whole Work. p. 390. FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by Richard Chiswell Dr. CAve's Lives of the Primitive Fathers in 2 Vol. Folio Dr. Cary's Chronological Account of Ancient Time. fol. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity fol. Sir John Burlace's History of the Irish Rebellion fol. The Laws of this Realm concerning Jesuits Seminary Priests Recusants the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance explained by divers Judgments and Resolutions of the Judges with other Observations thereupon By William CawleyEsq fol. Dr. Towerson's Explication on the Creed the Commandments and Lord's Prayer in 3 Vol. fol. Bishop Nicholson on the Church-Catechism 40. Mr. John Cave's seven occasional Sermons 40. Bishop Wilkin's Natural Religion 80. His Fifteen Sermons 80. Mr. Tanner's Primordia Or the Rise and Growth of the first Church of God described 80. Spaniards Conspiracy against the State of Venice 80. Dr. Cave's Primitive Christianity in three parts 80. Certain genuine Remains of the Lord Bacon in Arguments Civil Moral Natural c. with a large account of all his Works By Dr. Tho. Tenison 80. Dr. Henry Bagshaw's Discourses on select Texts 80. Mr. Seller's State of the Church in the three first Centuries Dr. Burnet's Account of the Life and Death of the Earl of Rochester 80. Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England 80. History of the Rights of Princes in the Disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church-lands 80. Relation of the present state of the difference between the French King and the Court of Rome to which is added the Pope's Brief to the Assembly of the Clergy and their Protestation published by Dr. Burnet 80. Dr. Cumber's Companion to the Altar 80. Dr. Sherlock's Practical Discourse of Religious Assemblies 80. Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation 80. A Vindication of the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet in answer to Mr. Baxter and Mr. Lob about Catholick Communion 80. Sir Rob. Filmer's Patriarcha or natural Power of Kings 80. Bishop Wettenball's Method and Order for private Devotion 125. Valentine's Private Devotions 40. Dr. Spencer de Legibus Hebraeorum Ritualibus earum Rationibus fol. Dr. John Lightsoot's Works in English in 2 Vol. fol. Sir Tho. Brown's Vulgar Errors with all the rest of his Works fol. Patris Simonii Disquisitiones Criticae de Variis per diversa Loca Tempora Bibliorum Editionibus Accedunt Castigat Opusc Is Vossii de Sibyllinis Oraculis 40. The Case of Lay-Communion with the Church of England considered 40. Two Letters betwixt Mr. R. Smith and Dr. Hen. Hammond about Christ's Descent into Hell. 80. Dean Stratford's Disswasive from Revenge 80. Dr. Hez Burton's first Volume of Discourses of Purity and Charity of Repentance and of seeking the Kingdom of God. Published by Dean Tillotson 80. Sir Thomas More 's Vtopia newly made English by Dr. Burnet 80. Mr. Seller's Devout Communicant assisted with Rules Meditations Prayers and Anthems 12â— Dr. Towerson of the Sacraments in General Of the Sacrament of Baptism in particular 80. The History of the COVNCIL of TRENT in which besides the Ordinary Acts of the Council are declared many notable Occurrences which hapned in Christendom for 40 Years and particularly the Practices of the COVRT of ROME to hinder the Reformation of Their Errors and to maintain Their Greatness Written by Father Paul of the SERVI To which is added the Life of the Author and the History of the Inquisition Books lately Printed for Richard Chiswell Dr. Burnets History of the Reformation of the Church of England in 2 Vol. Fol. A Collection of Sixteen several Tracts and Discourses Written in the Years from 1678 to 1685. inclusive by Gilbert Burnet D. D. To which are added A Letter written to Dr. Burnet giving an Account of Cardinal Pool's Secret Powers The History of the Powder-Treason with a Vindication of the Proceedings thereupon An Impartial Consideration of the Five Jesuits dying Speeches who were Executed for the Popish Plot 1679. 40. A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church more particularly of the Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome upon other Sees By WILLIAM CAVE D. D. Octavo An Answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure Footing in Christianity concerning the Rule of Faith With some other Discourses By WILLIAM FALKNER D. D. 40. A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England in Answer to a Paper written by one of the Church of Rome to prove the Nullity of our Orders By GILBERT BVRNET D. D. Octavo An Abridgment of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England By GILB BVRNET D. D. Octavo The APOLOGY of the Church of England and an Epistle to one Signior Scipio a Venetian Gentleman concerning the Council of Trent Written both in Latin by the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of Salisbury Made English by a Person of Quality To which is added The Life of the said Bishop Collected and written by the same Hand Octavo The Life of WILLIAM BEDEL D. D. Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland Together with Certain Letters which passed betwixt him and James Waddefworth a late Pensioner of the Holy Inquisition of Sevil in Matters of Religion concerning the General Motives to the Roman Obedience Octavo The Decree made at ROME the Second of March 1679. condemning some Opinions of the Jesuits and other Casuists Quarto A Discourse concerning the Necessity of Reformation with respect to the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome Quarto First and Second Parts A Discourse concerning the Celebration of Divine Service in an Unknown Tongue Quarto A Papist not Misrepresented by Protestants Being a Reply to the Reflections upon the Answer to A Papist Misrepresented and Represented Quarto An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England in the several Articles proposed by the late BISHOP of CONDOM in his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church Quarto A Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the Exceptions of Monsieur de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator 40. A CATECHISM explaining the Doctrine and Practices of the Church of Rome With an Answer thereunto By a Protestant of the Church of England 80. A Papist Represented and not Misrepresented being an Answer to the First Second Fifth and Sixth Sheets of the Second Part of the Papist Misrepresented and Represented and for a further Vindication of the CATECHISM truly representing the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome Quarto The Lay-Christian's Obligation to read the Holy Scriptures Quarto The Plain Man's Reply to the Catholick Missionaries 240. An Answer to THREE PAPERS lately printed concerning the Authority of the Catholick Church in Matters of Faith and the Reformation of the Church of England Quarto A Vindication of the Answer to THREE PAPERS concerning the Unity and Authority of the Catholick Church and the Reformation of the Church of England Quarto Mr. Chillingworth's Book called The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvation made more generally useful by
which that great Historian tho a Gentile profest in his writing the Peloponesian War he had lost the greatest part of this Note and we been excus'd the pains of examining it Thucydid l. 1. p. 16. A. B. C. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For that Historian tells us He could multiply Fables as others have done and they might perhaps be more divertive to an injudicious Reader but his regard should be to what is true and certain which all that have a mind to the certainty of things should judg much more profitable However proceed we to the Examination of this Note as the Cardinal hath thought fit to propose it in proof of His Church As to this he premiseth this twofold Foundation 1. That Miracles are necessary to evince any new Faith or extraordinary Mission 2. That Miracles are efficacious and sufficient By the former he tells us may be deduc'd that the Church is not to be found amongst us Protestants By the latter that it is most assuredly amongst them 1. As to the Necessity of Miracles he quotes Moses (a) Exod. iv St. Matthew (b) Matth. x. and St. John (c) Joh. xv He further proves it by a Similitude of one necessarily shewing his Orders received from his Diocesan by which he is authoriz'd to Preach and by a Quotation from St. Austin and the Concession of Melancthon one of the Reform'd Persuasion all which was needless and the Similitude too weak and inconclusive 2. As to the Efficacy and Sufficiency of Miracles He proves this partly as they are the Seals and Testimonials God useth without whose immediate Power they could not be perform'd and who will by no means bear witness to a Lye. And therefore where either Turks or Pagans Jews Hereticks or false Prophets have pretended to any extraordinary Feats or Accomplishments of this kind either they have appear'd the meer Tricks and Delusions of the Devil or else in the Attempts they have made they have been publickly disgrac'd and disappointed So the Prophets of Baal Simon Magus several of the Donatists Luther and Calvin In the Application of the whole for the proof of His Church and the utter exclusion of Ours from all Title to the Denomination and Benefits of a Church he gives a summary of Miracles in every distinct Age by which the Church of Rome and no other for that is the whole drift of his Argument hath been all along signaliz'd as the True Catholick Church In the first Age he mentions the Miracles of the Holy Jesus and his Apostles In the second those of the Christian Souldiers under Antonius the Emperor In the third those of Gregory Thaumaturgus In the fourth those of Anthony Hilarion and others In the fifth several mention'd by St. Austin as done in his time In the sixth some Wonders done by Popes viz. John and Agapetus In the seventh Miracles wrought in England by Austin the Monk and his Company In the eighth St. Cuthbert and St. John in England In the ninth those of Tharasius and great Numbers by Sebastian the Martyr In the tenth St. Rombold St. Dunstan and a certain King of Poland with others In the eleventh St. Edward St. Anselm and to make up the number honest Hildebrand or Pope Gregory VII In the twelfth St. Malachy and St. Bernard In the thirteenth St. Francis and Bonaventure St. Dominic and others In the fourteenth St. Bernardinus and Catharine of Senna In the fifteenth Vincentius St. Anthonine and others And lastly in the Cardinal 's own Age Franciscus de Paula and the Holy Xaviere among the Indians Thus having laid down the main Scheme of the Cardinal 's managing this Note which he calls the Glory of Miracles I shall shew the weakness of this proof as it concerns the Church of Rome distinct and exclusively to that of the Reformed And that under these three Heads I. That meer Miracles without any other Considerations at all are not a sufficient Note of any Church or Religion whatever II. Much less are those Miracles which are alledged in the Church of Rome any tolerable Proof or Confirmation of these particular Doctrines or Practices wherein we of the Reform'd Church do differ from them III. And Lastly We of the Reform'd Church as we do not pretend to the working of Miracles in our Age so if we did we could pretend to prove nothing by them but what hath been already sufficiently prov'd by the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles I. That meer Miracles without any other Considerations at all are not a sufficient Note of any Church or Religion whatever I add this Passage without any other Considerations at all because those Miracles which are recorded and embrac'd by all the Faithful as part of the undeniable proof of Christianity are attended with all the Circumstances that are requisite to strengthen and enforce them Whereas those Miracles which the Church of Rome pretends to in Confirmation of some Doctrines which we differ from them in they are attended with none of the requisite Considerations to enforce them i. e. they are produc'd meerly to confirm some particular Doctrines which Doctrines have no antecedent advantage of being plainly and expresly laid down in the Holy Scriptures nor the Miracles themselves of being foretold by any Prophecy As for those Miracles that in Primitive Days were wrought to confirm Christianity in general It was the infinite goodness of Providence to make them of that nature and to order the performance of them in that way that there is no room left for the honest considering mind to reject them Either as to matter of Fact to mistrust that they were never done or as to their Force and Efficacy to suspect that they do not most fully confirm what they were produc'd for 1. As to matter of Fact they were done so publickly and in the view of those that were the greatest Enemies and after they were done they were reported partly so soon in an Age when there were so many then alive that could have contradicted the Report if not well grounded and partly with so much hazard that as the very reporting them expos'd them to the rage of the Enemy to the uttermost so the Falshood of them if it had appear'd had brought upon them the scorn of those that had been kindliest enclin'd Whereas the Miracles that are more peculiarly appropriated to the Church of Rome they are never pretended to be done but amongst those of their own Communion never for the Conviction of any one Gainsayer no one of the Reform'd Religion having ever once been an Eye-witness to any of them * Vid. Pref. to the School of the Eucharist They come handed to us from a dark and fabulous Age reported of Persons who themselves hint no such thing of themselves in any of their own Writings but rather to the contrary as may be seen more afterward And the Stories they have fram'd gave them no hazard excepting loss of Reputation with all wise Men for
meerly Unity that is a Mark of the true Church but Unity in the true Faith nor is Unity the Mark of a pure Church unless it be upon Terms of Obedience to God of Charity to one another of keeping the Faith unmixed with Errors and Innovations and the Worship of God free from material Defects and forbidden Practices From hence also the Folly of that conceit may be easily discerned that in this divided State of Christendom there must be one Church which is the only Church of Christ exclusively to all the rest that are not in Communion with her Which is as much as to say that because there is not that Unity amongst Christians which there ought to be therefore there is none at all and because they are not united in one Communion therefore they are not united in one Lord one Faith one Baptism That fond Principle now mentioned is advanced by the Romanist for the sake of this Inference that because we grant the Church to be but one and withall acknowledg them to be a true Church therefore we being divided from them can be no true Church our selves That is to say because we acknowledg that they have that one Faith in which all that are united belong to the Church therefore we are out of the Church our selves who have the Unity of that Faith too and moreover the Unity of observing all the Institutions of Christ and the Unity of Catholick Terms of Communion c. which they have not If some part of the Church gives just cause of Offence or if another takes Offence where none is given this is indeed contrary to the Duty of the Members of the Church but not utterly inconsistent with their being Members of it And if St. Paul was in the right when he said If the Foot shall say because I am not the Head I am not of the Body is it therefore not of the Body It will be also true that tho the Foot should say to the Hand thou art not of the Body because thou art not the Foot the Hand would be of the Body for all that As for the Unity of Communion which they boast so much of in the Church of Rome I say 't is an Unity of Communion among themselves but 't is not the Catholick Unity of Communion because the Terms of it are many of them unjust and unlawful whereas we of the Church of England having as much Unity of Communion among our selves as they have this also to say as we have abundantly shewn that the Terms of our Communion are every one of them just and lawful and therefore ours is a Catholick Unity If there are some Protestants that will not communicate with us it is no more our Fault than that the Papists refuse to do so And tho in point of Interest this tends to weaken yet in Controversy it cannot prejudice the common cause of Reformation That part of the West that has left the Church of Rome may labour under Discords that affect their very Communion while she her self does not and yet in the Cause against her they may be all in the Right Where Truth is maintained against a corrupt Church there may yet be Disobedience to Authority overvaluing Questions of no great moment a greater stress laid upon Opinions and Practices than the Cause will bear and this shall be sufficient to break Christian Communion And at the same time gross Errors may be maintained and with one consent imposed upon the World by the other Church and all the while the Differences how weighty soever that happen by the bye may be so over-ruled by Force and Power and the sensible Interests of this World that they shall not affect their Communion with one another But for the Reasons already laid down it were a fond thing to chuse a Church by the Mark of such Unity In short If we would in all Respects keep within the Unity of the Church this must be done by professing true Doctrine by leading good Lives by a charitable Spirit and Behaviour towards all Christians by frequenting Prayers and Sacraments and by submitting to the Authority of our lawful Guides in all things of Indifference and Expedience And then we may be sure that whatever others do we keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And though the Church after all is not that one Body in all Respects which it ought to be and which it would be if all Men did their Duty yet that we our selves are such Members of that one Body as we ought to be and as all others ought to be likewise Now all this Unity we may keep in the Communion of the Church of England but we cannot keep it all in the Communion of the Roman Church as the Terms thereof now stand But if this Unity be not enough when once the Romanists can prove that Union to the Pope as Head of the Church and Union to the Roman Church in all that she believes and teaches is also necessary to our Being of the Church or even to our maintaining that Unity which ought to be amongst all Christians we will also acknowledg the Pope's Supremacy and believe as the Roman Church believes but not till then THE END LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Eighth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ Sanctity of Doctrine Octava Nota est Sanctitas Doctrinae Bellar. de Notis Ecclesiae L. iv c. 11. IMPRIMATUR June 4. 1687. Hen. Maurice SEeing the New Covenant is the Charter upon which the Church of Christ is founded and all the Blessings which this Covenant promises are appropriated to that Sacred Society to be in Communion with it is doubtless a matter of vast importance to the Souls of Men and it being so it is not to be imagined but that the blessed Jesus the most concerned and careful Friend of Souls that ever was hath been sufficiently mindful to leave such plain and easy Directions behind him how we may find his Church and satisfy our selves whether we are in Fellowship with it or no as that neither the Learned nor Unlearned may be left in the dark for resolution in such a momentous Enquiry But how much the Church of Rome hath made it her Business to snarl and perplex several Points of Religion which our Saviour left plain and obvious enough to all Capacities is too notorious and in nothing more than in this how to discover and find out the true Church In order to which her most Learned Doctors and particularly Cardinal Bellarmin have given us certain Notes by which as they pretend the true Church may be distinguished by honest and diligent Enquiries from all false Churches whatsoever But how far these Notes are from performing what is promised for 'em hath been sufficiently proved upon a very fair Examination of the Seven first of ' em I proceed therefore to the Eighth viz. Sanctity of
it was sometimes a Mark of an Orthodox and Catholick Christian to be joyn'd in Communion with the Roman Bishop therefore it must always be so and it can never happen that a Man should be united to the Church and disjoyn'd from the Pope Because St. Hierom referred himself to the Chair of Peter when Damasus sate in it therefore he would have done the same to his Predecessor Liberius after he had communicated with the Arians Of the same kind is the Argument from Optatus Finally because St. Augustin thought that Cecilian had reason to value his Communion with the Roman Church more than the multitude of his Enemies in as much as the Principality of an Apostolical Chair had always flourished there therefore the Bishop of Rome is Head of the Church As if there were no other Apostolical Chair besides that at Rome and as if the Communion of no other Church was to be esteemed when a Bishop meets with unreasonable Opposition but one that is by virtue of her Chair Mistress of all the Rest For what he says out of St. Augustin in Psal contra partem Donati it has had its Answer p. 107. Pope Leo indeed speaks a little more to the Purpose but without any Authority as being a Witness in his own Cause For it was but a few Years before that Zosimus Boniface and Celestin had set up a small pretence to an Universal Headship tho nothing was got by it but a notable Rebuke from the African Fathers whereof St. Augustin was one for introducing a worldly Pride into the Church But no wonder if those Popes that followed still kept their Eye upon that Power which their Predecessors could not as yet compass On the other side it appears by most unquestionable Evidence that the Primitive Fathers knew no greater necessity of being united to the Roman than to any other Catholick or Orthodox Bishop When Pope Victor took upon him to excommunicate the Asian Churches for not observing Easter as the Roman did they were so far from thinking a Union with him as their Head necessary to their being Members of the Catholick Church that they called a Synod of their own reprehended the Pope's Arrogance and resolved to adhere to their own Custom St. Cyprian Firmilian and the Africans did the like in opposition to Pope Stephen Apud Cypr. Ep. 75. p. 228. Ed. Oxon. Firmilian plainly telling him that while he thought to Excommunicate all them from himself he had but excommunicated himself from them In ancient Times there was no shadow of any such Headship in the Pope as of late Ages has been contended for He was treated with no other Titles of Respect than other Bishops were who were called Popes and Vicars of Christ no less than he as he was by them stiled their Colleague and Brother no less than they by him In respect of Presidency over particular Churches his Jurisdiction was confined as well as theirs in respect of the common Care of the whole Church each of them was deemed to have an Authority and a Trust no way inferiour to his All which our Adversaries do full well understand who are but a little conversant in St. Cyprian if they would but speak what they know But because St. Hierom's Complâ—mt to Damasus is insisted upon by the Cardinal let St. Hierom be heard speaking to this very Point so clearly that we cannot desire he should have been more express Where-ever saith he there is a Bishop whether at Rome Hier. ad Evagr. Ep. 85. or at Eugubium or Constantinople or Rhegium or Alexandria or Thanis he is of the same Worth and of the same Priesthood The advantage of Wealth and the disadvantage of Poverty does not make a Bishop to be higher or lower but they are all Successors of the Apostles To conclude this Point Popes have been anciently censured condemned and excommunicated when they were thought to have deserved it Julius was Excommunicated by the Eastern Bishops Sâ—â— Vindic. of Answ To some late Papers p. 6. c. Liberius Anathematized by St. Hilary Vigilius Excommunicated by the Africans Honorius Condemned by the VIth General Council Did these Fathers take the Pope for their Common Head and the Center of Catholick Union Some Popes have been Hereticks as the Romanists themselves cannot deny and therefore time has been when it was so far from being a Note of the Catholick Church to be united to the Pope that it was impossible so to be without separation from the Catholick Church But the Cardinal has a very notable Argument to prove the necessity of this Union viz. Experience since those Churches have withered away that are divided from this Head the Pope Witness the Asiatick and African Churches anciently famous for numerous Councils for learned and holy Men but since their Schism from the Roman Church reduced to obscurity and plunged into gross Ignorance To which it might be enough to answer That although where the Sin is flagrant and beyond controversy there the Calamity that befalls the Offender may without breach of Charity or impious Intrusion into the Councils of Providence be well deemed the effect of God's Justice Yet in a Dispute about Right and Truth to take advantage from the Afflictions of a Man or of a Church and to make them an Argument against the oppressed side is barbarously uncharitable and wicked and becomes none but those who care not by what means they come to their end But not to pry into the Secrets of Divine Providence Might it not have served the Cardinal's turn to assign the Afflictions and Ignorance of those Churches to the Irruptions of their Enemies upon them who at length prevailed and utterly destroyed some of them and to this day hold the rest in Slavery If this be not enough what if one should add that their not uniting themselves to the Pope was indeed one cause of their Misfortunes who had much rather see those ancient and glorious Churches laid wast by Infidels then saved by the united Arms of Christendom to make a vigorous Opposition to his claim of Supremacy However it is not more certain that they were once the most flourishing Churches in Christendom than that when they were so they did not acknowledg this Union to the Bishop of Rome as the Head of the Catholick Church nay that they opposed the Beginnings and Preparations to so unjust a claim and therefore their denying it at present can with no reason be alledged as the cause of their Distress One thing more we have to say to this doughty Argument that if it may be trusted how comes it to pass that we have a contrary experience in Churches nearer home which have not fallen into decay by separating from the Pope We are apt to think that from the Reformation to this day there have been as many Persons eminent both for Piety and Learning in the Church of England as any Age ever produced in any Nation That we are not sunk into gross
Ignorance our Adversaries know by some Experience And we may say without need of blushing for the matter that they have felt some Learning from this Church which their Union to the Pope hath of late helped very few of them to And if we may conclude any thing from the Examples of those within their own Communion we shall find that the more closely any of them are united to this supposed Head their Piety and Learning does not flourish one jot the more for it Let the Learning of the Gallican Church be compared with that of Spain or Italy Let the Piety of the Regulars especially of the Jesuits be weighed with that of the Secular Clergy and I believe it will appear that this Union is no such excellent advantage either towards Piety or Learning that they should appeal to Experience to shew the Necessity thereof either to the one or the other And thus much for their Union to the Pope 2. Neither is the Union which they pretend to among themselves as Members any certain Note of the Church The Cardinal was not content to describe their Union by thinking the same concerning all Doctrines of Faith but will have it to exclude also Discord and Dissension and falling into Sects and Parties For since he denies such Union to be found amongst Pagans and Hereticks he must be supposed to affirm it of the Members of his Church if he talks to any purpose Now admitting it were so 1. This is no more than what any Society may have as well as the true Church and any other Church as well as the Roman The Members of every Church are thus far united that they all agree in professing the common Belief of the Society to which they belong But about other Doctrine they either fall into Dissension or not as it happens And for some considerable time they may agree very well and at length fall out In which case according to Bellarmin's Note they would be the true Church while they agreed whatever their Faith should be which is most absurd It is not whether Men are united among themselves in what they believe but whether that wherein they are united be the right Faith that is to be considered Union in a false way is a confederacy in Error and the more that Men are united in it the more wise or prudent they may shew themselves to be but never the more Orthodox And though the Cardinal produces that Saying of our Saviour Every Kingdom divided against it self Matth. xii is brought to desolation to shew that Discord is a Sign of the Kingdom of the Devil yet he has manifestly perverted the Place inasmuch as our Saviour's Discourse there proceeds upon the contrary supposition viz. that Satan is not divided against himself 2. As there may be this Union out of the true Church so it may not be within it which makes it plain that this is no certain Note of the Church It is undeniable that there were Divisions in the first Apostolical Churches and consequently that to be Members of the Catholick Church it is sufficient that in those things wherein the Unity of the Faith consists all speak the same thing And if the Cardinal meant that the breaking of a Church into Parties and the Rise of Heresies and Schisms out of it is a certain Note of a false Church he might as well have said that there never was a true Church in the World no not in the Apostles times And if for this Reason he would unchurch the Protestants he did in effect put as good an Argument as this against the Reformation into the Mouth of a Turk or a Jew against Christianity that there is no Truth in it at all and because Christians are so divided one against another therefore none of them are in the right For a more particular Consideration of this Argument I refer the Reader to the Apologetical Vindication of the Church of England lately published Thus much for the first part of this Discourse which was to shew that the Unity here offered is not a Note of the Church I proceed to shew II. That if it were yet the Roman Church has it not Which is probably true of the First and most certainly true of the second Branch of the Cardinal's Unity 1. It is probable that the Roman Church wants the First and that there is now no true Pope nor has been for many Ages for that Church to be united to For by their own Confession a Pope Simoniacally chosen a Pope intruded by Violence a Heretick and therefore sure an Atheist or an Infidel is no true Pope And many such there have been of one sort or other whose Acts therefore in creating Cardinals c. being invalid it is exceeding probable that the whole Succession has upon this account failed long ago Besides there have been about 25 Schisms in the Church of Rome the last of which continued no less than 50 Years wherein two and sometimes three Popes pretended to St. Peter's Chair created Cardinals had their several Parties and Abettors c. During which Schisms it would be a madness to say that the Roman Church was united to the Pope as Head when they were all together by the Ears which of the Anti-Popes was the true one Now while there was no certain Pope there could be no certainty of the validity of any Acts necessary to continue a Succession of true Popes But this Case having happen'd so often and sometimes continued for many years the uncertainty must have at last grown into an utter improbability that they have a Pope and therefore according to the Cardinal that they are a Church unless it be all one whether the Church be united with a Nominal Pope or a Real Pope with a True Head or a False Head or any Head whatsoever But 2. It is undoubtedly true That the Roman Church has not the second Branch of Unity viz. that Union of the Members to one another which the Cardinal pretends Whether by it he means an Union in all points of Doctrine of great Consequence amongst those who remain in the Communion of his pretended Catholick Church or such an Union of their Members as shall prevent the breaking away of some from the Communion of the rest She has not the former Unity For if Philosophers Hereticks c. have had their Sects and Parties and been at great Dissensions among themselves so have the Members of the Roman Church too He pretends that all the Sacred Writers of their Church do wonderfully agree Now to let pass his Presumption in supposing the ancient Doctors of the Church to be one part of these their Writers we will for the present admit it and only ask If they agreed so wonderfully with the Fathers what need there was of an Index Expurgatorius upon the Fathers to make them and the Fathers of Trent agree something better He pretends that the Decrees of their Lawful Councils agree in *