey the Governours of the Jews their lawful Superiours when they commanded them to preach no more in the name of Jesus Christ or to disperse Christian Doctrine which they held for Treason or did they fly out of their Dominions lest their sufferings should be imputed to disobedience and not for the name of Christ Is there not another blood to be respected called by the Prophet the blood of the Soul whereof the Pastor shall be guilty if he fly for fear or forsake his flock in time of danger and persecution Have not the English Priests the same Obligation of Conscience to help their Country-men in spiritual necessities as had the Apostles and Apostolick men to strangers for whose help they were content to offer their lives and incur any danger whatsoever ¶ Fourthly It may be demanded why cannot Papists come to our Churches Resp Unity and Vniformity are two things one being internal the other external therefore if they should conform yet they can have no verity faith or truth but as forced by which Religion is never better'd Truth and falshood are like the clay in Nebuchadonosors Image they may cleave but they will never incorporate Christ's Coat had no seam though the Churches vesture was of divers colours whence a learned Father saith in veste varietas sit scissura non sit The true God hath this attribute that he is a jealous God and therefore his worship and religion will endure no mixture or partner ¶ Fifthly To say or object the Popes Supremacy is dangerous This reflects not only upon the honour of Catholicks but the safety of all the Professors of it They acknowledg the Pope as Successor to Saint Peter is head of the Church and hath supream Authority in matters spiritual but how this can be offensive to the Temporalities of Princes is not understood by me nor those great Monarchs that are of his Church and submit to his authority and and yet are zealous and jealous of their own power and temporal Regalities as any Princes can possible be Our graver and more learned Divines distinguish between the inward power of the Keys and the outward jurisdiction by temporal penalties this they assign to the King in all causes and over all persons that they reserve to the Clergy as neither derived from or dependent of the Civil Magistrate And if I rightly understand the Religion of the English Church although they allow the King to be supream Governour of their Church yet they do not confer any Pastoral Office or Jurisdiction upon him and consequently he is one of the Flock and therefore as such he is subject to Pastors Wherefore if this be not looked on by Protestants as derogatory to the Kings authority I hope by the same reason Roman Catholicks will not be found guilty for owning the Popes Supreamacy in matters meerly spiritual There can be no just fear or jealousie that spiritual jurisdiction should supplant secular obedience because the Church-Discipline in it self is so innocent and passive We our selves acknowledg a spiritual authority in the Bishops promise a Canonical obedience to them and not to the King admit Jurisdiction in their spiritual Courts c. nay the Presbyterians in their Consistory and ecclesiastical Courts will allow the King no authority at all more than the meanest Subject and so do other Sects Now if a Subject v. g. the Bishop of Canterbury may be supream in Spirituals without any derogation to the Prince may not the Pope with less danger and inconvenience be truely called as King James did the Patriarch or Superintendent of the West For if that power be purely spiritual being of a different nature as is said before it cannot in the least degree be prejudicial to the Kings civil power but rather oblige those that acknowledg it faithfully to obey the King Therefore it ought to be no obstacle to Toleration otherwise no Christians or Sect whatsoever ought to be tolerated for let them be Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists c. do not they depend upon and own a power distinct from his Majesties Civil Power I mean a Power meerly spiritual or pastoral not subordinate to the King but to which the King himself if he be of your Religion ought to be subject as no Pastor but a Sheep no Teacher but a Hearer no Administer of Sacraments but a Receiver Such a Power all Sects and Religions seem to own no Catholick depends on or can own more The spirituall Primacy of the chief Pastor preserves peace and unity and is a greater defence to them than many Armies in subduing their minds to civil obedience without such a spiritual authority there is no influence on the people all preaching and Laws are but shaking Bulwarks to support Monarchy No Kingdom hath been more happy at home or glorious abroad than when the Pope was their spirituall Father When such a Primacy purely spiritual was acknowledged in England the Church here was never torn in pieces with Schismes nor poisoned with Heresies the honour and safety of our Dominions were far from being prejudiced or invaded It is denied then the owning Supremacy should worse their condition shall notions convince experience when a demonstration it self often gives way to practice Let 's summon the Kings of Europe of Catholick Profession to decide the contrary unanimously and proclaim their people are not rebellious by reason of any ecclesiastical dependance abroad Roman Catholicks did ever renounce any temporal power or jurisdiction belonging to the Pope over any Subject of his Majesties But since there is a Power purely spiritual as is shewed before from which Princes are not exempted Is it not more for their temporal security that the spiritual power should reside in one single person that usually is both learned and discreet and withal is a thousand
Soveraign in Allegiance Though not secured in those that pretend Gods Spirit Besides Recusants being for the most part of the good Families of the Nation will take it for a part of their Nobility freely to profess themselves in Religion whereas the Sectaries are People of mean quality cannot be presumed to stand so much on their reputation And in another place he saith to proceed to divide the Church more and more with Persecutions is more destructive to the substance of Christianity than all that corruption Reformation pretendeth to cure Osborne a Protestant Hist mem Q. E. p. 17. 〈◊〉 that against the poor Catholicks nothing in relation to the generality remaineth upon due proof sufficient to justifie the severity of Laws dayly enacted and put in execution against them All other Sects saith he oppose the Roman with more spleen and animosity then ordinary yet they defend themselves and prevail against all still continue and have been the most grand and principal Body of all Christian Societies and the greatest force and Forâ—ress of Christianity against Turks and Heathenish impieties and chiefest Propagators of the Gospel in all Nations c. I see no reason saith another Doctor of our English Church why Papists in England should not as well deserve hope and enjoy as any other order or rank of men freedome to their Consciences Nor can I think but those men who are so hardned in their Malice and persecution against them do often hear a voice secretly call within them O ye Souls why do ye persecute me in my Servants It s a kind of injustice and an uncharitable course as I conceive saith he when we spare them that have no Religion at all and censure those that can give an account of somewhat tending to that purpose Shall Atheists and Socinians Enemies of the blessed Trinity be not looked after And shall others following the Heresie of Aerius directly opposing the order of Bishops and their Jurisdiction that is the whole frame of the Church of God assembled in the first four general Councils asserted and affirmed to be of divine right by Scripture and the Church of England be winked at And must we only incite our Governours against Papists Force them upon Banishments Prisons Persecutions Pressures and Calamities and use such severity against that Religion we our selves hold Salvation to be acquired in who hold all the positive Articles with us I may loudly proclaim saith Bishop Gauden with Samuel 12. 3. this Protestation in their behalf Behold the Servants of the Lord and his Church O Christians causless Enemies witness against them and before the Lord and before the People Whose Oxe or Ass have they taken Whom have they defrauded or oppressed Whose hurt or damage have they procured Whose evil of sin or misery have they not pitied What is the injury for which so desolating a vengeance must pass upon them and their whole Profession What is the Blasphemy against God or man for which these Naboths must loose their lives liberties and liveâ—â—hoods Wherein have they deserved so ill of former and later Ages that they should be so used as Ahab commanded of Miâ—heas and the Jews did to Hieremias to be cast into Prisons to â—ordid and â—bsâ—ure restraints or to be exposed to Mendicant liberty to be fed only with Bread and water of Affliction What necessary Truths of God or righteousness have they detained What error have they broached revived or maintained What true Christian liberty have they impeached A little after They have not light conjectures not partial Customes not bare Profession not uncertain Tradition not blind Antiquity but evident grounds Scripture Succession Conversion of Nations planting of Churches all over the known World crowning their Doctrine with Martyrdome Authors of best credit undeniable famous in Church through all the first Ages shewing us Catholick Religion And uncontradicted consent constant and uninterrupted Succession their great abilities Add those Credential letters the testimonies and seals which God hath given of his holy Spirit Lastly the Civil rights and priviledges the piety of the Nation and the Laws of this Land have always given to them by the fullest and freest consent of all Estates in Parliament these ought to be regarded much of men of Justice honour and conscience as not to break all these Sanctions and Laws asunder by which their forefathers have bound to God c. Whence Doctor Taylor in his Book concerning the unreasonableness of prescribing to other mens Faith in liberty of prophecying § 2. 249. that Considerations to a charitable Toleration concerning the Roman Church which saith he may easily perswade persons of much reason and more piety to retain that which they know to have been the Religion of their forefathers which had actual possession and seizure of men's understanding before the opposite Profession had a name Another learned Protestant Doctor saith the humble peaceable and discreet carriage of them may justly plead for favour and protection against this calumny of proneness to Sedition Faction or illegal disturbance in civil affairs Even in all the unhappy troubles of the late years have generally behaved themselves and shewed they had no other design than to live a quiet life in all godliness and honesty If they could not help in fair ways to steer the Ship as they desired they did not seem to set it on fire and overwhelm it If at any time relating to publick variations and tossings they could not act with satisfied and good Consciences they humbly bear with silence and suffer with patience Intentive chiefly and fearful to offend God tender of Conscience and their own Religion Whence The late Bishop of Exeter saith in these christian bounds of peaceable subjection humility and holiness if the Papists in England may but obtain so much declared favour and publick countenance which all other fraternities and Professions have as to be sure to enjoy their callings liberties and properties which seem to be so many times in great uncertainties under the protection and obedience of the Laws it would encourage them and redeem them from those menaces insolencies and oppressions of unreasonable men who look upon them like publick Enemies and perdue because they have little of publick favour and encouragement Christian usage will no doubt win more upon them than those rough storms and winds wherewith they are dayly threatened and are still distressed Which makes them wrap themselves up as Elias in his hairy Mantle when they think their lives liberties and livelyhoods are sought after and no such protection like to continue over them they thought in a Christian State and Church they might have obtained and deserved through their quiet conversation As a just protection infers our due subjection so no men pay more willingly then they who besides the Iron-rod of fear have softer cords of love and favour upon them How can we with justice honour or humanity inflict severe penalties upon Papists as refusing to conform to our Church