loyalty with these seditious querks and quibbles Who can tell whether he be legitimatly begotten or rightly baptised or legally elected c. Catholiks have as much ground for their obedience to civil and spiritual Superiours as they have for their observance of their own natural father And I think that is enough If we had it not promised in Gospel as we have that Christ would preserv his Church from failing and errour yet the very beleef we have in his divinity would naturally infer such a confidence as Catholicks have in the Churches truth But Mr. Whitby understands not in whom this infallibility does originally reside as I perceiv by his fond interrogatories nor consequently what it is If he had ever had the happy hour to read the System of that learned Doctour Franciscus Davenport by whose light I have lately Sir since your departure hence to Paris sufficiently declared in our English tongue all this whole busines of infallibility he had saved a multitude of idle words drawn out of his famous fanatick Mr. Chillingworth Catholik Divines may several wayes defend and declare this busines of Infallibility as well as other points of religion according to their several conceptions and abilities and may go som of them so far as to defend even an intrinsecal inherent Infallibility either in the Pope or Councel And although this may suffer more difficulty then the extrinsecall one of Gods providence and guidance yet do I not see how any one can disprove a possibility of it However faith does not require so much at their hands If God be but infallible and Christ be true the Church is safe Very many bitter books have been written against Catholiks and their religion injuriously diminishing both them and it upon the mistake of this one busines of Infallibility perhaps a wilful one two very lately by Mr. Moulin and Denton to the great hurt and dammage of the innocent if men beleev them It is a very pious and good rule that of the Canon and civil law Cum sunt jura partium obscura reo favendum est potius quam actori But I doubt much whether the people of England who may read these invective books against Papists follow that rule or no. When the right of Parties is obscure saith the law the defendant is rather to be favoured than the plaintiff If it were so here we should not have been by such bitter books so highly incensed as I see we are against poor Catholiks but against those rather who slander them Mr. Moulin would prove that Catholik religion and not Protestancy is guilty of sedition and he does it by a relation of passionate words and actions of some Popes recorded in stories And this he takes to be a sufficient proof that Catholik religion is guilty of sedition It were indeed to be wished that all Popes words and actions were answerable to their religion and rule But that is hardly to be expected in this world The very place and honour that has ever been given to that seat is no small temptation of pride or other passions incident therupon into a mind not more then ordinarily furnished with all Christian vertues But if we will beleev histories concerning them we shall find no series or succession of men in any one place or dignity of this world to have held forth so many lights of vertue as that one chair hath don And if som have been faulty they gave no doubt much caus of grief or scandal but none of wonderment to the world They may surely fail in a greater temptation since other Christians who have the same means of grace do fail in lesser But Catholiks saith Mr. Moulin are bound by the very tenour of their religion to hold for good and justifie all that any of their Popes have ever said or don This would be very strange why so Becaus saith he they beleev them infallible Who beleevs them infallible How infallible that they can neither do nor speak amiss Who ever thought that Infallible is a word taken up lately by schoolmen to expres the sovereign power and indeficiency of Gods Church and not any inherent endowments of a Pope who is brought up when he is young like one of us in the Catechise and practice of Christian religion and when he is ripe and placed by Gods providence in that supream chair is eminently to practise those holy ruses and carefully to keep and maintain that depositum fidei the treasury of faith which he hath received and if he fail therin shall give an account and suffer for it in another world as severely as any other for their faults Nor are his words and actions a rule to other men of Christian religion but Christian religion is a rule to him both for his actions and words And all that Infallibility which Catholik writers to expres more than one thing in one short word make use of in their discourses with Protestants is only an extrinsecal providence of God watching over his Church to preserv the primitive apostolik spirit in her and to keep her alwayes even to the consummation of the world from errour and deficiency notwithstanding any opposition from without or the misdemeanours of any one or other within her self even the providence of that good God whose property it is not only to prevent evil from the good but even to work good out of evil that his Church which he hath promised to preserv may be ever safe And if ever this infallible providence do show it self it must surely be then when the ship is ready to be split by heresies and schismes that rise from som violent spirits breaking unity with that body so dangerously that Prelates are called together from all parts of the world as a help extraordinary in a general Councel to prevent the ruin And this is that which Divines mean when they say that the Pope is infallible in Cathedra in the Chair that is to say in consessu Seniorum Presbyterorum ecclesiae in a general convention of Christian Prelates So that Moulin speaks not one word to the purpos But Doctour Dentons book is not any such mistake but pure malice He intends to show that Papists were never punished for religion but for treason And his book is altogether made up of several stories of men Papists men sent over hither from beyond seas as he sayes to kill poison and destroy people Some when they had read his book took the Authour for a fool but I heard afterwards that he is Physician And upon that account I had him excused For if he be as bad at physick as he is in affairs of religion he had caus to be angry with them who came hither from forreign parts to take his office and emploiment out of his hands kill and poison people If the villains who ever they were had been only sent over to make folks sick they had don him som service but to poison men and kill them
his grace of Canterbury hath no jurisdiction I know and am fully assured ther is not one of those poor catholik priests who were lately banished out of England but would have defended even to extremity if need were this one most certain verity That a Metropolitan hath a jurisdiction as solid and good a jurisdiction over byshops as any these can have or plead for over parish priests And by as firm and good and ancient law is the one established as the other and indeed by the very same whilst a minister of his own presumes to tell the Arch-byshop his own prelate to his face that he hath no jurisdiction at all His 9 ch from page 91. to 169. Is wholly fanatick There he tells us plainly That neither Convocations Byshops nor Parliaments are judges of our faith That the English Church doth not punish for difference in opinions nor require that all should beleev as she beleevs or submit to her determinations but leaves every man to the liberty of his own judgment so he do not make factions against her Who ever urged men saith he to beleev as the Church beleevs p. 101. Also that no decrees of any Church are further to be admitted then they appear to particular mens judgments to agree with scriptur That every private man must make use of his own reason to judg or reject doctrin and rites propounded though scriptur be his guide That the business must there end without resigning to any further authority which is all as fallible as we be our selves That points fund amental are as perspicuous as the sun-beam and points not fundamental the Church doth not determin them and if any dispute should rise about them she silences indeed but expects not her children should be of her opinion only would not have them gainsay her That that Church does but mock us which expects a beleef to her proposals becaus she pretends to guide her self by scriptur For if scriptur must bend to their decrees and we must have no sence of scriptur but what they think fit then their decrees and not scriptur is our last rule And it is a pretty devise quoth he first to rule the rule and then be ruled by it c. Can a good Quaker say more for himself or desire more to be said for him If we be not bound to beleev we are not bound to hear Nay we are bound not to hear any such Church lest we should chance to beleev what aforehand we condemn and they themselvs dare not justifie He hath much of this talk up and down in his book Faith saith he p. 439. cannot be compelled By taking this liberty of discretion from men we force them to becom hypocrits and so profess outwardly what inwardly they disbeleev And again p. 450. We allow not any man openly to contradict the Churches decrees But when he thinks contrary to the determination of our Church he must keep his judgment to himself only refusing obedience with all humility till he be better informed No fanatick will desire to refuse obedience any longer Thus doth this champion deliver up himself and Church unto the will and disposal of all whatever sects and cares not so he may avoid catholik obeysance to make himself a prey to those who upon these grounds here laid down will soon turn him out of Church and pulpit too and strip him not only of his cloak but his coat also At last he answers the catholik arguments for the Churches assured and infallible guidance just as he did before your others for supremacy Seeing him there you see him every where Finally he brings in for a certain testimony of the Churches liability to errour the two opinions so rife in old time about communicating infants and the Millenaries thousand years of blessedness with Christ in this world after dooms-day Which are both of them now condemned saith he by a contrary beleef and practice of the present Church although they were held by not a few very antient Fathers in the primitive times And in this he triumphs exceedingly Surely without caus I should think Those primitive doctors we may be assured knew somthing more then their Catechism and committed to writing somthing of that they conceived beyond their Christian faith as well as the present Fathers and Doctors of the Church now do And if there were so great varieties of opinion among them concerning those two things as there are now adayes among catholik doctors about a thousand others it is a sign that those two points did not belong to their Catechisme of faith then assuredly known but only to scholastical Theology especially sith they had neither clear scriptur or general councel nor assured tradition for either side And it is of no moment that som of them should be so confident of their opinion as to think it to be a right firm Christian beleef For so I have heard my self many a school Divine in catholik countreys to say of his Thesis or school position the better to countenance his own divinity that it was either faith or very near it Besides I do not know that the present Church hath ever declared in any cannon of her faith either that the faithfull shall not reign upon earth a thousand years with Christ after dooms-day or that we may not communicate the Eucharist to children although this last is declared not necessary His 10 ch from page 169. to 180. Is against prayer for the dead and Purgatory Where both by the testimonies which you Sir do cite in your book and by the authorities he brings himself Mr. Whitby acknowledges that praying and offering for the dead is a very ancient and general custom amongst Christians Nay that S. Paul himself prayed for his deceased friend Onesiphorus This I say he plainly grants p. 182. But he addes that all this does not infer Purgatory or that Purgatory is a place under ground near hell where is fire and darknes or that all are in pain and torments there And so he pusles to the end of his chapter acknowledging faith and denying only theology For whether Purgatory signifie any one place as our imagination is apt to fancy or only a state and condition of som souls departed out of this visible world I see Mr. Whitby understands not that it is no Christian faith but a meer scholastical divinity But that our prayers offerings penances and good deeds do benefit the souls deceased this the very testimonies cited by Mr. Whitby himself as they do sufficiently evince so do they confirm catholik faith though they touch not upon theology at all And so while he oppugns the divinity of som catholiks he establishes the catholik faith of all Divines In the interim he ought to remember although in this he often forgets himself that by the very testimonies not only which you Sir do bring for Purgatory but those also which Mr. Whitby has against it we may see manifestly that our Protestant Church hath
the great austerities of his life how he would have all conciliar decisions to be regarded as most firm and unalterable and that he would not undertake the judgment of ecclesiastical causes and that he had great veneration for the sign of the Cross These and such like things speaks Zozomen So likewis that Churches and Altars were consecrated in the time of Constantin the Great with the sign of the Cross and sprinkling of holy water amongst other Catholik rites and ceremonies is witnessed by S. Austin and S. Bede That Constatin the Emperour translated to Constantinople the holy reliques of S. Andrew S. Luke and S. Timothy at which the devils even audibly yelled and roared out is asserted by S. Jerom. That the Emperour in all his glory went to kiss the Martyrs Sepulchres humbly praying those Saints that they would be intercessours to God for him is told us by S. Chrysostom And lastly that in Constantins dayes the Popes authority was acknowledged and reverenced is apparent by the great Synod of Arles then celebrated who decreeing that Easter should be uniformly kept intreated Pope Sylvester to direct his letters according to the Churches custom all the world over for that end Nay the Century writers of Magdeburg enemies of the Catholik Church and so renowned Protestants that they have been stiled by their followers Men worthy of eternal memory even these do write of Constantin though with a design to diminish his honour that he appointed a great holiday for the temples dedication which we in English call a Wake that he favoured consecrations and superstitious exornations of Churches that he with other Christians in those times met for Gods service only in consecrated places that he would have candles to burn in Churches in the day time that superstitiously he sent to Constantinople some reliques of the Cross found by his mother Helena for the preservation of the City that in Constantins time pilgrimages were much in use and that his mother Helena went to the holy land to worship that Priests were forbid to marry by the Synod of Arles in the time of Emperour Constantin and Pope Sylvester that both under Constantin and long before his time were both Monks and Nuns spread all over Asia Syria Palestin Aegypt Bithynia c. that Constantin did so reverence Byshops that he would not sit amongst them in the Nicen Councel but in a lower seat That the said Emperour checked Akesius for denying Priests to have power of forgiving sins bidding him set up a ladder for himself and go up to heaven his own way all alone and lastly that after his death they poured out tears and prayes every where for the Emperours soul And other Protestant writers many of them since as Napper for example in an English treatise upon the Revelations and Frigivillaeus in a latin one called Palma Christiana dedicated to Queen Elizabeth convinced by so palpable testimonies every where obvious acknowledg the Christian Church in Constantins time to have been wholly Papistical After the year of God three hundred saith Napper the Emperour Constantin subjugated all Christian Churches to Pope Sylvester from which time till these our dayes the Pope and his Clergy have possessed the outward visible Church And Frigivillaeus in his wrath calls therupon the noble Emperour Constantin the great Dragon who gave power to the Beast Take it all in their own words Thus Eusebius Ab omni licentiâ vitae luxu diffluente sese vocavit inediâ corporis afflictione seipsum coercuit imperator l. 2. de vitâ Constantini c. 14. Atque interdum vultum salutari illâ signavit notâ l. 3. c. 2. Imperator triumphale signum honoravit and again In qua parte istud crucis vexillum visum fuit hostes sugam capere victores persequi Quâ re intellectâ imperator sicubi partem aliquam sui exercitus languentem cernebat ibi salutare illud vexillum tanquam quoddam subsidium ad victoriam obtinendam locari mandavit cujus adjumentis extemplò parta est victoria quippe dimicantium vires divina quadam potentiâ fuere admodum confirmatae l. 2. c. 7. Civitatem multis templis in honorem martyrum illustrissimisque aedibus sacris adornavit l. 3. c. 47. Cùm parva quaedam sella ex auro fabrificata illi esset loco posita non prius consedit quà m episcopi ad id annuissent l. 3. c. 10. Apostolorum templum ad perpetuam illorum memoriam conservandam aedificare caepit l. 4. c. 58. In oportunum ventura mortis diem hic locum sibi provida dispensatione designavit ut defunctus quoque precationum quae ibidem essent ad apostolorum gloriam offerendae particeps efficeretur l. 4. c. 60. Sacerdotes alii qui horum nihil poterant efficere incruentis consecrationibus divinum numen placabant supplices Deo preces offerebant pro communi pace pro ecclesia Dei ipsoque imperatore l. 4. c. 45. Humi procumbens genibus in ipsa martyrum aede errata sua confessus est c. Adhuc quidem licet contemplari ter beatae animae tumulum divinis ceremoniis mystico sacrificio sanctarumque precationum societate perfrui l. 4. c. 61.71 Thus Zozomen Tabernaculum ecclesiae figuram exprimens cùm contra hostes praelio contenderet secum circumferre consuevit imperator Constantinus ad eum finem uti neque sibi in solitudine agenti neque exercitui deesset aedes sacra c. Sacerdotes diaconi tabernaculum assiduè secuti sunt l. 1. c. 8. Antonium magum illum monachum in solitudinibus Aegypti magnâ cum nominis famae celebritate vitam degentem Constantinus imperator propter ejus virtutis splendorem sibi amicum fecit literas honorificè scriptas ad eum misit l. 1. c. 13. Jussit Constantinus ut Conciliorum decisiones firmae immutabiles existerent l. 1. c. 9. Mihi verò non est fas cùm homo sim ejusmodi causarum cognitionem arrogare l. 1. c. 16. Sanctae cruci plurimum tribuit honoris tum propter subsidia in bello contra hostes gerendo ex ejus virtute sibi allatâ tum propter divinam sibi de eâ oblatam visionem l. 1. c. 8. Thus the other Fathers Crucis charactere basilicae dedicantur altaria consecrantur Aug. serm 19. de sanctis Bed l. 1. c. 30. l. 5. c. 4. Constantinus imperator sanctas reliquias Andreae Lucae Timothei transtulit Constantinopolin ad quas daemones rugiunt Hieron contra Vig. Nam ipse qui purpuram indutus est accedit illa amplexus sepulchra fastu deposito stat sanctis supplicaturus ut pro se ad Deum intercedat Chryshom 26. in ep 2. Cor. De observatione Paschae Domini constitutum est in hac Synodo ut uno die tempore per omnem orbem observetur juxta consuetudinem literas ad omnes Papa Sylvester tu dirigas Conc. 1. Arelatense can 1. Thus the Century writers Constantinus diem