if their Absolution is thought to have any other Vertue in it than a giving the Peace of the Church with a Declaration of the terms upon which God pardons Sinners If the Vertue of the Sacraments upon which so much depends according to their principles is so entirely in the Priests power that he can defeat it when he pleases with a cross intention so that all mens hopes of another state shall depend on the Priests good disposition to them by which every man must know how necessary it is to purchase their favour at any rate If likewise they pretend to an Immunity from the Secular Judge and do all enter into Oaths which center in him whom they acknowledge their Common Head whose authority they have advanced above all the powers on Earth so that he can depose Princes and give away his Dominions to others It must be confessed that all these have such Characters of Interest and Ambition on them and are so little like the true Spirit of Christianity or indeed the Common Principles of Natâ—ral Reason and Religion that a man is very partial who does not think it reasonable to suspect such proceedings and a Church that holds such Doctrines 3. It is likewise reasonable to suspect any Church that holds many opinions that tend much to a vast encrease of their Wealth and to bring the greatest Treasures of the World into their hands The power of redeeming Souls out of Purgatory has brought more Wealth into the Church of Rome than the discovery of the Indies has done to the Crown of Spain Such also was the power of Pardoning and of exchanging Penances for Money by which the World knew the price of Sins and the rates at which they were to be compounded for The Popes power of granting Indulgences the vertue of Pilgrimages the communication of the merits of Orders to such as put on their Habits and in a word the whole authority that the Câ—â—râ— of Rome has assumed in these latter ages that tend so much to the encrease of their Revenue are all such evident Indications of particular ends and private designs that he must be very much wedded to his first impressions that does not upon this suspect that matters have not been so fairly carried among them that nothing ought to be doubted which is defined by them 4. It is a very just cause of suspecting every thing that is managed by a company of Priests if they have for several Ages carried on their designs by the foulest methods of Forgery and Imposture of which they themselves are now both convinced and ashamed When the Popes authority was built on a pretended Collection of the Letters which the Popes of the first ages after Christ were said to have writ and their assumed Jurisdiction was justified by those precedents which are now by themselves acknowledged to be forgeries When the Popes Temporal Dominion was grounded on the Donations of Constantine of Charles the Great and his Son Lewis the Good which appear now to be notorious forgeries When an infinite number of Saints of Miracles Visions and other wonderful things were not only read and preached to the people but likewise were put into the Collects and Hymns used on their Festivals which wrought much on the simplicity and superstition of the vulgar many of which are now proved to be such gross impostures that they are forced to dash them out of their Offices and others against which there lyes not such positive proof yet depend on the credit only of some Legend writ by some Monks When many Books past over the World as the Writings of the most Ancient Fathers which were but lately writ and many of their genuine Writings were grossly vitiated When all those things are become so evident that the most Learned Writers amongst themselves particularly in the Gallican Church have not only yielded to the proofs brought by Protestant Writers in many of these particulars but have with a very Commendable Zeal and Sincerity made discoveries themselves in several particulars into which the others had not such advantages to penetrate There is upon all these grounds good cause given to mistrust them in other things and it is very reasonable to examine the assertions of that Church with the severest rigour since an Imposture once discovered ought to bring a suspicion on all concerned in it even as to all other things 5. There is likewise great reason to suspect all that are extream fierce and violent that cannot endure the least contradiction but endeavour the ruine of all that oppose them Truth makes men both confident of its force and merciful towards such as do not yet receive it Whereas Errour is Jealous and Cruel If then a Church has decreed that all Hereticks that is such as do not submit to all her decisions are to be extirpated if she has bound all her Bishops by Oath at their Ordinations to Persecute them to the utmost of their power If Princes that do not extirpate them are first to be excommunicated by their Bishops and after a years Contumacy are to be deposed by the Popes and their Kingdomes to be given away If all Hereticks upon Obstinacy or Relapse are to be burnt and if they endeavour in all places as much as they can to erect Courts of Inquisition with an absolute authority in which Church-men forgetting their Character have vied in Inventions of Torture and Cruelty with the bloodiest Tyrants that have ever been Then it must be confessed that all these set together present the Church that authorizes and practises them with so dreadful an aspect so contrary to those bowels and tendernesses that are in the nature of man Not to mention the merciful Idea's of God and the wonderful meekness of the Author of our Holy Religion that we must conclude that under what form soever of Religion such things are set on foot in the World such a Doctrine is so far from improving and exalting the nature of man that really it makes him worse than he would otherwise be if he were left to the softness of his own nature And certainly it were better there were no revealed Religion in the World than that mankind should become worse more cruel and more barbarous by its means than it would be if it were governed by Nature or a little Philosophy Upon all these grounds laid together it is no unreasonable thing to conclude that a Church liable to such imputations ought justly to be suspected and that every one in it ought to examine well on what grounds he continues in the Communion of a society of men against which such strong prejudices lie so fairly without the least straining or aggravating matters too much I proceed now to the second part of my undertaking which is to shew that the grounds upon which that Church builds are certainly weak if not false And 1. They boast much of a Constant Succession as the only infallible mark to judge of a Church and
when the power of the Church is used not to Edification but to Destruction then the obligation to obedience is not to be too far extended And as in Laws that oblige Subjects to obey Inferiour Magistrates a tacite exception is to be supposed in case they should become guilty of Treason so there must be supposed likewise in this case the like exception in case a Synod deposes a Bishop or a Bishop censures his Clergy for asserting the true Faith And as a Separation from an uncorrupted Church is a very great wickedness so the separating from a corrupted Church in whose Communion we cannot continue without being polluted in it is but a part of that care which we ought to have of our own Salvation The Fifteenth Method TO all the former Methods a Fifteenth may be added by letting our P. Reformed see that many Articles are to be found in their Confession of Faith in their Catechisms in the Articles of their Discipline in the Decisions of their Synods and in the Books of their Chief Ministers who have writ upon the Controversies from which Arguments may be drawn against them to prove the truth of our belief even by their own Confession For Example Their Discipline allows the Communion in one kind only to such as cannot drink Wine From which one may infer that the Communion under both kinds is not an Article of necessity and that they are in the wrong to alledge that as they do to be a lawful ground for their Separation The Minister Dailée and many others confess that in the time of S. Gregory Nazianzene S. Chrysostome and S. Jerome the Invocation of Saints was received in the Church John Forbes adds to this That the Tradition of the Church was uniform concerning Prayer for the Dead And since he denies that the Books of the Maccabees are Canonical he says the Scripture speaks nothing of it But without engaging into the difficulty concerning the Books of the Maccabees in which they have no more reason on their side than in the rest It is easie to conclude from their own principles that it was no ways to be allowed to separate themselves for matters that according to themselves were established by so great an authority and so constant an union of all Ages Remarks 1. IT is not an equal way of proceeding to object to the Protestants what some particular Writers have said or to strain Inferences too far at a time when the Celebrated Book of the Bishop of Meaux is in such high esteem The chief design oâ— which is to set aside all the Indiscretions of particular Writers and to put the best colours on things that is possible Now Tradition being of such authority among them whatsoever passes down through many of their approved Writers has a much greater strength against them than it can be pretended to have against us And therefore though particular Writers or whole Synods should have written or decreed any thing against the common Doctrines of the Reformed they ought not to object that to us If they will allow us the same Liberties that they assume to themselves 2. It is not a consequence becoming so great an Assembly to infer that because in some few extraordinary cases the general rule of Gods desiring Mercy and not Sacrifice is carried so far as to give weak persons so much of the Sacrament as they can receive and not to deny that to them because a natural aversion mâ—kes them incapable of receiving the Wine That therefore a Church may in opposition to Christs express command Drink you all of it and the constant practice of Thirteen Centuries take this away It is not of necessity for Salvation that every one drinks the Cup but it is of necessity to the purity of a Church that she should observe our Saviour's Precepts 3. It is confessed that some Fathers used the Invocation of Saints yet that being but a matter of fact it is of no consequence for the Decision of any point of Doctrine For we found our Doctrine only on the Word of God and â—ot on the practices of Men how eminent soever they might otherwise be But in relation to these Fathers these things are to be observed 1. They lived in the end of the Fourth Century So this is no competent proof for an Oral Tradition or conveyance of this Doctrine down from the Apostles days 2. Figures and bold Discourses in Panegyricks are rather to be considered as raptures and flights of warm affections than as composed and serious devotions Therefore such Addresses as occur in their Funeral Orations are rather high strains of a daring Rhetorick than Instructions for others since in their expositions on Scripture or other Treatises of Devotion they do not handle these things by way of Direction or Advice Iohn Forbes is mis-cited for William Forbes Bishop of Edenburgh Iohn was not of such yielding Principles It is true William though he was a man Eminently Learned and of a most Exemplary Life yet he was possessed with that same weakness under which Grotius and some other great men have laboured of thinking that a Reconciliation with the Church of Rome might be obtained by an accommodation on both sides and this flowing in him from an excellent temper of Soul he is to be excused if that carried him in many things too far But he is a Writer that has been taxed by all men as one that had particular Notions And we may object Erasmus to those of the Church of Rome as well as they may argue against us from Bishop Forbes 5. If the Church of Rome used only a General Commemoration of the Dead with wishes for the compleating their happiness by a speedy resurrection and went no further we might perhaps differ in opinion with them about the fitness of this but we would not break Communion with them for it But when they have set up such a Merchandize in the House of God for Redeeming Souls out of Purgatory and saying Masses for them this is that we except to as a disgracing of the Christian Religion and as a high profanation of the Holy Sacrament And it is plain that the Fathers considered the Commemoration of the Dead rather as a respect done to their Memory and an honourable remembrance of them than as a thing that was any way useful to them in the other state which may appear by this single Instance S. Cyprian was so much offended at a Presbyter when it appeared after his death that he had left another Presbyter Guardian of his Children that he gave order that no mention should be made of him in the Commemoration of the Dead that was used in the Holy Eucharist because by the Roman Law such as were left Guardians were under some obligations to undertake the trust And that Saint thought such a trust might prove so great a distraction to a man that was dedicated to the Holy Ministry that no Honour ought to be done to the Memory
of him that had so left it by his Will Certainly if that Commemoration was believed to be of any advantage to the Dead this had been an unreasonable piece of Cruelty in him to deny a Presbyter that comfort for so small a fault And therefore we may well infer from hence that by this Remembrance and the Thanksgivings they offered to God for such as had died in the Faith they intended only so far to celebrate their Memories as to encourage others to imitate those Patterns they had set them 6. I shall not engage in any Dispute concerning the Canonicalness of the Books of the Maccabees only as this general prejudice lies against all the Books called Apocryphal that the Council at Laodicea which was the first that reckoned up the Câ—non of the Scripture does not name them So as to the Book of the Maccabees it is hard to imagine that one who professes that he was but an Abridger of Iason's Five Books and gives us a large account of the difference between a Copious History and an Abridgement could be an Inspired Writer The Sixteenth Method TO Conclude one may solidly confute our Innovators by the Contradiction that is in their Articles of Faith shewing â—hem the Changes that they have made in the Ausburg Confession as also in all the different Expositions of their Faith which they have received and authorized since that time which shews that their Faith being uncertain and wavering cannot have the Character of Divine Revelation which is certain and constant There is nothing but the Faith that admits of no Reformation Tertullian made use of this Argument in many of his Books and Hilary handles it excellently well against the Emperour Constantius upon the occasion of the new Symbols which the Arians published every day changing their Faith continually while the Catholick Church continued firm to that of Nice One may likewise use another Method which is to make it appear that there is a Conformity between the Roman and Greek Churches in the chief Articles of Faith that are in dispute between us and the P. Reformed and that in these the Roman Church does likewise agree with those Sociâ—ties which separated themselves from the Church for Errours which the P. Reformed condemn with her such as the Nestorians and Eutychians To these Methods it will be necessary to add particular Conferences solid Writings Sermons and Missions and to use all these means with a Spirit of Charity without bitterness and above all without injuries Remembring that excellent saying of S. Austin's I do not endeavour to reproach those against whom I dispute that I may seem to have the better of them but that I may become sounder by convincing them of their Errour And following the Canon of the Council of Africk that appointed that though the Donatists were cut off from the Church of God by their Schism yet they should be gently dealt with that so correcting them with meekness as the Apostle says God may give them the grace of Repentance to know the truth and to retire themselves out of the snare of the Devil in which they are taken Captives Remarks 1. IF we did pretend that the first Reformers or those who drew the Ausburg confession were inspired of God in compiling what they writ there were some force in this Discourse But since we build upon this principle that the Scripture is the only ground on which we found our Faith then if any person how much soever we may honour his memory on all other accounts has misunderstood that we do not depart from our principle when we forsake him and follow that which appears to be plainly delivered in the Scriptures 2. We freely acknowledge that the Faith admits of no Reformation and that we can make neither more nor less of it than we find in the Scriptures but if any Church has brought in many Errours we do not think it a Reforming the Faith to throw these out The Faith is still the same that it was when the Apostles first delivered it to the Church nor was it the Faith but the Church that was pretended to be Reformed And if after a long night of Darkness and Corruption those that began to see better did not at first discover every thing or if some of the prejudices of their Education and their former opinions did still hang about them so that others who came after them saw further and more clearly This only proves that they were subject to the Infirmities of the Humane Nature and that they were not immediately inspired of God which was never pretended 3. Great difference is to be made between Articles of Faith and Theological Truths The former consists of those things that are the Ingredients of our Bâ—ptismal Vows and are indeed parts of the New Covenant which may be reduced to the Creed and the Ten Commandments The other are opinions relating to these which though they are founded on Scripture yet have not that Influence either on our Hearts or Lives that they make us either much better or much worse Among these we reckon the Explanation of the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament and the Influence of the Divine Grace upon our Wills If some of the Confessions of Faith among the Protestants differ much in these matters that is not concerning Articles of Faith but Theological Truths In which great allowances are to be made for difference of opinion And as particular Churches ought not to proceed too hastily to decisions in matters that are justly disputable so the rigorous imposing of those severe definitions on the Consciences of others by Oaths and Subscriptions and more particularly all rigour in the prosecution of those that differ in opinion is both disagreeing to the mildness of the Christian Religion and to the Character of Church-men and in particular to the principles upon which the Reformation was founded 4. As for the Greek Churches together with the other Societies in the East we do not deny that many of those corruptions for which we condemn the Church of Rome are among them which only proves that the beginning of these is elder than the Ninth or Tenth Century In which those Churches began to divide such is the worshipping of Images the praying to Saints and some other abuses 5. To this it must be added that for diverse Ages the oppression under which those Churches have fallen and the great Ignorance that has overspread them have beâ—n such that no wonder if those Greeks that have been bred up in the States of the Roman Communion and so were leavened with their opinions have found it no hard task to impose upon their weak and corrupt Countrey-men whatsoever opinions they had in charge to infuse into them So that we may rather wonder to find that all those abuses for which we complain of the Church of Rome are not among them than that some have got footing there 6. But after all this the main things upon