in a different manner according to the condition of those they had to do with or the temper of him that managed them yet they must needs seem more or less grievous to all when power sufficient was not left to the greatest Monarchs to defend themselves or protect their Subjects preserve the peace or promote the welfare and provide for the security of their own Countries Then no marvel if some of them grow weary of so insupportable oppressions and at last take courage to grapple with and extricate themselves from such manifest encroachments upon their own and the Peoples Civil Rights as well as the Ecclesiastical of the Church in their Dominions and be forced to some harsh and almost violent methods when the more gentle and benign could prevail nothing 3. But beside these more publick Invasions upon Church and State that which made the usurpation more odious and insufferable was the farther abuse of the same extravagant power to bring in strange and dangerous Doctrines corrupt and unlawfull practices into the Church and impose them upon all in their Communion exactly fitted to feed their Ambition enrich their Coffers secure their Authority and promote their ease and Luxury Such of the first sort are their Doctrine of Transubstantiation and Purgatory of Merit and Supererogation the multiplicity of Vows and delusions in the Principles of Repentance and ministration of Penance Of the latter sort are the Invocation of Saints and Angels Adoration of Reliques and Images their half Communion the Scripture lock'd up and Divine Service performed in an unknown tongue c. These and diverse like them have proved great Scandals abroad and stumbling blocks at home and whatever varnish they may put upon them by the fairest pretences or however they may cast a mist before the eyes of their Disciples by nice distinctions yet they have so disfigured the face of Christianity that he who compares the late appearances of it in the world with the model of it laid down in Scripture or the Records of the Primitive Church can hardly believe it the same thing But the particulars are not here to be disputed they have sufficiently been confuted and exposed by Protestant Writers and were by several before excepted against and disclaimed though some suffered severely for so doing and many more we may suppose waited an opportunity to free themselves from their pressure That which I am now most to insist upon is this that if the charge we draw up against these of falshood in judgment gross Superstition or Idolatry in Worship and immorality in manners be true and impartial as we have been ever ready to make good and shall do against all the Artifices of the Defendants Then no Authority whatever regularly founded or unexceptionably conveyed can oblidge us to these against the revealed Will or Word of God the Dictates of our Consciences as we hope carefully and righty informed the sense and reason of mankind and the Belief and practice of the Church in the first and purest Ages Greater cause was there to endeavour by all lawful means to throw off such an usurped power that made so ill use of what it had unjustly gotten and to restore Religion to its primitive beauty in Doctrine Worship and Precepts of Life But alas many difficulties lay in the way of its accomplishment and all possible struglings and contentions by force and policy were used by the adverse Party to prevent its beginning or obstruct it Progress Great was their Interest in every place Strong was the influence they had upon persons in Authority Numerous were their Assistants and Dependants at home and abroad Weighty was their concern which lay at stake and many were the advantages which they had of any that opposed them So that no wonder if a Reformation so long wish'd for and much wanted were so slowly effected It is rather more strange that in so many places it did master these and such like incumbrances and in so short a time made so considerable a progress If in some places it proceeded with less Order Uniformity and calmness then could have been wish'd for in a Religious Reformation Necessity in part with many perplexed difficulties and incumbrances may in some measure excuse what no Law before hand fully warrants IV. But leaving others to answer for themselves in my next particular I am to consider how regularly and sedately it proceeded in the church of England within the bounds of catholick Unity 1. With the concurrence and encouragement all along of the Supreme Power to free it from any but suspicion of Rebellion So it began at first with the breaking of the Papal yoke of Supremacy the Translation of the Bible and some like preparatives to Reformation under Henry the Eight and the united Suffrages of his Parliaments and the Bishops themselves therein It proceeded suitably to a further improvement in most particulars under his Son Edward the Sixth And at last it came to its full settlement and establishment under Queen Elizabeth The beginning and carrying on of the Reformation here was by such loyalty of Principles and Practices that we challenge any Church in the World to a Comparison therein Indeed this was so notorious that her Roman Adversares have turned her Glory into a Reproach by upbraiding her though most invidiously with the name of a Parliamentary Religion because it received all along so much countenance and assistance from those great Assemblies of all the three Estates of the Kingdom under their Head and Soveriagn 2. But farther to clear her of all just imputation from hence it must be added that the whole work was carried on with the advice and mature deliberation of the Clergy assembled in Convocation representing the intire body of them and therein a National Council That they from their Education and presumed Knowledge as well as from their Office and Ecclesiastical Authority are ordinarily fittest to judge debate and determine of Religious matters will be soon granted But that the civil Power may and ought sometimes to remind them of their Duty and restrain them from gross Defections from it may be proved by several Scripture Examples in the Old Testament and the Supereminence of their place But happy is that Order and Unity in which both Powers are joyned together for the service of GOD the security of his Church and promotion of his true Religion as it was here though it could not be expected but the first attempts would meet with several difficulties fierce Debates and Controversies yet still the entire establishment was ratified by the regular determination of the Clergy so assembled as before as well as was after confirmed by the Royal Assent 3 Yet farther to justifie themselves from any affected innovation in such a change all was done with the greatest Reverence Respect and Deference to the Ancient Church to clear their continued Unity therewith 1. In Doctrine The ancient Creeds were taken for the foundation of its Confession the four
Sacraments and seems no less to be contrary to the reason and Notion of a Sacrament in general The sum of what we have hitherto discoursed amounts to this First That here is no Auricular confession instituted by our Saviour Joh. 20. 22. As was pretended Secondly Not any Sacrament of Penance in which it can be included or implied no nor indeed any Sacrament at all I confess I might have spared all the words I have used in proving the latter for so long as I have made appear that private confession is not instituted it was not so very material to consider whither penance could be a Sacrament or no but this I added to shew the imperious dictates of that church and their extravagancy in imposing the most sacred Names upon their own inventions thereby to give them the greater veneration with the People And thus I would dismiss the first part of my undertaking yet the Romanists will not forego their pretensions for Auricular confession for they will yet urge that wihther or no we will call it a Sacrament which our Saviour institutes in the Text before us it is however certain here is a Power conferred on the Apostles and their Successors of remitting and retaining sins for by these words Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted c. * Our Saviour had made the Christus constituit Sacerdoteâ— sui ipsius Vicarios Sess 14. Praesides Judices Ibid. 4. Sacerdos solvit peccata potestate quadam praetoria Bellar. lib. 1. de Sacram. c. 10. Christus ratam habet sententiam a Sacerdote latam Id. lib. 3. c. 2. Priest a judge of Mens consciences and conditions Wherefore that he may not proceed blindly and indiscriminatly it is necessary that he know the merits of the Cause and not only understand the matter of fact but all the circumstances which may aggravate or extenuate it all which cannot be attained without the Confession of the party therefore Auricular confession is as necessarily implied in the Text as Absoltion or Retention of sins exprest in is it So they But I crave leave to demand in the first place Is it certain that upon such a confession as they require the Priest as such will be able to make a right judgment of a Mans case that addresses himself to him especially considering the intricacy of some cases and the ignorance of some Priests upon this account are those memorable words of St. Austin confess lib. 10. c. 3. Quid mihi ergo est cum hominibus ut audiant confessiones meas quaâ—i ipsi sanaturi sint omnes languores meos unde sciunt cum a meipso de meipso audiunt an verum dicam Quandoquidem nemo scit hominum quid agitur in homine nisi spiritus hominis qui in ipso est i. e. To what purpose should I Confess my sins to Men who cannot heal my wounds For how shall they who know nothing of my heart but by my own Confession know whither I say true or no For no one knowes what is in Man but the Spirit of Man that is in him O Yes they will say Clave non errante that is to say if he judge right he judges right and no more and this is mighty comfort to a distressed conscienâ—â— Secondly Though we grant our Saviour hath given the Priest Authority to Remit and Retain sins yet how doth it appear that this extends to Secret sins sins in thought only or as the Council expresses it against the ninth and tenth Commandments Of open â—ins and publick scandals the Church hath cognizance and hath a right which she may insist upon or recede from if she see cause because such sins are an injury to the Society as well as an offence against God and therefore here the Officers of the Church may dispense her Authority and Remit or Retain as we shall see more by and by but in secret sins where only GOD is injured and to that which he is only privy what hath the Church to do unless they be volunlarily discovered to her Otherwise they are properly reserved Cases to the Tribunal of God Thirdly I would be bold to enquire farther why may not sins especially such as we last named be Remitted upon Confession to God without Confession to the Priest also And I the rather ask this for these two reasons First I observe that this very Council of Trent saith that until the times Sess 14 c. 1. of our Saviour and his Institution of this Sament sins were remitted upon contrition only and application to the mercies of God without Auricular confession They cannot therefore now say remission implies this Confession for that cannot be said to be implied in the nature of a thing when the thing it self can be had without it They will answer that it is sufficient that it is now made necessary by our Saviour But I reply Then that Institution which now makes it necessary must be better proved then yet it hath been or else Men will be very apt to hope they may now under the Gospel obtain Pardon at least upon as easie terms as it was to be had at before My Second reason of asking that third Question is this I observe that their own Schoolmen Aquinas summ part 3. Q. 68. acknowledge sins to be remitted under the Gospel by the Priest without any Confession to Men particularly in the Administration of Baptism by which it plainly appears that Confession is not implied in the nature of Remission but one may be had without the other and then why may not a sinner after Baptism hope for Pardon upon his contrite and devout application to the Word and Sacraments without this new device and pick-lock of Conscience Auricular Confession But so much for that Sect. 3. I proceed now to the second thing propounded namely to inquire historically whither or no Auricular or such a secret and Sacramental Confession as aforesaid hath been of constant and universal use in the Christian Church as the Romanists pretend and as the Council of Trent asserts Sessi 14 Chap. 5. This inquiry is not into matter of Law or Divine Right as the former was but of Fact only yet nevertheless it is of great moment upon a double account 1. Because this is the ground which the Old Roman Canonists wholly went upon as I noted before they exploded all pretence of Divine Institution in the case as having more modesty it seems then to pretend so high upon no better evidence or at least they contented themselves to prescribe for it only upon the Authority of constant and universal practice now if we shew the falseness of this ground as well as of the other then will their Hypothesis of Auricular Confession have no foot to stand upon 2. Because the Credit of what hath been already said under the former head doth very much depend upon this and that Discourse will be confirmed or impaired respectively to what shall be evidently made out in this
that she died and was not miraculously assumed The Ascension of Elias is thus expounded b Dom. infrâ Oct. Asc in 3. Noct. p. 443. He was taken up into the Aerial not the Aetherial Heavens from whence he was dropped in an obscure place on Earth there to remain to the end of the World and then to expire with it They say †Infra Oct. Asc 3. Noct. Lect. 8. p. 447. of Job That when he spake of a Bird and of her path in the Air he by a figure called Christ a Bird and by the motion of it in the Air figured also our Lords Ascension We may perceive by these few Instances what an entrance into the sense of Scripture is like to be given whilst a Pope has the Key of Knowledge in his keeping Thirdly If Men would use the Church as their Assert III. Ministerial Guide and admit of the scripture as the only Rule by which all Matters of Faith are to be measured they would agree in the proper means to the blessed end of Unity in the Faith This was the perswasion of St. Austine who thus applieth himself to Maximinus * S. Aug cont Max. l. 3. Neither ought I at this time to alledge the Council of Nice nor you that of Ariminum For neither am I bound to the authority of the one nor you to that of the other Let us both dispute with the Authorities of scripture which are Witnesâ—es common to both of us Whilst the Romanists ascribe the differences which arise amongst the Reformed to their want of an infallible Guide and to their different interpretations of the scriptures they unskilfully derive effects from causes which are not the natural Parents of them There is saith St. Austine one Mother of all strifes and she is Pride Neither doth the scripture divide us nor does the infallibility of their judge unite them Their Union such as it is ariseth from the mighty force of their external Polity and they speak not differently because they dare not and the strength of that Polity arose at first from Rome not as the Chair of St. Peter but as the Seat of the Empire Our divisions like theirs arise as all Wars do be they Ecclesiasticall or Civil from the unruly Lusts and Passions of Men. And from these likewise arise generally the misinterpretations of plain Laws and Rules the sense of which must be made to chime according to the Interest of prejudiced Men or else they will not give attention to them If the Lusts and Passions of Men were mortified all Christians agreeing in the certainty of the Scriptures though not of any Living Guide and the words of one being as intelligible as those of the other All might agree in one Creed and put an end to those unnecessary Controversies which entangle Truth and extinguish Charity FINIS THE PROTESTANT RESOLUTION OF FAITH Being an Answer to THREE QUESTIONS I. How far we must depend on the Authority of the Church for the true sense of the Scripture II. Whither a visible Succession from CHRIST to this day makes a Church which has this Succession an infallible Interpreter of Scripture and whither no Church which has not this Succession can teach the true sense of Scripture III. Whither the Church of ENGLAND can make out such a visible Succession London Printed And Edinburgh Re-printed by J. Reid for T Brown G Schaw A Ogston and G Mosman Stationers in Edinburgh to be sold at their Shops 1686. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THese Papers which are here presented to thee were write for the use of a private Person and by the Advice of some Friends are now made Publick We find how busie the Romish Emissaries are to corrupt our People and think our selves equally concerned to Antiaote them against Popâ—â—y and Phanaticism Two extreams equally dangerous to the Government of Church and State in these Kingdoms both in their Principles and Practices and both of them very great Corruptions of the Christian Religion and very dangerous to mens Souls Some of our Clergy have already been so charitable to our Dissenters as to warn them of their danger and by the Strength and Evidence of Scripture and Reason to Convince them of their mistakes and I pray God forgive those men and turn their Hearts who will not contribute so much to their own Conviction and Satisfaction as diligently and impartially to read and consider what is so charitably offered to them Ignorance and mistake may excuse men whâ— have no opportunities of knowing better but such wilfull and resolved Ignorance which bars up mens miâ—ds against all means of better Information will as soon damn them as sins against knowledge And now it might justly be thought want of charity to those of the Roman communion should we take no care at all of them nay want of charity to those of our own communion and to Dissenters themselves who are daily assaulted by the busie Factors for Rome For the Disputes against the church of Rome as well as against Dissenters are for the most part too Learned and too Voluminous for the instruction of ordinary People and therefore some short and plain Discourses about the principal Matters in dispute between us is the most effectual way we can take to confirm men in their Religion and preserve them from the crafty Insinuations of such as lie in wait to deceive Some few Attempts which have been already made of that kind give me some hope that several other Tracts will follow that the ruine of the church of England if God shall please ever to permit such a thing whither by Popery or Phanaticism may not be charged upon our neglect to instruct People better Some Persons it seems whose Talent lies more in censuring what others do then in doing any good themselves are pleased to put some sinister constructions on this Design as it is imposible to design any thing so well but men of ill minds who know not what it means to do good for goods sake shall be able to find some bad name for it Some guess that we now write against Popery only to play an after-Game and to regain the Favour and good Opinion of Dissenters which we have lost by writing against them But I know not that any man has lost their Favour by it nor that any man values their Favour for any other reason then to have the greater advantage of doing them good If so good a work as confuting the Errors of the church of Rome will give the Dissenters such a good Opinion of us as to make them more impartially consider what has been writ to perswade them to communion with the church of England I know â—â— reason any man has to be ashamed to own it though it were part of his design but whither it is or not is more then I know I dare undertake for those Persons I am acquainted with that they neither value the favour nor fear the displeasure either of Phanaticks
first 600. years 1. By Usurpation upon the Rights of other Churches every degree of Exaltation gained being the depression and diminution of them till all power was in a manner swallowed up by the Papal ambition and none left to any oâ—her which was not dependent hereupon in its Original and altogether precarious in its administration So that here alone it must be immediately derived from Christ but to all others by commission from Him Thus in the choice of the chief Governours of the Church all must await his consent and confirmation where he does not alone forcibly obtrude them and must pay for it a round sum for an acknowledgement at their entrance and an after Tributary Pension out of their income and take a formal Oath of subjection at their admittance and own their own Authority from his Delegation and be lyable to have their sentences reversed at his pleasure and flee as far as his Judicatory and stand to the tryal of it when he is pleased to call any cause to himself Nay if a controversie arise between him and any Prince or State the whole Kindom or Nation shall lie at once under his Interdict the Clergy be with-held from the exercise of their Function and the People from the benefit of publick Divine Worship and Sacraments Of these and such like effects of the plenitude of Apostolick Power so much talkt of lately they would do well to shew us any thing like a Plea from Scripture or Antiquity within the bounds forementioned or for some Ages after in the greater part certainly so great a change could not be effected without some notice and complaints struglings and contentions of which Church History is fâ—ll Their early Faith spoken of throughout the world in St. Pauls time The eminent Zeal of the first Bishops of that Church most of whom if we may credit the account generally received of them sealed to the former with their bloud Their continued constancy in the Orthodox Profession thereof amidst the corruptions or defections of so many others particularly in the time of the Arrian Persecution The concurrent opinion of the Foundation of their Church being laid by the two chief Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and the honour of the Imperial Seat wherein they were placed c. gave them great repute and advantagious recommendation in those first Ages None will much contend with them about priority of Order or Precedence But when the preheminence of the first Bishop came to be improved into a Patriarchate and that swelled into the Title of the Universal Bishop which a S. Greg. l. 4 Reg. Ep. 32. Absit à cordibus Christianornm nomen islud blasphemiae in quod omnium Sacerdotum honor adimitur dum ab uno sibi demenâ—er arrogatur c. Et alibi in Epist passim St. Gregory so severely condemned in the Bishop of Constantinople and that at last grew into the stile of the sole Vicar of Christ and Soveraign Monarch of the whole Church when the interposition of a Friendly and Brotherly Arbitration which all persons in distress or under the apprehensions of injury are apt to flee unto and amplifie made way by degrees for the challenge of an ordinary Jurisdiction and that at first from the pretence of Canonical priviledge to that Divine Right and Sanction and then to prevent all scruple about its determinations these must be back'd with the vindication of an infallible conduct When instead of that charitable support they at first readily bestowed on other Churches in their distress they now made use of this power to rob them of what was left taking the advantage of the poverty and oppression of some under the common Enemy or the confusion of others through Domestick distractions to raise themselves out of their spoils then no wonder if other Churches complain and strugle under the yoke which they could not presently or easily throw off Indeed had not this claim of the Church and Bishop of Roâ—e risen to such an extravagant height in the arrogance of its pretended Title and been strained to that excess in the exercise of its assumed Authority so as not to leave it in the power of other churches to take all due and necessary care of their own members or provide for them all needful supplies these might more easily have born their usurpation of more power then ever they could prove belonged to them They that have learnt the Humility of Christs School and who are more concern'd to perform their Duty then vindicate their Priviledge and know how much safer it is to obey then command and easier to be Governed then to Govern will not be much moved at what others fondly assume knowing still that the more difficult account awaits them But then this power became most intolerable when it was made use of to purposes so much worse then it self which were beside the former 2. The weakning of the power of Temporal Princes and disturbing the Civil Rights of men a Cracanthorp's defence of Constantine and against the Popes temporal Monarchy Although our blessed Saviour assured Pilate his Kingdom was not of this world yet his pretended Vicar here on earth can hardly say so for beside the Temporal Dominions unto which he hath entitled himself a Soveraign Prince there are few other Kingdoms or States on this side of the world in which he hath not or had not almost as great a share of the Government as their immediate Princes at least so far as to prescribe bounds to their Administrations and subject in great measure all Laws and Persons to his Foreign Courts Jurisdiction and Decrees yea their Purses to his Exactions and upon the least dispute hath withdrawn so great a number of his immediate dependants who scarce own any other Governours and raised so many disturbances that great Princes and States have been forced at last to yield Not to mention the Arrogance it at length grew up unto in dethroning Princes giving their Kingdoms to others authorizing their Subjects to rebel against them or all wayes to oppose them and what oft follows if not expressed to murder them as in their late Sentence against some of our Neighbour Princes But before much of this may be seen in the long contentions between some of the Western Emperours particularly Henry the Third and Fourth and the Popes as we have them discribed in their own Authors b Sigonius de regno Italiae Also to go no farther their various contests with several of our Kings especially Henry the second and the almost continual complaints in all our Parliaments before the Reformation of the encroachments made by them upon the Civil Rights of Prince and Subject by vexatious and chargeable suits and appeals as far as Rome by Insolencies and diverse Rapines committed under the shelter of their protection and defended from due punishment and by their extravagant Extortions c. abundantly prove Now though these Usurpations grew by degrees and were practised
agree together in the Summons place or time of meeting or about the persons who are to resort to it from their several Dominions While the Roman Empire was intire the Emperours Edict alone was Summons sufficient to almost the whole Christian Church But now who shall take upon him to call or invite so many from so distant places no way under his Authority And that the Pope ever pretended to this power till of late can scarce be pleaded against such clear evidences and Examples and where he is so much concerned it will be judged more unreasonable for him to demand it If this difficulty were overcome by any consent or condescension yet so many jealousies and cross interests are behind that will be and have been laid in the way of their first meeting together with a requisite peaceable disposition as are not easily foreseen and less readily governed not to interpose the difficulties of the journeys from such distant places and of the discontinuance so long from home of the chief Governours of the Church many doubts and controversies of the number and quality of persons having right to vote therein by themselves or representatives will not soon be adjusted and without these and such like be determined there is no preparation made for so venerable an Assembly After all when never so duely met we have neither Reason Promise or Example to suppose them now infallibly Ecclesia non numerus Episcoporum Tertullian de pudicitia c. 22. guided in their determinations but that they or the greater part may be mistaken themselves or mislead others through passion and false interest or be carried away in the noise or torrent of a multitude or be imposed on by the crafty He that considers matter of fact more then the finest Schemes and most subtil Reasonings of his own brain how things are oft strangely and unaccountably carried in publick meetings of men of extraordinary Fame yea in some Councils themselves and some of very sacred Repute in the Church a Greg. Naz. Epist 55. p. 814. Ep. 72. p. 829 Ep. 135. p. 864. ejusd Orat. 15 init p 451. Theod. Ep. 112. Vol. 3. p. 582 983. will think this no hard supposal though their orderly Sentence carries the most venerable Authority below Heaven It seems to argue the heighth of Blasphemy to arreign God himself of indiscretion if it be possible for any man or number of men to erre from their Duty And very presumptuous it is to charge the Supreme Providence of defect in the provision for the continuance of his Church if they be capable to fall away yea let GOD be true but every man a liar when brought in competition He will not be tyed up by our most plausible Methods in the way of securing his own Truth which shall at last prevail though condemned Whose wisdom is unsearchable and his wayes oft past our finding out He will bring to pass his own holy designs though by means to us most unlikely or it may be seemingly opposite Whoever seriously reflects upon these things will have little reason to quarrel at the Reformation for want of this formal establishment in Council No Christian or Church is chargeable with the lack of that which is not in their power to procure Men may please themselves with remote Speculations and the fairest hopes and wishes of such an Authoritative Decision of the disputes in controversie but if it be not to be had we must rest content with and make the best use we can of that provision which GOD in mercy hath indulged us for our sufficient satisfaction and safety Every particular National Church directly subject to no other may and ought to reform it self from known Abuses keeping within the Rule of GODS Word avoiding as much as possible giving just offence to any beside and being ready to give an account of its proceedings therein to all and to alter any thing that shall be found amiss or add whatever may be proved wanting to receive others into its Communion and to communicate with them so far as may be consistent with common Christianity owned by all endeavouring to preserve Peace and Unity with all that call upon the same LORD praying to GOD to increase and improve them more and more such hath been the continued aim and proceeding of the Church of England We believe no true Member of this would have refused the general communion of the truely Catholick church in St. Augustine's Age or for some after though possibly every opinion or practice then current be not suited to their present judgement or wish Neither can we think after so strange alteration of circumstances through so many degenerate Ages that holy Father in his eminent zeal for the most a S. Aug. adv Crescon Grammat l. 3. T. 7. p. 273. Ego in Ecclesia sum cujus membra sunt illae omnes Ecclesiae quaâ— ex laboribus Apostolorum notas atque firmatas simul literis canonitis novimus Earum communionem sive in Africa sive ubicunque non deseram Catholick Communion therein would now have been much moved by our present Adversaries arrogant claims of it to themselnes alone though against the Rules and Principles of it with all others No Foundation is laid for it here but by the absolute submission of all others to their usurp'd Authority and rash or impious determinations Now who can hope for an universal Peace and Unity from such terms of accommodation only fit for an insulting Conquerour to impose like those which Nabash the Ammonite propounded to the men of Jabesh Gilead to thrust out all their eyes and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel 1 Sam. 11. 2. Object 3. Sometimes they object to us the personal miscarriages of some ingaged in the Reformation Answ If any did what they ought not or with unjustifiable designs what they ought the Church is no way accountable if what they did in the Reformation as such were good and they had sufficient Authority for doing it which we are ready to maintain that is all she is responsible for were other imputations really true which they oft are not However it will be an endless dispute and if determined would add little to the cause I may add few great and publick changes are brought about where so many interests are concerned either way to promote or hinder them in which all things are carried with that clearness and evenness that were to be desired Private Persons are not chargeable with the supposed defects of publict Administrations of which they have not the management if nothing be required of them against their express Duty and they be provided of all necessary means of their Salvation though they may be inclined to wish some things had been ordered otherwise Object 4. Our Enemies on both sides are apt to object to us the want of due Discipline if not absolutely necessary to the being of the Church yet so far useful to the well-being and
a Church in its constant Service to take suppose the Lord's Prayer in pieces and first pronounce it in Latin and then in English But as they do not permit their Offices Extract ex regist Facult Par. an 1525. Collectio p 8. Censurae An. 1655 p. 18. Procez contr Vâ—isin An. 1660. p. 53. c. Epist Cleri An 1660. p. 62. Orat. c. p. 63 not the Horae B. Virginis Breviary or Mass book to be translated into a Vulgar Tongue So the verbal translation of it during the celebration of Mass was never thought of by the Council but was thereby condemned as the cause and seedplot of many errours as we are informed in a Lettâ—â— wrote upon the occasion of Voisin's translation by the whole Clergy of France to Pope Alexander the Seventh And whatsoever the Exposition did refer to let it be what it will yet it was not to the devotional Part as Sanders declares who after he had pleaded that an Unknown Tongue with interpretation was the perfect fulfilling of S. Pauls advice perceiving a difficulty behind throws all off with this If the Interpretation of Prayers he laid aside for a seasion it is however not to be thought that it is to he ommited for ever c. So that at most no more was intended then a short exposition of some doctrinal Point or ceremony which might as well be called an Exposition of the Breviary or any other Book containing much the same things as the Missal And it is probable that so much as this also was never intended which if ever is very rarely practised amongst them Insomuch as Ledesma saith That the sense of the council was That the people should be instructed only by Sermons Indeed they would rather have this go for an Argument then Cap. 15. Sect. decret Con. Trid. n. 2. dispute it They do as the Irish by their bogs run over it lightly for fear if they tread too hard it will not supoort their cause but stifle it And therefore they wheel off again and then tell us That it S. C. Answ p. 176. being a known set Form in one set Language those that are ignorant of it at first need not continue so but by due attention and diligence may arrive to a sufficient knowledge As if the poor people are inexcusable if they do not arrrive to a sufficient knowledge of the Tongue which must be learned before the things without other helps then their own attention and diligence when the Priests and others are trained up to the knowledge and understanding of Latin by Rules Masters and frequent exercise Surely they had the Mass in Latin when the learned themselves did not understand it as Valla saith They had the Elegant Praes Mass in Latin when the greatest part of the people did not understand it as Faber relates They had In 1 Cor. 14. Cassand Liturg c. 36. Sixt. Senens Bibliâ—th 6. Annot. 263. the Mass in Latine when not only the people but the Priest and Deacons rarely understood what they prayed for as Billet c. confess And where ' was then their attention and diligence that to their lives end either daily rehearsed it or often heard it and yet never understood it And is is not so still when notwithstanding all the noise of S. c. p. 176. Exposition Manuals and Primers c. for the use of the Vulgar yet setting aside some little Forms and Ceremonies of it they are so ignorant of the Contents of the Missal or Mass Book that as to the matter of it they know it not from the Breviary nor would know it from the Alcoranâ— if read in the same Tongue alike pronounced and the same falls and postures were used in the reading of it So that what more plain then the means they have provided is not sufficient for to instruct and edifie the people and that after all they do hold this instruction unnecessary and that the people are safe without it And this is the case for it is generally resolved by their Casuists both for Preist and People that â—â— they do their duty and merit when they say their Prayers though they do not understand so Eckius so Salmeron c. And if it were otherwise very few Saimeron in 1 cor 16. Disp 3 Instrnct Sacerd c. 13. n. 5 6. would do their duty when so very few do at all understand what they say as Cardinal Tolet doth determine So in â—ulgent are they and very reasonable is it that they should be so that when they have put out the peoples Eyes they should take good care to make the way broad and smooth for them But in good earnest can we think this way as safe as it is broad and that there is no Ditch into which both Priest and People if alike blind may fall and perish And if there be must not the case of that people be very lamentable that are wholly left to the ability and sincerity of their Priest who if he wants the former may through ignorance turn the most solemn part of their Service as it happens into Nonesense or Blasphemy And if he wants the latter may use a Spell for Prayer and the ancient charm D. Stilling steet Answ to T. G. c. 3 sect 3. of Abracadabrae for Ave Maria as a learned person hath observed Nay insteed of baptizing in the sacred Name of the Father c. â—he may do by the person as a Jew under the profession of a Priest is said to have done by a certain Prince in the last Age and baptize him in the horrid name of the Devil There is then nothing so absurd or wicked which according to the case may not be praâ—â—ised And neither Prayers be Prayers nor Sacraments Sacraments nor persons Christians as long as the Priest doth alone know neither Priest nor People understand But supposing that there be no defect in either of these and that the whole Service is faithfully and understandingly performed yet if the Tongue in which it is performed be not understood of the people there can be no understanding of the sense contained in it and where the sense and matter is not understood there cannot be as I have shewed these dispositions of Soul that attention of Mind that Faith which gives the Amen to our Prayers c and which renders the Service acceptable to God and beneficial to our selves and consequently a service so contrived as shall defeat these ends is one of the greatest mischiefs that can befal a Church and must render the Romish Church inexcusable in the injunction of it and Justifie those that have reformed it SECT V. We are come to enquire Whether upon the whole the Service of God ought not to be celebrated in a Tongue vulgarly understood THe Church of Rome doth anathematize and Bellarm. c. 16 sub sin T. G. against D. Stilingfleet Sect â— n. 3. p. 28. Ledesma c 33. â— 1. doom to Hell those that
the Fire So great an honour and regard had the Primitive Church for the Sacrament that as they accounted it the highest Mystery and solemnest part of their Worship so they would not admit any of the Penitents who had been guilty of any great and notorious sin nâ—â— the Catechumeni nor the Possest and Energumeni so much as to the sight of it the eposia and the Participation of this Mystery used alwayes in those times to go together as Cassander * Consult de Circumgest Sacram. owns and Albaspinaeus †L'ancienna Police de l'Eglise sur l'administration dâ— l'Eucharistie liure prem c. 15. 16. 17. proves in his Book of the Eucharist And therefore as it is plainly contrary to the Primitive practice to carry the Sacrament up and down and expose it to the Eyes of all Persons so the reason of doing it that it may be worship'd by all and that those who do not partake of it may yet adore it was it is plain never thought of in the primitive Church for then they would have seen and worshipped it tho' they had not thought fit that they should have partaken of it But he that will see how widely the Church of Rome differs from the ancient Church in this and other matters relating to the Eucharist let â—im read the learned Dallee his two Books of the Object of religious worship I shall now give an Answer to the Authorities which they produce out of the Fathers and which Monsieur Boileau has he tells us been a whole year a gleaning out of them ‡ Annuae vellicationis litirariae ratiocinium reddo Praef. ad Lect. Boileau de Adorat Euchar. if he has not rather pickt from the sheaves of Bellarmine and Perrone But all their Evidences out of Antiquity as they are produced by him and bound up together in one Bundle in his Book I shall Examine and Answer too I doubt not in a much less time They are the only Argument he preâ—â—nds to for this Adoration and when Scripture and all other Reasons fail them as they generally do then they fly to the Fathers as those who are sensible their forces are too weak to keep the open Field fly to the Woods or the Mountains where they know but very few can â—ollow them I take it to be sufficient that in any necessary Article of Faith or Essential part of Christian worship which this of the Sacrament must be if it be any part at all it is sufficient that we have the Scripture for us or that the Scripture is silent and speaks of no more then what we own and admit In other external and indifferent Matters relating meerly to the circumstances of worship the Church may for outward Order and Decency appoint what the Scripture does not But as to what we are to believe and what we are to worship the most positive Argument from any humane Authority is of no weight where there is but a Negative from Scripture But we have such a due regard to Antiquity and are sâ— well assured of our cause were it to be tryed only by that and not by Scripture which the Church of Rome generally deâ—â—â—s to that we shall not fear to allow â—â—em to bâ—ing all the Fathers they can for ther Witnesses in this matter and we shall not in the least decline their Testimony Boileau Musters up a great many some of which are wholly impertinent and insignisicant to the matter in hand and none of them speak home to the business he brings them for He was to prove that they Taught that the Sacrament was to be adored as it is in the Church of Rome but they only Teach as we do That it is to be had in great reverence and respect as all other things relating to the Divine worship that it is to be received with great Devotion both of body and soul and in such a Posture as is to exprese this A Posture of Adoration that Christ is then to be worshipped by us in this Office especially as well as he is in all other Offices of our Religion that his Body and his Flesh which is united to his Divinity and which he offered up to his Father as a sacrifice for all Mankind and by which we are Redeemed and which we do spiritually partake of in the Sacrament that this is to be adored by us but not as being corporally present there or that the Sacrament is to be worship'd with that or for the sake of that or that which the Priest holds up in his Hands or lyes upon the Altar is to be the Object of our Adoration but only Christ and his blessed Body which is in Heaven To these four Heads I shall reduce the Authorities which Boileau produces for the Adoration of the Host and which seem to speak any thing to his purpose and no wonder that among so many Devout Persons that speak as great things as can be of the Sacrament and used and perswaded the greatest Devotion as is certainly our Duty in the receiving it there should be something that may seem to look that way to those who are very willing it should or that may by a little stretching be drawn farther then their true and genuine meaning which was not to Worship the Sacrament it self or the consecrated Elements but either 1. To Worship Christ who is to be adored by us in all places and at all times but especially in the places set apart for his worship and at those times we are performing them in the Church and upon the Altar in Mysteriis as St. Ambrose speaks * Despir St. l. 3. c. 12. in the Mystesteries both of Baptism and the Lords Supper and in all the Offices of Christian Worship as Nazianzen †Orat. 11. de de Gorgon ToÌ„ thysiasterioÌ„ prâ—spiptei me ta tes pisteoÌ„s kai ton ep ' autoÌ„ timon non anakalumene said of his sister Gorgonia that she called upon him who is honoured upon the Altar That Christ is to be honoured upon the Altar where we see the great and honourable work of mans Redemption as 't was performed by his Death represented to us is not at all strange if it had been another and more full word that he was to be worship'd there 't is no more then what is very allowable tho' it had not been in a Rhetorical Oration 't is no more then to say That the God of Israel was worship'd upon the Jewish Altar or upon this Mountain For 't is plain she did not mean to worshâ—p the Sacrament as if that were Christ or God for she made an ointment of it and mixt it with her tears and anointed her Body with it as a Medicine to recover her Health which she did miraculously upon it Now sure 't is a very strange thing that she should use that as a Plaister which she thought to be a God but she still took for Bread and Wine that had extradinary Vertue in it and