with truth cast it in the Teeth of the Church of England that she disobey'd her Mother Church whether she were Infallible or not the Church of England can never justly charge them with any disobedience to her But some Heads of the Roman Church have been not barely suspected of Heresie for one of them stands condemned for it in three General Councils But what 's this to the King's Reason who in neither of his Papers as I can see defends any Man from the possibility of falling into Heresie Not to multiply Disputes nor to recede from the King's Papers I shall not dive deeper into the Question Whether the Church of England be a true Church or no since the King did not Yet I could reply to this brisk Gentleman as St. Austin by me already cited did to the Donatists That all that he has raked together if it should be allowed to be in the Church of England yet something would be wanting to make her a true Church Well then what is the Church of England charged with 'T is thus says the King She would fain have it thought that they are Judges in matters spiritual yet dare not say positively there is no Appeal from them His Reply is from a Parity Betwixt Inferiour and Superiour Courts where both are truly Judges yet there lyes an Appeal from an Inferiour to a Superiour Court and he instances in Courts both Spiritual and Temporal But the Parity is very lame for the Church of England supposes her self nor inferiour to any other Church nor will she submit to any others Dictamen as things stand consequently as things stand she is the last Tribunal of Spiritual Doctrine In the next Paragraph the King argues thus What Country can subsist in quiet where there is not a Supreme Judge from whence there can be no Appeal From hence this Gentleman infers that every National Church ought to have the Supreme Power within its self This is no good Illation unless it be in reference to the Church of England which will have no such Superiour to it for the King speaks of a Country over which there is no Jurisdiction out of its self consequently there must be in that Country a Supreme Judge in all Temporal Causes but one Church which is subordinate to another Church and owns her self but a Member of an universal Church in Being cannot be said to be the last Tribunal from whence there can be no Appeal The rest of this Paragraph is a running division upon certain Abuses complain'd of by some Saints which because they may happen in the best of Ages and to the best of Men without prejudice to the lawful Authority of the Church I pass them by and shall make my Observation upon the next Paragraph that whereas the King's Expostulation is We have had these Hundred Years past the sad Effects of denying to the Church that Power in matters Spiritual without Appeal By which Expression as also by the antecedent and consequent Discourses is meant an Appeal to the Universal Church in matters Spiritual as Interpretation of Scripture Delivery of Doctrine Decisions of Faith c. He applies the Context against Personal Appeals to the Pope and then declaims against abuses of those Appeals of which both our own and neighbour Princes have complained and have been forced for the preserving of their own Dignity to set Bounds and Limits to Appeal to Rome But admit the king had intended Appeals to Rome does not this Gentleman by this reply That Princes have limited or bounded these Appeals to Rome own that Princes have believed that Appeals do of Right belong to Rome provided that Power be not abused And if the King himself was likely to suffer the most by them the more was his Integrity in preferring his Conscience before his Interest This Paragraph then is a Counterfeit of the Royal Stamp and so is the next by which the king is also misrepresented for which Reason I shall make no remark upon it Here begins the Kings application of his former Discourse by which this Gentleman may see his Error This is our Case here in England in matters Spiritual for the Protestants are not of the Church of England as it is the true Church from whence there can be no Appeal but because the Discipline of that Church is conformable at the present to their fancies c. He returns thus What Security can be greater than that of our Judgments For he will not have it to be Fancy I Answer That to submit our Judgments to that of the Catholic Church which God has appointed to direct us is the greatest Security we can have and in competition with this all is but Fancy And since he appeals to the whole World whether we have not made it appear that 't is not Fancy but Judgment which hath made us firm to the Church of England He is already cast by as many Votes as there are Men out of the Church of England Their adherence to the Crown of which he speaks is so principal a part of the Church of England as it is established by Law that without it that Church cannot subsist but when the Fancy shall move to change that Religion into Presbytery or any thing else Loyalty is out of Doors Now against those of the Church of Rome the Argument will not have that force for they and their Ancestors ever professing that Church to be their Infallible Mistress and that upon such Motives that nothing would be found more powerful their Judgment is fix't upon such a Basis that for want of it all other Churches which own themselves Fallible that is both apt to deceive and be deceived are but in a Tottering state What follows in this Paragraph is a Recrimination barely censuring without proving some Tenets of the Catholic Church as pure Fancy The Thread of the king's Discourse being still the same He concludes So that according to this Doctrine there is no other Church nor Interpreter of Scripture but which lies in every mans giddy Brain By which he may be assured the king calls that only a giddy Brain which stands in opposition to the great Authority of the Church interpreting Scripture But says the Answerer Let mens Brains be as giddy as they are said to be they are the best Faculties they can make use of for the understanding of Scriptures or any thing else Undoubtedly they are with that Assistance of an infallible Church which God has given them since many things to be understood there are out of the reach of Man's private Reason which he makes use of to find out his Guide being as visible as a City upon a Hill or a Light on a Candlestick and then submits to her Interpretation of Scriptures so that the infallible Church lies not in every Man 's giddy Brain but is as visible as the Sun Upon the winding up of this Discourse the king desires to know of every Serious Considerer of these things whether
Immunities and great Priviledges of the Clergy it was so Fenced with the great Charter of England Magna Charta that nothing but the forcing of this could ruine that As I say some Princes have by their power wrought a change from that Religion into another how much more is it in their hands to turn the Protestant Church into Presbytery or Independency since Protestancy is but of a fresh date and hath no other Foundation but what is common to Presbytery or Independency all of them being built on private interpretations of Scripture saving a Being from the breath of the Civil Magistrate by an establishment in the Law and therefore if the Law be mutable the Religion will be mutable Nor does it avail him to say The Rule of our Religion is unalterable being the Holy Scripture but the Exercise of it is under the Law For Presbytery once established by Law will speak both Law and Scripture as loud as he Thus ends the Vindication of the two Royal Papers Long may they dure in the hands and hearts of all those who love Truth THE THIRD Royal Paper VINDICATED IT cannot but be very surprizing to behold a Gentleman pretending to no ordinary Size in Learning rallying all his Forces to encounter a Princess now in the midst of Laurels whom whilst she Lived the great Figure she made in the Court left no time to improve by Art those excellent Endowments with which Nature had plentifully enriched her and who generously humble consigned to paper this Profession I am not able or if I were would I enter into Disputes with any Body Her design was only the Satisfaction she owed to her Friends not any Engagement in the Quarrels of Disputes and what she left behind her was but a bare and candid Narrative of those great conflicts which she suffered in her Soul upon the only necessary work of her Conversion to God And why a Paper so innocent left by so great a Lady as a Legacy to her Friends should raise the Spleen of so great a Gyant to that degree as to tear it in pieces and thus torn to disfigure it and thus disfigured to expose it would have been a subject of great wonder were it not obvious to suspect the unhappy Genius that moved him But since she has gained the point she aim'd at and so well satisfied her Friends even to the Conviction of many Adversaries and to the admiration of all I shall so recollect the Sense of her Paper by Design and Artifice disjointed that put together it will cement it self and the native Beauty will appear more resplendent by his Neighbouring Shade The first attempt upon her Paper is from her own Concession which is thus I am not able or if I were woul'd I enter into Disputes with any Body at this he seems astonished and hardly capable to understand how any one could be truly satisfied as to the Grounds of leaving one Church and going to the other without entring into matter of Dispute with any Body Before I reply I cannot but observe a Coin newly Counterfeited for the Dutchess does not say she will not enter into the matter of Disputes but only that she will not enter into Disputes which are Expressions of so different a Nature that the one may well be and often is without the other For the matter of Dispute may be any thing about which there may be no Dispute To deliver him then from this astonishment there are many ways to the Wood besides one and God in the Treasury of his all-seeing Providence can so temper second Causes that even without Miracle he can work a thousand Conversions of Souls from Errour to Truth without any Dispute but he urges farther How could one bred up in the Church of England and so well instructed in the Doctrines of it ever satisfy herselfin forsaking the Communion of it without inquiring into and comparing the Droctrines and Practises of both Churches If this will give him Content I doubt not but all this may be and is frequently performed without disputing with any Body for she being now so well knowing in the Doctrines and Practises of the Church of England she had no more to do but to make Inquiry into the Doctrines and Practises of the Church of Rome and so by comparing them together as in the collision of two Flints might by her own Industry strike out that Fire and that Light which might both comfort her Soul and light it to the secure Haven of Eternity But this he adds was not to be presumed of a Person of her Condition for many things must fall in her way which she could neither have leisure to examine nor the Capacity to judg of without the assistance of others As to this I must crave his Pardon for if I be not mis-informed by those who had the Honour to know her she was a Princess of as searching a Wit and of as clear a Judgment as any of her time Nor can it be questioned but she had time and leisure enough for she that professes to have found no rest to her Soul Night nor Day can never be presumed to want time to hunt after that which her Soul did so passionately Love and if any difficulty had fallen in her way which by her self she could not Conquer she had choice of Learned Men of all Professions to consult who might have so smooth'd all the Rubs that lay in her way as to resolve her without any Dispute Had she not says he Divines of the Church of England about her to propose her scruples to yes she had and did so and professes to have received such satisfaction from them as contributed much to her Conversion to the Catholic Church which Discourses she said did but add more to her desire of being a Catholic Now if this be reputed a Dispute then every one who advises with his Divine or Lawyer in matters relating either to his Soul or Estate must be stil'd a Disputant To evince that her Royal Highness did not make use of the ordinary means for her own satisfaction he brings for instance the Bishop of Winchester who had nearest Relation to her as having bred her up in the Principles of the Church of England and was a Man both able and willing to have removed any doubts As to the ability or inclination this Bishop had to have serv'd her in removing her doubts or Scruples I shall not dispute them but this is certain that notwithstanding all his care in her Education in the Protestant Religion she was afterwards out of Love with it and who knows whether this very Bishop at other times at least accidentally in his Discourses with her might not have dropt something which taken up by her might give an advance to her Conversion as it fell out to the insinuated yielding Bishops O but she endeavoured to conceal her Scruples from him Admit she did and that as the Palate nauseats Meat which formerly it loved
that this Gentleman would force his Modesty to such a Degree as to give the Lye to a Lady of her transcendent Quality especially who had been so well bred up in the Principles of the Church of England I shall rather favour him with this Construction that tho' she thought what she said was true yet in reality it was not But how came she to make this Declaration she tells us she never had any scruple till the November before and then they began upon reading Doctor Heylin's History of the Reformation which was commended to her as a Book to settle her and there she found such abominable Sacriledge upon Henry the Eighth's Divorce King Edward's Minority and Queen Elizabeth's Succession that she could not believe the Holy Ghost could ever be in such Councills And because Doctor Heylin's History wrought her Conversion he seems to be displeased at the Author of that Advice but I must needs dissent from him for it being a History of the Reformation it wasmore fit to put that into her hands to settle her in her Religion if the Reformation had been from God being within her Sphere than any Book of Controversy wherein she might have been plunged into difficulties insuperable the Objection oftentimes out-weighing the Solution And tho' in the History of Reformation he tells us there are two distinct parts The one built on Scripture and Antiquity the other upon Maxims of State yet the one being visible and the other invisible had she been a Person of greater Understanding than she was how could she possibly discern both what he requires to have been the Subject of her Consideration was so far beyond her Reach that more Speculative Persons than her Condition would permit her to be come short of that Performance and therefore no better way could be than to be conversant with such Objects or motives as were of her own size One of which was that where the Foundations of a Pretended Reformation were Sacriledge Rapine and Lust She could not believe the Holy Ghost could ever be in such Councills He replies thus were not the Vices of Alexander the Sixth and of many other Popes as great at least as those of Henry the Eighth Be it so and suppose them greater therefore neither she nor any Body else in Prudence can believe that God ever chose Alexander the Sixth or such as he points at by vitiously acting to be the Reformers of his Church or to give Being to a Reformation As to the Invasion upon the Rights and Lands of the Church he replies to by Retaliation Are there not Miscarriages of the like Nature in the Church of Rome It may be so but if by such Miscarriages one should think to reform the Church I shall as freely declare with this great Lady that I cannot believe the Holy Ghost can ever be in such Councils From her scruples which the reading of Dr. Heylin's History of the Reformation had put into her mind she came to the Examen of points in difference by the Holy Scriptures where it seems says he contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome she found some things so easie that she wondered she had been so long without finding them out That some things may easily be met with in Holy Scripture makes not against the Doctrine of the Church of Rome nay standing to the bare Letter without the assistance of Tradition experience has made it manifest that her Champions have fought against all sorts of Enemies with that success even at their own weapon that partiality it self cannot deny her the Victory Nor is it any great wonder that a Lady of her great endowments being but yet a seeker of Truth and not acquainted with the Catholic Rules of Expounding Scriptures and having no other interest but her Soul's safety should easily find what she did not formerly when she thought her self secure and was not concern'd nay what great Doctors do pass slightly over when thousands of lesser Talents than she have done the like What discoveries then hath she made First of the Real Presence then of the Infallibility of Confession and praying for the Dead As to the Real Presence importing a Real and Substantial change of the Elements into the Body and Blood of Christ. He demands In what words of Christ is it to be found I answer in these This is my Body And whereas he adds That the wisest Persons of the Church of Rome have confessed that the bare words of our Saviour can never prove it I answer 'T is hard for him to determine who are the wisest but he knows well that they generally teach that those words cannot be verify'd without that change Confession of Sins as ever commanded is no harder to meet withal than confess your sins to one another And if the Apostles and in them their Successors had power to forgive and retain sins there must be an Obligation in others to confess them otherwise that power had been useless Praying for the Dead is also frequently grounded upon Scripture and though her Royal Highness seems to have been somewhat confirmed in the belief of it by the concession of the two Bishops yet she no where affirm'd that to be the sole Motive to change her Religion but only that it added more to her desire of being a Catholic The Places usually cited for the Infallibility of the Church he would perswade us may as well be apply'd to other Churches as to the Roman but because I have already proved the Roman to be that one Catholic Church I shall supersede from any further trouble at the present From Christ's promise of being with the Church to the end of the World and she now believing no other Church to be that Church but that which is called the Roman she makes this inference That our Saviour would not permit the Church to give the Laity the Communion in one kind if it were not lawful so to do This Illation is evident for otherwise he would not be with his Church to the end of the world From this excellentDiscourse of her Royal Highness 't is an invincible Truth that all the force of Sense and Reason do center in this conclusion that she did not think it possible to save her Soul otherwise than in the Roman Church and by her Paper the world may see the pregnant Power of Truth which forced those two great Lights of England's Church to a private concession of what in publick they were unwilling to own Magna est veritas prâ—valebit FINIS A Catalogue of Books Sold by Matthew Turner at the Lamb in High-Holbourn ACTS of the Clergy of France The second Edition To which is added a necessary advice how to read Books of Controversie Quarto A Discourse of the necessity of Church Guides Quarto The Guide in Controversies Four Parts Quarto A True Narrative of the pretended Popish Plot with Figures A Papist Mis-represented and Represented Quarto Why are you a Catholic And Why are you a Protestant Quarto Bishop Condom's Discourse of Universal History Octavo Digitus Dei against Nullifidians Octavo The MASS Triumphing Octavo The MASS Vindicated Octavo Veron's Rule of Faith Octavo Bishop Condom's Exposition of Catholic Doctrine Twelves His Treatise of Communion in both Species Twelves The Touch-stone of the Reformed Gospel Twelves Turbervil's Manual of Controversies Twelves Abridgment of Christian Doctrine Eighteens Vane's Lost Sheep Return'd home Twelves Counsels of Wisdom or the Maxims of Solomon Twelves The Catechism of Penance Eighteens Four Maxims of Eternity Eighteens Christian Thoughts for every Day Twentyfours St. Francis de Sales Introduction to a Devout Life Twelves Thomas of Kempis Following of Christ. In Twelves and Twentyfours THE END
point and the whole Church came to an acquiescence Had this Gentleman been chosen advocate for the Catholic Church I know not how he could have render'd her more visible He proceeds but is it reasonable to suppose that upon these differences they shut out all those holy Bishops and Martyrs from the possibility of Salvation by excluding them from their Communion How far the heat of these disputes might have carried the Parties engaged or whether either or neither party was free from blame I shall not determine but this is a certain Maxime both in Church and State that a submission either active or passive is due to all Lawful Powers though the command be unjust and 't is the known principle of St. Austin with the Ancients that no cause can be given to separate from the whole Church either by Heresie or Schism now in this contest here was no separation from the whole Church by either of the Parties but a perfect submission to her Decrees when delivered by the mouth of her General Assembly so that here was not different Communions amongst Christians but only different sentiments in matters as yet undecided by the Church with which it consisted that both parties were members of the Catholic Church and consequently no one member of the contesting parties as this Gentleman well observes ought to assume to its self the Title and Authority of the one Catholic Church But when Sentence was passed by a General Council the dissenting party if any remained was cut off as a rotten Member from the Body of the Catholic Church and then the contest is no more betwixt party and party but betwixt a rebellious party and the whole Church to whom the stile of that one Catholic Church is justly due she being the whole as the Trunk of the Tree is the whole compared to any Limb and the Novatians and Donatists her putrified Members Amongst other calamities which have sprung from original corruption 't is not the least that being our selves Criminals we have an itch to find out confederates as if their number rendered us Innocent This assailant of the Royal Papers to justifie the late separation of the Protestants from the Roman Catholic Church brings upon the Stage the Eastern Churches cut off and separated from her Communion And adds that the Bishops of Rome would hear of no other terms of accommodation with the Eastern Church but by an intire submission as head of the Catholic Church which all the Churches of the East refus'd however different amongst themselves and to this day look on the Popes Supremacy as an innovation in the Church How well skill'd he is in the History of the Eastern Churches I shall not dispute But sure all is not Game that rises and I doubt the account given him is made up of false Musters This is certain the Eastern Churches were divided from the Roman-Catholic Church that is from all Churches in Communion with the Church of Rome by such Doctrines as are inconsistent even with the Church of England which professes to hold whatever was decreed by the first four general Councils and this breach of union continues with their descendents to this day The Egyptians Ethiopians and Abissines are by Sect Eutichians holding but one Nature Will and Operation in Christ and are condemned by the fourth general Council that is of Chalcedon with these side part of the Armenians the Jacobites Georgians and Cophties The Christians under the Turk and Persians in Asia are Nestorians branded by the General Council of Ephesus for maintaining two persons in Christ. The Grecians with the Muscovites and Russians by the Athanasian Creed so Sacred to the Church of England are excluded even from Salvation for refusing to believe the Holy Ghost to proceed from the Father and the Son As to the first division of the Greek Church the true cause was from the contest betwixt Ignatius true Patriarch of Constantinople and Photius the intruder with the first stood the Pope and the Emperor with the last and in the end to make the breach the wider the procession of the Holy Ghost from Father and Son was denyed and so it rests till this day now that the Pope's Supremacy was and is look'd on as an innovation by any of these Churches I doubt is a story not so well grounded as this Gentleman could wish And if my Authors deceive me not some of these as the Egyptians and Ethiopians have often made overtures to the Pope for Peace and Communion owning him Supream Head of the Church provided only they might not be obliged to renounce Eutiches and Dioscorus After these fundamental Errours of Faith against the Holy Ghost and the person of Jesus Christ he put this question how then came they to be excluded from being parts of the one Catholic and Apostolic Church Since in all those Churches the two Creeds are professed true Baptism administred A Man would have thought that such blasphemies against the Divinity and Humanity of Christ had been cause enough to have Unchurched any number of Men but since he seems to opine that the denyal of the two first Creeds can do the work why should not the refusal of a third Creed or if the emergencies of new started Doctrines made it necessary a fourth and fifth Creed be as prevalent Is the power of the Church Catholic in deciding Faith less then it was in making the second Creed Again is it not as possible for Men who profess a Creed to err even against that Creed as it is for Men professing a Rule to deviate from that Rule Wherefore it being evident that nothing of all this hath been wanting to fill up the measure of Heresie in those Eastern Churches they cannot be reputed parts of the one Catholic and Apostolic Church consequently the Roman Church and the Churches in Communion with her must be that one Church or there was or is none upon Earth This principle then that the Roman Church is that one Catholic and Apostolic Church being as visible as was asserted by the king to enter into the Ocean of particular disputes would be to enter into the maze of everlasting jarring Pregnant evidence of this truth is had from the pretended Reformation of this last Age where the innumerable Sects that have swarm'd from the first Reformers in the divided World steering their course as they fancy by the Compass of Holy Scripture a president given them by their Leaders have improved controversie to that degree that 't is impossible by that method to reclaim them the Scholar still in that out-doing his Master And whereas it is believed by this Gentleman That the Church of Rome hath notoriously deviated from this infallible rule Scripture sensed by fancy for neither he concerns himself for Tradition nor Exposition of the Fathers and therefore is not willing to put her self upon that issue I answer that the Church of Rome cannot deviate from a rule she never professed to follow And if some
of her Champions out of meer condescension to Protestants have fought them with their own weapons in which way of combating the Church is not engaged the judgment of the victory must be from the arbitration not of any private Man but of the Learned World The king's next position is That it is not left to every phantastical Man's head to believe as he pleases but to the Church Beware here of counterfeit Coin 't was out but he called it in again and replies The Church of England cannot be liable to any imputation of this nature for our Church receives the three Creeds embraces the four General Councils and professes to hold nothing contrary to any universal Tradition of the Church from the Apostles time Had he been pleased to have given in security for the Church of England that notwithstanding this glorious profession she could never err against the Creeds nor the four Councils nor universal Tradition he had well merited of that Church For we do not charge her for not professing these things at least upon a pinch but for erring against her own profession and deserting that Church to which all these Authorities bear testimony and of which her Progenitors and first Reformers had been Members and from whose hands she received whatsoever she had either of Scripture Creeds Councils or Tradition consequently whose judgment she was bound to follow for the Eastern Churches even by the profession of Protestants being lapsed into Heresies there was then no visible Church in Being but such as was in Communion with the Church of Rome which never went out of any elder than her self and out of whom the Church of England sprang It seems he would have the Controversie betwixt us put upon this issue that is the three Creeds four Councils and Tradition But who shall be Umpire the instructing or instructed Party This discourse in the mouth of a Protestant against Presbyterian Anabaptist or Quaker would be sound though at the same time a self-condemnation in the Church of England The rest of this Paragraph is made up of voluntary assumptions without proof and which are already answered as to the main only I cannot let slip this concession we do not deny that the Church hath Authority of declaring matters of Faith but this must be the universal Church in a General and free Council as when the Nicene Creed was made not when a party in the Church the most corrupt takes upon it self to define many now Doctrines This plea if it be good justifies the Arians and condemns the Nicene Fathers vindicates the Eutichians Nestorians and Donatists and confounds all General Councils for there is nothing of this but was as fully charged against them by the Heretics of those days The following Paragraph is adulterated Coin for whereas the King by the inhabitants of a Country means Subjects instituting the comparison betwixt them and their Lawful Judges of the same Country he stretches those words to signifie the People of one Society and Judges of another The King's discourse is home and to the purpose God would not leave us at those uncertainties as to give us a Rule to go by and leave every Man to be his own Judge He answers We cannot reasonably suppose God should give us a Rule not capable of being understood by those to whom it was given to save their Souls As if there were no way to render a Man capable of understanding Scripture to the saving of his Soul but to leave him to be his own Judge Is there no Church No Pastors to instruct him He that is blind or dim-sighted and will not use a Guide merits to fall Not to be wilfully mistaken in matters of Faith and not to be damn'd is of one and the same consequence The knowledge of good and evil truth and falshood I confess in some sense is to Man's conscience of the same concern but he that willingly shuns light and gropes for either of them in the dark is an Enemy to his Soul and equally culpable There follows We do not leave every MÃ n to be his own Judge any farther then concerns his own Salvation which depends upon his particular care and sincerity But if the judgment of his own Salvation be in his own hands I think he is made his own Judge of the Rule And notwithstanding all his care and sincerity though they should protect him from the Artifices of foreign Seducers which is not possible but by accident without an inerrable Guide yet the corruption of his own heart may be his own most powerful Seducer and God if he will hath provided a guide even against that As to his refuge to the Ancient Creeds of how little concern it is may appear by this that if I should allow they followed exactly what they pretend to embrace which I never can yet if he denies it to be in the power of the Church to make new decisions of Faith upon any new exigence of Heresie or the like the sequel will be that every Man is left to be his own Judge To the question started by the King Whether it be not the same thing to follow our own phansie or to interpret Scripture by it His reply is That if we allowed no Creeds no Fathers no Councils there might have been some colour for such a question And is that colour vanish'd I believe not for if those Creeds those Fathers and Councils have no infallible Authority to oblige the Church of England why should not the King's question be still in force For neither is that Church obliged to follow those Rights which may deceive it nor is there any rational Authority in the Church of England to force any of her Members to embrace them But the truth is that Church neither stands to Creeds Fathers or Councils otherwise she had never deserted her Mother Church who ever regarded those Authorities as Oracles infallible and sent from Heaven to direct us and to whom she owes whatever is Sacred of that nature To his first question of the Church of Rome assuming to it self the sole power of giving the sense of the Scripture I answer she gives no sense but what she received from former Tradition of the foregoing Church and consequently makes not any Rule to her self but follows that Apostolical Tradition which God hath given her as the best interpreter of holy Scriptures To his second question the answer is the same The third question stands upon a false bottom for it supposes the Pope to be the sole interpreter of Scripture whereas neither he nor the Church do pretend to any other way but by Tradition The fourth question is also grounded upon Errour as if the publick disorders which happen in the Church were not to be reformed by General Councils The fifth question is also built upon Sand for it pretends that the Papal Authority is to be debated in Councils whereas no General Council did ever dispute it The sixth question is as strange
as any for it confounds Phancy and Tradition whereas the one is publick to the whole World and the other is private His next Paragraph adulterates the Royal Coin for when the King demands to know where the power of deciding matters of Faith is given to every particular person the sense is clear for the question cannot be meant otherwise than in relation to himself But he extends it so as if every one was to give Laws to another's Faith and this without any ground is made the first Member of the division But he adds If by deciding matters of Faith no more be meant but every Man 's being satisfied of the reasons why he believes one thing to be true and not another that belongs to every Man as he is bound to take care of his Soul So that by his reply every Man whose Soul is dear to him may and ought to discuss and dispute every Article of his Faith and bring it to the Test of his own reason and so the Omnipotence of a God revealing and the Authority of a Church declaring what is revealed weighs not with him until reason be satisfy'd and the understanding becomes a measure of all revealed Truths Whereas in truth Authority is the correlative of Believing and Reason of Knowledge And though we make use of our reason to find out that Authority which ought to sway us as a blind Man serves himself with his reason to find out his Guide yet after that 't is Authority not Reason that moves us and the previous motives inducing us to embrace the Authority of the Church from whence we have Scriptures and all other inscrutable Mysteries are much more visible and resplendent than for any other Article of our Faith The King goes on Christ left power in his Church even to forgive sins c. He replys But where then was the Roman Catholic Church Undoubtedly where now it is one and the same from whence all other pretended Churches went out she never departing from any Church that was elder than her self If she had I doubt not but her Eagle-ey'd adversaries would long er'e this have brought to light the Fathers the Councils or whatever else stood in opposition against her and since they never did nor can their plea against her is common to all whoever opposed the true Church In a good Sense therefore she alone remains Heir general to the Apostles as to those gifts which were not personal but given by Christ for the necessary support and government of her self which is to continue untill the consummation of Time And though he seems surprised that God should keep Man more from Error than from Sin Yet if he recalls but to mind that some of the Prophets were led into truths by the holy Spirit and were great Sinners at the same time and that all the Prophets though infallible in delivering such truths as God put into their mouths yet were obnoxious to sin the miraculous surprize will cease and the reason why infallibility is necessary and not impeccability is manifest because without the first the Church could not subsist for if once she makes Shipwrack of her Faith she is no more a Church an effect not so proper to sin And whereas he demands Would any have believed the Apostles infallible if they had known them to have been persons of ill lives I answer yes for either by Miracles wrought in confirmation of their Infallibility or any other way they could have an assurance of it As to any concession that the Church may err in deposing Princes if he means she may err in the decision of Truth or definition of Faith about it he is purely beholding to himself for that concession not to the King or any else I know of who only engage for her inerrability in delivering what she received from Christ and his Apostles by an uninterrupted Tradition and in conformity to this Rule the Church of Rome with all those in Communion with her the rest either by Heresie or Apostacy being divided from her was judge even of the Scripture it self what was Canonical what not or else it had been impossible for the Church of England to have known any thing of Truth concerning that Point there being no other Church to inform her but what had forfeited her Credit by manifest Heresie and that owned by the Church of England this is a vindication of the King against three of his Paragraphs The King having put the question by what Authority Men separate themselves from that Church He replies that they have not separated themselves from the Catholick and Apostolick Church but are disjoyned from the Roman Church that we may keep up the Stricter Vnion with the truly Catholick and Apostolick Church But if the English Church reputes it self a Member of the Chatholick Church because she professes to stand to the three Creeds and four first general Councils then certainly the Arians Nestorians Eutichians and the Eastern Churches above-mentioned cannot be parts of the Catholick Apostolick Church because they hold not the Apostolick Doctrine contain'd in those Creeds and Councils But besides those Churches there were no other in Being at the time of Separation but those Churches which were in communion with the Church of Rome consequently the Church of England going out from them separated her self from the Catholick Apostolick Church and therefore unless he can prove the Church of Rome to have deserted any other elder Church than her self by Usurpation or otherwise his Story of an Usurper will be but a Shift and may authorise all Rebellion either in Church or State The last Paragraph is since Protestants do charge the Church of Rome with Imposition of new Articles of Faith the King desires to know who is to be judg of that whether the whole Church the Succession whereof hath continued to this Day without Interruption or particular Men who have raised Schisms to their own Advantage The Roman Church having been in Possession of all those Truths now questioned by the Men of the Church of England nothing can be more unreasonable than to devest her of her just Possession and to require her to fall a proving whereas this ought to be the Province of those who under the Pretence of Innovation revolted from her For either they must make good their charge or else by all Laws they stand condemned and she remains justified Wherefore since at the time of separation she owned the Papal Supremacy and other Articles to have descended to her by an universal Tradition whoever questions the Title must convince her of that pretended Usurpation and then as it is well observed by the King who shall be judg in that case To have answered the Royal Paper this Method he should have minded which in disputes of another Nature I doubt not but he would have Practised However after his challenging the Church to prove her Possession he proceeds to declare that the Protestants being now by falling from the Church