Plea of those persecuted men so fully that it may be well concluded that the Spirit that acted in Hilary is not the same with that which now inspires the Reverend Prelates of that Church To this I might add the known History of the Priscillianists that fell out not long after I shall not presume to make a parallel between any of the Gallican Church and Ithacius who persecuted them of whom the Historian gives this Character That he was a vain sumptuous sensual and impudent man and that he grew to that pitch in vice that he suspected all men that led strict lives as if they had been inclined to Heresie And it is also to be hoped that none will be so uncharitable as to compare the Priscillianists with those they now call Hereticks in France whether we consider their opinions that were a revival of the blasphemies of the Gnosticks or their morals that were brutal and obscene even by Priscillian's own confession Now Ithacius prosecuted those in the Emperours Courts and went on in the pursuit though the great Apostle of that age Martin warned him often to give it over In conclusion when Ithacius had set it on so far that a Sentence was sure to pass against them he then withdrew from it Sentence was given and some of them were put to death upon which some Bishops excommunicated Ithacius yet S. Martin was wrought on to communicate with him very much against his mind being threatned by the Emperour Maximus that if he would not do it Troops should be ordered to march into Spain to destroy the rest of them This prevailed on that good man to joyn in Communion with those that had acted so contrary to the mercifulness of their Religion and to the sacredness of their Character But no Arts could work on S. Martin to approve of what they had done The effects of this were remarkable for when S. Martin went home if we will believe Sulpitius an Angel appeared to him and reproved him severely for what he had done upon which he with many tears lamented much the sin he had committed by his communicating with those men and would never after that communicate with any of that party And during the sixteen years that he survived that Sulpitius who lived with him tells us that he never went to any Synod and that there was a great withdrawing of those Influences and Graces for which he had been so eminent formerly And thus if S. Martin's example and practice is of any authority the Cruelty of that Church that has engaged all the Princes of Europe as much as was in their power to do what Maximus then did and the present practices of the Bishops about the Court might justifie a Separation from them But we do not proceed upon such disputable grounds To this I shall only â—dd the aâ—thority of another Father who tâ—oâ—gh he was none of the Gallican Bishops 〈◊〉 since he is more read and esteemed in that Church than any other of all the â—athers it is to be hoped that his authority may be somewhat considered It is S. Austin He was once against all sorts of severity in matters of Religion and delivered his mind so pathetically and elegaâ—tly on that subject that I presume the Reader will not be ill pleased to hear his own words writing against the Manicheans whose impieties are too well known to be enlarged on so as to shew that even in the account which the Church of Rome makes of things they cannot pretend that the Protestants are as bad as they were He begins his Book against them with an earnest Prayer to God that he would give him a calm and serene mind so that he might study their conversion and not seek their ruine to which purpose he applies those words of S. Paul to Timothy the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be meek towards all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves To which he adds these words Let them exercise Cruelty upon you who do not know with what difficulty truth is found out and how hardly errours are avoided Let them exercise Cruelty upon you who do not know how rare and hard a thing it is to overmaster carnal imaginations with the serenity of a pious mind Let them exercise Cruelty upon you who do not know with what difficulty the eye of the inward man is healed that so it may behold its Sun Let them exercise Cruelty upon you who do not know with what groans and sighs we attain the smallest measure of the knowledge of God And in the last place let them exercise Cruelty upon you who were never themselves deceived with any errour like that with which you are now deceived It is true it may be pretended that he became afterwards of another mind but that will not serve to excuse the severities now on foot the case being so very different The Donatists in his time very generally fierce and cruel one sort of them the Circumcellionists acted like mad men They did lie in wait for S. Austin's life they fell upon several Bishops with great barbarity putting out the eyes of some and cudgelling others till they left them as dead Upon this the Bishops of Africk were forced to desire the Emperours protection and that the Laws made against Hereticks might be executed upon the Donatists and yet even in this S. Austin was at first averse It is true he afterwards in his Writings against the Donatists justified those severities of fining and banishing but he expresses both in his own name and in the name of all those Churches great dislike not only of all Capital proceedings but of all rigour and when the Governours and Magistrates were carrying things too far he interposed often and â—ith great earnestness to moderate their severity and wrote to them that if they went on with such rigour the Bishops would rather bear with all the violences of the Donatists than seek to them for redress and whole Synods of Bishops concurred with him in making the like Addresses in their favours And though there were excesses committed in some few instances yet we may easily conclude how gentle they were upon the whole matter from this that he says that the Fines imposed by Law had never been exacted and that they were so far from turning the Donatists out of their own Churches that they still kept possession of several Churches which they had violently invaded and wrested out of the hands of the Bishops It is plain then since he justified those severities only as a necessary restraint on the rage to the Donatists and a just protection of the Bishops that this has no relation to the hardships the Protestants now suffer it not being pretended that they have drawn it upon themselves by any tumultuary or irregular proceedings of theirs So much seemed necessary to shew how different the Spirit of the present Clergy oâ— France is
if their Absolution is thought to have any other Vertue in it than a giving the Peace of the Church with a Declaration of the terms upon which God pardons Sinners If the Vertue of the Sacraments upon which so much depends according to their principles is so entirely in the Priests power that he can defeat it when he pleases with a cross intention so that all mens hopes of another state shall depend on the Priests good disposition to them by which every man must know how necessary it is to purchase their favour at any rate If likewise they pretend to an Immunity from the Secular Judge and do all enter into Oaths which center in him whom they acknowledge their Common Head whose authority they have advanced above all the powers on Earth so that he can depose Princes and give away his Dominions to others It must be confessed that all these have such Characters of Interest and Ambition on them and are so little like the true Spirit of Christianity or indeed the Common Principles of Natâ—ral Reason and Religion that a man is very partial who does not think it reasonable to suspect such proceedings and a Church that holds such Doctrines 3. It is likewise reasonable to suspect any Church that holds many opinions that tend much to a vast encrease of their Wealth and to bring the greatest Treasures of the World into their hands The power of redeeming Souls out of Purgatory has brought more Wealth into the Church of Rome than the discovery of the Indies has done to the Crown of Spain Such also was the power of Pardoning and of exchanging Penances for Money by which the World knew the price of Sins and the rates at which they were to be compounded for The Popes power of granting Indulgences the vertue of Pilgrimages the communication of the merits of Orders to such as put on their Habits and in a word the whole authority that the Câ—â—râ— of Rome has assumed in these latter ages that tend so much to the encrease of their Revenue are all such evident Indications of particular ends and private designs that he must be very much wedded to his first impressions that does not upon this suspect that matters have not been so fairly carried among them that nothing ought to be doubted which is defined by them 4. It is a very just cause of suspecting every thing that is managed by a company of Priests if they have for several Ages carried on their designs by the foulest methods of Forgery and Imposture of which they themselves are now both convinced and ashamed When the Popes authority was built on a pretended Collection of the Letters which the Popes of the first ages after Christ were said to have writ and their assumed Jurisdiction was justified by those precedents which are now by themselves acknowledged to be forgeries When the Popes Temporal Dominion was grounded on the Donations of Constantine of Charles the Great and his Son Lewis the Good which appear now to be notorious forgeries When an infinite number of Saints of Miracles Visions and other wonderful things were not only read and preached to the people but likewise were put into the Collects and Hymns used on their Festivals which wrought much on the simplicity and superstition of the vulgar many of which are now proved to be such gross impostures that they are forced to dash them out of their Offices and others against which there lyes not such positive proof yet depend on the credit only of some Legend writ by some Monks When many Books past over the World as the Writings of the most Ancient Fathers which were but lately writ and many of their genuine Writings were grossly vitiated When all those things are become so evident that the most Learned Writers amongst themselves particularly in the Gallican Church have not only yielded to the proofs brought by Protestant Writers in many of these particulars but have with a very Commendable Zeal and Sincerity made discoveries themselves in several particulars into which the others had not such advantages to penetrate There is upon all these grounds good cause given to mistrust them in other things and it is very reasonable to examine the assertions of that Church with the severest rigour since an Imposture once discovered ought to bring a suspicion on all concerned in it even as to all other things 5. There is likewise great reason to suspect all that are extream fierce and violent that cannot endure the least contradiction but endeavour the ruine of all that oppose them Truth makes men both confident of its force and merciful towards such as do not yet receive it Whereas Errour is Jealous and Cruel If then a Church has decreed that all Hereticks that is such as do not submit to all her decisions are to be extirpated if she has bound all her Bishops by Oath at their Ordinations to Persecute them to the utmost of their power If Princes that do not extirpate them are first to be excommunicated by their Bishops and after a years Contumacy are to be deposed by the Popes and their Kingdomes to be given away If all Hereticks upon Obstinacy or Relapse are to be burnt and if they endeavour in all places as much as they can to erect Courts of Inquisition with an absolute authority in which Church-men forgetting their Character have vied in Inventions of Torture and Cruelty with the bloodiest Tyrants that have ever been Then it must be confessed that all these set together present the Church that authorizes and practises them with so dreadful an aspect so contrary to those bowels and tendernesses that are in the nature of man Not to mention the merciful Idea's of God and the wonderful meekness of the Author of our Holy Religion that we must conclude that under what form soever of Religion such things are set on foot in the World such a Doctrine is so far from improving and exalting the nature of man that really it makes him worse than he would otherwise be if he were left to the softness of his own nature And certainly it were better there were no revealed Religion in the World than that mankind should become worse more cruel and more barbarous by its means than it would be if it were governed by Nature or a little Philosophy Upon all these grounds laid together it is no unreasonable thing to conclude that a Church liable to such imputations ought justly to be suspected and that every one in it ought to examine well on what grounds he continues in the Communion of a society of men against which such strong prejudices lie so fairly without the least straining or aggravating matters too much I proceed now to the second part of my undertaking which is to shew that the grounds upon which that Church builds are certainly weak if not false And 1. They boast much of a Constant Succession as the only infallible mark to judge of a Church and
becomes both to their Characters and Qualities and to whom I know better what is due than to presume to say any thing in contradiction to them if I were not led to it by that which I owe to Truth and to the God of Truth After I have examined both their Letter and the Methods added to it I will venture further and offer on the other hand such Considerations as are just and lawful prejudices against that Communion and are such as ought at least to put all men in doubt that things are not right among them and to dispose them to believe that matters in Controversie between them and us ought to be examined more exactly and impartially and that upon a general view the prejudices lie much stronger in our favours than against us The Letter writ by the Assembly of the Clergy to the Calvinists in France The arch-Arch-Bishops Bishops and the whole Gallican Clergy assembled at Paris by the Kings authority wish to their Brethren of the Calvinist Sect Amendment and a return to the Church and an Agreement with it Brethren THE whole Church of Christ does now of a great while groan and your Mother being filled with holy and sincere tenderness for you does with regret see you rent from her Belly her Breasts and her Bosome by a voluntary Separation and continue still to stray in the Desart For how can a Mother forget the Children of her Womb or the Church be unmindful of her love to you that are still her Children though you have forgot your duty to her The Infection of Errour and the violence of the Calvinistical Separation having drawn you away from the Catholick Truth and the purity of the Ancient Faith and separated you from the head of the Christian Unity From hence is it Brethren that she groans and complains most grievously but yet most lovingly that her bowels are torn She seeks for her Sons that are lost she calls as a Partridge as a Hen she would gather them together as an Eagle she provokes them to fly and being again in the pangs of travel she desires to bear you a second time ye little Children that so Christ may be again formed in you according to Truth in the way of the Catholick Church Therefore we the whole Gallican Clergy whom the Holy Ghost has set to govern that Church in which you were born and who by an uninterrupted Inheritance hold the same Faith as well as the same Chairs which those Holy Bishops held who first brought the Christian Religion into France do now call on you and as the Embassadors of Christ we ask you as if God did beseech you by us Why have you made Separation from us For indeed whether you will or not such are your circumstances that you are our Brethren whom all our Common Father did long ago receive into the adoption of Children and whom our common Mother the Church did likewise receive into the hope of our Eternal Inheritance And even he himself who first bewitched you that you should not obey the Truth of the Gospel the Standard-bearer of your profession did at first live amongst us as a Brother in all things of the same mind with us Were we not all of the same houshold Did we not all eat of the same Spiritual meat And did not he perform among us the mutual Offices of Brotherly Charity See if you can find any excuse either to your Father your Mother or your Brethren to take off the Infamy of so wicked so sudden and so rash a flight of this dividing of Christ the renting the Sacraments of Christ an impious War against the members of Christ the accusing the Spouse of Christ and the denial of the Promises of Christ Excuse and wash off these things if you can But since you cannot do it then confess that you are fallen under that charge of the Prophet An evil Son calls himself righteous but he cannot wash off his departure Wherefore then Brethren have you not continued in the root with the whole World Why did you break the Vows and the Wishes of the Faithful with the Altars on which they were offered Why did you intercept the course of Prayer from the Altars from whence was the ascent to God Why did you then with Sacrilegious hands endeavour to remove the Ladder that came down to those Stones that so Prayers might not be made to God after the customary manner Other Sectaries hitherto have indeed attempted that not that they might overthrow the Altar of Christ but that they might raise up their own Altar such as it was against the Altar of Christ. But you as if you had designed to destroy the Christian Sacrifice have dared to commit a crime unheard of before these times You have destroyed the Altars of the Lord of Hosts in which the Sparrow Christ had chosen to himself an House and the Turtle the Church a Nest where she might lay her young It was this Schismatical fury that brought forth these things and allhat has followed since either of Wars against the Church or of Errours against the Ancient Doctrine Nor would we have those things ascribed so much to your Inclinations as to the nature of Schism But this is that upon which we expostulate with you in particular and which we ask of you without ceasing Why have you made the Schism And unless you answer this how well soever you may speak or write of other things it is all to no purpose We do not doubt but in answer to this you will make use of that old and common defence of all Schismaticks and that you who upon trial know that it is not possible to shake the Doctrines believed by us will begin to inveigh against the Morals of our men as if holier persons who love severer Laws could not hold it creditable for their reputation or safe to their Consciences to live with such men These are the things forsooth Brethren for which the Unity of Christ is rent by you the Inheritance of your Brethren is blasphemed and the Vertue and Truth of the Sacraments of the Church are despised Consider how far you have departed from the Gospel in this These things that you object were less considerable both for number and weight or perhaps unknown and may be not at all true But if they had been true and acknowledged and worse than they were yet those Tares ought to have been spared by Christians for the sake of the Wheat for the vices of the bad are to be endured because of the mixture of the good Moses endured thousands that murmured against God Samuel endured both Eli's Sons and his own that acted perversly Christ himself our Lord endured Iudâ—s that was his Accuser and a Thief and also his Betrayer The Apostles endured false Brethren and false Apostleâ— that opposed them and their Doctrine And S. Paul who did not seek his owâ— things but the things of Jesus Christ conversed with great patience among
meekness and gentleness towards those who differ from them and that they had the same aversion to Cruelty that we find among the Ancients I shall not here alledge what Tertullian and Cyprian have said in general against Cruelty on the account of Religion nor what Lactantius has more copiously enlarged on But since they mention those that first established the Christian Religion in France I shall offer to them what the first of the Gallican Bishops who had an occasion given him to write of such matters Hilary of Poictiers said against the Arians who were persecuting the Orthodox under Constantius though their greatest severities were not equal to those that the Protestants are now made to suffer It will be unreasonable to alledge that what Hilary said against that Persecution cannot quadrate with the present case the one being done by an Heretical Emperour and the other by a Most Christian King I shall avoid the making any odious comparison in this matter but this must be acknowledged that it is to beg the question to say the one persecuted to advance an errour whereas the other does it to suppress errour and it will appear that he wrote not sincerely if he did not condemn that way of proceeding in what cause soever it were employed For he plainly says the Bishops would have opposed such methods even to advance Truth Hilary addressed himself to Constantius that he would slacken his severities and Suffer the people to hear those Preach and celebrate the Holy mysteries and pray for his safety and success whom they liked best and esteemed most and had made choice of then he promises that all things would be quiet and that not only there would be no Sedition but not so much as any murmuring And as a reason for enforcing this he says a little after God has taught but not imposed on us the knowledge of himself and conciliated authority to his Commands by the Miracles that were wrought but he despises that Confession that flows from a compelled mind If such force were used to draw men to the true Faith the Episcopal Doctrine would interpose and say The Earth is the Lords and he needs not an enforced Obedience nor does he require a constrained Confession He is not to be deceived but his favour is to be desired and he is to be worshipped for our causâ— not for his own I could not receive any but such as were willing nor hear such as did not entreat me nor confirm such as did not profess the Faith To this he adds But what is this that Priests are forced by Chains to fear God and commanded by the terrour of punishments That Priests are kept in Prisons and the people are delivered over to the Jaylors And upon this he runs out more largely than is necessary to transcribe But let us also hear how he addresses himself to those Bishops that were the chief Procurers and Instruments of all the sufferings of the Orthodox And indeed what he says to them does serve as so apposite an Answer to a great part of this Letter that I hope it will not be irksome to translate a large quotation out of it The name of Peace saith he is specious and the opinion of Unity is beautiful But it is past all doubt that that Peace only which is the Peace of Christ is the Peace of the Church and the Gospels We have desired to recover that same Peace that is now lost of which he spake to his Apostles after his glorious sufferings and which he being to leave them recommended to them as a pledge of his Eternal Laws And we have desired to compose the disorders now made in it and having again recovered it we have also desired to maintain it But so prevalenâ— have the sins of this age been and the sore-runners and Ministers of Antichrist that is approaching have been so active that we could neither procure this Peace nor partake of it While those who boast of the Unity of their Peace that is of their impiety behave themselves not like the Bishops of Christ but like the Priests of Antichrist But that we may not be blamed for using reproachful words we will not conceal the cause of this common ruine that so none may be ignorant of it We know from what S. Iohn the Apostle has delivered that there are many Antichrists and whosoever denies Christ as he was preached by the Apostles is an Antichrist It is the property of Antichrist marked by the very name to be contrary to Christ. Now by the opinion of a mistaken Piety and under the pretence of preaching the Gospel this is effected or endeavoured that the Lord Jesus Christ while he seems to be Preached is denied In the first place we must pity the labour of this age and lament the foolish opinions of those times in which God is thought to be protected by Men and by Secular ambition the Church of Christ is laboured to be defended I pray you O you Bishops who believe your selves to be such what were the assistances which the Apostles made use of in preaching the Gospel By what Earthly powers were they supported when they preached Christ and converted almost all Nations from Idols to God Did they derive any authority from the Palace when they were singing Hymns to God in Prison in Chains and after they were whipped Did Paul gather a Church to Christ by vertue of Royal Edicts when he himself was exposed as a spectacle on a Theatre Did he secure himself by the protection of a Nero a Vespasian or a Decius by whose hatred of us the Confession of that Divine Preaching did flourish They maintâ—ining themselves by their own handy-work and assembling in upper rooms and secret places went over all Countries both Villages and strong places through Sea and Land notwithstanding the Decrees of Senates and Royal Edicts against them And I suppose it will not be denied that they had the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Did not the Divine power exert it self manifestly against the hatred of men when Christ was preached so much the more as the preaching of him was prohibited But now alas humane aids are employed to recommend our Divine Faith and Christ is accused as having lost his former power while his name is promoted by ambition The Church now terrifies others by banishments and imprisonments She depends on the favour of her Communicants who was consecrated by the terrour of her Persecutors She banishes Priests who was propagated by the banishment of her own Priests and now boasts that she is beloved of the World who yet could never have been Christs if the World had not hated her The present state of affairs which is in all mens Eyes and Discourses gives us this parallel of the condition of the Church as it was anciently conveyed down to us and as it is now ruined in our days There needs no application of these words to the present purpose they express the
to which the Council of Chalcedon assented is an entire contexture of authorities drawn from Scripture without so much as any one citation of any Father It is true there is added to the end of that Letter a Collection of some sayings of six Fathers Hilary Ambrose Nazianzene Chrysostome Austin and Cyril who had all except one lived within sixty years or a little more of that time So it is certain they founded their Faith only on the Scripture and not on Tradition otherwise they had taken more pains to have made it out and had not been so easily satisfied with what a few late Writers had said And thus it may be presumed that all the end for which they cited them was only to shew that they did not broach new and unheard of opinions And S. Austin could noâ— think that S. Cyprian's opinion alâ—ne was a sufficient proof of the Doctrine of the first three Centuries for Original Sin and yet he citeâ— no other that lived in those Ages Noâ— could S. Ambrose and Nazianzene that had lived in his own time be cited tâ— prove the Tradition of former Ages And whereas it is insinuated that he cited others one would expect to finâ— a Catalogue of many other Fatherâ— wrapt up in this plural whereas alâ— resolves into Hilary alone And we have a more evident Indication of S. Austin's sense as to the laâ—t resort in matters of Controversie than this they offer in that celebrated saying of his when he was writing against Maximinus the Arian Bishop But neither may I make use of the Nicene Council nor you that of Arimini as that which ought to pre-judge us in this matter for neither am I held by the authority of the one nor you by the authority of the other Let the one side and cause and their reasons be brought against the other from the authorities of the Scriptures that do not belong to either side but are Witnesses common to both The Fourth Method IS to tell them that their Ministers can never do this nor shew in the Scriptures any of their Articles that are controverted and this is very true For example they can never bring any formal Text to prove that Original Sin remains as to the guilt of it after Baptism that we receive the Body of Iesus Christ only by Faith that after the Consecration the Sacrament is still Bread that there is no Purgatory and that we do not merit any thing by our good works And to this it may be added that among all those passages that are on the Margent of their Confession there is not one that says that which they cite it for either in express or equivalent terms or in the same sense This is the Method of Mr. Veron which he took from S. Austin who says to the Manichaeans Shew me that that is in the Scripture and in another place Let him shew me that that is to be found in the Holy Scripture We must then boldly tell them That they cannot prove any of their Articles that are in dispute nor dispute against any of ours by any passages of Scripture neither in express terms nor by sufficient consequences so as to make their Doctrine be received as the Faith and ours pass for Errour Remarks THe first part of this Article proceeds upon Veron's Method of putting us to prove our Doctrines by express words of Scripture but some more cautious person has added in the conclusion a Salvo for good consequences drawn from them upon which we yield that this is a very good Method and are ready to joyn issue upon it If they intend still to build upon that notion of express words we desire it may be considered that the true meaning of all passages is not to be taken only from the bare words but from the contexture of the Discourse and the design upon which they are made use of and that Rule of Logick being infallibly true That what things soever agree in any third thing they do also agree among themselves it is certain that a true consequence is as good a proof as a formal passage Thus did our Saviour prove the Resurrection from the Scriptures by a very remote consequence since God was said to be the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and was the God of the Living and not of the Dead So did the Apostles prove Christ's being the promised Messias and the obligation to observe the Mosaical Ceremonies to have ceased upon his coming by many consequences but not by the express words of Scripture All the arguings of the Fathers against the Heretiâ—ks run on Consequences drawn from Scripture as may appear in all their Synodical Letters more particularly in that formerly cited of Pope Leo to Flavian to which the Fourth General Council assented This Plea does very ill become men that pretend such reverence to Antiquity since it was that upon which all the Ancient Hereticks set up their strength as the most plausible pretence by which they thought they could cover themselves So the Arians at Arimini give this reason for rejecting the word Consubstantial because it was not in the Scriptures The Macedonians laid hold of the same pretence Nestorâ—us gives this as his chief reason for denying the Virgin to be the Mother of God And Eutyches covered himself also with this question In what Scripture were the two Natures of Christ to be found And his followers did afterwards insist so much on this Plea that Theodoret wrote two large Discourses on purpose to shew the weakness of this pretence So that after all the noise they make about the Primitive Church they follow the same tract in which the Hereticks that were condemned by the first four General Councils went and they put us to do the same thing that the Hereticks then put on the Orthodox But we make the same answer to it which the Fathers did That the sense of the Scriptures is to be considered more than the words So that what is according to the true sense is as much proved by Scripture as if it were contained in it in so many express words And yet this Plea had a much greater strength in it as it was managed by those Hereticks for those contests being concerning mysteries which exceed our apprehensions it was not an unreasonable thing at first view to say that in such things which we cannot perfectly comprehend it is not safe to proceed by deductions or consequences and therefore it seemed safer to hold strictly to Scripture Phrases but in other points into which our understandings can carry us further it is much more absurd to exact of us express words of Scripture 2. Most of the points about which we dispute with the Church of Româ— are additions made by them to the simplicity of the Christian Religion So much as we own of the Christian Religion they own likewise In the other particulars our Doctrine with relation to them is made up of Negatives
had opinions different from others separate themselves from them but remained in the Communion and Unity of the same Church with those from whom they differed That is to say they waited till the Church should have decided the difference and after he had resumed a little of what he had formerly said he concludes thus If then the Church was lost for holding that the Baptism of Hereticks was good they cannot shew the Original of their Communion But if the true Church did still subsist they cannot justifie their Separation nor the Schism that they have made One may say all this against the Waldenses the Lutherans the Calvinists and the other Hereticks who cannot mount higher than to Waldo to Luther to Calvin or their other Heads This Method of S. Austin's is most excellent But if our Brethren the pretended Reformed will defend themselves by saying as in effect they do say in some of their Books That it was not they who made the Separation but rather that it came from us and that we have cut them off from our Communion To this it must be answered That there are two sorts of Sâ—paration the one is Criminal the other is Iudicial In the first one separates himself from his Pastor by a manifest Disobedience in the second the Pastor separates him from the Flock who is making a party and refuses to submit to the Orders of the Church The one is a Sin and the other is the Punishment The one is a voluntary departure the other is the being cut off by a Sâ—ntence even as the Iudge pronounces a Sentence of Condemnation against one that has killed himself The proof of those two different Separations is to be found in the Thirty eighth Letter of S. Cyprians where he speaks of one Augendus who had gone over to the party of Felicissimus the Deacon and it appears that that great Saint had suspended and excommunicated him for having withdrawn himself from his Obedience and for having engaged others in the same Separation Let every one says he that has folfollowed his Opinions and Faction know that he shall communicate no more with us in the Church since of his own accord he has chosen to be separated from the Church In his Seventy sixth Epistle he says the same thing of Novatian and those who had joyned with him in his Revolt Because they leaving the Church by their Rebellion and breaking the Peace and Unity of Jesus Christ have endeavoured to establish their authority and to assume a Supreme Jurisdiction to themselves and to usurp power to Baptize and to offer Sacrifice This Distinction is also clearly stated in the fourth Action of the Council of Chalcedon where those two Ancient Canons of the Council of Antioch that were drawn out of Canons of the Apostles were cited The first is concerning those that were separated the other is concerning those who of their own accord did separate themselves The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was thought proper for this purpose to transcribe here those two Canons which are the fundamental Laws of the practice of the Church with regard to Hereticks and Schismaticks whom she throws out of her bosome and who have separated themselves from her These Canons are the Fourth and Fifth of the Council of Antioch and the Twenty seventh and Thirtieth of the Apostolick Canons and the pretended Reformed cannot reject their Authority since they observe among themselves the same Discipline when any particular persons whether Ministers or others of their Communion will not submit to the Decisions of their Synods Remarks 1. FOr the first branch of this Method the Reformed are not at all concerned in it for they do not deny the Church of Rome to be still a True Church and that her Baptism and Ordinations are valid and that they are not to be repeated and therefore though it was very pertinent to urge the Donatists as S. Austin did who held that the Sacraments in an ill mans hands had no vertue at all and that the Church had every where failed so that there was no Church but that which was among them Yet all this is foreign to the state of the Controversie between us and the Church of Rome and we do freely acknowledge that in such a matter as the Re-baptizing Hereticks it had been a very great sin to have broken Communion with the rest of the Church 2. Yet upon this very head P. Sâ—ephen did excommunicate S. Cyprian who yet for all that did not depart from his former opinion or practice So here was such a Schism as they object to us S. Cyprian thought the Rebaptizing Hereticks was well grounded Stephen thought otherwise and did excommunicate him If upon that a lasting Schism had followed in the Church S. Cyprian might have been held the fountain of it by those who condemned his opinion but if his opinion was true he could be no Schismatick So we desire the grounds of our Separation may be examined if they will not bear such a Superstructure we confess we deserve the severest censures possible but if they are solid then the guilt of the rent that is in the Church must lie somewhere else than on us 3. We do not deny but there are two sorts of Separation which are here very well distinguished and without seeking for any proof in so clear a matter We confess that when any separates himself from the Church upon any unjustifiable account those Canons and the highest severities of Church-censures ought to be applied â—o them but all this is upon supposition that the departure is ill grounded and therefore all those Rules that have been â—aid down in general against Heresie and Schism must still suppose the Church to â—e pure and uncorrupted 4. It is plain by these very Canons how much that power of the Church may be and was abused The Council of Antioch being composed of the favourers of Arius deposed Athanasius and resolved to silence him and such other Church-men as receiv'd the Nicene Doctrine in such a manner that they should be no more able to withstand their designs And therefore they made those Canons according to former customes which in the stile of that Age was called the Canon or Rule for none that has considered things will believe that the Canons that are called Apostolical were made by the Apostles and their chief design was levelled against Athanasius and the Orthodox party But at that same time as the Orthodox in the East did not submit to this so neiâ—her did the Bishops 〈◊〉 the West take any notice of it anâ— Chrysostome who was bred up at Aâ—tioch and so could not but know in what esteem those Canons were held did not look on himself as bound by them anâ— made no account of them when they were objected to him Thus though iâ— general these are gooâ— Rules and such aâ— ought to be obeyed where the Synod or the Bishop do not abuse their power yet
when the power of the Church is used not to Edification but to Destruction then the obligation to obedience is not to be too far extended And as in Laws that oblige Subjects to obey Inferiour Magistrates a tacite exception is to be supposed in case they should become guilty of Treason so there must be supposed likewise in this case the like exception in case a Synod deposes a Bishop or a Bishop censures his Clergy for asserting the true Faith And as a Separation from an uncorrupted Church is a very great wickedness so the separating from a corrupted Church in whose Communion we cannot continue without being polluted in it is but a part of that care which we ought to have of our own Salvation The Fifteenth Method TO all the former Methods a Fifteenth may be added by letting our P. Reformed see that many Articles are to be found in their Confession of Faith in their Catechisms in the Articles of their Discipline in the Decisions of their Synods and in the Books of their Chief Ministers who have writ upon the Controversies from which Arguments may be drawn against them to prove the truth of our belief even by their own Confession For Example Their Discipline allows the Communion in one kind only to such as cannot drink Wine From which one may infer that the Communion under both kinds is not an Article of necessity and that they are in the wrong to alledge that as they do to be a lawful ground for their Separation The Minister Dailée and many others confess that in the time of S. Gregory Nazianzene S. Chrysostome and S. Jerome the Invocation of Saints was received in the Church John Forbes adds to this That the Tradition of the Church was uniform concerning Prayer for the Dead And since he denies that the Books of the Maccabees are Canonical he says the Scripture speaks nothing of it But without engaging into the difficulty concerning the Books of the Maccabees in which they have no more reason on their side than in the rest It is easie to conclude from their own principles that it was no ways to be allowed to separate themselves for matters that according to themselves were established by so great an authority and so constant an union of all Ages Remarks 1. IT is not an equal way of proceeding to object to the Protestants what some particular Writers have said or to strain Inferences too far at a time when the Celebrated Book of the Bishop of Meaux is in such high esteem The chief design oâ— which is to set aside all the Indiscretions of particular Writers and to put the best colours on things that is possible Now Tradition being of such authority among them whatsoever passes down through many of their approved Writers has a much greater strength against them than it can be pretended to have against us And therefore though particular Writers or whole Synods should have written or decreed any thing against the common Doctrines of the Reformed they ought not to object that to us If they will allow us the same Liberties that they assume to themselves 2. It is not a consequence becoming so great an Assembly to infer that because in some few extraordinary cases the general rule of Gods desiring Mercy and not Sacrifice is carried so far as to give weak persons so much of the Sacrament as they can receive and not to deny that to them because a natural aversion mâ—kes them incapable of receiving the Wine That therefore a Church may in opposition to Christs express command Drink you all of it and the constant practice of Thirteen Centuries take this away It is not of necessity for Salvation that every one drinks the Cup but it is of necessity to the purity of a Church that she should observe our Saviour's Precepts 3. It is confessed that some Fathers used the Invocation of Saints yet that being but a matter of fact it is of no consequence for the Decision of any point of Doctrine For we found our Doctrine only on the Word of God and â—ot on the practices of Men how eminent soever they might otherwise be But in relation to these Fathers these things are to be observed 1. They lived in the end of the Fourth Century So this is no competent proof for an Oral Tradition or conveyance of this Doctrine down from the Apostles days 2. Figures and bold Discourses in Panegyricks are rather to be considered as raptures and flights of warm affections than as composed and serious devotions Therefore such Addresses as occur in their Funeral Orations are rather high strains of a daring Rhetorick than Instructions for others since in their expositions on Scripture or other Treatises of Devotion they do not handle these things by way of Direction or Advice Iohn Forbes is mis-cited for William Forbes Bishop of Edenburgh Iohn was not of such yielding Principles It is true William though he was a man Eminently Learned and of a most Exemplary Life yet he was possessed with that same weakness under which Grotius and some other great men have laboured of thinking that a Reconciliation with the Church of Rome might be obtained by an accommodation on both sides and this flowing in him from an excellent temper of Soul he is to be excused if that carried him in many things too far But he is a Writer that has been taxed by all men as one that had particular Notions And we may object Erasmus to those of the Church of Rome as well as they may argue against us from Bishop Forbes 5. If the Church of Rome used only a General Commemoration of the Dead with wishes for the compleating their happiness by a speedy resurrection and went no further we might perhaps differ in opinion with them about the fitness of this but we would not break Communion with them for it But when they have set up such a Merchandize in the House of God for Redeeming Souls out of Purgatory and saying Masses for them this is that we except to as a disgracing of the Christian Religion and as a high profanation of the Holy Sacrament And it is plain that the Fathers considered the Commemoration of the Dead rather as a respect done to their Memory and an honourable remembrance of them than as a thing that was any way useful to them in the other state which may appear by this single Instance S. Cyprian was so much offended at a Presbyter when it appeared after his death that he had left another Presbyter Guardian of his Children that he gave order that no mention should be made of him in the Commemoration of the Dead that was used in the Holy Eucharist because by the Roman Law such as were left Guardians were under some obligations to undertake the trust And that Saint thought such a trust might prove so great a distraction to a man that was dedicated to the Holy Ministry that no Honour ought to be done to the Memory
that threatening clause of forfeiture used by those of Constance in their Decree for a General Council And at Trent it was declared That if any Prince did suffer a Duel to be fought in his Dominions he was thereupon to forfeit that place in which it was fought Now by the same authority that they could declare a forfeiture of any one place they could decâ—are a forâ—eiture of a Princes whole Dominion for both those Sentences flow from the same Superiour Jurisdiction And thus we see seven of those Councils which they esteem general have either decreed confirmed or assumed this right of Deposing Kings for Heresie or indeed for breaking their Orders and Writs 4. The fourth mark oâ— Tradition is â—hat which has been of late so famous by Mr. Arnauld's endeavours to prove from thence that the belief of the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament is a Doctrine derived down from the Aposâ—les days which is this If any one Age has universally received an opinion as an Article of Faith it must be concluded that that Age had it from the former and that from the preceding till we arrive at the Apostles days And this he thinks must hold the stronger if the point so received wâ—s a thing obvious to all men in which every one was concerned and to which the nature of man was inclined to make a powerful opposition I shall not examine how true this is in general nor how applicable in fact it is to the Doctrine of the Corporal Presence but shall only say that allowing all these marks to be the sure Indications of Apostolical Tradition the Doctrine of Deposing Princes for favouring Heresie has them all much more indisputably than the other has Take any one Age from the eleventh Century to the sixteenth and it will appear that not only the Popes the Bishops and all the Ecclesiastical Order received it but that all the Laity likewise embraced it Though this was a matter obvious to sense in which many were much concerned It might have been hoped that Princes upon their own account for fear of an ill Precedent would have protected the â—eposed Prince But on the contrary they either entred into the Croisades themselves or at least gave way to them vast Armies were gathered together to execute those Sentences and the injured Princes had no way to keep their people firm to them but by assuring them they were not guilty of the matters objected to them which shewed that had their people believed them guilty they had forsaken them And yet as it was the terrour of a Croisade was such and the Popes authority to depose Princes was so firmly believed that they were for the most part forced to save themselves by an absolute submission to the Popes pleasure and to what Conditions or Penances a haughty Pope would impose on them So certain it is that this Doctrine was universally received in those ages And thus it appears that all the Characters by which it can be pretended that an Apostolicâ—l Tradition can be known agree to this Doctrine in so full and uncontestable a manner that they cannot bring such Evidence for the points in dispute between them and us So that the Assembly General by condemning this Doctrine have departed from the Tradition of their own Church more apparently than it can be pretended that either Luther and Calvin did in any of those Doctrines which they rejected and therefore they ought not any more to complain of us for throwing off such things as they found on Tradition when they have set us such an Example From which I shall only infer this That they themselves must know how weak a foundation Oral Tradition is for Divine Faith to build upon and that it must be established upon surer grounds FINIS ERRATVM Page 85. line 21. for First read Second Books Printed for and Sold by RICHARD CHISWELL FOLIO SPeed's Maps and Geography of Great Britain and Ireland and of Foreign Parts Dr. Cave's Lives of the Primitive Fathers in 2. 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