WHo can unriddle it? Why are we now met? What hath congeal'd us this day into a Congregation? But why do I now start this unelemented Question? Do not I well know this to be a Red­letter Day, even the anniversary Day design'd for a solemn Day of Thanks­giving, in relation to our wonderful Deliverance from the Gunpowder-Treason? Why now am I sent back to School again. The Gunpowder-Trea­son is but a word, and such a single Cypher-word as sig­nifies nothing. There was never any such Thing as the Gunpowder-Treason, in Act or Intendment: so the learn­ed and pragmatical Papists have said every where, long ago at Rome, at Paris lately, now at London. Yet I humbly [Page 2] confesse, I am not so learned to think so. O Rome, shall yonder old and fatal Assertion gain ground upon thee forever; Rome cannot stand unlesse under-shouldered with lyes? I, but in the mean time, howsoever you de­mean your self in Earth-bounded and Sublunary matters; do not, I pray your Holinesse, intrude upon Heaven, do not defile upwards. God's holy Truth, authorized by the Spirit of Truth, calls not for assistance to the Devil's pedling-School of Lying. Now, O thou imperious Wh [...]re, blush a little if thou can'st. Here let my Soul dilate her self: Shall I be damn'd to an Eternity of Torments by a most good and most just God, because I cannot be­lieve eternal, invincible, and unmatchable Lyars, most maliciously and knowingly sinning against the same God as he is the God of Truth? Beloved Countrymen, let me prophesie in a word or two: After a few yeares I mean, when our old Men here are silenc'd, and laid to sleep in the Grave, the Truth of the Gunpowder-Treason, which as yet many thousands now living amongst us know from the Collections and Evidence of Sense, shall be declared against ex sacrâ Cathedrâ, out of the sacred Chair at Rome, and holily si [...]ned Annulo Piscatoris, with that holy Signet of his Holinesse. Tell me now, Romanists, How shall we afterwards believe you in other things? We are instructed from your Civilians, Mendax semel, mendax sempet praesumitur. He that does gloriosè men­tiri, he that is once a notorious, magnificent, and glorious Lyar, is presumed to be a Lyar alwayes. This will make us tremble at the Canonization of Saints, who are not Canoniz'd untill the Age be dead wherein they liv'd. Melchior Canus, thou learned Rabbin amongst the Pa­pists, come forth, stand in the mid'st of this Congre­gation, and speak to the matter: Dolentèr dico po­tiusMelch. Can. in Locis Theol. lib. 11. c. 6. quàm Contumeliosè, multo a Laërtia, & Ethnicis Historicis, Philosophorum vitas severiùs scriptas, quàm a Christianis Vitas Sanctorum: Gr [...]evingly I speak it ra­ther than contumeliously, The lives of the old Philosophers are more strictly and severely written by Laërtius, and other heathenish Historians, than the lives of our Saints by Chri­stians. [Page 3] Romanists, There we have you. Quoniam in­cidit in foveam, obruatur: Because he is fallen into a ditch of his own digging, throw durt upon him, bury im.

Now the Curtain is drawn, and we plainly see who they are that forsake, in the pursuit of their evil Ends by indirect Means, Viam Regiam, the Princely way of Psalm 40. 4. Truth, and turn aside to lyes. When water leaves its Channel, and turns aside there to abide, it quickly stinks. The Vulgar Latin gives in the place of lyes, insaniasGod. Vulg. falsas, false madnesses: The Septuagint led the way, who render it [...], lying madnesses. St. Hierome Sept. diggs to the Root in the Hebrew, and calls it Pompam Mendacij, the Pontifical Pomp, or profession of a Lye: aS. Hier. Church-Lye going in holy State.

Give me leave to draw forth before you, as upon a Table, a Triangle of Questions, which all cast an eye upon holy Scripture. First: who is Pater Mendacio­rum, the Father of Lyes, so declared by the true God, and the same the God of Truth? Ye all know him, and it would be superfluous to name him. Now learn to know his Children: Ye shall truly know them by their Lyes. Secondly: who shall be excluded from the communion of Saints in Heaven, as the last and worst of all the Rout? The beloved Disciple as truly an­swers, whosoover loveth and maketh a lye: customarilyRevel. 22. 25 maketh it, because he loveth it. Thirdly, Why were not Pictures and Images entred of old into the Jewish Com­mon-wealth?Philo Jud. lib. de Gigant. Philo the Jew hands the Reason to us: Picturam atque Statuariam a suâ Repub. rejecit Moy­ses, quod veritatem mendaciis vitient, illudentes per oculos animabus facilibus: The Arts of Picture and Statuary, Moyses, inspired by God, rejected from his Com­mon-wealth, because they vitiate, that is, deflowr Truth with lyes, deluding easie Souls by the eyes. Moses, God's Vice-gerent, was greatly afraid even of dumb lyes, that have mouthes and speak not; of lyes in their very first ineaments of colour, and Figure.

Concerning the seventy Cells built in observance to the commands of Pt [...]loncy, whereas St. Justine gives to every Elder a Cell, St. Epiphanius one to every two, St. Hierom, to promote his Latin Edition, joines them altogether, and professes, Nescio quis primus Author sep­tuagintaS. Hierom. Praefat. in Pentateuchum. Cellulas Alexandriae mendacio suo extruxerit: I know not who as the first Author built seventy Cells at Alexandria with a Lye. But I know the persons that have built seventy times-seven Babel-Towers in the Minds of Men with their Lyes. I most humbly call God to witnesse: I have been these forty years acquainted with Popish-Priests, of the which notwithstanding I never knew one (no verily not a little one) whom either in his words or practices I could reasonably difference from a theatrical Mountebank, or a nimble-finger'd Jugler.

Hitherto we have preambled. Now we state our Text: Ye shall know them by their fruits. It seems to be resisted (ex obliquo, obliquely) by the first words of the Chapter: Judge not, that ye be not judged. Howso­ever, Know we may, when Things are evidently demon­strated by their effects or Fruits. Scientia, saith Ari­stotle, est ejus, cujus est Demonstratio: we know a Thing when it is evident to us by Demonstration. Know we may: we may not judge. Knowledge draws life from evidence, D. Tho. p 1. q. 1. art. 6. ad 3. Aquinas speaks, cùm judicium ad sapientiam pertineat, VVhenas Judgement pertains to VVisdom. Does it so? Then as we know, we may judge also, if we judge ac­cording to the Dictates of VVisdom. To Christ the Son of God, to whom VVisdom is signally attributed, Judge­ment is likewise assigned. There are therefore two sorts of Judgement, Judicium rectum, Judicium temerarium, Right (otherwise call'd wise) Judgement, and rash Judge­ment. Judge not, that is, not rashly. Rash Judgement is, cùm Judicium fit ex incertis, & incognitis, when judge­ment is given concerning Things uncertain, and unknown. Right Judgement is, cùm Judicium fit ex notis, & evi­dentibus, when judgement is given concerning Things known, and evident. Knowledge and Right judgement will [Page 5] stand and stable together. Yea, the one necessarily sup­poses the other, and this other infers that one again. Right judgement supposes Knowledge, and, Knowledge in­fers Right Judgement. [...], Searcher and Know­er of the Heart is one of God's proper Titles: He only knows the Heart in the Heart: but we know and judge o­ther mens Hearts when out of the abundance of the Heart the mouth speak [...]th. Excellently Euaristus writing to theEvar. ep. 2: ad Epist. Aegypti. Bishops of Egypt, and alledged by Gratianus: Deus om­nipotens, ut nos a praecipitatae sententiae prolatione com­pe [...]ceret, cum omnia nuda & aperta sint oculis ejus, mala Sodomae noluit audica judicare, priusquam mani­feste agnosceret quae dicebantur: The omnipotent Ged that he might retract us from the precipice of rash Judgement, although all things are naked and open to his eyes, yet would not judge the sins of Sodom upon hearsay: he would ma­nifestly see the truth of the matter in the Theatre of pra­ctice, and expresse a conclusion from the secret Inwards of Experience. Not that God acquires Knowledge expe [...]i­mentally, or otherwayes; Experience being a knowledge gathered from par [...]iculars: but, for our learning. Unde ipse ait, saith my Author, Descendam, & C. The Lord said, because the Cry of Sodom and Gomorrah was great, ver. 21. I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether acco [...]ding to the cry of it, which is come un­to Gen. 18. 20▪ me, and of not, I will know. God seems not to know what he knows, that we may know what we know not: Knowing and seeing, he went down to see and know; that we may proceed from Evidence to Judgement

Our Knowledge and Judgement are grounded in this particular (and the like may be said hereafter concern­ing the Judgement and Knowledge of our Children, and of their children, and their childrens children to the end of the World) upon such Evidence as holy Scripture is abundantly satisfied with, yea such as, according to the level of Right Reason proportion'd to the Word of God, falls open [...], into a Quad [...]ate, the Figure of New Jerusalem, in quadro sitâ, fou [...]-squar'd. Which Know­ledge and Judgement if we or our children to the last man, [Page 6] should in a black day wave or lay aside, God our most gracious Father, Benefactor, and true Protector, would be most unworthily defrauded of his Worship and Glo­ry, most due to him, as performable by publick Acknow­ledgementPsalm 44. 1 and Thanksgiving. VVe have heard with our ears, O God, our Fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old, ver. 2. How thou didst drive out the Heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them, how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. Let us continue the Song, that God may continue his Deliverances: How thou didst deliver our most wise and most learned James King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, and all his Nobles, and People, from the most horrible and most derestable Usurpation of the Pa­pists attempted by a most hellish Powder-plot, and how the Traitours were caught by the very covert mention of their own Snare, and how thou didst afflict them with death, and cast them out; yea how thou didst continue the Go­vernment upon his Shoulder: which we most heartily and most humbly desire thee, notwithstanding all Popish and Popish-fashion'd Machinations, to continue likewise up­on his posterity for ever. Amen.

Know then we may, yea by fruits when they are evi­dent (as we see they are in our case), and from Know­ledge we may passe to Judgement. Now let us enquire further concerning these fruits: lest the Papists should imitate that impure person, who called his Whores by the name of the Muses, or be like the popish Painter, who preferred the picture of his Iewd Mistress, under the name of the blessed Virgin, that it might be wor­shipped.

First: These fruits have no correspondence or ana­logy with Christ, the Bridegroom of the Church, and of Souls, as he is described in his person, by his Eyes; in his ordinary practice, by his pasture or feeding; in his Office of Mediatorship, by his Name; in his extra­ordinary fruits, by his Obedience unto death; His eyes Cant. 5. 12 are as the eyes of Doves by the Rivers of waters. The Dove abiding with pleasure by the waters, discovers the [Page 7] Birds of prey in the Ayr by their shadows in the wa­ters, and then presently wings it in the Ayr for her security (there's all she does); shadowing innocent Christians, that in the Sallies of persecution should flye Cant. 6. 3 from City to City. He seedeth among the lillies. The lil­lies are not blood-colour'd, but white, pure, and lift­ed up by a long stalk from the pollutions of the Ground or Earth which open'd her mouth to receive the blood of Cain's brother Abel. His Names were Jesus, the Saviour, and the Lamb of God; in opposition to the De­stroyer and his Office: Our Lambs are innocent, but the Lamb of God was innocent, as God, superlatively in­nocent. As to the transcendent fruits of his Obedi­ence:Phil. 2. 8 he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Crosse. St. Gregory speaks applia­bly:S. Greg. lib. 35. Moralium in Job, cap. 12. Obedientia victimis praeponitur; quia per victimas aliena caro, per obedientiam vero voluntas propria ma­ctatur: Obedience is preferred before Sacrifice; because in Sacrifice other Things, in obedience our own wills and selves are kill [...]d; that is, mortified, and offered to God. He humbled himself, his whole self, and became obedient unto death. Death, saith Franzius, like the Lion, tears all.Franz. in Leone.

Secondly, These bloody fruits have no consangui­nity with the Spouse of Christ, which is the Church, and the Righteous Soul. The Church may be consider'd in her Name, deciphering her gracious Nature; in her different States, calme, and troubled; and in her perpe­tual practice. Open to me, saith Christ to his Church, my Cant. 5. 2 sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled. She is Christ's Sister, like him in Nature, and in deportment; his Love, his beloved Sister, because like him, and likenesse causes liking; his Dove, because harmlesse as the Dove, and like him in his dear Innocency; his Ʋndefiled, be­cause his Dove, the Dove not being defiled with blood. The Council of Aix declared: Meminisse oportet,Concil. Aquis­granense, Can. 134. quia Columba est in divinis Scripturis Ecclesia appellata, quae non unguibus lacerat, sed alis piè percutit: It be­hoveth us all to remember, that the Church is stiled in holy Scripture, an innocent Dove for her Gentlenesse, which [Page 8] tears not with Talents, but piously strikes with her wings. In Statu Pacato; in her State of peace and prosperity, the Church is, as St. Cyprian pencils her, in operibusS. Cyp. ep. 4. Fratrum Candida, white in the works of the Brethren: these are the lilies among which, Christ feedeth: In Statu perturbato, in her state of Adversity and persecution, She is, as the same Father addeth in the same place, in Martyrum cruore purpurea, purple in the blood of her Martyrs: these are her Rod-Roses, and her truly-Chri­stianS Cypr. ibidem. Cant. 5. 10 Cardinals: she is, as her Beloved, white and ruddy. It is again appositely observed by St. Cyprian: Ut ap­pareret, Innocentes esse qui propter Christum necantur, Infantia innocens ob nomen ejus occisa est: That it might appear, those who dye for Christ should be harmlesse, S. Cypr. ep. 24. his very first Martyrs were innocent children baptized, Bap­tismo sanguinis, with the baptism of their own blood: and these were Primitiae Martyrum, the first fruits of the first Martyrs; and they were early fruits. For those whom the Casuists call Adultos, grown persons, Five con­ditions must concurre to the determining of a Martyr, whereof a chief-one is: That he who is martyred, must not resist his perfecutors in Act or Desirt: And there­fore, even Christian Souldiers fighting in Gods cause, are not Martyrs, though killed, because they do not imitate the Prince of Martyrs, who suffered Death with­out resistance. The practice of the most pure and pri­mitive Church, is also recounted and justified by this our primitive Doctour St. Cyprian: Nos laesos divina ultio defendet. Inde est, quod nemo nostrûm se ad­versus inju [...]tam violentiam, quamvis nimius, & copio­sus sit noster populus, ulciscatur: St. Cyprian here, layes Bellarmine with all his long Train of Scarlet, flat onS. Cypr. ad De­metriad. his back. God will revenge our wrongs: and therefore, not one of us doth lift up his hand against unjust violence, although our people be numerous, and our strength great.

Thirdly, These Angelical Missioners, as they pha­risaically stile themselves, are not in these their fruits, like the Angels, First: Because all the apparitions of An [...]els appearing like men in the Old Testament, lean­ed [Page 9] forwards with a special reference of similitude to­wards Christ. The Angelical Doctor fastens it: OmnesD. Tho p. 1. q. 51. art. 2. ad 1. enim Apparitiones veteris Testamenti ad i [...]lam appariti­onem ordina [...]ae sucrunt, q [...]â filius Dei apparuit in carne: For all the Apparitions of the old Testament were dire­cted and ordered towards that pr [...]ncipal, and most excellent Apparition, wherein the Son of God appeared in the Flesh. There their fruits bear no date of e [...]ction to Christ, or of semblance with him. Secondly, Because the An­gels never assame Bodies of Fire. (If a Spirit attempts to make a compact, he is a Devil; if he takes a Body of fire, he is a Devil: they are two most distinctive Marks of a Diabolical Apparition) The same Angel of Aquine suppe [...]itates the Reason, quia comburerent eaD. Tho. p. 1. q. 51. art. 2. arg. 3. S. Cyr. Alex. in cap. 1. Zachar. quae contingerent; they would then set on fire all they should touch, as these salt-peter fruits do. Thirdly, Be­cause Angels in holy Scripture are alwayes represented to us, as St. Cyril of Alexandria takes notice, [...], stantes, standing, to divulge and evidence their prompt­nesse, readinesse, and erected mind in their bringing all to the commands of God to execution: These Gunpowder and sulphureous fruits act for Hell and the Devil. Fourthly, Because Angeli illum gradum tenent in sub­stantiis spiritualibus, quem corpora coelestia in substan­tiisD. Tho. p. 1. q. 58. art. 3. in Corp. corporeis: The Angels hold that degree in spiritual substances, which the heavenly Bodies have and hold in the substances that are corporeal. The heavenly Bodies are sublime, placed above the Moon, and uncorrupt: Our corrupt and evil Angels dig their way to Hell under Ground.

Now whereas they are not like in these their fruits to Christ, nor to his Church, nor lastly to the good Angels; to whom at length (I pray) are they like? To the King of the strange Locusts in the Reve­lation. And they had a King over them, which is the Revel. 9. 11 angel of the bottomlesse pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. The Greek [...], is latin'd by the Vul­gar, exterminans, exterminating: Erasmus allows for itEdit. Vulg. Eras. [Page 10] perdens, destroying: According to the letter in the He­brew word Abaddon, the Result is Perditio, Destructio, Perdition, Destruction: the meaning is, a Destroyer so greatly destroying, that he seems to be Destruction it self. And the Greek hath expresly [...], the Dest [...]oyer, [...], eminently destroying: that is, his Eminence (which Title Pope Ʋrban the eight conferr'd upon his Cardinals, who before were but Illustrious) that is, I say, his Eminence the Angel of the bottomlesse Pit, whose whole and proper work is to destroy. They do the works of their Father the Devil: His children they are, and him only they are like.

And because we have retraited them back to their first Parentage, and originally derived them from the Devil, let us make further inquisition into these their devillish fruits, and better know them by these. First, They would have destroyed the most knowing, and most peaceable and Solomon-spirited King upon Earth, toge­ther with all the Royal Family, Root and Branch, by a sudden hellish Blow given from the sad inventions of an idle, yet over-busie Fryer; and all this, without the least preadvertisement of danger. Go, Turn over all the Annals of Indian Man-eaters, Turks, Barbarians, Jewes; the like was never storied of before: and yet, this was the plot of our understanding occidental and Sun-set Christians, presumptuously calling themselves Catholicks. Afterwards indeed, horrid mischiefs▪ have succeeded, but such as these had long taught by their foregoing Examples. By the way: They bespatter me, as if when I flew beyond the Seas; threatned and per­secuted by that blazing Meteor of a Supream power, or Ghost of Pope Hildebrand, Cromwell, I complied with them to secure my own Ends. Truly, whatsoever of Juggle they found in me, their former Jugglings with me taught me: I had been their Prentise. And I now best discover their monstrous Devices, because I know their Trade, know it speculatively, not practically. I return. This Powder-Blow would not have only de­stroyed the strong foundations of the Parliament-House [Page 11] and the Cities of Westminster and London, but also the whole foundation of three Kingdoms. For Kings are Scri­pture-call'd the strong foundations of the Earth. Answe­rably,Micah 6. 2 a King is named in the Greek Language, [...], quòd sit [...], populi Basis, because he is the basis and foundation of the peopl [...]. And the Hebrew word A­don, from whence comes Adonai, signifying Dominus, Lord, is borrowed from Eden, a basis or foundation. And if the foundation be subverted, all is Ruinated. Father Tompson the Jesuit, our Ghostly Father at Rome, when he often told us Schollars there, that his shirt had been many times wet in his digging under the Parliament-House upon this horrible account, intimated, that their intention was to bring up the foundation and all with a Powder. Kings agreeably to an old Stile, write, Nos, We? because they represent their whole people, and be­cause the well-being of their whole people resides and lives in them. If the Basilical Vein be cut, the whole Body of the people mortally bleeds. Principes & Prae­lati, it is the Doctrine of Aquinas, honorantur, etiamsi sint mali, in quantum gerunt personam Dei & Commu­nitatis, cui praeficiuntur: Princes and Prelates are ho­nour'd D. Tho. 2. 2 dae. q. 63. art. 3. in Corp. although they be evil, because they bear the person of God, and of the Community, over whom they are set. No Earthly power nor Action can divest a King of this Ho­nour, that he visibly bears the person of the invisible God as God is the supream Lord. A Bishop directly, and immediately represents God in his Goodnesse, Holi­nesse, Gentlenesse, Piety: a King in his Greatnesse, Majesty and Supremacy of executive power: the one as a King, the other as a Bishop.

Secondly, They would have destroyed all the flourish­ing Nobility of this Nation, many hundreds of the chief Gentry, many thousands of neighbouring people, where­of a main part were aged persons, women and innocent children; yea and children in the Womb, not baptized, and therefore according to them not capable of Glory; and a great part laden with sin unrepented of. It seldom happens, even in the most bloody Warres, as Vegetius [Page 12] notes, that old Men, old Women, young Maids, and lit­tleVeget. de Remilitari, lib. 3. children are not spar'd. And could ye not be con­tented, (O ye cruel-ones after the manner of Italy, cruel beyond the Grave and beyond Temporalities) to kill Bo­dies, but Souls must be kill'd too? O be mercifull now, if ye have relenting Hearts, if ye have any reflection up­on Antioch or Jerusalem, to these poor people on the brink and edge of horrible Danger. He that hath a boun­tifull Prov. 22. 9 Vulgatus In­terpres. Eye, shall be blessed. The vulgar Latin advances, Qui pronus est ad Misericordiam, benedic [...]tur: He that is prone to mercy, shall be blessed. The Hebrew deales forth primarily, Qui bonus est oculo, He that is good of Eye. Text. Hebr. And the Chaldee follows in the foot-step, Qui bonum oculum habet, He that hath a good Eye. Then we have aChald. Paraph. merciful eye, when we look mercifully upon those who are in misery, or in the confines of it. Zanchius is our Oratour: Indè dicta est Misericordia, quod Cordi no­bisZanch. de na­turà Dei, lib. 4. cap. 4. quaest. 1. sit aliena Miseria: Thence mercy was by the Latins call'd Misericordia; because by mercy, we lay close to our Hearts anothers Misery. But who do I require a mercifull eye, or the eyes of Doves in Wolfes, Tygers, Rocks; worse: Men in whom the Nature of Man is joyned with the Nature of Devils, as some report of Antichrist?

Thirdly: (I speak now of a Thing, which, I believe none of our Preachers ever thought of untill now:) They would have destroyed their own God, many times over: that is, burned his real Body, as they speak, in many places at once.

In this most abominable Plot, there was neither good order not measure, and yet the match was measur'd, ordred and appointed to deliver his mournfull and matchlesse arrant to the powder about the hour of ten or eleven in the morning: because it was supposed, that then the Par­liament-House would be full and compleat. These are the hours, wherein commonly their Priests run over their Masses, as the blind Be [...]ga [...] his prayers in the Spanish pamphlet: whereof some, but few were ingulfed in, or knew the plot. This was perfectly known to the plot­ters: as likewise, that hundreds of Priests were then scat­tered [Page 13] in and about Westminster. For they seat themselves here ordinarily, in great nu [...]b [...]; near to Courts, Par­liament-Houses, Innes of Court, Schoole; and Univer­sities, as watching for their Game. Therefore they had an intentional, wilfull, and explicite Designe to blow up their own God with their King. Here a most excellent Spirit of Elixir exerts it self: He tha [...] Reb [...]ls against his King, Rebels against his God: He that would destroy his King, would if he could, destroy his God stan [...]ing in his way: so neer, so twisted and united are the interests and affairs of God and a King; by reason that a King is in his Office so like to God, and so neerly subordinate to him. But hear me, ye that work in the Cellar there, I beseech you: Remember the Text, Hoc est corpus meum, This is my Body: Hic est sanguis meus, This is my Blood: And forget not your own Glosses: After the pronuntiation of the last syllable by the Priest in the words, This is my Body; there follows nothing but the Body of Christ ex vi verborum, by force of the words, but per Concomitantiam, by concomitance, there follows the Blood of Christ, the Soul of Christ, also the Son of God the second person in the Trinity, yea the whole Divinity: likewise after the last syllable in the pronunciation of the words, This is my Blood, there follows nothing but the blood of Christ▪ by the force of the words, but by conco­mit [...]nce, there follows the Body of Christ, the Soul of Christ; also the son of God the second person in the Tri­nity, yea the whole Divinity. Ye would have put fire to and blown up the Body of Christ, the Blood of Christ, and if it had fallen within your Sphere, the soul of Christ, al­so the son of God, the second person in the Trinity, yea the whole Divini [...]y; and this, twice wheresoever the blow should have found the Priest after the consecr [...]tion▪ and of [...]ner after the division of the Host. Was ever any Apparition from Hell, so frightfull and so full fraught with horrour, as the meer ayrie Relation of this most damnable Fire-work? Do we dream, or are we awake? Can this be true Veritate Rei, in the truth of the Thing, or Fact? In like manner, Beloved, They would have [Page 14] destroyed their King ex vi verborum, by the force of their immediate Purposes, Decrees, Designes; but they would have d [...]stroyed their God, if they could, per Concomi­tantiam, by concomitance: the Rights of God and of the King, being involved most rightly together. God is God per essentiam, by essence, and the King is God per simi­litudinem, by Similitude and Representation: I have said, Isalm 82. 6 Ye are Gods. There are Kings, and there are Viceroyes: There is a God, and there are Vice-Gods, visibly acting in the place of God towards their people. Summon your Attention, mark again; The Jesuits Riveted their Lay-Fellow-Plo [...]ters into this Luciferian Design by the receiving of the Sacrament: Thus began the first Act of the plot in the abuse of the Sacrament; and the destru­ction and most horrible abuse of the Sacrament, for the Godhead of which they so earnestly stickle, should have ended the last act of it. The Godhead of the Sacrament is much defended, but little regarded in case of Exigent. Insert here, I pray: Henry the seventh Emperour was poison'd by a Benedictine Monk, who impoison'd an Host, and gave it to him in the receiving of the Sacra­ment: an [...] Pope Victor the third died at the Altar, having there drunk of a poison'd Chalice. Rather than Jesuits or Monks will miss of their ends, Popes, Kings, Em­perours, God and all shall go. But, ye learned Masters of the dark Vault, heark ye once more. Have not ye taught me, that the Syriack Interpreter, Grandchild toSyrus Interp. to the Apostles, in the 14th. Chapter of St. Mark, in lieu of the original Words ingrafts words deserving aVe [...]sio [...]thio­pica. fair Asterisk; Hoc est ipsum corpus meum, This is my Body it self? And [...]hat in the six and twenti [...]th Chapter of St. Matth. the Ethiopick likewise imbodies: Haec ip­sa caro mea, This is my flesh it self; and Hic ipse sanguis meus, This is my Blood it self? Yea, that in the old Mass of St. Isidore, when the Priest recited, Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodiè, Give us this day our daily Bread, the Quire answer'd, Qui tu es Christe, which daily Bread in the first place, thou O Christ art; as beingMissa Sti Isi­dori. the first and most noble in Genere panis, in the Bread­kind? [Page 15] And moreover, that hence the rabid and furious Objection of the old Heathens against the Christians, took life, intimated by St. Cyril, [...], Myste­riumS. Cyril ep. ad Eutropium. nostrum pronuncias: You call our Mystery the eat­ing of man's flesh, Will ye blow up now the Body of Christ it self, the Blood of Christ it self, our daily Bread, which is Christ; the Mystery or Sacrament wh [...]ch St. Chrysostom calls [...], the Trophy of divine Love? And when I have objected on the behalf ofS. Chryosost. homil. 1. in Psalm. Miserere mei Deus. the Protestants, disputandi gratiâ, in a School-Di­spute, against your Doctrine, from Logick, Acciden­tis [...]sse est inesse; Or, Inhaerentia est de Essen [...]ia Acci­dentis, An Accident cannot be without a Subject; Have ye not answer'd: In naturals it is true, false and spu­rious in supernaturals? If we should require in matters of Faith, that the Object should come in Right and court­ing Lines to the Sense, and be coincident in every point with it; we should obstinately follow the Guidance of that Knowledge in the grand Affai [...] of Reli [...]ion and of the soul, which is common to us with Beasts, whose Heads are bow'd towards the Ground, and that are ut­terly nescient of him, who dwells above the Clouds and the Star-ey'd Firmament. Our senses are the Powers and Faculties of the Beast in us. Have ye not proceed­ed against me, explanandi causâ, to explain your Asserti­on? Shall you and I put limits to an infinite Power, able, as Learning of old gr [...]nted, to do more than humane understanding can understand? The Apostle signes it in the third Chapter to the Ephesians, Deus facere potest supra quàm petimus, aut intelligimus: God can do above what we ask or understand. Have ye not urged beyond all this? If Heathenish Art and Science must be solemnly and with sound of Trumpet, received in r [...]vealed Truths, they will dispirit Scripture; and innocent Divinity will be deplumed of her chief and Cardinal Articles. It is a Lo­gick Maxime, accepted into the Mathematicks: Quae sunt eadem uni tertio, sunt idem inter se. The Things that are the same with a third Thing, are the same Thing if examin'd in themselves and as they face one the other. [Page 16] This eliminates the Mysterie of the most blessed Trinity; wherein the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are the same essentially, but not p [...]rsonally. Philosophy Rules it: Ex nihilo nihil fit: Of Nothing comes Nothing. This throws to the Dunghill the Creation of the World. And Ari­sto [...]le confuted, as he thought, Bereschith Elohim bara, the beginning o [...] Genesis, In the Beginning God created, with this his Nothing-Rule; when by Chance he saw the Pen­tateuch. Philo [...]ophy holds forward; Omnis substantia maximè Rationalis, per [...]se subsistit: Every Substance, the R [...]tional especially, subsists of it self. There the mysteri­ous Incarnation of Christ, and the Hypostatical Ʋ [...]ion are disown'd, discounted, exauctorated, and contemned: the humane Nature in Christ, subsisting by the subsistence of the divine Word, to preserve Union in the person of Christ God and Man. Logick administers as principle-strong: A Privanone ad Habitum non fit Regressus: There is [...]o Re­gresse from the Privati [...]n to the Habit: And the Physitians and Chymists own it as an Apherisme. Here all the Mi­racles of Christ, and of his Apostles and Saints, are anathe­matiz'd and set going. Philosophy vomits up, Eadem nu­mero non redeunt, sed specie: The same numerical Things return not: Here the Resurrection is discountenanced and dismissed. You set a Logical or Philosophical Rule, quickned by the Light of Nature, to strugle and combate with a re­vealed Mystery clear to divine Light. O the divine Apostle in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, and the first Chapt. Nonne stultam fecit Deus sapientiam hujus Mundi? Hath n [...]t God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Infinite power doth every Thing equally, and with like facility; except that which is offered to the power, as St. Ambrose un­sheaths it, be Naturae ejus contrarium, contrary to the S. Am [...]r. An­not. in cap. 23. Numeror. Nature of God, or to some natural Attribute: As, Fa­ctum infectum facere, to make that a done Thing was not done, is contrary to his Truth; to sin is contrary to his Holi­nesse. Hither I have phras'd it as one of yours. Now I come to my self again. Should this Sacrament, contain­ing according to you the Holy of Holies, and to which all Arts and Sciences must yield and submit themselves, have [Page 17] been blown up in a moment, ye that would have done this, what will ye not do? Optatus Milevitanus Re­cords, that the Donatists threw this holy Sacrament toOpt. M [...]levit. lib. 2. contra Donatistas. the Dogs, and that the Dogs immediately destroyed their own M [...]sters who threw it to them; and that the Teeth which tore the one, tore the other also. What shall I say? Where shall I begin? How shall I end? O most execrable, un [...]athom'd, bottomlesse—! O that a Seraphim from Heaven, would furnish me with adequ [...]te and fit Words. I must desist: I cannot speak large enough to this immense and unspeakable mischief.

Certain Inferences pertain to this place; but because I have encountred a Sheet of Reasons why Roman-Ca­tholicks should not be persecuted; and my Inferences stand in diametrical Opposition to those Reasons, I shall lead up my Inferences, and set them in Battal [...]a against those Reasons. The Author Commences with an In­t [...]oduction, and therein, with an old Rule founded in Nature and exalted by Grace. Do ye unto others as ye would that others should do unto you. This Rule is im­moveable, where the Actions from both sides run in a Right Line of Morality. Moralitas Actûs est ejus Conformitas ad legem, The mortality of an Act is its S. Jo. Damasc. lib. 2. de or­thod fide, c. 29. conformity to the Law of God. Let the Author peruse Saint Damascen. In a good Judge personating his King on the Bench, there are two Wills, an antecedens Will, and a consequent Will: By his antecedent Will he wills well to a Prisoner at the Barr, even as well as to him­self, considering him, in his antecedent considerati [...]n of him, as a Man, and in his pure self: but when in the consequent con­sideration of him, he considers him with these Adjuncts, that the same Man hîc & nùnc is a Thief and homicide, and endangers the publick peace and safety, secundùm alle­gata & probata, according to the Things alledged and proved against him, his first and antecede [...]t consideration of him vanishes, and the Will belonging to it becomes a velleity and inefficacious, and by his consequent and judiciary Will he wills him to the Gallows. It would be ridiculous in such a Prisoner, to Retort upon the Judge before his Condemnation, Do as you would be [Page 18] done by; when as even the Judge himself, if reduced to the Prisoner's Condition, would naturally desire his own preservation, and plead not guilty. The same wills are in God, who according to his antecedent consideration of Mankind, will have all men to to be saved; many1 Tim. 2. 4 whereof notwithstanding, according to his consequent consideration of them, he reprobates by an act of his conse­quent and judiciary Will. Our Law-makers, and our Judges in the Execution of our Laws that are penal, act according to the fruits of men throughly known. And it is rottenly inferred concerning the Rule of Prudence, which teaches when you are encumbred with more inconveniences, to bear with the lesser. The Rot­tennesse here will easily appear to those who shall be pleased to reflect upon past Things: As, That an Armado was procured from forraign parts by the solicitation of En­glish Priests, to dest [...]oy their own Country. I have read a Latin Book at Rome, written by Father Parsons a Jesuit, wherein it was acknowledged, and justified: and I have heard it confessed, that many English Priests came with the Armado to direct and assist the Spaniards: Also, That the prime Inventers and plotters of the Gunpowder-Treason were Priests: Verily, dreadful evils have been performed afterwards, (I tremble in the remembrance of them:) But the Malefactors acted them as the Disciples of the Monks and Jesuits, and as followers of their Doctrines and Ex­amples. When our Law-makers and Judges consider Priests in their holy Names of Jesuits, Monks, Fryers, they wish that such if they will be Jesuits, Monks, Fryers, would, as Jesuits ought to do, imitate Jesus; as Monks, live solitarily and separately from the pomp of the world, wherein, saith St. Athanasius, such are as Fishes out of their Element;S. Athanas. in vitâ Sti. Ant. and like Fryers (that is, Brethren) abound in brotherly love: they wish to them, even as they wish to themselves in their own condition: But when they consider them in their wicked and Retrograde Fruits, they wisely Retard and sup­presse them by coërcive and agreeable Statutes. Salvianus Salvian: lib. 4. de Gubern. Dei. brings Honey to this Hiv [...]: Atrociùs sub sancti Nominis professione peccamus: We sin more grievously, when our [Page 19] sin breaketh out from under a glorious Name, and profession: Which two contrary conditions, occasion, that wise men consider such Persons two contrary wayes.

By his first Reason he claims the priviledge, that Christ's Church gave to the Jewish, to be buried with Honour; and that, as the Heathens were, they should be drawn to Truth by perswasion, and not by force. The first Branch of this first Reason discovers the Author to be either a Jesuit, Monk, Fryer, or Priest: Because the bottom or pedestal of this Branch is deep-fetch't out of Thomas Aquinas: whose words are: Sicuti homines mortuos servati aliquandiù an­teD. Tho. p. 2. dae, q. 103. art. 4. Conclus. sepulturam contingit: ita legalia (quae ut viva post Christi passionem servari sine peccato mortali non pote­rant) rectè ut mortua, à passione Christi ad Evangelii di­vulgationem servata, ut cum honore mortua mater Syna­goga sepeliretur: As it happens that the Bodies of dead men are sometimes kept before their burial, so the Legals (which after the passion of Christ could not be kept, as alive without a mortal sin) as dead, from the passion of Christ to the pro­mulgation of the Gospel were rightly kept, that the mother Sy­nagogue being dead, might be buried with honour. She was truly noble and honourable being alive, and therefore being dead was honourably and nobly buried. But when under pre­tence of an honourable Burial, a restlesse people deadly prejudicial to the Kingdom wherein they live, shall endea­vour to out-live and build up themselves upon the Ruines of those among whom they live, it alters the case substan­tially by a circumstance. If ye be not supprest, as now ye are, by the Laws, but may elbow it at your pleasure (I see it clearly behind the Curtain), more than a hundred thou­sand Subjects shall be drawn every year from their Alle­giance to his Majesty. St. Hie [...]om's complaint would thenS. Hierom, lib. a [...]versus Luci­f [...]anos: Tom. 2. quickly be applyed hither with a little Change: Ingemuit totus orbis, & Arrianum se esse miratus est: The whole world groaned, and wondred that it found it self Arrian up­on a sudden. Pope Gregory the 13th. that established mis­sions into all parts, gave ominiously for his Armes a flying Dragon vomiting poyson. I know what sublime Adver­tisements the predicant Jesuits give in their Sermons: such [Page 20] indeed as little suit with dead or dying people: For ex­ample: The Heavens are alwayes in motion: the Sun takes no rest: Fire is always in action: The Sea never sleeps: The soul is always busy in the exercise of her Faculties, active Vertues and Spirits: The Heart always panting: the eyes are always active when they are open: Life keeps the pulse in continual beating; and the breath alwayes a passenger coming or going. These are numb [...]ed amongst the choysest of God's crea­tu es; and therefore bear more likenesse of him in themselves, than meaner things. These ever work, and shall his Holiness, and we be idle? For the second Branch: The Church of England rightly and righteously draws you to Allegiance by Force: Your different Judgement in matters of Religion is only chastised in a geatle manner with a pecuni [...]ry mulct: Yea the Priests themselves are not otherwise punished, but as unquiet and known Seducers of the people from their Allegiance. And whereas St. Peter, after your stile, the first Pope, set these two so neerly together, Fear God, ho­nour 1 Pet. 2. 17 the King; the Church of England solidly concludes, That ye cannot fear nor serve God, except ye honour the the King: and that ye cannot serve the Sup [...]eam, except ye honour his Substitute.

His second Reason pretends, That the Roman Church must not be persecuted by the old Protestant, as confessing her to be a true Church, and professing her self to be sp [...]ung from her loynes: he must not defie his Mother for a VVhore. If the old Protestant throughly considers your Whorish false­hood and prostitution in the practice and exercise of Re­ligion, truly, That she confesses you to be a true Church, is more her Goodnesse than your Desert. And the Church of England does not spring from the loynes of the Church of Rome as the Church of Rome is a Whore, but as by the great providence of God there hath been preserved a continual succession of Priesthood in her. As the Church of Eng­land came of her, so she came from her, and communi­cates not with her in her Whorish considerations. When those occur, she looks beyond them, and honourably de­rives her self from the most chast and primitive Church. And therefore, the Church of England may desie the Church [Page 21] of Rome for a Whore, without biushing. For brevity-sake, I shall name here but one Whorish practice. The practice of ignorant people praying in an unknown Tongue, is Whorish. First, what prayer is, St. John Damascen, the Greek Lombard, hath O [...]acled, and the Schools have de­voutly received, who teach: [...].S. J. Damasc. lib. 1. de [...]ide orthod, cap. 14. Prayer is the ascension of the Mind to God. Prayer being in its Essence, the ascension of the Mind, the Mind as­cerds in the prayer as such. Secondly, Because our Ob­lation of prayer to God our Maker, should evenly concord with our making and Talents, Man worshipping God, qua­tenùs Homo est animal Rationale, as Man is a Reasonable creature. We therefore being originally enstamped reaso­nable and understanding creatures, agreeably to our Origin pray with understanding. For which cause where the psal­mist exh [...]rteth, ps [...]l [...]ite Sapien [...]èr, Sing ye wisely; the He­brewPsalm 47. 7 Bible setleth, maskil, in intelligentiâ, in understand­ing; and the Sept. prefer [...], intelligentèr, understan­dingly; and the English follows in the path, sing ye prayses with understanding. For the same cause the Apostle rigo­rously exacts of us rationabile obsequium, Reasonable ser­vice. Rom. 12. 1 Thirdly, Because prayer unites the Soul with God, and is therefore baptized in the Hebrew Language. Tephi­lah, with a Ray reflected from the Childaean Taphal, which signifies copulare, to u [...]ite or joyn: and like is best united with like, as Mind with Mind, understanding with understand­ing, and as our Wills are most perfected when united with the Will of God: God is Mens Aeterna, the Eternal Mind. Yea a loving, faithfull, and zealous prayer unites the Soul with God in the neerest conformity to the Beatifical Vi­sion: wherein according to the Thomists, Scotists, Bona­v [...]ntu [...]ists, the Mind or Understanding takes up and posses­ses the Founda [...]ion, and fundamentally essen [...]iats Blessednesse. Fourthly: Voluntas non agit ex Inco [...]nito, the VVill do [...]h doth not ordinarily work or act, authorized, summoned, or en­te [...]tained by an unknown Thing: and Intellectus praefert Vo­lunta [...]ilucernam, the understanding carries a Lamp or Lan­tho [...]n before the VVill: and the VVill is preportionably en­fl [...]m [...]d as the Ʋnderstanding gives evidence Fifthly, Be­cause [Page 22] in a Regulated prayer the Soul is hol [...]causted; all be­ing offered to God: and if all, chiefly our chief and first Facul [...]y, our understanding: of the which, Aquinas; CùmD. Tho. p. 1. q. 12. art. 1. in Conclus. ultima hominis Beatitudo in altissimâ ejus operatione con­sistat: VVhereas the last blessednesse of Man consists in his highest operation. Sixthly and lastly: Because where the prayer is not understood, the Words, as compared to the understanding of him that prayeth, fall off into vain, and the Sense with them, and both are fruitlesse; and to offer such vain Ciphers unto God, or such a shell fruitlesse of the proper Kernel, is a part of niggardize, heterogeneous even from the first adventures of Worship, in the ancient and typical Sacrifices: wherein God required the finest flower, the First-fruits, the fattest Beasts, the choisest Birds. In Consideration of this Whorish practice, and many others, Rome I defie thee for a VVhore.

His third Reason contends for Liberty, in regard the Protestant acknowledges, that the Roman professeth all fun­damental Truth, and as so doing, is capable of eternal feli­city, which is our last End, and wherein all saved persons shall enjoy everlasting Friendship. The quarrel of the Protestants against you, upon which persecution is grounded, is created and heighthen'd from your Doctrines leading to Treason, and from the long experience which they have had of your turbulent and indefatigable Spirits. When a Thing done was enspirited and enthusiasm'd by Doctrine, it is honestly imputed to the Teachers and Authors of the Doctrine. True Christians are principled in a particular abomination of Murther, because their most beloved Lord was murther­ed; and they are themselves ready, not to murther others, but to be murthered as their dear Lord was: and consider men, though Heathens, not only as men, but as the Images of God whom they adore. Therefore they justly suppress as far as they can, the children of cursed Cain. How can a person be tolerated in a well-temper'd Nation, who takes it upon a religious account, that post latam Bullam Ex­communication is à Domino Papâ, after the Bull of Ex­communication is published by his Lord the Pope, he may kill the person excommunicated whosoever he be; that in the [Page 23] case of unjust Scandal, he may kill the Accusers, the Witnesses, yea the Judge himself; that if he hath defiled his Body with a Woman, and she give signes of a willing­nesse to divulge it, he may kill her; that if any one shall threaten to reveal the secret sins of a Community, he may be killed: (this part of Escobar the English Monks now in London, practised against me in the Bastille at Paris; they endeavoured to kill me, both by poyson and otherwise; and fathered the Reasons upon a Cause, the contrary of which was most true; let them now stand forth and clear themselves:) that he may, though the professed Servant of a buffeted Lord, to prevent a blow or buffet, or the Lye being given him, kill a man; that a Woman may procure abortion. The popish Casuists, Escobar, L [...]ssius, Zanchez, Diana, Reginaldus, Hurtado de Mendora, Bauny, are hea­vy-laden with such fruits. Are not the maintainers of these Doctrines, kill, kill, and nothing but kill, unsuffer­ableCoac. Constan­tiense Sess. 13. sub Martino 5. amongst pious Christians? What the Council of Con­stance defined in defiance and hatred of Wicklef, is evident; and in what circumstances the Jesuits of Paris being terri­fied by the Parisian Parliament, renounced Mariana, I am assured. No Jesuit sets forth a Book, but first approved by three Jesuits whom his Provincial names: neither can they act any matter of great consequence, as the Gun­powder-Treason was, without the knowledge of the Pope, to whom they are obliged by a particular Vow of Obedi­ence. In the last place, let me tell you, you are highly beholding to the Protestants, that they give no definitive Sentence against you in the businesse of your Salvation: You are not affected with like Civility towards them, when you damn them for Hereticks, and frequently cite against them, first, St. Cyprian, pronouncing, Habere jàm nonS. Cypr. lib. de Simplicitate Praelatorum. Concil. Latera­nense sab In­nocentio 3. cap. 1. potest Dominum Patrem, qui Ecclesiam non habet Ma­trem, He cannot have God for his Father, who hath not the Church for his Mother; and afterwards the Council of Lateran, Una est Fidelium Universalis Ecclesia, extra quam nemo salvatur, There is one universal Church of the Faithful, out of which no person is saved: and you under­stand by the Church, yea by the universal Church, the [Page 24] Church of Rome: and when you argue against them as fol­loweth; Shall we give away Salvation (a most holy Thing) to persons destitute of habitual Grace? Or, is habitual Grace given out of the true Church of God, united in one Lord, one Faith, except in the vertue of the Church, as in the baptizing of Infants or others amongst Hereticks or Infidels? Then to be of the Church or not of the Church, is of the same composure, fabrick, mineral, and mettal: [...], Uno Absurdo dato vel concesso,—, If we grant or sign a passe to one Absurdity; Schollars know the Catastrophy, and what fol­lows by necessary Concatenation. This Answer evacuats al­so his fourth and fifth Reasons.

In his sixth Reason he runs wide of his matter, and there is a palpable [...], Transition to a diffe­rent kind of Things from the Thing in question. That the Duke of Saxony with his Lutherans, and the Emperour, Head of the Papists in Germany, better agree, than either of them with Calvinists, is not our Businesse, because they are branched into several Governments, whereas the Prote­stants and Papists are here incorporated under one Prince. And his Instance in Hugonotes, is also absurd and absonous; the Hugonotes of France being Calvinists, and the Agree­ment being there sinewed, because the Kings of France have experienced the Hugonotes to be better Subjects than their own Popish-ones, Marshal Turin, General of the French King's Horse, is a most Honourable Example. When we break our limits that should bound our Discourse, it signifies we have almost done all within our Bounds thatGen. 3. 1. we can do. When the Text, sayes, Now the Serpent was more subtil: Aquila descends to the Root, and affords, [...], more pragmatical, more over-acting; and Pla­to's A [...]la: Plato in Menexeno. 2 Cor. 11. 3. word [...], is used by the Apostle, and signifies Craft that treads all ways, and tryes all works to do mischief. Note with me, that here in the beginning of Genesis, the first Book of holy Scripture, the Serpent into which the Devil ent [...]ed, hath his Name à Serpendo, from creeping; he was but a Creeper when he first began to plot against us; rhis being the first mention of the Devil in Scripture: Now the Ser­pent [Page 25] is in the length of Time grown into a Dragon, and he grew apace after the Monks and Jesuits came into the World; such we find him in the last Book of Scripture the Revelation, Michael and his Angels fought against the Dra­gon. Rev [...]. 12. [...] The Tayl of which Dragon, is now in England, in C [...]r­culum retorta, where it lyes in a circle round about us. St. E­piphanius teaches, That the Devil is called in Scripture, by S. E [...]ph. [...] in E [...] the Name of a Serpent; because the Serpent is omnium A­nimantium [...], the most winding and turning of all living creatures; and that he winds himself into circles and knots, and hath nothing of right and straight, or of innocent can­dour. He is called by Theodoret, [...], altogether wick­ed. Theodoret. lib. 1. Hist. cap. 2. Your out-walkings, windings, and insinuations, are now, the Devil being grown to a Dragon, most dangerous. I could speak to the seventh Reason, but it concerns Rag­gione di Stato, Reasons of State, which are above me.

His eighth Reason presses a Belief upon us; That the Roman-Catholick is an enemy to Innovation, and propitious to Monarchy, and that his Faith leads him to a strict obedience. These things are gloriously said; but as St. Justine writethS. Just. [...]. se [...] Co­hort. ad Grae­cos & Genti­les. to the Grecians, [...], Christian Religion is practical, and consists in works, not in words. I am half-perswaded, that here the Author of the Reasons mocks and scoffs at the Romanist [...]. Aquinas his Doctrine (restored by Bellarmine) in his Question, Utrùm Imago Christi sit adoranda adora­tione Latriae? where he resolves, That the Image of Christ or a Crucifix may be adored with the adoration of [...], be­ing a worship due to God alone; is it not an Innovation? [...], him only shalt thou serve with the service of [...]. (I charge you only with your most grosse Innova­tions.)D. Tho. p. 3. q. 25. a [...]t. 3. If ye be enemies to Innovation, why is not this Do­ctrine thrown out and condemned? Is it not an Innovation, of which Nicolaus Lyra mournfully complaineth, Aliquan­dòMatth. 4 10 in Ecclesiâ fit maxima deceptio populi in Miraculis fa­ctis à Sacerdotibus, vel eis adhaerentibus proptet lucrum: Sometimes the people are very greatly deluded in the Church, Nic. Lyr. Com­ment in cap. 14. Dan. se­cundùm Edit. Vulgat. by forged Miracles: the Priests or their Adherents forging them for gain? Is it not an other Innovation, of which irrefra­gable [Page 26] Alexander Hales treateth in sad terms: In Sacra­mentoAlex. Halens. part 4. quaest. 53. Memb 4. Art. 3. Solut. 2. apparet Caro, interdùm humanâ procuratione, in­terdùm operatione Diabolicâ: Flesh appears in the Sacra­ment sometimes by humane procuration, and sometimes by Diabolical [...]perati [...]? I could name a thousand of these. When you urge, That you are pr [...]pi [...]ious to Monarchy, the word pr [...]pitious is ill-plac'd. Propitiousnesse is of a Superiour to an In [...]eriour, as Oratio est Inferio is, Prayer is of an In­feri [...]ur to a Superiour; Deus, esto propitius, cryes the Pub­lican, God be proptious to me a sinner. Mona [...]chs and Mo­narchy are very much engaged to you that you are propiti­ous to them. In good sooth, you honour Monarchy in or­der to your Pope and his Supporters, as appears by these your Arguments; St. Thomas his Ground is irresistible: Deus omnibus providet secundùm quod competit eorum naturae: God provides for all things agreeably to their natures: D. Tho. p. 1. q. 1. art. 9. in Corp. The Church m [...]litant is partly visible, and invisible partly; Visible in respect of our persons and Bodies, and in regard of our Souls invisible: Why then as she hath a Head in­visible, ought she not to have likewise a visible Head homo­geneous with her visible condition? And whereas according to Heaven-born Divinity, Praedestinatio est pars nobilissi­sima divinae providentiae. Predestinat [...]on is the most noble p [...]rt of divine providence, excellently dealing and disposing con­cerning the last and ul [...]imate end of God's people; If Mo­narchy be the Government of Heaven, and also the secu­r [...]st and most peace-preserving Form upon Earth, why should it be disanull'd in, and abrogated from the Church, which is the most noble and most excellent Convocation, conjunction, and society of people upon Earth, and the society without the Steerige of which we cannot arrive at our last End? The Ground-Axioms are also most noble: The one is mansion'd within the Territories of Philosophy, Quod inest nobiliori, nobilius est, That which is in the more noble, is the more noble: this being verified also in Aristo­cracy and Democracy aequo librili, aequâ simbellae state â per­pensis, weigh'd justly together: The other shines tan­quam densior pars sui Orbis, like a Star, in St. Justin, [...] S. Just. Cohort. ad Graecos. [...], Monarchy, as such, [Page 27] is discord-free. Here ends your Discourse. But how long have you honour'd Monarchy in order to your own Prin­ces? Shall we date the time from the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, or from the Spanish Fleet in­clusivè, or from the Gunpowder-Treason? That many of you have been actually and externally loyal to his Majesty in his Troubles, I joyfully confesse: but whether this was done in Sensu Composito, because your Interest was ob­jectively connexed with his Majestie's Right, or in Sensu di­viso, for pure love of God and the King, examine your Hearts and Consciences: This objective precision, this di­vine Alchymie is not the work of every Day; I was in the company of four English Monks here, on that mournfull Day wherein the best of all Christian Kings then living, was most barbarously murthered; and they all spake of him underfoot and contemptibly. St. Austin hath taught me:S. Aug. Homil. 38. Qui amicum propter commodum quodlibe [...] amat, non a­micum convincitur am [...]re, sed commodum: He that loves his friend for the profit he reaps by him, is convinced, not to love his friend but the profit. For the last Clause, concern­ing your Faith, look back upon what is already cleared.

His ninth Reason presents an Answer to the Objection, That the Roman-Catholick holds positions inconsistent with good Government, either in Church or State. But the Author so behaves himself in his Answer, that if I durst loosen my Soul a little, I would contemn him, yea desist from anato­mizing further into his Reasons. He answers as no Man of his Fox-fur, but himself, would answer: And therefore this Answer, may happily gain some favour for him, yet cannot prevail for others. He defears all the Councils, which, if general, are universally judged by popish Recu­sants infallible. Although this one Priest may be White, all the rest all black. Whosoever he be, he is as St. Bernard S. Bern. ep. 249. ad Ber­nardum Prio­rem. Sept. in cap. 13. Is. shapes him, quaedam Chimaera sui saeculi, a certain Chimaera of his Age, or a kind of [...] in the Septuagint▪ half Romes and half Englands; and puts me in mind of the Arch-bishop Petrus Tenorius, who after a long Disputati­on, equally bandied concerning the Salvation of Solomon, pictured him half in Heaven and half in Hell. His [Page 28] tenth Reason sinks with his ninth, as depending upon it.

His eleventh Reason disburses, That persecution forceth Roman-Catholicks to put themselves in danger to be made disloyal and practice disloyalty; first, by carrying news to Em­bassadours he [...]e, and secondly, by sending their Children be­yond the Seas, there to be taught by the Enemies of England. He that puts himself in the neer danger of a Sin, sins. But a man cannot be forced to sin. All sin is voluntarily commit­ted; and voluntas non cogitur, the will is not forced. Tho­mas Aquinas sets up his Flag for us: Homicida est per se & D. Tho. p. 2. d [...], q 73. art. 8. ad 3. sufficiens causa Corporalis mortis: Spiritua is autem mo [...] ­tis nullus potest esse alteri Causa per se sufficiens: quia nul­lus Spiritualitèr moritur, nisi propriâ voluntare peccando: An Homicide or Murderer is the proper and sufficient cause of the corpor [...]l death of him whom he kills: but no man can be to another a proper and sufficient (so Cajetan senses the words) cause of spiritual death: because no m [...]n dies spiritually, but by sinning with his own proper will. Such News-Carriers and Homebred Intelligencers I have known many. He was a Priest and a Fryer, that had long playd the Intelligencer on both sides, and at length solaced himself in his mirth at Brussels, with this remarkable encouragement, The Pope and Cromwel shall pay for all. And concerning the Chil­dren of Papists, except they may, not be taught only, but also priested here; Father Robert Anderton the Monk, sta­tion'd in Lincolns-Inne Fields, will carry them abroad; and therefore, the State of England hath reason to fear, that whereas you have a potent party abroad, and in this regard are more dreadful and dangerous than others, many of your party being our Enemies by your instigation, you will, if not supprest and overlook't by all who do [...], return to your old Trade of delving and digging your own Graves. The voyce of thy Thunder in the Heaven, or in the Sphere; Psalm 77. 18 the original Word with like affection importing a Sphere, a Wheel, and every thing the motion of which is circular: which moved the vulgar Latin to run parallel with ourEdit. Vulg. sense, Vox Tonitrui tui in rotâ, The voyce of thy Thunder (or of Mens Thunder-plots which God permits as far as he pleases) is heard in the motion of the wheel: And the same [Page 29] Prophet prayes against plotters, O my God, make them like a wheel, which continually returns to the same place wherePsalm 83. 13 Psalm 12. 8 it was. For, The wicked walk on every side, The Vulgar hath, In circuitu impii ambulant, The wicked walk in a circuit or Circle. Circulus in Mathematicis perfectissimus, imperfe­ctissimus in Moralibus: A Circle is most perfect in the Ma­thematicks, in Morals most imperfect. The marrow-Truth is, The Councils named in your ninth Reason, and your Casuists, urge you to disl [...]yaltie, namely the Council of Flo­rence defining for the Popes Universality of Jurisdiction, and the Lateran Council for his power in Temporalities indirect [...]y called indirect, directly to depose Princes by their own Subjects.

His twelf Reason is drawn ab improbabili, from an im­probable Thing? it seeming altogether improbable, That li­berty granted to Papists should destroy the setled Religion of England, because Protestants have the use of Scripture in their own Tongue, and amongst the Papists here even the ser­vice is private, and the want of Preachers very great. In­truth, your lazy Monks are great enemies to Preaching: But, howsoever ye scar [...] it, ye pervert people without end, and without number: Every one of your Emissaries is a kind of Ʋlysses, praised by Homer with this Elogy, [...] Hom. in 'O­ [...]. [...], he knew the Cities, and manners of many people. If your Hopes be not erected to the perverting of this Nation, and if ye do not serve Baalzebub, that is, [...], the God of corrupting Flyes, why is it written over the Porch of the English Colledge at St. Omers in Golden Letters, Jesu converte Angliam,, Fiat, Fiat, Jesus convert England, Amen, Amen? And why do ye now boast every day of twenty strange Things which I have received from person's of Trust, and have in deposito, but will not name for fear of poysoning the people as ye do? Yet thus much: The Head of us, though he be most honourably grateful to you for your service upon what Ground soever it was per­formed, yet is not of your Feather. I go not in chase of preferment: St. Hierome thus puts the last stamp upon theS. Hier. ep. ad Paulin. soft Heart of Paulinus, to whom he writes, Facilè contem­nit omnia qui se sempèr cogicat esse moriturum, He doth [Page 30] easily contemn, and with a violent hand throw under him all things, who thinks he stands alwayes with one foot in his Grave: I speak with a deliberate meditation upon the hour of my death and the day of Judgement; when he was in Germany, Brussels, France, my most innocent Necessi­ties carried me to all these places, in all which I saw the most noble Things done by him in the profession and Ex­altation of Protestant Religion that any Princely Soul could act; and particularly in France I saw a young person, and the same high-born freed by his most zealous Com­mands from eminent and iminent danger of Popery, and all this, in his lowest ebbs: and when Popish Princes highly courted him in order to his Restitution. Those people have hearts steeped in the Gaul of bitternesse, yea in the poyson of Dragons, that will not believe the right Sterige of mens hearts, untill the men be open'd, and they see their entrals. Away, away, scatter no more suspitions and false Rumours. I should gladly meet with a Papist that can speak Truth of High, or Low. It is truth, which Tertullian speaketh ofTert. in Apo­loget. cap. 7. lying Fame: Quae nec tunc quidem cùm aliquid veri af­fert, sine mendacii vitio est, detrahens, adjiciens, demutans de veritate: which neither then truly when it proposeth a true Thing, is without the scar of a Lye; drawing from, putting to, and changing the truth. And be a little more humble, and peaceable in your Carriages: the very hopes of a To­leration had so transported you, that a Minister could scarcely passe in the streets by your Shops, but reproached and abused by you: Yea, I was present the other day, when a Jesuit having crept into a House, and standing by a fire, Ansatus with his arms hook't up to his sides, professed against the Master of it being a Minister, that he had more to do in his house than he. Whither will these people drag us, if they be suffered? It is my Road, when an insolent Sect is most high and proud, to catch at the very Head of it: I wrote against Presbyterians, and Anabaptists, when they took their turns at the Helm, and for the divine Right of Episco­pacy, when humane Helps were depressed. I have a Sigh coming, and a Groan after it, that Ʋshers a word or two: O that unwise ewe, which gave suck to the forsaken whelps of a [Page 31] wolf; that afterwards destroyed her & her young, & all the flock!

His last Reason, he says, is rather a Request than a new Reason. And my Answer shall be like i [...]: Our Church-Go­vernours are desired to consider whether a Toleration of Papists would not encrease their Power: And I likewise m [...]st humbly desire them to consider, whether it would no bring their P [...]wer to the Grave, and there leave it. Secondly: They are entreated to consider, whether their first Consecrators, were themselves truly consecrated, that they may be reverenced by Papists, according to their Character, and obeyed accordingly: and I most humbly desire them to consider, That this is a Desire in the Ayr, where Aristophanes his Birds built a Ci­ty;Aristoph. in Av [...]b. for, the Papists believe it not. Thirdly: Protestants are beseeched to lo [...]k upon them as their Fellow-Souldiers in defence of their Kings: and I most humbly desire all men to consider, that it was both our Duties, and requisite that both we and they should know and keep the Conditions of a just War: whereof the first is, Auctoritas legitima, a lawful Authority: which is, the Authority of a Prince, or of a supream Power: Because Princes and supream Powers have no common Tribunal, at which they may a [...]cuse other supream Powers and Princes: Secondly, causa justa, a just Cause: which is, The repulsing of notorious and great Injuries: the repulsing of which, is a more eligible Good, than the Good lost by the evil of War, that the Prince may defend the people subjected to him, now greatly damnifi­ed by the Enemy. Thirdly: Intentio bona, a good Inten­tion, the End of War being, ut in pace vivamus, that we may live in peace. Fourthly: Modus debitus, a due man­ner: Christoph. Mar­cellus Orat. habitâ in Con­cil. Lateran. sub Julio 2. Sess. 4. which enjoynes the taking off all possible care, that the Innocent be not endamaged. In this their Desire, it is question'd whether any Roman-Catholick hath been false to his Majesty: and I humbly desire the Protestants to consi­der, that much may be said in this businesse above what hath already passed in the stream. I have heard extraor­dinary Things from a great Statesman of France, and an other of Italy in the Bastille. And had not the two Filli olei, according to the Hebrew and the Vulgar Latin, Sons Zach. 4. 14. of Oyl, as they may be called out of the Prophet Zachary, [Page 32] the one by Land, and the other by Sea, done their Duties, stange and prodigious Things had followed. We are, the God of patience and consolation be blessed, set in joint, and I will not blab abroad my Secret. Answerably to Aquila Aquil. Theodot. Sept. Syr. Arab. Antiochen. Arab. Alex­andr. and Theodotion, they are Filii Splendoris, or Claritatis, Sons of splendour or Clarity: The Septuagint, Syriack, and Arabick of Antioch deal out, Filii pinguedinis, Sons of fatnesse: The Arabick of Alexandria, filii Misericordiae, Sons of Mercy, Oyl being a Symbol of Mercy. God Re­ward them in his infinite Mercy: who rewardeth every one according to his works and fruits: and God preserve his Majesty, and grant that as he is set above us, so he may walk with God, and before us by a most perfect Ex­ample.

Amen.

Laus Deo Liberatori: Praise be unto God our Deliverer.