see here even One of their own Communion to have proved not only false but insupportable Let us beseech God if it be his Will to bring all others that are yet enslaved by them to the like knowledg of the Truth And that in the mean time he would vouchsafe unto us the Grace of his blessed Spirit that we may faithfully persevere in our Holy Profession to our Lives end That no Terrors no Interests no Craftiness of cunning Men who lie in wait to deceive may be able to make us fall from our own Stedfastness But that contending earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints we may grow in Grace and in the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To him be Glory both now and for ever Amen The Authors PREFACE THE Authority of the Pope hath taken such root by the ignorance of the Holy Scripture by the multitude of Ecclesiasticks and by all the Temporal Benefices whereof the Pope is looked upon as the Source that a kind of Miracle seems necessary to destroy it and to Reestablish the Church in that liberty which the Son of God hath purchased for it by his Blood. Besides Impiety Irreligion Ambition and Dissoluteness have so seized upon the minds of the greatest part of Mankind that a man cannot hope to be so much as heard when he speaks of Reforming the Church Aâ—tho I am very well satisfied of that yet I think my self indispensibly obliged to represent the abuses of this Power and Authority which hath no just foundation at least in this respect I shall in some measure justifie my self towards God in doing my Duty I shall justifie my self to my own self whom my Conscience hath long accused of a large and Criminal silence I shall also justifie the Catholicks against the Hereticks who will know by this that we are not so blind as they imagin And this will also serve to fortifie the Catholicks against all the Temptations they may have of abandoning the Church by freeing themselves from the Papacy so that Renouncing the latter they may always stand firm to the former and also prepare themselves to fight couragiously against Antichrist who in all appearance is near at hand I have a great while hoped that there would have been found among the great and learned men that we have among us some one or other that would have undertook to open mens eyes and would have saved me a labour therein I could consult no body without manifest danger both to themselves and me since it is a work that may equally displease both weak Catholicks and Hereticks being obliged in regard of the first to disentangle and separate truth from falshood and a falshood more beloved by many Catholicks than the most Important truths And in regard of the Hereticks I know it is the way to undermine the foundation of their false Religions tho without dispute and indirectly in abolishing the Papacy In respect both of the one and of the other the effects of this mischievous Authority are terrible since it fills the Catholicks with ignorance and gross and low Ideas of the Christian Religion and mars the beauty of that as well as of the Church The Hereticks are thereby scandalized and harden themselves more and more in their obstinacy perswading themselves that every thing in our Religion is false seeing clearly that some part of it is so It is not to be doubted but that many Catholicks of our time do see this evil since in the preceding Ages many have perceived it and that the evil is come to so high a degree that it is almost impossible not to take notice of it And truly there have been some who could not forbear saying somewhat of it but this hath been but very slightly and superficially It seems as tho they were ashamed of Jesus Christ and his Gospel as the Scripture speaks In truth it is a deplorable thing that amongst the multitude of learned men professing the Christian Religion and that employ themselves in writing there cannot be found so much as one man of understanding touched with the miseries of the Church and of such courage as to represent it to those who may and ought to remedy it the Sacriledg daily committed in the Church under the very name of the Church and under the pretence of Religion Either the greatness of the evil must discourage them and bereave them of all hopes and not being able to cure the Ulcer they had rather let it wholly alone Omittere potius praevalida Adulta vitia quam hoc assequi ne palam fieret qualibus flagitiis Impares simus Tac. Annal. Lib. 3. or else it must be that their own interest is concerned in the continuance of this evil or that they have no regard for the desolations of the Church or lastly they are afraid of shaking the Catholick Religion in respect of weak Brethren and for fear of giving occasion to the Hereticks thereby to insult over it If they had these last thoughts it was for want of examining the thing for it is certain that the Papacy hath neither by nature nor Divine institution any connexion with the Christian Religion but on the contrary its Principles are opposite and tend to its destruction It is also certain that those who have separated themselves from the Church see very clearly the inconsistency of the Papacy with the Gospel since there was nothing else that heretofore obliged the Greeks and since the Protestants to forsake the Church so that no man can believe but that they see the thing very well since it is the only place wherein they daily attack us with a mighty advantage and tho it were not true that they knew it perfectly we are however indispensibly obliged to oppose Errors Mendacia nec tegunt nec vulnerant and not to palliate them and certainly not sincerely to acknowledg palpable gross abuses is to betray Religion and the Church for that makes men call in question the best establisht Truths according to that saying He that denies all things grants all things Qui en todo niga loda And I have always observed that a frank and generous acknowledgment when a man is in an error produces a very good effect upon all judicious and reasonable persons and disposeth the Protestants with much more readiness to embrace the Catholick Verities Furthermore I dare be bold to affirm That one of the principal causes of the irreligion and impiety which reigns in the World proceeds in great measure from the little Reason and Wisdom wherewith this Primacy and Papal Almighty power is exercised which converting all Religion to its Temporal Profit makes the very Divinity of the Christian Religion to be called in question For as the World goes men will have all or nothing So that having at first received the Article of the Papacy as an Article of Faith whilst they see the Popes under colour of this Article robbing and
John the 23 d. of Benedict the 13 th and Gregory the 12 th and even to give encouragement to all other Princes to do as he had done and he had much less cause to do it than we have at this time You see his reasons in the Letters of the University of Paris in Theodore a Nyem which were that they would not consent that the disorders of the Church should be regulated by a free Council and that they would not submit themselves to the Decisions of the Church Are not we now again just in the same condition since the Councils of Constance and of Basil For those which have been Assembled since deserve not the name of Councils because there was no liberty in them and every thing was there done by the Inspiration not of God but the Popes France did but half free it self from this yoke for quickly after we suffered our selves to be drawn in and have been like to have been undone many a time since by it Nor do I make any great account of the Conduct of the Venetians which is so highly commended who after having known the nature of the Papacy and the Genius of this power have but half freed themselves from this slavery nay less than half They have behaved themselves in this according to their ordinary custom following moderate Councils where excess was not to be feared and where it could not be committed Consilia media quod inter ancipitia deterrimum est nec ausi sunt satis nec providerunt For they have still this Viper in their bosom which they stupifie as much as they can but he may some time or other revive and devour them They have every day a thousand difficulties with these cunning Romans who will be always spying out occasions to destroy them and to reduce them absolutely under their yoke They should renounce perfectly and for â—ver all dependance upon this See and thus shall they be better able to regulate their Clergy which is as licentious as that of Rome which they dare not reform because it would be to be feared that to maintain themselves in this Roman Libertinism they should give assistance to the Pope to oppress the Republick that they might always enjoy the full liberty of the children of the See of Rome Vulgo dissoluta gratior est quam Temperata vita vivere ut quisque velit permisit quoniam sic magna erit tali Reipublicoe faventium Magnitudo Et hoc Humanitas vocabatur ac ne pars servitutis esset c. Will any man still say Ought we not to be of the Roman Church People are not contented with being in the Catholick and Apostolick Church if they are not in the Roman they seem desirous of having a share in the Abominations of this City and of this Court but the Romans are not at all desirous to be of the Gallican Church I would fain know for what reason we should be rather of the Roman Church than the Romans of the Gallican Church Rome is not as heretofore it was the Seat of the Empire and tho it were we hold no longer of the Empire and it is a contradiction for a man to be in the Catholick Church in the Gallican and in the Roman Churches both together for the first is the General and the other two are particulars You may always have Communion with all the Romans who live in the fear of God with the Pope of Rome himself if he be a Christian but not to depend upon him nor upon Rome You shall be as the Christians of the Primitive Church were for more than six hundred years You shall pay no more Annates you shall buy no more Bulls nor Dispensations You shall be much more Catholick than before for then you may hold Communion with the Greeks and Protestants by drawing them home to the Faith of the Church whereas the See of Rome is at this time a wall of Separation between them and us CHAP. III. That the pretended Authority of the Papacy hath never done any good to the Church A Confutation of whatever is said to the advantage of this Power to prove it necessary to the world by shewing at the same time that it hath been the cause of all the Evils of the Church THEY maintain that the Papacy hath heretofore done and still doth a great deal of good to the Church and to the world this I can confute all at once by a thing which the world knows which is that we have in no place so many true Christians as in those Catholick Countries where this power is least known as in France Flanders and Germany But let us see particularly what good the Papacy doth It is a common saying that there is nothing so bad but that you may make some use of it either in its nature or in conjunction with other things Let us then examine the usefulness of the Papacy omitting nothing that can be said to its advantage It is says Cardinal Perron The Center and the root of Chriâ—tian Vnity These are fine words I confess but we shall find but very little sense in them if we a little consider them for I ask him In what this Unity doth consist and how the Pope is the center and the root of it If this Unity be in the pure service of God methinks that God should be the center of it and not the Pope and that it is also God who is the root of it that is the influencing principle over the will and strength of men to serve him and to do well If this Unity be for doing what is evil it is then but a conspiracy and I do confess that in regard of wicked Clergy-men who are the members of the Pope he is the source of all their Impiety Ambition and Dissoluteness and he is the center of the Unity of these people who belong all to him and as for themselves he is the center of their worship and would be so to all other men Palavicini says that the union and submission of all Catholicks to the Pope makes a band a life perfectly Politick Vna conjunctione di vita perfâ—tta mente Politica He says not a Christian but a Politick life and according to him it is the same thing And in another place he says the Church is the most happy Body Politick in the world Corpo Politico il piu felice che sia in terra This Unity as I said before consists only in their obedience to the Pope whom they all honour for thâ—ir profit looking upon him as the source of Riches of Honours and of all the pleasures whiâ—h they have according to the flesh Secondo la carne This Unity is in the conformity of judgment which they all make of the riches of the Churches Patrimony which is that they are good It is certain that it is not in their opinions for what Clergy-man is there who cares for the Popes
of Vicars of Jesus Christ which they insolently assume have cast the Church into the most deplorable Desolation and have ravaged all Christian Kingdoms who authorise all sorts of Vice and Disorder both in the Church and in the World dethrone Kings the anointed of God tread upon the Necks of Emperours dispence with the Oaths of Allegiance in their Subjects dispence with the Laws of God and his Gospel hinder Christians from reading the holy Scripture without which we cannot be Christians and unmercifully murther Men for their Religion by their Inquisition ought it to be questioned whether such People as these should be exterminated Pope Innocent himself and many others are of Opinion that we may destroy those that sin against Nature And St. Augustin says Opinantur scelera facienda decerni qualia si quis terrena Civitas decerneret genere humano decernente fuerat evertenda Seneca hath also a fine saying upon this Si non Patriam meam impugnat sed suae gravis est sepositus a meâ gente suam exagitat abscidit nihilominus illum tanta pravitas animi In fine no Man can doubt whether those who curse their Father and Mother and tread them under their Feet or those that live upon Humane Flesh or Pirates upon the Sea without Commission from any Prince ought to be extirpated and whether all Princes have not a right to destroy them if they can I maintain that the Popes do all this and worse I have already shewed it in what I have related But besides all this what can a Man think of these Men who call themselves their Holinesses which is a Title that belongs only to God and is one of the most excellent of all his Attributes who call themselves Vicars of Jesus Christ to dethrone Jesus Christ from his Church and govern it at their own fantasy who say that they are infallible and above the Councils that they can open Heaven and shut up Hell put out the Fire of Purgatory when they please save and damn whom they please who make themselves be called God and the Divine Majesty and cause themselves to be worshipped I demand whether there be any thing like this in the Crimes of others the most vile and miserable Creatures and that which is the most terrible of all is that the Popes do every day cast down many Millions of Souls headlong into Hell. Do not such things as these deserve the Vengeance of Princes here on Earth The Insensibility and Stupidity of Christians must be very great this their Lethargy to me appears monstrous and certainly there must be in it somewhat supernatual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hippocrates says of some strange Diseases which are wholly unknown If the Interest of God and his Church were here only concerned it would not be so surprising for usually Princes seldom trouble themselves with that they cry Deorum injuriae diis curae but here where they are robbed of their Majesty to dress up a pack of Rascals with it where they are made Tributary where their Authority is limited where part of their Subjects are withdrawn from them by Exemptions and base Laws which make them contemptible as well to those who thus plunder them as to others who secure themselves under the Covert of this Tyranny It is unconceiveable that Princes should have so much Patience for tho the Primacy of St. Peter could be proved that he was Bishop of Rome and left there his Succcessours either as he was an Apostle or a Bishop must I say such People as these be his Successours and make all these Crimes their common Practise and go still unpunished They shall as soon make me worship the Devil as believe it And I really believe that it would be no hard matter to make them who adhere to the Papacy both receive and serve him They would soon relish the Reasons of the Manicheens who said that there were two Principles the one good and the other bad or the Argument of those Indians who believed they ought to worship the Devil because he could do them hurt and that God being all good of himself could do them none and so it is not necessary to adore him This now looks very amazing but they who are so much in love with the Papacy would soon receive it if any Man of Sense would give a little colour to it and there were good Benefices to be hoped for by it which could not otherwise be obtained if they might have fine Churches and re-establish the fine Ceremonies of Numa Pompilius if their only care might be to divert the Eyes and Eares of the People with Musick and rare Shews as heretofore they did to those miserable Jews who brought their Children to Moloch and whilst they burned they played upon all sorts of Instruments and entertained them with the most delightful Musick that they might not hear the Cries of their poor Children Can we think it strange as things go that the Protestants are not converted There would be in my Opinion greater reason to wonder if they should embrace the Catholick Religion whilst the Pope should exercise this horrible Tyranny for I do maintain that there is no Man of Honour that hath any Modesty or Sense of Christianity that can digest this Article of the Almighty Power of the Pope if at least it hath not been riveted in him from his Childhood and he been brought up in this Opinion all his Life-time without ever making any Reflection upon it But for the Protestants we must never pretend to make them believe that the Popes are Heads of the universal Church established by Jesus Christ to govern it as it is governed there is no Man of Sense will ever be perswaded to believe this But it may be said that the great Truths which the Catholâ—ck Religion teaches give us so great an advantage over the Hereticks that they ought to make no difficulty of passing over such an Error as this to enter into the Communion of the Church For my part I am of Opinion that a Man's Conversion is a work supernatural and from the hand of God who filling the Heart of Man with Light and Courage makes him overcome Darkness and his natural Weakness and that a true Conversion is always accompanied with Zeal towards God and Charity towards our Neighbour This being supposed I maintain that they who are converted by these Principles do in effect embrace with their whole Heart the Catholick Truths but that their Charity and the Zeal towards God which animates them shall always make them resist and oppose to the utmost of their Power all Impostures and Falsities whatsoever that they shall chearfully lose their Estates and Lives to deliver the Church from so miserable a Slavery as the Papacy is It is a great unhappiness that the Protestants have separated themselves not from the Pope but from the Church and that they have invented Novelties to fortify their Schism which at