also by this very Pope threatned with Deprivation and having thereby learnt Obedience became his Creature and Favourite and was made by him General of the Croisade against the Mahumetans as Simon de Monifort was of that against the Hereticks of France and the Princes of Flanders of that against the Greek Schismaticks This one would think were a fair account of all the Crown'd Heads that sent their Embassadors and Bishops to this Council But the Ecclesiastical part of the Comedy was of the same piece for of the four Eastern Patriarchs as they call them three were Italians and one a French man all made by this Pope and no more own'd by the people of those Churches to which they pretended then his Holinesses titular Bishops use to be Our business here is not to consider whether this or other Councils were free or obnoxious since they be received by the succeeding Roman Church and by our Author himself I would leave this Point but that our Author is pleased to assert a very strange Paradox that though I cited the third Lateran Council that of Lyons and that of Constance besides this fourth of Lateran yet on this fourth the whole Authority of absolving Subjects from their Allegiance and deposing Princes is founded Not to dispute the Superstructures of the two after Councils certainly the third of Lateran could not well build on the fourth which was not then in being I am sure the Council of Constance was so far from owning the having learnt this Lesson from the fourth Lateran Council that they expresly quote the third for the most Orthodox Doctrine of Treason and Rebellion where by the way I cannot omit to mention the wonderful dexterity and confidence of Cardinal Perron in his Oration to the third Estate who in this matter produces the Decrees of this Council as a sufficient security for Princes as also of the Pen-man of the Controversial Letters who seems no stranger to our Author and desires us to look upon the Church of Rome in a Council to be convinc'd that she does not favour this deposing Power And also singles out this very Council to shew the Orthodox Doctrine of the most loyal Roman-Catholick Church whose Decree I even now cited on the contrary part When as the Writer of the Controversial Letters plainly confesses that the Story is no more then this There had prevailed an Opinion in this age and it was seconded by Practise that the people might at their pleasure correct their offending Lords and kill Tyrants notwithstanding any Oath made to them without expecting the Sentence or Command of any Judge whatsoever And this with much ado was condemned in this Council though it cost Iohn Gerson a great deal of pains and more then that the imminent hazard of his Life to compass thus much That it should not be lawful for any ordinary Cut-throat to destroy Soveraign Princes but remain the singular Prerogative of his Holiness the Pope I shall not exaggerate Consequences nor pursue this Topick which my Author complains never fails when any one has a mind to declaim against Papists but hope that notwithstanding his Profession that he is yet to learn the name and scituation of that Countrey which believes it 't is manifest as Noon-day-light that whosoever believes the Article of the Roman-Catholick Church must also as large a morsel as it is be content to digest at least swallow this ENQUIRY IV. Whether Princes of the Roman Communion have sufficient Powers to defend themselves from the Tyrannies and Encroachments of the Pope We have seen the Doctrine of the Church of Rome concerning the Popes Power over Princes which if it be truly stated and I think nothing in the world is evident if my Argumentation be not will easily determine the issue of this Enquiry For not to insist on the many defects both intellectual and moral which are pretended to incapacitate for Government or otherwise forfeit it discoursed at large by the Canonists and more largely commented on by practise in the deposition and removal of such Princes by Popes If we suppose them in all Points qualified for Rule and zealous Assertors of the Roman Faith yet notwithstanding upon any disobedience to the Churches Dictates or contumacy of any kind to her Commands which may subject them to the censure of the Church and the displeasure of his Holiness and thereby expose to Excommunication of the due infliction whereof they only are Judges all Right and Authority upon the Principles before laid down immediately becomes forfeit and the very questioning hereof in Thesi the thing being determined by Oecumenical Councils and so made de Fide will be Heresie And now whereas no Prince can maintain himself without the Obedience of his Subjects and ready Execution of his Ministers I demand whether upon any difference started and unless the Prince will tamely give up all there must be many a Minister of State will dare to uphold and defend the Rights of his Master in opposition to the Pope If he do he is sure to bring all the hatred of the Pope and Clergy upon him and it is observed that Ministers of State have seldom weathered the opposition of the Gown-men of either sort But what if we should say that Princes themselves dare seldom adventure to maintain their own Rights against the Pope Not to insist upon the personal apprehensions they may justly have of a Dagger from a Clement or a Ravilliac It is not unknown to any that Princes even when in Peace live with the jealousies and precautions of War and are as industrious for accession of Allies and advantages to themselves as to prevent those of a contrary party still expecting and providing for a storm in the deepest calm of tranquillity and Peace If as sometime heretofore they did all Europe submitted to the Pope what advantage or disadvantage to any Prince would the good will of the Pope be What influence would he not have by the Clergy amongst the people of any Prince if not absolutely to raise Rebellion at least to slacken and abate the zeal and fervour of the people What diversions to this or that holy War or Interpositions for Peace could he not make as it should suit best with the party he shall most favour And how hardly could such plausible desires be denied to the holy Father These and the like considerations render the Kings of France and Spain so jealous of the making Popes or Cardinals though it is certain the Popes dare not be so openly partial and unequal to Princes nor would that partiality be so fatal to their Interests now as heretofore because the Reformation hath spread into many Countreys which value not the Inclination of the Pope but rather incline to the party he most opposes which as it seems a counter-ballance so is it a great awe to the Pope lest their partiality should force Princes to cherish and favour the Protestant party and perhaps even to
are the goodly Machines which are recommended to batter down the Protestant Cause and which we see every day propos'd with such confidence as if they had really some force or value in them and where these Stratagems succeed lest the fraud and folly of them should be detected great pains is taken to perswade the unhappy Proselyte immediately to discard all Heretical Books especially the Bible and the conversation of Hereticks especially Divines But because in this Noon-day Light of Christian Knowledge the Generality of Protestants is not apt to be perswaded to quit their Faith on these slight terms the next dexterity will be which is the Head we are now immediately concern'd in to make them believe that they are much mistaken if they measure Popery from Prejudice and common Fame or the Expressions of the School-men or peevish Writers of Controversie The Church speaks in the Canons of her Councils and if they be soberly considered 't will appear there is not so vast a distance between both parties as is vulgarly imagin'd This is at large inculcated as by our Country-men Sancta Clara Hugh Cressy Tilden and others so with great vouge and ostentation by the Bishop of Condom in his celebrated Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church concerning matters in Controversie which he has transformed and molded to render it more soft and plausible several times over So that we are so far from learning of him the Doctrine of his Church that we cannot discern what is his own every Edition altering the Scheme and way of Proposal I may not omit to add upon this Head the mention of my Author who spends whole pages of his little Dialogue in shewing the Moderation of the Church of England in difference to other Reformations and the easiness by good handling to procure a Reconcilement But all these Pacifick Men are so artificial as to conceal what ill Treatment the Authors of such Discourses have ever had where they were in earnest and there was no collusion in the case For instance Erasmus Cassander Modrevius The Interimists F. Barnes c. And what is more material the Bull of Pius the IV. who made the Trent Creed and confirm'd the Dictates of that Assembly which forbids that any Person of whatsoever Order or Dignity in the Church his Holiness onely excepted do explicate the Decrees of the Council in any manner or upon any pretence withal he nulls and makes void all such Explications So that be we Protestants never so much disposed to a composure there is no Concession to be look'd for on the Papists part who are not only accountable for the Heterodoxy of their Interpretations but for the very offer at interpreting And therefore however the Heretick may be born in hand before his Reconcilement to the Church of Rome of great Indulgence to Dissenters in Speculative Points so soon as he is made a Proselyte the case is alter'd and he must believe as the Church believes or 't were as good to believe nothing at all I had thought here to have instanc'd in Mr. Hugh Cressy's Improvements in the Catholick Faith after his first Conversion Whereby all his kind Remembrances of the Church of England and offer of giving Security to the State mentioned in the First Edition of his Exomologesis are forgotten in the Second with several other Remarkable Varieties and Additional Periods and Sections in the place of those that were expung'd with which when the aforesaid Mr. Cressy was charged as gross and scandalous falsifications he had no better excuse to make than by protesting solemnly That he knew nothing of the Alterations they being put in by his Superiours to whose diseretions he had entirely left his Book and it seems his own Honesty and Honour But I find my self prevented in this particular by the late honourable Animadverter on that inconstant man and therefore unto him I remit the Reader George Cassander who labour'd in the Affair of Reconcilement as much and understood it as well as any man lays it down as a fundamental Maxime That the Church can never have the desired peace unless they lead the way to it who have given the cause to the distraction that is unless those who are in place of Ecclesiastical Government will remit of their immoderate Rigour and yield somewhat to the peace of the Church and hearkening to the Admonitions of pious men will set themselves to correct manifest Abuses according to the Rule of Divine Scripture and of the Primitive Church from which they have swerved Now can any one be so fond to think that his Holiness will tamely strip himself of the Regalia Petri and be reduced to the Neighbour-like Terms of the old Regulae Patrum Will he part with his Universal Monarchy and be satisfied with a primacy of Order his Suburbicarian Region and a little Diocess in a part of Italy Will he leave off to have his feet upon the necks of Kings and his hands in theirs and their subjects pockets and be in earnest servus servorum I need not ask whether the Cardinals will come off from their Pontifical Sloth and Luxury and quitting their Pensions and Commendams remember they were poor Parish Priests and Deacons But will the meanest Father or Curé perswade himself to disown his power of making God and disposing of him at his pleasure in the language of Pere Cotton loose the omnipotence of having his God in his hand and Prince at his feet and in pure self-denial quit the power of the Keyes in the grinful pretences of being able by the vertue of the Sacrament of Penance and some grains of Attrition added to it to remit all sins how horrid soever and sneak into a Ministerial Stewardship of a Clave non errante Or farther shall the bartering for Masses whose whole merit is said to be applied by the intention of the Priests and the Lay-mans payment for them though neither understand a word of the whole Office and the later do not so much as hear it read and can have no concern therein unless perchance his share in the idolatrous Worship of the elevated Wafer upon which work alone so many thousand lazy Friers are constantly maintained be laid aside for the reasonable service instituted by our Saviour and the entire perception of the holy Eucharist according to that his Institution of it I know men are apt to believe that which they vehemently wish and very wise and sober men were induced to think heretofore a closure with the Church of Rome no impossible matter but the case is quite altered since the time of the Council of Trent which has establisht every thing that ought to be remov'd and shew'd the world how vain their hopes were from Synods and universal Councils how formidable the very approaches to Reformation were to those Fathers abundantly appears from that History of Padre Paolo and this is acknowledged abundantly by my Author And now let us suppose
would to true English-men be a competent account of this matter especially since 't is notoriously known that not long after in Scotland there were intercepted the very Dispensations from Rome whereby generally the Roman-Catholicks were permitted to promise swear subscribe and do what else should be required of them so as in mind they continued firm and did use their diligence to advance in secret the Roman Faith Which being shewed to the King were the cause of some Severities as the judicious Spotswood observes which were then in that Kingdom used against the Papists I might add to this the Oath of Subjection and Obedience to the Pope to keep and defend his Regalities and not discover his Secrets which every Popish Bishop takes at his Consecration set down at large by my Author himself and which he pretends he would not take for the best Bishopwrick in Christendom Now this Oath being part of the Office for a Bishops Consecration in the Roman Pontifical must be presumed however my Author would dissemble it to be taken by every Prelate of that Church And if so I demand what security one so obliged can give to any State If he bind himself by an Oath of Allegiance that will come too late and the former Engagement must take place against the latter Besides he who shall be so profligate to take a second Oath contrary to a first gives no security thereby it justly having no more esteem with other men than it had with the unhappy Swearer himself As also I demand whether any person so obliged can reasonably be thought in the Examination previous to the conferring of Orders to have passed over this fundamental Point on which the Roman Hierarchy depends or to be willing to confer Orders on those who are Heteredox therein Withal whether the Bull of Pius IV. subscribed and the Oath of Canonical Obedience taken perpetually by every Priest of the Roman Church do not involve them in the strict Obligations before recited and the Consequences appendant to them 'T is true our Author talks very freely of the disorders of the Papacy and pretends that those of his way are excommunicate For all this it may not be safe to trust them without better assurance We remember from sad Experience that no persons did so boldly rail at the Tyrant Cromwel as those that were his Pensioners who merited by saying those very things which others were to lose their Lives or their Estates barely for hearing Nay we have not forgot that some of these perfidious Wretches lay under the common calamity of honest men Sequestrings Restraints and Decimations that they might continue unsuspected Villains And we are not sure but his Holiness may be as dextrous in his Managery as that Tyrant was making a shew of great Displeasure against those Agents of his which are hired to pretend a disagreement with the Court of Rome and sufferings by it thereby to gain securely Proselytes to the Church and a Reward unto themselves Nor will this be esteem'd an uncharitable Surmise when we consider what usually is done by this sort of men upon like pretensions I shall to avoid giving trouble to the Reader bring but one single instance yet it shall be so close and commensurate a Parallel in all respects as not to admit of any colourable Exception to it 'T is that of F. Watson the Secular Priest who having wrote at large in the defence of Soveraign Princes against the Dictates of the Jesuites wherein he openly confesses That all the sufferings brought upon the Papists here in England was the due Reward of their own Demerit And withal detected the Frauds and Villanies of the Jesuites not onely in reference to the State but their Cheats of private persons by means of Auricular Confession and other gainful Methods of Hypocrisie setting down the Names of the persons wrought upon and theirs who practised upon their easiness with the particular sums thus gained the place and time and manner of the Action proofs one would think of the greatest sincerity imaginable especially since he for this was with all possible violence pursued and railed at by his Adversaries in the Church of Rome and seemingly persecuted by his Holiness and Arch-Priests commissioned by him Yet after all we find this man at last was discovered to be engag'd in Treason against his Soveraign and plotting all those Villanies he had before so solemnly declaimed and wrote against the account whereof we have in all our Histories Hitherto we have seen how the overture of admitting and tolerating such Priests as will profess the plausible Opinion of the power of Princes above the Popes is Unreasonable upon the General Head of Security to be given by them Let us now consider how far it is Practicable under a Protestant Prince who cannot make Popish Bishops nor Priests and such as are already made by the Pope or his Authority if they profess these Tenets if we could be sure they did hold them will as is confess'd not only be disabled to officiate but also be sent for away and others of another sort sent in their place and I believe they think they are oblig'd to so much Obedience to the Pope as to remove upon his Call at least while they have no Churches proper to them The truth is all correspondence between the Crown and the Papists is matter of so much Jealousie that I cannot see any possible advantage that can recompence it The little intercourse which was in King Iames his time notwithstanding his Writings against the Pope and his Usurpations his frequent Speeches in Parliament and that strange Solemnity of Attestation the apprecating Destruction to those of his Family in succeeding Generations who should attempt a departure to Popery and dereliction of the Religion profest in the Church of England Which remarkable passage is recorded by Judge Crook in his Reports I say notwithstanding all this done here in England to assure his Subjects besides all that had past in Scotland the Umbrage then given by the Relaxations afforded at that Treaty with the Spaniard was never recover'd in the minds of the people but those Jealousies continued had the greatest share in those dismal Effects we have seen in our days And I heartily wish we never see more It is matter of my Fear as well as of my Hopes and Wishes This one consideration is enough to me to overthrow all those plausible projects which some have had of dividing the Papists c. We shall reap much prejudice but never advantage by these attempts Under shelter so obtain'd Converts will be made who must afterward believe as the Church believes which the shifting of a Confessor turns quite about and there will always be found difference enough in opinion amongst their Doctors to make Rebellion a probable Opinion and Massacres too when the season is fit for it Great Ostentation is made of the Loyalty of Romanists from the