that Consecrates be no Priest or because he errs in Form or because the due Intention is wanting nor can he that stands by be sure that a Transubstantiation is made no nor the Priest that celebrates because he is not absolutely certain whither he be a Priest or no in regard the Intention of his Ordainer is not positively known to him all which things consider'd how can he that Adores the Sacrament avoid the danger of Idolatry For if he adores an unconsecrated Host which he thinks to be consecrated he commits Idolatry Nor does he propound any other Remedy to escape this danger of Idolatry then a Conditional Adoration which whether it pleases your modern Doctors or no I know not These are his words Litt. R. Resp Secundum Alex. part 3. quaest 30. memb 3. art 1. sect 3. and after him Bishop Thomas and St. Bonaventure in 3. distinst 9. That the Host or Eucharist upon the Altar ought to be ador'd upon condition that all things requisite to the Consecration are so as they ought to be Since then the Adoration of the Sacrament is dubious and dangerous we of the Reformed Church are not to be accounted Enemies of the Sacrament because we do not adore it following that course which is safest and voidof all danger lest we should adore what we know not like the Samaritans of old John 4. Lastly We cannot be traduc'd for being Enemies to any profess'd legal Order whether Political or Ecclesiastical since it is our desire that all things should be done decently and regularly in the Church according to the Apostolic Precept 1 Cor. 4. 40. And for that we press nothing more urgently in the Public Government then due Obedience to the Magistrates ignorant of the dangerous Axioms of your Roman Church which tear up by the Roots the Authority of Princes and subject the Heads and Diadems of Kings and Emperors to the Mitre and Feet of the Pope Nay we are in this Point so rigid in our Duty that Bellarmin complains That we give too much Power to Magistrates c. 17. de Laicis But because we hold That the Laws of Men do not bind the Conscience it is not to be taken in such a sense as if we deny'd That Men were to be obey'd because of our Consciences but only as making this difference between Human and Divine Laws That the latter only bind and subject the Consciences immediately and of themselves And Bellarmin c. 9. de Laicis confesses John Gerson Chancellor of the Academy of Paris de vit Spirit Lect. 4. and Jacobus Almain a Doctor of the Sorbonn de Protestat Ecclesiae quaest 1. cap. 10. both Famous Men and neither of them taxed with any Error in Faith. We do not allow so many Rites and Ceremonies in the Church not out of any hatred of Order and Decency but out of a just abhorrence of Tyranny and Susperstition The more Night comes on the more the Darkness encreases Multitude of Ceremonies are so far from helping that they stifle Piety If the Roman Pontiff press'd no more then only a certain Primacy among the Bishops of the West for Orders sake and that by a positive Human and not Divine Law he might then perhaps have some Pretence to complain of us for refusing to acknowledge such a Primacy as Enemies to Order in the Church and yet there might be a Decency observ'd therein without any such Primacy as is apparent from the Example of our Churches But we are not to be accus'd of Despising Order while we only reject his Authority in regard he arrogates to himself an absolute Primacy in the Universal Church not only of Order but of Power Authority and Jurisdiction by virtue of which he pretends to be Monarch of the whole Church jure Divino contrary to the Saying of St. Cyprian de Simpl. prael A Bishoprick is that of which a part is held by several in particular to make up the whole Thus far we have discuss'd the more weighty and more heavy Calumnies which are cast upon the Protestants by the Romanists on purpose to render them odious to the People and that they may have some Pretence to deliver them up to the Flames of Hell. Now there are some other Motives of this rash Judgment to be examin'd that there may not the least shadow of Reason remain to support it There is no Name by which we are more frequently mark'd out then that of Heretics and under this Title you Mr. Prior Anathematize us tho' not the First For the Pope every year in his Bull entitl'd Caena Domini brandishes his Thunder of Excommuication over our Heads and Interdicts us from all Society with Roman Catholics so that they dare not either read our Books or hear our Sermons Where-ever the Rigor of the Inquisition reigns our People are hurry'd before its cruel Tribunal as to the Altars of Busiris and the Roman Doctors presently Preach to us the Axioms of their School That Heretics and Excommunicated Persons ipso facto lose the Dominion and Property of their Goods and Estates That they are incapable of all lawful Jurisdiction That they do more harm in a Common-wealth then Whores nay then Jews and Turks so that 't is better to tolerate Brothel-houses and Synagogues then their Meetings That for this reason the Pope has Power to deprive Kings of their Dignity to absolve Subjects from their Oaths of Fidelity given to the Magistrates That a Husband may forsake his Wife upon this account if she presume to bring up the Children common to both in Heresie altho' the Husband had condescended and engaged his Promise upon the Contract of Marriage Lastly That Faith given to Heretics may be violated without any remorse of Conscience However I maintain this Crime of Heresie to be unjustly and out of meer Calumny fixed upon Us the word being taken in that Sense wherein the Scripture condemns Heresie as when St. Paul reck'ns it among the Fruits of the Flesh Gal. 5. 20. and commands Titus to reject a Heretic Tit. 3. 10. I say Protestants are no Heretics in that sense wherein Heresie is condemn'd in Scripture Certain it is that the Signification of this word is in general more diffus'd among the Antients and in particular more largely us'd among the Romanists and that among both they are frequently tax'd of Heresie who according to the Scripture are very remote from it First in general among the Antients For Philastrius Bishop of Brescia Contemporary with St. Ambrose reck'ns for Heresie the Opinion of those that attributed the Epistle to the Hebrews to Clement or Barnabas also the Opinion of them that affirm'd the Stars to be fix'd in their Celestial Globes Whether or no were the Quartodecimans justly deem'd Heretics because they would have Easter to be precisely celebrated upon the Fourteenth Moon For this was the Opinion of all the Churches of Asia the less and which Polycrates a holy Man stifly maintains from Apostolical Tradition And when Victor Bishop of
Rome presum'd about Two hundred years after Christ for that reason to Excommunicate the Asiatic Churches that is to say to renounce Communion with them Irenaeus of Lyons sharply reprov'd him as the Epistles of Polycrates and Irenaeus extant about this Matter in Eusebius declare Hist Eccles l. 5. c. 23. 24. Was Aetius deservedly numbred among the Heretics because he acknowledg'd no difference jure Divino between a Bishop and a Presbyter For it is not evident that the Scripture acknowledges any such difference and that St. Jerom upon cap. 2. of the Epistle to Titus was plainly of the same Opinion nay and according to Medina in Bellarmin That St. Ambrose St. Austin Sedulius Primasius and other the most Famous Fathers of the Church were all of the same Judgment Then again without question Rome does no way approve the Ancients for numbring the Angelics among the Heretics because they gave Religious Worship to Angels which she herself defends or those who by St. Austin are call'd Nudipedales or Pattalorynchites against the former of which it is objected That they went Bare-foot seeing that at this day this is one of the greatest Marks of extraordinary Sanctity among you Romanists The other are tax'd to have profess'd a certain sort of Religious Silence which the Carthusian Monks however make no small part of their Glory Or the Collyridians of Epiphanius Heres 79. who offer'd to the Blessed Virgin little Cakes or Wiggs in Greek call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and gave her the Title of Queen of Heaven Which they that now refuse to do are all accounted Heretics Or the Starolatrae of Nicephorus Hist l. 18. c. 54. who as the Name imports worshipt the Cross which most of you assert is a Duty to be done Gretser the Jesuite affirming who in that follows Thomas Cajetan Valentia and Vasquez that it is the more common Opinion among those of his Religion l. 1. de Cruce c. 49. More paricularly among the Modern Romanists under Gregory VII The Collation of Benefices by Princes and by Caesar was call'd the Simonian and Henrician Heresie And as often as in Matters meerly Political any difference happen'd betwen the Kings and Emperors and the Bishops of Rome they declar'd them Heretics Thus Boniface VIII declar'd Philip the Fair King of France a Heretic because he sent none of his Soldiers to the Holy War. Thus John Albret King of Navar was declar'd a Heretic by Julius II because he took part with Lewis XII tho' the Quarrel was not about Matter of Faith and by virtue of that Condemnation he lost his Kingdom which the Spaniard has kept ever since John XXII pronounced Lewis of Bavaria the Emperor a Heretic because he defended the Cause of the Franciscans at that time out of the Pope's Favour but more particularly that of Ockam I forbear to mention any more We must therefore restrain the Signification of this word and a little more diligently examin who is properly a Heretic to the end we may the more easily prove the Protestants not to be guilty of this Crime An Heretic in my Opinion is one who for the sake of Temporal Profit but chiefly of Honor and Supremacy or of Lordship either founds or follows False and New Opinions Thus St. Austin de utilitate ad cred Honor. c. 1. Now in this sense we are not Heretics For tho' the Opinions were False which we uphold yet we could not be said to follow them for the sake of any Temporal Profit more especially of Honor or Supremacy but only for the obtaining of Salvation and upon the only Motive of our Consciences in regard it is plain to all the World that God has annexed to our Profession Reproach the Cross and Poverty and that the Protestants often experience the Truth of that Sentence of St. Paul All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer Persecution 2 Tim. 3. 12. Let Cardinal Bellarmin come in for a share too Why Because he has lit upon a most powerful means for me to demonstrate to Mr. Prior That We are no HERETICS He therefore c. 8. de not Eccles going about to prove that there is no Church among the Greeks notwithstanding the continued Succession of their Bishops from the Apostles time at least from the Reign of Constantine the Great under whom he believes the Constantinopolitan Church began says That the Greeks were lawfully convicted in three full Councils the Lateran that of Lyons and the other of Florence of Heresie and Schism more especially of the Heresie about the Proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Son. This Question about the Proceeding of the Holy Ghost I do not pretend to enter into nor do I see any great difference between the Latins affirming the Holy Ghost to proceed from the Father and the Son and the Greeks alledging that He proceeds from the Father through the Son. This is that which I think worthy Observation That after all the Tridentin Decisions whereby the greatest part of the Opinions of our Churches were condem'd for Heresies Bellarmin attributes no other Heresie to the Greeks besides that of the Proceeding of the Holy Ghost Whence it follows that among the Greeks the Marriage of Priests Communicating under Both Kinds and with Leavened Bread the Rejecting Extreme Unction Auricular Confession Transubstantiation Purgatory and Pontifical Monarchy were no Heresies in all which the Orientals agree with us Now if these Articles of the Greeks had bin Heretical how comes it to pass that the Lateran Lyons and Florentine Councils which enquir'd into their Errors past them by But if they were not Heretical among the Greeks in the East why should they be so among the Protestants in the West If among the Greeks it be no Heresie but only a Schism to reject the Papal Authority and to shake off his Yoke why must it be a pernicious and capital Heresie among the Protestants Neither is it to be doubted but that if the Greeks would have subjected themselves in the Lateran Council to the See of Rome all the above-mentioned Articles except the denial of the Pope's Supremacy had been allow'd them Whence it is apparent that those Articles are neither Heretical nor pernicious in Faith nor destructive of Salvation since it was possible that the Greeks retaining them might nevertheless have bin true Members of the Catholic Church and consequently capable of Eternal Life But that no Man may think I am overcuriously romaging for my Justification in the Thesis's of my Adversaries that I may slip out at length at some Back-door I shall add some direct Reasons for our Innocency which cannot be Answer'd First therefore no Man can be traduc'd as a Heretic and branded with an Infamous Crime unless it be sufficiently apparent that He as the Scripture says has receded from the Holy Command of God and suffer'd Shipwrack of his Faith. For as St. Austin says de unit Eccles c. 5. No Man is to be branded with an ignominious Mark unless it be
by which the Succession of the Popes was interrupted So many Simoniacal Elections into that See which are recorded in History so many Popes in the Tenth Age to be call'd Apostatic and Renouncers of Christ rather then Apostolic upon the Testimony of Genebrade I use a new Argument to which you Romanists can make no Answer It is confirm'd as well by the Canon Law as by Custom time out of mind That a Pope may constitute a new Law and a new Form for Chusing a Successor which not being observ'd an Election otherwise made is void Hence Julius II grieving that he had invaded the Supreme Authority by Simony made a new Law concerning the Simoniacal Election of the Pope for the future whereby he ordain'd That any Pope who after him should be Simoniacally elected should be lookt upon as an Intruder a Magician a Publican an Arch Heretic and that he should by no means be acknowledg'd for a lawful Pope But that Sixtus V was chosen Simoniacally is a thing which almost every Body knows For that he might be elected he bought the Suffrages of Cardinal d'Este and the Cardinals depending upon him and covenanted with him in a Writing drawn up and subscrib'd with his own Hand that during his Pontificate he would never make Jeronymo Matthei who was de'Este's Enemy a Cardinal upon condition that by d'Este's means he obtain'd the Pontificate Upon which being made Pope by d'Este and his Faction he confess'd himself to be the work of his hands However Sixtus forfeited his Faith to Him and created Matthei Cardinal for all that which Cardinal d'Este took so ill that he sent the Contract between him and Sixtus to Philip II King of Spain who in the Year 1589 sent the Duke of Sessa his Extraordinary Embassador to Rome to give Notice to Sixtus of his Intentions to call a General Council upon the Information of a Simoniacal Election and to require the Cardinals created by the Predecessors of Sixtus and other Ecclesiastics to be present at a Council to be assembled at Sevil but because upon intimation of the Council Sixtus dy'd for Despair the business went no farther This is related in a certain Book entitled Papatus Romanus cap. 10. pag. 200 c. Seeing then that Sixtus was an Illegal and Simoniac Intruder certain it is that the Papacy ceas'd in him so that they who succeeded were no true Popes because they were elected by the Cardinals which he created who being Intruders as created by a Simoniac wanted Right of Election as well according to the Council of Constance as for that according to the Rule of the Lawyers No Man can transfer more Right to another then he has himself And therefore the whole World ought not to be shut up in one City Some are of Cephas others of Paul others of Clement let it suffice a Christian to be of Christ Whoever fears God and works Righteousness in whatever part of the World he is is acceptable to God. If two or three are gathered together in the Name of Christ he will be in the midst of them The Supernal Jerusalem which enjoys her Liberty is the Mother of us all We shall not be Judg'd by the Roman or Popes Communion but by the Communion of Saints and of Christ Therefore we cannot be Schismatics upon this just necessary and sound Separation of ours There are still remaining Reverend Mr. Prior some other Motives of yours to this rash Judgment which you give of us which are now to be brought to the Touch with the rest There are some who believe a Posteriori that we are deservedly to be listed among the number of the Damned because we stand Excommunicated by the Pope and the Catholic Church But in regard these Excommunications do not strike us but either as Heretics or Schismatics they do us no hurt in regard we are neither Heretics nor Schismatics as hath bin already shewn If they are necessarily to be numbred among the Damned whom the Pope has Excommunicated of necessity all in Asia the less who dy'd during the Excommunication of Victor upon the Paschal difference must be by all Christians excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven and that the Sacraments which you our Adversaries nevertheless will allow preserve their Excellency by way of Physical Cause and in general all Public Worship must be depriv'd of their Efficacy in all Provinces which are sometimes subject to Papal Interdiction Nor ought we to pass over in silence that Observation of St. Jerom upon that place of Mat. 16. wherein the Keys of Heaven are promis'd to St. Peter This Place saith the holy Man the Bishops and Presbyters not understanding assume to themselves something of the Pride of the Pharisees even to Damn the Innocent and Absolve the Guilty whereas God regards not the Sentence of the Priest but the Life of the Offender But according to this Saying of St. Jerom all Casuists and Canonists acknowledge that an unjust Excommunication is Invalid and that such an Excommunicate may both Administer and Receive the Sacraments with a good Conscience An Excommunication without a just Cause is not valid in the Interior Court therefore such a one may Celebrate where it is no Scandal says the Jesuite Emanuel Sa voce Excommunicat § 4. But Toletus lib. Instruct Sacram. cap. 10. num 7. more positively asserts That there is no unjust Sentence of Excommunication can bind either as to God or as to the Church But it is unjust as he says again § 1. from some defect which if it be Essential makes it no Excommunication and then it is not to be dreaded neither does it bind either in the Court of Heaven or Earth Which he confirms by the Testimony of several Canonists If therefore we are unjustly Excommunicated and as the Schoolmen Phrase it Clave Errante or with an Erring Key and that these Excommunications are of no force Our Damnation cannot be inferr'd a Posteriori from such Sentences but that they are unjust and null I shall easily demonstrate An Excommunication is said to be null says Toletus ibid. § 4. if it contain an intolerable Error c. Now then a Sentence is said to contain an intolerable Error when any one is Excommunicated because he does that which is Good in it self or does not do that which is in its own act Unlawful Why then are we Excommunicated Surely because we do that which is good in it self applying our selves to the Word of God and will not adhere to those who would have us to be wiser then the Scripture can make us and refusing to do what is evil in it self or at least what we judge in our Consciences to be so and because we adhere not to a Worship unlawful and contrary to Scripture An Excommunication is void if it be pronounc'd by one already Excommunicated or Suspended from Jurisdiction or Interdicted or after a lawful Appeal says Emanuel Sa as above § 1. And Toletus has the same words Now such is
Ship which carry'd the Mother of the Gods which many Mariners hawling all together could not stir Plutarch also in Coriolanus relates that the Image of Fortune spoke and often as the same Author relates in the same Life the Images and Statues were seen to Sweat Bleed and Weep St. Austin likewise tells us of many such Portents that happen'd among the Gentiles lib. 10 de civitate Dei. Tacitus also Hist lib. 4. relates of Vespasian that by his single Touch he restor'd Sight to the Blind and Strength to the Lame Bellarmin cap. 14. de Not. Eccles That both their Diseases proceeded from the Devil who having seiz'd the Eye of the one and the Leg of the other hindred the Use of their Limbs to the end he might seem to heal when he ceas'd to hurt I do not see why the Protestants may not use the same Exception against so many Miracles which the Romanists seign by the Touch either of their Images or their Reliques But I shall here furl my swelling Sails Mr. Prior being ready to explain and enlarge my self whensoever you shall be pleas'd to re-assume and examin this Matter II. Miracles do not of necessity follow Truth For tho' they were necessary in the time of Infant Christianity yet the true Religion being now establish'd and setled over all the World if not manifestly profitable they cease however to be absolutely necessary So that St. Austin lib. 2. de civitate Dei with very great reason said Whoever still enquires after Prodigies to confirm his Belief is himself a great Prodigy I forbear any more let it suffice me only to produce the Fathers of the Second Nicene Council act 4. Why do our Images at this day work no Miracles I answer with the Apostle Miracles are not for Believers but for the Vnbelievers Now then if the Protestants embrace the Doctrin of Christ and his Apostles the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles are sufficient for them Which would be necessary again were they to follow some new and never heard of Gospel before Nor does the difference whatever it is between the Reform'd Churches and the Lutherans whatever it be either in Ceremonies or some Points of Doctrin savour a jot more your precipitate Judgment concerning the Eternal Damnation of the Protestants For you Romanists your selves acknowledge that the Greek and Eastern Christians would be in the way of Salvation would they but submit to the Empire of the Pope tho' they retain'd their Ceremonies and Opinions differing in many Circumstances from the Rites and Doctrin of the Roman Church It is apparent from the Epistle of St. Austin to Januarius that all the Churches did not make use of the same Rites and Ceremonies In the Apostolic Churches also soon after the first dawn of Christianity Disputes and Contentions arose to pass by those that fell out between Cyril and Theodoret Chrysostom and Epiphanius St. Jerom and St. Austin nay between those very Men themselves that reproach the Lutherans and the Reformed with their differences which I would to God they were clos'd up There is the greatest difference among these Upbraiders not only as to Ceremonials as is apparent from so many Orders of Monks varying among themselves in Habit Rules and Public Worship but also as to Opinions as is evident from those most terrible Controversies about which your Theologists most sharply contend and quarrel one with another of the Authority of the Pope above a Council of a Council above the Pope of the Infallibility of the Bishop of Rome of his Power over Kings and Secular Princes the Conception of the Blessed Virgin of the sort of Adoration due to the Cross and Images of Predestination Grace Free-will and the like So that the Doctors of your Communion split themselves into various Sects according to which some are Thomists others Scotists others Real others Nominal others love to be call'd Jansenists and others Molinists Nay there is not any Article of the Christian Faith about which you have not rais'd Contentions and Disputes if not more sharp and eager yet of no less moment then all those which are stirring between the Reformed and the Lutherans And that diversity which you object against us is far inferior to your Dissentions nor is it concerned in the Fundamentals of Christianity in which the Reformed of both Parties are plainly agreed So that it is a kind of Miracle that there should be so little variance between so many Reformed Churches dispers'd all over Europe compos'd of various People and under several Princes tho' among them there is no Church which commands over others nor any intervening Political Tye to constrain them to such an Agreement in Matters of Faith. In the mean time there is no Schism between ours and the Lutheran Churches seeing that we neither separated from Them nor they from Us. In Poland the Brethren of the Helvetian Bohemian and Augustan Confession setting a laudable Example communicated before together by virtue of the Decree of Sendomir And in the Year 1631 in the National Synod of France a Decree was made for admitting the Lutherans as Brethren in Christ and Members of the same Mystical Body to our Communion of the Lord's Supper and for allowing them Brotherly Toleration in those Points wherein they differ from us And tho' they in their Anger pretend that we Err in Fundamentals which through the Mercy of God they will never be able to prove yet we judge more tenderly and better of them so disproving the Opinions which they obstinately defend that we deny them to be in themselves deadly or pernicious to Salvation or that they are such as ought not to hinder Christian Peace between us and them or prevent an Ecclesiastical Communion which might be obtain'd between Churches not agreeing in all things if the Foundation were sound Now we believe that to be a Fundamental Error wherein there is according to the ancient Phrase of the Synagogue a Denial of the Foundation which cannot comply with true Faith and Holiness For neither all Truths even those that are reveal'd are of the same necessity Neither are all Wounds which are given to Truth Mortal nor is every Disease an Epelipsie or the Falling-sickness St. Paul distinguishes between the Foundation and the Superstructure 1 Cor. 3. 11 12 13 14 15. He that meddles with Fundamentals is lyable to an Anathema Gal. 1. 8. In others there is room left for Exhortation Rom. 14. 1. Phil. 3. 15 16. Here the Gnat is not scrupulously to be strain'd at as there the Camel is not to be rashly swallowed We break Friendship with those that are openly Wicked but we bear with the blemishes and infirmities of Friends Nor is that presently to be thought of the necessity of Faith which yet may have a near Relation to it And therefore you canot blame us for offering our Communion to the Lutherans and rejecting the Papal For that between us and them there is not only a Harmony in the Foundation