Civil Magistrate to be Custos utriusque tabulae unless be meant by Keeper the Defender only And averrs That it is a false and deceivable Maxime not to be defended or maintained by any Proof or Argument which hath not in that his Treatise been first or last refuted Therein also averring That there can be no place left for the Magistrate or his Force in the settlement of Religion by appointing either what we shall believe in divine or practice in religious things And that to compel but outward Profession is to compel Hypocrisie not to advance Religion And that Christian Liberty sets us free not only from the Bondage of Ceremonies but also from the forcible Imposition of Circumstances of Place and Time in the Worship of God though imposed with a confident perswasion of morality in them which he holds to be impossible in Place and Time And that the settlement of Religion belongs only to each particular Church by perswasive and spiritual means within it self And that the defence of things religious setled in the Churches within themselves and the repressing of their Contraries determinable by the common light of Nature only belongs to the Magistrate All which he endeavours to make good by four Spiritual Reasons as he calls them as on a firm square 1st That Protestants have no other Divine Rule or Authority from without them warrantable to one another as a common ground but the Scripture and no other within them but the illumination of the Spirit so interpreting that Scripture as warrantable only to our selves and to such whose Consciences we can so perswade can have no other ground in matter of Religion but only from the Scriptures And these being not possible to be understood without the Divine Illumination which no man can know at all times to be in himself much less to be at any time for certain in any other it must follow That no Man or Body of Men can be the infallible Judges or Determiners in matters of Religion to any other Mens Consciences but their own f. 6. Wherefore if we count it a crime for Papists to believe only as the Church believes how much greater crime will it be for a Protestant to believe as the State believes And it being the general consent of all Protestant Writers That neither Traditions nor Councils nor Canons of any visible Church much less any Edicts of any Magistrate or Civil Session but the Scripture only can be the sinal Judge or Rule in matters of Religion f. 7. and that only in the Conscience of every Christian to himself which Protestation made by the first publick Reformers of our Religion against the Imperial Edicts of Charles the 5th imposing Church-Traditions without Scripture gave first beginning to the Name of Protestant And therefore the Conscience not being the Magistrates Province he ought not to force or impose because he hath no right to judge and yet when he comes to the Toleration of Popery he seems to be of another mind averring § But as for Popery and Idolatry why they also may not hence plead to be tolerated I have much less to say For that their Religion the more considered the less can be acknowledged a Religion but a Roman Principality rather he might have said an entire Apostacy from the Apostolick Faith endeavouring to keep up her old universal Dominion under a new Name and meer Shadow of Catholick Religion being more rightly named a Catholick Heresie against the Scripture supported mainly by a Civil and except in Rome by a Forreign Power Justly therefore to be suspected not tolerated by the Magistrate of another Country besides of an implicit Faith which they profess the Conscience also becomes implicit and so by voluntary servitude to Mans Law doth forfeit her Christian Liberty who then can plead for such a Conscience as being implicitly enthralled to Man in stead of God almost becomes no Conscience as the Will not free becomes no Will Nevertheless if they ought not to be tolerated it is for just reason of State more than of Religion which they who force though professing to be Protestants deserve as little to be tolerated themselves being no less guilty of Popery in the most Popish Point And for Idolatry who knows it not to be evident against all Scripture Old and New and therefore a true Heresie or rather Impiety wherein a right Conscience can have nought to do and the work thereof so manifest that a Magistrate can hardly err in prohibiting and quite removing at least the publick and scandalous use thereof The Second Scriptural Reason is If we should grant the Civil Magistrate were able to judge in those things yet as a Civil Magistrate he hath no right because Christ hath a Government of his own sufficient of it self to all its ends and purposes in governing his Church and is much different from that of the Civil Magistrate 1st Because it deals only with the Inward Man and his Actions which are all Spiritual and to outward force not liable 2dly To shew us the Divine Excellency of his Spiritual Kingdom able without worldly force to subdue all the Powers and Kingdoms of this World which are upheld by outward force only That the Inward Man is nothing else but the Inward part of Man his Understanding and his Will and that his Actions thence proceeding yet not simply thence but from the Work of Divine Grace upon them are the whole matter of Religion under the Gospel The Third Scriptural Reason is from the wrong the Civil Power doth with its Force or Imposition by violating the Fundamental Priviledge of the Gospel the new birth-right of every true Believers Christian Liberty The Fourth Scriptural Reason is from the consideration of all those ends which the Magistrate can pretend to the interposing of his force therein which can hardly be other than 1st The Glory of God 2dly The Spiritual good of them whom he forceth or 3dly The Temporal punishment of their scandal to others § Mr. P. N. in his Treatise of the same Subject P. N. his Opinion P. 22. with the other of J. M. is far more ingenious herein not only asserting the Supremacy and Authority of all Kings and Civil Magistrates in general over all persons and things Ecclesiastical both by Scripture Reason and Authentick Authors but also of our Kings in particular most pertinently and particularly out of our own Municipal Laws and Constitutions to boot He doth therein also as strongly assert Independency which rightly stated and rightly understood is without doubt the Tenent and Practice of our Church both by Scripture and by the Opinion of sound Judicious and Orthodox Divines very great Friends unto and Contenders for Episcopacy as Bishop Bilson Dr. Jackson Mr. Hooker and others But the Independency of Churches which these Men and others as Orthodox as themselves plead for is not altogether the same with that which P. N. and other his Associates do contend for These Men maintain that
We find no evil in this Man but if a Spirit or Angel hath spoken unto him let us not fight against God 23. Acts 9. This they did not out of true love to Paul or to the Truth he taught but from love of themselves their Party and their Opinions and from jealous impatiency of contradiction in publick by an Inferiour Sect so when Christ had fully satisfied a curious question captiously proposed by the Sadduces by proving the Resurrection out of Moses saying I am the God of Abraham of Isaack and of Jacob certain of them answered Master thou hast well said 20. Luke 39. Though the Pharises were well pleased of his Probat of the Resurrection against the Sadduces yet for all that they could judge him to death for avouching himself to be the great Judge of those that were raised from the dead whereby it appears that both their approbation and condemnation of our Saviour in these particulars did issue out of one and the same corrupt and monstrous Fountain that could send forth sweet water and bitter 3. James 11. viz. from love of their Party love of Authority over the People and applause of Men from a stubborn opiniative and envious desire to excel their opposites and not to be excelled by any so when John came neither eating nor drinking yet they say he hath a Devil and when the Son of Man came both eating and drinking then Behold a Man gluttonous and a Wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and Sinners 11. Mat. 18 19. The Devils and unclean Spirits in this kind were in some measure more ingenious than the Jews for when Christ had disobliged them by casting them out as soon as they saw him they fell down before him and cryed Thou art the Son of God 3. Mark 10. But the Scribes which came down from Jerusalem said he hath Belzabub and by the Prince of the Devils casteth he out Devils 21. Acts 22. So the Jews were pleased neither full nor fasting Thus can perverse Spirits and Wits turn and wind any thing never so innocently and plainly spoken or written unto a different or contrary sence The same Spirit of Contention and way-ward emulation reigns at this day through Christendome and rageth oft-times no less in defence of good Causes than of bad and makes many to concur with Schismatical or false Opinions in transforming particular places of Scripture which makes for private desires or designs as factious opposition to the Sadduces did the Pharises to consent unto our Saviour and unto St. Paul in the Points mentioned § The Monks Friars and Jesuits like the Pharises are rare Sophisters can handy dandy shuffle and cut Texts of Scripture with most admirable dexterity Their impertinent Collections to prove Purgatory from such places of Scripture as have no other semblance with it save only that they mention Metaphorical Fire would make an impartial Reader call to mind the Fable of the Apes or Monkies who espying Glow-worms in the night gathered sticks and blowed themselves breathless to make them burn Would not Impudence it self blush and Stupidity tremble at the senseless collections and deduction of these Men. As the Papists and among them the Jesuits more especially have no parallel except the Jews in this kind so in other main Points of their Religion as concerning the Infallibility of the Pope Transubstantiation the Authority of the Church the real Presence their Prayers in an unknown Tongue and the like they do not go so much beyond others as besides themselves The extream desire they have that Sacred Authority should countenance and abet their profitable Tenents makes them wrest and transform Places of Scripture beyond all Construction whereby they do not manifest the Truth but the poyson of their Doctrines and their Zeal and earnestness herein to be a Spice or Symptome of Spiritual madness or Phanaticisme Musing and dreaming are of near alliance He that thinks of nothing but of confirming his own conclusions or apprehensions will quickly perswade himself that the Word of God speaks just so As the Fool thinketh so the Bell clinketh the superstitious Phisiognomer and Palmister are not without their Scripture 13. Ex. 9. And it shall be a sign unto thee upon thy hand and for a memorial between thine eyes c. and that in 37. Job 7. he sealeth up the hand of every Man that all Men may know his Work What is this else but to make deformed Pictures of beautiful Colours or senseless and ridiculous Inferences out of Divine and Supernatural Antecedents or of plain Texts of Scripture Except we do strictly compare the Marginal Quotations of some Jesuitical Anabaptistical Quaking and Schismatical discourses with the Texts and both with the Conclusions intended by the Author one would hardly believe it possible for some Men to speak or write nothing but Gospel-language and yet to speak or write scarce a true or wise or pertinent word to the purpose Desire of Victory and to excel others is a Disease hardly cured in any Men Sects or Parties and oft-times work most indefatigably where it works most secretly Gods Gifts of Wit Learning and Judgment some can admire and magnifie in others and acknowledge them to be above their own yet will they not in conclusion be perswaded that any Men not of their own Sect or Opinion have so pure and clear a Beam of Light as themselves or know so much of Gods Eternal Will and Purposes as they do and it is no marvel that such who for expounding greatest Mysteries have betaken themselves wholly to the Spirit or to the Labours of Men whom they presume to be throughly sanctified i. e. that are free of their Brotherhood and Corporation only or at least served a compleat Apprentiship to their supposed Spirit But the wisest oft miscarry in their Projects and so do these by taking wrong measures in that they think there is no direct way to Grace but by undervaluing helps of Art or gifts of Nature of this misconceit the Quakers the Enthusiasts the Phanaticks are most guilty The first and immediate Issue of this Perswasion is that every action which is not warranted by some express Rule of Scripture apprehended by Grace is not of Faith and being not of Faith it must be a sin so that these two Propositions 1. All Actions warranted by the express Word of God must needs be lawful 2. All lawful Actions must needs be warranted by the express Word of God differ no more in their Logical and Grammatical sence than house-keeping and keeping house do in common understanding utitur Diabolus Testimoniis Scripturarum non ut doceat sed ut fallat S. Ambrose That admonition of St. Paul to the Philip. 2.3 concerns these times as much as those wherein he wrote and the Maintainers of true Religion most of all and it were most happy for Christianity if all Christians could in good earnest embrace it Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let
teach his Body the Church all things and should continue with them unto the end of the World § For soon after his Ascention the Apostles together with the rest of the Body being met together in a great Assembly and after they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and great Grace was upon them all 4. Act. 31.32.33 and accordingly the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every Man to profit withal to one the Word of Wisdome to another the Word of Knowledge to another faith c. and all by the same Spirit 1. Cor. 12.7.8 and all these for the edifying of the Body of Christ 4. Eph. 12 For though the Body be one yet hath it many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body whereof Christ is the head 1. Cor. 12.12 In the visible Government of the Church Christ appointed and instituted a Priesthood in which likewise it is dissimilar to all temporal Governments which quodam sensuis Independent of the Church though touching the application of the Authority to the Person it is elective and depending of the Body of the Church under this Priesthood is comprehended Bishops and Presbiters now what their Authority and Powers are vide their Commission 28. Mat. 19.20 go teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and loe I am with you always unto the end of the world other Powers besides these and laying on of hands especially coercive I know none derived unto them by any text of Scripture These Bishops these Presbiters these Ministers or Pastors are not Lords and Masters as in the Roman Church but are Servants to the Body of the Church For we preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your Servants for Jesus sake 2. Cor. 4.5 and these Authorities are not coercive but are given them to exhort reprove rebuke beseech intreat for Christs sake and by the mercies of God c. 12. Rom. 3. chap. 15.30 1 Thes 4.1 according to the Doctrines Precepts Rules and Commands set down in Scripture which are able to make us wise unto Salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus and which is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for Correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfected throughly furnished to all good works 2 Tim. 3.16.17 These and such like only are all the Powers that belong unto the Priesthood by any Law of God and there is no need of any other for what concerns punishment for Sins or the breach of moral Duties or municipal laws the Body hath Power to make laws and ordain punishments for any of its Members § I know that they have a long time hooked in by Head and shoulders a kind of coercive Power Excommunication by usurping to themselves the Power of Excommunication a thing I must confess that hath made a great noise and buzz in the world but in truth a magnificum nihil a meer ignis fatuus there being no such thing in the whole new Testament as now used and that which Pope and Presbiter would have to be it is as much in the Power of the Laicks against them as in them against the Laicks and most truly in the Body of the Church In the Romish Church the Bishop or his Vicar excommunicateth without the advice or participation of any many times also the Register only and that which is most important by Authority deligated a Clark of the first Tonsure deputed Comissary in some slight Cause doth excommunicate a Priest Yea Leo. 10. in the Council of Lateran in the 11. Session by a perpetual constitution of his hath granted faculty to a secular person to excommunicate the very Bishops and that which doth more import Navar saith c. 27 no. 11. that if any man shall obtain an excommunication of some Prelate if the obtainer shall not have an intent that the party be excommunicated he shall not be excommunicated moreover he saith ch 23. num 104. that the excommunication pronounced by the Law it self against him that payeth not a Pension for example sake on the Vigil of the Nativity is not incurred by him that payeth it not no not in many month's and years after if the Creditor thereof would not have it incurred But if on the other side after many Month's or Years he would have it incurred it is reputed to have been incurred from the day of the debt from the Vigil of the Nativity and so is the stile of the Court but the Council of Trent hath now expresly provided otherwise Ses 25. c. 3 forbidding secular Princes that they hinder not Prelates to excommunicate nor command that any excommunication be revoked considering that this is no part of their Office by this you may in little see what a nose of wax is made of excommunication and all this and much more grounded and occasioned from wrong Glosses put upon plain Texts But of this more fully hereafter § Though the Congregational men have not fully modelled out unto us the Platform of their Government and Discipline as the Presbyterians have done yet in general they do affirm Independency and Church-Government that to each gathered Church Christ hath given all Power and Authority requisite unto that Order and Discipline which he hath instituted for them to observe and to execute the same with Commands and Rules as before And negatively that there is not instituted by Christ any person or Church more extensive or Catholick entrusted with Power over other Churches and that each particular Church consists of Officers and Members which Members they call Brethren and the Officers they stile Pastors Teachers Elders and Deacons and that there are no stated Synods in a fixed combination of Churches nor any Synods appointed by Christ in any way of sub-ordination to one another nor no one Church to have Power of Censures but of inspection only over other Churches and Members thereof that Counsel and Advice might mutually be communicated That it was so in the days of the Apostles and continued so for some Generations after every Individual gathered Church every Christian Societie as it is natural to all Societies as well Christian as Civil governing it self by its own Laws and Constitutions whithout being obliged to any other superintendency hapily is so manifest that it would not be gainsaid But when the Church became planted and spread its Branches and took root in divers Nations and whole Common-wealths became Christian and Kings and Queens and other Civil Governments became Nursing-Fathers and Mothers of the Church then of necessity for the quiet state of the whole the case came to be altered it being then impossible that every individual Member or Brother of any Christian Kingdom or Common-wealth should personally meet to make Laws
visited and looked into for the Iic preservation and Peace of the State for that they being of such different minds and tempers cannot assemble together without eminent and notable danger if the Prince be not always made privy with what passeth among them in their Assemblies and Congregations and therefore they ought to be treated according to the danger that necessarily attendeth such Innovations § Cautilousness is the sinews of wisdom Farilior cautio est ubi manifesta formido And nothing is more dangerous than to be secure in matters of State In some Forreign Countries every Hoast is bound to bring his travelling guest before an Officer there to certifie his Name with the occasion of his coming and intended time of aboad in those parts And in case he stay longer he must again renew his Licence so curious and vigilant also are they to keep their City from Infection that without a Certificate witnessing their coming from wholsom places they may not escape the Lazaretto How more watchful ought Magistrates to be to prevent the Contagion of the Souls of their Subjects and therefore in prudence they ought to inspect and supervise all Pastors and Teachers High and Low that no mischief or disturbance to the quiet State of the Realm be contrived hatched or fomented by their Doctrine or Discipline § In Tuscany when Pius the 4th attempted to give the Office of Inquisition to the Friers of St. Dominic Cosmo the great Duke would not consent why Because those of that Order took part with the Enemies of the House of Medices when they were driven out of Florence Anno. 1494. The same reason and example holds with us and do shew that there ought an Account to be made to the King of all such as are recommended to him either for Orders or Preserments that he may be fully satisfied that their Piety and Duty towards their Prince and Religion the Christian life of the People and the Devotion of the Ecclesiasticks themselves towards their natural Prince and Country may not be prejudicial to their quiet State § Besides these grand reasons of State against Conventicles the 32 Canon of those stiled Apostolical doth Ordain Si quis Presbyter c. deponatur quasi principatus amator existens est enim tyrannus c. Canon 32. That if any Presbyter contemning his Bishop shall colligate a part and erect another Altar of which nature Conventicles are Deponatur as a lover of Empire for he is a Tyrant All which reasons do perswade that Common-wealth Christian or not Christian may for good and sound reasons suppress Conventicles of a dangerous consequence that are really and truly so but not out of fears and jealousies that they will prove so For holy Writ seems very much to favour and warrant Meetings or Conventicles of the Brethren Subjects of any Kingdom solemnly meeting in the name and fear of God either with or without a Priest to the end that their mutual edification among themselves and quickening one another to zeal and constancy in true Faith Piety and Religion and the preserving themselves against Apostacy may thereby be advanced and reinforced No doubt but that many excellent advantages may accrew thereby as provoking one another to love and to good works mutual observance and communicating of each others dispositions tempers gifts experiences vertues failings that they may the better sit themselves to do one another good or to receive comfort and consolation one of another in such Christian Conversation Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and unto good works not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is by which expression he seems to rebuke those that did forsake such Meetings but exhort one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching 10 Heb. 24 25. which place together with the practice of the Apostles doth not warrant Publick Assemblies only but also the Private Meetings of Christians for mutual conference and exhorting one another which are not to be neglected nor forsaken but to be used for preserving unity in the Church but not to foster Schism Separation Treason Rebellion or to hinder the more publick Assemblies More fully to the same purport is 1 Cor. 14.23.24.25 to 33. whosoever seriously considers first that this Epistle is wrirten to the Church of God in general and not to Priests which is at Corinth and to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours and then that all the Documents Doctrines and Intimations in that Chapter specified relating to spiritual gifts to prophesying and speaking with tongues are directed to the Brethren and Church in general if therefore the whole Church be come together into some place and all speak c. V. 23. may with good consequence and deduction conclude that all solemn Conventicles and Meetings tending to edification whether 5 or 5000 or whether with or without a Priest are thereby warranted and that it is a fundamental right due to all Christians and a duty incumbent on them all so to congregate and so to glorify God and edify one another and the very order deportment and decency of such Assemblies is therein described and pourtraied out These being the Commandments of God V. 37. with what good conscience then can any discountenance or speak against such Congregations when the same duty is certainly as incumbent upon them that discountenance and speak against them as upon those that countenance or frequent them Is it because they are afraid of the breath of fools to be accounted Puritanical Presbyterian or Independent or that because they think every man in Hell that is worse than themselves or those that are better but in a fools Paradise or that by so frequenting they should crush Arts of compliance plausibility ambition and preferments or that they are afraid of being righteous overmuch what is this else but Demas-like to forsake the fellowship of Saints and to embrace this present World making the Souls of men the most precious thing that ever God created subordinate to their lusts and risings and Balaam-like for hope of honour or preferment become more senseless of Gods Command than was his dumb Ass and like Micha's Levite for a little better reward swallow down Theft and Idolatry flatter profaneness betray the truth of the Gospel and smother and dissemble the strictness and purity of Gods most holy ways § Consider that all Instruction and Edification is not from Priests nor out of Pulpits only Apollos Minister of Caesarea and of Iconia was an eloquent man mighty in the Scriptures instructed in the way of the Lord fervent in the spirit who spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord and spake boldly in the Synagogue and yet Aquila and Priscilla his Wife Tent-makers when they heard him took him home and expounded unto him the way of God more
vel indignos recusandi quod ipsam videmusde divina Authoritate descendere ut sacerdos plebe praesente sub omnium oculis deligatur c. whereby it appears that the supream Power of choosing such Priests as are worthy and refusing unworthy doth principally rest in the People And he speaketh of Bishops particularly although in the words alledged he mentioneth Priests and withal it is not only St. Cyprians Epistle but the Epistle of thirty six Bishops and written to the Common People of Leon Asturia and Emerita Vide his 14. Epist of his 3. Lib. such Authorities we may alledge but not mystical and enforced Explications nor yet wrong Conclusions from right Premisses The Faithful Flock of Christ ought to resemble Sheep indeed in humility and innocency yet ought they not to be so sheepish or sottish as to decline the Authority which Christ their great Shepherd hath bestowed on them either of choosing them a Good or of judging a Wicked Shepherd St. Austin proves unanswerably that Doctrines are to be grounded on the Literal Sense of the Scripture and not on any Mystical Interpretation In this equivocating Art of Sophistry Bellarmine hath shewed both in this Subject as in others his great dexterity first to settle with the Reader the Relation which the Holy Church hath towards the Divine Majesty and then to conclude on the Relation towards the Pope such false Sophistry such disingenuity becomes not so great a Prince so great a Scholar as himself but the Parisians no Protestants conclude that God hath called the Church to the Faith and his Worship and that he hath placed Christ over it for an Head for ever who first himself did govern it on Earth in the days of his Flesh but being ascended into Heaven doth rule it with inward influence and assistance invisible unto the end of the World It is true that the Church is not a Common-wealth as Venice or as Geneva which give as much Authority as themselves please to their Dukes and Princes nor a Kingdom which may change the manner of governing it neither invisibly nor visibly because that Christ hath prescribed the manner much less is it such a Kingdom as England which hath a Blood-Royal where the Kings succeed by Birth neither as some other by Testament but as touching the Inward Government and meerly Spiritual it is not like unto any because it hath a perpetual Immortal and Eternal King who only knows the Heart and tries the Reins In the visible Government it hath a Ministry whose Authority was instituted by Christ and independing of the Church but as concerning the Application of this Authority unto this or that Person it is elective or depending of it Wherefore when he alledgeth I am constituted a King by him Our Lord God shall give him a Kingdom Luke 1.32 and 12.32 You chose not me but I have chosen you John 15.16 Thou hast made us to our God a Kingdom All these places and such like others are meant of the Invisible Spiritual and Interior Kingdom where the Pope hath no regiment nor influence at all but Christ is all in all governing by his Spirit and according to the Council of his own Will Thus he having laid down and proposed to use a Proposition or Doctrine quodammodo and in some sense true and having Validity under the Covert of an Universal yet having applied it to wrong Particulars it hath lost its Energy and Effort and its fallacy is discovered A piece of Artifice and Skill that runs through the Veins and Lines of most Popish Writers in the Controversies between us and them and what else is this but to make Lies their refuge and under Falshood to shelter themselves If Popes may now excommunicate as they pretend yet this concludes not that they may excommunicate Princes or Magistrates or whole Common-wealths The Primitives of old did use excommunication very sparingly and moderately and with great prudence and policy and with great respect to the good of the Church And therefore be the Power what or where it will St. Augustine holds an Excommunication against a Multitude though it were for some notorious and manifest sin too sacrilegious pernicious impious and insolent Lib. 3. contra Ep. Permen 23.4.4 c. non potest And Thomas putteth a Question whether any generality may be excommunicated and he answereth himself No and produceth Reasons for the same concluding that the Church appointeth with great Providence that no Community might be excommunicated And all other Divines with one accord determine the same And also Pope Innocent the 4th in the Chap. Rom. saith In Vniversitatem vel Collegium proferri sententiam Excommunicationis penitus prohibere de Sentent excom in 6. We must know that it is of worse consequence and example where â—t is used against Princes than divers other Bodies and Societies in as much as one Prince is of more consequence and power than thousands of other Lay-men We know also that in all Judgments there is a necessity of a Legal Trial to precede Conviction And that great Multitudes may be convented examined sentenced and punished with less disturbance of Peace less violation of Majesty than those that sway the Ball-Imperial Besides if the condemnation of Princes might be upon due Trials without violence yet the execution of the Sentence would produce more monstrous events in them than in private Men for how shall the People honour obey and reverence him in the State as Gods Lieutenant whom they see accursed cut off and abhorred in the Church as the Devils Vassal upon the excommunication of Princes whole Nations have been interdicted witness England Venice and other in the times of several Popes whole States subjected to ruine the Innocent with the Obstinate the Princes with the People all have have been sacrificed to Blood-thirsty-Popish-Priests under pretence of obedience to the Holy Catholick Church In what Code of the Ancient Church can it be found where any such strange kind of punishment was ever instituted as that for the offence of a few many Millions of Souls should be accursed cast out of the Church and in Popish construction damned How can they call that Power Apostolical that punisheth in this manner seeing the Apostolical Power was given for edification and not for destruction And yet so precipitate have some Popes been as to excommunicate whole States and Kingdoms Surely therefore we ought not so tamely to acquiesce on the bare ipse dixit of the Clergy pleading in their own Cause and for themselves only exclusive the Laity Certainly it is too small a security for so great a concern therefore let us a little examine what they urge for this exorbitant Power § If Kings be not this way punishable then they are no other way which is mischievous in the Church Sol. The Jewish Kings were as great and scandalous sinners as Kings-Christian now are yet God assigned no Rulers Spiritual for their Castigation and we must suppose that if it had
which despiseth these things despiseth not Man but God but our Translation is he therefore that despiseth despiseth not Man but God And this despising God in his Vicar is called 1 Sam. 15.23 a kind of Idolatry Here are two very geat Clerks very opposite each to other How shall we poor Laicks now behave our selves when so great School-men cannot agree the point one accounting it a meritorious Act to resist and the other Rebellion and a kind of Idolatry not to obey Christ's Vicar First Gerson wrote 150 years before Bellarmine's answer came out being in a quiet and sedate temper not ingaged in any disputes and consequently without Bias and void of passion on the other side Bellarmine then living and deeply ingaged in that great Controversie between Rome and Venice about Temporal and Ecclesiastical Power and consequently more subject to passion and Interest very strong Biasses Let us now consider his Texts of Scripture and reasons the first is the part of the same Luke 10.16 as before and must in part receive the same Answer viz. he that despiseth you despiseth me which words were undoubtedly spoken to the Seventy Disciples which represented the Preachers which were to publish Christs Doctrine and not to Peter singly so that what power soever devolves by this Text on Christs Vicar it is but in common with the rest of his Fellow Priests and Bishops so that he can challenge nothing peculiar to himself from this Text. To this Text we will oppose and leave to their consideration Matth. 25.45 that at the day of Judgment Christ will say to the Reprobate Quatenus in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did it not to me and likewise we shall oppose the 18. Matth. 6. But who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his Neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea so that there is Authority of Scripture to shew that Christ takes it for an injury done unto himself that is done unto the least of his Faithful Servants But of Christs Vicar not one word not so much as once named in the whole Bible a term never heard of till about Anno 666. So that he which despiseth c. is alledged out of its natural sence by Bellarmine and in as much ye did it not c. alledged in its proper sence for that admonition or correction is indeed a work of Charity and incumbent on all Christians so it be done with prudence and with due observance of circumstances And on the contrary cum Authoritate imperare cum potentia is against Charity Besides the very construction of the words qui vos spernit c. cannot possibly bear it no more than Dic Ecclesiae can reasonably be understood of the Pope a single person for I never understood that Popes had Pigs in their Bellies tho I will not swear what Pope Joan had in her Weem when she was Delivered of a Son in the open Street as she went to St. John Laterans So that the 10. Luke 16. is to be understood of all Ministers in General among whom I will not deny His Holiness Quatenus a Priest or Bishop to have a right in Common with the rest of his Brethren but no other or greater For in the beginning Bishops and Priests were all one their Institution Commission Imploy and Duties were all one and the same and how when and by whom they came to be differenced and distinguished and an Ecclesiastical Regiment erected and regulated by * Canon Law Laws of their own making whereby they have Metamorphos'd it from a Democracy of all the Brethren together to an absolute Ecclesiastical Monarchy nay Tyranny of a Pope at Rome is not very hard to trace tho very hard to remedy If a Quaker like a bold Britain should Pilgrim it to Rome and there reprove and rebuke the Pope of Popish errors Superstitions and other false Doctrines and that by plain Scripture And the Pope should despise and scorn him not enduring sound Doctrine certainly at the day of Judgment qui vos spernit c. would be laid to the Charge of His Holiness and not unto the despicable Quaker assuredly whoever despiseth the word of truth tho in the mouth of the least of God's little ones despiseth Christ Teachings are not truth because uttered by the Supream Bishop Christ's Vicar the Head of all Christendom but because they are grounded on Scripture the word of Truth and so carry their own awe and warrant with them To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Isay 8.20 but they that will not hear Moses and the Prophets as no perverters of Scripture will will not be perswaded tho one arose from the Dead Luke 16.31 If the Apostles or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel than that which they have preached may not only be despised but accursed Gal. 1.8 then may not the Pope be despised that thus troubles the Church and labors to pervert the Gospel of Christ The next Scripture which he useth at the same rate is Qui haec spernit non hominem spernit sed Deum 1 Thes 4.8 He that despiseth these things despiseth not Man but God who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit How is it possible that this citation can be to the purpose St. Paul assisted with the Holy Spirit applied qui haec spernit to such things there spoken by himself who could not erre v. 2 3 4 5 6 7. viz that ye should abstain from Fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his Vessel in Sanctification and honor not in the lusts of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God c. How then can it now be applied to the Pope who for certain hath no other assistance of the Holy Ghost than the rest of his Brethren Neither yet hath he said himself nor his Sycophants for him that he hath any extraordinary Assistance of the Holy Ghost saving only when he doth determine a matter de Fide ex Cathedra and not when he gives Orders in a Stable How can he then freely and righteously according to their own Doctrine in a Decree or an Extravagant which is not in a matter of Faith say qui haec spernit c. he that despiseth these things c. When the Pope shall teach and command Gods own Indubitable Precepts we will not complain of him if he add with all that he that despiseth c. but to equal Popes to St. Paul and their Decrees and Extravagants to Canonical Scripture and make them subservient to their Dictates and Expositions Is not this to make them lyable to the Plagues denounced against them that add or diminish from Gods word Rev. 22.18 And is it not a strange Phanatick presumption and
a sin as great as the former not to wrest and misapply the New Testament only but to hook in the Old Testament also by Head and Ears to serve a wicked turn and to make that intend the Pope also questo dispregiare Dio nel suo Vicario si chiama da Samuel Profeta 1 Sam. 15.23 una sorte d' Idolatria And this despising God in his Vicar is called by Samuel a kind of Idolatry If one should retort and say that so to expound Samuel is a kind of Nonsence what could be said against it The Text and Story is so well known that it requires no repetition There Samuel as a Prophet by Gods express Precept sharply rebukes Saul telling him that Obedience was more acceptable to God than Sacrifice and that it was as the sin of Idolatry not to rest upon his Commandment And shall Bellarmine now put a humane Precept subject to errors in the Ballance with an express Precept from God by a slight of wresting of Scripture Impune Can any Man that hath any spark of Grace bear it with patience that Humane Precepts should be thus equalled with Divine It is horrid Impiety thus to match and rank any man with God Almighty It is Gospel-like to perswade due obedience and reverence to the word of God in the Mouths of Prelates but to enhaunce and inlarge it beyond its just bounds is rather to abuse and villifie than advance it Who can but wonder and stand amazed that Samuel above 1100 years before there was any Pope or Prediction that there should be one or any description what manner of Person this omnipotent Vicar should be should yet by saying that not to obey Gods express Precept delivered by the mouth of his Prophet is as it were Idolatry should thereby intend the Pope And that Bellarmine should conclude from hence that to despise God in his Vicar is called by Samuel a kind of Idolatry Put all this together 1. That Samuel spake of Saul a King because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord not of a Pope or of his Vicar he hath also rejected thee from being King 2. That under the Law God had no Vicar 3. That Peter was Christ's first Vicar according to their own Confession 4. That the Authority of a Prophet in the Old Testament was Infallible yea even in the least things 5. That Christ's Vicar in the New Testament may by their own Confession err except in matters of Faith è Cathedra With what colour or shew of ingenuity or reason can this their great Goliah Bellarmine aver that Samuel terms this despising of God in his Vicar a kind of Idolatry Deus bone Unto what Absurdities will not Pride Ambition Interest drive men unto Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith But they shall proceed no farther for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was 2 Tim. 3.8.9 without doubt one abuse of Power and Authority gives a greater Scandal to the World and is a cause of greater mischiefs than a hundred disobediences of the subject and the person of the Superior as more eminent is much more bound by his greater obligation to God to do his duty quo major sum eo plus laborabo ut Sol. § Tho it cannot be denied that to err manifestly against the Scriptures be the most dangerous and greatest blindness that can possibly besall any Christians and the greatest Chastisement that God can impose in punishment of them whosoever shall make use of the Divine Authority to serve their own turns in any Worldly Interests yet so Cative is their Zeal of inlarging the greatness and Impery of the Roman Pontiffs that Bellarmine and his Crew make no bones of wresting and perverting any Scripture Old or New to make it serve their turns as hath been Intimated before Bellarmine to prove the Pope's Power to be a Supream Power given of God Mat. 16.10 John 21.16 examined he produceth Mat. 16.19 whatsoever thou shalt bind c. and whatsoever thou shalt loose c. and that this power is universal and over all Christ's Sheep he produceth John 21.16 Feed my Sheep which Texts taken in their true and right sence we heartily imbrace i.e. bounded and limited unto things only belonging to the Kingdom of Hâ—â—â—â—n and â—â— the Edification of the Church according to Evangelical Rules Hebr. 5.1 2. c. For every High Priest taken from among Men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and Sacrifices for sins c. But from hence to ground a new term of Vniversalium and by this ambiguous term to extend and strain it even to Worldly matters is a Doctrine not true nor peaceable nor according to Christ's meaning Nay Pope Gregory Lib. 7. Ep. 30. held this very word Vniversal supercilious and in very great Jealousie when he was first stiled Papa Vniversalis and said it was a proud Title and imported as much as if he were the only Bishop and no other man Bishop but himself And so to have Authority most Universal is sec quid to say that there is no other Authority but it For if the stile of Papa Vniversalis according to Gregory take away all other Bishops a most Universal Authority Pari ratione must needs take away all other Authorities Now to prove this Vniversal Authority it is said to Peter Matth. 16.19 and in his person to all Popes whatsoever thou shalt bind c. and whatsoever thou shalt loose c. ergo their Authority is most Universal Be it so but then by the same Logick in Matth. 18.18 it is said to all the Disciples and in their persons to all Priests their Successors whatsoever ye shall bind c. and whatsoever ye shall loose c. ergo there shall be sundry most Vniversal Authorities which implies a flat contradiction jam sumus ergo pares Indeed the Whatsoever is Vniversal but it is bounded and restrained by the words before viz. the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven so that what pertains to the Kingdom of Heaven was committed to Peter and to the other Apostles but what pertains to the Kingdoms of the Earth Christ never committed to him and consequently to no Priest or Bishop or Pope whatsoever The Genuine sense of this Text is before delivered The other proof by feed my Sheep is also Vniversal in respect of my Sheep but God denieth by Ezek. 34. that to eat the Fat and to feed themselves and to Cloath themselves with the Wool is to feed his Sheep he denieth that to kill them that are fed that to domineer over thom with force and with Cruelty is to feed his Sheep he denieth that to eat up the good Pasture themselves and to tread down with their feet the residue of the Pastures that to drink up the clear water and to foul the residue with their feet is
to seed his Fock No no Ezekiel shews that their duty is to strengthen the Diseased to heal the Sick to bind up the broken to bring again that which was driven away and to jeek that which was lost this also is consonant to the Doctrine of St. Peter 1. Ep. 2 3. Feed the Flock of Christ taking the oversight thereof not for filthy Lucre but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over Gods Heritage but being Examples to the Flock Besides it can never be proved by Scripture that Christ's instituting Pastors in the Church did at any time exempt them from obedience to the Church she being the Common Parent of all Christians both Ecclesiastical and Secular and the Practice was so in the purest times as may appear by St. Cyprian Lib. 1. c. 4. Moreover when Christ ascended on high tho he led Captivity Captive and gave gifts unto men yet he did not divest himself of all power of Governing his Body the Church Militant here on Earth devolving it on the Pope but doth still continue to govern it internally and Spiritually by the secret influences and illapses of his Spirit and so will do until time shall be no more And altho the Popes have nothing at all to do with this kind of Government nor as yet in terminis have laid any claim thereunto yet their Illustrissimo Bellarmine hath had such effronted Impudence as to aver that the Pope is able to do all that which is necessary to the Conducting of Souls to Paradise unto which end certainly Divine Inspiration is most necessary and can take away all Impediments which the World or the Devil with all their force or Crast are able to oppose which doth covertly insinuate and attribute the same Spiritual Invisible power to be also in the Pope hoping it will not be seen but it is discovered for without such Insluences and assistances it is very improbable if not altogether impossible to be conducted to Heaven and if Bellarmine's Doctrine be good what need of petitioning Heaven for Graces it is but going to Rome a pleasant Journey where we may have all things necessary for our Journey to Paradise for asking for some merry Pence Romae omnia venalia As to the external Government of his Body and Church Militant here on Earth it consists here of visible men The Church to be Governed by its own Body So Christ himself would that it should be governed by visible men without divesting himself of his Spiritual influences and in order thereunto he appointed Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the Edifying of the Body of Christ Ephes 4.8 11 12. Who having in his life-time endowed them with power and commands to teach all Nationis Baptizing c. Matth. 28.19 which is all the Authority that ever Christ gave or bequeathed unto them and which is purely Spiritual without any mixture Temporal and that only as Ministers and Servants not as Lords of his Body which power tho it may be peculiar to the Clergy of the Church as chief Officers and Ministers thereof yet the application of the same Authority to the person is purely elective and depending on the Body hence it follows that the Body or Sheep having chosen their Bishop or Pastor he is now become subject to the Body and not the Body to him which Authority of choosing them a good or of Judging or of censuring a wicked Pastor being given them of Christ their Head and Father they cannot wave or devolve the same without committing great offence against God and if they should yet they cannot wholly divest themselves thereof Besides in disputes among themselves whether the Pope be above a Council very many of the most Learned of them do argue and agree that as the Head or Superior of the Inquisition is not Superior to the whole Congregation of the Inquisition being assembled nor do they admit that the rest of the Body hath no power over the Head especially being such a Head as the Body it self hath constituted They argue the like also from the examples of Kings and Kingdoms of which I shall make this use only that if these be good instances among themselves to prove a Council to be above the Pope it will hold also in minor collective Ecclesiastical Bodies Thus do they abuse all places of Scripture by wresting them from their proper meaning and intendment The Popes claims first modest then Impudent as I have hitherto shewed and therefore the Readers may do well to bear in their memories the Cautions and Observations laid down in the Paraenesis forementioned The pretensions of the Popes were at first modest as I have shewed you in Gregory in respect of that height of Impudence they have now arrived unto They claimed only precedency or Primacy not Supremacy but now their Judgments are Infallible their Jurisdiction Infinite their Empire boundless fetching in and Monopolizing all Churches and Kingdoms All Bishops but their Curates All Kings and Emperors but their Vassals for of the Pope was meant Gens regnum quod non servierit tibi eradicabitur and this Bellarmine Baronius and others of the same Leaven plead for not out of the Decretal Epistles or Constantine's Donations but out of Scripture The first and best Bishops of Rome thought more of their Martyrdom than of an Universal Monarchy expounding Scripture with contentedness according to the natural sence of the Text without racking or torturing it unto wrong ends and purposes But their Successors lost by degrees first conscience then Learning and now at last all Grace and Modesty This their Babel as it now stands was not built in a day but as the itching desires of this or that proud and haughty Pope of enlarging their Fringes and Phylacteries did increase so their claims and pretentions increased therewith At first they claimed a Primacy of Order or at most of Honor not of power among their Brethren only not over them And these contestations were with Bishops not yet with Emperors they medled yet only with the Keyes not with the Swords owning all their power to be meerly and purely Spiritual for the benefit of Souls nothing at all directly or indirectly temporal But when once they had put a Padlock on the Scriptures and Preached Ignorance up to be the Mother of Devotion then the Mystery of Iniquity became quickly advanced to that monstrous height which at this day we see but cannot remedy And the better to set out this Pageant not only some scraps and shadows of old Fathers and Councils but the Scripture it self our Lord Christ and St. Peter are brought upon the Stage and rackt and tortured to do obeysance unto this Monster of Iniquity whereas we may safely swear that there is not one word or Syllable of the Pope or his Power in all the Scripture Old or New but what is due to all Bishops in Common with him save only as he is described
Pyramids erected with Superscriptions for their perpetual infamy and Banishment not only demolished and solemn Laws ordained against them revoked but to prevail to be re-admitted nay so re-established and re-ingratiated as to become their Chief Preachers Confessors Favorites and fully so to possess themselves of their hearts and affections as they have been and still are in Popish Nations and Courts and Prime Ministers of all affairs I am half perswaded that tho the Four Evangelists should rise from the dead and become Competitors for the more special favors of those Kings and States with whom the Jesuits have got their Sure-sooting that they would yet keep themselves Chief Lords of their Ascendents and lead them Captive as they use to do Not to trouble you with many Stories Pierre Cotton Confessor to Henry the Fourth of France that great Prince may suffice whence grew that Proverb amongst them Les Oreilles du Roy sont Buschees de Cotton The Kings eares are stopt with Cotton And that Pasquill Le Roy ne scauroit fair un Pas Que le Pere Cotton l'accompane Mais le bon sire ne scait pas Que le sin Cotton vient de espagne The King no where can step a Foot But Father Cotton finds him out Yet the good King is not aware That fine Cotton is Spanish ware To which I shall add the Quadrane to the Queen Regent If you desire your state continue may Then chase these evil Tygers far away Who cutting their Kings life Apart Are their own paymasters with his Heart This most excellent faculty of theirs puts me in mind of the man in the Parabâ—e â—â—t of whom an unclean Spirit having been cast Mat. 12. Luke 11. and after long wa◠〈…〉 finding no rest took with him seven other Spirits more wicked than hâ—â—sâ—â—f of and returned into the same House from whence he came out and finding it swept and garnished entred and dwelt there whereby the last estate of that man became worse than the first § Si fas sit divinare may we not probably conjecture that Confession tho insignificant in it self yet by the most excellent management of those of the Church of Rome together with some apprehensions on one side and happily some Menaces on the other of being sent the same way after their Predecessors to be one of their chief Charmes For tho Confession practised as it ought may be both convenient and useful yet that it cannot be performed but by a Priest is besides all reason and common sense It is storied that if a man struck with a Scorpion Plin. lib. 28. c. 10. do immediately whisper it in the ear of an Ass he shall find sudden ease A story as credible as that without Confession to a Priest no Absolution can ensue The Common-law of Nature and Civil Law of Man kind teacheth that unto every man justly offended satisfaction is justly due Our neighbor is satisfied by Confession and Restitution of the wrong done to the offended without the help of a Priest And if a Priest do wrong to one of his Parishioners the Priest is obliged to Confess to him and not to his fellow-Priest and Absolution will follow accordingly If a Prince offend or wrong but one of his Black Guard and he confess and restore the wrong done to him he hath more Authority to forgive and absolve him V. p. 96 97. than all the Popes and Priests of Rome Confess and Absolve as they please I know they pretend Scripture to justifie their insignificant Sacramental Confession there being nothing of a Sacrament in it but their ill hap is such that there is not one plain Text in all the Bible that warrants it and therefore they fly unto conjectural consequences in which they have the same ill fate for that the Premises cannot possibly yield the Conclusions they draw from them Besides they would very much oblige us if they would but impart unto us any good intent they have or possibly can have to pry into other mens bosom-sins when they do no way concern them nor can they remedy or pardon them more than any other private man He that confesseth to God and forsaketh his sins they are forgiven whether a Priest be concerned therein or not and without forsaking confess or not confess no Pardon ensues Scire secreta domus cannot then be to any good intent and can only be designedly to make themselves Masters of the very souls and bodies lives and fortunes of the confessed that they may lead them Captive at their pleasure to accomplish their own wicked designs tho to Hell it self in pursuit of them And to make Confession yet a more compleat Instrument and Mystery of Iniquity they pin and hang upon it another Buckram Sacrament of Penance by which the worst and vilest sins that are may be pardoned on very easie terms and then who that can be perswaded to believe these Doctrines will not adventure to kill Kings or do any thing that is worse if worse can be When on a slight Confession and as slight a Penance they shall as easily be absolved by those that set them a work Sad and lamentable examples liereof were Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth of France brave Princes fearless and undaunted in War and in all Heroick Actions how difficult soever yet cow'd daunted and Butcher'd by these men notwithstanding their compliances with them changed the best Religion in the World in which they had been brought up and imbraced the worst even Romish Superstitions to gratifie them designing thereby to save their lives but in vain Whereas Elizabeth Queen of England professed the same Religion they were brought up in withstood the Papists to their faces and notwithstanding all their Dags and Daggers dyed in Peace and in her Bed full of dayes and full of Honour Besides Henry the Fourth did not only change his Religion but recalled the Jesuits solemnly banished by the first seat of Justice with the Erection of a Pillar with Inscriptions to their perpetual Infamy readmitted them into his very bosom gave them his House at Le Fleshe for a Colledge with indowments and all this contrary to the advice of the Duke of Sully giving no other reason than demanding then security for his life What got he by all these favors First a stab in the mouth by Chastel then a stab to his heart by Ravilliac plain demonstration that no obligations can secure against their Butcheries And which is yet more wonderful that after this dismal fatal blow that Pierre Cotton Confessor to the said Henry the Fourth his Declaratory Letter to the Queen Regent Apologizing for the Jesuits did more prevail with her for favoring of the Jesuits than the Refutation of that Letter and the Supplication of the University of Paris against them and the Discourse to the Lords of Parliament touching the very Murder of the said Henry the Great all demonstrably proving the Jesuits to have been the Plotters and Contrivers of
will not submit to the Pope that is not marked out for destruction under the Notion of Hereticks which notion as soon as a neat opportunity presents tho misapplyed which is not seldom serves his turn for all Assassinations Wars Massacres what not What hath been written with reflection on the State of our Neighbor Nations and on the interest and incessant workings of the Jesuits in all their Courts and Councils doth manifest sufficiently our happiness without any such sinful compliance and spares me the labor of farther characterizing them Jesuiticum Fidei Symbolum veluti Canticum novum ex Jo. Baptistae Pozae Libris conflatum c. 1. CRedo in duos Deos quorum unus ' Filii Pater Mater est Metaphoricè in Generatione Aeterna alter Metaphoricè Mater Pater est in Generatione Temporali cui consequens est ut tam Deo Patri quam B. Virgini nomen Matri-Pater conveniat tanquam uterque Hermaphroditus essel vel Androgynus 2. Credo in Jesum Christum unicum utriusque filium Metaphoricum secundùm aeternam Temporalem Generationem 3. Credo Jesum Christum ut hominem fuisse conceptum Natum de Maria Virgine tanquam Patre Matre Metaphoricè per virtutem Paternam Maternam 4. Credo eundem passum mortuum non verè realiter eo quod mori non potuit 5. Credo eum fuisse sepultum etsi verè realiter non mortuum 6. Credo animum ejus descendisse ad Inferos Metaphoricè cum à Corpore â—on fuit separata 7. Credo eà dem Metaphorâ eum à mortuis resurrexisse qua fuit mortuus 8. Credo eum ascendisse in Coelos sedere ad dextram Patris venturum â—â—â—â—dicet alios viventes alios etiamnum mortuos 9. Credo in Spiritum Sanctum qui locutus est per Prophetas nonnunquam deâ—â—ptos 10. Credo Ecclesiam ex majore parte Sanctam Sanctorum communionem 11. Credo Remissionem peccatorum per repentinum Spiritus Sancti Adventum super impios 12. Credo Resurrectionem Carnis ex majore ejus parte vitam aeternam non sine aliqua oppositi formidine A new Jesuitical Creed gathered out of the works of Johannes Baptista Poza a Spanish Jesuit by Franciscus Roales Dr. at Salamanca and Chaplin to His Catholick Majesty of Spain It is to be found in Latin digested into Twelve Articles v. Alphons Devargas Printed Anno Dom. 1665. cap. 18. pag. 59 60. 1. I Believe in two Gods whereof one is Father and Mother of the Son Metaphorically according to an Eternal Generation the other Metaphorically Mother and Father according to a Temporal Generation and what is consequent hereto that the common term Mother-Father may be equally attributed to God and the Blessed Virgin as if they were both Hermophradites Hermophraditus vel Androgynus 2. I believe in Jesus Christ the only Metaphorical Son of both according to an Eternal and Temporal Generation 3. I believe that Jesus Christ as man was conceived and Born of the Virgin Mary Metaphorically as of Father and Mother by a Maternal and Paternal Virtue 4. I believe that he suffered and was dead not truly and really because it was impossible that he should dye 5. I believe that he was buried though not truly and really dead 6. I believe that his Soul descended into Hell Metaphorically whereas it was never separated from his Body 7. I believe that he rose from the dead by a Metaphor suitable to that whereby I believed him dead 8. I believe he ascended into Heaven that he sitteth at the right hand of God the Father and that he will come to Judge some alive and some already dead 9. I believe in the Holy Ghost who spake by the Prophets though those were sometimes mistaken and deceived 10. I believe the Church to be as to the better part of it Holy and the Communion of Saints 11. I believe the Remission of sins effected by a sudden Collation of the Holy Ghost upon the wicked 12. I believe the Resurrection of the Body as to the better part of it and life everlasting not without some fear of the Contrary AN APOLOGY FOR THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS THough I cannot with truth aver that stealing out in Print sine permissu superiorum is as justifiable as stealing a Nap or stealing away from Company at pleasure yet I hope it is not to be numbred inter graviora delicta And that I may with much truth say that to padlock the Press is but a new Trick or Tyranny rather devised by those whom for shame we cannot own for pious in their Lives or orthodox in their Doctrines and indeed whom it is a reproach to imitate A Romish Practice or at best but a new Canonical Slight unknown to the first and purest Men and Times forged in and crept out of the Saincted Inquisition by the Holy Fathers thereof who to shew their wonderful zeal to Religion and divine Truths have put the Bible it self in the Front or first rank of prohibited Books and so corrupted the Fathers by their Additions and Substractions that those of their Inquisitory Editions can no otherwise be esteemed the true Off-spring of their Natural Fathers then Theseus's Ship could be called his Ship after it had so often been hack'd and hewed patch'd and mended that there was scarce a whole Rib or Plank that did remain the same that it was when it was first built which because it still kept the same form though little of the old matter did still retain the Name of Theseus his Ship Tho' Christians have no other divine Rule or Authority without them warrantable to one another as a common Ground or Rule either for holy Living or determination of Controversies in matters of Religion unto which all ought to submit but the Scriptures nor any other Evidence or Patent to make out their title or claim to Heaven and heavenly things nor unto their great Gospel-Priviledges but the Scriptures yet so just and tender have the heretical Fathers of all Christendom the Popes been that contrary to all express Apostolical Commands by their Indices Expurgatorii whereof there are seven if not more extant in the very front of prohibited Books placed the Bible forbidding it to be printed or read in any vulgar Tongue printed or written and they account all Languages vulgar but Latin Greek Hebrew Chaldaick Syriack Aethiopick Persian Arabick as may be seen in the fifth general Rule in the Index printed at Madrid 1667. viz. Cum experientia docuerit ex permissione sacrorum Bibliorum lingua vulgari plus inde ob hominum temeritatem ignorantiam aut malitiam detrimenti quam utilitatis oriri prohibentur Biblia lingua vulgari extantia cum omnibus eorum partibus impressis aut manuscriptis pariter Summaria Compendia quamvis Historica corundem Bibliorum aut Librorum Sacrae Scripturae Idiomate aut lingua vulgari non tamen clausulae sententiae aut eapita quae libris