by heat or violence an extraordinary and unusual prudence appears in all their Canons they busy not themselves in calling the Pope Antichrist and Rome Babylon but render them the same respect they had ever done They judg themselves without judging others and are content to pray for other Societies without pronouncing either their Salvation or condemnation XX. As they do separate themselves only from the errours of the Church of Rome so they do pretiously preserve what doth not bear that name otherwise 't would not have bin the work of a pious zeal but of a wicked madness None can deny that there are many great and holy rites in the Church of Rome They therefore by a judicious distinction have thrown out those practises which were evil and retain'd the good XXI Having therefore two businesses in hand to wit the reformation of Doctrine and ordering of manners they have made use of the shortest and easiest means They compar'd all to the Scriptures and customes of the first Ages There is no point of their Faith which may not be proved by Scripture nothing in their Discipline which is not conformed to the ceremonies of the first 500 years XXII The Church of England therefore hath the comfort of having her Doctrine founded on the Scriptures so believed by the holy Saints as she beleiv'd it her Canons conformable to the antient Canons her Liturgy like the first Liturgies When she goes about to interpret the Scriptures she exacts not of her Children a blind obedience as doth the Church of Rome She thinks not to make any volume Canonical which was never really so but she follows the tracts of the Saints and of the Councils and hath learnt from the primitive Church which books in the Holy Bible are the grounds of our Faith and which only the object of our Piety XXIII We may say the same thing of all those points which raise the difference betwixt us and the Church of Rome The most considerable one is that of the Eucharist She treats that incomprehensible mystery with the respect due to it She neither presumes nor pretends to comprehend more of it then Christ hath bin pleased to reveal to them and the antient Church understood It is manifest first that Christ instituted the Sacrament of his body and blood Secondly that he is really present in it Thirdly that he abundantly communicates his grace and his holy Spirit to those who before they receive it seriously try themselves as the Apostle speaks and who not only forsake Sin but the very appetite of sinning and labour to order their life by his example But the manner of his being present is uncertain Christ saies nothing of it it appears noâ— that the primitive Church hath known how That of England receives with thanksgiving what he hath bin pleased to reveal to her and adores with a submissive silence what he hath not bin pleased to let her know We understand nothing of the Lord's Supper but by the Scriptures and the practice of the primitive times and when we limit our selves to that without going any further the manner of expounding it is not difficult The Infinite love of God towards us in that Sacrament destroies not the order which his wisdom hath put in things We leave to Faith all the latitude of it without contradicting the principles of reason But when men pretend to make Evangelists speak as Scholastics or Scholastics as Evangelists and look for Transubstantiation concomitancy and existence of the accidents without their subject c. all seems obscurity and darkness We sacrifice not our reason to faith but we throw aside both of them in saying that God explains himself after a manner conâ—rary to those principles which he hath established The Church of England is therefore in 〈◊〉 right of supposing as receiv'd what she beleives and the Church of Rome is obâ—â—ged to prove what she advances The former supposes the miracle which Christ â—ath wrought adding nothing new or â—npossible the other proposeth a thousand things to our beleif of which Christ â—ath said nothing and which are in â—hemselves greater miracles then that about which the two parties differ besides that they draw idolatrous practices XXIV The Church of Eng. doth not only think her self bound to beleive what Christ saies of the sacrament but she administers it â—s he hath given it us She orders the Sacrament under both kinds according â—o the command of Christ and to the praâ—tice of the Catholic Church and the whole World know the unchristian grounds upon which an Italian Bishop in the Council of Trent thought it was not to be granted for fear of making an argument against the pretended Infallibility of the Church of Rome XXV It is unreasonable that she do's not permit service to be read in the vulgar tongue and the Bible to be â—ranslated She knows nothing was ever grounded upon a less foundation then that and without looking on the orders of St. Paul which are so exact thereupon is there any thing in the World so contrary to reason as to pray to God in an unknown Tongue which exposeth the Praiers to the scorn and irreverence of those that offer them The Eastern Church did alwaies pray in Greek or in languages used by her divers Nations Whilst the Latin was the language of the West it was fitting that the service should be read in it but by the distraction of the Empire the incursions of Barbarians and the various revolutions we find in history that language having lost its life and given place to the various Idiomes of all Nations it was fitting men should pray in such languages as may be understood but it being more for the interest of the Pope to keep people ignorant he hath opposed so necessary a practice St. Jerome translated the Bible into Dalmatian the language of his own Country there are also to be â—ound manuscripts of the Bible in most languages of the World The more universal and dangerous heresies were the more the holy Saints exhorted the People to look in the Scriptures for those remedies which God hath granted against them XXVI The Church of England hath therefore turn'd the Liturgy into her Mother tongue The Priests and the Congregation there present send the same Praiers to Heaven and to take away all marks of Enthusiasm or novelty she hath composed the admirable Book of common Praier It is nothing but a collection of the most pathetical and instructive places of Scripture That which she hath not from thence are the very words of the Fathers or antient collects which by tradition were receiv'd from the primitive Church All is sound all is holy we address our selves to God in God's own language and we speak to him as he hath spoke to us 'T is a happy obligation for a Christian to pray after such a manner wherein a vain imagination bears no part his mind is enlivened his heart softned by that he can preach to himself and
Reflexions On the Council of TRENT In Three Discourses I. That the Protestants without any necessity of inquiring into the Decrees of the Council of Trent have sufficient reason to reject it II. That the Doctrine of the Council of Trent is contrary to the antient Doctrine of the Catholic Church III. That the Council of Trent was so far from reforming the disorders which had crept into the Church that it really made the breaches in its Discipline wider and cut off all hopes of correcting the antient abuses A Conclusion of the foregoing Discourses Concerning the State of the Church of England and how she hath bin more successful in the Reformation of her Faith and Manners then the Church of Rome By H. C. de LVZANCY Mr. of Arts of Christ Church in Oxford OXFORD Printed at the Theater And are to be Sold by Moses Pit at the Angel in St. Pauls Church-yard Peter Parker at the Leg and Star in Cornhil William Leak at the Crown in Fleetstreet and Thomas Guy at the Corner Shop of little Lumbard-street and Cornhil 1679. Imprimatur HEN. CLERKE Pro-Cancel Oxon. Martij 17. 1677. TO The right Reverend FATHER in GOD HENRY By Divine Providence LORD BISHOP OF LONDON Dean of his Majesties Chapel-Roial AND One of his Majesties most Honorable PRIVY COUNCIL c. MY LORD I Presume to address to your Lordship a Treatise against the Council of Trent that is against a Conventicle of this last age wherein the ancient Faith was opprest by the establishment of modern errors and Religion crusht by the interests of a politic faction Besides the particular obligations I have to offer to your Lordship the best of my acknowledgments I could not have made a more suitable dedication of this Book then to a branch of that Noble Family which was ever zealous for the Faith once deliver'd to the Saints and to a Bishop of that Church which has alwaies declar'd it self against the unhappy policy of that See which builds its own greatness upon the ruines of the simplicity of the Gospel These two singular qualifications appear so eminently in the conduct of all your Lordships affairs that to them we are to attribute that extraordinary application whereby you answer all the ends of your high calling and content not your self with the advantages and honor but descend to the most laborious and difficult parts of so great a charge that diligent and strict watch whereby you do not only preserve your own Flock but discover all the designs and artifices of its enemies that unblamable conduct which the most violent and partial of your â—dversaries cannot but admire that servent charity which directs to your Lordship as to a sure refuge all them that desire to forsake either vice or error but above all that evenness and steddiness of mind which a Father of the Church calls the Life and Soul of Episcopacy wherewith Almighty God has endu'd your Lordship in so eminent a degree that it may be lookt upon as your peculiar Character My Lord it would be a noble subject to reflect upon a few late instances you have given that you prefer your honor and conscience above all interests whatever that you have no concern but for the welfare both of Church and State and tho the greatness of your quality sufficiently entitles you to the highest honor that either of them can bestow yet you owe your advancement purely to your own merit But My Lord I am prevented by the acclamations of the public and the voice of the whole Nation which by the great things you have already don is making judgment of the yet greater happiness it shall one day derive from your Lordships future undertakings This is become the employment of persons more proportioned to such a work and it is the utmost of my ambition to be admitted amongst the meanest of them who are daily beseeching Almighty God that he would still prosper your Lordship in the accomplishment of those noble designs wherein you are happily engag'd for the good both of Church and State I am with all imaginable respect and duty MY LORD Your Lordships most Humble most obedient and most oblig'd Servant De LUZANCY THE PREFACE THE occasion of these ensuing discourses which are here made public was a Treatise entitl'd Considerations upon the Council of Trent It s author has manag'd his subject with so much dexterity that I could not but judg it agreeable to that love all Christians ought to have for truth and to my own duty in particular to dispel the mist he has attempted to cast before men's eyes To perform this with solidity I thought it not so proper to rely upon any particular historian of that Council there being but four who have treated of it whose testimonies are not free from exception Soavius is suspected by the Romanists as Palaviciny by the Protestants tho with less justice Scipio Henricus is more addicted to his Society then to his Church and more intent to defend the Jesuits then to justifie the proceedings of the Bishops And for Aquilius his Survey De tribus Historicis it is rather a Pamphlet injurious to the Church of Rome it self for its want of sense and learning than a just censure But it appeared much more easie and useful to give a true character of the Council drawn out of its own acts and shew such essential defects in it that all the artifice of its defenders can never satisfie a rational and impartial enquirer There are two things to be consider'd in this Council the manner wherein it was celebrated and those points it determin'd which later either respect articles of Faith or reformation of manners This order I have exactly follow'd by endeavouring in the first discourse to evince that the manner of holding this Council was altogether irregular and that Protestants may lawfully reject it without any further discussion of its decrees in the second that its decisions are contrary to the ancient Canons of the Church and in the third that the reformation which was then pretended to be made was no better then a new violation of Discipline and a perfect illusion of the World In these discourses I avoid the citing any authors but such as for their learning and piety are venerable in the Church of Rome a design which no judicious persons can ever disapprove since it hapens but too often that we combat men whose sentiments their own communion disowns and after a long and tedious disputation we receive no other answer but that the Church of Rome is not bound to make good all the assertions of her privat followers And indeed she would be strangely put to it should she warrant all the dreams of Suarez Vasquez and other Jesuits Since it is easy to demonstrate that they are more contrary to her then to us more pernicious to their mother then to their enemies and as a learned Man of their communion observes fitter to raise new Heresies then to
ever err In his Letter to Vincent Do not oppose therefore Brother to so many and undoubted places some of the writings of the Bishops either ours or those of Hilary Cyprian and Agrippinus All these writings want the Autority of the Canon and we receive not their testimonies as things which it is not lawful to dissent from if they are dissenting from the Truth Upon the 87. Psalm You read not in the Gospel those whom you name neither do I see those whom I alledge Let us lay aside our Books procedat in medium Codex Dei Finally against Maximinus the Arian who relied upon the Council of Ariminum I ought not saies he to cite you the Nicene Council nor you that of Ariminum as prejudices for our cause Scripturarum autoritatibus non quorumcunque propriis sed utriusque communibus testâ—bus res cum re causa cum causa ratio cum ratione concertet utrique tanti ponderis molibus cedamus Nay 't was not only Bishops that thought so but Lay-men themselves We are taught by the Gospel saies Constantine to the Nicene Fathers the Apostolical Writings and the Oracles of the Prophets what we must know of God let us therefore draw the explication of our doubts from the words divinely inspired VII We intend not hereby to detract from any part of the high esteem every Christian ought to have for the Works of the Fathers We consider them as the Masters of the Church who instructed her not only by the learned productions of their minds but by the purity and good examples of their lives We honor them as Preachers who spake no less by the wounds they received for the defence of Christ then by the words they made use of to make known his Doctrine Nor could we behold without a just resentment a Minister of our Age to abuse their Writings in a Book entitled De vero usu Patrum We acknowledg with the great S. Austin that these holy Men were stabiles in antiquissima robustissima Fide We call with the Primitive Councils our present Faith the Faith of our Fathers But we are not convinced that our respect should endue us to believe them infallible After Gods Word none is of greater weight to us then theirs but we are not bold enough to mingle confound them As a body grows not luminous but as it comes near the Sun to receive its impressions so we do not see in them any certainty of light but as they are conformable to the Scripture which is certainty and light it self And we think we give them all the praises they can expect from us when we say as S. Athanasius did of the Nicene Fathers that their Expositions of the Nicene Faith according to divine Scriptures are sufficient to destroy all Impiety and confirm the belief of Christ VIII But that which is more to be wondred at is that none of the controverted points has ever bin preserved in the Catholic Church as a point of Faith and agreeable to the consent of the Fathers a truth expresly maintained by a learned u Bishop of this Kingdom who successfully challeng'd any of the Roman Communion to a contradiction I would call for no other evidence then the Canon of this very Session § 4. which ordains under pain of Excommunication to admit of those Books as Canonical that had never bin such with the same veneration as those which had bin constantly kept by the Church All Councils Fathers Ages ancient and modern Writers exclaim against that Decree and there is no man tho but commonly read in Ecclesiastical writings that can deny it Notwithstanding the Council doth anathematize those that dissent from its Canons Pope Paul and Pius the IV. exact a dreadful Oath of it and make the People swear upon the Gospel to receive as certain and undoubted that which all the learned of the Church of Rome had lookt upon before as evidently false IX The Decree which consecrates the vulgar Translation is most strange but nothing is like the declaration of the Cardinals who assure us Quod ne vel iota unum repugnat in veteri vulgata Latinae linguae editione tho Pope Clement VIII confesses in the Preface to his Edition many things were purposely omitted which should have bin changed Let it be said with all due respect to their Eminencies that so surprizing assurances shew either deep ignorance or a wonderful unsincerity or the greatest boldness in the World X. The Articles of Justification which establish the merit of our Works in a manner so injurious to the Grace of our Redeemer are no less opposite to the ancient Church That holy Mother constantly instructed her Sons in all times That we are by nature the Children of wrath That God works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure That we are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing of our selves but our sufficiency is of God She has bin taught by Christ himself Without me ye can do nothing if the Son shall make you free you shall be free indeed and no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him She has bin informed by her Doctors that when God is pleased to Crown in us our merits he Crowns but his gifts that unless he gives us what he commands us his Law instead of a spirit giving life becomes to us a killing Letter She has determined in her Council That no man is free for doing any good thing but by Gods Grace that God expects not our will but prepares it according to what is written in his word that when we fall into any sin we do it of our selves and of our own will but when we do any good Action 't is out of his alone Let any unprejudiced person read the Canons of the Council of Orange where S. Hilary being President Christs Grace triumph't so entirely over all its enemies and compare them with those of Trent he will be amazed at so strange a contrariety But when we are so earnest in throwing down our pretended merits to raise a glorious Trophy to our Faith we intend not to patronize Libertinism and give way to those licentious opinions which are the natural consequences drawn from the Doctrines of some Reformers Faith whereby a man is justified is not barren and like that of the Devil which is of no use but to prolong and foment his disorders It is a Faith which as the Apostles stiles it works by love which makes us look upon Christ as the Foundation and only Source of our Salvation breeds in us an ardent desire of him That love which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost promts us to put our whole trust in him and to practise by the Soveraign power of his Grace what his Gospell teacheth is required of us S. Austin incomparably expresses this