Pen and Fancy will be such as to eat or penetrate into every cleft of it and not onely break it into shivers but multiply them into heapes of Sand which being washed away by the Spring-tyde of his ingenious approaches and irresistible force of his argumentative assaults their building must needs fall and be carryed into an Abyss or Ocean which they can never fathome or sound the depth of Archbishop Cranmer in his Answer to Smith's Preface speakes not home enough to their purpose where he sayth Truth it is indeed that the Church doth never wholly erre for ever in most darkness God shineth unto his elect and in the midst of all iniquity he governeth them so with his holy word and spirit that the gates of Hell prevaile not against them This Church is the piller of truth because it resteth upon God's word which is the true and sure foundation and will not suffer it to erre and fall Pag. 405. 406. It is the invisible Church his Grace meanes for of the outward and visible he absolutely denies it and this proves I confess rather the perpetuity then infallibility of the Church Bishop Field recollects several acceptions of the Church Book 4. Ch. 2. First as it comprehendeth the whole number of believers that are and have been since Christ appeared in the flesh which Church he sayes is absolutely free from all errour and ignorance of Divine things that are to be known by revelation The second acception is as it comprehendeth only all those believers that are and have been since the Apostles time which in things that are of necessity to be expresly known by all that will be saved that it should erre is impossible And further thinkes it as impossible that any errour whatsoever should be found in all the Pastours and Guides of the Church thus generally taken Touching the Church as it comprehendeth onely the believers that now are in the world he sayes In things necessary to be known and believed expresly and distinctly it never is ignorant much less doth it erre yea in things that are not absolutely necessary to be known and believed expresly and distinctly it never is ignorant much less doth it erre yea in things that are not absolutely necessary to be so known and believed we constantly believe that this Church can never erre nor doubt pertinaciously c. But because I doubt whether our Princess made reflexion upon the Church in such a diffusive sense and supposing that she wanted such an Oracle of Infallibility as to which there could be access for imediate resolve of scruples and doubts upon all occasions which I fear had her H. lived longer to make triall would have been as much missing in the Roman Church as in ours I must lay aside many other excellent Writers upon this point I have before me or at hand and take up one so learned and Orthodox as the best and him the rather because he useth not to be so nice in uttering his mind freely and learnedly and yet making it consistent with the Article of our Church though in appearance point blanck contradictory to what he resolutely concludes it is Bishop Mountagu I mean who in his Appeal where he justifies what he had said in his answer to the Gagger his Position is this The Church Representative true and lawfull never yet erred in Fundamentals and therefore I see no cause but to vouch The Church Representative can not erre The Church Representative is a Generall Councel not titularly so as the Conventicle of Trent but plenarily true generall and lawfull Points Fundamentall be such as are immediate unto faith Let any man living shew me sayes he any historicall mistakings misreportings where when in what any Generall Councell according to true acception or Church Representative hath so erred in the resolution and decission of that Councell for in the debating of doubts questions propositions the case is otherwise and not the same I conceive and acknowledge but four Councells of this kind that of Nice of Constantinople of Ephesus of Chalcedon The Church of England may seem to have been of a contrary mind in her determinations For Artic. 21. we read thus Generall Councels when they be gathered together forasmuch as they be an assembly of men whereof all be not governed with the spirit and word of God they may erre and sometime have erred even in things pertaining unto God Which decision of the Article is not home to this purpose as he particularly proves and hath the approbation of the Reverend Dr. Francis White afterward Bishop of Ely that he found nothing therein in that and his whole Book but what is agreeable to the Publick Faith Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England of whose Doctrine the said 21 Article is a noted part But because the Bishop leaves this Infallibility at above a thousand yeares distance viz the last Generall Councel of Chalcedon attributing no such thing to any the pretended Generall Councels since it is necessary I go seek a supplement somewhere else for the guidance of doubting persons who may be at loss what to think the state of the Church hath been in so long an intervall and if they take Posterity into their care what it may be in a much longer yet to come before such another Generall Councel meet now the Latine Church seemes to be finally settled upon the Lees of the Decisions in the Councel of Trent Among those many I have turned over I find not where to furnish my self better then from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that most glorious Martyr now a resplendent starr of magnitude among the Saints above in his famed Book commended by that Royall Martyr not long before he drank of the same Cup that bloudy Brook in the way to his celestiall Crown Archbishop Laud's Conference with Mr. Fisher the Iesuite where his Grace sayes Whether a Generall Councel may erre or not is a Question of great consequence in the Church of Christ To say It can not erre leaves the Church not onely without remedy against an errour once determined but also without sense that it may need a remedy and so without care to seek it To say It can erre seemes to expose the members of the Church to an uncertainty and wavering in the Faith to make unquiet spirits not onely to disrespect former Councels of the Church but also to slight and contemn whatsoever it may now determine I said the Determination of a Generall Councel erring was to stand in force and to have External Obedience at least yielded to it till Evidence of Scripture or a Demonstration to the Contrary made the Errour appear and until thereupon another Councel of equal Authority did reverse it Pag. 146. 147. In the following Considerations is added with submission to our Mother the Church of England and to the Mother of us all the Universall Catholick Church of Christ That the Assistance of the H. Ghost is
that if cause be still who after some intimations given by Bishop Andrewes Mountague and others should see supplied what may be found wanting and applied by practice to render her through-reformed and preserve her from all such reproach As for the good old Monke if I had been in another Countrey I should have wiped his mouth with my Handkercheif and opened the eyes of his understanding for a better prospect of truth among us As to the second I know none but our rigid Calvinists that became absolute Renegadoes and desertors of the Roman Church much less of the Catholique though taken in their own sense which all good men and moderate among them will allow us to call what they would have it to be Roman Catholique Reformed Reforme we did when they would not by degrees what was first found to be amiss by themselves before and at their little Synod of Trent for no other then so was it compared to a truly Generall or universall Councill Italy alone being but a spot or parsell of the Universe And retain we did so much as the circumstances of those times would permit of the Doctrine and Discipline transmitted to us from the more ancient because being as called the Primitive Church as it extendeth to the first five Centuries at least if no more which her H. might have found averred by all the Orthodox Fathers and other Learned Writers then and since then of our English Nation whose works if they had not come to her sight before all Libraries at her desire would have been searched for her satisfaction and why somewhat to that purpose was not seasonably order'd I am not to be accountable And if Mr. Iones had said no more but that either her R. H. departed from us or her Directors who e're they were left her solitary in her choice upon too easie termes I could have little contradicted That somewhat more of what they opin'd and practis'd might have been taken in by our first Reformers or may be yet by a Nationall Synod or Convocation if commissioned to consider of it I freely grant and suppose it to be the sense of our best Divines for King Iames's Apophthegm takes not with all nor may be taken in a strict restraint to what is already done I like not riding so near For better Authority then my own I will cite no other and am sure I can cite no better then Bishop Andrews nor any more authentick part of his workes then his private Prayers who in his Manuall of Meditations and private Devotions for Monday every week beggs of the Lord for the Church Catholic Confirmation and Enlargement Eastern deliverance and unity Western wherein ours is included perfection and peace but more expresly for the British which is our own supply of what is wanting establishment of what remaines may the good Prelate's Prayer be answered to perpetuity in the last whatsoever becomes of the first For why we should quit what we have because we have not all we would and go over we well know not why or whither is a Riddle I yet understand not nor if I may enjoy my share in what we have though I never have it of what we want it being no part of my province to gain enlargement I hope my conscience will never be much perplexed about our present wherein soever defective State But the three remarkes her R. H. made in reading Dr. Heylyn's History seemed so hainous or odious as ought not she thought to be digested toward a Reformation 1. Henry the eight's Luxery the Popes restraint of which made him struggle and at last get loose 2. The covetousness and sacriledge of the Lord Protector to Edward the sixth And 3. The nullity of Queen Elizabeth's Title to the Crown The last of which I do not find asserted but rather the contrary by Dr. Heylyn who makes the Estate of Sir Thomas Bollen's Family to have become fortunate by the production of that Princess to the Realm of England Pag. 86. Who reports the illegitimation of the Lady Mary and entailing of the Crown for the default of issue male upon the Princess Elizabeth somewhat he has of Henry the eight's apprehension when he became as much offended at his second Marriage as he had been at the first That the legitimation of his Daughter Elizabeth might be as likely to be called in question in the time succeeding as that of Mary in the former Pag. 91. yet afterward That if her Mother had only lost her head though with the loss of her honour it would have been no bar to her Daughter Elizabeth from succeeding her Father in the Throne pag. 93. And what ground was found out on which to dissolve the Marriage he cannot tell it not appearing upon record but that it was dissolved does by a solemn instrument under the Seale of Archbishop Cranmer c. pag. 94. And if it were done errante clave as for ought we know it might our doubting Dutchess was not obliged to demurr upon that unless with intent to suspend her censure and her change too upon that account untill better assurance which neither the Doctor 's History nor any other I have heard of could give her Finally whatsoever difficulties might be made That the Crown did of right belong to her when the point was brought to issue both the Doctor ownes upon the death of Queen Mary and the Parliament then sitting could not deny it her Pag. 101. Her Highnesses scruple rested then it seemes upon K. Henry's Lust after change of Wives and her abomination of Sacriledge lay'd to the charge of him and others which I know none of our faithfull Historians have much endeavoured to excuse or palliate It being the sense of them all which my Lord Bishop of Derry thus declared in his Schisme garded pag. 58. Posterity is not guilty of their Ancestours transgression further then they do imitate them or maintain them And as for acts of Sacriledge and the like impieties as certainly Henry the eighth and some others cannot be freed from such they are by us as freely charged upon the actors as by any Romanist they can be sayeth the sound and learned Dr. Hammond ch 7. of Schisme adding But yet Sacriledge is no more Schisme then Adultery and the Church on which one sin hath been committed cannot be from thence proved to be guilty of every other These and a hundred more authorities to intercept such objections if the Dutchess knew not her H. cannot be well excused and if she did which may more reasonably be supposed how can you and I Mr. Iones afford credit to Mounsieur Maimburg that she would use so weak an argument to justifie her Secess So that her Highnesses imagination was unnecessarily troubled about the concurrence of God's Spirit with such hainous acts and manifest impieties as the libertinage of K. H. 8. The Lord Protectour Seymour's Sacriledge and Q. Elizabeth's Usurpation if it may be supposed But the H. Spirit might go
he pittieth as most concerned in it Vot pro Pace pag. 81. Now it would be worth enquiry were it not a business of more length then what I am about will well permit Why the Church of Rome is so obstinate in the case if so she be which some endeavour to qualifie to the dissatisfaction of a greater number in a greater part of Christendome then are those in communion with her and to the hazard among them of so many soules who meerly in compliance or fear of censure do they know not what doubting if not denying within themselves that to be a Sacrament which they receive and consequently if it be or be not going away without the effect of it for want of fayth or for having too much presumption upon a moiety of Divine Institution Our great Apologist Bishop Iewell tells us their own Doctors Alphonsus de Castro and Iohn Gerson have laid them out in this wise particularly and at large The danger of sheadding The carrying from place to place The fouling of the Cupps The trouble of men's Beards The Reserving for the Sick The turning of the Wine into Vinegar The engendring of Flees The Corruption or Putrifaction The Lothesomeness that may happen for so many to Drink of one Cupp The impossibility of providing one Cupp that may be sufficient to serve all the People In some places Wine is dear in some other places the Wine will be frome These Mr. Harding be the fairest and greatest of your good causes Def. of Apol. P. 318. And to these such as they are that good Bishop replies nothing but after enumeration leaves them to the Readers censure Bishop Taylor takes notice but of one which Bellarmine suggests about Lay-mens Beards which he sayes is as ridiculous as the Doctrine it self is unreasonable and if they would shave Lay-mens Beards as they do the Clergy it would be less inconvenience then what they now feel and if there be no help for it they had better lose their Beards than lose their share of the Blood of Christ. Collect. p. 469. Alike answer it is supposed might be given to the rest which having no more weight in them require no better D. Rivet sayes they are of no moment futile all quas Modrevius exacte refellit and exactly refuted by Modrevius whose word we will take for it and trouble our selves no further Only because Bishop Iewel in his review of Gerson adds one particular in his Reply before overseen or omitted in his Defence Viz. the incidence of the Palsie which if beyond what the Physicians call a tremour may have somewhat of moment in it and more or less weight with us who have a due veneration for the Elements after Sacramental Consecration We may so far consider it as to say it endures not the test because being incident so well to the Priest as the people an expedient should have been found that might equally have secured both or no notice taken of either but God's providence for preventing or mercy for pardoning be relyed on who foresaw in every particular inconvenience what hath been found or can possibly be apprehended and yet Christ himself instituted the administration in both kinds But to return once again to her R. H. by whom this difficulty was more easily digested and determined according to the decree and practice of the Church of Rome she is pleased it seems to declare that she would not permit her self were she able as she will not pretend to be to dispute the verities of more grandeur nor ingage in any other point beyond some few words for entertainment of discourse and that without any contestation at all but simply to express the motives and reasons of her conversion Which temper of moderation had she been pleas'd to use and observe when with us toward which the upright open dealing of the two Bishops seemed to induce her whose unbiassed judgement I am sorry to see outdone or undervalued by the witty artifice or bolder practice of a single Priest her H. might have lived longer as the only one of her Mother on whose two breasts from infancy she had depended for her spiritual alimony and thriv'd well by it the choice one of her that bare her the daughters whensoe'r they saw her would have blessed her As a wall might she have been with a Palace of silver built upon her as the wisest of Kings allegirizeth most elegantly in his Song of divine love I draw now toward the Conclusion the last Paragraph of her Declaration Pâ—atteste Dieu c. Her H. solemn attestation of God that she had never thought of changing her religion could she have beleeved and why could she not that salvation might have been had here where was her birth and education is a very severe sentence on King and People whom she left behind her not so much as to allow a bare possibility what soever in fine and fact might have become of all God be praised who hath given us more charity toward the worst of them that have least deserv'd it of us And God give her R. H. too in her present state all the mercy that may be by permission wished her before and at the great Day and above all that crowning pardon as Bishop Taylor calls it which surmounts so much the absolution of her good Priest so joyfully pronounced over her when she first did throw her self into the armes of his all-comprehensive Church as is the highest Arch of heaven from the very centre of the earth What follows at last being left at her Highnesses judgement will pleasure ought to have little contradiction from her quondam Chaplain who in good manners will but lightly glance or gloss upon it 1. That she beleeved it not necessary for her to declare in publick That it was neither interest nor prospect of honours nor of the fading and perishable goods she might have by it that carryed to their Church since on the contrary all the world she sayes needs must know that by the change of Religion she exposed her self to the peril of losing both her friends and credit I am none of the world that know it nor do I believe them to have been her Highnesses friends who would be lost upon account of her passing from a state of sad perplexity and disquiet to one of certain assurance satisfaction and peace within if so she found it Other friendship in or with the world is enmity with God Religion is not to be chosen or adhaer'd to against perswasion of Conscience be it right or wrong by the deceitful weights or measures of worldly friendship The standard of it is more sublime and credit ought not to be so considerable as a good conscience in the case which I have charity to hope she had and exercised without prejudice or partiality in her new choice 2. Pay balance et examine plusteurs fois c that her R. H. had balanced and examined often Whether it were not more expedient