Scripture they could then face them down with those things which now they do not love to hear of namely with forg'd decretal Epistles or Councils or Fathers or with pretended Revelations and Visions or with counterfeit Miracles For all which they had those at their beck who though ignorant enough otherwise had more learning and skill to forge such things than others had at that time to disprove them Thus in a blind Age nay many Ages together when this part of the World was conducted and governed in spiritual things by one-eyed men for the Popes themselves were no better it is no wonder that the generality of the people ran into so many Errours as they did to the great hurt and scandal of the Christian Religion And though 't is charitable to believe that at first there was no design to have those Errours obtruded on the Faith of Posterity yet appearing to be such as might be of great use for the wealth and greatness of the Clergy who were strongly attach'd to the Roman See nay some of them to the Advancement of the Papacy it self the Pope had great cause to look kindly upon them and to wish they were no Errours but Catholick Doctrines and if he pleased to have them such who durst say they were otherwise When they had once receiv'd that publick countenance from him he had much greater cause to continue it and by all possible ways to keep them in possession of that esteem which those dark times had given them And that not only for affection as before on the account of their usefulness to himself and his Clergy but for fear that if these Errours were detected and brought in disgrace it might reflect on the Infallibility of the Roman See and might give men occasion to look farther and to examine the whole Fabrick of Popery which being search'd to the bottom it could not but appear that the Fundamental Errour was that which gave the Pope such a Power and Authority over the whole Christian Church This was truly the cause why such care was continually taken in all the latter general Councils for so the Pope was pleas'd to call those Conventions of his Vassels in which nothing pass'd but what he pleas'd to establish those popular Errours as they grew up and to put them out of question by their Canons and Decrees Whereas the great capital Errour was never defin'd but supposed and pass'd as all Fundamentals do by such a general consent as is stronger than all positive Laws whatsoever It pass'd thus for many Ages till upon occasion of that long Schism when for about fifty years the Western Church carried double a Pope and an Antipope that rid Cursing and Damning one another the Council of Constance being met to judge which was which deposed both and began to set bounds to the Papacy It was follow'd by the Council of Basil which presuming to do the same and being likely enough to have gone farther the Pope that then was call'd an opposite Council and therein settled his Authority by a Law It was the Council of Florence which though not acknowledg'd by many Roman Catholicks abroad and particularly not by the generality of them in France Yet since I write this to English men I shall shew what they of our Nation thought of it at the last Revolution to Popery from whence we may take some kind of measure and guess what many would be at again It was declar'd by the Cardinal Legate with consent of his Synod at London that the cause of all the evils in this Church sprang from hence that departing from the Vnity and Doctrine of the Catholick Church we had relinquished the Authority and Obedience of the Pope of Rome Christ's Vicar and the Successor of Peter The denial of this Authority was declar'd to be the chief Errour of Protestants To correct which they thought fit to set forth the true Doctrine as it was delivered in the Eighth General Council at Florence held under Pope Engenius IV. of happy memory in these words We declare That the holy Apostolical See and Pope of Rome holds the Primacy over all the World and that the Pope of Rome is the Successor of St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles and is the true Vicar of Christ and Head of the whole Church and Father and Teacher of all Christians and that to him in St. Peter our Lord Iesus Christ gave full power to feed rule and govern the Vniversal Church Since the Council of Florence there have been only two pretended General Councils namely the fifth Lateran and the Council of Trent both which were acknowledged by that Synod of London above mentioned The fifth Lateran Council was call'd by the Pope for no other end but that he might be able to write their Approbation in the stile of those Bulls which he should publish for the greatness of the Papacy In the first of those Bulls he damn'd the Pisan Council which the French King had assembled against him In the second he laid an Interdict on the whole Kingdom of France and ordered the Fair of Lions to be removed from thence to Geneva In a third he annulled the famous pragmatick Sanction the Palladium of the French Church And so went on till having brought the French King to his terms his next Bull was to set himself above all General Councils and to declare That all Christians sub necessitate salutis under pain of Damnation must be subject to the Pope of Rome according to that Luciferian Constitution of Boniface VIII which he mentions and approves and confirms All this he does with consent of that Council The Council of Trent which came last and pinn'd the Basket not only took care to leave the Pope in full possession of this usurp'd Power by declaring that no act of theirs should infringe it and by making him Judge and Interpreter of all their Decrees but also confirmed it to him as much as in them lay For they ordained That in every Church of the Roman Communion at the first Provincial Synod after that Council every Member thereof should promise and profess true Obedience to the Pope and that all that were preferr'd for the future whether to Bishoprick Dignity or Cure of Souls should promise and swear the like Obedience in such form as the Pope should prescribe Whereupon Pope Pius IV. made that form of Profession of Faith that is every where taken at this day whereof one Clause is I promise and swear true Obedience to the Pope of Rome Successor to St. Peter Prince of the Apostles and Vicar of Iesus Christ. Beside these publick Acts which have a general influence on all parts and Members of the Roman Communion there is a special tye on the governing part of it if not by their interest by another Oath which is taken by all Archbishops Bishops Abbots at their Consecration The form of it is prescrib'd in the
about him so madly with the Keys of the Church It was so in Luther's Case The quarrel begun between him and the Procurers of the Pope's Bulls It proceeded from them to their Patrons in the Court of Rome And so at last it came up to the Papal Authority it self Who knows but that it may please God for Vexatio dat intellectum that many among us being vext with Declarations that are certainly uncanonical may be brought by that means to discover that the Power which sent them forth is Antichristian The most difficult thing that is required toward the making this discovery is only to lay aside those strong prejudices which men commonly receive from their Education and from converse with men and things of that Age in which they live He that laying aside these shall look impartially into the Scriptures and into the undoubted Records of the Primitive Church shall find no Foundation for that prodigious Fabrick of the Papacy For the first three hundred years after Christ they will find only two namely Victor and Stephen that took upon them to censure any which were not of their Diocess And though their Censures for ought that appears were only Declarations of Non-Communion such as any Bishop in those days might send forth against the Bishop of Rome as well as he against other Bishops yet we find that even for that they were blamed and condemned by other Bishops And that is all the effect that we read their Censures had in any place out of Rome it self Pope Victor in his Censure of the Asian Bishops is thought not to have gone beyond threatning to break Communion with them and endeavouring to persuade other Bishops to do the same And yet for this he was smartly handled by some of the Brethren and it is charitably thought he was set right by the grave Counsel of Irenaeus who writ to him in the name of the Gallican Church and told him he did not learn this of any of his Predecessors Of Pope Stephen it is certain that he went farther in his Quarrel with the Asian and African Bishops For he not only broke off Communion but all civil Conversation with them and commanded his people not to let any of them come within their doors But this was only at Rome For it does not appear that he pretended any Authority elsewhere And how he was scorn'd abroad for his Pride and Folly in this the Reader may see in those two excellent Epistles The later of which was left out of the Roman Edition of St. Cyprian and Pamelius honestly declares he would have stifled it if others had not publish'd it before him Lest any one should take offence at my not giving the usual garnish of the Popes of that Age to those two whom I mentioned for I dare not call them Saints and Martyrs though the Roman Church does both elsewhere and in her Offices on their days I ought to let him know how that Church is abused by them that have gained no small advantage to themselves by such Fictions That the old Roman Church in the time of Constantius knew nothing of either of their Martyrdoms it appears by her Catalogue of Popes publisht first by Cuspinian and since by Bucherius the Jesuite Nay she knew the contrary of one of them For in the Roman Calendar of that Age publisht by the same Iesuite Victor is not mentioned at all and Stephen is among the Popes that were no Martyrs If this proof were not enough or if this place were proper for it I should shew from good Authors that though these Popes lived under Emperors that were afterwards Persecutors yet they died before the beginning of their persecutions I do not say but they may be Saints but if they are 't is more than we have any ground to believe For neither the Church-History nor any Writer within a hundred years of their time has any more of their Sanctity than of their Sufferings Of Stephen there is great cause to doubt the contrary from what we read of him in St. Cyprian's Epistle and more from that of Firmilian which is thought to have been translated by St. Cyprian and which was written about the time of Stephens death rather after than before it It is to be hoped that many Roman Catholics among us have truly that Reverence which all of them profess to true Primitive Christian Antiquity and to the judgment of Saints and Martyrs in all Ages We all agree that Irenaeus and Cyprian had a just right to those Titles And Firmilian was a chief Pillar of the Church in his Age. He was thought worthy to preside in several Eastern Councils namely in that against the Novatians before Stephen was Pope and those against Samosatenus after Stephen was dead And after his own death the Eastern Church of that Age called him Firmilian of Blessed Memory Why this man is not in the Calendar of Saints they best know who can tell us why Victor and Stephen are there No doubt the Saint-makers do all things with great consideration But can any one imagin that those excellent men did ever believe themselves to be under the Roman Bishop that they ow'd any obedience to Him whom they school'd so or any Reverence to his Censures which they slighted in that manner Could any assurance of their Cause have justified that contempt of Authority if they had known any in him But it appears they knew it not nor did others in that Age. Those that were against them in the Cause blamed them for that and nothing else and yet held Communion with them for all Pope Stephen and his Censures So far it appears those great men had the judgment of the Church on their side They knew of no Authority over the Universal Church that the Pope had more than any other Bishop by any right whether Divine or Humane What the Judgment of the Church was in the next Centuries let them consider that shall read those Canons in the Margent and remember they are such as past in the first Four General Councils and in the African Council of 217 Bishops of whom St. Austin was one assembled at Carthage To which I add the African Church to Pope Coelestine I. as containing a full Declaration of their mind in that Canon I know there are objections against one or two of these Canons But all the dust that has been rais'd will not hinder any reasonable man from seeing that which I think is sufficient for our purpose namely that all the Fathers that sate in those Councils or at least the major part of them were of the same judgment with those above-mentioned in this point of the Authority of the Bishop of Rome They all allow'd him precedency as being Bishop of the Imperial City They had commonly a great deference to his Judgment in Debates between themselves And sometimes the Christian Emperors made him honorary Judge whether
present occasion to show which I think I have sufficiently done that he had cause to Appeal from the Pope to a Council that he did Appeal in due form of Law and prosecuted it with great Moderation which was enough to acquit him from Schism as far as we are concerned in it That on the other hand the Pope rejected his Appeal to the affront of that Supreme Tribunal among Christians and not only proceeded against the Appellant in which case the Appellant might and ought to resist him but he also took a course that the case should never be otherwise For whereas the Pope assumes to himself the only power to call Councils and whereas there had been none in Ten years to say no more and therefore a Council ought to have been then according to the Canons yet the Pope would have no Council then nor afterwards till he had tried all other ways to destroy both the King and his Kingdom When at last after many years talk and deliberation a Council was called that at Trent which pretends to be a General Council it was such as the King could not think himself bound to acknowledge nay he was bound to oppose it as well for his own preservation as to maintain the Common Right of Christians according to the Principles then received in the Western Church By his Appeal he was not bound to submit to any other than he expressed in it that is a Lawful General Council Such the Councils of Constance and Basil were then generally acknowledged to have been And it was the cry of the Western Church as well in this as the foregoing Ages for such a Council as those were to reform abuses as well in the Head as in the Members But the Head was as it would be and therefore being to chuse would take no Physick to cure it self This was visible in the Popes extreme averseness to a Council till he saw that without it the Nations were likely to Reform themselves Then he began to think it needful to call one himself But at first he named no time or place Then he named first one Town and then another When men began to think he was in earnest for they had been often fooled with reports the King declared he would not own a Council called by the Popes single Authority It was the Judgment of the Church of England that he ought not to own it for so their Synod declared that neither the Bishop of Rome nor any one Prince whatsoever may by his own Authority call a General Council without the express consent of the residue of Christian Princes When afterwards it appeared that the Pope was intent upon it the King on the same grounds made his publick Protestation shewing that the Indiction of a Council belonged not to the Bishop of Rome but to the Emperour and Princes which should send or come thither The like Protestation he sent abroad into all forein Countries And he afterward made it good by not sending one Bishop to the Council when it met though one of his Subjects was there whom the Pope was pleased to make a Bishop with a Title in this Kingdom Having thus no obligation to own this for a General Council he was therefore obliged to oppose it as being the Mockery and Abuse of that Supreme Judicatory joyned with the defrauding all Christians of their right in it and particularly himself of the benefit of his Appeal to it Which things he ought to have considered had it been held in the most innocent manner But much more being held as it was with most apparent design to establish those abuses which all Christendome cried out to have reformed to deprive the diffusive Church of that which was the only remedy for them to bring it to pass that there should be no more General Council as now we see there is like to be none while the world stands particularly as to himself he had cause to oppose the Trent Council as far as he was able For it was originally designed to please the Emperour and thereby to oblige him to head the Party of Christian Princes whom the Pope was then uniting to make War against England And as that Council was framed in all its circumstances the King could consider it no otherwise than he did the Pope himself who was his open and implacable Enemy For as the Pope called it by his single Authority so he always presided in it by his Legates He had it filled with his Creatures Italians and others who were sure to carry every thing by their Number And yet for fear they should forget themselves every thing must be examined at Rome before it could pass through their hands And being past yet it was of no force till it had the Pope's Approbation By which means he made himself so far Lord of this Council that though perhaps he could not pass whatsoever he pleased yet nothing could pass that should displease him in it And least by taking all this care the Pope might seem to intend no more but only to secure himself without doing the King a farther injury there was one thing which made it appear that he had as great a mind to plague the King as to provide for his own preservation For among all his number of Cardinals he could find none fitter to preside in the Council and there to judge the King's cause if he were so unwise as to send it thither than one that was the King's Enemy more than the Pope himself if it were possible That was Cardinal Pool the King 's unnatural Subject and Kinsman who being brought up by him and sent to travel for his farther improvement and while he was abroad being intrusted by him in his cause forsook it and joined himself to the Imperial party In which though he might pretend that he followed his Conscience yet nothing could excuse him for practising against his King and his Country He was the man employed to write against the King's Divorce and out-did other Writers in this that he stirred up the Emperour to revenge his Aunts injury for fear he should forget it and not only so but went about from Prince to Prince and from Country to Country to stir them up to War against this Realm For which so unworthy and so officious a disloyalty he was declared Traitor at home by Act of Parliament and had a price set upon his Head not to mention other instances of the King 's extreme displeasure against him When this had so far endeared him to the Pope that being not content to have made him one of his Cardinals he must also have this man to preside in his Council the English had so much the more cause to be jealous and to stand upon their guard as well against his Council as himself A General Council they could not hold it to be for their Church was not allowed to
Souls Some even of themselves have written of late that no punishment should be inflicted on men for opinions that are not dangerous to the State They who are of this mind have no reason to take offence at this Book because the favour desired in it is for Persons as Innocent in that Respect as themselves And for them that think Errors are punishable by the State on Account of the hurt that they do to mens Souls they will not find so great occasion of Offence as they may possibly expect For the Author does not plead for any other Exemption of Roman-Catholick than such as will leave them still liable to as much severity as themselves if they are obnoxious to the Laws can think fit to be inflicted on men barely for Differences in Opinion Here is nothing proposed for their Exemption from any Incapacitating Laws or from the Penalties against saying Mass publickly or against their endeavouring to make Proselytes which last thing is Death to Roman-Catholicks and not at all penal to any other These things being considered together their Condition will not be to be envied by any other Dissenters if they should have all the favour that is propounded for them in this Book But the Common Protestant Religion will be better secured by it which ought to satisfie any one that pretends to that Name For that Part which concerns the Controversies it is suggested by another which otherwise the Author could scarce have expected that some may think him too favourable to the Romish Opinions or too much unconcerned for the Defence of other Protestant Churches He does not see how any one that minds what he reads can suspect him of favour to the Principles of the Roman Communion having given sufficient reason why he cannot embrace them without losing his hopes of Salvation In the managing of the Controversie if he seem not to write in the Defence of any other Reformed Church his Answer is that he does not write to the Adversaries of the Reformed Religion in any other than in his Majesties Dominions And if his Defence of our Church be sufficient it will overthrow that Infallibility of the Roman Church by which she pretends a Iurisdiction over all others and by which alone all her particular Impositions are Iustifiable Which will afford an easie Apology to other Churches who do not think themselves oblig'd to submit to those Impositions THE CONTENTS THat there are many false Notions of Popery Page 1. Wherein the true Notion of it consists 2. Viz. Chiefly in owning the Popes pretended Authority and consequently in submitting to his Terms of Communion 3. This proved I. In that all the other points of Popery were establisht by this pretended Authority 5. II. The owning of it is that on which the Papists chiefly insist 7. III. It is the most hurtful to Church and State 13. And therefore worst in Construction of our Laws 18. That there is therefore a real difference between Papists 24. For that they are not properly called so that deny the Popes Supremacy 25. And they that own it in spirituals only are less perfectly Papists than they that own it both in Spirituals and Temporals 26. That accordingly to distinguish between them by Laws is the only true way for the suppressing of Popery 27. That undistinguishing Severity is not the way For I. It is a way that being taken would not be effectual 28. II. It would not seem Iust and Equal 33. III. It would be against the Interest of England 42. And would promote the Roman Interest Pgae 49. A Toleration of all Sects among us would be most pleasing to them at Rome 52. But next to it an undistinguishing Severity against all Roman Catholics 57. That to distinguish between such of them as will give Security to the State and such as will not I. Would be an effectual way to suppress Popery 61. II. That it would be Iust and Equal 71. III. That it would be for the Interest of England 76. It would cause many to fall under the Pope's Censures 78. And thereby give them occasion to consider How groundless the Pope's pretence is to an Authority over us 81. How justly it was thrown out of England by K. Henry VIII 90. And afterward by Q. Elizabeth 108. The Iustifiableness of the Reformation 111. If it should fail of this Effect yet it would make them sure to our Civil Interests 133. Objections against this way of Discrimination as not being Practicable 135. I. The Roman Church and Court are all one in their Principles being obliged to own the Popes Authority 137. 1. in Spiritual things 138. 2. and also in Temporals 144. Answer to this Objection 150. II. They have ways to elude all the Assurance they can give us 152. Answer to this Objection 154. III. We can have no Assurance of their Constancy 158 Answer to this 158 Conclusion 160. The Reader is desired to take notice that the Quotations out of L. Herbert's History of K. Henry VIII were taken at distant times out of two Books of different Editionâ— and not Paged alike and that this was not observed till those sheets in which the Quotations are had past the Press The ERRATA of any Moment are to be Corrected as follows PAg. 2. lin 13. anciently famous p. 14 l. 25. of this p. 17. l. 31. And yet that p. 29. l. 14 15. no Parenthesis p. 46. l. 33. in the margin Ib. ann 1602. p. 276. p. 47. l. 1. in the margin put out the same words ibid. l. 24. dependance on the. p. 53. l. 33. undistinguishing execution of Laws p. 58. l. 33. convince such a one that all his p. 64. l. 9. in their streets p. 67. l. 27. pretence to the. p. 81. l. 6. Christ he p. 84. l. 14. Churches Epistle to p. 85. margin last line Anno 445. p. 91. l. 8. in margin Schism p. 103. b. Edit 1585. p. 92. l. 19. he would never l. 15. in marg L. Herb. Anno 1529. p. 271. l. 26. in marg the First l. 29. Pallavic Hist. Conc. Trent II. 15.5 p. 94. marg l. 4. Camd. Ib. p. 1. 2. p. 94. l. 20. delays and either p. 100. l. 2. Three p. 101. l. 28. 29. to use his own words p. 102. l. 12. large an account p. 104. l. 29. Particularly should begin a Paragraph p. 107. l. 30. had his Traitorous p. 113. l. 26. in marg Camd. Eliz. p. 13. l. 29. in marg she put out p. 115. l. 30. pass without any Considerations About the true way of Suppressing POPERY IN THIS KINGDOM AMong the ignorant Vulgar there are many false and wild Notions of Popery some of which being admitted to be true would render the Church of England and all other Reformed Churches Popish Other Notions of it would in like manner stigmatize all those Famous Churches in the more remote parts of the World which have not been in Communion with the Pope these eight hundred years And others in the last place
would no less deeply brand those who are most given to asperse others even the wildest of Phanaticks and Enthusiasts themselves as being Popishly principled If it be as sure it is very absurd to charge Popery on those eminent Eastern and Western Churches which ever since the Separation of the one and the Reformation of the other have purged forth and kept themselves free from all that which is properly Popish and have therefore been anathematized by the Pope himself and excluded from the Communion of all those Christians which hold him for their Ecclesiastical Head It must also be no less absurd to charge with Popery those Tenets of Belief and Rites of Worship however false and unnecessary in themselves wherein the Roman Catholick Churches differ from the English Protestant and other Churches of the Reformation but agree with those anciently famous Patriarchical Churches and almost with all other in the remote parts of the World Having thus how briefly soever said what may be sufficient to exclude the many both incongruous and injurious Notions of Popery which also would be insignificant if they were admitted I shall in the next place endeavour to set forth the only true proper and significant notion of it And yet if I be not much deceived 't will be no hard matter to fix upon and shew wherein this only right Notion of Popery does consist The very derivation of the word and obvious reason of the thing necessarily imported thereby may assure us it cannot in a few significant words be describ'd to be either less or more or any way other than An undue adhaesion to the Bishop of Rome in Principles or Practices falsly pretended to be Christian. I say To the Bishop of Rome because he it is that hath for many Ages past appropriated to himself the name of Pope which was formerly common to all Bishops as every one knows that has been conversant in the Writings of the Fathers I say also An undue adhaesion in Principles c. for it 's supposed to be an ill thing that is to be supprest Now it is not ill to confess the Apostles Creed or to do any good thing that he does but to follow him or to joyn with him in any thing that is evil that is chiefly to assert an undue Power or Authority in the Pope such as that which he assumes to himself over the whole Christian Church and consequently to embrace and to practice those Errours and Corruptions whatsoever they are that by virtue of that usurpt Power and Authority he imposes on all those that are or shall be in Communion with him and excommunicates all that will not come to those terms not so much for their Aversness to those Doctrines and Practices as because they will not submit to his Power and Authority Though I must withal observe here as consequential to my former Observation of so many false Notions of Popery that laying aside its Capital Errour viz. That which directly asserts the pretended universal Power of the Pope it is no necessary evil of any inferiour subservient Errours or Practices at least of any of those which are not peculiar to the Roman Church how false or vain soever they be in themselves but the unnecessary embracing them out of pure submission to the usurpt Authority of the Roman Bishop now stiled Pope and the only Pope of the World is it that in any right sense of the word renders them truly Popish And this I must acknowledge to be so whether we regard the Derivation of the word or Reasons of the thing it self I mean those Reasons which evince the only proper significant Notion of Popery to be that which I have given before in the fewest words I could well fix upon to define or describe it What those Reasons are we have as to one part of them seen already by seeing that if Popery be taken otherwise all Christian Churches in the World must be confessedly Popish and as to the other part also we shall now see For now I am to shew that even by the judgment of such as ought best to understand their own Doctrine the very chief thing in Popery is the owning and asserting the Papal Authority Without question there is nothing which they have more driven at from the beginning or which they now more eagerly contend for in the Roman Church and especially the governing part of it as it were easie to shew in many instances but a few will suffice because the matter is so well known to all men of Reading and Experience To begin with the Original of Popery There is nothing more certain and plain in Church-History then that the primitive Christians being generally Subjects of the Roman Empire had a very great respect for the Bishops of Rome because that was the Imperial City And yet it is as plain that those Bishops had no Authority or Jurisdiction out of their own Province that is beyond the suburbicary Region of Italy till after the Division of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western It was not long after that division and chiefly upon the weakness of the Western Empire that that Power which we now call the Papacy grew up As the Empire decay'd so by degrees it encreased and gathered strength the design being at first not to set up a new Religion but a new Monarchy in the place of the old then expiring The Caesars having made Rome their seat of Empire for so many Ages and being at last driven out by the barbarous Nations it seemed as if the Genius of the place had inspired the Roman Bishops to perk up and to erect a new Empire in the stead Which was no hard thing for them to do being assisted with all manner of advantagious circumstances Having learn'd from their Predecessors to derive their descent from St. Peter how truly it matters not this gave them colour enough to take upon them to be all that he was Their See their Traditions their Dictates were all stiled Apostolical The Popes Title was then His Apostleship for His Holiness was too Vulgar in those days Whatsoever Preheminence or Power those Caesars by their Laws or their Subjects the Christian Bishops in their Councils had given them as being Bishops of the Imperial City when they had gain'd the City wholly to their Devotion and made their party among the barbarous Nations they scorn'd to hold it any longer by gift All that had been so given them and whatsoever they grasp'd more they held it Iure Divino as being Heirs and Successors to St. Peter By this means having shook off their Obligation to Canons and Laws they took upon them to be as Infallible as St. Peter was whose very name they did not stick to usurp when they pleased as if Christ had spoken to them whatsoever he said personally to Cephas And whosoever objected as some always did that those Pretensions were new and that there is no ground for them in
Roman Pontificale to which I refer the Reader that would see it at large There he may see how all Church-Governours of that Communion bind themselves to the Pope to be his Liege-men and Subjects his Counsel-keepers his Spies and Intelligencers his constant Correspondents his Factors his sworn Servants in express terms To the utmost of their power to persecute and impugn all Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels against the Pope their own natural Prince Parents Kindred and Friends not excepted I wish every Protestant who is in their sense an Heretick c. would be pleas'd to read that Oath and then judge what he is to expect from any of these men unless he knows they are such as will be perjur'd for his sake It was surely not without cause that Cardinal Bellarmine call'd the Doctrine of the Pope's Authority over all Christians Caput Fidei the Head of the Catholick Faith I have shewn that it is so in their sense of the word Catholick A Doctrine that is the only Fundamental of Popery the Foundation whereof was first laid in the Papal Authority and the whole Building of Popery in other points has been raised in favour to it A Doctrine that has since been secured and confirmed by Canons of Councils and by the Oaths of all their Clergy A Doctrine to which the Leaders and Guides of their Church are sworn to sacrifice all that 's dear to them And which way the Guides go there 's no fear but the Laity will follow them with that blind Obedience which is peculiar to them in the Roman Church And therefore whatsoever Notion we have of Popery in other things the Pope himself is not so fond of them but that to gain the point of Authority he can either connive or abate or part with them wholly if he pleases Though no doubt he never does it but insidiously as well knowing that whatsoever Concession he makes for the establishing of his Authority he may afterwards annul and will do it when soever he pleaseth But that the owning his Authority is the thing which makes a Catholick in his sense and that only it appears by sundry Instances abroad but none more memorable then those which we have had here in England Where King Henry VIII having cast off his Obedience to the Pope was therefore judged a Heretick and underwent the worst that Rome could have done to him if he had rejected all their Errours together and yet he asserted all the rest and imposed them with the utmost severity He was a through-Papist in all points but only that of Obedience in comparison whereof all the rest are but talk That is the business as we are taught by this example And we are not a little confirm'd by the proceeding on the other hand with his daughter Elizabeth who being as much a Protestant as any is or can be at this day and having so settled Religion in her Kingdom that it had scarce been in her power to have altered it how and when she pleased yet if she could but have been brought to acknowledge the Popes Authority to which she was courted by all possible ways how gladly would his Holiness have received her and abated for lesser things that is for all things else if it be true that the Pope would have allowed her the English Liturgy that then was and the Communion-Service as it was generally reported he would And we have the more cause to believe it because we hear of the like offers prepared for us in order to perswade the restoring of Popery in our days I conceive it is sufficiently proved that the chief thing in Popery is the Doctrine which asserts the Popes Authority over all Christians I shall adde that it is the worst of all the evils which Popery contains the most hurtful and mischievous both to Church and State which being proved to my hand in sundry Learned Discourses within these few years I shall not need to say much on this head Yet I cannot but mind the Reader of that which is most notorious and which every one knoweth that hath read over almost any History of these last Eight hundred years For about so long since it was that the Church received the greatest Wound that ever was given it a Breach not to be repaired a Schism that reacheth throughout the whole Universe So long a time the Western Church that is the Western part of Europe hath been a Church by it self having broke off all Communion with all other Churches in the World that is with all the Asian and African Churches and all those in the East and North parts of Europe Instead of that Love and Peace which Christ left as his Legacy among Christians there hath been for so many Ages nothing else but Banning and Cursing between them As the Pope yearly curses all those Christians that are not of his Communion so he and his are yearly curst by the four ancient Patriarchs of Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Ierusalem and by all the Christian Churches depending on them except those few whom he hath conquer'd or bought or otherwise gain'd by his Missionaries The original cause of this Breach was nothing else but the Popes Usurpation which those Churches were not able to bear It was the same cause that many Ages after divided this Western part of Europe within it self For our Church was thrown out of the Roman Communion many years before any thing else was reformed in it when there was no other difference between us but only this that we had cast off the Popes Usurpation This breach of Christian-Unity were of it self a great mischief to the Church though nothing else came of it but Hatred and Unchristian Censures in which perhaps both sides might be to blame but yet they might live and grow wiser and come at last to understand one another And this would possibly ensue upon any other difference of Opinion But this grand point of Popery is such as sets men in no ordinary heat it makes them breath not only Censures but Death against their Adversaries it arms out all the Wealth Power and Policy of them that hold it to reduce or destroy all them that oppose it Not to rip up ancient stories we have a sad instance this in the Greek Church which refusing to submit to the Pope was betray'd by him to the Turk under whom it hath groaned these two hundred years In all which time of bondage and misery which that poor Church hath endured what relief hath she had from the Interest or Wealth of the Papacy I cannot say but there have been and are daily great returns thither of money from Rome but all the use of them is to hire her Children against her for bread or to bribe the Turks Bassa's to do her all the hurt that is possible We have the less cause to take it ill if we find the Popes Agents busie among us and if we feel the woful effects of their
diligence in our intestine Divisions and in the growth of Atheism which we cannot but be sadly sensible are both much increased since the late Toleration In these and the like practises they plainly declare that rather then not bring in Popery they would drive out Christianity before them and not leave the name of Christ to the people that will not receive the Pope as his Vicar How those Churches where he is so received and bears rule as he would do among us are blessed in it we may partly guess by the means that he employs to get us under him For it is seldom known that they who are so greedy of power use it well when they have it But not to go by guess when we have a Map before us We may see the condition of his Subjects describ'd by some of themselves that writ in those times when men durst write of such things when there was no Inquisition for them nor no Index Expurgatorius for their Writings I believe a more cruel Bondage a more miserable Thraldom and Yoke then they describe never was among the barbarous Nations I believe also the Inquisition where it is introduc'd hath not made their condition easier since And that it is not introduc'd in some Countreys as namely in France and Flanders they may thank the poor Protestants for it Where such are the Pope will have a care not to make too much noise for fear of frighting away the Birds that he would take And yet in France where there is no Inquisition he found other ways not long since to make the Iansenists feel the weight of his hand and that severely for no other reason but because in certain School-points they presum'd to oppose another party that were more firm to his Interests If this be his way of keeping Unity for which they so much cry up his Government though men do not speak so well of the Russian which keeps Unity better I see no reason why we should not be content and endure our dissentions or rather find some other way to compose them than by putting our necks into a yoke which being once fastned it will be too late for us to complain afterward We must either draw as he would have us or else go to the Shambles For the Temporal State how it hath been turmoild with this Papal Usurpation would ask a large Book to describe as the matter deserves I shall only say this that ever since it began it hath hung like a Comet over Kingdoms and Nations and shed forth direful Influences on all that have been any way obnoxious to it But it came not to its height till Pope Hildebrand's days whom their heavenly Muster-Roll calleth St. Gregory VII A Saint no doubt worthy of Red Letters for he caused the shedding of more Christian Blood than Mahomet himself and as Mahomet did he taught his Sect to do the same and merit Heaven by it His Dictates are commonly known being publish'd both in his Books and in the Councils I appeal to any one that hath read them whether Antichrist at his coming if he be yet to come can speak greater things Sure I am nothing can be more contrary to the humble and meek spirit of Christ. Among these there is one Doctrine briefly expressed but more amply declared in his Bulls and in his actions pursuant to them It is concerning a power that he assumes to himself to depose Kings and to dispose of their Kingdoms Which Arrogant Claim such as none but the Devil ever made before him hath ever since been continued by his Successors and yet is as often as they see occasion both declared and manifested by the like Bulls and actions The woful effects of it throughout this Western part of Europe are notoriously known to all that read History having torn the Bowels of this part of Christendom like an Earthquake for these last six hundred years having shaken the Foundations of all Empires Kingdoms and States involving all of them at one time or other in bloody and cruel Wars accursed and unnatural Rebellions and all other consequent Calamities In Germany particularly where it first began to operate The two next Emperours were fain to fight no less than sixty Field-battels to keep their Crowns upon their Heads In France it hath wrought proportionably Other Countreys have suffered their share But none more than England in King Iohn's miserable days And that had been forgotten in 88. if the design had taken which God only could and did defeat when otherwise this Doctrine in all probability had destroyed the English Kingdom and Nation we had been gone and our name had scarce remained upon the face of the Earth The sad experience of the manifold mischiefs and dangers both to Church and State from this pretended Authority taught our Fore-fathers at sundry times to provide against it by Laws with such Penalties annex'd to them as they found needful to prevent the like mischiefs and dangers for the future It appears that the ancientest Laws of this kind were made by them that lived and died in the Roman Communion I mean the Laws of Provisors and Praemunire enacted some hundreds of years since by Roman Catholick Kings and their Parliaments who could have no design against any other of those things we call Popery for they held the same erronious Opinions which our now-Papists do though they held them not as Articles of Faith But they endeavoured by those Laws to secure themselves against the daily Encroachment of the Pope and his Faction in the Roman Church When those Banks were found insufficient to restrain the growing Torrent within its bounds they found it needful to stop the Channel to exclude the Papacy it self and turn it out of the Kingdom This was done by King Henry VIII upon such a Provocation as perhaps would have moved a much gentler Prince to do the same For he was made to dance Attendance upon the Court of Rome five or six years for Sentence in a Cause which he commenced not of himself but by advice of the Popes Legat and his Confessor A Cause which the Pope himself at first had encouraged in which he had the judgment of the whole Church of England and divers Foreign Universities of his side His exclusion of the Papal Authority was by Acts both of Parliament and of Convocation almost no man dissenting They both form'd the Oath of Supremacy and took it themselves and joyn'd with him in imposing it in direct opposition to this grand point And yet this King himself and all the Members of those Bodies were firm to all things else that we call Popery It was otherwise in the time of Queen Elizabeth of blessed Memory who at the entrance of her Reign not only repair'd her Father's Fence against the Papal Authority but also purged the Church of all those Errours and Corruptions which are yet retain'd and own'd by all them of the Roman Communion And yet she
or more Popes since And yet many of their Church took that Oath and some of them defended it in writing and 't is taken and defended in like manner to this day By many others it is and hath been refused Whether as being contrary to the Principles of their Sect or whether in Reverence to the Popes Prohibition and possibly some may have refused to take the Oath upon some scruple which they have conceived against the wording of it But whatsoever the cause of their refusal may be the State hath no way left to distinguish and therefore being assured of the lawfulness of the Oath in these Terms and being aware of the wicked design with which it is forbidden hath just cause to secure it self by their peril It hath surely no cause to look on them as Friends that prefer their own scruples to its safety much less that break its just Commands to serve or to please its open Enemy And for this cause that wise and gracious Prince suffered some of their Clergy that were obnoxious otherwise to fall under the edge of the Law But never in his nor his Sons days did any one of that Communion suffer death for any Crime against the State that would clear himself of it by taking the Oath of Allegiance From what I have said it sufficiently appears that the asserting an undue Authority in the Pope or Bishop of Rome is properly to be called Popery 't is the chief thing and the only thing in the Popes esteem 't is most hurtful and dangerous and the worst thing in the Construction of the Law From whence I shall infer that among Roman Catholicks some are properly Papists and some are improperly called so And however they are both of one Communion and meet together in the same Offices of Worship and therefore cannot easily be distinguished unless they please to distinguish themselves yet there is a great difference between them As great a difference in relation to the State as there is between Wens and useful Members in the Body They that wholly deny the Popes Supremacy cannot properly be called Papists but Vnreformed Catholicks as men generally were here in England in the later part of King Henry VIII's days And they as I believe were the first that used the word Papists to denote the Assertors of that outed Supremacy Nor can they properly be called so in France or other Countreys who deny the Pope to have any Authority over them by Divine Right but grant it only by such Canons and Laws as being made upon good Considerations may on better be abrogated and repealed I know there are some of this mind in England and do believe there would appear to be many if they found sufficient cause to declare it Now though such men believe the same erroneous Tenets and use the same Superstitious and Idolatrous Rites that Papists do namely such as the Pope himself has made the Terms of his Communion and therefore they are properly in Communion with him yet those Tenets and Rites are not properly Popery Though they are bad enough otherwise yet if they keep them to themselves they are not hurtful to Humane Society As being consistent with the safety of the Kingdom and with obedience to Government and with Justice of Contracts and love of Neighbours with all which at least collectively taken Popery in the proper Notion of it is inconsistent and generally held so not only by all other Christians but by a very great and considerable part of the Roman Catholicks themselves They are properly Papists that hold the Pope as Vicar of Christ by Divine Right to have a Power and Authority over all Christians And yet if they give him this power in Spirituals only and not also in Temporals they are but half-Papists And so they will find the Pope accounts them if they have occasion to make use of him They only are thorough-Papists that acknowledge his Authority in both First directly in Spiritual things and then in Temporals also whether directly or whether indirectly in order to Spirituals it matters not Let him have the Power and he will trust himself with the use of it Now this thorough-Papist being a man after the Popes own heart I shall from him take the perfect measures of Popery He is one that asserts and maintains or at least practically submits to the Popes pretended Power and Usurpation over all Kings and People in their Temporals and over all Bishops and Churches in their Spirituals and in all things over all persons on earth not only separately but collectively in their Parliaments or Councils and consequently over all their Canons Laws and Definitions In few words that owns him to be the Infallible Oracle and Universal Vicar of God a kind of God upon Earth who has no limits to his Commission or to the execution of it but his own will and pleasure This most excellent Systeme it is that only passes at Rome for the Catholick Doctrine This is authorized by the Pope this is taught in his own Church at Rome and elsewhere by his Stipendiaries or other Dependants And this is properly Popish for it belongs not to any other Christians of whatsoever Church Sect or Denomination Nor is it owned by the far greater number of them that are or call themselves Roman Catholicks I have given my own private Opinion as well of the true as of the false Notion of Popery and have intimated withal though but occasionally what my Opinion is as well of the great Concernment of the Christian World if not of all Mankind to suppress Popery truly such as of the little occasion there is for any great severity to be used against that for Name-sake which in truth is not Popery nor has any essential or necessary conjunction with it Now to enter upon the main design of this Paper which according to the title is a Consideration or Search for the true way of suppressing of Popery I declare my design to be against Popery in its proper Notion And whereas I have shewn a lower degree of it to consist in owning the Popes power in Spirituals only by suppressing of this I intend at least such a restraint upon it as may suffice to keep it from being hurtful or troublesom For the other degree which cannot but be hurtful wheresoever it is in being I declare my design to be no less than the extinguishing of it at least out of England and if it were possible from the face of the Earth Of this matter to deliver my thoughts with all freedom I confess it seems to me that undistinguishing Severity whether of Laws or of the execution of them against all Roman Catholicks in general cannot be the true way to suppress Popery much less to rid it out of this Kingdom or any other of his Majesties Dominions The general Motives which induce me to think so are these three 1. That such
And if they have no Dispensation before hand they can have a Pardon for it afterward For they know where those things are to be had which any honest man though of that Religion abhors either to ask or need And if a Jesuite should have so over-slept himself that he is taken napping with other Catholicks he is sure to have Friends to bring him off If none in England can do it he has them abroad to help If he be put to fly his Country he knows whither to go If he step short and fall into a Prison there at least he is sure not to want either relief or means for his deliverance While the man of Loyal principles if he fall into any of those Circumstances is stuck and knows not which way to look for help For from whence should he have it At home he has no Friend that dares know him abroad he has no manner of interest For all there depend upon the Pope who is so far from concerning himself for any whom he knows to be no Papists that he does not own them for Catholicks And especially if any such be men of parts whom he hears to be in Prison or the like he only wishes them hanged out of the way that he may have the rest the more intirely at his Devotion Much more might be said on this head but what I have said may suffice And therefore to insist no longer on that Question Whether undistinguishing Severity would be effectual or no I come now to shew that if it should prove effectual yet it would be very far from seeming just or equitable to indifferent men And of this I am strongly assured first by all the judgment I can make of the Intention of our Laws secondly by Arguments from the rule of right Reason and the Ancient Practise of Christianity I begin with the former and observe That although the Severity of our Penal Statutes according to the bare letter of them generally not distinguishing between Papists and Roman Catholicks falls indifferently on both yet by the wording of them in several places and by other Circumstances it appears that they were intended against the Abettors of undue Authority in the Pope and against no other For what appears in the wording of the Statutes I shall instance only two viz. 23 Eliz. and 3 Iacobi Whereof the former namely that of Queen Elizabeth expresses the crime to be punished by the Statute in these terms An intent to withdraw Subjects from their natural Obedience The other namely that of King Iames which was very severe as it ought to be on so great an occasion mentions this as the crime to be punished by it The withdrawing Subjects from their natural Obedience and moving them to promise Obedience to the pretended Authority of the See of ROME That the Sanguinary Laws were intended against Popery in this sense and no other it may further appear by the Account I have given before where I briefly set forth on what occasions they were made and in what manner they were executed It is evident that none ever suffer'd Death as a Papist who could be brought to take the Oath of Supremacy or Allegiance Now it is certain that those Oaths were primarily designed to be a suffient Test to distinguish Papists from others And yet in either of them there is no mention made of any Doctrines but only those which concern Government that is the external Government both of Church and State It is indeed objected by Papists against the Oath of Supremacy and it sticks with some of those Roman Catholicks who are not Papists that by the Oath of Supremacy the King is made a spiritual Head of the Church But he that reads the Oath will find no such thing in it and it is expresly declar'd by the Church of England in her Articles That she ascribes to the King no other Jurisdiction over the Church than what is meerly external even the same that was exercised by the Kings of Iudah and the Christian Emperours over the Church in their Kingdoms and Empires To this I may add the constant Profession and Answer of all Protestant Writers Whensoever any Complaint has been made of the severity used to Roman Catholicks it has been always said that they suffered not for Religion but Treason And this is a very plain and satisfactory Answer while those only suffer who do those things or hold those Tenets which involve Treason in them But if they who do no such thing and who renounce all such Tenets are yet made to suffer in like manner though they suffer for that which the Law declares to be Treason it will bear some dispute whether Law-makers may not miscall things However it shews the general sense of the Church and State of England I mean for what concerns the design or intention of those Penal Laws And here by the way it may be observed how very different our dealing with the Roman-Catholicks is from their dealing with Protestants in Q. Mary's days That then all profest Protestants were handled severely and that many of them were put to death I think none will deny But to avoid the Odium of this some of that Communion in our Age would persuade us that their suffering was not upon the Account of Religion And to colour this Evasion they endeavour to show that Cranmer and two or three more had deserved death for Treason which is more than they are able to prove But admit this were true that these men had deserved it yet they did not suffer death for Treason but Religion as they would have it believed that made them dye For they declared this throughout the whole course of their Criminal Proceedings And it concerned them so to do For otherwise by the Laws then in force they had murthered as many as they burnt there being no Law to Burn men for Treason but for Heresie And so far they were from using any Moderation that they rather extended the Letter of the Law by inflicting it on many poor Creatures who had nothing to provoke any Jealousie against them but enough to move pity if there had been any in their Adversaries It has been the glory of our Church that we have not been like them in this nor can be without altering the Design of them that made all our Laws against Popery The intention of our Laws appearing so manifestly as I conceive against Papists only and not against any other Roman Catholicks it seems not reasonable that any other butPapists should suffer by the Letter of those Laws For it is a Maxim That not the bare Letter of any one or more Clause or Clauses but the Intention of the whole Law is the Life and Soul of it I mean it is that which gives signification to words w ch ought where itis evident to interpret theLaw It is also a Maxim That all Penal Laws should be interpreted favourably and therefore more should not
be made Criminals nor should any Criminal suffer more by any Law than was meant by the Legislator Now 't is commonly said there are very many RomanCatholicks I hope the far greater number of them in England who maintain no Principles or Opinions which destroy the Fundamentals of Government or disturb the peace of the Kingdom nor hold any of those Opinions which are essential to Popery namely which assert any undue Authority in the Pope or as it is exprest in the Statute which withdrawSubjects from their naturalObedience or move them to promise Obedience to the pretended Authority of theSee of Rome There are many of that Communion who profess that they hate detest all such Doctrines And therefore to indifferent Judges how can it but seem very hard to extend the severity of theLetter of our Penal Laws against the Legislators intention to all Roman Catholicks universally and indistinctly without any exception in favour of those many that hold no such Opinions and that are in all respects truly Loyal and peaceable Surely the punishment cannot seem just or equitable which has not theLaw for it and that has not theLaw for it which is against the intention of the Legislator Next I say with submission that granting the intention of the Statute-Laws of our Land and of the Legislators by whom they were made to have been against all Roman Catholicks indistinctly and not only against the mere Papalins yet according to the Eternal Law of Reason and ancient practice of Christianity it may seem in such case than an undistinguishing execution of the Laws would neither be just nor equitable For first it seems very unreasonable to go about to force men to change their judgments in any thing that hurts none but themselves and especially in so weighty a matter as is that of Religion It is confess'd that the Religion of Roman Catholicks differs very much from that which is established by Law and I am much to blame if I know not it is Erroneous in those points in which it differs For which Reason I doubt not they ought to be restrain'd from publick exercise of it and as far as it is possible from hurting others by the Propagation of their Errours I also grant that by some kind of Punishment less than death or ruine men that err may and ought to be awaken'd and stirr'd up to seek better Information and to attend to the means of it that they may be reclaim'd from their Errours I also grant that it belongs to the Legislative Power to define how far and by what means all this should be done without which I see no way to preserve established Truth or to suppress Heresie in any Kingdom But all the punishment that is necessary for this purpose may be inflicted without any force upon Conscience as I shall have occasion to shew toward the end of this Paper Much less is that any force upon Conscence when men are punish'd for Treason or for treasonable Principles For those Principles are Treason in Bullion and will be coyn'd out whensoever the Pope pleases to set the Mint going and that he will do whensover he thinks it time to pay off any King that does not please him But I cannot say so when men that have no such Principles are punish'd as if they had and are either put to death or made unable to live unless they will part with those things in their Religion which are purely and simply erroneous and which have no ill influence upon the State any otherwise than as it is inconvenient to have different Religions in being together in the Kingdom This Severity is truly a force upon Conscience And 't is very unreasonable besides that the simply erroneous should be made to feel the weight of that punishment than which no greater could be inflicted by Law if their Errours were heightned and envenom'd with all the Malignity of that which we call properly Popery 'T is also against the ancient practice of Christianity For the Christians when they came to have power in their hands did not punish either Pagans or Jews with either Sanguinary or Mulctative Laws nor for ought that appears thought it reasonable for them so to do I confess they did after a while punish Donatists with pecuniary penalties and kept both them and all the rest under divers incapacities and the same reason they had for so doing is enough to induce the Church and State of England to deal as they do now with Dissenters and especially with Roman Catholicks in keeping them under incapacitating Laws If it be objected that those who were so favourably dealt with in those first Christian times did not communicate with any that were dangerous to the State as those do who pretend to the like favour amongst us and that while they communicate with men of disloyal Principles it may be thought not unfit to involve them in the same punishment that is due to men of those Principles It will be answer'd that they do not communicate with them in any disloyal Doctrine or Practice and therefore they ought not to be joyn'd with them in the punishment of those Doctrines or Practices God forbid that Innocents should be handled as Nocents for being of the same Communion with them We should think it very hard and unreasonable that honest men and good Protestants who communicate in the Church and Worship of God with such as prove to be Traytors or Felons must therefore partake with them in suffering for their misdeeds If it be farther objected that among the Roman Catholicks there are many who are faln off from the Church of England and that such men at least deserve punishment for their Apostacy and much more the Priests or others that wheedled them away I cannot deny that in this case we have a just provocation to Severity And we have an example before us in the Roman Church which if we should follow it would go hard with such persons They which turn from them to us find no mercy in those Popish Countries where the Inquisition is setled nor much favour in any other But we are not bound to follow those examples And therefore setting them aside and considering things without Provocation I must needs say that the simplicity of most of their Converts seems to me to deserve rather pity than any hard punishment They are generally such as understood not their own Religion before they suffer'd themselves to be fool'd out of it Otherwise if they are learned and knowing men who thus leave our Communion which I think rarely happens and specially if they are Converts to downright Popery it cannot but argue that such persons are vehemently lead by their affections and therefore they may be justly suspected of ill design and of forming to themselves some interest against the Laws And if that be true it cannot be deny'd that they deserve to suffer all that the Laws have ordain'd for such persons Yet if men of knowledge and
alone or with others in such Controversies Indeed by the Canons of Sardica those few Western Bishops that continued there after the Easterlings had left them were pleased meerly of their Charity to give him a new Power to order the reviewing of any Provincial Judgment upon complaint of any Bishop that was aggrieved in it And Pope Leo not being satisfied with this got the Emperor Valentinian III. to ordain that the Bishop of Rome should give Law throughout his part of the Empire which then contained little more than Italy and part of France and part of Spain and the Illyrian Diocess Yet all that the Bishop of Rome had by these Concessions and Grants did not amount to an Authority over the Universal Church I add nor over the British Church in particular And so far was this from arguing that he had by Divine Right any Jurisdiction out of his own Diocess that his seeking or accepting what was given him by these Concessions or Grants is a convincing argument to the contrary But for the Churches Judgment nothing can be more plain than that all those Bishops who gave their Votes to those Canons which I cited before out of the first Four General Councils and that of Africk together with the Epistle annext had no question or thought of any Authority that he had by Divine Right out of his own proper Diocess or by Humane Right out of the Roman Patriarchy or any power of Jurisdiction that he had elsewhere from the Roman Emperors or from the Primitive Fathers Whatsoever power he has gotten since the decay of the Roman Empire and of the Christian Religion from whence I have already dated the beginning of Popery as it is plain he has gotten in many Countries which were not anciently within his Jurisdiction upon any account it must be either by force or fraud abusing either the weakness or ignorance of the people or else by the concession or connivence of Princes and States Blessed be God there are some Christian Nations in the world which have stood so far out of his reach that he has not been able to hook them in by any of these ways And as he has no colourable pretence to a power over those Countries where it is certain he never had any as Ethiopia Russia c. which they that are pleased to call therefore Schismatical must give me leave to admire as well their folly as their uncharitableness and yet they that do not call them so make the Pope no Head of the Universal Church so in those Countries where he has gotten power it is not necessary that he should always hold it till we see who is Antichrist whether He or one of the Tribe of Dan who they say shall come to take it from him They over whom he gain'd a power by force or fraud are kept under it still the same way which creates no right by any Law whatsoever And therefore when God makes them strong enough and wise enough they will deliver themselves from him They that gave him a power over them when they saw cause may have as good or better cause to recal it And they have just cause to do this when they see him desert that Title by their Gift and claim his power by immediate Divine Right or when he employs his power not to edification but destruction and specially when doing all this he will force their obedience by such means as come not from the Wisdom which is from above but from that which the Apostle calls earthly sensual devillish Whosoever among our Roman Catholicks will be pleased to consider these things with that Attention and Impartiality that is due to all things of Religion I cannot but think he will see that the Christian Religion doth no way oblige him to own the Popes Authority in this Kingdom He will see that Iure Divino the Pope could have no Authority over this particular Church which he had not over the Church universal And it doth not appear by any Records of the Primitive times that the Pope ever had any such Authority over the Universal Church or that by the Diffusive Church he was believed or acknowledged to have it But on the contrary it appears by instances which I have given of those times that he was denied to have such an Authority and that as well by the Bishops assembled in their Councils as by the best and wisest men of those times in their Writings Nay he was contradicted and resisted as oft as he endeavoured to impose any thing against the mind of particular Churches He will see that whatsoever Humane Right the Pope had acquired over the people of this Kingdom was no more of one kind than we are all originally of one Nation and that the power which he was suffered to exercise over us was very much greater at one time than another In the worst and darkest times it was highest for it grew up on the bad Titles or other weakness of Princes and yet then he could not hold it peaceably nor long enough to make a Prescription But at all other times it was much less than he claim'd which sheweth plainly it was no more but what the State pleased to give him and they owned that the Pope had no right over them by any concessions of their own more than what he had over the rest of the Western Churches Particularly in those times next before the Reformation that right which was generally acknowledged to be in him was not a supreme right but subordinate to a General Council This appears to have been the sense of the Western Church For it was declared in plain terms by four Councils which were acknowledged for General in that Age and were abetted as such by the generality of the Western Church They not only declared this Doctrine in their Canons but they reduced it to practice For those Councils deposed divers Popes and made new ones in their stead Which Acts of theirs the Papalins of this Age are obliged to defend as ill as they like the Canons for without them they cannot make up the succescession of their present Popes But admitting those Acts to have been just and good how can they reject those Canons from which they had their virtue and efficacy If they say the Pope did not approve them it is partly true Out of doubt those Popes did not like them that lost by them Nor perhaps those that came in by those Canons might not like them so well at another time But how then could they take upon them to be Popes Their accepting a Title from those Councils and the Peoples owning them in it was enough to shew that those Canons were then in force and they were never repealed by any Council since nor hath there been any Council to do it that can be reasonably thought so fit as those four were to declare the sense of the Western diffusive Church Therefore
have any Right in it Though she had not lost her Right any otherwise than as being cut off by the Pope's uncanonical Censures against which she was relievable on her Appeal thither if that had truly been a General Council And the Bishops whom she should send to represent her in such a Council had as much to do there precedence only excepted as the Pope himself had according to the ancient Canons But now as matters were ordered at Trent if she had sent any thither and if they had been admittable otherwise yet they must not sit there without owning the Pope in his Legate They must not only be joyned into one Body with him but they must acknowledge him for their representative Head who yet to them was no other than a man dead in Law For they knew him to be condemned for a Traytor by that Authority to which they were Subjects as well as Trent as in England And though the Popes placing him there in that Character was the highest Affront that could be done to the Justice of their Nation yet they must submit nay contribute to that Affront by owning him in that Character or else they must have no place in that Council This Contumelious Condition being implicitly imposed on our Bishops was a virtual Exclusion of them from their Right of sitting there And it was so contrived that it lookt as ill upon the State as on the Church The King was not only concerned for both these but also for Himself on another account having his Cause to be heard there if it had been a General Council It was an Injury to him all this while that he had None so long after his Appeal to it But now to make him amends he had a Council pack'd by his Adversary and if that were not enough he had this Traiterous Subject in the Head of it Which last thing went beyond all former Trials of his Patience and perhaps had been enough to have angered the meekest of Princes If it be an ill thing to have ones Judge chosen by his Enemy it is worse to have his Enemy be his Judge He had both in this Council as the Pope had ordered it for him Therefore as he could not be Canonically obliged to stand by it so he did but use his own Right as before in Protesting so now in Declaring against it He did it on all Occasions and continued so doing till his Death His Son Edward VI who reigned next kept the Pope at his distance and had many things reformed in the Church of which I shall not speak particularly because all that he did of this kind was soon after undone by his Successour Queen Mary She for reasons that I mentioned before restored the Pope's Authority in this Kingdom And though his Council of Trent was all her time in adjournment so that she could not send her Bishops thither yet she had it acknowledged by them in a Synod where Cardinal Pool being first restord in bloud had the honour to preside as his Legate But as to the Schism between us and the Roman Church both these Princes were unconcerned in the Original cause of it which was as I have shewn the Popes Sentence concerning their Fathers Marriage For Edward VI. was born to him by another Wife whom he had married after Katharines death And Queen Mary being his Daughter by Katharine was not aggrieved by the Sentence but on the contrary held her self righted by it The only Person aggrieved was Queen Elizabeth the Daughter of Henry VIII by Anne Bolen whose Marriage the Pope had declared to be Null and pronounced any fruit that should come of it to be Illegitimate This Queen being the only fruit of that Marriage the Sentence was injurious to her if to any And whether she was wrong'd in it or no it ought to have been tried before a Lawful General Council to whose Judgement her Father had Appealed as has been already shewn And there being no such Council held in his life time the right of his Appeal descended to her at his death She was now the only party concerned in the Cause and her Right could not be given from her by any other She was as much concerned as ever her Father was to be heard by the Judge to whom He had Appealed and to be Righted against the Pope if it should appear that he had injured her and also against his Council of Trent which abetted him in it And she had as much Reason as ever her Father had to disobey and to resist both the Pope and his Council till they would suffer such a Council to meet as was the only proper Judge of her Cause Thus far all that has been said of her Father except only in things of Personal concernment is as Applicable to her And more needs not be said to shew that they were neither of them guilty of Schism in asserting their Cause as they did against the Adversaries of it For therein they did no more than what they lawfully might and ought to do according to the Principles of the Western Church But there was something in her Case which was not in her Fathers and which would have cleared her of Schism though he had been guilty of it For whereas when he rejected the Pope and his Council he was wholly of their mind in all the Articles of Faith then in being She did it not till the Council had sate and till they had already made sundry new Articles of Faith Whereof the first were defined some months before her Father died However he might like them as they presume he did who tell us that he died in their Faith yet it is certain that though at sometime she did not shew it she did always dislike them her Enemies being Judges And as soon as she came into Power she declared they were so far from being any part of her Faith that she took them for no other than False and Novel opinions If she mistook in so judging which shall be considered in its place then she was at least materially an Heretic And such he must prove her to have been that will make her a Schismatick For if she was in the right and those Doctrines were not of Faith then the Schism occasioned by them must not lie at her door It must be charged on the Council who defined them and on the Pope who added them to the Creed who made the belief and profession of these Doctrines a condition without which there is no living in his Communion She did what she ought to do in refusing to have it on those terms in adhering to the Faith once delivered to the Saints and in rejecting the Authority which would have it defiled with those Mixtures What has been said may suffice to clear Queen Elizabeth from the Imputation of Schism on any Personal account in not obeying the Pope or his Council It appears that she was free from Schism in
Religion even themselves being Judges For they had all or most of them taken it before some of them had taken it many times over two or three of them had writ in defence of it nay were at the first composing of it But there was a greater difference than either of these if the Bishops then turned out by Queen Elizabeth had been most of them Canonically deprived under King Edward VI and were never since Canonically restored which may deserve a further Consideration The mean while it is certain that this Act outed not two hundred more of all the Clergy in this Kingdom And their places being filled with such as had been banished in Queen Maries days it is not hard to judge how all things else to be done in Church matters might pass any Obstruction as they did afterwards in full Convocation 3. As to Doctrinal things it was generally observed in those times by the Advantage of Ecclesiastical learning that in those many former Ages which wanted it many errors and some very gross ones had crept into the Church And those errors having the Papacy on their side for Reasons which I have already shewn had so far prevailed that they were growing to be Articles of Faith Many of them were already defined so and more were like to be by the Council of Trent Therefore now the Church of England being free from the Yoke of the Papacy and having an Absolute Power to act for her self thought fit to use the Right of a National Church that is to Reform her self by declaring against those errors and to rid Christianity from them here in England without taking upon her to prescribe to other Churches And withal she thought it needful to set such bounds to the Reformation that men might not by their heats against Popery be transported so far as to run into contrary errors For these causes that famous Summary of Christian Doctrines which we call the XXXIX Artielés was drawn up and approved by Convocation The Compiling and Publishing of these Articles was properly the Act of the Church of England And these Articles being many of them opposed to those Doctrines which the Roman Church holds to be of Faith and being either in Terminis or at least in the sense of them the same which their Trent Council hath branded with Heresie it is therefore evident that upon the account of these Doctrines neither the Queen nor Church of England can be justly charged with Schism unless the Doctrines themselves are first proved to be Heretical as they are judged by those decrees of the Trent Council For the trial of these Doctrines they will not allow our Church that resort which she would make immediately to the Scriptures And we cannot go along with the Roman Church whither she would have us that is to the Council of Trent or which is all one to the judgment of their present Church Therefore there is no possible way to end disputes but by some known equal Standard between us And that can be no other than Catholic Tradition Which they of the Roman side cannot well decline for it is that from which the Council of Trent has pretended to receive all her Doctrines Nor have we any cause to decline it for the Primitive Fathers who were the Original Conveighers of this Tradition did profess to know no other Faith than what was contained in the Scriptures Why we cannot stand to the judgment of the Council of Trent for the trial of our Doctrines we have all the same Reasons that they have in the French Church why they reject it in matters of Discipline That is if they deny it to have the Authority of a General Council the English though of their Communion may as well deny it to have Infallibility Nay much more this than the other For we may give to whom we please an Authority over us but we cannot give Infallibility to any but to them to whom God has promised it that is if to any Council to such a one as represents the whole diffusive Church And we have one reason more than the French have and which signifies more than all theirs to shew that though they did yet we ought not to look upon this as such a Council For the French Church was represented at Trent in some sort though they were not at all satisfied with it but Ours neither was Represented nor could be as I have shewn neither after nor before the Reformation And though as it is said the French have since received the Doctrinal Decrees of that Council that is they have allowed them to be Antecedently true in those Terms in which the Council defined them though not a whit the more true for having been defined in that Council ours cannot pretend that here in England it ever had so much as that lowest Degree of Reception Before the Reformation of which we now speak that is before the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign the Council of Trent had sate not much more than half its Sessions And though it was quoted with respect by the Synod of London in Queen Marys days yet it does not appear that there was then any Formal Reception of the Council Nor if there had been could that have obliged aftercomers to receive whatsoever should pass afterward in that Council Thus much I think ought to be considered by them if there be any that hold themselves obliged by that Synod But much less would it have signified to our Reformers who did not hold themselves obliged by that Synod For beside that they differed in point of Faith they had other Canonical Objections against it That it was composed of Bishops who had been Deprived as was said in King Edwards days and had not been duly Restored since for ought that appears And it was Headed by the Popes Legate in that Quality as representing Him against whom they had an Appeal yet in force Now to him that considers the Case in these Circumstances it cannot seem reasonable that King Edwards Bishops should have thought themselves obliged by the Synodical Act of them that sate there in their Injury or that they who adhered to their Appeal from the Pope should be concluded by any thing that passed under his Legate Since the Reformation it cannot be imagined that the Council of Trent should be received here in England by any other than by them of the Roman Communion And whether they have Received it or no they best know But if they have it must be their own voluntary Act for no power whatsoever could oblige them to receive it If any could it must be either the Council it self or the Pope by his Universal Authority But for the Popes Power they understand themselves so well that they know he cannot oblige them to the reception of a Council For he cannot bring them under what Government he pleases I say not without their own Consent as they have judged and shewed
it by their practice When he impowered an Archpriest to govern them the Seculars would not receive him And when he would have placed a Bishop over them the Regulars would not receive him So the Seculars and Regulars as it were with one consent have given us their Judgment in the Case and that by no Indeliberate Act on either hand for they contended about it a great part of the last Age. And therefore unless their Principles are altered since the same Right which they exercised in not submitting to a Government they may exercise as well in not receiving a Council though the Pope should presume to impose it And that the Council of it self has no power to oblige them it appears in that judged case of the Egyptian Church The Bishops whereof would not subscribe to a Decree of the Fourth General Council because they had then no Archbishop to give them an Authority for it This was allowed to be a Reasonable excuse though the Decree which they were to have subscribed was in a matter of Faith I suppose they of the Roman Communion here in England have had the same Reason ever since the Reformation They have had no lawful Primate nor no declared Bishops all this while And during this imperfect state of their Church if there had been a General Council and any of their Clergy had been there they might have been excused from subscribing though in matters of Faith What difference there is in the Case makes wholly on our side For there is a wide difference indeed between Subscribing and Receiving The first is only the declaring ones own personal assent to the Decrees of any Council the other is to give them the force of Laws in the National Church And if according to that Canon the Bishops where they are in a Council are not bound to subscribe without their Primate how much less can any National Church be Obliged to receive things for Law without her Bishops Nay more how can she Lawfully receive them Especially such a Church as owns there is no Jurisdiction without Bishops She cannot do it without a Synod of Bishops according to the ancient Canons And therefore the English Church of Roman Catholics is so far from being bound to receive the Trent Council that in her present condition she could not Lawfully receive it I say still according to the ancient Canons which ought to be of some force with them of the Roman Communion But let them do as they please The case is plain that the Reformed Church of England ought not to receive it if she can prove her charge that that Council has innovated in the Christian Faith or rather unless that Council can discharge her self of it by proving that what we call her New Faith is not new but received from Catholick Tradition We think we are sure they cannot bring this Tradition for those Doctrines which are laid as Foundations for all the rest in that Council namely their making unwritten Tradition to be of Divine Authority and therefore equal with the holy Scriptures their bringing those which we call the Apocryphal Books into the Canon of Scripture their making the Vulgar Latine Translation Authentick in all matters of Faith and good life For these and all the rest of their Doctrines of Faith as they are called in the Roman Church which we call Innovations and Errors We are not afraid to refer our selves to Catholic Tradition If they of the Roman side would submit to it as well there would be no difference between us in matters of Faith whatsoever there might be in Opinion And therefore they would have no cause in their own private judgment to conclude us for Heretics much less would they find us condemned for such by any competent Judicature If they think otherwise than we do in this matter the reason must be because they do not mean what we do by Catholic Tradition It is plain that too many of that Church have a wrong notion of it taking that for Catholic Tradition which is only presumed to be so by a Party in these latter Ages For though they call themselves the Catholic Church and perhaps really take themselves to be no other yet they are but a handful to the body of Christians especially considered in our notion of Catholic which as we take it extends to all the Christians of all Ages We plainly profess to take the Catholic Tradition in that sense of Vincentius Lyrinensis and before him of Tertullian in his Prescriptions who make this to be the Standard of all Doctrines of Faith quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus First that which has gone for Christian Faith in all Ages from the beginning of Christianity Secondly which has been taken for such by the whole diffusive Church comprehending all those particular Churches which have not been Canonically condemned either of Schism or Heresie And lastly that which has not only been the Faith of some persons though contradicted by others but that which has been the constant belief of the generality in all those Christian Churches To bring our differences to this standard betwixt us I conceive that first they of the Roman Communion will not find such evidence for their Articles of Faith as they think of in the Primitive Records I say such evidence as will make it appear that they were of Faith antecedently to the Definitions of Councils They will find that those Councils which first defined them to be of Faith were not such against which we have no just exception nor that their Definitions have been generally received throughout the diffusive Catholic Church For the Primitive Records I suppose they of the Roman Church that have read them will scarce pretend to shew how they convey all those Articles to us as of Faith And where they fail to shew this of any Article they must excuse us if we cannot allow it to be a Catholic Tradition Much more when we shew from those Records that there are strong presumptions to the contrary Whereof not to trouble my Reader with more instances I have given some proof in that which Bellarmine calls Caput Fidei namely in that Doctrine of the Popes Supremacy over all Christians For the Councils by which their new Articles have been defined the most they can rationally pretend to by their Definitions is to deliver the sense of the present diffusive Church Which they are presumed to do when they have power to represent it or when their Decrees are received in all parts of it and not otherwise But how few of their General Councils can pretend to either of these Conditions It appears that the Eldest of them could not I mean the Second Council of Nice which first imposed the worship of Images For about thirty years before there was an Eastern Council held at Constantinople which Condemned that very thing And not ten years after there was a Western Council at Francford which
condemned this Nicene Council for imposing it Neither of these Councils can be said to have been less Orthodox than that Council was in any point but that which they opposed And their very Opposing it shews that at those times it was not the sense either of the Eastern or of the Western Church When that Council obtained in the Eastern Church yet still it was opposed by the Western and however there also the practice crept in yet that Council has never been received in the Western Church as hath been lately proved by a most learned Writer Nor has Image-worship been defined by any other Council that could be said to Represent both the Eastern and Western Church In all Ages since the Councils which have defined any Articles have been but Western Councils at best For though some Greek Bishops were present at one or two of them yet what they consented to was never ratified by the Greek Church And for these Western Councils to give them their due it was not so much their fault if they lead us into Error as it is ours if we follow them in it For he that reads them and knows the History of their times will not chuse them for Guides if he has any care of that trust which God has given him of himself He cannot but see that bating the three last of those Councils which have not that Authority in the French Church nor with some other of that Communion all the rest were held in times of such palpable Ignorance that when they went amiss they could not well see how to do otherwise Their Bishops could not but be generally unqualified to judge of matters of Faith For they had a great want of good Books and of the Languages in which they were written I speak of those Books that are now chiefly used in all Questions of Faith as well by their as by our Writers And sure they that had them not to use could not but be miserably to seek in all those parts of knowledge which are Absolutely necessary for any one that should judge of those matters Namely those without which they could not Ordinarily know neither the true sense of holy Scripture nor the Judgments of Councils and Fathers nor the Practice of the Primitive Church We find by the best of their Writers in those times that they were so much to seek in those most needful things that not a Colledge in either of our Universities can be said without scandal to know no more in them than one of those Councils If instead of those last we bate four other of their Councils which are disowned by the Papalins for reasons which have been already given all the rest were in such Bondage to the Papacy that they had not the power to do otherwise than they did Their Bishops by Pope Hildebrand's device were all sworn to maintain the Royalties of St. Peter whereof one was that the Popes Faith could not fail And being assured of that as men should be of things which they swear their wisest course when matters of Faith came before them was to trust the Pope's Judgment and pass every thing as he brought it to their hands This way therefore they took and it saved them the trouble of Examination and Debate and such like Conciliary proceedings It may be worth the observing that in Seven General Councils which they reckon from the time of Pope Hildebrand downward among the many Doctrines which they are said to have Defined there is not one that appears to have cost them any more but the Hearing The Pope had them brought and read before the Council as if that was enough to make them their Acts as well as His. And this was the constant course till the Papacy was weakened by a long and scandalous Schism Then those Councils which made themselves superiour to the Pope thought fit to use their Own Judgment such as it was and they proceeded Conciliarly as Councils had done in former times Which way being more for the credit of their Definitions it was continued in those Councils which restored the Pope to his Supremacy with this difference only that whereas those Seven Councils above-mentioned passed all things in the Lump which the Pope or his Ministers brought before them the Councils since have passed them Piecemeal with some shew of using their own Judgment in every particular though in truth with so entire a resignation to the Pope that nothing could ever pass against his Interest or his will even when they seemed most to endeavour it So that in all these Councils whatsoever has passed in determining Doctrines of Faith is in truth no more than a Papal Decree though it bears the name and perhaps has some shew of a Councils Definition Lastly for the Judgment of the Diffusive Church we are not ignorant that many of the things thus imposed of which we can find no mention in Antiquity and which we know were first started long after the beginnings of Christianity yet have been received as well by Greeks as by the Latines in latter Ages But not to say by what means they obtained it we cannot forget what Ages those were in which these things came to gain such an Authority among Christians They were such as learned men of the Roman Communion who are acquainted with the Writers of those times I say as well with the Greek as Latine Writers do not at all reverence their Judgments apart whatsoever they think of them together in Councils And according to the Rule prescribed by those Fathers it will not pass for the Judgment of the Catholic diffusive Church though both Greeks and Latines agree in it and have done so for some Ages together There must be semper as well as ubique and ab omnibus Though the two last conditions may suffice to make us think any Doctrine to be true or at least the Error in it not to be Damnable yet to make us believe it is a Doctrine of Faith there must be semper likewise without which it is no Catholic Tradition It is surely a great Affront to the Catholic Church and to the great Author and finisher of her Faith that as if that Faith once delivered were Insufficient there must be new things added to it from time to time by a Succession of men that take upon them to be his Vicars without making out any colourable title to that Office And though we find no such things in the Ancient Records of his Church though we see these are framed to support the new Authority of those Vicars and though we know how they abused the Ignorance and Tameness of many Ages yet because in those Ages these things were generally received and have mellowed some time since in the Faith of them that knew no better they are pleased to use this as an Argument not only why others must be concluded and bound for ever to sit down by their Judgment who had little and
contracted or I cannot do it here without exceeding the brevity which I design First Whereas all Roman Catholics are said to be obliged by their principles to follow the Judgment of the Roman Court I find little less than Demonstration for this in a Book lately published Where it is proved that they cannot justifie their calling themselves Catholics exclusively to all other Christians any otherwise than by resolving their Faith into the Infallibility of the Roman Church as united to the Pope that is really into the Infallibility of the Pope as being Head of the Church So that if he declare as it is evident he has done that those things which we call Popery are Articles of Faith they are bound if they will do things consequently to their Principles either to believe him in those Articles or else to relinquish that Communion This follows by good Reasoning though that way of proof is not so clear to a Vulgar Capacity as that which is drawn from Authority and appears in plain instances of Fact But what greater Instance can there be of this kind than the practice of the whole Roman Church which has actually followed the Judgment of the Roman Court and that in things which are properly Popery By the whole Roman Church I mean that which they call so themselves that is the governing part of the Clergy of all the Churches of that Communion that part which acts for all the rest in Ecclesiastical matters and by whose Acts all their Subjects are obliged according to their own Principles Now taking Popery as I have defined it to be the owning of the Pope's pretended Authority whether in Spirituals over the Universal Church or in Temporals over all Princes and States it hath been proved that this Roman Church owns this Doctrine in both the branches of it First in Spirituals there can be no question of this For none can be of the Governing Clergy without taking an Oath in which they own the Pope's Authority with a witness For they swear Fealty to him and that in those Terms which import as well a Temporal as a Spiritual subjection No doubt that was Hildebrand's sense that made the Oath and it is most agreeable to the Principles and Practices of them that Impose it But this I leave to Temporal Princes and States and especially to Protestants who are chiefly concerned to consider it Let the Oath be for Spirituals only it is enough to prove the Churches subjection to the Pope because in that sense at least it is taken by all the Governing Clergy And for the rest there is a Form of Profession by which they are sworn to him every one in his Person for fear they should not think themselves obliged by the Oaths of their Superiors If among them that are the Guides of Conscience to others there be any that makes no Conscience of an Oath yet such a one will go which way his Interest leads him And the Pope has them all secured to him by Interest likewise Not to speak of those ways that his Interests are theirs nor of other ways that he has to oblige them it is enough that he is so far Patron of the whole Church that none can have a Bishoprick or any other eminent Dignity but he must either take it of the Pope's gift or at least he must come to him for Confirmation Having two such sure holds on the Bodies and on the Souls of his Clergy the Pope is not only in present possession of a spiritual Monarchy over the whole Roman Church but he is as much as it is possible for him to be assured that none shall ever be able to take it out of his hands Unless the Princes of his Communion should come to find their Interest in a Reformation which is rather to be wisht for than to be expected in our Age otherwise there is nothing that can dispossess him but a general Council And that indeed he has some cause to apprehend upon the experience of former times It is remembred by others too often for the Pope to forget it how such a Council when time was humbled two or three of his Predecessors But then they that were for the Liberty of the Church had not only the Diffusive Church on their side but they had a good party among the Cardinals themselves Especially they had the Papacy at an Advantage being to Judge whose it was among them that pretended to it They had also the times very favourable to to them in other Circumstances which I shall not mention because they are not like to come again And yet then what ground they got from Popes of disputable Titles they lost afterward to those whose Titles were certain They left free Declarations and Laws for future times which might do good if there were men to put Life in them But withal they left a certain experiment to shew us that that good cannot be done by men who are so engaged to the Papacy Interest of it self were enough to give the Pope a Majority of Bishops in any Council where Conscience did not bear too much sway It was observed by one that writ for the Authority of those Councils that they could never keep up their side for this reason because the Pope had the disposing of all the Livings But how much greater must his Party be when all the Bishops are bound in Conscience likewise as far as an Oath can oblige them to support the Popes spiritual Monarchy It is hard for men to think that such an Oath does not bind them as well when they are together as severally We see the Pope so well understood this that when it was proposed during the Council of Trent that to make it a Free Council he should dispense with the Oaths of all the Bishops that sate there his Legates declared that they would rather die than consent to it I suppose they would not have been so much concerned for that which they had not found to be of very great use in their business And we see the effect of it For all the Bishops there present though it was against many of their wills yet suffered the Council to be prorogued and translated and rid about how and when the Pope pleased till he had done with them that is till they had made it unnecessary for him ever to have another Council But as safe as he has made himself in case there should be a General Council it cannot be denied that it is safer for him to have none And therefore presuming there shall be none for the future as we may judge by the experience of the last hundred years we come now to consider what his power is in the Intervals of Councils During these it is acknowledged by the whole Roman Church and that as well by the Laity as the Clergy that the Pope has the supreme Authority over all Christians Which being another kind of Supremacy
clear themselves nor satisfie us by any form of profession they can make Because we must still suspect that such persons do prevaricate even in those forms by which they seem to renounce Prevarication This Objection hath been made and it is not without visible cause Now in answer to this it cannot be denied but that many of them have maintained such Principles of this kind as would destroy all possible trust in dealing with them And if they had stood to these Principles in their Actions this would have given us cause to suspect all the rest of their Communion while they continue in it But whatsoever they say in their disputes we have reason to judge of their belief by what they shew of it when they come to the trial of Action And thus even the Papalins themselves have not ventured to act upon these Principles even where they could have nothing to hinder them from it but convictions of Conscience They who have died rather than they would take that Oath which according to these Principles they might have taken and prevaricated in it have plainly shewn that even they durst not trust their own subtilties when they came to be practised Nay the Pope himself who hath forbidden them to take these Oaths and hath animated them to be Martyrs rather than take them would not have exposed his dearest friends to such extreme hazards if in earnest he himself could have approved the practising of these Principles The utmost therefore that we may fear in dealing with them seems only this that whilst they renounce one form of Prevarication they may make use of another If they renounce Equivocation they may at the same time believe themselves obliged not to Equivocate and yet not renounce the belief of the Popes Authority to dispense with their Oath if that be not expresly contained in the Form But we have no Reason to believe that men of such Politics as the Court of Rome are known to be can possibly when they come to practise own fuch Principles as are like to prove so prejudicial to their own Interest Or if they should be overseen so far as to do this yet the mischief that would follow upon it being likely to prove more dangerous to themselves than to us we have no reason to fear running the hazard of it For if there are any that believe that they may prevaricate in the very same form of prevarication which they renounce How is it possible that the Roman Court it self can be assured of such persons That Court it self hath found by experience that it hath had many real enemies that still pretended to live in its Communion How can they be assured but that many of these who pretend to be their Servants and Subjects may prove to be their dangerous Enemies If in earnest they may prevaricate even coram Iudice in a thing not belonging to his Jurisdiction how can the Court secure themselves that persons persuaded of the injustice of the Popes Claim to a power in temporal things upon any pretence whatsoever may not prevaricate with him since they believe that these matters belong not to his Jurisdiction How can they secure themselves but that multitudes of such persons may therefore still keep to their Communion purposely to form Intrigues against them which they could not do if they were out of it It is certain that not only the Papalins have owned these Doctrines but even those who have been the greatest Adversaries of the Papacy among themselves Particularly the Council of Constance is that which gave Authority to the Doctrine of breaking Faith with known Heretics And according to the definition of that same Council the Pope himself and all they who challenge for him the Supremacy over Councils are Heretics for doing so And therefore why may they not break Faith with him as well as with any other Heretic This is a just reason for him to suspect and they who are once suspected can give him no assurance by these Principles Since therefore the belief of this liberty of using Reflexive Prevarication is neither for the Interest nor agreeable to the practice of the Roman Court it self and since the danger that may follow in the trust of it must be more theirs than ours for it destroys the Faith of all whom they have to employ either to defend themselves or to prejudice us we have reason to believe that Forms whereby they renounce prevarication may oblige them to bar themselves the use of those Prevarications which they do therein expresly renounce So that for giving us compleat security nothing more can be desired but that the Forms to be tendred to them may take in all the cases wherein any celebrated Doctors among them do allow them this liberty of prevaricating And therefore the drawing up of this Test would be more properly a work of Divines than of Statesmen and more particularly of such Divines as have been most conversant in the Casuists of the Roman Church If this will not suffice how is it possible that even Protestants who are once suspected of inclining to Popery can ever purge themselves of this Imputation We have had too many Instances of unjust Accusations of this kind It hath been generally the Fate of them who have been most zealous for the Church of England or for any thing of Order and Discipline in it to have been thus represented to the people by men who have desired to make them odious And the mischief which must follow upon this distrust among our selves even of those who are our most zealous Patriots and therefore most eminently capable of doing service is a mischief much greater than we can fear from any thing that can follow on such a trust of the Romanists as have been here described It will make us uncapable of driving on any great design either for our own defence or to defeat their machinations against us And therefore it must be much more mischievous to us than any hurt we can suffer from those of the Roman Communion especially from those who desire not our trust but protection If it be farther suspected that when they have taken all the Tests that can be given them still their minds may alter after all this and that so long as their Priests are near them and have their ear we have too just reason to suspect that they may actually change It will be easie to reply that a change may be possible when all diligence hath been used to the contrary But we have no reason to believe it probable of them who by a Test that hath been before propounded shall profess themselves more obliged to theirDuty to King and Country than to any Judgment or Interest of their Church to the contrary For whosoever they are that are ready to oppose the Judgment of their Church it self if she should declare any thing contrary to their duty it cannot in reason be supposed that they should be so far
influenced by a Priest as to do that for his sake which they would not do in obedience to the Church But if yet it be farther suspected that their Priests may be enabled to work such a change in their Penitents by their Intimacy and Assiduity with them and by that Reverence that is usually born to their Persons which being alway present with them may perhaps prevail more than the dumb Definitions of the Church Yet this danger the State may very easily remedy and will do it by the making of a just and prudent discrimination For that being to be made by such a Test as the State shall require no other Priests will be allowed but only such as have taken it And the Test being made with such a Clause as hath been proposed the Priests that take it will be upon the same terms with their Laity and will be equally obliged in behalf of the State to oppose any pretence that can be brought by any person or power whatsoever to draw them from their Allegiance And if there be any fear of Practices against the State by them that having taken the Test have been secretly changed by some means against which no provision is made the danger of this also may be prevented as far as any thing may be done by Obligations of Conscience Not to say that their Interest will oblige them likewise in great measure It may be done by a frequent Repetition of this Test which may discover any change in some short time after it is made and so may give an early stop to any practices which might follow upon it The Priests also may be obliged by their Oath to declare the Independent Right of Kings in their Sermons as expresly and as oft as the State shall prescribe And it may be so ordained that they shall continue in their charge no longer than while they can bring sufficient Testimony that they have done it These expedients will suffice in all likelihood to prevent the defection of them who have given security to the State or at least will secure it in time from receiving any dangerous hurt by their defection CONCLVSION TO conclude all with a brief Summary of what I conceive advisable in this whole affair I think it is not so proper to make the distinction between Regulars and Seculars Because many Seculars are more addicted to these Principles than many of the Regulars and some of the Regulars have declared against these Principles and suffered for it more than any Seculars in our age Besides that it may seem very partial to prejudge men by their Ranks when they may distinguish themselves sufficiently otherwise Yet withal whereas there are divers of those Regular Orders that were never received in England even by the Romanists themselves and who have here intruded themselves as well against their own Canons as against the known Laws of the Land it is but reasonable that we should take that Advantage against them which not only our Laws but even their own Canons will allow Especially where we have Reason in other regards to suspect them above others of being active and industrious in driving on dangerous defigns And this Advantage may be taken against three eminent Orders among them which have been founded since the Reformation and were never Canonically received here in England and yet are as Active as any other in designs for the advancing of Popery For the rest who are not thought fit to be totally excluded the most equal way for them and as secure a way for us to distinguish them is to do it by such a Test as has been more than once before mentioned That this is a safe way may appear from what hath been already shewn that even the high Papalins themselves cannot prevaricate in renouncing Prevarication and therefore may be capable of giving assurance to the State by submission to Tests if they are known to be consciencious otherwise But antecedently to any Test for some of them it would be requisite that they should first renounce their former Oaths and Obligations or explain them so as to secure us that they will not be induced by them to any dangerous practice against the State Those of them as their Bishops and others who have taken Oaths to the Pope as they are prescribed by their Pontifical either to explain them if they can possibly do it so that we may be satisfied of their Innocency or to retract them where they will not admit of such an Explication And here also it ought to be considered what Oaths are taken by those Proselytes whom they gain into the Roman Communion When this is done and not till then they may be capable of being admitted to take the Test. Which ought in reason to contain all that which the Law hath already prescribed as being that which the wisdom of our Law-makers have judged fit and sutable to their condition It is not reasonable for them to expect that any of those trials should be waved which have been made even since the Reformation as long as the same Reason continues which prevailed with our Legislators to prescribe them But if they were to make a Test for themselves I do not see how they can with any confidence decline those professions which were made by their Ancestors before the Reformation They have so frequently boasted of them and alledge them as Arguments of the Consistence of their Religion with their Loyalty And therefore it were fit that the Test should take in all those Doctrines concerning the Rights of Kings which are contained or supposed in the Ancient Laws Especially in those which themselves have produced for the honour of their Communion as namely the Assize of Clarendon the Statutes of Provisors and Premunire These they cannot with any confidence refuse if they will but pretend to deal ingenuously and to let us see that they have been in earnest in those Elogies which they have given their Predecessors for making them Beside the forementioned particulars it were also needful for our satisfaction that they would profess themselves so far convinced in Conscience of their Obligation to their Prince and Country that no Ecclesiastical Judge or Judicatory whatsoever shall be able to draw them either from the belief or from the practice of their Duty This will fully secure us of their Loyalty if they deal sincerely in it And for satisfying us of their sincerity it hath already been advised to renounce all their pretences to Dissimulation And great care should be taken that no Doctrine be left out of this Test which would leave them any liberty of this kind in the Judgment of any celebrated or uncensured Casuist in their Church This will be not only a sufficient but also a just ground to distinguish between them For when a Test being thus contrived shall be prescribed by Authority it will then appear that none are like to suffer the severity of the Laws but they who either are
truly Criminal or are justly suspected of being so even for their refusing of such a Test. And then that due severity which may be thought necessary to preserve the State from their practising against it may be executed on them with less colour of exception to the Penalties They who have extolled the Loyalty of their forefathers in making those Laws already mentioned cannot except against the Penalties mentioned in those Laws They cannot pretend that there was any other Cause of severity in them but their care for the security of the Public for they were otherwise of their own Communion and therefore could not be liable to any suspition of that rigour against them of which they may suspect us in regard of our differences of Communion For other penalties I say no more but leave them to the wisdom of the State who best know that due measure of severity that is requisite in our present Circumstances For as their case may in some Reasons vary from the condition of them against whom those Laws were made so it is fit that their punishments should do so too whether their case be more excusable now or then that also I do not take upon me to determine For them who will take the Test so contrived and that as oft as the State shall require it were fit that such favour be shewn to them as may consist with the safety of the State And all the favour which themselves have desired is their exemption from Sanguinary Laws and protection against their Popish Adversaries and permission to live in their Country upon the same terms as other dissenters do who are as Innocent as themselves will be upon this supposal As for Places of trust they do not pretend to them Which may be a security against all reasonable jealousies For other Laws which have been made against the forein Education of their Children they will not then have the pretence of any necessity for it when they may have them taught at home by persons well affected to the State and yet otherwise of their own Religion And they will have no excuse if they do it without any necessity So that they cannot object against any Determination that the State shall think fit to make in that particular whether the Laws now in force shall be continued or changed and if continued under whatsoever Conditions and Penalties it should be done And if it be thought fit to impose on them such small pecuniary Penalties as may only oblige them in Interest to endeavour the farther satisfaction of their Conscience it might be convenient that those sums were applied to maintain converts to the Church and to reward them that shall inform the State how these things are observed among them This will be likely to keep up the practice of these Laws when they cannot be secured from discoverers among themselves And may also be a means by degrees to reduce them to the Communion of the Church in order to the capacitating of them for farther favours Thus much was in Prudence necessary to be said to shew as well the Practicableness as the Convenience of this Proposal The Convenience has appeared in the Discourse it self and the Practicableness in the Answer to the Objections For other more particular Expedients I leave them to the Prudence of the State whose most proper Office it is and who are best acquainted with all particular Circumstances to determine FINIS a P. 44. these ten years P. 50. March was twelve month P. 66 M. Luzance 's case b Chiefly from p. 80. till the Conclusion All Churches and Sects are Popish according to some mens Notions of Popery No Rites nor Doctrines common to other Churches which are not in Communion with the Pope can be Popish but in a false Notion of the word The true Notion of Popery describ'd Of the Pope's Authority over all Christians This Authority was the first thing in Popery All other Popish Errours were brought in by it This Authority is the chief thing in Popery a Poli. Reformatio Angliae decr 1. b Ib. decr 2. c Conc. Lateran V. Sess. 2. d Sess. 3. e Sess. 4. f Sess. 11. g Conc. Trident. Sess. 25. decr de Reform c. 21. h Ib. c. 2. i Ib. in Contin decr 5. Obedience to this Authority the only sure property of Roman Catholicks Camd. Eliz. anno 1560. It is also the worst thing in Popery * Martyrolog Roman Maii 25. * Rev. 13.5 * Luke 4.6 It is worst in the Construction of the Law Camd. Eliz. Anno 1571. Ib. Anno 1577. Ib. Anno 1581. * Rishton says it of himself in his virulent Cont. of Sand. de Schism Angl. Papist an equivocal word Improperly Papists * R. C. i. e. Ricardus Chalcedonensis alias Dr. Smith the last Roman Catholick Bishop that pretended Jurisdiction here in England was of this mind as appears by his Book against the Bishop of Derry entituled A Brief Survey c. Vid. cap. 5. p. 55. where he says 't is no point of Faith whether the Pope be St. Peter's Succeffor Iurâ— Divino or Humano Half-Papists Throrough-Papists Their Description Zenzelini Glossa Dominus Deus noster Papa Vid. Glos. Extravag Cum inter de verb. signif Edit Paris An. 1585. The main Argument Undistinguishing Severity is not the way to suppress Popery It would be ineffectual 2. It would not seem just and equitable It is so expresly provided in 27 Eliz. for fthe Oath of Supremacy and 3 Iac. for the Oath of Allegiance Justitia Britannica 8 o. Lond. 1584. and K. Iames works p. 252. 336. and K. Charles I. vol. 1. p. 384. * 1666 Iun. 11. V. Hist. of Irish Remonstrance part 2. page 671. * Dated 1533. Aug. 30. Camden Eliz. an 1592. Ibid. an 1602. pag. 276. * He writ his Books in the name of Widdrington The Pope and his party are against the distinguishing of Roman Catholicks * Pref. of his Book against Fitz Herbert the Jesuite * Father Fitz Herbert Hist. of the Irish Remons Part 1. p. 515. Two ways useful to the Pope's design against England I. An undistinguishing execution of the Laws agaiâ—st Popery II. Toleration Toleration is a way to destroy the establish'd Religion Toleration would weaken the Civil Government V. Dr. Baily's Life of B. Fisher about the end of it A Toleration would increase the number of Papists The true way to suppress Popery is by Severity to Papists and Clemency to other Roman Catholicks John 16.2 1 Pet. 2.14 Prov. 14.34 Isa. 28.19 Euseb. Hist. Eccl. V. 24. Vales. in locum Firmilians Epistle among Cyprian's Epist. 75. pag. 166. edit Rigaltii Cypr. Epist. 74. 75. Vide Rigalt in Cyprian Epist. 75. Iuly 28. and August 2. * Cyprian Ep. 74. 75. †Rigalt Obs. in Ep. 75. * Almost 22 years after the Reign of Alexander Severus Cyprian Epist. 75. p. 160. * In their Synodical Epist. * See in the Codex Canonum Universalis Ecclesiae or in the Councils Concil
appears that such a discrimination is also for the Interest of the Church and State of England For that Interest is preserv'd by Justice and Equity which will entitle it to that blessing from God which he hath promis'd in his Word and which are naturally apt to be instrumental to the Divine Providence in producing that good which he has promised For a just distribution of Rewards and Punishments makes the Government venerable in the eyes of the people and secures it at home by their chearful obedience It also acquires that Reputation abroad which will make it either loved or feared by all the neighbour Nations Our Neighbours of the Roman Communion who are now possest by the clamours of those among us that say they are persecuted for Religion and who can judge no otherwise when they see men severely handled that are criminal no other way will be soon disabused by such a discrimination And it will right us to those Protestants abroad to whom the State has been ill represented by fome on the other hand for not executing all the Penal Laws against Popery It will save England the trouble of making Apologies either way to vindicate the Justice of its proceedings to other Nations For it is manifest that no Government can tolerate such as hold Tenets inconsistent with its own safety nor on the contrary deny the protection of the Laws to men whose Principle it is to obey the Government and to do all that in them lies to support it To venture their lives in defence of the Authority not only of the Legislators but of those very Laws which they make against them till those Laws are repeal'd by the same power by which they were made It were easie to bring hither all those reasons with which I shewed before that undistinguishing Laws and execution of Laws are against the Interest of the Church and State of England and to prove by the same reasons that nothing of this kind can be more for it than such a Discrimination as is here propounded For if it be for the Interest of England to support and strengthen the Government then it is not to weaken the Friends of the Government nor to strengthen or preserve the Enemies of it I shew'd that such would be the effect of an undistinguishing way which is therefore desired by them of the Popish Faction as being next to a Toleration the most likely means to unite and to encrease their party among us Now taking those things for granted which are already proved it follows that upon the account of Interest this way of Discrimination should be as desirable to us as 't is hateful and detestable to them Sure enough they apprehend it and not without visible cause to be the likeliest way both to stop the further growth of Popery and to lessen the number of Papists among us I may add which is visible in the nature of the thing that a Discrimination between them that are of the same Communion will be a sure way to divide them among themselves Which may be a means to do some of them the greatest spiritual good or at least to keep us from taking that hurt which we have reason to fear from so numerous and powerful a Combination against us For the way of Distinction between Papists and other Roman Catholicks must be by some test or mark of Distinction And that either by the passing of some new Law for it especially when there is a new mark of Distinction or by the strict execution of those Laws that are in force for the taking of any Test that is already made In either of these Cases the Papalins who are men of intelligence will take an early alarm and try their Friends here in England if they can to prevent the passing of any such Law or the execution of any that is past If their Friends fail them here their next resort is to Rome where they have an old Friend that never fails them The Pope if he has not forgotten the old trick sends out his Censures against all that shall submit to those Laws and take the Test which is prescribed in them If it be no more than the Oath of Allegiance that is forbidden already by divers Popes and condemned by them as having many things in it which are contrary to the Catholic Faith And the reason of this severity is as well to guard their own Temporal Power as to keep their Creatures and Friends from discovery If any here and especially if any Priests of that Communion are so bold notwithstanding all this to take the Test then upon the next information or soon after the Pope sends to tell nofes And if he finds they are but few that transgress which will scarce be in our case he delays not to cite them to Rome and if they come thither woe be to them if not he curses them afresh and particularly But if they are many he considers their strength and being Curse-proof he forbears them for the present only leaving them under his general Censures Otherwise if they are a weak and obnoxious multitude he proceeds to further Censures against them And if some few have been more forward than the rest in doing that which the Law requires and specially if any dares justifie what they have done he denounces them Excommunicate by name and therein both sacrifices them to his own angry Deity and gives his discovered Creatures some kind of revenge on those poor men to ease their hearts till he and they can find how to be reveng'd on the State for which they are to wait their opportunity When any of these things happens as it has done in like cases and as it will do in these above-mentioned if Popes are constant to themselves For there is nothing here said but what I could prove both by Rule and Example we have reason to hope that some of those censur'd men who are able to right themselves or rather their Religion will do it by declaring against the horrible injury that is done both to it and them And specially their Priests who have hitherto alledg'd that the reason they have not done it all this while has been their continual fear of a Proclamation to send them beyond Sea where they are sure to be call'd to a severe account for whatsoever they have said or done against the Interest of Rome When that fear is over as it will be upon their giving security to the State it may justly be expected that they will both speak and write their minds freely as occasion shall be offered for the instruction of their people and for the Vindication of themselves and their Religion If the general Censures be objected as it is certain they will by those that procur'd them they will be oblig'd to shew the injustice and the invalidity of those Censures If they are Excommunicated by name for so doing they will be further engag'd to consider the Authority of him that lays