" be learned more sorts of wickedness, than from "all the summists and the summaries of all vices, " and a licence for most of them, but an absolution "for all, is offered to such as will bid well for it. " I spare names, for as one, though at present I " cannot well recollect who, says, the very repeating of them is offensive. It is wonderful that during "this time and this schism, such an infamous kind " of index of so many, such foul and horrid wick"ednesses, that I cannot imagine any more scanda"lous work is to be met with in Germany or Swit ແ zerland, or any of those countries that have "withdrawn their obedience to the Papal see, "should not have been suppressed. So far have "the factors from the Roman communion been from "suppressing it, that many new impunities for such so gross enormities are granted, and the rest con"firmed in the faculties of the legates dispatched "to their several countries." A little after, * he adds out of Mantuan, "It is sad to see how money carries all things at Rome." And not very long before the Council of Trent, what a prodigious mass of money Pope Leo raised by these indulgences, the noble historian Thuanus tells us : "Leo (saith he) to the guilt of his dispensations, "added another and greater, when at the instiga❝tion of the Cardinal Laurence Picius, he every "where exacted monies in vast sums, sending his * Eccl. 9. "bulls through all the kingdoms of Christendom, "promising forgiveness of all their sins, and eter"nal life, at a price stated according to the quality "of their crimes." In a word, all sober men eried shame at this abominable cheat, imposed on the souls of men for whom Christ died. And if the men that influenced and governed the Trent Convention, had had any true sense of religion, they would have denounced an anathema against this vile doctrine and practice, and not (as they have done) decreed, and that as an article of faith without any restriction or qualification, "That the use of indulgences is highly con"ducing to the salvation of Christians." But they were the Pope's vassals, and received their instructions from Rome not to reform any thing, though never so much amiss, that tended to the grandeur and gain of that see. The last article I shall take notice of is contained in these words: "I acknowledge the holy Catho"lick and Apostolick Roman church to be the "mother and mistress of all churches, and promise "true obedience to the Pope of Rome, Successor "to St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and the "Vicar of Jesus Christ." Here the Ecclesiastick swears to three great untruths, one upon the neck of another. 1. That the Roman church is the mother of all other churches; which is a manifest falsehood in matter of fact. For every body knows that the church of Jerusalem was the first mother church, and is so called and acknowledged by the ancient fathers. St. Jerome saith, "It was the "church founded at Jerusalem, that planted all the "other churches." And the Synodical Letters from the Council of Constantinople to Damascus, and the Western bishops call Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, which is the mother of all churches. From this truly mother church divers other churches were planted in the East, before the Gospel came to Rome; as particularly the church of Antioch, where the disciples were first called Christians. Upon the persecution raised against the church of Jerusalem, the Christians of that church being dispersed and scattered abroad, soon spread the Gospel far and near through the East. And to come nearer home, it is affirmed by some learned men of the Roman church, that our Britain received the Gospel before Rome. For Suarez confesseth § that the Gospel was preached here from the first rising of it. And Baronius from some MSS. in the Vatican, affixeth our conversion to Christianity to the thirty-fifth year of our Lord, which was near nine years before the founding of the Roman church. But if the credit of these MSS. be questionable, this however is evident, that our Britain did not receive her first Christianity from Rome, but from the East. This, I say, is evident from the customs observed here from the * Comment. in Isai. 2. Act. 11. 26. Defens. Fid. Cath. 1. 1. ? Q. d. Are you the your church the first Yes, say the Roman beginning in the observation of Easter and the administration of Baptism, different from the Roman use, but conform to the Oriental churches. So that we may justly check the arrogance of the present Roman church in the words of St. Paul to the proud Corinthians, setting up among themselves certain customs, contrary to the institutes of all other Churches. * Came the word of God out from you Or came it to you only? first and only Christians? and only church of Christ? ists, our church is the mother of all other churches. But this is apparently false, for the Law first came out of Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. The church of Rome pretends also to be the only church of Christ, i. e. that there is no true church of Christ but what is in union with and subjection to her. But this is as false a claim as the other. For there were divers true churches of Christ, before the church of Rome was in being, which therefore could have no dependence upon her. 2. That the church of Rome is the mistress of all other churches, is another great untruth. A proposition which if it should have been advanced in the first ages of the church, would have startled all Christendom. Every metropolitical church would presently have stood up, and loudly pleaded her own immunities, rights and privileges independent upon Rome or any other metropolis. These rights and privileges were confirmed as of primitive and * 1. Cor. 14.36. antient custom by the sixth canon of the great Council of Nice, as hath been before shewn; established also by the eighth canon of the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus, as by and by will appear. Indeed in the days of old, when the church of Rome was quite another thing from what now it is, all other churches upon several accounts, paid a singular respect to her, and gave her the pre-eminence; but they never acknowledged her mistresship over them, or themselves to be her serving-maids. This language would then have sounded very harsh, and been esteemed insolent and arrogant by all the churches of Christ. In later days indeed she hath made herself mistress, but, a mistress of misrule, disturbing the peace, invading the rights, and imposing upon the faith of other churches. 3. That the Bishop of Rome is the Vicar of Christ, i. e. under Christ the head and governor of the Universal church, is another gross untruth. The Universal pastorship and jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome, over all other bishops, was never heard of, never pretended to by any bishop of that church for the first six hundred years and more, as I have before shewn. To which all that I shall now add, concerns our British Church. We say then, our church of Britain was never under the jurisdic tion of the Bishop of Rome, for the first six hundred years; Britain being a distinct diocese of the Empire, and consequently having a primate of her own, independent upon any other primate or metropolitan. This appears first from the customs of our |