CHAP. XLIX. Their last course is to turn to open Hostility, and stir up Princes to war and blood
CHAP. XLIX. Their last course is to turn to open Hostility, and stir up Princes to war and blood.
D etect. 40. Their last course when all other fail, is, To turn from Fraud to Force, and open Violence, stirring up Princes to wars and bloodshed, that they may destroy the professors of the Reformed Religion, as far as they are able, and do that by flames and sword, by halters, and hatches, which they cannot do by Argument? Hence have proceeded the bloody butcheries of the poor Waldenses and Albigenses, formerly and now again of late; and the wars in Bohemia, the League and wars, and Massacres in France, the desolating wars of Germany, the plots, invasions and wars in England: Most of the flames in Christendom of late ages have been kindled for the Pope by his Agents, that he might warm him by that fire that others are consumed by. Hence his own pretenses to the Temporal Sword, and so many volumes written to justify it, and so many Tragedies acted in the execution. And yet these men cry up Antiquity and Tradition. I wonder what
Bishop in all the world for above three hundred years after Christ, did ever claim or exercise the temporal sword, as much as to be a Justice of Peace?
Nay it was their judgment that it did not belong to them. Neither the Pope
nor any Bishop on earth, as such, hath anything to do with the coercive power of the sword; nor may not inflict the smallest penalty on body or purse, but only guide men by the Word of God; and the utmost penalty they can inflict is, to excommunicate them. And they have nothing to do to destroy men, when they have excommunicated them, nor to cause the Magistrate to do it: but rather should still endeavor their Conversion.
Synesius Epistol. 57, against Andronicus saith as followeth [ὁ πολιτικῶς, &c. To join together secular government with the Priesthood, is to tie together things that are incoherent (or such as cannot be tied together) The old times made the same men Priests and Judges: For the Egyptians and Hebrews did long make use of the Government of Priests. But afterward, as seems to me, when God's work began to be done in a human manner, God separated the two sorts of life, and one of them was made sacred, and the other appointed for Rule and Command. For some he turned to these
Material (or common, secular) things, and some he associated with himself:
The former were appointed for secular business; the later for prayer. But from both doth God require that which is honest (or Good.) Why then dost thou revoke this? Why wilt thou conjoin what God hath separated? Who wouldst not have us indeed to do the work of secular Rulers, but by doing it to deprave (or mar) it; then which what can be more unhappy? Dost thou need a Ruler? (or Patron) Go to him that manageth the Laws of the Commonwealth. Dost thou need God in anything? Go to the Bishop (or Priest) of the City: not that thou shalt be sure there to have all that thou desirest, but that I will afford thee the best assistance that I can (or will do my best in it.) So far Synesius: Which I wonder how Petavius could pass over without some distorting observation, considering how low it treads the Roman Kingdom. But Baronius had the cunning as to extract even from
hence some advantage to his cause, even to show the Power that Pastors have to excommunicate Rulers (ad An. 411.) as Synesius with the Council did Andronicus. But 1. He went not out of his own circuit to play the Bishop in other men's Diocese. 2. Much less did he take up the Temporal
Sword against him, but disclaimeth and detesteth any such thing. Why doth not the Pope when he hath past his Excommunications, content himself that he hath done his part; but he must excite Princes, yea force them to execute his rage, and fall upon the Lives and Dominions of such Princes as he will call Heretical? He knows how small account would be made of his brutish thunderbolts, if he had not a secular Arm to follow them: Nay why is he and many of his Cardinals and Bishops, secular Princes themselves? Why joineth he those Functions of Magistracy and Priesthood which Synesius here tells us God hath separated, and made incoherent in one and the same person? Let the Pope usurp what Ecclesiastical power he please, he would not so much disturb the Church by it, if he did not second it by another power. It is violence that he trusteth too. He knows if it were not for Arms and Violence, he would soon be spewed out by the Christian world. And yet many of his followers that seem more moderate, confess he hath nothing to do as Pope with any but the Spiritual Sword (which works no further then
Conscience doth consent and yield.) And yet his Kingdom standeth on those legs, which the doctrine of these more moderate men do disown.
The same doctrine also Bernard taught the Pope himself. Ad Eugen. P. R. de Considerat. l. 2. Saying [Quid tibi dimisit S. Apostolus? &c. What did the holy Apostle leave thee? Such as I have saith he, that give I to thee: And what was that? One thing I am sure of; it was not gold, nor silver, when he said himself, Silver and gold have I none. If thou canst claim this by any other title, so let it be; but not by Apostolical right: For he could not give
thee that which he had not: such as he had, he gave, a care of the Churches, but did he give thee a domination? Hear himself [Not as Lord's (or Ruling as Lord's) saith he, in the Clergy (or heritage) but as examples of the flock.
And less thou think that he spoke it only in humility, and not in verity, it is the voice of the Lord himself in the Gospel: The Kings of the Gentiles rule over them, and they that have power over them, as called Benefactors, (or Bounteous) and he inferreth [But you shall not be so] It is plain, that Domination is forbidden the Apostles. Go thou therefore, and usurp if thou darest, either Apostleship whilst thou Rulest as a Lord, or a Lordly Rule (or Domination) while thou art Apostolic. Plainly thou art forbidden one of the two: If thou wilt have both alike, thou losest both.] So far Bernard. By whose verdict the Pope and his Bishops are deprived of both; by grasping at both long ago.
Nay the Pope makes himself a Temporal Prince in every Princes Dominion on earth, where he is able to do it, and takes all the Clergy out of their Government into his own. So that actually he hath dispossessed them of part of their Dominion already, by taking so considerable a part of their subjects from under their power, yea and those that have so great an influence upon all the rest: What by public Preaching, and Churchgoverning, and secret Confessing, and dependence on them for the Sacraments, one would think it should be no hard matter for a Romish allowed numerous Clergy, to be Masters of any Kingdom where they are.
And thus Princes are more than half conquered already, without a war. If any believe not that the Pope doth not thus exempt his Clergy from the secular power, it is because he knows not their most notorious principles and practices. Nay even in England, in King Charles his Articles for the Spanish match, the Pope had the confidence to demand this Prerogative,
and therefore himself added to the sixteenth Article, which freed them from Laws about Religion, [Ecclesiastici vero nullis legibus subjaceant, nisi suorum superiorum Ecclesiasticorum] that is [Ecclesiastic persons shall be under no Law, but of their Superior Ecclesiastics (or Churchmen)]. Is not this plain English? See Prynne's Introduct. p. 6. So that no Church-man must be under any Law of the Land, or Government of Secular Princes. And when they have such a strength in our own Garrisons, a foreign Enemy is easily let in. To the exciting of whom they will never be wanting, having their Agents in one garb or other at the ears of the Princes and States in Christendom, and of most of the Great and Noble persons that are deeply interested in the Government. Yea, and with Infidel Princes sometimes, as Cyril the Patriarch of Constantinople proved, to the loss of his life, for being so much against the Papists. And the more cause have all Christian
Princes and States to be vigilant against these incendiaries, 1. Because they trust to War and Violence, and build their Kingdom on it, and therefore study it day and night. 2. And because they have such a fry of politick
Jesuits all abroad continually upon the design; whose contrivances and endeavors are day and night to bring Princes and Nations to their will, and to kindle divisions and wars among them to attain their Ends. They make a trade of this employment. And expert prepared men, that follow a business all their days, are like enough to make something of it at last; especially while others sleep, or silently look on, and let them alone to play their game. If the Papists can but get into the Saddle, either by deceiving the Rulers, or Commanders, or by bringing foreign force against us, they will give us leave to dispute, and write, and preach against them, and laugh at us that will stand talking only, while they are working: And when the Sword is in their hand, they will soon answer all our Arguments, with a fagot, a
hatchet, or halter; Smithfield confuted the Protestants, that both the Universities could not confute. Their Inquisition is a School where they dispute more advantageously then in Academies. Though all the Learned men in the world could not confute the poor Albigenses, Waldenses and Bohemians, yet by these Iron Arguments they had men that presently stopped the mouths of many thousands, if not hundred thousands of them:
Even as the Mohammedans confute the Christians. A Strappado is a knotty Argument. In how few days did they confute thirty thousand Protestants in and about Paris, till they left them not (on earth) a word to say. In how few weeks space did the ignorant Irish thus stop the mouths of many thousand
Protestants? Even in Ulster alone, as is strongly conjectured, by testimony on Oath, about a hundred and fifty thousand men were mortally silenced:
Alas we now find that the poor Irish commonly know but little more of Christ, but that he is a better man of the two then Saint Patrick: And therefore how long might they have been before they could have silenced so many Protestants any other way? There's nothing like stone-dead, with a Papist. They love not to tire themselves with Disputes, when the business may be sooner and more successfully dispatched.
Well, seeing this is the way that they are resolved on, and no peaceable motions will serve for the preventing it, all men that have care of the Church and Cause of Jesus Christ, and the happiness of their posterity, have cause to stand on watch and guard: Not to be cruel to them (leave that to themselves,) but to be secured from their cruelty. I should be abundantly more earnest than I am, to press all men to such a patience and submission in Causes of Religion, as leaves all to God alone, but that we all see how the Papists are still at the door with the Swords in their hands, and watching for an opportunity to break in. And if in modesty we stand still and let them
alone, they will give us free leave when they have the day, to call them Traitors, or perfidious, or what we please. Let losers talk: Let them have the Rule, and then make the best you can of your Arguments. If they can once get England and other Protestant Countries, into the case of Spain and Italy, their Treachery shall not be cast in their teeth; for they will leave none alive and at liberty to do it. When we see in good sadness that it is Navies, and Armies, and stabbings of Kings, and Powder-plots, and Massacres that we have to dispute against, it's time to be able to Answer them in their own way, or we lose the day. It is not a good Cause, or wit, or learning, or honesty, that will then serve turn. I know God is all-sufficient for his
Church, and in him must be our Trust: But he requireth us to expect his blessing in the use of lawful probable means. He can give us Corn without plowing, and sowing: but we have little reason to forbear these and expect it: He can Convert men without preaching: But yet the blessing of God doth presuppose Paul's planting, and Apollo's watering. He can Rule and Defend us without Magistrates, but it is not his appointed way. And he can save us from deceitful bloody men, without our care, and vigilancy and resistance: but it is not his ordinary appointed course in which he would have us look to him for deliverance.
And therefore in the Name of God let Princes and Parliaments be vigilant: for they watch for the outward security of the Church and Common-wealth
(as Ministers do for our spiritual well-fare) as those that must give account.
And let the people take heed what Parliament or Magistrates they choose:
And let all that love the Gospel, and the prosperity of the Christian world, and of their posterity, have their eyes in their head, and take heed of that bloody hand, that hath in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Savoy, Lowcountries, Germany, Bohemia, &c. already spilled so many streams of
Christian blood. If the Wise, the Learned, Moderate Lord du Plessis, was so zealous for the Lawfulness of Necessary Defense, as Grotius chargeth him, as to put it into his Testament, (whom he makes also the Author of Junius
Brutus, I know not on what ground) doubtless he knew with whom he had to do, and thought that every Guisian League was not a Law of God or of the King.
Some Princes think that it is their safest way to please the Pope and Jesuits, and so will be Papists, on the terms as some of the Indians worship the Devil, because he is so naught, that he may not hurt them. But these men were wiser, if they understood, that the malice of Infernal Spirits is not to be avoided by pleasing them, but by resisting them. They are too bad to be ever pleased by any means, but what will be your utter ruin: And they are not stronger than the Devil himself, who will fly if we resist him. If the best were not the most Powerful, what would become of the world? And if God be stronger than the Devil, he should rather be pleased then the Devil; for he is able to defend you from the Devils displeasure: and he is most able to hurt you if you be despisers of his power: which Justice will effect more certainly on the bad, then Satan's malice can do upon the good. Men think themselves wise, that shift for their safety by carnal and unlawful means:
But they shall all find at least, that plain honesty is the best policy, and the favor of God the best security, and a life of faith the most prudent life; and that shifting for yourselves in unbelieving ways, is the greatest folly. It is the design of the Papists by the strokes of Clements, Ravilliacks, Vauxes, and such others, to terrify Princes, that they may not dare to resist them, but may see that they have no hold of their lives while they are under their displeasure. But yet such as have most displeased them have scaped best. It is recorded by one, that the great King Henry of France, being persuaded to
stand it out against the Jesuits, answered, [Give me security for my Life then] And what a security did he find in his unbelieving way?
A thousand pities it is that Protestant Princes should not be united among themselves, that they might be strengthened for their joint Defense; But that the envious man should be able so far to over-wit them, as to sow among them the seeds of war, while they sleep, or selfishly mind their own affairs and interests: And a greater pity and shame it is, that the Ministers of the Gospel of peace should be the causes of these divisions, or should not do their best to heal them: But it is the greatest shame of all to us, that so many years experience of the calamitous effects of our Divisions, and so much industry of many worthy peaceable men, should do no more to a fuller
Reconciliation then yet is done. The names, and pacifying Labors of such as Duraeus, Davenant, Hall, Morton, Usher, Hayne, Dr. Morin, Amyraut,
Hottonus, Conradus, Bergius, Johannes Bergius, Georgius, Calixtus, Jerem:
Burroughs, and many more that have labored for peace, do live as Monuments of their honor and our dishonor, and do reflect much shame upon the faces of those Reformed Ministers and Churches that after all this are so much unreconciled: yea, that are not by the strongest motives and persuasives, so much as excited to zealous endeavors for the healing of our sad division; no nor some of them restrained from the passionate prosecution of their increase.
If yet any Papist, believing such false Histories as [the Image of both Churches] doth contain, or really finding any Protestants culpable, shall say, that we are as bad as they in wars or cruelty, and that Illiacos intra muros peccatur, & extra. I again reply, 1. That true History and experience tells the world, that there is no comparison between their excessive cruelties and ours. 2. Yet it is none of my desire or intent, to defend any person or people
that have been truly guilty in the least degree. 3. Our doctrine is against that which theirs doth own. 4. If either our Doctrine or practice have been amiss, we desire reproof and information, and are willing to reform them. The Word of God being our only Rule, if it appear that we have in any point misunderstood it, we desire nothing more than to be rectified, and then we shall confess our former faults before the world, and promise reformation.
For our Principles fix us not in Sin or Error. But the Papists are fixed in their Errors, and think there is a necessity lieth on them never to amend.
Now the Pope and a General Council hath already decreed that the Pope may depose Princes, and Absolve their subjects, and give their Lands to others; to amend this abominable error, is with them to give away all their cause, and to cease to be Papists. So that all Princes and People must necessarily despair of their amendment.