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B22558	The Popish labyrinth wherein is made manifest, that the Papists are entangled in the fundamental article of their faith, that the church cannot erre / written in Dutch by ... Dr. Simon Episcopius, unto which is added, The life and death of the author ; as also, The life and death of James Arminius, both of them famous defenders of God	Episcopius, Simon, 1583-1643.; Bertius, Petrus, 1565-1629. Oratio in obitum reverendi & clarissimi viri D. Jacobi Arminii. English.; Chardon de Courcelles, Etienne, 1705-1775? Short and compendious history of Simon Episcopius.	1673 (1673)	Wing E3163	56,195	122

purely administred the Sacraments according to the Lords institution and propagated with great zeal the true and Christian Religion and by his diligent presence hath always adorned our Classical meeting also by his prudent Counsel hath with others composed matters hard and of great moment hath always readily sustained all imposed burthens that respected the Churches Edidification and hath by honesty and goodness of life adorned to this very day his holy calling In a word he hath shewed himself such both in his holy Office and in his manner of life towards all as becomes a true servant of Christ that we give to him very great and immortal thanks for his benevolence and humanity towards us by which he hath embrac'd every one of us We therefore intreat all and every one of what order soever they be to have acknowledge embrace and favour the foresaid Mr. Dr. James Arminius as such a one as we have said Also to affect him with such honour as he for his eminent and singular gifts shining in him is worthy of and according to their ability to help forward his holy endeavours for the Glory of Gods name and the Edification of the School and Church Unto which end we all his Collegues and fellow-servants do heartily desire for him the manifold grace of the Holy Ghost At Amsterdam from our Classical meeting on the Calends of September 1603. John Halsbergius President of the Classis John Hallius Preacher at Amsterdam Scribe of the Classis in the name of the Classis Have the Brethren honourably and laudably enough testified of Arminius thus then he came into the University From this time all his Collegues have had experience of him as a most Falthful friend The Schools as a Senator Professor Rector all the Students as a most gentle Father Suddenly after his entrance into the University he found that the Students of sacred Theology did entangle themselves in the thickets of questions and did follow Thorny Theormes and Problemes the Scriptures being neglected This evil after the matter had been communicated to his Collegues he studied to amend and did in a great measure effect it for he brought back the antient and masculine and mighty kind of studying and drew back as much as in him lay the wandring youth to the Fountains of Salvation those pure and slimeless Fountains that out of them Religion might be sought for not that Religion which being satisfied with wrangling debates or bare speculation is gotten to feed the phantasie but that which breaths out charity and follows the truth which is after godliness by which youth learn to fly youthful lusts and having subdued fleshly allurements to shun the pollutions of the world and to do and suffer those things that make a distinction between a Christian and an Heathen That saying of our Saviour Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharises ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven he did repeat often to fix the same upon their memories In the mean while the consideration of Christians so miserably divided and driven asunder one from another troubled him he seldom spake of it without tears never without deep and hearty sighs He declared that he wished all the scattered members of Christ might grow together in one body according to the Lords Commandment He rightly judged that the Papal Court sought not the things which are of Christ but the pleasures the honours the lucre the pomp of this present world and Tyranny over the souls as well as the bodies of men And therefore that no man could or ought to consult with that Harlot about matters of Salvation and the establishing of a common peace He judged that a great part of others were conscienciously and piously affected and were not divided not so much through an evil intent and purpose as through doubtfull ambages or obscurities in which many were driven from peace and concord by ignorance many by the authority of their Ancestours many through pertinacy or stiffness in those opinions which either themselves had devised or long defended many through shame of revoking and retracting their writings lastly many through prejudice and an ill opinion of their brethren All which he thought might be remedyed not by killing one another but by prayers and by peaceable and friendly instruction and by the example of an holy conversation He therefore both exhorted all to piety and especially took care of this that when thornie questions and the huge luggage of vain and empty assertions were removed and taken away with which the Schools make an huge confused noise those things might be fetcht only out of the Scriptures which might be usefull to bring them to the belief of necessary things and to lead a good and blessed Christian life Which endeaur of his Satan going about to elude and frustrate endeavoured to perswade the inconsiderate that these things were done by him to get honour to shew the strength of his wit to cause innovations to maintain contention and wrangling Some therefore through suspicion that ill counsellour moved again old Camarina or were the cause of mischief to themselves but the Professors themselves and the Colleagues by the prudent advice of the Curators did quell and quash it at its first shooting up for credit to which matter I have thought that this Instrument out of the Acts of the Vnoversity is fit to be produced The Professors of the Theological faculty when it was related to them That the Classis of Dort had laid down among other this Grievance Seeing there is a rumor that some controversies about the doctrine of the reformed Churches have risen in the Church and Vniversity of Leyden the Classis have thought it to be necessary that the Synod deliberate concerning these Controversies and how they may most safely be composed that all Schismes and offences which thence may arist may seasonably be removed and the union of the reformed Churches to preserved against the calumny of the adversaries did when the Lords Curatots and the Consuls asked whether any controversies of this sort were certainly known unto them answer unanimously after the matter had been first privately among themselves examined and weighed That they wished that the Classis of Dort had in this matter acted better and more orderly That they thought that more things were disputed among the Students than it liked them should be but that among themselves that is among the Professors of the Theological faculty there was nodifference which may appearto be in the fundamenralls of doctrine Also that they would endeavour that the disputations of this sort which arose among the students might be lessened Acted the 10th of August 1605. James Arminius Rector of the University pre tempore Francis Gomarus Luke Trelcatius Subscribed The very same day when the same thing was also proposed to D. John Kuchlinus Regent of the Theological Colledge be answered That he gave his suffrage to those things that had

SIMON EPISCOPIUS This Pictur 's Substance was a matchlesse wight In Learning boldnesse and a life Upright THE Popish Labyrinth Wherein is made manifest That the Papists are entangled in the Fundamental Article of their Faith That the Church cannot Erre Written in Dutch by that holy and learned Man Dr. SIMON EPISCOPIUS Vnto which is added The Life and Death of the Author As also The Life and Death of JAMES ARMINIUS Both of them famous Defenders of God's Universal Grace and Sufferers for it Now published in the English Tongue By J. K. The memory of the Just is blessed Prov. 10.7 LONDON Printed for Francis Smith at the Elephant and Castle in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange and at the same sign first Shop without Temple-Bar 1673. Christian and pious Readers IF you have but to any considerable measure conversed with the Writings of our Protestant Writers either of late or formerly against the Papists you will find that they have abundantly proved them to be if not an apostatical and false yet at least an erroneous and Schismatical Church and one that hath little cause so to boast and magnifie her self upon her pretended Priviledges of Truth and Infallibility above others as she doth That many Worthies of the Protestants both of former times and of late have written sufficiently to have convinced the Popish Partie of their gross and palpable Errors and to prove that they are nothing less than what they pretend to viz. Infallible or such as are not nor can be obnoxious to mistake any one that hath read their Writings and is but master of an ordinary measure of Reason Ingenuity and Impartiality will confess That many Worthies of the Protestants both of former and latter Times have sufficiently yea abundantly proved the Church of Rome if not wholly an apostatical and false yet at least a most grosly erroneous and corrupt Church no man of ordinary Ingenuity and Reason will deny To wave what hath been written for their Conviction by those more Ancient one would think that what some excellent Men of late Mr. B. Dr. Tiliotson and Dr. Stillingfleet have written against them would have put to utter silence their Ignorance and Folly And that they would not have had a word to plead for their Infallibility who have been found to err so grosly and palpably concerning the Faith in many the weightiest Doctrines of the Gospel as they have done but that they would have acknowledged the mighty Power of Truth and have said it is worthy to prevail But so little prevalent with them is the Light of Truth though shining never so bright both in the Scriptures and Reason that their Folly though never so much brayed thereby will not depart from them They still hold as fast as stiffly their grosly irrational and anti-scriptural and absurd Doctrines of Image-worship Transubstantiation Indulgencies Angel-worship Saint-worship or Invocation of them Purgatory c. as ever and will do All Arguments drawn from Scripture and Reason yea from common Sense it self are but as Brass with the Leviathan they esteem them all but as rotten Wood. But you will say Whence or how came this Spirit of Infatuation upon them Why the Apostle will tell you 2 Thes 2.10 But you will say This is an hard saying No not at all If men shew themselves so absurd as not to be ruled by any thing whatsoever that God hath appointed for their right-Ordering and Guidance it is evident that they are wicked as well as absurd 2 Thess 3.2 But you will go on to ask How comes this Infatuation to be so inveterate with them and impossible to be removed This our excellent Author in this little Treatise will tell you 1. They take it for an undeniable Maxime than which yet there is nothing more false that the true Church cannot err 2. They assume which is also as hard yea impossible to prove and so as false as the former that they are that true Church which cannot err or is so infallible Whilest they hold these two Positions you were as good dispute with a Post as go about to convince them of Error let them commit Errors if it were possible Seventy times seven more in Number and more gross and absurd in their Nature than they do Well then what shall or can be done for them for their recovery and for preventing others from incurring the like Distemper of Absurdity and Unreasonableness I answer By following the Directions here brieffly given and taken dextrously from them accordingly these two Maximes Now this you will effectually do if you put them to prove or but to shew you 1. What is that Church that cannot err and who is the Head of it This you you will find an impossible Task for them to perform 2. Put them likewise to prove if they could assign him as they cannot that the Head of their Church cannot err either from Scripture Reason or Fathers and you will find them at the same Loss And indeed no better help will they find from Succession and Antiquity than from the former for that proof of their first Maxime 2. As to the second Maxime that falls of it self viz. That they are that true Church that cannot err For if they cannot tell what is that Church that cannot err or who is the Head of it then cannot they say they are that Church For so they would say they know not what But enough of this For your Prevention and mine own reade this most excellent and learned Treatise written in Dutch by the pious and renowned Dr. Simon Episcopius from thence translated into Latin and now rendred into English which with the Blessing of God upon your serious Perusal may tend to your Reducement from any Hankerings after Popish Trumpery and Establishment in the Truth which is after Godliness And the Blessing of God goe along with it Amen The Popish Labyrinth c. CHAP. I. Of two sorts of Men with whom it is in vain to dispute THere is no Labour that is undertaken with greater Wearisomness and les● Profit than a dispute undertaken with those men who either will not be taught better or as it were being willing to learn better and breathing after the best and clearest Truth dispute of no other things but those which after they have been fully disputed leave the Disputants at as great an uncertainty as they were before whether the certain and necessary truth be found or no. The first are willing to remain in Ignorance The second though they would not seem on purpose and deliberately to love their Ignorance yet do they waver to and fro with uncertainty concerning the Truth yea and that oftentimes then too when after many and difficult Labours sustained they shall seem to have obtained the Victory in Dispute To desire to dispute with either of these two sorts of Men is all one as if one should plow the Sea-shore or beat the Air. To desire indeed to deal with those men with Reasons who

of which they cannot rid themselves For first they cannot tell nor intelligibly declare which is that Church which they believe cannot err Secondly it is impossible for them to bring any Demonstrative Argument whereby to perswade themselves or any other impartial man I do not say the Roman but that the Church cannot err I evince these two As to the first Member I thus query with a Papist When you say the Church or the Church of Rome cannot err what do you mean by the Church Do you mean all Christians in general who take Jesus Christ for their Saviour and submit to all his holy Commands so that not so much as one of them can err Doubtless he will deny it For every one of them considered singly apart yea and all conjunctly together may err For all are Members of one Body which ought to have a visible Head from whom they ought to receive Spiritual Life Senses and holy Affections Grant it be so what then Do you think that the Cardinals Archbishops Presbyters and Doctors are the Church He will deny it again Since all and every one singly may err for the same Reason which we have shewn already Do you therefore by the Church understand a general Council consisting of all the Cardinals Bishops and Doctors as representing the whole multitude of Christians whose Head this Council is He will affirm it But granting this although it be grounded on no Reason I will ask further Do you believe then that this Council as it is the Head of the Church cannot err howsoever assembled and whatsoever shall be decreed therein In no wise he will say it ought to be lawfully convocated By whom say I he will say by the Pope of Rome Grant this though it be void of Reason and without Ground yea and they determine or judge contrary to the Practice of the first General Councils Is this Council so convocated that Church which cannot err in its Decrees and Determinations Or is there that Head of the Church to which no Errour is incident Here he will stick or demur somewhat For I will go on to query thus Put the case that this Council decree any thing without the Consent yea contrary to the Judgment and Dignity of the Pope of Rome whether or no can it err therein Here he must of necessity be wholly at a Loss For it is known that not only diverse Ancient Councils both particular and General have past Decrees against his mind and which did diminish the Pope of Rome's Dignity as appears by many Councils in Africa and also in the fourth General Council of Chalcedon and many others But further also it is evident that the General Council of Constance held in the Year 1414. and called by the Pope of Rome John the 23. or as others the 24. At which were present more than a Thousand Fathers deputed or appointed by the Church of Rome and among these above three hundred Bishops decreed with unaminous Consent that the Council was above the Pope and therefore that it was in the power of the Council to expunge Popes out of the Register of the Church and to degrade them even as by the same Council were degraded three Popes who then exercised the Office of the Popedom and among these even Pope John himself who had called this Council and that for four and fiftie or according to others seventie one nefarious Crimes among which were these two First that he had openly denyed the Immortality of Souls supposing that Men dyed like Beasts to which he also added this Second That he affirmed that there was neither Paradise nor Hell as is manifest by the 11th Session Here the Papist must say one of these two Either that such a general Council is the Church that cannot err no not even then when it determineth any thing against the Pope and to the prejudice of his Highness as was done in this Council Or that such a Council is not the true Church and therefore is capable of Errour If he say the Former he will find himself entangled in a Gordian Knot and besides he will oppose the greatest Part of the Popish Doctors especially the Jesuits who not only affirm that the Pope is above a Council but also determine that that Council of Constance is in this respect to be blamed wherein they decreed that the Pope was inferiour to a Council as is clear out of Cardinal Bellarmin and others yea further he will be forc't expresly to confess that the Pope of Rome who hath suceeeded to Peters Right and Power is not the chief or supream Head of all Churches and by Consequence that the Pope of Rome may err in Faith and swerve from the Truth If he say the latter he falls into a new Labyrinth For then he doth not only contradict Councils but also many and diverse both Churches and Popish Doctors And namely the most ancient School of the Sorbon in France which by some is called the first Daughter of the Church which with the greatest part of the French Churches defends and approves of that decree of the Council of Constance Howbeit suppose that he find no difficulty in this matter yet there he will stick that even then he knoweth not and cannot tell or shew that Church which affirms that it cannot err For if a General Council be not the Church or if it may err and doth err when it determines any thing against the Pope or without his approbation I pray what is that which makes the Church not lyable to Errour Haply he will say the Council is the Church when it agrees with the Pope and is confirmed by Him Here again is a new Labyrinth for it may fall out and it very often hath that the greatest Part of the Council may not vote with the Pope Imagine therefore that the greatest Part of the Council do judge and decree something that the Pope disallows of Or that the Pope agree with the lesser Part Which Part in this Case makes the Church Not the greatest For that is contrary to the Pope Doth then the least Part make the Church What Reason What shew of Truth What only because the Pope favours it Then the Pope is the Church For if these few make the Church because the Pope is on their Side then if they were only two who should judge against a thousand others those two with the Pope would make the Church and what speak I of two Although there were only one yea none yet the matter would come to the same Issue the Pope alone at length would be the Fore-castle and Poop and the whole Church which cannot err Although he be even the veryest Knave in the World Yea further not only a Heretick but also an Atheist who denies the Immortality of the Soul Heaven and Hell As Pope John the 23 of whom we have lately spoken of did For which Cause he was degraded by the Council of Constance with so severe a Sentence

foolishly to believe by a Proctour to whom they perswade themselves the Matter is best known although he sometimes be void of all knowledge of matters or else foolishly and without Judgment to catch at all words and syllables which they deem do any way serve their Purpose and Design How tedious a thing it is to enter upon the Stage of Disputation with such every one easily perceives For who seeth not how hard and great a Labour it is to dispatch or put an End to those Questions which are to be demonstrated from the Memory of Ages and so great variety of Books and Histories and being demonstrated so that all way to any further Exception be shut up do produce no Fruit in the Minds of the contrary Party Wherefore those who trouble the People with suc● Things what do they else but involve them in an inextricable Labyrinth whereby the unskilful Multitude either despaireth of an happy Event or End or if they have any Hope they nevertheless cease not to stick fast in the same Mire of uncertainty to wit being dull'd and stupified with the overmuch labour of search This indeed is the readiest Way whereby any one may lord it over the Consciences of simple Men and having entangled them in a Gordian Knot perswade them any Thing But let us propose both these a little more clearly The first I prove thus None will be able to deny that for the asserting the Antiquity not only of the Church but also of a continued and uninterrupted Succession of Bishops in the Church there is necessarily required first a certain undoubted and accurate Knowledge of Authors both Greek and Latin and of all Histories that have been written of this thing And Secondly that to this knowledge there ought to be added a good and quick-sighted Judgment whereby exactly to discern their true and genuine Books from those that are supposititious and adulterate true Histories from those that are foisted in and interlaced those that were composed with Partiality out of Affection and fore-stall'd Opinion from those they composed void of Partiality and Prejudice to reconcile Repugnancies and faithfully to supply Defects How much Pains Trouble and Time it requires every one sees even amongst the most learned for the whole Space of a thousand and six hundred Years there hath been none hitherto who hath been able to perform it The first of them cannot indeed be so much as sought for much less found Shall then the unlearned and unskilful common People who are counted unable to turn over one Book of the Scripture be sufficient to undergo so great a Work as accurately to enquire into all Histories wherewith even whole Barns may be filled and Ships laden The Laicks or lay-People in the the Papacie who laying aside the holy Scripture alwayes talk of Antiquity and Succession bewray a mind stupid and foolish enough because they know nothing more yea happily much less of true Antiquity and Succession than they do of the Scripture indeed being alike ignorant of both It is true indeed that there may easily be drawn up a Catalogue and Index of Bishops where in their Course and Order wherein they succeeded each other they may be set down But that is nothing to the Purpose For the same do the Grecian the Ethiopick Churches and others The Constantinopolitan doth it sayes Bellarmine from the Times of Constantine Caesar in an uninterrupted Series as also Nicephorus who continues the Names of the Bishops even from the very Times of Andrew the Apostle And yet Bellarmine denies and all the Papists with him that the Grecians can of Right claim to themselves a Succession The Succession therefore of Persons is not enough but it is required withal that it be lawful and such as that among the Bishops who have succeeded one another there have been no Heretick Atheist or Apostate among them First it is requisite that it be lawful for as the Papal Decree hath it Dist 79. If any by Money or mens Favour or Popular or Military Tumult without the unaminous and Canonical Election both of the Cardinals and of the following Clergie shall be inthron'd in the Apostolick Seat let him not be accounted Apostolical but Apostatical Secondly it is required that among the Bishops that succeed each other there have been no Heretick among them For for this cause as Cardinal Bellarmine and other Pontificial Doctors affirm the Succession of the Constantinopolitan Bishops is not to be counted lawful because there have been Hereticks amongst them Lib. 4. of the Marks of the Church Cap. 8. He therefore that will judge aright of the Succession of the Bishops of Rome he must of Necessity be most certainly assured of both these even according to the Canons of the Papists themselves But how is this possible Who can undoubtedly know whether all their Bishops have obtained the Episcopacy lawfully Whether some have not obtained the Dignity of Succession by Simony that is by Mony and Gifts as Simon Magus desired to do or by Force Arts and Wiles by Factions and unlawful Suits and Bribings for the same Again if any desirous to read their Histories do find of a certain that even those Writers themselves who have been most devoted to the Pontificians do openly and roundly confess that not only one or two but that many and diverse Bishops of Rome have climbed to the Pontifical Dignity who having been condemned of manifest Heresie have been counted impious Villains Atheists Schismaticks Ruffians and Bands who by Gifts and Bribes by Force and Factions without any precedent Choice or consequent Approbation of the Clergie by dishonest and foul Devices and Guil●●●ve intruded themselves or by Harlots and their Whores have come to the Succession Who I pray can extricate himself out of this Maze of Doubts If you say the best and faithfullest Historians are to be credited in this Case you fall into a new Labyrinth For I demand who are they and by what are they to be distinguished Why shall he derogate from the Credit of the Pontifician Writers For they cannot be termed Hereticks or mortal Enemies to the Church of Rome because themselves were sworn Vassals thereunto and some of them the greatest Flatterers and fawners upon the Popes and the pontificial Dignity He is therefore forc'd to believe that these Writers were impell'd and constrained by the Truth of the thing it self to write these things And suppose that they were not Pontifician Writers What Reason shall perswade that Credit is to be denyed to them as not faithful Writers rather then unto others who were Favourers of the Pope and his Dignity Friendship is no less able to with-hold a Writer from writing the Truth than Enmity or Hatred is He that will deliver Truth to Posterity must write without all Affectation And by what solid Reason and which will convince the Judgment shall we perswade our selves that there hath been any such Writer especially if we live not in the same age and at the

same time with him He that considers these Things without Prejudice ought to be induced to believe that those who endeavour to defend or shelter themselves under Antiquity and Succession do involve themselves in a Labyrinth in which one may easily be intangled but hardly nay nor indeed hardly be disintangled or loosed CHAP. X. That Truth is to be preferred before all Antiquity and Succession whatsoever BUt granting that any one could prove this Antiquity and Succession What will be evinced from thence as to the chief Point of the Matter Nothing at all For Antiquity and Succession of Persons being proved yet the Question concerning Truth will still remain If Antiquity and Succession be not joyned with Truth what I pray do they make for the proving of this Business Antiquity is not the Cause of Truth much less Succession And if Antiquity and Succession ought necessarily to be joyned with Truth then the Truth is first and chiefly to be known which whilest it is unknown so long a man hangs in Suspence Even as if a man should find Money which he certainly knows was coined many Ages before yet remains in doubt whether that Money be made of good Metal or no. Antiquity doth wholly differ from Goodness Nor doth a naughty Person cease to be naught because he is old Not every ancient Custom is good And this is the Cause Why the Fathers discoursing of true Antiquity and Succession would have us chiefly to Mind that Succession which is in Conjuction with the genuine Doctrine and Truth Especially when we have to do with those that reject the Scripture either in Part or in whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gregory Nazianzen i. e. For the one is a being of the same Mind or Judgment and to sit on the same Throne The other is to be of a contrary Opinion or Judgment and to sit on a contrary Throne The one hath the Name the other the Truth of Succession And Ambrose saith Qui Petri Fidem-non habet is nihil à Petro haereditario Jure obtinet ac frustra gloriatur de Petri Successione That is He that hath not Peter's Faith he inheriteth nothing from Peter and boasteth in vain of his Succeeding of Peter This thing is so clear that even the most learned Jesuit Cardinal Bellarmine proveth the same acknowledging both these 1. That the Argument concerning Succession is not brought by his Party to prove that that Church wherein is the right of Succession is therefore to be accounted the true Church but onely to prove that that is not the Church where there is not Succession And 2. That Antiquity and continued Succession doth nothing at all avail the Grecian or at least the Constantinopolitan nay nor all your Patriarchal Churches to prove that they are a true Church because there have been sometimes amongst them Bishops that have been heretical whose Thread therefore of Succession hath been broken and cut off From hence it most clearly follows that though Succession be already proved yet the main Question concerning Truth doth remain still For if when Succession is proved it cannot infallibly be gathered and concluded that that Church is the true Church in whose Hands the Succession is And if farther it ought to appear for certain that no Heresies or heretical Bishops have broken off the Succession Reason it self dictates that Succession is proved in vain or at least to no great Profit unless we be thorowly informed concerning the Truth For whilest the Truth is unknown it is impossible to know whether any thing favour of Heresie or no. But who shall shew us the Truth Or who shall most fully assure us thereof Shall the true Church But where and which is it It cannot be For when Succession of Persons is proved it is not yet certain and undoubted that that Church wherein is Succession hath Truth on its side or hath been alwayes free from Heresie and by Consequence hath belonging to it the Right and Power to point out the true Church What Church therefore shall it be that shall infallibly shew us and say that this is true that that on the contrary is Heretical For the Church that wants Succession according to the Jesuits cannot do it nor the Church in which is Succession as is manifest from the precedent Grounds What then What End is there It is impossible for a Papist to untye this Knot To which I add this over and above Suppose that no heretical Bishops have interven'd or stept in among those that have succeeded but such who as we have said have by Force Faction and popular Tumult by Gifts and Bribes thrust themselves into the Apostolical Seat where I pray will be the Succession Must we indeed believe that holy and saving Truth may better consist with these nefarious Wickednesses than with Heresie and Errour Nay rather if farther it be found in Histories that at one Time and that indeed for fifty or eighty Years together there have been two or three Popes the one of which expunged the other out of the Catalogue of Christians call'd him in Reproach Heretick and Antichrist pronounced him an unlawful Pope cut off two of his Predecessors fingers drew up out of the Earth Bodies already buried and having shamefully abused their Ashes cast them into the Tyber all which three Popes sometimes together have been condemned and degraded and taken out of the Number of Christians by an universal Council as false and unlawful Popes as Hereticks and ungodly Villains by whom notwithstanding there were many Bishops and Clergie men ordained what End or Bounds of Succession will the Thread of Connection find For if it be said for Examples sake That that Pope which in the Times of the Council of Constance was by common Votes substituted in the room of those three Popes which were deposed by the said Council is to be accounted for the true Pope who succeeded in the Room of the last that deceased lawfull Pope the Apostolical Sea being in the Interim vacant and usurped by Force he will fall into a new Labyrinth for that many of the Popish Doctors and Bellarmine by Name and all the Jesuits do determine and urge that this Council is so far to be judged for not lawful in that it decreed that the Council was above the Pope because it was not approved of either by the Pope that is that most impious Knave and Villain John the twentie fourth or twentie third who had called that Council and was by the Sentence of the same degraded or by the Pope whom this Council constituted in his stead For if this Council in that Respect be not to be counted for lawful how then shall a lawful Succession be proved Had then this Council been in this Respect lawful if that Knave and Varlot had approved of the same This is shameful to be spoken and more shameful to affirm that therefore this Council was not lawful because it was nor approved of by him Or had it then been

lawful if the succeeding Pope had approved of the same But now forsooth it shall be unlawful because the Pope that was made by this Council said not of himself and those like him that he was subject to the Council but on the contrary Lucifer-like maintained that he was above the Council Howbeit it is altogether credible that the Decree of the Council was approved of by Him before he was chosen for Pope Who here sees not a Circle of Absurdities However it be if the Authority of the Council be no more than the Popes it could not depose the Pope and therefore those ungodly Knaves Popes are to be reckoned among the Bishops that lawfully succeed by a continual Succession not interrupted by Reason of their Heresie Atheism Simony Force and Villanies or if there be granted an Interruption there will now forthwith be no Succession at all upon the same Account that Bellarmine denies that the Succession of the Greeks is to be accounted lawful He that seeth not that the Papists are wholly at a loss in all these Things as in an endless Labyrinth of Errours he truly seeing is blind For howsoever the Case stands touching Succession the Question concerning Truth will alwayes remain To what Purpose therefore do they enter into so intricate a Labyrinth and take so great Pains for to prove a Succession One of these must necessarily be concluded either that the Truth is sufficient to constitute a true Church or that it is not If the former be true To what End is Succession by these endless Windings to and fro proved If the latter What doth Truth avail if it do not constitute a true Church It is contrary to the Nature and Propertie of Truth not to constitute a true Church whether those who teach the Truth have it by Tradition from others or no or at least know not the List of their Names from whom they have it delivered to them Gold will be Gold although it have been hid and buried in the Earth a thousand Years But you will say it is requisite that there be some before I know Gold to teach me that that is Gold But say I shall the Church thorowly do this But then there is required some one besides by whom I may be sure that that this Church which doth affirm that this is Gold doth know it most exactly and cannot err therein Who shall that be Here the Papists make a Circle We assert that the Scripture is Truth which the Church of Rome granteth us But yet it is the Prerogative of the Church saith he to tell us that the Scripture is Truth But say I who shall tell me that the Church that affirms this saith true She hath not this Priviledge by Succession unless it clearly appear that she never defected from the Truth This cannot appear unless I know what is Truth If the Church herself assume this she then singeth to us the same Song and so the Church will be both Plantiff and Judge and that in her own proper Cause Here will be no End of contending And that is it which Tertullian meant in that most known Place and commonly in the mouth of all the Papists which they quote in all their Writings with a very perverse wresting of the Sense thereof in his Book of Proscript against Hereticks Chap. 32. Where he thus speaketh But if any Heresies dare insert themselves in the Times of the Apostles that so they may be thought to have been delivered by the Apostles because they were in the Apostles Dayes we may say that is we may in such Case demand of them the Succession of which they boast saying Let them produce the Originals of their Churches turn over the Order of their Bishops so running down by Succession from the Beginning as that first Bishop had some one of the Apostles or Apostolical men who yet continued with the Apostles for his Author and Predecessor c. And a little after Let the Hereticks feign any such Thing which is to be noted as serving our Purpose yet though they shall feign it they shall prevail nothing For their very Doctrine compared with that of the Apostles by its Diversity and Contrariety will aloud declare that it hath neither any Apostle nor Apostolical Man for its Authour For as the Apostles would not have taught Things differing among themselves so also the Apostolical Men would not have published Things contrary to the Apostles except it were those who revolted from the Apostles and taught otherwise According to this Form therefore or Manner note it well shall those Churches appeal which though they can produce none of the Apostles or Apostolick Men as their Authour as being long after and which lastly are daily instituted yet agreeing in the same Faith to wit with the Apostles or Apostolick Men they are not the less deemed Apostolical by Reason of the cousanguinity or nearness of kin of their Doctrine That is according to Tertullians style because they agree with the Apostles in Doctrine These words of Tertullian which the Papists so shamefully abuse and so violently wrest do not obscurely confirm what we have said For Tertullian says three Things First that those Churches which have the Truth agreeable with the Doctrine of the Apostles are no less Apostolical Churches then others although they cannot shew their Succession for that only Cause for that they have the Truth on their side Secondly that those Churches which glory of their Succession and Original derived from the Apostles and cannot demonstrate it are justly to be rejected as those who obtrude upon us that which is false And Thirdly that those Churches which demonstrate their Succession whether lawfully or unlawfully are not to be counted for true Churches unless it appear that their Doctrine is agreeable to the Doctrine of the Apostles What Churches agree therein the same are Apostolical although they be destitute of Succession This is more clear then the Noon-dayes Sun The same affirmeth Augustine in that Place which is also quoted as unfaithfully and contrary to the Meaning of Augustine by the Papists in his Book which he wrote against the fundamental Epistle of Manichee Chap. 4. For when he had said that he clave to the Catholick Church wherein from the See of Peter even to his Time the Succession of Bishops and Priests had been deduced he addes these words which are altogether agreeable with our Judgment With you he speaks of the Manichees where there is none of these to invite and detain me there is onely the noise of the Promise of Truth which indeed were it so manifestly shewed that it could not be questioned were to be preferred before all those Things by Reason whereof I am detained in the Catholick Church What could Augustine have spoken more clear to prove and shew that neither Antiquity nor Succession can avail so as that any one should be able to quit himself of the Labyrinth of Doubts touching the true Church but that the Truth