in which time he would sin mortally by omitting contrition if he were obliged to it but this saith he is against the common opinion of Divines that a man contracts any new guilt by omitting contrition Nay he afterwards determins that a man that hath received the Sacrament of Penance with bare attrition is not bound under the guilt of mortal sin for omitting it to an act of contrition at the point of death which is he saith the commonly received opinion among them and he quotes Diana Coninch Becanus Layman Fagundez Faber Turrianus Salas and others for it The great argument he brings is because Confessors do not think themselves obliged to put men in mind of an act of contrition at that time as necessary as common experience shews And are not such Confessors excellent Guides to Heaven the mean while If they be they have found out a much broader way and wider gate than ever Christ intended What not one single act of contrition necessary No not at the point of death What pity it is for sinners you have not the keeping of Heaven-gates How do they want the Sacrament of Penance in Hell for no doubt there is attrition good store there But above all of them commend me to honest Gregor de Valentiâ who not only makes contrition unnecessary but saith it is rather a hindrance to the effect of the Sacraments From whence Morinus justly infers that a Confessor ought not to perswade the Penitent to Contrition nor the penitent to endeavour after it Nay Morinus shews that grave men and famous in their Church do assert that a Penitent having received the Sacrament of Penance is not bound to so much as one act of contrition or the Love of God in order to his reconciliation with God Yea although a man hath hated God to the last act of his life if he receives the Sacrament of Penance they deny that it is necessary for him to be contrite for his sins or to love God Nothing could go beyond this but what follows in him that the excellency of the Evangelical Sacraments above the legal consists in this that the Evangelical Sacraments have freed us from the most heavy yoke 〈◊〉 of contrition and the Love of God O admirable Guides of Conscience I do not at all question but Jews Turks and Heathens have a much better and truer notion of Repentance than these men the Pagan Philosophers were Christians to them And what injury have I done them now in charging such things upon them which obstruct devotion and overthrow the necessity of a good life For I hardly think it possible to contrive a Doctrine more effectual for that end than to tell men that the Sacraments of the Gospel do free men from that heavy yoke Contrition and the Love of God But supposing there were no such Foundation for this Doctrine in the Council of Trent as we see there is would there be no danger to mens Salvation if their Confessors generally told then these things and they knew it to be thâ— current opinion among them Is there 〈◊〉 danger of falling into the ditch wheâ— the Blind lead the Blind unless General Council expresly allow of it 〈◊〉 there no danger by Empericks aâ—â— Mountebanks unless the whole Coâ—ledge of Physicians approve them Anâ— of all sorts of Empericks the worst aâ—â— such Casuists and Confessors Is therâ— no way to magnify the Sacerdotal office unless they have a Power to Trepan Soul into eternal flames for want of true repentance by making them believe thâ— Priests absolution with bare attritioâ— will make all even with God Or 〈◊〉 this Doctrine only a Decoy to draw great sinners into your nets And all this while is your Church innocent which at least sees and will not reform these things In A. D. 1665. 24. of September and 18. May 1666. the Congregation of the Inquisition at Rome under Alexander 7. took upon them to censure 45. several Propositions of the late Casuists as scandalous and pernicious to the Souls of men but not one of them relates to this Doctrine of repentance although the Jansenists in France had complained of it Whence could this arise but from looking on it as the Doctrine of their Church Indeed I find that on May 5. 1667. The Pope caused a Decree to be published straitly forbidding all persons in their debates about Attrition to condemn each other but it is worth our while to understand what this controversie was viz. Whether bare attrition doth require an act of the love of God and although the Negative be there said to be the more common opinion yet the Pope would not have the others that affirmed it to be censured But not the least word against the sufficiency of bare attrition Are any of the Books censured which assert this Doctrine Nay they are published with great approbations Are any of the Defenders of it discountenanced Nay they are Persons in the highest esteem dignity and Authority among them Are any cautions given to Confessors to beware of these Doctrines Nay these very Books are purposely written and approved for their instruction and use And if their Church be innocent after all this so was the Iewish Church in our Saviours time for the corruptions that were then among them had no decree of the Sanhedrin that I find for them it was only their Schoolmen and Casuists the Scribes and Pharisees which introduced them And yet our Saviour thought mens Souls in danger when he bid them beware of the leaven of the Pharisees I confess when we debate the causes of Separation from their Communion we think it then reasonable to alledge no more than what they impose on all to believe and practice and we have enough of all Conscience in that kind without going farther but when we represent the hazard of Salvation to particular persons we may then justly charge them with the pernicious Doctrines and practices which are received and allowed among them although not decreed by the Church in Councils For otherwise it would be just as if one should say to a man that asked him whether he might safely travel through such a Country yes without doubt you may for although there be abundance of Thieves and High-waymen yet the Prince or the State never approved them or gave them licence to rob Travellers Do you think any man would venture his person or his purse on no better security Yet such security as this if it were true is all that such moderate men as O. N. or his Brethren can give as to the Roman Church for they dare not deny the bad consequence of the Doctrines and practices charged upon them but only say the Church hath not decreed them So much I thought necessary to say to this newest and most plausible pretence which is made use of by the best Advocates for the Roman Church And now farewel to Moderation for the two next which appeared on the Stage against me
Imprimatur Sam. Parker R. in Christo Patri ac D no. D no. Gilberto Arch. Episc. Cantuar. à sac Dom. April 15. 1673. AN ANSWER To several late TREATISES Occasioned by a Book entituled a DISCOURSE Concerning the IDOLATRY Practised in the CHURCH of ROME AND The Hazard of Salvation in the Communion of it By Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty The First Part. LONDON Printed by R. W. for Henry Mortlock and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1673. THE General Preface IT is not for any pleasure I take in Controversie nor out of a Resolution to maintain what I have once written that I expose my self again to the Censures of Some and the Rage of others in Defence of our Church against the Church of Rome But out of a just sense of the Weight and goodness of the Cause I have undertaken which if my affection to it hath not strangely blinded my judgement doth highly concern us as Men as English Men and as Christians For it is the Cause of Sense and Reason against the absurd Doctrines they impose on both it is the Cause of our Nation against the Usurpation and Tyranny of a Forrain Power it is the Cause of the true Faith and Christianity against the Errors and Corruptions of the Roman Church To abandon such a Cause as this were to betray the things which ought to be most dear to us for we cannot be reconciled to that Church on any easier terms than renouncing our Sense and Reason enslaving our Country and hazarding our Salvation And what can they give us in exchange for these It was the last of those three Heads which gave occasion to the late so much railed at and so little confuted Book which no sooner appeared but as if some dreadful Monster had risen out of the earth some crossed themselves and kept as far out of the sight of it as they could others made hideous out-crys and grievous complaints and the more fearful sort were forbidden either looking on it or entertaining any discourse about it Upon which I pleased my self that I had not added another Chapter to the Book for if that number had agreed with the ten particulars it had passed among them for the Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns and they would have been glad their City upon seven Hills could have been so excused But this unusual noise and clamour awakened the curiosity of many who love to see strange sights and that which otherwise might have been wholly neglected as a Book was enquired after and looked into being represented as a Monster But when they found that this evil Spirit as they accounted it which themselves had raised was not to be laid again by hard words and ill language they began to consider what other course was to be taken to suppress it And forthwith there starts up a Young Sophister among them and bids them be of good heart for by letting flie at him some Squibs and Crackers he did not question but he should put this Monster into such a Rage as to make him fall upon himself which design being highly approved in a short time came forth that dapper piece called Doct. Stillingfleet against Doct. Stillingfleet It was a notable plot and cunningly managed as the Reader may see by the following Answer to it After him a Graver Person undertakes the service but as Hasenmullerus tells us when Ignatius Loyola sent one of his Brethren at Rome to dispossess a Person he gave him this instruction that he should be sure to come behind the Devil if he would drive him out accordingly this N. O. steals quite behind my Book and began to confute it at the wrong end hoping by that means to drive out the evil Spirit which he supposed to lodge in the Body of it Which he hath performed with great dexterity and success as the Reader may be fully satisfied in the Reply here following These two I undertook before any other appeared and intended to have published these two Answers by themselves but finding others that had written against me on the same argument I was willing to bring as much as I could together to prevent confusion or repetition All which relating to the Principles of Faith and the Rosolution and Rule of it I made account to have dispatched at once but finding the Book begin to swell into too great a bulk I have respited some parts of it to another opportunity When those two men had done their Feats an ancient and experienced Exorcist and yet for all that no Conjurer saw plainly this Spirit must be conjured down and thefore knowing the great efficacy of Charms he gives his Book the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stillingfleeton Which words put me almost in as great a fright as the Holy Chair would have done I began to consider whether Mengus or any other of their skilful men had ever used those Emphatical words before but I am willing to believe it was the sole invention of J. V. C. And I doubt not but they will do well hereafter in Exorcisms especially after the holy Potion when the person to be dispossessed is made sufficiently sick with Rue and Sallet-oyl and other excellent Physick for Devils I find by some of their Authors it is a great matter to get the right name of the Spirit this J. V. C. hath hit unluckily in calling this Monster the Leviathan sporting in the waters since they have thrown out so many empty vessels for him to play with And his three books of Charms have been no unpleasant entertainment But he is gone and I love not to tread hard on the graves of my enemies What there appears material in him if anything do so I shall consider it in its proper place chiefly for the sake of my Iudicious Adversary Dr. T. G. who was the first and I think the only person that hath discovered his Book to be a Learned Treatise But my generous Adversaries finding so little success in single attempts they next fall upon me with Chain-shot viz. A Collection of several Treatises against Doct. Stillingfleet To make up the number they bring in one before published to try an experiment what force that can have in conjunction which had none of it self The first undertaker therein is the very calm and according to his new Christian Name Serene Mr. Cressy the man that hath learnt to mortifie passions by Mystical Divinity but is so far from being sublimed and rectified by that Chymical way of devotion that he seems yet to remain in the very dregs of them the man that hath so accustomed him-self to Legends that he cannot write against an Adversary without making one of him And although there be many very pleasant ones in his Church-History yet I hardly think there are many more wonderful than if his insinuations had any colour of truth in them the first part of
will suffer the people to try nothing but do teach them wholly to depend on them and to that purpose they have indeed three notable sleights First they forbid them the reading of the Scriptures And the better to be obeyed therein they will not permit the Scriptures to be Translated into the Vulgar Tongue Whereof it came to pass that the people were so easily seduced and drawn from Christ to the Pope from his merits to the Saints and their own merits from his bloody sacrifice whereby only sins are remitted to their most dry and fruitless sacrifice from the spiritual food of his Body and Blood unto a carnal and Capernaitical Transubstantiation from the calling upon his name to an Invocation of Saints and from their sure trust and confidence in his death to a vain imagination of the vertue of their Masses Pilgrimages Pardons and I know not what intolerable Superstition and Idolatry I hope Arch-Bishop Bancroft may for once pass for no Puritan with T. G. But what will he say if the only persons he produces as most partial of his side do give in evidence against him Bishop Mountague is the first whose words are these in the Book cited by him Our predecessors and Fathers coming late out of Popery living near unto Papists and Popish times conversing with them having been nuzzled and brought up amongst them and knowing that Images used to be crept unto incensed worshipped and adored among them c. What thinks he is not this all one as to charge them with Idolatry And more plainly in his former Book But whatsoever you say however you qualify the thing with gentle words we say in your practice you far exceed and give them that honour which is Latria a part of Divine respect and worship And afterwards saith the people go to it with downright adoration and your new Schools defend that the same respect is due to the representer as must be given to the representee So that the Crucifix is to be reverenced with the the self-same honour that Christ Jesus is Ablasphemy not heard of till Thomas Aquinas set it on foot Clear these enormities and others like these then come and we may talk and soon agree concerning honour and respect unto Reliques or Images of Saints or Christ till then we cannot answer it unto our Maker to give his honour unto a Creature His next is Pet. Heylin And now I hope we have at last hit upon a man far enough from being a Puritan yet this very Person gives plain evidence against him For i◠his 4th Sermon on the Tares preached a◠White-Hall Ianuary 27. 1638. H◠hath these words So it is also in the point of Images first introduced into the Church for ornament History and imitation Had they staid there it had been well and no faul◠found with them But when the Schools began to State it that the same Veneration was to be afforded to the Type and Prototype then came the Doctrine to the growth When and by whom and where it was first so stated is not easie to determine and indeed not necessary It is enough that we behold it in the fruits And what fruits think you could it bear but most gross Idolatry greater than which was never known among the Gentils Witness their praying not before but to the Crucifix and calling on the very Cross the wooden and material Cross both to increase their righteousness and remit their sins And for the Images of the Saints they that observe with what laborious Pilgrimages magnificent processions solemn offerings and in a word with what affections prayers and humble bendings of the body they have been and are worshipped in the Church of Rome might very easily conceive that She was once again relapsed into her ancient Paganism With much more to the same purpose His only person remaining is Mr. Thorndike a man of excellent Learning and great piety but if we should grant that he held some thing singular in this matter what is that to the constant opinion of our Church and yet even Mr. Thorndike himself in a paper sent by him 〈◊〉 some whom T. G. know's not long before his death saith That to pray to Saints for those things which only God can give as all Papist do is by the proper sense of the word◠down-right Idolatry If they say their meaning is by a figure only to desire them to procure their requests of God How dare any Christian trust his soul with that Church which teaches that which must needs be Idolatry in all that understand not the figure So that upon the whole matter T. G. cannot produce any on◠Person of our Church that hath clearly an◠wholly acquitted the Church of Rome from the charge of Idolatry It seems then 〈◊〉 Church hath been made up of Puritans i◠T. G's sense of them But if these do no◠satisfy him what doth he think of the Arch-Bishop and Bishops and Clergy of the Convocation A. D. 1640. Were 〈◊〉 these Puritans too And yet in the sevent◠Canon they have these words And albeit at the time or Reforming this Church from that gross Superstition of Popery it was carefully provided that all means should be used to root out of the minds of the people both the inclination thereto and memory thereof especially of the Idolatry committed in the Mass for which cause all Popish Altars were demolished c. What can more express the sense of our Church than the concurrent opinion of Arch-Bishops Bishops and Clergy of both Provinces met in Convocation When we see they so lately charged the Church of Rome with Idolatry Let us now consider what exceptions he takes against the other witnesses produced by me Jewel Bilson Davenant all eminent Bishops of our Church and of great learning are cast away at once as incompetent Persons But why so Why saith T. G. they were all excepted against by our late Soveraign K. Charcles I. in his third paper to Henderson That is a shrewd prejudice indeed to their Authority to be rejected by a Prince of so excellent a judgement and so Cordial a friend to the Church of England But it is good to be sure whether it be so or no. All that he saith of Bishop Iewel is this and though I much reverence Bishop Iewel ' s memory I never thought him infallible So then he must he Puritanically inclined but whence does that follow not surely from the Kings reverencing his memory for that were to reflect upon the King himself not from his not thinking him Infallible For I dare say the King never thought the Pope infallible must be needs therefore think him a Puritan Surely never man was such a Friend to the Puritans as this T. G. who without any ground gives them away some of the greatest honours of our Church and if the Testimony last cited be of any force to prove one a Puritan all mankind and himself too for I plainly perceive by this
and to pray for them while they calumniate me I have so much the less reason to wonder that my Book should be charged by them with no less than Blasphemy since the Author of our Religion himself was so and suffered under that accusation But wherein I pray doth this blasphemy lye have I uttered any thing that tends to the reproach of God or true Religion have I the least word which malice it self can stretch to the dishonour of Iesus Christ the Prophets and Apostles or the Holy Scriptures written by divine Inspiration no I challenge the boldest of them and most malicious to produce any thing I ever said or writ that doth but seem to look that way Have I made the practice of true devotion ridiculous and the real expressions of piety the subject of scorn and derision No so far from it that it was only a just zeal for the Honour and practise of true Religion made me willing to lay open the ridiculous Fanaticisms of some pretended Saints in the Roman Church And must they be allowed to charge Fanaticism on us and think it far from Blasphemy to represent the Enthusiastick Follies of the Sectaries among us and when they are guilty of the very same or greater may not we shew their unjustice and partiality without being accused of Blasphemy But some of these are Canonized Saints as S. Brigitt S. Catharine S. Francis and S. Ignatius which is so far from making the Cause of their Church better that to my understanding it makes it much worse For although Fanaticism be disowned by our Church it seems it is not barely countenanced and allowed in the Church of Rome but Canonized and adored That which I insist upon is this either we have no Fanaticks or theirs are so for by the very same rule that ours are so theirs must be too for our Fanaticks do pretend as high to the Spirit and divine Revelation as any of theirs only there is this remarkable difference between their Fanaticks and ours that ours are among us but not of us but theirs are both Now if any one who pretends to Inspiration and Enthusiasm cannot be charged with Fanaticism without blasphemy we must be exposed to all follies and contradictions imaginable and to what purpose are we bid to try the Spirits whether they be of God or no i. e. whether their pretence to divine revelation be true or false If there may be false pretences to Inspiration we are to examine the grounds of them and to judge accordingly and all false pretenders to Inspiration let them be Canonized by whom they will are the highest sort of Fanaticks and the greater honour is given them the greater dishonour it is to the Christian Religion But these things shall be more largely discussed in their proper place I now only take notice of the injustice of their calumny with which they have made so much noise among injudicious people and I should not have been so much concerned about it had I not found suggestions to the same purpose in the Authors of the two Pamphlets The one of them very kindly makes no difference between Lucian Porphyrius and me but only some interest which doth byass me another way and verily believes good man that were it not for that I could flurt with as much piquancy and railery at Christian Religion as I do at the Roman In which base suggestion there is no colour of truth but only that he very honestly distinguisheth the Christian Religion and the Roman from each other as indeed they are in many things as different from each other as truth from falshood wisdom from folly and true piety from gross Superstition If he had called me an Atheist in plain terms the grossness of the calumny might have abated the force of it but there is no such way to do a man mischief as by fly insinuations and shrewd suggestions introduced with I verily believe and expressed with some gravity and zeal But you who are so good at resolving faith what is this verily believe of yours founded upon Have you the authority of your Church for it have you any evidence of reason or rather have you it by some vision or revelation made by some of those Saints whose Fanaticism is exposed or do you verily believe it as you verily believe many other things for no reason in the world If I should tell you I have made it my business to assert the truth of the Scriptures and Christian Religion therein contained in a large Discourse several years since published such is your charity that you would tell me so did Vaninus write for Providence when he denyed a Deity If I should make large Apologies for my innocency and publish a confession of my faith with protestations that no interest in the world could remove me from it you might tell me where there is no guilt what need so much ado In plain terms I know but one way to satisfie such as you are but I will keep from it as long as I can and that is to go to Rome and be burnt for my faith for that is the kindness there shewed to those who contend for the purity of the Christian Religion against the corruptions of the Roman But such calumnies as these as they are not fit to be passed by so are they too gross to need any further answer I shall however declare my mind freely to you if I had no other notion of the Christian doctrine than what I have from the Doctrines of your Church as contrary to ours no other measures of Christian piety than from your mystical Theology no better way to Worship God than what is practised among you no greater certainty of Inspiration from God than of the Visions and Revelations of your late Saints no other miracles to confirm the Christian doctrine than what are wrought by your Images and Saints I should sooner choose to be a Philosopher than a Christian upon those terms And I verily believe to answer yours with another that the frauds and impostures of the Roman Church have made more Atheists in Christendom than any one cause whatsoever besides for when men resolve all their faith into the testimony of a Church whose frauds are so manifest and confessed by your best Writers such as Melchior Canus and Ludov. Vives what can they who know no better but suspect the Inspirations and Miracles of former Ages who see such false pretences to them so much magnified and the Fanatick pretenders Canonized on that account And I am so far from thinking it any disservice to the Christian Religion to expose these Fanaticisms that I again verily believe that Christianity will never obtain as it ought to do among men till all those hypocritical cheats be yet more laid open to the view of the World which if any one have but the courage and patience to undertake it would be as great and a much more useful labour
ought to have represented if he had designed any thing but Sophistry and trifling But his game had been then quite spoiled the fine sport of making contradictions had been lost and his cross purposes had come to nothing I now come to see what contradictions he wire-draws from hence by the help of his Propositions 1. Whoever is in a condition wherein he is certainly saved is in no danger or probability of being damned If by he is certainly saved he speaks of the event then he were a hard hearted man that would not grant that he that is actually saved is in no danger or probability of being damned if he means it of a certain way to salvation then it is yet capable of several meanings For to be in a certain way may imply one of these three things 1. That the way it self is so plain that a man cannot miss of it 2. Or that the way is in it self certain but there are so many by-paths and turnings lying hard by it that it is a very hard matter for any man to keep in it 3. To be in a certain way is when not only the way it self is certain but a man keeps constantly in that way According to these several senses this Proposition may be understood if by it be meant 1. He that is in a certain way to salvation is in no danger or probability of being damned i. e. he that keeps constantly in that way which will certainly lead him to Heaven the Proposition is true but impertinent but if by it be meant no more but this that he is in a way which in it self leads to Heaven but there are so many cross and by-paths near it that though it be possible for him to hit it yet it is extreamly hazardous no one can imagine that such a one is in no probability of miscarrying for we say he is in very great danger of it notwithstanding the tendency of the way it self 2. Prop. Whoever lives and dyes in a true way to salvation having conformed to its directions or whoever has done all that was necessary to attain unto salvation is in a condition wherein he is certainly saved The Sophistry of this is so palpable that the weakest eye may discern it for it supposes that true way to salvation wherein he lives to be a very safe and secure way i. e. that it be not only true in it self but free from such errours and corruptions which may endanger salvation and in that sense it is true but very far from the purpose For none of us did ever yield that the Roman Church is a safe way to salvation nay it is expresly denyed by my Lord of Canterbury as well as by me But here lyes still another piece of Sophistry to be taken notice of whoever hath done all that was necessary to attain salvation is in a condition wherein he is certainly saved no doubt of it but the doing all that is necessary to salvation is not bare believing the necessary articles of faith contained in the Creed but obeying the Will of God which cannot be done by those who wilfully adhere to gross and open violations of it as I have charged the Church of Rome to do in her solemn acts of Worship Their cause certainly is at a very low ebb when such pittiful Sophistry must pass for reasoning and demonstration among them Never men had more need of a self-evidencing cause as well as propositions than they so little help do they contribute to it by their Writings 3 Prop. The Roman Church is a true way to salvation and teaches all that is necessary to attain unto it This is granted he saith by me and other Protestants when we acknowledge the Roman Church to be a true Church but in what sense I have already explained so far as to leave no colour of arguing from hence to any contradiction in me For this true way to salvation in our sense is no more but that the Church of Rome doth acknowledge so much of Christian faith as is sufficient to save men on condition they live accordingly and do not by gross corruptions in doctrine or practice render that faith ineffectual to them but withall we assert and maintain that to these necessary articles of Christian faith the Church of Rome hath added such errours and corruptions as make the salvation of any person extreamly hazardous who lives in the communion of it And let them have all the comfort from hence which they can I am sure they have not this that they have brought me to contradict my self by such concessions as these By this his last Proposition comes to nothing whoever lives and dyes in the communion of the Roman Church having conformed to her doctrine lives and dyes in a true way to salvation having conformed to its directions and has done all that was necessary to attain to it Which evidently supposes that we yield that the doctrine of the Roman Church is a safe way to salvation which we utterly deny all that we assert is that so much of the common Principles of Christianity as is retained in the Roman Church is sufficient for the salvation of those who do not wilfully corrupt them by bad opinions and practices or if they have do repent sincerely But for those who conform themselvs to the doctrine and directions of the Roman Church as such we are far from ever saying that such live and dye in a true way to salvation for this were to make those doctrines and directions to be as holy and innocent as we believe them to be false and pernicious See now what a contradiction here is for me to assert the Church of Rome to be a true Church because it retains the Fundamentals of Christianity and yet to make the condition of those who live in it so hazardous in point of salvation by reason of the gross errours which men are bound to believe as necessary points of faith and horrible Superstitions which they must conform to if they follow her directions Surely he could not but know this to be our meaning and consequently to have no shadow of contradiction in it no more than is in this plain Proposition That a possible way to salvation may yet be very dangerous But though Iugglers know their own cheats they would lose their trade if they made them known to the people Something must be said to amuse them and this seemed the prettiest way to confound them by dazeling their eyes with such appearances of contradictions and thereby to perswade their own party that they need not fear the the attaque of such an enemy who falls foul upon himself But it is nothing but the mist he casts before their eyes can make any have such an imagination it is but making things clear and then nothing but order and agreement appears But yet he quarrels with me for making the case of living in willful sin and in the corruptions of the Roman Church
it This is one of the best arts I have met with in this Pamphlet for unwary Readers will not remember the charge when they find no answer but if I. W. had attempted to answer it his shuffling and tricks might have made the deeper impression in the Readers minds Remember then this charge stands good against them without so much as their pretending to answer it To come now to the other part of Fanaticism viz. an Enthusiastick way of Religion and here to proceed clearly I shall lay down the method of his Defence and then examine it The strength of his Defence lyes in these Propositions 1. That Fanaticism does necessarily contain a resistance against authority 2. No particular ways of Religion countenanced by a competent authority are Fanaticism 3. Those things which concern religious Orders and Method of Devotion which I charge them with are countenanced by a competent authority viz. The Authority of that Church 4. That Church cannot countenance Fanatism which obligeth all persons to submit to her judgement So that here are two Principles by which I. W. thinks to vindicate their Church from Fanaticism viz. competent authority and submission of judgement to the Church To shew the invalidity of this answer I shall do these things 1. Shew the insufficiency of it 2. The monstrous absurdities consequent upon it 1. If this answer were sufficient he must make it appear that there have been none charged by me as Fanaticks in their Church but such as have submitted themselves and their judgement to the authority of their Church For let us consider the occasion of this charge and we shall presently discern the insufficiency of this way of answering it The occasion was that my Adversary made all the Sects and Fanaticisms among us to be the effect of the Reformation what answer could be more proper in this case than to shew that there were as wild and extravagant Fanaticisms before as have been since which is a plain evidence that cannot be the cause of them to which they imputed them To make this out I searched into the several sorts of Fanaticism and gave instances very clear of as great Fanaticks in the times before the reformation as have been since from the many pretenders to immediate Revelations among them who were persons allowed and approved by their Church and some of them Canonized for Saints but besides these I gave such other Instances of Fanaticism among the Friers and others of their Church as were never heard of in the world before as the broachers and maintainers of the Friers Gospel which was to put out of doors the Gospel of Christ the Spiritual Brethren of the order of S. Francis called by several names but especially that of Fratricelli who continued long spread far and more distrubed the Church than any since have done the Dulcinistae in Italy the Alumbrado's in Spain c. What doth he now say concerning all these were these countenanced by a competent authority among them did they submit their judgement to the Church if neither of these be pretended in reference to them then this answer must be very insufficient because it doth not reach to the matter in charge 2. For those who were as he saith countenanced by authority and did submit themselves to the Church yet this doth not clear them from Fanaticism but draws after it these monstrous absurdities 1. That prevailing Fanaticism ceases to be Fanaticism like Treason which when it prospers none dare call it Treason an excellent way this to vindicate the Fanaticism of the late times which because countenanced by an authority supposed competent enough by some who then writ of Obedience and Government it ceased to be Fanaticism and all the wild and extravagant heats of mens brains their Enthusiasms and Revelations were Regular and orderly things because countenanced by such Authority as was then over them 2. By this rule the Prophets and Apostles nay our Lord himself were unavoidably Fanaticks for what competent authority had they to countenance them The Iewish Church was not yet cast off while our Saviour lived but utterly opposed his doctrine and Revelation as coming from a private Spirit of his own according therefore to these excellent Principles our B. Saviour is made a meer Fanatick because he wanted a competent Authority of the present Church to countenance him the same was generally the case of the Prophets and of all the Apostles But what rocks and Precipices will a bad cause drive men upon If that which makes Fanaticism or not Fanaticism be the being countenanced or not countenanced by this competent Authority these horrible absurdities are unavoidable and all Religion must be resolved into the will and pleasure of this competent Authority But I need not take such pains to prove this for my brave Answerer I. W. sets it down in his own words Moreover otherwise all the particular manners of Preaching or Praying practised by the Prophets and all their extraordinary visions and revelations would be flat Fanaticism but because they were countenanced by a competent authority they could not deserve that character Excellent doctrine for a Popish Leviathan are you in earnest sir do you think the Prophets had been Fanaticks in case of no competent authority to countenance them What competent authority had the Prophet Elijah to countenance him when all the Authority that then was not only opposed him but sought his life What competent Authority had any of the Prophets who were sent to the ten Tribes what had Ieremiah Ezekiel and the rest of them It seems then all these excellent and inspired persons are cast into the common herd of Fanaticks for want of this competent Authority to countenance them And yet this is the Man meerly because I lay open the Fanaticism of some their pretended Saints such as Ignatius Loyola and S. Francis who ranks me with Lucian and Porphyrie hath he not himself a great zeal for Religion the mean while resolving all revelation into his competent authority and not only so but paralleling the expressions and practices of S. Brigitt and Mother Juliana than which scarce any thing was ever Printed more ridiculous in the way of Revelations with those of the holy Prophets and Apostles If a man designed to speak mischievously against the Scriptures and Divine Revelation he could not do it more to purpose than I. W. hath done in these words when he compares things whose folly is so manifest at the first view with that divine Wisdom which Inspired those holy persons whom God sent upon particular messages to his people and gave so great assurance that he sent them and who delivered matters of great weight and moment and not such tittle tattle as those two Womens Books are fraught withall But if this be the way they have to vindicate them from being Fanaticks it is absolutely the worst that could be thought of for it cannot discover so high an opinion of them as it doth a
very mean one of the Books of Scripture and the Divine Revelations therein contained I could here earnestly intreat the wiser men of that Church for the honour of God and the Christian Religion not to suffer such inconsiderate persons to vindicate their cause who to defend the extravagant infirmities of some Enthusiastical women among them are so forward to cast dirt and reproach upon our common Religion and those Revelations from whence we derive it But I forbear only it is a shrewd sign if this way be allowed of a wretched cause that cannot be maintained without plunging those who rely upon their word into the depths of Atheism But these are not things to be so slightly passed over they deserve a fuller and severer chastisement For the present this is enough to shew what monstrous absurdities this way of vindicating their Church from Fanaticism hath brought I. W. to Yet in one respect he deserves some pardon for they are wont to write their answers upon the common Themes out of some staunch Authors who considered a little better what they writ But this was a new charge and neither Bellarmin Becanus nor any of their old beaten souldiers could give them any assistance they found not the Title of the Fanaticism of the Roman Church in any of their common-place-Books therefore plain Mother-wit must help them and so it hath bravely But before they again attempt this matter I desire them to consider these things least they should in a desperate humour utterly give up the cause of Religion finding themselves unable to defend that of their Church 1. Whether there can be any greater Fanaticism than a false pretence to immediate divine Revelation For what can more expose men to all the follies and delusions imaginable than this will do what actions can be so wild and extravagant but men may do under such a pretence of immediate Revelation from God what bounds of order and Government can be preserved some may pretend a Revelation to take up Arms against their Prince or to destroy all they meet which is no unheard of thing others may not go so far but may have revelations of the unlawfulness of Kingly Government others may pretend revelations of a new Gospel and a more spiritual dispensation than hath been yet in the World as the Mendicant Friers did 2. Whether we are bound to believe all such who say They have divine revelations or whether persons may not be deceived in thinking they have revelations when they are only delusions of their own Fancies or the Devil if not then every one is to be believed who pretends to these things and then all follies and contradictions must be fwallowed which men say they have by immediate revelation and every Fanatick must be believed to have divine revelation who believes himself though he be only deluded by his own Imagination or become Enthusiastical by the power of a disease in his head or some great heat in his blood 3. Whether there must not be some certain rules established whereby all persons and even competent authority it self must proceed in judging these pretences to revelation whether they be true or false for if they proceed without rule they must either be inspired too or else must receive all who pretend to divine revelations if there be any certain rules whereby the revelation is to be judged then if any persons receive any revelation against those rules whether are other persons bound to follow their judgement against those rules 4. Whether there can be any more certain rule of judging than that two things evidently contradictory to each other cannot both come from divine revelation For then God must contradict himself which is impossible to be supposed and would overthrow the faith of any divine revelation And this is the plain case of the revelations made to two famous Saints in the Roman Church S. Brigitt and S. Catharine to one it was revealed that the B. Virgin was conceived with Original sin to the other that she was not both these have competent Authority for they were both Canonized for Saints by the Roman Church and their Revelations approved and therefore according to I. W. neither of them were Fanaticks though it is certain that one of their Revelations was false For either God must contradict himself or one of these must be deceived or go about to deceive and what greater Fanaticism can there be than that is if one of these had only some Fanatick Enthusiasm and the other divine Revelation then competent authority and submission to the judgement of the Church is not a rule to judge Fanaticism by for those were equal in both of them 5. Whether there be an equal reason to look for revelations now as in the time of the Prophets and our Saviour and his Apostles or whether God communicates revelations to no other end but to please and gratifie some Enthusiastical tempers and what should be the reason he should do it more now than in the age wherein revelations were more necessary In those times God revealed his mind to men but it was for the benefit of others when he sent them upon particular messages as the Prophets or made known some future events to them of great importance to the Church as the coming of the Messias c. or Inspired them to deliver weighty doctrines to the world as he did both the Prophets and Apostles why should we think that God now when the revelations of these holy and inspired persons are upon record and all things necessary to his Church are contained therein should vary this method of his and entertain some melancholy and retired women or other Enthusiastical persons with visions and revelations of no use to his Church 6. Whether God doth ever Inspire persons with immediate revelations without giving sufficient evidence of such Inspiration For if he did it were to leave men under a temptation to Infidelity without means to withstand it if he doth not then we have reason to examine the evidence before we believe the revelation The evidence God gave of old was either the Prophecy of a succession of Prophets by one whose commission was attested by great miracles as Moses who told the Israelites they were to expect Prophets and laid down rules to judge of them by or else by miracles wrought by themselves as by the Apostles whom our Lord sent abroad to declare his will to the world And where these are not what reason is there to receive any new Revelations as from God especially when the main predictions of the New Testament are of false Prophets and false Miracles 7. Whether the Revelations of their pretended Saints being countenanced by the Authority of their Church be equally received among them with the Revelations contained in Scripture if they be then they ought to have equal reverence paid to them and they ought to read them as Scripture to cite their Authority as divine and to believe them as infallible
that the Church is infallible I would fain understand what this infallible assent is grounded upon and if the evidence be only sufficiently or morally infallible which are his own terms how the assent which is built upon it comes to be more than so It is very pleasant to observe how Mr. Cressey and some other late Writers of their Church are perplexed about this word Infallibility as if they had a Wolf by the ears they cannot tell how to hold it and they are afraid to let it go And very loth is is our N. O. to part with the sound of Infallibility although his own Concessions perfectly overthrow it as will yet further appear by this last viz. 8. That moral Certainty is a sufficient foundation for Faith This will appear by my 27. Proposition which is this The nature of certainty doth receive several names either according to the nature of the proof or the degrees of the Assent Thus Moral Certainty may be so called either as it is opposed to Mathematical evidence but implying a firm assent upon the highest evidence that Moral things can receive Or as it is opposed to a higher degree of Certainty in the same kind so Moral Certainty implies only greater Probabilities of one side than the other In the former sense we assert the certainty of Christian Faith to be Moral but not only in the latter To which he saith This Principle is granted if importing only that Christians have or may have a sufficiently certain and infallible evidence of the truth of their Christianity Whereby it is plain that though he useth the term infallible yet he means no more than I do or else he ought not to have brought that as an explication of my principle which is contrary to it as in this Controversie Moral Certainty is opposed to strict demonstration and Infallibility But if he by infallibility means only sufficient certainty I shall be content for quietness sake that he shall call it Infallibility if he pleases And that he can mean no more by it appears not only by what he hath said before but by what he saith afterwards in these words A Natural or Moral Certainty though not such a one as cannot possibly be false but which according to the Laws of Nature and the common manners and experience of Men is not false is sufficient on which to ground such a faith as God requires of us in respect of that Certainty which can be derived from humane sense or reason and which serves for an introductive to the reliance of this our faith upon such Revelation as is believed by us divine and which if divine we know is not possibly fallible In respect of its relying on which Revelation an infallible object and not for an Infallible Certainty as to the subject it is that this our Faith is denominated a Divine Faith Now this Natural or Moral Certainty is thought sufficient for the first rational Introductive and Security of our Faith not only by the Doctor in his 27. Principle but also by Catholick Divines in their Discourses of the Prudential Motives Very well said and I were a very disingenuous man if I should not heartily thank him for so free a Confession by which if I understand any thing he very fairly gives up the Cause of Infallibility as to the necessity of it in order to Faith As will easily appear by the managing of it so far as I have been concerned in it It is evident to any one that will cast an eye on the Controversie of Infallibility between the Arch-bishop and his Adversaries that it was raised on this account because those of the Church of Rome asserted that the Infallible Testimony of the Church was necessary in order to the believing the Scriptures to be the Word of God and so much is endeavoured to be defended by him who pretended to answer my Lord of Canterburies Book who goes upon this Principle That this is to be believed with a divine Faith and a divine Faith must be built upon an infallible Testimony the falsehood of which I at large shewed in the Discourse of the Resolution of Faith Since the publishing whereof the Metaphysical Gentleman before mentioned pretended to answer that part of it which concerns Infallibility and Moral Certainty Some of his assertions I have laid down already as contrary to this of N. O. as may be for he not only asserts the necessity of Infallibility for a foundation of Christian Faith but spends some Chapters in rambling talk against Moral Certainty The Title of one of which is Faith only Morally Certain is no Faith I desire N. O. and E. W. to agree better before they goe aboâ—â— to confute me and to what purpose shouldâ— trouble my self with answering a man whoâ— Principles the more ingenuous of their owâ— Party disown as well as we For not onâ—â— N. O. here makes Moral Certainty a sufficienâ— ground for Divine Faith but the Guide 1â— Controversies another of my Adversaries aâ—serts the same when he saith And indeeâ— from what is said formerly that a Divine Faith may be had by those who have had 〈◊〉 extrinsecal even morally infallible I see now from whom N. O. learnt these terms motive thereof it follows that Divine Faith doth not resolve into such motives either as the formal cause or always as the applicative introductive or condition of this divine faith And a little after That it is not necessary that such Faith always should have an external rationally infallible ground or motive thereto whether Church Authority or any other on his part that so believes By these concessions it appears that the cause of Infallibility as far as it concerns the necessity of it in order to Faith is clearly given up by these persons and if others be still of another mind among them I leave them to dispute it among themselves Thus far then we are agreed I now come to consider where the controversie still remains and why the rest of my Principles may not pass as well as these In order to this I must by taking a view of his several exceptions and answers draw together a Scheme of those Principles which he sets up in opposition to mine and if I do not very much mistake they may be reduced to these three 1. That God hath given an infallible assistance to the Guides of the Church in all Ages of it for the direction of those who live in it 2. That without this infallible assistance there can be no certainty of the sense of Scripture 3. That all the Arguments which overthrow the Churches Infallibility do destroy the Churches Authority These as far as I can perceive contain the whole force of his Considerations and in the examination of these the remaining discourse must be spent In which I shall have occasion to take notice of whatever is material in his Book 1. The main controversie is whether God hath given an
with in the Field And to speak truth N. O. seems to understand his Art better than to meddle with such heavy and Antique Armour which every one hath been foiled with that hath undertaken to combat with them only it seems a little for the credit of their Cause to point to such a Magazine which in the days of Ignorance and Credulity the Romantick Age of the Church was in great request But we must now buckle our selves to a new manner of Combat which is from the Tradition of the Church and that of the very same nature with what we have for the Canon of Scripture This I confess is bright shining Armour and may do great service if it will hold but that must be judged upon trial which I now set my self to But we shall find that no weapons formed against Truth can prosper and it hath been long observed of Rome that it could never endure a close Siege The Question now is whether they of the Roman Church have the same universal Tradition for the Infallibility of the Guides of it w ch we have for the Canon of Scripture w ch he asserts It is I suppose agreed on both sides That the Tradition on w ch we receive and believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God was universal as to all Ages and Times of the Church that from the beginning all disputes in Religion among true Christians were built upon the supposition of it That in no Age any persons were allowed to be good Christians who made doubt of it That every Age doth afford plentiful testimonies of the belief of it This is that universal Tradition we receive the Scriptures upon and let any thing like this be produced for the Infallibility of the Guides of their Church and we yield up the Cause to them Can any fairer terms than these be desired But we expect proofs and so I perceive we may do to the Worlds end I commend the Ingenuity of N. O. for endeavouring to escape out of the circle any way but I believe they think themselves as wise who still dance within it knowing the impossibility of doing any good in this other way The only Argument he insists upon is so weak that I wonder he had not considered how often it had been answered by their own Writers For it is certain that Provincial Councils as well as General have Anathematized dissenters and pronounced them Hereticks which is his only Argument to prove this Tradition of the Churches Infallibility and they had no way to answer it but by saying this doth not imply their Infallibility And if it doth not in the case of Provincial Councils why should he think it doth in the case of General For the Anathema's of Provincial Councils did not relate to the acceptation of their Decrees either by the Pope or the whole Church as N. O. supposes but did proceed upon their own assurance of the truth of what they decreed otherwise their Anathema's would have been only conditional and not absolute and peremptory as we see they were But I need give no other answer to this Argument than in the words of Dr. Field whom N. O. appealed to before viz. That Councils denounce Anathema not because they think every one that disobeyeth the Decree of the Council to be accursed but because they are perswaded in particular that this is the eternal truth of God which they propose therefore they accurse them that obstinately shall resist as St. Paul willeth every Christian man to Anathematize an Angel coming from heaven if he shall teach him any other doctrine than he hath already learned yet is not every particular Christian free from possibility of erring If the Argument then were good from Anathematizing dissenters and calling them Hereticks every particular person must by it be proved Infallible who are bound to Anathematize even Angels from Heaven in case of delivering any other doctrine from the Gospel so that this which is his only Argument in stead of proving an universal Tradition would prove an universal Infallibility Let the Reader now judge in his Conscience whether here be any thing offered in the way of Tradition for the Churches Infallibility that may bear the least proportion with the Tradition on which we receive the Scriptures And yet if this had been true it had been almost impossible that any one Age should have passed without remarkable testimonies of it For no Age of the Church hath been so happy as not to have occasion for an Infallible Judge of Controversies if any such had been appointed by Christ and therefore it cannot be imagined but that Christians must in all Controversies arising have appealed to him and stood to his determinations which must have been as well known in the practice of the Church as Judges trying Causes in Westminster Hall But I challenge him to produce any one Age since the Apostles times to this day wherein the Infallibility of a standing Judge of Controversies appointed by Christ hath been received by as universal a consent as the Authority of Scripture hath been in that very Age. Nay I except not that Age which hath been since the Council of Trent for the Scriptures of the New Testament have been received of all sides but the Infallibility of a standing Judge is utterly denied by one side and vehemently disputed between several parties on the other Some making only the Essential Church infallible others the representative in Councils others again the virtual viz. the Pope And supposing any infallible Judge necessary it stands to reason it should be rather in one than in a multitude and rather in a constant succession of Bishops in one See than in an uncertain number who cannot be convened together as often as the necessities of the Church may require But this is so far from being received as an Universal Tradition in that very Age wherein we live that onely one busie Party in the Roman Church do maintain it Many others eagerly opposing it and all the Princes and States in Christendom do in their actions if not in words deny it And is not this now an Universal Tradition fit to be matched with that of the Scriptures I had once thought to have brought testimonies oâ—t of every Age of the Christian Church manifestly disproving any such Tradition of Infallibility and that not only of private persons when there were no Councils but from the most solemn Acts of Councils and the confession of their own Writers but that would swell this Answer to too great a Bulk and is not needful where so very little is offered for the proof of it And yet I shall be ready to do it when any thing more important requires it I now return to his exceptions against the latter part of the former proposition viz. That Infallibility in a Body of men is as liable to doubts and disputes as in those Books from whence only they derive their Infallibility The plain meaning of which
for Heresy that not only did not err but if some may be believed could not Surely the Council never thought of that when they make no scruple of condemning him with the rest What were Pope Agatho's Legats there present and could not inform the Council of their presumption in judging the Infallible See But no such thing was heard of in those times these latter Ages have been only blessed with the knowledge of this unerring priviledge and happy had it been if all the records of former times had been burnt that no Instances might have been brought to overthrow it Yet wit and industry have not been wanting to bring poor Honorius off if it had been possible the sum of all may be reduced to these 3. Answers 1. Either that the Acts of the Council are falsifyed Or. 2. That the Pope did not err in faith Or. 3. Supposing he did err it was only as a private person and not as Head of the Church 1. That the Acts of the Council are falsifyed This is a shrewed sign of a desperate cause when against the consent of all ancient Copies both Greek and Latin and the Testimonies of several Popes and Councils afterwards learned men are driven to so miserable a shift as this The first I find who made this answer was Albertus Pighius and after him Baronius and Bellarmin have embraced it but the more ingenuous men of their own Church have been ashamed of it Melchior Canus confesseth that not only this General Council but the seventh and eighth under Adrian and that several other Popes have confessed the truth of the thing and therefore he doth not see how Pighius can vindicate Honorius in this matter Franciscus Torrensis afterwards better known by the name of Turrianus a man highly applauded by Baronius Hosius Lindanus and others writ a Book of the 6. 7. and 8. Synod wherein he severely chastises Pighius for his ill usage of this sixth Council and saith that in this matter he shewed more prejudice than judgement For whereas he suspects that the letter of Honorius to Sergius was not sufficiently examined and compared with the Original this betray 's saith Turrianus his great negligence in reading the Acts of the Council for in the latter end of the 12. Session it is expresly said that the Authentick Latin Epistle of Honorius was produced and compared by the Bishop of Porto Besides how comes saith he the name of Honorius to be no less than 9. times in the Council and if all this had been by the Greeks corrupting the Copies surely they would never have left that passage remaining concerning the corrupting the letters of Mennas and Vigilius How comes Leo 2. in his Epistle to the Emperour wherein he confirms the Council to Anathematize Honorius by name as guilty of heresy some indeed saith he may say this is counterfeit too so do Baronius and Binius but they have nothing but their bare conjecture for it no argument or authority to confirm it Not only the Greek Writers but the Latin confess he was there condemned so doth Bede saith he so doth the Pontifical Book in the life of Leo 2. and in the Council under Martin at Rome the Epistle of Paulus to Theodorus was read wherein was mentioned the consent of Honorius and Sergius and no one there opposed it Humbertus Legat of Leo 9. in his Book against the Greeks reckons Honorius among the condemned Monothelites How came all the Copies to be corrupted at once as he farther urges that there are none left sound to correct others by But that which he insists upon as the strongest argument of all is from Hadrian 2. who calling a Council at Rome for the condemning of Photius for Anathematizing him hath these remarkable words that no Bishop of Rome was Anathematized before unless it were Honorius who after his death was condemned for heresy in which case alone it is lawful for inferiours to resist theâ—r Superiours and to reject their doctrine although even there they would never have done it if the Bishop of the first See had not consented to it A very considerable Testimony not only to prove that Honorius was comdemned for heresy but that a Pope may be guilty of it and be lawfully proceeded against for it and that Pope Agatho did himself consent to the condemnation of Honorius Notwithstanding these arguments of Torrensis Baronius seeing that no other defence could be made persists in the same accusation of Forgery and out of his own head frames an improbable story of the corrupting the Copies of the Council by Theodorus who being saith he Anathematized as a Monothelite expunged his own name and put in that of Honorius A fiction so groundless and unreasonable that nothing but meer despair could drive a man of common understanding to it For there is not the least countenance for it in any Author not the least colour of probability in the thing For that all the Copies of the Council should be corrupted by one man and neither the Popes Legats present at the Council nor any else should take notice of it That no succeeding Popes should discover it when they were concerned to vindicate Honorius but did own the thing to be true that Theodorus then living should be condemned before it was known whether he would submit to the Council or not that in the seventh and eighth Councils this should not be at all suspected but the condemning Honorius expresly mentioned in both that a man at that time deposed from his Patriarchat of Constantinople should be able to make such a razure and forgery in the Copies of the Councils that the Emperour Constantine who took so much care about the Council should suffer such a thing to be done do all make this figment of Baronius so remote from any likelyhood that Baronius had need to have prayed as once a man upon the rack did that he might tell probable lyes But all the miscarriages of Baronius in this matter are so fully laid open by one of their own Church that I need not Insist any longer upon it to whom no answer hath been given but that substantial one of an Index Expurgatorius Bellarmin likes this way of answering the difficulty about Honorius but the greatest strength he adds to Baronius is only saying without doubt it is so and he grants that the Seventh and Eighth Council did believe that Pope Honorius was condemned but he saith they were deceived by the false Acts of the Council But however they must believe that the Pope might fall into heresy and be condemned by a Council for it Yet Bellarmim hath a fetch in this case beyond Baronius viz. That either the Acts of the Council are falsified or the Council was guilty of intolerable impudence and errour in condemning Honorius without reason For all the evidence they produce against him is from his Epistles in which saith he nothing is contained but what is
sound and orthodox And this was the second way of defending Honorius viz. that he did not err in faith at all and this way is taken by Petavius and others and was the way intended by Petrus de Marcâ as appears by the account given of his design by Baluzius which was first to prove by most evident arguments that the Acts of the Council were never corrupted by the Greeks against the opinion before mentioned and next that he was truly condemned by the Council but not for heresy but only for negligence and remissness I think there needs nothing to shew the weakness of this but barely reading the Anathema of the Council against him which is not for bare negligence but for confirming the wicked doctrines of Sergius And I am apt to think that learned person saw the weakness of his design too much to go on with it and Baronius and Bellarmin saw well enough that whosoever was there Anathematized it was upon the account of heresy that he was so and therefore Baronius would make men believe the Anathema belonged to Theodorus and not to Honorius Petavius thinks that Honorius was deceived but it was only by his simplicity and weakness not understanding the Controversy aright So of old Iohn 4. and Maximus in his dispute with Pyrrhus defended Honorius that he spake indeed of one Will but that say they was to be understood only of one Will in his humane nature Which as Combesis saith is a more pious than solid defence of him and would as well serve for Sergius and Cyrus for Heraclius his Ecthesis and Constans his Type as Honorius his letter For who ever will peruse them will find they all proceed on the same argument that there could not be two wills in Christ but one must be contrary to the other But that which I insist on is this that it is certain the Council approved by the Pope did condemn him for heresy I desire therefore again to know whether he was rightly condemned or not if he was then the Pope must be guilty and so not infallible if not than the Council must be according to Bellarmin guilty of intolerable impudence and errour but in either case there was no infallibility in the Guides of the Church which could require our internal assent to what they declared But another defence is yet beâ—ind which is that though the Pope did erre yet it was in his private Capacity and not as Head of the Church But when doth he act as Head of the Church if not when he is consulted about important matters of faith as this was then supposed to be by two Patriarchs and when the Church was divided about them and there upon solemnly delivers his opinion This is then a meer subterfuge when men have nothing else to say I conclude therefore this Instance of Honorius with the ingenuous confession of Mr. White that things are so clear in the cause of Honorius that it is unworthy any grave Divine to pawn his own honour and that of Divinity too in sowing together Fig-leaves to palliate it Thus far I have shewn that those who pretend the most to be infallible Guides of the Church have opposed and condemned each other from whence it necessarily follows that no absolute submission is due to them unless we can be obliged to believe contradictions I might pursue this much further and draw down the History of these contradictions to each other through the following Ages of the Church wherein Bishops have been against Bishops Popes against Popes Councils against Councils Church against Church especially after the breach between the Eastern and Greek Churches the Greek and the Roman and the Roman and those of the Reformation But a man who is bound to rely only on the Authority of his Guides must suppose them to be agreed and in case of difference among them he must first choose his Religion and by that his Guide 9. In the present divided State of the Christian Church a man that would satisfy his own mind must make use of his judgement in the choice of his Church and those Guides he is to submit to Unless a man will say that every one is bound to yield himself absolutely to the Guidance of that Church which he lives in whether Eastern or Greek Roman or Protestant which I suppose N. O. will never yield to for a reason he knows because then no Revolter from us could be justified The true State then of the present case concerning the Guides of the Catholick Church is this that it hath been now for many Ages rent and torn into several distinct Communions every one of which Communions hath particular Guides over it who pretend it to be the duty of men to live in subjection to them because every Church doth suppose it self to be in the right now the Question proposed is whether it be not fitter for me to submit to the Guides of the Catholick Church than to trust my own judgement I should make no scruple in all doubtful matters to resolve the affirmative supposing that all the Guides of the Catholick Church were Agreed for I should think it arrogance and presumption in me to set up my own private opinion in opposition to the unanimous consent of all the Guides of the Catholick Church in such a case but that is far from ours for we find the Christian World divided into very different Communions The Eastern Churches are still as numerous though not so prosperous as the Roman the extent of the Greek Church alone is very great but besides that there are two other distinct Churches in those parts who break off Communion with the Greek on the Account of the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon and the latter sort especially are very far spread in those parts from Armenia to the Abyssine Empire In the time of Iacobus de Vitriaco he saith these two Churches were said to be more numerous than the Greek and the Latin and Bellonius in these later times assures us that the rites of the Greek Church do yet extend farther than the Latin What then makes these Churches to be left out in our Enquiries after the Guides of the Catholick Church Are these such inconsiderable parts of the Body that no regard is to be had to them I believe upon a strict examination notwithstanding the reproach of heresy and Schism which those of the Church of Rome cast upon all but themselves they will be sound much more souâ—d parts of the Catholick Church than the Roman Church is Five great Bodies or Communions of Christians are at this day in the World 1. The most Eastern Christians commonly called Nestorians whether justly or no I shall not now examine these are spread over the most Eastern parts and all live in subjection to the Patriarch of Muzal 2. The Iacobites who are dispersed through Mesopotamia Armenia Aegypt and the Abyssine Empire and live under several Patriarchs of
thought fit And what can the most skilful men in the Scripture do with such men who deny or affirm what they please therefore such kind of disputes tended to no good at all where either side charged the other with forging and perverting the Scriptures and so the Controversy with them was not to be managed by the Scriptures by which either none or an uncertain Victory was to be obtained 2. In this dispute about the sense of Scripture the true Ancient faith is first to be enquired after for among whom that was there would appear to be the true meaning of Scripture And for finding out the true faith we are to remember that Christ sent abroad his Apostles to plant Churches in every City from whence other Churches did derive the faith which are called Apostolical from their agreement in this common faith at first delivered by the Apostles that the way to understand this Apostolical faith is to have recourse to the Apostolical Churches for it is unreasonable to suppose that the Apostles should not know the Doctrine of Christ which he at large proves or that they did not deliver to the Churches planted by them the things which they knew or that the Churches misunderstood their Doctrine because all the Christian Churches were agreed in one Common faith and therefore there is all the reason to believe that so universal consent must arise from some common cause which can be supposed to be no other than the common delivery of it by all the Apostles But the Doctrines of the Hereticks were novel and upstart and we must say all the former Christians were baptized into a false faith as not knowing the true God or the true Christ if Marcion and Valentinus did deliver the true Doctrine but that which is first is true and from God that which comes after is foraign and false If Marcion and Valentinus Nigidius or Hermogenes broach new opinions and set up other expositions of Scripture than the Christian Church hath received from the Apostles times that without any farther proof discovers their imposture 3. Two senses directly contrary to each other cannot proceed from the same Apostolical persons This Tertullian likewise insists upon to shew that although they might pretend Antiquity and that as far as the Apostolical times yet the contrariety of their Doctrine to that of the Apostles would sufficiently manifest the falshood of it For saith he the Apostles would never contradict each other or themselves and if the Apostolical persons had contradicted them they had not been joyned together in the Communion of the same faith which all the Apostolical Churches were But the Doctrines broached by these men were in their seeds condemned by the Apostles themselves so Marcion Apelles and Valentinus were confuted in the Sadducees and first corrupters of Christianity But the true Christians could not be charged by their Adversaries with holding any thing contrary to what the Church received from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ and Christ from God For the succession of the Churches was so evident and the Chairs of the Apostles so well known that any one might satisfy his curiosity about their Doctrine especially since their authentick Epistles are still preserved therein But where a diversity of Doctrine was found from the Apostles that was sufficient evidence of a false sense that was put upon the Scriptures Thus Tertullian lays down the rules of finding out the sense of controverted places of Scripture without the least insinuation of any infallibility placed in the Guides of the Church for determining the certain sense of them But lest by this way of Prescribing against Hereticks he should seem to decline the merits of the cause out of distrust of being able to manage it against them he tells us therefore elsewhere he would set aside the ground of prescription or just exception against their pleading for so prescription signifies in him as against Marcion and Hermogenes and Praxeas and refute their opinions upon other grounds In his Books against Marcion he first lays down Marcions rule as he calls it i.e. the sum of his opinion which was making the Creator of the World and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ two distinct Gods the one nothing but goodness and the other the Author of evil which opinion he overthrows from principles of reason because there cannot be two infinitely great and on the same grounds he makes two he may make many more and because God must be known by his works and he could not be God that did not create the World and so continues arguing against Marcion to the end of the first Book In the second he vindicates God the Creator from all the objections which Marcion had mustered against his goodness In the third he proves that Christ was the Son of God the Creator first by reason and then by Scripture and lays down two rules for understanding the Prophetical predictions relating to the manner of expressing future things as past and the aenigmatical way of representing plain things afterwards he proves in the same manner from Scripture and Reason that Christ did truly assume our nature and not meerly in appearance which he demonstrates from the death and resurrection of Christ and from the evidence of sense and makes that sufficient evidence of the truth of a body that it is the object of three senses of sight and touch and hearing Which is the same way of arguing we make use of against Transubstantiation and if Marcion had been so subtle to have used the Evasions those do in the Roman Church he might have defended the putative body of Christ in the very same manner that they do the being of accidents without a substance In the fourth Book he asserts against Marcion the Authority of the Gospel received in the Christian Church above that which Marcion allowed by the greater Antiquity and the universal reception of the true Gospels and after refutes the supposition of a twofold Christ one for the Jews and another for the Gentiles from the comparing of Scriptures together which he doth with great diligence and answers all the arguments from thence brought by Marcion to prove that Christ was an enemy to the Law of Moses In his fifth and last Book he proves out of the Epistles of St. Paul allowed by Marcion that he preached no other God than the Creator and that Christ was the Son of God the Creator which he doth from the scope and circumstances of the places without apprehending the least necessity of calling in any Infallible Guides to give the certain sense and meaning of them Against Hermogenes he disputes about the eternity of matter the Controversy between them he tells us was concerning the sense of some places of Scripture which relate to the Creation of things Tertullian proves that all things were made of nothing
Government that those who adhered to the Religion of the Roman Church yet agreed to the rejecting that Authority which he challenged in England Which is sufficiently known to have been the beginning of the Breach between the two Churches Afterwards when it was thus agreed that the Bishop of Rome had no such Authority as he challenged what should hinder our Church from proceeding in the best way it could for the Reformation of it self For the Popes Supremacy being cast out as an usurpation our Church was thereby declared to be a Free Church having the Power of Government within it self And what method of proceeding could be more reasonable in this case than by the advice of the Governours of the Church and by the concurrence of civil Authority to publish such Rules and Articles according to which Religion was to be professed and the worship of God setled in England And this is that which N. O. calls refusing submission to all the Authority then extant in the world was all the Authority then extant shut up in the Popes Breast was there no due power of Governing left because his unjust power was cast off and that first by Bishops who in other things adhered to the Roman Church But they proceeded farther and altered many things in Religion against the Consent of the more Vniversal Church It is plain since our Church was declared to be Free they had a Liberty of enquiring and determining things fittest to be believed and practised this then could not be her fault But in those things they decreed they went contrary to the consent of the Vniversal Church Here we are now come to the merits of the cause and we have from the beginning of the Reformation defended that we rejected nothing but innovations and Reformed nothing but Abuses But the Church thought otherwise of them What Church I pray The Primitive and Apostolical that we have always appealed to and offered to be tryed by The truly Catholick Church of all Ages That we utterly deny to have agreed in any one thing against the Church of England But the plain English of all is the Church of Rome was against the Church of England and no wonder for the Church of England was against the Church of Rome but we know of no Fault we are guilty of therein nor any obligation of submission to the Commands of that Church And N. O. doth not say that we opposed the whole Church but the more Vniversal Church i. e. I suppose the greater number of Persons at that time But doth he undertake to make this good that the greater number of Christians then in the world did oppose the Church of England How doth he know that the Eastern Armenian Abyssin and Greek Churches did agree with the Church of Rome against us No that is not his meaning but by the more Vniversal Church he fairly understands no more but the Church of Rome And that we did oppose the Doctrine and practices of the Church of Rome we deny not but we utterly deny that to be the Catholick Church or that we opposed any lawful Authority in denying submission to it But according to the Canons of the Church we are to obey in any dissent or division of the Clergy the Superior and more comprehensive Body of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy What he means by this I do not well understand either it must be the Authority of the Pope and Councils of the Roman Church or a General Council of all the Catholick Church For the first we owe no obedience to them for the second there was no such thing then in the world and therefore could not be opposed And for the Canons of the Catholick Councils before the breaches of Christendom no Church hath been more guilty of a violation of them than the Church of Rome since the Rules of the Fathers have been turned into the Royalties of S. Peter We are no Enemies to the ancient Patriarchal Government of the Christian Church and are far more for preserving the Dignity of it than the Roman Church can be For we should think it a happy State of the Christian Church if all the Patriarchs did enjoy their ancient power and priviledges and all Christendom would consent to a truly Free and General Council which we look on as the best expedient on earth for composing the differences of the Christian World if it might be had But we cannot endure to be abused by meer names of titular Patriarchs but real Servants and Pensionaries of the Popes with combinations of interested parties instead of General Councils with the pleasure of Popes instead of ancient Canons Let them reduce the ancient Government of the Church within its due bounds let the Bishop of Rome content himself with the priviledges he then enâ—oyed let debates be free and Bishops assemble with an equal proportion out of all Churches of Christendom and if we then oppose so generâ—l a consent of the Christian Church let them charge us with not submitting to all the Authority extant of the world But since the State of Christendom hath been so much divided that a truly General Council is next to an impossible thing the Church must be Reformed by its parts and every Free Church enjoying the Rights of a Patriarchal See hath according to the Canons of the Church a sufficient power to Reform all abuses within it self when a more general consent cannot be obtained By this we may see how very feeble this charge is of destroying all Church-Authority by refusing submission to the Roman Hierarchy and how very pityful an advantage can from hence be made by the dissenting parties among us who decry that Patriarchal and ancient Government as Anti-christian which we allow as Prudent and Christian. But of the difference of these two case I have spoken already 4. But yet N. O. saith my principles afford no effectual way or means in this Church of suppressing or convicting any Schism Sect or Heresie or reducing them either to submission of judgement or silence Therefore my Principles are destâ—â—ctive to all Church-Authority To which I answer 1. That the design of my Principles was to lay down the Foundations of Faith and not the means of suppressing heresies If I had laid down the Foundations of Peace and left all Persons to their own judgements without any regard to Authority this might have been justly objected against me but according to this way it might have been objected to Aristotle that he was an Enemy to civil Government because he doth not lay down the Rules of it in his Logick or that Hippocrates favoured the Chymists and Mountebanks because he saith not a word of the Colledge of Physitians If I had said any thing about the Authority of particular Churches or the ways of suppressing Sects then how insultingly had I been asked What is all this to the Foundations of Faith Excellent Protestant principles of Faith They begin now to resolve faith into the Authority of