Epist. Abailardi ad Heliss conjugem major part of voices against his Adversary Abailardus And as farre as these men did doe their duty the duty of Priests and Judges and wise men so we may presume them to be assisted But no further But I am content this because but a private Assembly shall passe for no instance But what shall we say of all the Arrian Councels celebrated with so great fancy and such numerous Assemblies we all say that they erred And it will not be sufficient to say they were not lawfull Councels For they were conven'd by that Authority which all the world knowes did at that time convocate Councels and by which as it is * Cusanus l. 2. cap. 25 Concord confessed and is notorious the first eight Generalls did meet that is by the Authority of the Emperour all were called and as many and more did come to them then came to the most famous Councell of Nice So that the Councels were lawfull and if they did not proceed lawfully and therefore did erre this is to say that Councels are then not deceiv'd when they doe their duty when they judge impartially when they decline interest when they follow their Rule but this sayes also that it is not infallibly certain that they will doe so for these did not and therefore the others may be deceiv'd as well as these were But another thing is in the wind for Councels not confirmed by the Pope have no warrant that they shall not erre and they not being confirmed therefore faild But whether is the Popes confirmation after the Decree or before It cannot be supposed before for there is nothing to be confirmed till the Decree be made and the Article composed But if it be after then possibly the Popes Decree may be requisite in solemnity of Law and to make the Authority popular publike and humane but the Decree is true or false before the Popes confirmation and is not at all altered by the supervening Decree which being postnate to the Decree alters not what went before Nunquam enim crescit ex postfacto praeteriti aestimatio is the voyce both of Law and reason So that it cannot make it divine and necessary to be heartily believed It may make it lawfull not make it true that is it may possibly by such meanes become a Law but not a truth I speak now upon supposition the Popes confirmation were necessary and requir'd to the making of conciliary and necessary sanctions But if it were the case were very hard For suppose a heresy should invade and possesse the Chaire of Rome what remedy can the Church have in that case if a Generall Councell be of no Authority without the Pope confirm it will the Pope confirm a Councell against himselfe will he condemn his own heresy That the Pope may be a Heretick appears in the * Dist. 40. Can. si Papa Canon Law which sayes he may for heresy be deposed and therefore by a Councell which in this case hath plenary Authority without the Pope And therefore in the Synod at Rome held under Pope Adrian the Second the Censure of the Sixth Synod against Honorius who was convict of heresy is approved with this Appendix that in this case the case of heresy minores possint de majoribus judicare And therefore if a Pope were above a Councell yet when the Question is concerning heresy the case is altered the Pope may be judg'd by his inferiours who in this case which is the maine case of all become his Superiours And it is little better then impudence to pretend that all Councells were confirmed by the Pope or that there is a necessity in respect of divine obligation that any should be confirmed by him more then by another of the Patriarchs For the Councell of Chalcedon it selfe one of those foure which S. Gregory did revere next to the foure Evangelists is rejected by Pope Leo who in his 53 Epistle to Anatolius and in his 54 to Martian and in his 55 to Pulcheria accuses it of ambition and inconsiderate temerity and therefore no fit Assembly for the habitation of the holy Spirit and Gelasius in his Tome de vinculo Anathematis affirms that the Councell is in part to be receiv'd in part to be rejected and compares it to hereticall books of a mixt matter and proves his assertion by the place of S. Paul Omnia probate quod bonum est retinete And Bellarmine sayes the same In Concilio Chalcedonensi quaedam sunt bona quaedam mala quaedam recipienda quaedam rejicienda De laicis l. 3. c. 20. § ad hoc ult ita in libris haereticorum and if any thing be false then all is Questionable and judicable and discernable and not infallible antecedently And however that Councell hath ex postfacto and by the voluntary consenting of after Ages obtained great reputation yet they that lived immediately after it that observed all the circumstances of the thing and the disabilities of the persons and the uncertainty of the truth of its decrees by reason of the unconcludingnesse of the Arguments brought to attest it were of another mind Quod autem ad Concilium Chalcedonense attinet illud id temporis viz. Anastasii Imp. neque palam in Ecclesiis sanctissimis praedicatum fuit neque ab omnibus rejectum nam singuli Evagr. lib. 3. cap. 30. Ecclesiarum praesides pro suo arbitratu in ea re egerunt And so did all men in the world that were not master'd with prejudices and undone in their understanding with accidentall impertinencies they judg'd upon those grounds which they had and saw and suffered not themselves to be bound to the imperious dictates of other men who are as uncertain in their determinations as other in their Questions And it is an evidence that there is some deception and notable errour either in the thing or in the manner of their proceeding when the Decrees of a Councell shall have no authority from the Compilers nor no strength from the reasonablenesse of the decision but from the accidentall approbation of Posterity And if Posterity had pleased Origen had believed well and been an Orthodox person And it was pretty sport to see that Papias was right for two Ages together and wrong ever since and just so it was in Councels particularly in this of Chalcedon that had a fate alterable according to the Age and according to the Climate which to my understanding is nothing else but an Argument that the businesse of infallibility is a later device and commenc'd to serve such ends as cannot be justified by true and substantiall grounds and that the Pope should confirm it as of necessity is a fit cover for the same dish In the sixth Generall Councell Honorius Pope of Rome was condemned did that Councell stay for the Popes Confirmation Numb 4. before they sent forth their Decree Certainly they did not think it so needfull as that they would
and promises and authority of Generall Councels For if any one man can hope to be guided by Gods Spirit in the search the pious and impartiall and unprejudicate search of truth then much more may a Generall Councell If no private man can hope for it then truth is not necessary to be found nor we are not oblig'd to search for it or else we are sav'd by chance But if private men can by vertue of a promise upon certain conditions be assured of finding out sufficient truth much more shall a Generall Councell So that I consider thus There are many promises pretended to belong to Generall Assemblies in the Church But I know not any ground nor any pretence that they shall be absolutely assisted without any condition on their own parts and whether they will or no Faith is a vertue as well as charity and therefore consists in liberty and choyce and hath nothing in it of necessity There is no Question but that they are obliged to proceed according to some rule for they expect no assistance by way of Enthusiasme if they should I know no warrant for that neither did any Generall Councell ever offer a Decree which they did not think sufficiently prov'd by Scripture Reason or Tradition as appears in the Acts of the Councels now then if they be tyed to conditions it is their duty to observe them but whether it be certaine that they will observe them that they will doe all their duty that they will not sin even in this particular in the neglect of their duty that 's the consideration So that if any man questions the Title and Authority of Generall Councels and whether or no great promises appertain to them I suppose him to be much mistaken but he also that thinks all of them have proceeded according to rule and reason and that none of them were deceived because possibly they might have been truly directed is a stranger to the History of the Church and to the perpetuall instances and experiments of the faults and failings of humanity It is a famous saying of S. Gregory that he had the foure first Councels in esteem and veneration next to the foure Evangelists I suppose it was because he did believe them to have proceeded according to Rule and to have judged righteous judgement but why had not he the same opinion of other Councels too which were celebrated before his death for he lived after the fifth Generall not because they had not the same Authority for that which is warrant for one is warrant for all but because he was not so confident that they did their duty nor proceeded so without interest as the first foure had done and the following Councels did never get that reputation which all the Catholike Church acknowledged due to the first foure And in the next Order were the three following generalls for the Greeks and Latines did never joyntly acknowledge but seven generalls to have been authentick in any sense because they were in no sense agreed that any more then seven had proceeded regularly and done their duty So that now the Question is not whether Generall Councels have a promise that the holy Ghost will assist them For every private man hath that promise that if he does his duty he shall be assisted sufficiently in order to that end to which he needs assistance and therefore much more shall Generall Councels in order to that end for which they convene and to which they need assistance that is in order to the conservation of the Faith for the doctrinall rules of good life and all that concerns the essentiall duty of a Christian but not in deciding Questions to satisfie contentious or curious or presumptuous spirits But now can the Bishops so conven'd be factious can they be abused with prejudice or transported with interests can they resist the holy Ghost can they extinguish the Spirit can they stop their eares and serve themselves upon the holy Spirit and the pretence of his assistances and cease to serve him upon themselves by captivating their understandings to his dictates and their wills to his precepts Is it necessary they should perform any condition is there any one duty for them to perform in these Assemblies a duty which they have power to doe or not doe If so then they may faile of it and not doe their duty And if the assistance of the holy Spirit be conditionall then we have no more assurance that they are assisted then that they doe their duty and doe not sinne Now let us suppose what this duty is Certainly if the Gospel Numb 2. be hid it is hid to them that are lost and all that come to the knowledge of the truth must come to it by such meanes which are spirituall and holy dispositions in order to a holy and spirituall end They must be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace that is they must have peaceable and docible dispositions nothing with them that is violent and resolute to encounter those gentle and sweet assistances and the Rule they are to follow is the Rule which the holy Spirit hath consign'd to the Catholike Church that is the holy Scripture either * Vid. Optat. Milev l. 5. adv Parm. Baldvin in eundem S. August in Psa. 21. Expos. 2. intirely or at least for the greater part of the Rule So that now if the Bishops bee factious and prepossest with perswasions depending upon interest it is certain they may judge amisse and if they recede from the Rule it is certain they doe judge amisse And this I say upon their grounds who most advance the authority of Generall Councels For if a Generall Councell may erre if a Pope confirm it not then most certainly if in any thing it recede from Scripture it does also erre because that they are to expect the Popes confirmation they offer to prove from Scripture now if the Popes confirmation be required by authority of Scripture and that therefore the defaillance of it does evacuate the Authority of the Councell then also are the Councels Decrees invalid if they recede from any other part of Scripture So that Scripture is the Rule they are to follow and a man would have thought it had been needlesse to have proved it but that we are fallen into Ages in which no truth is certaine no reason concluding nor is there any thing that can convince some men For Stapleton with extreme boldnesse against the piety of Christendome against the publike sense of the ancient Relect. centrov 4. q. 1. a. 3 Church and the practise of all pious Assemblies of Bishops affirmes the Decrees of a Councell to be binding etiamsi non confirmetur ne probabili testimonio Scripturarum nay though it be quite extra Scripturam but all wise and good men have ever said that sense which S. Hilary expressed in these words Quae extra Evangelium sunt non defendam This was it which the good Emperour
it upon others And upon this ground how easy it is to elude the pressure of an Argument drawn from the Authority of a Generall Councell is very remarkable in the Question about the Popes or the Councels Superiority which Question although it be defin'd for the Councell against the Pope by five Generall Councels the Councell of Florence of Constance of Basil of Pisa and one of the Lateran's yet the Jesuites to this day account this Question pro non definitâ and have rare pretences for their escape as first It is true a Councell is above a Pope in case there be no Pope or he uncertain which is Bellarmine's answer never considering whether he spake sense or no nor yet remembring that the Councell of Basil deposed Eugenius who was a true Pope and so acknowledg'd Secondly sometimes the Pope did not confirm these Councels that 's their Answer And although it was an exception that the Fathers never thought of when they were pressed with the Authority of the Councell of Ariminum or Syrmium or any other Arrian Convention yet the Councell of Basil was conven'd by Pope Martin V. then in its sixteenth Session declar'd by Eugenius the IV. to be lawfully continued and confirmed expresly in some of its Decrees by Pope Nicholas and so stood till it was at last rejected by Leo X. very many years after but that came too late and with too visible an interest and this Councell did decree fide Catholicâ tenendum Concilium esse supra Papam But if one Pope confirms it and another rejects it as it happened in this case and in many more does it not destroy the competency of the Authority and we see it by this instance that it so serves the turns of men that it is good in some cases that is when it makes for them and invalid when it makes against them Thirdly but it is a little more ridiculous in the case of the Councell of Constance whose Decrees were confirm'd by Martin V. But that this may be no Argument against them Bellarmine tells you he only confirm'd those things quae facta fuerant Conciliaritèr re diligenter examinatâ of which there being no mark nor any certain Rule to judge it it is a device that may evacuate any thing we have a mind to it was not done Conciliaritèr that is not according to our mind for Conciliaritèr is a fine new nothing that may signifie what you please Fourthly but other devices yet more pretty they have As Whether the Councell of Lateran was a Generall Councell or no they know not no nor will not know which is a wise and plaine reservation of their own advantages to make it Generall or not Generall as shall serve their turns Fifthly as for the Councell of Florence they are not sure whether it hath defin'd the Question satis apertè apertè they will grant if you will allow them not satis apertè Sixthly and lastly the Councell of Pisa is neque approbatum neque reprobatum which is the greatest folly of all and most prodigious vanity so that by Bellar. de conc l. 1. c. 8. something or other either they were not conven'd lawfully or they did not proceed Conciliariter or 't is not certain that the Councell was Generall or no or whether the Councell were approbatum or reprobatum or else it is partim confirmatum partim reprobatum or else it is neque approbatum neque reprobatum By one of these wayes or a device like to these all Councels and all Decrees shall be made to signifie nothing and to have no Authority 3. There is no Generall Councell that hath determined Numb 7. that a Generall Councell is infallible No Scripture hath recorded it no Tradition universall hath transmitted to us any such proposition So that we must receive the Authority at a lower rate and upon a lesse probability then the things consigned by that Authority And it is strange that the Decrees of Councels should be esteem'd authentick and infallible and yet it is not infallibly certain that the Councels themselves are infallible because the beliefe of the Councels infallibility is not prov'd to us by any medium but such as may deceive us 4. But the best instance that Councels are some and may all be deceived is the contradiction of one Councell to another Numb 8. for in that case both cannot be true and which of them is true must belong to another judgement which is lesse then the solennity of a Generall Councell and the determination of this matter can be of no greater certainty after it is concluded then when it was propounded as a Question being it is to be determin'd by the same Authority or by a lesse then it selfe But for this allegation we cannot want instances The Councell of Trent allowes picturing of God the Father The Councell of Nice altogether disallowes it The same Nicene Sess. 25. Councell which was the seventh Generall allows of picturing Christ in the form of a Lamb But the sixth Synod by no Act. 2. meanes will endure it as Caranza affirms The Councell of Neocaesarea confirm'd by Leo IV dist 20. de libellis and approv'd Can. 82. by the first Nicene Councell as it is said in the seventh Session of the Councell of Florence forbids second Marriages and imposes Penances on them that are married the second time forbidding Priests to be present at such Marriage Feasts Besides that this is expresly against the Doctrine of S. Paul it is also against the Doctine of the Councell of Laodicea which took off such Cap. 1. Penances and pronounced second Marriages to be free and lawfull Nothing is more discrepant then the third Councell of Carthage and the Councell of Laodicea about assignation of the Canon of Scripture and yet the sixth Generall Synod approves both And I would faine know if all Generall Councels are of the same mind with the Fathers of the Councell of Carthage who reckon into the Canon five Books of Solomon I am sure S. Austin reckoned but three and I think all Christendome L. 17. de cul Dei c. 20. beside are of the same opinion And if we look into the title of the Law de Conciliis called Concordantia discordantiarum we shall find instances enough to confirm that the Decrees of some Councels are contradictory to others and that no wit can reconcile them And whether they did or no that they might disagree and former Councels be corrected by later was the beliefe of the Doctors in those Ages in which the best and most famous Councels were conven'd as appears in that famous saying of S. Austin speaking concerning the rebaptizing of Hereticks and how much the Africans were deceived in that Question he answers the Allegation of the Bishops Letters and those Nationall Councels which confirmed S. Cyprians opinion by saying that they were no finall determination For Episcoporum literae emendari possunt à Conciliis nationalibus L. 2.
not of weight and Authority to restraine their Liberty so wholy but that they may dissent when they see a reason strong enough so to perswade them as to be willing upon the confidence of that reason and their own sincerity to answer to God for such their modesty and peaceable but as they believe their necessary disagreeing SECT VII Of the fallibility of the Pope and the uncertainty of his Expounding Scripture and resolving Questions BUt since the Question between the Councell and the Pope Numb 1. grew high there have not wanted abettors so confident on the Popes behalfe as to believe Generall Councels to be nothing but Pompes and Solennities of the Catholike Church and that all the Authority of determining Controversies is formally and effectually in the Pope And therefore to appeale from the Pope to a future Councell is a heresy yea and Treason too said Pope Pius II and therefore it concerns us now Epist. ad Norimberg to be wise and wary But before I proceed I must needs remember that Pope Pius II while he was the wise and learned Patrum avorum nostrorum tempore pauci audebant dicere Papam esse supra Concilium l. 1. de gestis Concil Basil. Aeneas Sylvius was very confident for the preheminence of a Councell and gave a merry reason why more Clerks were for the Popes then the Councell though the truth was on the other side even because the Pope gives Bishopricks and Abbeys but Councels give none and yet as soone as he was made Pope as if he had been inspired his eyes were open to see the great priviledges of S. Peters Chaire which before he could not see being amused with the truth or else with the reputation of a Generall Councell But however there are many that hope to make it good that the Pope is the Universall and the infallible Doctor that he breathes Decrees as Oracles that to dissent from any of his Cathedrall determinations is absolute heresy the Rule of Faith being nothing else but consormity to the Chaire of Peter So that here we have met a restraint of Prophecy indeed but yet to make amends I hope we shall have an infallible Guide and when a man is in Heaven he will never complaine that his choyce is taken from him and that he is confin'd to love and to admire since his love and his admiration is fixt upon that which makes him happy even upon God himselfe And in the Church of Rome there is in a lower degree but in a true proportion as little cause to be troubled that we are confin'd to believe just so and no choice left us for our understandings to discover or our wills to chuse because though we be limited yet we are pointed out where we ought to rest we are confin'd to our Center and there where our understandings will be satisfied and therefore will be quiet and where after all our strivings studies and endeavours we desire to come that is to truth for there we are secur'd to find it because we have a Guide that is infallible If this prove true we are well enough But if it be false or uncertain it were better we had still kept our liberty then be cozened out of it with gay pretences This then we must consider And here we shall be oppressed with a cloud of Witnesses For what more plaine then the Commission given to Peter Numb 2. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church And to thee will I give the Keyes And again for thee have I prayed that thy faith faile not but thou when thou art converted confirm thy brethren And again If thou lovest me feed my sheep Now nothing of this being spoken to any of the other Apostles by one of these places S. Peter must needs be appointed Foundation or Head of the Church and by consequence he is to rule and govern all By some other of these places he is made the supreme Pastor and he is to teach and determine all and inabled with an infallible power so to doe And in a right understanding of these Authorities the Fathers speak great things of the Chaire of Peter for we are as much bound to believe that all this was spoken to Peters Successors as to his Person that must by all meanes be supposed and so did the old Doctors who had as much certainty of it as we have and no more but yet let 's hear what they have said a Irenae contra haeres l. 3. c. 3. To this Church by reason of its more powerfull principality it is necessary all Churches round about should Convene ..... In this Tradition Apostolicall alwayes was observed and therefore to communicate with this Bishop with this * Ambr. de obitu Salyri l. 1. Ep. 4. ad Imp. Cypr. Ep. 52. Church was to be in Communion with the Church Catholike .... b Cypr. Ep. 55. ad Cornel. To this Church errour or perfidiousnesse cannot have accesse .... c S. Austin in Psal. contra partem Donat. Against this Sea the gates of Hell cannot prevaile .... d Hieron Ep. 57. ad Damasum For we know this Church to be built upon a Rock .... And whoever eats the Lamb not within this House is prophane he that is not in the Ark of Noah perishes in the inundation of waters He that gathers not with this Bishop he scatters and he that belongeth not to Christ must needs belong to Antichrist And that 's his finall sentence But if you would have all this prov'd by an infallible Argument e L. 2. contra Parmenian Optatus of Milevis in Africa supplies it to us from the very name of Peter For therefore Christ gave him the cognomination of Cephas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew that S. Peter was the visible Head of the Catholike Church Dignum patellà operculum This long harangue must needs be full of tragedy to all them that take liberty to themselves to follow Scripture and their best Guides if it happens in that liberty that they depart from the perswasions or the Communion of Rome But indeed if with the peace of the Bishops of Rome I may say it this Scene is the most unhandsomely laid and the worst carried of any of those pretences that have lately abused Christendome 1. Against the Allegations of Scripture I shall lay no greater Numb 3. prejudice then this that if a person dis-interested should see them and consider what the products of them might possibly be the last thing that he would think of would be how that any of these places should serve the ends or pretences of the Church of Rome For to instance in one of the particulars that man had need have a strong fancy who imagines that because Christ pray'd for S. Peter that being he had design'd him to be one of those upon whose preaching and Doctrine he did meane to constitute a Church that his faith
all their Decrees into the Creed as some have done since to what a volume had the Creed by this time swell'd and all the house had run into foundation nothing left for super-structures But that they did not it appeares that since they thought all their Decrees true yet they did not think them all necessary at least not in that degree and that they published such Decrees they did it declarando not imperando as Doctors in their Chaires not masters of other mens faith and consciences And yet there is some more modesty or warinesse or necessity what shall I call it then this comes too for why are not all controversies determin'd but even when Generall Assemblies of Prelates have been some controversies that have been very vexatious have been pretermitted and others of lesse consequence have been determind Why did never any Generall Councell condemn in expresse sentence the Pelagian heresy that great pest that subtle infection of Cristendome and yet divers Generall Councells did assemble while the heresy was in the world Both these cases in severall degrees leave men in their liberty of believing and prophesying The latter proclaimes that all controversies cannot be determind to sufficient purposes and the first declares that those that are are not all of them matters of Faith and themselves are not so secure but they may bee deceived and therefore possibly it were better it were let alone for if the latter leaves them divided in their opinions yet their Communions and therefore probably their charities are not divided but the former divides their Communions and hinders their interest and yet for ought is certain the accused person is the better Catholike And yet after all this it is not safety enough to say let the Councell or Prelates determine Articles warily seldome with great caution and with much sweetnesse and modesty For though this be better then to doe it rashly frequently and furiously yet if we once transgresse the bounds set us by the Apostles in their Creed and not onely preach other truths but determine them pro tribunali as well as pro cathedra although there be no errour in the subject matter as in Nice there was none yet if the next Ages say they will determine another Article with as much care and caution and pretend as great a necessity there is no hindring them but by giving reasons against it and so like enough they might have done against the decreeing the Article at Nice yet that is not sufficient for since the Authority of the Nicene Councell hath grown to the heigth of a mountainous prejudice against him that should say it was ill done the same reason and the same necessity may be pretended by any Age and in any Councell and they think themselves warranted by the great precedent at Nice to proceed as peremptorily as they did but then if any other Assembly of learned men may possibly be deceiv'd were it not better they should spare the labour then that they should with so great pomp and solennities engage mens perswasions and determine an Article which after Ages must rescind for therefore most certainly in their own Age the point with safety of faith and salvation might have been disputed and disbelieved And that many mens faiths have been tyed up by Acts and Decrees of Councels for those Articles in which the next Age did see a liberty had better beene preserved because an errour was determined wee shall afterward receive a more certaine account And therefore the Councell of Nice did well and Constantinople did well so did Ephesus and Chalcedon but it is Numb 32. because the Articles were truly determin'd for that is part of my beliefe but who is sure it should be so before hand and whether the points there determin'd were necessary or no to be believ'd or to be determin'd if peace had been concern'd in it through the faction and division of the parties I suppose the judgement of Constantine the Emperour and the famous Hosius of Corduba is sufficient to instruct us whose authority I rather urge then reasons because it is a prejudice and not a reason I am to contend against So that such determinations and publishing of Confessions with Authority of Prince and Bishop are sometimes of very Numb 33. good use for the peace of the Church and they are good also to determine the judgement of indifferent persons whose reasons of either side are not too great to weigh down the probability of that Authority But for persons of confident and imperious understandings they on whose side the determination is are armed with a prejudice against the other and with a weapon to affront them but with no more to convince them and they against whom the decision is doe the more readily betake themselves to the defensive and are engaged upon contestation and publike enmities for such Articles which either might safely have been unknown or with much charity disputed Therefore the Nicene Councell although it have the advantage of an acquir'd and prescribing Authority yet it must not become a precedent to others least the inconveniences of multiplying more Articles upon as great pretence of reason as then make the act of the Nicene Fathers in straightning Prophesying and enlarging the Creed become accidentally an inconvenience The first restraint although if it had been complaind of might possibly have been better consider'd of yet the inconvenience is not visible till it comes by way of precedent to usher in more It is like an Arbitrary power which although by the same reason it take six pence from the subject it may take a hundred pound and then a thousand and then all yet so long as it is within the first bounds the inconvenience is not so great but when it comes to be a precedent or argument for more then the first may justly be complaind of as having in it that reason in the principle which brought the inconvenience in the sequell and we have seen very ill consequents from innocent beginnings And the inconveniences which might possibly arise from Numb 34. this precedent those wise Personages also did fore-see and therefore although they took liberty in Nice to adde some Articles or at least more explicitely to declare the first Creed yet they then would have all the world to rest upon that and goe no farther as believing that to be sufficient S. Athanasius declares their opinion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Epict. That Faith which those Fathers there confessed was sufficient for the refutation of all impiety and the establishment of all Faith in Christ and true Religion And therefore there was a famous Epistle written by Zeno the Emperour called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euagr. l. 3. c. 14. or the Epistle of reconciliation in which all disagreeing interests are entreated to agree in the Nicene Symbol and a promise made upon that condition to communicate with all other Sects adding withall that the Church should
Constantine propounded to the Fathers I. 2. ad Constant met at Nice libri Evangelici oracula Apostolorum veterum Prophetarum clarè nos instruunt quid sentiendum in Divinis Apud Theodor. l 1. c. 7. and this is confessed by a sober man of the Roman Church it selfe the Cardinall of Cusa Oportet qnod omnia talia quae legere debent contineantur in Authoritatibus sacrarum Scripturarum Concord Cathol l. 2. c 10. Now then all the advantage I shall take from hence is this That if the Apostles commended them who examined their Sermons by their conformity to the Law and the Prophets and the men of Berea were accounted noble for searching the Scriptures whether those things which they taught were so or no I suppose it will not be denyed but the Councels Decrees may also be tryed whether they be conform to Scripture yea or no and although no man can take cognisance and judge the Decrees of a Councell pro Authoritate publicâ yet pro informatione privatâ they may the Authority of a Councell is not greater then the Authority of the Apostles nor their dictates more sacred or authentick Now then put case a Councell should recede from Scripture whether or no were we bound to believe its Decrees I only aske the Question For it were hard to be bound to believe what to our understanding seems contrary to that which we know to be the Word of God But if we may lawfully recede from the Councels Decrees in case they be contrariant to Scripture it is all that I require in this Question For if they be tyed to a Rule then they are to be examined and understood according to the Rule and then we are to give our selves that liberty of judgement which is requisite to distinguish us from beasts and to put us into a capacity of reasonable people following reasonable guides But how ever if it be certaine that the Councells are to follow Scripture then if it be notorious that they doe recede from Scripture we are sure we must obey God rather then men and then we are well enough For unlesse we are bound to shut our eyes and not to look upon the Sunne if we may give our selves liberty to believe what seemes most plaine and unlesse the Authority of a Councell be so great a prejudice as to make us to doe violence to our understanding so as not to disbelieve the Decree because it seemes contrary to Scripture but to believe it agrees with Scripture though we know not how therefore because the Councell hath decreed it unlesse I say we be bound in duty to be so obediently blind and sottish we are sure that there are some Councels which are pretended Generall that have retired from the publike notorious words and sence of Scripture For what wit of man can reconcile the Decree of the thirteenth Session of the Councell of Constance with Scripture in which Session the halfe Communion was decreed in defiance of Scripture and with a non obstante to Christs institution For in the Preface of the Decree Christs institution and the practise of the Primitive Church is expressed and then with a non obstante Communion in one kind is establisht Now then suppose the non obstante in the form of words relates to the Primitive practise yet since Christs institution was taken notice of in the first words of the Decree and the Decree made quite contrary to it let the non obstante relate whither it will the Decree not to call it a defiance is a plaine recession from the institution of Christ and therefore the non obstante will referre to that without any sensible error and indeed for all the excuses to the contrary the Decree was not so discreetly fram'd but that in the very form of words the defiance and the non obstante is too plainly relative to the first words For what sense can there be in the first licet else licet Christus in utraque specie and licet Ecclesia Primitiva c. tamen hoc non obstante c. the first licet being a relative terme as well as the second licet must be bounded with some correspondent But it matters not much let them whom it concernes enjoy the benefit of all excuses they can imagine it is certaine Christs institution and the Councels sanction are as contrary as light and darknesse Is it possible for any man to contrive a way to make the Decree of the Councell of Trent commanding the publike Offices of the Church to be in Latine friends with the fourteenth chapter of the Corinthians It is not amisse to observe how the Hyperaspists of that Councell sweat to answer the Allegations of S. Paul and the wisest of them doe it so extremly poore that it proclaimes to all the world that the strongest man that is cannot eat Iron or swallow a Rock Now then would it not be an unspeakable Tyranny to all wise persons who as much hate to have their soules enslaved as their bodies imprisoned to command them to believe that these Decrees are agreeable to the word of God Upon whose understanding soever these are imposed they may at the next Session reconcile them to a crime and make any sinne sacred or perswade him to believe propositions contradictory to a Mathematicall demonstration All the Arguments in the world that can be brought to prove the infallibility of Councels can not make it so certain that they are infallible as these two instances doe prove infallibly that these were deceived and if ever we may safely make use of our reason and consider whether Councels have erred or no we cannot by any reason be more assured that they have or have not then we have in these particulars so that either our reason is of no manner of use in the discussion of this Question and the thing it selfe is not at all to be disputed or if it be we are certain that these actually were deceived and we must never hope for a clearer evidence in any dispute And if these be others might have been if they did as these did that is depart from their Rule And it was wisely said of Cusanus Notandum est experimento rerum universale Concilium posse deficere The experience L. 2. c. 14. Concord Cathol of it is notorious that Councels have erred And all the Arguments against experience are but plain sophistry And therefore I make no scruple to slight the Decrees of such Councels wherein the proceedings were as prejudicate Numb 3. and unreasonable as in the Councell wherein Abailardus was condemned where the presidents having pronounced Damnamus they at the lower end being awaked at the noise heard the latter part of it and concurred as farre as Mnamus went and that was as good as Damnamus for if they had been awake at the pronouncing the whole word they would have given sentence accordingly But by this meanes S. Bernard numbred the
have suspended or cassated the Decree in case the Pope had then disavowed it For besides the condemnation of Pope Honorius for heresy the 13 th and 55 th Canons of that Councell are expressely against the custome of the Church of Rome But this particular is involved in that new Question whether the Pope be above a Councell Now since the Contestation of this Question there was never any free or lawfull Councell * Vid. postea de Concil Sinvessane §. 6. N. 9. that determined for the Pope it is not likely any should and is it likely that any Pope will confirm a Councell that does not For the Councell of Basil is therefore condemn'd by the last Lateran which was an Assembly in the Popes own Palace and the Councell of Constance is of no value in this Question and slighted in a just proportion as that Article is disbelieved But I will not much trouble the Question with a long consideration of this particular the pretence is senselesse and illiterate against reason and experience and already determin'd by S. Austin sufficiently as to this particular Epist. 162. ad Glorium Ecce putemus illos Episcopos qui Romae judicaverunt non bonos judices fuisse Restabat adhuc plenarium Ecclesiae universae Concilium ubi etiam cum ipsis judicibus causa possit agitari ut si male judicasse convicti essent eorum sententiae solverentur For since Popes may be parties may be Simoniacks Schismaticks Hereticks it is against reason that in their own causes they should be judges or that in any causes they should be superior to their judges And as it is against reason so is it against all experience too for the Councell Sinvessanum as it said was conven'd to take Cognisance of Pope Marcellinus and divers Councels were held at Rome to give judgement in the causes of Damasus Sixtus the III Symmachus and Leo III and IV as is to be seen in Platina and the Tomes of the Councels And it is no answer to this and the like allegations to say in matters of fact and humane constitution the Pope may be judg'd by a Councell but in matters of Faith all the world must stand to the Popes determination and authoritative decision For if the Pope can by any colour pretend to any thing it is to a suprem Judicature in matters Ecclesiasticall positive and of fact and if he failes in this pretence he will hardly hold up his head for any thing else for the ancient Bishops deriv'd their Faith from the fountaine and held that in the highest tenure even from Christ their Head but by reason of the Imperiall * Vide Concil Chalced act 15. City it became the principall Seat and he surpriz'd the highest Judicature partly by the concession of others partly by his own accidentall advantages and yet even in these things although he was major singulis yet he was minor universis And this is no more then what was decreed of the eighth Generall Act. ult can 21. Synod which if it be sense is pertinent to this Question for Generall Councels are appointed to take Cognizance of Questions and differences about the Bishop of Rome non tamen audacter in eum ferre sententiam By audactèr as is supposed is meant praecipitanter hastily and unreasonably but if to give sentence against him bee wholy forbidden it is non-sense for to what purpose is an Authority of taking Cognizance if they have no power of giving sentence unlesse it were to deserre it to a superiour Judge which in this case cannot be supposed for either the Pope himselfe is to judge his own cause after their examination of him or the Generall Councell is to judge him So that although the Councell is by that Decree enjoyn'd to proceed modestly and warily yet they may proceed to sentence or else the Decree is ridiculous and impertinent But to cleare all I will instance in matters of Question and opinion For not only some Councels have made their Decrees Numb 5. without or against the Pope but some Councels have had the Popes confirmation and yet have not been the more legitimate or obligatory but are known to be hereticall For the Canons of the sixth Synod although some of them were made against the Popes and the custome of the Church of Rome a Pope a while after did confirm the Councell and yet the Canons are impious and hereticall and so esteem'd by the Church of Rome her selfe I instance in the second Canon which approves of that Synod of Carthage under Cyprian for rebaptization of Hereticks and the 72 Canon that dissolves marriage between persons of differing perswasion in matters of Christian Religion and yet these Canons were approved by Pope Adrian I. who in his Epistle to Tharasius which is in the second action of the seventh Synod calls them Canones divinè legalitèr praedicatos And these Canons were used by Pope Nicholas I. in his Epistle ad Michaclem and by Innocent III. c. à multis extra de aetat ordinandorum So that now that wee may apply this there are seven Generall Councels which by the Church of Rome are condemn'd of errour The * Vid. Socra l. z. c. 5. Sozom. l. 3. c. 5. Councell of Antioch A. D. 345. in which S. Athanasius was condemn'd The Councell of Millaine A. D. 354. of above 300 Bishops The Councell of Ariminum consisting of 600 Bishops The second Councell of Ephesus A. D. 449. in which the Eutychian heresy was confirmed Gregor in Regist li. 3. caus 7. ait Concilium Numidiae errasse Concilium Aquisgrani erravit De ra ptore raptâdist 20. can de libellis in glossâ and the Patriarch Flavianus kild by the faction of Dioscorus The Councell of Constantinople under Leo Isaurus A. D. 730 And another at Constantinople 35 years after And lastly the Councel at Pisa 134 years since Now that these Generall Councels are condemn'd is a sufficient Argument that Councels may erre and it is no answer to say they were not confirm'd by the Pope for the Popes confirmation I have shewn not to be necessary or if it were yet even that also is an Argument that Generall Councels may become invalid either by their own fault or by some extrinsecall supervening accident either of which evacuates their Authority and whether all that is required to the legitimation of a Councell was actually observ'd in any Councell is so hard to determine that no man can be infallibly sure that such a Councell is authentick and sufficient probation 2. And that is the second thing I shall observe There are so many Questions concerning the efficient the forme the Numb 6. matter of Generall Councells and their manner of proceeding and their finall sanction that after a Question is determin'd by a Conciliary Assembly there are perhaps twenty more Questions to be disputed before we can with confidence either believe the Councell upon its meere Authority or obtrude
de bapt Donat. c. 3. Concilia nationalia à plenariis ipsaque plenaria priora à posterioribus emendari Not only the occasion of the Question being a matter not of fact but of Faith as being instanc'd in the Question of rebaptization but also the very fabrick and oeconomy of the words put by all the answers of those men who think themselves pressed with the Authority of S. Austin For as Nationall Councels may correct the Bishops Letters and Generall Councels may correct Nationall so the later Generall may correct the former that is have contrary and better Decrees of manners and better determinations in matters of faith And from hence hath risen a Question whether is to be received the former or the later Councels in case they contradict each other The former are nearer the fountaines Apostolicall the later are of greater consideration The first have more Authority the later more reason The first are more venerable the later more inquisitive and seeing And now what rule shall we have to determine out beliefes whether to Authority or Reason the Reason and the Authority both of them not being the highest in their kinde both of them being repudiable and at most but probable And here it is that this great uncertainty is such as not to determine any body but fit to serve every body and it is sport to see that Bellarmine will by all meanes have the Councell of Carthage preferr'd before the Councell of Laodicea because it is later and L. 2. de Conc. c. 8. § respondeo in primis yet he preferres the second Nicene * Ibid. § de Concilio autem Councell before the Councell of Frankfurt because it is elder S. Austin would have the former Generals to be mended by the later but Isidore in Gratian sayes when Councels doe differ scandum esse antiquioribus the elder must carry it And indeed these probables are Dist. 20. Can. Domino Sancto buskins to serve every foot and they are like magnum parvum they have nothing of their own all that they have is in comparison of others so these topicks have nothing of resolute and dogmaticall truth but in relation to such ends as an interessed person hath a mind to serve upon them 5. There are many Councels corrupted and many pretended and alledged when there were no such things both which Numb 9. make the topick of the Authority of Councels to be little and inconsiderable There is a Councell brought to light in the edition of Councels by Binius viz. Sinvessanum pretended to be kept in the year 303 but it was so private till then that we find no mention of it in any ancient Record Neither Eusebius nor Ruffinus S Hierom nor Socrates Sozomen nor Theodoret nor Eutropius nor Bede knew any thing of it and the eldest allegation of it is by Pope Nicholas I in the ninth Century And he that shall consider that 300 Bishops in the midst of horrid Persecutions for so then they were are pretended to have conven'd will need no greater Argument to suspect the imposture besides he that was the framer of the engine did not lay his ends together handsomely for it is said that the deposition of Marcellinus by the Synod was told to Diocletian when he was in the Persian Warre when as it is known before that time he had return'd to Rome and triumph'd for his Persian Conquest as Eusebius in his Chronicle reports And this is so plain that Binius and Baronius pretend the Text to be corrupted to go to * Pro cum esset in bello Persarum legi volunt cum reversus esset è bello Persarum Euseb. Chronicon vide Binium in notis ad Concil Sinvessanum Tom. 1. Concil Baron Annal Tom. 3. A. D. 303. num 107. mend it by such an emendation as is a plain contradiction to the sense and that so un-clerk-like viz. by putting in two words and leaving out one which whether it may be allowed them by any licence lesse then Poeticall let Criticks judge S. Gregory saith that the Constantinopolitans had corrupted the Synod of I. 5. Ep. 14. ad Narsem Chalcedon and that he suspected the same concerning the Ephesine Councell And in the fifth Synod there was a notorious prevarication for there were false Epistles of Pope Vigilius and Menna the Patriarch of Constantinople inserted and so they passed for authentick till they were discovered in the sixth Generall Synod Actions the 12. and 14 And not only false Decrees and Actions may creep into the Codes of Councels but sometimes the authority of a learned man may abuse the Church with pretended Decrees of which there is no Copy or shadow in the Code it selfe And thus Thomas Aquinas sayes that the Epistle to the Hebrewes was reckoned in the Canon Comment in Hebr. by the Nicene Councell no shadow of which appears in those Copies we now have of it and this pretence and the reputation of the man prevail'd so farre with Melchior Canus the learned Bishop of Canaries that he believ'd it upon this ground Vir sanctus rem adeo gravem non astrueret nisi compertum habuisset and there are many things which have prevail'd upon lesse reason and a more slight Authority And that very Councell of Nice hath not only been pretended by Aquinas but very much abused by others and its Authority and great reputation hath made it more lyable to the fraud and pretences of idle people For whereas the Nicene Fathers made but twenty Canons for so many and no more were received by a Con. Carthag VI. cap. 9. Cecilian of Carthage that was at Nice in the Councell by S. b Con. African Austin and 200 African Bishops with him by S. c Ibid. c. 102. c. 133. Cyrill of Alexandria by d Lib. 1. Eccl. Hist. c. 6. Atticus of Constantinople by Ruffinus e In princ Con. de Synod Princ. Isidore and Theodoret as f Baronius tom 3. A. D. 325. n. 156. Tom. 3. ad A. D. 325. n. 62 63. Baronius witnesses yet there are fourscore lately found out in an Arabian M. S. and published in Latine by Turrian and Alfonsus of Pisa Jesuites surely and like to be masters of the mint And not only the Canons but the very Acts of the Nicene Councell are false and spurious and are so confessed by Baronius though how he and g Panopl l. 2. c. 6. Lindanus will be reconcil'd upon the point I neither know well nor much care Now if one Councell be corrupted we see by the instance of S. Gregory that another may be suspected and so all because he found the Councell of Chalcedon corrupted he suspected also the Ephesine and another might have suspected more for the Nicene was tampered fouly with and so three of the foure Generals were fullied and made suspicious and therefore we could not be secure of any If false Acts be inserted in one Councell who can
trust the actions of any unlesse he had the keeping the Records himselfe or durst swear for the Register And if a very learned man as Thomas Aquinas was did either wilfully deceive us or was himselfe ignorantly abused in Allegation of a Canon which was not it is but a very fallible Topick at the best and the most holy man that is may be abused himselfe and the wisest may deceive others 6. And lastly To all this and to the former instances by way of Corollary I adde some more particulars in which it is notorious Numb 10. that Councels Generall and Nationall that is such as were either Generall by Originall or by adoption into the Canon of the Catholike Church did erre and were actually deceived The first Councell of Toledo admits to the Communion him that hath a Concubine so he have no wife besides and this Councell is approved by Pope Leo in the 92 Epistle to Rusticus Bishop of Narbona Gratian sayes that the Councell meanes by a Concubine a wife married sine dote solennitate but this is Dist. 34. can omnibus dawbing with untemper'd mortar For though it was a custome amongst the Jewes to distinguish Wives from their Concubines by Dowry and legall Solennities yet the Christian distinguished them no otherwise then as lawfull and unlawfull then as Chastity and Fornication And besides if by a Concubine is meant a lawfull wife without a Dowry to what purpose should the Councell make a Law that such a one might be admitted to the Communion for I suppose it was never thought to be a Law of Christianity that a man should have a Portion with his Wife nor he that married a poore Virgin should deserve to be Excommunicate So that Gratian and his Followers are prest so with this Canon that to avoid the impiety of it they expound it to a signification without sense or purpose But the businesse then was that Adultery was so publike and notorious a practise that the Councell did chuse rather to endure simple Fornication that by such permission of a lesse they might slacken the publike custome of a greater just as at Rome they permit Stewes to prevent unnaturall sinnes But that by a publike sanction Fornicators habitually and notoriously such should be admitted to the holy Communion was an act of Priests so unfit for Priests that no excuse can make it white or cleane The Councell of Wormes does authorize a superstitious custome at that time too much used of Cap. 3. discovering stoln goods by the holy Sacrament which a Part. 3. q 80. a. 6. ad 3 m. Aquinas justly condemns for Superstition The b Can. 72. sixth Synod separates persons lawfully married upon an accusation and crime of heresy The Roman Councell under c Can ego Berengar de consecrat dist 2. Pope Nicholas II. defin'd that not only the Sacrament of Christs body but the very body it selfe of our blessed Saviour is handled and broke by the hands of the Priest and chewed by the teeth of the Communicants which is a manifest errour derogatory from the truth of Christs beatificall Resurrection and glorification in the Heavens and disavowed by the Church of Rome it selfe But Bellarmine that answers all the Arguments in the world whither it be possible or not possible would faine make the Lib. 2. c. 8. de Concil matter faire and the Decree tolerable for sayes he the Decree meanes that the body is broken not in it selfe but in the sign and yet the Decree sayes that not only the Sacrament which if any thing be is certainly the sign but the very body it selfe is broken and champed with hands and teeth respectively which indeed was nothing but a plaine over-acting the Article in contradiction to Berengarius And the answer of Bellarmine is not sense for he denies that the body it selfe is broken in it selfe that was the errour we charg'd upon the Roman Synod and the sign abstracting from the body is not broken for that was the opinion that Councell condemn'd in Berengarius but sayes Bellarmine the body in the sign What 's that for neither the sign nor the body nor both together are broken For if either of them distinctly they either rush upon the errour which the Roman Synod condemn'd in Berengarius or upon that which they would fain excuse in Pope Nicholas but if both are broken then 't is true to affirm it of either and then the Councell is blasphemous in saying that Christ's glorified body is passible and frangible by naturall manducation So that it is and it is not it is not this way and yet it is no way else but it is some way and they know not how and the Councell spoke blasphemy but it must be made innocent and therefore it was requisite a cloud of a distinction should be raised that the unwary Reader might be amused and the Decree scape untoucht but the truth is they that undertake to justifie all that other men say must be more subtle then they that said it and must use such distinctions which possibly the first Authors did not understand But I will multiply no more instances for what instance soever I shall bring some or other will be answering it which thing is so farre from satisfying me in the particulars that it increases the difficulty in the generall and satisfies me in my first beliefe For * Illa demùm cis videntur edicta Concilia quae in rem suam faciunt reliqua non pluris aestimant quam conventum muliercularum in textrinâ vel thermis Ludo. Vives in Scholiis lib. 20. Aug. de Civit. Dei c. 26. if no Decrees of Councels can make against them though they seeme never so plain against them then let others be allowed the same liberty and there is all the reason in the world they should and no Decree shall conclude against any Doctrine that they have already entertain'd and by this meanes the Church is no fitter instrument to Decree Controversies then the Scripture it selfe there being as much obscurity and disputing in the sense and the manner and the degree and the competency and the obligation of the Decree of a Councell as of a place of Scripture And what are we the nearer for a Decree if any Sophister shall think his elusion enough to contest against the Authority of a Councell yet this they doe that pretend highest for their Authority which consideration or some like it might possibly make Gratian preferre S. Hierom's single 36. q. 2. c. placuit Testimony before a whole Councell because hee had Scripture of his side which sayes that the Authority of Councels is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that Councels may possibly recede from their Rule from Scripture and in that case a single person proceeding according to Rule is a better Argument which indeed was the saying of Panormitan in concernentibus Part. 1. de election Et elect potest cap. significant
fidem etiam dictum unius privati esset dicto Pape aut totius Concilii praeferendum si ille moveretur melioribus Argumentis I end this Discourse with representing the words of Gregory Nazianzen in his Epistle to Procopius Ego si vera scribere Numb 11. oportet ita animo affectus sum ut omnia Episcoporum Concilia Athanas. lib. de Synod Frusta igitur circumcursitantes praetexunt ob fidem se Synodos postulare cum sit Divina Scriptura omnibus potentior fugiam quoniam nullius Concilii finem laetum faustumque vidi nec quod depulsionem malorum potius quam accessionem incrementum habuerit But I will not be so severe and dogmaticall against them For I believe many Councels to have been cald with sufficient Authority to have been managed with singular piety and prudence and to have been finished with admirable successe and truth And where we find such Councels he that will not with all veneration believe their Decrees and receive their sanctions understands not that great duty he owes to them who have the care of our soules whose faith we are bound to follow saith S. Paul that is so long as they follow Christ and certainly many Councels have done so But Heb. 13. 7. this was then when the publike interest of Christendome was better conserv'd in determining a true Article then in finding a discreet temper or a wise expedient to satisfie disagreeing persons As the Fathers at Trent did and the Lutherans and Calvinists did at Sendomir in Polonia and the Sublapsarians and Supralapsarians did at Dort It was in Ages when the summe of Religion did not consist in maintaining the Grandezza of the Papacy where there was no order of men with a fourth Vow upon them to advance S. Peters Chaire when there was no man nor any company of men that esteem'd themselves infallible and therefore they searched for truth as if they meant to find it and would believe it if they could see it prov'd not resolv'd to prove it because they had upon chance or interest believ'd it then they had rather have spoken a truth then upheld their reputation but only in order to truth This was done sometimes and when it was done God's Spirit never fail'd them but gave them such assistances as were sufficient to that good end for which they were Assembled and did implore his aid And therefore it is that the foure generall Councels so called by way of eminency have gained so great a reputation above all others not because they had a better promise or more speciall assistances but because they proceeded better according to the Rule with lesse faction without ambition and temporall ends And yet those very Assemblies of Bishops had no Authority by their Decrees to make a Divine Faith or to constitute Numb 12. new objects of necessary Credence they made nothing true that was not so before and therefore they are to be apprehended in the nature of excellent Guides and whose Decrees are most certainly to determine all those who have no Argument to the contrary of greater force and efficacy then the Authority or reasons of the Councell And there is a duty owing to every Parish Priest and to every Dioecesan Bishop these are appointed over us and to answer for our soules and are therefore morally to guide us as reasonable Creatures are to be guided that is by reason and discourse For in things of judgement and understanding they are but in forme next above Beasts that are to be ruled by the imperiousnesse and absolutenesse of Authority unlesse the Authority be Divine that is infallible Now then in a juster height but still in its true proportion Assemblies of Bishops are to guide us with a higher Authority because in reason it is supposed they will doe it better with more Argument and certainty and with Decrees which have the advantage by being the results of many discourses of very wise and good men But that the Authority of generall Councels was never esteem'd absolute infallible and unlimited appears in this that before they were obliging it was necessary that each particular Church respectively should accept them Concurrente universali totius Ecclesiae consensu c. Vid. S. August 1. l. c. 18. de bapt contr Donat. in declaratione veritatum quae credendae sunt c. That 's the way of making the Deerees of Councels become authentik and be turn'd into a Law as Gerson observes and till they did their Decrees were but a dead letter and therefore it is that these later Popes have so labour'd that the Councell of Trent should be received in France and Carolus Molineus a great Lawyer and of the Roman Communion disputed * So did the third Estate of France in the Convention of the three Estates under Lewis the 13th earnestly contend against it against the reception and this is a known condition in the Canon Law but it proves plainly that the Decrees of Councels have their Authority from the voluntary submission of the particular Churches not from the prime sanction and constitution of the Councell And there is great reason it should for as the representative body of the Church derives all power from the diffusive body which is represented so it resolves into it and though it may have all the legall power yet it hath not all the naturall for more able men may be unsent then sent and they who are sent may be wrought upon by stratagem which cannot happen to the whole diffusive Church it is therefore most fit that since the legall power that is the externall was passed over to the body representative yet the efficacy of it and the internall should so still remaine in the diffusive as to have power to consider whether their representatives did their duty yea or no and so to proceed accordingly For unlesse it be in matters of justice in which the interest of a third person is concern'd no man will or can be supposed to passe away all power from himselfe of doing himselfe right in matters personall proper and of so high concernment It is most unnaturall and unreasonable But besides that they are excellent instruments of peace the best humane Judicatories in the world rare Sermons for the determining a point in Controversy and the greatest probability from humane Authority besides these advantages I say I know nothing greater that generall Councels can pretend to with reason and Argument sufficient to satisfie any wise man And as there was never any Councell so generall but it might have been more generall for in respect of the whole Church even Nice it selfe was but a small Assembly so there is no Decree so well constituted but it may be prov'd by an Argument higher then the Authority of the Councell And therefore generall Councels and Nationall and Provinciall and Dioecesan in their severall degrees are excellent Guides for the Prophets and directions and instructions for their Prophesyings but
Latines acted their master-piece of wit and stratagem the greatest that hath been till the famous and superpolitick design of Trent And for the Latine Church h Lib. 4. adv Mar. Tertullian i L. 2. de Cain c. 2. S. Ambrose k Ep. 111. ad Fortunatianum S. Austin l In Psal. 138. S. Hilary m De exeq desunctor Prudentius n L. 7. c. 21. Lactantius o In c. 6. Apoc. Victorinus Martyr and p Serm. 3. de om sanctis Vid. enim S. Aug. in Enchir. c. 108. l. 12. de civit Dei c. 9. in Ps. 36. in l. 1. retract c. 14. Vid. insuper testimonia quae collegit Spala l. 5. c. 8. n. 98. de repub Eccl. Sixt. Senens l. 6. annot 345. S. Bernard are known to be of opinion that the soules of the Saints are in abditis receptaculis exterioribus atriis where they expect the resurrection of their bodies and the glorification of their soules and though they all believe them to be happy yet they enjoy not the beatifick Vision before the resurrection Now there being so full a consent of Fathers for many more may be added and the Decree of Pope John XXII besides who was so confident for his Decree that he commanded the University of Paris to swear that they would preach it and no other and that none should be promoted to degrees in Theology that did not swear the like as q In oper 90. dierum Occham r Serm. de Paschal Gerson s In 4. sent q. 13. a. 3. Marsilius and t In 4. de Sacram. confirmat Adrianus report Since it is esteemed lawfull to dissent from all these I hope no man will be so unjust to presse other men to consent to an Authority which he himselfe judges to be incompetent These two great instances are enough but if more were necessary I could instance in the opinion of the Chiliasts maintained by the second and third Centuries and disavowed ever since in the Doctrine of communicating Infants taught and practised as necessary by the fourth and fifth Centuries detested by the Latine Church in all the following Ages in the variety of opinions concerning the very form of baptism some keeping close to the institution and the words of its first sanction others affirming it to be sufficient if it be administred in nomine De consecrat dist 4. c. à quodum Iudaeo Christi particularly S. Ambrose Pope Nicholas the First * In c. 10. Act. V. Bede and †Ep. 340. S. Bernard besides some Writers of after Ages as Hugo de S. Victore and the Doctors generally his contemporaries And it would not be inconsiderable to observe that if any Synod Generall Nationall or Provinciall be receded from by the Church of the later Age as there have been very many then so many Fathers as were then assembled and united in opinion are esteemed no Authority to determine our perswasions Now suppose 200 Fathers assembled in such a Councell if all they had writ Books and Authorities 200 Authorities had beene alleadged in confirmation of an opinion it would have made a mighty noise and loaded any man with an insupportable prejudice that should dissent And yet every opinion maintained against the Authority of any one Councell though but Provinciall is in its proportion such a violent recession and neglect of the Authority and doctrine of so many Fathers as were then assembled who did as much declare their opinion in those Assemblies by their Suffrages as if they had writ it in so many books and their opinion is more considerable in the Assembly then in their writings because it was more deliberate assisted united and more dogmaticall In pursuance of this observation it is to be noted by way of instance that S. Austin and two hundred and seventeene Bishops and all their Successors * Vid. Epist. Bonifacii 11. apud Nicolinum Tom. 2. Concil pag. 544. exemplar precum Eulalii apud eundem ibid. p. 525. Qui anathematizat omnes decisores suos qui in in ea◠causa Romae se opponendo rectae fidei regulam praevaricati sunt inter quos tomen fuit Augustinus quem pro maledicto Caelestinus tacite agnoscit admittendo sc. exemplar precum Vid. Doctor Marta de jurisdict part 4. p. 273. Erasm annot in Hieron praefatin Daniel for a whole Age together did consent in denying appeals to Rome and yet the Authority of so many Fathers all true Catholicks is of no force now at Rome in this Question but if it be in a matter they like one of these Fathers alone is sufficient The Doctrine of S. Austin alone brought in the festivall and veneration of the assumption of the blessed Virgin and the hard sentence passed at Rome upon unbaptized Infants and the Dominican opinion concerning predetermination derived from him alone as from their Originall so that if a Father speaks for them it is wonderfull to see what Tragedies are stirred up against them that dissent as is to be seen in that excellent nothing of Campian's ten reasons But if the Fathers be against them then Patres in quibusdam non leviter lapsi sunt sayes Berllarmine and constat quosdam ex praecipuis it is certain the chiefest of them have fouly erred Nay Posa Salmeron De verb. Dei l. 3. c. 10. §. dices and Wadding in the Question of the immaculate conception make no scruple to dissent from Antiquity to preferre new Doctors before the Old and to justifie themselves bring instances in which the Church of Rome had determin'd against the Fathers And it is not excuse enough to say that singly the Fathers may erre but if they concurre they are certain Testimony For there is no question this day disputed by persons that are willing to be tryed by the Fathers so generally attested on either side as some points are which both sides dislike severally or conjunctly And therefore t is not honest for either side to presse the Authority of the Fathers as a concluding Argument in matter of dispute unlesse themselves will bee content to submit in all things to the Testimony of an equall number of them which I am certain neither side will doe 3. If I should reckon all the particular reasons against the certainty of this topick it would be more then needs as to this Numb 3. Question and therefore I will abstaine from all disparagement of those worthy Personages who were excellent lights to their severall Dioceses and Cures And therefore I will not instance that Clemens Alexandrinus taught that Christ felt no hunger or thirst but eat only to make demonstration of the verity of his Strom. l. 3. 6. humane nature Nor that S. Hilary taught that Christ in his sufferings had no sorrow nor that Origen taught the paines of Hell not to have an eternall duration Nor that S. Cyprian taught rebaptization nor that Athenagoras
doe make it it is to no purpose This would bee considered And in Conclusion Our way is the the surer way for not to baptize Children till they can give an account of their Faith is Numb 32. the most proportionable to an act of reason and humanity and it can have no danger in it For to say that Infants may be damn'd for want of Baptism a thing which is not in their power to acquire they being persons not yet capable of a Law is to affirm that of God which we dare not say of any wise and good man Certainly it is much derogatory to Gods Justice and a plaine defiance to the infinite reputation of his goodnesse And therefore who ever will pertinaciously persist in this opinion Numb 33. of the Paedo-baptists and practise it accordingly they pollute the blood of the everlasting Testament they dishonour and make a pageantry of the Sacrament they ineffectually represent a sepulture into the death of Christ and please themselves in a sign without effect making Baptism like the fig-tree in the Gospel full of leaves but no fruit And they invocate the holy Ghost in vaine doing as if one should call upon him to illuminate a stone or a tree Thus farre the Anabaptists may argue and men have Disputed Numb 34. against them with so much weaknesse and confidence that they have been encouraged in their errour * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen observes of the case of the Church in his time more by the accidentall advantages we have given them by our weak arguings then by any truth of their cause or excellency of their wit But the use I make of it as to our present Question is this That since there is no direct impiety in the opinion nor any that is apparently consequent to it and they with so much probability doe or may pretend to true perswasion they are with all meanes Christian faire and humane to be redargued or instructed but if they cannot be perswaded they must be left to God who knowes every degree of every mans understanding all his weaknesses and strengths what impresse each Argument makes upon his Spirit and how unresistible every reason is and he alone judges his innocency and sincerity and for the Question I think there is so much to be pretended against that which I believe to be the truth that there is much more truth then evidence on our side and therefore we may be confident as for our own particulars but not too forward peremptorily to prescribe to others much lesse damne or to kill or to persecute them that only in this particular disagree SECT XIX That there may be no Toleration of Doctrines inconsistent with piety or the pulique good BUt then for their other capitall Opinion with all its branches Numb 1. that it is not lawfull for Princes to put Malefactors to death nor to take up desensive Armes nor to minister an Oath nor to contend in judgement it is not to be disputed with such liberty as the former For although it bee part of that Doctrine which Clemens Alexandrinus sayes was delivered per secretam traditionem Apostolorum Non licere Christianis contendere L. 7. Stromat in Iudicio nec corà m gentibus nec corà m sanctis perfectum non debere Iurare and the other part seemes to be warranted by the eleventh Canon of the Nicene Councell which enjoynes penance to them that take Armes after their conversion to Christianity yet either these Authorities are to be slighted or be made receptive of any interpretation rather then the Common-wealth be disarmed of its necessary supports and all Lawes made ineffectuall and impertinent For the interest of the republique and the well being of bodies politick is not to depend upon the nicety of our imaginations or the fancies of any peevish or mistaken Priests and there is no reason a Prince should ask John-a-Brunck whether his understanding will give him leave to raign and be a King Nay suppose there were divers places of Scripture which did seemingly restraine the Politicall use of the Sword yet since the avoyding a personall inconvenience hath by all men been accounted sufficient reason to expound Scripture to any sense rather then the literall which inferres an unreasonable inconvenience and therefore the pulling out an eye and the cutting off a hand is expounded by mortifying a vice and killing a criminall habit much rather must the Allegations against the power of the Sword endure any sence rather then it should be thought that Christianity should destroy that which is the only instrument of Justice the restraint of vice and support of bodies politick It is certain that Christ and his Apostles and Christian Religion did comply with the most absolute Government and the most imperiall that was then in the world and it could not have been at all indured in the world if it had not for indeed the world it selfe could not last in regular and orderly communities of men but be a perpetuall confusion if Princes and the Supreme Power in Bodies Politick were not armed with a coercive power to punish Malefactors The publike necessity and universall experience of all the world convinces those men of being most unreasonable that make such pretences which destroy all Lawes and all Communities and the bands of civill Societies and leave it arbitrary to every vaine or vitious person whether men shall be safe or Lawes be established or a Murderer hang'd or Princes Rule So that in this case men are not so much to Dispute with particular Arguments as to consider the Interest and concernment of Kingdomes and Publick Societies For the Religion of Jesus Christ is the best establisher of the felicity of private persons and of publick Communities it is a Religion that is prudent and innocent humane and reasonable and brought infinite advantages to mankind but no inconvenience nothing that is unnaturall or unsociable or unjust And if it be certain that this world cannot be governed without Lawes and Lawes without a compulsory signifie nothing then it is certain that it is no good Religion that teaches Doctrine whose consequents will destroy all Government and therefore it is as much to be rooted out as any thing that is the greatest pest and nuisance to the publick interest And that we may guesse at the purposes of the men and the inconvenience of such Doctrine these men that did first intend by their Doctrine to disarme all Princes and bodies Politick did themselves take up armes to establish their wild and impious fancie and indeed that Prince or Common-wealth that should be perswaded by them would be exposed to all the insolencies of forraingners and all mutinies of the teachers themselves and the Governours of the people could not doe that duty they owe to their people of protecting them from the rapine and malice which will be in the world as long as the world is And therefore here they are to be
God to judge It concernes all persons to see that they doe their best to finde out truth and if they doe it is certain that let the errour be never so damnable they shall escape the errour or the misery of being damn'd for 't And if God will not be angry at men for being invincibly deceiv'd why should men be angry one at another For he that is most displeased at another mans errour may also be tempted in his own will and as much deceived in his understanding For if he may faile in what he can chuse he may also faile in what he cannot chuse His understanding is no more secur'd then his will nor his Faith more then his obedience It is his own fault if he offends God in either but whatsoever is not to be avoided as errours which are incident oftentimes even to the best and most inquisitive of men are not offences against God and therefore not to be punished or restrained by men but all such opinions in which the publick interests of the Common-wealth and the foundation of Faith and a good life are not concern'd are to be permitted freely Quisque abundet in sensu suo was the Doctrine of S. Paul and that is Argument and Conclusion too and they were excellent words which S. Ambrose said in attestation of this great truth Nec Imperiale est libertatem dicendi negare nec sacerdotale quod sentias non dicere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE END A DISCOURSE CONCERNING PRAYER Ex tempore OR By pretence of the Spirit In justification of Authorized and Set-forms of LITURGIE 1 COR. 14. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets For God is not the Author of confusion but of peace as in all Churches of the Saints Printed for Richard Royston 1647. A Discourse concerning PRAYER Ex tempore c. I Have read over this Book which the Assembly of Divines is pleased to call The Directory for Prayer I confesse I came to it with much expectation and was in some measure confident I should have found it an exact and unblameable modell of Devotion free from all those objections which men of their own perswasion had obtruded against the publike Liturgy of the Church of England or at least it should have been composed with so much artifice and finenesse that it might have been to all the world an Argument of their learning and excellency of spirit if not of the goodnesse and integrity of their Religion and purposes I shall give no other character of the whole but that the publike disrelish which I finde amongst persons of great piety of all qualities not only of great but even of ordinary understandings is to me some argument that it lies so open to the objections even of common spirits that the Compilers of it did intend more to prevaile by the successe of their Armies then the strength of reason and the proper grounds of perswasion which yet most wise and good men believe to be the more Christian way of the two But Sir you have engaged me to say something in particular to satisfie your conscience In which also I desire I may reserve a leave to my self to conceal much if I may in little doe you satisfaction I shall therefore decline to speak of the Efficient cause of this Directory and not quarrell at it that is was composed against Numb 2. the Lawes both of England and all Christendome If the thing were good and pious I should learn to submit to the imposition and never quarrell at the incompetency of his authority that engaged me to doe pious and holy things And it may be when I am a little more used to it I shall not wonder at a Synod in which not one Bishop sits in the capacity of a Bishop though I am most certain this is the first example in England since it was first Christned But for present it seemes something hard to digest it because I know so well that all Assemblies of the Church have admitted Priests to consultation and dispute but never to authority and decision till the Pope enlarging the phylacteries of the Archimandrites and Abbots did sometimes by way of priviledge and dispensation give to some of them decisive voyces in publike Councels But this was one of the things in which he did innovate and invade against the publike resolutions of Christendome though he durst not doe it often and when he did it it was in very small and inconsiderate numbers I said I would not meddle with the Efficient and I cannot meddle with the Finall cause nor guesse at any other ends and Numb 3. purposes of theirs then at what they publiquely professe which is the abolition and destruction of the Book of Common-Prayer which great change because they are pleased to call Reformation I am content in charity to believe they think it so and that they have Zelum Dei but whether secundum scientiam according to knowledge or no must be judged by them who consider the matter and the forme But because the matter is of so great variety and minute consideration every part whereof would require as much scrutiny Numb 4. as I purpose to bestow upon the whole I have for the present chosen to consider only the form of it and because it pretends against the form of set Lyturgy and that ex tempore forms doe succeed in room of the established and determined services I shall give you my judgement of it without any sharpnesse or bitternesse of spirit for I am resolved not to be angry with any man of another perswasion as knowing that I differ just as much from them as they doe from me And first I consider that the true state of the Question is only this Whether it is better to pray to God with consideration Numb 5. or without whether is the wiser man of the two hee who thinks and deliberates what to say or he that utters his mind as fast as it comes Whether is the better man he who out of reverence to God is most carefull and curious that he offend not in his tongue and therefore he himselfe deliberates and takes the best guides he can or he who out of the confidence of his own abilities or other exteriour assistances speaks what ever comes uppermost And here I have the advice and councell of a very wise man no lesse than Solomon Eccles. 5. 2. Be not rash with thy mouth Numb 6. and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in heaven and thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few The consideration of the vast distance between God and us Heaven and Earth should create such apprehensions in us that the very best and choycest of our offertoryes are not acceptable but by Gods gracious vouchsafeing and condescension and therefore since we are so much indebted to God for accepting our best it is not
Gratian so S. Thomas but it is needlesse to be troubled with that for Innocentius in the decretall now quoted useth the word Baptizatos and yet clearly distinguishes this power from the giving the Chrisme in Confirmation I know no other objection and these wee see hinder not but that having such evidence of fact in Scripture of confirmations done only by Apostles and this evidence urged by the Fathers for the practice of the Church and the power of cofirmation by many Councells and Fathers appropriated to Bishops and denyed to Presbyters and in this they are not only Doctors teaching their owne opinion but witnesses of a Catholike practise and doe actually attest it as done by a Catholike consent and no one example in all antiquity ever produc'd of any Priest that did no law that a Priest might impose hands for confirmation wee may conclude it to be a power Apostolicall in the Originall Episcopall in the Succession and that in this power the order of a Bishop is higher then that of a Presbyter and so declar'd by this instance of Catholike Practise THus farre I hope we are right But I call to § 34. And jurisdiction mind that in the Nosotrophium of the old Philosopher that undertook to cure all Calentures by Bathing his Patients in water some were up to the Chin some to the Middle some to the Knees So it is amongst the enemies of the Sacred Order of Episcopacy some endure not the Name and they indeed deserve to be over head and eares some will have them all one in office with Presbyters as at first they were in Name and they had need bath up to the Chinne but some stand shallower and grant a little distinction a precedency perhaps for order sake but no preheminence in reiglement no superiority of Iurisdiction Others by all meanes would be thought to be quite thorough in behalfe of Bishops order and power such as it is but call for a reduction to the primitive state and would have all Bishops like the Primitive but because by this meanes they thinke to impaire their power they may well endure to be up to the ankles their error indeed is lesse and their pretence fairer but the use they make of it of very ill consequence But curing the mistake will quickly cure this distemper That then shall be the present issue that in the Primitive Church Bishops had more power and greater exercise of absolute jurisdiction then now Men will endure to be granted or then themselves are very forward to challenge 1. Then The Primitive Church expressing Which they expressed in attributes of authority and great power the calling and offices of a Bishop did it in termes of presidency and authority Episcopus typum Dei Patris omnium gerit saith S. Ignatius The Bishop carryes the representment of God the Father that is in power and authority to be sure for how else so as to be the supreme in suo ordine in offices Ecclesiasticall And againe Quid enim aliud est Episcopus quà m is quiomni Prineipatu potestate superior Epist. ad Trallian est Here his superiority and advantage is expressed to be in his power A Bishop is greater and higher then all other power viz in materiâ or gradu religionis And in his Epistle to the Magnesians Hortor ut hoc sit omnibus studium in Dei concordiâ omnia agere EPISCOPO PRESIDENTE LOCO DEI. Doe all things in Vnity the Bishop being PRESIDENT IN THE PLACE OF GOD. President in all things And with a fuller tide yet in his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna Honora Episcopum ut PRINCIPEM SACERDOTUM imaginem Dei referentem Dei quidem propter Principatum Christi verò propter Sacerdotium It is full of fine expression both for Eminency of order and Iurisdiction The Bishop is the PRINCE OF THE PRIESTS bearring the image of God for his Principality that 's his jurisdiction and power but of Christ himselfe for his Priesthood that 's his Order S. Ignatius hath spoken fairely and if we consider that he was so primitive a man that himselfe saw Christ in the flesh and liv'd a man of exemplary sanctity and dyed a Martyr and hath been honoured as holy Catholike by all posterity certainly these testimonyes must needs be of Great pressure being Sententiae repetiti dogmatis not casually slipt from him and by incogitancy but resolutely and frequently But this is attested by the generall expressions of after ages Fungaris circa eum POTESTATE HONORIS tui saith S. Cyprian to Bishop Rogatianus Execute lib. 3. epist. 9. the POWER OF THY DIGNITY upon the refractary Deacon And VIGOR EPISCOPALIS and AUTHORITAS CATHEDRae are the the words expressive of that power whatsoever it be which S. Cyprian calls upon him to assert in the same Epistle This is high enough So is that which he presently subjoynes calling the Bishops power Ecclesiae gubernandae sublimem ac divinam potestatem a high and a divine power and authority in regiment of the Church * Locus Magisterij traditus ab Apostolis So S. Irenaeus calls Episcopacy A place of Mastership lib. 4. cap. 63. or authority deliver'd by the Apostles to the Bishops their successors * Eusebius speaking of Dionysius who succeeded Heraclas he received saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The lib. 6. hist. cap. 26. Bishoprick of the PRECEDENCY over the Churches of Alexandria * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Can. 10. Councell of Sardis to the TOP or HEIGHT of Episcopacy APICES PRINCIPES OMNIUM so Optatus calls Bishops the CHEIFE aud HEAD of all and S. Denys of Alexandria Scribit ad Fabianum lib. 2. adv Parmen Vrbis Romae Episcopum ad alios quamplurimos ECCLESIARUM PRINCIPES de fide Catholicâ suâ saith Eusebius And Origen calls the Bishop eum qui lib. 6. hist. cap. 26. Homil. 7. in Ierem. TOTIUS ECCLESIae ARCEM obtinet He that hath obtayn'd the TOWER ORHEIGHT of the Church The Fathers of the Councell of Constantinople in Trullo ordayn'd that the Bishops dispossessed of their Churches by incroachments of Barbarous people upon the Church's pale so as the Bishop had in effect no Diocesse yet they should enjoy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the authority of their PRESIDENCY according to their proper state their appropriate presidency And the same Councell calls the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the PRELATE or PREFECT of the Church I know not how to expound it better But it is something more full in the Greeks Councell of Carthage Commanding that the convert Can. 69. Donatists should be received according to the will and pleasure of the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that GOVERNES the Church in that place * And in the Councell of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 25. The Bishop hath POWER OVER the affayrs of the Church * Hoc quidem tempore Romanae Ecclesiae Sylvester retinacula gubernabat S. Sylvester the
have thoughts ambitious incroaching of usurpation and advantages of purpose to devest their Brethren of an authority intrusted them by Christ and then too when all the advantage of their honour did only set them upon a hill to feele a stronger blast of persecution and was not as since it hath been attested with secular assistance and faire arguments of honour but was only in a meere spirituall estimate and ten thousand reall disadvantages This will not be suppos'd either of wise or holy men But however Valeat quantum valere potest The question is now of matter of fact and if the Church of Martyrs and the Church of Saints and Doctors and Confessors now regnant in heaven be faire precedents for practices of Christianity we build upon a rock though we had digg'd no deeper then this foundation of Catholick practise Upon the hopes of these advantages I proceed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. Apost 32 If any Presbyter disrespecting his own Bishop shall make conventions apart or erect an altar viz. without the Bishops license let him be deposed clearely intimating that potestas faciendi concionem the power of making of Church-meetings and assemblies for preaching or other offices is derived from the Bishop and therefore the Canon adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is a lover of Rule he is a Tyrant that is an usurper of that power government which belongs to the Bishop The same thing is also decreed in the Councell of Antioch and in the Councell of Chalcedon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ca. 5. Act. 4. All the most Reverend Bishops cryed out this is a righteous law this is the Canon of the holy Fathers This viz. The Canon Apostolicall now cited * Tertullian is something De baptism more particular and instances in Baptisme Dandi baptismum jus habet summus Sacerdos qui est Episcopus Dehinc Presbyteri Diaconi non tamen sine Episcopi authoritate propter honorem Ecclesiae quo salvo salva pax est alioquin etiam Laicis jus est The place is of great consideration and carries in it its own objection and its answer The Bishop hath the right of giving baptisme Then after him Presbyters and Deacons but not without the authority of the Bishop So farre the testimony is clear and this is for the honour of the Church * But does not this intimate it was only by positive constitution and neither by Divine nor Apostolicall ordinance No indeed It does not For it might be so ordained by Christ or his Apostles propter honorem Ecclesiae and no harme done For it is honourable for the Church that her Ministrations should be most ordinate and so they are when they descend from the superior to the subordinate But the next words doe of themselves make answer Otherwise lay-men have right to baptize That is without the consent of the Bishop Lay-men can doe it as much as Presbyters and Deacons For indeed baptisme conferred by Lay-men is valid and not to bee repeated but yet they ought not to administer it so neither ought Presbyters without the Bishops license so saies Tertullian let him answer it Only the difference is this Lay-men cannot jure ordinario receive a leave or commission to make it lawfull in them to baptize any Presbyters and Deacons may for their order is a capacity or possibility ** But besides the Sacrament of Baptisme Tertullian affirmes De coronâ milit c. 3. vide S. Chrysost. hom 11. in 1. Tim. S. Hieron dial adv Lucifer the same of the venerable Eucharist Eucharistiae Sacramentum non de aliorum manu quà m Praesidentium sumimus The former place will expound this if there be any scruple in Praesidentium for clearly the Christians receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist from none but Bishops I suppose he means without Episcopall license whatsoever his meaning is these are his words The Councell of Gangra forbidding conventicles Can. 6. expresses it with this intimation of Episcopall authority If any man shall make assemblies privately out of the Church so despising the Church or shall doe any Church-offices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the presence of a Priest by THE DECREE OF A BISHOP let him be anathema The Priest is not to be assistant at any meeting for private offices without the Bishops license If they will celebrate Synaxes privately it must be by a Priest and he must be there by leave of the Bishop then the assembly is lawfull * And this thing was so knowne that the Fathers of the second Councell of Carthage call it ignorance or hypocrisy in Priests to doe their offices without a Ca. 9. license from the Bishop Numidius Episcopus Massilytanus dixit In quibusdam locis sunt Presbyteri qui aut ignorantes simplicitèr aut dissimulantes audactèr praesente inconsulto Episcopo complurimis in domicilijs agunt agenda quod disciplinae incongruum cognoscit esse Sanctitas vestra In some places there are Priests that in private houses doe offices houseling of people is the office meant communicating them at home without the consent or leave of the Bishop being either simply ignorant or boldly dissembling Implying that they could not else but know their duties to be to procure Episcopall license for their ministrations Ab Vniversis Episcopis dictum est Quisquis Presbyter inconsulto Episcopo agenda in quolibet loco voluërit celebrare ipse honroi suo contrarius existit All the Bishops said if any Priest without leave of his Bishop shall celebrate the mysteries be the place what it will be he is an Enemy to the Bishops dignity After this in time but before in authority is the great Councell of Chalcedon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 8. part 2. Act. 14. Let the Clergy according to the tradition of the Fathers remaine under the power of the Bishops of the City So that they are for their offices in dependance of the authority of the Bishop The Canon instances particularly to Priests officiating in Monasteries and Hospitalls but extends it selfe to an indefinite expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They must not dissent or differ from their Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c All they that transgresse this Constitution in ANY WAY not submitting to their Bishop let them be punish'd canonically So that now these generall expressions of obedience and subordination to the Bishop being to be Understood according to the exigence of the matter to wit the Ministeries of the Clergy in their severall offices the Canon extends it's prohibition to all ministrations without the Bishops authority But it was more clearely and evidently law and practice in the Roman Church we have good witnesse for it S. Leo the Bishop of that Church is my author Sed neque coram Episcopo licet Presbyter is in baptisterium introire nec praesente Antistite infantem Epist. 86. tingere aut fignare nec poenitentem sine praeceptione Episcopi sui reconciliare nec
32. conditores basilicarum in rebus quas eisdem Ecclesiis conferunt nullam se potestatem habere SED IUXTA CANONUM INSTITUTA sicut Ecclesiam ita dotem ejus ad ordinationem Episcopi pertinere These Councells I produce not as Iudges but as witnesses in the businesse for they give concurrent testimony that as the Church it selfe so the dowry of it too did belong to the Bishops disposition by the Ancient Canons For so the third Councell of Toledo calls it antiquam Constitutionem and it selfe is almost 1100. years old so that still I am precisely within the bounds of the Primitive Church though it be taken in a narrow sense For so it was determin'd Can. 26. vide Zonaram in hunc Canonem in the great Councell of Chalcedon commanding that the goods of the Church should be dispensed by a Clergy steward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Videatur Concil Carthag Graec. can 36. 38. 41. Balsam ibid. apologia 2. Iustini Martyris according to the pleasure or sentence of the Bishop ADde to this that without the Bishop's dimissory letters Presbyters might not goe to another Diocesse So it is decreed in the fifteenth Canon of the Apostles under paine of suspension or deposition § 39. Forbidding Presbyters to leave their own Diocesse or to travell without leave of the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the censure and that especially 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if he would not returne when his Bishop calls him The same is renewed in the Councell of Antioch cap. 3. and in the Councell of Constantinople in Trullo cap. 17. the censure there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him be deposed that shall without dimissory letters from his Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fixe himselfe in the Diocesse of another Bishop But with license of his Bishop he may Sacerdotes vel alii Clerici concessione suorum Episcoporum possunt ad alias Ecclesias transmigrare But this is frequently renewed Vide Concil Epaun. c. 5. venet c. 10. in many other Synodall decrees these may suffice for this instance * But this not leaving the Diocesse is not only meant of promotion in another Church but Clergy men might not travaile from Citty to Citty without the Bishops license which is not only an argument of his regiment in genere politico but extends it almost to a despotick But so strict was the Primitive Church in preserving the strict tye of duty and Clericall subordination to their Bishop The Councell of Laodicea commands a Priest or Clergy Can. 41. man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to travail without Canonicall or dimissory letters And who are to grant these letters is expressed in the next Canon which repeats the same prohibition Can. 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Priest or a Clerke must not travaile without the command of his Bishop and this prohibition is inserted into the body of the Law de consecrat dist 5. can non oportet which puts in the clause of Neque etiam Laicum but this was beyond the Councell The same is in the Councell of a Can. 38. Agatho The Councell of b Can. 5. Venice adds a cēsure that those Clerks should be like persons excommunicate in all those places whither they went without letters of license from their Bishop The same penalty is inflicted by the Councell of Epaunum Presbytero vel Diacono Can. 6. sine Antistitis sui Epistolis ambulanti communionem nullus impendat The first Councell of Tourayne in France and the third Councell of Orleans attest the selfe same power in the Bishop and duty in all his Clergy BUT a Coërcitive authority makes not a complete § 40. And the Bishop had power to preferre which of his Clerks he pleased jurisdiction unlesse it be also remunerative the Princes of the Nations are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benefactors for it is but halfe a tye to indeare obedience when the Subject only fears quod prodesse non poterit that which cannot profit And therefore the primitive Church to make the Episcopall jurisdiction up intire gave power to the Bishop to present the Clerks of his Diocesse to the higher Orders and neerer degrees of approximation to himselfe and the Clerks might not refuse to be so promoted Item placuit ut quicunque Clerici vel Diaconi pro necessitatibus Ecclesiarnm non obtemperaverint EPISCOPIS SUIS VOLENTIBUS EOS AD HONOREM AMPLIOREM IN SUA ECCLESIA PROMOVERE nec illic ministrent in gradu suo unde recedere noluerunt So it is decreed in the African Code They that will not by their Bishop be promoted to a Greater honour Can. 31. in the Church must not enjoy what they have already But it is a question of great consideration and worth a strict inquiry in whom the right and power of electing Clerks was resident in the Primitive Church for the right and the power did not alwaies goe together and also severall Orders had severall manner of election Presbyters and inferior Clergy were chosen by the Bishop alone the Bishop by a Synod of Bishops or by their Chapter And lastly because of late strong outcries are made upon severall pretensions amongst which the people make the biggest noise though of all their title to election of Clerks be most empty therefore let us consider it upon all its grounds 1. In the Acts of the Apostles which are most certainely the best precedents for all acts of holy Church we find that Paul and Barnabas ordain'd Elders in every Church and they passed thorough Lystra Iconium Antioch and Derbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appointing them Elders * S. Paul chose Timothy Bishop of Ephesus and he saies of himselfe and Titus For this cause I SENT thee to Crete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thou shouldest oppoint Presbyters or Bishops be they which they will in every City The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies that the whole action was his For that he ordain'd them no man questions but he also APPOINTED THEM and that was saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Titus V 5. as I commanded thee It was therefore an Apostolicall ordinance that the BISHOP SHOULD APPOINT PRESBYTERS Let there be halfe so much showne for the people and I will also indeavour to promote their interest **** There is onely one pretence of a popular election in Scripture It is of the seven that were set over the widdowes * But first this was no part of the hierarchy This was no cure of soules This was no divine institution It was in the dispensation of monyes it was by command of the Apostles the election was made and they might recede from their owne right it was to satisfye the multitude it was to avoid scandall which in the dispensation of moneyes might easily arise it was in a temporary office it was with such limitations and conditions as the Apostles prescrib'd them it was out of the number
and the Bishops of the Province and the Clergy of the Church and the people of the Citty were assembled at the choosing of another the Emperour makes a speech to the Theodor. lib. 4. c. 5. Bishops only that they should be carefull in their choyce So that although the people were present quibus pro fide religione etiam honor deferendus est as S. Cyprians phrase is to whom respect is to be had and faire complyings to be used so long as they are pious catholick and obedient yet both the right of electing and solemnity of ordaining was in the Bishops the peoples interest did not arrive to one halfe of this 6. There are in Antiquity diverse precedents of Bishops who chose their own successors it will not be imagined the people will choose a Bishop over his head and proclaime that they were weary of him In those daies they had more piety * Agelius did so he chose Sisinnius and that it may appeare it was without the people they came about him and intreated him to choose Marcian to whom they had been beholding in the time of Valens the Emperour he complyed with them and appointed Marcian to be his successor and Sisinnius Socrat. lib. 5. c. 21. whom he had first chosen to succeed Marcian * Thus did Valerius choose his successor S. Austin for though the people nam'd him for their Priest and carried him to Valerius to take Orders yet Valerius chose him Bishop And this was usuall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius expresses this case it was ordinary to doe so in many Churches 7. The manner of election in many Churches was various for although indeed the Church had commanded it and given power to the Bishops to make the election yet in some times and in some Churches the Presbyters or the Chapter chose one out of themselves S. Hierome saies they alwaies did so in Alexandria from S. Markes time to Heraclas and Dionysius * S. Ambrose saies that at the first In Ephes. 4. the Bishop was not by a formall new election promoted but recedente uno sequens ei succedebat As one dyed so the next senior did succeed him In both these cases no mixture of the peoples votes 8. In the Church of England the people were never admitted to the choyce of a Bishop from its first becoming Christian to this very day and therefore to take it from the Clergy in whom it alwaies was by permission of Princes and to interest the people in it is to recede à traditionibus Majorum from the religion of our forefathers and to INNOVATE in a high proportion 9. In those Churches where the peoples suffrage by way of testimony I meane and approbation did concurre with the Synod of Bishops in the choyce of a Bishop the people at last according to their usuall guise grew hot angry and tumultuous and then were ingaged by divisions in religion to Name a Bishop of their own sect and to disgrace one another by publike scandall and contestation and often grew up to Sedition and Murder and therefore although they were never admitted unlesse where themselves usurped farther then I have declared yet even this was taken from them especially since in tumultuary assemblies they were apt to carry all before them they knew not how to distinguish between power and right they had not well learn'd to take deniall but began to obtrude whom they listed to swell higher like a torrent when they were check'd and the soleship of election which by the Ancient Canons was in the Bishops they would have asserted wholly to themselves both in right and execution * I end this with the annotation of Zonaras upon the twelfth Canon of the Laodicean Councell Populi suffragiis olim Episcopi eligebantur understand him in the senses above explicated Sed cùm multae inde seditiones existerent hinc factum est ut Episcoporum Vnius cujusque provinciae authoritate eligi Episcopum quemque oportere decreverint Patres of old time Bishops were chosen not without the suffrage of the people for they concurred by way of testimony and acclamation but when this occasion'd many seditions and tumults the Fathers decreed that a Bishop should be chosen by the authority of the Bishops of the Province And he addes that in the election of Damasus 137 men were slaine and that sixe hundred examples more of that nature were producible Truth is the Nomination of Bishops in Scripture was in the Apostles alone and though the Kindred of our Blessed Saviour were admitted to the choyce of Simeon Cleophae the Successor of S. Iames to the Bishoprick of Ierusalem as Eusebius witnesses it was lib. 3. hist. cap. 11. propter singularem honorem an honorary and extraordinary priviledge indulged to them for their vicinity and relation to our Blessed Lord the fountaine of all benison to us and for that very reason Simeon himselfe was chosen Bishop too Yet this was praeter regulam Apostolicam The rule of the Apostles and their precedents were for the sole right of the Bishops to choose their Colleagues in that Sacred order * And then in descent even before the Nicene Councell the people were forbidden to meddle in election for they had no authority by Scripture to choose by the necessity oftimes and for the reasons before asserted they were admitted to such a share of the choyce as is now folded up in a peice of paper even to a testimoniall and yet I deny not but they did often take more as in the case of Nilammon quem cives elegerunt saith the story out of Sozomen they chose him alone Tripart hist. lib. 10. c. 14. though God took away his life before himselfe would accept of their choyce and then they behav'd themselves oftentimes with so much insolency partiality faction sedition cruelty and Pagan basenesse that they were quite interdicted it above 1200 yeares agone * So that they had their little in possession but a little while and never had any due and therefore now their request for it is no petition of right but a popular ambition and a snatching at a sword to hew the Church in peices vide dist 63. per tot Gratian. But I thinke I need not have troubled my selfe halfe so farre for they that strive to introduce a popular election would as faine have Episcopacy out as popularity of election let in So that all this of popular election of Bishops may seeme superfluous For I consider that if the peoples power of choosing Bishops be founded upon Gods law as some men pretend from S. Cyprian not proving the thing from Gods law but Gods law from S. Cyprian then Bishops themselves must be by Gods law For surely God never gave them power to choose any man into that office which himselfe hath no way instituted And therefore I suppose these men will desist from their pretence of Divine right of popular election if the Church will recede from her divine
former and by as great Doctors Ecclesia nimis graviter erraret si admitteret allquem Lib. 5. de Rom. Pout c. 7. Regem qui vellet impunè fovere quamlibet Sectam defendere haereticos So Bellarmine And again Non licet Christianis tolerare Regem haereticum si conetur pertrahere subditos ad suam haeresim But F. Creswell puts the businesse home to purpose Certè Ibid. non tantum licet sed summâ etiam iuris Divini necessitate ac praecepto imò conscientiae vinculo arctissimo Philopat p. 110 n. 162. extremo animarum suarum periculo ac discrimine Christianis omnibus hoc ipsum incumbit si praestare rem possint Vnder perill of their soules they must not suffer an hereticall Prince to reigne over them Possunt debent eum arcere ex hominum Christianorum Pag. 106. n. 157. dominatu ne alios inficiat c. 3 He that saith Subjects may and are bound to depose their Princes and to drive them from all rule over Christians if they be able meanes something more For what if the Prince resist still he is bound to depose him if he be able How if the Prince make a warre The Catholike subject must doe his duty neverthelesse and warre too if he be able He that saies he may wage a warre with his Prince I doubt not but thinks he may kill him and if the fortune of the warre lights so upon him the subject cannot be blamed for doing of his duty It is plain that killing a Prince is a certain consequent of deposing him unlesse the Prince be bound in conscience to think himselfe a Heretick when the Pope declares him so and be likewise bound not to resist and besides all this will performe these his obligations and as certainly think himselfe hereticall and as really give over his Kingdome quietly as he is bound For in case any of these should faile there can be but very slender assurance of his life I would be loth to obtrude upon men the odious consequences of their opinions or to make any thing worse which is capable of a fairer construction but I crave pard on in this particular the life of Princes is sacred and is not to be violated so much as in thought or by the most remote consequence of a publike doctrine But here indeed it is so immediate and naturall a consequent of the former that it must not be dissembled But what shall we think if even this blasphemy be taught in terminis See this too In the yeare 1407. when the Duke of Orleans had been slaine by Iohn of Burgundy and the fact notorious beyond a possibility of concealement he thought it his best way to imploy his Chaplaine to justify the act pretending that Orleans was a Tyrant This stood him in small stead for by the procurement of Gerson it was decreed in the Councell of Constance that Tyranny was no sufficient cause for a man to kill a Prince But yet I finde that even this decree will not stand Princes in much stead First because the decree runnes ut nemo privatâ Authoritate c. but if the Pope commands it then it is Iudicium publicum and so they are never the more secure for all this Secondly because Marianae tels us that this Decree is nothing Namque id decretum Concilij Constantiensis Romano Pontifici Martino quinto probatum non invenio non Eugenio aut De Reg R. instit lib. 1. c. 6 Successoribus quorum consensu Conciliorum Ecclesiasticorum sanctitas stat Thirdly because though the Councell had forbidden killing of Tyrannical Princes even by publique authority though this Decree had beene confirmed by the Pope which yet it was not yet Princes are never the more secure if they be convict of Heresy and therefore let them but adde Heresy to their Tyranny and this Councell Non obstante they may be killed by any man for so it is determin'd in an Apology made for Chastel Licitum esse privatis singulis Reges Principes Haereseos Franc. Verum Const. p. 2. c. 2. Tyrannidis condemnatos occidere non obstante Decreto Concilij Constantiensis And the Author of the Book de iustâ abdicatione Henrici 3. affirmes it not only lawfull but meritorious How much lesse then this is that of Bellarmine De Pont. R. lib. 5. c 6. Si Temporalia obsint fini Spirituali Spiritualis potestas potest debet coercere Temporalem omni ratione ac viâ If omni ratione then this of killing him in case of necessity or greater convenience must not be excluded But to confesse the businesse openly and freely It is knowne that either the Consent of the people or the Sentence of the Pope or Consent of learned men is with them held to be a publicum Iudicium and sufficient to sentence a Prince and convict him of Heresy or Tyranny That opinion which makes the people Iudge is very rare amongst them but almost generally exploded that opinion which Vide 〈◊〉 Image of both Churches makes the learned to be their Iudge is I thinke proper to Mariana or to a few more with him but that the sentence of the Pope is a sufficient conviction of him and a compleate Iudiciall act is the most Catholique opinion on that Side as I shall shew anon Now whether the Pope or learned men or the people be to passe this sentence upon the Prince it is plaine that it is an Vniversall Doctrine amongst them that after this sentence whosesoever it be it is then without Question lawfull to kill him and the most that ever they say is that it is indeed not lawfull to kill a King not lawfull for a private man of his owne head without the publike sentence of his Iudge but when this Iudge whom they affirme to be the Pope hath passed his sentence then they doubt not of its being lawfull That I say true I appeale to a Tom. 3. disp 5. q. 8. punct 3. Gregory de Valentia b In sum l. ◠c. 6. Apolog. ad Tolet c R. Angl. c. 13 Bellarmine d Defens fidei lib. 6 c. 4. Suarez e in 13 cap. ad Rom. disp 5. Salmeron f Quaest. p. in c. 3. Iud. Serarius g De iust iure to m. 4. tr 3. d. 6. Molina h Aphoris verb. Tyrannus 1. Instit Moral 2. p. lib. 11. c. 5. q 10. Emanuel Sà i Azorius k In Hercul Furent Martinus Delrius l de Iustit jure c 9. dub 4 Lessius m Chauuesauris polit Gretser n in resp ad Aphoris Calvinistarū Becanus o Contr. Calvinist Aphorism c. 3. ad Aphor. 1. Sebastan Heissius p In expostul ad Henrici Reg. pro Societate Richeome q in Apolog. pro Henrico Garnetto Eudaemon Iohannes r Ad annum 0undi 2669. n. 7. Salianus s Tract 29. p.