Terrors from the Anathema's of the Bold and Uncharitable by being call'd to by several at the same time with great and restless Importunity saying This is the Way the right Hand is the Way the left Hand is the Way I say if such a Man by such Disturbance by repeated dinns of Clamour and by such other Mechanick Influences has the Frame of his Head so open'd as to let in a Scruple which cannot be remov'd or an Error which cannot be resisted let not Man judg such a one his Case must be reserv'd to God. This is the safety of Men and the true Bottom on which they may be easy in all Times of Controversy and in all Places and Circumstances viz. That they doing their present best with a good Heart both for Judgment and Manners and repenting sincerely of the Omission or Abuse of former Means God will accept of them according to what they have and not according to what they have not And this anticipates Mr. Pulton's Object 4. That Men of his Communion using all possible means for Truth are not therefore to be punished with Draconic or Sanguinary Laws because when all is done they are to be left to their Conscience For this is yielded to Men of all Communions upon supposition that the Government is satisfy'd 't is not Humour Interest or Faction but final Conscience and not present Perswasion which needs only consideration for the altering of it and may be put upon consideration by Discipline Provided also that Publick Peace be secured which Peace if Men disturb out of final or present Conscience as Saul did that of the Assemblies of Christians a careful Governour uses Civil Power against them for Example to looser Men and to them by way of Restraint rather than Punishment And in such Cases their Confinement is a Bethlem Object 5. The Primitive Christians made a True Church To a True Church the Rule of a Church is Essential This Church subsisted many Years without a compiled Canon for several Years past without any written Gospels or Epistles either divulg'd or compil'd into a Canon Wherefore the written Word of God can't be the only true Rule of Faith. Answer Part of this Objection is false History and part of it is fallacious Reasoning Part of this Argument is false History For First The first Christians were not without the Old Testament which is the same Rule with the New though the New is clearer And that Rule was illuminated by the very coming of Christ. Secondly St. Matthew's Gospel was written and divulged and accepted within very few Years after Christ's Ascension and so was St. Paul's first Epistle to the Thessalonians and the whole of the New Testament was written during part of the Life of a Man for St. Iohn a Disciple of Christ was the last Writer Part of this Argument is fallacious Reasoning For first The New Testament was a Rule to the Christians before it was compiled into a Canon for by compil'd he means compil'd into a Codex or Volume of Canons by a Council for Canons Laws and Statutes are Rules before they are collected into a Body and we see the Sacred Scripture cited as the Rule by St. Ignatius Clement Irenaeus Tertullian and other Ancient Christians before any Council met to compile them And the Jews had the Law for their Rule before Esdras as they say put the Holy Writers together 2. Writing or not writing does not alter the Christian Rule which is the same spoken or written But a Rule which may be preserved without writing for a few Years and whilst the Apostles were alive and to be consulted and Evangelists commission'd by them who wrought amongst them real Miracles whilst they taught the Christian Doctrine and expounded the Old Testament and after the manner of Christ opened the Understanding of the People that they might understand the mystical Sense of the Old Covenant was not likely to be preserved so entirely and so usefully without writing to the end of the World Nor was the Law trusted without writing When therefore we say that the Scriptures are our Rule what else do we mean but that the Doctrine of the Messiah first taught by him and afterwards written down by Evangelists and Apostles for the sake of Posterity to whom nothing could have been accurately transmitted for so long a time from Mouth to Mouth that this Doctrine first preached and then written is the Rule of his Disciples It is a Fallacy then to say that a Rule once not written and afterwards written is not the same because one is not written and the other is And it is so weak a one that no Man of Judgment will be insnar'd by it For he knows in his own little Affairs that an Account made first by word of Mouth and afterward written down for the avoiding of Mistakes and for the Preservation of that which frail Memory would lose is but the same Account So our Rule which was first dictated and then written is but one Rule When our Saviour said it and St. Paul repeated it and St. Luke wrote it down that it was more blessed to give than to receive the Rule was not altered but preserved And our Saviour said many other things which because they were not written down are not known Object 6. Neither the universal Church nor any part of it deliver'd the Protestants the Bible as they have it The other Books being brought under examination in the Year 397. were found to be of equal Authority with those which were formerly received So that the Protestants not receiving the Books they call Apochryphal want ten parts of the Rule For the making good of this Reasoning he mentions the Authorities of the Councils of Carthage Constantinople and Florence and of the Fathers S. Austin Pope Innocent the first Pope Gelasius and Pope Eugenius Answer His Reasoning shall be first consider'd and then his Authorities 1. His Reasoning is not right upon two Accounts First The Rule of the Scripture is not like a Mechanick Rule of which just so much serves for measuring For the Scripture is both a sufficient and an abundant Rule And strictly speaking our Rule of Faith is rather in the Scripture than the entire Volume For the necessary Doctrines are few and they are often repeated and the same things are said more than once by Moses by the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles There is good use to be made of all the Books extant but if some of them had been wanting the Rule of Faith might still have been contained in the rest If therefore we lay aside some Books he calls Canonical it does not thence follow that the Rule of Faith is shortned because the Code of the Canon is less All things in Scripture are useful but all things are not Doctrines absolutely necessary to Salvation Secondly Whilst he argues for a Rule larger than the Primitive Church received and adheres to a later Canon he argues against Tradition For he
takes up that which is later and prefers it before that which was earlier in the Church Whereas Tradition descends but does not ascend Now Learned Men of his own Communion allow that the ancient Church did not receive his Additional Canon any more than the Reformed will allow his Additional Creed When both are reduc'd to the ancient Standard the Church of God will enjoy a greater measure both of Truth and Peace I will lay before the Iesuit the Judgment of a Sorbonist who has read as many Ecclesiastical Books and made as great Collections as he pretends to and to better purpose than has yet been manifested by him I mean Mr. Ellies du Pin Who says of Tobit Iudith Wisdom Ecclesiasticus the second Book of Maccabees the History of Susanna and Bell that they are Books left out of the Canon by the Jews and by many ancient Christians and since that received by the Church He says this but in other places he for Church-Reasons is not so constant to himself I might therefore have rather mention'd the great Cardinal Ximenes whose Polyglot Bible was dedicated to Pope Leo the Tenth the Pope in whose time Luther liv'd and in express words by that Pope approv'd That Cardinall in his Preface does thus instruct his Readers That the Pentateuch is set forth in a threefold Tongue Hebrew Chaldee Greek with Latin Interpretations of each That the Hagiographa and Prophetical Books are in a twofold Tongue Hebrew and Greek with Latin Versions But as he goes on the Books out of the Canon which the Church receives rather for the Edification of the People than for confirming the Authority of Ecclesiastical Doctrines are only in Greek but with a twofold Latin Translation the one St. Hierom's the other the Interlinary reading word for word This may satisfy Mr. P. if he be a reasonable Man that he was not infallible when he denied there was any Canon like ours at Luther's appearing Mr. P. will perhaps say for something some Men will say when they cannot say that which amounts to an Answer that he has produc'd greater Authorities and that du Pin and the Cardinal are not his Popes I come therefore 2 dly To the Examination of his Authorities after having suggested this general Answer to those or any others which he shall be able to bring forth out of his Magazine of voluminous Collections That is to say that the Apochryphal Books being valuable some Churches received them as a Secondary Canon so his own Sixtus Senensis called them and yet not as a Canon of Faith but Manners And the Fancies of Men after some Apocryphal Books were read in Churches being apt to affect the introducing of more it was thought Prudence to limit that Secondary Canon lest Books should be multiplied to the hinderance of the Scripture and the prejudice of Truth Our Church instructs the People in the Reason of the Reception of the Apocryphal Books and the distinction of them from the Primary Canon out of S. Hierom. Article 6. Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation So that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation In the name of the holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament of whose Authority was never any doubt in the Church Of the Names and Numbers of the Canonical Books Genesis Exodus c. And the other Books as Hierom saith the Church doth read for Example of Life and Instruction of Manners but yet doth not apply them to establish any Doctrine Such are these following the three Books of Esdras c. Mr. P's great and leading Authority is the third Council of Carthage in which if you give credit to a Man that witnesses for himself that he has read all Ecclesiastical History the Books we call Apocryphal were found to be of equal Authority with the rest and consequently received into the Canon Here I intreat the Reader to make with me these Observations First Mr. P. notes on his Margin concerning the Council of Laodicea that it was only a National Council of no general Obligation but he points not at his Council of Carthage which was later and but a Provincial Council with any such marginal Finger Secondly Whereas he says that the Council of Carthage was confirm'd in the sixth Council of Constantinople in the Year 680. he forbears to add that there was no Enumeration of Books in that Council and that the National Council of Laodicea was there confirmed as well as the Provincial Council of Carthage And he observes not that the Council of Laodicea was confirm'd by the great Council of Chalcedon not so the Council of Carthage This sure was done to show his Impartiality Thirdly He observes not that the Council of Laodicea was taken into the Code of the Universal Church but not the Council of Carthage The first Collection of that Code ends with the second General Council the first of Constantinople It is true that Council ended about 16 Years before the Synod of Carthage but the Collection was not made so soon tho before the Year 431. Nor is the Council of Carthage added to that Code in the Collection made afterwards It is true it is in the African Addition in Dionysus Exiguus but in the more ancient one it is not to be found Fourthly He omits the Note in the Collection of his dear Friends Labbâ— and Cossart put under this 37 th Canon of Carthage about the Scriptures A certain Ancient Code has it thus Touching the confirming that Canon Let the Transmarine Churches be consulted There was no full Satisfaction among them in these Additional Books and for satisfaction they did not refer meerly to the Roman Church 5ly This Canon could not be a Canon of the third Council of Carthage held as Mr. P. says in the year 397. for Relation is had in it to Boniface who began his Pontificate about the year 419. 6ly It is not true that this Council found these Books to be of equal Authority with the rest 1. Learned and impartial Romans do not say what Mr. P. does and the Presumption of the Fathers of Trent in setting them upon the same Level is very heinous as well as very new Cardinal Cajetan was much of another mind but neither is he Mr. Pulton's Pope 2. The former Books of the Old Testament for about that Canon is the Contest were own'd by Christ himself and St. Paul But these were not could not be so And the Canon of the Israelites in Iosephus is ours 3. The Council of Carthage call'd these Books Canonical upon no other account than as Books allow'd to be read in Churches This is clear'd by the latter part of that supposed Canon for there the Fathers would have it known to
Boniface and other Bishops in order to the confirming of this Canon that they had received these Books to be read in the Church and then they give leave also that the Passions of Martyrs may be there read too upon their Anniversaries 2 ly It is true that St. Austin his next best Authority was a Consenter in general to the Council of Carthage and by that which he teaches about the Additional Books we shall understand them not to have been esteemed of equal Authority with the former Canon so that Mr. P. by producing St. Austin has brought us a Key to the Council of Carthage for the shutting out of himself Let us hear St. Austin in the very place cited by Mr. P. and afterwards in other places in which his mind is not ambiguously delivered The place cited by Mr. P. is in St. Austin's Book De Doctrina Christiana in which Book that Father asserts a Mystical sense in the Sixth Chapter of St. Iohn and in the very next Chapter to that cited by Mr. P. the Sufficiency and Perspicuity of the Scriptures If his Authority be valid for the Canon Why is it not for these latter Points But how very wide is Mr. P. of St. Austin's sense in this very place about the Canonical Books St. Austin affirms they are not all of equal Authority and Mr. P. affirms they are St. Austin before the Enumeration of them lays down these Rules of Caution A man must hold this measure in the Canonical Books he is to prefer those Scriptures which are received of all Catholick Churches where note he speaks of more Catholick Churches than one that is by Catholick he means Apostolick and Orthodox before those which some do not receive and in those which are not received of all let him prefer those which the greater number and the more considerable Churches receive before those which the Churches which are fewer and of lesser Authority receive But if he shall find some to be received by the greater number of Churches and others by the more considerable tho' this will scarce be found yet my opinion is that such are to be esteem'd of equal Authority There are many other places in S. Austin which make his mind very plain to those who are not so blind that they will not see Two places may at present suffice The first is In his Book of the City of God There he speaks of other Books which are not Canonical and amongst them reckons those of the Macchabees which were not in the Canon of the Israelites received as canonical by the Church by reason of the Suffering certain Martyrs by which passage it appears that the Church read them not as a primary Canon of Faith but a secondary Canon of Manners The next place is in his second Book against the Epistle of Gaudentius in which he asserteth that the Writings of the Macchabees were not received by the Iews as they received the Law the Prophets the Psalms for which our Lord bears Testimony as his Witnesses but that it is received by the Church and not unprofitably if it be soberly read or heard especially by reason of the Macchabean Martyrs As to the rest of his Authorities they are a further Testimony of the choice he made in his great Collection For his Epistle of Innnocent it was shuffled at last into the Roman Code which was very long without it Nor was the Decree of Gelasius known to the World till some Hundreds of years after his death and then it came forth out of the Dark Ware-house of Isidore Mercator Nor does it speak of the Order of the Canonical Books but of the Books of the Old Testament and it makes mention but of one Book of the Macchabees Further to what purpose is it after so great a gap in time as is betwixt these Authorities to mention the Council of Florence not held till the Year 1438. in which there was no Decree at all about the Apocryphal Books tho' he asserts the contrary from the no Authority of those who deceived the modern Epitomizer Caranza What Pope Eugenius might do is in this Cause insignificant As to that whole Council the Greeks at their return and when they were at Liberty undid that which out of fear and hope of Succour they seem'd to agree to whilst they were in the Territories of the Papacy 2. Touching his particular Points seeing he only mentions them and asks Questions about them without further Discourse upon them I will return him here a very brief answer reserving the further consideration of them for the forementioned Tract First For the Lords-day seeing a time is to be set apart for the Worship of God and that the Israelites by God's appointment kept one Day in Seven Sacred and that tho' the Law written in Tables of Stone so far as it was Typical and Mosaic was done away and that Christ came to perfect and not destroy the Law and that Christ rose on that day and that on that day at Pentecost his Church properly began and that this day was generally observed by Christians not meerly by Romans there is so strong a Scriptural Reason for the observation of it that no Church-Authority can omit or alter it without doing that which is irrational and unbecoming a Christian Society And if the Roman should make this Attempt it ought not to be obey'd 2. Concerning the Feast of Easter and the time of its observation I do not know who they are among Christians who make it one of the Necessaries to Salvation There is reason for making a solemn Memorial of Christ's Resurrection but that the Apostles setled the time is contrary to the express words in the Epistle not of Philippus as the Editor mistakes but Theophilus in the Council of Caesarea Which Epistle tho it is not so very ancient yet it is set out as such by the Jesuit Bucherius 3. Concerning Baptism Mr. P's third Point he says 't is necessary to Salvation If he had said generally necessary our Catechism had thus far agreed with him And St. Austin fetches his proofs for Infant-Baptism out of the Scripture against the Pelagians as our Church-Office does And they who consider that Infants are capable of ent'ring into Covenant with God and that Christ hath mentioned no other Gate of admittance into his Church but Baptism will fear the omission of Baptizing Infants And he who has regard to the Analogy of both Covenants will as readily construe our Saviour as requiring the Baptizing of Infants in that command Go and bring into the Christian School All Nations as a Iew would have construed Moses as requiring the Circumcising of Infants if he had said Go and Circumcise all Nations 4. For the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity the Arians opposed it by Tradition and the Fathers prov'd it by Scripture And the place in St. Iohn's Epistle There are three that bear Record in Heaven was by the Arians believed to be of such
this without any notice given me or any acknowledgment in either of his Books he besides many other Variations not so material makes in Print this alteration from the MS. he sent me He recounted I know not what Story of some Priest at Rome who pronouncing the words of Consecration was heard to say Bread thou art and Bread thou shalt be Wine thou art c. To what end do you imagine is this Alteration made without giving any notice Is it not that Readers observing first the Words I cite as his and then perusing his Account and finding in it that I tax him with failure in Memory or in Conscience may be induc'd to think I falsifie Some who came to me pleas'd to use the freedom for which I thank them and to ask how this could come about I show'd them the Account in MS. which Mr. Pulton sent me and compar'd it with the Account which he had Printed and they were satisfied about the truth and fullness of his Narrative He had better have left a void space in his Story than have fill'd it with things which should not have been put in But he must not arrogate to himself this Artifice It is an old Invention and I am going about to give a Remarkable Instance of it in the case of the Reverend the Learned and that for which I most esteem him the Pious Dr. Hammond He had cited a Passage out of Mr. White the Leaf was cut out and another pasted in and then the Dr. was charg'd by his Adversary W. S. with falsifying a Quotation I will give you this in Dr. Hammond's own Words both that it may not rest upon my slender Authority and that People may see it without the trouble of buying a great Book not in every hand Dr. Hammond's own Relation entitled A Brief Account of one Suggestion of the Romanist 1 IT is the Statesman's Maxim concerning a false Suggestion That if it be believed but Four and Twenty Hours the Value of it is inestimable which tho it must be allow'd to receive a grand Abatement when it is apply'd to inferiour and less considerable Transactions yet the Interests of Religion in the maintenance of Truth are not so dispisable as that he that hath appear'd or embarked in them can safely neglect the advantages which evil Arts may yield or furnish an Adversary against him 2. Such in Reason and in Experience beyond all others is the Charge of falsifying which if it be but suggested and believed of any and much more if a pregnant and visible Proof of it be tender'd there needs no other Blast or Smut or Vermine to lay waste the whole Field and deprive him of all Harvest of his Seed and Labours 3. How this is my Concernment at this time the Reader will not suddenly divine till I have entertain'd him with a short Relation of that which I had rather my self proclaim on the House-top than leave others to whisper it in Corners 4. I was lately advertised by a Judicious and Reverend Friend that it was particularly urged against me by a Romanist That I had mistaken or perverted Mr. White 's Words which I refer to in The Dispatcher Dispatch't Chap. 3. Sect. 4. p. 279. where I suppose him to answer in his Apology for Tradition p. 56. That the Beatifical Vision of the Saints before the Day of Judgment was not yet held a matter of Faith but only a Theological Conclusion when said he the Apology in that very place had expresly said That this Point is a matter of Faith grounded on Tradition and not a Theological Conclusion 5. That I should be guilty of but of such an Oscitancy or Mistake much more of such a vile perversion as this I may be allow'd to have been as unwilling my self to believe as I am oblig'd to take care that others should not causlesly apprehend it of me Therefore without delay I turn'd first to mine own Words which as I then could not doubt so now I acknowledge to be faithfully related then to Mr. White 's Words in the Page of his Apology whence I had cited them and those I found exactly and to a Letter concordant to my Transcript of them in the Dispatcher Dispatch't 6. For thus I still read if I will not at Noon-day suspect mine own Eyes in that Apologist p. 56. l. 12. For nothing is more clear than that the Validity of Baptism by Hereticks was a Tradition and decided by it So the Beatifical Vision of the Saints before the Day of Iudgment the Spirituality of Angels are not yet held matters of Faith but only Theological Conclusions as likewise the Souls being concreated to the perfecting of the Body What can be more manifest than that in this Period the Beatifical Vision of Saints before the Day of Iudgment is by that Apologist set down as one of the two things to which after a third is subjoin'd of which it is affirm'd in the Plural that they are not yet held matters of Faith but only Theological Conclusions Which was all to a Syllable that I cited from him in that place with this only change that speaking only of one of these the Beatifical Vision c. I set it as it was necessary in the Singular is not yet held a matter of Faith but only a Theological Conclusion 7. That I might be sure not to have mistaken my Author I carefully consulted the Errata but there was none noted relating to that Page And indeed the whole Composure of the Period was such that there must be a concurrence of very many changes in the compass of very few lines more I believe than the most negligent Compositor and Corrector have at any time conspir'd to be guilty of to wrest this Testimony from me or change it into what this Romanist had affirmed it to be 8. Having dispatch'd this account to my Friend from whom I received the former Advertisement I had no cause of doubt but that this affair had received its full Period the Romanist being obliged to yeild to such full uncontrollable Evidence and every man's Eyes to whom the contrary Suggestion could be offered being as well qualify'd as mine to secure him from being misled by it And on these grounds of safety I had no least thought of troubling the Reader with any Account or Complaint which I now see is become some part of my Interest and my Duty 9. For I was soon assured by my Friend that the Words which I had punctually transcribed from my Copy of the Apology were not to be found in that which he had before him but quite transformed into the contrary sense even that for which the Romanist had vouch'd them For thus he found them for nothing is more clear than that the Validity of Baptism by Hereticks was a Tradition and decided by it So the Beatifical Vision of the Saints before the Day of Iudgment The Spirituality of Angels is not yet held a matter of Faith but
which Tales even Fables not cunningly devised were Printed and Re-printed in the Vulgar Tongue in which the true Scriptures were not to be had and call'd by the Name of Flowers out of the Bible If One Example be produc'd it will be enough for a Reader who has not abated of his due Veneration for the most Sacred Word of God Fu un di che Joseph dovea far una letera a un Valente huomo st guardo el legname perche volea far quella letera trovo curto uno cavo piu che l'altro fu molto turbato per che non haveva el legname ala misura Iesu veniva di fora da solazo conli fanciulli e entro in casa e trovo Joseph cruciato perche elli non havea trovato el legname sufficiente Iesu disse a Joseph non havere malinconia dicendo che lui pigliasse da un capo e luy pigliare be da l'altro tanto tirono che el legname fu longo come bisognava vedendo Joseph che el legname stava bene benedisse el nome de Dio in quello tempo fini Iesu 7 anni It was upon a Day that Ioseph was to make a Bedstead for a Worthy Man and so looking upon the Wood of which he designed to make the Bedstead he found one side shorter than the other and was much troubled because he had not Wood according to the measure And Jesus came from abroad from his Play with the Boys and enter'd into the House and found Ioseph very much troubled because he had not found the Wood sufficient And Jesus bad Ioseph not to be melancholick saying That he should take hold on one end and himself would take hold on the other and they pull'd so much that the Wood was as long as was needful And Ioseph seeing that the Wood was fit blessed the Name of God. And at this time Jesus had finished the 7 th Year of his Age. This is one of my Reasons for him his being an Instrument of bringing better Scripture into the Peoples Hands Let some of Mr. Pulton's Reasons be laid in the Ballance against this One that we may see how heavy they are Object 1. My Soul saith Luther hates Homousion and the Arians did very well in expelling it left so prophane and new a word should be us'd in the Articles of Faith Answer If he lik'd not the Word as he says St. Hierom himself did not he approv'd of the Article as all Lutherans do and it is the first we meet with in the Confession of Wirtemburg d But what if Mr. P. has not cited Luther faithfully Why then his Hand is still in at False Quotations For his Words are not My Soul-hates c. but Quod si odit anima mea vocem Homouslon nolò eâ uti non ero Haereticus but if or upon supposltion that my Soul hates the Word Homousion and I refuse to use it I shall not or will not be a Heretick This false Quotation was used by Bellarmine himself whom many have in such admiration that without examining they transcribe his very Faults and make that to be absolutely which was conditionally spoken Luther was not pleas'd with this Word neither did he with St. Hierom like the Word Hypostasis but the Doctrine he taught And Chemnitius and Gerard inform us that he was not pleas'd with the Word Trinity because in the German Tongue it seemed to import rather Triplicity than Trinity Object 2. Ecclesiastes says Luther has never a perfect Sentence the Author had neither Boots nor Spurs but rid on a long Stick or in begging Shoes as he did when he was a Fryer Answer This is cited not from Luther's true Works but from a Book called Luther's Table-talk which if he were alive he would not own and which is of no Authority with any judicious Man. Let such a Man look into the Commentary of Luther upon Ecclesiastes There he will find him highly commending that wise Book and explaining its notion of the contempt of the World against those who as he says mistake Sordidness for Religion Object 3. As it is not in my Power saith Luther that I should be no Man so it is not in my Power that I should be without a Woman Answer This with other such sayings is but less decent expressing of that which St. Paul deliver'd in more tender Language in that very wise Casuistical Sentence It is better to marry than to burn Luther possibly had not spoken of the necessity of Marriage in such plain terms if he had not been opposed by those who urg'd Monastick Vows and held the Marriage of the Clergy to be dishonourable and unlawful The Spirit of Luther might be moved upon observation of unchast Celibacy There has been too much of that out of the World as well as in it Otherwise what need would there have been for instance sake of the Constitution of Cardinal Gallon forbidding so much as MOTHERS to have Domestick Conversation with Priests and adding as a reason that tho so foul a Crime is against Nature yet notwithstanding frequently through the suggestion of the Devil that Wickedness is known to have been even with SUCH committed It seems the Devil and Luther have not been the only Familiars Object 4. Luther calls Henry the VIII more furious than Madness it self more foolish than Folly it self c. most wicked and impudent Harry and again thou liest in thy Throat foolish and sacrilegious King. Answ. This is one of the Grains to be allow'd to Luther However it is capable of a Retort against them tho not of a defence in the nature of the thing it self They call Hen. VIII sacrilegious but Luther must not Lucifer Calaritanus calls Constantius most impudent Emperour It is noted in Commendation of St. Athanasius by a deposing-Author that he often in one Epistle stiles Constantius the Praecursour of Antichrist If such ill Language was a Crime in Luther it was certainly so in them they being those Emperours Subjects The Romanists and Latiniz'd Greeks revile Constantine and miscall him Copronymus he being an Enemy to the Worship of Images But in Luther all ill Names are unsufferable They reprove not the Jesuit BELLARMIN for reviling King IAMES THE FIRST and asserting that he could not upon any account be excused from HERESY But if Luther touches a Prince with an undutiful Tongue he is straightway of as black a Mouth as Satan his Familiar GRETZER the Iesuit the same Gretzer whose Grammar Mr. Pulton uses is not reproved yet he begins his Book with these Contents of his first Chapter That the Faith which King James professeth and defendeth IS NOT TRVLY CHRISTIAN But if Luther utters any frothy words they are all poysonous and he is run mad and wo to every Man that stands in his way I. S. has a Letter framed for him
howsoever they sounded when they were heard from his Pulpit are now that they come to be seen and felt no such formidable things 1. If I had wholly refus'd to return an Answer to his Question about the Bible I had not departed from Reason When two Iews dispute they do not contend about the Truth of the Writings of Moses When two Mahometans dispute neither of them do call in question the Alcoran And when two Christians Dispute he that questions the Bible does unnecessarily contend about that which he allows 2. If I had persisted in the Suggestion concerning such Discourses as tending to Atheism or rather Unbelief No Man who is tender of the moments of Religion would have blam'd me considering some of the Company that was about us By such Questions such Converts are made as Father Simon has made by his Critical History of the Old Testament S. Paul's Rule is little observed by the Controvertists of this World Him that is weak in the Faith receive but not to doubtful Disputations 3. If I had answer'd his Questions with Questions the way had been justifiable before all equal Judges I mean among others such Questions as these about the Copy to which the Romanists are tied in all Disputes by the Council of Trent Why do you make a Translation your Rule and not the Original Why do you not follow the ancient Italic Translation us'd in the Latin Church Why is St. Hierom for one Translation and your Popes for another What Latin Translation was the Church tied to in St. Austin's time when there were numberless Translations and why did the Church suffer them if one was their Rule Why did the Popes Sixtus Quintus and Clement the 8th differ from one another in many places besides those which might be Errors of the Press Why did not St. Gregory the Great go by this Rule Why did Cardinal Zimenes Pagnin and Mariana correct it Why did Cardinal Cajetan help himself in the Translation by a Jew Why do's the very Learned French Bishop Huetius here and there touch it over again Why do's Father Simon himself who differs so much from it tell us that it serves as a Rule And if it be what Rule is it to the People who understand no Latin And what Translation of it have they by their Church into the Vulgar Tongue Last of all to refresh his Memory about Pope Innocent the Third Why did not HE go by the Rule of the Vulgar if in his Time it was a Rule He varies from it often and particularly in the Text of the Penetential Psalms where he thus pleasantly begins his Elucidation This Psalm according to the Translation which the Roman Church holds contains nine Verses by which the Penitent gradually ascends to the nine Orders of Angels because there is greater joy among the Angels of God over one Sinner that repenteth than over 99 just Persons who need not Repentance although the number of ten Verses which according to another Translation it is known to have agrees well to reason because Man who fell by Sin rises by Repentance that by him the Tenth Order may be restored Deservedly also this Psalm has Three Ternaries because Repentance ought to have Three Parts Confession by the Mouth Contrition in the Heart and Satisfaction by the Work. Now here 's your Pope for observing a Rule and giving an infallible Interpretation 4. The Universal Testimony which I mentioned as separate from Authority and proving the Books of Scripture to be such Writings as they are taken to be depends upon a firm Principle which Mr. Pulton has not shaken to wit that so many Persons of such different Places and Conditions and Interests and Perswasions could not possibly be Confederates in a false Testimony in this Matter no not so easily as in the Testimonies given for the Offices of Cicero the History of Livy and the Existence of the Cities of Ierusalem or Rome The sense of this was thrice repeated in the Conference and now the Answer is a Denial that ever it was said Father Nicole would have yielded what Father Pulton would not for thus he speaks both his own and Monsieur Iurieu's sense When the consent of the Universal Church is general in its several Ages as well as in its several Communions this unanimous consent makes a Demonstration But perhaps Monsieur Nicole is not Father Pulton's Pope 5. But why has he chang'd his Rule of a General Council for a living Judg And for what Reason do's he call the Bible MY RULE of Faith It is the Rule of all the Reformed It was the Rule of the Ancient Church It was St. Austin's Rule and he thus owned it to be so In those things which are plainly contained in the Scriptures all those things are found which contain Faith and Manners of living For the Creed or sum of things to be believed S. Irenaeus called it the Rule of Truth and Tertullian the Rule of Faith. The Scripture is the Rule which God hath given his Church Whom then makes He himself when he goes about to confute it and whom does he make me when to ME he ascribes the Rule 'T is wonderful surprizing that Mr. P. tho he venerates Creatures should make ME whom he reviles the Object of his Worship But so at the same time they worship'd Mercury and threw Stones at him 6. Against this Rule he has taken exception and it will soon appear whether they are or are not causeless I will first examine his more General Reasonings and Authorities and then descend to his more special Points about the Sabbath Easter Infant-Baptism and the Holy Trinity His more General Reasonings are Six OBIECT 1. Hereticks have from Christ's time appeal'd to the written Word of God which therefore cannot be the Rule of one true Church that is essentially different from an Heretical one Answer 1. This is not true in History for Irenaeus and Tertullian mention Hereticks who refus'd the Scriptures and were as the latter calls them Fleers from the Light. 2. This Argument proves nothing because it proves too much for it is an Argument against all Rules Hereticks have appeal'd to REASON therefore Reason is no Rule Hereticks have appeal'd to the dictate of the Spirit of God therefore that is not a true Spirit Hereticks have pleaded Tradition therefore Tradition is not to be pleaded Heathens have pleaded universal Consent All Asia and all the World worship'd Diana therefore universal Consent is not to be regarded Contentious Men in Civil Kingdoms plead Customs and Presidents and Maxims of Law and Statutes therefore none of these are Rules in Government Many have appeal'd to Popes in Uncanonical Causes therefore the Pope is no Judg. The later Arians pleaded the Councils of Sirmium and Rimini therefore Councils are not to be pleaded Miracles have been pretended to from the beginning by Impostors as signs of Truth therefore true Miracles are no Proofs False Appeals to a
Trent that they are not here oppugn'd unless by Hereticks desirous to retain the name of Catholicks The name Catholick is sometimes with them a mark of the Church and now Hereticks covet and use it 'T is a mark and no mark Now for the Synod of Nice he commits a mistake for I cited Hoveden for the opposition of it to the Worship of Images and not as he forgets to the Corporal presence And because he is just now in good humour and promises a fair and candid Answer when my proofs out of Beda and Hoveden are produced I will produce a place or two He will do well for varieties sake to say something that is fair and candid For Hoveden in relation to the Decree of Nice about Image-Worship his Testimony is this In the year 795. Charles King of the Franks sent that Synodical Book to Britain which had been directed to him from Constantinople in which Book alas and wail the day many inconvenient things and CONTRARY TO THE TRVE FAITH were found but the greatest grief was that it was confirmed by almost all the Oriental Doctors no less than Three hundred if not more Bishops with unanimous suffrage THAT IMAGES OVGHT TO BE WORSHIPPED WHICH THE CHVRCH OF GOD VTTERLY ACCVRSETH Against which Decree Albinus wrote a Letter wonderfully strengthened by the Authority of the Divine Scriptures and brought it together with the said Synodical Book to the King of the Francs in the name of our Bishops and Princes As to Beda in relation to the Corporal presence one place may suffice tho' in him there are many Now in his Commentary on St. Luke he teaches that Instead of the Flesh and Blood of the Paschal Lamb he did substitute the Sacrament of his own Flesh and Blood in the FIGURE of Bread and Wine And the words following show that he meant it of such Bread and Wine as Melchisedeck gave to Abraham who certainly was not presented with mere shows and Accidents From Knyghton I had asserted That even in the latter time of Wickliff there was no such Doctrine then in England as Transubstantiation publickly imposed as an Article of Faith. I cited not then the Recantation of Wickliff nor the Book in which that Author is and Mr. P. not finding it as I conjecture in his Volumes of Collections he passed it over in silence I will oblige him with it at length tho it is hard Language for a man that has been Eighteen Years out of England I knowleche that the Sacrament of the autar is verry Goddus Body in fourme of Brede but it is in another manner Goddus Body then it is in hevene For in heven it is sene fote in fourme and figure of Fleshe and Blode But in the Sacrament Goddus Body is be myracle of God in fourme of Brede and is he nouther of sene fote Ne in mannes figure but as a Man leeves for to thenk the kynde of an Image whether it be of Dke or of Ashe and settys his thoouzt in him of whome is the Image so myche more schuld a Man leve to thenk on the kynd of Brede But thenk upon Christ for his Body is the same Brede that is the Sacrament of Autere and with alle clennes alle devocion and alle charite that God would gif him worschippe he Crist and then he receyves God gostly more medefully than the Prist that syngus the Masse in lesse Charite For the Bodely etyng ne profytes nouth to Soule but in al 's mykul as the Soule is fedde with Charite This sentence is provyde be Crist that may nouzt lye For as the Gospel says Crist that Night that he was betraied of Iudas Scarioth he toke Brede in hise Handes and blesside it brak it and gaf it to hise Disciplus to ete For he says and may not lye This is my Body CHAP. VII Mr. P. Considered in his Accusations ACCUSAT I. HE cannot step over two Pages before he is gotten into his Innuendo's and his This reflects upon the King He accuseth me for want of Respect in charging the Religion of which the sworn Head of his own Church is a Principal Member which as themselves the Protestants confess flourished in this Kingdom near a Thousand Years before Protestancy was ever heard of to be such whence a moping lying and uneasie temper naturally flows All this I believe he might write himself it is original For want of respect or rather the humblest duty where it is so just a tribute I shall never fail to pay it And here in this instance the fault with which he taxeth me he himself committeth He wears the Sacred name of a King by using it upon every unnecessary occasion Whereas they who understand the profound civil veneration which Crowned Heads may challenge are at the same time frugal in the mentioning of their Names and free and abounding in their Allegiance Add to this that they less honour a Prince than they ought who create any uneasiness to his Subjects and that is an uneasiness which is not pleasing when in common conversation men are under Terror when they have a suspicion that their words shall be watcht and each innocent phrase which the Hearer likes not shall be called a Reflection upon the King. But to come to the strength of his Accusation what a false and invidious consequence is here I. S. grew worse upon Mr. Pulton's tampering with him and so it appear'd to D. H. and Mr. V. and divers others therefore the Roman Religion is such whence a Mopish lying and uneasie temper NATURALLY flows I suppose this consequence was not drawn by him by the Art of Thinking which the ingenious Iansenists have published Must that be Natural to a Religion which may be the effect of dissettlement and the fault of the method of the Tamperer There are many made worse by Empyrical practicers though the Physick it self might not Naturally do it Mr. P. talkt so much of Luther and the DEVIL and of DAMNATION out of his Church that I. S. might for some time be under an affrightment If I may say it in his own light way he ought to have forborn his stories of Goblins when he was putting his Child to rest in his Mothers bosom From his Premises then the Conclusion is not my want of duty if he draws it not with Jesuitical but Logical Art. I wish him a greater share of Loyal duty himself He will he says REFER himself to the JUDGMENT OF HIS MAJESTY which seems a familiarity bordering on irreverence His Half-sheet-Friend has written a FULL ANSWER to the SIX CONFERENCES concerning the Eucharist a Full ANSWER in the same sense that Mr. Pulton's Book is a FULL ACCOUNT And he likes me not the worse I hope because he finds in me a little of the Aequivocator For I openly call my self the PUBLISHER but in his opinion I am secretly the AUTHOR Now he THREATENS me with a smarting Discipline when the Church of
Rome shall be Triumphant He leaves this sting in the close of his Paper God be thanked our Church is too strong to waver by the blasts which flow from his mouth and will TRIUMPH when perchance the Doctor may SMART for having attempted its destruction Here 's want of respect with a witness to his Gracious Majesty's principle That Conscience cannot be forc'd Mr. P. himself is again besides his bounden Duty when he opens those wounds in his next Accusation which the Royal Clemency would heal Mr. P. consider'd in his Accusations ACCUSAT 2. HERE Mr. Pulton for my utter Affrightment has conjur'd up the Ghosts of the Duke of Monmouth and Sir Thomas Armstrong whom I assisted in their Extreams And he has charg'd me with assisting the latter of these without obliging him to an humble Confession of his Crimes and acknowledgment of the Injury done to his King and Country For tho Sir Thomas Armstrong and D. T. who had never before been in his Company were then in private within thick Walls and several Locks yet Katherine in the Cloudes was invisible there and gave Information to Mr. Pulton And note well here his Argument which cuts me on both sides If I do not reveal Confessions then it cuts me for not Revealing and injuring Government and if I do reveal Confessions then it cuts me for opening such a Seal as is not fit to be broken up For his Brother Bellarmin the Jesuit has demonstrated it in the case of his other Brother Garnett That he could not have reveal'd the Gun-powder Treason made known to him in what he calls Sacramental Confession without having made a discovery of the Traitors Therefore he chose rather to lose his Life by a cruel Punishment not crueller than that Treason than violate the very holy Secret A. P further informs the World A. P. has used a very fit word for it is as I observed before right informing that he has lately reconcil'd Two zealous Protestants one of which had been with the Doctor and sincerely desired to be satisfied in certain Queries about an uninterrupted Succession of the Protestant Religion from the Apostles About the Fallibility of of the Church of England And about the Miracles of the Roman Church To the first he says I answered only 't would cost Ten Thousand pounds worth of Books to show it A Thousand I might say but I said something besides and might have said much more having just then preached upon that very subject of visible Succession upon those words A City built upon a Hill cannot be hid What I said was open and before Hundreds of Witnesses what he reports was private and attested by one with whom I had no reason to use much freedom of Speech But does Mr. P. consider the Cost of Books out of which a man may prove minutely since Christ's time Succession of Doctrine in the Christian Churches It is true he may do it in some manner with little Cost but not amply and to the satisfaction of Cavillers without much Money and Labour For Examples sake There are MSS. relating to the Eastern Churches which a man would willingly use in this Argument And the purchase of that one Book of Dionysius Syrus in which 't is manifest that new Popery was not old Christianity in the great Article of their Corporal Presence did not come from so far a Countrey to Arch-bishop Vsher at a very easy Rate If Mr. P. would condescend to learn from Protestants and look into the Learned Work of Dr. Pearson late Bishop of Chester and Mr. Dodwell who have set that right in the Chronology of Popes which no Romon Writer could effect before them he would be convinc'd how many pounds worth of Books were necessarily to be consulted in order to the clearing of that one matter in the Succession of a very few Popes I will take leave to say further that a small Sum will not purchase all the Books necessary for the answering of this Question Whether a Woman did not set in the Papal Chair betwixt the Pontificates of Leo the IV. and Benedict III. And there are some who would not spare Cost for the retrieving of that History which was cut out of a fair MS. of Ranulph of Chester To the second how the Church of England granting her self to be fallible and for ought she knew in actual Error could be the Church built upon a Rock c. he assures me I answer'd nothing but instead of answering grew warm and call'd the party Impertinent and Impudent Now thus much is true There came a Woman to me with Queries as many have done and some of them have been sent upon no very commendable designs She was a Person I never to my knowledg saw before or since much less in a Church or at a Sacrament She own'd to the best of my remembrance that her Brother was a Priest She had the very Shibboleth of the Party Perhaps she was not formally reconcil'd for I perceive a great many are some years contracted e're the Priest joins their hands but they live all the while very lovingly together I told her of my Suspicion that some Priest or other had sent her of an Errand and at that saying she seem'd out of Countenance So little Reason had I for the incivility of saying She was Impudent But however if Katherine Lamb was there in her Magical Mantle she may I doubt not prove it upon me I do not affect the finesses of Courtship but for IMPUDENCE it is a word I do seldom use to those who deserve it But if I gave her a Reproof for coming with her Snares I did not trespass against good Manners by doing Justice It is much that I had nothing to say upon this Argument when Mr. Meredith may remember that upon the Objection as made by him I gave him this answer to which he has not yet repli'd That our Church was no more Fallible than any other in the World That God's Providence would not suffer all to fail together That we had a certain Rule and Sufficient means That we were as infallibly sure of the Necessaries of Faith as a man is of casting up a Sum right tho' by misattention 't was possible to commit a mistake And that our Church could prove it had rightly computed This was said to him at the side of the Bed in the second Room about the Close of our Talk. For the Third about Roman Miracles he thus misrepresents me in his very pleasant and Comical Humour You talk said he of Miracles in the Romish Church I 'le show in one Example what Credit they are of There was upon a time a certain Priest who got money by exposing the head of a pretended Saint to the peoples charitable Veneration Now as Providence would have it a Chirurgion on what suspicion I know not pierced this Saintly Head with his Launce and found it to be a piece of Parchment now said he tell
the 2d Commandment Scholar Explain I pray you by some Example How it may be possible for our Lords Body to be in so many Hosties as many as are found upon so very many Altars Master It is written in the Life of St. Anthony of Padua That when he was preaching in one of the Cities of Italy he was by means of the Divine Grace at the same time in Portugal and there did another good Work. Now therefore if God could bring it to pass that St. Anthony should be in his own form in two such distinct places at such distance how should it not agree to his Power to effect it that Christ should be in many Hosties under the shew of the same Hosties This is my Story from Bellarmin who forgat to prove it Now Mr. Pulton if he pleaseth may call it Impertinent But here is Catechism for Catechism and Allen for Rodriguez And here is the Cardinal in his Cloyster setling the Doctrine of Transubstantiation with St. Anthony here and St. Anthony there and St. Anthony at the same time in his own figure in both places And here is the Parish Priest settling the matter about Looseness and Relicks with the Tax of Pope Leo and the Probe of St. Germain And if his Doctorship ought not to have told the latter the former might have been let alone by the Cardinal Seeing there are such Tales and they themselves tell them why may not I when I can so pertinently do it be a Rehearser of them Is not their own Angelinus Gazoeus a Teller of Tales And does he not give his Book the Title of Pia Hilaria or Pious Merriments Have not Capgrave Alford Cressey told Tales in abundance Was not the Liber Festivalis read here in Churches in K. Hen. VII time a book of stories Ex. gr It speaks of Adam and Eve standing for Penance in the Water till they were as Green as Glass And whilst one has written the Golden Legend another has taken the freedom to write the Wooden one ACCUS 4. D. T. has like E. S. from whom he has borrowed quoted St. Cyril most DISINGENUOUSLY leaving out that Text which if cited would have left no place of doubting but that he makes for the Roman Catholick Tenet part of it is as follows That which seems Bread is not Bread although to the Taste it appears to be so but is the Body of Christ He that cavils about such a Text has doubtless great humility of soul and notable dispositions of Faith. Note That not one word was quoted out of St. Cyril in the Conference ANSWER Answer This NOTE has a little of the Aequivocator in it He did not cite in Terms at length therefore 't was not produced at the Conference EXCELLENTLY WELL as his word was to me as often as I had answered and he began to reply the plain truth is this he named St. Cyril's Catechism for the proof of his Corporal Presence I did prevent his repeating the words by saying that I knew them and that they needed no Answer from me being answered already at the end of a certain Printed Conference to which he replied that there was a Printed Answer to that Account of the Conference betwixt Mr. S. c. and that he would shew it me now that Famous Answer I could never yet hear of any more than I could hear of the Famous Paper Mr. Pulton promised to print last Monday Seven-night for the clearing the Certificate of Katherine in the Clouds Well but the Answer was borrow'd from E. S. just as a man borrows when he promises you a Citation out of St. Austin and truly cites his words But when I have occasion to borrow I should as soon borrow of the Reverend E. S. as of any man for he has a mighty Stock of good Learning and he is very Communicative I would not so soon go to Mr. P. notwithstanding he has read all Ecclesiastical History he says it himself and he is an Oracle and has Volumes of Notes relating to it But where is my Disingenuity in leaving out words which were not in the place I promised to repeat And what need was there of adding those words The sense of them was enough shew'd in the words produc'd to wit that the Consecrated Bread was no more mere Bread than the Consecrated Water is meer Water And for the disingenuity of the Reverend D. S. if Mr. P. can shew us it it is a new discovery I suppose that this which follows will satisfy the just Reader that the disingenuity is in the Accuser and not in him who is unworthily reflected on To D. T. c. SIR HAVING the Curiosity to turn over Mr. P's Remarks I found my self remark'd upon in his Postscript with wonderful Civility and Kindness of which I thought fit to give you this Account He charges me with most disingenuous leaving out some words of St. Cyril which if cited would have left no place of doubting that he makes for the Catholick Tenet Whereas the Design of that part of the Discourse was to answer this very Quotation of S. Cyril which was urged by M. W. in the Conference His Words are But to Theodoret he would oppose S. Cyril who in his Fourth Myst. Catech. says expressly Tho thou see it to be bread yet believe it is the Flesh and the Blood of the Lord Iesus doubt it not since he hath said This is my Body Our Business was to answer the Testimony produced by them and I do not remember the least omission as to the strength and force of it and those words Mr. P. produces signifie no more than the other unless he thinks the Sense of Tasting more Emphatical than that of Seeing But I suppose his meaning is that there is omitted that Clause That which seems Bread is not Bread altho to the Taste it appears to be so But this is the very same difficulty in Sense which was answered For if tho we see it to be Bread yet we are to believe it to be the Body of Christ then according to him the meaning is though we see it to be bread it is not bread but the body of Christ. To which it was truly answer'd That in this fourth Catech. he bids them not to consider it as meer bread As if a man should break in pieces the Kings Broad Seal and another to aggravate his fault should tell him That which you have broken is not Wax but the Kings Broad Seal would not any one understand this not to be denying it to be truly Wax but that it was something far beyond that by the Impression of the Royal Seal Or as if a Judg setting forth the Crime of a Clipper should tell him that what he clipt was not silver but the Kings Coin who would need an Infallible Interpreter to tell him that by silver he meant common silver If St. Cyril had deliver'd any such Doctrine in any other