a Synod of German and French Bishops at Francford who discussed the Acts pass'd at Nice and condemn'd them And the Acts of this Synod although they were diligently suppressed by the Popes arts yet Eginardus Hincmarus Aventinus Blondus Adon Aymonius and Regino famous Historians tell us That the Bishops of Francford condemn'd the Synod of Nice and commanded it should not be called a General Council and published a Book under the name of the Emperor confuting that unchristian Assembly and not long since this Book and the Acts of Francford were published by Bishop Tillius by which not only the infinite fraud of the Roman Doctors is discover'd but the worship of Images is declar'd against and condemned A while after this Ludovicus the son of Charlemain sent Claudius a famous Preacher to Taurinum in Italy where he preach'd against the worshipping of Images and wrote an excellent book to that purpose Against this book Jonas Bishop of Orleans after the death of Ludovicus and Claudius did write In which he yet durst not assert the worship of them but confuted it out of Origen whose words he thus cites Images are neither to be esteemed by inward affection nor worshipped with outward shew and out of Lactantius these Nothing is to be worshipped that is seen with mortal eyes Let us adore let us worship nothing but the name alone of our only Parent who is to be sought for in the Regions above not here below And to the same purpose he also alleges excellent words out of Fulgentius and S. Hierom and though he would have Images retain'd and therefore was angry at 〈◊〉 who caus'd them to be taken down yet he himself expresly affirms that they ought not to be worshipped and withall adds that though they kept the Images in their Churches for history and ornament yet that in France the worshipping of them was had in great detestation And though it is not to be denied but that in the sequel of Jonas his book he does something prevaricate in this question yet it is evident that in France this Doctrine was not accounted Catholick for almost nine hundred years after Christ and in Germany it was condemned for almost 1200 years as we find in 〈◊〉 WE are not unskill'd in the devices of the Roman Writers and with how much 〈◊〉 they would excuse this whole matter and palliate the crime imputed to them and elude the Scriptures expresly condemning this Superstition But we know also that the arts of Sophistry are not the ways of Salvation And therefore we exhort our people to follow the plain words of Scripture and the express Law of God in the second Commandment and add also the exhortation of S. John Little children keep your selves from Idols To conclude it is impossible but that it must be confessed that the worship of Images was a thing unknown to the primitive Church in the purest times of which they would not allow the making of them as amongst divers others appears in the Writings of Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian and Origen SECT IX Picturing God the Father and the Holy Trinity a scandalous practice in the Roman Church It is against the Doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church and of the wiser Heathens who had no Images or Pictures of their gods AS an Appendage to this we greatly reprove the custom of the Church of Rome in picturing God the Father and the most holy and undivided Trinity which besides that it ministers infinite scandal to all sober-minded men and gives the new Arrians in Polonia and Anti-Trinitarians great and ridiculous entertainment exposing that sacred Mystery to derision and scandalous contempt It is also which at present we have undertaken particularly to remark against the doctrine and practice of the primitive Catholick Church S. Clemens of Alexandria says that in the Discipline of Moses God was not to be represented in the shape of a Man or of any other thing and that Christians understood themselves to be bound by the same Law we find it expresly taught by Origen Tertullian Eusebius Athanasius S. Hierom S. Austin Theodoret Damascen and the Synod of Constantinople as it is reported in the 6. Action of the second Nicene Council And certainly if there were not a strange spirit of contradiction or superstition or deflexion from the Christian Rule greatly 〈◊〉 in the Church of Rome it were impossible that this practice should be so countenanc'd by them and defended so to no purpose with so much scandal and against the natural reason of mankind and the very Law of Nature it self For the Heathens were sufficiently by the light of Nature taught to abominate all Pictures or Images of God Sed nulla effigies simulacraque nulla Deorum Majestate locum sacro implevere timore They in their earliest ages had no Pictures no Images of their Gods Their Temples were filled with majesty and a sacred fear and the reason is given by Macrobius Antiquity made no Image viz. of God because the supreme God and the mind that is born of him that is his Son the eternal Word as it is beyond the Soul so it is above Nature and therefore it is not lawful that Figments should come thither 〈◊〉 Callistus relating the heresie of the Armenians and Jacobites says they made Images of the Father Son and Holy Ghost quod perquam ab sur dum est Nothing is more absurd than to make Pictures or Images of the Persons of the holy and adorable Trinity And yet they do this in the Church of Rome For in the windows of their Churches even 〈◊〉 Countrey-villages where the danger cannot be denied to be great and the scandal insupportable nay in their books of Devotion in their very Mass-books and breviaries in their Portuises and Manuals they picture the holy Trinity with three noses and four eyes and three faces in a knot to the great dishonour of God and scandal of Christianity it self We add no more for the case is too evidently bad but reprove the error with the words of their own Polydore Virgil Since the world began never was any thing more foolish than to picture God who is present every where SECT X. Setting up the Pope as universal Bishop an Innovation Among the Apostles the first Church-Governours no Prerogative of one over the rest a remarkable testimony of S. Cyprian to prove it Bishops succeeded the Apostles without Superiority of one over another by Christs Law The Pope has invaded their rights and diminished their power many ways Primitivs Fathers make every Bishop to have a share of power not from another Bishop but from Christ and are against one Bishops judging and forcing another Bishop to obedience Popes opposed when they interposed their authority in the affairs of other Churches THE last Instance of Innovations introduc'd in Doctrine and Practice by the Church of Rome that we shall represent is
that of the Popes Universal Bishoprick That is not only that he is Bishop of Bishops superiour to all and every one but that his Bishoprick is a Plenitude of Power and as for other Bishops of his fulness they all receive a part of the Ministery and sollicitude and not only so but that he only is a Bishop by immediate Divine Dispensation and others receive from him whatsoever they have For to this height many of them are come at last Which Doctrine although as it is in sins where the carnal are most full of reproach but the spiritual are of greatest malignity so it happens in this Article For though it be not so scandalous as their Idolatry so ridiculous as their Superstitions so unreasonable as their Doctrine of Transubstantiation so easily reprov'd as their Half Communion and Service in an unknown Tongue yet it is of as dangerous and evil effect and as false and as certainly an Innovation as any thing in their whole Conjugation of Errours WHEN Christ founded his Church he left it in the hands of his Apostles without any prerogative given to one or eminency above the rest save only of priority and orderly precedency which of it self was natural necessary and incident The Apostles govern'd all their Authority was the sanction and their Decrees and Writings were the Laws of the Church They exercis'd a common jurisdiction and divided it according to the needs and emergencies and circumstances of the Church In the Council of Jerusalem S. Peter gave not the decisive sentence but S. James who was the Bishop of that See Christ sent all his Apostles as his Father sent him and therefore he gave to every one of them the whole power which he left behind and to the Bishops congregated at Miletum S. Paul gave them caution to take care of the whole flock of God and affirms to them all that the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops and in the whole New Testament there is no act or sign of superiority or that one Apostle exercised power over another but to them whom Christ sent he in common intrusted the Church of God according to that excellent saying of S. Cyprian The other Apostles are the same that S. Peter was endowed with an equal fellowship of honour and power and they are all shepherds and the slock is one and therefore it ought to be fed by all the Apostles with unanimous consent THIS unity and identity of power without question and interruption did continue and descend to Bishops in the primitive Church in which it was a known doctrine that the Bishops were successors of the Apostles and what was not in the beginning could not be in the descent unless it were innovated and introduc'd by a new authority Christ gave ordinary power to none but the Apostles and the power being to continue for ever in the Church it was to be succeeded to and by the same authority even of Christ it descended to them who were their successors that is to the Bishops as all antiquity does consent and teach Not S. Peter alone but every Apostle and therefore every one who succeeds them in their ordinary power may and must remember the words of S. Paul We are Embassadors or Legates for Christ Christ's Vicars not the Pope's Delegates and so all the Apostles are called in the Preface of the Mass Quos operis tui Vicarios cidem contulisti praeesse Pastores they are Pastors of the Flock and Vicars of Christ and so also they are in express terms called by S. Ambrose and therefore it is a strange usurpation that the Pope arrogates that to himself by Impropriation which is common to him with all the Bishops of Christendom THE consequent of this is that by the law of Christ one Bishop is not superior to another Christ gave the power to all alike he made no Head of the Bishops he gave to none a supremacy of power or universality of jurisdiction But this the Pope hath long challenged and to bring his purposes to pass hath for these Six hundred years by-gone invaded the rights of Bishops and delegated matters of order and jurisdiction to Monks and Friers insomuch that the power of Bishops was greatly diminished at the erecting of the Cluniac and Cistercian Monks about the year ML but about the year MCC it was almost swallowed up by privileges granted to the Begging Friers and there kept by the power of the Pope which power got one 〈◊〉 step more above the Bishops when they got it declared that the Pope is above a Council of Bishops and at last it was 〈◊〉 into a new doctrine by Cajetane who for his prosperous invention was made a Cardinal that all the whole Apostolick or Episcopal power is radical and inherent in the Pope in whom is the fulness of the Ecclesiastical authority and that Bishops receive their portion of it from him and this was first boldly maintain'd in the Council of Trent by the Jesuits and it is now the opinion of their Order but it is also that which the Pope challenges in practice when he pretends to a power over all Bishops and that this power is deriv'd to him from Christ when he calls himself the Universal Bishop and the Vicarial Head of the Church the Churches Monarch he from whom all Ecclesiastical Authority is derived to whose sentence in things Divine every Christian under pain of damnation is bound to be subject NOW this is it which as it is productive of infinite mischiefs so it is an Innovation and an absolute deflexion from the primitive Catholick Doctrine and yet is the great ground-work and foundation of their Church This we shall represent in these following testimonies Pope Eleutherius in an Epistle to the Bishops of France says that Christ committed the Universal Church to the Bishops and S. Ambrose says that the Bishop holdeth the place of Christ and is his substitute But famous are the words of S. Cyprian The Church of Christ is one through the whole world divided by him into many members and the Bishoprick is but one diffused in the agreeing plurality of many Bishops And again To every Pastor a portion of the flock is given which let every one of them rule and govern By which words it is evident that the primitive Church understood no Prelation of one and Subordination of another commanded by Christ or by virtue of their Ordination but only what was for orders sake introduc'd by Princes and consent of Prelates And it was to this purpose very full which was said by Pope Symmachus As it is in the holy Trinity whose power is one and undivided or to use the expression in the Athanasian Creed none is before or after other none is greater or less than another so there is one Bishoprick amongst divers Bishops and therefore why should the Canons of the ancient Bishops be violated by their Successors Now these words being spoken
attently reverently and devoutly you must know that Attention or Advertency to your prayers is manifold 1. That you attend to the words so that you speak them not too fast or to begin the next verse of a Psalm before he that recites with you hath done the former verse and this attention is necessary But 2. there is an attention which is by understanding the sense and that is not necessary For if it were very extremely few would do their duty when so very few do at all understand what they say 3. There is an attention relating to the end of prayer that is that he that prays considers that he is present before God and speaks to him and this indeed is very prositable but it is not necessary No not so much So that by this Doctrine no attention is necessary but to attend that the words be all said and said right But even this attention is not necessary that it should be actual but it suffices to be virtual that is that he who says his office intend to do so and do not change his mind although he does not attend And he who does not change his mind that is unless observing himself not to attend he still turn his mind to other things he attends meaning he attends sufficiently and as much as is necessary though indeed speaking naturally and truly he does not attend If any man in the Church of England and Ireland had published such Doctrine as this he should quickly and deservedly have felt the severity of the Ecclesiastical Rod but in Rome it goes for good Catholick Doctrine NOW although upon this account Devotion is it may be good and it is good to attend to the words of our prayer and the sense of them yet that it is not necessary is evidently consequent to this But it is also expresly affirm'd by the same hand There ought to be devotion that our mind be inflam'd with the love of God though if this be wanting without contempt it is no deadly sin Ecclesiae satisfit per opus externum nec aliud jubet saith Reginaldus If ye do the outward work the Church is satisfied neither does she command any thing else Good Doctrine this And it is an excellent Church that commands nothing to him that prays but to say so many words WELL but after all this if Devotion be necessary or not if it be present or not if the mind wander or wander not if you mind what you pray or mind it not there is an easie cure for all this For Pope Leo granted remission of all negligences in their saying their offices and prayers to them who after they have done shall say this prayer To the Holy and Vndivided Trinity To the Humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ crucified To the fruitfulness of the most Blessed and most Glorious Virgin Mary and to the Vniversity of all Saints be Eternal praise honour vertue and glory from every Creature and to us remission of sins for ever and ever Amen Blessed are the bowels of the Virgin Mary which bore the Son of the Eternal God and blessed are the paps which suckled Christ our Lord Pater noster Ave Maria. This prayer to this purpose is set down by Navar and Cardinal Tolet. THIS is the summ of the Doctrine concerning the manner of saying the Divine offices in the Church of Rome in which greater care is taken to obey the Precept of the Church than the Commandments of God For the Precept of hearing Mass is not to intend the words but to be present at the Sacrifice though the words be not so much as heard and they that think the contrary think so without any probable reason saith Tolet. It seems there was not so much as the Authority of one grave Doctor to the contrary for if there had the contrary opinion might have been probable but all agree upon this Doctrine all that are considerable So that between the Church of England and the Church of Rome the difference in this Article is plainly this They pray with their lips we with the heart we pray with the understanding they with the voice we pray and they say prayers We suppose that we do not please God if our hearts be absent they say it is enough if their bodies be present at their greatest solemnity of prayer though they hear nothing that is spoken and understand as little And which of these be the better way of serving God may soon be determin'd if we remember the complaint which God made of the Jews This people draweth near me with their lips but their hearts are far from me But we know that we are commanded to ask in faith which is seated in the understanding and requires the concurrence of the will and holy desires which cannot be at all but in the same degree in which we have a knowledge of what we ask The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man prevails But what our prayers want of this they must needs want of blessing and prosperity And if we lose the benefit of our prayers we lose that great instrumentality by which Christians are receptive of pardon and strengthened in faith and confirm'd in hope and increase in charity and are protected by Providence and are comforted in their sorrows and derive help from God Ye ask and have not because ye ask amiss that is Saint James his rule They that pray not as they ought shall never obtain what they fain would HITHER is to be 〈◊〉 their fond manner of prayer consisting in vain repetitions of Names and little forms of words The Psalter of our Lady is an hundred and fifty Ave Maries and at the end of every tenth they drop in the Lord's Prayer and this with the Creed at the end of the fifty makes a perfect Rosary This indeed is the main entertainment of the peoples Devotion for which cause Mantuan called their Religion Relligionem Quae filo insertis numerat sua murmura baccis A Religion that numbers their murmurs by berries fil'd upon a string This makes up so great a part of their Religion that it may well be taken for one half of its desinition But because so few do understand what they say but all repeat and stick to their numbers it is evident they think to be heard for that For that or nothing for besides that they neither do nor understand And all that we shall now say to it is That our Blessed Saviour reprov'd this way of Devotion in the Practice and Doctrines of the Heathens Very like to which is that which they call the Psalter of Jesus in which are fifteen short Ejaculations as Have mercy on me * Strengthen me * Help me * Comfort me c. and with every one of these the name of Jesus is to be said thirty times that is in all four hundred and fifty times Now we are ignorant how to distinguish this from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
any grace of God but wish it were more modestly pretended unless it could be more evidently prov'd Origen condemned this whole procedure of conjuring Devils long since Quaeret aliquis si convenit vel Daemones adjurare Qui aspicit Jesum imperantem Daemonibus sed 〈◊〉 potestatem dantem Discipulis super omnia daemonia ut infirmitates sanarent dicet quoniam non est secundùm Potestatem datam à salvatore adjurare Daemonia Judaicum enim est If any one asks Whether it be fit to adjure Devils He that beholds Jesus commanding over Devils and also giving power to his Disciples over all unclean spirits and to heal diseases will say that to adjure Devils is not according to the power given by our Blessed Saviour For it is a Jewish trick and S. Chrysostom spake soberly and truly We poor Wretches cannot drive away the flies much less Devils BUT then as to the manner of their Conjurations and Exorcisms this we say If these things come from God let them shew their warranty and their books of Precedents If they come not from God they are so like the Inchantments of Balaam the old Heathens and the modern Magicians that their Original is soon discovered BUT yet from what principle it comes that they have made Exorcists an Ecclesiastical Order with special words and instruments of collation and that the words of Ordination giving them power only over possessed Christians Catechumens or Baptized should by them be extended and exercis'd upon all Infants as if they were all possessed by the Devil and not only so but to bewitched Cattel to Mice and Locusts to Milk and Lettice to Houses and Tempests as if their Charms were Prophylactick as well as Therapeutick and could keep as well as drive the Devil out and prevent storms like the old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of whom Seneca makes mention Of these things we cannot guess at any probable principle except they have deriv'd them from the Jewish Cabala or the Exorcisms which it is said Solomon us'd when he had consented to Idolatry BUT these things are so unlike the wisdom and simplicity the purity and spirituality of Christian devotion are so perfectly of their own devising and wild imaginations are so full of dirty superstitions and ignorant fancies that there are not in the world many things whose sufferance and practice can more destroy the Beauty of Holiness or reproach a Church or Society of Christians SECT XI The Church of Rome invents Sacramentals of her own without a Divine Warrant Such as Holy water Paschal wax Oil Palm-boughs c. Concerning which their Doctrine is that by these the Blood of Christ is applied to us and they not only signifie but produce Spiritual and supernatural effects How the people are abused with Legendary stories of miraculous cures wrought by them And are taught in the Sacraements themselves to rely so much upon their inherent virtue as to take less care of moral and virtuous dispositions TO put our trust and confidence in God only and to use Ministeries of his own appointment and sanctification is so essential a duty owing by us to God that whoever trusts in any thing but God is a breaker of the first Commandment and he that invents instrumental supports of his own head and puts a subordinate ministerial confidence in them usurps the rights of God and does not pursue the interests of true Religion whose very essence and formality is to glorifie God in all his attributes and to do good to man and to advance the honour and Kingdom of Christ. Now how greatly the Church of Rome prevaricates in this great Soul of Religion appears by too evident and notorious demonstration For she hath invented Sacramentals of her own without a Divine warrant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said S. Cyril Concerning the holy and Divine mysteries of Faith or Religion we ought to do nothing by chance or of our own heads nothing without the Authority of the Divine Scriptures But the Church of Rome does otherwise invents things of her own and imputes spiritual effects to these Sacramentals and promises not only temporal blessings and immunities and benedictions but the collation or increment of Spiritual graces and remission of venial sins and alleviation of pains due to mortal sins to them who shall use these Sacramentals Which because God did not institute and did not sanctisie they use them without Faith and rely upon them without a promise and make themselves the fountains of these graces and produce confidences whose last resort is not upon God who neither was the Author nor is an Approver of them OF this nature are Holy Water the Paschal Wax Oyl Palm-boughs Holy Bread not Eucharistical Hats Agnus Dei's Meddals Swords Bells and Roses hallowed upon the Sunday called Laetare Jerusalem such as Pope Pius the second to James the II. of Scotland and Sixtus Quintus to the Prince of Parma Concerning which their Doctrine is this That the blood of Christ is by these applied unto us that they do not only signifie but produce spiritual effects that they blot out venial sins that they drive away Devils that they cure diseases and that though these things do not operate infallibly as do the Sacraments and that God hath made no express Covenant concerning them yet by the devotion of them that use them and the prayers of the Church they do prevail NOW though it be easie to say and it is notoriously true in Theology that the prayers of the Church can never prevail but according to the grace which God hath promis'd and either can only procure a blessing upon natural things in order to their natural effects or else an extraordinary supernatural effect by vertue of a Divine promise and that these things are pretended to work beyond their natural force and yet God hath not promis'd to them a supernatural blessing as themselves confess yet besides the falseness of the Doctrine on which these superstitions do rely it is also as evident that these instrumentalities produce an affiance and confidence in the Creature and estrange mens hearts from the true Religion and trust in God while they think themselves blessed in their own inventions and in digging to themselves Cisterns of their own and leaving the Fountain of Blessing and Eternal Life To this purpose the Roman Priesta abuse the People with Romantick stories out of the Dialogues of S. Gregory and venerable Bede making them believe that S. Fortunatus cur'd a Man's broken thigh with Holy Water and that S. Malachias the Bishop of Down and Connor cur'd a mad-man with the same medicine and that Saint Hilarion cur'd many sick persons with Holy Bread and Oyl which indeed is the most likely of them all as being good food and good medicine and although not so much as a Chicken is now a-days cur'd of the Pip by Holy Water yet upon all occasions they use it and the common people throw it upon Childrens
III. The Church of Rome teaches Doctrines which in many things are destructive of Christian Society in general and of Monarchy in special Both which the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland does by her Doctrines greatly and Christianly support SECT I. Instances of Doctrines taught in the Church of Rome destructive of Societies As Lying and Equivocating especially before a Magistrate to elude his examinations No Contracts Vows Oaths a sufficient security in dealing with them Council of Constance was against keeping Faith with Hereticks and Hus and Hierome of Prague felt the sad effects of it They would have done the same to Luther at Wormes had not the Emperour hindred Of the Popes dispensing with Oaths and Vows and in Contracts of Marriage and Divorces THAT in the Church of Rome it is publickly taught by their greatest Doctors That it is lawful to lye or deceive the question of the Magistrate to conceal their name and to tell a false one to elude all examinations and make them insignificant and toothless cannot be doubted by any man that knows how the English Priests have behav'd themselves in the times of Queen Elizabeth King James and the Blessed Martyr King Charles 1. 〈◊〉 wrote in defence of it and Father Barnes who wrote a Book against Lying and Equivocating was suspected for a Heretick and smarted severely under their hands To him that asks you again for what you have paid him already you may safely say you never had any thing of him meaning so as to owe it him now It is the Doctrine of Emanuel Sà and Sanchez which we understand to be a great lye and a great sin it being at the best a deceiving of the Law that you be not deceived by your Creditor that is a doing evil to prevent one a sin to prevent the losing of your mony IF a man asks his wife if she be an Adulteress though she be yet she may say she is not if in her mind secretly she say not with a purpose to tell you so Cardinal Tolet teaches And if a man swears he will take such a one to his wife being compelled to swear he may secretly mean if hereafter she do please me And if a man swears to a Thief that he will give him Twenty Crowns he may secretly say If I please to do so and then he is not bound And of this Doctrine Vasquez brags as of a rare though new invention saying it is gathered out of St. Austin and Thomas Aquinas who only found out the way of saying nothing in such cases and questions ask'd by Judges but this invention was drawn out by assiduous disputations * He that promises to say an Ave Mary and swears he will or vows to do it yet sins not mortally though he does not do it said the great Navar and others whom he follows * There is yet a further degree of this iniquity not only in words but in real actions it is lawful to deceive or rob your Brother when to do so is necessary for the preservation of your fame For no man is bound to restore stollen goods that is to cease from doing injury with the peril of his credit So Navar and Cardinal Cajetan and Tolet teaches who adds also Hoc multi dicunt quorum sententiam potest quis tutâ conscientiâ sequi Many say the same thing whose Doctrine any man may follow with a safe Conscience Nay to save a man's credit an honest man that is asham'd to beg may steal what is necessary for him says Diana NOW by these Doctrines a man is taught how to be an honest Thief and to keep what he is bound to restore and by these we may not only deceive our Brother but the Law and not the Law only but God also even with an Oath if the matter be but small It never makes God angry with you or puts you out of the state of grace But if the matter be great yet to prevent a great trouble to your self you may conceal a truth by saying that which is false according to the general Doctrine of the late Casuists So that a man is bound to keep truth and honesty when it is for his turn but not if it be to his own hinderance and 〈◊〉 David was not in the right but was something too nice in the resolution of the like case in the fifteenth Psalm Now although we do not affirm that these particulars are the Doctrine of the whole Church of Rome because little things and of this nature never are considered in their publick Articles of Confession yet a man may do these vile things for so we understand them to be and find justifications and warranty and shall not be affirghted with the terrors of damnation nor the imposition of penances he may for all these things be a good Catholick though it may be not a very good Christian. But since these things are affirm'd by so many the opinion is probable and the practice safe saith Cardinal Tolet. BUT we shall instance in things of more publick concern and Catholick Authority No Contracts Leagues Societies Promises Vows or Oaths are a sufficient security to him that deals with one of the Church of Rome if he shall please to make use of that liberty which may and many times is and always can be granted to him For first it is affirmed and was practis'd by a whole Council of Bishops at Constance that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks and John Hus and Hierom of Prague and Savanarola felt the mischief of violation of publick faith and the same thing was disputed fiercely at Worms in the case of Luther to whom Coesar had given a safe-conduct and very many would have had it to be broken but Coesar was a better Christian than the Ecclesiasticks and their party and more a Gentleman But that no scrupulous Princes may keep their words any more in such cases or think themselves tied to perform their safe-conducts given to Hereticks there is a way found out by a new Catholick Doctrine Becanus shall speak this point instead of the rest There are two distinct Tribunals and the Ecclesiastical is the Superior and therefore if a Secular Prince gives his Subjects a safe-conduct he cannot extend it to the Superior Tribunal nor by any security given hinder the Bishop or the Pope to exercise their jurisdiction And upon the account of this or the like Doctrine the Pope and the other Ecclesiasticks did prevail at Constance for the burning of their Prisoners to whom safe-conduct had been granted But these things are sufficiently known by the complaints of the injur'd persons BUT not only to Hereticks but to our friends also we may break our promises if the Pope give us leave It is a publick and an avowed Doctrine That if a man have taken an Oath of a thing lawful and honest and in his power yet if it hinders him from doing a greater good the Pope
against the invasion of the rights of the Church of Arles by Anastasius and the question being in the exercise of Jurisdiction and about the institution of Bishops does fully declare that the Bishops of Rome had no superiority by the laws of Christ over any Bishop in the Catholick Church and that his Bishoprick gave no more power to him than Christ gave to the Bishop of the smallest Diocese AND therefore all the Church of God whenever they reckoned the several orders and degrees of Ministery in the Catholick Church reckon the Bishop as the last and supreme beyond whom there is no spiritual power but in Christ. For as the whole Hierarchy ends in Jesus so does every particular one in its own Bishop Beyond the Bishop there is no step till you rest in the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls Under him every Bishop is supreme in spirituals and in all power which to any Bishop is given by Christ. S. Ignatius therefore exhorts that all should obey their Bishop and the Bishop obey Christ as Christ obeyed his Father There are no other intermedial degrees of Divine institution But as Origen teaches The Apostles and they who after them are ordain'd by God that is the Bishops have the supreme place in the Church and the Prophets have the second place The same also is taught by P. Gelasius by S. Hierom and Fulgentius and indeed by all the Fathers who spake any thing in this matter Insomuch that when Bellarmine is in this question press'd out of the book of Nilus by the Authority of the Fathers standing against him he answers Papam Patres non habere in Ecclesiâ sed Filios omnes The Pope acknowledges no Fathers in the Church for they are all his Sons NOW although we suppose this to be greatly sufficient to declare the Doctrine of the primitive Catholick Church concerning the equality of power in all Bishops by Divine right yet the Fathers have also expresly declared themselves that one Bishop is not superiour to another and ought not to judge another or force another to obedience They are the words of S. Cyprian to a Council of Bishops None of us makes himself a Bishop of Bishops or by tyramical power drives his collegues to a necessity of obedience since every Bishop according to the licence of his own liberty and power hath his own choice and cannot be judged by another nor yet himself judge another but let us all expect the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ who only and alone hath the power of setting us in the Government of his Church and judging of what we do This was spoken and intended against Pope Stephen who did then begin dominari in clero to lord it over God's heritage and to excommunicate his brethren as Demetrius did in the time of the Apostles themselves but they both found their reprovers Demetrius was chastised by Saint John for this usurpation and Stephen by S. Cyprian and this also was approv'd by S. Austin We conclude this particular with the words of S. Gregory Bishop of Rome who because the Patriarch of Constantinople called himself Universal Bishop said It was a proud title prophane sacrilegious and Antichristian and therefore he little thought that his successors in the same See should so fiercely challenge that Antichristian title much less did the then Bishop of Rome in those Ages challenge it as their own peculiar for they had no mind to be or to be esteemed Antichristian Romano pontisici oblatum est sed nullus unquam eorum hoc singularitatis nomen assumpsit His predecessors it seems had been tempted with an offer of that title but none of them ever assumed that name of singularity as being against the law of the Gospel and the Canons of the Church NOW this being a matter of which Christ spake not one word to S. Peter if it be a matter of Faith and Salvation as it is now pretended it is not imaginable he would have been so perfectly silent But though he was silent of any intention to do this yet S. Paul was not silent that Christ did otherwise for he hath set in his Church primùm Apostolos first of all Apostles not first S. Peter and secondarily Apostles but all the Apostles were first It is also evident that S. Peter did not carry himself so as to give the least overture or umbrage to make any one suspect he had any such preheminence but he was as S. Chrysostom truly says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did all things with the common consent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing by special authority or principality and if he had any such it is more than probable that the Apostles who survived him had succeeded him in it rather than the Bishop of Rome and it being certain as the Bishop of Canaries confesses That there is in Scripture no revelation that the Bishop of Rome should succeed Peter in it and we being there told that S. Pet. was at Antioch but never that he was at Rome it being confessed by some of their own parties by Cardinal Cusanus Soto Driedo Canus and Segovius that this succession was not addicted to any particular Church nor that Christs institution of this does any other way appear that it cannot be proved that the Bishop of Rome is Prince of the Church it being also certain that there was no such thing known in the Primitive Church but that the holy Fathers both of Africa and the East did oppose Pope Victor and Pope Stephen when they began to interpose with a presumptive Authority in the affairs of other Churches and that the Bishops of the Church did treat with the Roman Bishop as with a brother not as their superiour and that the General Council held at Chalcedon did give to the Bishops of C. P. equal rights and preeminence with the Bishops of Rome and that the Greek Churches are at this day and have been a long time great opponents of this pretension of the Bishops of Rome and after all this since it is certain that Christ who foreknows all things did also know that there would be great disputes and challenges of this preeminence did indeed suppress it in his Apostles and said not it should be otherwise in succession and did not give any command to his Church to obey the Bishops of Rome as his Vicars more than what he commanded concerning all Bishops it must be certain that it cannot be necessary to salvation to do so but that it is more than probable that he never intended any such thing and that the Bishops of Rome have to the great prejudice of Christendom made a great schism and usurped a title which is not their due and challenged an Authority to which they have no right and have set themselves above others who are their equals and impose an Article of Faith of their own contriving and have made great preparation for
or vain repetition of the Gentiles for they did just so and Christ said they did not do well and that is all that we pretend to know of it They thought to be heard the rather for so doing and if the people of the Roman Church do not think so there is no reason why they should do so But without any further arguing about the business they are not asham'd to own it For the Author of the Preface to the Jesus Psalter printed by Fouler at Antwerp promises to the repetition of that sweet Name Great aid against temptations and a wonderful increase of grace SECT IX They pray to dead Men and Women whom they suppose beatified and invoke them as helpers preservers Guardians Deliverers contrary to the Scriptures An answer to that pretence that they only desire the Saints to pray for them which by many instances is showed to be false What their Divines teach concerning the Blessed Virgin to engage all to have recourse to her An account of the publick prayers to her The Council of Constance invoked her as other Councils did use to invocate the Holy Ghost Of the Lady's Psalter by Bonaventure How derogatory to Christ to rely in praying to God upon the Merits Satisfaction and Intercession of Saints St. Austin's excellent saying Tutius jucundius c. How their devotion is prostituted to new upstart Saints which are of late Canonization BUT this mischief is gone further yet For as Cajetan affirms Prayers ought to be well done Saltem non malè at least not ill But besides that what we have now remark'd is so not well that it is very ill that which follows is directly bad and most intolerable For the Church of Rome in her publick and allowed offices prays to dead men and women who are or whom they suppose to be beatified and these they invocate as Preservers Helpers Guardians Deliverers in their necessity and they expresly call them their Refuge their Guard and Defence their Life and Health Which is so formidable a Devotion that we for them and for our selves too if we should imitate them are to dread the words of Scripture Cursed is the man that trusteth in man We are commanded to call upon God in the time of trouble and it is promised that he will deliver us and we shall glorifie him We find no such command to call upon Saints neither do we know who are Saints excepting a very few and in what present state they are we cannot know nor how our prayers can come to their knowledge and yet if we did know all this it cannot be endured at all that Christians who are commanded to call upon God and upon none else and to make all our prayers through Jesus Christ and never so much as warranted to make our prayers through Saints departed should yet choose Saints for their particular Patrons or at all relie upon them and make prayers 〈◊〉 them in such forms of words which are only sit to be spoken to God prayers which have no testimony command or promise in the Word of God and therefore which cannot be made in faith or prudent hope NEITHER will it be enough to say that they only desire the Saints to pray for them for though that be of it self a matter indifferent if we were sure they do hear us when we pray and that we should not by that means secretly destroy our considence in God or lessen the honour of Christ our Advocate of which because we cannot be sure but much rather the contrary it is not a matter indifferent Yet besides this in the publick Offices of the Church of Rome there are prayers to Saints made with confidence in them with derogation to God's glory and prerogative with diminution to the honour of Christ with words in sound and in all appearance the same with the highest that are usually express'd in our prayers to God and his Christ And this is it we insist upon and reprove as being a direct destruction of our sole confidence in God and too near to blasphemy to be endured in the Devotions of Christians We make our words good by these Allegations 1. WE shall not need here to describe out of their didactical writings what kind of prayers and what causes of confidence they teach towards the Blessed Virgin Mary and all Saints Only we shall recite a few words of Antoninus their great Divine and 〈◊〉 of Florence It is necessary that they to whom she converts her eyes being an Advocate for them shall be justified and saved And whereas it may be objected out of John that the Apostle says If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous He answers That Christ is not our Advocate alone but a Judge and since the just is scarce secure how shall a sinner go to him as to an Advocate Therefore God hath provided us of an Advocatess who is gentle and sweet in whom nothing that is sharp is to be found And to those words of St. Paul Come boldly to the Throne of Grace He says That Mary is the Throne of Christ in whom he rested to her therefore let us come with boldness that we may obtain mercy and find grace in time of need and adds that Mary is called full of grace because she is the means and cause of Grace by transfusing grace to mankind and many other such dangerous Propositions Of which who please to be further satisfied if he can endure the horror of reading blasphemous sayings he may sind too great abundance in the Mariale of Bernardine which is confirm'd by publick Authority Jacobus Perez de Valentia and in Ferdinand Quirinus de Salazar who affirms That the Virgin Mary by offering up Christ to God the Father was worthy to have after a certain manner that the whole salvation and redemption of mankind should be ascrib'd to her and that this was common to Christ and the blessed Virgin his Mother that she did offer and give the price of our Redemption truly and properly and that she is deservedly call'd the Redeemer the Repairer the Mediator the Author and cause of our salvation Many more horrid blasphemies are in his notes upon that Chapter in his Defence of the Immaculate Conception published with the Privilege of Philip the III. of Spain and by the Authority of his Order But we insist not upon their Doctrines deliver'd by their great Writers though every wise man knows that the Doctrines of their Church are delivered in large and indefinite terms and descend not to minute senses but are left to be explicated by their Writers and are so practis'd and understood by the people and at the worst the former Doctrine of Probability will make it safe enough But we shall produce the publick practice of their Church AND 〈◊〉 it cannot be suppos'd that they intend nothing but to desire their prayers for they rely also on their merits and