Reflections On the Council of TRENT, In Three Discourses.  
I. That the Protestants, without any necessity of enquiring into the Decrees of the Council of Trent, have sufficient reason to reject it.  
II. That the Doctrine of the Council of Trent is contrary to the ancient Doctrine of the Catholic Church.  
III. That the Council of Trent was so far from reforming the disorders which had crept into the Church, that it really made the breaches in its Discipline wider, and cut off all hopes of correcting the ancient abuses.  
A Conclusion of the foregoing Discourses.  
Concerning the State of the Church of England, and how she hath been more successful in the Reformation of her Faith and Manners, than the Church of Rome.  
By H. C. de LUZANCY, Mr. of Arts of Christ Church in Oxford.  
OXFORD, Printed at the Theatre, And are to be Sold by Moses Pit at the Angel in St. Paul's Churchyard, Peter Parker at the Leg and Star in Cornhill, William Leak at the Crown in Fleetstreet, and Thomas Guy at the Corner Shop of little Lumbard-street and Cornhill, 1679.   

Imprimatur,  
HEN. CLERKE. Procancel. Oxon. Martij 17. 1677.   

TO The right Reverend FATHER in GOD HENRY By Divine Providence LORD BISHOP OF LONDON, Dean of his Majesty's Chapel-Roial, AND One of his Majesty's most Honourable PRIVY COUNCIL, etc.  
MY LORD,  
I Presume to address to your Lordship, a Treatise against the Council of Trent, that is, against a Conventicle of this last age, wherein the ancient Faith was oppressed by the establishment of modern errors, and Religion crushed by the interests of a politic faction.  
Besides the particular obligations I have to offer to your Lordship the best of my acknowledgements, I could not have made a more suitable dedication of this Book, then to a branch of that Noble Family, which was ever zealous for the Faith once delivered to the Saints; and to a Bishop of that Church, which has always declared itself against the unhappy policy of that See, which builds its own greatness upon the ruins of the simplicity of the Gospel.  
These two singular qualifications, appear so eminently in the conduct of all your Lordship's affairs, that to them we are to attribute that extraordinary application, whereby you answer all the ends of your high calling; and content not yourself with the advantages and honour, but descend to the most laborious and difficult parts of so great a charge: that diligent and strict watch, whereby you do not only preserve your own Flock, but discover all the designs and artifices of its enemies; that unblamable conduct, which the most violent and partial of your adversary's cannot but admire: that servant charity which directs to your Lordship as to a sure refuge all them that desire to forsake either vice or error: but above all that evenness and steddiness of mind, which a 
a St. Basil.  Father of the Church calls the Life and Soul of Episcopacy, wherewith Almighty God has endued your Lordship in so eminent a degree, that it may be looked upon as your peculiar Character.  
My Lord, it would be a noble subject to reflect upon a few late instances you have given, that you prefer your honour and conscience above all interests whatever; that you have no concern but for the welfare both of Church and State; and though the greatness of your quality sufficiently entitles you to the highest honour that either of them can bestow; yet you owe your advancement purely to your own merit.  
But My Lord, I am prevented by the acclamations of the public and the voice of the whole Nation, which by the great things you have already done is making judgement of the yet greater happiness it shall one day derive from your Lordship's future undertake. This is become the employment of persons more proportioned to such a work; and it is the utmost of my ambition to be admitted amongst the meanest of them, who are daily beseeching Almighty God, that he would still prosper your Lordship in the accomplishment of those noble designs wherein you are happily engaged for the good both of Church and State.  
I am with all imaginable respect and duty, MY LORD, Your Lordship's most Humble, most obedient, and most obliged Servant. De LUZANCY.   

THE PREFACE.  
THE occasion of these ensuing discourses which are here made public, was a Treatise entitled, Considerations upon the Council of Trent. It's author has managed his subject with so much dexterity, that I could not but judge it agreeable to that love all Christians ought to have for truth, and to my own duty in particular to dispel the mist he has attempted to cast before men's eyes.  
To perform this with solidity, I thought it not so proper to rely upon any particular historian of that Council, there being but four who have treated of it, whose testimonies are not free from exception. Soavius is suspected by the Romanists, (as Palaviciny by the Protestants) tho with less justice. Scipio Henricus is more addicted to his Society then to his Church, and more intent to defend the Jesuits, then to justify the proceedings of the Bishops. And for Aquilius his Survey De tribus Historicis, it is rather a Pamphlet injurious to the Church of Rome itself for its want of sense and learning, than a just censure. But it appeared much more easy and useful, to give a true character of the Council drawn out of its own acts, and show such essential defects in it, that all the artifice of its defenders can never satisfy a rational and impartial enquirer.  
There are two things to be considered in this Council; the manner wherein it was celebrated, and those points it determined, which later either respect articles of Faith, or reformation of manners. This order I have exactly followed, by endeavouring in the first discourse to evince that the manner of holding this Council was altogether irregular, and that Protestants may lawfully reject it without any further discussion of its decrees: in the second, that its decisions are contrary to the ancient Canons of the Church: and in the third, that the reformation which was then pretended to be made, was no better than a new violation of Discipline, and a perfect illusion of the World.  
In these discourses I avoid the citing any authors, but such as for their learning and piety are venerable in the Church of Rome; a design which no judicious persons can ever disapprove, since it hapens but too often that we combat men, whose sentiments their own communion disowns; and after a long and tedious disputation we receive no other answer, but that the Church of Rome is not bound to make good all the assertions of her private followers.  
And indeed she would be strangely put to it, should she warrant all the dreams of Suarez, Vasquez, and other Jesuits. Since it is easy to demonstrate, that they are more contrary to her then to us; more pernicious to their mother then to their enemies; and as a learned 
a Petrus Aurel.  Man of their communion observes, fitter to raise new Heresies, then to destroy old ones.  
There being therefore so great a difference between their doctrine, and that of their Church, I have the justice and honesty not to charge their excesses upon a communion, which notwithstanding its many errors, cannot cease to be great and venerable: but the acts of Trent, the Councils of the Catholic Church, the writings of the Fathers, and the decretal Epistles of the Popes themselves being still extant, 'tis from thence that the assertors or opposers of that Council must fetch their arguments.  
I make no doubt but that this writing will increase the hatred of my adversaries; and I foresee that the blackest colours of calumny will not be dark enough to draw my picture with. 'tis the ordinary way of many Zealots, who make it a part of their virtue to slander persons on the account of their Religion, and to persecute them, to the end either to induce them thereby to turn back to the communion they have left, or at least to discredit them in that which they have embraced.  
No Christianly affected man can see such dealings so opposite to God's Spirit, without great sentiments of sorrow and compassion: nor deplore too much the state of those men, who break thro' all the laws of charity by a principle of Conscience; and certainly a party must needs be strangely weak, when its defenders run to Pamphlets and injuries to maintain it.  
The greatest and most signalised revenge I'll take of them and of their writings shall be a constant silence. As their arguments shall never find me dumb, so their reproaches shall for ever make me deaf. The living God who understands the language of our hearts shall be the only witness of mine: to him alone I will complain, and if at any time I pray for the ruin of my persecutors, it shall be as St. 
a August. in Psal. 118.  Austin tells us, David did for the destruction of his Enemies. He hated them with a perfect hatred, he could never be reconciled with the sin, but nevertheless loved very tenderly the sinner; and at the same time he would have suffered death to confound the one, he would have given his life to save the other.   

REFLECTIONS On the Council of TRENT.  

Discourse I.  
That the Protestants, without any necessity of enquiring into the Decrees of the Council of Trent, have sufficient reason to reject it.  

I.  
THERE are no true Christians, whose very being so imprints not in them a profound respect for the Councils of the Church, since they consider them as Sacred Conventions, wherein that Holy Mother both instructs and reforms her Sons, and wherein Bishops speak forth the dictates of that Spirit which proceeds from the supreme Bishop of our souls, 1 Pet. 2. 25. thereby preserving as well the faith of their people from being undermined by the overgrowing malice of Heresy, as their manners from being corrupted by the remissness of her discipline.  
The Catholic Church has always judged them of so absolute a necessity, that when ever the Devil attempted to disturb her peace, so soon she gathered her Members from all parts of the Earth to oppose him, and to learn from the Divine Scriptures, how that dreadful Enemy was to be conquered. So when Arius endeavoured to deprive us of our Redeemer, by the denial of his Divinity, the whole Church thundered upon him in the Nicent Council. Macedonius, whose blasphemous Tongue inveighed against the Holy Ghost, was no better treated in the Constantinopolitan. That of Ephesus proved no less Enemy to Nestorius. A thousand anathemas were pronounced against Eutiches, by the Fathers met at Chalcedon. And because the Nestorians, even after Nestorius his condemnation, were resolved to maintain his Errors under the name of Theodorus Bishop of Mopsuestia, Theodoret Bishop of Cyr, and Ibas Bishop of Edessa, and did likewise pretend, that the first being dead in the Communion of the Church, and the two others having been received in the Chalcedon Council, the said Council had approved of the Nestorian Heresy; the fifth General Synod gathered at Constantinople, condemned the three Chapters, their Authors and Defenders; amongst whom was poor Pope Vigilius reckoned, notwithstanding all his Infallibility.  
It had been the constant desire of Men, that the Council of Trent would have taken these first Assemblies for its rule, kept both their form and spirit, and showed in these last Times, where Charity is so cold, some footsteps of those where it was so flaming.   

II.  
There were no reasons wanting to raise in us the most ardent desires that it should have been so. There was scarce any Religion to be found in men; Superstition had so blinded their minds, and fleshly lusts infected their hearts. And at the same time, that ambition had put Arms into the hands of Princes to disturb the world, the bloodless, but more pernicious and obstinate quarrels of Divines, wasted the face of the Church.  
The immediate foregoing Ages had brought forth Councils that contradicted each other. All Europe stood amazed at those of Constance, Basil, Florence, and the Lateran. The sacred Persons of Kings were become so despicable, ●s to be excommunicated and degraded without the least scruple. The Divine Authority of Bishops was brought to nothing; and it was hard to judge, whether ignorance or corruption was more predominant in the Clergy.  
Nay the Pope's themselves (if you believe their Bulls) seemed to be sensible of so many Exorbitances. Pope 
a Pius 4. Bull. Conc.  Pius the Fourth confessed, He could not but be struck with horror; when he saw how much both Heresy and Schism had prevailed, and how much Christian manners stood in need to be reform.  

b Paul. 3. Bull. ind. Conc.  Paul the Third before him had acknowledged, That Heresy and Schism had vitiated all things.  
But Adrian the Sixth goes further, and in his Letter to the Germane Princes, does not think it enough to say, That the whole world groans under inveterate and insufferable abominations; that he desires earnestly a Reformation: but adds, 
a Epist. Adr. ad Princ. Ger. Reperit. in fascic. rer. expet. & fug. p. 173.  That the Church of Rome, the Apostolical See, is the offspring ●f so many disorders. We know, says he, ●here have been many abominations in this ●oly See, abuses in Spiritual affairs, exces●s in the Laws, and that all things are perverted: and it is no wonder that the disease ●ath flown from the head to the members, ●rom the Popes to the inferior Prelates.  
This is also the Confession of those ●rave and learned 
b Consult. Doctor. sub Paul. 3. Reper. in fine 3 Tomi conc. edit. Colon.  Doctors, who being consulted by Paul the Third, about the intended Reformation, answered him positively, That such an Enterprise would ●rove impossible and useless to the Church, unless it began at the Head.   

III.  
'Twas requisite therefore to come to that so much expected Reformation; recall the ancient Doctrine and manners of the Church; and demonstrate by a sudden and efficacious remedy, that the Popes were not deaf to the cries and complaints of so many Nations.  
But 'twas necessary also to make the humane Grandeur of the Apostolic See, agree with the Spiritual necessities that Souls were in; exhibit some kind of help which they should be always masters of, and like experienced Physicians, draw infinite advantages from that universal Crisis of the World.  
Nothing was ever better contrived for that purpose then the Council of Trent. And he that will survey it without being blinded with any preposterous Zeal, will easily be convinced that Paul the Third, the Promoter of it, was a Man of great abilities; and that his Predecessors, trepidaverunt timore ubi non erat timor. Psal. 53. 6.   

IV.  
The Pope passes his word to call a Council, & against the express promise that Adrian the 6th had made of having it in Germany, according to the constant maxim of the Canons, 
a Conc. African. conc. Basil. Sess. 31.  To end Causes where their occasion began, he calls it at Trent.  
This Council summoned at Trent, is so afraid not to be accounted a General and a Lawful one, that it entitles itself at the beginning of all its Sessions, 
b Sess. 1, 2, 3 etc.  Sancta & oecumenica Synodus in Spiritu Sancto legitime congregata.  
Who now would not think, after such big words, that from all places where our Blessed Saviors name is known, Bishops did flock to Trent? Who would not have expected to meet there with some Eastern Patriarches, or African Prelates? Who would not have promised himself in reading the Subscriptions of this Council, to ●ind more than 300 Witnesses of his Faith, as at Nice; 600. as at Chalcedon; and (in our very times) 300, as at Constance; or 400, as at Basil? Who would not have ●ntertain'd hopes of hearing there, many Athanasius', Cyril's, Eusebius', Spiridio's, Paphnutius', & c? In a word, Who would not have flattered himself, that our holy Faith had now been made most clear and manifest, and that God's Spirit, a Spirit of liberty and peace, 2 Cor. 3. 17. had animated that great Body? Nevertheless, what must we say, when we see appear there not any of those remote Bishops, nay scarce any of the nearest, not so much as one of Germany, Poland, England, Denmark, Sueden, or France? That grand ecumenical, holy, admired Council, is reduced to three Cardinals, five Arch-Bishops, 36 Bishops (for the most part without Churches) some Mendicant Divines headed by Lainez and Salmero, two stars of the Firmament, worthy sons of the grand, holy, ecumenical company of Jesus.  
The Sermons which were made at every Session, and their manner of discussing the controverted Points, are an evident proof of the mean parts (not to say any thing sharper and truer) of all these Divines. Nay, and to supply so remarkable a defect, we hear of no extraordinary qualities, nor eminent and surpassing Virtue, nor gift of Tongues, nor working of Miracles, nor Spirit of Prophecy  
Notwithstanding, this small handful 〈◊〉 People take upon them to explain the most obscure and intricate matters; to give them (after a slight and precipitate survey) a final determination; and to make more Canons in one Session of four hours, than the four first General Councils all put together had done in four hundred Years.   

V.  
The Pope claims to himself the power of calling that Council. He does not consider it as a privilege, or an usurpation which the silence of those that are interested therein seem to render lawful, but as an inseparable and inherent right to his See. 
a Bull. pro. contin. Concil.  Nos, saith Julius the Third, ad quos ut summos pro tempore Pontifices spectat Concili a generalia indicere & dirigere, etc.  
Who could imagine Christ's Vicar to be a man of so small sincerity? 
b Eust. l. 3. de vit. Conc. c. 6.  Eusebius; 
c Socr. l. 2. c. 6.  Socrates and 
d Theod. l. 1. c. 8.  Theodoret affirm, that the Nicene Council was called by the great Constantine. The 
e Act. Concil. Ephes. actio. 1. 2. part.  first Constantinopolitan; which is the second General, was called by Theodosius; that of Ephesus by Theodosive junior; that of 
f Epist. Synod: Con. Chalced. post. act. 16.  Chalcedon by Marcianus; the 
g Concil. 5. coll. 8. Epist. Just. ad Conc. act. 1.  fifth General by Justinian; the 
h Conc: 6. act. 1, 2, 3.  sixth by Constantine the Fourth; the 
i Concil. Nic. 2. act. 18. act. 1, 2, 5.  seventh pretended General Council by Constantine and Irene his Mother; the 
k Conc: 8. act. 10.  eighth by the Emperor Basil. All these are accounted General in the Roman Church, and full of so evident proofs, that the Cardinal's 
l Cus: de Conc. Eccl. Cath. l. 2. c. 2.  Cusan, 
m Jaco: de conc. l. 3. ar. 1. col. 11. §: 37.  Jacobatius and Zabarella confess, that in the Primitive Times, the right of calling Councils belonged to the Emperors: but so many that were assembled in Germany, England, France, Spain, Italy, etc. that of Constantia by Sigismundus, that of Pisa by Maximilian (gathered for the most part to depose Popes) make it appear that so great a Truth was not wholly worn out in the last Ages.   

VI  
It is pleasant to consider, how different the stile of Popes in former times is from that of the present. We were in hopes, says Pope Leo to the Emperor Marcianus, Epist. 44. that your clemency would condescend so far as to defer the Council; but since you resolve it should be kept, I have sent thither Paschasin. Has not the Roman Church, says Pope 
a Epist. Steph. post. Conc. 8.  Stephen to another Emperor, sent her Legates to the Council when you commanded it? We do offer these things to your Piety, says Pope 
b Epist. Hadri. ad Imper Lect. in Concil. Nic. 2. act. 2,  Adrian to the Emperor Basil, with all humility, & veluti praesentes genibus advoluti, & coram vestigia pedum volutando.  
But Pope Paul the Third speaks quite in another manner, Nulli hominum liceat hanc paginam infringere, vel ei ausu temerario contraire. The Bull of Julius the Third, is yet more bold, and ill becomes the humility of one that writes himself, The Servant of Servants. So that it must needs be, that either former Popes were extremely ignorant of the extent of their Power, or that the ambition of the later is grown too exorbitant.   

VII.  
The Author of the Considerations upon the Council of Trent, seems to be persuaded of this want of Jurisdiction in the Pope, and he is at such a loss to excuse it, that he has nothing to say, but that in the Troubles that Europe had been engaged in, this right was devolved to the Pope. But was not Europe more disturbed when Frederick the First gathered a Council at 
b Raden. de reb. gest. Fred. c. 48.  Pavia, where the Germane, English, French, Italian, Hungarian, and Danish Bishops met together? When Charles the Sixth, King of France, called one at 
c Concil. Rhem. an. 1131.  Rheims, whither (the Emperor being pleased to be present) the King of England and many other 
a Bull. ind. conc. ad fin.  Princes sent their Ambassadors? Or when both the Pisan and Constantian Councils were indicted by the Emperors with so great applause of all Christians?   

VIII.  
Nor is it more difficult to prove, that the Pope has no right of presiding in Councils: nor ought we to recur for that to many subtle distinctions or deep Ratiocinations. We need not put ourselves upon the rack, as the Cardinals Baronius and Bellarmine frequently do, to render that probable, which is evidently false, and to make people wavering in things, which are undoubtedly true. We need but open those Books wherein lie the precious and everlasting Monuments of Antiquity, and the precedent conduct of so many holy Bishops.  
Constantine the Great presided at the first General Council, as Pope 
a Reper. post oct. Concil.  Stephen doth acknowledge in his Letter to the Emperor Basil. Theodosius signior did the same at the second: and from the small 
b Epist. Just. post 5. conci. pag. 605.  remains that we have of this Council it appears, that nothing was done therein but by his Orders. 
a Sozom. l. 7. c. 6, 7.  Theodosius junior sent Count Candidian to preside in his stead. And some contestation happening to be amongst the Bishops, he 
b Act. Concil. Eph. Can. 17.  writes to them in these terms, Our Majesty cannot approve of & own as lawful, what has been done hitherto. And these very Bishops, that had a great veneration for their Emperor, tell him in their 
c Epist. Synod. Concil. Ephes. tom. 2. conc. ca 22.  Synodical Epistle, They have done nothing but ●y his motions, and that they have made use ●f his Letter as a Light to conduct them.  
The fourth General Council hath no ●ess evident Testimonies for it. The resistance which was made to Pope 
d Council Chalced. act. 1. 4, 5. relat. Syn. ad Leon. post Concil.  Leo's Legates, requiring Dioscorus to be put of the Assembly; the affair of Juvenalis and Thalassius; that of the ten Egyptian Bishops; that of Bassianus and Stephen, which were all determined by the Emperor's Judges, leave us no ground to doubt of this truth. Justinian was Precedent at the Fifth, as is clear from all the Acts of that Council. And that great Prince, whom Baronius abused so unworthily, declares in his 
e Epist. ad Syn. Coll. 1.  Letter written to the Synod, That he considered the Bishop's reunion as the foundation and beginning of all the happiness of hi● Reign.  
The Sixth is so clear, and its Session were so many characters of such a presidency, that an adorer of the Pope's new Power endeavoured to discredit the Act● of it, because, says he, 
a Pighius de 6. & 7. Synod.  The Emperor, with his Judges, plena autoritate praesidet, presides with full authority.  
Anastasius did whatever he could to deprive us of the Seventh, but Pope Adrian did repair abundantly that defect. We offer these things, says he in his Letter to Constantine, to the end they may be carefully examined, for we have not exactly gathered these testimonies we present to your Imperi●● Majesty. We received these Letters from Adrianus B P of Rome, 
b Concil. 7. act. 2.  says the Emperor, directed to us by his Legates, who also sit with us in the Synod. We commanded them to be publicly read.  
There is no Italian whom these word; would not stagger.  
The Eighth expressly says, 
c Act. 7, 6, 8, 10, etc.  Praesidentibus Imperatoribus; and because the Pope's Legates pretended, that the Bishops who were defenders of Photius, having been condemned by the Pope, ought not to be ●eard any more, as sentenced by their last ●udge, the Emperor's Envoys to the Council, answered, That the Prince command's them to be heard the second time; Im●erator vult & jubet.  
Who, after so many Precedents clearer ●han the light, will not wonder to hear Leo the Tenth in his Lateran Council, ●ay imperiously, and in such a manner as gives a truer Character of him, than all ●is Historians, The Pope of Rome only, as ●eing above all Councils, is fully impowered to ●all, to transport, and to dissolve them? And who, after a particular account of 100 Provincial Councils for 1000 Years, where the Pope was never spoken of but ●or the condemning of his pretences; who, I say, will not confess with Cardinal 〈◊〉 Zabarella, That the Pope has so generally invaded the Rights of particular Churches, ●hat other Bishops signify almost nothing; and 〈◊〉 God be not merciful to his Church, Vehementer periclitatur? 
a Zabar. cap. licet. extrav. de elect.    

IX.  
Nor does their pretended Power o● confirming Councils stand upon bette● grounds than the other two. For if by th● word Confirmation they understand an external engagement, whereby all faithful People are to obey the holy Constitution of these Divine Assemblies, such an Authority belongs so properly to Princes and makes so considerable a part of the● Dignity, that no man can appropriate 〈◊〉 to himself without a manifest Usurpation and violation of the Sacred Majesty o● Kings. 'Tis in that sense 
a De Vit. Const. cap. 27.  Eusebius said of Constantine. Quae ab Episcopis erant sa●citae regulae, suû confirm●bat & consignable autoritate. And to the same purpose 
b Novel. 131. c. 1.  J●stinian, speaking of the Canons of the first Ages says, Sancimus vicem legum obtine●● sanctas regulas. But if by Confirmation they understand the internal obligation laid upon all Christians, of hearing those whom God has made their guides (an● especially when they speak in Council● where the Holy Ghost has promised to b● with them) to reduce it to the Pope, 〈◊〉 the greatest Chimaera in the World. Th●● is to make these Venerable Assemblies a● object of scorn and derision; to give occasion of disbeleiving the certainty of the truth they set forth, or the justice of the laws they impose; and turn all Christendom into a club of Independents, given up to the guidance of their own reason.  
Is it probable that the Holy Ghost should be absent from a meeting of 300. Bishops, among whom we find Athanasius, Osius, Maximus, etc. and be present to Liberius a Subscriber of the Arian Heresy?  
That he should not be in the Ephesin, Chalcedonian, and Constantinopolitan Councils, where you have Cyril, Leo, Proclus, Flavian, etc. and yet in Vigilius a defender of the three Chapters?  
That he should not vouchsafe his presence to three hundred Bishops met at the sixth general Counci, and yet inspire Honorius a patron of the Monothelites?  
Is not this to include the Universal Church in the Pope, which is a dangerous heresy? To acknowledge him to be above Councils, which the 
a Sess. 21.  Basilian Council (the Popes' Carthage) as well as the famous 
a Appel. Sorbon à council. Later. in fasci. rer. expet. & fug.  Sorbon style an other heresy? and in fine, to open the door to a thousand inconveniences, the renowned distinction excathedra cannot help?   

X.  
These weighty reasons induced the 
b cent. Gravam. 1. Par. recus. council.  Germane Princes to protest against that Council. Many Kings of France had done the same before: and Francis the First (whose name alone in a World of of great Men) was so fully persuaded of its being no Council, much less a General one, that the subscription of the Letters he directed to them, was only this, Conventui Tridentino.  
But above all Henry the Eighth King of England, a clear-sighted Prince, and extremely well learned in the true concernments of Princes, opposed it with a greater constancy. 'twas not out of any motion of Heresy or Schism he dealt thus; for he lived yet in the Roman communion. Nor out of any ambition, since all the historians, nay those themselves who endeavoured most to defame him, acknowledge he had been all his life-time the general Arbiter of Europe. Nor yet out of any fear of, or aversion to Councils, since at the same time that he protested against the Council of Trent, he declared he was ready to submit to any other lawfully called, and to send thither the Bishops of his Realms. But the true and only cause was, that he perceived of how great importance an attempt of that matter would be for all succeeding ages, and what slavery all Christian Princes would be reduced to, if he should let it pass. So that if the Council of Trent were as orthodox as the Nicene, and we had no other reasons of rejecting it, this we have alleged is sufficient to satisfy all unprejudiced persons.  
'tis an essential defect and a fundamental one, at the beginning of an affair of the highest concernment. Whatever you intent to raise and build upon it, cannot be but weak and ruinous: and till the Pope be pleased to do us justice in that point, we do well to stop our ears to all others.   

XI.  
But should we set aside all these considerations, and grant that the Pope could both call and preside in this Council, we maintain he ought not to do it.  
How came he to be judge of those, whose adversary he was? to sentence his own accusers, and to rule in a Council demanded with so many tears, and obtained after five and twenty years' delay, only to reform him?  
The heats of Leo the 10th against Luther are very well known. That Pope who had for so many years trampled upon the neck of Europe, was almost distracted to see a despicable Friar rebel against him, and attack indulgences, of which his predecessors had always been most tender.  
So considerable an adversary gave more credit to Luther, than either his own merit, or the justice of his cause could have done. Nor was he to be accounted an ordinary man, that had answered Pope Leo so briskly, and stoutly received all the Vatican thunders. He made his appeal to a future Council, and was the more easily induced to defer till then his condemnation, or justification, because ●e never imagined Pope Leo, his public ●nd professed Enemy would become his ●udg.  
The Germane Princes went further, and ●fter their accusation brought against ●he Pope for Heresy and Simony, they 〈◊〉 appealed to a lawful Council.  
'twas at lest the Pope's duty to purge himself of so many accusations, and to acknowledge according to the rule of the 〈◊〉 Canonists (his most famous oracles) that ●n such occasions he was deprived of all power.  
The Archbishop of Colen having been excommunicated by Paul the Third, refused the Pope for his Judge, as having been attainted of Heresy and Idolatry long before; and protested that as soon as a free Council should be opened, he would appear there to accuse him according to the ancient Canons.  
King Henry the Eighth declared in his Manifesto, that the Roman Bishops orders did not concern him at all; that the Pope had conceived a deadly hatred against him; and that he sought after all occasions to be revenged of him, for having 
a Appel. Prin. Ger. fascieul. rer. expet. & fugien.  
b Can. ne quis in prop. causa.  shaken off his tyranny, and withstood the intolerable contributions exacted of his Kingdoms by that See. These different appeals had been made in all requisite terms: and were not intended as a pretence to annul the Council, but were offered before it was commenced without ever being recalled. What ever slight pretences the Pope had against Luther and the Princes of Germany, he had none at all against Henry the Eight and the Archbishop of Colen. The one was a Prelate who demanded to be ruled by the Canons; the other a great King, never suspected of any Heresy; one that was honoured with the glorious name of Defender of the Faith: and though we don't pretend to canonize all the actions of that incomparable Monarch, it is well known his greatest guilt was the following the examples of his Predecessors, in converting to the good of the State, those immense riches which the Roman Luxury and idleness was maintained with, and taking away those Monasteries, whose People were become abominable and scandalous to the Church.   

XII.  
For these very reasons in former ages ●he 
a Athan. apol. 2.  Catholic Bishops, defenders of Atha●asius his person and faith, rejected the Council of Tyre, because, said they, Theognis and Eusebius were his judges; ●nd that God's Law, Inimicum neque te●em neque judicem esse vult. 
b Epist. ad Innoce. 1. Conc. post Epist. Inn. 27.  St. Crysostome ●efus'd to appear before Theophilus, only because he still seemed guilty of the crimes ●id to his charge, and was his enemy, quoth contra omnes Canon's & leges est. And ●his is so equitable, that Pope 
c Nicol. 1. Ep. 7.  Nicholas ●he First, and 
d Celestina. Extrav. de Appell. can. secundo requiris.  Celestine the Third acknowledged, that ipsa ratio dictat, ●uia suspecti & inimici judices esse non descant.  

e Libr. 1. de Concil. c. 21.  Cardinal Bellarmine is so embarassed by the laws which those two Pope's con●ess to be of natural equity, that he admits of them, except when it concerns ●he supreme judge. I pity that great defender of the Popes, for giving so miserable an answer. For if it be true, how ●ame it to pass that Pope Vigilius' constitution (which he certainly pronounce● ex Cathedra) was condemned in the 
a Concil. 5. act. 8.  Fift● general Council? Why does the 
b Concil. 6. Act. 26.  Sixth a●●so excommunicate Pope Honorius for b●●ing an Heretic? Exclamaverunt o●●nes Honorio haeretico anathema. And th● 
c Concil. 7. act. 〈◊〉.  Seventh, Detestamur Sergium, Honorium● etc. What means the 
d Concil. 8. act. 7.  Eight in forbidding Popes ever to be judged, but whe● they are Heretics? Why did the● Basilean and 
f Concil. Co●●. Sess. 4.  Constantian make it an a●●ticle of Faith, that the Popes are subject to a superior Judge when they become Heretics, Schismatics or scandalous▪ Why were Pope 
g Responsio synod. council. Basil. p. 105.  Anastasius, John th● Thirteenth, and a 100 others deposed? ●o● must needs either condemn this shining cloud of witnesses, and with them all th● ages of the Church, or confess that Pop● Paul the third had no reasons to preside at Trent.   

XIII.  
'tis no new thing to appeal from the Pope's judgement. Saint Austin writing 〈◊〉 the Donatists, and speaking of the sentence 
e Concil. Basil. Sess▪  given against them at Rome, uses these words. Let us suppose, 
a August. Epist. 162.  says he, that the Bishops who judged their cause at Rome had not judged aright, there yet remained a Council of the Universal Church wherein your cause with your judges might have been judged again, and their sentence annulled had it been unjust.  
But without looking back to the Primitive times, the histories of our age afford us a thousand examples of this kind. Nothing is more frequent in the English; French and Germane records. Nay the Monks themselves claimed right to such appeals. Luther was not the first who attempted to make use of them; and we read in Paul Langius his 
b An. 1328.  Chronicles, that Cesano a Friar appealed from the sentence of Pope Martin the fifth as being Heretical, though in a matter of very little concernment, it being only to know, to whom belonged the propriety of the Franciscans' bread.   

XIV.  
But laying aside all these reasons, how could the Pope be precedent in a Council called only for his reformation? There is none but know that the disorders of the Church had no other Origin than the Court of Rome. Nor did Protestant's only think so, but those also of the Church of Rome. And though both were extremely opposite in their opinions concerning the remedies for so great a disease; yet they all agreed in their apprehensions of its cause. Pope 
a Adria. Epist. ad Princ. Germ. in fascic. rer. exp. & fug.  Adrian the sixth and the Councillors of 
b Consul. Paul. 3 in fin to. 3 council. ed. Colo  Paul the third acknowledged it with much sincerity. This was the sentiment of Princes as well as Doctors. Their 
c Haran. de Mr. de Ferriers ambas. au Concile de la part du Roy tres Christ.  public Ministers did always touch upon that string. Pope 
d Onuph. in Marcel.  Marcellus the second did not apprehend how his Predecessors could abhor the very name of reformation. And it is like that had God been pleased to prolong his life, he would have done great things.  
The reformation of Popes was a wound never searched without making them fall into dreadful fits. All Christians desired the primitive times in matters both of Doctrine and discipline should be brought again. But they were afraid at that word; and the only representation of such a Council as those four which Pope Gregory the Great reverenced as the four Gospels, was a phantôme, which all the exorcisms in the World could not drive away.  
We need but read Onuphrius their historian to be acquainted with their fears. Cardinal palavicini could not conceal them; Cardinal Bellai represents in his memoirs, how much Pope Paul the Fourth was frighted. And all the World was so far persuaded, that this only thing hindered them from proceeding, that Monsieur de Ferrieres Ambassador of his most Christian Majesty to the Council, told them not only in his Master's name, but also of all the Gallican Church, that more than an hundred and fifty years since, a reformation of the head and members had been expected in the Church; that it had been required in the Constantian, Basilean, and Ferrarian, Councils, but could never be obtained; that 'twas no hard matter to guests at the reason of so many delays. 
a Collec. Lovan. Orat. in Con. habit.    

XV.  
The truth on't was, the Pope's wounds were grown altogether incurable. There had been a kind of prescription against all their abuses. Many holy men had inveighed against them on all occasions but in vain; and thus usurpation had lasted so long, that they did account it a lawful authority. 'twas so pleasing to them to thunder at all the World upon the smallest occasion, that they could not renounce it without thinking themselves undone. In a word they were not taken so much with the humble and penitent lives of the Pope's Adrian and Marcellus, as with the audacious and voluptuous ones of Boniface, Leo and Hildebrand.  
Nevertheless this sick and languishing person is allowed to govern his own Physicians. The general complaint of the World is, that the Pope's swelling ambition has made him break through all laws; that the Court of Rome is become a sink of wickedness; that the vices of the head infected the members; that without the reforming of this head there is no hope left for laying of any solid foundation.  
And yet he presides in his Council. He calls, directs, and transports it by his ●ull and sole authority (though the 400 Prelate's met at 
a Can. Basil. Sess. 33.  Basil had made it a point of the Catholic Faith, that 'twas not in his power:) his Spirit fits the mouth of his Legates, and the fear of him strikes the hearts of the Bishops.   

XVI.  
Paul the third being afraid of nothing so much as of a free Council where Protestants should be heard, provided so well against these two inconveniences, that the Conventicles of Tyre, of Antioch, or of Ephesu● in comparison of that, would have been thought freedom itself.  
Peace being the source of all freedom in an Ecclesiastical assembly, where all the members of it are styled by Scripture 
b Ephes. 6. 13.  Evangelists of peace, that Pope was extremely diligent in fomenting War thro' all Europe. This we are assured of by the speech of Cardinal de Monte, that of Cardinal de Lorraine, the letters of the Landgrave de Hesse, of the Duke of Saxony, and of that 
c A copy of that letter drawn upon the original with all due forms, is to be seen in the Bishop of Venice's library.  Pope himself to the Swissers, wherein he acquaints them, he has made a league with the Emperor to undermine Protestants, and intends for that purpose, to raise all the forces of the Ecclesiastical state.  
What name shall we give a Council which has such a Pope for its precedent? Does he deal out of charity or ambition? Does he design to convert Souls by force of Arms? What can they think of the Church, who are supposed to be separated from her? How long is it since Councils were taught to War with any other weapon than Scriptures, than tears and Prayers? Is that Pope to be trusted, who at the same time he offers to receive his Children into his bosom, can lift up his hand to strike them?  
Julius the Third was of a greater sincerity, and scorned to deal deceitfully. When he called the Fathers to Trent, he openly agreed with the Emperor to make War against France, about the Dukedom of Parma; and to speak as Onuphrius (who is more his Panegyrist than his Historian) set Italy and the rest of Europe in a flame. 
a Onuph. in Trent. 30.   
What peace then or freedom could a Council enjoy, when all Europe was embroiled, and groaned under a bloody War? and what designs of reunion and charity could a Pope entertain, who sought nothing but confusion and trouble?  
Pius the Fourth seemed to be ashamed of it. He was so little convinced of the validity of what ever had been done at Trent, that when he recalled again his Synod the third time, he was at a loss how to term it, whether it should be considered as a new one, or but a continuation of the first; Frenchmen claimed the one, Spaniards pretended the other. The Pope (says his 
a Onuphr. in Pag. 4.  Panegyrist) met with an expedient to make them agree, and he did so contrive his Bull, that all were equally satisfied: that is to say, he daubed up the business; he flattered each one with a fancy they had been victorious, but he gave occasion at the same time to all clearsighted men, to wonder at a conduct so far distant from the candour and ingenuity of the first Ages, and so full of carnal wisdom, which the Apostle styles 
b Rom. 8. 6.  Death, and to believe, that he never intended to heal the wounds of the Church, but only to cover them, and create her new ones.   

XVII.  
What is the reason the Pope is so earnest for the Council to be held in Italy and stops his ears to the cries of Germany, the complaints of Protestants, and the entreaties of so many Princes and Bishops? Did France, where the eldest Son of the Church commands, give him any cause to fear? Did Germany, where Charles 5th commanded? Did Spain, where people were grown adorers of his Grandeur? Was this Council for being had in any of these Kingdoms, under the subjection of most Christian and Catholic Princes, in danger of becoming either less free or less Orthodox?  
Had the Pope been inflamed with the zeal of that faithful Shepherd, of whom it is written, does he not leave the ninety & nine, & go into the Mountains, & seeks that which is gone astray 
b Mat. 18. 12. ? how great joy should have possessed his Soul, for having the place shown him, where to find his wand'ring Sheep: where all European Bishops might 
a Respons. ordin▪ imper. legatis Pontif. fascicul. rer. expet & fug. p. 173.  have met together; and England, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, and Germany, sent their Prelates? Should he not have been ravished at the occasion given him, of rendering the Protestants inexcusable? of reproaching them as Christ did Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy Children together, even as a hen gathereth her chicken, and ye would not, Matth. 23. 37. of accusing them of Schism, and applying to them all Saint Austin's arguments against the Donatists? Had not Pope Paul the Third, and his Successors aimed at some other end then the love of Catholic truth, why did he oppose the only thing that could render it victorious? Is there any precedent of such a conduct in former Ages? Is it not clear that there is in it some mystery? And if so, was it to be wondered that Protestants should apply themselves to search into it, and prevent its consequences?   

XVIII.  
The choice of a free place where truth should command, had been always a terror to the Popes. As long as the Apostolic See is not ruled by Adrian's and Marcellus', it will never without horror call to mind the Councils of Constance and Basil. Every Country wherein Bishops may say, It seems good to the Holy Ghost and to us, Act. 15. 28. shall be accounted by the Bishop of Rome a Land of bondage. The Pisan Council shall be termed a Latrociny by the Lateran; and most holy decrees shall be looked upon, as so many bold and rash attempts.  
Paul the Third chooses therefore Trent to assemble his Council at. This Town indeed was out of the Ecclesiastical state, and the Cardinal of Trent commanded therein; but as an Author of the Roman communion pleasantly observes, the Town was subject to the Cardinal, and the Cardinal to the Pope.  
Paul the Third had been informed by his predecessors example, that nothing made so much to the mastering of a Council, as the choice of the place. He succeeded in it admirably well. Trent was not so far from Rome, but the Holy Ghost might come thither in a few days, and many legions of Italian Bishops resort thither; as it was done at the question of Residence and divine right of Episcopacy, when 40 Apulian Bishops, set aside for the most pressing occasions, came in as fresh supply. But he had forgot how Nicholas the First, Innocent the Third, Clement the Fifth, Innocent the Fourth do 
a Cleme. pastor de sentent. & rejudicata, can. sine, de conjug. Caus. 33. Pro. 2.  teach, that no man is bound to appear in a place where he has just reasons to fear the multitude.   

XIX.  
The event has shown us, that the fears of those Princes were not groundless. Their intention was only to obtain a free Council, where none should be condemned unheard, truth examined without prejudice, and matters weighed with the greatest care.  
For we must not imagine so many great Kingdoms, holy Bishops and learned men sought their own ruin. They desired no more than the examination of their doctrine, to persevere in it if it should be judged orthodox, or to renounce it if it were not so; & for this reason the favour should be granted them, which was never denied to any, to wit of being heard.  
An 
a Ammian marcel.  Heathen does so much justice to Pope Liberius, as to confess, that he chose rather to banish then to condemn Athanasius without hearing his defence. But if they were afraid to place us in Athanasius' rank, it is certain that Arius, Macedonius, Paul of Samasate, Nestorius, Pelagius, and the most abominable Heresiarches have been heard. And the Church always judged she could not deny them a thing of natural right.   

XX.  
Nevertheless the Pope rids himself of all these Inconveniences of the Primitive Church; and for fear other Bishops that are present at the Council should speak for them, he deprives them of all freedom of proposing any thing. Tho they are his 
b 'tis the title, the Pope gives Bishops in all his Bul●s.  venerable Brothers and born Judges of Councils as well as he, they have never the more liberty for it. All things are done proponentibus legatis, 
a At every session.  and these Legates do propose but what they please.  
When any one touched with a sense of his duty, intends to speak, he is silenced. If he be a Frenchman or a Spaniard, they tell him, 'tis unbecoming the Majesty of a Council to contest. But if he be an Italian (that is, a shadow and a Sceleton of a Bishop) he has his ingratitude reproached, and his Soul terrified by violent threats.  Ibi est herus, tergo metuas. 
There is at Trent but the image of a Council. The true one is at Rome. 
b Speech of the French Ambassador related in Thuanus, pag. 54.  Quid à patribus judicandum proponitur, aut ab ●is judicatum publicatur, quod non prius Romam missum Pio Quarto placuerit? The main design is to cheat the People, & not to establish any real good for the Church. The holy Ghost does not shine on the Fathers at Trent but by reflection; and though he has not promised to be in the conclave, but in the Council, yet he does not come to the one but as sent by the other.  
What can the result be of dealings so contrary to the Spirit of God, but to incline men to renounce an assembly, where, as speaks Mr. Ferriers', Pope Pius the Fourth left no place for the laws, no footsteps of the ancient Councils, no vestige of freedom. 
a Thuanus, ibid.  Vbi nullum legibus locum, nullum antiquorum conciliorum, nullum liberatatis vestigium Pius Quartus relinquat.  
Nor are the Authors of these last words either Protestants or Heretics. Neither is it that famous Venetian, whom they call Atheist, because he brought out of darkness, those artifices the Popes made use of, to betray the cause of God: but the Legates of the most Christian King: Men of admirable integrity and erudition, wonderfully addicted to the Church of Rome; and public Enemies to those that had separated themselves from it.   

XXI.  
But to be fully persuaded of the violence offered the truth, and that its vindication was not the scope of their endeavours, we need but consider the secret power given to the Pope's Legate to transport, or to dissolve the Council according to the occurrences. Is it not a manifest and evincing argument, that the Fathers gathered at Trent were treated like Children? made use of but only for a show and pretence, when an occult and an overuling spirit agitated the whole mass?  
Had the Pope dealt sincerely and without mistrust, what need such an anticipated power? But if he could not suppress his fears in a place he had been so much cautious of to be made secure, are not the very same fears much more reasonable in such, as could there hope for no security?  
The dissolving of Councils is the last shift the Popes betake themselves to. Eugenius the Fourth attempted to secure his tottering power at Basil; and indeed that Council had vanished into smoke, but that the Emperor, Princes, and Bishops, forced him to repair thither: 
a Plat. in Eugen. 4.  by threatening to condemn him for a stubborn and obstinate man, if he should refuse it. Proud 
b Plat. in Alex. 4.  Le● the Tenth succeeded more happily, and though Alexander the Fifth testified at his death, all things had been done at the Pisan Council with all imaginable sincerity and integrity, yet he declared it a mere conventicle.   

XXII.  
Had they intended to render truth manifest and palpable to all Christians, why did they take a course for discussing it o● suspicious and unheard of till then? What means that so extraordinary distinction of Congregations and Sessions, the first to deliberate, the other to decide and decree● Had they learned this from the first Councils of the Church? Must articles of Faith be handled secretly? 
c Tertul.  Is there any thing more dreadful to the truth then to be absconded? And is there any rational man that suspects not they are willing to disguise and betray it, when he sees them so cautious and overprudent to conceal from him their way of examining it?  
Is infallibility to be found in the Sessions or in the Congregations? not in the last, since they are composed of private Doctors; nor in the first, since nothing is examined in them.  
And God's Spirit, a 
a Ephes. 1. 10. Thess. S. 21.  spirit of Wisdom and discretion, forbids to determine any thing but after a long and serious trial.   

XXII.  
Hence we draw, how weak is an answer of the author of the considerations upon the Council of Trent, which seems to him the most solid ground of all his discourse.  
The inconsiderable number of Bishops who voted in that Council is objected to him. And we say that it is a great temerity in those few Bishops and Divines, to have made in so short a time, & upon so important matters, such a prodigious number of decrees; and an other yet greater and more unpardonable than the first, to have been so bold to propose them as the decisions of the Catholic Church.  
To this he answers two things, first that those Bishops and Divines were men of an extraordinary merit. Secondly that whatever this small number had done, was approved of, received and ratified by the greater number, which amounted to above two hundred at the least Session.  
For the first part of his answer concerning their extraordinary merit, he must give us leave to tell him, Pope Paul the fourth was incomparably better acquainted with it then he is, and consequently more to be believed. And 
a Il. Council. de Trent. Pag. 408. Memoires du Cardinal Bellay. p. 155.  he said of them to Cardinal Bellay, It had been a great weakness in his Predecessors, their having sent to the Mountains of Trent threescore Bishops of the less learned, Sessanta Vescovi de manco habili, & forty very ordinary Divines, & quaranta dottori de meno sufficienti.  
For the second we acknowledge with him, that at the end of the Council two hundred and 50 Bishops, the greatest part Italians, ratified the decrees of those other. But he ought to acknowledge with us, as a matter of fact, that after the arrival of those new Bishops, there had not been any new examination of so many decrees, but only a simple reading. Whence we conclude many things so disadvantageous to him, that it would have been more secure and handsome for him, to have let that objection alone, as he did twenty others.  
And first that it is against all Canons, all right, and rules of common sense, that Bishops newly come should determine points they never examined.  
Secondly, the surveying of these points was either necessary, or not. If 'twas so, they were bound therefore to undertake it. But if there was no such necessity, why did the first Bishops impose it upon themselves?  
Thirdly, the last Bishops avoiding any new examination did therefore acquiesce in the precedent: and so it is a ridiculous petition of principle, and the greatest dishonour the Council could be blemished with, to say the Fathers rely upon some Bishop's de manco habili, and some Divines de meno sufficienti.  
Fourthly, that by this means Protestants continue still in the right, for complaining they have been condemned without being heard: that they can and aught to maintain their Doctrine till it be lawfully proscribed, it being probable so many great Kingdoms, three parts of Germany, and a considerable part of France and Poland, were further from being mistaken, than a few Bishops de manco habili, and a few Divines demeno sufficienti.   

XXIV.  
there's none can forbear laughing, at the simplicity of him that collected the subscriptions of that Council; who to dazzle the eyes of ignorant People, writes a patriarch of Jerusalem and six Greek Prelates; Greeks born in Italy, who had nothing Greek but their names; as lately Cardinal de Rets was Archbishop of Corinth, though he had never been there. The same is to be said of the pretended Arch-Bishops of Armagh and Upsal who sat at Trent, when the true Prelates of those Sees protested against the Council.  
And for those titular Bishops who appeared there in so stupendious a number, the Pope did never reflect that in sending them thither, he published to all the World, how much an enemy he was to the Spirit, Discipline, and rules of the Church, which hath always considered the Election of Bishops without Bishoprics, as constant violations of her most holy laws.   

XXV.  
But all these Shepherds, as well those that want Sheep, as those that are know● by theirs, John 11. 14. are tied up to the Pope by a more solemn and dreadful Oath, then that which obligeth them to their natural Princes.  
This Oath is not only contrary to all antiquity, wherein 'tis impossible to find any footstep of it; not only unworthy the Episcopal rank, not only injurious and scandalous to Kings, who thereby can never hope for true and faithful allegiances from their Bishops: but also horrid and abominable in all its parts.  
A private author would never be believed, that should undertake to evince the consequences of it. They would suspect him of being prepossessed and swayed more by his own passion then the truth. But le's hear how the Pope himself interprets this Oath. No Bishop of the Church of Rome can disown the interpretation of his holiness. For it is the universal Doctrine of all Divines (except some scandalous Jesuits) that we must in all our swear answer the meaning of the lawgiver, otherwise we attempt to deride God, and make his word a witness to our falsehood.  
But Pope Pius the Second makes the extent of this Oath so large, that writing to the Bishop of Mayence he 
a Epist. ad Episcop. Mogunt.  tells him, It is not lawful for a Bishop to speak true against the Pope. Non licet verum dicere contra Papam.  
If we give any credit to that Pope's words (which the Author of the considerations cannot disown, for he spoke ex Cathedrâ) in a thousand occurrences they that take such an Oath must needs be either perjured or betrayers of the truth of Christ.  
But what can we hope from Bishops who sit in a Council thus enslaved to the Popes will? since a Heresy maintained by him, (as but too many have been) they cannot oppose, without forswearing themselves; and if they remain dumb at such enormities, they shamefully betray the station Christ has given them in his Church.  
What would the Nicene or Chalcedonian Fathers have said at this acclamation of the Apulian Bishops, 
a Milinaeus de Concil. Trident. Num. 21.  Nihil aliud sumus praeterquam creaturae & mancipia Sanctissimi Patris? What would Domnus o● Dioscorus have desired more? and if Paphnutius could not forbear weeping, to see Athanasius' seat filled by his accuser, and himself thrust into a place due to that vile man, is it possible there was not one Bishop at Trent seen to shed tears at so strange a contempt of Episcopal dignity?   

XXVI.  
And indeed the most holy Father used them all ut creaturas & mancipia. James of Clodia Fossa, saying he could not suffer tradition to be paralleled with the Scripture, was expelled the Council. Peter of Justinianople being but suspected of what they called Lutheranism, was forbidden to come there, and take place amongst the Bishops. Another was proclaimed Schismatical, and threatened to be rejected, for affirming there had been many lawful Bishops never called or confirmed by the Pope. Nay another was deposed because he said, the Pope should be contented with the title of Holy, which God is satisfied with without affecting that of most Holy. So that 'twas not without reason, the Cardinal of Lorraine complains, 
a Thunus l. s. pag. 13.  the Council was not free, since nothing could be proposed or resolved, but what was the Legates pleasure, nor could they propose any thing but what was the Popes.   

XXVI.  
But to convince all unprejudiced persons, we need but consider the safe conduct granted to Protestants.  
Tho the Fathers of Trent were engaged in honour, to blot out the memory of the Constantian Council, (whose wounds continued still bleeding) by testifying to their adversaries all imaginable sincerity and Candour, yet they gave them greater occasions than ever to distrust.  
Protestants require nothing but what had been accorded to the Bohemians by the Fathers at Basil; but they are plainly denied. They beg at least a safe conduct which they many confide in; but 'tis doubted whether it may be granted them, and they are told it shall be given in the Congregation (viz. in the Friar's meeting) and not in the Session (viz. in the Council.) At last after having been thus baited, they o●tain safe conduct which has respect only to the Germans & worded in such captious terms, that thereby the Pope had reserved to himself the power of burning all the English, Swedes, Danes, and French that should come to the Council; nay the Germans themselves: though they could blame nothing but their own simplicity:  
Notwithstanding whatever reasons Protestants had of declining such a Council, after the example of the Holy Fathers, and the judgement of the wisest men then living, they (trusting the justice of their cause, and seeing in that noble and magnificent safe conduct hope was given them of disputing and proposing their difficulties) sent their Divines to Trent and exposed them to all dangers, without any other defence than the truth, which is called in the scripture, the shield of the just. These Divines thus authorised by their Nation, being arrived at Trent, conceal not themselves. They avoid not the sight of men. The whole Council is acquainted with their coming. They speak to the Ambassadors, make their addresses to the Pope's Legates, conjure them to pity the calamities of Germany; and after having presented them with the confession of their Faith, they beg no other favour from them, but to have it read in the Council, for its being either approved of, or condemned. The Legates do not burden them with Irons, or tumble them into Dungeons, they are so far from being murdered, that their life could not be more secure in the Prince of Saxonies or the Landgraves' Chamber. But they receive no answer; their confession of Faith remains buried, the Legates keep it in Petto, nor are the most entire submissions and ardent entreaties able to bring it forth. Thinking perhaps that the quality of a Priest, or of a Divine had no great influence upon an Apostolic Legate, they made use of the Emperor's Ambassadors. That Prince was the Soul of the Pope, as the Pope was of the Council. But all these endeavours are frustrated, there is somewhat unknown and unperceived which strikes dumb their Eminences.  
Who ever heard of any such dealings? If Protestants decline the Council grounded upon a thousand unanswerable reasons, all the World rises against them; nor are the names of Heretics, Schismatics, nay Atheists sufficient to express their imputed perfidiousness. But though they come and strike Heaven and Earth with their complaints, an ignorance is pretended of their being there. The Fathers have neither ears, nor hearts, nor mouths, to hear their prayers, feel their grievances, and answer their proposals; and they are forced to beg and expect from God that justice which men deny them.   

XXVII.  
'tis evident from so many instances, that Protestants did never reject Councils. There is no Christian whom the Authority of the Church does not overcome, he deserving to be debarred from the quality, advantages and hopes of a Son, who hearkens not unto his Mother's voice. The Church has a true jurisdiction, a real and effective authority. All contrary Doctrines flow from independency and Enthusiasm, two blind and furious Monsters every where to be profligated. But the very same Protestants so great admirers and defenders of the Church, require she should speak in lawful assemblies. When they shall be condemned in Councils like that of Nice and Chalcedon, than they will receive their sentence with as much joy as respect.  
But when a new and unlawful meeting, guilty of essential, averred and incontestable defects, nay acknowledged to be such by the most learned and disinterested men of the Roman Communion, shall claim the same authority as these Divine assemblies, they will be very careful to keep their ancient ways; and far from being deterred by the threats of that proud and uncharitable Church, which excludes from heaven all those she cannot keep blindfold in her bosom, they will augment the glorious company of many holy Fathers, whom the overpowering number of unjust Councils, could never bend to betray the cause of Christ. Such an one was St. Athanasius who rejected the Council of Tyre; Maximus Patriarch of Jerusalem, that of Antioch; Cyril that of Syrmium; Paulinus that of Milan; and chrysostom, an example of Christian constancy, that ad quercum.  
In a word they will receive those curses pronounced against them as so many blessings, and without going any further into the discussion of the Tridentine Councils decrees, they will conclude with the words of Cardinal 
a L. 2. De Pontif. c. 18.  Bellarmine, Si legitima Synodus non fuit, planum est nullam authoritatem potuisse habere: & nullius roboris sunt illius Canon's.    

REFLECTIONS On the Council of TRENT.  
DISCOURSE II.  
That the Doctrine of the Council of Trent is contrary to the ancient Doctrine of the Catholic Church.  

I.  
WHOEVER peruses the Council of Trent, cannot but be strangely amazed, to find its stile so altogether unlike that of the ancient writings of the Church. There is in those I know not what characters of holiness and Christian majesty, which command reverence from all: but in this we meet with a sort of so unusual and dubious expressions, that show the Authors of it were incomparably better versed in political practices, or Books of Schoolmen, then in the Works of the Fathers.  
They never intended, in many of their Canons, to fix a true and uniform sense, which all People might rely upon, but a double and captious one, apt to receive contrary interpretations; to satisfy men of different interests, and give them the mutual pleasure of believing their assertions upheld by the authority of the Council.  
And thus the Jesuits and Dominicans were equally contented with the Canons concerning Grace, and Justification. Each Party drew the authority of the Council to its own side: and there has not been any Writer of these two Orders, who in their many Books, as opposite one to another as light is to darkness, has not alleged these very Canons, as invincible proofs against his adversary.   

II.  
But if any should inquire further, and search into that vast multitude of Decrees unknown till then, he must needs wonder to find them built upon so sandy Foundations.  
The most general Basis of them is laid in the fourth Session, where the Council proposes two objects to our Faith; to wit, 
a Sess. 4.  Books which are written, and Traditions which are not written. And they pretend as a necessary consequence, that whatever we oppose against the Church of Rome, is of that kind. This is the Epitome of all the Council.  
Nevertheless, lest any one should be offended at the word Tradition, and persuade himself that they intent by it to equal men's authority to that of God, or humane Ceremonies to the sacred Precepts of the Gospel; they give of it a most magnificent character, calling it, 
b Sess. ibid.  The Word of Christ, a Doctrine inspired by the Holy Ghost, for the ordering our Faith and manners, and preserved in the Catholic Church by a continued succession.  
If that Principle be true, there is an end of all Controversies; and were the Church of Rome as able to prove it, as she is ready to advance it, we might hope to see in our days, that blessed Word of Christ accomplished, 
c John 3. 16.  There shall be one Fold and one Shepherd.  
And indeed there is no Protestant in the World, who doth not admit of a Tradition endued with these Qualifications.  
First, That it be the Word of Christ.  
2. Inspired by the Holy Ghost.  
3. In matter of Faith and Manners.  
4. Preserved in the Catholic Church by an uninterrupted succession.  
But there is no Protestant in the World that doth not maintain, such a Tradition cannot be proved: and is nothing else but one of those rich and splendid Ideas, as admirable and flattering in their speculation, as impossible and deceiving in their practice.   

III.  
For the perfect evidencing whereof we need but consider the following Proposals.  
First, That of all places of the Scriptures, whereby the Church of Rome asserts her Tradition, there is not so much as one alleged by the Fathers in her sense.  
Secondly, That none of the Fathers ever understood Tradition otherwise, then for the unanimous consent of the Doctors of the Church, grounded upon a word which is written.  
Thirdly, That no places in Scripture are express for the authorising such Tradition, but many positive and clear to prove the sufficiency of Scripture.  
Fourthly, That among the Traditions of the Church of Rome, she proposes many to our belief, which do not appertain at all either to Faith or manners.   

IV.  
The Scripture is most holy, most infallible, most perfect in itself. The Gospel has added what was deficient in the Law. And the Apostles Writings supplied the defect of the Gospel. There we must stay. 
d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Basil. l. de confess. Fid. Cathol.  'Tis no less crime, in S. Basil's opinion, to add that which is not written, then to reject that which is written.  
And 'tis a stupendious boldness, when God has vouchsafed to reveal his will to men by a certain and infallible word, to substitute another, neither clear nor undoubtedly received.   

V.  
That new word, which is ascribed to God, has properly and by its self relation to those things which cannot be proved by Scripture, as one 
e Andradius.  of the Divines, present at Trent, has taken notice of, otherwise it would be a written word.  
But if it be so, nothing is more unworthy of Christ, and less agreeable to his divine Oracles. It is to render his truth suspected, or uncertain; to expose Christians to infinite errors; to give them as many masters as there are persons who will profess themselves the Guardians of that word; and to make it the object of all men's scorn; since according to the excellent saying of S. Jerome, 
f Hieron. in Math. c. 8. 13.  Quod de Scriptures autoritatem non habet, e●dem facilitate contemnitur qua probatur.   

VI  
We find not that Christ in his holy Gospel sends us to Tradition, whereby we may come to the knowledge of him. 
g John 5. 39  Search the Scriptures, they are they that testify of me.  
The Apostles speak as their Master. 
h 1 Pet. 1. 19  We have also a more sure word of Prophecy, whereunto you do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arise in your hearts. 
i Homil. de S. Spirit.  Many, says S. Chrysostom, pretend to speak from the Holy Ghost, but they do it falsely, as long as they speak from themselves; as Christ testifies he spoke not from himself, but from the Law and the Prophets; so if they proffer us any other thing then the Gospel, under pretence of its being inspired by the Holy Ghost, let us be far from believing it.  
Is there any thing worse, says 
k Epist. ad Flavian. Refer. Can. quid autem.  Pope S. Leo, then to have impious sentiments, and yet not to be willing to assent to the more learned and wise? Those are guilty of this folly, who when they are hindered from knowing the truth by any obscurity, do not recur to the Prophetical Books, the Apostolical Writings, and Evangelical authority, but to themselves, and so become Masters and Teachers of error, because they refused to be Disciples of Truth.  
It would have been very easy for 
* Caus. 24. quaest. 3. Can. 30.  S. Austin, in that long and tedious Disputation with the Donatists concerning the Catholic Church, to have made an end of it, by sending them to Tradition. But instead of doing so, Let us not hear, says he, Haec dico, haec dicis, but let us hear, haec dicit Dominus. 
l Lib. 2. de Bapt. contr. Donat. c. 3.  We have the Lords Books; Both of us acknowledge their authority, both of us believe them, ibi quaeramus Ecclesiam, ibi discutiamus causam nostram: nolo humanis documentis, se● divinis Oraculis sanctam Ecclesiam demonstrari. We seek, as he there adds, where the Church is: what shall we do? in verbis nostris eam quaesituri sumus, an in verbis Domini? I think it is to be sought in his words who is the TRUTH, and knows perfectly her who is his Body. Habeo manifestissimam vocem Pastoris mei, commendantis mihi & sine ullis ambagibus exprimentis Ecclesiam. If I suffer myself to be reduced and separated from his flock (which is the Church) by the words of men, I will impute it to myself whereas he advertized me, saying, 
m John 3. 27.  My Sheep know my voice.  
'Tis the constant Doctrine of that admirable man in all his Works.  
In his Letter to S. Jerome, I confess your Charity, says he, 
n Epis. 19 refer. Can. Ego solis. Dist. 9  I give those Books alone which are termed Canonical, that honour as to believe none of their Authors did ever err.  
In his Letter to Vincent, 
o Epistol. ad Vinc. refer. Can. noli Frater. Dis. 9  Do not oppose therefore, Brother, to so many and undoubted places, some of the writings of the Bishops, either ours, or those of Hilary, Cyprian, and Agrippinus. All these writings want the Authority of the Canon, and we receive not their testimonies as things which it is not lawful to descent from, if they are dissenting from the Truth.  
Upon the 87. Psalms, You read not in the Gospel those whom you name; neither do I see those whom I allege. Let us lay aside our Books, procedat in medium Codex Dei.  
Finally against Maximinus the Arian, who relied upon the Council of Ariminum. I ought not, says he, 
p Libr. 3. c. 13.  to cite you the Nicene Council, nor you that of Ariminum, as prejudices for our cause, Scripturarum autoritatibus non quorumcunque propriis, sed utriusque communibus test●bus, res cum re, causa cum causa, ratio cum ratione, concertet; & utrique tanti ponderis molibus cedamus.  
Nay 'twas not only Bishops that thought so, but Laymen themselves. We are taught by the Gospel, says 
q Ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ Theod. l. 1. Hist. Eccl. c. 6.  Constantine to the Nicene Fathers, the Apostolical Writings, and the Oracles of the Prophets, what we must know of God: let us therefore draw the explication of our doubts from the words divinely inspired.   

VII.  
We intent not hereby to detract from any part of the high esteem every Christian ought to have for the Works of the Fathers. We consider them as the Masters of the Church, who instructed her, not only by the learned productions of their minds, but by the purity and good examples of their lives. We honour them as Preachers, who spoke no less by the wounds they received for the defence of Christ, then by the words they made use of to make known his Doctrine. Nor could we behold without a just resentment a Minister of our Age to abuse their Writings in a Book entitled De vero usu Patrum. We acknowledge with the great S. Austin, 
r l. 2. de nup. & Conc. c. 24.  that these holy Men were stabiles in antiquissima & robustissima Fide. We call with the Primitive Councils our present Faith the Faith of our Fathers 
s Conc. Chalced. ac. 8. 8. 10. etc. Epis. Euseb. relat. à Theod. Eccl. Hist. l. 1. c. 11. . But we are not convinced that our respect should endue us to believe them infallible. After God's Word none is of greater weight to us then theirs; but we are not bold enough to mingle & confound them. As a body grows not luminous but as it comes near the Sun to receive its impressions, so we do not see in them any certainty of light, but as they are conformable to the Scripture, which is certainty and light itself. And we think we give them all the praises they can expect from us, when we say, as S. 
t Athan. Ep. ad Epict.  Athanasius did, of the Nicene Fathers, that their Expositions of the Nicene Faith, according to divine Scriptures, are sufficient to destroy all Impiety, and confirm the belief of Christ.   

VIII.  
But that which is more to be wondered at, is, that none of the controverted points has ever been preserved in the Catholic Church, as a point of Faith, and agreeable to the consent of the Fathers: a truth expressly maintained by a learned ᵘ Bishop of this Kingdom, 
v Jewel.  who successfully challenged any of the Roman Communion to a contradiction.  
I would call for no other evidence than the Canon of this very Session, §. 4. which ordains under pain of Excommunication to admit of those Books as Canonical, that had never been such, with the same veneration as those which had been constantly kept by the Church. All 
x Conc. Laodic. can. 54. Jos. l. 1. contr. App. Euseb. l. 3. Hist. Eccl. c. 20. Melit. Sardic. apud Euseb. lib. 4. c. 26. etc.  Councils, Fathers, Ages, ancient and modern Writers exclaim against that Decree, and there is no man, though but commonly read in Ecclesiastical writings, that can deny it.  
Notwithstanding the Council doth anathematise those that dissent from its Canons. Pope Paul and Pius the IV. exact a dreadful Oath of it, and make the People swear upon the Gospel, to receive as certain and undoubted that which all the learned of the Church of Rome had looked upon before as evidently false.   

IX.  
The Decree which consecrates the vulgar Translation is most strange, but nothing is like the declaration of the Cardinals, who assure us, Quod ne vel iota unum repugnat in veteri vulgata Latinae linguae editione, though Pope Clement VIII. confesses in the Preface to his Edition, 
y Bull. Clem. VIII. ante Edit. Vulg.  many things were purposely omitted which should have been changed. Let it be said with all due respect to their Eminencies, that so surprising assurances show either deep ignorance, or a wonderful unsincerity, or the greatest boldness in the World.   

X.  
The 
z Sess. 6. Can. 32. q. 24. etc.  Articles of Justification, which establish the merit of our Works in a manner so injurious to the Grace of our Redeemer, are no less opposite to the ancient Church. That holy Mother constantly instructed her Sons in all times, 
a Eph. 2. 3.  That we are by nature the Children of wrath; 
b Phil. 2. 13.  That God works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 
c 2 Corinth. 3. 5.  That we are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.  
She has been taught by Christ himself, 
d John 15. 5. Ibid. 8. 36.  Without me ye can do nothing; if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed, 
e Ibid. 6. 44▪  and no man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me, draw him.  
She has been informed by her Doctors, that when God is pleased to Crown in us our merits, he Crowns but his gifts: that unless he gives us what he commands us, his Law instead of a spirit giving life, becomes to us a kill Letter.  
She has determined in her Council 
f Concil. Arauz. c. 12. , That no man is free for doing any good thing, but by God's Grace: that God expects not our will, but prepares it according to what is written in his word 
g Can. 8. ; that when we fall into any sin we do it of ourselves, and of our own will, 
h Can. 23.  but when we do any good Action, 'tis out of his alone.  
Let any unprejudiced person read the Canons of the Council of Orange (where S. Hilary being Precedent, Christ's Grace triumphed so entirely over all its enemies) and compare them with those of Trent, he will be amazed at so strange a contrariety.  
But when we are so earnest in throwing down our pretended merits to raise a glorious Trophy to our Faith, we intent not to patronise Libertinism, and give way to those licentious opinions, which are the natural consequences drawn from the Doctrines of some Reformers.  
Faith, whereby a man is justified, is not barren, and like that of the Devil, which is of no use but to prolong and foment his disorders. It is a Faith which, as the Apostles styles it, 
i Gal. 5. 6.  works by love; which makes us look upon Christ as the Foundation and only Source of our Salvation; breeds in us an ardent desire of him. That love which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost 
k Rom. 5. 5.  promts us to put our whole trust in him, and to practise by the Sovereign power of his Grace, what his Gospel teacheth is required of us.  
S. Austin incomparably expresses this great Truth in these words, which the Church has so much admired as to make a 
l Can. Charitas de poenit. Dist. 2.  Canon of them. 
m John 6. 47.  Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believes in me hath everlasting life: He therefore who has not everlasting life, believes not in Christ: but he believes in Christ that has Charity, for to believe in Christ est tendere in ipsum amando, is to be inclined to him by Love. It is to this the remissions of sins hath been promised, huic remissio peccatorum promittitur. But if Love cannot be separated from Christian Faith, how can he that wants Charity have Christian Faith, that is, believe in Christ?  
Faith is therefore the Spring of our love, and love the Source of our Works. 
n Can. Charitas. §. Ergo. ibid.  What is it to love God, continues that holy Doctor, but to be inwardly adherent to him; to conceive an ardent desire of seeing him, an hatred of sin, a distaste to the World, a Charity for our Neighbour, whom he has commanded us to love, and so strictly to observe in our Charity the rules he has prescribed us in his Law, as never to pervert its order.  
But let it be far from Christians to think our Faith or Love come from us. If any believes, says the 
o Can. 7.  Council of Orange, he can do any good action, quod ad salutem pertinet vitae aeternae, by the strength of nature, and without being enlightened and inspired by the Holy Ghost, who pours into our hearts a suavity which makes us assent to, and believe the truth, that man haeretico fallitur spiritu, not attending to what Christ pronounces in his Gospel, 
p John 15. 5.  Without me ye can do nothing. Nor to the words of the Apostle, 
q 2 Corinth. 3. 5.  We are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.  
There are in man, says the same Council, 
r Can. 20.  many good things, which man doth not do; but in those he doth, there are none but what God doth in him.  
No man, says another Canon, 
s Can. 22.  has of himself but falsehood and sin; but if any hath truth and righteousness, 'tis of him Quem debemus sitire in hac eremo, ut ex eo quasi quibusdam guttis irrorati non deficiamus in via.  
Good God how far are the Canons of Trent from the holiness and humility of these! how repugnant to the established Doctrine of the Church, and the sentiments of the Fathers, are the proud and Pelagian principles of the Jesuits!   

XI.  
The anathemas of the seventh Session being no better grounded, are not more to be feared; the Council cuts off from the Church, which is the Body of Christ, those who admit of more or less than seven Sacraments.  
It is evident that such a Principle cannot be proved by the Scripture. We must then recur to the unwritten Word. Sure so important a truth has been preserved in the Catholic Church, and nothing aught to be more obvious in the writings of the Fathers.  
Nevertheless, not a word for twelve whole Ages; and that so long uninterrupted silence had never been broken, had not the master of the Sentences and other Scholastics brought it into the World.  
Indeed we find every where in the writings of the Fathers that the Adult must give an account of the Faith they professed at their 
t Can. ante Baptisa.  Baptism, and receive the 
u Can. baptisand.  imposition of hands from the Bishop. We meet every where with Repentance, Penance, and Confession of Sins. We see 
* Can. postquam de Consecrat. dist. 4.  every where the power of ordaining Priests so committed to the Bishops by Christ, that all Ordinations from other hands were esteemed unlawful and sacrilegious. But we find no where all these things to be Sacraments. And no man can sufficiently wonder how the Fathers at Trent propose as an Article of Faith grounded upon Tradition, a thing they are obliged to confess was never spoken of in the Church for twelve hundred years.   

XII.  
The Unwritten word doth no more favour the Canon which establishes Transubstantiation then the others, and we have from the ancient writings so many places against this Doctrine, that we cannot conceive how it came into the World.  

x Lib. 4. c. 40.  Tertullian writing against Martion, who denied that Christ had a real Body, tells him, Christ made his Body of the Bread he distributed, saying; This is my Body, that is, the figure of my Body, Figura Corporis mei; but it had never been a Figure, Si veritatis corpus non esset, had not the Truth, (Christ) had a real Body.  
Christ, says 
y Dial. 1. pag. 18.  Theodoret, honoured the Symbols and signs of the Sacrament with the name of his Body and Blood, not changing their nature, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but adding his Grace to their nature.  
S. 
z In cap. 1. Epist. ad Eph. & refert. Can. duplicit. de Consecr. didst 2.  Jerome is no less positive than Theodoret, The Flesh and Blood of Christ, says he, are understood two several ways, either of that spiritual and divine Flesh, of which he says himself, My Flesh is meat indeed, and my Blood is drink indeed, and, 
a John 6. 55.  Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his Blood, ye have no life in you; or, my Flesh which was nailed upon the Cross, and my Blood which was shed by the Soldier's Spear.  
S. 
b in Psal. 54.  Austin, who is justly esteemed the Oracle of the Western Churches, adds a pregnant testimony to this Assertion. The first heresy, says he, in the Disciples of Christ was occasioned by the hardness of his words; for when he told them, 
c John 6. 55.  Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his Blood, ye have no life in you: they not apprehending him, said one to another, 
d John 6. 60.  This is a hard saying, who can bear it? In saying this is hard, they separated themselves from him. But he remained with his twelve Disciples, and taught them saying, 
e John 6. 63.  It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing; the words I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. Do you understand them in a spiritual manner, they are spirit and life; do you understand them in a carnal manner, they they are no less spirit, but not for thee who understandest them not spiritually. Spiritually apprehend what I have said, Non hoc corpus quod videtur manducaturi estis, & bibituri sanguinem quem effusuri sunt, qui me crucifigent. The Sacrament I recommend to you quickeneth when it is understood spiritually, but the flesh profiteth nothing. They answered him according to their apprehension, for they understood this flesh, as it is used to be sold in a carcase, or torn in the shambles. Jesus knowing their error, said to them, What I told you of giving you my Body to eat, and my Blood to drink, scandalizeth you; but what will you say, if you see the Son of Man ascending to the place where he was before? He resolves here what he had proposed to them; he shows them that which they were scandalised by, to the end they might apprehend him. In this manner they thought he would have given them his Body, Ille dixit se ascensurum in coelum, utique integrum, When you shall see the Son of Man ascending to the place where he was before, than you will know he gives not his Body as you understand it. You will then apprehend that his Grace non consumitur morsibus; till the end of the World the Lord is above, but yet the truth of the Lord is upon Earth with us; Corpus enim in quo resurrexit in uno loco esse oportet, veritas autem ejus ubique diffusa est.  
That incomparable Doctor speaks after the same manner when he teacheth, that all places of the Scripture, which seem contrary to truth and good manners, are to be understood in a figurative sense.  
If you find, 
f De Doctrine. Christ. lib. 3. c. 10. 16.  says he, a Commandment which forbids a crime, or enjoins any good action, than its sense is not figurative; but it is otherwise when it seems to command a crime, and prohibit a good action. 
g John 6. 55▪  Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you, says Christ. That word seems to command a crime, figura est ergo, it is therefore a figure, which bids us communicate in the Passion of our Lord, and recall into our memories with suavity and utility, that his flesh hath been wounded and nailed upon the Cross for us.   

XIII.  
To what the Church of Rome believes concerning Transubstantiation, we may add her practice in taking away the Cup. She is not contented with changing the nature of a Sacrament, but thinks it lawful to tear and divide it.  
All the learned men of her Commumunion assent to the following Propositions.  
First, That Christ instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood under both kinds of Bread and Wine.  
Secondly, That he instituted it thus for all Christians, and said 
h Matth. 26. 26.  drink, as he said eat, without any distinction of of Priests and Laymen being the Saviour of all.  
Thirdly, That at least for twelve hundred years such a practice hath been faithfully observed in all the Churches in the World, and is still in the Eastern.  
Fourthly, That its intermission is not grounded upon any invincible reason, or irremediable inconveniences. For it would be the greatest piece of nonsense in the World to affirm, that the Church of Rome in the thirteenth Age hath seen inconveniencies, which the Catholic Church could not foresee in twelve hundred years, and the Greek is still ignorant of.  
Yet the Council of Trent perseveres in so considerable an innovation, stops its ears to the cries of an infinite number of Souls, who beseech their Father's substance might not be so cruelly divided, and styles this a Liberty the Church has always been Mistress of, to dispense Sacraments as she judges it convenient.  
But suppose the Sacrament to be no less complete under one kind then both, and that the Cup is but an addition to it: We, notwithstanding, maintain the Church hath no authority to change any thing Christ hath instituted, and prescribes the observation of. All reasons in such occasions must be suspected, when Christ himself speaks, promulgates himself his own Laws, and commands them to be put in execution, as he hath done here, all our pretended inconveniences are then gross errors; nor must we affect to be wiser than the eternal Wisdom, who foresaw better than we can do, the reasons of our scandals.  
Had Christ instituted all the Ceremonies the Church judged necessary for the greater decency of her Worship, and commanded the observation of them, it would be a dreadful crime to cut off the least.  
But Pope Gelasius speaks not of that division as of the taking away of a simple Ceremony; 
i Epist. ad Majoric. & Joan. Episc. & refer. c. comperimus de consecrat. etc. dist. 2.  We heard, says he, that some by I know not what superstition, after having received the sacred Body refused the Cup of the precious Blood. But for such, aut integra Sacramenta percipiant, aut ab integris arceantur. The reason of that learned Pope is worthy to be weighed, because, says he, divisio unius ejusdemque mysterii sine grandi sacrilegio non potest pervenire. One and the same mystery cannot be divided without a grand sacrilege.  
Pope Gelasius and the Fathers of Trent are wonderfully opposed: these say the Sacrament is no less perfect under one kind then under both; that such a division is a wise dispensation, which cannot be reasonably contradicted: the other calls the distribution of the precious Body and Blood one and the same Sacrament, and styles that prudent dispensation, a division of two things united by Christ, which cannot be done without an horrid sacrilege.  
Which then of the two, Gelasius or Paul III must be supposed to have pronounced ex Cathedra? If the Jesuits are chosen Judges between them, Gelasius shall be condemned: for Salmero and another of his Society were so impious as to say in the midst of the Council, that sometimes the Devil transforms himself into an Angel of Light, but now appears covered with the Cup of Christ's Blood to offer a draught of poison.  
But as if it had not been enough to have committed so great an enormity, without adding to it an insufferable ignorance, these two most holy and learned Fathers (as a most holy and learned Jesuit styles them, all the members of that Society being ipso facto most holy and learned) begged of Cardinal Madruccio, That it might be added to the Canons already made, that the Sacrament was instituted under both kinds only for the Apostles and Priests.   

XIV.  
The Canons of the fourteenth Session are no less opposite to Antiquity, wherein the Council defines Repentance to be a Sacrament: a Doctrine unknown till the time of Eugenius IU. The Archbishop of Caesarea tells us in a Book he entitled De Reformatione Scholasticae (which he considered as a great step to that of the Church) that Eugenius ascribed it to the Florentine Council, though such a Decree had never been read or seen there. 'Tis an effect of the Pope's usual sincerity. So that for twelve hundred years together the Church is silent in this point.  
Now what must a Christian think of a Council, that gives to our human satisfactions and poor Sacrifices the power due only to the unspeakable merits of Christ?  
Who without just indignation can hear that our Alms and Fast expiate our sins, and preserve us from eternal Death? Did ever any Councils, Fathers, or Divines run into such excesses? nor do we pretend to embrace the other extreme, and dissuade Christians from that life, which the Saints term a Cross and a Martyrdom. We think that it not only obliges Penitents but Innocents' also, and we are struck with fear at these words of Christ, 
k Luk. 23. 3.  Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish. But far be it from us to confine our Repentance to some trausient and slight exercices of Piety. We require that sinners die continually to themselves, that they think no pleasures lawful but such as the miseries of humane life render necessary and unavoidable; that they endure rather than enjoy them, and bewail the blindness and obdurateness of an infinite number of Souls, who being made drunk by the pride and wantonness of the World, are irrecoverably ruined.  
But when a sinner groans under a voluntary pressure, fasts, praies, and impoverisheth himself to enrich the poor, instead of puffing him up with self-conceit, and flattering him with a persuasion that he satisfies God, we depress him more and more, still repeating to him this Lesson, That according to the Oracles of the Word of God, and the practice of his Saints, 
* August.  the most laudable life examined in his Justice, is an abomination in his sight, and that the greatest penitent in the most burning fervour of his Penance for his sins past, stands in need at every moment of new mercy to obliterate and forgive the present.   

XV.  
Nor do we less wonder at the Anathema pronounced by the Fathers at Trent, against those that think Attrition with Confession insufficient for the pardon of sins. That is, those who believe the very same that till then was constantly a part of the Church's belief, and are persuaded that a man desisting from sin against God, out of fear of punishment, is not accounted guiltless by him.  
This their Assertion is so true, that the learned men of the Church of Rome are at a loss to give a favourable interpretation to the words of the Council. And we have seen a 
l Jansenius lib. 5. de Grat. Christ. Salvat. c. 34.  Bishop in Flanders so admirable and profound every where else, scarce understood when he endeavours to make the Council speak, what he is persuaded it should.  
To perceive at first sight all the consequences of this Principle, we need but consider the abominable interpretations Jesuits have given of it. Both the doctrine & practice of these Friars is so enormous upon that point, that we want words to express it. This is the foundation whereon Bauny, Escobar, Tambourin, Sanchez, Vasquez, and other such Monsters, build their infamous Morals. Wherein they are not contented to teach all manner of crimes, but afford means how to commit them with impunity, and as much as in them lies, cheat both God and their consciences. But leaving these favourers of sin to God's judgements, let it suffice us to say, that we are so far from blaming Fear in general, that we acknowledge 
m Psal. 120. 19  there is a chaste fear which endureth for ever more. We learn from the sacred Writings, that fear of eternal pains is the beginning of Wisdom. None, says S. 
n In Ps. 144.  Austin, can come to love but by fear, he must begin with the chain of Iron, before he be adorned with the Golden Necklace.  
So when God strikes a sinner with the fear of his Judgements, 'tis the first step to his Conversion: but if he never goes further he shall never be justified in his sight. Love is at least an essential condition for the forgiving our sins. We are justified by Faith, but it is by Faith that worketh by Love 
o Gal. 5. 6. , not by a dead Faith, which brings forth nothing, nor by a sterile one, which goes not so far as to produce fear; nor by a slavish one, which only refrains us thro' the apprehensions of punishment, and would never leave off sinning, did it not still behold the thunder of Divine vengeance always hanging over it; but by a Faith full of Love and pious zeal, which in the strictest bonds unites our hearts to our crucified Saviour, gives us a lively representation of his sufferings, revives in us an ardent desire of shaking off the vices of the old Man, to be invested with the life and virtues of the New. To renounce all things for our Redeemer, and at least to love our God, as S. Austin excellently prescribes, with as much fidelity and ardency as we have loved the Creatures.  
In the Epistles of the Apostle 
p Rom. 8. & 9  we find that the great advantage of the Sons of God, above those of the Devil, and their true and intrinsical distinction, is, to have been divested of the spirit of bondage to fear; which belongs properly to the Jews, and to have received the spirit of Adoption, which is the lot of Christians. The one brings them to God as to their Father, the other frights them as with the presence of their Judge.  
But till Faith, 
q Aug. in Psal. 127. Id. l. de Catec. rud. c. 5.  which worketh by Love, hath enlarged our hearts, and begotten in us the disposition of Sons, there is no hopes of pardon. For let us dispute to the end of the World, tyre our Readers with the multitude and subtlety of our distinctions, and make our fancies the Rules of God's Decrees, those only shall receive pardon whom Grace hath converted, and made his Sons.  
Fear is good and useful, 
r Id. Ser. 6. de Verb. Apost.  bonus est iste timor, utilis est, those that are struck with it, saluberrimo timore quatiuntur. But 'tis insufficient, and something more is required. 'Tis the Jew's gift, the Character of the Slaves, the spirit of the old Testament, 
s Id. Ibid.  ibi plebs longè stabat, timor erat, amor non erat. 'Tis an effect of that universal infirm Grace God has granted to all men, but not of that particular and victorious one which Christ hath got for us by his death, and poured into our hearts by the Holy Ghost. 
t Id. l. de spir. & litt. c. 19  Cum enim adest vivificans spiritus, hoc ipsum intus conscriptum facit diligi, quod foris scriptum lex faciebat timeri.  
The Fathers of the Primitve times apprehended the nature of that fear quite in another manner than the Fathers of Trent did.  
First, They did consider that its Source was nothing else but a prodigious self-love. They that are in those dispositions of fear the Council is satisfied with, do not seek so much to return to their God, and give themselves to him, as to preserve their quiet and their bodies in the future life. 
u Id. Serm. 114. de temp. c. 3.  Propterea enim timentur apud inferos poenae, & dolores ac tormenta Gehennarum.  
Secondly, They knew that a man whom fear only refrains from sinning, loses not the love and desire of sin, but sins still in his heart, 
x Id. l. 1. ad Bonif. c. 9  Sic profecto in ipsa intus voluntate peccat, qui non voluntate, sed timore non peccat.  
S. 
y Id. tract. g. in Epist. Joan.  Austin compares these persons to a wife who is not true to her husband but because she is afraid of being punished if she be found not so. 'Tis certain she commits adultery in her heart, since she would not persevere innocent if she could contract guilt without punishment.  
'Tis like a Wolf, says that holy Doctor, who being surprised by the watchful Shepherd, and the cry of the Dogs, is obliged to fly without doing any harm: he is not cruel and bloody, he tears no Sheep in pieces. Venit fremens, redit tremens, 
z Id. Serm. 14. de verb. Apost. c. 9  he came on raging, returns trembling, but in these two circumstances he is still a Wolf. He doth not execute his bad design, nor yet doth he leave it. Lupus est tamen & fremens & tremens.  
Thirdly, They were persuaded that the righteousness which fear produces in a sinner is from the Law and men, which the Apostle counts 
a Phil. 5. 8.  but dung; who sees not, says one of the Fathers, 
b Fulg. l. 2. de Incar. & Grat. Christi. c. 27.  that righteousness which is from the Law comes from men, but that which is by Christ comes from God? Justitiam vero quae ex fide Christi est, non esse nisi ex Deo. A man may be still sinful and God's enemy with such a righteousness. Ideo cum in illa quae ex lege est justitia sine querela conversaretur Apostolus, fuisse se impium non negat.  
Fourthly, they taught, That sorrow conceived only out of fear of punishment, is a sorrow of Infidels, and that if God were satisfied with that, there is no man in the World that could choose but be innocent; since no man that has but the least Idea of the life to come, but is moved with its apprehension. 
c Aug. Epis. 144. ad Anast.  Non enim peccare metuit sed ardere.  
This is a principle the Fathers have with unanimous consent maintained. This the Popes in former Ages taught. Nay those that sit now in the Apostolical See would do so too, if with the modesty and humility of their Predecessors they had not also rejected their doctrine.   

XVI.  
The Council seems, in its last Session, to gather all its strength against those who reject Purgatory, and deprive Saints, Images, and Relics of their due honour.  
Yet it appears the Fathers of Trent agreed, that all those things, Purgatory excepted, are not founded upon Scripture, but only upon the General Councils and Writings of the Fathers. This is 
d Sess. 25.  collected out of the very words of the Decree, the Council there speaking of Ecclesiastical antiquity, but not a word of the Scripture.  
A Person of extraordinary merit has undertaken to lay open the mysteries of Purgatory; and as he leaves nothing unsaid on that subject, so none can take it ill if I refer my Reader to him.  
For those other things, Invocation of Saints, Images, and Relics, 'tis easy in a few words to show how infirm their ground is in the ancient Doctrine of the Church.  
All learned men in the Church of Rome admit of the following Propositions.  
First, That nothing in the Scripture authorises these practices, or at least, nothing sure, fixed, clear, and undoubted.  
Secondly, That all places taken out of Scripture, by modern Writers, to prove these things, have never been made use of by the Ancients for that purpose, and so are of no authority, the ancients being most holy and assured Interpreters of the Scriptures.  
Thirdly, That till the seventh pretended General Council, that is, for eight hundred years, there was not any decision made of them.  
Fourthly, That to this pretended General Council, we oppose others acknowledged General by the Collector of the Councils, but as all learned men confess, endued with these Qualities.  

1. More exact in the Discussion of matters, as it appears by their Acts.  
2. Called by an holy Emperor and peculiar Benefactor to the Church of Rome.  
3. Free from all Suspicions of oppression which the seventh is guilty of.  
4. That the consent of the Fathers upon that Doctrine is neither clear nor unanimous, and that if in any of later date there be some places tending that way, there are in the same, and many others a thousand contrary places to invalidate them.  
5. That if we speak according to the Principles of the Church of Rome itself, there can no more than a simple probability be pleaded in this case, and that none of the greatest neither, but to both parties favourable.   
But there is not a Divine in the World who dares affirm, that an Article of Faith can be built upon a simple probability, nor declare them impious and blasphemous who have a contrary probability, nor excommunicate them and separate them from the Church, that is, inflict upon them the most dreadful punishment.  
How could the Fathers of Trent therefore do this? why did they not fear that threatening of the wise Man 
e Prov. 26. 2. , Sicut avis in incertum volans & quolibet vadens, sic maledictum frustrà prolatum venit super eum qui misit illud? Nor that of Origen 
f Orig. sup. Lect. cap. 24. Hom. 14. & refer. Can. cum aliquis. cap. 24. quaest. 3.  when a man is unjustly put out of the Church, he ceaseth not to be within, when he that thinks himself within may be really out?   

XVII.  
Saints pray in general for all Christians. For though they triumph in Heaven, yet they are her members, who strives and combats upon Earth. They are indeed united to their Head, which is Christ, but yet they still preserve the remembrance of the Body, which is the Church.  
They are a part of that Spouse, who, as S. Bernard 
g Ser. 1. super Cantic.  says, sighs after the Bridegroom, and begs a kiss from his mouth; wisheth for the end of the World, that Christ would hasten his Judgement, and manifest that day wherein he will begin to be all in all.  
'Tis in that very sense the Apostle says, 
h Rom. 8. 22.  The whole Creation groans and travails in pain till now, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the Adoption, to wit the Redemption of our Body, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
So S. Cyprian 
i Lib. de immortal.  assures us, That the Saints being secure of their immortality are careful of our Salvation.  
S. Jerome argues against Vigilantius in this manner. If the Apostles and Martyrs being yet in their Bodies, can pray for others, much more when they have conquered, are crowned and triumph.  
And S. Austin yet more perfectly, The Saints in Heaven, says 
k Lib. de Cur. pro mort. gerend c. 16.  he, offering their prayers for the necessity of those that pray, God grants to every one all those comforts he judges most suitable to them in the miseries of the present life.  
But there is a vast difference between the Invocation whereby we direct our Prayers to the Saints, and the intercession of the Saints for us. And none of these things are to be found in the Tradition.  

1. That the Saints pray for any particular person.  
2. That they obtain any favours for us by their own merits.  
3. That it is lawful to honour them with a religious worship.    

XVIII.  
And to discover with how little sincerity the Council of Trent speaks of this custom, that it has been preserved 
l Sess. 25.  à primaevis Christianae Religionis temporibus, it is enough to say, that their most learned Men confess it was the sentiment of the Primitive Fathers, that the Souls of the Saints should not enjoy the sight of God till the day of Judgement; and consequently could neither speak in favour of us, no offer to him our prayers. S. e'en, Justin, S. Clement, Tertullian, Origen, Lactantius, S. Ambrose, S. Chrysostom, S. Augustin, Eutimius, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Aretas, are said to have been of that opinion. Nay S. 
m Ser. 3. & 4. in fest. omnium Sanct.  Bernard preached it: which shows that this Doctrine continued till the twelfth Age of the Church.   

XIX.  
Indeed we cannot too much honour those holy men, who preserve with an undaunted resolution the precious Tresures committed to their charge. We must admire them in the powerful effects of Christ's Grace, who in a corruptible flesh and a sinful World has preserved them pure and undefiled. The constancy of Martyrs, the austerity of Penitents, the inviolated purity of Virgins, who despised all other ambition besides that of being near the Lamb, deserve all our Praises. Nay a true Christian makes his actions conformable to his Praises, imitates what he extols, and considers those excellent Patterns as so many reproaches to the disorders and remissness of his life. But he is not induced thereby to invocate them, to ascribe to them what is due to God alone, and offer them Prayers, which being commanded neither by the Precepts of Christ, nor his Apostles, spring rather from a blind Superstition, than a well ordered Piety. 
n Tertull. de Orat. c. 12.  Non Religioni sed Superstitioni deputantur.   

XX.  
But supposing the Church of Rome had some small ground in Antiquity for the Invocation of Saints, she has not the least shadow of reason for the worshipping their Images.  
Nor is it difficult to prove, that Images 
o Euseb. l. 1. Hist. Eccl. c. 17.  are a remnant of heathenish Ceremonies, which a blind zeal for the memory of the Apostles brought into the Church. Hence the Fathers of the Primitive times became extremely zealous to interdict not only their worship, but their very sight in the Churches. So Origen, Eusebius 
p Euseb. in Clron. an. 197. & 119. Just. orat. ad Ant. p. 132.  Justin Martyr, etc. inveigh on all occasions against Images. The Eliberitan Council, where the great Osius 
q Can. 56.  was present, he whom the Councils 
r Conc. Nicen. 2. ac. 6.  style their Father and Master, condemns by an express Canon the placing any sort of Images in Churches. S. 
s Epistol ad J●a●. Hi●rosolym.  Epiphanius forbids the having Images in Churches, or in the Crypts' of the Martyrs. And to show that his practice did not contradict his Precepts, he gives an account to John Patriarch of Jerusalem, how having found at the entrance of the Church at Anablatta an Image of our Saviour, painted upon a Curtain, he tore it, and wished the Priests to make use of it for the burial of some poor person.   

XXI.  
But it is clearer than the light, that by the word Adoration the holy Fathers meant all manner of Worship. Those famous men had a Divinity of sense not of terms: they were not acquainted with those Distinctions which became the whole business of Scholastics in succeeding Ages. They no less included external worship then internal, and thought not the one less dangerous than the other.  
S. Augustin was not persuaded that a man could so purify his intentions in adoring an Image, but that the Wood and Stone must needs bear some part in it. Who is the man, says that holy 
t In Psal. 113. 2. par. Psal.  Doctor, who looking upon an Image, either worships or praiseth, qui non sic officitur, ut ab eo se exaudiri putet? hoc enim facit & quodammodo extorquet figura membrorum. I know, says the same Saint, in his admirable 
u Cap. 34.  Book De Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae, That there are many worshippers of the Sepulchers and Pictures of Martyrs, Multos Sepulchrorum & Picturarum adoratores. But I advise you not to take occasion thence of slandering the Catholic Church, in aggravating the faults of those People whom she herself condemns, quos ipsa condemnat & corrigere studet.  
This excellent place shows that there are many disorders in the Church, the Church is not at all guilty of; and that those are in the wrong, who charge a whole Society with the faults of some of its particular members.  
So that when we speak against worshipping of Images, we exclaim not against that shameful traffic exercised in the Churches of the Mendicants, neither against those Chapels set round with pieces of wax and silver, nor against those false Miracles, which are only so many baits, whereby covetous Monks delude the ignorant and simple, and enrich themselves.  
All these things Ecclesia Romana condemnat & corigere studet. It is well known the pious men of these Monasteries are troubled at such abuses, and Bishops wish they were able to apply a remedy to them. But we combat the Decrees and Canons of the Roman Church; things to which the contrary sentiments are by her styled Impiety. We give them no other sense, than she herself would put upon them; and we maintain in their most favourable interpretation, that she has made Laws of some points, quas ipsa Ecclesia Catholica condemnat, & corrigere studet.   

XXII.  
There is not a learned person in the Church of Rome, who doth not consent, that to paint God Almighty has been accounted a crime for twelve hundred years.  
'Tis not lawful for a Christian, says S. 
x Lib. de Fid. & Symbol. c. 17.  Austin, to put in any Church the Image of God in a humane shape. Nevertheless the Council of Trent makes it a Virtue to admit of them. There is not a Church in which you may not see the unworthy Pictures of an immense and incomprehensible God, whose most perfect delineation consists in the impossibility both Men and Angels lie under of conceiving any. The Pope's Chapel is filled with them, and his holiness is pleased to forget that one of the chief Patrons 
y Damascenus, Ortho●xae Fidei. l. 4. c. 17.  of Images calls it a folly and an extreme Impiety.   

XXIII.  
Neither is there any understanding person who doth not acknowledge, that ●he most obstinate Defenders of Images never went so far as to maintain, that ●his sovereign Worship should be rendered to them which is due to God alone. ●Tis by this only reason, they pretend to free themselves of that Idolatry which was laid to their charge. So that it is a mere evasion of those who answer to all the authorities of the fifth, sixth, and seventh Ages against Images, that they were leveled only against Divine and supreme worship, being a ridiculous dealing, no way chargeable upon grave Men. But the Church of Rome to persuade the receiving of these things, calls them with an incredible insincerity, Ancient practices; strives to amuse people by swelling and high flown words; and because he miserably abandons himself to his own reason, and sinks under the most horrid Impiety who respects not true Councils and Fathers, that of Trent speaks of nothing but Apostolical Traditions, Consent of Fathers, and authority of Councils.   

XXIV.  
All these magnificent promises are reduced to a miserable Conventicle, held in the eighth Age, to which no Western Bishops, nor any of the two parts of the East, not one of the three Patriarches of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria, came; which Pope Nicholas I. and Adrian II. durst never call General.  
A Council 
z Paul. Diac. Hist in Constant.  called by a cruel and disordered Prince, wherein Irene his mother sat Precedent, so ambitious and unnatural a woman, that she commanded the eyes of her own Son to be plucked out.  
A Council, at which the most considerable person present was Thalossius Patriarch of Constantinople, a man who, as Pope Adrian 
a Epist. in Concil. Nic. 2. Act. 3.  describes him, from a Layman became Bishop, from an illiterate Courtier, Patriarch of Constantinople, whom the same Pope (says 
b Id. bid.  he) abhorred as a Monster, ut monstrum exhorruit, made Bishop against all Ordinances and Canons.  
A Council that founded its Decrees upon Visions and mere Fables, such as one of the meanest spirit must needs be offended at. The Image of our Saviour given to King Abgarus, the Leprosy, Baptism, and miraculous recovery of Constantine are things of that nature, as the learned in the Church of Rome do now account supposititious; not to allege many others, which deserve that the Council of 
c Act. Council Franc. l. 3. c. 26.  Francfort should object, That those Nicene Father's not being able to prove their Decrees, either by the authority of the Scripture, or the testimonies and examples of the Saints, had recurred to fancies and Dreams.  
A Council which the Assembly at Francfort 
d Ibid. li. 1. p. 79.  of 300. Bishops, headed by Charles the Great, declared to be so annulled and abrogated, that it ought not to be put in the order of Councils, unless of such as Ariminum.  
Lastly, a Council which the learned Defenders of Images were so loath to defend, that it had continued buried in a deep oblivion, had not the Jesuit Mainbourg 
e Histoire des Iconoclastes.  three years since raised it from its Grave, but alas! in what a manner!  
First, he affected (and this is his confession and glory) to write in a Romantic stile upon one of the gravest Controversies in Religion; as if matters of Divinity, and the Oracles of the living God, were of the same metal, as those abominable Books.  
Secondly, in writing against Iconoclasts he never directed his arrows against them, but designed to fix them in the hearts of the Jansenists. Preposterous and irrational fancy! being put to it how to recover the lost honour of his Society so trampled on in the sight of all Christendom, he resolved to attack once more his Conquerors, not out of any hopes of Victory, but out of impatience the natural product of Pride.  
He durst not therefore come into the open Field, and renew that Quarrel his Society had so shamefully begun, and so unhappily prosecuted; but betook himself to by ways, and thought it more secure and glorious to represent the Jansenists under the notion of Iconoclasts, and the imputed rebellion of the one against the Apostolical See, under the history of the other.  
Thirdly, He so ill contrived his design, that he lost the Character of both, and only betrayed himself to be of a spirit bold and temerarious; who with more than a Jesuitical impudence delivers lies as confidently as others do truth.  
His History of the Arians, and this of the Iconoclasts, both daughters of the same brain, both written with the same design, had also the same fate. Neither was answered; those whom they were chiefly leveled against, being there so unskilfully delineated as not to know themselves: nor indeed would they ever have done so, had not that Author, doting upon his so well resembling Babe, and the Jesuits (who like the Spaniards, triumph as well when beaten as when Conquerors,) spread it through the World. But I have spent too many words upon so inconsiderable a Writer.   

XXV.  
To return then to our purpose: who of any sense or reason, hearing the Fathers of Trent 
f Sess. 25.  say, that they permit the worship of Images, juxta Catholicae Ecclesiae usum à primaevis Christianae Religionis temporibus receptum, Sanctorumque Patr●m consensionem, & Sacrorum Conciliorum Decreta; and then seeking all these great things, finds, 

1. That for 800. years the Catholic and Apostolic Church has determined nothing of it.  
2. That all the Fathers are contrary to it.  
3. That those sacred Councils so magnificently alleged, are nothing but a miserable Conventicle at the end of the eighth Age.  
4. That England, Germany, the Low-Countries, Sweden, Denmark, part of France and Poland, declare against it.    
What man of any sense, I say, considering all this will not conclude,  
1. That we ought to distrust all the Decrees of Trent, and some being evidently false, give little credit to the most true.  
2. That the Fathers of Trent had not the Charity of the Apostles, whose Successors they were, since they excluded from their Communion so many considerable Churches for a point, which themselves acknowledge not to be grounded on Scripture.  
Not necessary to Salvation,  
Not related to Faith, Manners, Sacraments and Discipline.  
And Protestants not requiring Images to be pulled down, as did S. Epiphanius, and S. Serenus, but only their use to be ordered, as it was in S. Austin and S. Gregory's time.  
3. That the Church of Rome being immovable upon the Controverted points, she must give us leave to address to her Council the same words the Fathers of 
g Act. Conc. Franc. ibid. ibid.  Francfort did to the Nicene. Out of what fury or rather madness doth unius partis Ecclesia attempt to establish that which has never been established by the Apostles or their immediate Successors, and oblige them either to undergo the Anathema so vainly pronounced against them, or disobey the Apostolical Constitutions?  
Were they not promted by her, who is called in Scripture, the ancient poison, the guide of Death, the root of all evil, they would never strive to fix the name of General Council to their Assembly, had without the consent of many Catholic Churches. They would never take upon them to anathematise with such boldness so many and so considerable Churches, which are no less than they the Body of Christ.    

REFLECTIONS On the Council of TRENT.  
Discourse III.  
That the Council of Trent was so far from reforming the disorders which had crept into the Church, that it really made the breaches in its discipline wider, and cut off all hopes of correcting the ancient abuses.  

I.  
WHatever Ecclesiastical disorders are recorded in the Writings of the Ancients, they seem in no respect equal to those which infested the Church about the time of the Council of Trent. In the first Ages indeed, the zeal and severity of Christians rendered every fault conspicuous; but in the last the most pious could hardly suffice to express her real and constant evils. This produced the desires of a general Reformation; especially that he who pretends to be upon Earth the supreme Judge of all men, would judge himself, take some pity of his own Soul; and since the distempers of the Church owed their original to the Apostolical See, begin at that part from whence the cure of all the rest was hoped for.   

II.  
Whereas then the World's recovery depended on that of the Popes, they ought willingly to have embraced the occasion of doing so great a good. Nor could less be hoped, then that considering the promotion of Piety as their proper Interest, they would sacrifice all others to it: and the Council of Trent, which lasted eighteen years, raised the expectations of all good Christians, that the tears of so many Nations would not be shed in vain. But by the dreadful judgement of God it miserably baffled the Church's cries, and instead of closing her wounds, opened and created new ones.  
For to evince the truth of which so great reproach, we need only consider two particulars,  
1. The distempers of the Church.  
2. The remedies applied to them. And from the consideration of these, there will none, I hope, but confess, that the Fathers of this Council acted the part of an unfaithful Chirurgeon, who to cure a less noble part, inflicts a deadly wound to the heart of his Patient.   

III.  
We intent not here to treat of any personal defects, which showed themselves in the Pope's private life, but shall confine them only to those which were public, when they dealt as Popes, as infallible, as the Oracles of the Holy Ghost, as masters both of Men and Angels, as judges both of the quick and dead: in a word,; as men of whom, according to their own 
a Espenc. in cap. 1. ep. ad Titum.  Books, 'tis not allowed to inquire, Domine cur ita facis?   

IV.  
That Ambition and Covetousness have been the two originary sins of the Popes; and that to these two Heads may be reduced all the rest, the very complaints of their own Historians, and most famous Authors do evince. By the first, they made a shift to raise themselves above Spiritual and Temporal Powers, to excommunicate and depose Kings, to invade the jurisdiction of other Bishops, to break thro' all ancient and modern Canons; and instead of being ruled by the General Councils of the Catholic Church, to exalt themselves above them. By the second they made use of all sacred and profane means to enrich themselves, reduced all Benefices into that state, as not to be attained but by 
a Cardin. of Cambray, l. de reform. Eccl.  Simony, and sacrificed all things to the raising of their Families. As for the honour of their Dignity, the glory of the Gospel, and the consideration of the scandal of the Church, these could never overpower in them the more strong impressions of Flesh and Blood. The invention of Croisadoes being worn out, they had recourse to that of Indulgences, set to sale the absolution of sins; and 
b Centum gravam. grav. 1. & 3.  whosoever filled the Apostolic Treasure, though he were more profligate than the bad Thief, became more innocent than the good.   

V.  
Nor was it enough barely to fall into so many disorders, unless they undertook also to Canonize them, and thereby bring themselves under that dreadful Curse which God pronounces against those that call evil good. 'Twas for this purpose that Rome hath bred up such Doctors, as flatter the Popes even to Idolatry, styling them Gods upon Earth. These gave birth to the monstrous Doctrine of Infallibility, never before heard of in the Church for 1400 years. These had the face to maintain, that if all the World should oppose their Sentiment, all the World must be slighted. And to sum up in a word, all that can be said on that matter, they have so far enslaved themselves to their passion, as to decree in one of their Canons, that 
a Distinct. 40. Can si Papa.  if the Pope should be neglectful of his brethren's salvation, improfitable to the Church, dumb in what concerns her good, though he should carry along with him to hell an innumerable number of souls, yet no man living can presume to correct him.   

VI  
These things are neither exaggerations nor slanders, but mere matters of Fact, which the best Authors of the Roman Church, as Monsieur D'Espences, Gerson the Chancellor of Paris, Marsilius of Pavia, the Cardinal of Cambray, the Cardinal Cusan, Aeneas Silvius afterwards Pope, do equally complain of. And without ever mentioning the impertinencies of Canonists, 
a August. de Ancona, de potest. Eccl. c. 18. art. 1.  some of whom teach, The Pope hath power to excommunicate Angels; or the Impieties of some 
b Bald. l. ult. de sent. rescinden.  Divines who maintain, he can establish any thing against the Law of God and Nature both: What can be more amazing, then to hear the Popes speak themselves?  
Nicholas the First, in his Letter to Michael, 
c In fine Tom. 3. Concil.  says, That the Pious Emperor Constantine, had called the Pope God, and that 'tis evident God can be judged by no man. This piece of madness his successors liked so well, that they made an express 
d Canon satis evidenter.  Canon of it.  
Boniface the Eighth defines in a 
e In cap. unam Sanctam. excomm. de Maj. & obedient.  Decretal of his, That all humane Creatures are bound, necessitate salutis, to submit to him as to the King of kings, and both Spiritual and Temporal Lord over all the World.  
His successor 
e Derenun. cap. post transl.  pretends lawfully to dispense with that which was contrary to the Apostles commands, Bene dispensat Dominus Papa contra Apostolum. Let all the World know, 
f Plat. in Greg. 7.  says Gregory the Seventh, out of an excess of modesty and humility, That we give and take away all Kingdoms, Empires, Principalities, and all Goods men are capable of possessing.   

VII.  
Nor did these Servants of the Servants of God live any otherwise then they taught. There could no Crown in their times be assured upon the Head of any Prince, whatsoever Right, Birth, or Election had there established it. And indeed, we would scarce believe the precedents of Philip, Frederic, Lewis, etc. had we not beheld in our own days what Leo the Tenth, Julius the Third, and Sextus the Fifth had done. The public Records of England, Germany, and France, are filled up with their bold enterprises; the raising Subjects in rebellion against their natural Princes, the absolving them from their Allegiance; the putting great Kingdoms into combustion, at once undermining them by civil Dissensions, and procuring them to be invaded by Foreign Enemies; the swearing Friendship with Francis the First, and at the same time helping Charles the Fifth to subvert him; and again, entertaining correspondence with Charles the Fifth, whilst he solicited Francis the First to war again, are part of the transactions of St. Peter's Successors, the heads of the Church, and Vicars of Christ.   

VIII.  
But for their Convetousness, who is able to express it? Annats, expectative Graces, sacred Reservations, Preventions, Mandates; things abominable in all their parts, were called by them, Pious artifices to maintain the Apostolic See. That which in its own nature was properly a Crime, an Abomination, and a Simony, was turned into an holy action by a Pasce oves meas.   

IX.  
All Friars who grew weary of being governed by their Bishops, and kept in the hardships of Penance, sent money to Rome, where there was not a door in the Conclave but was open to their Gold. Great sums to the Datary, prevailed more than all their tears could have done. No Canons, no Councils, no Fathers, resisted their bribes. They purchased Privileges, substracted themselves from the Sacred Jurisdiction of their Bishops: and though the very Injunction of their new gained liberty, was a real Simony, a disobedience, and an effect of the corruption of their hearts, yet the disturbers of it were threatened in their 
a Bull. Pont. ubique.  Bulls with St. Peter and St. Paul's indignation.   

X.  
But that his Holiness, not satisfied with the oppression of the Clergy, should not spare the Laymen neither, is above all imagination. The Records of the Parliament of Paris, speak every where of the Pope's oppressions. Sir Roger Twisden hath writ an excellent account of the insupportable Taxes England groaned under; the natural piety and generosity of the English inviting the Popes to abuse it into an occasion of leaving no limits to their Covetousness. For Germany, and other Provinces, who in the World is unacquainted with their grievances? And is there any Roman Catholic, who if he consider things impartially, confesses not, that Leo the Tenth was the cause of greater evils to the Church then Luther?   

XI.  
The Pope himself verified that word of the Prophet, The Priests shall eat the sins of the people. There was no 
a Espenc. ibid.  crime which had not an Asylum at the Penitentiaries. The obscene Books of the Jesuits Sanchez, and Hurtado, are purity itself, compared with the Book of the Apostolical Tax. All the Casuists together never taught the World so many crimes as this one profligate Book. We suppress it, because we would not offend the modesty of our Reader. There are no tongues or words pregnant enough to express so great an infamy: but yet to give some hint of it, let us hear the Pope's Secretary, Our sins, says 
b Plat. in Marcel.  he are raised to such an height, that we have scarce any hope of mercy left us. 'Twere a vain attemt to describe the greatness of the Priest's covetousness, especially of them that govern. How unbounded is their ambition, obscenity and luxury? How deep is their ignorance both of themselves and Christ's doctrine also? How full is the little Piety they had left, of hypocrisy and dissimulation? and how instead of concealing the crimes they commit, do they affect rather to make them appear?   

XII.  
This than was the disease of the Roman Church: let us now examine whether the Council of Trent has truly reformed so many abuses; whether it hath preserved the respect due to Princes, rendered the rights of Bishops inviolable, taken away the Simonies and Extortions of the Court of Rome; and whether Mr. d'Espences complains wrongfully, Quod tot annis & tot annorum centenari●is nil in ea emendatur.   

XIII.  
As for Princes, the injuries which the preceding Popes had done them, were so far from being repaired, that Julius the Third was so bold as to excommunicate the Queen of Navarre, give her Kingdom over to depredation, and confiscate her Goods.   

XIV.  
As for the Holy Father, they work out his reformation in a pleasant manner. It is considered as a Crime to speak of reforming him, of searching into his wounds, or taking any account of his excesses. And when the Cardinals, hurried on by the force of truth, and the cries of all men, are obliged out of mere shame to propose the mending any abuse, they always add, Salva tamen Apostolicae sedis autoritate. So when plurality of Benefices is condemned, it is Salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate: when that intolerable abuse of Dispensations is cut off, 'tis salva semper sedis Apostolicae autoritate: when any Penance is imposed upon nonresident Bishops, 'tis salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate: when Friars are put again under the jurisdiction of their Ordinaries, and obedience to their Canons, 'tis salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate: that is to say, The authority of that Apostolic See, which has patronised their first violation of the discipline, shall be at liberty to do it a second time. They dare condemn no crimes, without impowring the Apostolic See to commit them over again. A Law, however just and necessary in itself, cannot be enacted without leaving to the Apostolical See the liberty of infringing it. And thus they make of the Apostolical See, a sanctuary and retreat for all disorders.   

XV.  
Nothing is better known at Rome, than the lives of a great many Cardinals. Heaven and Earth are offended at their Pride. Their plurality of Benefices, Bishoprics, and Abbeys, is monstrous. No secular Princes are attended with greater magnificence. Never had the most luxurious Heathens either Palaces so gloriously adorned, or Tables so delicately furnished: and whatever we read of the Gardens of Lucullus, or the pleasures of Tempe, is far short of the luxury of their Country Houses. Yet they are Clergymen, that is, a sort of people who not only vowed in their Baptism to renounce the World, but declared it also in their Ordination, That the Lord was the lot of their inheritance, and his Gospel a commandment to die and bury themselves with him.  
Notwithstanding, when their Reformation was spoken of in the Council, the Legates presently declared, that the Reformation ought not to extend unto their Eminencies; to which a Pious and Learned Bishop, more daring than the rest, moved to see Sacred Episcopacy so trampled upon by them, made 
a Life of Dom. Bartholmy des Martyrs.  answer, that the most illustrious Cardinals, aught to have a most illustrious Reformation, Illustrissimi Cardinals indigent illustrissima reformatione. But they are deaf to this voice of Heaven; and instead of sincerely advancing the Interest of the Gospel among themselves, to the end that the spring itself being purified, the stream might be so too, 200 Bishops and five Cardinals busy themselves in ordering the subsistence of Franciscans, and shaping the habit of Nuns.   

XVI.  
Nothing is so certain as the shameful traffic of the Datary and Chancery; none but the wilfully blind can deny it to be a gulf which swallows up the riches of many Kingdoms, and sucks the purest Blood of the people. But they must first have renounced the Gospel and their own reason, who confess not, that it is a continual commerce of abominable Simony, a violating of the most Holy Canons, and a pernicious attemt upon the authority of Princes and Bishops. What Council in former Ages, what custom of the Church, what legitimate Title empowers the Popes to give Benefices of other Kingdoms? What new Gospel teaches him to raise vast sums upon the account of Spiritual matters? What right hath he over those Churches he hath never ministered unto? Which of the Fathers, or what Authors can he allege to maintain such usurpations? Nay, who in the latter times ●id not rise against such an execrable abuse, and spoke not to him in the words ●f a famous Emperor, Cesset altaribus im●inere profanus ardor avaritiae, & sacris ●dytis repellatur piaculare flagitium?  
Yea, the Council very well saw all this; was in the Diocese of all these Bishops, ●hat so intolerable disorders spread their ●ranches. The Canons of the Sacred councils of Nice and Chalcedon are set before their eyes as so many eternal Witness of the Church's Spirit; but instead ●f following their rules, they wholly bu●●e themselves in cutting off some small ●●uses, reforming of a Country Vicar; 〈◊〉 for the rest, Salva semper Apostolicae ●●dis autoritate.   

XVII.  
Of all the different kinds of Simony the Court of Rome is guilty of, none is so certain and averred, as the Annats. 
a Plat. in Bonif.  Boniface the Eighth, and John the Twenty second, invented them; two Popes, Baronius styles Monsters. The Council of 
b Conc. Basil. Sess. 21.  Basil prohibited them under pain of Excommunication; and because the Fathers were informed that they came from no other source than the Pope, who by a Pasce oves meas, Joh. 4. 6. makes all crimes lawful, they add those so remarkable words, That if the Bishop of Rome, who more than any other, aught to observe and execute the Canons of the Councils, comes to scandalise the Church, attempting any thing against such a prohibition, let him be proceeded against by a General Council.  
The most considerable Authors of the Church of Rome, both for Learning and Piety, complain most bitterly of this The Faculty of Sorbon calls it, not only a Crime, but an Heresy. Paul the Third his Counsellors, who had been first obliged under pain of Excommunication to declare the truth (that being necessary to make truth reach the Pope) spoke after the same rate.  
Nevertheless, The sacred, holy, and ecumenical Council met at Trent, in the name of the Holy Ghost, to be ruled there by the word of God, the writings of the Fathers, and the Apostolical Tradition, thinks not fit to take away the Annats. The Holy Ghost just goes so far as to correct small abuses, frivolous nothings, but reaches not to Heresies and Crimes; Salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate. There is not in so vast a number of Bishops one single Nathan, or Elijah; or if it be too much to seek Prophets among them, there is not a single Ambrose or Basil; none of all these Vicars of Christ, who durst say with his Master, Our friend sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep, Joh. 11. 11.   

XVIII.  
And indeed it would have been a kind of Murder to have cut off Annats. Rome would have been no more a triumphant City, all its Palaces would have been either pulled down, or interrupted in the building, and especially that of Pius the Fourth, raised during the Council, of which the Archbishop of 
a Life of Dom. Barth. des Martyrs.  Brague told him, That the stones would have served better to build an Hospital.  
To banish Painters, Musicians, Poets, from St. Peter's See: to make a Pope in our days live like S. Leo or S. Gregory: to rule a Cardinal-nephew according to the Council of Carthage, and the examples of S. Charles: to require the same severity of life from an eminentissimo Cardinale, as we saw in Cardinal Baronius, and some years ago in Cardinal Bona: Such demands, I say, would have brought a blemish upon the Council never to be obliterated; and instead of procuring its confirmation, fired upon them all the Vatican thunders. How could a Cardinal undergo the hardship of riding, without a retinue of 200 Coaches, and an infinite number of staffieries? In the Apostles time, the most common Motto was, The world is crucified to me, and I to the world, Gal. 6. 14. Priests than had no other liveries than the blood of Martyrs, no other retinue than a vast number of poor, no other Palaces than Prisons; but in our Age, you cannot walk in the streets of Rome without hearing People cry out, The equipage of his Eminence, the Mules of his Eminence, the staffieries of his Eminence, the perfumes of his Eminence, the Music of his Eminence, the Abbeys and Bishoprics of his Eminence, etc. that is, of a Deacon in the Diocese of Rome, of a Parson in the City or Suburbs, of a man maintained by the alms of the Church, dead to the World and its vanities, persuaded that there is a life to come, and that the shortest way to enjoy its happiness, is to renounce all the pleasures and honours of the present.   

XIX.  
The Fathers therefore at Trent were not cruel to the Pope, nor Pius the Fourth ungrateful to them. He confessed in a full Conclave, They had used him more gently than he would have done himself: and that Council, which otherwise had passed for a Conventicle, became so sacred, that this Pope never spoke afterwards without an honourable mention of it in all his discourses. But this Pope's own confession is too puissant a proof against him, 'tis the testimony of his own Conscience. Those Physicians flattered so much their Patient, that he was ashamed of it, and instead of applying powerful Remedies to his inveterate Distempers, they took no notice of them. 'Tis wrongfully therefore they accuse the Pope's self-love, or the blindness incident to those who separate themselves from unity to constitute a particular order, as speaks St. Gregory and St. Austin.  
Pius the Fourth was convinced of the need he stood in of being reformed. But the Fathers put a bar to his desires, huc usque venies; without them he would have gone further.   

XX.  
Nay, lest the small Reformation they made of some few things, should last too long, they found out an expedient from which experience showed, the success of the whole was expected; and this was the liberty left to the Pope, of dispensing with all the Ordinances of the Council. That only favour deserved all Pope Pius' acknowledgements: he and his successors made so good use of it, that it will not be amiss to give some examples thereof.  
It had been observed for many Ages, how much the exemtions of Friars were injurious to Episcopacy, and scandalous to the Church; wherefore the Council cuts them off: but Pius the Fourth using his power of dispensing, re-establishes them with greater authority than before; so that there has been scarce any Bishop since, zealous of his duty and the honour of his Divine Character, whom a pitiful Friar, whether more fraught with boldness or ignorance, I shall not determine, armed cap apied with his privileges, durst not impudently oppose.  
Some abuses concerning Dispensations, Expeditions for Benefices, and other pretended favours of the Apostolical See were removed; the Pope uses his right of dispensation, and scarce had the Trent Fathers got home from reforming them, before Pius the Fourth had again brought up all those Impieties.   

XXI.  
The Council had 
a Sess. 25.  handled the matter of Indulgenc●s with as great dexterity as moderation, and in its Decree not one of the following Propositions, which the Friars have since b●nd●ed about with so violent heat, is to be ●een.  

1. That Indulgences are authorised by the Scripture.  
2. That they are granted and received for the dead.  
3. That they are a super-abundance of the merits of the Saints.  
4. That they are any thing else but a relaxation of Canonical Penance, accorded only to those who pray, who demand, who work, 
a Cyprianus de lapsis.  petenti, operanti, roganti.  
5. That the Pope has greater power to grant them, than any particular Bishop.   
No man had reason to complain of so wise and moderate a Decree; but the Pope uses his right of dispensing, too many People being interessed in keeping Indulgencies. The Vatican magnificence, the softness of the Cardinals, and the Friars idleness, owed their maintenance to that solid and clear Revenue. You see therefore Bulls both for the living and the dead, dispersed into all parts of the World; every Church hath its privileged Altars, and a thousand Books are made public, most of them dedicated to the Pope, and approved by the Inquisition, wherein they are called Heretics and Atheists, who oppose the Opinions which the Council hath left undetermined.  
The stile of these Bulls is as extraordinary as their matter; the Popes grant two, four, six, or seven thousand years of true pardon (and indeed the word true looks very pleasantly in that place;) he remits not only the pain due to sin, but the sin also into the bargain; sometimes to make the most on't he divides it, and pardons but a third part; sometimes one half; sometimes all, just as his Holiness is in humour. And that we may not tyre ourselves with too much pains, in getting so precious and rare a favour as the pardon of our sins, a man most deeply engaged in the love of the World, most buried in all its pleasures, the most taken with its glory, one that is a public sinner, guilty of all the excesses which libertinism or atheism are able to inspire; such an one as this must be excused from too much troubling himself. The bearing of a Medal, bowing to a Saint, walking to such a Church, or the like, will wash him whither then snow, and presently render him as innocent in the eyes of God as the best of them, who think it worth their while to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, Phil. 2. 12. who are at the trouble of mortifying in themselves the body of sin by an incredible perseverance, by continual Fasting, Prayers, and Alms, that they may present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, Rom. 10. 1.   

XXII.  
Thus the power of Dispensing opens the door to infinite scandals. But the Pope was empowered to do what he would, the Council 
a Locis supra citat.  granting him that which he could never hope for, viz. the affertion of his infallibility, and pre-eminence above general Councils: two Opinions that had never been heard of for 14 Ages, and were scarce brought forth into the World, but all learned and pious Men opposed them, the 400 Bishops at Basil, and the famous Sorbon, styling them pernicious Heresies; but the Fathers of Trent, being afraid to contradict openly so considerable an authority, and yet desirous to have their intent, dealt after a most pleasant manner, they take away these two words, Infallibility and Superiority, but preserve carefully the thing.  

1. The Council declares, the Church of Rome is Mother and Mistress of all Churches.  
2. The Council affects to stick at many matters, and remits their decision to the Pope's judgement.   
Now what man of sense is there, who would not draw these two Consequences?  

1. The Church of Rome being Mother of all Churches in the World, and a general Council being composed but of particular Churches; the Pope being Bishop of Rome, is therefore Father and Master of all Bishops & Councils.  
2. There is Infallibility in the Church: this must either be in the Pope or in the Council; not in the last, since the Council cannot and dares not give their Opinion in many and weighty matters: therefore in the first, whose Church is Mistress and Mother of all Christian Churches in the World, and whose sentence an ecumenical Council submits unto, as to an Oracle, which must fix its uncertainty.   
But the same man should, with their good leave, to these consequences add a third, which is, 
a Sess▪ 7.   3. That the faculty of Sorbon is Heretical. The Learned Gerson, Chancellor of Paris, is an Heretic. The 400 Bishops at Basil are Heretics. Pope Pius the Second an Heretic. Martin the Fifth an Heretic. And generally all the Learned Men of the Church for these 200 years are Heretics, for they all call that Doctrine of Infallibility and Superiority, a pernicious Heresy.  

XXIII.  
These two Points, Infallibility and Superiority, being once stated, what reformation could be expected in the Church. If the Pope be infallible, What an insolent boldness is it to subject him to other rules then his own? And if the Church of Rome be Mistress and Mother of all Churches, What right have these Churches to give Laws instead of receiving them from her? And therefore I cannot sufficiently admire how the author of the Considerations upon the Council of Trent, durst assert, That the Pope had been ill used at Trent, and nothing was said of his Supremacy. We leave it to all persons to judge of the truth of this Assertion, we can only say, That the Authors who had written till then with the greatest ardour to promote the Apostolical Grandeur, had never given her the ambitious qualifications of Mother and Mistress; nay, they were so far from raising the Pope above Councils, that they call such a Doctrine a Schism and an Heresy.   

XXIV.  
But as if Infallibility and Superiority were not enough, the Council adds a third, a Vow of true obedience. The word true obedience, is no less pleasant than the trae pardon of sins. The Court of Rome is so used to equivocations and ambiguities, that her fears appear in her own Decrees.  
All Christians therefore, whether Clergy or Laity, are tied up, or rather sacrificed to the Pope by a solemn Oath; so as let him be as much Arian as Liberius, as much a Monothelite as Honorius, as unlearned as Celestine the Fourth, as Simoniacal as John the Twenty second, as unclean as Alexander the Sixth; let him be as insolent towards Kings, as Hildebrand to Frederic, Boniface to Philip August, Innocent to John King of England, Leo the Tenth to Henry the Eighth, Julius the Third to the Queen of Navarre, yet he cannot be resisted; 'tis not lawful to disobey the Father and Master of all Churches, to believe him in the wrong, whose judgement is above all Councils, and to oppose him to whom you are sworn upon the four Gospels.   

XXV.  
These reasons occasioned the doleful complaint of Monsieur 
a Espenc. loc. cit.  d' Espences, then present at the Council, who says openly, That the Church is in a more desperate condition then before, and that by reason of the Italian Bishops, whom he calls the Helena which triumphed at Trent, there is no hope to cure her wounds.  
Gentianus Hervaeus, Doctor in 
b A Letter of his was translated into French, in the contestation between the Jesuits and the Disciples of St. Austin, Printed at Paris, 1665.  Sorbon also, and present at the Council, speaks after the same rate, and differs only from the others, in that he ascribes all the miscarriages of the Council to Lainez and Salmero, both Jesuits.  

c Thuani Hist. Conc. Trid. p. ult.  Julius Sanelius being returned from Trent, whether he had been brought by the Cardinal of Lorraine, gave an account of that Assembly in these terms, That in the Council of the Apostles it had been said, Visum est spiritui sancto & nobis, it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us; but in that of Trent, Plus nobis quam Spiritui Sancto, more to us then to the Holy Ghost.  
It appears therefore, that the pretended Reformation of the Pope and Court of Rome is a mere Chimaera; nor is it an harder matter to evidence, that the Reformation of the Church is a mere disorder. It may be said, and very truly, that the sins which Laymen lie under, have no other source than the bad examples of the Clergy; and we may learn both from profane Writings and Divine, from Historians as well as Prophets, that the good or bad life of Priests hath ever had an unspeakable influence on mankind. But 'tis another truth no less certain, that if the sins of the people come from the Priests, those of the Priests spring from the Bishops: this being a daily experiment, that as the Clergy is holy when it is governed by Saints, so it becomes abominable to God, when the life of its head does not answer the duties and excellency of his dignity. The shortest way therefore to reform the Church, was seriously to reform the Bishops.  
But instead of reforming the Episcopal Order, the Fathers of Trent gave it two mortal wounds.  

1. To declare Bishops in many cases the Pope's Delegates.  
2. To leave the question of their residence and jurisdiction undecided.   
1. The first of these two things brings Episcopacy unto a strange abatement, renders the Pope master of all Bishop's Jurisdictions, breaks all ancient Canons, runs down the interests of all Princes, encroaches upon the Rights and Liberties of Churches, gives the Bishops a quality unworthy the successors of the Apostles, and forces them to receive that as a borrowed and begged privilege which belongs naturally to them.  
The second, causes Episcopacy to be looked upon as a mere humane employment, or Civil Magistracy. Such a Bishop could never have the confidence to say with the Apostle, 2 Cor. 13. 3. Do you seek a proof of Christ's speaking in me? Nay, he would no more value his sacred character, than one of the King's officers do his, and regard the duties of his Divine calling, rather as rules instituted for decency, then as unchangeable obligations, so strictly required from him, that without them he has no hope of salvation.   

XXVI.  
Jurisdiction is no less essential to Episcopacy, than the power of ordaining Ministers; a proposition we could easily demonstrate to be unanswerable, would it not render this Discourse too big; and had it not been already done by a learned hand, against the infamous Doctrine of ●oth English and French Jesuits. (For Jesuits are every where the same.) Ordination and Jurisdiction are so twisted together, that they cannot be divided without their ●●utual destruction. Bishops receive both from the same hand, and are no less instituted by Christ in the Church to govern 〈◊〉, then to continue the succession of the Governors.   

XXVII.  
Nay, may it not be affirmed, that Jurisdiction is both as essential to Episcopacy, & 〈◊〉 necessary to the Church as Ordination. ●or the Church being, as St. Paul says, a 〈◊〉, i. e. a society consisting of Rulers, 
a Petrus Aurelius.  and others submitted to them, without Jurisdiction it can no more be such a society, then without Ordination those rulers can be continued. Therefore as no● Bishop ordains in the Catholic Church, a● the Popes, or any other Patriarches delegate, but by the fullness of power he receives from Christ, so no Bishop exercise● any act of Jurisdiction by any delegation but by that power he is invested with a● Bishop, successor of the Apostles, and Vicar of Christ.  
A Bishop that acts or believes otherwise betrays that dignity entrusted to hi● by Christ, which he ought to maintain 〈◊〉 the last drop of his blood.   

XXVIII.  
Nor pretend we thereby to say th● such a Jurisdiction may be exercised in ●●very place, and over all persons; the patition of Dioceses shows the extraord●●nary wisdom of Councils and Princes Nor may any one transgress the limi● they have put among Bishops, without d●●claring himself an enemy to all disciplin● Now all the following Propositions a● certainly true, at least to all admirers 〈◊〉 former times, whom I take to be in E●England in a greater number than elsewhere.  

1. That no man, or no part of a Diocese, can be substracted from a Bishop's Jurisdiction, but by the authority of a Prince or Council.  
2. That no man can be substracted from the Jurisdiction of his Bishop, without being put at the same time under another.  
3. That however a Bishop deals with any man, either substracted from his Jurisdiction or added to it, 'tis always of himself, and by the power he received from Christ.  
4. That the exemtions of Friars and Monks, are a Schism raised by the Popes.  
5. That the name of the Pope's Delegates (in its most favourable sense) given to the Bishops in things which belong to them, is plenojure, and by all Laws a most shameful injury to the Episcopal order.  
6. That nemo est qui non perhorrescat, to use the words of a Learned 
a Gentian Herv●eus, loc. citat.  Doctor of Sorbon, at the speech of the Jesuit Lainez in the Council of Trent, That all the power of Jurisdiction hath been by Christ conferred on the Bishop of Rome, so that the Jurisdiction of Bishops is not fundamental but derived.    

XXIX.  
Now concerning the divine right of Episcopacy, the Fathers of Trent committed two great faults: the one to bring it into question, and the other to leave it undecided. As for the first, it had been received in the Church for fourteen ages taught by the Fathers, embraced by their Disciples, and only impugned by the Italian Canonists. For the second, such an indecision is a ground for any man in the Church of Rome to deny, doubt of, and contradict the institution of Bishops; these three things being the nature of all undecided points. So a man may maintain there is no government at all in the Church, and consequently no Church, since it does not appear that Christ hath instituted any other then Episcopacy: and certainly to find any other, the Scripture must be strained in many places, & the constant, universal, and never opposed practice of fourteen hundred years be impudently contradicted.   

XXX.  
But what is most pleasant in this Indecision, is, that the Pope has verified the word of the Prophet, Psal. 35. 8. Let the net that he hath hid catch himself, for all these following consequences flow from it.  
1. That the Holy Father is no Pope by divine right, Jure divino, for the Popedom being nothing else but an extension of Episcopacy, he is no Pope but because he is Bishop. No Divine durst yet advance any other opinion.  
But the Episcopacy of the Holy Father is not different from that of other Bishops, being in all respects of the same kind, Episcopatus unus est. And the Italians, who are so abundant in novelties, when they undertake to raise up the credit of their Master, have been dumb in this matter.  
Therefore if the Pope's Episcopacy is not Jure divino, his Papacy is not so neither, since one is engrafted upon the other; and if the Holy Father is not Pope Jure divino, what ground can be laid for the ambition and usurpation of 
a Cypr. de Vnit. Eccl.  the Apostolical See? What shall we do with the fine and rare Doctrine of Infallibility.  
2. The Council has imposed the belief of its new Decree upon all Christians, under pain of eternal damnation; but if they are only Ministers from the Church, and not from Christ, with what eyes shall we consider so stupendious a boldness? Who hath empowered a company of men to make Decrees of divine Faith? And how, without being authorised by God, did they exact an obedience only due to Ministers sent from Heaven?  
3. 'Tis a crime in a Roman Catholic to believe the Council of Trent did not lawfully what it did, otherwise such a meeting is a dream and a chimaera. But who is that Roman Catholic of any sense, who can be persuaded of it, seeing 'tis allowed in the Church of Rome to deny any of those Bishops had the least authority from God to do what they did.   

XXXI.  
And indeed who will not wonder the Fathers of Trent so peremtorily give their verdict of things they confess not grounded upon Scripture, and which were converted for many Ages, as Images, Prayers to the Saints, Indulgencies, etc. and leave undecided a point so evident in Scripture, and so constant in Tradition.   

XXXII.  
It highly therefore concerns the truth, to find out the mystery why they were so obstinate at Rome in an undecision so extremely pernicious to the whole Catholic Church, to that of Rome in particular, and to the Pope himself.  
The truest cause is the pride of the Eminentissimi Cardinali. They were used long since to trample on the necks of Bishops, and to keep them in quality of their Secretaries, or Stewards. An enormity proceeding from the poverty, weakness, and sad condition of the Italian Prelates. A Bishop, to gain respect, needed to be privy to the pleasures or designs of the Cardinal. At Pope Pius the Fourths Counsel, Bishops stood bareheaded, whilst gli Eminentissimi sat, and were covered. And by a disorder no where to be found but at Rome, a grey haired Bishop, or Archbishop exhausted with austerities, and considerable for services done the Church, was seen at the feet of a young, powdered, perfumed Cardinal, puffed up with pride, softened by wantonness; and in a word, whose Eminency had usually nothing more eminent than most eminent vices.   

XXXIII.  
'Twas then impossible to speak in the Council of the Bishop's Institution, without putting Cardinals in mind of theirs: one is so ancient and divine, the other so new and humane, that the very thoughts of them could not choose but make Cardinals ashamed.  
For if they consider their dignity as Spiritual, they are only Priests or Deacons, submitted for that very reason to their Bishops, and without power of voting in Councils.  
Or if they consider it as a temporal honour, they have nothing to do with the affairs of the Church. They are in the order of the sheep, not of the Shepherd, and instead of being so proud as to ambition speaking and ruling in Councils, must beg with a profound humility to hear and be ruled.  
Or at last, if they are in a middle state, as a Jesuit (a man of a middle state also, as fit as the rest of his company to unite great extremes) describes them, they ought to fear the condemnation Christ has interminated to those who serve two masters.  
And thus it was of a very high concernment for Cardinals to leave a question undecided, which would have restored them to their ancient condition, and done justice to the sacred character of Bishops. How dangerous soever seemed the consequences of such undecision, they followed the Italian maxim, To keep the present usurpations at the price of the most equitable Laws.   

XXXIV.  
Nor were they less interested at the question of Residency. For if the decision of the divine institution of Bishops destroyed their honours, that of residency finished their pleasures, sent them to their Diocese, and cut off the sweet and luxurious life of Rome.  
Nevertheless, it was required by the Spanish and French Bishops, that Residency should be declared Jure divino. Of all Christian Truths, none is so powerfully expressed in the Scripture, so conformable to good sense, so inculcated to us by the Writings and Examples of the Fathers.  
Nay, without gathering a thousand testimonies from all parts of the Scripture, let us only say to the Bishops what Saint Jerome says to Nepotian, Interrogent nomen suum, and no doubt 'tis enough to persuade them.  
There is none of these Bishop's absent from their Dioceses, who dares read without fear that parable of the Gospel, wherein Christ calls himself the good Shepherd, expresses in a stile full of love, that 〈◊〉 takes all imaginable care for hindering them from going astray; that he has a voice whereby his sheep know him, and discern him from foreigners, or mercen●●ries; and, what is more, that he has 〈◊〉 life to spend for saving them from death.   

XXXV.  
Now Bishops are in the Church to re-present Christ to the life, either because he has committed to their care the go●vernment of his people, or because they succeed the Apostles who are his witness. A Bishop that wants a watchful care to look after his sheep, a voice to ca● them, and above all, a life to lose for their sakes, is a thief, that comes not but to steal, to kill, and to destroy.  
This great duty gave occasion to the Fathers to call Bishops, Sponsos Ecclesiarum suarum, the Bridegrooms of their Churches. Thence they drew these important conclusions.  
1. That the polygamy of Dioceses is no more lawful to a Bishop, than polygamy of Wives to a Christian.  
2. That as in a Christian Marriage, a husband must be entirely to his wife, concentre in her all his desires, and love her after God above all the world; so a Bishop that is tied to the Church, must banish all other thoughts, then to live and die in her bosom.  
3. That as we learn from the sublime Divinity of the Apostle, that Christ loved entirely his Church, never abandoned her, died for her, and remains with her till the end of the world; so a Bishop must be jealous of the Church Christ has entrusted him with, watch continually for her; and because she lies in the midst of a thousand enemies, persevere in her defence till his last breath.   

XXXVI.  
We need but read St. Paul's Epistles to Timothy and Titus, to see the Disciple Preaching as he had been taught by his Master. All those great qualities he requires in a Bishop, that irreprehensible life, that exact watchfulness, that sound doctrine, that incredible patience in exhorting, that prudent behaviour amongst so many different sorts of people, old men, youths, widows and virgins, have no other foundation but residency.  
And the Fathers were so throughly convinced of this duty, that when they speak of Episcopacy, they style it a burden dreadful to the shoulders of angels themselves, along and tedious death, a source of infinite cares and solicitudes; all which expressions are mere mockeries, if they did not suppose residency Jure divino.  
Their examples are more pressing then their precepts. And St. Athanasius, St. Austin, and Pope St. Gregory, did actions answering to, and surpassing their words.  
Nay, God has not permitted the Church of Rome itself, in the darkness of its incredulity, to be destituted of such precedents. St. Charles, nephew to Pope Pius the Fourth, retired to his See, maugre all the entreaties of his uncle. Cardinal Bellarmin, the Pope's great adorer, would never accept of a dispensation proffered to him for non residing; and he has left us an excellent Letter to a nephew of his, wherein we may see that though Jesuit and Cardinal, he could never be induced by the Pope himself to betray his conscience.   

XXXVII.  
But the Cardinals presiding at Trent, and the Italian Bishops did not care very much to shake the very principles of Religion, and so recur to the softest interpretations of Casuists. The first foresaw, that if residency be declared of Divine Right, there would be no pretence or excuse at all to live at Rome. The loss of Rome for a Cardinal is no small sacrifice; and there is a great difference between these two, to lie concealed in his Diocese, and to shine in a Court known to be the most proud, rich, and voluptuous in the World.  
The second should have hazarded too much in striving against the Cardinals. They lived in their families, eat the crumbs which fall from their tables, and made a part of their retinue. Those of them who were less despised, had also more ambition: they aimed at Cardinalship; and Residency was the nearest way to be deprived of it. They forgot therefore that they were Bishops, and chose rather to betray their character, then leave their pretences and pleasures.   

XXXVIII.  
What then has the Council done in its so much boasted of Reformation? Great things indeed.  
Those two hundred Bishops that had been five and twenty years before they could meet, and eighteen after they had met, answered perfectly the expectation of all Christendom.  
1. They have forbidden Prayers in a known Tongue.  
2. Ruled the Churchwardens.  
3. Ordained, that Friars could not vow but being sixteen years old.  
4. Approved the Jesuits' order, that is, strengthened the enemies of Christ.  
5. Shaped an Index expurgatory, as barbarous in its form as in its name.  
6. Established Inquisition, a new tribunal which may be properly called, the eleventh persecution of the Church.   

XXXIX.  
But to speak seriously, we must say with Mr. D'Espences, and the most considerable men of the Roman Communion.  
1. They have encroached upon the liberties of all Churches.  
2. Raised the Pope's power, and brought Episcopacy to nothing.  
3. Cut off all hopes of Reformation, and canonised all the vices of Rome.  
4. Made breaches in the Discipline which shall never be made up; and induced those who have some knowledge of the ancient Canons, to ask them in Saint Austin's words, Curare est hoc, an occidere? Levare de terra, an praecipitare de coelo?     

A CONCLUSION Of the foregoing Discourses,  
Concerning the State of the Church of England, and how she hath been more successful in the reformation of her Faith and manners, than the Church of Rome.  

I.  
THE Anglican Church is not any private Society, but a part of that body which, as the Scriptures tell us, is spread over the face of the whole Earth. Her intent is only to be a member of the Catholic Church, from whose Spirit she receives life, and governs herself by her laws. She does no less abhor Heresy and Schism, than the Roman seems to do; only she does not attribute that name to all persons and things, but knowing truth and charity to be the most precious gifts, the holy Jesus purchased by his death, she is the less easily moved to accuse any of forsaking them.   

II.  
Her extent, greatness and prudence, with the moderation of her conduct, hath always made her seem the main and most considerable body of the Protestants; and hence arises that ardent zeal of the See of Rome, either to recover or to destroy her: hence proceed so many artifices to tempt and draw away the Children of this holy mother, that for these hundred years its emissaries have laboured to raise new Churches within her. But he who commands the winds, and imposes silence to the Seas, will suffer no tempest to arise within her breast, unless it be to render her the more glorious. She hath always lived in unity, catholicism, and which is the spring of them both in that holiness which God requires.   

III.  
Neither Calvin nor Luther were the authors, or reformers of her Faith, nor does she look upon them any otherwise then the Church of Rome does upon Baronius or Bellarmine. She indeed considers them as great writers; but yet as men on whose words she found'st no part of her Creed. The 
a Art. 6.  word of the Prophets, the Gospel, and writings of the Apostles are her laws. God having spoken so clearly and plainly, she looks for no other instructions than his word; and according to that she being a national and independent Church, and consequently having just authority, did reform herself.   

IV.  
The reverence she hath for the Scriptures carries her neither to Enthusiasm, nor a private Spirit. She 
b Art. 20.  explains not the word of God by any humane exposition.  
She knows there is nothing so difficult in one part of the Scripture which is not plainly illustrated by another more easy. She therefore compares the one with the other; as did the Fathers in former Ages. She seeks the will of God, by the light God himself hath given; and knowing that he cannot and will not deceive her, she relies upon and wholly delivers herself up to his care and conduct. 
c St. August.   
She acknowledgeth no other Infallibility than his. She knows all men are subject to error and falsehood; and the greatest Saints themselves may truly say, 
a 1 John 1. 8.  If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.   

V.  
The Church of Rome flatters herself with an Infallibility which she can reduce to no certain principal. The Pope assumes it to himself, as if he were the only source of it, and the Italians call all other opinions Heresy. The rest of her communion attribute it to a General Council, and anathematise all those who think the contrary. So that this Infallibility is reduced to that, as to prove either the Pope or Council to be in Heresy. The Church of England cuts off such an abominable division. She acknowledgeth the power of God and the infirmity of man, the eternal and essential truth of the one, and the falsehood the other is subject to. She hears with trembling the word of the Apostle, Let him that glories, glory in the Lord: she therefore gives the glory to God, and in this life she looks upon God's word as the pillar of Fire, which led the Children of Israel thro' the desert, and never forsaked them in so many intricate marches.   

VI  
If the Catholic Church hath not erred, at least in fundamentals, 'tis not by reason of any promise of Infallibility which God hath accorded to men; but because that he being a God of mercy, has had in all times some faithful servants, whom he made acquainted with his ways, and who have walked according to his word. The gates of Hell have not prevailed against them, because they were filled with that charity, which triumphs over both visible and invisible Enemies.  
And God having resolved in the decrees of 
a Jer. 31. 3.  charity (which the Scripture teacheth us he hath loved the Church by) to be served in spirit and truth to the end of the World, he hath not permitted his word to be taken away from her, how bloody soever the persecution of Martyrs has been; how blind soever the ignorance was, in which many ages had been involved; how terrible soever the corruption appeared, in which we see the World every day plunge itself.   

VII.  
The holy Church of England stops not that Fountain, out of which 
a John 3.  waters flow to life Eternal. The Word of God being the foundation of our happiness, and the key of the World to come, she permits all People, persuades, exhorts, and commands all ages, all conditions and qualities to peruse it.  
St. chrysostom was of opinion, that all Merchants and men of affairs, who had not zeal enough to read the Old Testament, should at least read the new. St. Jerome prescribed to many Ladies of quality, the manner of teaching it their Daughters. St. Austin in his Sermons declares to his People, that the multitude of their sins proceeded from their neglect of the Scriptures.  
God having resolved in process of time to accomplish the great work of Predestination in his Elect by his word; to neglect the reading of it, would be to reckon himself excluded of that blessed tribe. The Church of England follows that opinion. Her Bishops are not contented with instituting it in their Synods, and the Priests preaching it in their Churches, but the Holy Ghost being of all Nations, and languages, it has been their business so justly to translate it, as the most ignorant can make use of it: and so all the World may equally have this great treasure; for it is folly for any one to persuade themselves, that it is only open to the learned. There needs no science, but much humility and Faith towards God, for the knowing this truth of Salvation. Let a Man have learning without humility, the most ignorant person understands better than he does. Men teach the mind and corrupt it, but God instructs the heart and it is converted.   

VIII.  
But because it is easy for our reason to be seduced, and nothing is worse for any Man, then to abandon himself to his own sense; the 
a Can. de Concio. § Concionat. An. 1571.  Bishop's order their Curates, to look back on the former ages, to get the explication of the Scriptures from the holy Fathers, to hearken to the Church in her Councils, and never to fall from her interpretations and ordinances.  
The Church of Rome runs into one extremity, and some authors to another; the former so look on the Fathers as to equal their authority with that of God; the others under pretence of hearing God, hear no body, and treat those holy Saints and August Councils with such contempt, as merits a thousand Hells.  
The holy Church of England keeps herself in an exact mean. She rejects, condemns, and trembles at the folly, pride and ignorance of those unhappy wretches, before whose eyes the Devil has cast so great a mist, and who think it better blindly to cry Scripture, then to hear those who are the most faithful interpreters of it.  
She with great respect and reverence, looks upon those former ages, where truth was not disguised, nor charity cooled; but she rises not to such an excess, as the Church of Rome: and whatsoever grace God has given to his servants, she always acknowledges, that they are but rivulets, which can never be equalled with the Ocean from whence they proceed.   

IX.  
They therefore are mistaken, who confound this holy Church with such unreasonable persons, as refuse to be instructed by the examples and writings of so many holy servants of God. She receives ●ot tradition in any other sense, then is according to Scripture. She will hold ●ll that as holy, which can be alleged conformable to that excellent rule of St. Vincent of Lerins, quod semper, quod ubi●ue, quod ab omnibus servatur. She will al●aies receive with a profound reverence ●he unanimous consent of the Saints: and ●ever appeal from the decrees of the Church assembled in general & legitime Councils. For though the Church has no power to ordain any new article of Faith, either to add or cast out any part of it; nevertheless she has sufficient Authority to declare her opinion in any point of Faith; and seeing that she does it, all Christians are bound to submit themselves to her judgement, what seeming truth soever there appears on the contrary; and it is much more probable for one particular person to be deceived, to whom God has promised no other assistance but that which is common to all Christians, than the Catholic Church, to which Christ 
a Meth. 28. 15.  is present till the end of the World, and has promised to send his Spirit, there where they 
b Mat. 18. 20.  are gathered together in his name:  
Christ in speaking to inferiors said not, 
c Luc. 10. 16.  he who hears you hears me; they therefore have no right to be heard, nor consequently to speak. He said to his Apostles, and Bishops, whom he has ordered to govern the Church in their place: 'tis therefore their business to speak, and right to be heard; and those who teach without or against their order, do break the ranks, in which God has placed them.   

X.  
But to attempt the reducing the Catholic Church to one part of Europe; and to force the name of Roman upon those, who ought not to receive it, and to exclude them from Salvation who are both Christians and Catholics without being Romans, is the greatest absurdity in the world.  
But to confine that part of Europe to the Pope; to make him the centre of unity which belongs alone to Christ, is the greatest impiety and most insufferable extravagancy that can be imagined.  
But that any man should call himself the High Priest, the Universal Bishop of the Church, that is, take those titles which his 
a Can. null. dist. 99 Can. Ecce. dist. de. Greg. l. 4. Epist. 32.  Predecessors looked on as an execration, and which he hath not gotten but by an immensurable ambition, is beyond all imagination.  
But that the same person, under pretence of a Pasce oves meas, which he hath expounded as he pleased, contrary to the opinion of the Fathers and Councils, should march in the head of all his Brethren, and raise Clergy men of the meanest order, such as are Cardinals, above the holy order of Bishops; should excommunicate Kings and depose them, give their Kingdoms to a depredation; dispense Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance which they have sworn to their Prince, and colour all these attemts as done by the authority which Christ hath given him, the Church of England will never admit of such Principles, as the most forlorn sinners cannot look upon without horror.   

XI.  
If the Pope would do all for the truth, and nothing contrary to it; if he would limit himself to the word of Christ, and the practice which the Church hath prescribed him, and go no further then St. Leo or St. Gregory, she will communicate with him. She will rob him neither of the dignity of Bishop nor Patriarch. Christ gave him the one, and the Church granted him the other. She acknowledges, that the ancient See of Rome is one of the most considerable in the world; that hath been formerly ennobled with as many Martyrs as Bishops; that he hath been mightily respected in Councils; and that the Emperors have dignified him with great privileges. But when he pretends to draw thence an occasion of exalting himself above others; and that according to the remark of a famous Emperor, at the Council of 
a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Conc. Florent. p. 518. tom. 32.  Florence, He looks on the praises which the Saints have given him in their Epistles, as titles and privileges from Christ; the Church of England opposes it with as much constancy as justice, and not being able to cure the wounds of that Bishop, she leaves him to the judgement of our great God.   

XII.  
The pride of the Pope has caused the separation of the Greek Church, and made a breach between East and West, which will never be made up. It has also been the occasion of the one part of the West being divided from the other. And it is not ten years since, in the affair of the four French Bishops, it had like to raise a Schism and a division in the rest.   

XIII.  
But supposing the submission of all the rest to Rome should be lawful, yet that is nothing to the Church of England, which was never any part of it. It plainly appears, she received the Faith almost as soon as Christ brought it to the world: but although the time be uncertain, yet none can think, that she was ever instructed by the Church of Rome. 
a Vener. Beda. l. 2. c. 2.  Her manner of observing Easter, as in the East, and her Ceremonies (very different from those used in the Church of Rome) show that she received the Gospel from thence. St. Gregory having sent hither Austin the Monk, and that Holy Saint requiring the Clergy to submit to the Pope's authority, the Abbot of Bangor, in the name of all the rest, answered in such terms as showed the purity and simplicity of the former times, 
a Spelm. pag. 108.  We submit ourselves, says he, to the Church of God, to the Pope of Rome, and to every good Christian; and love each of them with such a degree of charity as is due to them, to assist them both in our works and Councils, to become sons of God; we know no other respect due to him, whom you style Father of Fathers.   

XIV.  
It is therefore certain, for six hundred years at least, that the Church of England hath in no manner been subject to that of Rome; her Councils and promotions of Bishops, and generally all that belongs to Religion, has been transacted without the Church of Rome being at all concerned in them.  
It would be much against the honour of the Pope, if those means should be made known, by which he hath endeavoured to establish himself for the succeeding ages. The public Acts of this Kingdom, of a far greater authority than all their legends, are ●ully charged with his Oppressions. What pains did the Kings take to put a stop to them? with what constancy did the Clergy oppose it, till the time of Henry the Eighth? That history was writ with as much impartiality as truth, by the Learned Sir Roger Twisden. It appears by all public Acts, that the Pope hath wonderfully endeavoured to make use of all conjunctures of times, to get footing into this great Isle. He hath been enriched by the liberality of her Kings, by Factions which he sowed in the heart of the Kingdom, and by the Wars which he brought upon it from abroad.   

XV.  
Henry the Eighth, whom all the Popes have so cried out upon, went not further than his Predecessors, and the title of supreme Governor in these his Realms, well understood, is no less due to him then to any other Prince in the World. This King, or any of his Successors, pretend to no more authority over the Church, than Constantine, Justinian, or Charles the Great. They have neither power to administer the Sacraments, nor to Preach the word of God.  
They meddle not at all with any thing which belongs to faith or manners, and leave to their Bishops all the power in those matters, which Christ himself has given them.  
They make no Canons, though they add Sanctions to them; and declare, the knowledge of Spiritual affairs is not a right of their Crowns.  
They only take care of the outward administration of the Church, to see Canons executed, and hinder foreign authority, under pretence of piety, from disturbing the quiet of their people. Upon this account, the Bull of no Pope is received in France without the King's consent; all privileged men are daily restored to the jurisdiction of the Ordinaries; and when any thing does endanger the liberties of the Gallican Church, or the Laws of the Land, the Pasce oves meas is of no force, and the King's authority stops the attemts of the Holy Father.  
In Spain the King has the disposal of all things belonging to the outward Government of the Church. The Inquisitors condemn in the King's name: and when the Council of Trent was there received, 'twas by the command he gave his Subjects to do it; nor do the Kings of England claim any more.   

XVI.  
'Twas not the title of Supreme Governor which did most of all distaste the Pope. He could easily bear with that in all Kings, for it is but what naturally belongs to them; he knew that every King has such authority over the Church: but he feared the consequences of it, which indeed are very terrible to a Pope.  
Henry the Eighth by that did suppress the Bulls which came from Rome, and retained in his own Realms those vast sums, which before were yearly carried out of them. This was transacted in the sight of two great Kingdoms, inclined enough to do the like. The Pope therefore thought, that in prudence he ought to cry out on that Prince; but because a man cries in ●ain, when things are represented in their ●rue and lively colours, he gave his defenders liberty of forming Chimeras, to the end they might work upon the people such an effect in this point as he desired.   

XVII.  
The Church of England need not recu● to an extraordinary mission, nor to those arguments so far distant from reason, to prove herself a Church. She hath not confounded the order of things, and assumed a Government lately sprung up. Since she hath received the Faith which was according to 
a Nicep. l. 2. c. 40.  Nicephorus in the firs● age, and to 
b Bar. to. 1. an. 35▪ n. 5.  St. Beda some small time after, we see the succession of Bishops hath continued without the least interruption or change.   

XVIII.  
The Usurpations of Popes, the com●merce of Italians, and most of all the ignorance wherewith God for some tim● permitted the West to be blinded, mad● them fall into the errors of Rome. But when God looked upon the Church in h●● mercy, and had opened her eyes, she la●bored to reform herself, but not in a tu●multuous manner, and spilling of blood● She was not left to the conduct of the blind People; which will suffer nothing but what pleaseth them best, and which is delighted only with extremes. The King calls a Council of the whole Kingdom, stored with wise and holy Bishops, as appears both in their lives and works. This Council formed the articles of a reformation: which being seconded by the law of their Prince, according to the custom of all Monarches, were by that great Kingdom received with a general respect.   

XIX.  
These holy Prelates in the Reformation had nothing carried on either by heat or violence: an extraordinary and unusual prudence appears in all their Canons: they busy not themselves in calling the Pope Antichrist and Rome Babylon, but render them the same respect they had ever done. They judge themselves without judging others, and are content to pray for other Societies, without pronouncing either their Salvation or condemnation.   

XX.  
As they do separate themselves only from the errors of the Church of Rome, so they do preciously preserve what doth not bear that name: otherwise 'twould not have been the work of a pious zeal but of a wicked madness. None can deny that there are many great and holy rites in the Church of Rome. They therefore by a judicious distinction have thrown out those practices which were evil, and retained the good.   

XXI.  
Having therefore two businesses in hand, to wit, the reformation of Doctrine and ordering of manners, they have made use of the shortest and easiest means They compared all to the Scriptures and customs of the first Ages. There is no point of their Faith which may not be proved by Scripture: nothing in their Discipline which is not conformed to the ceremonies of the first 500 years.   

XXII.  
The Church of England therefore hath the comfort of having her Doctrine founded on the Scriptures, so believed by the holy Saints as she believed it: her Canons conformable to the ancient Canons, her Liturgy like the first Liturgies.  
When she goes about to interpret the Scriptures, she exacts not of her Children a blind obedience, as doth the Church of Rome. She thinks not to make any volume Canonical, which was never really so; but she follows the tracts of the Saints, and of the Councils: and hath learned from the primitive Church, which books in the Holy Bible are the grounds of our Faith, and which only the object of our Piety.   

XXIII.  
We may say the same thing of all those points, which raise the difference betwixt us and the Church of Rome. The most considerable one is that of the Eucharist. She treats that incomprehensible mystery with the respect due to it. She neither presumes nor pretends to comprehend more of it then Christ hath been pleased to reveal to them, and the ancient Church understood.  
It is manifest first, that Christ instituted the Sacrament of his body and blood.  
Secondly, that he is really present in it. Thirdly, that he abundantly communicates his grace and his holy Spirit, to those who before they receive it seriously try themselves; as the Apostle speaks, and who not only forsake Sin, but the very appetite of sinning, and labour to order their life by his example.  
But the manner of his being present is uncertain. Christ says nothing of it: it appears no● that the primitive Church hath known how. That of England receives with thanksgiving what he hath been pleased to reveal to her, and adores with a submissive silence what he hath not been pleased to let her know.  
We understand nothing of the Lord's Supper but by the Scriptures and the practice of the primitive times: and when we limit ourselves to that, without going any further, the manner of expounding it is not difficult. The Infinite love of God towards us in that Sacrament destroys not the order which his wisdom hath put in things. We leave to Faith all the latitude of it, without contradicting the principles of reason. But when men pretend to make Evangelists speak as Scholastics, or Scholastics as Evangelists, and look for Transubstantiation, concomitancy, and existence of the accidents without their subject, etc. all seems obscurity and darkness. We sacrifice not our reason to faith, but we throw aside both of them in saying that God explains himself after a manner contrary to those principles which he hath established.  
The Church of England is therefore in 〈◊〉 right of supposing as received what she believes, and the Church of Rome is obliged to prove what she advances. The former supposes the miracle which Christ ●ath wrought, adding nothing new or ●npossible; the other proposeth a thousand things to our belief of which Christ ●ath said nothing; and which are in themselves greater miracles then that about which the two parties differ, besides that they draw idolatrous practices.   

XXIV.  
The Church of Eng. doth not only think herself bound to believe what Christ says of the sacrament, but she administers it, ●s he hath given it us. She order the Sacrament under both kinds, according ●o the command of Christ and to the practise of the Catholic Church: and the whole World know the unchristian grounds upon which an Italian Bishop in the Council of Trent thought it was not to be granted, for fear of making an argument against the pretended Infallibility of the Church of Rome.   

XXV.  
It is unreasonable that she does not permit service to be read in the vulgar tongue, and the Bible to be translated. She knows nothing was ever grounded upon a less foundation than that; and without looking on the orders of St. Paul, which are so exact thereupon, is there any thing in the World so contrary to reason as to pray to God in an unknown Tongue, which exposeth the Prayers to the scorn and irreverence of those that offer them?  
The Eastern Church did always pray in Greek, or in languages used by her divers Nations. Whilst the Latin was the language of the West, it was fitting that the service should be read in it: but by the distraction of the Empire, the incursions of Barbarians, and the various revolutions we find in history, that language having lost its life, and given place to the various Idioms of all Nations, it was fitting 
a 2 Cor. 14.  men should pray in such languages as may be understood: but it being more for the interest of the Pope to keep people ignorant, he hath opposed so necessary a practice. St. Jerome translated the Bible into Dalmatian, the language of his own Country: there are also to be ●ound manuscripts of the Bible in most languages of the World. The more universal and dangerous heresies were, the more the holy Saints exhorted the People to look in the Scriptures for those remedies which God hath granted against them.   

XXVI.  
The Church of England hath therefore turned the Liturgy into her Mother tongue. The Priests and the Congregation there present, send the same Prayers to Heaven: and to take away all marks of Enthusiasm or novelty, she hath composed the admirable Book of common Prayer.  
It is nothing but a collection of the most pathetical and instructive places of Scripture. That which she hath not from thence are the very words of the Fathers, or ancient collects which by tradition were received from the primitive Church. All is sound, all is holy: we address ourselves to God, in God's own language, and we speak to him, as he hath spoke to us. 'Tis a happy obligation for a Christian to pray after such a manner wherein a vain imagination bears no part; his mind is enlivened; his heart softened: by that he can preach to himself, and understand the most important truths of Salvation.  
This is not contrary to the exercise of the inward prayer, which St. 
a Aug. Ep. 191.  Austin call● the voice of the heart, by which we be● and are supplicants to God for his mercy and the Church of England is so far from forbidding Christians to prepare themselves for the life to come, by a serious consideration of the miseries and inconstancy of the present, and to learn how to love Christ, that by her they are commanded to do all this: and the Bishop say to each of them in giving them th● Gospel as the Angel did to the 
b Ezech. 3. 1.  Prophet● comede volumen istud, Eat this Book and convert it into your own substance.   

XXVII.  
This makes it appear with how much less sincerity our adversaries, who have but a blind zeal, think to offer a great sacrifice to God in calumniating their Brethren, and accusing all the Protestants of renouncing all the exercises of Christian Piety, and of retaining nothing but a mere morality, which is to be met with in any honest Heathen.  
And indeed, if going in Procession, carrying Images about one, counting Beads, and a hundred such like nothings are counted Piety, she acknowledges none of them. But if the renouncing of ourselves, the mortifying our senses, the humility of our hearts, the love of our neighbour, forgiving our enemies, the meditation of the Gospel, be styled holiness, she teacheth and practiseth them faithfully.   

XXVIII.  
The holy Church of England proceeds farther; and the Church of Rome hath no really holy practices which she doth not follow. Confession so ancient in the Church, is in use here also; but the liberty thereof is left to movements, which God himself inspires into the hearts of sinners. The Church had so done for twelve Ages, and until the pretended general Lateran Council, there was no Statute made about it. She desires it should be wrought by the Holy Ghost, that the Spirit of God should throw a sinner at the feet of the Priest, and not the fear of Excommunication.   

XXIX.  
She doth, as they, believe the usefulness and necessity of fasting. All Scriptures and Traditions are full of the praises which God and his holy Saints have attributed to it. Lent, and the abstaining from certain meats on certain days, are practices so ancient in the Church, that none can blame them without an insupportable ignorance and temerity.  
She observes all these things with a great deal of edification. Her Bishops, and many of her Clergymen, fast after the manner of the Primitive Christians, that is, eat but once, and that at night. Abstinence from flesh is always enjoined with their Fasts. They abhor the shameful subtleties of the Casuists of the Church of Rome, who retain nothing of it save the name, but in effect destroy it. Their fasting and abstinence have nothing superstitious. He that eateth not, is not scandalised by him that eateth, Rom. 14. 1. The strong do patiently bear with the weak, and pray God that he strengthen them.   

XXX.  
Nor doth the Church of England condemn Monastical life. She praiseth them that retire into solitude, therein to bewail their crimes, who forsake all to find all in Jesus Christ. It cannot be denied, but whatever irregularities the greater part of the Church of Rome be in, there are amongst them a very great number of good people, whom God will recompense rather according to their heart then actions. Had they, when Henry the Eighth suppressed them in England, walked in the duties of their Calling, they had been still in being.  
The Pope's anger was not because they had been suppressed, for Popes themselves show by their examples, that these sort of suppressions are sometimes necessary: but 'twas because it was done without his authority, which then becomes a nice point in Law, pernicious to all states, and contrary to the respect due to Kings. This Prince found them in ignorance and corruption. They were a burden to the State, a scandal to the Church, a subject of grief to all good people. Their zeal for asserting the temporal authority of the Pope was inconceivable, and they treated their Bishops with extreme scorn. When so many evils gathered together are incurable, who doubts but that the root thereof should be pulled up, and the hazard be run of losing a blessing, which cannot be preserved but by greater evils?   

XXXI.  
Good Monks are certainly of great example. The conferences of the Priest of Marseilles, show that the East was filled with the fame of their virtue. In the West, the Order of St. Bennet had, during many ages, furnished all the Sees in the Church, and bred up more Saints and Bishops than all the other Orders together had of Religious persons. But those were neither insolent Monks, who 
a Hieron.  from the bottom of their Cells would condemn all the World besides; nor vagabonds, who made a trade of their poverty; nor people who having renounced the World, had yet more intrigues and restless desires then those who had not. They that got their livelihood by the sweat of their brows, were no less separated from Ecclesiastical employments then secular, and ●ived in a continual humility and pe●●ance.   

XXXII.  
The Orders in the Church of Rome, which continue still in the same state, are worthy of Veneration. It is a most false argument for looking upon them as people of no use to the Church. They serve her in their way: and truly it is a very great service they do her of praying and groaning continually for her.  
We must not judge the usefulness of men by their actions, but by the station God hath placed them in. A person that does ●ut little in his calling, is often more useful to the Church than another that does much out of his calling; the will of God, and not that which appears to men, being the rule of the utility or inutility of those that serve him.   

XXXIII.  
It is clear, following this principle, that though there are yet many good men in the present corruption of Friar's Orders, nevertheless the Church of England hath done well in not suffering any.  
She rejects them not, because they are Friars or Monks, but because the greate● part of them is not in that condition they ought to be in. It is good to show clearly, and to make the devout of the Church of Rome see that they are injurious in reproaching that of England, for having banished Friars.   

XXXIV.  
Is there in the World any more effeminate and idle life, then that of the 
a Claravallis.  Clervaux and the Cisterciens? Is not the ignorance, idleness, and sloth of these Friars, beyond all imagination? Does there appear the least trace of that laborious and penitent life of their holy Founder? Will not a man that hath read St. Bernard's Epistles or Sermons, when he sees these Monasteries, think himself in another World, finding people that call themselves his sons, who have nothing either of his spirit or manners?  
For the Mendicants, we need but hear the Bishops to be acquainted with their nature. They are as great a charge to the Church as to the State. The Country is scarce large enough for their ramblings, ●nd the City for their visits. The factum ●f my Lord Archbishop of Sens, one ●f the greatest Prelates of the Church of Rome, is a proof of what they can do. We spare the Reader the recital of their scandalous manners. But if these Monk's ●ave so little care of their reputation, as 〈◊〉 say, that this is the practice but of one particular House, we can prove to them ●y a thousand like examples free from all exception, that it is not in the City of Provins only, but in all other they live accordingly.  
It remains, that we speak of the Jesuits whom all have spoken against, ever ●nce the World knew them. If the acts ●f the Clergy of France, the Writings ●f Sorbon, the Decrees of the Parliament ●f Paris may be credited, Christianity ●ath never had greater enemies. Never ●id people that profess poverty and obedience, so earnestly affect glory and ●iches. The better sort of the Roman Communion in England itself, cannot en●ure them. And all the World knows a person of eminent Quality, most zealous for the Church of Rome, who ardently desires its re-establishment, but on condition that the Jesuits be for ever excluded the Kingdom.   

XXXV.  
Whence therefore comes it that th● Church of Rome, which cannot be ignorant of so palpable disorders, preserves the Friars with so much care? 'Tis a mystery which must be laid open.  
There are two sorts of persons interested in their conservation; the Pope● and men that are worldly given. Th●● latter, who would be Christians without submitting to the duties of the Gospels are very glad to find so easy and indulgent guides, who give them pillows to lea●● on, Ezech. 13. 18. as speaks the Prophet● that is, to sin with less disturbance. Now to glory in a great number of followers● 'tis enough to entice and allure those whom a half piety and shadowed devotion keeps still in their sins. The Pope o● the other side supports them, not only by acknowledgement, as people to whom h● owes a great part of his grandeur, but wit● design of making use himself of them upon occasion.  
Before the Court of Rome had invented Privileges and Exemtions, the Monks that lived in submission to their Bishops, and in an happy ignorance of the disputes of the Schools, were but of small use to it; they sought after sanctity more than science. But when the Pope began to encroach upon the Jurisdiction of Bishops, he began by substracting from their authority Monasteries, which being weary of the vigilance of their Prelates, were wrapped with joy of having none that should examine their actions.  
That they might not seem unworthy of Pope's new favour, they began to make head against their Bishops, to study Decretals, aspire to Scholarship, and change their ignorance into a demi-science, which hath brought so many evils upon the Church.  
And indeed, since they have been extremely faithful to the Pope. Of nine Divines which he sent to the Council of Trent, seven were Monks. The Holy Father requires not them to defend his rights by good arguments, by reading the Fathers, or studying learned Languages, but only to clamour and cry out. They are not engaged to prove, that those who deny the supremacy and infallibility of the Pope, are Heretics, but to spread abroad that they are Heretics. In the affairs of the five Propositions, and the magnificent Formulary of Alexander the Seventh, the Jesuits ne'er put themselves to the trouble, of showing that the five Propositions were in Jansenius, but only clamoured that they were there. They thought not themselves obliged to demonstrate, the Pope had power to exact the signature of the Formulary, but only barked all about, that those that subscribed not to it were worse then Arians.   

XXXVI.  
There are in France fifty thousand Monks at least; the greater part are Preachers and Confessors, that is, people that bear relation to all places of the Kingdom. Doth any write against Religion or manners, maintain the most scandalous Principles in the World, and the most opposite to those of the Gospel, there is not one that appears to defend either. But if any speak against the usurpation of the Pope, than the theatres, streets, public places, private houses, and palaces of the Grandees, are full of Monks, that cry with open mouth that Heresy hath infected the whole World. Had Charles the Fifth, who aspired to the universal Monarchy, used this means, he had infallibly succeeded. The best policy in the World, is to have in all Kingdoms thirty thousand Agents who have influence on an infinite number of Persons, and are maintained at so small a rate by him that emploies them.   

XXXVII.  
The Church of England is therefore in the right to reject such Friars as they are now. King Henry the Eighth knew that with them, it was impossible a King could be master of his own Estate, and a Bishop rule his Church. And these two things being equally necessary to the repose and welfare of a Nation, this action of his is not to be condemned.   

XXXVIII.  
In banishing Friars, the Holy Church of England hath banished at the same time all those novelties wherewith they abused the credulity of People, indulgencies, relics, fraternities, and all that which is commonly taken for a true piety. She hath substituted in their place, prayer, reading of the Gospel, preaching, and generally all that may conduce to the converting the heart. Her design in it is not to draw after her a multitude of Women loaden with sins, who always learn and are never instructed, but to establish in her Sons such things as are solid and durable. In primitive times all these ways were unknown; true piety decreasing, the Friars thought it sufficient to substitute in its stead an appearance of it. The holy Church of England believed she ought to deal quite otherwise for the welfare of Christians, and that she was obliged to endeavour to render them like those of the golden age, as much as that of Iron wherein we live would permit.   

XXXIX.  
Of all practices of antiquity there is none so venerable as the manner of sanctifying the Lords day. The holy Church of England celebrates it with an admirable piety. Saint Augustine believed that it was less criminal to till the ground, then to dance on this day. Both the one and the other is equally forbidden in England. Plays, Balls, pleasures, journeys, are things not so much as to be mentioned.   

XL.  
The Church of England limits not its self at the sanctifying of the Lords day. She hath divers other days to excite the piety of her Sons; and those are the festivals instituted in honour of the most glorious mother of God and the Saints. As this custom is very ancient in the Church, and a man cannot open the writings of the Fathers without finding marks of it, she thought it fit to preserve religiously such observances.  
By this the Church makes to appear the union of her body in what state soever her members be. By this she gives glory to the grace of Christ, who hath worked in them all these things. By this she brings Christians to follow the examples she proposeth them, and to believe that nothing is impossible to Christians, 
a Rom. 3. 1.  who in the flesh walk not after the flesh.  
She takes care then that the People read their lives and the preachers make their Eulogies, and that both the one and the other endeavour to imitate them.  
By this also may be seen her moderation. She runs not into the excess of those furious and unreasonable men, that will not hear the very naming of a Saint; nor yet degenerates to the invoking of them as in the Church of Rome, but equally avoids impiety as superstition.   

XLI.  
The like moderation appears in respect of Images. She judgeth it a crime to adore them, to bend the knee before them, and sticks not to call this Idolatry. But she believes not Idolaters those that only retain them.   

XLII.  
She hath with no less wisdom retained Ecclesiastical habits, and ceremonies necessary to Divine worship. Her Canons are extreme severe for the first of these. She knows a Priest hath nothing to do with the World; and that he must understand, he is even outwardly separated from it.  
For the second, she hath retrenched all the profane pomp of the Church of Rome, but hath avoided the frightful nakedness which appears on the other side. Her ceremonies have neither the appearance of Grandeur, nor affected baseness. In the Cathedrals & Collegiate Churches may be seen whatever can excite the Piety of People to praise God. But nothing which occasions to say, that the luxury and vaniety of the World is brought into the sanctuary.   

XLIII.  
There remains but one thing, at which the Church of Rome is offended altogether as unjustly as in many others, that is, the marriage of Priests.  
Sure Celibacy is a most holy, exemplary, and upon many occasions a necessary thing. 'twere to be wished that those who are called to the ministry of Angels, had their purity; and that it might be said of them neque nubunt neque nubuntur; but being made of flesh as well as spirit, of flesh subject to the infirmities of other men, the remedy God has ordained, and so highly recommended in the Scripture, must not be denied them.  
The Church of Rome hath never looked upon Celibacy but as an Ecclesiastical law. This opinion is maintained & taught publicly every day in Sorbon. The obligation thereunto is imposed as a point of Discipline that hath no relation to Faith.  
Now the Church is absolutely mistress of whatever is of Ecclesiastical right. She may introduce, continue, change, what, and as she judgeth expedient.  
The holy Church of England hath thought fit to alter this point in her Discipline. She hath weighed all the circumstances, seen all the inconveniences, considered the good and evil that may accrue thereby. It hath not appeared that she ought to lay a yoke on the necks of such as have not grace enough to bear it. And she hath promised herself that those to whom hath been granted a sufficient measure, would endeavour to increase and multiply it.  
Nor hath she been deceived in so judicious a conduct: she hath the glory to see the greater part of her Bishops and Clergy like to the great Apostle, and at the same time the consolation to know, that the others live in their houses in such sort, as to be the examples of all Christian Families.  
I cannot see what answer a moderate person can give to this reasoning. For to return to the Pope, and to say that this cannot be done without his consent, because he is master of the whole discipline, is a miserable reason; and no Church of the Roman Communion, but that of Italy, will ever assent unto it.   

XLIV.  
The Clergy of England is generally the most Learned in the World: and if the common people retain something of the natural dulness of the vulgar, it hath nothing of the ignorance. This must be ascribed to the care and capacity of their Teachers, and above all to the famous Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. These are two Seminaries of Virtue and Science. There may be found whatever can be desired, for greatness of Revenues, magnificence of Buildings, and infinite number of Books, collected with incredible expenses and care, during several Ages. Clergymen are there for many years before they are entrusted with the care of souls. They pass from the studies of humane Arts and Sciences to that of Divinity, and the Oriental Languages. Their Professors are endowed with all the abilities that can be expected from men, who besides vast natural parts, have born the burden and heat of the day.  
The Bishops are not such as those whom Monsieur D'Espences calls Barbatulos Juvenes, who in so sacred and high dignity as Episcopacy, are not yet free from the passions of the World. Their zeal for the salvation of souls, their punctual visiting their Dioceses, their charity to the poor, their hospitality, their fidelity to the King, and their love for their Country, are qualities they are so much owners of, as their greatest enemies cannot but admire them.  
We do not hereby pretend, that all those whom they govern are saints. It is to be acknowledged with a sensible grief, that in the Church of England are too too many who treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and live after such a manner as is little conformable to that which they have promised in their Baptism.  
But we must not conceive from thence an ill opinion of a Church, which hath nothing in her but what is most holy. If we should judge of the Romish Church by those disorders which have crept into the very Sanctuary, what conclusion might there be drawn? This cannot be done without opposition to the Judgement of God, who hath left the wicked in the midst of the good, and hath permitted the number of the latter to be less than that of the former, for reasons best known to himself. It is a secret of his Justice and Mercy, which shall not be manifested till the last day.  

a Aug. ser. de dedicat. Eccl.  The dross is in the same furnace with the gold; that is consumed, and this purified and embellished by the fire. There is much more dross than gold, but it sufficeth that the workman know them.  
In a word, there is not one that considers the Church of England without prejudice, but does at the same time admire the sanctity, moderation and wisdom of her conduct. A Christian will find there, that the veneration which is given the Scripture, excludes not the esteem which is due to the Church, nor the esteem paid to the Church any way extenuate the sovereign obedience due to the Scriptures. He will see that she practiceth nothing but what the Primitive Times have done, and that she leaves nothing unpractised but what those happy ones ne'er knew. He will compassionate a vast number of people so miserably abused in the Church of Rome: and when he shall have had a clearer inspection into this of ours, calumniated from without by the Jesuists, from within by such of her Children as have not perfectly submitted themselves to her orders, he will say with those that fell from the party of Donatus, Nesciebamus hic esse veritatem, nec eam discere volebamus. Nos falsis rumoribus terrebamur intrare; quos falsos esse nesciremus, nisi intraremus. Gratias Deo qui expertos docuit, quam vana & falsa de Ecclesia sua mendax fama jactaverit.  
FINIS.