possunt debent Episcopitotius Orbis nisi legitimè impediantur quibus nemo rectè praesidet nisi Summus Pontifex aut alius ejus nomine Inde n. dicuntur Oecumenica i. e. Orbis Totius Terrae Concilia Bellarm. Controv. To. 1. l. 1. de Concil c. 4. p. 1096. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Chal. Act. 1. Bin. To. 3. p. 50. * Quaedam sunt ab Apostolica sede approbata atque ab Ecclesiâ universâ recepta quaedam omnino reprobata quaedam partim reprobata partim approbata quaedam nec approbata nec reprobata Bellarm. ubi sup p. 1097. a pag. 1105 1107 1109. Et inde constat locutum esse Bellarminum ex sententia suâ quia sic claudit Partitionem Quod membrum postremum in Confiliis particularibuâ— potissimuÌ„ locum habet p. 1097. Ergo membra priora in Generalibus ut postremum aliquatenus etiamsi non potissimum b Dist. 16. Can. sancta octo apud Gratian. p. 60 61. c Gratian. Decret par 1. Dist. 5. Huc spectat Epist Viâ—ilii Papae ad Eutychium apud Concil Edit Bin. To. 8. p. 593. d Absque Romani Pontificis Authoritate Synodum aâ—iquibus congregare non lâ—cet Ibid. Dist. 17. e Concil Elorent Sess. 5 6. f Magdeburg Cent. 8. c. 9. Cent. 9. c. 9. g V. Concil Gen. à Paulo V. Edit Tom. 4. Socrat. Hist. Ecc. l. 1. c. 8. Sozomen l. 1. c. 23. Niceph. l. 8. c. 19. * Dist. 32. Can. Nicen. V. Concil Constantin III. Can. 13. To. 5. p. 326. Concil Elib Can. 36. Concil Nic. 2. Act. 4. Concil Constant quartuÌ„ decrevit eâ—ndem ImaginuÌ„ cultum Edit Bin. Tom. 7. p. 1046. Concil Chalced. Act. 15. Can. 28. Qui Canon â—enuinus est non obstante Binii subterfugio pudendo Tom. 3. pag. 446. * Concil Constantinop III. Act. 13. Tom. 5 lib. 211. Vide Notas in vitam Honor. Edit Bin. Tom. 4. pag. 572. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Concil Flor. definit Edit Bin. To. 8. p. 854. * Ibid. Sess. 5. p 593. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Conc. Constant. III. Can. 13. To. 5. Edit Bin. To. 5. p. 326. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ibid. p. 325 326. c Ibid. p. 338. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Constant. IV. Act. 9. Can. 3. Edit Bin. To. 7. p. 977. * Such as Bellarmin Baronius Onuphriâ—â— Vasques Maldonat Stella Lyâ—a Stapleton Pamelius Petavius Viâ—es Rubanus Maurus and others Yea Scotus Aquinas Pope Gregory the Great The Bishops of Germany in the Council at Wormes c. * Ch. 9. 97. * Ib. p. 95. * Ib. p. 93. * Ib. p. 97. * Ubi supra praesertim pag. 97. * See the use which is made by Dr. Pearson in his Preface to the Reply of the Lord Viscount Faulkland * Rom. Cath. Doct. no Nov. * Cap. 9. Sect. 11. p. 98. * Ubi supra pag. 89. * Pag. 98. * 1 Cor. 13. 7. 2 Cor. 5. 10. Deut. 32. 29. Eccles. 7. 3. Verse 2. * Verse 4. * Wisd. 2. 6 7 8 9 10. Joh. 14. 1. Eccles. 2. 12. Isa. 51. 12. Mat. 10. 28. * Mat. 25. 21. Mat. 16. 25. Mark 8. 36. * Mat. 25. 16. Luk. 19. 15. Joh. 9. 4. Phil. 4. 5. * Mat. 24. 42. * He saith expresly 1. That whatever God foresees and doth not prevent which is all the wickedness in the word he may be justly said to Cause p. 9. 2. That Gods absolute will is the prime cause and necessarily productive of every action of the creature p. 10. and so no less of our worst then of our best actions 3. That God cannot be freed from being the author of sin by such as acknowledge his prescience p. 9. so that either he cannot believe Gods prescience or cannot but believe him the Author of sin 4. That he cannot deny God to be the author of sin or to will the event of sin p. 2. * P. 2. l. 19 20 p. 9. l. 18. to l. 22. p. 10. l. 23 25. to be compared with l. 32. * Psal. 16. 10. Wisd. 4. 13. 1 King 15. 5. Jer. 35. 19. 2 Per. 1. 12. 13. 15. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 14. * 2 Tim. 3. 16. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isocrat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b 2 Cor. 11. 23. c Mat. 24. 42. d Mat. 12. 36. Luk. 21. 36. e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Polyb. l. 10. p. 603. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. Eth. lib. 10. cap. 3. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. l. 9. c. 4. a Eccles. 12. 5. 3 4 5 6 5. b Vers. 7. c Heb. 2. 17. d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. Ench. cap. 21. a Gen. 3. 19. b Gen. 18. 27. c Psal. 103. 14 d Eccl. 3. 21. e Vers. 19. f Vers. 20. g Job 4. 19. h Psal. 49. 12. i Ibid. k Gen. 2. 7. l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist. loco super cit a Psal. 90. 4. b Psal. 39. 5. c Ibid. d Psal. 62. 50. a Psal. 90. 10. b Ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moschion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sophocl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Wisd. 4. 11. * Job 4. 19. Poma oculis tenus contacta cinerescunt Tertul. Apol. c. 40. p. 70. 2 Cor. 5. 2. a Psal. 90. 9. b Psal. 89. 48. c Psal. 90. 5. a Vers. 12. b Wisd. 5. 13. Job 18. 4. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo Iud. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d Hunc diverso tramite Mortales Omnes conantur adipisci Boeth de Consol. Philos l. 3. p. 98. e Leo Isaurus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Psal. 39. 14. b Eâ—â—ipides in Phaenissis c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. in Alcestide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrat. in Epist. ad Anonym p. 8. a Col. 3. 5. Rom. 8. 13. b 2 Cor. 11. 23. c Rom. 6. 6. Gal. 6. 14. d 1 Cor. 15. 31. e 1 Tim. 5. 6. f Eccl. 41. 1. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herodoâ— in Thalia c. 43. p. 179. b Wisd. 4. 20. c Heb. 12. 8. d 2 Cor. 4. 8. Occidere est veâ—are cupientem mori Sen. in Thebaide Psal. 54. e Psal. 39. 5. a Psal. 6. 6. b Psal. 42. 1. c Vers. 2. Dio Chrysoâ—t Orat. 30. pag. 305. D. 1 King 19. 4. a Job 6. 4. b Vers. 8 9. c Job 3. 1 3 4 5 c. Vers. 11. 12. d Isa. 53. 3. e Ibid. The Application Psal. 39. 4. 2 King 20. 6. Job 14. 14. Luk. 12. 18. Vers 19. Job 1. 21. Psal. 39. 12. * 1 Pet. 2. 11. Heb 11. 13. 1 Pet. 2. 9. 12. Tobit 4. 21. Job 28. 28. Wisd. 4. 8 9. Luk. 2. 37. * Rom. 2. 8. * 2 Cor. â— 1. Phil. 3. 13 14 * Nemo tam Divos habuit â—aventes crastinum ut possit sibi polliceri * Cuivis potest accidere quod cuiquam potest Publiâ—◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sophocl in Trachiniis * Luk. 12. 22. * 2 King 20. 6. * Eph. 4. 26. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soph. ubi supra 1 Thes 5. 2. 4. 2 Pet. 3. 10. Psal. 50. 22. Mat. 24. 42 43 44. * Habaâ— 2. 1. a Eecl 41. 2. b Job 3. 20 21. c Vers. 22. d Cuspinianus in vita Sigismundi p. 498. e Mat. 10. 27 28. f Ecclus. 41. 4 g Job 3. 17 18 14 19. 18. * Philip. 2. 4. * 2 Cor. 5. 23 24. * Vers. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alexis in Olympiodoro Ecclus. 44. 1 2 3 c. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip in Heâ—ubâ James 4. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Joh. 1. 47 48. 1 Sam. 12. 2 3. Vers. 4. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Châ—yâ—â—st Hom. in Gen 3. Gal. 3. 11. Num. 23. 10. King 20. 1. Jam. 1. 27. * Luk. 3. 8. Act. 26. 20. * Josh. 24. 15. Object Answ. * 1 Thes. 5. 22 Prov. 5. 8. * Mat. 20. 9. * Cito ignoscit Dominus quia cito â— ille convertitur Aâ—broâ— in Luc. 23. 43. a 2 Cor. 5. 17. b 2 Cor. 7. 9. c Phil. 3. 14. d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 24. 13. 2 Cor. 7. 11. * Exod. 16. 18. * Act. 2. 45. * 2 Pet. 2. 5. Gen. 49. * Mat. 25. 7 8. * Eccl. 49. 1. Heb. 12. 22 23. Rev. 5. 13.
have but the Grace to use them rightly else they will make us the unhappier in that world which is to come For without the right use even the Grace of God it self does accidentally highten our Condemnation And though I never had yet such a Roman Faith as to believe that there IS such a thing as Purgatory yet with submission to God's Oeconomy I think the most of mankind might be glad there were Because it seems a very easy Composition with his Justice to suffer Hell for a time in order to happiness for Eternity It concerns us therefore to pray in this conjuncture of our affairs that God will give us to drink of his bitter Cup not as our Appetites shall crave but as He in his wisdom shall judge expedient Let him enable us to choose but this one Requisite for our selves even His sanctifying Grace And then in company with That let him allot us what he pleaseth Be it War Pestilence or Famine be it Ignomy Overthrow or suddain Death For as by looking upon our Sins we cannot but see matter of Terror whereby to hold us in constant fear so by reflecting upon our sufferings we may discern matter of Comfort whereby to couple our Fear with Hope I say 't is matter of some Comfort that God doth seem by his Correction to own us still for his People that he does not severely suffer us to be over prosperous in our impieties that he has not so wholly left us as not to visit us with his Rod but that at least he does vouchsafe us the Mercy of his Iudgments to work upon us And though he threatens to give us up to some of the cruelest of our Enemies such as are the two plagues of perfect beggery and the Pestilence 't is that he may not give us up unto our more cruel selves that we may never indure the Tyranny of our own hearts lust or live under the Yoke of our vile Affections And therefore to the end we may rather kiss than undutifully repine at his gracious Rod which does so charitably smite and would fain wound us into a Cure let us continue to fix our eyes as on the Errand on which it comes so withal on the Author from whom 't is sent Which leads me to the Potentate by whom the Embassadour is dispatcht The last particular in the Division Hear ye the Rod and who hath Appointed it § 1. That the same Dispensation of the Cup of Trembling and Astonishment should not only have such diverse but such contrary effects upon the several Complexions it meets withal as to be one mans Restaurative and anothers Poyson softning one into Repentance and hardning another into Despaire might seem a difficult kind of Riddle at the very first hearing were it not that this Accompt may be given of it That the one looks only downwards and views the Rod of his Afflictions as meerly springing out of the Dust whereas the other looks upwards and acknowledges the Finger of Him that sent it They whose Spirits and Contemplations are ever groveling on the earth and look no higher than second Causes are commonly sorry in their Distresses as men without Hope whereas the men whose Affections are set on things that are Above and with the Lyncean Eye of Faith can look on the other side the Veil do so submit to and comply with the will of God in their afflictions as to desire it may be don as well on Earth as it is in Heaven I know not whether it is more to be fear'd or hop'd that God will never withdraw his Rod which lyes so heavy upon our shoulders until he has first of all whipt us into the wisdom to discern and into so much Humility as to acknowledge That the Original and Increase and present Continuance of our Plague hath not only arisen to us out of natural Causes much less out of fortuitous to wit from Atomes or Insects or from I know not what malignant and secret qualities in the Aire but from the wrath of a provoked and jealous God for the most brutish unconcerdness and Impenitences of Men. The Plague of Pestilence being a Rod of so astonishing a Nature that though the Heathens look'd upon it as a thing rooted in the Earth yet they thought it laid on by an hand from Heaven The Carthaginians at Syracuse and the People of Tolouse in the time of Brennus ascrib'd the Cause of their several Pests unto the Anger of their Gods for the Sin of Sacriledge and fled for Refuge to Restitution as the great means of their Recovery And however Diodorus did take upon him to assign the natural Causes of the Pestilence that reign'd at Athens yet he assures us that the Athenians did look upon it as a Rod of supernatural contrivance Much more should we Christians impute the Cause of our Plague unto God's Displeasure as being that that serves to humble and raise us up too For as 't is matter to us of Terror to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 10. 31. so 't is matter also of Comfort that we do not fall out of the hands of God no nor yet into the hands of relentless men For with God there is Mercy and that in the midst of his Iudgments too whereas the very tender mercies of men are cruel Prov. 12 10. God does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men and when at last he is fain to wound 't is to the end that he may heal us But men to men are so inhuman that they will commonly break our heads with their pretious Balmes too And therefore David having his Option betwixt the Sword of the Lord for so the Pestilence was call'd and the Sword of man did soon determin to choose the former Let me fall now says he into the hand of the Lord for very great are his Mercies but let me not fall into the hand of men 1 Chron. 21. 13. § 2. If we look back upon the Church whilst she was yet but in her Childhood and consider her Tribulations as far as from Nero to Dioclesian we may observe how mens reflections upon the Wisdom and Goodness of God's Oeconomies did smooth the face of Death it self as 't was inflicted by the Rod of Divine Appointment and made her Children even to Court it how grim soever it became by its greatest Torments Amongst a thousand Examples which might be given of this Truth I shall not trouble or detein you with more than one In that dreadful and most bloody Sedition at Alexandria just as if Cadmus had sow'd his Teeth in that fruitful Soil when the Gulf of Arabia became a red Sea indeed which before was only call'd so by either a figure or a mistake when that Sea was so polluted with Blood and Stentch that had its water been to be wash'd all the Ocean saith Dionysius had been too little to wash it clean and when in consequence of This there
of Eucharist to have been necessary to Infants as well as to men of the ripest Age and yet as Maldonate confesseth at the very same time it was so plain and so grosse an Error that notwithstanding St Austin did endeavour to confute the Pelagians by it as by a Doctrin of Faith and of the whole Church of God yet the Council of Trent was of a contrary mind and did accordingly in a Canon declare against it 3. Pass we on to the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which if its Age may be measur'd by the very first date of its Definition may be allow'd to be as old as the Lateran Council a Council held under Pope Innocent the Third since whom are somewhat more then 400 years But from the beginning it was not so For besides that our Saviour just as soon as he had said This is my Blood explain'd himself in the same Breath by calling it expresly the fruit of the Vine and such as He would drink new in the kingdom of God Mat. 26. 29. Mark 14. 15. there needs no more to make the Romanists even asham'd of that Doctrine than the Concession of Aquinas and Bellarmine's Inference thereupon Aquinas so argues as to imply it is Impossible and imports a Contradiction for one body to be locally in more places than one and in all at once But Bellarmine at this is so very angry that in a kind of Revenge upon Aquinas though held to be the Angelical Doctor he needs will infer 't is as Impossible and equally implies a Contradiction for any one body at once to be so much as Sacramentally in more Places than one And therefore it cannot now be wonder'd concerning Transubstantiation if so long ago as in the time of Pope Nicolas the Second either the Novelty was not forg'd and hammer'd out into the shape in which we find it or not at all understood by the Pope Himself For one of the two is very clear by the famous Submission of Berengarius wherewith he satisfied the Synod then held at Rome and in which were 113 Bishops though not at all unto a Trans but rather a Consubstantiation Which divers Romanists themselves have not been able not to Censure though it was pen'd by a Cardinal and approved of by a Council and very glibly swallow'd down by the Pope himself 4. 'T is very true that their withholding the Cup of blessing in the Lord's Supper from the secular part of their Communicants hath been in practice little lesse then 400 years But from the beginning it was not so For in our Saviour's Institution we find it intended for every Guest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word Drink ye All of this Cup. Mat. 26. 27. And S. Paul to the Corinthians consisting most of Lay-men speaks as well of their drinking the mystical Blood as of their eating the Body of Christ. 1 Cor. 11. 26 27 28 29. Nay 't is confest by learned Vasquez as well as by Cassander and Aquinas Himself to be a Truth undeniable That the giving of both Elements in the Roman Church it self untill the time of Aquinas did still continue to be in use 5. The Church of Rome for several Ages hath restrain'd the holy Scriptures from the perusal of the People But from the beginning it was not so For Hebrew to the Iews was the Mother-Tongue and in That 't was read weekly before the People It pleased God the New Testament should be first written in Greek because a Tongue the most known to the Eastern world And to the end that this Candle might not be hid under a Bushel it was translated by St Ierome into the Dalmatick Tongue by Bishop Vulphilas into the Gothick by St Chrysostom into Armenian by Athelstan into Saxon by Methodius into Sclavonian by Iacobus de Voragine into Italian by Bede and Wiclef into English And not to speak of the Syriack Aethiopick Arabick Persian and Chaldee Versions which were all for the use of the common people of those Countries the Vulgar Latine was then the Vulgar Language of the Italians when the Old and New Testament were turn'd into it 6. The publick prayers of the Romanists have been a very long time in an unknown Tongue I mean unknown to the common people even as long as from the times of Pope Gregory the Great But from the beginning it was not so For 't is a scandalously opposite to the plain sense of Scripture as if it were done in a meer despight to the 14th Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians especially from the 13 to the 17. vers Not to speak of what is said by the Primitive Writers Aquinas and Lyra do both confess upon the place that the common Service of the Church in the Primitive times was in the common language too And as the Christians of Dalmatia Habassia Armenia Muscovia Sclavonia Russia and all the Reformed parts of Christendom have the Service of God in their vulgar Tongues so hath it been in divers Places by Approbation first had from the Pope himself 7. Another instance may be given in their Prohibiting of Marriage to men in Orders which is deriv'd by some from the third Century after Christ by others from the eighth and in the rigour that now it is from Pope Gregory the Seventh But from the beginning it was not so For Priests were permitted to have wives both in the Old and New Testament as Maximilian the Second did rightly urge against the Pope And the blessed Apostles many of them were married men for so I gather from Eusebius out of Clemens Alexandrinus and from the Letter of Maximilian who did not want the Advice of the learnedst persons in all his Empire and from 1 Cor. 9. 5. where St Paul asserts his liberty to carry a Wife along with him as well as Cephas And 't is the Doctrine of that Apostle that a Bishop may be an Husband although he may not be the Husband of more then One Wife 1 Tim. 3. 2. Tit. 1. 6. Besides the Marriage of the Clergy was asserted by Paphnutius in the Council at Nice and even by one of those Canons which the Romanists themselves do still avow for Apostolical And the forbidding men to marry with Saturninus and the Gnosticks is worthily call'd by God's Apostle The Doctrine of Devils 1 Tim. 4. 1. 3. 8. I shall conclude with that Instance to which our Saviour in my Text does more peculiarly allude I mean the Liberty of Divorce betwixt Man and Wife for many more Causes than the Cause of Fornication For so I find it is decreed by the Church of Rome with an Anathema to all that shall contradict it But from the Beginning it was not so For 't is as opposite to the will of our Blessed Saviour revealed to us without a Parable