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
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
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
it appears that nothing was done therein but by his Orders Theodosius junior sent Count Candidian to preside in his stead And some contestation happening to be amongst the Bishops he writes to them in these terms Our Majesty cannot approve of own as lawful what has bin done hitherto And these very Bishops that had a great veneration for their Emperor tell him in their Synodical Epistle They have done nothing but â—y his motions and that they have made use â—f his Letter as a Light to conduct them The fourth General Council hath no â—ess evident Testimonies for it The resistance which was made to Pope Leo's Legats requiring Dioscorus to be put of the Assembly the affair of Juvenalis and Thalassius that of the ten Egyptian Bishops that of Bassianus and Stephen which were all determined by the Emperors Judges leave us no ground to doubt of this truth Justinian was President at the Fifth as is clear from all the Acts of that Council And that great Prince whom Baronius abus'd so unworthily declares in his Letter written to the Synod That he considered the Bishops reunion as the foundation and beginning of all the happiness of hiâ— Reign The Sixth is so clear and its Session were so many characters of such a presidency that an adorer of the Popes new Power endeavored to discredit the Actâ— of it because saies he The Emperor with his Judges plena autoritate praesidet presides with full autority Anastasius did whatever he could to deprive us of the Seventh but Pope Adrian did repair abundantly that defect We offer these things saies he in his Letter to Constantine to the end they may be carefully examined for we have not exactly gather'd these testimonies we present to your Imperiâ—â— Majesty We received these Letters from Adrianus B P of Rome saies the Emperor directed to us by his Legats who also sit with us in the Synod We commanded them to be publicly read There is no Italian whom these word would not stagger The Eighth expresly saies Praesidentibus Imperatoribus and because the Popes Legats pretended that the Bishops who were defenders of Photius having bin â—ondemned by the Pope ought not to be â—eard any more as sentenc'd by their last â—udge the Emperors Envoies to the Council answer'd That the Prince comâ—ands them to be heard the second time Imâ—erator vult jubet Who after so many Presidents clearer â—han the light will not wonder to hear Leo the Tenth in his Lateran Council â—ay imperiously and in such a manner as gives a truer Character of him than all â—is Historians The Pope of Rome only as â—eing above all Councils is fully impowered to â—all to transport and to dissolve them And who after a particular account of 100 Provincial Councils for 1000 Years where the Pope was never spoken of but â—or the condemning of his pretences who I say will not confess with Cardinal 〈◊〉 Zabarella That the Pope has so generally â—nvaded the Rights of particular Churches â—hat other Bishops signifie almost nothing and 〈◊〉 God be not merciful to his Church Vehementer periclitatur IX Nor does their pretended Power oâ— confirming Councils stand upon betteâ— grounds than the other two For if by thâ— word Confirmatioâ— they understand an external engagement whereby all faithful People are to obey the holy Constitution of these Divine Assemblies such an Authority belongs so properly to Princes and makes so considerable a part of theâ— Dignity that no man can appropriate 〈◊〉 to himself without a manifest Usurpation and violation of the Sacred Majesty oâ— Kings 'T is in that sense Eusebius said of Constantine Quae ab Episcopis erant saâ—citae regulae suû confirmâ—bat consignabâ—â— autoritate And to the same purpose Jâ—stinian speaking of the Canons of the first Ages saies Sancimus vicem legum obtineâ—â— sanctas regulas But if by Confirmation they understand the internal obligatioâ— laid upon all Christians of hearing those whom God has made their guides anâ— especially when they speak in Councilâ— where the Holy Ghost has promised to bâ— with them to reduce it to the Pope 〈◊〉 the greatest Chimera in the World Thâ—â— is to make these Venerable Assemblies aâ— object of scorn and derision to give occasion of disbeleiving the certainty of the truth they set forth or the justice of the laws they impose and turn all Christendome into a club of Independents given up to the guidance of their own reason Is it probable that the Holy Ghost should be absent from a meeting of 300. Bishops among whom we find Athanasius Osius Maximus c. and be present to Liberius a Subscriber of the Arian Heresie That he should not be in the Ephesin Chalcedonian and Constantinopolitan Councils where you have Cyril Leo Proclus Flavian c. and yet in Vigilius a defender of the three Chapters That he should not vouchsafe his presence to three hundred Bishops met at the sixth general Counci and yet inspire Honorius a patron of the Monothelites Is not this to include the Universal Church in the Pope which is a dangerous heresie To acknowledg him to be above Councils which the Basilian Council the Popes's Carthage as well as the famous Sorbon stile an other heresie and in fine to open the door to a thousand inconveniences the renown'd distinction excathedra cannot help X. These weighty reasons induc'd the German Princes to protest against that Council Many Kings of France had done the same before and Francis the First whose name alone in a World of of great Men was so fully perswaded of its being no Council much less a General one that the subscription of the Letters he directed to them was only this Conventui Tridentino But above all Henry the Eighth King of England a cleer-sighted Prince and extreamly well learned in the true concernments of Princes oppos'd it with a greater constancy T was not out of any motion of Heresie or Schism he dealt thus for he lived yet in the Roman communion Nor out of any ambition since all the historians nay those themselves who endeavoured most to defame him acknowledg he had been all his life-time the general Arbiter of Europe Nor yet out of any fear of or aversion to Councils since at the same time that he protested against the Council of Trent he declared he was ready to submit to any other lawfully call'd and to send thither the Bishops of his Realms But the true and only cause was that he perceived of how great importance an attempt of that matter would be for all succeeding ages and what slavery all Christian Princes would be reduced to if he should let it pass So that if the Council of Trent were as orthodox as the Nicene and we had no other reasons of rejecting it this we have alledged is sufficient to satisfy all unprejudic'd persons T is an essential defect and a fundamental one at the beginning of an affair
of the highest concernment Whatever you intend to raise and build upon it cannot be but weak and ruinous and till the Pope be pleased to do us justice in that point we do well to stop our ears to all others XI But should we set aside all these considerations and grant that the Pope could both call and preside in this Council we maintain he ought not to do it How came he to be judg of those whose adversary he was to sentence his own accusers and to rule in a Council demanded with so many tears and obtained after five and twenty years delay only to reform him The heats of Leo the 10 th against Luther are very well known That Pope who had for so many years trampled upon the neck of Europe was almost distracted to see a despicable Frier rebel against him and attack indulgences of which his predecessors had alwaies bin most tender So considerable an adversary gave more credit to Luther than either his own merit or the justice of his cause could have done Nor was he to be accounted an ordinary man that had answered Pope Leo so briskly and stoutly received all the Vatican thunders He made his appeal to a future Council and was the more easily induced to defer till then his condemnation or justification because â—e never imagin'd Pope Leo his public â—nd profess'd Enemy would become his â—udg The German Princes went further and â—fter their accusation brought against â—he Pope for Heresie and Simony they 〈◊〉 appeal'd to a lawful Council T was at least the Popes duty to purge himself of so many accusations and to â—cknowledge according to the rule of the 〈◊〉 Canonists his most famous oracles that â—n such occasions he was depriv'd of all power The Arch-Bishop of Colen having been excommunicated by Paul the Third refused the Pope for his Judg as having bin attainted of Heresie and Idolatry long before and protested that as soon as a free Council should be opened he would appear there to accuse him according to the ancient Canons King Henry the Eighth declared in his Manifesto that the Roman Bishops orders did not concern him at all that the Pope had conceived a deadly hatred against him and that he sought after all occasions to be revenged of him for having shaken off his tyranny and withstood the intolerable contributions exacted of his Kingdoms by that See These different appeals had been made in all requisite terms and were not intended as a pretence to annul the Council but were offer'd before it was commenc'd without ever being recall'd What ever slighâ— pretences the Pope had against Luther and the Princes of Germany he had none at all against Henry the Eight and the Arch-Bishop of Colen The one was a Prelate who demanded to be ruled by the Canons the other a great King never suspected of any Heresie one that was honoured with the glorious name of Defender of the Faith and tho we don't pretend to canonize all the actions of that incomparable Monarch it is well known his greatest guilt was the following the examples of his Predecessors in converting to the good of the State those immense riches which the Roman Luxury and idleness was maintained with and taking away those Monasteries whose People were become abominable and scandalous to the Church XII For these very reasons in former ages â—he Catholic Bishops defenders of Athaâ—asius his person and faith rejected the Council of Tyre because said they Theognis and Eusebius were his judges â—nd that Gods Law Inimicum neque teâ—em neque judicem esse vult St. Crysostome â—efus'd to appear before Theophilus only â—ecause he stil seem'd guilty of the crimes â—id to his charge and was his enemy â—uod contra omnes Canones leges est And â—his is so equitable that Pope Nicholas â—he First and Celestine the Third acâ—nowledged that ipsa ratio dictat â—uia suspecti inimici judices esse non deâ—cant Cardinal Bellarmine is so embarass'd by the laws which those two Popes conâ—ess to be of natural equity that he admits of them except when it concerns â—he supream judge I pity that great defender of the Popes for giving so miseâ—able an answer For if it be true how â—ame it to pass that Pope Vigilius's constitution which he certainly pronounceâ— ex Cathedra was condemn'd in the Fiftâ— general Council Why does the Sixth aâ—â—so excommunicate Pope Honorius for bâ—â—ing an Heretique Exclamaverunt oâ—â—nes Honorio haeretico anathema And thâ— Seventh Detestamur Sergium Honoriumâ— c. What means the Eight in forbidâ—ing Popes ever to be judged but wheâ— they are Heretiques Why did theâ— Basilean and Constantian make it an aâ—â—ticle of Faith that the Popes are subjeâ—â— to a superior Judg when they becomâ— Hereticks Schismaticks or scandalous Why were Pope Anastasius John thâ— Thirteenth and a 100 others depos'd â—oâ— must needs either condemn this shininâ— cloud of witnesses and with them all thâ— ages of the Church or confess that Popâ— Paul the third had no reasons to presidâ— at Trent XIII T is no new thing to appeal from the Popes judgment Saint Austin writing 〈◊〉 the Donatists and speaking of the sentence given against them at Rome uses these words Let us suppose saies he that the Bishops who judged their cause at Rome had not judged aright there yet remained a Council of the Universal Church wherein your cause with your judges might have been judged again and their sentence annul'd had it been unjust But without looking back to the Primitive times the histories of our age afford us a thousand examples of this kind Nothing is more frequent in the English French and German records Nay the Monks themselves claim'd right to such appeals Luther was not the first who attempted to make use of them and we read in Paul Langius his Chronicles that Cesano a Frier appeal'd from the sentence of Pope Martin the fifth as being Heretical tho in a matter of very little concernment it being only to know to whom belong'd the propriety of the Franciscans's bread XIV But laying aside all these reasons how could the Pope be president in a Council call'd only for his reformation There is none but know that the disorders of the Church had no other Origin then the Court of Rome Nor did Protestants only think so but those also of the Church of Rome And tho both were extreamly opposite in their opinions concerning the remedies for so great a disease yet they all agreed in their apprehensions of its cause Pope Adrian the sixth and the Councellors of Paul the third acknowledg'd it with much sincerity This was the sentiment of Princes as well as Doctors Their publique Ministers did alwaies touch upon that string Pope Marcellus the second did not apprehend how his Predecessors could abhor the very name of reformation And it is like that had God bin pleas'd to
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
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
irrecoverably ruined But when a sinner groans under a voluntary pressure fasts praies and impoverisheth himself to enrich the poor instead of puffing him up with self-conceit and flattering him with a perswasion that he satisfies God we depress him more and more still repeating to him this Lesson That according to the Oracles of the Word of God and the practise of his Saints the most laudable life examined in his Justice is an abomination in his sight and that the greatest penitent in the most burning fervor of his Penance for his sins past stands in need at every moment of new mercy to obliterate and forgive the present XV. Nor do we less wonder at the Anathema pronounc'd by the Fathers at Trent against those that think Attrition with Confession insufficient for the pardon of sins That is those who believe the very same that till then was constantly a part of the Churches belief and are perswaded that a man desisting from sin against God out of fear of punishment is not accounted guiltless by him This their Assertion is so true that the learned men of the Church of Rome are at a loss to give a favorable interpretation to the words of the Council And we have seen a Bishop in Flanders so admirable and profound every where else scarce understood when he endeavors to make the Council speak what he is perswaded it should To perceive at first sight all the consequences of this Principle we need but consider the abominable interpretations Jesuits have given of it Both the doctrine practise of these Friars is so enormous upon that point that we want words to express it This is the foundation whereon Bauny Escobar Tambourin Sanchez Vasquez and other such Monsters build their infamous Morals Wherein they are not contented to teach all manner of crimes but afford means how to commit them with impunity and as much as in them lies cheat both God and their consciences But leaving these favorers of sin to Gods judgements let it suffice us to say that we are so far from blaming Fear in general that we acknowledge there is a chast fear which endureth for ever more We learn from the sacred Writings that fear of eternal pains is the beginning of Wisdom None saies S. Austin can come to love but by fear he must begin with the chain of Iron before he be adorned with the Golden Neck-lace So when God strikes a sinner with the fear of his Judgements 't is the first step to his Conversion but if he never goes further he shall never be justified in his sight Love is at least an essential condition for the forgiving our sins We are justified by Faith but it is by Faith that worketh by Love not by a dead Faith which brings forth nothing nor by a sterile one which goes not so far as to produce fear nor by a slavish one which only refrains us thro the apprehensions of punishment and would never leave off sinning did it not still behold the thunder of Divine vengeance alwaies hanging over it but by a Faith full of Love and pious zeal which in the strictest bonds unites our hearts to our crucified Savior gives us a lively representation of his sufferings revives in us an ardent desire of shaking off the vices of the old Man to be invested with the life and vertues of the New To renounce all things for our Redeemer and at least to love our God as S. Austin excellently prescribes with as much fidelity and ardency as we have loved the Creatures In the Epistles of the Apostle we find that the great advantage of the Sons of God above those of the Devil and their true and intrinsecal distinction is to have bin divested of the spirit of bondage to fear which belongs properly to the Jews and to have received the spirit of Adoption which is the lot of Christians The one brings them to God as to their Father the other frights them as with the presence of their Judge But till Faith which worketh by Love hath enlarged our hearts and begotten in us the disposition of Sons there is no hopes of pardon For let us dispute to the end of the World tire our Readers with the multitude and subtlety of our distinctions and make our fancies the Rules of Gods Decrees those only shall receive pardon whom Grace hath converted and made his Sons Fear is good and usefull bonus est iste timor utilis est those that are struck with it saluberrimo timore quatiuntur But 't is insufficient and something more is required 'T is the Jews gift the Character of the Slaves the spirit of the old Testament ibi plebs longè stabat timor erat amor non erat 'T is an effect of that universal infirm Grace God has granted to all men but not of that particular and victorious one which Christ hath got for us by his death and poured into our hearts by the Holy Ghost Cum enim adest vivificans spiritus hoc ipsum intus conscriptum facit diligi quod foris scriptum lex faciebat timeri The Fathers of the Primitve times apprehended the nature of that fear quite in another manner then the Fathers of Trent did First They did consider that its Source was nothing else but a prodigious self-love They that are in those dispositions of fear the Council is satisfied with do not seek so much to return to their God and give themselves to him as to preserve their quiet and their bodies in the future life Propterea enim timentur apud inferos poenae dolores ac tormenta Gehennarum Secondly They knew that a man whom fear only refrains from sinning loses not the love and desire of sin but sins still in his heart Sic profecto in ipsa intus voluntate peccat qui non voluntate sed timore non peccat S. Austin compares these persons to a wife who is not true to her husband but because she is afraid of being punished if she be found not so 'T is certain she commits adultery in her heart since she would not persevere innocent if she could contract guilt without punishment 'T is like a Wolf saies that holy Doctor who being surprized by the watchfull Shepherd and the cry of the Dogs is obliged to fly without doing any harm he is not cruel and bloody he tears no Sheep in pieces Venit fremens redit tremens he came on raging returns trembling but in these two circumstances he is still a Wolf He doth not execute his bad design nor yet doth he leave it Lupus est tamen fremens tremens Thirdly They were perswaded that the righteousness which fear produces in a sinner is from the Law and men which the Apostle counts but dung who sees not saies one of the Fathers that righteousness which is from the Law comes from men but that which is by Christ comes
conformable to his Praises imitates what he extolls and considers those excellent Patterns as so many reproches to the disorders and remisness of his life But he is not induced thereby to invocate them to ascribe to them what is due to God alone and offer them Prayers which being commanded neither by the Precepts of Christ nor his Apostles spring rather from a blind Superstition then a well ordered Piety Non Religioni sed Superstitioni deputantur XX. But supposing the Church of Rome had some small ground in Antiquity for the Invocation of Saints she has not the least shadow of reason for the worshipping their Images Nor is it difficult to prove that Images are a remnant of heathenish Ceremonies which a blind zeal for the memory of the Apostles brought into the Church Hence the Fathers of the Primitive times became extremly zealous to interdict not only their worship but their very sight in the Churches So Origen Eusebius Justin Martyr c. inveigh on all occasions against Images The Eliberitan Council where the great Osius was present he whom the Councils stile their Father and Master condemns by an express Canon the placing any sort of Images in Churches S. Epiphanius forbids the having Images in Churches or in the Crypts of the Martyrs And to shew that his practice did not contradict his Precepts he gives an account to John Patriarch of Jerusalem how having found at the entrance of the Church at Anablatta an Image of our Savior painted upon a Curtain he tore it and wished the Priests to make use of it for the burial of some poor person XXI But it is clearer then the light that by the word Adoration the holy Fathers meant all manner of Worship Those famous men had a Divinity of sense not of terms they were not acquainted with those Distinctions which became the whole business of Scholastics in succeeding Ages They no less included external worship then internal and thought not the one less dangerous then the other S. Augustin was not perswaded that a man could so purify his intentions in adoring an Image but that the Wood and Stone must needs bear some part in it Who is the man saies that holy Doctor who looking upon an Image either worships or praiseth qui non sic officitur ut ab eo se exaudiri putet hoc enim facit quodammodo extorquet figura membrorum I know saies the same Saint in his admirable Book De Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae That there are many worshippers of the Sepulchres and Pictures of Martyrs Multos Sepulchrorum Picturarum adoratores But I advise you not to take occasion thence of slandering the Catholic Church in aggravating the faults of those People whom she her self condemns quos ipsa condemnat corrigere studet This excellent place shews that there are many disorders in the Church the Church is not at all guilty of and that those are in the wrong who charge a whole Society with the faults of some of its particular members So that when we speak against worshipping of Images we exclaim not against that shameful traffick exercised in the Churches of the Mendicants neither against those Chappels set round with pieces of wax and silver nor against those false Miracles which are only so many baits whereby covetous Monks delude the ignorant and simple and enrich themselves All these things Ecclesia Romana condemnat corigere studet It is well known the pious men of these Monasteries are troubled at such abuses and Bishops wish they were able to apply a remedy to them But we combat the Decrees and Canons of the Roman Church things to which the contrary sentiments are by her stiled Impiety We give them no other sense then she her self would put upon them and we maintain in their most favorable interpretation that she has made Laws of some points quas ipsa Ecclesia Catholica condemnat corrigere studet XXII There is not a learned person in the Church of Rome who doth not consent that to paint God Almighty has bin accounted a crime for twelve hundred years 'T is not lawfull for a Christian saies S. Austin to put in any Church the Image of God in a humane shape Nevertheless the Council of Trent makes it a Virtue to admit of them There is not a Church in which you may not see the unworthy Pictures of an immense and incomprehensible God whose most perfect delineation consists in the impossibility both Men and Angels lie under of conceiving any The Popes Chappell is filled with them and his holiness is pleased to forget that one of the cheif Patrons of Images calls it a folly and an extreme Impiety XXIII Neither is there any understanding person who doth not acknowledge that â—he most obstinate Defenders of Images never went so far as to maintain that â—his soveraign Worship should be renâ—red to them which is due to God alone â—Tis by this only reason they pretend to free themselves of that Idolatry which was laid to their charge So that it is a meer evasion of those who answer to all the authorities of the fifth sixth and seventh Ages against Images that they were levelled only against Divine and supreme worship being a ridiculous dealing no way chargeable upon grave Men. But the Church of Rome to perswade the receiving of these things calls them with an incredible insincerity Ancient practices strives to amuze people by swelling and high flown words and because he miserably abandons himself to his own reason and sinks under the most horrid Impiety who respects not true Councils and Fathers that of Trent speaks of nothing but Apostolical Traditions Consent of Fathers and authority of Councils XXIV All these magnificent promises are reduced to a miserable Conventicle held in the eighth Age to which no Western Bishops nor any of the two parts of the East not one of the three Patriarchs of Jerusalem Antioch and Alexandria came which Pope Nicholas I. and Adrian II. durst never call General A Council called by a cruel and disordered Prince wherein Irene his mother sate President so ambitious and unnatural a woman that she commanded the eies of her own Son to be plucked out A Council at which the most considerable person present was Thalossius Patriarch of Constantinople a man who as Pope Adrian describes him from a Lay-man became Bishop from an illiterate Courtier Patriarch of Constantinople whom the same Pope saies he abhorred as a Monster ut monstrum exhorruit made Bishop against all Ordinances and Canons A Council that founded its Decrees upon Visions and meer Fables such as one of the meanest spirit must needs be offended at The Image of our Saviour given to King Abgarus the Leprosy Baptism and miraculous recovery of Constantine are things of that nature as the learned in the Church of Rome do now account supposititious not to alledge many others which deserve that the
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
as Popes as infallible as the Oracles of the Holy Ghost as masters both of Men and Angels as judges both of the quick and dead in a word as men of whom according to their own Books 't is not allow'd to enquire Domine cur ita facis IV. That Ambition and Covetousness have bin the two originary sins of the Popes and that to these two Heads may be reduc'd all the rest the very complaints of their own Historians and most famous Authors do evince By the first they made a shift to raise themselves above Spiritual and Temporal Powers to excommunicate and depose Kings to invade the jurisdiction of other Bishops to break thro all ancient and modern Canons and instead of being rul'd by the General Councils of the Catholic Church to exalt themselves above them By the second they made use of all sacred and profane means to enrich themselves reduc'd all Benefices into that state as not to be attain'd but by Simony and sacrific'd all things to the raising of their Families As for the honor of their Dignity the glory of the Gospel and the consideration of the scandal of the Church these could never over-power in them the more strong impressions of Flesh and Blood The invention of Croisados being worn out they had recourse to that of Indulgences set to sale the absolution of sins and whosoever fill'd the Apostolic Treasure tho he were more profligate than the bad Thief became more innocent then the good V. Nor was it enough barely to fall into so many disorders unless they undertook also to Canonize them and thereby bring themselves under that dreadful Curse which God pronounces against those that call evil good 'T was for this purpose that Rome hath bred up such Doctors as flatter the Popes even to Idolatry stiling them Gods upon Earth These gave birth to the monstrous Doctrine of Infallibility never before heard of in the Church for 1400 years These had the face to maintain that if all the World should oppose their Sentiment all the World must be slighted And to sum up in a word all that can be said on that matter they have so far enslav'd themselves to their passion as to decree in one of their Canons that if the Pope should be neglectful of his Brethrens salvation improfitable to the Church dumb in what concerns her good tho he should carry along with him to hell an innumerable number of souls yet no man living can presume to correct him VI. These things are neither exaggerations nor slanders but meer matters of Fact which the best Authors of the Roman Church as Monsieur D'Espences Gerson the Chancellor of Paris Marsilius of Pavia the Cardinal of Cambray the Cardinal Cusan Aeneas Sylvius afterwards Pope do equally complain of And without ever mentioning the impertinencies of Canonists some of whom teach The Pope hath power to excommunicate Angels or the Impieties of some Divines who maintain he can establish any thing against the Law of God and Nature both What can be more amazing then to hear the Popes speak themselves Nicholas the First in his Letter to Michael saies That the Pious Emperor Constantine had call'd the Pope God and that 't is evident God can be judged by no man This piece of madness his successors lik'd so well that they made an express Canon of it Boniface the Eighth defines in a Decretal of his That all humane Creatures are bound necessitate salutis to submit to him as to the King of kings and both Spiritual and Temporal Lord over all the World His successor pretends lawfully to dispense with that which was contrary to the Apostles commands Bene dispensat Dominus Papa contra Apostolum Let all the World know saies Gregory the Seventh out of an excess of modesty and humility That we give and take away all Kingdoms Empires Principalities and all Goods men are capable of possessing VII Nor did these Servants of the Servants of God live any otherwise then they taught There could no Crown in their times be assur'd upon the Head of any Prince whatsoever Right Birth or Election had there established it And indeed we would scarce believe the precedents of Philip Frederic Lewis c. had we not beheld in our own daies what Leo the Tenth Julius the Third and Sextus the Fifth had done The public Records of England Germany and France are fill'd up with their bold enterprises the raising Subjects in rebellion against their natural Princes the absolving them from their Allegiance the putting great Kingdoms into combustion at once undermining them by civil Dissentions and procuring them to be invaded by Foreign Enemies the swearing Friendship with Francis the First and at the same time helping Charles the Fifth to subvert him and again entertaining correspondence with Charles the Fifth whilst he solicited Francis the First to war again are part of the transactions of St. Peters Successors the heads of the Church and Vicars of Christ VIII But for their Convetousness who is able to express it Annats expectative Graces sacred Reservations Preventions Mandats things abominable in all their parts were call'd by them Pious artifices to maintain the Apostolic See That which in its own nature was properly a Crime an Abomination and a Simony was turn'd into an holy action by a Pasce oves meas IX All Friers who grew weary of being govern'd by their Bishops and kept in the hardships of Penance sent mony to Rome where there was not a door in the Conclave but was open to their Gold Great sums to the Datary prevail'd more then all their tears could have done No Canons no Councils no Fathers resisted their bribes They purchas'd Privileges substracted themselves from the Sacred Jurisdiction of their Bishops and tho the very Injunction of their new gain'd liberty was a real Simony a disobedience and an effect of the corruption of their hearts yet the disturbers of it were threatned in their Bulls with St. Peter and St. Pauls indignation X. But that his Holiness not satisfied with the oppression of the Clergy should not spare the Lay-men neither is above all imagination The Records of the Parliament of Paris speak every where of the Popes oppressions Sir Roger Twisden hath writ an excellent account of the insupportable Taxes England groan'd under the natural piety and generosity of the English inviting the Popes to abuse it into an occasion of leaving no limits to their Covetousness For Germany and other Provinces who in the World is unacquainted with their grievances And is there any Roman Catholic who if he consider things impartially confesses not that Leo the Tenth was the cause of greater evils to the Church then Luther XI The Pope himself verified that word of the Prophet The Priests shall eat the sins of the people There was no crime which had not an Asylum at the Penitentiaries The obscene Books of the Jesuits Sanchez and
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
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
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
looks on the praises which the Saints have given him in their Epistles as titles and privileges from Christ the Church of England opposes it with as much constancy as justice and not being able to cure the wounds of that Bishop she leaves him to the judgment of our great God XII The pride of the Pope has caus'd the separation of the Greek Church and made a breach between East and West which will never be made up It has also bin the occasion of the one part of the West being divided from the other And it is not ten years since in the affair of the four French Bishops it had like to raise a Schism and a division in the rest XIII But supposing the submission of all the rest to Rome should be lawful yet that is nothing to the Church of England which was never any part of it It plainly appears she receiv'd the Faith almost as soon as Christ brought it to the world but altho the time be uncertain yet none can think that she was ever instructed by the Church of Rome Her manner of observing Easter as in the East and her Ceremonies very different from those used in the Church of Rome shew that she receiv'd the Gospel from thence St. Gregory having sent hither Austin the Monk and that Holy Saint requiring the Clergy to submit to the Popes autority the Abbot of Bangor in the name of all the rest answer'd in such terms as shew'd the purity and simplicity of the former times We submit our selves saies he to the Church of God to the Pope of Rome and to every good Christian and love each of them with such a degree of charity as is due to them to assist them both in our works and Councils to become sons of God we know no other respect due to him whom you stile Father of Fathers XIV It is therefore certain for six hundred years at least that the Church of England hath in no manner bin subject to that of Rome her Councils and promotions of Bishops and generally all that belongs to Religion has bin transacted without the Church of Rome being at all concerned in them It would be much against the honor of the Pope if those means should be made known by which he hath endeavor'd to establish himself for the succeeding ages The public Acts of this Kingdom of a far greater autority then all their legends are â—ully charg'd with his Oppressions What pains did the Kings take to put a stop to them with what constancy did the Clergy oppose it till the time of Henry the Eighth That history was writ with as much impartiality as truth by the Learned Sir Roger Twisden It appears by all public Acts that the Pope hath wonderfully endeavor'd to make use of all conjunctures of times to get footing into this great Isle He hath bin enrich'd by the liberality of her Kings by Factions which he sow'd in the heart of the Kingdom and by the Wars which he brought upon it from abroad XV. Henry the Eighth whom all the Popes have so cry'd out upon went not further then his Predecessors and the title of supreme Governor in these his Realms well understood is no less due to him then to any other Prince in the World This King or any of his Successors pretend to no more autority over the Church then Constantine Justinian or Charles the Great They have neither power to administer the Sacraments nor to Preach the word of God They meddle not at all with any thing which belongs to faith or manners and leave to their Bishops all the power in those matters which Christ himself has given them They make no Canons tho they add Sanctions to them and declare the knowledge of Spiritual affairs is not a right of their Crowns They only take care of the outward administration of the Church to see Canons executed and hinder foreign autority under pretence of piety from disturbing the quiet of their people Upon this account the Bull of no Pope is receiv'd in France without the Kings consent all privileged men are daily restor'd to the jurisdiction of the Ordinaries and when any thing does endanger the liberties of the Gallican Church or the Laws of the Land the Pasce oves meas is of no force and the Kings autority stops the attemts of the Holy Father In Spain the King has the disposal of all things belonging to the outward Government of the Church The Inquisitors condemn in the Kings name and when the Council of Trent was there receiv'd 't was by the command he gave his Subjects to do it nor do the Kings of England claim any more XVI 'T was not the title of Supreme Governor which did most of all distast the Pope He could easily bear with that in all Kings for it is but what naturally belongs to them he knew that every King has such autority over the Church but he fear'd the consequences of it which indeed are very terrible to a Pope Henry the Eighth by that did suppress the Bulls which came from Rome and retain'd in his own Realms those vast sums which before were yearly carried out of them This was transacted in the sight of two great Kingdoms inclin'd enough to do the like The Pope therefore thought that in prudence he ought to cry out on that Prince but because a man cries in â—ain when things are represented in their â—rue and lively colours he gave his defenders liberty of forming Chimera's to the end they might work upon the people such an effect in this point as he desired XVII The Church of England need not recuâ— to an extraordinary mission nor to those arguments so far distant from reason to prove her self a Church She hath not confounded the order of things and assum'd a Government lately sprung up Since she hath receiv'd the Faith which was according to Nicephorus in the firsâ— age and to St. Beda some small time after we see the succession of Bishops hath continu'd without the least interruption or change XVIII The Usurpations of Popes the comâ—merce of Italians and most of all the ignorance wherewith God for some timâ— permitted the West to be blinded madâ— them fall into the errors of Rome But when God looked upon the Church in hâ—â— mercy and had opened her eies she laâ—bored to reform her self but not in a tuâ—multuous manner and spilling of bloodâ— She was not left to the conduct of the blind People which will suffer nothing but what pleaseth them best and which is delighted only with extreams The King calls a Council of the whole Kingdom stored with wise and holy Bishops as appears both in their lives and works This Council form'd the articles of a reformation which being seconded by the law of their Prince according to the custome of all Monarchs were by that great Kingdom receiv'd with a general respect XIX These holy Prelats in the Reformation had nothing carried on either