ad prophana quaeque convertantur torquentur verba sententiae sacrae Scripturae ad scurrilia scilicet fabulosa vana adulationes detractiones superstitiones impias diabolicas incantationes divinationes sortes libellos etiam famosos mandat praecipit ad tollendam hujusmodi irreverentiam contemptum ne de caetero quisquam quomodolibet verba sacrae Scripturae ad haec aut similia audeat usurpare ut omnes ejus generis homines temeratores violatores verbi Dei juris arbitrii paenis per Episcopos coerceantur What there is amongst the ancient Canons what in the Fathers prohibiting this usage I do not now remember after so great a discontinuance of those studies but that Dionysius Areopagita or whosoever Writ those works is as severe in some places as if he had continued the Court amongst Christians and that the mystery of Christian Godliness were as much to be reverenced as the Eleusinia Sacra this I am sure of Whether there be any prohibition amongst the rules of our Church I know not perhaps it may be in this case the Church of England is silent and with as much of Prudence as that State was which made no law against Parricides being not willing to think any humane creature capable of such barbarity or by inhibition to put them in mind of such an horrid fact But since the Railleurs have met at last with an Advocate who teacheth them that they may boldly take the sacred Word of God into their mouths though they hate to be reformed and that they may innocently apply it to their civil entertainments discourses though it be notorious that it is a vain talking neither for the glory of God nor edification nor decency nor without great scandal and yet the precaution of the latter and a constant regard to the former is an indispensable Command and at all times obligatory though it be manifest that whosoever useth the utmost extent of his Liberty approacheth very near to a vitiousness of acting that this Holy Raillery hath given occasion to most prophane Burlesque and that 't is the subject matter not words which hallow a conversation Oh! that any Divine should be ignorant of this or expect a contrary issue It is time that publick Authority interpose and that our Church concern her self seeing that our concern for the sacredness of Scripture ought to be much greater in point of Prudence then that of the Papists with whom the Canonical Books are but a part of Sacred Tradition and no further a Rule of Faith and Authenticate then their Church delivereth and expoundeth them so that if the repute thereof were extinguished yet would not their Church fall we have no foundation but the Apostles and Prophets upon this we are built this is our hope in this we doubt not to find Eternal Life And how this foundation will be sapped and undermined by the project of our Virtuoso I do submit unto the serious consideration of the Church of England If any one would understand what is particularly meant by this application of Sacred Writ to vulgar discourse and the manner of this Holy Raillery deduced from Scripture let him read Mr. Cowley's Poems especially his Mistresse such as this where he detests long life without enjoying his Mistress Th' old Patriarchs age and not their hapiness too Why does hard fate to us restore Why does Love's fire thus to Mankind renew What the Flood wash'd away before Resolv'd to be Beloved Thou shalt my Canaan be the fatal soyle That ends my wandrings and my toyle I 'le settle there and happy grow The Country does with milk and hony flow The Welcome Go let the fatted Calf be kill'd My Prodigal's come home at last With noble resolutions fill'd And fill'd with sorrow for the past No more will burn with Love or Wine But quite has left his Women and his Swine My Fate Me mine example let the Stoicks use Their sad and cruel doctrine to maintain Let all Praedestinators me produce Who struggle with eternal bonds in vain This Fire I 'm born to but 't is she must tell Whether 't be the Beams of Heaven or Flames of Hell These and such like Instances as they frequently occurre in those Poems so they are to be allowed by our Virtuoso for a Treasury of magnificent sober innocent Wit for when Mr. Cowly died he desired him to revise his Works and to blot out whatever might seem the least offence to Religion or good manners FINIS Hist. of the R. S. p. 47. Socrates Histor. Eccles. l. 6. c. 3. M. Fr. Wendelin Chr. Theolog System Mai. l. 1. c. 24. Council of Trent l. 1. pag. 52. Communio inter fideles in publicis maximè pietatis exercitiis est posita atque hoc est optatae bonis unionis vel praecipuum coaguluÌ„ Casaubon resp ad Card. Perâ—on 5. 6. Edw. 6. c. 1. 3. as also the Act of Qu. Eliz. for Uniformity See also the Act for Uniformity premised to the English Liturgy Chillingworth ch 5. §. 45. Causabon ' resp ad Card. Perron I grant that Papal Infallibility were there such a thing would oblige us to an assent but not inforce us Sovereignty imâ—lies power but Infallibility doth not so Let a man but inquire into the Papal power to nature and management in Cajetan Victor a Panormitan Turâ—ecremata Gerson and others that write about the power of the Pope's briefs in France or Spain c. and he will find that the Papacy is no Sovereignty either in matters of faith or of lesser importance It is true that long before the Reformation when the Guelphs and Gibellines contested there were some especially Canonists that did attribute to the Pope and some Popes challenged a Sovereignty over the Christian faith to make new Creeds and Articles of faith even such as might contradict the old but these were not agitated at the Reformation and are no more to be imputed indefinitely to the Bishops of Rome then the extravagant claims of some Princes are to the Monarchies they hold See the conference betwixt Raynolds and Hart. c. 9. divis 4. pag. 582. where you will find that before the Reformation the consent of the Doctors and Pastors throughout all Christendom except the Italian faction had condemned the usurped Monarchy of the Pope The Lateran Council never gave it him and whatever for his Supremacy not Infallibility were defined or acted at Trent yet it was opposed there and the Authority of that Council together with the tenet rejected in France at this day without a Schisme Casaubon resp ad Cardin. Perron Fr Victoria relect 5. de pot Eccles. sect 1. §. 6. Davenant de judice norma fidei cap. 21. a Opinio verae est posse esse Haereticum b Probabile est piè credi potest haereticum esse non posse See the Conference ch 7. divis 2. pag. 236. a In dialogo part 1. lib. 6. cap. 1.
do grant it Hart. They grant that the Pope may be an Heretick perhaps by a supposal as many things may be which never were nor are nor shall be For you cannot prove that any Pope ever was an Heretick actually though possibly they may be whereof I will not strive This point of the fallibility of the Pope and his subjection to a Council is so notorious with every man that is acquainted with the more ancient and modern Writers so known to any one that hath either read the determinations of Bishop Davenant qu. 5. or the defense of the Dissuasive of Bishop Taylour pag. 40. or the Review of the Council of Trent written by a French Catholick from whom the Disswader borrowed his allegations or that hath so much as read over the History of the Council of Trent that I need not insist on it any longer Notwithstanding the earnestnesse of the Iesuits under Laynez in the Council of Trent yet neither was the Pope's superiority over a Council nor the Infallibility of the Bishops of Rome defined there directly as appears out of the Review of that Council lib. 4. c. 1. and out of the English History pag. 721 722. Neither is there to this day amongst the Papists any thing enacted or determined in that Church which obligeth a man under pain of Excommunication to hold any such thing as the personal Infallibility of the Bishops of Rome the contrary being daily maintained there by more than the Iansenists much lesse is there any Sovereignty in matters of Faith ascribed unto them at this day All books of the Papists are subjected to the judgment of the Church not to the Arbitrement of the Pope The fides Carbonaria or Colliers faith so famed amongst the Papists was not established upon the infallibility or sovereignty of the Bishops of Rome no he told the Devil that He believed as the Church believed and the Church as He. And how necessary soever they make the communion with the particular Church of Rome how great influence soever they ascribe to the Pope over Councils yet the Decrees of the Council of Trent run in the name of the Holy Synod not Pope and there it is determined sess 4. that none dare interpret Holy Scripturs against the sense which our Holy Mother the Church hath held or does hold If you enquire in-the doctrines of M r White D r Holden Serenus Cressy and such others as endeavour at present and that with great shew of wit and artifices to seduce the English to that Apostaticall Church there is not one of them that I knowe of who attributes any infallibility to the Pope or submitteth his faith to the Sovereigne decisions of the Bishop of Rome As for Serenus Cressy he very judiciously deserts the School-terme of Infallibility for that of the Churches Authority and saith that the exceptions and advantages which the Protestants have against the Roman Church proceed only from their mis-understanding of her necessary doctrines or at most that all the efficacy they have is onely against particular opinions inferences made by particular Catholique writers He shews that D r Stapleton asserts that the infallible voyce and determination of the Church is included in the decree of the Church speaking in a Generall Council representatively In which the Church is infallible with this restriction viz in delivering the substance of faith in publique doctrines and things necessary to salvation Other Catholiques and namely Panormitan teach that the decrees of Generall Council are not absolutely and necessarily to be acknowledged infallible till they be received by all particular Catholique Churches because till then they cannot properly be called the faith of the universall Church or of the body of all faithfull Christians to which body the promise of infallibility is made And this was the Doctrine of Thomas Waldensis and some other Scholmen c. An opinion this is which though not commonly received yet I do not saith S. C. find it deeply censured by any yea the Gallican Churches reckoned this among their chiefest priviledges and liberties that they were not obliged to the decisions of a Generall Council till the whole body of the Gallican Clergy had by a speciall agreement consented to them and so proposed them to the severall Churches there And to this last opinion doth S. C. incline and his book was approved at Paris as consonant to the Catholique faith He guides himselfe by the Authority of received Councils he acknowledges that to be onely necessarily accounted an Article of Catholique faith which is actually acknowledged and received by Catholiques and since contradictions cannot be actually assented unto it will follow that whatsoever decisions of Councils may seem to oppose such articles are not necessarily to be accounted Catholique doctrines and by consequence not obligatory He denies that Generall Councils can make new articles of faith they are witnesses of what hath been delivered not Sovereigns to determine of new truths either by way of addition to the former or in opposition thereunto Their Infallibility is limited to Tradition and spiritually assisted in the faithfull reporting of what hath been delivered what ever reports or decrees they make of another nature they are to be received with a different assent from what is Catholique faith There is a double obligation from decisions of Generall Councils the first an obligation of Christian beliefe in respect of doctrines delivered by Generall Councils as of universall Tradition the second onely of Canonicall obedience to orders and constitutions for practice by which men are not bound to believe those are inforced as from Divine authority but onely to submit unto them as acts of a lawfull Ecclesiasticall power however not to censure them as unjust much lesse to oppose and contradict them Much more doth the same Author adde which give little countenance to that state of the controversie which our Author forms unto us No Soveraigne dominion over our faith is by him ascribed to the Bishop of Rome or Nationall or Generall Counâ—ills and as to Infailibility which Mr Chillingworth had impugned he thus acquits himselfe I may in generall say of all his Objections that since they proceed only against the word Infallibility and that word extended to the utmost heighth and latitude that it possibly can beare Catholiques as such are not at all concerned in them seeing neither is that expression to be found in any received Council nor did ever the Church enlarge her authority to so vast a widenesse as Mr Chillingworth either conceived or at least for his particular advantage against his adversary thought good to make show as if he conceived so As to the subject wherein Infallibility or Authority is to be placed since Catholiques vary as to that point he sayes 't is evident thereby that they are not obliged to any one part of the Question only they are to agree in this Tridentine decision Ecclesiae est judicare de vero sensu Sacrae
be confined to any Methodical Creeds or Articles but be left in that latitude of phrase wherein the Scriptures have delivered it 't is manifest that they look with indifferency on the things signified by those words and forms 't is manifest that they make way for growing Atheisme and Socinianisme 't is manifest that they overthrow the Constitutions of the Church of England whose Articles make use of those significant terms transmitted from the Fathers to our Schools and subvert the Basis of our Religion as it is represented in our Laws to consist of an owning of three Creeds and four Councils besides the Holy Scripture Thus primo Elizabethae cap. 1. The four General Councils are mentioned after the Scripture Canonical and that is to be adjudged Heresie which hath been adjudged ordered and determined to be Heresie by the Authority of the Canonical Scripture or by the first four General Councils The same is averr'd by King James in his Letter Rex Ecclesia Anglicana quatuor prima Concilia Oecumenica quum admittant And that King challengeth the Title of Catholick as due to him Qui tria Ecclesiae Symbola Concilia quatuor Oecumenica prima agnosceret This is evident to all that know any thing of our Church and 't is as manifest and whosoever writes otherwise repugnes to our Laws and whatever he subscribes unto or professeth is no true Son of the Church established in England Histor. R. S. pag. 362. The grounds whereon the Church of England proceeds are different from those of the Separists and also of the Church of Rome and they are no other but the Rights of the Civil power the imitation of the first uncorrupt Churches and the Scriptures expounded by Reason This last clause is so far from being true that 't is directly contrary to the constitutions of our Church and better becomes a Socinian from Poland or Amsterdam then a Divine of our Church not that I say that our Church did ever expound the Scripture against Reason but that our Church did never relie upon Reason as it is opposed to Authority of the Ancient Fathers in the determining of the will of God revealed in Scripture If the Historian meant nothing else but that the actions of men are alwayes rational and that the assent we yield to any thing is never so blind and implicite as to be destitute of all motives and inducements thereunto so that we resign our selves up to Authority upon the score of Reason If he meant no more then this why doth he speak in the language rather of a Socinian than a Protestant This expression is dangerous as it is worded because the Socinians may derive advantage from it and the Orthodox may think and find themselves injured especially in these times when the Socinians multiply upon us by it amongst the unwary as if there were no use of the Fathers but that we were without researching of Antiquity to consult the grounds of Reason such as are commonly found in men and bred in them either Naturally or from the contemplation of the ordinary course of things Physical and Moral in this World Whence what confusion will arise when all holy Sobriety is cast of any man knows who hath but inquired into the controversies of these last Centuries when the Scripture hath not been made by men the Rule of Faith or formal object thereof but only accommodated to the phansies and imaginations of prejudicate prepossessed men Upon this account the Church of England hath by her Canon in which she follows the Council in Trullo tied her Doctors as much as the Council of Trent does to expound Scriptures according to the sense of the Ancient Fathers This Bishop Taylor avows in the Introduction to his second Dissuasive This Doctor Heylyn in his Cyprianus Anglicus pag. 52. doth aver and I shall here set down the Canon of our Church Concilium Trullanum sive Synodus quinisexta Canon 19. edit per Francisc. Ioverium Parisiis A. D. 1555. Quod oportet eos qui praesunt Ecclesiis in omnibus quidem diebus sed praecipuè Dominicis omnem Clerum populum docere pietatis ac rectae religionis eloquia ex divinâ Scripturâ colligentes intelligentias judicia veritatis non transgredientes jam positos terminos vel divinorum patrum traditionem Sed si ad Scripturam pertinens controversia aliqua excitata fuerit ne eam aliter interpretentur quà m quomodò Ecclesiae luminaria doctores ex suis scriptis exposuerunt majorem ex iis laudem assequantur quà m si quae à se dicuntur componant Liber Canonum quorundam Londini 1571. Concionatores Inprimis verò videbunt nequid unquam doceant pro concione quod à populo religiosè teneri credi velint nisi quod consentaneum sit doctrinae veteris aut novi Testamenti quodque ex illâ ipsâ doctrinâ Catholici Patres veteres Episcopi collegerint Thus K. Charles I. in his third Paper to Mr. Henderson If the practice of the Primitive Church and the universal consent of the Fathers be not a convincing Argument when the Interpretation of Scripture is doubtful I know nothing for if this be not then of necessity the interpretation of private spirits must be admitted the which contradicts S. Peter 2 Pet. 1.20 Is the Mother of all Sects and will if not prevented bring these Kingdoms into confusions Histor. R. S. pag. 414 415. The Wit that may be borrowed from the Bible is magnificent and as all other Treasures of Knowledge it contains inexhaustible This may be used and allowed without any danger of Profaneness The ancient Heathens did the same They made their Divine Ceremonies the chief subject of their phansies By that means their Religions had a more awfull impression became more popular and lasted longer in force than else they would have done And why may not Christianity admit the same thing if it be practised with sobriety and reverence What irreligion can there be in applying some Scripture-expressions to Naturall things Why are not the one rather exalted and purified then the other defiled by such applications The very Enthusiasts themselves who are wont to start at such wit as Atheistical are more guilty of its excesses then any other sort of Men for whatever they alledge out of the Historical Prophetical or Evangelical writings and apply it to themselves their Enemies or their Country though they call it the mind of God yet it is nothing else but Scripture-comparison and similitude It is to be observed that this passage is inserted into a discourse concerning Wit as it discovers it selfe in the ordinary conversation and writings of the Railleurs and is founded on certaine images as our Historian phraseth it which are generally known and are able to bring a strong and a sensible impression on the mind It is an Humour that hath generally possessed the Gallantilloes of this age whereby they endeavour to recommend