Considerations About the true way of Suppressing POPERY IN THIS KINGDOM.

AMong the ignorant Vulgar, there are many false and wild Notions of Popery; some of which be∣ing admitted to be true, would render the Church of England, and all other Reformed Churches Popish.* Other Notions of it would in like manner stigmatize all those Famous Churches in the more remote parts of the World, which have not been in Communion with the Pope these eight hun∣dred years. And others, in the last place, would no less deeply brand those who are most given to asperse others, even the wildest of Phanaticks and Enthusiasts themselves, as being Popishly principled.

If it be, as sure it is, very absurd to charge Po∣pery on those eminent Eastern and Western Churches, which ever since the Separation of the Page  2 one,* and the Reformation of the other, have purged forth, and kept themselves free from all that which is properly Popish; and have therefore been anathematized by the Pope himself, and ex∣cluded from the Communion of all those Christi∣ans which hold him for their Ecclesiastical Head: It must also be no less absurd to charge with Po∣pery those Tenets of Belief, and Rites of Wor∣ship (however false and unnecessary in them∣selves) wherein the Roman Catholick Churches differ from the English Protestant, and other Churches of the Reformation; but agree with those anciently famous Patriarchical Churches; and almost with all other in the remote parts of the World.

Having thus, how briefly soever, said what may be sufficient, to exclude the many, both in∣congruous and injurious Notions of Popery; which also would be insignificant, if they were ad∣mitted, I shall in the next place endeavour to set forth the only true, proper and significant notion of it.

And yet if I be not much deceived, 'twill be no hard matter to fix upon, and shew where∣in this only right Notion of Popery does consist. The very derivation of the word, and obvious rea∣son of the thing, necessarily imported thereby, may assure us, it cannot in a few significant words be describ'd to be either less, or more, or any way other,* than An undue adhaesion to the Bishop of Rome, in Principles or Practices falsly pretended to be Christian.

Page  3I say, To the Bishop of Rome, because he it is that hath for many Ages past, appropriated to himself the name of Pope, which was formerly common to all Bishops; as every one knows that has been conversant in the Writings of the Fa∣thers.

I say also, An undue adhaesion in Principles, &c. for it's, supposed to be an ill thing that is to be supprest. Now it is not ill to confess the Apo∣stles Creed, or to do any good thing that he does; but to follow him, or to joyn with him in any thing that is evil; that is chiefly, to assert an un∣due Power or Authority in the Pope, such as that which he assumes to himself over the whole Chri∣stian Church; and consequently, to embrace and to practice those Errours and Corruptions (what∣soever they are) that by virtue of that usurpt Power and Authority, he imposes on all those that are or shall be in Communion with him; and excommunicates all that will not come to those terms; not so much for their Aversness to those Doctrines and Practices, as because they will not submit to his Power and Authority.

Though I must withal observe here, as conse∣quential to my former Observation of so many false Notions of Popery, that laying aside its Ca∣pital Errour; (viz. That which directly asserts the pretended universal Power of the Pope) it is no necessary evil of any inferiour, subservient Errours or Practices, at least, of any of those which are not peculiar to the Roman Church (how false or vain soever they be in themselves) but the unnecessary embracing them out of pure Page  4 submission to the usurpt Authority of the Roman Bishop, now stiled Pope, and the only Pope of the World, is it, that in any right sense of the word, renders them truly Popish. And this I must ac∣knowledge to be so, whether we regard the De∣rivation of the word, or Reasons of the thing it self. I mean, those Reasons which evince the only proper significant Notion of Popery, to be that which I have given before in the fewest words I could well fix upon to define or de∣scribe it.

What those Reasons are, we have, as to one part of them, seen already (by seeing that if Popery be taken otherwise, all Christian Churches in the World must be confessedly Popish;) and as to the other part also, we shall now see.

For now I am to shew, that even by the judg∣ment of such as ought best to understand their own Doctrine,* the very chief thing in Popery, is the owning and asserting the Papal Authority. Without question, there is nothing which they have more driven at from the beginning, or which they now more eagerly contend for in the Roman Church, and especially the governing part of it; as it were easie to shew in many instances; but a few will suffice, because the matter is so well known to all men of Reading and Experience.

To begin with the Original of Popery. There is nothing more certain and plain in Church-Hi∣story, then that the primitive Christians, being ge∣nerally Subjects of the Roman Empire, had a very great respect for the Bishops of Rome, because that was the Imperial City. And yet it is as plain, that Page  5 those Bishops had no Authority or Jurisdiction out of their own Province,* that is beyond the suburbicary Region of Italy, till after the Divi∣sion of the Roman Empire into Eastern and We∣stern. It was not long after that division, and chiefly upon the weakness of the Western Em∣pire, that that Power, which we now call the Papacy, grew up. As the Empire decay'd, so by degrees it encreased and gathered strength; the design being at first, not to set up a new Religi∣on, but a new Monarchy in the place of the old then expiring. The Caesars having made Rome their seat of Empire for so many Ages, and be∣ing at last driven out by the barbarous Nations, it seemed as if the Genius of the place had inspired the Roman Bishops to perk up, and to erect a new Empire in the stead. Which was no hard thing for them to do, being assisted with all manner of advantagious circumstances.

Having learn'd from their Predecessors, to de∣rive their descent from St. Peter, how truly, it matters not, this gave them colour enough to take upon them to be all that he was. Their See, their Traditions, their Dictates, were all stiled Apostolical. The Popes Title was then, His Apo∣stleship; for His Holiness was too Vulgar in those days. Whatsoever Preheminence or Power those Caesars by their Laws, or their Subjects the Christian Bishops in their Councils had given them, as being Bishops of the Imperial City, when they had gain'd the City wholly to their Devoti∣on, and made their party among the barbarous Nations, they scorn'd to hold it any longer by Page  6 gift. All that had been so given them, and what∣soever they grasp'd more, they held it Iure Di∣vino, as being Heirs and Successors to St. Peter. By this means having shook off their Obligation to Canons and Laws, they took upon them to be as Infallible as St. Peter was; whose very name they did not stick to usurp when they pleased, as if Christ had spoken to them, whatsoever he said personally to Cephas. And whosoever ob∣jected (as some always did) that those Pretensions were new, and that there is no ground for them in Scripture, they could then face them down with those things which now they do not love to hear of; namely, with forg'd decretal Epistles, or Councils, or Fathers, or with pretended Reve∣lations and Visions, or with counterfeit Mira∣cles. For all which they had those at their beck, who (though ignorant enough otherwise) had more learning and skill to forge such things, than others had at that time to disprove them.

Thus in a blind Age (nay many Ages toge∣ther) when this part of the World was conducted and governed in spiritual things by one-eyed men, for the Popes themselves were no better, it is no wonder that the generality of the people ran in∣to so many Errours as they did,* to the great hurt and scandal of the Christian Religion. And though 'tis charitable to believe, that at first there was no design to have those Errours obtruded on the Faith of Posterity; yet appearing to be such, as might be of great use for the wealth and greatness of the Clergy, who were strongly at∣tach'd to the Roman See, nay some of them to Page  7 the Advancement of the Papacy it self: the Pope had great cause to look kindly upon them, and to wish they were no Errours, but Catholick Do∣ctrines (and if he pleased to have them such, who durst say they were otherwise?) When they had once receiv'd that publick countenance from him, he had much greater cause to continue it, and by all possible ways to keep them in posses∣sion of that esteem which those dark times had given them. And that not only for affection, as before, on the account of their usefulness to him∣self and his Clergy; but for fear that if these Er∣rours were detected and brought in disgrace, it might reflect on the Infallibility of the Roman See, and might give men occasion to look farther, and to examine the whole Fabrick of Popery; which being search'd to the bottom, it could not but appear, that the Fundamental Errour was that which gave the Pope such a Power and Autho∣rity over the whole Christian Church.

This was truly the cause why such care was continually taken in all the latter general Councils (for so the Pope was pleas'd to call those Conven∣tions of his Vassels,* in which nothing pass'd but what he pleas'd) to establish those popular Er∣rours as they grew up, and to put them out of question by their Canons and Decrees. Whereas the great capital Errour was never defin'd, but supposed, and pass'd (as all Fundamentals do) by such a general consent, as is stronger than all po∣sitive Laws whatsoever.

It pass'd thus for many Ages, till upon occasion of that long Schism, when for about fifty years, Page  8 the Western Church carried double, a Pope and an Antipope, that rid Cursing and Damning one another, the Council of Constance being met to judge which was which, deposed both, and began to set bounds to the Papacy. It was follow'd by the Council of Basil; which presuming to do the same, and being likely enough to have gone far∣ther; the Pope that then was, call'd an opposite Council, and therein settled his Authority by a Law. It was the Council of Florence, which though not acknowledg'd by many Roman Ca∣tholicks abroad, and particularly, not by the ge∣nerality of them in France: Yet since I write this to English men, I shall shew what they of our Na∣tion thought of it, at the last Revolution to Po∣pery; from whence we may take some kind of measure, and guess what many would be at again. It was declar'd by the Cardinal Legate, a with consent of his Synod at London, that the cause of all the evils in this Church, sprang from hence, that departing from the Vnity and Doctrine of the Catho∣lick Church, we had relinquished the Authority and Obedience of the Pope of Rome, Christ's Vicar, and the Successor of Peter. The denial of this Autho∣rity, was declar'd b to be the chief Errour of Pro∣testants. To correct which, they thought fit to set forth the true Doctrine, as it was delivered in the Eighth General Council at Florence, held un∣der Pope Engenius IV. of happy memory, in these words: We declare, That the holy Apostolical See and Pope of Rome, holds the Primacy over all the World; and that the Pope of Rome is the Successor of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and is the Page  9 true Vicar of Christ, and Head of the whole Church, and Father and Teacher of all Christians; and that to him, in St. Peter, our Lord Iesus Christ gave full power to feed, rule and govern the Vniversal Church.

Since the Council of Florence, there have been only two pretended General Councils; namely, the fifth Lateran, and the Council of Trent; both which were acknowledged by that Synod of Lon∣don above mentioned. The fifth Lateran Coun∣cil was call'd by the Pope, for no other end, but that he might be able to write their Approbation in the stile of those Bulls which he should pub∣lish for the greatness of the Papacy. In the first of those c Bulls, he damn'd the Pisan Council, which the French King had assembled against him. In the second, d he laid an Interdict on the whole Kingdom of France, and ordered the Fair of Li∣ons to be removed from thence to Geneva. In a third, e he annulled the famous pragmatick Sancti∣on, the Palladium of the French Church. And so went on, till having brought the French King to his terms, his next Bull f was, to set himself above all General Councils; and to declare, That all Christians, sub necessitate salutis, under pain of Damnation, must be subject to the Pope of Rome, according to that Luciferian Constitution of Boni∣face VIII, which he mentions and approves, and confirms. All this he does with consent of that Council. The Council of Trent, which came last, and pinn'd the Basket, not only took care to leave the Pope in full possession of this usurp'd Power, by declaring, g that no act of theirs should in∣fringe Page  10 it, and by making him Judge and Inter∣preter of all their Decrees; but also confirmed it to him, as much as in them lay. For they ordained, h That in every Church of the Roman Communion, at the first Provincial Synod after that Council, every Member thereof, should pro∣mise and profess true Obedience to the Pope; and that all that were preferr'd for the future, whether to Bishoprick, Dignity, or Cure of Souls, should promise and swear the like Obedience, in such form as the Pope should prescribe. Where∣upon Pope Pius IV. made that i form of Professi∣on of Faith, that is every where taken at this day; whereof one Clause is, I promise and swear true Obedience to the Pope of Rome, Successor to St. Pe∣ter, Prince of the Apostles, and Vicar of Iesus Christ.

Beside these publick Acts, which have a gene∣ral influence on all parts and Members of the Ro∣man Communion; there is a special tye on the go∣verning part of it (if not by their interest) by another Oath, which is taken by all Archbishops, Bishops & Abbots at their Consecration. The form of it is prescrib'd in the Roman Pontificale; to which I refer the Reader that would see it at large. There he may see how all Church-Governours of that Communion, bind themselves to the Pope, to be his Liege-men and Subjects, his Coun∣sel-keepers, his Spies and Intelligencers, his con∣stant Correspondents, his Factors, his sworn Ser∣vants, in express terms, To the utmost of their power to persecute and impugn all Hereticks, Schis∣maticks and Rebels against the Pope (their own na∣tural Page  11 Prince, Parents, Kindred, and Friends not excepted.) I wish every Protestant (who is in their sense an Heretick, &c.) would be pleas'd to read that Oath, and then judge what he is to expect from any of these men, unless he knows they are such as will be perjur'd for his sake.

It was surely not without cause, that Cardinal Bellarmine call'd the Doctrine of the Pope's Au∣thority over all Christians, Caput Fidei, the Head of the Catholick Faith. I have shewn that it is so in their sense of the word Catholick. A Do∣ctrine that is the only Fundamental of Popery; the Foundation whereof was first laid in the Pa∣pal Authority, and the whole Building of Popery in other points, has been raised in favour to it. A Doctrine that has since been secured and con∣firmed by Canons of Councils, and by the Oaths of all their Clergy. A Doctrine to which the Leaders and Guides of their Church, are sworn to sacrifice all that's dear to them: And which way the Guides go, there's no fear but the Laity will follow them with that blind Obedience, which is peculiar to them in the Roman Church.

And therefore whatsoever Notion we have of Popery in other things,* the Pope himself is not so fond of them, but that to gain the point of Au∣thority, he can either connive, or abate, or part with them wholly, if he pleases: Though no doubt he never does it, but insidiously, as well knowing, that whatsoever Concession he makes for the establishing of his Authority, he may af∣terwards annul, and will do it when soever he pleaseth.

Page  12But that the owning his Authority, is the thing which makes a Catholick in his sense, and that only, it appears by sundry Instances abroad; but none more memorable then those which we have had here in England. Where King Henry VIII. having cast off his Obedience to the Pope, was therefore judged a Heretick; and underwent the worst that Rome could have done to him, if he had rejected all their Errours together; and yet he asserted all the rest, and imposed them with the utmost severity. He was a through-Papist in all points, but only that of Obedience; in com∣parison whereof, all the rest are but talk. That is the business, as we are taught by this example. And we are not a little confirm'd by the proceed∣ing on the other hand, with his daughter Eliza∣beth; who being as much a Protestant as any is, or can be at this day; and having so settled Religi∣on in her Kingdom, that it had scarce been in her power to have altered it, how and when she pleased; yet if she could but have been brought to acknowledge the Popes Authority, to which she was courted by all possible ways, how gladly would his Holiness have received her? and abated for lesser things, that is, for all things else; if it be true, that the Pope would have allowed her the English Liturgy that then was, and the Com∣munion-Service, as it was generally reported he would:* And we have the more cause to believe it, because we hear of the like offers prepared for us, in order to perswade the restoring of Popery in our days.

Page  13I conceive it is sufficiently proved, that the chief thing in Popery, is the Doctrine which as∣serts the Popes Authority over all Christians. I shall adde,* that it is the worst of all the evils which Popery contains, the most hurtful and mischievous both to Church and State; which being proved to my hand in sundry Learned Discourses within these few years, I shall not need to say much on this head.

Yet I cannot but mind the Reader of that which is most notorious, and which every one knoweth, that hath read over almost any History of these last Eight hundred years. For about so long since it was, that the Church received the greatest Wound that ever was given it, a Breach not to be repaired, a Schism that reacheth throughout the whole Universe. So long a time the Western Church, that is, the Western part of Eu∣rope, hath been a Church by it self; having broke off all Communion with all other Churches in the World, that is, with all the Asian and African Churches, and all those in the East and North parts of Europe. Instead of that Love and Peace which Christ left as his Legacy among Christians, there hath been for so many Ages nothing else but Banning and Cursing between them. As the Pope yearly curses all those Christians that are not of his Communion; so he and his are yearly curst by the four ancient Patriarchs of Constantinople, Al∣exandria, Antioch and Ierusalem; and by all the Christian Churches depending on them, except those few whom he hath conquer'd, or bought, or otherwise gain'd by his Missionaries. The ori∣ginal Page  14 cause of this Breach, was nothing else but the Popes Usurpation, which those Churches were not able to bear. It was the same cause, that many Ages after, divided this Western part of Europe within it self. For our Church was thrown out of the Roman Communion, many years be∣fore any thing else was reformed in it; when there was no other difference between us, but only this, that we had cast off the Popes Usur∣pation.

This breach of Christian-Unity, were of it self a great mischief to the Church, though nothing else came of it but Hatred and Unchristian Cen∣sures, in which perhaps, both sides might be to blame, but yet they might live and grow wiser, and come at last to understand one another. And this would possibly ensue upon any other diffe∣rence of Opinion. But this grand point of Po∣pery is such, as sets men in no ordinary heat; it makes them breath not only Censures, but Death against their Adversaries; it arms out all the Wealth, Power and Policy of them that hold it, to reduce or destroy all them that oppose it. Not to rip up ancient stories, we have a sad instance this in the Greek Church, which refusing to submit to the Pope, was betray'd by him to the Turk; under whom it hath groaned these two hundred years. In all which time of bondage and misery, which that poor Church hath endured, what re∣lief hath she had from the Interest or Wealth of the Papacy? I cannot say, but there have been, and are daily great returns thither of money from Rome; but all the use of them, is to hire her Page  15 Children against her for bread; or to bribe the Turks Bassa's to do her all the hurt that is possi∣ble. We have the less cause to take it ill, if we find the Popes Agents busie among us, and if we feel the woful effects of their diligence, in our in∣testine Divisions, and in the growth of Atheism, which we cannot but be sadly sensible, are both much increased since the late Toleration. In these and the like practises, they plainly declare, that rather then not bring in Popery, they would drive out Christianity before them; and not leave the name of Christ to the people, that will not receive the Pope as his Vicar.

How those Churches where he is so received and bears rule, as he would do among us, are blessed in it, we may partly guess by the means that he employs to get us under him. For it is seldom known, that they who are so greedy of power, use it well when they have it. But not to go by guess, when we have a Map before us: We may see the condition of his Subjects describ'd by some of themselves, that writ in those times when men durst write of such things; when there was no Inquisition for them, nor no Index Expur∣gatorius for their Writings. I believe, a more cruel Bondage, a more miserable Thraldom and Yoke then they describe never was among the barbarous Nations. I believe also the Inquisition, where it is introduc'd, hath not made their con∣dition easier since. And that it is not introduc'd in some Countreys, as namely, in France and Flanders, they may thank the poor Protestants for it: Where such are, the Pope will have a Page  16 care not to make too much noise, for fear of frighting away the Birds that he would take. And yet in France, where there is no Inquisition, he found other ways not long since, to make the Iansenists feel the weight of his hand, and that severely; for no other reason, but because in cer∣tain School-points, they presum'd to oppose an∣other party that were more firm to his In∣terests.

If this be his way of keeping Unity, for which they so much cry up his Government (though men do not speak so well of the Russian, which keeps Unity better:) I see no reason why we should not be content, and endure our dissentions; or ra∣ther find some other way to compose them, than by putting our necks into a yoke, which being once fastned, it will be too late for us to com∣plain afterward. We must either draw as he would have us, or else go to the Shambles.

For the Temporal State, how it hath been tur∣moild with this Papal Usurpation, would ask a large Book to describe, as the matter deserves. I shall only say this, that ever since it began, it hath hung like a Comet, over Kingdoms and Na∣tions, and shed forth direful Influences on all that have been any way obnoxious to it. But it came not to its height, till Pope Hildebrand's days, whom their heavenly Muster-Roll * calleth St. Gregory VII. A Saint, no doubt, worthy of Red Letters; for he caused the shedding of more Christian Blood than Mahomet himself; and as Mahomet did, he taught his Sect to do the same, and merit Heaven by it. His Dictates are com∣monly Page  17 known, being publish'd, both in his Books, and in the Councils. I appeal to any one that hath read them, whether Antichrist at his coming (if he be yet to come) can * speak greater things. Sure I am, nothing can be more contrary to the humble and meek spirit of Christ. Among these, there is one Doctrine briefly expressed, but more amply declared in his Bulls, and in his actions pur∣suant to them. It is concerning a power that he assumes to himself to depose Kings, and to dispose of their Kingdoms. Which Arrogant Claim (such as none but the Devil * ever made before him) hath ever since been continued by his Successors; and yet is, as often as they see occasion, both de∣clared and manifested by the like Bulls and actions. The woful effects of it throughout this Western part of Europe, are notoriously known to all that read History; having torn the Bowels of this part of Christendom like an Earthquake, for these last six hundred years, having shaken the Foundations of all Empires, Kingdoms and States, involving all of them, at one time or other, in bloody and cruel Wars, accursed and unnatural Rebellions, and all other consequent Calamities. In Germany particularly, where it first began to operate: The two next Emperours were fain to fight no less than sixty Field-battels to keep their Crowns up∣on their Heads. In France it hath wrought pro∣portionably. Other Countreys have suffered their share. But none more than England in King Iohn's miserable days. And that had been forgotten in 88. if the design had taken, which God only could, and did defeat; when otherwise this Do∣ctrine, Page  18 in all probability, had destroyed the Eng∣lish Kingdom and Nation, we had been gone, and our name had scarce remained upon the face of the Earth.

The sad experience of the manifold mischiefs and dangers, both to Church and State, from this pretended Authority, taught our Fore-fathers at sundry times,* to provide against it by Laws, with such Penalties annex'd to them, as they found needful, to prevent the like mischiefs and dangers for the future. It appears, that the ancientest Laws of this kind, were made by them that lived and died in the Roman Communion: I mean, the Laws of Provisors and Praemunire, enacted some hundreds of years since by Roman Catholick Kings and their Parliaments; who could have no design against any other of those things we call Popery; for they held the same erronious Opi∣nions which our now-Papists do, though they held them not as Articles of Faith. But they endeavoured by those Laws, to secure themselves against the daily Encroachment of the Pope, and his Faction in the Roman Church. When those Banks were found insufficient to restrain the grow∣ing Torrent within its bounds, they found it need∣ful to stop the Channel, to exclude the Papacy it self, and turn it out of the Kingdom. This was done by King Henry VIII, upon such a Pro∣vocation, as perhaps would have moved a much gentler Prince to do the same. For he was made to dance Attendance upon the Court of Rome five or six years, for Sentence in a Cause, which he commenced not of himself, but by advice of Page  19 the Popes Legat, and his Confessor: A Cause which the Pope himself at first had encouraged; in which he had the judgment of the whole Church of England, and divers Foreign Univer∣sities of his side. His exclusion of the Papal Au∣thority was by Acts both of Parliament, and of Convocation, almost no man dissenting. They both form'd the Oath of Supremacy, and took it themselves, and joyn'd with him in imposing it, in direct opposition to this grand point. And yet this King himself, and all the Members of those Bodies, were firm to all things else that we call Popery.

It was otherwise in the time of Queen Elizabeth, of blessed Memory; who, at the entrance of her Reign, not only repair'd her Father's Fence against the Papal Authority, but also purged the Church of all those Errours and Corruptions, which are yet retain'd and own'd by all them of the Roman Communion. And yet she laid no penalty on any of them, but the loss of their Ecclesiastical Prefer∣ments, and the payment of Twelve pence for eve∣ry Sunday that they were absent from Church. This is all that they suffer'd for many years, till the Pope took upon him to turn her out of her Kingdom. When he had publish'd his Bull to that purpose, and sent it hither among her Subjects, and some of them had taken Arms, and tried all ways to put that Bull in execution;* then she enacted a Law, to forbid any of her Subjects, under pain of Premunire, to bring Bulls, or any other such Trum∣pery from Rome, and made it Treason for any of them to be reconciled (as they call it) to the Ro∣man Page  20 Church. Yet for six years more, though some were taken in the offence, none suffer'd the penalty of that Law. When the Pope proceed∣ed further in Hostility against her,* to give away her Crown, to invade her Dominions, and to pra∣ctise against her life; when she found, that under pretence of Religion, he drew over many of her Subjects, and train'd them up as his spiritual Ja∣nizaries, in Houses founded for that purpose; when she found, that at their return, they fully answered the ends of their Education, and rather listed Souldiers against her, than made Proselytes to their Religion; then she executed those for∣mer Laws, and made more from time to time, as they gave her occasion. In which Laws, though she found it necessary to forbid sundry Acts which were purely Religious, and to make it penal to such as were taken at them, because she had no other way to find out them that were dangerous to the state; yet she made it sufficiently appear, that the design of such Laws was only against dangerous persons, by the great care she took to turn the edge of them from those that were other∣wise.* She gave private Instructions to her Judges, that before any was to suffer by the Sanguinary Laws, they should examine him how he stood af∣fected to the State; whether he owned Hildebrands Doctrine; whether he approved the Popes Sen∣tence; whether he would side with him against her Majesty. If they found any one, in those Circumstances of a Prisoner dead in Law, so de∣sperately bold, that he durst own a Foreign power, in defiance of her that had his life at her mercy; Page  21 she would not have her Judges spare him, that she might be very sure, would not have spared her nor her Kingdom. Otherwise, if they stood right as to the Civil Authority, it was her will that none should suffer death. And though they were such of the Clergy, whom she knew to be the Popes Disciples and Pensioners, and therefore thought it not safe to trust them in her Kingdom; yet if they gave her a fair answer, she sent them out of it quietly. And thus she dismist * some of them, that proved afterward as errant Traytors as any whom she put to death. But for many other of their Clergy, and especially those who were Priests in Queen Mary's days, knowing them to be of peaceable Principles, she suffered them to live peaceably in her Kingdom. Of the Laity likewise, she put none to death, that would dis∣own the Popes temporal power. She took only a pecuniary Mulct, with which she thought fit to repair her self for the charge she was put to in defending her self against the Head of their Com∣munion. When that charge was apprehended to be over; namely, at King Iames his coming to the Crown, they were discharged even of those pecuniary penalties. The King knew of no Sen∣tence that the Pope had issued forth against him∣self; and finding no trouble from those of his Communion, he was willing to give none. Nor did he, till he had tried them▪ None suffer'd among them in any kind; none had cause to be in fear of any suffering; no distinction was made be∣tween them and other Subjects. But this calm was soon interrupted, by the breaking out of a Page  22 Conspiracy, which yet seemed only to waken the vigilance of the State. For no great matter was done upon it, till another broke forth, that of the Powder-Treason, which out-went all former examples. And then (when it was almost too late) he understood by searching into this Con∣spiracy, that though the Pope had not deprived him by name of the Kingdom, yet he had barred his right to it by a sufficient Description; having sent out two Breves before the Queens death, in which he commanded all his Catholicks, not to suffer any Protestant, how near soever in Blood, to succeed her in the Kingdom. This Papal Pre∣cept it was, to which the Authors themselves ascribed their Gunpowder-Treason. And that the King might not always be in the like danger, he saw no way but to punish them that heeded such Precepts. Other Papists he excused, and made himself, as it were, their Compurgator, declaring to the World, that he believ'd they were innocent and peaceable. Only they were not to be ex∣cused for keeping ill Company: For they joyn∣ed in all Religious Acts with those of Hildebrand's Sect; therefore they ought not to think much if their purses paid for it. But otherwise the King did what lay in him to distinguish them. And therefore he provided the Oath of Alleigance, by the taking or refusing whereof, he might be able to know the one from the other. That Oath was made at first in such Terms, as might perhaps have raised scruple in those that held the Papacy, to be of Divine Right, though not in Temporals, but only in Spiritual things. Though most of that Page  23 Communion held otherwise in France, and few held so in England, in King Henry VIII's days. Yet lest that might stick with any innocent per∣son; the King, that desired to hurt none that might be spared, and well knowing all their Prin∣ciples, for he had studied their Authors; there∣fore took upon him so to moderate the Oath, that it could not pinch the Conscience of any Roman Catholick that was not first infected with Hilde∣brand's Principles. And they were generally so well satisfied with the Oath in those Terms, in which he had conceived it, that it was forthwith taken by the Superior of the Secular Clergy, and by many other, both of the Clergy and Laity. Few stuck at it, but those of Hildebrand's Sect; whom the King had a mind to single out of the Herd, and to rid the Land of them, that he might live quietly with the other Roman Catholicks. But this pleased not at Rome, where only those are the Darlings. And it concerned the Pope, to assert his own power in Temporals; which being something the younger, he is more fond of than that in Spirituals; and yet the elder being the more popular, he wilfully mistook, and perswaded the people (as if he had believed himself) that the Oath was against his power in Spirituals. But he mistook not in forbidding the Oath of Alle∣giance to be taken by any Catholick, upon any Terms whatsoever. His Prohibition was under pain of his Curse; both which were confirm'd by one or more Popes since. And yet many of their Church took that Oath, and some of them de∣fended it in writing; and 'tis taken and defend∣ed Page  24 in like manner to this day. By many others it is, and hath been refused: Whether as being con∣trary to the Principles of their Sect, or whether in Reverence to the Popes Prohibition; and possi∣bly some may have refused to take the Oath, upon some scruple which they have conceived against the wording of it.

But whatsoever the cause of their refusal may be, the State hath no way left to distinguish; and therefore being assured of the lawfulness of the Oath in these Terms, and being aware of the wick∣ed design with which it is forbidden, hath just cause to secure it self by their peril. It hath sure∣ly no cause to look on them as Friends, that pre∣fer their own scruples to its safety; much less, that break its just Commands, to serve or to please its open Enemy. And for this cause, that wise and gracious Prince suffered some of their Clergy that were obnoxious otherwise, to fall under the edge of the Law. But never in his nor his Sons days, did any one of that Communion, suffer death for any Crime against the State, that would clear himself of it by taking the Oath of Alle∣giance.

From what I have said, it sufficiently appears, that the asserting an undue Authority in the Pope or Bishop of Rome, is properly to be called Po∣pery; 'tis the chief thing, and the only thing in the Popes esteem; 'tis most hurtful and dange∣rous, and the worst thing in the Construction of the Law. From whence I shall infer, that among Roman Catholicks,* some are properly Papists, and some are improperly called so. And however Page  25 they are both of one Communion, and meet toge∣ther in the same Offices of Worship, and therefore cannot easily be distinguished; (unless they please to distinguish themselves) yet there is a great dif∣ference between them: As great a difference in relation to the State, as there is between Wens and useful Members in the Body.

They that wholly deny the Popes Supremacy,* cannot properly be called Papists, but Vnreformed Catholicks; as men generally were here in England, in the later part of King Henry VIII's days. And they, as I believe, were the first that used the word Papists, to denote the Assertors of that outed Supremacy. Nor can they properly be called so in France, or other Countreys, who deny the Pope to have any Authority over them by Di∣vine Right; but grant it only by such Canons and Laws, as being made upon good Considerati∣ons, may on better, be abrogated and repealed. I know there are some of this mind in England, and do believe there would appear to be many, if they found sufficient cause to declare it. * Now though such men believe the same erroneous Te∣nets, and use the same Superstitious and Idolatrous Rites that Papists do; namely, such as the Pope himself has made the Terms of his Communion, and therefore they are properly in Communion with him;* yet those Tenets and Rites are not pro∣perly Popery. Though they are bad enough otherwise, yet if they keep them to themselves, they are not hurtful to Humane Society: As be∣ing consistent with the safety of the Kingdom, and with obedience to Government, and with Ju∣stice Page  26 of Contracts, and love of Neighbours; with all which, at least collectively taken, Popery in the proper Notion of it is inconsistent; and ge∣nerally held so, not only by all other Christians, but by a very great and considerable part of the Roman Catholicks themselves.

They are properly Papists, that hold the Pope as Vicar of Christ, by Divine Right, to have a Power and Authority over all Christians. And yet if they give him this power in Spirituals only, and not also in Temporals, they are but half-Pa∣pists:* And so they will find the Pope accounts them, if they have occasion to make use of him. They only are thorough-Papists,* that acknowledge his Authority in both. First, directly in Spiritual things; and then in Temporals also, whether di∣rectly, or whether indirectly, in order to Spiri∣tuals, it matters not. Let him have the Power, and he will trust himself with the use of it. Now this thorough-Papist, being a man after the Popes own heart, I shall from him take the perfect mea∣sures of Popery.* He is one that asserts and main∣tains, or at least practically submits to the Popes pretended Power and Usurpation; over all Kings and People in their Temporals; and over all Bi∣shops and Churches in their Spirituals; and in all things, over all persons on earth, not only sepa∣rately,* but collectively, in their Parliaments or Councils; and consequently over all their Canons, Laws and Definitions. In few words, that owns him to be the Infallible Oracle,* and Universal Vicar of God; a kind of God upon Earth, who has no limits to his Commission, or to the execu∣tion Page  27 of it, but his own will and pleasure. This most excellent Systeme it is, that only passes at Rome for the Catholick Doctrine. This is authorized by the Pope, this is taught in his own Church at Rome, and elsewhere by his Stipendiaries or other De∣pendants. And this is properly Popish, for it belongs not to any other Christians of whatsoever Church, Sect or Denomination: Nor is it owned by the far greater number of them that are or call themselves Roman Catholicks.

I have given my own private Opinion, as well of the true, as of the false Notion of Popery; and have intimated withal (though but occasionally) what my Opinion is, as well of the great Concern∣ment of the Christian World, if not of all Man∣kind, to suppress Popery, truly such; as of the lit∣tle occasion there is, for any great severity to be used against that for Name-sake, which in truth is not Popery, nor has any essential or necessary con∣junction with it.

Now to enter upon the main design of this Pa∣per; which, according to the title,* is a Conside∣ration or Search for the true way of suppressing of Popery, I declare my design to be against Po∣pery in its proper Notion. And whereas I have shewn a lower degree of it to consist in owning the Popes power in Spirituals only; by suppres∣sing of this, I intend, at least, such a restraint upon it, as may suffice to keep it from being hurtful or troublesom. For the other degree, which can∣not but be hurtful wheresoever it is in being: I declare my design to be no less, than the extin∣guishing of it, at least out of England, and, Page  28 if it were possible, from the face of the Earth.

*Of this matter to deliver my thoughts with all freedom, I confess it seems to me, that undistin∣guishing Severity, whether of Laws, or of the execution of them, against all Roman Catholicks in general, cannot be the true way to suppress Po∣pery; much less to rid it out of this Kingdom, or any other of his Majesties Dominions.

The general Motives which induce me to think so, are these three: 1. That such a course in all like∣lihood, would not prove effectual. 2. That if it should prove effectual, yet it would be very far from seeming just or equitable. 3. It would be a∣gainst the interest of England in diversContingen∣cies.

1. That it would be ineffectual,* I am persuaded by the well-known experience of above a Hun∣dred years, that is, of what hath pass'd in this Kingdom ever since the Reformation. For not∣withstanding all the Penal Laws that have been made, and the execution of them, which was se∣vere enough at some times; we see that still there have been Roman Catholicks ever since; and they were never so much lessen'd by their sufferings, as by the Court of Wards, which took off many of the wealthiest Families. But that which made them bear up against sufferings was this, as I hum∣bly conceive, That by divers of our Laws, or by the Interpreters and Executors of them (especially of those Laws that had pecuniary Penalties) they saw no distinction made between loyal and dis∣loyal; between peaceable and turbulent Princi∣ples; Page  29 between matters simply of Religion, and those which threatned the State. The same cause is like to have the same effect still. And therefore I think we have just occasion to fear, that if all men of that Communion are still equally liable to the same punishments in any kind, and according∣ly treated; it will be thought by themselves, if not by others also, that their suffering is for some Articles of Catholick Religion, and not for any Principles either of Treason, or other Papal Su∣perstition (which Principles▪ very many of them do as much, as any Protestant, with all their hearts abhor, and are ready to abjure.) And while they think so, it will undoubtedly cause (at least a considerable number of them) to stand the utmost extremities; and thereby the Pope will peradventure gain more Proselytes to his Com∣munion, and more strength to his side, than he will lose from it.

Besides, the number of their Priests at home, and of their Seminaries abroad, would not lessen, but increase, by such undistinguishing Severity. For divers of those Sufferers, being streightned with want, would send their Children beyond Sea, to get them off of their hands, to have them bred without charge, and put into a way of living. And they are so brought up, and so principled, in their Foreign Colledges, that let the Laws in England be never so severe, they will return hi∣ther, and not stick to venture their lives in the service. Seminaries also would increase. For they are so addicted to their Religion beyond Sea, that, let a Preacher in a good Town sollicite the Page  30 Charity of people towards the maintenance of such as shall expose their Lives to propagate their Religion, and there will quickly be a new Foun∣dation erected for that purpose. The Colledge in Sivil was maintain'd by Alms, and I think that at Valledolid likewise, and yet Scholars lived no where better. These two Colledges, when the times were most severe to Roman Catholicks, sent every year many Priests into England; and now in many years send none: But would undoubted∣ly grow numerous again, if the Fame of our Se∣verity here should quicken the peoples Charity in those parts, which hath been slackned very much of late years.

Again, neigbouring Princes, who shall see men persecuted for the same Perswasions which they profess themselves, will interpose in their behalf; both of their own accord in some measure, and much more at the Popes Sollicitation; who will be sure to engage all the credit he has with them, on such an occasion: And the interest of all neigh∣bour States are so interwoven, that at one time or other it will be found inconvenient not to gra∣tifie them in such a request.

There will oftentimes happen another kind of Obstruction, even at home, from English Prote∣stants themselves. For I think it ought to be con∣sidered, that many Roman Catholicks, however abused in their Judgments about some matters of Divine Belief or Worship, are esteemed by their Protestant neighbours honest, well-meaning men, such as they cannot find in their hearts to use hardly, without great and evident Cause. Others Page  31 have Relations, or Friends, or Dependants, tied by several interests to them. And even strangers to the persons who are to suffer the penalties of the Laws, will think it hard to inflict them on men that are no otherwise liable, than merely for such Religious Tenets and Rites, as have been for many Ages warranted by the Laws, and held and practised by all Christian People amongst us.

So that, from one or other of these causes I have mentioned, it will prove a very difficult mat∣ter to have the Laws executed on Roman Catho∣licks, without Discrimination; that is, without separating those who are so qualifi'd for pity, from those who deserve none, in the judgment of any Protestant, nay of any true Englishman whatso∣ever. For no man that loveth the Peace of his Country, can think fit to spare them, who are so fond of a Foreign Government, that rather than not be under it, they will not spare to involve their Country in Blood and Misery. Other men of that Principle, have done as bad in former times. And we have cause to be jealous of all men of that Religion, that they are of the same Principles, and will do the same things; unless they will secure us by some Act, which they may lawfully do, being required to it. Now it is evi∣dent, we have too many such among us, who are thorough-Papists, and Ministers of that Fo∣reign Government; and many others, who will not secure us by doing any such Act, that the State shall require, against the interest of that Fo∣reign Government. Therefore the State hath Page  32 just cause to secure it self against them, by such Laws, as being executed, it shall not be in their power to do us hurt. But when those Laws are made without any distinction, they Herd them∣selves with others of their Communion; and be∣ing hunted together, they have some little trou∣ble perhaps, which they laugh at, for they know it will come to nothing. After a while, good na∣ture works in the Protestants; every man that should execute the Laws, knoweth some or other that deserve favour, and for their sakes he will punish none. So the Prosecution at first grows cold, and at last ceases; till some fresh Apprehen∣sion of Danger awakens us, and then there will be a little more stir, to no purpose, as we have seen more then once in our days.

But lastly, If the Laws are executed to the full, I speak of Laws made without Discrimination, what∣soever severity shall be used in pursuance of them, will chiefly light on the best and most innocent persons; on them that are truly English, and have nothing to do with Rome, save that they live with∣in her Communion. For the thorough-paced Pa∣pist will shift better than the other can do. The Jesuites can equivocate, and teach their Scholars to do it. They can sail with every wind, and ra∣ther than lose their Port, they can do all that Pro∣testants do. And if they have no Dispensation before hand, they can have a Pardon for it after∣ward: For they know where those things are to be had, which any honest man, though of that Religion, abhors either to ask or need. And if a Jesuite should have so over-slept himself, that Page  33 he is taken napping with other Catholicks; he is sure to have Friends to bring him off. If none in England can do it, he has them abroad to help. If he be put to fly his Country, he knows whither to go. If he step short, and fall into a Prison; there, at least, he is sure not to want ei∣ther relief or means for his deliverance. While the man of Loyal principles, if he fall into any of those Circumstances, is stuck, and knows not which way to look for help. For from whence should he have it? At home he has no Friend that dares know him; abroad he has no manner of interest. For all there depend upon the Pope; who is so far from concerning himself for any, whom he knows to be no Papists, that he does not own them for Catholicks. And especially if any such be men of parts, whom he hears to be in Prison, or the like, he only wishes them hanged out of the way, that he may have the rest the more intirely at his Devotion.

Much more might be said on this head, but what I have said may suffice. And therefore to insist no longer on that Question, Whether un∣distinguishing Severity would be effectual or no? I come now to shew,* that if it should prove ef∣fectual, yet it would be very far from seeming just or equitable to indifferent men. And of this I am strongly assured, first, by all the judgment I can make of the Intention of our Laws; se∣condly, by Arguments from the rule of right Reason, and the Ancient Practise of Christia∣nity.

Page  34I begin with the former, and observe, That al∣though the Severity of our Penal Statutes, ac∣cording to the bare letter of them, generally not distinguishing between Papists and Roman Catho∣licks, falls indifferently on both; yet, by the wording of them in several places, and by other Circumstances, it appears, that they were intend∣ed against the Abettors of undue Authority in the Pope, and against no other.

For what appears in the wording of the Sta∣tutes, I shall instance only two; viz. 23 Eliz. and 3 Iacobi: Whereof the former, namely, that of Queen Elizabeth, expresses the crime to be punish∣ed by the Statute, in these terms, An intent to withdraw Subjects from their natural Obedience. The other, namely, that of King Iames, which was ve∣ry severe, as it ought to be on so great an occasion, mentions this as the crime to be punished by it: The withdrawing Subjects from their natural Obedi∣ence, and moving them to promise Obedience to the pretended Authority of the See of ROME.

That the Sanguinary Laws were intended against Popery in this sense, and no other, it may further appear by the Account I have given before; where I briefly set forth on what occasions they were made, and in what manner they were executed. It is evident, that none ever suffer'd Death as a Pa∣pist,* who could be brought to take the Oath of Supremacy or Allegiance. Now it is certain, that those Oaths were primarily designed to be a suffi∣ent Test to distinguish Papists from others. And yet in either of them, there is no mention made of any Doctrines, but only those which concern Page  35 Government; that is, the external Government both of Church and State. It is indeed objected by Papists against the Oath of Supremacy, and it sticks with some of those Roman Catholicks who are not Papists, that by the Oath of Supremacy, the King is made a spiritual Head of the Church. But he that reads the Oath, will find no such thing in it; and it is expresly declar'd by the Church of England in her Articles, That she ascribes to the King no other Jurisdiction over the Church, than what is meerly external; even the same that was exercised by the Kings of Iudah, and the Christian Emperours, over the Church in their Kingdoms and Empires.

To this I may add,* the constant Profession and Answer of all Protestant Writers. Whensoever any Complaint has been made of the severity used to Roman Catholicks, it has been always said, that they suffered not for Religion, but Treason. And this is a very plain and satisfactory Answer, while those only suffer who do those things, or hold those Tenets which involve Treason in them. But if they who do no such thing, and who re∣nounce all such Tenets, are yet made to suffer in like manner; though they suffer for that which the Law declares to be Treason, it will bear some dispute, whether Law-makers may not miscall things. However, it shews the general sense of the Church and State of England; I mean, for what concerns the design or intention of those Penal Laws.

And here by the way it may be observed how very different our dealing with the Roman-Catho∣licks Page  36 is from their dealing with Protestants in Q. Mary's days. That then all profest Protestants were handled severely, and that many of them were put to death, I think none will deny. But to avoid the Odium of this, some of that Communion in our Age would persuade us that their suffering was not upon the Account of Religion. And, to colour this Evasion, they endeavour to show that Cranmer, and two or three more, had deserved death for Treason; which is more than they are able to prove. But admit this were true, that these men had deserved it; yet they did not suffer death for Treason, but Religion, as they would have it believed that made them dye. For they de∣clared this throughout the whole course of their Criminal Proceedings. And it concerned them so to do. For, otherwise, by the Laws then in force, they had murthered as many as they burnt; there being no Law to Burn men for Treason, but for Heresie. And so far they were from using any Mo∣deration, that they rather extended the Letter of the Law: by inflicting it on many poor Creatures, who had nothing to provoke any Jealousie against them; but enough to move pity, if there had been any, in their Adversaries. It has been the glory of our Church, that we have not been like them in this: nor can be, without altering the Design of them that made all our Laws against Popery.

The intention of our Laws appearing so mani∣festly, as I conceive, against Papists only, and not a∣gainst any other Roman Catholicks; it seems not reasonable that any other butPapists should suffer by the Letter of those Laws. For it is a Maxim, That Page  37 not the bare Letter of any one or more Clause or Clauses, but the Intention of the whole Law is the Life and Soul of it. I mean, it is that which gives signification to words, & w^ch ought (where itis evi∣dent) to interpret theLaw. It is also a Maxim, That all Penal Laws should be interpreted favourably; and therefore more should not be made Criminals, nor should any Criminal suffer more by any Law, than was meant by the Legislator. Now 'tis com∣monly said, there are very many RomanCatholicks (I hope the far greater number of them in England) who maintain no Principles or Opinions, which de∣stroy the Fundamentals of Government, or disturb the peace of the Kingdom; nor hold any of those Opinions which are essential to Popery, namely, which assert any undue Authority in the Pope, or (as it is exprest in the Statute) which withdrawSub∣jects from their naturalObedience, or move them to pro∣mise Obedience to the pretended Authority of theSee of Rome. There are many of that Communion, who profess that they hate & detest all such Doctrines. And therefore to indifferent Judges, how can it but seem very hard to extend the severity of theLetter of our Penal Laws, against the Legislators intenti∣on, to all Roman Catholicks universally and indi∣stinctly, without any exception in favour of those many that hold no such Opinions, and that are in all respects truly Loyal and peaceable? Surely the punishment cannot seem just or equitable, which has not theLaw for it; and that has not theLaw for it, which is against the intention of the Legislator.

Next I say, with submission, that granting the intention of the Statute-Laws of our Land, and of Page  38 the Legislators by whom they were made, to have been against all Roman Catholicks indistinctly, and not only against the mere Papalins; yet according to the Eternal Law of Reason, and ancient practice of Christianity, it may seem in such case, than an undistinguishing execution of the Laws, would neither be just nor equitable.

For first, it seems very unreasonable, to go about to force men to change their judgments in any thing, that hurts none but themselves, and espe∣cially in so weighty a matter as is that of Religion. It is confess'd, that the Religion of Roman Catho∣licks, differs very much from that which is establi∣shed by Law; and I am much to blame, if I know not it is Erroneous in those points in which it differs. For which Reason, I doubt not, they ought to be restrain'd from publick exercise of it, and (as far as it is possible) from hurting others by the Propagation of their Errours. I also grant, that by some kind of Punishment, less than death or ruine, men that err, may and ought to be awaken'd and stirr'd up to seek better Information, and to attend to the means of it, that they may be reclaim'd from their Errours. I also grant, that it belongs to the Legislative Power to define, how far, and by what means all this should be done; without which, I see no way to preserve established Truth, or to suppress Heresie in any Kingdom.

But all the punishment that is necessary for this purpose, may be inflicted without any force upon Conscience; as I shall have occasion to shew to∣ward the end of this Paper. Much less is that any force upon Conscence, when men are punish'd Page  39 for Treason, or for treasonable Principles. For those Principles are Treason in Bullion, and will be coyn'd out, whensoever the Pope pleases to set the Mint going; and that he will do, whensover he thinks it time to pay off any King that does not please him. But I cannot say so, when men that have no such Principles, are punish'd as if they had; and are either put to death, or made unable to live, unless they will part with those things in their Religion which are purely and simply er∣roneous, and which have no ill influence upon the State any otherwise than as it is inconvenient to have different Religions in being together in the Kingdom. This Severity is truly a force upon Con∣science. And 'tis very unreasonable besides, that the simply erroneous should be made to feel the weight of that punishment, than which no greater could be inflicted by Law, if their Errours were heightned and envenom'd with all the Malignity of that which we call properly Popery.

'Tis also against the ancient practice of Christi∣anity. For the Christians, when they came to have power in their hands, did not punish either Pagans or Jews, with either Sanguinary or Mulcta∣tive Laws; nor (for ought that appears) thought it reasonable for them so to do. I confess they did after a while punish Donatists with pecuniary penalties, and kept both them and all the rest un∣der divers incapacities; and the same reason they had for so doing, is enough to induce the Church and State of England to deal as they do now with Dissenters, and especially with Roman Catholicks, in keeping them under incapacitating Laws.

Page  40If it be objected, that those who were so favour∣ably dealt with in those first Christian times, did not communicate with any that were dangerous to the State, as those do who pretend to the like favour amongst us; and that while they commu∣nicate with men of disloyal Principles, it may be thought not unfit to involve them in the same punishment that is due to men of those Principles: It will be answer'd, that they do not communicate with them in any disloyal Doctrine or Practice, and therefore they ought not to be joyn'd with them in the punishment of those Doctrines or Pra∣ctices. God forbid, that Innocents should be handled as Nocents, for being of the same Com∣munion with them. We should think it very hard and unreasonable, that honest men and good Protestants, who communicate in the Church and Worship of God with such as prove to be Tray∣tors or Felons, must therefore partake with them in suffering for their misdeeds.

If it be farther objected, that among the Roman Catholicks, there are many who are faln off from the Church of England, and that such men, at least, deserve punishment for their Apostacy, and much more the Priests or others that wheedled them a∣way: I cannot deny, that in this case we have a just provocation to Severity. And we have an exam∣ple before us in the Roman Church, which if we should follow, it would go hard with such per∣sons. They which turn from them to us, find no mercy in those Popish Countries where the Inqui∣sition is setled, nor much favour in any other. But we are not bound to follow those examples. Page  41 And therefore setting them aside, and considering things without Provocation, I must needs say, that the simplicity of most of their Converts, seems to me to deserve rather pity, than any hard punish∣ment. They are generally such as understood not their own Religion, before they suffer'd them∣selves to be fool'd out of it. Otherwise, if they are learned and knowing men, who thus leave our Communion, which I think rarely happens, and specially if they are Converts to downright Popery; it cannot but argue, that such persons are vehemently lead by their affections, and there∣fore they may be justly suspected of ill design, and of forming to themselves some interest against the Laws. And if that be true, it cannot be deny'd, that they deserve to suffer all that the Laws have ordain'd for such persons. Yet if men of know∣ledge and parts, though they have deserted our Church, can content themselves to be Strangers, and not Enemies; and will prove it, by declaring against all the Popes Usurpations, which will be a certain bar to their preferment, and therefore may be a good proof of their sincerity; in this case, I do not see but we may live quietly with them, and perhaps the more safely by their means. What Laws are now in force against them that shall be reconcil'd; or that shall reconcile others, to the Church of Rome, were intended to keep men from being poyson'd with Popery; against which those Laws were severe enough, and yet not more than there was cause. And yet accord∣ing to the wording of those Laws, he is equally to suffer the penalty of them, that draws others, Page  42 or that is drawn himself, into the Roman Com∣munion, though not into Popery, as we have de∣fin'd it. I do not know, that those penalties have been inflicted on any one Offender these many years; nor has it been considered, what the Prin∣ciples were, either of them that were seduced, or of them that seduced them; and 'twere hard, that the impunity of them who have directly transgress'd the intent of those Laws, should be a snare to them that have only transgress'd the letter of them. Therefore, I humbly conceive, that whatsoever Retrospection is made, it ought to be with some kind of Discrimination. And it were to be wish'd for the future, that the old Laws may be put in ure against them that seduce others, or are seduced into Popery; and that some gentler Laws may be made against them that shall enter into that Communion, though they do acquit themselves of those dangerous Principles. But how this may be done, I humbly leave to the wisdom of the State to consider.

The third Reason which I mention'd against an undistinguishing Severity, was this, That it would be against the interest of the Church and State of England. Both those great Interests are united to∣gether in the preservation of the Monarchy. For Monarchy is essential to the State, as is visible in the Constitution of it. And for the Church of England, as she is the best support of the Monar∣chy, so she is supported by it, and must either fall with it, or be brought into a very low conditi∣on; as we have seen by the experience of late years. Now of all sorts and parties among us, Page  43 that dissent from the Church of England, there is none but has Principles which seem to look ill up∣on Monarchy; nor is there any that has not ex∣plain'd the meaning of them by their practices, at one time or other within our memory. To spe∣cifie this in Instances of all, would be needless; for I know no sort of Dissenters that go about to justifie themselves wholly in this matter, except only Roman Catholicks. Among them, some late Writers would bear us down, that they are, and have been always, faithful to the Monarchy. It were better said by others of that Church, than by some of them that have written this. But the truth is, they are a mixt Communion, whereof the governing part of the Clergy are thorough-Papists; and therefore neither they, nor any of their Faction can be right Friends to such a Mo∣narchy as we speak of, whatsoever they pretend. Many of the inferior Clergy, and of the Laiety of that Communion are no Papists; as I have shewn in this Paper, and they have shewn it themselves, in adhering to Monarchy against the Pope him∣self.

Of both these sorts of Roman Catholicks, we have lately seen the tryal in Ireland; where for some years they agreed in nothing, but that some times they went to Church together. Their Bi∣shops, and the rest of the chief of their Clergy, were indeed the Pope's Creatures and Subjects. For they had sworn Allegiance to him, and re∣ceived a Right from him, as well to the Temporal∣ties, as to the Spiritualties of their titular Pre∣ferments. What the Pope's meaning was in pre∣ferring Page  44 them, we may guess by what follow'd. For as soon as they saw an opportunity for it, they formed a Rebellion in that Kingdom against the King. And when the Pope sent his Nuncio to head it, they joyn'd with him, and drove the King's Lieutenant out of the Kingdom. Which accursed Rebellion of theirs, lost the King, not only that Kingdom, but the other two Kingdoms, and his life in the end. And yet they of that Faction in Ireland, are so far from acknowledging that they did any ill in all this, that within these ten years, the General-Assembly * of the Clergy of that Nation, in plain terms, refus'd to ask His Majesties pardon for any thing that had been done in the late War by any of the Clergy of that Kingdom. This was a sufficient Demonstration of the Prevalence of those Popish Principles among them, and of the ill Influence they have upon Mo∣narchy. Yet there was even then as plain a De∣monstration of better Principles in others of that Communion. For some there were, though much fewer in number, who kept their Allegi∣ance to the King throughout that whole Rebelli∣on, and fought for him against the Pope himself, in the person of his Nuncio; and having one while got a great part of the Laity to joyn with them, they prevail'd so far as to drive him out of the Kingdom. But they, and all the rest that serv'd the King in that Nation, were excommuni∣cated for it by the Nuncio and his Clergy in Ire∣land; And that Sentence being judicially ratified at Rome, I am assured that many of them do con∣tinue under it to this day.

Page  45In England it is to be observ'd in all our Histo∣ries, That, even in Popish times, there were those that stood up for the Rights of the Crown against the Pope's Usurpations; and that they which did so, were the generality of the People of this Na∣tion. How else came those Laws of Provisors, &c. to pass in Parliament, though the Spiritual Lords oppos'd them with all their might, and protested against them, as oft as such Laws came before them? How came King Henry VIII to pass his Law against the Papal Supremacy? which in effect contain'd no more than those former Laws did: And yet the Bishops at that time, not only voted for it, but set their hands to a Book that was writ in de∣fence of it; and some of the most Learned among them, writ besides on that subject as good Dis∣courses as were written in that Age. And how came the whole Kingdom to stand by him (as they did, both before and after the Dissolution of Monasteries) against the Pope's Bull of * Excom∣munication and Deprivation? which Bull, I con∣ceive was that which first made the Schism. Though this Breach was made up again by Queen Mary, who restor'd the Pope's Authority, to strengthen her own Right to the Crown, which otherwise had hung by the single thred of an Act of Parliament; yet by what pass'd before, it suf∣ficiently appears to have been the judgment of our Forefathers in former Ages, that Popery is no part of the Catholick Doctrine. That it has more ob∣tained since, and that the number of Papists has increas'd among the English of that Communion, I partly ascribe to the great offence which was Page  46 taken at first here in England against the Refor∣mation. The Horse is said to have first taken up Man upon his back, to hunt down his Enemy. And for the same end, I conceive, the Roman Ca∣tholicks suffer'd the Pope to saddle them in Queen Mary's days. They could not have gratified him more, than by letting him ride and hunt together; both which he loves dearly. Soon after, the Pope having by his Council of Trent, made Articles of Faith of their controverted Opinions, it could not but oblige them to look kindly on all that he did for himself in that Council. After which, 'tis no wonder that Queen Elizabeth found the World so much alter'd since her Father's time. I think 'tis observable, that when He was curs'd and bann'd by the Pope, as She afterwards was, yet he had not one attempt made against his life. Some Rebelli∣ons he had against him, but those not so much in the Pope's quarrel, as in the Common People's, who were enrag'd at him for dissolving the Mo∣nasteries. But Queen Elizabeth, who had little to do of that kind, and who generally pleas'd the People otherwise, and was therefore not so liable to be shockt with Rebellions; yet for all that, when the Pope mark'd her out for destruction, some or other of her Subjects were continually driving practices to take away her life. I mention this as a great Instance of the growth of Popery among the People of that Communion. And yet no doubt she knew those among them that were no Papists; or else she would not have made visits to them, as she did in the most dangerous times; nor have pro∣tected their Priests,* without sufficient assurance of their Loyalty.

Page  47Yet she had not that way of assurance which K. Iames found out afterwards,* and which the Pope himself help'd to make the more satisfactory. For when (as I have said) upon occasion of the Gunpow∣der Treason, K. Iames requir'd the Oath of Allegi∣ance to be taken by all his Subjects; and Pope Paul V. requir'd all his Subjects to refuse it: It was easie from thenceforward, among the Roman Catholicks, to know which were the Pope's, and which were the King's Subjects; for each of them would do the will of their Lord, and what they did they maintain'd on both sides. I think there needs no better defence for the Rights of the Crown against the Pope and his Faction, than has been made by one of their Priests, namely, * Preston, in his Books for the Oath of Allegi∣ance.

Now this being the only Test appointed by Law, and this being already taken by many Ro∣man Catholicks, who profess themselves ready to take any other that the State shall prescribe, for the securing it self against Popery; I conceive that such persons being taken off by this means from all dependance of the Pope, ought in reason to be accounted good Subjects. For if their Principles be such as they swear they are, as well their Prin∣ciples, as their Oath, will make them firm to the Monarchy. And nothing can be imagin'd to make them against it, or to loosen them from it, but the Pope's Dispensation, against which they secure us as the Law directs them to do. For they both swear expresly, that they will not take any such Dispensation, and that they believe the Pope has Page  48 no power to give it. I do not say, but while they continue in that Communion, they are con∣tinually liable to be tempted and drawn from these Principles: And I know no way the State has to help it, but by making them often renew their Security; as I shall humbly propose in due place. But while they keep to their Principles; which in relation to Monarchy, are the same that the Church of England holds; though she ought to desire their Conversion, and to seek it by all lawful means, yet I see not why she should de∣sire to have them driven away, or disabled from assisting her in defence of the Monarchy. Now there is nothing more plain, than that this party of Roman Catholicks must be utterly disabled and destroy'd by an undistinguishing execution of the Laws. For if they have no favour at home, they are sure to find worse abroad. There they must learn to hate their own Country, by suffer∣ing for having loved it too well. When they have spent what they can carry over with them, they must want, and may perish ere they find re∣lief. While their zealous Antagonists, the true Sons of the Pope, are received with all kindness where∣soever they come; and when they have weather∣ed out the storm, they are sure to be sent back with full pockets, and fresh supplies, and such In∣structions as may fit the change of times. Then we shall, if it should happen, which God forbid, see the fruit of an undistinguishing Severity. We shall see the destruction of a considerable num∣ber of men, that were friends to the Government, and that would have been useful at such a time. Page  49 Or we shall see them return with other Princi∣ples, and become Enemies to the Government, which used them as Enemies, and wholly joyn'd in affection to them that fed them in their exile. In few words, we shall see the Popish Faction (truly so called) return with more hope to do mischief, and with more power to do it, than ever they had before. They could never yet make all of their Communion to joyn with them in any de∣sign against the Government. But then undoubt∣edly they will, if there be not a sufficient number left of the other side to oppose them.

They at Rome are thought to understand their own Interest well. And there is reason they should; for it is the Study of that place.* And I suppose, 'tis not in favour to the Church or State of England, but for the interest of Rome, that they are very well pleas'd with an undistinguish∣ing execution of the Penal Laws in England against the Roman Catholicks; and are so far from de∣siring to have it otherwise, that they hate and de∣test all distinction, and declare him their Enemy that desires it. This might be proved by more instances than are proper for this place. But I shall give one or two that are sufficient.

And first of former days: Widdrington, * a Priest of the Roman Communion, gives this following Relation:

Secondly, what their judgment is at present con∣cerning this matter, I know not who can inform us better than the Pope's Nuncio's. He that now is, or lately was at Brussels, Falconieri, the Internuncio of Burgundy and the Low-Countries, I suppose has a power given him over our Roman Catholicks; for his immediate Predecessor Airoldi had it, and came over hither in hope to establish his Jurisdicti∣on in England. This Falconieri was inform'd, while the Parliament were yet sitting, in March was twelve month, that divers Roman Catholick Peers had taken the Oath of Allegiance; which provoked him so far, that he lash'd out these words, It were better there were not a Catholick left in England, than that they should take that Oath to free themselves from Persecution. This Relation I had from one of that Communion, whom I have very much reason to credit. And yet, if any one doubts of his Testimony, he may see as much written by a Nuncio himself, who was also this man's Predecessor. I think his words go some∣thing beyond those of Falconieri, unless they like Page  51 the Oath of Allegiance better than the Irish Re∣monstrance; which whosoever compares them, will judge they cannot well do, according to their Principles. And yet of that Remonstrance it was, that the former Nuncio Vecchii gave his judgment in these words,* It may do more hurt and mischief to the Church of God (viz. to the Popish Faction in it) than any Persecution that ever was from the He∣reticks. I doubt not, the late Pope's Nuncio, that waged war in Ireland against our late King, if he had lived to these times, would have been of the same mind. He would have endeavoured to keep his party together, and not let them be separated by a Test. He would have told them, they were as good have ask'd Pardon for what they had done, as Promised to do so no more; which promise in fewer words was the effect of that Remonstrance. By these Indications, we may guess at that which might otherwise have been a mystery to us, name∣ly, why so many Leading-men of that Commu∣nion in England, who refuse to take the Oath of Allegiance, are so much against the framing of any other Test. It might seem very strange, that they who are so loud, above all others, in crying out of Persecution, are yet so extremely averse from doing that which is the only sure way to avoid it; namely, from giving publick Security to the State. But their meaning is plain. They would not have Popery garbled out of their Religion; nor those Principles forsworn, that may be use∣ful when time serves. If 'twere known who are the Pope's, and who are the King's Subjects, it were to be feared the Pope's would be left single; Page  52 and that they themselves would be found to be of that number. I cannot blame them, that they had much rather keep themselves in the Herd; and therefore perswade all men of their Church, rather to run the hazard of a general undistin∣guishing Persecution, than to submit to such a Test, as may enable the State to know its Ene∣mies.

It is plain, that He whom they serve, may de∣spair of arriving at his ends upon England, any otherwise than by one of these two ways;* viz. Either by an undistinguishing execution of the Laws against all Roman Catholicks in general; or by an undistinguishing Toleration to them all; and for their sakes, to all other Dissenters what∣soever.

By the former way, Popery, (properly so cal∣led) would be kept from appearing in the Light, which it does not love. It would pass undisco∣vered, in the Croud, among Principles of Religi∣on.* And the people, by little and little, would come to be perswaded, that they ought to suffer as much for their Obedience to the Pope, as for their belief in God. Than which there is no one thing that our Hildebrandists drive at with more zeal; and no doubt the Pope would buy it with all his heart, at the hazard of leaving not one Ro∣man Catholick in England. Though the hazard would not be so great to them, that should be his prime Agents in this business. For they would be sure to keep themselves out of harms way. And all the danger should light on Bigots, and such hot-headed men; who, though living, they Page  53 are worth nothing; yet, when they dye, leave Treasures to the Church. For they must presently be cryed up for Martyrs. And then, What can be said enough to the glory of the Apostles that sent them forth, and of the Apostolick See, and of Christ's Vicar that sits in it? Happy men, that are sure to have their Bodies work Miracles, wheresoever their Souls be! And Blessed Cause for which such Men did not stick to sacrifice their lives!

If there happens a Leading-man, a Garnet to be taken among them, there is a loss indeed, for which perhaps the straw makes not a sufficient recompence. Yet this loss falls on Persons only, and not on the Cause. The Tenets, which do all the mischief, not only escape, but gain ground. If they were not de Fide before, now they are, being seal'd with the blood of Martyrs, and at∣tested with Miracles. And this Faith is not like to want Preachers worthy of it self. For there will be always men enough left of the worse sort: The most subtle and dangerous, will save them∣selves one way or other. They'll be sure to get out of the way, till they see their own time to shew themselves; And then they will appear the more Venerable to the party, as being the Bre∣thren and Successors of them that died for their Religion.

By the other way of undistinguishing Tolera∣tion,* they would have divers advantages, more than I shall mention in this place. For it is not my business here to write against Toleration, but rather against an undistinguishing of Laws. But Page  54 that I may not seem by this means, to desire to perswade a Toleration, which I take to be much worse than the other, I shall shew the dan∣ger of it in these following particulars:

*For first, they look upon Toleration as a sure way to destroy the establish'd Religion. And therefore in all Countries where Popery is esta∣blish'd, they are so far from admitting any To∣leration, that they look upon him that speaks for it as their Enemy, and count none their sure Friends, but them that set up the Inquisition. By which also here in England, if England were theirs, they would make a short work with all those other Dissenters, whom now they seem to look upon with compassion, and to plead against Persecution, and wish Liberty of Conscience, for their sakes. They would not have the Thorn be disturb'd, while it is in their Enemies sides; but if it were out, they would burn it, for fear it should be a Thorn in their own.

*Another use of Toleration among us, would be to weaken the Government; as needs it must, if the strength of the Government consists in the hearts of the Subjects. A most unjust and wick∣edly manag'd jealousie of our late blessed King's inclination to Popery, first lost him the hearts of his People. Which jealousie being confirm'd, by his granting (as it was said) a Toleration of Po∣pery in Ireland, they grew wild upon it, and would never come at him more. Or if they would, it was too late, when his Enemies had gotten him in their hands. I think 'tis visible now, that as well as all parties among us love Li∣berty, Page  55 there, is none of them wish it to Roman Catholicks; unless it be with design to blow up the like jealousie again. God forbid there should be any such design now on foot. But if there be, they that drive it, are not altogether Fools. They have reason to think, that if the Govern∣ment were away, they might be able to make their party good against the Roman Catholicks. Nor can our Papists be such fools, to imagine, that they alone can make head against the other Dissenters. It is possible they may hope, that if it should come to that, the men of our Church would joyn with them. But that wi•l never be, unless they get the Government of their side. Which they very ill deserve, if they ask a Tole∣ration, before they have converted, at least, half the Kingdom. And this they would consider, if it were any part of their care to preserve the Government of the Nation. But there is but one Government in the World, for which thorough-Papists are concern'd. All the rest are to be brought under this; and those that will not bend to it, must be broken. It matters not into what Form they are reduced, whether of Kingdom, or Free-States, or Common-wealth. Much less are those of Hildebrand's Sect concern'd for this or that Family. A Cromwel would have serv'd their turn (when time was) as well as a Stuart. For, I suppose they that courted him to be the Restorer of the Catholick Religion,* would not have dealt so coursly with him, as to turn him out for his pains. But that which makes their teeth ake against the present Government, is, to see it united Page  56 with the Church of England. Which Church be∣ing likely enough to be destroy'd by a Tolera∣tion, if the same means will embroyl the King∣dom too, they will like it never the worse. The old Fisherman whom they serve, fishes best in troubled waters. He never made such a draught here in England, as he did in the late times of Confusion. And then also in Ireland, he had al∣most a whole Kingdom in his Net; though for want of strength, he could not draw it a∣shore.

But in case a Toleration should not have that most desirable effect, of blowing up a Civil War, nor any other way weaken the Government (which to me seems impossible;*) yet at least there would be hope, that it might some way strengthen the party. If they could but have the face, which they seldom want, and that colour withal, which this would give them, to say, that this Liberty was granted in favour to Popery, and that this favour was an earnest of more, and that now all would be theirs very speedily, no doubt many would believe them. And not a few by the power of this belief, would be drawn to joyn with them; and to be the more welcome, would present them, as well with their Loyalty as with their Religion.

It would also be a means to wear off the strange∣ness between them and the other Sects. For, those who were content to enjoy Toleration with them, though with design to try it out, who should be Masters at last, when they had trod down the Church of England between them; yet would Page  57 have some conversation with them the mean while. And I suppose, a cunning Jesuite would be able now and then to convince a simple Secta∣ry. Howsoever that might succeed; they would be united together, in one common Interest, though with different designs. They would both be concern'd to keep up the Toleration. They would engage together against the Enemies of it. And there insensibly grows a kindness between men that sail in the same ship together, though they are bound for different Ports.

But although this good effect may be procur'd by a general suspension, or rather a Repeal of the Penal Laws; yet if that cannot be had, the same will follow in some measure upon an undi∣stinguishing execution of them. And therefore, if there be no remedy but that they must be exe∣cuted, it is the interest of the Popish Faction, to have them felt by as many as is possible. Perhaps it were for their turn to have them fear'd rather than felt. For the smart of the Rod would cure many of their distempers, that are enrag'd by having it shaken over them. But either the threat∣ning of the Law, or a light execution of it, be∣ing extended to all, would suffice to do their bu∣siness. And if that Severity, which were a means to cure many, would exasperate all the rest, I con∣ceive that would do it much better. For all other Dissenters being brought under the Lash as well as Roman Catholicks, no doubt would be as much dissatisfied with the Government and Laws. They would joyn with them in aspersing the State with injustice and cruelty. They would add to Page  58 their noise, by crying out of Persecution for Con∣science. And all men loving naturally to be piti∣ed, they that study popular Arts, can easily find how to take men by this handle, and to draw them nearer themselves, and to make a mischievous use of them. I know I do not teach them, by saying, that such Accidents may arise, in which 'twere very possible for the Jesuites to make such a con∣junction with some of our Fanaticks, as might create no small trouble and danger to Church and State.

But if other Dissenters are not yet angry enough with the Government, or if they know the Je∣suits so well that they will not deal with them, or if they will give nothing for the priviledge of being eaten last (for any of these things may ve∣ry well happen) then these Gentlemen have none left to work upon but Roman Catholicks. And of them they have all reason to be secure, un∣less they are very loyally principled. The only way to work on such, is, by drawing them off from their Principles. And that they may hope to do, when they find them uneasie, and out of humour. As it cannot be expected but they will be, if they are made to suffer the Severity of the Laws. They that have been faithful to the Go∣vernment, and know themselves to intend no other, and are ready to give any proof of it; yet to see themselves ruin'd by the Government, or to be kept in continual fear of it, must needs be discompos'd, and think themselves very hard∣ly dealt with. Then, if a Jesuite step in, and endeavour to convince him, that all their suffer∣ing Page  59 is for Religion; and not for treasonable Principles; if he instance in that Loyal Person himself, and bids him judge by his own experience, he cannot but feel himself suffer; he knows himself free from disloyalty, therefore his suffering can be for nothing else but his Religion: He must be a man of more than ordinary Abstraction, that can dis∣cern the fallacy of this reasoning. And he that cannot find that, had need stop his ears, with a resolution to hear nothing against the Govern∣ment, or else the Jesuite will be too hard for him. He had need be as resolute in his Loyalty, as in his Religion. For the proof being made, as well to his Sense, as to his Reason, it looks like an Argument against Transubstantiation. If the person so attack'd be a very Iob in holding his in∣tegrity; if no Argument will move him, nor no other temptation draw him from it: Yet he must yield to Want, which can neither be hid nor re∣sisted. There are many good men that live from hand to mouth, and that hardly enough, while they enjoy their Estates. If any of these be de∣prived of so much as the Law would take from him, he cannot live with that which he has left. And then if a Pension be offer'd him out of the Jesuites Bank, or out of the Pope's Coffers, he will scarce know how to refuse it. Necessity will make a generous man do that, which he would hate to think of in better circumstances. And having eaten their bread, he will find it a hard mat∣ter to keep himself disengag'd from their Interests. Much more, if he suffer himself once to be engag'd, he will find it impossible to untwist himself after∣wards. Page  60 And 'tis next to impossible, for him that has been oblig'd by their benefits, and as it were, listed in Service, and taken pay on the Enemies side, to have any kindness left for his Country, that drove him to all this. I know but one in∣stance, that of David in Gath, of a man that was put to all these streights, and yet not corrupted in his Principles.

I shew but one way of many, how men that are very good Subjects, and desire nothing more than to continue so, may be spoil'd with hard usage, and made Enemies against their Inclinati∣ons. Which, being added to those things said before on this head, may be more than enough to make good my third Reason, against an undistin∣guishing execution of the Laws on Roman Catho∣licks; as being against the interest of the Church and State of England.

And this seems so evident to me, that I have no manner of doubt, that as the best news we could send to Rome, would be of a general Toleration of all Religions and Sects whatsoever; so, next to that (which I know would please them best) the most welcome news would be, to assure them, that all the Laws here in England against Roman Catholicks, were severely and indifferently put in execution. And I am as sure, that nothing would trouble them more, than to hear of such a Discrimination or Distinction of Roman Catho∣licks,* as I come now to propound.

For, now to speak on the Affirmative side of the Debate, this seems to be the only way for sup∣pressing of Popery, if the State will be pleas'd to Page  61 distinguish btween Papists and other Roman Ca∣tholicks: and so to shew favour to the one, upon security given of their Loyalty; as that the other, who will not give that security, may have no part of that favour, but be left to the severity of all those Laws that have been, or shall be made against their Principles and Practices.

My Reasons are, 1. Because this course being taken, would be effectual to the end above-men∣tioned. 2. It would be equitable in it self. 3. And it would be for the interest of the Church and State of England. I shew'd before, that the undi∣stinguishing way had not any of those three pro∣perties or qualities. Now the way which I pro∣pound being contrary to it, must have all the three by the Rule of Contraries; and I conceive I need no other proof. But to make the matter more plain, I shall resume these three Reasons, and prove them severally in the order pro∣pos'd.

1. This course would be Effectual. For it would take away the causes of Popery. The only imme∣diate causes, which have either propagated or pre∣served Popery so long in this Kingdom, notwith∣standing all Laws that have been made against it, as well anciently as of late times, are chiefly these two. On one side, the great boldness and business of the truly Popish Clergy, in asserting and cry∣ing up all Papal pretences whatsoever. On the other side, the tameness of the other Clergy of that Communion, or whatsoever else their fault is, and has been, in not opposing those Papal pre∣tences. For the former of these, I think 'tis very Page  62 visible in all the Iesuites that come among us, and in most of the other Regular Orders, and not a few of the Seculars; that their chief business amongst us, is to advance the Pope's Authority in all things, and to reduce all men under the obedience of it. 'Tis true, they have not yet seen their time to at∣tempt this by open War. They have not set up the holy Banner in England, and plac'd the Pope's Nuncio in the head of an Army against the King; as their Brethren did in Ireland, and do not repent of it. But neither will our Popish Clergy say, that those in Ireland did ill in it. They have neither declared their dislike of that Rebellion by any publick act: Nor among all the Books they have writ since the King's Restauration, has any one of their Writers writ so much as one line against it, that ever I could see or hear of. But their Books abound with those principles out of which that Re∣bellion was hatch'd. They are slily insinuated in those which are to be had at every Stall. And there are those that pass from hand to hand, in which this Treason is the main scope of their writing. By which we may guess what wholesome Do∣ctrine it is that they infuse upon occasion in pri∣vate, when they are among their own people. What kind of preaching and catechising they use. What information of their Penitents. What ghost∣ly counsel they give; and what loyal directions of Conscience. And if we had nothing else to dis∣cover them to us, we may soon find what kind of spiritual Offices they perform, by the Fruit of them, in the perversness and obstinacy of so many of their Laity, who choose to do or endure Page  63 any thing, rather than take the Oath of Alle∣giance.

I deny not, that there are other Priests of that Communion, who, as far as we can judge by their private discourse, seem to be rightly prin∣cipled, and well inclined towards the Civil Go∣vernment. There are those that seem to be heartily for the Independency of the Crown of England; and that hold, that the external Government of the Church ought to be in the King, in such man∣ner as the Laws of the Land do or shall prescribe; and who are firmly perswaded, that the contrary Positions of Popery are as bad as they are de∣clared to be in the Oath of Allegiance. And some of them have declared this very honestly and pub∣lickly in their Writings, both heretofore and of late days. I think I should do them no service in naming them. For as things now are, it would only provoke and enable those of the former sort to do them mischief. Which we see, they are prone enough to do, by their traducing them pub∣lickly, though Priests of the same Church; and branding them with the Characters of Schism, Heresie, Apostacy, &c. and thereby setting the people of their Communion against them. But whereas those honest men of that Communion tell us, that there are many more of their Principles among the Secular Clergy, and also among the Regulars of inferior rank and condition: I cannot but say, that if they are not mistaken, there is a great fault among them on the other hand. Those many good men, of whom they tell us, are much to blame, that they do not declare against the Page  64 Pope's Usurpation; but rather strengthen it by their sinful compliance and silence. Either they do not think it so bad as they pretend; or else what Wretches are they to juggle with the Consciences of their People? How can they answer it to God, from whom they pretend to have these Souls gi∣ven them in charge, that they do not warn them of so dangerous a sin, that has slain its thousands and ten thousands in our streets? Why do they suffer so great a scandal to lye upon their Church, and such a danger to hang over the Civil State, while they that are the Spiritual Watchmen see it, and yet hold their peace? Nay, worse than so, the Dog fawns upon the Wolf. These honest men, if they may yet be so called, hold very good quarter and fellowship with those, whom they know to be Zealots for Popery. They make their Court to them, of whom they cannot be ignorant that both their Principles and their Interest lead them to it; that is in effect, they are so officious to stand by and hold the horses of them that are committing a Robbery; or worse employ'd, in doing all those evils above-mentioned.

I cannot see how they can excuse this any other∣wise, than by alledging, That all their Compliance is for fear of being ruin'd, and imprison'd, and starv'd, as some of their Brethren have been, for doing their duty; and more are like to be, if some course be not taken to protect them against the rage of their implacable Enemies.

Not to judge of the sufficiency of this excuse, I confess there is reason for what they say. For 'tis visible what became of those Church-men Page  65 of their Communion, who have given the highest Test of their Loyalty, who have scorn'd all those servile Compliances, and who have declared against Popery by their Actions and Writings. 'Tis the easier to observe this, because there have been so few of them, I think not above two or three in an Age. They have been fain to stand the mark of a violent endless Persecution, both from the Court of Rome, and from all its Faction in Eng∣land. And, however it came to pass, they did not find that countenance, which they might have expected from the State, in defence of whose Rights they drew all that wrath upon themselves. We have a great example of this in Preston, who having both taken the Oath of Allegiance himself, and maintain'd it against all the great Champions of Popery, was fain to take Sanctuary in the Clink, and glad to hide his head there for many years before he died. Another Learned man, Dr. Barnes, the famous Author of Romano-Catholicus Pacificus, had not leave to choose a Prison to dye in. For he was spirited by the Pope's Emissaries, and car∣ried away to Rome, and thrown into the Inquisi∣tion there. What became of him since, we shall know at the day of Judgment.

If these be their ways to maintain, and to pro∣pagate Popery, we cannot be to seek for our way to suppress it. For it is manifest, that this cannot be more effectually done, than by such a Discrimination as has been propounded.

On the one hand it would be a means to preserve those few men of that Communion among us, who have already declared against the Popes Vsurpations. Page  66 And the same course that should be taken to keep them out of danger, would also be a means to free all other men of their Principles, from the fear under which they have been kept so many years.

Whether at this present they have more or less cause to apprehend the Popish Faction, they will be the better able to judg, when they see what is done in Monsieur Luzance's case. For as there is no reason to doubt, that those Gentlemen, if they find they may do what they please, will do no less to those of their own Communion, that op∣pose their grand design, than they attempted on him that had deserted their Communion: So, if the State shall think fit to check their audacious Insolence in this case, by some exemplary punish∣ment, though I doubt they will not forsake the Land upon it, yet it is to be hoped, that they will upon some other Act of State, to which this may be a very good Introduction. Sure enough, if the Laws were duly executed on all those that will not give sufficient Security to the State, we should soon be rid of all, or most part of their Company. And then it would be a time for bet∣ter men to shew themselves. Those that did give Security, would be obliged in their own defence, if no otherwise, to own the Principles by which they were warranted to give it. Besides, it would be as well their interest, as their duty, to dis∣abuse that great part of the Laity whom those Hildebrandists had fed with lies these fourscore years. It would concern them to possess them∣selves as well of their Consciences, as of their Page  67 Chappels; and therefore to make them see, how vast a distance there is between that Faith which had been chiefly inculcated into them (I mean, the properly Popish Faith) and the Primitive Christian; and to convince them what a cursed Immorality they have been taught all this while, under the name of Obedience to the Church; and to shew them, that the way which their for∣mer Guides have conspired to miscal by the glo∣rious name of Holy Martyrdom, is the down-right way to Hell.

Having thus declar'd that most necessary Truth, to which both their Interest and Conscience led them; the same Reasons would oblige them to love home, and to study the Peace of their Coun∣try. They would have little business at Rome; and that would be so ill done there, that they would not be encourag'd to send thither again.

On the other hand, of the Pope's Faction in England, if the Laws were so executed, as I have said, none could remain here but only Hypocrites and Equivocators. And their stay would be ve∣ry uncomfortable, if they kept silence; but worse, if they discovered themselves, for then they must expect to suffer the Severity of the Laws. They must either hang like bare-fac'd Traytors, with∣out any pretence of the Crown of Martyrdom; or they must take it for a favour, that they may have leave to go after their Fellows. And they that are once out of the Kingdom, will have no hope to come in again. To be sure they shall not, if the Priests of their own Church can keep them out, or can discover them lurking in it. Nor, I Page  68 suppose, will any of the Laity be very forward to harbour them. We have no reason to think, that any man should be so unreasonable, to venture neck or purse, for the Reception of them for whom his Soul is not concern'd, when he might without danger, or any apprehension of it, enjoy the ex∣ercise of his Religion; when he might have all the Offices of it performed by other Priests, as Canonical in their Mission, and as exemplary in their lives; men free from exception every way, save that they have no tincture of Hildebrand's Doctrine. If that be it that makes them so in love with a Jesuite, that nothing seems sacred that comes out of any other hand, the State has just cause to suspect from whence that niceness pro∣ceeds, and to treat them as those that hold cor∣respondence with its Enemies. Nor can they in this case have any colour to pretend, that they suffer for their Religion, who might have en∣joy'd their Religion, without mingling it with that Treason for which they suffer. And how∣ever the matter may be thought of by Him at Rome, whose judgment we ought not to value in this case, I believe no Foreign Prince will think this a Persecution of Roman-Catholicks. France thought it none, when time was, to banish the Je∣suites. Nor Venice to turn out three Orders toge∣ther, which were all that submitted to the Pope's Interdict and Excommunication. There is no rea∣son to doubt, that any other State of that Com∣munion would have done the like, upon as great an occasion. So that if any of those States should interpose in favour of those against whom the Page  69 State of England has so just an exception, it might seem as if they did not so much desire to have them taken in here, as to rid their own Country of such Vermin, as they would not be willing to harbour. They have reason to apprehend, that those that we send over to them, would teach their own people to do like them, and put the Authority there to the trouble of doing the same thing that ours have done here, and which them∣selves have been fain to do in former times.

I say not but any Prince that were in hostility, or that thought himself likely ere long to break with England, might be ready to receive this sort of men, as he would do other Spies and Tray∣tors to their Country. There were very great Reason, that a Prince in those circumstances should consider these men, as being most com∣pleatly qualified for all such purposes. And because the Pope is a sure Enemy to all them that are for the suppressing of Popery, I doubt not, they would find him ready to mingle his quarrels with theirs, and his Instruments would work much the bet∣ter, when they received their impulse from his hand. But all this would last no longer than un∣til those Princes thought it their best way to be at peace with us. And that would soon be, if we were at Unity among our selves: As we should be, if none were suffered to live among us, but such as might live in an easie, or very tolerable condition. Then those Princes would soon ease themselves of the burthen, and give the Pope leave to find some other way to keep his Ver∣min. Which after a while, he would do with Page  70 such Italian Frugality, that if their Rents were stop'd here in England, they would soon look as thin as Fauxes Lanthorn; or to describe them to the life, they would be like Envy in the Poet.

I need not trouble the Reader, with minding him, That in case of such a Discrimination, there could be no danger of the increase either of Priests or Seminaries abroad, and as little danger of any Commiseration or Pity at home, to hin∣der it from being effectual. It is obvious to eve∣ry apprehension, that the removal of these dan∣gers would be one of the necessary consequences of it. For who does not see, that if the Roman Catholicks, on such terms as I have describ'd, might enjoy their Religion, and their Estates, and their liberty, they would not count them their Friends that would perswade them to throw away that enjoyment. Doubtless, if some few did not know when they were well, the generality of them would understand it. And both they of their own Church, and much more the Protestants, would think them not to be pitied, that should lose what they had thrown away with their own hands, especially when they considered, for what end these men did it; that it was out of a rest∣less desire to bring a Foreign Tyrannical Yoke upon their Country.

Therefore, since by this, and what else has been said on this head, we cannot but see, That the only immediate causes, not only of the Propa∣gation, but Preservation of Popery in this King∣dom; (viz. the great business and boldness of them of the Popish Faction, and the great tameness and Page  71 fearfulness of the other Clergy of that Commu∣nion among us) would be quite removed by such a Discrimination of Roman Catholicks: We can∣not but conclude with the same evidence, That such a Discrimination would be effectual to sup∣press Popery in this Kingdom. For nothing can be more clear in Natural Reason then that, where∣soever the only immediate causes both of the Pro∣pagation and Conservation of any thing ceases, there that thing it self must cease to be. And af∣ter all that has been said already, we cannot ra∣tionally doubt, whether by such a Discrimination, those only immediate causes of the Preservation and Propagation of Popery would cease to be any longer in England. 'Tis manifest to every consi∣dering man, That in case of such a Discriminating Course, duly and constantly held, the busie Agents for Popery, must either give up their Cause, or fly their Country. And either way will do our business. If any of them stay, they will do their part toward it, by giving security to the State. Which cannot be without the renouncing of Po∣pery. If they all go, it will be a blessed rid∣dance of them and Popery together. For the active part or soul of it will depart with the Je∣suites. And the Body or Scheme of Doctrines will be interr'd by those whom they leave behind them, or rather hang'd up, for it does not deserve Christian Burial.

2. Such a Discrimination would also be just and equitable. For it would be according to the intention of the Laws of this Kingdom, and most agreeable to the eternal Law of Rea∣son, Page  72 and the ancient practice of the Christian World.

By all these Rules I have shewn, that it is not just nor equitable, that the penalties of the Laws, as now they are, should be inflicted on all Roman Catholicks indifferently, without any respect of Loyal or Disloyal. And in proving this, I have sufficiently shewn, (For it follows by the Rule of Contraries above-mention'd,) That it is both just and equitable, that all of that Religion, who being faulty in nothing else, shall give such assu∣rance of their Loyalty, as the State shall think fit to require, should enjoy an exemption from those penalties, which were never intended for such persons. But of this more shall be spoken in due place.

For them, on the other hand, who refuse to give such an assurance, and by their obstinacy therein, would keep the State in perpetual jealousie, and expose it to the danger of unknown Enemies, who cannot be known from good Subjects, but by such a way of distinction as they endeavour to ob∣struct: I conceive 'tis just and equitable, that the State should look upon them either as Enemies, or at least, as the Concealers of Enemies.

If they are only Concealers of such Enemies as our Papalins are, it is just that they should suffer for it in the same degree as they transgress against the Law, and as they hinder the security of the State. And it is no small transgression in them, that not only disobey the Law, but (as far as in them lies) make many Laws utterly useles. For those Laws being provided for the security of the Page  73 State against a Sect, or rather Faction of men, who are dangerous in the highest degree, and for whom the Law has therefore procured the highest punishment; it is certainly a great presumption of those, who in spight, and as it were in defiance of the Law, will keep them not only from being pu∣nisht, but from being so much as distinguisht.

Now it is evident that the Papalins are such a Faction, whose Principles lead them, when they see their opportunity, to subvert the present Govern∣ment and Laws both of the Church and Kingdom of England. It is certain that in pursuance of these Principles, they have attempted to do all this more than once within these last hundred years. And this in favour to the pretences of a Foreiner, who has more than one dormant Title to the Sovereignty of England, who actually inva∣ded Ireland in Queen Elizabeths days, and usurpt the Royal Power there by his Nuncio in our Age; who assumes to himself in some cases (whereof he makes himself the only Judge) a right to dispose of all States and Kingdoms whatsoever. If there∣fore any State may justly endeavour to preserve it self against a Forein Enemy, and may make Laws to restrain their own people from joyning with them, and may punish with death or otherwise, as many as shall presume to break those Laws; Eng∣land has all this right within it self, as well as any other State, and may use it as well against the Pope as against any other Enemy. And therefore the State may require all its Subjects to declare against his Usurpation, and to renounce all those Princi∣ples that are any way favourable to it. If any of Page  74 them shall refuse to do do this, the State may justly punish them, whether with death or otherwise, according to its Laws; which in this point are en∣acted with the highest reason, and backt with all other Laws, Divine and Humane, &c. with the practice not only of other Christian States, but of all other Nations in the world.

I know the Refusers will be ready to say, their Conscience will not suffer them to declare against that Power which the Pope assumes to himself, nor to renounce those ill Principles which they say are a part of their Religion. No doubt they that are through-Papists have great reason to say this. For Popery, as I have shewn, does consist of such Principles, which though, as to the matter of them, they are truly Secular and Political, yet go veiled under the sacred name of Religion. They whose interest it is to have them believed, are plea∣sed to make them Articles of the Catholick Faith. And no doubt it takes with many. For we see there are those that do not stick to sacrifice their lives for those Principles. And what can be dear∣er to men than their Lives, but Religion? We see they do not spare the lives of men of opposite Principles, against whom they profess to have no other Quarrel but Religion. And we have rea∣son to believe them; for 'tis what our Saviour said,* When they kill you, they shall think they are do∣ing God service.

But what Religion is that, which teaches men to do things which are so evidently against the light of Nature, as Murder; especially when joyned with Rebellion, and acted upon the persons of Page  75 their own Princes, and tending to the dissolution of humane Society and destruction of mankind? Whatsoever Religion this be, sure enough 'tis not Christian, nor such as ought to be allow'd among Christians. And therefore if their Conscience binds them not to renounce it, so does the Magi∣strates Conscience bind him to punish them for it. 'Tis the duty of him that bears the Sword to pu∣nish all Immorality, though never so lawful or ne∣cessary in the judgment of him that commits it. If a Jew or a Turk come to live in this Kingdom, and marry many Wives, which he may safely do by his Law, 'tis just by our Law to hang him for it. Much more if one be guilty of such immora∣lity as tends immediately to the subversion of the Kingdom, it is both just and necessary to send him away, or not let him live in it but at his peril. And if he complain that this is persecution for Consci∣ence, (which by the way cannot but sound very odly from one of that Sect, that burn men only for Conscience) his complaint in this case would be very unreasonable: And we ought to be no more moved with it, than we should be, if he com∣plain'd that we would not stand still, and have our throats cut, in compliance with his Conscience.

There is nothing that can secure State or Peo∣ple against this Religious Distemper of the fiery Papalins, and that can also preserve the Civil Rights and Proprieties of good Subjects of that Commu∣nion, but only such a discrimination between them as may distinguish the Loyal from the Dis∣loyal, the Turbulent from the Peaceable, in such manner that they both may have what they de∣serve. Page  76 This is in effect to render to every one his due, according to Law and Reason: Which is the very definition of Justice and Equity. For the administration whereof God has ordain'd the Civil Power, and put the Sword into the Magi∣strates hand, to employ it, (as the Apostle says) to the praise of them that do well, and for the terror of evil doers.*

By what has been said on this last Head, it suf∣ficiently appears, that such a discrimination is also for the Interest of the Church and State of Eng∣land. For that Interest is preserv'd by Justice and Equity; which will entitle it to that blessing from God which he hath promis'd in his Word, and which are naturally apt to be instrumental to the Divine Providence in producing that good which he has promised.* For a just distribution of Re∣wards and Punishments makes the Government ve∣nerable in the eyes of the people, and secures it at home by their chearful obedience. It also acquires that Reputation abroad which will make it either loved or feared by all the neighbour Nations. Our Neighbours of the Roman Communion who are now possest by the clamours of those among us, that say they are persecuted for Religion, and who can judge no otherwise when they see men severe∣ly handled that are criminal no other way, will be soon disabused by such a discrimination. And it will right us to those Protestants abroad, to whom the State has been ill represented by fome on the other hand, for not executing all the Penal Laws against Popery. It will save England the trouble of making Apologies either way, to vindicate the Page  77 Justice of its proceedings to other Nations. For it is manifest, that no Government can tolerate such as hold Tenets inconsistent with its own safety; nor on the contrary, deny the protection of the Laws to men whose Principle it is to obey the Go∣vernment, and to do all that in them lies to sup∣port it: To venture their lives in defence of the Authority, not only of the Legislators, but of those very Laws which they make against them, till those Laws are repeal'd by the same power by which they were made.

It were easie to bring hither all those reasons with which I shewed before, that undistinguishing Laws and execution of Laws are against the Inte∣rest of the Church and State of England; and to prove by the same reasons, that nothing of this kind can be more for it than such a Discrimination as is here propounded. For if it be for the Inte∣rest of England to support and strengthen the Go∣vernment, then it is not to weaken the Friends of the Government, nor to strengthen or preserve the Enemies of it. I shew'd that such would be the effect of an undistinguishing way; which is there∣fore desired by them of the Popish Faction, as being next to a Toleration the most likely means to unite and to encrease their party among us. Now taking those things for granted which are already proved, it follows that, upon the account of Inte∣rest, this way of Discrimination should be as desi∣rable to us as 'tis hateful and detestable to them. Sure enough they apprehend it, and not without visible cause, to be the likeliest way both to stop Page  78 the further growth of▪ Popery, and to lessen the number of Papists among us.

I may add (which is visible in the nature of the thing) that a Discrimination between them that are of the same Communion will be a sure way to divide them among themselves. Which may be a means to do some of them the greatest spiritual good, or at least to keep us from taking that hurt which we have reason to fear from so numerous and powerful a Combination against us.

For the way of Distinction between Papists and other Roman Catholicks must be by some test or mark of Distinction. And that either by the pas∣sing of some new Law for it, especially when there is a new mark of Distinction, or by the strict execution of those Laws that are in force for the taking of any Test that is already made. In either of these Cases, the Papalins (who are men of in∣telligence) will take an early alarm, and try their Friends here in England, if they can to prevent the passing of any such Law, or the execution of any that is past. If their Friends fail them here, their next resort is to Rome, where they have an old Friend that never fails them. The Pope, if he has not forgotten the old trick, sends out his Censures against all that shall submit to those Laws, and take the Test which is prescribed in them. If it be no more than the Oath of Allegiance, that is forbidden already by divers Popes, and condemn∣ed by them as having many things in it which are contrary to the Catholic Faith. And the reason of this severity is, as well to guard their own Tem∣poral Power, as to keep their Creatures and Friends Page  79 from discovery. If any here, and especially if any Priests of that Communion, are so bold, not∣withstanding all this to take the Test; then upon the next information, or soon after, the Pope sends to tell nofes. And if he finds they are but few that transgress (which will scarce be in our case) he delays not to cite them to Rome, and if they come thither, woe be to them; if not, he curses them afresh, and particularly. But if they are many, he considers their strength, and being Curse-proof, he forbears them for the present, only lea∣ving them under his general Censures. Otherwise, if they are a weak and obnoxious multitude, he proceeds to further Censures against them. And if some few have been more forward than the rest in doing that which the Law requires, and special∣ly if any dares justifie what they have done, he denounces them Excommunicate by name, and therein both sacrifices them to his own angry Dei∣ty, and gives his discovered Creatures some kind of revenge on those poor men, to ease their hearts, till he and they can find how to be reveng'd on the State, for which they are to wait their opportu∣nity.

When any of these things happens, as it has done in like cases, and as it will do in these above∣mentioned, if Popes are constant to themselves: (For there is nothing here said but what I could prove both by Rule and Example) we have rea∣son to hope that some of those censur'd men, who are able to right themselves, or rather their Reli∣gion, will do it, by declaring against the horrible injury that is done both to it and them. And Page  80 specially their Priests, who have hitherto alledg'd, that the reason they have not done it all this while, has been their continual fear of a Proclamation to send them beyond Sea, where they are sure to be call'd to a severe account for whatsoever they have said or done against the Interest of Rome. When that fear is over, as it will be upon their giving se∣curity to the State, it may justly be expected, that they will both speak and write their minds freely, as occasion shall be offered, for the instruction of their people, and for the Vindication of themselves and their Religion. If the general Censures be objected, as it is certain they will, by those that procur'd them, they will be oblig'd to shew the injustice and the invalidity of those Censures. If they are Excommunicated by name for so doing, they will be further engag'd to consider the Autho∣rity of him that lays about him so madly with the Keys of the Church. It was so in Luther's Case, The quarrel begun between him and the Procurers of the Pope's Bulls. It proceeded from them to their Patrons in the Court of Rome. And so at last it came up to the Papal Authority it self. Who knows but that it may please God (for Vexatio dat intellectum) that many among us being vext with Declarations,* that are certainly uncanonical, may be brought by that means to discover, that the Power which sent them forth is Antichri∣stian?

The most difficult thing that is required toward the making this discovery, is only to lay aside those strong prejudices which men commonly receive from their Education, and from converse with Page  81 men and things of that Age in which they live.

He that laying aside these shall look impartially into the Scriptures, and into the undoubted Re∣cords of the Primitive Church, shall find no Foun∣dation for that prodigious Fabrick of the Papacy. For the first three hundred years after Christ, they will find only two, namely Victor and Stephen, that took upon them to censure any which were not of their Diocess. And though their Censures (for ought that appears) were only Declarations of Non-Communion, such as any Bishop in those days might send forth against the Bishop of Rome, as well as he against other Bishops; yet we find that, even for that, they were blamed and con∣demned by other Bishops. And that is all the ef∣fect that we read their Censures had in any place out of Rome it self. Pope Victor in his Censure of the Asian Bishops, is thought not to have gone be∣yond threatning, to break Communion with them, and endeavouring to persuade other Bishops to do the same. And yet for this he was smartly handled by some of the Brethren: and it is charitably thought he was set right by the grave Counsel of Irenaeus,* who writ to him in the name of the Gal∣lican Church, and told him he did not learn this of any of his Predecessors. Of Pope Stephen it is certain that he went farther in his Quarrel with the Asian and African Bishops.* For he not only broke off Communion, but all civil Conversation with them; and commanded his people not to let any of them come within their doors. But this was only at Rome. For it does not appear that he pretended any Authority elsewhere. And Page  82 how he was scorn'd abroad for his Pride and Folly in this, the Reader may see in those two excellent Epistles.* The later of which was left out of the Roman Edition of St. Cyprian: and Pamelius ho∣nestly declares he would have stifled it,* if others had not publish'd it before him.

Lest any one should take offence at my not giving the usual garnish of the Popes of that Age to those two whom I mentioned, (for I dare not call them Saints and Martyrs, though the Roman Church does, both elsewhere, and in her Offices on their days) I ought to let him know how that Church is abused by them that have gained no small advan∣tage to themselves by such Fictions.* That the old Roman Church in the time of Constantius knew nothing of either of their Martyrdoms, it appears by her Catalogue of Popes, publisht first by Cuspinian, and since by Bucherius the Jesuite. Nay she knew the contrary of one of them. For in the Roman Calendar of that Age, publisht by the same Iesuite, Victor is not mentioned at all, and Stephen is among the Popes that were no Martyrs. If this proof were not enough, or if this place were proper for it, I should shew from good Au∣thors, that though these Popes lived under Empe∣rors that were afterwards Persecutors; yet they died before the beginning of their persecutions. I do not say but they may be Saints; but if they are, 'tis more than we have any ground to believe. For neither the Church-History, nor any Writer with∣in a hundred years of their time, has any more of their Sanctity than of their Sufferings. Of Ste∣phen there is great cause to doubt the contrary Page  83 from what we read of him in St. Cyprian's * Epistle, and more from that of Firmilian, † which is thought to have been translated by St. Cyprian, and which was written * about the time of Ste∣phens death, rather after than before it.

It is to be hoped that many Roman Catholics among us have truly that Reverence which all of them profess to true Primitive Christian Antiqui∣ty, and to the judgment of Saints and Martyrs in all Ages. We all agree that Irenaeus and Cyprian had a just right to those Titles. And Firmilian was a chief Pillar of the Church in his Age. He was thought worthy to preside in several Eastern Councils: namely, in that against the Novatians, before Stephen was Pope: and those against Sa∣mosatenus, after Stephen was dead. And after his own death, the Eastern * Church of that Age cal∣led him Firmilian of Blessed Memory. Why this man is not in the Calendar of Saints, they best know who can tell us why Victor and Stephen are there. No doubt the Saint-makers do all things with great consideration. But can any one ima∣gin that those excellent men did ever believe themselves to be under the Roman Bishop? that they ow'd any obedience to Him whom they school'd so, or any Reverence to his Censures which they slighted in that manner? Could any assurance of their Cause have justified that con∣tempt of Authority, if they had known any in him? But it appears they knew it not; nor did others in that Age. Those that were against them in the Cause, blamed them for that, and nothing Page  84 else; and yet held Communion with them, for all Pope Stephen and his Censures.

So far it appears those great men had the judg∣ment of the Church on their side. They knew of no Authority over the Universal Church that the Pope had more than any other Bishop by any right, whether Divine or Humane. What the Judgment of the Church was in the next Centuries, let them consider that shall read those Canons * in the Margent, and remember they are such as past in the first Four General Councils, and in the Afri∣can Council of 217 Bishops, (of whom St. Austin was one) assembled at Carthage. To which I add, the African Church to Pope Coelestine I. as con∣taining a full Declaration of their mind in that Canon. I know there are objections against one or two of these Canons. But all the dust that has been rais'd will not hinder any reasonable man from seeing that which, I think, is sufficient for our purpose: namely, that all the Fathers that sate in those Councils, or at least the major part of them, were of the same judgment with those above∣mentioned in this point of the Authority of the Bishop of Rome. They all allow'd him preceden∣cy as being Bishop of the Imperial City. They had commonly a great deference to his Judgment in Debates between themselves. And sometimes the Christian Emperors made him honorary Judge, whether alone or with others, in such Controver∣sies. Indeed by the Canons of Sardica, those few † Western Bishops that continued there, after the Page  85 Easterlings had left them, were pleased meerly of their Charity to give him a new Power, to order the reviewing of any Provincial Judgment upon complaint of any Bishop that was aggrieved in it. And Pope Leo not being satisfied with this, got the Emperor Valentinian III. to ordain * that the Bishop of Rome should give Law throughout his part of the Empire (which then contained little more than Italy, and part of France, and part of Spain, and the Illyrian Diocess.) Yet all that the Bi∣shop of Rome had by these Concessions and Grants did not amount to an Authority over the Universal Church. I add, nor over the British Church in * particular. And so far was this from arguing that he had by Divine Right any Jurisdiction out of his own Diocess, that his seeking or accepting what was given him by these Concessions or Grants, is a convincing argument to the contrary. But for the Churches Judgment, nothing can be more plain, than that all those Bishops who gave their Votes to those Canons which I cited before out of the first Four General Councils, and that of Africk, together with the Epistle annext, had no question or thought of any Authority that he had by Divine Right out of his own proper Diocess, or by Humane Right out of the Roman Patriarchy, or any power of Jurisdiction that he had elsewhere from the Roman Emperors, or from the Primitive Fathers.

Page  86Whatsoever power he has gotten since the de∣cay of the Roman Empire and of the Christian Religion, (from whence I have already * dated the beginning of Popery) as it is plain he has gotten in many Countries, which were not anciently with∣in his Jurisdiction upon any account, it must be either by force or fraud, abusing either the weak∣ness or ignorance of the people, or else by the con∣cession or connivence of Princes and States. Bles∣sed be God, there are some Christian Nations in the world which have stood so far out of his reach, that he has not been able to hook them in by any of these ways. And as he has no colourable pre∣tence to a power over those Countries where it is certain he never had any, as Ethiopia, Russia, &c. (which they that are pleased to call therefore Schis∣matical, must give me leave to admire as well their folly as their uncharitableness: and yet they that do not call them so, make the Pope no Head of the Universal Church:) so in those Countries where he has gotten power, it is not necessary that he should always hold it, till we see who is Antichrist, whether He, or one of the Tribe of Dan, who (they say) shall come to take it from him. They over whom he gain'd a power by force or fraud, are kept under it still the same way; which creates no right by any Law whatsoever. And therefore when God makes them strong enough, and wise enough, they will deliver themselves from him. They that gave him a power over them when they saw cause, may have as good or better cause to re∣cal it. And they have just cause to do this, when they see him desert that Title by their Gift, and Page  87 claim his power by immediate Divine Right, or when he employs his power not to edification but destruction:* and specially when doing all this he will force their obedience by such means, as come not from the Wisdom which is from above,* but from that which the Apostle calls earthly, sensual, de∣villish.

Whosoever among our Roman Catholicks will be pleased to consider these things with that Attention and Impartiality that is due to all things of Religion, I cannot but think he will see that the Christian Religion doth no way oblige him to own the Popes Authority in this Kingdom.

He will see that Iure Divino the Pope could have no Authority over this particular Church, which he had not over the Church universal. And it doth not appear by any Records of the Primi∣tive times, that the Pope ever had any such Au∣thority over the Universal Church, or that by the Diffusive Church he was believed or acknowledg∣ed to have it.

But on the contrary it appears, by instances which I have given of those times, that he was de∣nied to have such an Authority, and that as well by the Bishops assembled in their Councils, as by the best and wisest men of those times in their Writings: Nay he was contradicted and resisted as oft as he endeavoured to impose any thing against the mind of particular Churches.

He will see that whatsoever Humane Right the Pope had acquired over the people of this King∣dom, was no more of one kind, than we are all originally of one Nation; and that the power Page  88 which he was suffered to exercise over us, was ve∣ry much greater at one time than another. In the worst and darkest times it was highest, for it grew up on the bad Titles or other weakness of Prin∣ces;* and yet then he could not hold it peaceably, nor long enough to make a Prescription. But at all other times it was much less than he claim'd; which sheweth plainly it was no more but what the State pleased to give him: and they owned that the Pope had no right over them by any con∣cessions of their own, more than what he had over the rest of the Western Churches.

Particularly, in those times next before the Re∣formation, that right which was generally ac∣knowledged to be in him, was not a supreme right, but subordinate to a General Council.

This appears to have been the sense of the West∣ern Church. For it was declared in plain terms by four Councils,* which were acknowledged for Ge∣neral in that Age, and were abetted as such by the generality of the Western Church.* They not on∣ly declared this Doctrine in their Canons, but they reduced it to practice. For those Councils deposed divers Popes, and made new ones in their stead. Which Acts of theirs the Papalins of this Age are obliged to defend, as ill as they like the Canons; for without them they cannot make up the succes∣cession of their present Popes. But admitting those Acts to have been just and good, how can they reject those Canons from which they had their virtue and efficacy? If they say the Pope did not approve them, it is partly true. Out of doubt those Popes did not like them that lost by them. Page  89 Nor perhaps those that came in by those Canons might not like them so well at another time. But how then could they take upon them to be Popes? Their accepting a Title from those Coun∣cils, and the Peoples owning them in it, was enough to shew that those Canons were then in force; and they were never repealed by any Council since; nor hath there been any Council to do it, that can be reasonably thought so fit, as those four were, to declare the sense of the Western diffusive Church.

Therefore taking it for proved, that a general Council is superiour to the Pope, it must necessa∣rily follow that there lies an Appeal from the Pope to such a Council. And that his hands are tied up by such an Appeal; so that he cannot proceed at least to Censure the Appellant; for this were not only a private Injury to the Person, but an Inva∣sion of the Rights of the Supreme Court of Ju∣dicature among Christians. Therefore if the Pope should do so Uncanonical a thing, he may be Canonically disobeyed and resisted. Yea, he ought to be so (for it were a betraying the Churches right to do otherwise) till there is such a Court or Council to which the Appeal was made. And such a Council there would be at least once in ten years, if the Pope did not hin∣der it. For having taken upon-himself the power of Calling and Presiding in Councils, it is his pleasure to have none. And no doubt he hath reason for it, though there is Law to the contrary, as good Law for a Council every ten * years as can be made by any Authority in the Western Church.

Page  90Such Appeals from the Pope to a General Coun∣cil have been made by divers Persons and Socie∣ties in the Roman Communion; as namely, by Auxilius in the name of the Clergy of all Italy;* By Michael of Caesena in the name of the whole Franciscan Order; By seven Cardinals, who were at that time the major part of their Colledge; By divers Emperours of Germany,* against divers Popes, some of whom they deposed, and made other Popes in their Councils; By divers Kings of France,* some of whom have forbid all Commu∣nication with Rome till they had right done them in their Controversies.

That some of these had cause enough for what they did, and that they had just Authority to do it, will be granted by most of them of the Ro∣man Church. But they will not grant the like of our King Henry VIII. whom they make Author of the Protestant Schism, as they call it. And yet setting aside Popular Opinions and Prejudices, I do not see what there was really in his Case which might not be cleared from Schism by those Rules and Examples. I speak only of his casting off the Popes Authority, as being that which no doubt was a means to bring on the Reformation. As for those other things with which he is charged, they are extrinsick to our Cause, and we are no way accountable for them. Namely, for his dissolving of Monasteries, It was a one whom Wolsey had bred to it that taught him the way, and b they whom he employed would have burnt us if we had lived in those days.* For his being Head of the Church, whosoever is offended at it, let him Page  91 blame the c Six-Article men who brought up that Title, and who both Preached and Writ for it, and not the Q. Elizabeth Protestants d who cast it forth. Much more for his Personal excesses, what∣soever they were, if they concern any Religion, it must be theirs and not ours. For as to his Conscience, e they tell us, he always continued a Roman Catholic.

These things being set apart, or charged where they ought to be, there will remain on our ac∣count only this to be considered, Whether that Prince were guilty of Schism in casting the Popes Authority out of this Kingdom? Or whether he did no more in that matter than he might lawfully do, according to the Principles of his own▪ that is, the Roman, Communion? If he had Right to Appeal from the Pope to a Council, and was hin∣dred by him from prosecuting that right, and was thereby forced to disobey and oppose him; in this Case it has been shewn that Disobedience and Resistance was Lawful. Whether that were his Case, will appear by searching into matter of Fact. And to be rightly informed of this, one must not take all for true that Sanders says; though having the luck to be contemned at the first by them that should have confuted him, he has carried the World before him ever since, being not only transcribed by the Writers of his side, but also followed by many others that seem not to know whence they have their Stories. We that live in a more inquisitive Age have seen many things of which he is, the Author, acknowledged by his a Friends to be very improbable, and some things proved by b others to have been altogether Page  92 impossible. Yet in those things which he says with∣out evident partiality, Protestants are not unwil∣ling he should be heard; and Roman Catholics may be content to hear others with him, who, though Protestants, yet, are not liable to the like imputation.

In the Caufe of that King's Appeal, many things are to be considered elsewhere, which are not proper for this occasion. It suffices to know that in his Minority he was c betrothed to Katharine of Spain his Brothers Widow. That the Contract was made by his Father, for reasons of State, against the judgment and advice of d Archbishop Warham; who then told him that he thought it neither honourable, nor well-pleasing to God. That the e People at that time mur∣mured against it, and f soon after the Prince himself, as Warham advised, made a formal Pro∣testation that he would never marry her. And yet, after his Fathers death, he was perswaded to it, and did g marry her with the Popes Dispensa∣tion. When he had lived with her near seventeen years, and, as h Sanders says, was weary of her, (whether he was or no is not material,) the Popes Legate Cardinal Wolsey * pretended to have found a Nullity in the Marriage; and, in care for the King's Salvation, (as he said) acquainted Bi∣shop Longland, the Kings Confessor, with it. They both declared this to the King; whose ancient doubt being now revived, he spent i almost a whole year in Study and Consultation concern∣ing it.

Page  93I enter not into the merit of the Cause, being indifferent at this time whether the Marriage was Lawful or no. For it appears (which is enough) that he had reason to doubt, and that he took the best way for satisfaction, according to their Principles.

When * he had satisfied his own Judgment, (as i himself says, though † Sanders say otherwise.) And had the Judgments, not only of those Men before-mentioned, but of all the k Clergy of England, save two, that his Marriage was Null; And he had l reason to believe that most Lear∣ned Men abroad were of the same Opinion; there wanted only this more to have the Popes De∣claration of the Nullity. This at present could not be had, for he was the Emperour's prisoner. But as soon as he was at liberty, being desired by the King, who had m obliged him above all men, and whom as yet he had occasion to use, it seemed at first that there would be no difficulty that way. For the Pope granted all his requests, gave the King what n Commissioners he had named, impower'd them to hear the matter in England, gave them o Bulls to shew the King; and to assure him he was in earnest, because things could not be done presently in form of Law, he gave him secret p advice to marry while the cause was depending.

The King having been two years without a Wife, and not only holding himself free in his conscience, but expecting to be shortly de∣clared so, and having now some kind of leave to chuse another; cast his eye on Anne Page  94 q Bolen, one whose Person and Birth might have r deserved the best of his subjects; and who being then a stranger in s England, could not have that part which * Sanders gives her in displacing Queen Ka∣tharine; nor could have preserved her any otherwise, than by submit∣ting to the King's lust, the refusal t whereof made her worthy of a nobler application. But this Lady had been brought up in France among Protestants, and was suspected to have some inclination u that way; which suspicion was enough, not only to blacken her, but to dash the King's x suit, much the sooner if not only for her sake. It moved but slowly before, for the Pope, being y engaged by the Emperour, had sent instructions z after his Legates, requiring them to use all possible delays, either to conceal a his Bulls, or to burn them, and leave him free to do as he should see occasion. Thus far he seems to have gone, before he heard what choice the King had made. But when that was discovered, (and whether for that cause, or because he had made a new b Alliance with the Emperour, which tended to make the Popes c Nephew Duke of Florence, and the Queen being the Empe∣rour's Aunt ought in reason to have some benefit of it) whatsoever moved him to it, the Pope after this would trust her cause no longer in England, but having voided d that Commission to his Legates, called it home to his own Determination.

Page  95The King not knowing what to do next, and taking time to consider in his Progress, had e Cranmer brought to him by some that chanced to hear him say what they thought was material in the Case. He was a f stranger to all that had passed hitherto (which I mention, because some would make him a chief man in it.) But from what he had heard, and especially from their discourse, he judged that the King had taken a wrong way; in courting the Pope to retract his Prede∣cessour's dispensation: whereas in truth, as most learned men thought, the Matter it self was Indi∣spensable. And because it was not reasonable to expect that the Pope would judge it so, (for that had been to cut off a main limb of the Papacy) he therefore wish'd that instead of dancing atten∣dance at Rome, the King would send to the Universi∣ties (as being most able and unconcerned) and get them to declare their Judgments in the case. Here∣upon the King sent g learned men with his case, and got the judgments of the Universities upon it. To send to those in the Emperours dominions had been to no purpose. But he had ours in England, and those in France of his side; and the two h chief in Italy, though not only the Em∣perour i opposed, but the Pope, k who had Bologna in his Territory. And whereas it is said the King bought them, which his Agents l deny; they say that the Emperour bought m hands on the contrary; and that he offered largely to get those who had given their judgments for the King to retract it, but they would not take his Money, though they might much more safely than Page  96 the other. The King being thus strengthened in his cause, had reason to be the less in fear of the Pope, and yet it appears he was not the more willing to break with him. For, after this, he made fresh a application to him by his Orators and Letters; which were seconded with a Petition under the hands and seals of both the b Arch∣bishops and others, the chief men of the three States of this Kingdom. They represented their own and others judgments of the case, they pas∣sionately besought him to do the King and them right in it, they declared that if he did not, they should think he had left them to themselves. All this came out of time, for the Pope was not then to be perswaded to break his Alliance while he was gathering c the fruits of it. This the King understood by his d Answer. And therefore knowing what he was to expect from abroad, he was the more careful to secure himself at home. Where to satisfie the minds of the people, he de∣clared what had passed to all his Subjects in e Parliament; he shewed them the Judgments of the Universities, and the books of above one hundred Doctors against the lawfulness of his Marriage. He also caused the same to be shewn f to Queen Katharine by some Lords of his Council; who would have perswaded her to withdraw her Appeal that she had made to the Pope, and to refer her cause to the Judgment of others. She refused it, and thereupon g was removed from the Court, and had her choice given her of the Kings houses in the Coun∣try.

Page  97The Queen prosecuting her Appeal, the Pope by Letters exhorted the King to receive her. Which he refused, as being unlawful for him to do; and offered the h Pope to send Doctors to dispute it before him. He also got i the King of France, to mediate for him, who did it, as being assured of the Justice of his Cause. But all this did not hinder the Pope from k committing it to the Dean of the Rota, who cited the King to appear before him. This being done k once, and l again, the King entred his m Protest against all proceedings in that Court. And the same n day he privately married Anne Bolen; in which, if he was too hasty, it was because he had not been quite seven years to consider. Not long after this, he had o the Nullity of his former Marriage judg'd and declared in his own King∣dom. which being done, he owned her publickly as his Queen, and gave her the p solemnity of a Coronation. This was no sooner heard of at Rome, but the Pope, (who as long as the King was Plaintiff, had used qall possible delay and dissimu∣lation; now the Scales being turned,) without delay▪ r declared this Marriage a Nullity; and gave Sentence of Excommunication against the King, unless he put away Anne, and restored Ka∣tharine, before the end of September next. The mean while the Pope made sure of the French King by a Treaty then afoot, which produced an Inter∣view between them at Marseilles, and a Marriage between their two nearest Relations. Our King, in hope this new Allyance would have given good effect to the French King's Mediation in his Page  98 behalf, sent his Embassadours thither. They waited there for a while, but found nothing but delays. And the Pope was now returning to Rome, where he resolved to proceed in the Cause. There∣fore at an s Audience before him, they decla∣red the King's Appeal from the Pope to the next lawful General Council. Which Appeal the Pope t rejected, as being unlawful, and against the con∣stitution of one of his Predecessours. He also de∣clared that there should be a General Council; but that the calling of it belonged not to the King, but to himself. And soon after, the term that he had set for the restoring of Queen Katharine be∣ing now expired, he caused his Sentence against the King to be openly set up at Dunkirk, which was then in the Emperours Dominions.

This was only a declarative Sentence, in the case of Attentates, as they term it; but this being passed, there was no doubt but soon after he would proceed to a Definitive Sentence in the cause.

The King was now concerned to look about him, and to provide for the worst that could hap∣pen. Therefore first, with the advice of his u Council, he acquainted his Subjects with his Appeal, which he caused to be set up on every Church door throughout his Kingdom; And that his people might understand the validity of it, he commanded that they should be taught, that a General Council is above the Pope, and that by Gods Law the Pope has no more to do in England than any other Forein Bishop. Next he sent to engage as many Forein Princes as he could into a stricter Allyance with him. And yet lastly, to Page  99 shew that he sought not these ways, but was dri∣ven to them; he x desired the Bishop of Paris, who was then Embassadour in England, to get his Prince to deal effectually with the Pope; and to promise in his name, that if the Pope would for∣bear to pass any definitive Sentence, till the cause might be heard before indifferent Judges, he would also forbear what he had otherwise pur∣posed to do, that is, to withdraw his obedience from the See of Rome. The Bishop gladly took the office of Mediation upon himself; and though it was now † the dead of Winter, yet he went post to Rome to discharge it. There in Consistory he de∣livered his Message to the Pope; and so far pre∣vailed, that, at his earnest request, there was a present stop of proceedings, on condition, that the King should send a Ratification of his promise precisely by such a day. In prefixing the day they seemed not to have considered the time of the year. For though the Messenger, whom the Bishop sent into England, found a present dispatch there; yet, being hindered y by weather, he did not return within his day. The Pope, as if he had watcht for that advantage, resolved immediately to proceed to a definitive Sentence. There being z a Consistory called for that purpose,* the Bi∣shop once more came in, and pressed for a longer time. He begg'd no more but six days, which as he said a might be granted to a King that had waited on them with patience for six years. It was put to the vote; where, through the eagerness of the Imperial, Cardinals, not only that small request was denied; but such b precipitation was used, Page  100 that as much was done at once in that Consistory, as would have askt no less than thrice according to their usual forms. Such hast they were in, to cut off, and to destroy him whom three Popes c successively had en∣titled their Defender and Deliverer. When they had done their will; within less than fix days, that is, the second day after this rash and hasty Sentence, the Post d returned from the King with a Ratification of all that had been promised in his name. And he brought this further offer from the King, that he would submit to the Judgment of that Court, on condition that the Imperial Cardinals, who had made themselves Parties against him, should be none of his Judges. There was an Authority sent, for Proctors to appear for him on that condition. At which great submission of the King, compared with their precipitation, the wiser Cardinals e were astonished, and petitioned the Pope for an arrest of Judgment. Which could not well be denied him in those Circumstances. And yet it was as if it had not been granted; for they that got the Sentence passed by majority of Votes, had the same will and power to get it confirmed. And f confirmed it was, with this advantage; that the Execution of the Sentence was committed to the Emperour; who would be sure to see it done thoroughly, as well to enrich himself with the Spoyls, as to take his revenge in the ruine of a Prince that had provoked him no way more, than in his zeal for the deliverance of this Pope out of his hands.

Page  101In this series of things, I cannot but observe the hand of God; and adore that unsearchable wis∣dom by which he made way to bring in the Re∣formation of this Church. There was no King in that Age so zealous for Popery, as he had been, that came now to throw it out of his Kingdom. Whosoever considers him from first to last in this business, cannot but see he had no intention to do this. He did all things to avoid it, that could be done by one who was perswaded of the Justice of his cause. And those Princes and Prelates who were perswaded as he was, did their parts to hin∣der things from coming to this extremity. None desired it but the Spanish and Imperial Faction, unless perhaps the Pope himself could desire to lessen the Papacy, by cutting off a whole Kingdom from the Church, but he g seemed to mind no∣thing but the raising of his Family, and in order to that, let the Imperialists do what they would with him. Perhaps he might think, when his own turns were served, to give the King satisfaction afterwards; as it may seem by what h one says, that when the Sentence was past, he suspended the Execution of it till the end of September next. But he died i before that time, and so his Sentence continued in force.

The next Pope that came after him did not ap∣prove what he had done;* for to use his own k words he had urged him to right the King in his Divorce, and would have perswaded the Em∣perour to have born it patiently. But as then he could not prevail on that side, so now he came too late to be heard on the other. For on the l day Page  102 of his Coronation at Rome the Parliament met here in England that made the Act of Supremacy. The edge of which Law falling severely on the Friends of the Papacy, even while m the Pope was offering at a reconciliation; he was thereby provoked to n curse the King afresh, by a Bull which yet was not published till some years after. When the King having presumed to Un-saint Tho∣mas Becket, the Pope o thereupon pronounced him no King, which made the breach quite un∣reconcileable.

I have given so large account of this matter, be∣cause it is brought into common discourse; and as it is told, serves to blacken many other, beside the King who was only or chiefly concerned in it. Otherwise it would serve for our present occasion, to show, (which I think I have sufficiently done,) that he had cause to Appeal from the Pope to a Council, that he did Appeal in due form of Law, and prosecuted it with great Moderation; which was enough to acquit him from Schism, as far as we are concerned in it: That on the other hand the Pope rejected his Appeal, to the affront of that Supreme Tribunal among Christians; and not only proceeded against the Appellant, in which case the Appellant might, and ought, to resist him; but he also took a course that the case should never be otherwise. For whereas the Pope assumes to himself the only power to call Councils, and whereas there had been none in Ten years, to say no more, and therefore a Council ought to have been then according to the Canons; yet the Pope would have no Council, then, nor afterwards, till Page  103 he had tried all other ways to destroy both the King and his Kingdom.*

When at last, after many years talk and delibe∣ration, a Council was called, that at Trent, which pretends to be a General Council; it was such as the King could not think himself bound to ac∣knowledge, nay he was bound to oppose it, as well for his own preservation, as to maintain the Common Right of Christians, according to the Principles then received in the Western Church.

By his Appeal, he was not bound to submit to any other than he expressed in it, that is, a Lawful General Council. Such the Councils of Constance and Basil were then generally acknowledged to have been. And it was the cry of the Western Church, as well in this as the foregoing Ages, for such a Council, as those were,* to reform abuses as well in the Head as in the Members. But the Head was as it would be; and therefore, being to chuse, would take no Physick to cure it self. This was visible in the Popes extreme averseness to a Coun∣cil; till he saw that, without it, the Nations were likely to Reform themselves. Then he began to think it needful to call one himself. But at first he named no time or place.* Then he named first one Town, and then another. When men began to think he was in earnest, (for they had been often fooled with reports,) the King declared he would not own a Council called by the Popes single Au∣thority. It was the Judgment of the Church of England that he ought not to own it; for so their Synod declared, that neither the Bishop of Rome, nor any one Prince whatsoever,* may by his own Page  104 Authority call a General Council without the express consent of the residue of Christian Princes. When afterwards it appeared that the Pope was intent upon it, the King, on the same grounds, made his publick Protestation;* shewing that the Indiction of a Council belonged not to the Bishop of Rome, but to the Emperour and Princes which should send or come thither.* The like Protestation he sent abroad into all forein Countries. And he afterward made it good, by not sending one Bishop to the Council when it met▪* though one of his Subjects was there, whom the Pope was pleased to make a Bishop with a Title in this Kingdom.

Having thus no obligation to own this for a General Council; he was therefore obliged to oppose it, as being the Mockery and Abuse of that Supreme Judicatory, joyned with the defrauding all Christians of their right in it, and particularly himself of the benefit of his Appeal to it. Which things he ought to have considered, had it been held in the most innocent manner. But much more being held as it was, with most apparent design, to establish those abuses which all Christen∣dome cried out to have reformed, to deprive the diffusive Church of that which was the only re∣medy for them, to bring it to pass that there should be no more General Council, as now we see there is like to be none while the world stands; particularly as to himself he had cause to oppose the Trent Council, as far as he was able. For it was originally * designed to please the Emperour; and thereby to oblige him to head the Party of Christian Princes, whom the Pope was then Page  105 uniting to make War against England. And as that Council was framed in all its circumstances, the King could consider it no otherwise than he did the Pope himself, who was his open and im∣placable Enemy: For as the Pope called it by his single Authority, so he always presided in it by his Legates. He had it filled with his Creatures, Italians, and others, who were sure to carry every thing by their Number. And yet for fear they should forget themselves, every thing must be examined at Rome, before it could pass through their hands. And being past, yet it was of no force till it had the Pope's Approbation. By which means he made himself so far Lord of this Council, that though perhaps he could not pass whatsoever he pleased, yet nothing could pass that should displease him in it. And least, by ta∣king all this care, the Pope might seem to intend no more but only to secure himself, without do∣ing the King a farther injury; there was one thing which made it appear that he had as great a mind to plague the King as to provide for his own preservation. For among all his number of Cardinals he could find none fitter to preside in the Council, and there to judge the King's cause, (if he were so unwise as to send it thither) than one that was the King's Enemy more than the Pope himself, if it were possible. That was a Cardinal Pool, the King's unnatural Subject and Kinsman; who being b brought up by him, and sent to travel for his farther improvement, and, while he was abroad, being c intrusted by him in his cause, forsook it, and joined himself Page  106 to the Imperial party. In which, though he might pretend that he followed his Consci∣ence, yet nothing could excuse him for pra∣ctising against his King and his Country. He was the man employed to d write against the King's Divorce; and out-did other Writers in this, that he e stirred up the Emperour to revenge his Aunts injury, for fear he should forget it; and not only so, but f went about from Prince to Prince, and from Country to Country to stir them up to War against this Realm. For which so unworthy and so officious a disloy∣alty, he was g declared Traitor at home by Act of Parliament, and h had a price set upon his Head; not to mention other instances of the King's extreme displeasure against him. When this had so far endeared him to the Pope, that being not content to have made him one of his Cardinals, he must also have this man to preside in his Council; the English had so much the more cause to be jealous, and to stand upon their guard, as well against his Council as himself.

A General Council they could not hold it to be, for their Church was not allowed to have any Right in it. Though she had not lost her Right, any otherwise, than as being cut off by the Pope's uncanonical Censures; against which she was relievable on her Appeal thither, if that had truly been a General Council. And the Bishops whom she should send to represent her in such a Council had as much to do there (precedence Page  107 only excepted) as the Pope himself had, accord∣ing to the ancient Canons. But now, as matters were ordered at Trent, if she had sent any thither and if they had been admittable otherwise, yet they must not sit there without owning the Pope in his Legate. They must not only be joyned into one Body with him, but they must acknowledge him for their representative Head, who yet to them was no other than a man dead in Law. For they knew him to be condemned for a Traytor, by that Authority to which they were Subjects, as well as Trent as in England. And though the Popes placing him there in that Character was the highest Affront that could be done to the Justice of their Nation; yet they must submit, nay, con∣tribute to that Affront, by owning him in that Character, or else they must have no place in that Council. This Contumelious Condition being implicitly imposed on our Bishops, was a virtual Exclusion of them from their Right of sitting there. And it was so contrived, that it lookt as ill upon the State as on the Church.

The King was not only concerned for both these, but also for Himself on another account; having his Cause to be heard there, if it had been a General Council. It was an Injury to him all this while, that he had None, so long after his Appeal to it. But now to make him amends, he had a Council pack'd by his Adversary; and if that were not enough, he had this Traiterous Subject in the Head of it. Which last thing went beyond all former Trials of his Patience, and per∣haps had been enough to have angered the meekest Page  108 of Princes. If it be an ill thing to have ones Judge chosen by his Enemy, it is worse to have his Enemy be his Judge. He had both in this Council, as the Pope had ordered it for him. Therefore as he could not be Canonically obliged to stand by it, so he did but use his own Right, as before in Protesting, so now in Declaring against it. He did it on all Oc∣casions, and continued so doing till his Death.

His Son Edward VI, who reigned next, kept the Pope at his distance; and had many things reformed in the Church, of which I shall not speak particularly, because, all that he did of this kind was soon after undone by his Successour Queen Mary. She, for reasons that I mentioned i before, restored the Pope's Authority in this Kingdom. And, though his Council of Trent was all her time in adjournment, so that she could not send her Bishops thither, yet she had it acknow∣ledged by them in a k Synod, where Cardinal Pool (being first restord in bloud) had the honour to preside as his Legate.

But as to the Schism between us and the Roman Church, both these Princes were unconcerned in the Original cause of it, which was (as I have shewn) the Popes Sentence concerning their Fa∣thers Marriage. For Edward VI. was born to him by another Wife, whom he had married after Katharines death. And Queen Mary, being his Daughter by Katharine, was not aggrieved by the Sentence, but on the contrary held her self righted by it. The only Person aggrieved was Queen Eli∣zabeth, the Daughter of Henry VIII. by Anne Bo∣len; whose Marriage the Pope had l declared to Page  109 be Null, and pronounced any fruit that should come of it to be Illegitimate. This Queen being the only fruit of that Marriage, the Sentence was injurious to her, if to any. And whether she was wrong'd in it or no, it ought to have been tried before a Lawful General Council, to whose Judge∣ment her Father had Appealed, as has been m al∣ready shewn. And there being no such Council held in his life time, the right of his Appeal de∣scended to her at his death. She was now the only party concerned in the Cause, and her Right could not be given from her by any other. She was as much concerned, as ever her Father was, to be heard by the Judge to whom He had Appealed; and to be Righted against the Pope, if it should appear that he had injured her; and also against his Council of Trent, which abetted him in it. And she had as much Reason as ever her Father had, to disobey and to resist both the Pope and his Council, till they would suffer such a Council to meet as was the only proper Judge of her Cause.

Thus far all that has been said of her Father, except only in things of Personal concernment, is as Applicable to her. And more needs not be said, to shew that they were neither of them guil∣ty of Schism, in asserting their Cause, as they did, against the Adversaries of it. For therein they did no more than what they lawfully might, and ought to do, according to the Principles of the Western Church.

But there was something in her Case, which was not in her Fathers, and which would have cleared Page  110 her of Schism, though he had been guilty of it. For whereas, when he rejected the Pope and his Council, he was wholly of their mind in all the Articles of Faith then in being; She did it, not till the Council had sate, and till they had already made sundry new Articles of Faith. Whereof the first were defined n some months before her Fa∣ther died. However he might like them, as they presume he did, who o tell us that he died in their Faith; yet it is certain that (though at some∣time she did not shew it,) she did always dislike them, her Enemies being Judges. And as soon as she came into Power, she declared, they were so far from being any part of her Faith, that she took them for no other than False and Novel opinions. If she mistook in so judging, which shall be consi∣dered in its place, then she was at least materially an Heretic. And such he must prove her to have been that will make her a Schismatick. For if she was in the right, and those Doctrines were not of Faith, then the Schism occasioned by them must not lie at her door. It must be charged on the Council who defined them, and on the Pope who added them to the Creed, who made the belief and profession of these Doctrines, a condition without which there is no living in his Commu∣nion. She did what she ought to do, in refusing to have it on those terms, in adhering to the Faith once delivered to the Saints, and in rejecting the Au∣thority which would have it defiled with those Mixtures.

What has been said may suffice to clear Queen Elizabeth from the Imputation of Schism, on any Page  111 Personal account, in not obeying the Pope or his Council. It appears that she was free from Schism in that matter; as well in Foro Ecclesiae, having the Canonical right of an Appeal against them; as in Foro Conscientiae, because what she did, was to keep her Faith pure from their undue Imposi∣tions.

Whether she can be cleared as well on the ac∣count of her Government in Ecclesiastical matters, this we ought to consider as a thing that more im∣mediately concerns us. For we date the Refor∣mation of our Church from the beginning of her Reign. And though we have a Prescription since, of above a hundred years; which is enough to se∣cure us against the Claims of the Papacy, in the Judgment of them that hold it to be only of Hu∣mane Right, as all men ought to do upon those grounds above mentioned; yet, to them of the Roman Communion, it will perhaps be more sa∣tisfactory, if it appear, that beside the Right that we have now from Prescription, there was also an Original Right in our Reformers to do what they did in the beginning of the Reformation.

The first thing they did, was to assert the Queens Supremacy; from whence they proceeded to settle the Church Government; and ended with the Reformation of Worship and Doctrine.

1. First, of what she did in assuming the Supre∣macy, more needs not be said than to make it be understood. And we cannot understand her mean∣ing in it better than by her own declaration and practice. She p declared that she took no other power to her self, than what Anciently belonged to Page  112 the Crown of England, that is, immediately under God to govern her people of all sorts, as well the Cler∣gy as the Laity. And she exercised no other Power or Jurisdiction over the Church than what was meer∣ly External, as appears q by her Injunctions and other Acts. Though if she had exercised any other power than what she claimed, it had been only an Act of Misgovernment in her, for which she was accountable to God; and the Church had not therefore been guilty of Schism, since it r gave her no other power, nor owned her in the exercise of any other, than what is above-mentioned. And that power is so inherent in eve∣ry Supreme Magistrate, and so necessary for the well-being of the People, that we cannot deny the right of it in them to whom we grant the Su∣preme Magistracy it self.

Wheresoever any Prince or State have seemed to think so ill of themselves as if they were not so fit, as a Foreiner was, to be trusted with this Power over their own People; or rather where they have been so obsequious to the Pope as to take this Flower out of their own Crown and put it into the Triple: It may be every where obser∣ved, that either they or their Successors have found occasion, at some time or other, to call for it home again, or to use it as if they had notgiven it from themselves. We may see examples of this, in Germany in Ockham's days, in Spain under the Emperour Charles V, and in Venice at the time of the Interdict. But especially in France; where the Gallican Church is obliged to justifie this Right of Princes, unless she will grant that her most Christian Page  113 Kings have been in Schism, more than once, and especially, while they stood to the pragmatic Sanction.

But we need not go abroad for examples, having so many at home, and such as are very full to our purpose. He that will, may see them s elsewhere gathered to his hand. And I have t mentioned enough to shew that even in Popish times our Princes were not ignorant of their Right, and that between whiles they were fain to assert it, in such terms as did import, though they did not name, a Supremacy. But as their Laws did not expresly mention the word, so neither did they always stand by their Laws. When they had made them, the Pope still found some device or other to make them ineffectual. Till King Henry VIII. having thrown out the Pope, for those reasons above mentioned; did by u advice of his Coun∣cil and Bishops, take both the Power and the Ti∣tle on himself; whether he took more than his due, let others judge. As I am not engaged to de∣fend all that he assumed, so I need not, for so much as Queen Mary exercised of it. For it is agreed, (and there was great x reason for it,) that she was always y for the Popes Supremacy in her heart, (though for fear of her life she z re∣nounced it when time was.) And yet she no sooner came to the Crown, but she exercised the Supremacy her self, in changing most a of the Bishops, and Reforming b what she held to be Abuses in the Church. Afterward when she had surrendred it to the Pope, yet she did not so whol∣ly put it out of her self, but that, when He Page  114 displeased her, she could c shut his Legate out of her Kingdom. So that to adjust the matter be∣tween the two Sisters, in this point of Supremacy, they seem to have differed only thus: One ad∣judged it to the Pope, and yet took it from him when she pleased; the other thought it belonged to the Crown, and therefore kept it wholly to her self.

2. What Queen Elizabeth did in setling Church matters, was founded on her Right in the Supre∣macy. By vertue whereof, she took upon her to Reform abuses in the Church, as her Sister Queen Mary had done. And I believe that whosoever compares their proceedings, will find, that she took more leisure and advice than Queen Mary, in doing it. For before a Parliament d sate, she had gone only thus e far, that she allowed her people some of the Church Offices in a Language which they all understood. Afterward by advice of her Parliament f she restored King Edwards Laws, and repealed those which had been made by Queen Mary for Ecclesiastical matters. And by those Laws she abolished the Popish Mass, and restored the whole Communion to the Laity; whereas her Sister had done the contrary, g without Law, by her mere Right of Supremacy. Which Right she having afterwards given away by Act of Parlia∣ment, (though still she used it when she saw cause,) Queen Elizabeth thought fit to have it restored by Act of Parliament; (or rather Re∣declared, for the Act h was not Operative but Declarative.) And whereas by this Act it was re∣quired, that all Bishops, and others that held any Page  115 Church-living in this Kingdom, should take an Oath of Supremacy, as we call it, or else should be uncapable of holding any such Church preferment: on refusal of this Oath there were turned out thirteen Bishops. I note the number, the rather, because there had been just so many of the Protestant Bishops turned out by Queen Mary. There appears to have been some difference be∣tween the turning out, of these by Law, and of those without any Law then in force. But there was more in the cause of their fuffering; those being outed for matters purely Religious, and these for a Civil cause, for refusing an Oath lawfully impo∣sed. Which Oath did not truly concern their Re∣ligion, even themselves being Judges. For they had all, or most of them, i taken it before; some of them had taken it many times over; two or three of them had writ in defence of it, nay, were at the first composing of it. But there was a grea∣ter difference than either of these, if the Bishops, then turned out by Queen Elizabeth, had been most of them Canonically deprived under King Edward VI, and were never since Canonically restored, which may deserve a further Considera∣tion. The mean while it is certain that this Act outed not k two hundred more of all the Clergy in this Kingdom. And their places being filled with such as had been banished in Queen Maries days, it is not hard to judge how all things else to be done in Church matters might pass any Obstructi∣on, as they did, afterwards in full Convocation.

3. As to Doctrinal things, it was generally observed in those times, by the Advantage of Page  116 Ecclesiastical learning, that in those many former Ages which wanted it, many errors, and some very gross ones, had crept into the Church. And those errors, having the Papacy on their side, for l Reasons which I have already shewn, had so far prevailed, that they were growing to be Arti∣cles of Faith. Many of them were already defined so, and more were like to be by the Council of Trent. Therefore now the Church of England, be∣ing free from the Yoke of the Papacy, and having an Absolute Power to act for her self, thought fit to use the Right of a National Church, that is, to Reform her self by declaring against those errors, and to rid Christianity from them here in Eng∣land, without taking upon her to prescribe to other Churches. And withal she thought it need∣ful to set such bounds to the Reformation, that men might not, by their heats against Popery, be transported so far as to run into contrary errors. For these causes that famous Summary of Christi∣an Doctrines, which we call the XXXIX Artielés, was drawn, up, and approved by m Convoca∣tion.

The Compiling and Publishing of these Arti∣cles was properly the Act of the Church of Eng∣land. And these Articles being many of them op∣posed to those Doctrines which the Roman Church holds to be of Faith, and being either in Terminis, or at least in the sense of them, the same which their Trent Council hath branded with Heresie; it is therefore evident that, upon the account of these Doctrines, neither the Queen nor Church of England can be justly charged with Page  117 Schism, unless the Doctrines themselves are first proved to be Heretical, as they are judged by those decrees of the Trent Council.

For the trial of these Doctrines, they will not allow our Church that resort which she would make immediately to the Scriptures. And we cannot go along with the Roman Church whither she would have us; that is, to the Council of Trent, or, which is all one to the judgment of their present Church. Therefore there is no possible way to end disputes, but by some known equal Stan∣dard between us. And that can be no other than Ca∣tholic Tradition. Which they of the Roman side can∣not well decline; for it is that from which the Coun∣cil of Trent has n pretended to receive all her Doctrines. Nor have we any cause to decline it; for the Primitive Fathers, who were the Original Conveighers of this Tradition, did profess to know no other Faith than what was contained in the Scriptures.

Why we cannot stand to the judgment of the Council of Trent for the trial of our Doctrines, we have all the same Reasons that they have in the French Church, why they reject it in matters of Discipline. That is, if they deny it to have the Authority of a General Council; the English, though of their Communion, may as well deny it to have Infallibility. Nay, much more this than the other. For we may give to whom we please an Authority over us; but we cannot give Infallibi∣lity to any, but to them to whom God has pro∣mised it, that is, if to any Council, to such a one as represents the whole diffusive Church. And we Page  118 have one reason more than the French have, and which signifies more than all theirs, to shew that, though they did, yet, we ought not to look upon this as such a Council. For the French Church was represented at Trent, in some sort, though they were not at all satisfied with it; but Ours neither was Represented, nor could be, (as I have shewn,) neither after nor before the Reforma∣tion.

And though (as it is o said) the French have since received the Doctrinal Decrees of that Coun∣cil; that is, they have allowed them to be Ante∣cedently true, in those Terms in which the Council defined them, though not a whit the more true for having been defined in that Coun∣cil; ours cannot pretend that here in England it ever had so much as that lowest Degree of Re∣ception.

Before the Reformation of which we now speak, that is, before the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign, the Council of Trent had sate not much more than half its Sessions. And though it was quoted with respect by the Synod of p London in Queen Marys days, yet it does not appear that there was then any Formal Reception of the Council. Nor if there had been, could that have obliged aftercomers to receive whatsoever should pass afterward in that Council? Thus much, I think, ought to be considered by them (if there be any) that hold themselves obliged by that Synod. But much less would it have signified to our Reformers, who did not hold themselves obliged by that Sy∣nod. For beside that they differed in point of Faith, Page  119 they had other Canonical Objections against it: That it was composed of Bishops who had been Deprived (as was said,) in King Edwards days, and had not been duly Restored since, for ought that appears. And it was Headed by the Popes Legate, in that Quality, as representing Him against whom they had an Appeal yet in force. Now to him that considers the Case in these Cir∣cumstances, it cannot seem reasonable, that King Edwards Bishops should have thought themselves obliged by the Synodical Act of them that sate there in their Injury; or that they, who adhered to their Appeal from the Pope, should be con∣cluded by any thing that passed under his Le∣gate.

Since the Reformation, it cannot be imagined that the Council of Trent should be received, here in England, by any other than by them of the Ro∣man Communion. And whether they have Re∣ceived it, or no, they best know. But if they have, it must be their own voluntary Act; for no power whatsoever could oblige them to receive it. If any could, it must be, either the Council it self, or the Pope by his Universal Authority: But for the Popes Power, they understand themselves so well, that they know he cannot oblige them to the reception of a Council. For he cannot bring them under what Government he pleases; I say, not without their own Consent; as they have judged, and shewed it by their practice. When he impowered an Archpriest to govern them; the Se∣culars would not receive him. And when he would have placed a Bishop over them, the Regu∣lars Page  120 would not receive him. So the Seculars and Regulars, as it were with one consent, have given us their Judgment in the Case; and that by no Indeliberate Act on either hand, for they contend∣ed about it a great part of the last Age. And therefore, unless their Principles are altered since, the same Right which they exercised in not sub∣mitting to a Government, they may exercise as well in not receiving a Council, though the Pope should presume to impose it. And that the Coun∣cil, of it self, has no power to oblige them, it ap∣pears in that judged case of the Egyptian Church. The Bishops whereof would not subscribe to a Decree of the q Fourth General Council, be∣cause they had then no Archbishop to give them an Authority for it. This was allowed to be a Reasonable excuse, though the Decree, which they were to have subscribed, was in a matter of Faith. I suppose they of the Roman Communion, here in England, have had the same Reason ever since the Reformation. They have had no lawful Primate, nor no declared Bishops all this while. And du∣ring this imperfect state of their Church, if there had been a General Council, and any of their Clergy had been there, they might have been ex∣cused from subscribing, though in matters of Faith. What difference there is in the Case, makes whol∣ly on our side. For there is a wide difference in∣deed between Subscribing and Receiving. The first is only the declaring ones own personal assent to the Decrees of any Council; the other is to give them the force of Laws in the National Church. And if (according to that Canon,) Page  121 the Bishops, where they are in a Council, are not bound to subscribe without their Primate; how much less can any National Church be Obliged to receive things for Law without her Bishops; Nay more, how can she Lawfully receive them? Espe∣cially, such a Church, as owns there is no Juris∣diction without Bishops. She cannot do it with∣out a Synod of Bishops according to the ancient Canons. And therefore the English Church of Roman Catholics is so far from being bound to receive the Trent Council, that, in her present con∣dition, she could not Lawfully receive it. I say still, according to the ancient Canons, which ought to be of some force with them of the Roman Com∣munion.

But let them do as they please. The case is plain, that the Reformed Church of England ought not to receive it, if she can prove her charge, that that Council has innovated in the Christian Faith; or rather unless that Council can discharge her self of it, by proving that what we call her New Faith, is not new, but received from Catholick Traditi∣on. We think we are sure they cannot bring this Tradition for those Doctrines which are laid as Foundations for all the rest in that Council; name∣ly, their making unwritten Tradition to be of Divine Authority, and therefore equal with the holy Scriptures; their bringing those which we call the Apocryphal Books, into the Canon of Scripture; their making the Vulgar Latine Tran∣slation Authentick in all matters of Faith and good life.

For these, and all the rest of their Doctrines of Page  122 Faith, as they are called in the Roman Church, which we call Innovations and Errors, We are not afraid to refer our selves to Catholic Tradition. If they of the Roman side would submit to it as well, there would be no difference between us, in matters of Faith, whatsoever there might be in Opinion. And therefore they would have no cause in their own private judgment to conclude us for Heretics; much less would they find us con∣demned for such by any competent Judica∣ture.

If they think otherwise than we do in this mat∣ter, the reason must be, because they do not mean what we do by Catholic Tradition. It is plain that too many of that Church have a wrong noti∣on of it; taking that for Catholic Tradition, which is only presumed to be so by a Party in these latter Ages. For though they call themselves the Catholic Church, and perhaps really take them∣selves to be no other, yet they are but a handful to the body of Christians; especially considered in our notion of Catholic, which, as we take it, extends to all the Christians of all Ages. We plain∣ly profess to take the Catholic Tradition in that sense of Vincentius Lyrinensis, and before him of Tertullian in his Prescriptions; who make this to be the Standard of all Doctrines of Faith, quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus. First, that which has gone for Christian Faith in all Ages from the beginning of Christianity. Secondly, which has been taken for such by the whole diffu∣sive Church, comprehending all those particular Churches which have not been Canonically con∣demned Page  123 either of Schism or Heresie. And lastly, that which has not only been the Faith of some persons, though contradicted by others, but that which has been the constant belief of the genera∣lity in all those Christian Churches. To bring our differences to this standard betwixt us, I con∣ceive that, first, they of the Roman Communion will not find such evidence for their Articles of Faith, as they think of, in the Primitive Records. I say, such evidence as will make it appear that they were of Faith, antecedently to the Definiti∣ons of Councils. They will find that those Coun∣cils, which first defined them to be of Faith, were not such against which we have no just exce∣ption, nor that their Definitions have been gene∣rally received throughout the diffusive Catholic Church.

For the Primitive Records, I suppose, they of the Roman Church, that have read them, will scarce pretend to shew how they convey all those Articles to us, as of Faith. And where they fail to shew this, of any Article, they must excuse us if we cannot allow it to be a Catholic Tradition. Much more, when we shew, from those Records, that there are strong presumptions to the contrary. Whereof, not to trouble my Reader with more instances, I have given some a proof in that which Bellarmine calls Caput Fidei, namely, in that Doctrine of the Popes Supremacy over all Chri∣stians.

For the Councils, by which their new Articles have been defined, the most they can rationally pretend to by their Definitions, is, to deliver the Page  124 sense of the present diffusive Church. Which they are presumed to do, when they have power to re∣present it, or when their Decrees are received in all parts of it, and not otherwise. But how few of their General Councils can pretend to either of these Conditions? It appears, that the Eldest of them could not, I mean b the Second Council of Nice, which first imposed the worship of Images. For, about thirty years before, there was c an Eastern Council held at Constantinople, which Condemned that very thing. And, not ten years after, there was a Western Council at Francford, which condemned this Nicene Coun∣cil for imposing it. Neither of these Councils can be said to have been less Orthodox than that Council was, in any point but that which they opposed. And their very Opposing it shews, that, at those times, it was not the sense either of the Eastern or of the Western Church. When that Council obtained in the Eastern Church, yet still it was opposed by the Western; and however there also the practice crept in, yet that Council has never been received in the Western Church, as hath been lately proved by a * most learned Writer. Nor has Image-worship been defined by any other Council, that could be said to Represent both the Eastern and Western Church.

In all Ages since, the Councils which have de∣fined any Articles, have been but Western Coun∣cils at best, For, though some Greek Bishops were present at one or two of them, yet, what they consented to was never ratified by the Greek Church. And for these Western Councils, to give Page  125 them their due, it was not so much their fault, if they lead us into Error, as it is ours, if we follow them in it. For he that reads them, and knows the History of their times, will not chuse them for Guides, if he has any care of that trust which God has given him of himself.

He cannot but see, that, bating the three last of those Councils, which have not that Authority in the French Church, nor with some other of that Communion; all the rest were held in times of such palpable Ignorance, that when they went amiss they could not well see how to do otherwise. Their Bishops could not but be generally unqua∣lified to judge of matters of Faith. For they had a great want of good Books, and of the Languages in which they were written. I speak of those Books that are now chiefly used in all Questions of Faith, as well by their as by our Writers. And sure they that had them not to use, could not but be miserably to seek in all those parts of knowledge which are Absolutely necessary for any one that should judge of those matters. Namely, those without which they could not Ordinarily know, neither the true sense of holy Scripture, nor the Judgments of Councils and Fathers, nor the Pra∣ctice of the Primitive Church. We find by the best of their Writers in those times that they were so much to seek in those most needful things, that not a Colledge in either of our Universities can be said without scandal to know no more in them than one of those Councils.

If instead of those last we bate four other of their Councils, which are disowned by the Papalins, Page  126 for reasons which have been already * given; all the rest were in such Bondage to the Papacy, that they had not the power to do otherwise than they did. Their Bishops, by Pope Hildebrand's de∣vice, were all sworn to maintain the Royalties of St. Peter; e whereof one was, that the Popes Faith could not fail. And being assured of that, as men should be of things which they swear, their wisest course, when matters of Faith came before them, was to trust the Pope's Judgment, and pass every thing as he brought it to their hands. This way therefore they took, and it saved them the trouble of Examination and De∣bate, and such like Conciliary proceedings. It may be worth the observing, that in Seven General Councils, which they reckon from the time of Pope Hildebrand downward, among the many Doctrines which they are said to have Defined, there is not one that appears to have cost them any more but the Hearing. The Pope had them brought and read before the Council, as if that was enough to make them their Acts as well as f His. And this was the constant course, till the Papacy was weakened by a long and scanda∣lous Schism; Then those Councils which made themselves superiour to the Pope, thought fit to use their Own Judgment, such as it was; and they proceeded Conciliarly, as Councils had done in former times. Which way being more for the credit of their Definitions, it was continued in those Councils which restored the Pope to his Su∣premacy; with this difference only, that whereas those Seven Councils above-mentioned passed all Page  127 things in the Lump which the Pope or his Ministers brought before them; the Councils since have passed them Piecemeal; with some shew of using their own Judgment in every particular, though in truth with so entire a resignation to the Pope, that nothing could ever pass against his Interest, or his will, even when they seemed most to endea∣vour it. So that, in all these Councils, whatsoever has passed in determining Doctrines of Faith, is in truth no more than a Papal Decree, though it bears the name, and perhaps has some shew of a Councils Definition.

Lastly, for the Judgment of the Diffusive Church, we are not ignorant that many of the things thus imposed, (of which we can find no mention in Antiquity, and which we know were first started long after the beginnings of Christiani∣ty) yet have been received as well by Greeks as by the Latines in latter Ages. But, not to say by what means they obtained it, we cannot forget what Ages those were, in which these things came to gain such an Authority among Christians. They were such as learned men of the Roman Commu∣nion, who are acquainted with the Writers of those times, (I say as well with the Greek as Latine Writers,) do not at all reverence their Judgments apart, whatsoever they think of them together in Councils. And according to the Rule prescribed by those Fathers, it will not pass for the Judg∣ment of the Catholic diffusive Church, though both Greeks and Latines agree in it, and have done so for some Ages together. There must be semper, as well as ubique, and ab omnibus. Though Page  128 the two last conditions may suffice to make us think any Doctrine to be true, or at least the Error in it not to be Damnable; yet to make us believe it is a Doctrine of Faith, there must be semper likewise, without which it is no Catholic Tradition.

It is surely a great Affront to the Catholic Church, and to the great Author and finisher of her Faith, that, as if that Faith once delivered were Insufficient, there must be new things added to it from time to time, by a Succession of men that take upon them to be his Vicars, without making out any colourable title to that Office. And, though we find no such things in the Ancient Re∣cords of his Church; though we see these are framed to support the new Authority of those Vicars, and though we know how they abused the Ignorance and Tameness of many Ages; yet be∣cause in those Ages these things were generally received, and have mellowed some time since in the Faith of them that knew no better, they are pleased to use this as an Argument, not only why others must be concluded and bound for ever to sit down by their Judgment, who had little, and used none; but why they must also receive all things else that are imposed in like manner, under pre∣tence that this is now the Judgment of the Diffu∣sive Church.

But the case is much worse, these new things being imposed on the Church with a pretence of Infallibility. Which Infallibility being a word of good sound, some that are no Papalins, but hold with them in some Doctrines which they cannot well prove otherwise, strike in with them at this, Page  129 though the sound is all that they agree in. For whereas the Papalins mean an Infallibility of Judg∣ment, and place it in the Virtual Church; these mean only an Infallibility of Tradition, and that they place in the Diffusive Church. They would persuade us that it is a Demonstrable thing, that those things that are believed, as of Faith, in this Age, could never be otherwise. They may as well Demonstrate, that a Tale does not mend with of∣ten telling, or that no change can be made by in∣sensible degrees. But the Authors of this being Censured at Rome for it, we have no more to say to them ti•l they make it appear that they are of the Roman Church in spite of her Censures. For our dispute is at present with them of the Roman Church; who pretend that this Infallibility is in theirs, that is the Virtual Church. They say that she has it by virtue of Divine Assistance; which being either without or above means, it is all one as if they said she has a New Revelation. And one would think that they intended no other who founded their Definitions on Miracles. Now if they can prove that any such Assistance was pro∣mised to the Virtual Church, and if they can prove that they are the Church to which those promises were made; or if they can prove their Credentials to be the same that Christ gave to his Apostles; then we must grant that we are out, in denying this Infallibility. Otherwise they must grant that their virtual Church might be mistaken. And if she might, we have reason to think that she was so in these matters. And if it is but colourably said, that she was mistaken in matters of so very Page  130 great moment, there is reason to think that those matters are fit for a Review. To which the Greeks may submit, and so may all other Christians that differ among themselves; but they of the Roman Church cannot, while they keep up their claim to Infallibility.

If we must (as the Roman Court will have it) be called Heretics for not submitting to new Re∣velation, we cannot help it. Nor need we much trouble our selves. For we know we are no He∣reticks by any Law Divine or Humane, except those which this new Power has made to fence in its new Doctrines. And we know they cannot, with any colour of Reason from Catholic Traditi∣on, think us Heretics themselves, while we hold to the Positive Doctrines of our Church. So that when they are pleased to give us this Title, we can take their meaning to be only this: They declare us to be, as indeed we are, the Enemies of that Monarchy to which they would enthral the whole Church of Christ; They do as good as tell us what we are to expect for this, if ever (for our sins) God should suffer us to fall into their hands; They would have their people hate us the mean while, and avoid all communication with us, for fear they should come to know how we are wron∣ged in this matter.

This appears to be the sense and design of the Interested men. And yet we doubt not there are many others among them, who either have no such Interest, or who will not give themselves to be led by it. We have reason to believe this, partly from what we observe at this present, and much Page  131 more from what we read of former times. Of all Nations that continue in the Roman Communion, the more any have flourished in Learning and Ci∣vility, the more free they have kept themselves from all that which is properly Popery: while the more Ignorant, and therefore more Superstitious Nations, are so fond of it, that, for want of this, they will scarce allow the other to be Catholics. But for Protestants, whom the other can en∣dure to live among them, though perhaps in no desirable condition; These will not allow them to live in their Country, unless that may be called Living, when men are buried alive in the Inquisi∣tion.

So it may be observed among Persons of that Communion. The most busie and imposing, the most fierce and untreatable Bigots, are commonly they that scarce understand their own Prayers. Learned men either have not those heats, or else govern them better. Unless they be such as are engaged to the Papacy by preferment, or by the hopes of it, or by the Vows of their Orders; or perhaps such as having forsaken our Church, will not allow us to Question either their Wisdom or their Honesty in it. We are not ordinarily to ex∣pect so much as common Civility from such men. But they that have no particular Quarrel against us, and are otherwise of a Candid and Ingenuous temper; especially when they have Learning with it, as not a few have, and would to God there were more in the Roman Church; These men be∣ing not averse from inquiring into Truth, nor from receiving it when it is brought before them, Page  132 if they do not see how they can prove us Here∣tics, and that their Proof is as strong and clear as the Charge is heavy, they will not think it a suffi∣cient Reason to call us so because others have done it. Nor will they think fit to debar us the common Right of all Christians, that is, to be heard what we can say for our selves: And that either before a competent Judicature, if it may be had; or if that cannot be, yet at least by all them that will judge of us.

I know no reason to doubt, that if all of them knew but so much of our Church as has been said, and if they considered it with that Impartiality which we ought to expect from such men, it would work some good effect in no small number of them in that Communion. And that effect would appear upon such a Review as I have mentioned; I mean, that we should have Right done us in a free Gene∣ral Council, if the Pope would permit it to be held in our Age, or rather if all Christian Princes would agree to call it themselves, and not wait for His time, which will be never.

But though he will not suffer this Reason to be done us abroad, where it should be in a Common Assembly of Christians; yet he cannot hinder us from having it at home, at least in the private Judgment of them that do not fear his Censures. I have shewn that this is like to be the fruit of a Discrimination. It will try who they are. And for them chiefly I intended this Digression. In which I have been the more large, because I think it no Digression, but rather the best way for the suppres∣sing of Popery in this Kingdom, to get our Church Page  133 to be better understood by all among us of that Communion. And surely, if they did rightly un∣derstand it, wise men would consider how they made themselves guilty of Heresie and Schism by unjustly charging us with those crimes. How of Heresie, by joyning with them that have made such Additions to the Faith: And of Schism, in charg∣ing us with Heresie for not receiving those Addi∣tions; and thereupon separating themselves from our Communion. They that shall be convinced of their danger in both these, will endeavour to avoid it, by relinquishing that Forein Power, which they can think themselves no way obliged to, if they better consider it. And finding them∣selves free from any such obligation, I do not see what should hinder them from joyning themselves to that National Church in which God has suffici∣ently provided all things necessary for their Salva∣tion.

Though if they stay where they are, it may perhaps be better for Us upon Politic accounts; which I add as my last instance of the Benefit that we may expect from this Discrimination.

It would be no small Benefit to us, if such men continuing in the Roman Communion would but keep the Popish Party from being more united, and more active against us. And thus much they would do for us, though they did not intend it. But they will do much more, and that with full Intention, unless their Opposition to us weigh more with them than their care of themselves. For they will find themselves Obliged, if they consider it, as well in Duty as Interest, and no less obliged Page  134 both ways then we are, to keep out the Forein Power from coming in among us. Their obligation in Conscience will be the same that ours is, and so much more if they are bound to it by Oath, what∣soever the Oath shall be, that is designed for their Discrimination. And as to Interest, it will be much more theirs than it is ours, to keep out the Com∣mon Enemy, that will be heavy to us both, but much heavier to them than to us. For as they are fewer in Number, so they are better known in their Persons, and therefore the more easie to be found out. And being found; if ever that day should come, which God avert; though we must look to feel Rods, they are sure to be punished with Scorpions. The provocation which they have given already has been more than most of us have been able to give: And when we are gone, if they continue, the Roman Court having no other Ad∣versaries, would be the more intent and the more able to root them out of the Kingdom. I do not say this to waken them that are most concerned to think of it; for I suppose they cannot sleep, ha∣ving so great a Danger before their eyes. And if they should happen to forget themselves, they would be wakened by those Censures of which enough has been spoken already.* It is at present more needful to make our own People (who do not so well understand the Common Adversary, as not having had the same Experience of him,) to be sensible how much they are concerned not to lose any Help that can be had. And therefore that it is our Interest as well as theirs, to preserve such a Party of useful men, and to oblige them to joyn Page  135 with us against him. Which can be done no other way but by a Discrimination.

I cannot think there is any Protestant among us, who will not for these, or other the like, Conside∣rations, think fit to use the Moderation here pro∣posed, and endeavour to promote it in others as far as he is able. Unless he may perhaps be discou∣raged by some other Considerations, that may make it seem not so Practicable as it were to be desired. For if it can be put in practice, I think no wise and good man, having weighed the reasons here given, will deny that it ought to be; and that as well in Prudence, as in Justice, to preserve both Church, and State, and whatsoever is dear to us in this Nation.

The things chiefly alledged against the Practi∣cableness of it,* are these that follow. I shall first name them, and then consider the Consequence of them. First, It is alledged that all they of the Roman Church are obliged by their Principles to follow the Judgment of the Roman Court: And that they Actually follow it, in those very things which are Popery in the proper signifi∣cation. Secondly, If any of them deny this, or declare and promise the contrary, we can have no Assurance of what they say; they have so many ways to elude all such Promises and Declarations; especially being made to Hereticks, as they are taught to call us. Thirdly, Though we have a sufficient assurance of any persons at present, that they are No Papists, yet while they are of that Communion, they are in a continual danger to be seduced, or change their minds; and whensoever that happens, (as it may before we are aware of Page  136 it,) they will be able to do us the more hurt, through our relying on the security which they have given us.

I confess there is a force in these Objections, which I cannot so well avoid, but that they who are chiefly concerned to have them answered may suspect that I use some kind of Prevarication; be∣cause I do not answer them their way, or not say all that they think their Cause will bear. To se∣cure my self against that most odious Imputation; I do in the first place declare that I shall omit no∣thing which I think to be material, though I do not pretend to say all they have to say for themselves. And then for their Way of answering: If they think they can Justifie themselves against the charge that is implied in those mentioned Allegations, and that they can thereby entitle themselves as well to Trust as to Protection; I confess this is more than I can do for them. And therefore I take so much lower; Endeavouring to excuse the persons as far as they are capable to be excused from those things which are not to be Justified in their Cause; and since the Law has excluded them from Trust, for such Reasons as cannot but continue as long as the established Religion, I shall yet endeavour to shew that they safely may and ought to have Pro∣tection, while they give such assurance of their Loyalty as they are capable to give, and no other∣wise.

I shall do it with much the more ease, having the matter prepared to my hand in a Book * that was published about two years since, to this pur∣pose. Where the Objections being proved as to Page  137 matter of Fact, and the Inferences drawn with great evidence and strength; if I should not extract enough to satisfie the Reader in either kind I shall however satisfie my self, that I have made him amends by recommending the Book to him, where he may find those things said at large, and with very great accurateness, which either cannot so well be contracted, or I cannot do it here, without exceeding the brevity which I de∣sign.

First,* Whereas all Roman Catholics are said to be obliged by their principles to follow the Judg∣ment of the Roman Court; I find little less than Demonstration for this, in a * Book lately pub∣lished. Where it is proved that they cannot justi∣fie their calling themselves Catholics exclusively to all other Christians, any otherwise than by re∣solving their Faith into the Infallibility of the Ro∣man Church as united to the Pope; that is, really, into the Infallibility of the Pope as being Head of the Church. So that if he declare, as it is evident he has done, that those things which we call Popery are Articles of Faith, they are bound (if they will do things consequently to their Principles) either to believe him in those Articles, or else to relinquish that Communion. This follows by good Reason∣ing; though that way of proof is not so clear to a Vulgar Capacity, as that which is drawn from Au∣thority, and appears in plain instances of Fact. But what greater Instance can there be of this kind, than the practice of the whole Roman Church, which has actually followed the Judgment of the Roman Court, and that in things which are pro∣perly Popery?

Page  138By the whole Roman Church, I mean that which they call so themselves; that is, the go∣verning part of the Clergy of all the Churches of that Communion; that part which acts for all the rest in Ecclesiastical matters, and by whose Acts all their Subjects are obliged according to their own Principles. Now taking Popery (as I have a defined it) to be the owning of the Pope's pretended Authority; whether in Spirituals, over the Universal Church, or in Temporals, over all Princes and States; it hath been proved that this Roman Church owns this Doctrine in both the branches of it.

First, in Spirituals, there can be no question of this. For none can be of the Governing Clergy without taking an Oath, in which they own the Pope's Authority with a witness. For they swear Fealty to him, and that in those Terms which im∣port as well a Temporal as a Spiritual subjection. No doubt that was Hildebrand's sense that made the a Oath, and it is most agreeable to the Prin∣ciples and Practices of them that Impose it. But this I leave to Temporal Princes and States, and especially to Protestants, who are chiefly concern∣ed, to consider it. Let the Oath be for Spirituals only, it is enough to prove the Churches subjecti∣on to the Pope; because, in that sense at least, it is taken by all the Governing Clergy. And for the rest, there is a c Form of Profession, by which they are sworn to him every one in his Person, for fear they should not think themselves obliged by the Oaths of their Superiors.

Page  139If among them that are the Guides of Consci∣ence to others, there be any that makes no Con∣science of an Oath; yet such a one will go which way his Interest leads him. And the Pope has them all secured to him by Interest likewise. Not to speak of those ways that his Interests are theirs, nor of other ways that he has to oblige them; it is enough that he is so far Patron of the whole Church, that none can have a Bishoprick, or any other eminent Dignity, but he must either take it of the Pope's gift, or at least he must come to him for Confirmation.

Having two such sure holds, on the Bodies, and on the Souls, of his Clergy; the Pope is not only in present possession of a spiritual Monarchy over the whole Roman Church, but he is (as much as it is possible for him to be) assured that none shall ever be able to take it out of his hands. Unless the Princes of his Communion should come to find their Interest in a Reformation, which is rather to be wisht for than to be expected in our Age; otherwise, there is nothing that can dispossess him, but a general Council. And that indeed he has some cause to apprehend upon the experience of former times. It is remembred by others too often for the Pope to forget it, how such a Council, d when time was, humbled two or three of his Predecessors. But then they that were for the Li∣berty of the Church, had not only the Diffu∣sive Church on their side, but they had a good party among the Cardinals themselves. Especially they had the Papacy at an Advantage, being to Judge whose it was, among them that pretended Page  140 to it. They had also the times very favourable to to them, in other Circumstances, which I shall not mention, because they are not like to come again. And yet then, what ground they got from Popes of disputable Titles, they lost afterward to those whose Titles were certain. They left free Decla∣rations and Laws for future times, which might do good, if there were men to put Life in them. But withal they left a certain experiment, to shew us, that that good cannot be done by men who are so engaged to the Papacy.

Interest of it self were enough to give the Pope a Majority of Bishops in any Council where Con∣science did not bear too much sway. It was ob∣served by one e that writ for the Authority of those Councils; that they could never keep up their side, for this reason, because the Pope had the disposing of all the Livings. But how much greater must his Party be, when all the Bishops are bound in Conscience likewise, as far as an Oath can oblige them, to support the Popes spi∣ritual Monarchy? It is hard for men to think that such an Oath does not bind them, as well when they are together, as severally. We see the Pope so well understood this, that when f it was pro∣posed during the Council of Trent, that, to make it a Free Council, he should dispense with the Oaths of all the Bishops that sate there; his Legates declared that they would rather die than consent to it. I suppose they would not have been so much con∣cerned for that which they had not found to be of very great use in their business. And we see the effect of it. For all the Bishops there present, Page  141 though it was against many of their wills, yet suf∣fered the Council to be prorogued, and translated, and rid about how and when the Pope pleased, till he had done with them, that is, till they had g made it unnecessary for him ever to have ano∣ther Council.

But as safe as he has made himself, in case there should be a General Council; it cannot be denied, that it is safer for him to have none. And there∣fore presuming there shall be none for the future, as we may judge by the experience of the last hundred years; we come now to consider what his power is in the Intervals of Councils.

During these, it is acknowledged by the whole Roman Church, and that as well by the Laity as the Clergy, that the Pope has the supreme Au∣thority over all Christians. Which being another kind of Supremacy than we are used to, we are to learn what it is from them that live under it. What they say and write of it, is not the sense of the Church, as that is which they swear in those Forms before-mentioned. And yet their Oaths being in general terms, we cannot so throughly know it from them, as from particular Instances of the Exercise of it. I suppose they may be said to give him that Power, which he exercises every where without let or contradiction. And to name only such Instances, there are two which more particularly concern us, and which make him no less than some call him, that is, the Virtual Church.

First, he takes upon himself, and they allow him, to be the only supreme Judge of Fact in Page  142 Ecclesiastical matters. So that whomsoever he has judged to be Heretics, (of what rank soever they are, Kings not excepted,) they are subject to all Canonical Punishments, and are avoided as if they were such indeed as he judges them. And as he does not trouble himself to call a Council, and to take their sense of the matter before he judges; so neither, if he judge amiss, are the injured Par∣ties relievable by Appeal to any other Judge whatsoever. If any question this, they do ill to call us Heretics; who were never condemned by any Council, at least, not by any that pretended to represent the Universal Church. It was indeed moved at the Council of Trent, that they should have declared against Queen Elizabeth, and it is said h that they forbore to do it for politic rea∣sons. But when the Pope i saw his time to de∣clare, it did as well: for, though by the same Bull he deprived her of her Kingdom, all her Subjects of that Church broke Communion with her, even they that disobeyed the Sentence of De∣privation. Since her time it does not appear that we are under any Sentence, but the Popes yearly Curse on Maundy Thursday; and yet that is enough to continue the breach of Communion. Nay, when Henry VIII. was condemned by the Pope only, and judged a Heretic for no other cause but disobedience to him; though he had a just and lawful Appeal then depending, yet then the Popes Sentence was obeyed, and he was trea∣ted as a Heretic by all those of the Roman Com∣munion. If this be not owning the Pope to have an Absolute Authority, yet at least it is no Page  143 small Priviledge, that they allow him, to let in and shut out of their Church whom he pleases.

But he claims a higher Priviledge than this; that is, to be judge also of Doctrines, to define what shall be Faith or Heresie. This he actual∣ly does. And the Church so far abets him in it, that if private persons seem to question his Judg∣ment, (as some did when he condemned the Iansenists Propositions,) they are punisht for it as Rebels to the Church. Now being in possessi∣on of this power to judge of Doctrines, what se∣curity can they have that he will not employ it to advance his own Secular Interests under the speci∣ous pretence of Christian Faith? If he please to make it of Faith that all men must obey him, even in Temporal things; this is done already in a k Decretal Epistle if there be any Coherence between the two ends of it. If he should think fit to call it the l Henrician Heresie, for any one to hold that Kings may be obeyed notwithstand∣ing his Censures: If he call it the Heresie of the m Politici for any one to deny the exemption of the Clergy from Secular Courts; or the Heresie of n Simon Magus, to hold that Lay men may lawfully present to Church Livings: there is no∣thing new in all this, and therefore he may colou∣rably do it. Nay, we have reason to believe he will do it, whensoever he thinks he may do it safe∣ly. And that will be, when he is no more in awe of the French Monarchy, than he was of the English when he censured the Irish Remonstrance. It may concern more than Protestants to consider this. For no man knows how soon the Pope may Page  144 be concerned either to have him condemned for a Heretic, or to make something that he holds go for Heresie. And either of these things being done, there is no doubt but that the Popes Act must be owned by the Roman Church, in consequence to to their now mentioned Principles. For all this is no other than the exercise of that power which they give him in spiritual things.

Whether they allow him to have the like power in Temporals, is the Question which we are next to consider. And that they do allow it him, will appear by all the means that we have to know the sense of that Church. First, their Church Vir∣tual, that is, the Pope himself, has o declared it again and again; and that with all the Solemnities required by themselves to his decreeing ex Cathe∣dra. There never was any Pope that disowned it, nor any that owned that Notion of the Virtual Church. Their Church Representative has de∣clared it in divers Councils, of which one or other is owned to be General by all them of the Roman Communion. Whereas many require the the Popes Confirmation of Councils to make them General, there is no doubt but such p Councils, so confirmed, have declared it. For those that do not hold any necessity of the Popes Confirmation, those very q Councils, which they abet in not holding it necessary, have not only declared this, but they have taken it for a foundation, which in reason should be much more than a Definition. They supposed it as a Page  145 thing out of Controversie, and made sundry Acts in pursuance of it. Their Catholic Church Dif∣fusive has own'd it, by receiving and approving of some Councils of both sorts; so as that who∣soever has rejected the Councils of one sort, has received those of the other. They own it like∣wise in such Practices, as must be Catholic accord∣ing to their Principles. If any practice be Catho∣lic, what can be more properly so, than that which is the first Commandment of their Church? Name∣ly, to keep her Festivals, to hear Mass, to joyn in Offices of the Church? This they do in the Me∣mory, and with solemn Invocation of them as glorified Saints; who not only (while they lived) were abettors of this Doctrine, but who were Sainted for this reason, because they Abetted it. Such were r Anselm, and s Becket; of whom I need say no more than shew the Reader where he may find a very full Demonstration of this. But among the many more that I might add of this sort, I shall name only two that deserve more than ordinary notice. Namely, Hildebrand, the first Author of this Doctrine; and Pius Quintus, who was the first that practised it on Queen Eliza∣beth of blessed memory. This last mentioned Pope being newly canonized, I suppose, to let us know here in England what we are to expect when time serves. I do not see how they who suffer themselves to be imposed on in this manner, and who fulfil the design of the Imposers, in own∣ing such men for Saints, can rationally avoid the owning of their Principles. And if the doing these things obliges any to own these Principles, Page  146 it has the same force throughout their whole Dif∣fusive Church.

It is not so easie to answer the force of these Arguments as it is to produce Instances on the con∣trary; of them that have written against this Do∣ctrine; especially in France, where it is said to be disowned by a National Church. But their Wri∣tings, and her Declarations, will stand us in no stead upon their Principles, who expresly except the Case of Heresie; as Cardinal Perron says they all did, and instances in the most eminent of them who defended the rights of Princes against Popes before the Reformation. For I think it will not be doubted that all the Writers of that Commu∣nion, (even those of the Gallican Church not ex∣cepted) look upon us as Heretics.

But besides the French Church has been so far from disowning this Doctrine, that they have Pub∣licly declared for it, and that no longer since than in our Fathers days. It cannot yet be forgotten how the body of their Clergy, as representing the Galli∣can Church, by the mouth of their Speaker Cardinal Perron declared themselves in that famous Ha∣rangue, which was printed there with Royal privi∣ledge, and sent over hither to King * Iames, that he might not be ignorant of their sense in this matter. And they declared it not only to be the present sense of their Church, but the same that it had con∣stantly been, from the first opening of her Divinity Schools till Calvins time. They shew too much de∣sire to have the French Church on their side, that confront these great Testimonies, with Acts of State, or Declarations of Universities, or with Writings of Page  147 Private men: When they cannot but know, that, according to their Principles, neither Private men, nor Parliaments, nor Universities, can pre∣tend to be the Gallican Church in any case, where they differ from the Ecclesiastics.

But whereas Cardinal Perron there says, that all they who writ for the Rights of Princes against the Pope in those times before the Reformation, did nevertheless hold that the Pope might depose any Prince that should be guilty of Heresie: Though I do not engage to make good his Asserti∣on in the utmost extent of it, because it is hard to know the mind of every Writer in that Contro∣versie; yet I think it is not hard to shew as many Kings who have declared their Judgment on his side, as there can be produced of those Writers to the contrary. And it is no small proof of the Authority of any Doctrine, when it is acknow∣ledged by them, who would have been most obli∣ged by their Interest to have denied it, if their Consciences would have given them leave. For examples of this, we cannot go higher than to the Emperour Henry IV. whose very troublesom times gave occasion to Hildebrand to bring this Doctrine first into the world. And it is very ob∣servable, that in the Infancy of it, he that was so unfortunate to be made the first Instance of the cursed effects of this Doctrine; though he denied the Popes power over him in all other respects, yet he t owned it in this of Heresie, which is worth all the rest put together. Perhaps he thought it did not concern him, at Page  148 first, so much as he found it did afterwards. For having granted that the Pope might depose him in case of Heresie, it was enough; Then the Pope knew what he had to do. It was only to make a new Heresie of something which he would not or could not deny; and then how easie was it to take away his Crown as being forfeited by his own Confession? Another example of this we have in the Emperour Frederic II. Who being in no very good terms with the Pope, thought to get into favour by shewing his zeal against Heresie. And he shewed it sufficiently, by giving the force of a Temporal u Law to that Canon of their Gene∣ral Council of Lateran; by which every Heretic is made to forfeit his Estate, as well they that have no chief Lord over them, as others of Inferiour rank and condition. In Consequence of this, when the Pope saw occasion to take away his Crown, and wanted only some good colour for it; among other crimes with which he charged him, this was one, that he was guilty of Heresie: which appeared, as the Pope was pleased to say, by no doubtful and light, but by evident Arguments; for that it was ma∣nifest enough that he had run into many Perjuries: These are the very words of the x Sentence. By which also it sufficiently appears, that not only Error in Doctrine, but even Vice or Misgovern∣ment may suffice to make a Heretic, when a Prince's being so will forfeit his Crown to the Pope. But as Humane Nature is, and in a Fortune so liable to temptation, how hard a thing it is for any Prince to escape this charge? while the Pope is allowed to be Judge, as well who is guilty of the Fact, as Page  149 what Fact shall amount to a Heresie. For he may as groundlesly judge one guilty of Perjury, as he did in that Instance judge that guilt to be Heresie: And yet both these Judgments so inseparably be∣long to the same Jurisdiction, that they who grant him either of them, ought in reason to grant him both; as we have shewn they do, according to the Principles of the Roman Church.

And whereas it is alleaged, that some National Councils have declared for the Independent right of Kings; though none ever did so, but they are y branded for it, at least, in all the later Editi∣ons of the Councils; yet of these it is observable, that they never supposed the Case of Heresie, in which there is no Reason to doubt that they went with the stream of the Roman Church. It is more observable that, bating that Case, the rights of Princes against the Pope were scarce ever main∣tained by any Council of any Nation or Province but those who were under the Aw of Princes. And even of them, very many have recanted, as soon as they found themselves at liberty to do it; and that Conscientiously, as we have reason to believe. But on the other side, the most Consci∣entious Persons of that Communion have stood their ground in the most disadvantagious Circum∣stances. They have stuck to it, and maintained it, and never recanted their Doctrine; howsoever they might have some remorse at some of those horrid Practices into which they were led by it.

Now by the Principles of that Communion, whatsoever has been the sense of their Church, Page  150 can never cease to be so on further trial, but must be the Churches Doctrine for ever. They who de∣fend Infallibility of Judgment cannot avoid this. Nor they who hold Infallibility of Tradition: Since they teach, that, whatsoever has once pre∣vailed, and that Universally over all Churches, and specially over all Conscientious Persons; could never prevail so, unless it had been delivered from the beginning. But of this Doctrine it has been proved, that it was in the Church before those Councils above mentioned, and was either declared or supposed by those General Councils, therefore it must have been from Catholic Tradi∣tion. And therefore, according to their Princi∣ples, it ought not to be called to a review; much less be disbelieved, or disputed, by any in this pre∣sent Age, whatsoever advantage it may have, above those former Ages, in point of Learning and Monuments, for the discerning of Catholic Tradition.

*What has been said is sufficient to make it ap∣pear, that all they of the Roman Church, by the Principles of their Communion, are obliged to maintain these Doctrines of Popery. Whence it will follow, that as long as they are true to those Principles, we cannot be secure that they will not practise those Doctrines. Therefore all the reason we can have to believe that they will do us no hurt, if they are truly conscientious persons, is only this; that we may hope they do not yet know their Churches sense in this matter. At pre∣sent they do not see the repugnancy between Page  151 their Duty to Princes, and the Principles of their Communion. But this will only secure us so long as they do not see it; and that may be a very little while. For as the proofs of this Inconsistency are great, and notorious; so they are ready to be objected to them by their Adversaries in their own Communion. And therefore we can have little security of them, if we can have none any longer than while we may suppose them likely to continue in this Ignorance. So that the only solid and lasting rea∣son that we have, or can have to hope well of the Loyalty of any such Consciencious Persons among them, must be the assurance that we have of their firmer adherence to their Duty to King and Country than to the Principles of their Commu∣nion.

Of these Persons we may be secured, whilest they are ignorant of that Inconsistence, because, if they are truly such as we take them to be, they can∣not but think themselves bound in Conscience to deal fairly and uprightly with us. And when the Papalins, who will still be practising upon them, shall have brought them to discern that Inconsi∣stency; the effect of it may be better than they intend. For we have reason to hope that such Persons will be so far from quitting their Duty for their Communion, that they may be rather indu∣ced to leave their Communion; when they shall be convinced that it is not possible to maintain it without complying with those Doctrines which they have in so great detestation. And these hopes of the good effect of this Countenance to them Page  152 above others, and of the consequent jealousie of those others of their own Communion, may be a farther encouragement to zealous Protestants, to fhew them this countenance; Not only in regard of the security which such as these may give to the State, but also in regard of the hopes, that, in process of these disputes among themselves, they may at last by the wisdom of God be won over to the Protestant Communion.

And concerning these Persons for whom the favour of the Laws is desired, we have reason to believe that many of them do really adhere more firmly to the sense of their duty to their Country, than to that of continuing in the Roman Com∣munion. Many of them are such as have given good proof of it already, of which Instances might be produced, if it were necessary. But to wave all Historical inquiries in this place; If the State desire satisfaction herein, it may be had by the form which shall be tendred to them. By which they may profess that they do in Conscience believe themselves more obliged to pay their duty to their Prince and Country, than to stand to the Authoritative Decision of any Judge whatsoever that is owned in the Church of that Commu∣nion.

*The second thing objected against that discri∣mination here proposed, is this, which were con∣siderable enough of it self, but much more being added to the other. It is said, that we can have no assurance of any engagement they make to us, they have so many ways to elude the force of it; what by Equivocation, and Mental Reservation, Page  153 what by Popes Dispensations, by their Doctrine of Probability, and the rest. There are so many of them, that, considered one after another, they look like a contrivance to destroy all Faith among men. For when we think our selves assured by their Promise, and especially, when confirmed with an Oath; yet, by Equivocation, that Oath, in their sense, shall signifie quite otherwise than was meant by them that made or imposed it. If they do not Equivocate, yet they may have some mental Reservation; saying inwardly not, or something else that quite alters the meaning of what is spoken. And if they Swear without either of these tricks; yet they may believe the Pope can dispense with that Oath, or he can absolve them when they have taken it. And though the Pope should not do this, yet their Church * hath given them the President of breaking Faith with known Heretics. And if they make Conscience of that; yet it may be some Doctors opinion, that there is something unlawful in this Oath, which though they did not discover before, and there∣fore took it, yet having discovered this after, they may think themselves not obliged by it. And though they should not be of this Doctors opini∣on, yet that extrinsic probability of this Doctors Authority may be enough to sway them against their own convictions to the contrary. The Pro∣bability that there is of their holding all these opi∣nions, as having been held by Doctors of Reputa∣tion among them, and none of them ever censured for it by the Church, (though she hath taken all possible care to censure all such opinions as may Page  154 be any way contrary either to her Judgment or Interest) this presumption is sufficient to persuade private persons, that their Church, though per∣haps she may not believe them true, yet believeth them not hurtful or dangerous to her Children. And if a Doctrine hath no danger in it, though it prove to be false, yet the security of it is induce∣ment enough for men to practise it. These Prin∣ciples will the rather hold, because according to their other Principles, they are taught to relie on the Judgment of their Church in matters of be∣lief even where they cannot do it without renoun∣cing their own Judgment.

And in this Objection, it is very considerable, that it is not so easie as it was in the former, to distinguish who they are that do indeed hold these dangerous Principles. Only we have reason to suspect all them that keep to that Communion up∣on Principles of Conscience. For they must think themselves bound in Conscience to hold these Principles to be practicable, because they are so, according to the Principles of their Communion. And they who are once suspected upon prudent grounds, can neither clear themselves, nor satisfie us, by any form of profession they can make. Be∣cause we must still suspect, that such persons do prevaricate, even in those forms by which they seem to renounce Prevarication. This Objection hath been made, and it is not without visible cause.

*Now in answer to this, it cannot be denied but that many of them have maintained such Princi∣ples of this kind as would destroy all possible Page  155 trust in dealing with them. And if they had stood to these Principles in their Actions, this would have given us cause to suspect all the rest of their Communion, while they continue in it.

But whatsoever they say in their disputes, we have reason to judge of their belief, by what they shew of it when they come to the trial of Action. And thus, even the Papalins themselves have not ventured to act upon these Principles, even where they could have nothing to hinder them from it, but convictions of Conscience. They who have died rather than they would take that Oath, which according to these Principles they might have taken, and prevaricated in it, have plainly shewn, that even they durst not trust their own subtilties when they came to be practised. Nay, the Pope himself, who hath forbidden them to take these Oaths, and hath animated them to be Martyrs rather than take them, would not have exposed his dearest friends to such extreme hazards, if in earnest he himself could have approved the practising of these Principles.

The utmost therefore that we may fear in deal∣ing with them seems only this; that, whilst they renounce one form of Prevarication, they may make use of another. If they renounce Equivo∣cation; they may at the same time, believe them∣selves obliged not to Equivocate, and yet not re∣nounce the belief of the Popes Authority to di∣spense with their Oath, if that be not expresly contained in the Form.

But we have no Reason to believe, that men of such Politics as the Court of Rome are known to Page  156 be, can possibly, when they come to practise, own fuch Principles, as are like to prove so prejudicial to their own Interest. Or if they should be over∣seen so far as to do this, yet the mischief that would follow upon it being likely to prove more dangerous to themselves than to us, we have no reason to fear running the hazard of it. For if there are any that believe that they may prevaricate in the very same form of prevarication which they renounce; How is it possible that the Roman Court it self can be assured of such persons? That Court it self hath found by experience, that it hath had many real enemies, that still pretended to live in its Communion. How can they be assured but that many of these, who pretend to be their Servants and Subjects, may prove to be their dan∣gerous Enemies? If in earnest they may prevari∣cate, even coram Iudice, in a thing not belonging to his Jurisdiction; how can the Court secure themselves, that persons persuaded of the inju∣stice of the Popes Claim to a power in temporal things upon any pretence whatsoever; may not prevaricate with him, since they believe that these matters belong not to his Jurisdiction? How can they secure themselves, but that multitudes of such persons, may, therefore, still keep to their Communion; purposely to form Intrigues against them, which they could not do, if they were out of it? It is certain that not only the Papalins have owned these Doctrines, but even those who have been the greatest Adversaries of the Papacy among themselves. Particularly, the Council of Constance is that which gave Authority to the Page  157 Doctrine of breaking Faith with known Here∣tics. And according to the definition of that same Council, the a Pope himself, and all they who challenge for him the Supremacy over Councils, are Heretics for doing so. And therefore, why may they not break Faith with him as well as with any other Heretic? This is a just reason for him to suspect, and they who are once suspected can give him no assurance by these Princi∣ples.

Since therefore the belief of this liberty of using Reflexive Prevarication, is neither for the Interest, nor agreeable to the practice of the Ro∣man Court it self; and since the danger that may follow in the trust of it must be more theirs than ours, for it destroys the Faith of all whom they have to employ either to defend themselves or to prejudice us; we have reason to believe that Forms, whereby they renounce prevarication, may oblige them to bar themselves the use of those Prevarications which they do therein expresly re∣nounce. So that for giving us compleat security, nothing more can be desired but that the Forms to be tendred to them may take in all the cases wherein any celebrated Doctors among them do allow them this liberty of prevaricating. And therefore the drawing up of this Test would be more properly a work of Divines than of States∣men; and more particularly, of such Divines as have been most conversant in the Casuists of the Roman Church.

If this will not suffice, how is it possible that even Protestants, who are once suspected of Page  158 inclining to Popery, can ever purge themselves of this Imputation? We have had too many In∣stances of unjust Accusations of this kind. It hath been generally the Fate of them who have been most zealous for the Church of England, or for any thing of Order and Discipline in it, to have been thus represented to the people by men who have desired to make them odious. And the mis∣chief which must follow upon this distrust among our selves, even of those who are our most zealous Patriots, and therefore most eminently capable of doing service, is a mischief much greater than we can fear from any thing that can follow on such a trust of the Romanists as have been here descri∣bed. It will make us uncapable of driving on any great design, either for our own defence, or to defeat their machinations against us. And therefore it must be much more mischievous to us, than any hurt we can suffer from those of the Ro∣man Communion, especially from those who desire, not our trust, but protection.

If it be farther suspected, that, when they have taken all the Tests that can be given them, still their minds may alter after all this; and that so long as their Priests are near them, and have their ear, we have too just reason to suspect that they may actually change. It will be easie to reply, that a change may be possible, when all diligence hath been used to the contrary. But we have no reason to believe it probable, of them who, by a Test that hath been before propounded, shall pro∣fess themselves more obliged to theirDuty to King and Country than to any Judgment or Interest of Page  159 their Church to the contrary. For whosoever they are that are ready to oppose the Judgment of their Church it self, if she should declare any thing contrary to their duty; it cannot in reason be supposed, that they should be so far influenced by a Priest, as to do that for his sake, which they would not do in obedience to the Church. But if yet it be farther suspected, that their Priests may be enabled to work such a change in their Penitents by their Intimacy and Assiduity with them, and by that Reverence that is usually born to their Persons, which, being alway present with them, may perhaps prevail more than the dumb Definitions of the Church. Yet this danger the State may very easily remedy, and will do it by the making of a just and prudent discrimination. For that being to be made by such a Test as the State shall require, no other Priests will be allow∣ed, but only such as have taken it. And the Test being made with such a Clause as hath been pro∣posed, the Priests that take it will be upon the same terms with their Laity; and will be equally obliged in behalf of the State, to oppose any pretence that can be brought by any person or power whatsoever to draw them from their Alle∣giance.

And if there be any fear of Practices against the State by them that, having taken the Test, have been secretly changed by some means against which no provision is made; the danger of this also may be prevented, as far as any thing may be done by Obligations of Conscience. Not to say that their Interest will oblige them likewise in great measure. Page  160 It may be done by a frequent Repetition of this Test, which may discover any change in some short time after it is made; and so may give an early stop to any practices which might follow upon it. The Priests also may be obliged by their Oath to declare the Independent Right of Kings in their Sermons, as expresly, and as oft, as the State shall prescribe. And it may be so ordained that they shall continue in their charge no longer than while they can bring sufficient Testimony that they have done it. These expedients will suffice in all likelihood to prevent the defection of them who have given security to the State, or at least will secure it in time from receiving any dan∣gerous hurt by their defection.