A missive to His Majesty of Great Britain, King James written divers yeers since by Doctor Carier ; conteining [sic] the motives of his conversion to Catholike religion ; vvith a notable fore-sight of the present distempers both in the church and state of His Majesties dominions, and his advice for the prevention thereof.

To the Reader of what Reformation soever in mat∣ters of Religion.

LIghting casually of late on the ensuing Let∣ter, written above thirty yeares ago by one of the most learned of his time among English Divines, Doctor Carier, Chaplain to King James, and sent to His Majesty, by him, as a justification of his then deserting the Protestant Cause, and conver∣sion to the Catholike Church, as a submissive testi∣mony of his loyalty to his Soveraigne; and as a faithfull Servants advice to his royall Master, for his future safety both in this and the world to come; I could not but sigh with a groaning Utinam, that the King had entertained his suggestion with a more yeelding regard. Had he been so happy, I dare boldly pronounce the temporall State of his left Kingdome, (to say nothing of the other world) and posterity, had not been so deplorable, as now with mournfull countenances we are forced to behold it.

Dr. Carier (being a man born and bred from his infancy in the Protestant Profession, orderly promo∣ted to his academicall degree, and above others in∣deared to his Prince for his greater proficiency in the literature and principles of the English Church, .i. in the grounds of Luther or Calvin, or both, with others of the late Reformers of the old Chri∣stian world) fore-saw to what tragicall conclusions their premises did dispose, and what Cockatrices

would be conuaturally hatch'd out of their eggs, when time served to sit long upon them: he fore∣saw they would certainely prove destructive to Church and State, where ever they found good ac∣ceptance. Nor can I say the Doctor was a Prophet by that fore-sight, more then he, who seeing the heavens over-cast with clouds, prognosticates a tempest; or he who seeing Gunpowder enough laid under the corner stones of a building, and the match fired, fore-tells a quick subversion of that Fabrick. A man becomes not a Prophet by such a prediction, but contrarily he is to be esteemed short-sighted, and of little consideration, that sees not those necessary effects, if he sees the cause.

Take first for example sake, those Doctrines of your first Generall in the late Reformation, Luther in his Comments upon S. Paul to the Galat. in his bookes de libertate Christiana, and de seculari po∣testate, That Christians are not tied to the obser∣vance of the Decalogue, but freed by faith from all Laws. That among Christians there must be no Superiority. That there is no hope of salvation or safety, as long as the Common-wealth is governed by humane or civill Lawes. That God is to be prayed unto, that Magistrates be not obeyed by their Subjects. These Doctrines are impugned and execrated by all Catholikes, as their Books do every where testifie: but take them, I say, and digest them once for truths, and then tell me what sequeles will naturally follow, or rather what will not fol∣low? tell me, if you can, to what end Ecclesiasti∣call or Civill Lawes are enacted? what obedience can Princes or Magistrates of either sort expect from those they count their Subjects? who scoure in his owne possessions? what curb for vice? To

those points of reforming Doctrine, add his scorn∣full sawcy censure of temporall Princes in the cited book de Seculari Potest. Scire debetis quod ab initio Mundi rara admodum avis est princeps prudens; ad huc multò rarior Princeps probus: sunt commu∣niter maximè fatui; ac pessimi nebulones super ter∣ram, sunt Lictores & Carnifices Dei. It is a thing that all ought to take notice of, that from the begin∣ning of the world a prudent Prince hath been a very rare bird, and much rarer a Prince morally honest: they are most commonly the veriest fools and grea∣test knaves on earth, they are the Catchpoles and Hangmen of God. Whether this proceeding as Do∣ctrine from the mouth and pen of one reputed a re∣forming Saint, be not apt to breed disrespect of Princes in their Subjects, and to stir these to dis∣obedience, contempt, and rebellion against them, I appeale to others judgement?

Adde again his spirited incouragements against Bishops in his Bulla contra ordinem Ecclesiasti∣cum. Quicunque opem ferunt (saith he) corpus, bona & famam in hoc impendunt, ut Episcopatus Devastentur, &c. And again, Evangelium quo∣cunque venit, oportet ut tumultuetur; nisi id fa∣ciat, non est verum. Whosoever afford their assi∣stance, and imploy their strength; goods, and cre∣dit to wast and destroy Bishopricks, and to root out Episcopall Government, they are the beloved chil∣dren of God, and true Christians, obedient to God, and resisting the Ordinances of the Devill: and on the contrary side, whosoever maintaine E-Episcopall Government, and obey it, they are the Ministers of Satan: wheresoever the Gospell comes it must breed tumults, unlesse it do so, it is a signe it is not the right or true. More might be added

out of his booke Contra Regem Angliae, of his in∣sulting foule language against Princes, Church, and Bishops; but what I have already produced is sufficient to demonstrate, that one conversant in his Schoole must quickly discover him altogether destructive of all order in Church and State. But before I go any further, I cannot but wonder, that the pretended Bishops in England did not see them∣selves Mar-Prelates, I mean destroyers of their owne Government, (put Deane and Chapter to boot) and consequently of their Church, whilest they sided so strongly with Luther, and magnified his reformation; which to do, was co ipso, as you may read in his words, utterly to abolish Epis∣copacy, and to cut their owne throats. O insensari•• O senslesse and unwise men! what bewitcht you in∣to so blind a stupidity, as not to see so palpable an error and contradiction in your practise?

Secondly, take this Dogmaticall point of your other grand Reformer Calvin (all Catholikes de∣claime against it, as most execrable blasphemy) tou∣ched by D. Carier in his Letter, That God pre∣destinates to evill; That he is the Author, willer, and promoter of what men call evill, as well as of those they call good actions, and then tell me what ratio∣nall check you can find against any crime, how enor∣mous soever? be it treason or rebellion, against Church or Prince, with the slaughter of both; be it blasphemy against God, or Deicide it self, as far as humane malice can reach towards it; hath not the perpetrator a ready protection to justifie his fact? God predestinated him unto it, God would have it so, who must not obey God? or who may law∣fully resist his decrees? tell me again, what Church, or Prince, or private person can promise himselfe se∣curity,

whilst every villaine hath that principle to justifie his attempt against them?

These and the like Doctrines, dispersed up and downe in the written works of the late Reformers, obvious to be met withall both in the Authors them∣selves, and in others that write of them, did D. Ca∣rier ponder, and in them saw cleerly the effects, that by an unavoidable connexion (as long as the causes were kept in their vigour) were to flow out of them▪ and these were the overthrow of Church and State. Nor did he see these effects only in their cause, but really extant in themselves, he saw the Germans, till then commended for loyall to their Princes, and obedient to their spirituall Pastors, presently upon Luthers firing and blowing the coales with a pre∣tence of Reformation, divided among themselves in open Rebellion against their Liege Emperour Charles 5. without regard to Ecclesiasticall Supe∣riours. He saw their Churches wasted and pro∣phaned, and mens manners in a moment altered in∣to worse, he saw the Genevean tumults against their true Prince and Bishop, their Reformer Cal∣vin (that so he might be more absolutely indepen∣dent of all, and chiefe over all) being the Incen∣diary. Nor can I thinke him ignorant of the Councell held at Geneva, in the yeer 1560. for the murdering of the King and Queen of France, the Queen Mother with the royall issue, the Catholike Peers & Magistrates of the Kingdom, the two great Reformers Calvin and Beza being Authors and principalls in the Conspiracy, as Bolsecus in the life of Calvin makes appeare out of a Letter of the said Calvin to his trusty friend Viretus; he saw the ruinous devastations that fell upon the flourishing Kingdome of France from the same fiery spirit of

Reformation, which Herod-like was most malici∣ous against the venerable Antiquities of the na∣tion. He saw again (to omit others) the rebellion of the Scots against their Soveraigne Queen Mary, our present Kings Grandmother, who afterwards by the arm and axe of the old cause, was beheaded at Fodringham Castle in England, the common Hang-man of London by publike authority (O eter∣nall shame to the English and Scottish Nation!) imbruing his hands in her royall blood. And ob∣serving how hand in hand reall destruction, rebel∣lion with their issue out-rages, and their sister pre∣••ence of Reformation traversed other Countreyes; he saw that one could not stand long parted from the other throughout King James his Dominions, so gave him a seasonable warning of it; and as a pro∣vident Noe shewed his Majesty a safe Arke to pre∣vent the Deluge, if he pleased. But to the present woe of his posterity, and their loyall Subjects, through ill private choice, or counsell from others, he neglected the wholesome advice of his knowing and faithfull servant the Doctor.

Now though the publishing of this Epistolar Treatise comes too late for the effect first intended to King James, yet seeing the old principles still standing, and the authority of their founders still maintained by the Reformed Church of England: And againe, seeing our Kingdome in blood from Sea to Sea, with wounds inflicted, doubled, and redoubled by them, (though few reflecting whence the blowes do originally proceed) I thought it no ill office of a Patriot (though now in a kind of ex∣ile) to endeavour a stop to my Countreyes evills; as far forth as the reading of a sheet or two of printed paper might contribute thereunto, by presenting all

whom it may concern (and whom doth it not con∣cern,) with a fresh view of D. Cariers advice. The old proverb (out of the Prophet Isay, cap. 28. v. 19.) is, Vexatio dat intellectum, vexation gives understanding; it sometimes cures mad men, and brings them to themselves againe. Perhaps the smart of so many blowes may make men reflect whence they have good and bad derived unto them, and render them more capable to regard the Do∣ctors remedy, then whilst they were blinded with fulnesse, ease and prosperity; His remedie in a word is an obedient return of all unto that Church, whence those Reformers rebelliously apostated; the charge of which Church is to execrate to the pit of hell the blasphemies and seditious principles of Luther and Calvin, to reduce all to a sound save∣ing beliefe, with a good conscience, to order all in∣to their due postures of obedience to temporall and spirituall Superiours; and in a word, not to live prophanely, as men destitute of the knowledge of the true God; nor thirsting one anothers blood, nor invading one anothers rights, as Wolves and Tygers: but as the Apostle saith, (Tit. cap. 2. v. 12.) sobriè, & justè, & piè, soberly for our selves, justly towards our neighbour, and piously to God, or as the true patterne of all Justice Christ Jesus hath taught us, reddentes quae sunt Caesaris, Caesari, & quae sunt Dei, Deo: By this you have one reason why D. Cariers Letter is republished.

Another reason is to shew the world that the late conversion of D. Tho. Vane, late Chaplaine to the Kings Majesty that now is, and of Dean Cressey (so much talked of in England; and the more by reason of their learned bookes printed to satis∣fie all why they became Roman Catholikes) and of

many other prime wits of our Universities (some whereof are hereafter particularly mentioned) who have lately trodden the same paths, utterly forsa∣king thir former Tenets in Religion, not for tem∣porall gain, (as all men know) unlesse it be of po∣verty and persecution, is not a thing new, strange, or to be wondred at.

When D. Carier listed himself into the Militia of the Roman Church, (choosing rather as Moses did in Exodus to be afflicted with the true Israelites, then prosper among the Aegyptians; and to be, according to the Psalmists Dialect, an abject in the House of God, rather then inhabite the Taberna∣cles of sinners) there were many circumstances that might make some inconsiderate people to won∣der at it.

The Church then called Protestant, whereof it seems he counted himselfe a member, was at that time most flourishing in England; they had a visi∣ble supreme head of above forty yeares standing without interruption, (after the title was first ta∣ken by Henry the eight, to legitimate his Marriage with Anno Bolen, whilest his first wife lived, it ceased during the reigne of his daughter Q. Mary, and so was interrupted) in whom by Oath they ac∣knowledged the supremest power in all things under heaven. They gloried in their Prelats & Bishops, not found in any reformed Churches out of their Kings Dominions, they had some colourable pretence to a succession of Ministeriall Ordinations, and Missions from the Apostles and Christ. They thought they had their Church well and properly marked by thirty▪nine Articles. They boasted of a Liturgie con∣secrated with the blood of Martyrs, more com∣pleat for all uses, and satisfactory to the people, thou

any of the neighbouring Reformations injoyed. They had differences of daies, some kept holy, o∣thers fasted. They used some solemnities in the ad∣ministration of their two Sacraments. They had decencies in their Burialls. They had severall pra∣ctises outwardly religious: and in brief, they had so many Reliques of the old Christianity of their Countrey, as did manifestly distinguish them from Jews, Turks, and other more prophane people. All which as they were plausible stayes to with-hold men in the Protestant Religion, and not to thinke on any other, especially if they were born and bred in Protestancy: so made they any mans conversion to Catholike Religion in those daies, more remark∣able, more wondered at, and more subject to the question, what moved him to forsake the Prote∣stant? Withall D. Cariers favour with his Prince, together with his great learning, and good parts, making him capable of the chiefest spirituall dig∣nities and promotions in the Kingdome, might well move many to take notice of his conversion, and wonder he should change both his present possessions, & pregnant hopes of more, for the poor contemptible being of an exiled Papist, perhaps scanted in ne∣cessaries to live and breath.

But now to use the Prophet Jeremies words, in his Threnes (c. 4. v. 1. cap. 2. v. 2. though in a diffe∣rent sense) Obscuratum est aurum; mutatus est color optimus; dispersi sunt lapides Sanctuarii in capite omnium platearum: what seemed gold a∣mong the Protestants, is now altogether darkned, and cast off as drosse, the most specious of their fair colours is faded, (an argument it was of no long lasting complexion) the seeming corner stones of their seeming Sanctuary are dispersed in the

head of all the streets. The sworne supreme head of their Church, though gray, aged, and well de∣served of them, is made his vassalls subject, their ward, their captive, scarce allowed to keep his own head on his shoulders; and whilst it is on, is lit∣tle lesse then basely foot-balled by the miscreants of his owne Subjects.

Their Bishops once the corner-stones of the En∣glish Sanctuary, or Reformation, are even levelled to the flock by their owne Disciplinated sheep: yea, I may say, facti sunt opprobrium vicinis, subsanna∣tio & illusio his qui in circuitu sunt: they are tru∣ly become a reproach to their neighbours, a scorne and mock to all about them. The Reformation, now thought best for England, can subsist (they say) as well without Bishops, as their neighbour Churches. Their old Ordination of Ministers (and as old as it is, onely invented in King Edward the sixths daies) is already laid to the wall, this present Parliament hath found a newer way to supply the Bishops Office; there is no pretence to Mission, de∣rived by any order from the Apostles, all claime an equall right to the Pulpit, Tinkers, Weavers, Taylors, Fidlers, Souldiers; nor do any faile of novell-hunting auditors, some of the old Prote∣stant Preachers silenced by the Parliament, others fallen to silence of themselves, as not knowing what to preach to day, for fear they be driven to contradict it in the next Sermon, or to fight for their Pulpit; others preach according to the times▪ though against their owne consciences, to save their livings. And good God! what non∣sense, ignorances, seditious & rebellious Doctrines, yea Blasphemies, do the Tubs and Pulpits ring with, whilst they are knocks and belaboured by

those new Mountebank Predicants or Praters, who decry and contemn the Lords Prayer, the Apo∣stles Creed, and ten Commandements, as rags and reliques of Popery and Superstition.

Their Liturgie (which began in the nonage∣raign of Edw. the 6. and after some years interrup∣tion, got stronger footing by an Act of Parliament in Q. Elizabeths daies, and so was become almost of fourscore years prescription, half as old as one of our Grandfathers) is decryed, antiquated by the present Parliament, contemned by the people, and succeeded by a new thing called a Directory, of 4. or 5. yeares unquiet standing, which begins already to lose credit with its first accepters, though as yet the stronger Faction (not without frequent scuffles and blood-shed) keeps it perforce in many Churches; and what is kept in perforce it neither likely to breed devotion, unlesse it be of the new garb, nor to be of long durance, if the old Proverb faile not, Nihil violentum diuturnum.

Their former marke of thirty nine Articles is little regarded, if not quite out of date: yea, which is worse, the Apostles Creed, the perpetuall marke or symbol of a Christian, is questioned and hath stood these six or seven yeares subjected to the disquisition of the Parliaments subpedancan Di∣vines, without determination as yet, whether it be to be imbraced all and intirely for truth, or on∣ly part.

Concerning the solemnities of their Sacraments▪ I need not tell you into what omission and confusion they are fallen about their Lords Supper, some Churches having had no Communion at all these six or seven years: some using it after the old fa∣shion, others after the new: some receive it knee∣ling,

some standing, some sitting, none of the new∣modell'd Ministers (some of the old did, others de∣rided it) claiming more power to consecrate, then the Layicks of the Parliament can give them, which they know to be no more then the Bakers that sell them bread can sell with it.

As for their Sacrament of Baptisme, besides their novelty in the manner and circumstances, it is certaine they are defective in some places, even in the essentialls, I meane in the words of Insti∣tution, and application of water, some saying (in∣stead of I baptize thee in the Name of the Father, &c.) We take thee into the Congregation of the faithfull. Whether all apply the water either at all, or rightly, is more then my distance out of the Coun∣trey permits me to learne, but not more then I have reason to doubt of: And where any of the essentialls are wanting, there certainely the child is not baptized, but left as he was borne, a child of perdition by the state of originall sin.

The Burialls now among the Reformed in En∣gland, are in a manner prophane, in many places the dead being throwne into the ground like dogs, and not a word said; nor have they willingly more dif∣ferences of daies, by holy or fast, in memory of Christian mysteries, then Turks and Infidells: nor finally is there any thing almost out of the Catholikes hands left in the Countrey that can per∣swade a travelling stranger to think England to be rather Christian then Turkish, excepting the out∣ward shape of Churches, which of the charges to alter them be not a Remora, may be also reformed ere long.

To these metamorphosies or changes of late in∣ventions into the present of a little fresher coine,

adde the confounded Chaos we see now in matters of Religion throughout the Kingdome, God Al∣mighty permitting the monster of Reformation to reveale its owne turpitude, and to betray its selfe by its cloven feet of Sects and Divisions, to be what indeed it is, that men might more easily discern it, to beat it down and detest it.

Luther himselfe at the first, and afterwards his followers of whatsoever Reformation, were mightily tormented with those questions of the Catholikes, Where the Church afterwards called the Lutheran, or Reformed, was in the yeare of Christ, 1512.? (when Luther was an Augustine Frier in his Monastery, a Catholike in communion with the Pope of Rome) Who was then a Pro∣testant? In what Countrey did he live? What was his name? the question is not, Who was then a Protestant in name? without asking them, we know by Histories, that the Lutherans had the name of Protestants some yeares after the Refor∣mation begun, from their Covenants and Prote∣stations first made at Spire, and afterwards at Smalcald in Germany, when finding their party growing strong, they began to take head against their Catholike Soveraigne Charles the fifth. Nor was the question, who was then (before Luthers forsaking his cloistre and former Religion) opposite to the Church of Rome, or of a different beliefe from hers? This question had been easily answered by naming the Hussits, Wicklesians, Berengarians, Arrians, and others, which for particular points of Doctrine, were as different from Luther, as he from the Catholike; but the meaning of the que∣stion was, and still is, Who did then believe all those points of Faith, and onely those, which

Luther, or any other after-Reformer did after∣wards believe, and wherein they differed from the beliefe of Catholikes, which they pretended to reforme? this hath been from the beginning, and still is a tormenting question to all of the Refor∣med Churches, and though daily asked by Catho∣likes, Writers, and Discoursers, yet to this day could never be answered, with any satisfaction or proba∣bility worthy a Schollers pen.

If now in this November, 1648. I should aske who is a Protestant in England? .i. one holding all those points of faith, and only those (what o∣ther definition of a Protestant to give I know not, but desire the learned Protestants to agree in it, and to set it downe, that he, who desires to be one of their number, may know what he desires,) which Luther the supposed Grandfather of Protestancy, and Enemy to Catholikes, professed to believe? perhaps it would prove as troublesome, or unsatisfia∣ble a Quaere as the former: yea, if I should aske what three or four Schollers (speaking of those that are come to some eminency in learning, and to have some conceit of themselves for it) are to be found in the Kingdome justly agreeing in all matters of faith? yea, to come closer to the purpose, if the question were, what one man (setting the Catho∣likes aside). is there to be found of the same opinion now in matters of saith, that he was of, on the se∣cond of November, 1640? (the day before the present Parliament began) perhaps it would put you to a long search, before you met a sure satisfa∣ctory answer.

Lest you should think I speake too much at ran∣dom, consider I beseech you, how frequently you meet with men, seriously and deliberately saying,

Pox on it, rather then hazard my life, liberty, or fortunes, I'le be of any profession. I'le keep my conscience to my self, but I'le never lose my land for want of outward compliance, or conformity with the prevailing Multitude. And really their practice both in Religion and Loyalty is squared by that Dictamen; Of what Religion I pray you do you count these? Are they Protestants? Weighing them in the true scale of the Sanctuary, I take them to be Nullisidians, indifferent, for Christia∣nity, or the Turkish Turbant, in evident state of damnation for their soules; and that Tyre and Sidon may escape with a more remisse damnation in the day of Judgment then they, Mat. ch. 11. v. 22. Consider secondly, the multitude of Sects lately sprung up in the Kingdom: what divisions, and subdivisions are there known to be of the old Anaba∣ptists; besides the two main Factions of Presbyterians and Independents, new things and names, that have almost quite abolished their Protestant Proge∣nitor; their zeale and number ebbing and flowing by successe of the Sword. Some, you know, are ser∣vent Zelots of the Scottish Reformation; others detest it as pestiferous and hereticall: Some retain the old denomination of Protestants, yet have much of the new Modell: Some hold Episcopacy essenti∣all to the true Protestant Church; others deny it▪ holding Bishops altogether unnecessary to the refor∣med Churches; and demonstrating it by the not being and non-use of them, in any Reformation, even from the beginning, out of the King of Eng∣lands Dominions. Some againe, as you know, ei∣ther of curiosity, or to prevent Penalties, frequent the Parish Churches on Sundayes; and on other

dayes frequent Conventicles of another Commu∣nion, utterly detesting that of the Parish Church, as superstitious or hereticall; and so on the Week daies outwardly disavow the profession, they avow∣ed on the Sunday. Consider thirdly, the little re∣gard that is now given to the 39. Articles, hereto∣fore the distinctive difference of the old English Protestant. And fourthly the questioning of the Apostles Creed, which implies a doubt of its truth, at least in some points. Before this Parliament it was every where used throughout the Kingdome, as an outward profession of every ones beliefe: Now it is questioned, and consequently doubted of, by the Representative Body of the whole Kingdome, and their Synodicall Divines; Add to this, the old true saying, Dubius in fide, infidelis est, he that doubts in matters of faith, is no right believer, and then draw you the consequence; Put all together and you will see, that the questions I made you, are not so easily answerable, as perhaps you thought at the first.

S. Augustine (lib. de. haeres.) numbereth nine∣ty severall Heresies (so many Reformations were they) sprung up betwixt Christs time and his. i. in about four Centuries. So many more rose betwixt S. Augustines daies, and Luthers. i. 180. Heresies in 1500. yeares, according to the observation of o∣thers. Betwixt Luthers apostacie from S. Austins Rule, and defection from the Catholike Church in the yeare 1517. and the year 1595. (which is but the intervall of 78) modern Authors, Staphilus, Hosius, P••ateolus, and others do reckon 270 new Sects, all Reformations of what was some daies, or houres before. But if any man would number all the

Reformations, or Sects that these last 8. yeares have hatcht in England, perhaps the probablest rule of his Arithmetick would be quot capita, tot senten∣tiae, as many opinions in matters of Religion, as heads of men; no common name being to be found, sit to comprehend our Sectaries, but that of a Suist, one that followes his own dreams or fancy in choice of Scripture, in the interpretation of it, and in eve∣ry particular concerning Religion, without profes∣sion of agreement or communion, which any follow, unlesse it be the communion of non-agreement. The Scrofa Alba of Reformation hath been so fertile these later dayes, that to use Stanislaus Roscius his words (Lib. de Atheismis) Errans nescit quid velit, neec quid nolit. The erring Reformer doth neither know what he would, nor what he would not: let it be but new, it sufficeth.

S. Hilarie (lib. ad Constantium & Constan∣tem Imperat.) objected as a great absurdity a∣gainst the Arrians, that they had annuas, & men∣struas fides, that they changed their faith once a yeare, yea once a moneth; an evident argument of their falshood. If you will take the testimony of twice two or three, and compare the weekly Ser∣mons together, you may perhaps finde some of your English reforming Doctrines, brought to old age, and funeralls, in lesse then a moneth. An evident demonstration, that Reformation of Faith is not a city built on a mountaine, (Matth. 5. 14.) nor a wise mans house seated on a rock, (Matth. 7. 24.) but a wall raised and dawbed without temper∣ing, (Ezech. 13. 11.) or a fooles cottage erected upon sands.

Quae pendulum solutae Pondus ferre recusant.

In Heresies unstable ground No setled footing can be found.

And how reall that of S. Athanasius against the Arrian Heretiks (Epist. de Nicaena Synodo) a∣grees unto all the Reformers of the later dayes, I submit even to their censures: Nunquam unam, &c. They never stand to one and the same opini∣on, but run from one to another; now praising, now dispraising the same; now condemning what they approved a little before: a true character of hereticks, and mark of falshood.

Things then being fallen to this unconcealable con∣fusion in England, without likelyhood of stop, as long as the principles of the prime Reformers stand still in vogue; can any man wonder at the conver∣sion to Catholike Religion, either of the men here∣after specified, or any others? for my own part, I cannot but wonder, that any man acknowledging the soule immortall, and that either Hell or Hea∣ven must be her eternall Domicil after this life; and with all acknowledging that a false Religion cannot be the way towards beatitude; should ex∣pect a second call, for his deserting that, of whose falshood in it selfe, damnablenesse to mans soule; and inconsistency with an ordered Church, or State, be hath so many, and so pregnant Demonstrations, as it were to the eye.

The old Proverb of the Hebrews is, Veritatem, stabiles; mendacium, debiles habere pedes▪ that truth hath strong stedfast, sure footing; but a lie,

onely weake, unstedfast, tottering foundations: Whence, the first is of a permanent perpetuall du∣rance; the other, easily supplanted and over∣throwne. Were any of the Reformations that are so yearly, monethly, if not oftner forged, true; it would stand the same in it selfe, firm, and con∣stant, scorning chop and change: but seeing there is none that doth not lose ground upon the first ap∣proach of a new spirit, none that suffers not in her reputation, by the credit of every gifted Prea∣cher of the new Modell, (you know how fre∣quently new spirits and new gifts are pretended) certainly by the Hebreans Adage, all Reformati∣ons are to be esteemed, as weak grounded lies.

Nihil quod non manet in se ipso, verum est: omne quipp•• quod alteratur, falsitas est, non ma∣nens in scipso. Nothing can be true, (saith that rare Prodigie of Nature Trismegistus) that doth not abide the same constant in it selfe: every thing subject to alteration, is false: That your Refor∣mations in England are subject to alterations, I need not tell you, unlesse you be blind; that therefore they must of necessity be false, you may take as a sure truth, from the pen of Trismegi∣stus.

If according to the Wiseman in his Proverbs, the later ends of some waies, which seem to a man, just and upright, so outwardly masked with mo∣rality of life, and good neighbourhood, as hard∣ly discernable, (especially by the unwary vulgar) from waies really sure and good; do yet lead to death: how sure of eternall death and damnation must he be, who runs the waies of the present Re∣formation; which are so far from seeming just by

any obducted disguise, that every man (even the greatest sticklers stick not to confesse it now and then among their friends) sees them plainely full of injustice, impiety, oppressions, rebellions against all sorts of humane superiours, and blasphemies a∣gainst God himselfe? certainly it is more then high time for all men to abhorr the Sodom and Go∣morrhe of Reformation in Faith, with the inunda∣tion of vice, and corrupted manners it hath brought with it into the world.

That you may yet farther penetrate the malig∣nity of the confusion you are fallen into, (ano∣ther argument that Reformation in Faith is of the serpent Hydras nature,) take this Corollary or addition to what is said already: That it must be endlesse in Church and State, and altogether re∣medilesse, as long as the old laid principles of Re∣formation, derived from Luther and Calvin, stand uncontrolled: there being now no way left to withstand the reforming decrees of the present Parliament, (from which is issued the main of your late alterations,) or condemne, what most men now judge to be amisse; without condemnation of what you have been approving & abetting ever since your first revolt from the Pope and Roman Church. For a clearer explication of my mind, give me leave I pray, with your patience, to propose you some questions.

Sic volo; sic jubeo; sit pro ratione voluntas,

I so will have it; so command;

My will must for a reason stand.

When others failed, this was one of Luthers Lawes, to set forward his fanaticall Reformation against the Pope, and Catholike Church. Why may not the Parliament, the Representative Body of a King∣dome, use it with more authority then Luther, one single private man? If you allow the Parlia∣ment the use of such a legislative Power; you must not condemne the seque••l•• that do naturally flow out of it: you must 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to all their Orders and Ordinances, how irrationall 〈◊〉〈◊〉 they seem to private persons. If you condemn it in the Parlia∣ment, (look well to it) through their sides, you condemne it à fortiori in Luther, and so you crack the pate and credit of your grand Reformer, who so insultingly used it, and whom you have been so long upholding for a Saint.

But to insist no longer on that extravagant prin∣ciple. The specious pretence of Reformation will so justifie the present Parliaments actions (seem they never so new or paradoxicall) that you shall hardly question them, without subversion of the whole Fabrick of your late Reformation. For ex∣ample, tell me why may not this present Parlia∣ment cashiere the Ordination of Ministers, inven∣ted onely in Edward the sixths daies; as well as those of his time, cashiered the manner of Ordina∣tion, they then found in being and vigour, with∣out any knowne beginning of it since the Apostles? Why may not this Parliament degrade the now pre∣tended Bishops, made onely according to that new Modell, and onely authorized by Parliament; why not devest them of their Peerage, cast them out of their government, and levell them to the rank of ordinary men; as well as other Parlia∣ments

cast out the old Bishops, consecrated after the manner of the whole Christian World, and who were never pretended to have their spirituall authority from Parliament, nor to be invested in their dignitie by usurpation of any other mans right; cast them out (I say) of their Seas of Government, their Seats in Parliament, out of their meanes, and liberty, into poverty and pri∣son? Why not trench on all mens proprieties, and violently despoile them of their fortunes; as well as former times for Reformation sake, impropria∣ted to themselves the Church and Abby-lands from their first true owners, casting the Monks Friers and vowed Nuns a begging into the world? D. Carier observed (nor did he alone) that Church and Abbey lands did seldome thrive with their new holders. If (I tell you now) that the present ruine of a flourishing Kingdome is but the naturall off-spring of the old injurious depopulati∣ons of the Churches and Abbies, you will hardly know how to refute me.

Why may not this present Parliament damne the Common Prayer Book first invented in Edward the sixths daies, and afterwards confirmed by Act of Parliament in Q. Elizabeths Raigne, since the birth of many now alive, (no long prescription) as well as those of their times, damned the Masse, which was as ancient in England, and generally throughout the world, as Christianity it selfe? Why may not King Charles that now is, (whom I honour and love from my heart, as it is the duty of all Subjects to do in whatsoever Countrey they live) overthrow the Reformation, he swore at his Coronation to maintain, as well as King

Henry the eighth and Queen Elizabeth introdu∣ced their severall Reformations, contrary to the old Religion which they found in the Kingdome, and swore at their Coronations, to preserve, with all her Rights, Liberties, and Priviledges? would King Charles be more perjured then they, or his perjury worse then theirs? why may not this Parliament, yea particular Subjects, rebell a∣gainst their Soveraigne for a better Reformation; as well as the Lutherans in Germany rebelled a∣gainst their Soveraigne Charles the fifth, to bring in their Reformation, and to abolish Popery; or (to omit others, all applauded justified and abet∣ted by those of the reformed Churches) as the Scots rebelled for the same end, against Queen Mary, our Kings Grandmother, afterward be∣headed in pursuance of the same cause? you tell me I do C••me••in••m movere. I desist with the propo∣sall of one onely question more; when the present Agitators of Reformation have purged themselves of all the pretended Religion they had eight or nine yeares ago, and raised their work to a high∣er pitch then they have 〈◊〉〈◊〉 thought on; will it not still be subject to a Babilonian confusion? Why may not the children of the present Reformers cut the throats of their fathers, and condemne them for ignorants or superstitious, and rescind all the Acts of their predecessours, for a better Refor∣mation, according to their new spirits, as well as these present cut the throats of their forefa∣thers, undoing at a breath what bad been so long a doing in the Kingdome.

Damnosa quid non imminuit dies? Aetas parentum pejor avis, tulit Nos nequiores: mox datura Progeniem vitiosiorem.Joel ch. 1.

Where Grandsires Erukes are; their issue may Wild Locusts prove; next comes, in Joels list; The Bruke; a plague of worse, and greater sway: And what comes then? a blast, or burning mist. Thus men, in tract of time, from bad do fall, To what is worse; from worse, to worst of all.

To pretend that, what the present or past Re∣formers did, was all done for the truth, for the glory of the Lord, for the light and liberty of the Gospell, to abolish Idolatry and Superstition: to ••nthrone Antichrist, the whore of Babylon, the Beast of the Apocalyps, and the like; is more then childish simplicity; there is no Reformer so for∣getfull or stupid, but by his spirit pretends Scri∣pture, the glory of the Lord, the light and liberty of the Gospell, the planting of saving truth, &c. and whosoever is opposite to his spirit, is Antichrist, the Whore of Babylon, the Beast of the Apoca∣lypse, and therefore must be pulled down whoso∣ever he be. Nor can it availe at any time, to say, that hitherto the work of Reformation hath been in fieri, or in doing; (as some say, Qu. Eliza∣beths broome did not sweep clean) but now is in facto esse: Now it is come to a Non plus ul∣tra, perfected beyond all addition or alteration: this, I say, can never availe, nor stop the confu∣sions; as long as the reforming private spirits, for the pretences already specified, (which will never be at an end) or the Calvinian Doctrine of Pre∣destination sayes, No.

Perhaps the present pretended Bishops, and the Party suffering with them, may say, The old Reformations against the Catholikes were good and necessary, but the meanes used to begin and pro∣mote them, naught, and not to be imitated: And that if there be any farther Reformation to bee made, it must not be by prosecution of the old un∣lawfull meanes. Their suffering by the meanes u∣sed for the present further Reformation, makes them condemne the old. This comes now too late: they should have condemned them long ago, before their testimony became invalidated by their private interest. Certainly Luther and the first late Re∣formers never acknowledged the meanes they used, to be naught or unlawfull. And why should wee think the present or future Reformer will ever hold the meanes necessary for his ends, unlawfull? Endlesse then is the confusion of Church and State in England to be; no end of sticklings and rebel∣lions; no end of our wounds and bloudshed; no in∣heritance more intailed upon our posterity, then violation of humane and divine Lawes; nothing more certain then eternall damnation of mens souls, as long as the first Reformers principles stand in force, and their Reformations applauded.

Behold more then sufficient cause, not onely, not to wonder at the late conversion of divers learned Schollers to the Roman Fai••h; but to admire that more do not follow their examples. Behold more then sufficient cause, for those that pretend to any feare of God, or care of their own soules, by re∣gard to Religion, or manners, to the spirituall or politike weale, utterly to anathematize all Refor∣mation in Faith, with the damnable principles of

the late Reformers, the sources of all the evills our Kingdome now groanes under. Consequently behold more then sufficient cause, for all to rank themselves into the number of Catholikes, who have now the same unchanged Religion they had before this present Parliament; and then had the same they had in the reigne of K. James, ••u. Eliza∣beth, Qu. Mary, K. Edward 6. and Henry the 8. in whose dayes the Reformation was commenced in Germany, and through too generall a loosenesse in manners, and, desire of sensuall liberty, began to creep into England, as all Histories can evidence unto you. Nor can any desire a more pregnant te∣stimony of our being now, and in former dayes of the same Faith, without variation of one tit∣tle; then our reformed Adversaries are ready to afford us, who have for the times past, and still doe persecute us, not as new Sactaries with old Lawes, but with new Statutes for non-conformi∣ty to their new Reformation, and for our constan∣cy to the profession of our forefathers: from which had we stincht but the breadth of a naile, and taken upon us some new denomination, we had been as hard to be found out as other Sectaries, and as free from penalties as they: which forefathers of ours, living (before Luthers dayes) in com∣munion with the Catholikes of France, Spaine, I∣talic, and all the Christian world, as we do now, did deliver faithfully (it stood upon their sal∣vation so to do) unto their children (those of the rest of the Christian World did the like unto their children) that Depositum of Christianity, which they had received from their predecessors, and they from theirs, by a continued successive line of Tra∣dition

from the Apostles, and Christ; no reform∣ing enemy being able to shew, when the Catholike Faith now professed by us, and persecuted in us, began in the world, nor when the successive Tra∣dition we and all Catholikes pretend unto, was intercepted; an infallible argument of our perse∣cuted Religions being from the Apostles & Christ. More then sufficient cause, I say, for all to re∣turn to the Catholike Church, setled by Christ the divine Architect, upon a rock never to be prevai∣led against by humane or Devills powers, never subject to fall from her self in points of faith, nor consequently to be reformed in them, from which Church your first Reformers fell, Ex nobis ex∣euntes (one of the marks by which we are to dis∣cern Hereticks, as the Apostles teach us in their Acts, chap. 15. ver. 24.) going out from among us, to gain sensuall liberty to themselves, to be reven∣ged on their superiors, or for private by-ends: troubling the world with words, subverting mens soules, without commission or mandate from any superior for their facts, or pretended Reforma∣tions.

And finally, cause enough, for the world to reflect how ill advised they were in times past, and what an ill president they shewed posterity, in their former greedy acceptance of new reforming spirits, so prejudiciall to saving truth, to order∣ly government in Church and State, and to parti∣cular mens properties. And withall, to take warning for the future, not to remit the work of Reformation, even in things subject thereunto; as Ceremonies, humane practices, manners, and the like, to every giddy pretending spirit, (if

you do so, you shall certainly have more holes made then mended) but to such as are lawfully ordered and commissioned for it by the visible Church, the pillar and ground of truth, that all things be done according to her prescript, honestè & secundum ordinem, 1 Cor. 14. 40.

But fearing, lest I should make this Prefatory Discourse like the gates of the City Myndus, or like a great portall to a little house, I'le first present you with the names of some late Converts, and then deteine you no longer from my promised re-impression of Doctor Cariers learned Letter to King James, which is here rendred verbatim accor∣ding to the Originall, excepting onely the additi∣on of some few marginall Notes; I desire you to read it with attention, reflecting from those, to these times, and not permit your mind to bee so prejudicate, as to give censure, before you have well pondered the matter, the scope of which (mutato tempore) is the same with this, which comes from one, who unfeignedly would have all men saved, and come to the knowledge of, and imbrace the truth.

N. STRANGE.

From Paris 1. Novemb. 1648. stylo novo.

PSAL. 2.

Et nunc Reges intelligite: erudimini qui judicatis terram. Attendite disciplinam, nè—pereatis.