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A30359
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The infallibility of the Church of Rome examined and confuted in a letter to a Roman priest / by Gilbert Burnet.
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Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing B5805; ESTC R15581
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20,586
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38
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different substance from the Father how shall I know to which of these Decisions I must submit my self The Histories give account of these Councils as called by the same Authority for all were summoned by the Emperors Writ all are represented to have been General Councils and we are told of a greater appearance of Bishops in some of them than were at Nice which of these must therefore determin my faith 12. What reason have I to believe any Council is general from which all the Greek and Eastern Bishops are excluded upon so slight a pretence as that they believe the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father by the Son and not from the Father and the Son and that in their rooms then are substituted a great many mock Bishops who are neither Canonically elected for these places nor perform any part of the Pastoral charge in their pretended Diocesses but are onely named by the Popes and brought to Councils to make so many Votes 13. Suppose the Pope give out a general summons for all Bishops can this be more than a Meeting of all within his Patriarchate for on what grounds can he pretend a right to summon his fellow Patriarchs who by the Councils of Nice Constantinople and Chalcedon are declared equal to him and therefore since the Emperors in the primitive times summoned their whole Empire to a General Council they did it by their own Authority as appears by all the Acts and Synodal Epistles of the first General Councils What power then hath the Pope to call this great Meeting of the Church And even these General Councils the Emperors called seem onely to have been the Councils of the Roman Empire called Oecumeneal as the Romans called their Empire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Christians of India and the more remote parts of Asia were called to none of these Councils nor could the Emperours Writ reach them 14. Suppose the Popes Writ goes over all Christendom must all the Bishops come to the Council or not Or what number is necessary If we examine the Subscriptions of the first Councils what ever reverence we justly have for their decisions we cannot call them Oecumenical since there were so few Bishops from the Western Churches in them Nor do I see a reason to convince me that a whole Province or Nation can depute a few to represent them such Plenipotentiaries may do well in Political matters but in a Judicatory that pretends to Infallibility you must give me a good Warrant before I believe such a deputation can inspire one with more degrees of Infallibility The Bishops of a Province can indeed send their decisions by any of their number but this is not the method of Councils where every Bishop hath but one suffrage though but one from a Nation though another Method was used at Basil. But in the case that a Prince is so dissatisfied with the Pope that he will suffer none of his Bishops to appear at the Council as it was in the Translation of the Council of Trent to Bologna to which the Emperour would suffer none of his Bishops to go and after that in the next Session at Trent to which the French King would permit none of his Bishops to go Whether can such a meeting be called a general Council or not No man can be obliged to that which is not in his power and he cannot forfeit his right because of a force on his Person Nor can it be a free Council to which all have not free access Those also who live at a great distance from the place where the Council sits and either through Infirmity or Poverty cannot perform the Journey are in a hard case For that which is morally impossible cannot be overcome If then the meeting must be of all the Bishops I do not see such a Constitution is practicable or how all the Bishops can be brought together And if the Infallibility be spread among all no reason can perswade me that a packt Meeting can have the power of the whole because the Writ was general 15. The Bishops in their decisions either go upon immediate Inspiration or judge as men according to the Premises laid before them I know you do not pretend to the former but if you did I would ask you what grounds there were to believe this For if you gave any good ones I should submit to the suffrage of every single Bishop since every person Inspired must be Master of my belief And why should this Inspiration rest on some and not on all since all bear the same Character But I insist no longer on this because I know you reject it If then they judge as rational men from the reasons that are laid before them why may not other persons examine those Reasons as well as they If an Inspired person speak to me in the name of God I must submit to him but if he speak not by Commandment but by permission then it is not the Lord but he that speaks And though I owe great reverence to him as to one that has obtained grace to be faithful yet I may examine what he says in that stile Therefore if they proceed according to the Rules of Discourse and Reason I presume I may make bold to examine both the truth of the Premises and the Conclusions they drew from them Since as there can be no more strength in the Conclusion than was in the Premises so the light of Nature and Reason directs me to know what is a well deduced Conclusion 16. Whether can that be called a free Council where the Bishops have sworn obedience to the Bishops of Rome contrary to their Liberties and the Primitive practice In which time all the Bishops pretended an equality in their Character and called the Bishops of Rome their Colleagues their Brethren and fellow-Bishops and treated them as Equals in their freedom with them as appears from the Instances of Irenius Cyprian and the Contest of the Affrican Bishops concerning Appeals to the See of Rome Nor did they yield him any other subjection but what practice had brought in by reason of the eminence of that City which was then Mistris of the World and because they also believed St. Peter and St. Paul had founded it with their Labours and Bloud But these Bishops who have so sordidly and meanly given up their rights to that high Pretender and have sworn obedience to him cannot be the proper Judges and Representatives of a Church whose Liberties they have abandoned I had almost said betrayed 17. Whether must I believe the Decrees of a General Council before they are approved by the Pope or not If the Council be infallible in her Decrees then I am bound to submit to them for all the Popes rejecting them But if the Council be fallible then the Popes ratification cannot make the Decrees of the Council Infallible For things cannot change their natures and if the Vote of the Council was by an Infallible direction then
THE Infallibility OF THE CHURCH OF ROME Examined and Confuted IN A LETTER TO A Roman Priest By GILBERT BURNET LONDON Printed by M. Clark and are to be Sold by H. Brome and B. Tooke in S. Paul's Churchyard 1680. A Letter to a Priest of the Roman Church wherein the Grounds of their pretended Infallibilities are called for and examined in some Queries SIR WHatever our differences be in many points of Religion we agree in this That it is the great concern of Mankind to examin well the grounds that lead him to his belief in matters of so high a nature You always tell me That out of the true Catholick Church there is no salvation adding That this Catholick Church is the Roman though this seems to be a Bull as plainly as a general particular Indeed so severe a Certificate makes me look to my self I confess this method of dealing with me seems not so fair nor rational For if any man study to draw me into a design by telling me That as I must ingage in it all I am Master of so I must surrender up the conduct of it to others of whose honesty industry and discretion I must not doubt I presently apprehend a trappan and you will not dispute it much that he deserves to be cosened who suffers himself to be imposed upon so grosly But certainly if my soul be more valuable than my estate and if eternity be preferrable to the vanishing shadows here below then I have great reason to be strongly prejudiced against those who would oblige me to hazard my soul in a tame and blind subjection to the Dictates of any man or Society of men Reason being the only part of our Nature that was born to Liberty and can defie all the severe rigours of Tyranny You will easily believe I cannot be induced on slight grounds to forgo this dearest and most essential piece of my brother-right And believe me it was enough that the Roman Church for a Succession of some Ages was Mistris of the Crowns and Empires of her Vassals and had the dispose of the Lives and Goods of the better part of Europe This was highly severe though Conscience had been left free The Law makes my House my Sanctuary but if I stir abroad I must be at my hazard So whatever Power the Civil Magistrates or the Guides of the Church may have over my Actions or profession of my Faith yet as long as it keeps within my head and breast its natural dwelling place it is a violation of the sacredness of that Sanctuary to invade it there or make it prisoner And when I further consider that Reason is nothing but a communication of Divine Light to make me understand those Propositions of which some hints were born with my Soul and the rest are offered to me in Sacred Writings if I throw off this and betake my self to the Dictates of others I exchange the Sun for the Moon and the Day for the Twilight and renounce the liberty of the servants of God for a bondage that excludes the freedom of a thought And at least if I were to come under so heavy a yoke I must before-hand be well assured of the sacredness of the Masters of my Faith No man can be wheedled to trust himself to any of whose fidelity and good conduct he is not well assured but he that commits himself to noted and known Impostors is the object of all mens scorn He must therefore have a great opinion of his own Rhethorick and of my easiness that attempts to perswade me to subject my belief to the Verdict of a Succession of men who do not so much as pretend to high learning much less to be eminent Saints and in whom I can discern no great Characters but of Temporal Authority and high pretensions to an uncontrouled Jurisdiction and neither of these can with any reason determine my belief for one unerring Judg. But since I observe both from my own knowledg and what I hear by others that you of the Mission place your greatest strength in the Authority and Infallibility of your Church and ply every body most with it I have therefore considered this with all the application of mind I am Master of as the fundamental Article of your belief For if your Church be priviledged from error all her Decrees must certainly pass for Oracles and there is no disputing them but if she be subject to error she is the boldest Imposturess that ever appeared in the World who dares pretend to an unerring assistance in all her decisions without good ground Suffer me therefore to offer you a few Queries of which when I am satisfyingly resolved I will be brought so much nearer a belief from which as long as these difficulties lie in my way I must confess my self at a great distance 1. And first let me ask you What necessity there is of an Infallible Iudg to whose Decrees all must yield absolute obedience If you convince me this is necessary I shall without difficulty yield to you that there is such a Judicatory since I am perswaded our blessed Saviour who loved his Church so dearly as to die for her would certainly provide her with all that was necessary for her preservation But here I know you triumph in the supposed necessity of such a Judg without whom there is no preserving either Truth or Peace For if there be not a Court to whose Award all must stand then every man is at liberty to believe as he will and there is no end of errors Which appears plainly in the Churches that have thrown oft the Roman Authority but are subdivided into many fractions which are the natural results of their opinions for if every man must search the Scriptures and believe what he thinks is the sense of them then according to the variety of mens complexions educations or inclinations there shall be a numberless variety of opinions And if none have authority over the perswasions of others they cannot be blamed much less condemned for their opinions This seems such an inconvenience that the Church must be in a very bad condition if there be no remedy for it This Sir I suppose is in short the strength of all you will alledge on this head but all this does not prevail with me to acknowledge an Infallible Iudicatory for to live well is the chief end of Religion and to think and believe aright is a necessary mean for that end from which I infer That if there be no necessity of an Infallible Power to make men live well neither is there any for making us think aright and certainly vice and immorality is as opposite to the designs of the Gospel as error now it is confessed there are no certain and infallible ways of restraining vice And if it must needs be a defect in the Constitution of the Church if there be no infallible means to restrain error what must I conclude if there be no infallible restraint