upon the Succession in the Apostleship of St. Peter For the Fathers of that Council do not acknowledge him in that Quality The Council of Aurange condemneth the Merits in the 12th Canon saying God loveth us according as we shall be by his Grace and not such as we shall be through our Merits In the Year of Our Lord 549 Reparatus Bishop of Cathage called a Synod in which Vigilius Bishop of Rome was anathematized as an Heretick Eutychian And Honorius Bishop of Rome was condemned by the VI and the VII Universal Councils as an Heretick Monothelite In the VI Council of Constantinople assembled again in the Palace of Trulle in the 17 and the 77 Canon the Church of Rome is expresly and by name condemned and is commanded to hinder no more the cohabitation of Priests with their Wives and to Fast no more on the Lords Day upon pain of Deposition or Excommunication Whence it appeareth by the way that the Greek and Eastern Church in which that Council was celebrated in which that Council was celebrated was not subject to the Roman Church since she prescribed Laws to her In the Year 754 a Council composed of 338 Bishops was held at Constantinople in which it was decreed that Images should be removed out of Churches and the worship of them was forbidden There also the Bread of the Eucharist is called the Image and the Figure of the Body of Jesus Christ But in the Year 787 the Empress Irene assembled another Council against that Council at Nicea in which Images were set up again and the Worship of them was commanded upon Pain of Anathema But in the year 794 the Emperour Charles the Great caused that Council of Nicea to be condemned by another Council assembled at Frankford although he knew that Pope Adrian was of a contrary Opinion and had defended that Council of Nicea by an express Book This is My Lord the Condemnation of Errours about our Controversies which I find in the ancient Councils Neither could I find any ancient Council which in matters of Faith condemns the Doctrine that we profess For the Chronicle of Gaultier which was shewed to your Grace representeth things falsly and doth not agree with other Authors of his Religion who justifie us against most of his Calumnies I am ready to undergo any Punishment if in the 500 years which your Grace mentions one only man be found that had a Religion any whit like the present Religion of the Roman Church In the ancient Church the publick Service was celebrated in the vulgar Tongue understood by the People The Laity received the Communion in the two kinds The reading of Scripture was not prohibited to the People The Church did not believe Purgatory Before the year 370 of the Lord no Tract is found of Invocation of Saints There was no Mention of Roman Indulgences nor of the Treasure of the Church in which the Pope hath laid up the Overplus of the penal Works and Satisfactions of Saints and Monks which he distributes among the People by his Indulgences In those days they made no Images of God They worshipped not the Images of Saints They adored not the consecrated Host with Worship of Latria They spake not of Accidents without a Subject They believed not that Mice could gnaw the Body of Christ or that it could be blown away be the Wind or stole or devoured by Beasts as we are taught in the Beginning of the Missal In those days the Bishops of Asia Africa Aegypt Graece c. took no Oath of Allegiance to the Roman Bishop in their Ordination and took no Letters of Investiture from him In those Days they believed not that Jesus Christ had eaten his own Body in the Communion They believed not that it was in the Priests Power to create his Creator The Pope did not style himself God and the Divine Majesty He boasted not that he could not err and that he was the Sovereign Judge of Controversies He drew no Souls out of Purgatory He took not upon him the Power of adding to the Creed He canonized no Saints He gave no Pardons of two or three hundred years He dispensed not with Vows and Oaths He dispensed no with Vows and Oaths He neither gave nor took away Kingdoms He put no Kingdom in Interdict In those days the Blessed Virgin Mary was not called the Queen of Heaven and the Lady of the World The Bishop of Rome did not bestow several Offices upon Saints charging one to look over such a Country another to such a Disease another to such a Trade They spake not in those days of Franciscan Fryars nor of Dominicans nor of Capucins nor of Jesuits nor of Beads Rosaries Agnus Dei and the like Commodities In a Word the Roman Religion is a Religion spick and span new and an horrible defacing of the ancient Religion taught by Christ and his Apostles If Your Grace hath such a great Desire to be instructed about Antiquity you may desire one of those that take upon them to instruct you to give you but one Example upon any of the forementioned Points I am sure that they will never undertake it it being utterly impossible I could shew to Your Grace that all these Inventions were devised to serve the Gain and Ambition of the Pope and his Clergy But I will pass to that which Your Grace addeth Of the Pope's Primacy From thence you pass to the Pope's Primacy and speak thus I sought to be informed whether all the Western Churches had not always acknowledged the Bishop of Rome to be the Primate and the Head of the visible Church established by our Lord for the Conduct of the same and seeing the Protestants were so far from rejecting the first five Centuries that they often both in their Sermons and Books quote and produce the Fathers that writ in those Ages I thought the shortest way for my Information would be to see what were the Sentiments of those Fathers in the controverted Points Truly my Lord that short way which you say you have taken is of an infinite Length and indeed there is no end of it It would have been a far shorter way to have asked of the ablest men of the Roman Church whether it may be found in Gods Word that God hath established the Pope Successor of St. Peter in his Apostleship and in his Primacy over the Universal Church They would have freely confest unto you that the Holy Scripture saith nothing of it and that it is a Tradition about which we have no Commandment of God I observe also that you speak only of the Western Churches whence I gather that he who suggested these things to your Grace knows that the Eastern and the African Church never acknowledged the Bishop of Rome in that Quality and Character Now those Churches were then greater than the Western as also they are ancienter Now by the Councils approved both by the Western and the Eastern Churches which I have already
Christian Religion appointed Judges in the Donatists Case Melchiades Bishop of Rome being one of them But the Donatists having complained of his Judgment the Emperour commanded that their Cause should be judged again by the Synod of Arles who had power to confirm or disannul the Judgment of Melchiades and his Fellow-Judges Under that Emperour the Christian Church being delivered from Persecutions a new Order and Constitution was made over all the Roman Empire to which Sylvester Bishop of Rome was not called His Legend saith untruly that he baptized Constantine and healed him of a Leprosie but upon that groundless Fable was built the Donation of Constantine by which the Emperour is pretended to have given unto the Pope one half of his Empire The same Emperour in the year 325. assembled a General Council out of the whole Empire in which Sylvester did not preside but Hozius Bishop of Corduba in Spain of whom our Adversaries falsly say that he presided in that Council as the Pope's Legate A thing repugnant to the Testimony of Eusebius Theodoret and Sozomen and to the Acts of the Nicene Council in which Hozius signed the first without styling himself the Pope's Legat and after him Vitus and Vincentius Deputies of the Bishop of Rome To the Emperour Constantine succeeded his Son Constantius who favouring the Arrians banished Liberius Bishop of Rome and gave him five hundred Crowns to maintain him in his Exile But Liberius to be restored to his Bishoprick joyned with the Arrians and subscribed their Confession in their Assembly at Sirmium In the year 381. the Emperour Theodosius called a General Council at Constantinople to which Damasus Bishop of Rome came not nor sent any Legate to it that Council being assembled without his consent In that Council Heresies were condemned and the Order of the Patriarchs was altered without asking the Advice of Damasus Yet that Council is one of the first four Oecumenical Councils About the same time Ambrose Bishop of Milan refused to administer the Communion to the Emperour Theodosius for a Murther committed by his Guards at Thessalonica Ambrose did this without taking the Advice of Damasus Bishop of Rome his Neighbour Such an action in our dayes would be High Treason against the Pope For it is one of the Fundamental Laws of the Roman Church that Kings cannot be bound by Censures or excommunicated but by the Pope's Order That I may not gather here a greater number of Examples I have alledged before many Councils that have condemned Popes of Heresie and have forbidden them to send Legates and receive Appeals from Foreign Churches The first Bishop of Rome that I read of who took upon him to govern the Church as Successor of St. Peter was Leo the First about the year of our Lord 450. For before him the Preeminence which was claimed by the Roman Bishops was grounded only upon some mistaken or falsified Canons of Councils and those in Consideration of the dignity of the City which was the chief City of the Empire For out of the Roman Empire the Bishops of Rome claimed no Superiority Some Passages are found true or false in which the Bishops of Rome are styled the first Bishops of the whole World and Presidents over the Universal Church But the Reason of it was that the Ancients called the Roman Emperours Governours and Masters of the World and it is frequent in their Writings to call the Empire Orbis Romanus the Roman World The Truth of this is evident because the same Titles are many times given to the other Patriarchs or chief Bishops of the Roman Empire viz. To the Bishop of Constantinople to him of Antioch and to him of Alexandria who are also called the Heads and Sovereigns of all and are said to have the Care of all the Churches Thus Gregory Nazianzen in his Oration upon Athanasius saith That the Charge of the People of Alexandria was committed unto him which is as much as if one said the Government of all the World And in the same place he saith that Athanasius gave Laws unto all the World Basil saith that Meletius Bishop of Antioch Basil Ep 50. did preside over the whole Body of the Church Theodoret in his Book of Heresies in the Chapter where he speaks of Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople calls him also the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the whole habitable World Wherefore also the Patriarch of Constantinople is called the Oecumenical or Universal Bishop in the Councils of that Age. For this Rule was constituted among the Patriarchs of the Roman Empire that each of them was to take Care of all the Churches of the whole Roman Empire but that Power was never extended beyond the Limits of the Roman Empire Yea some Passages are found in which that general Dignity is attributed unto all Bishops that were eminent in Holiness as Basil saith to Ambrose Idem ep 55. that God had raised him to the Dignity of the Apostles And Sidonius calls Lupus Bishop of Troyes Sidon lib. 6. ep 1. the Bishop of Bishops and the first Prelate of all the World In those times all Bishops were called Popes For the Popes Primacy Your Grace alledgeth St. Hierom who writing to Damasus and acknowledging no other Preeminence than that of Jesus Christ said I am in Communion with thy Beatitude that is with St. Peter's Chair I see nothing there that favoureth the Popes Primacy over the Universal Church For as I mentioned before the Bishops of Rome were held St. Peter's Successors in his Government over the Roman Church which Government they held to have been founded by St. Peter and I would not dispute about that But they were not held Successors of St. Peter's Apostleship nor of his Primacy Saying to a man I am of thy Communion is not acknowledging him Head of the Universal Church So much many be said to any Bishop that is sound in the Faith yea to any true Believer we may say that we must be of his Communion and that he that gathereth not with him is a Scatterer There were then held to be three Chairs of St. Peter one at Rome another in Alexandria another in Antioch The Bishops of these Cities styled themselves Successors of St. Peter in the Government of those Churches not in the Apostleship And there were always Piques and Quarrels between those three Sees Gregory the First Bishop of Rome in the 37 Epistle of his VI Book saith that those three Chairs are but one See upon which three Bishops are sitting and he acknowledgeth them his Equals and that it belongs not to him to command them But they that shewed to Your Grace that Authority of St. Hierom had more Wit than to shew you other Passages of his in which he debaseth very much the Bishop of Rome and giveth no good Character of the Roman Church of his Age. In his Epistle to Euagrius he saith In what part soever a man is a Bishop whether it be at Rome or at
Agobio whether at Constantinople or Regio they have the same Dignity and Authority Power and Wealth or Meanness and Poverty do not make one greater or lower than another By their Place they are all Successors of the Apostles And because some alledged the Example of the Roman Church for preferring the Deacon before the Priest he answereth Why doest thou alledge to me the Custom of one City shewing that that was not to be a Rule to the Universal Church His Custom is to call Rome Babylon and the Harlot and to exhort devout Persons to come out of her And in his Preface upon the Book of Didymus of the Holy Ghost he speaks thus When I was in Babylon and was an Inhabitant of the Harlot clad in Purple and lived after the Laws of the Roman Citizens I would prate somewhat about the Holy Ghost and dedicate my Work to the Bishop of the City But behold that Pot which is seen in Jeremiah after the Staff on the North-side begins to boyl and the Senate of the Pharisees begins to cry out meaning by the Senate of the Pharisees the Ecclesiastical Roman Senate And in the Epistle to Marcella under the name of Paula and Eustochium exhorting Marcella to come out of Rome and to retire to Bethlehem I esteem saith he that this place of Bethlehem is holier than the Tarpeian Rock meaning the Roman Capitol which having so often been struck with Lightning from Heaven sheweth that it is displeasing unto God Read St. Johns Revelation and see what is foretold of the Hatlot clad with Purple and of the Blasphemy written on her forehead and of the seven Mountains and of the many Waters fly from her my People and be not Partaker of her Sins least you receive of her Plagues It is fallen it is fallen c. But being gone from Rome into Syria and living there in perpetual Quarrels with the Clergy of that Country he was constrained to have Recourse unto his old Master Damasus for he had been his Secretary and to write to him those kind Letters which you alledge After Hierom you bring St. Austin in these words Shall we doubt whether we must rest in the Churches Lap which by Succession hath always had Sovereign Authority in the Apostolick Chair That Passage is found in the Book de utilitate credendi in the 17 Chapter but otherwise set down than Your Grace alledgeth Disputing against the Manicheans with whom Scripture had no Authority he useth humane and probable Proofs to exhort men to embrace the Christian Religion He saith then We seeing such a great Assistance of God and so great Proficiency Improvement advance shall we doubt to enter into the Lap of that Church not the Roman but Catholick Church which even to the Confession of Mankind from the Apostolick See by the Successions of Bishops while the Hereticks in vain barked about her c. hath arrived at the height of Authority that is to be the establisht Religion In this Passage St. Austin neither mentioneth nor appears to have thought of the Roman Church And although the Chair of Rome had been named in it yet this would avail nothing for the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome over the Universal Church For the Primacy of the Apostolick Chairs is attributed by the Ancients no less to the Church of Alexandria of Antioch of Jerusalem c. than to the Church of Rome Sozomen speaks thus of the Council of Nice Soz. hist lib. 1. c. 16. There met among the Bishops that held Apostolick Sees Macarius Bishop of Jerusalem Eustathius Bishop of Antioch upon the River Orontes and Alexander near the Mareotid Marshes And again idem 4.24 of the Ephesine Council Cyrillus Prelate of the Apostolick See meaning Jerusalem Ruffinus in the second Book chap. 21. In Alexandria Timothy in Jerusalem John restored the Apostolick Sees Theodoret in the fifth Book of his History chap. 9. calls Antioch the most ancient Church and wholly Apostolick St. Austin in his 162 Epistle speaks of the Apostolick Sees in the plural saying that Cecilian might have reserved his Cause to the Judgment of the Apostolick Sees We have alledged Basil before saying that St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan had the Apostolick Preheminence and Hierom saying that all Bishops are Successors of the Apostles Sidonius in the first Epistle of the 6. Book saith that Lupus Bishop of Troyes had already set nine times five years in the Apostolick See They do then abuse your Grace that make you believe that Austin speaks only of the Apostolick See of the Roman Bishop seeing that the Primacy of the Apostolick See belonged to so many other Bishops And though in that place St. Austin had spoken of the Bishop of Rome only he had not thereby excluded the other Bishops from the same Dignity He that saith the King of France enjoyeth the Royal Preeminence doth not thereby deny to the Kings of England and Spain their Authority in their own Countries Here it is observable that St. Austin was never subject to the Bishop of Rome that he never took an Oath of Fidelity to him that when he was admitted Bishop he took no Letters of Investiture from him and paid him no Annates for his Entry He was one of those that made the Canons of the Milevitan Council which forbad the Appeals from Africa to Rome and one of those that made that Remonstrance to Celestin Bishop of Rome that he should for the time to come abstain from sending Legats into Africa and medling with their Businesses and using Supposititious Canons to advance his Authority The Bishops of Africa were of the same Faith with the Bishop of Rome and spake to him in respectful Terms because of the Dignity of the Imperial City and because they believed that St. Peter died at Rome and had founded that Chair among many others But if the Bishops of Rome had taken upon them the Title of God and boasted that they could not err if they had taken upon them to canonize Saints to give Indulgences to draw Souls out of Purgatory to alter the Commandments of God and to add unto the Creed those African Bishops would have bestowed their Censures upon him as freely as they did upon any other who fell into Heresie Of the Sacrifice of the Mass For the Sacrifice of the Mass Your Grace alledgeth two Passages out of St. Austin The one saith That the Catholick Faith suffers not that the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of the Lord be offered for those that are not baptized In the other speaking of his dead Mother he saith that the Sacrifice of our Ransom was offered for her when her Body was upon the Brink of the Grave There is nothing more easie than to deceive one that will be deceived and hath no Knowledge in the Fathers St. Austin declareth his Mind upon this point very often and tells us that the Eucharist is called the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ because it
A SHORT VIEW OF THE Chief Points IN CONTROVERSY Between the REFORMED CHURCHES And the CHURCH of ROME IN Two LETTERS to the Duke of Bouillon upon his turning PAPIST Written by the Reverend PETER DV MOVLIN Professor of Divinity in the University of Sedan Newly translated out of the FRENCH Copy which was never Printed LONDON Printed for Benjamin Tooke at the Ship in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1680. To the Honourable Sir NORTON KNATCHBVL Knight and Baronet Honourable Sir THese Letters written fifty years ago to reduce the Duke of Bouillon to the Protestant Religion which he had forsaken never were put to the Press for Fear of provoking that great Lord to confute them with Arguments of Power against which those of Truth and Learning too often cannot stand That they now come out in English the Church of England is obliged Sir to you who having by your diligent Search made your self Owner of a fair Manuscript of the same were pleased to bestow it upon me the Authors Son adding your Request which to me is a Command that I would translate it into English and give it to the Publick I have now obeyed your Order which I could not have done in a more seasonable Conjuncture and I cannot in Duty but return this Translation to the bountiful Giver of the Original Sir you have by your excellent Labours already publisht shewn to the World how well you can match hearty Piety with eminent Learning Now you are pleased to give another Instance of your Affection to both by procuring the setting forth these following Treatises Short indeed they are but as compact with the Sinews of Reason and Learning as any that ever came from the Study of that strong Champion of Gods Cause May God be glorified by it his Truth asserted his Opposers converted and your Zeal for Gods Truth and Glory be rewarded by God and imitated by men So prayeth SIR Your true Honourer and most humble Servant PETER DU MOULIN THE FIRST EPISTLE MY LORD UPON hearing the Report that you purpose to change your Religion I continued a long time doubtful whether I should write to Your Grace about it For being hardly perswaded that such a thought could come into your mind I was afraid to be offensive to Your Grace by my Mistrust But now seeing that Report to continue and increase I could hold no longer from imparting my thoughts to Your Grace upon that Subject being inferiour to none in Fidelity and Affection to your Service You were instructed My Lord from your Infancy by an Excellent Father and a Virtuous Mother in a Religion of which you have learned to fear God and serve him according to his Word In that Religion if you had met with some Scruple you ought at the least to have heard both the Parties and not have taken counsel onely of the Adversaries This is plain tempting of God who being thereby justly provoked blindeth the Spirit of those that seek occasions to turn from his Service Had Your Grace done me that Honour to acquaint me with your Doubts I might have easily shewed you that the Roman Religion is altogether contrary to the Word of God That they celebrate every day a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Redemption of Souls other than the Death of our Lord Jesus Christ That the Communion of the Cup expresly commanded in Scripture is denied to the Laity That the People say Prayers to God which they do not understand and the Publick Service is performed in a Language unknown to them contrary to the express Prohibition of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.16 That the Trinity is represented in carved Stone and Picture and the Adoration of Images is enjoyned by many Popes and new Councels contrary to Gods express Prohibition in the Second Commandment Which was taken away from the Law of God in the Offices and Breviaries that the People might not see it That Bones and Relicks of Saints are adored That by the Doctrine of their Purgatory God is made to burn the Souls of his Children for Sins fully pardoned and for which Jesus Christ hath wholly satisfied and that not to mend the Sinners but to satisfie his Justice That the Pope without any Authority from the Word of God taketh upon him to be Successor to St. Peter in the Apostleship and in the Primacy over the Universal Church To defend which Primacy Epistles and Decretals of the Antient Bishops of Rome were forged and many Books and supposititious Passages the falshood whereof we shew by invincible Proofs In Decrees Councels Canons and Principal Authors of the Roman Church the Pope is called God and the Divine Majesty having all Power in Heaven and Earth By which Power he fetcheth Souls out of Purgatory puts such as he pleaseth in the List of the Saints by Canonizing them giveth Pardons of Sins of two or three thousand years giveth and taketh away Kingdoms dispenseth with Oaths made unto God dissolveth Marriages lawfully contracted boasting that he cannot err in the Faith and that he hath Power to add new Articles to the Creed to be Judge above Scripture and to alter that which God hath instituted in his Word Of these I could bring to Your Grace a thousand Proofs drawn from the Decrees and Councels of Popes and from Publick Experience The Pope boasteth that he hath a Treasure in which he layeth up all the Overplus of the Penitential Works of the Saints and distributeth them unto others by his Indulgences and makes multitudes to travel two or three hundred Leagues to get the Remission of their Sins which is offered to them at home gratis by the Doctrine of the Gospel If a Rich man dieth who hath given any thing to the Church he hath many private Masses Obits and Suffrages for his Money But never any private Mass is sung for a Beggar or one that hath given nothing In the Roman Church departed Saints are prayed to of whom Holy Scripture saith that they know not the Hearts of men and whose Invocation hath neither Command nor Example nor Promise in the Word of God I am told that Your Grace hath given ear to Capucins who have for their Patron and Author of their Order St. Francis whose Life if you had read as our Adversaries themselves have publish'd it you might think that it was purposely written to defame him There you may find how he preach'd unto Birds that being stark naked he embraced a Woman made of Snow to repress his Heats that he took up again the Lice that fell down from his Garments and many the like Feats These Capucins as other Monks boast that they doe Works of Supererogation that is better and more perfect Works than God hath commanded in his Law For which therefore they look for a degree of Glory in Paradise above other Saints who had attained to no greater Perfection than to fulfil the Law of God perfectly who thereby have not got any greater Reward than Eternal Life If by the Doctrine of the
Roman Church you are obliged to get Eternal Life by your Merits instead of putting your whole trust in Gods Mercy through Jesus Christ you shall never enjoy any Peace of Conscience seeing that the most righteous Persons have great Defects and stand in need of Gods Pardon Good works indeed are necessary to Salvation not from any merit in them but as the onely means prescribed by God to attain the the Kingdom of Heaven One of the great Diseases of the Roman Church is that a Sinner after he hath confess'd his Sins to a Priest receiveth from him the Pardon of them A Sinner forgiveth another Sinner Offences committed against God as if a Felon did forgive another Felon Crimes committed against the King Thereby a man makes himself a Judge in Gods Cause A Priest takes upon him to be Judge of Sins which he knoweth not for he knoweth not the Thoughts and the Affections of the Heart in which Sin doth chiefly consist Neither doth he know the truth of the Sinners Repentance without which there is no Pardon Indeed faithful Pastors have received of Christ the Power to remit Sins as touching the Ecclesiastical Penalty and Censure of the Church and to reconcile the Sinner excluded from the Communion to the Church But you would be much disappointed if you thought that the Pardon given you by a Priest doth exempt you from answering for your Actions before Gods Judgment Seat For when the King forgives a Felon he doth not exempt him from being judged by that great Judge Can a man that feareth God and to whom God hath left some liberty of Judgement read without horrour the Cauteles and Rubricks of the Mass in the beginning of the Missal which the Priest hath upon the Altar Whereby Provision is made against the inconveniencies that may happen to the Consecrated Host when it happens that Mice have gnawn the Mass-God or when a Beast hath devoured it or when the Wind hath carried it away or when the Priest or a sick person hath vomited it Can ye find in your heart to worship a God that may be stollen or eaten by Beasts or blown away by the Wind and that being fallen cannot raise himself How many times doth Scripture say That Jesus Christ gave Bread to his Disciples and that we break and eat Bread in the Lords Supper Luke 22.19 20. That Bread is called the Body of Christ as it is in remembrance of him In the same manner as in the next line the Cup is called the New Testament because it is the Sign and the Memorial of it Therefore the Apostles did not worship it The Roman Church holds that Jesus Christ did communicate in the Holy Eucharist with his Disciples All Parties agree that it follows from the Doctrine of that Church that Jesus Christ did eat himself and had his Head and his Feet in his Mouth The Gospel tells us that in that Holy Action the Devil entred into Judas Can ye believe that Jesus Christ and the Devil entred together into him To strengthen these Errours the sixth Chapter of St. Johns Gospel is impertinently alleged in which the Lord Jesus speaks of giving his Flesh to eat for Pope Innocent the III and after him a multitude of Doctors have determined that in that Chapter the Eucharist is not meant at all and that these words of giving his Flesh to eat must be understood of a Spiritual eating by Faith There Jesus Christ speaks to the Capernaïtes to whom he promiseth to give his Flesh for their meat but he never gave them the Eucharist He speaks to them of a manner of Eating necessary to Salvation and without which none can be saved saying John 6.53 Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of man there is no Life in you Now many are saved without receiving the Eucharist as the converted Thief crucified with Christ and John the Baptist and many Martyrs And Jesus Christ declareth that by Eating and Drinking he understands Believing when he saith v. 35. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst Wherefore he warneth them v. 63. that the words which he said unto them were Spirit and Life It is acknowledged by all that many Priests of the Roman Church are ill-Livers yet it is the Doctrine of that Church that a Priest who hath been wallowing all Night in a Debauch hath the power in the Morning to make a God with five words and hath him in his power I must also humbly beseech your Grace to consider that the Councel of Trent declareth it to be the Tenet of the Roman Church generally believed that Sacraments are Null if the Priest hath no Intention to Consecrate which Intention is presumed but by Conjecture and none can be certain of it so that the People adore an Host not knowing whether it be consecrated which is an Adoration at a venture Neither can any in the Roman Church be certain whether he be baptized for none knoweth the Intention of him that baptizeth nor that of him that gave him Orders These things my Lord I touch summarily of which the Proofs are easie but too long for a Letter To disguise these Truths unto Your Grace I am told that you have been perswaded to read the Invectives of Barklay in which Scripture is hardly alledged and Gualtiers Chronicle which is but a web of false passages of some supposititious Books which are not received by the Learned of the Roman Church or Calumnies imputed unto us and such things as we never thought on If upon those false Passages and Calumnies Your Grace had been pleased to consult with some of our Side expert in such Matters they would have made you see evidently the falshood of them The like I say of some passages of Fathers shewed unto Your Grace most of them taken out of forged Writings whose falshood is acknowledged by our Adversaries We have Fathers only as they were copied out of Manuscripts that were found in Monasteries written by Monks who have falsified them and whose false dealing is discovered by the diversity of the Copies of which I could shew you many Instances if I had the Honour to converse with Your Grace about that Subject But God hath not permitted our Adversaries to bring to an end that Enterprize of corrupting all the Fathers for numberless Passages are found in them which bear witness unto the Truth For which the Doctors of the Roman Church blame them very often and give them many ill words But because that Discourse might grow too to great a length I do only refer Your Grace to a Paper by it self a * Which die Reader shall find in the second Chapter of this Authors Anatomy of the Mass Comparison of the Lords Supper with the Mass that you may know what horrible alteration was made in the Lords Institution and that you may know that by going to Mass you cannot be saved You I say My Lord
alledged to your Grace the Pride of the Bishop of Rome who began then to lift up himself is censured And though you had proved that the Western have always acknowledged the Pope as Head of the Church it availeth nothing unless it be proved also that his Primacy then consisted in doing those things which he doth now Did he then boast that he could not err Did he vaunt himself as Sovereign Judge of the Sense and Interpretation of Scripture Did he give Indulgences Did he draw Souls out of Purgatory Did he give and take away Kingdom Did he call himself God Did he boast that he hath Power to add unto the Creed For in vain do we dispute about Titles when the things are different I would also beseech you Grace to see whether you be not abused for indeed many Passages in the Fathers are found which say that the Bishop of Rome is Successor to St. Peter But they speak of the Succession in the Charge of Bishop of the City of Rome not in the Apostleship or in the Primacy over the Universal Church And it is very remarkable that all the Examples of the Popes Authority brought out of Antiquity are within the Limits of the Roman Empire And that it cannot be found for above a thousand years after our Saviours time that the Bishops of Rome did intermeddle with the Affairs of Churches without the Roman Empire as of the Persian Armenian and Indian Churches In all that time he never gave them any Laws he never received any Appeal from them And that you may see what was the Face of the ancient Church in that Point I will lay down before your Grace some Examples according to the Order of the Ages For the first Age we find that St. Peter writ his last Epistle being near his Death as he saith himself in the first Chapter and then or never it was time for him to say now my Death is at Hand but I leave you for my Successor the Bishop of Rome to whom I will have the Universal Church be subject but of that he saith nothing nor takes any of those Titles upon him which the Pope now attributes unto himself St. Peter being dead if there had been any Question about choosing a Head for the Universal Church in his Room no Doubt but that some Apostle as St. James or St. John must have succeeded him for St. John outlived St. Peter about thirty years but no such thing was done In the same Age lived Dionysius Areopagite to whom are ascribed by them of the Roman Church the Books of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy Reason required that he should speak of the Sovereign Hierarch who now is called the Pope Yet he speaks never a word of him he describeth all the Ecclesiastical Offices and Degrees making no Mention of the Head of the Church for he did not acknowledge any We find by the Ecclesiastical History that in that Age and long after the Bishop of Rome was elected by the Suffrages of the Clegy of that Diocesan Church with the Consent of their People An evident Proof that they believed not in those days that the Bishop of Rome was Head of the Universal Church For had he been so the Universal Church must have contributed to his Election the People of Rome having no right to give a Head to the Church of all the World That Age did swarm with Heresies which the Bishop of Rome did not condemn nor had any Cognisance of them None that we read of were condemned by any Council for not obeying the Bishop of Rome and refusing to be judged by him Our Adversaries themselves do not alledge any thing from the Roman Church of that Age but only some false decretal Epistles of the Popes which Baronius and Bellarmine and Binnius and many others acknowledge to be forged In the second Century our Adversaries find nothing for the Popes Primacy Only towards the end of that Age upon the Question about the Day of the Celebration of Easter Victor Bishop of Rome separated himself from the Communion of diverse of the Oriental Churches because they precisely observed the 14th day of the Moon of March for the day of Easter For which Action Victor was sharply taken up by other Bishops and particularly by Irenaeus as Eusebius witnesseth in the V Book and 25 Chapter of his History The third Age affords us many Examples to the contrary In the year of our Lord 217 Agrippinus Bishop of Carthage assembled a Council in Africa in which it was resolved and defined that the Baptism of Hereticks was no Baptism This was against the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and whether of the two was in the Right it is not material It is enough that thereby it appeareth that the Church of Africa was not then subject to that of Rome In the year of our Lord 256 Cyprian Successor of Agrippinus began to defend his Predecessors Doctrine There being then a Discord between Cornelius Bishop of Rome and one Novatianus whereby the Church of Rome was in Trouble Cyprian sent two Legats to Rome to compose the Difference thereby taking as much Authority over the Church of Rome as the Church of Rome use to exercise in the like Cases In all his Epistles to Cornelius he giveth him no other Title but that of Brother and acknowledgeth him not for his Superiour The Contention about rebaptizing of Hereticks grew hot between him and Stephen Bishop of Rome even to down-right ill Words In the Epistle to Pompeius which is the 74 Cyprian calls Stephen the Champion of Hereticks proud ignorant imprudent an Enemy to Christians preferring Falshood before Truth and Anti-Christ before Christ Moreover he assembled a Council of 87 African Bishops who condemned Stephen Bishop of Rome and his Doctrine and that in Terms worse than Cyprian had given him About the same time St. Firmilianus Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia a man of great Authority also bitterly reviled Stephen From these things it sufficiently appears that these Bishops were far from thinking themselves subject to the Bishop of Rome In that Age our Adversaries find nothing for the Pope's Primacy no Appeals to him from Churches either far or near no Laws given to the Universal Church onely some forged Decretal Epistles of the Bishops of Rome of those times are produced whose falshood is acknowledged by the most Learned of the Roman Writers In those Epistles the Pope is made to speak as a Master having power over all the Emperours and Bishops of the World Whereas the Bishops of Rome then confined the exercise of their Power to their own Diocess not presuming to give Laws to any other Churches much less to their Temporal Governours Of those three first Ages Pope Pius the Second in his Epistle to Martin Mayer which is the 188. speaks thus Every one then lived for himself and little Reverence was deferred to the Roman Church In the year of our Lord 312. the Emperour Constantine being converted to the
is the Sign and Figure of his Body and Blood and that the Signs are ordinarily called by the Names of the things which they represent Thus in his Epist 23 to Boniface Hath not Christ been once sacrificed in himself And yet he is sacrificed unto the People in a sacred Sign and he doth not lye who being asked answereth that he is sacrificed For if the Sacraments had not some Likeness to the things of which they are Sacraments they could not be Sacraments Now by Reaof that Likeness they take often the name of the very things Add to this the Canon De consecr dist 2. cap. 48. i. e. the Roman Code of Canon Law The Immolation of the Flesh which is done by the hands of the Priest is called the Passion the Death and the crucifying of Jesus Christ not in Truth but by a significant Mystery This is then the Sense of these places of St. Austin that the Eucharist is the Sacrifice of the same Price because it is the Sign and the Sacrament of it and because the Signs take commonly the name of the thing signified as the same Father saith St. Aug. quaest 55. in Levit. Idem contra Adimant c. 12. Theod. dialog 1. The signifying thing useth to take the name of the thing signified And the Lord hath made no Difficulty to say This is my Body when he gave the Sign of his Body And Theodoret expounding these words This is my Body saith that the Lord hath given to the Sign the name of his Body And Tertullian Tertul. contr Marc. 4.40 This is my Body that is the Sign of my Body Indeed the Eucharist is called a Sacrifice of our Ransom in the same manner as in the Institution of the Sacrament the Bread is called the Body of Christ and in the same manner as the Cup is called the New Testament because it is the Sacrament and Memorial of the same for neither the Cup nor that which is in it is a Testament St. Austin knew that Jesus Christ hath wholly paid our Ransom on the Cross and that there is no other Ransom but the Death of Jesus Christ to redeem us now the Eucharist is not the Death of Jesus Christ And if to apply the Sacrifice of the Cross unto us we must sacrifice Jesus Christ again by the same Reason to apply the Death of Jesus Christ unto us we must put him to Death again But what can we ask more since our Adversaries confess that Jesus Christ did not offer himself in Sacrifice in the Eucharist and put that Sacrifice among the unwritten Traditions So much Bellarmine confesseth in the first Book of the Mass Chap. 27. § Quinta The Oblation saith he which is made after the Consecration belongeth to the Integrity of the Sacrifice but not to the Essence of it which is proved because the Lord did not make that Oblation nor the Sacrifice at the first And both Baronius and the Jesuit Salmeron put the Mass and the Sacrifice of the same among the unwritten Traditions As for the Passage you alledge out of the Catechisms of Cyrill of Jerusalem I need say no more but that the Book which you quote is supposititious whose Style is far different from that of the other beforegoing God hath permitted that an evident Sign of Forgery should be in that Book the Author exhorteth his Hearers that they be no more Spectators of the Combats of Gladiators of the Amphitheater and of the Horse-races in the Hippodrome But since Jerusalem was Christian there hath been no Spectacles in the Amphitheater or Hippodrome Gesner in his Bibliotheca saith that he hath seen those Catechisms in the Library of Ausburg under the name of John of Constantinople Of the Invocation of Saints For the Invocation of Saints Your Grace alledgeth St. Ambrose in the Book of Widows where he saith That we must pray to the Angels that have the keeping of us and to the Saints and Martyrs of whom we may expect Assistance St. Ambrose writ that Book when he was a new Christian but he changed his Language after that time for in his Oration for Theodosius written long after he saith Thou alone O Lord must be called upon and prayed to And Mary was the Temple of God St. Ambr. l. 3. c. 12. de Sp. Sanct. but she was not God wherefore we must worship God alone who wrought in that Temple And a little before We read that we must not worship any but God for it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve The Comment upon the Epistle to the Romans ascribed to Ambrose upon the first Chapter saith Address is made to the King by Colonels and Governours because the King is a man and knoweth not to whom he ought to commit the Administration of the State but to get Gods Favour who is ignorant of nothing for he knoweth what men are deserving there is no need of any ones Suffrage to help us but of a devout Spirit And upon Colos 1. Christ holds the Primacy in all things wherefore if any beleive that he must have Devotion for some Element or for some of the Angels and Powers let him know that he is in an Errour Chrysostom in his first Sermon of Penitence speaks thus God must be prayed to without an Intercessor And upon Heb. 1. in his third Homily Why do you look up to Angels gaping after them They are Servants to the Son of God sent to several places in your behalf And in the eighteenth Homily upon the Epistle to the Romans towards the end To whom wilt thou have Recourse Whose Help wilt thou implore Wilt thou call upon Abraham But he cannot hear thee Wilt thou call upon those Virgins But they will give thee none of their Oyl Wilt thou call upon thy Father or thy Grand-father but none of them though never so holy hath Power to alter that Judgment These things being considered thou must venerate him and pray to him alone who hath Power to blot out that Obligation and to put out that Flame St. Austin saith S. Aug. Enchir. c. 3. Of God alone we must ask the Good which we hope to do or hope to obtain by our good Works And in the Book of the Quantity of the Soul 34 chap. God alone must be served by the Soul for he alone is the Maker of it And in the last Chapter of the Book of the true Religion Let the Worship of dead men be none of our Religion for if they have lived godly they are not so disposed to seek such Honours but they would have us worship him by whose Illumination they rejoyce that we are Partners of their Dignity We must therefore honour them by way of Imitation and not worship them on the account of Religion And he speaks thus to God Idem l. confess c. 42. Whom can I find to reconcile me with thee Must I address my self to Angels By what Prayers By