Faithful themselves and if the Faithful then must it have Preheminence before the Church it self which is nothing else but the Congregation of the Faithful Thus the Church of Rome will evidently fall short of that Prerogative she so presumptuously arrogates of being both Before and Above the Scripture Again a Rule consisting in Indivisibili as we say i. e. being of that Nature that it is not to be inlarged or diminished how guilty are they who either make Additions to or Substractions from it Both which the Roman Church practiseth as de facto will be manifest in the Sequele of this small Tract In Fine they hold the Word of God written to be that one infallible entire Rule whereby all men Learned and Unlearned may in all necessary and fundamental Points of Faith and Manners be sufficiently instructed what is to be embraced for True and Good That it is a Rule most Certain Plain Universal Impartial not addicted to one Side more than another which neither Pope Conclave nor Councel can so much as pretend to of Power and Authority able to convince the Consciences of such as use it and from which there can be no Appeal And the only Cause why any miss of the True Faith is because they do not sincerely seek and find out this infallible Rule or having found it will not with an obedient Mind captivate their Understanding but have Access to it with Pride Curiosity Prejudice or some other unmortifyed Lust or Impediment More especially the Church of England besides that high Veneration that she her self hath for these sacred Books labours to confirm and root the same in the Hearts of her obedient Children by her Devout Practice For to omit the Frequent Laborious and Judicious Preaching and Expounding of them in this Church she hath so prudently disposed of her publick Liturgy that every day some Part and Portion of both Testaments is appointed to be read The whole Book of Psalms is gone through once a Moneth the Old Testament once and the New thrice every year with other most excellent Exercises of Piety at which even the Romanists themselves can take no just Exception and a very great Author affirms that a modern Pope would have approved the whole Service-Book had his Authority but been acknowledged which discreet Course cannot but afford much heavenly Instruction and Consolation to the constant Attenders on such Blessed Opportunities But what saith the Church of Rome all this while in this Business In her Tridentine Council Sess 4. Can. 1. She expresly Decrees that unwritten Traditions are of equal Authority with the written Word that they are to be received with the same Reverence and Affection And Cardinal Hosius who was one who in the Popes Name presided at that Council defends that most Blasphemous Speech of Wolfangus Hermannus that the Scripture is of no more Authority than Esop's Fables but for the Churches and Popes Approbation lib. 3. de Authorit Script The Council of Basil would fain perswade us that the Churches Acts and Customs must be to us instead of the Scriptures Instar habeant Sacrarum Scripturarum for that the Scripture and Churches Customs both require the same Affection and Respect Indeed I find the Romish Doctors in nothing more fluent than in degrading and vilifying the Scriptures Our Country man Dr. Stapleton positively affirms that the Church hath Authority to put into the Number of Books of Scripture and to make Canonical the Writings of Hermes and Constitutions of Clemens two famous Counterfeits and that then they would have the same Authority which other Books have canonized by the Apostles themselves Some call them a Nose of Wax to be wrested any way Cardinal Cusanus blushes not to write that the Scriptures are fitted to the time and variously understood the sense thereof being one while this and another while that according as it pleases the Church to change her Judgment Some teach that the Scripture is not simply necessary that God gave it not to the People but to the Doctors and Pastors and that we must live more according to the Dictates of the Church than the Scripture Eckius the great Antagonist of Luther would make us believe that Christ never gave any Command to his Apostles to write any thing Which yet seems very odd when such an express Injunction was lay'd on S. John to write that mystical Book of the Apocalypse which certainly is not more conducing to the Churches Edification than our B. Saviour's Sermon on the Mount and the many other practical Discourses both of himself and his Disciples In a word the most ingenuous and civil among their Writers think they have pay'd all due Respect to Holy writ when they term it a Dumb Judge Dead Ink or Ink shaped into various Forms and Characters Notwithstanding which I humbly conceive that let an Indifferent Person open the Bible and the Canons of the Council of Trent together and he will receive at least as clear and full Satisfaction from the Bible as from the other unless we will impiously deny Almighty God the Faculty of expressing his holy Will and Pleasure as intelligibly as frail Men can theirs or without any shew of Reason affirm with a late Divine that Religion it self was never fully setled till that upstart Conventicle Conformable to the Sentiments are the Practices of that Church in keeping the Bible lock'd up in an Unknown Tongue from the Use of the Vulgar Clement the Eighth very strictly orders all Vulgar Translations to be put into the Index of Prohibited Books And in Italy and Spain and wherever the Inquisition hath the least Jurisdiction the very keeping of them is a Crime no less than Capital It is true where the Reformation hath got any footing Faculties are sometimes granted to read a Translation but clog'd with so many Proviso's and various Cautions and their Spiritual Guides give so small Encouragement to it that it seems rather a Trick to stop the Mouthes of their Adversaries when they Object the Prohibition of Reading Scripture than any real Intention of Promoting so Pious an Exercise among their Devotes Besides their other Forms of Devotion Rosaries or saying over the Beads after divers Methods our Ladies Office Prayers for the Dead Manuals the long Litanies of Saints hearing of Masses reading of Legends c. are in so great Vogue and take up so considerable a Time that I scarce see how any can be allotted for that contemned Employment of studying Gods Word which ought to be the Meditation of every good Christian Day and Night Indeed this neglect to say no worse of Holy Scripture is so notorious among and so peculiar to those of that Way and the Ignorance not only of the Laity but of divers of the Clergy in that kind of Learning especially is so gross that it would be a Work of Supererogation to attempt the proof of it Their Doctors generally pretending Translations of Scripture to be the cause of all Heresies and Phanaticism
Practice was only condemned in such as did it without waiting the Sentence of any Judge whatsoever So that if Sentence be past by the Spiritual Judge notwithstanding this Decree a Prince may be Assassinated But there is a further Mystery in it For a King once declared to be no more such i. e. being Deposed He then becomes a Rebel and an Usurper according to their Principles and then it is lawful to kill him The Council of Siena confirms all the former Decrees made against Hereticks and the Favourers of Heresie are declared liable to all Pains and Censures of Hereticks and consequently to the Greatest of them viz Deposition The Council at Basil ratifies the Decree of Constance by which Emperours and Kings that presumed to hinder any from coming to the Council are subjected to Excommunication Interdicts and other Punishments Spiritual and Temporal Finally the Council of Trent though the world was then much changed and they durst not trample on Crowned Heads as formerly yet they would still be nibling at this sweet Morsel as near as they could and still endeavoured though covertly to continue the Claim to this Deposing Authority For in the Decree against Duels Sess 25. c. 19. they declare If any Emperours and Kings c. did assign a field for a Combate they did thereby lose their Right to that place and the City Castle or other places about it If Councils then as surely they are be fit deliverers of the Churches sence we have here no less than seven General Councils to prove this to be the Churche's Doctrine For my own part I can see no ways they can extricate themselves but either by Confessing their Church hath erred or by obstinately going on in a most wretched Justification of such Damnable Tenents and Practices There is nothing more to do in this business but by way of surplusage to give a General Touch at these following particulars By the Book of the Sacred Ceremonies which is Authentick and of great Esteem with the Church of Rome the Emperour as soon as he sees the Pope must bare-headed how till his knee touch the Ground and worship the Pope coming nearer he must bow again and when he comes to the Pope he must bow a third Time and devoutly kiss the Pope's Toe The same book informs us that the Pope never gives any Reverence to any Mortal either by rising up or uncovering or bowing his head That the Emperour must hold the Pope's stirrup till he gets on horseback and then lead the Horse for some paces And some mean spirited Emperors have de facto performed these slavish offices The Emperour must swear Fealty to the Pope and be his Hector to maintain all his Rights and Honours That horrid Extravagant of Boniface VIII makes it absolutely necessary to Salvation that all Christians be subject to the Pope who hath both the Swords and Judgeth all Men and is Judged of None And the Gloss upon that Extravagant dares to say our Saviour had not done discreetly unless he had left such a Vicar behind him Bzovius an approved and applauded Author in that Communion tells us the Pope is Monarch of All Christians Supreme over All Mortals there lyes no Appeal from him He is the great Arbitrator of the World Isiodorus Mosconius Vicar General to the Arch-Bishop of Bononia and a great Lawyer terms the Pope the Universal Judge King of Kings Lord of Lords and saies that God's Tribunal and the Pope's are one and the same that they have the same Consistory and therefore all other powers are his Subjects that the Pope is judged of none but God not of the Emperour Kings Clergy or Laity Pope Innocent the Third Extra de Major gives this description of the Papal power that it is as much greater than the Imperial as the Sun is than the Moon And the Gloss saies that is 47 times greater but the note in the Margin puts 57 times nay there is an Author that adds 7744 times This Decretal of Innocent the III. and the forecited Extravagant of Boniface VIII are both put into the body of the Canon Law It would be endless to enumerate the Romish Authors that defend this prodigious power of deposing Kings Bellarmin Suarez Sa Mariana maintain and prove this Doctrine Nor do I know one Jesuit that teaches the contrary And it is very well worth our notice what an odd kind of answer Mr. Fisher gave to King James who demanded of him what he thought Subjects ought to do in the case of the Pope's deposing a Prince The Jesuit gives this sly return I will pray for Peace and Tranquillity between both Parties I will exhort all to do good offices conducing thereto and will rather dye than any wayes be accessory to your Majestie 's death And no more could be got from him but this Compliment But else where he told the King more plainly that he disclaimed any singular opinion of his own or more than the Definitions of Councils and Consent of Divines did force him to hold And what those are we have pretty well discovered The Canonists Casuists and Schoolmen are Generally if not Vniversally of this opinion some teach that it is evident to all that Emperors are to be Deprived and Deposed by the Pope not onely for things pertaining to Faith but for Manners Others that the Secular Power is subject to the Spiritual and that it is no Usurpation if the Spiritual judge the Secular and that the Pope hath Supreme Power over Christian Kings and Princes and may Correct Depose and put others in their places that he may deprive a King of Royal Dignity for Heresie Schisme or any intolerable Crime Negligence or Lazyness if in great matters be break his Oath or oppress the Church and several other Cases and that the Pope himself is sole Judge both of the Crime and of the Condemnation And Bzovius de Pontifice Rom. c. 46. p. 611. gives us a Catalogue of above 30 Kings and Princes who have de facto been Deposed or by Anathema's damn'd by the Pope They count them Martyrs that dye for the maintaining this Power which cannot be unless they Esteem it an Article of Faith And we have a late Instance of F. Paul Magdalen aliàs Henry Heath a Learned and in his way Pious Franciscan who was put to death by the Long Parliament about the year 1643. Who just before his Execution being desired to give his Judgment of the Oath of Allegiance which chiefly concerns our present purpose declared it absolutely unlawful and that he would as soon lay down his Life for the Refusal of it as for any Article of the Roman Belief Eman. Sa is not ashamed to publish that if a Clergy Man rebell against his King it is no Treasen because Clergy men are not the Kings Subjects Aphorism Confess verbo Clericus Others though I will not say this is so generally taught that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks And if my Memory fail not
he shrewdly suspected the Gentleman to be a Jesuit And I remember he instanced in some particular slie wayes those Persons used to Intice and Spirit away Youths whom they judged fit for their Employment So this Correspondence broke off and I never had more to do with him However I must confess that much of his Discourse did recoil upon my Childish Fancy a long time after And though within a short while I went to Cambridge viz. in the year 1658. yet my mind was not quiet and those stupendous Distractions both of Church and State that immediately followed did infinitely add to my Perplexity Then happen'd his Majesty's happy Restauration which being as it were a year of Jubilee no wonder if the younger sort of the Vniversity did take the Benefit of the Indulgence I mean Indulgere Genio and use some Liberties which at other times the strictness of an Academical Life would not have permitted Here likewise I acknowledge I swam with the Stream and did not so seriously mind those Affairs I was designed for by my Friends and so fell into those Inconveniencies which not long after my having proceeded Batchelor of Art induced me to leave the Vniversity Coming up to London I light into the Company of an ancient Acquaintance and among other Discourses we at last fell upon Religion The Gentlewoman adjured mee by no small Considerations to advise well what I fix'd upon and likewise to recurr to some able Person of her Perswasion which was that of the Roman-Catholicks Hereupon I was introduced to one of the most Grave Subtle and Acute Fathers then in the Nation one whose Works I perceive you are not wholly a Stranger to I mean F. Fran. à S. Clara with whose winning discourse I was extreamly taken and to whose extraordinary Civilities I must always account my self extraordinarily obliged You cannot be long in Suspense concerning the Issue of this Interview He who had triumphed over so many Persons of Honour and Quality Clergy and Laity witness among the rest Dr. G. Bishop of Gloucester might easily baffle such a young Stripling as my self and soon dazle my Eyes with the glittering Pretenses of Infallibility Antiquity Unity Universality Succession Councils Fathers Saints Miracles Religious Orders c. These with the Example of several learned men Converts of our own Nation as Dr. Baily Vane Carrier Cressey Walsingham Montague Crashaw with many others yet living and therefore nameless were I then thought too great a Cloud of Witnesses for my single Wit either to oppose or so much as question And now Sir you may easily guess what became of me For about nine or ten years I was wholly immured up forced to comply with and swallow every thing durst not propose any Scruples for fear of being suspected Heretically inclined And thus I continued till the latter end of the year 1671. At which time by Gods great Mercy I got some respite to reflect upon what I had done in revolting from the Church of England and engaging with one the ignorance of whose Proselytes is often made Vse of for something more than bare Devotion Since that Time I take God to witness I have most impartially survey'd all the several Writers I could procure on both sides but especially your own Books Dr. Tillotson's and Dr. Lloyd's To both whom I beseech you in my name to tender my most humble Thanks for that Great Satisfaction I have reaped by their Writings especially The Rule of Faith And I assure you I found the Infallible Principles so shaken by those Solid and Learned Treatises and my self so intrigued by my own Experience of the Juggling Practices of some Persons most cryed up for Perfection that neither Father Bellarmine for as you well observe amidst that great boast that is made of Fathers He is the Great Father with most of our Neoterick Controvertists nor Dr. T. G. nor Mr. Cressey nor Mr. Serjeant himself who speaks nothing but Scientifical Oracles could Unblunder my thoughts that I may not wholly forsake the Rhetorick of my old Friends And this hath been the true state of my Soul for several years just like S. James's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unconstant in his wayes For what with the Terrour of that Theological Scare-crow Schism on the one hand with the Flattery of an acknowledged possibility of Salvation in the Roman Church on the other though the Dean of Canterbury's Sermon on that Subject hath now perfectly cleared me I was still detained in a Communion with that Church which I conceived to hold all the Fundamentals of Christianity To which to acknowledge something of Humane frailty I may add the Advantages I enjoyed and the Damages I should unavoidably incurr by quitting a Party whose Inveterate and Implacable Malice towards a Deserter though upon the strongest Convictions of Conscience is sufficiently known and particularly taken notice of by the afore-mentioned Reverend and Learned Author in his Discourse on that of the Gospel There is joy in Heaven over one Sinner c. and I my self have already begun to experiense from some from whom I neither expected nor deserved it To omit that Innate Reluctancy well nigh in All of Recanting a Committed Errour Though these were but Diffieulties of the Second Rate Yet at last those Desperate Practices whereof many of that Party stand suspected and some indicted made me resolve to break through all Obstacles and publickly declare my Detestation of their Actions by Renouncing their Communion and Protesting against those Principles and Doctrines as is evident in the most General Council of Lateran and others seconded by the undeniable Practice of many Popes in Actual Deposing of Princes and Disposing of Kingdoms which it is to be feared had but too much Influence on such Traiterous Designs This Tenent of a Foreign Power either Direct in Spirituals or Indirect in Temporals is most manifestly inconsistent with the Peace and Safety of our English Nation and till it be Renounced or Disabled we shall never be free from Jealousies and Fears There is another Point of as Fatal Consequence to Common Conversation as the former to the Publick Government and that is the Trick of Equivocation or Refined Art of Lying I will not say it is a Doctrine of the Roman Church but I know it to be both the Doctrine and Practice of a Leading Party in that Church and never as I ever yet heard of was it yet Censured by the Church it self no more than the Deposing Doctrine and other such like Hellish Maxims have been disowned Of this Latter I had a famous Instance not long since A known Jesuit being apprehended in a Neighbouring Town upon the Interrogatories put to him by the Magistrate he denied himself to be a Priest protested he was a Married man had Wife and Children And all this was salved by that pittiful Evasion you know the shift of the Crucifix in the Sleeve used at China That his Breviary was his Wife and his Penitents his Spiritual Children
the Waters as in Genesis but along besides the Waters c. Nothing is more talk'd of than the Infallibility of the Church of Rome and this I know to be a most tempting Bait to get Proselytes especially amidst those Many Dissentions in the Christian World at this Day But because this Pretext hath been utterly destroyed by the Lord Falkland Mr. Chillingworth and other most Learned Pens I will only Recommend this Single Consideration to All Judicious Roman Catholicks who would not be chouced out of their Wits Estates and Liberties by a Gang of Ecclesiastical Mountebanks viz. That this Huge Swelling Prerogative of Infallibility is so Sensless a Thing so Ungrounded that no Romanist according to his own Principles can have so much as a probable Moral Assurance of that wherein he thinks himself Infallible And unless every one in particular be Infallible it is to little purpose to boast of an Infallible Judge For a Man may as well mistake the Meaning of his Sentence as the Sentence of one who proceeds only upon prudent Moral Assurance and we see that thousands do erre in the Intepretation of those acknowledged Infallible Oracles the Holy Scriptures The Consideration I recommend is this That after All the Stirr that is made about Infallibility the Learnedest amongst them knows not where to meet with it nor in what cases it is annexed to that Chair in what it forsakes it Some as the Jesuits generally will have it in the Pope but then whether with his Cardinals or by Himself is controverted very briskly Others will have it in a General Council and this Opinion is backt by no less Authority than the Councils of Basil and Constance But then the Church hath been very long without it and possibly may never injoy it by means of a General Council to the End of the World That wherein they fix it with most plausibility is both the Pope and a Council together But even here we are at a great many losses For as to the Pope no man can be assured of his being a true Pope considering the various defects that may render him otherwise as a fundamental Error in his Election Simoniacal Induction the female Sex Want of true Baptism and Holy Orders both which depend upon the Intention and Validity of those from whom he receives them and theirs upon the like Qualifications in their Predecessors c. Occult Heresie and Many others And then as to a Council which consists chiefly of Bishops tho the Popes for some ends best known to themselves have now pack'd in Cardinals Abbots Generals of Orders c. besides that the Validity of a Council depends upon the uncertainty of the Pope's being truly Qualified the very same Difficulties occur in every particular Member as did in respect of the Pope himself The like uncertainty appears in every Sacrament administred in that Church some whereof are absolutely necessary both Necessitate Medii Praecepti v. g. in Baptism Absolution Consecration of the Host which if it be not duly performed Idolatry is committed by the People in adoring it even by their own Concessions Azorius the Jesuit Enchirid. c. 8. openly proclaims That it is a more tolerable Error in them who worship Golden and Silver Statutes as the Gentiles did their Gods nay a piece of red Cloth on the top of a Spear as the Laplanders are reported to do than in those who adore a piece of Bread And now I would fain know of a Lay-Roman-Catholick what is become of his Infallibility where it is and to what purpose it serves him No where is it to be found as I know of but in the bold Assertion of every pragmatical Confessor Who bids you be sure to look to your Faith who are the Solifidians now to believe as the Church believes and then all is safe for the breach of the Ten Commandments there are Merits and Indulgences enough in the Church which being mixt with a little Attrition and Confession will do the work Though in the mean while He himself can neither tell where this Infallible Church is nor what she certainly believes Methinks S. Paul spoke as much like a Prophet as an Apostle as if he foresaw the Haughtiness of the Members of that Church to which he wrote And therefore to curb them and banish from their Minds all such vain conceits of Infallibility he tells the Church of Rome she stood on no firmer grounds than her Neighbours His words are these worthy to be had in everlasting Remembrance by All Roman-Catholicks Rom. 11.18 19 Boast not against the Branches c. Well because of unbelief they were broken off and Thou standest by Faith Be not high-minded but fear For if God spared not the natural branches take heed lest he also spare not Thee Behold therefore the Goodness and Severity of God on them which fell Severity but towards Thee Goodness if Thou continue in his Goodness otherwise Thou also shalt be cut off Which words need rather your Practice than my Paraphrase How much Safer and more Satisfactory is it to rely on the Holy Scriptures themselves which by all Sides are acknowledged Infallible For as much as they were divinely Inspired by that great Infallible Truth which neither can be deceived nor deceive his Creatures which can make you wise enough to Salvation and who hath promised to every humble Petitioner and devout Practiser a sufficient Competency of Knowledge in what is necessary for his present Condition and Eternal Happiness Now all this you will find abundantly provided for in the Doctrine and Constitutions of the Church of England Here is the Word of God faithfully Translated and exactly as far as the Idiomes of Languages will permit compared with the Originals and All those Books received of whose Authority there was never any doubt made in the Church Some others called Apocryphal are read indeed but as Ruffinus in Exposit Symboli speaks non ad Fidem firmandam sed ad Mores Instruendos Not for confirming Faith but for direction of Manners And they are excluded from the Canon upon very weighty Reasons For that they were never committed as of Divine Authority to the Jews to whom the Oracles of God were intrusted Rom. 3.2 Nor are they to be found in the Hebrew Canon They are never found cited by Christ or his Apostles and in some places they contain things manifestly false contradictory both to themselves the other Genuine Prophetical Writers You have here the three Creeds the Apostles that of the Nicene Council and that of S. Athanasius together with the four first General Councils which represent to us the Sincere Scheme of Apostolical Primitive Doctrine and Discipline You have here good works Recommended Preach'd and Practiced as the Fruits of Faith and Evidences of our Justification and though not as Expiatory for our Sins yet as in Obedience to the Divine commands and as a Sacrifice acceptable to God And even in this Degenerate Age of Christianity it might be