Plea of those persecuted men so fully that it may be well concluded that the Spirit that acted in Hilary is not the same with that which now inspires the Reverend Prelates of that Church To this I might add the known History of the Priscillianists that fell out not long after I shall not presume to make a parallel between any of the Gallican Church and Ithacius who persecuted them of whom the Historian gives this Character That he was a vain sumptuous sensual and impudent man and that he grew to that pitch in vice that he suspected all men that led strict lives as if they had been inclined to Heresie And it is also to be hoped that none will be so uncharitable as to compare the Priscillianists with those they now call Hereticks in France whether we consider their opinions that were a revival of the blasphemies of the Gnosticks or their morals that were brutal and obscene even by Priscillian's own confession Now Ithacius prosecuted those in the Emperours Courts and went on in the pursuit though the great Apostle of that age Martin warned him often to give it over In conclusion when Ithacius had set it on so far that a Sentence was sure to pass against them he then withdrew from it Sentence was given and some of them were put to death upon which some Bishops excommunicated Ithacius yet S. Martin was wrought on to communicate with him very much against his mind being threatned by the Emperour Maximus that if he would not do it Troops should be ordered to march into Spain to destroy the rest of them This prevailed on that good man to joyn in Communion with those that had acted so contrary to the mercifulness of their Religion and to the sacredness of their Character But no Arts could work on S. Martin to approve of what they had done The effects of this were remarkable for when S. Martin went home if we will believe Sulpitius an Angel appeared to him and reproved him severely for what he had done upon which he with many tears lamented much the sin he had committed by his communicating with those men and would never after that communicate with any of that party And during the sixteen years that he survived that Sulpitius who lived with him tells us that he never went to any Synod and that there was a great withdrawing of those Influences and Graces for which he had been so eminent formerly And thus if S. Martin's example and practice is of any authority the Cruelty of that Church that has engaged all the Princes of Europe as much as was in their power to do what Maximus then did and the present practices of the Bishops about the Court might justifie a Separation from them But we do not proceed upon such disputable grounds To this I shall only â—dd the aâ—thority of another Father who tâ—oâ—gh he was none of the Gallican Bishops 〈◊〉 since he is more read and esteemed in that Church than any other of all the â—athers it is to be hoped that his authority may be somewhat considered It is S. Austin He was once against all sorts of severity in matters of Religion and delivered his mind so pathetically and elegaâ—tly on that subject that I presume the Reader will not be ill pleased to hear his own words writing against the Manicheans whose impieties are too well known to be enlarged on so as to shew that even in the account which the Church of Rome makes of things they cannot pretend that the Protestants are as bad as they were He begins his Book against them with an earnest Prayer to God that he would give him a calm and serene mind so that he might study their conversion and not seek their ruine to which purpose he applies those words of S. Paul to Timothy the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be meek towards all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves To which he adds these words Let them exercise Cruelty upon you who do not know with what difficulty truth is found out and how hardly errours are avoided Let them exercise Cruelty upon you who do not know how rare and hard a thing it is to overmaster carnal imaginations with the serenity of a pious mind Let them exercise Cruelty upon you who do not know with what difficulty the eye of the inward man is healed that so it may behold its Sun Let them exercise Cruelty upon you who do not know with what groans and sighs we attain the smallest measure of the knowledge of God And in the last place let them exercise Cruelty upon you who were never themselves deceived with any errour like that with which you are now deceived It is true it may be pretended that he became afterwards of another mind but that will not serve to excuse the severities now on foot the case being so very different The Donatists in his time very generally fierce and cruel one sort of them the Circumcellionists acted like mad men They did lie in wait for S. Austin's life they fell upon several Bishops with great barbarity putting out the eyes of some and cudgelling others till they left them as dead Upon this the Bishops of Africk were forced to desire the Emperours protection and that the Laws made against Hereticks might be executed upon the Donatists and yet even in this S. Austin was at first averse It is true he afterwards in his Writings against the Donatists justified those severities of fining and banishing but he expresses both in his own name and in the name of all those Churches great dislike not only of all Capital proceedings but of all rigour and when the Governours and Magistrates were carrying things too far he interposed often and â—ith great earnestness to moderate their severity and wrote to them that if they went on with such rigour the Bishops would rather bear with all the violences of the Donatists than seek to them for redress and whole Synods of Bishops concurred with him in making the like Addresses in their favours And though there were excesses committed in some few instances yet we may easily conclude how gentle they were upon the whole matter from this that he says that the Fines imposed by Law had never been exacted and that they were so far from turning the Donatists out of their own Churches that they still kept possession of several Churches which they had violently invaded and wrested out of the hands of the Bishops It is plain then since he justified those severities only as a necessary restraint on the rage to the Donatists and a just protection of the Bishops that this has no relation to the hardships the Protestants now suffer it not being pretended that they have drawn it upon themselves by any tumultuary or irregular proceedings of theirs So much seemed necessary to shew how different the Spirit of the present Clergy oâ— France is
and theirs is the affirmative and since all Negatives especially in matters of Religion prove themselves it falls to their share to prove those Additions which they have made to our Faith and to the Doctrine contained in the Scriptures 3. Though this is a sure Maxime yet our Plea is stronger for there are many things taught by them against the express words of Scripture as their worshipping Images their noâ— drinking all of the Cup their worshipping of Angels their not worshipping God in a tongue which the unlearned understand and to which they can say Amen their setting up more Mediatoâ—â— between God and us than one Whereas S. Paul exhorting us to make Prayerâ— to God tells us there is one Mâ—diâ—tor which shews that he spake there his single Intercession with God on our behalf 4. We do not only build our Doctrine upon some few passages of the Scripture in which perhaps a Critical Writer might easily raise much dust but upon that in which we cannot be so easily mistaken which is the main scope of the whole New Testament and the design of Christianity which we believe is reversed in their Church by the Idolatry and Superstition that is in it 5. As for the particulars which they call on us to prove as they are very few so scarce any of them is of the greatest consequence The first is a speculative point about which we would never have broke Communion with them For the second that we receive Christ only by Faith if the third is true that the Sacrament is still Bread then that must be also true Now S. Paul calls it so four several times as also our Saviour calls the Cup the Fruit of the Vine As for our denying Purgatory it is a Negative and they must prove it Nor should we have broken Communion for their opinion concerning it if they had not added to that the redeeming Souls out of it with Masses by which the Worship is corrupted contrary to the institution of the Sacrament And for the last in the sense in which many of them assert it we do not raise any Controversie about it for we know that God rewards our good works or rather crowns his own Grace in us The fifth Method IS the Peaceable Method and without dispute founded on the Synod of Dort which all the pretended Reformed Churches of France have received and which has defined according to the Holy Scripture that when there is a dispute concerning any Controverted Article between two parties that are both within the true Church it is necessary to refer it to the judgement of the Synod and that he who refuses to submit himself becomes guilty of Heresiâ— and Schism Now if we will run back to the time in which the dispute began concerning any Article for instance that of the Real Presence both the parties in thâ— debate as well the Ancestors of those of the P. R. Religion as ours were in thâ— same Church which was the true Church for there was no other before the Sâ—paration which was not then made Then their Ancestors who would not submit to the Iudgement of the Church and have separated from her on no other account but because she had condemned their sentiments were Schismaticks and Hereticks And those who at this day succeed them are in the same manner guilty since they follow their opinions And to this they can make no other Answer but that which the Hereticks that have been condemned in all Ages might have made This Method is proved in all its parts in the little Treatise that has been made about it Remarks IT is not unwisely done to call this a Method that is to pass without dispute for it will not bear one And 1. There is this difference between the principles of Protestants and those of the Church of Rome that whereas the latter are bound to justifie whatever has been decreed in a General Council as a rule either of Faith or Manners the sormer are not so tied and much less are they bound by the decision of a National Council though never so solemn It is natural for all Judicatories to raise their own authority as high as they can and so if any Synod has made any such Declaration it lies on them to justifie it but the rest of those who have separated from the corruptions of the Church of Rome are not concerned in it 2. The principle of Protestants with relation to the majority even in a General Council is That when any Doctrines are established or condemned upon the Authorities of the Scriptures those who differ from them and do think â—hat the Council misunderstood the Scriptures are bound to suspect themselves a little and to review the matter with greater application and not to adhere to their former opinions out of pride or obstinacy They are also bound to consider well of their opinions though they appear still to be true yet if â—hey are of that importance that the publishing them is necessary to Salvation for unless it is so the Peace of the Church is not to be rent by them Yet if they are required to profess that they believe opinions which they think false if tâ—ey were never so inconsiderable no man ought to go against his Conscience But if a man after his strictest enquiries is still persuaded that a Council has decreed against the true meaning of the Scriptures in a point necessary to Salvation then he must prefer God to Man and follow the sounder though it should prove to be the much lesser party And if any Company or Synod of Protestants have decreed any thing contrary to this in so far they have departed from the Protestant principles 3. Difference is to be made also between Heresie and Schism in a Legal and a Vulgar sense and what is truly such in the sight of God The Sentence of a Supream Court from which there lies no Appeal makes one legally a Criminal But if he is innocent he is not the less innocent because a hard Sentence is past against him So Heresie and â—chism may take their denominations from the Sentence of a National or General Council But in that which is the sense of those words that makes them Criminal Heresie is nothing but an obstinate persisting in errours contrary to Divine Revelation after one has had a sufficient means of Inâ—truction and Schism is an ill grounded Separation from the Body of the Church So it must be the Divine Revelation and not the authority of a Synod that can prove one who holds contrary opinions to be an Heretick and the grounds of the Separation must be likewise examined before one can be concluded a Schismatick 4. Though the Conclusions and Definitions made by the Synod of Dort are perhaps generally received in France yet that does not bind them up to subscribe every thing that was asserted in that Synod Nor do they found their assent to those opinions on the authority of that Synod but upon the
Evidence of those places of Scripture from which they deduced them 5. Since those of that Communion object a National Synod to the Protestants this may be turned back on them with greater advantage in some points established by Councils which they esteem not only General but Infallible In the Third Council of the Lateran it was decreed That all Princes who favoured Hereticks did forfeit their Rights and a Plenary Indulgence was granted to all that fought against them In the Fourth Council at the same place it was decreed That the Pope might not only declare this forfeiture but absolve the Subjects from their Oaths of Obedience and transfer their Dominions upon others In the First Council at Lions they joyned with the Pope in thundring the Sentence of Deposition against the Emperour Frederick the First which in the preamble is grounded on some places of Scripture of which if they were the Infallible Expositors then this power is an Article of Faith And in the last pâ—ace the Council of Constance decreed That the Faith of a Safe-Conduct was not to be kept to an Heretick that had come to the place of Judgement relying on it even though he would not have come without it When Crueltâ— Rebellion and Treachery were thus decreed in Courts which among them are of so sacred an authority It is visible how much greâ—ter advantages we have of them in this point than any they can pretend against us 6. For the Synod of Dort I will not undertake the Apology neither for their Decrees nor for their Assertions and will not stick to say that how true soever many of their Conclusions may be yet the defining such mysterious matters as the order of the Divine Decrees and the Influences of Gods Grace on the wills of men in so positive a manner and the imposing their Assertions on all the Ministers of their Communion was that which many as sincere Protestants as any are have ever disliked and condemned as a weakening the Union of the Protestant Church and an assuming too much of that authority which we condemn in the Church of Rome For though they supposed that they made their definitions upon the grounds of Scripture so that in this sense the authority of the Synod was meerly Declarative yet the question will still recur Whether they understood the passages which they built on right or not And if they understood them wrong then according to Protestant principles their Decrees had no such binding authority that the receding from them could make one guilty either of Heresie or Schism The Sixth Method IS to shew them that the Roman Church or that Church which acknowledges the Pope or the Bishop of Rome the Successor of S. Peter to be her Head all the World over is the true Church Because there is no other besides her that has that undoubted mark which is a perpetâ—al Visibility without Interruption since Christ's time to this day This is a Method common to all the Catholicks and is very well and briefly set forth in the little Treatise of the true Church joyned to that of the Peaceable Method This is that of which S. Austin makes most frequent use against the Donatists and chiefly in his Book of the Vnity of the Church and in his Epistles of which the most remarkable passages relating to this matter are gathered together by the late Arch-bishop of Rouen in the first Book of his Apology for the Gospel in which he handles this matter excellently well One may add to this Method the Maxims of which Tertullian makes use in his Treatise of Prescriptions against the Hereticks and also Vincentius Lyrinensis in his Advices It is enough to say on this occasion that those two Treatises may satisfie any that will read them without prepossession in order to their forming a just Iudgement of the true Church of Iesus Christ and of all those Societies that would usurp that name Remarks THis Method is so common that there was no reason in any sort to give Mr. Maimbourg the honour of it unless it was that the Assembly intended to do him this publick honour to ballance his disgrace at Rome But let us examine it 1. This asserts that no other Church has a perpetual Succession without interruption but that which derives it from Rome which is so contrary to what every one knows that Mr. Maimbourg was certainly inspired with the Spirit of his Order when he writ it Do not all the Greek Churches and all the Churches that have their Ordination from them all from the Northern Empire of Muscovy to the Southern of the Abassines together with all those in the East derive from the Apostles by an uninterrupted series For till the Authority of the Church of Rome is proved which is the thing in question their being declared Schismaticks or Hereticks by it does not interrupt this Succession 2. The Church of England has the same Succession that the Church of Rome had in Gregory the Great 's time to wave the more ancient pretensions of the Brittish Churches and the Bishops of this Church being bound by one of their Sponsions made at their Consecration according to the Roman Pontifical to instruct their flock in the true Faith according to the Scriptures they were obliged to make good this promise Nor can it be pretended that they have thereupon forfeited their Orders and by consequence their Succession 3. The Succession of the Church of Rome cannot be said to be uninterrupted if either Heresie or Schism can cut it off It is well known that Felix Liberius and Honorius to name no more were Hereticks and if Ordinations by Schismaticks or unlawful Usurpers be to be annulled which was judged in the case of Photius and was often practised at Rome then the many Schisms and unjust usurpations that have been in that See will make the Succession of their Orders the most disputable thing that can be especially during that Schism that lasted almost forty years all the Churches of that Communion having derived their Orders from one or other of the Popes and if the Popes at Avignon were the Usurpers then let the Gallican Churches see how they can justifie the series of their Ordinations To all which may be added the impossibility of proving a true Succession in Orders if the Vertue of the Sacraments depends on the Intention of him who officiates since secret Intentions are only known to God 4. The ground on which the Donatists separated from the Orthodox Churches being at first founded on a matter of Fact which was of the pretended Irregularity of those who ordained Cecilian which they afterwards defended upon this that the Church could be only composed of good men and that the Sacraments were of no Vertue when dispensed by ill hands all that S. Austin says is to be governed by this Hypothesis against which he argues And it being once granted that the Church was not corrupted neither in Doctrine nor Worship we are very ready
as that without which we can never be certain of the Faith But if this is true then into what desperate scruples must all men fall For the resolution of their Faith turns to that which can never be so much as made probable much less certain The efficacy of the Sacraments depending on the intention of the Priest none can know who are truly Baptized or Ordained and who are not And it is not to be much doubted but that many profane Priests may have in a sort of wanton Malice put their Intention on purpose cross to the Sacrament For the Impiety of an Atheistical Church-man is the most extravagant thing in the World Beside this what Evidence can they give of the Canonical Ordination of all the Bishops of Rome The first Links of that Chain are so entangled that it is no small difficulty to find out who first succeeded the Apostles And it is not certainly known who suceeeded them afterwards for some few Catalogues gathered up perhaps from report by Historians is not so much as of the nature of a Violent presumption If we consider Succession only as a matter of Order in which we go on without Scrupulosity I confess there is enough to satisfie a reasonable man But if we think it indispensable both for the conveyance of the Faith and the vertue of the Sacraments then it is impossible to have any certainty of Faith all must be sounded on conjecture or probability at most It is but of late that formal Instruments were made of Ordinations or that those were carefully preserved and transmitted In a word difficulties can be rationally enough proposed concerning Succession that must needs drive one that sets up his Faith on it to endless scruples of which it is impossible he should be ever satisfied There is one thing of great consequence in this matter that deserves to be well considered Under the Mosaical Law God limited the Succession to the High Priesthood so that the first-born was to succeed and the great Annual Expiation for the whole people was to be performed by him Yet when in our Saviours time this was so interrupted that the High Priesthood was become Annual and wassold for money God would not suffer the people to perish for want of such Expiation but the Sacrifice was still accepted though offered up by a Mercenary Intruder And Caiaphas in the year of his High Priesthood prophesied So that how great soever the sin of the High Priest was the people were still safe in him that was actually in that Office And if this was observed in a dispensation that was chiefly made up of positive Precepts and carnal Ordinances it is much more reasonable to expect it in a Religion that is more free from such observances and is more Spiritual and Internal 2. Another ground on which those of the Roman Church build is this That a True Church must hold the truth in all things Which is so Sophistical a thing that it might have been expected wise and ingenious men should have been long ago ashamed of it It is certain the Iewish Church was the true Church of God in our Saviours time for their Sacrifices had then an Expiatory Vertue in them So that they had the certain means of Salvation among them which is the formal notion of a True Church And yet in so great a point as what their Messias and his Kingdome were to be we find they were in a very fatal errour The opinion of his being to be a Temporal Prince had been handed down among them so by Oral Tradition that it had run through them all from the Priests down to the Fisher-men For we find the Apostles so possessed with it that at the very time of Christs Ascension they were still dreaming of it And yet this was a gross Errour and proved of most mischievous consequence to them Of this they were so persuaded that the Supream Judicature or Representative of their Church the Sanhedrim that had much more to shew for its authority than a General Council can shew in the New Testament erred in this fundamental point and condemned Christ as a Blasphemer and declared him guilty of Death So that while they continued to be the True Church of God yet they erred in the point which was of all others the most important upon which it is evident that it is no good Inference to conclude that because a Church is a True Church therefore it cannot be in an Errour 3. Another pretence in that Church on which they build much and which makes great Impression on many weak minds is the Churches Infallibility in deciding Controversies by which all disputes can be soon ended and they conclude that Christ had dealt ill with his Church if he had not provided such a Method for the end of all Disputes But it is certain they have lost this Infallibility if they ever had it unless it be acknowledged that it is lodged in the Pope against which the Gallican Clergy has so lately declared And yet it can be no where else if it is not in him for as they have had no General Council for about one hundred and twenty years so they cannot have one but by the Popes Summons and if the Pope is averse they cannot find this Infallibility so at best it is but a Dormant Priviledge which Popes can suspend at pleasure In the Intervals of Councils where is it Must one go over Europe and poll all the Bishops and Divines to find their Opinions So in a word after all the noise about Infallibility they can only pretend to have it at the Popes Mercy And indeed he that can believe a Pope chosen as he generally is by Intrigues and Court factions to be the Infallible Judge of Controversies or that a Council managed by all the Artifices of crafty men as that at Trent appears to have been even by Cardinal Pallavicini's History was Infallibly directed by the Holy Ghost is well prepared to believe the only thing in the World that is more Incredible which is Transubstantiation There was as good reason for lodging an Infallible Authority among the Iews as among Christians for their Religion consisting of so many External Precepts concerning which Disputes might rise it seemed more necessary that such an authority should have been established among them than under a Dispensation infinitely more plain and simple And the Supream Authority was lodged with the Sanhedrim in much higher expressions under the Old Testament than can be pretended under the New as will appear to any that will read the fore cited place in Deuteronomy There was also a Divine Inspiration lodged in the Pectoral by which the High Priest had immediate Answers from the Cloud of Glory and when that ceased under the Second Temple yet as their Writers tell us that was supplyed by a degree of Prophecy which is also confirmed by what S. Iohn says concerning Caiaphas's Prophecying and yet after all this thâ—t
they are still continued among them we must conclude that the honour due to the Creator is offered to the Creature I need not bring Instances of these they are so well known 3. In â—The many Consecrations that are used among â—hem of Images Crosses Habits Water Salt Oyl Candles Bells Vessels Agnus Dei's and Grains with a vast deal more by which those things are so consecrated as to have a vertue in them for driving away Devils for being a security both to Soul and Body and a remedy against all Temporal and Spiritual evils This way of Incantations was one of the grossest pieces of Heathenism and is now by them brought into the Christian Religion And the opinion that upon these Consecrations a Vertue is conveyed to those things is infused into the people by their authorized offices In which if in any thing it is not to be believed that the Church lies and deceives her Children This is plainly to consider God as the Heathens did their Idols and to fetch down Divine Vertues by charms as they did And 4. Their worshipping with Divine Honour that which by all the Indications that we can have of things we know is no other than what it appears to be even Bread and Wine in its substance and nature Thus Divine Adoration is offered to those Elements contrary to the universal practice of the Christian Church for 1200 years and this passes among them as the most important piece of their Worship which has almost swallowed up all the rest Thus the true Ideas of God and the chief design of the Christian Religion is overthrown in that Communion and what can we think of a Church that in the most important of her Offices adds this Prayer to the absolution of Sinners The passion of our Lord Iesus Christ the merits of the blessed Virgin and all the Saints and whatever good thou hast done and whatever evil thou hast suffered be to thee for the pardon of sin the increase of Grace and the reward of eternal life where we see clearly what things they joyn in the same breath and in order to the same ends with the passion of Christ. When they have cleansed their Churches of these objects of Idolatry and Superstition and their Offices of those Impious Addresses to Saints and that infinite number of Enchantments then they may upon some more advantage ask Why have we made the Schism It is because they have corrupted the Doctrine of Christ and the Gospel and if those things upon which the Separation subsists were removed it could no more subsist than Accidents can do without a Subject The next thing upon which we ground our Separation is That not only the Church of Rome would hearken to no Addresses nor Remonstrances that were made to her for reforming those abuses but that by Anathema's and the highest censures possible all are obliged to believe as she believes in those very particulars and are bound to joyn in a Worship in which those things which we condemn are made indispensable parts of our publick Devotions So that we must either mock God by concurring in a Worship which we believe Impious and Superstitious or we must separate from them None can be admitted to Benefices of Cure or preferment without swearâ—ng most of these Opinions which we think are false Nor can any Eminent Heretick be received among them without swearing that he in all things receives the Doctrines of the Church of Rome and that he thinks all that do not receive them worthy of an Anathema If the Errours of the Church of Rome had been only speculative opinions or things of less moment we could have better born with them or if they had only held to their own customes without imposing them on us we could have held in several things a sisterly Communion with them as we do with the Greek Churches but when they have not only brought in and obstinately maintained those corruptions but have so Tyrannically imposed them on the World it is somewhat strange to see men make such grimaces and an appearance of seriousness while they ask this question of which they know so well how to have resolved themselves One thing is likewise to be considered that in the examination of the corruptioâ—s of that Communion it is not sufficient to say somewhat to sweeten every one of them in particular but it is the complication of all together that we chiefly insist on since by all these set together we have another view of them than by every one of them taken asunder This then is our answer to the question so often repeated We have not made the Schism from the Church of Christ as it was setled by the Apostles and continued for many ages after them but they have departed from that and have refused to return to it On the contrary they have condemned and cursed us for doing it Upon this all that they objâ—ct against the first Reformers as having been once of their Communion falls to the ground For if these things which we object to them are true then since no man is bound to continue in Errours because he was bred up in them this is no just prejudice against those men All the flourishes raised upon this ground are but slight things and favour more of a monastick and affectate Eloquence than of the weight and solidity of so renowned a Body What is said of pulling down the Altars and of that elegant figure of Christs being the Sparrow and the Churches being the Turtle that loved to make their Nests in them is really very hard to be answered not for the strength that is in it but for another reason that in Reverence to that Assembly I shall not name The Sacrifice of the death of Christ we acknowledge as that only by which we come to God and in a general sense of that term the commemoration of it may be also called a Sacrifice and the Communion Table an Altar and such we still retain and for any thing further either of Altar or Sacrifice till they give a better authority for it than a fanciful allusion â—o an ill-understood Verse of a â—salm we shall not be much concerned in it If Wars and Confusions have followed in some places upon the reforming those abuses they were the effects of the Rage and Cruelty of those Church-men that seemed never like to be satiated with the blood of those that had departed from them And if the specious pretence of Edicts Princes of the Blood the preserving the House of Bourbon the defending France from Foreigners joyning with that natural appetite that is in all men to preserve themselves engaged some in Wars under the minority of their Kings it is nothing but what is natural to man and these who condemn it most yet ought to pity those whom their Predecessors in whose steps they now go constrained to do all that they did And the Rebellions in England and Ireland in King Henry the Eighth Edward
if their Absolution is thought to have any other Vertue in it than a giving the Peace of the Church with a Declaration of the terms upon which God pardons Sinners If the Vertue of the Sacraments upon which so much depends according to their principles is so entirely in the Priests power that he can defeat it when he pleases with a cross intention so that all mens hopes of another state shall depend on the Priests good disposition to them by which every man must know how necessary it is to purchase their favour at any rate If likewise they pretend to an Immunity from the Secular Judge and do all enter into Oaths which center in him whom they acknowledge their Common Head whose authority they have advanced above all the powers on Earth so that he can depose Princes and give away his Dominions to others It must be confessed that all these have such Characters of Interest and Ambition on them and are so little like the true Spirit of Christianity or indeed the Common Principles of Natâ—ral Reason and Religion that a man is very partial who does not think it reasonable to suspect such proceedings and a Church that holds such Doctrines 3. It is likewise reasonable to suspect any Church that holds many opinions that tend much to a vast encrease of their Wealth and to bring the greatest Treasures of the World into their hands The power of redeeming Souls out of Purgatory has brought more Wealth into the Church of Rome than the discovery of the Indies has done to the Crown of Spain Such also was the power of Pardoning and of exchanging Penances for Money by which the World knew the price of Sins and the rates at which they were to be compounded for The Popes power of granting Indulgences the vertue of Pilgrimages the communication of the merits of Orders to such as put on their Habits and in a word the whole authority that the Câ—â—râ— of Rome has assumed in these latter ages that tend so much to the encrease of their Revenue are all such evident Indications of particular ends and private designs that he must be very much wedded to his first impressions that does not upon this suspect that matters have not been so fairly carried among them that nothing ought to be doubted which is defined by them 4. It is a very just cause of suspecting every thing that is managed by a company of Priests if they have for several Ages carried on their designs by the foulest methods of Forgery and Imposture of which they themselves are now both convinced and ashamed When the Popes authority was built on a pretended Collection of the Letters which the Popes of the first ages after Christ were said to have writ and their assumed Jurisdiction was justified by those precedents which are now by themselves acknowledged to be forgeries When the Popes Temporal Dominion was grounded on the Donations of Constantine of Charles the Great and his Son Lewis the Good which appear now to be notorious forgeries When an infinite number of Saints of Miracles Visions and other wonderful things were not only read and preached to the people but likewise were put into the Collects and Hymns used on their Festivals which wrought much on the simplicity and superstition of the vulgar many of which are now proved to be such gross impostures that they are forced to dash them out of their Offices and others against which there lyes not such positive proof yet depend on the credit only of some Legend writ by some Monks When many Books past over the World as the Writings of the most Ancient Fathers which were but lately writ and many of their genuine Writings were grossly vitiated When all those things are become so evident that the most Learned Writers amongst themselves particularly in the Gallican Church have not only yielded to the proofs brought by Protestant Writers in many of these particulars but have with a very Commendable Zeal and Sincerity made discoveries themselves in several particulars into which the others had not such advantages to penetrate There is upon all these grounds good cause given to mistrust them in other things and it is very reasonable to examine the assertions of that Church with the severest rigour since an Imposture once discovered ought to bring a suspicion on all concerned in it even as to all other things 5. There is likewise great reason to suspect all that are extream fierce and violent that cannot endure the least contradiction but endeavour the ruine of all that oppose them Truth makes men both confident of its force and merciful towards such as do not yet receive it Whereas Errour is Jealous and Cruel If then a Church has decreed that all Hereticks that is such as do not submit to all her decisions are to be extirpated if she has bound all her Bishops by Oath at their Ordinations to Persecute them to the utmost of their power If Princes that do not extirpate them are first to be excommunicated by their Bishops and after a years Contumacy are to be deposed by the Popes and their Kingdomes to be given away If all Hereticks upon Obstinacy or Relapse are to be burnt and if they endeavour in all places as much as they can to erect Courts of Inquisition with an absolute authority in which Church-men forgetting their Character have vied in Inventions of Torture and Cruelty with the bloodiest Tyrants that have ever been Then it must be confessed that all these set together present the Church that authorizes and practises them with so dreadful an aspect so contrary to those bowels and tendernesses that are in the nature of man Not to mention the merciful Idea's of God and the wonderful meekness of the Author of our Holy Religion that we must conclude that under what form soever of Religion such things are set on foot in the World such a Doctrine is so far from improving and exalting the nature of man that really it makes him worse than he would otherwise be if he were left to the softness of his own nature And certainly it were better there were no revealed Religion in the World than that mankind should become worse more cruel and more barbarous by its means than it would be if it were governed by Nature or a little Philosophy Upon all these grounds laid together it is no unreasonable thing to conclude that a Church liable to such imputations ought justly to be suspected and that every one in it ought to examine well on what grounds he continues in the Communion of a society of men against which such strong prejudices lie so fairly without the least straining or aggravating matters too much I proceed now to the second part of my undertaking which is to shew that the grounds upon which that Church builds are certainly weak if not false And 1. They boast much of a Constant Succession as the only infallible mark to judge of a Church and