who have been favoured with so many Blessings of God who have had an Holy and Vertuous Education and have a thousand Obligations to your Illustrious Lady Mother whose days are likely now to be shortned with anguish and sorrow God hath given to Your Grace in this City * Sedan a Faithful People heartily devoted to your Service which have built your Town and fortified it with their hard Labour and have not been sparing of their Lives and means to defend this State when it was in danger They are a People whom God hath gathered from many places and sheltered under your shadow committing them to your keeping The Subsistence of this little State of yours compassed about with Mighty States depends next to God upon the Fidelity of the Inhabitants and their Love to their Sovereign Think you what Heart-breaking Sorrow it will be to that poor People when they see Your Grace going to Mass What Dissipation what Desolation shall you see ere long in your City when the Holy Scripture shall be banish'd from your House when instead of the pure Service of God the Service of Images shall be established Beads Agnus Dei's and sprinklings of Holy Water When instead of a Few Pastors you shall have Herds of Fryars sowing Discord continually among your Subjects When Ecclesiastical Goods shall be no more in your disposing and the Roman Clergy must have again that which your Predecessors had justly taken from them whereby your Revenues shall suffer a great Diminution When all the Ecclesiastical and Matrimonial Causes shall be no more under the Jurisdiction of your Officers but must be tried at Chalons or Rheims so that you shall be no more Master at home When instead of Subjects altogether depending upon your Authority you shall have Jesuits and Capucins about you having a strict Intelligence with those of Bruxels whence Jealousies and Fears will arise greatly noisome to your State I could represent to Your Grace many Considerations to make you apprehend that by this Action you will ruin your Affairs even in this World and lose the Love of those that have been your principal Honour and Support that hereby you will pull up the roots of your Reputation Honour and Greatness fill with Grief and Confusion your dearest Relations and draw upon you the Contempt of Persons of both Religions For even the greatest men of the Roman Church in France that govern themselves by Humane Prudence say that you take your Measures amiss and cannot believe that ever you will take that Resolution But the worst consequence of it is that thereby you will lose your Soul For you have a great Account to give unto God who knoweth the Hearts who is just and terrible and will not dally with those that dally with him I have poured forth and pour still for your Grace Prayers before God Sighs without number neither am I without hope that God will be merciful unto you One thing at least My Lord let me crave at your hands that if you have any Scruples Doubts about your Religion you will be pleased to defer your final Resolution till being come to this Town you may hear the two Parties and till we may speak to some Doctors of the Roman Church in your Presence And I may be bold to promise to Your Grace to make you acknowledge that you have been possess'd with Calumnies against us that both the Tenets of the Roman Church and Ours have been mis-represented to Your Grace and that Gaultiers Passages are false and forged This if I cannot obtain of Your Grace by my most humble Request yet so much comfort at least I shall have that I â—ave discharged my Conscience But if I be so unfortunate as to lose your Grace's Favour for speaking the truth to you it will be well for me that I have but few days to live in this World which I will pass away in sorrow tho' in hope to have them ended by Death when it shall please God to receive me into his rest And what Sorrow soever may exercise me in my Life I will never leave praying for your Prosperity and Salvation as resolved to be as long as I live My Lord Your Grace's most humble c. A SECOND LETTER OF Dr. DV MOVLIN TO THE DUKE of BOVILLON In Answer to a Letter of the Duke 's to his Sister Mademoiselle de Bouillon MY LORD MAdemoiselle de Bouillon your Sister hath done me the Honour to impart unto me Your Grace's Letters to her about the Causes that disquiet your Conscience Upon which I hope that your Goodness will not take it ill that I make some Reflections and try whether God will make Use of me to contribute something towards the Quiet of your Soul and to turn you from the way which I see you take contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel You begin by expressing your Design not to separate your self from my Lady Dutchess your Wife neither in this World nor in the other Whereby you declare that you had resolved to be of your Ladies Religion before you knew whether it was good or evil and that your Enquiries about Matters of Religion were made after you had formed that Design and taken that Resolution Concerning which I could say many things but Respect stops me being unwilling to be offensive to Your Grace You say next that you have not sought the Grounds of the Religion of My Lady Dutchess any where but in the Holy Scripture And yet in your whole Letter you allegde not any one Text of it You say next that it is a point in controversie which are the Holy Scriptures in which Question we have great Advantages For the Books of Tobit Judith Maccabees c. are Books not extant in the Hebrew which is the Original Tongue of the Scriptures of the Old Testament Jesus Christ and his Apostles cite the Books of Moses the Psalms the Prophets c. but never cite any of those Apocryphal Books The Jewish Church before Christs coming never did acknowledge those Books * As we learn of Josephus and Philo. And those Books are stuffed with Fables as I have fully shewed in my Book against Cardinal du Perron Book 1. chap. 61. And whereas you appeal for the grounds of your Religion to the Fathers we have for us the Councel of Laodicea Melito Origen Eusebius Athanasius Cyril of Jerusalem Gregory Nazianzen Amphilochius Epiphanius Tertullian Hierom Ruffin Hilary Philastrius Gregory I. Bishop of Rome and many more all which to alledge might be tedious to your Grace Yet if you shall command it I will send you a full List of them St. Austin in this Point doth contradict himself and the Third Council of Carthage which is objected to us is otherwise in the Greek Copies than in the Latin Of the Interpretation of Scripture You add that there is a Controversie about the Interpretation of Scripture The Pope and the Roman Church boast themselves to be the infallible Interpreters
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
his Disciples and from the words of Christ that he drunk the Fruit of the Vine we expound his other words this is my Bloud We expound also these words of Christ This is my Body from St. Pauls words who 1 Cor. 11. saith four times that we eat Bread in the Lords Supper and that we break Bread Certainly that Apostle giveth a clear Exposition of Christ's words This is my Body and this is my Blood saying 1 Cor. 10.16 The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ We alledge also those Texts that say that Jesus Christ is no more in this World that the Heaven doth contain him that Christ is like unto us in all things sin onely excepted and that by consequent he hath not a Body dispersed in a Million of several places at once and inclosed whole in every Crum of the Host and in every Drop of the Chalice Likewise when Jesus saith Do this in remembrance of me We expound not these words as the Councel of Trent doth which puts this Sense upon them I do constitute you to be Priests to sacrifice my Body really under the species of Bread and Wine but we bring the Interpretation which St. Paul addeth 1 Cor. 11.26 For as often as you eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew the Lords Death Consider also that there is great Difference between a Judgment of Authority and a Judgment of Discretion With this last we judge of Meats by the Taste without giving Laws to any And it is so that not only Pastours but also every one of the People may and doth judge of the true Doctrine And it is so that St. Paul will have the Corinthians to judge of his Doctrine 1 Cor. 10.15 I speak as to wise men judge ye what I say Of that matter and of the Interpretation of Scripture I have written a Book purposely which I have dedicated to your Grace and which was presented to you by Monsieur de Cabrilles from me I asked your Grace at Liege whether you had received it Your Answer was that you knew not what was in it for you have laboured to strengthen your self with Reasons against us but would not take Notice how we answer them and have conversed much with our Adversaries but hid your self from your Servants who might have cleared your Mind about their Objections and armed you with Answers Of the Condemnation of Hereticks Your Grace saith farther that you have desired to see whether the ancient Hereticks were condemned by Persons of our Religion and whether one man be found in all Antiquity that had the same Religion as we in all Points These Condemnations of Hereticks were made by men sound in the Faith that were of the same Religion as we in all points who have condemned many Errours now received in the Roman Church The Councel of Laodicea approved by many Universal Councels which were held since rejecteth the Books of Judith Tobit Maccabees and other Apochryphal Books The Eliberin Councel held about the year of the Lord 305 hath made this Canon It is decreed that there shall be no Picture in the Church that the things that are adored or served be not painted upon Walls The Councels that have commanded the Adoration of Images are later by 4 or 5 hundred years In the first Nicen Councel the Marriage of the Pastors of the Church was approved upon the Remonstrance of Paphnutius Such is the fourth Canon of the Councel of Gangra If any makes a Difference of a married Priest as if he ought not to participate of the Oblation when he doth administer let him be Anathema This is the XXXV Canon of the Councel of Laodicea Christians must not forsake the Church of God and go to serve Angels and gather Congregations If any them be found applying himself to that secret Idolatry let him be Anathema because he hath forsaken the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God About the year of the Lord 399 a Councel was held at Carthage of which this is the 23 Canon When Service is made at the Altar the Prayer must always be address't to the Father The present Roman Church contradicts that Canon for in their Service they have Prayers addrest unto Saints This is the 25 Canon of the same Councel In the Divine Service let nothing be offered but the Body and Blood of the Lord that is Bread and Wine mingled with Water The 16 Canon of the IV Councel of Carthage absolutely forbids swearing by the Creatures To this the Catechism of the Councel of Trent is contrary which approveth swearing by Relicks The 10 Canon of that Councel of Carthage saith Mulier baptizare non presumat Let not a Woman presume to baptize The Practise of the Roman Church is contrary to that The Milenitan Councel where St. Austin was present and of which he hath made the Canons forbids Appeals from Africk to Rome in these Words It is declared That if the Priests or other Clerks in such Causes as they shall have shall complain of the Judgment of their Bishops the Bishops shall hear them But he that will appeal beyond the Seas let him not be admitted to the Communion by any living in Africk In the VI Councel of Carthage there is a long Epstle of the Councel to Celestin Bishop of Rome who by a new Usurpation would draw to himself the Appeals of the Bishops of Africk whereby the Fathers of the Councel beseech him to receive no more Appeals from their Countrey forbidding him to send any more of his Legats or to use any more forged Canons to raise his Dignity and bring Worldly Pride into the Church of Christ Therefore Baronius and Bellarmin and Cotton Jesuits condemn that Councel In the Councel of Chalcedon held in the Year of the Lord 451 the Legats of the Bishop of Rome pretending to the Primacy and bringing forth a forged Canon of Nicea laboured to hinder the Bishop of Constantinople from being equal with the Bishop of Rome against which the Councel made this Canon The Fathers with good reason have given Prerogatives to the See of Antient Rome because she was the Imperial City And the hundred and fifty Bishops of the first Councel of Constantinople moved with the like consideration have attributed to the most holy See of New Rome which is Constantinople equal Priviledges judging with good reason that the City honoured with the Empire and the Senate and which hath the same Prerogatives as the Antient Rome Imperial ought to be magnified as much as Rome it self in Ecclesiastical things The Popes of our time and their Advocates condemn that Council not only because it equalleth the Bishop of Constantinople with that of Rome but chiefly because it groundeth the preeminence of the Bishop of Rome upon the Dignity of the City because Rome is the Capital City of the Empire and not
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
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
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
what Sacraments Many have tryed these ways and are fallen to the Desire of curious Visions and have deserved to be deceived Tertullian in the thirtieth Chapter of his Apologetick speaks thus I cannot ask these things of any but him of whom I know that I shall obtain them For it is he only that grants them and I am he that have a Right to obtain them being his Servant that call upon him alone Likewise Origen against Celsus the eighth Book saith Above all things we must pray to none but God and his only Son Ignatius who lived near the time of the Apostles saith in the Epistle to the Philadelphians You Virgins have none but Jesus Christ and the Father of Jesus Christ in your Prayers Clemens Alexandrinus speaks thus Cl. Alexand l. 11. Strom. There being none but one only that is truly good which is God both we and the Angels pray to him alone And so Athanasius It is manifest saith he that the Patriarch Jacob in his Prayer joyned none with God but him that is his Word Athan. Orat. 4. cont Arian because it is he only that manifesteth the Father unto us By a notorious Falshood among the Works of this Father was foisted a Book of the Mother of God where she is called the Queen of Heaven and Christians are commanded to adore her But Bellarmine in his Book of Ecclesiastical Writers and Banonius in the year 48. § 19 20. acknowledges the Book to be supposititious By the like Forgery in St. Austin's Book of the Spirit and the Soul there is a Prayer to the Saints inserted but in the same Book Boetius is quoted who was not born when Augustine dyed an evident Proof that the book is falsely attributed to him There is a Book of the same Father Of the Care that must be had of the Dead which is truly his but corrupted and falsified in many places For he is made to speak of Prayers to Saints departed as good and laudable yet he saith there that the departed Saints know nothing of all that the Living do and that if it were otherwise his good and holy Mother would not have forsaken him Then he addeth The Spirits of the deceased are in a place where they see nothing of all that is done or that happeneth to men in this Life And a little after It must be acknowledged that the dead know not that which is done here while it is a doing but they know it afterwards by them that dye and come to them Was St. Austin so much overseen as to teach that those must be called upon by us who understand us not nor know what is done here below unless some dye and perhaps afterwards bring them News of it This Advantage we have in this point that our Adversaries acknowledge that there is no Commandment of God for the Invocation of Saints and that the Holy Scripture saith nothing of it And that under the Old Testament that is for the space of four thousand years the Church used no Invocation of them All the Prayers in Scripture are addressed unto God alone and therefore we have no Assurance or Encouragement to call upon the Saints which we can ground upon the Word of God Is it not enough for us to have the Son of God for our Intercessor who tells us None comes to the Father but by me John 14. For how can we pray with Faith and Assurance to those who discern not the Prayers of the Heart For Scripture tells us that God alone knoweth the Hearts of men 2 Chron. 6.30 I might say that in the Roman Church many Saints are prayed to that never were in the World and others whose Holiness is very dubious and whose Lives were very bad Three hundred and seventy years past in the Christian Church without any Invocation of Saints The first that used it was Gregory Nazianzen who yet invocating the Souls of Constantius who was an Arian of Athanasius and of Basil added this Clause If thou understand me and If the Dead have any Sense But the Invocation of Saints was not received till a long time after in the Publick Service All these things considered My Lord I cannot wonder enough that Your Grace chooseth rather to be ruled by one Passage of St. Ambrose which perhaps is forged than by the Word of God and the Church of the first Ages after Christ For would you subscribe to all that St. Ambrose saith In the first book of Virgins he saith that the Angels fell by lying with Women In his Speech upon Gratian and Valentinian and upon the first Psalm he saith that some rise again sooner than others And in his Oration of the Faith of Resurrection he makes three sorts of Resurrection the first of the Patriarchs and Apostles the second of the Gentiles converted to the Faith the third of those that come from the South and the North. In his first Book of Offices chap. 50. he condemneth second Marriages In the first Book of the Holy Ghost he teacheth that the Baptism in the name of the Holy Ghost alone without naming the Father and the Son is valid In the tenth Sermon upon the 118 Psalm he saith that the Damned which are in Hell shall in the end be saved when the time of their Punishment is fulfilled The Roman Church believeth not with Ambrose that all Saints shall be burnt with the material Fire of the day of Judgment as we shall see hereafter Neither doth the Roman Church believe with Ambrose that Melchisedeck was Jesus Christ himself Many Pages might be filled with the like Errours of this Father whose Authority you value more than that of God speaking in the Holy Scriptures Of Prayer for the Dead and of Purgatory Your Grace endeth your Allegations of Fathers with Theodoret and Austin The first of which is alledged to say We believe that there is a Fire of Purgatory in which Souls are purged like Gold in the Furnace The other saith He that will not till his Field shall be chastised in this World and after his Death shall be punisht in the Fire of Hell or in that of Purgatory And addeth that he hath made a whole Book of the Prayers for the Dead and that the whole Antiquity hath so practiced it They that have helped you with these Passages have miserably abused your Grace It is true that all the ancient Church prayed for the Dead but in a manner which the Roman Church condemneth and holds to be ridiculous and erroneous Not one Passage can be found in the genuine Works of any Father by which it can appear that he prayed for the Dead to draw them out of Purgatory Could Your Grace have the Patience to read St. Austins Book of the Care to be taken of the Dead you would find that there is not one Word of Purgatory in the whole Book The Christian Church in the III and IV Ages after Christ prayed for the Saints for the Apostles and Martyrs
The publick Form of those Prayers is found in the eighth Book of the Apostolick Constitutions of Clement in the eighteenth Chapter We offer unto thee for all the Faithful which have been pleasing unto thee from the Beginning of the World Patriarchs Prophets Righteous Apostles Martyrs Confessors The same is to be found in the Book of Ecclesiastick Hierarchy that goes under the name of Dionysius and in Epiphanius where he treateth of the Heresie of Arius All consent that none can imagine that these Prayers for the Saints were to draw them out of Purgatory St. Austin who writ in the Beginning of the fifth Century was the first that said it was doing Injury to a Martyr to pray for him It further appears that the ancient Church had not belief of this Doctrine in that they prayed for the Souls that slept peaceably which Prayer to this day remains in the Roman Mass in which the Priest prayeth for the dead in these Words Remember Lord thy Servants and Handmaids which are gone before us with the Sign of Faith and which are sleeping in a quiet Sleep It is evident That this Prayer was made in a time when the Belief of Purgatory was not yet received for those that are burning perhaps for many Ages in a Fire seven times hotter than Hell do not sleep with a quiet Sleep If you ask me why they pray'd for the dead whom they held not to be in any Torment it will be no hard Matter to give you Satisfaction First they asked that the Dead Person for whom they pray'd might rise again to Salvation in the last day Such was the Prayer of Judas Maccabaeus 2 Mac. 12. v. 43 44. Doing therein saith the Author very well and honestly in that he was mindful of the Resurrection For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should have risen again it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the Dead By the Judgment of that Author the Prayer made for the dead in the Roman Church is superfluous and vain since it is not made for their Resurrection That this was in old time the intent of the Roman Church when they pray'd for the Dead it appeareth by the Prayers which are used still in the Mass for the Dead of which these are the Words We beseech thee Lord to absolve the Souls of thy Servants from all Bonds of Sin that in the Glory of the Resurrection being risen again they may breath among the elected Saints Thus Ambrose prayeth for the Soul of Theodosius and yet he saith that he is received into Christ's Tabernacles in the heavenly Jerusalem And St. Austin prayeth for the Soul of his Mother Monica which is among the Saints and whom St. Austin believes to be enjoying heavenly Blessedness Another Opinion was rife among the Antients That some Souls should rise sooner than other Souls and that many Sins were to be expiated by the Delay of the Resurrection Tertullian towards the end of his Book of the Soul makes the Suffering of Souls after Death even for the least Sins to consist in that Delay In the Book of Monogamy chap. 10. he will have a Widow to pray for her deceased Husband and that she may keep him Company in the first Resurrection The like Prayer Ambrose maketh for Gratian and Valentinian I beseech thee O Supreme God that thou wilt raise up again more early these most beloved young men Here is then a second end for which the Ancients prayed for the dead They had one end more It was an Opinion generally held by the Fathers that in the day of Judgment after men are risen again they shall not enter into Paradise before they have been sindged and purged by the Fire of the day of Judgment some more some less as they have more or less sinned This is the Purgatory Fire of the Antients of which their Books are full Through that fire they make all the Saints to pass even the Virgin Mary Lactantius lib. 7. cap. 21. declares thus his Opinion which was then the general When God hath judged the Just he will try them by fire and those whose Sins are very considerable either in Weight or number shall be sindged and lightly burnt by the Fire Thus Hillary upon St. Matthew Hilar. in Mat. Canon 2. To them that are baptized with Holy Ghost it remains yet to be perfected by the fire of Judgment And in the part Gimel upon the 119 Psalm This Purification is reserved for us after the Baptism of Water which must sanctifie us by the coming of the Holy Ghost and refine us by the Fire of Judgment Again Do we wish for the day of Judgment in which we must pass through that unwearied Fire and undergo those grievous Pains to expiate the Soul of her Sins And he makes the Virgin Mary go through that Fire If saith he even that Virgin which hath conceived God must undergo the Severity of that Judgment who will dare to desire to be judged by God St. Ambrose also saith that all the Prophets and Apostles must in that day be purged by that Fire In the 20 Sermon upon the 118 Psal All must pass through the Flames even John the Evangelist whom the Lord loved even Peter And upon the 36 Psal The Sons of Levi shall be purged by Fire Ezekiel Daniel c. Observe that he saith they shall be whence it appears that he speaks of a Fire which is not yet St. Austin is express for it in the 16 Book of the City of God chap. 24. By this Fire is understood the day of Judgment which shall separate the Carnal some to be saved by the Fire some to be condemned to the Fire And in the 25 Chap. of the 20 Book By that which was said it seems to be evident that in that Judgment there will be some Purgatory Pains And the Title of the chapter saith expresly that he speaks of the Fire of the last Judgment After the Purgation by that Fire he holds that the Sentence of the last Judgment shall be pronounced in the 21 Book chap. 16. Of that Purgation by Fire speak Irenaeus Basil Gregory Nazianzen Gregory Nyssen and Hierom. It is of that Fire My Lord that Theodoret and Austin speak in the places which you alledge And it is one of the grounds why the Ancients prayed for the dead For that St. Austin believed that Souls going out of the Body went streight either into Paradise or into Hell and that there is no middle or third place called Purgatory it is clear by these Passages in the 18 Sermon of the words of the Apostle There are two Habitations the one of the eternal Kingdom the other of the eternal Fire And in the 232 Sermon which is against Drunkenness Let none deceive himself my Brethren for there are two places and no third He that hath not merited with Christ shall perish without doubt with the Devil And in the first Book of the merit of Sins and