shall appear from a pretended discovery of Turrians who brought to light that which lay in darkness for a good store of hundred years 3. Bishop Jewel and other Protestants of those times were not required to produce the Records by Dr. Stapleton Dr. Harding Mr. Rascal and other Romanists of those times who never urged any thing in defence of N. N's Story and to the prejudice of the Records 4. They were virtually and in effect produced by the Parliament in their reference to them and were alledged and mentioned in Dr. Parker's Life as N. N. acknowledgeth in the next Paragraph 5. The advantage got by producing them could only have proved their Legality and the advantage lost by concealing might have brought their Legality into dispute but could not destroy their Validity 6. The producing them would not have foiled their enemies for produce them unless it be to an ingenious Adversary the Sticklers have a despeâ—â—te shift they were forged if this be cleared they produce another desperate shift now most in request with them supposing say they there be materialâ— Mission in the Church of England yet it is not to the true intent and purpose or as some express it their Ordination doth not enable them to offer true substantial Sacrifice and so from one desperate shift unto another in infinitum 7. They did not produce them therefore they were not extant is another of N. N's absurd inconsequences for it is an Argument from Authority negatively which though in some cases it may hold yet here it cannot for it is as if we should thus argue Neither N. N. nor any of his Camrades were so quick-sighted as to spie such a Sentence in St. Aug. therefore there is not any such extant in his Writings 8. What he affirms of Dr. Fulk we are not directed where to find it probably if he had been at leisure he would have referred to his Answer to the Rhemish Annotators and if there it he then it is to be found in Rom. 10. Sect. 5. p. 471. where he hath so strongly proved his Position out of Ruff. Theodor. c. that all his Nags-head Narrators durst never undertake a refutation neither was this any desperate shift in him upon that pretended reason which N. N. hath alledged for this he had bassed in the foregoing Sentence which N. N. unworthily and purposely conceals saying No man ought to intrude himself into that Priestly Office without lawful Calling How lewd and desperate then was N. N. to tell the World he was put to desperate shifts when he giveth God thanks he had no temptation nor occasion to use any thing If it be suggested he bluntly declared any such expressions he will be found still to be the same man and of the same Judgment SECT IX N. N. DR Bristow Motive 21. what Church is that whose Ministers are very Lay-men unsent uncalled c. Mr. Rainolds Calv. Tarc l. 4. c. 15. There is no Herdman in all Turkie which doth not undertake the Government of his Herd upon better Reason Right Order and Authority than those your magnificent Apostles and Evangelists can shew for this Divine Office of governing of Souls Dr. Stapleton's Counterblast against Horn fol. 7 8 9. To say truly you are no Lord of Winchester c. Is it not notorious that you and your Collegues were not Ordained according to the Prescript I will not say of the Church but even of the very Statutes c. fol. 301. You are without any Consecration at all your Metropolitan himself poor man being no Bishop at all Dr. Harding in his detection against Mr. Jewel fol. 129. You tell not half my tale c. I ask you of your Priesthood and Bishoply Vocation and Sending c. These being my Questions you answor neither by what example hands were laid on you nor who sent you c. Those who took upon them to give Orders in King Edward's days were altogether out of order themselves and ministred them not according to the rite and manner of the Catholick Church as who had forsaken the succession of Bishops in all Christendom c. and had erected c. Mr. Jewel answers this with profound silence only he says without any proof our Bishops c. To this Dr. Harding replies your Metropolitan who should give authority to all your Consecrations himself had no lawful Consecration the Ancient Bishops were either not required or refused to Consecrate you which is an evident sign you sought not for such a Consecration as had ever been used but such an one whereof all the former Bishops were ashamed To this sharp Reply directly affirming the Nullity of Mr. Parker's Ordination and by consequence of all the English Clergy Mr. Jewel answers not one word to the main Point nor mentions Mr. Mason's Records what then can any man of an indifferent Judgment think in this case but the Records were not then extant or forged How is it they should not be produced by Horn Jewel Parker and the rest whom it specially concerneth to make proof of their own calling being so often and so earnestly urged thereto by their Adversaries triumphing over them for want of due Authentick proof thereof yet the Records were never mentioned by any of them If they were extant and not produced against the Catholicks it was because in Queen Elizabeth's time many were living who could have proved them to be forged so that the Act of Parliament and Parker's Life makes them more incredible than if no mention were made SECT X. J. S. TO this tedious nothing for N. N. hath now almost emptied his Budget of broken Wares which deserves no return in it self that shall be replied only which will discover how willing some Romanists are to fight with their own shadows and like drowning men to catch at sticks and straws to buoy up their sinking Cause 1. Those Authors he here mentions never touched at the Nags-head if they had known or heard of any such thing they would have divulged it with open mouth neither did they in all these Quotations ever so much as hint at or reflect upon the Records only Dr. Stapleton presumes they were not Ordained according to the Prescript of the Statutes themselves because he conceived as formerly hath been said that the Statute was not revived in Law primo Eliz. if otherwise he thought the Parliament may be presumed to be more knowing than he was in that Case and we may further and justly presume that those who left no stone unturned for the advantage of the good old Cause would not over-leap such Stumbling-blocks for the two first of these Authors they were so deep in rage that they quite stifled reason but Dr. Bristow met with his match one that paid him home in his own Coin for Mr. Rainolds he acted the part of a Renegado who would be sure by the fortiter calumniari his high calumnies to decline the shame of his Revolt Dr. Stapleton by Catholick Church meant
of Constance as a lawful General-Council and to its Decree concerning the Superiority of a Council above the Pope and as many do to this day which also necessarily destroyeth the supposition of the Popes Infallibility because no inferiour Authority can be Infallible for that it can be controuled and corrected by a superiour over-ruling Power and that which is Infallible cannot neither ought to be controuled or corrected If any Romanists conceive and some there be who would be esteemed and pass for such with otherwise discerning men to be the more moderate sort that this is no direct consequence it were well done of them to reconcile the different pretensions and contradictory perswasions of the Pope and a Council and clearly declare whether the two contesting parties can be both Infallible for an Infallibility they will have and if there be such a thing it must be seated in the one or the other for there are no other pretenders to it and if we must have two Infallibles then which of them for the time being is the most Infallible to end the Controversy for till this be decided there can be no end of Controversies because this Controversy will be still agitated and few or none besides shall be satisfactorily determined because all others do mostly depend on this or whether it were not more prudent by way of Accommodation to compound the difference betwixt themselves that by consent the Contestants should take the Infallibility by turns the Pope have his vicissitude and the Council theirs or that it pass as a long time it hath done by a standing Rule of Catch that Catch can provided it can be so ordered that it be done without hot bickerings and canvassings But the through-paced Papists stand close to their tacklings for where they fix the Supremacy there also very consonantly to their supposition they lodg the Infallibility for thus they argue in the ease of the Pope His Authority (p) Bell. l. 4. de Pont. c. 24. Sect. 2. c. l. 2. de Conc. c. 13. And this is saith he the judgment of the best writers quos recenset ib. Sect. ult and therefore his judgment is the last and highest id l. 4. de Rom. Pont. c. 1. Sect. Sed nec Sect. denique and because it is the last and highest therefore it is Infallible ib. l. 3. Sect. contra l. 2. de Conc. c. 9. Sect. accedat c. c. 11. Sect de 2. Sect. de 3. is Supreme therefore his judgment in causes of Faith is the last and the highest and because it is the last and the highest therefore it is Infallible But upon the whole matter it is evident from what hath before been avouched that the Holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul were not the Founders of the present Romish Church as it is now constituted and managed but Julius the Second and Leo the Tenth by their new settlement and so their pretence of possession which at the best was tortious is quite out of doors and at last N. N's Original of Protestancy falls out to be indeed the just date and commencement of Popery Wherefore as the Papists frequently but foolishly propose to us Where was your Church before Luther So we upon the foregoing grounds may more reasonably demand of them where was your Popish Church before Julius the Second and Leo the Tenth which Question they will never satisfy till they renounce their new Faith and new Foundation of Faith upon which their new Church is superstructed 3. Supposing this acknowledgment then an 1516. and there in our parts of the World this is far from rendring it Catholick because far removed from that Golden Rule of Catholicism delivered by Vin. Lyr. and approved by all good Catholicks quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus c. For if before that year and age and in other parts of the World that which Protestants now call Popery was not acknowledged Catholick Doctrine it must not now be acknowledged Catholick neither ought it then and in our parts of the World to have been acknowledged Catholick the ancient Primitive is to be more respected and reverenced than the Church of the last Century and other parts of the Christian World have been and are as truly and univocally parts of the one Holy Catholick Church as ours can be and the true Faith is one and the same in all ages and places But will or can N. N. answer to Bell. who l. de notis Eccl. c. 7. positively declares that if only one Province should retain the Catholick Faith yet it should be truly and properly called the Catholick Church as long as it might be shewed as Protestants have it was the same which it was at other times in other plaees of the World Driedo dogmat Eccles lib. 4. part 2. seems to be of his mind And what will he say to Dr. Bristow who motive the 45. confesseth some there have been in many ages in some poinis of the Protestants opinion insomuch that there is scarce one piece or Article of our whole Faith but by one or other first or last it hath been called in Question and that with such liking for the time that they all have in a manner drawn after them great herds of followers these some and all were long before this Origenists Aera 1516. and what if these some of Bristow prove to be very many as the Cardinal of Praeneste reckoned them Vicards poor people of Lions Speronists Arnoldists and Waldenses who as Reinerus reports were far spread and of long standing in the Church For thus he relates the matter refort Illyric Catal. test devit tom 2. p. 543 but in an old Edition p. 32. lit D. they continued so long as no Sect hath some say it hath been since Sylvester some since the Apostles there is universality of time and there is almost no countrey wherein it spreadeth not there is universality of place and persons they have great shew of Piety living uprightly before men and believing all things aright concerning God and all the Articles of the Creed and abating his great shew they were good Catholicks because holy believers and livers but that he added a subsequent cause only they hate and blaspheme the Church of Rome and that marred all otherwise they had passed muster and St. Bernard is much to the same purpose Serm. 65. sup Cant. Edit Venet. an 1575. Tom. 1. p. 328. tit H. Si fidem interroges c. If you require an account of their Faith nothing is more Christian if of their Conversation nothing more commendable they frequent the Church honour the Priests offer their Gifts make Confession and communicate in the Sacraments these were no Schismaticks they hurt none circumvent none contemn none are true and just in all their dealings performing what they promised these were not unjust wicked men yet he had a pique at them they did not observe the Monkish Vow of Continence which he conceived
547. n. 29. three Chapters so requiring Commanded the Holy men assembled to protract (t) Inst Ep. ad Synod Collat. 1. p. 520. the time no longer in expectation of the Popes presence but to debate and deliver a speedy Judgment upon the Controversy depending before them which they readily submitted to and accordingly did discuss and (v) Ibid. Coll. 2. p. 524. determine the matter without the Popes Placet and contrary to his good liking and (w) Baron Ann. 553. n. 212. affections 2. The practice not only of Heathen and Jewish Kings do confirm this but of Christian also who have challenged and exercised this Power as their Original Right derived to them from God The first famously known Christian Emperour Constantine the Great said to his Bishops You are the Bishops of those things within the Church but I am appointed of God to be Bishop of those things without the Church meaning thereby that the oversight of the external Government of things belonging to the Church was by God committed to him as the administration of Holy things of God within the Church was deputed to them (x) Cited in the Book De vera differentia written An. 1634. King Edgar in an Oration to the Clergy required them to make a Reformation by a conjunction of his and their Power committing the whole affair to so many Bishops as he then nominated Charles the Great convocated the Bishops to him to Counsel him how Gods Law should be recovered and in the Preface of the Capitulary wrote thus to the Clergy of his Empire We have sent our Deputies to you c. Let no man censure this as a Presumption to correct what is amiss c. For we have read in the Book of Kings how Josiah restored the Service of God in the Kingdom which he had given him Maximilian in Ann. 1512. Declared though he of his clemency had tolerated the Pope and the Clergy as his Father Frederick had done yet it appertained to his Duty that Religion decay not that the Worship and (y) Abbot Vrspreg Grth. Grat. Easc Whereupon he with Lewis the twelfth of France and some Cardinals called a Council at Pisa and cited the Pope in it Onupher in vit Julii secundi Service of God be not diminished 3. It is the Duty of Soveraign Princes to do as Josiah did by the directions of faithful men though the majority of the Priests express their unwillingness and averseness For many Kings have been severely reproved for not reforming the Idolatrous abuses of Gods Worship in their Reigns which would never have been done unless they in Duty had been obliged to do it and obliged they could not have been unless God had settled a Power in them to do it of which because there is no revocation or limitation in the Gospel therefore the first Grant and Commission standeth good for the Gospel doth not destroy the Law but perfect it 4. Ad hominem did not Queen Mary in her huddled reduction of Popery exercise this Power Did she not introduce the Popish form of Solemn Mass which was then abolished by standing Laws Did not she to drive on her design imprison one Archbishop displace two and deprive eight Bishops Did not she with the consent of a sorry Convention which she called five dayes after her Coronation repeal some Statutes made by Henry then eighth and others by Edward the sixth Sir Henry Spelman in his larger History of Tithes c. 29. p. 170. tells us he had heard there was but twenty persons to give their voice with the Bill and yet carried it Did not she for a colour when the work was done some few dayes after call a Convocation which she soon after dissolved by her peremptory Mandate but not a word of this from our cunning Origenist because it was done for the advancement of the Catholick Cause Popish Princes may do what they like in order to the Good old Cause and never be checked or censured for it but Protestant Sovereigns must be bound up till the Popes License or a Vote in Convocation loose them 5. Although Synods be the most prudential and safe way to determine Church-matters yet without them Gods Worship may be Reformed and the Catholick Doctrine restored In the case of the Catholicks and Arrians Nazianzen ad Procopium complained he saw no good end of Councils certainly in those where Faction prevailed and Votes passed not by weight but number Not that he thought so absolutely and Universally but pro hic nunc in respect of the Times and Persons assembled For he knew if a Council had been called when the Arrians were the overruling party in the Church the Catholicks would be overpowered by multiplicity of Votes yet for all this He and other Catholicks did endeavour the suppression of Arrianism 6. Neither in such times and cases must the business be delayed till a General Council be summoned especially when he who pretends to have the sole Power of calling it and the parties called are aforehand agreed by Clandestine correspondencies they will do nothing towards a Reformation but either obstruct or baffle it Henry the eighth said well A General Council would do well where all may speak their Judgments but it cannot be called a General Council where they only are heard who are resolved to be on the Popes side in all matters and where the same men are Plantiffs Defendants Advocates and Judges Hist Conc. Trid. Angl. fol. 85. 7. Supposing there wanted a formal Synodical concurrence in this Transaction of Edward the sixth there was in effect that which to all intents and purposes is equivalent viz. a General submission and conformity to the Provisional Injunctions and Acts ef Parliament by the Clergy 8. There was a Synod to carry on this matter in Edward the sixths time for though the first Edition of the Liturgy was only framed by the advice and suffrage of Bishops and elected Divines which yet was afterwards revised and compleated with the addition of a form of Making and Consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons but whether the Synod then in being composed and formed it or passed their Power which is more probable for the forming of it to the selected persons appointed by the King and so may properly enough be said to have done it because by those to whom they had consigned their Authority I shall not pretend to determine yet this may be safely resolved on a Synod there was which appears from the Statute-Book which makes mention of a Subsidy of six Shillings in the Pound granted by the Clergy unto the King 2 3 Edw. 6. and it is notoriously known such a Grant in those times passed not without a Convocation and it is certain mention was made of a Synod 1 Mariae held in King Edwards days and Mr. Philpot a member of the Convocation 1 Mar. maintained the Catechism exemplified in the Common-Prayer Book to be Synodical upon this account that the Convocation in King
others not till afterwards and upon several days 5. But N. N. is wronged is being reproved for falshood and misadventures he good man will say nothing but that for which he hath good authorities and good proofs which whether they be regular and valid is next to be examined SECT II. N. N. THis Narration of the Consecration at the Nags-head I have taken out of Hollywood Constable and Dr. Champney's Works They heard it from many of the ancient Clergy who were Prisoners in Wisbitch-Castle as Mr. Bluel Dr. Watson Bishop of Lincoln and others these had it from Mr. Neal and other Catholicks who were present at Mr. Parker's Consecration at the Nags-head as Mr. Constable affirms The story was divulged yet being so evident a truth none durst contradict it notwithstanding both the Nullity and Illegality was objected against them in Print not long after by the Famous Dr. Stapleton's Counterblast fol. 301. SECT II. J. S. ALL this here presented amounts to thus much 1. Mr. Neal and Mr. Constable reported the story therefore it is true Neal was an eye-witness and Constable took it upon trust and all the rest hear-say men So that the whole depends upon their credit and honesty who have crack'd their credit by their holy Fraud and lying Legends and practising the black Art of Equivocation and their honesty is justly suspected who care not what they say so they say something for the advantage of the good old Cause as will hereafter be declared 2. Dr. Bishop a fast Friend to the Cause in his Repr of Dr. Abbot's Defence p. 120 confutes this way of Argumentation saying Any man not past all care of his Reputation would be ashamed to cite such late partial Writers it is either where their testimony is not contradicted by their Adversaries when they set themselves industriously to detect falsifications in their Allegations or else those Protestants do annex the Authorities and Reasons on which their testimonies are grounded Testimonies of private men or hear-say men when crossed by Authentick Records are always slighted and contemned If the Homagers of a Manor swear to a custom which is more than speaking to it yet if there be any Court-Roll extant and produced which declares the contrary to their Depositions their testimony is thereby utterly invalidated Baronius in the point of Maxentius his Birth presumed to correct all former Historians by the discovery of an ancient Coin certainly an ancient Record is better than an ancient Coin can be for standing Records have always by all Nations and the consent of Mankind been esteemed the strongest human testimonies and the best assurances of Faith which ought not to be disbelieved or disputed upon the reports of particular men because they have been purposely devised and preserved for the discovery of Truth and the decision of Controversies which might arise in after-Ages and the rectifying of particular mens several apprehensions Such as these we produce in this case which have convinced and fully satisfied more ingenuous Adversaries than N. N. or his Narrators seem to be When Dr. Reynolds shewed these Records to Mr. Hart he confessed they were undeniable The Bishop of Chalcedon acknowledged that Father Oldcorn alias Hall took the leisure and pains to search the Records who thereupon concluded them authentick Arch-Bishop Whitgift with four other Bishops prevailed with four Popish Priests to view these Records which when they had done they declared to them freely that they were not to be doubted of 3. It hath been the common practice of such as these Narrators were as shall after more fully appear to divulge stories by an holy fraud either to stagger weak minds or to settle the over-credulous Bigots of their party in a detestation of Arch-Bishop Whitgifts life whom the Romanists may believe if they please if they will not take his word let them choose and shew the contrary hath given us a pregnant testimony hereof for he informs us that that Arch-Bishop going to Dover at his entrance into the Town an Intelligencer from Rome landed who wondred to see an Arch-Bishop in England and so honourably attended but seeing him the Sunday following waited on with a nobler Train and hearing the solemn Service of the Church he was overtaken with admiration and told an English Gentleman Sir Edw. Hobby who accompanied him that they were led in great blindness at Rome by our own Nation who made the people there believe that there was not in England either Arch-Bishop or Bishop or Cathedral Church or any Church-Government but c. 4. These his Narrators could never agree in the most material circumstances of the story they cannot speak either to the number of the Consecrators or Consecrated nor to the determinate place and time 5. The Story was contradicted assoon as it was divulged as hereafter will be more fully declared 6. Dr. Stapleton's Objection did not run on the Nag's-Head Score he never so much as mentioned it and therefore may reasonably be presumed either not to have heard any thing of it or not to believe it the former is more probable for it was not divulged in his time 7. If the matter had been performed clandestinely or intended so to have been Mr. Neal and the other Catholicks could not have been admitted neither should its clandestine performance have rendered the Act invalid When John the twelfth ordained a Deacon in a Stable I demand whether in N. N's private judgement the Ordination were invalid SECT III N.N. THey being not able to make good the Ordination against Catholicks were forced to beg an Act of Parliament whereby they might enjoy their Temporalities notwithstanding the defect of their Ordination against the Canons of the Church and Law of the Land For albeit King Edwards Rite of Ordination was established by Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. yet it was notorious that the Ordination of the Nags-Head was very different from it and framed ex tempore by Scories Puritanical Spirit The Words of the Act are Such from and order for Consecrating Archbishops Bishops c. as was set forth in Edward the sixth's time shall stand and be in full force and effect and all Acts or Things heretofore done or made by any person or persons elected to the Office and Dignity of Archbishop c. by virtue of the Queens Letters Patents or by Commission sithence the beginning of her Reign be and shall be by Authority of this Parliament declared and judged good and perfect in all respects and purposes c. See Poulton in his Kalendar p. 141. n. 5. by which Act it appears that not only King Edwards Rite but any other used since the first of the Queens Reign upon her Commission was enacted good and so consequently the Nags-Head might pass Hence it was they were called Parliament Bishops SECT III. J. S. THE chief Argument which N.N. framed in this Section runs thus 1. Their Ordinations were defective as not ordered according to the Canons of the Church and Laws of
a Church For this reason the most eminent Protestants who still maintained the Divine Right of Bishops yet did they clear those Transmarine Churches which have not Bishops from sinning against Divine Right because their want was not through their own default but the Iniquity of the Times and Places they lived in which charitable construction should seem very reasonable to the Romanists for that the Court of Rome gave the first occasion of all the contests about Episcopacy by investing Priests with Episcopal Jurisdiction and Power by their Commissions and Delegations and without doubt Necessity is as strong Dispensation for these Pastors to execute the Ministerial Office as the Popes Mercenary Bulls granted upon unworthy avaritious ends can be for their Priests to exercise Episcopal Authority Those Churches therefore under this want are True though lame and maimed Members of the Catholick Church Just as Canus (n) Loc. l. 4. c. ult ad 10. determines of the Romish Church in a vacancy It is then left Lame saith he and diminished without Christs Vicar that one Pastor of the Church the Pope yet the Spirit of Truth should abide in it and vvithout doubt the Spirit of Truth will as certainly abide in those Churches which want Bishops as in their Church wanting a Pope at least they should think so because in their account the Pope is as necessary if not more to the being of a Church than Bishops are To clear this more distinctly some things are required to the Essence (o) This is Stapleton's distinction of a Church as the Doctrine of saving Faith in the Profession and Practice thereof some only to the Perfection and Integrity of a Church as the having Regular Pastors by a due Form of Ordination both these are necessary though not equally and in the same Degree the former absolutely and indispensably the latter de congruo possibili viz. it concerns the Church if possibly it can be obtained to have lawfully Ordained Pastors and every wilful Omission much more Rejection of the Catholick settled Order in this kind is Sacrilegious and Schismatical yet those Pastors who highly esteem Episcopal Ordination and much affect it but cannot obtain it through the Recusancy of Bishops in present Place and Power who will not Ordain them without sinful compliance and submission to gross Errours and Corruptions evidently contrary to the Law of Christ if they hold and divide the Word of Truth rightly may be accounted true Pastors though not in a real Mission yet by a moral designation as being deputed and separated to that Divine Office because in this case the Necessity is invincible which makes that allowable which otherwise would be unlawful as Dr. Cracken contr Spalet c. 4. observes from the Gloss and illustrateth from Scipio's Example who when the Questors denied him a supply of Monies out of the Publick Treasury because it was against Law presently replied Necessity hath no Law The Romanists confess the desire of Baptism is sufficient to excuse the want thereof and they have it in effect who have it in desire in all reason the want of an undoubted Sacrament is more dangerous than the want of a Sacramental can be especially where there is a Desire to have the Impediment removed The Jews were prohibited to build private Altars yet in case of Necessity when they were not permitted to go to Hierusalem the learned Jews determined the Prohibition ceased as to its present effect and every one knows a Negative Prescript is not so dispensable as an Affirmative It is the opinion of Cornelius a Lapide in Numb 20.26 that Eleazar was mâ—de High-Priest praeter legem morem otherwise than by standing Law and Custom he ought First because his Father was then living next in that the right only of putting on his Fathers Garment was used without any Solemn-Unction or Consecration to the Priesthood 5. He subjoyns a doubtful Clergy makes a Doubtful Church This is a Doubtful Proposition the most he can make of it is that a Doubtful Clergy makes a Doubtful Church only in Part not in the Whole for even Schismaticks in those things wherein they have made no separation from the Church otherwise the Romanists would be in a sad condition do so far still remain uncorrupted to the Church so that if that Doubtful Clergy keep the wholesom words of sound Doctrine if N. N. doubt of this he may remember there is a Clergy of a beyond-Sea Church which hath no Bishops hath made this good against the choicest Champions of the Roman See so far they are Catholicks 6. He is very positive a doubtful Church is no Church It is true he who harboureth a doubt which he will conclude Prudent because the issue of his own Imagination or the suggestion of some over-admired Teacher of that Church whereof he is a Member that Church to him is no Church but where such a doubt is entertained the Case is only disputable and questioning doth not disprove or destroy certainty and truth But such doubtful Propositions as N. N. hath here conjured up will without doubt damnify his good old Cause because thereby his Church will be concluded a no Church by the demonstrating Power of those many doubts and uncertainties which her chief Members have conceived and uttered against her instances of most important concern For Part 2. 1. It is a rule with them that a doubtful Pope is no (p) Crespet in verb. Papa Caran p. 827. Pope and that there cannot be two Popes at one and the same time etiam ex urgentissima causa as Jac. Castellon cites out of Navar verb. Papa p. 485. no not upon the most weighty Consideration because there is but one Monarch and one Monarchy only for Spiritual concerns by the appointment of Christ hence they generally conclude that all those who are not united to that one determinate Head are in the state of damnable Schism and those who are united to him are united to the true Catholick-Church viz. The Church is a Society of men united in the Profession of the same Faith and participating of the Sacraments under the Government of lawful Pastors chiefly of one Vicar of Christ upon Earth the Roman Pope This then is obvious at the first view from these Premises that an undoubted Pope is as fully and by the word chiefly in the definition more necessary to the being and Constitution of the Church than an undoubted Clergy and a doubtful Pope is as destructive to the Church as a doubtful Clergy from whence it necessarily follows that if a doubtful Clergy makes a doubtful Church a doubtful Pope must do so too and then if this be proved there hath been a doubtful Pope and no one undoubted Pope by N. N 's demonstration it is impossible the Roman can be the true Catholick and Apostolick Church but this is easily made evident from the many doubts and uncertainties which of the several pretending Popes hath been the one undoubted Pope
departed by enjoyment of the Beatifical Vision look not upon God as Omniscient or Omnipresent but as the chiefest good their happiness is from his infinite Goodness not from his infinite Wisdom or Immensity 3. If upon their admission to their state of Glory they by virtue of the Beatifical Vision know all things which God knoweth then they should know future Contingents which the Romanists will not grant for the Beatifical Vision can capacitate them for this knowledg as well as the knowledg of the Heart and no reason can be assigned to the contrary but that it is the Will of God for which there is no attempt of Proof 4. It is not necessary nor essential to the Beatifical Vision that the participants should know our Prayers for without knowing them they have all the priviledges of the Sons of God and Children of the Resurrection agreeable to their state the Vision makes them eternally happy not Omniscient 5. Those Ancients who denied this supposition knew nothing of this speculation and those of them who proved the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Ghost from their Omniscience might easily have been baffled if this excellency were communicable to any other besides God for if the knowledg of the Heart were not so proper to God that it could not be communicated to the most excellent Creature their argument from thence even in (c) Theol. dogm Tom. 3. l. 1. c. 7. Sect. 3. p. 39. the judgment of Petavius Omnino nullum esset Was none at all 2. It is Injurious to God in respect of his Omnipresence For Bellarm. disputing against those of his own side who imagined that the Blessed Spirits were Quodammodo after a certain unintelligible way every where by the wonderful swiftness of their nature resolveth the contrary and asserts that Celerity is not sufficient to capacitate them to hear the Petitions of far reremoved Supplicants who direct their Prayers to them at one and the same time from several distant places and that true (d) Bell. de Sanct. Beat. lib ... c. 20. ubiquity is required which they having not by nature as is generally concluded by all Pontificians they must have it by communicated Grace or be without it But the same Bellar. will not allow this for he disputing against the Vbiquitarians assures us that their Salvo viz. that Christ in his human nature is every where by accident viz. by a real communication of that property is naught for then saith he the argument of the Fathers for the Godhead of the Son and of the Holy Ghost grounded upon their Ubiquity plaè concidit is quite abated and falls to nothing from which premises laid to our hands by this great Name the conclusion is irrefragable the Blessed Spirits cannot hear our Prayers and then the Practice is Irrational because by the concession of the chiefest Advocates and Proctors of the Cause to Pray to them who cannot hear or understand our Prayers is an Act Superfluous if not Superstitious and so some of them assign as a reason why they do not pray to the Inhabitants of Purgatory because they cannot hear them though it be most certain that God if he pleased can as easily reveal the Prayers of Mortal men to them as to the Saints in Heaven for his assertion affords us this argument True Vbiquity is required to hear the Prayers of numerous distant Orators but the Blessed Spirits have not true Vbiquity for this is so proper to God that it cannot be affirmed of or attributed to the most excellent Creature by communicated Grace therefore the Blessed Spirits connot hear the vocal Prayers of their numerous distant Orators 4. If the end for which this Practice is pretended behooful and expedient may be attained by a more clear and undoubted way than that purposed right Reason will direct us to leave the indirect and crooked way and follow the direct streight forward road for every prudent man will take and pursue that course which is most effectual for the accomplishments of his intentions and desires and for which he hath so great assurance that greater cannot be had for the event and success Now we have such assurance to come to God by his Son Jesus Christ that will not fail nor disapoint us for we have the sure word of Promise Joh. 16.23 that whatsoever we ask of the Father in the name of his Son it shall be given us and by him we have boldness of access to the Throne of Grace but we have no word nor warranty for the impetration of our requests by the Mediation of Secondary under-Solicitors for us and who will seek that at the second hand which he may have upon easier terms at the first or look for that in Cisterns and in danger to be broken Cisterns which is ready and prepared for him in the Fountain which never faileth None but Phantasticks and Vain-glorious Prodigals will complement or Fee a Courtier for admittance into the Kings presence when by his Proclamation he is aforehand ascertained upon his aproach he shall have entrance present Audience and his Petition if drawn according to Law shall be signed and granted 5. But suppose it were both lawfull and behoosefull to Invocate undoubted Saints now reigning in Heaven as the blessed Virgin and the holy Apostles yet a Prudent Man will be shy and unwilling to exhibite that honour to all whom the Pope hath Canonized or shall Canonize for Saints For some great Romanists have not sticked to Affirm that (e) These were a Knack of late invention contrived by the Pope 800 years after Christ Bellarm. de Sanct. beat lib. 1. c. 7 8. Sect. dices Barth-fumus in his Armilla aurea tit Canonizatio tells us that it is not lawful to Worship any Saint publickly without the Popes License so that before Bellarmin's Period of time it was not lawful publickly to Worship any because till that time none were Canonized yet what he adds is somewhat odds if one believe his departed Friend is in Heaven he may Pray to him secretly c. the Popes Canonizations are doubtful and (f) Summa Rosell Verb. Canonizatio Can. loc lib. 5. c. 5. c. 5. qu. 5. subject to Error Thomas Becket was solemnly Canonized by Alexander the Third who thereupon passed for a good while as a pretious Saint as before hath been related but about 40 years after his Saintship (g) Caesarine a Monk Dial. l. 8. c. 69. Acts and Monuments was questioned for in Ann. 1220. an hot Dispute concerning it was held at Paris be-between Roger a Norman and Peter a Parisian Peter took the more Moderate part of the question and affirmed he was saved because Canonized but Roger was for the more uncharitable part that he was Damned because he was a Rebel to his King This indeed was too high a question altogether unfit to be discussed and therefore our Prelates though stiff Romanists declined it in Henry the Eights time but withall publickly declared