And I doubt not but my Adverfary is fo well skill'd in Antiquity, as to be able to produce feveral by the Ancients condemned as fuch; but I fhall only make a later inftance, wherein I think we are all agreed, I mean, the Bohemian Adamites, who made a Religion of going Naked: This on all fides hath been accounted a fhameless Herefy, and I think very justly, although we had had nothing elfe against them. And I muft crave leave to tell you, that there are many allowed Opinions and Practices in the Roman Church, which are far from being encouragers of Chriftian Piety and holy Living. Their Rates fet upon Sins, their Pardons, their Purgatory, and way of praying out of it, with feveral others things, fmell rank of Fraud and Cheat, encourage Men to Sin and neglect Repentance, and border fo nearly upon Herefy, that they ought at least to be condemned as pernicious Errors. But I doubt not but upon farther fearch, the Roman Church will furnish us with fome plain manifeft Herefy; but then he will be answered in his way; for if I accufe her of Herefy, he asks me

By what General Council was fhe ever condemned? Refp. Is then nothing Herefy but what is condemned by a General Council? Surely Herefy is a thing certain in its own nature, and antecedent to the fentence or determination of any Council whatsoever; and a Doctrine is not therefore Herefy, because the Council condemned it, but therefore the Council condemned it because it was Herefy, and thereby publickly notified and declared it to be fo, that all might avoid it: And upon this account not only a General but any particular Council or Church might condemn it, otherwife fhe hath not a Power to provide for the fecurity of her own Members; and indeed without it fhe hath not a Power, nor fo much as a Right to preserve her self. Seeing then Herefy is Herefy, whether condemned by a Gene

a General Council or not, let us fee how the Church of Rome will acquit her felf of Herefy; and here I fhall begin with the univerfal Paftorfhip, which by the Primitive Church was referved to Christ, who is only capable of it, the Doctrine of any other univerfal Head was not then fo much as thought of: The first who openly fet up for it was John of Conftantinople, nor did he pretend to it by a Divine Right, but from the Authority of the Emperor: This the Pride and Ambition of Rome could not bear, as indeed there was no reafon for it, had the been never fo meek and humble: But the Conftantinopolitans only beat the Bush, the Romanifts caught the Bird. For when Phocas murder'd his Royal Mafter and ufurp'd his Throne, Boniface then Bishop of Rome, ftruck in with him, and got this fweet Morfel to himself out of the Mouth of the Conftantinopolitan; so then this glorious Title in its firft rife is not only owing to a Secular Power, but to Parricide, Rebellion and Treafon. But to let that pafs, let us fee what was the judgment of a Pope of Rome in this cafe, which any one should think would go a great way with our Adverfaries. When this attempt was first made, Gregory the Great was Bishop or Pope of Rome, who oppos'd it with all his Might, and with fuch Arguments as unanswerably prove it competible to no mere Man: It would be tedious to mention them, and therefore for brevity's fake I fhall only obferve one Inference he makes from them; In isto fcelefto vocabulo confentire nihil eft aliud quàm fidem cedere, i. e. That to agree to that wicked Title is nothing else but to give up the Faith. And if that be not Herefy I know not what is. And if it be confidered how vaftly that Power is ftretch'd and extended to the irreparable damage of Christ's Church, beyond what it was then when not fo much as pretended to: If a Pope thought it Heresy then, it ought to be judged much more fo now. Another thing

2

thing which I know not how to acquit of Herefy, is their establishment of the Worship of Images. When the second Council of Nice determin'd in favour of this Worship, it fet the Western World on fire; the Council of Frankfort opposed it felf against them; the British Church cry'd out horribly against them; Alcuinus, Preceptor to Charlemaine, wrote learnedly against them; and Pope Gregory himfelf, though he would feem to mitigate and take up the Controverfy, yet in the fame Breath condemns not only the Iconoclafts, but also those of Nice. For thus he writes to Severus; Tua ergo Fraternitas,& illas (i. e. Imagines) fervare, & ab earum adoratione populum prohibere debuit; You ought to fave the Images, but to forbid the People to worfhip them. But notwithstanding this out-cry in the Weft, the determination of a Council, and the declar'd judgment of the Pope himself, the Council of Trent have determin'd for the Worship of Images: For their direction is to uncover the Head and fall proftrate before them (Seff. 25.) And the Catechifmus ad Parochas, fet out by their Order, directs the Priest to inftru&t the People in refpect of their Behaviour towards Images, ut colantur, that they be worshipped. Their various fhifts and their feveral degrees of Worship, will not excufe; as good diftinctions may be found in Maximus Tyrius, Hierocles, and other Heathen Authors, for the different Worship of their Dii majorum & minorum Gentium. That which I defire to know is, whether it be not a religious Worship they pay? If not, why is it determined by their Councils? Why among their divine Offices? Why fo folemnly pay'd in their Churches? But if it be a religious Worship, it is robbing God of that Glory which he hath faid he will not give to another: And if religious Worship be not appropriated to God, what fhall be left him among Men? And therefore if Council, or Pope, or any other, require me to

worship

worship religiously any thing but God, I think the fame answer may ferve Him or Them, which our Blessed Saviour gave to the Devil, Thou shalt worShip the Lord thy God, and him only fhalt thou serve, Matth. 4. 10. I have many other confiderable Matters to lay to her charge, which for brevity fake I omit at prefent, that I may haften to his fecond Question: For they must be humour'd, and we bound to take the course they prefcribe. The Question is,

2. Which of the Fathers ever writ against her (i. e. the Church of Rome ?)

Refp. I ever had a great Reverence for the Fathers, and do think, that by their great Wisdom and Experience they might be able to make a better guefs at the tendency of things, than most other Men; but I never understood that they were Prophets, which they must be upon this Propofition, for elfe how can it be expected, that they who were dead above a thousand Years fince, should write against the Church of Rome? Or if they had been Prophets, yet it must be made appear that they were endued with the Spirit of Prophecy, as to this particular, which I never yet heard any affert. But though they thought not of her, yet if in their Writings may be found many Matters which are inconfiftent with feveral Doctrines of the present Church of Rome; then I doubt not but in this Senfe they may be faid to have written against her. Thus to continue our former inftances, the univerfal Headship was unknown to them, and the contrary Doctrine appears from them: I grant indeed, that the Bishop of Rome being placed in the Seat of the Empire, muft in course be a' Man of greater Intereft and Business than most other Men, and confequently that upon feveral occafions greater application might be made to him: But as for his Epifcopal Authority, it was no more in its Nature than what other Men had, yet it was the very fame M which

which they all did partake of; nor did they account him any other than their Colleague or Fellow-Bifhop; and even as low as St. Jerome's time, that Father levels the Authority of the Bishop of Rome with that of Eugubium, an obfcure Place. Their Cities might be large, or the extent of their Jurifdiction greater, but their Authority and the Jurifdiction it self was the fame; as the Bishop of Bangor is as much a Bishop as the Bishop of London, Paris, or Conftantinople. This was the Judgment of the Fathers as to Bishops, but how this can be reconciled to that abfolute uncontrolable Power which the Pope challengeth over all Bishops, and all Churches, is past my skill. Had he talk'd then of the plenitude of his Power, or of depofing Bifhops, Kings and Princes at his pleasure, they would all have rifen up againft him as one Man; as their Writings remain a plain Evidence against his prefent exorbitant and monftrous Pretenfions. If we proceed to the other inftance of Image-Worship, if the Fathers did not write directly against what was not then introduced, yet have they enough in them to condemn the introducing of it: For fome time no Images at all were allowed in Churches; and this was, fay fome of even our Adverfa1ies ob metum Idololatria, for fear of Idolatry. But what Idolatry could they be afraid of in the Use of them, other than the worshipping of them? But when afterwards the Hiftorical Use of them was allowed, all Perfons were carefully caution'd againft the Worship of them, as being no better in the Matter of it than Idolatry; yet now it is made a necessary Business, if not an Article of Faith: Who would not venture his Soul in fuch Company? The fame thing, may be, he would require, as to the mangling the Sacrament, and ask me which of the Fathers wrote against it? And yet by their own Confeffion, it was above a thousand Years fince Chrift's time, before that Ufage was brought in :

And