the matter of Fact and then to discover the imperfections and mistakes therein It is the Papal Power which was challenged in Ecclesiastical Affairs and which was by Act of Parliament and Convocation cast out of this Kingdom but the method used therein was solemn and regular For it was debated in the Vniversities and chief Monasteries An aliquid Authoritatis c. Whether any Authority did of right belong to the Pope more than to any other Forreign Bishop in this Kingdom of England It was resolved in the negative which resolution was soon after concluded in (a) An. 1537. and validly asserted in a Book Entituled The Institution of a Christian Man the Convocation in which also a rude draught of Reformation was chalked out as may be seen in the (b) And the Kings Injunctions by the Lord Cromwel Fox Acts and Monuments in Henr. 8. p. 1104. Records whereupon some Superstitious abuses were suppressed For we find a Letter of Henry the eighth directed to the Archbishop of Canterbury in which he was commanded to suppress the Worship of Images Reliques and Superstitious Pilgrimages as being contrary to his Injunctions and accordingly the Images of the Lady of Walsingham and and the Lady of Ipswich were burned (c) Speed in Hen. 8. n. 100. and l. 6. c. 9. n. 13. Sand. de Schis Angl. l. 1. p. 165. 166. at Chelsey and more than so that King declared esse sibi c. He and the King of France were thinking to abolish the Mass in their respective Dominions About this time a Tract was written de vera differentia c. Of the true difference of Regal and Ecclesiastical Power Composed by John Stokesley Bishop of London Cuthbert Tunstal Bishop of Durham Stephen Gardiner of Winchester and Dr. Thirlby after of Westminster in which the Resolution of the Vniversities Monasteries and Convocation was asserted from the practice of the Saxon and first Norman Kings and then what was thus concluded and asserted was confirmed by Act of Parliament All which is agreeable to the Canon-Law which fully settles the Kings Supremacy Inter personas Ecclesiasticas intro Regni sui terminos Rex est Supremus Gubernator qui in Ecclesia summum potestatis culmen obtinet c. citante Drezouch de Script Jur. Jud. Eccles Part. 1. Sect. 2. p. 3. This being premised and the main of it acknowledged by Learned Romanists the cavils which N. N. hath framed are next to be considered 1. He tells us Henry the eighth first gained c. If by gaining he mean this Title was not assumed by the former Kings of England or that Henry the eighth acquired a right thereto by the bounty of the Pope he may be mistaken for our Kings have a right thereto (d) From a Parliament in the Conquerours time the first words of Magna Charta and the Kings Coronation Oath and Stat. of 24 Henr. 8. c. 12. Jure Coronae and it was anciently used by them as appears by several Charters by former Kings to the University of Oxford particularly that of Richard the second and long before in Ann. 435 Guithilinus Archbishop of London in his speech to Constantine then King of England stiles him the Defender and Restorer of the Faith assuring him he was Christs immediate Vicar and Vicegerent in his Kingdom by for and under whom he should Reign and Conquer as well as Constantine the great He that would be farther satisfied in this particular may consult Sir Isaak Wake his (e) And the Present State of England first Treatise p. 88. Rex Platonicus Certain it is all this King gained by this Complement of Pope Leo was just as much as his Daughter Queen Mary gained by the courtship and cunning of Paul the fourth who forsooth for her sake would undertake to form Ireland into a Kingdom which had been one long before and would bestow on her the Title of Queen of Ireland which her Father had assumed and her Brother enjoyed 2. He talks of his lawful Wife c. This is but one Doctors opinion he may give his betters leave to speak who were not of N. N's private judgment For this matter was debated at Oxon before the Bishop of Lincoln and at Cambridge before Stephen Gardiner and Dr. Fox who concluded the Kings marriage with Katherine to be unlawful so did the Universities of Paris Orleans Anjou Burges Padua but none of them more fully than that of Bononia the Popes retiring place and part of St. Peters Patrimony confidently averring the Marriage was horrible accursed and abominable c. and that the Pope had no power to grant a Dispensation in that case Our own Historians report that the Pope privately gave out a Bull to declare the Marriage unlawful if his Legat Cardinal Campeius could have obtained his desires from the King but the Author of the History of the Council of Trent fol. 68. confidently affirmes that there was a Brief framed in which the King was declared free from that Marriage with the most ample Clauses that were put into any Popes Bull. Whereas therefore N. N. saith King Henry borrowed of the New Religion his Supremacy to marry Ann Bullen it is most false For Stephen Gandiner assures us that whereas the Sentence of Gods Word that is the Old Religion had been sufficient in that affair yet his Majesty disdained not to use the censures of the gravest men and most famous Vniversities and Guicciardine (f) Lib. 19. p. 891. relates that the Pope himself thought that the Divorce of King Henry was lawful 3. N. N. is offended that the Popes Jurisdiction is taken away by the extinguishing Act. This he misunderstands That Power which the Pope was devested of was termed Spiritual but not in that sense that the Power of the Keys is Spiritual for this is properly and formally Spiritual extending only to the Conscience but in that sence the Courts of the Church are stiled Spiritual Courts because of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Those words in the Act No Forreign Prelate shall exercise any Spiritual Power c. any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction are not meant of Power properly such but external and coactive which as Rivet distinguisheth is Spiritual Objective though not formaliter That this is the true sense is evident from (g) 25 Hen. 8. cap. 21. provis 1. and in the extinguishing Act. 28 Hen. 8. c. 10. the Act it self which is a purely Political Ordinance framed upon reasons and respecting only such ends and uses as are meerly civil viz. to preserve this Realm from Rapin c. as it is declared Proviso the first Hereupon the Title of Supreme was (h) By the King 26 Hen. 8. c. 1. Staplet de tribus Thom. in Thom. Cant. complained and cryed out that Henry the second clandestinely demanded what Henr. 8. openly usurped reassumed by the King which signifies only a Political Governing Head as Saul was of the Tribes of Israel 1 Sam. 15.17 to see that all Subjects
restitution thereof but he defended his Invasion and Usurpation by the warranty of the Popes Excomunication and to prevent all after-Claims by virtue of the Popes Bull bequeathed it in his last Will and Testament to his Daughter Jane Queen of Castile and ordered the union of the two Kingdoms (d) New Heresy of the Jes p. 37. inde out of Monsieur de Hay in his Treatise of the right of the King of France from the Testimony of Spanish Historians against the Cavils of Card. du Perron who attempted the vindication of the Pope and forecited Spanish Historian from Guicciardine lib. 11. Castile and Arragon But the Pope had yet a further Game to manage a Council must be had whereupon he calls a Counter-Council as Eugenius before him had convened an Anti-Synod at Florence at the Lateran in Rome where some Cardinals and Bishops who favoured his Pretensions and some on other motives assembled to him before whom at first he (e) Concil Lat. Sess 1. excused his Perjury by reason of State his next endeavour was by the publication of a Bull to condemn the Pisan Synod and by a second to null its Acts together with the Pragmatical Sanction To gain validity to this Practice he procured Francis the first (f) So the Concordate and from it Relnffusc licet de seriis li. 1. ff de Offic. Cons or rather compelled him for he protested he complied with the Pope much against his mind being constrained so to do by his pressing necessities to condescend to the Abrogation of the Pragmatical Sanction But this Pope dying some ten Months after he had assembled his Partisans and Pensioners could not perfect his Project Leo the tenth succeeds him who falls afresh upon the Pragmatical Sanction yet upon second and better thoughts he stops the Carreer for two or three years resolving however having the work half done to his hand to compleat it in convenient time and so at long run in the eleventh Session of that Conventicle upon the 19 of December 1516 the certain Birth-day of the new Popish Church he passed a Decree point blank contrary to that of Constance continued and confirmed in those of Basil Bourges Tours and Pisa viz. That the Pope had authority over all Councils and that it was necessary to Salvation that all Christians should be subject to the Pope This is Origo Papistarum thus by such unauthorized Antichristian means then upon that 19th day of December and there at Lateran Popery commenced and had its rise both name and thing for though some Romanists pretend the title of Papist to be of more antient extraction deriving it from Pope Peter Pope Paul and Pope Christ yet Dr. Bristow a bitter enemy to Protestants and a fast friend to the Cause witness his great endeavours and attempts in the Rhemish Testament is better advised and (g) Demaund 8. speaks out the whole truth The name saith he of Papists was never heard of till the days of Leo the tenth All which premises being laid together a mean accomptant may easily compute of how long standing Popery is according to the true reformed Roman account The total of all which those (h) Sess 1. And Cassander thinks Papists to be Pseudo-Catholicks they being such who will not permit the Church to be reformed though corrupt Lib. de Offic. boni viri Sect. sunt alii c. very Lateran Assemblers could not deny but have so far honestly witnessed that by reason of the malignity of the times the Popes seemed to have tollerated the Pragmatical Sanction because they could not help it thanks for nothing in as much as for all the Popes could do even to that very day it stood in full force and virtue But for all was then done the true Roman Catholicks even then did not think the Pragmatical Sanction was sufficiently annulled neither did that Lateran Decree find any kind reception amongst them but soon after was stoutly rejected as Heterodox for within four Months after towards the latter end of March ensuing the Divines of Paris spoke as undervaluingly of this Lateran Synod as it had done of the Council of Basil contemning and condemning it as Conciliabulum Conventiculum a Conspiracy or Conventicle (i) Appel Vnivers Paris à Leon. 10. facta die 27 Martii An. 1517. Bochell lib. 8. de decret Gal. Eccl. c. 4. not assembled in Gods name and the Cardinal Lorraine writ expresly after that to Pope Pius the fifth that as the French Church would never receive that of Florence so they also had always protested against the Lateran made up of a (k) New Heresy of the Jesuites p. 103. out of the History of the Concordate composed by Monsieur de Puy few Italian Bishops And that this Lateran Decree would be opposed Pope Leo foresaw who therefore cunningly contrived a way if not to prevent yet to smother and stifle all opposition For (l) 70 Decret p. 534. Caran p. 893. in a certain Decretal he ordained that hereafter for ever no man should Print or cause to be Printed any Book or Writing in the City of Rome nor in any other place unless first by his Vicar or Minister of his Palace or by some Bishop or other deputed thereto it be diligently examined and Subscribed and after the Trent-sticklers finding that Books notwithstanding this Policy were published and did creep abroad they made a Rule which they gave in charge to the Inquisitors That if in the Books of latter Catholicks written since the year 1315 that which needs Correcting can be amended by taking away or adding a few things that course should be followed otherwise let it be (m) Caran p. 894. instruct post indicem c. Index l. Prohib p. 25. altogeeher blotted out But neither the Popes Authority Power nor Policy could prevail so far with the Roman Catholicks of that time as to over-rule the Council of Basil or confirm the Lateran for many of them constantly adhered to the (n) As the Germans Kings of England and France ad Ann. 1422. in the Margin of his life p. 101. c. Ep. Synod Concil Basil Council of Basil because Eugenius the fourth by an Authentick Bull recited in the sixteenth Session acknowledged that it was Lawful and General from the beginning of it to that moment and in the last of the Bulls which he revoked after he had (o) But not till after admonition and citation Acts of Superiority 8 pronouncing him contumacious for threatning of a dissolution Caran p. 856. rejoyned himself to that Council he declared that in matters of Faith the opinion of a Council ought to be preferred to that of the Pope which cannot hold if the Pope be Infalible as the Lateran crew suggested because there is no opinion which can or ought to be preferred to the judgment of an Infallible Monarch and Umpire and as those Romanists stuck to the Council of Basil so did they to the Council
account among the common People In this Confusion the Protector calls a Parliament 1547 but the Common-Prayer Book did not then pass yet all former Statures made against Hereticks or Sectaries were recalled and annulled In the ensuing Parliament the Book was approved because it seemed in matter of the Sacraments to humour divers Sectaries who before had opposed it yet the Common People of England took Arms in defence of the Old Roman Catholick Religion complaining that most Sacraments were taken from them and they had reason to fear the rest This was King Edwards Reformation which could not be perfected because he lived but six years It is remarkable how in this Kings time it was resolved that whatsoever should be determined by six Bishops such as they were and six Learned men in the Law of God or the major part of them concerning the Rights Ceremonies and Administration of the Sacraments that only should be followed Never did any Sectaries before this time presume so far as ours did in preferring the judgment of seven men for that is the major part of twelve before that of the Christian World in changing the matter and form of Sacraments abolishing the Sacrifice of the Mass and ancient Rites and Ceremonies of the Church Catholick confirmed by so many General Councils and approved by all the Ancient Fathers Heresy is always accompanied with presumption but this exceeds all Parallel SECT II. J. S. HEre again something in General is to be premised to remove those prejudices which N. N. hath raised against the procedure of Edward the sixth It is granted that King was but a Child yet it must not be denied that the Laws of the Kingdom committing the exercise of Supreme Power in that case to a Protector what was regularly done by him ought to be deemed as valid as if the King had been of age and done it himself The Reformation made in Jehoash his minority 2 Chron. 23 though it was the immediate Act of his Uncle Jehojada was firm to all intents and purposes It is acknowledged also That Images were pulled down a Body of English Liturgy formed c. But what was done in these particulars was done without confusion or contradiction For it was done by Authority of the Supreme Power with the advice and consent of the major part of the Bishops not opposed by the Convocations but rather approved for that the Clergy in the respective Diocesses generally practised the prescribed form and after confirmed by Parliament This appears from the Provisional Injunctions 1 Edw. 6. and the Acts of Parliament 2 3 Edw. 6. to which the Bishops had so great a respect that as they practised themselves so they took care for the uniform observation of these Injunctions and Statutes requiring conformity to them from the Inferiour Clergy which accordingly they submitted to For we find a charge was drawn against Stephen Gardiner one Article whereof was He observed not the Book of Common-Prayer nor ordered the observation thereof in his Diocess to which charge he made this Answer to the Duke of Somerset with five others of the Council viz. That he having deliberately perused the Book of Common Prayer although he would not have made it so himself yet he found such things in it as satisfied his Conscience and therefore he would use it himself and see his Parishioners do so too the same in effect he said to the Lord Treasurer Secretary Peters and Sir William Herbert when they came to him with Articles from the King himself To confirm this procedure it is to be observed 1. The whole affair was managed by an approved Catholick Rule which was to reform what was amiss according to the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and usage of the Primitive Church not to form any New Religion but retrieve the Old and to reduce it into that state as Christ had left it the Apostles practised and the Primitive Church had received and observed as the King declared to the Romish Rebels 2. It was ordered as the Tridentine Assemblers thought most fit Decreto de Celebratione Missae in which Institutions were read concerning abuses to be corrected in the Celebration of the Mass the substance whereof was that the Bishops ought to forbid all things brought in by Avarice Irreverence or Superstition If it be alleadged the Bishops were so to do as Delegates of the See of Rome the Return is obvious Our Bishops as Commissioners of the Supreme Power might do what they did with better Authority and Warranty For 1. Learned Romanists do confess that particular Nations have a Power to purge themselves from Corruptions as well in Church as State without leave from the See of Rome This is acknowledged by Seren. Cressy in his Answer to Dr. Pierce's Sermon p. 285. But what if the Pope issue out a Prohibition and interdict the whole Nation very many of them do conceive it may be waved and opposed because no reason can be assigned why the Church should continue under known Corruption for the Popes reâ—lyeness to have them redressed Aeneas (l) De Conc. Basil l. 1. Silvius after Pius the second was once of this mind for that if the Popes recusancy may hinder the proceedings of a General Council to the disturbance of the Church corruptions of the Minds of Men and the destruction of their Soul all would thereby be undonne without remedy Cardinal (m) De concord Conc. l. 2. c. 12. l. 3. c. 15. Gusan goes yet higher affirming that the Emperour in duty was obliged by his Imperial Authority to Assemble a Synod when the great danger of the Church required it which determination was also resolved in the first (n) Conc. Pis impress Lutet 1612. fol. 69. Pisan Council Quintinus (o) A Lawyer and pablick Professor at Paris in repet lectione de Civitatis Christianae Aristocratia Heduus who lived in Henry the eighth's time hath aproved by many Canons that if the Pope command and the King forbid the King is to be obyed therefore when the King calls together the Prelats of the Church to reform the state thereof they are bound to obey though the Pope forbid it (p) Franc. praelect 4. a. 161. at this day a General Council may be called against the Popes mind by the Emperour and the Christian Princes whether he will or not Baron (q) Ad Ann. 553. n. 2. confesseth the second General Council is approved though Pope Damasus with might and main opposed it Vigilius though once he consented to the calling of the first General Council yet when he was called to give his personal appearance and afford his assistance and concurrence being commanded so to do by the Emperour and solicited thereto by twenty (r) Baron 553. n. 35. Metropolitans whereof three were Patriarcks the sturdy insolent Pope utterly refused whereupon the Emperour the necessity of the Church which was then in a general Tumult and Schism about the (s) Ibid. Ann.
Testimonies that can be devised not only of this World but of God of Angels and Glorious Souls of Devils and Damned Spirits in Hell the fittest Witnesses of all and here he stops his Carreer Other puling Hereticks have boasted of this or that Council or of some few Fathers but these have attained to that pitch of Impudency that all makes for them all is theirs when upon a just examination none at all appears for them Heresy is alwayes accompanied with Vanity and Insolency but this exceeds all Parrallel but that we find it the constant custom of the Romish Hectors SECT III. N. N. AFter Edward died his Sister Queen Mary Reigned who being a Catholick restored Religion by Act of Parliament Cardinal Pole the Popes Legate absolved the Kingdom from the Excommunication and Schism incurred Some Histories report that three thousand Sectaries all Strangers were Banished out of England and among the rest the two holy Apostles Peter Martyr and Bernard Ochine All King Edwards Bishops were Deposed and Imprisoned the Catholick Bishops set at liberty and restored to their Sees SECT III. J. S. 1. QVeen Mary did reintroduce Popery but this she did contrary to the solemn Promise made to the Gentry of Norfolk and Suffolk to violate such an obligation will scarce be proved either Honourable or Religious 2. She did not regularly restore her Religion but confusedly shuffled it up as hath been before declared that if any Protestant Prince had done the like an hideous Hubbub would have been raised Bishop Jewel relates the manner thus (a) Reply to Harding Art 13. fol. 358. The Papists first scattered it and forced their Mass against a Law then in force against them then established it by Law and next after had a Solemn Disputation at Oxford to try whether the Law were good or no. This saith he Mr. Harding is your Lidford Law for in order of nature the Disputation should have been first then the Law then the Execution thereof but as Tertullian saith Haeretici ex Conscientia infirmitatis suae nihil tractant ordinarie 3. He cannot but his hand must slip though he have no visible advantage by it for all King Edwards Bishops were not Deposed the Bishops of Lincoln and Hereford were not the Bishops of Litchfield Salisbury Norwich Bangor St. Asaph and Landaffe complyed 4. If the deposed Bishops were but pretended Bishops then your restored Bishops were so too for some of these received their Ordination from them and those who ordained them But now the Originist after all these Sallies falls afresh on his great work on which he spends much Paper and time wherein he most triumphs and glories and thus he makes his first approach and onset CHAP. III. SECT I. N. N. QUeen Mary deceased without issue her Sister Elizabeth is proclaimed Queen The Reformation is established by Act of Parliament notwithstanding the great opposition made by all the Bishops and others in the Upper-house The Queen was resolved to pull down Catholick Religion because Cecil and others of her Council perswaded her she could not be secure as long as the Pope's Authority was acknowledged in England seeing the Apostolick See had declared her a Bastard and all Catholicks looked upon the Queen of Scots as true Heir to the Crown Nevertheless it was judged expedient for her quiet and the peace of the Realm to keep always a Resemblance of it in the Clergy as the best remedy against Puritanism which was thought by her Majesty dangerous to Monarchy The titles therefore of Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Chapters were retained as also in her own Chappel some Images the Altar and a Crucifix upon it But what will they do for Ordination That Form which was instituted in Edw. the sixth's time was judged invalid by publick Judgment in Queen Marie's days insomuch that Leases made by King Edward's Bishops though confirmed by Dean and Chapter were not esteemed good because saith the Sentence they were not consecrated nor Bishops see Brook's Novel Cases Plac. 463. fol. 101. impress London 1604. Seeing therefore it concerned the Queen to have consecrated Bishops she endeavoured by all means to have such as she named for Bishopricks consecrated by Catholicks but they all resolved not to make Bishops in the Church whereof themselves refused to be members The Queen notwithstanding the reluctancy of Catholick Bishops named in her Letters Patents Kitchin Bishop of Landaff among others to consecrate Mr. Parker and his Fellows he being the only man among all the Catholick Bishops that took the Oath of Supremacy in her Reign But many others who complied with Henry the eighth in that particular refused now to consecrate and Landaff was resolved to do the same yet at last by fair words and promises they prevailed with the old man to give them a meeting at the Nags-head in Cheapside where they hoped he would have ordained them Bishops despairing that ever he would do it in a Church because that would be too great and notorious a scandal to Catholicks among whom Landaff desired to be numbred Bonner Bishop of London hearing of this sent Mr. Neal his Chaplain to forbid the exercise of giving Orders in his Diocess under pain of Excommunication wherewith the old man being terrified and otherwise also moved in his Conscience refused to proceed in that Action alledging chiefly for reason of his forbearance want of sight This excuse being interpreted an evasion by Mr. Parker and his Fellows lessened his entertainment some of them reviling him and saying this old Fool thinketh we cannot be Bishops unless we be greased alluding to the Catholick manner of Episcopal Vnction Being thus deceived in their expectation they resolved to use Mr. Scories help an Apostate irreligious Papist who had born the name of Bishop in King Edward's time and was thought to have sufficient power to perform the Office he having cast off with his religious habit all scruple of Conscience willingly went about the matter which he performed in this sort having the Bible in his hand and they all kneeling down before him he laid it upon every one of their heads and shoulders saying Take thou Authority to Preach the Word of God sincerely and so they rose up Bishops of the new Church of England SECT I. J. S. TO this long lying Section the fittest method will be to discover the several falsities and vain conjectures as they lie in order First He vainly surmiseth great opposition was c. This is one misadventure for there was but fourteen Bishops then living whereof four were absent and then a Question may be made whether all those ten who were present did oppose it for some of them had learned the Art of compliance so exactly that they could suit to the times without any opposition for the others there was but one Abbot of Westminster and only two Lords Temporal the Earl of Shrewsbury and Viscount Montacute who did oppose it these thirteen if they had all combin'd could not make any great opposition
of Chalcedon Survey c. 2. Sect. 9. Dr. Holden Anal. of Faith saying the present State of the Protestant Church consisting of Protestant Bishops c. and their Protestant Flock not being likely to continue long no Church If this design prevailed with some crasy minds they were as imprudent as the Romish Solicitors were impudent For the Romish Church has suffered as Tragical and durable divisions as This then did for besides that long Schism formerly related in Alexander the third's time a Schism lasted till fere eversa c. as Car. speaks p. 794. That Church was at her last Gasp and in this very juncture of time their contests were so high that their great Head of Unity was put to all his Pope-craft to smother them the Disputes betwixt the Jansenists and Molinists were then so hot that both Parties pressed a decision and by consent referred the matter to the Pope who because he did not understand the points in debate would fain have declined it pretending that his Predecessor Clement the eighth after he had appointed Congregations to discuss the Articles waved it and commanded silence to both Parties which pleased neither and that he was an Old Man and had not studied Divinity but both sides still moving for a hearing because each aspersed the other with the guilt of Heresy at last being overcome with importunity he condescended But hear how the Infallible Judg determined the contest at one Congregation he rebuked the Molinists for corrupting (e) 2 Congregation July 8. St. Augustin at another for urging the Authority of the Schoolmen and not producing the Evidences of Scripture Councils (f) 10 Congregation and Fathers In all probability the Jansenists had the better of the day but it proved otherwise the Pope passed his Sentence in favour (g) Ann. 1653 whom before he had branded and paradigmatized with Insincerity of the Molinists All that can be said in excuse of this rash resolution was the most Christian King commanded the dull Canonist to dispatch vvhich so startled him that he durst trifle no longer but the main reason vvas he was at that time so busily bent upon his Papal and Donna's concernments that he was not at leisure to attend the serious discussion of that too hard Controversy for his soft Head For then he and his Propagators were consulting how to manage Campanella's Project in fomenting our intestine broils to reduce this Kingdom into a State This is certain his Nuncio Joh. (h) â—lench mot nuper in Angl. par 2. p. 7. inde Bapt. Renuncino after his arrival in Ireland endeavoured the destruction of all that stood for the King and the English Interest animating the Rebels to the most villainous outrages and because two Noble persons of the Roman Communion would not be perswaded by him to join with the Rebels he Excommunicated them This was not all the Pope by the instigation of the Barbarini's had another design on foot as Abbot Gualdi p. 143. relates even to expel his Catholick King out of his Dominions in Naples upon Ma's Anello's Rebellion to add it to the Triple Crown All is Fish that comes to St. Peter's Successors Net if the Kings be Guelphs their Kingdoms are Gibelins if they be Catholicks their Crowns are Hereticks It is the Popes business to determin emergent Controversies but upon forced put his main work is to rule over Nations to rout out c. Jer. 1.10 as his Parasites have prophaned that Text. But as the Pope and his Propagators failed in his Enterprises so N. N. and his Comrades were deceived in their design For though some were gulled with these Holy Frauds yet in that levity of disposition and easiness of change they did not act according to the common received measures of Prudence which is to stay where we are till we know where to be better For this Church at the worst was much better than that they revolted to this was a Distressed Church that a Depraved this had Scars in the Face that Ulcers in the Heart this Wounded in the Skin that Rotten in the Vitals this in it's Constitution Orthodox and Sound that Heretical and Corrupt For to state the case between the Church of England and that of Rome impartially the Quaere will be Whether for some defects in Rituals be they really such or only pretended it be more prudent to desert a Church free from Schism Heresy and Idolatry at least less subject to a suspition of any of these or to lapse to a Church most deeply Guilty or most justly presumed to be so in all these Carnalities and Corruptions If Prudence must resolve the Quaere the issue and verdict will be It is easier to remain in the Church of England than to Proselyte to Rome for no Prudent man will precipitate himself into more more apparent and more real danger for fear of a less less evident and more remote danger This only remains to be proved that the Church of Rome is Guilty or justly presumed to be so of dangerous Innovations and Corruptions which will be evidenced by these two Conclusions constringently asserted 1. The Church of Rome as it is now ordered and hath been since the times of Julius the second and Leo the tenth at least by the Pope and his Propagators in the Court thereof hath chopped and changed the Apostolical Rule of Faith by Composing a new Creed or which is as bad hath clogged and charged the Catholick Creeds with new-patched Additionals which She hath defined to be Essentials of Faith necessary to be believed by all Christians in order to their Salvation 2. This Church so managed hath depraved and subverted the Catholick and Apostolick Government and Dicipline by setting up her Bishop as the Vniversal Monarch and Pastor of the Church claiming and challenging to him an unlimited Supremacy over he whole Body of Christ and exercising this Power by Excommunicating full three parts of the Catholick Church for not submitting thereto CHAP. V. SECT I. 1. THE first Conclusion is fully evident from the famous Council (a) C. 7. Caran in can Pelt Jesuit in summa illius capitis difference as well as contrariety Conc. Flor. Sess 10. Conc. Tom. 7. p. 641. D. 644. B. at Ephesus for the maintenance wherof the Popes are sworn and therefore cannot without the guilt of Perjury reject its Sentence This Decreed That it should not be lawful for any man to Publish or Compose another Faith or Creed than that which was defined by the Nicene Council and that whosoever shall dare to Compose or offer any such thing to any Persons willingly to be Converted from Judaism or Heresy if they be Bishops and Clerks as the Popes be should be Deposed if Lay-men should be Anathematized When this Authority was urged by the Greeks to the Latines in the Council of Florence they only Answered That this Canon did not forbid another explication agreeable to the truth contained in that Creed but did indeed
have confessed Imposition of Hands and the solemn words of Investiture Receive ye the Holy Ghost The Scripture knows no other Essentials but these which is also acknowledged by some of your Learned Partizans and these are constantly used by our Bishops who received their Ordinations from their Predecessors by an uninterrupted line of succession whether from British or French or Roman Bishops is not material because each of these had their Mission in your expression by a continued succession from the Apostles who planted the Faith and laid hands on their first Successors of these Nations Cardinal Pole the Papal Legat by his Dispensation and Pope Paul the 4th by his Ratification setled the Ordinations in King Edw. the 6th his Reign with this only Proviso that those then so Ordained would return to the Vnity of the Church that 's sure in their and your sense to adhere to the Pope and acknowledg his begged Sovereign Monarchical Power This they could not have granted neither would they if they had suspected any defect in the Essentials of their Ordination It is not in the power of the Pope or Cardinals to ratify their Orders who had none or dispence with them to execute any Function in the Church who had no Authority from Christ or his Apostles for it if they did your Church hath concluded the Act sacrilegious and null if we may believe some of your Controvertists 2. By the Constitutions of the Church what hath been universally observed and was decreed by the Councel of Carthage in St. Aug. time hath been and is still retained in the Church of England 3. By the Laws of the Kingdom both this and the others will appear by the Records upon both these accounts Bishop Jewel defended this Church against Mr. Harding Fol. 129. I am a Priest by the same Order c you were and after our Bishops succeed the Bishops before our days being Elected Confirmed Consecrated and admitted as they were Mr. Mason hath proved this beyond all cavil your own Associates Mr. Higgins Mr. Hart Father Garnet and Father Old-corn took the pains to search the Registers and after that Arch-Bishop Abbot caused them to be shewed to four more who after they had perused did acknowledg them Authentical and undeniable Ex abundanti Cudsemius the Jesuit Lib. 11. de Desp Cal. causa hath freely confessed the English Nation are not Hereticks because they remain in a perpetual succession of Bishops Monsieur Militiere in his Letter to his Majesty Charles the Second hath declared the same Lastly look to your own Succession in which by your own Laws there be several Nullities by Vacancies Schisms and Simonies which if they were fully charged upon you would puzzel you to clear Having dispatched your Questions the Texts of Scripture are to be considered No man taketh this Honour c. True but this Honour is to be had in any Apostolical Church as well as yours which hath Elder Sisters particularly the British here in England confitente Baronio Faith cometh c. Very good But the Object of Hearing is not the Pope's decrees or Trent definitions but the word of Faith as before Gal. 118. The rest were true before there was a Church at Rome were true when she became an holy Church are true now it is an unsound rotten member of the Church would be eternally true if there were no Church at Rome nor Roman Bishop The Church shall not fail but Christ never setled this priviledg on the Roman or any Church of one denomination Christ's Church never faileth so long as there are Confessors through the World who contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS FINIS Some Books Printed for Henry Brome in Defence of the Church of England since the Year 1666. A Companion to the Temple or an Help to Devotion being an Exposition on the Common-Prayer in two Voll By Tho. Comber A. M. Lex Tallionis or an Answer to Naked Truth The Popish Apology reprinted and Answered A Seasonable Discourse against Popery and the Defence on 't The Difference betwixt the Church and Court of Rome considered Considerations touching the true way to suppress Popery to which is added an Historical Account of the Reformation in England Friendly Advice to the Roman Cath. of England enlarged Dr. Du Moulin's Answer to the Lord Castlemain his Papal Tyrannie in England With two Sermons on Novemb. 5th Fourteen Controversial Lords for and against Popery in quarto Beware of two Extremes Popery and Presbytery octav The Reformed Monasterie or the Love of Jesus or a Sure Way to Heaven A Guide to Eternitie by John Bona. Extracted out of the Writings of the Holy Fathers and Ancient Philosophers