The Disarmers Dexterities Examined, Chapter 5 · Section 14
SECT. XIV.
Laws against the Civil right repealable. S. Peter's priviledges interfere not with Regal power. Sayr's resolution. My using it no begging the question.
WHat was added by me §. 22. that a Law though made by a Generall Councell, and with the consent of all Christian Princes, yet if it have respect to a civil right, may in this or that nation be repealed] was directed by me to inferre this, formerly set down,p. 128. conclusion, that the power of Kings to remove Primacies, if taken away b… forein Laws, viz: those of the Court of Rome, is resumable; This I suppose was proper to induce that, because the Law of a General Councel, with the consent of all Christian Princes, was so much above Phocas's donation to Boniface, or a Pontifical decree, that my conclusion would follow à majori, and with adva…tage Now to this saith S. W. that ere it will d…e me any goo…, I must first suppose the title of Head of the …hurch to be a thing belonging to a Civil right, 2. that that title is denied our Kings upon pretense of a Canon of a Coun…el, and not on …hrists donation of it to S. Peter.]
…o the… I answer, 1. that the power of removing Primates … I spake of, and not the title of Head of the C…urch, a… … …pp se in the first place, in order to my conclusion, is, that …is is legally annext to the Regal, or Imperial power, and t…t suppose I …ave …ormerly proved, and so doe not relie on an …pr…ed suppositi n. 2. that all that I need adde to that, is, that …h…ist never to…k aw… from Kings any thing, that was vested in them, to bestow it upon S Peter, and consequently that whatsoever Christ… donati…ns to S. Peter were, this privilege of erecting Metropoles may, an… doth still remain to Kings, and the decrees of the Councils, that the Ecclesiastical fo…ms shall follow the Civil, will farther secure it to them, without recur…ing a…ain to the question long since debated, concerning S. …eter's priviledges.
That of § 23. from Balsamon, as saith he it hath by S W. been already answered, so hath it also been vindicated in t…is Reply, and shall not be here repeated.
To the last §. where from the resolution of Sayr, their owne Casuist, I inferred the no force of prescription to alienate any such right of Kings, he offers two prejudices, 1. that Sayr was a Monke, his book written at Rome, and so not likely to speak much on the Doctors behalf. 2. that in case he say any thing aga…nst them, he is but a private Casuist, and so his op n…on with the sam… facility rejected as alledged.] But to this I reply 1. that to matters of this nature, none being so fit to judge, as Casuists, no Casuist could by me be produced with more advantage against the Romanist, than honest Sayr, as he calls him, who if he were honest, did not prevaricate; if he were a late Monke, wrote not in favour of us; if he wrote at Rome, had his Book examined, and licensed, every period in it, by the Inquisitor… there; and if after all that, he doe really say any thing, on which my conclusion is regularly founded (as his words set down in the Tract of Schisme, p. 130. doe testifie, that he doth) it matters not, how unlikely it is, that he should say it, such arguments of improbability against a matter of fact, are of all others the most improbable arguments.
But these were but the procinctus to his answer, and that comes more solemnly after them, yet such as you might know it at first sight, it is so like, what such harbingers promised, viz: that by using this testimony I suppose two things which must not be granted me gratis, 1. that the Pope prescribed against the Kings of England in their pretended right in Ecclesiastical matters, 2. that this prescription of the Pope hath not its force from any thing but a Canon or Civil Law,] and great ovation there is in observing this infirmity in my discourse.
But I desire to be advised, and directed by Artists from their severest laws of foreign, whether a treatise be obliged to be made up of no more than one proposition, or when a foundation is laid, and competently establisht, it be unlawfull ever to proceed farther, either by way of inlarging the foundation, or superstructing any fabrick upon it. I had in the former chapters indeavoured to shew, that neither from Christ to S. Peter, nor from S. Peter to the Pope, nor from the planting the faith among us in this Island, nor from any presumed right in antient times, any supreme authority or Ʋniversal Pastorship divolved or descended on the Bishops of Rome, and having proposed that, which I thought sufficient to the deducing of these, I was willing to foresee and examine all their other pretenses, and among them not to omit their long p…ssession of this power, (which both the Catholick Gent: and S. W. have since pleaded, Sch. Disar: pag. 24. [on the one side, say they, is the authority of Antiquity and possession] and which I cannot but acknowledge as reasonable a plea, as that, which also they both have made use of, taken from the possession of the belief of that and their other doctrines) and in order to the refuting of that, I could not, I hope, be obliged to establish afresh, that which had been formerly confirmed (and was ready to be viewed by him that questioned it) any more than the Geometer is to demonstrate anew every foregoing Proposition, whensoever he adds a subsequent. For the Popes Ʋniversal Pastorship being not by the Romanist deduced either from the Law of Nature, or Nat ons, and their pleas from the D…vine Law or donat…on of Christ being examined, and, as I I had reason to th…nk, found invalid, it was no begging the question sure, to suppose it held either by prescription, and that at the most from force of Canon or Civil Law, or else by some lesse valid or no title.
This renders the account manifest, why I inlarged no farther to the applying this resolution of the Casuist to the praecedent discourse; and it now appears, that if I had done it, I had prevailed nothing with my Disarmer, unless I had reverted again to prove the Ʋniversal Pastorship, and yet so ill provided is his table, that even this must be put into the bill of fare, as a special piece of wit to adde to the intertainment; And I cannot but have some gust of it, because it is a conclusion of his declamation against my 6. Chapter.