or Benefice whether Ecclesiastical or Secular It is true with much Importunity and Danger Gerson procured a Decree in this council that No Subject should Murder his Prince But that Practice was only condemned in such as did it without waiting the Sentence of any Judge whatsoever So that if Sentence be past by the Spiritual Judge notwithstanding this Decree a Prince may be Assassinated But there is a further Mystery in it For a King once declared to be no more such i. e. being Deposed He then becomes a Rebel and an Usurper according to their Principles and then it is lawful to kill him The Council of Siena confirms all the former Decrees made against Hereticks and the Favourers of Heresie are declared liable to all Pains and Censures of Hereticks and consequently to the Greatest of them viz. Deposition The Council at Basil ratiâ—â—s the Decree of Constance by which Emperours and Kings that presumed to hinder any from coming to the Council are subjected to excommunication Interdicts and other Punishments Spiritual and Temporal Finally the Council of Trent though the world was then much changed and they durst not trample on Crowned Heads as formerly yet they would still be nibling at this sweet Morsel as near as they could and still endeavoured though covertly to continue the Claim to this Deposing Authority For in the Decree against Dâ—els Sess. 25. c. 19. they declare If any Emperours and Kings c. did assign a field for a Combate they did thereby lose their Right to that place and the City Castle or other places about it If Councils then as surely they are be fit deliverers of the Churches sence we have here no less than seven General Councils to prove this to be the Churche's Doctrine For my own part I can see no ways they can extricate themselves but either by Confessing their Church hath erred or by obstinately going on in a most wretched Justification of such Damnable Tenents and Practices There is nothing more to do in this business but by way of surplusage to give a General Touch at these following particulars By the Book of the Sacred Ceremonies which is Authentick and of great Esteem with the Church of Rome the Emperour as soon as he sees the Pope must bare-headed bow till his knee touch the Ground and worship the Pope coming nearer he must bow again and when he comes to the Pope he must bow a third Time and devoutly kiss the Pope's Toe The same book informs us that the Pope never gives any Reverence to any Mortal either by rising up or uncovering or bowing his head That the Emperour must hold the Pope's stirrup till he gets on horseback and then lead the Horse for some paces And some mean spirited Emperors have de facto performed these slavish offices The Emperour must swear Fealty to the Pope and be his Hector to maintain all his Rights and Honours That horrid Extravagant of Boniface VIII makes it absolutely necessary to Salvation that all Christians be subject to the Pope who hath both the Swords and Judgeth all Men and is Judged of None And the Gloss upon that Extravagant dares to say our Saviour had not done discreetly unless he had left such a Vicar behind him Bzâ—vius an approved and applauded Author in that Communion tells us the Pope is Monarch of All Christians Supreme over All Mortals there lyes no Appeal from him He is the great Arbitrator of the World Istodorus Mâ—scomus Vicar General to the Arch-Bishop of Bononia and a great Lawyer terms the Pope the Universal Judge King of Kings Lord of Lords and saies that God's Tribunal and the Pope's are one and the same that they have the same Consistory and therefore all other powers are his Subjects that the Pope is judged of none but God not of the Emperour Kings Clergy or Laity Pope Innocent the Third Extra de Major gives this description of the Papal power that it is as much greater than the Imperial as the Sun is than the Moon And the Gloss saies that is 47 times greater but the note in the Margin puts 57 times nay there is an Author that adds 7744 times This Decrâ—tal of Innocent the III. and the forecited Extravagant of Boniface VIII are both put into the body of the Canon Law It would be endless to enumerate the Romish Authors that defend this prodigious power of deposing Kings Bellarmin Suarez Sa Mariana maintain and prove this Doctrine Nor do I know one Jesuit that teaches the contrary And it is very well worth our notice what an odd kind of answer Mr. Fisher gave to King James who demanded of him what he thought Subjects ought to do in the case of the Pope's deposing a Prince The Jesuit gives this sly return I will pray for Peace and Tranquillity between both Parties I will exhort all to do good offices conducing thereto and will rather dye than any wayes be accessory to your Majestie 's death And no more could be got from him but this Compliment But else where he told the King more plainly that he disclaimed any singular opinion of his own or more than the Definitions of Councils and Consent of Divines did force him to hold And what those are we have pretty well discovered The Canonists Casuists and Schoolmen are Generally if not Universally of this opinion some teach that it is evident to all that Emperors are to be Deprived and Deposed by the Pope not onely for things pertaining to Faith but for Manners Others that the Secular Power is subject to the Spiritual and that it is no Usurpation if the Spiritual judge the Secular and that the Pope hath Supreme Power over Christian Kings and Princes and may Correct Depose and put others in their places that he may deprive a King of Royal Dignity for Heresie Schisme or any intolerable Crime Negligence or Lazyness if in great matters he break his Oath or oppress the Church and several other Cases and that the Pope himself is sole Judge both of the Crime and of the Condemnation And Bzovius de Pontifice Rom. c. 46. p. 611. gives us a Catalogue of above 30 Kings and Princes who have de facto been Deposed or by Anathema's damn'd by the Pope They count them Martyrs that dye for the maintaining this Power which cannot be unless they Esteem it an Article of Faith And we have a late Instance of F. Paul Magdalen alias Henry Heath a Learned and in his way Pious Franciscan who was put to death by the Long Parliament about the year 1643. Who just before his Execution being desired to give his Judgment of the Oath of Allegiance which chiefly concerns our present purpose declared it absolutely unlawful and that he would as soon lay down his Life for the Refusal of it as for any Article of the Roman Belief Eman. Sa is not ashamed to publish that if a Clergy Man rebell against his King it is no Treason because Clergy men are not the Kings
Subjects Aphorism Confess verbo Clericus Others though I will not say this is so generally taught that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks And if my Memory fail not the Famous Navar hath written a whole Tract in Defence of Equivocation and Mental Reservation and takes upon him the Defence of the Noble Society of Jesus as he calls them for Universally teaching it and to my knowledge practising it It were very Easy to collect these Corollaries out of the Canon Law and the Decretal of Boniface the VIII That Emperors and Kings are the Popes Subjects that they may be Deposed for Heresie and any great Sin that the Pope hath power over the whole World in Spirituals and Temporals and that he hath this Temporal power in a more worthy Superior and perfect manner than Temporal Princes that Statutes made by Lay Men do not bind the Clergy that it is necessary to Salvation to be subject to the Pope and he who affirms the contrary is no Christian without any hope or possibility of Salvation A most Pious and Charitable Rhapsody of Canonical Theology Now you must understand that this Canon Law is approved received and obeyed in that Church as The Rule of Justice in All their Courts and Consistories In this we further learn that the Holy Church by her frequent Authority absolves Subjects from their Oaths to Superiors and it exemplifies in Pope Zachary who deposed the King of France not so much for his Iniquity as for his Unprofitableness And Cardinal Turrecremata in his Comment on this Canon proves that Subjects if they have the Popes Consent may Depose their Kings The Bulls os many Popes against the Princes both of our own and other Nations are too well known and may at any time be seen in the Roman Bullary To draw to a Conclusion in this Odious Matter Our Country Man Creswell the Jesuite in his Philopater sect 2. affirms That it is the Opinion of All Catholicks that Subjects are bound to Depose an Heretical King that they are obliged by the Law of God by the most strick bonds of Conscience and utmost peril of their Souls to do this Bellarmine de Rom. Pontif. l. 5. c. 7. assures us it is the Consent of All Roman Catholicks that Heretical Princes May and Ought to be Deprived of their Dominions And the English Cardinal Allen speaking how S. Thomas defended this Position and how Cardinal Tolet expounds him adds these words of his own in his Answer to the Book of English Justice Thus doth this Notable School-man write Neither do we know any Catholick Divine of any Age to say the contrary If now the Testimonies of their Own most eminent Writers their established Laws and Canons their Authentick Papal Bulls and Decretal Constitutions the Decrees and Canons of their own General Councils the confess'd Representatives of their whole Church seconded by Actual Deposing of Emperours c. be not undeniable Evidence that this Seditious Desperate and Pernicious Doctrine is the Doctrine of the Roman Church I must humbly crave Pardon for my Ignorance in their Faith and must so far disown my self from ever having Embraced that I never understood their Doctrine and consequently never was a Roman Catholick But how Repugnant are these Positions to the Doctrine and Example of our Humble Meek Jesus and his Apostles Learn of me for I am Meek and Lowly The Son of man came not to be Ministred to but to Minister My Kingdom is not of this World Man who made me a Judge or Divider over you Luk. 12. 14. If I your Lord and Master have washed your feet c. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's And He himself paid Tribute to Caesar and made S. Peter do so too He submitted to the Power and Jurisdiction of Pilate who was Caesar's Deputy And this not quia deerant Vires because he wanted power to resist as Bellarmine fondly affirms of the Primitive Christians for He could have called for more than 12 Legions of Angels Nay so far was He from granting the Two Swords so much boasted of to S. Peter that he severely checks him for making Use of one And the Two Princes of the Apostles as they are styled S. Peter and Paul were perfectly of their Master's temper in this point The former would not permit a Common Centurion to fall down at his feet Act. 10. 25. and his Doctrine was far different from his Successors at Rome 1 Pet. 2. 13. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lord's sake Whether it be to the King as Supreme c. Fear God Honour the King S. Paul preaches the very same Rom. 13 1. c. Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers c. For he bears not the Sword in vain Wherefore you must needs be subject not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake And in matter of Jurisdiction he expresly Appeals to the Judgment Seat of Nero the Emperour And till the Mystery of Iniquity had gained Head the Roman Popes themselves spake in a different Dialect from what they now use We were in hopes says Pope Leo Ep. 44. to the Emperour Marcianus that your Clemency would have condescended so far as to have deferred the Council but since You resolve it should be kept I have sent thither Paschasme Pope Stephen speaks thus to another Emperour Hath not the Roman Church sent her Legats to the Council when you Commanded it We offer these things to your Piety says Pope Hadrian to the Emperour Basilius with all Humility veluti praesentes Genibus Adv lâ—â—i as if we were present before you on our Knees Having thus as briefly as the matter would permit dispatched what was chiefly in my Design of penning this Discourse and what had the greatest Insluence on the satisfying my own mind I shall make much shorter work with what follows General Councils when truly so are highly venerated by Protestants and the Four first so much honoured by S. Gregory the Great are better observ'd by the Church of England than by that of Rome Nor are we so severe as S. Gregory Nazian Ep. 42. ad Procâ—p Who professes he had never seen any good or Happy Issue of any of them but look'd on them as the Increase rather than Remedy of the Churche's Evils Which Censure is certainly true of those Conventions which have been for diverse Ages last past No we desire nothing more than a Free General Council to conclude differences in Religion and are most ready to submit to the Determinations of it and yield the same Authority to it which the Antient Church in the days of Constantine the Great Theodosius c. and which S. Augustine did And that we may not be slandered as being our own Judges We only desire it may be Qualified according to Cardinal Câ—sanus his Doctrine Concord Cath. l. 2. Where he declares that a Compleat General Council consists of All the Patriarchs and Principal Governours of the Universal
and Phanaticism Nay I have met with one so frantick that he thinks it was the Devils invention to permit the people to read the Bible Martin Peres de Tradit And I remember Thyrraeus de Daemoniac c. 21. says that thence he knew certain Persons to be possess'd by the Devil because being but Husbandmen they were able to discourse concerning Scripture We will now see what Holy Writ it self untainted Antiquity and unprejudiced Reason alleage in this Case and which side they patronize the Reformation or the Church of Rome S. Paul gives this Encomium of his Disciple Timothy 2 Ep. c. 3. v. 15. That from a Child he had been Conversant in the Holy Scriptures and tells him they were able to make him Wise to Salvation which I hope is Knowledge enough and I am sure is a more plain compendious Path than the crooked Labyrinths of uncertain Traditions forged Decrees Canons and Fathers He further assures him that the same Divine Scriptures were profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction to Righteousness that the Man of God might be perfect throughly furnished to every good Work For my part I know not what remains then for Tradition and such like Trash to perform since the Word of God alone can so compleat us Solomon Prov. 2. 9. assures us that Gods Law alone will make a man understand Righteousness and Judgment and Equity and Every good Work The Prophet Esa. c. 8. 20. refers us to try all things by the Law and Testimony and that we must conclude those to have no light who speak not according to that Word Our B. Saviour Luke 10. 26. When a Lawyer inquired of him what he should do to inherit Eternal Life bids him have recourse to what was written in the Law and asked him how he read there S. Luke writ his Gospel to Theophilus a Lay Person Luke 1. 4. to the end he might certainly know those things wherein he had been instructed S. John writ his as he himself testifies c. 20. v. 31. that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing we might have Life through him Abraham sends Dives his Brethren to Moses and the Prophets rather than to Visions Apparitions and private Revelations which yet are so much pretended to and boasted of in the Roman Church Christ himself submitted the Tryal both of his Doctrine and Miracles to the Censure of the Scriptures John 5. 39. Search the Scriptures for they are they which testifie of me Thoughts are free and I am apt to think that some will take the Liberty to judge it a little unreasonable that our B. Saviour should so readily stand to the Verdict of Moses and the Prophets and yet his pretended Vicar should scorn to submit to the Censure of Christ and his Apostles but defie both their Doctrines and Practices with so many Non Obstante's as appears by their new model'd Creed at this day wherein Pius the fourth hath coined twelve new Articles of Faith to shew his single Power equivalent to that of all the Apostles in General who did but every one contribute his single Article to that ancient Symbole bearing their Name S. Paul's Auditors the Bereans are highly commended for searching the Scriptures daily to examine whether the Doctrine they heard were true or no. Act. 17. 11. In Sum the old Law was severely injoyned to the Reading and Meditation both of Prince Priest and People men Women and Children as is obvious to observe all along the Style thereof And the Jews were so versed in it as to be able to reckon up the Number of the Words nay Letters contained therein And the new Law excludes none either from that Common Salvation it holds forth or the means to attain it which is the Doctrine of the Gospel The Epistles are directed to Persons of all sorts and both Sexes In fine the whole Oeconomy both of the Old and New Testament is so diametrically opposite to the Practice of the Roman Church in this Point that it is but too too palpable that the three Main Pillars of Popery are to keep the Prince in awe the Priest in Honour and the People in Ignorance Antiquity is so luxuriant in this point that it will be a greater Difficulty to select than to accumulate Famous is that Speech of Constantine the great to the Fathers in the Niccne Council recorded by Theodor. Histor. l. 1. c. 7. and this Saying among the rest is very remarkable We have the teaching of the Holy Ghost written for the Evangelical and Apostolical Books and the old Prophets do evidently teach us the things that are needful to be known concerning God Wherefore laying aside all Contention let us out of the Divinely Inspired Scripture take the Resolution of those things we seek for Tertullian contr Hermog in plain terms calls the Scripture The Rule of Faith St. Chrysostom Hom. 13. in 2 ad Cor. styles it A most Excellent Rule and Exact Ballance to try All things by St. August in l. 2. de Nupt. Concup c. 33. speaks thus This Controversie depending between us requires a Judge let Christ therefore judge and let the Apostle Paul judge with him because Christ speaks in his Apostle But most Memorable is that Passage of Optatus contr Parmen l. 5. where he thus presses the Donatist We are saith he to enquire out some to be Judges between us in these Controversies The Christians cannot because both sides cannot yield them and by part-taking the Truth will be hindred the Judge must be had from without our selves If a Pagan he knows not the Mysteries of Christianity if a Jew he is an Enemy to Baptisme therefore on Earth no judgment concerning this matter can be found The Judge must be had from Heaven But to what end should we knock at Heaven when here we have one in the Gospel Quotations might be Infinite but I Supersede Nor did the Antient Fathers onely think this themselves but by their frequent Translations of the Scripture and vehement Exhortations to the People to read them so translated they endeavoured to beget the same awful Respect to Gods Holy Word in the Minds of all Ulphilas a Bishop of the Goths turned the Scripture into that Barbarous Language as Socrates witnesses Methodius into the Sclavonian S. Chrysostom hom 1. in Johan makes mention of Syrian Aegyptian Indian Persian and Ethiopian Translations Theodoret de Curand Graec. Affect assures us the Bible was turned into all Languages used in the World Greek Latin Armenian Scythian Sarmatian c. And we have at this day divers Fragments of them remaining Venerable Bede shews the same of our own Country To speak plain I know no Topick the Fathers are more Copious upon than in calling upon the People to get Bibles to read them to examin what they hear by them and severely inveighing against the Negligence of such as did not According to the Apostles Advice even to the Laity Colos. 3. 16.
Ecclesiastical Affairs is founded upon and to consider how many Difficulties must be cleared to make it a probable Tale. 1. That S. Peter was Bishop of Rome 2. That he dyed at Rome by the special Command of Christ. 3. That he dyed Invested with such a Supremacy as is now Exercised in that Church 4. That his so dying there is sufficient without a new Revelation from God to make the Succession of the Bishop of Rome of Divine Authority We shall now take a View of that Grand Machine of the Pope's power over Temporal Princes and make it most evident that it is an Article and Doctrin of the Roman Church and being so that this alone were a sufficient Motive to forsake her Communion since She Teaches Justifies and strictly Commands even under the penalty of being accounted no Christians Treason and Rebellion The present Lord Bishop of Lincoln hath written a Learned and Satisfactory Treatise on this Subject and I find his Lordship very faithful in his Citations Wherefore I may be the more sparing However because I heartily desire that Honoured Pious and Loyal Persons may not unwarily ingage their Liberties Estates and Lives for the Maintainance of so Extravagant and Tyrannical a Power which hath in all Ages caused so many disinal Tragedies in the Christian World and is in it self Fatal and Destructive to all Civil Government I shall briefly treat of this Matter to undeceive others especially since I was herein miserably seduced my self till I had Maturely and Exactly Examined the whole Business I shall begin with General Councils whose Decrees if they will not admit I confess I as yet understand not what the Doctrin of the Roman Church is nor do I know where to find it The Third Council of Lateran c. 27. after it had Condemned and Excommunicated many Hereticks and you must know that All Protestants are both accounted so and as such are once every year solemnly accursed by His Holyness in Person on Maundy Thursday It Absolves All that had sworn Fidelity or Homage to them from those Oaths and we know who they are to whom Fidelity and Homage strictly speaking is due and they are required in Order to the Remission of their Sins to fight against them And those who dye doing Penance in that manner may undoubtedly expect Indulgence for their Sins with Eternal Rewards Then by the Authority of S. Peter and Paul the Council remits to all who shall rise and fight against them two years penance Here a General Council uses all its Industry to poyson people with Rebellious Doctrin and calls Treason Doing of Penance Not long after Pope Celestin Predecessor to Innocent the Third with more than Luciferian Arrogance sets the Crown on the Head of the Emperour Henry the 6th with his two feet and then kicks it off again And the fact is produced by no meaner a Person than Cardinal Baronius to shew that it is in the Pope's power to Give and Take away Empires But to as much purpose as He produced that Text Rise Peter Kill and Eat to incense Paul the 5th against the Venetians The second Evidence shall be the Fourth Great and as they call it Most General Council of Lateran wherein were assembled 1200 of one sort or other These C. 3. make a Decree That the Aid of Secular Princes should be required for the Rooting out of Hereticks i. e All that are not of the Roman Communion and that when the Temporal Lord required and admonished by the Church shall neglect to purge his Territory from Heretical Wickedness He shall be Excommunicated by the Metropolitan and his Suffragans And if he persist in neglecting to give satisfaction for the space of a year let him be signified to the Pope that he from thenceforth may pronounce his Subjects discharged from their Obedience and expose his Territory to be seized on by Catholicks who having exterminated the Hereticks shall possess it without Contradiction and preserve it in the Purity of the Faith So as no Injury be done to the Right of the Supreme Lord where there is such provided He do not any ways oppose himself And the Law is to take place in them who have no Superiour Lord. Which Last Clause perfectly comprehends Soveraign Princes and so anticipates that Reply which some make That the Decree was only made for Feudatory and Subordinate Princes And whereas some few deny it to be a General Council and that it made any Canons it is a most Impudent Cavil For both the Council and Canons have been and are Universally received by the Roman Church the Council as General and Approved so by Innocent the III. and the Canons as Authentick All their Writers concerning Councils put this down among the General ones â—â—â—â— commonly call it the Great General Council of Lateran and Joverius says he cannot see with what face a Man dare deny it They always put it among those Councils that are Approved by the Church for you must know that some are Reprobated some are partly Approbated and partly Reprobated Their Canon Law so esteems of it The Council of Constance puts it among those General Councils to the Observation whereof the Popes were to swear at their Installment The Council of Trent which I hope none will boggle at Sess 24. C. 5. in express terms calls it a General Council and Confirms one of its Canons To which I may add because it concerns us a Synod at Oxford where this Council was received for England And though some Princes that were deposed out of the Pope's meer Spite and Malice got some Advocates to write for them and Synods of Bishops to Protest against the Pope's Proceedings yet in the case of Pretended Heresie which neerly touches Protestant Princes not one Writer or Bishop appears in Vindication of the Temporal Power A shrewd Sign that this Deposing Heretical Magistrates is in General the Romish Doctrine The General Council of Lions is next It was summoned by Innocent the 4th against the Emperour Frederick the 2d Here the Pope having consulted with the Council Declares the Emperour deprived by God of his Dominions and thereupon they Actually Depose him and Absolve All from their Oaths of Fidelity to him strictly charging All persons to acknowledge him no more for Emperour and denouncing All that did otherwise Excommunicated Ipso facto So we have another whole General Council concurring with the Pope in asserting this Deposing Power and with Candles burning in their hands thundering out Sentence against the poor Emperour In the Council of Constance Sess. 19. we often meet with this Clause That All Breakers of their Privileges whether Emperours Kings or any other Degree were thereby Ipso facto subjected to the Banns Punishments and Censures in the Council of Lateran and Sess. 17. in the Pass they gave to the King of Arragon they decree That whatsoever Person either King Cardinal c. hinder him in his Journey he is Ipso sacto deprived of all Honour Dignity Office
Scheme of Apostolical Primitive Doctrine and Discipline You have here good works Recommended Preach'd and Practiced as the Fruits of Faith and Evidences of our Justification and though not as Expiatory for our Sins yet as in Obedience to the Divine commands and as a Sacrifice acceptable to God And even in this Degenerate Age of Christianity it might be made to appear that as many Acts and Monuments of Real Charity have been exhibited since the Reformation as were in many Ages before But for those Works of Suprerecogation as they are called whereby we are presumed to perform more than is our Duty this Church worthily disowns them as savouring of too much Pride and self Conceitedness in us who at the best are but unprofitable Servants You have here a just and Competent Authority allowed to the Church of appointing Decent Rites and Ceremonies and of determining Controversies in Religion provided she decide nothing Repugnant to the Holy Scripture And the Apostles themselves challenged no more Witness S. Paul Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ. You have here a Lawful Call to and Succession in the Ministerial Function and this Succession if need were may be shewn to be more Sincere and less Interrupted than that in the Roman Church As likewise those Three most Antient degrees of Bishops Priests and Deacons and the manner of their Ordination most conformable to God's Word and Primitive Constitutions and Practice You have here all the Divine Services and Administration of the Sacraments performed in the known Vulgar Tongue of the Country to the Edification of the People and according to Divine Precept On which Subject S. Paul hath written a whole Chapter 1 Cor. 14. no ways reconcilable to the Practice of the Roman Church which herein is confessed to disagree with Antiquity by the most Learned of our Adversaries and many of them wish that the Custome were abolished Nor doth their Common Plea avail that God understands any Language for many parts of their Service are addressed to the People and not to God as the Instructions out of the Epistles and Gospels Orate Fratres c. and many Occurrencies in the Administration of the Sacraments Here you will find the two great Sacraments of the New Law Baptism and the Sacred Eucharist The first never so much as questioned by our Adversaries as to its Validity And the other Administred in the due Matter and Form of Divine Institution and that intirely without committing that Grand Sacrilege of taking away the Cup from the Layity And if the Church of England Embrace all that is Really conveyed to us in those High Mysteries viz. The Application of those Ineffable Benefits and Advantages of the Sacred Body and Blood of Christ it is as much as every Good Christian can desire and enough if duly received to make him Happy And as for that Wonderful Doctrin of Transubstantiation we have the Romanists own Acknowledgment that it was not believed in that Church till the Councel of Lateran which likewise Decreed the Deposing of Kings and I am sure the Church of England hath Scripture Antiquity Reason and the concurring Testimony of all our Senses when she acknowledges a Real Presence to the True Believer without Annihilating the Substance of the Elements I am sure our Blessed Saviour at the Institution calls the whole Action a Commemoration and in the Consecration of the Cup he most apparently uses a double Figure both in the Cup used for what is in it and the Testament for what is conveyed by it He himself calls it the Fruit of the Vine And S. Paul 1 Cor. 11. 26. 27 28. in 3 verses together expresly calls it Bread even after the Consecration Whoever shall eat this Bread c. As often as ye eat this Bread c. Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of this Bread And whereas our Saviour saies This is my Body to omit the multitude of Authorities that might be produced let the great S. Augustin speak the sence of All Antiquity Christ did not stick to say This is my Body when he gave the Sign of his Body in Psalm 98. and de Doctrin Christian. l. 3 c. 10. he lays down this notable Rule If you find a Commandment that forbids a Crime or injoins any good Action then its sense is not Figurative but it is otherwise when it seems to command a Crime and prohibit a good Action Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you saies Christ. That word seems to command a Crime it is therefore a Figure which bids us Communicate in the passion of our Lord and call into our Memories with sweetness and benefit that his Flesh hath been wounded and nailed on the Cross for us Thus doth S. Augustin teach And indeed nothing is more frequent in Holy Writ than such manner of Speech This is the Lord 's Passover I am the true Vine c. But to examine this business fully would require a just Volume and it is already done by very able Pens The 5 other Sacraments in use in the Roman Church are solemnly used by the Church of England though not under that notion excepting the Ceremony of Anoynting which was a Miraculous guift of Healing peculiar to the Apostles In the Church of England you may injoy the true use and Advantage of Confession and Absolution in a far more serious and less suspicious manner than in the Roman Church And as for Absolution even the Form of it is as full and Compleat as theirs I will set it down here as it is found in the Service for the Visitation of the Sick Our Lord Jesus Christ who hath left power to his Church to Absolve all Sinners who truly Repent and Believe in him of his Great Mercy forgive thee thy offences And by his Authority committed to me I absolve thee from all thy Sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Her Churches are decently kept and adorned at least it is her desire they should be so though not crowded with Images the Historical use of which she rejects not but the Adoration of them she worthily esteems most Dangerous and Detestable And truly for my own part I think that Dr. Stillingfleet now the Reverend Dean of S. Pauls hath little less than Demonstrated it to be Idolatry Let any but impartially examin the general practice of the Church of Rome especially on Good-Friday in creeping to the Cross and he will find an undeniable proof of their Adoring Images The Priest by degrees uncovers the Crucifix lists it upto be Adored with these words Ecce Lignum Crucis c. Behold the Wood of the Cross come let us Adore it Then first he himself then all that are present with three Prostrations of the Body even to the Kissing of the very Earth approach to it and with all Reverence Imaginable Adore it The Worship and Invocation of
Church That a Council kept by the Roman Bishop and those only who are subject to him excluding others is but a particular Council That a General Council may be celebrated though the Pope refuse to concurr by his Presence and Consent That All that meet in Councils ought to have free Liberty orderly to declare and Determin Maters in question That whatever must oblige as Divine ought to be confirmed by the Authority of Holy Scripture That no Councils are Legitimate where private Respects are managed under pretext of Faith and Religion That the Roman Bishop hath not that power which many flatterers attribute to him viz. That he alone is to Determine and Others only to Consult and Advise That a General Council is Superiour to the rest of the Patriarchs and also to the Roman Bishop That a General Council may be deficient and that de facto Councils lawfully assembled have erred And since they have failed and have contradicted one another as appears in the Second Council of Nice and that of Constance among many others the one Decreeing the Worship of Images the other prohibiting Communion in both Kinds against the express words of Scripture the Councils of Lateran in Deposing Kings the Council of Frankfort opposite to that of Nice in the Business of Images the Council of Florence against those of Basil and Constance in the point of the Pope's Superiority over a Council It is certain that Councils are to be Regulated and Examined by God's Word and to be Received or Rejected as Conformable to or Disagreeing from that And for this we have the Authority of the Great S. Augustin contra Maxim Arian l. 3. c. 14. Nec ego Nicenum c. Neither ought I to produce the Nicen nor Thou the Ariminum Council as having already prejudged or absolutely Determined the Cause beyond all Appeal For I am not bound up by the Authority of this nor Thou by the Decree of that but let us regard the Authority of the Holy Scripture witnesses not partial or appropriated to either party but common to both A speech worthy the Gravity Learning and Piety of S. Augustin As for the Councils of the Later Centuries they neither have been General nor hath either their Assimbling or Proceeding been Lawful and they have most Industriously thwarted the Canons of the most Pure and Antient Councils Their Assembling hath not been Legal in that the Modern Popes have Usurped the whole Right and Authority of Convocating Councils contrary to the Primitive Custom and Practice of the Church The first Nicene Council was called by Constantine the Great the first Constantinopolitan which is the second General Council by Theodosius that of Ephesus by Theodosius Junior that of Chalcedon by Martianus the fifth by Justinian c. All which are such evident Proofs that the Cardinals Cusanus Jacobatius and Zabarella confess that in the first Ages of the Church the Right of Calling Councils belonged to the Emperour Nor are Their Proceedings any better For the Popes admit no Assessours or Judges in Councils but their own Faction Men beforehand enslaved by a Solemn Oath which all Bishops of that Communion take at their Consecration to maintain the Regalia Petri all the Usurpations of that See The Pope is the only Authentick Judge in All matters Approving and Refusing whatever He pleases Their own Histories afford us Examples enough to confirm this I shall instance but in the Sleights and Wiles of the Late so much cryed up Trent-Council Wherein to make sure work on the Pope's side there were more Italian Bishops than of all the World beside And most ridiculously to dazle the eyes of the People some of these subscribe themselves Eastern Patriarchs as of Jerusalem c. and Others as if they were Greek Prelates Some had the Titles of Archbishops who had neither Church nor Diocess as Upsalensis and Armachanus who were Created on purpose to fill up the Number And when the Pope on a certain Occasion wanted Voices to sway the cause He sent a fresh supply of 40 Bishops newly made And this was part of that Leigerdemain which an Eminent French Bishop Claud Espenc one of those vvho sat in the Council calls the Great Helena which of late Ruled All at Trent in Ep. ad Tit. c. 1. All the Oriental and Greek Patriarchs and Bishops were Excluded None out of England Scotland Ireland Danemark Swedland few out of France and Spain fewer out of Germany it self were admitted When the Protestants required Audience they could not be hearken'd to upon any tolerable terms It was long before they could get a Safe-Conduct and when it was procured it was clogg'd with this Clause That it should belong to none but such as would Repent and Return to the Bosom of the Roman Church This Partiality and Jugling when the Princes of Europe saw they sent their Protestations against the Council as being Insufficient to Resorm Religion In Trying and Deciding Controversies they adhered more to Tradition than Scripture and pass'd nothing till the Pope with his Consistory had seen it at home and approved it and then he transmitted it to his Legats So that as One said the Holy Ghost was continually posted in Cloakbags between Rome and Trent Though by the way their own Doctors teach that the Assistance of the Holy Ghost is a personal Privilege and cannot be Delegated While the Divines were formally Disputing at Trent the Pope was as busie in Ingrossing Canons at Rome and sending them to the Council to be published Thus they proceeded sometimes by a wrong Rule sometimes by none at all In the 4th Session they Decree That none should give any other Exposition of Scripture than such as might agree with the Doctrine of the Church of Rome And yet this very Doctrine was the Thing questioned and the Scriptures were to have been the Touchstone to try it by Take this whole Affair in the Words of Andraeas Dudithius a Bishop in the Roman Church and an Eminent Member of this Council He thus writes in an Epistle to the Emperour Maximilian the 2d what good could be done in that Council where voices were taken by Number and not by Weight The Pope was able to set an 100 of his against every one of ours and if an 100 were not sufficient he could on a sudden have created a thousand to succour those that were ready to faint We might every day see hungry and needy Bishops and those for the most part Beardless Youngsters come in Flocks to Trent hired to give their Voice according to the Pope's humour unlearned indeed and foolish but of good Use to him for their Audaciousness and Impudency The Holy Ghost had nothing to do with that Conventicle All things were carried by Humane Policy which was wholly employed in Maintaining the Immoderate and indeed most Shameless Lordship and Domineering of the Pope From thence were Answers waited for as from the Oracles of Delphos or Dodona From thence the Holy Ghost who as