understand the most important truths of Salvation This is not contrary to the exercise of the inward praier which St. Austin callâ— the voice of the heart by which we beâ— and are supplicants to God for his mercyâ— and the Church of England is so far from forbidding Christians to prepare themselves for the life to come by a seriouâ— consideration of the miseries and inconstancy of the present and to learn how to love Christ that by her they are commanded to do all this and the Bishop say to each of them in giving them thâ— Gospel as the Angel did to the Prophetâ— comede volumen istud Eat this Book and convert it into your own substance XXVII This makes it appear with how much less sincerity our adversaries who have but a blind zeal think to offer a great sacrifice to God in calumniating their Brethren and accusing all the Protestants of renouncing all the exercises of Christian Piety and of retaining nothing but a meer morality which is to be met with in any honest Heathen And indeed if going in Procession carrying Images about one counting Beads and a hundred such like nothings are counted Piety she acknowledges none of them But if the renouncing of our selves the mortifying our senses the humility of our hearts the love of our neighbor forgiving our enemies the meditation of the Gospel be stiled holiness she teacheth and practiseth them faithfully XXVIII The holy Church of England proceeds farther and the Church of Rome hath no really holy practices which she doth not follow Confession so ancient in the Church is in use here also but the liberty thereof is left to movements which God himself inspires into the hearts of sinners The Church had so done for twelve Ages and until the pretended general Lateran Council there was no Statute made about it She desires it should be wrought by the Holy Ghost that the Spirit of God should throw a sinner at the feet of the Priest and not the fear of Excommunication XXIX She doth as they believe the usefulness and necessity of fasting All Scriptures and Traditions are full of the praises which God and his holy Saints have attributed to it Lent and the abstaining from certain meats on certain daies are practices so ancient in the Church that none can blame them without an insupportable ignorance and temerity She observes all these things with a great deal of edification Her Bishops and many of her Clergy-men fast after the manner of the Primitive Christians that is eat but once and that at night Abstinence from flesh is alwaies injoined with their Fasts They abhor the shameful subtilties of the Casuists of the Church of Rome who retain nothing of it save the name but in effect destroy it Their fasting and abstinence have nothing superstitious He that eateth not is not scandaliz'd by him that eateth Rom. 14. 1. The strong do patiently bear with the weak and pray God that he strengthen them XXX Nor doth the Church of England condemn Monastical life She praiseth them that retire into solitude therein to bewail their crimes who forsake all to find all in Jesus Christ It cannot be denied but whatever irregularities the greater part of the Church of Rome be in there are amongst them a very great number of good people whom God will recompence rather according to their heart then actions Had they when Henry the Eighth suppressed them in England walked in the duties of their Calling they had bin still in being The Popes anger was not because they had bin suppress'd for Popes themselves shew by their examples that these sort of suppressions are somtimes necessary but 't was because it was done without his autority which then becomes a nice point in Law pernicious to all states and contrary to the respect due to Kings This Prince found them in ignorance and corruption They were a burden to the State a scandal to the Church a subject of grief to all good people Their zeal for asserting the temporal autority of the Pope was inconceivable and they treated their Bishops with extreme scorn When so many evils gathered together are incurable who doubts but that the root thereof should be pull'd up and the hazard be run of losing a blessing which cannot be preserved but by greater evils XXXI Good Monks are certainly of great example The conferences of the Priest of Marseilles shew that the East was filled with the fame of their virtue In the West the Order of St. Bennet had during many ages furnish'd all the Sees in the Church and bred up more Saints and Bishops then all the other Orders together had of Religious persons But those were neither insolent Monks who from the bottom of their Cells would condemn all the World besides nor vagabonds who made a trade of their poverty nor people who having renounced the World had yet more intrigues and restless desires then those who had not They that got their livelihood by the sweat of their brows were no less separated from Ecclesiastical emploiments then secular and â—ived in a continual humility and peâ—â—ance XXXII The Orders in the Church of Rome which continue still in the same state are worthy of Veneration It is a most false argument for looking upon them as people of no use to the Church They serve her in their way and truly it is a very great service they do her of praying and groaning continually for her We must not judg the usefulness of men by their actions but by the station God hath placed them in A person that does â—ut little in his calling is often more useful to the Church then another that does much out of his calling the will of God and not that which appears to men being the rule of the utility or inutility of those that serve him XXXIII It is clear following this principle that though there are yet many good men in the present corruption of Friers Orders nevertheless the Church of England hath done well in not suffering any She rejects them not because they are Friers or Monks but because the greateâ— part of them is not in that condition they ought to be in It is good to shew clearly and to make the devout of the Church of Rome see that they are injurious in reproching that of England for having banished Friers XXXIV Is there in the World any more effeminate and idle life then that of the Clervaux and the Cisterciens Is not the ignorance idleness and sloth of these Friers beyond all imagination Does there appear the least trace of that laborious and penitent life of their holy Founder Will not a man that hath read St. Bernard's Epistles or Sermons when he sees these Monasteries think himself in another World finding people that call themselves his sons who have nothing either of his spirit or manners For the Mendicants we need but hear the Bishops to be acquainted with their nature They are as great a charge
it appears that nothing was done therein but by his Orders Theodosius junior sent Count Candidian to preside in his stead And some contestation happening to be amongst the Bishops he writes to them in these terms Our Majesty cannot approve of own as lawful what has bin done hitherto And these very Bishops that had a great veneration for their Emperor tell him in their Synodical Epistle They have done nothing but â—y his motions and that they have made use â—f his Letter as a Light to conduct them The fourth General Council hath no â—ess evident Testimonies for it The resistance which was made to Pope Leo's Legats requiring Dioscorus to be put of the Assembly the affair of Juvenalis and Thalassius that of the ten Egyptian Bishops that of Bassianus and Stephen which were all determined by the Emperors Judges leave us no ground to doubt of this truth Justinian was President at the Fifth as is clear from all the Acts of that Council And that great Prince whom Baronius abus'd so unworthily declares in his Letter written to the Synod That he considered the Bishops reunion as the foundation and beginning of all the happiness of hiâ— Reign The Sixth is so clear and its Session were so many characters of such a presidency that an adorer of the Popes new Power endeavored to discredit the Actâ— of it because saies he The Emperor with his Judges plena autoritate praesidet presides with full autority Anastasius did whatever he could to deprive us of the Seventh but Pope Adrian did repair abundantly that defect We offer these things saies he in his Letter to Constantine to the end they may be carefully examined for we have not exactly gather'd these testimonies we present to your Imperiâ—â— Majesty We received these Letters from Adrianus B P of Rome saies the Emperor directed to us by his Legats who also sit with us in the Synod We commanded them to be publicly read There is no Italian whom these word would not stagger The Eighth expresly saies Praesidentibus Imperatoribus and because the Popes Legats pretended that the Bishops who were defenders of Photius having bin â—ondemned by the Pope ought not to be â—eard any more as sentenc'd by their last â—udge the Emperors Envoies to the Council answer'd That the Prince comâ—ands them to be heard the second time Imâ—erator vult jubet Who after so many Presidents clearer â—han the light will not wonder to hear Leo the Tenth in his Lateran Council â—ay imperiously and in such a manner as gives a truer Character of him than all â—is Historians The Pope of Rome only as â—eing above all Councils is fully impowered to â—all to transport and to dissolve them And who after a particular account of 100 Provincial Councils for 1000 Years where the Pope was never spoken of but â—or the condemning of his pretences who I say will not confess with Cardinal 〈◊〉 Zabarella That the Pope has so generally â—nvaded the Rights of particular Churches â—hat other Bishops signifie almost nothing and 〈◊〉 God be not merciful to his Church Vehementer periclitatur IX Nor does their pretended Power oâ— confirming Councils stand upon betteâ— grounds than the other two For if by thâ— word Confirmatioâ— they understand an external engagement whereby all faithful People are to obey the holy Constitution of these Divine Assemblies such an Authority belongs so properly to Princes and makes so considerable a part of theâ— Dignity that no man can appropriate 〈◊〉 to himself without a manifest Usurpation and violation of the Sacred Majesty oâ— Kings 'T is in that sense Eusebius said of Constantine Quae ab Episcopis erant saâ—citae regulae suû confirmâ—bat consignabâ—â— autoritate And to the same purpose Jâ—stinian speaking of the Canons of the first Ages saies Sancimus vicem legum obtineâ—â— sanctas regulas But if by Confirmation they understand the internal obligatioâ— laid upon all Christians of hearing those whom God has made their guides anâ— especially when they speak in Councilâ— where the Holy Ghost has promised to bâ— with them to reduce it to the Pope 〈◊〉 the greatest Chimera in the World Thâ—â— is to make these Venerable Assemblies aâ— object of scorn and derision to give occasion of disbeleiving the certainty of the truth they set forth or the justice of the laws they impose and turn all Christendome into a club of Independents given up to the guidance of their own reason Is it probable that the Holy Ghost should be absent from a meeting of 300. Bishops among whom we find Athanasius Osius Maximus c. and be present to Liberius a Subscriber of the Arian Heresie That he should not be in the Ephesin Chalcedonian and Constantinopolitan Councils where you have Cyril Leo Proclus Flavian c. and yet in Vigilius a defender of the three Chapters That he should not vouchsafe his presence to three hundred Bishops met at the sixth general Counci and yet inspire Honorius a patron of the Monothelites Is not this to include the Universal Church in the Pope which is a dangerous heresie To acknowledg him to be above Councils which the Basilian Council the Popes's Carthage as well as the famous Sorbon stile an other heresie and in fine to open the door to a thousand inconveniences the renown'd distinction excathedra cannot help X. These weighty reasons induc'd the German Princes to protest against that Council Many Kings of France had done the same before and Francis the First whose name alone in a World of of great Men was so fully perswaded of its being no Council much less a General one that the subscription of the Letters he directed to them was only this Conventui Tridentino But above all Henry the Eighth King of England a cleer-sighted Prince and extreamly well learned in the true concernments of Princes oppos'd it with a greater constancy T was not out of any motion of Heresie or Schism he dealt thus for he lived yet in the Roman communion Nor out of any ambition since all the historians nay those themselves who endeavoured most to defame him acknowledg he had been all his life-time the general Arbiter of Europe Nor yet out of any fear of or aversion to Councils since at the same time that he protested against the Council of Trent he declared he was ready to submit to any other lawfully call'd and to send thither the Bishops of his Realms But the true and only cause was that he perceived of how great importance an attempt of that matter would be for all succeeding ages and what slavery all Christian Princes would be reduced to if he should let it pass So that if the Council of Trent were as orthodox as the Nicene and we had no other reasons of rejecting it this we have alledged is sufficient to satisfy all unprejudic'd persons T is an essential defect and a fundamental one at the beginning of an affair
looks on the praises which the Saints have given him in their Epistles as titles and privileges from Christ the Church of England opposes it with as much constancy as justice and not being able to cure the wounds of that Bishop she leaves him to the judgment of our great God XII The pride of the Pope has caus'd the separation of the Greek Church and made a breach between East and West which will never be made up It has also bin the occasion of the one part of the West being divided from the other And it is not ten years since in the affair of the four French Bishops it had like to raise a Schism and a division in the rest XIII But supposing the submission of all the rest to Rome should be lawful yet that is nothing to the Church of England which was never any part of it It plainly appears she receiv'd the Faith almost as soon as Christ brought it to the world but altho the time be uncertain yet none can think that she was ever instructed by the Church of Rome Her manner of observing Easter as in the East and her Ceremonies very different from those used in the Church of Rome shew that she receiv'd the Gospel from thence St. Gregory having sent hither Austin the Monk and that Holy Saint requiring the Clergy to submit to the Popes autority the Abbot of Bangor in the name of all the rest answer'd in such terms as shew'd the purity and simplicity of the former times We submit our selves saies he to the Church of God to the Pope of Rome and to every good Christian and love each of them with such a degree of charity as is due to them to assist them both in our works and Councils to become sons of God we know no other respect due to him whom you stile Father of Fathers XIV It is therefore certain for six hundred years at least that the Church of England hath in no manner bin subject to that of Rome her Councils and promotions of Bishops and generally all that belongs to Religion has bin transacted without the Church of Rome being at all concerned in them It would be much against the honor of the Pope if those means should be made known by which he hath endeavor'd to establish himself for the succeeding ages The public Acts of this Kingdom of a far greater autority then all their legends are â—ully charg'd with his Oppressions What pains did the Kings take to put a stop to them with what constancy did the Clergy oppose it till the time of Henry the Eighth That history was writ with as much impartiality as truth by the Learned Sir Roger Twisden It appears by all public Acts that the Pope hath wonderfully endeavor'd to make use of all conjunctures of times to get footing into this great Isle He hath bin enrich'd by the liberality of her Kings by Factions which he sow'd in the heart of the Kingdom and by the Wars which he brought upon it from abroad XV. Henry the Eighth whom all the Popes have so cry'd out upon went not further then his Predecessors and the title of supreme Governor in these his Realms well understood is no less due to him then to any other Prince in the World This King or any of his Successors pretend to no more autority over the Church then Constantine Justinian or Charles the Great They have neither power to administer the Sacraments nor to Preach the word of God They meddle not at all with any thing which belongs to faith or manners and leave to their Bishops all the power in those matters which Christ himself has given them They make no Canons tho they add Sanctions to them and declare the knowledge of Spiritual affairs is not a right of their Crowns They only take care of the outward administration of the Church to see Canons executed and hinder foreign autority under pretence of piety from disturbing the quiet of their people Upon this account the Bull of no Pope is receiv'd in France without the Kings consent all privileged men are daily restor'd to the jurisdiction of the Ordinaries and when any thing does endanger the liberties of the Gallican Church or the Laws of the Land the Pasce oves meas is of no force and the Kings autority stops the attemts of the Holy Father In Spain the King has the disposal of all things belonging to the outward Government of the Church The Inquisitors condemn in the Kings name and when the Council of Trent was there receiv'd 't was by the command he gave his Subjects to do it nor do the Kings of England claim any more XVI 'T was not the title of Supreme Governor which did most of all distast the Pope He could easily bear with that in all Kings for it is but what naturally belongs to them he knew that every King has such autority over the Church but he fear'd the consequences of it which indeed are very terrible to a Pope Henry the Eighth by that did suppress the Bulls which came from Rome and retain'd in his own Realms those vast sums which before were yearly carried out of them This was transacted in the sight of two great Kingdoms inclin'd enough to do the like The Pope therefore thought that in prudence he ought to cry out on that Prince but because a man cries in â—ain when things are represented in their â—rue and lively colours he gave his defenders liberty of forming Chimera's to the end they might work upon the people such an effect in this point as he desired XVII The Church of England need not recuâ— to an extraordinary mission nor to those arguments so far distant from reason to prove her self a Church She hath not confounded the order of things and assum'd a Government lately sprung up Since she hath receiv'd the Faith which was according to Nicephorus in the firsâ— age and to St. Beda some small time after we see the succession of Bishops hath continu'd without the least interruption or change XVIII The Usurpations of Popes the comâ—merce of Italians and most of all the ignorance wherewith God for some timâ— permitted the West to be blinded madâ— them fall into the errors of Rome But when God looked upon the Church in hâ—â— mercy and had opened her eies she laâ—bored to reform her self but not in a tuâ—multuous manner and spilling of bloodâ— She was not left to the conduct of the blind People which will suffer nothing but what pleaseth them best and which is delighted only with extreams The King calls a Council of the whole Kingdom stored with wise and holy Bishops as appears both in their lives and works This Council form'd the articles of a reformation which being seconded by the law of their Prince according to the custome of all Monarchs were by that great Kingdom receiv'd with a general respect XIX These holy Prelats in the Reformation had nothing carried on either
experienc'd Physitians draw infinite advantages from that universal Crisis of the World Nothing was ever better contriv'd for that purpose then the Council of Trent And he that will survey it without being blinded with any preposterous Zeal will easily be convinc'd that Paul the Third the Promoter of it was a Man of great abilities and that his Predecessors trepidaverunt timore ubi non erat timor Psal 53. 6. IV. The Pope passes his word to call a Council against the express promise that Adrian the 6th had made of having it in Germany according to the constant maxime of the Canons To end Causes where their occasion began he calls it at Trent This Council summoned at Trent is so afraid not to be accounted a General and a Lawful one that it entitles it self at the beginning of all its Sessions Sancta oecumenica Synodus in Spiritu Sancto legitime congregata Who now would not think after such big words that from all places where our Blessed Saviors name is known Bishops did flock to Trent Who would not have expected to meet there with some Eastern Patriarchs or African Prelates Who would not have promised himself in reading the Subscriptions of this Council to â—ind more than 300 Witnesses of his Faith as at Nice 600. as at Chalcedon and in our very times 300 as at Constance or 400 as at Basil Who would not have â—ntertain'd hopes of hearing there many Athanasius's Cyril's Eusebius's Spiridio's Paphnutius's c In a word Who would not have flatter'd himself that our holy Faith had now bin made most clear and manifest and that Gods Spirit a Spirit of liberty and peace 2 Cor. 3. 17. had animated that great Body Nevertheless what must we say when we see appear there not any of those remote Bishops nay scarce any of the nearest not so much as one of Germany Poland England Denmark Sueden or France That grand oecumenical holy admir'd Council is reduc'd to three Cardinals five Arch-Bishops 36 Bishops for the most part without Churches some Mendicant Divines headed by Lainez and Salmero two stars of the Firmament worthy sons of the grand holy oecumenical company of Jesus The Sermons which were made at every Session and their manner of discussing the controverted Points are an evident proof of the mean parts not to say any thing sharper and truer of all these Divines Nay and to supply so remarkable a defect we hear of no extraordinary qualities nor eminent and surpassing Virtue nor gift of Tongues nor working of Miracles nor Spirit of Prophecy Notwithstanding this small handful 〈◊〉 People take upon them to explain the most obscure and intricate matters to give them after a slight and precipitatâ— survey a final determination and to make more Canons in one Session of four hours then the four first General Councils all put together had done in four hundred Years V. The Pope claims to himself the power of calling that Council He does not consider it as a privilege or an usurpation which the silence of those that are interested therein seem to render lawful but as an inseparable and inherent right to his See Nos saith Julius the Third ad quos ut summos pro tempore Pontifices spectat Concili a generalia indicere dirigere c. Who could imagine Christs Vicar to be a man of so small sincerity Eusebius Socrates and Theodoret affirm that the Nicene Council was call'd by the great Constantine The first Constantinopolitan which is the second General was called by Theodosius that of Ephesus by Theodosiue junior that of Chalcedon by Marcianus the fifth General by Justinian the sixth by Constantine the Fourth the seventh pretended General Council by Constantine and Irene his Mother the eighth by the Emperor Basil All these are accounted General in the Roman Church and full of so evident proofs that the Cardinals Cusan Jacobatius and Zabarella confess that in the Primitive Times the right of calling Councils belonged to the Emperors but so many that were assembled in Germany England France Spain Italy c. that of Constantia by Sigismundus that of Pisa by Maximilian gather'd for the most part to depose Popes make it appear that so great a Truth was not wholly worn out in the last Ages VI. It is pleasant to consider how different the stile of Popes in former times is from that of the present We were in hopes saies Pope Leo to the Emperor Marcianus Epist 44. that your clemency would condescend so far as to defer the Council but since you resolve it should be kept I have sent thither Paschasin Has not the Roman Church saies Pope Stephen to another Emperor sent her Legats to the Council when you commanded it We do offer these things to your Piety saies Pope Adrian to the Emperor Basil with all humility veluti praesentes genibus advoluti coram vestigia pedum volutando But Pope Paul the Third speaks quite in another manner Nulli hominum liceat hanc paginam infringere vel ei ausu temerario contraire The Bull of Julius the Third is yet more bold and ill becomes the humility of one that writes himself The Servant of Servants So that it must needs be that either former Popes were extremely ignorant of the extent of their Power or that the ambition of the later is grown too exorbitant VII The Author of the Considerations upon the Council of Trent seems to be perswaded of this want of Jurisdiction in the Pope and he is at such a loss to excuse it that he has nothing to say but that in the Troubles that Europe had bin engaged in this right was devolv'd to the Pope But was not Europe more disturb'd when Frederick the First gathered a Council at Pavia where the German English French Italian Hungarian and Danish Bishops met together When Charles the Sixth King of France call'd one at Rhemes whither the Emperor being pleased to be present the King of England and many other Princes sent their Ambassadors Or when both the Pisan and Constantian Councils were indicted by the Emperors with so great applause of all Christians VIII Nor is it more difficult to prove that the Pope has no right of presiding in Councils nor ought we to recur for that to many subtil distinctions or deep Ratiocinations We need not put our selves upon the rack as the Cardinals Baronius and Bellarmine frequently do to render that probable which is evidently false and to make people wavering in things which are undoubtedly true We need but open those Books wherein lie the precious and everlasting Monuments of Antiquity and the precedent conduct of so many holy Bishops Constantine the Great presided at the first General Council as Pope Stephen doth acknowledge in his Letter to the Emperor Basil Theodosius senior did the same at the second and from the small remains that we have of this Council
as Popes as infallible as the Oracles of the Holy Ghost as masters both of Men and Angels as judges both of the quick and dead in a word as men of whom according to their own Books 't is not allow'd to enquire Domine cur ita facis IV. That Ambition and Covetousness have bin the two originary sins of the Popes and that to these two Heads may be reduc'd all the rest the very complaints of their own Historians and most famous Authors do evince By the first they made a shift to raise themselves above Spiritual and Temporal Powers to excommunicate and depose Kings to invade the jurisdiction of other Bishops to break thro all ancient and modern Canons and instead of being rul'd by the General Councils of the Catholic Church to exalt themselves above them By the second they made use of all sacred and profane means to enrich themselves reduc'd all Benefices into that state as not to be attain'd but by Simony and sacrific'd all things to the raising of their Families As for the honor of their Dignity the glory of the Gospel and the consideration of the scandal of the Church these could never over-power in them the more strong impressions of Flesh and Blood The invention of Croisados being worn out they had recourse to that of Indulgences set to sale the absolution of sins and whosoever fill'd the Apostolic Treasure tho he were more profligate than the bad Thief became more innocent then the good V. Nor was it enough barely to fall into so many disorders unless they undertook also to Canonize them and thereby bring themselves under that dreadful Curse which God pronounces against those that call evil good 'T was for this purpose that Rome hath bred up such Doctors as flatter the Popes even to Idolatry stiling them Gods upon Earth These gave birth to the monstrous Doctrine of Infallibility never before heard of in the Church for 1400 years These had the face to maintain that if all the World should oppose their Sentiment all the World must be slighted And to sum up in a word all that can be said on that matter they have so far enslav'd themselves to their passion as to decree in one of their Canons that if the Pope should be neglectful of his Brethrens salvation improfitable to the Church dumb in what concerns her good tho he should carry along with him to hell an innumerable number of souls yet no man living can presume to correct him VI. These things are neither exaggerations nor slanders but meer matters of Fact which the best Authors of the Roman Church as Monsieur D'Espences Gerson the Chancellor of Paris Marsilius of Pavia the Cardinal of Cambray the Cardinal Cusan Aeneas Sylvius afterwards Pope do equally complain of And without ever mentioning the impertinencies of Canonists some of whom teach The Pope hath power to excommunicate Angels or the Impieties of some Divines who maintain he can establish any thing against the Law of God and Nature both What can be more amazing then to hear the Popes speak themselves Nicholas the First in his Letter to Michael saies That the Pious Emperor Constantine had call'd the Pope God and that 't is evident God can be judged by no man This piece of madness his successors lik'd so well that they made an express Canon of it Boniface the Eighth defines in a Decretal of his That all humane Creatures are bound necessitate salutis to submit to him as to the King of kings and both Spiritual and Temporal Lord over all the World His successor pretends lawfully to dispense with that which was contrary to the Apostles commands Bene dispensat Dominus Papa contra Apostolum Let all the World know saies Gregory the Seventh out of an excess of modesty and humility That we give and take away all Kingdoms Empires Principalities and all Goods men are capable of possessing VII Nor did these Servants of the Servants of God live any otherwise then they taught There could no Crown in their times be assur'd upon the Head of any Prince whatsoever Right Birth or Election had there established it And indeed we would scarce believe the precedents of Philip Frederic Lewis c. had we not beheld in our own daies what Leo the Tenth Julius the Third and Sextus the Fifth had done The public Records of England Germany and France are fill'd up with their bold enterprises the raising Subjects in rebellion against their natural Princes the absolving them from their Allegiance the putting great Kingdoms into combustion at once undermining them by civil Dissentions and procuring them to be invaded by Foreign Enemies the swearing Friendship with Francis the First and at the same time helping Charles the Fifth to subvert him and again entertaining correspondence with Charles the Fifth whilst he solicited Francis the First to war again are part of the transactions of St. Peters Successors the heads of the Church and Vicars of Christ VIII But for their Convetousness who is able to express it Annats expectative Graces sacred Reservations Preventions Mandats things abominable in all their parts were call'd by them Pious artifices to maintain the Apostolic See That which in its own nature was properly a Crime an Abomination and a Simony was turn'd into an holy action by a Pasce oves meas IX All Friers who grew weary of being govern'd by their Bishops and kept in the hardships of Penance sent mony to Rome where there was not a door in the Conclave but was open to their Gold Great sums to the Datary prevail'd more then all their tears could have done No Canons no Councils no Fathers resisted their bribes They purchas'd Privileges substracted themselves from the Sacred Jurisdiction of their Bishops and tho the very Injunction of their new gain'd liberty was a real Simony a disobedience and an effect of the corruption of their hearts yet the disturbers of it were threatned in their Bulls with St. Peter and St. Pauls indignation X. But that his Holiness not satisfied with the oppression of the Clergy should not spare the Lay-men neither is above all imagination The Records of the Parliament of Paris speak every where of the Popes oppressions Sir Roger Twisden hath writ an excellent account of the insupportable Taxes England groan'd under the natural piety and generosity of the English inviting the Popes to abuse it into an occasion of leaving no limits to their Covetousness For Germany and other Provinces who in the World is unacquainted with their grievances And is there any Roman Catholic who if he consider things impartially confesses not that Leo the Tenth was the cause of greater evils to the Church then Luther XI The Pope himself verified that word of the Prophet The Priests shall eat the sins of the people There was no crime which had not an Asylum at the Penitentiaries The obscene Books of the Jesuits Sanchez and
waters flow to life Eternal The Word of God being the foundation of our happiness and the key of the World to come she permits all People perswades exhorts and commands all ages all conditions and qualities to peruse it St. Chrysostome was of opinion that all Merchants and men of affairs who had not zeal enough to read the Old Testament should at least read the new St. Jerome prescrib'd to many Ladies of quality the manner of teaching it their Daughters St. Austine in his Sermons declares to his People that the multitude of their sins proceeded from their neglect of the Scriptures God having resolv'd in process of time to accomplish the great work of Predestination in his Elect by his word to neglect the reading of it would be to reckon himself excluded of that blessed tribe The Church of England follows that opinion Her Bishops are not contented with instituting it in their Synods and the Preists preaching it in their Churches but the Holy Ghost being of all Nations and languages it has bin their business so justly to translate it as the most ignorant can make use of it and so all the World may equally have this great treasure for it is folly for any one to perswade themselves that it is only open to the learned There needs no science but much humility and Faith towards God for the knowing this truth of Salvation Let a Man have learning without humility the most ignorant person understands better then he do's Men teach the mind and corrupt it but God instructs the heart and it is converted VIII But because it is easy for our reason to be seduc'd and nothing is worse for any Man then to abandon himself to his own sense the Bishops order their Curats to look back on the former ages to get the explication of the Scriptures from the holy Fathers to hearken to the Church in her Councils and never to fall from her interpretations and ordinances The Church of Rome runs into one extremity and some authors to another the former so look on the Fathers as to equal their authority with that of God the others under pretence of hearing God hear no body and treat those holy Saints and August Councils with such contempt as merits a thousand Hells The holy Church of England keeps her self in an exact mean She rejects condemns and trembles at the folly pride and ignorance of those unhappy wretches before whose eies the Devil has cast so great a mist and who think it better blindly to cry Scripture then to hear those who are the most faithful interpreters of it She with great respect and reverence looks upon those former ages where truth was not disguis'd nor charity cool'd but she rises not to such an excess as the Church of Rome and whatsoever grace God has given to his servants she alwaies acknowledges that they are but rivulets which can never be equall'd with the Ocean from whence they proceed IX They therefore are mistaken who confound this holy Church with such unreasonable persons as refuse to be instructed by the examples and writings of so many holy servants of God She receives â—ot tradition in any other sense then is â—ccording to Scripture She will hold â—ll that as holy which can be alledged â—onformable to that excellent rule of St. Vincent of Lerins quod semper quod ubiâ—ue quod ab omnibus servatur She will alâ—aies receive with a profound reverence â—he unanimous consent of the Saints and â—ever appeal from the decrees of the Church assembled in general legitime Councils For tho the Church has no power to ordain any new article of Faith either to add or cast out any part of it nevertheless she has sufficient Authority to declare her opinion in any point of Faith and seeing that she do's it all Christians are bound to submit themselves to her judgment what seeming truth soever there appears on the contrary and it is much more probable for one particular person to be deceiv'd to whom God has promis'd no other assistance but that which is common to all Christians then the Catholic Church to which Christ is present till the end of the World and has promis'd to send his Spirit there where they are gathered together in his name Christ in speaking to inferiours said not he who hears you hears me they therefore have no right to be heard nor consequently to speak He said to his Apostles and Bishops whom he has order'd to govern the Church in their place t is therefore their business to speak and right to be heard and those who teach without or against their order do break the ranks in which God has placed them X. But to attempt the reducing the Catholic Church to one part of Europe and to force the name of Roman upon those who ought not to receive it and to exclude them from Salvation who are both Christians and Catholics without being Romans is the greatest absurdity in the world But to confine that part of Europe to the Pope to make him the center of unity which belongs alone to Christ is the greatest impiety and most insufferable extravagancy that can be imagin'd But that any man should call himself the High Priest the Universal Bishop of the Church that is take those titles w ch his Predecessors look'd on as an execration and which he hath not gotten but by an immensurable ambition is beyond all imagination But that the same person under pretence of a Pasce oves meas which he hath expounded as he pleased contrary to the opinion of the Fathers and Councils should march in the head of all his Brethren and raise Clergy men of the meanest order such as are Cardinals above the holy order of Bishops should excommunicate Kings and depose them give their Kingdoms to a depredation dispence Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance which they have sworn to their Prince and colour all these attemts as done by the autority which Christ hath given him the Church of England will never admit of such Principles as the most forlorn sinners cannot look upon without horror XI If the Pope would do all for the truth and nothing contrary to it if he would limit himself to the word of Christ and the practice which the Church hath prescrib'd him and go no further then St. Leo or St. Gregory she will communicate with him She will rob him neither of the dignity of Bishop nor Patriarch Christ gave him the one and the Church granted him the other She acknowledges that the ancient See of Rome is one of the most considerable in the world that hath bin formerly ennobled with as many Martyrs as Bishops that he hath bin mightily respected in Councils and that the Emperors have dignified him with great privileges But when he pretends to draw thence an occasion of exalting himself above others and that according to the remark of a famous Emperor at the Council of Florence He