contrary interpretations to satisfy men of different interests and give them the mutual pleasure of believing their assertions upheld by the autority of the Council And thus the Jesuits and Dominicans were equally contented with the Canons concerning Grace and Justification Each Party drew the autority of the Council to its own side and there has not bin any Writer of these two Orders who in their many Books as opposite one to another as light is to darkness has not alledged these very Canons as invincible proofs against his adversary II. But if any should enquire further and search into that vast multitude of Decrees unknown till then he must needs wonder to find them built upon so sandy Foundations The most general Basis of them is laid in the fourth Session where the Council proposes two objects to our Faith to wit Books which are written and Traditions which are not written And they pretend as a necessary consequence that whatever we oppose against the Church of Rome is of that kind This is the Epitome of all the Council Nevertheless least any one should be offended at the word Tradition and perswade himself that they intend by it to equal mens autority to that of God or humane Ceremonies to the sacred Precepts of the Gospell they give of it a most magnificent character calling it The Word of Christ a Doctrine inspired by the Holy Ghost for the ordering our Faith and manners and preserved in the Catholic Church by a continued succession If that Principle be true there is an end of all Controversies and were the Church of Rome as able to prove it as she is ready to advance it we might hope to see in our daies that blessed Word of Christ accomplish't There shall be one Fold and one Shepherd And indeed there is no Protestant in the World who doth not admit of a Tradition endued with these Qualifications First That it be the Word of Christ 2. Inspired by the Holy Ghost 3. In matter of Faith and Manners 4. Preserved in the Catholic Church by an uninterrupted succession But there is no Protestant in the World that doth not maintain such a Tradition cannot be proved and is nothing else but one of those rich and splendid Idea's as admirable and flattering in their speculation as impossible and deceiving in their practice III. For the perfect evidencing whereof we need but consider the following Proposals First That of all places of the Scriptures whereby the Church of Rome asserts her Tradition there is not so much as one alledged by the Fathers in her sense Secondly That none of the Fathers ever understood Tradition otherwise then for the unanimous consent of the Doctors of the Church grounded upon a word which is written Thirdly That no places in Scripture are express for the authorizing such Tradition but many positive and clear to prove the sufficiency of Scripture Fourthly That among the Traditions of the Church of Rome she proposes many to our belief which do not appertain at all either to Faith or manners IV. The Scripture is most holy most infallible most perfect in it self The Gospel has added what was deficient in the Law And the Apostles Writings supplied the defect of the Gospel There we must stay 'T is no less crime in S. Basil's opinion to add that which is not written then to reject that which is written And 't is a stupendious boldness when God has vouchsafed to reveal his will to men by a certain and infallible word to substitute another neither clear nor undoubtedly received V. That new word which is ascribed to God has properly and by its self relation to those things which cannot be proved by Scripture as one of the Divines present at Trent has taken notice of otherwise it would be a written word But if it be so nothing is more unworthy of Christ and less agreeable to his divine Oracles It is to render his truth suspected or uncertain to expose Christians to infinite errors to give them as many masters as there are persons who will profess themselves the Guardians of that word and to make it the object of all mens scorn since according to the excellent saying of S. Jerome Quod de Scripturis autoritatem non habet eâ—dem facilitate contemnitur qua probatur VI. We find not that Christ in his holy Gospel sends us to Tradition whereby we may come to the knowledg of him Search the Scriptures they are they that testify of me The Apostles speak as their Master We have also a more sure word of Prophecy whereunto you do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts Many saies S. Chrysostom pretend to speak from the Holy Ghost but they do it falsly as long as they speak from themselves as Christ testifies he spoke not from himself but from the Law and the Prophets so if they proffer us any other thing then the Gospel under pretence of its being inspired by the Holy Ghost let us be far from believing it Is there any thing worse saies Pope S. Leo then to have impious sentiments and yet not to be willing to assent to the more learned and wise Those are guilty of this folly who when they are hindred from knowing the truth by any obscurity do not recur to the Prophetical Books the Apostolical Writings and Evangelical autority but to themselves and so become Masters and Teachers of error because they refused to be Disciples of Truth It would have bin very easy for S. Austin in that long and tedious Disputation with the Donatists concerning the Catholic Church to have made an end of it by sending them to Tradition But instead of doing so Let us not hear saies he Haec dico haec dicis but let us hear haec dicit Dominus We have the Lords Books Both of us acknowledg their autority both of us believe them ibi quaeramus Ecclesiam ibi discutiamus causam nostram nolo humanis documentis seâ— divinis Oraculis sanctam Ecclesiam demonstrari We seek as he there adds where the Church is what shall we do in verbis nostris eam quaesituri sumus an in verbis Domini I think it is to be sought in his words who is the TRUTH and knows perfectly her who is his Body Habeo manifestissimam vocem Pastoris mei commendantis mihi sine ullis ambagibus exprimentis Ecclesiam If I suffer my self to be reduced and separated from his flock which is the Church by the words of men I will impute it to my self whereas he advertiz'd me saying My Sheep know my voice 'T is the constant Doctrine of that admirable man in all his Works In his Letter to S. Jerome I confess your Charity saies he I give those Books alone which are termed Canonical that honor as to believe none of their Authors did
ever err In his Letter to Vincent Do not oppose therefore Brother to so many and undoubted places some of the writings of the Bishops either ours or those of Hilary Cyprian and Agrippinus All these writings want the Autority of the Canon and we receive not their testimonies as things which it is not lawful to dissent from if they are dissenting from the Truth Upon the 87. Psalm You read not in the Gospel those whom you name neither do I see those whom I alledge Let us lay aside our Books procedat in medium Codex Dei Finally against Maximinus the Arian who relied upon the Council of Ariminum I ought not saies he to cite you the Nicene Council nor you that of Ariminum as prejudices for our cause Scripturarum autoritatibus non quorumcunque propriis sed utriusque communibus testâ—bus res cum re causa cum causa ratio cum ratione concertet utrique tanti ponderis molibus cedamus Nay 't was not only Bishops that thought so but Lay-men themselves We are taught by the Gospel saies Constantine to the Nicene Fathers the Apostolical Writings and the Oracles of the Prophets what we must know of God let us therefore draw the explication of our doubts from the words divinely inspired VII We intend not hereby to detract from any part of the high esteem every Christian ought to have for the Works of the Fathers We consider them as the Masters of the Church who instructed her not only by the learned productions of their minds but by the purity and good examples of their lives We honor them as Preachers who spake no less by the wounds they received for the defence of Christ then by the words they made use of to make known his Doctrine Nor could we behold without a just resentment a Minister of our Age to abuse their Writings in a Book entitled De vero usu Patrum We acknowledg with the great S. Austin that these holy Men were stabiles in antiquissima robustissima Fide We call with the Primitive Councils our present Faith the Faith of our Fathers But we are not convinced that our respect should endue us to believe them infallible After Gods Word none is of greater weight to us then theirs but we are not bold enough to mingle confound them As a body grows not luminous but as it comes near the Sun to receive its impressions so we do not see in them any certainty of light but as they are conformable to the Scripture which is certainty and light it self And we think we give them all the praises they can expect from us when we say as S. Athanasius did of the Nicene Fathers that their Expositions of the Nicene Faith according to divine Scriptures are sufficient to destroy all Impiety and confirm the belief of Christ VIII But that which is more to be wondred at is that none of the controverted points has ever bin preserved in the Catholic Church as a point of Faith and agreeable to the consent of the Fathers a truth expresly maintained by a learned u Bishop of this Kingdom who successfully challeng'd any of the Roman Communion to a contradiction I would call for no other evidence then the Canon of this very Session § 4. which ordains under pain of Excommunication to admit of those Books as Canonical that had never bin such with the same veneration as those which had bin constantly kept by the Church All Councils Fathers Ages ancient and modern Writers exclaim against that Decree and there is no man tho but commonly read in Ecclesiastical writings that can deny it Notwithstanding the Council doth anathematize those that dissent from its Canons Pope Paul and Pius the IV. exact a dreadful Oath of it and make the People swear upon the Gospel to receive as certain and undoubted that which all the learned of the Church of Rome had lookt upon before as evidently false IX The Decree which consecrates the vulgar Translation is most strange but nothing is like the declaration of the Cardinals who assure us Quod ne vel iota unum repugnat in veteri vulgata Latinae linguae editione tho Pope Clement VIII confesses in the Preface to his Edition many things were purposely omitted which should have bin changed Let it be said with all due respect to their Eminencies that so surprizing assurances shew either deep ignorance or a wonderful unsincerity or the greatest boldness in the World X. The Articles of Justification which establish the merit of our Works in a manner so injurious to the Grace of our Redeemer are no less opposite to the ancient Church That holy Mother constantly instructed her Sons in all times That we are by nature the Children of wrath That God works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure That we are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing of our selves but our sufficiency is of God She has bin taught by Christ himself Without me ye can do nothing if the Son shall make you free you shall be free indeed and no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him She has bin informed by her Doctors that when God is pleased to Crown in us our merits he Crowns but his gifts that unless he gives us what he commands us his Law instead of a spirit giving life becomes to us a killing Letter She has determined in her Council That no man is free for doing any good thing but by Gods Grace that God expects not our will but prepares it according to what is written in his word that when we fall into any sin we do it of our selves and of our own will but when we do any good Action 't is out of his alone Let any unprejudiced person read the Canons of the Council of Orange where S. Hilary being President Christs Grace triumph't so entirely over all its enemies and compare them with those of Trent he will be amazed at so strange a contrariety But when we are so earnest in throwing down our pretended merits to raise a glorious Trophy to our Faith we intend not to patronize Libertinism and give way to those licentious opinions which are the natural consequences drawn from the Doctrines of some Reformers Faith whereby a man is justified is not barren and like that of the Devil which is of no use but to prolong and foment his disorders It is a Faith which as the Apostles stiles it works by love which makes us look upon Christ as the Foundation and only Source of our Salvation breeds in us an ardent desire of him That love which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost promts us to put our whole trust in him and to practise by the Soveraign power of his Grace what his Gospell teacheth is required of us S. Austin incomparably expresses this
the place where he was before then you will know he gives not his Body as you understand it You will then apprehend that his Grace non consumitur morsibus till the end of the World the Lord is above but yet the truth of the Lord is upon Earth with us Corpus enim in quo resurrexit in uno loco esse oportet veritas autem ejus ubique diffusa est That incomparable Doctor speaks after the same manner when he teacheth that all places of the Scripture which seem contrary to truth and good manners are to be understood in a figurative sense If you find saies he a Commandment which forbids a crime or enjoins any good action then its sense is not figurative but it is otherwise when it seems to command a crime and prohibit a good action Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you saies Christ That word seems to command a crime figura est ergo it is therefore a figure which bids us communicate in the Passion of our Lord and recall into our memories with suavity and utility that his flesh hath bin wounded and nailed upon the Cross for us XIII To what the Church of Rome believes concerning Transubstantiation we may add her practice in taking away the Cup. She is not contented with changing the nature of a Sacrament but thinks it lawfull to tear and divide it All the learned men of her Commumunion assent to the following Propositions First That Christ instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood under both kinds of Bread and Wine Secondly That he instituted it thus for all Christians and said drink as he said eat without any distinction of of Priests and Lay-men being the Savior of all Thirdly That at least for twelve hundred years such a practise hath bin faithfully observed in all the Churches in the World and is still in the Eastern Fourthly That its intermission is not grounded upon any invincible reason or irremediable inconveniences For it would be the greatest piece of non-sense in the World to affirm that the Church of Rome in the thirteenth Age hath seen inconveniencies which the Catholic Church could not foresee in twelve hundred years and the Greek is still ignorant of Yet the Council of Trent perseveres in so considerable an innovation stops its ears to the cries of an infinite number of Souls who beseech their Fathers substance might not be so cruelly divided and stiles this a Liberty the Church has alwaies bin Mistress of to dispense Sacraments as she judges it convenient But suppose the Sacrament to be no less compleat under one kind then both and that the Cup is but an addition to it We notwithstanding maintain the Church hath no autority to change any thing Christ hath instituted and prescribes the observation of All reasons in such occasions must be suspected when Christ himself speaks promulgates himself his own Laws and commands them to be put in execution as he hath done here all our pretended inconveniences are then gross errors nor must we affect to be wiser then the eternal Wisdom who foresaw better then we can do the reasons of our scandals Had Christ instituted all the Ceremonies the Church judged necessary for the greater decency of her Worship and commanded the observation of them it would be a dreadful crime to cut off the least But Pope Gelasius speaks not of that division as of the taking away of a simple Ceremony We heard saies he that some by I know not what superstition after having received the sacred Body refused the Cup of the precious Blood But for such aut integra Sacramenta percipiant aut ab integris arceantur The reason of that learned Pope is worthy to be weighed because saies he divisio unius ejusdemque mysterii sine grandi sacrilegio non potest pervenire One and the same mystery cannot be divided without a grand sacriledge Pope Gelasius and the Fathers of Trent are wonderfully opposed these say the Sacrament is no less perfect under one kind then under both that such a division is a wise dispensation which cannot be reasonably contradicted the other calls the distribution of the precious Body and Blood one and the same Sacrament and stiles that prudent dispensation a division of two things united by Christ which cannot be done without an horrid sacriledg Which then of the two Gelasius or Paul III. must be supposed to have pronounced ex Cathedra If the Jesuits are chosen Judges between them Gelasius shall be condemned for Salmero and another of his Society were so impious as to say in the midst of the Council that sometimes the Devil transforms himself into an Angell of Light but now appears covered with the Cup of Christs Blood to offer a draught of poyson But as if it had not bin enough to have committed so great an enormity without adding to it an insufferable ignorance these two most holy and learned Fathers as a most holy and learned Jesuit styles them all the members of that Society being ipso facto most holy and learned begged of Cardinal Madruccio That it might be added to the Canons already made that the Sacrament was instituted under both kinds only for the Apostles and Priests XIV The Canons of the fourteenth Session are no less opposite to Antiquity wherein the Council defines Repentance to be a Sacrament a Doctrine unknown till the time of Eugenius IV. The Arch-Bishop of Caesarea tells us in a Book he entitled De Reformatione Scholasticae which he considered as a great step to that of the Church that Eugenius ascribed it to the Florentine Council tho such a Decree had never bin read or seen there 'T is an effect of the Popes usual sincerity So that for twelve hundred years together the Church is silent in this point Now what must a Christian think of a Council that gives to our human satisfactions and poor Sacrifices the power due only to the unspeakable merits of Christ Who without just indignation can hear that our Alms and Fastings expiate our sins and preserve us from eternal Death Did ever any Councils Fathers or Divines run into such excesses nor do we pretend to embrace the other extreme and diswade Christians from that life w ch the Saints term a Cross and a Martyrdom We think that it not only obliges Penitents but Innocents also and we are struck with fear at these words of Christ Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish But far be it from us to confine our Repentance to some trausient and slight exercices of Piety We require that sinners die continually to themselves that they think no pleasures lawful but such as the miseries of humane life render necessary and unavoidable that they endure rather then enjoy them and bewail the blindness and obdurateness of an infinite number of Souls who being made drunk by the pride and wantonness of the World are
by heat or violence an extraordinary and unusual prudence appears in all their Canons they busy not themselves in calling the Pope Antichrist and Rome Babylon but render them the same respect they had ever done They judg themselves without judging others and are content to pray for other Societies without pronouncing either their Salvation or condemnation XX. As they do separate themselves only from the errours of the Church of Rome so they do pretiously preserve what doth not bear that name otherwise 't would not have bin the work of a pious zeal but of a wicked madness None can deny that there are many great and holy rites in the Church of Rome They therefore by a judicious distinction have thrown out those practises which were evil and retain'd the good XXI Having therefore two businesses in hand to wit the reformation of Doctrine and ordering of manners they have made use of the shortest and easiest means They compar'd all to the Scriptures and customes of the first Ages There is no point of their Faith which may not be proved by Scripture nothing in their Discipline which is not conformed to the ceremonies of the first 500 years XXII The Church of England therefore hath the comfort of having her Doctrine founded on the Scriptures so believed by the holy Saints as she beleiv'd it her Canons conformable to the antient Canons her Liturgy like the first Liturgies When she goes about to interpret the Scriptures she exacts not of her Children a blind obedience as doth the Church of Rome She thinks not to make any volume Canonical which was never really so but she follows the tracts of the Saints and of the Councils and hath learnt from the primitive Church which books in the Holy Bible are the grounds of our Faith and which only the object of our Piety XXIII We may say the same thing of all those points which raise the difference betwixt us and the Church of Rome The most considerable one is that of the Eucharist She treats that incomprehensible mystery with the respect due to it She neither presumes nor pretends to comprehend more of it then Christ hath bin pleased to reveal to them and the antient Church understood It is manifest first that Christ instituted the Sacrament of his body and blood Secondly that he is really present in it Thirdly that he abundantly communicates his grace and his holy Spirit to those who before they receive it seriously try themselves as the Apostle speaks and who not only forsake Sin but the very appetite of sinning and labour to order their life by his example But the manner of his being present is uncertain Christ saies nothing of it it appears noâ— that the primitive Church hath known how That of England receives with thanksgiving what he hath bin pleased to reveal to her and adores with a submissive silence what he hath not bin pleased to let her know We understand nothing of the Lord's Supper but by the Scriptures and the practice of the primitive times and when we limit our selves to that without going any further the manner of expounding it is not difficult The Infinite love of God towards us in that Sacrament destroies not the order which his wisdom hath put in things We leave to Faith all the latitude of it without contradicting the principles of reason But when men pretend to make Evangelists speak as Scholastics or Scholastics as Evangelists and look for Transubstantiation concomitancy and existence of the accidents without their subject c. all seems obscurity and darkness We sacrifice not our reason to faith but we throw aside both of them in saying that God explains himself after a manner conâ—rary to those principles which he hath established The Church of England is therefore in 〈◊〉 right of supposing as receiv'd what she beleives and the Church of Rome is obâ—â—ged to prove what she advances The former supposes the miracle which Christ â—ath wrought adding nothing new or â—npossible the other proposeth a thousand things to our beleif of which Christ â—ath said nothing and which are in â—hemselves greater miracles then that about which the two parties differ besides that they draw idolatrous practices XXIV The Church of Eng. doth not only think her self bound to beleive what Christ saies of the sacrament but she administers it â—s he hath given it us She orders the Sacrament under both kinds according â—o the command of Christ and to the praâ—tice of the Catholic Church and the whole World know the unchristian grounds upon which an Italian Bishop in the Council of Trent thought it was not to be granted for fear of making an argument against the pretended Infallibility of the Church of Rome XXV It is unreasonable that she do's not permit service to be read in the vulgar tongue and the Bible to be â—ranslated She knows nothing was ever grounded upon a less foundation then that and without looking on the orders of St. Paul which are so exact thereupon is there any thing in the World so contrary to reason as to pray to God in an unknown Tongue which exposeth the Praiers to the scorn and irreverence of those that offer them The Eastern Church did alwaies pray in Greek or in languages used by her divers Nations Whilst the Latin was the language of the West it was fitting that the service should be read in it but by the distraction of the Empire the incursions of Barbarians and the various revolutions we find in history that language having lost its life and given place to the various Idiomes of all Nations it was fitting men should pray in such languages as may be understood but it being more for the interest of the Pope to keep people ignorant he hath opposed so necessary a practice St. Jerome translated the Bible into Dalmatian the language of his own Country there are also to be â—ound manuscripts of the Bible in most languages of the World The more universal and dangerous heresies were the more the holy Saints exhorted the People to look in the Scriptures for those remedies which God hath granted against them XXVI The Church of England hath therefore turn'd the Liturgy into her Mother tongue The Priests and the Congregation there present send the same Praiers to Heaven and to take away all marks of Enthusiasm or novelty she hath composed the admirable Book of common Praier It is nothing but a collection of the most pathetical and instructive places of Scripture That which she hath not from thence are the very words of the Fathers or antient collects which by tradition were receiv'd from the primitive Church All is sound all is holy we address our selves to God in God's own language and we speak to him as he hath spoke to us 'T is a happy obligation for a Christian to pray after such a manner wherein a vain imagination bears no part his mind is enlivened his heart softned by that he can preach to himself and
experienc'd Physitians draw infinite advantages from that universal Crisis of the World Nothing was ever better contriv'd for that purpose then the Council of Trent And he that will survey it without being blinded with any preposterous Zeal will easily be convinc'd that Paul the Third the Promoter of it was a Man of great abilities and that his Predecessors trepidaverunt timore ubi non erat timor Psal 53. 6. IV. The Pope passes his word to call a Council against the express promise that Adrian the 6th had made of having it in Germany according to the constant maxime of the Canons To end Causes where their occasion began he calls it at Trent This Council summoned at Trent is so afraid not to be accounted a General and a Lawful one that it entitles it self at the beginning of all its Sessions Sancta oecumenica Synodus in Spiritu Sancto legitime congregata Who now would not think after such big words that from all places where our Blessed Saviors name is known Bishops did flock to Trent Who would not have expected to meet there with some Eastern Patriarchs or African Prelates Who would not have promised himself in reading the Subscriptions of this Council to â—ind more than 300 Witnesses of his Faith as at Nice 600. as at Chalcedon and in our very times 300 as at Constance or 400 as at Basil Who would not have â—ntertain'd hopes of hearing there many Athanasius's Cyril's Eusebius's Spiridio's Paphnutius's c In a word Who would not have flatter'd himself that our holy Faith had now bin made most clear and manifest and that Gods Spirit a Spirit of liberty and peace 2 Cor. 3. 17. had animated that great Body Nevertheless what must we say when we see appear there not any of those remote Bishops nay scarce any of the nearest not so much as one of Germany Poland England Denmark Sueden or France That grand oecumenical holy admir'd Council is reduc'd to three Cardinals five Arch-Bishops 36 Bishops for the most part without Churches some Mendicant Divines headed by Lainez and Salmero two stars of the Firmament worthy sons of the grand holy oecumenical company of Jesus The Sermons which were made at every Session and their manner of discussing the controverted Points are an evident proof of the mean parts not to say any thing sharper and truer of all these Divines Nay and to supply so remarkable a defect we hear of no extraordinary qualities nor eminent and surpassing Virtue nor gift of Tongues nor working of Miracles nor Spirit of Prophecy Notwithstanding this small handful 〈◊〉 People take upon them to explain the most obscure and intricate matters to give them after a slight and precipitatâ— survey a final determination and to make more Canons in one Session of four hours then the four first General Councils all put together had done in four hundred Years V. The Pope claims to himself the power of calling that Council He does not consider it as a privilege or an usurpation which the silence of those that are interested therein seem to render lawful but as an inseparable and inherent right to his See Nos saith Julius the Third ad quos ut summos pro tempore Pontifices spectat Concili a generalia indicere dirigere c. Who could imagine Christs Vicar to be a man of so small sincerity Eusebius Socrates and Theodoret affirm that the Nicene Council was call'd by the great Constantine The first Constantinopolitan which is the second General was called by Theodosius that of Ephesus by Theodosiue junior that of Chalcedon by Marcianus the fifth General by Justinian the sixth by Constantine the Fourth the seventh pretended General Council by Constantine and Irene his Mother the eighth by the Emperor Basil All these are accounted General in the Roman Church and full of so evident proofs that the Cardinals Cusan Jacobatius and Zabarella confess that in the Primitive Times the right of calling Councils belonged to the Emperors but so many that were assembled in Germany England France Spain Italy c. that of Constantia by Sigismundus that of Pisa by Maximilian gather'd for the most part to depose Popes make it appear that so great a Truth was not wholly worn out in the last Ages VI. It is pleasant to consider how different the stile of Popes in former times is from that of the present We were in hopes saies Pope Leo to the Emperor Marcianus Epist 44. that your clemency would condescend so far as to defer the Council but since you resolve it should be kept I have sent thither Paschasin Has not the Roman Church saies Pope Stephen to another Emperor sent her Legats to the Council when you commanded it We do offer these things to your Piety saies Pope Adrian to the Emperor Basil with all humility veluti praesentes genibus advoluti coram vestigia pedum volutando But Pope Paul the Third speaks quite in another manner Nulli hominum liceat hanc paginam infringere vel ei ausu temerario contraire The Bull of Julius the Third is yet more bold and ill becomes the humility of one that writes himself The Servant of Servants So that it must needs be that either former Popes were extremely ignorant of the extent of their Power or that the ambition of the later is grown too exorbitant VII The Author of the Considerations upon the Council of Trent seems to be perswaded of this want of Jurisdiction in the Pope and he is at such a loss to excuse it that he has nothing to say but that in the Troubles that Europe had bin engaged in this right was devolv'd to the Pope But was not Europe more disturb'd when Frederick the First gathered a Council at Pavia where the German English French Italian Hungarian and Danish Bishops met together When Charles the Sixth King of France call'd one at Rhemes whither the Emperor being pleased to be present the King of England and many other Princes sent their Ambassadors Or when both the Pisan and Constantian Councils were indicted by the Emperors with so great applause of all Christians VIII Nor is it more difficult to prove that the Pope has no right of presiding in Councils nor ought we to recur for that to many subtil distinctions or deep Ratiocinations We need not put our selves upon the rack as the Cardinals Baronius and Bellarmine frequently do to render that probable which is evidently false and to make people wavering in things which are undoubtedly true We need but open those Books wherein lie the precious and everlasting Monuments of Antiquity and the precedent conduct of so many holy Bishops Constantine the Great presided at the first General Council as Pope Stephen doth acknowledge in his Letter to the Emperor Basil Theodosius senior did the same at the second and from the small remains that we have of this Council
the truth that being necessary to make truth reach the Pope spake after the same rate Nevertheless The sacred holy and oecumenical Council met at Trent in the name of the Holy Ghost to be rul'd there by the word of God the writings of the Fathers and the Apostolical Tradition thinks not fit to take away the Annats The Holy Ghost just goes so far as to correct small abuses frivolous nothings but reaches not to Heresies and Crimes Salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate There is not in so vast a number of Bishops one single Nathan or Elijah or if it be too much to seek Prophets among them there is not a single Ambrose or Basil none of all these Vicars of Christ who durst say with his Master Our friend sleepeth but I go that I may awake him out of sleep Joh. 11. 11. XVIII And indeed it would have bin a kind of Murder to have cut off Annats Rome would have bin no more a triumphant City all its Palaces would have bin either pull'd down or interrupted in the building and especially that of Pius the Fourth rais'd during the Council of which the Arch-Bishop of Brague told him That the stones would have serv'd better to build an Hospital To banish Painters Musicians Poets from St. Peters See to make a Pope in our daies live like S. Leo or S. Gregory to rule a Cardinal-nephew according to the Council of Carthage and the examples of S. Charles to require the same severity of life from an eminentissimo Cardinale as we saw in Cardinal Baronius and some years ago in Cardinal Bona Such demands I say would have brought a blemish upon the Council never to be obliterated and instead of procuring its confirmation fir'd upon them all the Vatican thunders How could a Cardinal undergo the hardship of riding without a retinue of 200 Coaches and an infinite number of staffieries In the Apostles time the most common Motto was The world is crucified to me and I to the world Gal. 6. 14. Priests then had no other liveries then the blood of Martyrs no other retinue then a vast number of poor no other Palaces then Prisons but in our Age you cannot walk in the streets of Rome without hearing People cry out The equipage of his Eminence the Mules of his Eminence the staffieries of his Eminence the perfumes of his Eminence the Music of his Eminence the Abbies and Bishopricks of his Eminence c. that is of a Deacon in the Diocess of Rome of a Parson in the City or Suburbs of a man maintain'd by the alms of the Church dead to the World and its vanities perswaded that there is a life to come and that the shortest way to enjoy its happiness is to renounce all the pleasures and honors of the present XIX The Fathers therefore at Trent were not cruel to the Pope nor Pius the Fourth ungrateful to them He confess'd in a full Conclave They had us'd him more gently then he would have done himself and that Council which otherwise had pass'd for a Conventicle became so sacred that this Pope never spake afterwards without an honorable mention of it in all his discourses But this Popes own confession is too puissant a proof against him 't is the testimony of his own Conscience Those Physitians flatter'd so much their Patient that he was asham'd of it and instead of applying powerful Remedies to his inveterate Distempers they took no notice of them 'T is wrongfully therefore they accuse the Popes self-love or the blindness incident to those who separate themselves from unity to constitute a particular order as speaks St. Gregory and St. Austin Pius the Fourth was convinc'd of the need he stood in of being reform'd But the Fathers put a bar to his desires huc usque venies without them he would have gone further XX. Nay least the small Reformation they made of some few things should last too long they found out an expedient from which experience shew'd the success of the whole was expected and this was the liberty left to the Pope of dispensing with all the Ordinances of the Council That only favor deserv'd all Pope Pius's acknowledgments he and his successors made so good use of it that it will not be amiss to give some examples thereof It had bin observ'd for many Ages how much the exemtions of Friars were injurious to Episcopacy and scandalous to the Church wherefore the Council cuts them off but Pius the Fourth using his power of dispensing re-establishes them with greater autority then before so that there has bin scarce any Bishop since zealous of his duty and the honor of his Divine Character whom a pitiful Friar whether more fraught with boldness or ignorance I shall not determine arm'd cap apied with his privileges durst not impudently oppose Some abuses concerning Dispensations Expeditions for Benefices and other pretended favors of the Apostolical See were remov'd the Pope uses his right of dispensation and scarce had the Trent Fathers got home from reforming them before Pius the Fourth had again brought up all those Impieties XXI The Council had handled the matter of Indulgencâ—s with as great dexterity as moderation and in its Decree not one of the following Propositions which the Friars have since bâ—ndâ—ed about with so violent heat is to be â—een 1. That Indulgences are authoriz'd by the Scripture 2. That they are granted and receiv'd for the dead 3. That they are a super-abundance of the merits of the Saints 4. That they are any thing else but a relaxation of Canonical Penance accorded only to those who pray who demand who work petenti operanti roganti 5. That the Pope has greater power to grant them then any particular Bishop No man had reason to complain of so wise and moderate a Decree but the Pope uses his right of dispensing too many People being interessed in keeping Indulgencies The Vatican magnificence the softness of the Cardinals and the Friars idleness ow'd their maintenance to that solid and clear Revenue You see therefore Bulls both for the living and the dead dispers'd into all parts of the World every Church hath its priviledg'd Altars and a thousand Books are made public most of them dedicated to the Pope and approv'd by the Inquisition wherein they are call'd Heretics and Atheists who oppose the Opinions which the Council hath left undetermin'd The stile of these Bulls is as extraordinary as their matter the Popes grant two four six or seven thousand years of true pardon and indeed the word true looks very pleasantly in that place he remits not only the pain due to sin but the sin also into the bargain somtimes to make the most on 't he divides it and pardons but a third part somtimes one half somtimes all just as his Holiness is in humor And that we may not tire our selves with too much pains in getting so precious and rare a favor as the pardon of our sins a