over Subjects The same also is taught by Santarel in his book of Heresie and Schism printed at Rome 1626. BUT the mischief of this Doctrine proceeds a little further CARDINAL Tolet affirms and our Countryman Father Bridgewater commends the saying That when a Prince is Excommunicate before the Denunciation the Subjects are not absolved from their Oath of Allegiance as Cajet an says well yet when it is denounced they are not only absolved from their Obedience but are bound not to obey unless the fear of death or loss of goods excuse them which was the case of the English Catholicks in the time of Henry the VIII And F. Creswel says it is the sentence of all Catholicks that Subjects are bound to expel Heretical Princes if they have strength enough and that to this they are tied by the Commandment of God the most strict tie of Conscience and the extreme danger of their souls Nay even before the sentence is declared though the Subjects are not bound to it yet lawfully they may deny obedience to an Heretical Prince said Gregory de Valentia IT were an endless labour to transcribe the horrible Doctrines which are preached in the Jesuits School to the shaking off the Regal Power of such Princes which are not of the Roman Communion The whole oeconomy of it is well describ'd by Bellarmine who affirms That it does not belong to Monks or other Ecclesiasticks to commit Murthers neither do the Popes use to proceed that way But their manner is first Fatherly to correct Princes then by Ecclesiastical Censures to deprive them of the Communion then to absolve their Subjects from the Oath of Allegeance and to deprive them of their Kingly Dignity And what then The Execution belongs to others This is the way of the Popes thus wisely and moderately to break Kings in pieces WE delight not to aggravate evil things We therefore forbear to set down those horrid things spoken by Sà Mariana Santarèl Carolus Scribanius and some others It is enough that Suarez says An Excommunicate King may with impunity be depos'd or kill'd by any one This is the case of Kings and Princes by the Sentence of the chiefest Roman Doctors And if it be objected that we are commanded to obey Kings not to speak evil of them not to curse them no not in our heart There is a way found out to answer these little things For though the Apostle commands that we should be subject to higher powers and obey Kings and all that are in Authority It is true you must and so you may well enough for all this for the Pope can make that he who is a King shall be no King and then you are disoblig'd so Bellarmine And if after all this there remains any 〈◊〉 of Conscience it ought to be remembred that though even after a Prince is excommunicated it should be of it self a sin to depose or kill the Prince yet if the Pope commands you it is no sin For if the Pope should err by commanding sin or forbidding vertues yet the Church were bound to believe that the vices were good and the vertues evil unless she would sin against her Conscience They are the very words of Bellarmine BUT they add more particulars of the same Bran. The Sons of an Heretical Father are made sui juris that is free from their Fathers power A Catholick Wife is not tied to pay her duty to an Heretical Husband and the Servants are not bound to do service to such Masters These are the Doctrines of their great Azorius and as for Kings he affirms they may be depos'd for Heresie But all this is only in the case of Heretical Princes But what for others EVEN the Roman Catholick Princes are not free from this danger All the World knows what the Pope did to King Chilperick of France He depos'd him and put Pipin in his place and did what he could to have put Albert King of the Romans in the Throne of Philip sirnamed the Fair. They were the Popes of Rome who arm'd the Son against the Father the Emperour Henry IV. and the Son fought against him took him prisoner shav'd him and thrust him into a Monastery where he died with grief and hunger We will not speak of the Emperour Frederick Henry the sixth Emperour the Duke of Savoy against whom he caused Charles the V. and Francis the I. of France to take Arms nor of Francis Dandalus Duke of Venice whom he bound with chains and fed him as Dogs are fed with bones and scraps under his Table Our own Henry the II. and King John were great Instances of what Princes in their case may expect from that Religion These were the piety of the Father of Christendom But these were the product of the Doctrine which Clement the V. vented in the Council of Vienna Omne jus Regum à se pendere The rights of all Kings depend upon the Pope And therefore 〈◊〉 their Catholick Princes are at their 〈◊〉 and they would if they durst use them 〈◊〉 If they do but favour Hereticks or Schismaticks receive them or defend them if the 〈◊〉 be perjur'd if he rashly break a League made with the See Apostolick 〈◊〉 he do not keep the peace promis'd to the Church if he be sacrilegious if he dissipate the goods of the Church the Pope may depose him said Azorius And 〈◊〉 says he may do it in case the Prince or Emperour be insufficient 〈◊〉 he be wicked if he be unprofitable if he does not defend the Church This is very much but yet there is something more this may be done if he impose new Gabels or Imposts upon his Subjects without the Pope's leave for if they do not pretend to this also why does the Pope in Bulla Coenae Dominici excommunicate all Princes that do it NOW if it be inquired by what Authority the Pope does these things It is answered That the Pope hath a Supreme and Absolute Authority both the Spiritual and the Temporal Power is in the Pope as Christ's Vicar said Azorius and Santarel The Church hath the right of a superiour Lord over the rights of Princes and their Temporalties and that by her Jurisdiction she disposes of Temporals ut de suo peculio as of her own proper goods said our Countreyman Weston Rector of the College at Doway Nay the Pope hath power in omnia per omnia super omnia in all things thorough all things and over all things and the sublimity and immensity of the Supreme Bishop is so great that no mortal man can comprehend it said Cassenaeus no man can express it no man can think it So that it is no wonder what Papirius Massonus said of Pope Boniface the VIII that he owned himself not only as the Lord of France but of all the World NOW we are sure it will be said That this is but the private opinion of some Doctors not the Doctrine
their Priest bids them and go to Mass which they understand not and reckon their Beads to tell the number and the tale of their prayers and abstain from Eggs and Flesh in Lent and visit Saint Patrick's Well and leave Pins and Ribbons Yarn or Thred in their holy Wells and pray to God S. Mary and S. Patrick S. Columbanus and S. Bridget and desire to be buried with S. Francis's Cord about them and to fast on Saturdays in honour of our Lady These and so many other things of like nature we see daily that we being conscious of the infinite distance which these things have from the spirit of Christianity know that no charity can be greater than to persuade the people to come to our Churches where they shall be taught all the ways of godly wisdom of peace and safety to their souls whereas now there are many of them that know not how to say their prayers but mutter like Pies and Parrots words which they are taught but they do not pretend to understand But I shall give one particular instance of their miserable superstition and blindness I was lately within a few months very much troubled with Petitions and earnest Requests for the restoring a Bell which a Person of Quality had in his hands in the time of and ever since the late Rebellion I could not guess at the reasons of their so great and violent importunity but told the Petitioners If they could prove that Bell to be theirs the Gentleman was willing to pay the full value of it though he had no obligation to do so that I know of but charity but this was so far from satisfying them that still the importunity increased which made me diligently to inquire into the secret of it The first cause I found was that a dying person in the Parish desired to have it rung before him to Church and pretended he could not die in peace if it were deny'd him and that the keeping of that Bell did anciently belong to that family from father to son but because this seem'd nothing but a fond and an unreasonable superstition I enquired further and at last found that they believ'd this Bell came from Heaven and that it used to be carried from place to place and to end Controversies by Oath which the worst men durst not violate if they swore upon that Bell and the best men amongst them durst not but believe him that if this Bell was rung before the Corps to the grave it would help him out of Purgatory and that therefore when any one died the friends of the deceased did whilest the Bell was in their possession hire it for the behoof of their dead and that by this means that Family was in part maintain'd I was troubled to see under what spirit of delusion those poor souls do lie how infinitely their credulity is abused how certainly they believe in trifles and perfectly rely on vanity and how little they regard the truths of God and how not at all they drink of the waters of Salvation For the numerous companies of Priests and Friars amongst them take care they shall know nothing of Religion but what they design for them they use all means to keep them to the use of the Irish Tongue lest if they learn English they might be supplied with persons fitter to instruct them the people are taught to make that also their excuse for not coming to our Churches to bear our advices or converse with us in religious intercourses because they understand us not and they will not understand us neither will they learn that they may understand and live And this and many other evils are made greater and more irremediable by the affrightment which their Priests put upon them by the issues of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by which they now exercising it too publickly they give them Laws not only for Religion but even for Temporal things and turn their Proselytes from the Mass if they become Farmers of the Tithes from the Minister or Proprietary without their leave I speak that which I know to be true by their own confession and unconstrain'd and uninvited Narratives so that as it is certain that the Roman Religion as it stands in distinction and separation from us is a body of strange Propositions having but little relish of true primitive and pure Christianity as will he 〈◊〉 manifest if the importunity of our 〈◊〉 extort it so it is here amongst us a Faction and a State-party and design to recover their old Laws and barbarous mannèr of living a device to enable them to dwell alone and to be Populus unius labii a people of one language and unmingled with others And if this be Religion it is such a one as ought to be reproved by all the severities of Reason and Religion lest the people perish and their souls be cheaply given away to them that make merchandize of souls who were the purchace and price of Christ's bloud Having given this sad account why it was necessary that my Lords the Bishops should take care to do what they have done in this affair and why I did consent to be engaged in this Controversie otherwise than I love to be and since it is not a love of trouble and contention but charity to the souls of the poor deluded Irish there is nothing remaining but that we humbly desire of God to accept and to bless this well-meant Labour of Love and that by some admirable ways of his Providence he will be pleas'd to convey to them the notices of their danger and their sin and to de-obstruct the passages of necessary truth to them for we know the arts of their Guides and that it will be very hard that the notice of these things shall ever be suffer'd to arrive to the common people but that which hinders will hinder until it be taken away however we believe and hope in God for remedy For although Edom would not let his brother Israel pass into his Countrey and the Philistims would stop the Patriarchs Wells and the wicked Shepherds of Midian would drive their Neighbours Flocks from the watering troughs and the Emissaries of Rome use all arts to keep the people from the use of Scriptures the Wells of salvation and from entertaining the notices of such things which from the Scriptures we teach yet as God found out a remedy for those of old so he will also for the poor misled people of Ireland and will take away the evil minds or the opportunities of the Adversaries hindering the people from Instruction and make way that the Truths we have here taught may approach to their ears and sink into their hearts and make them wise unto salvation Amen THE CONTENTS Of the Three several CHAPTERS THE Introduction Pag. 1. CHAP. I. The Doctrine of the Roman Church in the Controverted Articles is neither Catholick Apostolick nor Primitive 4. CHAP. II. The Church of Rome as it is at this day disordered
a number of Fathers that their doctrine which they would prove thence was the Catholick Doctrine of the Church because any number that is less than all does not prove a Catholick consent yet the clear sayings of one or two of these Fathers truly alleged by us to the contrary will certainly prove that what many of them suppose it do affirm and which but two or three as good Catholicks as the other do deny was not then matter of faith or a Doctrine of the Church for if it had these had been Hereticks accounted and not have remain'd in the Communion of the Church But although for the reasonableness of the thing we have thought fit to take notice of it yet we shall have no need to make use of it since not only in the prime and purest Antiquity we are indubitably more than Conquerors but even in the succeeding Ages we have the advantage both numero pondere mensurâ in number weight and measure WE do easily acknowledge that to dispute these questions from the sayings of the Fathers is not the readiest way to make an end of them but therefore we do wholly rely upon Scriptures as the foundation and final resort of all our perswasions and from thence can never be confuted but we also admit the Fathers as admirable helps for the understanding of the Scriptures and as good testimony of the Doctrine deliver'd from their fore-fathers down to them of what the Church esteem'd the way of Salvation and therefore if we sind any Doctrine now taught which was not plac'd in their way of Salvation we reject it as being no part of the Christian faith and which ought not to be impos'd upon consciences They were wise unto salvation and fully instructed to every good work and therefore the faith which they profess'd and deriv'd from Scripture we profess also and in the same faith we hope to be sav'd 〈◊〉 as they But for the new Doctors we understand them not we know them not Our faith is the same from the beginning and cannot become new BUT because we shall make it to appear that they do greatly innovate in all their points of controversie with us and shew nothing but shadows instead of substances and little images of things instead of solid arguments we shall take from them their armour in which they trusted and choose this sword of Goliah to combat their errors for non est alter talis It is not easie to find a better than the word of God expounded by the prime and best Antiquity THE first thing therefore we are to advertise is that the Emissaries of the Roman Church endeavour to perswade the good People of our Dioceses from a Religion that is truly Primitive and Apostolick and divert them to Propositions of their own new and unheard of in the first ages of the Christian Church FOR the Religion of our Church is therefore certainly Primitive and Apostolick because it teaches us to believe the whole Scriptures of the Old and New Testament and nothing else as matter of faith and therefore unless there can be new Scriptures we can have no new matters of belief no new articles of faith Whatsoever we cannot prove from thence we disclaim it as not deriving from the Fountains of our Saviour We also do believe the Apostles Creed the Nicene with the additions of Constantinople and that which is commonly called the Symbol of Saint Athanasius and the four first General Councils are so intirely admitted by us that they together with the plain words of Scripture are made the rule and measure of judging Heresies amongst us and in pursuance of these it is commanded by our Church that the Clergy shall never teach any thing as matter of Faith religiously to be observed but that which is agreeable to the Old and New Testament and collected out of the same Doctrine by the Ancient Fathers and Catholick Bishops of the Church This was undoubtedly the Faith of the Primitive Church they admitted all into their Communion that were of this faith they condemned no Man that did not condemn these they gave letters communicatory by no other cognisance and all were Brethren who spake this voice Hanc legem sequentes Christianorum Catholicorum nomen jubemus amplecti reliquos vero dementes vesanosque judicantes 〈◊〉 dogmatis infamiam sustinere said the Emperors Gratian Valentinian and Theodosius in their Proclamation to the People of C. P. All that believ'd this Doctrine were Christians and Catholicks viz. all they who believe in the Father Son and Holy Ghost one Divinity of equal Majesty in the Holy Trinity which indeed was the summ of what was decreed in explication of the Apostles Creed in the four first General Councils AND what faith can be the foundation of a more solid peace the surer ligaments of Catholick Communion or the 〈◊〉 basis of a holy life and of the hopes of Heaven hereafter than the measures which the Holy Primitive Church did hold and we after them That which we rely upon is the same that the Primitive Church did acknowledge to be the adaequate foundation of their hopes in the matters of belief The way which they thought sufficient to go to Heaven in is the way which we walk what they did not teach we do not publish and impose into this faith entirely and into no other as they did theirs so we baptize our Catechumens The Discriminations of Heresie from Catholick Doctrine which they us'd we use also and we use no other and in short we believe all that Doctrine which the Church of Rome believes except those things which they have superinduc'd upon the Old Religion and in which we shall prove that they have innovated So that by their confession all the Doctrine which we teach the People as matter of Faith must be confessed to be Ancient Primitive and Apostolick or else theirs is not so for ours is the same and we both have received this faith from the fountains of Scripture and Universal Tradition not they from us or we from them but both of us from Christ and his Apostles And therefore there can be no question whether the Faith of the Church of England be Apostolick or Primitive it is so confessedly But the Question is concerning many other particulars which were unknown to the Holy Doctors of the first ages which were no part of their faith which were never put into their Creeds which were not determin'd in any of the four first General Councils rever'd in all Christendom and entertain'd every where with great Religion and veneration even next to the four Gospels and the Apostolical writings OF this sort because the Church of Rome hath introduc'd many and hath adopted them into their late Creed and imposes them upon the People not only without but against the Scriptures and the Catholick Doctrine of the Church of God laying heavy burdens on Mens consciences and making the narrow way to Heaven yet narrower
by their own inventions arrogating to themselves a dominion over our faith and prescribing a method of Salvation which Christ and his Apostles never taught corrupting the faith of the Church of God and teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men and lastly having derogated from the Prerogative of Christ who alone is the Author and Finisher of our faith and hath perfected it in the revelations consign'd in the Holy Scriptures therefore it is that we esteem our selves oblig'd to warn the People of their danger and to depart from it and call upon them to stand upon the ways and ask after the old paths and walk in them lest they partake of that curse which is threatned by God to them who remove the Ancient Land-marks which our Fathers in Christ have set for us NOW that the Church of Rome cannot pretend that all which she imposes is Primitive and Apostolick appears in this That in the Church of Rome there is pretence made to a power not only of declaring new articles of faith but of making new Symbols or Creeds and imposing them as of necessity to Salvation Which thing is evident in the Bull of Pope Leo the Tenth against Martin Luther in which amongst other things he is condemn'd for saying It is certain that it is not in the power of the Church or Pope to constitute Articles of Faith We need not add that this power is attributed to the Bishops of Rome by Turrecremata Augustinus Triumphus de Ancona Petrus de Ancorano and the Famous Abbot of Panormo that the Pope cannot only make new Creeds but new Articles of Faith that he can make that of necessity to be believ'd which before never was necessary that he is the measure and rule and the very notice of all credibilities That the Canon Law is the Divine law and whatever law the Pope promulges God whose Vicar he is is understood to be the promulger That the souls of Men are in the hands of the Pope and that in his arbitration Religion does consist which are the very words of Hostiensis and Ferdinandus ab Inciso who were Casuists and Doctors of Law of great authority amongst them and renown The thing it self is not of dubious disputation amongst them but actually practis'd in the greatest instances as is to be seen in the Bull of Pius the Fourth at the end of the Council of Trent by which all Ecclesiasticks are not only bound to swear to all the Articles of the Council of Trent for the present and for the future but they are put into a new Symbol or Creed and they are corroborated by the same decretory clauses that are used in the Creed of Athanasius that this is the true Catholick Faith and that without this no Man can be saved NOW since it cannot be imagined that this power to which they pretend should never have been reduc'd to act and that it is not credible they should publish so inviduous and ill-sounding Doctrine to no purpose and to serve no end it may without further evidence be believed by all discerning persons that they have need of this Doctrine or it would not have been taught and that consequently without more a-doe it may be concluded that some of their Articles are parts of this new Faith and that they can therefore in no sense be Apostolical unless their being Roman makes them so To this may be added another consideration not much less material that besides what Eckius told the Elector of Bavaria that the Doctrines of Luther might be overthrown by the Fathers though not by Scripture they have also many gripes of conscience concerning the Fathers themselves that they are not right on their side and of this they have given but too much demonstration by their Expurgatory Indices The Serpent by being so curious a defender of his head shews where his danger is and by what he can most readily be destroyed But besides their innumerable corruptings of the Fathers writings their thrusting in that which was spurious and like Pharaoh killing the legitimate Sons of Israel though in this they have done very much of their work and made the Testimonies of the Fathers to be a record infinitely worse than of themselves uncorrupted they would have been of which divers Learned Persons have made publick complaint and demonstration they have at last fallen to a new trade which hath caus'd more dis-reputation to them than they have gain'd advantage and they have virtually confess'd that in many things the Fathers are against them FOR first the King of Spain gave a commission to the Inquisitors to purge all Catholick Authors but with this clause iique ipsi privatim nullisque consciis apud se indicem expurgatorium habebunt quem eundem neque aliis communicabunt neque ejus exemplum ulli dabunt that they should keep the expurgatory Index privately neither imparting that Index nor giving a copy of it to any But it happened by the Divine providence so ordering it that about thirteen years after a copy of it was gotten and published by Johannes Pappus and Franciscus Junius and since it came abroad against their wills they find it necessary now to own it and they have Printed it themselves Now by these expurgatory Tables what they have done is known to all Learned Men. In St. Chrysostom's Works printed at Basil these words The Church is not built upon the Man but the Faith are commanded to be blotted out and these There is no merit but what is given us by Christ and yet these words are in his Sermon upon Pentecost and the former words are in his first homily upon that of St. John Ye 〈◊〉 my friends c. The like they have done to him in many other places and to S. Ambrose and to St. Austin and to them all insomuch that Ludovicus Saurius the Corrector of the Press at Lyons shewed and complain'd of it to Junius that he was forc'd to cancellate or blot out many sayings of S. Ambrose in that Edition of his Works which was Printed at Lyons 1559. So that what they say on occasion of Bertram's book In the old Catholick Writers we suffer very many errors and extenuate and excuse them and finding out some commentary we feign some convenient sense when they are oppos'd in disputations they do indeed practise but esteem it not sufficient for the words which make against them they wholly leave out of their Editions Nay they correct the very Tables or Indices made by the Printers or Correctors insomuch that out of one of Froben's indices they have commanded these words to be blotted The use of Images forbidden The Eucharist no sacrifice but the memory of a sacrifice Works although they do not justifie yet are necessary to Salvation Marriage is granted to all that will not contain Venial sins damn The dead Saints after this life cannot help us nay out of the Index of St. Austin's Works
a Synod of German and French Bishops at Francford who discussed the Acts pass'd at Nice and condemn'd them And the Acts of this Synod although they were diligently suppressed by the Popes arts yet Eginardus Hincmarus Aventinus Blondus Adon Aymonius and Regino famous Historians tell us That the Bishops of Francford condemn'd the Synod of Nice and commanded it should not be called a General Council and published a Book under the name of the Emperor confuting that unchristian Assembly and not long since this Book and the Acts of Francford were published by Bishop Tillius by which not only the infinite fraud of the Roman Doctors is discover'd but the worship of Images is declar'd against and condemned A while after this Ludovicus the son of Charlemain sent Claudius a famous Preacher to Taurinum in Italy where he preach'd against the worshipping of Images and wrote an excellent book to that purpose Against this book Jonas Bishop of Orleans after the death of Ludovicus and Claudius did write In which he yet durst not assert the worship of them but confuted it out of Origen whose words he thus cites Images are neither to be esteemed by inward affection nor worshipped with outward shew and out of Lactantius these Nothing is to be worshipped that is seen with mortal eyes Let us adore let us worship nothing but the name alone of our only Parent who is to be sought for in the Regions above not here below And to the same purpose he also alleges excellent words out of Fulgentius and S. Hierom and though he would have Images retain'd and therefore was angry at 〈◊〉 who caus'd them to be taken down yet he himself expresly affirms that they ought not to be worshipped and withall adds that though they kept the Images in their Churches for history and ornament yet that in France the worshipping of them was had in great detestation And though it is not to be denied but that in the sequel of Jonas his book he does something prevaricate in this question yet it is evident that in France this Doctrine was not accounted Catholick for almost nine hundred years after Christ and in Germany it was condemned for almost 1200 years as we find in 〈◊〉 WE are not unskill'd in the devices of the Roman Writers and with how much 〈◊〉 they would excuse this whole matter and palliate the crime imputed to them and elude the Scriptures expresly condemning this Superstition But we know also that the arts of Sophistry are not the ways of Salvation And therefore we exhort our people to follow the plain words of Scripture and the express Law of God in the second Commandment and add also the exhortation of S. John Little children keep your selves from Idols To conclude it is impossible but that it must be confessed that the worship of Images was a thing unknown to the primitive Church in the purest times of which they would not allow the making of them as amongst divers others appears in the Writings of Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian and Origen SECT IX Picturing God the Father and the Holy Trinity a scandalous practice in the Roman Church It is against the Doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church and of the wiser Heathens who had no Images or Pictures of their gods AS an Appendage to this we greatly reprove the custom of the Church of Rome in picturing God the Father and the most holy and undivided Trinity which besides that it ministers infinite scandal to all sober-minded men and gives the new Arrians in Polonia and Anti-Trinitarians great and ridiculous entertainment exposing that sacred Mystery to derision and scandalous contempt It is also which at present we have undertaken particularly to remark against the doctrine and practice of the primitive Catholick Church S. Clemens of Alexandria says that in the Discipline of Moses God was not to be represented in the shape of a Man or of any other thing and that Christians understood themselves to be bound by the same Law we find it expresly taught by Origen Tertullian Eusebius Athanasius S. Hierom S. Austin Theodoret Damascen and the Synod of Constantinople as it is reported in the 6. Action of the second Nicene Council And certainly if there were not a strange spirit of contradiction or superstition or deflexion from the Christian Rule greatly 〈◊〉 in the Church of Rome it were impossible that this practice should be so countenanc'd by them and defended so to no purpose with so much scandal and against the natural reason of mankind and the very Law of Nature it self For the Heathens were sufficiently by the light of Nature taught to abominate all Pictures or Images of God Sed nulla effigies simulacraque nulla Deorum Majestate locum sacro implevere timore They in their earliest ages had no Pictures no Images of their Gods Their Temples were filled with majesty and a sacred fear and the reason is given by Macrobius Antiquity made no Image viz. of God because the supreme God and the mind that is born of him that is his Son the eternal Word as it is beyond the Soul so it is above Nature and therefore it is not lawful that Figments should come thither 〈◊〉 Callistus relating the heresie of the Armenians and Jacobites says they made Images of the Father Son and Holy Ghost quod perquam ab sur dum est Nothing is more absurd than to make Pictures or Images of the Persons of the holy and adorable Trinity And yet they do this in the Church of Rome For in the windows of their Churches even 〈◊〉 Countrey-villages where the danger cannot be denied to be great and the scandal insupportable nay in their books of Devotion in their very Mass-books and breviaries in their Portuises and Manuals they picture the holy Trinity with three noses and four eyes and three faces in a knot to the great dishonour of God and scandal of Christianity it self We add no more for the case is too evidently bad but reprove the error with the words of their own Polydore Virgil Since the world began never was any thing more foolish than to picture God who is present every where SECT X. Setting up the Pope as universal Bishop an Innovation Among the Apostles the first Church-Governours no Prerogative of one over the rest a remarkable testimony of S. Cyprian to prove it Bishops succeeded the Apostles without Superiority of one over another by Christs Law The Pope has invaded their rights and diminished their power many ways Primitivs Fathers make every Bishop to have a share of power not from another Bishop but from Christ and are against one Bishops judging and forcing another Bishop to obedience Popes opposed when they interposed their authority in the affairs of other Churches THE last Instance of Innovations introduc'd in Doctrine and Practice by the Church of Rome that we shall represent is
against the invasion of the rights of the Church of Arles by Anastasius and the question being in the exercise of Jurisdiction and about the institution of Bishops does fully declare that the Bishops of Rome had no superiority by the laws of Christ over any Bishop in the Catholick Church and that his Bishoprick gave no more power to him than Christ gave to the Bishop of the smallest Diocese AND therefore all the Church of God whenever they reckoned the several orders and degrees of Ministery in the Catholick Church reckon the Bishop as the last and supreme beyond whom there is no spiritual power but in Christ. For as the whole Hierarchy ends in Jesus so does every particular one in its own Bishop Beyond the Bishop there is no step till you rest in the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls Under him every Bishop is supreme in spirituals and in all power which to any Bishop is given by Christ. S. Ignatius therefore exhorts that all should obey their Bishop and the Bishop obey Christ as Christ obeyed his Father There are no other intermedial degrees of Divine institution But as Origen teaches The Apostles and they who after them are ordain'd by God that is the Bishops have the supreme place in the Church and the Prophets have the second place The same also is taught by P. Gelasius by S. Hierom and Fulgentius and indeed by all the Fathers who spake any thing in this matter Insomuch that when Bellarmine is in this question press'd out of the book of Nilus by the Authority of the Fathers standing against him he answers Papam Patres non habere in Ecclesiâ sed Filios omnes The Pope acknowledges no Fathers in the Church for they are all his Sons NOW although we suppose this to be greatly sufficient to declare the Doctrine of the primitive Catholick Church concerning the equality of power in all Bishops by Divine right yet the Fathers have also expresly declared themselves that one Bishop is not superiour to another and ought not to judge another or force another to obedience They are the words of S. Cyprian to a Council of Bishops None of us makes himself a Bishop of Bishops or by tyramical power drives his collegues to a necessity of obedience since every Bishop according to the licence of his own liberty and power hath his own choice and cannot be judged by another nor yet himself judge another but let us all expect the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ who only and alone hath the power of setting us in the Government of his Church and judging of what we do This was spoken and intended against Pope Stephen who did then begin dominari in clero to lord it over God's heritage and to excommunicate his brethren as Demetrius did in the time of the Apostles themselves but they both found their reprovers Demetrius was chastised by Saint John for this usurpation and Stephen by S. Cyprian and this also was approv'd by S. Austin We conclude this particular with the words of S. Gregory Bishop of Rome who because the Patriarch of Constantinople called himself Universal Bishop said It was a proud title prophane sacrilegious and Antichristian and therefore he little thought that his successors in the same See should so fiercely challenge that Antichristian title much less did the then Bishop of Rome in those Ages challenge it as their own peculiar for they had no mind to be or to be esteemed Antichristian Romano pontisici oblatum est sed nullus unquam eorum hoc singularitatis nomen assumpsit His predecessors it seems had been tempted with an offer of that title but none of them ever assumed that name of singularity as being against the law of the Gospel and the Canons of the Church NOW this being a matter of which Christ spake not one word to S. Peter if it be a matter of Faith and Salvation as it is now pretended it is not imaginable he would have been so perfectly silent But though he was silent of any intention to do this yet S. Paul was not silent that Christ did otherwise for he hath set in his Church primùm Apostolos first of all Apostles not first S. Peter and secondarily Apostles but all the Apostles were first It is also evident that S. Peter did not carry himself so as to give the least overture or umbrage to make any one suspect he had any such preheminence but he was as S. Chrysostom truly says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did all things with the common consent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing by special authority or principality and if he had any such it is more than probable that the Apostles who survived him had succeeded him in it rather than the Bishop of Rome and it being certain as the Bishop of Canaries confesses That there is in Scripture no revelation that the Bishop of Rome should succeed Peter in it and we being there told that S. Pet. was at Antioch but never that he was at Rome it being confessed by some of their own parties by Cardinal Cusanus Soto Driedo Canus and Segovius that this succession was not addicted to any particular Church nor that Christs institution of this does any other way appear that it cannot be proved that the Bishop of Rome is Prince of the Church it being also certain that there was no such thing known in the Primitive Church but that the holy Fathers both of Africa and the East did oppose Pope Victor and Pope Stephen when they began to interpose with a presumptive Authority in the affairs of other Churches and that the Bishops of the Church did treat with the Roman Bishop as with a brother not as their superiour and that the General Council held at Chalcedon did give to the Bishops of C. P. equal rights and preeminence with the Bishops of Rome and that the Greek Churches are at this day and have been a long time great opponents of this pretension of the Bishops of Rome and after all this since it is certain that Christ who foreknows all things did also know that there would be great disputes and challenges of this preeminence did indeed suppress it in his Apostles and said not it should be otherwise in succession and did not give any command to his Church to obey the Bishops of Rome as his Vicars more than what he commanded concerning all Bishops it must be certain that it cannot be necessary to salvation to do so but that it is more than probable that he never intended any such thing and that the Bishops of Rome have to the great prejudice of Christendom made a great schism and usurped a title which is not their due and challenged an Authority to which they have no right and have set themselves above others who are their equals and impose an Article of Faith of their own contriving and have made great preparation for
says O ye abominable Rebels against God I conjure you Spirits and adjure you I call I constrain I call out I contend and contest where ever you are in this Man by the Father Son and Holy Ghost then he makes three ✚ by the most powerful name of God Heloy the strong and admirable I exorcise you and adjure you and command you by the power I have that you incontinently hear the words of my conjuring and perceive your selves overcome and command you not to depart without licence and so I bind you with this stole of jucundity in the name of the Father ✚ Son ✚ and Holy Ghost ✚ Amen Then he makes two and thirty crosses more and calls over one and thirty names of God in false Hebrew and base Greek and some Latine signifying the same names and the two and thirtieth is by the sign of the Cross praying God to deliver them from their enemies Then follow more prayers and more adjurations and more conjurations for they are greatly different you must know and aspersions of holy water and shewings of the Cross and signings with it Then they adjure the Devil in case the names of God will not do it by S. Mary and S. Anne by S. Michael and S. Gabriel by Raphael and all Angels and Arch-angels by the Patriarchs and by the Prophets and by his own infirmity by the Apostles and by the Martyrs and then after all this if the Devil will not come out he must tarry there still till the next Exorcism in which The Exorcist must rail at the Devil and say over again the Names of God and then ask him questions and read over the sequences of the Gospels and after that tell him that he hath power over him for 〈◊〉 can transubstantiate bread into Christ's body and then conjure him again and call him damn'd Devil unclean Spirit and as bad as he can call him and so pray to God to cast him out of the man's mouth and nose lips and teeth jaws and cheeks eyes and forehead eye-brows and eye-lids his feet and his members his marrow and his bones and must reckon every part of his body to which purpose we suppose it would be well if the 〈◊〉 were well skill'd in Laurentius or Bauhinus his Anatomy And if he will not go out yet there is no help but he must choose till the third Exorcism In which besides many prayers and conjurations in other words to the same purpose the Exorcist must speak louder especially if it be a deaf Devil for then indeed it is the more necessary and tell the Devil his own and threaten him terribly and conjure him again and say over him about some twenty or thirty names or titles of Christ and forbid the Devil to go any whither but to the centre of the world and must damn him eternally to the Sulphurous flames of Hell and to be tormented worse than Lucifer himself for his daring to resist so many great Names and if he will not now obey let him take fire and brimstone and make a fume whether the possessed will or no until the Devil tells you all his mind in what you ask him the Liver of Tobias his fish were a rare thing here but that 's not to be had for love or mony And after this he conjures him again by some of the names of God and by the Merits and all the good things which can be spoken or thought of the most Blessed Virgin and by all her names and titles which he must reckon one and forty in number together with her Epithets making so many ✚ and by these he must cast him headlong into Hell BUT if the Devil be stubborn for some of them are very disobedient there is a fourth and a fifth and a sixth Exorcism and then he conjures the earth the water and the fire to make them of his party and comands them not to harbour such villanous Spirits and commands Hell to hear him and 〈◊〉 his word and 〈◊〉 all the Spirits in Hell to take that Spirit to themselves for it may be they will understand their duty better than that stubborn Devil that is broke loose from thence But if this chance to fail there is yet left a remedy that will do it He must make the picture of the Devil and write his name over the head of it and conjure the fire to burn it most horribly and hastily and if the picture be upon wood or paper it is ten to one that may be done After all this stir Sprinkle more holy water and 〈◊〉 Sulphur Galbanum Assa foetida Aristolochia Rue St. Johns-wort all which 〈◊〉 distinctly blessed the Exorcist must hold the Devils picture 〈◊〉 the fire and adjure the Devil to hear him and then he must not spare him but tell him all his faults and give him all his names and Anathematize him and curse not only him but Lucifer too and Beelzebub and Satan and Astaroth and Behemot and Beherit and all together for indeed there is not one good natur'd Devil amongst them all and then pray once more and so throw the Devils picture into the fire and then insult in a long form of crowing over him which is there set 〈◊〉 AND now after all if he will not go out there is a seventh Exorcism for him with new Ceremonies He must shew him the 〈◊〉 Host in the Pix pointing at it with his finger and then conjure him 〈◊〉 and rail at him once more to which purpose there is a very fine form taken out of Prierius and set down in the Flagellum Daemonum and then let the Exorcist pronounce sentence against the Devil and give him his oath and then a commandment to go out of the several parts of his body always taking care that at no hand he remain in the upper parts and then is the Devils Qu. to come out if he have a mind to it for that must be always suppos'd and then follow the thanksgivings THIS is the manner of their devotion describ'd for the use of their Exorcists in which is such a heap of folly madness superstition blasphemy and ridiculous guises and playings with the Devil that if any man amongst us should use such things he would be in danger of being tried at the next Assizes for a Witch or a Conjurer however certain it is what ever the Devil loses by pretending to obey the Exotcist he gains more by this horrible debauchery of Christianity There needs no confutation of it the impiety is visible and tangible and it is sufficient to have told the story ONLY this we say as to the thing it self THE casting out of Devils is a miraculous power and given at first for the confimation of Christian Faith as the gifts of Tongues and Healing were and therefore we have reason to believe that because it is not an ordinary power the ordinary Exorcisms cast out no more Devils than Extreme Unction cures sicknesses We do not envy to any one
III. The Church of Rome teaches Doctrines which in many things are destructive of Christian Society in general and of Monarchy in special Both which the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland does by her Doctrines greatly and Christianly support SECT I. Instances of Doctrines taught in the Church of Rome destructive of Societies As Lying and Equivocating especially before a Magistrate to elude his examinations No Contracts Vows Oaths a sufficient security in dealing with them Council of Constance was against keeping Faith with Hereticks and Hus and Hierome of Prague felt the sad effects of it They would have done the same to Luther at Wormes had not the Emperour hindred Of the Popes dispensing with Oaths and Vows and in Contracts of Marriage and Divorces THAT in the Church of Rome it is publickly taught by their greatest Doctors That it is lawful to lye or deceive the question of the Magistrate to conceal their name and to tell a false one to elude all examinations and make them insignificant and toothless cannot be doubted by any man that knows how the English Priests have behav'd themselves in the times of Queen Elizabeth King James and the Blessed Martyr King Charles 1. 〈◊〉 wrote in defence of it and Father Barnes who wrote a Book against Lying and Equivocating was suspected for a Heretick and smarted severely under their hands To him that asks you again for what you have paid him already you may safely say you never had any thing of him meaning so as to owe it him now It is the Doctrine of Emanuel Sà and Sanchez which we understand to be a great lye and a great sin it being at the best a deceiving of the Law that you be not deceived by your Creditor that is a doing evil to prevent one a sin to prevent the losing of your mony IF a man asks his wife if she be an Adulteress though she be yet she may say she is not if in her mind secretly she say not with a purpose to tell you so Cardinal Tolet teaches And if a man swears he will take such a one to his wife being compelled to swear he may secretly mean if hereafter she do please me And if a man swears to a Thief that he will give him Twenty Crowns he may secretly say If I please to do so and then he is not bound And of this Doctrine Vasquez brags as of a rare though new invention saying it is gathered out of St. Austin and Thomas Aquinas who only found out the way of saying nothing in such cases and questions ask'd by Judges but this invention was drawn out by assiduous disputations * He that promises to say an Ave Mary and swears he will or vows to do it yet sins not mortally though he does not do it said the great Navar and others whom he follows * There is yet a further degree of this iniquity not only in words but in real actions it is lawful to deceive or rob your Brother when to do so is necessary for the preservation of your fame For no man is bound to restore stollen goods that is to cease from doing injury with the peril of his credit So Navar and Cardinal Cajetan and Tolet teaches who adds also Hoc multi dicunt quorum sententiam potest quis tutâ conscientiâ sequi Many say the same thing whose Doctrine any man may follow with a safe Conscience Nay to save a man's credit an honest man that is asham'd to beg may steal what is necessary for him says Diana NOW by these Doctrines a man is taught how to be an honest Thief and to keep what he is bound to restore and by these we may not only deceive our Brother but the Law and not the Law only but God also even with an Oath if the matter be but small It never makes God angry with you or puts you out of the state of grace But if the matter be great yet to prevent a great trouble to your self you may conceal a truth by saying that which is false according to the general Doctrine of the late Casuists So that a man is bound to keep truth and honesty when it is for his turn but not if it be to his own hinderance and 〈◊〉 David was not in the right but was something too nice in the resolution of the like case in the fifteenth Psalm Now although we do not affirm that these particulars are the Doctrine of the whole Church of Rome because little things and of this nature never are considered in their publick Articles of Confession yet a man may do these vile things for so we understand them to be and find justifications and warranty and shall not be affirghted with the terrors of damnation nor the imposition of penances he may for all these things be a good Catholick though it may be not a very good Christian. But since these things are affirm'd by so many the opinion is probable and the practice safe saith Cardinal Tolet. BUT we shall instance in things of more publick concern and Catholick Authority No Contracts Leagues Societies Promises Vows or Oaths are a sufficient security to him that deals with one of the Church of Rome if he shall please to make use of that liberty which may and many times is and always can be granted to him For first it is affirmed and was practis'd by a whole Council of Bishops at Constance that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks and John Hus and Hierom of Prague and Savanarola felt the mischief of violation of publick faith and the same thing was disputed fiercely at Worms in the case of Luther to whom Coesar had given a safe-conduct and very many would have had it to be broken but Coesar was a better Christian than the Ecclesiasticks and their party and more a Gentleman But that no scrupulous Princes may keep their words any more in such cases or think themselves tied to perform their safe-conducts given to Hereticks there is a way found out by a new Catholick Doctrine Becanus shall speak this point instead of the rest There are two distinct Tribunals and the Ecclesiastical is the Superior and therefore if a Secular Prince gives his Subjects a safe-conduct he cannot extend it to the Superior Tribunal nor by any security given hinder the Bishop or the Pope to exercise their jurisdiction And upon the account of this or the like Doctrine the Pope and the other Ecclesiasticks did prevail at Constance for the burning of their Prisoners to whom safe-conduct had been granted But these things are sufficiently known by the complaints of the injur'd persons BUT not only to Hereticks but to our friends also we may break our promises if the Pope give us leave It is a publick and an avowed Doctrine That if a man have taken an Oath of a thing lawful and honest and in his power yet if it hinders him from doing a greater good the Pope
turn'd him over and given them leave to proceed This was verified in the Synod of Dalmatia held by the Legates of Pope Innocent the III. and is now in the Church of Rome pretended to be by Divine Right For it cannot be proved that Secular Princes are the Lawful Superiours and Judges of Clergy men unless it can be prov'd that the Sheep are better than the Shepherd or Sons than the Fathers or Temporals than Spirituals said Bellarmine And therefore it is a shame says he to see Princes contending with Bishops for precedency or for Lands For the truth is this whatever the custom be the Prince is the Bishops Subject not the Bishop the Princes For no man can serve two Masters the Pope is their own Superiour and therefore the Secular Prince cannot be So both Bellarmine and 〈◊〉 conclude this Doctrine out of Scripture AND although in this as in all things else when he finds it for the advantage of the Church the Pope can dispense and diverse Popes of Rome did give power to the Common-wealth of Venice to judge Clergy men and punish them for great offences yet how ill this was taken by Paulus V. at their hands and what stirs he made in Christendom concerning it the World was witness and it is to be read in the History of the Venetian Interdict and not without great difficulty defended by Marcus Antonius Perogrinus M. Antonius Othelius and Joachim Scaynus of Padua beside the Doctors of Venice NOW if it be considered how great a part of mankind in the Roman Communion are Clergy men and how great a portion of the Lands and Revenues in each Kingdom they have to pretend a Divine Right of Exemption of their Persons from Secular Judicatories and their Lands from Secular burthens and charges of the Common-wealth is to make Religion a very little friend to the Publick and causes that by how much there is more of Religion by so much there is the less of Piety and Publick Duty Princes have many times felt the evil and are always subject to it when so many thousand persons are in their Kingdoms and yet Subjects to a Foreign Power But we need not trouble our selves to reckon the evils consequent to this procedure themselves have own'd them even the very worst of things The Rebellion of a Clergy man against his Prince is not Treason because he is not his Princes Subject It is expresly taught by Emanuel Sà and because the French-men in zeal to their own King could not endure this Doctrine these words were left out of the Edition of Paris but still remain in the Editions of Antwerp and Collen But the thing is a general Rule That all Ecclesiastical persons are free from Secular Jurisdiction in causes Criminal whether Civil or Ecclesiastical and this Rule is so general that it admits no exception and so certain that it cannot be denied unless you will contradict the principles of Faith So Father Suarez And this is pretended to be allowed by Councils Sacred Canons and all the Doctors of Laws Humane and Divine for so Bellarmine affirms Against which since it is a matter of Faith and Doctrine which we now charge upon the Church of Rome as an Enemy to publick Government we shall think it sufficient to oppose against their Pretension the plain and easie words of S. Paul Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers Every Soul That is saith S. Chrysostom whether he be a Monk or an Evangelist a Prophet or an Apostle 〈◊〉 the like iniquity when it is extended to its utmost Commentary which the Commenters of the Church of Rome put upon it is the Divine Right of the Seal of Confession which they make so Sacred to serve such ends as they have chosen that it may not be broken up to save the lives of Princes or of the whole Republick saith Tolet No not to save all the World said Henriquez Not to save an Innocent not to keep the World from burning or Religion from perversion or all the Sacraments from demolition Indeed it is lawful saith Bellarmine if a Treason be known to a Priest in Confession and he may in general words give notice to a pious and Catholick Prince but not to a Heretick and that was acutely and prudently said by him said Father 〈◊〉 Father Binet is not so kind even to the Catholick Princes for he says that it is better that all the Kings of the World should perish than that the Seal of Confession should be so much as once broken and this is the Catholick Doctrine said Eudaemon Joannes in his Apology for Garnet and for it he also quotes Suarez But it is enough to have nam'd this How little care these men take of the lives of Princes and the Publick Interest which they so greatly undervalue to every 〈◊〉 fancy of their own is but too evident by these Doctrines SECT III. Their Doctrines enemies to the 〈◊〉 Powers and Lives of Princes The whole Order of Jesuits subject Princes to the Pope Whose power extends to Temporal punishments and depriving them of their Kingdoms The method of doing it and how they answer the precepts of obeying Kings Instances of putting the deposing power in execution Answer to the Objection that this is but the private opinion of some Doctors not the Doctrine of the Church A Conclusion exhorting all that desire to be saved to decline these horrid Doctrines THE last thing we shall remark for the instruction and caution of our Charges is not the least The Doctrines of the Church of Rome are great enemies to the Dignity and Security to the Powers and Lives of Princes And this we shall briefly prove by setting down the Doctrines themselves and their consequent practices AND here we observe That not only the whole Order of Jesuits is a great enemy to Monarchy by subjecting the Dignity of Princes to the Pope by making the Pope the Supreme Monarch of Christians but they also teach That it is a Catholick Doctrine the Doctrine of the Church THE Pope hath a Supreme power of disposing the Temporal things of all Christians in order to a Spiritual good saith Bellarmine And Becanus discourses of this very largely in his book of the English Controversie printed by Albin at Mentz 1612. But because this book was ordered to be purged Vna litura potest we shall not insist upon it but there is as bad which was never censur'd Bellarmine says that the Ecclesiastical Republick can command and compel the Temporal which is indeed its Subject to change the Administration and to depose Princes and to appoint others when it cannot otherwise defend the Spiritual good And Father Suarez says the same The power of the Pope extends it self to the coercion of Kings with Temporal punishments and depriving them of their Kingdoms when necessity requires nay this power is more necessary over Princes than