qualified for the making of a Church of God for certainly they are neither lawful Abbots nor genuine Bishops But suppose they are the Church suppose they are to be heard in Councils and that they have the sole Right of Voting yet in ancient time when the Church of God was well governed especially if it be compared with their Church as St. Cyprian acquaints us the Presbyters and Deacons and some part also of the Laity were then call'd to assist at the hearing of Ecclesiastical Causes 4. BUT what now if those Abbots and Bishops know nothing What if they know not what Religion is nor what they ought to believe of God What if the Law hath perished from the Priests and Counsel from the Elders What if as Micah saith the Night be unto them instead of a Vision and Darkness instead of a Divination What if as Isaiah saith the Watchmen of the City are all blind they are all ignorant and what if the Salt as Christ saith hath lost its Force and Savour and is become good for nothing not fit even to be cast upon the Dunghil for they defer all to the Pope who cannot err but then this in the first place is ridiculous that the Holy Ghost should be sent by a Carrier from the Holy Council to Rome that if any Doubt or Stop happens which he cannot expedite he may take better Instruction and Counsel from I know not what more learned Spirit for if it must come to this at last what need is there that so many Bishops should with such great Expence be called from very distant places at this time to Trent It had certainly been more prudent and much better a shorter and an easier way to have at first turn'd over all this Business to the Pope and have gone directly to the Oracle of his sacred Brâ—ast besides it is unjust to devolve our Cause from so many Bishops and Abbots to the Judgment of any one man and above all others to the Judgment of the Pope who is accused by us of many very great Crimes and though he hath not answered for his own Misdemeanors yet hath presum'd to condemn us before we were call'd and that without any Tryal Now do we invent all this or is it not now the manner of our late Councils Are not all things referr'd to the Pope by the Council so that as if nothing were done by so many Sentences and Subscriptions he alone may add diminish abrogate approve relax and restrain whatsoever he please Whose Words are these Why did the Bishops and Abbots in the end of the late Council at Trent put in these words as a part of their Decree Saving in in all things the Authority of the Apostolical See Or why did Pope Pascal write thus insolently of himself as if saith he any Councils could prescribe a Law to the Church of Rome when all Councils are held by the Authority of the Church of Rome and derive their Force from it too and whereas they do patiently in their Decrees except the Authority of the Pope of Rome If they will confirm and approve these things why are Councils call'd but if they are indeed repeal'd and abrogated why are they still left in their Books as if they were in force 5. WELL but suppose in the next place that the Pope tho one is above all Councils that is that he is a part greater than the whole has more Power yea and more Wisdom too than all his Party besides and that in spite of St Jeroms Judgment the Authority of this one City is greater than that of the whole World What if he has seen none of these things and has neither read the holy Scriptures nor the ancient Fathers nor so much as any of his own Councils What if like Pope Liberius of old he becomes an Arrian or like Pope John who lived not many years since thinks very leudly and wickedly of the Immortality of the Soul and of the Life to come or as Pope Zosimus heretofore corrupted the Council of Nice so he for the enlarging of his own Power should corrupt the other Councils and aver that those things were deliberated and constituted by the holy Fathers in them which were never so much as thought off and that as Camotensis saith the Popes do frequently he should offer Violence to the holy Scriptures that he may thereby possess himself of a Plenitude of Power What if he renounce the Christian Faith and becomes an Apostate as Lyranus saith many Popes have done What will the holy Spirit for all these things knock at the Cabbin of his Breast and obtrude such a Light upon him contrary to his Inclinations and against his Will that he shall not err though he would Or shall such a Pope as this be the Fountain of all Laws and all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge be notwithstanding found in him as in a Cabinet Or if these things be not in him can he nevertheless judge well and conveniently of things of this great weight Or if he be not qualified to judge of them does he yet desire that all these things should be refer'd to him alone What now if the Popes Advocates the Abbots and Bishops dissemble nothing but declare themselves openly to be the Enemies of the Gospel and will not see what they do see but wrest the Scriptures and knowingly and willingly deprave and adulterate the Word of God and do foully and impiously transfer to the Pope what is perspicuously and properly spoken of Christ and cannot be applied to any other Mortal What if they say the Pope is all and above all or that he can do all those things which Christ can do or that the Tribunal and Consistory of the Pope is the same with Christs or that the Pope is that Light which came into the World which Christ spake of himself only and that he that doth Evil hateth that Light and fleeth from it or that all other Bishops have received of his Fulness Or lastly what if they do without dissimulation or obscurity clearly and manifestly determine contrary to the Word of God Shall whatever they say nevertheless presently become Gospel Shall such as these be the Army God Will Christ be present with such Men Will the Spirit of God move upon their Tongues or may they say truly it seems good to the Holy Ghost and to us 6. Pâ—trus a Soto and his Voucher Hosius make no sâ—ruple to affirm that that very Council which condemn'd our Saviour to death had then the Spirit of Prophesie and Truth and the Holy Ghost with them and that what those High Priests said was not false or vain when they said 〈◊〉 have a Law and by that Law be ought to die that in this according to Hosius they gave a true Judgment and that their Decree was perfectly just by which Christ was adjudged worthy of Death It is a wonder in
take care of these things either like vain Night-Spirits throw every things into Disorder and Confusion or that I may tell the truth without disguise encrease the Errors and double the darkness Now Sir after all this should we have sit still and expected the determination of these Fathers with our Arms folded together and doing nothing No St. Cyprian saith There is but one Episcopacy in the whole Church a solid and intire part of which is enjoyed by every Bishop and every one shall surely give an account to the Lord for his own part Their blood will I require at thy hand saith the Lord. And if any man puts his hand to the Plough and looketh back and is solicitous what others may think of him and expects the Authority of a General Council and in the mean time hides his Lords Treasure he shall hear thou sloathful and wicked Servant Take him and cast him into outer darkness Suffer saith Christ the dead to bury their dead but come thou and follow me The truth of God depends not upon men In Humane Counsels it is the part of a wise man to stay for the judgment and consent of men but in the Affairs of Religion the voice of God ought to supercede the need of all others which as soon as a devout Soul has heard he yeilds presently submits and neither stands off nor expects any other for he knows that then he ought neither to believe the Pope nor Council but the Will of God thus revealed And this voice is to be obeyed tho opposed by all men The Prophet Elija immediately obeyed God tho he did believe that he was alone Abraham upon the Admonition of God went out of Caldea Lot went out of Sodom and the three Children made a publick Confession of their Religion and openly detested Idolatry without expecting a General Council Go out of her saith the Angel and be not partakers of her sins that ye partake not of her Plagues he doth not say stay for a Synod of the Bishops Thus the true Religion was at first published and so it must be now restored The Apostles at first taught the Gospel without any publick Council and without any such Council it may now be called back and reinstated But if Christ himself or his Apostles in the beginning would have delayed and put off the whole business till a future Council When should the 〈◊〉 of them have gone out into all Lands How should the Kingdom of God have suffered force and the violent have taken it by a kind of Invasion Where had the Gospel now been Where would the Church of God have been In truth we neither fear nor fly from a Council but rather wish for and desire it so it may be free genuine and Christian and may be conven'd after the pattern of that of the Apostles provided that the Abbots and Bishops may be discharged of their Oath by which they are now bound to the Popes of Rome and that whole Combination now on foot may be dissolved provided those of our Party may be freely and modestly heard provided they be not condemned before they are heard And lastly upon condition that if any thing be done no one man may weaken or rescind all again But now whilst we saw that the present manners and times would not allow us thus much and that the most absurd silly ridiculous superstitious and wicked things were most stifly defended only because they had been heretofore received and purely for custom sake We judged it to be our duty to provide for and take care of our own Churches in a National Council 31. FOR we know that the Spirit of God is neither bound to any place or number of men Tell it said Christ to the Church To wit not to the universal Church which is spread all over the World but to the particular which may meet in some one place Wheresoever saith he two or three of you are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of you So St. Paul that he might reform the Churches of Corinth and Galatia did not command them to stay for a General Council but wrote to them that they would forthwith cut off all Errors and Disorders And so heretofore whilst the Bishops slept and did nothing or rather defil'd and polluted the Temple of God God by extraordinary ways excited others who were great men and of generous minds to reform whatever was amiss 32. BUT then Sir we have done nothing rashly nor without very great reason nothing but what we saw was lawful at all times to be done and which had often been done by the Holy Fathers without any blame And thus calling together the Bishops and a very full Synod by the common consent of all our States We cleansed the Church of those Dregs and Corruptions which either the carelesness or malice of Men had brought in and purged it as the Augean Stable And as far as it was possible we have reduced all things to their ancient Splendor and the resemblance of the Apostolical times and Primitive Church And all this as we might lawfully do it so for that cause have we done it confidently 33. THAT which Pope Gregory the First wrote about these Affairs please me and the more because he wrote about the Institution of the English Churches to Augustin Bishop of the English He exhorts him then not that he should refer things to a Council but that according to his Discretion he should appoint such things as he saw did most tend to the encrease of Piety You know saith he my Brother the Custom of the Church of Rome in which you were brought up but I am best pleased with this Course that where-ever you find any thing which is most pleasing to Almighty God whether it be in the Church of Rome or that of France or in any other Church you would carefully pick and choose the principal things and settle them in the Church of England which is yet new and to be setled in the Faith and that in the Constitution thereof you should instill those things which you have thus collected from many several Churches ◠for Customs are not to be loved for the sake of the Places but the Places for their Sakes 34. After the same manner the Fathers in the Council of Constantinople wrote to Damasus Pope of Rome and the rest of the Western Bishops Ye know the ancient Sanction and Definition of the Council of Nice was ever in force that as to the Care of the Administration of particular Churches the Clergy in every Province taking their Neighbours if they thought fit should confer Ecclesiastical Dignities upon those they believed would manage them profitably And the Affrican Fathers wrote thus to Pope Celestinus Your Holiness may be pleased to reject the unjust Appeals or Recourses of our Presbyters and the inferior Clerks of our Church as becomes you for this was never denied to the Church of Affrica by any
the mean time these men cannot defend themselves and propagate their own Cause except at the same time they undertake the Patronage of Annas and Caiaphas For what Council will these men ever acknowledge to be vicious and erronious who say that was a lawful and good Council in which the Son of God was most ignominiously condemnâ—d to the Death of the Crossâ— and yet considering what almost all their Councils have been it was necessary for them thus to pronounce of the Council held by Annas and Caiaphas But are they ever like to be the Men which are to reform the Church who are at once the Judges and the Criminals Will they ever lessen their Pride and Ambition Will they depose themselves and give Judgment against themselves that the Bishops shall not be unlearned slow Bellies multiply Benefices carry themselves like Princes nor bear Arms Will the Popes beloved Sons the Abbots decree that that Monk who doth not earn his Bread with the Sweat of his Brows is a Thief or that it is not Lawful for them to live in the City or in a Crowd of Men or of that which belongs to another that a Monk ought to lye upon the bare Ground to live hardly with Herbs and Pease to study hard dispute pray and labour to prepare himself for the Service of the Church It is as reasonable to expect that the Scribes and Pharisees will reform the Temple and of a Den of Thieves will again make it become a House of Prayer 7. THERE were some amongst them who observed that many Errors were crept into the Church Pope Adrian Aeneas Sylvius Cardinal Pool Pighius and othersâ— as we have said After which they had a Council at Trent in the same place where there is one now indicted Many Bishops and Abbots and others who ought to be in a Council met they were alone and there was no body to disturb them whatever they did for they had taken care to exclude all that were for the Reformation and there they sate with a great Expectation six years in the first six months they decreed many things concerning the Holy Trinity the Father Son and Holy Ghost which were pious but no way necessary for those Times and yet of all these clear manifest confessed Errors which had gotten into the Church what one single Error or Corruption have they reformed From what kind of Idolatry have they reclaim'd the People What Superstition have they taken away What part of their Tyranny and Pomp have they abated or diminished as if the World were so blind that it could not see and observe that this is a Conspiracy rather than a Council and that all the Bishops which the Pope have there call'd together are sworn and addicted to his Interest and resolved before hand not to do any thing but what shall please him and encrease his Power and which they see he desireth or that Votes there are not numbred rather than considered and weighed or that the wiser and better part of the Council is not often overborn by the greater but worse part of it And therefore we know perfectly well that many good Men and Catholick Bishops when such Councils were indicted and they saw clearly that Parties and Factions were served by them and that they should lose their Pains and harden the Minds of their Adversaries by their Oppositions without doing the least Good have wisely staid at home and refused to be present in them Athanasius would not come to the Council at Caesarea when he was call'd by the Emperor seeing he should there meet an enraged parcel of Enemies and afterwards when he came to the Council at Syrmium and in his mind foresaw from the Fury and Malice of his Enemies what the Event would be he pack'd up his Carriages and went away immediately St. Chrysostom tho he was call'd four times by Letters from Arcadius the Emperor to an Arrian Council yet staid at home When Maximus Bishop of Jerusalem sate in a Council in Palestine the old Paphnutius took him by the hand and led him out of it and then told him ' t is not lawful for us to consult about these things with wicked men The Bishops of the WEST would not be present at that Council at Syrmium from which Athanasius departed St. Cyril by Letters appealed from the Council of the Patropassians as they were call'd Paulinus Bishop of â—reves and many others would not come to the Council of Milan when they saw the Power and Intrigues of Auxentius for they saw it was to no purpose to go thither where Faction and not Reason would he heard and were Causes would be certainly determined by Affection and Passion and not by Judgment But then all these tho they were to deal with inraged and obstinate Adversaries yet if they had come they should have been freely heard in the Council 8. BUT now no man need wonder when none of us are permitted not only not to sit but not so much as to be seen in their Council so far are we from being freely heard when the Popes Legats and all the Patriarchs Arch-Bishops Bishops and Abbots are in a Conspiracy and united by their common Crimes all sworn in the same Oath only sit and have alone the Power of voting and as if all this were not enough have submitted all their Judgments to the Will and Humour of the Pope alone That he who ought to answer for his own Faults shall give Sentence in his own Cause upon himself when that ancient Christian Liberty which it is absolutely necessary should be very great in Councils is totally taken away I say after all this wise and good Men ought not to wonder if we do now that which they have seen done before in the like case by so many Fathers and Catholick Bishops That is that seeing we cannot be heard in the Council and that the Ambassadors of Princes are had in Contempt and Scorn there and that as if the thing were already determined and agreed we are condemned before we are heard if after all this we had rather sit at home and commit the business to God than to go thither where we shall have no place nor effect any thing But tho we can patiently and quietly bear our own Injuries yet why should they shut Christian and Pious Princes out of their Councils Why do they so rudely and insolently put them out and not suffer them to hear the business of Religion debated or to understand the State of their own Churches as if they were not Christians or could not judge well of it or if these Princes interpose their Authority and do that which they may are commanded and ought to do and which we know David and Solomon and other good Princes have done that is if they restrain the Luxury of the Priests and compel them to do their duty and keep them to it If they pluck down Idols extirpate Superstitions and restore the Worship of
to me by Letters or by Messengers I will discover to man to his Damage I will be a Helper to defend the Papacy of the Church of Rome and the Canons of the Holy Fathers and to retain them against all men Of old when the Priests of Apollo Pythius spoke plainly in favour of Philip King of Macedonia there were some who facetiously said that Apollo began 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Philippize And now we see plainly that nothing is decreed in the Council but by the Will and Consent of the Pope why may we not say that the Oracles of the Councils do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Papize that is speak nothing but what the Pope please Verres of old acted wisely of whom it is reported that being plainly guilty of many Crimes he would not commit his Reputation and Fame to any but confiding men of his own Flock and Party But yet the Pope is many degrees wiser for he will not have any Judges but such as he knows will not determine any thing against his Will because they have the same Interest he hath and esteem all things by the relation they have to their Pleasures and Bellies and yet if they would they could not do otherwise because they are bound to him by an Oath too indeed they place the Bible in the midst of the Council because they would seem not to act any thing against the Prescription thereof and yet they only look upon it at a good distance but never read one word of it in truth they bring with them a prejudicated Sentence and never attend what Christ saith or determine any thing but as it best pleaseth them 24. AND thus is all that Liberty which ought to be in all Consultations and especially in those which concern holy things and which doth best befit the holy Spirit and the Modesty of Christian Men wholly taken away St. Paul saith that if any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his Peace but these men command him to be forthwith taken and hurried to Prison and burnt who shall but mutter any thing to the contrary as the cruel Death of the two holy and stout men John of Hus and Jerome of Prague is an excellent Witness against them which two men they murthered contrary to the publick Faith and were thereby false both to God and Man So the false Prophet Zedechias when he had made himself a pair of iron Horns smote Micaiah the Prophet of the Lord and said hath the Spirit of the Lord left me and come to thee thus having now excluded all others they reign in Councils alone and have the sole Right of Suffrages and so make and divulge such Laws as the Ephesians did of old Let no man said they who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wiser than the rest presume to live here upon pain of Banishment and Transportation for these men will hear none of us About ten years since in the late Council at Trent the Ambassadors of the Princes of Germany and of the free Towns who came thither that they might be heard were excluded out of the Assembly and denied the Liberty of Speech for the Bishops and Abbots said they would suffer no free Debate of the Cause nor would they determine the Controversies by the Word of God and that those of our Side were not to be heard except they would recant which if they refused they were to expect no other terms in the Council but to be condem'd for Julius the III. in his Brief by which he call'd that Council publickly declared that if they did not change their Minds they should be condemned for Hereticks without ever hearing their Cause And Pius the IV. who hath now resolved to call again that Council hath by the prejudice of his own single Judgment commanded all those who have made defection from the Authority of the Church of Rome that is the greatest part of Christendom without ever seeing or hearing them to be taken and reputed Hereticks They are wont to say and that upon all occasions that all things are well and that they will not suffer the least part of their Doctrine and Religion to be altered Albertus Pighius saith that without the Command of the Church of Rome the most plain place of Scripture is not to be believed Now is this their way to restore the Church to her Integrity Is this their seeking Truth Is this the Liberty and Moderation which beâ—its a Council 25. AND altho these things are most unjust and most contrary to the Practice of the ancient Councils and the Usage of modest and good Men in their Deliberations yet it is much more unreasonable that whereas the whole World complains of the Ambition and Tyranny of the Pope of Rome and is perswaded that until he is reduced to a better Order all their Labours for the Reformation of the Church of God will be in vain and nothing will be done yet at last all things are referred to him alone as to the most equal Arbiter and Judge But O good God! to what Man I will not now say any of these things against him that he is an Enemy of the Truth an Ambitious Covetous Proud Man who is already become intolerable to his own But I say that it is the utmost pitch of Folly and Injustice to make him the sole Judge of all Religion who commands all his Dictates to be had in the self same Honour and Esteem as the Words of St. Peter are and saith that in case he should Mislead a thousand Souls and carry them with himself to Hell yet no man ought to reprehend him for it Who saith he can make Injustice to become Justice Whom Camotensis confesseth to have corrupted the Scriptures that he might have a Plenitude of Power And why should I use more words whom his own Companions and Ministers Joachimus Abbas Petrarcha Marsilius Patavinus Laurentius Valla and Hieronymus Savanarola have not obscurly hinted to be the Antichrist To the Judgment and Will I say of this one Man are all things submitted that this very Criminal may be both the Party accused and the Judge of his own very Case that this guilty man may sit aloft upon a Throne and his Accusers stand beneath whilst he gives Sentence for himself for Pope Julius had given us these just and reasonable Laws There is saith he no Council which is valid nor ever shall be unless supported by the Authority of the Church of Rome And Bonifacius the VIII saith that every Creature ought to be subject to the Church of Rome and that as they tender their Salvation And Pope Pascal useth this Expression as if any Councils had given Laws to the Church of Rome when in truth all the Councils have been held and received their Force from the Authority of the Church of Rome and in all their Statutes the Authority of the Pope of Rome is plainly and apparently excepted And another saith
our Forefathers who first imbraced and professed the Name of Christ that they conspired amongst themselves against the Government and for that purpose met very early whilst it was yet dark that they murthered Male-Infants gorged themselves with Mans Flesh and in a barbarous manner drank humane Blood and at last putting out the Candles perpetrated Incests and Adulteries and that Brothers lay with their Sisters and Sons with their Mothers without any reverence to their Bloods and Families without Difference or Modesty that they were impious destitute of all Religion Atheists the Enemies of all Mankind and unworthy of the Light or Life 3. THESE things were spoken against the Jews the People of God against Christ Jesus against St. Paul St. Stephen and against all those who in the first Ages imbraced the truth of the Gospel and were called Christians a Name then hated by the Many And although none of these things were true yet the Devil thought it sufficient to his Purpose if they were believed true that so the Christians might incur the publick Hatred and be pursued by all to Ruine and Destruction And thus Kings and Princes being deceived slew all the Prophets of God to a Man they condem'd Isaiah to the Saw Jeremia to be ston'd Daniel to the Lions Amos to the Iron Bar Paul to the Sword and Christ to the Cross and all Christians to Prisons to Racks to Crosses to Rocks and Precipices to wild Beasts and Fires and burnt whole Piles of their living Bodies for nocturnal Lights and by way of Sport and Recreation and never esteem'd them better than the most vile Filth of the Earth the Off-scourings and Scorn of the World thus the first Authors and Professors of the Truth were ever treated 4. WHEREFORE all we who have now undertaken the Profession of the Gospel of Jesus Christ ought to bear it with the less disturbance of Mind if in the same Cause we are treated after the same manner and as heretofore our Fathers so we in this Age are persecuted also with Reproaches Slanders and Lyes only because we teach and profess the Truth 5. THEY roar out in all Places that we are Hereticks that we have forsaken the true Faith and broken the Union of the Church with new Opinions and impious Doctrines 2. That we fetch from Hell and revive the old and long since condemn'd Heresies and sow the Seeds of new Sects and unheard of Broils that we are already divided into contrary Factions and Opinions and we could never yet in any manner agree amongst our selves 3. That we are wicked men and like the Gyants of old have entered into a Rebellion against God himself and live without the least regard to the Deity and without any religious Worship 4. That we despise all good Actions that we do not use any virtuous Discipline that we regard neither Laws nor good Manners nor Right nor Justice nor Equity nor Order that we let loose the Rein and suffer all sorts of Villanies and even provoke the People to all the Licentiousness and Luxury that is possible 5. That our Business and great Design is the subverting Monarchies and Kingdoms that all States may be reduced under the Dominion of the ignorant Multitude and the indiscreet Populace 6. That we have made a tumultuous Defection from the Catholick Church and have shaken the Peace of the World and disturbed the Quiet of the Church by a detestable Schism and that as heretofore Dathan and Abiram rose up against Moses and Aaron so we without any just cause have revolted from the Pope of Rome 7. That we despise the Authority of the Primitive Fathers and antient Councils That we have imprudently and insolently abrogated the antient Ceremonies which have been approved for many Ages by our Fathers and Grandfathers who had better Manners and lived in better Times and that by our own private Authority without the Consent of a Holy and General Council we have introduced new Rites into the Church and that we have not done this for the Sake of Religion but purely out of a contentious Humour that they on the contrary have changed nothing but have retained all things as they were delivered to them by the Apostles approved by the most antient Fathers and have been kept ever since through all the intermediate Ages to this day 6. AND least all this might seem to be only a Calumny and that managed by secret Whispers only with design to excite an Envy against us the Popes of Rome have suborned eloquent and not unlearned Men to undertake the Defence of this desperate Cause and to represent it to the World in Books and long Discourses in the best Colours it was possible to give it to the intent that being elegantly and copiously pleaded unskilful men might suspect there was something more than ordinary in it for indeed they saw that their Cause was every where in a declining Condition their Arts were now seen through and so were the less esteemed their Fortresses were every day undermin'd and their Case stood in need of a powerful Patronage and Defence But then as to those things which they have charged us with some of them are manifestly false and condemn'd by the Consciences of them that object them against us others though in the bottom they are false too yet they have the shew and similitude of truth so that an incautious and unthinking Reader may especially if he be surprised by any of their laboured and elegant Discourses be easily circumvented and deceived and others of the things thus charged upon us are such as we ought to acknowledge and profess and not decline the owning them as if they were Crimes but defend them as things that were well and rationally done For to speak in a word they slander whatever we do even those Actions of ours which themselves cannot deny to be rightly and well done and malitiously deprave and pervert all our Words and Actions as if it were not possible We should do or speak any thing as we ought They ought indeed to treat us with more Simplicity and Candor if they designed truth but on the other hand they do not oppose us with truth nor in a Christan Way or Manner but with Lyes in a close and crafty way and abuse the blindness and ignorance of the Rabble and the want of Learning in Princes to the inflaming their Hatred against us and the Oppression of the Truth This is indeed the Power of Darkness and the Folly of Men who trust more in the Stupidity and benighted Minds of the unpolished Multitude than in the Light of Truth or as St. Jerom expresseth it This is to contradict with shut Eyes the Truth when it is most perspicuous But we bless the great and Holy God our Cause is such that though they never so much desire to defame it yet they can fix no Reproach upon it which they may not with as much Reason and Justice imploy against the
number of Intercessors without any Authority of the Word of God so that as Jeremiah saith According to the number of thy Cities so are thy Gods so that miserable men know not which to apply themselves to and tho they are innumerable yet they have ascribed to each of them their Office and what was to be obtained had and received from each of them but also because they have not only impiously but impudently solicited the Virgin Mary that she would remember she is a Mother that she would be pleased to command her Son and that she would make use of the Authority she hath over him 21. WE say that Man is born and does live in Sin and that no man can truly say his Heart is clean that the most holy Man is an unprofitable Servant that the Law of God is perfect and requires of us a full and perfect Obedience and that we cannot in any way keep it perfectly in this Life and that there is no Mortal who can be justified in the sight of God by his own Deserts and therefore our only Refuge and Safety is in the Mercy of God the Father by Jesus Christ and in the assuring our selves that he is the Propitiation for our Sins by whose Blood all our Stains are washed out that he has pacified things by the Blood of his Cross that He by that only Sacrifice which he once offered upon the Cross hath perfected all things and therefore when he breathed out his Soul said IT IS FINISHED as if by these words he would signifie now the Price is paid for the Sins of Mankind 22. NOW if there be any who think not that this Sacrifice is sufficient let them go and find out a better but as as for us because we know this is the only Sacrifice we are contented with it alone nor do we expect any other and because it was only once to be offered we do not injoyn the Repetition of it and because it was full and in all its Numbers and Parts perfect we do not substitute to it the perpetual Successions of our own Sacrifices 23. THO we say there is no trust to be put in the Merits of our Works and Actions and place all the Hopes and Reason of our Salvation only in Christ yet we do not therefore say that men should live loosely and dissolutely as if Baptism and Faith were sufficient for a Christian and there were nothing more required the true Faith is a living Faith and cannot be idle therefore we teach the People that God hath not call'd us to Luxury and Disorder but as St. Paul saith Unto good Works that we might walk in them That God hath delivered us from the Power of Darkness that we might serve the living God that we should root up all the Reliques of sin that we should work out our Salvation with fear and trembling that it might appear that the Spirit of Sanctification was in us and that Christ himself dwelleth in our Hearts by Faith 24. To conclude We believe that this Body of ours in which we live tho after Death it turns to Dust yet in the last day it shall return to Life again by the Spirit of Christ that dwelleth in us and that then whatever we suffer for Christ in the interim he will wipe away all Tears from our Eyes and that then through him we shall enjoy everlasting Life and be always with him in Glory AMEN CHAP. III. Containing a plain Demonstration of the Causes why and whence Heresies arose in the Church with Instances of all sorts in all Times THESE are the horrible Heresies for which a considerable part of the World at this day are condemn'd by the Pope unheard it had been better to have entered a Contest with Christ the Apostles and holy Fathers for they it was who did not only give a beginning to these Doctrines but commanded them unless they of the Church of Rome will say as perhaps they will that Christ did not institute the Holy Communion that it might be distributed amongst the Faithful or that the Apostles of Jesus Christ or the ancient Fathers said private Masses in all the corners of their Churches sometimes ten and at other twenty in one day or that Christ-and the Apostles deprived the People of the Cup or that That which they now do and that with that eagerness that whoever will not comply with them in it is by them condemn'd for an Heretick is not call'd Sacriledge by one of their own Popes Gelasius or that those are not the Words of Ambrosius Augustinus Gelasius Theodoret Chrisostom and Origen That the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament remain what they were before that that which is seen on the Holy Table is Bread that the Substance of the Bread doth not cease to be nor the nature of the Wine that the Substance and Nature of the Bread is not changed that this very Bread as to what concerns the Matter of it goes down into the Belly and is cast out by the Draught or that Christ and his Apostles and the Fathers did not pray in that Tongue which was understood by the People or that Christ by that one Oblation which he once offered hath not perfected the Work of our Redemption or that this Sacrifice was so imperfect that we need another Either they must say all these things or else they must aver which perhaps they had rather say that all Right and Justice is inclosed in the Cabinet of the Popes Breast and as one of his Followers and Flatterers once said that he may dispense against the Apostles against the Councils and against the Apostolical Canons and that he is not bound by those Examples Institutions and Laws of Christ 2. THUS we have been taught by Christ by the Apostles and Holy Fathers and we do faithfully teach the People of God the same things and for so doing we are called Hereticks by the great Leader and Prince of Religion O immortal God! What have Christ and his Apostles and so many Fathers all erred What are Origen Ambrose Augustin Chrysostom Gelasius and Theodoret Apostates from the Catholick Faith Was the Consent of so many Bishops and Learned men nothing but a Conspiracy of Hereticks or that which was commendable in them is it now blameable in us And that which was Catholick in them is it by a Change in the Wills of Men become schismatical in us Or that which was once true is it now because it displeaseth them become false Let them then produce a new Gospel or at least set forth their Reasons why those things which were so long publickly observed and approved in the Church ought now at last to be recall'd We know that the Word which was reveal'd by Christ and propagated by the Apostles is sufficient to promote our Salvation and all Truth and to convince all Heresies Out of it alone we condemn all sorts of ancient Heresies which they
future by which it might be proved he was of another Nation So these men pretending that all their Innovations were consigned to them by Christ and his Apostles and desiring they should be accordingly esteemed lest there should be any thing any where extant which might contradict these Dreams and Shams either burn or suppress the Scriptures and keep them from the People St. Chrysostom has written very well and appositely against such men as these Hereticks saith he shut the Gates of Truth for they know if they be kept open the Church will never be thought theris And Theophylact stiles the Word of God a Candle by the Light of which a Thief may be discovered And Tertullian saith the Scriptures convict the Frauds and Thefts of Hereticks For why else do they hide and suppress the Gospel which Christ commanded his Disciples to publish from the House top Why else do they indeavour to put that Candle under a Bushel which ought to be set in a Candlestick Why do they trust more to the Ignorance Blindness and Folly of the Multitude than to the Goodness of their Cause Do they think their Arts are not disclosed or that as if they had Gyges his Ring they can go undiscovered The World sees now with both Eyes what is so carefully locked up in the Cabinet of the Popes Breast this one Argument is sufficient to prove they do not act well and sincerely that Cause deserves to be suspected which declines a Scrutiny and hates the Light for as Christ saith he that doth Evil seeks Darkness and hates the Light but a mind conscious of what is good willingly comes forth that the Works which come from God may be seen but these Gentlemen are not so blind but they see what will become of their Kingdom if the Scriptures come once to be generally known and as it is said of old all the Idols of the Demons which before gave Oracles suddenly became dumb upon the appearance of Christ upon Earth so now will all their Arts at the approach of the Gospel sink down into Ruins and Rubbish for Antichrist is not to be deposed by any other thing than the Brightness of the coming of Christ 29. WE do not like them presently betake our selves to Fire and Sword but to the Scriptures nor do we assault them with force and Arms but with the Word of God By them as Tertullian saith we nourish our Faith by them we erect our Hope by them we establish our Confidence for we know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Power of God unto Salvation and that in it there is eternal life and as St. Paul admonisheth us we would refuse to hear an Angel of God that came from Heaven if he endeavoured to turn us away from any part of this Doctrine Yea as that most holy man Juastin Martyr said of himself we would not believe God himself if he should teach us another Gospel for whereas they make the Holy Scriptures like silent Masses dumb and useless and appeal rather to God himself speaking in the Church and in Councilâ— that is to their own better Senses and Opiâ—nions that is a very uncertain and dangerouâ— way of finding out Truth and in a sort Phaâ—natical and which was never approved bâ— the Holy Fathers St. Chrysostom saith indeedâ— that many boast of the Holy Spirit but if theâ— they speak what is their own they glory falsly 〈◊〉 what they have not for saith he as Christ denied that he spake from himself when he spake out of the Law and the Prophets so now if anâ—â—thing besides the Gospel is obtruded upon us undeâ— the Name of the Holy Ghost it is not to be believâ—ed for as Christ is the Completion of the Laâ— and the Prophets so the Spirit is the Completion 〈◊〉 the Gospel CHAP. V. Concerning the Answers and Objections out of the Fathers and Councils BUT though they have not the Scriptures on their side perhaps they will pretend they have the ancient Doctors and the Holy Fathers for that they have ever boasted that all Antiquity and the perpetual Consent of all times is for them and that all our Pretences are Novel and were never heard of till within the course of a very few years last past 2. NOW certainly there can nothing of more weight be said against Religion then that it is new We know not how this has come to pass but from the beginning of the World thus it hath ever been for whensoever God hath discovered and restored to Mankind the light of his Truth tho it is not only of the utmost Antiquity but older than time it self and eternal yet it ever seems to wicked men who hate it to be new and of no Antiquity That impious and bloody man Haman that he might bring the Jews into disfavour thus accused them to Assâ—erus Thou O King hast here in thy Dominions a certain People scattered abroad which observeth new Laws but is stubborn and rebellious against thy Laws St. Paul also when he began first to preach the Gospel to the Athenians was said to be a Setter forth of strange Gods that is of a new Religion and accordingly thus they bespeak him May we know what this new Doctrine whereof thou speakest is And Celsus when he wrote expresly against Christ and his Gospel that he might expose it to the scorn of men under the pretence of its Novelty writes thus What saith he has God after so many Ages now at last bethought himself Eusebius also is our Author that from the beginning the Christian Religion was in derision stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the new and strange Religion and so our Adversaries condemn all our Doctrines as new and strange but then they desire that all their own without exception should be reputed most ancient just as the Magicians and Conjurers whose business is with the infernal Spirits that their abominable Art may be thought the more sublime and divine as being derived from great Patrons and Inventors and of a very ancient Original do commonly say that they have their Books and all their Rites and secret Mysteries from Athanasius Cyprian Moses Abel and Adam and from the Arch-Angel Raphael So our Enemies that their Religion too which they have not long since patch'd up for themselves may with the more â—ase be recommended to ignorant men and those that rarely consider what themselves or others do pretend that it came down to them just such as now it is from St. Augustin St. Hierom St. Chrysostom and St. Ambrose from the Apostles and Christ for they very well know that there is nothing more popular and of greater esteem with men than those venerable Names But now what if those things they pretend are so new do indeed prove to be most ancient and what if on the other side almost all those things which they extol so very much upon the pretence of Antiquity when they are well and
God to its ancient Purity Why do they presently make an Out-cry that these Princes disturb all things break in upon other Mens Offices and do act ill things and immodestly What Scripture I pray hath excluded Christian Princes from hearing these Causes Who besides these Men ever decreed any such Laws But they will reply that Civil Princes have learned to govern their States and to manage Arms but they understand nothing of the Mysteries of Religion And now what is the Pope at this day but a Monarch or Prince and what are the Cardinals who are now scarcely suffered to be any other but the Children of Kings and Princes What are the Patriarchs and for the most part the Arch-bishops Bishops and Abbots others than Princes Dukes and Earls in the Papal Kingdom and accordingly whithersoever they go they aâ—â— attended with a great Retinue and adorned with Chains and Collers of Gold and otâ—â—â— Ensignes of Honour And they have sometimes also a peculiar Habit belonging to them as Crosses Pillars Hats Myters and Palls which Pomp the ancient Bishops St. Chrysostom St. Ambrose and St. Augustin were not acquainted with but then excepting these outward Ornaments what do they teach what do they speak what do they do and what do they Live so as becomes I will not say a Bishop but a common Christian Is it then of so mighty a Consequence to go under this or that Title and by changing nothing but a Mans Cloaths to be called a Bishop 9. CERTAINLY it is a proud injurious and unjust thing and not to be born by Christian and Prudent Princes to permit the summ of all that concerns Religion to be managed by such Men as these alone who know nothing of the Mysteries of Religion nor care to know any thing more than what belongs to their Bellies and Kitchins and do not value any thing of Religion as worth aâ—rush who are no better than blind men placed in a Watch-tower and that in the interim a Christan and a Catholick Prince should stand like a trunk or a stock and without vote and without giving his judgment only observe what they are pleased to command and impose upon him and as if he had neither Ears nor Eyes nor Mind nor Heart of his own to receive without Exception and with a blind-fold submission do whatever they are pleased to command him altho they are Blasphemous and wicked things yea altho they should command him to extinguish all Religion and to crucisie his Saviour For why Can Caiphas and Annas judge well of Matters of Religion and cannot David and Ezechias Is it lawful for a Cardinal a Martial and a bloody Man to sit in a Council and is it unlawful for an Emperour and a Christian Prince For we attribute nothing more to our Princes than what is allowed them by the Word of God and approved by the Examples of the best Governments For besides that the care of both Tables is committed by God to a Faithful Prince that he may thereby understand that not only the Civil but the Ecclesiastical Polity belongs to him and his Office And besides all this God hath often expresly commanded Princes to cut down the Groves and overthrow the Statues and Altars of Idols to transcribe for himself a Book of the Law and Isaiah saith that Kings should be nursing Fathers to the Church and their Queens her nursing Mothers Besides all these things I say we see by Histories and the Examples of the best times that Pious Princes did never think the Administration of Ecclesiastical Affairs a thing that was foreign to their Duty 10. MOS ES who was the Civil Magistrate and Leader of the People received from GOD the whole Body of their Religion and the Order of their Sacred Rites and delivered them to the People and severely and sharply chastised Aaron their Bishop for making the Golden Calf and violating the Religion by Law established And Ioshua tho he were no other than a Civil Magistrate yet when he was first inaugurated and set over the People he received express Commands concerning Religion and the Worship of God David the King when their Religion had been miserably disordered by Saul a wicked King brought back the Ark of God that is restored Religion And he was not only present as an Admonisher or Perswader of the Work but he published Psalms and Hymns disposed the Priests and Levites into Classes and Orders and in a sort governed the Priests as a Priest Salomon the King built a Temple to the Lord which his Father David had only designed in his thoughts and after made an excellent Oration to the People concerning Religion and the Worship of God And after this he removed Abiathar the High Priest and substituted Sadoc in his place And when after this the Temple was wretchedly ruined by the Vice and Negligence of the Priests Ezechias the King commanded it to be cleansed of its Rubbish and Dirt the Lamps to be lighted Incense to be offered and the Sacred Rites to be performed according to the ancient Order And caused the Brazen Serpent that was then irreligiously worshipped by the People to be taken away and reduced to Dust Iosaphat the King overthrew and took away all the High Places and destroyed the Groves by which he perceived the Worship of God was hindered and the People by a Private Superstition diverted from attending the Service of God in the publick and common Temple to which they were bound to go three times in the Year out of all Parts of his Kingdom Iosias another King diligently admonished the Priests and Bishops of their duty Jods the King repressed the Luxury and Iâ—â—olence of the Priests Jehu slew the wicked false Propliets And that I may trouble the Reader with no more Examples out of the Scriptures and rather pass to see and consider how the Church has been governed since the Birth of Christ and the Publishing of the Gospel Heretofore Christian Emperors called Councils of the Bishops Constantinus called the Nicene Council Theodosius the First the Constantinâ— stantinopolitan Theodosius the Second the Ephesian Martianus the Chalcedonian and when Ruffinus had alledged a Synod as making for him his Adversary St. Jerome that he might confute him replyed Tell us what Emperor commanded it to be assembled And he also in his Funeral Oration for Paula a Roman Lady cites the Letters of the Emperors who had commanded the Greek and Roman Bishops to meet at Rome for the holding of a Council 11. IT is most certain that for Five hundred Years the Emperor alone took care of calling all the General Councils and Sacred Meetings and therefore we do now the more admire the unreasonableness of the Bishop of Rome who tho he knows that during the subsistence of the Roman Empire in its Greatness this was the sole right of the Emperor and that now Kings have succeeded to part of the Caesarean or Imperial Majesty this
Right is devolved to all Princes in common yet has so unjustly usurpt it to himself alone and thinks it sufficient to communicate his design of holding a Council to the Greatest Prince in Christendom as to his Servant But if the Modesty of Ferdinand the Emperor be so great perhaps because he doth not thorowly understand the Papal Arts that he can digest this Injury yet the Pope who pretends to so much Sanctity ought not to have offered him this Affront and thus to have arrogated to himself another Mans Right 12. BUT some of his Party may reply that the Emperor then called the Councils because the Bishop of Rome was not then arrived to that height of Greatness and yet he did not even then sit with the Bishops or at all interpose his Authority in their Deliberations and Consultations Yes as Theodoret acquaints us Constantine the Emperor did not only sit with the Bishops but admonished them to determine the Controversie then depending out of the Prophetick and Apostolical Writings In this Disputation said the Emperor concerning Divine things there is set before us which we ought to follow the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost for the Books of the Evangelists and Apostles and the Oracles of the Prophets do sufficiently shew us what we ought to think of the Will of God Theodosius another Emperor not only sat amongst the Bishops as Socrates saith but also was Moderator of the Dispute and rent the Papers of the Hereticks and approved the Sentiments and Doctrine of the Catholicks And in the Council of Chalcedon the Civil Magistrate who under the Emperor governed that Council condemn'd three Bishops Dioscorus Juvenalis and Thalassius by his Sentence for Hereticks and gave judgment that they should be deposed from that degree In the Third the Constantinopolitan Council the Civil Magistrate not only sate with the Bishops but also subscribed the Canons with them We have read said he and subscribed them In the Second Council of Orange the Ambassadors of the Princes being Noble-men themselves sate and not only voted concerning Matters of Religion but also subscribed amongst the Bishops for thus it is written in the end of that Council Petrus Marcellinus and Felix Liberius two Noble and Illustrions Praefecti Praetorio of Gaul and Patricians have consented and subscribed Syragrius Opilio Pantagathus Deodatus Cariatho and Marcellus honourable Men and Magistrates have subscribed But if the Praefecti Praetorio and Patricians or Noble-men could then subscribe the Councils may not Emperors and Kings do it now There were no need to prosecute so plain and apparent a point as this is but that we have to do with a parcel of Men who use to deny the clearest things oven those things which lye plain and open before their Eyes out of a contentious Disposition and a desire of Victory The Emperour Justinianus made a Law for the correcting the Manner and curbing the Insolence of the Clergy and altho he was a most Christian and Catholick Emperor yet he deposed Sylverius and Vigilius two Popes Successors of St. Peter and Vicars of Jesus Christ as they are now called 13. AND now seeing that Princes have imployed their Authority upon Bishops received commands from God concerning Religion brought back the Ark of God composed Sacred Hymns and Psalms governed the Priests made publick Discourses concerning the Worship of God purged the Temple demolished High Places burnt Idolatrous Groves and have admonished the Priests concerning their Office and given them Laws of Living have slain wicked Prophets deposed Bishops called Councils of Bishops and sate with them and taught them what they should do have punished Heretical Bishops have taken cognizance of Religion subscribed Councils and given Sentence in them and done all this not by the command of another but in their own Names and that rightly and piously shall we say after all this that the care of Religion belongs not to them Or that a Christian Prince who is pleased to concern himself in these things acts ill immodestly and wickedly In all these Affairs the most Ancient and most Christian Kings and Emperors have intermeddled and yet were never accused of Impiety or Immodesty for so doing and will any pretend to find either more Catholick Princes or more Illustrious Examples 14. BUT now if they might do all these things tho they were only Civil Princes and governed their several States Wherein have our Princes offended who tho they are in the same Authority may it seems not do the same things Or wherein consists the wonderful force of their Learning Wisdom and Holiness that contrary to the Custom of all the Ancient and Catholick Bishops who have heretofore deliberated with Princes concerning Religion they should now reject and exclude Christian Princes from the cognizance of the Cause now depending and from all Participation and Congress with them in their Councils But yet it cannot be denied they have taken a prudent care for themselves and the upholding their Kingdom which they foresaw otherwise would soon have perished For if they who are placed by God in the highest Station had once seen and understood these Mens Arts that the Commands of Christ are contemned by them that the light of the Gospel is obscured and extinguished by them that they play tricks with and delude them and shut up against them the entrance into the Kingdom of God They would never so patiently have suffered themselves to be so proudly despised and injuriously scorned and abused But now on the other hand they have rendred all Princes obnoxious and subject to them by their blindness and Ignorance 15. WE as I said before have done nothing in the changing of Religion either insolently or rashly nothing but with great deliberation and slowly Nor had we ever thought of doing it except the Will of God undoubtedly and manifestly opened to us in the most Sacred Scriptures and the necessity of our Salvation had compelled us so to do for altho we have departed from that Church which they call the Catholick Church and thereupon they have kindled a great envy against us in them who cannot well judge of us yet it is enough for us and ought to be so to any prudent and pious man who considers seriously of his Salvation that we have only departed from that Church which may enr which Christ who cannot err so long since foretold should err and which we see clearly with our Eyes has departed from the Holy Fathers the Apostles Christ himself and the Primitive and Catholick Church And we have approached as much as possibly we could to the Church of the Apostles and ancient Catholick Bishops and Fathers which we know was yet a Perfect and as Tertullian saith an unspotted Virgin and not contaminated with any Idolatry or great and publick Error Neither have we only reformed the Doctrine of our Church and made it like theirs in all things but we have also brought the Celebration of ☞ the Sacraments and the
whatever the Pope approves or disapproves we ought also to approve or disapprove and what the Pope allows no other man may disallow And another Flatterer who has lost all Modesty saith that altho the whole World should contradict the Opinion of the Pope in any thing yet it seems but reasonable to stand to the Iudgment of the Pope And another no less impudently saith it would be a sort of Sacriledge to dispute concerning an Action of the Pope who tho he is not a good man is yet ever presumed to be such And another more impudently The Pope saith he hath a Heavenly Will and therefore in those things which he wills his Will is instead of a Reason to him nor is there any man who may say to him why dost then act thus And that I may pass by many other things which might be alledged here because they are without number and at length come to a Conclusion Pope Innocentius the IX more impudently than any other useth these words This Judge the Pope may neither be judged by the Emperor nor by Kings nor by the while Chrgy nor yet by all the people O immortal God! how little is wanting of the Pride of Luciser I will ascend above the North and I will be like the most highest If all these things are true and the Popes have not belyed the World what need is there of a Council or if they will hold a sincere and free Council let all these things be condemn'd as dishonest and insolent Lyes and let them not only be laid aside as to the court and use of them but be razed out of all Books that the sum of Affairs may never more be left to the Will and Lust of one man and he too for many most just causes suspected But now on the contrary the Popes say they cannot err and that the Word of God is to be regulated according to their Prescription and besides all this before they enter upon their Papal Dignity they take an Oath that they will maintain the Faith of many late Councils in which all things are most fearfully depraved and they promise most religiously that they will not change any thing and therefore what wonder is it that no good is done by Councils that Errors and Abuses are not taken away that the Ambassadors of Princes are to no purpose call'd together from such distant places out of all Lands and yet I hear that there are some good men at this time who not well considering what they say tho they condemn the Pride of the Pope and his Persian State and Magnificence and his Epicurean Contempt of all Religion yet they would preserve for all that his Authority safe and intire and tho sometimes they confess him to be Antichrist yet for all that as soon as he ascends that Chair they do not question but he is the universal Bishop and the Head of the universal Church of Christ and here they please themselves as if the Holy Ghost were necessarily fixed to the Pope Court in the Adrian Mole but there is a Proverb that the Place doth not sanctifie the Man but the Man the Place And St. Jerome as he is cited by them saith they are not the Children of the Saints who hold their Places but those who imitate their good Actions for otherwise as Christ said the Scribes and Pharisees sate in Moses his Chair and he commanded his Disciples to acknowledge and submit to their Authority so far as they answered out of the Word of God What saith St. Augustin hath Christ said more here than that the Voice of the Shepherd was heard out of the Mouth of a mercenary Servant for sitting in that Chair they teach the Law of God therefore God teacheth by them but if they will teach their own things do not hear them do not do them for St. Paul saith Antichrist the Man of Sin shall sit in the Holy Place and therefore St. Jerome doth well admonish us thou dost attend St. Peter but then consider Judas thou submitest to Stephen but cast an Eye towards Nicholas as the same time Church Dignity doth not make a Christian Thus St. Jerome and certainly it is said that Marcellinus the Pope did sacrifice to Idols Pope Liberius was an Arrian Pope John the XXII was a Heretick in the point of the immortality of the Soul Pope John the VIII was a Woman and in her Popedom by a lewd Lust committed Adultery and in a Procession in the midst of the Pomp before the Eyes of the Bishops and Cardinals she brought forth a Child and Liranus saith that many Roman Popes apostized from the Faith of Christ and therefore we must not trust too much to Places Successions and vain Titles of Dignity The impious Nero was descended from Metellus the Pious and Annas and Caiaphas succeeded to Aaron and an Idol hath often been put in the place of God 26. BUT Sir I beseech you what is that vast Power and Authority that they so very insolently boast of Or from whence had they it from Heaven or from Men Christ say they said to Peter upon this Rock will I build my Church in these words the Papal Power is confirm'd for the Church of Christ is placed upon Peter as upon its Foundation but Christ in these words gave nothing to St. Peter apart from the rest of the Apostles neither did he here make any mention of the Pope or City of Rome Christ is that Rock Christ is that Foundation No man saith St. Paul can lay another Foundation than that which is already laid which is Jesus Christ 27. And St. Augustin upon this Rock saith he I will build my Church by the Words upon this Rock saith he is understood the Confession made by Peter saying thou art Christ the Son of the living God for saith he it is not said thou art a Rock but thou art Peter but the Rock was Christ And St. Basil upon these words upon this Rock that is saith he upon this Faith I will build my Church And the most ancient Father Origen the Rock saith he is every Disciple of Christ after he hath drunk of the Spiritual Rock which follows and upon every such Rock is all the Churches Doctrine built Now Sir if you will suppose that the whole Church is built only upon Peter what will you say of John the Son of Thunder and all the rest of the Apostles Or shall we dare to say that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against Peter only but against the rest of the Apostles and Heads of the Church those Gates may prevail or rather is that Saying that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail to be understood of all and every one of them of whom it was spoken and so is that other Expression to be taken too upon this Rock will I build my Church And are the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven given only to Peter by Christ or was no other of the blessed Apostles to
receive them But if that Expression to thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven be to be understood as spoken to all the rest as well as to Peter why then should not all that was spoken as well what went before as what follows after tho spoken to St. Peter yet be common to all the Apostles There is saith Hillary one happy Rock of Faith which Peter confessed with his Mouth and again upon this Confession of Peter's is the Church built and not much after this Faith is the Foundation of the Church And after the same manner the other Fathers also Jerome Cyril and Bede say the Church is built not upon Peter but upon the Faith of Peter that is on Jesus Christ the Son of God whom Peter by an Heavenly instinct confessed Peter saith St. Augustin was so call'd from the Rock not the Rock from Peter nor did Christ say I will build my self upon thee but I will build thee upon me And Nicholas Liranus tho he is not always a good Author for you know in what Age he lived yet he rightly took this upon this Rock saith he that is upon Christ and therefore the Church cannot depend upon any man by reason of his Dignity and Ecclesiastical Power for many Popes have proved Apostates 28. IN what then is this Papal Authority placed In Teaching but they teach nothing in administring the Sacraments but they do not administer them in feeding but they feed none Now this is all the Power which Christ bestowed upon the Apostles Go ye said he into all the World and preach the Gospel c. hence forward ye shall be Fishers of Men and as the living Father sent me so I send you But as to these whither go they what do they teach what do they preach what do they fish for from whence go they or by whom are they sent their 's is nor Apostolick Authority but Pride and an intolerable Lordship usurped by Force and Tyranny None of us saith Cyprian calls himself Bishop of Bishops or compells his Partners to a necessitated Obedience by a Tyrannical Terror Seeing every Bishop may use his Liberty and Power according to his own Discretion as he cannot be judged by another so neither can he judge another And as the other Apostles saith he were the same which Peter was so all Bishops are endowed with this equal Partnership both of Honour and Power And St. Jerome saith greater is the Authority of the World than that of any City Why then do you produce to me the Custom of one City Why do you vindicate that Paucity from which this Pride arose against the Laws of the Church Where-ever a Bishop is setled whether at Rome or Eugubium whether at Constantinople or Rhegium he is of the same Worth and of the self same Priesthood the greatness of Riches and the Humility of Poverty makes not one Bishop superior or inferior to another And St. Gregory saith Peter was a principal Member in the Body John Andrew and James were the Heads of particular People and yet all of them are Members of the Church in one Head yea the Saints before the Law those under the Law and those under Grace and all those who make up the Body of our Lord the Church are to be accounted Members and no man ever yet desired to be call'd an UNIVERSAL 29. THIS is that Power which some men defend so stoutly in this Age so that whatever they think of the Popes Life or Religion yet they would have this Authority Sacred and untouched as if the Church of God could not be safe without it or as if without the Popes Will and Consent a Council could be no Council and that if the whole World should think contrary to what he doth it would be nothing And therefore when you see Sir that these things are thus ill managed you ought not to wonder that when nothing is now sincerely and truly acted in Councils our Men had rather stay at home than travail so far to no purpose to a Place where they are sure to lose their Labour and their Cause too 30. BUT Sir you say in the next place it is a Sin to change any thing in Religion without the Consent of the Pope and a Council Why Sir the very Popes themselves have changed almost the whole State of the Primitive Church without any Council and tho this is indeed a very specious and winning Proposition yet it is made a Cover and Defence for most foul Errors for they only seek to delay the Minds of Men with a tedious Expectation that by lingring and weariness they may take off their Edge and Keenness and so by degrees make them cast off all Hopes of a Reformation For what would they have the People of God be deceived err be deluded and involved in Error and in the Ignorance of God and be led into eternal Ruine and Destruction whilst the Pope calls a Council and the Abbots and Bishops meet debate settle things and then return home Is it not lawful for any of us to believe in Christ to prosess the Gospel to worship God rightly and truly to fly from Superstitions and Worship of Idols except these men please to give us leave In truth the state of the Church of God were very deplorable if in the midst of so many far spread gross blind foul apparent and manifest Errors so that our very Enemies themselves cannot deny them nothing could be done for her Relief without the Concourse of the whole World and a General Council or at least of such a Council as we cannot hope for with any certainty and the event of which if we now had it is much more uncertain When of old the Persians invaded Greece and began to destroy all before them and the Lacedemonians whose valour was then much famed amongst the Grecians and therefore it was but reasonable they should have been the first in the defence of their Country yet because they had an ancient Custom and a Superstitious conceit that had possessed them from the time of Lycurgus that it was ominous and unfortunate to begin a Martial Expedition at any other time than that of the full Moon therefore they sat still and suffered their Enemies to plunder and burn their Country whilst they were foolishly expecting that period of the Moon which was most opportune and fitting to begin their defence in But at last they bethought themselves and cried There is equal danger in the delay The safety of the Church is in danger the Devil like a ramping and a roaring Lyon goes about seeking whom he may devour simple men are easily drawn into the snare and tho they are very often touched with a Zeal for God yet out of Ignorance and Misperswasion they persecute the Son of God And as Nazianzen saith When they think they are in Arms for Christ they do really fight against him And the Bishops who ought in the first place to
Christ alone and do properly and only belong to him nor was there ever any Bishop of Rome who would suffer so insolent and proud a Title to be given him before the Times of Phocas the Emperor who as we very well know aspired to the Empire by a most detestable Villany the Murther of Mauritius the former Emperor his Soveraign that is till the year of Christ 613. That the Council of Carthage expressly decreed that no Bishop should be called the highest Pâ—ntiff or chief Priest But the Bishop of Rome because he now desires to be so call'd and usurps a Power which belongs not to him besides that he acts directly against the ancient Councils and the Fathers if he dares believe St. Gregory one of his own Predecessors he has taken upon him an arrogant prophane sacrilegious antichristian Title and is therefore the King of Pride Lucifer one that sets himself above his Brethren who has denied the Faith and is thereby become the fore-runner of Antichrist 7. WE say that a Minister ought to have a lawful Call and be duly and orderly preferred in the Church of God and that no Man ought at his own Will and Pleasure to intrude into the sacred Ministry So that a very great Injury is done us by them who so frequently affirm that nothing is done decently and in order with us but all things are managed confusedly and disorderly and that with us all that will are Priests Teachers and Interpreters 8. WE say that Christ has given to his Ministers the Power of Binding and Loosing of Opening and Shutting And we say that the Power of Loosing consists in this that the Minister by the preaching of the Gospel offers to dejected Minds and true Penitents through the Merits of Christ Absolution and doth assure them of a certain Remission of their Sins and the hopes of eternal Salvation Or secondly reconciles restores and receives into the Congregation and Unity of the Faithful those Penitents who by any grievous Scandal or known and publick Offence have offended the Minds of their Brethren and in a sort alienated and separated themselves from the common Society of the Church and the Body of Christ And we say the Minister doth exercise the Power of Binding or Shutting when he shuteth the Gate of the Kingdom of Heaven against Unbelievers and obstinate Persons and denounceth to them the Vengeance of God and eternal Punishment or excludeth out of the Bosome of the Church those that are publickly excommunicated and that God himself doth so far approve whatever Sentence his Ministers shall so give that whatsoever is either loosed or bound by their Ministry here on Earth he will in like manner bind or loose and confirm in Heaven The Key with which these Ministers do shut or open the Kingdom of Heaven we say with St. Chrysostom is the Knowledge of the Scripture with Tertullian is the Interpretation of the Law and with Eusebius is the Word of God We say the Disciples of Christ received this Power from him not that they might hear the private Confessions of the People and catch their whispering Murmurs as the Popish Priests every where now do and that in such a manner as if all the force and use of the Keys consisted only in this but that they might go and Preach and Publish the Gospel that so they might be a savour of Life unto Life to them that did believe and that they might be also a savour of Death unto Death to those that did not believe that the Minds of the Pious who were affrighted with the sense of their former ill Lives and Errors after they beheld the Light of the Gospel and believed in Christ might be opened by the Word of God as doors are with a Key And that the wicked and stubborn who would not believe and return into the Way might be left shut up and locked and as St. Paul expresseth it might wax worse and worse this we take to be the meaning of the Keys and that in this manner the Consciences of Men are either bound or loosed We say that the Priest is a Judge but then we say with St. Ambrose that he hath not the Right of any Dominion and therefore Christ reprehended the Scribes and Pharisees with these words that he might reprove their Negligence in teaching Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees for you have taken away the Key of Knowledge and shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men. Seeing then the Key by which a Passage is opened for us into the Kingdom of Heaven is the Word of the Gospel and the Interpretation of the Law and the Scriptures where there is no such Word there is no Key And seeing the same word was given to all and the Key which pertains to all is but one we say that the Power of all Ministers as to binding and loosing is one and the same and we say that even the Pope himself notwithstanding his Flatterers do so sweetly sooth him up with these words I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven as if they belonged to him and to no other Mortal under Heaven except he makes it his Business to bend and subdue the Consciences of Men to the Word of God we deny that even he as I said can either open or shut or hath at all the Keys and altho he â—oth teach and instruct the People which I wish he would sometimes do truly and at last be perswaded to believe it is at least some part of his Duty and Office but yet if he did so his Key would be neither better nor greater than that of others for who made that difference Who taught him to open more learnedly or absolve more powerfully than his Brethren 9. WE say that Marriage is Honorable and Holy in all degrees of Men in Patriarchs in Prophets in Apostles in Holy Martyrs in the Ministers of the Churches and in the Bishops and that as St. Chrysostom saith it is both lawful and just that he should ascend the Episcopal Throne with it and we say as Sozomen did of Spiridion and Nazianzen did oâ— his own Father that a pious and industriouâ— Bishop is nothing the worse for being married buâ— rather much the better and more useful in his Ministery And we say that the Law which by force taketh away this Liberty from Men anâ—ties them to a single Life against their Wills is as St. Paul stiles it the Doctrine of Devils and that from hence as is confessed by thâ— Bishop of Augusta Faber the Abbot of Paleâ—mo Latomus the tripartite Work which 〈◊〉 joyned to the second Tome of the Councilâ— and other defenders of the Papal Party and which is apparent from the thing it self and confessed by all Histories an incredible imâ—purity of Life and Manners and horriblâ— Debaucheries in the Ministers of God havâ— sprung and arisen so that Pius the secondâ— Bishop of Rome was not out when
hâ— said he saw many Causes why the Clergâ— should be denied Wives but then he saw morâ— and greater Causes to allow them Wives again 10. WE receive and imbrace all the Canonical Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament and we give our gracious God most hearty Thanks that he hath set up this Light for us which we ever fix our Eyes upon lest by humane Fraud or the Snares of the Devil we should be seduced to Errors or Fables We own them to be the heavenly Voices by which God hath reveal'd and made known his Will to us in them only can the Mind of Man acquiesce in them all that is necessary for our Salvation is aboundantly and plainly contain'd as Origen St. Augustin St. Chrysostom and St. Cyrill have taught us They are the very Might and Power of God unto Salvation they are the Foundations of the Apostles and Prophets upon which the Church of God is built they are the most certain and infallible Rule by which the Church may be reduced if She happen to stagger slip or err by which all Ecclesiastical Doctrines ought to be tried no Law no Tradition no Custom is to be received or continued if it be contrary to Scripture No tho St. Paul himself or an Angel from Heaven should come and teach otherwise 11. WE receive also and allow the Sacraments of the Church that is the sacred Signs and Ceremonies which Christ commanded us to use that he might by them represent to our eyes the Mysteries of our Salvation and most strongly confirm the Faith we have in his Blood and seal in our Hearts his Grace and we call them Figures Signs Types Antitypes Forms Seals Prints or Signets Similitudes Examples Images Remembrances and Memorials with Tertullian Origen St. Ambrose St. Augustin St. Jerom St. Chrysostom St. Basil and Dionysius and many other Catholick Fathers Nor do we doubt with them to call them a kind of visible Words the Signets of Righteousness and the Symbols of Grace and clearly affirm that in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the Body and Blood of our Lord is truly exhibited to Believers that is the enlivening Flesh of the Son of God the Bread that comes from above the Nourishment of Immortality the Grace the Truth and the Life and that it is the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ by the Participation of which we are quickned strengthened and fed to immortality and by which we are conjoyned united and incorporated with Christ that we may remain in him and he in us 12. WE acknowledge that there are two Sacraments properly so call'd Baptism and the Supper of the Lord for so many we see were delivered to us and consecrated by Christ and approved by St. Ambrose St. Augustin and the ancient Fathers 13. AND we say that Baptism is the Sacrament of the Remission of Sins and of that Washing which we have in the Blood of Christ and that none are to be denied that Sacrament who will profess the Faith of Christ no not the Infants of Christians because they are born in sin and belong to the People of God 14. WE say that the Eucharist is the Sacrament or visible Symbol of the Body and Blood of Christ in which the Death and Resurrection of Christ and what he did in his humane Body is in a manner represented to our eyes that we may give him thanks for his Death and our Deliverance by it and that by frequenting the Sacrament we may often renew the Remembrance of it and that by the Body and Blood of Christ we may be nourished into the Hope of the Resurrection and of eternal Life and that we may be assured that the Body and Blood of Christ hath the same effect in the feeding of our Souls which the Bread and Wine have in the repairing the Decays of our Bodies To this great and solemn Feast the People are to be invited that they may all communicate together and may publickly signifie and testifie both their Union and Society amongst themselves and that Hope which they have in Christ Jesus and therefore if there was any one heretofore before the private Mass was introduced who would be only a Spectator and yet would abstain from the Holy Communion the Bishops of Rome in the Primitive Times and the ancient Fathers would have excommunicated him as a wicked man and a Pagan Nor was there any Christian man in those times who communicated alone in the presence of others who were only Spectators So Calixtus long since decreed that when the Consecration was finished all should communicate if they would not be deprived of the Communion of the Church and be shut out of it for so saith he the Apostles ordained and the Holy Church of Rome holds And we say that both the Parts of the Sacrament ought to be given to all that come to the Holy Communion for so Christ commanded and the Apostles instituted throughout the World and all the ancient Fathers and Catholick Bishops so practised and if any one shall do otherwise saith Gelasius he commits Sacriledge and therefore our Adversaries who exploding and rejecting the Communion defend the private Mass and a multitude of Sacraments without the authority of the Word of God without any ancient Council without any Catholick Father without any Example of the Primitive Church and without Reason and this against the express Command of Christ and also against all Antiquity in so doing act wickedly and sacrilegiously 15. WE say that the Bread and Wine are the Holy and Heavenly Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ and that in them Christ himself the true Bread of eternal Life is so exhibited to us as present that we do by Faith truly take his Body and Blood and yet at the same time we speak not this so as if we thought the Nature of the Bread and Wine were totally changed and abolished as many in the last Ages have dreamt and as yet could never agree amongst themselves about this Dream For neither did Christ ever design that the Wheaten Bread should change its Nature and assume a new kind of Divinity but rather that it might change us and that as Theophylact saith we might be trans-elemented into his Body For what can be more perspicuous than what St. Ambrose saith on this occasion the Bread and Wine are what they were and yet are changed into another thing Or what Gelasius saith The Substance of the Bread and Nature of the Wine do not cease to be Or then what Theodoret after the Consecration the mystical Symbols do not cast off their own proper Nature for they remain in their former Substance and Figure and Species Or then what St. Augustin saith that which you see is Bread and a Cup as your Eyes inform you but that which your Faith desires to be instructed in is this the Bread is the Body of Christ and the Cup is his