Sermon Preached 14 February 1607, Dedication – To the reader
TO THE PRINCE his Highnesse, HENRIE, The Hope of greate BRITAINE.
MOst mighty Prince, Salomon being but young, knew the God of his Fathers aChron. 28. 9.; and Iosias being but 15. yeares olde, set his heart to seeke the Lord b2. Chron. 34. 1. 3.: And blessed bee God, who hath put into your royall heart to set them as examples before your eyes, and to follow them in the best things. For, to be Kings (euen greater then theycNero Iulian, &c. hath befallen the wicked, whose names now rot on earthdPro. 10. 7.: and they in hell wish they had neuer beene: But, to be a good godly, and religious Prince, few hauehave attained ite1. Cor. 1. 26. &c.: but those that did, were made happy by it. Noble Prince, this is the waie to bee honoured of men, blessed of God, and beloued of bothf1. Sam. 2. 30..
In this holy path, you hauehave so happily begun to walk, that your personall practise of Religion, and the religious gouernment of your honourable houshold, may be a patterne to all the greate families of these kingdomes; wherin if Popery and profaneness found no better coū tenance nor encouragemēt, then in the Princes Court, it were happy for our Church and State.
Goe forward, Princely Salomon, and walke still in the waies of Dauid, your kingly Father: so shall our Israel be happy and blessed by you: and all the world shall praise God for you; for on whom are the eies of al Christendom set, but vponupon you & your fathers house? Surely, the hope of the Christian world is, that God hath appointed and annointed our gratious Souereigne, and his royall issue, to hold vp his religion in these declining daies, and to giuegive the Whore of Babylon that foil, & fall, from which she shall neuer rise; euen that deadly blowe, wherof she shall neuer recouer.
Now, somwhat to stir vp and prouoke your heroical heart, and princely spirits to a yet farther detestation of popish impietye; vouchsafe (hopeful Prince) the reading and patronage of this discourse: the scope whereof is, to discouer that those would but deceiue vsus, who speake or write that popery is now well reformed in manners, & refined in doctrine, and therfore they and we by a reasonable mediation might well be reconciled gA pernicious …book was published in frēch by that vnsetled H. C. called Le Pacificꝙ examen, &c. tending to that end, & it was turned into english by some papist.: for the truth is (if any man will search it out of their owne records) Popery both for doctrin and manners, is (at least) as bad as euer it was.
This I affirming before an honorable audience at the Crosse, the Papists gaue out, it was false, and I could not prooue it, nor durst stand to it; but that wee may say we care not what, that wee are set vp to raile on them, and make them and their religion odious before our people: and in the Country they dispersed, I was called before Authority for it, and silenced, and censured for railing on the Catholickes, and that I was striken by Gods hand with a strange hoarcenesse after I began to raile on them, and could not speake, &c.
Therefore not so much to cleere my selfe, as to honor the trueth, and to shew that it is no tricke nor policie of our State (as it is in poperieh…ook was printed in english in the colledge at Rome, wherein it is affirmed that wee take catholicks, & draw vpō their legs, bootes full of hot boiling liquor, & vpō their feet hot burning …hooes: & do put them into Bears skins, & cast thē to the dogs to be puld in peeces: all this and many such other set down in pictures. Feuardent a famous Frier, yet liuing at Paris, wrote in latine 7. yeares ago, that we reuile and reiect that praier to the holy Trinitie; Sancta Trinitias … Deus… misercre nobis. Thus writes hee in his Commēt. on 1. Pet. cap. 1. What will not he say, that daie say this… for, all our common praier-books, now, and those in Q. Elizabeths, & K. Edwards times, do test…fie… the contrary. Gretserus a sesu…e was suffered to write within these 2. yeares, that we rackt and tortured Garnet, euen neere to death, to make him confesse himself guilty of the powder treason; but hee did not: & so wee hauing no proof hāgd him onelyonly for being a Priest, and not for it. And that Ouē (his man) was puld in peeces on the racke; and when wee had so killed him, then wee gaue out hee had killd himselfe with a knife: But for the 1. wee appeale to publike records & the worlds knowledge; & for the second, there yet liue witnesses whose eies saw the woundes and bloudy knife, and whose eares heard him freely and penitently confesse hee did it with that knife, to escape the rac… which he said he feared but had neuer tasted.) to set vp men with authoritie to raile, and licence to lie, thereby to make our enemies odious; I hauehave beene induced to publish what was said, and to iustifie out of their owne records what was affirmed of them: namely, that the deadly wounds found to be in that diseased body of Poperie many ages agoe, remaine rotting, rankling and vnhealed euen to this day.
This I demonstrate in 20. or more particulars. Concerning all which wounds, if they be true as I hauehave laide them downe; and being true, if yet they bee not healed, then I hope your Highness, and al Christian Princes may cleerely see, that seeing she is past hope of reformation, there remains no more but that she is ripe for vengeāce & destruction. Which as that Whore of Babylon hath so long deserued: So God will put power into the hand, and zeale into the hearts of our mighty King & noble Prince, to reward her as she hath serued … & to giuegive her double for all her iniquities: that so all the Kings & Princes of the Christian world may rouze vp themselues, & take example at the King & Prince of great Britaine, to hate the whore and make her desolate, & …are her flesh, and burne her with fire; and that a…l nations, who hauehave stood amazed hitherto at the patience and long suffering, may now reioice and admire to see the zeale, courage & constancy of our kingly Dauid and princely Salomon.
The King of Kings, blesse this king and prince: and the blessed Father, for his blessed Sonnes sake, double and trebble the graces and blessings of the blessed Spirit both vponupon the father, and the sonne: whereunto, I am sure all good subiects at home, and all true Christians in the world, will say Amen, With
Magna est veritas, & praeualet.
Your Highnesse humble and deuoted seruant, WILLIAM CRASHAWE.
To the Christian Reader whosoeuer, be he a true Catholicke, or a Romish.
TO preuent all misconceits that might arise vponupon the so late comming forth of this Sermon, (so many weekes expected) I desire thee good Reader be satisfied, that the cause thereof, was a long & vnlooked for iourney. And now that you hauehave it, let mee desire all men in the reading and iudging thereof, to deale with that ingenuity and sincerity, as I hauehave indeuoured in the writing of it. My conscience speakes for me, I hauehave forged no new Author, I hauehave falsified none, I hauehave corrupted none, I hauehave to my knowledge misalledged none: I hauehave taken no proofe vponupon bare report, nor hauehave I produced our men to proue what I lay against them: nor is there one quotation of any Author of theirs, which I hauehave not diligently perused afore-hand, and the whole scope of the place. If any should think of answere, I desire him let passe all personall rayling, and by-matters, and come directly to the points in issue: which be these;
1 Whether the Church of Rome teach & practice in these xx. or xxi. points, as I hauehave charged her withall, or no.
2 If she do, whether they be healed of these wounds as yet, or no.
3 If she be not, then how she can be the true Church, which is so wounded, and will not be healed.
If they do not teach and practise so, I will yeeld the Cause. And hee that can shew mee that either she is healed since, or beeing not healed, how she can bee the true Church, I shall willingly hear him, & thank him. I desire al that professe thēselues papists, or their fauourers, not to be so wilfull as to condemne what they know not; but only to giuegive it reading, & then iudge as they see cause. Wright, in his Articles, layeth to our charge manie strange Paradoxes: as, that we are all Atheists, and Infidels by our doctrine; that wee are bound by our doctrine to doe no good workes, & many such. And Kellison in his Survaie, thrusts vponupon vsus that wee deny Christ to bee the only Sauiour, and Iudge of quick & dead, and many such abhominations; all which we renounce, and detest: yet, do what we can, wee must hauehave them laid vponupon vsus; and our writers & teachers hauehave their speeches wrung and wrested, beyond their meaning to make thē sound that way. I dare appeale to the iudgement of Gods Church, and al iudicious Readers heereof, that I hauehave not done so with them, nor taken vantage of their words, whē it's apparant they meant otherwise; but charged them only with such points of doctrine & practice, as thēselues cannot deny but to be their own: & that not of one or two, but (for the most part) generally receiu'd. Cōmē ding it to thy reading, & my selfe to thy praiers, I leaue vsus all to Gods blessing. At the Temple. May, 21. 1608.
Thy brother in the Lord, W. Crashawe.