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A33098 A sermon preached at Edinburgh, in the East-Church of St. Giles, upon the 30th of January, 1689 being the anniversary of the martyrdome of King Charles the first / by James Canaries ... Canaries, James. 1689 (1689) Wing C423; ESTC R20246 68,911 94

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the infamy and other Punishments which the Church of Rome uses to pour out upon all those she calls Hereticks Hence the Popes Faith must either be the chief standard of the Faith of that whole Church or else contrary to what I have now so irrefragably proved one may be formally a Papist or in visible Communion with the Roman Church and yet not in visible Communion with the Pope Because if what the Pope has defin'd may be rejected and laught at without breaking visible Communion with that Church one may be out of visible Communion with her Head and notwithstanding in visible Communion with her self And that in plain terms is to be a Member of that Church and not a Member of her since according to the Power all Papists contend is in the Pope it is absolutely necessary for being a Member of her to be in visible Communion with him Or God would require a condition of being a true Member of that Church which that one might be so he were obliged not to perform to wit in case the Pope should define contrary to the true Faith which undoubtedly he can do if he be not infallible Since even then one were obliged to be a Member of the Catholick Church But he could not be that unless he were in visible Communion with the Pope But now he could not be in visible Communion with the Pope and a Member of the Catholick Church too because if he were in visible Communion with the Pope of necessity he must outwardly profess a Doctrine inconsistent with the true Faith and so with being a Member of the Catholick Church And consequently contradictory obligations were exacted of all Christians if the Pope could be fallible in his Definitions and if a necessity of conforming to them were requisit for being in visible Communion with him and visible Communion with him were essentially necessary for being a Member of the Catholick Church All Papists therefore must acknowledge that either the Popes Definitions are universally to be acquiesced in or that the being in visible Communion with him is no Essential Constituent of being a Member of their Church And if they cannot deny the latter as certainly they cannot then it evidently follows that his Authority is infallible in deciding any thing he shall take under his cognizance and that all his Thunders are the Thunders of Heaven indeed It is therefore undenyable that every Papist is bound by his Principles to be of the Popes Faith and to Pin his Salvation upon his Holinesses Sleeve Neither can any thing be objected to the least Sentence of all this unless it be That since private Bishops are not infallible tho they Excommunicate with an Anathema so the Pope may be both fallible and yet have Power to Excommunicate with such a heavy Curse too But there is a great disparity between the case of private Bishops and that of the Pope For however much they may be in the wrong there is always Redress and place for an Appeal And before one or his Doctrine be condemn'd by the Supreme Judge tho that private Communion were broke yet the Catholick would be entire And God has not absolutely requir'd the one as he has done the other So that the Argument I have here adduced depends upon no more from the case of private Bishops than this That as they can condemn Propositions and therefore all those in their Diocesses who do not embrace their Condemnation becomes formally thereby to be excluded visible Communion with them so it fares betwixt the Pope and the Roman Church in general And I did not infer that as therefore those Bishops ought to be infallible the Pope is so too For the consequence of that Antecedent from which this last Consequent is brought is altogether false But the Popes Infallibility is deduced as a Result from these three the first that as privat Bishops can exclude from Communion with them those of their Diocess who submit not to their Definitions so the Pope can do those of the whole Church the second that it is essentially requisite for being a Member of the Catholick Church to be in visible Communion with the Pope and the third that it is absolutely necessary to the having of the true Faith to be a Member of the Catholick Church Now it not being so requisite for being a Member of the Catholick Church and so for having the true Faith to be in visible Communion with any privat Bishop the Popes Infallibility can never be denyed because no privat Bishop pretends to it whatever Power of making Definitions he is invested with since thus one part of my Argument is only considered without reflecting upon the rest And here I defie the whole Papists in World to give me any solid Answer to it What else then remains for demonstrating that all Papists either are or ought to be of that Opinion whereby it is held lawful for the Pope to Excommunicate all those Princes he shall reckon for Hereticks and to loose their Subjects Oaths of Allegiance to them But only to make it manifest that the Pope and the Court of Rome has declar'd that the contrary Tenet is Erroneous and Heretical and robs him of that Power he as Christs Vicar has bestowed upon him Now what Popes have done and what Stile they have used in their Bulls toward Princes since Pope Hildebrands time all the World knows As also how Cardinal Bellarmine treated our Country-man John Barclay as a Heretick for maintaining the Interest of Princes against the Usurpations of the See of Rome and how this poor mans Circumstances obliged him to Retract at Rome what he had Printed at London and that in as publick a manner if a Preface to his Paroencsis can be accounted to be such But I shall only Appeal to all those Witnesses by which the Matter of Fact of this can be Attested I my self indeed have been call'd a Liar to my Face for having said last when I preached in this place That the Pope is as tenacious of this Doctrine as ever he was I shall say no more but that I might have been allowed as much common Honesty at least as not to be thought impudently to Averr those things in a Pulpit which all that have ever been at Rome cannot but understand if they can understand any thing there at all And truly the very nature of the Tenet renders it a matter of such Vulgar knowledge that it cannot be less notour at Rome than the great Points of Treason are here it being as hazardous there to question the Popes Power over Kings as it is here to question the Kings just Power over his People One therefore might with equal Confidence Averr at Rome that Scotland has no other Government than what is Democratical as he might pretend here that the Sentiments of the Court of Rome are that St. Pauls Sword as well as St. Peters Keys was delivered over into the Popes hand if they were not truly