S. Cyprian 21. Since to be the ultimate Object of Appeals or dernier besort as the French phrase it is the Essential Privilege of all Monarchs is it accountable that the Council of Nice believed the Bishop of Rome's Supremacy over the Catholick Church when it determined that all Appeals during the Intervals of general Councils should be determined in the Provincial Synods or by the respective Patriarchs and that there should be no Appeal from the one to the other 22. If the Churches of Africa believed the Popes Supremacy to be jure divino how could 217 Bishops in the 6th Council of Carthage whereof S. Austin was one have opposed Three Popes successively in the matter of Appeals to Rome and condemned all those as Schismaticks who did thus Appeal and made a formal Separation of their Churches from the Roman upon the account of its Illegal and Uncharitable Incroachments 23. If that Separation was unjust how comes S. Augustin to be reputed over all the Christian World and at Rome too an eminent Saint since he died as the Romanists think in actual and unrepented Schism since S. Augustin denied the Popes Supremacy in matter of Appeals to Rome no less than Henry the Eighth of England might not P. Coelestin as justly have Excommunicated S. Augustin as P. Paul the Third did Henry the Eighth of England 24. Since by many of the Epistles of Gregory the Great to the Emperour Mauricius and Iohn the Patriarch of Constantinople its apparent that he declares all those Prelates who usurp the Titles of Oecumenical Patriarch Universal Bishop and Head of the Catholick Church to be the Forerunners or Harbangers of Antichrist may it not be pertinently demanded if all those Popes who from Boniface the Third inclusively have affected those Titles do not stand condemned by the Judgment of their Predecessour as Antichristian 25. If it be the Popes Prerogative as the Romanists pretend to assemble all the general Councils how did it chance that during a Thousand years after Christ and more there was not an Oecumenical Synod in Italy no not in all the West unless that of Frankford be accounted one which was indicted by Charlemain against the Conventicle at Nice and that they were very desirous to have one in Italy is most evident from the Letters of P. Leo the First none of the meanest spirited Popes to Theodosius the Younger his Sister Pulcheria the Emperour Marcianus Valentinian the Third with Eudoxia the Empress whom he did Supplicate on his Knees with many Tears thus he phraseth it for a Council to be holden in Italy against the Eutychians but could never obtain his desire as to that Circumstance 26. If the Emperours were nothing else but the Popes Mandatarij in the indicting of Councils as some term them what could be the reason that P. Vigilius being personally in Constantinople would not Countenance the 5th general Council assembled there by Iustinian the Great till he was haled thereto by the Authority of the Emperour and forced to obey the Mandat of his pretended Mandatarius in condemning the tria Capitula which by a former Constitution he had approved 27. If the Confirmation of a general Council by the Pope be so necessary that all its acts are invalid without it as some Romanists pretend how could the Patriarchs of Constantinople be so irregular as to possess the place in all succeeding Councils where they were present which the 2d and 4th general Councils had allotted to them notwithstanding of all the Protestations of P. Leo the First and his Successors against those Council Acts 28. Since the Bishops of the Primitive Church were promiscuously termed Popes from the old Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Father their Episcopal Sees Thrones and Empires and themselves how small soever their Diocess were were also called Princes if we believe S. Gregory Nazianzen and S. Hilary of Poictiers all were termed the Successors of the Apostles and equal as to the intrinsi Power of Bishops whether it were the little Bishoprick of Eugubium compared with that of Rome Rhegium with that of Constantinople Tanis with Alexandria if we give Faith to S. Hierom therefore it may pertinently be demanded What solid Grounds had Hildebrand to Monopolize those Titles to the Bishop of Rome 29. If the Romanists can produce any Authentick Author for the Decretal Epistles of all the Popes from Clemens to P. Sirvius that is to the middle at the least of the 4th Century though they have made up a considerable part of the Canon Law before Riculfus Archbishop of Mentz who lived 500 years after those Popes were dead 30. Since the Belief of an Infallible Headship in the Bishop of Rome is with many Romanists the reason why they receive their Articles of Faith must it not then be the fundamental Article of all others And ought it not to be the best attested by some plain places of Scripture and not leave by its silence this sole visible Vicegerent of Christ to the Suspicion of bearing witness to himself 31. Since the Pope receives his Office with an Oath to observe the Apostolick Canons as they are termed with the Canons of the Eight first general Councils and notwithstanding it is evident from the 35 and 36 Canons of the Apostles or the 33 and 34 Canons as Binius hath them that these are directly against the Popes Supremacy as also the 6 and 7 Canons of the First general Council the 9 17 and 28 Canons of the Fourth general Council the Fifth in condemning the Sentence of P. Vigilius in favour of the tria Capitula tho he was very vehement in the cause the Sixth and Seventh in Condemning P. Honorius of Heresie the Eighth and last by imposing a Canon upon the Church of Rome and challenging Obedience thereunto viz. its Condemning a Custom of the Sabbath Fast in Lent may we not very rationally hence conclude that the Fathers during eight hundred and seventy years after Christ knew no such thing as the Popes Supremacy by Divine Right or any Right at all seeing they opposed it And that they did not believe the Infallibility of the Church of Rome that they had no Tradition of either that Supremacy or Infallibility that it is in vain to plead Antiquity in the Fathers or Councils or Primitive Church for either and that the Canons of these eight general Councils being the sense both of the ancient and the professed Faith of the present Church of Rome the Popes Authority must needs stand Condemned by the Catholick Church at this day by the ancient Church and the present Church of Rome her self as she holds Communion at least in Profession with the ancient And in fine how can the Church of Rome escape the charge of Heresie for he who believes the Popes Supremacy denies in effect the eight first general Councils at least in that point and that 's Heresie and he who believes the Council of Trent believes the Article of the Popes
Eat and Drink the Natural Flesh and Blood of Christ And suppose a man should eat his Son in a Pasty where the Figure of the Body is so altered that it cannot be easily known to be human Flesh or so minced and aromatized that the Taste can no more discern what it is than Minodoe could tell of what Ingredients the fifty Dishes at the Mogul's Table were compounded though his Curiosity led him to taste of them all yet if the Father know it it can no ways excuse him from unnatural Barbarity 9. How can any Romanist ascertain himself free of Idolatry without Divine Revelation For if Transubstantiation be not true by their own Confession they are certainly guilty of the most damnable Idolatry in the World in Worshiping a piece of Bread as God and suppose such a change could be they can never be certain that it is since according to the Councils of Florence and Trent the Validity of the Consecration depends on the Intention of the Priest which cannot be known assuredly without Divine Revelation neither is it sufficient to excuse them from Idolatry that they intended to Worship God and not a Creature for so all the Idolatry that ever was in the World may be excused which was nothing else but a mistake of the Deity and upon that mistake a Worshiping of something that was not God as God. 10. Suppose a Miracle were produced to prove the Truth of Transubstantiation may it not be demanded to what purpose is that production seeing we cannot believe the Miracle unless it be obvious to some of our Senses and then the Argument for Transubstantiation and the Objection against it would just ballance one another so that in this case a Miracle would signifie nothing because that would be to prove to a man by something that he sees that he does not see what he sees 11. If the Senses of all mankind may be deluded what Evidence have we for the Passion and Resurrection of Christ Suppose we had seen them with our Eyes and not only heard of them with our Ears for if in the matter of Bread and Wine all our Senses save one are deceived why might not one have been deluded in reference to the Humiliation and Exaltation of Christ so that we might have as easily mistaken an Image for a living man upon the Cross as to imagine a piece of Bread to be the true Body of a man and that a living Human Body is to be found in every Atome thereof 12. Whereas it s said in the Institution that Christs Body is broken for us and yet the Doctrine of the Roman Church is that it is broken into Wholes and not into Parts doth not this clearly imply a Contradiction that Christ's Body is broken and not broken at the self same time or that it is whole and not whole 13. Doth it not involve horrible Impieties to imagine that the glorified Body of our Saviour should be contracted to the Crum of a Wafer That he should be perfectly deprived of Sense and Reason That he should not be able to defend himself against the Assaults of the most contemptible Vermine That if the Stomach of the Communicant chance to be overcharged with Wine that he should be Vomited up again or if he have a Lienteria that he should go wholly to the Draught 14. Since the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. tells us expresly That the Fathers did eat the same Spiritual Meat and Drink the same Spiritual Drink which we do may it not be pertinently demanded if the Manna and Rock which followed them were Transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ Or may not Believers under the Gospel feed upon Christ in a Spiritual and Mystical Sense as the Fathers did under the Law without any Transubstantiation of the Elements 15. Since our Saviour Iohn 6. saith That he who Eats his Flesh and Drinks his Blood hath Eternal Life how can this be applyed to Transubstantiation unless any be so absurd as to imagin That all who partake of those Consecrated Elements shall be saved 16. Since the Cartesian Philosophers have by irrefragable Reasons demonstrated that the Nature of all real Bodies must needs consist in extension or as they phrase it the having partes extra partes it being simply impossible to conceive an indivisible Atome or least particle of matter which is laid on a plain to touch it in all parts but that the Superiour Portion thereof must be without the contact of that plain where there is no penetration if therefore Christ's Body be reduced to an indivisible point by Transubstantiation it may be pertinently demanded if this Opinion doth not reduce the Body of Christ to the Nature of a Spirit and consequently is a worse Heresie than the Phantastical Body of the Marcionites 17. Since divers of the ancient Fathers improved the Doctrine of the Eucharist in order to the Confutation of the Eutychian Heresie had it not been perfect non-sense in them to have avowed from such a Topick if they had believed Transubstantiation which did apparently afford a great Instance to the Eutychians against them SECT XII Of the Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass. Qu. 1. SInce in a true Sacrifice the Thing sacrificed must be destroyed and if it have Life it must be killed it may be demanded if Christ be truly and properly Sacrificed as the Romanists will have it is he not truly and properly put to Death as oft as the Priest says Mass which is directly contrary to Heb. 10. 11. Cap. 2. Whereas the Apostle argues the perfection of Christ's Sacrifice above those of the Law because those were offered year by year but the Sacrifice of Christ's Body was offered once for all if Christ be daily Sacrificed in the Mass must not the Sacrifice of Christ be much more defective than those of the Law since one Sacrifice of Expiation for the whole Congregation of Israel was thought sufficient for the whole year whereas the Sacrifice of Christ's Body is repeated every day yea for one single person he may be Sacrificed a Thousand times over if we may believe the Doctrine of that Church 3. How could that be a Propitiatory Sacrifice at the first Institution which was previous to Christ's Death unless they will say that Propitiation was made before Christ suffered though with divers of the ancient Fathers we are still ready to acknowledge the Eucharist to be a Commemorative Sacrifice and its possible that the Error of the Romanists had its rise therefrom SECT XIII Of private Masses Quest. IS it possible to reconcile the Solitary Mass wherein the Priest Comumnicates alone after he hath Consecrated to the Institution of Christ the practice of the Primitive Church or with the very nature and intendment of that Sacrament or with the Roman Office as it now stands or if there can be any instance given of Solitary Masses before Gregory the Great dyed which was 600 years after Christ SECT XIV Of the Sacrament of Penance
Reformed Church of England to Romanism again which God forbid where was your Religion before 86 or before such a time Would they not answer at Rome and in England also only kept under and obscured by Hereticks And Christianity though not so visible yet was purer when its Professors dwelt in Mountains and Dens places of Obscurity and Privacy in the Reigns of Nero Decius and Dioclesian than when some Kings were called its Nursing Fathers and took possession of the seven Halls as when it groaned under Arianism in the days of Constantius and Valens 2. When some peremptorily require from us the Aera of all the Popish Errors may it not be as pertinently demanded when the Acephali began which was such a ridiculous Linsy-Wolsey Heresie as to be a Compound of these Contraries Nestorianism and Eutychianism and yet gave great trouble to the Church for many years for Baronius and Bellarmin ingenuously acknowledge that they know neither the Heresiarch or the Epocha of the Heresie nor when Filioque was inserted by the Latin Church into the Creed and if they know not the Aera of their Truths how can it be rationally expected that we should design the precise times when all their Errors began since it s in the Night Season that the Adversary Sows his Tares in the Field of the Church 3. It may be demanded what more pertinency amongst Disputers is in that old Thred-bare Question Where was your Church or Religion before Luther than in this amongst Husbandmen Where was the Corn before it was Weeded For if our Forefathers under the Papacy embraced the true Faith we have it still the Faith not being removed but the Corruption 4. Since the Church of England obligeth none to believe any thing as necessary to Salvation but what is plainly proved from holy Scripture and intirely holds the Apostolick Nicene and Athanasian Creeds and obeys more Canons of the first general Councils than those of Rome do and approves that Exposition of Scripture which hath the consent of the Fathers of the four first Centuries Yea holds all that the Church of Rome held necessary for Salvation for five or six hundred years together so that a Romanist may turn Protestant without adding any Article to his Faith but a Protestant cannot turn Romanist without the addition of many new ones or novel Inventions which have neither Foundation in Scripture nor genuin Antiquity May it not then be most rationally concluded that the Protestant way is the surest and safest because both sides agree therein and that their Church was long before Papacy appeared in the World 5. Since its impossible to produce any genuin Work of any of the Fathers who lived within Four Hundred Years after Christ that positively asserts the practice or the lawfulness of Prayer in an unknown Tongue of taking away the Cup from the People or with-holding the Scriptures from the Laicks or Adoring Images or having them in Churches the Pope's Infallibility or Supremacy Indulgences in the Sense of Pope Leo the Tenth the Doctrine of Merit in the Sense of the Council of Trent that there are neither more nor less than Seven Sacraments the necessity of the right Intention of the Priest for the Validity of a Sacrament Transubstantiation the Limbo of unbaptized Infants Private Masses the Popes deposing Power c. may it not more pertinently be demanded of the Romanists Where was Popery before Boniface the Third than they can enquire of the Protestants Where was your Church before Luther 6. Since its impossible to find any of the Primitive Fathers or any Christian Writer a thousand years after Christ and more who believed all the Twelve new Articles of Faith which P. Pius the Fourth hath added to the Apostolick Creed may it not be pertinently demanded of the Romanists Where was your Faith to be found intirely before the Council of Trent And is not the Modern Papacy younger by many years than Martin Luther himself 7. Since not one of the Twelve new Articles of the Creed of P. Pius the Fourth is to be found in any ancient Creed or Confession of Faith generally allowed in the Christian Church whence it is evident that they are Innovations destitute of Primitive Authority may we not more pertinently demand of them Where was Papacy when those Confessions were framed than they can enquire of us Where was your Church before Luther 8. Since every true Reformation necessarily pre-supposeth Corruptions and Errors to have been before it what Advantage can the Romanists have in charging our Reformation with Novelty For if a real Reformation be made the thing justifies it self and a Reformation must begin sometime and when ever it begins it is certainly new Besides it ought to be considered that this Objection of Novelty lyes against all Reformation whatsoever tho never so necessary and tho things be never so much amiss So that tho our Reformation was as late as Luther our Religion is as antient as Christianity it self for when the Additions which the Church of Rome hath made to the antient Christian Faith and their Innovations in Practise are par'd off that which remains of their Religion is ours and this they cannot deny to be every tittle of it the antient Christianity And what other Answer I pray could the Iews have given to the like Question if it had been put to them by the Antient Idolaters of the World Where was your Religion before Abraham or Moses Or what other Answer could the Primitive Christians have given to those Pagans who pretended Venerable Antiquity and Universality for their Polytheisme but the very same in substance which we now give to the Church of Rome And if any be so fond as to brand the Protestant Religion with Novelty because of some negative Articles in opposition to the Corruptions of the Roman Church which by accident are become a part of our Faith occasioned by their Errors they may as well tax the Primitive Church with Novelty because the renouncing of the Doctrines of Arianism at the Council of Nice of Macedonianism at the Council of Constantinople of Nestorianism at Ephesus and of Eutychianism at Calcedon came a part of the Catholick Religion after the rise of those Heresies 9. But to shut up this Point if to Pray without Understanding to obey without Reason and to believe against Sense be the surest Evidences of the Antiquity of a Church then I pray where is that Protestant to be found who is so contentious for Priority as not to yield upon these accounts the Precedency to the Church of Rome above all Christian Societies in the World SECT XIX Of the Infallibility of the Pope with his Councils Qu. 1. IF the Pope or Church of Rome be infallible wherefore are they so uncharitable to the World at least to their own Incorporation as not to give an infallible Comment on Scripture but suffers her Doctors to write as fallible Comments and in many things as contrary to each other as any
I will rather stay in that Church which enjoys most of that supernatural Quality which is Essential to Christianity 6. Because a man thinks that his Neighbour who is of a strong natural Constitution highly couragious and very temperate may be preserved from Death in a Pesthouse doth it hence follow that he believes his Neighbour is in as safe a condition as he who lives at a great distance from any danger of Contagion 7. If it be a solid Argument to comply with that Tenet wherein both parties are agreed wherefore doth not the Church of Rome embrace the Protestant Doctrine of Christs Presence in the Eucharist for all sober Christians in the World acknowledge that he is really present tho in a Spiritual and Mystical manner To this the Romanists have superadded their mode of Transubstantiation and the Lutherans their Consubstantiation therefore its safest to Acquiesce in that wherein all Dissenting parties are agreed the same may be urged as to many other particulars even all their Superadditions to the ancient Creeds 8. It may be further demanded if there be any Solidity in this Topick have not the Cerinthians the Samosatenians the Arians Eunomians Photinians and Socinians the better of the Orthodox by that way of arguing since it s acknowledged hinc inde by all that Christ was truly a man made like to us in all things Sin only excepted but the fallacy of this Topick is so evident that it is lost labour to insist any more upon it 9. Can it consist with Charity to call those Schismaticks who are not fugitivi sed fugati and to Anathematize them every year on Manday Thursday as Hereticks who believe the whole Scriptures of God in the sense of the Primitive Church and who embrace all the Creeds of the four general Councils that were first in order 10. Did not the leading party in the Council of Trent discover themselves to be Physicians of no value and Men of no Charity by using their utmost endeavours to perpetuate that deplorable Breach in the Visible Church which I account better express'd in the words of the History thereof which are as followeth This Council desired and procured by Godly Men to re-unite the Church which began to be divided hath so established the Schism and made the Parties so Obstinate that the Discords are irreconcilable and being managed by Princes for Reformation of Ecclesiastical Discipline hath caused the greatest deformation that ever was since Christianity did begin and hoped for by the Bishops themselves to regain the Episcopal Authority for the most part usurped by the Pope hath made them lose it altogether bringing them into much greater Servitude on the contrary feared and avoided by the See of Rome as a potent means to moderate the Exorbitant Power thereof mounted from small beginnings by divers degrees to an unlimited Excess it hath so established and confirmed the same over that part which remained subject to it c. 11. Since its evident from unquestionable Records that the Church of Rome I mean all of that persuasion amounts not to the third part of Christendom if all the Protestants of whatsoever denomination the Greek Church properly so called with all those Christians in Asia and Africa which are neither of the Roman nor Greek Communion be reckoned upon it may be demanded with what Charity the Romanists monopolize to themselves the Title of the Catholick Church FINIS Some Books lately Printed for Brab Aylmer A Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy to which is added A Discourse concerning the Unity of the Church By Dr. Isaac Barrow A Discourse against Transubstantiation By Dr. Tillotson A Discourse concerning the Adoration of the Host as it is Taught and Practised in the Church of Rome A Discourse of the Communion in One Kind In Answer to a Treatise of the Bishop of Meaux's A Discourse against Purgatory