impossible for a Protestant to believe yet I doubt not but the Representer will grant that the belief of this is as easy to a Protestant as it is to a Papist And that since it is believed by Papists there is very good reason why Protestants should believe it 2. Since they allow the Vulgar the Ten Commandments in their own Tongue what probable Reason can be given why they leave out this part Thou shalt not Tho to stop their Adversaries Mouths they now put these words into the English Catechisms make to thy self any graven Image c. but this that they dare not let their Laity compare their Doctrine and their Practice with this Scripture It is I know commonly said that this is done in compliance with the weak Memories of the People But he must be of a weak understanding who is satisfied with this Reason especially considering how tedious some of their Offices of Devotion are which are composed for the use of the Laity 3. It is no Thanks to them that the Bible is not denied to the Learned because it is impossible it should be kept from them as long as it is suffer'd in any Language But it is plain they are afraid of them in that they do not allow them however learned and pious but at the Bishop's discretion to read any Versions of the Old Testament Nor do they give the Bishop leave to permit any Man how learned soever to read any Versions of the New made by those who are censured by their Church but confine them to the Vulgar Edition n Reg. 3. â— Trid. And to make as sure of them as they can they tie them up as close as they are able from giving any such Interpretation of it as may be prejudicial to their new Faith. And yet not trusting to this Security they endeavour as much as may be to conceal from them those Scriptures which are repugnant to their Doctrine Which is 4. A plain Argument That it is the Bible it self they take to be mischievous to them Why else 1. Did they blot those words out of the Margin and Index of Rob. Stephen's Bible which were the same with those in the Text For Example Abraham was justified by Faith. He that believeth in Christ shall not die for ever They that blotted these out of the Index that the Reader might not thereby be directed to find them would they not if they durst have blotted them out of the Text too 2. Why else have they purged not only out of the Ancient Fathers but many late Learned Writers of their own Church many Passages of the Scripture it self 3. Why was it commended as a most meritorious Act in John Della Cava Arch-bishop of Benevento That tho he had not openly and expresly condemn'd the Gospel yet obscurely and covertly he had because in his large Catalogue of Hereticks he had reprobated a great part of that Doctrine which is contain'd in the Gospel especially some certain Heads which were most opposite to the Church of Rome p Consil de Rom. Eccles Stab The Representer proceeds If their Religion be so contrary to Scripture as you pretend is it not more likely the Learned should make this discovery in their reading the Bible than the Vulgar if they had the like liberty c. To which I return these two Things 1. If the Learned are as free from Prejudice Pride Vain-glory Covetousness and other evil Affections which darken Mens Minds it is more likely they should make this Discovery than the Vulgar if not the Vulgar are better qualified to make it than they For tho Learning when joyn'd with a sincere love of Truth is a great advantage for the discovery of it yet when destitute of this it is as great a hinderance The Learned among the Jews in the days of our Saviour are a demonstrative Proof of this Tho Moses and all the Prophets bore Testimony to him yet the Scribes and Pharisees were not able to see it Why because they were prepossessed with the Prejudices of a Pompous Messias they sought Glory of Men they had carnal Affections and a worldly Interest to serve tho therefore all the Characters of the Messias were visible in him yet because he was not a Messias for their turn they could not discern them I say not only they did not but without first laying aside their corrupt Affections they could not And so our Saviour himself says Ye cannot hear my Word q Joh. 8. 43. And how can ye believe which receive Honour one of another r Joh. 5. 44. How wife and prudent soever they were in other Matters they were not capable of the Truths of the Gospel and therefore they were hid from them while they were revealed to Babes s Mat. 11. 25. Now how few in comparison of the Learned in the Church of Rome have not some carnal Interest to serve How few are not prepossess'd with some such false Principle that be the Scripture never so clear against them will so blind their eyes that they shall not be able to discern it Should the Church of Rome teach Murder and Adultery to be Vertues he who makes it a Fundamental Article of his Faith that she cannot err would not be able to see that they are Sins but would find out some other sense of these Commandments than the words plainly import In short this Argument the Learned Jews made use of against our Blessed Saviour Have any of the Pharisees believed on him But this People who know not the Law are curs'd t Joh. 7. 48 49. As much as to say Were he the true Messias the Learned Pharisees who study the Law would certainly know it since therefore they do not believe on him no heed is to be given to the ignorant Multitude Were therefore this Argument of force it would have justified the Vulgar Jews in rejecting of Christ But 2. Many of their Learned Men have made this Discovery How many such were the chief Instruments of the Reformation and they doubtless discover'd the Errors of their Church before they forsook it How many continually since have forsaken their Communion in spite of all worldly Motives to the contrary How many who have not left their Communion have given abundant Testimony by their Writings that they were convinced of their Errors some in one thing some in another Cardinal Cajetan and Cardinal Contarenus will be owned for as Learned Men as most of their Time and they discover'd the Error of Prayer and Service in an Unknown Tongue Erasmus in the last Age and Arnaud and his Brethren the Jansenists in this have exposed to all the World the Error I now write against The Learned Men of the Church of Rome who have rejected the Apocryphal Books from the Canon of Scripture are too many to be particularly mentioned for that they are no part of the Canon was Catholic Doctrine at Rome it self as a Learned Bishop of our own
the reading of the Scripture when it was the common Practice of Christians to read it and make it the matter of their Discourse at their Meals For the third Century tho many other Witnesses stand ready yet Origen alone may suffice Whether we consider 1. How early he himself was educated in the Scriptures Or 2. What he hath left on record to this purpose First His Father Leonides before he put him to other Learning put him upon the study of the Scriptures of which he set him a daily Task to learn by heart k Euseb Hist Ecclesiast l. 6. c. 2 Now his Father being a Lay-man and he himself then a Child for the Father was crown'd with Martyrdom before the Son was seventeen years old what Arnaud hence infers undeniably follows viz. That the Church then thought it good not only for Lay-men to read the Scriptures but to make their Children also read them in their tender Age. 2. Of those many Passages which Arnaud and others have observed in his Writings it will be sufficient to produce one directing his Speech to all Christians without distinction he thus exhorts them We beseech you not to content your selves to hear the Word of God when read in the Church but to apply your selves to it at home and to meditate upon it day and night for Jesus Christ is there present as well as in the Church and they that seek him shall find him every where Therefore he hath commanded us to meditate in the Law of the Lord when we walk by the way and when we sit in our Houses when we lye down and when we rise up (l) Hom. 9. in Levit. In the beginning of the fourth Age it is certain that the Bible was in Lay-mens hands because in Dioclesian's Persecution many Lay-men to save themselves delivered up their Bibles to be burnt (m) Quid commemorem Laicos qui tunc in Ecclesia nulla fuerant dignitate suffulti c. Optat. advers Parmen l. 1. That in the succeeding Parts of that Age under the Christian Emgots they had the free use of them is as manifest because we find that all sorts of People were frequently and earnestly pressed by their Teachers to read them I shall not insist upon what is by others produc'd out of St. Jerom viz. The Dedication of his Commentaries upon the Scriptures to Women his Epistles to many of that Sex in which he highly commends them for their study of the Scriptures and exhorts them diligently to instruct their Children therein How he advised Gaudentius to cause his Daughter at seven years old to get the Psalms by Heart and when she should come to the age of twelve to treasure up in her Heart the Books of Solomon the Gospels the Epistles of the Apostles and the Prophets But omitting these I think it enough to tell you that even Father Thomassin affirms that this Father most straitly charged not only the Clergy and the Religious that is Monks and Nuns to read the Scriptures but recommended the reading of them to all sorts of Persons without distinction of Age or Sex even to Women and Girls (n) Part. 1. l. 11. c. 10. n. 6. What pretence then have the Papists for quoting St. Jerom as one of their side You shall hear In his Epistle to Paulinus he complains That whereas Men of all other Arts contain'd themselves within the bounds of their own Profession every one took upon him to be a Teacher of the Scriptures even the doting old Man and the tatling old Wife c. (o) Quod Medicorum est prómittunt Medici tractant fabrilia Fabri Sola Scripturarum ars est quam sibi passim omnes vendicant hanc garrula anus hunc delirus senex c. an unanswerable Argument that the most simple of both Sexes did then freely read the Scriptures For could they presume to teach them had they never read them Nor doth he blame their reading them but that they took upon them to be Teachers before they themselves had learnt them docent antequam discant How vehement and copious St. Austin is in his Exhortations to his Hearers of all Ranks and Qualities to read the Scriptures you may be inform'd by another Learned Papist (p) Espenc Comment in Epist ad Tit. c. 2. p. 517. Ed. Paris 1619. I shall give but a taste It may not suffice says he that You hear the Divine Scriptures read in the Churches but in Your Houses either read them Your selves or get others to read and do You readily hearken to them Hear the Divine Scriptures read in the Church as You are wont and read them over again at Home If any be so employ'd that before his repast he cannot have leisure let it not grieve him to read something of them at his Meal that as the Body is fed with Meat so the Soul may be refresh'd with the Words of God that the whole Man both outward and inward may arise satisfied from a holy and wholsom Banquet c. (q) De Tempore Serm. 55 56 57. De Sanctis Serm. 38. What the same learned Romanist hath to the same purpose produc'd out of St. Chrysostom if the Representer please to read methinks it should put him to the blush I shall only observe That this incomparable Saint makes the reading of the Scriptures not only necessary for all Men of whatsoever rank they be but more necessary for those whose Business lies in the midst of the World than for those who live more retired from it As you may see by many pregnant Proofs in that excellent Treatise before mention'd (s) Search the Scriptures p. 40 Tho I omit many as St. Basil St. Hilary St. Ambrose c. yet I shall mention two more Witnesses in this Age The first is Julian the Apostate who derides the Christians for breeding up their Children in the knowledg of the Scriptures The second is St. Cyril Bishop of Jerusalem who in his Catechisms for the Illuminate that is Persons newly baptiz'd charges them to read all the Books both of the Old and New Testament and diligently to meditate upon them (t) Cateches 4. de Sacra Script p. 36 37 38. Edit Par. 1640. In the fifth Age Cyril of Alexandria in his Books against Julian informs us That it was then also the practice of Christians not barely to read the Scriptures themselves but to train up their Children in them And in answer to the Apostate's scurrilous Objections he shews what Advantages accru'd to them by being early instructed in the Divine Scripture above all that could be expected from the Learning of the Greeks (u) Lib. 7. contra Julianum In the sixth Age Pope Gregory the Great in a popular Sermon thus exhorts his Hearers Study most dear Brethren the Words of God. Do not despise the Letters our Maker hath sent us It is a great advantage that by them the Soul is quicken'd lest it should be benumn'd
of those inestimable Benefits they would receive thereby f Serm. 24. de diversis Thus I have shew'd the practice of the Christian Church to the twelfth Age not from the Testimonies of obscure and suspected Authors but of Men famous in their Generations and whose Names are held in great veneration in the Church of Rome Which I have the rather done because some Persons have had the confidence to bear the World in hand that in the Primitive Church a restraint was laid upon the reading of the Scripture An Assertion so manifestly untrue that we need desire no clearer Proofs of the contrary than those two or three Passages out of the Ancients they produce for it If the Reader desire to know when and upon what occasion this Liberty was first taken from Lay-men I 'll now tell him The first Synodical Prohibition was that of the Synod of Tholouse in the Year 1228 in these words We forbid that Lay-men be permitted to have the Books of the Old and New Testament unless perhaps some one out of Devotion desire to have the Psalter or Breviary for Divine Offices and the Hours of the Blessed Virgin but even those now mentioned they may not have translated in the vulgar Tongue g Prohibemus etiam ne Libros Veteris Novi Testamenti Laici permittantur habere nisi forte Psalterium aut Breviarium pro Divinis Officiis ac horas Beatae Virginis aliquis ex devotione habere velit Sed ne prâ— libros habeant in vulgari Translatos D'Achetii Tom. 2. p. 624. The special occasion of this Decree was the preaching of the VValdenses who taught that in Articles of Faith the Holy Scripture was the Rule by which Men were to judg that whatsoever was not agreeable to the Word of God ought to be rejected That the reading and knowledg of the Scripture was free and necessary to all Men both Laity and Clergy * Cent. 12. Ecclesiast Hist c. 8. By this time the Church of Rome had gotten such a new Faith as would not abide the old Test and therefore it was prudently done to deprive the People of the Scripture that they might not be able to discover those Errors into which they led them CHAP. III. LET us now see what the Representer offers to justify this Practice of the present Church of Rome so manifestly repugnant to Scripture to Reason and to the ancient Practice of the Church of Rome it self yea of the whole Christian Church throughout the World. Surely they must be very weighty Reasons or else they will never bear down so great a weight as lies in the other Scale against them Does he shew that God hath retracted his first Grant That he hath repealed his old Law and established one quite contrary in the room of it Does he shew That the Reason of the Thing is changed So that if the Primitive Fathers were alive again they would now with as much earnestness dissuade Lay-men from reading the Scripture as they formerly exhorted them to it Had he done thus he had spoken to the purpose But alas we find nothing of this nor any thing like it What then are his Reasons You shall now hear And I shall endeavour to represent them to the best advantage without abating one grain of their just weight They are all reducible to this one general Head viz. The Mischiefs that arise from the promiscuous reading of the Scripture several of which he mentions and insists upon and then acquaints us with the Reasons as he supposes of those Mischiefs That therefore my Discourse upon them may be the more clear and distinct I shall divide it into these three parts 1. I shall consider the General Reason 2. The Particulars he insists upon 3. The Reasons he gives why these Mischiefs flow from the free reading of the Bible SECT I. The general Reason he gives of this Restraint is The Mischiess that arise from the promiscuous reading of the Bible since these and infinite other Mischiefs arise from the free permitting the Bible among the Multitude He viz. the Papist thinks it commendable in his Church out of a true solicitude for the Salvation of Souls to prevent those Evils by teaching the true sense of this Sacred Volume without leaving the Book to be scann'd by them as they please and so not permitting them to turn the Food of their Souls into Poison or abuse that to their Destruction which was ordain'd by Christ for their gaining of Heaven (h) Chap. 7. p. 52. But if out of pure kindness to the Souls of the Vulgar they take away this dangerous Book from them Why do they give them other very perilous Books in the room of it I mean Images which they call Lay-mens Books tho by the Confession of many of their own Writers they are horribly abused by the Vulgar But to pass that This is the Argument they commonly insist upon and tho it hath been wretchedly bafled again and again yet for want of a better it is upon every occasion dress'd up anew and urged with as brisk a Confidence as if it had never before been heard of He says he does sincerely respect honour and reverence the Scripture (i) Chap. 6. p. 44. But methinks he expresses his respect and reverence as untowardly as the Lindians did toward their God Hercules whom they worshipped by throwing Stones at him For what is this but to say that the Bible is the most dangerous Book in the World since a Lay-man cannot read it without danger of being eternally undone by it And if this be to honour and reverence the Scripture I know not what it is to revile it The Representer will say this is a false Inference I shall be glad if he can make that appear for nothing seems to follow more naturally from the Premises He will say he does not impute these Mischiefs to the Scripture it self but to Mens Abuse of it (k) Chap. 7. p. 52. What then the danger is not the less if it be so apt to be abused that scarce any Man can read it who will not so abuse it Let us suppose there are two things the one of which is an excellent Antidote if rightly used but so hard a matter it is so to use it that not one in an hundred can be found to whom it doth not turn to Poyson The other is it self a rank Poyson yet may be so temper'd and taken with that caution that it may become an Antidote Is not now this Antidote however excellent in it self as dangerous as the Poyson But if these Mischiefs proceed meerly from Mens Abuse of Scripture why is it then denied to those who do not thus abuse it For in that he says Such as for the MOST PART are not capable of reading it as they ought have not leave to read it and those that are capable may have IN MOST COVNTRIES leave to read it as they please l Pag. 52. He
I mean the Arguments by which the People were stirred up to rebel were transcribed from Popish Writers particularly from Mariana and Parsons out of whom he may see in some Books then published whole leaves together translated And therefore 5. The Divisions among the Vulgar are very rarely in comparison owing to themselves they are not to be imputed to the different Senses which they themselves in their private reading put upon the Bible but for the most part to the different Senses they receive of it from their Teachers For the truth of which I appeal to History and to the common Observation of Mankind If the Representer be not satisfied with this I desire him to answer but this one Question Whence came it to pass that so many of the Vulgar in England France Germany the Netherlands c. divided themselves from the Church of Rome before they had the Bible in a Language they understood That Division could not proceed from their reading of the Bible which was made before they had ever read it I cannot imagine what Answer he can give but that they followed their Leaders Wickliff Luther Zuinglius c. who first dividing from the Church of Rome drew the People after them The Division therefore took its Rise from the Learned and from them descended to the Ignorant The Trent Fathers therefore were miserably mistaken in denying the Bible to the Laity only they should have decreed in the first place that no Clergy-man should be suffer'd to read it that there might be like People like Priest And this the more prudent Bishops at Bononia were aware of when they advised Julius III not to permit any Mortal to read more of the Gospel than that little which is contained in the Mass (e) Consil de Rom. Eccles stabiliend apud Vergerium Tom. 1. I need say no more to expose the Falshood of this Assertion That the Divisions among Christians proceed solely or chiefly from permitting the Bible among the Vulgar But 2. If this were true yet it would not be a sufficient Reason for denying the reading of the Bible to the Vulgar For if it were so now it would have been so heretofore it would have been so in the early Ages of the Christian Church when there were as many Sects and Heresies as there are now It would have been so in the Time of the Apostles for in almost every Church planted by them Divisions presently sprang up It would have been so in the Jewish Church for they had their Sects as well as the Christians yea it would have been so from the very beginning when the Scripture was first publish'd But when the Bible was first written had this been a sufficient Reason would God have caused it to be written in the Vulgar Language of that People to whom it was given and laid his Command upon all without distinction to apply themselves to the study of it And in the succeeding Ages of the Jewish Church yea after the Babylonian Captivity tho some new Sects then sprang up among them so far was it from being thought a Reason why they should not read the Law that by the Laws of that Nation every Man was obliged to write a Copy of the Law for himself with his own hand And if the Case had been alter'd in the days of our Saviour would he not have told us Would he never have reproved the prying Multitude as the Representer is pleased to complement the People for reading the Law and the Prophets Nay would he have put them upon the reading of them as he plainly does as oft as in his Discourses to the People he quotes them for the proof of what he says And had his Apostles after him thought this a fit Expedient either for the Prevention or Cure of Divisions when they wrote their Epistles to those Churches in which Divisions were already sown as the Churches of Corinth and Colosse would they have addressed them to all without exception and exhorted all that the Word of God dwell in them richly And when in succeeding Ages the Church was miserably rent with Schisms do any of the Fathers prescribe this Remedy Nay tho St. Jerome St. Austin St. Chrysostom c. sadly complain of the abuse of Scripture by Hereticks yet do they not exhort all sorts of Persons to read it In a word The Church of Rome it self did not think this a fit Expedient till it was so changed from what it was in the beginning that if St. Peter and St. Paul should have been raised again from the Dead they would not have owned it for that Church which they at first planted I have I think said more than enough to the first Mischief II. The second which he gives as the main Reason Mischief II. why the Holy Scripture is not allow'd to the Vulgar of his Church without exception is this That if this be allow'd there will be as many different Bibles among them as there are Heads (f) Chap. 8. p. 54. that is The words of the Bible will be understood by them in as many different senses as there are Men For he thus explains himself Tho the Book of the Scriptures does certainly contain the Word of God yet to every Christian that reads it 't is the Sense and Meaning and not the Letter is more properly the Word of God. Now do You but reflect in how many different Senses the Letter of the Bible is understood and so many different Bibles will you find multiply'd by your Followers And tell me upon examination whether this be much fewer than Heads g P. 54. So wonderfully pleased is he with this Conceit that he presently falls into a fit of Raillery Don't you think there would be a pretty variety of Bibles there would be this Man's Bible and that Man's Bible such an one's Bible and such an one's Bible infinite number of Bibles But I fear I shall quickly spoil his mirth I shall not insist upon it That every difference in sense makes not a difference of Bibles as long as there is an agreement in all things material in those Points which by all the differing Parties are acknowledged sufficient to Salvation I need not beg this because they themselves are forc'd to assert it in their own defence For they acknowledg that the Vulgar Latin Translation of the Bible differs in many places from the Original That before Pope Clement's Edition there were many various Readings That the Bibles set forth by Sixtus and Clement are different each from other in many Places and yet they say they are not to be reckoned different Bibles because they do not differ in any thing material to the Faith. This being premised I return to his Argument which in short is this If the Holy Scriptures should be generally allow'd to the Vulgar without exception they will every one understand them in a different sense h Ibid. Therefore they ought not to be thus allow'd Now in that
so slippery so weak various wavering changeable inconstant as you see the private Reason of the Learned is to be rely'd on by them as their Guide in expounding of Scripture How can you imagine it possible for all Christians to concur in the same Belief while the Learned who read and expound the Scripture give differing and contrary interpretations of it For as long as the Scripture is no otherwise in their Heads and Hearts than by the interpretation they make of it their Faith must necessarily be as various as their Interpretation And is not the Story of the Manna which follows as applicable to the Learned For was not the taste of the Manna as different to the Priests as it was to the People Did it not relish according to that kind of Meat that was most grateful to every Priest's Palate Now if the Priests in Canaan had receiv'd a Command of bringing forth that sort of Meat whose taste should be like that of the Manna they ate in the Desert was it possible they should all agree in their Dish Since tho the Manna was the same they all fed on yet the Relish was as different as their Tempers and Palats Don't you therefore see that Men will never be of one Spirit and one Mind until the reading of the Scripture be prohibited to the Learned and not to some but to all his Holiness as Infallible only excepted For if it be allow'd to the Cardinals notwithstanding their Eminences above others together with his Holiness they will never agree in the sense of it For I can tell you of many Cardinals who have differ'd from his Holiness and among themselves too about the sense of it Is it not then as plain as Demonstration that there will be no end of Controversies as long as the Scriptures are read by any Man in the World besides the Pope And perhaps not then neither for since he is not infallible but when he speaks from his Chair which seldom happens at other times he may chance to contradict himself and give one sense of Scripture this Year another the next It were therefore most advisable could it possibly be effected that the Book it self were utterly abolished Let not any Man interpret this to the disparagement of Learning since nothing can be more evident than that the Learned have vast Advantages above the rest of Mankind for attaining to the true meaning of the more obscure Texts of Scripture provided they sincerely search after Truth and are so humble so sensible of their own liableness to mistake that they daily implore the Divine Assistance But if they be destitute of these Qualifications they are not only as subject to err but to err more dangerously than others In the beginning of the 10th Chapter the Representer talks again at the same impertinent rate so agreeable to him is this way of reasoning that he naturally falls into it in every Chapter But the Vanity of it lies so open that it need not be further exposed If any Man please to consult the place I shall leave it to himself to judg whether it be not every whit as applicable against permitting the Scripture to the Learned as the Vulgar But the Representer may say The Church of Rome does not allow the Learned to interpret Scripture according to their own private Reason For the Council of Trent has decreed That no Man presume to interpret Scripture contrary to the sense of the Church or the unanimous consent of the Fathers And has not the Church of England her Confession of Faith contrary to which she allows none of her Members to interpret Scripture Does she not admit all such Traditional Interpretations as can be derived from the Fountain And for all such Texts as are obscure and doubtful does she not direct the Vulgar to consult their Guides Tho it is true she does not command them to believe that White is Black or that Vice is Vertue if the Priest says that it is But however the Church of Rome denies them the liberty of interpreting the Scripture in their own sense it is certain that they commonly take it else how comes it that they give such different senses of the same Scripture How comes it that many of the Learned expound the sixth Chapter of St. John of the sacramental eating of Christ's Flesh and many as learned as they say that no such matter is there intended How comes it when so many tell us that these words This is my Body are so plain for Transubstantiation that he must be quite blind who does not see it that others whose sight is as good as theirs tell us they are not able to see this in them Do these Learned Men in their Exposition of the Scripture give us the sense of the Roman Church or do they not If not they follow their own private Reason if they do their Church gives contrary senses of Scripture and is as far from being one in this respect as it is from being Catholic He confesses p. 63. That some of the Protestants to keep up the Face of the Church do speculatively contend for Authority and Guides But then he says In Fact they defeat all these their Pretensions How do they in Fact defeat them Because they own no Authority so great or safe but it is to be subjected to the controul of every private Examiner They own an Authority so great as to Matters of External Government as to be subject to the controul of no Man who lives in Communion with the Church But he means an Authority so great that whatsoever the Church commands and prescribes to be receiv'd as the Truth and Faith of Christ it ought to be received But can the Church have no Authority unless Men are bound to believe without examination whatsoever she prescribes to be believed If so then had she no Authority in our Saviour's and his Apostles days no nor for several Ages after them For if any such Authority had been own'd in the fourth Century how came it to pass that after the Nicene Council the Arian Heresy spread more than it had done before If this be to open a Gate to all the Fanaticisms and Quakerisms in the World 't is certain the Protestants did not first open it but it was long before open'd by our Blessed Saviour when he gave this Command to his Disciples Call no Man Father upon the Earth for one is Your Father which is in Heaven neither be ye called Masters for one is Your Master even Christ (h) Mat. 23. 9 10. As much as to say There is none upon Earth by whose sense a Christian is to be absolutely determin'd his Faith is not to be resolv'd into any Man's Authority But by the Creed all Christians are bound to believe the Holy Catholic Church Yes That there is such a Church and that this Church teaches all Truths necessary to be known But it is one thing to believe this another thing to believe as
can prove these two things 1. That both parts of a Contradiction may be true For nothing is more obvious than that those Propositions are by many of the Roman Clergy delivered as the Word of God which are contradictory the one to the other For Example One says the Wood of the Cross is to be adored another that Jesus Christ only is to be adored in the presence of the Cross That the Pope has Power to depose Kings one makes it Heresy to deny another to affirm it 2. That that may be the Word of God which is plainly contrary to what God hath taught in the holy Scriptures for so are many things taught by many of their Pastors For example That the sacred Body of the Mother of Jesus is endow'd with a super-seraphical activity whereby she can render her self present in a moment to all her Devotees vieweth all their Actions Words and Concerns and can aid them at whatever distance at all times whatever their Calamities be c. p Contemplations on the Life and Glory of the Holy Mary p. 69. When the Representer shall have proved these two Propositions That Contradictions may be true and that that may be the Word of God that is plainly contrary to the Word of God we may then perhaps be perswaded to believe that the Roman Priests speak nothing but Oracles SECT II. That which is mentioned as the next Misconstruction Inference II. or false Inference of the Protestants is this That the Papist takes up all his Belief upon trust he is led through all the Mysteries of his Religion by the hand without seeing which way or whither he goes All from beginning to end is Blindness and Ignorance c. q Chap. 7. p. 49. And what says the Representer in answer to this A Papist believes as the Church of God that is the present Church of Rome teaches And does not he take all his Belief upon trust who without examination believes whatsoever his Church teaches But how does he know what his Church teaches his Priest tells him Well he believes as the Church teaches he believes the Church teaches this or that because his Priest tells him so does he not then take his Church's Faith and his own too upon trust from his Priest No For he does not believe blindly but knowingly and understandingly so far as the littleness of humane Reason and his own Capacity will give him leave How does this appear Because in order to this his Church has provided him of variety of Learned Books explicating to him the sense of the Scriptures as likewise the Articles of his Creed every Mystery of his Religion the ten Commandments the Sacraments and the whole Duty of a Christian and this in such numbers both in Latin and English and other Languages c. What Learned Books for the Vnlearned and in Latin too for those who understand not a word of Latin May they not learn as much from the Latin Bible as from a Latin Explication Well may they believe understandingly when their Church has provided them of such Books for that purpose which are above their Vnderstanding But besides these he has Books in English and other Languages In England he is better provided of Books than in other Countries But does he not take all these upon trust too since he is not suffered to examine so much as one of them by the Scripture Yea is not his Belief of these Books a plain Argument that he believes blindfold Because many such things are contain'd in them which if he impartially examined he could never yield his assent to That I may not be thought to speak at random I shall give a single Instance out of that great number I could produce in each of the Heads before-mentioned 1. For the sense of Scripture he must take it upon trust who takes that Dominion ascribed to the Blessed Virgin to be meant in these Texts quoted for it viz. that God hath given her sovereign Dominion in Heaven over the Angels the Queen stood at thy right Hand Psalm 44. on Earth over Men Kings reign by me c. Prov. 18. and over Hell and the Devil she shall bruise thy Head Gen. 3. r Jesus Maria Joseph p. 167 168. 2. For the Articles of his Creed He believes upon trust who believes Contradictions and so does he who believes that by the Catholick Church in the Creed is meant the Roman Catholick 3. For the Mysteries of his Religion I appeal to all Men whether he does not take them upon trust who takes them as they are delivered in a Book lately printed s Contemplations on the Life and Glory of the Holy Mary particularly this of the Nativity of the Mother of Jesus That Holy Mary being by a singular Priviledg in regard of her Divine Maternity perfectly innocent holy and full of Grace Wisdom and all Virtues in the first positive instant of the Infusion of her Soul she from thence forth ever exercised the sublime Operations of the Contemplative and Vnitive Life without recourse to Images of Imagination or dependence on sense by the help of abstractive Lights divinely infus'd representing 1. The several Essences Attributes and Motions of the whole Body of the Creation in their several degrees and stations 2. The Divinity of God with its manifold Emanations Operations and unexplicable Comprehensions 3. And the Humanity of Jesus with all the Orders of Grace Mysteries of Salvation and extatick Loves of the Saints whereby her great Soul was so compleatly actuated even in the Womb of her Mother that her Contemplations Sallies of Love and Vnions with God were restless ever increasing in their vigor and still expatiating through the vast Motions and Methods of Mystical Love. Thus Divine Mary became still more acceptable to God replenish'd with Grace and absorpt in the Abyss of supernatural Perfection which wonderfully encreased the languishings of Angels Souls in Limbo and of her holy Parents for the hour of her Birth t Ibid. p. 44 45. This is a Mystery and so are several others in the same Book which I fear the Vulgar are not able to believe knowingly 4. For the ten Commandments he must believe blindly who believes he has them intire in his Catechism when so considerable a part is left out Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image nor the Likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above c. Or that he hath the fourth Commandment sincerely delivered in these words Remember to sanctify the holy Days We are told I know in the Abridgment of Christian Doctrine that the Church cannot be accused of the least shadow of omitting any parts of the Commandments u P. 113. But how can that be when it is before acknowledged that a great Part of the Text is omitted Because in no Catholick Bible is there one Syllable left out But what is this to the Vulgar who are not permitted to read any Catholick Bible who know no
more of the Commandments than what they find in their Catechism 5. As to the Sacraments Had he not need trust strongly who believes that Christ instituted the Sacrament of Order in saying Do this w Rhemes Test Annot. in Luke 22. v. 19. Abridgment of Christ Doct. p. 184 185. Behold here the Lights the Vulgar Papist enjoys Is it not now as manifest as Light it self That whosoever reproaches him with Blindness in the midst of so many Lights may with as good Reason prove him to be in the dark when Noon-day shines upon him Especially considering That besides these Books the Church hath given direction to all Parish-Priests to explicate on Sundays and Holy-days the Gospel and some Mystery of the Faith to such as are under their Charge c. But have we not reason to believe that the Explications of their Parish Priests are answerable to those we meet with in their Books and then notwithstanding these Helps and Assistances not only some but many of his Church may believe without understanding who cannot be condemned of Negligence and Sloth in the use of those means their Church has provided for them And if the Parish-Priests are generally as ignorant as many Learned Men of the Church of Rome tell us they are even they themselves believe without understanding and therefore much more the People But by what follows the Vulgar Papists are very blame-worthy if they know not the Scripture better than the Vulgar of any other Communion For it is an unquestionable Truth that when a Book contains high Mysteries of Religion Mysteries superior to all Sense and Reason and those not deliver'd in expressions suited to every Capacity but obnoxious to various interpretations that the People is in all probability likely to have more of the true sense of this Book and to be better informed of the Truth of the Mysteries it contains who are instructed in it by the Learned of that Communion and taught it by their Pastors Prelats and those whom God hath placed over them to govern and feed the Flock than any other People who have the Book put into their own hands to read it and search it and satisfie themselves In answer to which I shall propose a few Questions to the Representer 1st Whether it be an unquestionable Truth that when a Book contains not only high Mysteries but such things as for the far greater part are not above the Capacity of the Vulgar that he shall have more of the true sense of this Book who is instructed in it by his Pastors only than he who is instructed in it by them and studies it himself too In all Sciences there are some Mysteries now is he likely to understand any other Science better who takes only the Instructions of his Teachers than he who together with them diligently studies it himself also 2. Suppose nothing but high Mysteries were contained in this Book yet may not he as well understand these Mysteries who is instructed in them by the Learned and searches them himself as he that trusts only to the Instructions of the Learned 3. Is it for the sake of these high Mysteries that the reading of this Book is forbidden the Vulgar If so then 1. Why was it not forbidden sooner since these Mysteries were in it from the Beginning 2. Why are other Books publish'd for their use in which are Mysteries superior to all Sense and Reason and those not deliver'd in expressions suited to every Capacity but such as may be wrested by the Vnlearned and Vnstable to their own destruction Such I mean as the Contemplations of the Life and Glory c. Jesus Maria Joseph c. And therefore 4. Is it not evident that it is not for the sake of the Mysteries but of those things which are too plain and obvious to vulgar understandings that the reading of this Book is prohibited But he confirms what he says both by Reason and Scripture 1. By Reason Are not the Pastors more capable of teaching the People than the People are of teaching themselves An admirable Reason Let us see how it will hold in other matters Is not the Master or Tutor more capable of teaching the Scholar than the Scholar is of teaching himself He therefore will have more of the true sense of any Book in Logick Physicks or Metaphysicks that never looks into the Book himself but only hears a Lecture once in a Week or Month from his Tutor upon some part of it than he that makes the Book his constant study 2. As admirable are the Proofs from Scripture We know Moses gave the Book of the Law to the Levites to keep and read it every seven years to the People And in King Jehosaphat 's Reign the Priests and Levites did read it and teach the People so did Jeremy by God's Command so Isaiah so Ezekicl And did not our Blessed Saviour take the Book of the Prophet and read it and expound it to the People And was not this the Office of the Apostles and Deacons c. The Argument is this The Priests and Levites read the Book of the Law and taught the People so did Jeremy Isaiah and Ezekiel Yea our Saviour and his Apostles read and expounded the Scripture to the People Therefore they will understand more of the true sense of the Scripture who never read it than those who do What pity was it that Moses and the Prophets and our Saviour and his Apostles did not understand the force of this Argument for if they had they would no doubt have forbidden the People to read the Scripture and then we had never been pester'd with those Sects and Heresies that spring from it But they were altogether unacquainted with the Roman Politicks Tho therefore they read the Scripture to the People themselves and read it in the vulgar Tongue yet they left it free to the People to read it and not only so but laid it as a Duty upon them He adds For this intention was Ananias sent to Saul Peter to Cornelius and Philip to the Eunuch who professedly own'd he could not understand the Prophet in so necessary a Point as that of the Messias without an Interpreter x P. 51. None of which Instances make any thing for him but that of the Eunuch makes much against him For the Eunuch was reading the Prophet Isaiah tho he could not understand him and St. Chrysostom y Hom. 35. in Genes and others z Non intelligebat Scripturae sensum homo prophanus idiota tamen quoniam pio studio legebat subito mittitur illi Philippus interpres vertitur Eunuchus in virum tingitur aquâ ater Aethiops niveo agni immaculati vellere induitur subitoque ex mancipio prophanae Reginae fit servus Iesu Christi Eras Epist l. 29. Epist 82. observe that God as a Reward of his Diligence and Piety in doing what he was able sent him a Teacher And what follows hence First that they ought not
Church has prov'd but ten Years before the Council of Trent And whosoever has read the History of that Council cannot but see that the denial of the Cup to the Laity was discovered to be an Error by many Learned Men of that Church Yea the great Article of Transubstantiation many of their most Learned Men both in the present and in foregoing Ages could never perswade themselves to believe How many more of their Errors have been discover'd and published to the World by Cassander Wicelius Erasmus Picus Mirandula and many other Learned Men who died in Communion with them I shall not stay to mention But shall only make this Inference that the Representer would never have argued at this rate had he not vainly thought that the Protestants are as little acquainted with the Writings of the Papists as the Papists generally are with those of the Protestants What follows concerning Mechanicks and Apron-strings the Anvil the Needle and the Ell I suppose he did not intend for Arguments but only for Ornaments and Imbellishments and therefore I pass them over He adds Is it probable that every Man amongst the Papists no sooner becomes Scholar but he turns Atheist No. That upon their search in the Bible they plainly see all the Errours of their Religion and yet are so bewitched as to go on boldly and jocondly to the Devil without speaking a word or moving a step to save their own Souls or their Relations u P. 53 54. I will not say that every Learned Papist sees all the Errours of their Religion It may suffice that many of them have discover'd many of their Errors have written boldly against them And for those who discover their Errors and yet profess to believe them it is not necessary they should be Atheists I hope those Gentlemen are no Atheists who for several years late past have believed with the Church of Rome and profess'd with the Church of England their Religion approves Equivocations and mental Reservation Tho I confess that very Argument is so great a Bar to my turning Papist that I cannot at present imagine that I can ever be reconciled to that Religion which allows such gross Hypocrisies I hope by this time the Representer sees how weak and ill-grounded his own Arguments are 2. But he asks What ground can there be for this Pretension at least here in England where the Bible in English or the Rhemes Testament is to be found in most Catholic Families If it be so who is to be thanked for it Not their Church-men For tho they are more indulgent to their People here in England yet it is because they dare not be otherwise since should they hold them to as strict terms here as they do where they are in full possession it might endanger their losing them Besides that it is impossible to keep the Bible here from those who have a mind to read it for if they have it not with their leave they can have it without it But yet to keep them as much as may be from it they endeavour to perswade them that it is a sin to read it without leave and many are so possessed with this Belief that they acknowledg they dare not read it nor any other Book offer'd to them by Protestants without leave first obtain'd from their Ghostly Father and were England as much in their Power as Spain and Italy are a Bible in the Vulgar Tongue would be as rarely found in any Family here as it is in those Nations tho I see no reason but they may freely allow them the Rhemes Testament because they have so transform'd it into their own likeness that one would think they need fear no danger from it But if says he the prohibition of the Bible be as you pretend in other Countries for fear of the Vulgar discovering the Errors of their Religion how comes it that they don't make this Discovery here Some may not make this Discovery because of those invincible Prejudices they are prepossess'd with Others may not make it because they do not see with their own Eyes but leave it to their Priests to see for them Yet 't is strange the Representer should ask How comes it they do not make this Discovery as if none had made it when to the great grief of their Church such vast numbers have long since made it Does he not know That one Objection against translating the Bible in in King Hen. VIII days was That if Lay-men had the Bible in their Mother Tongue it would make them all Hereticks Does he not know how far the Event has answered the Prediction that whereas before the whole Nation was generally of their Belief so many have forsaken them since that now perhaps one or two in an hundred are as many as they can challenge He says Many have quitted that Communion upon other Motives best known to themselves but never any one could I meet with left them yet by reading and following the Word of God. He has it seems met with few who have left them nor could it be expected he should meet with many for so many had left them before his time that few in comparison remain'd to leave them now And those who left their Communion in K. Hen. VIII days could not leave it upon worldly Motives because after he gave leave to print the Bible in English and encouragement to all Men to read it he not only continued a Member of the Church of Rome himself but a zealous Persecutor of those who forsook it But perhaps he meets with none who desert them now If he does not yet many others do and I presume those that forsake them now their only Motive must be to follow the Word of God. But if the reading the Scriptures is such a defeat to Popery as you give out is it likely those who have been bred up to the reading of the Bible and have made it their Study and Companion should ever embrace that Communion Not more unlikely than that those who have been bred up to the reading of the Bible should imbrace divers other Opinions and Practices that are utterly inconsistent with it which we frequently see some Men do Tho I question not but if he examine their Converts he will find but few of them such as have made the Bible their Study and Companion And for those who have been bred up to the reading it but never concern'd themselves to consider it it is not more unlikely that they should imbrace Popery tho never so plainly contrary to it than that those should who never so much as saw it I shall not pass a Censure upon their late Proselytes but I am perswaded the Representer himself will confess that some of them are such as they have no reason to boast of FINIS ERRATA PAge 4. Marg. for Mandeuent read Mandement P. 8. Marg. for Prosanes r. Profanes P. 11. l. 6. after that add it l. last for Acaia r. Achaia P. 16. Marg. l. 4. for it r. et P 19. Marg. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2 and 3 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P. 30. after reading add it P. 53. l. 27. for gosly r. grosly P. 69. l. 7. for reciâ—â— r. reciâ—â— P. 80. Marg. r. contempletur