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But a long fit of Sickness afterward seising you and you then signifying to me that you resolved that the same should not be published till you added the following part wherein for the Encouragement of so many Protestants who were so much Dispirited with imaginations of Popery's coming to be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
both in the Close of your Discourse as well as your Discussion to do the Persons as well as Tenets of Papists all the Justice you could From your having in that Discussion occasionally so much dilated on the Moral Offices of Loyalty to our Princes without respect to their Religion and what ever Religion they may profess different from that by Law Established I shall be glad if the thoughts of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects will Receive deep Impressions of the peculiar Duties we owe to him our Great and Gracious Soveraign particularly eo nomine When ever we pray for him at the Prayers of our Church or our private Devotions let us think of him with the Honour due to a King and Gods Vicegerent Let us not Slander the Footsteps of Gods Anointed in what ever way to Heaven he hath placed the same nor yet by Reproaches make the few of this great populous Nation uneasie who as Viatores attend him in the same way but be the more Civil to them for being part of his retinue therein Since it is Rudeness for any Man to be Curiously Inquisitive into the Speculative points of Religion held by Subjects it may be thought both that and Profanation of Gods more than ordinary Care over the Hearts of Kings to be prying and intruding into the Sentiments of our Soveraign As there are peculiar Moral Offices that concern Subjects when the Prince is not in the External Communion of the same Church with them so there are such likewise incumbent on those Subjects that are in the External Communion of the same Church with their Prince and which oblige them particularly to promote the Ease and Tranquillity of his Reign It having pleas'd God by the Course of the Executive power of the Law in his Majesties Hands to free them from many Hardships to which they were before liable and to put a great price into their Hands if they have Hearts to make use of it and to give them an opportunity by their Moderation and by their Complaisance with his Majesties Measures in the Defence and Supporting of the Church of England and by their knowing in this their Day the things that belong to their Peace to compass an Universal and lasting Tenderness in the great Body of the English People toward their Persons and making the Laws and the whole Hive of the English People to guard them and the very Anger and Zeal of the Protestants to be a Defensive Wall of Fire round about them as your words are it becomes them to contribute to the ease of his Majesties Royal Cares by their being what you say they generally are and by their not Misrepresenting or Calumniating those who are of the Religion different from theirs which yet you have shew'd Father Parsons predicted they must necessarily do and by their not affecting such an excessive internal Power in the Government as you say in the distant Reighnes of some of our Protestant Princes they did It concerns them by their Reverently using their present Temporary Indulgence to effect for his Majesty that in the Case of his easing their Consciences and their Estates from some Penal Laws it may be as was in the Reign of David viz. that whatsoever the King did pleas'd all the People There is none desires more than my self that among the various Opinions in Religion all exasperations against each others Persons and Misrepresentations of each others Doctrines may for ever cease And therefore according to the expressions us'd in the Acts of the General Assembly of the French Clergy complaining of Calumny publish'd against the Doctrine of the Church and the Faith of the Catholick Church and their seeming there to restrain that Doctrine and that Faith to the Decisions of the Council of Trent and such as are of the Nature with those printed in one Column apart I in what I have Written in my private Papers concerning the Religion of the Church of Rome have observ'd the Measures that our great Writer Mr. Chillingworth hath done in his Book forecited and where he saith Chap. 6. N. 56. I do not vnderstand by your Religion the Doctrine of Bellarmine or Baronius or any other private Man among you nor the Doctrine of the Sorbon or of the Jesuits or Dominicans or of any other particular company among you but that wherein you all agree or profess to agree the Doctrine of the Council of Trent And tho in your Explication of what you mean by Popery you seem to restrain your aversion to it as comprising only the Papal Usurpations or what is Congrous to the known Distinction of the Court of Rome and the Church of Rome and profess to follow the Measures of the late Earl of Clarendon of whom Cressy in p. 101. of his Epistle Apologetical saith that he makes the Popes Temporal power to be the Hinge upon which all other Controversies between Protestants and English Catholicks do hang and depend so entirely that if that only were taken off all the rest would quickly fall to the ground I am pleas'd with his Lordship or yours having gone so far with me in my way against Popery for if any Friend bears me Company good part of my way in any Journey I shall be pleas'd therewith tho he accompany me not to my Journeys end I am yet to tell you that in my way to Heaven I have further to go than merely so far as the leaving that Temporal Power of the Pope behind me And must freely pass the bounds of Trent but yet strictly observing the Moral Offices of not injuring or troubling or Misrepresenting or Miscalling any Man for not going my way and if I find the profess'd observers of the Doctrines of the Council of Trent seeming but tacitly to reject the Disloyal Principles propp'd up formerly by the Council of Lateran and owning expresly only the Doctrines of the Council of Trent I shall not trouble my self or them to charge them with the Odious Matter of the former Council or to Recant by Words what you say so many and so great Papists have done by Actions And if the Roman Catholicks who were suppos'd to have publishâ—d that Translated Book of the Acts of the French Clergy intended only thereby to caution us against the Misrepresenting them and the Doctrine of their Church I shall be glad if the Caution may be justly pursued by all Men. But some Criticks on that Translation have presumed to Judge their publishing the French Kings Edict of the 14 th of Iuly last for Restraining the French Protestants former Liberty of Writing and Speaking against the Doctrines of the Council of Trent or as the words there are from speaking directly or indirectly after what manner soever of the Catholick Religion was perhaps done with an ill intent by some who with an Evil Eye look'd on the Kings goodness to the Church of England I am far from Attributing the Heat or Indiscretion of particular Persons to the Body of any Religionary Party
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
Quotation out of Cyprian with these words viz. Si ante adventum Christi haec praecepta servata sunt quanto magis post adventum servanda sunt quando ille veniens non verbis tantum nos hortatus est sed factis By which words he would prove that our Lord did both by Words and Deeds exhort us to Kill Hereticks Whereas there is not one word in Cyprian or the Texts of Scripture he Cites which any way concerns Hereticks or Heresie but only Idolaters and Idolatry which are things of a far different Nature And had Gratian considered what immediately follows there in Cyprian and which he there unluckily leaves out he might have clearly seen that Cyprian neither said nor meant that the Meek and the Holy Iesus did by Deeds or Words Exhort Men to kill Hereticks But that which Cyprian truly saith our Blessed Saviour did by Deeds and Words Exhort us to was that Christians should patiently suffer and by no means renounce the Gospel by serving Idols and by Idolatry For as to those words with which Gratian ends his Canon viz Christus veniens non verbis tantum nos hortatus est sed factis there should have been only a Comma after factis though Gratian makes a full point as if it concluded the Sentence It immediately follows in Cyprian thus viz. Non verbis tantum nos hortatus sit sed factis post omnes Injurias contumelias passus Crucifixus ut nos pati mori exemplo suo doceret ut nulla sit homini excusatio pro se pro Christo non patienti Cum ille passus sit pro nobis c. In short that which Cyprian saith Christ taught us with Words and Deeds was not that we should Kill Hereticks as Gratian would have it but that we should willingly suffer Death for the Gospel rather than be Idolaters We know that in the case of the Samaritans who were both Hereticks and Idolaters when Iames and Iohn would have had fire from Heaven to Consume them our Blessed Saviour Rebuked them and said that the Son of Man was not come to destroy Mens Lives but to save them Because I love to make no breach among Christians wider and because in p. 260. you have in general mentioned Gratian's Misciting of Cyprian and in p. 261. shewed that Gratian's founding a Tenet on Cyprian or any places out of other Authors giveth it only the weight that Cyprian and they had in their proper Works c. I have here thought it worth while to shew that Papists are under no Moral Obligation by this Canon Si audieris and do believe that the more Sagacious Persons of the Church of Rome do as is said in Pere verons Book you in the page last cited refer to make Gratian's Decrees and the gloss claime nothing of Faith and so even in the country 's of the Pope where the Canon Law is in force this part of the Decrees so wilfully mistaken by Gratian out of Cyprian can bind none in Conscience And therefore as to what you mention of the Roman Catholick Gentlemans observing that the Council of Trent had gone far in the Confirmation of the Canon Law c. I account you have said enough to Answer that Objection For though the Council of Trent hath it in the 25 th Session C. 20. De Reformatione p 623 624. of the Edition at Antwerp in the year 1033 that Praecipit sancta synodus sacros canones concilia generalia omnia necnon alias Apostolicas sanctiones in favorem Ecclesiasticarum personarum libertatis Ecclesiasticae contra ejus violatores editas quae omnia praesenti decreto innovat exactè ab omnibus observari debere tho' other expressions in that Council may seem to confirm some parts of the Canon Law they cannot I think Rationally be extended to confirm any thing therein that was void ab initio and so not obligatory and as this Canon Si audieris appears not to be by Gratians falsification as to Cyprian But how far a Tenet or Principle of this Nature branded by no Index expurgatorius is yet chargeable on the Papacy as approved by it I leave to consideration and do think it great pitty that when a Pope could find leisure by a Bull that I find King Iames the I. mentions in his Works as beginning with Exurge Deus to Damn among other sayings that of Luther Nova vita est optima paenitentia he did not find time to censure this thing in his Canon Law I thank God that I am Embarqued in a Church whose Articles and Canons contain nothing inserted in them by any Falsarius and by which nothing is approved or imposed on me to own contrary to the Liberty purchased for me by my Redeemer You have in p. 71. cited a late Author of the Communion of this Church for saying that Image-Worship invocation of Saints Transubstantiation Purgatory are and will be Learnedly and Voluminously defended on each side to the Worlds End and perhaps in the World abroad it will be so But I agree with you in believing that the Present State of England doth and probable future one of it will here render Voluminous Writings of all Theological Controversies out of Fashion Your p. 170. contains in it one Theological consideration of more value in my Opinion than many Tomes of Controversy viz. that Papists as well as others of Mankind have a right and title to the free and undisturbed Worshipping of God and the confession of the Principles of Religion purchased for them by the Blood of Christ And the very consideration of the Duty incumbent on all Christians to stand fast in this Liberty so dearly purchased for them would if I were in the External Communion of the Roman Catholick Church prevail with me to leave it though there were perhaps no other Argument in the case I have here our great Dr. Iackson on my side in thus Judging in his Treatise of the Church 14th Chapter where having given two Reasons as just and necessary for which Men may and ought to separate themselves from any visible Church and named this as the first Namely when they are urged and constrained to profess or believe some points of Doctrine or to adventure upon some practices which are contrary to the Rule of Faith or Love of God he mentions this as the Second viz. In case they are utterly deprived of Freedom of Conscience in professing what they inwardly believe c. for which he quotes 1 Cor. 7.23 ye are bought with a price be not ye Servants of Men. Although saith he we were perswaded that we could communicate with such a Church without evident danger of Damnation yet in as much as we cannot Communicate with it upon any better Terms than Legal Servants or Bondslaves do with their Masters we are bound in Conscience and Religious Discretion when lawful occasions and opportunities are offered to use our liberty and to seek our Freedom rather than to
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
egonum quoddam Elementum Haec Hosius Eodem prorsus spiritu atquè animo quo olim Montanus aut Marcio quos diunt solitos esse dicere cum sacras scripturas contemptive repudiarent se multo plura Meliora scire quà m aut Christus unquam scivisset aut Apostoli Quid ergo hic dicam O columina religionis O praesides Ecclesiae Christianae An haec ea reverentia vestra est quam adhibetis verbo Dei And afterward saith aut illud verbum quo uno ut Paulus ait reconciliamur Deo quodque propheta David ait sanctum castum esse in omne tempus esse duraturum egenum tantum mortuum elementum appellabitis I have not time to Consult the Works of Whitaker and Downham as Cited by the French Clergy But do find that by Iewells Citing Pighius and likewise Hosius to make good his Charge the French Clergy knew why and wherefore to spare Iewell 's Name in their Class of Calumniators Iewell in his Margent Cites Pighius in Hierarchia and in his Margent referring to Hosius saith very candidly Haec Hosius in lib. de expresso verbo dei sed astutè sub alterius personâ Quamvis ipse alià s eadem in eodem etiam libro disertis verbis affirmet They afterward referred to our Learned Rainolds as a Calumniator under their 6 th Article and Cite him for saying that Roman Catholicks do call the Virgin Mary Queen of Heaven And they might if they had pleas'd have call'd to mind that in the proper Mass of her seven Sorrows she is called Caeli Regina Mater Mundi and that in an Office where the Te Deum is Travesty'd to her and which Office the Present Pope hath worthily Suppress'd she is called the Queen of Glory But as to their charging our Ames under their Seventh Article with Calumny for saying in his Bellarminus enervatus the Pope was the ILLE Antichristus I shall make no remark on their Charge but let it pass There was however another thing that I could not but take notice of in that Book of the French Clergy that made their accusing the Writers of the Reformed Religion as Calumniators and Falsifiers of the Doctrine of the Church seem to me very severe Namely that Clergy's joyning the Decisions of the Council of Trent with the Profession of their Faith and noting in one Columne that profession and the Articles of the Council of Trent and there making the Doctrine of their Church a result from both and opposing thereunto in another Columne the Calumny's in the Writings of the Reform'd and yet by the Date of the Impressions of many of those Writings as mentioned at the end of that Book it appears they were Printed long before the year 1615. and some before the year 1579. in which latter year Cressy in his Epistle Apologetical to the Late Earl of Clarendon voucheth but to no effect as I shall by and by shew that De Marca in his Volume De Concordiâ Sacerdotij Imperij tells us the Definitions of Faith of the Council of Trent were admitted by a publick Edict concerning the same in France and as to which former year Cabassutius an Oratorian in his Notitia concil declares out of the Records of the French Clergy that in their General Assembly at Paris in the year 1615. the Canons of the Doctrine of the Council of Trent were unanimously received by the whole Clergy And in p. 6. of the Translated Book of the French Clergy a Book of Beza's is cited as printed in the year 1576 and one of Luther's printed in the year 1558. and one of Melanchton's in the year 1552 to shew them Calumniators of the Doctrine of the Council of Trent as the Received Doctrine in the Gallican Church And whether the many other Authors there cited as printed before the year 1615 and yet too Cited as Calumniating for injuring the Trent Doctrines as being those of the Gallican Church were not likewise severely dealt with is left to the impartial to Judge and to whose view of that Book of the French Clergy it will be obvious that the profession of Faith inserted at the end of the Council of Trent is brought in in the beginning of that Clergy's Representing the Doctrine of the Church I love not to be Curious in alienâ Republicâ and much more not to be so in alienâ Ecclesiâ But since the Acts of that Clergy have been made to speak English here and so without Licence to Travel about our Country I cannot but occasionally make a further Remark on the Severity of that Clergy in taking it ill of the Protestants there supposing that the Catholick Church Disguiseth or Condemneth the most Essential verity's of Religion and Representing her under the Hideous idea of a Society professing an impious Doctrine and denying the chiefest Articles of Faith since as I said that it was but in the year 1615. that the Canons of the Council of Trent were pretended to be unanimously received by the whole French Clergy at Paris and that it was but a year before that the SAME Clergy as I find it observ'd by the Author of The Difference between the Church and Court of Rome p. 31. referred to the Account of what was done upon the meeting of the three Estates and when Cardinal Perron being the Clergy's Spokes Man told the King that The Matter contested was a point of Doctrine c. and that the Power of the Pope was full nay most full and direct in Spirituals and indirect in temporals c. and that they would Excommunicate all those who were of a contrary Opinion to the Proposition which affirm'd the Pope could depose the King c. and for which 't is there Cited how the Pope by a Breve in that year 1615. returned his Solemn thanks to the Clergy of France for what they had done against the Articles of the 3d. Estate wherein his Power was concern'd The use I make of this is only to shew that the present French Clergy who no doubt are Conscious of the Error of their Predecessors in such a DOCTRINE wherein Religion and Loyalty are concerned were obliged to shew all the Tenderness and Compassion to their Frail and Fallible Brethren not Erring in a Point of that Nature but only in such as were Subject to Controversy I shall here observe that Cressy in the Book aforesaid reflects on the late Earl of Clarendon for saying in p. â—48 of his Vindication of Dr. Stilling-fleet that the Council of Trent is not yet received in France and in many other Catholick Country's and saith to the Earl under favour Honoured Sir you will I suppose grant that the late Famous and Learned Arch-Bishop of Paris Peter de Marca was better informed in the Ecclesiastical State of France than your self a Stranger and quotes the Volume of De Marca before mentioned lib. 2. cap. 17. S. 6. for Writing expresly that the Definitions of Faith
of the Council of Trent were admitted by a publick Edict made concerning the same matter in the year 1579 but that the Decrees which regard discipline are not received in France because they are not ratified by the Law of the Prince although the Chief Heads which do not infringe the received Customs and Ancient Rights of the Gallican Church are Comprehended in Regal Constitutions several times published concerning that matter Which thing how grateful and acceptable it was to Pope Clement the 8 th is testified by the late King Henry the Great in his Rescript of the year 1606. And then he Quotes Cabassutius his Notitia Concil in fine for the purpose I have mentioned before and declaring out of the Records of the French Clergy viz. that in their General Assembly at Paris in the year 1615. the Canons of the Doctrine of the Council of Trent were unanimously received by the whole Clergy Father Cressy then farther addeth by way of Triumph over the supposed mistake in the said Earl in p. 131. of that Epistle And long before that even from the rising of the said Council each particular Bishop had received it in their Respective Diocesan Synods Thus Sir you see a sufficient Reception of the Faith delivered by the Council of Trent in France both by Authority Episcopal and Regal I must not here forbear to take notice that if it were true what Cressy alledgeth namely that from the riâ—ing of the said Council the French Bishops did receive it in their Respective Diocesan Synods before any PVBLISHING of it by the French King and not staying for the same they made such a kind of Invasion of the Regal power in France Namely by introducing Religionary Establishments without ITS Authority as was never practis'd by our English Clergy since the Reformation nor perhaps before it and such as the French Clergy cannot charge the pretended Reform'd with For their Petition to the King doth in p. 3. mention their i. e. the pretended Reformed having been by Edicts permitted the Exercise of their Religion and the Freedom of Acting in their Synods as they have done But this by the way If we consider the time of the very Professio fidei that the Acts of the French Clergy speak of being first own'd and that in the year 1564 the time likewise of the Confirmation of the Trent Council and which was not made nor Composed by the French Clergy but by the Direction of the Trent-Fathers and Published by Pope Pius the 4 th in the year last mentioned must it not seem hard that Luthers Book printed as was mentioned in the year 1558 and that of Melanchton's printed in the year 1562 and before the Date of their very Profession of Faith should be brought in as Calumniating it When any had a Triumph Decreed them in the Old Common Wealth of Rome the Writers of such Solemnities tell us the Custom was Vt à militibus abjectissimis quibuscunque triumphalem currum sequentibus diversis triumphantes Convicijs incesserentur nè prosperâ illâ fortunâ plus justo insolescerent But the new Church of Rome I mean the Tridentine one in France will bear no Raillery nor Calumny of Words nor yet any to ask them when and by whom their Triumph was Decreed them and if their Doctrine was Crown'd Lawfully And methinks as if Nature and its God meant that all should ludibrium debere that would Triumph over Fallibility in what Church soever Our Honest Monk whom I lately mentioned as Decreeing himself a Triumph over that great observer of all things he referr'd to I mean the late Earl of Clarendon had in his Triumphant Chariot the usual Compliment of that Solemnity viz. Hominem te esse cogita there put on him by Nature And one might to him Cite D' Ossats Letters and with some Allusion to his Words to the Earl of Clarendon say that he supposed that that Cardinal understood the State of the Council of Trent relating to France as well as any one and much better than De Marca or any one else who would make its definitions of Faith admitted in France by an Edict in the year 1579. Let any one for this purpose who pleases look on D' Ossats Letter from Rome the 19 th of November 1596 to Villeroy where he adviseth that the Council of Trent might be Publisht in France and mentions that the Clergy of France had often desired a Publication of it and saith that the Huguenots by reason of the Edict of 77. would not be prejudiced by such publication and on another Letter to Villeroy from Rome on the 19 th of February 1597 where he again presseth for the publication of that Council and saith of it La publication sans l' observation pourroit plus que l' observation sans la publication and that the Courts of Parliament and others would have no cause of complaint thereupon and that a Salvo of two or three Lines would be a remedy against any complaints and on his long Letter from Rome the 28 th of March 1599. to Henry the Fourth where he minds him from the Pope that the Councel of Trent might be Published and saith Que la pluspart des Catholiques ceux qui plus peuvent Comme les Parlemens les Chapitres les principaux Seigneurs ne veulent point du dit Concile pour n' avoir point à laisser les benefices incompatibles les confidences autres abus quae la Reformation portee par le dit Concile osteroit and on his Letter from Rome the last of March 1599. to Villeroy Animating him to promote the Publication of that Council and where he saith I never knew that that Council prejudic'd any Regal Right as some say it hath done but though it might prejudice it in some point it might however be publisht with adding thereto such a Salvo as we could have Namely as to the Prerogative and Preeminences of the Crown the Authority of the King the Liberties and Franchises of the Gallican Church the Indults of the Court of Parliament and the Edicts of Pacification and all other things that we would have excepted and on his long Letter to Henry the Fourth from Rome of Iune the 11 th 1601. where mentioning his excusatory replies to the Pope about the not publishing that Council he saith that not only the Hereticks but a great part of the Catholicks were against it and that his Holiness might remember how Henry the Fourth's Predecessors could never be brought to publish that Council I might here mention how Father Paul in his History of the Venetian Interdict p. 4. and 48. tells us that the Trent Council was not received in France in the year 1616 and that Thuanus assures us that the Trent Council was not received in France in the year 1588 and therefore not in the year 1579. according to De Marca For that excellent and most Faithful Historian Tome the 4 th lib. 93. p. 361.
or any Act that shews us that it hath been truly received and publisht for according to the Rules of Right a Council cannot Faire Loy if it hath not been published But if any one were minded to speak Argumentatively and shew that the French do not now receive the Trent Council no not in rebus fidei he might urge 1. That the whole Clergy of France in their Assembly March 19. 1682. declared that a Council is above the Pope 2. That he hath no Power in Temporals in any Princes Dominions 3. That he hath no Power to Depose Princes 4. Nor to Absolve Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance 5. That he is not infallible And though the Pope declared by his Bull Dated at Rome Apr. 11 th 1682. that those Acts of theirs were Null the words of Improbamus Rescindimus Cassamus c. being in the Bull yet the French King had before in his Edict of March 23. 1682. Registred in Parliament Ratified and Confirm'd them all Nor is it deniable that these 5 Propositions contradict many things in the Trent Council which are setled in it as Doctrinal Points And moreover 't is obvious to any one to observe that in the Acts of the General Assembly of the French Clergy in the year 1685. they Cite their new Trent Creed i. e. some PART of it For the last of it they cite is p. 38. of that Book and leave out the LAST part of that Creed which is contained in these words Caetera item omnia Sacris Canonibus aecumenicis Concilijs ac praecipuè à Sacro-Sanctà Tridentinà Synodo tradita definita declarata indubitanter recipio ac profiteor simulque Contraria omnia atque haereses quascunque ab Ecclesiâ damnatas rejectas Anathematizatas ego pariter rejicio damno Anathematizo Hanc veram Catholicam fidem extrà quam nemo salvus esse potest quam in praesente sponte profiteor veraciter teneo eandem integram usque ad extremum vitae Spiritum Constantissimè retinere confiteri atque ab illis quorum cura ad me in munere hoc spectabit teneri doceri praedicari quantum in me est curaturum Ego idem N. spondeo voveo juro c. These are the words which the French Clergy leave out in their Book above mentioned and they knew the Preservation of the Liberties of the Gallican Church obliged them to such omission For by this part of the Trent Creed they are bound to believe and profess Omnia à Concilio Tridentino tradita definita declarata and so not matters of Doctrine and Definitions of Faith only And 't is most plain that the Council intended both matters of Discipline and Doctrine And in the aforesaid words of the Trent Creed a firm Belief is required to be given omnibus in Concilijs oecumenicis traditis and then a long farewel to all their Liberties of the Gallican Church would ensue and their Sanctio Pragmatica which is the Authentick Comprehension of them is Damned by Leo the 10th approbante Concilio in the General Lateran Council It may be moreover said that the words above mentioned that the French Clergy left out of their Book are a part Fidei Catholicae extrà quam non est salus and therefore if the French do not receive as it seems they do not this part of the Trent Creed then it may very well be doubted whether they receiv'd the Definitions of Faith of the Tridentine Council as De Marca would have us believe The Trent Creed I have referred to is at the end of that Council in most of the Editions of it but in the Edition at Antwerp which is the best viz. Anno 1633 it is in the Body of the Council Ses. 24. p. 450 451. It here occurs to my thoughts to entertain yours out of Hoornbeck's Examen bullae Papalis Printed An. 1652. where in p. 42. speaking of the French Embassadors claiming the Honour of sitting before those of Spain he saith uti apparuit in Oratorum Galliae Regis Carol. 9. protestatione in Concilio Tridentino factâ An. 1563 quando secus fieret Oratores Hispan Regis post Imperatoris locum Caperent primum Cujus omnem Culpam in solum rejiciebant Papam Pium 4 tum Cujus aiebant imperium detrectamus quaecunque sint ejus judicia sententiae reijcimus respuimus contemnimus Et quanquam Patres Sanctissimi vestra omnium Religio vita eruditio magnae semper fuit erit apud nos auctoritatis cum tamen nihil a vobis Sed omnia magis Romae quam Tridenti agantur quae hic publicantur magis Pij 4 ti placita quam Concilij Tridentim decreta jure existimentur denunciamus protestamur quaecunque in hoc conventu hoc est toto Pij nutu voluntate decernuntur publicantur ea neque Regem Christianissimum probaturum neque Ecclesiam Gallicanam pro decreto oecumenici Concilij habituram Interea quot quot estis Galliae Archiepiscopi Episcopi Abbates Doctores Theologi vos omnes hinc abire Rex Christianissimus jubet redituros ut primum Deus opt max. Ecclesiae Catholicae in generalibus Concilijs anttquam formam libertatem restituerit Regi autem Christianissimo suam dignitatem Majestatem And he afterward in p. 192. desires that after those words dignitatem Majestatem may be added what followeth among the addenda there to his foregoing work viz. In Concilio Tridentino vehementer illa inter Gallos Hispanos agitabatur Contentio de praecedentiâ Non solum illis primum à legato Imperatoris locum petentibus sed nolentibus ut Orator Hispani Regis alio quo singulari loco ab illis sederet sed ordine post eos aliter se protestari non adversum legatos aut Philippum Regem aut Concilium aut Ecclesiam Romanam sed adversus ipsum Papam Pium 4 tum non pro legitimo illum habentes Papâ provocare se ad Concilium aliud liberum in Galliâ Cogendum Ubi illud facetum accidit quod quando adversus Oratoris Gallici expostulationem diceretur cum Scommate Gallus Cantat hic Concinne protinus respondit Vtinam illo Gallicinio Petrus ad resipiscentiam fletum excitaretur Illà que causa postmodum Gallis fuit inter alias quo minus Concilium Tridentinum in Regno Ecclesiis Gallicanis vel ejus publicatio admissa fuerit This Book of Hoornbeck was Printed at Vtrecht and the Papal Bull on which it very Learnedly Animadverts is that by which the Pope endeavour'd to Abrogate the Peace of Munster But to go on with my Assertion of the Non-reception of the Council of Trent in France I shall acquaint you that another considerable Author Namely My Lord Primate Bramhal who was an Exile in France in the time of the Vsurpation and whose observation penetrated as far into the Constitution of the Gallican Church as either F. Cressy's or any Man 's else
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
AGREED VNTO 6th That that which was made by the Clergy for the Publication of the Council of Trent without the Authority of the King be Repaired and Amended and all such things formerly done in the Estate be Reformed AGREED VNTO Yet if any one wants further Confirmation from Authorities about the Trent Council not having been received in France I may send him to the Synopsis of â—ouncils Writ by Dr. Prideaux sometime Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford and afterward Bishop of Worcester where the Bishop Writing Chap. 5. and p. 29. of the Trent Council saith This Council cryed up by so many Acclamations and so Solemnly Confirmed by the Seal of of the Fisher the French admitted not But after all this said of the Council of Trent's not having been Published and Received in France if either by the Government or Clergy or Laity there any of the Religionary or Doctrinal points of Faith contained in that Council are inwardly believed and openly professed I leave them and all Mankind to the Exercise of the Liberty wherewith christ hath made them free and will suppose that if after all the Old Protestations of the Government against that Council Roman-Catholicks in France having found the Doctrinal Points of their Faith that were Stated and Determined by former General Councils to be more fully and clearly made out in the Tridentine one did prosess the belief of the same and did refer to that Council when they would give an exteriour Account or Reason of their Faith and did think themselves obliged for the supporting the Vnity of the Roman-Catholick Church to profess the same Doctrinal Points with these Countries where that Council had been received and published I will make this Charitable Construction that they did and do intend no more Diminution of the Regal Rights and Liberties of the Gallican Church thereby than the Nations of Europe did intend a Diminution of their Freedom by receiving any part of the Civil Law of Rome and still continuing the Use and Authority of the same in their Commerce and in the Interpretation of their publick pactions and of the Ius gentium Nor than the Romans did intend to lessen the Rights of their Government by taking their Law of the twelve Tables from Athens nor their Maritime Law from Rhodes and no more than our Roman-Catholick Ancestors did intend a Subjugating of our Laws to the Popes Canon Law against several parts of which they openly protested by the receiving of some other parts of it they thought agreeable to the good of Church and State or than the Government at present intends any Recognition of Foraign Power by any parts of the Civil or Canon Law being still incorporated in our Laws and continuing here to be a part of the Lex terrae QVOAD certain causes Ecclesiastical or Maritime And indeed it must be acknowledged to be for the Honour of the Trent Council that in France and some other Countries where it hath not been received and published its Doctrinal Definitions have yet got ground in the Belief of many Roman-Catholicks on the supposed Merits of the things themselves therein contained and as it hath been for the Reputation of some things in the Civil or Canon Law that on their being thought reasonable our Laws have Adopted them as their own But as with all due Tenderness to all my fellow Christians in France or elsewhere whether Lay or Clerical I forbear to Censure or Reproach them in my most Secret Thoughts for Embracing the Belief of any such Tenets as may be called Religionary though taken up from Trent by them after they have used all the due means for the finding out Truth in the same and do most earnestly pray that God who hath been pleased in Scripture to express his Divine Philanthrophy by the Discreet Love of a Father and the Tender Love of a Mother would bestow the same Blessings on them that I wish for my self and my most near and dear Relations so I should have been glad to have found the like Spirit of Charity Breathing in the Acts of the French clergy with Relation to their Christian Brethren differing from them in points Religionary instead of pronouncing their breach made with them to be founded only on Calumnies after the Pastoral Advertisement of that Clergy to them in the year 1682 and instead of affording them their Compassion for not being able in the three following Years to receive that Faith of that Trent Council which I account from the year 1564. the time of its Confirmation to this Day not to have been Published or Received in that Kingdom and whose Publication may be said to be there yet but as it were in abbeyance and instead of further charging them as Calumniators because of the things Writ against the Romanists by our Whitaker and Downham a hardship I have observed complain'd of in some late Writings of the French Protestants But the great Royal goodness of our Gracious King and the fervent Zeal and Charity of the present Divines of England have made them an amends for what they suffered on the account of those our former great Clergy-Men Yet must it be acknowledged that in one point that Clergy in their Petition to the King doth the Huguenots this Justice as to say the pretended Reformed how great so-ever their Blindness is are not arrived to that height of Folly as to maintain their lawful practice of the Crimes of Imputations and Calumny And I am glad that since the 2 d. of March 1679. so much occasion hath been given by the Popes Condemning the Tenets of the Iesuits about the Doctrine of CALVMNY and their Sicarious Principles for the not charging them on the Church of Rome as approved by it as formerly But on the account of the Horrid Calumnies against Fathers and Councils still continued in the Decrets of the Canon Law and forged with as much Falshood as any could have been by the French Clergy observed in the Case of the pretended Reform'd as I have particularly enough shewn in the Case of Cyprian I may well urge it as an Argumentumad hominem that neither the Pope nor French Clergy should have been Authors of too much Severity to those Reformed on the pretence of their Calumniating the Doctrine of their Church And have been careful not to charge on the Catholicitè as the Term is the Falshood of Gratian and the lachesse of the Popes that so long suffer'd so much Trompery in him to pass for Law And were I at Rome now while the Pope is so worthily busy'd in strengthening the preparations against the Turk in this Conjuncture would not divert him from the same by importuning him to make a better Canon Law for his Flock Nor do I charge on the Gallican Church or State what I have mentioned out of Boerius a President of Parliament there If they hoped by the publication of their Book in France to effect a Reconciliation of Churches there or the Translators of it
and their Estates and many of which Estates were Church-Lands notwithstanding the Popes Declaration of the Nullity of that Peace supported by his Present Majejesty and as I doubt not but it always will be as well as by other Roman-Catholick Crown'd Heads And the figure the present French King made in the Munster Treaty in the year Forty Eight and in the Restauration of its effects and Vigor in Christendom in the year Seventy Nine is a sufficient Demonstration of his thinking it lawful for the Lateran Council to be Disobey'd by Popish Princes as to the point of Exterminating their Heretical Subjects I do therefore account this your Manly way of Confuting the Fears and Iealousies founded on that Council to have been at this time the more opportune and the more worthy of your Loyalty because as you have mentioned it after the End of your Discussion It may seem the Design of some People in the World abroad to encrease our Divisions and the popular hatred against Papists and Popery here by the usage that Protestants meet with there as if the Religion of Popery did necessarily Cause the same You have therefore well reputed it the opus diei here in England to shew the contrary and have done it more effectually than any late Writer of the Church of Rome I know here hath done or perhaps was able to do And your quoting for this purpose in p. 208. D' Ossats Speech to the Pope and wherein he so Argumentatively both like a Divine and a States-Man asserted the Lawâ—ulness of Henry the 4 th's of France observing the EDICTS in favour of his Protestant Subjects and wherein he mentioned how other Roman Catholick Princes had done what was tantamount to it and how that the Pope made no Reply to him thereupon may much help to shew our Timid and Iealous People that the Religionary part of Popery or Doctrine of the Church of Rome doth not oblige Roman-Catholick Princes to make the Lives of their Protestant Subjects uneasie to them It here falls in my way to acknowledge to you that the great Instances you have given in your Discourse concerning the Consummat Loyalty of great numbers of Henry the 4ths Popish Subjects to him while a Protestant and under the Popes Excommunication have been very useful for the enlarging Peoples Charitable Thoughts as to the Persons of some Papists and the tendency of their Principles to Loyalty and to the shewing that though in the Great Lateran Council wherein were 1215 Fathers it was Synodically and Categorically concluded that the Pope might absolve Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance that yet great Numbers of Henry the 4ths Roman-Catholick Subjects knew and Practised better things and that their great Absolute and Unconditional Loyalty to him lives in the Records of the Impartial Thuanus And that notwithstanding any principles Chargeable on the Church of Rome the Faith of many particular persons in it hath by its Works shewn it self very perfect for Loyalty But here I am likewise obliged to gratifie you by my Complaisance with your Temper in differing somwhat in Opinion from you for you say you are better pleased in Conversation with those who in many points differ from you than with those who in all agree with you and am frankly to tell you that tho' I am sufficiently satisfied with your discharging of the Moral Offices of Honouring all Men and giving Honour particularly to some Roman Catholicks to whom it was due and particularly where in p. 360. You have with so great a Height of Expression Celebrated the Virtue of the Queen Dowager and from whom I had the Honour to receive Thanks by the late Earl of Ossory for the Justice I did her Majesty in a late Conjuncture Yet there is one thing at the end of your Discourse and another after the end of your Discussion wherein you are pleased to give your Judgment concerning the Papists here in geral as I would not have given mine in the Case You say in p. 285. That after the Various Intervals in which the Discourse was Written it having happened that the Papists are to the General Satisfaction of Impartial Judges of Men and things become as sound a part of this Nation as they were and are of the Dutch States and as throughout the Discourse you always supposed them Capable of being and in p. 361. You say that it is with Justice to be by all Men to our Popish Fellow Subjects acknowledged that what ever petulance some of them were formerly guilty of or of any Ambitious Design of making too great a Figure in the Internal Government of the Nation yet that the Deportment of the Generality of them hath lately appeared with such a Face not only of Loyalty but of Complaisance with his Majesties Measures in imploying the Hands and Heads of Protestants of the Church of England in the Management of great Matters of State as is necessarily Attractive of our Christian Love and Compassion c. But tho' I account my self Morally obliged to Judge several Papists of my Acquaintance to abound in Loyalty and to be such whose Moderation is known to all Men and to be no Exorbitant Affecters of making too great a Figure in the Internal Government of the Kingdom and do hope that many others are so with whom I am not acquainted and will Judge no particular Papist to believe or practise Principles of Disloyalty without particular grounds and tho' on the account of the Trite Rule that Interest never lyes I will hope that the generality of them will in his Majesties Reign and afterward be neither Disloyal nor Heady nor High-Minded nor affecters of Preheminence Yet if I were required to give my present Judgment in short of the present Temper of the generality of them as to the Qualifications about which you have given your Judgment in the Case and that too relating to future times I considering the Formulary of the Letters denoting Judgment given in the Mode of the Old Roman Laws viz. A. and C. and N. L. would not presume either to Absolve or Condemn the gross of their Numbers as to those Qualifications but would interpose the Non Liquet in their Case and much less will I Condemn your Judgment of Charity to them and say that some of your Sharp Reflections on Popery and some Papists have favoured of the Common way of some Partial Judges Byassed with an intent to bring off some Criminals Namely to make some disobliging rough Language previous to the obliging them with their Sentence at last But taking every thing in the best Sense it will bear shall suppose that your Information of the Temper of the Generality of them might be what arrived not at my Knowledge and that therefore you pronounced thereof as you have done And moreover your Discourse being Writ before the Late Kings Death I shall account it was for several Reasons a strengthening of Loyalty and weakening of the Fears of Timid Protestants for you
Aristophanes whom you had said you had found Cited for that Sense of the word at the end of Cloppenburg de Sacrificiis and who Citing Aristophanes his Comedy of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aves where the Birds threaten Iupiter with a Holy War shews that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was meant Avis Seminilega and that the Athenians thought St. Paul would despoil the Altars of the Gods of the Provisions of their Offerings And in Fine you said that such various readings of that word would certainly meet in any ones being thought a Babler by those of the Religion Established if he would interlope in their Maintenance I doubt not but you have heard of the late Candidate Beyond-Sea for the Office of the Reconciler of Churches I mean the Author of TVBA PACIS ad universas Dissidentes in Occidente Ecclesias seu Discursus Theologicus de unione Ecclesiarum Romanae Protestantium nec non amicâ Compositione Controversiarum sidei inter hosce Caetus per Matheum Praetorium Memela Prussum Printed at Collen An. 1684. and which that Author Dedicates to the Emperor and to the Kings of Poland France England Denmark Sweden severally and to the Electors and other Princes of the Empire And just before he blows his Trumpet he warne thus of the two Old Pronouns that have so long troubled the World viz. Meum and Tuum and which will always continue so to do till all Men shall be of St. Francis his mind whom when a Fryar told that he came à cellâ tuâ St. Francis when he heard the word tuâ said he would Lodge no more there The Author tells us in his 10. Chapter Tentavit quidem Compositionem Vir ob studium pacis a plurimis principibus viris Longè Laudatus Georgius Cassander sed non fausto Successu Contradicentibus partim Romanis partim protestantibus and tells us there of the like Event that Marcus Antonius de Dominis and his Work for that purpose had But our Author had the Fortune to Catch a Tartar of an Objection in the last Paragraph of his Book save one viz. At dicet aliquis si unio nostrarum Ecclesiarum Cum Romanâ Ecclesiâ sieret Romanus Pontifex jus suum repeteret tot bona olim Eccliastica quae jam per pacta transacta in manus serenissimorum principum Cessere quae nunquam principes in aerarij sui damnum adimi sibi patientur And to this Objection he returneth this Answer viz. Respondetur Omninò aequum est Ius suum Cuique tribuere nec Romano Pontifici illud derogandum quod ipsi legitimè Competit Bona Ecclesiastica quae olim fuerunt nunc autem aerario principum adscripta jure gladij pactorum acquisita NON PVTAMVS Romanum Ponti ficem pro suâ quâ pollet prudentiâ repetiturum Frui Concedet ijs ad quaâ— admissi sunt possessionibus Nihil ijs vel decedere vel adimi cupiet This the good Man in his Embassy Speech to the World as its Reconciler tells us of this Pope but without shewing his Credentials either from the Pope or any one else And I believe on the account of what you have shewn of the Munster-Treaty the Princes and Electors of the Empire to whom he hath Dedicated his Book will not fear this Popes being either able or willing to give them any disturbance in their Church-Lands Nor need any of us in England more fear the Popes being able or willing to hurt our possessions of the Church-Lands We are sufficiently shewn it out of Mores Reports f. 1.282 that the Popes Bulls giving Monasteries to Wolsy with the consent of the King and the Surrender of the Priors to Wolsy would not serve the turn and that nothing but an Act of Parliament would alter the Property You have here an instance of our present Foraign Reconcilers of Churches being very poor Middle Region Men in Comparison of Cassander and Antonius de Dominis and others as our late little Reconcilers likewise have been Compared with the unfortunate ones of the Old Conjuncture The question of what will this Babler say is properly applicable to them from all Parties But one thing I cannot but here observe to you that as I was very well pleased with your Design that you Communicated to me after you had begun this long VOYAGE of your THOVGHTS as I may call it and writ the former part of your Discourse namely that because in your occasional Conversation with People of all sorts you have found that Mens Fancies were as you said Nail'd to POPERY and their Tongues Ty'd up as to any thing but POPERY and that they could not go beyond the Tedder of that in their Discourse and that POPERY's Monopolizing so much of their Discourse had been one of its VSVRPATIONS you intended to try to divert them from it and make them pass ad autres by laying before them such various Matters of Calculation relating to their own Country and many places of Christendom as might give them somewhat beside POPERY and PLOTS to think and speak of in Company So I am much better pleased with your Performance of that your Curious Enterprize and do think that your Book by containing in it so many MISCELLANEA must eo nomine prove highly useful to our English World in this Conjuncture It here occurs to me to observe to you that after an Erratum of the Press in Page 38. of your Discourse Namely where you referred to P. 325 in the Advocate of Conscience Liberty instead of Page 225 you make the last Letter of D'Ossats to be from Rome An. 1596 and I suppose you happened to do so by casting your Eye on the Old Date of the last Letter but one Printed in the Volume of his Letters in Folio of the Paris Edition An. 1625. and finding it to be An. 1596. But it came not into your Mind then to observe that the last of his Letters as they are Ranged in Order was the 199 th and in the End of Book 9 th and which was to Villeroy from Rome March the 6 th An. 1604 and in which Year he dy'd as you rightly refer to his Epitaph to shew But it seems after that last Letter in Book 9 th of the Paris Edition the Publisher saying that he had recovered some others of his Letters Prints them without respect to the Order of time and there makes the Date of the last Letter save one in the Volume to be in the Year 1596. as you have there done But however this Derogates not from the Iustice of your Animadversion in page 38. on the Roman-Catholick English Priest for making D' Ossat to have known the Gun-Powder Treason Plot to be a Sham one Eight Years before it was to be Executed For the Letter of D' Ossat that that Priest alledged to prove what I now mentioned was Dated as you justly say from Rome March 29 th An. 1596 and he never read the Letter that can find any thing of the Gun-Powder Treason in it I shall here take occasion to make my Excuse to the Reverend Divines of our Church assuring them that by adding Observations on the Writings of the Author of the Papist Misrepresented and Represented I intended not to Derogate from the Sufficiency of the Learning and Reason they have shewed in their Answers thereunto But the â—ruth is though as in our Parliaments frequently when â—ny have moved for some Additional Branch to be setâ—â—ed on the Revenue here afâ—er the Example of somewhat of the like Nature in France the Naming of France â—n the Case then for a Preâ—ident hath been observed â—o make many speak against the Vnseasonableness of the Motion who otherwise would not have done it so the writing of any thing that was contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England and after the Mode of the Bishop of Condom and the Acts of the French Clergy just at this time of Day was a thing that I could not but shew my Resentment against as very much unseasonable And moreover according to the saying that one ought not tâ— be Patient under charge of Hesie I may justifie the warmth of my Resentments against the Acts of the French Clergy charging some of ours both with Heresie and Calumny and bringing up our Whitaker and Downham there in the Van of the Calumniators under the first Article and our Raynolds under the Sixth I Remain SIR Your Affectionate Friend and Servant ANGLESEY FINIS
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
of the DEPOSING Power than any thing said by their Writers hath been and no doubt but when any more such close Attacks shall be made upon them by our Writers as have been since his Majesties Reign to charge the Allowance of the Deposing Power on their Church they will not neglect to Crave Aid from what you have said in that your Historical Account of that Peace I assure you it was no easie Task to give so Critical and so Impartial an account of the factum of that Peace as you have done and so much for the Advantage of the Papists and whereby you have Merited much more from them than their Favorite of our Church Dr. Heylin did by Writing of the Outrages that accompanyed the Reformation And your occasional rectifying the Mistake of a considerable Writer of the Church of Rome and of such another of the Church of England here in the Negotiation of that peace hath shewed the Niceness and Difficulty of stating it exactly as you have done The Author of the Novelles de la Republique des Lettres for the Month of November last past giving an account of Dr. Burnets 2d Part of the Hist. of the Reformation being Beyond-Sea lately Printed in French doth there in p. 1250 give the World a fresh view of the Horrour of the Lateran Council by rendring our Queen Mary as prompted by that Council to the Persecution of her Protestant Subjects But you having in your Discourse with the Exquisite Artifice of Oratory mentioned some Passages in her Reign not commonly known and that on the Foundation you lay'd so low in the Rubbish of her Reign you might with more Advantage support the whole Super structure of your Judging that any Roman Catholick Prince that should inherit the Throne here would perfectly Decline her politicks and likewise in your Preface particularly fortified the Minds of People against the Fears and Jealousies of such a Prince that might be Occasioned by the Lateran Council did very seasonably thereby advance the measures of Loyalty and Mens more chearful adherence to the Lineal Succession And the Truth is that among the many Pamphlets Writ with most Artifice and ill apply'd Learning ad faciendum populum and to pervert them to the Exclusion I observing the Lateran Council so much insisted on cannot but Judge your undeceiving them in that point to have been the more necessary The Pamphlet you shew'd me in 4 to Pr for Ianeway in the year 1681. and called A Moderate Decision of the Point of Succession humbly proposed to the consideration of the Parliament doth harp much on that Council And another Pamphlet Printed in the same year for the same Person and called The Case of Protestants in England under a Popish Prince c. did there among the many Quotations out of the Canon Law and Canonists councils and Popish Divines and School-Men making for its purpose in p. 5. and 27. trouble us with the Lateran Council and mentions Bellarmines calling it the Papists great and most Famous Council Your having in your Discussion so succesfully combated the obligatoriness of that Council upon Papists was of great use for the unblundering many nominal Protestants as your term is in their fancying it so necessary for the quiet of Christendom that Princes and their Subjects should agree in the Belief of the Speculative points of Religion as your expressions are and whereupon you promise the Age your publication of the fact of the Munster Peace and its Consequences and which promise you have in your Preface so well and fully perform'd The Author of the Answer to the Book call'd A Papist Misrepresented doth refer to Lessius his Discussio decreti magni Concil Lateran and saying that the Churches Authority would not be maintain'd without the Deposing Power and in p. 104. making the Councils of Lateran under Alex. 3. and Innocent 3. to be general ones And in the Reflections on the Answer nothing is mentioned to deny it But your having in your Discussion cited Cardinal Peron for having so strenuously asserted that Councils being a general one and yet not thinking it Obligatory for the Exterminating the Persons of Hereticks from France where their number was so great and your having cited Cardinal D' Ossat partly to the same effect and further shewing this their Doctrine Incarnate in the Lives of so many Roman-Catholick Crown'd Heads and their Empires after all the dismal effects that the contrary practices produced and that the Voice of Nature did in the Storm their Country 's were in and when it was so necessary to have many Hands speak it as plainly concerning Heretical Subjects continuing with them as St. Pauls words were to the Centurion and to the Soldiers viz. except these abide in the Ship ye cannot be saved and your shewing that pursuant to the Munster Peace they did abide in the Ship and thereby saved themselves and it was time by you very nobly spent in your helping Men to See how far Nature had by its powerful Hands effectually delivered People from their Fears of the Lateran Council and which time was to much better purpose spent than that of some Roman-Catholick Apologists for any harsh thing Decreed by General Councils and saying that they are not declared as Doctrinal points and that the Decrees relating only to Discipline and Government come short of being Articles of Faith as the Author of the Reply to the Reflections upon the answer to a Papist Misrepresented and Represented oâ—â—erves and as to which he there further in p. 54. quotes the Vindication of Dr. Sherlocks Sermon for saying that to Decree what shall be done includes a Virtual Definition of that Doctrine on which that Decree is founded But such little Arts the great Cardinal you mentioned forbore to use in the point of the Lateran Council And 't is not Art but Nature that can satisfie the Curious in this inquisitive Age and by the great prospect of Nature you have shew'd Men appearing in the Munster-Peace they will be naturally untaught their Fears of that Council now they know its Sting is pluck'd out what ever humming about their Ears it may still make by the help of any Writers The Learned Author of the Seasonable Discourse in his other Book of the difference between the Church and Court of Rome consider'd in p. 21. speaking of the Lateran Council and how his Roman-Catholick Antagonist had Cited one Iohn Bishop who in a Book Written in the time of Queen Elizabeth affirmed that the Constitution of the Lateran Council on which the whole Authority of Absolving Subjects from their Allegiance and Deposing Princes is founded is no other than a Decree of Pope Innocent the 3 d and was never admitted in England Yea that the said Council was no Council at all nor any thing at all there Decreed by the Fathers doth in the following Pages substantially Confute his Adversary and sets up the Authority of Cardinal Peron and of the Council of Trent against