his Successors may be added 3. Protestants reach unanimously that it is incumbent on Kings to find out receive embrace and promote the Truth of the Gospel and the Worship of God appointed therein confirming protecting and defending of it by their Regal Power and Authority as also that in their so doing they are to use the Liberty of their own judgements informed by the wayes that God hath appointed for that end independently on the dictates determinations and orders of any other Person or Persons in the world unto whose Authority they should be obnoxious Heathen Kings made Laws for God Dan. 3. chap. 6. Jona 3. And the great thing that we find any of the Good Kings of Judah commended for is that they commanded the worship of God to be observed and performed according unto his own appointment For this end were they then bound to write out a Copy of the Law with their own hands Deut. 14. 18. and to study in it continually To this purpose were they warned charged exhorted and excited by the Prophets that is that they should serve God as Kings And to this purpose are there innumerable Laws of the best Christian Kings and Emperours still extant in the world In these things consists that Supremacy or Headship of Kings which Protestants unanimously ascribe unto them especially those in England to his Royal Majesty And from hence you may see the frivolousness of sundry things you object unto them As first of the Scheme or Series of Ecclesiastical Power which you ascribe to Prelate Protestants and the Laws of the Land from which you say the Presbyterians dissent which you thus express By the Laws of our Land our Series of Government Ecclesiastical stands thus God Christ King Bishop Ministers People The Presbyterian Predicament is thus God Christ Minister People So that the Ministers head in the Presbyterian Predicament toucheth Christs feet immediately and nothing intervenes You Pretend indeed that hereby you do exalt Christ but this is a meer cheat as all men may see with their eyes For Christ is but where he was but the Minister indeed is exalted being now set in the Kings place one degree higher then the Bishops who by Law is under King and Bishops too If I mistake not in my guess you greatly pleased your self with your Scheme wherein you pretend to make forsooth an ocular Demonstration of what you undertook to prove whereas indeed it is as trivial a fancy as a man can ordinarily meet withal For 1. Neither the Law nor Prelates nor Presbyterians ascribe any place at all unto the Kings Majesty in the Series of Spiritual Order he is neither Bishop nor Minister nor Deacon or any way authorized by Christ to convey or communicate power meerly spiritual unto any others No such thing is claimed by our Kings or declared in Law or asserted by Protestants of any sort But in the series of exteriour Government both Prelate Protestants and Presbyterians assign a Supremacy over all Persons in his Dominions and that in all Causes that are inquirable and determinable by or in any Court exercising Jurisdiction and Authority unto his Majesty All sorts assign unto him the Supreme place under Christ in external Government and Jurisdiction None assign him any place in Spiritual Order and meerly Spiritual Power Secondly If you place Bishops on the Series of exterior Government as appointed by the King and confirmed by the Law of the Land there is yet no difference with respect unto them 3. The Question then is solely about the Series of Spiritual order and thereabout it is confessed there are various apprehensions of Protestants which is all you prove and so do magno conatu nugas agere who knows it not I wish there were any need to prove it But Sir this difference about the Superiority of Bishops to Presbyters or their equality or Identity was agitated in the Church many and many a hundred year before you or I were born and will be so probably when we are both dead and forgotten So that what it makes in this dispute is very hard for a sober man to conjecture 4. Who they are that pretend to exalt Christ by a meer asserting Ministers not to be by his institution subject to Bishops which you call a cheat I know not nor shall be their advocate they exalt Christ who love him and keep his Commandments and no other 2. You may also as easily discern the frivolousness of your exclamation against Protestants for not giving up their differences in Religion to the Vmpirage of Kings upon the assignment of that Supremacy unto them which hath been declared When we make the King such an Head of the Catholick Church as you make the Pope we shall seek unto him as the fountain of our faith as you pretend to do unto the Pope For the present we give that honour to none but Christ himself and for what we assign in profession unto the King we answer it wholly in our practical submission Protestants never thought nor said that any King was appointed by Christ to be supreme infallible Proposer of all things to be believed and done in the Worship of God no King ever assumed that power unto himself It is Jesus Christ alone who is the Supreme and absolute Lawgiver of his Church the Author and finisher of our Faith and it is the honour of Kings to serve him in the promotion of his Interest by the exercise of that Authority and duty which we have before declared What unto the dethroning and dishonour as much as in you lyeth of Christ himself and of Kings also you assign unto the Pope in making him the Supreme head and fountain of their faith hath been already considered This is the substance of what you except against Protestants either as to Opinion or Practice in this matter of deference unto Kingly Authority in things Ecclesiastical What is the sense of your Church which you prefer unto your sentiments herein I shall after I have a little examined your present pretensions manifest unto you seeing you will have it so from those who are full well able to inform us of it Fas mihi Pontificum sacrata resolvere jura atque omnia ferre sub auras â—Siqua tegunt tenear Romaenec ligebus ullis For your own part you have expressed you seâ—f in this matter so loosely generally and ambiguously that it is very hard for any man to collect from your words what it is that you assert or what you deny I shall endeavour to draw out your sense by a few enâ—quiries As 1. Do you think the King hath any An â—ority vested in him as King in Ecclesiastical affairs and over Ecclesiastical Persons You tell us That Catholicks observe the King in all things as well Eeclesiastick as Civil pag. 59. that in the line of Corporal power and Authority the King is immediately under God p. 61. with other words to the same purpose if they are to any purpose at all
sunt Nam intantum se Catholicos judicant ut nos ipsos titulo Haereticae praevitatis infament quod ergo illi nobis sunt hoc nos illis They are hereticks but they know it not they are hereticks unto us but not unto themselves for they so far judge themselves to be Catholick that they condemn us for the guilt of Heresie So then what they are to us that we are to them Especilly was your whole practice in this matter solemnly condemned in the Case of Priscillianus recorded by Sulpitius Severus in the end of his second Book the only Instance the Bellarmine could fix upon in all Antiquity for the putting of any men to death upon the account of Religion for the other whom he mentions he confesseth himself to have been a Magitian Ithacius with some other Bishops his Associates procured Maximus the Tyrant to put Priscillianus a Gnosticke with some others to death and to banish some of their followers What saith the Historian thereon Hoc modo saith he homines luce indignissimi pessimo exemplo necati aut exili is mulctati On this manner were those unworthy wretches either slain or punished by banishment by a very evil precedent And what was the success of this zeal Non solum saith he non repressest haeresis sed confirmata latius propagata The heresis was so farre from being repressed by it that it was the more confirmed and propagated And what ensued hereupon in the Church its self Inter nostros perpetuum discordiarum bellum exarsit quod jam per quindecim annos foedis dissensionibus agitatum nullo modo sopiri poterat Et nunc cum maximè discordiis Episcoporum turbari â—isceri omnia cernerentur cunctáque per eos odio aut gratia metu inconstantia invidia factione avâ—aritâ—a arrogantia somno desidia essent depravata postremo plures adver sum paucos bâ—nè consulentes insanis consiliis pertinacibus studiis certabant Inter haec plebs Dei optimus quisque probro atque ludibrio habebatur With which words he shuts up his Ecclesiasticall story Amongst ours a lasting war of discord was kindled which after it hath now for fifteen years been carried on with shamefull contentions can by no means be allayed And now especially when all things appear to be troubled and perverted by the discord of the Bishops and that all things are depraved by them through hatred favour fear inconstancy envy faction covetousuess pride sleepiness and sloth the most with mad counsels and pertinacious endeavours opposing themselves to the sew that are better advised Amongst all these things the people of God and every honest man is become a reproach and scorn Thus that Historian complaining of the consequents of this proceeding But good men lest not the matter so Martinus Turonensis presently refuseth all communion with them who had any hand in the death or banishment of the persons mentioned So doth Ambrose declare himself to have done Epist. 27. as did the rest of the sober godly Bishops of those dayes At length both Ithacius and Idacius the promoters of this work were solemnly excommunicated though one of them had before for very shame foregone his Bishoprick See Prosp. Chron. 389. and I sidore de Viris Illustribus So that here also the judgment and practice of your Church which she is fallen into is publickly eondemned and written against 1300 years ago Should I insist on all the Testimonies that of this kind might be produced Antè diem clauso componet vesper olympo than I could make an end of them I have added this Instance to the former as knowing them to be the two great pillars on which the tottering fabrick of your Church is raised and which if they were removed the whole of it would quickly fall to the ground and you see how long ago they were both publickly condemned 3. Your Papall Oecumenicall Supremacy hath two main Branches 1. Your Popes spirituall Power over all Persons and Churches in the things of Religion 2. His Power over Emperors Kings and Potentates in reference unto Religion or as you speak in ordine ad spiritualia The first your Church stumbled into by many degrees from the dayes of Victor who made the first notable halt to this purpose The latter you stumbled into in the dayes of Gregory the seventh or Hildebrand It were endless to declare how this fall of your Church hath been declared written against opposed condemned by Churches Councels Fathers Princes and learned men in all Ages Some few evidences to this purpose to satisfie your request I shall direct you unto It was written against and condemned by Cyprian Bishop of Carthage and that in a Councell at Carthage an 258. upon an attempt made by Stephen Bishop of Rome looking in some small degree towards that usurped Supremacy which afterwards was attained unto You may if you please there see him rebuked and the practice of your Church condemned The same Cyprian had done no less before in reference unto some actings of Cornelius the predecessor of Stephen Epist. ad Cornel. Though the pretensions of Cornelius and Stephen were modest in comparison of your present vast Claim yet the Churches of God in those dayes could not bear them It is prejudged in the most famous Councell of Nice which assigned bounds unto the Jurisdiction of Bishops giving to severall of them equall Authority Can. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the ancient Customes be observed that as to Egypt Lybia and Pentapolis the Bishop of Alexandria have power over them or the Churches in them for so is the custome of the Bishop of Rome that is to have power over the adjoyning Churches likewise about Antioch and in other Provinces that the ancient Rights of the Churches be preserved Your Great Pope whom you so frequently call the Pastor of Christendome was here but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bishop in the City or Church of Rome or of the Church in the City of Rome And bounds are assigned unto the Authority which he claimed by custome as to his of Alexandria and Antioch It is true the Church of Alexandria hath some power assigned ascribed or granted unto it above other Churches of Egypt Lybâ—a and Pentapolis for a warranty whereof the usage of the Roman Church in reference unto her neighbour Churches is made use of which to deal freely with you and to tell you my private thoughts was a confirmation of a disorder by your example which you were from that day forward seldome wanting to give plenty of So to this purpose Concil Antioch Can. 13 and 15. an 341. Concil Constantinop Can 2. an 381. But this Canon of the Nicene Fathers openly condemneth and is perfectly destructive of your at present claimed Supremacy Three Councels together in Africk within the space of twenty years warned your Church of her fall into this Heresie and opposed her attempts for the promotion of it The first at Carthage an 407. which
Royall Assent And I shall somewhat question the Protestancy of them whom his Authority Example and Reason doth not conclude in these things For my part I desire no better I can give no greater warrant to assert them as the Principles of Protestants than what I have now acquainted you with And it is no small satisfaction unto me to contemplate on the heavenly Principle of Gospel peace planted in the noble soyl of Royall Ingenuity and Goodness whence fruit may be expected to the great profit and advantage of the whole world Now it is easie to discover the naturall and genuine tendency of these Principles towards Moderation Indeed in acting according unto them and in a regular consistency with them consists the Moderation which we treat about Where-ever then Protestants use not that Moderation towards those that dissent from them if otherwise peaceable which the Lord Jesus requires his Disciples to exercise towards all them that profess the same common hope with them the fault is solely in the Persons so offending and is not countenanced from any Principles which they avow Whether it be so with those of your Church shall now be considered 1. You have no one Principle that you more pertinaciously adhere unto nor which yeelds you greater advantage with weak unstable souls than that whereby you confine all Christianity within the bounds of your own Communion The Roman Church and the Catholick are with you one and the same No Priviledge of the Gospell you suppose belongs unto any soul in the world who lives not in your Communion and in professed subjection unto the Pope Vnion with Christ saving Faith here with salvation hereafter belongs to no other no not one This is the moderation of your Church whereunto your outward actings have for the most part been suited Indeed by this one Principle you are utterly incapacitated to exercise any of that moderation towards those that dissent from you which the Gospell requires You cannot love them as the Disciples of Christ nor act towards them from any such Principles It is possible for you to shew moderation towards them as men but to shew any moderateon towards them as those partakers of the same precious faith with you that is impossible for you to do Yet this is that which we are enquiring after not the moderation that may be amongst men as men but that which ought to be amongst Christians as Christians This is Gospell moderation the other is common unto us with Turks Jews and Pagans and not at all of our present disquisition And I wish that this were found amongst you as proceeding from the Principles of Reason with ingenuity and goodness of nature more than it is For that which proceedeth from and is regulated by Interest is Hypocriticall and not thank-worthy As occasion offers it self it will turn and change as we have found it to do in most Kingdoms of Europe Apparent then it is that this fundamentall Principle of your Profession Subesse Romano Pontifici c. that it is of indispensible necessity unto Salvation unto every Soul to be subject unto the Pope of Rome doth utterly incapacitate you for that moderation towards any that are not of you which Christ requires in his Disciples towards one another seeing you judg none to be so but your selves Yet I assure you withall that I hope yea I am verily perswaded that there are many very many amongst you whose minds and affections are so influenced by common ingrafted notions of God and his Goodness with a sense of the frailties of mankind and weakness of the evidence that is tendred unto them for the eviction of that indispensible necessity of subjection to the Pope which their Masters urge as also with the beams of Truth shining forth in generall in the Scriptures and what they know or have heard of the practises of primitive times as that being seasoned with Christian charity and candour they are not so leavened with the sowr prejudice of this Principle as to be rendred unmeet for the due exercise of moderation but for this they are not beholding to your Church not this great Principle of your profession 2. It is the Principle of your Church whereunto your Practise hath been suited that those who dissent from you in things determined by your Church being Hereticks if they continue so to do after the application of the means for their reclaiming which you think meet to use ought to be imprisoned burned or one way or other put to death This you cannot deny to be your Principle it being the very foundation of your Inquisition the chief corner-stone in your present Ecclesiasticall fabrick that couples and holds up the whole building together And it hath been asserted in your practice for sundry Ages in most Nations of Europe Your Councels as that of Constance have determined it and practised accordingly with John Huss and Hierome Your Doctors dispute for it your Church lives upon it That you are destitute of any colour from Antiquity in this your way I have shewed before Bellarmine de Laic cap. 22. could find no other Instances of it but that of Priscillianus which what entertainment it found in the Church of God I have declared with that of one Basilius out of Gregories Dialogues Lib. 1. Cap 4. whom he confesseth to have been a Magitian and of Bogomilus in the dayes of Alexius Comnenus 1100 years after Christ whose putting to death notwithstanding was afterward censured and condemned in a Synod of more sober Persons than those who procured it Instance of your avowing this Principle in your dealing with the Albigenses of old the Inhabitants of Merindol and Chrabiers in France with the Waldenses in the valleys of Piedmont formerly and of late of your judiciary proceedings against multitudes of Persons of all sorts conditions ages and sexes in this and most other Nations of Europe you are not pleased with the mention of I shall therefore pass them by Only I desire you would not question whether this be the Principle of your Church or no seeing you have given the world too great assurance that so it is And your self in your Fiat commend the wisdome of Philip King of Spain in his rigour in the pursuit of it p. 243. These things being so I desire to know what foundation you have to stand upon in pressing for moderation amongst dissenters in Religion I confess it is a huge argument of your good nature that you are so inclinable unto it but when you should come to the reall exercise of it I am afraid you would find your hands tied up by these Principles of your Church and your endeavours thereupon become very faint and evanid Men in such cases may make great pretences At velut in somnis oculos ubi languida pressit Nocte quies nequicquam avidos extendere cursus Volle videmur in mediis conatibus aegri Succidimus being destitute of any reall foundation your attempts are but like the fruitless
to your Question What it is that can settle any man in the Truth of Religion and unite all men therein And then because you object this unto us as if we were at some loss and incertainty therein and your selves very secure I shall consider what are the grounds and principles that you proceed upon for the same ends and purposes namely to settle any man in the Truth of Religion and to bring all men to an harmony and consent therein Now I shall herein manifest unto you these two things I. That the Principles which the Protestants proceed upon in the improvement whereof they obtain themselves assured and infallible settlement in the Truth and labour to reduce others unto the Unity of Faith are such as are both suited unto and sufficient for the end and work which they design to effect by them and also in themselves of such unquestionable Truth Certainty and Evidence that either they are all granted by your selves or cannot be denied without shaking the very Foundations of Christianity 2. That those which you proceed upon are some of them untrue and most of them dubious and questionable none of them able to bear the weight that you lay upon them and some of them such as the admission of would give just cause to question the whole Truth of Christian Religion And both these S r I crave leave to manifest unto you whereby you may the better judg whether the Scripture or your Church be the best way to bring men unto settlement in Religion which is the thing enquired after 1. Protestants lay down this as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the very beginning and first Principle of their confidence and Confession that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God as the Holy Ghost teacheth them 2 Tim. 3. 16. That is that the Books of the Old and New Testament were all of them written by the immediate guidance direction and inspiration of God the hand of the Lord as David speaks 1 Chron. 28. 19. being upon the Penmen thereof in writing and his Spirit as Peter informs us speaking in them 1 Pâ—t 1. 11. So that whatever is contained and delivered in them is given out from God and is received on his Authority This Principle I suppose you grant to be true do you not if you will deny it say so and we will proceed no farther untill we have proved it I know you have various wayes laboured to undermine the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Holy Scriptures many Queries you put unto men How they can know it to be from God to be true from Heaven and not of men many scruples you indeavour to possess them with against its Authority it is not my present business to remove them It is sufficient unto mee 1. That you your selves who differ from us in other things and with whom our contest about the best way of coming to settlement in the Truth alone is do acknowledg this Principle were proceed upon to be true And 2. That yee cannot oppose it without setting your selves to digge up the very foundations of Christian Religion and to open a way to let in an inundation of Atheism on the world So our first step is fixed on the grand fundamentall Principle of all the Religion and acceptable worship of God that is in the world 2. They affirm that this Scripture evidenceth it self by many infallible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be so given by Inspiration from God and besides is witnessed so to be by the Testimony of the Church of God from the dayes of Moses wherein it began to be written to the dayes wherein we live our Lord Christ and his Apostles asserting and confirming the same Testimony which Testimony is conveyed unto us by uninterrupted Catholick Tradition The first part of this Position I confess some of you deny and the latter part of it you generally all of you pervert confining the Testimony mentioned unto that of your present Church which is a very inconsiderable part of it if any part at all But how groundlesly how prejudicially to the verity and honour of Christian Religion in generall you do these things I shall briefly shew you Some of you I say deny the first part of this Assertion so doth Andradius Defens Concil Trident. Lib. 3. Neque enim saith he in ipsis Libris quibus Sacra Mysteria conscripta sunt quicquam inest Divinitatis quod nos ad Credendum qua illis continentur religione aliqua constring at Neither is there in the Books themselves wherein the holy Mysteries are written any thing of Divinity that should constrain us by vertue of any religious respect thereunto to believe the things that are contained in them Hence Cocleus Lib. 2. de Authoritate Eccles. Script gathers up a many instances out of the Book of the Scripture which he declares to be altogether incredible were it not for the Authority of the Church I need not mention any more of your Leaders concurring with them you know who is of the same mind with them if the Author of Fiat Lux be not unknown to you Your resolving Vniversal Tradition into the Authority of your present Church to which end there is a Book written not long since by a Jesuit under the name of Vincentius Severinus is no less notorious Some of you I confess are more modest and otherwise minded as to both parts of our Assertion See Malderus Episcop Antwerp de Object Fidei qu. 1. Vaselius Groningen de Potestat Eccles. Epist. ad Jacob. Hock Alliacens in Lib. 1. Sentent Artic. 3. Gerson Exam. dos part 2. Consid. 1. Tom. 1. sol 105. and in twenty other places But when you come to deal with Protestants and consider well the Tendency of this Assertion you use I consess an hundred rergiversations and are most unwilling to come to the acknowledgment of it and rather then suffer from it deny it downwright and that with Scurrilous reflections and Comparisons likening it as to any characters of Gods truth and Holiness upon it unto Livy's Story yea Aesops Fables or a Piece of Poetry And when you have done so you apply your selves to the canvasing of Stories in the Old Testament and to find out appearing Contradictions and tell us of the uncertainty of the Authors of some particular Books that the whole is of its self a dead letter which can prove nothing at all enquiring Who told us that the Penmen of it were divinely inspired seeing they testify no such things of themselves and if they should yet others may do and have done so who notwithstanding were not so inspired and ask us Why we receive the Gospel of Luke who was not an Apostle and reject that of Thomas who one with many the like Cavilling Exceptions But 1. That must needs be a bad Cause which stands in need of such a Defence Is this the voice of Jacob or Esau Are these the expressions of Christians or Pagans from whose
the last part and express no more but the Pope is a good man and seeks nothing but our good and therein aim at a double advantage unto your self First That you may with some colour of Truth though really without it deny the Assertion to be yours when as the latter part of it which upon the matter is that which gives the sence and determines the meaning of the whole is expresly contended for by you and that frequently and at large Secondly That you may vent an empty Cavill against that expression seeks nothing but our good whereas had you added the next words and never did us harm every one would have perceived in what sense the former were spoken and so have prevented the frivolous exception Your words are This also I nowhere aver for I never saw him nor have any such acquaintance with him as to know whither he be a good man or no though in charity I do not use to judge hardly of any body much less could say that he whom I know to have a general sollicitude for all Churches seeks nothing but our good Sir if I had pondered my words in Fiat Lux no better then you heed yours in your Animadversions upon it they might even go together both of them to lay up Pepper and Spices or some yet more vile employment For what you have said of the Pope I desire the Reader to consult your Paragraph so entitled and if he find not that you have said ten times more in the commendation of him then I intimated in the words layed down for your Principle I am content to be esteemed to have done you wrong You have indeed not only set him out as a good man but have made him much more then a man and have ascribed that unto him which is not lawful to be ascribed unto any man whatever Some of your Expressions I have again reminded you of and many others of the same nature might be instanced in and what you can say more of him then you have done unless you would exalt him above all that is called God and worshipped unless you should set him in the Temple of God and shew him that he is God I know not Let the Reader if he please consult your expressions where you have placed them I shall stain Paper with them no more And you do but trifle with us when you tell us that you know not the Pope nor have any such acquaintance with him as to know whether he be a good men or no As though your personal acquaintance with this or that Pope belonged at all to our question Although I must needs say that it seems very strange unto me that you should hang the weight of Religion and the salvation of your own soul upon one of whom you know not so much as whither he be a good man or no. For my part I am perswaded there is no such hardship in Christian Religion as that we should be bound to believe that all the safety of our Faith and Salvation depends on a man and he such an one as concerning whâ—m we know not whither he be a good man or no. The Apostle layes the foundation of our hope in better ground Heb. 1. 1 2 3. And yet what ever opinion you may have of your present Pope you are forced to be at this indifferency about his honesty because you are not able to deny but that very many of his Predecessors on whose shoulders the weight of all your Religion lay no less then you suppose it doth on his who now swayes the Papal Scepter were very brutes so far from being good men as that they may be reckoned amongst the worst in the world Protestants as I said are perswaded that their faith is laid up in better hands With the latter part of my words as by you set down you play sophistically that you might say something to them as to my knowledge I never observed any man so hard put to it to say somewhat were it right or wrong which seems to be the utmost of your design You feign the sense of my words to be that the Pope doth no other thing in the world but seek our good and confute me by saying that he hath a general sollicitude for all Churches But Sir I said nor be doth nothing but seek our good but only he seâ—ks nothing but our good and never did us harm And you may quickly see how causelesly you tall into a contemplation of your accuracy in your Fiâ—t and 〈…〉 loosness of my expressions in the 〈…〉 For although I acknowledge that 〈…〉 heen written in greater haste then 〈◊〉 judgements of learned men might well 〈◊〉 as is also this return unto your Epistle 〈…〉 of them proportioned rather unto the merit of your Discourse then that of the Cause in agitation between us yet I cannot see that you or any 〈◊〉 else hath any just cause to except against this expression of my intention which yet is the only one that in that kind falls under your censure For whereas I say that the Pope seeks nothing but our good and that he never did us harm would any man living but your self understand these words any otherwise but with reference unto them of whom I spake that is as to us he seeks nothing but our good whatever he doth in the world besides And is it not a wild interpretation that you make of my words whilest you suppose me to intimate that absolutely the Pope doth nothing in the world or hath no other business at all that he concerns himself in but only the seeking of our good in particular If you cannot allow the books that you read the common Civility of interpreting things indefinitely expressed in them with the limitations that the subject matter whereof they treat requires you had better employ your time in any thing then study as being not able to understand many lines in any Author you shall read Nor are such expressions to be avoided in our common discourse If a man talking of your Fiat should say that you do nothing but seek the good of your Countreymen would you interpret his words as though he denyed that you say Mass and hear Confessions or to intimate that you do nothing but write Fiats and you know with whom lies both jus norma loquendi The tenth and last Principle is That the Devotion of Catholicks far transcends that of Protestants so you now express it what you mention being but one part of three that the Animadversions speak unto Hereunto you reply But Sir I never made in Fiat Lux any Comparisons between your Devotions nor can I say how much the one is or how little the other but you are the maddest Commentator that I have ever seen you first make the Text and then Animadversions upon it Pray Sir have a little patience and learn from this instance not to be too confident upon your memory for the future I shall
Scriptures could be of no more Authority then Aesops Fables were they not confirmed by the Testimony of your Church we are informed by one Brentius and we believe the information to be true because the saying is defended by Hosius de Authoritat Script Lib. 3. who adds unto it of his own Revera nisi nos Authoritas Ecclesiae doceret hanc scripturam esse Canoncam perexiguum apud nos pondus haberet the truth is if the Authority of the Church did not teach us that this Scripeure is Canomical it would be of very light weight unto us Such Cordial respects do you bear unto it And the forementioned Andradius Defens Con. Trid. Lib. 2. to the same purpose Neque enim in ipsis libris quibus sacra mysteria conscripta sunt quicquam in est Divinitatis quae nos ad credendum quae in illis continentur religione aliqua constring at sed Ecclesiae quae codices illos sacros esse docet antiquorum Patrum fidem pietatem commendat tanta inest vis amplitudo ut illis nemo sine gravissimâ impietatis nota possit repugnare neither is there in those books wherein the Divine Mysteries are written any thing or any character of Divinity or divine original which should on a religious account oblige us to believe the things that are contained in them But yet such is the force and Authority of the Church which teacheth thâ—se books to be sacred and commendeth the faith and piety of the Antient fathers that no man can oppose them without a grievous mark of impiety How by what means from whom should we learn the sense of your Church if not from your Council of Trent and such mighty Champions of it Do you think it equitable that we should listen to suggestions of every obscure Frier and entertain thoughts from them about the sense of your Church contrary to the plain assertion of your Councils and and great Rabbies And if this be the respect that in Catholick Countries is given to the Scripture I hope you will not find may of your Countrymen rivals with them therein It is all but Hayle and Crâ—cifie We respect the Scriptures but there is another part of Gods word besides them we respect the Scriptures but Traditions contain more of the Doctrine of Truth we respect the Scriptures but think it not meet that Christians be suffered to read them we respect the Scripture but do not think that it hath any character in it of its own Divine original for which we should believe it we respect the Scripture but yet we would not believe were it not commended unto us by our Church we respect the Scripture but it is dark obscure not intelligible but by the interpretation of our Church Pray Sir keep your respects at home they are despised by the Scripture it self which gives Testimony unto its own Authority Perfection Sufficiency to guide us to God Perspicuity and Certainty without any respect unto your Church or its Authority And we know its Testimony to be true And for our parts we fear that whilest these Joabs kisses of respect are upon your lips you have a sword in your right hands to let out all the Vitals of Divine Truth and Religion Do you think your general expressions of respect and that unto admiration are a covering long and broad enough to hide all this contempt and reproach that you continually poure upon the Scriptures Deal thus with your Ruler and see whether he will accept your Person Give him some good words in general but let your particular expressions of your esteem of him come short of what his state and regal dignity do require will it be well taken at your hands Expressions of the same nature with these instanced in might be collected out of your chiefest Authors sufficient to fill a volume and yet I never read nor heard that any of them were ever stoned in your Catholick Countreys whatever you intimate of the boyling up of your zeal into a rage against those that should go about to diminish it Indeed whatever you pretend this is your faith about the Scripture and therefore I desire that you would accept of this account why I cannot comply with your wish and not speak any more of Papists slighting the Scripture seeing I know they do so in the sense and way by me expressed and other wayes I never said they did so From the account of your Faith we may proceed to your Charity wherewith you close this Discourse Speaking of your Roman Catholicks you say the Scripture is theirs and Jesus Christ is theirs who will one day plead their Cause What do you mean Sir by theirs Do you intend it exclusively to all others so theirs as not to be the right and portion of any other It is evident that this is your sense not only because unless it be so the words have neither sense nor emphasis in them but also because suitably unto this sense you elsewhere declare that the Roman and the Catholick Church are with you one and the same This is your Charity fit to accompany and to be the fruit of the faith before discoursed of This is your Chatholicism the impaling of Christ Scripture the Church and consequently all acceptable Religion to the Roman Party and Faction down right Donatism the wretchedest Schism that ever rent the Church of God which makes the wounds of Christendome incurable and all hope of coalition in Love desperate Saint Paul directing one of his Epistles unto all that in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that no countenance from that expression of our Lord Jesus Christ might be given unto any surmize of his appropriating unto himself and those with him a peculiar interest in Jusus Christ he adds immediately both their Lord and ours the Lord of all that in every place call upon his name 1 Cor. 1. This was the old Catholicism which the new hath as much affinity unto as darkness hath to light and not one jot more The Scripture is ours and Christ is ours and what have any else to do with them what though in other places you call on the name of Jesus Christ yet he is our Lord not yours This I say is that wretched Schism which cloathed with the name of Catholicism which after it had slain it robbed of its name and garments the world for some ages hath groaned under and is like to do so whilst it is supported by so many secular advantages and interests as are subservient unto it at this day CHAP. 14. Of Reason Jews objections against Christ. PAg. 27. You proceed to vindicate your unreasonable Paragraph about Reason or rather against it What reason we are to expect in a dispute against the use of Reason in and about the things which are the highest and most proper object of it is easie for any one to imagine For by Reason in Religion we understand not meerly the Raâ—ocination
over the flocks but Ministers of their faith By these are the flocks of Christ governed as by shepherds appointed by him the great Bishop and Shepherd of their souls according to the Rules by him prescribed for the rule of the one and obedience of the other But if by governed by another man you mean absolutely supreamly at his will and pleasure then we deny that any Disciple of Christ is in the things of God so to be governed by any man and affirm that to assert it is to cast down Jesus Christ from his Throne But you say if he be not immediate head unto all but Ministers head the people and Christ heads the Ministers this in effect is nothing but to make every Minister a Bishop Why do you not plainly say what it is more then manifest you would have All this while you heed no more the Laws of the Land then constitutions of the Gospel Answ. I have told you how Christ is the immediate Head unto all and yet how he hath appointed others to preside in his Churches under him and that this should infer an equality in all that are by him appointed to that work is most senseless to imagine nor did I in the least intimate any such thing but only that therefore there was no need of any one supream head of the whole Catholick Church nor any place or room left for such an one without the deposition of Christ himself Because the King is the only supream Head of all his people doth it therefore follow that if he appoint Constables to rule in every parish with that allotment of power which by his Laws he gives unto them and Justices of Peace to rule over them in an whole County that therefore every Constable in effect is a Justice of Peace or that there is a sameness in their office Christ is the head of every man that is in the Church be he Bishop or Minister or private man and when the Ministers are said to head the people or the Bishops to head them the expression is improper an inferiour Ministerial subordinate rule being expressed by the name of that which is supream and absolute or they head them not absolutely but in some respect only as every one of them dischargeth the Authority over and towards them wherewith he is intrusted This assertion of Christs sole absolute Headship and denial of any Monarchical state in the Church Catholick but what ariseth from thence doth not as every child may see concern the difference that is about the superiority of Bishops to Ministers or Presbyters For notwithstanding this there are degrees in the Ministry of the Church and several orders of men are engaged therein and whatever there are there might have been more had it seemed to our good Lord Christ to appoint them And whatever order of men may be supposed to be instituted by him in his Church he must be supposed to be the Head of them all and they are all to serve him in the Duties and Offices that they have to discharge towards the Church and one another This headship of Christ is the thing that you are to oppose and its exclusiveness to the substitution of an absolute Head over the whole Catholick Church in his place because of his bodily absence from the earth But this you cast out of sight and instead thereof fall upon the equality of Bishops and Ministers which no way ensues thereon Both Bishops and Presbyters agreeing well enough in the Truth we assert and plead for This you say is contrary to the Gospel and the Law of the Land What is I pray that Christ is the only absolute Head of the Catholick Church No but that Bishops and Ministers are in effect all one But what is that to your purpose will it advantage your Cause what way ever that problem be determined Was any occasion offered you to discourse upon that Question Nay you perceive well enough your self that this is nothing at all to your design and therefore in your following discourse you double and sophisticate making it evident that either you understand not your self what you say or that you would not have others understand you or that you confound all things with a design to deceive for when you come to speak of the Gospel you attempt to prove the appointment of one supream Pastor to the whole Catholick Church and by the Law of the Land the Superiority of Bishops over Ministers as though these things were the same or had any relation one to another whereas we have shewed the former in your sense to be destuctive to the latter Truth never put any man upon such subter fuges and I hope the difficulties that you find your self perplexed withall may direct you at length to find that there is a deceit in your right hand But let us hear your own words As for the Gospel the Lord who had been visible Governour and Pastor of his flock on earth when he was now to depart hence as all the Apostles expected one to be chosen to succeed him in his care so did he notwithstanding his own invisible presence and providence over his flock publickly appoint one And when he taught them that he who was greatest among them should be as the least he did not deny but suppose one greater and taught in one and the same breath both that he was over them and for what he was over them namely to feed not to tyrannize not to domineer and hurt but to direct comfort and conduct his flock in all humility and tenderness as a servant of all their spiritual necessities and if a Bishâ—p be otherwise affected it is the fault of his Person not his place And what is it that you would prove hereby is it that Bishops are above Ministers which in the words immediately foregoing you asserted and in those next ensuing confirm from the Law of the Land is there any tendency in your Discourse towards any such purpose Nay do not your self know that what you seek to insinuate namely the instiâ—ution of one supream Pastor of the whole Catholick Church one of the Apostles to be above and ruler over all the rest of the Apostles and the whole Church besides is perfectly destructive of the Hierarchy of Bishops in England as established by Law and also at once casting down the main if not only foundation that they plead for their station and order from the Gospel For all Prelate Protestants as you call them assert an equality in all the Apostles and a superiority in them to the 70. Disciples whence by a parity of reason they conclude unto he superiority of Bishops over Ministers to be continued in the Church And are you not a fair Advocate for your Cause and well meet for the reproving of others for not consenting unto them But waving that which you little câ—re for and are not at all concerned in let us see how you prove that which we know you
expend words enough about things of less importance But you please your self with the commendation of what you had written on this subject in your Fiat as full of Christian Reason convincing Reason and Sobriety and how it would have prevailed upon your own judgement had you been otherwise minded You seem to dwell far from neighbours and to be a very easie man to be entreated unto what you have a mind unto But you might not have done amiss to have waited a little for the praise of others This out of your own mouth is not very comely And I shall only take leave once more to inform you that an opposition to the Institution of Christ the command of the Apostle the Practice of the Primitive Church with the faith and Consolation of Believers such as is your Paragraph about Communion in one kind whatever overweening thoughts you may have of the product of your own fancy cannot indeed have any one grain in it of Sobriety or Christian Reason CHAP. 24. Heroes of the Asses Head whose Worship was objected to Jews and Christians YOur last end endeavour consists in an exception to somewhat affirmed in the twentieth Chapter of the Animadversions directed unto your Paragraph about Saints and Heroes And I am sorry that I must close with the Consideration of it because I would willingly have taken my leave of you upon better terms then your discouse will allow me to do But I shall as speedily represent you unto your self as I am able And then give you my Salve aeternumque Vale. You tell us in your Fiat that the Pagans defamed the Christians for the worship of an Asses head and you give this reason of it because the Jews had defamed our Lord Jesus Christ whose head and half Portraicture Christians used upon their Altars even as they do at this day of his great simplicity and ignorance Two things you suppose 1. That the Christians placed the Head and half Portraicture of our Saviour in those dayes on their Altars which is alone to your purpose 2. That this gave occacasion to the Pagans to defame them with the worship of an Asses head because the Jews had so blasphemed the Lord Christ as you say These things I told you are fond and false and destitute of all colour of Testimony from Antiquity That the worship of an Asses head was originally charged on the Jews themselves and on Christians no otherwise but as they were accounted a Sect of them or their off spring and that what in the same place you assert of the Jews accusing the Christians for the worship of Images or the Christians using the Picture of Christs head or his half Portraicture on their Altars are monsters that none oâ— the Antients ever dreamed of What plead you 〈…〉 your Vindication quite omitting that what 〈◊〉 alone you are concerned you only undertake to prove that the worship of an Asses head was 〈◊〉 used to the Christians as well as to the Jews which you say I deny and say that it was not charged on the Jews at all And the reason of this charge you say was because they were reckoned among the Jews in odiosis and accounted of them So well do you mind what you had said before of the rise of that imputation on the Christians from the blasplemy of the Jewes So 1. In your Fiat you say no hiâ—g of the Jews at all but only that by their 〈◊〉 the Pagans took occasion to slander the 〈◊〉 being now better instructed by the Animadversions in the rise of that foolish calumny you change your note and close in with what is in them 〈◊〉 2. You unduely affirm that I deny this to have been charged on the Christians when I grant it was and that in the very same manner and on the same account that your self now contrary to what you had written before acknowledge it to have been He must be as much unacquainted with these things as some body else whom I shall not name honoris gratia seems to be who knows not that this foolish impiety was imputed in process of time to the Christians by the Pagans among a litter of other follies as well as unto the Jews Caecilius in Minucius tells us audio â—os ineptissimae pecudis Caput Asini consecratum inepta nescio qua persuasione venerari I heer that by a foolish perswasion they worship the head of an Ass a vile beast And Tertullian Apol cap. 16. Nam quidam somniastis Caput Asininum esse Deum nostrum Some of you dream that an Asses head is our God presently declaring thereon that this imputation was derived on them from the Jews who first suffered under that Fable And if any thing gave new occasion unto it among the Christians it was not the Picture of Christ despised by the Jews as you imagine but the report of his riding on an Ass which Athanasius takes notice of Homil. ad Pagan they said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the God of the Christians who is called Christ sate on an Ass. But you will prove what you say out of Tertullian say you the same Tertullian in his Apologeticks adds these words The Calumnies saith he invented to cry down our Religion grew to such an excess of impiety that not long ago in this very City a picture of our God was shewn by a certain infamous Person with the ears of an Ass and a hoof on one foot cloathed with a gown and a book in his hand with this inscription Onochoetes the God of the Christians And he adds that the Christians in the City as they were much offended with the impiety so did they not a little wonder at the strange uncouth name the villain had put upon our Lord and Master Onochoetes forsooth he must be called Onochoctes In this Testimony of you know not what you triumph and conclude are you not a strange man to tell me that what I speak of this business is notoriously false nay and that I know it is false and that I cannot produce one Authentick Testimony no not one of any such thing but this is your Ordinary Confidence Seriously Sir I wonder where you got this Quotation out of Tertullian Let me desire you to be wary in receiving any thing hereafter from the same hand out of Authors that you want the Confidence to venture upon your self The words of Tertullian which your Translator hath abused you in are these Sed nova jam Dei nostri in ista Civitate proxime editio publicata est ex quo quidam in frustrandis bestiis mercenarius noxius picturam proposuit cum ejusmodi inscriptione Deus Christianorum Ononychites is erat auribus Asininis altero pede ungulatus librum gestans togatus risimus nomen formam Sed illi debebant adorare statim biforme numen qui canino leonino capite commistos Deos receperunt Lately in that City that is Rome there was a publick shew made of our God wherein a