we of more than 200 Certainly the Argument from Succession here is much stronger the nearer it comes to the Original from which all the Authority and Virtue in the following are derived the Water may be supposed clearer and more natural the nearer to the Fountain-Head There is at least some danger from every Remove or Change made I am apt to think they themselves will hardly suppose they have a better Argument from Succession than those had 1200 or more Years since For if it be good now be sure it was so then But it will not follow alternately if then good it must hold so still The Case may be presum'd much different in the Succession of Ecclesiastical Dignities and Secular in this latter it may be suppos'd the Title gathers still more strength by the length of its Continuance is more confirm'd by long Possession many super induct Obligations but was it may be weakest in its Beginnings as in most particular Governments now when of a meer Human Original so far as we may with due Modesty and Reverence look that way But Spiritual Power in whomsoever where Legitimate can only descend at first from an immediate Divine Commission and that we may suppose gains nothing by passing through Human Hands and Infirmities being most strong and powerful in its first rise Indeed did the Cardinal only argue for a Temporal and Ecclesiastical Monarchy and would he be content to begin it after Pope Gregory the First and then to rise by degrees for a while Succession appears to me the best Argument they have However it is much easier to shew fair Evidences of the unaltered conveyance of the same Truth from one to another when it hath gone through so few Hands and that the eldest bears its Date but a very few Centuries of as Irenaeus expresly in the place cited l. 3. c. 3. and Epiphanius Hom. 27. Carpocrat p. 104. than it can be when they are multiplied to the present number and the Foot-steps of its continued Passage are almost worn out through so long a tract of Time and numerous cross Accidents Yet to give them their due the eminent Zeal of several of their first Bishops that Sealed to the Custody of the true Faith with their Blood being still as it were in view of their Persecutors their general Constancy thereto in which so many wavered or fell in the time of the Arian Persecution the Relief and Refuge they then and after afforded to such as suffered in that or like Causes as well as the Prerogative of their Place in the Imperial City and the current Tradition of their Churches first Foundation by the joint Labours of those chief Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul these gave them great credit in those Ages and while they used their Power so well every one was ready to enlarge it and to flee thither for Sanctuary when oppress'd In which case Men are very apt to speak bountifully of their Patrons And no marvel if they single out sometimes so venerable a Name and Authority to oppose and even to bear down the impertinent Obstinacy and peevish Presumption of every new upstart Schismatick or Heretick that would dictate to us strange and unheard-of Principles and unchurch all before or beside themselves and must begin the Date of it from themselves For thus most of the Citations mention'd are plainly levell'd And in such a Case we should judg the arguing sufficient still to silence such an insolent Boaster though we should begin the Succession no sooner than the time they ended and when we own Religion began to decline in some parts but sure not to expire Nay I could add though we should rise no higher than the Reformation it self as late as it was and how contemptuously soever they are pleased sometimes to speak of the happy Instruments thereof An extraordinary Providence also seems to have attended the Preservation of them so long under the Arian Gothick Kings and a strange temporal Felicity in being still Gainers in the end by all the Invasions and Calamities incident to so many Changes of Government by which most beside were Losers But I should think if they consulted Scripture Reason and Experience of former Examples with present sensible Observation more than any fancied Schemes and Models of their own what they would judg best to have done They might think it not unlikely at least be more willing to stand to the tryal whether it be not so that upon so long a continued and still growing accession of Wealth and Greatness to their Church many and great Corruptions might creep in which we charge them with and have only removed by the Reformation without turning them or our Ancestors out of the Church before or our selves since If the Favours they have so long enjoyed make them more industrious and cautious in the Examination of themselves to reform whatever they can find amiss and to be more charitably helpful and beneficial to others they will be far better employed than in grasping at still more Power and justifying all that they teach or do by the oft to us unaccountable Successes of Providence which the worst Causes have fled to for shelter and the worst Men when they had nothing else to plead God Almighty give us all Grace entirely to devote all our Studies and Labours to the Service of our Great Master and the best and most certain Benefit of his Church in the Furtherance of Sound Faith and Universal Holiness of Life in all true Piety Probity Charity and Peaceable Communion among all that in every place call on the Name of the Lord theirs and ours Which will afford us a far more comfortable Reckoning at the great Day of Account than to busie our selves in thrusting all beside out of the Church here and pronouncing Condemnation against them for hereafter or on the other side in carrying on still unaccountable Prejudices and endless Separations The God of Wisdom Truth and Peace will I hope at length give us a right Understanding in all Things THE END LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Sixth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ Agreement in Doctrine with the Primitive Church Sexta Nota est Conspiratio in Doctrinâ cum Ecclesiâ Antiquâ Bellar. L. iv c. 9. de Notis Ecclesiae IMPRIMATUR May 19. 1687. Guil. Needham VVEE are very willing to own this for a true Mark of the Church its Agreeing with the Doctrine of the Primitive Church and we are so far from confuting Bellarmin for his giving of it that we do not doubt but he has hereby confuted himself and the whole Cause of the Roman Church for if we may be allowed to go back to the Primitive Church and to examine the Doctrine and Belief of that in order to find out what is the true Church at present then the pretended Infallibility of the present Church and the Necessity of receiving and believing all
meant by it p. 234. 2. Holiness of Mind and Manners What understood by it ibid. II. Neither of these kinds of Holiness can be properly called a Note of the True Church ibid. Not the first because it appertains to its Essence and Constitution shews what a Church is and belongs to every Church whether Greek Abyssine Roman or English p. 235. Not the Second kind and that for Three Reasons 1. Because of that general admission of men of all Nations and Conditions upon their profession of the common Christianity into the bosome of the Christian Church p. 236. 2. Because many men live sometimes with more and sometimes with less Morality p. 237. 3. Because a man must first understand the Nature and Doctrine of the Christian Church or he cannot know what Sanctity is and what that is in the Life of any man which he is to take for the Holiness of a Christian p. 238. III. If Holiness of Life were a Note of the true Church the Roman Church would not from this concession derive any great advantage p. 239. Other Churches as famous as that of Rome for their Faith and manners ibid. In latter Ages the goodness of Morals in several of that Communion to be ascribed not so much to Popery as its cause but to those Principles that are common to all Christians p. 240. The Reformation not free from bad Men tho this proceeds from the Men not from the Cause ibid. Luther herein misrepresented by Bellarmine and others p. 241. Great complaints of Corruptions in the Romists Writers in the Latin Church p. 242. Many in the Romish Church Infamous for their Impieties p. 243. Reflections on Pope Gregory the Great who is said to be the last of the good and the first of the bad p. 244. On Pope John the XII p. 245. On St. Dominick ibid. On the Austerities and Mortifications of their several Orders p. 246. Many things in the Roman Church which by helping forward an ill life do in part deface this mark of Sanctity p. 248. The Eleventh Note The Glory of Miracles BEllarmins Explication of this Note and the grounds upon which he builds it p. 250. In answer to this Three things are laid down I. That meer Miracles withou any other consideration are not a sufficient Note of any Church or Religion whatever p. 252. The Miracles of the Primitive Church compared with those that are more peculiarly appropriated to the Church of Rome p. 253. The several Circumstances considered which recommend the Primitive Miracles viz. 1. That they were highly beneficial to Human Nature p. 254. The Miracles of the Church of Rome very many of them defective herein p. 255. 2. The Primitive Miracles of great importance and significancy and the design of them plainly laid down before-hand in the Prophecies of the V. T. p. 256. This applied to those of the Church of Rome p. 257. Miracles in the most comprehensive sense of the Word are no proof of the Truth and Divinity of that Doctrine they would advance p. 258. This Instanced in those of Jannes and Jambres and of Apollonius Tyaneus p. 259. Photius his Censure of those of Apollonius Tyaneus p. 260. Miracles whether supposed in a Heathen or a Heretick not acknowledged by the Fathers to be a good proof that either of them are in the right p. 261. This apparent from St. Origen ibid. St. Cyprian ib. St. Irenaeus p. 162. St. Austin p. 263. II. Miracles of the Church of Rome no proof or confirmation of those Doctrines Practices wherein the Reformed Church differs from them p. 264. Here three Things are considered 1. That there is no ground throughout the whole Scriptures to expect any Miracle for the Confirmation of any particular Doctrine whatever p. 265. This evident from the Mosaic dispensation ibid. The Christian Institution p. 266. The following Ages of the Church ibid. 2. Many of those Doctrines for which these Miracles are alledged are so far from being asserted or warranted in the Holy Scriptures that they are rather contrary to them ibid. This Instanced in Transubstantiation p. 266 267. Adoration of the Host p. 266 267. Worshipping of Images p. 266 267. Praying to Saints departed p. 266 267. Purgatory c. p. 266 267. Miracles for the advance or support of those Doctrines justly suspected p. 268. 3. No ground of certainty as to matter of Fact of most of those miracles which the Romanists make the Glory of their Church p. 269. The Story of the Bones of Babylas considered ibid. Those of Gâ—rvatius and Proatsius revealed by Vision to St. Ambrose reflected on p. 270. The fabulous Stories of later Ages amongst them condemned by several Writers of the Church of Rome p. 271. 1 Persons St. Bernard reflected on p. 273. St. John Damascen p. 274. Some Miracles wrought in confirmation of Transubstantiation considered p. 273 c. III. We of the Reformed Religion as we do not pretend to the Working of Miracles in our Age so if we did we could pretend to prove nothing by them but what hath been already sufficiently proved by the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles p. 280. The Twelfth Note The Light of Prophecy TWO Things to be understood by the Light of Prophecy 1. That Divine Revelation whereby a man is enabled to foretel such or such contingent Events will come to pass p. 285. 2. Or the Testimony that is given by the fulfilling of Prophecies to some Doctrine that was designed to be confirmed by it p. 286. In the latter sense it may be admitted as a mark or rather an Argument of that Doctrine the Profession whereof makes the Church p. 287. Great caution must be used in laying down the fulfilling the Predictions as an Argument to prove the Truth of Christianity ibid. Two Things here Examined I. Whether this be a Note of the Church The Cardinal offers three Arguments to prove it p. 288. The first of them disproved and the Prophecy of Joel applied by St. Peter Acts 2.16 to the Church explained and vindicated p. 289. His second Argument that none knows future Contingences but God only considered p. 290. His third Argument from the 18th of Deut. examined and overthrown p. 291. The foretelling of a future contingent Event no certain Note of true Doctrine ibid. There have been true Prophecies among Heathens the famous Acrostic of the Sybilla Erythroea the Books of Hystaspes the prediction of Balaam which shew the gift of Prophecy not to be confined within the Communion of the Church p. 292 293. Light of Prophecy no Note of the Church because separable from it there having been true Prophecy out of the Church and because it hath not alwayes continued in the Church p. 294. II. If it was a Note the Cardinal hath not sufficiently proved it belongs to his Church and no others p. 295. His Instance of Agabus and the Old Prophets may serve any Christian Church as well if not better than his ibid. His Instance of Gregory Thaumat Bishop
venture their Cause to any other Sentence but that of Scripture which had so plainly decided for them and was indeed the most proper to be appealed to yet the greatest number and the most learned of the Protestant Writers have never declined the Judgment of the Primitive Church but next to the inspired Writings of the Apostles have always esteemed and been willing to be determined by it And we are well assured that the Ancient Church even the Roman it self as well as the whole Christian besides is in all material Points on the Protestant side and a perfect Stranger if not an utter Enemy to those new Articles of Faith and Corruptions of Doctrine which have been since brought into the Western Church and which we have for that Reason protested against because they were unknown and contrary to the Faith and Doctrine of the Primitive Church It would too much exceed the set Limits of this Paper to make this out so fully as might easily be done by going through the chiefest Points of Difference between us Bellarmine in his Discourse upon this Note goes wholly off from it and chuses rather to pursue Luther and Calvin and some other worthy Reformers through all the Paths of Calumny and Slander but I shall not follow him to take him off from those false and injurious Representations he hath made of their Doctrines If any Body has the curiosity to see the Art of Misrepresenting in its greatest perfection let him but read that Chapter but if he will see it as perfectly shamed and exposed let him read Bishop Morton's long and learned Answer to it * Apologia Catholica p. 61. to p. 278. We are examining the Doctrines and finding out the Marks of the Church and not of particular Men and had Calvin or others taught any such Doctrines as are very falsly there laid to their Charge I know none had been concerned in them but themselves and no Church could have been prejudiced by them any farther than it had received them I shall therefore keep more close to Bellarmine's Note tho not to his Method upon it and I assure a late Adviser †Advice to the â—onfuter of Belâ—â—mine 't is not the design of confuting him but setting Men right in the way to the True Religion and the True Church when others are so busy to draw them off by false Marks and Pretences which is the cause of this Vndertaking I confess it would be too prolix as Bellarmine says to produce all the Testimonies of the Ancients thereby to shew what was the Doctrine of the Primitive Church in every particular Point controverted between us I shall therefore offer only some plain and brief Remarks by which the sense of the Primitive Church may be undeniably known in most of the Controversies and by which it will appear what was the Doctrine of the Church then and how contrary that of the Church of Rome is now to it And here I should first begin with the most Primitive that is with the Apostolick Church which truly and only deserves the Title of being Mother and Mistress of all Christian Churches that ever were or shall be in the World it is as vain as arrogant for any later and particular Church to assume that to it self which is but a Sister-Church at most and younger than some of the rest and tho more fine and proud yet not half so honest and uncorrupt This Apostolick Church which was founded and governed by the Apostles over all the World is the true Standard of the Christian Church and as in revealed Religion That which is first is true according to Tertullian's * Id verum quod prius id prius quod ab initio ab initio quod ab Apostolis Tertul. de praescript l. 4. Axiom because it comes nearest to the first pure Fountain of Revelation so as he adds That is first which is from the Beginning and from the Apostles We should first then examine what was the Faith and Doctrine of the Apostolick Church the greatest and almost only account of which we have in their own Canonical Writings which are received and allowed as such by the whole Christian Church and in these our Adversaries find so little of their own late and new Doctrines that they cannot but own that these are insufficient to authorise and establish most of them without the Authority of the present Church and without the help of unwritten Traditions When we produce Scripture against our Adversaries we then produce the only Authentick Records of the Apostolick Church and the only certain account we have of the Faith and Doctrine of the most Primitive Church let them object therefore never so much against Scripture as a Rule of Faith yet whilst it contains the only sure Testimony of what was taught and believed by the first Christian Church so far as any of these Doctrines are not in Scripture so far they cannot appear to be the Doctrine of the Apostolick Church and whilst we hold all that Faith and all those Doctrines that are contained in Scripture we hold all that can be known to be so in the most pure and most Primitive Church and whatsoever they have added to Scripture which they will needs have to be but an imperfect Rule of Faith they have added so far as can be known to the Doctrine of the Apostolick Church for if Scripture be not the only Rule of that yet it is the only Historical Account we have of it But I shall not at present deal with them out of Scripture tho as it is only a Record and Evidence of the Apostolical Faith they will count this but a Trick I know to draw them into a Scripture Dispute which they are mighty averse to and which they design to avoid by an Appeal from that to the Primitive Church we will go on therefore with our Note as they I suppose mean and understand it and that we may not be too troublesom to them with Scripture and the Apostolick Writings we will go several Ages lower even down to those Times wherein the Church was in its glorious State under the first Christian Emperors and whether their Doctrines or ours were most agreable to those of this Primitive Church Let us now come briefly to enquire in some particular Instances and by some few short Remarks and Observations And First Was any such thing as their pretended Supremacy then allowed of when in the first general Council at Nice * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Nicen. Can. 6. There was a limited Power assigned to the Bishop of Rome as there was to the other Metropolitans of Alexandria and Antioch who were to keep their Bounds set them by antient Custom which is utterly inconsistent with an Universal Supremacy over the whole Church by a Divine Right as is since pretended and claimed contrary to all Antiquity For the next General Council appoints the Bishop of Constantinople to have Prerogatives of Honour
next to the Bishop of Rome because that was New Rome †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Constantinop Can. 3. so that it was the Imperial City of Rome which gave the Honour of being the first Bishop in the Church and not a Divine Institution or a Succession from St. Peter and when Constantinople by the Emperor's removing thither became the next great City the Bishop partook of the Honour of the City And in the Fourth General Council at Calcedon had for that Reason equal Priviledges conferred upon him with the Bishop of Old Rome ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Calced Can. 28. as the Fathers expresly declare To which I shall add the famous Case of Appeals which was challenged about the Year 418 by Pope Zosimus over the African Church not by Divine Right but by a pretended Ecclesiastical Canon which was found afterwards to be forged and the Power of the Church of Rome to receive Appeals or to judg the Causes of other Churches was fully disowned and disclaimed * Concil Carthag 6. And this with the Exemption of the Churches of Milan Ravenna and Aquileia from the Jurisdiction of the Church of Rome tho they were so near Neighbours to it even in Italy it self is enough to give full Satisfaction to any reasonable Man what a different Opinion the Primitive Church had of the Church of Rome from what it now has of it self concerning an Universal Supremacy and of its being the Mother and Mistress of all Churches The next most peculiar Doctrine of Popery is Transubsiantiation which as it was formerly owned by Valentia (a) De Transub l. 2. c. 7. and Cusanus (b) Exercit. l. 6. Ser. 40. and a great many of the School-men Scotus Durandus and others (c) Vid. Pref. ad Johan Major not to have been the Doctrine of the Primitive Church so it has been lately proved at large by one of their own Communion (d) A Treatise written by an Author of the Church of Rome touching Transubstantiation tho if for that reason it may be thrown out from being an Article of Faith by the Members of the Roman Church they will leave but very few proper to themselves according to the Principle of that Gentleman to wit the making not the present but the Primitive Church a Rule of their Faith which if they will universally follow it will lead them quite out of the Roman Church as well as out of that single Error of it we have such excellent Treatises of late * See Discourse of Transubstantiation Transubstantiation no Doctrine of the Primitive Fathers The Doctrine of the Trinity and Transubstantiation compared 1. par about this which prove it beyond all Exception and beyond all Answer to be no Doctrine of the Primitive Church that I shall add nothing about it but only these two Observations First That it appears not by any Liturgy or Eucharistick Form that was ever used by the Church no not by the Roman Canon it self which is much ancienter than this Doctrine and therefore not so conformed to it That the Church ever used any Prayer to this purpose at the Eucharist that the Substance of the Sacramental Elements should be changed or done away and the Flesh and Blood of Christ substituted instead of them under the Species or Accidents but only that they might be made the Body and Blood of Christ by the Spirits coming down upon them so that it was only a Spiritual and Sacramental not a Substantial Change of them that was ever prayed for or ever believed for if the Church had always had this Faith it would surely have sometimes prayed in it Secondly I observe that in those Times when this Doctrine came first into the Church which was a little before Berengarius it was so new and raw that it was not fully digested nor perfectly understood even by those who then held it as appears by that blundering Recantation which was drawn up for him after the Examination of no less than three Popes and five Synods wherein he is made to say That after Consecration the true Body and Blood of Christ is not only Sacramentally but sensibly and truly handled and broke by the Hands of the Priests and ground by the Teeth of the Faithful †Post Consecrationem verum Corpus Sanguinem Christi sensualitèr non solùm Sacramento sed veritate manibus Sacerdotum tractari frangi fidelium dentibus atteri Grat. de Consec dist 2. cap. This sensible and true handling and breaking and grinding Christ's Body is so strange and dreadful a thing that the Glossator observes this upon it That unless you do understand these Word of Berengarius in a sound sense * Nisi sanè intelligas verba Berengarii in majorem incidas haeresin quam ipse babuit Glos Ib. that is contrary to what the Words signify and mean you will fall into a greater Heresy than that of Berengarius himself by which it appears that this Monster of Transubstantiation as a great Man ‖ Perrone See the excellent Preface to a Discourse on the Holy Eucharist in two great points of their own afterwards calls it was so unformed and mishapen a thing at that time that it was a sign it was then but new come into the World and had need of being farther licked into a better shape If Transubstantiation were then but new those other Doctrines which have issued from it and are its proper Production could not be old such as Adoration of the Sacrament Communion in one kind Solitary Masses and the Proper and Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass And therefore I shall not say any thing of them since their Date will be owned to be as late as that of Transubstantiation and tho they may not follow from it yet they cannot be maintained or believed without it so that what has been said against the one takes away the very Foundation of the other As to the Number of the Sacraments tho the Council of Trent has declared this to be exactly Seven and made it an Article of Faith to believe so yet no Man sure will have the confidence to say That this Number was determined by the Primitive Church when they can bring no Author who makes any mention of such a Number till 1100 Years after Christ and Bellarmin thinks it unreasonable we should require them to shew this either in the Scriptures or the Fathers †Non debere adversarios petere ut ostendamus in Scripturis au◠Patribus nomen Septenacii numeri Sacramentorum Bellar. de effect Sacram. l. 2. c. 24. tho if it be an Article of Faith which must be believed upon pain of Damnation there ought to be something to shew for it one would think out of one of them Was the Necessity of Auricular Confession a Doctrine of the Primitive Church when in the time of Peter Lombard he tells us * In his enim etiam docti
it was sometimes a Mark of an Orthodox and Catholick Christian to be joyn'd in Communion with the Roman Bishop therefore it must always be so and it can never happen that a Man should be united to the Church and disjoyn'd from the Pope Because St. Hierom referred himself to the Chair of Peter when Damasus sate in it therefore he would have done the same to his Predecessor Liberius after he had communicated with the Arians Of the same kind is the Argument from Optatus Finally because St. Augustin thought that Cecilian had reason to value his Communion with the Roman Church more than the multitude of his Enemies in as much as the Principality of an Apostolical Chair had always flourished there therefore the Bishop of Rome is Head of the Church As if there were no other Apostolical Chair besides that at Rome and as if the Communion of no other Church was to be esteemed when a Bishop meets with unreasonable Opposition but one that is by virtue of her Chair Mistress of all the Rest For what he says out of St. Augustin in Psal contra partem Donati it has had its Answer p. 107. Pope Leo indeed speaks a little more to the Purpose but without any Authority as being a Witness in his own Cause For it was but a few Years before that Zosimus Boniface and Celestin had set up a small pretence to an Universal Headship tho nothing was got by it but a notable Rebuke from the African Fathers whereof St. Augustin was one for introducing a worldly Pride into the Church But no wonder if those Popes that followed still kept their Eye upon that Power which their Predecessors could not as yet compass On the other side it appears by most unquestionable Evidence that the Primitive Fathers knew no greater necessity of being united to the Roman than to any other Catholick or Orthodox Bishop When Pope Victor took upon him to excommunicate the Asian Churches for not observing Easter as the Roman did they were so far from thinking a Union with him as their Head necessary to their being Members of the Catholick Church that they called a Synod of their own reprehended the Pope's Arrogance and resolved to adhere to their own Custom St. Cyprian Firmilian and the Africans did the like in opposition to Pope Stephen Apud Cypr. Ep. 75. p. 228. Ed. Oxon. Firmilian plainly telling him that while he thought to Excommunicate all them from himself he had but excommunicated himself from them In ancient Times there was no shadow of any such Headship in the Pope as of late Ages has been contended for He was treated with no other Titles of Respect than other Bishops were who were called Popes and Vicars of Christ no less than he as he was by them stiled their Colleague and Brother no less than they by him In respect of Presidency over particular Churches his Jurisdiction was confined as well as theirs in respect of the common Care of the whole Church each of them was deemed to have an Authority and a Trust no way inferiour to his All which our Adversaries do full well understand who are but a little conversant in St. Cyprian if they would but speak what they know But because St. Hierom's Complâ—mt to Damasus is insisted upon by the Cardinal let St. Hierom be heard speaking to this very Point so clearly that we cannot desire he should have been more express Where-ever saith he there is a Bishop whether at Rome Hier. ad Evagr. Ep. 85. or at Eugubium or Constantinople or Rhegium or Alexandria or Thanis he is of the same Worth and of the same Priesthood The advantage of Wealth and the disadvantage of Poverty does not make a Bishop to be higher or lower but they are all Successors of the Apostles To conclude this Point Popes have been anciently censured condemned and excommunicated when they were thought to have deserved it Julius was Excommunicated by the Eastern Bishops Sâ—â— Vindic. of Answ To some late Papers p. 6. c. Liberius Anathematized by St. Hilary Vigilius Excommunicated by the Africans Honorius Condemned by the VIth General Council Did these Fathers take the Pope for their Common Head and the Center of Catholick Union Some Popes have been Hereticks as the Romanists themselves cannot deny and therefore time has been when it was so far from being a Note of the Catholick Church to be united to the Pope that it was impossible so to be without separation from the Catholick Church But the Cardinal has a very notable Argument to prove the necessity of this Union viz. Experience since those Churches have withered away that are divided from this Head the Pope Witness the Asiatick and African Churches anciently famous for numerous Councils for learned and holy Men but since their Schism from the Roman Church reduced to obscurity and plunged into gross Ignorance To which it might be enough to answer That although where the Sin is flagrant and beyond controversy there the Calamity that befalls the Offender may without breach of Charity or impious Intrusion into the Councils of Providence be well deemed the effect of God's Justice Yet in a Dispute about Right and Truth to take advantage from the Afflictions of a Man or of a Church and to make them an Argument against the oppressed side is barbarously uncharitable and wicked and becomes none but those who care not by what means they come to their end But not to pry into the Secrets of Divine Providence Might it not have served the Cardinal's turn to assign the Afflictions and Ignorance of those Churches to the Irruptions of their Enemies upon them who at length prevailed and utterly destroyed some of them and to this day hold the rest in Slavery If this be not enough what if one should add that their not uniting themselves to the Pope was indeed one cause of their Misfortunes who had much rather see those ancient and glorious Churches laid wast by Infidels then saved by the united Arms of Christendom to make a vigorous Opposition to his claim of Supremacy However it is not more certain that they were once the most flourishing Churches in Christendom than that when they were so they did not acknowledg this Union to the Bishop of Rome as the Head of the Catholick Church nay that they opposed the Beginnings and Preparations to so unjust a claim and therefore their denying it at present can with no reason be alledged as the cause of their Distress One thing more we have to say to this doughty Argument that if it may be trusted how comes it to pass that we have a contrary experience in Churches nearer home which have not fallen into decay by separating from the Pope We are apt to think that from the Reformation to this day there have been as many Persons eminent both for Piety and Learning in the Church of England as any Age ever produced in any Nation That we are not sunk into gross
meerly Unity that is a Mark of the true Church but Unity in the true Faith nor is Unity the Mark of a pure Church unless it be upon Terms of Obedience to God of Charity to one another of keeping the Faith unmixed with Errors and Innovations and the Worship of God free from material Defects and forbidden Practices From hence also the Folly of that conceit may be easily discerned that in this divided State of Christendom there must be one Church which is the only Church of Christ exclusively to all the rest that are not in Communion with her Which is as much as to say that because there is not that Unity amongst Christians which there ought to be therefore there is none at all and because they are not united in one Communion therefore they are not united in one Lord one Faith one Baptism That fond Principle now mentioned is advanced by the Romanist for the sake of this Inference that because we grant the Church to be but one and withall acknowledg them to be a true Church therefore we being divided from them can be no true Church our selves That is to say because we acknowledg that they have that one Faith in which all that are united belong to the Church therefore we are out of the Church our selves who have the Unity of that Faith too and moreover the Unity of observing all the Institutions of Christ and the Unity of Catholick Terms of Communion c. which they have not If some part of the Church gives just cause of Offence or if another takes Offence where none is given this is indeed contrary to the Duty of the Members of the Church but not utterly inconsistent with their being Members of it And if St. Paul was in the right when he said If the Foot shall say because I am not the Head I am not of the Body is it therefore not of the Body It will be also true that tho the Foot should say to the Hand thou art not of the Body because thou art not the Foot the Hand would be of the Body for all that As for the Unity of Communion which they boast so much of in the Church of Rome I say 't is an Unity of Communion among themselves but 't is not the Catholick Unity of Communion because the Terms of it are many of them unjust and unlawful whereas we of the Church of England having as much Unity of Communion among our selves as they have this also to say as we have abundantly shewn that the Terms of our Communion are every one of them just and lawful and therefore ours is a Catholick Unity If there are some Protestants that will not communicate with us it is no more our Fault than that the Papists refuse to do so And tho in point of Interest this tends to weaken yet in Controversy it cannot prejudice the common cause of Reformation That part of the West that has left the Church of Rome may labour under Discords that affect their very Communion while she her self does not and yet in the Cause against her they may be all in the Right Where Truth is maintained against a corrupt Church there may yet be Disobedience to Authority overvaluing Questions of no great moment a greater stress laid upon Opinions and Practices than the Cause will bear and this shall be sufficient to break Christian Communion And at the same time gross Errors may be maintained and with one consent imposed upon the World by the other Church and all the while the Differences how weighty soever that happen by the bye may be so over-ruled by Force and Power and the sensible Interests of this World that they shall not affect their Communion with one another But for the Reasons already laid down it were a fond thing to chuse a Church by the Mark of such Unity In short If we would in all Respects keep within the Unity of the Church this must be done by professing true Doctrine by leading good Lives by a charitable Spirit and Behaviour towards all Christians by frequenting Prayers and Sacraments and by submitting to the Authority of our lawful Guides in all things of Indifference and Expedience And then we may be sure that whatever others do we keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And though the Church after all is not that one Body in all Respects which it ought to be and which it would be if all Men did their Duty yet that we our selves are such Members of that one Body as we ought to be and as all others ought to be likewise Now all this Unity we may keep in the Communion of the Church of England but we cannot keep it all in the Communion of the Roman Church as the Terms thereof now stand But if this Unity be not enough when once the Romanists can prove that Union to the Pope as Head of the Church and Union to the Roman Church in all that she believes and teaches is also necessary to our Being of the Church or even to our maintaining that Unity which ought to be amongst all Christians we will also acknowledg the Pope's Supremacy and believe as the Roman Church believes but not till then THE END LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Eighth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ Sanctity of Doctrine Octava Nota est Sanctitas Doctrinae Bellar. de Notis Ecclesiae L. iv c. 11. IMPRIMATUR June 4. 1687. Hen. Maurice SEeing the New Covenant is the Charter upon which the Church of Christ is founded and all the Blessings which this Covenant promises are appropriated to that Sacred Society to be in Communion with it is doubtless a matter of vast importance to the Souls of Men and it being so it is not to be imagined but that the blessed Jesus the most concerned and careful Friend of Souls that ever was hath been sufficiently mindful to leave such plain and easy Directions behind him how we may find his Church and satisfy our selves whether we are in Fellowship with it or no as that neither the Learned nor Unlearned may be left in the dark for resolution in such a momentous Enquiry But how much the Church of Rome hath made it her Business to snarl and perplex several Points of Religion which our Saviour left plain and obvious enough to all Capacities is too notorious and in nothing more than in this how to discover and find out the true Church In order to which her most Learned Doctors and particularly Cardinal Bellarmin have given us certain Notes by which as they pretend the true Church may be distinguished by honest and diligent Enquiries from all false Churches whatsoever But how far these Notes are from performing what is promised for 'em hath been sufficiently proved upon a very fair Examination of the Seven first of ' em I proceed therefore to the Eighth viz. Sanctity of
the unquestionably Divine Predictions of the Old and New Testament when God poured out the Spirit of Prophecy upon his Servants there have been now and then in the Church some sprinklings of it and that several Persons have foretold Things by Divine Revelation which had no Evidence of it comparable to what the great strokes of Scripture-Prophecy have Such a Prediction I would allow that of Benedict to be which the Cardinal cites if one had good reason to believe it And I would not much quarrel with that which Gofrid tells of St. Bernard though I have no great Opinion of it But for St. Francis I desire to be wholly excused Which I do not say as if there were any danger of granting that there has been something of this lower degree of Prophecy amongst some in the Roman Communion for if Prophetick Light were a Note of the Church 't is not the foretelling of a few Events that happen not long after the Prediction which will amount to it tho there may be more reason upon the account of the Holiness of the Person or some such other Consideration to ascribe it to a Divine Revelation than to any other Cause As there are some Divine Miracles that have the Finger of God while others are hard to be distinguished from Delusions and Lying Wonders So some Divine Predictions there are which have the Characters of God's Omniscience upon them while others are capable of being resolved into other Causes But he must be at a great loss for Church-Marks that would mark his Church by Prophetick Light without the former As for the latter I have said once already and I say it again that they may nay I am apt to think that they have had some such in the Roman Communion But the Cardinal is very unlucky in his Instances as some others of that Church are whom I have consulted I cannot see why such a-doe should be made about the Predictions of Philippus Nerius the Florentine that care must be taken to preserve the Attestations of them Vita Phil. Ner. p. 76. Mog When he could not perswade a Jew to pray to Christ for himself he desired the Standers-by to pray for him promising them that he would be converted which came to pass as we are told in a few Days Again P. 100. when one of his Converts had lent a sum of Mony to a Banker he made him go and fetch it back before Night tho he knew not the Man and within a few Days the Banker broke Sometimes he foretold that such a Sick Man would dye and sometimes that such an one would recover Which Predictions are as modest as may be but no other reason can be given I think why Nerius must for such Things as these pass for a Prophet but that they cannot write the Lives of their Saints without stuffing them as with Miracles and Visions and Extasies so sometimes with Prophecies too and then they must be content with such as can be had S. Rosae Vita c. 18. The Good Writer of St. Rose's Life took great pains to make her a Prophetess not long before her Death For she forsooth knew by Divine Inspiration that a Convent of St. Catherine of Siena would be built and this ten Years before the Foundation was laid she had it shewn sometimes by Signs and Figures sometimes in the exact Fashion and Model and would talk of it as if she had it before her Eyes she drew it out upon a Paper and she could tell who would be the first Abbess there knew her by Face and after a sort consecrated her by a Kiss insomuch that some thought she was mad It is as hard to believe that the Spirit of Prophecy should be given to a Maid for no other end as it should seem by this Story but to get her the Fame of a Prophetess as that the Ludicrous Miracles that do no manner of Good are the Marks of Divine Power It may be reasonable to believe that some measure of this Gift is imparted when not only the Event answers the Prediction but when the End aimed at is Great and Good and of General Use as when God sent Prophets to his People to bring them back to the Law. I should therefore make no Difficulty to allow that Hieronymus Savonarola a very Religious Friar in Florence was sometimes enlightned with Prophetick Knowledg because he did not only foretell several Things that happened some in his Life-time some after his Death and others that are yet to come to pass but his Business was plainly this to awaken Men to Repentance and to forewarn the Great Ones themselves of the Judgments of God hanging over them if they would not do their parts to restore good Discipline and good Manners to the Church Thus as Philip de Comminees tells us Chron. du Roy c. ch 25. p. 338. he assured Charles the VIII that he should be very prosperous in his Voyage into Italy and this that he might reform the corrupt State of the Church which if he should neglect to do he should return with Dishonour and God would reserve that Work for another and so it happened He was a Man of singular Vertue and Piety and obtain'd the Reputation of a Prophet not only with †Guicciard Hist lib. ii p. 42. the greatest part of the People but with such Men as Philip de Comminees who knew him well and that Noble Earl Jo. Franciscus Picus who wrote his Life To which we may add that he was served as God's Prophets sometimes have been being put to Death at the Instigation of the Pope And for what reason do we think but because he prophesied against the Simony Whoredoms and Prophaneness that reigned in the Church for which he was accus'd of Preaching scandalously against the Manners of the Clergy and Court of Rome Lib. iii. p. 94. In short he was silenced by Pope Alexander the VIth and at length upon the Pope's Process against him he with two of his Companions were tormented and all to make him deny that he had received those things from God which he had said Vita Savonar and after horrible Tortures which he endured with great Patience he and they were at once hanged and burned to the everlasting Infamy of some-body and no less to their Confusion who will needs have it believed that there have been Prophets in the Roman Communion Savonarola was put to Death in the Year 1498 a little before the Reformation It was about an 150 Years before that that Joannes de Rupe Scissa such an other Man as Savonarola and a Monk prophesied to the same purpose that he did after-him foretelling several Things that happened afterwards in the Kingdom of France but running out into the Reproof of the Luxury and Vices of the Pope and the Great Church-men Pope Innocent laid hold on him Frossard Chron. Tom. 1 2. and kept him in Prison as Frossard acquaints us who
often fallacious way of arguing however popular and that needs less Trouble in Examination from Persons to things whereas these will continue the same but they are changeable 1. But then it may be observed of the Roman Succession that the case seems so extremely chang'd since the first Times So great an Alteration there is in the Persons and in the Office to which the Succession is now come that it can hardly be look'd on as the continuation of the same The Episcopal Power is all that we can find for some hundred of years laid claim to and our Note is only concerned in it tho in some few single Acts it began by degrees to be stretch'd so as to put other Bishops upon their Guard and Protestations as in the case of Appeals by the Africans Yet were all Bishops owned to have an equal share in that all to be of like Power and Authority all alike Successors of the Apostles whether at Rome or in the meanest City as in the known Testimonies in St. Cyprian and St. Jerom c. But the Papal Power now challenged and exercised is so vastly and widely different from Episcopacy that scarce any Propriety of Speech can bring them under the same Name But to come to matter of Fact. Notwithstanding the high Elogiums given by the Antients on particular occasions to the Roman Church or Bishops and the very bold Efforts and very lofty Aspirings of some of these yet he must have other Eyes or other Spectacles than we can procure who can espy any thing like the Supremacy and Authority claim'd by the present Papacy in the Principles or Practice of the Church for more than five hundred Years which as hath been observed could not but have been as discernable in all the Histories of those Times as the Reference to the power of our Kings and manner of our Government must be in our own History 2. Farther indeed there seems no great Reason for them to be much concerned at the Succession of Bishops that are not very favourable to the very Order We know what great Opposition in their Council of Trent the Divine Right of Episcopacy met with from the chief Favourites of that See when the Determination was so strongly pressed by others De Pont. Rom. l. 1. c. 8 9. l. 4. c. 24. And the Author of these Notes is pleated to determine the Government of the Church not to be chiefly in the Bishops but properly and intirely Monarchical in the Pope only and that he derives his Power immediately from Christ But the Bishops have theirs from him as to Jurisdiction which is Government 3. Moreover they have the less reason to except against any Churches for the want of this Apostolical Order when their very Catechism that multiplies Orders with much less Distinction of Office makes this no distinct Order but only a different Degree of the same Priesthood the supreme Order in their Church ascending only gradually from that of a common Presbyter to that of Bishops Arch-Bishops Patriarchs and the Pope himself Some of the intermediate we know admit no distinct Ordination Nay the pretended plenary Power of the Pope hath sometimes by particular Delegation empowered mitred Abbots but meer Presbyters to supply the Place of two of the Bishops if but one be present even in Ordination it self and that of a Bishop as Bellarmine in this very Note yields Many other Instances might be given of their endeavours to advance the first as it were on purpose to fence off the danger of a Rival To what use else should serve so many Priviledges and Exemptions long complained of Their chief Rise hath been upon the Depression of Bishops and robbing them of their ordinary Power So quite opposite is the true case from the Jelousies of some about this Primitive Order 4. Also they will have little cause to glory much in this pretended uninterrupted Succession when they consider how many Nullities according to their own Principles may dissolve and separate the closest Connexion thereof For besides confused Tumultuary and Simoniacal Promotions from which their own Writers will scarce free some of them That one Principle of the Intention of the Priest being necessary to the Effect of any Sacrament had need make them fearful of relying too much upon it For in case this were once wanting in some of the principal Sources through so long a Tract of time variety of Circumstances and different Temper of Persons which many will think no hard matter to suppose however can never be certainly proved otherwise by this Rule they cannot be secure of any Order yea scarce of any true Christian among them So I proceed to the Third Inquiry How insufficient a Proof this will afford them of any Great Advantage Inquiry 3. Indeed Bellarmin himself seems so Just as in part to yield this in his Answer to the Fourth Objection about this Note He says an Argument may be brought that there the Church is not where there is not this Succession but it cannot thence necessarily be gathered that there the Church is wheresoever this Succession is So that it seems no positive Proof with him Wherefore he thinks fit to exclude the Eastern Churches or break their Succession upon pretences of Heresy 1. For First This Succession is no sufficient Evividence of the Truth of the Doctrine of any Church Indeed were Tradition so infallible a Conveyance of Truth as some Men that talk of nothing below Demonstration would vouch Were it impossible for any new Opinion to creep into the Church Were it necessary that Men must believe to Day as they did Yesterday and so in short as it were at one Leap up to the very Apostles and that the passage of sixteen hundred years were able to make as little Alterations in the Memorials or Evidences of what Doctrines or Rules of Practice were first delivered by word of Mouth as the last Nights sleep does of what pass'd the Day before Then every Church of Apostolical Foundation and such were all then Planted had been and would still continue as Infallible as the Church of Rome thinks her self and we should not have had any dispute about their Tenets nor any such Exceptions against their Succession What Security theirs hath from the Defections which others are charged with or have been found liable to what Evidence may be produc'd that any Church or Company of Men in the Church may not add in process of Time some Doctrines and Usages very prejudicial to the Common Faith once delivered to the Saints And that the Resolution of our Faith is only with safety to be made into the Perpetuity and Infallibility of the Roman Church alone by it self or its Dependants we are yet to seek And much wonder that the Ancients in all their Disputes with Hereticks and Schismaticks should take so great a compass to confute their Adversaries from Scripture Reason and other Authorities beside what the See of Rome afforded and not with our
modern Controvertists make short work in appealing to this last only effectual way of Decision had it then been received and known for so fundamental a Principle of Christianity as is now pretended 2. As this uninterrupted Succession of Bishops where yielded is no sufficient Proof of the Truth of the Doctrine of any Church so neither is it a warrantable Ground of the claim of Superiority over another Church which hath not so clear evidences thereof And if these two fail those we have to deal with they will gain very little by this Note For as the Succession may yea ought to be supposed good when sufficient Proof appears not to the contrary So where there really appears Want of this Succession and need to to fly to other Churches for the Relief thereof yet this charitable Assistance which all ought most freely and willingly to offer or lend to each other does not presently give one the Power over the other for ever after The Apostles themselves seem not to derive their Power over the Churches by them planted so much from the Success of their Labours as from their immediate Divine Commission intimated in the Beginning of their Epistles though the one was a great Endearment and Enforcement to the others and so it ought to be We may suppose sometimes greater Churches converted by the Ministry of the less who were so happy as to receive the Faith before them Younger Churches have many times leapt over the Heads of much Elder and the Inferior having gained some considerable Advancement in a Civil Account have soon arrived at a proportionable Promotion in the Ecclesiastical as particularly the Church of Constantinople And somewhat like may be observed in the Changes of other Cities Superior Bishops are ordained by those over whom they after have some Authority For if not only Priority of Order but also Superiority of Jurisdiction be unalterably entailed upon the Eldest I doubt the Church of Jerusalem which was certainly the Mother-Church must be also the Mistress of all And if that Line be extinct I believe there are many other Branches it must descend to before it come to the Roman Some have disputed whether Britain it self had not a Church as soon And that they should ground a claim from what they will not yield to others sufficient for the same purpose seems very unequal But surely the Designs and Effects of this Spiritual Warfare are not like those usually of the Carnal meerly to inlarge the Dominions of their Leaders and advance the Power of their Governors The Churches conquests consist in the multitude of Souls gained to Christ in the new Plantations or farther Growth and Emprovements of all Christian Graces and Vertues in Mens Winds in fastning some Good and Benefit on them and not in gaining new outward Dependances to our selves any farther than the needful Preservation of Peace and Order in every distinct Dominion What is more smells too strong of Worldly Policy Temporal Gain or Secular Ambition to have any true Place here When Men are more industrious to promote and encourage every where sincere Piety and Probity and less concern'd in the claims of unlimited Soveraignty and Power then may we think true Religion and not other Interest to be the first Mover with them But to consider a little the Cardinal's Testimonies here The Second out of St. Augustin Psalmo contra partem Donati being the fullest and alone pertinent to their purpose I single out Numerate inquit Sacerdotes vel ab ipsa Sede Petri in ordine illa Patrum quis cui successerit videte Ipsa est Petriae quam non vincunt Superbae Inferorum Portae As to the latter part of it where the stress lies we have this Argument that it must be interpreted only as an occasional Allusion that in many places where he purposely expounds that Passage of the Gospel he makes Christ himself confessed by St. Peter to be the Rock on which he built his Church as Retract l. 1.21 Tom. 1. p. 30. and in cap. 21. Sti. Johan Tom. 9. p. 572. Super hanc Petram quam confessus se c. And indeed asserts no more but matter of Fact in a single case that the Seat of St. Peter to which the Donatists when condemned by the African Bishops upon their Appeal to the Emperour were referred was as a Rock which the proud Gates of Hell so he resembles their Presumptions doe not prevail against That is the cause was given against them by the Roman Bishop and others joyn'd with him Where though some Allusion may be made to the Place in the Gospel yet it is not fair to strain an Argument thence against the plain and expresly designed Exposition of if especially among such short Strictures of which that Tract is made up And for the other Testimonies in Irenaeus Tertullian and Epiphanius We acknowledg their Arguments good against upstart Teachers of new Doctrine But they expresly joyn Succession of Doctrine with that of Persons otherwise it had been of no Validity unless by referring their Adversaries who were not much moved by Authority to the evidences of the conveyance of the opposite Opinions to them from the first Originals The other two places in St. Aug. and that of Optatus against the Donatists imply no more to those presumptuous Inclosers of the whole Church within their own narrow Bounds and Beginners of it from themselves than a Challenge for them to shew any thing of the Apostolical Original thereof or after-conveyance like other Churches and particularly the Roman wherein St. Augustin Epist 165 after a Catalogue of the Bishops thereof thus closes In hoc ordine successionis nullus Donatista Episcopus invenitur And in all his Disputes with them lays the charge of the Guilt of their Schism upon the separation from all the Churches dispersed over the World according to Prophetical and Evangelical Declarations No Person or Place to prejudicate to all others it follows in the fore-mentioned ut certa sit spes fidelibus quae non in Homine sed in Domino collocata All which and more to any that consult the References throughout rather confirm our Claim We have as good Evidences and Conveyances as our Adversaries can challenge we pretend not to any new Doctrine But for the main ours are what themselves dare not but own What we reject among them are not only as Additions which none must make to the first Principles of Religion but over and above very dangerous and destructive to the common Faith of both For the Proof of such Doctrines or continuance of it we need no new Miracles or new Authority from Heaven but an orderly conveyance of the old and that we still Thanks be to God retain And truly Bellarmin's Inference from the mentioned Citations will carry in it little or no force but seems rather to incline the contrary way If they says he made so much of the continued Succession of 12 20 or 40 Bishops how much may
beginning the Christians at Rome were famous both for their Faith and Manners And no Man that I know of asperseth Linus the first Bishop there who as Platina saith had a mighty Reputation for Sanctity and dy'd a glorious Martyr under Saturninus the Consul But the like may be alledged in favour of the Mother-Church of Hierusalem and of St. James the Bishop of it In the mean while it may be noted that in Rome it being the Imperial City there was a very early affectation of such Superiority as Christ forbad in his Kingdom And St. Hierom at the same time (i) S. Hieron Epist ad Marcellan p. 127. that he takes notice of the right Faith of Rome for then it was contain'd within the limits of the Apostles Creed he reproves that Ambition which had seated it self in Purple on the Seven Hills And this Leaven had before that time swell'd the Contentious Popes Victor and Stephen Secondly It must be further acknowledged that in the later Ages there have been Men of that Communion devoutly inclin'd and of good Morals But this Effect has not had Popery for its Cause but has been derived from Principles common to all Christians And it is from the influence of the first twelve Articles and not of the Additional ones of Trent that such Men have been so pious and so free from blemish In this number are usually put Thaulerus and Savanarola And it appears by their Words that mere Romanism was not the Spring from which their Devotions flow'd There (k) Thauler in Fest de uno aliquo Confess Luc. 11. be many saith Thaulerus who go under the Name of Religious who take great pains in Set-Fasts Vigils Orizons and frequent Confessions For they believe they may be justify'd and sav'd merely by such external Works For Savanarola his Spirit may be discerned by such Discourse as this (l) Compend Revelat. Savan p. 272 273. I never was delighted with such Books as the Revelations of St. Brigid or Abbot Joachim I never read the former and the latter very sparingly The reading of the Old and New Testament pleaseth me so much that for many Years I have used no other Book disgusting as I may say other Writings Not that I despise them but that in comparison of the Scriptures all such sweet things taste to me as bitter Neither Thirdly Have the Reformed so much of the Pharisee as to justify themselves and say that in all their Field there has not been a Tare But the Men have been in fault and not the Cause God be merciful to us Sinners greater Sinners than some others upon one account inasmuch as we offend against clearer Light. Yet it may be here noted that Bellarmin has put into his Catalogue of Sinners Simon Magus Valentine Marcion Montanus and such others as do not at all belong to us and that He and other Romanists mis-represent Luther blackning of him with slanderous Art and then exposing him as a perfect Aethiopian He was indeed a Man of warm Temper and uncourtly Language But besides that he had his Education among Those who so vehemently revil'd him it may be consider'd whether in passing through so very rough a Sea it was not next to impossible for him not to beat the insulting Waves till they foam'd again He had his Infirmities but his are taken notice of whilst more Candour is shew'd to Men of great Name and well nigh equal Heat To omit the fierce Words which pass'd betwixt St. Chrysostom and Epiphanius St. Hierom and Ruffinus it is manifest that Lucifer Bishop of Calaris in Sardinia who was much esteem'd by Pope Liberius and who is called Holy Lucifer according to the style of the time in which he lived wrote Books against his own Emperor Constantius which were one entire Invective And when for instance sake he pleas'd to call him Most Impudent Emperor (m) Luc. Calar Ad Constant pro S. Athan. p. 25. l. 1. Responde Imperator Impudentissime p. 39. Filius Pestilentiae c. p. 102. Qui sis non solum mendax sed Homicida I suppose he had not a better Talent than Luther in the Address of Courts There was therefore something else which sharpned the Tongues and Pens of many against Luther Erasmus tells us That (n) Erasm Ep. ad Albert. Episc Princ. Mogunt Cardin. p. 584 585. he perceiv'd the better any Man was the more he relish'd the Writings of Luther That his very Enemies allow'd him to be a Man of good Life That he seem'd to him to have in his Breast certain eminent Evangelical Sparks That 't was plain that some condemn'd those things in Luther's Writings which in St. Austin's and St. Bernard's Works pass'd for Orthodox and Pious The same Erasmus pointed to the true reasons of this usage of Luther (o) Carion in Cron. Auct a Peuc l. 5. He said he had two Faults He touch'd the Monks Bellies and the Popes Crown There have been much worse Men than Luther in all Parties and particularly in the Roman Church which if Inquisition were made for a Society by the Marks of Holy Life would not above all others be taken hold of And First Thus much may appear from the Complaints of Corruption in the Latin Church made in so many places by so many considerable Persons and with such deep Resentment Many Books have been professedly written upon that Subject such as those of Clemangis of the corrupt state of the Church of Alvarez Pelagius of the Plainct of the Church of Picus Mirandula concerning the Reformation of the Church offer'd to the Fathers of the Council of Lateran and of Petrus de Aliaco Cardinal of Cambray presented by him in the Council of Constance Others have in particular places tho not in an entire work given vent to their Grievances upon the like occasion How black are the Characters which are given of the State of the Latin Church by Baronius (p) Baron Annal. ad Ann. 900. p. 650. ad Ann. 912. N. 8. p. 685. N. 14. p. 689. Ed. Col. by Bellarmin (q) Bellarm. Chronol Ad Ann. 1026. p. 93. de Sacram. l. 1. c. 8. de Gemit Columbae p. 192 208. 209 392. by Genebrard (r) Genebr Chronol Ad Ann. 901. About the Year 900 and so forwards for more than an hundred Years Baronius speaks of Monsters intruded into the Holy See and by the help of Monsters For such were John the Tenth and Theodora who advanc'd him Bellarmin represents the Popes of those Times as degenerating from the Piety of their Predecessors of which some had no very great share And he says that in the West and almost all the World over and especially amongst those who were called the Faithful Faith had failed and that there was no fear of God among them He mentions the Vision of Pachomius the Abbot who it seems saw Monasteries increasing and Piety decreasing And he applys the Vision to his Age and upon that
Apostolicum solium annos decem menses septem tenuisset praecipiti morbo ex humanis ereptus est Raynald ad an 1352. n. 21. as their own Writers witness But Luther had eat a lusty Supper and was merry and jocular the Evening before And so had several of their Popes the next Evening before they died Pope Paul II after he had supp'd most jollily and perswaded himself that he had many Years to live the same Night died of an Apoplexy (o) Et cum annos plurimos vivere sibi persuaderet anno salutis nostrae 1471. v. Kal. Augusti hora secunda noctis cum eo die laetum consistorium habuisset jocundissime caenasset Apoplexia correptus vitam cum morte mutavit Johan Stell Anno 1464. p. 262. Pope Leo X led constantly a merry Life but his Death happen'd in the highest excess of Feasting Mirth and Jollity and so suddenly that there was not time afforded for Absolution and Extreme Unction (p) Ex hujus victoriae nuncio Leonem Pontificem ingenti diffusum gaudio referunt in qua Apoplexia correptus nullis perceptis Sacramentis aetatis anno quadragesimo sexto nondum exacto decessit inopina morte Raynald ad an 1521. n. 108. Die insequenti laetitiae pompam sua morte clausit inopina quidem adeâ— ut ne Sacramentis quidem munitus suerit N. 109. And if Luther jested the Day before he died methinks it might have passed without any severe Censure since Sir Tho. More the Pope's Martyr was so sportful upon the Scaffold and died with a Jest in his Mouth But what credit is to be given to his Enemies we may learn from those monstrous Tales they spread concerning his Death not only after but long before it Such as that horrible Miracle wrought at his Funeral for the Conviction of Hereticks which he confuted with his own Hand And it is not unpleasant to read how they contradict one another One says That he purged out his Entrails like Arius Another That his Mouth was distorted and his whole right Side turned to a duskish Colour But above all commend me to Thyraeus the Jesuit He confidently tells us That in a Town of Brabant named Cheol there were many Persons possess'd with Devils who were brought thither to be cured by the Intercessions and Prayers of the Saint of the Place That these poor Creatures were on a sudden deliver'd from these Evil Spirits and that this was the very Day that Luther died That the day after the Devils return'd again into the same Bodies and being asked whither they were gon the day before answer'd That by the Commandment of their Prince they were call'd forth to attend the Soul of their Grand Prophet and Companion Luther This Fable as ridiculous as it is malicious is quoted at large and credited by as considerable a Man as Florimond de Ramond (r) De la Naissance de l' Heresie l. 3. c. 11. p. 332. He I say that shall reflect upon these things will not be apt to believe the Reports of his Adversaries If we take the account of his Death from Sleidan we shall find it very different and such as was every way becoming a most pious and devout Christian (s) Jo. Sleid. Comment l. 17. But it will be said that he was his Friend and therefore as little to be credited as his Enemies Hear therefore what many Learned Men of the Church of Rome say who cannot be suspected of any partiality in Favour of him The Fathers in Trent saith Father Paul and the Court of Rome conceived great hope seeing that so potent an Instrument to contradict the Doctrine and Rites of the Church of Rome was dead c. and the rather because that Death was divulged throughout Italy with many prodigious and fabulous Circumstances which were ascribed to Miracle and the Vengeance of God tho there were but the usual accidents which do ordinarily happen in the Deaths of Men of sixty three Years of Age (t) Hist of the Counc of Trent l. 2. p. 149. So that in Father Paul's judgment there was nothing in his Death but what was common Yea that the very worst Circumstances were no other than such Accidents which happen also many times to VERY GOOD CHRISTIANS is acknowledged by a late Adversary (u) Spirit of Mart. Luth. p. 104. who hath written a Book on purpose to disparage him Yea that he died in great Honour as well as piously another hath informed us After Supper says Thuanus immediately before the Night in which he departed when he was ask'd Whether in the Eternal Life we shall know one ather he said that we should and confirmed it by Testimonies of Scripture As many strove who should best express their Love to him while he lived so neither by Death could they be drawn from loving him The Citizens of Mansfield contended that he ought to be buried with them because that was his Native Soil but the Authority of Frederick the Prince Elector prevail'd that he should be carried to Wittenberg and there honourably Interr'd (w) Post caenani proxime ante noctem qua decessit cum rogaretur num in illa sempiterna vita simus alter alterum agnituri ita esse aiebat Scripturae testimoniis confirmabat Ut certatim eum vivum c. Thuan. Hist l. 2. And indeed the transcendent Honour that was done to his Memory seems to be that which chiefly provoked his Enemies to set their Inventions on work to defame him The Cardinal 's next Instance of an unhappy End is Zuinglius And why is his Death reckon'd unhappy Because he was slain in a War against Catholicks (x) Zuinglius in bello contra Catholicos trucidatus est Bellarm. But is it a strange thing for a Man to be kill'd in a War Does every one that so ends his Days die miserably If so How many Millions hath the Pope brought to a miserable End in sending them to the Wars against Saracens and Hereticks O that they 'l say is a glorious Death that merits the brightest Crown in Heaven But Zuinglius was kill'd in a War against Catholicks But stay the Cardinal makes them Catholicks too soon he supposes them Catholicks before Zuinglius was kill'd whereas he was to prove them Catholicks by his being kill'd for his unhappy Death is the Note now under debate by which they were to be known to be of the true Church But that his Death could be no Argument that God disapproved the cause in which he died is evident because to the great grief of our Adversaries the Reformed Religion which they hoped would have died together with him made a greater Progress after his Death than it had done before I shall speak but a word to the two next because the Cardinal's Spite is chiefly against Calvin who brings up the rear Oecolampadius says Bellarmin in the Evening went well to Bed and in the Morning was by his Wife found dead
eodem sit vulnere mortuus Stella tells us that he was Stabb'd by the Husband of the Adulteress (x) Stella ad an 958. p. 133. Martin that he died in Adultery suddenly without Repentanoe (y) Chron. l. 4. p. 353. In this they all agree that he receiv'd his Death's Wound in the very act of Lewdness the Devil well rewarded him for the honour he was wont to do him in drinking his Health (z) Luitprand l. 6. c. 7. Pope Boniface VII (a) Plat. Stella and Boniface VIII (b) Mart. Polon l. 4. p. 439. Stella an 1291. Plat. both died as shamefully as they lived wickedly Benedict IX the Writers of his Life tell us was seen after Death in a monstrous Likeness and being asked after he had told who he was why he appeared in such a horrid shape he answered Because I lived like a Beast without Law and Reason it is the Will of God and of St. Peter that I should bear the shape of a Beast rather than of a Man (c) Plat. Mart. Polon Stella I should not have mention'd this had I not found it confirm'd by Cardinal Baronius (d) Baron Annal. an 1054 n. 54 55. Who also gives the Reasons from Petrus Damiani why he appeared in the compounded shape of a Bear and an Ass and adds the reason himself why he appeared by a Mill (e) Ibid. n. 56. Alexander VI by the mistake of his Cup-bearer drank himself that deadly Wine which he had prepared for the poisoning of his Cardinals and died forthwith (f) Papir Masson l. 6. fol. 374. Richer Hist Conc. general l. 4. par 1. p. 144. Paul IV went off the Stage with as much Infamy as his Enemies could desire scarce was the Breath out of his Body when the People mad with Fury ran through the City to destroy whatsoever had been done by him cursed the Memory of the Pope and of all Carafaes the Name of the Pope's Family burnt the new Prison of the Inquisition he had made for Hereticks Then running to the Capitol demolish'd his Marble Statue drew the Head of it through the Streets of the City and after many Contumelies threw it into Tiber. In fine an Edict was promulgated by which all were commanded under the heaviest Penalty to deface the Arms of the Caraffian Family in what place soever of the City they were found (g) Onuphr in vit This may I think suffice for Popes It were easy to observe several Circumstances in the Deaths of Morgan Gardiner Sanders and others which Men would be apt to conclude were special Indications of God's Displeasure against the Cause but it is needless because the advantage of the Protestants as to their Church-Men is already sufficiently manifest I might now proceed to Secular Persons and shew that their advantage is as great with respect to them It was before observ'd that the Cardinal has not produc'd so much as one unhappy Death of a Protestant Prince There has been one indeed here in England since the Cardinal's Death I mean King Charles I. But what is one to the many that might be mention'd of Popish Princes In France alone within the space of threescore Years we meet with no fewer than five immediately succeeding one the other without so much as one happy Death between viz. Hen. II Francis II Charles IX Hen. III and Hen. IV. I now leave the Romanists themselves to make the Conclusion which most naturally follows from the Premises And for a Conclusion of this Discourse desire them to observe the difference between Bellarmin's Authorities and mine Whereas what he reports of the unhappy Deaths of Protestants he has taken it from Papists and from such Papists who were their most implacable Enemies I have not said a Word of the unhappy Ends of Cardinals Popes and Popish Princes but what I have borrow'd from their own Writers THE END LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. ERRATA PAg. 335. l. 5. for there r. them P. 336. l. 22. r. Diocletian P. 344. l. last for found r. forc'd P. 349. Marg. l. 7. for caenani r. caenam P. 352. l. 27. for Phisician r. Physitian P. 354. Marg. for Vondra r. Voudra l. 6. for beaucomp r. beaucoup P. 358. Marg. l. 13. for pons r. pous The Fifteenth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ TEMPORAL FELICITY Vltima Nota est Felicitas Temporalis divinitàs iis collata qui Ecclesiam defenderunt Bellarm. de Notis Ecclesiae Cap. 18. IMPRIMATUR August 12. 1687. Guil. Needham WE are now come to the Last of those Notes by which the Cardinal would perswade us the true Church may be easily known He had laboured hard to make them up so many but he was resolved never to leave raising of Notes till he had his full Complement of Fifteen And in this he seems to have been put to such a Shift as some Generals sometimes are who finding themselves in Streights draw out their Front to a great Length and fill up their Ranks with Suttlers Boyes and other weak Attendants on the Camp meerly to make a Shew and amuse the Enemy with a vain appearance of Numbers when they have reason to dread the Issue of the Battel It is certain no Man before him ever counted up so many Notes as he has done Some he tells us make but Two some Three Bellarm. de Not. Eccl. c. 3. some Four some Six some Ten or Eleven as they please and one he thinks reckons up a Dozen which is the most that any ever durst venture upon till he himself came on the Stage And then he at last makes a new Discovery that they were all short in their Account for that the Notes of the Church are just Fifteen So that here must be Three at least purely his own that were never heard of before and for which they that like them must stand for ever obliged to Cardinal Bellarmin's happy Invention But then what a miserable Condition was the Church in for many Ages For if there be no Salvation out of their Church as they of the Romish Persuasion confidently affirm and if this Church is to be known by certain Notes as they endeavour to prove and if these Notes be dubious and arbitrary and often differing according to the Fancy of their several Writers as cannot be denied then what hopes can there ever be of finding out the true Church and ending the Controversy this way And if two or three Notes are sufficient to determine the Matter as some have thought to what purpose are we troubled with all the rest But if the whole Number be judged necessary to make it evident what a hazardous Estate were Men in before this great Author had perfected the List And their danger continued a long time for they were never acquainted with divers of these Notes till towards the latter end of the Sixteenth Century But the Cardinal
the Holy War And there he takes notice how the Christians being then about Antioch with a small number and those in great dispair and a very languishing Condition for want of necessary Provisions and the Enemy at hand with a potent numerous Army and when they were in this distress it was at length seasonably revealed to some Body where the Holy Lance was which was brought into the Field in the nick of time and carried before the Souldiers and three Holy Men appeared in the Clouds fighting for them and by this means they unexpectedly got an entire Victory with the slaughter of an hundred thousand of the Turks I will not question the Truth of any part of the Story but let any Man consider the various Successes of that War and that it was concluded to the advantage of the Infidels who remained Masters of all at last after so much Blood and Treasure expended and so many of the bravest Spirits of Europe thrown away upon those tedious and fruitless Expeditions and he will be apt to suspect that here the Cardinal did manifestly prevaricate and that he had a real design to betray his own Church and give up the Cause to Mahomet After this he boasts of a notable Victory over the Albigenses where a hundred thousand of the Hereticks were totally routed by his Catholicks that were not the tenth part of their number It is true the Histories of those times do generally mention a very great Overthrow given those poor People in a Battel by a very inconsiderable handful of Men under the Command or Simon Mountfort and that Peter King of Arragon who came to their Assistance was slain on the Place and Raymond Earl of Thoulouse forced to fly And upon this occasion to strengthen the Cardinal's Argument as much as is possible I think it will not be amiss to call to mind some other of their glorious Victories over these Albigenses These we must know were a sort of Hereticks that were spread far and near and had a long time infected the Church See Usher de Christ Eccl. Success Scat. cap. 10. Sect. 23 24. c. some say they had continued ever since the days of the Apostles Pope Innocent the Third very desirous to find a Remedy for this Inveterate Evil appoints divers eminent Preachers to go into the parts where they were thought to be the most numerous and teach nothing there but the pure Doctrine of the Church of Rome and endeavour by this means to convince them of their supposed Errors But this way not succeeding the Hereticks remaining obstinate still notwithstanding the Diligence of the Missionaries he bethinks himself of a more effectual Expedient Since Perswasions will not prevail he is resolved to try whether Terror and Force may not have a greater Power of Conviction than Argument Therefore he publishes a Crusado against the Hereticks as had been formerly done against the Infidels in the East and sets forth his Bull of Plenary Indulgence to all that should engage in this Sacred Militia and makes them as sure of Heaven as those were that should be sent on his Errand to the Holy Land. Upon this extraordinary encouragement great Multitudes flock together from all parts and full of Zeal and Rage they march on and perform many notable Exploits to the Eternal Honour of themselves and him that put them on that pious Work. In one City they put threescore thousand to the Sword sparing neither Sex nor Age. And when the tender-hearted Souldiers found there were some Catholicks in the Place they desire to know whether these might not be admitted to Quarter The Pope's Legat that was attending the Action commands them to make no Distinction for fear a Heretick might escape under that pretence And he excuses the Severity of the Order with a Scripture Expression The Lord knoweth who are His. This beginning was enough to strike Terror into all that heard it and then they go on valiantly still doing great Execution wherever they come Whenever any Town or Castle was surrender'd it was always upon these Articles they that would be converted had their Lives they that refused were Hanged or Burnt After they had proceeded a while in this manner Simon Mountfort a stout Zealot is by common consent chosen General of the Pilgrims for so they were called and appointed Commander in chief for this new kind of Holy War with a Promise of the Government of what had already been or should happen hereafter to be taken from the Hereticks He armed with a sufficient Power quickly forces Raimund of Tholouse out of his Dominions The poor ejected Prince flyes to the great Lateran Council for Relief they as if the question had been about a Matter of Faith suffer the Debate to come before them and depriving Raimund constitute Simon E. of Tholouse Raimund hereupon retires into Spain Simon 's new Subjects suddenly revolt and force him to go himself and send his Wife to several Courts to beg such Supplies as might be sufficient to reduce them to Obedience But before that could be done he is crushed to pieces with a great Stone out of an Engine as he lay before Tholouse Soon after his Younger Son Guy is likewise slain at another Town Almaric the Elder and Heir to his Father highly inraged with these Misfortunes that fell so thick upon his Family swears desperately that he would never remove the Seige till he was Master of the Place But notwithstanding this insolent Bravado he is constrained to go away in a Disgrace aggravated with the Guilt of a presumptious foolish Oath Before this Raimund was returned and entered again upon his Legal Inheritance and died at last in Possession of it and left the Sucession to his Son when Almaric was fain to wander up and down the World earnestly entreating all that pleased to pitty his Condition to afford him some Succours that he might be enabled to endeavour the Recovery of what had been lately usurped by his Father And now upon a Review of the Successes on both Sides thus far the Hereticks seem clearly to have the Advantage And for what followed after this it is an Argument of the particular care the Divine Providence has always had in the preservation of those distressed Albigenses that could never be destroyed by the many potent Combinations that have been made against them and the violent Persecutions they have endured within these last five hundred Years but in spight of all the Malice of their Enemies the Remains of them at this Day are enough to exercise the Valour of another Mountfort if any unhappy Age should chance to produce one For his Catholick Victories in Switzerland and the Low-Countries if the Cardinal had been pleased to acquaint us what they were perhaps they might be easily ballanced However for ought I can learn the Protestant Cantons are in as good Condition as the other I am sure the Confederate Provinces of the Netherlands are grown a very rich and