Religion even themselves being Judges For they had all or most of them taken it before some of them had taken it many times over two or three of them had writ in defence of it nay were at the first composing of it But there was a greater difference than either of these if the Bishops then turned out by Queen Elizabeth had been most of them Canonically deprived under King Edward VI and were never since Canonically restored which may deserve a further Consideration The mean while it is certain that this Act outed not two hundred more of all the Clergy in this Kingdom And their places being filled with such as had been banished in Queen Maries days it is not hard to judge how all things else to be done in Church matters might pass any Obstruction as they did afterwards in full Convocation 3. As to Doctrinal things it was generally observed in those times by the Advantage of Ecclesiastical learning that in those many former Ages which wanted it many errors and some very gross ones had crept into the Church And those errors having the Papacy on their side for Reasons which I have already shewn had so far prevailed that they were growing to be Articles of Faith Many of them were already defined so and more were like to be by the Council of Trent Therefore now the Church of England being free from the Yoke of the Papacy and having an Absolute Power to act for her self thought fit to use the Right of a National Church that is to Reform her self by declaring against those errors and to rid Christianity from them here in England without taking upon her to prescribe to other Churches And withal she thought it needful to set such bounds to the Reformation that men might not by their heats against Popery be transported so far as to run into contrary errors For these causes that famous Summary of Christian Doctrines which we call the XXXIX Artielés was drawn up and approved by Convocation The Compiling and Publishing of these Articles was properly the Act of the Church of England And these Articles being many of them opposed to those Doctrines which the Roman Church holds to be of Faith and being either in Terminis or at least in the sense of them the same which their Trent Council hath branded with Heresie it is therefore evident that upon the account of these Doctrines neither the Queen nor Church of England can be justly charged with Schism unless the Doctrines themselves are first proved to be Heretical as they are judged by those decrees of the Trent Council For the trial of these Doctrines they will not allow our Church that resort which she would make immediately to the Scriptures And we cannot go along with the Roman Church whither she would have us that is to the Council of Trent or which is all one to the judgment of their present Church Therefore there is no possible way to end disputes but by some known equal Standard between us And that can be no other than Catholic Tradition Which they of the Roman side cannot well decline for it is that from which the Council of Trent has pretended to receive all her Doctrines Nor have we any cause to decline it for the Primitive Fathers who were the Original Conveighers of this Tradition did profess to know no other Faith than what was contained in the Scriptures Why we cannot stand to the judgment of the Council of Trent for the trial of our Doctrines we have all the same Reasons that they have in the French Church why they reject it in matters of Discipline That is if they deny it to have the Authority of a General Council the English though of their Communion may as well deny it to have Infallibility Nay much more this than the other For we may give to whom we please an Authority over us but we cannot give Infallibility to any but to them to whom God has promised it that is if to any Council to such a one as represents the whole diffusive Church And we have one reason more than the French have and which signifies more than all theirs to shew that though they did yet we ought not to look upon this as such a Council For the French Church was represented at Trent in some sort though they were not at all satisfied with it but Ours neither was Represented nor could be as I have shewn neither after nor before the Reformation And though as it is said the French have since received the Doctrinal Decrees of that Council that is they have allowed them to be Antecedently true in those Terms in which the Council defined them though not a whit the more true for having been defined in that Council ours cannot pretend that here in England it ever had so much as that lowest Degree of Reception Before the Reformation of which we now speak that is before the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign the Council of Trent had sate not much more than half its Sessions And though it was quoted with respect by the Synod of London in Queen Marys days yet it does not appear that there was then any Formal Reception of the Council Nor if there had been could that have obliged aftercomers to receive whatsoever should pass afterward in that Council Thus much I think ought to be considered by them if there be any that hold themselves obliged by that Synod But much less would it have signified to our Reformers who did not hold themselves obliged by that Synod For beside that they differed in point of Faith they had other Canonical Objections against it That it was composed of Bishops who had been Deprived as was said in King Edwards days and had not been duly Restored since for ought that appears And it was Headed by the Popes Legate in that Quality as representing Him against whom they had an Appeal yet in force Now to him that considers the Case in these Circumstances it cannot seem reasonable that King Edwards Bishops should have thought themselves obliged by the Synodical Act of them that sate there in their Injury or that they who adhered to their Appeal from the Pope should be concluded by any thing that passed under his Legate Since the Reformation it cannot be imagined that the Council of Trent should be received here in England by any other than by them of the Roman Communion And whether they have Received it or no they best know But if they have it must be their own voluntary Act for no power whatsoever could oblige them to receive it If any could it must be either the Council it self or the Pope by his Universal Authority But for the Popes Power they understand themselves so well that they know he cannot oblige them to the reception of a Council For he cannot bring them under what Government he pleases I say not without their own Consent as they have judged and shewed
than we are used to we are to learn what it is from them that live under it What they say and write of it is not the sense of the Church as that is which they swear in those Forms before-mentioned And yet their Oaths being in general terms we cannot so throughly know it from them as from particular Instances of the Exercise of it I suppose they may be said to give him that Power which he exercises every where without let or contradiction And to name only such Instances there are two which more particularly concern us and which make him no less than some call him that is the Virtual Church First he takes upon himself and they allow him to be the only supreme Judge of Fact in Ecclesiastical matters So that whomsoever he has judged to be Heretics of what rank soever they are Kings not excepted they are subject to all Canonical Punishments and are avoided as if they were such indeed as he judges them And as he does not trouble himself to call a Council and to take their sense of the matter before he judges so neither if he judge amiss are the injured Parties relievable by Appeal to any other Judge whatsoever If any question this they do ill to call us Heretics who were never condemned by any Council at least not by any that pretended to represent the Universal Church It was indeed moved at the Council of Trent that they should have declared against Queen Elizabeth and it is said that they forbore to do it for politic reasons But when the Pope saw his time to declare it did as well for though by the same Bull he deprived her of her Kingdom all her Subjects of that Church broke Communion with her even they that disobeyed the Sentence of Deprivation Since her time it does not appear that we are under any Sentence but the Popes yearly Curse on Maundy Thursday and yet that is enough to continue the breach of Communion Nay when Henry VIII was condemned by the Pope only and judged a Heretic for no other cause but disobedience to him though he had a just and lawful Appeal then depending yet then the Popes Sentence was obeyed and he was treated as a Heretic by all those of the Roman Communion If this be not owning the Pope to have an Absolute Authority yet at least it is no small Priviledge that they allow him to let in and shut out of their Church whom he pleases But he claims a higher Priviledge than this that is to be judge also of Doctrines to define what shall be Faith or Heresie This he actually does And the Church so far abets him in it that if private persons seem to question his Judgment as some did when he condemned the Iansenists Propositions they are punisht for it as Rebels to the Church Now being in possession of this power to judge of Doctrines what security can they have that he will not employ it to advance his own Secular Interests under the specious pretence of Christian Faith If he please to make it of Faith that all men must obey him even in Temporal things this is done already in a Decretal Epistle if there be any Coherence between the two ends of it If he should think fit to call it the Henrician Heresie for any one to hold that Kings may be obeyed notwithstanding his Censures If he call it the Heresie of the Politici for any one to deny the exemption of the Clergy from Secular Courts or the Heresie of Simon Magus to hold that Lay men may lawfully present to Church Livings there is nothing new in all this and therefore he may colourably do it Nay we have reason to believe he will do it whensoever he thinks he may do it safely And that will be when he is no more in awe of the French Monarchy than he was of the English when he censured the Irish Remonstrance It may concern more than Protestants to consider this For no man knows how soon the Pope may be concerned either to have him condemned for a Heretic or to make something that he holds go for Heresie And either of these things being done there is no doubt but that the Popes Act must be owned by the Roman Church in consequence to to their now mentioned Principles For all this is no other than the exercise of that power which they give him in spiritual things Whether they allow him to have the like power in Temporals is the Question which we are next to consider And that they do allow it him will appear by all the means that we have to know the sense of that Church First their Church Virtual that is the Pope himself has declared it again and again and that with all the Solemnities required by themselves to his decreeing ex Cathedra There never was any Pope that disowned it nor any that owned that Notion of the Virtual Church Their Church Representative has declared it in divers Councils of which one or other is owned to be General by all them of the Roman Communion Whereas many require the the Popes Confirmation of Councils to make them General there is no doubt but such Councils so confirmed have declared it For those that do not hold any necessity of the Popes Confirmation those very Councils which they abet in not holding it necessary have not only declared this but they have taken it for a foundation which in reason should be much more than a Definition They supposed it as a thing out of Controversie and made sundry Acts in pursuance of it Their Catholic Church Diffusive has own'd it by receiving and approving of some Councils of both sorts so as that whosoever has rejected the Councils of one sort has received those of the other They own it likewise in such Practices as must be Catholic according to their Principles If any practice be Catholic what can be more properly so than that which is the first Commandment of their Church Namely to keep her Festivals to hear Mass to joyn in Offices of the Church This they do in the Memory and with solemn Invocation of them as glorified Saints who not only while they lived were abettors of this Doctrine but who were Sainted for this reason because they Abetted it Such were Anselm and Becket of whom I need say no more than shew the Reader where he may find a very full Demonstration of this But among the many more that I might add of this sort I shall name only two that deserve more than ordinary notice Namely Hildebrand the first Author of this Doctrine and Pius Quintus who was the first that practised it on Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory This last mentioned Pope being newly canonized I suppose to let us know here in England what we are to expect when time serves I do not see how they who suffer themselves to be imposed on in this manner and
would no less deeply brand those who are most given to asperse others even the wildest of Phanaticks and Enthusiasts themselves as being Popishly principled If it be as sure it is very absurd to charge Popery on those eminent Eastern and Western Churches which ever since the Separation of the one and the Reformation of the other have purged forth and kept themselves free from all that which is properly Popish and have therefore been anathematized by the Pope himself and excluded from the Communion of all those Christians which hold him for their Ecclesiastical Head It must also be no less absurd to charge with Popery those Tenets of Belief and Rites of Worship however false and unnecessary in themselves wherein the Roman Catholick Churches differ from the English Protestant and other Churches of the Reformation but agree with those anciently famous Patriarchical Churches and almost with all other in the remote parts of the World Having thus how briefly soever said what may be sufficient to exclude the many both incongruous and injurious Notions of Popery which also would be insignificant if they were admitted I shall in the next place endeavour to set forth the only true proper and significant notion of it And yet if I be not much deceived 't will be no hard matter to fix upon and shew wherein this only right Notion of Popery does consist The very derivation of the word and obvious reason of the thing necessarily imported thereby may assure us it cannot in a few significant words be describ'd to be either less or more or any way other than An undue adhaesion to the Bishop of Rome in Principles or Practices falsly pretended to be Christian. I say To the Bishop of Rome because he it is that hath for many Ages past appropriated to himself the name of Pope which was formerly common to all Bishops as every one knows that has been conversant in the Writings of the Fathers I say also An undue adhaesion in Principles c. for it 's supposed to be an ill thing that is to be supprest Now it is not ill to confess the Apostles Creed or to do any good thing that he does but to follow him or to joyn with him in any thing that is evil that is chiefly to assert an undue Power or Authority in the Pope such as that which he assumes to himself over the whole Christian Church and consequently to embrace and to practice those Errours and Corruptions whatsoever they are that by virtue of that usurpt Power and Authority he imposes on all those that are or shall be in Communion with him and excommunicates all that will not come to those terms not so much for their Aversness to those Doctrines and Practices as because they will not submit to his Power and Authority Though I must withal observe here as consequential to my former Observation of so many false Notions of Popery that laying aside its Capital Errour viz. That which directly asserts the pretended universal Power of the Pope it is no necessary evil of any inferiour subservient Errours or Practices at least of any of those which are not peculiar to the Roman Church how false or vain soever they be in themselves but the unnecessary embracing them out of pure submission to the usurpt Authority of the Roman Bishop now stiled Pope and the only Pope of the World is it that in any right sense of the word renders them truly Popish And this I must acknowledge to be so whether we regard the Derivation of the word or Reasons of the thing it self I mean those Reasons which evince the only proper significant Notion of Popery to be that which I have given before in the fewest words I could well fix upon to define or describe it What those Reasons are we have as to one part of them seen already by seeing that if Popery be taken otherwise all Christian Churches in the World must be confessedly Popish and as to the other part also we shall now see For now I am to shew that even by the judgment of such as ought best to understand their own Doctrine the very chief thing in Popery is the owning and asserting the Papal Authority Without question there is nothing which they have more driven at from the beginning or which they now more eagerly contend for in the Roman Church and especially the governing part of it as it were easie to shew in many instances but a few will suffice because the matter is so well known to all men of Reading and Experience To begin with the Original of Popery There is nothing more certain and plain in Church-History then that the primitive Christians being generally Subjects of the Roman Empire had a very great respect for the Bishops of Rome because that was the Imperial City And yet it is as plain that those Bishops had no Authority or Jurisdiction out of their own Province that is beyond the suburbicary Region of Italy till after the Division of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western It was not long after that division and chiefly upon the weakness of the Western Empire that that Power which we now call the Papacy grew up As the Empire decay'd so by degrees it encreased and gathered strength the design being at first not to set up a new Religion but a new Monarchy in the place of the old then expiring The Caesars having made Rome their seat of Empire for so many Ages and being at last driven out by the barbarous Nations it seemed as if the Genius of the place had inspired the Roman Bishops to perk up and to erect a new Empire in the stead Which was no hard thing for them to do being assisted with all manner of advantagious circumstances Having learn'd from their Predecessors to derive their descent from St. Peter how truly it matters not this gave them colour enough to take upon them to be all that he was Their See their Traditions their Dictates were all stiled Apostolical The Popes Title was then His Apostleship for His Holiness was too Vulgar in those days Whatsoever Preheminence or Power those Caesars by their Laws or their Subjects the Christian Bishops in their Councils had given them as being Bishops of the Imperial City when they had gain'd the City wholly to their Devotion and made their party among the barbarous Nations they scorn'd to hold it any longer by gift All that had been so given them and whatsoever they grasp'd more they held it Iure Divino as being Heirs and Successors to St. Peter By this means having shook off their Obligation to Canons and Laws they took upon them to be as Infallible as St. Peter was whose very name they did not stick to usurp when they pleased as if Christ had spoken to them whatsoever he said personally to Cephas And whosoever objected as some always did that those Pretensions were new and that there is no ground for them in
Scripture they could then face them down with those things which now they do not love to hear of namely with forg'd decretal Epistles or Councils or Fathers or with pretended Revelations and Visions or with counterfeit Miracles For all which they had those at their beck who though ignorant enough otherwise had more learning and skill to forge such things than others had at that time to disprove them Thus in a blind Age nay many Ages together when this part of the World was conducted and governed in spiritual things by one-eyed men for the Popes themselves were no better it is no wonder that the generality of the people ran into so many Errours as they did to the great hurt and scandal of the Christian Religion And though 't is charitable to believe that at first there was no design to have those Errours obtruded on the Faith of Posterity yet appearing to be such as might be of great use for the wealth and greatness of the Clergy who were strongly attach'd to the Roman See nay some of them to the Advancement of the Papacy it self the Pope had great cause to look kindly upon them and to wish they were no Errours but Catholick Doctrines and if he pleased to have them such who durst say they were otherwise When they had once receiv'd that publick countenance from him he had much greater cause to continue it and by all possible ways to keep them in possession of that esteem which those dark times had given them And that not only for affection as before on the account of their usefulness to himself and his Clergy but for fear that if these Errours were detected and brought in disgrace it might reflect on the Infallibility of the Roman See and might give men occasion to look farther and to examine the whole Fabrick of Popery which being search'd to the bottom it could not but appear that the Fundamental Errour was that which gave the Pope such a Power and Authority over the whole Christian Church This was truly the cause why such care was continually taken in all the latter general Councils for so the Pope was pleas'd to call those Conventions of his Vassels in which nothing pass'd but what he pleas'd to establish those popular Errours as they grew up and to put them out of question by their Canons and Decrees Whereas the great capital Errour was never defin'd but supposed and pass'd as all Fundamentals do by such a general consent as is stronger than all positive Laws whatsoever It pass'd thus for many Ages till upon occasion of that long Schism when for about fifty years the Western Church carried double a Pope and an Antipope that rid Cursing and Damning one another the Council of Constance being met to judge which was which deposed both and began to set bounds to the Papacy It was follow'd by the Council of Basil which presuming to do the same and being likely enough to have gone farther the Pope that then was call'd an opposite Council and therein settled his Authority by a Law It was the Council of Florence which though not acknowledg'd by many Roman Catholicks abroad and particularly not by the generality of them in France Yet since I write this to English men I shall shew what they of our Nation thought of it at the last Revolution to Popery from whence we may take some kind of measure and guess what many would be at again It was declar'd by the Cardinal Legate with consent of his Synod at London that the cause of all the evils in this Church sprang from hence that departing from the Vnity and Doctrine of the Catholick Church we had relinquished the Authority and Obedience of the Pope of Rome Christ's Vicar and the Successor of Peter The denial of this Authority was declar'd to be the chief Errour of Protestants To correct which they thought fit to set forth the true Doctrine as it was delivered in the Eighth General Council at Florence held under Pope Engenius IV. of happy memory in these words We declare That the holy Apostolical See and Pope of Rome holds the Primacy over all the World and that the Pope of Rome is the Successor of St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles and is the true Vicar of Christ and Head of the whole Church and Father and Teacher of all Christians and that to him in St. Peter our Lord Iesus Christ gave full power to feed rule and govern the Vniversal Church Since the Council of Florence there have been only two pretended General Councils namely the fifth Lateran and the Council of Trent both which were acknowledged by that Synod of London above mentioned The fifth Lateran Council was call'd by the Pope for no other end but that he might be able to write their Approbation in the stile of those Bulls which he should publish for the greatness of the Papacy In the first of those Bulls he damn'd the Pisan Council which the French King had assembled against him In the second he laid an Interdict on the whole Kingdom of France and ordered the Fair of Lions to be removed from thence to Geneva In a third he annulled the famous pragmatick Sanction the Palladium of the French Church And so went on till having brought the French King to his terms his next Bull was to set himself above all General Councils and to declare That all Christians sub necessitate salutis under pain of Damnation must be subject to the Pope of Rome according to that Luciferian Constitution of Boniface VIII which he mentions and approves and confirms All this he does with consent of that Council The Council of Trent which came last and pinn'd the Basket not only took care to leave the Pope in full possession of this usurp'd Power by declaring that no act of theirs should infringe it and by making him Judge and Interpreter of all their Decrees but also confirmed it to him as much as in them lay For they ordained That in every Church of the Roman Communion at the first Provincial Synod after that Council every Member thereof should promise and profess true Obedience to the Pope and that all that were preferr'd for the future whether to Bishoprick Dignity or Cure of Souls should promise and swear the like Obedience in such form as the Pope should prescribe Whereupon Pope Pius IV. made that form of Profession of Faith that is every where taken at this day whereof one Clause is I promise and swear true Obedience to the Pope of Rome Successor to St. Peter Prince of the Apostles and Vicar of Iesus Christ. Beside these publick Acts which have a general influence on all parts and Members of the Roman Communion there is a special tye on the governing part of it if not by their interest by another Oath which is taken by all Archbishops Bishops Abbots at their Consecration The form of it is prescrib'd in the
alone or with others in such Controversies Indeed by the Canons of Sardica those few Western Bishops that continued there after the Easterlings had left them were pleased meerly of their Charity to give him a new Power to order the reviewing of any Provincial Judgment upon complaint of any Bishop that was aggrieved in it And Pope Leo not being satisfied with this got the Emperor Valentinian III. to ordain that the Bishop of Rome should give Law throughout his part of the Empire which then contained little more than Italy and part of France and part of Spain and the Illyrian Diocess Yet all that the Bishop of Rome had by these Concessions and Grants did not amount to an Authority over the Universal Church I add nor over the British Church in particular And so far was this from arguing that he had by Divine Right any Jurisdiction out of his own Diocess that his seeking or accepting what was given him by these Concessions or Grants is a convincing argument to the contrary But for the Churches Judgment nothing can be more plain than that all those Bishops who gave their Votes to those Canons which I cited before out of the first Four General Councils and that of Africk together with the Epistle annext had no question or thought of any Authority that he had by Divine Right out of his own proper Diocess or by Humane Right out of the Roman Patriarchy or any power of Jurisdiction that he had elsewhere from the Roman Emperors or from the Primitive Fathers Whatsoever power he has gotten since the decay of the Roman Empire and of the Christian Religion from whence I have already dated the beginning of Popery as it is plain he has gotten in many Countries which were not anciently within his Jurisdiction upon any account it must be either by force or fraud abusing either the weakness or ignorance of the people or else by the concession or connivence of Princes and States Blessed be God there are some Christian Nations in the world which have stood so far out of his reach that he has not been able to hook them in by any of these ways And as he has no colourable pretence to a power over those Countries where it is certain he never had any as Ethiopia Russia c. which they that are pleased to call therefore Schismatical must give me leave to admire as well their folly as their uncharitableness and yet they that do not call them so make the Pope no Head of the Universal Church so in those Countries where he has gotten power it is not necessary that he should always hold it till we see who is Antichrist whether He or one of the Tribe of Dan who they say shall come to take it from him They over whom he gain'd a power by force or fraud are kept under it still the same way which creates no right by any Law whatsoever And therefore when God makes them strong enough and wise enough they will deliver themselves from him They that gave him a power over them when they saw cause may have as good or better cause to recal it And they have just cause to do this when they see him desert that Title by their Gift and claim his power by immediate Divine Right or when he employs his power not to edification but destruction and specially when doing all this he will force their obedience by such means as come not from the Wisdom which is from above but from that which the Apostle calls earthly sensual devillish Whosoever among our Roman Catholicks will be pleased to consider these things with that Attention and Impartiality that is due to all things of Religion I cannot but think he will see that the Christian Religion doth no way oblige him to own the Popes Authority in this Kingdom He will see that Iure Divino the Pope could have no Authority over this particular Church which he had not over the Church universal And it doth not appear by any Records of the Primitive times that the Pope ever had any such Authority over the Universal Church or that by the Diffusive Church he was believed or acknowledged to have it But on the contrary it appears by instances which I have given of those times that he was denied to have such an Authority and that as well by the Bishops assembled in their Councils as by the best and wisest men of those times in their Writings Nay he was contradicted and resisted as oft as he endeavoured to impose any thing against the mind of particular Churches He will see that whatsoever Humane Right the Pope had acquired over the people of this Kingdom was no more of one kind than we are all originally of one Nation and that the power which he was suffered to exercise over us was very much greater at one time than another In the worst and darkest times it was highest for it grew up on the bad Titles or other weakness of Princes and yet then he could not hold it peaceably nor long enough to make a Prescription But at all other times it was much less than he claim'd which sheweth plainly it was no more but what the State pleased to give him and they owned that the Pope had no right over them by any concessions of their own more than what he had over the rest of the Western Churches Particularly in those times next before the Reformation that right which was generally acknowledged to be in him was not a supreme right but subordinate to a General Council This appears to have been the sense of the Western Church For it was declared in plain terms by four Councils which were acknowledged for General in that Age and were abetted as such by the generality of the Western Church They not only declared this Doctrine in their Canons but they reduced it to practice For those Councils deposed divers Popes and made new ones in their stead Which Acts of theirs the Papalins of this Age are obliged to defend as ill as they like the Canons for without them they cannot make up the succescession of their present Popes But admitting those Acts to have been just and good how can they reject those Canons from which they had their virtue and efficacy If they say the Pope did not approve them it is partly true Out of doubt those Popes did not like them that lost by them Nor perhaps those that came in by those Canons might not like them so well at another time But how then could they take upon them to be Popes Their accepting a Title from those Councils and the Peoples owning them in it was enough to shew that those Canons were then in force and they were never repealed by any Council since nor hath there been any Council to do it that can be reasonably thought so fit as those four were to declare the sense of the Western diffusive Church Therefore
have any Right in it Though she had not lost her Right any otherwise than as being cut off by the Pope's uncanonical Censures against which she was relievable on her Appeal thither if that had truly been a General Council And the Bishops whom she should send to represent her in such a Council had as much to do there precedence only excepted as the Pope himself had according to the ancient Canons But now as matters were ordered at Trent if she had sent any thither and if they had been admittable otherwise yet they must not sit there without owning the Pope in his Legate They must not only be joyned into one Body with him but they must acknowledge him for their representative Head who yet to them was no other than a man dead in Law For they knew him to be condemned for a Traytor by that Authority to which they were Subjects as well as Trent as in England And though the Popes placing him there in that Character was the highest Affront that could be done to the Justice of their Nation yet they must submit nay contribute to that Affront by owning him in that Character or else they must have no place in that Council This Contumelious Condition being implicitly imposed on our Bishops was a virtual Exclusion of them from their Right of sitting there And it was so contrived that it lookt as ill upon the State as on the Church The King was not only concerned for both these but also for Himself on another account having his Cause to be heard there if it had been a General Council It was an Injury to him all this while that he had None so long after his Appeal to it But now to make him amends he had a Council pack'd by his Adversary and if that were not enough he had this Traiterous Subject in the Head of it Which last thing went beyond all former Trials of his Patience and perhaps had been enough to have angered the meekest of Princes If it be an ill thing to have ones Judge chosen by his Enemy it is worse to have his Enemy be his Judge He had both in this Council as the Pope had ordered it for him Therefore as he could not be Canonically obliged to stand by it so he did but use his own Right as before in Protesting so now in Declaring against it He did it on all Occasions and continued so doing till his Death His Son Edward VI who reigned next kept the Pope at his distance and had many things reformed in the Church of which I shall not speak particularly because all that he did of this kind was soon after undone by his Successour Queen Mary She for reasons that I mentioned before restored the Pope's Authority in this Kingdom And though his Council of Trent was all her time in adjournment so that she could not send her Bishops thither yet she had it acknowledged by them in a Synod where Cardinal Pool being first restord in bloud had the honour to preside as his Legate But as to the Schism between us and the Roman Church both these Princes were unconcerned in the Original cause of it which was as I have shewn the Popes Sentence concerning their Fathers Marriage For Edward VI. was born to him by another Wife whom he had married after Katharines death And Queen Mary being his Daughter by Katharine was not aggrieved by the Sentence but on the contrary held her self righted by it The only Person aggrieved was Queen Elizabeth the Daughter of Henry VIII by Anne Bolen whose Marriage the Pope had declared to be Null and pronounced any fruit that should come of it to be Illegitimate This Queen being the only fruit of that Marriage the Sentence was injurious to her if to any And whether she was wrong'd in it or no it ought to have been tried before a Lawful General Council to whose Judgement her Father had Appealed as has been already shewn And there being no such Council held in his life time the right of his Appeal descended to her at his death She was now the only party concerned in the Cause and her Right could not be given from her by any other She was as much concerned as ever her Father was to be heard by the Judge to whom He had Appealed and to be Righted against the Pope if it should appear that he had injured her and also against his Council of Trent which abetted him in it And she had as much Reason as ever her Father had to disobey and to resist both the Pope and his Council till they would suffer such a Council to meet as was the only proper Judge of her Cause Thus far all that has been said of her Father except only in things of Personal concernment is as Applicable to her And more needs not be said to shew that they were neither of them guilty of Schism in asserting their Cause as they did against the Adversaries of it For therein they did no more than what they lawfully might and ought to do according to the Principles of the Western Church But there was something in her Case which was not in her Fathers and which would have cleared her of Schism though he had been guilty of it For whereas when he rejected the Pope and his Council he was wholly of their mind in all the Articles of Faith then in being She did it not till the Council had sate and till they had already made sundry new Articles of Faith Whereof the first were defined some months before her Father died However he might like them as they presume he did who tell us that he died in their Faith yet it is certain that though at sometime she did not shew it she did always dislike them her Enemies being Judges And as soon as she came into Power she declared they were so far from being any part of her Faith that she took them for no other than False and Novel opinions If she mistook in so judging which shall be considered in its place then she was at least materially an Heretic And such he must prove her to have been that will make her a Schismatick For if she was in the right and those Doctrines were not of Faith then the Schism occasioned by them must not lie at her door It must be charged on the Council who defined them and on the Pope who added them to the Creed who made the belief and profession of these Doctrines a condition without which there is no living in his Communion She did what she ought to do in refusing to have it on those terms in adhering to the Faith once delivered to the Saints and in rejecting the Authority which would have it defiled with those Mixtures What has been said may suffice to clear Queen Elizabeth from the Imputation of Schism on any Personal account in not obeying the Pope or his Council It appears that she was free from Schism in
that matter as well in Foro Ecclesiae having the Canonical right of an Appeal against them as in Foro Conscientiae because what she did was to keep her Faith pure from their undue Impositions Whether she can be cleared as well on the account of her Government in Ecclesiastical matters this we ought to consider as a thing that more immediately concerns us For we date the Reformation of our Church from the beginning of her Reign And though we have a Prescription since of above a hundred years which is enough to secure us against the Claims of the Papacy in the Judgment of them that hold it to be only of Humane Right as all men ought to do upon those grounds above mentioned yet to them of the Roman Communion it will perhaps be more satisfactory if it appear that beside the Right that we have now from Prescription there was also an Original Right in our Reformers to do what they did in the beginning of the Reformation The first thing they did was to assert the Queens Supremacy from whence they proceeded to settle the Church Government and ended with the Reformation of Worship and Doctrine 1. First of what she did in assuming the Supremacy more needs not be said than to make it be understood And we cannot understand her meaning in it better than by her own declaration and practice She declared that she took no other power to her self than what Anciently belonged to the Crown of England that is immediately under God to govern her people of all sorts as well the Clergy as the Laity And she exercised no other Power or Jurisdiction over the Church than what was meerly External as appears by her Injunctions and other Acts. Though if she had exercised any other power than what she claimed it had been only an Act of Misgovernment in her for which she was accountable to God and the Church had not therefore been guilty of Schism since it gave her no other power nor owned her in the exercise of any other than what is above-mentioned And that power is so inherent in every Supreme Magistrate and so necessary for the well-being of the People that we cannot deny the right of it in them to whom we grant the Supreme Magistracy it self Wheresoever any Prince or State have seemed to think so ill of themselves as if they were not so fit as a Foreiner was to be trusted with this Power over their own People or rather where they have been so obsequious to the Pope as to take this Flower out of their own Crown and put it into the Triple It may be every where observed that either they or their Successors have found occasion at some time or other to call for it home again or to use it as if they had notgiven it from themselves We may see examples of this in Germany in Ockham's days in Spain under the Emperour Charles V and in Venice at the time of the Interdict But especially in France where the Gallican Church is obliged to justifie this Right of Princes unless she will grant that her most Christian Kings have been in Schism more than once and especially while they stood to the pragmatic Sanction But we need not go abroad for examples having so many at home and such as are very full to our purpose He that will may see them elsewhere gathered to his hand And I have mentioned enough to shew that even in Popish times our Princes were not ignorant of their Right and that between whiles they were fain to assert it in such terms as did import though they did not name a Supremacy But as their Laws did not expresly mention the word so neither did they always stand by their Laws When they had made them the Pope still found some device or other to make them ineffectual Till King Henry VIII having thrown out the Pope for those reasons above mentioned did by advice of his Council and Bishops take both the Power and the Title on himself whether he took more than his due let others judge As I am not engaged to defend all that he assumed so I need not for so much as Queen Mary exercised of it For it is agreed and there was great reason for it that she was always for the Popes Supremacy in her heart though for fear of her life she renounced it when time was And yet she no sooner came to the Crown but she exercised the Supremacy her self in changing most of the Bishops and Reforming what she held to be Abuses in the Church Afterward when she had surrendred it to the Pope yet she did not so wholly put it out of her self but that when He displeased her she could shut his Legate out of her Kingdom So that to adjust the matter between the two Sisters in this point of Supremacy they seem to have differed only thus One adjudged it to the Pope and yet took it from him when she pleased the other thought it belonged to the Crown and therefore kept it wholly to her self 2. What Queen Elizabeth did in setling Church matters was founded on her Right in the Supremacy By vertue whereof she took upon her to Reform abuses in the Church as her Sister Queen Mary had done And I believe that whosoever compares their proceedings will find that she took more leisure and advice than Queen Mary in doing it For before a Parliament sate she had gone only thus far that she allowed her people some of the Church Offices in a Language which they all understood Afterward by advice of her Parliament she restored King Edwards Laws and repealed those which had been made by Queen Mary for Ecclesiastical matters And by those Laws she abolished the Popish Mass and restored the whole Communion to the Laity whereas her Sister had done the contrary without Law by her mere Right of Supremacy Which Right she having afterwards given away by Act of Parliament though still she used it when she saw cause Queen Elizabeth thought fit to have it restored by Act of Parliament or rather Redeclared for the Act was not Operative but Declarative And whereas by this Act it was required that all Bishops and others that held any Church-living in this Kingdom should take an Oath of Supremacy as we call it or else should be uncapable of holding any such Church preferment on refusal of this Oath there were turned out thirteen Bishops I note the number the rather because there had been just so many of the Protestant Bishops turned out by Queen Mary There appears to have been some difference between the turning out of these by Law and of those without any Law then in force But there was more in the cause of their fuffering those being outed for matters purely Religious and these for a Civil cause for refusing an Oath lawfully imposed Which Oath did not truly concern their
condemned this Nicene Council for imposing it Neither of these Councils can be said to have been less Orthodox than that Council was in any point but that which they opposed And their very Opposing it shews that at those times it was not the sense either of the Eastern or of the Western Church When that Council obtained in the Eastern Church yet still it was opposed by the Western and however there also the practice crept in yet that Council has never been received in the Western Church as hath been lately proved by a most learned Writer Nor has Image-worship been defined by any other Council that could be said to Represent both the Eastern and Western Church In all Ages since the Councils which have defined any Articles have been but Western Councils at best For though some Greek Bishops were present at one or two of them yet what they consented to was never ratified by the Greek Church And for these Western Councils to give them their due it was not so much their fault if they lead us into Error as it is ours if we follow them in it For he that reads them and knows the History of their times will not chuse them for Guides if he has any care of that trust which God has given him of himself He cannot but see that bating the three last of those Councils which have not that Authority in the French Church nor with some other of that Communion all the rest were held in times of such palpable Ignorance that when they went amiss they could not well see how to do otherwise Their Bishops could not but be generally unqualified to judge of matters of Faith For they had a great want of good Books and of the Languages in which they were written I speak of those Books that are now chiefly used in all Questions of Faith as well by their as by our Writers And sure they that had them not to use could not but be miserably to seek in all those parts of knowledge which are Absolutely necessary for any one that should judge of those matters Namely those without which they could not Ordinarily know neither the true sense of holy Scripture nor the Judgments of Councils and Fathers nor the Practice of the Primitive Church We find by the best of their Writers in those times that they were so much to seek in those most needful things that not a Colledge in either of our Universities can be said without scandal to know no more in them than one of those Councils If instead of those last we bate four other of their Councils which are disowned by the Papalins for reasons which have been already given all the rest were in such Bondage to the Papacy that they had not the power to do otherwise than they did Their Bishops by Pope Hildebrand's device were all sworn to maintain the Royalties of St. Peter whereof one was that the Popes Faith could not fail And being assured of that as men should be of things which they swear their wisest course when matters of Faith came before them was to trust the Pope's Judgment and pass every thing as he brought it to their hands This way therefore they took and it saved them the trouble of Examination and Debate and such like Conciliary proceedings It may be worth the observing that in Seven General Councils which they reckon from the time of Pope Hildebrand downward among the many Doctrines which they are said to have Defined there is not one that appears to have cost them any more but the Hearing The Pope had them brought and read before the Council as if that was enough to make them their Acts as well as His. And this was the constant course till the Papacy was weakened by a long and scandalous Schism Then those Councils which made themselves superiour to the Pope thought fit to use their Own Judgment such as it was and they proceeded Conciliarly as Councils had done in former times Which way being more for the credit of their Definitions it was continued in those Councils which restored the Pope to his Supremacy with this difference only that whereas those Seven Councils above-mentioned passed all things in the Lump which the Pope or his Ministers brought before them the Councils since have passed them Piecemeal with some shew of using their own Judgment in every particular though in truth with so entire a resignation to the Pope that nothing could ever pass against his Interest or his will even when they seemed most to endeavour it So that in all these Councils whatsoever has passed in determining Doctrines of Faith is in truth no more than a Papal Decree though it bears the name and perhaps has some shew of a Councils Definition Lastly for the Judgment of the Diffusive Church we are not ignorant that many of the things thus imposed of which we can find no mention in Antiquity and which we know were first started long after the beginnings of Christianity yet have been received as well by Greeks as by the Latines in latter Ages But not to say by what means they obtained it we cannot forget what Ages those were in which these things came to gain such an Authority among Christians They were such as learned men of the Roman Communion who are acquainted with the Writers of those times I say as well with the Greek as Latine Writers do not at all reverence their Judgments apart whatsoever they think of them together in Councils And according to the Rule prescribed by those Fathers it will not pass for the Judgment of the Catholic diffusive Church though both Greeks and Latines agree in it and have done so for some Ages together There must be semper as well as ubique and ab omnibus Though the two last conditions may suffice to make us think any Doctrine to be true or at least the Error in it not to be Damnable yet to make us believe it is a Doctrine of Faith there must be semper likewise without which it is no Catholic Tradition It is surely a great Affront to the Catholic Church and to the great Author and finisher of her Faith that as if that Faith once delivered were Insufficient there must be new things added to it from time to time by a Succession of men that take upon them to be his Vicars without making out any colourable title to that Office And though we find no such things in the Ancient Records of his Church though we see these are framed to support the new Authority of those Vicars and though we know how they abused the Ignorance and Tameness of many Ages yet because in those Ages these things were generally received and have mellowed some time since in the Faith of them that knew no better they are pleased to use this as an Argument not only why others must be concluded and bound for ever to sit down by their Judgment who had little and
used none but why they must also receive all things else that are imposed in like manner under pretence that this is now the Judgment of the Diffusive Church But the case is much worse these new things being imposed on the Church with a pretence of Infallibility Which Infallibility being a word of good sound some that are no Papalins but hold with them in some Doctrines which they cannot well prove otherwise strike in with them at this though the sound is all that they agree in For whereas the Papalins mean an Infallibility of Judgment and place it in the Virtual Church these mean only an Infallibility of Tradition and that they place in the Diffusive Church They would persuade us that it is a Demonstrable thing that those things that are believed as of Faith in this Age could never be otherwise They may as well Demonstrate that a Tale does not mend with often telling or that no change can be made by insensible degrees But the Authors of this being Censured at Rome for it we have no more to say to them tiâ—l they make it appear that they are of the Roman Church in spite of her Censures For our dispute is at present with them of the Roman Church who pretend that this Infallibility is in theirs that is the Virtual Church They say that she has it by virtue of Divine Assistance which being either without or above means it is all one as if they said she has a New Revelation And one would think that they intended no other who founded their Definitions on Miracles Now if they can prove that any such Assistance was promised to the Virtual Church and if they can prove that they are the Church to which those promises were made or if they can prove their Credentials to be the same that Christ gave to his Apostles then we must grant that we are out in denying this Infallibility Otherwise they must grant that their virtual Church might be mistaken And if she might we have reason to think that she was so in these matters And if it is but colourably said that she was mistaken in matters of so very great moment there is reason to think that those matters are fit for a Review To which the Greeks may submit and so may all other Christians that differ among themselves but they of the Roman Church cannot while they keep up their claim to Infallibility If we must as the Roman Court will have it be called Heretics for not submitting to new Revelation we cannot help it Nor need we much trouble our selves For we know we are no Hereticks by any Law Divine or Humane except those which this new Power has made to fence in its new Doctrines And we know they cannot with any colour of Reason from Catholic Tradition think us Heretics themselves while we hold to the Positive Doctrines of our Church So that when they are pleased to give us this Title we can take their meaning to be only this They declare us to be as indeed we are the Enemies of that Monarchy to which they would enthral the whole Church of Christ They do as good as tell us what we are to expect for this if ever for our sins God should suffer us to fall into their hands They would have their people hate us the mean while and avoid all communication with us for fear they should come to know how we are wronged in this matter This appears to be the sense and design of the Interested men And yet we doubt not there are many others among them who either have no such Interest or who will not give themselves to be led by it We have reason to believe this partly from what we observe at this present and much more from what we read of former times Of all Nations that continue in the Roman Communion the more any have flourished in Learning and Civility the more free they have kept themselves from all that which is properly Popery while the more Ignorant and therefore more Superstitious Nations are so fond of it that for want of this they will scarce allow the other to be Catholics But for Protestants whom the other can endure to live among them though perhaps in no desirable condition These will not allow them to live in their Country unless that may be called Living when men are buried alive in the Inquisition So it may be observed among Persons of that Communion The most busie and imposing the most fierce and untreatable Bigots are commonly they that scarce understand their own Prayers Learned men either have not those heats or else govern them better Unless they be such as are engaged to the Papacy by preferment or by the hopes of it or by the Vows of their Orders or perhaps such as having forsaken our Church will not allow us to Question either their Wisdom or their Honesty in it We are not ordinarily to expect so much as common Civility from such men But they that have no particular Quarrel against us and are otherwise of a Candid and Ingenuous temper especially when they have Learning with it as not a few have and would to God there were more in the Roman Church These men being not averse from inquiring into Truth nor from receiving it when it is brought before them if they do not see how they can prove us Heretics and that their Proof is as strong and clear as the Charge is heavy they will not think it a sufficient Reason to call us so because others have done it Nor will they think fit to debar us the common Right of all Christians that is to be heard what we can say for our selves And that either before a competent Judicature if it may be had or if that cannot be yet at least by all them that will judge of us I know no reason to doubt that if all of them knew but so much of our Church as has been said and if they considered it with that Impartiality which we ought to expect from such men it would work some good effect in no small number of them in that Communion And that effect would appear upon such a Review as I have mentioned I mean that we should have Right done us in a free General Council if the Pope would permit it to be held in our Age or rather if all Christian Princes would agree to call it themselves and not wait for His time which will be never But though he will not suffer this Reason to be done us abroad where it should be in a Common Assembly of Christians yet he cannot hinder us from having it at home at least in the private Judgment of them that do not fear his Censures I have shewn that this is like to be the fruit of a Discrimination It will try who they are And for them chiefly I intended this Digression In which I have been the more large because I think it no Digression but rather the best
contracted or I cannot do it here without exceeding the brevity which I design First Whereas all Roman Catholics are said to be obliged by their principles to follow the Judgment of the Roman Court I find little less than Demonstration for this in a Book lately published Where it is proved that they cannot justifie their calling themselves Catholics exclusively to all other Christians any otherwise than by resolving their Faith into the Infallibility of the Roman Church as united to the Pope that is really into the Infallibility of the Pope as being Head of the Church So that if he declare as it is evident he has done that those things which we call Popery are Articles of Faith they are bound if they will do things consequently to their Principles either to believe him in those Articles or else to relinquish that Communion This follows by good Reasoning though that way of proof is not so clear to a Vulgar Capacity as that which is drawn from Authority and appears in plain instances of Fact But what greater Instance can there be of this kind than the practice of the whole Roman Church which has actually followed the Judgment of the Roman Court and that in things which are properly Popery By the whole Roman Church I mean that which they call so themselves that is the governing part of the Clergy of all the Churches of that Communion that part which acts for all the rest in Ecclesiastical matters and by whose Acts all their Subjects are obliged according to their own Principles Now taking Popery as I have defined it to be the owning of the Pope's pretended Authority whether in Spirituals over the Universal Church or in Temporals over all Princes and States it hath been proved that this Roman Church owns this Doctrine in both the branches of it First in Spirituals there can be no question of this For none can be of the Governing Clergy without taking an Oath in which they own the Pope's Authority with a witness For they swear Fealty to him and that in those Terms which import as well a Temporal as a Spiritual subjection No doubt that was Hildebrand's sense that made the Oath and it is most agreeable to the Principles and Practices of them that Impose it But this I leave to Temporal Princes and States and especially to Protestants who are chiefly concerned to consider it Let the Oath be for Spirituals only it is enough to prove the Churches subjection to the Pope because in that sense at least it is taken by all the Governing Clergy And for the rest there is a Form of Profession by which they are sworn to him every one in his Person for fear they should not think themselves obliged by the Oaths of their Superiors If among them that are the Guides of Conscience to others there be any that makes no Conscience of an Oath yet such a one will go which way his Interest leads him And the Pope has them all secured to him by Interest likewise Not to speak of those ways that his Interests are theirs nor of other ways that he has to oblige them it is enough that he is so far Patron of the whole Church that none can have a Bishoprick or any other eminent Dignity but he must either take it of the Pope's gift or at least he must come to him for Confirmation Having two such sure holds on the Bodies and on the Souls of his Clergy the Pope is not only in present possession of a spiritual Monarchy over the whole Roman Church but he is as much as it is possible for him to be assured that none shall ever be able to take it out of his hands Unless the Princes of his Communion should come to find their Interest in a Reformation which is rather to be wisht for than to be expected in our Age otherwise there is nothing that can dispossess him but a general Council And that indeed he has some cause to apprehend upon the experience of former times It is remembred by others too often for the Pope to forget it how such a Council when time was humbled two or three of his Predecessors But then they that were for the Liberty of the Church had not only the Diffusive Church on their side but they had a good party among the Cardinals themselves Especially they had the Papacy at an Advantage being to Judge whose it was among them that pretended to it They had also the times very favourable to to them in other Circumstances which I shall not mention because they are not like to come again And yet then what ground they got from Popes of disputable Titles they lost afterward to those whose Titles were certain They left free Declarations and Laws for future times which might do good if there were men to put Life in them But withal they left a certain experiment to shew us that that good cannot be done by men who are so engaged to the Papacy Interest of it self were enough to give the Pope a Majority of Bishops in any Council where Conscience did not bear too much sway It was observed by one that writ for the Authority of those Councils that they could never keep up their side for this reason because the Pope had the disposing of all the Livings But how much greater must his Party be when all the Bishops are bound in Conscience likewise as far as an Oath can oblige them to support the Popes spiritual Monarchy It is hard for men to think that such an Oath does not bind them as well when they are together as severally We see the Pope so well understood this that when it was proposed during the Council of Trent that to make it a Free Council he should dispense with the Oaths of all the Bishops that sate there his Legates declared that they would rather die than consent to it I suppose they would not have been so much concerned for that which they had not found to be of very great use in their business And we see the effect of it For all the Bishops there present though it was against many of their wills yet suffered the Council to be prorogued and translated and rid about how and when the Pope pleased till he had done with them that is till they had made it unnecessary for him ever to have another Council But as safe as he has made himself in case there should be a General Council it cannot be denied that it is safer for him to have none And therefore presuming there shall be none for the future as we may judge by the experience of the last hundred years we come now to consider what his power is in the Intervals of Councils During these it is acknowledged by the whole Roman Church and that as well by the Laity as the Clergy that the Pope has the supreme Authority over all Christians Which being another kind of Supremacy
who fulfil the design of the Imposers in owning such men for Saints can rationally avoid the owning of their Principles And if the doing these things obliges any to own these Principles it has the same force throughout their whole Diffusive Church It is not so easie to answer the force of these Arguments as it is to produce Instances on the contrary of them that have written against this Doctrine especially in France where it is said to be disowned by a National Church But their Writings and her Declarations will stand us in no stead upon their Principles who expresly except the Case of Heresie as Cardinal Perron says they all did and instances in the most eminent of them who defended the rights of Princes against Popes before the Reformation For I think it will not be doubted that all the Writers of that Communion even those of the Gallican Church not excepted look upon us as Heretics But besides the French Church has been so far from disowning this Doctrine that they have Publicly declared for it and that no longer since than in our Fathers days It cannot yet be forgotten how the body of their Clergy as representing the Gallican Church by the mouth of their Speaker Cardinal Perron declared themselves in that famous Harangue which was printed there with Royal priviledge and sent over hither to King Iames that he might not be ignorant of their sense in this matter And they declared it not only to be the present sense of their Church but the same that it had constantly been from the first opening of her Divinity Schools till Calvins time They shew too much desire to have the French Church on their side that confront these great Testimonies with Acts of State or Declarations of Universities or with Writings of Private men When they cannot but know that according to their Principles neither Private men nor Parliaments nor Universities can pretend to be the Gallican Church in any case where they differ from the Ecclesiastics But whereas Cardinal Perron there says that all they who writ for the Rights of Princes against the Pope in those times before the Reformation did nevertheless hold that the Pope might depose any Prince that should be guilty of Heresie Though I do not engage to make good his Assertion in the utmost extent of it because it is hard to know the mind of every Writer in that Controversie yet I think it is not hard to shew as many Kings who have declared their Judgment on his side as there can be produced of those Writers to the contrary And it is no small proof of the Authority of any Doctrine when it is acknowledged by them who would have been most obliged by their Interest to have denied it if their Consciences would have given them leave For examples of this we cannot go higher than to the Emperour Henry IV. whos 's very troublesom times gave occasion to Hildebrand to bring this Doctrine first into the world And it is very observable that in the Infancy of it he that was so unfortunate to be made the first Instance of the cursed effects of this Doctrine though he denied the Popes power over him in all other respects yet he owned it in this of Heresie which is worth all the rest put together Perhaps he thought it did not concern him at first so much as he found it did afterwards For having granted that the Pope might depose him in case of Heresie it was enough Then the Pope knew what he had to do It was only to make a new Heresie of something which he would not or could not deny and then how easie was it to take away his Crown as being forfeited by his own Confession Another example of this we have in the Emperour Frederic II. Who being in no very good terms with the Pope thought to get into favour by shewing his zeal against Heresie And he shewed it sufficiently by giving the force of a Temporal Law to that Canon of their General Council of Lateran by which every Heretic is made to forfeit his Estate as well they that have no chief Lord over them as others of Inferiour rank and condition In Consequence of this when the Pope saw occasion to take away his Crown and wanted only some good colour for it among other crimes with which he charged him this was one that he was guilty of Heresie which appeared as the Pope was pleased to say by no doubtful and light but by evident Arguments for that it was manifest enough that he had run into many Perjuries These are the very words of the Sentence By which also it sufficiently appears that not only Error in Doctrine but even Vice or Misgovernment may suffice to make a Heretic when a Prince's being so will forfeit his Crown to the Pope But as Humane Nature is and in a Fortune so liable to temptation how hard a thing it is for any Prince to escape this charge while the Pope is allowed to be Judge as well who is guilty of the Fact as what Fact shall amount to a Heresie For he may as groundlesly judge one guilty of Perjury as he did in that Instance judge that guilt to be Heresie And yet both these Judgments so inseparably belong to the same Jurisdiction that they who grant him either of them ought in reason to grant him both as we have shewn they do according to the Principles of the Roman Church And whereas it is alleaged that some National Councils have declared for the Independent right of Kings though none ever did so but they are branded for it at least in all the later Editions of the Councils yet of these it is observable that they never supposed the Case of Heresie in which there is no Reason to doubt that they went with the stream of the Roman Church It is more observable that bating that Case the rights of Princes against the Pope were scarce ever maintained by any Council of any Nation or Province but those who were under the Aw of Princes And even of them very many have recanted as soon as they found themselves at liberty to do it and that Conscientiously as we have reason to believe But on the other side the most Conscientious Persons of that Communion have stood their ground in the most disadvantagious Circumstances They have stuck to it and maintained it and never recanted their Doctrine howsoever they might have some remorse at some of those horrid Practices into which they were led by it Now by the Principles of that Communion whatsoever has been the sense of their Church can never cease to be so on further trial but must be the Churches Doctrine for ever They who defend Infallibility of Judgment cannot avoid this Nor they who hold Infallibility of Tradition Since they teach that whatsoever has once prevailed and that Universally over all Churches and specially over all Conscientious Persons could never prevail so unless
it had been delivered from the beginning But of this Doctrine it has been proved that it was in the Church before those Councils above mentioned and was either declared or supposed by those General Councils therefore it must have been from Catholic Tradition And therefore according to their Principles it ought not to be called to a review much less be disbelieved or disputed by any in this present Age whatsoever advantage it may have above those former Ages in point of Learning and Monuments for the discerning of Catholic Tradition What has been said is sufficient to make it appear that all they of the Roman Church by the Principles of their Communion are obliged to maintain these Doctrines of Popery Whence it will follow that as long as they are true to those Principles we cannot be secure that they will not practise those Doctrines Therefore all the reason we can have to believe that they will do us no hurt if they are truly conscientious persons is only this that we may hope they do not yet know their Churches sense in this matter At present they do not see the repugnancy between their Duty to Princes and the Principles of their Communion But this will only secure us so long as they do not see it and that may be a very little while For as the proofs of this Inconsistency are great and notorious so they are ready to be objected to them by their Adversaries in their own Communion And therefore we can have little security of them if we can have none any longer than while we may suppose them likely to continue in this Ignorance So that the only solid and lasting reason that we have or can have to hope well of the Loyalty of any such Consciencious Persons among them must be the assurance that we have of their firmer adherence to their Duty to King and Country than to the Principles of their Communion Of these Persons we may be secured whilest they are ignorant of that Inconsistence because if they are truly such as we take them to be they cannot but think themselves bound in Conscience to deal fairly and uprightly with us And when the Papalins who will still be practising upon them shall have brought them to discern that Inconsistency the effect of it may be better than they intend For we have reason to hope that such Persons will be so far from quitting their Duty for their Communion that they may be rather induced to leave their Communion when they shall be convinced that it is not possible to maintain it without complying with those Doctrines which they have in so great detestation And these hopes of the good effect of this Countenance to them above others and of the consequent jealousie of those others of their own Communion may be a farther encouragement to zealous Protestants to fhew them this countenance Not only in regard of the security which such as these may give to the State but also in regard of the hopes that in process of these disputes among themselves they may at last by the wisdom of God be won over to the Protestant Communion And concerning these Persons for whom the favour of the Laws is desired we have reason to believe that many of them do really adhere more firmly to the sense of their duty to their Country than to that of continuing in the Roman Communion Many of them are such as have given good proof of it already of which Instances might be produced if it were necessary But to wave all Historical inquiries in this place If the State desire satisfaction herein it may be had by the form which shall be tendred to them By which they may profess that they do in Conscience believe themselves more obliged to pay their duty to their Prince and Country than to stand to the Authoritative Decision of any Judge whatsoever that is owned in the Church of that Communion The second thing objected against that discrimination here proposed is this which were considerable enough of it self but much more being added to the other It is said that we can have no assurance of any engagement they make to us they have so many ways to elude the force of it what by Equivocation and Mental Reservation what by Popes Dispensations by their Doctrine of Probability and the rest There are so many of them that considered one after another they look like a contrivance to destroy all Faith among men For when we think our selves assured by their Promise and especially when confirmed with an Oath yet by Equivocation that Oath in their sense shall signifie quite otherwise than was meant by them that made or imposed it If they do not Equivocate yet they may have some mental Reservation saying inwardly not or something else that quite alters the meaning of what is spoken And if they Swear without either of these tricks yet they may believe the Pope can dispense with that Oath or he can absolve them when they have taken it And though the Pope should not do this yet their Church hath given them the President of breaking Faith with known Heretics And if they make Conscience of that yet it may be some Doctors opinion that there is something unlawful in this Oath which though they did not discover before and therefore took it yet having discovered this after they may think themselves not obliged by it And though they should not be of this Doctors opinion yet that extrinsic probability of this Doctors Authority may be enough to sway them against their own convictions to the contrary The Probability that there is of their holding all these opinions as having been held by Doctors of Reputation among them and none of them ever censured for it by the Church though she hath taken all possible care to censure all such opinions as may be any way contrary either to her Judgment or Interest this presumption is sufficient to persuade private persons that their Church though perhaps she may not believe them true yet believeth them not hurtful or dangerous to her Children And if a Doctrine hath no danger in it though it prove to be false yet the security of it is inducement enough for men to practise it These Principles will the rather hold because according to their other Principles they are taught to relie on the Judgment of their Church in matters of belief even where they cannot do it without renouncing their own Judgment And in this Objection it is very considerable that it is not so easie as it was in the former to distinguish who they are that do indeed hold these dangerous Principles Only we have reason to suspect all them that keep to that Communion upon Principles of Conscience For they must think themselves bound in Conscience to hold these Principles to be practicable because they are so according to the Principles of their Communion And they who are once suspected upon prudent grounds can neither
truly Criminal or are justly suspected of being so even for their refusing of such a Test. And then that due severity which may be thought necessary to preserve the State from their practising against it may be executed on them with less colour of exception to the Penalties They who have extolled the Loyalty of their forefathers in making those Laws already mentioned cannot except against the Penalties mentioned in those Laws They cannot pretend that there was any other Cause of severity in them but their care for the security of the Public for they were otherwise of their own Communion and therefore could not be liable to any suspition of that rigour against them of which they may suspect us in regard of our differences of Communion For other penalties I say no more but leave them to the wisdom of the State who best know that due measure of severity that is requisite in our present Circumstances For as their case may in some Reasons vary from the condition of them against whom those Laws were made so it is fit that their punishments should do so too whether their case be more excusable now or then that also I do not take upon me to determine For them who will take the Test so contrived and that as oft as the State shall require it were fit that such favour be shewn to them as may consist with the safety of the State And all the favour which themselves have desired is their exemption from Sanguinary Laws and protection against their Popish Adversaries and permission to live in their Country upon the same terms as other dissenters do who are as Innocent as themselves will be upon this supposal As for Places of trust they do not pretend to them Which may be a security against all reasonable jealousies For other Laws which have been made against the forein Education of their Children they will not then have the pretence of any necessity for it when they may have them taught at home by persons well affected to the State and yet otherwise of their own Religion And they will have no excuse if they do it without any necessity So that they cannot object against any Determination that the State shall think fit to make in that particular whether the Laws now in force shall be continued or changed and if continued under whatsoever Conditions and Penalties it should be done And if it be thought fit to impose on them such small pecuniary Penalties as may only oblige them in Interest to endeavour the farther satisfaction of their Conscience it might be convenient that those sums were applied to maintain converts to the Church and to reward them that shall inform the State how these things are observed among them This will be likely to keep up the practice of these Laws when they cannot be secured from discoverers among themselves And may also be a means by degrees to reduce them to the Communion of the Church in order to the capacitating of them for farther favours Thus much was in Prudence necessary to be said to shew as well the Practicableness as the Convenience of this Proposal The Convenience has appeared in the Discourse it self and the Practicableness in the Answer to the Objections For other more particular Expedients I leave them to the Prudence of the State whose most proper Office it is and who are best acquainted with all particular Circumstances to determine FINIS a P. 44. these ten years P. 50. March was twelve month P. 66 M. Luzance 's case b Chiefly from p. 80. till the Conclusion All Churches and Sects are Popish according to some mens Notions of Popery No Rites nor Doctrines common to other Churches which are not in Communion with the Pope can be Popish but in a false Notion of the word The true Notion of Popery describ'd Of the Pope's Authority over all Christians This Authority was the first thing in Popery All other Popish Errours were brought in by it This Authority is the chief thing in Popery a Poli. Reformatio Angliae decr 1. b Ib. decr 2. c Conc. Lateran V. Sess. 2. d Sess. 3. e Sess. 4. f Sess. 11. g Conc. Trident. Sess. 25. decr de Reform c. 21. h Ib. c. 2. i Ib. in Contin decr 5. Obedience to this Authority the only sure property of Roman Catholicks Camd. Eliz. anno 1560. It is also the worst thing in Popery * Martyrolog Roman Maii 25. * Rev. 13.5 * Luke 4.6 It is worst in the Construction of the Law Camd. Eliz. Anno 1571. Ib. Anno 1577. Ib. Anno 1581. * Rishton says it of himself in his virulent Cont. of Sand. de Schism Angl. Papist an equivocal word Improperly Papists * R. C. i. e. Ricardus Chalcedonensis alias Dr. Smith the last Roman Catholick Bishop that pretended Jurisdiction here in England was of this mind as appears by his Book against the Bishop of Derry entituled A Brief Survey c. Vid. cap. 5. p. 55. where he says 't is no point of Faith whether the Pope be St. Peter's Succeffor Iurâ— Divino or Humano Half-Papists Throrough-Papists Their Description Zenzelini Glossa Dominus Deus noster Papa Vid. Glos. Extravag Cum inter de verb. signif Edit Paris An. 1585. The main Argument Undistinguishing Severity is not the way to suppress Popery It would be ineffectual 2. It would not seem just and equitable It is so expresly provided in 27 Eliz. for fthe Oath of Supremacy and 3 Iac. for the Oath of Allegiance Justitia Britannica 8 o. Lond. 1584. and K. Iames works p. 252. 336. and K. Charles I. vol. 1. p. 384. * 1666 Iun. 11. V. Hist. of Irish Remonstrance part 2. page 671. * Dated 1533. Aug. 30. Camden Eliz. an 1592. Ibid. an 1602. pag. 276. * He writ his Books in the name of Widdrington The Pope and his party are against the distinguishing of Roman Catholicks * Pref. of his Book against Fitz Herbert the Jesuite * Father Fitz Herbert Hist. of the Irish Remons Part 1. p. 515. Two ways useful to the Pope's design against England I. An undistinguishing execution of the Laws agaiâ—st Popery II. Toleration Toleration is a way to destroy the establish'd Religion Toleration would weaken the Civil Government V. Dr. Baily's Life of B. Fisher about the end of it A Toleration would increase the number of Papists The true way to suppress Popery is by Severity to Papists and Clemency to other Roman Catholicks John 16.2 1 Pet. 2.14 Prov. 14.34 Isa. 28.19 Euseb. Hist. Eccl. V. 24. Vales. in locum Firmilians Epistle among Cyprian's Epist. 75. pag. 166. edit Rigaltii Cypr. Epist. 74. 75. Vide Rigalt in Cyprian Epist. 75. Iuly 28. and August 2. * Cyprian Ep. 74. 75. †Rigalt Obs. in Ep. 75. * Almost 22 years after the Reign of Alexander Severus Cyprian Epist. 75. p. 160. * In their Synodical Epist. * See in the Codex Canonum Universalis Ecclesiae or in the Councils Concil