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authority_n	bishop_n	council_n	great_a	3,522	5	3.6835	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67237	The pretensions of the triple crown examined in thrice three familiar letters ... / written some years ago by Sir Christopher Wyvill ...	Wyvill, Christopher, Sir, 1614-1672?	1672 (1672)	Wing W3787; ESTC R34104	91,353	203

sixth Carthaginian Council so stifly have opposed Zosymus then Bishop of Rome and his successour Boniface till at last they evidenced his pretensions to be false by the attestation which Cyrillus Bishop of Alexandria and Atticus of Constantinople gave to the Nicene Canons The Pope had his Deputy at the Council of Basil Its Decrees together with those of Constance confirmed by Apostolick Letters of Eugenius Anno 1449. ratified by Nicholas 5. In them the Authority of a Council is set above the Pope and he is subjected to it This is certainly to them a very pungent Dilemma Either let them confess that a Council confirmed by the Pope may err or let the Decrees pass for Catholick Doctrine For our parts we think we can bring an infallible instance from this Council I mean of Constance that they may err Since in that very Decree which they dared to make against the Communion in both kinds they acknowledge that they went against the first Institution But the Jesuites now at last for what reason they know best will after all this poother have the whole privilege fitted to the narrow dimensions of the Pope's Breast Bellarmine lib. 2. de Conc. cap. 12. 18. Thus at last all Councils must be brought back to the Bishop of Rome's Examination that what he approves may pass what he is not satisfied in may fall to the ground Gregory de Valentia Ann. lib. 8. cap. 3. Thus the Pope indeed ought to use all good means and diligence to find out Truth But whether doth he so or no If he undertake to determine in a Controversie he always does it infallibly This is well and soundly to the purpose yet before they do vest him with that Prerogative or ascertain it to him they put such conditionary Qualifications upon him he must be duly elected whereto abundance of odd things must concur he must not openly nor in his heart which no body can ever understand be a favourer of Heresie and the like as 't is the hardest thing in the World to know when it is fix'd and therefore no competent ground-work to rear our Faith upon Popery has its several Depths wherein the Members of the Romish Communion however they would bear others in hand and divers of them may themselves believe that there 's nothing but Unity among them are more or less immers'd Yet from a concession made by their daring Vasquez though not made with any design of reconciliation but upon grounds that must perpetuate the Breach I can methinks bring the most of our English Papists and a great part of their more ancient and more modest Writers within the comprehension of true though not in all regards sound Belief That bold Jesuite where he so eagerly contends for the condigne Merit of Works done by infused Grace and scorns to derive it from any Covenant or Acceptation on God's part made thus argues And indeed the consequence is very strong though the use he would make of it be very impertinent His words are If our Works were not of themselves before any Promise worthy but became so by vertue of a Promise the Merits of Christ must necessarily be applied and imputed to bring such Dignification to them Quaest. 1 2. Disp. 3. cap. 6. Now for such among them as do owne a Tenent that will undeniably fetch in the Merits of Christ though it be not in a way so explicit as is proper for the raising the Soul to those discoveries of strong Consolation which may flow from the Doctrine rightly understood I dare not but be so charitable as to think That if they joyned a sincere Piety to that measure of Faith they shall have their share in the Resurrection of the Just at the last Day Their Notions seem as to this great business to run into disorder upon a supposition That the Merits of Christ are applied to the Works not to the Persons of the Regenerate To sift therefore these things a little Consider 1. That the gratious Condonation whereby God is pleased not to animadvert the Obliquities nor the gratuitous acceptation which he vouchsafes to our best Actions can neither of them relate to the Works themselves nor have such influence upon them as to render them now Legitimate which were before Anomious Will any body say or think That those illegal proceedings whereof many in England were guilty ceased to be Treason as soon as the King's Grace had by the Act of Oblivion quitted their Persons from punishment Though God in like manner through the greatness of his mercy do let all our guilt pass into the Land of forgetfulness yet there is an holy just good eternal exceeding broad Law which must not pass away till all be fulfilled which requires the whole heart and reaches the very inmost thoughts Notwithstanding Remission this Law remains unfulfilled still and poor Dust and Ashes in whose hands through the weakness of the Flesh it fail'd of its End would be left groveling on this side heaven if the glorious light of the Gospel did not manifest a new way thither not by patching up or ekeing out the rags of our Works but by putting on us the Garments of our elder Brother and by directing us when we plead with our Maker for the blessing to make mention of his Righteousness only The clearest intimation of this is had from Jer. 23. 6. and 33. 16. laid together where the Spouse and her Heavenly Bridegroom are united and put together under one Appellation He shall be called yea and She shall be called too THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS 'T is prodigiously strange it should seem strange to any that there should be a Communication betwixt the Head and the Members such as may derive the fulness which is in the one purposely for that end unto the other see Colos. 1. 19. John 1. 16. Colos. 2. 9. 10. especially when they admit of a Communication of the Members one with another by Supererrogation whereof Scripture is absolutely silent Of Prayer to Saints THE Agents for the Church of Rome who have indeed a singular Dexterity in adapting their Discourses to the frame of the times wherein and to the temper of the persons wherewith they are conversant do think fit to assault this Generation train'd up to a deplorable inadvertency through the unsetledness and discomposure which lately was upon us by mincing or veiling those Doctrines and Practices most lyable to exception putting upon them such a varnish as may look best to the eyes of transient slight beholders Thus they bear us in hand that the Adoration paid by them to Saints and Angels is an innocent humble safe thing whereby they only bespeak and who will not desire to make a friend in the Court those favourites of Heaven to be on their side If this were all yet since we are sure that he with whom we have to do perfectly discerns all the desires all the necessities of his Supplicants a Prerogative no Potentate on Earth is capable of

be led away by the prevalencie of certain stupendious works done by such as were nevertheless great Impostors Revel 13. 13 14 15. We read again of some that were casters out of Devils yet followed not Christ Mark 9. 38 39. And if we should follow them into Doctrines which are without the concurrence of his Word whether this be the case or no betwixt Rome and us may be decided elsewhere we might easily go astray St. Augustine tell us cap 8. de Civit. Dei He that yet requires wonders in order to his believing is himself a great wonder And this leads us on to enquire after Historical discoveries 2. Whence it will not be hard to learn what the Church in times ancient enough held as to this question It was evidently the opinion of old that the ordinarie working of Miracles ceased when the Apostles deceased That they were of use to allure Heathens and Unbelievers then but not to be expected or singly relyed on for the determination of a controverted Point where Christianty has already been setled That they have been done by some persons in justification of their Tenents when Truth was not on that side That they may indeed soberly be eyed as a concurrent Testimony where it pleases God they happen for establishment of a Truth contained in the Scriptures but not for the Introduction of any belief or practice without or against it As to the former of these Gregory commonly called the Great Bishop of Rome about an 600 hath affirmed That as watering to young Plants is necessary but not to rooted Oakes so Miracles to the infant Church but not when grown up Hom. in Evang. 43. And St. Augustine about two Ages before makes a wonder not only at but of those that pinn'd their faith on wonders That reverend African has taught me to say after him Against the Miracle-mungers he meant the Donatists the Lord hath made me cautious by saying In the last times false Prophets shall arise and shall shew signs and wonders but take heed behold I have told you Tom. 29. Tract 13. in Jo. Mark 13. 22 23 24. The false Prophets there said to do signs and wonders were not to be Ethnicks without Christ but only to obtrude false Christs or a fallacious way to him What need we say more than what we have full and clear authority for 1 Cor. 14. 22. signs are not to them that do believe but to them that believe not That great wonders have been done or at least undeniably urged by some that had not right on their side may visibly be made good from the Testimony of Bede who informs us that the argument from Miracle-working was very rife on both parts in that grand contest about the time of celebrating Easter lib. 2. cap. 15. 16 29. This may serve as to the two first enquiries and so let us pass to the third Disquisition viz. by Reason 3. I would know since sundry other miraculous operations as well as casting out Devils are enumerated in Mark 16. and said to accompany those that were sent why do not our Romish Priests appropriate and take to themselves all the rest as well as that domination over unclean Spirits Let us hear them having never been taught speak with strange Tongues let us see them unhurt touch all sorts of venomous Creatures c. let them shew us that immediately and infallibly they can cure all manner of Diseases For I see not any differences in the Grant in the intentional end or in the time of continuance Again the Promise may seem made to all true Believers not restrain'd to Priests only and it 's more than probable that those Exorcists Mark 9. 38. were not in Orders Why then do they monopolize it and think themselves as sure of it as the Coats on their backs We acknowledge there was in the infant-Churches a sort of Faith sometimes found even amongst miss-believers which was productive of admirable events not of Satan's operation neither This Faith having for its object only that essential Attribute of God his Power and relying thereon by a strenuous Act of Credence particular to that business impetrated frequently then and may peradventure do so yet sometimes wonderful things at his hands though neither the Person nor the Cause stood upon a right foot St. Augustine not denying but the Hereticks of his time might do true Miracles I mean things strange beyond understanding forbore not though to dehort his people from listening to them upon that accompt as may be seen Tract de Unit. Eccles. cap. 9. Tom. 7. Why may not we also though we should see wonders done even such as are mentioned Revel 13. bring them to the Test of Gods Word and require proof from thence that those Doctrines designed for establishment thereby are true 4. But let us in the last place do what we can to see through the darkness of their practice And seriously we can hardly be brought to think that to out the Devil of his hold is the common usual effect of their Sprinklings Fumings Crossings of their Beatings with the Priestly stole repetitions of Latin Words c. since we find not any of all these used by Christ nor instituted to any such end Again we must not nor can forget what palpable collusions and deceipts they have been found to use in almost every place where they met with any body that durst but peep under the veil they at such times do hang before the eyes of the vulgar Let the boy of Bilson as yet I think living a Shooemaker in Northhampton speak And it is not so very long ago about a dozen years since a most gross cheat of this sort was re-acted and fully discover'd at New-Castle upon Tine But whoever shall peruse the twenty fourth Chapter of Dr. Du Moulin's Answer to Cardinal Perron as it 's publisht Anno 1662. cannot certainly but discover what he ought to think and how to demean himself upon such Rancounters What shall we conceive of their giving a solemn Oath to Satan and then questioning him about controverted Points as they did in the case of the Boy of Bilson Oh! he would tear he told them or made signs thereof a dying Protestant but a good that is in their sence a Roman Catholick departing he would be as quiet as a Lamb. Does not this smell rank of design Spectatum admissi A Conjecture how it is come to pass that the Church of Rome hath partly been plundered and partly has cheated her self of so much Primitive Truth THe bitter Contests which had arose and for some Ages continued betwixt the Orthodox and Manacheean Pelagian but especially the Arrian Hereticks had now alienated the minds of men one from another interrupted the correspondences they used formerly to hold and so shaken the Foundations laid by the first Master-Builders when the sudden rise of the Sarazen in the East and the violent rushings of other Barbarians upon the Western Empire had either induced or