laid before them they are obliged to submit or they fall from the Catholick Faith the chief Branch of which is To believe all the Traditions of the Church And since the Church is the same in all Ages according to their Doctrine the Traditions of any one Age must be as good as the Traditions of any other can be all being grounded on the same Authority And now let all the Reasons that Arnold brings to prove from the Churches believing Transubstantiation in any Age that she must have always believed it be considered and applied with a small variation of the Terms to this Purpose and we shall see if they conclude not as strongly in favour of this Doctrine as for that which he has pursued so much How can it be imagined says he that a Doctrine so contrary to common Sence and Reason could have been so universally received if every Man had not been taught it by those who instructed him in the Faith Will Men easily change their Faith Or tho particular Persons would prevaricate would the whole Clergy conspire to do it Or would the People take it easily off their hands These and many more Topicks of that sort may be so mustered up and set off by a Man of Wit and Eloquence that an ordinary Person would stare and not know what to say The Premises will shew that there is need but of very little Art to change the same Plea and fit it to this purpose with two great advantages beyond what can be fanci'd to be in the other The one is that the generality of Mankind is naturally more concerned in the preservation of Temporal things than about nice points of Speculation the one they see and handle every day and are much concerned about the other they hear little of and are not much touched with them So that it is less probable there could be a change made in opinions on which the Titles of Princes and the Peace of Kingdoms depended than about subtil Discourses concerning Mysteries So that the Plea is stronger for the Tradition of deposing Kings than for Transubstantiation A second Difference is That there was a continual Opposition made to the belief of Transubstantiation in all Ages which they themselves do not deny only they shift it off the best they can by calling the Opposers Hereticks but for the deposing Doctrine there was not one Person in the whole World that presumed to bring it in question from the first time it was pretended to till those whom they call Hereticks disputed against it and tho some few others who hold Communion with them have ventured on a canvasing of that Doctrine it is well enough known what thanks they got from Rome nor can they shew any one Book licensed according to the Rules of their Church that denies it And thus the Plea for this Doctrine has a double Advantage beyond that for Transubstantiation Upon the whole matter then if Tradition be a sure Conveyance and if we may pronounce what is truly a Tradition either from the Opinions of Doctors the Constitutions of Popes the Decrees of General Councils and the universal Consent of the whole Church for some Ages then the Doctrine of deposing Kings to which all these agree must be reckoned among Church-Traditions There is but one other Mark that can be devised of a Tradition which is What the Church has taught and believed in all Ages but for a certain Reason which they know very well they will not stand to that They know we do not refuse such Traditions and if only such may be received then the Worship of Images the Prayers to Saints the Worship in an unknown Tongue the Belief of Transubstantiation the Sacrifice of the Mass the denying the Chalice to the Laity the redeeming Souls out of Purgatory with many other things of the like nature will be soon taken off of the File And indeed in this sence the deposing Doctrine is so far from being a Tradition that we have as undeniable Evidences that the Church for the first six Ages knew nothing of it but on the contrary abhorred the thoughts of it as we have that their Church these last six Ages has set it up From which among many other Reasons we conclude that these latter Ages have not been acted with the same Spirit nor followed the same Doctrine that was the Rule of the former Ages There is more than enough said to shew that these Doctrines are a part of their Faith from which they can never extricate themselves but by confessing either that their Church has erred or that Tradition is no true Conveyance when they do either of these they turn their Backs on Rome and are in a fair away to come over to our Church with which purpose I pray God inspire them The mean while it is no wonder if those of that Communion have been guilty of such horrid Plots and Rebellions every where especially in England since Henry the 8th's time There was in his Reign First a Rebellion in Lincolnshire another greater one in the North and some lesser ones after that In Edward the 6th's time there were Risings both in the North and in the West But these succeeded so ill and turned only to the ruine of their own Party that they resolved to try secreter ways in Queen Elizabeth's time in whose long and blessed Reign there scarce passed one year in which there was not some Plot against her Life There was not Matter enough to work upon for raising any considerable Rebellion in England But in Ireland there were more frequent attempts that way It is true the Care and Providence of God was too hard for all their Plots how closely soever laid and they were turned back on themselves not so much to the ruine of the chief Plotters who were wise enough to conveigh themselves out of the way as of many Noble Families that were poysoned with their ill Principles All the Blood which the State was forced to shed lies at their door who were continually giving fresh Provocations And for King Iames not to mention the Conspiracies against him in Scotland nor that Plot of Cobham and Watson upon his first coming to this Crown the Gun-powder Treason was a thing that went beyond all the wicked Designs that had been ever in any Age contrived And when his late Majesty was Embroiled in his Affairs in this Island how did they take advantage from that Conjuncture to break out into a most horrid Rebellion in Ireland joyned with a Massacre of Persons of whatsoever Age or Sex or Condition Which was so far set on by Rome that a Nuncio came publickly to direct their Councils I will not dwell on Particulars that are suffciently known but only name these things to shew That no Reign of any of our Princes since the Reformation has been free from the dismal effects of these Doctrines And for his Sacred Majesty who now Reigns whom God long preserve from their Malice they
have felt such signal marks of his Royal Clemency that they can have no colour to complain except it be because they cannot bear any Office in the Nation For what Noise soever they make of the severe Laws yet in force both against the Clergy and Laity of their Religion they cannot pretend that since his Majesties happy Restauration any Priest has died or any Family has been ruined for their Religion But I confess it is enough according to the Doctrine of their Church to discharge them of their Allegiance That the King is a favourer of Heresy and if upon this Reason they will still Plot and Conspire against his Person and Government we have no reason to wonder at it for they act according to their Principles Nor have these Islands been the only Scenes in which those Principles have produced such dismal Effects If we look abroad and reflect on what was done in France we shall find they have had the same Operation there I need not mention that perfidious and cruel Massacre that as Thuanus tells us was so much extolled in Rome and Spain and of which the Pope has a Memorial kept in the Hangings at the entrance of his Chappel to this day The Barricadoes of Paris the design of Deposing Henry the 3d only because he had made Peâ—…ce with the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde the whole progress of the holy League their taking Arms against that King when the Duke and Cardinal of Guise were killed by his Orders and at last his being stabbed by Clement a Dominican Friar are Instances beyond exception The prosecution of the Rebellion against Henry the 4th the attempt made upon his Person by Iohn Chastel which was more successful in Ravilliack's hands shew sufficiently That a Princes turning from that which they call Heresie over to their Church does not secure him unless he will extirpate Hereticks For tho Henry the 4th changed his Religion yet the favour he shewed the Protestants in the Edict of Nantes was a thing never to be forgiven These things were set on and encouraged from Rome and pleaded for by their Writers That the holy League was authorized from Rome that Sixtus the 5th by his Bulls declared the King of Navar incapable of the Succession that he intended to have Deposed Henry the 3d and that he rejoyced at his death and magnified the Fact preferring it to Eleazar's killing the Elephant and Iudeth's killing Hollofernes and ascribed it to a singular Providence and Disposition of the Almighty called it a great Miracle and appeared vain that a Friar had done it having been one himself tho no doubt he had liked it better if Clement had been of his own sute and would have had himself thought a Prophet for foretelling it and so he might well do perhaps and in the end concluded That unfortunate Kings favouring Hereticks to be the unpardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost These were all so publickly done that it were a needless labour to go about the proving them Francis Veronne wrote a Book to justify both the Facts of Clement the Dominican and Chastel as well he might from the Principles of their Church After all these dismal Facts was it not time for the States of France to think of some effectual Remedy to prevent the like for the future And they judged aright that without Condemning the Deposing Power it could not be done To which as was already hinted the Clergy made such vigorous Opposition that it came to nothing If these things had flowed only from the heat of some violent Spirits the danger were not so great but it is the Doctrine of their Church so Lessius under the name of Singletonus says That if the power of Deposing lies not in the Pope the Church must of necessity Err which has taught it and to assert that is Heretical and a more intollerable Error than any about the Sacrament can be And Becanus Confessor to Ferdinand the 2d says No Man doubts but if Princes are Contumacious the Pope may order their Lives to be taken away What security then can there be found out from Persons who give up their Consciences to the conduct of Men of such Principles and profess an Implicite Obedience and belief of all that their Church teaches and commands which possesses all its Votaries with such cursed rage against Hereticks that not content to adjudg them to eternal Flames in another Life they must needs Persecute and Burn without Mercy where they have the Power in their Hands and Plot and Conspire Kill and Massacre without relenting where they have not Power to do it with any colour of Law Men of Honour will not be easily drawn in to such Practices But in Conclusion when a fit Opportunity appears they must either forsake their Church or concur in the most mischievous Designs that the Masters of their Consciences will draw them into which I pray God make them see in good time before they are Involved in such Snares that Repentance will come too late to do them good or to preserve the Nation from those Miseries that they will bring upon it FINIS THE Unreasonableness AND IMPIETY OF POPERY IN A SECOND LETTER Written upon the Discovery of the Late PLOT Imprimatur C. Alston Nov. 12. 1678. LONDON Printed for R. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1678. The Unreasonableness and Impiety OF POPERY In a Second Letter written upon the Discovery of the Late PLOT SIR YOu are pleased to tell me that my last Letter has had some good effect and that many who were before carried away with the false colours of the Romish Religion are now a little awakned and seem not unwilling to examin things which they took formerly upon trust and therefore you desire me since you are not Master of so much spare time your self to set down the most material and convincing reasons and in as few words as may be that are most likely to open the eyes of honest and simple persons that have been hitherto misled and are now willing to be instructed In all such cases I first consider the temper of the persons to be dealt with Such as take up their Religion out of interest or humour and think it point of honour to continue in it and so will examine nothing are not to be spoken to Others that are naturally superstitious and credulous are very hard to be wrought on for they believe every thing that is said on the one hand and distrust all that is told them by any body else Some of those have a vanity in coming to talk with Divines but it is an endless labour to deal with them for at every time one must begin of new But the only persons to be dealt with are those that are sincere and inquisitive that having been bred in that Religion or brought over to it by some specious pretences are now willing to hear reason and resolved to follow it
in any one age it hath been believed That St. Peter had power from Christ which he left to the See of Rome by which his Successor in it can depose Kings then this must be an Apostolical Tradition and by consequence of equal authority with any thing written in the Scriptures To these General Considerations about the Authority of the Church and the Certainty of Tradition I shall add Two other about the Nature of Supreme and Soveraign Power By which we may judg of what Extent the Popes Power must be if he have an authority to depose Kings and transfer their Dominions to other persons First When the Soveraign Powers proceed in a Legal way against its Subjects If either they abscond so that they cannot be found Or have such a Power about them that the Sovereign cannot bring them to punishment He may declare them Rebels and set Prices on their Heads And in that case it is as lawful for any Subject to kill them as it is for an Executioner to put a condemned Person to Death These being the several ways the Law provides in those several cases So when a Pope deposes a Prince He may as lawfully set on private Assassinates to kill him as oblige his Subjects to rise with open force against him For if the Pope has a Power over him to depose him this clearly follows from the Nature of Sovereign Power and it is the Course that sometimes must be followed when the Rebel can be no other way brought to deserved punishment and if the Pope has the power of deposing then a Prince who after such a Sentence carries himself as a King is a Rebel against his Supreme Lord And is also an Usurper For his Title being destroyed by the Sentence He has no authority over his Subjects and therefore may be as lawfully killed as any Rebel or Usurper Secondly The Supreme power may in cases of great necessity when the thing is in it self materially just pass over such Forms as ought in ordinary Cases to be observed I need not tell you That in a great Fire Subordinate Magistrates may blow up Houses But doubtless the Supreme Power of all as a King in an absolute Monarchy and such is the Papal Power if these Opinions be true may dispence with some Forms when the Matter is in it self just and if the chief design of a Law be pursued the circumstantial parts of it may upon extraordinary occasions be superseded Therefore if the Pope is Supreme over all Kings and has this deposing Power Then though by the Canon a King ought to be first a Year Excommunicated for his Heresy or favouring Hereticks and at the Years end he may be Deposed by the Pope There are also other Rules for Excommunications tho the Summary way in some cases may be used yet all these are but circumstantial and lesser Matters The design of that Law is That no Heretical Prince or favourer of Heresie be continued in his Power The other are but Forms of Law that cannot be indispensibly necessary in all cases Besides the very Canon Law teaches that when there is both a Notorietas juris Facti Summary proceedings are Legal when then it is Notorious that the Doctrines of the Church of England for Instance are Heretical and that the King is an Obstinate Favourer of these Heresies and will not extirpate them Summary and Secret proceedings are justifiable There is no hope that Bulls Breves or Citations would do any good in this case These would on the contrary alarm the State and bring all the Party under great hazards Therefore from the Nature of Supreme Power it is most justly Inferred That though there have been no publick Sentence of Deposition according to the Forms of the Canon Law yet all these may be dispensed with and a Secret and Summary one may do as well These Positions are such that I cannot fansie any just Exceptions to which they are liable and from all these laid together the Inference will undeniably follow That according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome the power of Deposing Kings is lodged with the Pope by a Divine Authority and that by consequence private persons may conspire to take away the Life of a King so deposed Even though there be no publick Sentence given about it But before I bring the Evidence for all this I shall desire the Reader will a little reflect on the Positions I have laid down in which he will find an Answer to all the Exceptions that can be made against the following Evidence By the first The Authority of the Church being the same in all Ages he will see it is to no purpose to pretend these were dark Ages So that what was done in an ignorant time cannot oblige the World when things are seen in a better light But if the Church has an Authority from Christ that shall last till the end of the World it must be the same in all ages The Ignorance of the age is a very good answer when made by a Protestant but can signifie nothing in a Papists Mouth By the second Of the Churches authority in setling Moral Rules for practice it appears how fond that distinction is which they make between a Canon and a Decree It is true a Decree about a particular Case in which there is some matter of Fact may be wrong according to their Principles and yet the authority of the Church remain entire For instance in the deposing a Prince or condemning a Man for Heresie the Church may either by false Witnesses or mistaking a Man's words be drawn to pass an unjust Sentence by reason of a mis-representation of the Fact But that is nothing to the purpose here where a Decree is made as a perpetual Rule of Practice this must be of the same authority of a Canon about any article of Faith Otherwise it will follow that the Church may mislead the People in matters indispensably necessary to Salvation For such is the Obedience to the Ten Commandments By the first way of judging of the Tradition of the Church from what the most received Writers in any age deliver as the Doctrine of the Church it will appear That the Schoolmen and Canonists are as competent Conveyers of Tradition from the twelfth age downward as the Fathers were from the sixth Age upward and laying this for a Principle That the Church is the same in all Ages they are really more competent Witnesses than the Fathers were First Because they write more closely to the subject they have in hand they consider what is said for or against an Opinion in a more exact manner than the Fathers did who being carried with the heat they are sometimes in go off from the purpose and generally affect Eloquence which is the most improper Stile for nice Matters Whereas the Schoolmen write in a blunt way only considering the purpose they are about coyning the most barbarous words they can light on when they
the Tradition of the Church was confidently alledged and some Quotations were brought and very oft out of some later Writers The Paper was no sooner read than a loud and often repeated Shout of applause followed without any further search or canvasing about these Authorities And upon that the Decree was made This was the practice both of the second Nicene and of some more ancient Councils whose Journals are hitherto preserved and where the Journals are lost we have reason to believe they followed the same method so that it is very probable there might have been some such Writing read in the Council of Lateran And if they did not found their Decree upon Tradition they were much to blame for they had as venerable a Tradition as either the second Council of Nice or some other Councils had a practice about 150 years standing from the days of Pope Gregory the VII so that it is not to be denied but they had as good authority from Tradition to make this Decree as to make most of the other Decrees on which they insist much in the Books of Controversies that are written by them By the fourth Rule of judging about Tradition the matter is yet much plainer for if the generally received Belief of any Age of the Church is a good Thread to lead us up to the Apostles times then there needs no more be said For it is certain that for near four Ages together this was the universally received Doctrine of the Church of Rome And the opposition that some Princes made to it was condemned as Heresy Rebellion and every thing that was evil And it is remarkable that both Oâ—…kam that wrote much for the Emperors cause against the Pope and Gerson and Almain no great favourers of Papal power are cited by Cardinal Perrow as acknowledging the Ecclesiastical power of deposing if a Prince were guilty of spiritual crimes So that the Controversies in this matter that were managed between the Writers for the Popes and Emperors were not whether the Pope in cases of Heresy might depose a Prince but were concerning two things very remote from this The one was whether the Pope had a direct Temporal power over all Kings by which as being Lord of the Feâ—… he could proceed upon any Cause whatsoever against a King and take his Dominions from him To this indeed Gregory the 7th pretended tho more covertly and Boniface the 8th more avowedly There was great Opposition made to this by many Writers but at the same time they all agreed on it as an undeniable Maxim That the Pope had an indirect Power over Princes by which in the Cases of Heresy he might excommunicate and depose them nor was there so much as any Debate about it A second thing about which there was some Controversy was whether the Particulars that fell under debate came within the Head of Heresy or not So in the Case of Princes giving the Investitures into Bishopricks the Pope brought it in within the Head of Heresy and condemned those Persons as Simoniacks The Writers on the other side denied this pretending it was a Civil Matter and a right of the Crown The like Debates fell in when Princes were sentenced on any other account The Authority of the Sentence in the Case of Heresy was not controverted all the Question was Whether the Point under debate was Heresy or not And concerning these things any who have read the Writings in the great Collection made of them by Goldastus will receive an easy and full Satisfaction By which it appears that the Popes Power of deposing Kings in the Case of Heresy was the received Doctrine of the Church for several Ages and by consequence it must be looked on as derived down from the Apostles If the Doctrine of any one Age of the Church can lead us backward in a certain Track to discover what it was in the Apostles days By the first Position about the Nature of Supreme Power it is apparent that in the Case of Heresy a Prince deposed by the Pope if he stands out against the Sentence may be as lawfully killed as any Tory or Moss-Trooper or Bantito may be for he is a Rebel against his Lord and an Usurper over the People from that day forward And therefore tho Mariana told a Secret too publickly yet it cannot be denied to be a certain Consequent of their Principles It had been indeed more discreetly done to have ordered this only to be infused unto Peoples Consciences by their Confessors in secret And for Mariana tho the Book in gross is condemned as they give out yet the Opinions set down in it are not censured But Suarez writing against K. Iames tells him in plain Terms That a King who is canonically deposed may be killed by any man whatsoever This was not only published with an ordinary License but the whole University of Alcala declared every thing in it to be according to the Doctrine of the Church Valentia tho he disguises it a little yet says That an Heretical Prince may by the Popes Sentence be deprived of his Life Foulis cites ten more Doctors for the same Opinion of killing Kings by private persons I do not build upon the Assertions of these Jesuits as binding Authorities in that Church but make use of them to shew that some of their own eminentest Writers acknowledg the force of this Consequence which is indeed so evident that nothing but good Manners and some small Care not to provoke Princes too much by such bare-faced Positions keeps others from asserting it Few Princes are so tame as Childeric was to go into a Monastery after they are deposed Therefore this Doctrine is but a lame provision for the Churches Security from Heresie if the Lawfulness of killing does not follow that of deposing Kings And it was so generally received that it is told of Gerson that he was at great pains to get it declared that no private Cut-throat might kill a King and that by consequence it was only the Popes Prerogative to order them to be destroyed By the second Position about the Nature of Supreme Power that in extraordinary Cases Forms of Law may be superseded It is also clear that tho we know nothing of any Sentence of Deposition given out against the King yet he is not a whit the safer for he lies under an yearly Curse every Maundy Thursday The Notoriousness of his Heresy will sufficiently justify a particular Sentence without any further Process or Citation according to the Maxims of the Canon Law And there may be for ought we can know as valid a Deposition as Parchment and Lead can make it already expeded And if it be not yet done we are sure it may be done very suddenly and will be done whensoever they see any probability of Success Bellarmine hath very sincerely told us the Reason why Heretical Princes are not deposed because the Church has not strength enough to make such
said upon that Head than for any of the rest They pretend the Popes set up first the Empire of the West Then gave the Princes of Germany the Right of choosing the Emperor and does still give the Imperial Crown upon the Emperors Swearing an Oath of Homage to them according to the verse under that Insolent Picture set up by Pope Innocent the 2d In the Lateram of the Emperor lying prostrate at his feet and receiving the Crown from him Post homo fit Papae sumit quo dante Coronam But all these Surrenders were made use of only to strengthen the great pretention they had of being Christs Vicars and St. Peters Successours which from the end of the 11th Century till the beginning of the 16th for above 4 Ages together was as Authoritatively asserted by Popes as positively taught by Divines and as tamely received by the whole Church Emperors and Kings not presuming to contradict it as any other Article of Faith And for proofs of this we need appeal to no other witnesses than those 3. great Cardinals Baronius Bellarmin and Perron who may be presumed to have understood the Doctrine of their own Church better than any body else The First of those through his whole work strains his Industry to discover as many Instances as he can of it and never parts with any without expressing the particular satisfaction he had in so pleasant a Discovery I shall only set down what he says on the two 1st occasions that he met with When he takes notice of Gregory the Great 's priviledges formerly mentioned he adds You see Reader That the Popes can make Laws to which if Kings themselves do not yield Obedience they shall lose their Kingdoms Upon the first Deposition made by Gregory the 3d. He adds The Faithful in the West being awakened by this Thunder do immediately fall from the Obedience to Leo adhering to this Apostolical Pope So this Gregory left a worthy Precedent to Posterity that Heretical Princes be not suffered to reign in the Church of Christ if having been often admonished they continue to persist obstinately in their Errors Such strains as these do so often occur afterwards that they can scarce be reckoned It is well known what advice he gave P. Paul the 5th in the quarrel with the Venetians applying the voice to St. Peter Arise and Kill to the case in hand and that with his Insolent Paraenesis to that Republick are clear Evidences of his sence in this matter What Bellarmin taught more shortly and obscurâ—…ly in his Controversies was afterwards made more plain both by his Writings about the Translation of the Roman Empire upon the Interdict of Venice and against King Iimes and William Barklay And Cardinal Perrons Eloquent speech against the Bill put in by the Third Estate of France for Condemning those pretensions of a Deposing Power shews us not only his own sense but the sense of the whole Clergy of France in whose name he delivered it He calls the Contrary Opinion a Doctrine that breeds Schisms a Gate that leads unto all Heresie and so detestable that he and his Fellow Bâ—…shops will choose to burn at a Stake rather than consent to it He affirming That all the parts of the Catholick Church and of the Church of France in particular and all the Schools of Divinity till the coming of Calvin held the affiâ—…mative and says That no where in France since the Divinity Schools wâ—…re set up can they find any one Doctor Divine or Lawyer any Decree Council or Sentence of Parliament or any one Magistrate Ecclesiastick or Politick who had held that in case of Heresie or Idolatry Subjects might not be absolved from their Oaths of Fidelity to their Princes It is true at first he spake more modestly and pretended the thing was problematical and so was not fit matter for an Oath but when that modester Strain tho it tended all to depress the Regal and exalt the Papal Power had so far prevailed with the King that he ordered the matter to be laid aside and not to be further insisted on They were not satisfied with this but made a new Address in the Name of the Clergy and the Cardinal spake now in a higher tone asserting formally the Popes indirect Power in Temporalâ—… and that all who maintained the contrary were Schismaticks and Hereticks even those of the Parliament it self and did plainly threaten the King That if he did not raze all the Proceedings out of the Register the Clergy would leave the Assembly and Excommunicate all who denied the Popes Power of Deposing And if the King would not suffer them to execuâ—…e these Censures they would proceed upon their hazard tho they were to suffer Martyrdom for it For which zeal they received a Brave from the Pope giving them his solemn Thanks for what they had done desiring them to persevere in the same mind So we have in this â—…stance not only Cardinal Perrons own mind but the sâ—…nse of the whole Clergy of France I do not think it necessary to enquire further into the opinion of later Writers tho it were easie to shew that to 〈◊〉 day both the Court of Rome the whole Order of the Jesuites the Writers both of Controversies and Cases of Conscience and the Expositors of Scripture do as oft as occasion offers assert the power of Deposing Kings to be still in the See of Rome And tho some few Writers of that Religion since Barkelay and Widdrington's time both of the English and Irish Nation have adventured to deny this power théy have been censured for it and branded with Heresy This has been so notorious in the matter of the Irish Remonstrance that I need say no more of it But whether the Writers of this Age allow it or not they are bound according to their Doctrine about Tradition to acknowledg it since two of the Characters of Tradition are found to agree to it For it has been delivered in several Ages of the Church as true Catholick Doctrine by all the publick Doctors in these times so that either This is a Tradition of the Church or That is not a true mark of Tradition nor is it a certain conveyance of Truth if we may be thus deceived in a clear Tradition for four Ages successively It does also appear that if the See of Rome be a faithful Depositary and Transmitter of Church Traditions this must be one since it is delivered to the world by so many Popes in the names of St. Peter and St. Paul and founded on the Power of the Keys and of Binding and Loosing granted to St. Peter But I shall next shew how the third mark of Tradition the Authority of General Councils agrees to this Doctrine When this Doctrine had been so well spread over Europe then the Popes found it was safe to trust it to the judgment of such an Assembly as they esteemed a General Council And they proceeded in this matter after
is certain that the Design of Revealed Religion was to give men clearer Notions of these Moral perfections to press them by stronger Arguments and encourage our Endeavours by suitable Rewards and punishments So that if any Religion contradict these Moral Duties we are sure it is false for the Revelation of God's will must be designed to make us better than we would otherwise be following barely the Light of Nature and not worse If then the Church of Rome over-throws Morality and contradicts any of the Ten Commandments we are sure it is not of God And how far it has done this they may judge by these Particulars First Whatever Church offers cheap and easie pardons for sin does take off so much from our sense of the evil of sin We cannot have a very ill opinion of any thing that is easily forgiven Now what are the Popes Pardons Indulgences Jubilees Priviledged Altars the going of Pilgrimages the saying of some Collects the wearing of Agnus Dei's Peebles or other such like trash but so many Engines to root out of mens minds any deep horrour or great sense of sin Is not this the very thing which the People of the Iews of old offered at to bring Thousands of Rams Ten Thousand Rivers of Oyl their First born or the fruit of their Body to offer for their sins All which were rejected in the name of God in these words I will shew thee O man what is good and what our Lord requireth of thee Verily to do Iudgment and to love mercy and to walk solicitous with thy God This is a Moral matter and unchangable therefore whoever go to beat down the sense of sin by the offer of Pardon on any other terms but the sincere change of a mans life destroy Morallity which is the Image of God in man If from this general Consideration we descend to Examine the Commandments in particular we shall find matter enough for a severe Charge against their Church Is not the First Commandment broken when Devotions are offered to Saints which Import their being Omniscient Omnipresent and Almighty that are the Incommunicable Attributes of the God-head and when pardon of sin preservation Grace against Temptations and Eternal life are immediately begged from Saints It is true they say the sence of these prayers is only that we desire their assistance at Gods hands for these blessings But the words of their Offices import no such matter And though for above One Hundred and Sixty Years these things have been complained of and in the Correction of their Offices some of them were cast out yet many of them do still continue In which the plain sence of the words of their Offices is Idolatrous Only they make a shift with another and forced sence put on them to defend themselves from that charge And for such Devotions they can shew no Warrant for the first Thousand years after Christ. The Second Commandment is so openly and confessedly broken by them that many of them maintain it does not all oblige Christians but belonged only to the Jewish Dispensation And in all their Catechisms it is left out which was done very wisely with what honesty let them answer for it was not fit the people should look on that as a Commandment which they saw so notoriously broken throughout their whole Church A great trade being also driven by the breach of it That this was not in the Primitive Church themselves confess all the Books the Fathers wrote against the Idolatry of the Heathens demonstrate this Nor were Images so much as set up in Churches before the Sixth Century And then care was taken that they should not be worshipped and not before the Eighth Century were they worshipped in any place of the Christian Church The Doctrine of the Popes power of Relaxing of Oaths and discharging men from the Obligation of them joyned with the practice of their Popes for above 800 years is as formal an Opposition to the Third Commandment as can be Imagined This was also begun in the Eighth Century The vast multiplication of Holy-days made the Observation of the Lords day of necessity slacken They have destroyed the Order of Societies established in the Fifth Commandment by the Power they allow the Pope to Depose Princes and absolve Subjects from their Alleageance They teach the murdering and burning all Hereticks that is to say all that will not submit to their Tyranny by which Infinite numbers of Innocent persons have been murdered against the Sixth Commandment And these two Doctrines of deposing Princes and putting Hereticks to death were abhorred by the Church for the first Eight ages and were brought in by the Popes since that time The frequent practice of the Court of Rome in granting Divorces on the pretence either of Spiritual kindred or of Degrees not forbidden either by the Law of Nature or the word of God and allowing second Marriages to both Parties upon such Divorces is an avowed breach of the Seventh Commandment The setting on some Princes to Invade other Princes in their just Rights is the Doctrine as well as it has been the practice of their Church for some Ages And as their Popes have wrested many Territories from Temporal Princes so for many Ages they set on Publick Robbery against the Eighth Commandment The Doctrine of Equivocating both taught and practised the breaking of safe Conducts and publick Faith decreed by their General Councils is also against the Ninth Commandment For the Tenth I shall say nothing of it because the meaning of it is not so generally agreed on But thus we see all the Rules of Morality are contradicted by that Church It might be justly added to swell up this Charge that of late there have been Doctrines published to the world by the approved Casuists of that Church with Licence which subvert all Justice destroy all security and take away the most sacred ties of mankind By the Doctrines of Probability and of Ordering the Intention aright there is no crime how black soever but a man may adventure on it with a good conscience These things were long and openly taught amongst them without any Censure And when many of the French Clergy complained of these at the Court of Rome perhaps more out of spite to the Jesuits than zeal for the Truth it was long before these so just Remonstrances were heard And in conclusion a trifling Censure was past on them by which they were declared Scandalous neither Impious nor Wicked and all were forbidden to teach them any more but they stand yet in the Books formerly published with Licence After all these particulars is it to be wondered at if the morals of the men of that Church be vitiated when their Doctrine is so corrupted for peoples practices are generally worse than their Opinions And thus the Second point is made good that in our Church we teach the same Rules of Living that are in the Scriptures which are grosly corrupted by their Doctrines
think them the fittest to express their Notions Secondly They were divided into two famous Schools among whom there were great heats the Scotists and Thomists So that if either of these had asserted any thing that was not the received Doctrine of the Age they lived in the other Party had such Emulation against them that they would not have failed to have laid them open as they did in the matter of the Immaculate Conception of the B. Virgin Whereas the Fathers writing only against Hereticks or other Enemies to Christianity they might have mistaken somethings without so publick a discovery as was likely to happen among the Schoolmen 3dly The Schoolmen wrote on purpose to deliver the Doctrine of the Age in which they lived to those who were to succeed them Their Books being generally the Divinity Lectures they read either in Colledges or Religious Houses to their Scholars whereas the Fathers wrote upon Emergent Occasions either Letters or Treatises to private Persons regarding more the present than the succeeding Age. In which we cannot expect that exactness that is to be looked for in a Publick Lecture Upon all which I assume That allowing the Church to have the same Authority in all Ages the Schoolmen are more competent Witnesses of the Tradition of the Church in their Ages than the Fathers were in theirs By the second Rule for judging of Traditions from the Conveyance of the See of Rome it does undeniably follow That the Popes from Gregory the Sevenths time downward were as sure Depositories of the Traditions of the Church as were the Popes from Gregory the First his time upward They were both alike Christ's Vicars and St. Peters Successors So that all the high words that the Fathers bestow on the See of Rome were either Complements in which they are not wanting or were said because of the worth of the Bishops whom they had known in that See But if they be to be understood in that sence in which the Writers of Controversy obtrude them on us then it will follow manifestly that as to the Conveyance of Tradition P. Gregory the 7th is as much to be believed when he says any thing in the Name of St. Peter or of Christ as any of the Popes are For in the Preamble of Bulls and Breeves the Reasons are given of what follows which are most commonly vouched from Apostolical Authority and Tradition So let the Pope be ever so ignorant or so corrupt in his Manners what he asserts to be Apostolical Tradition must be either received as such or the authority of that See is overthrown therefore they must either cease to press us any more with tht Authority of the See of Rome or acknowledg that all the Popes Declarations which they make about Traditions are to be received It is an Answer to be made use of only to ignorant Persons to say These Depositions were the Deeds of some Popes who might be ill Men and the Church is not concerned to justify them I confess whether this or that Deposition was justly or lawfully made is a personal thing in which only the Pope who decreed it is concerned But if he declares in the Preamble that the Power of deposing upon those reasons is grounded on an Apostolical Tradition then the See is concerned in it for either he declares true or false if the former then that Power of deposing comes from Apostolical Tradition if they acknowledge he declares false then we are not any more to be urged with the Authority of that See as the certain Depository of the Traditions of the Church By the third Mark to judge of the Tradition of any age from the Decision of a General Council it appears that the Decisions of the fourth Council of Lateran are as Obligatory as the Decrees of the first Council of Nice the Church having the same power in all Ages If it be said it was only a Council of the Western Church the like may be objected against the first General Council which were generally made up of Eastern Bishops and very few of the Western Bishops sat in them And if we esteem a Council General because it was received by the Church then the whole Church of Rome having received that Council it must be acknowledged to be General as much as any ever was But to this others answer That a Council is only Infallible when a thing is decreed by it according to the Tradition of the Church If this be true the whole Controversie between the Roman Church and us about the authority of Councils is decided on our Side For if a Council has only authority to declare Traditions then it is free for every Person to examine whether this Declaration be according to truth or not And if it be found that it is not so they may lawfully reject such Decisions For instance in the second Council of Nice the worship of Images was established upon a mock-shew of Tradition and yet all the World knows there were no Images allowed in the Church the first four Ages after Christ and even in the sixth Age P. Gregory declared That though they might be in the Church yet they ought not to be worshipped Nor was there any contest about it before the eighth Century This being thus examined and found to be True then according to the foregoing Answer that Decision was of no force though made by the second Council of Nice In a word if this Maxime be true That Councils are only to be submitted to when they decree according to Apostolical Tradition then they have no Authority in themselves and their decisions can have no more force than this That it may seem probable that they were not mistaken and in an Ignorant Age even this probability will vanish to nothing No Body will reject the Decision of a Council when the Decrees are just and right But if iâ—… be upon that score alone that they are to be submitted to then none are bound by them before they have examined them And if upon a Search it appear they decreed against Tradition then their Decrees are to be rejected So it is apparent this Answer does plainly according to their Principles lay the foundation of all Heresie since it gives every Man a right to question the Decrees of a General Council Besides How can those Persons be assured that the fourth Council of Lateran did not decree according to Tradition The Acts of that Council are lost so we cannot know upon what reasons they made their Decrees And it cannot be said that because there is no mention made of any Tradition in the Decree that therefore they considered none It is seldom found that the reasons of any Decree are put with it But we may reasonably enough believe that they followed the Method in this Council that had been used in some former ones particularly in the second Council of Nice which was this a Writing was read penned perhaps by the Pope or a Patriarch in which
these Words We will have none to be ignorant or doubtful what we intend to do upon it for by the help of God we will endeavour by all Means to wrest the Kingdom of France out of his Possession But upon the submission of that King these Threatnings came not to any effect Yet he went on against the Emperor Hen. the 4th at the rate he had threatned the King of France I need not tell what all the World knows That he first Excommunicated and Deposed the Emperor in the Year 1076. Then upon his doing of Penance he received him into his Favour But upon new provocations he deposed him a second a third and fourth time in the years 1080 1081 and 1083. In all which he had the concurrence of so many Roman Councils and set up against him first Rodolph after that Herman as his Successors did first Conrade and then Henry that Emperor 's unnatural Sons The prosecution of the History is needless to my Design But in his Letter to Herman Bishop of Mets we meet with that which is more considerable For there he largely justifies his Proceedings which he grounds on the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven being given to St. Peter and the power of Binding and Loosing joined to them More places of Scripture he sought not but his Successor Boniface the 8th made use of Ecce duo Gladii and the power given to the Prophet Ieremiah Over Kingdoms to Root out Pull down Destroy Throw down to Build and to plant And they took it in great dudgeon if any would compare a single Prophet under the Law to Christ's Vicar under the Gospel But Gregory goes on in his Proofs to the Tradition of the Church And says The Fathers had often both in General Councils and in their particular Writings acknowledged That this Power was in the See of Rome That it was the Mother and Head of all other Churches That all matters were to be judged by it from whose Sentence no Appeal could lye Nor could there be a Review made of the Judgments passed in that See And to confirm what he had asserted he cites some Passages out of Gelasius and Iulius and that Clause in the Priviledges granted by Gregory the Great formerly mentioned So here he very fully and formally delivers the Tradition of the Church and builds upon it He also cites the Precedent of Pope Zacharias his Deposing Childeric not for any fault he found in him but because he thought him not fit to Govern From that he goes on to some Reasons such as they are for the justification of his Proceedings The Pope having thus declared the Tradition and Doctrine of the Church it is not to be wondred at if both the Schoolmen mixt it with the Instructions they gave their Scholars and the Canonists made it a part of the Law of the Church Hugo de Sancto Victore Alexander Alensis Bonaventure Durand Peter of Aliac Iohn of Paris Almain Gabriel Biel Henry of Ghant Iohn Driodo Iohn de Terre iremata Albert Pighius Thomas Waldensis Petrus de Palude Cajetan Franciscus Victoria Dominicus a Soto and many others in all 70 are reckoned by Bellarmin but Foulis enlarges the number to 177 whom he cites who did formally assert it Aquinas also taught it tho' in some places he contradicted himself But Boniface the 8th thought his Predecessors had proceeded in this matter too cautiously and therefore he went more roundly to work In the Jubilee in the year 1300 He shewed himself the first day in the Pontifical Habit but the second day he was clothed with the Imperial Habit a naked Sword being carried before him and cried out with a loud voice I am Pope and Emperor and have both the Earthly and Heavenly Empire This upon so publick an occasion looks very like the Teaching the Church Ex Cathedra But because words vanished into Air he left it in writing in these terms We say and define and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary to Salvation for every humane creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome This being put into the Text of the Canon Law in which it is continued to this day we cannot think it Strange that Panorimitan Ostiensis Silvester with all the other Canonists assert the Popes direct Dominion over all the World And what can they say less Believing him to be Christs Vicar on Earth to whom all Power in heaven and earth was given of his Father therefore the power in Heaven being judged enough for Christ to manage himself they thought all the power in Earth was Committed to the Vicar This passed down without Contradiction among them but was not received by the rest of the Church yet the Indirect or as they termed it the Ecclesiastical power in cases of Heresie was Universally agreed to not one person Opposing it till Luther and his Followers came sawcily to look into the Popes Title to this and many other pretended Rights of the See of Rome But because the Plea for an Indirect Power was not Sufficient Since if a Prince did not Favour Heresie it was of no use And the pretention to a direct power was of an harsh sound Therefore a Title of another kind was set up It was pretended That all the Kingdoms in the Western and Northern parts of Europe were by formal Surrenders offered up to St. Peter and St. Paul And therefore whatever the Popes did was said to be done in Defence of their Rights which made Gregory the 7th fly to them in that flanting Address with which he begins his Sentences against the Emperor First of all the Donation of Constantine the Great was forged By which the Power of all the West Italy Sicily Sardinia Germany France Spain and England were given to the Pope This was put into the Text of the Canon Law and was stood to by all the Canonists It is true the Civilians wrote generally against it Among whom Bartholus may be reckoned for in his Preface to the Digests having mentioned the Opinions of some against it when it comes to his own he delivers it thus Take notice that we are now in the Territory of the Church for he taught at Bulloigne and therefore I say that Donation is valid But till Valla discovered the Impostures of it so manifestly that they are now ashamed to maintain it any longer their plea from it was never laid down But Augustinus Steuchus who undertakes the Vindication of that Donation against Valla does likewise alledge from some Instruments in the Vatican that both the Kingdoms of Spain Arragon France England Denmark Muscovy Sicily and Croatia and Dalmatia did Subject their Crowns to the See of Rome Kranizius tells us that Lakold King of Poland made it Tributary to Rome And for the German Empire tho Steuchus says nothing of it perhaps that he might not offend Charles the 5th yet there is both in the Canon Law and the Letters of Popes more to be
wherever they find it And therefore in the first place their minds must be disingaged from these unjust prejudices that they conceive of our Religion and such just prejudices must be offered them against the Romish Religion as may at least beget in them some jealousies concerning it by which they may be brought so far as to think the matter suspicious If then there be such reasons offered them for susspecting foul dealing from their Priests and Church as would make them suspect an Attorney Physician or any other person with whom they were to deal they will be prepared to hear reason which is all that we desire and upon this Head these following Considerations may be laid before them 1. All people that pretend to great Power and Dominion over our consciences are justly to be suspected If any man designed to make himself Master of any of our other Liberties we would examine his Title and suspect all his other motions when we see they tend to subject us to him Therefore a Church that designs to keep all her Votaries under an absolute obedience is justly to be suspected and our Church that pretends to no such power is more likely to deal fairly 2. A Church that designs to keep her Members in ignorance is more to be suspected than a Church that brings every thing to a fair Trial. A Church that denies the use of the Scriptures in a known tongue except to a few and wraps up their Worship in a Language that is not understood is reasonably to be suspected more than a Church that gives the free use of the Scriptures to all persons and worships God in a Language which the people understand 3. A Church whose Opinions tend to engross the Riches of the world to its Officers is more to be suspected than a Church that pretends to nothing but a competent maintenance of the several Officers in it The Redeeming Souls out of Purgatory and the Enriching the Shrines or Reliques of Saints Pardons Jubilees and many more Tenets of the Church of Rome are so calculated for enriching their Societies that every cautious man must needs suspect some design in it which he cannot charge on a Church that has none of these Arts to get money 4. A Church that has carried on its Designs by the most dishonest methods possible the forging of Writings and Deeds of Miracles Visions Prophesies and other things of that Nature is more justly to be suspected than a Church that cannot be charged with any such practices The Forging so many Epistles for the Popes of the first Ages which are now by themselves confest to be Spurious with many other Forgeries were the Engines by which the Papal Power was chiefly advanced The Legends and Extravagant Fables of which they are now ashamed were the chief Motives of Devotion for many Ages And by these Saints and Images were so much magnified and Monasteries so enriched A Noted Liar after a Discovery is no more to be trusted 5. Any that considers the present State of Rome the manner of Electing Popes the Practices of that Court and the Maximes they move by must see that every thing there is secular corrupt and at best directed by rules of Policy But to fansie the Holy Ghost can come upon any Election so managed as their own Books shew that is is the most unreasonable thing that can be devised Therefore a Church that neither pretends so high nor can be charged with such proceedings is more likely to be the true Church 6. A Church that teaches Cruelty against poor Innocent people that differ in opinion and sets on Plots Conspiracies and Rebellion against Princes that are judged Hereticks is more likely to be corrupted than a Church that is so merciful as to condemn all capital proceedings for difference of Opinion and teaches an absolute Submission to the Soveraign Power even when it persecutes and oppresses them 7. A Church that is false to her own Principles is not so likely to Instruct her members aright as a Church that is in all things consistent to her self The great Foundation of their Doctrine is That there must be a speaking Judg to decide all Controversies Now they have no such Judg for it is not of Faith that the Pope is this Judg or is Infallible And for a general Council they have had none these 112. years nor are they like to see another in hast So they have no Speaking Infallible Judg among them And thus they deceive people by a false Pretence whereas we appeal to nothing but what we really have among us which are the Scriptures 8. A Church that appeals to Marks which are not possible to be searcht out is more likely to mislead people than a Church that pretends to nothing but what can be certainly proved The great thing they appeal to is the Constant Succession of the Bishops of Rome and their other Pastors This cannot be known no not by a probable conjecture But there are on the contrary as great grounds for History to deny it in the See of Rome as in any other Ancient See whatsoever but though they have it both the Greek Church and our Church has it likewise These are such plain things and the Truth of them is so notoriously known that I should ask any of that Communion whether upon the like reasons he would not be Jealous of any person or sort of persons whatsoever And if these grounds of jealousie would work in other matters it is much more reasonable that they should take place in matters of Religion In which as an Error is of far greater Importance So Impostors in all Ages have studied to make gain by Religion Therefore it is most just upon these violent presumptions to look about us and take care we be not cheated But before I would descend to particulars there is one General prejudice that works most universally on weaker minds to be removed which is that the true Church cannot Erre If then it be made appear unanswerably that the true Church may Erre and that in a most weighty Point all these Arguments fall to the ground That the Church of the Iews in our Saviours days was the true Church cannot be denied for our Saviour owned it to be such He joyned with them in their worship He sent the Lepers to the Priest He commanded them to hear the Doctors that sate in Moses Chair and himself acknowledged the High Priest This is sufficient to prove that it was the true Church and yet this Church erred in a most Important point whether Jesus Christ was the true Messias in whom the Prophecies were fulfilled or not they Judged falsly The High Priests with all the Sanhedrim declared him a Blasphemer and condemned him guilty of Death Here the true Church expounds the Scriptures falsly and erred in the Foundation of Religion And it is well known that the chief arguments which they of the Romish party bring to prove that a Church cannot
Err do agree as well to the Iewish as the Christian Church the one being the true Church under that dispensation as well as the other is now If then this Decision made by the true Church in Christs time did not oblige all in that Church to go on in that error but private persons might have examined their Sentence and depart from them upon it then upon the same reasons though we acknowledge the Church of Rome a true Church yet we may examine her Doctrines and separate from her errors This grand prejudice being thus removed there are two things in the next place to be laid before them One is that the Scriptures being acknowledged to come from Divine Inspiration on all hands can only decide the Controversies among us and the places I shall make use of shall be cited according to the Doway Translation to which being made by themselves they cannot except Another is that a man must judg of things as they appear plainly to his reasonable Faculties It is against all reason to say that because it is possible for a man to be mistaken therefore he ought to doubt his Judgment in things that are clear to him This must turn a man Sceptical both to all Religions and all the concerns of human life Therefore every man must follow his Judgment when after a diligent Inquiry any thing appears plain to him And now to come up close to those of that perswasion they are to consider that the chief parts of Religion are First Articles of Faith Secondly Rules of Life Thirdly The worship of God chiefly in the Sacraments And Fourthly The Government of the Church If then in every one of these Heads the Church of England agrees clearly with the Scriptures and the Church of Rome does either manifestly contradict them or differs matterially from them in all these points in which we and they differ then the Resolution of the Question Whether a man ought to joyn himself to our Church or theirs will be easily made For Articles of Faith if either the Apostles Creed or the Creeds of the First 4. General Councils contain a just abstract of the Faith then we who receive every Article in these Creeds do agree more exactly to the Apostolical Doctrine than they who have added many new Articles to their Creed The chief Article of Faith is The Covenant made between God and Man through Iesus Christ by which upon the Account of his Merits and Intercession all who follow the Rules of the Gospel may expect the Blessings of it both here and hereafter Pennance toward God and Faith towards our Lord Iesus Christ being the conditions upon which we hope for Eternal life This we plainly teach without Addition or Change But in how many things have they departed from this Simplicity of the Gospel First In teaching People to address to God for the Merits and by the Intercession of the Saints From whom these things are asked for which the Scriptures direct us only to God and Christ. And in the very words pronounced after absolution The Merits of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints are joined with the passion of Christ as the grounds on which we obtain pardon of Sin Grace and Eternal life Secondly In perswading People That a Simple attrition with the use of the Sacraments without any real conversion of the Soul or change of life is sufficient to Salvation Thirdly In perswading People That there is a Communication of the Merits of Saints to other Persons though the Scriptures mention only the Communication of Christs Merits Fourthly by Teaching that tho our sins are pardoned thorough Christ yet there are terrible and long lasting torments to be endured in another State Fâ—â—tly that saying Masses and going of Pilgrimages can Redeem from these Now in all these the two chief Designs of the Gospel are plainly contradicted Which be First To Change our hearts and lives Secondly To perswade us to a humble Dependance upon Christ and an high acknowledgment of him But these Doctrines of theirs as they shew us a way to be sure of Heaven without a real Conversion so they take off so much from Faith in Christ as they carry us to trust to somewhat else These are Errors of great Importance Since they corrupt the Fountain and overthrow the chief design of the Christian Religion They are also late devices brought in in the dark and ignorant Ages No mention is made of praying to Saints in any Ancient Liturgie There is a great deal against it in the most Ancient Authors And though in the Fourth Century upon the Conversion of many Heathens to the Christian Faith to humour them in their conceit of some Intermedial Agents between the Divinity and us Mortals there was a Reverence for the Saints set up to deive out the worship of those Secondary Deities yet this was no direct Adoration though they then began to use Rhetorical addresses to Saints like prayers Yet even in Gregory the Great his time in the beginning of the Seventh Century we find no Prayers made to them in all his Liturgies And for the Belief of a simple Attrition being sufficient with the Sacrament no body ever dreamed of it before the Schoolmen found out the Distinction between Attrition and Contrition in the later Ages For the Communication of the Merits of Saints the whole Fathers in one voice speak only of the Merits of Christ being Communicate to us The Fryers first invented it to invite People at least to die in their habits by perswading them that all the merits of the Saints of their Order were shared among the whole Order And for Redeeming out of Purgatory the first Four Ages knew nothing of it In the beginning of the Fifth Century St. Austin plainly speaks of it as an Opinion which some had taken up without any ground and that it was no way certain nor could we ever be sure of it And though in Gregory the Great 's time the Belief of it was pretty far advanced yet the Trade of Redeeming out of it by saying Masses for Departed Souls was not even then found out So that all these are both gross Errors and late Inventions The next Branch of Religion is the Rule of human life which one would think could be taken from no other Standard so certainly as the 10. Commandments and the Expositions given of these in Scripture chiefly our Saviours Sermon on the Mount Let Malice it self appear to Declare wherein our Church strikes at any of these or Teaches men to disobey even the least of them If then our Rule of life be exactly the same with that which the Scriptures prescribe we are safe as to this which may be well called The most important piece of Religion For it is to be considered that God making man after his own Image the end of his Creation was that he might be made like God The Attributes of God to be Imitated are Goodness Mercy Justice Wisdom and Truth And it
at Rome and they fear no Censure any where else From this so many abuses have crept in and the Canonists have found out so many devices to make them Legal that there is no hope of Reforming these at Rome The whole State of Cardinals is one great Corruption who from being Originally the Parish Priests of Rome and so under all Bishops have raised themselves so high that they do now trample on the whole Order and pretend to an Equality with Princes The giving Benefices to Children the unlimitted Plurality of Benefices in one Person the Comendam's the reserved Pensions with many other such like are gross as well as late Corruptions And no wonder if all men despair of Reforming the Court of Rome when these abuses are become necessary to it by which the greatness of the Cardinals and the other Officers or Ministers there is kept up I need not mention the gross Simony of that Court where all the world knows every thing may be had for money The Popes themselves are often Chosen by these Arts and if their own Rules be true such Elections with every thing that follows on them are void The Infinite Swarmes of the Inferiour Clergy do plainly drive a Simoniacal Trade by the Masses they say for Departed Souls for Money And for Publick Pennance they have Universally let it fall in stead whereof private Pennance is now in use And if their own Writers say true this is made an Engine to serve other ends when by enjoyning slight and easie Pennances they draw the People after them upon which the Jesuites have been loudly accused these Forty Years last past In Sum all the Corruptions or rather defects that are in the Government of our Church are only such as they brought in and have not met yet with such effectual remedies as must cure the Church of these inveterate Distempers their ill Conduct did cast her into If any of that Party will review these Particulars and so far trust their own Reasons as to judge according to the plainest Evidence they cannot resist the conviction that they must needs meet with when they see the simplicity of our Faith the Morality of our Doctrine the Purity of our Worship and our Primitive Government and compare it with their vast Superfetation of Articles of Faith the Immorality of their Rules of living the Superstition if not Idolatry of their Worship and the most extravagant Innovations in Government that are in the Church of Rome And indeed these things are so clear that few could resist the force of so much plain truth if it were not for some prejudices with which they are so fettered that they cannot examine matters with that freedom of mind that is necessary Therefore much care must be taken to clear these in the most familiar and demonstrative manner that is possible They may be reduced to these Five chief Ones First That the true Church cannot Err. Secondly That out of the true Church there is no salvation Thirdly That the case of the Church of Rome is much safer than ours is since the Church of England acknowledges a possibility of salvation in the Church of Rome which they on the other hand deny to the Church of England Fourthly That unless there be a Supreme Judg set up we can be sure of nothing in Religion but must fall into many Factions and Parties And Fiftly That the Reformation was but a Novelty begun in the former Age and carried on in this Nation out of an ill design and managed with much Sacriledge The First of these seemed necessary to be cleared in the beginning of this Discourse and I am deceived if it was not done convincingly And for the Second we agree to it That out of the true Church there is no Sâ—…lvation But then the Question comes What makes one a Member of the true Church The Scriptures call the Church the Body of Christ of which he is the Head So then whoever are joined to Christ according to the Gospel must be within the true Church But the deceit that lies hid under this is That from hence they fancy that the Unity of the Church does consist in an outward Communion with the See of Rome And upon that they calculate that there must be an Unity in the Body of the Church And that cannot be except all be joined to the See of Rome Now we grant there is but one Church but this Unity consists not in an Outward Communion though that is much to be desired but consists in an Unity of Belief about the essentials of Christianity There is nothing more evident than that even according to their own Principles other Churches are not bound upon the hazard of Damnation to hold Communion with the See of Rome for it is not an Article of Faith nor certain according to their own Doctrine That the Pope is Infallible And except that were certain we cannot be obliged to hold Communion under such a Sanction with that See For if it be possible that a Pope may become an Heretick or Schismatick which many of them confess and all agree that the contrary is not of Faith then other Churches are not in that case obliged to hold Communion with that See If therefore the possibility of Error in that See be acknowledged then holding Communion with it cannot be the measure of the Unity of the Church So we bring it to this Issue It is not Heresie to say The Pope may Err Therefore this is no just prejudice against our Church because we have departed from Communion with him when he imposed his Errors on us So all the high things they boast of that See come to nothing except they say This Proposition is of Faith That the Pope is Infallible And for these Meetings that they call General Councils they were at best but the Councils of the Western Patriarchate artificially packt and managed with much Art as appears even from Cardinal Pallavicini's History of the Council of Trent For the Third Prejudice It is the most disingenuous thing that can be Because our Church is charitable and modest in her Censures and theirs is uncharitable and cruel in her Judgments therefore to conclude That Communion with them is safer than with us If confidence and Presumption Noise and Arrogance are the marks to judge a Church by we must yield to them in these but if Truth and Peace Charity and holy Doctrines be the better Standards then we are as sure that our Communion is much safer Let this Rule be applied to the other concerns of human life and it will appear how ridiculous an abuse it is to take measures from so false a Standard If a man were sick the Question comes Whether he shall use an approved Physitian or a Montebanks On the one hand the Montebank says He will certainly cure him and the Doctors will undoubtedly kill him On the other hand the Doctor modestly says he will undertake nothing but will do the best
Error cannot be so fatal when it infects a mind that is otherwise sincere as Sin which clearly defaces the Image of God in the Soul We ought not therefore to expect that the Gospel should give any further security against Error than it gives against Sin On the contrary we should rather expect a further security from Sin because it is most hurtful But all the Provision made against Sin is this that in the Scriptures we are warned of the evil of it and are directed to such methods and have the promises of such Assistance that if we use our endeavour we shall not be overcome by sin nor perish in it So as to Error we have the same security The Gospel affords us a very clear light for directing our Belief in the most important things which if we study with due humility and sincerity imploring God for the grace of his holy Spirit for our instruction we shall be preserved from Error And thus the same provision is made against Error that is against Sin And we have no reason to expect more And as it were not fit that Salvation should be offered without obliging men to use their utmost endeavours so it were not fit to give such an easie Remedy against Error as that a man should not need to employ his reason to discover Truth and avoid Mistakes If our Gospel be also hid it is hid in them that perish Therefore that our Searches after Truth may be both encouraged and rewarded God sets it before us in such a Light that it is our own fault if we do not see and follow it But if men will either blindly give themselves up to the conduct of such Guides whose interest it is to mislead them which is the case of the Church of Rome or out of humour or other base ends will invent or follow some erroneous Tenets as other Hereticks do they have themselves to blame and shall bear their own Iniquity but they have no reason to cast the fault upon God or accuse the Scriptures of Darkness or Defectiveness in these things that are necessary to Salvation I come now to the last Prejudice which will require a fuller Discussion because it relates to matter of Fact which as it is better understood so it makes deeper Impressions on people that are not so much wrought on by speculative points as by these things that fall under their senses They first except to the Novelty of our Reformation and always insult with this Question Where was your Religion before Luther To this these things are to be opposed First we turn back the Question and ask them where was their Religion the first six hundred years after Christ Where was the Worship of Images the Doctrine of the Corporal Presence of Redeeming out of Purgatory of Deposing Princes and of the Worshipping Saints before the Eighth Century If the Reformation be now to be condemned because of its Novelty these things were then to be as much condemned because they were then Novelties Secondly If the Reformation had brought in any new Doctrine its Novelty were indeed a just Prejudice against it but it was only the throwing out of these Corruptions which had been brought in in some dark and Ignorant Ages Thirdly The Doctrine of the Reformed Church is no other than what Christ and his Apostles taught and what the Church believed for many Ages after them And as to the Positive part of it it has been still held by the Church of Rome and is yet acknowledged by them but with so many Additions that there was a Necessity of Reforming these And this is often to be inculcated in them that there is no Article of Faith nor any other material point of Religion among us that is condemned by the Church of Rome They only blame us because we do not in many other points believe as they do and this we ought not to do unless we could see an equal Authority binding us to all alike Another Exception is that in the Reformation we made a Schism and broke the Unity of the Church whereas if there had been any things amiss in the Church they say the Reformers should have endeavoured to remove them without tearing the Body of Christ in pieces But in answer to this we acknowledg if the things complained of could have been continued without sin they ought not to have departed from the Communion of other Churches but when the publick Liturgies and the Worship was found to be full of such Corruptions that without Idolatry and Superstition they could be no longer kept up then it was not time to stay for the leisure of their Neighbouring Churches Yet if there had been any probable hopes that the See of Rome would have concurred in such a Reformation it had been worth staying for as long as was possible But when it was on the contrary apparent that all the most just Remonstrances made to that Court were answered at best with delays and Excuses if not with Excommunications and other censures they had no reason to expect any concurrence from thence So the case being thus put that they discovered such Corruptions in the Worship of God with which they could not comply any longer either they were obliged to Worship God against their Consciences or to lay aside all publick Worship or else to cast out these Corruptions by a Reformation Let any man of good reason judge whether the last of these was not to be chosen There was no Obligation lying on this Church to wait for the pleasure of the Court of Rome or our neighbouring Churches in this matter We are a free and Independent Church we owe a charitable and neighbourly Correspondence to forreign Churches but we are subject to none of them And according to the express Decision of one of the first General Councils in the like case we were no way subordinate to the See of Rome even as it was the Patriarchate of the West Themselves do confess that it is no Heresie to say That See is fallible and therefore we were not obliged to dance attendance at that Court when we discovered the Corruptions with which it had deceived the World but might in our National or Provincial Synods at home examine and Reform whatever errors were among us And the multitude of those who held these errors could be no just ground for delaying any advances towards a Reformation no more than in the ancient Church the Orthodox Bishops when chosen into a See corrupted with Arrianism were obliged because that Contagion was generally spread to make no attempts toward Reformation They Except further That the Reformation was begun here by a vitious Prince King Henry the Eighth who partly out of revenge because the Pope would not grant his desire about the Divorce of his Queen and partly to enrich himself and his Courtiers with the sale of Abbey-lands did suffer these Doctrins first to take head here and therefore they can have no good
opinion of any thing that came from so wicked a man and upon such ill motives If this be a good Argument against the Reformation it was as good against Christianity upon Constantine's turning Christian for the Heathen Writers represent him with as black a character as they can do King Henry But we must not think ill of every thing that is done by a bad man and upon an ill Principle Otherwise if we had lived in Iehu's days the same Plea would have been as strong for keeping up the Idolatry of Baal since Iehu had in a very unsincere manner destroyed it and yet God rewarded him for what he had done But whatever might have been King Henry's secret motives his proceedings were regular and justifiable He found himself married to her that had been his own Brothers Wife contrary to the express words of the Law of God The Popes Legat and his own Confessor and all the Bishops of England except one thought his scruples were well grounded Upon which according to the superstition of that time he made his applications to the Court of Rome for a Divorce which were at first well received and a Bull was granted Afterwards some defects being found in that a more ample one was desired which was also granted and Legats were appointed to try the matter But the Pope soon after turned over to the Emperors Party whose Aunt the Queen was and was thereupon prevailed with to recal the Legats Commission destroy the Bull and cite the King to appear at Rome where all things and persons were at the Emperors devotion Upon all this the King did expostulate with the Pope that either his business was just or unjust if it was just why did he recall what he had granted and put him off with such delays If it was not just why did he at first grant the Bull for the Divorce This was unanswerable but the Pope did still feed him with false hopes yet would do nothing Upon which he consulted the chief Universities and the most learned men in Christendom about his Marriage Twelve famous Universities and above an hundred learned Doctors did declare under their hands and Seals some writing larger Treatises about it that his Marriage was against the Law of God And that in that case the Popes Dispensation which had allowed the Marriage was void of it self So after the King had been kept in suspence from December 1527 till February 1533 4. above six years he set his Divines to examin what authority the Pope had in England either by the Law of God or the practice of the Primitive Church or the Law of the Land and after a long and accurate search they found He had no authority at all in England neither by the Laws of God of the Church nor of the Land so this Decision was not made rashly nor of a sudden The Popes Authority being thus cast off it was Natural in the next place to Consider what Doctrines were then held in England upon no other grounds than Papal Decrees For it was absurd to reject the Popes power and yet to retain these Opinions which had no better Foundation than his Authority Upon this many of the things which had been for some Ages received in the Church of Rome fell under debate And a great many particulars were reformed Yet that King was so leavened with the Old Superstition that the progress of the Reformation was but slow during his Reign But it was carried on to a further perfection under King Edward and Queen Elizabeth In all their Methods of proceeding there is nothing that can be reasonably censured if it be confessed that the Pope is not Infallible and the whole Church of Rome acknowledges that it is no Heresie to deny his Infallibility And for the Sale of the Abby-lands they only spoiled the spoilers For the Monks and Fryers had put these publick cheats on the Nation of Redeeming Souls out of Purgatory going on Pilgrimages with the worship of Saints and Images which were infused in the vulgar by many lying Stories pretended Apparitions the false shew of Miracles with other such like Arts. And the credulous and superstitious Multitudes were thereby wrought on to endow these Houses with their best Lands and adorn their Churches with their Plate and richest Furniture It was not to be expected that when their Impostures were discovered they should enjoy the spoil they had made by them nor was it for the publick interest of the Nation to give such encouragement to idleness as the converting all these Houses to Foundations for an unactive life would have been Many of them were applied to good Uses Bishopricks Cathedral and Collegiat Churches Hospitals and free Schools And more of them ought indeed to have been converted to these ends But the excesses of King Henry and his Courtiers must not be charged on the Reformers who did all they could to hinder them And thus all these prejudices with which the Vulgar are misled appear to be very unjust and ill grounded In conclusion If by these or such like considerations any that are now of that Communion can be brought to mind Religion in earnest considering it as a Design to save their Souls by making them truly pure and holy and so reconciling them to God through Christ And if they will examine Matters without Partiality seeking the truth and resolving to follow it wherever they find it and joyn with their Enquiries earnest Prayers to God the Father of lights to open their eyes and grant them his Holy Spirit to lead them into all truth there is little doubt to be made but the great Evidence that is in Truth will in due time appear so clear to them as to dissipate all these mists which Education implicite Faith and Superstition have raised by which they have hitherto darkened FINIS A RELATION Of the Barbarous and Bloody MASSACRE Of about an hundred thousand PROTESTANTS BEGUN At PARIS and carried on over all FRANCE by the PAPISTS in the Year 1572. Collected out of Mezeray Thuanus and other approved Authors LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1678. A Relation of the Massacre of the Protestants begun in Paris and carried on over all France in the Year 1572. THere are no Principles of Morality more universally received and that make deeper impressions on the minds of all Men that are more necessary for the good of humane Society and do more resemble the Divine Perfections than Truth and Goodness So that if our Saviour denounced a Woe against those who teach Men to break the least of his Commandments what may they look for who design to subvert these that may be justly called the greatest of them That the Church of Rome teaches Barbarity and Cruelty against all who receive not their Opinions and that Hereticks are to be delivered to secular Princes who must burn them without mercy or if they have either Bowels or Conscience so
and the bitter ones of enraged Priests were also set on work to appear in Defence of it Of whose Writings Thuanus gives a full account One mercenary Protestant was also hired to excuse if not to defend it I have never been able to meet with any of these Books only Rosseus that wrote in defence of the Holy League calls it the Iustice of St. Bartholomews day And Andreas Eudemon Iohannes does also commend it The Arguments they used have been formerly glanced at The late Civil Wars the pretended Conspiracy of the Admiral the necessity of using desperate Remedies in extream Cases and the Sovereign Power of Kings were what the Lawyers could pretend But the Divines had a better Plea that by one General Council all Hereticks were to be extirpated And by another Faith was not to be kept to them And it cannot be denied but this is unanswerable according to the Principles of the Roman Church The Protestants were not wanting to their own Cause but answered these Books and sufficiently discovered the impudent Allegations of those shameless Persons who hired themselves out to defend so horrid an Action Maximilian the 2d the Emperor is the Person whose Judgment we have least reason to suspect He was the King of France his Father-in-Law and both by Blood and Alliance was joined to the Crown of Spain yet he in a private Letter writing to Scuendi his chief Minister in Hungary has delivered his sense of this Matter so sincerely and fully And that whole Letter is so excellently well written and shews so much true piety and so rare a temper of mind that I shall not fear the Reader 's censure for inserting it at its full length It is but in one Book that I know and that is very scarce Dear Scuendi I Received your Letter and took in good part your Christian and Friendly Condoleance for my late Sickness The Eternal God in whose hands are all things do with me according to his Will I bless him for every thing that befalls me He only knows best what is healthful and profitable and what is hurtful to me I do patiently and chearfully acquiesce in his Divine Pleasure And indeed Matters go so in this World that a Man can have little pleasure or quiet in them for every where there is nothing to be found but trouble treachery and foul dealing God pity us and deliver his Church from these mischiefs It were no wonder if from such a prospect of Affairs a Man should become stupid or mad of which I could say much to you I begin to recover and am now so strong that I walk about with a Stick God be blessed in all his Works For that strange thing which the French have lately acted most tyrannically against the Admiral and his Friends I am far from approving it and it was a great grief to me to hear that my Son-in-Law had been perswaded to that vile Massacre tho I know that others reign rather than he yet that is not sufficient to excuse him nor to palliate such a wickedness I would to God he had asked my advice I should have given him faithful and fatherly Counsel and he should never have had my consent to this Crime which has cast such a blemish on him that he will never wash it off God forgive them that lie under such guilt I apprehend within a little while they shall perceive what they have gained by this method For indeed as you observe well the Matters of Religion are not to be handled or decided by the Sword and no Man can think otherwise that is either pious or honest or desirous of Publick Peace and Happiness Far otherwise did Christ teach and his Apostles instruct us their Sword was their Tongue their Doctrine the Word of God and a Life worthy of Christ. Their Example should draw us to follow them in so far as they were followers of Christ. Besides that mad sort of People might have seen after so many years Trials and so many Experiments that by their Cruelties Punishments Slaughters and Burnings this Business cannot be effected In a word Their ways do not at all please me nor can I ever be induced to approve them unless I should become mad or distracted which I pray God earnestly to preserve me from And yet I shall not conceal from you that some impudent and lying Knaves have given out That whatever the French have done was by my knowledg and approbation In this I appeal to God who knows how deeply I am injured by it but such Lies and Calumnies are no new things to me I have been often forced to bear them formerly and in all such cases I commit my self to God who knows in his own good time how to clear me and vindicate my innocence As for the Netherlands I can as little approve of the Excesses committed there And I do well remember how often I wrote to the King of Spain Advices far different from those they have followed But what shall I say The Councils of the Spaniards relished better than mine They now begin to see their Error and that they themselves have occasioned all the mischief that hath since followed I had a good end be-before me that these noble and renown'd Provinces might not be so miserably destroyed And tho they would not follow my Counsel so that I may well be excused from medling any more yet I do not give over but am sincerely pressing them all I can to follow another method God grant I may see the wished-for effect of these endeavours and that Men may be at last satisfied with what they have done and may use no more such violent Remedies In a word Let the Spaniards or the French do what they will they shall be made to give an account of their Actions to God the Righteous and Just Judg. And for my part by the help of God I shall carry my self honestly christianly and faithfully with all candour and uprightness and I hope God will so assist me with his Grace and Blessing that I may approve all my Designs and Actions both to him and to all Men. And if I do this I little regard a wicked and malicious World How the rest of the World looked on this Action may be easily gathered from the Inclinations and Interests of the several Parties That all Protestants did every where abhor it and hold the remembrance of it still in detestation needs not be doubted All that were noble or generous in the Roman Church were ashamed of it but many extolled it to the Heavens as a work of Angels and others did cast the blame of it on the Protestants The Court of Spain rejoiced openly at it They delighted in the shedding of Protestant Blood and were also glad to see France again embroil'd and to be freed of the fears they had of a War in Flanders In which if the French King had engaged he had in all appearance conquered in one year that