than a bare permission could not think of a better way to make them sensible of their Error and such an Error as was their Sin too than by shewing them the great and important difference betwixt an Old and a Primitive Custom and that however their breach of Wedlock had been without check from the daies of yore yet 't was for This to be reform'd that 't was not so from the Beginning In a most dutifull conformity to which example our Reformers here in England of happy memory having discâ—ver'd in every part of the Church of Rome not onely horrible Corruptions in point of Practice but hideous Errors in point of Dâ—ctrine and that in matters of Faith too 〈…〉 find an occasion to shew anon and haâ—ving found by what degrees the several Errors and Corruptions were slily brought into the Church as well as the several times and seasons wherein the Novelties received their birth and breeding and presently after taking notice that in the Council of Trent the Roman Partisans were not afraid to make New Articles of Faith whilst the Sacrifice of the Mass the Doctrine of Purgatory the Invocation of Saints the Worship of Images and the like were commanded to be embraced under pain of damnation as it were in contempt of the Apostles denuâ—tiation Gal. 1. 8. by which that practice of those Conspirators made them liable to a curse and farther yet that in the Canon of the Fourth Session of that Council the Roman Church was made to differ as well from her ancient and purer self as from all other Churches besides her self in that there were many meerly human I do not say profane Writings and many unwritten Traditions also not only decreed to be of equal Authority with the Scriptures but with the addition of an Anathema to all that should not so receive them This I say being consider'd and laid to heart by our Reformers by our Kings and our Clergy and Laiety too met together in their greatest both Ecclesiastical and Civil Councils they did not consult with flesh and bloud or expect the Court of Rome should become their Physician which was indeed their great Disease but having recourse unto the Scriptures and Primitive Fathers of the Church they consulted those Oracles how things stood from the Beginning and only separating from Them whom they found to have been Separatists from the primitive Church they Therefore made a Secession that they might not partake of the Roman Schism And whilst they made a Secession for fear of Schism which by no other practice could be avoided they studiously kept to the Golden mean neither destroying the Body out of hatred to the Ulcers with which 't was spread nor yet retaining any Ulcer in a passionate dotage upon the Body One remarkable Infirmity it is obvious to observe in the Popish Writers they ever complain we have left their Church but never shew us that Iöta as to which we have left the Word of God or the Apostles or the yet-uncorrupted and primitive Church or the Four first General Councils We are so zealous for Antiquity provided it be but Antique Enough that we never have despised a meer Tradition which we could track by sure footsteps from as far as the times of the purest Christians But this is still their childish fallacy be it spoken to the shame of their greatest Giants in Dispute who still vouchsafe to be guilty of it that they confidently shut up the Church in Rome as their Seniors the Donatists once did in Africk and please to call it the Catholick Church not formally but causally saith Cardinal Peron because forsooth That Particular doth infuse universality into all other Churches besides it self The learned Cardinal forgetting which is often the effect of his very good memory that the preaching of Christ was to begin at Ierusalem So it was in the Prophesie Isa. 2. 3. Mic. 4. 2. and so in the completion Luke 24. 47. Nor was it Rome but Antioch in which the Disciples were first call'd Christians Acts 11. 26. At Antioch therefore there was a Church before St Peter went thence to Rome Nay 't is expresly affirm'd by Gildas an Author very much revered by the Romanists themselves that Christianity was in Britain in the latter time of Tiberius Caesar some while after whose death 't is known that St Peter remain'd in Iewry So that Rome which pretends to be a Mother can be no more at the best then a Sister-Church and not the eldest Sister neither Neglecting therefore the pretended Universality of the Roman that is to say of a Particular Church let us compare her Innovations with what we find from the Beginning For This I take to be the fittest and the most profitable Vse that we can make of the subject we have in hand And first consider we the Supremacy or Universal Pastorship of her Popes which is indeed a very old and somewhat a prosperous Usurpation an Usurpation which took its rise from more than a thousand years ago But then besides that it was sold by the Emperour Phocas at once an Heretick and a Regicide the Devillish Murderer of Mauritius who was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Royal Image or Type of our late Royal Martyr of Sacred Memory I say besides that it was sold by the most execrable Phocas that is to say by the greatest Villain in the world excepting Cromwell and Pontius Pilate and besides that it was sold to ambitious Boniface the Third whose vile compliance with that Phocas was the bribe or price with which he bought it and besides that it was don not out of reverence to the Pope but in displeasure to Cyriacus of Constantinople who from Iohn his Predecessor usurpt the Title of Vniversal before any Pope had pretended to it I say besides or without all this it is sufficient for us to say what our Saviour here said to the ancient Pharisees That from the beginning it was not so For looking back to the Beginning We find The Wall of God's City had Twelve Foundations and in them were the names of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb. Rev. 21. 14. Paul was equal at least to Peter when he withstood him to the face and rebuked him in publick for his Dissimulation Gal. 2. 11 12 13 14. Nay St Peter himself as well as Iames and Iohn who were his Peers although he seemed to be a Pillar yet perceiving the Grace that was given to Paul gave to Barnabas and Paul the right hand of Fellowship Gal. 2. 9. And reason good For St Peter was but One of the many Apostles of the Iewes whereas St Paul was much more the great Apostle of the Gentiles to whom the Iewes were no more than as a River to an Ocean Saint Peter was commanded not to fleece but to feed the flock Noâ— was it ever once known that he did lord it over Gods heritage which himself had so strictly forbid to
of Eucharist to have been necessary to Infants as well as to men of the ripest Age and yet as Maldonate confesseth at the very same time it was so plain and so grosse an Error that notwithstanding St Austin did endeavour to confute the Pelagians by it as by a Doctrin of Faith and of the whole Church of God yet the Council of Trent was of a contrary mind and did accordingly in a Canon declare against it 3. Pass we on to the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which if its Age may be measur'd by the very first date of its Definition may be allow'd to be as old as the Lateran Council a Council held under Pope Innocent the Third since whom are somewhat more then 400 years But from the beginning it was not so For besides that our Saviour just as soon as he had said This is my Blood explain'd himself in the same Breath by calling it expresly the fruit of the Vine and such as He would drink new in the kingdom of God Mat. 26. 29. Mark 14. 15. there needs no more to make the Romanists even asham'd of that Doctrine than the Concession of Aquinas and Bellarmine's Inference thereupon Aquinas so argues as to imply it is Impossible and imports a Contradiction for one body to be locally in more places than one and in all at once But Bellarmine at this is so very angry that in a kind of Revenge upon Aquinas though held to be the Angelical Doctor he needs will infer 't is as Impossible and equally implies a Contradiction for any one body at once to be so much as Sacramentally in more Places than one And therefore it cannot now be wonder'd concerning Transubstantiation if so long ago as in the time of Pope Nicolas the Second either the Novelty was not forg'd and hammer'd out into the shape in which we find it or not at all understood by the Pope Himself For one of the two is very clear by the famous Submission of Berengarius wherewith he satisfied the Synod then held at Rome and in which were 113 Bishops though not at all unto a Trans but rather a Consubstantiation Which divers Romanists themselves have not been able not to Censure though it was pen'd by a Cardinal and approved of by a Council and very glibly swallow'd down by the Pope himself 4. 'T is very true that their withholding the Cup of blessing in the Lord's Supper from the secular part of their Communicants hath been in practice little lesse then 400 years But from the beginning it was not so For in our Saviour's Institution we find it intended for every Guest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word Drink ye All of this Cup. Mat. 26. 27. And S. Paul to the Corinthians consisting most of Lay-men speaks as well of their drinking the mystical Blood as of their eating the Body of Christ. 1 Cor. 11. 26 27 28 29. Nay 't is confest by learned Vasquez as well as by Cassander and Aquinas Himself to be a Truth undeniable That the giving of both Elements in the Roman Church it self untill the time of Aquinas did still continue to be in use 5. The Church of Rome for several Ages hath restrain'd the holy Scriptures from the perusal of the People But from the beginning it was not so For Hebrew to the Iews was the Mother-Tongue and in That 't was read weekly before the People It pleased God the New Testament should be first written in Greek because a Tongue the most known to the Eastern world And to the end that this Candle might not be hid under a Bushel it was translated by St Ierome into the Dalmatick Tongue by Bishop Vulphilas into the Gothick by St Chrysostom into Armenian by Athelstan into Saxon by Methodius into Sclavonian by Iacobus de Voragine into Italian by Bede and Wiclef into English And not to speak of the Syriack Aethiopick Arabick Persian and Chaldee Versions which were all for the use of the common people of those Countries the Vulgar Latine was then the Vulgar Language of the Italians when the Old and New Testament were turn'd into it 6. The publick prayers of the Romanists have been a very long time in an unknown Tongue I mean unknown to the common people even as long as from the times of Pope Gregory the Great But from the beginning it was not so For 't is a scandalously opposite to the plain sense of Scripture as if it were done in a meer despight to the 14th Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians especially from the 13 to the 17. vers Not to speak of what is said by the Primitive Writers Aquinas and Lyra do both confess upon the place that the common Service of the Church in the Primitive times was in the common language too And as the Christians of Dalmatia Habassia Armenia Muscovia Sclavonia Russia and all the Reformed parts of Christendom have the Service of God in their vulgar Tongues so hath it been in divers Places by Approbation first had from the Pope himself 7. Another instance may be given in their Prohibiting of Marriage to men in Orders which is deriv'd by some from the third Century after Christ by others from the eighth and in the rigour that now it is from Pope Gregory the Seventh But from the beginning it was not so For Priests were permitted to have wives both in the Old and New Testament as Maximilian the Second did rightly urge against the Pope And the blessed Apostles many of them were married men for so I gather from Eusebius out of Clemens Alexandrinus and from the Letter of Maximilian who did not want the Advice of the learnedst persons in all his Empire and from 1 Cor. 9. 5. where St Paul asserts his liberty to carry a Wife along with him as well as Cephas And 't is the Doctrine of that Apostle that a Bishop may be an Husband although he may not be the Husband of more then One Wife 1 Tim. 3. 2. Tit. 1. 6. Besides the Marriage of the Clergy was asserted by Paphnutius in the Council at Nice and even by one of those Canons which the Romanists themselves do still avow for Apostolical And the forbidding men to marry with Saturninus and the Gnosticks is worthily call'd by God's Apostle The Doctrine of Devils 1 Tim. 4. 1. 3. 8. I shall conclude with that Instance to which our Saviour in my Text does more peculiarly allude I mean the Liberty of Divorce betwixt Man and Wife for many more Causes than the Cause of Fornication For so I find it is decreed by the Church of Rome with an Anathema to all that shall contradict it But from the Beginning it was not so For 't is as opposite to the will of our Blessed Saviour revealed to us without a Parable
General Because for want of a better Refuge when they are press't with many things which cannot be justifi'd or deny'd They have evermore recourse to This one Catholick evasion That they are but the sentiments of private Doctors whose ill opinions or mistakes are not chargable on the Church Now though we cannot but beleive their Private Doctors as they call them when they are men of great Learning and greater Zeal to That Cause and only speak as Narrators touching matters of Fact and such as of which they might be silent with more advantage unto themselves Yet I hope 't will not be said That the present superiours living and speaking to whom Mr. Cressy ascribes the power of Concluding all Controversies are no better than private Doctors much lesse will they say it of their General Councils unto which they do acknowledge the last reeourse is to be had And here if any man shall ask what may be probably the Reason why when the Tenet of Infallibility is so far a Doctrine of their Church as it is taught and maintain'd by their Present visible Governours or their present Superiours living and speaking unto whom is ascribed the power aforesaid It hath not yet been thought fitt to be credited by the Decree of a General Council nor indeed of any Council that I am able to alledge I know not what Reason to render of it unlesse I may say that they distinguish between their Doctrines and their Opinions or between Things pretended and Things Beleived by their Superiours As if the Governours Themselves whom they make Tantamount to a General Council were not able to beleive the Infallibility they pretend to But only thought fitt that The People should If any other man Can give any better reason I do earnestly desire that what I have given may go for None § 19. And as on the one side Their stedfast Belief That Shee cannot err is enough to confirm them in all their Errors So to convince them on the other side of that one Error will make them ready both to see and renounce the Rest. That it may seem to be a vain or a needless Thing for any man to be lavish of Time or Labour in a particular Ventilation of other controverted Points whilst This of Infallibility remain's untouch't or undecided For if we shew them the Absurdities of Bread and Wine being transmuted into the Body and Blood of Christ or of being so transmuted into Human Flesh and Blood as to retain both the Colour Touch and Tast and all other Adjuncts of Bread and Wine or of its so beginning now to be in the Act of Consecration the numerical Body of a crucified Iesus as to have been the very same under Pontius Pilate as well as in the Virgins Womb or of its beginning to be as often and of as many several Ages as the Priests as their Altars shall please to make it or of its being the same Body whether eaten by a Christian or by a Dog They will defend themselves with This That though 't is Absurd and Impossible yet it is necessarily True because 't is taught by that Church which cannot deceive or be deceiv'd Whereas if once we can convince them that she is able to be deceiv'd who had taught them to believe she is undeceivable and that in matters of greatest moment They cannot chuse but disapprove and forsake her too as the greatest Deceiver in all the world § 20. That Shee is Able to be deceiv'd cannot better be evinced than by the Evidence that Shee Is. And t is evident that Shee Is by her own Confession For shee is no where more seen than in her General Councils whereof when any one does condemn what Shee asserts as no Error or when one does contradict and accuse another of which I have given sufficient Instance she does confess her self Fallible by so declaring She has been False And accordingly Mr. Cressy could not righteously be blam'd by the Roman Partizans for having confessed as he did in his Exhomologesis That this Infallibility is an unfortunate word That he could wish it were forgotten or at least laid aside That Mr. Chillingworth fought against it with too great successe That it is not to be met with in any Council And That the Authority of the Church meaning the Church undepraved was never inlarged by Herself to so great a wideness And as They cannot blame him much less can I for confessing a Disadvantage he could not conveniently deny That which I blame him for is This and for This he can never be blam'd enough That having confessed Infallibility to be one of God's peculiar Incommunicable Attributes and by consequence that the Church which he calls the Roman Catholick can no more be Infallible than Omniscient He has yet been so transported with Partiality to a Church he has resolved to assert whether right or wrong as to communicate That to Her which he confesseth Incommunicable and to affirm that That is Necessary which he confesseth to be Impossible and so to espouse in a Fit of Kindness what in a Fit of Discretion He cannot Own § 2. Having thus cloy'd my Reader with but a Tast of Mr. Cressy I persevere in my purpose not to spend or loose time upon all the Rest partly for the Reason alâ—eady mention'd beeause 't would be as well a thanklesse as needlesse office Partly becasue t is undertaken without my Care or procurement by other men Nor only undertaken But elaborately don too not only by Mr. Whitby and by Him very sufficiently But by a Person of greater Eminence after whom to sett about it would at least be superfluous if not Immodest Partly because I am still disswaded both by the Virulence of mine Enemies and by the Kindnesse of my Friends as well as by many my more peculiar and lessedispensable Employments Lastly because by a little Pattern of any strong or slight Stuff 'T is both the cheapest and easiest way whereby to Judge of the whole Piece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR THE LIFELESNES of LIFE On the hether side of IMMORTALITY With a Timely Caveat against PROCRASTINATION Briefly expressed and applyed in a SERMON Preached at the Funeral of EDWARD PEYTO of Chesterton in Warwick-shire Esq 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sophocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To my ever Honoured Friend M rs Elizabeth Peyto of Chesterton MADAM TO speak my sense of your many Favours with my reverent esteem of your Approbation and how inclinable I have been to yield obedience to your Commands the greatest expression that I can make hath been hetherto the least that I think is due And now I am sorry I can prove by no better Argument at the present how great a deference and submission I think is due to your Judgment than by my having preferr'd it before mine own in permitting that
said to be writ by Zoroastres any Relique of Carved worke from inâ—pir'd Bezalâ—el or any remnant of Embroidery from the Theopneust Aâ—oliab would at least for the honor of being reckon'd to be the first be also reckon'd to be the best of any Antiquarie's Keimelia And as it is in the Things of Art so is it also in those of Nature How do the Gentlemen of Venice delight themselves in their Antiquity and yet they travel for their Original no farther back then the siege of Troy Whereas the Arcadians derive their Pedigree even from Iupiter and Calisto and will needs have their Nation exceed the Moon in Seniority Nay though Aegypt in the Judgment of Diodorus the Siâ—eleote hath better pretensions than any other yet the Barbarians as well as Greeks have still affected a Primogeniture Nay so far has this Ambition transported soâ—e that they will needs have been begun from before the Protoplast as it were itching to be as old as the Iulian period 764 years before the beginning of the World Thus Antiquity hath been courted in Art and Nature If in the third place we come to Politie we shall find Customs gaining Reverence from the sole merit of their Duration And as a Custom by meer Continuance does wear it self into a Law so the more aged a Law is grown the lesse 't is liable to a Repeal by how much the more it is stricken in years by so much the less it is decrepit And that for this reason because the longer it endures the more it inclines to its perfection that is to say its immortality Last of all for Religion the Case is clear out of Tertullian Id verius quod prius id prius quod ab initio That Religion was the truest which was the first and that the first which was from the beginning And as He against Marcion so Iustin Martyr against the Grecians did prove the Divinity of the Pentateuch from the Antiquity of its writer The Iewes enjoy'd the first Lawgiver by the Confession of the Gentiles Moses preached the God of Abraham whilst Thales Milesius was yet unborn Nor was it a thing to be imagin'd that God should suffer the Devil to have a Chappâ—l in the world before himself had any Church And thence Vincentius Lirinensis to prove the Truth of any Doctrine or the Legality of a Practice does argue the Case from a Threefold Topick The Universality the Consent and the Antiquity of a Tradiâ—ion Which Rule if we apply unto the scope of this Text as it stands in relation unto the Context we shall have more to say for it than for most Constitutions divine or human For That of Marriage is almost as old as Nature There was no sooner one man but God divided him into two And then no sooner were there two but he united them into one This is That sacred Institution which was made with Mankind in a state of Innocence the very Ground and Foundation of all both sacred and civil Government It was by sending back the Pharisees to the most venerable Antiquiâ—y that our Lord here asserted the Law of wedlock against the old Custom of their Divorce Whilst they had made themselves drunk with their muddy streams He directed them to the Fountain to drink themselves into sobriety They insisted altogether on the Mosaical Dispensation But He endeavour'd to reform them by the most Primitive Institution They alledged a Custom but He a Law They a Permission and that from Moses But He a Precept and that from God They did reckon from afarr off But not as He from the Beginning In that one Question of the Pharisees Why did Moses command us to give her a writing of Divorce and to put her away they put a Fallacy upon Christ call'd Plurium Interrogationum For Moses onely Permitted them to put her away but Commanded them if they did to give her a writing of Divorce And accordingly their Fallacy is detected by Christ in his Answer to them Moses did not command but meerly suffer'd you in your Custom of making unjustifiable Divorcements 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he permitted that is to say he did not punish it not allowing it as good but winking at it as the lesser of two great evils He suffer'd it to be safe in foro Soli could not secure you from the Guilt for which ye must answer in foro Poli And why did he suffer what he could not Approve Not for the softnesse of your heads which made you ignorant of your Duties but for the hardnesse of your hearts which made you resolute not to do them ye were so barbarous and brutish upon every slight Cause or Occasion rather that if ye might not put her away ye would use her worse Ye would many times beat and sometimes murder sometimes bury her alive by bringing another into her â—ed So that the Liberty of Divorce however a poyson in it self was through the hardness of your hearts permitted to you for an Antidote But from the beginning it was not so And ye must put a wide difference betwixt an Indulgence of Man and a Law of God To state the controversie aright ye must compare the first Precept with your customary Practice not reckoning as far as from Moses onely but as far as from Adam too ye must not onely look forwards from the year of the Creation 2400. but also backwards from thence unto the year of the Creation The way to understand the Husband's Duty towards the Wife and so to Reform as not to Innovate is to consider the words of God when he made the Wife out of the Husband For He that made them at the beginning made them Male and Female and said For this cause shall a man leave Father and Mother and shall cleave unto his Wife and they twain shall be one Flesh. What therefore God hath joyn'd together let not man put asunder The Antecedent command was from God the Father the command in the sequel from God the Son And though the Practice of the Iewes had been contrariant to them both by a Prescription almost as old as two thousand years yet as old as it was 't was but an overgrown Innovation For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the beginning it was not so Thus our Saviour being sent to Reform the Iewes made known the Rule of his Reformation And the Lesson which it affords us is in my poor judgment of great Importance For when the Doctrine or Discipline of our Church establisht here in England shall be attempted by the Corruptions of Modern Pharisees who shall assert against Us as these here did against our Saviour either their forreign Superstitions to say no worse or their domestick Profanations to say no more we cannot better deal with Them than as our Saviour here dealt with the ancient Pharisees that is we cannot better put them to shame and silence than by demonstrating the Novelty and base
in the next verse after my Text as if they meant nothing more than the opening of a way to rebel against him For besides that in the Canon of the Council at Trent a Divorce quoad Torum Torum ob multas Causas was decreed to be just in the Church of Rome although our Lord had twice confin'd it to the Sole Cause of Fornication Matth. 5. 32 19. 9. And besides that the word Totum was constantly reteined in four Editions particularly in That which had the Care and Command of Pope Paul the Fifth Let it be granted that the Council did mean no more than a meer Sequestration from Bed and Board to endure for a certain or uncertain time and not an absolute Dissolution of the Conjugal Knot yet in the Judgment of Chemnitius yea and of Maldonat Himself who was as learned a Iesuite as that Society ever had it would be opposite even so to the Law of Christ. For he who putteth away his Wife for any Cause whatsoever besides the Cause of Fornication commits Adultery saith the Iesuit even for this very reason because he makes Her commit it whom he unduly putteth away Nay Chemnitius saith farther That the Papal Separation from Bed and Board is many wayes a Dissolution of the Conjugal Tye. Nor does he content himself to say or affirm it only but by a Confluence of Scriptures does make it good That against the Command of our blessed Saviour in the verse but one before my Text That which God hath joyn'd together the men of Rome do put asunder By these and many more Corruptions in point of Practice and Doctrine too which were no more then Deviations from what had been from the Beginning and which the learnedest Sons of the Church of Rome have been forced to confess in their publick writings the awakened part of the Christian world were compell'd to look out for a Reformation That there was in the See of Rome the most abominable Practice to be imagin'd we have the liberal Confession of zealous Stapleton himself and of those that have publisht their Penitentials We have the published Complaints of Armachanus and Grostead and Nicolas de Clemangis Iohn of Hus and Ierome of Prague Chancellor Gerson and Erasmus and the Archbishop of Spalato Ludovicus Vives and Cassander who are known to have died in the same Communion did yet impartially complain of some Corruptions Vives of their Feasts at the Oratories of Martyrs as being too much of kin unto the Gentiles Parentalia which in the judgment of Tertullian made up a species of Idolatry And Caâ—ander confesses plainly that the Peoples Adoration paid to Images and Statues was equal to the worst of the ancient Heathen So the buying and selling of Papal Indulgences and Pardons 't is a little thing to say oâ— Preferments too was both confest and inveigh'd against by Popish Bishops in Thuanus Now if with all their Corruptions in point of Practice which alone cannot justifie a People's Separation from any Church though the Cathari and the Donatists were heretofore of that opinion we compare their Corruptions of Doctrine too and that in matter of Faith as hath been shew'd Corruptions intrenching on Fundamentals it will appear that That door which was open'd by Us in our first Reformers was not at all to introduce but to let out Schism For the schism must needs be Theirs who give the Cause of the Separation not Theirs who do but separate when Cause is given Else S. Paul had been to blame in that he said to his Corinthians Come ye out from among them and be ye separate 2 Cor. 6. 17. The actual Departure indeed was Ours but Theirs the causal as our immortal Arch-Bishop does fitly word it we left them indeed when they thrust us out as they cannot but go whom the Devil drives But in propriety of speech we left their Errors rather then Them Or if a Secession was made from Them 't was in the very same measure that They had made one from Christ. Whereas They by their Hostilities and their Excommunications departed properly from vs not from any Errors detected in us And the wo is to Them by whom the offence cometh Matth. 18. 7. not to Them to whom 't is given If when England was in a Flame by Fire sent out of Italy we did not abstein from the quenching of it until water might be drawn from the River Tiber it was because our own Ocean could not only do it sooner but better too That is to say without a Figure It did appear by the Concession of the most learned Popish VVriters that particular Nations had still a power to purge themselves from their corruptions as well in the Church as in the State without leave had from the See of Rome and that 't was commonly put in practice above a thousand years since It did appeare that the Kings of England at least as much as those of Sicily were ever held to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that by the Romanists themselves until by gaining from Henry the First the Investiture of Bishops from Henry the Second an Exemption of the Clergy from Secular Courts and from easie King Iohn an unworthy Submission to forreign Power the Popes became strong enough to call their strength the Law of Iustice. And yet their Incroachments were still oppos'd by the most pious and the most learned in every Age. Concerning which it were easie to give a satisfactory account if it were comely for a Sermon to exceed the limits of an hour In a word it did appear from the Code and Novels of Iustinian from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set out by the Emperour Zeno from the practice of Charles the Great which may be judged by the Capitulars sent abroad in his Name from the designs and Indeavours of two late Emperors Ferdinand the First and Maximilian the Second from all the commended Kings of Iudah from the most pious Christian Emperours as far as from Constantine the Great and from many Kings of England in Popish times too that the work of Reformation belong'd especially to Them in their several Kingdoms And this is certain that neither Prescription on the Pope's side nor Discontinuance on the King 's could adde a Right unto the one or any way lessen it in the other For it implies a contradiction that what is wrong should grow right by being prosperous for a longer or shorter season Had the Pope been contented with his Primacy of Order and not ambitiously affected a Supremacy of Power and over all other Churches besides his own we never had cast off a Yoke which had never been put upon our Necks And so 't is plain that the Usurper did make the Schism If Sacrilege any where or Rebellion did help reform Superstition That was the Fault of the Reformers not at all of the Reformation nor of All Reformers neither For the most
〈◊〉 than an implicit explication of an Affirmative by a Negative The immutable God can preserve mutable creatures from actual mutation ibid. thereby implying that the Immutable cannot communicate his incommunicable Attribute of Immutability to any creature even because he cannot possibly perfect a creature into Himself But from actual mutation he can preserve any Creature as well an Ignorant single man as a whole Church Catholick Thus by endeavouring to uphold Mr. Cressy does throughly Destroy his Doctrine All he saith coming to this That however God only is Undeceivable yet he is able to preserve his deceivable creatures from being actually deceiv'd Sed quid hoc ad Iphicli Boves The Question is not Whether God can preserve a Chruch from being actually in error for so he can and often does particular Members of his Church But whether de facto he hath granted an Inerrability or an Impossibility of erring unto that which they call the Roman Catholick Church Not whether the Church is actually false in her opinions but whether or no she is Infallible or exempted by God from the passive power of giving false Judgment in points of Faith Will Mr. Cressy so confound an Adjective in Bilis with a Participle derived from the passive preterperfest Tense as either to argue à non actu ad non potentiam or else to pass over from the one unto the other Will he argue that Adam before his fall was Impeccable because he yet was preserved from actual sin or that the Church was Infallible in the Apostles own Times because she was not erroneous until she was He cannot sure be so destitute either of Logick or Grammer skill I think it rather his skill to dissemble both as finding no other way to dispute a whole Chapter for such a Doctrin unless he either beg's or forsakes the Question § 11. But now to give him more Advantage than he is mindful to give himself when he allows so great a privilege to the present Governours of the Church in every Age whom he will have to be the living and speaking Iudges to whom without contradiction all particular Churches as well as persons must meekly yield up their Assent Let us allow it to be his meaning not that These are undeceivable but that God doth still preserve them from being actually deceiv'd Was not Pope Hildebrand himself the supream speaking Iudge when yet the Council at Wormes did set him out as a Brand of Hell Was not Iohn the 23. the supream speaking Iudge of Mr. Cressy's then present visible Church when yet he openly deny'd the Immortality of the soul and for That with other crimes was condemn'd by the Council then held at Constance Were not Iohn the 22. and Anastasius the 2. the supream speaking Iudges in their several Times who yet were both stigmatiz'd for the Crime of Heresie Let Mr. Cressy now speak like an honest man Were such superiours as these then living and speaking to conclude all controversies to Interpret Scripture and the Fathers to put to silence all particular Churches to subdue mens minds to an Assent and this under the penalty of their being cut off from the body of Christ Let him read his own dictates p. 97. It will but little mend the matter to say the Pope is but One and that He spake of All Superiours Because besides that they may All have their Byasses and Errors as well as He in case they are All consulted with as they never are 'T is very evident that the Pope like the Sun among the Stars is more than All in all Cases The greatest part of those Councils which they are pleas'd to call General have been indeed little better than the meer Properties of their Popes which that I may not seem to say as one that loves to speak sharply but rather as compell'd by their own Accompts of them I shall here give an Instance in One or Two § 12. In the last Lateran Council under Julius the 2. and Leo the 10. The Holy Scriptures at the first Session are humbly laid down at his Holiness's feet And an Oath being administred are formally toucht by the Officials The Pope in that Session is call'd The Prince of all the world and in the next The Priest and the King to be adored by all the People as being most like to God Himself Accordingly in the 3 d The Kingdom of France by Pope Iulius is subjected to an Interdict and the Mart held at Lyons transferr'd to Geneva The Pragmatick Sanction is rescinded in the fourth for the improving of the Trade of Ecclesiastical Hucksters the buying and selling of Church-Preferments The Pope is asserted as God's Lieutenant upon Earth though not of equal merits A very signal Condescension and to be kept in everlasting Remembrance God is meekly acknowledg'd to be superiour to the Pope In the fifth Session Iulius die's another great Condescension And Leo his Successor is saluted as no less than the Lion of the Tribe of Iudah the Root of David the Saviour and Deliverer that was to come A pretty clintch but a blasphemous complement and unworthy a Bishop's mouth In the eighth and ninth Sessions This Lion Roar's first against them that shall violate his Decrees in the present Council to whom he threatens such a Sentence of Excommunication as none but Himself could absolve them from Next against the Emperour Kings and Princes whom he chargeth not to hinder such as were coming to the Council under the penalty of incurring God's Displeasure and his own In the last of those two Sessions Antonius Puccius tells Leo how his Eyes are darkned by the rutilant Brightness of his Divine Majesty in him alone as the Vicar of God and of Christ That saying of the Prophet ought again to have its completion All the Kings of the Earth shall come and Worship All the Nations under Heaven shall do him Service In a word throughout the whole Council nothing is carried by the counsel or consultation of Assessors for Assistants I cannot call them nothing by suffrages or votes from them that make it wear the name of a General Council But the supreme present Iudge to use the phrase of Mr. Cressy as an Infallible Dictator ordained All This is constantly the Preface to each Decree in That Council Leo Episcopus servus servorum Dei ad perpetuam rei memoriam approbante Concilio c. § 13. So again in their last and best beloved General Council All the Fathers do but prepare convenient matter for Decrees whereunto the Popes Fiat does give the life Their two and twenty years contrivances do end at last in a meek Petition That his Holiness will vouchsafe to confirm what they had done that is to inform the lifeless matters they had prepared which could not have the nature and force of Articles or Decrees until the Pope had breathed on them the Breath of Life So a little before That The General Council
Token shall they know either that the Councils are truly General and Genuine or at least that being such they are Infallible Of Bellarmine's 18 General Councils which are his first and best species he proves the Approvedness and validity by the Pope's praesiding in or approving of them His General proof is but this They are approved of by the Pope and receiv'd by Papists And what is this but to beg the Question The first 8 Councils he proves to be such by the Decree of the Pope The Nine that follow he proves to be approved Because the Pope praesided in them And the last was confirm'd by Pius Quartus So that a Council's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived from the Pope and depend's upon his Pleasure But now of those 18. there is a very great difference For the first four only were received and rever'd by Gregory the Great as were the four Gospels of Iesus Christ. Which Reverence would have been due to the other fourteen had they been of as great Authority as they needs must have been had all been aequally Infallible in their opinion who own them All. And yet the later Councils had been more valid than the former if 't is not lawful to call a Council without the Authority of the Pope as Marcellus his Decretal affirm's it is not Secondly for the Number of their approved General Councils I see not how it can be agreed For besides that the Greeks receive no more than the first seven The Lutherans but six The Eutychians in Africa no more than three The Nestorians in the East no more than two and the Polonian Trinitarians no more than one which Difference is acknowledged by Bellarmine Himself I say besides This I wonder when Bellarmine will be ever agreed with Pope Paul the fift The former rejecting the Council at Constance from the number of the Approved which yet the Later does admit of with equal Reverence It was reprobated indeed by a worse than it self to wit the Council at Florence next following after but 't was only for decreeing that a Council was above the Pope for which it ought to have been approv'd And abating those things which consist not with the Haughtiness but the just Dignity of the Popes It is as generally received as any other Yet we need no better Argument to prove such a Council above a Pope and the gross fallibility of both together than an Historical Accompt of That one Council as we find it set down by Pope Paul the fift The Third at Constantinople which is commonly reckoned the sixth General Council was by the 14 th at Toledo Can. 7. esteem'd the Fift Implying the former under Vigilius not to have been one of the General Councils which yet with other Councils does pass for such without Question And so much for the Number of general Councils as well as for the Nature of them § 17. Last of all let Mr. Cressy be allow'd to mean at the most Advantage That his General Councils are said to be Infallible not because they cannot but do not err for so he most improperly but yet most kindly helps out himself chap. 9. pag. 98. But does he not think it was an Error in the first Council of Nice as in the third of Constantinople to assent to Paphnutius his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and patronizing the Marriage of Priests as both Socrates and Sozomen and the Roman Decree do alike affirm At least the Council of Eliberis which was contemporary with That Mr. Cressy will say was in an Error for declaring it unlawful to paint in the windows or walls of Churches what is the object of Adoration And so much the rather will he believe it to be an Error because the second Nicene General Council decreed that Images are to be worship'd and denounced an Anathema to all that doubt the Truth of it Does he not think it was an Error in the Council of Chalcedon to Decree unto the Bishop of Constantinople even in causes Ecclesiastical an equality of priuiledges with the Bishop of Rome Or does he not think it was an Error in the sixth General Council to condemn Pope Honorius as a Monothelite and to decree that his Name should be razed out of the Churches Diptychs seeing another General Council since held at Florence hath defined the Pope to be the High-Priâ—st over all the world the Successor of St Peter Christ's Lieutenant The Head of the Church The Father and Teacher of all Christians and one to whom in St. Peter our Lord Iesus Christ did deliver a full Power as well to GOVERN as to feed the Universal Church And did accordingly exauctorate the Council at Constance for seating a Council above a Pope Or is it not thought by Mr. Cressy that This Florentine Council was in an Error in Granting the Roman Church a Power of adding to the Creed which the General Council of Chalcedon had forbidden to be don under the Penalty of a Curse as was observed and urg'd by Pope Vigilius Himself to Eutychius the Patriarch of Constantinople Let Mr. Cressy but compare the sixt General Council whose famous Canons were made in Trullo with the Tridentine Canons and the General Practice of his Church And sure I am he will acknowledge that the one or the other hath foully err'd It was decreed in the sixt That married men without scruple should be admitted into the Priesthood and this without any condition of abstaining thence-forwards from cohabitation lest men should seem to offer Contumely unto God's holy Institution Yea which is most to be observ'd This was a Canon made professedly against the Canon of the Church of Rome whereunto is confronted the antient Canon which is there said to be of Apostolical Perfection Here the Doctrin and Practice of the Chruch of Rome is condemn'd by a Council which is owned to be General by the same Church of Rome The Church of Rome is also condemn'd by the same General Council in its 55 Canon and commanded to conform to the 65 Canon of the Apostles from which they had scandalously departed under two great Poenalties therein express't To all which if I shall add How the 8 th General Council made a peremptory Decree That the Image of Christ is to be worship't as the Gospel of God That whosoever adore's it not shall never see his Face at his second coming never at least by their good will That the Pictures of Angels and all the Saints are in like manner to be adored And that all who think otherwise are to be Anathematiz'd I hope Mr. Cressy and Father Johnson are not such Lovers of Idolatry and Contradiction as not to know and to acknowledge the Fallibility of their Church in a general Council § 18. I have the rather made it my choise to use the Canons and Decrees of Popes and Councils especially of such as by the Romanists themselves are accompted
ambitious of being too strong for his own infirmities when a reverend Divine who was standing by would fain have don that office for him at least as a Deputy to his lungs only that he might not spend his few spirits as yet left in him he made him this resolute and hasty but pious answer that whilst a Tongue was in his head whereby to speak and whilst he had breath in his body to move and animate his Tongue and whilst he had lungs in his brest to supply his breath he would shew forth the goodness and the glory of God who had been pleas'd to do so great thing for him And in a merciâ—â—l Answer to all his Prayers which he continued to the amazement of all that heard him after some conflicts which he had had with the ghostly enemy to make him happier in a victâ—â—ious than he could possibly have been in an untry'd innocence God was pleased very signally to reveal himself to him to speak peace unto his Conscience to fill him inwardly with joy in the Holy Ghost to give him some glimmerings and fore-tasts of the glory to be revealed That I may use his own words which as he came out of a Trance he was heard to speak he had a ravishing glimps of the Beatifick Vision meaning thereby as I interpret that God had refreshed his drooping spirits with his unspeakable comforts saying unto his soul I am thy salvation or this day salvation is come to thy house So that now being plac'd above the level of temptations and exempted from the fear of what the * red Dragon could do unto him he cheerfully lifted up his head and fixt his eyes upon Jesus the author and finisher of his faith and for the joy that was set before him expected the Advent of his death as of a very dear friend Fifthly It was another great sign that his heart was right towards God and therefore not treacherous to himself that he extended his care to the souls of others with as true a charity as to his own exhorting one in particular against the love of this world charging another to be watchful against intemperance and debauch exciting a third unto frequent and fervent prayer I do but mention the several subjects on which he treated like a Divine To all his servants in the general and to three of them in special for his words like Manna in the wilderness and the Apostles doal were discreetly proportioned to every one as he had need so as they who had most of his Deathbed instructions had nothing over and they who had least had no lack I say in general and in special he was by his precepts as well as practice even as righteous Noah a true Preacher of Repentance Nor did his care end here But As it were in imitation of good old Iacob before he was gather'd to his fathers he gave a blessing to all his children And farther gave it in charge to his virtuous Consort whom he worthily esteemed his dearer self and of whom he also requested pardon if by any cross word he had ever grâ—eved her not to educate his children so much to learning and other accomplishments as to the knowledge and service and fear of God Nor was it a little to his advantage that he was careful to have them season'd with those his last Principles which by his later experience he found the best Not to be endless upon the subject on which it is difficult not to be long and yet impossible to be tedious he was briefly all that which I pray God of his mercy to make us all That whensoever he shall appear unto us in death or in judgment we may be found like wise Virgins with oyl in our lamps And that together with this our Brother whose remembrance like that of Iosias will ever be sweet unto us as musick at a banquet of Wine we may be joyned in Consort with the quire of Angels and with the general Assembly of the First-born which are written in Heaven and with the souls of just men made perfect singing Hosanna's and Hallelujah's to him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for evermore FINIS VIR Explorata Integritate Gravitate morum Primaeva Annumerandus Patribus Scientiarum lumen omnium Supraque scientias eminens Humilitate summa Innocenter doctus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 EDOARDUS PEYTO De Chesterton in Agro Warwicensi ARMIGER Ex Antiquo PICTAVORUM stemmate oriundus EDOARDI PEYTO Equitis Aurati Filius Unigenitus Uxorem duxit ELIZABETHAM GREVILLI VERNEY De Compton-Mordake in eodem Agro Equitis Aurati Filtam Unigenitam Lectissimam pariter Dilectissimam foeminam Compar Conjugium Cujus ex felici Copula Manavit sexus utriusque Trias Altera Filiorum Edoardus Guilielmus Franciscus Altera Filiarum Elizabetha Catharina Margareta Patris simul Matrus Ectypa Virorum Foeminarum olim Exemplaria Proh Dolor Tantae Familiae Virtutis Instauratorem brevem Primo velut in Molimine fatiscentem In ipso aetatis store decussum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tamen Querelarum desine Quippe saeculi pertaesus Maturus Coelo Et praeproperâ laborans Maturitate Perfectionem vitae cum Immortalitate commutavit Anno Aetatis supra XXX m currente Tertio Salutis Reparatae MDCLVIII VIIIo. Calendas VII bres Anima Christi appetentissima in Christi gremium evolavit Coelorum quò dudum ascenderat tandem Incola Corpus reclinavit in Pulveris Dormitorium Sic etiam Christum in sepulchro quaeritans Telluris sarcina subter tellurem deposita Incolumes reliquiae sub Domini custodiâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS THE TABLE OF PARTICULARS A A Dam Subjected even in Innocence to a threefold Law Pag. 204. Affliction Necessary to all p. 93 94. A Mark of Gods Favour p. 102 c. 107. 129 c. They lye the heaviest on Gods own people 134 137 139 140 c. 468. Antiquity Courted in Art and Nature p. 349 50. In Policy and Religion 351 352. The pretense of most hereticks 355 456. that to be prefer'd which is nearest the beginning ibid. prov'd by Instances 360 361. The only reason of the Secession of the Church of England from the Church of Rome 362 363. c. Apostles Describ'd in their basest and best estate p. 314 315. Their aequality 368. Authority Divine in the profanest p. 211 212 240. Not to be censur'd by the People 213. How it differs from Power 248. To be reverenc'd in the worst as in the best of Mankind 248 249. Submitted to by Christ p. 293 294. B Bishops Necessary to Monarchy p. 18 19 20. Chief in their own Dioceses 368 369. C Ceremonies Their use and Innocence asserted by all Protestant Churches and Mr. Calvin p. 205 206. Councils Their dependance on the Pope p. 412 c. One out of all nations never was 418 419.
Many of them reject each other 420 421 c. The Doctrines and Practices of the Papists condemn'd by not a few of them 423 424 c. Clergy Their Prosperity the Lay-mans Privilege p. 17 18. Charity To enemies npon the Motives of generosity p. 28 29. Christ why he needed a Conformity to the law for uncleanness p. 275 276 c. his presentation 278 c. How to be presented by us 286 287. Christian Wherein his Bravery consists p. 63 64. how a disgrace to Christianity p. 153 154. and how a Glory p. 165 166. should press after Perfection 323 324. Church The rightful Power reduc'd to four heads p. 196 197 c. The necessity of its Authority 199 200 c. For the ending of strife 216 217. Conscience unaffectedly tender p. 89 90. Consideration of how great use 451 c. Controversies Their unseasonableness 439 c. Custome How the same from God and Belial p. 262. D Death often to be thought of p. 436 437 c. desirable p. 467 c. 478. An Instance of an happy calmness of Death p. 487 488. Deliverance Compared to the day p. 16 17 c. should be an inforcement to change of life p. 23. Despair Good and Evil p. 88 89 c. Devil How Instrumental to our Good p. 104 105 c. Divorce Why only permitted by Moses p. 353 354. Allowed by the Papists contrary to the Law of Christ p. 381 382. Drollery It s dangerous Tendency to Profaneness p. 335 c. 338 339. E Enemies Not to be Insâ—â—ed over p. 10 11. but rather obliged p. 27 28. England Characters of its state before his Majesties Restauration p. 12 13 c. p. 43 44 c. p. 58 59. p. 149. The Kings thereof Absolute 385. How by degrees incroached on by the Pope 386 387. F Faith How in many who think they want it p. 90. It s Victory over our sufferings p. 165 166 167. Fortitude Wherein it stands p. 64 65. Fear How useful p. 83 84 c. G God How the Author of all our sufferings and the sole support in them p. 161 162 c. To be serv'd with the best of what we are or can p. 281 282 c. Gospel How spread through the world p. 315 316 c. Gratitude Its Generosity p. 31 32. Motives to it in England p. 58 59. H Half-Communion Its Rise p. 358 376 377. How contrary to Scripture ibid. Hierarchy Twofold Civil as well as Ecclesiastical p. 212 p. 233 234 c. Humility It s proper season p. 36. Motives to it p. 266 270 c. I Ignorance aggravates as well as excuses p. 37 38. Impunity the greatest punishment p. 132 133. Impurity Legal a Type of Original Sin 265 266. Infallibility The chief Foundation of all Popish Errors 357 401 402. Acknowledged to be Incommunicable to any Church 429 430. Ingratitude It s chief Aggravation p. 66 67 c. Indifferent things what kind of necessity they acquire to themselves and how 202 203 c. 289 290 c. K King His Prerogative the Peoples Privilege p. 16 17. His right of calling Synods 197 198 c. His presiding in and over them 209 210. His Divine Institution and Supremacy p. 223 224 c. ad p. 258. L Lawes Their Original Institution threefold p. 203 204 c. Bind the Conscience though of Humane Institution p. 208. Learning The Vsefulness and Necessity of that which is but Humane p. 304 305 c. It s Insufficiency without the help of the Divine p. 313 314 c. It s right imployment p. 331 332 333 c. Lite Its shortness p. 457 458 462 463. It s uncertaintâ— 459 473. and Frailty 461. It s vexation 464 465 c. Motives to and the Method of Improving it 470 471 c. This life compar'd with Eternity p. 479 480. M Magistrates Their Ordination p. 232 233 c. ad p. 244. Their Subordination p. 245 246 c. Man Motives to his Humility from the baseness of his Matter p. 267 268 c. All equal in what respects p. 270 271 c. His twofold Original 454 455 c. Marriage It s Primitive Institution Vindicated p. 352 354. When first denyed to the Clergy p. 358 379. Contrary to Scripture and the practise of the Apostles 380. Mercy How Gods chiefest Attribute p. 77 78 c. 116 117. O Oath How it differs from Gods Word p. 110 111. Obedience to Magistratee a good work of the first rank p. 211 212. In things indifferent p. 293 294. Obligations cease to bind in three Cases p. 115. P People Not the Original of Government p. 233 c. and p. 243 244 c. Persecution Compar'd to the night p. 12 13. c. Pestilence How much worse than War p. 149 150 151. Tends the most to Humiliation p. 157. Ever laid on by an hand from Heaven p. 162 163. Popes Many of them coâ—fessedly Heretical p. 371 372 406 411 412. The Original of their Supremacy p. 359 366 367 c. Primacy of order allow'd to them 367 369. Prayer in an unknown Tongue contrary to Scripture and the practise of the Primitive Church p. 378 379. Preaching It s Different Effects p. 320 321. Praecepts Difference 'twixt them and a bare Permission p. 353. Pride How inexcusable in man p. 268 269. Priest His Duty p. 325 326 c. Promises of God Conditional as his Threats p. 113 114. Prosperity It s proper use p. 25 26 c. It s danger p. 33 34 35. It s proper season p. 50 c. It s mischief p. 51 52 c. It s dignity p. 60 61. Punishment It s threefold End p. 128 129 c. For the Amendment of Offenders p. 130 c. For the benefit of others p. 134 c. For the satisfaction of the injur'd p. 139 c. significant of the sin which it revengeth p. 147 148. Purgatory It s Original p. 358. Purification of the Virgin p. 259 260 c. R Rebellion A species of Sacrilegâ— p. 241. Reformation It s proper Season and Reasons of it p. 31 32 c. 61 62. The Moderation of ours from Rome p. 212 213. From the Court of Rome p. 388. Its causes p. 382 383. Justified p. 387. Repentance In what sense apply'd to God p. 109. Even in men it works Miracles p. 116 117. Not to be deferr'd p. 284 472 c. With the danger of deferring it ibid. ad p. 478. Five Tokens of a sincere Repentance p. 490. 491 492 c. Rome Its Church a particular Church and younger than Jerusalem c. p. 365. Confess'd by its Champions to be corrupt in point of Doctrine p. 373. And Practise p. 382 383 399 400 406. Is in no sense Infallible p. 403 c. ad p. 407. S Schisme On whom to be charg'd 384. Scripture Translated into Mother-tongues p. 377 378. Sermons The Danger of Idolizing them p. 321 322. Severity The mercy of it p. 100 101 c. p.
others 1 Pet. 5. 3. In deed a Primacy of Order may very easily be allow'd to the See of Rome But for any One Bishop to affect over his Brethren a supremacy of Power and Iurisdiction is a most impudent opposition both to the Letter and to the Sense of our Saviour's precept Mar. 10. 42 43. 44. Ye know that they who are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them and their great ones exercise authority upon them But so shall it not be among you But whosoever will be great among you shall be your Minister and whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be the servant of all That the Apostles were every one of equall power and authority is the positive saying of St Cyprian Pari consortio praediti honoris potestatis And St Ierome is as expresse That all Bishops in all places whether at Rome or at Eugubium at Constantinople or at Rhegium are of the very same merit as to the quality of their Office how much soever they may differ in point of Revenue or of Endowments Nay by the Canons of the Two first Generall Councils Nice and Constantinople every Patriarch and Bishop is appointed to be chief in his proper Dioecese as the Bishop of Rome is the chief in His. And a strict injunction it laid on all the Bishop of Rome not excepted that they presume not to meddle in any Diocese but their own And the chief Primacies of Order were granted to Rome and to Constantinople not for their having been the Sees of such or such an Apostle but for being the two Seats of the two great Empires Witness the famous Canon of the General Council at Chalcedon decreeing to the Bishop of Constantinople an equality of Priviledges with the Bishop of Rome not for any other reason than its having the good hap to be one of the two Imperial Cities Nay no longer ago before Boniface the Third who was the first Bishop of Rome that usurpâ—t the Title of Vniversal I say no longer before Him than his next immediate Predecessor Pope Gregory the Great for I reckon Sabinian was but a Cypher the horrible Pride of succeeding Popes was stigmatiz'd by a Prolepsis by way not of Prophecy but of Anticipation For Gregory writing to Mauritius the then-reigning Emperour and that in very many Epistles touching the name of Universal which the Bishop of Constantinople had vainly taken unto himself call's it a wicked and proâ—ane and blasphemous Title a Title importing that the times of Antichrist were at hand little thinking that Pope Boniface would presently after his decease usurp the same and prove the Pope to be Antichrist by the confession of a Pope He farther disputed against the Title by an Argument leading ad absurdum That if any one Bishop were Universal there would by consequence be a failing of the Vniversal Church upon the failing of such a Bishop An Argument ad homines not easily to be answer'd whatsoever Infirmity it may labour with in itself And such an Argument is That which we bring against the Pope's pretended Headship For if the Pope is the Head of the Catholick Church then the Catholick Church must be the Body of the Pope because the Head and the Body are the Relative and Correlative and being such they are convertible in obliquo And then it followes unavoidably That when there is no Pope at all which is very often the Catholick Church hath then no Head and when there are many Popes at once which hath been sometimes the case then the Catholick Church must have at once many Heads and when the Pope is Heretical as by the confession of the Papists he now and then is the Catholick Church hath such an Head as makes her deserve to be beheaded That Popes have been Hereticks and Heathens too not only by denying the Godhead of the Son and by lifting him up above the other two Persons but even by sacrificing to Idols and a total Apostasie from the Faith is a thing so clear in the writings of Platina and Onuphrius that 't is the Confession of the most zealous and partial Asserters of their Supremacy I know that Stella and those of the Spanish Inquisition do at once confesse this and yet adhere to their Position That with his Colledge of Cardinals the Pope cannot err and is the Head of the Church But St Hilary of Poictiers was so offended at Pope Liberius his espousing the Arian Heresie that he affirm'd the true Church to have been Then onely in France Ex eo inter nos tantùm Communio Dominica continetur So ill success have they met with who have been Flatterers of the Pope or the Court of Rome To conclude this first instance in the fewest words that I can use Whosoever shall read at large vvhat I have time onely to hint the many Liberties and Exemptions of the Gallican Church and the published Confessions of Popish Writers for more than a thousand years together touching the Papal Vsurpations and Right of Kings put together by Goldastus in three great Volumes he vvill not be able to deny let his present perswasion be vvhat it vvill that the Supremacy of the Pope is but a Prosperous Vsurpation and hath This lying against it that 't was not so from the beginning Secondly 'T is true that for several Ages the Church of Rome hath pretended to be Infallible as vvell Incapable of error as not erroneous But from the beginning it was not so For besides that Infallibility is one of God's peculiar and incommunicable Attributes where there is not Omniscience there must be Ignorance in part and where Ignorance is there may be Error That Heresie is Error in point of Faith and that Novatianism is Heresie all sides agree And 't is agreed by the Champions of the Papacy it self such as Baronius Pamelius and Petavius that Rome it self was the Nest in which Novatianism was hatcht and not only so but that There it continued from Cornelius to Coelestine which wants not much of two hundred years To passe by the Heresies of the Donatists and the Arians which strangely prosper'd for a time and spread themselves over the world the former over the West the later over the East and as far as the Breast of the Pope himself one would have thought that the Tenet of Infallibility upon Earth had been sufficiently prevented by the Heresie of the Chiliasts wherewith the Primitive Church her self I mean the very Fathers of the Primitive Church for the two first Centuries after Christ was not onely deceiv'd by Papias who was a Disciple of St Iohn but for ought I yet learn without the least Contradiction afforded to it Nay the whole Church of God in the opinion of St. Austin and Pope Innocent the third and for six hundred years together if Maldonate the Iesuit may be believ'd thought the Sacrament