his Successors may be added 3. Protestants reach unanimously that it is incumbent on Kings to find out receive embrace and promote the Truth of the Gospel and the Worship of God appointed therein confirming protecting and defending of it by their Regal Power and Authority as also that in their so doing they are to use the Liberty of their own judgements informed by the wayes that God hath appointed for that end independently on the dictates determinations and orders of any other Person or Persons in the world unto whose Authority they should be obnoxious Heathen Kings made Laws for God Dan. 3. chap. 6. Jona 3. And the great thing that we find any of the Good Kings of Judah commended for is that they commanded the worship of God to be observed and performed according unto his own appointment For this end were they then bound to write out a Copy of the Law with their own hands Deut. 14. 18. and to study in it continually To this purpose were they warned charged exhorted and excited by the Prophets that is that they should serve God as Kings And to this purpose are there innumerable Laws of the best Christian Kings and Emperours still extant in the world In these things consists that Supremacy or Headship of Kings which Protestants unanimously ascribe unto them especially those in England to his Royal Majesty And from hence you may see the frivolousness of sundry things you object unto them As first of the Scheme or Series of Ecclesiastical Power which you ascribe to Prelate Protestants and the Laws of the Land from which you say the Presbyterians dissent which you thus express By the Laws of our Land our Series of Government Ecclesiastical stands thus God Christ King Bishop Ministers People The Presbyterian Predicament is thus God Christ Minister People So that the Ministers head in the Presbyterian Predicament toucheth Christs feet immediately and nothing intervenes You Pretend indeed that hereby you do exalt Christ but this is a meer cheat as all men may see with their eyes For Christ is but where he was but the Minister indeed is exalted being now set in the Kings place one degree higher then the Bishops who by Law is under King and Bishops too If I mistake not in my guess you greatly pleased your self with your Scheme wherein you pretend to make forsooth an ocular Demonstration of what you undertook to prove whereas indeed it is as trivial a fancy as a man can ordinarily meet withal For 1. Neither the Law nor Prelates nor Presbyterians ascribe any place at all unto the Kings Majesty in the Series of Spiritual Order he is neither Bishop nor Minister nor Deacon or any way authorized by Christ to convey or communicate power meerly spiritual unto any others No such thing is claimed by our Kings or declared in Law or asserted by Protestants of any sort But in the series of exteriour Government both Prelate Protestants and Presbyterians assign a Supremacy over all Persons in his Dominions and that in all Causes that are inquirable and determinable by or in any Court exercising Jurisdiction and Authority unto his Majesty All sorts assign unto him the Supreme place under Christ in external Government and Jurisdiction None assign him any place in Spiritual Order and meerly Spiritual Power Secondly If you place Bishops on the Series of exterior Government as appointed by the King and confirmed by the Law of the Land there is yet no difference with respect unto them 3. The Question then is solely about the Series of Spiritual order and thereabout it is confessed there are various apprehensions of Protestants which is all you prove and so do magno conatu nugas agere who knows it not I wish there were any need to prove it But Sir this difference about the Superiority of Bishops to Presbyters or their equality or Identity was agitated in the Church many and many a hundred year before you or I were born and will be so probably when we are both dead and forgotten So that what it makes in this dispute is very hard for a sober man to conjecture 4. Who they are that pretend to exalt Christ by a meer asserting Ministers not to be by his institution subject to Bishops which you call a cheat I know not nor shall be their advocate they exalt Christ who love him and keep his Commandments and no other 2. You may also as easily discern the frivolousness of your exclamation against Protestants for not giving up their differences in Religion to the Vmpirage of Kings upon the assignment of that Supremacy unto them which hath been declared When we make the King such an Head of the Catholick Church as you make the Pope we shall seek unto him as the fountain of our faith as you pretend to do unto the Pope For the present we give that honour to none but Christ himself and for what we assign in profession unto the King we answer it wholly in our practical submission Protestants never thought nor said that any King was appointed by Christ to be supreme infallible Proposer of all things to be believed and done in the Worship of God no King ever assumed that power unto himself It is Jesus Christ alone who is the Supreme and absolute Lawgiver of his Church the Author and finisher of our Faith and it is the honour of Kings to serve him in the promotion of his Interest by the exercise of that Authority and duty which we have before declared What unto the dethroning and dishonour as much as in you lyeth of Christ himself and of Kings also you assign unto the Pope in making him the Supreme head and fountain of their faith hath been already considered This is the substance of what you except against Protestants either as to Opinion or Practice in this matter of deference unto Kingly Authority in things Ecclesiastical What is the sense of your Church which you prefer unto your sentiments herein I shall after I have a little examined your present pretensions manifest unto you seeing you will have it so from those who are full well able to inform us of it Fas mihi Pontificum sacrata resolvere jura atque omnia ferre sub auras â—Siqua tegunt tenear Romaenec ligebus ullis For your own part you have expressed you seâ—f in this matter so loosely generally and ambiguously that it is very hard for any man to collect from your words what it is that you assert or what you deny I shall endeavour to draw out your sense by a few enâ—quiries As 1. Do you think the King hath any An â—ority vested in him as King in Ecclesiastical affairs and over Ecclesiastical Persons You tell us That Catholicks observe the King in all things as well Eeclesiastick as Civil pag. 59. that in the line of Corporal power and Authority the King is immediately under God p. 61. with other words to the same purpose if they are to any purpose at all
I desire to know whither you grant in him an Authority derived immediately from God in and over Ecclesiastical affairs as to convene Synods or Councils to reform things amiss in the Church as to the outward administration of them or do you think that he hath such power and Authority to make constitute or appoint Laws with penal Sanctions in and about things Ecclesiastical And Secondly Do you think that in the work which he hath to do for the Church be it what it will be may use the liberty of his own judgement directed by the light of the Scripture or that he is precisely to follow the declarations and determinations of the Pope If he have not this Authority if he may not use this liberty the good words you speak of Catholicks and give unto him signifie indeed nothing at all If then he hath and may you openly rise up against the Bulls Briefs and Interdicts of your Popes themselves and the universal practice of your Church for many Ages And therefore I desire you to inform me Thirdly Whether you do not judge him absolutely to be subject and accountable to the Pope for what ever he doth in Ecclesiastical affairs in his own Kingdoms and Dominions if you answer suitably to the Principles Maximes and practise of your Church you must say he is and if so I must tell you that whatever you ascribe unto him in things Ecclesiastical he acts not about them as King but in some other capacity For to do a thing as a King and to be accountable for what he doth therein to the Pope implyes a Contradiction Fourthly Hath not the Pope a power over his Subjects many of them at least to convent censure judge and punish them and to exempt them in Criminal Cases from his Jurisdiction And is not this a fair Supremacy that it is meet he should be contented withal when you put it into the power of another to exempt as many of his Subjects as he pleaseth and are willing from his Regal Authority 5. When you say that in matters of faith Kings for their own ease remit their Subjects to their Papal Pastor pag. 57. Whether you do not collude with us or indeed do at all think as you speak Do you think that Kings have real power in and about those things wherein you depend on the Pope and only remit their Subjects to him for their own ease You cannot but know that this one Concession would ruine the whole Papacy as being expresly destructive of all the foundations on which it is built Nor did ever any Pope proceed on this ground in his interposures in the world about matters of faith that such things indeed belonged unto others and were only by them remitted unto him for their ease 6. Whether you do not include Kings themselves in youâ— general Assertion pag. 55. That they who after Papal decisions remain contâ—nacious forfeit their Christianity And if so whether you do not at once overthrow all your other Splendid Concessions and make Kings absolute Dependents on the Pope for all the Priviledges of their Christianity and whether you account not among them their very Regal Dignity it self Whereby it may easily appear how much Protestant Kings and Potentates are beholding unto you seeing it is manifest that they live and rule in a neglect of many Papal Decisions and Determinations 7. Whether you do not very fondly pretend to prove your Roman Catholicks acknowledgement of the power of Princes to make Laws in Cases Ecclesiastical from the Laws of Justinian p. 59. whereas they are instances of Regal Power in such Cases plainly destructive of your present Hildebrandine faith and Authority and whether you suppose such Laws to have any force or Authority of Law without the Papal Sanction and confirmation 8. Whither you think indeed that Confession unto Priests is such an effectual means of securing the peace and interest of Kings as you pretend p. 59. and whether Queen Elizabeth King James Henry the third and fourth of France had cause to believe it and whether you learned this notion from Parry Raviliac Mariana Clement Parsons Allen Garnet Gerard Oldcome with their Associates 9. Whether you forgot not your self when you place Aaron and Joshuah in government together p. 64. 10. Whether you really believe that the Pope hath Power only to perswade in matters of Religion as you pretend p. 65. and if so from what Topicks he takes the Whips Wires and Racks that he makes use of in his Inquisition And whether he hath not a right even to destroy Kings themselves who will not be his Executioners in destroying of others I wish you would come out of the clouds and speak your mind freely and plainly to some of these enquiries Your present ambiguous discourse in the face of it faiâ—ed unto your interest gives no satisfaction whilest these snakes lye in the grass of it Wherefore leaving you a little to your second thoughts I shall enquire of your Masters and Fathers themselves what is the true sense of your Church in this matter and we shall find them speaking it out plainly and roundly For they tell us 1. That the Government of the whole Catholick Church is Monarchical A State wherein all Power is derived from one fountain one and the same Person This is the first Principle that is laid down by all your Writers in treating of the Church and its power and that which your great Cardinal Baronius layes as the foundation on whirh he builds the huge Structure of his Ecclesiastical Annals 2. That the Pope is this Monarch of the Church the Person in whom alone the Soveraign Rule of it is originally vested so that it is absolutely impossible that any other Person should have enjoy or use any Ecclesiastical Authority but what is derived from him I believe you suppose this sufficiently proved by Bellarmine or others Your self own it nor can deny it without a disclaimure of your present Papacy And this one Principle perfectly discovers the vanity of your pretended attributions of Power in Ecclesiastical things to Kings and Princes For to suppose a Monarchical estate and not to suppose all Power and Authority in that state to be deâ—ived from the Monarch in it and of it alone is to suppose a perfect contraiction or a State Monarchical that is not Monarchical Protestants place the Monarchical State of the Catholick Church in its relation unto Christ alone and therefore it is incumbent on them to assert that no man hath or can have a power in the Church as such but what is derived from and communicated unto him by him And you placing it in reference unto the Pope must of necessity deny that any power can be exercised in it but what is derived from him so that whatever you pretend in this kind to grant unto kings you allow it unto them only by concession or delegation from the Pope They must hold it from him in cheif or he cannot be the chief
the order you mention exclude that which you would introduce Or would you prove that Bishops by the Law of this Land have a jurisdiction superior unto Ministers who ever went about to deny it or what will the remembrance of it advance your pretensionâ— And yet neither is this fairly expressed by you For as no Protestants assert the King to be in his power and office interposed between Christ and Bishops or Ministers as to their ministerial office which is purely spiritual so the power of supream Jurisdiction which they ascribe unto him is not as you falsly insinuate granted unto him by the Laws of King Edward and Queen Elizabeth but is an inseparable Priviledge of his imperial Crown exercised by his Royal Predecessours and asserted by them against the inâ—rusions and usurpations of the Pope of Rome only diclared by those and other Laws But I perceive you have another design in hand You are entring upon a discourse wherein you compare your selves not only with Presbyterians and Independents but Prelate Protestants also in what you ascribe unto Kings in Ecclesiastical affairs preferring your selves before and above them all What just cause you have so to do we shall afterwards consider Your Confidence in it at first view presents its selâ— unto us â— on whereas there was not in the Animadversions any occasion of it administred unto you and your self confess that your whole discourse about it is besides your purpose pag. 66. yet waving almost every thing that was incumbent upon you to have insisted on if you would not plainly have appeared vadimonium deseruisse and to have given up your Fiat as indefensible you divert into a long harangue about it The Thesis you would by various florishes give countenance unto is this That Papists in their deference unto Kings even in Ecclesiastical matters and in their principles of their obedience unto them 〈◊〉 Protestants of all sorts That this is not to ouâ— present purpose your self cannot but see and acknowledge Hower your Discourse such as it is relating to one special head of Difference between us shall be a part considered by its self in our next Chapter CHAP. 16. The Power assigned by Papists and Protestants unto Kings in matters Ecclesiastical Their several Principles discussed and compared YOur Discourse on this head is not reducible by Logick its self unto any method or rules of Argument For it is in general 1. So loose Ambigucus and Metaphorically expressed 2. So Sophistical and inclusive 3. So inconsistent in sundry instances with the Principles and practices of your Church if you speak intelligibly 4. So false and untrue in many particulars that it is scarcely for these excellent qualifications to be paralleld with any thing either in your Fiat or your Epistola First It is loose and ambiguous 1. Not stating what you intend by the Head of the Church which you discourse about 2. Noâ— determining whither the King be such an head of Execution in matter of Religion as may use the Liberty of his own judgement as to what he puts in execution or whether he be not bound to execute your Popes Determinations on the penalty of the forfeiture of his Christianity which I doubt we shall find to be your opinion 3. Not declaring wherein the power which you assign unto him is founded whether in Gods immediate institution oâ— the Concession of the Pope whereon it should solely depend unto whom it is in all things to be made subservient Secondly Sophistical 1. In playing with the ambiguity of that expression Head of the Church and by the advantage thereof imposing on Protestants contradictions between their profession and practice as though in the one they acknowledged the King to be head of the Church and not in the other whereas there is a perfect consonancy between them in the sence wherein they understand that expression shrowding your own sence and opinion in the mean time under the same ambiguity 2. In supposing an absolute universal Head of the whole Catholick Church and then giving reasons why no King can be that Head when you know that the whole Question is whither there by any such head of the Catholick Church on earth or no. 3. In supposing the Principles and practises of the Primitive Church to have been the same with those of the present Roman and those of the present Roman to have been all known and allowed of old which begs all that is in Controversie between us and sundry other instances of the like nature may be observed in it Thirdly Inconsistent with the Principles and Practices of your own Church both 1. In what you ascribe unto Kings and 2. In your stating of the power and Jurisdiction of your Pope if the ambiguity of your words and expressions will allow us to conclude what you intend or aim at Fourthly False 1. In matter of fact as to what you relate of the obedience of your Church unto Kings 2. In the principles and Opinions which you impose on your Advertaries 3. In the declaration that you make of your own and 4. In many particular Assertions whose consideration will afterwards occur This is a business I could have been glad you had not necessitated me to the Consideraâ—ion of for it cannot be truly and distinctly handled 〈…〉 such reflections upon your Church and way as may without extraordinary indulgence redound unto your disadvantage Your have by your own voluntary choice called me to the discussion of those Principles which have created you much trouble in these Nations and put you oftentimes upon attempting their disquiet Now these are things which I desire not I am but a private man and am very well contented you should enjoy all that peace and liberty which you think not meet in other Nations where the Pâ—wer is at your disposal to grant unto them that dissent from you Lex talionis should be far from influencing the minds of Christians in this matter however the equity of it may at any time be pleaded or urged to relieve others in other places under bondage and persecution But I am sure if I judge your proceedings against other men dissenting from you in Conscience to be unjustifiable by the Scripture or Light of Nature or suffrage of the Antient Church as I do I have no reason to desire that they should be drawn into president against their selves in any place in the world And therefore Sir had you provided the best colour you could for your own Principles and palliated them to the 〈◊〉 so to hide them from the eyes of those who it may be are ready to seek their disturbance and trouble from an apprehension of the evil that may ensue upon them and had not set them up in comparison with the Principles of Protestants of all sorts and for the setting off your own with the better grace and luster untruly and individiously reported theirs to expose them unto those thoughts and that severity from supream powers which you seek
King amongst his people Deut. 18. nor in that prescription of the manner of the Kingdom which he gave them by Samuel once intimated an exemption of any persons Priests or others from the Rule or Authority of the Prince which he would set over them In the New Testament we have the Rule as the practice in the Old Rom. 13. Let every soul be subject to the Higher Powers the power that bears the sword the striker And we think that your Clergy men have souls at least pro sale and so come within the circumference of this Command and Rule Chrysostome in his Comment on that place is of our mind and prevents your pretence of an exception from the Rule by special Priviledge giving us a distribution of the universality of the Persons here intended into their several kinds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He sheweth that these things are commanded unto all unto Priests and Monks and not to secular persons only which he declareth in the very entrance of his Discourse saying Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers whither thou be an Apostle or an Evangelist or a Prophet or whatever thou be For subjection overthrows not Piety And he saith not simply Let him obey but let him be subject The very same instances are given by Theodoret Oecumenius and Theophilact Bernard Epist. 42. ad Archiepisc. Senonens meets with your exception which in his dayes began to be broached in the world and tells you expresly that it is a delusion In conformity unto this Rule of St. Paul Peter exhorts all Christians none excepted to submit themselves unto the King as Supreme 1 Epist. ch 2. 13. And what ever we conclude from these words in reference unto the King I fear that if instead of the King he had said the Pope you would have thought us very impudent if we had persisted in the denyal of your monstrous imaginary Headship But in this Principle on these and the like grounds do all Protestants concur And indeed to fancy a â—â—veraign Monarch with so great a number of men as yonr Clergy consists of in many Kingdome exempted from his regal Authority is to lay such an ax unto the root of his Government as whereby with one stroke you may hew it down at your pleasure 2. Protestants affirm that Rex in regno suo every King in his own Kingdom is the Supreme dispenser of Justice and Judgement unto all Persons in all Causes that belong unto or are determinable in foro exteriori in any Court of Judicature whither the matter which they concern be Civil or Ecclesiastical No Cause no difference determinable by any Law of man and to be determined by Coercive Vmpirage or Authority is exempted from his cognizance Neither can any man on any pretence claim any Jurisdiction over any of his Subjects not directly and immediately derived from him Neither can any King who is a Soveraign Monarch like the Kings of this Land yield or grant a power in any other to judge of any Ecclesiastical Causes among his Subjects as arising from any other Spring or growing on any other root but that of his own Authority without an impeachment and irreparable prejudice to his Crown and Dignity neither doth any such Concession grant or supposition make it indeed so to be but is a meer fiction and mistake all that is done upon it being ipso facto null and of none effect Neither if a King should make a pretended legal grant of such power unto any would any right accrew unto them thereby the making of such a Grant being a matter absolutely out of his power as are all things whereby his regal Authority wherein the Majesty of his Kingdom is enwrapped may be diminished For that King who hath a power to diminish his Kingly Authority never was intrusted with absolute Kingly Power Neither is this Power granted unto our Kings by the Acts of Parliament which you mention made in the beginning of the Reformation but was alwayes inherent in them and exercised in innumerable instances and often vindicated with an high hand from Papal encroachments even during the hour and power of your darkness as hath been sufficiently proved by many both Divines and Lawyers Things of meer spiritual order as preaching the word Administration of the Sacraments and the like we ascribe not unto Kings nor the communicating of power unto any for their performance The Soveraign Power of these things is vested in Christ alone and by him committed unto his Ministers But Religion hath many concernments that attend it which must be desposed of by forensical juridical process and and determinations All these with the Persons of them that are interested in them are subject immediately to the power and Authority of the King and none other and to exempt them or any of them or any of the like nature which may emerge amongst men in things relating unto Conscience and Religion whose Catalogue may be endlesly extended from Royal Cognizance is to make meer properties of Kings in things which in a very special manner concern the peace and wellfare of their subjects and the distribution of rewards and punishments among them Of this sort are all things that concern the authoritative publick Conventions of Church Officers and differences amongst them about their interests practices and publick profession of Doctrines Collations of Legal Dignities and Benefices by and with investitures legal and valid all Ecclesiastical revenews with their incidencies the Courts and Jurisdictions of Ecclesiastical Persons for the reigâ—ement of the outward man by Censures and Sentences of Law with the like And as this whole matter is sufficiently confirmed by what was spoken before of the Power of Kings over the Persons or all their Subjects and for to what end should they have such a power if in respect of many of them and that in the chief concernments of their rule and Government it may never be exerted so I should tire your patience if I should report one half of the Laws Instances and Pleas made given and used by the Antient Christian Kings and Emperours in the persuit and for the Confirmation of this their just power The Decrees and Edicts of Constantine the Great commanding ruling and disposing of Bishops in Cases Ecclesiastical the Laws of Justinian Charls the Great Ludovicus his Son and Lotharius his Successor with more innumerable to the same purpose are extant and known unto all So also are the Pleas Protestations and Vindications of most of the Kingdoms of Europe affer once the pretensions of Papacy began to be broached to their prejudice And in particular notable instances you might have of the exercise of this royal power in the first Christian Magistrate invested with supreme Authority both in the case of Athanasius Socrat. Lib. 1. cap. 28. cap. 34. Athan. Apol. 2. as also of the Donatists Euseb. lib. 10. cap. 5. August Epist. 162 166. and advers Crescon lib. 3. c. 17. whereunto innumerable instances in
was Let a man be never so partially addicted unto him and his work he must acknowledge that their frivolousness and impertinency considering the work he had in hand discover somewhat besides learning and wisdom in him So also did his driving of 10000. men besides an innumerable company or women and children altogether into the river Swale in Yorkshire and there causing them to baptize one another His Contest with the British Bishops about the time of the observation of Easter breaking the peace for a Circumstance of a Ceremony that hath cost the Church twenty times more trouble then it is worth is of the same nature And I desire to know whence you have your story of his inexpressible suffering here amongst us All that I can find informs us that he was right meetly entertained by King Ethelbert at his first Landing by the means of Berda his wife a Christian before his coming with all plentifull provision for himself and his companions The next news we hear of him is about his Archiepiscopacy his Pall and his Throne from whence he would not rise to receive the poor Brittans that came to confer with him Further of his sufferings as yet I can meet with nothing And these are the things which you thought your self able to except against in my story or the Progress and Declension of Religion The summ of it I shall now comprize in some few Assertions which you may do well to consider and get them disproved 1. The First is That the Gospel was preached in this Island in the dayes of the Apostles by persons coming from the East directed by the Providence of God for that purpose most probably by Joseph of Arimathea in chief without any respect to Rome or mission from thence 2. That the Doctrine preached then by them was the same that is now publickly professed in England and not that taught by the Church of Rome where there is a discrepancy between us 3. That the story of the coming of Fugatius and Damianus into the Province of Brittain sent by Eleutherius unto Lucius is uncertain improbable and not to be reconciled unto the state and condition of the Affairs in these Nations at the time supposed for its accomplishment 4. That about the fourth fifth and sixth Centuries the Generality of the Professors of Christian Religion in the world were wofully declined from the 〈◊〉 zeal piety faith love and purity in the worship of God which their Predecessors in the same Profession glorified God by and that in particular the 〈◊〉 Church was much degenerated 5. There the Bishops of Rome for five hundred years never laid claim unto that Soveraign Power and Infallibility which they have challenged since the dayes of Pope Gregory the seventh 6. That the Bishops of Rome in that space of time pretending unto some disorderly Supremacy over other Bishops and Churches though incomparably short of their after and present pretences were rebuked and opposed by the best and most learned men of those dayes 7. That the distraction of the Provinces of the Western part of the Empire by Goths Vandals Hunns Saxons Alans Franks Longobards and their associates was to less just in the holy Providence of God upon the account of the moral evils and Superstitions of the Professors of Christianity amongst them then was that which afterwards ensued of the Eastern Provinces by the Saracens and Turks 8. That these Nations having planted themselves in the â—rovinces of the Empire together with Christianity either received anew or retained many Pagaâ—ish Customs Ceremonies Rites and Opinions therewithal 9. That their Kings by Grants of Priviledges Donations and Concessions of Power made partly out o blind zeal partly to secure some interests of their own exceedingly advanced the Papal Power and confirmed their formerly rejected pretensions 10. That when they began to perceive and feel the pernicious effects and consequences of their own facility their grants being made a ground of farther incroachments they opposed themselves in their Laws and Edicts and Practices against them 11. That there was on all hands a sad declension in the Western Church in Doctrine Worship and Manners continually progressive unto the time of Reformation These are the principal Assertions on which my story is built and which it supposeth If you have a mind to get them or any of them called to an account and examined I shall if God will and I live give them their confirmation from such undoubted records as you have no just cause to except against CHAP. 18. Reformation of Religion Papal contradictions Ejice ancillam SOme of your following leaves are such as admit of no useful consideration Wilful mistakes diversions from the Cause under debate with vain flourishes make up both pages in them I shall pass through them briefly and give you some account from them of your self and your prevarication in the Cause whose defence you have undertaken Pag. 75. you undertake the thirteenth chapter of the Animadversions which discusseth the Story of the Reformation of Religion which you took up on common fame Fama malum quo non aliud velocius ullum And that you may be able to say somewhat to the discourse before you or to make a pretence of doing so you wholly pass by every thing that is contained in it and impose upon me that which is not in it at all which you strenuously exagitate For whereas a little to take off your edge in reflecting on the Persons whom you supposed instrumental in the Reformation especially King Henry the eighth I minded you how easie a thing it was to deprive you of your pretended Advantage by giving you an account oâ— the wicked lives with the brutish and Diabolical practâ—ces of many of your Popes whom you account the Heads of your Church and the very Center wherein all the lines of your Profession meet you feign as though I had imposed all the crimes I intimated them to be guilty of and many more whose names you â—eap together upon Popery or the Relâ—gion that you profess yea that I should say that it is nothing else but only an heap of the wickconâ—sses by you enumerated Now this I did not do but you feign it of your own heads that you may have somewhat to speak against and a pretence of intimating in the close of your discourse that you have considered the Chapter about Reformation whereas in truth you have not spoken one word unto it nor unto any thing contained in it And yet when you have done as if you had been talking about any thing wherein I am in the least measure concerned you come in in the close with your grave advice That I should take heed of blaspheming that innocent Catholick flock which the Angels of God watch over to protect them As though a man could not remember the wicked crimes of your nocent Popes but he must be thought to blaspheme the innocent flock of Christ which never had greater enemies in this world
antient Church-Fathers and Councils Imposing Rites unnecessary Persecution for Conscience Papal Supremacy The Branches of it Papal Personal Infallibility Religious Veneration of Images p. 48 CHAP. 5. The Principles of Fiat Lux re-examined Things not at quiet in Religion before Reformation of the first Reformers Departure from Rome no Cause of Divisions Returnal unto Rome no means of Vnion p. 89 CHAP. 6. Further Vindication of the second Chapter of the Animadversions Scripture sufficient to settle men in the Truth Instance against it examined removed Principles of Protestants and Romanists in reference unto Moderation compared and discussed p. 99 CHAP. 7. Vnity of Faith wherein consists Principles of Protestants as to the setling men in Religion and Vnity of Faith proposed and confâ—rmed p. 121 CHAP. 8. Principles of Papists whereon they proceed in bringing men to a setlement in Religion and the Vnity of Faith examined p. 161 CHAP. 9. Proposals from Protestant Principles tending unto Moderation and Vnity p. 204 CHAP. 10. Further Vindication of the second Chapter of the Animadversions The remaining Principles of Fiat Lux considered p. 301 CHAP. 11. Judicious Readers Schoolmen the Forgers of Popery 〈…〉 Discourse in Fiat Lux. p. 308 CHAP. 12. False Suppositions causing false and absurd consequences Whence we had the Gospel in England and by whose means What is our Duty in reference unto them by whom we receive the Gospel p. 315 CHAP. 13. Faith and Charity of the Roman Catholicks p. 351 CHAP. 14. Of Reason Jews objections against Christ. p. 362 CHAP. 15. Pleas of Prelate Protestants Christ the only supream and absolute Head of the Church p. 370 CHAP. 16. The Power assigned by Papists and Protestants unto Kings in matters Ecclesiastical Their several Principles discussed and compared p. 398 CHAP. 17. Scripture Story of the Progress and declension of Religion vindicated Papal Artifices for the promotion of their Power and Interest Advantages made by them on the Western Empire p. 423 CHAP. 18. Reformation of Religion Papal contradictions Ejice ancillam p. 447 CHAP. 19. Of preaching the Mass And the Sacrifice of it Transubstantiation Service of the Church p. 452 CHAP. 20. Of the Blessed Virgin p. 47â— CHAP. 21. Images Doctrine of the Council of Trent Oâ— the second Nicene The Arguments for the Adoâ—ration of Images Dctrine of the antient Church Of the chief Doctrine of the Roman Church Practice of the while Vain foundations of the pretences for Image Worship examined and reproved p. 477 CHAP. 22. Of the Latine Service p. 526 CHAP. 23. Communion p. 558. CHAP. 24. Heroes Of the Asses Head whose worship was objected to Jews and Christians p. 559 ERRATA PAge 2. l. 13. r. caeterarum p. 3. l. 23. r. advantage p. 4. l. 1. r. ultio l. 2. r. uocens p. 5. l. 16. r. up p. 7. l. 5. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 11. l. 1. r Crescens p. 12. l. 16. r. you have neither p. 15. l. 1. r. pleadable p. 16. l. 11. r. â—v l. 29 r. parcas p. 67. l. 22. r. that p. 69 l. 5. r. what p. 71. l. 26. r. revengeth p. 75. l. 15. r. tumbled p. 76. l. 22. r. Lybya p 77. l. 24. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 82 l. 10. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 84. l. 1. r. pseudopigraphall p. 85. l. 30 r. Tharasius p. 87. l. 12. r. Demetriad l. 31 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 91 l. â— r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 105 l. 32. r. from p. 106. l. 27. l. feat l 34. after that add they p. 117 l. 33. r. indispeasible p. â—19 l. 9. r. Bogomilus p. 127. l. 5. r. infallibly p. 132. l. 14. r. the p. 139. l 28. r. produce p. 144 l. 6. r. gencri l. 32. r. utique p. 145. l. 34. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 152. l. 8. dele it p. 335. l 7. r. retritius p. 337 l 4. r. suprstitious p. 343. l. 14. r. ipse p. 353. l. 1. r. quoi p. 355. l. 8. r. your Church p 357. l. 31. r. homines p. 359. l. 3 r. Brentius p. 375. l. 3. r. your p. 383. l. 13. r. the Church l. 14. r. affect it p. 389. l. 29. r. preside p. 393. l. 14. r. to p. 396. l. 12. r. preside p. 410. l. 24. r. whereas p. 417. l. 32. r. Panoruitanus p. 419. l. 16. r. with p. 420. l. 7 r. He l. 8. r. the p 439. l. 8. r. with p. 441. l. 22. r. nor p 455. l. 16. add part corr In divers places the Copy was mistaken the Church is Printed instead of our Church the intelligent Reader may easily see the mistake and do the Author right therein A Vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat Lux. CHAP. I. SIR I Have received your Epistle and therein your excuse for your long silence which I willingly admit of and could have been contented it had been longer so that you had been advantaged thereby to have spoken any thing more to the purpose than I find you have now done Sat citò si sat benè Things of this nature are alwayes done soon enough when they are done well enough or as well as they are capeable of being done But it is no small disappointment to find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fruitless flourish of words where a serious debate of an important cause was expected and looked for Nor is it a justification of any man when he has done a thing amiss to say he did it speedily if he were no way necessitated so to do You are engaged in a Cause unto whose tolerable defence opus est Zephyris hirundine multa though you cannot pretend so short a time to be used in it which will not by many be esteemed more than it deserves for all time and pains taken to give countenance to errour is undoubtedly mispent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the great Apostle We can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth which Rule had you observed you might have spared your whole time and labour in this business However I shall be glad to find that you have given me just cause to believe what you say of your not seeing the Animadversions on your Bock before February As I find you observant of Truth in your Progress or failing therein so shall I judg of your veracity in this unlikely story for every man gives the best measure of himself And though I cannot see how possibly a man could spend much time in trussing up such a fardle of trifles and quibbles as your Epistle is yet it is somewhat strange on the other side that you should not in eight moneths space for so long were the Animadversions made publick before February set eye on that which being your own especiall concernment was to my knowledg in the hands of many of your party To dial friendly with you nolim caeterarum rerum te socordem codem modo Yea I doubt not but you use more diligence in your other affairs
imagination and groundless presumption which hath not the least countenance given unto it by Scripture or Antiquity What a perplexed condition must you needs cast men into if they shall attend unto your perswasions to rest on the Pope's unerring guidance for all their Certainty in Religion when the first motive you propose unto them to gain their Assent is a Proposition so far destitute of any cogent Evidence of its Truth or innate Credibility that it is apparently false and easily manifested so to be 3. Were it never so true as it is notoriously false yet it would not one jot promote your design It is about Peter the Apostle and not the Pope of Rome that we are yet discoursing Do you think a man can easily commence per saltum from the imaginary Principality of Peter unto the Infallibility of the present Pope of Rome Quid Pape cum Petro what relation is there between the one and other Suppose a man have so good a mind unto your company as to be willing to set out with you in this ominous stumbling at the threshold what will you next lead him unto You say II. That S t Peter besides his Apostolical Power and Office wherein setting aside the prerogative of his Princedome before mentioned the rest of the Apostles were partakers with him had also an Oecumenical Episcopal Power invested in him which was to be transmitted unto others after him His Office purely Apostolical you have no mind to lay claim unto It may be you dispair of being able to prove that your Pope is immediately called and sent by Christ that he is furnished with a power of working Miracles and such other things as concurred to the constitution of the Office Apostolical and perhaps himself hath but little mind to be exercised in the discharge of that Office by travelling up and down poor despised persecuted to preach the Gospel Monarchy Rule Supremacie Authority Jurisdiction Infallibility are words that better please him And therefore have you mounted this Notion of Peters Episcopacy whereunto you would have us think that all the fine things you so love and dote upon are annexed Poor labouring perfected Peter the Apostle may die and be forgotten but Peter the Bishop harnessed with Power Principality Soveraignty and Vicarship of Christ This is the man you enquire after But you will have very hard work to find him in the Scripture or Antiquity yea the least footstep of him And do you think indeed that this Episcopacy of Peter distinct from his Apostleship is a meet stone to be layed in the foundation of faith It is a thing that plainly overthrows his Apostleship For if he were a Bishop properly and distinctly he was no Apostle If an Apostle not such a Bishop That is if his Care were confined unto any one Church and his residence required therein as the Case is with a proper Bishop how could the Care of all the Churches be upon him How could he be obliged to pass up and down the world in pursuit of his Commission of preaching the Gospel unto all Nations or to travail up and down as the necessity of the Churches did require But you will say that he was not Bishop of this or that particular but of the Church Vniversal But I supposed you had thought him Bishop of the Church of Rome and that you will plead him afterwards so to have been And I must assure you that he that thinks the Church of Rome in the dayes of Peter and Paul was the same with the Church Catholick and not looked on as particular a Church as that of Hierusalem or Ephesus or Corinth is a person with whom I will have as little to do as I can in this matter For to what purpose should any one spend time to debate things with men absurd and unreasonable and who will affirm that it is midnight at noon day I know the Apostolical Office did include in it the power of all other Offices in the Church whatever as the less are included in the greater But that he who was an Apostle should formally also be a Bishop though an Apostle might exercise the whole Power and Office of a Bishop is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somewhat allyed unto Impossibilities Do you see what a Quagmire you are building upon I know if a man will let you alone you will raise a structure which after you have painted and gilded you may prevail with many harbourless Creatures to accept of an habitation therein For when you have layed your foundation out of sight you will pretend that all your building is on a Rock whereas indeed you have nothing but the rotten posts of such Suppositions as these to support it withall But suppose that Peter was thus a Prince Monarch Apostle Bishop that is a Catholick Particular Officer What is that to you Why III. This Peter came and preached the Gospel at Rome Though you can by no means prove this Assertion so as to make it de fide or necessarily to be believed of any one man in the world much less to become meet to enjoy a place among those fundamentals that are tendred unto us to bring us unto Settlement in Religion yet being a matter very uncertain and of little importance I shall not much contend with you about it Witnesses meerly humane and fallible you have for it a great many and exceptions almost without number may be put in against your Testimonies and those of great weight and moment Now although that which you affirm might be granted you without any reall advantage unto your Cause or the enabling of you to draw any lawfull inferences to uphold your Papal claim by yet to let you see on what sorry uncertain presumptions you build your faith and profession and that in and about things which you make of indispensable necessity unto Salvation I shall in our passage remind you of some few of them which I profess seriously unto you make it not only Questionable unto me whether or no but also somewhat improbable that ever Peter came to Rome 1. Though those that follow and give their assents unto this Story are many yet it was taken up upon the credit and report of one or two Persons as Eusebius manifests Lib. 2. cap. 25. Whether Dionysius Corinthius or Papias first began the Story I know not but I know certainly that both of them manifested themselves in other things to be a little too credulous 2. That which many of them built their Credulity upon is very uncertain if not certainly false namely that Peter wrote his first Epistle from Rome which he calls Babylon in the Subscription of it But wherefore he should then so call it no man can tell The Apocalypse of John who prophesied what Rome should be in after-Ages and thereon what name should be accommodated unto it for its false worship and Persecution was not yet written Nor was there any thing yet spoken of or known among the Disciples whence
secondly he actually did so Neither of these can you prove or produce any Testimony worth crediting in confirmation of it Did it necessarily follow from hence because that was the place where Peter died But this was accidentall a thing that Peter thought not of for you say that a few dayes before his death he was leaving that place Besides according to this insinuation why did not every Apostle leave a Successour behind him in the place where he dyed and that by vertue of his dying in that place or produce you any Patent granted to Peter in especiall that where he dyed there he should leave a Successour behind him But it seems the whole weight of your faith is layed upon a matter of fact accidentally falling out yea and that very incertain whether ever it fell out or no. Shew us any thing of the will and institution of Christ in this matter As that Peter should go to Rome that he should fix his seat there that he should dye there that he should have a Successour that the Bishop of Rome should be his Successour that unto this Successour I know not what nor how many Priviledges should be conveyed All these are arbitrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inventions that men may multiply in infinitum at their pleasure For what should set bounds to the imaginations of men when once they cast off all Reverence of Christ and his Truth Once more Why did not Peter fix a Seat and leave a Successor at Antioâ—h and in other places where he abode and preached and exetcised Episcopal Power without all question Was it because he dyed at Rome This is to acknowledg that the whole Papacy is built as was said upon an accidentall matter of fact and that supposed not proved Further if he must be supposed to succeed Peter I desire to know what that succession is and wherein he doth succeed him Doth he succeed him in all that hee had and was in reference unto the Church of God Doth he succeed him in the manner of his Call to his Office Peter was called immediately by Christ in his own Person the Pope is chosen by the Conclave of Cardinals concerning whom their Office Priviledges Power Right to choose the Successour of Peter there is not one iota in the Scripture or any Monuments of the best Antiquity and how in their Election of Popes they have been influenced by the interest of powerfull Strumpets your own Baronius will inform you Doth he succeed him in the way and manner of his Personal Discharge of his Office and imployment Not in the least Peter in the pursuit of his Commission and in obedience unto the command of his Lord and Master travailed up and down the world preaching the Gospel planting and watering the Churches of Christ in patience self-deniall humility zeal temperance meekness The Pope raigns at Rome in case exalting himself above the Kings of the earth without taking the least pains in his own Person for the conversion of Sinners or edification of the Disciples of Christ Doth he succeed him in his Personal Qualifications which were of such extraordinary advantage unto the Church of God in his dayes his Faith Love Holiness Light and Knowledg you will not say so Many of your Popes by your own confession have been ignorant and stupid many of them flagitiously wicked to say no more Doth he succeed him in the way and manner of his exercising his Care and Authority towards the Churches of Christ as little as the rest Peter did it by his prayers for the Churches personal visitation and instruction of them writing by inspiration for their direction and guidance according to the will of God The Pope by Bulls and Consistorial Determinations executed by intricate Legal Processes and Officers unknown not only to Peter but all Antiquity whose ways practices orders terms S t Peter himself were he upon the earth again would very little understand Doth he succeed him in his Personal Infallibility agree among your selves if you can and give an answer unto this inquiry Doth he succeed him in his power of working Miracles you do not so much as pretend thereunto Doth he succeed him in the Doctrine that he taught it hath been proved unto you a thousand times that he doth not and wee are still ready to prove it again if you call us thereunto Wherein then doth this Succession consist that you talk of In his Power Authority Jurisdiction Supremacy Monarchy with the Secular Advantages of Riches Honour and pomp that attend them things sweet and desireable unto carnall mindes This is the Succession you pretend to plead for And are you not therein to be commended for your wisdome In the things that Peter really enjoyed and which were of singular Spiritual advantage unto the Church of God you disclaim any Succession unto him and fix it on things wherein he was no way concerned that make for your own Secular advantage and interest You have certainly layed your design very well if these things would hold good to Eternity For hence it is that you draw out the Monarchy of your Pope direct and absolute in Ecclesiasticall things over the whole Church indirect at least and in ordine ad Spiritualia over the whole world This the Diana in making of Shrines for whom your occupation consists and it brings no small gains unto you Hence you wire-draw his Cathedrall Infallibility Legislative Authority Freedom from the Judgment of any whereby you hope to secure him and your selves from all opposition endeavouring to terrifie them with this Medusa's head that approach unto you Hence are his Titles The Vicar of Christ Head and Spouse of his Church Vice-Deus Dius alter in Terris and the like where by you keep up popular venexation and preserve his Majestick distance from the poor Disciples of Christ. Hence you warrant his practices suited unto these pretensions and Titles in the deposing of Kings transposing of Titles unto Dominion and Rule giving away of Kingdoms stirring up and waging mighty warres causing and commanding them that dissent from him or refuse to yield obedience unto him to be destroyed with fire and sword And who can now question but that you have very wisely stated your Succession This is the way this the progress whereby you pretend to bring us unto the Vnity of faith If we will submit unto the Pope and acquiesce in his Determinations whereunto to induce us we have the Cogent Reasons now considered the work will be effected This is the way that God hath as you pretend appointed to bring us unto Settlement in Religion These things you have told us so often and with so much Confidence that you take it ill we should question the truth of any thing you averr in the whoe matter and look upon us as very ignorant or unreasonable for our so doing Yea he that believes it safer for him to trust the everlasting concernments of his soul unto the Goodness Grace and Faithfulness of
over the flocks but Ministers of their faith By these are the flocks of Christ governed as by shepherds appointed by him the great Bishop and Shepherd of their souls according to the Rules by him prescribed for the rule of the one and obedience of the other But if by governed by another man you mean absolutely supreamly at his will and pleasure then we deny that any Disciple of Christ is in the things of God so to be governed by any man and affirm that to assert it is to cast down Jesus Christ from his Throne But you say if he be not immediate head unto all but Ministers head the people and Christ heads the Ministers this in effect is nothing but to make every Minister a Bishop Why do you not plainly say what it is more then manifest you would have All this while you heed no more the Laws of the Land then constitutions of the Gospel Answ. I have told you how Christ is the immediate Head unto all and yet how he hath appointed others to preside in his Churches under him and that this should infer an equality in all that are by him appointed to that work is most senseless to imagine nor did I in the least intimate any such thing but only that therefore there was no need of any one supream head of the whole Catholick Church nor any place or room left for such an one without the deposition of Christ himself Because the King is the only supream Head of all his people doth it therefore follow that if he appoint Constables to rule in every parish with that allotment of power which by his Laws he gives unto them and Justices of Peace to rule over them in an whole County that therefore every Constable in effect is a Justice of Peace or that there is a sameness in their office Christ is the head of every man that is in the Church be he Bishop or Minister or private man and when the Ministers are said to head the people or the Bishops to head them the expression is improper an inferiour Ministerial subordinate rule being expressed by the name of that which is supream and absolute or they head them not absolutely but in some respect only as every one of them dischargeth the Authority over and towards them wherewith he is intrusted This assertion of Christs sole absolute Headship and denial of any Monarchical state in the Church Catholick but what ariseth from thence doth not as every child may see concern the difference that is about the superiority of Bishops to Ministers or Presbyters For notwithstanding this there are degrees in the Ministry of the Church and several orders of men are engaged therein and whatever there are there might have been more had it seemed to our good Lord Christ to appoint them And whatever order of men may be supposed to be instituted by him in his Church he must be supposed to be the Head of them all and they are all to serve him in the Duties and Offices that they have to discharge towards the Church and one another This headship of Christ is the thing that you are to oppose and its exclusiveness to the substitution of an absolute Head over the whole Catholick Church in his place because of his bodily absence from the earth But this you cast out of sight and instead thereof fall upon the equality of Bishops and Ministers which no way ensues thereon Both Bishops and Presbyters agreeing well enough in the Truth we assert and plead for This you say is contrary to the Gospel and the Law of the Land What is I pray that Christ is the only absolute Head of the Catholick Church No but that Bishops and Ministers are in effect all one But what is that to your purpose will it advantage your Cause what way ever that problem be determined Was any occasion offered you to discourse upon that Question Nay you perceive well enough your self that this is nothing at all to your design and therefore in your following discourse you double and sophisticate making it evident that either you understand not your self what you say or that you would not have others understand you or that you confound all things with a design to deceive for when you come to speak of the Gospel you attempt to prove the appointment of one supream Pastor to the whole Catholick Church and by the Law of the Land the Superiority of Bishops over Ministers as though these things were the same or had any relation one to another whereas we have shewed the former in your sense to be destuctive to the latter Truth never put any man upon such subter fuges and I hope the difficulties that you find your self perplexed withall may direct you at length to find that there is a deceit in your right hand But let us hear your own words As for the Gospel the Lord who had been visible Governour and Pastor of his flock on earth when he was now to depart hence as all the Apostles expected one to be chosen to succeed him in his care so did he notwithstanding his own invisible presence and providence over his flock publickly appoint one And when he taught them that he who was greatest among them should be as the least he did not deny but suppose one greater and taught in one and the same breath both that he was over them and for what he was over them namely to feed not to tyrannize not to domineer and hurt but to direct comfort and conduct his flock in all humility and tenderness as a servant of all their spiritual necessities and if a Bishâ—p be otherwise affected it is the fault of his Person not his place And what is it that you would prove hereby is it that Bishops are above Ministers which in the words immediately foregoing you asserted and in those next ensuing confirm from the Law of the Land is there any tendency in your Discourse towards any such purpose Nay do not your self know that what you seek to insinuate namely the instiâ—ution of one supream Pastor of the whole Catholick Church one of the Apostles to be above and ruler over all the rest of the Apostles and the whole Church besides is perfectly destructive of the Hierarchy of Bishops in England as established by Law and also at once casting down the main if not only foundation that they plead for their station and order from the Gospel For all Prelate Protestants as you call them assert an equality in all the Apostles and a superiority in them to the 70. Disciples whence by a parity of reason they conclude unto he superiority of Bishops over Ministers to be continued in the Church And are you not a fair Advocate for your Cause and well meet for the reproving of others for not consenting unto them But waving that which you little câ—re for and are not at all concerned in let us see how you prove that which we know you
greatly desire to give some countenance unto that is an universal visible Pastor over the whole Catholick Church in the place and room of Christ himself First You tell us that the Apostles expected one to be chosen to succeed Christ in his care But to have one succeed another in his care infers that that other â—â—â—sâ—â— o take and exercise the Care which formerly he haâ— and exercised which in this case is highly blasphemous once to imagine I wish you would â—ake more Care of what you say in things of this nature aâ—d not suffer the impetuous 〈…〉 your interest to cast you upon expressions so 〈◊〉 to thâ— honour oâ— Christ and safety of his Churâ—â— And how do you prove that the Apostles had any such expectations as that which you mention Our Saviour gave them equal commission to teach all Nations told them that as his father had sent him so he sent them that he had chosen them twelve but that one of them was a Devil never that one of them should be Pope Their Institution Instruction Priviledges Charge Calling were all equal How then should they come to have this expectation that one of them should be chosen to succeed Christ in his Care when they were all chosen to serve under him in the continuance of his care towards his Church That which you obscurely intimate from whence this expectation of yours might arise is the contest that was amongst them aâ—â—â—t preheminence Luk. 22. 24. There was a strife â—mongst them which of them should be the greatest 〈◊〉 you suppose was upon their perswasion that one should be chosen in particular to succeed the Lord Christ in his Care whereupon they fell into difference about the place But 1. Is it not somewhat strange unto your self how they should contest about a succession unto Christ in his absence who had not once thought that he would ever be absent from them nor could bear the mention of it without great sorrow of heart when afterwards he began to acquaint them with it 2. How should they come in your apprehension to quarrel about that which as you suppose and contend was somewhile before determined For this contest of yours was somewhile after the promise of the Keys to Peter and the saying of Christ that he would build his Church on the Rock Were the Apostles think you as stupid as Protestants that they could not see the Supremacy of Peter in those passages but must yet fall at variance who should be Pope 3. How doth it appear that this strife of theirs who should be greatest did not arise from their apprehension of an earthly Kingdom a hope whereof according to the then current perswasion of the Judaical Church to be erected by their master whom they believed in as the true Messiah they were not delivered from until after his Resurrection when they were filled with the Spirit of the New Testament Act. 1. Certainly from that root sprang the ambitious desire of the Sons of Zebedee after preheminence in his Kingdom and the designing of the rest of them in this place from the manner of its management by strife seems to have had no better a spring 4. The stop put by our Lord Jesus unto the strife that was amongst them makes it manifest that it arose from no such expectation as you imagine or that at least if it did yet your expectation was irregular vain and groundless For 1. He tells them that there should be no such greatness in his Church as that which they contended about being like to the Soveraignty exercised by and in the Nations of the earth from which he that can shew a difference in your Papal Rule erit mihi magnus Apollo 2. He tells them that his Father had equally provided a Kingdom that is heavenly and eternal for all them that believed which was the only greatness that they ought to look or enquire after 3. That as to their Priviledge in his Kingdom it should be equal unto them all for they should all fit on Thrones judging the twelves tribes of Israel so ascribing equal power Authority and dignity unto them all which utterly overthrows the figment of the supremacy of any one of them over the rest Luk. 22. 30. Matth. 19. 28. And 4. Yet further to prevent any such conceit as that which you suppose them to have had concerning the prelation of any one of them he tells them that one was their Master even Christ and that all they were brethren Mat. 23. 8. so giving them to understand that he had designed them to be perfectly every way equal among themselves So ill have you layed the foundation of your Plea as that it guides us to a full determination of the contrary to your pretence and that given by our Saviour himself with many reasons perswading his Disciples of the equity of it and unto an acquiescency in it And what you add that he presently appointed one to the preheminence you imagine is altogether inconsistent with what you would conclude from the striâ—e about it For the appointment you fancy preceded this contention and had it been real and to any such purpose would certainly have prevented it Thus you do neither prove from the Gospel what you pretend unto namely that Bishops are above Ministers so well do you plead your Cause nor what you intend namely that the Pope is appointed over them all Only you wisely add a caution about what a Bishop ought to be and do de jure and what any one of them may â—o or be de facto because it is impossible for any â—an to find the least difference between the domination which our Saviour expresly condemns and that which your Pope doth exercise Although I know not whither you would think meet to have him devested of that Authority on the pretence whereof he so domineers in the world Finding your self destitute of any countenance from the Gospel you proceed to the Laws of the Land To what purpose to prove that Christ appointed one amongst his Apostles to preside with plenitude of Power over all the rest of them and consequently over the whole Catholick Church succeeding him in his care certainly you will find little countenance in our Laws to this purpose But let us hear your own words again As for the Laws of the Land say you it is there most strongly decreed by the consent and Authority of the whole Kingdom not only that Bishops are our Ministers but that the Kings Majesty is head of the Bishops also in the line of Hierarchy from whose hand they receive both their places and jurisdiction This was established not only by one but by several Parliament Acts both in the reign of King Edward and Queen Elizabeth What will hence follow that there is one universal Bishop appointed to succeed Christ in his Care over the Church Catholick the thing you attempted to prove in the words immediately foregoing Do not the same Laws which assert
your selves to wave I should have wholly passed by this discourse unto which no occasion was administred in the Animadversions but now as you have hanâ—dled the matter unless I would have it taken for granted that the Principles of the Roman Church are more suited unto the establishment and promotion of the interest and Soveraignty of Kings and other supream Magistrates and in particular the Kings of these Nations then those of Protestants which in Truth I do not believe I must of necessity make a little further enquiry into your Discourse And I desire your pardon if in my so doing any thing be spoken that suits not so well your interest and designs neither expecting nor desiring any if ought be delivered by me not according to Truth To make our way the more clear some of the ambiguous expressions which you make use of to cloud and hide your intention in your enquiry after the Head of the Church must be explained 1. By the Church you understand not this or that particular Church not the Church of this of that Nation Kingdom or Countrey but the whole Catholick Church throughout the world And when you have explained your self to this purpose you endeavour by six Arguments no less p. 67 68. to prove that no King ever was or can be Head of it He said well of old In causa facili quemvis licet esse disertum I wonder you contented your self to give us six Reasons only and that you proceeded not at least unto the high hills of eighteenthly and nineteenthly that you talk of in your Fiat Lux where you scoff at the preaching of Presbyterians it may be you will scarely ever obtain such another opportunity of shewing the fertility of your invention So did he florish who thought himself secure from adversaries Caâ—ut altum in praelia tollit Ostenditque humeros latos alternaque jactat Brachia protendens verberat ictibus auras But you do like him you only beat the ayre Do you think any man was ever so distempered as to dream that any King whatever could be the absolute Head of the whole Catholick Church of Christ we no more think any King in any sence to be the Head of the Catholick Church then we think the Pope so to be The Roman Empire was at its hight and glory when first Christianity set forth in the world and had extended its bounds beyond those of any Kingdom that arose before it or that hath since succeeded unto it And yet within a very few years after the Resurrection of Christ the Gospel had diffused it self beyond the limits of that Empire among the Parthians and Indians and unto Britannorum Romanis inaccessa loca as Tertullian calls them Now none ever supposed that any King had power or Authority of any sort in reference unto the Church or any members of it without or beyond the precise limits of his own Dominions The Enquiry we have under Consideration about the Power of Kings and the obedience due unto them in Ecclesiastical things is limited absolutely unto their own Kingdoms and unto those of their subjects which are Christians in them And this Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta Pulveris exigui jactu concussa quiescunt A little observation of this one known and granted Principle renders not only your six Reasons altogether useless but surpersedes also a great part of your Rhetorick which under the ambiguity of that expression you display in your whole Discourse Secondly You pleasantly lead about your unwary Reader with the ambiguity of the other term the Head Hence p. 58. you fall into a great exclamation against Protestants that acknowledging the King to be the Head of the Church they do not supplicate unto him and acquiesce in his judgement in Religious affairs as if ever any Protestant acknowledged any King or any mortal man to be such an Head of the Church as you fancy to your selves in whose determinations in Religion all men are bound spiritually and as to their eternal concernments to acquiesce and that not because they are true according to the Scripture but because they are his Such an Head you make the Pope such an one on earth all Procestants deny which evacuates your whole Discourse to that purpose p. 58 59. It is true in opposition unto your Papal claim of Authority and Jurisdiction over the subjects of this Kingdom Protestants do assert the King to be so Head of the Church within his own Realms and Dommions as that he is by Gods appointment the sole fountain and spring amongst men of all Authority and Power to be exercised over the Persons of his subjects in matters of external cognizance and order being no way obnoxious to the direction supervisorship and superintendency of any other in particular not of the Pope He is not only the only striker as you phrase it in his Kingdoms but the only Protector under God of all his subjects and the only Distributor of Justice in rewards and punishments unto them not depending in the administration of the one or other on the determinations or orders of your Pope or Church Not that any of them do use absolutely that expression of Head of the Church but that they ascribe unto him all Authority that ought or can be exercised in his Dominions over any of his Subjects whither in things Civil or Ecclesiastical that are not meerly Spiritual and to be ministerially ordered in obedience unto Christ Jesus And that you may the better see what it is that Protestants ascribe unto the King and to every King that is Absolutely supream as his Majesty is in his own Dominions and withall how exceeding vain your unreasonable reproach is which you cast upon them for not giving themselves up unto an absolute acquiescency in humane determinations as meerly such on pretence that they proceed from the Head of the Church I shall give you a brief account of their thoughts in this whole matter First They say that the King is the supream Governor over all Persons whatever within his Realms and Dominions none being exempted on any account from subjection unto his Regal Authority How well you approve of this Proposition in the great astignations you pretend unto Kingly power we shall afterwards enquire Protestants found their perswasion in this matter on the Authority of the Scripture both Old Testament and New and the very Principles constituting Soveraign Power amongst men You speak fair to Kings but at first dash exempt a considerable number of their born subjects owing them indispensible natural Allegiance from their jurisdiction Or this sort are the Clergy But the Kings of Judah of old were not of your mind Solomon certainly thought Abiathar though High Priest subject to his Royal Authority when he denounced against him a sentence of death and actually deposed him from the Priest hood The like course did his successors proceed in For neither had God in the first provision he made for a
only and absolute head and Monarch of the Catholick Church which you would perswade us to believe that he is Kings then may even in Church affairs be strikers under him be the servants and executioners of his will and pleasure but Authority from God immediately in and about them they have none nor can have any whilest your Imaginary Monarchy takes place This one fundamental Principle of your Religion sufficiently discovers the insignificancy of your florish about Kingly Authority in Ecclesiastical things seeing upon a supposition of it they can have none at all But you stay not here for 3. You ascribe unto your Popes an universal Dominion even in Civil things over all Christian Kings and their subjects In the explanation of this Dominion I confess you somewhat vary among your selves but the thing it self is generally asserted by you and made a foundation of practice Some of you maintain that the Pope by Divine right and Constitution hath an absolute supream Dominion over the whole world This opinion Bellarmine Lib. 5. de Pont. cap. 1. confesseth to be maintained by Augustinus Triumphus Alvarus Pelagius Hostiensis and Panoruitanus And himself in the next words condemns the opinion of them who deny the Pope to have any such temporal power as that he may command secular Princes and deprive them of the Kingdoms and Principalities not only as false but as down right Heresie And why doth he name the first opinion as that of four or five Doctors when it is the Common opinion of your Church as Baronius sufficiently manifests in the life of Gregory the seventh That great preserver of your Pontificial omnipotency in his Bull against Henry the German Emperour affirms that he hath power to take away Empires Kingdoms and Principalities or what â—ver a mortal man may have as Platina records it in his life As also Pope Nicholas the second in his Epistle ad Mediolanens asserts that the rights both of the heavenly and earthly Empires are committed unto him And he that hath but looked on the Dictates of the forenamed Gregory confirmed in a Council at Rome and defended by Baronius or into their Decretals knows that you give both swords to the Pope and that over and over Whence Carerius Lib. 1. c. 9. affirms that it is the Common opinion of the School Divines that the Pope hath plenissimam Potestatem plenary power over the whole world both in Ecclesiastical and Temporal matters and you know the old comparison made by the Canonists cap. de Major Obed. between the Pope and the Emperour namely that he is as the Sun the Emperour as the Moon which borrows all its light from the other Bellarmine and those few whom he follows or that follow him maintain that the Pope hath this Power only indirectly and in order unto spiritual things the meaning of which assertion as he explains himself is that besides that direct power which he hath over those Countreys and Kingdoms which on one pretence or other he claims to be Feaudatory to the Roman See which are no small number of the chiefest Kingdoms of Europe he hath a Power over them all to dispose of them their Kings and Rulers according as he judgeth it to conduce to the good and interest of the Church which as it really differs very little from the â—ormer opinion so Barclay tells us that Pope Sixtus was very little pleased with that seeming depression of the Papal Power which his words intimate But the stated Doctrine of your Church in this matter is so declared by Bozius Augustinus Triumphus Carerius Schioppius Marta and others all approved by her Authority that there can be no question of it Moreover to make way for the putting of this indirect Power into direct Execution you declare 4. That the Pope is the supream Judge of faith and his Declarations and Determinations so far the Rule of it as that they are to be received and finally submitted unto not to do so is that which you express Heresie or Schism or Apostacy About this Principle also of your Profession there have been as about most other things amongst you great Disputes and wranglings between the Doctors and props of your Church Much debate there hath been whither this power be to be attributed unto the Pope without a Council or above a Council or against one About these Chimaera's are whole volumes filled with keen and subtil argumentations But the Popes Personal or at least Cathedral Determination hath at length prevailed For whatever some few of you may whisper unto your own trouble and disadvantage to the impeachment of his Personal Infallibility you are easily decryed by the general voice of your Doctors and besides those very persons themselves wherever they would place the Infallibility of the Church that they fancy are forâ—ed to put it so far into the Popes hand and management as that whatever he determines with the necessary solemnities in matters of faith is ultimately at least to be acquiesced in So your self assure us averring that he who doth not so forfeits his Christianity and consequently all the Priviledges which thereby he enjoyes and we have reason sufficient from former experience to believe that the Pope have he ability unto his will is ready enough to take the forfeiture Whither upon a Princes falling into Heresie in not acquiescing in your Papal determinations his subjects are discharged ipso facto from all obedience unto him as Dominicus Bannes and others maintain or whither there needs the Denunciation of a sentence against him by the Pope for their absolution you are not agreed But yet 5. You affirm that in Case of such Disobedience unto the Pope he is armed with Power to depose Kings and Princes and to give away and bestow their Kingdoms and Dominions on others Innumerable are the instances whereby the Popes themselves have justified their claim of this Power in the face of the world and it were endless to recount the Emperours Kings and free Princes that they have attempted to ruine and destroy in the persuit of some wherof they actually succeeded with the desolations of Nations that have ensued thereon I shall mention but one and that given us in the dayes of our Fathers and it may be in the memory of some yet alive Pope Pius V takes upon him contrary to the advice and entreaties of the Emperour of Germany and others to depose Queen Elizabeth and to devote her to destruction To this end he absolved all her Subjects from their Allegiance and gave away her Kingdoms and Dominions to the Spaniard assisting him to his utmost in his attempt to take possession of his grant and all for refusing obedience to the See of Rome You cannot I presume be offended with my mention of that which is known unto all for these things were not done in a corner And is it not hence evident that all the power which you grant unto Kings is meerly precarious which they hold of your Pope
as Tenants at will and should they not appear to do so were his force wit and courage answerable to his will and pretence of Authority But be it that because you cannot help it you suffer them to live at peace and quietness in the main of their Rule yet you still curb them in their own Dominions for 6. You exempt all the Clergy from under their Rule and Power See your Bellarmine sweating to prove that they are not bound to their Laws so as to be judged by them without their leave if they transgress or to pay any tribute De Cleric Lib. 1. Cap. 28. They are all reserved to the Power and Jurisdiction of the Pope And he that shall consider into what a vast and boundless multitude by reason of the several disorderly orders of your City Monks and Friars your Clergy is swelled into in most places of Europe will easily perceive what your interest is in every Kingdom of it I am perswaded there is scarce a Considerable Nation wherein the Profession of your Religion is enthroned in which the Pope hath not an 100000. able fighting men that are his peculiar subjects exempted from the Power and jurisdiction of Kings themselves which you must needs conceive to be a blessed interpretation of that of the Apostle Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers And 7. You extend the Papal Power to Things as well as Persons in the Dominions of all Kings and Commonwealths For the Lands and Possessions that are given unto any of the Popes especial Subjects you will have to be exempted from Tributes and publick burdens of the state And you farther contend that it is not in the power of any Kings or Rulers to hinder such alienations of Lands and Possessions from their Dominions By this means no small part of the Territories of many Princes is subduced from under their power The dreadful consequences of which Principles so startled the wise state of Venice that you know they disputed it to the utmost with your Vice-god Paul the V. In dealing with them as I remember their attempt was successless for notwithstanding the defence made of the Papal process against them by Baronius Bellarmine and others yet the actings of that sober state in forbidding such alienation of Lands and Fees from their Rule and power without their consent with their plea for the subjection of Ecclesiasticks unto them in their own Dominions was so vindicated by Doctor Paul Suave Marsilius of Padua and others that the horns of the Bull which had been thrust forth against them into so great a length were pulled in again I told you in the entrance of this Discourse how unwilling I should have been to have given you the least disquietment in your way had you only attempted to set off your own respects unto Royal Power unto the best advantage you could but your setting up your Principles and Practices in competition with those of Protestants of any sort whatever and preferring them before and above them as unto your deference unto Kings and that in matters Ecclesiastical hath made these few instances expressive of the real sense of your Church in this matter as I suppose necessary and equal CHAP. 17. Scripture Story of the Progress and declension of Religion vindicated Papal Artifices for the promotion of their Power and Interest Advantages made by them on the Western Empire YOu proceed pag. 70. unto the Animadvèrsions on your 13. Paragraph entituled Scripture wherein how greatly and causelesly it is by you undervalued is fully declared But whatever is offered in it for the discovery of your miscarriage and your own conviction you wisely pass over without taking notice of it at all and only repeat again your Case to the same purpose and almost in the very same words you had done before Now this I have already considered and removed out of our way so that it is altogether needless to divert again to the discussion of it That which we have to do for the answering of all your Cavils and objections in and about the case you frame and propose is to declare and manifest the Scriptures sufficiency for the Revelation of all necessary Truths therein affording us a stable Rule of faith every way suited to the decision of all differences in and about Religion and to keep Christians in perfect peace as it did of old And this we have already done Why this proper work of the Scripture is not in all places and at all times effected proceeds from the Lusts and prejudices of men which when by the Grace of God they shall be removed it will no longer be obstructed Your next attempt p. 72. is upon my story of the progress and Corruption of Christian Religion in the world with respect unto that of your own Yours you tell us is serious temperate and sober every way as excellent as Suffenus thought his verses Mine you say is wrought with defamation and wrath against all Ages and People very good I doubt not but you thought it was fit you should say so though you knew no reason why nor could fix on any thing in it for your warrant in these intemperate reproaches Do I say any thing but what the stories of all Ages and the Experience of Christendome do proclaim Is it now a defamation to report what the learned men of those dayes have recorded what good men bewayled and the sad effects whereof the world long groaned under and was at length ruined by What wrath is in all this may not men be warned to take heed of falling into the like evils by the miscarriages of them that went before them without wrath and defamation Are the books of the Kings Chronicles and Prophets fraught with wrath and defamation because they report complain of and reprove the sad Apostasies of the Church in those dayes with the wickedness of the Kings Priests and People that it was composed of and declare the abomination of those wayes of false worship licenciousness of life violence and oppression whereby they provoked God against them to their ruine If my story be not true why do you not disprove it if it be why do you exclaim against it Do I not direct you unto Authors of unquestionable credit complaining of the things which I report from them And if you know not that many others may be added unto these by me named testifying the same things you know very little of the matter you undertake to treat about But we need go no further then your self to discover how devoid of all pretence your reproaches are and that by considering the exceptions which you put in to my story which may rationally be supposed to be the most plausible you could invent and directed against those parts of it which you imagined were most obnoxious to your charge I shall therefore consider them in the order wherein they are proposed and discover whether the keeness of your assault answer the noise of
your out-cry at its entrance First You observe that I say Joseph of Arimathea was in England but that he taught the same religion that is now in England Unto which you reply But what is that Religion and this enquiry I have observed you elsewhere to insist upon But I told you before that I intend the Protestant Religion and that as confirmed and established by Law in this Kingdom and the advantage you endeavour from some differences that are amongst us is little to your purposes and less to the commendation of your ingenuity For besides that there are differences of as high a nature and considering the Principles you proceed upon of greater importance among your selves and those agitated with as great animosities and subtilties as those amongst any sort of men at variance about Religion in the world you that so earnestly seek and press after a forbearance for your profession besides and against the established law should not me thinks at the same time be so forward in reproaching us that there are dissenters in the Kingdom from some things established by Law especially considering how utterly inconsiderable for the most part they are in comparison of the things wherein you differ from us all This I fear is the reward that they have cause to expect from many of you who are enclined to desire that you amongst others might be partakers of indulgence from the extremity of the Law though from others of you for whose sakes they are enclined unto those desires I hope they may look for better things and such as accompany charity moderation and peace so that your first exception gives a greater impeachment unto your own Candor and ingenuity then unto the Truth or Sobriety of my story You proceed and say that I tell you that the story of Fugatius and Damianus Missioners of Pope Eleutherius is suspected by me for many reasons and reply because you assign none I am therefore moved to think they may be all reduced unto one which is that you will not acknowledge any good thing ever to have come from Rome But see what it is for a man to give himself up unto vain surmizes You know full well that I plead that you are no way concerned in what was done at Rome in the dayes of Eleutherius who was neither Pope nor Papist nor knew any thing of that which we reject as Popery so that I had no reason to disclaim or deny any good thing that was then done at Rome or by any from thence Besides I can assure you that to this day I would willingly own embrace and rejoyce in any good that is or may be done there may I be truly and impartially informed of it and should be glad to hear of more then unprejudiced men have been able of late Ages to inform us of I am far from making an enclosure of all goodness unto any party of men in the world and far from judging or condemning all of any party or supposing that no good thing can be done by them or proceed from them Such conceits are apt to flow from the high towring thoughts of Infallibility and supremacy and the confining of Christianity to some certain company of men in some parts of the world which I am a stranger unto I know no party among Christians that is in all things to be admired nor any that is in all things to be condemned and can perfectly free you if you are capable of satisfaction from all fears of my dislike of any thing because it came or comes from Rome For to me it is all one from whence Truth and Virtue come They shall be welcome for their own sakes But you seem to be guided in these and the like surmizes by your own humour Principles and way of managing things in Religion a Lesbian Rule which will suffer you to depart from the Paths of Truth and Charity no oftener then you have a mind so to do To deliver you from your mistake in this particular I shall now give you some of those reasons which beget in me a suspicion concerning the Truth of that story about Fagatius and Damianus as it is commonly told only intimating the heads of them with all possible brevity First then I suppose the whole story is built on the Authority of the Epistle of Elutherius unto Lucius which is yet extant other foundations of it that I know of is neither pleaded nor pretended Now there want not Reasons to prove that Epistle as the most of those fathered on the old Bishops of Rome to be supposititious For 1. The Author of that Epistle condemneth the Imperial Laws and rejecteth them as unmeet to be used in the Civil Government of this Nation which Eleutherius neither ought to have done nor could safely do 2. It supposeth Lucius to have sent unto Eleutherius to have the Roman Law sent unto him which had been long before exercised in this Nation and was well known in the whole Province as he witnesseth of dayes before these Gallia causidicos docuit facunda Brittannos 2. The first Reporters of this Story agree not in the time wherein the matter mentioned in it should fall out Beda lib. 1. cap. 4. assigns it unto the year 156. which was twenty two years before Eleutherius was Bishop as Baronius manifests Henricus de Erfordia ascribes it unto the nineteenth year of the reign of Verus the Emperour who reigned not so many years at all Ado refers it unto the time of Commodus with some part of whose reign the Episcopacy of Eleutherius did indeed contemporate 2. Geoffrey of Monmouth the chief promoter of this report joyneth it with so many lyes and open fictions as may well draw the Truth of the whole story into Question So that divers would have us believe that some such thing was done at one time or other but when they cannot tell 3. Both the Epistle of Eleutherius and the reporters of it do suppose that Lucius to whom he wrote was an Absolute Monarch in England King over the whole Kingdom with Supreme Authority and Power ruling his Subjects by the Advice of his Nobles without being obnoxious unto or dependent in his Government on any others But this Supposition is so openly repugnant to the whole story of the State of things in the Province of England in those dayes so that it is beyond the wit of man to make any reconciliation between them For besides that Caesar and Tacitus do both plainly affirm that in the dayes of the Romans â—â—ance upon this Island there was no such King or Monarch among the Brittans but that they were all divided into several Toparchies and 〈◊〉 â—ortal feuds and variance among themselves 〈…〉 de for the conquest of them all it was now become a Presidiary Province of the Roman Empire and had been so from the dayes of Claudius as Suetonius Tacitus and Dio inform us Especially was it reduced into and settled in that form by Pub.
by and among the Northern Nations who after long wars divided the Provinces of the Western Empire among them Now this is so broad a Truth that nothing but brutish ignorance or obstinate perversness can possibly cause any man to call it into Question It was not absolutely the setting up of the Papacy but an accession unto the Papal power and authority which I ascribed unto that original And this if you dare to deny it were easie out of your own Annalists to overwhelm you with instances in the confirmation of it But yet neither were your Concessions made nor his assumptions carried on in that silence which you fancy when you imagine that his aspirings were neither taken notice of nor opposed but that all Christendom should calmly submit unto them Where do you think you are that you talk at this rate Did you never read of any opposition made in former dayes unto your pretended Papal Power none at all from no Kings no Princes no Bishops no parts of Christendom happy man who hath lived so quietly as you seem to have done and so little concerned in things past or present Did you never read or hear of the Declarations and Edicts of Emperours and Kings of Determinations of Councils Writings of Learned men in all Ages against your Papal Usurpations Did you never hear how before the times that we now talk of Irenaeus reproved Victor how Cyprian opposed Cornelius and Stephen how the Councils of Africk admonished Celestine and Boniface of their miscarriages in their claims of Power and Jurisdiction Are you an utter stranger unto the opposition made by the German Emperours unto your Hildebrandine Supremacy with the books written against your pretensions to that purpose Have you not read your own Baronius a great part of whose Voluminous Annals consists in his endeavours to vindicate your Papal Power from the open opposition that was made to its introduction in every Age You must needs sleep quietly seeing you lye so far from noise I have already in part let you see the fondness of this dream that your Papal Supremacy was ever calmly submitted unto and have manifested that it was publickly condemned before it was born But because I then confined my self unto more antient times then those which are now under discourse I shall mind you of a few instances of the opposition made unto it either about or presently after that signal advancement which I affirmed that it received from the newly converted Nations of the West About the year 608. presently after the Saxons had received Christianity and therewithall contributed their power some of them at least to the furtherance of your Papal claim which was then set on foot though in a much inferiour degree unto what you have since promoted it unto it was publickly excepted against and disclaimed by a Convention or Synod of the Brittish Clergy who denyed that they owed any subjection unto the See of Rome or any respect but such as Christians ought to bear one towards another and would not give place unto its Authority in things of very small weight and moment Bed Hist. lib. 2. cap. 2. Concil Anglic. p. 188. The sixth general Council that condemned Pope Honorius for an Heretick An. 681. with the Second Nicene An. 787. which confirmed the same sentence do shrewdly impeach your present supremacy In the fourth Council of Constantinople An. 870. the Epanagnosticum of Basilius the Emperour to the Synod approved by them all begins thus Cum Divina benignissima Providentia nobis guberncula universalis navis commisit omne studium arripuimus ante publicas curas ecclesiasticas contentiones dissolvendi whereas the gratious Divine Providence has committed unto us the Government of the Vniversal ship we have taken all occasion before other publick cares to dissolve or compose Ecclesiastical Dissensions How suitable these expressions of the Emperour are unto your present pretensions your self may judge And having mentioned that Synod which you call the eighth general Council because of its opposition to the learned Photius I shall only ask of you whither you think there was no exception made to your supremacy by that Photius with the Emperours and Bishops of the East who consulted with him and afterwards justified him against the Censures procured against him by Pope Nicholas and Hadrian do not all your writers to this day complain of this opposition made unto you by Photius What think you of the Council of Frankford assembled by Charles the Great which so openly condemned that Doctrine which Pope Hadrian and the Roman Clergy with him laboured so earnestly to promote as we shall afterwards shew In the same order you may place the Councils that deposed their Popes as did one at Rome under Otho the Emperour John the 12. a sweet Bishop An. 963. another at Sutrinum An. 1046. when Cerberus as Baronius himself confesseth ruled at Rome An. 1044. n. 5. Three Popes at once domineering there Vno contra duos saith Sigibert duobus contraunum de Papatâ— contendentibus Rex contra eos vadit eosque Canonica Imperiali Censura deponit One against two and two against one contending about the Papacy the King went against them all and deposed them by Canonical and Imperial Censure Or as Platina Vit. Greg. 6. Henricus habita Synodo tria ist a teterrima monstra abdicare se magistratu coegit Henry calling a Synod compelled those three filthy monsters Benedict Silvester and Gregory to renounce their Magistracy or Papacy Have you not heard how many Synods and Councils were convened against the Usurpations and Innovations of Gregory the seventh as at Worms Papia Brixia Ments and elsewhere what think you of the Assembly at Clarendon here in England An. 1164. where it was decreed saith Matth. Paris juxta antiquas Regni consuitudines non licere vel Archiepiscopis vel Episcopis vel aliis Personis exire Regnum absque licentia Regis that according to the Antient Customs of the Kingdom it was not Lawful for any Archbishops Bishops or other persons to depart the Kingdom without the leave of the King that is to go to Rome and that in all Appeals ultimo perveniendum ad Regem ita ut non debeat ulterius procedi sine assensu Domini Regis the last is to be made unto the King without whose assent no further process ought to be made For opposition unto which Decree Thomas of Becket had the hap to become a Traytor and a Saint The stories of the Patriarchs of Ravenna in times more remote and in those of the Council of Constance and Basil in latter Ages are too well known to be particularly again insisted on Were Princes more silent then Synods Reconcile if you are able the Laws of Charles the Great and his Son Lewis with their Popes now claimed Authority Henry the second of Germany both deposed Popes and limited their Power Henry 3. attempted no less though with less success See Sigibert Chron. An. 1046.
then some of them have been If this be to blaspheme then some of your own Councils all your Historians many of the most learned men of your Church are notorious blasphemers But you wilfully mistake and begg that their Schismatical Papal faction may be esteemed the innocent Catholick Church of Christ without a Concession whereof your inferences and perswasions are very weak and feeble Of the like nature unto this is your ensuing discourse about the Contradictions which you fancied in your Fiat Lux to be imposed on Papists pag. 77. Two things you insist upon waving those that you had formerly mentioned as finding them in their examination unable to yield you the advantage you thought to make of them you feign a new contradiction which you say is imposed on Papists For say you while our Kings reign in peace then the Papist Religion is persecuted as contrary to Monarchy when we have destroyed that Government then is the Papist harrassed spoyled pillaged murdered because their Religion is wholly addicted unto Monarchy and Papists are all for Kings These are Contradictions is there not somewhat of the power of darkness in this But you again mistake and that I fear because you will do so There was no Persecution of Papists in this Land at any time but what was in persuit of some Laws that were made against them Now not one of those Laws intimate any such thing as that they were opposite unto Monarchy but rather their design to promote a double Monarchy on different accounts in this Nation the one of the Pope and the other of him to whom the Kingdom was given by the Pope and who for many years in vain attempted to possess himself of it And on that account were you charged with an opposition to our Monarchs but not unto Monarchy it self And yet I must say that if what hath been before discoursed of your faith and perswasion concerning the Papal Soveraignty be well considered it will be found that if not your Religion yet the Principles of some of the chief Professors of it do carry in their womb a great impeachment of Imperial Power Nor can I gather that in the times of our Confusion you suffered as Papists for your friendship and love to Monarchy whatever some individual Persons amongst you might do Seeing some of you would have been contented with its everlasting Seclusion so that your interest in the land might have been secured And whether your Popes themselves be not of that mind I leave to all men to judge who know how much they are wont to preferr their own interest before the rights of other men In the mean time you may take notice that whilest men are owned to persue one certain End they may at several times fix on mediums for the compassing of it opposite and contrary one to another Haec non successit alia aggrediamur via when one way fails another quite contrary unto it may be fixed on And whilest it is supposed that their end is the promotion of the Papal Interest it is not improbable but that at several times you may make use of several wayes and means opposite and contrary one to another and that this may be imputed unto you without the charge of Contradictions upon you But you may if you please omit discourses of this nature I am none of those that would charge any thing upon you to your disadvantage in this world Neither do I desire your trouble any more then mine own My aim is only to defend the Truth which you oppose Your next attempt is to vindicate your self from any such intention in your application of ejice ancillam cum puero suo as I apprehended Whither what you say to this purpose will satisfie your Reader or no I greatly question For my part as I shall speak nothing but what I believe to be according unto truth so if I am or have been at any time mistaken in my apprehension of your sense and mind I am resolved not to defend any thing because I have spoken it Homo sum and therefore subject to mistakes though I am not in the least convinced that I was actually mistaken in my conceptions of your sense and meaning in your Fiat But that we may not needlesly contend about words yours or mine I shall put you into a way whereby you may immediately determine this difference and manifest that I mistook your intention if I did so indeed And it is this Do but renounce those Principles which if you maintain you constantly affirm all that in those words I supposed you to intimate and this strife will be at an end And they are but these two 1. That all those who refuse to believe and worship God according to the Propositions and Determinations of your Church are Hereticks 2. That obstinate Hereticks are to be accursed persecuted destroyed and consumed out of the world Do but renounce these Principles and I shall readily acknowledge my self mistaken in the intention of the words you mention If you will not so do to what purpose is it to contend with you about one single expression ambiguously as you pretend used by you when in your avowed Principles you maintain whatever is suggested to be intimated in it Thus easily might you have saved your longsome discourse in this matter And as for the embleme which you close it with of the Rod of Moses which as you say taken in the right end was a walking staff in the wrong a Serpent it is such a childish figment as you have no cause to thank them that imposed it upon your credulity CHAP. 19. Of preaching the Mass And the Sacrifice of it Transubstantiation Service of the Church WE are arrived at length unto the Consideration of those particulars in your Roman faith which in your Fiat you chose out either to adorn and set off the way in Religion which you invite your Countreymen to embrace or so to gild it as that they may not take any prejudice from them against the whole of what you profess The first of these is that which you entituled Messach which you now inform us to be a Saxon word the same with Mass. But why you make use of such an absolete word to amuze your Readers withal you give us no account Will you give me leave to guess for if I mistake not I am not far from your fancy Plain downright Mass is a thing that hath gotten a very ill name amongst your Countreymen especially since so many of their forefathers were burned to death for refusing to resort unto it Hence it may be you thought meet to wave that name which both the thing known to be signified by it in its own nature and your procedure about it had rendred obnoxious to suspicion So you call it by a new old name or an old new name that men might not at first know what you intended upon your invitation to entertain them withal and yet it may be