time by (e) Marsil Petav. def part 2. c. 18. the Nicene Council But because N. N. stands so much upon his points of Prudence it may be neither an imprudent nor impertient digression to compare the Romish Principles and Practices with the Protestant and by discussing one of them more largely to judg of the rest more clearly It is universally acknowledged that the Doctrine of all Apostolical Churches disseminated over the whole Christian World is Infallibly certain because attested by Vniversal Tradition which in it self is so but it is generally confessed that the Tradition of an Apostolical Church of one denomination may prudently be traversed because often found certainly False Now Protestants rely upon Vniversal Tradition truly such for Time Place and Persons and the Authority of all Apostolical Churches Papists content themselves and sit down in security with the Tradition and Authority of the Roman Church and which is worse of the present Romish Church of this age Protestants prescribe for Sixteen hundred years there is no Law nor Custom to destroy or over-rule a Prescription of so long standing Papists plead as N. N. doth the acknowledgment of the sixteenth Century over-leaping all the rest and that but in our parts of the World Protestants believe the Scripture to be the adequate Rule of Faith as to the essentials thereof Papists hold unwritten Traditions are to be received with the same reverence and respect Protestants esteem those Books to be Canonical Scripture which the Catholick Church hath so adjudged Papists singularly superadd others to the Canon Protestants believe the Truths they profess to be Divine Revelation because God by his Son Jesus Christ hath delivered and promulgated them to Mankind Papists believe their supernumerary Articles which they assume to themselves because defined by an Infallible Pope with the advice and consent of a presumed General Council Protestants assert the Pope is not Infallible for Pope Honorius was a Convicted Heretick as before hath been proved The Catholick Church hath always resolved against his Infallibility and the Doctors of that Church cannot agree about it and some of them oppose it neither was that Council General say the Protestants because no Southern nor Eastern Bishops was there nor any Northern but one titular only Olaus magnus the Goth who for that time passed as an Arch-Bishop of Sweethland no English Bishops nor Irish save another blind Sir Robert the Scot who for that time being was reputed the Primate of Ireland only two French Bishops six Spanish the rest were Italians who when they came to be arrayed were mustered but to Forty three in all This was a Plot of the Pope to keep what his Predecessor Leo the tenth had got by the Lateran Assemblers and after him others still maintained but he was for all this contrivance possessed with fears and jealousies the Council would be tampering with his Jurisdiction as other Councils had done and therefore was very careful to have fresh supplies in readiness for a reserve and according as the Pope suspected it hapned for the Council began to form Canons for the redress and reformation of several abuses and to abridg the Popes unlimited Power in granting Dispensations of which design he received early intelligence from his Legates and thereupon moved the Council to desist from any further progress therein for six weeks which being accepted and condescended to he dispatched his new recruits of Auxiliaries forty Italian and Sicilian Bishops who within the time limited ariving at Trent over-voted the reformers in the Council and quite quashed their attempts which made the Apulean Bishops cry out in open Council O we are the Popes Creatures we are the Popes (f) Carol. Malin l. de ton Frid. n. 21. Slaves Protestants rely only upon the Mercy of God and Merits of Christ for their Salvation This Bellarm. saith is the safest way and therefore it is the most Prudential Papists will join in their own Merits of Works done by Grace which Bellarm. confesseth is a more uncertain way and therefore less Prudential Protestants ascribe all Religious Worship to God and to God only Papists give it to Images and the Consecrated Host Protestants know it is an indispensable duty to Pray to God for all things necessary both for Soul and Body and direct their Prayers only to God the Father through and for the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ alone Papists Pray to God by Jesus Christ for which Duty Zanchee entertains a charitable opinion of them but withall they invocate Angels and Saints departed as Conductors secondary and subordinate Mediators for which Practice Protestants aver there is no warranty in Scripture no Authority from Primitive Antiquity nor any rule in Reason to approve it either a necessary lawful or an expedient Duty But because some eminent Protestants have declared that Papists have more to say for this particular than in any of their other eleven additional new forged Articles if this Principle and Practice of theirs be cogently proved unscriptural unpractical and irrational the same may be concluded of the rest CHAP. VI. SECT I. IT is Vnscriptural The Scripture teacheth us and commands us to ask the Father in the name of his Son Jesus Christ it prescribeth no rule to ask in any other name but declareth against it For it proposeth Christ to us as our only Mediator and Intercessor there is one God to whom we are to make our requests known by Prayer and Supplication and there is one Mediator between God and Man 1 Tim. 2.5 the God-man Jesus Christ by whom we have boldness of access to the Throne of Grace The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is emphatical importing thus much as there is one God only and no more even so there is one Mediator betwixt God and Man in reference to our Prayers Supplications Intercessions and Thanksgivings ver 2. one God and no other besides him even so one Mediator and none but he who is our Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 Joh. 2.1 who as he performed all Righteousness for us so the virtue and value thereof qualifies and capacitates him for the Office of being Advocate for us viz. to recommend open and plead our Cause for us and procure our Prayers to be granted none can effectually Mediate for us but he who did Redeem us he only can be our Advocate who is the Propitiation for our Sins which was Jesus only who for the more effectual execution of his Office of Advocate after he had offered himself a Propitiatory Sacrifice for our Sins was advanced to sit on the right hand of God the Father Rom. 8.34 where it may be observed that it is the same Person that died for us and therefore as Jesus alone died for our Sins and rose again for our Justisication so for the application of these Benefits and Priviledges to us he only sits at God's Right-hand and makes Intercession for us this Office being as proper and
determine what Intention was necessary because they could not agree about the efficacy of the Sacraments it being impossible there should be the same Intention of two who differ in their judgments concerning it The common Salvo was that the Intention to do as the Church doth was sufficient but this satisfied not the scruple because men â—â—ffered in opinion what the Church is and their opinions herein being different their Intentions in administring the Sacraments would also prove different To evade this it was pretended all the Priests had the same design but as it is impossible for any to know the things that is the purposes of Man save the Spirit of Man which is in him 1 Cor. 2.11 so it is unconceivable how they should have the same end and aim who have different Judgments Humours Passions and Interests At last they were driven to this shift perhaps there may be some such wretched Priest yet this case is rare To this the Bishop of Minori replied would God said he that the case was rare and that in this corrupt age we had not cause to doubt there were many but suppose there are but a few or one only let a Knave Priest Baptize who hath not an Intention to administer the true Baptism to a Child who being after a grown Man is created a Bishop of a great City so that he hath Ordained a great part of the Priests in his Diocess it must be said that he being not Baptized is not Ordained nor they Ordained who are promoted by him Behold Millions of Nullities of Sacraments by the malice of one (z) Histor Council of Trent fol. 241. Priest in one Act only 4. To give full measures of Doubts and uncertainties in the most mysterious act of their Religion Dr. Holden (a) Apendix of Schism p. 445. Refert Dr. Ham. dispatcher Preface p. 14. averreth All Roman Catholicks do believe and reverence the Sacrifice of the Mass as the most substantial Act of their Religion but if it be demanded wherein the substance of this Sacrifice doth consist no substantial Resolution can be expected from them their Doubts and uncertainties about the Nature and Essence thereof are so cross and various There are divers opinions concerning it saith (b) Azor. l. 10. c. 9. or part 2. l. 2. c. 14. Azor. There are six Acts of which it is doubted in which one or more of them the Essence of the Sacrifice consisteth saith (c) Tom. 3. dist 75. art 1 2. Suarez Some place it in the one Act of Consecration but the doubters dispute against it for say they Consecration belongeth rather to the nature of a Sacrament than a Sacrifice and every external Sacrifice such as the Mass is must be sensible but the Conversion made by the words of Consecration is not sensible for the real change is not and again if the Act of Consecration then the outward Elements only are the Hoast and matter offered but we may not say the Species are the Hoast others set it in the Oblation but the dissenting Brethren oppose this because Christ used no Sacrificial Act at his Last Supper and if Christ did not the Priest ought not though some of them grant it belongs to the intergrity of the Sacrifice But how the Trent-Divines were divided in their judgment herein may be read Hist Counc of Trent fol. 544 c. Some of them again conceive Consecration Consumption or Sumption to be the Essence this others contradict because then say they the Body and Blood of Christ must be destroyed for that which is Offered in Sacrifice is to be destroyed but Sumption can be no part thereof because the Act of Receiving is not for although Christ be not received after the Consecration yet is he truly said to be Sacrificed and Doctors doubt whether Christ did receive in his last Supper and the Priest receiving doth nothing in Christs person but his own others stood for Fraction but this the doubters easily disprove for it is say they an Act purely Sacramental not at all Sacrificial and Fraction being before Consecration the Substance of the Bread and Wine remaineth When N. N. hath solved all these Doubts and satisfied all these Doubters he may be more confident of the demonstrative Power of Doubts and uncertainties in the mean time he may apply them to his own Church in his own words Mutatis mutandis Therefore the Romanists before they can prudently believe themselves to have true Faith or be the Catholick Church must clear all Doubts and uncertainties not objected by Protestants but started and pursued by their own Divines concerning their Church their Head of the Church their Ordinations and the most Substantial Act of their Religion the Mass for though any Person should not c. 7. N. N. goes one step forward the step to Christian and Catholick belief is c. This hath nothing of usefulness to his Conclusion unless he prove that a Clergy not regularly ordained cannot believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith c. that the Protestant Church hath a doubtful Clergy in which his attempts have hitherto been unsuccessful and unlucky to him and his Church If his meaning be the well-grounded Credibility of his Church is the foundation of Christian belief this is to beg the Question and is false for Christian Faith is not an assent and adherence to the Objects thereof upon the bare Testimony of the Church but on that of God neither is its warranty derived from the Church's Proposition but Divine Revelation True Faith is founded on the writings of Moses and the Prophets of Christ and his Apostles Eph. 2.20 which moved Durand thus to define it It is an habit whereby we assent to the Doctrines of the Scripture for the Authority of God revealing them But if he intend only that the Church's Proposition is to her members the first motive and preparative of Faith it will not be gainsaid but then he must remember that a prudent Christian will not take the Church for well-groundedly credible till he find by the Rule of Faith She deserves to be so esteemed for it is impossible the Church can appear so to him till he know the Faith it proposeth which he cannot do but by applying it to the Rule for every intellectual and moral habit must be sufficiently known before the Acts resulting from them can be predicated of any subject capable to exercise them As I must know what Prudence is before I can truly affirm of any man that he is Prudent 8. That which N. N. mainly drives at is to seduce the members of the Church of England from her Communion and solicite them to Apostate to Rome To effect this he took as he conceived a seasonable opportunity to perplex the minds of men with his Doubts and uncertainties by reason of our late sad divisions Then the Romanists bent all their forces to perswade easy seduceable tempers This Church was either a dead or (d) Bishop
tied us to this nice scrupulous disquisition or commanded us to be Annalists and Historians though Christ hath promised there shall be a perpetual visible Church which yet in your sense of visibility you will never be able to prove yet did he never assure us there should be Histories and Records of Professors in all Ages neither did he ever command us to search and read them he hath commanded both you and us to search and read the Scriptures that we may be able to bring them in evidence You might if your leisure or somewhat else had permitted have remembred what hath been returned to this demand long before you proposed it It is your usual rant it is unanswerable you may know the contrary if not I shall inform you after I have premised some Considerations to clear the procedure 1. What do you mean by Protestant if you intend to hook in all who challenge that Appellative the return is short all that call themselves Catholicks and Saints are not such 2. What by Faith if every Doctrine which hath been maintained by some Protestants as a probable Opinion or as a pious profitable Truth then you trifle and sophisticate but if by Faith you understand the object of Faith or things necessary to be believed by all that they may be saved as it is usually taken in Scriptures Fathers and Councels then the Protestants assert their Faith is the Faith of all good Christians who lived before them who all professed to believe as they believe which they thus evidence 3. Protestants earnestly contend for the Faith which was once or at once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. Which you by the addition of your new super-numerary Essentials had corrupted and changed as Anthony of Valtelina a Dominican Friar affirmed in the Council of Trent and was seconded by the Bishops of five Churches therein Hist of Council of Trent ad An. 1562. Fol. 548 549. Their Reformation was not to compose a new but to retrieve the old Faith which you had so confounded and changed not to form a new Church but to free the old Church from your new Essentials The corruptible and incorruptible body are one in substance differing only in perfections and purities their Faith is the same in substance with the Faith of the whole Christian World differing from some part thereof in quality and goodness The end of the Reformation was to separate the pretious from the vile the chaff from the wheat to refine the Gold mixed with dross to dress the Garden overgrown with weeds to cure the body which was diseased to regain and recover that Faith which the Christian World had reputed and received for true and saving Faith even the same that hath the attestation of the universal Church in all Ages which is dispersed in the Scriptures but contracted and summed up in the Apostles Creed which was designed by them witness your own authorized Catechism to preserve Believers in the unity of Faith to be a badg and cognizance to distinguish Believers from Vnbelievers and Misbelievers This and nothing but this hath been professed always every-where by all persons ubique semper ab omnibus in Vinc. Lyr. Golden Rule of Catholicism This is evinced by Practice the Profession of this Faith and of this only was and is required of every person either by himself or Sureties before he be admitted into the Church by holy Baptism That Question and Answer doest thou believe I do believe had alwaies respect to this and no other into this and this alone both you and we are Baptized by this and this alone you and we are made Christians by this with the advantage of an holy Life according to the Precepts of Christ the Christians of all Ages have gone to Heaven for 1400 years without the knowledg or belief of your 12 new coined Articles For this they have the sentence and determination of the Ephesine Council which your Popes have been solemnly sworn to observe the judgment of the Ancient Fathers the concurrent suffrage of many of your Learned Divines and Schoolmen and which will weigh most with you the Remonstrance of your Trusty and Well-beloved Tridentine Assemblers who once in their good mood thought fit thus to express themselves The Apostles Creed is the shield of Faith by c. the firm and only Foundation against which the Gates of Hell shall never prevail This Protestants profess with the whole Christian World in its several Successions and Centuries this they believe too as it is sensed by the four first General Councels and the traditious interpretation of the universal Church And for us of the Church of England as we admit no new Creed so we reject all new senses of the Old which thus sensed they own for the true Catholick Apostolick Faith Indeed other Articles we have but they are Articles of Peace not of Faith not all of them to be respected as Essentials of saving Faith but as pious Truths which none of the Pastors of the Church are to contradict or oppose 4. To retort your Question the Protestants offer these Proposals to you to nominate successive Professors since the Apostles of the whole Faith of the present Roman Church or a succession of Professors who since the Apostles have received these 12 new distinct Articles which Pius the 4th added at the foot of the 12 old ones as Essentials of Faith absolutely necessary to be believed by all necessitate medii without which they could not be saved We are sure they were never reputed for such for 1400 years Prove those your late forged Articles at Trent to have any relation to or analogy with those of the Apostles that they are evidently concluded from them or virtually contained in them as conclusions in their premises Lastly that the Apostles did deliver or teach by Word or Writing your new-found Faith or passage to Heaven Till these be satisfactorily performed by you we desire you to be wise unto sobriety and to consider whence you are fallen Answer to the second Question 1. WHat mean you by Mission if Ordination to the respective Functions of Bishops and Priests c. then such a Mission our Bishops and Priests have if you have any 2. What by Lawful what you fancy or the Pope resolves to be so you know we neither value your conceits nor the Pope's by-Laws the English have received and rejected them at their pleasure take and leave as they like with us those things pass for lawful which are so by the Law of Christ which gives them validity or by the Laws and Constitutions of the Church which makes them Canonical or by the Laws of the Kingdom whereby they become Legal accordingly as we averr 1. The English Clergy hath a lawful that is a valid Ordination by the Institution of Christ for the English Church in conferring Holy Orders observeth all the Essentials of Ordination by Authority of Holy Scripture Matter and Form as some of your own fast Friends
have confessed Imposition of Hands and the solemn words of Investiture Receive ye the Holy Ghost The Scripture knows no other Essentials but these which is also acknowledged by some of your Learned Partizans and these are constantly used by our Bishops who received their Ordinations from their Predecessors by an uninterrupted line of succession whether from British or French or Roman Bishops is not material because each of these had their Mission in your expression by a continued succession from the Apostles who planted the Faith and laid hands on their first Successors of these Nations Cardinal Pole the Papal Legat by his Dispensation and Pope Paul the 4th by his Ratification setled the Ordinations in King Edw. the 6th his Reign with this only Proviso that those then so Ordained would return to the Vnity of the Church that 's sure in their and your sense to adhere to the Pope and acknowledg his begged Sovereign Monarchical Power This they could not have granted neither would they if they had suspected any defect in the Essentials of their Ordination It is not in the power of the Pope or Cardinals to ratify their Orders who had none or dispence with them to execute any Function in the Church who had no Authority from Christ or his Apostles for it if they did your Church hath concluded the Act sacrilegious and null if we may believe some of your Controvertists 2. By the Constitutions of the Church what hath been universally observed and was decreed by the Councel of Carthage in St. Aug. time hath been and is still retained in the Church of England 3. By the Laws of the Kingdom both this and the others will appear by the Records upon both these accounts Bishop Jewel defended this Church against Mr. Harding Fol. 129. I am a Priest by the same Order c you were and after our Bishops succeed the Bishops before our days being Elected Confirmed Consecrated and admitted as they were Mr. Mason hath proved this beyond all cavil your own Associates Mr. Higgins Mr. Hart Father Garnet and Father Old-corn took the pains to search the Registers and after that Arch-Bishop Abbot caused them to be shewed to four more who after they had perused did acknowledg them Authentical and undeniable Ex abundanti Cudsemius the Jesuit Lib. 11. de Desp Cal. causa hath freely confessed the English Nation are not Hereticks because they remain in a perpetual succession of Bishops Monsieur Militiere in his Letter to his Majesty Charles the Second hath declared the same Lastly look to your own Succession in which by your own Laws there be several Nullities by Vacancies Schisms and Simonies which if they were fully charged upon you would puzzel you to clear Having dispatched your Questions the Texts of Scripture are to be considered No man taketh this Honour c. True but this Honour is to be had in any Apostolical Church as well as yours which hath Elder Sisters particularly the British here in England confitente Baronio Faith cometh c. Very good But the Object of Hearing is not the Pope's decrees or Trent definitions but the word of Faith as before Gal. 118. The rest were true before there was a Church at Rome were true when she became an holy Church are true now it is an unsound rotten member of the Church would be eternally true if there were no Church at Rome nor Roman Bishop The Church shall not fail but Christ never setled this priviledg on the Roman or any Church of one denomination Christ's Church never faileth so long as there are Confessors through the World who contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS FINIS Some Books Printed for Henry Brome in Defence of the Church of England since the Year 1666. A Companion to the Temple or an Help to Devotion being an Exposition on the Common-Prayer in two Voll By Tho. Comber A. M. Lex Tallionis or an Answer to Naked Truth The Popish Apology reprinted and Answered A Seasonable Discourse against Popery and the Defence on 't The Difference betwixt the Church and Court of Rome considered Considerations touching the true way to suppress Popery to which is added an Historical Account of the Reformation in England Friendly Advice to the Roman Cath. of England enlarged Dr. Du Moulin's Answer to the Lord Castlemain his Papal Tyrannie in England With two Sermons on Novemb. 5th Fourteen Controversial Lords for and against Popery in quarto Beware of two Extremes Popery and Presbytery octav The Reformed Monasterie or the Love of Jesus or a Sure Way to Heaven A Guide to Eternitie by John Bona. Extracted out of the Writings of the Holy Fathers and Ancient Philosophers
of Constance as a lawful General-Council and to its Decree concerning the Superiority of a Council above the Pope and as many do to this day which also necessarily destroyeth the supposition of the Popes Infallibility because no inferiour Authority can be Infallible for that it can be controuled and corrected by a superiour over-ruling Power and that which is Infallible cannot neither ought to be controuled or corrected If any Romanists conceive and some there be who would be esteemed and pass for such with otherwise discerning men to be the more moderate sort that this is no direct consequence it were well done of them to reconcile the different pretensions and contradictory perswasions of the Pope and a Council and clearly declare whether the two contesting parties can be both Infallible for an Infallibility they will have and if there be such a thing it must be seated in the one or the other for there are no other pretenders to it and if we must have two Infallibles then which of them for the time being is the most Infallible to end the Controversy for till this be decided there can be no end of Controversies because this Controversy will be still agitated and few or none besides shall be satisfactorily determined because all others do mostly depend on this or whether it were not more prudent by way of Accommodation to compound the difference betwixt themselves that by consent the Contestants should take the Infallibility by turns the Pope have his vicissitude and the Council theirs or that it pass as a long time it hath done by a standing Rule of Catch that Catch can provided it can be so ordered that it be done without hot bickerings and canvassings But the through-paced Papists stand close to their tacklings for where they fix the Supremacy there also very consonantly to their supposition they lodg the Infallibility for thus they argue in the ease of the Pope His Authority (p) Bell. l. 4. de Pont. c. 24. Sect. 2. c. l. 2. de Conc. c. 13. And this is saith he the judgment of the best writers quos recenset ib. Sect. ult and therefore his judgment is the last and highest id l. 4. de Rom. Pont. c. 1. Sect. Sed nec Sect. denique and because it is the last and highest therefore it is Infallible ib. l. 3. Sect. contra l. 2. de Conc. c. 9. Sect. accedat c. c. 11. Sect de 2. Sect. de 3. is Supreme therefore his judgment in causes of Faith is the last and the highest and because it is the last and the highest therefore it is Infallible But upon the whole matter it is evident from what hath before been avouched that the Holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul were not the Founders of the present Romish Church as it is now constituted and managed but Julius the Second and Leo the Tenth by their new settlement and so their pretence of possession which at the best was tortious is quite out of doors and at last N. N's Original of Protestancy falls out to be indeed the just date and commencement of Popery Wherefore as the Papists frequently but foolishly propose to us Where was your Church before Luther So we upon the foregoing grounds may more reasonably demand of them where was your Popish Church before Julius the Second and Leo the Tenth which Question they will never satisfy till they renounce their new Faith and new Foundation of Faith upon which their new Church is superstructed 3. Supposing this acknowledgment then an 1516. and there in our parts of the World this is far from rendring it Catholick because far removed from that Golden Rule of Catholicism delivered by Vin. Lyr. and approved by all good Catholicks quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus c. For if before that year and age and in other parts of the World that which Protestants now call Popery was not acknowledged Catholick Doctrine it must not now be acknowledged Catholick neither ought it then and in our parts of the World to have been acknowledged Catholick the ancient Primitive is to be more respected and reverenced than the Church of the last Century and other parts of the Christian World have been and are as truly and univocally parts of the one Holy Catholick Church as ours can be and the true Faith is one and the same in all ages and places But will or can N. N. answer to Bell. who l. de notis Eccl. c. 7. positively declares that if only one Province should retain the Catholick Faith yet it should be truly and properly called the Catholick Church as long as it might be shewed as Protestants have it was the same which it was at other times in other plaees of the World Driedo dogmat Eccles lib. 4. part 2. seems to be of his mind And what will he say to Dr. Bristow who motive the 45. confesseth some there have been in many ages in some poinis of the Protestants opinion insomuch that there is scarce one piece or Article of our whole Faith but by one or other first or last it hath been called in Question and that with such liking for the time that they all have in a manner drawn after them great herds of followers these some and all were long before this Origenists Aera 1516. and what if these some of Bristow prove to be very many as the Cardinal of Praeneste reckoned them Vicards poor people of Lions Speronists Arnoldists and Waldenses who as Reinerus reports were far spread and of long standing in the Church For thus he relates the matter refort Illyric Catal. test devit tom 2. p. 543 but in an old Edition p. 32. lit D. they continued so long as no Sect hath some say it hath been since Sylvester some since the Apostles there is universality of time and there is almost no countrey wherein it spreadeth not there is universality of place and persons they have great shew of Piety living uprightly before men and believing all things aright concerning God and all the Articles of the Creed and abating his great shew they were good Catholicks because holy believers and livers but that he added a subsequent cause only they hate and blaspheme the Church of Rome and that marred all otherwise they had passed muster and St. Bernard is much to the same purpose Serm. 65. sup Cant. Edit Venet. an 1575. Tom. 1. p. 328. tit H. Si fidem interroges c. If you require an account of their Faith nothing is more Christian if of their Conversation nothing more commendable they frequent the Church honour the Priests offer their Gifts make Confession and communicate in the Sacraments these were no Schismaticks they hurt none circumvent none contemn none are true and just in all their dealings performing what they promised these were not unjust wicked men yet he had a pique at them they did not observe the Monkish Vow of Continence which he conceived
no Church The step to Christian and Catholick Belief is the well-grounded Credibility excluding all prudent doubts of the Clergy we have the same of the Church and of the Faith and Doctrine proposed by its testimony and the true Faith admits of no such doubts Therefore Protestants before they can prudently believe themselves to have true Faith or be in the Catholick Church must clear all the doubts objected against their Ordination For though any Person shall not be convinced of the Nullity of their Ordination yet he cannot but harbour a prudent doubt thereof there being so many Reasons and Motives for it Now to Receive Sacraments from Priests of so doubtful Authority is without doubt a damnable Sacriledg it being in the highest degree against the light of Right Reason and Rule of Faith to expose the Reverence of the Sacraments and Remedy of our Souls to so manifest an hazard SECT V. J. S. THis Conclusion is of the same temper with the Premises these were a confused heap of Incredibles Improbables and Impossibles this is a wild distempered Sorites carried on with an affected Obscurity to distract and amuse the Reader by multiplying confounding and changing the Terms hudling up many Conclusions in this one If St. Hierome by Church meant the Vniversal Church this always has now hath and ever will have Bishops as Sacerdotes signifies with him but if he spoke of a particular Church then his is not is not to be taken absolutely but respectively not simply to deny it's being and existence but it 's integrity and complement viz. there is no through complete Church which hath not Bishops For we read in the Ancients of some Churches that had received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fulness of Dispensations and of others which had not attained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the complement of Necessaries though in St. Hierom's time all Churches were complete that he might truly affirm there was no Church without a Bishop But it may fall out also that all the Bishops of a well-formed complete Church may dye or by Persecution be so Scattered that they dare not appear or by an Infidel Conquerour be Banished or Murthered but if the remaining Christians in this distressed condition keep their first Faith they are in a salvable state and continue true members of the Vniversal Church as those Roman Converts were who believed upon St. Peter's first Sermon Act. 2. which was long before St. Peter came to Rome Rom. 16.7 2. He suggests It is impossible they should c. For once he guesseth right It is impossible any Church of one denomination can be the true Catholick Apostolick Church that is in the usual sense of the Romanists the Vniversal as it is impossible for a Part to be the Whole or their Catholick Church which is not the fourth part thereof to be Vniversal as they by their common restriction assume but it is possible a particular Church may be a true Catholick and Apostolick Church and the true Catholick and Apostolick Church of such a Nation For the Title Catholick is either taken properly for the Vniversal Church which is the Congregation of all Believers dispersed over all the World in opposition to the Herds of Jews Pagans and Infidels and then it is a contradiction to apply or appropriate it to any particular Church as the Romanists industriously do to huckster off their false Wares which otherwise would stick on their hands or else it is used in the more common signification of an Orthodox Church which participates in the true Faith with the Vniversal Church in a contradistinction to the Conventicles of all Heretical Blasphemers In this Notion the Protestant Church of England is not only a Catholick and Apostolick Church but in due Form of construction the true Catholick and Apostolick Church of England as several particular Churches viz. Rome Carthage c. have been honoured with the Title of the Catholick Church of those respective Nations (k) For as the Roman Church was called the Catholick Church of Rome Leo Ep. 12. So that of Antioch the Catholick Church of Antioch Conc. Constant 5. Act. 1. That of Carthage the Catholick Church of Carthage Aurel. Epist Eccl. Cathol Carthag So Polycarp was the Bishop of the Catholick Church of Smyrna Euseb lib. 4. hist c. 14. And that famous Epistle to the Smyrnians was directed to all the Holy and Catholick Churches id ib. in Princ. Greg. Naz. the Bishop of the Catholick Church of Constantinople in his last Will and Testament witnessed by four Bishops of their several Catholick Churches as of Iconium c. Provinces and Dioceses 3. His doubts and uncertainties have a rare virtue perhaps they may work strongly on weak minds they can demonstrate This is the noble demonstrating faculty of Romish Traditors they can raise doubts and uncertainties where there are none and by their Magick demonstrate first that the Protestant Church is not the Vniversal and then it is no Church first absurdly without Proof suppose the Nullity of its Ordinations and thence conclude the Nullity of its Christianity The best is this is but one Doctors opinion if more there be yet all his Colleagues are not so Magisterial in their nullifying Sentence The Bishop of Chalcedon is more solid and Prudent Persons (l) As Bishop Bramhal cites Reply to the Survey p. 33. saith he living in the communion of the Protestant Church if they endeavour to learn the truth which if they do not they are neither good Protestants nor good Christians and are not able to attain unto it but hold it implicitely in the preparation of their minds and are ready to receive it when God shall be pleased to reveal it they neither want Faith nor Church nor Salvation which elsewhere he confirms by this reason A Church may be Heretical and Schismatical really yet morally a true Church because She is (m) Bishop of Chalced. Survey c. 2. Sect. 4. invincibly ignorant of her Heresy and Schism Pope Innocent was so much offended at the irregularities of the Spanish Ordinations in his time that at first he inclined to null them but upon better thoughts be forbore declaring that for the number of those who were faulty therein he would not question nor doubt of any of them any ways passed but rather leave them to Gods Judgment Epist ad Conc. Tolk Car. sum Conc. p. 270. 4. But saith he a solid doubt c. This is not Universally true for a Church which hath a doubtful Clergy by irregularities of Ordination if She contend for that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints and cannot avoid those irregularities through not a pretended or contracted but a real necessity is a true part such an irregularity not absolutely and totally Un-Churching her of the true Catholick Church True but not Complete not Complete because it wants that which is required to the Integrity and Perfection of a Church yet True because it hath all things essential to
a Church For this reason the most eminent Protestants who still maintained the Divine Right of Bishops yet did they clear those Transmarine Churches which have not Bishops from sinning against Divine Right because their want was not through their own default but the Iniquity of the Times and Places they lived in which charitable construction should seem very reasonable to the Romanists for that the Court of Rome gave the first occasion of all the contests about Episcopacy by investing Priests with Episcopal Jurisdiction and Power by their Commissions and Delegations and without doubt Necessity is as strong Dispensation for these Pastors to execute the Ministerial Office as the Popes Mercenary Bulls granted upon unworthy avaritious ends can be for their Priests to exercise Episcopal Authority Those Churches therefore under this want are True though lame and maimed Members of the Catholick Church Just as Canus (n) Loc. l. 4. c. ult ad 10. determines of the Romish Church in a vacancy It is then left Lame saith he and diminished without Christs Vicar that one Pastor of the Church the Pope yet the Spirit of Truth should abide in it and vvithout doubt the Spirit of Truth will as certainly abide in those Churches which want Bishops as in their Church wanting a Pope at least they should think so because in their account the Pope is as necessary if not more to the being of a Church than Bishops are To clear this more distinctly some things are required to the Essence (o) This is Stapleton's distinction of a Church as the Doctrine of saving Faith in the Profession and Practice thereof some only to the Perfection and Integrity of a Church as the having Regular Pastors by a due Form of Ordination both these are necessary though not equally and in the same Degree the former absolutely and indispensably the latter de congruo possibili viz. it concerns the Church if possibly it can be obtained to have lawfully Ordained Pastors and every wilful Omission much more Rejection of the Catholick settled Order in this kind is Sacrilegious and Schismatical yet those Pastors who highly esteem Episcopal Ordination and much affect it but cannot obtain it through the Recusancy of Bishops in present Place and Power who will not Ordain them without sinful compliance and submission to gross Errours and Corruptions evidently contrary to the Law of Christ if they hold and divide the Word of Truth rightly may be accounted true Pastors though not in a real Mission yet by a moral designation as being deputed and separated to that Divine Office because in this case the Necessity is invincible which makes that allowable which otherwise would be unlawful as Dr. Cracken contr Spalet c. 4. observes from the Gloss and illustrateth from Scipio's Example who when the Questors denied him a supply of Monies out of the Publick Treasury because it was against Law presently replied Necessity hath no Law The Romanists confess the desire of Baptism is sufficient to excuse the want thereof and they have it in effect who have it in desire in all reason the want of an undoubted Sacrament is more dangerous than the want of a Sacramental can be especially where there is a Desire to have the Impediment removed The Jews were prohibited to build private Altars yet in case of Necessity when they were not permitted to go to Hierusalem the learned Jews determined the Prohibition ceased as to its present effect and every one knows a Negative Prescript is not so dispensable as an Affirmative It is the opinion of Cornelius a Lapide in Numb 20.26 that Eleazar was mâ—de High-Priest praeter legem morem otherwise than by standing Law and Custom he ought First because his Father was then living next in that the right only of putting on his Fathers Garment was used without any Solemn-Unction or Consecration to the Priesthood 5. He subjoyns a doubtful Clergy makes a Doubtful Church This is a Doubtful Proposition the most he can make of it is that a Doubtful Clergy makes a Doubtful Church only in Part not in the Whole for even Schismaticks in those things wherein they have made no separation from the Church otherwise the Romanists would be in a sad condition do so far still remain uncorrupted to the Church so that if that Doubtful Clergy keep the wholesom words of sound Doctrine if N. N. doubt of this he may remember there is a Clergy of a beyond-Sea Church which hath no Bishops hath made this good against the choicest Champions of the Roman See so far they are Catholicks 6. He is very positive a doubtful Church is no Church It is true he who harboureth a doubt which he will conclude Prudent because the issue of his own Imagination or the suggestion of some over-admired Teacher of that Church whereof he is a Member that Church to him is no Church but where such a doubt is entertained the Case is only disputable and questioning doth not disprove or destroy certainty and truth But such doubtful Propositions as N. N. hath here conjured up will without doubt damnify his good old Cause because thereby his Church will be concluded a no Church by the demonstrating Power of those many doubts and uncertainties which her chief Members have conceived and uttered against her instances of most important concern For Part 2. 1. It is a rule with them that a doubtful Pope is no (p) Crespet in verb. Papa Caran p. 827. Pope and that there cannot be two Popes at one and the same time etiam ex urgentissima causa as Jac. Castellon cites out of Navar verb. Papa p. 485. no not upon the most weighty Consideration because there is but one Monarch and one Monarchy only for Spiritual concerns by the appointment of Christ hence they generally conclude that all those who are not united to that one determinate Head are in the state of damnable Schism and those who are united to him are united to the true catholick-Catholick-Church viz. The Church is a Society of men united in the Profession of the same Faith and participating of the Sacraments under the Government of lawful Pastors chiefly of one Vicar of Christ upon Earth the Roman Pope This then is obvious at the first view from these Premises that an undoubted Pope is as fully and by the word chiefly in the definition more necessary to the being and Constitution of the Church than an undoubted Clergy and a doubtful Pope is as destructive to the Church as a doubtful Clergy from whence it necessarily follows that if a doubtful Clergy makes a doubtful Church a doubtful Pope must do so too and then if this be proved there hath been a doubtful Pope and no one undoubted Pope by N. N 's demonstration it is impossible the Roman can be the true Catholick and Apostolick Church but this is easily made evident from the many doubts and uncertainties which of the several pretending Popes hath been the one undoubted Pope
In the year 1378 upon the death of Gregory the eleventh a grievous (q) Caran p. 823. Theodoric de Niem Bishop of Perda Vrban's Secretary wrote the History of this Schism so did Bonin Segino in the Florentine History c. Friar John de Pineda l. 22. c. 37. Sect. 3 4. Schism began which continued more or less till Ann. 1414. the Italians created Vrban the sixth Pope who (r) England Almain and Italy favoured him resided at Rome The French elected Clement the seventh who (s) France Castile Arragon and Catalonia owned him betook himself to Avignion The Abbot of St. Pedest endeavoured to prove Vrban was the true undoubted Pope Joh. de Bigniaco and the Council of Paris defended Clement's title Vrban during this Schism had three Successors Bon. the ninth Innocent the seventh and Gregory the twelfth Clement had but one Ben. the thirteenth in Ann. 1409 a Council of Cardinals met at Pisa who thought fit for the peace of the Church to depose the two surviving Popes and set up another but for all the Cardinals could do to repair the breach it proved wider the two contesting Popes Gregory the twelfth and Ben. the thirteenth being unwilling to be so dishonourably ejected kept their ground till at last in Ann. 1414 the three Popes the Italian French and Pisan were Deposed by the Council of Constance and Martin the fifth was Created All this while even in the judgment of observing learned Ramanists none could know which of the broken Heads was the true Head of the Church and lawful (t) Marian de reb Hisp l. 18. c. 1. Naucler Val. 2. Gener 46. for that every one of them had learned Patrons id ibid. Gener. 480. Successor to St. Peter Azor (v) Instit Moral part 2. lib. 25. c. 14. saith It was doubtful and uncertain which of the claiming Popes had the right title Caran saith ut supra It was not known who was the true Pope and Bellarm. (w) Lib. 4. de Rom. Pont. c. 14. So doth Aemil. de Gest Franc. lib. 9. Aut. Sum. Hist part 3. tit 22. c. 2. adds It was not easy to be determined and the famous Chancellor of Paris John (x) Lib de signis ruinae Eccl. Sign of which the same is to be found in Otho Fris Hist. l. 6. Baron Tom. 11. Ann. 1044. n. 2. Gerson goes higher The Church it self saith he was then so full of doubts in this case that She could not know on what side or party the Roman See was unless God himself had been pleased to reveal it to her It then being proved that a doubtful Pope makes a doubtful Church and that there hath been a doubtful Pope in the Romish Church the conclusion is irrefragable the Roman Church hath been for a long space of time a Doubtful Church and by N. N.'s Logick and Peremptory Position the Church of Rome was then a no Church 2. There are many Doubts and uncertainties harboured in the Romish Church concerning the Church it self as whether their Virtual Church the Pope be that Church they would commend to us for it's well-grounded Credibility and Infallibility or their Representative a General Council or the Essential the diffused body of the Faithful all the world over or a body compounded of some of these or any others Some will be contented that the Pope and his Conclave should be that Infallible thing others will have him to sit in the Assembly of the Bishops of his Province others will go no less than he must Head a General Council to pronounce an Infallible Sentence If it be put to the Vote and most Voices must carry it the Pope runs loose away with it he hath the Patronage of the best and most Ecclesiastical Dignities and Preferments But be it so for once upon this a fresh Fry of Doubts and uncertainties appears in this very foundation of their Faith and Vnity whether this Man be Pope or no Whether Gregory the twelfth or Bâ—n the thirteenth or Alexander the fifth or Martin the fifth Let Martin be the Man presently a new Covy of Doubts spring up whether he be an Infallible Judg and if so whether as a Doctor or the Pope If as Pope whether when he gives Laws de Concilio Fratrum by the advice of his Colledg of Cardinals passing his Decrees upon the Gates of St. Peter at Rome and in Campo de Flori or when he speaks E Cathedral which is as it is commonly interpreted when he Proclaims his Decrees however he be assisted for a general reception with an intention to Teach and Govern the whole Church though this be very uncertain Let this also be presumed another Set of Doubts is started wherein is he Infallible Whether in matters of Right and Fact or of Faith The Jesuits of late will have him Universally Infallible upon all these accounts as they determined at Clermont Ann. 1661. but suppose with the soberer sort his Infallibility extends only to Definitions of Faith yet another Doubt remains unsatisfied Whether this his restrained Faith be conditional or absolute some conceive an absolute Infallibility is too high an intrenching upon God's Prerogative but others of them will not have him tied to Conditions viz. To observe the Order of the Primitive Church and use such holy and needful means as God by his Son Jesus Christ hath appointed for the finding out the Truth For (y) De Pont. Rom. lib. 4. c. 2. Stapl. relect c. 4. qu. 3. art 3. conclus 5. say they if Conditions be required to Perfect and Legitimate the Popes Definitions besides his own Act of decreeing them the Faithful which is very remarkable and apposite would be Doubtful whether he had observed them or no and so their Faith would be wavering and so it must needs be if Doubts do the feat 3. It is the Doctrine of their new-founded Church that the intention of the Bishop or Priest Officiating is so necessary to any Sacrament that without it none of them is perfected but to receive the Sacraments from such of whom we can have no assurance that their intentions be serious and sincere and there be many evident reasons and motives to perswade us the Priests are oft Formal in their Ministeries and False in their intentions is certainly to expose the reverence in N. N.'s Language of the Sacraments and remedy of our Souls to a manifest hazard For we are informed by their own Historians that in some Centuries the Clergy were so ignorant and wicked that many of them knew not what to do others cared not what they did In what a perplexed condition would a prudent man be cast who being married by a Popish Priest soon after detected to be a Villain should consider with himself very likely this wicked man had no Intention to marry him or an Intention not to marry him It is a wonder those Trent-Assemblers should be so rash and yet so Magisterial in their Definition when they would not
of Chalcedon Survey c. 2. Sect. 9. Dr. Holden Anal. of Faith saying the present State of the Protestant Church consisting of Protestant Bishops c. and their Protestant Flock not being likely to continue long no Church If this design prevailed with some crasy minds they were as imprudent as the Romish Solicitors were impudent For the Romish Church has suffered as Tragical and durable divisions as This then did for besides that long Schism formerly related in Alexander the third's time a Schism lasted till fere eversa c. as Car. speaks p. 794. That Church was at her last Gasp and in this very juncture of time their contests were so high that their great Head of Unity was put to all his Pope-craft to smother them the Disputes betwixt the Jansenists and Molinists were then so hot that both Parties pressed a decision and by consent referred the matter to the Pope who because he did not understand the points in debate would fain have declined it pretending that his Predecessor Clement the eighth after he had appointed Congregations to discuss the Articles waved it and commanded silence to both Parties which pleased neither and that he was an Old Man and had not studied Divinity but both sides still moving for a hearing because each aspersed the other with the guilt of Heresy at last being overcome with importunity he condescended But hear how the Infallible Judg determined the contest at one Congregation he rebuked the Molinists for corrupting (e) 2 Congregation July 8. St. Augustin at another for urging the Authority of the Schoolmen and not producing the Evidences of Scripture Councils (f) 10 Congregation and Fathers In all probability the Jansenists had the better of the day but it proved otherwise the Pope passed his Sentence in favour (g) Ann. 1653 whom before he had branded and paradigmatized with Insincerity of the Molinists All that can be said in excuse of this rash resolution was the most Christian King commanded the dull Canonist to dispatch vvhich so startled him that he durst trifle no longer but the main reason vvas he was at that time so busily bent upon his Papal and Donna's concernments that he was not at leisure to attend the serious discussion of that too hard Controversy for his soft Head For then he and his Propagators were consulting how to manage Campanella's Project in fomenting our intestine broils to reduce this Kingdom into a State This is certain his Nuncio Joh. (h) â—lench mot nuper in Angl. par 2. p. 7. inde Bapt. Renuncino after his arrival in Ireland endeavoured the destruction of all that stood for the King and the English Interest animating the Rebels to the most villainous outrages and because two Noble persons of the Roman Communion would not be perswaded by him to join with the Rebels he Excommunicated them This was not all the Pope by the instigation of the Barbarini's had another design on foot as Abbot Gualdi p. 143. relates even to expel his Catholick King out of his Dominions in Naples upon Ma's Anello's Rebellion to add it to the Triple Crown All is Fish that comes to St. Peter's Successors Net if the Kings be Guelphs their Kingdoms are Gibelins if they be Catholicks their Crowns are Hereticks It is the Popes business to determin emergent Controversies but upon forced put his main work is to rule over Nations to rout out c. Jer. 1.10 as his Parasites have prophaned that Text. But as the Pope and his Propagators failed in his Enterprises so N. N. and his Comrades were deceived in their design For though some were gulled with these Holy Frauds yet in that levity of disposition and easiness of change they did not act according to the common received measures of Prudence which is to stay where we are till we know where to be better For this Church at the worst was much better than that they revolted to this was a Distressed Church that a Depraved this had Scars in the Face that Ulcers in the Heart this Wounded in the Skin that Rotten in the Vitals this in it's Constitution Orthodox and Sound that Heretical and Corrupt For to state the case between the Church of England and that of Rome impartially the Quaere will be Whether for some defects in Rituals be they really such or only pretended it be more prudent to desert a Church free from Schism Heresy and Idolatry at least less subject to a suspition of any of these or to lapse to a Church most deeply Guilty or most justly presumed to be so in all these Carnalities and Corruptions If Prudence must resolve the Quaere the issue and verdict will be It is easier to remain in the Church of England than to Proselyte to Rome for no Prudent man will precipitate himself into more more apparent and more real danger for fear of a less less evident and more remote danger This only remains to be proved that the Church of Rome is Guilty or justly presumed to be so of dangerous Innovations and Corruptions which will be evidenced by these two Conclusions constringently asserted 1. The Church of Rome as it is now ordered and hath been since the times of Julius the second and Leo the tenth at least by the Pope and his Propagators in the Court thereof hath chopped and changed the Apostolical Rule of Faith by Composing a new Creed or which is as bad hath clogged and charged the Catholick Creeds with new-patched Additionals which She hath defined to be Essentials of Faith necessary to be believed by all Christians in order to their Salvation 2. This Church so managed hath depraved and subverted the Catholick and Apostolick Government and Dicipline by setting up her Bishop as the Vniversal Monarch and Pastor of the Church claiming and challenging to him an unlimited Supremacy over he whole Body of Christ and exercising this Power by Excommunicating full three parts of the Catholick Church for not submitting thereto CHAP. V. SECT I. 1. THE first Conclusion is fully evident from the famous Council (a) C. 7. Caran in can Pelt Jesuit in summa illius capitis difference as well as contrariety Conc. Flor. Sess 10. Conc. Tom. 7. p. 641. D. 644. B. at Ephesus for the maintenance wherof the Popes are sworn and therefore cannot without the guilt of Perjury reject its Sentence This Decreed That it should not be lawful for any man to Publish or Compose another Faith or Creed than that which was defined by the Nicene Council and that whosoever shall dare to Compose or offer any such thing to any Persons willingly to be Converted from Judaism or Heresy if they be Bishops and Clerks as the Popes be should be Deposed if Lay-men should be Anathematized When this Authority was urged by the Greeks to the Latines in the Council of Florence they only Answered That this Canon did not forbid another explication agreeable to the truth contained in that Creed but did indeed
forbid all Difference as well as contrariety Now it is clear those twelve new Doctrinals of Faith defined by the Pope Pius the fourth and set at the foot of the Old Creed if they be not contrary to them as most of them really are which might be proved by an Induction yet are they different from them for they are neither implicitly and virtually contained in them nor can by any direct or immediate consequence be deduced from them and therefore have no respect or relation to them nor connexion with them neither are they applied to the Old Creed as Explications thereof but were designed as so many supernumerary Articles of Faith the Catholick Church having only twelve Articles the Roman Church twenty four as some of their own sticklers confess which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved For they are dictated and proposed as so many distinct material objects of Faith to be believed in the same degree of necessity with the other to which they are superadded and therefore in the judgment of this Council and of the Latines themselves in their subterfuge the composition thereof is a dangerous Innovation and corruption in the Rule of Faith and the severe imposition of it is a Schismatical Presumption and a tyrannical Antichristian Usurpation 2. The second Conclusion is firmly deduced from another Canon of the same Council (b) C. 8. Caran in can Pelt Jesuit in summa illius capitis Nicene Council c. 6. which runs thus Let the same course be observed in other Diocesses and in all Provinces every-where that none of the Holy Bishops seiz upon another Province which was not of old and from the beginning under his Power This indeed particularly respected the exemption of the Cypriots from the encroachments of the Patriarch of Antioch yet for-as-much as the Decree passed in general words without any reservation to the Bishop of Rome he is thereby concluded as well as any other to be an ambitious Vsurper if he claim or exercise any Jurisdiction over the Churches which from the beginning were not under his Power Some of N. N's quick-sighted Gentlemen have apprehended the Decree to be so highly prejudicial to their pretensions and affections who therefore have endeavoured by Legerdemain to juggle it out of the Acts of this Council though if this unworthy Artifice had succeeded yet these Shufflers had gained nothing by it for the Nicene Council much earlier than this had confined the Bishop of Rome to his Bounds giving the like Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch within their respective Diocesses which the Bishop of Rome had within his The importance of which Order is That as certain Churches were consigned to the Bishop of Rome so were certain to the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch and as those of his Diocess were not subject to them so neither those of their Diocesses were subject to him upon this account that it was not lawful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for any one to Invade (c) Nilus de primatu Papae and Soz. l. 7. c. 9. taketh this to be the Sense of the second General Council in Constantinople the words of the Canon confirm Nilus his Interpretation the Parilis mos and the ancient Customs As the Bishop of Rome had Power over all his Bishops so the Bishop of Alexandria was to have over his ex more according to Custom which Custom too was like which makes it appear the Roman Bishop was limited to his Diocess for there is no parity between an Vniversal Monarch and a Patriarchal Bishop and as it is absurd to say Alexandria must have bounds as Rome hath if Rome then had none so it is good Sense to say Let Alexandria be limited to her assignment and partition for Rome is the Sense then is Let the Jurisdiction of the Roman Bishop be a Copy Pattern or Form for the Bishop of Alexandria as Pope Nicholas Epist 8. ad Mich. p. 690 expresseth it The Nicene Canon took from Rome an Example particularly what to give to Alexandria therefore if the Bishop of Rome his Jurisdiction was over all the World it could not be a Form or Reason for the limitation and distriction of Alexandria into Cantons so the African Fathers understood it Ep. Afric Conc. ad Coelest c. 105. anothers Jurisdiction The Bishop of Alexandria was to have under his charge Aegypt Lybia c. the Bishop of Rome had the oversight of the Churches of his Neighbourhood the (d) Ruff. l. 1. c. 6. Hincma p. 6. c. 4. C. R. was one of the seven Accidental Diocesses Berer Diatrib 1. c. 1. 3. and Britain was another id ib. p. 198. Suburbicarian Regions beyond which his Jurisdiction did not extend and which made up his Diocess viz. three Islands Corsica Sicilia and Sardinia and seven Provinces on the Continent Campania Tuscia Vicenum suburbicarium Apulia with Calabria Brutium Samnium and Valeria and further yet the Bishop of Rome had but one of the seven Diocesses as they were anciently called or chief Jurisdictions which were appointed to the Western Church and for those other seven or as some (e) Mr. Brerewod thinks there were but thirteen Diocesses in the whole Empire Enquir p. 170. number them six assigned to the Eastern Church they were never subject to his Jurisdiction Pope Agatho about (f) Confesseth in 6 Synod Act. 4. Conc. Tom. 5. p. 60 F. 64. E. 65. B. So Zonaras Ann. 680. confesseth his Authority did not reach the East but before that time when St. Ignatius lived the Church of Rome was only the Church of the chief City of the Regions (g) Inscription of his Epist ad Roman of the Romans and before him in St. Clements time it was but the Provincial Church of God at Rome as the Church of God was but the Provincial Church (h) Clemens Title of his Epist ad Corinth of God at Corinth to both which that Form of Prayer observed in the Church and exemplified in the Author of the Apostolical (i) Lib. 8. c. 10. Constitutions is very agreeable viz. Let us pray for the Episcopacy of the whole World for our Bishop James of Jerusalem and his Diocess for Clement of Rome and his Diocess for Evodius of Antioch and his Diocess So just was that Censure of a fast Friend to the Cause once (k) Aeneas Sylvius Ep. 288. the most was to preside over the West as Zonar a Pope which he bluntly delivered viz. before the Nicene Council little respect was had to the Roman See But what Respect She had then and like time after was only Arbitrary at the Courtesy of the Church which sometime gave her a large Apartment sometimes Cantoned it For a time the Church allotted the Bishop of Rome the Government of some Western Churches which anciently and from the beginning belonged not to his Diocess as the Macedonian (l) Zonar note on the 6 Sardican Canon Illyrian Peloponesian and
which as (n) Alias Turcelline l. de 6 7 8 Synodis p. 65. Turrian relates is extant in the Vatican and it is very probable for Pope Leo seventy years after (o) Conc. Chalc. Act. 16. p. 136 137. Leo Ep. 53 54. Car. p. 201. by his Legates in the Council of Chalcedon opposed it though to no purpose for his resistance was not valued either by the Council or the Judges who indeed contemned it These two Popes then did withstand it but Caran adds That the Church of Rome would not by any means receive it though welfare a little touch of Ingenuity for the peace of the Church which it seems highly esteemed it it was not contradicted which in effect imports thus much The Popes and Church of Rome were so cunning as to dissemble their spight against this Council and that Act especially but durst not shew their teeth for fear of the Emperour For the proof of this relation he refers to Innocent the third and St. Gregory the great whom he cites truly for though in one Epistle he professeth to (p) Lib. 2. Ep. 24. embrace that Council as one of the four Evangelists and testifieth that the Church of (q) Ibid. Ep. 10. Rome then owned it yet in another Epistle he (r) Lib. 6. Ep. 31. confesseth that until his time or age wherein he lived that Council and the Acts and Canons thereof were not entertained by the Roman Church so that for the space of two hundred years and upwards for that Council convened Ann. 381. and Gregory flourished Ann. 600. it was opposed and rejected as far as in safe Policy it could be done by the Church of Rome but notwithstanding this opposition the Catholick Church still reputed it a lawful General Council and all the Acts and Canons thereof to be obligatory and occasionally practised according to them which is next to be demonstrated For by warranty of that Canon in this Council which so perplexed the Roman Church Anatolius Patriarch of Constantinople in the right of his Sec did take place before and above the Patriarchs of Alexandria (s) In the Council of Chalc. Act. 1. Conc. Chalc. p. 8. Synod Ann. 553. Coll. 1. and Antioch and so did Eutychius in the fifth Synod Ann. 553. And when it was reported to the Fathers of Chalcedon that Flavianus Patriarch of Constantinople in the reprobated Council of Ephesus neglected himself sitting below the Patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem they were much offended saying in great zeal Why did not Flavianus sit in his proper place that was next to the Bishop of Rome or his Legates By authority of this Canon which so troubled the Popes Patience St. Chrysostom when he was Bishop of Constantinople (v) Conc. Chalc. Act. 11. in fine Soz. l. 8. c. 6. saith 14. in Ann. 400. Pallad in vit Chrys deposed fifteen Bishops in Asia the lesser and ordained and settled others in their Sees and Dignities and in Ann. 400 the same St. Chrysostom celebrated a Council at Ephesus to which he called all the Asian Bishops who readily attended him After this Justinian the Emperour commanded all the Canons of this Council which the Popes would if they durst have publickly rejected Dipticis inseri praedicari to be Recorded in the Eclesiastical Books Rolls or Registeries and publickly to be read in all Churches in token of their (w) Novel c. 1 2. Vniversal Approbation But albeit both Law and Usage the best Interpreter of Law concur for the proof of this Conclusion yet the cry still goes O the Mother O the Mother Church of Rome which is hotly pursued by the Bigots set on by the Boutefeu's of the Tribe This hath made a great clutter and bustle in the world which yet hath nothing in it but folly and disingenuity and impudence for can any man in his right Wits who is not tainted either in his Intellectuals or Morals ever hearken to such a Perswasion so contrary to all Records Divine and Human The Scriptures make Jerusalem the Mother-Church Gal. 4.16 But Jerusalem which is above or the New Jerusalem as it is stiled Revel 21.2 and the Holy Jerusalem ver 10 whose wall had twelve Foundations and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb which is Mother of us all Christians Believers of the Gospel where the Church of Christ was first planted by the Apostles and St. Peter Preached his first Sermon and begot many to the Faith and from whence they all departed after to execute their Apostolical Commission For this Jerusalem is not that which shall be but that in which the House of God shall be built with a Glorious building and all Nations shall turn and fear the Lord God truly and bury their Idols so shall all Nations praise the Lord and as old Tobit instructed his Son Tobit 14 5 6 7 as it is here allegorically expressed for that City was a Type of the Christian Church Psal 48.2 and 122.3 Isa 31.5 In the Old Testament it was foretold to be the mother-Mother-Church of Christianity Out of Sion shall go forth the Law of Faith as it is universally Interpreted and the Word of the Lord the Gospel from Jerusalem Isa 2.3 Mic. 4.2 And in the New Testament the Prophecy is accomplished and verified where it is plainly declared that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be Preached in Christs Name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem c. Luke 24.47 48 49. Act. 1.8 and fully compleated Act. 2. per tot So for Human evidences the first General Council at Constantinople is clear which expresly owneth Jerusalem for the Mother of all Churches to which Tert. (x) Cap. 20. which Pam. thus Gloseth this is the first from which the Church all the World over is disseminated so Hier. Interprets that of Isa 2. and this is the Mother Church from whence the Faith came to us as the same Tert. lib. 4. adver Marc. Rome is but one of the Sister Churches which yet are Mothers in their Precincts Id. ib. de praec c. 36. may be added in his Book de Prescr The Church was first founded at Jerusalem as the Seminary of the Churches all the World over and ex abundanti even in St. Bernard's time when the Church of Rome had exceeded her limits yet had she not the reputation of Vniversal Mother nor the Honour of Lady Mother at least in his judgment for thus he writ to (y) Lib. 4. de Consid Tom. 2. p. 141. tit L. Edit Venet. Pope Eugenius Above all things consider that the Holy Roman Church over which thou art placed by God is a Mother of Churches some not all and so every Apostolical Church is as well as Rome not a Lady or Mistriss of any and thou thy self not a Lord of Bishops but one of them It is true St. Cyprian saith Rome is the or rather a principal Church from whence the unity of Priesthood first began but this signifies nothing
if Polyidore Virgil's Caution as in reason it ought be (z) Lib. 4. de Invent. rerum admitted Ne quis erret c. Lest any man hereby deceive himself it cannot in any other way be said that the Order of Priesthood grew first from Rome unless we understand it within Italy only for liquido liquet it is clear and beyond dispute that Priesthood was orderly appointed at Jerusalem long before ever St. Peter came to Rome Polydore was in the right for Rome's Principality cannot entitle her to be Vniversal Mother because if we read the sentence thus Rome is a Principal Church this is as truly predicated of every Apostolical Church if the Principal Church neither will that enstate her in the challenged and claimed Motherhood because it was only accidental If a younger Sister for her external accomplishment be advanced to be a Lady of Honour or married to an Earl or Lord whereas her elder Sisters continue in their first State only or be married to Gentlemen or others of meaner condition She by virtue of her Qualifications may take Place of them but she cannot exercise the Authority of a Mother over them If Rome a younger Sister of the Mother Churches upon a forraign and extrinsecal account which was meerly contingent and arbitrary became the Principal Church the Principality might justly give her the precedency of Place but not precedency of Rule over them it made her the most Honourable of the Sisters but could not create her Mother to any or all of them because this Honour was Adventitious and Precarious which accrewed not to her till long after her first Foundation nor was derived to her by any Divine Institution Neither will that subsequent Clause from whence Vnity of Priesthood first began be any relevant to her if we consider that this is only spoken in reference to her own Precincts for then the whole Sentence would be verified of every Apostolical Church to instance in Corinth this is a or the principal Church of Achaia from whence the Vnity of Priesthood first began viz. In the Regions adjacent and belonging thereto and so of any other which were founded before her as many were for these Churches being compleatly formed when she was not in being she could not propagate the Faith to them nor consequently be a Mother Church to them The soonest that is pretended St. Peter came to Rome was in the second of Claudius but certain it is St. Mark Preached the Gospel at Alexandria and over all Aegypt Lybia Cyrene Pentapolis and the whole Region of Barbary in the Reign of Tiberius And St. Aug. affirms the Africans the more Western received the Faith not from Rome but the East The Southern Christians as the Abyssines and Aethiopians were Converted when St. Peter was still at Jerusalem at least eight years before he came to Rome by the Romanists account The Eastern Bishops told Julius as was before related Rome received the Faith from them and in Britain the Christian Faith was professed five years at least before ever St. Peter set his Foot in Rome and therefore Rome could not be Mother to those elder Sisters of Asia Africa Aethiopia and Britain unless an uncouth Hysterâ—sis be allowed or some Noble Roman would undertake to prove that Claudius reigned before Tiberius as a grave Burgess once did to prove that Henry the seventh was before Henry the sixth and therefore these Churches could not from the beginning be under her Jurisdiction and therefore also can justly claim the Cyprian Priviledg and plead it in the abatement of any Papal possession or prescription But to confirm this Title they make their Plea from Eusebius in his Chronicle or else it is insisted upon very impertinently who relates That St. Peter sat at Antioch seven years after which therefore Antioch is her elder Sister and Evodius Bishop there before St. Peter ordained any Bishop or Priest at Rome he travelled to Rome where he resided five and twenty years It is very probable this Book of Eusebius hath fallen into the hands of Interpolators Canus (a) Refert Rivet l. 3. their learned Bishop with much regret complains It hath been corrupted in many places through the negligence ignorance or haste of the Transcribers or Translators this place is probably one of them for in the Greek Edition published by Jos Scaliger Printed Lugd. Bat. An. 1606. there is no mention of any determinate time of St. Peter's coming or his abode and residence at Rome all that is said there is this Peter the chief as Aristotle is Princeps Philosophorum having first founded a Church at Antioch went to Rome to Preach the Gospel there and it is the more probable in that this Relation in the corrupted Chronicle is contradicted by Eusebius himself Lib. 3. Eccl. hist c. 1. Peter saith he having Preached the Gospel in Pontus Galatia Bithynia Cappadocia and Asia to the Jews which were of the dispersion which in all probability was before his residence at Antioch for we find in Scripture he was at Jerusalem Ann. 19. Tiber. and Ann. 2 Claudii Act. 8. and 12. at the last or at the end near the approach of his death being at Rome was put do death which makes some conceive that St. Paul whose first coming to Rome was in Ann. Dom. 58. Neron secundo had planted a Church at Rome ten years almost before St. Peter came there and others think that St. Peter continued in Judaea and in the adjacent Regions till Ann. 7 Claud. Ann. Dom. 49. and therefore this Story that he presided and resided at Rome for five and twenty years is hardly reconcileable with evidence of History in many particulars to which may be added what Onuphrius notes in Plat. de vit Pont. in Pet. Apost placing his third and last return to Rome in the last year of Nero and what Epiphanius (b) Haer. 3. testifies that St. Peter and St. Paul where they planted Churches ordained Bishops to preside over them as St. Paul did Titus in Creet and St. Peter Evodius at Antioch and after went to other Countries to Preach the Faith All these Reasons and Authorities being premised the Conclusions are irrefragable and the Church of Rome as it is now managed is found guilty of the Crimes articled against her and stands condemned of them by the four first General Councils which undoubtedly have so far convinced several ingenuous and judicious Romanists that they have not sticked to declare with Protestants that the present Church of Rome hath swerved in sincerity of Doctrine from the ancient Church whence it is derived that the Pope hath advanced his Authority beyond the bounds (c) Cusan Consult Art 7. set by Christ and his Church yea far beyond the bounds (d) Cusan concor l. 2. c. 12. l. 3. c. 13. of Ancient observation and that he hath no Power over other Bishops either by Gods Law or Man's but such as was given him either absolutely or conditionally for a
he had been a Rebel and a Traitor and therefore deserved not the Honour of Martyrdom whereupon they procured the Kings Injunction to blot out his name out of all Publick Prayers Hours and Missals to demolish his Shrine and Picture Erected at Canterbury and strictly forbad any to call him (h) Hist Conc. Trent fol. 87. Saint and Martyr Other Pontificians there be who although they resolve the Pope may err in matters of Fact yet will not endure to hear that he can err in his Canonizations which is very strange because the inerrability of his Canonizations depends wholly or chiefly on matters of Fact but their Reason is remarkable which is this for (i) Particularly Catherinus advers nova dogm Cajet p. 125. say they if any one Saint Canonized by the Pope may be called in question then all the Saints which have been or shall be Canonized by the Pope may be doubted of and then no man can invocate or worship them without peril of Idolatry Then let Cajetan and Canus be taken at their words that the Popes Canonization is subject to Error and thank we Catherinus and Bell for their inference and conclude from both laid together that because many Canonized by the Pope have been doubted of as Tho. Becket St. Francis St. Dominick St. Ignatius Loiola and Father Henry Garnet c. therefore all the Pope hath Canonized may be doubted of and therefore none of them can be Invocated without peril of Idolatry But then how comes the Invocation of a doubted Saint to be Idolatry this cannot be unless the Invocation of all Saints be Latria for Doulia as it is by the Romanists contradistinguished to Latria is not contradictorily opposed to Idolatry Latria is for as Latria imports the Honour proper to God only so Idolatry consists in the exhibition of that Honour to that which is not God but Doulia according to them is not part of Religious Worship due only to God and therefore the erroneous Supplicant who pays this Homage of Doulia to a doubted Saint instead of an undoubted one which doubted Saint he believes a real one may fall under the censure of Folly Rashness or Errour but the well meaning Petitioner in this case who makes his addresses to a mistaken Advocate and with relative Worship only according to their Principles cannot lie under the guilt of Idolatry because in their account the conception and intention abates it and to attribute Doulia or Relative Worship is not Idolatry if it be the Sin lies at their doors who confessedly Practice it To Conclude It is therefore the most prudent and profitable course to follow the advice which the Holy Martyr St. (k) Ep. ad Philadelph Ignatius gave to the Virgins of his time and by consequence to all who profess the name of Christ viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O ye Virgins have Christ alone in your eyes and his Father in your Prayers being enlightned by the Spirit which in effect is an exhortation to all who are Baptized according to the form of the Institution for being enlightned and being Baptized are still Synonyma's both in Scripture and Primitive Antiquity and therefore the advice concerns all Christians as well as those Virgins and so Epiph. 79 Haeres 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore Glory be to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost three Persons one God For thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever and ever AMEN Lact. lib. 4. de Vir. Sap. c. 22. Quanquam apud bonos Judices satis habeant firmitatis vel Testimonia sine Argumentis vel Argumenta sine Testimoniis nos tamen non contenti alterutro sumus cum suppeditet nobis utrumque nè cui perversè ingenioso aut non intelligendi aut contra disserendi locum relinquamus Aug. de Trin. l. 4. c. 6 Contra rationem nemo sobrius contra Scripturas nemo Christianus contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus senserit THE JESUITS LETTER Hon. c. THere have been many Discourses betwixt us for matter of Religion wherein little profit did accrue in regard of my inabilities having to deal with a person of your Knowledg and Parts so fully accomplished and fraught with Arguments But seeing the true Religion is the sole mark we ought to aim at the disquisition thereof cannot be too much searched and I am confident you wish and desire my eternal good and in the integrity of my heart I wish the same to you wherefore I shall only desire to receive solution to two Questions and I shall totally decline to scruple all others the Questions are these 1. To nominate the Professors of the Protestant Faith successively since the Apostles 2. To evidence that the English Clergy hath a lawful Mission for it is said No man taketh this Honour upon him but he that was called and Faith cometh by hearing The holy Scripture doth fully express that upon the Walls of Jerusalem Watch-men should be day and night for ever that the Word should not depart out of the mouth of his Seed for ever our Blessed Saviour saith Go tell the Church and that he would be with them to the end of the World which is not verified unless there were such persons in the World Answer to the first Question 1. IS it not sufficient Protestants prove their Faith Apostolical from the Monuments and Records of the Apostles were not the Apostles assisted by the HOLY SPIRIT in an higher manner and measure than any of their Successors can pretend to did not they deliver the whole will of GOD by their Preaching while they lived and by their Writings for ever and are not their Writings as clear and comprehensive and more authentical than any of those of the following Pastors and Doctors are not the Decrees of Councils and Works of the Fathers as liable if not more to fraud and forgery to misinterpretations and wrestings as the holy Scriptures Is there any Record or Writing extant which can equally pretend to Apostolical and Original Tradition or hath such an universal and constant attestation as the HOLY BIBLE I conceive the Apostolical Writings are the best evidences of Apostolical Doctrine and in causes of Religion judg them Criminals who decline a Trial by them but since this way of Probation will not please you a shrewd suspition all is not right with you I add further 2. Supposing not granting Protestants were not able to nominate the successive Professors of their Faith since the Apostles would this conclude them Hereticks and their Faith not Apostolical no sure for suppose we one Philosopher to hold all the opinions of Plato another those of Aristotle would you determine the one not to be a Platonist the other not an Aristotelian because neither of them could present you with a list and line of successive Academicks and Peripateticks this among Philosophers would be adjudged irrational But where hath Christ or his Apostles
to N. N's after-instance of Illustration if the word King be used at his Election this sufficiently expresseth all Kingly Power and Authority SECT II. N. N. farther adds THE Form or words whereby men are made Priests must express Authority and Power to Consecrate or make present the Body and Blood of Christ but their Form containeth not one word expressing this Power see the Ritual Lond. 1607. Deacons did minister and dispense the Body of Christ in Ancient times but were never thought to have Power of Consecrating and making present Christ's Body and Blood SECT II. J. S. THat which N. N. designs by this is that that Form Receive ye the Holy Ghost is defective as to Priestly Ordination which must be supplied by their new one viz. Take thou power to offer Sacrifice to God and to Celebrate Mass both for the quick and the dead This he knows Protestants do reject because lately invented and foisted into the Romish Ritual to foster their gross Figments of Purgatory Transubstantiation and their Antichristian Sacrifice of the Mass and because some Romanists as St. Clara thinks it unnecessary and Bell. saith it is Sacrilegious for this he positively delivers It is Sacriledg to change the Form because determinate Bell. de Sacr. in gen l. 1. c. 21. Sect. apud haeret c. secunda prop. For Sacraments are instituted by God therefore the chief part thereof the Form and to add to or alter the words of the Scripture is not lawful therefore not the words of the Sacraments Id. ib. in Fin. yet this great Champion never did prove their new Form to be found in or founded on Scripture much less instituted by Christ 2. If that Form comprehends not all the Essentials of Priestly Ordination then the Apostles were not empowered to Consecrate for our Saviour used that and no other to enable them for the execution of the Priestly Office wherefore Scotus l. 4. dist 24. hath resolved verba illa c. those words Whosoever sins ye remit c. are declarative of the Power formerly given in these Receive ye the Holy Ghost by which Power is passed over all the Sacraments and therefore that of Sacrificing Biel l. 4. dist 19. quaest un concurs with him cul datur c. to whom the Principal is given to him also the accessory is given but by these words Receive ye c. Christ gave the power of the keys therefore by them he conveyed the power of Consecration which is a branch of the power of the Keys 3. What is added concerned Deacons is a pure piece of impertinency no way advantagious to him nor prejudicial to Protestants if he vvere put to it he vvould find it a difficult task to prove Deacons were Dispencers of the Mysteries vvho vvere only Assistants to the Dispensation SECT III. N. N. IN all Forms of Ordaining Priests that ever were used in the Eastern and Western Churches there is expresly set down the word Priest or some other word importing the particular and proper Function and Authority of Priesthood If any State or Country should choose a Person to be King in the word King is sufficiently expressed all Regal Power and Authority Therefore the Greeks using the word Bishop and Priest in their Form sufficiently express the respective Power of every Order SECT III. J. S. EAch Clause of this Section hath been sufficiently confuted SECT IV. N. N. BUT the reason why the English Form of making Bishops and Priests is so notoriously defective and invalid is because in Edward the sixth's time when Zwinglianism and Puritanism did so prevail in the Church the Real Presence was not believed by them of the Clergy who bore the sway therefore they did not put in the Form of Priesthood any word expressing Power and Authority to make Christ's Body present They held Episcopacy and Priesthood to be one and the same thing wherefore in the Form for making of Bishops they put not one word expressing the Episcopal Function only some general words which might seem sufficient to give them Authority to enjoy the Temporalities and Bishopricks This is also the true reason why Parker and his Collegues were content with the Nags-head Ordination and why others returned to extraordinary Vocation in Queen Elizabeth's time SECT IV. J. S. THis also is another vain Repetition Three who bore the sway in King Edward's Reign held the Real Presence but not in the Popish manner of determination Those in Queen Elizabeth's time had and did stand for ordinary and orderly Vocation The Church of England alwrys asserted the Divine Right of Episcopacy and her orderly Orderly Orthodox Sons have constantly maintained it If some have distinguished Priesthood into the degrees the higher and the lower as the Romanists generally do yet they still conclude the said different degrees of the Acts and Uses which could not be exercised in a due subordination of the lower to the higher for a distinct respective Consecration thereto and did hold those of them who should presume to exercise the Higher Power not being regularly Consecrated thereto were Schismatical Transgressors of the Apostolical Order and Catholick Practice and that every Act of that usurped Power when no real necessity to abate or excuse it to be null and void It is the Pope and his Collegues who are the (f) For it is not resolved in the Congregation of the Cardinals that the Pope's Legats should not suffer the determination of the Article of the Institution of Bishops by Divine Right to pass Hist Counc of Trent fol. 603. And it being perceived that Laynez his Speech was displeasing and opposed by the Spanish Bishops this distasted the Legats ib. fol. 615. therefore Canons came from Rome which the Pope moved to have proposed p. 657. which displeased the Fathers c. after much contention because the opinion of Divine Right was as displeasing to the Pope ib. fol. 737. it was waved leading Puritans It was the Pope who said the Absolute Divine Right of Bishops was a false and erronious Opinion it was the Pope who slighted and scorned those Bishops in the Trent-Assembly who affirmed (g) Ib. fol. 825. the Institution of Bishops by Divine Right It was the Pope who first devested them of their Jurisdiction and Power by his Commissions and Delegations (h) Caran p. 869. to inferior Priests SECT V. N. N. TO conclude the Matter I say with St. Hierome Ecclesia non est quae non habet Sacerdotem How can the Protestant Church be the true Church which hath not one Bishop or Priest Though it were not evident it hath no Valid Ordination yet so many doubts and uncertainties as they must acknowledg concerning their Ordinations do demonstrate the Nullity of their Church for if there remain one solid and prudent doubt of the validity of Ordination in any Church it is impossible it should be the true Catholick and Apostolick Church because a doubtful Clergy makes a doubtful Church and a doubtful Church is