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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15508	Charity mistaken, with the want whereof, Catholickes are vniustly charged for affirming, as they do with grief, that Protestancy vnrepented destroies salvation.	Knott, Edward, 1582-1656.; Matthew, Tobie, Sir, 1577-1655, attributed author.; Potter, Christopher, 1591-1646.; Potter, Christopher, 1591-1646. Want of charitie justly charged.	1630 (1630)	STC 25774; ESTC S102197	54,556	140

extreamely confused what the Church of England in most things belieues so is it as true that they are very carefull that they be not too clearely vnderstood And therefore in many cōtrouersies whereof that booke speakes it comes not at all to the maine difficulty of the question betweene them and vs and especially in those of the Church and Free will For whereas there are two maine Controuersies concerning the Church namely whether the Catholicke Church of our Lord must not euer be visible to the eyes of men though at some times more gloriously then at others and whether the said Church be infallible in the definitiōs of Faith in both which points we hold the affirmatiue and they the negatiue they dare not declare in this publique manner what they hold therein And so also in that of Free Wil Art 10. they only affirme thereof in haec verba The condition of mā after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turne prepare himselfe by his owne naturall strength good workes to faith calling vpō God wherfore we haue no power to do good workes pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God preuenting vs that we may haue a good will and working with vs whē we haue that goodwil Now this is true Catholick Doctrine which we belieue better them they But they declare not the while whether or no a man haue freedome of will to do a good worke or not to do it when first he is inspired and moued to it by God Almighties grace which we affirme they deny which is the only knott of our question the point vpō which so many other Catholicke Doctrines depend Soe also do they play at fast and ●oose when in the sixt Article of holy Scripture they enumerate al those books of the old Testament which they allow to be Canonicall wherein by the way they are rather Iewes then Christians for not admitting the bookes of Iudith the Machabees diuers others into the Canon And they trifle also when they tell vs that they vnderstand those only bookes both of the old and newe Testament to be Canonicall of whose authority there was neuer any doubt in the Church For they know as well as we that the Apocalips the Epistle of S. Iames S. Iude and one of S. Peters were not acknowledged till prooffes were made during the space of three or fower hundred yeares after Christ our Lord. And yet these mē haue beene pleased out of their great grace to admit them though the Machabees must be reiected because they speake of prayer for the dead But obserue in the meane time what this booke of Articles sayeth concerning the Canonicall bookes of the new Testament It saith only this All the bookes of new Testament as they are commonly receaued we doe receaue and account them for Canonicall But why doe they not particularly enumerate all the bookes which they acknowledge to be of the new Testament as they had done them of the old but only because they must so haue named those bookes of S. Iames and others for Canonicall which the Lutherans haue cast out of their Canon A mad peece of vnity God wot when these reformers of the Church according forsooth to Scripture if you will take their word cannot so much as agree about the very Canon it selfe of the Scripture But abstracting from all these insincerities wherewith that booke of Articles is full fraught they doe not so much as say that the Articles of Doctrine which they deliuer are fundamentall either all or halfe or any one thereof or that they are necessarily to be belieued by them or the contrary damnable if it be belieued by vs but they are glad to walke in a cloude for the reasons which haue beene already toucht Maister Rogers indeede in the Analysis which he makes of those nyne and thirty Articles speakes lowd inough by way of taxing the doctrine of the Church of Rome as being contrary to that of the Church of England and he giues it as many ill names as his impure spirit can deuise affirmes amongst other things that many Papists and namely the Franciscans blush not to affirme that S. Francis is the holy Ghost Fol. 23. And that Christ is the Sauiour of men but one Mother Iane is the Sauiour of woemen a most execrable of Postellus the Iesuit Fol. 14. with a great deale of such base trash as this And yet his booke is declared to haue beene pervsed and by the lawfull authority of the Church of England permitted to be publicke But yet euen Maister Rogers himselfe is not so valiant as to tell vs in particular which point of their Doctrine is fundamentall to saluation and which is not Much lesse is there any apparance that euer the Church of England should doe it since euen now we haue seene that it dares not in diuerse points soe much as declare in publicke manner that it professes the expresse contrary of what we held Nay we are not likely to see the fūdamental points of Faith whereof they talke so lowd to be auowed by so much as either of the Vniuersities yea or yet by any one Colledge or society of learned men amongst them And the reason of their reseruation in this kind is playne For if when they write ioyntly and in a body they should be conuinced of any absurdity or errour by the testimony either of the ancient Fathers on the one side or the Lutherans on the other their maine cause would receaue a mortall wounde because so their Church o● Vniuersities or Colledges would plainly appeare to be controlled and confuted eitheir by the Fathers or their fellow ghospellers whereas now when they speake or write but in the name or persons of particular men one of them will not thinke that himselfe or his cause is much preiudiced if any other of them be found guylty of errour and in such cases it is vsuall for them to say what care I if Doctour Morton say this or Doctour White say that and the like For this reason it is that I haue heard some Catholickes affirme and that to my thinking with great reason that they would hold it to be no ill worke for them if the pretended Colledge of Chelsy or any other were founded by Protestants expresly for writing bookes of controuersie by common consent But I belieue I shall not see them halt vpon that leg for feare least they should be found to be lame of both On the otherside at times they make eager inuectiues against vs for declaring so many yea and all the Doctrines of our Church to be Fundamentall so far forth as that whosoeuer refuses obstinatly to belieue any one of them doth forfette the saluation of his soule And in the strength of this zeale of theirs Doctour Dunne in a sermon made before his Maiesty at his first happy coming to this Crowne doth bitterly exclame against the Catholicke Romane Church as

beliefe of the holy Scripture it selfe and consequently of all the other greatest points We differ about the Primacie of S. Peter and his successours yea and about the infallibility of generall Councells and so therefore about the supreme iudge on earth of all our controuersies in Religion We differ about the iustification of soules and the value which the death and grace of Christ our Lord hath imparted to the workes of the children of God We differ in a world of particulars about the article of holy Catholicke Church and namely whether it must alwayes be visible or noe euen to the eyes of men and whether it must alwayes be free frō errour and fallibility We differ about the Communion of Saincts whether we may either pray for thē who are in Purgatory or to thē who are in heauen And we differ not only about these and many other most importāt points as mē who ar ready to relinquish their opiniōs if they be cōmāded but we ar on both sides resolued to persist though both the Catholicke Church in her counsells and the Protestants in their seuerall Confessions haue declared that their owne opinions are true and the contrary false and though we on the one side haue cast excommunication vpon the new deniers of those doctrines of ours which we haue receaued frō Christ our Lord his Apostles and they on the other haue filled their parts of the world which scurrill blasphemous inuectiues against those sayd Doctrines of ours and haue taken vpon themselues to be the reformers of the Church though without either ordinary mission or miracles and to be true publishers of the ghospell and euen the very illuminatours of the world And now therefore let that be considered once for all which hath formerly ben shewed about the stile of holy Scripture Fathers which speake those said things of Heresies and Hereticks without specifying in particular what they are And let it also be called to minde what Catalogues the Fathers of the Primitiue Church haue made of heresies whereof many abstracting frō the pride and disobedience which thereby is committed against the Church are neither of so great importance in themselues or at least not great at all in respect of those many most important Articles which ar mutually affirmed or denied betwene the Protestants and vs. For what imported it all that some were so foolish as to hold al men bound by Scripture to put of their shoes when they prayed yet S. Augustine cited them for heretickes in his Catalogue But the pride wherewith they presumed to abuse Scripture and to impose such a fond law vpon mēs cōsciences a resolutiō not to leaue it when they were commaunded by the Church was that which made it heresy in them Or what Article of the Creede or what book of Scripture or what sacramēt of the Church did the Quartodecimani deny or what errour did they introduce but only the celebrating of Easter at another time then was ordained by the Church and yet for this doth S. Austin inroll them in the rancke of heretickes the same I might exemplifie in many other particulars Presumption and pride which is expressed by choosing obstinatly maintaining of any doctrine or discipline cōtrary to the iudgment and commaundement of the Catholicke Church and by refusing to submit therein to the same Church is that wherein the very life spirit of Schisme and Heresie doth consist And the question is not here whether the point vpon which the Schisme or heresie is grounded be in it selfe of so great importance yea or no but whether there be in the hearte of any priuate man or men such a diabolicall degree of obstinacy and pride as to preferre their owne sence and Iudgment in things belonging to the faith and worship of our Lord God before the resolution and direction of his holy Catholicke Church which is his spouse his kingdome his house his Sanctuary and his citty which was made the treasure house of grace the foundation and pillar of truth the depositary of the holy Ghost and the heire of most faithfull and firme promises that euen the gates and power of Hell it selfe should neuer be able to preuaile against it And now I say if there be found such a sinne as this in the soule of man as to preferre his owne poore dictamens before the decrees of this Church it is so very enormous so barbarous so wholy out of the way of al Religion of reason of nature and euen of common sence it sauours of such a spirituall and infernall presumption so much the more cordially to be first lamented and then detested because it is cloaked vnder the collour of the ghospell and Christian liberty and I know not what of that kind that really it can deserue no other place or degree of punishment then Hell it selfe And now that all this is true namely that heresie cōsistes not in the material beliefe of a false doctrine for the contrary thereof perhaps was not sufficiently propounded to be belieued but in the disobedience to the Church after it is propoūded that famous exāple of S. Cyprian and the Donatistes may serue for prooffe For S. Cypriā was of the first who fel vpō the doctrine of rebaptization of such as had beene baptized by Hereticks and the Donatists afterward succeeded in the same But in S. Cyprian it was but errour because the Church of his time had not absolutely condemned it but growing after to condemned in the Donatists time it was Heresie in them not to forsake it Which drew Vincentius Lirinensis to make this exclamation O admirable change of things the authours of an opinion are held Catholicks and the followers of the selfe same are iudged hereticks And S. Cyprian himselfe declares the same in substance vpō a like occasion concerning others For when one inquired of him what that erroneous doctrine was which Nouatianus the schismatick had taught his answere to his friend was directly this Thou must know that we should not be curious what that doctrine is which he teaches since he is out of the Church teachinge clearly therby that not the quality of the doctrine but the pride of the man is that which makes the hereticke And in deede if this were not the rule whereby heresies and schismes must be knowne it were impossible to conclude what were an heresie or a schisme and so also there should fall out to be no heresie in effect at all which might not be compatible with saluation Now this opinion is not only contrary to the current of holy Scriptures and Fathers and to the beliefe and practise of the Catholicke Church of all ages but euen of the Protestants themselues who condemne not only vs but one an another also as is abundantly shewed the Authour of the Protestants Apologie c. for the Roman Church and especially in the place cited in the Margine fol. 408. where he cites Luther expresly saying thus We

making euery toy to be Fūdamentall Where by the way he takes his pleasure vpon vs sayes that we Papists will not let Protestants be saued though they belieue the same Creede and the same faith with vs vnles withall they will belieue the same Mathematicks and gouerne thēselues by the same Kalēders which to omit other poornesses of his was soe weake and meane a iest so misbecoming of that Audience and of the place he helde as being fitter indeed for some Ordinary thē for a Chappel or Church and withall so very vntrue if he were in earnest that vnles the pride of his owne conceit had raised vp a dust to put out his eyes he could not but haue seene the senselesnes of what he said euen whilest he was speaking since we the Romane Catholickes in this kingdome do rather gouerne our selues at this day by the lesse perfect Kalender which now is vsed in this place then by the other which is both the better euen by the iudgment of learned Protestants is authorized by the Catholicke Church abroade Letting he world see thereby how willingly we can accommodate to them in all things which belong not meerely to Religion But Maister Doctour forgot himselfe worse shortly after For hauing grauely admonished mē before not to account things arbitrary to be necessary nor to call superstructions foundations nor to esteeme that euery little thing in Religion should be able to depriue a man of saluation he takes the paynes to wipe out with a wet finger the whole substance and drifte of all his owne discourse by saying to his effect That differēce in beliefe in points which are not very important is not to preiudice a mans saluation vnles by not belieuing them he commit a disobedience with all for saith he Obedience indeede is of the Essence of Religion Which vpon the whole matter is the very thing we say and the very thing whereby he crosses the whole scope of his owne sermon For if a mans disobediēce to the proposition and direction of the Church concerning an inferiour point of Doctrine do impugne the very essense of Religion it will follow that their distinctiō of points Fundamentall or not Fundamentall wherby they would inferre that a man can not loose his saluation but for misbelief in some few mayne points of Religion and not in the rest is absurd and vaine and detractiue both of Doctour Dunnes Doctrine last mentioned and of their owne obiection of vncharitablenes against vs for saying that men dying in different Religions cannot be saued And withall that this distinction will not secure them from committing the crime of separation from the Church of Christ our Lord and in swaruing from the directions thereof in which case all the Doctrines of the Church are found to be Fundamentall towards saluation And this shall serue for a dischardge both of what they obiect against our vnitie in faith and of what they alleadge in the behalfe of theirs And in the meane time I conceaue that I haue also sufficiently secured and settled those two mayne groundes vpon which this whole discourse is turned Namely first that there is but one true faith and one true Religion and Church out of which there is no saluation and secondly that both Catholickes and Protestants can not possible be accounted to be of that one Religion Church Faith And now for the finall proofe of this last point according euen to their practise as well as ours let my Reader but looke vpon the body of their lawes made against vs and especially vpon the Preambles thereof wherein they plentifully shew how hatefull an opinion they haue of our Church Let him looke vpon the seuerall Acts of State which haue issued from my Lords of the Counsell Let him looke vpō the proclamatiōs which haue beene made and published from time to time Let him looke vpon the large cōmissions which haue beene granted to Pursiuants whereby that scume of the world hath been and is enabled both to ransome ransacke vs at their pleasure Let him looke vpon those speeches which haue been vttered in both houses of Parliament not only against the professours but euen the profession it selfe of our Religion and how his most excellent Maiesty hath been importuned by their Petitions to add more weight to our miseries for thus it will easily be seene how false how rotten how superstitions how Idolatrous how detestable how damnable and euen destructiue of all truth and goodnes they professe themselues to esteeme our Religiō and in fine that we carry such a marke of the Beast in our foreheads as must needs in their opinion shut vp the gates of Heauen against vs and set open the iawes of Hell to deuoure and swallowe vs vp So that certainely we are no more of one Church with them in their opinion then they are of one with vs in ours And now there will remaine noe more but a short Recapitulation of what hath been deliuered more at large for the finishing of this discourse to which I will now betake my selfe A recapitulatiō of the whole discourse wherin it followes vpon the confession of both parties that the Catholickes and the Protestants are not both of them saueable in their seuerall Religions without repentance thereof before they dy and that Catholickes must therefore be no longer held vncharitable for saying so but those Protestants are shewed to be Libertines who say the contrary CHAPTER X. SInce the Faith Religion Church hath beene prooued both by Scriptures and Fathers as also by vnanswearable reasons which haue beene drawne both from the very groundes of true Faith and from the nature and spirit of Heresy and Schisme and finally by the Confession of both parties to be but only one and that out of that one there is noe saluation to be obtayned Since the difference concerning the Doctrine of faith betweene Catholickes Protestants are so many so important and so resolutely maintained cōcerning both the Canon of Scriptures the number nature of Sacraments the authority of traditions the supreme Iudge of Cōtrouersies the visible heade of the Church the iustification of ouer soules the valewe of our good workes the liberty of our will the possibility of keeping the Commandements the relations which runne betweene the men of this life on the one side and both the soules in Purgatory and the Saints in Heauen on the other Since besides our differences in points of Doctrine we swarue also from one an other in points of discipline and haue separated our selues haue mutually excōmunicated one another Since we hold them to liue in heresie and schisme and they vs in affected ignorance grosse superstition and Idolatry and are dayly making Sermons and bookes and edicts and lawes against one another it is certaine that either both they and we must not be saued if we dy vnrepētant of our seuerall Religions or else that the whole world hath beene in a dreame of three thousand yeares old euer

since Moyses time which furnished vs with the first proofe that there must be vnity in Religion and obedience in the professours thereof that such as should obstinately trangresse were ordained to be put to a first death which might serue them for a Preface to their second destruction Which truth being once graunted I trust they will not take it ill at our hands if we hope well of our selues in our owne way and consequently if we conceaue that we haue no cause to hope well of them if they dy impeditent in theirs they haue no reason to be offēded with vs and the lesse since the Lutherans declare so expresly and resolutely that the Resolution of the Sacramentaries that is to say of our English Protestants is also damnable as hath been seene And this not only for the heresie which they hold in point of the Sacrament but for many others also as appeares by those authours of theirs whom I cited before So that still I see lesse and lesse colour why they should except against vs as if we wanted charity for saying that of them which when they list they not only take liberty to say of vs but euen of one another also and yet do not thinke that they offend Charitie therein As for vs we neither do nor can with any reason conceaue that they breake the lawe of charity towards vs supposing their owne Religion to be true in that they allow not saluation to vs if we dye in ours which consequently must be false And if ours be a false Religion as it must needes be if their Church be true and that we obstinately refuse to obay it we cannot be saued by the profession thereof And so therefore on the other side if ours be true as euen they must giue vs leaue to thinke it and as infallibly we belieue it to be theirs must then be no lesse false then ours is true Now supposing this on both sides it will not be want of Charity in either of vs both to hold and declare the others Religion to be incōpatible with saluation nay it will be want of Charity if we do it not For men are not so made for them selues as that they must not also procure to do their neighbours good and especially in that which most imports And besides the generall tye of one part of mankind to another whereof we are put in minde so many wayes the holy Scripture it selfe is often pointing vs out to our duty in this kind and most especially it doth in one passage of Ecclesiasticus lay a direct obligation vpon vs in these most binding words Cap. 17. Mandauit vnicuique Deus de proximo suo God hath laied a charge vpon euery man that he looke to his neighbour Which as it warrants not the busie or medling humour of any priuate man to intrude himselfe into the secret affaires of another nor obliges him so much as euen to the reprooffe of his knowne sinnes when he hath neither charge ouer that person nor hath hope of amendement by it and when it is not agreable otherwise to the circumstāces and rules of charity which ought to be conducted and carryed on by Christian prudence so yet on the otherside it layes not only a Counselle but a strict commandement not only vpon some one but vpon euery one not to omit opportunity whereby a man may prudently be in hope either to doe his neighbour any important good or else to diuert him from any thing which may doe him any considerable hurt Now if a priuate man must not only be excused if according to the rules of Christian piety and prudence he assist his neighbour in doing well and declaring the danger wherein he is if he doe otherwise but he shall not be excusable in the sight of God if he dischardge not this duty how much more highly shall the Church of Christ our Lord be both authorized and obliged to instruct Christians in the right way and to reduce such others as are in the wrong by making them vnderstand their danger of euerlasting damnation Nay we see by that which past betweene Almighty God and the Prophet Ezechiel that he was appointed to stand Centinell ouer the house of Israel and to heare Gods word out of his owne mouth and so to announce it to his people in his name and that God said thus to him Si dicente me ad impium c. Ezechiel cap. 3. If when I shall say to the wicked mā thou shalt dye the death thou declare it not to him nor aduise him to returne from his wicked way that he may liue that wicked man shall dy in his iniquity but I will require his blood at thy handes But if thou anounce it to him and that yet he will not returne from his sinne and from his wicked way that man indeed shall dye in his owne sinne but as for thee thou shalt haue freed thy soule from death Now therefore if a single Prophet being called to that office by Almighty God be obliged vnder the paine of his owne damnation to aduise men to depart from their wickednes how much more precisely will this obligation lye vpon the Church of God which hath the chardge ouer all Christian soules to teach them that Doctrine which is true and to let them see the danger wherein they are of hell fire if they continue to professe that which is false For the word of God whether it be written in holy Scripture or vnwritten and so deliuered from hand to hand by Tradition is his reuealed will and the Church is his Embasadour Leidger in this world to declare and announce that word and will of his to mankind and to bring them into league with God as S. Paule affirmed of him selfe and of the other Pastours and Doctours of the Church 2. Cor. 5 Legatione pro Christo fungimur c. We are Embassadours on the part of Christ with instructions for the reconciling of man to God And accordingly S. Paule was carefull to let men see their case and to declare the danger wherein sinners were For we haue seene how he warned men to take heede of the speech of hereticks as of a Cancer and else where to auoid them if they did not first reforme them selues after they had beene reprooued once or twice as also that such as departed from the vnity of faith were people who attended to the spirit of Errour and to the Doctrine of diuells and a great deale more of that kind which you shall find related before in the ninth chapter which clearly and fully shewes what opinion the holy Scripture hath of heretickes Besides all this if a man shall eternally be damned for committing of one theft or one act of simple fornication vnles he repent himselfe thereof before he dy Gal. 5. Cōsulta decapes relig which is cleare by S. Paules expresse text much more as Father Lessius shewes shall he incurre those eternall torments