to God I know not I love Cartesian Philosophy the worse because its principle is so congruous to this And their Doctrine of lawful hiding their Religion by Equivocation is commonly known And what they say about coming to our Churches I have formerly cited at large out of Thom. a Jesu and the lawfulness of denying the person of a Clergie-man or a Religious man And the ground of all because humane Laws for the most part bind not the Subjects Conscience when there is great hazard of life as Azorius hath well taught Inst Moral To. 1. l. 8. c. 27. See the Authors words de Convers Gent. li. 5. Dub. 4. pag. 218. and Dub. 5. p. 218 219. and Dub. 6. p. 220. We may find them in our Churches and garb when their interest requires it But again I must for all these points refer the Reader to my forementioned Book A Key for Catholicks The history of the Papacie being thus briefly given you I should next briefly tell you I. What a Pope is II. What a Papist is III. What the present Papal Church is But it requireth more than this short Writing to open any one of these to the full But take this breviate CHAP. VI. What the Pope is 1. WE are not to describe the Bishop of Rome as he was at the beginning but as in that Stature to which he is since grown up And so unmeasurable a Potentate must be described to you but by parts and inadequate Conceptions And I will no more undertake to enumerate all than to Name all the Kingdoms known and unknown to us Europeans which he claimeth the Government of But I remember who it was that shewed Christ all the Kingdoms of the world and said All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Math. 4. 9. Or as Luk. 4. 6. All this Power will I give thee and the Glory of them for that is delivered to me and to whomsoever I will I give it I. The Pope of Rome is an Usurper who from the lawful Episcopacy of one particular Church aspired to be a Bishop over many Churches and Bishops and a Metropolitan and thence to be a Patriarch and the first Patriarch in the Roman Empire in order of Dignity and entred a Contest for the Primacie with his Competitor of Constantinople which is not ended to this day And next claimed an Universal Government in the Empire as well as a Primacy And also the Government of such Neighbour Churches as had once been in the Empire or had been lately converted by any of his Clergie And lastly being made a King of Rome or Secular Prince in Italy he also claimed a Monarchy or Government over all the world under the name of Ecclesiastical All this is proved in the foregoing History of the Papacy and may better be found out by any that will peruse the History of the Church and Empire than by particular Citations II. By the name of Ecclesiastical power he understandeth not only that which is truly spiritual or sacerdotal by which Gods word is preached and applyed to particular persons by reception into Christian Communion and exclusion from it sententially But also a power of erecting Courts of Judicature in all Kingdoms to judge of cases about Ministers Temples Tythes Testaments Administration of Goods Lawfulness of Marriages Divorces and many such like in a manner of Constraint which is proper to the Magistrate Abusively calling this the Ecclesiastical Power in foro exteriore distinct from the sacerdotal in foro interiore cheating the World with words Experience fully proveth this III. For the performance of this Deceit they appropriate to Princes and other Magistrates the Titles of CIVIL or SECULAR making the world believe that as Soul and Body differ so the Pope and his Clergie being Governours of the Soul or in order to salvation excel Kings and Magistrates who are but Governours for bodily welfare and Civil Peace Whereas indeed the difference of the Offices of Christian Magistrates and Pastors is not that one is but for the Body and the other for the Soul for both are to further mens Salvation and true Religion and the obedience of Gods Laws in order thereto But it is in this that Princes and Magistrates have the Power of Governing men in things Secular and Religious within their true Cognisance by the Sword that is by external Compulsion and Coercion by Mulcts and Penalties forcibly executed whereas the Pastors have only the Charge of Teaching men Christs Doctrine and Guiding the Church in the administration of Gods Worship and by the Keys or Authority from Christ judging who is capable or uncapable of Church Communion and declaring pardon and Salvation to the penitent for their Comfort and the contrary to the impenitent for their humiliation and all this only by Word of Mouth without any Constraining force Proof of the Character Pope Innoc. 3. vid. Cosins Hist Transub p. 147 148 God made two great Lights in the Firmament of Heaven and of the Universal Church that is he instituted two Dignities which are the Pontifical Authority and the Regal Power But that which ruleth the Day that is things spiritual is the greatest and that which ruleth carnal things is the less that it may be known that the difference between Popes and Kings is such as is the difference between the Sun and the Moon If this were true the lowest Priest were incomparably more honourable or amiable than Kings as the Soul is more excellent than the Body But David Solomon Hezekiah Josiah and all good Kings did shew that Religion was the matter of their Government and the principal part of their care Read for this fully Bishop Bilson of Christian obedience Bishop Buckeridge for the Magistrates Power and Bishop Andrews Tortura Torti excellent discourses against the Papal Usurpation IV. The Office which he thus claimeth as over all the Earth is to be the Vicar of Christ or of God or the Vice-Christ or Vice-God as Kings have their Vice-Kings in remote Provinces Proved I have elsewhere cited the words of Popes saying that they are Vice-Christi and Vice-Dei at large And Pope Julius's words we holding the place of the Great God the Maker of all things and all Laws And Carol. Boverius's words Consult de Rat. fidei c. to our late King saying Besides Christ the Invisible Head of the Church there is a necessity that we acknowledge another certain visible Head subrogate to Christ and instituted of him c. And Card. Betrand's words in Biblioth Patrum that saith Almighty God had not been wise else if he had not sent One only to Govern the world under him And Boverius reason Christ was himself on Earth once a visible Monarch And if the Church had need of a visible Monarch it hath need of one still Christ said that it was necessary that he went away that the Paraclete might come whom Tertullian calleth his Agent But the Papists will not part
the Votes of all the Christian World 3. And have all that were converted in the Apostles days and since first known the Major Vote of the Christians or were they converted by the foreknown Infallibility or Authority of the Majority or of the Pope Some will say we see the Madness of this Popery but how then do you say that the faith must be received if not from the Church I answer I have told you at large in a Treatise called The Reasons of the Christian Religion and briefly in a smaller Treatise called The certainty of Christianity without Popery Briefly Judging is one thing and Teaching is another thing Before I submit to the Decision of a Judge I must know his Commission or Authority and I must then stand to his Sentence which way ever he decide the Case Men be not converted to Christianity by such Judges but by Teachers Nor will I believe the Judge if he say there is no Christ no Life to come c. But a Teacher is to make intelligible to his Hearer or Scholar the evidence of truth which is in the matter taught and to draw men to believe by telling them those true reasons upon which he did believe himself And no man takes him for his Teacher that he is perswaded knoweth no more than himself And the greater reputation of Knowledge and Honesty the Teacher hath the easier we apply our minds to learn of him and a humane trust or faith prepareth us to receive that evidence of truth which may beget a Divine Faith by the help of Grace But still the Learner truly believeth no more than he thus learneth And I may hear a stranger tell what he hath to say and be convinced by the evidence that he giveth me of the truth though I know not of any Authority that he hath to teach me much less judicially to decide the Case I little doubt but most that were converted by the Apostles themselves were perswaded to believe in Christ by the evidence of truth proposed the Spirit co-operating before they knew of any Authority of the Apostles much less before they heard what they said in a General Council or what was the Vote of the Universal Church or what any Pope said as Ruler of the rest These things are very plain and sure and they that will be wilfully blinded by faction and prejudice and worldly interest against plain truth have no excuse if they perish in darkness II. A PAPIST of this sort is one that believeth that the Pope of Rome is the rightful Governour of all the world that is that all Christians immediately and all Infidels and Heathens mediately are bound by God to obey him as Christs Vicegerent on Earth And that he with his Council is thus an Universal Lawgiver and Judge to all Kings States and Persons that dwell round about the Earth But a Protestant denyeth this and holdeth that there is no Universal Monarch or Legislator to all the world but God and our Saviour and that he hath made no such Vice-Christ or Vicegerent and that such a Claim is High-Treason as usurping his Prerogative And that if Pride had not in tantum made them mad no men could think themselves thus capable of Governing all the World Protestants believe that there is no such thing on Earth as an Universal Church headed by any mortal Head Pope or Council but that Christ is the only Universal Governour or Head III. This Papist is one that holdeth that the Church of Christ on Earth is no bigger than the Popes Dominion and that it is necessary to salvation to be subject to the Pope and consequently he unchurcheth two or three parts of the Christian world and damneth most of the Body of Christ and robbeth him of the greatest part of his Kingdom as far as denying his Right amounts to And consequently is a notorious Schismatick or Sectary appropriating the Church title only to his Sect. This is proved before from the Masters of their Religion IV. This Papist is one that holdeth that those Councils which were General as to one Empire were General as to all the Christian world And that such General Councils there must be if it please the Pope to call them though they must come from all the Quarters of the Earth and whence they have no Sea passage and out of the Empires of many Princes and many that are Enemies to the Christian Name and perhaps at Wars with Christians and when the Voyage or Journey is such that if the Churches be deprived of a thousand Bishops twenty of them are never like to live to return home to the remotest Nations Nor could they converse as a Council by reason of the number and diversity of Languages if they were equally gathered Or they hold that if a small part of the Christian World assemble as at Trent when the rest cannot come this is an Universal Council of and to all the Christian World V. This Papist is one that holdeth If a fallible Pope and a fallible General Council do but agree their Decrees are infallible As if an unlearned Pope e. g. that understands not the Text of Scripture in the Original and an unlearned Council as to the most should agree their Decrees would be learned e. g. in judging which is the true Translation of a Tongue which they never understood As if ten purblind men if they meet together might produce the Effects of the clearest sight or Fools by conjunction become wise VI. He holdeth that Tradition from Fathers to Children is the sure way of conveying all the matter of Faith and Religion and yet that the greatest General Councils which are the Church representative may erre in matter of Faith and have erred unless a Pope who is fallible approve of their Decrees VII And when he hath trusted to this way of Tradition he denyeth the Judgment and Tradition professed by the greater half or the Christian World VIII He believeth that all men are bound on pain of damnation to believe that the Senses and perception of all men in the World are deceived in apprehending that after Consecration there is true Bread and Wine in the Sacrament And he that will so believe his own and others Senses should suffer as an Heretick and be rooted out of all the Dominions of all Christian Lords on Earth So merciful is he to his Neighbours For an approved General Council hath decreed this and such Councils are his Religion Were it his own Father or Mother Wife or Child that cannot thus renounce all his own and other mens Senses and believe that there is no Bread or Wine in spight of his sight taste touch c. he believeth that they should be burnt as Hereticks or exterminated He may be a good naetur'd man that is loth it should be so or he may be one that is ignorant of his own Religion and doth not know that this is one Article of Popery or he may be an unconscionable man that
should on such Terms be of one Religion They believe Socrates and Sozomen who tell us of the great diversity of Rites and Orders in the ancient Churches which all consisted with the same Religion Faith and Love They abhor the Principle of hating persecuting yea and separating from one another for such differences as will unavoidably adhere to the imperfect condition of Christians here on Earth At this time in England a considerable part if not the far greatest of the silenced Ministers are for the Primitive Episcopacy and some Liturgie as you may see in their offer of A. Bishop Usher's Reduction to the King and their desires of a reformed Liturgie Among the old Non-conformists there were divers degrees such as Dr. Regnolds Mr. Perkins Dr. Humfrey Paul Bayn c. did yield to more than some others could do How can you tell then by the name of a Puritane what to charge any single Person with But it seemeth you take their Non-conformity in General and their temper of mind and life together But then you greatly wrong them and seem not at all to know what their Religion is There are two things which you say they mistake in 1. Their Doctrine of Imputed Righteousness and the Covenant and not solicitously endeavouring after the acquisition of Virtue because they trust to the Imputed Righteousness your words are too large to recite You partly here unworthily injure them by ascribing to them the very opinions and words of the Antinomians whom they have better confuted than ever you did And as to their Doctrine of Imputed Righteousness even Bellarmine in one sense owneth it And whether our sense be sound I provoke you to try particularly by your perusal of my own Writings on that Subject especially a late Treatise of Justifying Righteousness and Imputation and a Treatise called Catholick Theologie In which if there be nothing which you dare or can confute judge whether your meer derision of Imputative Righteousness be not delusory If you dare say that you trust not to Christs Sacrifice and meritorious perfect righteousness as procuring you pardon and life Jus ad Impunitatem Regnum Coelorum enjoy your self-confidence while you can But if you say in this as we then make publick Confession of the injury of your reproach of such Imputed Righteousness as you trust your salvation upon your self I imagine you will say that my judgment is no certain signification of the judgment of the Puritans for I am singular and therefore what I say in these Books is no proof of the sense of the Non-conforming Puritans But 1. my judgment of their sense is as good as yours 2. Do you know of any one Nonconformist that hath published any dissent to what I have written Dr. Tully was a Conformist 3. You profess before to borrow the name Puritan from the Prelatists And I have this to say for my Authority in declaring the sense of Puritans that one or more whose genius is of kin to the Roman but far less mild than yours who are Prelatical or super-Prelatical have about 17 years ago being Masters of that Language branded me with the Name of Purus putus Puritanus qui totum Puritanismum totus spirat The Pseudo-Tilenus hath just the same stile as the late Unmasker of the Presbyterians who revileth modest judicious pious and peaceable J. Corbet and in the most ingenious strain of wrath and malice doth valiantly militate against Love Therefore Prelatists being Judges I may as credibly as another tell you what is the Puritan Judgment 2. Your second accusation of the Puritan is that He begins to quarrel with all external Worship and Ceremonies But this is also spoken ignorantly and untruly You before mistook the Antinomian for the Puritan and here you seem to take the Separatist for the Puritan Read the Reformed Liturgy and other Papers offered at the Savoy to the Bishops and you may see that though they are not for silencing excommunicating and damning men for a Ceremony nor for making as many Religions as there are differences about Ceremonies yet they are for doing all things to edification decently and in order and for external as well as internal Worship of God As knowing that the Body is his and made to Worship him as well as the Soul and therefore should fall down and kneel before him and reverently and holily behave it self in his Service You say p. 5. He is much confirmed in this his imagination by considering the open profaneness and little sense of God he observeth generally in zealous Conformists And on the other side he taketh notice of his Brethren the Non-conformists that they are generally free from open and scandalous sins and at least sigh and breath after interior spirit and devotion which certainly must be that must give us a title to Heaven rather than a few Cringes and exterior Verbal Devotions which any one though never so prophane may easily exercise 1. But do you not here and in your former description quite contradict your self when you charge them as neglecting inherent righteousness 2. We are not so foolish as not to know that the unreverent hypocritical abuse of Gods external Worship by others whosoever will not excuse us for neglecting it Of the Conformists we must speak anon 3. By the way I would you could impartially consider if the Puritans be so good men as you fairly confess them to be what the reason is that Papists generally are far more fiery against them than against those whom you speak so meanly of as Prelatical Protestants Remember how your Writer after the London Fire answered by Dr. Lloid did flatter these as more suitable to the Papists genius in comparison of the Puritans And the Unmasker against J. Corbet will tell you out of Watson an honourable Witness hanged for Treason in Cobham's c. Conspiracy how bad the Puritans are comparing them with the Jesuites And if your Laws took place in England what abundance of these Puritans would you make Bonfires of yea your own Relations were not like to scape you They have told me to my face how quickly they would otherwise silence me than the Prelates do if I were in their power And the Decrees De Haereticis comburendis exterminandis more fully tell it us Yea whence is it that most certain experience proveth it that by how much the nearer any Protestants genius is to the Papists by so much the more bloody cruel malicious or slanderous and unmerciful he is to the Puritanes You 'll say for both that it is because the Puritans are most against them and Interest ruleth the World But I answer 1. God's Interest is highest with every true Christian 2. I confess it 's true that Puritans are most against Popery But truly as far as I have been acquainted with them they are not most against your Persons nor would have any injustice or cruelty exercised against you But the fear of your Faggots or Powder-Plots and such
Answ 1. Here you shew what things they be that you turn Papist for Is not eating Flesh on Frydays Lent or Vigils a worthy matter to make another Religion of or to prove men to be of differing Churches 2. I told you before that the Puritans judgment is as Paul's that such things should be left indifferent or at least make no breach among us by our judging or despising one another And that neither the Pope nor any men on Earth have Authority to make Universal Laws for them to all the Christian World and that there is no true Tradition of Apostolical Institution of them But yet that such Fasts and Feasts as are appointed by true Authority of Prince or Pastors not against the Laws of God and such as shall be proved to be instituted by the Apostles they will observe 3. But the poor Puritan is indeed in hard Circumstances were there no life after this Some of them have no Flesh to eat either on Frydays or any day in the Week but live thankfully upon Bread and Milk and some such things Fish they would gladly eat if they could get it There are now among them such as with many Children have for a long time lived almost only on brown Rye-bread and Water Many of them take it for a sufficient quantity to eat one temperate Meal a day though they are in no want and the Papist that forbeareth Flesh and eateth better than the Puritan feasteth with or that fasteth with one Meal a day which is many Puritans fullest Dyet doth condemn the poor Puritan as an Heretick and perhaps burn him at a Stake or cast him into the Inquisition for not Fasting Poor John Calvin did eat but one small Meal a day and the Papist who fast much at the rate as Calvin feasted record him for a gluttonous person And so did the Pharisees by Christ and his Disciples why do not thy Disciples fast c. II. Your second Instance is The Prelatick Protestant wonders the Puritan should scruple adorning the Communion Table with two Wax Tapers c. Ans The former Answer serveth to this Hear O ye Puritans wherein the Roman Religion doth surpass yours Their Altars have lighted Tapers on Do you not deserve to be burnt your selves if you will not burn Candles on your Altars Yea the Pope who hath power to set up and take down Emperours and Kings being not only the King of Rome but the Monarch of the whole World doth appoint these Lights as a Professing sign before God and Man that he is of that Church which in the Primitive Times for fear of Persecution served God by Candle-light in Dens and Caves And is not this to prove the immutability of their Church that vary not in a Circumstance from the Apostolioal Institution Doth his domineering over Kings and Nations and the Hosts of Great Princes Cardinals Prelates Abbots Clergy Regulars Seculars that obey him shew also that he is of that old Candle-lighted Church But while you seem still to plead Apostolical Tradition for all these Great Parts of your Religion tell the poor Puritan whether it was by Prophesie or how else that the Apostles delivered to the Church the use of these Lighted Tapers in commemoration of that which was done in Dens long after the death of these Apostles I doubt rather the Pope doth by this practice condemn himself and sets up these Lights to shew the World how much he and his Church are changed since those forementioned days III. You next say The Prelatick Protestant wonders what hurt the Puritan can see in making the sign of that on the forehead of a new baptized Infant yet smiles at a Papist when he makes it on himself or his Victuals c. Ans None of us are ashamed of the Cross of Christ nor loth to profess this as openly as you But if we do it by Word by Writing by Obeying or by Suffering we are of another Religion from you it seems by you unless we will do it also by crossing The Jews were the Cross-makers And there are now so many Cross-makers in the World whose Trade we like not that we are not forward to set up their sign at our doors But yet there are Puritans and Prelatists that were they among the Deriders of a Crucified Christ where the use were not a Formality or worse but convenient to tell the Infidels their mind that they are not ashamed of the Cross of Christ would not refuse seasonably to Cross themselves But the Puritans think that when it is made a solemn stated sign of the Duty and Grace of the New Covenant dedicating there by the person to God as one hereby obliging himself to profess the Faith of Christ Crucified and manfully to fight under his Banner against the Devil the World and the Flesh to the death in hope of the Benefits of his Cross and Covenant and so is made a Badge or Symbol of our Christianity then it is made a Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace added to Christs Sacrament of the same use or at least too like it though the Name be denyed it And they think that Christ hath given none power to make such new Sacraments or Symbols of Christianity he having done that sufficiently himself They have a conceit that the King would not be pleased with them that either frame a new Oath of Allegiance added to his as the Badge of his Subjects Loyalty nor yet that would make a new Badge of the Order of the Knights of the Garter without his consent At least the Puritans think that Baptism and Christianity and Christian Burial should not be denyed to those Children whose Parents do not offer them to be baptized with this additional Symbol And if the poor men be deceived in such thoughts it is but in fear of sinning against Christ and not that they are more ashamed of his Cross than you or more disobedient to Authority IV. Your next instance is The Prelatick Protestant wonders that the Puritane can doubt the holy Euchrist is really and truly the body of Christ c. And you cite Dr. Cosins Hist Transub p. 44. Answ 1. The Prelatick Protestant and the Puritane differ not at all about the real presence of Christs body in the Sacrament as I have shewed you elsewhere What need you more proof than King Edwards old Rubrick against the Real Presence in a gross sence lately restored to the Liturgie And as for Dr. Cosins words and book I again tell you all the Doctors of the Roman Church are never able to answer his full proof that Transubstantiation is a late innovation and none of the doctrine of the ancient Churches We challenge you all to give any reasonable answer to that book And you still Cunningly bawke the main Controversie between us and you which is not whether Christs Body be there but whether Bread and Wine be there For I have told you 1. That we who know not how far a Glorified
eighth Instance is about praying for the dead But whatever you say of the Rector of S. Martins in Oxford there is no difference between the Puritans and the Prelatick Protestants in that point You mistake the matter It is another passage or two or three at Burial which the Puritan sticks at viz. which pronounceth of every individual person in the Kingdom Atheists Infidels Papists and Impenitent Sinners that we bury except only the Excommunicate Unbaptized and Self-murderers that God of his mercy hath taken to himself the Soul of this our dear Brother out of the miseries of this sinful life c. IX Your last Instance indeed toucheth the quick of our Controversie with Rome You say The Prelatick Protestant wonders at the Puritan's Pride that he will not submit his judgment in matters of Faith to the determination of a Council of all the Reverend Bishops of the Land his Majesty as Supreme Head and Governour presiding yet submit not to the determination of a General Council of all the Learned Bishops of the Christian World his Holiness the Pope as Supreme Pastor presiding and believe as the Universal Church of Christ believeth It 's fitting says the Conformist that for Order sake in Christs Church there should be in every Nation some Supreme Governours to whose Directions in matters of Divine Worship all should submit else we shall have as many Christian Religions and ways of Worship as there are Parishes Families or Persons The Puritan replyeth It seems as rational that Christ should for the same Reasons of conserving union decency and order in his Church appoint one Supreme Pastor over all Christians dispersed in all the Nations of the World whom all should obey in the vacancy of General Councils Ans This desenveth our wakeful Remarks I. So your sacred Cardinal Bertrand in Biblioth Patrum said that God had not been wise else if he had not placed one Supreme as his Vicar over the World And so you can tell what God hath done by your superlative Wit which can tell us what he ought to do God doth all wisely But if he had not made an Universal Head of the World under him he had not done wisely ergo he hath made such an Head c. This is Historical Logick II. But is this Monarch the Head in Civil Government or only in Ecclesiastick Why is your One Church no more One in answering this Question Nay why were poor Barclay Withrington and such others whose Writings Goldastus hath preserved so hardly judged of for pleading for Kings Supremacy in Civil Government And if you are of their mind tell us if you can why God must not be judged as unreasonable and unwise if he have not made One Universal Civil Monarch of all the World I undertake when you will come to a due tryal to prove that Civil Government is such as may as well and far better be done by Officers and Deputies than the Ecclesiastical Government can And I pray who is the Universal Monarch Or who must be he Or how must he be chosen I would have our King have no mortal King set over him at least without a chusing Vote And shall they meet in a General Council of Kings to chuse one By that time the Place and Time be agreed on and the Kings have all left their Kingdoms and be come from the Antipodes and the Terra Australis incognita and all other Kingdoms to that Council to chuse a Monarch of the World they will be too old to return home again Or shall they fight it out till one have Conquered all the rest Alas who shall bear the charge of the Conquest at the Antipodes and who shall answer for all the Blood When one cannot get all Europe at a cheaper rate than will be expressed by many Kingdoms groans and the Soil dunged with mens flesh and blood I have long ago on this subject given in my Key for Catholicks an Answer to Richlieu and to Carol. Boverius who wrote for the Honour of Ecclesiastick Monarchy from the similitude of Civil to have perverted our late King as if he would have made him believe that the World must have one mortal Monarch Contrarily If it be Madness and Hostility to all Kings and States for any one man on earth to claim and seek to be the Monarch of all the World in Civil Government it is madness and hostility to Kings Pastors and People for any one man to claim and seek to be the Monarch of all the World in Ecclesiastick Government But the former is true Ergo so is the latter I am ready to make good the Comparison III. But Sir if the Pope be S. Peter's Successor is not his Apostolick office as Universal as his Monarchy or Ruling office Surely the first part of the Apostles office was to preach and baptize and make Christians and gather Churches and the Governing of them was but the second part And is the Pope the Apostle of all the world Then it seemeth that he is a betrayer of most of the whole earth to the Devil that neither preacheth to them per se vel per alios But S. Peter's Charge was not Vniversal but Indefinite And even as to Government why did he never so much as send his Deputies to govern the Abassins for so many hundred years Nay hence it seemeth to follow that all the preaching and Church-order that hath been for so many hundred years either there or in any other Nation by which millions have been turned to Christianity and edified without the mission or Commission of the Roman Monarch should have been left undone and all was unlawful IV. But must your Pope be obeyed as Supreme but in the Vacancy of General Councils Dare you preach this at Rome 1. How then come the Councils of Constance and Basil for such Doctrine to be unapproved or reprobate Councils How came Pope Eugenius to keep up and continue the succession when so great a General Council had deposed him as Heretical Simoniacal and many ways flagitious 2. And what Have we a Catholick Church with two Heads that are pervices the Vicars of Christ A Pope one year and a Council another Then sure they are two Churches seeing the Pars imperans is the specifying part 3. But the best is it is at the Pope's will whether ever there shall be a General Council more And he knoweth which side his Bread is Buttered on Nay they say no Decree is valid without his approbation And if ever a John or Eugenius of them all will approve of his own Deposition for Heresie Simony Adultery c. he is not the Man that I took him for 4. But if the name General Council be not a Cheat and taken for a Council very far from being General as to the whole Christian World let the Pope set his heart at rest I will undertake to secure him from the danger of such a Council and to prove that such there never ought to be will
Souls in Purgatory or for praying to the Virgin Mary and abundance such if Holy Water alone would do all the Business Was not he much overseen or did grosly prevaricate that drew up this Charge Might I but chuse my Adversaries Advocate and agree with him to say nothing but what I can disprove I would certainly have the better and be justified VII The next part is And as for his obedience to Magistrates if they be not of his Religion he owes them no allegiance And if he have by Oath obliged himself he has a holy Father can dispense with him for that or any other Oath for a piece of Money If his Prince persecute him for his Religion let him but have so much desperate courage as to sacrifice his own life to stab or poyson his said Persecutor he shall at Rome be canonized for a Saint Nor can private Persons expect any fidelity from him when he is thus traiterously rebellious against his Liege Lord and Soveraign c. Ans Now I perceive you are over bold and do too hardly blush when you have the face to bring in such an instance and by the inserting of a word or two of your own to dare to wash off from your Religion the blot of Perfidiousness and Rebellion when it is part of the Decrees of your approved General Council The Prevaricator wrongeth you 1. By making not of his Religion to be all that 's necessary to free you from allegiance 2. By putting in or any other Oath for a piece of Money I have not yet found that the Pope undertaketh to dispense with a man that will swear to believe the Roman Church or the rest in Pope Pius his Trent Oath nor yet with the Vow of Baptism if seconded by an Oath 3. By saying only If his Prince persecute him for the Doctors say that he must be first excommunicate or a Heretick at least and some say he must have the Pope's Order before he may kill a King and the Council only speaketh of Deposing and not of killing 4. And the Prevaricator too rashly promised Canonizing He that murdered one of the French Kings was but praised in an Oration by the Pope proved by many but not Canonized Garnet was not every one But because I see you grow so bold and also in what follows return to what you had said before I will instead of following you farther tell you what such as I mean by a Papist and what some other men mean by him CHAP. V. The true History of the Papacy its original and growth THough I reserve the opening of the ambiguities of the word Papist till near the end I shall so far anticipate that as to tell you here also that the word PAPIST is equivocal I. In the sense of Grotius and all our Reverend Country-men that are of his judgment Papists are those that without any difference do approve of all the sayings and doings of Popes for honour or lucre sake as is usual Discus p. 15. If of all then of all the Adulteries Murders Simonie Heresie Infidelity charged on some of them by their own Writers and by Councils I am sorry if this be usual I hope yet that there are few of these Papists in the World and that few Popes themselves will deny that they are sinners But he elsewhere desireth the Reformation 1. Of some bold disputes of the School-men 2. And the ill lives of the Clergie 3. And some Customs which have neither Councils nor Tradition II. Some who are for the Supremacy of General Countils above the Pope do call those Papists that are for the Pope's Supremacy above such Councils or that give him the Legislative as well as the Judicial Power over the Universal Church Though themselves give him the Supreme Judicial Power when there is no General Council III. Protestants call those Papists who hold that the Roman Pope is rightfully the Governour of the Universal Church on Earth either as to Legislative or Judicial-executive Power either with Councils or without Two things are here included in our Judgment 1. That there is no rightful Universal Governour under Christ over all the Church on Earth either as to Legislation or Judgment 2. That the Roman Pope therefore is no such Governour In this third sense now I am to tell you what we Protestants mean by a Papist more particularly And first I must tell you what a POPE is before I can well tell you what a Papist is Which I shall do I. De facto Historically II. De jure as to the Power which he claimeth I. A long time the Bishops of Rome were seldome called Popes and other Bishops were so called as well as they At first the Bishops of Rome were pious persecuted Men and many of them Martyrs and usurped no Power over any Churches but their own which with Alexandria were the two first that brake Ignatius his Test of Unity who saith To every Church there is one Altar and one Bishop with his fellow Presbyter and Deacons But Rome having long called her self the Mistris of the World and being the Seat of the Empire and Senate and of the Governing Power of the orbis Romanus the Christians there grew greater than others and the Bishop as it increased kept it under his Power And when Christians had peace which was under the far greatest part of the Heathen Emperours and for the far longest time the Greatness of Rome giving Greatness to that Church and so to the Bishop and great opportunity to help other Churches because the Governing Power of the Empire was there this Bishop grew to be of greatest wealth and interest And in times of Peace the Strife which Christ once ended was taken up among the Bishops which of them should be the greatest And St. Paul having taught Christians that they should not go voluntarily to Law against each other before Heathens if there were but a wise man among them to be an Arbitrator the Christians supposing that they had none wiser or fitter than their Bishop made him their Common Arbitrator in things Civil as well as Ecclesiastical By which means Custom making it like a Law Bishops became de facto Church-Magistrates But they had no Power to execute any Penal Laws either Jewish or Roman or to make any of their own except as Arbitrators or Doctors to those that would voluntarily receive them And they had no Power of Life and Death nor to dis-member any nor to beat or scourge them nor to Fine them or Confiscate their Estates But being entrusted by Christ as his Ministers with the Power of the Church-Keys and by the People with the Power of Civil Arbitrations they were by this the stated Governours of all Christians who yet obeyed the Roman Heathen Magistrates but brought none of their own differences voluntarily before them And because that Multitudes of Heresies took advantage of the Churches liberty and swarmed among them to their great weakning and disgrace and christ
had commanded his Servants to serve him in as much Unity and Concord as they could duty and necessity drove the Pastors of the Churches to Correspondencies and to meet together on all just occasions and at last to Associations for the ordering of these Meetings In which they agreed in what Compass and in what Place or by whose Call such Meetings should be held and what Bishops in those Meetings should preside or sit highest and first speak and subscribe And usually they thought that to follow the Order of the Civil Government and give precedency to those that were Bishops of such Cities as had precedency in the Civil Government was the most convenient Order And in these Meetings they agreed on such Canons or Orders for all in that Compass to observe as they thought best tended to their ends And having no forcing Power as is aforesaid they formed their Impositions on voluntarily penitents so as might serve instead of the Power of the Sword Even Murderers Incestuous Adulterers they could not punish with Death Stripes or Mulcts and they were loth to disgrace Christianity so much as to accuse such to the Heathen Magistrates and therefore they laid the greater shame upon them forbidding them Communion with Christians for so many years as they thought meet and before they restored them they were humbly to beg the Prayers and Communion of the Church But yet these Synods were small and few and rare and never any dreamt of them as a Council of all the Church on Earth But when God blessed the Rome World with a Christian Emperour after the sharp Persecution of Dioclesian and this Emperour had by Religion and Interest made the Christian Souldiers his chief confidents or strength he studied the utmost increase of the Christians and to that end invited all to Christianity by the favour of the Court and by such Honours Commands Wealth and Dignities as they were capable of and above all he exalted the Christian Bishops whom he found the Rulers of the Christian Societies He gave them Honours and Wealth and Power He made a Law that no Christians should be forced to go to the Civil Heathen Judicatures from their Bishops and gave Power to the Bishops to be the Christians Judges some few hainous Crimes being in time excepted And so the Bishops were by his Law made Civil Magistrates or Arbitrators yet not with any Power of Life or Limbs or Estate So that all that would become Christians and would be subject to the Bishops Canons and Church Discipline were freed from Death Stripes and Mulcts for many Crimes which all others were lyable to and Excommunication and some Penance was instead of all By such means Multitudes of worldly Men and by the Preaching of the Gospel Multitudes that were sound Christians came together into the Churches And Bishopricks being now very desirable for their Power Honour and Wealth Men that most loved Power Honour and Wealth that is Proud Worldly Carnal Men did earnestly seek them and strive for Precedency in them But yet while the People had the choice or a Negative therein and the old Spirit of Christianity remained in many of the Bishops in many places bad ones were kept out and many excellent Men were preferred The Heresie of Arrius and the Alexandrian Contentions thereabout required a remedy for the Churches Peace The Bishops could not end it themselves It spread so far that it was Constantine's great grief to see Christians so quickly disgrace themselves and weaken their Religion in the Eyes of the Heathens Therefore he called a Council of Bishops consisting mostly of those of the Eastern parts where the troubles arose Two Priests of Rome were there but not the Bishop nor but few of the West Where the Emperours open Rebukes and Lamentation for their Contention and his earnest Exhortation to Peace and his burning all the Libells or Accusations which the Bishops brought in against each other and his continual presence and moderating oversight of them brought that meeting at last to that good and peaceable End which else it was never like to have attained It never came into Constantine's mind to call this Council as an Universal Representative of the whole Christian World or as the Governours of the Churches that were out of his Dominions but as a fit expedient to end the strife that was raised in those Parts For as few of the West were there so none of all other Kingdoms were once called For who should call them Constantine that called the Council neither did it nor ever pretended to a power to do it The Pope called not the Council much less did he call the rest of the Christian World Socrates tells us l. 1. c. 15. that St. Thomas had Preached to the Parthians and Bartholomew to the Indians and Matthew to the Ethiopians though the middle India was not Converted till Constantine's days by Frumentius and Edesius and Iberia by a Maid And so Euseb l. 3. c. 3. who saith that St. Andrew Preached to the Scythians and in Vit. Constant l. 4. c. 8. that there were many Churches in Persia And no doubt these Apostles Preached not in vain Scotland and other Countries that were out of the Roman Empire had Churches Yet any Neighbour Bishop that desired it might voluntarily be present When Theodoret in his Life tells us that James Bishop of Nisibis in the borders of Persia was at the Council of Nice For Nisibis was then under the Government of the Roman Empire he plainly intimateth that none but the Subjects of the Empire were called And the names yet visible of the Subscribers prove it Notwithstanding this Councils decisions the Contentions continue and the Major part of the Bishops went that way usually as the Emperours went And so in the Reign of Constantius and Valens they most turned to the Arrians at least in words And many General Councils so called of the Empire the Arrians had in which they prevailed and made Creeds for their turn as they at Nice had done against them and brought Persecution on the Orthodox silencing and ejecting them and scattering their Meetings as prohibited Conventicles the Emperour himself sometime executing their dispersions and restraint And among other Liberius the Bishop of Rome against his Conscience Subscribed to them The Fathers at the Council of Nice did determine of the bounds of the Patriarchs of the Empire which being at first but three Rome Alexandria and Antioch Jerusalem was after added and after that Constantinople For Constantine having now strengthned himself by the Christian Interest and being further out of the danger of mutable Souldiers than his Predecessours did that which none of them was ever able to do by removing the Imperial Seat from Rome to Constantinople and so leaving that Famous City as naked and almost neglected Whereby two great changes befell the Clergie 1. The Bishop of Rome was left more absolute and uncontrouled in the West 2. And the Bishop of Constantinople set up against
they confess that they prove not the Infallibility of him that doth them Valentine Greatreakâ— hath done and still doth more wonderous cures by touch or stroaking than ever I heard by any credible report that any Papist did and yet he pretendeth to no Infallibility And those Canonized Saints that have been most credibly famed for the greatest Miracles have born their Testimony against Popery and therefore Popery was not confirmed by them For instance St. Martin is by his Disciple and Friend Sulpitius Severus affirmed to have done more Miracles than I have ever credibly read done by any since the Apostles I scarce except Gregory Neocaesar And yet whereas the Papal Councils give high priviledges of pardon c. to those that will take the Cross to kill the Waldenses and compel Princes to it and uphold their Kingdom by such means St. Martin separated to the death from the Synods and Bishops about him for seeking the Magistrates Sword to be drawn against even Priscillian Gnosticks and he professeth that an Angel appeared to him and chastised him sharply for once communicating with the Bishops at the motion of Maximus when he did it only to save mens lives that were condemned as Priscillianists Here are Miracles against the very Pillars of Popery So also the Egyptian Monks were the most famous for Miracles of any People And yet as their Miracles were no confirmation of the errour of the Anthropomorphites which their simplicity and rashness involved them in so they renounced Communion with the Church of Rome and therefore confirmed it not by their Miracles How few Christians be there on Earth if none are such but those that by known Popish miracles believed the Pope to be infallible before they believed that there was a Christ And thus they must believe him to be Infallible not as Pope but somewhat else For to be Pope is to be Christs pretended Vicar And to believe that he is authorized or Infallible as Christs Vicar before they believe there is a Christ is a mad-mans contradiction and impossible What Infallible wight then is it that we must first believe the Pope to be before we believe him to be Pope To what impudence will interest and faction carry men I will again recite the words of an honest Jesuit Joseph Acosta de tempor novis li. 3. c. 3. To all the miracles of Antichrist though he do great ones the Church shall boldly oppose the belief of the Scriptures And by the inexpugnable testimony of this truth shall by most clear light expel all his juglings as Clouds Signs are given to Infidels Scriptures to Believers and therefore the primitive Church abounded with miracles when Infidels were to be called But the last when the faithful are already called shall rest more on the Scripture than on miracles yea I will boldly say that all miracles are vain and empty unless they be approved by the Scripture that is have a Doctrine conform to the Scripture But the Scripture it self is of it self a most firm argument of truth Obj. But he grants that Infidels had miracles Ans He lived long in the West-Indies among them and in his Treat of the Convers Ind. and his Hist Ind. he professeth that the Ignorance Drunkenness and Wickedness of the Roman Priests there was the great hinderance of their Conversion but that Miracles there were none God had not given them there any such gift Once more Did the Miracle which Thyraeus de Daemoniacis p. 76. reciteth out of Prosper that A person possessed by the Devil was cured by drinking the Wine in the Eucharist confirm the Popes Religion who hath cast out the Cup or the Protestants that use it XXXII Though S. Paul say Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers and give honour to whom honour is due the Pope as far as he is able exempteth all his Clergie from the Government of the Magistrate yea they are forbidden to fall down to Princes or eat at their Tables but Emperours must take them as equals The first part is commonly known Caranz pag. 395. reciteth this Decree of Pope Nicholas that No Lay man must judge a Priest nor examine any thing of his life And no Secular Prince ought to judge the facts of any Bishops or Priests whatsoever The Eighth General Council at Constantinople saith Can. 14. Ministers must not fall down to Princes nor eat at their Tables nor debase themselves to them but Emperours must take them as equals XXXIII The Pope confesseth every word of our Objective Religion to be true for all his killing and damning us as Hereticks Proved before We have not a word of our Objective Religion but the Sacramental Covenant and its Exposition in the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue and the Canonical Scripture which we receive And they confess all this to be infallibly true and so justifie all our Positive Religion XXXIV The Popes to this day will not tell the Church so much as what a Christian is and what must make a man a Member of their Church in the Essentials of a Member Of which more anon XXXV While the Decrees of General Councils are made quoad nos the Churches Faith the Pope will never let us know how big our Faith must be nor when we shall have all If every General Council add new Articles or many quoad nos who knoweth when they will have done and whether we have yet half the Christian Faith or not XXXVI The Popes Religion maketh Contradictions necessary to be believed that is impossibilities The Contradictions of Transubstantiation I have opened in my Full Satisfaction Confirmed General Councils they commonly agree do make Decrees which must necessarily be believed And it is notorious that such Decrees are Contradictory The General Council at Constance confirmed by Martin 5. and that at Basil confirmed by Foelix 5. do make it de fide for a Council to be above the Pope Bin. p. 43. 79. 96. Conc. Basil Sess ult they say Not one of the skilful did ever doubt but that the Pope was subject to the judgment of a General Council in matters of Faith and that he cannot without their consent dissolve or remove a General Council yea and that this is an Article of Faith which without destruction of salvation cannot be denyed and that de fide the Council is above the Pope and that he is a Heretick that is against this Eugenius also owned this Council Bin. ib. p. 42. But the Councils of Florence and at the Laterane sub Jul. 2. and sub Leone 10. say the clean contrary The 6. Council at Constant approved by Pope Adrian is now said by them to have many errors XXXVII The Pope arrogateth power to alter the constitutions of the Spirit of God in the holy Scriptures Proved The Council of Constance taking away the Cup saith Though in the Primitive Church this Sacrament was received by Believers under both kinds c. yea though Christ so instituted it yet they altered it I