apprehensive that it was a check to the Transcendent Honour his Ambition aspired to Both Councils of Constantinople and Chalcedon checking his desire of superlative Grandeur H.T. Pope Antherus Anno 238 being asked by the Bishop of Bettica and Toletum Whether it were lawful for a Bishop to be changed from one City to another Answered affirmatively As Peter Prince of the Apostles was changed from Antioch to Rome Decret 7. q. 1. W.T. There is little certainly touching the exact time and continuance of the Papacy of Antherus Whether One year according to Eusebius or Three according to Volateran or Twelve according to Damasus There is less certainty touching the sincerity of the Decret Epistle produced which many have excepted against as spurious upon several accounts among others for the barbarism of the stile the impertinence incoherence of the conclusion Historical Narratives touching Eusebius and Felix long after his time However were the Epistle genuine the Title Prince of the Apostles is no proof of the preheminence alledged as hath been already manifested St. Austin applyed the same Phrase to St. Paul who was acknowledged by St. Chrysostome to be equal in Dignity with St. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 HT St. Gregory sayes he knows no Bishop but is subject to the See of Rome Ep. 6. 2. W.T. St. Gregory though his memory be pretious being 600 years after Christ when the Church of Rome declined in piety though improved in power hath the less Authentick veneration This great Prelate being a Party is no competent Witness to assert and vindicate the Papal prerogative As the Witness produced so the Evidence it self is justly liable to exception That he knew none but subject to the See of Rome It must probably be limited to the bounds of his personal Acquaintance or his Patriarchical Jurisdiction That it cannot be more diffusively generally understood appears by his solemn waveing any Paternal or Magisterial power to prescribe to other Patriarks assuming only a fraternal Candour to advise That St. Gregory was not ignorant of a Grandee who was not subject to the See of Rome but challenged a higher station Ecclesiastical than himself is abundantly manifest by his zealous resentment of the Patriark of Constantinople his contemporary in espousing the transcendent Title of Universal Bishop not in excluding all others as the Romish Champions would sophistically evade it but in subjecting them It is his paraphrase of this Title To be Inferiour to no other to be Superior to all St. Gregory amply declared his abhorrence of this Title branding it to be novel prophane superstitious proud presumptuous an effect of Infidelity a tincture of Lucifer's Apostacy a badge of Antichrist H.T. Catholick Professors to the year 100 the Blessed Virgin St. John Baptist St. John Evangelist c. Martha Magdalen St. Paul St. Stephen Timothy Barnabas Terla Dennis Martial Ignatius Clemens W.T. They who are of sober discerning Intellectuals cannot but disgust and nauseate this unsavoury fallacy in obtruding shells without kernels Names without any Allegations These are as insignificant for proof in Divinity as Cyphers without any Figures are for account in Arithmetick unless you design to confute as Magicians to conjure by Names to produce Spells instead of Arguments for Enchantment not Conviction Your Confidence in those venerable Saints and your Interest also seems to be the same with that distracted person at Athens whose deluded Imaginations prompted to him That all the Ships and Commodities in the Haven were his own H.T. The Church was spread in this Age over all those Countreys to which St. Paul wrote his Epistles as also France Spain England c. See Baronius W.T. This is out of the Track of our Controversie That Church which was spread in this Age asserted no other Doctrines but what are owned by the Church of England H.T. Catholick Professors to the year 200 Eustachius Hermes Getulius Policarp Concordius Justin Martyr Eusebius Irenaeus Vincentius Potentianus Sophia Fides Spes Charitas St. Felicity with her Seven Children Lucius King of England c. W.T. The Church of England doth not recede from the Religion of these Saints If you have any Instances to charge us with why do you not produce their Testimonies If you have none why do you recite their Names It is an empty pageantry of Sophistry Ad populum phaleras H.T. The Apostles Canons define That if any Bishop or Priest the Oblation Mass being made shall not communicate he should be excommunicated as giving suspition of him who hath sacrificed That he hath not rightly offered Can. 9. approved in the Sixth General Synod W.T. Some of the Canons set out in a specious disguise the name of the Apostles have been boggled at by eminent Romanists among others by the Two Learned Cardinals the accurate Sticklers for the Papal Interest the one in an Historical Sphere the other in a Controversal Baronius and Bellarmine Though they are solemnly cited peremptorily obtruded upon others by the Modern Romanists yet they are not exactly observed by themselves Mich. Medina acknowledgeth that the present practice doth not retain a tenth part of them in the Church of Rome it self The alteration and corruptions of time are the smooth Apologies for the familiar recesses from these pretended Apostolical Rules They are branded for Apocryphal in the worst Nations as not received in the Catholick Church not in the Primitive Roman as composed by Hereticks in the judgment of Gelasius Bishop of Rome in the latter part of the Fifth Century who excelled most of his Successors in Piety and Literature as also by the famous Isidor Bishop of Hispalis towards the close of the Sixth Century Baronius vainly essayed to evade this latter Testimony being not extant as he alledged in the Edition in his Library since in the Decretal purged and refined by the Order of Pope Gregory XIII It is acknowledged to be transmitted from the Toletan Library to Rome which being a publick Record having so signal a Papal Approbation ought to be more Venerable Authentick for credit and estimate than that private Copy of a Cardinal who himself confest They may be so far deservedly termed Apocryphal as being destitute of Authority to have been entirely established by the Apostles Whereas Gelasius inserted them among Apocryphal Books that are not received Photius the Learned Patriark of Constantinople about the middle of the Ninth Century takes the rise of these Canons to be an extraction out of a tumultuous heap 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his phrase of Synodical Canons The first recital of any such Canons called Apostolical in Genuine Antiquity the Testimony of Zepherine being notoriously spurious was St. Epiphanius towards the end of the Fourth Century Many Reformed Divines have by weighty Arguments unmaskt these Canons which have passed abroad with a false Passport not to be truly Apostolical Among others the Centurists of Magdeburg have offered these proofs 1. They clash with the
of his Progenitors to have been his Predecessors in that Episcopal Seat His Parents in Rufinus 's Interpretation No such Tradition in Corinth or in Creet When Pinitus would have introduced it among the Cretians Dionysius Bishop of Corinth reprehended disswaded it as a grievous pressure not to be imposed as a necessary Duty but that the Infirmities of many were to be regarded No such Tradition in the Eastern Churches according to the Authentick Record of the Canon Law the Decretal of Pope Stephen No such custom in Cyprus the Renowned Spiridion being Bishop had Wife and Children not thereby empaired or eclipsed as to the discharging of the Exercises of Divinity the Sacred Offices of his Function No such received Tradition in the Africane Churches wherein Tertullian was a Married Presbyter as also among many others Foelix and Numidicus both themselves and their Consorts reputably recited by St. Cyprian No such custom as not in the Modern not in the Ancient Greek Churches wherein the Father of St. Basil the Great the Father of St. Gregory Nazianzen his Brother St. Gregory Nyssen Apollinaris Synesius were Maâ—ried Prelates and co-habited with their Wives No stamp of any such Tradition in Germany not in England no track of any such custom for 1000 years after Christ. Even in France where the Scene of the Objection is laid from the Council of Arles about the midst of the Fourth Century St. Hilary was Bishop of Poiteirs St. Prosper Bishop of Aquitane both Marryed Justinian the Emperour about the beginning of the 6th Century extolled Epiphanius Bishop of Constantinople for his Extraction from Priests This was the Pedigree of several Popes of Boniface the First of Foelix the Third Gelasius the First Agapetus the First Sylverius Deus dedit Theodorus Hadrian the Second Agapetus the Second This is attested by Platina a Witness beyond exception That these were no spurious Progeny is avouched by Gratian. I confess many of the Clergy in the best the purest Ages of the Primitive Church did wave Marriages but it was voluntary out of Choice not necessary upon prescription none were debarred Matrimony in Sacred Orders none were branded for it This is assented to by Learned Romanists I shall instance only in the Testimonies of two Cardinals Hugo and Bonaventure The Matrimonial restraint to the Clergy was first attempted by Siricius the Pope in the declining of the Fourth Century afterwards earnestly endeavoured to be re-established by several of his Successors in multiplyed Decrees but not without Regrets Oppositions Tumults No solemn Universal Sanction obtruded before Gregory the Seventh called Hildebrand in the Eleventh Century He who first assumed to himself a power of Excommunicating and deposing Princes did not stick peremptorily to prohibit the Marriages of all Priests and to brand all their Ministerial Offices notoriously clashing with the Canon of the Ancient Council of Gangre though a Provincial Convention yet of Oecumenical Approbation solemnly approved by Pope Leo the Fourth I shall not quit this Persecutor of the Marryed Clergy without two Remarks of fame The one touching the lasciviousness licentiousness of his Life his scandalous Converse with the grand Countess Maud. The other touching his Stings of Conscience at his Death which then impeacht him for exerting his Tyranny by the Instigation of the Devil Not to digress too far I shall dismiss the Canon of the Council of Arles quoted by H. T. with the Observation or descant of St. Salvian a Pious French Bishop before the period of the Fifth Century in a polite allusion to the Phrase of the Decree A new sort of Conversion They do not things lawful they omit things unlawful They forbear from Wedlock and forbear not Rapine What actest thou O foolish perswasion God hath forbidden Sins not Marriages In like manner it is not a Conversion but an Aversion You that long since as it is famed relinquish the work of honest Matrimony at length desist from Mischief The prodigious Enormities of Lusts which have been occasioned by the debarring the Clergy the Innocent Expedient of Gods Sacred Ordinance hath extorted the Pathetical Complaints of many Conscientious Romanists and excited their ardent desires That this rigid Imposition were Repealed and Primitive Liberty Restored There being as Pope Pius the Second when he was Aeneas Sylvius the Cardinal profest greater reason for the Restitution the Release than the Restraint The cause of the one being of a Secular Stamp to prevent the Penury of the Clergy to be less contemptible in the estimate of Men The Motive of the other is to promote purity not to be vile execrable in the sight of God As there is a Virginal so there is a Matrimonial Chastity Conjugal Society is no repugnancy to Grace no pollution to Holy Orders the Apostle having vindicated the Marriage Bed in all to be undefiled being not depraved in it self it is not sullyed Where there is no guilt there is no stain Both the School-men and Canonists acknowledged that the Clergy are debarred from Wedlock not by any Divine not by any Apostolical but only by a humane positive Ecclesiastical Constitution It is the Law of no Church but the Roman herein not swayed by Sacred Spiritual but by Prophane Temporal Interests To indulge to license what God detests Condemns Fornication to make Stores Revenues to raise Treasures out of Impurities in a more unsavoury than extracting of Gold out of the Dung of Ennius And to prohibit to doom in the Clergy what God allows justifies in all may pass for the Traffick the Policy but not the Virtue the Innocency of the Church of Rome H.T. Catholick Professors to the Year 500. Severinus Tigrius Exuperius Eutropius St. Jo. Chrysostome Paulinus Mauritius St. Augustine Maximus Zozimus Vinceutius Lirinensis Jacobus Persa Alexius St. Cyril of Alexandria Uriula with 11000 Virgins Prosper Honoratus Palladius Bonifacius Euthymius Simon Stelites Chrysologus Patricius Eugenius Fulgentius Boetius Epiphanius Tirinensis Severinus c. The Scots converted by Palladius the French by S. Remigius and Vedastus 4979 Martyrs of Africa and many others W.T. This Catholick band is a specious but probably a false Muster wherein Ursula leads the Van to 11000 Virgins This being strictly inspected will appear an imaginary Romance not a real Transaction There is a double proof offered the one is Fanatical the other fabulous The first consists in Visions in the Revelations of St. Elizabeth in the Romish Style and Kalendar and of Richardus Praemonstratensis This is the grand support of the Coten Divinity the Pageantry of its Sepulchres so much blazed and gloried in Ad populum phaleras The most circumspect ingenuous Romanists blush to own the Originals and the products of the vain Enthusiasms in this Instance The Visions presented being exactly discust are unmaskt to be Dreams the Revelations convicted to be Collusions The second Argument for avouching Ursula and her numerous illustrious Train is the Allegation of
this account St. Austin called the Jews a Scriniary Nation carrying the Law and the Prophets and the Library-keeper for Christians A Trust which they performed with singular fidelity which I shall not need assert by the Authority of Philo cited by Eusebius not of Origen and St. Jerom both confest Compurgators of the Jews Integrity by Learned Romanists I shall not need to add St Austins clear Evidences nor to muster up other Witnesses Ancient or Modern since Bellarmine himself was their solemn Advocate to acquit them from any aspersion of Corruption in the preservation of the Records of Sacred Scripture They would rather die a Hundred times saith Bellarmine a Thousand times saith Philo. To add more Force and Lustre to the solemn Authentick Suffrages of the Jews it is observed That neither Christ nor any of his Apostles in the New Testament did cite any passage out of those Books which are in the Old Testament Exploded from being Canonical Scripture by Reformed Churches called Ecclesiastical Books by St. Cyprian Apocryphal by others The Primitive Church never Exposed them for Canonical in the strictest sense viz. as stampt with Divine Inspiration as embraced with a true not equivocal Catholick Allowance for a Doctrinal Infallible Test. The grand proofs of Antiquity besides the Third distrusted Council of Carthage are the sentiments of two Popes Innocentius the First and Gelasius Both which may rationally be suspected for counterfeit Authorities there being no such extant till Three Hundred years after the dissolution of each As for the former the more clear and Venerable Testimony that of Innocentius the First if there were a reality of his Decree alledged there needed no probationary reference of the Forty-Seventh Canon in the Third Council of Carthage so much insisted on to the Judgment of Bonifacius inferiour to Innocentius the First for Age for Repute and Lustre To manifest the Romish Catalogue of Canonical Books of Scripture to be Novel and Unwarrantable I shall conclude this point with the summary Recapitulation of Dr. Cosin late Bishop of Durham after a copious distinct examination of particulars Thus have we hitherto taken an exact and perfect view of what the Catholick Church of God hath delivered concerning the Canon of Divine Scripture in all times and in all places In Judea by the Ancient Hebrews by Christ himself and by his Holy Apostles In Palestine and Syria by Justin Martyr Eusebius St. Jerome and Damascon In the Apostolical Churches of Asia by Melito Polycrates and Onesims In Phrygia Cappadocia Lycaonia and Cyprus by the Council of Laodicea St. Basil Amphilochius Epiphanius In Egypt by Clemens of Alexandria Origen and Athanasius In the Churches of Africa by Julius Tertulian St. Cyprian and St. Austin the Council of Carthage Junitius and Primasius In all the Five Patriarchates by St. Cyril St. John Chrysostome Anastasius St. Gregory Nicephorus and Balsamon In Greece by Dionisius Antiochus Adrianus Lentius Zonaras Philippus and Callistus In Italy by Philastrius Rusinus Cassiodore Commestor Balbus Antoninus Mirandula Cajetine and Pagnine In Spain by Isidore Hugo Cardinalis Paulus Burgensis Tostatus and Ximenius In France by St. Hilary the Divines of Marseils Victorinus of Poicâ—iers Charle Magnes Bishops Agobard Radulphus Honorius Petrus Cluniac Hugo and Richardus of St. Victors at Paris Beleth Petrus Collegn Hervaeus Natalis Faber and Chlictoveus In Germany and the Low Countreys by Rabanus Strabus Hermanus Contract Ado. Râ—pertus the Ordinary and Interlineary gloss upon the Bible the Gloss upon the Canon-Law Lyranus Dionysius Carthusianus Driedo and Ferus And in the Church of England by Venerable Bede Alcuin Giselbent Joh. Sarisburiensis Brito Ocham Thomas Anglicus and Thomas Waldon besides divers others that are not here numbred Thus far Doctor Cosin abbreviates his ample accurate History which as far as my Intelligence extends hath not been assayed to be answered by any Romanist It may with much more facility be reviled menaced than confuted Invectives Anathema's are the proper frequent Apologies for Convicted Errors With what Truth or Candor with what strength of Religion or Reason with what warrant of Piety or Antiquity the Canon of Scripture being there solemnly asserted universally establisht in all Climates in all Ages may in the Sixteenth Century of Christianity be contradicted controuled condemned by an inconsiderable number of Prelates assembled at Trent some thereof being Titular only all Homagers of the Papacy entirely swayed irresistibly influenced from the Conclave at Rome I refer it to all unbyast Intellectuals to all uncorrupt Judgments to determine H.T. In this Agâ— the Milevitane Council defined That whoever denyed Children newly born to be Baptized or says They contract nothing of Original Sin from Adam which may be cleansed by the lavoer of Regeneration c. Anathema W.T. I shall not insist upon the inadvertency in point of Chronology so precisely expressed in this Age. Whereas it is recorded in the several Editions of the Councils and generally by Annalists and Antiquaries Baronius not excepted that this Milevitan Council was held in the beginning of a former Century in the time of Pope Innocentius the First betwixt whom and the Fathers of that Synod there was a Mutual Correspondence of Letters Were the Date exact for the time yet was not the Citation apposite for the matter the Church of England solemnly declares what the Milevitan Council desines H.T. In this Age the Caesar Augustan Council decreed That Virgins who had vowed themselves to God should not be vailed till after 40 years probation W.T. I acknowledge this to be the last Decree of that Council and that it was approved by the suffrages of all the Bishops present all which being computed were but Twelve The Inscription of it is The Caesar Augustan Council of Twelve Bishops So it is set out in the large Editions of the Councils and in the summary Caranza If this Decree be of any grand Estimate and Validity why is it receded from in effect repealed in the Council of Trent that allows Virgins to be Votaries in Vails after Twelve years of Age Only Abbatisses and Prioresses are limited to the Age of Forty years If this be an uncancelled unvoided Decree alledged why is it not observed by the Romanists If it be cancelled and voided by them why is it objected to the Reformed This is no probate of a Succession but a Collusion H.T. In this Age Pope John the First decreed That Mass ought not to be celebrated but in places consecrated to our Lord unless great necessity should enforce it In his Epistle to the Bishops of divers plaâ—es giving this reason because it is written See thou offer not thy Holocausts in every place but in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen Deut. 12. Anno 522. For as no other but Priests consecrated to our Lord ought to sing Masse and to offer Sacrifices upon our Lerd to our Lord upon the Altar so in no other but consecrated places