SECTION 1.
Whether the Roman Opinions, which differ from the Church of England, be the Old Religion?

I doubt not, but these who have been educated in the Romish Religion, as well as those who have inconsiderately turned to it, do please themselves in fan­cying they are of the Old Religion; and hence they assume and appropriate to themselves the Name of Catholicks, upon this presumption, that they do in­tirely, and in all things, agree with the Ancient and Universal Church: But (my Friends) if you have the patience to en­quire, you will find there is no good ground for this perswasion; it being evi­dent the Roman is not the Old Religion, in any other Articles, but only in those which are found in the Apostles Creed, [Page 8] or founded upon the plain words of Ho­ly Scripture; for that is the Old Reli­gion which God revealed at first, and which Christ and his Apostles taught. That is truest which was the first (saith Tertullian) and that was first, which was from the beginning Tertul. in Mar­cio [...]. lib. 4.. So S. Cyprian; We ought not to regard so much, what some others before us have thought fit, as what Christ himself, who was before all, hath done Cyprian. ad Caecilian. Ep. 63.. Now, if that be the Old Religion, which is taught in the Holy Scripture and the Creed, herein the Religion of Rome cannot pretend to be Older than the Religion of this Church, because we hold all these Articles as well as they; yea, if the case be rightly stated, the Church of Englands Faith is the Old Religion, and not that of Rome; for she professeth, To believe nothing as an Article of Faith, but what is read in Holy Scripture, or may be proved thereby: Ar­tic. vi. But the Roman Church declares, They receive Traditions with the same ve­neration [Page 9] that they do the Scriptures. Con­cil. Trident. Sess. 4. So that we hold all the Principles of the Old Religion, and no other; but they (under the pretence of Traditions) have invented and added many points to the Old Religion, which are not mentioned in the Bible, and De­creed other Articles contrary to the Old Religion recorded in Scripture, and all these are a New Religion; and yet these are the Doctrines in which we differ. In all the Principles which are truly the Old Religion we and they generally do agree; but if you take the Religion of the Roman Church for the Doctrines in which they differ from us, it may be justly said, they are of the New Religion, and we of the Old, since our Religion was recorded in Scripture sixteen hun­dred years ago▪ (as our Adversaries seem to confess, when they call us, Scriptuarii, Scripture-men: Prateol.) whereas all that which is properly their Religion, is of much later Date. And that I may not be thought to invent this Charge, or to accuse the Roman▪ Church wrongfully, I will instance in the most principal of [Page 10] the Doctrines wherein we differ, and bring in your own Doctors as Witnesses of this Truth.

1. That Prayers to the Saints are not mentioned by Christ nor his Apostles, is confessed by Salmeron, Lindan, and Bannes Salmeron in 1 Tim. cap. 2. Lin­dan. Panop. l. 3. c. 5. Bannes 2. 2 ae qu. 1. Art. 10. conclus. 2.. Etherianus saith as much of Prayers for the Dead Hugo Etheri­an. de regressu ani­mae.. Indul­gences are not to be found in Scripture, nor in the Ancient Doctors, say Durandus, Major, Cajetan, and Antoninus Durand. 4. Sent. dist. 20. qu. 3. Major. 4. d. 2. qu. 2. Cajetan. Opusc. 15. cap. 1. Antonin. part. 1. sum. tit. 10. cap. 3.. Transubstantiation it self cannot be proved by Scripture, if you will take three Cardi­nals words for itFisher de Captiv. Babyl. c. 10. De Alliaco in 4. Sent. qu. 6. art. 1. Cajetan. ap. Sua­rez. Tom. 3. disp. 46.. And if our designed brevity would allow it, the like might be pro­ved of all the rest.

But we must proceed to shew, there are some New things in the Romish Reli­gion, directly contrary to the Scripture. [Page 11] The taking the Cup from the Laity is contrary to our Saviours Institution, as that very Council of Constance confesseth which first enjoyned it; for they say, the Sacrament shall be given in one kind only to the people, Non obstante, &c. notwithstanding our Lord did appoint it in both: Concil. Constant. Sess. 13. And your own Authentick Vulgar Translati­on (as if this Innovation had been fore­seen) where the Greek only hath, We are all partakers of one bread, adds [& de uno Calice] and of one Cup: 1 Cor. 10. 17. The Veneration which you give to Images, seems to all impartial eyes direct­ly contrary to the Second Commande­ment; and though your Priests will not directly confess it, yet their general leaving out the Second Commandement in your Catechisms, and cutting the Tenth in Two, to keep up the number, and conceal the omission from the Vulgar, is a fair Evidence, they themselves suspe­cted that this Commandement made a­gainst them, and feared others would apprehend it so. To these you may add, Praying in an unknown Tongue which [Page 12] S. Paul condemns in one whole Chapter, 1 Corinth. xiv. as some of your own Commentators on the place confess: As also the making Saints and Angels your Mediators to God, when the same Apostle positively saith, There is but one Mediator, viz. Christ Jesus: 1 Tim. ii. 5. All these therefore cannot rightly be accounted any part of the Old Religion, properly so called: But if we shall descend lower, these, and many other Points of your Religion are so far from being the Old Religion, that the Writers of the Roman Church do acknowledge, they were not known to the Primitive Fathers; yea, they record the very time when most of them were imposed. The Doctrine of Purgatory was first built upon the Credit of those fabulous Dialogues attributed to Gregory the First; or if they were his (which many doubt) this was six hun­dred years after Christ, and it was not generally believed in the Church five hundred years after, as we learn from an Old Historian, Otto Frising. Chronic. An. 1146. And as for the Prayers made to deliver Souls from thence (that gainful [Page 13] Article of your Church) we are told by your own Authors, that the first who caused them to be appointed by your Church, was Odilo Abbot of Clugny, An. 1000.Ranul. Hig­den Polychron, l. 6. c. 15. Petrus Da­mian. Vit. Odilon.. The worshipping of God by Images, was not allowed by the Ancient Fathers, say your own Authors, Clemangis, Polyd. Virgil, and Peresius Aiala Clemangis de nov. Celebr. II. Polydor. Virgil de Invent. rer. l. 6. Aiala de Tradit. p. 2. c. de Imag.. And all men know, this kind of use of Images can be derived no high­er (as to its being Decreed) than that de­spicable CouncilConcil. secun­dum Nicaen. An. 787. in the Eighth Century; but both the Doctrine and the Council also was re­jected for many years after by the French, English, and German ChurchesHoveden An­nal. Par. 1▪ p. 405. Matth. Westmon. Anno. 793.. Indul­gences are not Ancient, as Bishop Fisher con­fessesFish. in 18. Artic. Luther.: Nor is there any good proof in your own Authors for them before the [Page 14] time of Pope Alexander 3. A. 1160, or the Council of Clermont however, An. 1096Scioppius de Indulg. cap. 12.. And the first who made Mony of them was Bo­niface 9th. An. 1390. as Platina and Po­lydore Virgil tell usPlatin. in Vit. Polyd. Virgil. de Invent. l. 8. cap. 1.. And the first Jubilee (the great Market for them) was not an hun­dred years beforeTemp. Boni­fac. 8. An. 1300. Polyd. Virg. ut su­pra, l. 8. c. 1.. The forcing all Priests to vow Single Life, and renounce their Wives, was first obtruded upon the Church by Pope Hildebrand An. 1074. Matth. Westmon. eod. An. Vincent. Spec. hist. l. 24. c. 45. Antonin. lib. 16. cap. 1. §. 21.: With­out any Precedent (saith an Old Historian) and (as many thought) of an indiscreet Zeal, contrary to the Holy Fathers Opi­nion Sigebert. Chron. ad A. 1074.. And yet he was not obeyed here in England in this for above a hundred years after; for our Ancient Records say, All these Decrees a­vailed nothing, for the Priests by the Kings consent still had their Wives, as for­merly [Page 15] Histor. Petro­burg. Anno 1127. ap. Spelm. T. 2. p. 36.. Auricular Confession to a Priest was never impo­sed as necessary until the Lateran CouncilConcil. Later. Can. 21. An. 1215.: It being little above fif­ty years before, that we are informed by the fa­mous Master of the Sentences, and by Gratian your great compiler of the Decrees, that it was in our choice whether we would confess to God only, or to the Priest alsoPeter Lomb. l. 4. sentent. dist. 77. Gratian. de Poenit. dist. 1. c. 89. circ. An. 1150; and T. Aquinas confesseth this was the Opinion then Tho. Aqu. in 4. Sent. dist. 17.. Transubstantiation (the discriminating Do­ctrine of your present Church) was not held by the Fathers, as your own Doctors acknow­ledge Gregor. de Valent. de Transub. lib. 2. cap. 7. Cardin. Cusan. Ex­ercit. l. 6.; and one of the Infallible Heads of your Church af­firms, That the Elements cease not to be of the substance and na­ture of Bread and Wine Gelasius Pap. de secundis Naturis contra Eutych.. The Schoolmen [Page 16] confess Transubstantiation is not Ancient Ap. Suarez. Tom. 1. in Euch. disp. 7.: And two of the most famous of them plainly deny itScotus in 4. Sent. cap. II. qu. 3. Durand. in 4. Sent. dist. 10. qu. 1. n. 13.. The Administring the Sacra­ment in One kind, is no older than the Council of Constance (as was noted before)An. 1415.; the practice of the whole Church, and of Rome it self being otherwise till thenT. Aquin. in Johan. 6. Alphons. à Castro adv. haeres. lib. 6.: Finally, many things were ne­ver decreed and imposed as necessary to be believed till the late Council of Trent; such as the equalling Apocryphal books and Traditions to the undoubted Canon of Scripture, Justification by the merit of Good works, &c. Which Council of Trent was never fully owned by the Ca­tholicks of France Bochell. de Decr. Eccles. Gallic. l. 5. tit. 20.: Nor was it ever receiv­ed as a lawful Council by this English Nation.

It would be too tedious to run over all the rest of those Points wherein the Roman differs from the English Church, [Page 17] or else it might be shewed, that the Ap­peals to Rome, and the Pope's Ʋniversal claim, Veneration of Relicks, Invocation of the Blessed Virgin, Pilgrimages, &c. were wholly unknown to the three first Centuries, as the ingenuous Romanists will confess, and our Writers have largely proved. By all which it appears, that the Old Religion of Rome for the first three hundred years, had no formal In­vocation of Saints nor Angels; no Pur­gatory, nor Prayers to be delivered thence; no Images, no Transubstantiation, no half Communion, no Jubilees, no Indulgences' no constrained Coelibate, no Prayers in an unknown Tongue, no customary Auricular Confession, no Apocrypha in her Canon of Scripture, nor the rest: Now if you strip your Church of these Doctrines, she retains scarce any thing, but the Prote­stant Articles of the Church of England; But if you take Rome with these Addi­tions, her Religion is not so Old by far as the Religion of this Church. Perhaps it will be pretended, Though these Decrees were made in later Ages, yet the Determi­nations were made by vertue of Apostolical [Page 18] Traditions preserved in the Roman Church from the very beginning; and upon this Pretence your Late Writers of Contro­versie have generally laid aside all Argu­ments from Scripture and Ancient Fa­thers, and resolve all into Oral Tradition and the Infallibility of the Roman Church: But what is this but to confess, that the Scriptures, the Ancient Fathers, and all written Records (which are Im­partial witnesses) do make against them? only these unknown Traditions, which are only in their own keeping (and may be of their own devising) these, they say, bear witness for them, which is to make themselves Judges in their own Cause; and may justly occasion your enquiry, whether the former Popes knew of these Traditions or no? if not, how then came the later Popes to the knowledge of them? If they knew of them of old, why did they let them sleep so long, and suffer the Church to erre for so many years for want of them? Did they discharge their Ʋniversal Headship well in this Conceal­ment? But in very truth it is Evident, the first Popes knew of no such Traditi­ons, [Page 19] and the later Popes have invented them to support their New designs; which appears by the Ancient Popes declaring directly contrary to these pretended Apo­stolical Traditions, of which take a few Examples. Pope Gaius writes, That the Righteousness of the Saints avails nothing to our Pardon or Justifi­cation Gaii Epist. Decret. ad Felicem, ap. Binium T. 1. p. 173.. Pope Gelasius denies Transubstantiati­on, as was noted just nowGelas. de se­cundis Nat. contr. Eutych.. The famous Gregory the Great saith, He himself was the Em­perors Servant, and owed him obedience Grego. Mag. Epist. ad Maurit. lib. 2. Ep. 62.; and declares, That God had given the Emperor power over Priests as well as others Idem ad The­od. lib. 2. Ep. 65.. The same Pope disowns the Title of Ʋniversal Bi­shop, as unfit for him or any otherIdem. ad Eu­log. lib. 7. Epist. 30.. He also determines, that it is lawful for Priests who cannot contain to marry Respons. ad Interrog. secundam Aug. Cantuariens.: And he allows I­mages for History and Memory onlyAd Seren. lib. 7. Epist. 109.. [Page 20] A later than he also in the Canon Law Decrees, that in such Diocess where there be people of Divers Languages, The Bishop shall provide fit men to celebrate Divine offices, and Minister the Sacraments of the Church according to the diversity of Rites and variety of their Languages: Decretal. Greg. l. 1. Tit. 31. cap. 14. The aforesaid Pope Gregory the First affirms, that the Book of Maccabees is not Canonical Greg. Mag. Expos. in Job. l. 19. c. 17.. And as well the Ordinary Gloss, as the Old Editions of the Bibles which were allowed by the Roman Bishops, and used in that Church before the Council of Trent, do all distinguish between the Canonical Books, and those which the Prote­stant Church now call Apocrypha Gloss. Ordin. An. 1200. in Prae­fat. de libris Canon. & non Canon. Biblia Complu tens. in Praef à Card. Ximenio ap­prob. à Leone x. An. 1502. Biblia Vulg. Edit. Basil. cum Gloss. Ord. An. 1506. Biblia S. Pagnini & Birkmanni, & Vatabli per Rob. Stephan. A. 1541. Yet the contrary to all these hath been afterwards decreed upon pretence of being Apostolical Traditions: By which [Page 21] account you may see (if your Prejudices hinder not) that the present Roman Church (as it differs from the Church of England) retains neither the Old Religion of the Scriptures, nor that of the Primitive Church in general, nay, nor that of the Ancient Church of Rome; for they have omitted some Points, added others, and altered so many, that though Rome keep the Old Name, it doth not keep the Old Faith. We may now seek Rome in the midst of Rome (as Juvencus Vitalis said): Nor can it be denied (saith Another) but the Roman Church is not a little diffe­rent from its Ancient beauty and splendor Cassander de Officio boni Viri.. There is not the Faith, the Manners, nor the Worship of the Primitive Roman Church; and therefore according to S. Ambrose, They that have not Pe­ter's Faith cannot suc­ceed to Peter's Inheri­tance Ambros. de Poenitent. lib. 1. cap. 6.; and as S. Hierome observes, They are not the Sons of the Saints who possess their places, but they which follow their Works: And, That [Page 22] only (saith Lactantius) is the Catholick Church which retains the true Worship of God Lactant. In­stit. lib. 4. cap. ult.. You might have seen and heard in Rome of Old, a Bishop without a Triple Crown or the Title of Ʋniversal, Churches without Images, Priests under no Vows of Single life, Litanies without any names of Saints or Ora pro nobis, the Mass celebrated in a known Tongue, Bi­bles calling divers books Apocrypha, which are now reckoned Canonical Scripture; People not enslaved by Auricular Con­fession, not debarred of the Cup, not frighted with Purgatory, nor impoverish­ed with purchasing Prayers and Indul­gences to save them from thence, &c.

To conclude therefore, Why may you not justly desert them, who have in so many things departed from the Old Re­ligion, taught by Christ and his Apostles, believed by the Ancient Fathers, and re­ceived by the first and best Bishops of that same Church? If you desire to be really of the Old Religion, nay, if you would hold the Faith of the Primitive [Page 23] Roman Church, you may come much nearer to it, by embracing the Religion of your own Country, than by retaining the Opinions of the Modern Church of Rome, which are most of them meer In­novations: And though you have reve­renced them while you supposed them Ancient and Apostolical, yet we hope you will now renounce them when they are evidently discovered to be Gibeonites disguised on purpose to deceive, and (not­withstanding their mouldy Pretences, as if they had come from far, and were descended from Ancient Times) their true Original is much later and nearer to this present Age.

And now, Secondly, it will be easie to determine, That as the Roman is not the Old Religion, so neither ought the Pro­fessors of it to appropriate to themselves the Name of Catholick. For whether we take it in the Primary and Grammatical sense for [Ʋniversal], or in its common acceptation for [True Believers,] The Romanist hath no peculiar Right to this Venerable Title: First, because their Faith in those Points wherein it differs [Page 24] from the Church of England is not Uni­versal; for as the judicious Mr. Brerewood computes, the Christians holding the Faith of Rome, are not above a fourth part of those who be­lieve in ChristBrerewoods Enquir. of Langu. and Rel.: And the excellent Author of Europae Speculum Sir Edwyn Sands Europ. Spec. p. 268, 269, &c. thus makes out the Account: The Greek Church (saith he) in number exceeds any other—, and the Pro­testants in number and circuit of Territory are very near equal to the Papal part, these are two fourth parts: to which if we add the Oriental Christians, which are not of the Roman Communion, and those under Prester John or the Abassine Chri­stians, we have another fourth part of the Christian people; and then the Roma­nists, are but one fourth part of Christians only. And it is very odd to say, that the fourth part is the whole: And surely (my Friends) you cannot seriously think the Roman Church to be the Ʋniversal (or Catholick) Church in this sense, when you remember that the Pope's Authority [Page 25] is not acknowledged by the Generality of those Christians living in England, Scotland and Ireland, with the Plantati­ons thereunto belonging, nor by those of Denmark and Sweden, nor by those of Transylvania, Walachia and Moldavia, nor by the large Church of Russia, nor by the populous States and Provinces of the Dutch, with their many Plantations a­broad, nor by at least five parts of six of the vast Country of Upper Germany, nor by two parts of three of the Switzers, nor by those of Geneva and Piedmont, nor by very many in France, Hungary, Poland, &c. How many Millions of Christians are there in the Eastern World who have no dependance on the Roman Church? The Christians of the Greek Church (pro­perly so called) under the three Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria and Anti­och, those of Armenia (who are professed Enemies of Rome, and yearly Excommu­nicate the Pope). The Georgian Chri­stians, with many other lesser Names in Asia, the Abassine Christians in Africa; all these are not of the Communion of the Roman Church, and therefore, how [Page 26] can that Church pretend to the Title of Ʋniversal, or Catholick in this sense? But secondly, if you say you are Catholicks, that is, true Believers in all Points; I de­sire you to consider, that none say so but your Selves, and 'tis suspicious their Wit­ness is not true, who bear witness to them­selves, S. John v. 31. And where so many Articles of Faith are New, it is probable some are False; since the Oldest things in Religion are the truest and the best: So that upon the whole Enquiry, the Church of England may more justly claim the Title of Catholick, because the Principles thereof are few and clearly deduced from Scripture, believed in the Primitive Church, and universally received by all sorts of Christians, who differ in some Ceremonies; but for the Points, which this Church ac­counts necessary to Salvation, the whole Christian World generally agrees in them. And since the Religion of the Church of England is the most Ancient and most Ʋniversal, you will be more truly of the Old Religion, and more properly styled Catholicks by embracing the Faith pro­fessed in your own Country, and dis­owning [Page 27] those who damn all Christians but them of their own Party, although it be Evident there are in the World, Christians far more in number than they, and among those many equal in Learning and superior in Piety to the best of the Roman Church, who are reprobated and sentenced to Eternal Flames by their un­charitable Anathema's.

SECTION II.
Whether the said Opinions were not introduced for evil Ends?

ALthough all this be matter of Fact, and acknowledged by your own Writers, yet I must expect, the venerable Esteem you have so long had for the Ro­man Church, will make you slow to be­lieve this deserved Charge of Innovation; and perhaps you will wonder how so pure, so Celebrated, and so Orthodox a Church, as Rome Primitive was, should vary so much from her first Faith, yet [Page 28] since the Change is so Evident, and so well attested, I hope at least your Curio­sity will tempt you to Enquire: First, For what ends she should bring in these New Doctrines. Secondly, By what means they became so generally believed. Thirdly, Of what nature the things themselves are. Fourthly, Whether there be Authority sufficient in the Roman Church to Impose them on the whole Christian World. Fifthly, Whether the Catholicks of Eng­land ought to be swayed by that Authority to embrace them: And if in examining these Particulars any thing shall be spo­ken which sounds harshly to your ears, (accustomed to hear nothing but Enco­miums of Rome) I shall desire you to consider, that Truth is seldom grateful to Offenders; and I must say with one of the Writers of the Popes Lives, We relate these things because they were done, and if the Popes would not have base or evil things reported of them, they must do no such things, or if they do them, not fancy they can be so concealed, as that they shall not be known nor related to Posterity: Papyrius Masson. de Vit. Pont. For my [Page 29] own part, I profess, I take no delight in Accusations; nor shall I say any thing out of malice to that Church, but out of pity to the Souls of those who without reason dote upon it: If you enquire, What ends the Roman Church could have to bring in these New Doctrines? I Reply, The first decay of that Church began in her Manners. For after there were Chri­stian Magistrates (saith S. Hierome) the Church became fuller of Riches and emp­tier of Vertue Hieronym. Vitâ Malach.. And for the Roman Bishops, they began very early to affect a Dominion be­yond the bounds of Priest­hood, as Socrates notesSocrat. hist. lib. 7. c. 11.; which made S. Basil say thirteen hundred years ago, I hate the Pride of that Church Basil. Epist▪ 10. & Baronius Tom. 4. An. 327. §. 32., and caused a Heathen Historian of that Age to say, The Roman Bishops were richly clad, carried in Litters, and profuse in their feastings Ammian. Marcellin. hist. lib. 27.; But the faults of that Age were small in re­spect [Page 30] of After-times, for as their wealth and power increased, their manners grew still worse and worse, as we find by the complaints of Salvian, and many others, till at length about the ninth Age your own Baronius saith, The face of the Ro­man Church was become most filthy, when lewd and potent Curtezans swayed all there: At whose pleasure Sees were chang­ed, Bishops placed, and which is horrid to Pious ears, their Paramors were thrust into S. Peter's Chair, false Popes which only serve to fill up so great a space of Time in the Catalogue of Ro­man Bishops Baron. Annal. Tom. 10. An. 912. §. 8.. And a Writer who lived in those Times tells us. The World was amazed at the Manners of the RomansGerbert. E­pist. 40. ad Ste­phanum Rom. Eccl. Diacon.. It is strange (saith another Historian) how far in that Age they were degenerated from the Piety of the Old Popes Sabellicus, Enne ad. 9. l. 2.. This Age (as Another speaks) was especially unhappy in this, that for a­bout an hundred and fifty years, there were [Page 31] fifty Popes wholly fallen from the Vertue of their Predecessors, being disorderly and Apostatical rather than Apostolical Genebrard. Chronolog. lib. 4. 10. Secul. init.. And if our brevity would per­mit it, we could shew out of Platina, Onuphrius, and Others of your own Writers, that there was no Re­formation in all the Ages, while these New Doctrines were in coyning: Now it is the Great Philosopher's observation, That Wickedness is de­structive of good Princi­ples Aristot. E­thic. lib. 6.. So that it is no wonder, if in such Decays of Piety, and such a flood of Iniquity, the Roman Church did bring in many New Articles suitable to her Manners; and I think when Pride, Luxury and Covetousness possess the Chair, we can hardly expect any other Laws, but such as shall gratifie these affections: And the Practices as well as the Decrees of Rome for divers of the latter Centuries have so apparently tend­ed this way, that it hath been taken no­tice of by all those of her own Commu­nion, whose affection hath not rob'd [Page 32] them of their discerning Powers; yea, even in Catholick Countries it hath aba­ted much of the Reverence formerly paid to that See, by reason the designs thereof are so apparently Secular, tend­ing not to the Salvation of Souls, but the support of their own Grandeur: Which makes me admire our English Romanists should hug their Chains, and adore those who abuse their well-meaning Devotion with Articles of Faith serving rather to carry on the Designs of the Imposers, than the Salvation of their over credu­lous Believers: Methinks an easie appre­hension might discover, that the Roman Guides govern you by Principles that have more of Machiavel in them, than of Conscience or Gospel-simplicity, and a little consideration will inform you, that those things which they teach you to call Reli­gion, are Arts to enslave and impoverish you, and Engines to advance themselves to the highest pitch of honour and abun­dance: S. Bernard (though a great friend to the Roman Church) saw this, when he said, At Rome all regard is given to Honour, but to Holiness none at [Page 33] all Bernard. de Consid. l. 4. c. 2.. Were this the fault of particular mens Evil management (from which no Society is free) it were more excusable, but there are Doctrines added to the Old Catholick Faith (even most of the Tenets wherein they differ from the Church of England) which are plain Ar­tifices to increase the power and wealth of Rome. Doctrines for which they dispute with us upon Demetrius's Principle, be­cause thereby they have their gain, Act. xix. 25. And many think the Guides of your Church contend for some of these Prin­ciples, not because they believe them, but because it is their Interest the people should be perswaded of them; which makes them secretly laugh at their Cre­dulity who will be imposed on by them, as that great Cardinal did, when he gave the People (who flocked about him) his Benediction in these words, Qui vult de­cipi decipiatur: And it is a vile suspicion of this which we may gather from that observation of Hospinian, That in Italy the name [Christian] is used for an Ideot or Fool Hosp. de orig. Monach. l. 6. c. 66.. [Page 34] But to be more particular, let us look o­ver some Instances of such New Doctrines as are taught in the Roman Church for Secular ends.

We begin with the Doctrine of Im­plicit Faith or believing as the Church be­lieves, a Doctrine unknown in S. Cyrils time, who speaking to his young Christians, Bids them not meerly believe the things he spoke because he affirmed them, unless he did demonstrate them to be so out of the Di­vine Scripture Cyril. Cate­ches. 4. p. 84.. And truly this Novel Doctrine may agree with Pytha­goras's Ipse dixit, and is a good shelter for Paganism, the best Argument for which, Balbus saith, is this, That he had received it from his Fore-fathers Cicero de Natur. Deorum. l. 3.. The Jewish Rab­bins told their Disci­ples, They must believe whatever they taught them, though they should say that their right hand was their left: and it was becoming enough in Apel [...]es the Heretick to charge his seduced Scholars, not to examine his Principles by Reason Euseb. hist. lib. 5. c. 13.: But it [Page 35] is below the Honour of true Religion to desire to be taken upon Trust; so that this Doctrine is a policy of your Priests to secure their evil Principles from being enquired into, and a device to make you depend on them as Infallible Oracles, who can by this means lead you blind-fold whither they will, and impose any thing on you which serves their Interest, under the pretence of true Religion. 2. Auri­cular Confession to a Priest was voluntary of Old, and only used in case of a trou­bled Conscience, or a strong Temptation: But it is now made necessary at stated times, in all probability to make the Priest master of every mans Secrets, to discover the least inclination of their Proselytes to leave them, to keep the Laity in awe, and make them venerate and depend upon their Spiritual Guide, who hereby hath them at his Mercy: And their Doctors do affirm, that in some cases it is lawful to dis­cover what is revealed to them in Confession, e­specially if it concern the Roman Church Al. Hal. Par. 4. q 28. mem. 2. art. 2. Panorm. c. Omnis de poen. & rem. n. 24. D Soto de rat. de­teg. Secr. mem. 3. q 4▪. [Page 36] And thus they have an Intelligencer in the breast of every Great man of their Communion. The Exempting the Regu­lar Clergy from their Lawful Bishops Ju­risdiction (which S. Bernard complains of as an unjust thingBernard. de Consid. lib. 3. c. 4.: And the freeing Ecclesi­asticks from their Natu­ral Princes Authority is, that the Pope may have Subjects numerous and potent to give Intelligence and abet his Interest in the bowels of all Kingdoms. The Popes Supremacy, Appeals to Rome, the Collation of Benefices and other Preferments, the Creating their Maker in the Mass, with many others, do all aim at the Honour of the Church of Rome, and the making its most inferior Priests revered: But because the Honour of the Church of Rome can­not be maintained without vast riches, it is obvious to all, that many of their New Doctrines and Practices have been introdu­ced with design to fill the Churches Trea­suries: or if Ignorance and Superstition were the Mother of these gainful Devices, it is certain Covetousness hath been an officious Nurse unto them. As in the case [Page 37] of Purgatory, and Prayers to deliver Souls from thence, a Novel fancy, feared and suspected at first by some, but countenan­ced and Decreed by that Church, thereby to oblige the people to give liberally for themselves or their deceased Friends, to those who sell their Prayers so commonly that they occasioned that Proverb, No penny no Pater Noster. It is impossible to reckon the vast sums that this Opinion brings in, for so many Masses, Dirige's, Requiems, for those Trentals, Obits, and Anniversaries, which the deluded Roma­nists purchase, with Oblations of Houses and Lands, Plate, Vestments, Jewels, Ima­ges and Ready mony. And it is very re­markable, that the fear of losing this In­come was one main Impediment to re­strain the Pope from yielding to a Refor­mation. To these may be added the Do­ctrines of Images and Invocation of Saints, with the reports of Miracles done at certain places, and the Device of Canoni­zation by the Pope (an Honour that none of the Saints for the first five or six Cen­turies ever had) but certain it is, that people being perswaded of Miracles [Page 38] wrought on Earth and Intercession made in Heaven by these Saints, do undertake Pilgrimages to these places and make Oblations there, or else send their Offer­ings if they cannot go: And this in so excessive degrees, that there have been, and are some Shrines which cu [...]vy the Treasuries of the greatest Princes of Eu­rope; we may instance in Tho. Beckets at Canter­bury Antiq. Can­terb. fol. 247., and the still famous Lady of Loretto Lassel's Vov­age to Italy.. The Relicks also of all other Saints, yea, such as are said to belong to Jesus himself, have been for­merly carried about to collect Mony, yea, sold for great sums, and are accounted Marketable ware, and very gainful Com­modities in the Roman Church. The Year of Jubilee and distribution of Indulgences are used as devices to get mony, as your own Writers complain Polydor. Vir­gil. de Invent. l. 8. c. 1.. The Pope's pre­tences to a power of Dispensing with Vows and Oaths, Leagues and Contracts, Marri­ages in prohibited degrees, &c. fill his [Page 39] Coffers with Silver and his Court with Suitors. The taking mony for Penances and granting Absolution upon it for No­torious sins, is so known an Infamy, that we have the very book in our hands, co­pyed out of the Original in the Apostolick Chamber, setting down the rates and sums to be paid for Absolution from the most horrid wickednesses: And to convince us that Mony is the only thing sought by the Church in these Absolutions, the said book tells us, that These acts of Grace can­not be granted to the Poor who have no­thing, and therefore can­not be comforted Vide, Taxam Camerae Apostol. Impress. Parisiis.. And though the Priests and Fryers have these and many more ways to draw Mony from the people, yet the Pope uses them but as Spunges, to suck in wealth from others, that he may squeez it into his own Coffers afterwards: For it is scarce within the reach of Arithmetick what sums the Roman Church receives from the Inferior Clergy and Bishops for Insti­tutions, Confirmations, Investitures, Palls, First-fruits, Tenths, &c. The very Tenths [Page 40] and First-fruits formerly enjoyed by the Pope, amounting in this Nation, as we now compute them, to above 20000 l. per An. And in the time of the Roman Jurisdiction here, the Clergy paid him a fifth part of their Livings, sometimes for two or three years beside; and for the English Bishops, their subjection to Rome cost them dear, Walter le Grey Archbish. of York paying Ten thousand pound ster­ling for his Pall Matth. Paris. pag. 274.. And it was complained in the 23d of Henry 8th that the Papacy had received out of Eng­land in about forty years past, for Inve­stitures of Bishops on­ly Threescore thousand pounds L. Herbert. hist. Hen. 8th. p. 230.. And the Doctrine of sorcing all Priests to renounce Marriage, is maintained by the Policy of the Roman Court, that they may not only profit by them living, but be their Heirs when they die, there being no other good Reason to be given for this rigid Imposition; for sure they will not say it is simply unlawful for Priests to marry, since two Popes, S. Gre­gory [Page 41] the Great and Pius the Second, affirm They may be allowed to marry Gregor, Magn. Respons. ad. Inter­rog. August Cant. 2. Pius 2. in G [...]stis Concil. Basil.; and their great Canonist saith, There is as great reason to allow Priests marriage now, as ever there was to restrain it Panormitan. de Clericis conjug. Can. Cum Olim.. What then! do they forbid it that Priests may be more pure? that cannot be the Reason, because S. Paul saith, Marriage defiles not, Heb. xiii. 4. And Fornication which certainly doth defile, is tolerated, if not allow­ed Deoret. P. A­lex. l. 3. tit. 2. c. 3., and called a Venial sin Gloss. ad Gra­tian. dist. 82. c. 5.: However reputed by their Casu­ists a lesser sin in the Priest, than Marriage Ibid dist. 34. Can. 7. Costerus enchirid. de Coeli­bat. cap. 17.. And how pure this Doctrine makes your Clergy let Experience and your own Writers teach you. There are many (saith S. Bernard) who cannot be hid for their multitude, nor do they seek to be con­cealed through their Impudence, who being kept from Nuptial Remedies run into all [Page 42] filthiness Bern. de Convers. ad Cleric. cap. 29.. There are few free (saith A­nother) in these days from the crime of Forni­cation Gloss. ad Gra­tian. dist. 82 c. 5.. The Pope thinking it almost a Mi­racle some Ages since to hear a Candidate for a Bishoprick attested to be a pure Virgin Matth. Paris. hist. An. 1234.. The true Reason therefore of this Do­ctrine, which occasions so much wicked­ness, we may learn from the Canon. Law: which allows not Regular Bishops to dis­pose of their Estates by Will, nor others of the Clergy to be too free of their Alms in their sickness Decretal. Gregor. lib. 3. de Testam. tit. 26. cap. 7, 9., (how earnestly so­ever they exhort the Laity thereunto:) And thus the Church be­comes their Heir, And these Spoyls of the Clergy (as they very significantly term them) which fall to the Church at their deaths amount to a good round sum, as a judicious Author ob­serves Europ. Spe­cul. pag. 197.. I cannot ex­press one half of those [Page 43] Arts which the Roman Church hath to drein both Clergy and Laity: But certain it is, they do draw a Mass of Treasure Annually from the Countries under their yoke, insomuch that it was complained of to the Council of Spain, that Pope Pius 5th had got fourteen Millions out of that Kingdom in a short space Europ. Spe­cul. pag. 198.. And in the time of Henry 3d of England it was computed, that the Popes Revenue out of this Nation exceeded the Kings Antiquitat. Brittan p. 178.. And another time complaint was made by the English, that there went Three­score thousand Marks yearly out of this Land to RomeMatth. Paris. pag. 667. & Epist. Anglor. ad Inno­cent.. I shall not mention the Frauds and Cruelties used in Collecting this Mony, only noting that Johan. Sarisburiensis, a great Bigot of the Popes (and a hot stickler in Beckets Cause) assures us, That the Legates of the Apostolical Seat, did Tyrannize over the Provinces, as if the Devil (saith he) were gone out from the presence of the Lord to [Page 44] scourge the Church Sarish. Poly­craticon. lib. 5. qap. 16.; yet to oppose these Officers of the Pope, is reckoned at Rome the most mortal sin: No wonder then can it be, that Pope Sixtus 5th, in five years time got together Five Millions of Crowns (as Ciracella informs us) Four Millions of which his Successor Gregory 14th wasted in Pomp and Riot in less than Ten months time: Europ. Spec. p. 263. And indeed they spend these Sacred Treasures as badly as they get them; the very Popes themselves of late designing only to swal­low all the little neighbouring Principa­lities, and to make themselves Temporal Princes, to raise their Nephews and Neeces (if not Sons and Daughters) and advance their Families to the highest Dignities and Fortunes. So that there is little of Holi­ness left in them but in an empty Title, it being a little above a hundred years since one said, No man at this day looks for Holiness in the Popes, they are accounted excellent, if they be tolerably good, or less wicked than other men are: Papyr. Masson. in Vit. Julii 31 An. 1550: and the rest of [Page 45] his Clergy and People are suitable; for, It cannot be dissembled (saith a late exact Observer) that the whole Country is strangely overflowd with Wickedness, with filthiness of Speech, with beastliness of Acti­ons; both Governors and Subjects, both Priests and Fryers, each striving as it were with other in an Impudentness therein: Europ. Spec. p. 27. But I will not pursue this most ungrateful Subject, which I profess I do not relate out of any envy, or delight in telling such sad stories: but I am forced to say these unpleasing Truths to rescue your Souls from those who serve the ends of their Ambition and Covetous­ness out of your Devotion; from those who perswade you to call that Religion which maintains them in the highest plen­ty and luxury: from those who Decree, that Good works merit Salvation; not be­cause they believe this Doctrine (for if they did, they would do more Goodworks themselves) but because this Perswasion among the people fills the Churches Trea­sures, and hath made the Old Pious and poor Priests and Deacons of Rome, Illu­strious Cardinals, who in Magnificence, [Page 46] and Pomp dare vye with the greatest E­states of Christendom; and their Great Master scorns to have Kings and Empe­rors thought his Equals: Wherefore, when you have duly weighed all this, and con­sidered the Pride and insatiable Avarice of the Roman Church, and withal ob­served, how all the Doctrines in which they differ from us, tend meerly to ad­vance these ends, you cannot think it un­likely, that such men with such designs should alter and add to their Old Faith, especially when you hear S. Paul say, The love of Mony is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the Faith: 1 Tim. vi. 10. It is nothing that is truly Ancient or really good, that we perswade you to renounce; but Novel Policies and Devices which minister to Secular designs, and you ought to account him your Friend who would rescue you from this abuse, and perswade you into that Church, whose Principles are Pri­mitive, plain and honest, whose Clergy are content with the Revenues which the Laws of the Land allow them, having none of these Ʋnchristian Artifices of [Page 47] extraordinary gains, nor no design to teach you any Doctrines, but such as will make you good, and direct you in the way to Heaven.

SECTION III.
Whether the said Opinions were not established by evil means?

THe next Enquiry is, By what means these New Doctrines became so gene­rally believed? And here first we may note, your Church hath good reason to use this Proverb, Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion; because the wretched blind­ness of those Ages wherein these Opinions were propagated, did hugely contribute to their Reception: for it is not to be denied, that from the time of the decay of the Western Empire, and the Irrupti­ons of the Goths and Vandals into Europe, there began to be a great decay of Learn­ing, and Barbarism crept in by degrees, which is evident by the different style and way of writing which the later Fa­thers [Page 48] use, in comparison of those who lived in the first four or five Centuries, and at length this Ignorance became so universal, That the study of the liberal Arts was generally laid aside; as an Old Historian complainsSabellic. Enne. 9. lib. 1. [...] ▪: and that Age which bred many of these Er­rors is commonly by your own Writers called, The Obscure Age Baron. Annal. Tom. x. An. 900. §. 1., being wholly with­out any persons eminent for Wit or Learning Genebrard. Chron. lib. 4.,(n) Praefatio R. Aluredi ad Pasto­ral. Gregorii. the very inferior Priests being not able to tran­slate an Epistle into La­tin Claud. Espen. Com. ad 2 Tim. 3.; which Aegyp­tian darkness continued in all the Western world till a few years before the Reforma­tion, as your own Espen­caeus confessethClaud. Espen. Com. ad 2 Tim. 3.. Now this gross stupidity must needs make the World apt and easie to be abused with the most absurd and mon­strous Doctrines; for Ignorance is the Mo­ther of all Errors (as an Old Council affirmsConcil. Tole­tan. 4. c. 24. A. 633., [Page 49] and not of true Devotion (as you now pretend.) This made way for the Politick Guides of Rome to impose such Opinions on the Church as might best serve their own ends; These Tares were sowed while men slept, Matth. xiii. 25. and there were many Circumstances concurring in those unlucky Ages which contributed to the furthering the Roman designs, the with­drawing of the Emperors into the East, and first the Decay of the Western Empire; then the destruction of the Eastern, and the desolation of all the famous Oriental Churches by the spreading Inundation of Turks and Saracens; so that the Pope had neither Emperor nor Patriarch (for a long time) that could oppose him, the Miseries of all Christendom giving him opportu­nity to make himself the sole Governor of these Parts of the World, and none were able to contend with him, though many complain'd of his Ʋsurpation; Johan. Sa­risburiensis telling Adrian 4th (who asked him what men thought of the Roman Church) That they esteemed it a Step­mother, not a Mother—, and the Pope of Rome himself was grievous to all, and al­most [Page 50] intolerable Sarisbur. Po­lycraticon. lib. 6. cap. 24.. I shall not now be so tedious to you as to relate, how this Church by force, and by taking all advantages did at­tempt to suppress all that did oppose her Impositions and Grandeur; what wars the Popes raised against the German Emperors, what occasions they took to enslave the Greek Church, when they petitioned for relief against the conquering and cruel Turks; what Persecutions they raised a­gainst the Albigenses, Bohemians and Wick­levists, and how they destroyed all that resisted their Innovations with Fire and Sword; only desiring you to remark, That the Roman Church was the first Author of putting men to death for that which they call Heresy: A practice wholly differing from the Rules of Chri­stianity 2 Tim. ii. 24, 25., from the Opinion and Practice of the Ancient Church Tertul. ad Scap. c. 2. Concil. Toletan. 4. cap. 56.: It being a New and un­heard of way of Preach­ing (saith your S. Grego­ry) to force men by stripes to believe Gregorius M. Epist. ad Episc. Constantinop.; [Page 51] yet by Fire and Fagot the modern Church of Rome affrights the World into the Embracing these Articles, or by Inquisi­tions and Racks, awes them into silence, not daring to question them: Her Greatness, Riches, Interest and Severity to Opposers, hath been one means to obtrude the be­lief of her gainful Articles upon men; and her Policies and Frauds have been another, for you cannot think it unlikely that they (who have so little Piety, as to turn Religion into Policy) should have so little honesty as to equivocate for the de­fence of their Politick Religion; and ve­rily, the Ignorance and Credulity of those blind Ages were such, that your Church never sought for solid Arguments to confirm their New Decrees, but built them usually upon Fictions, and proved them by notorious Forgeries, and accounted this way of proceeding not only lawful but Pious, so that whosoever reads those Discourses of your Jesuites in defence of these Deceits, called by them Piae fraudes, will conclude the High-Priests of Rome-Christian as well as Rome-Heathen to have been of Opinion, That it was expe­dient [Page 52] the people should be deceived in their Religion, as Scaevola the Pagan, Pontifex M. in S. Augustine saithAugust. de Civit. Dei. l. 4. c. 27.; and no doubt your Church agrees with the Heathen Varro in the same AuthorIdem, ibid. cap. 31., where he saith, There are many Truths in Religi­on which it is not expedient for the people to know, and though divers things therein be false, yet the people ought to think them true: The instances of some particulars will make this more evident; 1. Miracles were the foundation, and most authentick proofs for Invocation of Saints, Veneration of Images and Relicks, Pilgrimages, Pur­gatory, Monastical Vows, and most of the gainful Articles of the Roman Church; and yet S. Chrysostome saith, that there were no footsteps of the power of Miracles left in the Church in his time Chrysost. de Sacerdotio, l. 4.. And your S. Gregory thinks them un­necessary among Belie­vers Gregor. Mag. hom. 4., and so do many othersAugustin. de ver. Relig. cap. 24. Ferus Commentar. in lib. Judic.: Yet in the dark Ages nothing was [Page 53] more frequently pretended than Miracles wrought by Saints living and dead, as appears by the stories of their Lives, and the Legends of your Church, which Re­lations are so senseless and so ridiculous, so impossible and unlikely, so little agree­ing with Chronology, History, or Geography, that the Modern Writers of the Roman Party are ashamed of them. Hence your own Canus complains, that these Authors of Saints Lives with false and counterfeit Fables have blemished the Lives of Saints Canus, Loc. Commun. lib. II cap. 6.. And the same Wri­ter saith thereIdem ibid., that the Author of your so famed Golden Legend was a man of an Iron forehead and a Leaden soul: Harding also affirmethHarding a­gainst Jewels Apol., That there be many vain Fables in it: Simeon Metaphrastes, is another of these Miracle-Writers, and is so eminent that he is read in the Modern Roman Breviaries Breviar. Rom. Fest. Nicol. 6. Dec. Fest. S. Blasii, Feb. 13., and yet Cardinal Bellarmine blames him for incredi­ble stories, Fest. S. Alexii, Julii 17. and relations [Page 54] not agreeing to Ancient Writers, He adds (saith he) many things out of his own wit, not as they were really done, but as they might have been done Bellarmin. de Scriptor. Eccles.. And is not this notori­ous forgery? Yea, the Popes themselves in the latest sort of Bre­viaries have left many of these fabulous Miracles out, since they have done the work now for which they were invented; the Doctrines supported by these lies are now generally embraced, and when the Arch is compleated, the Props on which it was raised, may be laid aside; yet still you ought to ask, If these stories were false, how came the Infallible Church to put them into her Offices? if they were true, why doth she now reject them? And it is observable, that the Roman Church at present pretends but to very few Mi­racles, and the Doctors thereof (in this knowing Age) are very shy of believing any at all, as one of your own Priests proves at largeRog. Wid [...]ingt. de Jaram. Fideli­tatis, c. x. p. 402.. The Reason of which must needs be, because they fear this Inquisitive and [Page 55] learned Generation should discover the fraud of them. For since Miracles are e­specially necessary to convince unbelievers, there is far more need of them since the Reformation (when so many disbelieve the Religion of your Church) than was be­fore (when all the Nations of the West were at the Devotion thereof.) Yet then many Miracles are recorded and now few or none, an Argument sufficient to make a wary man believe, there were few real Miracles at any time since the settlement of Christianity; only the superstitious and ignorant credulity of the former Ages was fit to be abused with such Pretences: And now, why are you so stiff in maintaining those Opinions which were believed at first upon so slight and false inducements, as these Legends and Miracles are confes­sed to be? But this Argument is of late so fully handled by two excellent PensDr. Stilling­fleet of Miracles. Author of the Re­flections on the Romish Devotions., that I may dismiss it, with my hearty wish you would read those Tracts without Prejudice, being not written to abuse real Religion (as [Page 56] some tell you) but to undeceive you, and unmask that hypocrisie which hath long walked in the venerable Mantle of Truth: Nor ought you to be angry at the Rela­tors, but at the Inventors of such falshoods, who have got many fair Houses and Lands, vast sums of Mony and innumera­ble costly Oblations by these Fictions, to the scandal of Christianity it self. My se­cond instance shall be of the Artifice of Forging Records for to attest their Novel Doctrines (especially that of the Pope's Supremacy) they put out divers spurious Tracts under illustrious names, which served to wheadle an illiterate Age into a Reverence for the Roman Church and her Opinions; whereas now the cheat is so palpable, that your modern Doctors (though they keep the Conclusions) dis­own those feigned books that were the Premises from whence they were inferred: Of this nature are the Decretal Epistles of all the Popes from Clemens down to Pope Syricius An. 385. formerly cited as good Authorities, and transcribed some parts of them into your Canon Law, but now the most learned Romanists confess a [Page 57] great part of them to be meer forgeries Jo. de Turre­crem▪ de Eccl. l. 2. c. 101.: Baronius styles di­vers of them Apocry­phal Baron. Annal. T. 2. An. 102. §. 6, 7. Jo. Driedo de dogm. & Scrip. Ecc. l. 1. c. 2.: And Cardinal Cusanus saith; That be­ing applied to the times of those Holy men they do betray themselves Cusanus de Concord. Cathol. l. 2. c. 34. Cl. Espencaeus de contin. l. 1. c. 2. Bellarm. de Rom. Pontif. l. 2. c. 14. And indeed these Epi­stles were never cited by any good old Au­thor, and were first brought into France by one Riculfus Arch. B. of Ments five hundred years after those Popes were dead, as Hincmarus Arch. B. of Rhemes a Writer of that Age affirmsHincm. Rhem. lib. Contr. Hincm. Laudunens., and Baronius also con­fesseth Baron. Annal. T. 9. An. 865. §. 5, 6, 7.. Nor did the Roman See blush some Centuries ago to alledge for its Supremacy the most fabulous Do­nation of Constantine the Great, wherein he is pretended to make the Pope head over the whole Church, and superiour to all the four Patriarchs of the East (naming [Page 58] Constantinople for one, which City was not yet built) giving him in fee the City of Rome, and all Italy, with all the Pro­vinces of the Western Empire (though he gave all these to one of his Sons after­wards). This senseless Edict was pleaded by several of the Popes in former times to countenance their ambitious pretences Adrian. Ep. ad Constant. & Iren. Act. Concil. Nicen. 2. An. 794. Leo. 9. Epist. ad Michael. Const. An. 1054., and of Old was received without suspici­on by the gravest and learnedst Doctors, saith Binius Not. in Edict. Constant. Concil. Tom. 1. p. 154., who yet con­fesseth there, it was a meer forgery devised (he thinks) by the Greeks, and now adaies all Romanists generally disown it, and indeed it is as ridiculous a forgery as ever the world saw. My Brevity will not allow me to enlarge upon this Subject, otherwise I could add innumerable Examples of like dealing. The absurd Council of Sinuessa, The monstrous Recognitions of Clement, The threescore new Canons father'd by Tur­rian and others, upon the famous Gene­ral [Page 59] Council of Nice, The Pontifical ascri­bed to Pope Damasus; with innume­rable other Tracts of the same Metal, being all apparent Forgeries, and yet were long countenanced by Rome to support her unjust Supremacy and other Innova­tions. My third Instance shall be of Sup­pressing or corrupting true Records, of which take a few Examples: The Le­gates of Rome, within less than a hundred years after the general Council of Nice did produce two Canons (to prove the Popes Right to receive Appeals) in a fa­mous Council of Carthage, An. 419. which Canons they pretended were made in the aforesaid Nicene Council; but these Canons wholly differed from all the best Manuscripts of that Council then extant, particularly from two emi­nent ones, which the African Fathers sent for from Constantinople and Alexan­dria; nor do they agree with those ge­nuine Editions of the Nicene Council now extant; and indeed the Council of Carthage received not these pretended Canons of Nice, but esteemed them to have been corrupted, as we do at this [Page 60] day: Not long after (to abet the Roman Supremacy) Pope Leo writing to Theodo­sius the Emperor, cites a Canon of a par­ticular and dubious Council at Sardi [...]a of later Date and less Authority, affirm­ing it to be a Canon of the general Coun­cil at Nice Leo. Pap. E­pist. ad Theodof. Concil. Tom. 2.: The E­dition of the Councils put out by Dionysius Ex­iguus about An. 520. being for a long time the sole approved Copy extant in these parts of the World, doth in favour of the Popes Supremacy, leave out divers Canons even of General Councils which seem to make against itExempli gr. Tres Canon. Concil. 1. Constantinop. Omnes▪ Can. Con­cil. Ephes. Oecum. 3. Canon. 28. Con­cil. Chalcedon. Oe­cum. 4., though the said Canons are recorded in Zonaras and Balsamon, and in this Age confessed to have been made in those Councils by the Roma­nists themselves; but in the Time when the Supremacy was in hatching, it was not thought expedient those Canons should be known: It were endless to reckon up all the Additions, Diminutions, [Page 61] and Alterations, which all the Roman E­ditions of the Councils since, are guilty of; and because an ingenious Essay hath been made that way by a late Author, I shall refer my Reader thither Roman For­geries print. Lond. 1673., and out of infinite Examples conclude with one Evident piece of Falsification: The xxxv. Canon of the Council of Laodicea, Forbids the faithful to call on the name of An­gels, which being a con­demnation of the Do­ctrine and Practice of Rome in Praying to An­gels, The Later Editi­ons of this Council have impudently put in, Angulos [Angles or Corners] instead of An­gelos [Angels Angulos, le­gunt. Merlin. Tom. 1. Concil. Edit. An. 1530 Colon. Crabbe p. 226. ed. A. 1538. Colon. Carranza sum. Con­cil. pag. 82. Lugd. 1568.]; though all the Greek Copiesap. Zonar. Balsam. & Har­menopulum. and Fathers read [...] Theodor. in Colos. 3. Photius. Nomo-Canon. Tit. 12. c. 9., and all the old Latin Exem­plars have, Angelos Dionys. Exig. Cod. Can. n. 138. Crescon. breviar. Can. §. 90. Fulgent. Ferrand. Bre [...]. Can. §. 184.. [Page 62] Yea, Pope Adrian himself (before this worship of Angels came up) read it [An­gelos] in that Epitome of Canons which he sent to Charles the Great, An. 773. Thus they corrupt the Councils to suit them to their own Opinions, Nor have single Fathers and Ancient Authors fared better: S. Cyprian put out by Pamelius is altered in many places contrary to the Ancient Copies; for Example where the Father saith, the Church is founded Super PetramCyprian. Ep. 40. Edit. Gryphii. p. 52. Morellii 124., Pamelius changes it into Super Petrum, upon Peter, in­stead of upon a Rock Editio Pa­mel. Ep. 40. p. 7.. And Ludovicus Vives (a Romanist) assures us that there are Ten or Twelve lines posi­tively asserting Purgatory, put into the Printed Copies of S. Aug. de Civitate Dei lib. 21. cap. 24. contrary to the Ancient ManuscriptsLudov. Vi­ves Comment. in Aug. de Civ. Dei, l. 21. c. 24.. Ful­bertus Carnotensis quotes S. August. saying of the Sacramental bread, This then is a figure (the Roman Editions put in) As a Heretick will say; when indeed [Page 63] S. Augustine says so, and speaks his own senseFulbertus Carnot. edit. An. 1608. pag. 168.. Aimonius speaking of the Eighth Council saith, They de­termined about Images otherwise than the Orthodox Fathers had Decreed: and so Baronius readsBaron. An­nal. Tom. x. an. 869.: But the Mo­dern Printed Copies quite contrary put in, —according as the Or­thodox Fathers had De­creed Aimonius de Gestis Franc. l. 5. c. 8.. But why do I stand upon par­ticular Instances, This wickedness which all other men account the same Villany with suborning false Witnesses, stopping the mouths of the True, and counterfeit­ing Hands and Seals, is owned by the present Church of Rome: And Sixtus Senensis doth highly extol Pope Pius 5th. for his most holy Decree, to burn all Books which were (accounted) Heretical, To purge and cleanse all Catholick Authors, and espe­cially the Writings of the Fathers Epistol. Nun­cup. ante Bibliothe­cam Sixti Senens.. Now in what manner they ef­fect this most holy [Page 64] work, the Bel [...]ick Inquisitors (appointed by the Roman See▪) shall tell you, We strike out (say) they) many Errors, in other of the Ancients, we extenuate and ex­cuse them, or by feigning a Commentitious gloss, either deny, or fix a commodious sense to their words Censores Belg. de libro Bertrami.. Thus they served S. Ambrose his works, cancelling and altering whole pa­ges together, contrary to all the Old Manuscripts, as appeared by the Ori­ginal Papers which Savarius the Sta­tioner shewed to Francis Junius, ac­cording to which the Inquisitors had ordered him to Print that Edition: Lugdun. An. 1559. Junii Prae [...]. ad Indicem Ex­purg. Cens. Belg.. Thus they left the story of Pope Joan out of the Co­pies of Anastasius Biblioth. though the Manuscripts had the said story in them as Marquar. Freherus testified, who lent them the said Manuscripts Blondel E­pist. ante librum de Joan. Papis c. 3.. And I might fill a Volume with Instances of like unjust [Page 65] dealings; but I will only add the me­morable account which Boxhornius one of your Divinity Professors at Lovain gives of himself, viz. That he having been employed by the Inquisitors to strike out at least six hundred places of the An­cients, which seemed to make against the Roman Doctrines, was so troubled in mind upon it, that it was an occasion of his turning Protestant, and made him re­solve to quit that Religion which could not defend it self without such manifest Im­postures Henr. Box­horn. de Euchari­stiâ l. 3. initio.. And I wish the consideration thereof might have the same effect upon you; for the matter of Fact is so evident, that the Index Expurgatorius, the Book which directs these Falsifications, is now come into Protestant hands to the eter­nal Infamy of the Roman Church; whose people cannot rationally trust to any Author which comes through their Priests dishonest hands; And since false Books are invented, true and genuine Writers altered and corrupted, or else wholly prohibited, if they seem to make [Page 66] against them (for which cause Clement 8th. puts the Bible into his Index of prohibited Books) and all Editions but their own condemned and burnt by the Roman Church; the people must needs be deluded into a perswasion, that all these New Doctrines are Primitive Truths, when indeed this abominable Forging evidently shews, that the Pope and his Conclave think that both Scrip­ture and Antiquity do make against these Innovations, and would discover the Imposture, if they were suffered to speak out; to whom I may justly apply the words of Arnobius, To intercept what is written, and to design to smo­ther published Records, is not to defend the Gods, but to fear the Testimony of the Truth bArno. ad­vers. Gent. lib. 1.: And because Good men (as S. Augustine saith) will not deceive; but neither good nor evil men would willingly be deceived Aug. de verb. Apost. Ser. 32., I may suppose that the most Devoted Romanists can­not but discern how un­safe [Page 67] he is in believing, as those men teach him, who make no Conscience to invent, impose, and pretend things never so false, provided they may there­by advance their Churches Interest, or their own private ends: They who dare write Lies, will not be afraid to speak them, and they who corrupt the Re­mains of the Holy Saints deceased, are not to be trusted with the Souls of the living; And whoever gives himself up to such Guides, unnaturally chuses his own delusion, and desperately hazards his own salvation: S. Ambrose adviseth us if we choose a Guide, to be care­ful he be endued with two properties, Honesty and Prudence: for his Honesty will be a security that he will not deceive us, and his Prudence will prevent our suspicion of his being de­ceived himself Ambros. de Offic. l. 2. c. 8.; which wise Counsel if you follow, you must no longer adhere to these unfaithful Leaders: Nor ought you to fear to forsake them, either because your Fore­fathers [Page 68] fathers relied on them, or because the Doctrines that they teach were once so generally received here; since your Fore­fathers lived in an Age wherein there was little means to detect these Forge­ries, whereas you are by Providence fallen into those times▪ wherein all the Dishonest Arts of that Church are dis­covered so plainly, that if your Fore­fathers had seen as much as you may see, they would have forsaken Rome long since, and not have left you this Objecti­on to make: Nor are the Doctrines ever the better for being generally re­ceived, when as they were imposed on the World by such evil means as Force and Fraud; which being thus made evi­dent, you can no longer wonder how these Innovations came to be so generally beleived, being propagated by as wicked means as they were invented for evil ends: So that now what the Roman Church thought would secure her O­pinions (if it could have been kept close) must needs make them odious (being once laid open) and the Impo­stures▪ which they designed should tye [Page 69] men to their Church, will (as some of their own Doctors have prophesied) be an Occasion to make all Discerning men turn from it; for Religion is to be defended (saith Lactantius) not with wickedness but fidelity, for if you attempt to defend Religion by Evil Arts, you do not defend, but pollute and violate itLactant. In­stit. lib. 6. c. 19..

SECTION IV.
Whether the said Opinions tend to advance the Ends of true Reli­gion?

NOw though it be altogether unlike­ly those Principles should be either true or good, which stand in need of such Arts to propagate and defend them, yet because you have been so long accustom­ed to call these things Religion, and it is not easie to lay aside our rooted Prepos­sessions, we will pass to the Third En­quiry, viz. Whether the things them­selves be good in their own nature, and Parts of true Religion? Now we may try this by considering what are the ends of True Religion, and whether these Principles serve to advance those ends? True Religion therefore hath three Prin­cipal Ends: 1. To advance the honour of God. 2. To assist us in the Devout worshipping of him. 3. To teach us to imitate him by a holy life and conversa­tion. [Page 71] Let us here therefore examine, whether the peculiar Articles of the Ro­man Church do not hinder rather than promote these Ends: For if it appear these Principles are dishonourable to God, impediments to Devotion, and hindrances to a holy life; then those Do­ctrines are also Evil in their own nature, and they can be no real parts of a good or True Religion: Nor must you retain them because you have once judged them good, if upon Tryal they prove to be otherwise. We must be firm to our Prin­ciples (saith Epictetus) yet not to all of them, but only to those which are right; we must begin at the right end, and first lay the foundation by considering whether our Principles be good or evil, and after build upon that by con­stancy and firmness of Resolution Arrianus in Epictet. lib. 2. cap. 15.. Where­fore let me desire you patiently and impartially to enquire.

First, If there be not some of your Principles and Practices which tend not to the honour of God; if it be a disho­nour to the Divine Majesty for a mortal [Page 72] man to contradict his Laws by contrary Constitutions, I fear your Church will hardly be found innocent: For do they not command things which God hath forbidden in as plain words as can be spoken, as in the case of Images, Exod. xx. 4? and Prayer in an unknown Tongue, 1 Con. xiv. 28. Do they not forbid things which God hath allowed, as in the case of Priests Marriage? Heb. xiii. 4. 1 Cor. vii. 2 Chap. ix. 5. 1 Tim. iii. 2. 12? and taking the Cup from the People? which they have decreed with a Non ob­stante, that is, notwithstanding our Lord Jesus appointed the contrary. Do they not presume to dispense with the very Laws of God, in many cases of Matri­mony and Divorce, of Vows, Oaths, Leagues and Contracts? So that laying aside the Commandment of God, ye hold the Tradition of men, as our Saviour speaks, Mark vii. 8. Your Holy Father who doth all this may think himself the great­est upon Earth, but if our Lord Jesus tell us the Truth, He shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, Matth. v. 19.

Secondly, Is it not a great derogation [Page 73] to an Infinite and Invisible Being, to be represented by an Image, and worship­ped under such Representations? Agree­able to the worship which Heathens gave to their false godsLactant. In­stit. lib, 2. cap. 2., and some Hereticks to our SaviourIrenaeus adv. haeres. l. 1. c. 24., but contrary to the Decrees and Practice of the Pri­mitive ChristiansConcil. E­liber. can. 36., and to the great scan­dal of Modern Jews,Origen in Cels. lib. 7. who call your Churches Houses of Idols, Tertul. Apol. c. 30. upon this accountCornel. Agrip. de Vanit. Scien. cap. 57.. Third­ly, Doth not the Do­ctrine of Merits cast a palpable dishonour upon the glorious Redemption wrought by Jesus Christ? Sure I am,Bern. de Annun. serm. 1. p. 123. divers of the An­cients, as well as of your later Writers,Durand. in Sent. lib. 2. dist. 8. qu. 1. think soAugust. de Verb. Apos, Ser. 15.. Nor can we think it to be less than Blasphemy,Walden de Sacr. Rit. Tom. 3. Tit. 1. cap. 7. which Bel­larmine affirmeth, viz. [Page 74] That a man may be said to be his own Re­deemer without any in­jury to Christ Bellarm. de Purgat. l. 1. c. 14.. Doubt­less those who fancy they can redeem them­selves, and satisfie for their own sins, cannot but have a mean esteem of Christ's Merits and Satisfaction. Fourth­ly, Your praying to Angels and Saints, especially the blessed Virgin, making them your Mediators and Patrons, and asking the greatest things of them, hath made Prayers to God by Jesus Christ to be generally neglected by the vulgar people, who say ten times as many Ave Mary's as Pater Noster's, and wickedly fancy the Blessed Virgin and Holy Saints are more compassionate than our Lord Jesus. This Doctrine (saith a very wise man) hath wrought that general effect in all Coun­treys subject to the Papacy; that men have more affiance, and assume to themselves a greater conceit of comfort in the Patronage of the creatures and ser­vants of God, than of God himself, the Prince and the Creator Sand. Eu­ropae Spec. pag. 5, 6, 7.. A [Page 75] fault which St. Paul lays to the Heathens charge, Rom. i. 25. How dishonourable must it needs be, to leave Jesus that one Mediator: 1 Tim. ii. 5. (who always doth certainly hear us, and is most apt to pity us, and best able to help us) to pray to God by those, concerning whom your own Doctors doubt whether they know any thing done hereGratian. caus. 13. qu. 2. c. 19. 2 Decret. Gloss. Interlin. in Isa. 63.? and the Scripture plain­ly saith they do notJob xiv. 21, 22.. Reason shews it is im­possible they should hear many Prayers in divers places at once.Eccles. ix. 5. To have the worship paid to the Master and the Ser­vants,Isa. lxiii. 13. the same in all outward expres­sions, only differing in a nice School­distinction, must needs be an affront to the King of Saints. If you have any ten­derness or zeal for the honour of Jesus, it cannot but be offensive to you, to ob­serve how your Legends tell of greater miracles wrought by some of their fabu­lous Saints, than ever Jesus wrought. To hear one of your Church say, That Christ [Page 76] did nothing which S. Francis did not do, yea, that he did more than Christ himself Lib. Conform. fol. 1149.. What is more injurious to the honour of the Divine Majesty, than your S. Bonaven­ture's putting in the name of the Virgin Mary into Davids Psalms instead of the name of God? To have her adored by the Heathenish Title of the Queen of Heaven Jer. vii. 18. ubi videtur esse nomen Junonis o­lympiae., and invocated by the impious name of Mother of the whole Tri­nity Missal. Po­lon. fol. 237.! These things are rather Blasphemy than Devotion, and as dishonourable to God as they are Dissonant from Antiquity. Let none (saith Epiphanius) adore Mary; but why do I mention a Woman? nay, not any Man: this Reverence is due only to God, nor are the An­gels capable of such glorification Epiphan. adv. collyridianos Panar. haer. 79. Fifth­ly, The supposing a necessity of superadding the Saints Me­rits and the daily Sacrifice of the Mass, [Page 77] to the Merit of that one Offering for sin which Jesus made on the Cross: Heb. ix. 28. is an evident lessening the value and sufficiency of the Death of Christ, Sixthly, The calling of the Holy Scrip­ture a Nose of Wax, a Leaden Rule, and an Inky Gospel Pighius Hie­rarch. lib. 3.. The putting in the Apocryphal books, Canus lib. 3. c. 2. wherein are some things wicked 2 Maccab. xiv. 42.,Turrian. in Sa­deel, pag. 99. and others notoriously false Eccles. xivi. 20., into an equal rank with the Word of God indited by the Spirit;2 Esdras vi. 40. own Traditions to be equal in value to itConcil. Tri­dent. Sess. 4., are palpable dishonours to God who writ the Holy Scripture. These things (my Friends) can hardly be reckoned matters tending to the ho­nour of God, unless you can suppose the cancelling his Laws, disparaging his Nature, undervaluing the Merits, the Mercies and the Miracles of Jesus by cheap and odious Comparisons, the di­minution of his worship, and making him [Page 78] sharer with his Servants therein, and the vilifying of his Divine word, be no disho­nour to him you pretend to serve.

Secondly, Let us examine whether these Doctrines do assist you in the De­vout worshipping of God? It is very suspicious that Church doth not teach a right way of serving God, which de­ceives you in the first Principle of Re­ligion, viz. That God alone is to be wor­shipped: a Sentence so odious to the Roman Doctors, that the Index Expur­gatorius blots it out of the indices of S. Athanasius and S. Au­gustines WorksAdorari so­lius Dei est: De­l [...]atur ex Ind. ope­rum Athanasii. In­dice libr. prohib. & Expurg. p. 52., and if they could do it▪ un­discovered, they would blot it out of the Bible also, Matth. Madrit. Anno 1627. item ex Ind. Op. S. Aug. bd. p. 56. iv. 10. But there it shall stand for ever to reprove those, who divide Religious worship between God and his Creatures, thereby diminishing that Devotion which intirely belongs to the Divine Majesty, since affections are most vigorous when placed upon one Ob­ject, [Page 79] and if they be dispersed among many, grow weak and trifling; whence we may conclude, the Protestant who worships none but God, is the greater lover of him, and worships with a more united and servent Devotion. As for your Publick worship, it is at­tended with so many Ceremonies as must needs disturb the Devotion as well of the Priests as the People, there is such frequent bowing, crossing, prostration, sprinkling with Holy water, beating the breast, smoaking with Incense, &c. that the mind is taken off from a steady in­tention upon the inward and main part of the Duty, while it is entertained with such variety of outward Rites. For our mind (saith Quintilian) cannot sincerely intend its whole self upon many things at once, whatever new object it looks upon, it gives over the thoughts of that which it first propounded to it self: And this is most evident where the Objects are so different as sensible and intellectual things are. For where the Senses and their per­ceptions are vigorously employed, there the Intellectual Powers cease to act (as a [Page 80] great Philosopher ob­serves Porphyr. de Abstin. lib. 1. §. 41.). So that it is your Passions and your Fancies that are wrought upon, not your Mind nor the higher faculties of your Soul, by these numerous Ceremonies; and therefore that which you think Devotion, I doubt is but a fantastical and false fire, not kindled by the love of God, nor warm­ing your nobler Powers at all, and those steady, rational and spiritual desires, which flow from an undisturbed con­templation of the Divine Goodness and are the very life of Prayer, I fear you are strangers to, being so often taken off and diverted by variety of sensible Representations. Again, the making all your Publick prayers in an Ʋnknown Tongue, destroys all true Devotion in the People; S. Clemens of Alex. tells us of some Heathens who thought those Prayers most effectual which were uttered in a bar­barous Language Clem. Alex. Stromat. 1.. But Christians know, that Prayer is the desiring something of God, and [Page 81] if the Mind be not exercised in this desire, it avails nothing; but where the words are not understood, the mind cannot desire the things mentioned, so that none can properly pray in an Ʋnknown Tongue, nor so much as ratio­nally say Amen, 1 Cor. xiv. 16. By this absurd Practice therefore you (who are unlearned) spend the time of the Pub­lick offices in admiring and gazing, not in joyning with the Priest or Praying. And because the people have no employment while the Mass lasteth, they spend the whole time usually in talking and laugh­ing privately, as those who Travel in Catholick Countries do inform usEurop. Spec▪ pag. 10.. And it may occasion your wonder, why the Ro­man Church should so obstinately refuse to reform so irrational a Custom, which S. Paul hath written a whole Chapter to condemn, 1 Cor. xiv. The force of whose Arguments and Authority, hath made your wisest Doctors declare against it. By S. Paul's Doctrine (saith Card. Cajetan) it is better for the edifying of the Church, [Page 82] that Publick prayers were made in the Vulgar Tongue than in Latin Cajet. com. in 1. Corinth. 14. 17.. To the same purpose Lyra Lyr. in Loc.. And your Rhemish An­notators say, When a man prayeth in a strange Tongue which himself understand­eth not, it is not so fruitful for Instruction to him, as if he knew particularly what he prayed Rhem. Test. Annot. on 1 Cor. 14.. Gabriel Biel also gives several Reasons why Prayers should be in a known Tongue, saying, It is better 1. For stirring up Devotion, 2. for enlightning the Mind, 3. for retaining the things in memory, 4. for keeping the thoughts from wandring Gab. Biel in Can. Miss. Lect. 62.. Yet your admired Church will oppose Reason and Scripture, and deprive all the Common people that are of her Communion, of the exercise of their Devotion in her Offices, rather than so far seem to confess a fault, as to amend it; chusing rather to let you lose the be­nefit of worshipping God, than to re­form [Page 83] the most unjust Customes which she hath once espoused; but (if you be wise) if that Church will not pray in such a Language as you can joyn in, you will go over to the Church of England, where you may Pray with the Spirit and with understanding also. In the next place your Private Prayers are not so good a way of worshipping God as other Chri­stians have; The Images and Pictures, which the Heathens first taught your Doctors to call, The books of the un­learned Porphyr. ap. Euseb. Praepar. E­vang. lib. 3., and which are placed before you in time of Prayer, are no help, but an hin­drance to all true Devotion; for while your lips are repeating your Oraisons, your mind is taken up with the beauty, colour, lineaments and workmanship of the Image: so that your own Conscience will tell you, by these diversions you often draw near to God with your lips, when your hearts are far from him, which is a vain worship: Matth. xv. 8. And the Casuists of your Church, foreseeing that Images would take off the atten­tion, [Page 84] have determined most impiously, That it is not necessary to Prayer that the person praying should think of what he speaks Suarez. de Orat. lib. 3. cap. 14. & Salmeron.. A Doctrine suitable enough to that slight and formal worship which your Church appoints; and the Ordinary people a­mong you, think they have prayed suf­ficiently, when they have pattered over so many little Oraisons as agree to the number of their Beads; A new Inven­tion, which came not into the Church till all serious Devotion was ceasedAn. Dom. 1090., it be­ing a sign he minds his Prayers but little, that needs a string of Beads to reckon them by; yet these Beads (saith one of your own Authors) are now the chief Instruments of the hypo­crites counterfeit Devo­tion Polyd. Virgil. de invent. rer. l. 5. c. 9.. I shall not ravel into the body of your Prayers, since the Author of the Reflections on the Romish Devotions hath sufficiently done this; but I cannot but remark, that the re­peating [Page 85] Ave Maria, and the name of Je­sus so many times over, as in those fifteen little Prayers in the Psalter of Jesus, where the name of Jesus is thrice men­tioned in each Prayer, and each Prayer is ordered to be said Ten times over; and those numerous names of Saints re­peated in your Litanies with no petition annexed but Ora pro nobis: This way of Praying is so far from agreeing with the Primitive worship of God among the Christians, that it is evidently derived from that Heathenish superstition of pray­ing by repeating a hundred names of their Deities together, interposing nothing but O hear us Selden de Diis Syris, pag. 52. Saubertus de Sa­crific. cap. 13. pag. 296.; and in this manner Baals Priests are supposed to pray, 1 Kings xviii. 26. But to Christians Jesus saith, When ye pray use not vain repetitions as the Heathens do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking: Matth. vi. 7. Wherefore though you have admired this trifling way of worship, when you knew no better, yet if you would acquaint your [Page 86] selves with the solid and rational way of praying prescribed in the Church of England (wherein Great things, in an exact method, in plain and proper phrases, and in a known Language, are asked of God alone in the name of Jesus Christ) you would easily leave off those formal, vain and superficial Devotions, which can neither be acceptable to God, nor profitable unto your selves.

Thirdly, Let us pass to the last of these particulars and enquire, If the Do­ctrines of Rome, differing from those of England, do tend to promote our imi­tating God by a holy life and conversa­tion; without which all our worship is in vain; For it is a folly and miserable errour (saith S. Augustine) to humble your self before him in adoration, to whom you chuse to be unlike in conversation, and to give him religious worship, whose Example you will not follow; since the sum of all Religion is to imitate him you worship Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. 8. c. 17.. Now there are several Principles of the Ro­man Church which seem to hinder an [Page 87] holy life, as first, The custome of Con­fessing to a Priest weekly or monthly, to­gether with the Absolution following of course upon this Confession, this is (I fear) a great hindrance to amendment of life, at which it pretends to aim, for while men relie on this remedy, they go on without fear in those sins for which they have so easie a cure at hand, like those who venture without scruple on dangerous Meats, because they have their Physicians beside them: 'Tis true there is a Penance enjoyned sometimes, but it is such a one as the rich may buy off and the poor may undergo, and yet both retain the sin, because the Penance is not its proper cure; the going in Pil­grimages, giving mony, saying or reading over such proportions of Legends or little chiming prayers, with others far more impertinent, tend not to rectifie a vici­ous habit, and a plaister on the Toe may as soon cure the Head-ach, as these Pe­nances effect a Reformation, or obtain a pardon at Gods hands. And yet all men see, when the day of Confession is over, and the Penance past, that you are [Page 88] generally confident of a Pardon, and fancy you begin upon a new score. It is not easie to enumerate all the devices which your Church hath invented to convey pardon of Sins, Holy water, Re­licks of Saints, visiting some certain Churches, saying some certain Prayers, making Oblations of mony to such and such uses, Indulgences, and other such things, so that he that hath mony need never want Pardon from Rome; but alas, these things can never really take away the guilt of one sin, and yet they em­bolden men to commit many; For the multitude of Sinners increaseth, when hope is given that sin may be bought off, and men easily fall into those sins for which Mony will purchase their pardon: as Ar­nobius said to the Heathens, who relied on such like fantastical means of Remission Arnob. adv. Gentes, lib. 7. pag. 216.: and we may say of the Guides of your Church, as Seneca in a like case, They sin more in such Absolutions, than the Offender doth in the Crime Senec. Ep. 97.. For by per­swading [Page 89] men they can have Remission on so easie Terms, they make them secure before they are safe, because Almighty God, who only finally can Remit, never promised Pardon on these Terms, and it is only those who forsake as well as confess their sins to whom he will shew Mercy, Prov. xxviii. 13. And if either the Pope or any of his Substitutes, pretend to have power to forgive sins on any other Terms, they abuse those who are so weak to believe them, and make them forfeit their Souls (I doubt) for the sad price of this Credulity: S. Basil saith truly, The power of Absolving was not ab­solutely given, but upon condition of the Pe­nitents Reformation Basil. reg. brev. qu. 15.. And we tell our People more sincerely, that if a Priest Absolve them a thousand times over, and if they give ever so much mony, without amendment of life they can have no pardon, ac­cording as Scripture it self teachesMich. vi. 7., and the Holy Fathers also; If thou givest all that thou hast, and dost [Page 90] not forsake thy sins, thou art twice deceived, both in losing thy Mony and thy Pardon also Augustin. homil. 2. ex 50. hom.. Again, as if the Roman Church designed to make men think their own actual Holi­ness were never necessary, they have other devices to perswade you into a belief of coming off well at the end of your life, howsoever ill you have spent it: The Hereticks in Tertullians time said, It was a meritorious thing to be of their Party Tertul. de Praescrip. adv. ha­ret. c. 41.. And you are told it is a rea­dy way of Salvation to die in the Communion of the Roman Church, and if you can but receive the Sacraments of that Church, and be Absolved by one of their Priests, you scarce doubt of obtaining Heaven at last; and if you have no good works of your own, they perswade you the Church can sell you the Merits of the Saints; or if you should drop into Pur­gatory by the way, the pains of that (they say) are not endless, and if you give liberally on your Death-beds, or if [Page 91] any others afterwards give for you, to purchase so many Masses and other Pray­ers for your Soul, you will ere long be delivered from thence. All which no­torious delusions do miserably deceive poor men, and most mischievously en­courage them to put off their Repentance, and to resolve not to be troubled with holiness in the way, since they fancy they shall come off so easily in the end; and alas they are as false as they are mischievous▪ for the Ancient Fathers unanimously affirm no mans estate can be altered after this life, But as the last day of a mans life finds him, so the last day of the World finds him Augustin. E­pist. 80.. Nor will any thing help thee (saith S. Augustine) but what is done while thou art here Idem de Verb. Apost. Ser. 21.. Out of innumerable such Testimonies, that of S. Salvian may serve: Although a man should have so pious a Son who for alleviating his Fathers punishment, would desire to give all the goods he left behind him, it would do him no good, for the Piety of the Son can do nothing to procure [Page 92] that Rest to a man after Death, which his own Impiety and In­fidelity hath denied him Salvian. ad Eccles. Cath. lib. 3.. Finally, these and the like Principles make so many infamous men and women, so many Thieves and Murtherers, debauch­ed and prophane persons to take Sanctu­ary in the Roman Church, because the Tenets thereof seem not to oblige them to forsake their evil ways, but reconcile wickedness and Salvation together: so that this Religion tends not to perswade men to Holiness of life, and therefore is no good Religion: I grant there are some Persons in that Church who live better than these Opinions engage them to do, and do not draw those Con­clusions into their practice which natu­rally follow from these Principles; but that is only an evidence of the excellent vertue of such Persons, but no proof of the goodness of these Doctrines; and if these men be Holy in a Religion which gives such encouragement to evil, doubt­less they would be more holy by far, if they were taught better things: I shall [Page 93] only add, that as the Roman Church is too loose in matters pertaining to Gods Laws, so she is too strict in matters per­taining to her own Constitutions, like the Old Pharisees who Tithed Mint and Annise, and neglected the weightier mat­ters of the Law: Matth. xxiii. which is a great obstruction to real Holiness, when men place Religion in Ceremonies and slight things, for while they are curious in these matters, they neglect greater, and think by observing the Rules of the Church, they compensate for passing by the Laws of God, your own Ordinary Gloss saith, That is Superstition, when Religion is placed in observing the Ordi­nances of men Gloss. Ordin. ad Colos. 2.. And if so, then your wonderful strictness in Crossing, Bowing, using Holy Water, Abstinence on certain days, wearing Crosses, &c. in which you have placed so much Religion, are no better than Superstition. It cannot be denied, that most Roman Catholicks are more afraid to eat flesh on a Fasting-day than to curse or swear; they will be drunk [Page 94] on a Holy-day which God forbids, but not work on it because the Church for­bids it; many of them dare fornicate and debauch, who dare not neglect Con­fession, nor read a book written by a supposed Heretick: And generally, they are punctual in crossing, sprinkling, bowing and observing all Orders of the Church, even such as live in the open breach of Gods Commandements, and yet fancy themselves more sure of Heaven than the most pious and holy Protestant: Thus this Religion is too strict where God gives us more liberty, and too remiss where his Holy Law hath bound us with Eternal and Indispensable bonds; and it is designed to promote Obedience to the Roman Church, rather than Inward holiness towards God: The effect of all which Considerations is this, That whosoever sincerely desires to glorifie God and worship him with a rational Devotion, and whoever would imitate him by a Holy Life, ought not to chuse or retain such a Religion whose Principles tend so evidently to the dishonour of Gods Name, the hin­drance [Page 95] of true Devotion, and to the rendring a Holy life unnecessary: And as it was proved before, that the appro­priated Articles of the Roman Faith were not Ancient, nor induced for pious ends, nor propagated by honest means: so now it is evidenced, the Articles are not good in their own nature, and therefore there is no reason why you should not renounce them, unless you retain them in meer Reverence to the Authority of the Pope who doth impose them, which Matter is the Subject of our last Enquiries.

SECTION V.
Whether the Roman Bishop have suf­ficient Authority to impose the said Opinions upon all Christian Church­es?

THe Last, and almost the only shelter that your Doctors flie to at this day for the defence of your Principles is, That the Bishop of Rome is the sole Vicar of Christ, the Infallible and only Judge of Controversies, and the Supream Head of the Ʋniversal Church; and hereby their Adherents are awed into the re­taining all his Decrees of what nature soever they be: But let me beg leave to advise you not to lay so much stress upon these Titles and Authority, till you have seriously examined by what Right the Pope laies claim to them; for his Power had need be very great and his Proofs very good, upon the Credit whereof you receive so many new and suspicious [Page 97] Articles of Religion, some of which we ought not to receive though preach­ed by an Angel: Gal. 1. 8, 9. And first, though we stand not much upon Titles, you may note that the name of Vicar of Christ is never given to the Pope in the first Ages, and when this Title came into use, it was not appropriated to the Bi­shop of Rome, but other Bishops and Priests are styled Vicars of Christ also, even by a Pope of Rome Euseb. Pap. Decret. Ep. 3., as also by the Old French Em­perours Capitol. Ca­rol. & Lud. l. 5. c. 163., and by our own Saxon Law Legibus Hy­dens. ap. Spelm. Tom. 1. pag. 440.: So that there is no rea­son for the Roman Bi­shop to challenge any propriety in this Title, or any special Priviledge by virtue thereof. Secondly, As to his being an Infallible Judge and the Supream Head of the Catholick Church throughout the World, you may remember we have proved, there are more Christians in the World who deny this Supremacy of Rome, than there are who do acknow­ledge [Page 98] it: And if the belief of this In­fallible Headship be the reason why you receive other Articles of Faith, this then is the most fundamental Article of all others, and ought to be the best at­tested: And if our Lord Jesus had designed to make S. Peter and his Successors at Rome (not at Antioch) such Supream Infallible Judges, we may ex­pect he would have set down this Ar­ticle plainly in Holy Scripture, and not have left his sole visible Vice-gerent to the suspicion of bearing witness to him­self. As for that place Matth. xvi. Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock will I build my Church: it is indeed by the Popes in their Forged Decretals expounded as a confirmation of their pretences to Supremacy; but the Fathers take this Rock, not for S. Peter's Person, but for his Faith which he confessed, and for Christ himself the Object thereof: So S. Augu­stine Aug. de verb. Dom. Serm. 13., Nazianzen Nazianz. Test. de Vet. Testam., S. Cyril Cyril. de Trin. lib. 4., S. [Page 99] Chrysostome Chrysost. hom. 55. in Matth., S. Ambrose Ambros. Com. in Ephes. 2., and Hi­lary Hilar. de Trin. lib. 2. cap. 6., expound the place; and if so, this belongs no more to S. Peter, than to the rest of the Apostles who confessed the same Faith, and belongs no otherwise to the Pope, than as he varies not from S. Pe­ter's Faith, and so far it belongs to all Orthodox Bishops with respect to their several Churches: And for the Keys of the kingdom of Heaven, ver. 19. they were given as much to the other Apo­stles as to S. Peter, Matth. xviii. 18. (as also the aforesaid Fathers do observe) being all equally sharers in the Power of the Keys, Ambros. in Esal. 38. and all Foun­dations as well as S. Peter Aug▪ in Jo­han. Tract. 118.,Origen. in Matt. Tract. 1. so that S. Cyprian plainly tells us,Hilarius de Tri­nit. l. 6. The rest of the Apostles were as great as Peter,Hieron. in Jovin▪ lib. 1. endowed with an equal share of Honour and Power Cypr. de U­nit. Eccles.; Nor do we [Page 100] find that ever S. Peter pretended to any Power over the other Apostles. Peter, James and John, though preferred by Christ (saith Eusebius) before the rest, challenged not to themselves the glory of Primacy, but chose James the Just, Bishop of the Apostles Euseb. Eccles. hist. l. 2. c. 1.: And if any were great­est it was S. James, who was President in that first Council at Jerusalem, and did de­termine the Question there, though S. Peter was presentActs xv. 13.. Yea, Clemens Bishop of Rome in the first Decretal Epistle (a good evidence against the Inventors thereof) styles this very S. James, Bishop of Bishops, governing the Holy Church of the Hebrews at Je­rusalem, and also all the Churches, which were every where founded by the Provi­dence of God Decret. Epist. Clement. 1. in Titul. Epist.. And an Ancient Council calls Jerusalem the Mother of all Churches Concil. Con­stant. I. Ep. ad Dam.; but as for the Primacy of Rome, there is no [Page 101] genuine Author for the first Three Cen­turies takes any notice of it, and Aeneas Sylvius Aene. Sylv. Ep. 288. afterwards Pope confesseth, There was little respect paid to Rome before the Ni­cene Council: If Polycrates and the A­sian Bishops had known of this Infalli­bility and Supremacy, they would not have opposed Pope Victor's Opinion, nor despised his Excommunication so boldly as they did; neither would Irenaeus (who calls the Bishops of Rome no more but Presbyters) have presumed to reprove the same Victor for his arrogance and in­discretion, as we find he didEuseb. Eccles. hist. l. 5. c. 24.. S. Cyprian▪ surely never heard of this Power of the Ro­man Bishop, who calls Cornelius Bishop of that See, no more but Brother and Colleague, and gives to Pope Stephen his Successor at Rome, the Titles of False Apostle, Schismatick, friend to Hereticks, and enemy to Christians: utterly despi­sing his Judgment, and not regarding [Page 102] his Determinations Cyprian ad Pompei. Ep. 74.. Besides, if this Supremacy had been be­lieved in the first Ages of the Church, the Roman Bishops sense would have been enquired of concern­ing all controverted places of Scripture, his Decrees cited to silence Hereticks, and all Appeals must have been made finally to him: He also should have cal­led and presided in all eminent Councils, whereas Cardinal Cusanus affirms, That the Emperours or their Deputies were Pre­sidents in Eight General Councils Cusan. de Concor. Cath. lib. 3. c. 6. Nor did the Fourth General Council at Chalcedon suppose that the Roman Bishop had any Supremacy given him from Christ, when that Council saith, Rome hath justly had the Priviledges given unto it by the Fathers, because it was the Seat of the Empire; and for the same Reason▪ they grant equal Priviledges to the Bishop of Constantinople Concil. Chal. Can. 28. An. 451.. Yea, S. Gregory Bishop of Rome [Page 103] saith, The Fathers of the Council of Chalcedon were they who offered his Pre­decessors the Title of Universal Bishop, which yet they accepted not Gregor. E­pist. lib. 7. Ep. 30.: And to con­vince us that this Ʋni­versal Supremacy is a late Device, it is evident, that it was not only unknown to others in the first Age, but to the very Popes themselves, as these few Instances will shew: Libe­rius Bishop of Rome An. 350. sending the Confession of his Faith to Athana­sius desireth his Approbation thereof, That I may know (saith he) whether I am of the same Judgment with you in matters of Faith, and that I may be more certain, and readily obey your commands Athanas. Ep. ad Epictet.. And when the Bishop of Constantinople began to call himself Ʋniversal Bishop, Pope Gregory in his Epistle to Mauritius the Emperour saith, He ad­mires at the Arrogance of assuming this New Title, which none of the Bishops of Rome had ever accepted of, a Title blas­phemous [Page 104] to Christian Ears; and with ma­ny other words he inveighs against this Title, as unfit for any Christian Bishop, as may be seen at large in his Epistles Gregor. E­pist. lib. 2. ad Maurit. Epist. 32, 36, 38.. And in his Epistle to Eulo­gius Patriarch of A­lexandria he is dis­pleased that Eulogius writes to him by the proud Title of Universal Bishop, de­siring him wholly to forbear that lan­guage, for (saith he) That is a diminu­tion to you, which is afforded to another beyond what reason doth require: And he there tells Eulegius, That the Council of Chalcedon had offered this Title to the Old Bishops of Rome, but they would not ac­cept it Gregor. Epist. lib. 7. Ep. 30.: Of which he gives this Reason in another Epistle, —Because if one Patriarch be called U­niversal, the name of Patriarch is taken from the rest Idem lib. 7. Epist. 36.. And so little did Pope Bo­niface think of deriving his Supremacy from Christ, that with intreaty he obtained of the intruding [Page 105] Emperour Phocas to decree, That the Roman Church should be Head of all Church­es Beda de 6. aetat. Mundi., as the Ancient Historians witnessPaul. Diacon. rer. Rom. lib. 18. Histor. Longob. lib. 4. c. 11.. But this Imperial Con­stitution will scarce ju­stifie the Supremacy and Jurisdiction which the Pope now claimeth o­ver all the World,Anastas. Bibl. Vit. Bonif. Tertii, and it utterly destroys the pretences of a Divine Right to it.Ado aetat. Sext. Reg. Chron. l. 1. It would be too tedious to relate at large all the steps by which the Bishops of Rome attained to their present Grandeur;Aimon. de gest. Franc. l. 4. c. 4. I shall therefore only note, that the first Ages began early to complain of his Encroachments and Ambition Firmilianus ad Cypr. Ep. 75.; and all succeeding Times fre­quently opposed the Pope's Pretences herein; The Sixth Coun­cil of Carthage allowed not his claim of Ap­peals Concil. 6. Carthag. An. 419.. The Bishops of France complain of [Page 106] his sending a Legate to Dedicate a Church there, as an undue Act, contrary to the Ancient Canons and all Primitive Con­stitutions, For though (saith the Historian) the Bishop of Rome for the dignity of his Apostolical Seat, be more venerable than other Bishops, yet it is not lawful for him in any thing to transgress the Tenor of Ca­nonical rules; and as every Bishop of the Orthodox Church is the Spouse of his own See, and represents the person of our Sa­viour, so it cannot agree to any Bishop, boldly to act any thing in the Diocess of another Glaber Ro­dulph. hist. lib. 2. c. 4.; the like checks the Popes fre­quently received for medling in France, from the Princes of that Na­tion Vita Ludov. Pii à P. Pithaeo edit. An. 863.. About that Time also the Bishops of Italy complained of the Roman Ʋsurpation to the Patriarch of Constantinople, Annal. Franc. d P. Pithaeo eod. An. as appears by Photius's Letter, in answer to that complaint, extant in Cardin. Baronius Photius Con­stant. Ep. Encycl. ap. Baron An. 863. §. 42.. [Page 107] And there are many like Examples in the Historians of those Ages, wherein this bold Jurisdiction began first to be exercisedin this Western part of Eu­rope Constit. Imper. à Godalsto Tom. 1. pag. 24, 25.. And to this very day the Churches of France do little va­lue the Pope's Suprema­cy, Luitprand. Ticin. histor. lib. 6. cap. 9, & 10. though in other O­pinions they agree with the Roman Church, as may be seen in the French WritersBochellus l. 5. de Decret. Ec­cles. Gallic. tit. 20.. And it is not long since the King of France was about to take away his Nations dependence from Rome, Pithaeus de lib. Eccles. Gallican, c. 3. §, 3. n. 13. by erect­ing the Archbishoprick of Burges into a Patriarchate. And now, why should you be awed into the belief of Evil and in­convenient Doctrines by a pretended Su­premacy, not given by Christ, not chal­lenged by the best Popes, not acknow­ledged by the first Christians, not much regarded by some Catholick Countries? Why should you be enslaved by an Au­thority gained by fraud and policy, con­firmed [Page 108] by force and cruelty, enlarged by dividing Christian Princes, by the un­dermining the Empire and oppressing many Ecclesiastical and Temporal per­sons in their just Rights? Why should you fear to renounce an Usurped Juris­diction, since what is unjustly seized on at first, can never be legally enjoyed, nor is it confirmed by the longest prescription of Time LL. Basilic. l. 10. tit. 1. & Balsamon not. in Concil. Ancyran. p. 378., as the Civil Law speaks? I must confess I cannot see that any Christians without the Pale of his own Diocess, are obliged to own him further than by the respect due to a Bi­shop of an Ancient Patriarchal See, nor so far neither if he be not content with his own, and keep not close to the Primi­tive Faith.

SECTION VI.
Whether the Pope hath any Right to exercise a Jurisdiction over Eng­land.

BUt since my Discourse is directed particularly to the Catholicks of England, it will be most considerable to enquire, Whether the Roman Bishop can justly claim any Authority over them? and (if Prejudices were laid aside) I doubt not but to make it evident, that the Pope neither hath nor ought to have any Authority over this Nation. For first, let it be considered that Britain was the first of the Provinces which did publickly profess the Faith of Christ, saith Sabellicus Sabellic. Enn. 7. lib. 5., which is also attested by other more Ancient Writers Tertul. adv. Jud. c. 7.. So that it is agreed on all hands,Theodoret. de Cur. Graec. aff. Ser. 9. here was a true and perfect [Page 110] Church of Christ near five hundred years before they had any Communica­tion with the Bishop of Rome, or knew one syllable of this foundation-Article of the Modern Faith of that Church, viz. of the Pope's Ʋniversal Supremacy: It is also certain the Church of Britain was not subject to Rome at the time of the First General Council at Nice; And in the Sixth Canon of that Council it is decreed concerning the three Patriarchs Jurisdictions, That the Ancient custom should be established, that Aegypt, Lybia and Pentapolis should be subject to the Bishop of Alexandria, because the Bishop of Rome had the like Custome, and like­wise so it was at Antioch, and in other Provinces the Priviledges should be pre­served to their Church­es, &c. Can. 6. Concil. Nicaen. juxt. Dio­nys. Exig.. Now the Ancient Custom and Priviledge of this Church of Britain then was to govern it self without subjection to any For­reign Patriarch, and the Pope could not usurp any Dominion here afterwards without transgressing this Canon of the [Page 111] most famous General Council; especially if we consider how this Canon was ex­pounded in Ruffinus's daies, viz. That Rome should have the Government of the Suburbicarian Churches Histor. Ecclese. lib. 1. c. 6.. And the Ancient Survey of the Imperial Provinces will tell you what the Suburbicarian Region was, viz. Three Islands, Sicily, Sardinia and Cor­sica, and part of Italy, from the East end to the border of Tuscany Westward: And this was all the Ancient extent of the Roman Bishops Jurisdiction, the rest of Italy being under the Metropolis of Millain, which Church of Old paid no Subjection to Rome; much less could any be due to him from Britain. Again, in the Third General Council of Ephesus An. 431. it was decreed, That in all Dioceses and Provinces it should hereafter be observed, That no Bishop should hence­forward lay hold of another Province, which had not formerly and from the be­ginning been under the power of their Prede­cessors Concil. E­phes. Can. 8., which Ca­non [Page 112] the Pope must break also, before he can assume a power over the Church of Britain, which, with the Island of Cy­prus and some other places, was its own head (as those Times phrased it) and subject to no Patriarch: So that when Augustine the Monk (coming over to convert the Pagan Saxons) required the British Bishops to profess Subjection to the See of Rome; They did by virtue of these Canons refuse it, telling him, They had a Patriarch of their own, to whom alone they were subject in Spiritual things under God, and Dionothus Abbot of Bangor by divers Arguments shewed, they owed no Subjection to the Roman Bishop: as an Old Histo­rian informs usGe [...] Monm. de Aug. vers. fin.. And accordingly the British Bishops retained their Old Rites different from Rome, and kept their Old Priviledges, being consecrated by the Archbishop of S. Davids, and he by his own Suffragans, making no Profession of Subjection to any other Church (saith their HistorianGyrald. Camb. It in. l. 2. c. 1., which [Page 113] continued till the day of King Henry the First. The Saxons indeed shewed more Respect to Rome, because it had assisted in their Conversion, hence they sometimes asked Advice of the Pope, as of an E­minent neighbour Patriarch, but their Bishops never professed Subjection to Rome, nor did they own his Supremacy, or look on him as an Infallible Judge, as appears by their not obeying the Pope's Decree made in a Roman Council, about restoring Wilfrid to his Archbishoprick of York An. 680. And though the Pope had confirmed and recommended the Canons of the Second Nicene Council about Images, the English Church re­jected and despised them, writing a Book to condemn Image-worship, in the name of all the Princes and Bishops of Eng­land, and sending it to Charles the Great of France, by the learned Alcuinus, as our Histories do attest Hoved. An­nal part. 1. p. 405. And moreover it is evident that all Ecclesiastical Laws were then made by the Sax­on Kings and Bishops,Matth. Westm. An. 793.. in their Provincial [Page 114] Councils, by their own Authority, with­out ever so much as acquainting the Pope therewith, or desiring his consent there­to, or confirmation thereof: The Popes indeed about the latter end of the Sax­on times began to degenerate in Man­ners, and aim at high things in all the Western world; but his Pride was checked here, even as (as we shewed be­fore) it was in other places: for when that Insolent Pope Hildebrand (who first presumed to depose an Emperour Onuphri [...]s in Vit. Greg. 7.) took the boldness to require Fealty of King William the Conqueror, he answered him in this manner, Fealty I neither have acknow­ledged, nor will I do it, because neither did I promise it, nor do I find that my Predecessors ever did it to your Predecessors, as appears by the Conqueror's Letter still extantBaron. An­nal. An. 1076. §. 25.. And when by Policy and evil Arts he had made some en­croachments here, yet still his Power was esteemed no other than a Temporal Power, permitted by the [Page 115] favour of our Kings, not due by any O­riginal Right: Hence the Historian saith, That King Henry the First having subdued all his Enemies, feared none but the Pope, and that not for his Spiritual, but his Temporal Power Matth. Paris. An. 1107.. And an Old Record affirms that King Hen­ry the Second smartly asked the Bishop of Chichester, How he durst argue for the Pope's Authority which was granted by Men, against his Royal Power derived from God Record. An. tertio Hen. 2.? The turbulent and seditious Attempts of T. Becket and his faction about that time, to subject the English Clergy to the Pope's Ʋniversal Supremacy, are sufficiently known; but if our Ancestors (whom you call Roman Catholicks) had been of your Opinion in this great Article of Faith, they would not have made so stout an Opposition against the Pope's Supremacy as they did: It being apparent that the whole body of the Nation then looked on it as an En­croachment and an Ʋsurpation; for in [Page 116] the famous Statutes of Clarendon they condemn it, Decreeing▪ among other things, That all the Clergy should bonâ fide, swear to the King; and none should Appeal, but unto the Archbishop, or from him finally to the King, without particular License Matth. Paris. An. 1164.. And to re­strain his medling here, the Kings of England declared, they had a Right to forbid the Pope's Legates from entring into this Land, and often did prohibite them (even Qu. Mary her self exercising this Power) yea, it was ad­judged in a Parliament 25 Ed. 3. To be Treason to bring in the Pope's Bulls here without the Kings consent, Stat. de Provi­sor. though the sending these be an Act of Spiritual Jurisdiction; but it is plain they would not allow the Pope in those days to exercise Spiritual Jurisdiction here without the King's leave, for his very Excommunicating certain English Bishops in a Parliament 16 of Rich. 2. is declared to tend To the open disherison of the Crown, and the destruction of the King, his Law, and all his Realms, and a little after it is affirmed there, that the Popes [Page 117] attempts be clearly against the Kings Crown and Regality, used and approved in the time of all his ProgenitorsStat. 16. Ric. 2di Statute Book pag. 238., finally therefore they all pro­mise to stand with the King against all such Encroachments with their very lives: And if you be well versed (as becometh English-men) in the Histories and Statutes of your own Country; you must needs know that the Authority which the Pope once exercised here, was gotten by taking ad­vantages of the necessities of our Kings, and the divisions among the People. And in those Times which are accounted most Popish, it was checked by Laws, com­plained of in Parliament, and thought an Oppression by the wisest and greatest Subjects, so that the most Noble Hen. de Lacy Earl of Lincoln, in his dying Speech (to his Son in Law Thomas Earl of Lancaster) said among other things, That the Church of England heretofore Honourable and Free, was now enslaved by Romish Oppressions: charging him, to stand up like a man for the Honour of God [Page 118] and the Church, and the Redemption of his Country Tho. of Wal­sing. An. 1312. pag. 74. num. 20.. And the same Author tells us, that it was debated in a Council at London An. 1408. Whether all Payments and Obedience to the Pope should not be taken away Tho. Wal­sing. An. 1408. p. 420.? Which shews, they thought it in the power of this Nation to take away his Authority here when they pleased: And they retained it, not as being ne­cessarily or originally due to him, but only in respect of his being a Bishop of an Ancient Apostolical Seat, as is evi­dent from those Instructions which King Henry the Fifth gave to his Embassadors, sent to Pope Martin the Fifth, bidding them (if they perceived any delay in their affair) to tell the Pope, That their Master the King, if he yielded not to his Demands, would use his own power in these Particulars, for he did not apply himself to Rome out of necessity, but for Respect sake Vitâ Henr. Chicely, p. 56, & 57.. And therefore [Page 119] when this permissive Authority grew un­easie to those who had endured it for some time, it was rejected much more Legally than ever it was introduced, viz. by the Regal Power with the advice and consent of the Lords and Commons in ParliamentAn. 26. Hen. 8.. And this is to be noted, the Clergy and Laity of this Parliament did hold most of the Opinions of the Roman Church in other things, and yet consented to the abolish­ing the Pope's Ʋsurped Power over England, as believing it to be an unjust Encroachment: And Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester (a great Persecu­tor of the Protestants) did then make a learned Oration De verâ obedientiâ, shewing that the King was by Right and by God's Law the Supream Head of this Church of England.

And now, that I may not only con­fute a false Opinion▪ but establish the true, let me intreat you impartially to consi­der, that as it appears the Pope is not De­jure supream Head of this Church of England, so it is as evident, that the King [Page 120] of England is the Supream Head of the Churches in his own Dominions: For indeed all Christian Princes are, or ought to be so in their own Dominions; whence it was that Constantine the Great did retain the Title of Pontifex Maximus without any blot to his Christianity, saith Baronius Annal. Tom. 3. An. 312.. And the highest Appeals in all Controversies Ec­clesiastical, even in mat­ters of Faith, were made to him, though he used the assistance and Counsel of his Bishops, for determining them. And it is evident that he and his Successors (as Cusanus before confesseth) did call and Preside in all General Councils, and ra­tified their Decrees, which were no Laws till they were stamped with the Imperial Authority: yea, the Imperial Code suffi­ciently witnesses, that the Emperour's made Laws concerning Religion, the whole Third book of Justinian's Basi­licks being nothing else but Imperial Constitutions, de Episcopis, Clericis & Sacris: They also erected Patriarchates, and gave them supream Ecclesiastical [Page 121] Jurisdiction over such Provinces as they pleased, as at Justinia­nopolis in Daeia Imperial. Const. Novel▪ II. & Nov. 131. c. 3., and at Ravenna in Italy it selfRescript. Va­lent. 31 An. 432., which had no dependence on Rome till the time of Constan­tinus Pogon: And all Ecclesiastical affairs depended on the Emperors, saith Socrates Socrat. hist. Prooem. ad lib. 5., so that Pope Anastasius calls the Emperor A­nastasius, The Vicar of God by the Divine com­mand presiding over the Earth Anastas. Pap. Epist ad Anastas. Imp. ap. Binium T. 2. par. 1. p. 507.. An Autho­rity like this also was exercised by the Western Emperors of the French Line, being stayled, The Rulers of the True Religion, a Title given to Charles the Great and to Ludovicus by two several Councils which they had calledConcil. 1. Mo­gun. An. 813. & Concil. II. Mogun. An. 847. ap. Bin. T. 3. p. 1. Sect. 2.; and the present French Kings do claim the Supremacy over the French Churches, as [Page 122] may be seen in [...]ohellus and P. Pith [...]us cited before, Sect. 5. One of the French Writers telling us it is the Opinion of his Nation, that Le Royiassisté de son Conseil d'estate est [...]es Di [...] Chief Ter­rie [...] de l'Eglise de son Royanme & [...] Pape Claud. Fau­ [...]et en les Liber­tes de l'Eglis. Gallican. p. 234.. And it may be proved concerning other Christian Princes, that they allow not the Pope to impose his Decrees on their Kingdoms, nor to exercise any Jurisdiction among them but by their special License and consent, and prohibite his exercising any power over their Subjects when they please: And why may not the King of England, being a free and absolute Monarch, be allowed as great a Priviledge in his own Dominions? Do you not tell us; that Pope Eleutherius called King Lucius by the Title of Vicar of Christ Epist. Eleuth. ad R. Lucium ap. Spelm [...] ▪; and doth not King Edgar call him­self Christs Vicar Leg. Hydens. cap. 8. Spelm [...] Tom. [...]. p. 438., and none taxed this Ti­tle then? Did not the [Page 123] Saxon Kings preside in all National Councils, and make Laws for Religion by the advice of their own Bishops, by their own Authority? Did they not erect new Sees for Bishops, and change them as they saw fit? Did they not invest all Bishops by delivering the Ring and Pastoral Staff Ingulph. hist. p. 902.? And the same power was still exercised by K. William the Conque­ror, for all things both Divine and Hu­mane depended on his Order, saith an Old HistorianEadmer. hi­stor. p. 6.. And when the Pope began to encroach upon the King's Supremacy here in England, he was generally opposed as we noted before. And in the aforesaid Parliament of Richard the Second, the Nation declared, That they would not en­dure that the Crown of England should be submitted to the Pope, and the Laws and Statutes of this Realm by him de­feated and avoided at his pleasure Stat. 16 Ric. 2. c. 5.: for Bracton our most fa­mous [Page 124] Lawyer affirms, that The Kings of England have no Supream on earth but God: And accordingly the Kings and Parliaments of this Nation made Laws in reference to Religion as they saw ex­pedient, and among the rest they enacted many Laws in a direct opposition to the Pope's Spiritual as well as Temporal Ju­risdiction, declaring thereby, that they esteemed him no Head of this Church, but an ambitious and dangerous Encroacher upon the Rights of the Crown, as you will find by perusal of those several Statutes cited in the MarginStat. 25 Ed. 3. de Provisor.. By which Laws long since enacted,Stat. 27, 28 Ed. 3. cap. 1, 2. it is de­clared to be Treason to receive or harbour any Agents or Emissaries from Rome against the King's Proclamations,Stat. 28 Ed. 3. cap. 3. and without his special License:Stat. 2 Hen. 4. cap. 3. Stat. 6 Henr. 4. cap. 1. Upon all which Considerations the Judges have decla­red,Stat. 7 Henr. 4. cap. 6. Stat. 3 Henr. 5. cap 4. that the Act of Parliament for Restoring [Page 125] the Supremacy over the Church unto the Crown, was not the introducing a New Law, but a declara­tion of the Old Coke 5. Rep. Cawdry's Case, fol. 8.: For it was many hun­dred years before, that King Henry the Second did declare, That be would account it high Treason in any man, that should affirm the Pope's Authority was above his Spelm. Con­cil. T. 2. p. 58.. And before that, Anselm was told, That it was impossible for him to keep the Faith which he owed to the King; and to pay Obedience to the Pope contrary to his Royal Pleasure Rex ad An­selm. ap Eadme­rum pag. 62.. Which (methinks) may fitly admonish you who do own the Pope's Su­premacy over England, and yet glory much in your Loyalty to the King; to enquire how these two can stand toge­ther? Our Saviour saith, No mancan serve two Masters, Matth. vi. 24. however not two Supream Lords, neither can there be two highest Powers in one Kingdom, nor can any Subjects obey both, since [Page 126] they will sometimes command contrary things: 'Tis true, if the Roman Bishop would profess to our King, as his Pre­decessor Leo the Fourth did to Lotharius of France, Concerning your Capitulars or Imperial Precepts, we through the assi­stance of Christ promise as much as we are able, to keep and con­serve the same for ever Leon. Epist. ad Lothar. & Lud. Aug. ap. Grat. dist. 10. c. 9.. If he would ac­knowledge himself sub­ject to our King in his Dominions, as his Predecessors were to the Emperours of Old; if he behaved himself toward his Majesty, as S. Gregory did to Mauritius, who calls that Empe­rour, his Lord, and himself, his Servant; declaring, that He was subject to the Em­perours Commands, and accordingly had done his duty in publishing a Law (which the Emperour ordered him to promulge) though for his own part he thought it not agreeable to the Laws of God Gregor. Epist. lib. 2. ad Maurit. Ep. 62.. If the present Popes claimed no more than a Primacy of order and precedency among other [Page 127] Bishops, then the case might easily be determined: But you know of later times the pretences of Rome are much higher, for she challenges a Supremacy over all Christian Princes, a power to depose them, an Authority to abrogate or dispense with their Laws, and ab­solve their Subjects from their Allegi­ance, a Priviledge to be appealed unto as to the last and highest Tribunal on Earth▪ so that Clement the Fifth is re­corded in the Acts of the Council of Vienna to have said, That all the Right of Kings depended on him alone Concil. Vienn. sub Clem. 5.; and Boniface the Eighth owned him­self not only Lord of France, but of all the World Papyr. Mas­son. Vit. Bonis. 8., for So great was the Impudence of this Boniface (saith the French Chronologer) that he pre­sumed to affirm the Kingdom of France was a Fee of the Papal Majesty Tilius Episs. Meld. Chronic. de Reg. Fran. An. 1302.. And as to this Kingdom, Pope Innocent the Fourth saith, That the King of [Page 128] England was his Vassal and his Slave Matth. Paris. ad An. 1253., and they esteem England also a Fee of the Papacy, and so is Ireland too it seems. Whereupon the Pope hath dared to no­minate a King of Ireland, and hath given away the Kingdom of England to those who attempted to conquer it; he hath condemned our Laws, and▪ absolved the Subjects of England from their Allegi­ance, upon which many of your Party have entred into Conspiracies and Re­bellion: So that now it appears, the Pope claims an Absolute Supremacy o­ver our King and his Realms, and how he can be a good Subject of the King of England, who professes Obedience to this Forreign Princely Prelate, is very hard to be understood: if you believe this claim, and own the Pope to be a­bove the King, you must then obey him, even when his Orders contradict those of your lawful Sovereign, and so you are the Pope's Subjects, not the King's; nor can his Majesty have any security of your Allegiance, any longer than he [Page 129] pleases the Roman Bishop, so that he Reigns over you at the Pope's mercy. I know many of you English Catholicks have so Loyal an affection for the King, that your Church-men are forced to in­vent many plausible pretences to per­swade you, that the Supremacy claimed by the Pope doth not entrench upon the King's Supremacy, telling you, that you need not obey the Pope if he com­manded you to fight against your King; wherein they put a fallacy upon you, for they know the Pope can Excommuni­cate and depose him (even for a very small matter, say your Canonists Gloss. in De­cret. dist. 40. cap. 6. St▪ Papa.), and then he is no longer Your King: They pre­tend further this Supremacy over Kings in Temporals is not the Doctrine of your Church, but only of some Jesuites, upon whom they lay all those foul. Doctrines of Deposing and mur­thering Kings, Suarez. defens. Fidei, & lib. contr. Regem Magn. Brit­tan. so wick­edly maintained by di­vers eminent Writers of your ChurchMariana, lib. de Rege.. But [Page 130] this is a delusion also, for when or where did the Pope, or the Heads of the Ro­man Church, condemn these Opinions, or suppress these Seditious Books, nay, on the contrary, the Books are approved and the Authors preferred at Rome, e­ven when France con­demns themAnswer to Philanax Angli­cus, 125.: And those honest and loyal secular English Priests that have ventured to write against this usurped Power of the Popes over Kings in Temporals (though they held his Supremacy here in Spiri­tuals) have been persecuted almost to death by the Roman Bishop; they have been suspended, and their Books con­demned, and their persons so odiously represented that no English Catholicks durst harbour them; witness the learn­ed F. Preston under the name of Roger Widrington in King James's days, with his fellow-Priests, and Peter Walsh Au­thor of the Letter to the Catholicks, who is at this day a great Sufferer by the Pope's means, meerly for writing, that you of the Roman Church ought to be [Page 131] Loyal to the King in all matters of Tem­poral cognizance; a clear evidence, that (whatever your Church may pretend) they will not endure that any of you Catholicks shall hold the King's power to be above the Pope's in any thing; and consequently they will not allow you to be good Subjects. Now to sum up all these particulars, how grievous an abuse is it▪ for a Forreign Prelate, whose Pre­decessors had no Authority here at all, to usurp such a power over you as to impose New and inexpedient Articles upon you? Why should you enslave your selves to him that cannot have so much as a Spiritual Jurisdiction here without breaking the Canons of the most famous General Councils? Why may▪ you not take the same liberty to oppose his Decrees, that your Ancestors in all Ages have done? they whom you account good Catholicks rejected his Doctrines sometimes, despised his Bulls and Excommunications frequently, and always opposed his pretended claim of a Supremacy over this Nation; why should you call that an Article of Faith, [Page 132] and account it the Principal point of Re­ligion, viz. That England ought to be subject to Rome; which even in those you call Catholick Times was declared to be no less than Treason, and no other than an Opinion that did destroy the Prerogative of the King, the Priviledges and Liberties of this Church, the free­dom and quiet of all English Subjects? They were Romanists in other Points who condemned Appeals to Rome, and maintained, that the Crown of England was in no Earthly subjection, and that the King had no Supream but God only; who counted all the Power which the Pope ever had here, meerly permissive, tolerated by this Nation so long as they pleased, and such as might be curbed, lessened, hindred or taken away by the Supream Authority of this Nation when ever they saw expedient: It was a King and Parliament of your Religion in most points, that restored the King to his just Supremacy, and took away the precarious or usurped and much a­bused Power of the Roman Bishop here; they thought a Supremacy in Spirituals, [Page 133] as to this Kingdom, was more than he had any Right to, but he and his Agents expect to be allowed to over-rule the Temporal Laws also; methinks, if you have the Nobleness and Gallantry of true English spirits, your affections for the Roman Church should not rob you of your love to your Native Country, nor suffer you to endure those pretences which dishonour the King, and despoil him of his Ancient Rights, and enslave this free Church and Nation to one that only seeks his own ends in claiming this Subjection; for though the holding the Pope's Supremacy doth contribute to the support of his own Grandeur, yet it doth not further any mans Salvation, and it is so far from doing any good in those Nations where it is allowed him, that it might be made appear, the setting up and abetting this Supremacy hath occa­sioned the murther of many Princes, stirred up the complaints of all sorts of people, and filled Christendom for many Ages, with Massacres, Treasons, War and Bloodshed See the An­swer to Philanax Angl. chap. 4. p. 72.; which [Page 134] was so notorious in the German Em­pire, that it came to be a Proverb saith Guiccardine, It is the property of the Church to hate the Caesars: And the mischief it hath done in England (by rifling the Nations wealth before the Reformation, and disturbing its Quiet since) is so well remembred and so deeply resented, by the generality of the people, that they will never endure that heavy Yoak any more, nor can they be perswaded scarce ever to esteem them Loyal Subjects or true to their Countries Interest, who do not renounce this un­just and odious Jurisdiction. Why there­fore (O my Friends) will you be so imprudent, to oppose the Rights and Prerogative of your Lawful Sovereign, the Priviledges of that Church wherein you were born, the Freedom and Interest of your beloved Country, the desire of your fellow-Subjects and best Friends, yea, and your own liberty also? Why will you oppose (I say) all these, meerly to support an unjust and groundless Power, which no Ecclesiastick ought to have any where, much less in so remote [Page 135] and so free a Monarchy? to support a Power which is inconsistent with the Security of the Crown, the Peace of the Kingdom, and the welfare of Pri­vate persons? S. Peter never bid any to honour his Successor the Pope thus, but his Opinion was, that you must submit to the King as Supream, 1 Pet. ii. 13. and his Counsel follows thereupon, viz. that you should Fear God and Honour the King, ver. 17. S. Paul commands Every Soul to be subject to the Higher Powers, Rom. xiii. 1. Neither Bishops nor Apostles themselves are excepted, saith S. Chry­sostome. And S. Bernard tells Pope Euge­nius, that the Apostles were forbid to exercise Dominion, Luke xxii. 25, 26. and therefore he adds, If you would have Apostolical and Royal Power together you lose both Bern. ad Eu­gen. Pap. de consid. l. 2.. Finally therefore, it is unrea­sonable for the Roman Bishop to challenge such Authority here, and the Laws of God and Man forbid it, so that I may expect you shall be so far from receiving any Articles for the sake of this Autho­rity, [Page 136] that you shall not scruple to re­nounce the Authority it self, which was so ill-gotten at first, so wretchedly a­bused while it did obtain, and so le­gally taken away at last; and in so doing you will demonstrate your selves to be Loyal to your King, Faithful to your Country, Friends to your own Liberty, and men of an un-inslaved Understand­ing.

SECTION VII.
Advice to the English Catholicks to forsake the Opinions of Rome and embrace the Religion of the Church of England.

TO Conclude, as my pity to see you so miserably imposed on, hath mo­ved me to endeavour by these plain and Cogent Arguments to rescue you from that yoke, which neither we nor our Fa­thers were able to bear; So my desire of your perfect Freedom, and my unfeigned wishes for your Temporal, Spiritual and Eternal welfare, do prompt me to advise you to comply with the Religion of the Church of England, and this Advice is not only grounded upon the foregoing considerations, but may be further pressed upon these motives:

[Page 138] 1. If you consider the excellent method of our Reformation which was so necessa­ry at that time, that for some Ages be­fore, the wisest and best men of the Ro­man Church had not only confessed there was great need of it, but had complained for want thereof, and pressed the Pope earnestly thereunto, witness the Judicious Epistle of Rob. Grosthead that pious Bish. of Lincoln, to Pope Innocent the Fourth, yet to be seen in our Hi­storians Matth. Paris. An. 1253.; the publick complaint of the English Church in the Council of Lyons ap. Binium Concil. Tom. 3. p 2. sol. 729. &c.; the private Writings of John Ger­son, Nich. Clemangis, Ae­neas Sylvius (afterwards Pope) and many others: And at least One Hundred Years before Luthers time a Reformation was urged for, in the Pi­sane CouncilConcil. Pi­sanum An. 1411. and that so strongly, that before the Election of a Pope, the Cardinals solemnly promised, Who ever of them should be chosen Pope, that he would before [Page 139] the dissolution of that Council Reform the Catholick Church as well in the Head as the Members Concil. Pisan. Sess. 16.. And when Alexander the Fifth was chosen, He promised to take Care of a General Reformation, and that pious and Learned Men should be chosen in every Na­tion to treat with the Car­dinals about it Et Sess. 20. ap. Binium Tom. 3. p. 2. p. 836.: But after all, neither he nor his Successors would e­ver Reform either their Doctrines or Practices, being more intent upon their private advantage, than the general good, and more moved with Cardinal Scombergs Counsel, than by all the former complaints, who told the Pope, That by the Reformation it would be con­fessed that the things provided against, were deservedly reproved by the Lutherans, which would be a great abetting to their whole Doctrine, Hist. Counc. Trent. l. 1. p. 83. which is to resolve to Err always, rather than to be thought to have once erred; and herein the Roman Church is of the same humour with those Gentiles [Page 140] to whom Arnobius speaks, What you have once done without reason, ye defend lest you should seem formerly to have been ig­norant, and you account it better not to be o­vercome, than to yield to plain and confessed Truth Arnob. adv. gentes, l. 6. p. 197.. Wherefore since Rome resolved not to Reform, England (having first restored her King to his Ancient and just Supre­macy) resolved to reform it self, without the Popes leave or consent, knowing full well they had Authority sufficient among themselves to order the Af­fairs of Religion, which had been Regu­lated many Hundred years in this Land by the King and his own Bishops, with­out any dependence on the Pope at all: Thus the Kings of Judah reformed their Kingdoms of Old, Thus the King of Spain with Leander Bishop of Sevil reformed that Kingdom from Arianism without the PopeConcil. Tolet. 3. An. 589. and thus King Edgar intended to proceed in the Re­formation of the Eng­lish Church of Old when he told his own [Page 141] Clergy, I have Constantines Sword in my hands, and you have Pe­ters in yours Edgar Ap. Ailred. Col. 361. That is, we need no further Authority or power to reform, Than what we have within our selves: The Kings of this Nation, with the advice and consent of their Bishops, Barons and Commons had been always wont to order Ecclesiastical affairs as they thought meet, not heeding whether the Pope were pleased or displeased thereat; And accordingly this happy Reformation was made by the Supreme Power of this Kingdom, upon mature deliberation, in a Regular, Orderly, and Legal way; and it was managed with so much moderation and prudence, that the Romanists of Eng­land said little against it, but Communi­cated with this Church (after the Refor­mation) till the Pope for his own ends forbid them so to do; but I hope his Pro­hibition without any just reason, shall not outweigh the Supreme Authority of your own Nation, with you, who profess your selves to be Loyal Subjects, and for the interest of England; and since there was [Page 142] such need of Reformation, such obstinacy in Rome, such Authority here, and so orderly proceedings in this Reformation, I think all Good Christians and sober men, being Natives of this Land, ought to submit unto it.

II. You will be further perswaded hereunto, by considering the Doctrine of this Church, which agrees with Primi­tive Christianity, in that it obliges you to believe nothing as of necessity to Salva­tion, but what may be plainly proved our of Holy Scripture, and for this reason you must still hold the three Creeds of the Apostles, of Nice, and of Saint Athana­sius, all which the Church of England in­tirely believes. And he only is a Here­tick which follows not this Holy Rule (say the Constitutions of Theodosius and Gra­tian) but they are Catholicks that em­brace it: In this Church we give as much honour to, and obey more Canons of, the first Four General Councils, than they of Rome do; we approve of that Expo­sition of Scripture which hath the consent of the Fathers of the first three or four Centuries, yea we hold all that the Church [Page 143] of Rome it self held as necessary to Salva­tion for Five or Six hundred Years toge­ther, and it is very remarkable that a Romanist may turn Protestant without adding any one Article to his Faith, but a Protestant cannot turn to Rome unless he embrace many new Articles▪ for our Do­ctrines are generally confessed by both sides to be true, but those of the Roman Church are rejected by our Reformers, as Novel Additions, and such as have no good foundation in Scripture, nor Ge­nuine Antiquity▪ And therefore the Pro­testant Doctrines are the surer and safer, as in which both sides agree; For Exam­ple, we and they both hold there are two States after this life, Heaven and Hell, but they add a third which is Purgatory, and this we deny: We and they both say, that sins are to be remitted by the merits of Christs death, but they add the merits of the Saints, and their own satisfactions with the merit of their own good works, which we deny to be Expiatory, or such as can merit Remission for us: We hold there be two Sacraments Baptism and the Eucharist, these they confess are the Chief, [Page 144] but add Five more, to which we affirm the name of Sacraments doth not proper­ly belong: We say that God alone is to be worshipped, they confess he is chiefly to be worshipped; but then they say the Blessed Virgin Mary, Angels, and Saints are to be worshipped also, which Addi­tions we deny: We say Christ is our only Mediator and Advocate, they confess he is principally so, but add, that Saints and Angels are so in an inferiour manner, which we utterly deny: We say Christ is really present in the Sacrament of the Al­tar, this they confess, but add, he is cor­porally there by the Transsubstantiation of the Bread, &c. and this we deny: We say the Scriptures are the Rule of Faith, and they will not absolutely deny it, but add their own Traditions, which we re­ject: We say there are XXII. Books of the Old Testament Canonical, and they confess these all to be so, but they add di­vers, and call them Canonical, which we affirm to be Apocryphal; I could give more instances, but these may suffice to shew that the Protestant Doctrines look most like the Ancientest, as being recei­ved [Page 145] by both Parties, but the Roman O­pinions are Novel Enlargements of Old Catholick Truths, so that a Protestant becoming a Romanist must take up many Articles barely upon the credit of that Church, and begin to believe many things anew, questioned by the bigger part of Christendom; but a Romanist turning Protestant retains all the Old Essentials of his former Faith; and doth only become a Primitive Roman Catholick.

III. The Discipline and Government of the Church of England are more agreea­ble to Primitive patterns than those of the present Roman Church are: Our King hath the same Power that the Reli­gious Kings of Judah had, the same which the great Constantine, and the suc­ceeding Emperors for many years enjoy­ed, the same power which the Ancient Kings of this Nation exercised, viz. A power to convene his Clergy and advise with them about affairs of the Church: A power to ratifie that which the Bishops and Clergy agree upon, and give it the force of a Law: A power to chuse fit persons to Govern the Church, A pow­er [Page 146] to correct all Offenders against Faith or Manners, be they Clergy, or Lay-men: And finally, A power to determine all Causes and Controversies Ecclesiastical and Civil, among his own Subjects (by the advice of fit Counsellors) so as there lies no Appeal from his Determination; and this is that we mean when we call him Supreme Governour of this Church, which our King must needs be, or else he cannot keep his Kingdoms in peace; Besides for Spiritual Jurisdiction, and sa­cred Administrations, we have a Patri­arch of our own, The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England, whom Ʋrban the Second call'd the Pope of the other World Malmsbury de Pontif. L. 1. de Anselmo. And his See was usually styl­ed, The Chair of the Eng­lish Patriarch Eadmer. Cant. pag. 113. and is reckoned among the Pa­triarchates by a Forreign WriterDuaren. de benef. lib. 1. c. 9.. And now his Priviledges and Li­berties are restored by Law, and his Ti­tle and Authority confirmed; so that there lies no Appeal from him but to the [Page 147] King; we have also Right Reverend Bi­shops, together with other inferiour Priests and Deacons (the only Primitive and proper Orders of the Clergy) who can prove their Ordination to be as goodas any of the Romish Priests can doMason de Ministerio Angli­cano., And are now. Consecrated and Ordained by a more ex­cellent Form, and more agreeing to the eldest times, than Rome it self can shew; and if you will Judge impartially, it must be confessed that the Clergy of England are altogether as Learned, and generally more painful and pious than in any Catholick Country whatsoever: Our Canons for Ecclesiasti­cal Government are all founded on the Canons of Ancient Councils (as I could shew by particular induction, if time would permit) and for the Exercise of our Discipline it is managed with more mo­deration, and ease to the People than that of the Roman Church is:

IIII. You may consider our Divine Service and Sacred Administrations, which (as far as ever God made necessary to [Page 148] Salvation) may be had in this Church: We have the Holy Scriptures plainly translated, Learnedly interpreted, and practically Preached; We have daily Prayers, by a Form so Grave and so Agrea­ble to the undoubted parts of Ancient Li­turgies, that it may challenge all Christen­dom to produce any thing so consonant to the purest Primitive Devotions; A Form which hath all those parts of the Roman Offices which were known and used in the first three Centuries, but wants all the Innovations and Corruptions of the pre­sent Mass; And is used in English for the benefit of the meanest Christian in our As­semblies: We have also those two Sacra­ments which Christ ordained (and many of the Elder and Later Doctors own no more Ambros. lib. de Sacram.). As for the other five Rites falsly called Sacraments,Aug. Doctrin. Christ. l. 3. c. 9. viz. Confir­mation, Matrimony,Paschusius de Caen. Dom. Ho­ly Orders,Bessarion. de Sa­cram. Euchar. visiting of the Sick, Repentance and Sa­tisfaction for wrongs done, we retain these, but not by the name of Sacraments, [Page 149] keeping the Primitive and main part of them, only attended with fewer Ceremo­nies: We press and practice also Charity and good works, as much as the Roman Church doth, and it may be demonstra­ted that more and greater gifts have been given in England to pious uses, by pri­vate persons since the Reformation, than in two Centuries before: And though we dare not say we shall merit Eternal life by them (because that is the gift of God) yet we believe none can come to Heaven without good works: In a word, the Church of England worships God as he hath prescribed in Holy Scripture, She commands all that he enjoyns, and for­bids all that he prohibits, and therefore wanteth nothing that is necessary to Sal­vation.

V. You may look upon our Ceremo­nies which are few and easie, Ancient and Significant, and though we do not place so much Religion in Externals as the Church of Rome doth, yet here is prescri­bed all that is needful for decency and or­der, viz. That the Clergy always wear Grave and distinct habits, and have pecu­liar [Page 150] Garments in Divine Administrations, that Churches be adorned and neat, that the People be Reverent in Gods House, that the memory of our Saviours chief Acts, and the Festivals of the Holy A­postles be religiously observed; That Lent, with the Vigils of great Feasts, the Ember weeks, and all the Fridays in the Year, be kept as days of Fasting or Abstinence, and if some Protestants do not observe them, yet others do, and are commend­ed for it, and you may follow the best, not the most: you will have more liberty (by turning to the English Church) as to Circumstantials, and greater helps as to the Essentials of Religion: So that it is upon all accounts your wisest and safest course to embrace this so true, so Primi­tive, so Pious, and so rational a Religi­on. Let me therefore shut up my Chari­table and Friendly Advice by Requesting you to consider all these things without prejudice or passion, and then I hope you will perceive how much the Religion of this Church excells that of Rome, in An­tiquity, Integrity, and Usefulness, and no longer suffer your selves to be so sad­ly [Page 151] imposed on, and so miserably made to serve the ends of Avarice and Ambition: And if you have taken such prudent and pious Resolutions, you shall not only be freed from the inconveniences you com­plain of here, but also have better assurances of your Salvation hereafter, than the Roman Church can give you; For there you have only the words of their Priests for it, whose interest and whose practice it hath been to deceive you; But here you shall have all the assurances which the word of God can give you, provided you become reformed in your lives as well as in your Religion, and will leave off your old Vices, as well as your old Opinions; For unless we can perswade you to become Prose­lytes of Righteousness, we shall not much value the gaining you over to our Pro­fession; because we know it is neither the being Papist nor Protestant will save those that live in their sins; But this Religion is the better chiefly in this, that it is most likely to bring you to unfeigned Repen­tance, and the practice of real Holiness. And if you desire further information in these particulars, let me advise you to con­sult [Page 152] the late Eminent Protestant Writers, together with some of the most able and ingenuous of the English Clergy, whom you will find very willing and ready to give you more full satisfaction, and to be men that have no designs upon you, but to direct you in the best way to Heaven: And doubtless, if you would but try the difference a while, a little experience would teach you how happy and advan­tagious a change he makes, who forsakes the Religion of Rome, and embraces the Communion of the Church of England.