mean I should look upon him as the most immodest man that ever wrote who after the Confutation of the others Assertion hath the face to renew it again and publish it to the world but when I consider 't is want of knowledge in History that makes him so bold I am willing to excuse him upon that account from wilfull imposture tho' all the world cannot clear him from strange rashness and confidence I will therefore bate him all but near two hundred years and undertake to prove whenever call'd to do it that the Râ—manists Treasons owned by their Popes and great Men since the Reformation do far out number all the Plots and Insurrections they can lay to the Protestants Charge which notwithstanding have been condemned by the whole body of our Divines Mr. Pulton himself affirmed to Mr. Cressener that all good Princes ought to consent to the Church to which it being returned what if Princes have no mind to part from their Right in obedience to the Churches decrees must they be dispossess'd against their will he asserted that in such a case the Church hath power to decide in favour of it self This relation had been given the world of their discourse before Mr. Pulton published his Remarks in which he doth not once deny this passage though he makes Reflexions upon others 〈…〉 Cressener's Vindication But Mr. Pulton is not alone in this Opinion for there is a certain Jesuite who highly brags of the Loyalty of his Church that very lately affirmed in my hearing that in case of oppression of the Subjects by their Prince it is but reasonable that the Pope being the common Father of Christendom should have a power to depose or other ways punish the Oppressor and another great stickler for that Church a Convert never attempted to clear his Church of this Charge it being very plain as he affirmed that such a power must reside some where and the Pope was certainly the fittest to be intrusted with it And indeed I cannot see how men of any ingenuity can condemn it when they pretend the Pope's Approbation of M. De Meaux's Book is a clear Evidence that the Doctrine contained in it is the Doctrine of their Church for not to mention at present the Actions of former Popes this very Pope who approv'd that Book doth at this time notoriously assert his power over Kings by Excommunicating his Majesty of France in the matter of the Franchises thereby approving of that Doctrine as much as the Bishop's and giving us the same Authority for the deposing power that the Papists pretend for that Prelates Exposition Let Mr. Pulton or any for him make good his bold Slander against our Church and find so many Treasons and Rebellions in the Protestant Communion if he can as I will undertake to prove upon the Romanists affirming confidently is a Talent possess'd by most of the Missionaries but proving what they affirm is beneath them there have been above six and fifty open Rebellions raised and Parricides committed upon great Princes in about one hundred and sixty years and eighty two Bulls Indulgences and Supplies of the Popes for the furtherance of those Treasons besides an infinite number of horrid Conspiracies upon which I cannot but observe that at the beginning of the Reformation they own'd these Doctrines publickly and till the Pope gave them leave would never pay Obedience to our Princes but by all the traiterous Conspiracies imaginable endeavoured to depose and murder them they had the Pope's Bulls and Resolution of many Vniversities to satisfie their Consciences which mâ—y be well put into the ballance with the late Decrees of the Sorbonne against the deposing power for if their Decrees of late be Evidence enough to acquit the Roman Catholicks from the imputation of disloyal Principles as some affirm they are then surely so many Decrees of the same Faculty defending those Principles so many censures of other Vniversities pass'd upon the Opposers of them and so many Bulls and Breves of Popes to the same purposes may well justifie us in affirming that there is no security of their obediences any longer than the Pope pleases Till he forbad them they took the Oath of Allegiance and defended it but ever since have refus'd it with a strange Obstinacy and what security is there that his Orders shall not have the same obedience rendred to them in other points nay since that we have seen the Romanists of England who before were ready to subscribe the Remonstrance decline giving the King any assurance of their obedience because the Pope commanded them not to do it Could they have been prevailed on to renounce these Doctrines as sinfull and unlawfull they would have at least shewn that at present their principles were such as become faithfull Subjects but when they cannot be perswaded to do this all their profession that it is not their Doctrine gives no assurance of their Loyalty But if they should do this it is well observ'd by a late Writer that while they found their Loyalty upon this Supposition that the deposing Doctrine is not the Doctrine of the Roman Church doth not this Hypothesis afford a shrewd suspicion that if it were the Doctrine of the Church of Rome or ever should be so or they should ever be convinc'd that it is so then they would be for the deposing of Princes no less than those who at this day believe it to be the Doctrine thereof And I wonder how the Gentlemen of that Church can alledge the Decrees of the Sorbonne as an Evidence that they hold not the Doctrine of the deposing Power for the same Faculty Aug. 9. 1681. and the 16 th of the same Month approved the Oath of Allegeance and condemned the Pope's temporal Power over Princes as Heretical and yet our English Romanists will not take the Oath nor be perswaded to condemn the deposing power though they pretend to disclaim it And indeed it would be folly to expect that the decree of one single Faculty should be of more Authority than the Bulls of so many Popes and Canons of Councils the Supream Heads of the Roman Church But as I observ'd before it is more strange to hear these men affirm that the Doctrine contain'd in the Bishop of Condoms Exposition is the Doctrine of their Church and yet deny that the deposing power is so when all the Authority that Exposition hath is from the Pope and Cardinals approbation which in a more solemn manner hath been often given to that Doctrine so that either their Argument for the Bishops Book concludes nothing or it is an evident Demonstration that the Roman Catholick Church teaches the Doctrine of deposing Princes I offer to prove against them that the Popes power in that point was universally believed as a matter of Faith in that Church for near five hundred years now let them answer this Argument nothing can be believed as a matter of Faith but what was taught them
of the Book of Judith which for some time seem'd to him Apocryphal till the Council of Nice declar'd it otherwise now tho' I doubt not it was his design to establish the Authority both of a General Council and the Book of Judith by this one instance yet he hath unhappily fail'd in both the confidence with which he backs this Affirmation being all the strength of it for it was impossible there should be any truth in it seeing when the Council of Nice sate St. Jerome was either not born or but two years old and the Council made no Decree at all about the Books of Scripture yet doth that witty Author venture these three untruths in one Chapter as if because setting a good face on the matter prevails with the people of his Communion who are kept from examining what they hear affirmed we must therefore believe all he saith with the same implicit Faith. But when Baronius and Bellarmine those Champions of the Church of Rome care not by what means they establish the Doctrine of the Pope's power which is the character given of them by a learned man of their own Communion their unfaithfulness being so obvious that a Franciscan Fryer yet living observes that the great Annalist Baronius seems to have had no other end in writing his twelve laborious Tomes than to heap together how well or ill soever all the Topicks he could imagin for asserting to the Bishop of Rome the universal Monarchy when we find that Pillar of the Cause pointing out the way to the inferior Missionaries 't is no wonder if an exact imitation of these great Examples be affected by them And indeed this disposition is so natural to the Guides of that Church that no sooner can a Proselyte breath among them but he is running in the same path thus Mr. Cressy very seriously attempts to perswade the world that when examination is made of Miracles in order to the Canonization of any Saint the Testimony of women will not be received for which he gives this reason because naturally imagination is stronger in them than judgment and whatever is esteemed by them to be pious is easily concluded by them to be true but though there be very much weight in this reason yet the matter of Fact is so notoriously false that there is scarce any of their noted Saints in the process of whose Canonization we do not find the Oaths of women pass current nay sometimes without any other Testimony to confirm them for as his Right Honorable and Learned Answerer observes the single Testimony of the Nurse was the only evidence of the first Miracle that St. Benedict Mr. Cressy's great Patron wrought and in the Canonization of Ignatius Loyala the Founder of the Jesuits the Attestation of Isabella Monialis was taken to confirm his working Miracles and yet no doubt this plausible Assertion of Mr. Cressy's passes for truth among very many who being destitute of opportunities to discover the mistake yield firm credit to it because it is confidently advanc'd There is nothing more frequent in these Gentlemens mouths than ALL THE FATHERS are of this opinion ANTIQVITY is VNANIMOVS in this point and such like bold expressions though they deserve as much credit as Mr. Cressy's pretence and very little more For though Mr. Mumford the Jesuite tells us that the Text of St. Paul Let a Bishop be the Husband of one Wife was only a permission at that time when it was impossible to find fit men for that office who were single an Assertion perfectly false that the Apostle would have no man who married a second Wife be made a Bishop and that the Text is so interpreted by the COVNCILS and FATHERS VNANIMOVSLY St. Chrysostome will tell him that this Text is so far from being only a permission of Marriage for a time that it is designed for encreasing the esteem of it and if he pleases to consult him in another Homily upon the same Subject he will find that the interpretation he calls ridiculous is given by that great Divine the Apostle saith he forbiddeth excess because among the Jews the Association of a second Marriage was lawfull and to have two Wives at once so that all the Fathers we see are not unanimous in his Exposition though he is pleas'd to say they are and if we are as he tells us in the same place ridiculous in interpreting the words of Saint Paul in this Sense that a Bishop should have but one Wife at once we have very good Authority for being so though his Consideration or Sincerity was but small when he tells us ALL the Fathers are VNANIMOVS of his side and that 't is ridiculous to dissent from him With the same briskness we are told by the IRISH Animadverter on the Bishop of Bath and Wells's Sermon that Melchisedeck's Bread and Wine is own'd by all to be a Type of the Sacrament I suppose he meant ALL of his Communion for he must be very ignorant not to know that the Protestants deny it and yet by his telling the Bishop that he durst not meddle with that point because of this VNIVERSAL Consent he seems to extend his ALL beyond the narrow â—ounds of the Roman Church But we may well expect such a spirit of Confidence in the Members of a Church in whose RVLE OF FAITH the COVNCIL OF TRENT we find this Assertion that the ancient Fathers when they gave the Eucharist to Infants did not teach it was necessary to Salvation that they should receive it An affirmation which we may in some sort excuse the Fathers of that Council for being so hardy as to advance their Skill in Antiquity being so very small that it is more than probable very few of them knew the contrary though a little more modesty might have been expected than so rashly to pronounce against the whole current of the Fathers and the universal Tradition of the Church for some Ages nay against the decree of Pope Innocent the First who as Saint Augustine assures us taught that little children cannot have eternal Life without Baptism and the participation of the Body and Blood of Christ with which place when Mr. Campion was press'd he after the example of this Council as positively answer'd there is no such Decree though the very work of Saint Augustine was brought and this passage shew'd him With the very same Sincerity doth Bellarmine affirm that the WHOLE CHVRCH and ALL the Greek and Latin Fathers teach that when Christ said upon this Rock will I build my Church he thereby meant Peter and Alexandre Natalis that the Fathers with a NEMINE CONTRA DICENTE interpret the Rock to be that Apostle there needs but very little reading to confute this notwithstanding all the assurance it is back't with for not onely particular Fathers tell us that when our Lord said upon that Rock he meant upon the Faith of the Confession Peter had
their part that they may catch at an occasion to make the world believe that they have forfeited that Protection his MAJESTY hath so graciously promised to afford them But our Loyalty hath a better Foundation than to be shaken by such malicious Arts it being founded upon the same Bottom with our Church the Apostles and Prophets and our Blessed Saviour the chief Corner-Stone of the building which all the Arts of men and Devils shall never overthrow not upon the will of man as theirs is Yet these Gentlemen think it sufficient to prove us disloyal to cull out a few Instances of men of rebellious Practices and this they charge upon the Church of England but with what justice let the world judge They cry out upon us as misrepresenters of their Doctrines because we affirm they teach the deposing power to rest both in the Pope and in the People and shew their Practices to accord with that Doctrine when ever they had occasion If this be to misrepresent what name may we call their dealing by who charge us with Rebellion when we freely condemn all such practices and that openly and that in our Religion there is no Rule to be found that prescribeth Rebellion nor any thing that dispenseth Subjects from the Oath of their Allegiance nor any of our Churches that receive that Doctrine When on their side several General Councils have asserted above TWENTY of their Popes pronounc'd that right inherent in them and I am able to prove that above three hundred of their Divines defend and plead for either the Popes or Peoples power to depose their Princes And though I know there are many in that Church who at least at present do heartily disown that Doctrine yet I will not stick to affirm that it hath all the Characters of an Article of Faith nor doth the dissent of so many hinder it from being so for there are multitudes among them who disown Transubstantiation others the Pope's Supremacy and several other points which others amongst them acknowledge to be Articles of their Faith. Neither will a late Author's plea that if it were such an Article the opposers of it would not scape without a brand of Heressie prove the contrary for we know that they have been often mark'd with that Brand and are once a year Excommunicated at Rome in the Bulla Coenae wherein all persons who hinder the Clergy in exercising their jurisdiction according to the decrees of the Council of Trent which France does all secular powers who call any Ecclesiastical Person to their Courts all Princes that lay any Taxes on their people without the Popes consent are declar'd Excommunicate and if they remain so a whole year they shall be declar'd Hereticks We are told by one of themselves that a Doctrine when inserted in the body of the Canon-Law becomes the Doctrine of their Church now in the Canon-Law we find it asserted that the Pope may absolve persons from their Oath of Allegiance that Pope Zachary deposed the K. of France not so much for his Crimes as that he was unfit to rule that we are absolv'd from all Oaths to an Excommunicate Person and it is our duty to yield no obedience to him That Clergymen ought not to swear Allegiance to their Prince and that they are exempt from the jurisdiction of the secular Magistrate And the Council of Trent hath confirmed all these Canons to the observation of which all their Priests and dignifyed men are sworn Let the world then judge whether this doctrine be an Article of Faith or no. But they have not onely taught and establish'd this treasonable Principle upon the same foundation with their other Doctrines but though often call'd upon to joyn in a denial of it and to condemn it as sinfull they could never be prevail'd on to clear themselves from such an odious Charge as hath been all along justly brought against them This was once thought the only way they had to justifie themselves by a person who hath since made himself a Member of their Church who tells us 'T is not sufficient for the well-meaning Papist to produce the Evidences of their Loyalty to the late King Charles the First I will grant their Behaviour to have been as loyal and as brave as they can desire but that saying of their Father Cress. is still running in my head that they may be dispenc'd with in their obedience to an Heretick Prince while the necessity of the times shall oblige them to it for that as another of them tells us is onely the effect of Christain Prudence but when once they shall get power to shake him off an Heretick is no lawfull King and consequently to rise against him is no Rebellion I should be glad therefore that they would follow the advice which was charitably given them by a Reverend Prelate of our Church namely that they would joyn in a publick act of disowning and detesting those Iesuitick Principles and subscribe to all Doctrines which deny the Pope's Authority of deposing Kings and releasing Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance And a late Author of their own Church judges this so necessary that he affirms NO CLERGY MAN OUGHT TO BE RECEIVED WITHOUT SUBSCRIBING THE CONDEMNATION OF THE BULL DE COENA DOMINI AND TILL THE MONKS AND JESUITS SHALL SOLEMNLY RENOUNCE AND CONDEMN IT IT WILL BE NO GREAT INJUSTICE DONE THEM TO ACCUSE THEM OF ATTEMPTING AGAINST THE LIVES OF KINGS If any man did suspect me to be an Arian and I knew it and could justifie my self from such cursed opinions and did it not the world would have reason to impute to me all the Consequences of this pernicious Heresie and the same Author tells us it is well known all the Monks and especially the Jesuits have by their fourth Vow obliged themselves to the Execution of this INFERNAL BVLL Nor is it onely by private men they have been exhorted to such a Renunciation of those Doctrines but in publick Courts of justice both in France and England It is indeed very usual with them to deny this Doctrine in discourse but that it is onely a formal denial when they really maintain it I offer to prove against them from their own Principles and Practices a plain instance whereof Mr. Sheldon gives us of his own knowledge who was one morning denied Absolution by a Sussex Jesuit because he would not acknowledge the Pope's Power to depose Princes and yet the very same day at dinner in the presâ—â—ce of several this Jesuit denied any such power in the Pope But the Doctors of Rome have been very carefull to provide against any such scrupulous persons as cannot perswade themselves of the lawfulness of this point and therefore have found out a way to discharge the Conscience from any guilt and set men at liberty to follow an opinion which they believe unsound upon which Principle there is no manner
of security from such men for they may declare their judgment of the unlawfulness of any Action and yet do it the next moment by virtue of the rare Engine of PROBABILITY by which they can do any thing in that Church For it is a Doctrine taught by almost all their Divines and insinuated into the Peoples minds by the Confessors that the Authority of a Learned Doctor makes an opinion probable and that every one without hazarding his Soul may follow what opinion he pleases provided that it be taught by some Eminent Doctor yea he is obliged to follow the opinion of his Confessor if he be learned and if he do not he sins And when the Author of the Provincial Letters complain'd of this Doctrine his Answerers defended it for Lawfull and Orthodox Now as one of their own Church observes the Generals of Orders can raise whole Legions of Divines to speak what they have a mind should pass for probable but there is no need of it in this case where so many Councils Popes and so many hundred Doctors have maintain'd the Treasonable Doctrines we charge upon them which accordding to them is a sufficient warrant for any to reduce these Speculations into practice as hath been asserted by them in this very case and with reference to his late Majesty for when Father Walsh pressed the Irish Clergy to subscribe the Loyal Formulary Father John Talbot and others told him That it was to no purpose to expect any Profession Declaration or Oath of Allegiance from them being it was in point of Conscience Lawfull enough for such as would or did take such Oath to decline from retract and break it even the very next day or next hour after having taken it provided onely they followed herein the Doctrine of probability that is if they followed any Divines who hold such an Oath to be unsafe and unsound in Catholick Religion or otherwise unlawfull or sinfull And by the same Argument did the Romish Bishop of Ferns in the year 1666. defend all that was done in the Irish Rebellion and refuse to acknowledge it any sin because saith he the Authority of those who teach the contrary is great their Learning great their Sanctity great the Light they had from God great and their Number great I might instance in a great number of such Doctrines confirm'd by the highest Authority among them but I think this sufficient to let the world see how confidently the Missionaries attempt to cast the odium of Disloyalty upon us whose Doctrines disallow and detest all such Principles as damnable and heretical which for many hundred years they have maintained with the greatest vigour But that Church is too politick to content her self with teaching such Doctrines onely for she hath provided such means for putting them in practice in any Countrey whatsoever as were too subtile for any other Politicians to invent to which end she obliges all her Clergy to a single life that so they may continue in a more absolute Subjection This could not be hop'd for while they were married and the Princes and several States of Christendom had such a pawn of their Fidelity as their Wives and Children therefore having rais'd the esteem of the Clergy that their persons were counted sacred and liable to no punishment that there might be nothing so nearly related to them wherein they might be punish'd as their Wives and Children they have prohibited marriage to them all by which means being ready for any desperate Attempt they have such multitudes of them as are sufficient to make a good Army in most Princes Dominions but 't is not the Clergy alone who are thus at their Devotion but by Dispensations and Tolerations to be Administrators of Abbeys and Bishopricks and other Benefices given to Lay-men they oblige them to uphold their Interest as for their Religious Orders they especially the Jesuits give their Generals an account of all Occurrences of State in those Provinces and Kingdoms whereof they are the Respective Assistants to which end they have Correspondents in the Principal Cities of all Kingdoms who sending all their Informations to the General they ballance the interests of every Prince and then resolve that the Affairs of such a Prince shall be promoted the designs of another oppos'd as is most for their own Advantage to effect which the Confessors of great Men give intelligence of the Inclinations of those whose Consciences are unfolded to them whereby they become acquainted with all determinations concluded in the most secret Councils and have a particular account of the Power Possessions Expence and Designs of every Prince of their Communion and the very same advantage they make of Confession by diving into the peoples Inclinations and thereby discovering who stand well affected to their Prince who dissatisfy'd and exasperated by which means they sow discord between Princes and their Subjects rendring them odious to and fearfull of one another wherever they find their advantage by such distrusts thus knowing all the discontented people in a State they are able at any time to raise a party and being acquainted with the Princes Designs they know how to defeat them that the insurrection may be more successfull But Mr. Pulton tells us that it is expresly prohibited the Jesuits to speak of the deposing Power even in private discourses but it is then to be observed that the Doctrine it self is not blam'd only silence impos'd concerning it this Order was made in the year 1616. since which several of that Society have defended that point and even in Rome it self where Sanctarellus's Book that pleads for it was printed Ann. 1625. and that it was onely for France is affirmed by a Papist who answers this Objection of Mr Pulton's when the Jesuits asserted that by that Order they were bound under pain of Damnation not to speak of that Subject that none in the Church were bound under the like penalty not to teach it but they wherein he observes their immodesty in the assertion when none of their Rules bind under so much as a venial Sin and their Concession that none in the Church think it damnable to teach that the Pope may depose PRINCES I suppose Mr Pulton was conscious of his imposing upon the world in this point therefore he presently shifts from that to lay a grievous Charge to our door That it was manifest from History that the Reformers had deposed and endeavoured to depose more Princes in the space of one hundred and fifty years than the Roman Catholicks had done in 1600. wherein he hath back't that hardy assertion of the Author of Philanax Anglicus who affirm'd that in the last Century there haâ—e been more Princes depos'd and murder'd for their Religion by Protestants than have been in all the other since Christ's time by the Attempts and Means of Roman Catholicks If it were not that I know Mr. Pulton's Skill in History to be very
by their Fathers and so upward from the Apostles times but the Doctrine of the deposing power was believed as a matter of faith therefore it was deliver'd from the Apostles times let them either answer this Argument which is their own upon other points or confess that the deposing power is an Article of Faith in that Church for if the Argument be good it proves that to be an Article of Faith as well as others if it be not thâ—y give up all their brags of the Evidence of Oral Tradition from hand to hand so much insisted on by Mr. G. and others of their Champions among us But because it may be objected that the deposing Bulls were the effects of the passionate Tempers of those Popes I desire that one of their own Communion may be heard in that point who speaks thus I maintain that all these disasters proceeded not only from the pettish humour of any one Pope but were the natural effects of the principles of the Papacy and though we do not see it visibly break forth every day by some bloody Example yet we ought not to believe that the habit or the will is ever the less but that there is some external extraordinary Reason which suspends the Action and which doth sometimes make them act directly contrary to their own Inclination How can any man maintain that Princes need not stand in the fear of the Pope when three Popes of this present Age have condemned the opinion that the Pope cannot depose Kings as wicked and contrary to the Faith And now I have examined and refuted their Calumny of our Disloyalty in general and Mr. Pulton's Charge in particular which I have known asserted by others with so peculiar a confidence that it hath stagger'd many Loyal but weak Protestants in which as in All the rest of this Discourse I once again challenge the whole Body of the Romish Clergy to find one false Quotation and by the falsity of Mr. Pulton's Assertion I beg the Reader to judge what Credit the rest of their defaming Insinuations deserve CHAP. V. Of their laying Doctrines to our charge which we never taught AFter such a bold Assertion as that of Mr. Pultons which I refuted in the preceding Chapter we need not wonder if we meet with the same Treatment which the Christians in Tertullian's time under went seeing we have to do with a sort of Men who repeat their Slanders the oftner they are reprov'd and not asham'd to impute Doctrines to the Reformed which their Confessions disclaim and the Writings of their Divines confute At a time when the Gentlemen of that Communion make so loud Complaints of being misrepresented as to their doctrines and practices and with the utmost of their Rhetorick exaggerate the Injury which by such Misrepresentations is done to Truth and their Church it might rationally be expected that they should believe what they say and have some Sense of such injust proceedings or at least should in policy take care that their own Writings be not stuffed with false Charges against their Adversaries But it is somewhat surprizing to find no care taken in so material a point and that they are no more solicitous to represent our Doctrines right than to defend their own which they seem wholly to abandon if any pains be taken by them it is to bespatter the Protestants and coin opinions for them for they find it much more easie to refute those imaginary Positions than overthrow the well-grounded Tenets of the Reformed Churches Hence it is that that there is no Calumny so absurd which they blush to publish and that the old Charge against the Waldenses and Albigenses is renued by the Author of Popery Anatomiz'd who copies from the Jesuit Parsons affirming that they denyed the Resurrection of the dead or that there is any such place as Hell that with the Manichees they held two Gods and that it avails a man nothing to say his Prayers with several other Doctrines of a horrid nature but if we consult the Authors that wrote in and near the time we shall find a quite contrary Account that they were to all appearance a very pious people living righteously before men and believing all things rightly concerning God and all the Articles of the Creed and that their lives were more holy than other Christians insomuch that when the King of France sent Commissioners to enquire of and inspect their Life and Doctrine and they inform'd him that they baptiz'd and taught the Articles of the Creed and Precepts of the Decalogue observ'd the Lord's Day preached the Word of God and that they were not guilty of those abominable Crimes imputed to them he SWORE that THEY WERE BETTER THAN HE OR HIS PEOPLE WHO WERE CATHOLICKS But though the Romanists have no Authority for their Charge yet they have a motive which is always prevalent in that Church the Waldenses and with great freedom reprov'd the Vices of the Pope and Clergy and this was the chief thing which subjected them to such an universal hatred and caused several wicked Opinions to be father'd upon them which they never own'd For they agreed with the Faith of the Protestants at this day as Popliniere affirms who alledgeth the Acts of a Disputation between the Bishop of Pamiers and Arnoltot Minister of Lombres written in a Language favouring much of the Catalan Tongue affirming that some had assured him that the Articles of their Faith were yet to be seen engraven 〈◊〉 certain old Tables in Alby agreeing exactly with the Reformeâ— Churches And Mr. Fountain Minister of the French Church at London told Arch-bishop Vsher that in his time a Confession of the Albigenses was found which was approved of by a Synod of French Protestants Thus as the Romanists have brought most of the Heathens Rites and the ceremonious part of their Worship into theirs so they seem to be actuated by the same Spirit which taught the Pagans to represent our Holy Religion in the most odious manner and they have found such success attending this unchristian Artifice that it is hugg'd as their darling and when any party discovers their Corruptions they endeavour to expose them as men of seditious Principles which will effectually render Princes jealous of them and draw upon them the displeasure of those under whose protection they might otherwise be secure that the common people may entertain as great an Aversion to them it is not onely their practice but a principle of their Policy laid down by a famous Jesuite to charge them with such Opinions as are absurd in themselves and abhorr'd by all men By this means they are sure to possess the vulgar with such prejudices that they will lend no Ear to the other side whom they look upon as a sort of Monsters according to the Character these Politicians have given of them And such Opinions being easily confuted if they can but once perswade an ignorant
the Pastors of the Church is one of the fundamental Articles of the Reformation A way of misrepresenting which hath been sufficiently blacken'd by themselves so that I need say nothing to expose it But to leave this Fryer whose whole Book consists of little else but as bad or worse Assertions one of their Champions could perswade the world that we account the belief of Transubstantiation to be Idolatry a cunning Artifice to draw the people from considering where the Charge is laid not against the Doctrine of the corporal Presence but the Adoration of the Host. And his fellow Advocate seems resolv'd not to be behind hand when he affirms that we believe there is nothing to be hoped for of substance in the Sacrament We dispute with great earnestness against the Idolatrous Worship given to Angels and Saints in that Church and our Adversaries have found it impossible to make a fair defence for it therefore they betake themselves to prove that those happy Spirits pray for us which we acknowledge as well as they and yet a very celebrated writer affirms that we deny it We profess to believe the Article of the Communion of Saints but Mr. Ward hath the assurance to tell the world That Protestants believe no Communion of Saints Hitherto we have had Instances of their direct way of misrepresenting but they are not so unskilfull as not to be furnished with finer Methods and which are not so easily discovered by the vulgar when they are eagerly disputing 'tis an easie thing to drop some Assertion which in the heat of Discourse shall pass unheeded by the warm Adversary but they will be sure to resume it and make their Advantage of it s not being contradicted either during the conference or afterwards to some of the persons then present which renders it necessary for those who engage with them to watch every word and not onely attend to the main Question for by this method they gain one of these two points if their Insinuation be not answered at first they will urge the point as granted and if the disputant deny it they presently cry out that he is now reduc'd to a strait and so denies what he own'd before which observation shall be surely seconded and applauded by their Adherents and often leaves an impression in the weaker Hearers on the other hand if when they find themselves pressed and at a stand which is their usual time to drop such a bye assertion and that their Artifice is discovered and their position denied they leave the first point and pursue the other and so engage insensibly in a desultory dispute from one thing to another never fix'd by which they render most disputations ineffectual so that whether stopt in their design or not they make their Advantage either to misrepresent our Doctrine or extricate themselves from the difficulties they can't resolve Thus one of their Divines urging the Authority of the Fathers to a Protestant and not willing to expose himself so far as to affirm in express terms that we thought those Holy Men divinely inspired us'd this Expression that seeing we owned the Authority of the DIVINELY INSPIRED FATHERS he would prove the Infallibility of the Church from their Writings to this the Gentleman not regarding the Epithete answered that he could not and so proceeded in the dispute they had not been parted many hours but the Fryer desired some of the company to observe how the Protestants contradicted themselves about their Rule of Faith professing to receive whatever was inspired by the Holy Ghost and yet not admitting the writings of the Fathers into the Rule tho' the opponent had acknowledged that they were inspired from above and when it was reply'd that there was no such Concession he urg'd that when he termed them Divinely inspir'd there was no exception taken at it which was a tacit affirming them to be so But the Gentlemen were too wise to be caught with so very slight an Appearance I shall have occasion to give a farther account of this under another Head therefore I shall at present onely observe that how thin soever this Artifice is in it self they use it in their publick discourses as well as private Conversation Mr. Clench arguing for the Infallibility of Councils hath these words speaking of our Appeal to the four first General Councils I know no reason why the Church should be credited in the four first General Councils and slighted and dis-believed in the following Christ promised he would be with them to the consummation of the world I can find no place where Christ promis'd to be with them for a limited time so as to direct them in their first Assemblies and to leave them for the future to themselves Here he would make the Reader believe that we receive those Synods as believing them secur'd from Error by Christ's promise for else his Argument is impertinent but we do not receive them on any infallible Authority of theirs not because they could not err but because they did not and therefore we reject others because they have err'd for we know of no promise made to them but are yet ready to receive any such Councils as the first were who govern themselves by the Holy Scriptures They find no great difficulty in confuting imaginary Opinions which makes them so very dexterous in this Method to dispute against our Doctrine of Justification by Faith was too hard a task and therefore F. T. coins a new definition of it in the middle of his Argument and immediately runs away with that endeavouring to prove that Faith is not an assured Belief that our sins are forgiven learnedly arguing against his own imagination however he had what he aim'd at for he made a shew of saying somewhat and if he could but perswade any ignorant Protestant that the definition was own'd by the Reformed he was sure he had overthrown it With the same sincerity another of their Champions would insinuate that the Protestants left the Communion of Rome because of the wickedness of the Members of that Church and therefore heaps up Authorities to prove that it is not a sufficient motive for a separation from them but all his Labour is to very little purpose for we know the Tares and Wheat are to grow together till Harvest and not onely the wickedness of their Priests and Bishops but the Errors and monstrous Corruptions of their Church could not have justified our Separation if they had not endeavour'd to force us to be partakers of those Abominations which we durst not do least we should be partakers of those Plagues which are denounc'd against them It was an easie matter to prove the former no ground for Separation but some thing hard to undertake the other Point so that our Author wisely wav'd it It was observ'd by the Duke of Buckingham that these Gentlemen serv'd themselves of hatefull Nick-names when they are pressed in disputes about Religion