The English concord in ansvver to Becane's English iarre: together with a reply to Becan's Examen of the English Concord. By Richard Harris, Dr. in Diuinitie.

D^r. HARRIS Reply.

I Did not imagine the ignorance of this Iesuit to haue beene such, that, when I had set down the ex∣presse words of the Canon law, so triuiall, as being

notoriously knowen by the meanest students of that law; he could not haue readily found the place where those words are written. But sith I see the case of his ignorance to be so pittiful, I wil supply his want of skil. Let him therfore turne to the Clementines of Pope Cle∣ment the 5. Title 3. De Haereticis. cap. Ad vestrum, and there, vpon the Text-word, Ecclesiae, in the Glosse, (which is cited by the learnedst Canonists for good Canon law) he shal find written these very words and sullables: Omnes igitur sunt subiecti motioni illius (Pa∣pae): et sunt in illo, quasi membra de membro. de Elect. Sig∣nificasti. All are subiect to the motion of the Pope, & are in him, as members of the member the Head. Becane dare not deny this to be catholick and Canonicall popish-doc∣trine: not withstanding, it may be, he further desireth to hear a Text-Canon of another Author of Canons, touching this motion Papall, & the strange subiection thereunto. For this, let him turn to Dist. 40. cap. Si Pa∣pa. There shall he heare Boniface the Martyr vttering these Text Canonicall words; If the Pope, negligent of the saluation of his own sonle, & of others, should draw with him, by heapes, innumerable people, to be tortured with him by many plagues, or hellish torments eternally, they all must be so subiect to that his drawing motion, that hee may not be rebuked of any of them for that motion.

Or admit the Popes motion were, to forbid vertue, & to command vice: then (as saith Bellarmine) the vvhole Church, must be so subiect to that motion, as to belieue, that vice is good, and vertue euill, vnlesse they will sin against conscience. Is not this lowly good infernall subiection? Farre be it from any of vs to acknowledge any subiec∣tion to any such motions of our Kings or Queenes.

But why doth the Iesuit presume, to tell the mea∣ning of that Author, whom, as hee heere confesleth, he knoweth not? Let him learne more modestie heer∣after; and in the meane time knowe, that for members to be subiect to the motion of their Head (for example, the Church of Rome to their Pope-Head) is, not onely to obey the commaund of their head (as if the legges should moue, when the head would haue them moue) but to receine the vertue of motion from the head, with∣out which, they cannot moue at all.

Hence it is, that in great distemperatures of the head, as Apoplexies, or the like, the members are void of all motion. And so it fareth with the Church of Rome, and their Pope-Head: from whom, as from their Head (so saith their Canon) euen their Head of faith, GOD powreth out his gifts (the gifts of moti∣on) into all the members. Yet in such sort, as that with∣out partaking of the Pope-Head, GOD (saith Leo) powreth no gift or grace into any member.

God for bidde wee should acknowledge the King to be such an Head of motion, or wee bee subiect to any such motion. His Maiestie detesteth any such claime: and wee derest all such subiection. So little is the King preiudicated by this quotation.

Touching the scornfully obiected exemption of our Predicants from the Kings command: were your po∣pish shauelings borne in England, the Seminary Priests, and Iesuits, as loyall and obedient to the King, as our English Preachers are; the crown wold stand vpon the Kings head with more safety, & his subiects should eate the labours of their hands, and drink the water of their own wells with more security. Were your Priests & Iesuits

or confounded, none vvould hurt or destroy in all the mountaine of Gods holinesse. None would hatch the Cock∣atrise egges, or weaue the Spyders web, of Gun-powder treasons, and milhons of other trayterous complots, and bloudy conspiracies.

You, you are they who in very deed trouble Israell, and bring the whole Christian world into combusti∣on. It is a statute enacted in the heauēs, that euery soule, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,* 1.1 (as saith Chrysos̄tome writing vpon those words) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; be hee an Apostle, or Euangelist, or Prophet, or a∣ny other, Peter, Pope, or whosoeuer: should bee subiect to the higher Powers for conscience sake. But by the Popes statute or Canon, the vilest shaueling Priests aforesaid, are so exempted frō subiection to the highest Powers, Kings, and Emperours, that they are not bound to o∣bey them or their lawes, for Conscience, but onelie for Order sake.

Therefore they are not bound to giue, neither will they giue, to Caesar, that which is Caesars, viz. Tribute; for, Tribute belongs to him: nor Custom; yet Custom is due to him. They will not, as Saint Paul did, stand at Caesars iudgement seat, to be tryed there: much lesse will they, as Christ did, present themselues to that tri∣bunall vvhich hath power giuen to it from aboue, to bee condemned there. Some kind of reason they may haue for it; as this: They hold with Antichrist, why then should they follow Christ?

Touching the popish Layicks, If (as the Iesuit heere saith) all the Kings subiects vvithin his Realmes, are bound to obey the King; why doe they disobey him, euen in the face (beeing open and professed wilfull Recusants) to

come to Church, there to heare Gods word truely preached, and his Sacraments duely administred? to pray to God, & to praise God in the congregations of his Saints? Why doe they (against the law of God, of Nature, of Nations, and of their King) refuse to te∣stifie by oath their Allegiance to their Soueraigne? Why? vnlesse it be for that they want motion; as ha∣uing no vertue of motion thereunto, deriued vnto them, from their Pope-Head: or else, because they take them selues to be the subiects of the Pope, and not of the King. And this is indeede Preiudiciall to the King, in the highest degree.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Rom. 13. ver. 1.