the greatest glory of S. Athanasius that he stood up alone against the whole World in defence of Christs Divinity when the Pope the Councils the whole Church fell away Conclude we therefore that God who has made us and knows what is best and most proper for us as he has subjected us to the Government and Direction of his Church for our Peace and Welfare so to secure our Faith he has given us his Holy Word to be the last resort the final infallible Rule by which both we and the Church its self must be directed And from this therefore if any one shall endeavour to turn us aside or preach any other Gospel unto us than what we have therein received Gal. 1.8 9. tho he were an Apostle from the Grave or even an Angel from Heaven let him be Anathema ARTICLE XXVI The Opinion of the Church of England as to the Authority of the Church FOR the two last Articles of Monsieur de Meaux's Exposition I might very well have pass'd them by The Church of England whose Doctrine I pretend to explain is but very little concerned in them Therefore only in a word That we allow the Church a just Authority in matters of Faith both the declaration of our xxth Article and the subscription we make to the whole 39 shew Such a deference we allow to her decisions that we make them our directions what Doctrine we may or may not publickly maintain and teach in her Communion In effect we shew whatever Submission we can to her Authority without violating that of God declared to us in his Holy Scriptures Whatsoever deference we allow to a National Church or Council the same we think in a much greater degree due to a General And whensoever such a one which we much desire shall be freely and lawfully assembled to determine the Differences of the Catholick Church none shall be more ready both to assist in it and submit to it ARTICLE XXVII Of the Authority of the Holy See and of Episcopacy FOR the Pope's Authority tho' we suppose no good Consequence can be drawn from that Primacy we are content to allow St. Peter among the Apostles for that exorbitant Power which has of late been pretended to Yet when other Differences shall be agreed and the true Bounds set to his Pretences we shall be content to yield him whatsoever Authority the Ancient Councils of the Primitive Church have acknowledged and the Holy Fathers have always taught the faithful to give him This Monsieur de Meaux ought to be contented with who himself absolves us from yielding to those pretences that have indeed very justly rendred this Authority not only odious but intolerable to the World Let those who are Enemies to Episcopacy and who deny any due respect to the Chair of St. Peter answer for themselves The Church of England has both retain'd the one and will be ready according to what we have before declared when ever it shall be requisite to acknowledge the other THE CLOSE SUCH is the Doctrine of the Church of England in those points which Monsieur de Meaux has thought fit to propose as the principal matters in debate betwixt us May it please the unprejudiced Papist to say what he can find in All these to warrant that bitter and unchristian hatred they have conceived against us To cut us off as much as in them lies from the Communion of Christs Church on Earth and to deny us all part of his promises in Heaven We firmly believe the Holy Scriptures and whatsoever they teach or command we receive and submit to as to the Word of God We embrace all the ancient Creeds and in them all that Faith which the Primitive Christians supposed and which the Religious Emperors by their Advice decreed should be sufficient to intitle us to the common name of Catholicks What new Donatists Gentlemen are you to presume to exclude us from this Character And may we not justly demand of you what S. Augustin once did of them on the same occasion You say that Christ is Heir of no Lands De unitate Eclesia c. 6. but where Donatus is Co-heir Read this to us out of the Law and the Prophets out of the Psalms out of the Gospel out of the Sacred Epistles Read it to us and we will believe We accept the Tradition of Primitive Antiquity truly such with a Veneration we dare confidently say greater than your selves We have shew'd that the very grounds of our difference is that you require us to believe and practise such things as the Holy Scripture forbids us and the Primitive Church never knew You command us to worship Images See Article 4. Is it not evident that both the Law and the Gospel have forbid it and is it not confess'd that both the Apostles and their Successors abhorred the very name You command us to communicate only under one kind That is in our Opinion nay it is in yours too Article 23. to contradict the Institution of our Blessed Saviour and the practice of the very Roman Church for above a Thousand years and of all other Christians to this very day You command us to pray to Saints and Angels Article 3. Col. 2. v. 18. Rev. 19.10 22.9 Does not St. Paul forbid it Did not the holy Angel twice refuse it from St. John And many Centuries pass without One probable Instance of any that did it You command us under pain of your Anathema to believe Transubstantiation Article 19. Do you your selves understand what you mean by it Is it any where written Was it ever mention'd for above a Thousand years You bid us Adore the Holy Sacrament Article 19. Has Christ prescribed it Have his holy Apostles written it Did not here also above a Thousand years pass before any one attempted it You require us to believe the blessed Eucharist to be a true and real Propitiatory Sacrifice for the sins and satisfactions both of the Dead and of the Living Article 20. Have ye any probable proof of it Are ye yet or ever like to be agreed among your selves about it Do not your own principles evidently shew the contrary Men and Brethren Consider we conjure you these things And if you please consider us too what we are and what our Manners and Conversation among you has been Believe us at least that we have no other End but Truth in these Enquiries No other Interest but to save our souls and go the surest and directest way to Heaven The Proofs we offer they are not vain Conjectures they are clear we think convincing Arguments And though the design of this little Treatise has been rather to shew you what our Doctrine is than to give a just account of those Reasons that detain us in it Yet perhaps even in this there may be somewhat to shew that we do not altogether build in the Air but deserve certainly to have our Articles and our Canons both better
AN EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE Church of England IN THE Several ARTICLES proposed by Monsieur de MEAVX Late Bishop of Condom IN HIS EXPOSITION of the DOCTRINE OF THE Catholick Church To which is prefix'd a particular account of Monsieur de Meaux's Book LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXVI THE PREFACE THE smalness of this Treatise would hardly justifie the solemnity of a Preface but that it might be thought too great a rudeness to press without some Ceremony upon a Book which both the Merit and Character of the Author and the Quality of those Approbations he has prefix'd to it may justly seem to have fenced from all vulgar attempts as Sacred and inviolable It may perhaps be some satisfaction to the Reader too to know how it is come to pass that a Meer Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of Rome pretending to contain nothing but what they have always professed and in their Council of Trent plainly declared to be their Doctrine should have become so considerable as not only to be approved by many Persons of the greatest Eminency in that Church but even to be recommended by the whole body of the Clergy of France in their Assembly 1682 Method 10. and whereever it has come done so many Miracles as not only common report speaks but even the Advertisement it self prefixed to it takes care to tell us that it has The first design of Monsieur de Meaux's Book was either to satisfie or to seduce the late Mareschal de Turenne How far it contributed thereunto I am not able to say but am willing to believe that the change that honourable Person made of his Religion was upon some better grounds than the bare Exposition of a few Articles of the Roman Faith and that the Author supplied either in his personal Conferences with him or by some other Papers to us unknown what was wanting to the first draught which we have seen of this The Manuscript Copy which then appeared and for about four Years together passed up and down in private hands with great applause wanted all those Chapters of the Eucharist Tradition The Authority of the Church and Pope which now make up the most considerable part of it and in the other points which it handled seemed so loosly and favourably to propose the Opinions of the Church of Rome that not only many undesigning Persons of that Communion were offended at it but the Protestants who saw it generally believed that Monsieur de Meaux durst not publickly own what in his Exposition he privately pretended to be their Doctrine And the Event shew'd that they were not altogether mistaken For in the beginning of the Year 1671 the Exposition being with great care and after the consideration of many years reduced into the form in which we now see it and to secure all fortified with the Approbation of the Archbishop of Reims and nine other Bishops who profess that Having examined it with all the Care which the importance of the matter required they found it conformable to the Doctrine of the Church and as such recommended it to the People which God had committed to their conduct it was sent to the Press The impression being finish'd and just ready to come abroad the Author who desired to appear with all the Advantage to himself and his Cause that was possible sent it to some of the Doctors of the Sorbonne for their Approbation to be joyn'd to that of the Bishops that so no Authority ordinary or extraordinary might be wanting to assert the Doctrine contained in it to be so far from the suspition the Protestants had conceived of it that it was truly and without disguise Catholick Apostolick and Roman But to the great surprise of Monsieur de Meaux and those who had so much cry'd up his Treatise before the Doctors of the Sorbonne to whom it was communicated instead of the Approbation that was expected confirmed what the Protestants had said of it and as became their faculty marked several of the most considerable parts of it wherein the Exposition by the too great desire of palliating had absolutely perverted the Doctrine of their Church To prevent the open Scandal which such a Censure might have cansed with great Industry and all the Secrecy possible the whole Edition was suppressed and the several places which the Doctors had marked changed and the Copy so speedily sent back to the Press again that in the end of the same year another much altered was publickly exposed as the first Impression that had at all been made of it Yet this could not be so privately carry'd but that it soon came to a publick knowledge insomuch that one of the first Answers that was made to it charged Monsieur de Meaux with this change I do not hear that he has ever yet thought fit to deny the Relation either in the Advertisement prefixed to the later Editions of his Book wherein yet he replies to some other passages of the same Treatise or in any other Vindication Whether it be that such an imputation was not considerable enough to be taken notice of or that it was too true to be deny'd let the Reader judge But certainly it appears to us not only to give a clear account of the Design and Genius of the whole Book but to be a plain demonstration how improbable soever Monsieur de Meaux would represent it That it is not impossible for a Bishop of the Church of Rome Advertisement Pag. 1. either not to be sufficiently instructed in his Religion to know what is the Doctrine of it or not sufficiently sincere as without disguise to represent it And since a Copy of that very Book so marked as has been said by the Doctors of the Sorbonne is fallen into my hands I shall gratifie the * See the Collection at the end of the Preface Readers curiosity with a particular View of some of the Changes that have been made that so he may judge whether of the Two were the Cause of those great advances which the Author in that first Edition had thought fit to make towards us It might perhaps appear a very pardonable curiosity in us after the knowledge we have had of the first miscarriage of this Book at the Sorbonne to enquire how it comes to pass that among so many other Approbations as have with great Industry been procured to the later Editions of it we do not yet see any subscription of theirs to it even now Monsieur de Meaux could not certainly be ignorant of what weight the Censure of that Learned Faculty is with us and that such an Approbation might not only have been more easily obtained but would also more effectually have wiped away the blot cast upon his Book by their former refusal than all the Letters and Complements that could come from the other side the Mountains and which France it self hath taught
too much upon our Ignorance and indeed to give too great a scandal to many of her own Communion more zealous than himself for this service And therefore we find it now expounded in a manner more conformable to the truth though still exceedingly mollified T is upon this is founded the Honour which we give to Images and again When we honour the Image of an Apostle or Martyr our Intention is not so much to honour the Image as the Apostle or Martyr in presence of the Image VII In the Section of Justification Monsieur de Meaux has omitted this whole paragraph since his first Edition The Catholick Church says he is no where more invincible than in this point and perhaps it would need no long discourse to shew that the more one searches by the Scriptures into the design of the redemption of Mankind which was to make us Holy the more one shall approach to our Doctrine and the more depart from the opinions of Calvin which are not maintainable nay are contradictory and ruinous of all true and solid piety 1 Ed. p. 36 37. Monsieur de Meaux may please some other time to expound to us what those Opinions of Calvin in this matter are which the Church of Rome is so invincible in and which all parties among them will agree to be so contradictory and ruinous to all true and solid piety as he then said In the mean time we will only beg leave to observe on occasion of this Correction that perhaps there are some in the Church of Rome of Mr. Calvin's mind in the worst of those Principles Monsieur de Meaux refers to and to assure him that there are several Protestants in the World that are not tho they dare not therefore so severely censure the Opinions of those that are IX Monsieur de Meaux having in a very few words explained the Doctrine of Justification upon which the Council of Trent is so long and perplex'd assured us in his first Exposition That that was enough for any Man to know to make him a through Christian Thus have you seen what is most necessary in the Doctrine of Justification and our Adversaries would be extraordinarily contentious not to confess that there is no need to know any more to be a solid Christian 1 Ed. p. 47. This would have been of great advantage to us and have freed us from the Anathema's of many other Particulars of which we more doubt than of any thing Monsieur de Meaux has expounded of it but this others thought too great a Concession and the Bishop therefore without changing any thing in his Premises was forced to draw a very different Conclusion from them Thus have you seen what is most necessary in the Doctrine of Justification and our Adversaries would be very unreasonable if they should not confess that this Doctrine suffices to teach Christians that they ought to refer all the Glory of their Salvation to God through Jesus Christ X. In the Article of Satisfaction Monsieur de Meaux speaking of the Temporal and Eternal Punishment of Sin and how the one may be retain'd when the other is forgiven had this Paragraph in the first Edition since struck out The Church has always acknowledged these two different manners of applying the Remission of Sins which we have proposed because she faw that in the Scriptures besides the first Pardon and which ought to be the only if Men were not ungrateful and which is pronounced in the terms of a pure Remission there is another Absolution and another Grace that is proposed in form of a Judgment where the Church ought not only to loose and remit but also to bind and retain 1 Edit p. 54 55. The Censure pass'd upon this were enough to make one suspect that either Monsieur de Meaux or his Correctors were sensible upon further Consideration that they could not so easily find out these two forms so distinguish'd in holy Scripture or prove that the Church had always acknowledged them and therefore judged it safer not to undertake it XI In the Article of Confirmation speaking of the Imposition of Hands Monsieur de Meaux insinuated in his first Exposition that it had always been accompanied with the use of Chrism ever since the Apostles Thus says he all Christian Churches have religiously retained this Practice accompanying it the Imposition of Hands with holy Chrism 1 Ed. p. 65. This was too clearly false to be suffer'd to pass and therefore it is now more loose so as to admit of an Equivocation and yet seem to say still the same thing Thus all Christian Churches since the Apostles times have religiously retained it making use also of holy Chrism XII In the Article of the Sacrifice of the Mass Monsieur de Meaux having expounded it according to our Principles in his first Edition concluded with us too So that it the Mass may says he be very reasonably called a Sacrifice 1 Ed. p. 115. But since the Correction the Conclusion is much strengthned tho the Premises remain the same So that there is nothing wanting to it to make it a true Sacrifice XIII As to the point of the Pope's Authority the first Exposition ran much higher than it seems the Spirit of the Gallicane Church could bear So that our Profession of Faith obliges us as to this point to believe the Roman Church to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches and to render a true Obedience to the Pope the Successor of St. Peter and Vicar of Jesus Christ 1 Ed. p. 166. It is now more loose and in general thus We acknowledg a Primacy in the Successors of the Prince of the Apostles to whom for that cause we owe that Obedience and Submission which the holy Councils and Fathers have always taught the Faithful 5 Ed. p. 210. But it may be what was struck out of the Exposition to please the Correctors Monsieur de Meaux recompensed in his Letter to satisfy his Holiness XIV In the Conclusion Monsieur de Meaux telling us that none of those Articles he had expounded according to our own Principles destroyed the Foundation of our Salvation added in his first Exposition what that Foundation was viz. The Adoration of one only God Father Son and Holy Ghost and the Trust in one only Saviour 1 Ed. p. 160. It is hard to say why this was not let pass for we are unwilling to believe that the Church of Rome has any other Foundation for Salvation than this But it may be to have put down this as the Foundation of Salvation would have been too plainly to shew that then we certainly have this and that without mixture of any thing destructive thereunto XV. Monsieur de Meaux go's on in a very candid manner since struck out In effect says he in all these Explications which contain the very bottom of our Belief there is not any one word repugnant to these two Principles either directly or by Consequence So that
acknowledging then this That the Church of Rome do's believe and profess all that is essential to preserve the substance of the Christian Religion so that they cannot reasonably impute to us any Doctrine contrary thereunto they must at the same time acknowledg by their own Principles that the Church of Rome is a true part of the Church of Christ to which every Christian is obliged to unite himself in his Heart and in effect as far as in him lies 1 Ed. Monsieur de Meaux may please to know that we do confess the Church of Rome to be a part of the true Church thô indeed we think one of the worst and that we do with all our Hearts desire a Union with her and in effect do shew it as far as we are able by retaining whatever we can of the same Doctrines and Practices with her And if this were all they desired of us as indeed it is all they ought and all we can do However an absolute Union would not thereby be obtained yet might we live at least like Christians and Brethren in a common Charity with one another and so dispose our Minds as by God's Grace to come in a little time to some better agreement in the rest too than ever we are like to do without it These are some of those Passages that gave occasion to the correction we have spoken of at the Sorbon and to the suppression of the whole first Edition however authorized by the Bishops of France in the same words it now is I might have added many more but instead of it will beg leave to offer the Reader one Correction made very lately by another Faculty that of Louvain if not immediatly of Monsieur de Meaux's Exposition yet at least of a Doctrine which they were before-hand given to understand was so explained in it Monsieur de W itte Pastor and Dean of St. Maries in the City of Michlin having in a Discourse with some Persons of that City on the 8th of July last maintain'd the Authority of the Church and Pope according to the manner of Monsieur de Meaux's Exposition complaint was made of him first to the Inter-noaen then to his Holiness himself and four Propositions drawn up against him as the Heads of his Heresy Monsieur de Witte maintain'd his Opinion in several Papers printed to that end in the * Intituled Prosecutio probationis locum Mar. 16. non recte resundi in Apostolorum principis successores 4th of which after several other Authorities of Persons of their Church defending the same Doctrine He tells them That the Golden Exposition of Faith of Monsieur the Bishop of Condom Nihil praeterea ad sanam Catholicam Orthodoxam fidem deposcit aurea illa Expositio Catholicae fidei Jacobi Episcopi Condomensis praeter Illustrissima Clarissimonum Virorum Elogia ipsius S. Patris Innocent xi peramantissimis literis comprobata required nothing more to the Sound Catholic and Orthodox Faith in this Matter which Exposition besides the Elogies of many other Eminent Persons was also approved by our Holy Father Innocent the 11th himself in his kind Letter to him But all this could not prevail with them to respect his Doctrine ever the more for Monsieur de Meaux's Exposition or his Holinesses Brief The Faculty of Divinity at the command of the Nonce and with the knowledg no doubt and assent of the Pope to whom the whole Affair had been communicated censured his Propositions Nov. 3. 1685. and especially the second in which Monsieur de Meaux's Exposition of the Catholick Faith was principally concerned as scandalous and pernicious Judicamus eam censurari posse uti scandalosam perniciosam May those who insist so much on the Fidelity and Authority of Monsieur de Meaux's Exposition please calmly to consider these things and tell us how we can rely on such an Exposition of their Doctrine as notwithstanding so many formal Approbations first of the Bishops of France was yet corrected in so many places by the Sorbon and secondly of the Pope Cardinals and others in Italy and of the whole Body of the Clergy of France in their Assembly has yet so lately been censured at the command of the Nonce and with the consent of his Holiness by the Faculty of one of their most eminent Universities to be scandalous and pernicious A TABLE OF THE ARTICLES Contained in this TREATISE I. THe Introduction Page 3 II. That Religious Worship is to be paid to God only Page 6 III. Of the Invocation of Saints Page 9 IV. Of Images and Relicks Page 13 V. Of Justification Page 19 VI. Of Merits Page 21 VII Of Satisfactions Purgatory and Indulgences Page 24 PART II. VIII Of the Sacraments in general Page 33 IX Of Baptism Page 35 X. Of Confirmation Page 39 XI Of Penance and Confession Page 40 XII Of Extream Vnction Page 44 XIII Of Marriage Page 45 XIV Of Holy Orders Page 46 XV. Of the Eucharist and first of the Explication of those words This is my Body Page 47 XVI Do this in remembrance of Me. Page 54 XVII The Doctrine of the Church of England concerning this holy Sacrament 55 XVIII Of Transubstantiation and of the Adoration of the Host. 58 XIX Of the Sacrifice of the Mass 62 XX. Of the Epistle to the Hebrews 67 XXI Reflections upon the foregoing Doctrine 69 XXII Of communicating under one kind 72 PART III. XXIII Of the Word written and unwritten 75 XXIV Of the Authority of the Church 76 XXV The Opinion of the Church of England as to the Authority of the Church 80 XXVI The Authority of the holy See and of Episcopacy 81 XXVII The Close 82 ERRATA PReface Page xxix the number of the Sections mistaken to the â—nd P. xxxii l. 15. dele 5 Ed. p. 210. P. xxxiv l. 28. r. Mechlin ib. l. 33. r. Inter-nonce Book P. 13. l. 10. r. Practise P. 20. l. 5. r. works it in us P. 22. in the Margin l. 9. del 16. P. 23. the same P. 24. Marg. del p. 66. P. 34. l. 18. r. Vertue P. 36. l. 13. r. Mr. de Meaux l. 14. Charity P. 40. l. 13. r. Vertue P. 69. Marg. ib. r. ver 24. AN EXPOSITION OF THE Doctrine of the Church of England In the several Articles expounded by Monsieur de MEAUX I. The Introduction IT has always been esteemed more reasonable to doubt of Principles first and then to deny the Conclusions that are drawn from them than having granted the Foundation afterwards to cavil at the clear and necessary Deductions from it To profess that Religious Worship is due to God only and at the same time to say that we ought to adore Men and Women Crosses and Images and all that infinite variety of Follies which these latter Ages have set forth under the pious name of Relicks To declare That we are saved only by Christ's Merits and yet still continue to teach us that we ought to set up our own In a
and their Translation and the long History of them in the Advertisement were the effects of a labour and interest great as the long term of eight years that were spent in the procuring of them The second Answer to Monsieur de Meaux has so fully examined every one of these Approbations and so plainly shew'd how small account is to be made of them that we do not find that in four years that it has been publish'd any one has undertaken to reply to it I will therefore only add in general a remark or two that may serve to inform those of our own Country who are unacquainted with such intrigues what the Method of the Approbations of the Church of Rome is and how little stress is to be laid upon them It is a long time since it has been resolved by many of their Casuists that it is lawful to disguise the sentiments of their Religion not only in private Conferences but in the very Pulpit it self when there is a sufficient reason for the doing of it But I cannot tell whether it be yet so generally known that it is lawful for them to set their hands to and approve those Books whose Principles and Doctrine they dislike by an Art peculiar to themselves and which Protestants who are used to sincere dealing will find it a little difficult to believe The instance of Cardinal Capisucchi before mentioned is an undeniable proof of this for Italy Who about the same time that he sent his Letter and Approbation to Monsieur de Meaux of his Exposition wrote as we have seen directly contrary to the Doctrine of it and had his Book approved with no less solemnity at Rome than Monsieur de Meaux can pretend his to have been And for France a Person very justly esteemed both for his great Quality and his own worth Monsieur the Procureur General of the Parliament of Paris having clearly revealed the mystery of it I shall beg leave to represent it to the World under the advantage of so great and unquestionable an Authority Father Thomassin about twenty years since printed a Book which he called Notae in Concilia the design whereof was to set up the Authority of the Pope above all Councils which he renders in a manner useless to the decision of Ecclesiastical matters The Copies of this Book were all seized and look'd up in a Chamber of the Fathers Oratorians at Paris Ten or twelve years after with some changes to fill up the Leaves that had been censured and the Approbation of the Doctors of the Sorbonne he again attempted to have it publish'd But Monsieur the Procureur General opposed it and told him that but in consideration of Father Harlay his near Relation who interposed for him he would have had his Book burnt by the hand of the common Hangman The Father justified himself that his Book contained no other Principles than what were found in Cardinal Bellarmine's Controversies which had been printed with authority and were permitted to be every day publickly sold in France The Procureur General replyed That they suffered in France that an Italian should write according to the Principles of his Country and that this ought not to hinder but that a Book otherwise good might be publickly printed and sold with priviledge but that for a Frenchman to do the same was another matter and would have different consequences and that inshort The Italians used the same method towards them And indeed the late change of the Jesuits in their Approbations plainly shews that it is permitted to those of the Church of Rome to write and approve not so much according to their own Opinions as to the Principles and Genius of the Country in which they live For which reason the Fathers of the Society do no longer now as formerly they were wont take out their Licence from the General of their Order but from their respective Provincials who accommodate themselves to the current Doctrine of the place in which the Book is publish'd without which it would be almost impossible for them to write in France but they should be subject to the danger of a censure at Rome After this general account of the Nature of the Approbations of the Church of Rome I shall spare both my self and Reader the trouble of examining the several Letters before the Exposition though otherwise they lie open to many exceptions only concerning his Holiness 's Brief which Monsieur de Meaux so much triumphs in it may not be amiss to observe that the last Pope in whose time the Exposition came first to Rome with great Recommendation yet never gave any Approbation to it and that the present Pope did it upon occasion of †L' Auteur fit avec un tres profond respect ses tres humbles remercimens au Pape par une Lettre du 22. Nov. 1678. dont il receut reponse par un Bref de sa Sainteté du 4 Jan. 79. Avertiss And in the Brief it self Devotionem interim atque Observatiam quam erga sanctam hanc sedem nosque ipsos qui in eâ Catholicae Ecclesiae immerito praesidemus tuae ad Nos Literaeluculenter declarant mutuae charitatis affectu complectimur a submissive Letter of the Authors to him and after the reports that he had heard of the great * The Bishop of Strasburgh having accounted to his Holiness his design of Translating the Exposition into the German Language Sa Sainteté lui fit dire qu'il connoissoit ce livre qu'on luy raportoit de tous costez qu'il faisoit beaucoup de Corversions Avertissement Conversions that were every where made by it to which such an Approbation would be likely to add a new force So plain is the intrigue and design of this that were the Popes Briefs otherwise of as great consideration as the Papists themselves shew them to be of little value yet this could not be regarded by us as any other than a meer Artifice to deceive us not a sincere much less authoritative Approbation either of the Nature or Principles of Monsieur de Meaux's Book But whatever the Opinion either of the Pope or Papists has been of this Exposition certain it is the Protestants have openly enough declared their thoughts concerning it and the Exposition according to the fate of all other great and extraordinary things Card. Bona's Letter has found enough on this side to oppose it It was but a very little time after the first Edition of it that Monsieur Noguier and another Author well known yet whose name I spare because he has not thought fit himself to discover it wrote against it and with so much success that the Papists themselves confest ' That it was an ill Cause defended extremely well Monsieur de Turenne not long before that last Campagne in which he lost his Life made great boasts of a Reply that was speedily to be publish'd to them but after the long expectation of above eight
consigned to Writing By which means the Word written and unwritten were not Two different Rules but as to all necessary matters of Faith one and the same And the unwritten Word so far from losing its Authority that it was indeed the more firmly Establish'd by being thus delivered to us by the holy Apostles and Evangelists We receive with the same Veneration whatsoever comes from the Apostles whether by Scripture or Tradition provided that we can be assured that it comes from them And if it can be made appear that any Tradition which the Written Word contains not has been received by All Churches and in All Ages we are ready to embrace it as coming from the Apostles Monsieur de Meaux therefore ought not to charge us as Enemies to Tradition or obstinate to receive what is so delivered Our Church rejects not Tradition but only those things which they pretend to have received by it But which we suppose to be so far from being the Doctrine of the Apostles or of All Churches in All Ages that we are perswaded they are many of them directly contrary to the Written Word which is by Themselves confessed to be the Apostles Doctrine and which the best and purest Ages of the Church adhered to ARTICLE XXV Of the Churches Authority THE Church i. e. The Vniversal Church in All Ages having been Establish'd by God the Guardian of the Holy Scriptures and of Tradition we receive from her the Canonical Books of Scripture It is upon this Authority that we receive principally the Song of Solomon as Canonical and reject other Books as Apochryphal which we might perhaps with as much readiness otherwise receive By this Authority we reverence these Books even before by our own reading of them we perceive the Spirit of God in them And when by our reading them we find all things conformable to so Excellent a Spirit we are yet more confirmed in the belief and reverence we before had of them This Authority therefore we freely allow the Church that by her hands in the succession of the several Ages we have received the Holy Scriptures And if as universal and uncontroverted a Tradition had descended for the Interpretation of the Scriptures as for the receiving of them we should have been as ready to accept of that too Such a declaration of the sense of Holy Scripture as had been received by all Churches and in all Ages the Church of England would never refuse But then as we profess not to receive the Scriptures themselves only or perhaps principally upon the Authority of the Roman Church which has in all Ages made up but a part and that not always the greatest neither of this Tradition so neither can we think it reasonable to receive the sense of them only from her though she profess never so much to invent nothing of her self but only to declare the Divine Revelation made to her by the Holy Ghost which she supposes has been given to her for her direction Whilst we are perswaded that neither has any Promise at all been made to any particular Church of such an infallible direction and have such good cause to believe that this particular Church too often instead of the divine Revelations declares only her own Inventions When the dispute arose about the Ceremonies of the Law Acts 15. the Apostles assembled at Jerusalem for the determination of it When any Doubts arise in the Church now we always esteem it the best Method to decide them after the same manner That the Church has Authority not only in matters of Order and Discipline but even of Faith too we never deny'd But that therefore any Church so assembled can with the same Authority say now as the Apostles did then Acts 15.28 It has seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to Vs This we think not only an unwarrantable presumption for which there is not any sufficient ground in Holy Scripture but evidently in its self untrue seeing that many such Councils are by the Papists themselves confessed to have erred Hence it is that we cannot suppose it reasonable to forbid Men the Examination of the Churches Decisions which may err when the Holy Apostles nay our Saviour Christ himself not only permitted but exhorted their Disciples to search the Truth of their Doctrine which was certainly Infallible Yet if the determination be matter of Order or Government as not to Eat of things offered to Idols c. or of plain and undoubted Precept as to abstain from Fornication and the like Here we fail not after the Example of Paul and Silas to declare to the faithful what her decision has been and instead of permitting them to judg of what has been so resolved teach them throughout all places to keep the Ordinances of the Apostles Acts 16.4 Thus is it that we acquiesce in the judgment of the Church and professing in our Creed a Holy Catholick Church we profess to believe not only that there was a Church planted by our Saviour at the beginning that has hitherto been preserved by him and ever shall be to the end of the World but do by consequence undoubtedly believe too that this Vniversal Church is so secured by the Promises of Christ that there shall always be retain'd so much Truth in it the want of which would argue that there could be no such Church We do not fear that ever the Catholick Church should fall into this entire Infidelity But that any particular Church such as that of Rome may not either by Error lose or by other means prevaricate the Faith even in the necessary Points of it this we suppose not to be at all contrary to the Promise of God Almighty and we wish we had not too great cause to fear that the Church of Rome has in effect done both It is not therefore of the Catholick Church truly such that we either fear this infidelity or complain that she hath endeavoured to render her self Mistress of our Faith But for that particular Communion to which Monsieur de Meaux is pleased to give the Name tho she professes never so much to submit her self to the Holy Scripture and to follow the Tradition of the Fathers in all Ages yet whilst she usurps the absolute Interpretation both of Scripture and Fathers and forbids us to examine whether she does it rightly or no we must needs complain that her Protestations are invalid whilst her Actions speak the contrary For that if this be not to render her self Mistress of our Faith we cannot conceive what is In a word tho we suppose the Scriptures are so clearly written that it can very hardly happen that in the necessary Articles of Faith any one man should be found opposite to the whole Church in his Opinion Yet if such a one were evidently convinced that his Belief was founded upon the undoubted Authority of Gods Holy Word so far would it be from any Horror to support it that it is at this day