a contempt of Episcopal dignity XXVI And indeed the most holy Father us'd them all ut creaturas mancipia James of Clodia Fossa saying he could not suffer tradition to be parallel'd with the Scripture was expell'd the Council Peter of Justinianople being but suspected of what they call'd Lutheranism was forbidden to come there and take place amongst the Bishops Another was proclaim'd Schismatical and threatned to be rejected for affirming there had bin many lawful Bishops never call'd or confirm'd by the Pope Nay another was depos'd because he said the Pope should be contented with the title of Holy which God is satisfied with without affecting that of most Holy So that t was not without reason the Cardinal of Lorrain complains the Council was not free since nothing could be propos'd or resolv'd but what was the Legats pleasure nor could they propose any thing but what was the Popes XXVI But to convince all unprejudic'd persons we need but consider the safe conduct granted to Protestants Tho the Fathers of Trent were engaged in honour to blot out the memory of the Constantian Council whose wounds continued still bleeding by testifying to their adversaries all imaginable sincerity and Candour yet they gave them greater occasions then ever to distrust Protestants require nothing but what had bin accorded to the Bohemians by the Fathers at Basil but they are plainly denied They beg at least a safe conduct which they many confide in but t is doubted whether it may be granted them and they are told it shall be given in the Congregation viz. in the Friers meeting and not in the Session viz. in the Council At last after having bin thus baited they oâ—tain safe conduct which has respect only to the Germans worded in such captious terms that thereby the Pope had reserved to himself the power of burning all the English Swedes Danes and French that should come to the Council nay the Germans themselves tho they could blame nothing but their own simplicity Notwithstanding whatever reasons Protestants had of declining such a Council after the example of the Holy Fathers and the judgment of the wisest men then living they trusting the justice of their cause and seeing in that noble and magnificent safe conduct hope was given them of disputing and proposing their difficulties sent their Divines to Trent and exposed them to all dangers without any other defence then the truth which is call'd in the Scriture the shield of the just These Divines thus authoriz'd by their Nation being arriv'd at Trent conceal not themselves They avoid not the sight of men The whole Councill is acquainted with their coming They speak to the Ambassadors make their addresses to the Popes Legats conjure them to pitty the calamities of Germany and after having presented them with the confession of their Faith they beg no other favour from them but to have it read in the Council for its being either approv'd of or condemn'd The Legats do not burden them with Irons or tumble them into Dungeons they are so far from being murdered that their life could not be more secure in the Prince of Saxonies or the Landgraves Chamber But they receive no answer their confession of Faith remains buried the Legats keep it in Petto nor are the most entire submissions and ardent entreaties able to bring it forth Thinking perhaps that the quality of a Priest or of a Divine had no great influence upon an Apostolic Legat they made use of the Emperours Ambassadors That Prince was the Soul of the Pope as the Pope was of the Council But all these endeavours are frustrated there is somwhat unknown and unperceiv'd which strikes dumb their Eminences Who ever heard of any such dealings If Protestants decline the Council grounded upon a thousand unanswerable reasons all the World rises against them nor are the names of Heretics Schismatics nay Atheists sufficient to express their imputed perfidiousness But tho they come and strike Heaven and Earth with their complaints an ignorance is pretended of their being there The Fathers have neither ears nor hearts nor mouths to hear their praiers feel their grievances and answer their proposals and they are forced to beg and expect from God that justice which men deny them XXVII T is evident from so many instances that Protestants did never reject Councils There is no Christian whom the Authority of the Church do's not overcome he deserving to be debar'd from the quality advantages and hopes of a Son who hearkens not unto his Mothers voice The Church has a true jurisdiction a real and effective authority All contrary Doctrines flow from independency and Enthusiasm two blind and furious Monsters every where to be profligated But the very same Protestants so great admirers and defenders of the Church require she should speak in lawful assemblies When they shall be condemned in Councils like that of Nice and Chalcedon then they will receive their sentence with as much joy as respect But when a new and unlawful meeting guilty of essential aver'd and incontestable defects nay acknowledg'd to be such by the most learned and disinterested men of the Roman Communion shall claim the same authority as these Divine assemblies they will be very careful to keep their ancient waies and far from being deterr'd by the threats of that proud and uncharitable Church which excludes from heaven all those she cannot keep blindfold in her bosom they will augment the glorious company of many holy Fathers whom the overpowring number of unjust Councils could never bend to betray the cause of Christ Such an one was St. Athanasius who rejected the Council of Tyre Maximus Patriarch of Jerusalem that of Antioch Cyril that of Syrmium Paulinus that of Milan and Chrysostome an example of Christian constancy that ad quercum In a word they will receive those curses pronounc'd against them as so many blessings and without going any further into the discussion of the Tridentine Councils decrees they will conclude with the words of Cardinal Bellarmine Si legitima Synodus non fuit planum est nullam authoritatem potuisse habere nullius roboris sunt illius Canones REFLEXIONS On the Council of TRENT DISCOURSE II. That the Doctrine of the Council of Trent is contrary to the ancient Doctrine of the Catholic Church I. WHOEVER peruses the Council of Trent cannot but be strangely amazed to find its stile so altogether unlike that of the ancient writings of the Church There is in those I know not what characters of holiness and Christian majesty which command reverence from all but in this we meet with a sort of so unusual and dubious expressions that shew the Authors of it were incomparably better versed in political practices or Books of School-men then in the Works of the Fathers They never intended in many of their Canons to fix a true and uniform sense which all People might rely upon but a double and captious one apt to receive
Hurtado are purity it self compar'd with the Book of the Apostolical Tax All the Casuists together never taught the World so many crimes as this one profligate Book We suppress it because we would not offend the modesty of our Reader There are no tongues or words pregnant enough to express so great an infamy but yet to give some hint of it let us hear the Popes Secretary Our sins saies he are rais'd to such an height that we have scarce any hope of mercy left us 'T were a vain attemt to describe the greatness of the Priests covetousness especially of them that govern How unbounded is their ambition obscenity and luxury How deep is their ignorance both of themselves and Christs doctrine also How full is the little Piety they had left of hypocrisie and dissimulation and how instead of concealing the crimes they commit do they affect rather to make them appear XII This then was the disease of the Roman Church let us now examine whether the Council of Trent has truly reform'd so many abuses whether it hath preserv'd the respect due to Princes render'd the rights of Bishops inviolable taken away the Simonies and Extortions of the Court of Rome and whether Mr. d'Espences complains wrongfully Quod tot annis tot annorum centenariâ—is nil in ea emendatur XIII As for Princes the injuries which the preceding Popes had done them were so far from being repaired that Julius the Third was so bold as to excommunicate the Queen of Navar give her Kingdom over to depredation and confiscate her Goods XIV As for the Holy Father they work out his reformation in a pleasant manner It is consider'd as a Crime to speak of reforming him of searching into his wounds or taking any account of his excesses And when the Cardinals hurried on by the force of truth and the cries of all men are oblig'd out of meer shame to propose the mending any abuse they alwaies add Salva tamen Apostolicae sedis autoritate So when plurality of Benefices is condemn'd it is Salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate when that intolerable abuse of Dispensations is cut off 't is salva semper sedis Apostolicae autoritate when any Penance is imposed upon non-resident Bishops 't is salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate when Friars are put again under the jurisdiction of their Ordinaries and obedience to their Canons 't is salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate that is to say The autority of that Apostolic See which has patroniz'd their first violation of the discipline shal be at liberty to do it a second time They dare condemn no crimes without impowring the Apostolic See to commit them over again A Law however just and necessary in it self cannot be enacted without leaving to the Apostolical See the liberty of infringing it And thus they make of the Apostolical See a sanctuary and retreat for all disorders XV. Nothing is better known at Rome then the lives of a great many Cardinals Heaven and Earth are offended at their Pride Their plurality of Benefices Bishoprics and Abbies is monstrous No secular Princes are attended with greater magnificence Never had the most luxurious Heathens either Palaces so gloriously adorn'd or Tables so delicatly furnished and whatever we read of the Gardens of Lucullus or the pleasures of Tempe is far short of the luxury of their Country Houses Yet they are Clergy-men that is a sort of people who not only vowed in their Baptism to renounce the World but declar'd it also in their Ordination That the Lord was the lot of their inheritance and his Gospel a commandment to die and bury themselves with him Notwithstanding when their Reformation was spoken of in the Council the Legats presently declar'd that the Reformation ought not to extend unto their Eminencies to which a Pious and Learned Bishop more daring then the rest moved to see Sacred Episcopacy so trampled upon by them made answer that the most illustrious Cardinals ought to have a most illustrious Reformation Illustrissimi Cardinales indigent illustrissima reformatione But they are deaf to this voice of Heaven and instead of sincerely advancing the Interest of the Gospel among themselves to the end that the spring it self being purified the stream might be so too 200 Bishops and five Cardinals busie themselves in ordering the subsistence of Franciscans and shaping the habit of Nuns XVI Nothing is so certain as the shameful traffic of the Datary and Chancery none but the wilfully blind can deny it to be a gulph which swallows up the riches of many Kingdoms and sucks the purest Blood of the people But they must first have renounc'd the Gospel and their own reason who confess not that it is a continual commerce of abominable Simony a violating of the most Holy Canons and a pernicious attemt upon the autority of Princes and Bishops What Council in former Ages what custom of the Church what legitimate Title impowers the Popes to give Benefices of other Kingdoms What new Gospel teaches him to raise vast sums upon the account of Spiritual matters What right hath he over those Churches he hath never ministred unto Which of the Fathers or what Authors can he allege to maintain such usurpations Nay who in the latter times â—id not rise against such an execrable abuse and spoke not to him in the words â—f a famous Emperor Cesset altaribus imâ—inere profanus ardor avaritiae sacris â—dytis repellatur piaculare flagitium Yea the Council very well saw all this was in the Diocess of all these Bishops â—hat so intolerable disorders spread their â—ranches The Canons of the Sacred â—ouncils of Nice and Chalcedon are set before their eies as so many eternal Witnesâ—es of the Churches Spirit but instead â—f following their rules they wholly buâ—â—e themselves in cutting off some small â—â—uses reforming of a Country Vicar 〈◊〉 for the rest Salva semper Apostolicae â—â—dis autoritate XVII Of all the different kinds of Simony the Court of Rome is guilty of none is so certain and aver'd as the Annats Boniface the Eighth and John the Twenty second invented them two Popes Baronius stiles Monsters The Council of Basil prohibited them under pain of Excommunication and because the Fathers were inform'd that they came from no other source then the Pope who by a Pasce oves meas Joh. 4. 6. makes all crimes lawful they add those so remarkable words That if the Bishop of Rome who more then any other ought to observe and execute the Canons of the Councils comes to scandalize the Church attempting any thing against such a prohibition let him be proceeded against by a General Council The most considerable Authors of the Church of Rome both for Learning and Piety complain most bitterly of this The Faculty of Sorbon calls it not only a Crime but an Heresy Paul the Third his Counsellors who had bin first oblig'd under pain of Excommunication to declare
looks on the praises which the Saints have given him in their Epistles as titles and privileges from Christ the Church of England opposes it with as much constancy as justice and not being able to cure the wounds of that Bishop she leaves him to the judgment of our great God XII The pride of the Pope has caus'd the separation of the Greek Church and made a breach between East and West which will never be made up It has also bin the occasion of the one part of the West being divided from the other And it is not ten years since in the affair of the four French Bishops it had like to raise a Schism and a division in the rest XIII But supposing the submission of all the rest to Rome should be lawful yet that is nothing to the Church of England which was never any part of it It plainly appears she receiv'd the Faith almost as soon as Christ brought it to the world but altho the time be uncertain yet none can think that she was ever instructed by the Church of Rome Her manner of observing Easter as in the East and her Ceremonies very different from those used in the Church of Rome shew that she receiv'd the Gospel from thence St. Gregory having sent hither Austin the Monk and that Holy Saint requiring the Clergy to submit to the Popes autority the Abbot of Bangor in the name of all the rest answer'd in such terms as shew'd the purity and simplicity of the former times We submit our selves saies he to the Church of God to the Pope of Rome and to every good Christian and love each of them with such a degree of charity as is due to them to assist them both in our works and Councils to become sons of God we know no other respect due to him whom you stile Father of Fathers XIV It is therefore certain for six hundred years at least that the Church of England hath in no manner bin subject to that of Rome her Councils and promotions of Bishops and generally all that belongs to Religion has bin transacted without the Church of Rome being at all concerned in them It would be much against the honor of the Pope if those means should be made known by which he hath endeavor'd to establish himself for the succeeding ages The public Acts of this Kingdom of a far greater autority then all their legends are â—ully charg'd with his Oppressions What pains did the Kings take to put a stop to them with what constancy did the Clergy oppose it till the time of Henry the Eighth That history was writ with as much impartiality as truth by the Learned Sir Roger Twisden It appears by all public Acts that the Pope hath wonderfully endeavor'd to make use of all conjunctures of times to get footing into this great Isle He hath bin enrich'd by the liberality of her Kings by Factions which he sow'd in the heart of the Kingdom and by the Wars which he brought upon it from abroad XV. Henry the Eighth whom all the Popes have so cry'd out upon went not further then his Predecessors and the title of supreme Governor in these his Realms well understood is no less due to him then to any other Prince in the World This King or any of his Successors pretend to no more autority over the Church then Constantine Justinian or Charles the Great They have neither power to administer the Sacraments nor to Preach the word of God They meddle not at all with any thing which belongs to faith or manners and leave to their Bishops all the power in those matters which Christ himself has given them They make no Canons tho they add Sanctions to them and declare the knowledge of Spiritual affairs is not a right of their Crowns They only take care of the outward administration of the Church to see Canons executed and hinder foreign autority under pretence of piety from disturbing the quiet of their people Upon this account the Bull of no Pope is receiv'd in France without the Kings consent all privileged men are daily restor'd to the jurisdiction of the Ordinaries and when any thing does endanger the liberties of the Gallican Church or the Laws of the Land the Pasce oves meas is of no force and the Kings autority stops the attemts of the Holy Father In Spain the King has the disposal of all things belonging to the outward Government of the Church The Inquisitors condemn in the Kings name and when the Council of Trent was there receiv'd 't was by the command he gave his Subjects to do it nor do the Kings of England claim any more XVI 'T was not the title of Supreme Governor which did most of all distast the Pope He could easily bear with that in all Kings for it is but what naturally belongs to them he knew that every King has such autority over the Church but he fear'd the consequences of it which indeed are very terrible to a Pope Henry the Eighth by that did suppress the Bulls which came from Rome and retain'd in his own Realms those vast sums which before were yearly carried out of them This was transacted in the sight of two great Kingdoms inclin'd enough to do the like The Pope therefore thought that in prudence he ought to cry out on that Prince but because a man cries in â—ain when things are represented in their â—rue and lively colours he gave his defenders liberty of forming Chimera's to the end they might work upon the people such an effect in this point as he desired XVII The Church of England need not recuâ— to an extraordinary mission nor to those arguments so far distant from reason to prove her self a Church She hath not confounded the order of things and assum'd a Government lately sprung up Since she hath receiv'd the Faith which was according to Nicephorus in the firsâ— age and to St. Beda some small time after we see the succession of Bishops hath continu'd without the least interruption or change XVIII The Usurpations of Popes the comâ—merce of Italians and most of all the ignorance wherewith God for some timâ— permitted the West to be blinded madâ— them fall into the errors of Rome But when God looked upon the Church in hâ—â— mercy and had opened her eies she laâ—bored to reform her self but not in a tuâ—multuous manner and spilling of bloodâ— She was not left to the conduct of the blind People which will suffer nothing but what pleaseth them best and which is delighted only with extreams The King calls a Council of the whole Kingdom stored with wise and holy Bishops as appears both in their lives and works This Council form'd the articles of a reformation which being seconded by the law of their Prince according to the custome of all Monarchs were by that great Kingdom receiv'd with a general respect XIX These holy Prelats in the Reformation had nothing carried on either
contrary interpretations to satisfy men of different interests and give them the mutual pleasure of believing their assertions upheld by the autority of the Council And thus the Jesuits and Dominicans were equally contented with the Canons concerning Grace and Justification Each Party drew the autority of the Council to its own side and there has not bin any Writer of these two Orders who in their many Books as opposite one to another as light is to darkness has not alledged these very Canons as invincible proofs against his adversary II. But if any should enquire further and search into that vast multitude of Decrees unknown till then he must needs wonder to find them built upon so sandy Foundations The most general Basis of them is laid in the fourth Session where the Council proposes two objects to our Faith to wit Books which are written and Traditions which are not written And they pretend as a necessary consequence that whatever we oppose against the Church of Rome is of that kind This is the Epitome of all the Council Nevertheless least any one should be offended at the word Tradition and perswade himself that they intend by it to equal mens autority to that of God or humane Ceremonies to the sacred Precepts of the Gospell they give of it a most magnificent character calling it The Word of Christ a Doctrine inspired by the Holy Ghost for the ordering our Faith and manners and preserved in the Catholic Church by a continued succession If that Principle be true there is an end of all Controversies and were the Church of Rome as able to prove it as she is ready to advance it we might hope to see in our daies that blessed Word of Christ accomplish't There shall be one Fold and one Shepherd And indeed there is no Protestant in the World who doth not admit of a Tradition endued with these Qualifications First That it be the Word of Christ 2. Inspired by the Holy Ghost 3. In matter of Faith and Manners 4. Preserved in the Catholic Church by an uninterrupted succession But there is no Protestant in the World that doth not maintain such a Tradition cannot be proved and is nothing else but one of those rich and splendid Idea's as admirable and flattering in their speculation as impossible and deceiving in their practice III. For the perfect evidencing whereof we need but consider the following Proposals First That of all places of the Scriptures whereby the Church of Rome asserts her Tradition there is not so much as one alledged by the Fathers in her sense Secondly That none of the Fathers ever understood Tradition otherwise then for the unanimous consent of the Doctors of the Church grounded upon a word which is written Thirdly That no places in Scripture are express for the authorizing such Tradition but many positive and clear to prove the sufficiency of Scripture Fourthly That among the Traditions of the Church of Rome she proposes many to our belief which do not appertain at all either to Faith or manners IV. The Scripture is most holy most infallible most perfect in it self The Gospel has added what was deficient in the Law And the Apostles Writings supplied the defect of the Gospel There we must stay 'T is no less crime in S. Basil's opinion to add that which is not written then to reject that which is written And 't is a stupendious boldness when God has vouchsafed to reveal his will to men by a certain and infallible word to substitute another neither clear nor undoubtedly received V. That new word which is ascribed to God has properly and by its self relation to those things which cannot be proved by Scripture as one of the Divines present at Trent has taken notice of otherwise it would be a written word But if it be so nothing is more unworthy of Christ and less agreeable to his divine Oracles It is to render his truth suspected or uncertain to expose Christians to infinite errors to give them as many masters as there are persons who will profess themselves the Guardians of that word and to make it the object of all mens scorn since according to the excellent saying of S. Jerome Quod de Scripturis autoritatem non habet eâ—dem facilitate contemnitur qua probatur VI. We find not that Christ in his holy Gospel sends us to Tradition whereby we may come to the knowledg of him Search the Scriptures they are they that testify of me The Apostles speak as their Master We have also a more sure word of Prophecy whereunto you do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts Many saies S. Chrysostom pretend to speak from the Holy Ghost but they do it falsly as long as they speak from themselves as Christ testifies he spoke not from himself but from the Law and the Prophets so if they proffer us any other thing then the Gospel under pretence of its being inspired by the Holy Ghost let us be far from believing it Is there any thing worse saies Pope S. Leo then to have impious sentiments and yet not to be willing to assent to the more learned and wise Those are guilty of this folly who when they are hindred from knowing the truth by any obscurity do not recur to the Prophetical Books the Apostolical Writings and Evangelical autority but to themselves and so become Masters and Teachers of error because they refused to be Disciples of Truth It would have bin very easy for S. Austin in that long and tedious Disputation with the Donatists concerning the Catholic Church to have made an end of it by sending them to Tradition But instead of doing so Let us not hear saies he Haec dico haec dicis but let us hear haec dicit Dominus We have the Lords Books Both of us acknowledg their autority both of us believe them ibi quaeramus Ecclesiam ibi discutiamus causam nostram nolo humanis documentis seâ— divinis Oraculis sanctam Ecclesiam demonstrari We seek as he there adds where the Church is what shall we do in verbis nostris eam quaesituri sumus an in verbis Domini I think it is to be sought in his words who is the TRUTH and knows perfectly her who is his Body Habeo manifestissimam vocem Pastoris mei commendantis mihi sine ullis ambagibus exprimentis Ecclesiam If I suffer my self to be reduced and separated from his flock which is the Church by the words of men I will impute it to my self whereas he advertiz'd me saying My Sheep know my voice 'T is the constant Doctrine of that admirable man in all his Works In his Letter to S. Jerome I confess your Charity saies he I give those Books alone which are termed Canonical that honor as to believe none of their Authors did
man most deeply engag'd in the love of the World most buried in all its pleasures the most taken with its glory one that is a public sinner guilty of all the excesses which libertinism or atheism are able to inspire such an one as this must be excus'd from too much troubling himself The bearing of a Medal bowing to a Saint walking to such a Church or the like will wash him whither then snow and presently render him as innocent in the eyes of God as the best of them who think it worth their while to work out their salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. who are at the trouble of mortifying in themselves the body of sin by an incredible perseverance by continual Fasting Praiers and Alms that they may present their bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God Rom. 10. 1. XXII Thus the power of Dispensing opens the door to infinite scandals But the Pope was impowr'd to do what he would the Council granting him that which he could never hope for viz. the affertion of his infallibility and pre-eminence above general Councils two Opinions that had never bin heard of for 14 Ages and were scarce brought forth into the World but all learned and pious Men opposed them the 400 Bishops at Basil and the famous Sorbon stiling them pernicious Heresies but the Fathers of Trent being afraid to contradict openly so considerable an autority and yet desirous to have their intent dealt after a most pleasant manner they take away these two words Infallibility and Superiority but preserve carefully the thing 1. The Council declares the Church of Rome is Mother and Mistress of all Churches 2. The Council affects to stick at many matters and remits their decision to the Popes judgment Now what man of sense is there who would not draw these two Consequences 1. The Church of Rome being Mother of all Churches in the World and a general Council being compos'd but of particular Churches the Pope being Bishop of Rome is therefore Father and Master of all Bishops Councils 2. There is Infallibility in the Church this must either be in the Pope or in the Council not in the last since the Council cannot and dares not give their Opinion in many and weighty matters therefore in the first whose Church is Mistress and Mother of all Christian Churches in the World and whose sentence an oecumenical Council submits unto as to an Oracle which must fix its uncertainty But the same man should with their good leave to these consequences add a third which is 3. That the faculty of Sorbon is Heretical The Learned Gerson Chancellor of Paris is an Heretic The 400 Bishops at Basil are Heretics Pope Pius the Second an Heretic Martin the Fifth an Heretic And generally all the Learned Men of the Church for these 200 years are Heretics for they all call that Doctrine of Infallibility and Superiority a pernicious Heresie XXIII These two Points Infallibility and Superiority being once stated what reformation could be expected in the Church If the Pope be infallible What an insolent boldness is it to subject him to other rules then his own And if the Church of Rome be Mistress and Mother of all Churches What right have these Churches to give Laws instead of receiving them from her And therefore I cannot sufficiently admire how the author of the Considerations upon the Council of Trent durst assert That the Pope had bin ill us'd at Trent and nothing was said of his Supremacy We leave it to all persons to judg of the truth of this Assertion we can only say That the Authors who had written till then with the greatest ardor to promote the Apostolical Grandeur had never given her the ambitious qualifications of Mother and Mistress nay they were so far from raising the Pope above Councils that they call such a Doctrine a Schism and an Heresie XXIV But as if Infallibility and Superiority were not enough the Council adds a third a Vow of true obedience The word true obedience is no less pleasant then the trae pardon of sins The Court of Rome is so us'd to equivocations and ambiguities that her fears appear in her own Decrees All Christians therefore whether Clergy or Laity are tied up or rather sacrificed to the Pope by a solemn Oath so as let him be as much Arian as Liberius as much a Monothelite as Honorius as unlearned as Celestine the Fourth as Simoniacal as John the Twenty second as unclean as Alexander the Sixth let him be as insolent towards Kings as Hildebrand to Frederic Boniface to Philip August Innocent to John King of England Leo the Tenth to Henry the Eighth Julius the Third to the Queen of Navar yet he cannot be resisted 't is not lawful to disobey the Father and Master of all Churches to believe him in the wrong whose judgment is above all Councils and to oppose him to whom you are sworn upon the four Gospels XXV These reasons occasion'd the doleful complaint of Monsieur d' Espences then present at the Council who saies openly That the Church is in a more desperate condition then before and that by reason of the Italian Bishops whom he calls the Helena which triumph'd at Trent there is no hope to cure her wounds Gentianus Hervaeus Doctor in Sorbon also and present at the Council speaks after the same rate and differs only from the others in that he ascribes all the miscarriages of the Council to Lainez and Salmero both Jesuits Julius Sanelius being return'd from Trent whether he had bin brought by the Cardinal of Lorrain gave an account of that Assembly in these terms That in the Council of the Apostles it had bin said Visum est spiritui sancto nobis it seem'd good to the Holy Ghost and to us but in that of Trent Plus nobis quam Spiritui Sancto more to us then to the Holy Ghost It appears therefore that the pretended Reformation of the Pope and Court of Rome is a meer Chimera nor is it an harder matter to evidence that the Reformation of the Church is a meer disorder It may be said and very truly that the sins which Lay-men lie under have no other source then the bad examples of the Clergy and we may learn both from profane Writings and Divine from Historians as well as Prophets that the good or bad life of Priests hath ever had an unspeakable influence on mankind But 't is another truth no less certain that if the sins of the people come from the Priests those of the Priests spring from the Bishops this being a daily experiment that as the Clergy is holy when it is govern'd by Saints so it becomes abominable to God when the life of its head does not answer the duties and excellency of his dignity The shortest way therefore to reform the Church was seriously to reform the Bishops But instead of reforming the Episcopal Order the Fathers
waters flow to life Eternal The Word of God being the foundation of our happiness and the key of the World to come she permits all People perswades exhorts and commands all ages all conditions and qualities to peruse it St. Chrysostome was of opinion that all Merchants and men of affairs who had not zeal enough to read the Old Testament should at least read the new St. Jerome prescrib'd to many Ladies of quality the manner of teaching it their Daughters St. Austine in his Sermons declares to his People that the multitude of their sins proceeded from their neglect of the Scriptures God having resolv'd in process of time to accomplish the great work of Predestination in his Elect by his word to neglect the reading of it would be to reckon himself excluded of that blessed tribe The Church of England follows that opinion Her Bishops are not contented with instituting it in their Synods and the Preists preaching it in their Churches but the Holy Ghost being of all Nations and languages it has bin their business so justly to translate it as the most ignorant can make use of it and so all the World may equally have this great treasure for it is folly for any one to perswade themselves that it is only open to the learned There needs no science but much humility and Faith towards God for the knowing this truth of Salvation Let a Man have learning without humility the most ignorant person understands better then he do's Men teach the mind and corrupt it but God instructs the heart and it is converted VIII But because it is easy for our reason to be seduc'd and nothing is worse for any Man then to abandon himself to his own sense the Bishops order their Curats to look back on the former ages to get the explication of the Scriptures from the holy Fathers to hearken to the Church in her Councils and never to fall from her interpretations and ordinances The Church of Rome runs into one extremity and some authors to another the former so look on the Fathers as to equal their authority with that of God the others under pretence of hearing God hear no body and treat those holy Saints and August Councils with such contempt as merits a thousand Hells The holy Church of England keeps her self in an exact mean She rejects condemns and trembles at the folly pride and ignorance of those unhappy wretches before whose eies the Devil has cast so great a mist and who think it better blindly to cry Scripture then to hear those who are the most faithful interpreters of it She with great respect and reverence looks upon those former ages where truth was not disguis'd nor charity cool'd but she rises not to such an excess as the Church of Rome and whatsoever grace God has given to his servants she alwaies acknowledges that they are but rivulets which can never be equall'd with the Ocean from whence they proceed IX They therefore are mistaken who confound this holy Church with such unreasonable persons as refuse to be instructed by the examples and writings of so many holy servants of God She receives â—ot tradition in any other sense then is â—ccording to Scripture She will hold â—ll that as holy which can be alledged â—onformable to that excellent rule of St. Vincent of Lerins quod semper quod ubiâ—ue quod ab omnibus servatur She will alâ—aies receive with a profound reverence â—he unanimous consent of the Saints and â—ever appeal from the decrees of the Church assembled in general legitime Councils For tho the Church has no power to ordain any new article of Faith either to add or cast out any part of it nevertheless she has sufficient Authority to declare her opinion in any point of Faith and seeing that she do's it all Christians are bound to submit themselves to her judgment what seeming truth soever there appears on the contrary and it is much more probable for one particular person to be deceiv'd to whom God has promis'd no other assistance but that which is common to all Christians then the Catholic Church to which Christ is present till the end of the World and has promis'd to send his Spirit there where they are gathered together in his name Christ in speaking to inferiours said not he who hears you hears me they therefore have no right to be heard nor consequently to speak He said to his Apostles and Bishops whom he has order'd to govern the Church in their place t is therefore their business to speak and right to be heard and those who teach without or against their order do break the ranks in which God has placed them X. But to attempt the reducing the Catholic Church to one part of Europe and to force the name of Roman upon those who ought not to receive it and to exclude them from Salvation who are both Christians and Catholics without being Romans is the greatest absurdity in the world But to confine that part of Europe to the Pope to make him the center of unity which belongs alone to Christ is the greatest impiety and most insufferable extravagancy that can be imagin'd But that any man should call himself the High Priest the Universal Bishop of the Church that is take those titles w ch his Predecessors look'd on as an execration and which he hath not gotten but by an immensurable ambition is beyond all imagination But that the same person under pretence of a Pasce oves meas which he hath expounded as he pleased contrary to the opinion of the Fathers and Councils should march in the head of all his Brethren and raise Clergy men of the meanest order such as are Cardinals above the holy order of Bishops should excommunicate Kings and depose them give their Kingdoms to a depredation dispence Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance which they have sworn to their Prince and colour all these attemts as done by the autority which Christ hath given him the Church of England will never admit of such Principles as the most forlorn sinners cannot look upon without horror XI If the Pope would do all for the truth and nothing contrary to it if he would limit himself to the word of Christ and the practice which the Church hath prescrib'd him and go no further then St. Leo or St. Gregory she will communicate with him She will rob him neither of the dignity of Bishop nor Patriarch Christ gave him the one and the Church granted him the other She acknowledges that the ancient See of Rome is one of the most considerable in the world that hath bin formerly ennobled with as many Martyrs as Bishops that he hath bin mightily respected in Councils and that the Emperors have dignified him with great privileges But when he pretends to draw thence an occasion of exalting himself above others and that according to the remark of a famous Emperor at the Council of Florence He
from God Justitiam vero quae ex fide Christi est non esse nisi ex Deo A man may be still sinfull and Gods enemy with such a righteousness Ideo cum in illa quae ex lege est justitia sine querela conversaretur Apostolus fuisse se impium non negat Fourthly they taught That sorrow conceiv'd only out of fear of punishment is a sorrow of Infidels and that if God were satisfied with that there is no man in the World that could chuse but be innocent since no man that has but the least Idea of the life to come but is moved with its apprehension Non enim peccare metuit sed ardere This is a principle the Fathers have with unanimous consent maintained This the Popes in former Ages taught Nay those that sit now in the Apostolical See would do so too if with the modesty and humility of their Predecessors they had not also rejected their doctrine XVI The Council seems in its last Session to gather all its strength against those who reject Purgatory and deprive Saints Images and Reliques of their due honor Yet it appears the Fathers of Trent agreed that all those things Purgatory excepted are not founded upon Scripture but only upon the General Councils and Writings of the Fathers This is collected out of the very words of the Decree the Council there speaking of Ecclesiastical antiquity but not a word of the Scripture A Person of extraordinary merit has undertaken to lay open the mysteries of Purgatory and as he leaves nothing unsaid on that subject so none can take it ill if I refer my Reader to him For those other things Invocation of Saints Images and Reliques 't is easy in a few words to shew how infirm their ground is in the ancient Doctrine of the Church All learned men in the Church of Rome admit of the following Propositions First That nothing in the Scripture authorizes these practices or at least nothing sure fixt cleer and undoubted Secondly That all places taken out of Scripture by modern Writers to prove these things have never bin made use of by the Ancients for that purpose and so are of no autority the ancients being most holy and assured Interpreters of the Scriptures Thirdly That till the seventh pretended General Council that is for eight hundred years there was not any decision made of them Fourthly That to this pretended General Council we oppose others acknowledged General by the Collector of the Councils but as all learned men confess endued with these Qualities 1. More exact in the Discussion of matters as it appears by their Acts. 2. Called by an holy Emperor and peculiar Benefactor to the Church of Rome 3. Free from all Suspicions of oppression which the seventh is guilty of 4. That the consent of the Fathers upon that Doctrine is neither clear nor unanimous and that if in any of later date there be some places tending that way there are in the same and many others a thousand contrary places to invalidate them 5. That if we speak according to the Principles of the Church of Rome it self there can no more then a simple probability be pleaded in this case and that none of the greatest neither but to both parties favorable But there is not a Divine in the World who dares affirm that an Article of Faith can be built upon a simple probability nor declare them impious and blasphemous who have a contrary probability nor excommunicate them and separate them from the Church that is inflict upon them the most dreadful punishment How could the Fathers of Trent therefore do this why did they not fear that threatning of the wise Man Sicut avis in incertum volans quolibet vadens sic maledictum frustrà prolatum venit super eum qui misit illud Nor that of Origen when a man is unjustly put out of the Church he ceaseth not to be within when he that thinks himself within may be really out XVII Saints pray in general for all Christians For tho they triumph in Heaven yet they are her members who strives and combats upon Earth They are indeed united to their Head which is Christ but yet they still preserve the remembrance of the Body which is the Church They are a part of that Spouse who as S. Bernard saies sighs after the Bridegroome and begs a kiss from his mouth wisheth for the end of the World that Christ would hasten his Judgment and manifest that day wherein he will begin to be all in all 'T is in that very sense the Apostle saies The whole Creation groans and travails in pain till now even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So S. Cyprian assures us That the Saints being secure of their immortality are careful of our Salvation S. Jerome argues against Vigilantius in this manner If the Apostles and Martyrs being yet in their Bodies can pray for others much more when they have conquered are crowned and triumph And S. Austin yet more perfectly The Saints in Heaven saies he offering their prayers for the necessity of those that pray God grants to every one all those comforts he judges most suitable to them in the miseries of the present life But there is a vast difference between the Invocation whereby we direct our Prayers to the Saints and the intercession of the Saints for us And none of these things are to be found in the Tradition 1. That the Saints pray for any particular person 2. That they obtain any favors for us by their own merits 3. That it is lawful to honor them with a religious worship XVIII And to discover with how little sincerity the Council of Trent speaks of this custom that it has bin preserved à primaevis Christianae Religionis temporibus it is enough to say that their most learned Men confess it was the sentiment of the Primitive Fathers that the Souls of the Saints should not enjoy the sight of God till the day of Judgement and consequently could neither speak in favor of us no offer to him our praiers S. â—ene Justin S. Clement Tertullian Origen Lactantius S. Ambrose S. Chrysostom S. Augustin Eutimius Theodoret Oecumenius Aretas are said to have bin of that opinion Nay S. Bernard preach't it which shews that this Doctrine continued till the twelfth Age of the Church XIX Indeed we cannot too much honor those holy men who preserve with an undaunted resolution the precious Tresures committed to their charge We must admire them in the powerful effects of Christs Grace who in a corruptible flesh and a sinfull World has preserved them pure and undefiled The constancy of Martyrs the austerity of Penitents the inviolated purity of Virgins who despised all other ambition besides that of being near the Lamb deserve all our Praises Nay a true Christian makes his actions
conformable to his Praises imitates what he extolls and considers those excellent Patterns as so many reproches to the disorders and remisness of his life But he is not induced thereby to invocate them to ascribe to them what is due to God alone and offer them Prayers which being commanded neither by the Precepts of Christ nor his Apostles spring rather from a blind Superstition then a well ordered Piety Non Religioni sed Superstitioni deputantur XX. But supposing the Church of Rome had some small ground in Antiquity for the Invocation of Saints she has not the least shadow of reason for the worshipping their Images Nor is it difficult to prove that Images are a remnant of heathenish Ceremonies which a blind zeal for the memory of the Apostles brought into the Church Hence the Fathers of the Primitive times became extremly zealous to interdict not only their worship but their very sight in the Churches So Origen Eusebius Justin Martyr c. inveigh on all occasions against Images The Eliberitan Council where the great Osius was present he whom the Councils stile their Father and Master condemns by an express Canon the placing any sort of Images in Churches S. Epiphanius forbids the having Images in Churches or in the Crypts of the Martyrs And to shew that his practice did not contradict his Precepts he gives an account to John Patriarch of Jerusalem how having found at the entrance of the Church at Anablatta an Image of our Savior painted upon a Curtain he tore it and wished the Priests to make use of it for the burial of some poor person XXI But it is clearer then the light that by the word Adoration the holy Fathers meant all manner of Worship Those famous men had a Divinity of sense not of terms they were not acquainted with those Distinctions which became the whole business of Scholastics in succeeding Ages They no less included external worship then internal and thought not the one less dangerous then the other S. Augustin was not perswaded that a man could so purify his intentions in adoring an Image but that the Wood and Stone must needs bear some part in it Who is the man saies that holy Doctor who looking upon an Image either worships or praiseth qui non sic officitur ut ab eo se exaudiri putet hoc enim facit quodammodo extorquet figura membrorum I know saies the same Saint in his admirable Book De Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae That there are many worshippers of the Sepulchres and Pictures of Martyrs Multos Sepulchrorum Picturarum adoratores But I advise you not to take occasion thence of slandering the Catholic Church in aggravating the faults of those People whom she her self condemns quos ipsa condemnat corrigere studet This excellent place shews that there are many disorders in the Church the Church is not at all guilty of and that those are in the wrong who charge a whole Society with the faults of some of its particular members So that when we speak against worshipping of Images we exclaim not against that shameful traffick exercised in the Churches of the Mendicants neither against those Chappels set round with pieces of wax and silver nor against those false Miracles which are only so many baits whereby covetous Monks delude the ignorant and simple and enrich themselves All these things Ecclesia Romana condemnat corigere studet It is well known the pious men of these Monasteries are troubled at such abuses and Bishops wish they were able to apply a remedy to them But we combat the Decrees and Canons of the Roman Church things to which the contrary sentiments are by her stiled Impiety We give them no other sense then she her self would put upon them and we maintain in their most favorable interpretation that she has made Laws of some points quas ipsa Ecclesia Catholica condemnat corrigere studet XXII There is not a learned person in the Church of Rome who doth not consent that to paint God Almighty has bin accounted a crime for twelve hundred years 'T is not lawfull for a Christian saies S. Austin to put in any Church the Image of God in a humane shape Nevertheless the Council of Trent makes it a Virtue to admit of them There is not a Church in which you may not see the unworthy Pictures of an immense and incomprehensible God whose most perfect delineation consists in the impossibility both Men and Angels lie under of conceiving any The Popes Chappell is filled with them and his holiness is pleased to forget that one of the cheif Patrons of Images calls it a folly and an extreme Impiety XXIII Neither is there any understanding person who doth not acknowledge that â—he most obstinate Defenders of Images never went so far as to maintain that â—his soveraign Worship should be renâ—red to them which is due to God alone â—Tis by this only reason they pretend to free themselves of that Idolatry which was laid to their charge So that it is a meer evasion of those who answer to all the authorities of the fifth sixth and seventh Ages against Images that they were levelled only against Divine and supreme worship being a ridiculous dealing no way chargeable upon grave Men. But the Church of Rome to perswade the receiving of these things calls them with an incredible insincerity Ancient practices strives to amuze people by swelling and high flown words and because he miserably abandons himself to his own reason and sinks under the most horrid Impiety who respects not true Councils and Fathers that of Trent speaks of nothing but Apostolical Traditions Consent of Fathers and authority of Councils XXIV All these magnificent promises are reduced to a miserable Conventicle held in the eighth Age to which no Western Bishops nor any of the two parts of the East not one of the three Patriarchs of Jerusalem Antioch and Alexandria came which Pope Nicholas I. and Adrian II. durst never call General A Council called by a cruel and disordered Prince wherein Irene his mother sate President so ambitious and unnatural a woman that she commanded the eies of her own Son to be plucked out A Council at which the most considerable person present was Thalossius Patriarch of Constantinople a man who as Pope Adrian describes him from a Lay-man became Bishop from an illiterate Courtier Patriarch of Constantinople whom the same Pope saies he abhorred as a Monster ut monstrum exhorruit made Bishop against all Ordinances and Canons A Council that founded its Decrees upon Visions and meer Fables such as one of the meanest spirit must needs be offended at The Image of our Saviour given to King Abgarus the Leprosy Baptism and miraculous recovery of Constantine are things of that nature as the learned in the Church of Rome do now account supposititious not to alledge many others which deserve that the
Council of Francfort should object That those Nicene Fathers not being able to prove their Decrees either by the autority of the Scripture or the testimonies and examples of the Saints had recurred to fancies and Dreams A Council which the Assembly at Francfort of 300. Bishops headed by Charles the Great declared to be so annulled and abrogated that it ought not to be put in the order of Councils unless of such as Ariminum Lastly a Council which the learned Defenders of Images were so loath to defend that it had continued buried in a deep oblivion had not the Jesuit Mainbourg three years since raised it from its Grave but alas in what a manner First he affected and this is his confession and glory to write in a Romantick stile upon one of the gravest Controversies in Religion as if matters of Divinity and the Oracles of the living God were of the same metal as those abominable Books Secondly in writing against Iconoclasts he never directed his arrows against them but designed to fix them in the hearts of the Jansenists Preposterous and irrational fancy being put to it how to recover the lost honor of his Society so trampled on in the sight of all Christendom he resolved to attack once more his Conquerors not out of any hopes of Victory but out of impatience the natural product of Pride He durst not therefore come into the open Field and renew that Quarrel his Society had so shamefully begun and so unhappily prosecuted but betook himself to by waies and thought it more secure and glorious to represent the Jansenists under the notion of Iconoclasts and the imputed rebellion of the one against the Apostolical See under the history of the other Thirdly He so ill contrived his design that he lost the Character of both and only betrayed himself to be of a spirit bold and temerarious who with more then a Jesuitical impudence delivers lies as confidently as others do truth His History of the Arians and this of the Iconoclasts both daughters of the same brain both written with the same design had also the same fate Neither was answered those whom they were chiefly levelled against being there so unskilfully delineated as not to know themselves nor indeed would they ever have done so had not that Author doating upon his so well resembling Babe and the Jesuits who like the Spaniards triumph as well when beaten as when Conquerors spread it through the World But I have spent too many words upon so inconsiderable a Writer XXV To return then to our purpose who of any sense or reason hearing the Fathers of Trent say that they permit the worship of Images juxta Catholicae Ecclesiae usum à primaevis Christianae Religionis temporibus receptum Sanctorumque Patrâ—m consensionem Sacrorum Conciliorum Decreta and then seeking all these great things finds 1. That for 800. years the Catholick and Apostolick Church has determined nothing of it 2. That all the Fathers are contrary to it 3. That those sacred Councils so magnificently alledged are nothing but a miserable Conventicle at the end of the eighth Age. 4. That England Germany the Low-Countries Sweden Denmark part of France and Poland declare against it What man of any sense I say considering all this will not conclude 1. That we ought to distrust all the Decrees of Trent and some being evidently false give little credit to the most true 2. That the Fathers of Trent had not the Charity of the Apostles whose Successors they were since they excluded from their Communion so many considerable Churches for a point which themselves acknowledg not to be grounded on Scripture Not necessary to Salvation Not related to Faith Manners Sacraments and Discipline And Protestants not requiring Images to be pulled down as did S. Epiphanius and S. Serenus but only their use to be ordered as it was in S. Austin and S. Gregory's time 3. That the Church of Rome being immoveable upon the Controverted points she must give us leave to address to her Council the same words the Fathers of Francfort did to the Nicene Out of what fury or rather madness doth unius partis Ecclesia attempt to establish that which has never bin establisht by the Apostles or their immediate Successors and oblige them either to undergo the Anathema so vainly pronounced against them or disobey the Apostolical Constitutions Were they not promted by her who is called in Scripture the ancient poison the guide of Death the root of all evil they would never strive to fix the name of General Council to their Assembly had without the consent of many Catholick Churches They would never take upon them to anathematize with such boldness so many and so considerable Churches which are no less then they the Body of Christ REFLEXIONS On the Council of TRENT Discourse III. That the Council of Trent was so far from reforming the disorders which had crept into the Church that it really made the breaches in its discipline wider and cut off all hopes of correcting the antient abuses I. WHatever Ecclesiastical disorders are recorded in the Writings of the Antients they seem in no respect equal to those which infested the Church about the time of the Council of Trent In the first Ages indeed the zeal and severity of Christians rendred every fault conspicuous but in the last the most pious could hardly suffice to express her real and constant evils This produc'd the desires of a general Reformation especially that he who pretends to be upon Earth the supreme Judg of all men would judg himself take some pity of his own Soul and since the distempers of the Church ow'd their original to the Apostolical See begin at that part from whence the cure of all the rest was hoped for II. Whereas then the Worlds recovery depended on that of the Popes they ought willingly to have embraced the occasion of doing so great a good Nor could less be hoped then that considering the promotion of Piety as their proper Interest they would sacrifice all others to it and the Council of Trent which lasted eighteen years rais'd the expectations of all good Christians that the tears of so many Nations would not be shed in vain But by the dreadful judgment of God it miserably baffled the Churches cries and instead of closing her wounds opened and created new ones For to evince the truth of which so great reproach we need only consider two particulars 1. The distempers of the Church 2. The remedies applied to them And from the consideration of these there will none I hope but confess that the Fathers of this Council acted the part of an unfaithful Chirurgion who to cure a less noble part inflicts a deadly wound to the heart of his Patient III. We intend not here to treat of any personal defects which shew'd themselves in the Popes private life but shall confine them only to those which were public when they dealt
of Trent gave it two mortal wounds 1. To declare Bishops in many cases the Popes Delegates 2. To leave the question of their residence and jurisdiction undecided 1. The first of these two things brings Episcopacy unto a strange abatement renders the Pope master of all Bishops Jurisdictions breaks all ancient Canons runs down the interests of all Princes encroaches upon the Rights and Liberties of Churches gives the Bishops a quality unworthy the successors of the Apostles and forces them to receive that as a borrowed and begg'd privilege which belongs naturally to them The second causes Episcopacy to be look'd upon as a meer humane emploiment or Civil Magistracy Such a Bishop could never have the confidence to say with the Apostle 2 Cor. 13. 3. Do you seek a proof of Christs speaking in me Nay he would no more value his sacred character then one of the Kings officers do his and regard the duties of his Divine calling rather as rules instituted for decency then as unchangeable obligations so strictly requir'd from him that without them he has no hope of salvation XXVI Jurisdiction is no less essential to Episcopacy then the power of ordaining Ministers a proposition we could easily demonstrate to be unanswerable would it not render this Discourse too big and had it not bin already done by a learned hand against the infamous Doctrine of â—oth English and French Jesuits For Jesuits are every where the same Ordination and Jurisdiction are so twisted together that they cannot be divided without their â—â—utual destruction Bishops receive both from the same hand and are no less instituted by Christ in the Church to govern 〈◊〉 then to continue the succession of the Governors XXVII Nay may it not be affirm'd that Jurisdiction is both as essential to Episcopacy 〈◊〉 necessary to the Church as Ordination â—or the Church being as St. Paul saies a 〈◊〉 i. e. a society consisting of Rulers and others submitted to them without Jurisdiction it can no more be such a society then without Ordination those rulers can be continued Therefore as noâ— Bishop ordains in the Catholic Church aâ— the Popes or any other Patriarchs delegate but by the fulness of power he receives from Christ so no Bishop exerciseâ— any act of Jurisdiction by any delegation but by that power he is invested with aâ— Bishop successor of the Apostles and Vicar of Christ A Bishop that acts or believes otherwise betraies that dignity intrusted to hiâ— by Christ which he ought to maintain 〈◊〉 the last drop of his blood XXVIII Nor pretend we thereby to say thâ— such a Jurisdiction may be exercis'd in â—â—very place and over all persons the patition of Dioceses shews the extraordâ—â—nary wisdom of Councils and Princeâ— Nor may any one transgress the limiâ— they have put among Bishops without dâ—â—claring himself an enemy to all disciplinâ— Now all the following Propositions aâ— certainly true at least to all admirers 〈◊〉 former times whom I take to be in Eâ—England in a greater number then elsewhere 1. That no man or no part of a Diocess can be substracted from a Bishops Jurisdiction but by the autority of a Prince or Council 2. That no man can be substracted from the Jurisdiction of his Bishop without being put at the same time under another 3. That however a Bishop deals with any man either substracted from his Jurisdiction or added to it 't is alwaies of himself and by the power he receiv'd from Christ 4. That the exemtions of Friars and Monks are a Schism rais'd by the Popes 5. That the name of the Popes Delegates in its most favorable sense given to the Bishops in things which belong to them is plenojure and by all Laws a most shameful injury to the Episcopal order 6. That nemo est qui non perhorrescat to use the words of a Learned Doctor of Sorbon at the speech of the Jesuit Lainez in the Council of Trent That all the power of Jurisdiction hath bin by Christ conferr'd on the Bishop of Rome so that the Jurisdiction of Bishops is not fundamental but deriv'd XXIX Now concerning the divine right of Episcopacy the Fathers of Trent committed two great faults the one to bring it into question and the other to leave it undecided As for the first it had bin receiv'd in the Church for fourteen ages taught by the Fathers embraced by their Disciples and only impugn'd by the Italian Canonists For the second such an indecision is a ground for any man in the Church of Rome to deny doubt of and contradict the institution of Bishops these three things being the nature of all undecided points So a man may maintain there is no government at all in the Church and consequently no Church since it does not appear that Christ hath instituted any other then Episcopacy and certainly to find any other the Scripture must be strain'd in many places the constant universal and never oppos'd practice of fourteen hundred years be impudently contradicted XXX But what is most pleasant in this Indecision is that the Pope has verifi'd the word of the Prophet Psal 35. 8. Let the net that he hath hid catch himself for all these following consequences flow from it 1. That the Holy Father is no Pope by divine right Jure divino for the Popedom being nothing else but an extension of Episcopacy he is no Pope but because he is Bishop No Divine durst yet advance any other opinion But the Episcopacy of the Holy Father is not different from that of other Bishops being in all respects of the same kind Episcopatus unus est And the Italians who are so abundant in novelties when they undertake to raise up the credit of their Master have bin dumb in this matter Therefore if the Popes Episcopacy is not Jure divino his Papacy is not so neither since one is engrafted upon the other and if the Holy Father is not Pope Jure divino what ground can be laid for the ambition and usurpation of the Apostolical See What shall we do with the fine and rare Doctrine of Infallibility 2. The Council has impos'd the belief of its new Decree upon all Christians under pain of eternal damnation but if they are only Ministers from the Church and not from Christ with what eies shall we consider so stupendious a boldness Who hath impowr'd a company of men to make Decrees of divine Faith And how without being authoriz'd by God did they exact an obedience only due to Ministers sent from Heaven 3. 'T is a crime in a Roman Catholic to believe the Council of Trent did not lawfully what it did otherwise such a meeting is a dream and a chimera But who is that Roman Catholic of any sense who can be perswaded of it seeing 't is allow'd in the Church of Rome to deny any of those Bishops had the least autority from God to do what they did XXXI And indeed who will not wonder the Fathers of