"Dehinc ut quiescant, porro raoneo, ct dcsinant Maledicere, malefacta ne noscant sua." — [Ter. And. Pro!., 22.]
The declaration made in the days of that king, that he was the head of the church of England, intended no more but that there Avas no other person in the world from whom any jurisdiction to be exer- cised in this church over his subjects might be derived, the supreme authority for all exterior governm.ent being vested in him alone. That this should be so, the word of God, the nature of the kingly office, and the ancient laws of this realm, do require. And I challenge our author to produce any one testimony of Scripture, or any one word out of any general council, or any one catholic father or writer, to give the least countenance to his assertion of two heads of the church
J 08 ANIMADVERSIONS ON A TREATISE
in his sense: " a head of influence, whicli is Jesus himself; and a head of government, which is the pope, in whom all the sacred hierarchy- ends/' This taking of one half of Christ's rule and headship out of his hand, and giving it to the pope, will not be salved by that expres- sion, thrust in by the way, " Under him : " for the headship of influence is distinctly ascribed unto Christ, and that of government to the pope; which evidently asserts that he is not, in the same manner, head unto his church in both these senses, but he in one, and the pope in another.
But whatever was the cause or occasion of the dissension between King Henry and the pope, it is certain Protestancy came into Eng- land by the same way and means that Christianity came into the world : the painful, pious professors and teachers of it sealed its truth with tlieir blood; and what more honourable entrance it could make, I neither know, nor can it be declared. Nor did England receive this doctrine from others; in the days of King Henry it did but revive that light which sprung up amongst us long before, and, by the fury of the pope and his adherents, had been a while suppressed. And it was with the blood of Englishmen, dying patiently and glori- ously in the flames, that the truth was sealed in the days of that king, who lived and died himself, as was said, in the profession of the Roman faith. The truth flourished yet more in the days of his pious and hopeful son. Some stop, our author tells us, was put to it in the days of Queen Mary. But what stop ? of what kind ? Of no other than that put to Christianity by Trajan, Diocletian, Julian : a stop by fire and sword, and all exquisite cruelties: which was broken through by the constant death and invincible patience and prayers of bishops, ministers, and people numberless; a stop that Rome hath cause to blush in the remembrance of, and all Protestants to rejoice, having their faith tried in the fire, and coming forth more precious than gold. Nor did Queen Elizabeth, as is falsely pretended, endeavour to continue that stop, but cordially, from the beginning of her reign, embraced that faith wherein she had before been instructed. And in the maintenance of it did God preserve her from all the plots, con- spiracies, and rebellions of the Papists, curses and depositions of the popes, with invasion of her kingdoms by his instigation; as also her renowned successor, with his whole regal posterity, from their con- trivance for their martyrdom and ruin. During the reign of those royal and magnificent princes, had the power and polity of the papal world been able to accomplish what the men of this innocent and quiet religion professedly designed, they had not had the advantage of the late miscarriages of some professing tlie Protesta,nt religion, in refer- ence to our late king, of glorious memory, to triumph in; though they had obtained that which would have been very desirable to them, and
ENTITLED FIAT LUX. ] 09
which we have but sorry evidence that they do not yet aim at and hope for. As for what he declares in the end of his 19th para- graph, about the Reformation here, that it followed wholly neither Luther nor Calvin, — which he intermixes with many unseemly taunts and reflections on our laws, government, and governors, — [it] is, as far as it is true, the glory of it. It Avas not Luther nor Calvin, but the word of God, and the practice of the primitive church, that Eng- land proposed for her rule and pattern in her reformation ; and where any of the reformers forsook them, she counted it her duty, without reflections on them or their ways, to walk in that safe one she had chosen out for herself
Nor shall I insist on his next paragraph, destined to the advance- ment of his interest, by a proclamation of the late tumults, seditions, and rebellions in these nations; which he ascribes to the Puritans. He hath got an advantage, and it is not equal we should persuade him to forego it; only I desire prudent men to consider what the importance of it is, as to this case in hand : for as to other considera- tions of the same things, they fall not within the compass of our present discourse. It is not of professions, but of persons, that he treats. The crimes that he insists on attend not any avowed princi- ples, but the men that have professed them. And if a rule of choosing or leaving religion may from thence be gathered, I know not any in the world that any can embrace ; much less can they rest in none at all. Professors of all religions have, in their seasons, sinfully mis- carried themselves, and troubled the world with their lusts ; and those Avho have possessed none, most of all. And of all that is called re- ligion, that of the Romanists might by this rule be first cashiered. The abominable, bestial lives of very many of their chief guides in whom they believe ; the tumults, seditions, rebellions, they have raised in the world ; the treasons, murders, conspiracies, they have counte- nanced, encouraged, and commended, would take u]3, not a single paragraph of a little treatise, but innumerable volumes, should they be but briefly reported. They do so already ; and, — which renders them abominable, whilst there is any in the world that see reason not to submit themselves unto the papal sovereignty, — their professed principles lead them to the same courses. And when men are brought to all the bestial subjection aimed at, yet pretences will not be want- ing to set on foot such practices; they were not in former days, when they had obtained an uncontrollable omnipotency. If our author supposeth this a rational way for the handling of differences in religion, that, leaving the consideration of the doctrines and princi- ples, we should insist on the vices and crimes, of those who have pro- fessed them, I can assure him he must expect the least advantage by it to his party of any in the world; nor need we choose any other