Divine Worship on Men as much as your Description doth And the Venetians particularly opposing the Popes Interloping in their Jurisdiction that other thing referred to in your Description is sufficiently known But if by your Description of Popery you intend only to give us a Dictionary of your Sense of the word generally as used by you and that you intend by the Extermination of Popery the Banishing only of those Principles of it that are Irreligionary out of Mens Minds namely the Principles that tend to the Popes Spiritual and Temporal Vsurpations I am not to quarrel with your expressing your own meaning But as I Judge several Roman-Catholick Writers using the Term Popery to intend thereby the Religion of the Church of Rome as for example the Author of the Compendium saying what I before referred to that nothing but Popery or at least its Principles can make the Monarchy of England again emerge or lasting yet as to which a Divine Sentence was in the Mouth of the King when in his Gracious Expressions in Council concerning the Church of England he Judged otherwise and said I know the Principles of that Church are for Monarchy c. and meaning by Popery what was called la Catholicitè I shall say that according to the common acception of the Word Popery were I to explain what I usually mean by it I would declare that I mean not only the Power of the Bishop of Rome but of any General Councils in Imposing Creeds and Doctrines c. on me And I desiring to have all Religionary Errors banished out of my understanding and Loving my Neighbour as my self will desire they may be so out of his and particularly if after he knoweth he is bought with a price he shall think it lawful for him to be a Servant of Men And will not only weigh the Commands and Decrees of any Bishop But of any General Council whatsoever And if in Matters that Import my Salvation I find them contrary to the Bible with a Salvo to the Reverence I owe to all Lawful General Councils I will desire them to excuse me from obeying them Were it not for what you have so well in p. 48. said that the Protestant Religion not making the intention of the Preist essential to the Sacrament of the Eucharist is more strongly assertive of the Real presence there than the Popish Hypothesis and for that great and excellent Notion of yours in your Discourse viz. That Papists and others being bought with a Price that therefore they ought not to be the Servants of Men and my Judging that according to what I have mentioned out of Dr Iackson that you would separate your self from any Church that imposed any thing Magisterially on Mens Faiths I might think that perhaps had you lived in the Reign of Henry the 8 th you would not have separated from the Ecclesia Anglicana as then by Law Established And therefore when by your warm Expressions in p. 47. after you have said that the Protestation that the Protestant Religion requires is such a continual one as is Reiterated upon every fresh Act and Attempt of the Papal Religion upon ours and whereby it would impose Creeds and Doctrines on us contrary to the Liberty of the Church of England as now by Law Established You tell us that We are to shew no Mercy to these Principles of Popery that disquiet the World and on the several occasions offered protest against the Damages that both our King and Country may have from the Rage of Popery I may tell you that this PROTESTANCY amounts to no more than what we read of in the Review of the Council of Trent where in Book 1. and 12 th Chapter the Author refers to the French King by his Embassadors causing a PROTESTATION to be made against the Council of Trent and as appeared by the Oration there made by Mr. Arnold de Ferriers the 22 d. of September 1563. where among other things having mentioned many grievances he saith that according to the Commands of the most Christian King they were constrained CONCILIO INTERCEDERE VT NVNC INTERCEDEBANT by the same Token that that Book relates how thereupon a certain Prelate of the Council of Trent not well understanding the Propriety of the Word Intercedere which the Tribunes were wont of Old to use when thay made their Oppositions and Hinderances asked his Neighbour PRO QVO ORAT REX CHRISTIANISSIMVS But of the French Kings Embassadors protesting not only against Grievances in the Council of Trent but against it self as a Grievance and of some occasions thereof it will come in my way to speak hereafter Nor was there ever any Instrument or Paper Writ with more sharpness of Anger and Scorn in the way of Defiance against Papismus or Popery than H. the 8 ths Protestation against the Council of Trent and yet inclusive too of another Protestation I mean of his Adherence to the Faith then called Catholick That long Protestation calls the Pope by the Name of Bishop of Rome and saith surely except God take away our right Wits not only his Authority shall be driven out for ever but his NAME also shall be forgotten in England Nor did ever any Protestant Writer in Queen Elizabeths or King Iames the First 's time or in our late Fermentation so zealously press the Exterminating of the Papal Power as Henry the 8ths Proclamation about the Abolishing the same Triumph at its being here done And where he saith We have by Good and Wholsom Laws and Statutes made for this purpose EXâ—IRPED ABOLISHED Separated and Secluded out of this our Realm the Abuses of the Bishop of Rome his Authority and Iurisdiction of long time Vsurped c. And the King there Orders all manner of Prayers Oraisons Rubricks Canons of Mass-Books and all other Books in the Churches wherein the Bishop of Rome is NAMED or his Presumptuous and proud Pomp and Authority preferred utterly to be Abolished Eradicate and Razed out and his NAME and Memory to be never more except to his Contumely and Reproach remembred but perpetually suppressed and obscured The Act of 28 of Henry the 8 th before spoken of called an Act for Extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome was here referred to and which Act and other Acts of Parliament Establishing the Kings Supremacy and Excluding the Pope for ever I mentioned as revived in Queen Elizabeths time after their being repeal'd in Queen Mary's I need not observe to you how this present French King hath likewise lately shewn a very Commendable Zeal for the Exterminating the Vsurpations of the Papal Power in the Business of the Regalia and that the Case of that Kings Power is much altered for the better since D' Ossat Writ to Villeroy from Rome with so much Joy for his having found out an expedient as to the difference between Henry the 4 th and the Pope about the granting to one a Church Dignity in France Namely to have the Words put
both in the Close of your Discourse as well as your Discussion to do the Persons as well as Tenets of Papists all the Justice you could From your having in that Discussion occasionally so much dilated on the Moral Offices of Loyalty to our Princes without respect to their Religion and what ever Religion they may profess different from that by Law Established I shall be glad if the thoughts of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects will Receive deep Impressions of the peculiar Duties we owe to him our Great and Gracious Soveraign particularly eo nomine When ever we pray for him at the Prayers of our Church or our private Devotions let us think of him with the Honour due to a King and Gods Vicegerent Let us not Slander the Footsteps of Gods Anointed in what ever way to Heaven he hath placed the same nor yet by Reproaches make the few of this great populous Nation uneasie who as Viatores attend him in the same way but be the more Civil to them for being part of his retinue therein Since it is Rudeness for any Man to be Curiously Inquisitive into the Speculative points of Religion held by Subjects it may be thought both that and Profanation of Gods more than ordinary Care over the Hearts of Kings to be prying and intruding into the Sentiments of our Soveraign As there are peculiar Moral Offices that concern Subjects when the Prince is not in the External Communion of the same Church with them so there are such likewise incumbent on those Subjects that are in the External Communion of the same Church with their Prince and which oblige them particularly to promote the Ease and Tranquillity of his Reign It having pleas'd God by the Course of the Executive power of the Law in his Majesties Hands to free them from many Hardships to which they were before liable and to put a great price into their Hands if they have Hearts to make use of it and to give them an opportunity by their Moderation and by their Complaisance with his Majesties Measures in the Defence and Supporting of the Church of England and by their knowing in this their Day the things that belong to their Peace to compass an Universal and lasting Tenderness in the great Body of the English People toward their Persons and making the Laws and the whole Hive of the English People to guard them and the very Anger and Zeal of the Protestants to be a Defensive Wall of Fire round about them as your words are it becomes them to contribute to the ease of his Majesties Royal Cares by their being what you say they generally are and by their not Misrepresenting or Calumniating those who are of the Religion different from theirs which yet you have shew'd Father Parsons predicted they must necessarily do and by their not affecting such an excessive internal Power in the Government as you say in the distant Reighnes of some of our Protestant Princes they did It concerns them by their Reverently using their present Temporary Indulgence to effect for his Majesty that in the Case of his easing their Consciences and their Estates from some Penal Laws it may be as was in the Reign of David viz. that whatsoever the King did pleas'd all the People There is none desires more than my self that among the various Opinions in Religion all exasperations against each others Persons and Misrepresentations of each others Doctrines may for ever cease And therefore according to the expressions us'd in the Acts of the General Assembly of the French Clergy complaining of Calumny publish'd against the Doctrine of the Church and the Faith of the Catholick Church and their seeming there to restrain that Doctrine and that Faith to the Decisions of the Council of Trent and such as are of the Nature with those printed in one Column apart I in what I have Written in my private Papers concerning the Religion of the Church of Rome have observ'd the Measures that our great Writer Mr. Chillingworth hath done in his Book forecited and where he saith Chap. 6. N. 56. I do not vnderstand by your Religion the Doctrine of Bellarmine or Baronius or any other private Man among you nor the Doctrine of the Sorbon or of the Jesuits or Dominicans or of any other particular company among you but that wherein you all agree or profess to agree the Doctrine of the Council of Trent And tho in your Explication of what you mean by Popery you seem to restrain your aversion to it as comprising only the Papal Usurpations or what is Congrous to the known Distinction of the Court of Rome and the Church of Rome and profess to follow the Measures of the late Earl of Clarendon of whom Cressy in p. 101. of his Epistle Apologetical saith that he makes the Popes Temporal power to be the Hinge upon which all other Controversies between Protestants and English Catholicks do hang and depend so entirely that if that only were taken off all the rest would quickly fall to the ground I am pleas'd with his Lordship or yours having gone so far with me in my way against Popery for if any Friend bears me Company good part of my way in any Journey I shall be pleas'd therewith tho he accompany me not to my Journeys end I am yet to tell you that in my way to Heaven I have further to go than merely so far as the leaving that Temporal Power of the Pope behind me And must freely pass the bounds of Trent but yet strictly observing the Moral Offices of not injuring or troubling or Misrepresenting or Miscalling any Man for not going my way and if I find the profess'd observers of the Doctrines of the Council of Trent seeming but tacitly to reject the Disloyal Principles propp'd up formerly by the Council of Lateran and owning expresly only the Doctrines of the Council of Trent I shall not trouble my self or them to charge them with the Odious Matter of the former Council or to Recant by Words what you say so many and so great Papists have done by Actions And if the Roman Catholicks who were suppos'd to have publishâ—d that Translated Book of the Acts of the French Clergy intended only thereby to caution us against the Misrepresenting them and the Doctrine of their Church I shall be glad if the Caution may be justly pursued by all Men. But some Criticks on that Translation have presumed to Judge their publishing the French Kings Edict of the 14 th of Iuly last for Restraining the French Protestants former Liberty of Writing and Speaking against the Doctrines of the Council of Trent or as the words there are from speaking directly or indirectly after what manner soever of the Catholick Religion was perhaps done with an ill intent by some who with an Evil Eye look'd on the Kings goodness to the Church of England I am far from Attributing the Heat or Indiscretion of particular Persons to the Body of any Religionary Party
Aristophanes whom you had said you had found Cited for that Sense of the word at the end of Cloppenburg de Sacrificiis and who Citing Aristophanes his Comedy of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aves where the Birds threaten Iupiter with a Holy War shews that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was meant Avis Seminilega and that the Athenians thought St. Paul would despoil the Altars of the Gods of the Provisions of their Offerings And in Fine you said that such various readings of that word would certainly meet in any ones being thought a Babler by those of the Religion Established if he would interlope in their Maintenance I doubt not but you have heard of the late Candidate Beyond-Sea for the Office of the Reconciler of Churches I mean the Author of TVBA PACIS ad universas Dissidentes in Occidente Ecclesias seu Discursus Theologicus de unione Ecclesiarum Romanae Protestantium nec non amicâ Compositione Controversiarum sidei inter hosce Caetus per Matheum Praetorium Memela Prussum Printed at Collen An. 1684. and which that Author Dedicates to the Emperor and to the Kings of Poland France England Denmark Sweden severally and to the Electors and other Princes of the Empire And just before he blows his Trumpet he warne thus of the two Old Pronouns that have so long troubled the World viz. Meum and Tuum and which will always continue so to do till all Men shall be of St. Francis his mind whom when a Fryar told that he came à cellâ tuâ St. Francis when he heard the word tuâ said he would Lodge no more there The Author tells us in his 10. Chapter Tentavit quidem Compositionem Vir ob studium pacis a plurimis principibus viris Longè Laudatus Georgius Cassander sed non fausto Successu Contradicentibus partim Romanis partim protestantibus and tells us there of the like Event that Marcus Antonius de Dominis and his Work for that purpose had But our Author had the Fortune to Catch a Tartar of an Objection in the last Paragraph of his Book save one viz. At dicet aliquis si unio nostrarum Ecclesiarum Cum Romanâ Ecclesiâ sieret Romanus Pontifex jus suum repeteret tot bona olim Eccliastica quae jam per pacta transacta in manus serenissimorum principum Cessere quae nunquam principes in aerarij sui damnum adimi sibi patientur And to this Objection he returneth this Answer viz. Respondetur Omninò aequum est Ius suum Cuique tribuere nec Romano Pontifici illud derogandum quod ipsi legitimè Competit Bona Ecclesiastica quae olim fuerunt nunc autem aerario principum adscripta jure gladij pactorum acquisita NON PVTAMVS Romanum Ponti ficem pro suâ quâ pollet prudentiâ repetiturum Frui Concedet ijs ad quaâ— admissi sunt possessionibus Nihil ijs vel decedere vel adimi cupiet This the good Man in his Embassy Speech to the World as its Reconciler tells us of this Pope but without shewing his Credentials either from the Pope or any one else And I believe on the account of what you have shewn of the Munster-Treaty the Princes and Electors of the Empire to whom he hath Dedicated his Book will not fear this Popes being either able or willing to give them any disturbance in their Church-Lands Nor need any of us in England more fear the Popes being able or willing to hurt our possessions of the Church-Lands We are sufficiently shewn it out of Mores Reports f. 1.282 that the Popes Bulls giving Monasteries to Wolsy with the consent of the King and the Surrender of the Priors to Wolsy would not serve the turn and that nothing but an Act of Parliament would alter the Property You have here an instance of our present Foraign Reconcilers of Churches being very poor Middle Region Men in Comparison of Cassander and Antonius de Dominis and others as our late little Reconcilers likewise have been Compared with the unfortunate ones of the Old Conjuncture The question of what will this Babler say is properly applicable to them from all Parties But one thing I cannot but here observe to you that as I was very well pleased with your Design that you Communicated to me after you had begun this long VOYAGE of your THOVGHTS as I may call it and writ the former part of your Discourse namely that because in your occasional Conversation with People of all sorts you have found that Mens Fancies were as you said Nail'd to POPERY and their Tongues Ty'd up as to any thing but POPERY and that they could not go beyond the Tedder of that in their Discourse and that POPERY's Monopolizing so much of their Discourse had been one of its VSVRPATIONS you intended to try to divert them from it and make them pass ad autres by laying before them such various Matters of Calculation relating to their own Country and many places of Christendom as might give them somewhat beside POPERY and PLOTS to think and speak of in Company So I am much better pleased with your Performance of that your Curious Enterprize and do think that your Book by containing in it so many MISCELLANEA must eo nomine prove highly useful to our English World in this Conjuncture It here occurs to me to observe to you that after an Erratum of the Press in Page 38. of your Discourse Namely where you referred to P. 325 in the Advocate of Conscience Liberty instead of Page 225 you make the last Letter of D'Ossats to be from Rome An. 1596 and I suppose you happened to do so by casting your Eye on the Old Date of the last Letter but one Printed in the Volume of his Letters in Folio of the Paris Edition An. 1625. and finding it to be An. 1596. But it came not into your Mind then to observe that the last of his Letters as they are Ranged in Order was the 199 th and in the End of Book 9 th and which was to Villeroy from Rome March the 6 th An. 1604 and in which Year he dy'd as you rightly refer to his Epitaph to shew But it seems after that last Letter in Book 9 th of the Paris Edition the Publisher saying that he had recovered some others of his Letters Prints them without respect to the Order of time and there makes the Date of the last Letter save one in the Volume to be in the Year 1596. as you have there done But however this Derogates not from the Iustice of your Animadversion in page 38. on the Roman-Catholick English Priest for making D' Ossat to have known the Gun-Powder Treason Plot to be a Sham one Eight Years before it was to be Executed For the Letter of D' Ossat that that Priest alledged to prove what I now mentioned was Dated as you justly say from Rome March 29 th An. 1596 and he never read the Letter that can find any thing of the Gun-Powder Treason in it I shall here take occasion to make my Excuse to the Reverend Divines of our Church assuring them that by adding Observations on the Writings of the Author of the Papist Misrepresented and Represented I intended not to Derogate from the Sufficiency of the Learning and Reason they have shewed in their Answers thereunto But the â—ruth is though as in our Parliaments frequently when â—ny have moved for some Additional Branch to be setâ—â—ed on the Revenue here afâ—er the Example of somewhat of the like Nature in France the Naming of France â—n the Case then for a Preâ—ident hath been observed â—o make many speak against the Vnseasonableness of the Motion who otherwise would not have done it so the writing of any thing that was contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England and after the Mode of the Bishop of Condom and the Acts of the French Clergy just at this time of Day was a thing that I could not but shew my Resentment against as very much unseasonable And moreover according to the saying that one ought not tâ— be Patient under charge of Hesie I may justifie the warmth of my Resentments against the Acts of the French Clergy charging some of ours both with Heresie and Calumny and bringing up our Whitaker and Downham there in the Van of the Calumniators under the first Article and our Raynolds under the Sixth I Remain SIR Your Affectionate Friend and Servant ANGLESEY FINIS
wrote And I believe had not a Learned and Prudent Friend of mine of the Church of England told me that my being thus accessory to the publishing of your Fathers Laudatory Acknowledgments of my performance was as much consistent with the Laws of Modesty as is many grave and wise Authors prefixing Commendatory Verses or Prose-testimonials from others before their works and for which purpose he told me of Mr. Hobbes having before a philosophical and political Work of his printed some excellent verses of Dr. Bathurst and of Dr. Templer having printed some of another before his admirable Confutation of Leviathan and withal represented it to me that I was in Conscience bound to the supporting the Honour of our Church by the publishing the New Matter contained in your Fathers Book against popery and likewise to the supporting the Justice of our Compassion for the sufferings of our Brethren in France by the Bigottry of the French Clergy upon the account of their not owning the Faith of the Council of Trent your Fathers Book beyond all other Writings published so clearly shewing it out of the most Authentick Histories that that Council was never published and received in France I should have been inclined to have Transmitted this incomparable Discourse of his Lordship to have lived only in the Archives of the Oxford-Library And so chiefly by the weight of this latter Consideration I have held my self obliged to make it publick And I doubt not but all protestants and especially our Divines of the Church of England will bid it welcome to the World But My Lord I am to crave your Lordships Pardon for thus long detaining your thoughts from the Great and Noble ones of your Fathers in the following Discourse and will no longer offend therein than by Subscribing my self My Lord Your Lordships most Faithful and most Humble Servant P. Pett July 17. 1693. From my Tusculanum Totteridge Iuly 18. 1683. Sir Peter Pett I Obeyed your Commands in giving the great Sr. George Ent a taste of my villa fare I hope you seasoned it with your wonted good discourse I envy you nothing of your Happiness but that I had not a part in it for I delight in nothing more than such Company from whom I ever part the better and the wiser I acknowledge the favour in the two Sheets you sent me which were so far from satisfying me that they served but to whet my appetite to desire that you would after so long an expectation given ultimam manum ponere to that work wherein you do pingere aeternitati and from which it is pitty the publick should be with-held longer I remember after Cicero's incomparable parts and learning had advanced him in Rome to the highest Honours Offices of that famous Common wealth that by Caesars Vsurpations upon the publick there was no longer place either in the Senate or Hall of Iustice for the Romanum Eloquium he had made so much his Study and wherein he had before Caesar himself shewed how much he excelled he betook himself wholy to the common consolation of wise Men in distress the use and practice of Philosophy and therein with an industry and stile answerable to the diviness of the purpose undertook for the benefit of all Ages the most Religious and Sacred part of Philosophy the Nature of the God-Head wherein amidst a cloud of various and opposite errours and the thick darkness of a benighted ignorance he acquitted himself to admiration insomuch that I may account him as some great Authors have done the Divine Philosopher as well as Seneca And if I had reason to doubt what his opinion might be concerning a Deity or whether his works evince not the true Deity and Religion yet I am sure they tend strongly to the overthrowing the False Which the very worshippers of those ignoti Dei were so sensible of that they conspired the Destruction of this work of his insomuch that in the Reign of Dioclesian that great Bigott as I may call him of the Heathenish Idolatry and the Enemy of the Christian Religion these three Books De naturâ Deorum and his other two of Divination were publickly burnt in company with the writings of the Christians Anno Christi 302. as most famous Chronologers and others have recorded In particular Arnobius sharply tho then no Christian inveighs against the burners of these Books of Cicero in these words viz. But before all others Tully the most Eloquent of the Romans not fearing the imputation of Impiety with great Ingenuity Freedom and Exactness shews what his thoughts were and yet saith he I hear of some that are much transported against these Books of his and give out that the Senate ought to Decree the abolishing of them as bringing countenance to the Christian Religion and impairing the Authority of Antiquity rather said he if you believe you have ought certain to deliver as to your Deities convince Cicero of Error confute and explode his evil Doctrine For to destroy Writings or go about to hinder the common Reading of them is not to defend the Gods but to be afraid of the Testimony of Truth Thus far Arnobius And I could not leave Cicero and his Books in a more illustrious place than amidst those bright flames wherein the Divine writings were consumed For what greater Honour than for him to be joyned with Christ in the same cause and punishment I should not have so far advanced the pattern of Cicero in a Christian Kingdom but that we are so far degenerated from the primitive ones that Tullyes Morality if not Divinity goes beyond us When the Age is Receptive of better examples though you need them not I should willingly insinuate them to others Now if by the beginnings of Persecution in France and other parts and the dangerous Divisions and Circumstances at home we seem to be hurrying to the like sad times you may guess what makes me embrace so much a Country life as Cicero did and that from the Noise and Contrivances of a croud in the City I am retired to the sweet quiet of a Tusculanum and to converse with the dead qui non mordent and if I declare I should be glad among the Tombs of such company as you and other my good friends that perhaps in kindness to me think me wanting there you will believe me no ill chooser for my self and I hope squander away some time upon a friend You see I give a beginning to our entercourse wherein you were not wont to flinch and when you write to Bugden pray let the Learned and good Bishop know I am as much his as ever tho the whole Body of Papists seem now to be confuting his before Iudged irrefragable Book and bring in the protestants by Head and Shoulders to what he evinced were their Maxims and practice so that now Mutato nomine de nobis fabula narratur But the God of truth in the thing wherein they deal proudly and falsly will shew himself
a Man the Frankness of a Gentleman and Charity and Compassion of a Christian to the Persons of many Papists and others and doing as I did in the late Conjuncture would occasion designing Papists and some perverse Nominal Protestants as you call them to make a Papist of me and did therefore esteem it in you whom I never had opportunity to oblige a Favour to do me Justice therein as you have in the former part of your Discourse and of which I think the Sheets were sent me printed within a Month or two's time after the old Date they bear But a long fit of Sickness afterward seising you and you then signifying to me that you resolved that the same should not be published till you added the following part wherein for the Encouragement of so many Protestants who were so much Dispirited with imaginations of Popery's coming to be the paramount Religion and of Protestancy's being Extirpated you endeavor'd to shew the impossibility of the same Humanly speaking and till you had likewise finished your Casuistical Discourse of the Obligatoriness of our Oaths as to the King his Heirs and Successors I was easily satisfied with your taking your own time for the Publishing the whole as knowing that the Torrent of Shamm and Calumny by which the Reputations of many Loyal Persons were born down was too violent to be of any long continuance and considering likewise that your incorporating the Character of my Life into a Work so full of various exquisite Learning of all sorts and particularly of that now so much in request Namely the reducing Political Matters by Calculation ad firmam as you call it that by the Course of Nature must be immortal and probably pass Christendom in some Language more general than the English would in time Render me a sufficient gainer by the false Affidavit which an angry House of Commons so unwarily dispersed with their Votes throughout this Kingdom The truth is you having been the first Person who took the pains to find out by the Records of the Pole Bills and the Bishops survey the Number of the People of England have highly Merited the thanks of your Country thereby as having necessarily rendred its Figure and Alliances in the World the more considerable And it was the more proper to be done by reason of De Leti having Published it that that Learned Person and my Worthy Friend Monsieur Van Beuninghen had Judged the People here to be but two Millions and because as you have Cited it out of Dr. Vessius his Book of various Observations Dedicated by him to his late Majesty that the Doctor there hath Estimated the People in England Scotland and Ireland to be but two Millions I remember not in all the Books I have read to have found so much and so various Political Calculation as in this your Discourse And because you intend a Review thereof I think it will be in any who have the Custody of Records that may be of use to you a kindness to the publick to be communicative of them to you Though I need not observe to any Reader of your Discourse the height of your Eloquence and great unaffected Wit and the Nervous way of Argumentation appearing therein yet I am obliged to acquaint you that in some particular passages therein my Observations of Men and Things have been different from yours But all of which I hold my self likewise obliged not to trouble the World or you with at this time for your having mentioned your intended Review to be Published in a Volum by it self I who have received so much kindness from you am to do you the Iustice to stay a while in expecting your Second thoughts and without boding ill of your being any way partial therein yet shall here at present acquaint you that as I am a Member of the Church of England as now by Law Established I will not Recede a Iot from its Doctrine by Judging the Papacy not to be Antichrist or by judging the Worshipping the Host not to be formal Idolatry as my Honoured Friends Dr. Hammond and Bishop Taylor as you say have done And shall here observe to you that tho' Bishop Taylor in his Liberty of Prophecying pronounced Worshiping the Host to be not FORMAL Idolatry yet afterward upon more Mature thoughts he in his Disswasive against Popery did make it FORMAL Idolatry I shall likewise tell you that Bishop Sanderson whom you so often quote and whose Judgment you so deservedly Celebrate doth amongst his Sermons printed Anno 1657. in the fifth Sermon Ad Populum p. 287. in plain Terms call the Pope the Man of Sin the Text of the Sermon is 1 Tim. 4.4 The Bishop there represents the Church of Rome as injurious to our Christian Liberty whom St. Paul in this passage saith he hath branded with an indelible note of Infamy in as much as those very Doctrines wherein he gives an instance as Doctrines of Devils are the received Tenets and Conclusions of that Church not to insist on other prejudices done to Christian Liberty by the intolerable Vsurpation of the Man of Sin where he refers in his Margent to 2 Th. 2 3. who exerciseth a Spiritual Tyranny over Mens Consciences as opposite to Evangelical Liberty as Antichrist is to Christ. Let us a little see how she hath fulfilled St. Pauls Prediction in teaching Lying and Divelish Doctrines and that with seared Consciences and in Hypocrisie in the two Specialties mentioned in the next verse viz. Forbidding to Marry and commanding to abstain from Meats And then the Bishop saith Marriage the Holy Ordinance of God is yet by this purple Strumpet forbidden and that Sub Mortali to Bishops Priests Deacons c. and he there for that Appellation of purple Strumpet refers in his Margent to Rev. 17.13 And as I have here cited this great B. for this purpose so I may likewise refer you to the work of our B. of Lincoln called Brutum Fulmen as proving the Pope to be Antichrist contrary to the Assertions of Grotius and Dr. Hammond and others I never think of this Bishop and of his Incomparable Knowledge both in Theology and Church-History and in the Ecclesiastical Law without applying to him in my Thoughts the Character that Cicero gave Crassus viz. Vir non unus é multis sed unus inter omnes propè singularis And I desire here to own my beholdingness to his communicative Disposition for assisting me with quotations and his Judgment when I have occasion to Crave his Aid therein as you know I have lately done and shall be glad that the learning in such Letters as I have received from him wherein there are many excellent Notions which I had no occasion to quote may sometime see the light But I am in the next place with Justice to acknowledge it to you that you have in your Reflections on the Vsurpations of the late times acquainted the World with several things useful to be inserted in
and whose Inquisitiveness in Religion is not at its Journeys end in Rome and whom you have found inclined to return to the Church of England if the Tenent I shewed you discussed by Gundissalvus and asserted in the gloss and Text of the Canon Law can be charged on the Church of Rome as approved by it I know not but shall here send you a Transcript of the same and shall first observe that the sedes materiae for this Tenet that a whole City may be burned with fire if the Major part thereof were Hereticks is in the Body of the Canon Law namely in the Text of the Decrets it self Can. si audieris 23 Caus. Q. 5. And if any one will consult the Body of the Canon Law with the gloss and Case of the Edition at Turin in the year 1620 he will find it there as followeth SI AVDIERIS CASVS Cyprianus fuit interrogatus an mali post adventum Domini in hunc mundum morte sint puniendi Et certe respondet quod sic quia si ante adventum Christi hoc fuit ut probabitur autoritate Deuteronomij exemplo Matathiae Multo fortius post adventum Christi hoc fieri debet Autoritas durat a principio usque ibi cujus praecepti Postea sunt verba Cypriani SI AUDIERIS Haec verba sumpta sunt de Deuterono usque ad illum locum hujus praecepti Necabis Tu quicunque sis Et sic quandoque ille qui non est judex potest punire malesicos c. OMNES QUI si Ergo aliqui haeretici sunt in una civitate tota civitas possit exuri sic ecclesia vel civitas punitur pro delicto personarum ut 25. q. 2. ita nos c. NVNC id est in futurum c. CVIVS haec suntverba Cypriani MATATHIAS ut legitur in libro Machabeorum Item Cyprianus lib. de exhortatione Martyrij cap 5. Principes saeculi pessimis parcere non debent 34. § Si audieris in unâ ex civitatibus quas dominus deus tuus dabit tibi inhabitare illic dicentes eamus serviamus dijs alijs quos non novisti interficiens necabis omnes qui sunt in civitate caede gladij Et incendes civitatem igni erit sine habitaculo in aeternum non reaedificabitur etiam nunc ut avertatur dominus ab indignatione irae suae dabit misericordiam tibi miseribitur tui multiplicabit te si exaudieris vâ—cem dom dei tui observaveris praecepta ejus Cujus praecepti rigoris memor Matathias inteâ—fecit eum qui ad aram sacrificaturus accesserat Quod si ante adventum Christi circa deum colendum idola spernenda haec praecepta servata sunt quanto magis post adventum Christi servanda sunt quando ille veniens non tantum verbis nos hortatus est sed factis To this place in the Canon Law Gundissalrus refers in his Discourse against Heretical Pravity and which I shewed you in my Study among the Tractatus Criminales published by Franciscus Maria Passerus at Venice in the year 1556. and where in p. 158. he hath discussed the Tenet at large and ex professo 'T is among those Criminal Tractates called Tractatus contra haereticam pravitatem per Gundissalrum de villa diego Sacri Palatij Apostolici Auditorem char 158. and where it follows thus viz. Summarium 1. Civitas in qua aliqui insunt Haeretici an tota possit igne exuri aut alias destrui latissimè usque ad questionis finem 2. Civitas quando dicatur Haeresim committere ut universe destrui possit 3. Vniversitate punitâ de Haeresi an singuli quoque puniti videantur ita ut amplius puniri non possint Questio 24. Vigesimo quartò quaeâ—o an si aliqui Haeretici sunt in unâ civitate possit tota civitas exuri sive alias destrui glo in c. Si audieris 23. q. 5. arguit quod sic per illum tex videntur ibi velle Ioan. Laur. quod quilibet possit hoc facere sed in Contrarium inducitur ea q. si non licet ver quasdam versi his igitur q. 4. ver non ergo q. â—ult quodcunque quod no. 33. q 1. inter haec in 1. glo Archi. in c. praesidentes de haere l. 6. dicit quod Ecclesia concedit generalem authoritatem exterminandi haereticos 23. q. v. si vos c. Si audieris Quae non tantum diriguntur principibus Et facit eadem causa q. legi de haeretici communicamus § Catholici ubi etiam ad eos exterminandos conceditur cruce signat indulgentia ultra-marina tamen occifio spoliatio talium tutum est quod fiat ex edicto principis aut Ecclesiae c. cum secundum leges eo titu lib. 6. ne ex cupiditate vel ultione potius quam ex justitia vel obedientia pugnare videantur 23. q. 1. quid culpatur q. 11. c. 1. q. 111. Sex differentiae quod etiam tenuit in summa eo titu versic Sed nunquid Goffre in summa eo titu § sed nunquid Catholici Hostien in summa eo titu qualiter evitentur vers sed nunquid Catholici idem sequitur Joan. And in novel in d. c. praesidentes domi qui subjungit oportere necessario praecedere judicis declarationem super crimine haeresis ad hoc ut ista executio fieret per d. c. cum secundum leges Sed ista videntur mihi cum supportatione nimis crudè indigeste dicta in tantâ questione ubi de tantorum periculo agitur praesertim ubi innocentes pro nocentibus puniiuntur gravius profundius scribendum calamus magis temperandus fuisset quapropter ego dicerem quod etiam si aliqui de civitate sint Haeretici dummodo civitas ipsa haeresim non incurrerit adeo quod delictum istud universitati civitatis ascribi possit non propterea civitas possit uxuri aut alias destrui Nullo enim jure hoc reperitur cautum omnia jura clamant in contrarium scilicet quod peccata suos debent tenere Authores C. de pae sancimus de his quae fiunt a Majori parte c. quaesivit Ad jura quae in contrarium inducuntur stat responsio ad C. si audieris per quod glo praefata se fundat dici potest multipliciter Primo quod illud erat praeceptum legis veteris judiciale ut patet clare nam habetur originaliter Deutero 13. talia in lege novâ cessaverunt nisi de novo fuissent instituta nec legitur nova institutio Nam Cyprianus cui inscribitur ille tex in decretis non habuit facultatem jura generalia concedenai cum non fuerit Ro. Ponti eo Maxime ubi de incendio morte inferendis disponitur ut patet in illo tex quae paenae ab ecclesiâ non
Quotation out of Cyprian with these words viz. Si ante adventum Christi haec praecepta servata sunt quanto magis post adventum servanda sunt quando ille veniens non verbis tantum nos hortatus est sed factis By which words he would prove that our Lord did both by Words and Deeds exhort us to Kill Hereticks Whereas there is not one word in Cyprian or the Texts of Scripture he Cites which any way concerns Hereticks or Heresie but only Idolaters and Idolatry which are things of a far different Nature And had Gratian considered what immediately follows there in Cyprian and which he there unluckily leaves out he might have clearly seen that Cyprian neither said nor meant that the Meek and the Holy Iesus did by Deeds or Words Exhort Men to kill Hereticks But that which Cyprian truly saith our Blessed Saviour did by Deeds and Words Exhort us to was that Christians should patiently suffer and by no means renounce the Gospel by serving Idols and by Idolatry For as to those words with which Gratian ends his Canon viz Christus veniens non verbis tantum nos hortatus est sed factis there should have been only a Comma after factis though Gratian makes a full point as if it concluded the Sentence It immediately follows in Cyprian thus viz. Non verbis tantum nos hortatus sit sed factis post omnes Injurias contumelias passus Crucifixus ut nos pati mori exemplo suo doceret ut nulla sit homini excusatio pro se pro Christo non patienti Cum ille passus sit pro nobis c. In short that which Cyprian saith Christ taught us with Words and Deeds was not that we should Kill Hereticks as Gratian would have it but that we should willingly suffer Death for the Gospel rather than be Idolaters We know that in the case of the Samaritans who were both Hereticks and Idolaters when Iames and Iohn would have had fire from Heaven to Consume them our Blessed Saviour Rebuked them and said that the Son of Man was not come to destroy Mens Lives but to save them Because I love to make no breach among Christians wider and because in p. 260. you have in general mentioned Gratian's Misciting of Cyprian and in p. 261. shewed that Gratian's founding a Tenet on Cyprian or any places out of other Authors giveth it only the weight that Cyprian and they had in their proper Works c. I have here thought it worth while to shew that Papists are under no Moral Obligation by this Canon Si audieris and do believe that the more Sagacious Persons of the Church of Rome do as is said in Pere verons Book you in the page last cited refer to make Gratian's Decrees and the gloss claime nothing of Faith and so even in the country 's of the Pope where the Canon Law is in force this part of the Decrees so wilfully mistaken by Gratian out of Cyprian can bind none in Conscience And therefore as to what you mention of the Roman Catholick Gentlemans observing that the Council of Trent had gone far in the Confirmation of the Canon Law c. I account you have said enough to Answer that Objection For though the Council of Trent hath it in the 25 th Session C. 20. De Reformatione p 623 624. of the Edition at Antwerp in the year 1033 that Praecipit sancta synodus sacros canones concilia generalia omnia necnon alias Apostolicas sanctiones in favorem Ecclesiasticarum personarum libertatis Ecclesiasticae contra ejus violatores editas quae omnia praesenti decreto innovat exactè ab omnibus observari debere tho' other expressions in that Council may seem to confirm some parts of the Canon Law they cannot I think Rationally be extended to confirm any thing therein that was void ab initio and so not obligatory and as this Canon Si audieris appears not to be by Gratians falsification as to Cyprian But how far a Tenet or Principle of this Nature branded by no Index expurgatorius is yet chargeable on the Papacy as approved by it I leave to consideration and do think it great pitty that when a Pope could find leisure by a Bull that I find King Iames the I. mentions in his Works as beginning with Exurge Deus to Damn among other sayings that of Luther Nova vita est optima paenitentia he did not find time to censure this thing in his Canon Law I thank God that I am Embarqued in a Church whose Articles and Canons contain nothing inserted in them by any Falsarius and by which nothing is approved or imposed on me to own contrary to the Liberty purchased for me by my Redeemer You have in p. 71. cited a late Author of the Communion of this Church for saying that Image-Worship invocation of Saints Transubstantiation Purgatory are and will be Learnedly and Voluminously defended on each side to the Worlds End and perhaps in the World abroad it will be so But I agree with you in believing that the Present State of England doth and probable future one of it will here render Voluminous Writings of all Theological Controversies out of Fashion Your p. 170. contains in it one Theological consideration of more value in my Opinion than many Tomes of Controversy viz. that Papists as well as others of Mankind have a right and title to the free and undisturbed Worshipping of God and the confession of the Principles of Religion purchased for them by the Blood of Christ And the very consideration of the Duty incumbent on all Christians to stand fast in this Liberty so dearly purchased for them would if I were in the External Communion of the Roman Catholick Church prevail with me to leave it though there were perhaps no other Argument in the case I have here our great Dr. Iackson on my side in thus Judging in his Treatise of the Church 14th Chapter where having given two Reasons as just and necessary for which Men may and ought to separate themselves from any visible Church and named this as the first Namely when they are urged and constrained to profess or believe some points of Doctrine or to adventure upon some practices which are contrary to the Rule of Faith or Love of God he mentions this as the Second viz. In case they are utterly deprived of Freedom of Conscience in professing what they inwardly believe c. for which he quotes 1 Cor. 7.23 ye are bought with a price be not ye Servants of Men. Although saith he we were perswaded that we could communicate with such a Church without evident danger of Damnation yet in as much as we cannot Communicate with it upon any better Terms than Legal Servants or Bondslaves do with their Masters we are bound in Conscience and Religious Discretion when lawful occasions and opportunities are offered to use our liberty and to seek our Freedom rather than to
into the Popes Bull thus viz. pro quo Christianissimus Rex scripsit instead of quem Rex Christianissimus nominavit I doubt not but your Curiosity hath led you to see a Copy of the Letter writ to the French King on the 10 th of Iuly 1680. by the Arch Bishops and Bishops and other Ecclesiasticks of France appointed by the Clergy there about the last Breve of this Pope upon the Subject of the Regale in which Letter they take notice how THIS POPE required him not to subject any of their Churches to the right of the Regale and threatned him that he would make use of his Authority if his Majesty did not Submit to the Paternal Remonstrances he had often made and repeated to him about that point and they there pass as YOVR Protestants so far as to make a PROTESTATION as their word is against the Papal Vsurpation designed by THIS POPE And moreover YOVR sober party of the IESVITS have in France adhered to the King against the Pope in this Contest about the Regale But how severe the same Arch-Bishops and Bishops in France who made that PROTESTATION have since been in their ADDRESS against the True Protestants there who have been averse from the Religionary part of Popery as you call it I suppose you cannot be ignorant For undoubtedly the Acts of the general Assembly of the French Clergy in the year 1685. Concerning Religion together with their Complaint against the Calumnies and Injuries which the pretended reformed have and do every day publish in their Books and Sermons against the Doctrine of the Church presented to the King by the Clergy in a Body July the 14 th 1685. Cannot have escaped your view the same having been since printed in London Translated into English and as I suppose by some of the Roman Catholick Religion and will not trouble my self to guess for what intent of the Publisher I have looked it over and leave it to our Divines to consider whether it deserves any Answer I observed in it one Reference to Peter du Moulins Nouveaute de Papisme of the Edition of Sedan about Protestants rendring the Papists Idolatrous as invocating Saints which was an Instance of the freedom allowed Protestants in that Realm in Writing and Publishing Books against the Religion of Popery as by Law Established in France a liberty that the Publisher of that Translation hath likewise sufficiently taken in publishing it here without Licence and whereby he hath brought our Famous Whitaker and Downham Rainolds and Ames into the Range of Calumniators and Publishers of Calumny's against the Church of Rome Though the Course of my Studies hath lain much more among Law-Books than in those of Polemical Divinity yet the time I have spent on the latter hath enabled me to observe one very Inauspicious passage under the first Article and the Column of the Calumny of the pretended Reform'd about it and where the French Clergy accuse them of Calumny for saying That with the Hereticks mentioned by St. Irenaeus Roman Catholicks reject the Holy Scriptures that with the Montanists they accuse it of Imperfection that they Contemn it and afterward that the Roman Catholicks call the Scripture a Dumb Rule a Stumbling Stone a Nose of Wax a Two edged Sword And for that purpose having begun with accusing our Whitaker and Downham as Calumniators and refer'd to their works to prove it they afterward quote the Thesaurus Disputationum Theologicarum in Academiâ Sedanensi c. de summo controvers Iudice Tom. 1. p. 26. Onerant pontificij Scripturam plaustro convitiorum vocando eam Regulam Mutam lapidem scandali nasum cereum gladium ancipitem But without any undue Reflections on that Clergy I think it might have been more worthy of their great Learning and Hatred of CALVMNY and their Tenderness for the Honour of the Scripture and their Obligation to handle Theological Controversie with the fairest and softest hands they could and in short more worthy of the Honour of the Church of Rome if they had quoted Turrian cont Sadel p. 99. Canus lib. 3. Loc. Theol. Cap. 2. Sect. â—ec vero Ecchius in ench tit de ecclesiâ Hosius lib. 3. de Auth. Sac. Script Sect. fingamus p. 148. as I find them Cited by our Dr. Crackanthorp under his De loc arguendi ab Authoritate that you have referred to and whom you have Celebrated for being just in his quotations and who there speaking of Papists slighting the Scripture thus quotes these Authors viz. HI Scripturam vocant gladium Delphicum Nasum cereum ad sensum quemvis flexibilem quae non nisi ecclesiae suae authoritate authentica sit de quâ posse pio sensu dici volunt eam si destituatur ecclesiae authoritate non plus valere quam Aesopi fabulas And had further Cited some index expurgatorius for censuring the profaneness of those expressions in Roman Catholick Authors and one of whom was a Legate in the Council of Trent and another a Divine sent to that Council by the Pope There is another Eminent Father of our Church whose Writings the French Clergy might if they pleas'd have quoted for the same purpose they did those of Whitaker and Downham and that is Iewel in his Apology who in p. 106 107 108. saith Itaque Sacrosanctas Scripturas quas Servator noster Iesus Christus non tantúm in omni sermon usurpavit sed etiam ad extremum sanguine suo consignavit quo populum ab illis tanquam à re periculosâ noxiâ minore negotio abigant solent literam frigidam incertam inutilem mutam occidentem mortuam appellare Quod nobis quidem perinde videtur esse ac si eas omnino nullas esse dicerent Sed addunt etiam simile quoddam non aptissimum Eas esse quodammodo nasum cereum posse fingi flectique in omnes modos omnium instituto inservire An PONTIFEX ista à SUIS dici nescit Aut tales se habere patronos non intelligit Audiat ergo quà m sanctè quamque piè de hac re scribat Hosius quidam polonus ut ipse de se testatur Episcopus certe homo disertus non indoctus acerrimus ac fortissimus propugnator ejus causae Mirabitâ—â— opinor hominem pium de illis vocibus quas sciret proâ—ectas ab ore Dei vel tam impiè sentire potuisse vel tam contumeliosè scribere ita praesertim ut eam sententiam non fuam unius propriam videri vellet sed istorum communem omnium Nos inquit ipsas scripturas quarum tot jam non diversas modo sed etiam contrarias interpretationes afferri videmus facessere jubebimus Deum loquenâ—em potius audiemus quà m ut ad EGENA ista ELEMENTA nos convertamus in illis Salutem nostram constituamus Non oportet legis Scripturae peritum esse sed à Deo doctum vanus est labor qui scripturis impenditur Scriptura enum creatura est
egonum quoddam Elementum Haec Hosius Eodem prorsus spiritu atquè animo quo olim Montanus aut Marcio quos diunt solitos esse dicere cum sacras scripturas contemptive repudiarent se multo plura Meliora scire quà m aut Christus unquam scivisset aut Apostoli Quid ergo hic dicam O columina religionis O praesides Ecclesiae Christianae An haec ea reverentia vestra est quam adhibetis verbo Dei And afterward saith aut illud verbum quo uno ut Paulus ait reconciliamur Deo quodque propheta David ait sanctum castum esse in omne tempus esse duraturum egenum tantum mortuum elementum appellabitis I have not time to Consult the Works of Whitaker and Downham as Cited by the French Clergy But do find that by Iewells Citing Pighius and likewise Hosius to make good his Charge the French Clergy knew why and wherefore to spare Iewell 's Name in their Class of Calumniators Iewell in his Margent Cites Pighius in Hierarchia and in his Margent referring to Hosius saith very candidly Haec Hosius in lib. de expresso verbo dei sed astutè sub alterius personâ Quamvis ipse alià s eadem in eodem etiam libro disertis verbis affirmet They afterward referred to our Learned Rainolds as a Calumniator under their 6 th Article and Cite him for saying that Roman Catholicks do call the Virgin Mary Queen of Heaven And they might if they had pleas'd have call'd to mind that in the proper Mass of her seven Sorrows she is called Caeli Regina Mater Mundi and that in an Office where the Te Deum is Travesty'd to her and which Office the Present Pope hath worthily Suppress'd she is called the Queen of Glory But as to their charging our Ames under their Seventh Article with Calumny for saying in his Bellarminus enervatus the Pope was the ILLE Antichristus I shall make no remark on their Charge but let it pass There was however another thing that I could not but take notice of in that Book of the French Clergy that made their accusing the Writers of the Reformed Religion as Calumniators and Falsifiers of the Doctrine of the Church seem to me very severe Namely that Clergy's joyning the Decisions of the Council of Trent with the Profession of their Faith and noting in one Columne that profession and the Articles of the Council of Trent and there making the Doctrine of their Church a result from both and opposing thereunto in another Columne the Calumny's in the Writings of the Reform'd and yet by the Date of the Impressions of many of those Writings as mentioned at the end of that Book it appears they were Printed long before the year 1615. and some before the year 1579. in which latter year Cressy in his Epistle Apologetical to the Late Earl of Clarendon voucheth but to no effect as I shall by and by shew that De Marca in his Volume De Concordiâ Sacerdotij Imperij tells us the Definitions of Faith of the Council of Trent were admitted by a publick Edict concerning the same in France and as to which former year Cabassutius an Oratorian in his Notitia concil declares out of the Records of the French Clergy that in their General Assembly at Paris in the year 1615. the Canons of the Doctrine of the Council of Trent were unanimously received by the whole Clergy And in p. 6. of the Translated Book of the French Clergy a Book of Beza's is cited as printed in the year 1576 and one of Luther's printed in the year 1558. and one of Melanchton's in the year 1552 to shew them Calumniators of the Doctrine of the Council of Trent as the Received Doctrine in the Gallican Church And whether the many other Authors there cited as printed before the year 1615 and yet too Cited as Calumniating for injuring the Trent Doctrines as being those of the Gallican Church were not likewise severely dealt with is left to the impartial to Judge and to whose view of that Book of the French Clergy it will be obvious that the profession of Faith inserted at the end of the Council of Trent is brought in in the beginning of that Clergy's Representing the Doctrine of the Church I love not to be Curious in alienâ Republicâ and much more not to be so in alienâ Ecclesiâ But since the Acts of that Clergy have been made to speak English here and so without Licence to Travel about our Country I cannot but occasionally make a further Remark on the Severity of that Clergy in taking it ill of the Protestants there supposing that the Catholick Church Disguiseth or Condemneth the most Essential verity's of Religion and Representing her under the Hideous idea of a Society professing an impious Doctrine and denying the chiefest Articles of Faith since as I said that it was but in the year 1615. that the Canons of the Council of Trent were pretended to be unanimously received by the whole French Clergy at Paris and that it was but a year before that the SAME Clergy as I find it observ'd by the Author of The Difference between the Church and Court of Rome p. 31. referred to the Account of what was done upon the meeting of the three Estates and when Cardinal Perron being the Clergy's Spokes Man told the King that The Matter contested was a point of Doctrine c. and that the Power of the Pope was full nay most full and direct in Spirituals and indirect in temporals c. and that they would Excommunicate all those who were of a contrary Opinion to the Proposition which affirm'd the Pope could depose the King c. and for which 't is there Cited how the Pope by a Breve in that year 1615. returned his Solemn thanks to the Clergy of France for what they had done against the Articles of the 3d. Estate wherein his Power was concern'd The use I make of this is only to shew that the present French Clergy who no doubt are Conscious of the Error of their Predecessors in such a DOCTRINE wherein Religion and Loyalty are concerned were obliged to shew all the Tenderness and Compassion to their Frail and Fallible Brethren not Erring in a Point of that Nature but only in such as were Subject to Controversy I shall here observe that Cressy in the Book aforesaid reflects on the late Earl of Clarendon for saying in p. â—48 of his Vindication of Dr. Stilling-fleet that the Council of Trent is not yet received in France and in many other Catholick Country's and saith to the Earl under favour Honoured Sir you will I suppose grant that the late Famous and Learned Arch-Bishop of Paris Peter de Marca was better informed in the Ecclesiastical State of France than your self a Stranger and quotes the Volume of De Marca before mentioned lib. 2. cap. 17. S. 6. for Writing expresly that the Definitions of Faith
having in p. 284. of his Iust Vindication of the Church of England spoke of the Trent Council saith We have seen heretofore how the French Embassador in the Name of the King and Church of France protested against it and until this day though they do not oppose it but acquiesce to avoid such disadvantages as must ensue thereupon yet they never did admit it Let no Man say that they rejected the Determinations thereof only in point of Discipline not of Doctrine For the same Canonical Obedience is equally due to an acknowledged General Council in point of Discipline as in point of Doctrine Monsieur Iurieu in his Historical Reflections on Councils and particularly on that of Trent which were Translated into English and Printed in the year 1684. Saith that the French Kings their Parliaments and Bishops dislike several things in the Decrees of the Council of Trent and mentions as the Reasons why the Council of Trent is not received in France these following 1. That the Council hath done and suffered many things that suppose and confirm a Superiority of the Pope over Councils 2. It hath confirmed the Papal encroachments upon ordinary's by exemption of Chapters and priviledges of Regulars who are both withdrawn from Episcopal Jurisdiction 3. That it hath not restored to the Bishops certain Functions appertaining to their Office and taken from them otherwise than to execute them as delegates of the See of Rome 4. That it hath infringed the priviledges of Bishops of being Judged by their Metrapolitan and Bishops of Provinces by permitting a removal of great Causes to Rome and giving Power to the Pope to Name Commissioners to Judge the Accused Bishop 5. That it hath declared that neither Princes Magistrates nor People are to be consulted in Setling and placing of Bishops 6. That it hath Empowered Bishops to proceed in their Jurisdictions by Civil pains by Imprisonment and by Seisures of the Temporalties 7. That it hath made Bishops the Executors of all Donations for Pious uses 8. That it hath given them a Superintendency over Hospitals Colledges and Fraternities with power of disposing their Goods notwithstanding that these matters had been always managed by Lay Men. 9. That it hath ordained that Bps. shall have the examining of all Notaries Royal and Imperial with power to Deprive or Suspend notwithstanding any Opposition or Appeal 10. That it hath given power to Bishops with consent of two Members of their Chapter and of two of their Clergy to take and retrench part of the Revenue of the Hospitals and to take away feudal Tithes belonging to Lay-Men 11. That it hath made Bishops the Masters of Foundations of Piety as Churches Chappels and Hospitals so as that those who have the Care and Government of them are obliged to be accountable to the Bishops 12. That in confirming Ecclesiastical Exemptions it hath wholy ascribed to the Pope and Spiritual Judges all power of Judging the Causes of Accused Bishops as if Soveraign Princes had lost the right they had over their Subjects as soon as they became Ecclesiasticks 13. That it hath empower'd the Ordinaries and Judges Ecclesiastick in Quality of Delegates of the Holy See to enquire of the Right and Possession of Lay-Patronages and to quash and annul them if they were not of great necessity and well founded 14. That in Prohibiting Duels it had declared that such Emperor or Prince as should shew favour to Duels should therefore be Excommunicated and Deprived of the Seignory of the place holding of the Church where the Duel was fought 15. that it hath permitted the Mendicant Fryars to possess Immoveables 16. That it hath ordained an Establishment of Judges it calls Apostoles in all Dioceses with Power to Judge of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Matters in prejudice of the Ordinary 17. That it hath declared that Matrimonial Causes are of the Churches Jurisdiction 18. That it hath enjoyn'd Kings and Princes to leave Ecclesiasticks the free and entire possession of the jurisdiction granted them by the Holy Canons and General Councils that is to say usurped by the Clergy over the Civil Power These are the Principal Points Disputed in France These that tend to the Diminution of the Authority and Priviledges of Bishops to enlarge the Roman power are Rejected by the Bishops And those that would extend the power of Bishops to the Prejudice of the Civil Authority are Rejected by the Parliaments Between both this Council as enacting contrary to the Rights and Liberties of the Gallican Church was never at all received in France so as to obtain the force of a Law He then shews that the Popes Superiority over Councils is a point of Doctrine and was decided in the Council of Trent And yet that the Gallican Church believes the contrary I know it will be said saith he that the Council of Trent hath not decided that the Pope is Superior to Councils Men may talk as they please but things for all that will continue as they are It is true that among the Decrees and Canons of the Council there is none that saith in express Terms that the Pope is Superior to Councils and can be judged by none But the effect of such Decision is apparent in all the Acts and through the whole Conduct of this Council And he afterward saith that the Clause of proponentibus legatis was a plain Decision of the Popes Superiority over the Council But to these 18 Reasons of Mr. Iurieu about the Reception of the Trent Council in France being neither practicable nor practised I might add that according to what my Lord Primate Bramhal observes in another place of that Book of his I Cited before the Obedience promised to the Bishop of Rome as Successor to St. Peter and Vicar of Iesus Christ pursuant to the Trent Council may seem to quadrate but ill with the liberty of the Gallican Church to set up a Patriarch For in p. 194. of that Book he mentions that in Cardinal Richelieu's Days it was well known what Books were freely Printed in France and publickly sold upon pont neuf of the lawfulness of Erecting a new or rather restoring an old proper Patriarchate in France as one of the liberties of the Gallican Church And thereupon saith It was well for the Roman Court that they became more propitious to the French Affairs And if we consider how in the 22 d. Session of the Council of Trent Chapter the 11 th all Kings and Emperors are Anathematized who hinder any Ecclesiasticks from the Enjoyment of any of their feudal Rights or other profits and that it might well be supposed that the Course and Vicissitudes of time would put Roman Catholick Princes on somewhat of that Nature and which so eminently influenced the French King in the Munster Treaty none need wonder at the Trent Councils not being received in France There was a Book called a Review of the Council of Trent written by a Learned Roman-Catholick and Printed A. 1600. and Translated by Dr
AGREED VNTO 6th That that which was made by the Clergy for the Publication of the Council of Trent without the Authority of the King be Repaired and Amended and all such things formerly done in the Estate be Reformed AGREED VNTO Yet if any one wants further Confirmation from Authorities about the Trent Council not having been received in France I may send him to the Synopsis of â—ouncils Writ by Dr. Prideaux sometime Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford and afterward Bishop of Worcester where the Bishop Writing Chap. 5. and p. 29. of the Trent Council saith This Council cryed up by so many Acclamations and so Solemnly Confirmed by the Seal of of the Fisher the French admitted not But after all this said of the Council of Trent's not having been Published and Received in France if either by the Government or Clergy or Laity there any of the Religionary or Doctrinal points of Faith contained in that Council are inwardly believed and openly professed I leave them and all Mankind to the Exercise of the Liberty wherewith christ hath made them free and will suppose that if after all the Old Protestations of the Government against that Council Roman-Catholicks in France having found the Doctrinal Points of their Faith that were Stated and Determined by former General Councils to be more fully and clearly made out in the Tridentine one did prosess the belief of the same and did refer to that Council when they would give an exteriour Account or Reason of their Faith and did think themselves obliged for the supporting the Vnity of the Roman-Catholick Church to profess the same Doctrinal Points with these Countries where that Council had been received and published I will make this Charitable Construction that they did and do intend no more Diminution of the Regal Rights and Liberties of the Gallican Church thereby than the Nations of Europe did intend a Diminution of their Freedom by receiving any part of the Civil Law of Rome and still continuing the Use and Authority of the same in their Commerce and in the Interpretation of their publick pactions and of the Ius gentium Nor than the Romans did intend to lessen the Rights of their Government by taking their Law of the twelve Tables from Athens nor their Maritime Law from Rhodes and no more than our Roman-Catholick Ancestors did intend a Subjugating of our Laws to the Popes Canon Law against several parts of which they openly protested by the receiving of some other parts of it they thought agreeable to the good of Church and State or than the Government at present intends any Recognition of Foraign Power by any parts of the Civil or Canon Law being still incorporated in our Laws and continuing here to be a part of the Lex terrae QVOAD certain causes Ecclesiastical or Maritime And indeed it must be acknowledged to be for the Honour of the Trent Council that in France and some other Countries where it hath not been received and published its Doctrinal Definitions have yet got ground in the Belief of many Roman-Catholicks on the supposed Merits of the things themselves therein contained and as it hath been for the Reputation of some things in the Civil or Canon Law that on their being thought reasonable our Laws have Adopted them as their own But as with all due Tenderness to all my fellow Christians in France or elsewhere whether Lay or Clerical I forbear to Censure or Reproach them in my most Secret Thoughts for Embracing the Belief of any such Tenets as may be called Religionary though taken up from Trent by them after they have used all the due means for the finding out Truth in the same and do most earnestly pray that God who hath been pleased in Scripture to express his Divine Philanthrophy by the Discreet Love of a Father and the Tender Love of a Mother would bestow the same Blessings on them that I wish for my self and my most near and dear Relations so I should have been glad to have found the like Spirit of Charity Breathing in the Acts of the French clergy with Relation to their Christian Brethren differing from them in points Religionary instead of pronouncing their breach made with them to be founded only on Calumnies after the Pastoral Advertisement of that Clergy to them in the year 1682 and instead of affording them their Compassion for not being able in the three following Years to receive that Faith of that Trent Council which I account from the year 1564. the time of its Confirmation to this Day not to have been Published or Received in that Kingdom and whose Publication may be said to be there yet but as it were in abbeyance and instead of further charging them as Calumniators because of the things Writ against the Romanists by our Whitaker and Downham a hardship I have observed complain'd of in some late Writings of the French Protestants But the great Royal goodness of our Gracious King and the fervent Zeal and Charity of the present Divines of England have made them an amends for what they suffered on the account of those our former great Clergy-Men Yet must it be acknowledged that in one point that Clergy in their Petition to the King doth the Huguenots this Justice as to say the pretended Reformed how great so-ever their Blindness is are not arrived to that height of Folly as to maintain their lawful practice of the Crimes of Imputations and Calumny And I am glad that since the 2 d. of March 1679. so much occasion hath been given by the Popes Condemning the Tenets of the Iesuits about the Doctrine of CALVMNY and their Sicarious Principles for the not charging them on the Church of Rome as approved by it as formerly But on the account of the Horrid Calumnies against Fathers and Councils still continued in the Decrets of the Canon Law and forged with as much Falshood as any could have been by the French Clergy observed in the Case of the pretended Reform'd as I have particularly enough shewn in the Case of Cyprian I may well urge it as an Argumentumad hominem that neither the Pope nor French Clergy should have been Authors of too much Severity to those Reformed on the pretence of their Calumniating the Doctrine of their Church And have been careful not to charge on the Catholicitè as the Term is the Falshood of Gratian and the lachesse of the Popes that so long suffer'd so much Trompery in him to pass for Law And were I at Rome now while the Pope is so worthily busy'd in strengthening the preparations against the Turk in this Conjuncture would not divert him from the same by importuning him to make a better Canon Law for his Flock Nor do I charge on the Gallican Church or State what I have mentioned out of Boerius a President of Parliament there If they hoped by the publication of their Book in France to effect a Reconciliation of Churches there or the Translators of it
Majesties Reign in any Religionary point Yet as to your self I have had reason to guess that you long ago in the late Kings Reign had some Theological Sentiments some what differing from what I took for our Churches Articles and that I speaking to you thereof you reply'd out of Bishop Bramhalls Iust Vindication of our Church that our Articles are not penned with Anathemas or Curses against all those even of our own who do not receive them but used only as an help or rule of unity among our selves Nor have I forgot how you once discoursed to me your opinion of the Tenet that the Souls of good Men do not immediately after Death go up into Heaven nor the Souls of bad Men then immediately down into Hell But that the former than go into a good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the latter into a bad one and that such place was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. inconspicuus as being so not in regard of it self but of us and that our Saviours Soul went 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that this Tenet was more particularly Tertullians and that he describing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said 't was a place ubi bonis benè erat malis malè and that good Men did there in Candidâ expectare diem Judicij and that the Expression of aeternitatis Candidati was first taken occasionally from those words of Tertullian and that it seemed suitable to the Measures of Divine Iustice not to give the great Sentence concerning eternal rewards and punishments before the Trial of the Day of Iudgment and that as a Thousand years with God are said to be but one Day the time of that Trial might possibly last so long and that it might else seem a diminutio capitis for Saints to be brought from the Caelum beatorum to the Bar and that somewhat like this notion of the State of Souls after Death the Iews had and likewise all the Fathers for the first four Centuries and when some of them encouraging Men to be Martyrs said that such did uno saltu get up into Heaven and that our Saviour saying in my Fathers House are many Mansions c. and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self tho therefore the good will not be received by Christ into those Mansions till he comes again yet their condition will be much better in the good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then in the most prosperous State here below where they are continually exposed to the Contagion of Sin And as you have in p. 317. mentioned that some of our Protestant Divines owning this Tenet have not been therefore Censured as Popishly affected or maintainers of Purgatory so neither shall I therefore thence infer your owning the Notion of a Purgatory or Limbus nor the usefulness of Praying for any Souls in the Hades and much less that your favouring this notion of Hades by publishing it now as what some of our Protestant Divines favoured was in the least designed by you as any humouring of a Project to reconcile Churches a project that you have expressed to be so ineffectual when some well meaning Men had it in their Heads in a Conjuncture long ago and when Withers a dull Poet of the Age yet a favorite of the vulgus did in his Emblems p. 3 of his ep dedicat as you once told me amuse them with his fancies of the Vnion of Religion And as you have in your preface observed it that the few florid Sheets lately published on the Subject of Toleration have made no other figure than that of the poor resemblances of flowers extracted by Chymical Art out of their ashes and that a little shaking them together in the glass of time must make them presently fall in pieces I have observed likewise that the perhaps well meant Velleities or Wishes or little Essays of some few private Persons that since his Majesties Reign amused any by propounding a Reconciliation of Churches have appeared but like extracted resemblances of the flowers of private Mens proposals of that kind in the Conjuncture before the year 1640 and since his Majesties happy Reign they have been easily shaken in pieces Mr. Prynne in his History of the Tryal of Arch Bishop Laud in p. 191. tells us what a ferment Mr. Adams his Case made in the Vniversity of Cambridge in the year 1637. who Preaching in St. Mary's and there asserting the necessity of Auricular Confession was by Dr. Brownrig the Vice-Chancellor enjoyned to Recant that Doctrine and about which great Heats arose among the Heads of Houses there But the Sharpness of the canons of 40 against Popery shewing the zeal the Arch-bishop expressed in the making of those Canons and of that Clause in the Oath there for the abjuring Popery viz. and that I will not Subject the Church of England to the Church of Rome which Oath the Arch-Bishop in his Defence saith was a more strict Oath than ever was made against Popery in any Age or Church may easily Convince the Sagacious of the Church of Englands Sense then about any Project of Reconciling the Church of England to that of Rome being altogether vain The Arch-Bishop had it seems by long and deep observation found the project of the reconciling of our Church and Romes a thing utterly unpracticable however as to his having been formerly a Visionaire about the possibility of the same I remember I have seen some angry reflections of Dr Williams Bishop of Lincoln against him and Writ with that Bishops own Hand in the Margent of the Arch-Bishops Printed Star-Chamber Speech where over against those passages that seemed to be somewhat trimming in favour of the Church of Rome Bishop Williams wrote the nearer you come to the Church of Rome the further she will fly from your Courtship and Caresses and will tell you that Rusticus es Corydon nec munera curat Alexis But what thing the Reconcilers would be of Churches mean to themselves is sufficiently plain As to the natural meaning of any thing of that nature I call to mind that a Presbyterian Minister speaking to you once of Comprehension and of the Divines of his perswasion and that of the Church of England being that way Reconciled you told him you wished a Coalition of such with the Church of England as were formerly of his Perswasion But that you supposed by his comprehension he desired to be a Comprehensor of some of the Livings of the Divines of the Church of England and that therefore when you found any Divine speak of the Essaying to Reconcile Churches you naturally thought of those Words in the Acts of the Apostles C. 17. v. 18. What will this Babler say and Rendring the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there by Church Robber Altar Robber and Sacrilegious Person as our Broughton did and justifying that your Critical Acception of the word out of the Greek Classick Authors viz. Demosthenes and