Ancient Possession is not to be stiled a Possessor but an Vsurper an Intruder an Invader Disobedient Rebellious and Schismatical Good Night S. W. Quod ab initio fuit invalidum tractu temporis non Convalescit is a Rule in the Civil Law Yea whatever Possession the Pope got afterwards was not only an illegal Vsurpation but a manifest Violation of the Canon of Ephesus and thereby Condemned as Schismatical CHAP. VII The Pope had not full Possession here before Hen. 8. I. Not in Augustine 's Time II. Nor After T Is boldly pleaded that the Pope had Possession of the Supremacy in England for nine hundred years together from Augustine till Hen. 8. And no King on Earth hath so long and so clear prescription for his Crown To which we answer 1. That he had not such Possession 2. If he had 't is no Argument of a jus Title SECT I. Not in Austin 's Time State of Supremacy questioned VVE shall consider the Popes Supremacy here as it stood in and near St. Augustine's time and in the Ages after him to Hen. 8. 1. We have not found hitherto that in or about the time of Augustine Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Pope had any such power in England as is pretended Indeed he came from Rome but he brought no Mandate with him and when he was come he did nothing without the King's licence at his arrival he petitions the King the King commands him to stay in the Isle Thanet till his further pleasure was known he obeyed afterward the King gave him licence to preach to Bed l. 1. c. 25. his Subjects and when he was himself converted majorem pradicandi licentiam he enlarged his licence so to do 'T is true Saint Gregory presumed Iargly to subject all the Priests of Brittain under Augustine and to give him power to erect two Arch-Bishopricks and twelve Bishopricks under each of them but 't is one thing to claim another thing to possess for Ethelbert was then the only Christian King who had not the twentieth part of Brittain and it appears that after both Saint Gregory and Austine were dead there were but one Arch bishop and two Bishops throughout the Brittish Islands of the Roman Communion Indeed the Brittish and Scotch Bishops were Bed l. 2. c. 2 c. 4. many but they renounced all Communion with Rome as appeared before We thankfully acknowledge the Pope's sending over Preachers his commending sometimes Arch-Bishops when desired to us his directions to fill up vacant Sees all which and such like were Acts of Charity becoming so eminent a Prelate in the Catholick Church but sure these were not Marks of Supremacy 'T is possible Saint Milet as is urged might bring the Decrees of the Roman Synod hither to be observed and that they were worthy of our acceptance and were accepted accordingly but 't is certain and will afterwards appear to be so that such Decrees were never of force here further than they were allowed by the King and Kingdom 'T is not denied but that sometimes we admitted the Pope's Legates and Bulls too yet the Legantine Courts were not Anciently heard of neither were the Legates themselves or those Bulls of any Authority without the King's Consent Some would argue from the great and flattering Titles that were antiently given to the Pope but sure such Titles can never signifie Possession or Power which at the same time and perhaps by the very same Persons that gave the Titles was really and indeed denied him But the great Service the Bishop of Calcedon hath done his Cause by these little Instances before mentioned will best appear by a true state of the question touching the Supremacy betwixt Vid. Bramh. p. 189. c. the Pope and the King of England in which such things are not all concerned The plain question is who was then the Political Head of the Church of England the King or the Pope or more immediately whether the Pope then had possession of the Supremacy here in such things as was denied him by Hen. 8. at the beginning of our Reformation and the Pope still challengeth and they are such as these 1. A Legislative Power in Ecclesiastical Causes 2. A Dispensative Power above and against the Laws of the Church 3. A liberty to send Legates and to hold Legantine Courts in England without Licence 4. The Right of receiving the last Appeals of the King's Subjects 5. The Patronage of the English Church and Investitures of Bishops with power to impose Oaths upon them contrary to their Oath of Allegiance 6. The First Fruits and Tenths of Ecclesiastical Livings and a power to impose upon them what Pensions or other Burthens he pleaseth 7. The Goods of Clergy-men dying Intestate These are the Flowers of that Supremacy which the Pope claimeth in England and our Kings and Laws and Customs deny him as will appear afterwards in due place for this place 't is enough to observe that we find no foot-steps of such possession of the Pope's Power in England in or about Augustine's time As for that one instance of Saint Wilfred's Appeal it hath appeared before that it being rejected by two Kings successively by the other Arch-Bishop and by the whole Body of the English Clergy sure 't is no full instance of the Pope's Possession of the Supremacy here at that time and needs no further answer SECT II. No clear or full possession in the Ages after Austine till Hen. 8. Eight Distinctions the Question stated IT may be thought that though the things mentioned were not in the Pope's possession so early yet for many Ages together they were sound in his Possession and so continued without interruption till Hen. 8. ejected the Pope and possest himself and his Successors of them Whether it were so or not we are now to examine and least we should be deceived with Colours and generalities we must distinguish carefully 1. Betwixt a Primacy of Order and Dignity and Unity and Supremacy of Power the only thing disputed 2. Betwixt a Judgment of direction resulting from the said Primacy and a Judgment of Jurisdiction depending upon Supremacy 3. Betwixt things claimed and things granted and possessed 4. Betwixt things possessed continually or for sometime only 5. Betwixt Possession partial and of some lesser Branches and plenary or of the main body of Jurisdiction 6. Betwixt things permitted of curtesie and things granted out of duty 7. Betwixt incroachment through craft or power or interest or the temporary Ossitancy of the People and Power grounded in the Laws enjoyed with the consent of the States of the Kingdom in times of peace 8. Lastly betwixt quiet possession and interrupted These Distinctions may receive a flout from some capricious Adversary but I find there is need of them all if we deal with a subtle one For the Question is not touching Primacy in the Bishop of Rome or an acknowledged Judgment of direction flowing from it or a claim of Jurisdiction which is no Possession
440. 17. An. 1237. was jealous that a Legate residing here would prove in suae dignitatis praejudicium and the King himself was not without suspitions and therefore would suffer none so much as to be taken for Pope but whom he approved nor any to receive so much as a Letter from Rome without acquainting him with it and held it an undoubted Right of the Crown that ut neminem c. none shauld be admitted to do the office Eadm p. 125. 53. p. 6. 25. p. 113. 1. of a Legate here if he himself did not desire it Things standing thus in 1100. the Arch-Bishop of Vienna coming over reported himself that he had the Legantine Power of all Brittain committed no him but finding no encouragement Eadm p. 58. 41. to use his Commission departed à nemine c. by none received as Legate nor doing any part of that office Fourteen years after Paschalis the Second by Letters expostulates with the King about Eadm p. 113. p. 116. several things in particular his non-admitting either Messenger or Letter without his leave A year after addrest Anselm Nephew to the late Arch-Bishop shewing his Commission Vices gerere Apostolicas in Anglia this made known the Clergy and Nobility in Council at London sent the Arch-Bishop to the King in Normandy to make known unto him the Ancient Custom of Eadm p. 118. 120. the Realm and by his advice to Rome ut haec nova annihilaret After this An. 1119. the King sent his Bishops to a Council held by Calixtus the Eleventh at Rhemes with Instructions among other things that they should humbly hear the Pope's Precepts but bring no superfluas adinventiones into his Kingdom In November following the Pope and King had a meeting at Gisors in Normandy where Calixtus confirmed unto him his Father's Usages in special that of sending no Legate hither but on the King's desire and when the same Pope not full two years after his Grant to the contrary addrest another Legate to these parts Eadm p. 137 46. p. 138. 21. the Kings wisdom so ordered it that qui Legati c. he which came to do the office of a Legate in all Brittain was sent as he came without doing any part of that Office Obj. But it is said that Calixtus confirmed unto the King his Fathers usages Therefore it was in the Popes power originally and by delegation and not in the King Accordingly in our best Authors and in particular Eadmer we find these words Collata Concessa Impetrata Permissa as is urged in answer to my Lord Cook Ans These words indeed intimate the Popes kindness and peaceable disposition at present viz. that he will not disturb but allow our enjoyment of our ancient priviledges Concessa fungi permissa the same Eadm calls Antiqua Angliae consuetudo libertas Regni p. 118. 33 40. 2. The words do seem also to intimate the Popes claim at that time but the true question is about his Possession which in placing Legates there was ever denied him not as a thing granted formerly by the Pope but as one of the dignitates usus consuetudines as Hen. 1. claimed and defended 3. Lastly they rather intimated the Popes want of power than proved his Authority here and what our Princes did in their own right he would continue to them as a Priviledge for no other reason but because he could not take it from them or durst not deny it to them so he dealt with Edw. the Confessor Vobis Regibus Angliae committimus advocationem ejusdem loci but long before that our Kings looked upon it as their Office regere populum Domini Ecclesiam Baron an 1059. n. 23. ejus which the Pope knew well enough Therefore a Legate landing in England in Ed. 4. time was obliged to take Oath that he would attempt nothing to the derogation of the Rights of the King or Crown In Hen. 4's Nonage his Vncle was sent Legate Edw. 4. 16. by Martin 5. Rich. Cawdry the Kings Attorney made protestation that None was to come as Legate from the Pope or enter the Kingdom without the Kings appointment a Right enjoyed from all memory In the Reign of Hen. 5. the design of sending a Legate from Rome though it were the Kings own Brother was opposed the enterprise took no effect during that Kings Reign Vir. Arch. chic p. 78 80. And in the eleventh of the same King the Judges unanimously pronounce that the Statutes mentioned were only declaratory of the common custom of England fol. 69 76. It was in the Year 1242 when the whole Matth. par 1245 1246. State of England complained of the Popes infamous Messenger non obstante by which Oaths Customs c. were not only weakned but made void And unless the grievances were removed Opportebit nos ponere Murum pro domo Domini libertate Regni Yea long after this in the year 1343. Edw. 3. made his Addresses likewise to Rome which the Pope branded with the Title of Rebellion But to requite him that wise and stout Prince made the Statutes of Proviso's and Praemunire directly opposed to the Incroachments and Vsurpations Walsing p. 161. of the Court of Rome whereby he so abated their power in England for sundry Ages following that a Dean and Chapter was able to deal Bramhall p. 99. with the Pope in England and to foil him too an 1420. The Sum is during the Reigns of all the Brittish and Saxon Kings until the Norman Conquest Legations from Rome were seldom and but Messengers A Legantine or Nuncio's Court we find not Gregory Bishop of Ostium the Popes Spel. conc an 784. own Legate did confess that he was the first Roman Priest that was sent into those parts of Brittain from the time of St. Austin When these Legates multiplied and usurped Authority over us the Kingdom would not bear it as appears by the Statute of Clarendon confirming the ancient Brittish English Custom with the consent and Oaths of all the Prelates and Peers of the Realm and upon this custom was the Law grounded Si quis inventus c. If any one be found bringing in the Popes Letter or Mandate let him be apprehended let justice pass upon him without delay as a Traitor to the King and Kingdom Math. Par. an 1164. Hoved. in Hen. 2. And all along afterwards we have found that still as occasion required the same custom was maintained and vindicated both by the Church and State of the Realm till within an hundred years before Hen. 8. So that the rejection of the Popes Legate is founded in the ancient Right the common and Statute Laws of the Realm and the Legantine power is a plain Vsurpation contrary thereunto and was ever lookt upon as such it never having any real possession among us by Law or quiet possession in Fact for any considerable time together but was still interrupted by the whole Kingdom by new
400 Bishops denied him Obj. This Decree was not lawfully proceeded in because the Legates of the Pope were absent Bel. l. 2. de Pont. c. 22. Ans The Legates were there the next day and excepted and moved to have the Acts of the day before read Aetius for the Council sheweth that the Legates knew what was done all was done Canonically Then the Acts being read the Popes Legates tell the Council that Circumvention was used in making that Canon of Priviledges and that the Bishops were compelled thereunto The Synod with a loud voice cryed Joyntly we were not compelled to subscribe After every one severally protest I did subscribe willingly and freely and the Acts are ratified and declared to be just and valid and wherein say they we will persist the Legates are instant to have the Act revoked because the Apostolical See is humbled or abased thereto the Fathers unanimously answered the whole Synod doth approve it This clear account we have in Bin. in Concil Calced Act. 16. p. 134 and 137. Bellarmine saith that the Pope approved all the Decrees of this Council which were de fide and doth not Bellarmine argue that the Popes Superiority is Jure divino and the present Church of Rome hold that his Supremacy is a point necessary to Salvation How comes it to pass that he would not approve this Decree or how can they esteem this Council general and lawful and swear to observe the decrees of it when 't is found guilty of Heresie in so great a point as the Popes Primacy But to end with this the very Title it self of Bishop of the Vniversal Church in the stile of those Ages signified certainly neither Supremacy nor Primacy Vniversal Bishop of the Church seem'd a dangerous Title importing universal Power over it and was therefore so much abhorred by Pope Gregory But the Title of Bishop of the Vniversal Church signified the care of the whole Church to which as Origen saith every Bishop is called Therefore Aurelius Fortunatianus Augustine are called Bishops of the Vniversal Church and many in the Greek Church had the same honourable Titles given them which signified either that they professed the Catholick Faith or as Bishops had a general regard to the good of the Catholick Church But your own Jesuite confesseth that Pelagius Azorius and Gregory both Popes have born witness that no Bishop of Rome before them did ever use the Stile of Vniversal Bishops However Vniversal Patriarch makes as great a sound as Universal Bishop yet that Title was given to John Bishop of Constantinople by the Bishops of Syria Cod. Authent Constitu 3. Obj. The custody of the Vine i. e. the whole Church the Council saith is committed to the Bell. de Pont. l. 2. c. 13. Pope by God Ans True so that Primitive Pope Elutherius said to the Bishops in France the whole Catholick Church Bin. Epist Eleuth is committed to you St. Paul also had the care of all the Churches but that is high which Greg. Nazian saith of Athanasius that he having the presidence of the Church of Alexandria may be said thereby to have the Government of the whole Christian World Sal. Tom. 16. in 1 Pet. 5. Now saith a Learned man we are compelled to ask with what Conscience you could make such Objections Bishop Morton in good carnest to busie your Adversaries and seduce your Disciples withal whereunto you your selves could so easily make answer Obj. We find no further objection against the other Councils worthy Notice Bellarmine argues the Popes Supremacy because the Synod of Const being the Fifth General Council complemented the Pope as his Obedient Servants nos inquit Praeses Apostolicam Sedem sequimur obedimus c. Bell. lib. 2. de pont c. 13. Though this very Council both opposed accused and condemned the Pope for Heresie which could not possibly consist with their acknowledgment of his Supremacy or Infallibility The same is more evident in the sixth seventh and eighth General Councils condemning the Persons and Judgments of and giving Laws to the Bishops of Rome to which nothing material can be objected but what hath been more than answered Binius indeed in his Tract de Prim. Eccl. Rom. gives us the sayings of many ancient Popes for the Supremacy pretended especially in two points The Power of Appeals challenged by Pope Anacetus Zepherinus Fabianus Sixtus and Symachus and Exemption of the first See from censure or judgment by any other power claimed by Pope Sylvester and Gelasius But these are Testimonies of Popes themselves in their own cause and besides both these points have been found so directly and industriously determined otherwise by their own General Councils that further answer is needless CONCLUSION THus Objections being removed the Argument from the Councils settles firm in its full strength and seeing both the ancient Fathers and the Catholick Church have left us their sence in the said Councils and the sence of the Councils is also the received and professed faith of the present Church of Rome it self who can deny that the Catholick Church to this day hath not only not granted or acknowledged but even most plainly condemned the pretended Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome Yea who can doubt but our Argument against it is founded upon their own Rock the very constitution of the Papacy it self as before hath appeared Therefore the Popes claim upon this Plea as well as upon any or all the former is found groundless and England's Deliverance from his foreign Jurisdiction just and honest as well as happy Which our good God in his wise and merciful Providence ever Continue Preserve and Prosper Amen Amen A Serious ALARM to all sorts of ENGLISH-MEN against POPERY from Sence and Conscience their OATHS and their INTEREST 1. THe Kings of England seem bound not only by their Title but in Conscience of their Ministry under God to defend the Faith and the Church of Christ within their Dominions against Corruption and Invasion and therefore against Popery They are also bound in Honour Interest and Fidelity to preserve the Inheritance and Rights of the Crown and to derive them entire to their Heirs and Successors and therefore to keep out the Papal Authority And lastly 't is said they are bound by their Oaths at their Coronation and by the Laws of Nature and Government to maintain the Liberties and Customs of their people and to govern them according to the Laws of the Realm and consequently not to admit the foreign Jurisdiction of the Pope in prejudice of our ancient Constitution our common and Ecclesiastical Laws our natural and legal Liberties and Properties 2. The Nobility of England have anciently held themselves bound not only in honour but by their Oaths Terras honores Regis c. to preserve together with the King the Territories and honours of the King omni fidelitate ubique most faithfully and to defend them against Enemies and Foreigners meaning especially the Pope
of Rome 'T is expressed more fully in their Letter to the Pope himself in Edw. 1. Reign to defend the Inheritance and Prerogative of the Crown the State of the Realm the Liberties Customs and Laws of their Progenitors against all foreign Usurpation toto posse totis viribus to the utmost of their power and with all their might adding We do not permit or in the least will permit sicut nec possumus nec debemus though our Soveraign Lord the King do or in the least wise attempt to do any of the Premises viz. owning the Authority of the Pope by his answer touching his Right to Scotland so strange so unlawful prejudicial and otherwise unheard of though the King would himself See that famous Letter sent to the Pope the 29 of Edw. 1. taken out of Cor. Christi College-Library and printed this year at Oxford the reading of which gave the occasion of these Meditations 3. It appears further in the Sheet where you have that Letter that the Commons in Parliament have heretofore held themselves bound to resist the invasion and attempts of the Pope upon England though the King and the Peers should connive at them their words are resolute Si Dominus Rex Regni majores hoc vellent meaning Bishop Adomers Revocation from Banishment upon the Popes order Communitas tamen ipsius ingressum in Angliam nullatenus sustineret This is said to be recorded about the 44 of Hen. 3. 4. It is there observed also that upon the Conquest William the Conquerour made all the Freeholders of England to become sworn Brethren sworn to defend the Monarchy with their Persons and Estates to the utmost of their Ability and manfully to preserve it So that the whole Body of the people as well as the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament stood anciently bound by their Oath to defend their King and their Country against Invasion and Usurpation 5. The present Constitution of this Kingdom is yet a stronger Bulwark against Popery Heretofore indeed the Papal pretensions were checkt sometimes in temporal sometimes in spiritual concerns and Instances But upon the Reformation the Popes Supremacy was altogether and at once rejected and thrown out of England and the consequence is an universal standing obligation upon the whole Kingdom by Statutes Customs and most solemn Oaths to defend our Monarchy our Church our Country and our Posterity against those Incroachments and that Thraldom from which we were then so wonderfully delivered and for this hundred years have been so miraculously preserved blessed be God Accordingly in our present Laws both the Temporal and Ecclesiastical Supremacy is declared to be inherent in the Crown and our Kings are sworn to maintain and govern by those Laws And I doubt not but all Ministers of the Church and all Ministers of State and of Law and War all Mayors and Officers in Cities and Towns corporate c. together with all the Sheriffs and other Officers in their several Countries and even all that have received either Trust or power from his Majesty within the Kingdom All these I say I suppose are sworn to defend the King's Supremacy as it is inconsistent with and in flat opposition to Popery In the Oath of Allegiance we swear to bear true Allegiance to the King and to defend him against all Conspiracies and Attempts which shall be made against his Person and Crown to the utmost of our power meaning especially the Conspiracies and Attempts of Papists as is plain by that which follows in that Oath and yet more plain by the Oath of Supremacy In which Oath we swear that the King is the only Supreme Governor in this Realm as well in all spiritual things and causes as temporal and that no foreign Prince or Prelate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical within this Realm and that we do abhor and renounce all such We swear also that we will bear Faith and true Allegiance to the King and to our power assist and defend all Jurisdictions viz. Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal granted or belonging to the Kings Highness 6. Now next to Oaths nothing can be thought to oblige us more than Interest But if neither Oaths nor Interest neither Conscience nor Nature neither Religion nor self-Preservation can provoke us to our own defence what remains but a certain fearful expectation of judgment to devour a perjur'd and senseless Generation If either our joynt or several Interests be considerable how are we all concern'd 1. Is there any among us that care for nothing but Liberty and Mony they should resist Popery which would many ways deprive them of both 2. But if the knowledge of the Truth if the Canon of life in the holy Scriptures if our Prayers in our own tongue if the Simplicity of the Gospel the purity of Worship and the Integrity of Sacraments be things valuable and dear to Christians let them abhor Popery 3. If the ancient Priviledges of the Brittish Church the Independency of her Government upon Foreign Jurisdiction if their legal Incumbencies their Ecclesiastical Dignities if their opportunities and capacities of saving Souls in the continuance of their Ministries if their judgment of discretion touching their Doctrine and Administrations their judgment of Faith Reason and Sence touching the Eucharist if exemption from unreasonable impositions of strange Doctrines Romish Customs groundless Traditions and Treasonable Oaths And lastly if freedom from spiritual Tyranny and bloody Inquisitions if all these be of consequence to Clergy-men let them oppose Popery 4. If our Judges and their several Courts of Judicature would preserve their Legal proceedings and judgments and decrees if they would not be controlled and superseded by Bulls Sentences and Decrees from the Pope and Appeals to Rome let them never yield to Popery 5. If the Famous Nobility and Gentry of England would appear like themselves and their heroick Ancestors in the defence of the Rights of their Country the Laws and customs of the Land the Wealth of the people the Liberties of the Church the Empire of Brittain and the grandeur of their King or indeed their own honour and Estates in a great measure let them never endure the re-admission of Popery 6. Yea let our great Ministers of State and of Law and of War consider that they stand not firm enough in their high and envied places if the Roman Force breaks in upon us and remember that had the late bloody and barbarous design taken effect one consequence of it was to put their places into other hands And therefore in this capacity as well as many other they have no reason to be Friends to Popery 7. As for His Most Excellent Majesty no suspicion either of inclination to or want of due vigilance against Popery can fasten upon him and may he long live in the Enjoyment and under a worthy Sence of the Royalties of Monarchy and the honour and exercise of his Natural and Legal Supremacy in all Causes and over all
Roma Ruit THE PILLARS OF ROME Broken WHEREIN All the several Pleas for the Pope's Authority in England with all the Material Defences of them as they have been urged by Romanists from the beginning of our Reformation to this day are Revised and Answered To which is Subjoyned A Seasonable Alarm to all Sorts of Englishmen against Popery both from their Oaths and their Interests By Fr. Fullwood D. D. Arch-Deacon of Totnes in Devon LONDON Printed for Richard Royston Bookseller to His Most Sacred Majesty MDCLXXIX REVERENDISSIMO In Christo Patri GULIELMO Archiepiscopo CANTUARIENSI Totius ANGLIAE PRIMATI Regiae Serenissimae Majestatis à Sanctioribus Conciliis FRANCISCVS FVLLWOOD Olim Collegii EMANUEL Apud CANTABRIGIENSES Librum hunc humillimè D. D. D. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND Father in God GEORGE Lord Bishop of WINTON Prelate of the Most Noble Order of the GARTER My very good Lord BLessed be God that I have Survived this Labour which I once feared I should have sunk under and that I live to publish my Endeavours once more in the Service of the Church of England and thereby have obtained my wish'd opportunity to dedicate a Monument of my deep Sence of your Lordship's manifold obligations upon me In particular I rejoyce in the acknowledgment that I ow my Publick Station next under God and His Sacred Majesty to your Lordship's Assistance and Sole Interest though I cannot think so much out of kindness to my Person then altogether unknown to your Lordship as affection and care of the Church grounded in a great and pious intention however the object be esteem'd truly worthy of so Renowned a Prelate and many other waies excellent and admired Patriot of the Church of England If either my former attempts have been anywise available to the weakning the Bulworks of Non-Conformity or my present Essay may succeed in any measure to evince or confirm the Truth in this greater Controversie I am happy that as God hath some glory and the Church some advantage so some honour redounds upon your Lordship who with a virtuous design gave me a Capacity at first and ever since have quickned and animated my Endeavours in those Services I may be permitted to name our Controversie with the Church of Rome the great Controversie For having been exercised in all the sorts of Controversie with Adversaries on the other hand I have found that all of them put together are not considerable either for weight of matter or copiousness of Learning or for Art Strength or Number of Adversaries in comparison of this It takes in the Length of time the Breadth of place and is managed with the Heighth of Wit and Depth of Subtlety the Hills are covered with the Shadow of it and its Boughs are like the goodly Cedars My Essay in these Treatises is to shorten and clear the way and therefore though I must run with it through all time I have reduc'd the place and removed the Wit and Subtleties that would impede our progress I have endeavoured to lop off luxuriant branches and swelling excrescencies to lay aside all personal reflections captious advantages Sophistical and Sarcastical Wit and to set the Arguments on both sides free from the darkness of all kind of cunning either of escape or reply in their plain light and proper strength as also to confine the Controversie as near as I can within the bounds of our own Concern i. e. our own Church And when this is done the plain and naked truth is that the meanest of our other Adversaries I had almost said the silly Quaker himself seems to me to have better Grounds and more like Christian than the glorious Cause of the Papacy But to draw a little nearer to our Point your Lordship cannot but observe that one end of the Roman Compass is ever fixed upon the same Center and the summ of their clamour is our disobedience to the See of Rome Our defense stands upon a twofold Exception 1. Against the Authority 2. Against the Laws of Rome and if either be justified we are innocent The first Exception and the defence of our Church against the Authority of that See is the matter of this Treatise the second is reserved I have determined that all the Arguments for the Pope's Authority in England are reduceable to a five-fold Plea the Right of Conversion as our Apostle the Right of a Patriarch the Right of Infallibility the Right of Prescription and the Right of Universal Pastorship the Examination of them carries us through our Work Verily to my knowledge I have omitted nothing Argumentative of any one of these Pleas yea I have considered all those little inconsiderable things which I find any Romanists seem to make much of But indeed their pretended Right of possession in England and the Universal Pastorship to which they adhere as their surest holds have my most intended and greatest strength and care and dilligence that nothing material or seemingly so might escape either unobserved or not fully answered let not the contrary be said but shewn I have further laboured to contract the Controversie two ways 1. By a very careful as well as large and I hope as clear state of the question in my definition and discourse of Schism at the beginning whereby mistakes may be prevented and much of matter disputed by others excluded 2. By waving the dispute of such things as have no influence into the Conclusion and according to my use giving as many and as large Concessions to the Adversary as our Cause will suffer Now my end being favourably understood I hope there is no need to ask your Lordships or any others pardon for that I have chosen not to dispute two great things 1. That in the Words tu es Petrus super hanc Petram there is intended some respect peculiar to saint Peter's Person it is generally acknowledged by the most learned Defenders of our Church that Saint Peter had a Primacy of Order and your Lordship well knows that many of the Ancient Fathers have expressed as much and I intend no more 2. That Tradition may be Infallible or indefectible in the delivery of the Essentials of Religion for ought we know By the Essentials we mean no more but the Creed the Lord's Prayer the Decalogue and the two Sacraments in this I have my Second and my Reason too for then Rushworth's Dialogues and the new Methods of Roman opposition need not trouble us My good Lord it is high time to beg your Pardon that I have reason to conclude with an excuse for a long Epistle the truth is I thought my self accountable to your Lordship for a Brief of the Book that took its being from your Lordship's Encouragement and the rather because it seems unmannerly to expect that your good Old Age should perplex it self with Controversie which the Good God continue long and happy to the honour of his Church on Earth and then crown with the Glory of Heaven It is the
Printed in Octavo Books written by the Reverend Dr. Patrick The Christian Sacrifice A Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of receiving the Holy Communion together with suitable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and the principal Festivals in memory of our blessed Saviour in Four Parts The Third Edition corrected The devout Christian instructed how to pray and give thanks to God or a Book of Devotions for Families and particular persons in most of the concerns of humane life The Second Edition in Twelves An Advice to a Friend The Third Edition in Twelves A Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Nonconformist in Octavo Two Parts Jesus and the Resurrection justified by Witnesses in Heaven and in Earth in Two Parts in Octavo new The Glorious Epiphany with the devout Christians love to it in Octavo new The Book of Job Paraphras'd in Octavo new A Collection of Sermons upon several occasions together with a correct Copy of some Notes concerning God's Decrees in Quarto Enlarged by Tho. Pierce D. D. Dean of Sarum The History of the Church of Scotland by Bishop Spotswood The Fourth Edition Enlarged Fol. Memoires of the late Duke Hamilton or a continuation of the History of the Church of Scotland beginning in the Year 1625. where Bishop Spotswood ends and continued to the Year 1653. Fol. new The Lives of the Apostles in Fol. alone by Will. Cave D. D. Chirurgical Treatises by R. Wisman Serjeant-Surgeon to his Majesty Fol. new Go in peace containing some brief directions for Young Ministers in their Visitation of the Sick Useful for the People in thir state both of Health and Sickness In Twelves new The Practical Christian in Four Parts or a Book of Devotions and Meditations Also with Meditations and Psalms upon the four last things 1. Death 2. Judgment 3. Hell 4. Heaven By R. Sherlock D. D. Rector of Winwick In Twelves The Life and Death of K. Charles the First by R. Perenchief D. D. Octavo Bishop Cozen 's Devotions in Twelves The true Intellectual Systeme of the Universe the First Part wherein all the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is confuted and its Impossibility demonstrated By R. Cudworth D. D. Fol. new The Jesuits Loyalty manifested in three several Treatises lately written by them against the Oath of Allegiance with a Preface shewing the pernicious consequence of their Principles as to Civil Government Also three other Treatises concerning the Reasons of the Penal Laws viz. 1. The Execution of Justice in England not for Religion but for Treason 2. Important Considerations by the Secular Priests 3. The Jesuits Reasons unreasonable In Quarto New The Sinner Impleaded in his own Court wherein are represented the great Discouragements from Sinning which the Sinner receiveth from Sin it self To which is added the signal diagnostick whereby we are to judge of our own Affections and as well of our Present as Future State By Tho. Pierce D. D. Dean of Sarum and Domestick Chaplain to his Majesty the Fourth Edition in Quarto Les Provinciales The Mystery of Jesuitism discovered in certain Letters written upon occasion of the present differences at Sorbonne between the Jansenists and the Molinists displaying the pernicious Maxims of the late Casuists with Additionals in Octavo The Penitent Pardoned or a discourse of the Nature of Sin and the Efficacy of Repentance under the Parable of the Prodigal Son by J. Goodman D. D. Rector of Hadham In Quarto New To which is added a Visitation Sermon A Century of Select Psalms and Portions of the Psalms of David especially those of Praise turn'd into Meter and fitted to the usual Tunes in Parish Churches for the use of the Charter-House London By J. Patrick Preacher there in Octavo New THE END