peculiar to him as to be the first-born of the Dead For as the honour of sitting on the Right-hand of God followeth his Resurrection from the dead so the Office of Intercession followeth the Honour of sitting on the Right-hand of God and is inseparably united and annexed to it and therefore none can assume or exercise that Office for us but he who was honoured which is Jesus only to sit on God's Right-hand and none can be entituled or admitted to this Honour but he who humbled himself to death even the death of the Cross and thereby merited this Exaltation that at his name every knee should bow and every c. Phil. 4.8 c. for this Office of Intercession is the consequent effect and ultimate end of his Exaltation as the Apostle proveth Heb. 7.25 Wherefore because he is our eternal High-Priest he is able to save them to the uttermost to the full that come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for us Whene it followeth we are to come to God by his Son Jesus Christ our High-Priest and for our encouragement that we may come with Confidence and a full assurance we have this strong Consolation He is able to save us to the uttermost and this he is able to do for that He our High-Priest ever liveth to make Intercession for us which the same Apostle hath repeated and further expressed Heb. 24. He hath entred into Heaven it self now viz. to this end and on this errand to appear in the presence of God for us viz as our Intercessor and Advocate from all which premises we may be bold to argue in the Apostolical Form used by the same Apostle upon another but not unlike occasion Heb. 1.19 To which of the Angels or Saints departed said God at any time Sit thou on my Right-hand to make Intercession for man or Sit thou on my Right-hand to appear in my presence for him or be thou Advocate with the Father for him Or said God at any time Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in the name of Angels or Saints departed it shall be given you certainly God never employed any the most excellent Creature in any Office betwixt himself and man but he first signed a Commission for it but neither God nor his Son Jesus Christ did ever make any Grant Substitution or Deputation of this Honour and Power to any either Angel or Saint departed It is true the Blessed Spirits are affirmed to stand about the Throne of God and the Holy Angels to behold his face but it is never said they sit at Gods Right-hand or live for ever to make Intercession for us The Holy Angels are Gods Ministring Spirits and the Spirits of just men departed are his Glorified Saints but God hath made Jesus only to be Lord and Christ to whom all things in heaven and earth must bow and let all the Angels honour him and all the Saints fall down before and all men Honour the Son even as they honour the Father Joh. 5.23 because to set up any subservient subordinate Lords in this Office of Intercession is such a piece of Heathenish Idolatry that the Apostle St. Paul thought it fit to caution the Corinthians against it and instruct them in the pure Worship and Service of God as becometh Christians 1 Cor. 8.5 Though there be many that are called Gods as there be Gods many and Lords many but to us there is but one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ in which words there is a direct opposition betwixt the Heathen Form of Application to their Supreme fictions Gods and the Christians way of Supplication to the only true God The Heathens address themselves to their Sovereign Gods by their under Gods or Godlings which the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Demons the Scriptures of the Old Testament Baalims or Lords who were reputed Agents and Mediators betwixt their chief Gods and them Their Sovereign Gods they stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lords in of or from Heaven betwixt whom and men they supposed there was no immediate intercourse their mean Inferiour Lords were accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Celsus phraseth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lords on or from the Earth whom they honoured with a relative subaltern Worship as their Mediators and Advocates thinking thereby they more highly honoured their Supreme Gods But Christians know and profess there is but one God the Maker of all things in Heaven and Earth to whom they are to make their Prayers and Supplications and they have but one Lord Advocate and Mediator by whom they present and offer their Petitions to the Almighty Father For the opposition lies in the Heathenish plurality both of their Supreme Gods and Subordinate Mediators viz. Heathens have many Gods and many Lords Mediators and in the singularity of the Christians God and Lord Mediator viz. they have but one God and one Lord Mediator even Jesus whom God hath made both Lord and Christ Act. 2.36 Thus Origen understood this Text for to it sure he refers * Orig. Ceis lib. 8.381 when he tells Celsus The Scripture indeed doth call God the God of Gods and Lord of Lords but withal saith to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him which the Apostle speaks of himself and all other whose minds are raised up to him do Worship him inseparably and indivisibly in his Son Therefore there being many Gods and many Lords we endeavour by all means not only to carry our minds above those things on Earth which are Worshiped by the Heathen for Gods but above those whom the Scriptures call Gods viz. Angels For these reasons and many more deducible from Holy Writ Protestants have often urged and pressed the Papists to produce one positive Precept clear Example or plain Promise from the Scripture for their Saint or Angel Mediatorship but hitherto they have not been very forward to accept the challenge only some of them who were resolved to say something for themselves have pitched upon some places of Scripture for proof of their Principle and Practice which yet others of them being more judicious and ingenious have not conceived Argumentative and satisfactory nor indeed that any thing can be evinced or deduced thence that is cogent and convincing which will appear by these particulars 1. From the Testimony of their Grave and Learned Polemick Divines who have acknowledged they have no express Scripture for this Doctrine and usage and if so it was too much confidence to form the Doctrine into an Article of Faith and to impose and exact the Practice as a profitable duty yea so profitable that the omission was Sin Implications and remote deductions were never before thought sufficient Mediums for the superstructing of an Article of Faith and an Essential to Salvation Eckius (a) Enchir. de ven Sanct. c. 15. sub finem hath freely
2. The Queen saith he did resolve c. This is most false for thus she expressed and declared her self (a) Cambden Ann. p. 35 36. England embraceth no new Religion nor any other than that which Christ hath commanded the Primitive and Catholick Church hath practised and the Ancient Fathers have always with one mind and will approved If N. N. hath another Catholick Religion let him keep it to himself 3. The Pope did declare her a Bastard c. Perhaps this may be true but if he did so he declared against his own Conscience if Guicciardine say true but whether this were so or no the Pope hath a faculty to determine and declare contradictions If once he did declare her a Bastard he hath a cleanly conveyance to call in his Declaration and pronounce her Legitimate Our English Authors of good account probably upon common report have written that Pius the fourth as he offered very large Concessions so if the terms could be agreed on which were proposed to revoke the â—cateace against â—rer Mothers Marriage This seems to Mr. Fuller to be a light conjecture but others as modest and more knowing than himself in that point have averred it Bishop Babington on Num. the seventh affirms of Clement the eighth and Bishop Andrews Tort. Torti p. 142. is very positive in it Certe illâ—â—d rentatum constat de cuteris si ut vero Primatus c. Mr. Fuller himself relates the Pope sent by his Nuntio the Abbot of St. Saviours a Letter to her in which he promised to grant her whatsoever she would desire for the establishing and confirming of her Princely Dignity and assured her having furnished the Abbot with secret Instructions he should deal more largely with her intreating her to give the same credit to his Speeches which she would do to himself If these Instructions contrived for that pretence and profer were not publickly to be seen this was but a piece of Pope-crafe for the matter was so to be managed that nothing was to be concluded till the Abbot certainly found the Letter would take and produce the designed effect But before this Paul the fourth promised though not so frankly yet home enough that if she would refer her self wholly to his free crooked disposition he would do whatsoever might be done with the (b) Hist Counc of Trent fol. 411. ad An. 1558. honour of the Apostolick See and we know that the Popes have ready inventions they can any time off-hand find an expedient to salve its honour This Pope in the year 1554 being a moderate good man by a Letter to Queen Mary whom he knew to be zealously addicted to the Papal Interest granted a close Dispensation to confirm and ratify the alienation of the Possessions and Revenues of the Church and forged six reasons to satisfy the World that such a Dispensation might be granted with honour and conscience This Letter with the reasons was found in the Offices of the King's Papers the original whereof was there preserved but the next year following the tender-conscienced man changed his mind and in private discourse often told the English Embassadors with deep protestations that he could not profane the things dedicated to God and that his Authority reached not so far as to approve Sacriledg and therefore under an Anathema restitution must be made of Church-Goods and Revenues adding withal they could not hope that St. Peter would open Heaven to them so long as they usurped his Goods upon Earth Hist Counc of Trent fol. 392 393. ad An. 1555. This was a pure piece of Pope-craft to get Peter-pence from the people and Annates from the Crown for himself which he gained by this Artifice and let the Church shift for her Rights as well as she could The Pope and his Adherents do generally charge the Greeks with Heresy and Schism yet by an accord the Greeks may have his good leave to be Hereticks and Schismaticks let them but acknowledg his Supremacy they may keep their Religion and be either Hereticks or Schismaticks but if they prove refractory and refuse then presently they are pronounced Hereticks and Schismaticks For in Ann. 1594 Articles were drawn and concluded betwixt the Pope and the Bishops of South-Russia the main whereof was he was to permit to them the liberty of the exercise of their Religion and they were in lieu of that to acknowledg his Supremacy which they submitted to but with special reservation of their Religion and Rites Brerewood Inquiries p. 138. taken out of Th. a Jesu What Arts the Popes have used to maintain their Reputation the Author of the Hist of the Couno of Trent hath reported for fine stories of Reconciliation fol. 382 and 383 which he truly and properly stiles shadows of Obedience For Saligniacus the Pope's Protonotary Itenr to 8. c. 2. refert Brerewood p. 161. expresly affirmeth that the Christians in Egypt never yielded obedience to the Pope Let the Pope's Interest be either bettered or secured he can with honour allow Heresy and Schism and so sober and moderate a man is he he will not stand with you upon the strict account of Religion Neither is N. N. certain that all the Catholicks did take the Queen of Scots to be true Heir to the Crown yea it is false for not those sure who concluded the Marriage of King Henr. the eighth with Katharine to be unlawful and Divorce lawful not those sure who owned Elizabeth their natural Liege-Prince as Heath Arch-Bishop of York and Oglethorp Bishop of Carlisle who Crowned her not those who judged the Act of Succession valid neither the Secular Priests who in their Book entituled Important Considerations Printed An. 1601 and now re-Printed An. 1675 bound with the other Treatises did acknowledg her their true and lawful Queen and themselves her Highness natural born Subjects p. 53. and 64 and as such did profess their Allegiance to her as highly as the most Loyal Subjects could or should do p. 85 86. Nay nor Father Parsons and his Comrades who entituled the King of Spain and the Infanta his Daughter to the Crown in his Book entituled Dolman and as the Secular Priests affirm Import Consid p. 82. Philip King of Spain treated with Queen Elizabeth to Marry his Son Charles which he would not have done if he either valued the Pope's Declaration (f) Which none of those Roman-Church and there are great store of them do who deny his Infallibility in matters of Fact and Right or thought the Queen of Scots to be true Heir unless he had been assured of a Dispensation and by vertue thereof disseize and debar the right Heir But this project failing he gave out words he would take her for his own Wife insomuch that the King of France feared a Marriage betwixt them which moved many of the more inquisitive and considering sort to believe that the reason why the Pope did not draw in his Declaration proceeded only from the practices of
Predecessors which are favouarble to the Papal Authority to be further oppugned or questioned and therefore both the Pope and the Ordinaries and Inquisitors of Heresy are very careful lest any Book which seems to derogate therefrom be published and if any do happen to pass the Press they take a strict Order it be utterly suppressed or to be read of none without special License in writing till it be purged c. p. 344. It is a very hard matter in these times especially either to find in the Books of Catholicks any Clause which may give the least occasion of calling the Popes Right in Temporals in question or certainly to know what the Author of those Books thought of the Popes Power but they are oftentimes against the Hair compelled to deliver not their own Opinions but such as the Inquisitors of the Books do father upon them Neither Turks nor Jews have gone so far in their presumptions as to take authority over dead men's writings to alter and change them at their pleasures The same Author or Authors p. 35. of that Book hath discovered a shameful Corruption in a Prayer of the Breviary For not long since these are the words in that Page they have blotted out the word Animas Souls in that Prayer of their Reformed Breviaries by command of Clement the eighth Thus also they corrupted Agapetus his words in Bibl. SS Pairum Tom. 1. p. 108. Par. 1571 wickedly (k) Index Rom. p. 200. razing and perversly glossing that Sentence viz. Vpon earth the King the Emperour Justinian to whom he writ Epistles as Baron testifies Tom. 7. in Append. p. 665. hath no man above him contrary to his express words and meaning for thus he writeth to him c. 1. Whereas in honour thou O Emperour hasta dignity far above all other men honour him above all who gave thee this honour to wit God c. p. 27. impose upon thy self a necessity of observing Laws in as much as thou hast no living Creature in the World to compel thee thereunto And so those words of Ludovic Vives Ep. ad Regem Angl. Henr. 8. praefixa Com. Aug. de Civitate Dei cujus potestas c. Whose Authority and Majesty is greatest upon earth secundum Deum next after God are commanded to be expunged But perhaps the case may be Iliacos intra muros c. Protestants are as criminal this way as Papists and a charge strongly proved against these will not clear them N.N. hath an easy Proof for this For 2. As it appears from Gregor Martin c. But it appears N.N. either knows nothing of Greg. Martin's Discoveries or craftily concealed them for Dr. Fulk hath discovered his Discoveries to be mean loose Cavils in a full Answer thereto which hitherto hath not been replied to another Discovery he made which his own Fellows taxed him for and with a lying Discovery and Relation Bugbeared him for attempting new Discoveries so unlucky was Gregor Martin in all his Discoveries Part 3. He adds a third Proof taken from the Topicks of the Wisdom Gravity and Learning Piety and Humanity of his Catholick Divines 1. As to their Wisdom it is confessed they vvere so vvise as not to be taken vvith a Lye vvhich they might be convinced of by Thousands of Witnesses The Children of this World are Wise in their Generation therefore they took a crafty Course not to excuse the Fable till about forty years after the supposed Fact was perpetrated Neither were there many of his Catholicks who maintained it those who did took it at the first rebound from a malicious Enemy and Parasitical Pickthank Bishop Bonner's Setter But supposing these Witnesses had been called into a Court and deposed all that they could say to the Article or Quaere was they believed it and believed it because they had heard it if they had deposed it any further they had been right Affidavit-men but this Deposition being cast out if N.N. had been a fee'd Proctor in the cause he then would have set up his possibles probables and credibles if these moved not the Witnesses as Ten thousand to One they would not then he would cast his easy Answers there was a Conspiracy among the Thousands of Witnesses to give in false Evidence and deceive the Court. 2. For their Gravity and Learning that signifies little there are Grave and Learned men almost of all Perswasions yet it is notoriously known that such have been sometimes overcome with Lyes Visions Revelations Miracles and Fables there are such things in the world as over-credulity and Euthusiasm which have prevailed with men of known good parts and abilities 3. As to their Piety and good Conscience that it was so tender in N. N's opinion that they would not engage c. Protestants cannot assent to it because they know that his Catholicks did engage themselves and their Posterities to take the Oath of Supremacy which when they refused not out of Conscience but Compact and Design because by a Law whereto they were parties and chief instruments it stood established so with great reason and learning they Preached and pressed the taking thereof upon the Conscience as a Duty They who can thus play at Fast and Loose with Oaths without any violation of any of the rules of Charity may be judged to be either unconscionable Jugglers or wavering Weather-cocks But those of them who in Queen Elizabeth's time contrived her Murther and to carry on the Plot with more security and advantage published a Book wherein it was declared that it was not lawful to kill the Queen that so neither She nor any of her Council might fear any harm from such Religious Cheats and counterfeit Champions of Loyalty cannot possibly be excused This was proved and openly confessed at the Arraignment of Babington and Ballard when also the Letters of Cardinal Como written to Parry were produced which did testify that the Pope approved (l) Fulk Rhem. Test marginal note on Jude fol. 847. the Artifice Great Villanies are commonly attempted with great Hypocrisy and if Hypocrites may pass for tender-Conscienced men or good Roman Catholicks there are great store of these in the world 4. However N. N. will have them well-natured persons They will do nothing in spight against Protestants He must pardon the Protestants if they do not believe for they know they have been very spiteful one against another Stephen the sixth (m) Plat. in vit Steph. 6. Sabellic Aenead 9. lib. 1. and. those ordained by him to be re-ordained Baron An. 897. n. 2. and Sergius 3. who ruled the Papacy six years after him did the like Baron 908. n. 2. which is acknowledged T. R. P. in his Answer to some Letters writ by a Protestant p. 786. Bellar. de Pont. lib. 4. c. 12. against Formosus with Barbarous Inhumanity cutting off his three Fingers with which he was used to give Benedictions and Orders and then causing his Body to be cast into Tyber with rage It could be
a Church For this reason the most eminent Protestants who still maintained the Divine Right of Bishops yet did they clear those Transmarine Churches which have not Bishops from sinning against Divine Right because their want was not through their own default but the Iniquity of the Times and Places they lived in which charitable construction should seem very reasonable to the Romanists for that the Court of Rome gave the first occasion of all the contests about Episcopacy by investing Priests with Episcopal Jurisdiction and Power by their Commissions and Delegations and without doubt Necessity is as strong Dispensation for these Pastors to execute the Ministerial Office as the Popes Mercenary Bulls granted upon unworthy avaritious ends can be for their Priests to exercise Episcopal Authority Those Churches therefore under this want are True though lame and maimed Members of the Catholick Church Just as Canus (n) Loc. l. 4. c. ult ad 10. determines of the Romish Church in a vacancy It is then left Lame saith he and diminished without Christs Vicar that one Pastor of the Church the Pope yet the Spirit of Truth should abide in it and vvithout doubt the Spirit of Truth will as certainly abide in those Churches which want Bishops as in their Church wanting a Pope at least they should think so because in their account the Pope is as necessary if not more to the being of a Church than Bishops are To clear this more distinctly some things are required to the Essence (o) This is Stapleton's distinction of a Church as the Doctrine of saving Faith in the Profession and Practice thereof some only to the Perfection and Integrity of a Church as the having Regular Pastors by a due Form of Ordination both these are necessary though not equally and in the same Degree the former absolutely and indispensably the latter de congruo possibili viz. it concerns the Church if possibly it can be obtained to have lawfully Ordained Pastors and every wilful Omission much more Rejection of the Catholick settled Order in this kind is Sacrilegious and Schismatical yet those Pastors who highly esteem Episcopal Ordination and much affect it but cannot obtain it through the Recusancy of Bishops in present Place and Power who will not Ordain them without sinful compliance and submission to gross Errours and Corruptions evidently contrary to the Law of Christ if they hold and divide the Word of Truth rightly may be accounted true Pastors though not in a real Mission yet by a moral designation as being deputed and separated to that Divine Office because in this case the Necessity is invincible which makes that allowable which otherwise would be unlawful as Dr. Cracken contr Spalet c. 4. observes from the Gloss and illustrateth from Scipio's Example who when the Questors denied him a supply of Monies out of the Publick Treasury because it was against Law presently replied Necessity hath no Law The Romanists confess the desire of Baptism is sufficient to excuse the want thereof and they have it in effect who have it in desire in all reason the want of an undoubted Sacrament is more dangerous than the want of a Sacramental can be especially where there is a Desire to have the Impediment removed The Jews were prohibited to build private Altars yet in case of Necessity when they were not permitted to go to Hierusalem the learned Jews determined the Prohibition ceased as to its present effect and every one knows a Negative Prescript is not so dispensable as an Affirmative It is the opinion of Cornelius a Lapide in Numb 20.26 that Eleazar was mâ—de High-Priest praeter legem morem otherwise than by standing Law and Custom he ought First because his Father was then living next in that the right only of putting on his Fathers Garment was used without any Solemn-Unction or Consecration to the Priesthood 5. He subjoyns a doubtful Clergy makes a Doubtful Church This is a Doubtful Proposition the most he can make of it is that a Doubtful Clergy makes a Doubtful Church only in Part not in the Whole for even Schismaticks in those things wherein they have made no separation from the Church otherwise the Romanists would be in a sad condition do so far still remain uncorrupted to the Church so that if that Doubtful Clergy keep the wholesom words of sound Doctrine if N. N. doubt of this he may remember there is a Clergy of a beyond-Sea Church which hath no Bishops hath made this good against the choicest Champions of the Roman See so far they are Catholicks 6. He is very positive a doubtful Church is no Church It is true he who harboureth a doubt which he will conclude Prudent because the issue of his own Imagination or the suggestion of some over-admired Teacher of that Church whereof he is a Member that Church to him is no Church but where such a doubt is entertained the Case is only disputable and questioning doth not disprove or destroy certainty and truth But such doubtful Propositions as N. N. hath here conjured up will without doubt damnify his good old Cause because thereby his Church will be concluded a no Church by the demonstrating Power of those many doubts and uncertainties which her chief Members have conceived and uttered against her instances of most important concern For Part 2. 1. It is a rule with them that a doubtful Pope is no (p) Crespet in verb. Papa Caran p. 827. Pope and that there cannot be two Popes at one and the same time etiam ex urgentissima causa as Jac. Castellon cites out of Navar verb. Papa p. 485. no not upon the most weighty Consideration because there is but one Monarch and one Monarchy only for Spiritual concerns by the appointment of Christ hence they generally conclude that all those who are not united to that one determinate Head are in the state of damnable Schism and those who are united to him are united to the true Catholick-Church viz. The Church is a Society of men united in the Profession of the same Faith and participating of the Sacraments under the Government of lawful Pastors chiefly of one Vicar of Christ upon Earth the Roman Pope This then is obvious at the first view from these Premises that an undoubted Pope is as fully and by the word chiefly in the definition more necessary to the being and Constitution of the Church than an undoubted Clergy and a doubtful Pope is as destructive to the Church as a doubtful Clergy from whence it necessarily follows that if a doubtful Clergy makes a doubtful Church a doubtful Pope must do so too and then if this be proved there hath been a doubtful Pope and no one undoubted Pope by N. N 's demonstration it is impossible the Roman can be the true Catholick and Apostolick Church but this is easily made evident from the many doubts and uncertainties which of the several pretending Popes hath been the one undoubted Pope
if Doulia or Hyperdoulia belong to them or any of them much more is due to Christ who if he be not God equal with the Father yet is far above all Angels Principalities and Powers and every name which is named in Heaven and Earth besides we have clear Text that we should Honour the Son even as we do Honour the Father and not the least intimation in Scripture we should so Honour the Angels but on the contrary that all Angels should Worship him in that he by Inheritance hath obtained a more excellent name than they It is altogether unnecessary to multiply Quotations from the Ancients or to cite those numerous places which are to be found in the Writings of the Fathers of the Catholick Church to prove what the Doctrine and Practice of the Catholick Primitive Church hath been in this instance it is sufficient for the satisfaction of any considerate disinterested person to let him know that the Testimonies which the Protestants have produced from them are so forcible that the great Cardinal (o) Never any Author before him had invenred those Authors Ep. ad Bell. See Bellarmin's life l. 2. c. 7. R. 3. Perron hath confessed he was forced to strain his Invention and great Parts to frame Answers to them and when he had racked them to the height all that he could Apologetically feign in excuse of the present Practice of the Romish Church was to accuse and impeach the Fathers of deep dissimulation and Imposture For first (p) Upon the Head of Invocation of Saints p. 1044 1045. he saith The Fathers in their Writings against the Gentiles said those things not which they did believe but dissembling and disguising their Practice said those things which served their cause to refute the Gentiles Objections This Scandalous Imputation is enough to crack their Credits for ever in the judgment of honest minds for who will ever believe them who for a colour to their cause are so wicked as to speak Lies in hypocrisy or ever esteem them as the chiefest Apologists and choicest Advocates of Christianity who were egregious Prevaricators and mean contemprible Proctors in their own and the Churches concern Or who will ever rely upon their Testimony who were so weak and sottish as to attempt the dissembling of that which could not be concealed and the disguising of that which could not be denied or evaded For the Gentiles as they were Artists enough to find out any Sophistical shufflings in their discourses and disputes against them so they were malicious and active Adversaries having their Spies and Trapanners abroad to give them intelligence of the Christians Practice both in their Civil and Religious Conversation and if these failed there were too many lapsed Christians who would inform them to the full and too many false Brethren who industriously pretended to Christianity that thereby when occasion served they might accuse them to the Higher Powers such as those of the Circumcision were in the Apostles time who were unawares brought in and came in privily as Spies Gal. 2. and after Ages have been all out as bad if not worse after Nero's Reign In the second place the Cardinal tells us The Fathers in their Writings against the Heathens declined to speak of the Churches Prayers lest the Gentiles might think there were some appearance of conformity though but false and fallacious betwixt the Churches Practice herein and that of the Heathen and thereby take an occasion though upon no just ground to retort upon their Practice This insimulation is somewhat more modest or less irreverent than the former but as false and fallacious For SECT III. 1 THE Fathers in their Writings to the Heathens did not decline but declare what the Churches Prayers were both for matter and form witness Just (q) Apol. 2. Clem. Alex. l. 7. Strom. p. 717. Tert. Apol. c. 30. p. 27. de Oâ—at Domini c. 1 12. Mart. Clem. Alex. and Tert. and it appears from Flinies Epistle to the Emperour Trajane The Heathens were well accquainted with the Christians Practices in their Assemblies in this therefore the Cardinal dissembleth and in the next Period of his Sentence he disguiseth and glosseth the matter For 2 The Churches Prayers then were not the same with those now in use in the Romish Church as he fallaciously suggesteth but perfectly Protestant as the Prayers of the Holy Martyr Policarp recited in Eusebius lib. 4. c. 15. to which may be added that when the People of Smyrna desired to have the Body of their Martyred Bishop for its Burial the Jews perswaded the Governour not to grant their Request upon this unworthy pretence the Christians would Worship it to which false suggestion the Christians replied We can never be induced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Worship any other with Religious Adoration but Christ him we adore others we worthily love and respect This Protestation was thus rendered in the (r) Ex passionario M. S. 7 Cal. Febr. in Bibl. Eccl. Sarisb Dom. Rober. Cottoni Latine Edition Nunquam Christum c. We Christians can never forsake Christ who did vouchsafe to suffer so great things for our Sins nor impart precem Orationis the Devotion Religion or Supplication of Prayer to any other and accordingly as it was thus Translated it was publickly read in all the Churches of the West 3. If they did forbear to speak of the Churches Prayers lest the Gentiles should retort it upon them then because the Gentiles had good intelligence of their Practice as hath been proved but never did retort it upon them it may safely be concluded their Practice was not the same with that of the present Romish Church and that Reason assigned by some Pontificians why in the Apostles time they and their Disciples abstained from this Practice cannot hold unless we take in the Three hundred years succeeding for so long time did the Christians and Heathens live promiscuously as Fellow Subjects to the same Higher Powers and the Heathens knew what the Christians practised during which space of time if that had been the Churches Practice which is surmised by the Romanists the Heathen would have looked upon it with jealousy as a politick trick cunningly contrived by the Christians to set up a new modelled Court of Requests and take just occasion thereby to retort upon their Practice which because they did not therefore so long time there was no such practice in the Church But if their and the Cardinal's reason be good it will render the Romanists very imprudent or uncharitable or both in that when they endeavour the Conversion of the Heathen to their Church they do not conceal and forbear this so suspicious and offensive Practice to them 4. The Cardinal dissembleth in that he pretends there is but some appearance of Conformity betwixt the Practice of the Romish Church and their Heathen Ancestors For if we may believe the reports and complaints of some learned Romanists the Practice of the common
least is secondary Idolatry For Idolatry consists in giving Religious Worship due to God to that which is not God and a primary and secondary respect cannot relieve them because these are Duties of the same kind the higher or lower conceptions of the Object toward which the Religious Office is exercised cannot alter the kind or species and it is impossible to assign any real difference betwixt them Bellar. could find none either in respect of the internal Act of the Will or the external Offices excepting that figment of a sensible Sacrifice but only in operatione intellectus in the apprehension of the understanding which renders the difference only rational nor real 5. Press the Papists with that Text with which our Saviour Christ confuted the Devil Matth. 4.10 Thou shalt Worship the. Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve they will return this is meant of Latria not of Doulia but if this exclusive Particle only bar Latria only then the Devil could have replied the Answer is not sufficient confessedly there is none good but God and then if he had been as subtle a Sophister as a Jesuite or an Apostate he would have added it is not Latria or Primary Sovereign and Terminative Worship that I expect or demand for I acknowledg the Sovereign Almighty Power of God vers 3. and 6. and him to be the Author and donor of this Power which I challenge over the Kingdoms of the earth to give them all I have or can dispose of were first given me for they are delivered to me v. 4.6 and this therefore thou answerest is a mistake keep thine heart thine elevated conceptions to God Doulia and the outward acts are sufficient for me if thou wilt fall down and Worship me that is by falling down Worship me for the Text reacheth not that and indeed that is all I desire but surely this were to corrupt the Text which must be understood of the exhibition of the outward acts agreably to other places of Scripture in which the Worship and outward acts are used as Synonyma's for the Leper who came to Christ and Worshiped him Matth. 8.2 is said to beseech him and kneeling down to him Mar. 1.40 and to fall on his face Luk. 5.12 and so the plain meaning of the sentence is Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve not only with Latria but with Doulia be it by Incurvation Genuflexion Prostration or any other external act expressive of inward Devotion or Subjection Part 3. 3. It is Irrational For 1. To determin that a necessary or profitable Office of Religion and Practice it as such which is neither founded on the Law of Nature nor prescribed by any positive constitution is Irrational because all perpetually and universally obliging Duties of Religion are either Natural which by the tenure of our Creation we are to perform in gratitude to and for the Honour of our Creator or instituted such as we are bound to observe because commanded so to do by our Lord Jesus Christ who only hath Power to order perpetually and universally obliging observations to all Christians Now forasmuch as there is nothing in the Law of Nature to enforce this supposed profitable Duty for then both Jews Gentiles and Christians did sin in the omission of it if it were by the the Law required nor is there in the Discipline of Christ either any Precept or Promise to authorize and legitimate either as a necessary or profitable Duty therefore both the imposition of the Duty and the practice must be Irrational 2. Invocation of the Supreme God the Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth is an act of Justice as well as Religion we wrong God if we pay not this tribute and Homage to him and we wrong him too if we offer or determin it to any other besides him For Invocation is of common right antecedently to any positive order due from man to God and therefore no man nor Society of man can on their own heads without his allowance or consent dispose thereof without Sacriledg Indeed if God had permitted this Honour to be given to any besides himself it would not be an injury to him to pass it to them he should grant it to But in that there is no such assignment extant or producible by any Letters Parents or Settlment from Heaven it is an high Injustice to determin or invade his Original right by an arbitary presumption But admitting which is the most that is by some or can by any be pretended that God had granted to Angels or Saints departed Reigning in Heaven a priviledg to solicite for us at the Throne of Grace and make motions for us in his Court of Requests yet did he never give them leave to pass an Act of Indemnity and Grace for our security and preferment This is a Prerogative which he hath reserved to himself and therefore it is repugnant to right reason to sue for Pardon and Grace from them who have no Power to grant the one or give the other or make good either of them It often proves a profitable good policy for one who seeks a Pardon for a capital offence or affects places of trust and honour in the State to oblige and employ some Favorite Courtier to mediate in his behalf to the King but it would be extreamly ridiculous and absurd in the Petitioner to fall down on his knees to that Courtier and beseech him to command a Pardon under the Broad Seal to be assigned for him or to beg an Act of Grace as to make him an Earl or a Baron of the Realm because these Powers and Preheminencies in right belonging to the Kings Prerogative are inherent to the Crown and inseparably annexed to it 3. The ascribing this Duty to any the most excellent Creatures cannot be profitable to living men because upon several other accounts it is injurious to God for it entitles Creatures in those incommunicable attributes of his upon which also the Duty is founded his Omniscience in fixing a Power in them to hear the mental (b) As it is approved by the Council of Trent Sess c. 1. and exemplified in rheir Lâ—turgy in this form with the desires of our heart we pray unto you receive the ready service of our minds Prayers of living men and his Omnipresence in supposing and asserting they understand the vocal Prayers of Petitioners at the greatest distance removed one from another though it be most certain that the life and virtue of these Prayers lieth not in the outward expressions and postures of Devotion but the inward Veneration and affection of the heart which by the way obviates that vain pretension that by Praying to those Creatures in Heaven they do no more nor otherwise than in begging the assistance of the Prayers of Holy men upon Earth for it was never heard nor can it be conceived that any living man in his right Wits would vocally beg of another at a Thousand miles