having in p. 284. of his Iust Vindication of the Church of England spoke of the Trent Council saith We have seen heretofore how the French Embassador in the Name of the King and Church of France protested against it and until this day though they do not oppose it but acquiesce to avoid such disadvantages as must ensue thereupon yet they never did admit it Let no Man say that they rejected the Determinations thereof only in point of Discipline not of Doctrine For the same Canonical Obedience is equally due to an acknowledged General Council in point of Discipline as in point of Doctrine Monsieur Iurieu in his Historical Reflections on Councils and particularly on that of Trent which were Translated into English and Printed in the year 1684. Saith that the French Kings their Parliaments and Bishops dislike several things in the Decrees of the Council of Trent and mentions as the Reasons why the Council of Trent is not received in France these following 1. That the Council hath done and suffered many things that suppose and confirm a Superiority of the Pope over Councils 2. It hath confirmed the Papal encroachments upon ordinary's by exemption of Chapters and priviledges of Regulars who are both withdrawn from Episcopal Jurisdiction 3. That it hath not restored to the Bishops certain Functions appertaining to their Office and taken from them otherwise than to execute them as delegates of the See of Rome 4. That it hath infringed the priviledges of Bishops of being Judged by their Metrapolitan and Bishops of Provinces by permitting a removal of great Causes to Rome and giving Power to the Pope to Name Commissioners to Judge the Accused Bishop 5. That it hath declared that neither Princes Magistrates nor People are to be consulted in Setling and placing of Bishops 6. That it hath Empowered Bishops to proceed in their Jurisdictions by Civil pains by Imprisonment and by Seisures of the Temporalties 7. That it hath made Bishops the Executors of all Donations for Pious uses 8. That it hath given them a Superintendency over Hospitals Colledges and Fraternities with power of disposing their Goods notwithstanding that these matters had been always managed by Lay Men. 9. That it hath ordained that Bps. shall have the examining of all Notaries Royal and Imperial with power to Deprive or Suspend notwithstanding any Opposition or Appeal 10. That it hath given power to Bishops with consent of two Members of their Chapter and of two of their Clergy to take and retrench part of the Revenue of the Hospitals and to take away feudal Tithes belonging to Lay-Men 11. That it hath made Bishops the Masters of Foundations of Piety as Churches Chappels and Hospitals so as that those who have the Care and Government of them are obliged to be accountable to the Bishops 12. That in confirming Ecclesiastical Exemptions it hath wholy ascribed to the Pope and Spiritual Judges all power of Judging the Causes of Accused Bishops as if Soveraign Princes had lost the right they had over their Subjects as soon as they became Ecclesiasticks 13. That it hath empower'd the Ordinaries and Judges Ecclesiastick in Quality of Delegates of the Holy See to enquire of the Right and Possession of Lay-Patronages and to quash and annul them if they were not of great necessity and well founded 14. That in Prohibiting Duels it had declared that such Emperor or Prince as should shew favour to Duels should therefore be Excommunicated and Deprived of the Seignory of the place holding of the Church where the Duel was fought 15. that it hath permitted the Mendicant Fryars to possess Immoveables 16. That it hath ordained an Establishment of Judges it calls Apostoles in all Dioceses with Power to Judge of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Matters in prejudice of the Ordinary 17. That it hath declared that Matrimonial Causes are of the Churches Jurisdiction 18. That it hath enjoyn'd Kings and Princes to leave Ecclesiasticks the free and entire possession of the jurisdiction granted them by the Holy Canons and General Councils that is to say usurped by the Clergy over the Civil Power These are the Principal Points Disputed in France These that tend to the Diminution of the Authority and Priviledges of Bishops to enlarge the Roman power are Rejected by the Bishops And those that would extend the power of Bishops to the Prejudice of the Civil Authority are Rejected by the Parliaments Between both this Council as enacting contrary to the Rights and Liberties of the Gallican Church was never at all received in France so as to obtain the force of a Law He then shews that the Popes Superiority over Councils is a point of Doctrine and was decided in the Council of Trent And yet that the Gallican Church believes the contrary I know it will be said saith he that the Council of Trent hath not decided that the Pope is Superior to Councils Men may talk as they please but things for all that will continue as they are It is true that among the Decrees and Canons of the Council there is none that saith in express Terms that the Pope is Superior to Councils and can be judged by none But the effect of such Decision is apparent in all the Acts and through the whole Conduct of this Council And he afterward saith that the Clause of proponentibus legatis was a plain Decision of the Popes Superiority over the Council But to these 18 Reasons of Mr. Iurieu about the Reception of the Trent Council in France being neither practicable nor practised I might add that according to what my Lord Primate Bramhal observes in another place of that Book of his I Cited before the Obedience promised to the Bishop of Rome as Successor to St. Peter and Vicar of Iesus Christ pursuant to the Trent Council may seem to quadrate but ill with the liberty of the Gallican Church to set up a Patriarch For in p. 194. of that Book he mentions that in Cardinal Richelieu's Days it was well known what Books were freely Printed in France and publickly sold upon pont neuf of the lawfulness of Erecting a new or rather restoring an old proper Patriarchate in France as one of the liberties of the Gallican Church And thereupon saith It was well for the Roman Court that they became more propitious to the French Affairs And if we consider how in the 22 d. Session of the Council of Trent Chapter the 11 th all Kings and Emperors are Anathematized who hinder any Ecclesiasticks from the Enjoyment of any of their feudal Rights or other profits and that it might well be supposed that the Course and Vicissitudes of time would put Roman Catholick Princes on somewhat of that Nature and which so eminently influenced the French King in the Munster Treaty none need wonder at the Trent Councils not being received in France There was a Book called a Review of the Council of Trent written by a Learned Roman-Catholick and Printed A. 1600. and Translated by Dr
of his History tells us that at that time i. e. An. 1588. Magno Caloris aestu contentio de Tridentinâ Synodo toties agitata denuô renovata est and how stoutly the promulgation of it was opposed And there is the Work of another French Historian that may be here referred to viz. Historiarum Galliae ab excessu Hen. 4. Libri 18. Authore G. B. Gramondo in Sacro Regis Consistorio Senatore in Parliamento Tolosano Praeside Tolosae 1643. and where in p 57. the Author tells us that in the year 1615. the year in which Cressy out of Cabassutius says the Clergy received the Trent Council Proposita à Clero Concilij Tridentini promulgatio molliendae invidiae adjecta est haec clausula sine praejudicio Coronae Regiae Libertatum Gallicanae Ecclesiae c. and that Cardinal Peron spoke Elegantly and Learnedly for it but that after long debate about the Reception of that Council especially between the clergy and the 3 d. Estate the issue was that the third Estate carryed it against the Clergy and the Reception and Promulgation of the Trent Council was absolutely rejected and p. 69. PRAEVALVITQVE CLERO POPVLVS Where it is evident 1. That what Cabassutius in his Notitia Conciliorum p. 720. names only a Convention of the Clergy in that year 1615. as if that had been all was in Truth Conventus trium Regni Ordinum a Convention of the three Estates the greatest and Supream Convention of France and as Gramondus saith p. 58. 2 dly That whereas Cabassutius says the Trent Council was received in that General Convention of the Gallican Clergy De Marca saith and evidently proves that no such Convention of the Gallican Clergy had any Authority to Receive or Promulgate the Trent Council or any other Approve it they might but receive it they could not But it was so far from being recieved by the Convention of the French clergy that it was absolutely rejected by the Supream Convention of the three Estates and that after a long and free Debate It is true and most Notorious that not only in France but in England heretofore many of the Papal Clergy were generally more addicted to advance the Papal Power than the Just Prerogatives of their own Kings or the Rights of the Laity Because as by the Clergy's help and assistance the Papacy grew greater their Jurisdiction and Revenues were thereby encreased And thus Anselme and Becket being zealous for the Pope and Disobedient to their King found their account in the Pope's Assisting and Favouring them with his Power while they lived and Canonizing them and making them what their Loyalty could not while they lived Saints after their Death But as our Magnanimous Roman Catholick Princes did then bridle the Papal Power so likewise those of France have done and even where Cabassutius saith that the Trent Council was received in the year 1615. à Clero Gallicano sub Ludovico 13. he doth not say that the King received it and thus De Marca tells us in his De Concordiâ Sacerd. Imperij Lib. 2. Cap. 17. S. 7. p. 33. Decreta Conciliorum legis vim in Gallià non habent nisi recepta à Clero Regiâ Authoritate munita But De Marca had in that Book informed us that in the time the Trent Council Sate when it evidently appeared by the Decrees of that Councel the Liberty of the Gallican Church was in quamplurimis apitibus destroyed the Embassadors of Henry the 2 d. and Charles the 9 th left the Synod being called home by their Kings And had complain'd in that Council that the Liberty of the Gallican Church Regia dignitas erant imminutae and their recesse from and leaving the Council was a good reason as De Marca there proves non admittendae Synodi i. e. of their not receiving that Council Father Paul likewise in his History of that Council saith that the French Bishops left it on the same account But moreover De Marca in the same place tells us that the whole Clergy of France did most frequently in their Synods Petition their Kings that they would Publish and Recieve the Trent Council excepting those things which were repugnant to the Liberty of the Gallican Church and that they would never grant their Petition nor Publish or Recieve the Trent Council though with that Exception His words are Totius Cleri Gallicani Conventus Concilij Tridentini promulgationem à Regibus nostris supplicibus libellis postulaverit eâ lege ut ea Capita exciperent quae libertatibus Ecclesiae adversarentur Quorum desiderijs Principes toto hoc negotio saepe in Consilium prudentissimorum relato se accommodare non potuerunt From whence it is evident if that great Arch-Bishop says true that the Kings of France would never recieve any of the Trent Council no not that part of it which was not against the Liberty of their Church or their Kings Regalities But after all this I must not forbear to observe how here it appears that the Learned De Marca doth contradict himself For in the same page and Columne viz. p. 133. Col. 1. he saith that the Definitions of the Council of Trent concerning Faith were admitted in France by a publick Edict Anno 1579. which must be in the 6th year of Henry the 3 d. of France and yet he tells us in this same page and Columne that although the whole Clergy of France did most frequently Petition their Kings to Promulgate and admit only that part of the Trent Council which was not against the Liberties of the Gallican Church yet their Kings would never admit it If these words of his mean any thing I think they must mean the Definitions of Faith which De Marca saith were recieved by the Edict 1579. But if their Kings would never admit any of it though the whole Clergy did Petition them to do it then was it not admitted by any Publick Edict in the year 1579. I remember the Learned Author of the Nouvelles de la Republique des letteres for the Month of March 1685. there mentioning the Histoire critique du Vieux Testament par le P. Richard Simon Prêtre de la Congregation de l' Oratoire of the New Edition at Rotterdam that year saith that that New Edition contains a Letter of a Protestant Doctor who procured the 5 th Edition of that Critical History and further quotes that Protestant Minister for giving an Answer to the ordinary Distinction viz. that the Council of Trent hath been recieved in France in what concerns Faith but not in matters of Discipline and he speaks of an Assembly of the Clergy held which he saith Deliberated how to present a Petition to the King that that Council might be recieved as to what concerns Faith only and that whatever deliberation the Prelates made there upon the Court would not grant their Request And if that Council saith he hath been received let them produce us the publication of it
any such thing by their Printing it here much good may their Design do them But it seems an untoward way of beginning a Reconciliation by giving the lie or accusing the pretended Reform'd of Calumnies and Falsities But the Author of the Papist Represented and Misrepreted hath outdone the French Clergy in Civility of Expression to Protestants and by rendring them only Misrepresenters of the Church of Rome Yet since both these Books do agree in Representing Roman-Catholicks as owning the Doctrine of the council of Trent I standing fast in the Liberty I have not to be imposed on by those Doctrines intermeddle not here with others liberty to own any Religionary Tenets of the same And our Excellent and Learned Clergy-Men will no doubt both by Preaching and Writing occasionally secure the Souls of their Congregations from any danger that they shall apprehend from any of the Papal Clergy propagating such Tenets among them But here I shall occasionally say that I think that few of the Religionary or Doctrinal Tenets of the Council af Trent either do or in the time of our Fears and Iealousies have so much Animated the Aversion of many of the Populaae here against that Council as their apprehension of the exterminium of Hereticks designed long ago by the calling of that Council The benefit of the peace and rest the Protestants had obtained by the Interim A. 1548. and it s formula interâ—religionis was but to last to the end of the Council of Trent And I have some where met with Iohn Paul Windec cited for boasting in his Book de Haeretic extirpand that nothing was accorded for the Protestants by that Edict or Formula but a Dilatory Reprieve and Toleration till the end of that Council And moreover we know that in that Council there is an express Confirmation of former General Councils and of the Terrible Lateran one in particular For though you mention some Popish and Protestant Writers as denying the Lateran Council to have been a General one and that Protestant Authors are somewhat put to it who would prove it so to have been yet if you had considered what the Bishop of Lincoln in his first Book about Popery saith in p 51. that the Council of Trent in Sess. 24. cap. 5. calls that Lateran one a General Council and confirms one of its Canons you would have thought it a very easie task to have satisfied any Reverers of the Council of Trent with the others having been a general one And the Trent Council having as that Learned Bishop shews there in p. 43. Commanded Emperors Kings and Princes to observe the Sacred Canon and all General Councils and Apostolical Sanctions in favour of Ecclesiastical Persons and the Liberties of the Church and where the Title to the Chapter is said to be Cogantur omnes Principes Catholici conservare omnia sancita c. and those words which in p. 57. the Bishop refers to the Council of Lateran for viz. Catholici qui Crucis assumpto charactere ad haereticorum exterminium se accinxerint illâ gaudeant indulgentiâ quae accedentibus ad terrae sanctae subsidium Conceditur and that Councils having so threatned Princes with Deposition and the absolving of their Subjects from their Allegiance in Case they do not Exterminate Hereticks hath really been the most Considerable and â—perative Objection that any Protestant Writers have brought to shew the dread of that part of the Principles of Popery that you term Irreligionary And few of the Writers against the same in our late Fermentation but instanced in that Objection And to which none of the Roman Catholick Writers then that I read did Attempt to apply the least Answer The Author of the Compendium whom you mention with the Title of Ingenious doth there in p. 79. tell us That there is not one single Paragraph in that Book of the Bishops but what was either fully Answered or what doth not at least wound the whole Protestant Party by its Consequence more than us But was so Ingenuous as to answer not a word that I can find there to the Objection of the Lateran Council and which omission in him proceeded not from inadventence for in that one leaf where he insinuates that he hath fully Answered the Bishops whole Book he tells us twice that no Council ever imposed the Deposing Power on our Belief And I observed that my Good and Learned Friend Father Walsh where in the Preface to his Causa Valesiana printed in the year 1682. he endeavours to answer that Book of the Bishop did not think fit to take notice of the Objection of the Lateran Council But after your common way in all your Writings I have seen namely to fortifie Objections before you answer them thus as I may say to Deck and Crown the Victim you intend to offer to the World as I find you have done right to the considerableness of this of the Lateran Council and have in your discourse Termed that Learned Bishops Book both unanswered and unanswerable it is by all Ingenious and Loyal Protestants and Papists to be acknowledged to you that you are the only Person who hath appeared in Print to give the Objection the Answer that it will bear and for which none I believe will thank you more than that excellent Prelate For after you had taken the freedom in your Introduction or Preface to Reflect as you have done on Arch-Bishop Vshers Prophecy and the Predictions of Bishop Morly you with great Curiosity set forth the factum of the Munster Peace whereby the Age may learn that as with God all things are possible so by his having influenced the understandings of Roman-Catholick Princes and by their having shewed much better than by Words I mean by their pacta Convenia really observed that they think not themselves obliged by the Lateran Council and the Deposition there threatned to exterminate their Heretical Subjects and you Candidly shew the Artifice of the Objection in a great Measure answered by the God of Nature and by Natural Causes inclining the great Roman-Catholick Crown'd Heads of Christendom to permit the dire passages in that Council to be in a manner Abrogated by Desuetude You have fairly related it how the Roman Catholick Princes agreed in their Treaty that no CANONS or DECREES of COVNCILS or ABSOLVTIONS whatsoever should in future times be allowed against any Article of it and consequently that the Canons or Decrees of that Council Threatning Princes with DEPOSITION and the Absolving of their Subjects from their Allegiance for the not Exterminating their Heretical Subjects from their Allegiance were by all those Roman-Catholick Crown'd Heads Contemned and defy'd and you have shewn how the Papacy hath since Acquiesced therein and since lex currit cum praxi and that Peace hath been so long observed your account of it hath been of much more Importance to the Papists as to the helping to bring them off in some Measure from the Odium of the Disloyal Doctrine
a Man the Frankness of a Gentleman and Charity and Compassion of a Christian to the Persons of many Papists and others and doing as I did in the late Conjuncture would occasion designing Papists and some perverse Nominal Protestants as you call them to make a Papist of me and did therefore esteem it in you whom I never had opportunity to oblige a Favour to do me Justice therein as you have in the former part of your Discourse and of which I think the Sheets were sent me printed within a Month or two's time after the old Date they bear But a long fit of Sickness afterward seising you and you then signifying to me that you resolved that the same should not be published till you added the following part wherein for the Encouragement of so many Protestants who were so much Dispirited with imaginations of Popery's coming to be the paramount Religion and of Protestancy's being Extirpated you endeavor'd to shew the impossibility of the same Humanly speaking and till you had likewise finished your Casuistical Discourse of the Obligatoriness of our Oaths as to the King his Heirs and Successors I was easily satisfied with your taking your own time for the Publishing the whole as knowing that the Torrent of Shamm and Calumny by which the Reputations of many Loyal Persons were born down was too violent to be of any long continuance and considering likewise that your incorporating the Character of my Life into a Work so full of various exquisite Learning of all sorts and particularly of that now so much in request Namely the reducing Political Matters by Calculation ad firmam as you call it that by the Course of Nature must be immortal and probably pass Christendom in some Language more general than the English would in time Render me a sufficient gainer by the false Affidavit which an angry House of Commons so unwarily dispersed with their Votes throughout this Kingdom The truth is you having been the first Person who took the pains to find out by the Records of the Pole Bills and the Bishops survey the Number of the People of England have highly Merited the thanks of your Country thereby as having necessarily rendred its Figure and Alliances in the World the more considerable And it was the more proper to be done by reason of De Leti having Published it that that Learned Person and my Worthy Friend Monsieur Van Beuninghen had Judged the People here to be but two Millions and because as you have Cited it out of Dr. Vessius his Book of various Observations Dedicated by him to his late Majesty that the Doctor there hath Estimated the People in England Scotland and Ireland to be but two Millions I remember not in all the Books I have read to have found so much and so various Political Calculation as in this your Discourse And because you intend a Review thereof I think it will be in any who have the Custody of Records that may be of use to you a kindness to the publick to be communicative of them to you Though I need not observe to any Reader of your Discourse the height of your Eloquence and great unaffected Wit and the Nervous way of Argumentation appearing therein yet I am obliged to acquaint you that in some particular passages therein my Observations of Men and Things have been different from yours But all of which I hold my self likewise obliged not to trouble the World or you with at this time for your having mentioned your intended Review to be Published in a Volum by it self I who have received so much kindness from you am to do you the Iustice to stay a while in expecting your Second thoughts and without boding ill of your being any way partial therein yet shall here at present acquaint you that as I am a Member of the Church of England as now by Law Established I will not Recede a Iot from its Doctrine by Judging the Papacy not to be Antichrist or by judging the Worshipping the Host not to be formal Idolatry as my Honoured Friends Dr. Hammond and Bishop Taylor as you say have done And shall here observe to you that tho' Bishop Taylor in his Liberty of Prophecying pronounced Worshiping the Host to be not FORMAL Idolatry yet afterward upon more Mature thoughts he in his Disswasive against Popery did make it FORMAL Idolatry I shall likewise tell you that Bishop Sanderson whom you so often quote and whose Judgment you so deservedly Celebrate doth amongst his Sermons printed Anno 1657. in the fifth Sermon Ad Populum p. 287. in plain Terms call the Pope the Man of Sin the Text of the Sermon is 1 Tim. 4.4 The Bishop there represents the Church of Rome as injurious to our Christian Liberty whom St. Paul in this passage saith he hath branded with an indelible note of Infamy in as much as those very Doctrines wherein he gives an instance as Doctrines of Devils are the received Tenets and Conclusions of that Church not to insist on other prejudices done to Christian Liberty by the intolerable Vsurpation of the Man of Sin where he refers in his Margent to 2 Th. 2 3. who exerciseth a Spiritual Tyranny over Mens Consciences as opposite to Evangelical Liberty as Antichrist is to Christ. Let us a little see how she hath fulfilled St. Pauls Prediction in teaching Lying and Divelish Doctrines and that with seared Consciences and in Hypocrisie in the two Specialties mentioned in the next verse viz. Forbidding to Marry and commanding to abstain from Meats And then the Bishop saith Marriage the Holy Ordinance of God is yet by this purple Strumpet forbidden and that Sub Mortali to Bishops Priests Deacons c. and he there for that Appellation of purple Strumpet refers in his Margent to Rev. 17.13 And as I have here cited this great B. for this purpose so I may likewise refer you to the work of our B. of Lincoln called Brutum Fulmen as proving the Pope to be Antichrist contrary to the Assertions of Grotius and Dr. Hammond and others I never think of this Bishop and of his Incomparable Knowledge both in Theology and Church-History and in the Ecclesiastical Law without applying to him in my Thoughts the Character that Cicero gave Crassus viz. Vir non unus é multis sed unus inter omnes propè singularis And I desire here to own my beholdingness to his communicative Disposition for assisting me with quotations and his Judgment when I have occasion to Crave his Aid therein as you know I have lately done and shall be glad that the learning in such Letters as I have received from him wherein there are many excellent Notions which I had no occasion to quote may sometime see the light But I am in the next place with Justice to acknowledge it to you that you have in your Reflections on the Vsurpations of the late times acquainted the World with several things useful to be inserted in
Canon Law giving the Pope a power to receive Appeals from the Dominions of Soveraign Princes and States Mastertius in his Book de justitiâ Legum Romanarum in the Summaries of his 20 th Chapter sets it down That 1. Ridetur Pontifex ab ipsâ Romanâ Curiâ 2. Credentes Constitutioni Pontificis a Regibus liberisque populis laesae Majestatis damnantur 3. Iterum dissentit a Pontifice Romana Curia 4. Mira pontificis caecitas notatur 5. Intellectus L. à proconsulibus 19. Cod de appellat 6. Ius Canonicum malè damnat in expensas tantum appellantem perperam Under which he saith Infelix fuit Romanus Praesul in Cap. 7. Cap. de priore 31. Cap. Ad audientiam 34. Cap. dilecti 52. Ext. de appellat quibus constituit adversus L. Imper. in princip D. de appellat licere pulsatae parti relictis medijs pontificalem cognitionem invocare nam ipsa Romana Curia id Iuris tanquam omnem bonum ordinem invertens ex merâ dissentiendi libidine promanans explosit neque procedit Canonistarum glossema quo videtur id constituisse pontifex ob specialem suae sedis praerogativam quâ fidelium omnium competens est Iudex Cap. si duobus 7. ibi D. D. ext de appellat Concil Trident. sess 24. Cap. 20. de reformat Nam cum id falsum sit totius Christiani Orbis Reges liberique populi laesae Majestatis reos agunt qui vel immediatè vel ab ipsorum sententiâ ad pontificem praesumunt appellare Eodem candore defert appellationi rei minimae iterum reluctante Romanâ Curiâ requirente ut litis aestimatio sit ut minimum coronatorum decem Praesec in praxi Episcop p. 2. Cap. 4. Art 15. N. 8. Mechlinensi 50. Flor. D. Zypaeus de Iure Pontif. novo tit de appellat N. 8. Mihi videtur quod pontifex de industria se voluerit risui propinare nam hic defert appellationi rei minimae suprà relictis mediis implorationi Pontificialis auditorij evocando Belgam aut Anglum in Causâ aliquorum obolorum ad urbem Romanam experiundi sui Iuris gratiâ But there is another use we may now well make of the publication of this Rescript of the Vniversity of Oxon and that is to observe how awkwardly and unseasonably the Author of The Papist Misrepresented and Represented hath thought fit to Represent the Pope as now deducing a Claim to a Higher Power here by the Word of God than what our Roman-Catholick Universities allowed him in Henry the 8 th's time For in his 18 th Chapter he tells us That the Papist believes that there is a Pastor Governor and Head of Christs Church under Christ to wit the Pope or Bishop of Rome who is the Successor of St. Peter to whom Christ committed the Care of his Flock c. and now believing the Pope to enjoy his Dignity he looks on himself obliged to shew him the Respect Submission and Obedience which is due to his place And afterward in this manner is he ready to behave himself towards his CHIEF PASTOR with all Reverence and Submission never scrupling to receive his Decrees and Definitions such as are issued forth by his Authority with all their due Circumstances and according to Law in the concern of the whole Flock His Answerer doth well reply to him in that point and with a Candour suitable to the Pacifick State of the Realm you have predicted under any Prince of the Roman-Catholick Communion say viz. How doth it appear that Christ ever made St. Peter Head of the Church or committed his Flock to him in contradistinction to the Rest of the Apostles This is so far from being evident by Scripture that the Learned Men of their Church are ashamed of the places commonly produced for it c. And afterward saith ' We need not insist on the Proof of this since the late mentioned Authors of the Roman Communion have taken so great pains not only to prove the Popes Supremacy to be an Encroachment and Usurpation in the Church but that the laying it aside is necessary to the Peace and Unity of it And until the Divine Institution of the Papal Supremacy be proved it is to no purpose to debate what manner of Assistance is promised to the Pope in his Decrees It was I think an undertaking that none but a very Sanguine Man could suppose fesable to engage us to believe in this Age that the Pope was by Divine Right Head of our Church under Christ. I say in this Age so generally Learned and when a Layman furnished but with an ordinary Library can shew that the Churches of the Brittish Islands England Scotland and Ireland as my Lord Primate Bramhal shews in Chap. 5. of his Iust Vindication of the Church of England by the Constitution of the Apostles and by the Solemn Sentence of the Catholick Church are exempted from all Foreign Iurisdiction and that if it be objected that the Bishop of Rome was ever our Patriarch that all Patriarchal Jurisdiction is of Human Institution and by the Statute of 35 C. 1. it was declared that the Holy Church of England was founded in the State of PRELACY not of Papacy within the Realm of Eng. not without it by the Kings and Peers thereof not by the Popes and when in the time of our late Civil Wars the Presbyterian and Independent Divines had by their Claims of Ius Divinum for their Models of Church-Government so much exercised the understanding of the People in general that at the time of his late Majesties Restoration restoring to our Church the best Constituted Government in the World many of our Virtuosi and Latitudinarians could not be brought expresly to own its excellence on an Universal Ius Divinum praeceptivum and would say that in any Church Government that by Divine Right would bind all Churches there must be not only praxis but institutio apostolica The Pryers into the Rabbinical Learning of the Iews have not been forced more to observe their Criticising on the Divinity of the Fire which burn'd the Sacrifices on the Brazen Altar as coming from Heaven both when the Tabernacle was erected and when the Temple was built and making the fire in the first Temple to be Divino-Divinus altogether Holy and the fire in the second Temple to be Divino-Humanus Human Holy as being kindled as our fire though still kept in as the fire of the first Temple was and the third fire that Nadab and Abihu offered to be Humanus and likewise called by them alienus as strange fire then the Readers of the late Controvertists of the Ius Divinum of several Forms of Church-Government among us have been forced to take notice of their nicety in distinguishing it And now after the Bishop of Rome had before Henry the 8 th's time made the figure of the fire Divino Humanus and whose Authority was then Extinguished for so the Style runs of the Act of
live in Bondage I am far from desiring to entrench on this liberty for Papists in matters or Tenets properly denominable by the Term of Religionary ones according to the expression by you frequently used and do suppose though there were no such thing in the World as a Pope or Patriarch that the Religionary Tenets of Transubstantiation and Purgatory c. may continue to be believed by many and if any one shall contrary to the Sense of the Government and of Acts of Parliament in Henry 8 ths time believe as the Representer doth that the Bishop of Rome hath here in Spirituals more power by the Word of God than other Foraign Bishops I shall not endeavour by any severity to impose on him the contrary Belief But yet shall still by virtue of that Sacred Word think my self bound and that particular passage in it cited by Dr. Iackson not to be a Servant of Men as to any Doctrinal Impositions and to forbear external Communion with any Church that would impose upon my Belief I know of none of the Church of England who hath avowed the practice of more Indulgence to Papists in the Confession of their Religionary Principles than I have done And I thank God that my practice in this kind hath not been by Fits or Starts or Turns of Times or Humours but that my Life hath in this Point of doing Just and Charitable Offices to all Consciencious and Loyal Papists been as I may say a Thred even spun upon every Wheel of Providence Your self can tell of the Signal good Offices I did to many Papists and to others that a Clamorous Common Fame would have run down as Popishly Affected when you applyed to me then in their behalf during the Season of some of the late Narratives and I am able further to do you the Justice as to remember what you have long ago told me and what I had reason to believe that when the figure you made in another of his Majesties Realms allowed you Virtute officij to have made many thousands of them groan under the Burden of the Penal Laws you held your self in Conscience obliged not to do it but on the contrary to rescue them from the least Hardship thereby But I shall here take occasion to tell you that I have scarce in any thing more shewed my Friendliness to the Persons of some of my Roman Catholick Friends than by my Advice to them that they would apply to the Writers of their Church to forbear troubling our English World with new Models of Reconciliation of Churches And indeed Nature doth now Loudly enough tell us that the Real Peace of Kingdoms ought not to be troubled by projects of a Chimerical one between Churches The best Men are Reconciled to one another and the Reconciling of all the worst Men in the World together would make their Association more troublesom to Mankind And when we know that the Bigots of the Church of Rome can stir no further from the Councel of Trent than our Soldiers in Africa could from their Garrison of Tangier before the Peace there is no thinking of their Travelling far to meet us And if any one suppose that they would meet us half way yet notwithstanding he might likewise according to the Principles of Nature suppose that the other Moiety of the Theological Controversies not agreed in would occasionally render Mens Spirits more Tempestuous toward each other and the publick as we usually see Storms to be most violent about the Season of the Equinoctial Moreover they who give themselves the Office of Reconcilers general or intrude into the Station of the Publick Mediators appearing thereby hot and unquiet in their own tempers rendring themselves always liable to disquiet from abroad by attacks from all parties are of all Men the most unlikely to be universal Peace-Makers or to gain any Blessing by being such And as you have in your Discourse Studiously declined the use of the little Names of Distinctions of three differing Parties in the State so shall I likewise do but can easily give you occasion to guess which of them refers to Men most Hated and most Impolitick by Minding you how the Systematical Writers of Politicks do often call neuters Middle Region Men and such as being Lodged in the Middle Rooms are annoyed with the droppings from above and smoak from below You have expressed your self in your Preface and Discourse as so much agreeing with me in this Subject that I shall be but Just to you in owning my Belief that your varying from some of the Measures of the Church of England in some Points tended not to encourage others to undertake the Thankless Office of being Match-Makers of Churches I know very well what my Lord Primate Bramhall in order to shewing that the Sons of the Church of England are not Slaves to its Articles saith In his Iust Vindication of the Church of England and how Mr. Chillingworth in his Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvation tells us that by the Religion of Protestants he understands not the Doctrine of Luther or Calvin or Melanchton nor the Articles of the Church of England c. But that wherein they all agree and which they all Subscribed c. as a perfect Rule of their Faith and Actions that is the Bible the Bible I say the Bible only is the True Religion of Protestants c. And therefore what ever freedom you justly claim by the Charter of the Bible to confess any Religionary Tenets however different from those I own I am not to envy you But do know that I am bound to pitty you or any else of Mankind that I shall think to err therein though it should be in any Religionary Tenet of Popery it self or in the Power of the Bishop of Rome in Imposing Creeds or Rules of Divine Worship on Men by Divine Right as part of your Description of Popery runs and as to which I think there may be occasion in your Review of it to avoid giving more Offence both to the Church of England and that of Rome thereby than you perhaps intended I have observed a late French Writer to avoid the Censure of describing the Communion of the Church of Rome or the Faith of that Church by a doubtful Name having used the Term la Catholicitè But as to your Description of Popery I may mind you that according to your Quotation in p. 318. out of Ames of the Seven Venetian Divines who in that most Iudicious Tractate of theirs as Ames calls it of the Papal Interdict affirmed that a Christian ought not to obey any Command of the Popes unless he had first examined the Command as far as the Subject Matter required whether it were convenient lawful and Obligatory and that he Sins who Implicitly obeys it those Divines though adhering to la Catholicitè firmly enough did thereby throw off the Power of the Bishop of Rome in imposing Creeds and Doctrines and Rules of
Divine Worship on Men as much as your Description doth And the Venetians particularly opposing the Popes Interloping in their Jurisdiction that other thing referred to in your Description is sufficiently known But if by your Description of Popery you intend only to give us a Dictionary of your Sense of the word generally as used by you and that you intend by the Extermination of Popery the Banishing only of those Principles of it that are Irreligionary out of Mens Minds namely the Principles that tend to the Popes Spiritual and Temporal Vsurpations I am not to quarrel with your expressing your own meaning But as I Judge several Roman-Catholick Writers using the Term Popery to intend thereby the Religion of the Church of Rome as for example the Author of the Compendium saying what I before referred to that nothing but Popery or at least its Principles can make the Monarchy of England again emerge or lasting yet as to which a Divine Sentence was in the Mouth of the King when in his Gracious Expressions in Council concerning the Church of England he Judged otherwise and said I know the Principles of that Church are for Monarchy c. and meaning by Popery what was called la Catholicitè I shall say that according to the common acception of the Word Popery were I to explain what I usually mean by it I would declare that I mean not only the Power of the Bishop of Rome but of any General Councils in Imposing Creeds and Doctrines c. on me And I desiring to have all Religionary Errors banished out of my understanding and Loving my Neighbour as my self will desire they may be so out of his and particularly if after he knoweth he is bought with a price he shall think it lawful for him to be a Servant of Men And will not only weigh the Commands and Decrees of any Bishop But of any General Council whatsoever And if in Matters that Import my Salvation I find them contrary to the Bible with a Salvo to the Reverence I owe to all Lawful General Councils I will desire them to excuse me from obeying them Were it not for what you have so well in p. 48. said that the Protestant Religion not making the intention of the Preist essential to the Sacrament of the Eucharist is more strongly assertive of the Real presence there than the Popish Hypothesis and for that great and excellent Notion of yours in your Discourse viz. That Papists and others being bought with a Price that therefore they ought not to be the Servants of Men and my Judging that according to what I have mentioned out of Dr Iackson that you would separate your self from any Church that imposed any thing Magisterially on Mens Faiths I might think that perhaps had you lived in the Reign of Henry the 8 th you would not have separated from the Ecclesia Anglicana as then by Law Established And therefore when by your warm Expressions in p. 47. after you have said that the Protestation that the Protestant Religion requires is such a continual one as is Reiterated upon every fresh Act and Attempt of the Papal Religion upon ours and whereby it would impose Creeds and Doctrines on us contrary to the Liberty of the Church of England as now by Law Established You tell us that We are to shew no Mercy to these Principles of Popery that disquiet the World and on the several occasions offered protest against the Damages that both our King and Country may have from the Rage of Popery I may tell you that this PROTESTANCY amounts to no more than what we read of in the Review of the Council of Trent where in Book 1. and 12 th Chapter the Author refers to the French King by his Embassadors causing a PROTESTATION to be made against the Council of Trent and as appeared by the Oration there made by Mr. Arnold de Ferriers the 22 d. of September 1563. where among other things having mentioned many grievances he saith that according to the Commands of the most Christian King they were constrained CONCILIO INTERCEDERE VT NVNC INTERCEDEBANT by the same Token that that Book relates how thereupon a certain Prelate of the Council of Trent not well understanding the Propriety of the Word Intercedere which the Tribunes were wont of Old to use when thay made their Oppositions and Hinderances asked his Neighbour PRO QVO ORAT REX CHRISTIANISSIMVS But of the French Kings Embassadors protesting not only against Grievances in the Council of Trent but against it self as a Grievance and of some occasions thereof it will come in my way to speak hereafter Nor was there ever any Instrument or Paper Writ with more sharpness of Anger and Scorn in the way of Defiance against Papismus or Popery than H. the 8 ths Protestation against the Council of Trent and yet inclusive too of another Protestation I mean of his Adherence to the Faith then called Catholick That long Protestation calls the Pope by the Name of Bishop of Rome and saith surely except God take away our right Wits not only his Authority shall be driven out for ever but his NAME also shall be forgotten in England Nor did ever any Protestant Writer in Queen Elizabeths or King Iames the First 's time or in our late Fermentation so zealously press the Exterminating of the Papal Power as Henry the 8ths Proclamation about the Abolishing the same Triumph at its being here done And where he saith We have by Good and Wholsom Laws and Statutes made for this purpose EXâ—IRPED ABOLISHED Separated and Secluded out of this our Realm the Abuses of the Bishop of Rome his Authority and Iurisdiction of long time Vsurped c. And the King there Orders all manner of Prayers Oraisons Rubricks Canons of Mass-Books and all other Books in the Churches wherein the Bishop of Rome is NAMED or his Presumptuous and proud Pomp and Authority preferred utterly to be Abolished Eradicate and Razed out and his NAME and Memory to be never more except to his Contumely and Reproach remembred but perpetually suppressed and obscured The Act of 28 of Henry the 8 th before spoken of called an Act for Extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome was here referred to and which Act and other Acts of Parliament Establishing the Kings Supremacy and Excluding the Pope for ever I mentioned as revived in Queen Elizabeths time after their being repeal'd in Queen Mary's I need not observe to you how this present French King hath likewise lately shewn a very Commendable Zeal for the Exterminating the Vsurpations of the Papal Power in the Business of the Regalia and that the Case of that Kings Power is much altered for the better since D' Ossat Writ to Villeroy from Rome with so much Joy for his having found out an expedient as to the difference between Henry the 4 th and the Pope about the granting to one a Church Dignity in France Namely to have the Words put
into the Popes Bull thus viz. pro quo Christianissimus Rex scripsit instead of quem Rex Christianissimus nominavit I doubt not but your Curiosity hath led you to see a Copy of the Letter writ to the French King on the 10 th of Iuly 1680. by the Arch Bishops and Bishops and other Ecclesiasticks of France appointed by the Clergy there about the last Breve of this Pope upon the Subject of the Regale in which Letter they take notice how THIS POPE required him not to subject any of their Churches to the right of the Regale and threatned him that he would make use of his Authority if his Majesty did not Submit to the Paternal Remonstrances he had often made and repeated to him about that point and they there pass as YOVR Protestants so far as to make a PROTESTATION as their word is against the Papal Vsurpation designed by THIS POPE And moreover YOVR sober party of the IESVITS have in France adhered to the King against the Pope in this Contest about the Regale But how severe the same Arch-Bishops and Bishops in France who made that PROTESTATION have since been in their ADDRESS against the True Protestants there who have been averse from the Religionary part of Popery as you call it I suppose you cannot be ignorant For undoubtedly the Acts of the general Assembly of the French Clergy in the year 1685. Concerning Religion together with their Complaint against the Calumnies and Injuries which the pretended reformed have and do every day publish in their Books and Sermons against the Doctrine of the Church presented to the King by the Clergy in a Body July the 14 th 1685. Cannot have escaped your view the same having been since printed in London Translated into English and as I suppose by some of the Roman Catholick Religion and will not trouble my self to guess for what intent of the Publisher I have looked it over and leave it to our Divines to consider whether it deserves any Answer I observed in it one Reference to Peter du Moulins Nouveaute de Papisme of the Edition of Sedan about Protestants rendring the Papists Idolatrous as invocating Saints which was an Instance of the freedom allowed Protestants in that Realm in Writing and Publishing Books against the Religion of Popery as by Law Established in France a liberty that the Publisher of that Translation hath likewise sufficiently taken in publishing it here without Licence and whereby he hath brought our Famous Whitaker and Downham Rainolds and Ames into the Range of Calumniators and Publishers of Calumny's against the Church of Rome Though the Course of my Studies hath lain much more among Law-Books than in those of Polemical Divinity yet the time I have spent on the latter hath enabled me to observe one very Inauspicious passage under the first Article and the Column of the Calumny of the pretended Reform'd about it and where the French Clergy accuse them of Calumny for saying That with the Hereticks mentioned by St. Irenaeus Roman Catholicks reject the Holy Scriptures that with the Montanists they accuse it of Imperfection that they Contemn it and afterward that the Roman Catholicks call the Scripture a Dumb Rule a Stumbling Stone a Nose of Wax a Two edged Sword And for that purpose having begun with accusing our Whitaker and Downham as Calumniators and refer'd to their works to prove it they afterward quote the Thesaurus Disputationum Theologicarum in Academiâ Sedanensi c. de summo controvers Iudice Tom. 1. p. 26. Onerant pontificij Scripturam plaustro convitiorum vocando eam Regulam Mutam lapidem scandali nasum cereum gladium ancipitem But without any undue Reflections on that Clergy I think it might have been more worthy of their great Learning and Hatred of CALVMNY and their Tenderness for the Honour of the Scripture and their Obligation to handle Theological Controversie with the fairest and softest hands they could and in short more worthy of the Honour of the Church of Rome if they had quoted Turrian cont Sadel p. 99. Canus lib. 3. Loc. Theol. Cap. 2. Sect. â—ec vero Ecchius in ench tit de ecclesiâ Hosius lib. 3. de Auth. Sac. Script Sect. fingamus p. 148. as I find them Cited by our Dr. Crackanthorp under his De loc arguendi ab Authoritate that you have referred to and whom you have Celebrated for being just in his quotations and who there speaking of Papists slighting the Scripture thus quotes these Authors viz. HI Scripturam vocant gladium Delphicum Nasum cereum ad sensum quemvis flexibilem quae non nisi ecclesiae suae authoritate authentica sit de quâ posse pio sensu dici volunt eam si destituatur ecclesiae authoritate non plus valere quam Aesopi fabulas And had further Cited some index expurgatorius for censuring the profaneness of those expressions in Roman Catholick Authors and one of whom was a Legate in the Council of Trent and another a Divine sent to that Council by the Pope There is another Eminent Father of our Church whose Writings the French Clergy might if they pleas'd have quoted for the same purpose they did those of Whitaker and Downham and that is Iewel in his Apology who in p. 106 107 108. saith Itaque Sacrosanctas Scripturas quas Servator noster Iesus Christus non tantúm in omni sermon usurpavit sed etiam ad extremum sanguine suo consignavit quo populum ab illis tanquam à re periculosâ noxiâ minore negotio abigant solent literam frigidam incertam inutilem mutam occidentem mortuam appellare Quod nobis quidem perinde videtur esse ac si eas omnino nullas esse dicerent Sed addunt etiam simile quoddam non aptissimum Eas esse quodammodo nasum cereum posse fingi flectique in omnes modos omnium instituto inservire An PONTIFEX ista à SUIS dici nescit Aut tales se habere patronos non intelligit Audiat ergo quà m sanctè quamque piè de hac re scribat Hosius quidam polonus ut ipse de se testatur Episcopus certe homo disertus non indoctus acerrimus ac fortissimus propugnator ejus causae Mirabitâ—â— opinor hominem pium de illis vocibus quas sciret proâ—ectas ab ore Dei vel tam impiè sentire potuisse vel tam contumeliosè scribere ita praesertim ut eam sententiam non fuam unius propriam videri vellet sed istorum communem omnium Nos inquit ipsas scripturas quarum tot jam non diversas modo sed etiam contrarias interpretationes afferri videmus facessere jubebimus Deum loquenâ—em potius audiemus quà m ut ad EGENA ista ELEMENTA nos convertamus in illis Salutem nostram constituamus Non oportet legis Scripturae peritum esse sed à Deo doctum vanus est labor qui scripturis impenditur Scriptura enum creatura est
Majesties Reign in any Religionary point Yet as to your self I have had reason to guess that you long ago in the late Kings Reign had some Theological Sentiments some what differing from what I took for our Churches Articles and that I speaking to you thereof you reply'd out of Bishop Bramhalls Iust Vindication of our Church that our Articles are not penned with Anathemas or Curses against all those even of our own who do not receive them but used only as an help or rule of unity among our selves Nor have I forgot how you once discoursed to me your opinion of the Tenet that the Souls of good Men do not immediately after Death go up into Heaven nor the Souls of bad Men then immediately down into Hell But that the former than go into a good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the latter into a bad one and that such place was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. inconspicuus as being so not in regard of it self but of us and that our Saviours Soul went 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that this Tenet was more particularly Tertullians and that he describing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said 't was a place ubi bonis benè erat malis malè and that good Men did there in Candidâ expectare diem Judicij and that the Expression of aeternitatis Candidati was first taken occasionally from those words of Tertullian and that it seemed suitable to the Measures of Divine Iustice not to give the great Sentence concerning eternal rewards and punishments before the Trial of the Day of Iudgment and that as a Thousand years with God are said to be but one Day the time of that Trial might possibly last so long and that it might else seem a diminutio capitis for Saints to be brought from the Caelum beatorum to the Bar and that somewhat like this notion of the State of Souls after Death the Iews had and likewise all the Fathers for the first four Centuries and when some of them encouraging Men to be Martyrs said that such did uno saltu get up into Heaven and that our Saviour saying in my Fathers House are many Mansions c. and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self tho therefore the good will not be received by Christ into those Mansions till he comes again yet their condition will be much better in the good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then in the most prosperous State here below where they are continually exposed to the Contagion of Sin And as you have in p. 317. mentioned that some of our Protestant Divines owning this Tenet have not been therefore Censured as Popishly affected or maintainers of Purgatory so neither shall I therefore thence infer your owning the Notion of a Purgatory or Limbus nor the usefulness of Praying for any Souls in the Hades and much less that your favouring this notion of Hades by publishing it now as what some of our Protestant Divines favoured was in the least designed by you as any humouring of a Project to reconcile Churches a project that you have expressed to be so ineffectual when some well meaning Men had it in their Heads in a Conjuncture long ago and when Withers a dull Poet of the Age yet a favorite of the vulgus did in his Emblems p. 3 of his ep dedicat as you once told me amuse them with his fancies of the Vnion of Religion And as you have in your preface observed it that the few florid Sheets lately published on the Subject of Toleration have made no other figure than that of the poor resemblances of flowers extracted by Chymical Art out of their ashes and that a little shaking them together in the glass of time must make them presently fall in pieces I have observed likewise that the perhaps well meant Velleities or Wishes or little Essays of some few private Persons that since his Majesties Reign amused any by propounding a Reconciliation of Churches have appeared but like extracted resemblances of the flowers of private Mens proposals of that kind in the Conjuncture before the year 1640 and since his Majesties happy Reign they have been easily shaken in pieces Mr. Prynne in his History of the Tryal of Arch Bishop Laud in p. 191. tells us what a ferment Mr. Adams his Case made in the Vniversity of Cambridge in the year 1637. who Preaching in St. Mary's and there asserting the necessity of Auricular Confession was by Dr. Brownrig the Vice-Chancellor enjoyned to Recant that Doctrine and about which great Heats arose among the Heads of Houses there But the Sharpness of the canons of 40 against Popery shewing the zeal the Arch-bishop expressed in the making of those Canons and of that Clause in the Oath there for the abjuring Popery viz. and that I will not Subject the Church of England to the Church of Rome which Oath the Arch-Bishop in his Defence saith was a more strict Oath than ever was made against Popery in any Age or Church may easily Convince the Sagacious of the Church of Englands Sense then about any Project of Reconciling the Church of England to that of Rome being altogether vain The Arch-Bishop had it seems by long and deep observation found the project of the reconciling of our Church and Romes a thing utterly unpracticable however as to his having been formerly a Visionaire about the possibility of the same I remember I have seen some angry reflections of Dr Williams Bishop of Lincoln against him and Writ with that Bishops own Hand in the Margent of the arch-Arch-Bishops Printed Star-Chamber Speech where over against those passages that seemed to be somewhat trimming in favour of the Church of Rome Bishop Williams wrote the nearer you come to the Church of Rome the further she will fly from your Courtship and Caresses and will tell you that Rusticus es Corydon nec munera curat Alexis But what thing the Reconcilers would be of Churches mean to themselves is sufficiently plain As to the natural meaning of any thing of that nature I call to mind that a Presbyterian Minister speaking to you once of Comprehension and of the Divines of his perswasion and that of the Church of England being that way Reconciled you told him you wished a Coalition of such with the Church of England as were formerly of his Perswasion But that you supposed by his comprehension he desired to be a Comprehensor of some of the Livings of the Divines of the Church of England and that therefore when you found any Divine speak of the Essaying to Reconcile Churches you naturally thought of those Words in the Acts of the Apostles C. 17. v. 18. What will this Babler say and Rendring the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there by Church Robber Altar Robber and Sacrilegious Person as our Broughton did and justifying that your Critical Acception of the word out of the Greek Classick Authors viz. Demosthenes and
Parliament I mentioned of 28 of H. 8 th viz. An Act for Extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome and as to whose Authority we are told by More 463. that all the power of the Pope was not by the 25 of H. 8th given to the King but was extinct in Holy wells Case for any Writers without the Heat and Light of much clear Learned Argumentation to rekindle that extinguished ignis alienus a strange fire of Foreign power in our Beliefs will I may modestly say be a strange Attempt and not to be Effected by any Rhetorical Representer But here I cannot forbear observing that the Author of the Papist Misrepresented c. doth in his Reflections upon the Answer to his Book in p. 13. refering to Dr. Hickes his Iovian call him a Worthy Divine and Cite him for saying that in Case a Popish Julian indeed should Reign over us he should believe him uncapable of Repentance and upon that Supposition should be tempted to pray for his Destruction and then in seeming Charity to the Church of England deny that because the Doctor used those Words it is honest hence to blacken the Church of England with this Disloyal Principle as if she allowed her Members though not to fight against yet to pray for the Destruction of such a Prince The Doctor whose great Learning and Pains taken in doing right to the Succession you have so particularly Represented in your Preface and whereupon if we reflect on the little or nothing ex professo writ by any Romanists against the Exclusion it will be no Complement to â—ay that he hath therein laboured more abundantly than THEY all might if it had pleased this Representer have been deservedly referred to by him with a higher Character And if in any expressions warmer than ordinary against the principles of Popery he had erred by any little Transports in any of his Books he sufficiently Merited from any Roman Catholick Criticks their mildest Representation of them And it had been but Justice in the Representer to have Cited the former part of the Doctors Sentence viz. and if it should please God to plague the Church with such a Spightful Enemy of Christ c. And if he had done so it would have invited the Reader to look back to what the Doctor had written from the 140 th page to the passage which he Cites and then his Reflection would have come to nothing By what I have heard of the Doctors Loyalty I believe him to be one who with Effectual Fervent Prayers doth Importune Heaven for his Majesties long and prosperous Reign and doth his Duty of praising God for his Majesties being so far a Nursing Father to the Church of England And I have that opinion of the largeness of his Christian Charity and Justice that he is ready to retaliate with the Representer in not blackning the whole Church of Rome with the principles lately held by some Iesuits and others Casuists referred to in the Popes Decree of March 2 d. 1679. in § 13 14 15. by the 1 st of which it is rendred no Mortal Sin to be troubled for the Life of another so it be done with due Moderaton and by the second it is made Lawful to desire the Death of ones Father by an absolute desire and by the 3 d. Lawful for a Son to rejoyce at the same and perpetrated by a Son in Drunkenness I suppose you could not but take notice how that Answerer of the Papist Mis-represented c. reflects on the unlucky instance there in Caiaphas and saying was not Caiaphas himself the Man who proposed the taking away the Life of Christ at that time was he assisted in that Councel Did not he determine afterward Christ to be guilty of Blasphemy and therefore worthy of Death For you have well observed the ill Luck that the Famous Hosius as he is called by you had in this case of Caiaphas as to which Dr. Crackanthorp exclaims against Hosius O Hominem Sacrilegum ac Blasphemum Illene reus Mortis qui innocens innoxius vitam dedit An Blasphemus etiam Ea judicij pars You may in Bishop Iewels Apology find this blot of Hosius hit where speaking of the Pope p. 151 152. of the London Edition in the â—ear 1581. he saith Petrus quidem á Soto ejus astipulator HOSIVS nihil dubitant affirmare concilium illud ipsum in quo Christus Iesus adjudicatus est morti habuisse spiritum propheticum spiritum sanctum spiritum veritatis Nec falsum aut vanum fuisse quod Episcopi illi dixerunt Nos habemus Legem secundum legem debet mori illos judicasse Sic enim scribit HOSIVS judicij veritatem omninóque justum fuisse illud decretum quo ab illis pronuciatum est Christum dignum esse qui moreretur Mirum verò est non posse istos pro se dicere propugnare causam suam nisi uná etiam Annae Cajaphaeque pratrocinentur Nam qui illud ipsum concilium in quo filius Dei ad crucem ignominiosissime condemnatus est legitimum dicent fuisse ac probum quod tandem illi concilium decernent esse vitiosum Tamen qualia sunt istorum concilia ferè omnia necesse illis fuit ut ista de Cajaphae Annaeque concilio pronunciarent c. He there had Cited in the Margin Hosius contra Brentium lib. 2. But if so great a Divine as Hosius who was a Polonian Bishop and Cardinal of Rome and one of the Popes Legates in the Councel of Trent did thus err in this point the mistake of an other therein who was of an inferior Character is not to be much wondered at However as I am an Honourer of Learned Men I Derogate not from the Talents of Wit and Learning shewn in his Book and do suppose that somewhat of the Moderation he shews therein may be attributed to the Candour of that Church he was first Educated in And am sorry that he should find any Cause in his Papist Misrepresented Chapter 31. Of wicked Principles and Practices to say take but a view of the Horrid practices She i. e. the Church of Rome hath been engaged in of late years consider the French and Irish Massacres the Murder of Hen. the 3 d. and 4 th Kings of France the Holy League the Gunpowder Treason the Cruelty of Queen Mary the Firing of London the late Plot in the year 1678. to Subvert the Government and destroy his Majesty the Death of Sir Edmund Godfrey c. And then tell me whether that Church which hath been the Author and Promoter of such Barbarous Designs ought to be esteemed Holy c. and let never so many pretences be made yet 't is evident that all these Execrable practices have been done according to the known Principles of this Holy Church and that her greatest Patrons the most Learned of her Divines her most Eminent Bishops her Prelates Cardinals and even the Popes themselves have been
the chief Managers of these Hellish Contrivances and what more convincing Argument that they are well approved and conform to the Religion taught by their Church And as to which in his Papist Represented he fairly saith Neither let any one pretend to Demonstrate the Faith and Principles of the Papists by the Works of every Divine in that Communion or by the Acts of every Bishop Cardinall or Pope for they extend not their Faith beyond the Declaration of General Councils and standing fast to these He had before said there against what was mentioned in the Papist Misrepresented about fireing of London the Late Plot in the year 78 c. And though he is not bound to believe all to be Truth that is charged upon them by Adversaries there being no NARRATIVE of any of these Divelish Contrivances and Practices laid to them wherein Passion and Fury have not made great additions wherein things dubious are not improved into certainty Suspicious into Realities Fears and Jealousies into Substantial Plots and downright Lyes and Recorded Perjuries into Pulpit nay Gospel Truth yet he really thinks there have been Men of his profession of every rank and degree c. that have been Scandalous in their lives c. But what then is the whole Church to be Condemned for the Vicious Lives of some of her professors c. And in the Conclusion he saith These are the Characters of the Papist as he is Mis-represented and as he is Represented And as different as the one is from the other So different is the Papist as reputed by his Maligners from the Papist as to what he is in himself The one is so absurd and monstrous that 't is impossible possible for any one to be of that Profession without first laying by all thoughts of Christianity and Reason The other is just Contradictory to this and without any further Apology may be exposed to the perusal of all prudent and unpassionate considerers to examine if there be any thing in it that deserveth the Hatred of any Christian and if it be not in every point wholly conform to the Doctrine of Christ and not in the least contrary to Reason I will readily accord with him that Delictum personae non debet ad ecclesie detrimentum trahi And do therefore suppose that he likewise will not charge the Constitution of the Church of England with any imperfections because many of its Members have Mis-represented or Calumniated any Papist Nor hath any one a greater Compassion then my self for such Innocent and Loyal Papists as have in the late Fermentation been aspersed with the Shammes in Narratives Any one may easily Judge me not untaught as to the Moral Offices of such Compassion from the Measures of Non Ignara Mali c. I never in the Conjuncture when we were so much deafned with the Noise of Narratives thought otherwise of them than as being partly like the River Euphrates according to the known Description of it in that Hymne of Callimachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Assyrius fluvius volvit magno agmine fluctus Et trahit Illuviem Multasque hinc indeque sordes The Recorded Infamous Person who in his Affidavit that made so much noise and threw so much Dirt on me and who by being so presumptuous therein as to Reproach his Majesty with things that no Man of Sense could believe thought to eternize his Name like him who burn'd the Temple at Ephesus hath Missed of that Aim as far as in me lay and so shall And I think you have done well in not naming the Profligate But it having pleased God to permit him while he was under the Course of his due punishment and under the protection of the Law to fall by the Hand of an Assassinate and at whose Hand his Majesty required his Blood that Signal instance of the Justice inherent in his Majesties Nature hath sufficiently encouraged all his Liege People to think themselves safe by his being a Terror to Evil Doers and not bearing the Sword in vain According to the Moral Offices you have so well described of not Condemning whole parties merely on the account of the immoral Actions of particular Members of them I however blame not any Religionary Caetus that either the profligate or assassin referred to for their respective Outrages did herd with And as the Author of the Papist Mis-represented c. is very fairly desirous that we should take our measures of the Church of Rome from the Principles approved by it I shall herein Comply with him But here must say that I am sorry to find that the Author is in a Church where the DEPOSING Power is so much as DELIBERATED For as you have well cited it out of two Heathen Authors Dum deliberant desciverunt And Ea deliberanda omnino non sunt in quibus est turpis ipsa deliberatio And I am glad that in his 26 th Chap. viz. of Mental Reservation he was enabled to cite the present Pope's Decree of the 2 d. of March 1679. for the Damning of the Doctrine of Equivocation of Oaths And among the many Principles of the Iesuits and other Casuists which may come under your Denomination of irreligionary ones that Sicarious one as you properly call it viz. It is lawful for a Person of Honour to kill a Man that intends to Calumniate him if there is no other way to avoid that Reproach was in that Decree very justly Condemn'd And but for that Principle having till its Condemnation been approved in the Church of Rome there could be no more just cause to charge any Papist except the Actors with the Blood of Godfrey than there was to cast the odium of the Execrable Murder of the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews on any of the Presbyterians except the Ruffianly Actors And as to the case of Godfrey I remember you told me that since your warm aggravations about it in your DISCOVRSE you were a colder Concurrer with the Iustice of the Nation therein and that you thought there was still somwhat of the Intervallum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uncertain or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fabulous in the case of his Death And as to what the Author speaks of Papists being Misrepresented with relation to the late Plot in the year 1678. To Subvert the Government and destroy his Majesty I who in the Conjuncture of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made so little about it shall not now make any at all What I have read in a Pacificatory Discourse of a Pious Divine published in the year 1653. where speaking of a Spirit of Iealousie and of envy strife Railings and Evil Surmisings and having quoted 1. Tim. 6.4 and that Strife and evil surmisings are near of kinne and that if Contentious Men can get nothing against their Brethren they will surmise there is something and if they can find nothing in their Actions to Iudge they will Iudge their Hearts If there be nothing above-board they will think there may be