Religion even themselves being Judges For they had all or most of them taken it before some of them had taken it many times over two or three of them had writ in defence of it nay were at the first composing of it But there was a greater difference than either of these if the Bishops then turned out by Queen Elizabeth had been most of them Canonically deprived under King Edward VI and were never since Canonically restored which may deserve a further Consideration The mean while it is certain that this Act outed not two hundred more of all the Clergy in this Kingdom And their places being filled with such as had been banished in Queen Maries days it is not hard to judge how all things else to be done in Church matters might pass any Obstruction as they did afterwards in full Convocation 3. As to Doctrinal things it was generally observed in those times by the Advantage of Ecclesiastical learning that in those many former Ages which wanted it many errors and some very gross ones had crept into the Church And those errors having the Papacy on their side for Reasons which I have already shewn had so far prevailed that they were growing to be Articles of Faith Many of them were already defined so and more were like to be by the Council of Trent Therefore now the Church of England being free from the Yoke of the Papacy and having an Absolute Power to act for her self thought fit to use the Right of a National Church that is to Reform her self by declaring against those errors and to rid Christianity from them here in England without taking upon her to prescribe to other Churches And withal she thought it needful to set such bounds to the Reformation that men might not by their heats against Popery be transported so far as to run into contrary errors For these causes that famous Summary of Christian Doctrines which we call the XXXIX Artielés was drawn up and approved by Convocation The Compiling and Publishing of these Articles was properly the Act of the Church of England And these Articles being many of them opposed to those Doctrines which the Roman Church holds to be of Faith and being either in Terminis or at least in the sense of them the same which their Trent Council hath branded with Heresie it is therefore evident that upon the account of these Doctrines neither the Queen nor Church of England can be justly charged with Schism unless the Doctrines themselves are first proved to be Heretical as they are judged by those decrees of the Trent Council For the trial of these Doctrines they will not allow our Church that resort which she would make immediately to the Scriptures And we cannot go along with the Roman Church whither she would have us that is to the Council of Trent or which is all one to the judgment of their present Church Therefore there is no possible way to end disputes but by some known equal Standard between us And that can be no other than Catholic Tradition Which they of the Roman side cannot well decline for it is that from which the Council of Trent has pretended to receive all her Doctrines Nor have we any cause to decline it for the Primitive Fathers who were the Original Conveighers of this Tradition did profess to know no other Faith than what was contained in the Scriptures Why we cannot stand to the judgment of the Council of Trent for the trial of our Doctrines we have all the same Reasons that they have in the French Church why they reject it in matters of Discipline That is if they deny it to have the Authority of a General Council the English though of their Communion may as well deny it to have Infallibility Nay much more this than the other For we may give to whom we please an Authority over us but we cannot give Infallibility to any but to them to whom God has promised it that is if to any Council to such a one as represents the whole diffusive Church And we have one reason more than the French have and which signifies more than all theirs to shew that though they did yet we ought not to look upon this as such a Council For the French Church was represented at Trent in some sort though they were not at all satisfied with it but Ours neither was Represented nor could be as I have shewn neither after nor before the Reformation And though as it is said the French have since received the Doctrinal Decrees of that Council that is they have allowed them to be Antecedently true in those Terms in which the Council defined them though not a whit the more true for having been defined in that Council ours cannot pretend that here in England it ever had so much as that lowest Degree of Reception Before the Reformation of which we now speak that is before the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign the Council of Trent had sate not much more than half its Sessions And though it was quoted with respect by the Synod of London in Queen Marys days yet it does not appear that there was then any Formal Reception of the Council Nor if there had been could that have obliged aftercomers to receive whatsoever should pass afterward in that Council Thus much I think ought to be considered by them if there be any that hold themselves obliged by that Synod But much less would it have signified to our Reformers who did not hold themselves obliged by that Synod For beside that they differed in point of Faith they had other Canonical Objections against it That it was composed of Bishops who had been Deprived as was said in King Edwards days and had not been duly Restored since for ought that appears And it was Headed by the Popes Legate in that Quality as representing Him against whom they had an Appeal yet in force Now to him that considers the Case in these Circumstances it cannot seem reasonable that King Edwards Bishops should have thought themselves obliged by the Synodical Act of them that sate there in their Injury or that they who adhered to their Appeal from the Pope should be concluded by any thing that passed under his Legate Since the Reformation it cannot be imagined that the Council of Trent should be received here in England by any other than by them of the Roman Communion And whether they have Received it or no they best know But if they have it must be their own voluntary Act for no power whatsoever could oblige them to receive it If any could it must be either the Council it self or the Pope by his Universal Authority But for the Popes Power they understand themselves so well that they know he cannot oblige them to the reception of a Council For he cannot bring them under what Government he pleases I say not without their own Consent as they have judged and shewed
who fulfil the design of the Imposers in owning such men for Saints can rationally avoid the owning of their Principles And if the doing these things obliges any to own these Principles it has the same force throughout their whole Diffusive Church It is not so easie to answer the force of these Arguments as it is to produce Instances on the contrary of them that have written against this Doctrine especially in France where it is said to be disowned by a National Church But their Writings and her Declarations will stand us in no stead upon their Principles who expresly except the Case of Heresie as Cardinal Perron says they all did and instances in the most eminent of them who defended the rights of Princes against Popes before the Reformation For I think it will not be doubted that all the Writers of that Communion even those of the Gallican Church not excepted look upon us as Heretics But besides the French Church has been so far from disowning this Doctrine that they have Publicly declared for it and that no longer since than in our Fathers days It cannot yet be forgotten how the body of their Clergy as representing the Gallican Church by the mouth of their Speaker Cardinal Perron declared themselves in that famous Harangue which was printed there with Royal priviledge and sent over hither to King Iames that he might not be ignorant of their sense in this matter And they declared it not only to be the present sense of their Church but the same that it had constantly been from the first opening of her Divinity Schools till Calvins time They shew too much desire to have the French Church on their side that confront these great Testimonies with Acts of State or Declarations of Universities or with Writings of Private men When they cannot but know that according to their Principles neither Private men nor Parliaments nor Universities can pretend to be the Gallican Church in any case where they differ from the Ecclesiastics But whereas Cardinal Perron there says that all they who writ for the Rights of Princes against the Pope in those times before the Reformation did nevertheless hold that the Pope might depose any Prince that should be guilty of Heresie Though I do not engage to make good his Assertion in the utmost extent of it because it is hard to know the mind of every Writer in that Controversie yet I think it is not hard to shew as many Kings who have declared their Judgment on his side as there can be produced of those Writers to the contrary And it is no small proof of the Authority of any Doctrine when it is acknowledged by them who would have been most obliged by their Interest to have denied it if their Consciences would have given them leave For examples of this we cannot go higher than to the Emperour Henry IV. whos 's very troublesom times gave occasion to Hildebrand to bring this Doctrine first into the world And it is very observable that in the Infancy of it he that was so unfortunate to be made the first Instance of the cursed effects of this Doctrine though he denied the Popes power over him in all other respects yet he owned it in this of Heresie which is worth all the rest put together Perhaps he thought it did not concern him at first so much as he found it did afterwards For having granted that the Pope might depose him in case of Heresie it was enough Then the Pope knew what he had to do It was only to make a new Heresie of something which he would not or could not deny and then how easie was it to take away his Crown as being forfeited by his own Confession Another example of this we have in the Emperour Frederic II. Who being in no very good terms with the Pope thought to get into favour by shewing his zeal against Heresie And he shewed it sufficiently by giving the force of a Temporal Law to that Canon of their General Council of Lateran by which every Heretic is made to forfeit his Estate as well they that have no chief Lord over them as others of Inferiour rank and condition In Consequence of this when the Pope saw occasion to take away his Crown and wanted only some good colour for it among other crimes with which he charged him this was one that he was guilty of Heresie which appeared as the Pope was pleased to say by no doubtful and light but by evident Arguments for that it was manifest enough that he had run into many Perjuries These are the very words of the Sentence By which also it sufficiently appears that not only Error in Doctrine but even Vice or Misgovernment may suffice to make a Heretic when a Prince's being so will forfeit his Crown to the Pope But as Humane Nature is and in a Fortune so liable to temptation how hard a thing it is for any Prince to escape this charge while the Pope is allowed to be Judge as well who is guilty of the Fact as what Fact shall amount to a Heresie For he may as groundlesly judge one guilty of Perjury as he did in that Instance judge that guilt to be Heresie And yet both these Judgments so inseparably belong to the same Jurisdiction that they who grant him either of them ought in reason to grant him both as we have shewn they do according to the Principles of the Roman Church And whereas it is alleaged that some National Councils have declared for the Independent right of Kings though none ever did so but they are branded for it at least in all the later Editions of the Councils yet of these it is observable that they never supposed the Case of Heresie in which there is no Reason to doubt that they went with the stream of the Roman Church It is more observable that bating that Case the rights of Princes against the Pope were scarce ever maintained by any Council of any Nation or Province but those who were under the Aw of Princes And even of them very many have recanted as soon as they found themselves at liberty to do it and that Conscientiously as we have reason to believe But on the other side the most Conscientious Persons of that Communion have stood their ground in the most disadvantagious Circumstances They have stuck to it and maintained it and never recanted their Doctrine howsoever they might have some remorse at some of those horrid Practices into which they were led by it Now by the Principles of that Communion whatsoever has been the sense of their Church can never cease to be so on further trial but must be the Churches Doctrine for ever They who defend Infallibility of Judgment cannot avoid this Nor they who hold Infallibility of Tradition Since they teach that whatsoever has once prevailed and that Universally over all Churches and specially over all Conscientious Persons could never prevail so unless
would no less deeply brand those who are most given to asperse others even the wildest of Phanaticks and Enthusiasts themselves as being Popishly principled If it be as sure it is very absurd to charge Popery on those eminent Eastern and Western Churches which ever since the Separation of the one and the Reformation of the other have purged forth and kept themselves free from all that which is properly Popish and have therefore been anathematized by the Pope himself and excluded from the Communion of all those Christians which hold him for their Ecclesiastical Head It must also be no less absurd to charge with Popery those Tenets of Belief and Rites of Worship however false and unnecessary in themselves wherein the Roman Catholick Churches differ from the English Protestant and other Churches of the Reformation but agree with those anciently famous Patriarchical Churches and almost with all other in the remote parts of the World Having thus how briefly soever said what may be sufficient to exclude the many both incongruous and injurious Notions of Popery which also would be insignificant if they were admitted I shall in the next place endeavour to set forth the only true proper and significant notion of it And yet if I be not much deceived 't will be no hard matter to fix upon and shew wherein this only right Notion of Popery does consist The very derivation of the word and obvious reason of the thing necessarily imported thereby may assure us it cannot in a few significant words be describ'd to be either less or more or any way other than An undue adhaesion to the Bishop of Rome in Principles or Practices falsly pretended to be Christian. I say To the Bishop of Rome because he it is that hath for many Ages past appropriated to himself the name of Pope which was formerly common to all Bishops as every one knows that has been conversant in the Writings of the Fathers I say also An undue adhaesion in Principles c. for it 's supposed to be an ill thing that is to be supprest Now it is not ill to confess the Apostles Creed or to do any good thing that he does but to follow him or to joyn with him in any thing that is evil that is chiefly to assert an undue Power or Authority in the Pope such as that which he assumes to himself over the whole Christian Church and consequently to embrace and to practice those Errours and Corruptions whatsoever they are that by virtue of that usurpt Power and Authority he imposes on all those that are or shall be in Communion with him and excommunicates all that will not come to those terms not so much for their Aversness to those Doctrines and Practices as because they will not submit to his Power and Authority Though I must withal observe here as consequential to my former Observation of so many false Notions of Popery that laying aside its Capital Errour viz. That which directly asserts the pretended universal Power of the Pope it is no necessary evil of any inferiour subservient Errours or Practices at least of any of those which are not peculiar to the Roman Church how false or vain soever they be in themselves but the unnecessary embracing them out of pure submission to the usurpt Authority of the Roman Bishop now stiled Pope and the only Pope of the World is it that in any right sense of the word renders them truly Popish And this I must acknowledge to be so whether we regard the Derivation of the word or Reasons of the thing it self I mean those Reasons which evince the only proper significant Notion of Popery to be that which I have given before in the fewest words I could well fix upon to define or describe it What those Reasons are we have as to one part of them seen already by seeing that if Popery be taken otherwise all Christian Churches in the World must be confessedly Popish and as to the other part also we shall now see For now I am to shew that even by the judgment of such as ought best to understand their own Doctrine the very chief thing in Popery is the owning and asserting the Papal Authority Without question there is nothing which they have more driven at from the beginning or which they now more eagerly contend for in the Roman Church and especially the governing part of it as it were easie to shew in many instances but a few will suffice because the matter is so well known to all men of Reading and Experience To begin with the Original of Popery There is nothing more certain and plain in Church-History then that the primitive Christians being generally Subjects of the Roman Empire had a very great respect for the Bishops of Rome because that was the Imperial City And yet it is as plain that those Bishops had no Authority or Jurisdiction out of their own Province that is beyond the suburbicary Region of Italy till after the Division of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western It was not long after that division and chiefly upon the weakness of the Western Empire that that Power which we now call the Papacy grew up As the Empire decay'd so by degrees it encreased and gathered strength the design being at first not to set up a new Religion but a new Monarchy in the place of the old then expiring The Caesars having made Rome their seat of Empire for so many Ages and being at last driven out by the barbarous Nations it seemed as if the Genius of the place had inspired the Roman Bishops to perk up and to erect a new Empire in the stead Which was no hard thing for them to do being assisted with all manner of advantagious circumstances Having learn'd from their Predecessors to derive their descent from St. Peter how truly it matters not this gave them colour enough to take upon them to be all that he was Their See their Traditions their Dictates were all stiled Apostolical The Popes Title was then His Apostleship for His Holiness was too Vulgar in those days Whatsoever Preheminence or Power those Caesars by their Laws or their Subjects the Christian Bishops in their Councils had given them as being Bishops of the Imperial City when they had gain'd the City wholly to their Devotion and made their party among the barbarous Nations they scorn'd to hold it any longer by gift All that had been so given them and whatsoever they grasp'd more they held it Iure Divino as being Heirs and Successors to St. Peter By this means having shook off their Obligation to Canons and Laws they took upon them to be as Infallible as St. Peter was whose very name they did not stick to usurp when they pleased as if Christ had spoken to them whatsoever he said personally to Cephas And whosoever objected as some always did that those Pretensions were new and that there is no ground for them in
about him so madly with the Keys of the Church It was so in Luther's Case The quarrel begun between him and the Procurers of the Pope's Bulls It proceeded from them to their Patrons in the Court of Rome And so at last it came up to the Papal Authority it self Who knows but that it may please God for Vexatio dat intellectum that many among us being vext with Declarations that are certainly uncanonical may be brought by that means to discover that the Power which sent them forth is Antichristian The most difficult thing that is required toward the making this discovery is only to lay aside those strong prejudices which men commonly receive from their Education and from converse with men and things of that Age in which they live He that laying aside these shall look impartially into the Scriptures and into the undoubted Records of the Primitive Church shall find no Foundation for that prodigious Fabrick of the Papacy For the first three hundred years after Christ they will find only two namely Victor and Stephen that took upon them to censure any which were not of their Diocess And though their Censures for ought that appears were only Declarations of Non-Communion such as any Bishop in those days might send forth against the Bishop of Rome as well as he against other Bishops yet we find that even for that they were blamed and condemned by other Bishops And that is all the effect that we read their Censures had in any place out of Rome it self Pope Victor in his Censure of the Asian Bishops is thought not to have gone beyond threatning to break Communion with them and endeavouring to persuade other Bishops to do the same And yet for this he was smartly handled by some of the Brethren and it is charitably thought he was set right by the grave Counsel of Irenaeus who writ to him in the name of the Gallican Church and told him he did not learn this of any of his Predecessors Of Pope Stephen it is certain that he went farther in his Quarrel with the Asian and African Bishops For he not only broke off Communion but all civil Conversation with them and commanded his people not to let any of them come within their doors But this was only at Rome For it does not appear that he pretended any Authority elsewhere And how he was scorn'd abroad for his Pride and Folly in this the Reader may see in those two excellent Epistles The later of which was left out of the Roman Edition of St. Cyprian and Pamelius honestly declares he would have stifled it if others had not publish'd it before him Lest any one should take offence at my not giving the usual garnish of the Popes of that Age to those two whom I mentioned for I dare not call them Saints and Martyrs though the Roman Church does both elsewhere and in her Offices on their days I ought to let him know how that Church is abused by them that have gained no small advantage to themselves by such Fictions That the old Roman Church in the time of Constantius knew nothing of either of their Martyrdoms it appears by her Catalogue of Popes publisht first by Cuspinian and since by Bucherius the Jesuite Nay she knew the contrary of one of them For in the Roman Calendar of that Age publisht by the same Iesuite Victor is not mentioned at all and Stephen is among the Popes that were no Martyrs If this proof were not enough or if this place were proper for it I should shew from good Authors that though these Popes lived under Emperors that were afterwards Persecutors yet they died before the beginning of their persecutions I do not say but they may be Saints but if they are 't is more than we have any ground to believe For neither the Church-History nor any Writer within a hundred years of their time has any more of their Sanctity than of their Sufferings Of Stephen there is great cause to doubt the contrary from what we read of him in St. Cyprian's Epistle and more from that of Firmilian which is thought to have been translated by St. Cyprian and which was written about the time of Stephens death rather after than before it It is to be hoped that many Roman Catholics among us have truly that Reverence which all of them profess to true Primitive Christian Antiquity and to the judgment of Saints and Martyrs in all Ages We all agree that Irenaeus and Cyprian had a just right to those Titles And Firmilian was a chief Pillar of the Church in his Age. He was thought worthy to preside in several Eastern Councils namely in that against the Novatians before Stephen was Pope and those against Samosatenus after Stephen was dead And after his own death the Eastern Church of that Age called him Firmilian of Blessed Memory Why this man is not in the Calendar of Saints they best know who can tell us why Victor and Stephen are there No doubt the Saint-makers do all things with great consideration But can any one imagin that those excellent men did ever believe themselves to be under the Roman Bishop that they ow'd any obedience to Him whom they school'd so or any Reverence to his Censures which they slighted in that manner Could any assurance of their Cause have justified that contempt of Authority if they had known any in him But it appears they knew it not nor did others in that Age. Those that were against them in the Cause blamed them for that and nothing else and yet held Communion with them for all Pope Stephen and his Censures So far it appears those great men had the judgment of the Church on their side They knew of no Authority over the Universal Church that the Pope had more than any other Bishop by any right whether Divine or Humane What the Judgment of the Church was in the next Centuries let them consider that shall read those Canons in the Margent and remember they are such as past in the first Four General Councils and in the African Council of 217 Bishops of whom St. Austin was one assembled at Carthage To which I add the African Church to Pope Coelestine I. as containing a full Declaration of their mind in that Canon I know there are objections against one or two of these Canons But all the dust that has been rais'd will not hinder any reasonable man from seeing that which I think is sufficient for our purpose namely that all the Fathers that sate in those Councils or at least the major part of them were of the same judgment with those above-mentioned in this point of the Authority of the Bishop of Rome They all allow'd him precedency as being Bishop of the Imperial City They had commonly a great deference to his Judgment in Debates between themselves And sometimes the Christian Emperors made him honorary Judge whether
alone or with others in such Controversies Indeed by the Canons of Sardica those few Western Bishops that continued there after the Easterlings had left them were pleased meerly of their Charity to give him a new Power to order the reviewing of any Provincial Judgment upon complaint of any Bishop that was aggrieved in it And Pope Leo not being satisfied with this got the Emperor Valentinian III. to ordain that the Bishop of Rome should give Law throughout his part of the Empire which then contained little more than Italy and part of France and part of Spain and the Illyrian Diocess Yet all that the Bishop of Rome had by these Concessions and Grants did not amount to an Authority over the Universal Church I add nor over the British Church in particular And so far was this from arguing that he had by Divine Right any Jurisdiction out of his own Diocess that his seeking or accepting what was given him by these Concessions or Grants is a convincing argument to the contrary But for the Churches Judgment nothing can be more plain than that all those Bishops who gave their Votes to those Canons which I cited before out of the first Four General Councils and that of Africk together with the Epistle annext had no question or thought of any Authority that he had by Divine Right out of his own proper Diocess or by Humane Right out of the Roman Patriarchy or any power of Jurisdiction that he had elsewhere from the Roman Emperors or from the Primitive Fathers Whatsoever power he has gotten since the decay of the Roman Empire and of the Christian Religion from whence I have already dated the beginning of Popery as it is plain he has gotten in many Countries which were not anciently within his Jurisdiction upon any account it must be either by force or fraud abusing either the weakness or ignorance of the people or else by the concession or connivence of Princes and States Blessed be God there are some Christian Nations in the world which have stood so far out of his reach that he has not been able to hook them in by any of these ways And as he has no colourable pretence to a power over those Countries where it is certain he never had any as Ethiopia Russia c. which they that are pleased to call therefore Schismatical must give me leave to admire as well their folly as their uncharitableness and yet they that do not call them so make the Pope no Head of the Universal Church so in those Countries where he has gotten power it is not necessary that he should always hold it till we see who is Antichrist whether He or one of the Tribe of Dan who they say shall come to take it from him They over whom he gain'd a power by force or fraud are kept under it still the same way which creates no right by any Law whatsoever And therefore when God makes them strong enough and wise enough they will deliver themselves from him They that gave him a power over them when they saw cause may have as good or better cause to recal it And they have just cause to do this when they see him desert that Title by their Gift and claim his power by immediate Divine Right or when he employs his power not to edification but destruction and specially when doing all this he will force their obedience by such means as come not from the Wisdom which is from above but from that which the Apostle calls earthly sensual devillish Whosoever among our Roman Catholicks will be pleased to consider these things with that Attention and Impartiality that is due to all things of Religion I cannot but think he will see that the Christian Religion doth no way oblige him to own the Popes Authority in this Kingdom He will see that Iure Divino the Pope could have no Authority over this particular Church which he had not over the Church universal And it doth not appear by any Records of the Primitive times that the Pope ever had any such Authority over the Universal Church or that by the Diffusive Church he was believed or acknowledged to have it But on the contrary it appears by instances which I have given of those times that he was denied to have such an Authority and that as well by the Bishops assembled in their Councils as by the best and wisest men of those times in their Writings Nay he was contradicted and resisted as oft as he endeavoured to impose any thing against the mind of particular Churches He will see that whatsoever Humane Right the Pope had acquired over the people of this Kingdom was no more of one kind than we are all originally of one Nation and that the power which he was suffered to exercise over us was very much greater at one time than another In the worst and darkest times it was highest for it grew up on the bad Titles or other weakness of Princes and yet then he could not hold it peaceably nor long enough to make a Prescription But at all other times it was much less than he claim'd which sheweth plainly it was no more but what the State pleased to give him and they owned that the Pope had no right over them by any concessions of their own more than what he had over the rest of the Western Churches Particularly in those times next before the Reformation that right which was generally acknowledged to be in him was not a supreme right but subordinate to a General Council This appears to have been the sense of the Western Church For it was declared in plain terms by four Councils which were acknowledged for General in that Age and were abetted as such by the generality of the Western Church They not only declared this Doctrine in their Canons but they reduced it to practice For those Councils deposed divers Popes and made new ones in their stead Which Acts of theirs the Papalins of this Age are obliged to defend as ill as they like the Canons for without them they cannot make up the succescession of their present Popes But admitting those Acts to have been just and good how can they reject those Canons from which they had their virtue and efficacy If they say the Pope did not approve them it is partly true Out of doubt those Popes did not like them that lost by them Nor perhaps those that came in by those Canons might not like them so well at another time But how then could they take upon them to be Popes Their accepting a Title from those Councils and the Peoples owning them in it was enough to shew that those Canons were then in force and they were never repealed by any Council since nor hath there been any Council to do it that can be reasonably thought so fit as those four were to declare the sense of the Western diffusive Church Therefore
that matter as well in Foro Ecclesiae having the Canonical right of an Appeal against them as in Foro Conscientiae because what she did was to keep her Faith pure from their undue Impositions Whether she can be cleared as well on the account of her Government in Ecclesiastical matters this we ought to consider as a thing that more immediately concerns us For we date the Reformation of our Church from the beginning of her Reign And though we have a Prescription since of above a hundred years which is enough to secure us against the Claims of the Papacy in the Judgment of them that hold it to be only of Humane Right as all men ought to do upon those grounds above mentioned yet to them of the Roman Communion it will perhaps be more satisfactory if it appear that beside the Right that we have now from Prescription there was also an Original Right in our Reformers to do what they did in the beginning of the Reformation The first thing they did was to assert the Queens Supremacy from whence they proceeded to settle the Church Government and ended with the Reformation of Worship and Doctrine 1. First of what she did in assuming the Supremacy more needs not be said than to make it be understood And we cannot understand her meaning in it better than by her own declaration and practice She declared that she took no other power to her self than what Anciently belonged to the Crown of England that is immediately under God to govern her people of all sorts as well the Clergy as the Laity And she exercised no other Power or Jurisdiction over the Church than what was meerly External as appears by her Injunctions and other Acts. Though if she had exercised any other power than what she claimed it had been only an Act of Misgovernment in her for which she was accountable to God and the Church had not therefore been guilty of Schism since it gave her no other power nor owned her in the exercise of any other than what is above-mentioned And that power is so inherent in every Supreme Magistrate and so necessary for the well-being of the People that we cannot deny the right of it in them to whom we grant the Supreme Magistracy it self Wheresoever any Prince or State have seemed to think so ill of themselves as if they were not so fit as a Foreiner was to be trusted with this Power over their own People or rather where they have been so obsequious to the Pope as to take this Flower out of their own Crown and put it into the Triple It may be every where observed that either they or their Successors have found occasion at some time or other to call for it home again or to use it as if they had notgiven it from themselves We may see examples of this in Germany in Ockham's days in Spain under the Emperour Charles V and in Venice at the time of the Interdict But especially in France where the Gallican Church is obliged to justifie this Right of Princes unless she will grant that her most Christian Kings have been in Schism more than once and especially while they stood to the pragmatic Sanction But we need not go abroad for examples having so many at home and such as are very full to our purpose He that will may see them elsewhere gathered to his hand And I have mentioned enough to shew that even in Popish times our Princes were not ignorant of their Right and that between whiles they were fain to assert it in such terms as did import though they did not name a Supremacy But as their Laws did not expresly mention the word so neither did they always stand by their Laws When they had made them the Pope still found some device or other to make them ineffectual Till King Henry VIII having thrown out the Pope for those reasons above mentioned did by advice of his Council and Bishops take both the Power and the Title on himself whether he took more than his due let others judge As I am not engaged to defend all that he assumed so I need not for so much as Queen Mary exercised of it For it is agreed and there was great reason for it that she was always for the Popes Supremacy in her heart though for fear of her life she renounced it when time was And yet she no sooner came to the Crown but she exercised the Supremacy her self in changing most of the Bishops and Reforming what she held to be Abuses in the Church Afterward when she had surrendred it to the Pope yet she did not so wholly put it out of her self but that when He displeased her she could shut his Legate out of her Kingdom So that to adjust the matter between the two Sisters in this point of Supremacy they seem to have differed only thus One adjudged it to the Pope and yet took it from him when she pleased the other thought it belonged to the Crown and therefore kept it wholly to her self 2. What Queen Elizabeth did in setling Church matters was founded on her Right in the Supremacy By vertue whereof she took upon her to Reform abuses in the Church as her Sister Queen Mary had done And I believe that whosoever compares their proceedings will find that she took more leisure and advice than Queen Mary in doing it For before a Parliament sate she had gone only thus far that she allowed her people some of the Church Offices in a Language which they all understood Afterward by advice of her Parliament she restored King Edwards Laws and repealed those which had been made by Queen Mary for Ecclesiastical matters And by those Laws she abolished the Popish Mass and restored the whole Communion to the Laity whereas her Sister had done the contrary without Law by her mere Right of Supremacy Which Right she having afterwards given away by Act of Parliament though still she used it when she saw cause Queen Elizabeth thought fit to have it restored by Act of Parliament or rather Redeclared for the Act was not Operative but Declarative And whereas by this Act it was required that all Bishops and others that held any Church-living in this Kingdom should take an Oath of Supremacy as we call it or else should be uncapable of holding any such Church preferment on refusal of this Oath there were turned out thirteen Bishops I note the number the rather because there had been just so many of the Protestant Bishops turned out by Queen Mary There appears to have been some difference between the turning out of these by Law and of those without any Law then in force But there was more in the cause of their fuffering those being outed for matters purely Religious and these for a Civil cause for refusing an Oath lawfully imposed Which Oath did not truly concern their
it by their practice When he impowered an Archpriest to govern them the Seculars would not receive him And when he would have placed a Bishop over them the Regulars would not receive him So the Seculars and Regulars as it were with one consent have given us their Judgment in the Case and that by no Indeliberate Act on either hand for they contended about it a great part of the last Age. And therefore unless their Principles are altered since the same Right which they exercised in not submitting to a Government they may exercise as well in not receiving a Council though the Pope should presume to impose it And that the Council of it self has no power to oblige them it appears in that judged case of the Egyptian Church The Bishops whereof would not subscribe to a Decree of the Fourth General Council because they had then no Archbishop to give them an Authority for it This was allowed to be a Reasonable excuse though the Decree which they were to have subscribed was in a matter of Faith I suppose they of the Roman Communion here in England have had the same Reason ever since the Reformation They have had no lawful Primate nor no declared Bishops all this while And during this imperfect state of their Church if there had been a General Council and any of their Clergy had been there they might have been excused from subscribing though in matters of Faith What difference there is in the Case makes wholly on our side For there is a wide difference indeed between Subscribing and Receiving The first is only the declaring ones own personal assent to the Decrees of any Council the other is to give them the force of Laws in the National Church And if according to that Canon the Bishops where they are in a Council are not bound to subscribe without their Primate how much less can any National Church be Obliged to receive things for Law without her Bishops Nay more how can she Lawfully receive them Especially such a Church as owns there is no Jurisdiction without Bishops She cannot do it without a Synod of Bishops according to the ancient Canons And therefore the English Church of Roman Catholics is so far from being bound to receive the Trent Council that in her present condition she could not Lawfully receive it I say still according to the ancient Canons which ought to be of some force with them of the Roman Communion But let them do as they please The case is plain that the Reformed Church of England ought not to receive it if she can prove her charge that that Council has innovated in the Christian Faith or rather unless that Council can discharge her self of it by proving that what we call her New Faith is not new but received from Catholick Tradition We think we are sure they cannot bring this Tradition for those Doctrines which are laid as Foundations for all the rest in that Council namely their making unwritten Tradition to be of Divine Authority and therefore equal with the holy Scriptures their bringing those which we call the Apocryphal Books into the Canon of Scripture their making the Vulgar Latine Translation Authentick in all matters of Faith and good life For these and all the rest of their Doctrines of Faith as they are called in the Roman Church which we call Innovations and Errors We are not afraid to refer our selves to Catholic Tradition If they of the Roman side would submit to it as well there would be no difference between us in matters of Faith whatsoever there might be in Opinion And therefore they would have no cause in their own private judgment to conclude us for Heretics much less would they find us condemned for such by any competent Judicature If they think otherwise than we do in this matter the reason must be because they do not mean what we do by Catholic Tradition It is plain that too many of that Church have a wrong notion of it taking that for Catholic Tradition which is only presumed to be so by a Party in these latter Ages For though they call themselves the Catholic Church and perhaps really take themselves to be no other yet they are but a handful to the body of Christians especially considered in our notion of Catholic which as we take it extends to all the Christians of all Ages We plainly profess to take the Catholic Tradition in that sense of Vincentius Lyrinensis and before him of Tertullian in his Prescriptions who make this to be the Standard of all Doctrines of Faith quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus First that which has gone for Christian Faith in all Ages from the beginning of Christianity Secondly which has been taken for such by the whole diffusive Church comprehending all those particular Churches which have not been Canonically condemned either of Schism or Heresie And lastly that which has not only been the Faith of some persons though contradicted by others but that which has been the constant belief of the generality in all those Christian Churches To bring our differences to this standard betwixt us I conceive that first they of the Roman Communion will not find such evidence for their Articles of Faith as they think of in the Primitive Records I say such evidence as will make it appear that they were of Faith antecedently to the Definitions of Councils They will find that those Councils which first defined them to be of Faith were not such against which we have no just exception nor that their Definitions have been generally received throughout the diffusive Catholic Church For the Primitive Records I suppose they of the Roman Church that have read them will scarce pretend to shew how they convey all those Articles to us as of Faith And where they fail to shew this of any Article they must excuse us if we cannot allow it to be a Catholic Tradition Much more when we shew from those Records that there are strong presumptions to the contrary Whereof not to trouble my Reader with more instances I have given some proof in that which Bellarmine calls Caput Fidei namely in that Doctrine of the Popes Supremacy over all Christians For the Councils by which their new Articles have been defined the most they can rationally pretend to by their Definitions is to deliver the sense of the present diffusive Church Which they are presumed to do when they have power to represent it or when their Decrees are received in all parts of it and not otherwise But how few of their General Councils can pretend to either of these Conditions It appears that the Eldest of them could not I mean the Second Council of Nice which first imposed the worship of Images For about thirty years before there was an Eastern Council held at Constantinople which Condemned that very thing And not ten years after there was a Western Council at Francford which
used none but why they must also receive all things else that are imposed in like manner under pretence that this is now the Judgment of the Diffusive Church But the case is much worse these new things being imposed on the Church with a pretence of Infallibility Which Infallibility being a word of good sound some that are no Papalins but hold with them in some Doctrines which they cannot well prove otherwise strike in with them at this though the sound is all that they agree in For whereas the Papalins mean an Infallibility of Judgment and place it in the Virtual Church these mean only an Infallibility of Tradition and that they place in the Diffusive Church They would persuade us that it is a Demonstrable thing that those things that are believed as of Faith in this Age could never be otherwise They may as well Demonstrate that a Tale does not mend with often telling or that no change can be made by insensible degrees But the Authors of this being Censured at Rome for it we have no more to say to them tiâ—l they make it appear that they are of the Roman Church in spite of her Censures For our dispute is at present with them of the Roman Church who pretend that this Infallibility is in theirs that is the Virtual Church They say that she has it by virtue of Divine Assistance which being either without or above means it is all one as if they said she has a New Revelation And one would think that they intended no other who founded their Definitions on Miracles Now if they can prove that any such Assistance was promised to the Virtual Church and if they can prove that they are the Church to which those promises were made or if they can prove their Credentials to be the same that Christ gave to his Apostles then we must grant that we are out in denying this Infallibility Otherwise they must grant that their virtual Church might be mistaken And if she might we have reason to think that she was so in these matters And if it is but colourably said that she was mistaken in matters of so very great moment there is reason to think that those matters are fit for a Review To which the Greeks may submit and so may all other Christians that differ among themselves but they of the Roman Church cannot while they keep up their claim to Infallibility If we must as the Roman Court will have it be called Heretics for not submitting to new Revelation we cannot help it Nor need we much trouble our selves For we know we are no Hereticks by any Law Divine or Humane except those which this new Power has made to fence in its new Doctrines And we know they cannot with any colour of Reason from Catholic Tradition think us Heretics themselves while we hold to the Positive Doctrines of our Church So that when they are pleased to give us this Title we can take their meaning to be only this They declare us to be as indeed we are the Enemies of that Monarchy to which they would enthral the whole Church of Christ They do as good as tell us what we are to expect for this if ever for our sins God should suffer us to fall into their hands They would have their people hate us the mean while and avoid all communication with us for fear they should come to know how we are wronged in this matter This appears to be the sense and design of the Interested men And yet we doubt not there are many others among them who either have no such Interest or who will not give themselves to be led by it We have reason to believe this partly from what we observe at this present and much more from what we read of former times Of all Nations that continue in the Roman Communion the more any have flourished in Learning and Civility the more free they have kept themselves from all that which is properly Popery while the more Ignorant and therefore more Superstitious Nations are so fond of it that for want of this they will scarce allow the other to be Catholics But for Protestants whom the other can endure to live among them though perhaps in no desirable condition These will not allow them to live in their Country unless that may be called Living when men are buried alive in the Inquisition So it may be observed among Persons of that Communion The most busie and imposing the most fierce and untreatable Bigots are commonly they that scarce understand their own Prayers Learned men either have not those heats or else govern them better Unless they be such as are engaged to the Papacy by preferment or by the hopes of it or by the Vows of their Orders or perhaps such as having forsaken our Church will not allow us to Question either their Wisdom or their Honesty in it We are not ordinarily to expect so much as common Civility from such men But they that have no particular Quarrel against us and are otherwise of a Candid and Ingenuous temper especially when they have Learning with it as not a few have and would to God there were more in the Roman Church These men being not averse from inquiring into Truth nor from receiving it when it is brought before them if they do not see how they can prove us Heretics and that their Proof is as strong and clear as the Charge is heavy they will not think it a sufficient Reason to call us so because others have done it Nor will they think fit to debar us the common Right of all Christians that is to be heard what we can say for our selves And that either before a competent Judicature if it may be had or if that cannot be yet at least by all them that will judge of us I know no reason to doubt that if all of them knew but so much of our Church as has been said and if they considered it with that Impartiality which we ought to expect from such men it would work some good effect in no small number of them in that Communion And that effect would appear upon such a Review as I have mentioned I mean that we should have Right done us in a free General Council if the Pope would permit it to be held in our Age or rather if all Christian Princes would agree to call it themselves and not wait for His time which will be never But though he will not suffer this Reason to be done us abroad where it should be in a Common Assembly of Christians yet he cannot hinder us from having it at home at least in the private Judgment of them that do not fear his Censures I have shewn that this is like to be the fruit of a Discrimination It will try who they are And for them chiefly I intended this Digression In which I have been the more large because I think it no Digression but rather the best
way for the suppressing of Popery in this Kingdom to get our Church to be better understood by all among us of that Communion And surely if they did rightly understand it wise men would consider how they made themselves guilty of Heresie and Schism by unjustly charging us with those crimes How of Heresie by joyning with them that have made such Additions to the Faith And of Schism in charging us with Heresie for not receiving those Additions and thereupon separating themselves from our Communion They that shall be convinced of their danger in both these will endeavour to avoid it by relinquishing that Forein Power which they can think themselves no way obliged to if they better consider it And finding themselves free from any such obligation I do not see what should hinder them from joyning themselves to that National Church in which God has sufficiently provided all things necessary for their Salvation Though if they stay where they are it may perhaps be better for Us upon Politic accounts which I add as my last instance of the Benefit that we may expect from this Discrimination It would be no small Benefit to us if such men continuing in the Roman Communion would but keep the Popish Party from being more united and more active against us And thus much they would do for us though they did not intend it But they will do much more and that with full Intention unless their Opposition to us weigh more with them than their care of themselves For they will find themselves Obliged if they consider it as well in Duty as Interest and no less obliged both ways then we are to keep out the Forein Power from coming in among us Their obligation in Conscience will be the same that ours is and so much more if they are bound to it by Oath whatsoever the Oath shall be that is designed for their Discrimination And as to Interest it will be much more theirs than it is ours to keep out the Common Enemy that will be heavy to us both but much heavier to them than to us For as they are fewer in Number so they are better known in their Persons and therefore the more easie to be found out And being found if ever that day should come which God avert though we must look to feel Rods they are sure to be punished with Scorpions The provocation which they have given already has been more than most of us have been able to give And when we are gone if they continue the Roman Court having no other Adversaries would be the more intent and the more able to root them out of the Kingdom I do not say this to waken them that are most concerned to think of it for I suppose they cannot sleep having so great a Danger before their eyes And if they should happen to forget themselves they would be wakened by those Censures of which enough has been spoken already It is at present more needful to make our own People who do not so well understand the Common Adversary as not having had the same Experience of him to be sensible how much they are concerned not to lose any Help that can be had And therefore that it is our Interest as well as theirs to preserve such a Party of useful men and to oblige them to joyn with us against him Which can be done no other way but by a Discrimination I cannot think there is any Protestant among us who will not for these or other the like Considerations think fit to use the Moderation here proposed and endeavour to promote it in others as far as he is able Unless he may perhaps be discouraged by some other Considerations that may make it seem not so Practicable as it were to be desired For if it can be put in practice I think no wise and good man having weighed the reasons here given will deny that it ought to be and that as well in Prudence as in Justice to preserve both Church and State and whatsoever is dear to us in this Nation The things chiefly alledged against the Practicableness of it are these that follow I shall first name them and then consider the Consequence of them First It is alledged that all they of the Roman Church are obliged by their Principles to follow the Judgment of the Roman Court And that they Actually follow it in those very things which are Popery in the proper signification Secondly If any of them deny this or declare and promise the contrary we can have no Assurance of what they say they have so many ways to elude all such Promises and Declarations especially being made to Hereticks as they are taught to call us Thirdly Though we have a sufficient assurance of any persons at present that they are No Papists yet while they are of that Communion they are in a continual danger to be seduced or change their minds and whensoever that happens as it may before we are aware of it they will be able to do us the more hurt through our relying on the security which they have given us I confess there is a force in these Objections which I cannot so well avoid but that they who are chiefly concerned to have them answered may suspect that I use some kind of Prevarication because I do not answer them their way or not say all that they think their Cause will bear To secure my self against that most odious Imputation I do in the first place declare that I shall omit nothing which I think to be material though I do not pretend to say all they have to say for themselves And then for their Way of answering If they think they can Justifie themselves against the charge that is implied in those mentioned Allegations and that they can thereby entitle themselves as well to Trust as to Protection I confess this is more than I can do for them And therefore I take so much lower Endeavouring to excuse the persons as far as they are capable to be excused from those things which are not to be Justified in their Cause and since the Law has excluded them from Trust for such Reasons as cannot but continue as long as the established Religion I shall yet endeavour to shew that they safely may and ought to have Protection while they give such assurance of their Loyalty as they are capable to give and no otherwise I shall do it with much the more ease having the matter prepared to my hand in a Book that was published about two years since to this purpose Where the Objections being proved as to matter of Fact and the Inferences drawn with great evidence and strength if I should not extract enough to satisfie the Reader in either kind I shall however satisfie my self that I have made him amends by recommending the Book to him where he may find those things said at large and with very great accurateness which either cannot so well be
contracted or I cannot do it here without exceeding the brevity which I design First Whereas all Roman Catholics are said to be obliged by their principles to follow the Judgment of the Roman Court I find little less than Demonstration for this in a Book lately published Where it is proved that they cannot justifie their calling themselves Catholics exclusively to all other Christians any otherwise than by resolving their Faith into the Infallibility of the Roman Church as united to the Pope that is really into the Infallibility of the Pope as being Head of the Church So that if he declare as it is evident he has done that those things which we call Popery are Articles of Faith they are bound if they will do things consequently to their Principles either to believe him in those Articles or else to relinquish that Communion This follows by good Reasoning though that way of proof is not so clear to a Vulgar Capacity as that which is drawn from Authority and appears in plain instances of Fact But what greater Instance can there be of this kind than the practice of the whole Roman Church which has actually followed the Judgment of the Roman Court and that in things which are properly Popery By the whole Roman Church I mean that which they call so themselves that is the governing part of the Clergy of all the Churches of that Communion that part which acts for all the rest in Ecclesiastical matters and by whose Acts all their Subjects are obliged according to their own Principles Now taking Popery as I have defined it to be the owning of the Pope's pretended Authority whether in Spirituals over the Universal Church or in Temporals over all Princes and States it hath been proved that this Roman Church owns this Doctrine in both the branches of it First in Spirituals there can be no question of this For none can be of the Governing Clergy without taking an Oath in which they own the Pope's Authority with a witness For they swear Fealty to him and that in those Terms which import as well a Temporal as a Spiritual subjection No doubt that was Hildebrand's sense that made the Oath and it is most agreeable to the Principles and Practices of them that Impose it But this I leave to Temporal Princes and States and especially to Protestants who are chiefly concerned to consider it Let the Oath be for Spirituals only it is enough to prove the Churches subjection to the Pope because in that sense at least it is taken by all the Governing Clergy And for the rest there is a Form of Profession by which they are sworn to him every one in his Person for fear they should not think themselves obliged by the Oaths of their Superiors If among them that are the Guides of Conscience to others there be any that makes no Conscience of an Oath yet such a one will go which way his Interest leads him And the Pope has them all secured to him by Interest likewise Not to speak of those ways that his Interests are theirs nor of other ways that he has to oblige them it is enough that he is so far Patron of the whole Church that none can have a Bishoprick or any other eminent Dignity but he must either take it of the Pope's gift or at least he must come to him for Confirmation Having two such sure holds on the Bodies and on the Souls of his Clergy the Pope is not only in present possession of a spiritual Monarchy over the whole Roman Church but he is as much as it is possible for him to be assured that none shall ever be able to take it out of his hands Unless the Princes of his Communion should come to find their Interest in a Reformation which is rather to be wisht for than to be expected in our Age otherwise there is nothing that can dispossess him but a general Council And that indeed he has some cause to apprehend upon the experience of former times It is remembred by others too often for the Pope to forget it how such a Council when time was humbled two or three of his Predecessors But then they that were for the Liberty of the Church had not only the Diffusive Church on their side but they had a good party among the Cardinals themselves Especially they had the Papacy at an Advantage being to Judge whose it was among them that pretended to it They had also the times very favourable to to them in other Circumstances which I shall not mention because they are not like to come again And yet then what ground they got from Popes of disputable Titles they lost afterward to those whose Titles were certain They left free Declarations and Laws for future times which might do good if there were men to put Life in them But withal they left a certain experiment to shew us that that good cannot be done by men who are so engaged to the Papacy Interest of it self were enough to give the Pope a Majority of Bishops in any Council where Conscience did not bear too much sway It was observed by one that writ for the Authority of those Councils that they could never keep up their side for this reason because the Pope had the disposing of all the Livings But how much greater must his Party be when all the Bishops are bound in Conscience likewise as far as an Oath can oblige them to support the Popes spiritual Monarchy It is hard for men to think that such an Oath does not bind them as well when they are together as severally We see the Pope so well understood this that when it was proposed during the Council of Trent that to make it a Free Council he should dispense with the Oaths of all the Bishops that sate there his Legates declared that they would rather die than consent to it I suppose they would not have been so much concerned for that which they had not found to be of very great use in their business And we see the effect of it For all the Bishops there present though it was against many of their wills yet suffered the Council to be prorogued and translated and rid about how and when the Pope pleased till he had done with them that is till they had made it unnecessary for him ever to have another Council But as safe as he has made himself in case there should be a General Council it cannot be denied that it is safer for him to have none And therefore presuming there shall be none for the future as we may judge by the experience of the last hundred years we come now to consider what his power is in the Intervals of Councils During these it is acknowledged by the whole Roman Church and that as well by the Laity as the Clergy that the Pope has the supreme Authority over all Christians Which being another kind of Supremacy
than we are used to we are to learn what it is from them that live under it What they say and write of it is not the sense of the Church as that is which they swear in those Forms before-mentioned And yet their Oaths being in general terms we cannot so throughly know it from them as from particular Instances of the Exercise of it I suppose they may be said to give him that Power which he exercises every where without let or contradiction And to name only such Instances there are two which more particularly concern us and which make him no less than some call him that is the Virtual Church First he takes upon himself and they allow him to be the only supreme Judge of Fact in Ecclesiastical matters So that whomsoever he has judged to be Heretics of what rank soever they are Kings not excepted they are subject to all Canonical Punishments and are avoided as if they were such indeed as he judges them And as he does not trouble himself to call a Council and to take their sense of the matter before he judges so neither if he judge amiss are the injured Parties relievable by Appeal to any other Judge whatsoever If any question this they do ill to call us Heretics who were never condemned by any Council at least not by any that pretended to represent the Universal Church It was indeed moved at the Council of Trent that they should have declared against Queen Elizabeth and it is said that they forbore to do it for politic reasons But when the Pope saw his time to declare it did as well for though by the same Bull he deprived her of her Kingdom all her Subjects of that Church broke Communion with her even they that disobeyed the Sentence of Deprivation Since her time it does not appear that we are under any Sentence but the Popes yearly Curse on Maundy Thursday and yet that is enough to continue the breach of Communion Nay when Henry VIII was condemned by the Pope only and judged a Heretic for no other cause but disobedience to him though he had a just and lawful Appeal then depending yet then the Popes Sentence was obeyed and he was treated as a Heretic by all those of the Roman Communion If this be not owning the Pope to have an Absolute Authority yet at least it is no small Priviledge that they allow him to let in and shut out of their Church whom he pleases But he claims a higher Priviledge than this that is to be judge also of Doctrines to define what shall be Faith or Heresie This he actually does And the Church so far abets him in it that if private persons seem to question his Judgment as some did when he condemned the Iansenists Propositions they are punisht for it as Rebels to the Church Now being in possession of this power to judge of Doctrines what security can they have that he will not employ it to advance his own Secular Interests under the specious pretence of Christian Faith If he please to make it of Faith that all men must obey him even in Temporal things this is done already in a Decretal Epistle if there be any Coherence between the two ends of it If he should think fit to call it the Henrician Heresie for any one to hold that Kings may be obeyed notwithstanding his Censures If he call it the Heresie of the Politici for any one to deny the exemption of the Clergy from Secular Courts or the Heresie of Simon Magus to hold that Lay men may lawfully present to Church Livings there is nothing new in all this and therefore he may colourably do it Nay we have reason to believe he will do it whensoever he thinks he may do it safely And that will be when he is no more in awe of the French Monarchy than he was of the English when he censured the Irish Remonstrance It may concern more than Protestants to consider this For no man knows how soon the Pope may be concerned either to have him condemned for a Heretic or to make something that he holds go for Heresie And either of these things being done there is no doubt but that the Popes Act must be owned by the Roman Church in consequence to to their now mentioned Principles For all this is no other than the exercise of that power which they give him in spiritual things Whether they allow him to have the like power in Temporals is the Question which we are next to consider And that they do allow it him will appear by all the means that we have to know the sense of that Church First their Church Virtual that is the Pope himself has declared it again and again and that with all the Solemnities required by themselves to his decreeing ex Cathedra There never was any Pope that disowned it nor any that owned that Notion of the Virtual Church Their Church Representative has declared it in divers Councils of which one or other is owned to be General by all them of the Roman Communion Whereas many require the the Popes Confirmation of Councils to make them General there is no doubt but such Councils so confirmed have declared it For those that do not hold any necessity of the Popes Confirmation those very Councils which they abet in not holding it necessary have not only declared this but they have taken it for a foundation which in reason should be much more than a Definition They supposed it as a thing out of Controversie and made sundry Acts in pursuance of it Their Catholic Church Diffusive has own'd it by receiving and approving of some Councils of both sorts so as that whosoever has rejected the Councils of one sort has received those of the other They own it likewise in such Practices as must be Catholic according to their Principles If any practice be Catholic what can be more properly so than that which is the first Commandment of their Church Namely to keep her Festivals to hear Mass to joyn in Offices of the Church This they do in the Memory and with solemn Invocation of them as glorified Saints who not only while they lived were abettors of this Doctrine but who were Sainted for this reason because they Abetted it Such were Anselm and Becket of whom I need say no more than shew the Reader where he may find a very full Demonstration of this But among the many more that I might add of this sort I shall name only two that deserve more than ordinary notice Namely Hildebrand the first Author of this Doctrine and Pius Quintus who was the first that practised it on Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory This last mentioned Pope being newly canonized I suppose to let us know here in England what we are to expect when time serves I do not see how they who suffer themselves to be imposed on in this manner and
it had been delivered from the beginning But of this Doctrine it has been proved that it was in the Church before those Councils above mentioned and was either declared or supposed by those General Councils therefore it must have been from Catholic Tradition And therefore according to their Principles it ought not to be called to a review much less be disbelieved or disputed by any in this present Age whatsoever advantage it may have above those former Ages in point of Learning and Monuments for the discerning of Catholic Tradition What has been said is sufficient to make it appear that all they of the Roman Church by the Principles of their Communion are obliged to maintain these Doctrines of Popery Whence it will follow that as long as they are true to those Principles we cannot be secure that they will not practise those Doctrines Therefore all the reason we can have to believe that they will do us no hurt if they are truly conscientious persons is only this that we may hope they do not yet know their Churches sense in this matter At present they do not see the repugnancy between their Duty to Princes and the Principles of their Communion But this will only secure us so long as they do not see it and that may be a very little while For as the proofs of this Inconsistency are great and notorious so they are ready to be objected to them by their Adversaries in their own Communion And therefore we can have little security of them if we can have none any longer than while we may suppose them likely to continue in this Ignorance So that the only solid and lasting reason that we have or can have to hope well of the Loyalty of any such Consciencious Persons among them must be the assurance that we have of their firmer adherence to their Duty to King and Country than to the Principles of their Communion Of these Persons we may be secured whilest they are ignorant of that Inconsistence because if they are truly such as we take them to be they cannot but think themselves bound in Conscience to deal fairly and uprightly with us And when the Papalins who will still be practising upon them shall have brought them to discern that Inconsistency the effect of it may be better than they intend For we have reason to hope that such Persons will be so far from quitting their Duty for their Communion that they may be rather induced to leave their Communion when they shall be convinced that it is not possible to maintain it without complying with those Doctrines which they have in so great detestation And these hopes of the good effect of this Countenance to them above others and of the consequent jealousie of those others of their own Communion may be a farther encouragement to zealous Protestants to fhew them this countenance Not only in regard of the security which such as these may give to the State but also in regard of the hopes that in process of these disputes among themselves they may at last by the wisdom of God be won over to the Protestant Communion And concerning these Persons for whom the favour of the Laws is desired we have reason to believe that many of them do really adhere more firmly to the sense of their duty to their Country than to that of continuing in the Roman Communion Many of them are such as have given good proof of it already of which Instances might be produced if it were necessary But to wave all Historical inquiries in this place If the State desire satisfaction herein it may be had by the form which shall be tendred to them By which they may profess that they do in Conscience believe themselves more obliged to pay their duty to their Prince and Country than to stand to the Authoritative Decision of any Judge whatsoever that is owned in the Church of that Communion The second thing objected against that discrimination here proposed is this which were considerable enough of it self but much more being added to the other It is said that we can have no assurance of any engagement they make to us they have so many ways to elude the force of it what by Equivocation and Mental Reservation what by Popes Dispensations by their Doctrine of Probability and the rest There are so many of them that considered one after another they look like a contrivance to destroy all Faith among men For when we think our selves assured by their Promise and especially when confirmed with an Oath yet by Equivocation that Oath in their sense shall signifie quite otherwise than was meant by them that made or imposed it If they do not Equivocate yet they may have some mental Reservation saying inwardly not or something else that quite alters the meaning of what is spoken And if they Swear without either of these tricks yet they may believe the Pope can dispense with that Oath or he can absolve them when they have taken it And though the Pope should not do this yet their Church hath given them the President of breaking Faith with known Heretics And if they make Conscience of that yet it may be some Doctors opinion that there is something unlawful in this Oath which though they did not discover before and therefore took it yet having discovered this after they may think themselves not obliged by it And though they should not be of this Doctors opinion yet that extrinsic probability of this Doctors Authority may be enough to sway them against their own convictions to the contrary The Probability that there is of their holding all these opinions as having been held by Doctors of Reputation among them and none of them ever censured for it by the Church though she hath taken all possible care to censure all such opinions as may be any way contrary either to her Judgment or Interest this presumption is sufficient to persuade private persons that their Church though perhaps she may not believe them true yet believeth them not hurtful or dangerous to her Children And if a Doctrine hath no danger in it though it prove to be false yet the security of it is inducement enough for men to practise it These Principles will the rather hold because according to their other Principles they are taught to relie on the Judgment of their Church in matters of belief even where they cannot do it without renouncing their own Judgment And in this Objection it is very considerable that it is not so easie as it was in the former to distinguish who they are that do indeed hold these dangerous Principles Only we have reason to suspect all them that keep to that Communion upon Principles of Conscience For they must think themselves bound in Conscience to hold these Principles to be practicable because they are so according to the Principles of their Communion And they who are once suspected upon prudent grounds can neither
clear themselves nor satisfie us by any form of profession they can make Because we must still suspect that such persons do prevaricate even in those forms by which they seem to renounce Prevarication This Objection hath been made and it is not without visible cause Now in answer to this it cannot be denied but that many of them have maintained such Principles of this kind as would destroy all possible trust in dealing with them And if they had stood to these Principles in their Actions this would have given us cause to suspect all the rest of their Communion while they continue in it But whatsoever they say in their disputes we have reason to judge of their belief by what they shew of it when they come to the trial of Action And thus even the Papalins themselves have not ventured to act upon these Principles even where they could have nothing to hinder them from it but convictions of Conscience They who have died rather than they would take that Oath which according to these Principles they might have taken and prevaricated in it have plainly shewn that even they durst not trust their own subtilties when they came to be practised Nay the Pope himself who hath forbidden them to take these Oaths and hath animated them to be Martyrs rather than take them would not have exposed his dearest friends to such extreme hazards if in earnest he himself could have approved the practising of these Principles The utmost therefore that we may fear in dealing with them seems only this that whilst they renounce one form of Prevarication they may make use of another If they renounce Equivocation they may at the same time believe themselves obliged not to Equivocate and yet not renounce the belief of the Popes Authority to dispense with their Oath if that be not expresly contained in the Form But we have no Reason to believe that men of such Politics as the Court of Rome are known to be can possibly when they come to practise own fuch Principles as are like to prove so prejudicial to their own Interest Or if they should be overseen so far as to do this yet the mischief that would follow upon it being likely to prove more dangerous to themselves than to us we have no reason to fear running the hazard of it For if there are any that believe that they may prevaricate in the very same form of prevarication which they renounce How is it possible that the Roman Court it self can be assured of such persons That Court it self hath found by experience that it hath had many real enemies that still pretended to live in its Communion How can they be assured but that many of these who pretend to be their Servants and Subjects may prove to be their dangerous Enemies If in earnest they may prevaricate even coram Iudice in a thing not belonging to his Jurisdiction how can the Court secure themselves that persons persuaded of the injustice of the Popes Claim to a power in temporal things upon any pretence whatsoever may not prevaricate with him since they believe that these matters belong not to his Jurisdiction How can they secure themselves but that multitudes of such persons may therefore still keep to their Communion purposely to form Intrigues against them which they could not do if they were out of it It is certain that not only the Papalins have owned these Doctrines but even those who have been the greatest Adversaries of the Papacy among themselves Particularly the Council of Constance is that which gave Authority to the Doctrine of breaking Faith with known Heretics And according to the definition of that same Council the Pope himself and all they who challenge for him the Supremacy over Councils are Heretics for doing so And therefore why may they not break Faith with him as well as with any other Heretic This is a just reason for him to suspect and they who are once suspected can give him no assurance by these Principles Since therefore the belief of this liberty of using Reflexive Prevarication is neither for the Interest nor agreeable to the practice of the Roman Court it self and since the danger that may follow in the trust of it must be more theirs than ours for it destroys the Faith of all whom they have to employ either to defend themselves or to prejudice us we have reason to believe that Forms whereby they renounce prevarication may oblige them to bar themselves the use of those Prevarications which they do therein expresly renounce So that for giving us compleat security nothing more can be desired but that the Forms to be tendred to them may take in all the cases wherein any celebrated Doctors among them do allow them this liberty of prevaricating And therefore the drawing up of this Test would be more properly a work of Divines than of Statesmen and more particularly of such Divines as have been most conversant in the Casuists of the Roman Church If this will not suffice how is it possible that even Protestants who are once suspected of inclining to Popery can ever purge themselves of this Imputation We have had too many Instances of unjust Accusations of this kind It hath been generally the Fate of them who have been most zealous for the Church of England or for any thing of Order and Discipline in it to have been thus represented to the people by men who have desired to make them odious And the mischief which must follow upon this distrust among our selves even of those who are our most zealous Patriots and therefore most eminently capable of doing service is a mischief much greater than we can fear from any thing that can follow on such a trust of the Romanists as have been here described It will make us uncapable of driving on any great design either for our own defence or to defeat their machinations against us And therefore it must be much more mischievous to us than any hurt we can suffer from those of the Roman Communion especially from those who desire not our trust but protection If it be farther suspected that when they have taken all the Tests that can be given them still their minds may alter after all this and that so long as their Priests are near them and have their ear we have too just reason to suspect that they may actually change It will be easie to reply that a change may be possible when all diligence hath been used to the contrary But we have no reason to believe it probable of them who by a Test that hath been before propounded shall profess themselves more obliged to theirDuty to King and Country than to any Judgment or Interest of their Church to the contrary For whosoever they are that are ready to oppose the Judgment of their Church it self if she should declare any thing contrary to their duty it cannot in reason be supposed that they should be so far