Trent so peremtorily give their verdict of things they confess not grounded upon Scripture and which were converted for many Ages as Images Praiers to the Saints Indulgencies c. and leave undecided a point so evident in Scripture and so constant in Tradition XXXII It highly therefore concerns the truth to find out the mystery why they were so obstinate at Rome in an undecision so extremely pernicious to the whole Catholic Church to that of Rome in particular and to the Pope himself The truest cause is the pride of the Eminentissimi Cardinali They were used long since to trample on the necks of Bishops and to keep them in quality of their Secretaries or Stewards An enormity proceeding from the poverty weakness and sad condition of the Italian Prelates A Bishop to gain respect needed to be privy to the pleasures or designs of the Cardinal At Pope Pius the Fourths Counsel Bishops stood bare-headed whilst gli Eminentissimi sat and were covered And by a disorder no where to be found but at Rome a gray hair'd Bishop or Arch-bishop exhausted with austerities and considerable for services done the Churâ—h was seen at the feet of a young powdered perfumed Cardinal puft up with pride softned by wantonness and in a word whose Eminency had usually nothing more eminent then most eminent vices XXXIII 'T was then impossible to speak in the Council of the Bishops Institution without putting Cardinals in mind of theirs one is so ancient and divine the other so new and humane that the very thoughts of them could not chuse but make Cardinals asham'd For if they consider their dignity as Spiritual they are only Priests or Deacons submitted for that very reason to their Bishops and without power of voting in Councils Or if they consider it as a temporal honor they have nothing to do with the affairs of the Church They are in the order of the sheep not of the Shepherd and instead of being so proud as to ambition speaking and ruling in Councils must beg with a profound humility to hear and be ruled Or at last if they are in a middle state as a Jesuit a man of a middle state also as fit as the rest of his company to unite great extremes describes them they ought to fear the condemnation Christ has interminated to those who serve two masters And thus it was of a very high concernment for Cardinals to leave a question undecided which would have restored them to their ancient condition and done justice to the sacred character of Bishops How dangerous soever seemed the consequences of such undecision they followed the Italian maxim To keep the present usurpations at the price of the most equitable Laws XXXIV Nor were they less interess'd at the question of Residency For if the decision of the divine institution of Bishops destroied their honors that of residency finished their pleasures sent them to their Diocess and cut off the sweet and luxurious life of Rome Nevertheless it was required by the Spanish and French Bishops that Residency should be declared Jure divino Of all Christian Truths none is so powerfully expressed in the Scripture so conformable to good sense so inculcated to us by the Writings and Examples of the Fathers Nay without gathering a thousand testimonies from all parts of the Scripture let us only say to the Bishops what Saint Jerome saies to Nepotian Interrogent nomen suum and no doubt 't is enough to perswade them There is none of these Bishops absent from their Dioceses who dares read without fear that parable of the Gospel wherein Christ calls himself the good Shepherd expresses in a stile full of love that 〈◊〉 takes all imaginable care for hindering them from going astray that he has a voice whereby his sheep know him and discern him from foreigners or mercenâ—â—ries and what is more that he has 〈◊〉 life to spend for saving them from death XXXV Now Bishops are in the Church to reâ—present Christ to the life either because he has committed to their care the goâ—vernment of his people or because they succeed the Apostles who are his witâ—nesses A Bishop that wants a watchfuâ— care to look after his sheep a voice to caâ— them and above all a life to lose for their sakes is a thief that comes not but to steal to kill and to destroy This great duty gave occasion to the Fathers to call Bishops Sponsos Ecclesiarum suarum the Bride-grooms of their Churches Thence they drew these important conclusions 1. That the polygamy of Dioceses is no more lawful to a Bishop then polygamy of Wives to a Christian 2. That as in a Christian Marriage a husband must be entirely to his wife concenter in her all his desires and love her after God above all the world so a Bishop that is tyed to the Church must banish all other thoughts then to live and die in her bosom 3. That as we learn from the sublime Divinity of the Apostle that Christ loved entirely his Church never abandoned her died for her and remains with her till the end of the world so a Bishop must be jealous of the Church Christ has entrusted him with watch continually for her and because she lies in the midst of a thousand enemies persevere in her defence till his last breath XXXVI We need but read St. Pauls Epistles to Timothy and Titus to see the Disciple Preaching as he had bin taught by his Master All those great qualities he requires in a Bishop that irreprehensible life that exact watchfulness that sound doctrine that incredible patience in exhorting that prudent behavior amongst so many different sorts of people old men youths widows and virgins have no other foundation but residency And the Fathers were so throughly convinc'd of this duty that when they speak of Episcopacy they stile it a burden dreadful to the shoulders of angels themselves along and tedious death a source of infinite cares and solicitudes all which expressions are meer mockeries if they did not suppose residency Jure divino Their examples are more pressing then their precepts And St. Athanasius St. Austin and Pope St. Gregory did actions answering to and surpassing their words Nay God has not permitted the Church of Rome it self in the darkness of its incredulity to be destituted of such precedents St. Charles nephew to Pope Pius the Fourth retir'd to his See maugre all the intreaties of his uncle Cardinal Bellarmin the Popes great adorer would never accept of a dispensation profer'd to him for non residing and he has left us an excellent Letter to a nephew of his wherein we may see that tho Jesuit and Cardinal he could never be induced by the Pope himself to betray his conscience XXXVII But the Cardinals presiding at Trent and the Italian Bishops did not care very much to shake the very principles of Religion and so recur to the softest interpretations of Casuists The first foresaw that if residency be declared of Divine Right
Had not Pope Paul the Third and his Successors aim'd at some other end then the love of Catholic truth why did he oppose the only thing that could render it victorious Is there any president of such a conduct in former Ages Is it not cleer that there is in it some mystery And if so was it to be wondred that Protestants should apply themselves to search into it and prevent its consequences XVIII The choice of a free place where truth should command had bin alwaies a terrour to the Popes As long as the Apostolic See is not rul'd by Adrians and Marcellus's it will never without horrour call to mind the Councils of Constance and Basil Every Country wherein Bishops may say It seems good to the Holy Ghost and to us Act. 15. 28. shall be accounted by the Bishop of Rome a Land of bondage The Pisan Council shall be term'd a Latrociny by the Lateran and most holy decrees shall be lookt upon as so many bold and rash attempts Paul the Third chuses therefore Trent to assemble his Council at This Town indeed was out of the Ecclesiastical state and the Cardinal of Trent commanded therein but as an Author of the Roman communion pleasantly observes the Town was subject to the Cardinal and the Cardinal to the Pope Paul the Third had bin informed by his predecessors example that nothing made so much to the mastering of a Council as the choice of the place He succeeded in it admirably well Trent was not so far from Rome but the Holy Ghost might come thither in a few daies and many legions of Italian Bishops resort thither as it was done at the question of Residence and divine right of Episcopacy when 40 Apulian Bishops set aside for the most pressing occasions came in as fresh supply But he had forgot how Nicholas the First Innocent the Third Clement the Fifth Innocent the Fourth do teach that no man is bound to appear in a place where he has just reasons to fear the multitude XIX The event has shown us that the fears of those Princes were not groundless Their intention was only to obtain a free Council where none should be condemned unheard truth examin'd without prejudice and matters weighed with the greatest care For we must not imagine so many great Kingdoms holy Bishops and learned men sought their own ruine They desired no more then the examination of their doctrine to persevere in it if it should be judged orthodox or to renounce it if it were not so for this reason the favour should be granted them which was never denied to any to wit of being heard An Heathen does so much justice to Pope Liberius as to confess that he chose rather to banish then to condemn Athanasius without hearing his defence But if they were afraid to place us in Athanasius's rank it is certain that Arius Macedonius Paul of Samasate Nestorius Pelagius and the most abominable Heresiarchs have bin heard And the Church alwaies judg'd she could not deny them a thing of natural right XX. Nevertheless the Pope rids himself of all these Inconveniences of the Primitive Church and for fear other Bishops that are present at the Council should speak for them he deprives them of all freedom of proposing any thing Tho they are his venerable Brothers and born Judges of Councils as well as he they have never the more liberty for it All things are done proponentibus legatis and these Legats do propose but what they please When any one touched with a sense of his duty intends to speak he is silenced If he be a French-man or a Spaniard they tell him t is unbecoming the Majesty of a Council to contest But if he be an Italian that is a shadow and a Sceleton of a Bishop he has his ingratitude reproach'd and his Soul terrified by violent threats Ibi est herus tergo metuas There is at Trent but the image of a Council The true one is at Rome Quid à patribus judicandum proponitur aut ab â—is judicatum publicatur quod non prius Romam missum Pio Quarto placuerit The main design is to cheat the People not to establish any real good for the Church The holy Ghost does not shine on the Fathers at Trent but by reflexion and tho he has not promis'd to be in the conclave but in the Council yet he does not come to the one but as sent by the other What can the result be of dealings so contrary to the Spirit of God but to incline men to renounce an assembly where as speaks Mr. Ferriers's Pope Pius the Fourth left no place for the laws no footsteps of the antient Councils no vestige of freedom Vbi nullum legibus locum nullum antiquorum conciliorum nullum liberatatis vestigium Pius Quartus relinquat Nor are the Authors of these last words either Protestants or Heretics Neither is it that famour Venetian whom they call Atheist because he brought out of darkness those artifices the Popes made use of to betray the cause of God but the Legats of the most Christian King Men of admirable integrity and erudition wonderfully addicted to the Church of Rome and public Enemies to those that had separated themselves from it XXI But to be fully perswaded of the violence offer'd the truth and that its vindication was not the scope of their endeavours we need but consider the secret power given to the Popes Legat to transport or to dissolve the Council according to the occurrences Is it not a manifest and evincing argument that the Fathers gather'd at Trent were treated like Children made use of but only for a shew and pretence when an occult and an overuling spirit agitated the whole mass Had the Pope dealt sincerely and without mistrust what need such an anticipated power But if he could not suppress his fears in a place he had bin so much cautious of to be made secure are not the very same fears much more reasonable in such as could there hope for no security The dissolving of Councils is the last shift the Popes betake themselves to Eugenius the Fourth attempted to secure his tottering power at Basil and indeed that Council had vanish'd into smoak but that the Emperour Princes and Bishops forced him to repair thither by threatning to condemn him for a stubborn and obstinate man if he should refuse it Proud Leâ— the Tenth succeeded more happily and tho Alexander the Fifth testified at his death all things had bin done at the Pisan Council with all imaginable sincerity and integrity yet he declar'd it a meer conventicle XXII Had they intended to render truth manifest and palpable to all Christians why did they take a course for discussing it oâ— suspicious and unheard of till then What means that so extraordinary distinction of Congregations and Sessions the first to deliberate the other to decide and decreeâ— Had they learnt this from
prolong his life he would have done great things The reformation of Popes was a wound never searched without making them fall into dreadful fits All Christians desired the primitive times in matters both of Doctrine and discipline should be brought again But they were afraid at that word and the only representation of such a Council as those four which Pope Gregory the Great reverenced as the four Gospels was a phantôme which all the exorcisms in the World could not drive away We need but read Onuphrius their historian to be acquainted with their fears Cardinal Pallavicini could not conceal them Cardinal Bellai represents in his memoires how much Pope Paul the Fourth was frighted And all the World was so far perswaded that this only thing hindred them from proceeding that Monsieur de Ferrieres Embassadour of his most Christian Majesty to the Council told them not only in his Masters name but also of all the Gallican Church that more than an hundred and fifty years since a reformation of the head and members had bin expected in the Church that it had bin required in the Constantian Basilean and Ferrarian Councils but could never be obtained that t was no hard matter to guess at the reason of so many delaies XV. The truth on 't was the Popes wounds were grown altogether incurable There had bin a kind of prescription against all their abuses Many holy men had inveigh'd against them on all occasions but in vain and thus usurpation had lasted so long that they did account it a lawful authority T was so pleasing to them to thunder at all the World upon the smallest occasion that they could not renounce it without thinking themselves undone In a word they were not taken so much with the humble and penitent lives of the Popes Adrian and Marcellus as with the audacious and voluptuous ones of Boniface Leo and Hildebrand Nevertheless this sick and languishing person is allow'd to govern his own Physitians The general complaint of the World is that the Popes swelling ambition has made him break through all laws that the Court of Rome is become a sink of wickedness that the vices of the head infected the members that without the reforming of this head there is no hope left for laying of any solid foundation And yet he presides in his Council He calls directs and transports it by his â—ull and sole authority tho the 400 Preâ—ates met at Basil had made it a point of the Catholic Faith that 't was not in his power his Spirit fits the mouth of his Legats and the fear of him strikes the hearts of the Bishops XVI Paul the third being afraid of nothing so much as of a free Council where Protestants should be heard provided so well against these two inconveniences that the Conventicles of Tyre of Antioch or of Ephesuâ— in comparison of that would have bin thought freedom it self Peace being the source of all freedom in an Ecclesiastical assembly where all the members of it are stil'd by Scripture Evangelists of peace that Pope was extreamly diligent in fomenting War thro all Europe This we are assur'd of by the speech of Cardinal de Monte that of Cardinal de Lorraine the letters of the Lantgrave de Hesse of the Duke of Saxony and of that Pope himself to the Switzers wherein he acquaints them he has made a league with the Emperor to underminâ— Protestants and intends for that purpose to raise all the forces of the Ecclesiastical state What name shall we give a Council which has such a Pope for its president Do's he deal out of charity or ambition Do's he design to convert Souls by force of Arms What can they think of the Church who are suppos'd to be separated from her How long is it since Councils were taught to War with any other weapon then Scriptures then tears and Praiers Is that Pope to be trusted who at the same time he offers to receive his Children into his bosome can lift up his hand to strike them Julius the Third was of a greater sincerity and scorn'd to deal deceitfully When he call'd the Fathers to Trent he openly agreed with the Emperor to make War against France about the Dukedom of Parma and to speak as Onuphrius who is more his Panegyrist than his Historian set Italy and the rest of Europe in a flame What peace then or freedome could a Council enjoy when all Europe was emâ—roil'd and groan'd under a bloody War and what designs of reunion and charity could a Pope entertain who sought nothing but confusion and trouble Pius the Fourth seem'd to be asham'd of it He was so little convinc'd of the validity of what ever had bin done at Trent that when he recall'd again his Synod the third time he was at a loss how to term it whether it should be considered as a new one or but a continuation of the first French-men claim'd the one Spaniards pretended the other The Pope saies his Panegyrist met with an expedient to make them agree and he did so contrive his Bull that all were equally satisfied that is to say he daub'd up the business he flatter'd each one with a fancy they had bin victorious but he gave occasion at the same time to all clear-sighted men to wonder at a conduct so far distant from the candor and ingenuity of the first Ages and so full of carnal wisdom which the Apostle stiles Death and to beleive that he never intended to heal the wounds of the Church but only to cover them and create her new ones XVII What is the reason the Pope is so earnest for the Council to be held in Italy and stops his ears to the cries of Germany the complaints of Protestants and the entreaties of so many Princes and Bishops Did France where the eldest Son of the Church commands give him any cause to fear Did Germany where Charles 5 th commanded Did Spain where people were grown adorers of his Grandeur Was this Council for being had in any of these Kingdoms under the subjection of most Christian and Catholic Princes in danger of becoming either less free or less Orthodox Had the Pope bin inflam'd with the zeal of that faithful Shepherd of whom it is written do's he not leave the ninety nine go into the Mountains seeks that which is gone astray how great joy should have possessed his Soul for having the place shown him where to find his wandring Sheep where all European Bishops might have met together and England Sweden Denmark Poland and Germany sent their Prelates Should he not have bin ravish'd at the occasion given him of rendring the Protestants inexcusable of reproaching them as Christ did Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thy Children together even as a hen gathereth her chicken and ye would not Matth. 23. 37. of accusing them of Schism and applying to them all Saint Austin's arguments against the Donatists
the first Councils of the Church Must articles of Faith be handled secretly Is there any thing more dreadful to the truth then to be abscoâ—ded And is there any rational man that suspects not they are willing to disguise and betray it when he sees them so cautious and overprudent to conceal from him their way of examining it Is infallibility to be found in the Sessions or in the Congregations not in the last since they are compos'd of private Doctors nor in the first since nothing is examin'd in them And Gods Spirit a spirit of Wisdom and discretion forbids to determine any thing but after a long and serious trial XXII Hence we draw how weak is an answer of the author of the considerations upon the Council of Trent which seems to him the most solid ground of all his discourse The inconsiderable number of Bishops who voted in that Council is objected to him And we say that it is a great temerity in those few Bishops and Divines to have made in so short a time upon so important matters such a prodigious number of decrees and an other yet greater and more unpardonable then the first to have bin so bold to propose them as the decisions of the Catholic Church To this he answers two things first that those Bishops and Divines were men of an extraordinary merit Secondly that whatever this small number had done was approv'd of received and ratified by the greater number which amounted to above two hundred at the least Session For the first part of his answer concerning their extraordinary merit he must give us leave to tell him Pope Paul the fourth was incomparably better acquainted with it then he is and consequently more to be beleived And he said of them to Cardinal Bellay It had bin a great weakness in his Predecessours their having sent to the Mountains of Trent threescore Bishops of the less learned Sessanta Vescovi de manco habili forty very ordinary Divines quaranta dottori de meno sufficienti For the second we acknowledg with him that at the end of the Council two hundred and 50 Bishops the greatest part Italians ratifi'd the decrees of those other But he ought to acknowledg with us as a matter of fact that after the arrival of those new Bishops there had not bin any new examination of so many decrees but only a simple reading Whence we conclude many things so disadvantageous to him that it would have bin more secure and handsom for him to have let that objection alone as he did twenty others And first that it is against all Canons all right and rules of common sense that Bishops newly come should determine points they never examin'd Secondly the surveying of these points was either necessary or not If t was so they were bound therefore to undertake it But if there was no such necessity why did the first Bishops impose it upon themselves Thirdly the last Bishops avoiding any new examination did therefore acquiesce in the precedent and so it is a ridiculous petition of principle and the greatest dishonour the Council could be blemish'd with to say the Fathers rely upon some Bishops de manco habili and some Divines de meno sufficienti Fourthly that by this means Protestants continue still in the right for complaining they have bin condemned without being heard that they can and ought to maintain their Doctrine till it be lawfully proscrib'd it being probable so many great Kingdoms three parts of Germany and a considerable part of France and Poland were further from being mistaken then a few Bishops de manco habili and a few Divines demeno sufficienti XXIV Ther 's none can forbear laughing at the simplicity of him that collected the subscriptions of that Council who to dazle the eyes of ignorant People writes a patriarch of Jerusalem and six Greek Prelats Greeks born in Italy who had nothing Greek but their names as lately Cardinal de Rets was Arch-Bishop of Corinth tho he had never bin there The same is to be said of the pretended Arch-Bishops of Armagh and Upsal who sate at Trent when the true Prelats of those Sees protested against the Council And for those titular Bishops who appeard there in so stupendious a number the Pope did never reflect that in sending them thither he published to all the World how much an enemy he was to the Spirit Discipline and rules of the Church which hath alwaies consider'd the Election of Bishops without Bishoprics as constant violations of her most holy laws XXV But all these Shepherds as well those that want Sheep as those that are knowâ— by theirs John 11. 14. are tied up to the Pope by a more solemn and dreadful Oath then that which obligeth them to their natural Princes This Oath is not only contrary to all antiquity wherein t is impossible to find any footstep of it not only unworthy the Episcopal rank not only injurious and scandalous to Kings who thereby can never hope for true and faithful allegiances from their Bishops but also horrid and abominable in all its parts A private author would never be beleived that should undertake to evince the consequences of it They would suspect him of being prepossess'd and swayed more by his own passion then the truth But le ts hear how the Pope himself interprets this Oath No Bishop of the Church of Rome can disown the interpretation of his holiness For it is the universal Doctrine of all Divines except some scandalous Jesuits that we must in all our swearings answer the meaning of the law-giver otherwise we attempt to deride God and make his word a witness to our falshood But Pope Pius the Second makes the extent of this Oath so large that writing to the Bishop of Mayence he tells him It is not lawful for a Bishop to speak true against the Pope Non licet verum dicere contra Papam If we give any credit to that Popes words which the Author of the considerations cannot disown for he spake ex Cathedrâ in a thousand occurrences they that take such an Oath must needs be either perjur'd or betrayers of the truth of Christ But what can we hope from Bishops who sit in a Council thus enslav'd to the Popes will since a Heresie maintain'd by him as but too many have bin they cannot oppose without forswearing themselves and if they remain dumb at such enormities they shamefully betray the station Christ has given them in his Church What would the Nicene or Chalcedonian Fathers have said at this acclamation of the Apulian Bishops Nihil aliud sumus praeterquam creaturae mancipia Sanctissimi Patris What would Domnus oâ— Dioscorus have desir'd more and if Paphnutius could not forbear weeping to see Athanasius's seat fill'd by his accuser and himself thrust into a place due to that vile man is it possible there was not one Bishop at Trent seen to shed tears at so strange
contrary interpretations to satisfy men of different interests and give them the mutual pleasure of believing their assertions upheld by the autority of the Council And thus the Jesuits and Dominicans were equally contented with the Canons concerning Grace and Justification Each Party drew the autority of the Council to its own side and there has not bin any Writer of these two Orders who in their many Books as opposite one to another as light is to darkness has not alledged these very Canons as invincible proofs against his adversary II. But if any should enquire further and search into that vast multitude of Decrees unknown till then he must needs wonder to find them built upon so sandy Foundations The most general Basis of them is laid in the fourth Session where the Council proposes two objects to our Faith to wit Books which are written and Traditions which are not written And they pretend as a necessary consequence that whatever we oppose against the Church of Rome is of that kind This is the Epitome of all the Council Nevertheless least any one should be offended at the word Tradition and perswade himself that they intend by it to equal mens autority to that of God or humane Ceremonies to the sacred Precepts of the Gospell they give of it a most magnificent character calling it The Word of Christ a Doctrine inspired by the Holy Ghost for the ordering our Faith and manners and preserved in the Catholic Church by a continued succession If that Principle be true there is an end of all Controversies and were the Church of Rome as able to prove it as she is ready to advance it we might hope to see in our daies that blessed Word of Christ accomplish't There shall be one Fold and one Shepherd And indeed there is no Protestant in the World who doth not admit of a Tradition endued with these Qualifications First That it be the Word of Christ 2. Inspired by the Holy Ghost 3. In matter of Faith and Manners 4. Preserved in the Catholic Church by an uninterrupted succession But there is no Protestant in the World that doth not maintain such a Tradition cannot be proved and is nothing else but one of those rich and splendid Idea's as admirable and flattering in their speculation as impossible and deceiving in their practice III. For the perfect evidencing whereof we need but consider the following Proposals First That of all places of the Scriptures whereby the Church of Rome asserts her Tradition there is not so much as one alledged by the Fathers in her sense Secondly That none of the Fathers ever understood Tradition otherwise then for the unanimous consent of the Doctors of the Church grounded upon a word which is written Thirdly That no places in Scripture are express for the authorizing such Tradition but many positive and clear to prove the sufficiency of Scripture Fourthly That among the Traditions of the Church of Rome she proposes many to our belief which do not appertain at all either to Faith or manners IV. The Scripture is most holy most infallible most perfect in it self The Gospel has added what was deficient in the Law And the Apostles Writings supplied the defect of the Gospel There we must stay 'T is no less crime in S. Basil's opinion to add that which is not written then to reject that which is written And 't is a stupendious boldness when God has vouchsafed to reveal his will to men by a certain and infallible word to substitute another neither clear nor undoubtedly received V. That new word which is ascribed to God has properly and by its self relation to those things which cannot be proved by Scripture as one of the Divines present at Trent has taken notice of otherwise it would be a written word But if it be so nothing is more unworthy of Christ and less agreeable to his divine Oracles It is to render his truth suspected or uncertain to expose Christians to infinite errors to give them as many masters as there are persons who will profess themselves the Guardians of that word and to make it the object of all mens scorn since according to the excellent saying of S. Jerome Quod de Scripturis autoritatem non habet eâ—dem facilitate contemnitur qua probatur VI. We find not that Christ in his holy Gospel sends us to Tradition whereby we may come to the knowledg of him Search the Scriptures they are they that testify of me The Apostles speak as their Master We have also a more sure word of Prophecy whereunto you do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts Many saies S. Chrysostom pretend to speak from the Holy Ghost but they do it falsly as long as they speak from themselves as Christ testifies he spoke not from himself but from the Law and the Prophets so if they proffer us any other thing then the Gospel under pretence of its being inspired by the Holy Ghost let us be far from believing it Is there any thing worse saies Pope S. Leo then to have impious sentiments and yet not to be willing to assent to the more learned and wise Those are guilty of this folly who when they are hindred from knowing the truth by any obscurity do not recur to the Prophetical Books the Apostolical Writings and Evangelical autority but to themselves and so become Masters and Teachers of error because they refused to be Disciples of Truth It would have bin very easy for S. Austin in that long and tedious Disputation with the Donatists concerning the Catholic Church to have made an end of it by sending them to Tradition But instead of doing so Let us not hear saies he Haec dico haec dicis but let us hear haec dicit Dominus We have the Lords Books Both of us acknowledg their autority both of us believe them ibi quaeramus Ecclesiam ibi discutiamus causam nostram nolo humanis documentis seâ— divinis Oraculis sanctam Ecclesiam demonstrari We seek as he there adds where the Church is what shall we do in verbis nostris eam quaesituri sumus an in verbis Domini I think it is to be sought in his words who is the TRUTH and knows perfectly her who is his Body Habeo manifestissimam vocem Pastoris mei commendantis mihi sine ullis ambagibus exprimentis Ecclesiam If I suffer my self to be reduced and separated from his flock which is the Church by the words of men I will impute it to my self whereas he advertiz'd me saying My Sheep know my voice 'T is the constant Doctrine of that admirable man in all his Works In his Letter to S. Jerome I confess your Charity saies he I give those Books alone which are termed Canonical that honor as to believe none of their Authors did
ever err In his Letter to Vincent Do not oppose therefore Brother to so many and undoubted places some of the writings of the Bishops either ours or those of Hilary Cyprian and Agrippinus All these writings want the Autority of the Canon and we receive not their testimonies as things which it is not lawful to dissent from if they are dissenting from the Truth Upon the 87. Psalm You read not in the Gospel those whom you name neither do I see those whom I alledge Let us lay aside our Books procedat in medium Codex Dei Finally against Maximinus the Arian who relied upon the Council of Ariminum I ought not saies he to cite you the Nicene Council nor you that of Ariminum as prejudices for our cause Scripturarum autoritatibus non quorumcunque propriis sed utriusque communibus testâ—bus res cum re causa cum causa ratio cum ratione concertet utrique tanti ponderis molibus cedamus Nay 't was not only Bishops that thought so but Lay-men themselves We are taught by the Gospel saies Constantine to the Nicene Fathers the Apostolical Writings and the Oracles of the Prophets what we must know of God let us therefore draw the explication of our doubts from the words divinely inspired VII We intend not hereby to detract from any part of the high esteem every Christian ought to have for the Works of the Fathers We consider them as the Masters of the Church who instructed her not only by the learned productions of their minds but by the purity and good examples of their lives We honor them as Preachers who spake no less by the wounds they received for the defence of Christ then by the words they made use of to make known his Doctrine Nor could we behold without a just resentment a Minister of our Age to abuse their Writings in a Book entitled De vero usu Patrum We acknowledg with the great S. Austin that these holy Men were stabiles in antiquissima robustissima Fide We call with the Primitive Councils our present Faith the Faith of our Fathers But we are not convinced that our respect should endue us to believe them infallible After Gods Word none is of greater weight to us then theirs but we are not bold enough to mingle confound them As a body grows not luminous but as it comes near the Sun to receive its impressions so we do not see in them any certainty of light but as they are conformable to the Scripture which is certainty and light it self And we think we give them all the praises they can expect from us when we say as S. Athanasius did of the Nicene Fathers that their Expositions of the Nicene Faith according to divine Scriptures are sufficient to destroy all Impiety and confirm the belief of Christ VIII But that which is more to be wondred at is that none of the controverted points has ever bin preserved in the Catholic Church as a point of Faith and agreeable to the consent of the Fathers a truth expresly maintained by a learned u Bishop of this Kingdom who successfully challeng'd any of the Roman Communion to a contradiction I would call for no other evidence then the Canon of this very Session § 4. which ordains under pain of Excommunication to admit of those Books as Canonical that had never bin such with the same veneration as those which had bin constantly kept by the Church All Councils Fathers Ages ancient and modern Writers exclaim against that Decree and there is no man tho but commonly read in Ecclesiastical writings that can deny it Notwithstanding the Council doth anathematize those that dissent from its Canons Pope Paul and Pius the IV. exact a dreadful Oath of it and make the People swear upon the Gospel to receive as certain and undoubted that which all the learned of the Church of Rome had lookt upon before as evidently false IX The Decree which consecrates the vulgar Translation is most strange but nothing is like the declaration of the Cardinals who assure us Quod ne vel iota unum repugnat in veteri vulgata Latinae linguae editione tho Pope Clement VIII confesses in the Preface to his Edition many things were purposely omitted which should have bin changed Let it be said with all due respect to their Eminencies that so surprizing assurances shew either deep ignorance or a wonderful unsincerity or the greatest boldness in the World X. The Articles of Justification which establish the merit of our Works in a manner so injurious to the Grace of our Redeemer are no less opposite to the ancient Church That holy Mother constantly instructed her Sons in all times That we are by nature the Children of wrath That God works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure That we are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing of our selves but our sufficiency is of God She has bin taught by Christ himself Without me ye can do nothing if the Son shall make you free you shall be free indeed and no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him She has bin informed by her Doctors that when God is pleased to Crown in us our merits he Crowns but his gifts that unless he gives us what he commands us his Law instead of a spirit giving life becomes to us a killing Letter She has determined in her Council That no man is free for doing any good thing but by Gods Grace that God expects not our will but prepares it according to what is written in his word that when we fall into any sin we do it of our selves and of our own will but when we do any good Action 't is out of his alone Let any unprejudiced person read the Canons of the Council of Orange where S. Hilary being President Christs Grace triumph't so entirely over all its enemies and compare them with those of Trent he will be amazed at so strange a contrariety But when we are so earnest in throwing down our pretended merits to raise a glorious Trophy to our Faith we intend not to patronize Libertinism and give way to those licentious opinions which are the natural consequences drawn from the Doctrines of some Reformers Faith whereby a man is justified is not barren and like that of the Devil which is of no use but to prolong and foment his disorders It is a Faith which as the Apostles stiles it works by love which makes us look upon Christ as the Foundation and only Source of our Salvation breeds in us an ardent desire of him That love which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost promts us to put our whole trust in him and to practise by the Soveraign power of his Grace what his Gospell teacheth is required of us S. Austin incomparably expresses this
great Truth in these words which the Church has so much admired as to make a Canon of them Verily verily I say unto you he that beleives in me hath everlasting life He therefore who has not everlasting life believes not in Christ but he believes in Christ that has Charity for to beleive in Christ est tendere in ipsum amando is to be enclined to him by Love It is to this the remissions of sins hath bin promised huic remissio peccatorum promittitur But if Love cannot be separated from Christian Faith how can he that wants Charity have Christian Faith that is believe in Christ Faith is therefore the Spring of our love and love the Source of our Works What is it to love God continues that holy Doctor but to be inwardly adherent to him to conceive an ardent desire of seeing him an hatred of sin a distast to the World a Charity for our Neighbor whom he has commanded us to love and so strictly to observe in our Charity the rules he has prescribed us in his Law as never to pervert its order But let it be far from Christians to think our Faith or Love come from us If any beleives saies the Council of Orange he can do any good action quod ad salutem pertinet vitae aeternae by the strength of nature and without being enlightned and inspired by the Holy Ghost who poures into our hearts a suavity which makes us assent to and believe the truth that man haeretico fallitur spiritu not attending to what Christ pronounces in his Gospel Without me ye can do nothing Nor to the words of the Apostle We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God There are in man saies the same Council many good things which man doth not do but in those he doth there are none but what God doth in him No man saies another Canon has of himself but falshood and sin but if any hath truth and righteousness 't is of him Quem debemus sitire in hac eremo ut ex eo quasi quibusdam guttis irrorati non deficiamus in via Good God! how far are the Canons of Trent from the holiness and humility of these how repugnant to the establisht Doctrine of the Church and the sentiments of the Fathers are the proud and Pelagian principles of the Jesuits XI The Anathema's of the seventh Session being no better grounded are not more to be feared the Council cuts off from the Church which is the Body of Christ those who admit of more or less then seven Sacraments It is evident that such a Principle cannot be proved by the Scripture We must then recur to the unwritten Word Sure so important a truth has bin preserved in the Catholic Church and nothing ought to be more obvious in the writings of the Fathers Nevertheless not a word for twelve whole Ages and that so long uninterrupted silence had never bin broken had not the master of the Sentences and other Scholastics brought it into the World Indeed we find every where in the writings of the Fathers that the Adult must give an account of the Faith they professed at their Baptism and receive the imposition of hands from the Bishop We meet every where with Repentance Penance and Confession of Sins We see every where the power of ordaining Priests so committed to the Bishops by Christ that all Ordinations from other hands were esteemed unlawful and sacrilegious But we find no where all these things to be Sacraments And no man can sufficiently wonder how the Fathers at Trent propose as an Article of Faith grounded upon Tradition a thing they are obliged to confess was never spoken of in the Church for twelve hundred years XII The Vnwritten word doth no more favor the Canon which establishes Transubstantiation then the others and we have from the ancient writings so many places against this Doctrine that we cannot conceive how it came into the World Tertullian writing against Marcion who denied that Christ had a real Body tells him Christ made his Body of the Bread he distributed saying This is my Body that is the figure of my Body Figura Corporis mei but it had never bin a Figure Si veritatis corpus non esset had not the Truth Christ had a real Body Christ saies Theodoret honored the Symbols and signs of the Sacrament with the name of his Body and Blood not changing their nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but adding his Grace to their nature S. Jerome is no less positive then Theodoret The Flesh and Blood of Christ saies he are understood two several waies either of that spiritual and divine Flesh of which he saies himself My Flesh is meat indeed and my Blood is drink indeed and Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you or my Flesh which was nailed upon the Cross and my Blood which was shed by the Souldiers Spear S. Austin who is justly esteemed the Oracle of the Western Churches adds a pregnant testimony to this Assertion The first heresy saies he in the Disciples of Christ was occasioned by the hardness of his words for when he told them Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you they not apprehending him said one to another This is a hard saying who can bear it In saying this is hard they separated themselves from him But he remained with his twelve Disciples and taught them saying It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life Do you understand them in a spiritual manner they are spirit and life do you understand them in a carnal manner they they are no less spirit but not for thee who understandest them not spiritually Spiritually apprehend what I have said Non hoc corpus quod videtur manducaturi estis bibituri sanguinem quem effusuri sunt qui me crucifigent The Sacrament I recommend to you quickneth when it is understood spiritually but the flesh profiteth nothing They answered him according to their apprehension for they understood this flesh as it is used to be sold in a carcass or torn in the shambles Jesus knowing their error said to them What I told you of giving you my Body to eat and my Blood to drink scandalizeth you but what will you say if you see the Son of Man ascending to the place where he was before He resolves here what he had proposed to them he shews them that which they were scandalized by to the end they might apprehend him In this manner they thought he would have given them his Body Ille dixit se ascensurum in coelum utique integrum When you shall see the Son of Man ascending to
Council of Francfort should object That those Nicene Fathers not being able to prove their Decrees either by the autority of the Scripture or the testimonies and examples of the Saints had recurred to fancies and Dreams A Council which the Assembly at Francfort of 300. Bishops headed by Charles the Great declared to be so annulled and abrogated that it ought not to be put in the order of Councils unless of such as Ariminum Lastly a Council which the learned Defenders of Images were so loath to defend that it had continued buried in a deep oblivion had not the Jesuit Mainbourg three years since raised it from its Grave but alas in what a manner First he affected and this is his confession and glory to write in a Romantick stile upon one of the gravest Controversies in Religion as if matters of Divinity and the Oracles of the living God were of the same metal as those abominable Books Secondly in writing against Iconoclasts he never directed his arrows against them but designed to fix them in the hearts of the Jansenists Preposterous and irrational fancy being put to it how to recover the lost honor of his Society so trampled on in the sight of all Christendom he resolved to attack once more his Conquerors not out of any hopes of Victory but out of impatience the natural product of Pride He durst not therefore come into the open Field and renew that Quarrel his Society had so shamefully begun and so unhappily prosecuted but betook himself to by waies and thought it more secure and glorious to represent the Jansenists under the notion of Iconoclasts and the imputed rebellion of the one against the Apostolical See under the history of the other Thirdly He so ill contrived his design that he lost the Character of both and only betrayed himself to be of a spirit bold and temerarious who with more then a Jesuitical impudence delivers lies as confidently as others do truth His History of the Arians and this of the Iconoclasts both daughters of the same brain both written with the same design had also the same fate Neither was answered those whom they were chiefly levelled against being there so unskilfully delineated as not to know themselves nor indeed would they ever have done so had not that Author doating upon his so well resembling Babe and the Jesuits who like the Spaniards triumph as well when beaten as when Conquerors spread it through the World But I have spent too many words upon so inconsiderable a Writer XXV To return then to our purpose who of any sense or reason hearing the Fathers of Trent say that they permit the worship of Images juxta Catholicae Ecclesiae usum à primaevis Christianae Religionis temporibus receptum Sanctorumque Patrâ—m consensionem Sacrorum Conciliorum Decreta and then seeking all these great things finds 1. That for 800. years the Catholick and Apostolick Church has determined nothing of it 2. That all the Fathers are contrary to it 3. That those sacred Councils so magnificently alledged are nothing but a miserable Conventicle at the end of the eighth Age. 4. That England Germany the Low-Countries Sweden Denmark part of France and Poland declare against it What man of any sense I say considering all this will not conclude 1. That we ought to distrust all the Decrees of Trent and some being evidently false give little credit to the most true 2. That the Fathers of Trent had not the Charity of the Apostles whose Successors they were since they excluded from their Communion so many considerable Churches for a point which themselves acknowledg not to be grounded on Scripture Not necessary to Salvation Not related to Faith Manners Sacraments and Discipline And Protestants not requiring Images to be pulled down as did S. Epiphanius and S. Serenus but only their use to be ordered as it was in S. Austin and S. Gregory's time 3. That the Church of Rome being immoveable upon the Controverted points she must give us leave to address to her Council the same words the Fathers of Francfort did to the Nicene Out of what fury or rather madness doth unius partis Ecclesia attempt to establish that which has never bin establisht by the Apostles or their immediate Successors and oblige them either to undergo the Anathema so vainly pronounced against them or disobey the Apostolical Constitutions Were they not promted by her who is called in Scripture the ancient poison the guide of Death the root of all evil they would never strive to fix the name of General Council to their Assembly had without the consent of many Catholick Churches They would never take upon them to anathematize with such boldness so many and so considerable Churches which are no less then they the Body of Christ REFLEXIONS On the Council of TRENT Discourse III. That the Council of Trent was so far from reforming the disorders which had crept into the Church that it really made the breaches in its discipline wider and cut off all hopes of correcting the antient abuses I. WHatever Ecclesiastical disorders are recorded in the Writings of the Antients they seem in no respect equal to those which infested the Church about the time of the Council of Trent In the first Ages indeed the zeal and severity of Christians rendred every fault conspicuous but in the last the most pious could hardly suffice to express her real and constant evils This produc'd the desires of a general Reformation especially that he who pretends to be upon Earth the supreme Judg of all men would judg himself take some pity of his own Soul and since the distempers of the Church ow'd their original to the Apostolical See begin at that part from whence the cure of all the rest was hoped for II. Whereas then the Worlds recovery depended on that of the Popes they ought willingly to have embraced the occasion of doing so great a good Nor could less be hoped then that considering the promotion of Piety as their proper Interest they would sacrifice all others to it and the Council of Trent which lasted eighteen years rais'd the expectations of all good Christians that the tears of so many Nations would not be shed in vain But by the dreadful judgment of God it miserably baffled the Churches cries and instead of closing her wounds opened and created new ones For to evince the truth of which so great reproach we need only consider two particulars 1. The distempers of the Church 2. The remedies applied to them And from the consideration of these there will none I hope but confess that the Fathers of this Council acted the part of an unfaithful Chirurgion who to cure a less noble part inflicts a deadly wound to the heart of his Patient III. We intend not here to treat of any personal defects which shew'd themselves in the Popes private life but shall confine them only to those which were public when they dealt
Hurtado are purity it self compar'd with the Book of the Apostolical Tax All the Casuists together never taught the World so many crimes as this one profligate Book We suppress it because we would not offend the modesty of our Reader There are no tongues or words pregnant enough to express so great an infamy but yet to give some hint of it let us hear the Popes Secretary Our sins saies he are rais'd to such an height that we have scarce any hope of mercy left us 'T were a vain attemt to describe the greatness of the Priests covetousness especially of them that govern How unbounded is their ambition obscenity and luxury How deep is their ignorance both of themselves and Christs doctrine also How full is the little Piety they had left of hypocrisie and dissimulation and how instead of concealing the crimes they commit do they affect rather to make them appear XII This then was the disease of the Roman Church let us now examine whether the Council of Trent has truly reform'd so many abuses whether it hath preserv'd the respect due to Princes render'd the rights of Bishops inviolable taken away the Simonies and Extortions of the Court of Rome and whether Mr. d'Espences complains wrongfully Quod tot annis tot annorum centenariâ—is nil in ea emendatur XIII As for Princes the injuries which the preceding Popes had done them were so far from being repaired that Julius the Third was so bold as to excommunicate the Queen of Navar give her Kingdom over to depredation and confiscate her Goods XIV As for the Holy Father they work out his reformation in a pleasant manner It is consider'd as a Crime to speak of reforming him of searching into his wounds or taking any account of his excesses And when the Cardinals hurried on by the force of truth and the cries of all men are oblig'd out of meer shame to propose the mending any abuse they alwaies add Salva tamen Apostolicae sedis autoritate So when plurality of Benefices is condemn'd it is Salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate when that intolerable abuse of Dispensations is cut off 't is salva semper sedis Apostolicae autoritate when any Penance is imposed upon non-resident Bishops 't is salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate when Friars are put again under the jurisdiction of their Ordinaries and obedience to their Canons 't is salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate that is to say The autority of that Apostolic See which has patroniz'd their first violation of the discipline shal be at liberty to do it a second time They dare condemn no crimes without impowring the Apostolic See to commit them over again A Law however just and necessary in it self cannot be enacted without leaving to the Apostolical See the liberty of infringing it And thus they make of the Apostolical See a sanctuary and retreat for all disorders XV. Nothing is better known at Rome then the lives of a great many Cardinals Heaven and Earth are offended at their Pride Their plurality of Benefices Bishoprics and Abbies is monstrous No secular Princes are attended with greater magnificence Never had the most luxurious Heathens either Palaces so gloriously adorn'd or Tables so delicatly furnished and whatever we read of the Gardens of Lucullus or the pleasures of Tempe is far short of the luxury of their Country Houses Yet they are Clergy-men that is a sort of people who not only vowed in their Baptism to renounce the World but declar'd it also in their Ordination That the Lord was the lot of their inheritance and his Gospel a commandment to die and bury themselves with him Notwithstanding when their Reformation was spoken of in the Council the Legats presently declar'd that the Reformation ought not to extend unto their Eminencies to which a Pious and Learned Bishop more daring then the rest moved to see Sacred Episcopacy so trampled upon by them made answer that the most illustrious Cardinals ought to have a most illustrious Reformation Illustrissimi Cardinales indigent illustrissima reformatione But they are deaf to this voice of Heaven and instead of sincerely advancing the Interest of the Gospel among themselves to the end that the spring it self being purified the stream might be so too 200 Bishops and five Cardinals busie themselves in ordering the subsistence of Franciscans and shaping the habit of Nuns XVI Nothing is so certain as the shameful traffic of the Datary and Chancery none but the wilfully blind can deny it to be a gulph which swallows up the riches of many Kingdoms and sucks the purest Blood of the people But they must first have renounc'd the Gospel and their own reason who confess not that it is a continual commerce of abominable Simony a violating of the most Holy Canons and a pernicious attemt upon the autority of Princes and Bishops What Council in former Ages what custom of the Church what legitimate Title impowers the Popes to give Benefices of other Kingdoms What new Gospel teaches him to raise vast sums upon the account of Spiritual matters What right hath he over those Churches he hath never ministred unto Which of the Fathers or what Authors can he allege to maintain such usurpations Nay who in the latter times â—id not rise against such an execrable abuse and spoke not to him in the words â—f a famous Emperor Cesset altaribus imâ—inere profanus ardor avaritiae sacris â—dytis repellatur piaculare flagitium Yea the Council very well saw all this was in the Diocess of all these Bishops â—hat so intolerable disorders spread their â—ranches The Canons of the Sacred â—ouncils of Nice and Chalcedon are set before their eies as so many eternal Witnesâ—es of the Churches Spirit but instead â—f following their rules they wholly buâ—â—e themselves in cutting off some small â—â—uses reforming of a Country Vicar 〈◊〉 for the rest Salva semper Apostolicae â—â—dis autoritate XVII Of all the different kinds of Simony the Court of Rome is guilty of none is so certain and aver'd as the Annats Boniface the Eighth and John the Twenty second invented them two Popes Baronius stiles Monsters The Council of Basil prohibited them under pain of Excommunication and because the Fathers were inform'd that they came from no other source then the Pope who by a Pasce oves meas Joh. 4. 6. makes all crimes lawful they add those so remarkable words That if the Bishop of Rome who more then any other ought to observe and execute the Canons of the Councils comes to scandalize the Church attempting any thing against such a prohibition let him be proceeded against by a General Council The most considerable Authors of the Church of Rome both for Learning and Piety complain most bitterly of this The Faculty of Sorbon calls it not only a Crime but an Heresy Paul the Third his Counsellors who had bin first oblig'd under pain of Excommunication to declare
of Trent gave it two mortal wounds 1. To declare Bishops in many cases the Popes Delegates 2. To leave the question of their residence and jurisdiction undecided 1. The first of these two things brings Episcopacy unto a strange abatement renders the Pope master of all Bishops Jurisdictions breaks all ancient Canons runs down the interests of all Princes encroaches upon the Rights and Liberties of Churches gives the Bishops a quality unworthy the successors of the Apostles and forces them to receive that as a borrowed and begg'd privilege which belongs naturally to them The second causes Episcopacy to be look'd upon as a meer humane emploiment or Civil Magistracy Such a Bishop could never have the confidence to say with the Apostle 2 Cor. 13. 3. Do you seek a proof of Christs speaking in me Nay he would no more value his sacred character then one of the Kings officers do his and regard the duties of his Divine calling rather as rules instituted for decency then as unchangeable obligations so strictly requir'd from him that without them he has no hope of salvation XXVI Jurisdiction is no less essential to Episcopacy then the power of ordaining Ministers a proposition we could easily demonstrate to be unanswerable would it not render this Discourse too big and had it not bin already done by a learned hand against the infamous Doctrine of â—oth English and French Jesuits For Jesuits are every where the same Ordination and Jurisdiction are so twisted together that they cannot be divided without their â—â—utual destruction Bishops receive both from the same hand and are no less instituted by Christ in the Church to govern 〈◊〉 then to continue the succession of the Governors XXVII Nay may it not be affirm'd that Jurisdiction is both as essential to Episcopacy 〈◊〉 necessary to the Church as Ordination â—or the Church being as St. Paul saies a 〈◊〉 i. e. a society consisting of Rulers and others submitted to them without Jurisdiction it can no more be such a society then without Ordination those rulers can be continued Therefore as noâ— Bishop ordains in the Catholic Church aâ— the Popes or any other Patriarchs delegate but by the fulness of power he receives from Christ so no Bishop exerciseâ— any act of Jurisdiction by any delegation but by that power he is invested with aâ— Bishop successor of the Apostles and Vicar of Christ A Bishop that acts or believes otherwise betraies that dignity intrusted to hiâ— by Christ which he ought to maintain 〈◊〉 the last drop of his blood XXVIII Nor pretend we thereby to say thâ— such a Jurisdiction may be exercis'd in â—â—very place and over all persons the patition of Dioceses shews the extraordâ—â—nary wisdom of Councils and Princeâ— Nor may any one transgress the limiâ— they have put among Bishops without dâ—â—claring himself an enemy to all disciplinâ— Now all the following Propositions aâ— certainly true at least to all admirers 〈◊〉 former times whom I take to be in Eâ—England in a greater number then elsewhere 1. That no man or no part of a Diocess can be substracted from a Bishops Jurisdiction but by the autority of a Prince or Council 2. That no man can be substracted from the Jurisdiction of his Bishop without being put at the same time under another 3. That however a Bishop deals with any man either substracted from his Jurisdiction or added to it 't is alwaies of himself and by the power he receiv'd from Christ 4. That the exemtions of Friars and Monks are a Schism rais'd by the Popes 5. That the name of the Popes Delegates in its most favorable sense given to the Bishops in things which belong to them is plenojure and by all Laws a most shameful injury to the Episcopal order 6. That nemo est qui non perhorrescat to use the words of a Learned Doctor of Sorbon at the speech of the Jesuit Lainez in the Council of Trent That all the power of Jurisdiction hath bin by Christ conferr'd on the Bishop of Rome so that the Jurisdiction of Bishops is not fundamental but deriv'd XXIX Now concerning the divine right of Episcopacy the Fathers of Trent committed two great faults the one to bring it into question and the other to leave it undecided As for the first it had bin receiv'd in the Church for fourteen ages taught by the Fathers embraced by their Disciples and only impugn'd by the Italian Canonists For the second such an indecision is a ground for any man in the Church of Rome to deny doubt of and contradict the institution of Bishops these three things being the nature of all undecided points So a man may maintain there is no government at all in the Church and consequently no Church since it does not appear that Christ hath instituted any other then Episcopacy and certainly to find any other the Scripture must be strain'd in many places the constant universal and never oppos'd practice of fourteen hundred years be impudently contradicted XXX But what is most pleasant in this Indecision is that the Pope has verifi'd the word of the Prophet Psal 35. 8. Let the net that he hath hid catch himself for all these following consequences flow from it 1. That the Holy Father is no Pope by divine right Jure divino for the Popedom being nothing else but an extension of Episcopacy he is no Pope but because he is Bishop No Divine durst yet advance any other opinion But the Episcopacy of the Holy Father is not different from that of other Bishops being in all respects of the same kind Episcopatus unus est And the Italians who are so abundant in novelties when they undertake to raise up the credit of their Master have bin dumb in this matter Therefore if the Popes Episcopacy is not Jure divino his Papacy is not so neither since one is engrafted upon the other and if the Holy Father is not Pope Jure divino what ground can be laid for the ambition and usurpation of the Apostolical See What shall we do with the fine and rare Doctrine of Infallibility 2. The Council has impos'd the belief of its new Decree upon all Christians under pain of eternal damnation but if they are only Ministers from the Church and not from Christ with what eies shall we consider so stupendious a boldness Who hath impowr'd a company of men to make Decrees of divine Faith And how without being authoriz'd by God did they exact an obedience only due to Ministers sent from Heaven 3. 'T is a crime in a Roman Catholic to believe the Council of Trent did not lawfully what it did otherwise such a meeting is a dream and a chimera But who is that Roman Catholic of any sense who can be perswaded of it seeing 't is allow'd in the Church of Rome to deny any of those Bishops had the least autority from God to do what they did XXXI And indeed who will not wonder the Fathers of
there would be no pretence or excuse at all to live at Rome The loss of Rome for a Cardinal is no small sacrifice and there is a great difference between these two to lie conceal'd in his Diocess and to shine in a Court known to be the most proud rich and voluptuous in the World The second should have hazarded too much in striving against the Cardinals They lived in their families eat the crumbs which fall from their tables and made a part of their retinue Those of them who were less despis'd had also more ambition they aim'd at Cardinalship and Residency was the nearest way to be depriv'd of it They forgat therefore that they were Bishops and chose rather to betray their character then leave their pretences and pleasures XXXVIII What then has the Council done in its so much boasted of Reformation Great things indeed Those two hundred Bishops that had bin five and twenty years before they could meet and eighteen after they had met answer'd perfectly the expectation of all Christendom 1. They have forbidden Praiers in a known Tongue 2. Ruled the Church-wardens 3. Ordained that Friars could not vow but being sixteen years old 4. Approv'd the Jesuits's order that is strengthn'd the enemies of Christ 5. Shaped an Index expurgatory as barbarous in its form as in its name 6. Establish'd Inquisition a new tribunal which may be properly call'd the eleventh persecution of the Church XXXIX But to speak seriously we must say with Mr. D'Espences and the most considerable men of the Roman Communion 1. They have encroached upon the liberties of all Churches 2. Rais'd the Popes power and brought Episcopacy to nothing 3. Cut off all hopes of Reformation and canoniz'd all the vices of Rome 4. Made breaches in the Discipline which shall never be made up and induc'd those who have some knowledge of the ancient Canons to ask them in Saint Austin's words Curare est hoc an occidere Levare de terra an praecipitare de coelo A CONCLUSION Of the foregoing Discourses Concerning the State of the Church of England and how she hath bin more successful in the reformation of her Faith and manners then the Church of Rome I. THE Anglican Church is not any private Society but a part of that body which as the Scriptures tell us is spread over the face of the whole Earth Her intent is only to be a member of the Catholic Church from whose Spirit she receives life and governs her self by her laws She do's no less abhor Heresie and Schism then the Roman seems to do only she do's not attribute that name to all persons and things but knowing truth and charity to be the most precious gifts the holy Jesus purchas'd by his death she is the less easily mov'd to accuse any of forsaking them II. Her extent greatness and prudence with the moderation of her conduct hath alwaies made her seem the main and most considerable body of the Protestants and hence arises that ardent zeal of the See of Rome either to recover or to destroy her hence proceed so many artifices to tempt and draw away the Children of this holy mother that for these hundred years its emissaries have labour'd to raise new Churches within her But he who commands the winds and imposes silence to the Seas will suffer no tempest to arise within her breast unless it be to render her the more glorious She hath alwaies liv'd in unity catholicism and which is the spring of them both in that holiness which God requires III. Neither Calvin nor Luther were the authors or reformers of her Faith nor do's she look upon them any otherwise then the Church of Rome do's upon Baronius or Bellarmine She indeed considers them as great writers but yet as men on whose words she founds no part of her Creed The word of the Prophets the Gospel and writings of the Apostles are her laws God having spoken so clearly and plainly she looks for no other instructions then his word and according to that she being a national and independent Church and consequently having just authority did reform her self IV. The reverence she hath for the Scriptures carries her neither to Enthusiasm nor a private Spirit She explains not the word of God by any humane exposition She knows there is nothing so difficult in one part of the Scripture which is not plainly illustrated by another more easy She therefore compares the one with the other as did the Fathers in former Ages She seeks the will of God by the light God himself hath given and knowing that he cannot and will not deceive her she relies upon and wholly delivers her self up to his care and conduct She acknowledgeth no other Infallibility then his She knows all men are subject to error and falshood and the greatest Saints themselves may truly say If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us V. The Church of Rome flatters her self with an Infallibility which she can reduce to no certain principal The Pope assumes it to himself as if he were the only source of it and the Italians call all other opinions Heresie The rest of her communion attribute it to a General Council and anathematize all those who think the contrary So that this Infallibility is reduc'd to that as to prove either the Pope or Council to be in Heresy The Church of England cuts off such an abominable division She acknowledgeth the power of God and the infirmity of man the eternal and essential truth of the one and the falsehood the other is subject to She hears with trembling the word of the Apostle Let him that glories glory in the Lord she therefore gives the glory to God and in this life she looks upon Gods word as the pillar of Fire which led the Children of Israel thro the desert and never forsaked them in so many intricate marches VI. If the Catholic Church hath not err'd at least in fundamentals t is not by reason of any promise of Infallibility which God hath accorded to men but because that he being a God of mercy has had in all times some faithful servants whom he made acquainted with his waies and who have walked according to his word The gates of Hell have not prevail'd against them because they were fill'd with that charity which triumphs over both visible and invisible Enemies And God having resolved in the decrees of charity which the Scripture teacheth us he hath lov'd the Church by to be served in spirit and truth to the end of the World he hath not permitted his word to be taken away from her how bloody soever the persecution of Martyrs has bin how blind soever the ignorance was in which many ages had bin involved how terrible soever the corruption appear'd in which we see the World every day plunge it self VII The holy Church of England stops not that Fountain out of which
waters flow to life Eternal The Word of God being the foundation of our happiness and the key of the World to come she permits all People perswades exhorts and commands all ages all conditions and qualities to peruse it St. Chrysostome was of opinion that all Merchants and men of affairs who had not zeal enough to read the Old Testament should at least read the new St. Jerome prescrib'd to many Ladies of quality the manner of teaching it their Daughters St. Austine in his Sermons declares to his People that the multitude of their sins proceeded from their neglect of the Scriptures God having resolv'd in process of time to accomplish the great work of Predestination in his Elect by his word to neglect the reading of it would be to reckon himself excluded of that blessed tribe The Church of England follows that opinion Her Bishops are not contented with instituting it in their Synods and the Preists preaching it in their Churches but the Holy Ghost being of all Nations and languages it has bin their business so justly to translate it as the most ignorant can make use of it and so all the World may equally have this great treasure for it is folly for any one to perswade themselves that it is only open to the learned There needs no science but much humility and Faith towards God for the knowing this truth of Salvation Let a Man have learning without humility the most ignorant person understands better then he do's Men teach the mind and corrupt it but God instructs the heart and it is converted VIII But because it is easy for our reason to be seduc'd and nothing is worse for any Man then to abandon himself to his own sense the Bishops order their Curats to look back on the former ages to get the explication of the Scriptures from the holy Fathers to hearken to the Church in her Councils and never to fall from her interpretations and ordinances The Church of Rome runs into one extremity and some authors to another the former so look on the Fathers as to equal their authority with that of God the others under pretence of hearing God hear no body and treat those holy Saints and August Councils with such contempt as merits a thousand Hells The holy Church of England keeps her self in an exact mean She rejects condemns and trembles at the folly pride and ignorance of those unhappy wretches before whose eies the Devil has cast so great a mist and who think it better blindly to cry Scripture then to hear those who are the most faithful interpreters of it She with great respect and reverence looks upon those former ages where truth was not disguis'd nor charity cool'd but she rises not to such an excess as the Church of Rome and whatsoever grace God has given to his servants she alwaies acknowledges that they are but rivulets which can never be equall'd with the Ocean from whence they proceed IX They therefore are mistaken who confound this holy Church with such unreasonable persons as refuse to be instructed by the examples and writings of so many holy servants of God She receives â—ot tradition in any other sense then is â—ccording to Scripture She will hold â—ll that as holy which can be alledged â—onformable to that excellent rule of St. Vincent of Lerins quod semper quod ubiâ—ue quod ab omnibus servatur She will alâ—aies receive with a profound reverence â—he unanimous consent of the Saints and â—ever appeal from the decrees of the Church assembled in general legitime Councils For tho the Church has no power to ordain any new article of Faith either to add or cast out any part of it nevertheless she has sufficient Authority to declare her opinion in any point of Faith and seeing that she do's it all Christians are bound to submit themselves to her judgment what seeming truth soever there appears on the contrary and it is much more probable for one particular person to be deceiv'd to whom God has promis'd no other assistance but that which is common to all Christians then the Catholic Church to which Christ is present till the end of the World and has promis'd to send his Spirit there where they are gathered together in his name Christ in speaking to inferiours said not he who hears you hears me they therefore have no right to be heard nor consequently to speak He said to his Apostles and Bishops whom he has order'd to govern the Church in their place t is therefore their business to speak and right to be heard and those who teach without or against their order do break the ranks in which God has placed them X. But to attempt the reducing the Catholic Church to one part of Europe and to force the name of Roman upon those who ought not to receive it and to exclude them from Salvation who are both Christians and Catholics without being Romans is the greatest absurdity in the world But to confine that part of Europe to the Pope to make him the center of unity which belongs alone to Christ is the greatest impiety and most insufferable extravagancy that can be imagin'd But that any man should call himself the High Priest the Universal Bishop of the Church that is take those titles w ch his Predecessors look'd on as an execration and which he hath not gotten but by an immensurable ambition is beyond all imagination But that the same person under pretence of a Pasce oves meas which he hath expounded as he pleased contrary to the opinion of the Fathers and Councils should march in the head of all his Brethren and raise Clergy men of the meanest order such as are Cardinals above the holy order of Bishops should excommunicate Kings and depose them give their Kingdoms to a depredation dispence Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance which they have sworn to their Prince and colour all these attemts as done by the autority which Christ hath given him the Church of England will never admit of such Principles as the most forlorn sinners cannot look upon without horror XI If the Pope would do all for the truth and nothing contrary to it if he would limit himself to the word of Christ and the practice which the Church hath prescrib'd him and go no further then St. Leo or St. Gregory she will communicate with him She will rob him neither of the dignity of Bishop nor Patriarch Christ gave him the one and the Church granted him the other She acknowledges that the ancient See of Rome is one of the most considerable in the world that hath bin formerly ennobled with as many Martyrs as Bishops that he hath bin mightily respected in Councils and that the Emperors have dignified him with great privileges But when he pretends to draw thence an occasion of exalting himself above others and that according to the remark of a famous Emperor at the Council of Florence He
the truth that being necessary to make truth reach the Pope spake after the same rate Nevertheless The sacred holy and oecumenical Council met at Trent in the name of the Holy Ghost to be rul'd there by the word of God the writings of the Fathers and the Apostolical Tradition thinks not fit to take away the Annats The Holy Ghost just goes so far as to correct small abuses frivolous nothings but reaches not to Heresies and Crimes Salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate There is not in so vast a number of Bishops one single Nathan or Elijah or if it be too much to seek Prophets among them there is not a single Ambrose or Basil none of all these Vicars of Christ who durst say with his Master Our friend sleepeth but I go that I may awake him out of sleep Joh. 11. 11. XVIII And indeed it would have bin a kind of Murder to have cut off Annats Rome would have bin no more a triumphant City all its Palaces would have bin either pull'd down or interrupted in the building and especially that of Pius the Fourth rais'd during the Council of which the Arch-Bishop of Brague told him That the stones would have serv'd better to build an Hospital To banish Painters Musicians Poets from St. Peters See to make a Pope in our daies live like S. Leo or S. Gregory to rule a Cardinal-nephew according to the Council of Carthage and the examples of S. Charles to require the same severity of life from an eminentissimo Cardinale as we saw in Cardinal Baronius and some years ago in Cardinal Bona Such demands I say would have brought a blemish upon the Council never to be obliterated and instead of procuring its confirmation fir'd upon them all the Vatican thunders How could a Cardinal undergo the hardship of riding without a retinue of 200 Coaches and an infinite number of staffieries In the Apostles time the most common Motto was The world is crucified to me and I to the world Gal. 6. 14. Priests then had no other liveries then the blood of Martyrs no other retinue then a vast number of poor no other Palaces then Prisons but in our Age you cannot walk in the streets of Rome without hearing People cry out The equipage of his Eminence the Mules of his Eminence the staffieries of his Eminence the perfumes of his Eminence the Music of his Eminence the Abbies and Bishopricks of his Eminence c. that is of a Deacon in the Diocess of Rome of a Parson in the City or Suburbs of a man maintain'd by the alms of the Church dead to the World and its vanities perswaded that there is a life to come and that the shortest way to enjoy its happiness is to renounce all the pleasures and honors of the present XIX The Fathers therefore at Trent were not cruel to the Pope nor Pius the Fourth ungrateful to them He confess'd in a full Conclave They had us'd him more gently then he would have done himself and that Council which otherwise had pass'd for a Conventicle became so sacred that this Pope never spake afterwards without an honorable mention of it in all his discourses But this Popes own confession is too puissant a proof against him 't is the testimony of his own Conscience Those Physitians flatter'd so much their Patient that he was asham'd of it and instead of applying powerful Remedies to his inveterate Distempers they took no notice of them 'T is wrongfully therefore they accuse the Popes self-love or the blindness incident to those who separate themselves from unity to constitute a particular order as speaks St. Gregory and St. Austin Pius the Fourth was convinc'd of the need he stood in of being reform'd But the Fathers put a bar to his desires huc usque venies without them he would have gone further XX. Nay least the small Reformation they made of some few things should last too long they found out an expedient from which experience shew'd the success of the whole was expected and this was the liberty left to the Pope of dispensing with all the Ordinances of the Council That only favor deserv'd all Pope Pius's acknowledgments he and his successors made so good use of it that it will not be amiss to give some examples thereof It had bin observ'd for many Ages how much the exemtions of Friars were injurious to Episcopacy and scandalous to the Church wherefore the Council cuts them off but Pius the Fourth using his power of dispensing re-establishes them with greater autority then before so that there has bin scarce any Bishop since zealous of his duty and the honor of his Divine Character whom a pitiful Friar whether more fraught with boldness or ignorance I shall not determine arm'd cap apied with his privileges durst not impudently oppose Some abuses concerning Dispensations Expeditions for Benefices and other pretended favors of the Apostolical See were remov'd the Pope uses his right of dispensation and scarce had the Trent Fathers got home from reforming them before Pius the Fourth had again brought up all those Impieties XXI The Council had handled the matter of Indulgencâ—s with as great dexterity as moderation and in its Decree not one of the following Propositions which the Friars have since bâ—ndâ—ed about with so violent heat is to be â—een 1. That Indulgences are authoriz'd by the Scripture 2. That they are granted and receiv'd for the dead 3. That they are a super-abundance of the merits of the Saints 4. That they are any thing else but a relaxation of Canonical Penance accorded only to those who pray who demand who work petenti operanti roganti 5. That the Pope has greater power to grant them then any particular Bishop No man had reason to complain of so wise and moderate a Decree but the Pope uses his right of dispensing too many People being interessed in keeping Indulgencies The Vatican magnificence the softness of the Cardinals and the Friars idleness ow'd their maintenance to that solid and clear Revenue You see therefore Bulls both for the living and the dead dispers'd into all parts of the World every Church hath its priviledg'd Altars and a thousand Books are made public most of them dedicated to the Pope and approv'd by the Inquisition wherein they are call'd Heretics and Atheists who oppose the Opinions which the Council hath left undetermin'd The stile of these Bulls is as extraordinary as their matter the Popes grant two four six or seven thousand years of true pardon and indeed the word true looks very pleasantly in that place he remits not only the pain due to sin but the sin also into the bargain somtimes to make the most on 't he divides it and pardons but a third part somtimes one half somtimes all just as his Holiness is in humor And that we may not tire our selves with too much pains in getting so precious and rare a favor as the pardon of our sins a