Councils ought to have free Liberty orderly to declare and Determin Maters in question That whatever must oblige as Divine ought to be confirmed by the Authority of Holy Scripture That no Councils are Legitimate where private Respects are managed under pretext of Faith and Religion That the Roman Bishop hath not that power which many flatterers attribute to him viz. That he alone is to Determine and Others only to Consult and Advise That a General Council is Superiour to the rest of the Patriarchs and also to the Roman Bishop That a General Council may be deficient and that de facto Councils lawfully assembled have erred And since they have failed and have contradicted one another as appears in the Second Council of Nice and that of Constance among many others the one Decreeing the Worship of Images the other prohibiting Communion in both Kinds against the express words of Scripture the Councils of Lateran in Deposing Kings the Council of Frankfort opposite to that of Nice in the Business of Images the Council of Florence against those of Basil and Constance in the point of the Pope's Superiority over a Council It is certain that Councils are to be Regulated and Examined by God's Word and to be Received or Rejected as Conformable to or Disagreeing from that And for this we have the Authority of the Great S. Augustin contra Maxim Arian l. 3. c. 14. Nec ego Nicenum c. Neither ought I to produce the Nicen nor Thou the Ariminum Council as having already prejudged or absolutely Determined the Cause beyond all Appeal For I am not bound up by the Authority of this nor Thou by the Decree of that but let us regard the Authority of the Holy Scripture witnesses not partial or appropriated to either party but common to both A speech worthy the Gravity Learning and Piety of S. Augustin As for the Councils of the Later Centuries they neither have been General nor hath either their Assembling or Proceeding been Lawful and they have most Industriously thwarted the Canons of the most Pure and Antient Councils Their Assembling hath not been Legal in that the Modern Popes have Usurped the whole Right and Authority of Convocating Councils contrary to the Primitive Custom and Practice of the Church The first Nicene Council was called by Constantine the Great the first Constantinopolitan which is the second General Council by Theodosius that of Ephesus by Theodosius Junior that of Chalcedon by Martianus the fifth by Justinian c. All which are such evident Proofs that the Cardinals Cusanus Jacobatius and Zabarella confess that in the first Ages of the Church the Right of Calling Councils belonged to the Emperour Nor are Their Proceedings any better For the Popes admit no Assessours or Judges in Councils but their own Faction Men beforehand enslaved by a Solemn Oath which all Bishops of that Communion take at their Confecration to maintain the Regalia Petri all the Usurpations of that See The Pope is the only Authentick Judge in All matters Approving and Refusing whatever He pleases Their own Histories afford us Examples enough to confirm this I shall instance but in the Sleights and Wiles of the Late so much cryed up trent-Trent-Council Wherein to make sure work on the Pope's side there were more Italian Bishops than of all the World beside And most ridiculously to dazle the eyes of the and Others as if they were Greek Prelates Some had the Titles of Archbishops who had neither Church nor Diocess as Vpsalensis and Armachanus who were Created on purpose to fill up the Number And when the Pope on a certain Occasion wanted Voices to sway the cause He sent a fresh supply of 40 Bishops newly made And this was part of that Leigerdemain which an Eminent French Bishop Claud. Espenc one of those vvho sat in the Council calls the Great Helena which of late Ruled All at Trent in Ep. ad Tit. c. 1. All the Oriental and Greek Patriarchs and Bishops were Excluded None out of England Scotland Ireland Danemark Swedland few out of France and Spain fewer out of Germany it self were admitted When the Protestants required Audience they could not be hearken'd to upon any tolerable terms It was long before they could get a Safe-Conduct and when it was procured it was clogg'd with this Clause That it should belong to none but such as would Repent and Return to the Bosom of the Roman Church This Partiality and Jugling when the Princes of Europe saw they sent their Protestations against the Council as being Insufficient to Reform Religion In Trying and Deciding Controversies they adhered more to Tradition than Scripture and pass'd nothing till the Pope with his Consistory had seen it at home and approved it and then he transmitted it to his Legats So that as One said the Holy Ghost was continually posted in Cloakbags between Rome and Trent Though by the way their own Doctors teach that the Assistance of the Holy Ghost is a personal Privilege and cannot be Delegated While the Divines were formally Disputing at Trent the Pope was as busie in Ingrossing Canons at Rome and sending them to the Council to be published Thus they proceeded sometimes by a wrong Rule sometimes by none at all In the 4th Session they Decree That none should give any other Exposition of Scripture than such as might agree with the Doctrine of the Church of Rome And yet this very Doctrine was the Thing questioned and the Scriptures were to have been the Touchstone to try it by Take this whole Affair in the Words of Andraeas Dudithius a Bishop in the Roman Church and an Eminent Member of this Council He thus writes in an Epistle to the Emperour Maximilian the 2d What good could be done in that Council where voices were taken by Number and not by Weight The Pope was able to set an 100 of his against every one of ours and if an 100 were not sufficient he could on a sudden have created a thousand to succour those that were ready to faint We might every day see hungry and needy Bishops and those for the most part Beardless Youngsters come in Flocks to Trent hired to give their Voice according to the Pope's humour unlearned indeed and foolish but of good Use to him for their Audaciousness and Impudency The Holy Ghost had nothing to do with that Conventicle All things were carried by Humane Policy which was wholly employed in Maintaining the Immoderate and indeed most Shameless Lordship and Domineering of the Pope From thence were Answers waited for as from the Oracles of Delphos or Dodona From thence the Holy Ghost who as they brag was President of their Council was sent shut up in Carriers Budgets who a thing worthy to be laugh'd at when the Waters were up as it falls out many times was fain to stay till they were down again before he could repair to the Council By this means it came to pass that the Spirit was not carried on
and Charity the same Heavenly Example one worship in Spirit and in Truth one Communion or Communication of the Members which is the Unity of that Church which includes all the Faithful from the beginning of the World to the end c. In short such an Unity as the Holy Scriptures require in being derived from one beginning which is the Holy Ghost who as one Soul quickens and moves all the Parts in having one Head which is Jesus Christ and in being but one Body partaking the same Doctrine Sacraments and Worship of God This Unity by God's Grace all true Protestants breath after as may apparently be evinced by the Harmony of their Confessions although in points of smaller importance there may be some little differences and most of their Dissentions are rather Verbal then Real As to the Sanctity of that Church let but the Lives of the Roman Bishops be perused written by their own Authors a noysomer Sink and Kennel of Abomination can never be raked up in all Antiquity some Atheists some Conjurers some Adulterers Murderers Incestuous Sodomites Simoniacks and what not the manners and conversation of their Clergy Religious Men and women so heinously tax'd and inveigh'd against by those Famous Writers of their own side S. Bernard Nic. Clemangis Alvar Pelagius Claud. Espencaeus c. and at least they will have little cause so boldly to challenge and appropriate it to themselves above all their Neighbours These things are sufficiently known to any that have viewed their Doctors or conversed even with their Modern practices though themselves are very much amended since the Reformation But I love not to tell stories out of the School and I promised at first to refrain from personal Reflections There are Books enough on this Subject and the World talks sufficiently loud of it If all the precedent Prerogatives signifie nothing at last we must be overborn by whole Legions of Innumerable Miracles that are obtruded upon our Credit But so spurious so ridiculous so impious many of them that the more modest and discreet among themselves dare not own them Their best Writers affirm That Miracles are not necessary for the Being of a Church but onely for the Begetting of a new Faith or an Extraordinary Mission Nay I may add not for an Extraordinary Mission neither as we may see in many of the Prophets of the Old Testament of whose Miracles not one word is mentioned Nor are they at all to be expected from or by the Protestants who neither profess a new Faith nor an Extraordinary Mission The Miracles of our Saviour his Apostles and the first Age of the Church are sufficient Seals to the Doctrine they own And as for those so importunately urged by the Romanists they are but too often convinced to be meer juggles contrivances for filthy Lucre Sleights to uphold some gainful Doctrine or to advance the reputation of some particular place or Religious Order done in a Corner of a far different Nature from those of our B. Saviour and rather of the same stamp with those the Apostle speaks of 2 Thess 2.9 belonging to him who comes with all Power and Signs and Lying Wonders and Revel 13.13 who doth great Wonders so that he makes fire come down from Heaven on Earth in the Sight of Men. A man that duly ponders the most palpable Cheats and Impostures of this kind dailypractised in the Church of Rome for these By-Respects would almost be of Mr. Chilling-worth's mind that it cannot be sufficiently made out that ever so much as a Lame Horse was cured by way of Miracle in confirmation of any Popish Tenet Some insist much on the Outward Prosperity Pomp Splendour and Magnificence of their Church To this the Wise Man hath given an answer Eccles 9.1 Our Works are in the hand of God and no man knows either Love or Hatred by all that is before him Nay our Saviour puts it down as a Mark of the false Church Joh. 16.20 Verily I say unto you that you shall weep and lament but the World shall rejoyce It remains then that the onely Certain and Evident marks of a True Apostolical Church are The Sincere Preaching of God's Word and a Due Administration of the Sacraments To which may be annexed Ecclesiastical Discipline but this is reducible to the other two These are All that the Holy Scriptures afford us Matth. 28.19 Go and Teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to chserve all things whatever I have commanded you Act. 2.42 And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrin and Fellowship and in Breaking of Bread and Prayers Having thus survey'd the Roman Church in general it will hardly be thought Good Manners if we neglect his Holiness the Pope in particular or as some are pleased to flatter him The Church Virtual For what ever stirr and bustle they make about the Church their Mother the plain English of their meaning is nothing but the Pope their Father It is the express Doctrin of S. Thomas Aquinas and his Doctrin in that Church is little less than Canonized 2.2 q. 1. a. 10. that the making of a true Creed belongs to the Pope as all other things do which belong to the Whole Church and that the Whole Authority of the Universal Church abides in him 2.2 q. 12. a. 2. Thus as they take all Authority and Sufficiency from the Scripture and give it to the Church so all the Churche's Authority they attribute to the Pope Gregorius de Valentia one of the Learnedst Jesuits tells us plainly That by the Church they mean Its Head that is to say the Roman Bishop in whom resides the full Authority of the Church when he pleases to Determin matters of Faith whether he doth it with a Council or without Bellarmine teaches that the Pope himself without any Council may decree matters of Faith Bannes affirms that the Authority of the Universal Church the Authority of a Council and the Authority of the Pope are one and the same thing The Canon Law in Sext. Extrav Johan 22. c. Cum inter in Gloss speaks thus It is Heresie to think Our Lord God the Pope may not Decree as he doth And Distinct 19. in Canon His Rescripts and Decretal Epistles are Canonical Scripture All which passages clearly convince us what is the meaning of those perpetual Braggs of the Catholick Church His Holyness must excuse me if being no Courtier I address not my self to him in the phrase of the Roman Inscription to Paul the V. yet to be seen in that City saluting him as a Vice-God and the Stout Assertor of the Pontifical Omnipotency or as the Gloss of the Canon Law in their last and best Editions viz. the Roman 1580 and Parisian 1612. Our Lord God the Pope Waving therefore these Ceremonies I shall summarily consider his Authority both what he pretends to and what it really is And here starts forth a material
richly in all Wisdom teaching and admonishing one another Theodoret before cited gives this Account of his Times You shall every where see these Points of our Faith to be known and understood not only by such as are Teachers in the Church but by Smiths Weavers and all kinds of Artificers yea all our Women not only such as are Book-learned but also by them who get their Living by the Needle Maid servants and Waiting-women and not Citizens only but Husbandmen are very skilful in these things You may hear among us Ditchers and Neat-herds discoursing of the Trinity and the Creation And that the Laity were thus familiar with the Bible may evidently be made out in that Nectarius of a Judge was made Bishop of Constantinople St. Ambrose of a Secular Deputy Bishop of Milan Gregory the Father of Nazianzen of a Lay-man was made a Bishop Origen from a Child was Learned in the Scriptures and to the great Joy of his Father Leonides a Holy Martyr often questioned with him concerning the meaning of difficult places Macrina St. Basil's Nurse taught him the Scriptures when he was very young and Gorgonia the Sister of St. Gregory Nazianzen was rarely well experienced in them I will wind up this Argument with declaring what was St. Jerom's mind in so Weighty a Business He besides his Writing to divers Women as Eustochium Salvina Celantia c. commending their Labours in the Scriptures and encouraging that study speaking of the Noble Roman Lady Paula in the Epitaph he made upon her he extolls her for imposing a daily task of reading the Scriptures on her Companions and Maids But more signally in an Epistle to Leta he gives her these Directions for the Education of her little Daughter Let the Child be deaf in hearing of light Musical Aires but cause her every day to render a task of the Flowers of Holy Scripture Let her not be sought for in the press of secular People but in the Closet of the Scriptures asking Counsel of the Prophets and Apostles concerning Spiritual Nuptials Let her first learn the Psalter and with those Heavenly Songs wean her self from light Sonnets Then let her be taught to Govern her Life out of Solomons Proverbs and repair to Job for Examples of Vertue and Patience Let her then come to the Evangelists and never lay those Books out of her hands With these she must joyn the Acts of the Apostles c But let her be cautious in Apocryphal Books and if she read them let her understand that they are not those Author's whose Names they carry and that many things faulty are mix'd with them and it is no small Wisdom to sind Gold among Dross To which excellent Advice let me onely subjoyn what I find scattered up and down in S. Augustin viz. To read plain Passages first and heartily to practise what we understand and as for obscure Places Prophecies Genealogies and Mysteries whereof we shall never be demanded an Account at the Day of Judgment let us leave it to the Divine Pleasure either to reveal them to us or reserve them still Concealed since our Saviour told his own Disciples that it was not for them to know the Times and Seasons but plainly informed them that he who did his Will should know of his Doctrine whether he spoke from God or from himself The same Father acquaints us with the admirable Commixture of Plainness and Obscurity in the Holy Scripture that hereby Wanton Wits are wholsomely curbed Weak Wits cherished and Great Wits delighted and that nothing of highest Importance is so perplexedly delivered in one Place but it is as plainly set down in another I have inlarged a little more than I intended on this Theme because I am verily perswaded that if the Sober Judicious Roman Catholicks of this Nation would be induced but for Tryal sake a while to intermit some of those Dry Insipid Devotions which take up so much of their Time and exchange them for a Pious Humble conversing with God's Word they would soon be out of Conceit with what they are now so fond of and discover the sandy Foundation of many of their Principles and perhaps at last become of that good Abbots mind who was Unkle to Arch-Bishop Whitgift and was often heard to complain that their Religion must needs at last fail because he found no ground for it in Gods Word Having considered hitherto the great Rule of our Faith and Life we will now descend to that Article of our Creed which makes such a noise in the World I mean the Holy Catholick Church which omitting the various Acceptations of the Word Church as to our present Purpose is nothing else but a Company of People united in the Profession of the True Faith of Christ and due Use of the Sacraments I am not ignorant that the Papists would fain foist in another Requisite to wit Vnder the Obedience of the Bishop of Rame the only Vicar of Christ upon Earth But to omit many other Absurdities I shall only instance at present in two that hereby they exclude Universality which they put down as an Essential Note of the True Church and Charity which I am sure is a certain Badg of Christ's true Disciples For by this very Clause they very ridiculously obtrude less than a fourth part for the Whole and by excommunicating all the rest from the Pale of the Church as much as in them lies very mercifully Doome greater more antient and better Churches than themselves to everlasting flames To make this good we will take our Measures by the Judicious Observation of Sir Edwyn Sands who in his Survey of Europe assures us that the Greek Church in Number exceeds any other and the Protestants in Multitude and extent of Territory fall very little short of those that are under the Papal Yoke So that here we have two four Parts To which add all the Oriental Christians and those in the Vast Empire of Prester John or the Abyssines who are all out of the Roman Communion and questionless we shall find another fourth Part. And thus we have three to one even in the point of Universality I will put this out of all dispute by a particular Induction In Asia we have Multitudes of Christians who have nothing to do with the Pope Those of Palestine are subject to the Patriarch of Jerusalem the Syrians under him of Antioch the Armenians and Georgians have their own Patriarchs The Circassians and those of the lesser Asia are under him of Constantinople The Jacobites and the Christians of St. Thomas have also their peculiar Patriarchs In Africa where we find any steps of Christianity the Egyptians and Cophtes are under the Patriarch of Alexandria the Ethiopians or Abyssines which are innumerable are under their own Governours Ecclesiastical In Europe the Greeks submit to the Patriarch of Constantinople The spatious Empire of the Russians hath a Patriarch at Mosco The Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland Denmark Swedeland and the
far greatest part of the United Netherlands Switzerland Germany and Hungaria are subject to Bishops and Church-Officers of their own without any dependance upon Him at Rome Even in Bohemia Poland France Transylvania some Countreys of Italy there are multitudes of Reformed Churches which have nothing to do with the Popes Jurisdiction And thus that Large Universality of Power that the Old Gentleman at Rome brags of is at last shrunk away into Spain part of France Italy and Poland some of the Cantons of Switzerland some of the Low Countreys and Germany And here you have a Map of the Papal Vniversality They boast indeed much of their New Acquisitions in the Indies but not to Examine by what Right they Invaded those Countreys after such a brutish manner were those Conversions made driving the poor Natives to Baptisme like Herds of Beasts to Watering that their own Writers blush at Recording it And when all comes to all it will appear that they Butcher'd more than they Baptiz'd Bartholomaeus Casa a Bishop that lived in those Countreys and Acosta the Jesuit are sufficient Witnesses in this matter And since We are entred upon this much cryed up Universality of the Roman Church it will not be amiss to glance a little at those other Claims and Pretensions whereby she would Impose her self on the World for the Onely Immaculate Spouse of our Blessed Saviour Antiquity is much talked of and it is a kind of Universality in regard of Time as that before mentioned was of Place and Persons But how groundlesly the Roman Church appropriates and ingrosses it to her self is too apparent from the Novel Tridentine Constitutions and Articles And besides it can be no Discriminating Note in as much as it is applicable to things prophane as well as Sacred even to Paganism it self and to Heresies many of which are as Antient as the first Century as well as to Orthodox Doctrine And if we come down to Practice we shall find it far more feasible to discover the True Church here or there at present than to discern where it was in the constant Series of many Ages History being one of the most obscure intricate tedious and fallacious Principles in this case whereon we can possibly proceed Nor could any particular Church or the Catholick Church it self at the Beginning lay any Claim to the Title of being ancient Besides the Characteristical of Truth is not so much to be Antiqua Old as Prima from the Beginning from Christ and his Apostles and such Antiquity the Church of England is very willing to be tryed by in every one of her Articles So that here are two Conditions deficient Soli Semper Antiquity belongs not only to the True Church nor is it alwayes competible to it To this is reducible their Duration or Continuance but this is rejected in the same manner as their Antiquity is to which it is so near allyed And here by the way we have a most Satisfactory Reply to that thred-bare Demand Where was your Religion before Luther I will not at present use his Answer though very good That it was in the Bible where their 's never was Nor will I demand where theirs was before the late Assembly at Trent some years after Luther But I say it was by wonderful Providence preserved all along down from the Apostles dayes to ours and so will be to the Consummation of the World So we need not turn over all the Immense Volumes of Antiquity to give in a Catalogue of visible Professors of the Reformation and yet this may and hath been sufficiently done but our only Task is to prove our Religion the same which was taught by the Blessed Jesus and his Apostles which can only be done by appealing to the Sacred Records of the Gospel and as for the Professors we have his Promise that he will preserve a Select Company though sometimes living in a corrupt visible Church as Wheat among Tares or the seven thousand in Elisha's time that had not bowed their Knees to Baal 1 Kings 19.18 to his second Coming though he hath not told us where to find them in every year And therefore such as go about to demonstrate that such Professors were not in Being do but attempt to enervate our Saviours Promise and render themselves and Christianity equally ridiculous The Multitude Extent and Variety of their own Professors is indeed Matter of great Ostentation and it hath in part been adverted to in the Business of Universality But in Truth it is so far from being a certain Argument of the Truth of their Church that it rather concludes the Contrary Fear not little Flock sayes our Saviour and strive to enter in at the Straight Gate What shall we think of that time S. Jerome speaks of Cum ingemuit Orbis Mirabatur se factum Arianum when as Vincentius Lyrinensis speaks in a manner all the Latin Bishops partly by Force and partly by Fraud were deluded into Arianisme It is indeed a Note of Anti-Christ Revel 17. That the Whore shall sit upon many Waters which Waters are People and Nations and Tongues As for the Name Catholick so often objected we know that Names have little Weight with wise men that there were some Hereticks who called themselves Apostolical Men that S. John in his Apocalypse tells us there were such as had a Name to live but were dead and that Bellarmine himself acknowledges that if one only Province should retain the True Faith yet might it be called Catholick The Succession of Bishops from the Apostles times is another very plausible Topick on which they much Descant and I confess it bore great Sway with me for a long time especially as to the Validity of Holy Orders Yet upon Mature Deliberation I found more of Pomp than real Solidity in this Pageant though our Ears are continually filled with Clamour about it For neither doth it agree only with the true Church since themselves acknowledge it among the Greeks as in the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Alexandria the former whereof derives from S. Mark the other down successively from S. Andrew to this day nor if you will credit S. Ambrose de poenit l. 1. c. 6. is Succession of Persons so much to be heeded as Succession of Doctrin Non habent haereditatem Petri qui fidem Petri non habent Wherefore if the present Roman Church want the Life and Soul of True Apostolical Succession to wit Apostolical Doctrine a meer local and titular Succession is little worth But the Mischief is that the visible Succession of Bishops in that Sea is not so Glorious and Uninterrupted as is pretended And this is notorious in all Monuments of History and Antiquity that it hath been fouly stained by Simoniacal and Violent Entries upon the Popedom by Schismatical Intrusions and by a perfect Alteration of the very Form and Substance of Election appointed by the Apostles and practised in the primitive Church For either S. Peter named his Successor or
Difficulty even at our first setting out namely Whether S. Peter whence all this Power and Soveraignty is pretended were himself Bishop of Rome or were indeed ever at Rome I will not Deny either because I know many of the Antients plead for both But the Point being onely grounded on Humane Authority for Divine Authority seems rather to contradict it i. e. Ecclesiastical History and the Differences among the Reporters being so Many and so Considerable both in Chronology and divers other Weighty Circumstances and the Probabilities that are produced against it being not altogether Contemptible I hope a Man may be excused from being a Damn'd Hererick if he do not believe it to be a Fundamental Article of Faith The Article of the Standing or Falling Church sayes a Modern Famous Controvertist and consequently hath a Meaner Esteem for all that prodigious Train of Positions which are thence deduced These following Inducements make it at least Doubtful whether S. Peter ever was Bishop of Rome or was ever there For his ever having been at Rome we do not much stand upon it But the Reasons and Testimonies brought out of Humane Histories which onely mention it are so uncertain and involv'd with such difficulties as may make any Man deservedly question it Vellenus hath published several Demonstrations that he was never there And those Authorities of the Fathers that are alleged for it are so Various that the Learned'st Romanists cannot reconcile them Marsilius Patavinus in his Defens Pacis part 2. c. 16. sayes By Scripture it cannot be made out either that S. Peter was Bishop of Rome or that he was ever there at all and when he considers the Ecclesiastical Historians that affirm it he doth it so that it is evident he doth not believe them It is true S. Peter in his 1. Ep. c. 5.13 writes as from Babylon but that Babylon was in Assyria For though in the Apocalyptical Visions Rome is designed by Babylon yet in a plain Epistolary Salutation there was no reason at all for such a Trope Nor doth S. Paul or S. Luke who make frequent mention of Rom ever call it Babylon There is indeed an Old Chair at Rome pretended to be S. Peter's and on certain daies it is shewn to the people as likewise a Sepulchre and certain parts of his Body as Relicks But the Jugling and Imposture with Reliques and such like Trumpery is so well known that the World hath long since lessen'd her Credit to such Monuments Nor hath it been the lowest part of Rome's Policy for many Ages with Feigned Miracles Counterfeit Relicks and Forged Records and Legends to raise in the Vulgar an Opinion of her Holiness and so maintain her Grandeur But we have been too long on this Impertinency Whether He was ever Bishop of Rome deserves our stricter Examination Holy Writ seems not silent here as in the former Case but fully Opposite S. Peter and S. Paul by the Instinct of the Holy Ghost made an Accord that S. Peter should Preach to the Jews and S. Paul to the Gentiles Whereupon in the Sacred Text S. Peter's peculiar Title is The Apostle of the Circumcision and Consequent to his Charge we see that he wrote his Epistles to the scatter'd Jews neither did he direct any to or date any from Rome So that it is incredible he should be Bishop or Resident there for 25 years Whereas S. Paul was the Great Doctor and Apostle of the Gentiles and both writ to the Romans and taught and was imprisoned at Rome for several Years as is evident from Scripture Again the Authours of this Story the first whereof were probably Papias and Dionysius the one too Credulous and Erroneous the other a Counterfeit are wholly at a loss in declaring when S. Peter came to Rome how long he sat there when he dyed and who were his Successours And the most tolerable Account that is given by the best Writers How S. Peter the 5th Year after Christ's Passion went to Antioch and there fix'd his Episcopal See for 7 years thence removed to Rome and there continued 25 Years is no waies coherent with what is related of S. Peter Galat 1. 2. Act. 12. 15. From which places it is manifest that S Peter's most usual Abode was at Jerusalem at least till the 18th year after Christ's death and the 17th of S. Paul's Conversion Nor is it likely that S. Peter setled his Chair at Antioch so long since Galat. 2. we read only of his passing by there and that he was so far from behaving himself as their Bishop that he seems to have understood little of the Affairs of that Church till S. Paul had rightly informed him In the 16. to the Romans St. Paul salutes very many by name yet takes not the least notice of S. Peter nor gives them the least account where he was or how he did which seems something odd if S. Peter had then been their Soveraign Pastor And when S. Paul was himself at Rome and writ diverse Epistles in the Reign of Nero at which time Bellarmin would have S. Peter to have been at Rome though he make mention of many others of inferior rank yet not one syllable of S. Peter Nay he generally denies that there was any such present with him Colos 4.11 And 2 Tim. 4.16 he grievously complains that at his first Answer when he appeared before Nero All men forsook him And when S. Paul came first to Rome the Jews there who were S. Peter's peculiar charge seemed to know nothing of the Gospel Act. 28. Thus S. Peter must be Bishop of Rome 25 years and yet never be at Rome when ever the Scripture mentions the Roman Church And S. Paul could never find him there though he is reported to be Martyred there at the same time with him We see then upon how tottering a Foundation this mighty Fabrick depends I mean how justly Questionable the Papal Monarchy is even in matter of Fact and to its very An sit But perhaps it may plead better for it self in point of Right and Equity We will briefly here inquire into two things 1. What Authority S. Peter had 2. What Authority the Pope pretends to derive from him and how justly That our Lord and Saviour never intended such an Absolute Arbitrary Soveraign Monarchical Government in his Church as the Pope at this day exercises both over Clergy and Layity is as evident in the Gospel as any Truth there contained Matth. 20.25 You know saith Christ that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them c. But it shall not be so among you Whesoever will be great among you let him be your servant And the Apostle Eph. 4.11 reckoning up the whole Sacred Oeconomy Ministry and Government of the Church le ts not fall one word concerning a Visiole Monarch He gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pasters and Teachers for the Perfecting of the Saints for the edifying of the Body of Christ And
Apostles a Primacy of Order Calling Graces Gifts Courage c. or that he was a Ministerial Rock But since the Rock and the Keys signifie the same thing to wit the power of Binding and Loosing which Matth. 18.18 is expresly promised to all the Apostles and the same words of Binding and Loosing are there used which were before to S. Peter and after the Resurrection John 20.21 the same power was amply bestowed on all the Apostles equally and their Successors He breathed on his Disciples saying As my Father sent me even so send I you Receive you the Holy Ghost Whose sins you retain they are retained and whose sins you remit they are remitted so that no mans Jurisdiction came from Peter to him but every one had it alike and equally from our Saviour who sent him and since S. Paul assures us Ephes 2.20 That we are built upon the Foundation of the Apostles in general and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the Chief Corner-stone and S. Anselm well comments on S. Matth. 16. This power was not given alone to Peter but as Peter answered one for all so in Peter he gave this Power to all This Text will not evince S. Peter to have been Constituted the Universal Monarch of Christs Church Nor in the whole Series of Divine History do we meet with any Monarch-like Action of his Recorded But on the contrary we read that He was sent as a Messenger by the rest of the Apostles Act. 8.14 That he gave the Right Hand to S. Paul and Barnabas Galat. 2.9 That he was accused to the other Disciples pleaded his cause before them and submitted to their Judgment Acts. 11.1 c. And that S. Paul withstood him to his face finding that he walk'd not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel Galat. 2.11 14. Thus far they think this Soveraignty was only promised In S. Joh. 21.17 where Christ said to Peter Feed my sheep they teach that this power was absolutely delivered and confirmed But neither was this charge so lay'd on S. Peter that the rest were excluded For they grant that no more was here Given than what was Promised Matth. 16. where the Keys are mentioned Now we have evidently proved that all the Apostles were equal in the power of the Keys and that those words concern S. Peter no more than the other Disciples In Scripture phrase the word Feed when it is accommodated to Ecclesiastical Functions is the same as to Teach They shall Feed them with knowledge and understanding saies the Prophet Jeremy And then we shall find the same Command and Commission given to all the Apostles Matth. 28.19 Go and Teach all Nations c. Besides since All the Apostles had before been sent as Shepherds to Feed the Flock Matth. 9.36 10.6 and were afterwards furnished with more full Instructions and Abilities to the same end Matth. 28. John 20. which they executed most diligently and Couragiously as appears by their Acts and Epistles no man can reasonably deny but that pasce Oves Feed my sheep belong'd to them as well as to S. Peter and they themselves gave the same Duty in Charge to other Pastors Act. 20.28 Take heed to your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to Feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Neither would S. Peter ingross this privilege to himself but communicated it to others 1 Pet. 5.2 Feed the Flock of God that is among you S. Cyprian de Vnit Eccles speaks home They are all Pastors but the Flock is one which by one consent is fed by all the Apostles And S. Chrysostom l. 2. de Sacerdotio Our Saviour at that time intended to teach both Peter and Vs how dear his Church is to him c. This is a True Short and Plain Account of S. Peter's Authority both what was given him by our Saviour and what was exercised by himself But alas this is too scant for his pretended Successour as we shall now manifest And I shall be a little more exact in this Seasonable Argument because that I know many of our English Roman Catholicks will not believe that this Vast Unlimited Power is owned by their Church but is onely the product of the Flattery of private Doctors and the Pope's particular Parasites I will onely mention how the Usurpings Innovations and Incroachments of the Roman Bishops have been constantly opposed by the Greatest part of Christendom in all Ages In the first General Council of Nice he was confined to his own particular District as the Patriarch of Alexandria and others were to theirs In the first General Councils of Constantinople and Ephesus the Provinces of the World were distinguished and the Patriarchs restrained to their own Circuits and He of Constantinople is by name made Equal to Him of Rome in all Ecclesiastical Matters He of Rome had indeed the Chief Honour but that consisted not in Jurisdiction but in sitting in the first place and such like Titles The Council of Chalcedon confirms the same Decrees and adds withal Our Fathers gave the Privileges to the Seat of Elder Rome because that City had the Empire and the 150 Bishops assembled at the Council of Constantinople moved with the same reason gave the same Privilege to the most Sacred Throne of New Rome thinking it reasonable that the City which is honoured with the Empire and Senate should also have Equal Privileges with Elder Rome and in Ecclesiastical Matters be advanced alike with her Another Council at Constantinople Enacted the same But the Council of Carthage Anno 418. consisting of 217 Bishops is most Worthy of our Remark In this Council when Sozymus Bishop of Rome claimed a Right to receive Appeals from all parts of the World and pretended a Canon of the Nicene Council that should give it him the Bishops strongly debated the Matter and having searched the Original Copies of the Nicene Council whereby the Untruth of his Claim was discovered they wrote sharply to him not to meddle any more with their Provinces nor admit into his Fellowship such as they had Excommunicated Telling him he had nothing to do in their Causes either to bring them to Rome or to send Legats to hear them at home and that this pretence of his was expresly against the Nicene Council The Evidence of this Great Testimony stands to this day unanswerable by the Roman Party It is abundantly known how Pope Stephen was sleighted by S. Cyprian and Victor by the Bishops of the East But this is an Innnite Theme and I must not forget my promised Brevity I shall onely Request the Gentlemen of the Roman-Catholick Persuasion seriously to lay to heart what Trivial Grounds this Grand Article of their Church the Pope's Supremacy even in Ecclesiastical Affairs is founded upon and to consider how many Difficulties must be cleared to make it a probable Tale. 1. That S. Peter was Bishop of Rome 2. That he dyed
at Rome by the special Command of Christ 3. That he dyed Invested with such a Supremacy as is now Exercised in that Church 4. That his so dying there is sufficient without a new Revelation from God to make the Succession of the Bishop of Rome of Divine Authority We shall now take a View of that Grand Machine of the Pope's power over Temporal Princes and make it most evident that it is an Article and Doctrin of the Roman Church and being so that this alone were a sufficient Motive to forsake her Communion since She Teaches Justifies and strictly Commands even under the penalty of being accounted no Christians Treason and Rebellion The present Lord Bishop of Lincoln hath written a Learned and Satisfactory Treatise on this Subject and I find his Lordship very faithful in his Citations Wherefore I may be the more sparing However because I heartily desire that Honoured Pious and Loyal Persons may not unwarily ingage their Liberties Estates and Lives for the Maintainance of so Extravagant and Tyrannical a Power which hath in all Ages caused so many dismal Tragedies in the Christian World and is in it self Fatal and Destructive to all Civil Government I shall briefly treat of this Matter to undeceive others especially since I was herein miserably seduced my self till I had Maturely and Exactly Examined the whole Business I shall begin with General Councils whose Decrees if they will not admit I confess I as yet understand not what the Doctrin of the Roman Church is nor do I know where to find it The Third Council of Lateran c. 27. after it had Condemned and Excommunicated many Hereticks and you must know that All Protestants are both accounted so and as such are once every year solemnly accursed by His Holyness in Person on Maundy Thursday It Absolves All that had sworn Fidelity or Homage to them from those Oaths and we know who they are to whom Fidelity and Homage strictly speaking is due and they are required in Order to the Remission of their Sins to fight against them And those who dye doing Penance in that manner may undoubtedly expect Indulgence for their Sins with Eternal Rewards Then by the Authority of S. Peter and Paul the Council remits to all who shall rise and fight against them two years penance Here a General Council uses all its Industry to poyson people with Rebellious Doctrin and calls Treason Doing of Penance Not long after Pope Celestin Predecessor to Innocent the Third with more than Luciferian Arrogance sets the Crown on the Head of the Emperour Henry the 6th with his two feet and then kicks it off again And the fact is produced by no meaner a Person than Cardinal Baronius to shew that it is in the Pope's power to Give and Take away Empires But to as much purpose as He produced that Text Rise Peter Kill and Eat to incense Paul the 5th against the Venetians The second Evidence shall be the Fourth Great and as they call it Most General Council of Lateran wherein were assembled 1200 of one sort or other These C. 3. make a Decree That the Aid of Secular Princes should be required for the Rooting out of Hereticks i. e All that are not of the Roman Communion and that when the Temporal Lord required and admonished by the Church shall neglect to purge his Territory from Heretical Wickedness He shall be Excommunicated by the Metropolitan and his Suffragans And if he persist in neglecting to give satisfaction for the space of a year let him be signified to the Pope that he from thenceforth may pronounce his Subjects discharged from their Obedience and expose his Territory to be seized on by Catholicks who having exterminated the Hereticks shall possess it without Contradiction and preserve it in the Purity of the Faith So as no Injury be done to the Right of the Supreme Lord where there is such provided He do not any ways oppose himself And the Law is to take place in them who have no Superiour Lord. Which Last Clause perfectly comprehends Soveraign Princes and so anticipates that Reply which some make That the Decree was only made for Feudatory and Subordinate Princes And whereas some few deny it to be a General Council and that it made any Canons it is a most Impudent Cavil For both the Council and Canons have been and are Universally received by the Roman Church the Council as General and Approved so by Innocent the III. and the Canons as Authentick All their Writers concerning Councils put this down among the General ones and commonly call it the Great General Council of Lateran and Joverius says he cannot see with what face a Man dare deny it They always put it among those Councils that are Approved by the Church for you must know that some are Reprobated some are partly Approbated and partly Reprobated Their Canon Law so esteems of it The Council of Constance puts it among those General Councils to the Observation whereof the Popes were to swear at their Installment The Council of Trent which I hope none will boggle at Sess 24. C. 5. in express terms calls it a General Council and Confirms one of its Canons To which I may add because it concerns us a Synod at Oxford where this Council was received for England And though some Princes that were deposed out of the Pope's meer Spite and Malice got some Advocates to write for them and Synods of Bishops to Protest against the Pope's Proceedings yet in the case of Pretended Heresie which neerly touches Protestant Princes not one Writer or Bishop appears in Vindication of the Temporal Power A shrewd Sign that this Deposing Heretical Magistrates is in General the Romish Doctrine The General Council of Lions is next It was summoned by Innocent the 4th against the Emperour Frederick the 2d Here the Pope having consulted with the Council Declares the Emperour deprived by God of his Dominions and thereupon they Actually Depose him and Absolve All from their Oaths of Fidelity to him strictly charging All persons to acknowledge him no more for Emperour and denouncing All that did otherwise Excommunicated Ipso facto So we have another whole General Council concurring with the Pope in asserting this Deposing Power and with Candles burning in their hands thundering out Sentence against the poor Emperour In the Council of Constance Sess 19. we often meet with this Clause That All Breakers of their Privileges whether Emperours Kings or any other Degree were thereby Ipso facto subjected to the Banns Punishments and Censures in the Council of Lateran and Sess 17. in the Pass they gave to the King of Arragon they decree That whatsoever Person either King Cardinal c. hinder him in his Journey he is Ipso facto deprived of all Honour Dignity Office or Benefice whether Ecclesiastical or Secular It is true with much Importunity and Danger Gerson procured a Decree in this Council that No Subject should Murder his Prince But that