and will give full satisfaction in that Point if he were but capable of receiving it And I presume I have given him more than he can answer in the Reflexions upon the Lateran Council I. The Authority and Infallibility of the Roman Catholick Church P. 21. This he undertakes to consider how far it may bear and appear reasonable to an impartial Reader These words are not worth the notice but that they tempt out a little suspicion that they are here set for a reserve in case of opposition for if it be said as most truly it may that there is not one plain proof either of the supreme Authority or Infallibility of the Roman Church in all this Discourse Our Authour may reply that he never undertook to give it All that he engaged for was appearances P. 23. and that he has performed by using the words oft tumbling and tossing them as Hay-makers do their mown Grass one while Authority is uppermost and soon after Infallibility Authority must lead in Infallibility and Infallibility must vindicate Authority but where either of these is to be found the Man neither proves nor knows and plainly says that he is not concerned whether there be any such thing as Infallibility or no p. 24. he says Were there no Infallibility as I believe there is I would still submit my Reason and regulate my Conscience P. 24. according to the Decrees of the supreme lawfull Ecclesiastical Authority This is my belief pray blame me not All this is nothing else but appearances for neither is the Church of England nor the Church of Rome concerned in his belief or his fancy or his opinion for these may be wise or may be foolish may be well or may be ill grounded But yet it is admirable to see what great command he has over his Reason and his Conscience that he can make them turn which way he pleases and if he does but suppose a Supreme lawfull Authority to be in Ebion or Cerinthus Nailor or Muggleton or the Church of Rome He can be a Convert to any of them to day to this and to morrow to the quite contrary and that with as much reason and as good conscience to the one as to the other For which way soever he turns he may still say this is my belief pray blame me not His last Conversion was to the Church of Rome and he intimates that he changed upon this belief that there was a Supreme lawfull Ecclesiastical Authority to be found there but he has not the least reason to prove it though it must be confest that he has some appearances which I will impartially consider in their order 1. He gives us some Citations from Protestants Pag. 22 23. from Luther one and from Melancthon another whom he calls the Phoenix of Learning a fine word I wonder from whence he borrowed it another from Somaisius or Salmasius Another he would give from Grotius but what it is he has forgot he thinks it is somewhere in his Annotations upon the New Testament And then to make weight he throws in the Names of Jacob Cartwright Huss and Beza P. 23. And from hence he argues in these words These eminent Protestants were men of great learning and they had searcht and understood Scripture and History and if my judgment concurs with theirs in this point as I profess it doth then have I found that lawfull Supreme Authority Now these are dangerous words from the mouth of a new Convert it is well for him that he is not now in Spain for if he should make such a declaration there That his judgment concurs with the judgment of Luther Melancthon Huss and Beza in the Point of the Pope's Supremacy or the Supremacy of the Church of Rome he might perhaps be in danger of the Inquisition All the World knows the judgment of those men in this point and if he were before the Fathers of the Inquisition they would not be put off with a small Citation found they know not where and perhaps inserted by they know not whom He had done much better to have mistrusted his Copy than to depend upon such an Allegation Sure I am that if he made any use of those mens judgments or laid any great stress upon the words which he cites under their Names in his search or presumed discovery of a Supreme Authority of the Church of Rome he used both his Reason and his Conscience very hardly It is certain that Luther did speak variously of the Pope's Power sometimes higher and sometimes lower as appears to any one that reads either his Works or Cassander's Citations from him And as to Melancthon the Phoenix of Learning I am not concerned to search what he wrote to the Cardinal Belay And it may be I am civil in doing it He was a Wit that once charged it as an incivility upon his Acquaintance that he should take so much pains to prove him a Lyar. It is certain that Melancthon in his Loci Communes where he treats professedly upon this Subject declares fully and roundly against all this that is cited from him And therefore I presume that his judgment does not concur with Melancthon's for if it does he is no new Convert for he has found nothing that can call for a submission of Reason and Conscience nothing like to that Authority and Infallibility of the Roman Catholick Church which a new Convert is bound to defend But because our Authour in desence of the Authority and Infallibility of the Roman Church has given such Citations from Protestants I 'll indeavour to requite him by one from a very good Roman Catholick and that is Cassander He in his Book de Officio pii hominis speaks to this purpose That there are some who because they see yet remaining amongst them not a few things that have descended down from Antiquity or the first Christians will keep up the present state of the Church just as it is though it be corrupt and foully stained by abuses that have crept in by little and little Nor will they suffer any thing to be alter'd though it may be done agreeable enough to the Decrees or Canons of the Ancients Pontificem verò Romanum quem Papam dicimus tant um non Deum faciunt ejusque Autoritatem non modò supra totam Ecclesiam sed supra ipsam Scripturam Divinam efferunt sententiam ejus Divinis Oraculis parem imo infallibilem fidei regulam constituunt hos non video cur minus Pseudocatholicos Papistas appellare possis The Roman Bishop whom we call Pope they make little less than God They set up his Authority not onely over the whole Church but over the holy Scripture it self and make his determination equal to the Divine Oracles and no less than an infallible rule of faith I see no cause but that you may give to these the name of false Catholicks and Papists Thus said that good man concerning the
Sticklers for Roman Authority and Infallibility and that in a time when he contended most earnestly to bring in peace and good temper amongst Christians and had endeavoured passionately to persuade men to lay aside ill Language and odious Names such as one Party threw at another all which he says were cast up out of Hell such as these Papists Antichristians Ministers of Satan and on the other side Hereticks Schismaticks Apostates Though he heartily wish'd these Names out of the World yet he could be content that two or three of them were always ready to be thrown in the teeth of such Persons as our Authour would seem to be This remark I give to shew our Authour that I do not set down the Sayings and Opinions of others without considering first what weight and stress is to be laid upon them For I must consess that it is to me a scandal and matter of offence to find this Set of Authorities which our Authour uses in the same order and in the same words in another late Book intitled Pax vobis this seems to speak that the Authours of both these transcribed and never considered what force was in their Citations Is this fair dealing with a Man 's own Conscience or with his Readers when he is weighing of Religions and offering motives of Reconciliation either to himself or to others to act thus supinely This is worse than to take a journey to Edinburgh upon the next Hackney and never consider whether he be a Jade or no. A journey to Heaven is long to be sure of greatest importance He that takes up a new Religion to carry him thither had need use eyes and ears and heart and head too St. Paul had reason when he advised us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling but all men will not doe this they are in too much haste They that take satisfaction without reason and in spite of reason change their Religion cannot act with that caution which the great Apostle requires If I am not much out in my guess which I must leave to the Reader 's judgment when he has compared this Set of Citations with those in Pax vobis Pag. 70 71. we have here one of the most wretched Pleas that ever was used by a Writer It is not more than this I have met with some sayings of Men whom I care not for when or where or to what end they were spoken I never considered nor yet whether upon second thoughts they did not retract them my judgment concurs with them therefore I have found that lawfull Supreme Authority I searched for and where this Authority is there is Infallibility That is the first Motive to persuade that the Roman Catholick Church has Supreme Authority over all and Infallibility in the exercise of it He should now proceed to a second But instead of that we have Pag. 24 25 26 27. a discourse upon a new Subject so far is our Authour from making these Doctrines to appear reasonable that for so long together he 'll e'en let them shift for themselves his present business is to talk and talk he will of Separation or how the Church of Rome can be said to have separated either from her self or from the Catholick Church either whole or part and where that whole or part remained from whence the Church of Rome separated and then again where she remained and where she may be found and here he is urgent and importunate and will have an answer and that from the Bishops themselves for he comes up closely to the beards of them and tells them In good faith Fathers my Salvation is highly concern'd in this question and I must be satisfied He prevents them from giving such and such answers and swaggers it bravely out in these words I 'll sooner suffer my self to be knockt down with a true Protestant Flayl than with such a Protestant Answer and at last he adds from this reasonable and important request you shall never beat me whilst I live The Man grows warm and it is well for some that they are out of his way who knows what he may doe The occasion of all this noise and clamour he gives us in the 24th Page in these words You had often told me that She the Church of Rome had fallen from her primitive purity and separated her self from the one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church Answer to Protestant Queries p. 10. declared also to be Antichristian and the true Church latent and invisible by that famous Napper to King James Brocard Fulk Sebast Francus Hospinian and many others Now what is all this to the Bishops of the Church of England must they answer for every thing that has been said by Fulk and Brocard and Napper or as you call him that famous Napper I pray how famous is he has any of the Bishops of England cited him these forty years does any of this Church reade him or depend upon him if your studies have been upon such Authours the Church of Rome have no great prize of you and these Motives as bad as they are were good enough to make you a Convert But yet there remains one Expression cited out of a little Book which it may be few of the Bishops of England ever saw but yet they must give an accompt of it and all the consequences he can gather from it for he says p. 26. his Salvation is highly concerned in it And it is a reasonable and important request And must the Bishops of England be accomptable for every little writing which they know nothing of would the Bishops of Rome think it fair that all the impertinences of our Authour should be charged upon them certainly no. But he argues that if the Church of Rome was once a pure and uncorrupted Church she remains so still for she can neither separate from her self nor from the Catholick Church Now if this Argument be good he himself is bound to answer for all the consequences that can come from a presumed separation either from it self or from the Catholick Church for we have oft proved and are always ready to prove that the Church of Rome is not the same as to purity and incorruption which it was It is changed it is altered multitudes of Innovations have overspread it and great numbers of Errours by little and little as Cassander says have crept in and prevailed over it But yet for all that we own and assert that there is a Church of Rome as well as a Church of Jerusalem Alexandria and Antioch and that though this as well as they have erred not onely in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith So speaks the Church of England in her 19th Article And if she be a Church she must be a Member of the Catholick Church for every part must be contained in the whole None of us doubt but that the Church of Rome receives all the Canonical Scriptures that we
by General Councils and so by the Catholick Church and they have been in peaceable possession of it for many hundred of years P. 16 17. and now they cannot be divested of it neither by themselves nor by others neither in whole nor in part All these things he sets down I suppose as his own opinations and sentiments and would have his Friends to judge him by them as Orthodox and a true Convert He is not concerned whether they be true or false for he knows or may know that every one of these pretences has been proved by Dr. Barrow to be gross falsities and that almost to the evidence of Demonstration and yet our Authour brings not the least proof for any one of them from any Old Authour Indeed he tells us that we have the Succession of Bishops of Rome delivered to us by St. Augustine and that is true P. 15. but he was unlucky to put us in mind of that passage and much more because he never read it himself for had he seen the 165. Epistle of St. Augustine where that Succession is mentioned and the very next to it he might have found in that great Father a full contradiction to all his thoughts concerning the Scriptures and concerning Authority and then perhaps he would have imployed his time to better purposes than in writing this Book St. Austine in that Epistle sets down the succession of the Bishops of Rome from St. Peter and that for no other purpose but to shew that none of all those Bishops was a Donatist Augustinus Epist 165. And that because a Donatist had set down the succession of their Bishops before not that he thought any one of them after St. Peter was a Sovereign Guide or had unerring authority in him for he himself presently adds to this that if any of them had been a Donatist or worse yet the Christian Doctrine would not have suffered the least by it In illum ordinem Episcoporum qui ducitur ab ipso Petro usque ad Anastasium qui nunc super eandem Cathedram sedet etiamsi quisquam traditor per illa tempora subrepsisset nihil praejudicaret Ecclesiae innocentibus Christianis This I suppose our Authour is not willing to think because he depends so much upon Authority and so little upon the Scriptures but St. Augustine did because he relyed upon the Scriptures to teach us that Doctrine which Jesus Christ and his Apostles had revealed to the World and therefore in the same Epistle he slights all his other Arguments and fixes intirely upon the Scriptures as those alone which could give us a full and solid evidence for the truth of a Christian Doctrine Augustinus Epist 165. these are his words Quanquam nos non tam de istis documentis praesumamus quà m de Scripturis sanctis and then he cites a Text. But in the next Epistle and that against the Donatists after some other velitations and general topicks whereof Councils was one as appears by those words Faciant mille concilia Episcopi he comes to the holy Scriptures and triumphs in his Arguments and doubts not to defeat his adversaries by the force of them He begins with words frequent in his writings Augustinus Epist 166. In Scripturis didicimus Christum in Scripturis didicimus Ecclesiam has Scripturas communiter habemus quare non in eis Christum Ecclesiam communiter retinemus Then he throws out near twenty Texts one after another comments in short upon them and never doubts but that he and his Adversaries did sufficiently understand them without the assistance of a Sovereign Guide or an unerring Authority if our Authour had considered this it might have done him good but because he is pleased to find the Succession of Roman Bishops in St. Augustine I will shew him what he seems not to know two very considerable uses which that great Father made of that topick the First was to conciliate a most profound veneration to the Holy Scriptures thus therefore he writes August contra Faust Manich lib. 11. cap. 5. contra Faustum Manichaeum lib. 11. cap. 5. Distincta est à posteriorum libris excellentia canonicae Authoritatis veteris novi Testamenti quae Apostolorum confirmata temporibus per successiones Episcoporum propagationes Ecclesiarum tanquam in sede quâdam sublimiter constituta est cui serviat omnis fidelis pius intellectus A Second use that he made of this consideration of the Succession of Bishops in their Sees was in case of a dispute about a Text to evidence what was the first and so the true Christian Doctrine To this end he very frequently in his disputes with the Donatists requires them to search what was taught in the Churches of Corinth Galatia Ephesus Philippi Thessalonica all the Churches that had the honour to receive Apostolical Epistles Now if all these having several Successions of Bishops should agree in any one point that was controverted St. Augustine took their consent to be a good Argument that such a Doctrine was original and true he sends them indeed to Rome too but upon no other accompt and no higher reason than he does to those other Apostolical Churches Now I think I may presume in kindness to our Authour to give him one advice and that is this to have a care when he refers to St. Augustine that he knows his mind and that St. Augustine did write what he cites him for for I can tell him that a certain person who was of his opinion concerning a Soveraign Guide and unerring Authority to be sound in the Church of Rome came at length to believe and that consequentially to his opinion that the decretal Epistles of the Popes were of the same Authority with and to be reckoned amongst the Canonical Scriptures and to confirm his opinion he cited St. Augustine for it and this his citation had got into Gratians Decretum but the last Roman-Correctours of Gratian found it to be either gross forgery or a gross mistake and they have done St. Augustine right and a favour to such Persons as our Authour is to let them know that St. Augustine is no great friend to such fond and absurd opinions You may see Gratiani Decreti prim part Distin 19. Cap. 6. But because it may be some trouble to consult that Authour I will give you the truth and the forgery together St. Augustine in his Book De Doctrina Christiana lib. 2. cap. 8. had given us these words In Canonicis Scripturis Ecclesiarum Catholicarum quam plurium authoritatem sequatur inter quas sane illae sunt quae Apostolicas sedes habere Epistolas accipere meruerunt c. Now this was plain and good advice in the examination of Books that might be alledged to be Canonical Scriptures to give a preference to the testimony of those Churches that were called Apostolical Seats and such as had the honour to receive Epistles from the Apostles as Rome Corinth
Authority than our Authour This is a blunder and shews us that new Converts are not men of the greatest skill and that some of them have as little knowledge in Councils as they have in the Scriptures This man deserves a greater lash than I will give him for bringing in his Story with that pomp and appearance of skill telling us that this Council is owned by Protestants the time of its celebration the number of Bishops who were in it And now at last it appears that whatever we Protestants do yet the Pope himself will not allow what this man challenges in his behalf But perhaps his case is piteous For more may be required of new Converts than they are able to perform He that takes up a Religion by submitting to Authority without reason may easily be confounded when he seeks to give reasons for what he has done For once I will be kind and make the best Apology for our Authour I can and I think a good one and that is this He is not the first man of the Church of Rome who has quoted Councils to little purpose He follows great Examples and the chiefest among them For thus did Paschasinus one of the Pope's own Legats in this very Council at Chalcedon and that too in his opposition against this 28th Canon After he had declared it was the Pope's pleasure that nothing should be determin'd there concerning his Power or the Power of the other Patriarchs he alledged in behalf of the Pope's Supremacy that it was fixed beyond exception or doubt by the sixth Canon of the great Council at Nice wherein it was declared that Ecclesia Romana semper habuit primatum The Bishops wondered they should know nothing of this and thereupon required the Canon to be read Paschasinus produced his Copy and there those words were But the Fathers not satisfied called for others and more attested Copies and in them there was not the least word intimating any such thing Now this compare of the Copies made Paschasinus blush and the Fathers of that Council think what sort of men they had to deal with A Roman Catholick tells us this Passage in these words Primò refertur à Paschasino Leonis in Concilia Chalcedonensi Legato Act. 16. quod Ecclesia Romana semper habuit primatum At statim Chalcedonenses Patres eundem Canonem ex codice suo sine additione istâ retulerunt Quapropter consentiunt omnes eruditi verba haec non esse genuina sed assuta Thus too in the Council of Carthage Du Pin p. 325. Faustinus Legate of Zosimus challenged a right for the Pope to receive Appeals and that by right of a Canon of the Council of Nice The African Fathers found no such thing in their Copy brought thence by Caecilianus one of the Fathers of that Council Synodi Carth. Acta Edit à Beveregio p. 5â—9 But because Faustinus insisted upon the skill knowledge or infallibility if you will of Pope Zosimus and had shewed that the Pope himself in his Commonitory directed to him and the other Legats did expresly assert that this was his right and that according to the determination of the Council of Nice the African Fathers resolved to send Messengers to the three great Seats Alexandria Antioch and Constantinople to get new Copies one from each of them attested under the hands of those Patriarchs Epist ad Coelestinum in fine Canonum Carthag à Bevereg Edit p 675. and compare them with their own and the Roman Copy At the return of the Messengers it manifestly appeared that their own Copy intirely agreed with every one of the others and that the Council of Nice had not given the least advantage to the Bishop of Rome in the case of Appeals Thus it seems that Councils are different things in Rome from what they are in other places A Pope or his Legate can reade that in them which no man else can The Popes seem extraordinarily wise in challenging a power to confirm Councils but they had as good let it alone For it will doe their business as well if they follow these Examples to take from them and add to them what they please Brietii Annales in An. 418. p. 402. Both these things I know are excused and some tell how Paschasinus was led into his mistake others say it was a mere oversight of Pope Zosimus in quoting the Nicene Council instead of the Sardican To avoid other difficulties some are willing to allow that a Pope may be deceived and that too when he is inlarging his Power over the Church Catholick with all art and subtilty Nor do I know what Article of Faith or Infidelity might not be established in the Church by such mistakes and oversights as these It 's well for succeeding Christians that the Fathers at Carthage and Chalcedon had eyes in their heads and did use them too without giving trust to Pope or Legate or Roman Copy For had they been as much mistaken or overseen as others there are enough at this day that would make advantage of it and declaim sufficiently against us pleading an oversight in the case But these Senses of men are evil things and most mischievous to the Interests of Rome These tempt men in spight of all their resolutions doe they what they can to misdoubt the Doctrine of Transubstantiation These shewed of old what was and what was not in the Council of Nice and are every day telling tales opening and disclosing some fine intrigue or other so that I cannot but wonder that Rome has not yet taken a full revenge of them For if they would oblige men to deny or at least misdoubt their Senses in every thing as well as one and require the Learned not to see what they do see in Councils and old Records as well as they require all not to see what they do see in the consecrated Elements then conversions would be easie and they might soon find an intire submission from all the World to all the Supremacy they can wish But to let that pass it is said in the defence of Zosimus that he was overseen and he easily might be For the Canon that he quoted was a true Canon made at Sardica and not at Nice and the Council of Sardica as to Faith intirely receiving and requiring all that which was concluded at Nice made onely Canons concerning Discipline and they were put into the same Book or upon the same Roll with those of Nice Which the Pope finding in the Title at the beginning might easily refer all that followed to it This is said But the Fathers at Carthage did not judge it an oversight but intrigue and design and to withstand it to the utmost made the 31st Canon which ordains most stoutly and resolutely that If any hereafter should appeal to a Foreign Power or Transmarine Judicatory he should never be received into Communion by any in Africa Upon which Canon Zonaras says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the huffing
Pope's Supremacy In charity I was bound to pity him and tell him something which he did not know and thereby if possible to move him to take more care if ever he writes again I pitied the World too to see it in danger to be abused by such impertinencies at this time of day Onely allow me the favour to acquaint you that Petrus de Marca speaking of those Sardican Canons lib. 7. Petrus de Marca de concord Imper. Sacerdot cap. 15. par 4 5. expresly asserts that they were unknown in Africa and other Provinces till Zosimus his days and withall he shews how the Africans at last came to submit to them and that was upon many and those not commendable reasons the first of which is this Cessere tandem ob pertinaciam sedis Apostolicae Pontificum qui nihil remittere voluerunt ex jure sibi legitimè quaesito in Concilio Generali Occidentis Sardicensi nimirum praesertim cùm possessioni eorum consensissent Africani Episcopi qui ad certum tempus morem gesserant defideriis Summorum Pontificum And the last is from the difficulties which the incursions of the Vandals brought upon them who being Arians made it necessary for the Churches of Africa at any rate to purchase the savour and assistence of the Romans incursio Vandalorum Ariani erant in Africa dominabantur Africanos necessitate adigebat ad arctissimam unionem cum Ecclesia Romanâ It seems then that the Popes after long contests prevailed not by the merits of their Cause but by their stiffness or pertinacious insisting upon demands right or wrong And by making advantages of the necessities of others when Vandals and those too Arian Hereticks had master'd them and lay hard upon them for then those Orthodox Christians were forced to yield up their rights to the Popes before they could obtain necessary reliefs from them Thus said that wise and learned Roman Catholick And he himself in the writing of this gives us cause to believe the truth of this remark for he then found in his own experience the same stiffness and pertinacity and therefore puts in words to please them quite contrary to the design of his Discourse For he shews plainly that they had no right and yet was forced to say they had ex jure legitimè quaesito He shews that the Sardican Fathers who made this Canon after the secessionof the others could not make up any shew of a general Council yet says that right was obtained in Concilio generali Sardicensi nimirum Now Sir if you can think that the Roman Bishops have proceeded in these methods I hope you will hereafter less puzzle your self and your Friends with your Queries concerning the prodigious Power of the Papacy how it could get up at first by such slender pretences and how it could hand with such weak props how men could be so bold as to challenge in behalf of the Roman Bishops so illustrious a Supremacy so unlimited Authority so glorious a Vicegerency as the Vicariatship of Christ himself must speak All these will be much easier to you when you have considered these two things first the mighty effects of a pertinacious stiffness in demands right or wrong and secondly what it is to take all advantages upon the necessities of others especially at such a time when those barbarous People Goths and Vandals and Huns and Saxons had overrun so many parts of the World 2. A second point of Controversie between the Church of Rome and the Church of England which according to our Authour was determined by ancient Councils is that about the Apocryphal Books P. 20. which he says were taken into the Canon of the Old Testament in the Third Council of Carthage signed by St. Augustine Baruch onely not named Canon 47. Now to this it is sufficient to say that the Subject is exhausted and there is nothing left for another Writer to add to it The Learned Dr. Cosens in his Discourse of the Canon of the Scripture parag 82. has said more than enough for the satisfaction of any learned Roman Catholick as well as Protestant and if our Authour would presume to reply it will cost him more pains than the writing of a dozen such Books as these But some small return may be expected He shall therefore have this That the Canon he quotes out of the Council of Carthage Canon 47. apud Binnum Canon 27. in Synodico Bevereg does not provide for the taking of Books into the Canon of Scripture but for throwing of Books out of the Church It says at first that no Books should be read in Churches but these and then it says in the close that they had received from the Fathers that these were there to be read Now our Authour knows that though we call these Books Apocryphal yet we reade them in our Churches and that as much and more than they do in the Church of Rome and that all of them except the two Books of the Maccabees Now as to these Dr. Cosin 's Scholast Hist p. 112 113. they are nt mentioned in any of the Greek Copies of this Canon nor yet in Cresconius his Collection of the African Canons and how they came to be inserted we must remit him to Dionysius Exiguus for his satisfaction But if our Authour had any material doubt concerning the Church of England's Doctrine about Canonical and Apocryphal Books he would have done well to have considered the sentiments of the Doctours of the Roman Church before he had concluded against us Now I believe that Cardinal Cajetan where he endeavours to reconcile the Council of Carthage with Saint Augustine would have given him reason enough never to have used this objection against the Church of England He says indeed against Protestants but not those of the English Communion in fine Commentariorum ad Hist V. N. T. Ne turberis Novitie si alicubi reperias libros istos inter Canonicos supputatos vel in sacris Conciliis vel in sacris Doctoribus libri isti non sunt Canonici ad confirmanda ea quae sunt fidei possunt tamen dici Canonici ad aedificationem fidelium ut pote in Canone Biblii ad hoc recepti autorati Cum hâc distinctione discernere poteris scripta Augustini scripta in provinciali Synodo Carthaginensi Now this agrees well enough with the Doctrine in the Articles and practice prescribed in the Rubrick of the Church of England And besides Can. Apostol 85. this distinction has its foundation in a very venerable Authority for the Apostolick Canons make a great deal of difference and that upon the same ground between some and other Books calling some of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 venerable and holy but then of the Book called the Wisedom of Solomon or the Son of Sirach and that most certainly is the best of the Apocrypha say it is to be learnt by the Young Men or the Catechumens for
Nicene Council where those Fathers speak against it A little more than thirty years after another Council was convened at Nice This cancelled the Acts of the former and called it self the seventh general Council This declared the worship of Images to be lawfull but gave no requisite bounds and measures to it nor yet taught the expediency of it This was done when Irene an Imperious Woman in the behalf of her young Son swayed the Empire But seven years after this Charles the Great gets another Council to meet at Francfort there met three hundred Bishops who unanimously as much damned the second Council at Nice as that had damned the former Walafridus Strabo Ado Viennensis Regino Prumiensis tell us that in this Francfort Council Pseudosynodus Graeca pro adorandis Imaginibus habita falso septima vocata ab Episcopis damnata est And Hincmarus Rhemensis tells us Tempore Caroli magni Imperatoris jussione Apostolicae sedis generalis Synodus in Francia convocante praefato Imperatore celebrata est secundum Scripturarum tramitem traditionémque majorum ipsa Graecorum Synodus destructa penitus abdicata est And a little after he tells that by the Authority of this Synod the veneration of Images was somewhat repressed But yet Pope Adrian was of another mind and his Successours after the death of Charles Pupparum suarum cultum vehementius promoverunt stirred much to advance this worship to which he gives a name which I shall not English insomuch that Lewis the Son of Charles was forced to write sharper against the worship of Images than his Father had done Now this is material and it might in reason have stopt our Authour from laying any great stress upon the second Nicene Council And all this he knew or might have known for Dr. Beveredge Notae Beveregii in Concilium Nicenum secundum in his learned Notes upon that Council had laid all this before him But to add a little more in the year 825. Ludovicus Pius called another Council at Paris and this declared as much against the worship of Images and the second Council at Nice as that at Francfort had done before The Acts of this Council lay in obscurity unknown a great while but they were printed in the year 1596. and since that time the Friends of the present Church of Rome have nothing to say against them and nothing for themselves but that Jonas Aurelianensis disputed in that Council for Images against Claudius Taurinensis Bellarminus de Script Ecclesiast An. 820. de Jona Aurelianensi But yet for all his Arguments the unanimous determinations of the rest of the Fathers was against them And besides this very Jonas though he had something to say against Claudius yet he said not enough to serve the Interest of the present Church of Rome For Bellarmine de scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis tells us that he wrote three Books pro defensione sacrarum Imaginum But he advises men to reade them with caution because he says that he and Agabardus and all the chief Writers of the French Nation in that age are in one and the same errour who though they will allow some worship for Images yet they deny that any religious worship is to be given to them Thus our Authour might have seen that we have against them three Councils for one One in the East before that of Nice most high and positive against Image-worship and two in the West and those not onely declaring against that Worship but as positively cassating and annulling the Acts of that second Nicene Council which allowed it and these two convened by the direction of two great Princes Charles the Great and Lewis the Pious who were the best Friends that ever the Church of Rome had And with these Councils agree or very near agree all the chief Men of skill and learning who were Writers in that age in the West And then in the East it is most certain that the second Nicene Council had no Credit or Reputation or Authority a great while after for all the Historians that write of the Times after the Deposition of Irene the Empress tell us of three or four Emperours immediately succeeding who fully declar'd against Images and their worship threw them out of Churches and severely punished all those that pleaded in defence of them And nothing is so common amongst them as severe and bitter complaints against the Persecution of the Iconoclasts All this is true matter of fact and it is enough to depreciate the credit of the second Nicene Council and that perhaps with our Authour himself But yet for all this it may puzzle some others to find that this second Nicene Council appears in the World as the seventh General Council and that in ancient as well as modern Collections and not onely in the West but in the East The consideration of this is beside my business but yet it is strange and surprizing and would tempt a man to venture at a guess which perhaps may move others to speak something in the case that is more material I have heard of a Proverb or proverbial saying that three things joined together will doe wonders and they are these A little good luck and some Art and a great deal of Face Now the second Nicene Council has had on its side all these three most remarkably First as to good luck about the time of this Council whilst Irene was Empress there hapned a most prodigious strange Miracle at Berytus in Phoenicia An Image of our Saviour being wounded by a Jew in the breast gave out as my Authour says so much bloud Brietii Annales in An. 765. as being divided would be sufficient to be kept and shown in all the Churches of the East and West This was soon carried abroad and a little of it as most sacred and venerable was reposited in most of the famed Churches Some of this we find was shown at Mantua and great noise and talk there was about it perhaps some were for the Miracle and some against it And it is likely that Charles the Great had not faith enough to believe it for in the year 804. he got Pope Leo the Third to determine the Controversie whether that bloud came from the Image at Berytus or no and at that time he gave his judgment against the Image but when he added that the bloud there shown came out of the side of our Saviour an honest Jesuit dare not credit him Brietius says de hoc viderint eruditi Briet Annales An. 804. Now when this bloud was shown in Churches far and near in the East and West it could not but conciliate great veneration to sacred Images in the People For they saw the bloud and it was shown with a great deal of devotion and the Priests and Monks told the story no doubt with confidence enough and it being told in so many places and so oft and after the same manner How the Jew blasphemed
and bordering parts of Wales at the same time the Church of Rome was no less afflicted by the Heathen Emperours This is gross ignorance to talk of Saxons persecuting the Britains and Religion flying into Wales in the time of the Heathen Emperours Did the Man never hear of the name of Constantine and of the names of those glorious Christian Emperours that succeeded him in the East and West for more than two hundred years before the flying into Wales I hope he will not call them persecuting Heathen Emperours who brought the Empire into the Church The famous Council at Nice was celebrated in the Year 325. and the coming of the Saxons under Hengist into Britain was not till the Year 450 and it was near a hundred years after that before the Britains were dispossessed of the rest of their Countrey and forc'd to secure themselves amongst the Mountains of Wales This our Authour might easily have known if he had read Bede but he knew it not therefore he adds No wonder if in these days and circumstances there was but little correspondence between Rome and Wales This now is worse and worse what a little correspondence between Rome and Britain when Constantius was in Britain and Constantine and Theodosius and Maximus and the most of the chief Roman Commanders in their distinct times What! little correspondence between them though three of the British Bishops were at the Council of Arles and as many very probably at Nice and as many certainly at the Council of Ariminum and of Sardica Did this Man never hear of the names of Pelagius and Coelestius or of Palladius and Patricius and hundreds of others who came from Rome to Britain or went from Britain to Rome in all this long tract of time I would be willing to think that I mistake a little rather than judge that he mistakes so grosly But he will not allow it for he will have all the World to see how ignorant he is He adds to this these words But when the Church brought from her subterraneous refuges and set upon a Hill began to enlarge her self P. 31. and propagate the Gospel Gregory the Great sent Augustine the Monk into England to see how matters went there in this long interval of silence Certainly he does think that Gregory the Great was the first Roman Bishop that ever saw good days and that all his Predecessours were under the persecuting Heathen Emperours for now he says that the Church was brought from her subterraneous refuges and now she was set upon the Hill and now began to enlarge her self I wonder where he learnt this I hope it was from his Friend the famous Napper What is become of two and thirty Bishops of Rome so many there were between Sylvester who is said to have baptized the Emperour Constantine and this Gregory the Great did they all sleep did they doe nothing for the Church that she must be said now to inlarge her self There was near three hundred years past from Constantine's possession of the Empire to this mission of Augustine the Monk and was the Church all that time in subterraneous refuges Where were these subterraneous refuges from whence the Church came and where was the Hill upon which the Church was set in this Gregory's days I know that John of Constantinople was then most ambitious and indeavoured to mount up his Seat to higher power and dignity than that of Rome it self He challenged all the proud Titles that the Popes afterwards usurpt and designed to set his Church upon the Hill But Gregory the First wrote against him and charged him with pride and arrogancy and said plainly that whatever Bishop whether Roman or Constantinopolitan should assume those Titles he would be Antichristian or at least the Forerunner of Antichrist It is certain that Gregory the Great was content to keep things as he found them he did not set the Church upon a Hill or inlarge its power The Romanists can scarce pardon him for the great submission and deference which he yielded to the Emperour and the large expressions which he used in his Contest against John of Constantinople for the Protestants strongly argue from them against the pretences of the Popes themselves But our Authour adds that Gregory sent Augustine the Monk into England to see how matters went here in this long interval of silence He seems to think that Augustine came as a Spy or to make a discovery of an unknown Land but in this he is like himself still mistaken For Gregory knew how matters went here He knew that Bertha Queen to King Ethelbert was a Christian and that Luidhardus Bishop of Senlis was her Chaplain and that he performed to her and her Attendants all Christian Offices in the Church of St. Martin's Bede lib. 1. cap. 26. near Canterbury which was formerly built by the Romans And Gregory himself says in a Letter which he sent by this Augustine to the King of France and was delivered by him in his passage hither That the English Nation were desirous to become Christians His words are these Pervenit ad nos Greg. Epist lib. 5. Ep. 58. Anglorum gentem ad fidem Christianam desideranter velle converti sed Sacerdotes vestros è vicino negligere desideria eorum cessare suâ adhortatione succendere Ob hoc igitur Augustinum Servum Dei praesentium portitorem cujus zelus studium benè nobis est cognitum cum aliis servis Dei praevidimus illuc dirigendum Quibus etiam injunximus ut aliquos secum è vicino debeant Presbyteros ducere cum quibus eorum possint mentes agnoscere voluntatem admonitione suâ quantum Deus donaverit adjuvare and to the same purpose he writes in the next Epistle If our Authour had seen this Greg. Ep. 59. he would not have said that Gregory sent Augustine to see how matters went here in this long interval of silence But he goes on and tells us that the Britains knew him not that is Augustine untill he had confirmed his Commission by Miracles Now what had he to doe with them or they with him his Commission was to convert the Saxons or the English from their Paganism to Christianity as Gregory says in the forementioned Epistle Bede lib. 1. cap. 23. and Bede in these words Misit Servum Dei Augustinum alios complures praedicare Verbum Dei genti Anglorum Bede calls him Anglorum Apostolus to them he was sent to them he came and he had more work to doe amongst them than he was able to perform The Britains were not in the least concerned in his Commission for they were Christians and very good Christians according to our Authour's accompt For he tells us that the great Errours which Augustine found among them were chiefly two Their Asiatick Errour concerning the keeping of Easter and dissent from the Roman Church in the administring of Baptism As to the first of these their Asiatick
comes to pass seeing the Faith is the same every-where that there is a difference in Missals one form or usage in Rome and another in France Now to this the Pope gave him a wise and good answer if he made use of it That he should gather from every place whatever he found best and most pleasing to Almighty God not having respect to places but to things and if the Forms and Usages of France were better than those of Rome he might freely take them without giving any partial respect to the place where he had been bred Bede lib. 1. cap. 27. in Resp 3. Non enim pro locis res sed pro bonis rebus loca sunt amanda This was a most worthy direction of Gregory the Great and if Augustine had followed it no doubt his Rules and Orders had been venerable and good But it is more probable he did it not Because he was over busie in faulting the British Churches He charges them with some things as intolerable and other things which he intimates to be many as contrary to Roman Usages Caetera quae agitis quamvis moribus nostris contraria equanimiter cuncta tolerabimus Bede lib. 2. cap. 2. Now the British and French Churches as they had the same Faith so they had much the same Rituals Missals and Liturgies They had frequent Communications one with another and in difficulties about Religion they were most friendly and ready to give mutual aids and assistances Three British Bishops were at the Council at Arles in France Bede lib. 1. cap. 17. and two French Bishops St. German and St. Lupus by order of a Council at the request of the Britains came into Britain to stop the Pelagian Heresie to reform Errours and compose Differences there Agilbertus who was afterwards Bishop of Paris came from France into Ireland and staid a considerable time there to study Divinity and improve his skill in the Holy Scriptures Bede lib. 3. cap. 7. Agilbertus natione Gallus legendarum gratiâ Scripturarum in Hyberniâ non parvo tempore demoratus And others went from Britain into France upon the same account From hence we may easily presume that the British Irish and French Churches had in most things the same Rules and Orders amongst them St. Jerome says Epist 58. Jerome Ep. 58. Galliae Britanniae Ecclesiae unum Christum unam observant regulam Fidei Upon this accompt it seems not unlikely that Augustine might think he had as many exceptions against the French Churches as against the British As he faults the ways and methods of the Britains because they were different from the Customs of the Romans moribus nostris contraria So he offers it to the Pope Bede lib. 2. cap. 2. as a thing worthy of consideration that the French Missals were not the same with the Romish In both cases he seems to govern himself by one and the same reason and that is this that the Forms Vsages and Missals of Rome were the best and therefore all other Churches ought to be brought into the same methods with that From hence it appears that there was a difference amongst the Romans themselves Pope Gregory was of one mind and Augustine of another Pope Gregory thought there were pious and usefull Institutions in other Places as well as at Rome some as good and some better And therefore he gave advice to Augustine to pick and choose in every Countrey whatever he thought to be best or most suitable to the People whom he should convert to the Christian Faith Ex singulis ergo quibusque Ecclesiis quae pia quae Religiosa Bede lib. 1. cap. 27. quae recta sunt elige haec quasi in fasciculum collecta apud Anglorum mentes in consuetudinem depone Whatever you find in any Church wheresoever that is pious religious and right take it and teach it to the English and bring it into use and custome amongst them Herein he shewed himself to be great and wise as well as Christian but Augustine was altogether Roman he would take nothing and scarcely allow of any thing that he himself had not been used to at Rome He acted quite contrary to the Pope's directions He gave himself up to that fondness and partiality which Gregory above all things hated He was for Places and not for Things and instead of teaching the plain Christianity to Saxons he busied himself to bring the Fashions of Rome into Wales hereby he lost the advantages which the prudence of Gregory had laid out for him He exasperated and disgusted both the British and Scotish or Irish Churches and had but small success amongst the English for the Christianity he planted amongst them was but short liv'd As soon as Ethelbert was dead Augustine's new Converts turned Renegadoes to their old Paganism his Companions Mellitus and Justus Bede lib. 2. cap. 5. were forced to fly and Laurentius who miraculously was stopped as Bede says began a new work and with much pains and labour after the return of Mellitus and Justus effected but little Paulinus and other Missionaries came after and did something But if we believe Bede the Saxons were as much obliged for their Conversion to the Scots and to the French as to the Romans He commends the Labours of Columba of Aidan of Ced and Ceadda and Finan and Colman and Trumhere and Agilbertus and Felix as highly as any of the Romans By the unwearied labours of these Men Christianity found a resurrection and after death was restored to life again it lived and flourished and spread it self to most parts of this Island Here it must be observed that in the times of these Men Christianity had one advantage which it wanted before and that is this That a Man of a quite different temper from Augustine was then Archbishop of Canterbury For Honorius who was third Successour to Augustine did as industriously avoid all needless Contests as Augustine did precipitately run upon them He seems to be a Man intirely of Gregory's spirit and temper He was for goodness and piety and sincere Christianity and would not stand upon Rituals and Vsages of Rome upon nicety and punctilio so as for their sakes to give disturbance to such as were faithfull in teaching plain Christian Doctrines That which Augustine accompted intolerable and did what he could to extirpate and must be thought to be too much imbittered against the Professours of it if he outliv'd the slaughter of the Monks of Bangor Honorius could tolerate for he kept communion and fair correspondence with Aidan and the Scots though they continued in the Asiatick Errour as our Authour calls it or observed their Easter Feast at a different time from what the Romans would have them to keep it and that according to the same rule which Augustine so highly faulted in the British Church Bede tells us Lib. 3. cap. 25. Haec dissonantia Paschalis vivente Aidano patienter ab omnibus tolerabatur quia
all the ways and methods of Rome He would have him shew Rome in every thing he did and to be intirely of the Roman cut He was altogether for place and not for thing He had no concern for what was pious and what religious and what of good use in other Places He was for that onely which was done at home And though Christianity was once most pure and most gloriously had flourished in the Eastern Churches yet he particularly cautioned and provided that Theodore should lay aside his first Works and the Institutions of his Fathers and the Traditions of the East and intirely govern himself according to the Usages of Rome Now the effect of this is most remarkable though Theodore submitted to all this and came with resolution to please them whose Creatures he was yet being a learned stout and most reverend Prelate he was forced in a little time to run into open opposition against Rome For Wilfrid the great Stickler for Roman Fashions indeavoured to outdoe him and would always be one step beyond him in the way of Romanizing He could not consecrate a Bishop but Wilfrid had something to say against it nor make a Synodal Constitution but he had much to fault in it And so troublesome he was that Theodore was forced to throw him out of his Bishoprick upon this Wilfrid appealed to Rome and got the Pope's Bull for his resettlement yet Theodore would not reverse his Sentence and King Egbert added a second of Banishment against him And neither would obey although the Pope threatened deprivation and excommunication to all those that would not receive him Indeed in the second year of Alfrid he returned again but soon was banished again and then again he appealed to Rome and though he had favour there yet he received no benefit from it here For Wilfrid himself being summoned to appear at a Synod upbraided the English Bishops That they had opposed the Pope's Command for two and twenty years and wondered that they durst prefer the Constitutions of Theodore before the Bull of the Pope But for all his talk the Synod had no more regard for the Bull than the King or the Archbishop had for they added a third Sentence of Excommunication against him and his Adherents And as long as Theodore lived this Papal Bull was not in the least regarded but Wilfrid the great Romanizer Innovator and Reformer who had vanquished the good and truly Christian Scots or Irish and thought he merited much in his Contests about Easter and Tonsure found himself sufficiently beaten by one who was a mere Creature of Rome All this may be seen in Bede Bede lib. 5. cap. 20. and in the Life of Wilfrid written by Stephen Heddius This short Narration may deserve some few thoughts from any candid Reader whether he be Papist or Protestant Romanizer or Catholick and what is more than all those names plain Christian Here any one may see something of the first Christianity and something of that which was superadded to it the first most venerable and good the other vain and trifling In the Advices of Gregory to Augustine and in the Lives and Practices of Aidan Finan and Colman we have a most generous sense of Piety and Religion and noble Designments most agreeable to those of our Saviour and his Apostles In the Aims of Augustine Wilfrid and Vitalian we have that which is low and mean great values put upon little things The Name of St. Peter oft used and nothing else the Soul and Temper of him seems totally to be laid aside Great noise and stir and confidence imployed to advance that which was of no use and the same Arts ingaged in the Service which the great St. Augustine and St. Aug. Ep. 86. Casulano Ambrose despised and trampled upon when they found them formerly appearing in like cases Besides we may here see what mischiefs have come from those Men who have made it their business to subject the Faith and Worship of Christians to the Determinations and Usages of one City Wilfrid certainly gave much trouble and great disturbance to Theodore to King Egbert to King Alfrid to England to Rome and all this to very little purpose If any one now has a mind to satisfy himself in the difference between the old Catholick and the old Romanizer he may compare the accompt which Bede gives of Colman and his Predecessours Bede lib. 3. cap. 26. with the Elogium which he gives of Acca Bede lib. 5. cap. 21. Wilfrid's Successour the first of these I have translated and the other our Adversaries may doe when they think good THE END Some Books lately Printed for Brab Aylmer A Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy to which is added A Discourse concerning the Unity of the Church By Dr. Isaac Barrow A Discourse against Transubstantiation By Dr. Tillotson A Discourse concerning the Adoration of the Host as it is Taught and Practised in the Church of Rome A Discourse of the Communion in One Kind In Answer to a Treatise of the Bishop of Meaux ' s. A Discourse against Purgatory A Request to Roman Catholicks to Answer the Queries upon these their following Tenets viz. § I. Their Divine Service in an Unknown Tongue II. Their taking away the Cup from the People III. Their with holding the Scriptures from the Laicks IV. The Adoration of Images V. The Invocation of Saints and Angels VI. The Doctrine of Merit VII Purgatory VIII Their Seven Sacraments IX Their Priests Intention in Baptism X. The Limbo of unbaptized Infants XI Transubstantiation XII The Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass XIII Private Masses XIV The Sacrament of Penance XV. The Sacrament of Marriage with the Clergies Restraint therefrom XVI Their Sacrament of Extream Unction XVII Tradition XVIII That thread-bare Question Where was your Church before Luther XIX The Infallibility of the Pope with his Councils XX. The Pope's Supremacy XXI The Pope's Deposing Power XXII Their Uucharitableness to all other Christians Now in the Press A Discourse of the Sacrifice of the Mass In 4o.