what is the true sense of those passages that are in dispute but by that same Church which conveys it to you This is S. Austin's method in many places but above all in his Book De utilitate Credendi and in his Book Contra Epistolam fundamenti In which he says I would not believe the Gospel if the authority of the Church did not oblige me to it This Method is handsomely managed in the Treatise of the true Word of God joyned to the Peaceable Method Remarks 1. GReat difference is to be made between the conveyance of Books and an Oral Tradition of Doctrine It is very easie to carry down the one in a way that is Morally Infallible An exact copying being all that is necessary for that Whereas it is morally impossible to prevent frauds and impostures in the other in a course of some Ages especially in times of Ignorance and Corruption in which the Credulity of unthinking people has made an easie game to the Craft and Industry of covetous and aspiring Priests Few were then at the pains to examine any thing but took all upon Trust and became so ready of belief that the more incredible a thing seemed to be they swallowed it down the more willingly 2. If this way of reasoning will hold good it was as strong in the mouths of the Iews in our Saviours time for the High Priest and Sanhedrim might have as reasonably pretended that since they had conveyed down the Books in which the Prophecies of the Messiah were contained they hâ—d likewise the right to expound those Prophecies 3. A Witness that hands a thing down without Additions is very different from a Judge that delivers things on his own Authority We freely own the Church to be such a Witness that there is no colour of reason to disbelieve the Tradition of the Books but we see great cause to question the credit of her decisions 4. In this Tradition of Books we have not barely the Tradition of the Church for it We find in all ages since the Books of the New Testament were written several Authors have cited many and large passages out of them We find they were very quickly translated into many other Languages and diverse of those are conveyed down to us There were also so many Copies of these Books every where that though one had resolved on so Sacrilegious an attempt as the corrupting them had been he could not have succeeded in it to any great degree Some additions might have been made in some Copies and so from those they might have been derived to others but these could not have bâ—en considerable otherwise they had been discovered and complained of and when we find the Church engaged in contests with Hereticks and Schismaticks we see both sides appealed to the Scriptures and neither of them reproached the other for violating that Sacred Trust. And the noise we find of the small change of a Letter in the Aâ—ian Controversie shews us how exact they were in preserving these Records As for the Errours of Transcribers that is incident to the Nature of Man and though some Errours have crept into some Copies yet all these put together do not alter any one point of our Religion so that they are not of great consequence Thus it appears how much reason we have to receive the Scriptures upon the credit of such a Tradition But for Oral Tradition it is visible how it might have been so managed as quickly to change the whole Nature of Religion Natural Religion was soon corrupted when it passed down in this Conveyance even during the long lives of the Ancient Patriarchs who had thereby an advantage to keep this pure that after ages in which the life of Man is so shortned cannot pretend to We also see to what a degree the Iewish Tradition became corrupted in our Saviours time particularly in one point which may be called the most essential part of their Religion to wit concerning their Messias what the nature of his Person and Kingdome were to be So that they all expected a Great Conquerour a second Moses or a David so ineffectual a mean is Oral Tradition for conveying down any Doctrine pure or uncorrupted The Ninth Method IS to tell them the Church in which they were before they made the Separation was the true Church because it was the only Church so that they could not Reform the Doctrine without making another Church For then she must have fallen into Errour and by consequence the Gates of Hell must have prevailed against her which is directly contrary to the Promise of Iesus Christ that cannot fail The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Remarks 1. A Church may be a True Church and yet be corrupted by many Errours for a â—rue Church is a Society of men among whom are the certain means of Salvation and such was the Iewish Church in our Saviours time For their Sacrifices had still an Expiatory Vertue and the Covenant made with that people stood still and yet they were over-run with many Errours chiefly in their notions of the Messias And thus as long as the Church of Rome acknowledges the Expiation made by the Death of Christ and applied to all that truly believe and amend their lives so long she is a True Church So that those of that Communion who adhere truly to that which is the great fundamental of the Christian Religion may be saved But when so many things were added to this that it was very hard to preserve this fundamental truth pure and entire then it was necessary for those who were better enlightned to call on others to correct the abuses that had crept in 2. It is hard to build a great super-structure on a figurative expression of which it is not easie to find out the true and full sense And in this that is cited there are but three terms and about every one of them great and just grounds of doubting do appear 1. It is not certain what is meant by the Gates of Hell which is an odd figure for an assailant If by Gates we mean Councils because the Magistrates and Courts among the Iews sate in the Gates then the meaning will be that the Craft of Hell shall not prevail against the Church that is shall not root out Christianity or if by Gates of Hell or the Grave according to a common Greek Phrase Death be to be understood it being the Gate through which we pass to the Grave then the meaning is this that the Church shall never die or be extinguished Nor is there less difficulty to be made about the signification of the word Church Whether it is to be meant in general of the body of Christians or of the Pastors of the Church and of the majority of them The Context seems to carry it for the Body of Christians and then the meaning will be only this That there shall still be a Body of Christians in the World And
Evidence of those places of Scripture from which they deduced them 5. Since those of that Communion object a National Synod to the Protestants this may be turned back on them with greater advantage in some points established by Councils which they esteem not only General but Infallible In the Third Council of the Lateran it was decreed That all Princes who favoured Hereticks did forfeit their Rights and a Plenary Indulgence was granted to all that fought against them In the Fourth Council at the same place it was decreed That the Pope might not only declare this forfeiture but absolve the Subjects from their Oaths of Obedience and transfer their Dominions upon others In the First Council at Lions they joyned with the Pope in thundring the Sentence of Deposition against the Emperour Frederick the First which in the preamble is grounded on some places of Scripture of which if they were the Infallible Expositors then this power is an Article of Faith And in the last pâ—ace the Council of Constance decreed That the Faith of a Safe-Conduct was not to be kept to an Heretick that had come to the place of Judgement relying on it even though he would not have come without it When Crueltâ— Rebellion and Treachery were thus decreed in Courts which among them are of so sacred an authority It is visible how much greâ—ter advantages we have of them in this point than any they can pretend against us 6. For the Synod of Dort I will not undertake the Apology neither for their Decrees nor for their Assertions and will not stick to say that how true soever many of their Conclusions may be yet the defining such mysterious matters as the order of the Divine Decrees and the Influences of Gods Grace on the wills of men in so positive a manner and the imposing their Assertions on all the Ministers of their Communion was that which many as sincere Protestants as any are have ever disliked and condemned as a weakening the Union of the Protestant Church and an assuming too much of that authority which we condemn in the Church of Rome For though they supposed that they made their definitions upon the grounds of Scripture so that in this sense the authority of the Synod was meerly Declarative yet the question will still recur Whether they understood the passages which they built on right or not And if they understood them wrong then according to Protestant principles their Decrees had no such binding authority that the receding from them could make one guilty either of Heresie or Schism The Sixth Method IS to shew them that the Roman Church or that Church which acknowledges the Pope or the Bishop of Rome the Successor of S. Peter to be her Head all the World over is the true Church Because there is no other besides her that has that undoubted mark which is a perpetâ—al Visibility without Interruption since Christ's time to this day This is a Method common to all the Catholicks and is very well and briefly set forth in the little Treatise of the true Church joyned to that of the Peaceable Method This is that of which S. Austin makes most frequent use against the Donatists and chiefly in his Book of the Vnity of the Church and in his Epistles of which the most remarkable passages relating to this matter are gathered together by the late Arch-bishop of Rouen in the first Book of his Apology for the Gospel in which he handles this matter excellently well One may add to this Method the Maxims of which Tertullian makes use in his Treatise of Prescriptions against the Hereticks and also Vincentius Lyrinensis in his Advices It is enough to say on this occasion that those two Treatises may satisfie any that will read them without prepossession in order to their forming a just Iudgement of the true Church of Iesus Christ and of all those Societies that would usurp that name Remarks THis Method is so common that there was no reason in any sort to give Mr. Maimbourg the honour of it unless it was that the Assembly intended to do him this publick honour to ballance his disgrace at Rome But let us examine it 1. This asserts that no other Church has a perpetual Succession without interruption but that which derives it from Rome which is so contrary to what every one knows that Mr. Maimbourg was certainly inspired with the Spirit of his Order when he writ it Do not all the Greek Churches and all the Churches that have their Ordination from them all from the Northern Empire of Muscovy to the Southern of the Abassines together with all those in the East derive from the Apostles by an uninterrupted series For till the Authority of the Church of Rome is proved which is the thing in question their being declared Schismaticks or Hereticks by it does not interrupt this Succession 2. The Church of England has the same Succession that the Church of Rome had in Gregory the Great 's time to wave the more ancient pretensions of the Brittish Churches and the Bishops of this Church being bound by one of their Sponsions made at their Consecration according to the Roman Pontifical to instruct their flock in the true Faith according to the Scriptures they were obliged to make good this promise Nor can it be pretended that they have thereupon forfeited their Orders and by consequence their Succession 3. The Succession of the Church of Rome cannot be said to be uninterrupted if either Heresie or Schism can cut it off It is well known that Felix Liberius and Honorius to name no more were Hereticks and if Ordinations by Schismaticks or unlawful Usurpers be to be annulled which was judged in the case of Photius and was often practised at Rome then the many Schisms and unjust usurpations that have been in that See will make the Succession of their Orders the most disputable thing that can be especially during that Schism that lasted almost forty years all the Churches of that Communion having derived their Orders from one or other of the Popes and if the Popes at Avignon were the Usurpers then let the Gallican Churches see how they can justifie the series of their Ordinations To all which may be added the impossibility of proving a true Succession in Orders if the Vertue of the Sacraments depends on the Intention of him who officiates since secret Intentions are only known to God 4. The ground on which the Donatists separated from the Orthodox Churches being at first founded on a matter of Fact which was of the pretended Irregularity of those who ordained Cecilian which they afterwards defended upon this that the Church could be only composed of good men and that the Sacraments were of no Vertue when dispensed by ill hands all that S. Austin says is to be governed by this Hypothesis against which he argues And it being once granted that the Church was not corrupted neither in Doctrine nor Worship we are very ready
to subscribe to every expression of his and do freely acknowledge that the making a rent in a Church that is pure both in Doctrine and Worship upon any particular or personal account is a sin that cannot be sufficiently detested and condemned I shall not enter into a particular discussion of every passage of S. Austin's but if in some he seems to go too far for the authority of the Church I shall only offer two general considerations concerning these The first is That it is a Maxime with Lawyers That general words in Laws are to be restricted to the preambles and chief design of these Laws And if this is true of Laws that are commonly penned with more coldness and upon greater deliberation it is much more applicable to warm discourses where the heat of Contradiction and the Zeal of a Writer makes that things are ofâ—en aggravated and carried too far but still all those expressions are to â—e molliâ—ied and restricted to that which was the subject matter of the debate therefore those expressions of S. Austin's supposing that the Church was still sound in her Doctrine and Worship are to be governed by that Hypothesis The second is That many of those who urge these passages on us do not deny but S. Aâ—stin in the disputes about Grace and Original Sin was carried too far though those were the subjects on which he employed his latest years with the greatest application If then it is confessed that he wrote too warmly against the Pelagians and in that heat advanced some propositions that need a fair construction is it unreasonable for us to say that he might have done the same writing against the Donatists 5. As for Tertullian he that might have conversed with many that could have known S. Polâ—carp who was both instructed and ordained by the Apostles so that he might have been the third person in the conveyance of the sense of what the Apostles had left in Writing could reasonably argue as he did against the Hereticks but certainly no man that considers the distance we live at from those ages and the many accidents that have so often changed the face of the Church can think it reasonable to argue upon that ground now And yet it were easie to bring many citatious out of that very Book of Tertullians to shew that he grounded his Faith only on the Doctrine of Christ delivered in the Scriptures how much soever he might argue from other Topicks against the Hereticks of his time who indeed were bringing in a New Gospel into the World We willingly receive the Characters that Vincentius Lyrinensis gives of Tradition that what the Church has at all times and in all places received is to be believed and are ready to joyn issue upon this and when they can prove that the Church at all times and in all places has taught the Worshipping of Images the Invocation of Saints and Angels the adoring the Sacrament and the dividing of it with many more particulars we will yield the whole cause and confess that we have made a Schism in the Church The Seventh Method IS to let them see that those who at first pretended to Reform the Church in which they were amongst us neither had nor could have any Mission either Ordinary or Extraordinary to bring us any other Doctrine but that which was then taught and that by Consequence none ought to believe them since they had no authority to Preach as they did How can they Preach if they are not sent This is the ordinary Method that puts the Ministers to the necessity of proving their Mission which is a thing that they can never do This cuts off all disputes and is one of the Methods of Cardinal Richelieu Remarks 1. IF the first Reformers had delivered a new Doctrine which was never formerly taught it had been necessary for them to have had a very extraordinary Mission and to have confirmed it by very extraordinary signs but when they grounded all â—hey said upon that very Book which was and is still received as the unalterable Law of all Christians then if every man is bound to take care of his own Salvation and is in Charity obliged to let others see that same light that guides himself then I say an extraordinary Mission was not necessary when the thing in dispute was not a new Doctrine but the true meaning of those Writings which were on all hands acknowledged to be Divine 2. If notwithstanding the necessity of not raising War in Civil Government without an express Commission from the Prince or Supream Authority yet in a General Rebellion when the ways of intercourse with the Prince are cut off if it be not only a lawful but a commendable action for any subject even without a Commission to raise what force he can for the service of the Prince Then if it be true that the Western Churches had generally revolted from the rules of the Gospel that was a sufficient warrant for any person to endeavour a Reformation 3. The nature of the Christian Religion is to be well considered in which all Christians are a Royal Priesthood And though it be highly necessary for all the ends of Religion to maintain peace and Order and to convey down an authority for sacred administrations in such a way as tends most to advance those ends yet this cannot be lookt on as indispensable and absolutely necessary Among the Iews as there were many services in which none but Priests and Levites could officiate so the Succession went in the natural course of Descent But in the Christian Church there are no positive Laws so appropriated and therefore in cases of extream and unavoidable necessity every Christian may make use of that dormant priviledge of being a Royal Priest and so this difficulty must be resolved by examining the merits of the whole cause for if the necessity was not extream and unavoidable we acknowledge it had been a Sacrilegious presumption for any that was not called in the ordinary manner to meddle in Holy things 4. It is but a small part of the Reformed Churches that is concerned in this Here in England our Reformers had the ordinary Mission and in most places beyond Sea the first Preachers had been ordained Priests And it will not be easie to prove that Lay-men yea and Women may baptize in cases of necessity when that is often but an imaginary necessity and that yet Priests in a case of real necessity may not ordain other Priests For all the Rules of Order are superseded by extraordinary cases and in Moral as well as in Natural things every Individual has a Right to propagate its kind and though it may be reasonable to regulate that yet it can never be wholly cut off The Eighth Method IS to tell them You do not know that such or such a Book of the Scripture is the Word of God but by the Church in which you were before your Schism So that you cannot know
it cannot be proved that any thing else is to be understood by the word Church in that place A third difficulty may be also raised upon the extent of the word Prevail whether a total overthrow or any single advantage is to be understood by it or whether this prevailing is to be restrained only to the fundamentals of Christianity or is to be extended to all sorts of truth or whether it is to be understood of corrupting the Doctrine or of vitiating the Morals of Christians Thus it is apparent how many difficulties may be started concerning the meaning of those words So that at best the sense of them is doubtful and therefore it will be a strange and rash adventure to determine any thing in matters of great moment upon the authority of such a figurative expression 3. Though the Roman Church had been corrupted that will not infer that the Gates of Hell had prevailed against the Church for that being but the Center of the Union of some of the Western Nations a corruption in it does not prove that the whole Church was corrupted for there were many other Churches in other parts of the World besides those of that Communion The Tenth Method IS that of the Bishop of Meaux lately of Condom in his Book entituled The exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church In which he does in every Article distinguish between that which is precisely of Faith and that which is not so and shews that there is nothing in our belief that may give distast to a reasonable Spirit unless they will look on the abuses of some particular persons which we condemn as our belief or impute Errours to us falsely or charge us with the explications of some Doctors that are neither received nor authorized by the Church This method is taken from S. Hilary in his Book of Synods Let us says he altogether condemn false Interpretations but let us not destroy the certainty of the Faith The Word Consubstantial may be ill understood but let it be established in a sense in which it may be well understood The right state of the Faith may be established among us so as we may neither reverse that which has been well establishedpunc nor cut off those things that have been ill understood Remarks SOmewhat was said in the Preface with relation to this which shall not be here repeated It is not to be denied but in the management of Controversies the heat of Dispute has carried many too far and some have studied to raise many Imaginary Controversies which subsist only upon some misunderstood terms and expressions of the contrary party And things have been on all hands aggravated in many particulars out of measure So that they have deserved well of the Church that have brought matters as near a Reconciliation as may be But after all this it were a strange imposition on this and the preceding age to persuade the World that notwithstanding all the differences of Religion and the unhappy effects that have followed upon them that they really were all the while of the same mind but were not so happy as to find it out till that excellent Prelate helpt them to it by letting them see how near the concessions of both sides are to one another so that a little conversation and dexterity iâ— putting the softest construction that may be on the contrary persuasion might bring them to be of the same mind But if in order to this the sense of both sides is so far stretched that neither party can own it for a true account of their sentiments then this must be concluded to be only the Ingenious Essay of a very witty man who would take advantage of some expressions to perswade people that they have opinions which really they have not I shall not enter into a particular disquisition of those things which have been already so fully examined but refer the Reader to the Answers that have been given to that famous Book 2. The received and authorized Offices of the Church of Rome and the Language in which they do daily make their Addresses to Heaven is that on whiâ—h the most unanswerable and the strongest part of our Plea for our Separation is founded and it is not an ingenuous way of writing to affix some forced senses to those plain expressions because they being so gross as they are all wise or learned men are ashamed to defend them and yet know not how to get them to be reformed or thrown out Therefore it is that they set their Wits on work to put some better construction on them But this is a clear violence to the plain sense of those Offices extorted by the evidence and force of Truth and gives us this advantage that it is plain those that so qualifie them are convinced that their Church is in the wrong and yet for other ends or perhaps from a mistaken notion of Unity and Peace they think fit to continue in it 3. It is to be hoped that those who have cited this passage out of S. Hilary will consider those other passages cited out of him against Persecution though a great Errour made in the Translation of this citation makes me fear that they who rendred it had read him very cursorily The Eleventh Method IS drawn from those General Arguments which Divines call the Motives of Credibility It is that made use of by Tertullian in his Book of Prescriptions and by S. Austin who reckons up the Motives that held him in the Catholick Church Remarks 1. AS for the Case of Tertullian and S. Austin a great deal was said formerly to shew the difference between the Age they lived in and the grounds they went on and the present state of the Western Church 2. When it is considered that a course of many Ages which by the Confession of all were times of Ignorance and Superstition has made a great change in the World that the gross Scandals and wonderful Ignorance of those that have governed the See of Rome that the Dissolution of all the Rules of Ecclesiastical Order and Discipline both among Clergy and Laity that the Interest the Priests particularly the Popes and the begging Orders that depended on them had to promote those was so great and undisputâ—d that it is notorious all the worst methods of forgeries both of Writings to authorize them and of Miracles and Legends to support them were made use of When I say all these things are so plain to every one that has lookt a little into the History of former ages it is no wonder if the Church of Rome is so much changed from what it was formerly That the motives made use of by Tertullian and S. Austin do not at all belong to the present state of the Churches of that Communion But on the contrary instead of motives to perswade one to continue in it there appear upon a general view a great many just and well-grounded prejudices to dispose a
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
of him that had so left it by his Will Certainly if that Commemoration was believed to be of any advantage to the Dead this had been an unreasonable piece of Cruelty in him to deny a Presbyter that comfort for so small a fault And therefore we may well infer from hence that by this Remembrance and the Thanksgivings they offered to God for such as had died in the Faith they intended only so far to celebrate their Memories as to encourage others to imitate those Patterns they had set them 6. I shall not engage in any Dispute concerning the Canonicalness of the Books of the Maccabees only as this general prejudice lies against all the Books called Apocryphal that the Council at Laodicea which was the first that reckoned up the Câ—non of the Scripture does not name them So as to the Book of the Maccabees it is hard to imagine that one who professes that he was but an Abridger of Iason's Five Books and gives us a large account of the difference between a Copious History and an Abridgement could be an Inspired Writer The Sixteenth Method TO Conclude one may solidly confute our Innovators by the Contradiction that is in their Articles of Faith shewing â—hem the Changes that they have made in the Ausburg Confession as also in all the different Expositions of their Faith which they have received and authorized since that time which shews that their Faith being uncertain and wavering cannot have the Character of Divine Revelation which is certain and constant There is nothing but the Faith that admits of no Reformation Tertullian made use of this Argument in many of his Books and Hilary handles it excellently well against the Emperour Constantius upon the occasion of the new Symbols which the Arians published every day changing their Faith continually while the Catholick Church continued firm to that of Nice One may likewise use another Method which is to make it appear that there is a Conformity between the Roman and Greek Churches in the chief Articles of Faith that are in dispute between us and the P. Reformed and that in these the Roman Church does likewise agree with those Sociâ—ties which separated themselves from the Church for Errours which the P. Reformed condemn with her such as the Nestorians and Eutychians To these Methods it will be necessary to add particular Conferences solid Writings Sermons and Missions and to use all these means with a Spirit of Charity without bitterness and above all without injuries Remembring that excellent saying of S. Austin's I do not endeavour to reproach those against whom I dispute that I may seem to have the better of them but that I may become sounder by convincing them of their Errour And following the Canon of the Council of Africk that appointed that though the Donatists were cut off from the Church of God by their Schism yet they should be gently dealt with that so correcting them with meekness as the Apostle says God may give them the grace of Repentance to know the truth and to retire themselves out of the snare of the Devil in which they are taken Captives Remarks 1. IF we did pretend that the first Reformers or those who drew the Ausburg confession were inspired of God in compiling what they writ there were some force in this Discourse But since we build upon this principle that the Scripture is the only ground on which we found our Faith then if any person how much soever we may honour his memory on all other accounts has misunderstood that we do not depart from our principle when we forsake him and follow that which appears to be plainly delivered in the Scriptures 2. We freely acknowledge that the Faith admits of no Reformation and that we can make neither more nor less of it than we find in the Scriptures but if any Church has brought in many Errours we do not think it a Reforming the Faith to throw these out The Faith is still the same that it was when the Apostles first delivered it to the Church nor was it the Faith but the Church that was pretended to be Reformed And if after a long night of Darkness and Corruption those that began to see better did not at first discover every thing or if some of the prejudices of their Education and their former opinions did still hang about them so that others who came after them saw further and more clearly This only proves that they were subject to the Infirmities of the Humane Nature and that they were not immediately inspired of God which was never pretended 3. Great difference is to be made between Articles of Faith and Theological Truths The former consists of those things that are the Ingredients of our Bâ—ptismal Vows and are indeed parts of the New Covenant which may be reduced to the Creed and the Ten Commandments The other are opinions relating to these which though they are founded on Scripture yet have not that Influence either on our Hearts or Lives that they make us either much better or much worse Among these we reckon the Explanation of the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament and the Influence of the Divine Grace upon our Wills If some of the Confessions of Faith among the Protestants differ much in these matters that is not concerning Articles of Faith but Theological Truths In which great allowances are to be made for difference of opinion And as particular Churches ought not to proceed too hastily to decisions in matters that are justly disputable so the rigorous imposing of those severe definitions on the Consciences of others by Oaths and Subscriptions and more particularly all rigour in the prosecution of those that differ in opinion is both disagreeing to the mildness of the Christian Religion and to the Character of Church-men and in particular to the principles upon which the Reformation was founded 4. As for the Greek Churches together with the other Societies in the East we do not deny that many of those corruptions for which we condemn the Church of Rome are among them which only proves that the beginning of these is elder than the Ninth or Tenth Century In which those Churches began to divide such is the worshipping of Images the praying to Saints and some other abuses 5. To this it must be added that for diverse Ages the oppression under which those Churches have fallen and the great Ignorance that has overspread them have beâ—n such that no wonder if those Greeks that have been bred up in the States of the Roman Communion and so were leavened with their opinions have found it no hard task to impose upon their weak and corrupt Countrey-men whatsoever opinions they had in charge to infuse into them So that we may rather wonder to find that all those abuses for which we complain of the Church of Rome are not among them than that some have got footing there 6. But after all this the main things upon
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
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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Assize Sermon at Leicester Iuly 31. 1679. Dr. Parker's Demonstration of the Divine Authority of the Law of Nature and the Christian Religion Mr. William's Sermon before the Lord Mayor 1679. History of the Powder Treason with a vindication of the proceedings relating thereunto from the Exceptions made against it by the Catholick Apologist and others and a Parallel betwixt that and the