worshipped as did the Gentiles These things they did but against these things the Christians did zealously and piously declare We have no Image in the world said S. Clemens of Alexandria It is apparently forbidden to us to exercise that deceitful art For it is written Thou shalt not make any similitude of any thing in Heaven above c. And Origen wrote a just Treatise against Celsus in which he not onely affirms That Christians did not make or use Images in Religion but that they ought not and were by God forbidden to do so To the same purpose also Lactantius discourses to the Emperor and confutes the pretences and little answers of the Heathen in that manner that he leaves no pretence for Christians under another cover to introduce the like abomination We are not ignorant that those who were converted from Gentilisme and those who lov'd to imitate the customs of the Roman Princes and people did soon introduce the Historical use of Images and according to the manner of the world did think it honorable to depict or make Images of those whom they had in great esteem and that this being done by an esteem relying on Religion did by the weakness of men and the importunity of the Tempter quickly pass into inconvenience and superstition yet even in the time of Iulian the Emperor S. Cyril denies that the Christians did give veneration and worship to the Image even of the Cross it self which was one of the earliest temptations and S. Epiphanius it is a known story tells that when in the village of Bethel he saw a cloth picture as it were of Christ or some Saint in the Church against the Authority of Scripture He cut it in pieces and advis'd that some poor man should be buried in it affirmed that such Pictures are against Religion and unworthy of the Church of Christ. The Epistle was translated into Latine by S. Hierome by which we may guess at his opinion in the question The Council of Eliberis is very ancient and of great fame in which it is expresly forbidden that what is worshipped should be depicted on the walls and that therefore Pictures ought not to be in Churches S. Austin complaining that he knew of many in the Church who were Worshippers of Pictures calls them Superstitious and adds that the Church condems such customs and strives to correct them and S. Gregory writing to Serenus Bishop of Massilia sayes he would not have had him to break the Pictures and Images which were there set for an historical use but commends him for prohibiting to any one to worship them and enjoyns him still to forbid it But Superstition by degrees creeping in the Worship of Images was decreed in the seventh Synod or the second Nicene But the decrees of this Synod being by Pope Adrian sent to Charls the Great he convocated a Synod of German and French Bishops at Francfurt who discussed the Acts pass'd at Nice and condemn'd them And the Acts of this Synod although they were diligently suppressed by the Popes arts yet Eginardus Hinâ—marus Aventinus Blondus Adon Amonius Regino famous Historians tell us That the Bishops of Francfurt condemn'd the Synod of Nice and commanded it should not be called a General Council and published a Book under the name of the Emperor confuting that unchristian Assembly and not long since this Book and the Acts of Francfurt were published by Bishop Tillius by which not only the infinite fraud of of the Roman Doctors is discover'd but the worship of Images is declar'd against and condemned A while after this Ludovicus the Son of Charlemain sent Claudius a famous Preacher to Taurinum in Italy where the Preached against the worshipping of Images and wrote an excellent Book to that purpose Against this Book Ionas Bishop of Orleans after the death of Ludovicus and Claudius did write In which he yet durst not assert the worship of them but confuted it out of Origen whose words he thus cites Images are neither to be esteemed by inward affection nor worshipped with outward shew and out of Lactantius these Nothing is to be worshipped that is seen with mortal eyes Let us adore let us worship nothing but the Name alone of our only Parent who is to be sought for in the Regions above not here below And to the same purpose he also alleges excellent words out of Fulgentius and S. Hierom and though he would have Images ratain'd and therefore was angry at Claudius who caus'd them to be taken down yet he himself expresly affirms that they ought not to be worshipped and withal addes that though they kept the Images in their Churches for History and Ornament yet that in France the worshipping of them was had in great detestation And though it is not to be denied but that in the sequel of Ionas his Book he does something praevaricate in this question yet it is evident that in France this Doctrine was not accounted Catholick for almost nine hundred years after Christ and in Germany it was condemned for almost MCC years as we find in Nicetas We are not unskill'd in the devices of the Roman Writers and with how much artifice they would excuse this whole matter and palliate the crime imputed to them and elude the Scriptures expresly condemning this Superstition But we know also that the arts of Sophistry are not the wayes of Salvation And therefore we exhort our people to follow the plain words of Scripture and the express Law of God in the second Commandment and add also the Exhortation of S. Iohn Little children keep your selves from Idols To conclude it is impossible but that it must be confessed that the worship of Images was a thing unknown to the Primitive Church in the purest times of which they would not allow the making of them as amongst divers others appears in the Writings of Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian and Origen SECT IX AS an Appendage to this we greatly reprove the custom of the Church of Rome in picturing God the Father and the most Holy and Undivided Trinity which besides that it ministers infinite scandal to all sober minded men and gives the new Arrians in Polonia and Antitrinitarians great and ridiculous entertainment exposing that Sacred Mystery to derision and scandalous contempt It is also which at present we have undertaken particularly to remark against the Doctrine and practise of the Primitive Catholick Church S. Clemens of Alexandria sayes that in the Discipline of Moses God was not to be represented in the shape of a man or of any other thing and that Christians understood themselves to be bound by the same law we find it expresly taught by Origen Tertullian Eusebius Athanasius S. Hierom S. Austin Theodoret Damascen and the Synod of Constantinople as it is reported in the sixt Action of the second Nicene Council And certainly if there were not
an act of the Soul There is neither affection nor understanding notice or desire The heart sayes nothing and asks for nothing and therefore receives nothing Solomon calls that the Sacrifice of fools when men consider not and they who understand not what is said cannot take it into consideration But there needs no more to be said in so plain a case We end this with the words of the Civil and Canon Law Iustinian the Emperor made a Law in these words We will and command That all Bishops and Priests celebrate the Sacred Oblation and the Prayers thereunto added in holy Baptism not in a low voice but with a loud and clear voice which may be heard by the faithful people that is be understood for so it follows that thereby the mindes of the hearers may be raised up with greater devotion to set forth the praises of the Lord God for so the Apostle teacheth in the first to the Corinthians It is true that this Law was rased out of the Latine Versions of Iustinian The fraud and design was too palpable but it prevail'd nothing for it is acknowledged by Cassander and Bellarmine and is in the Greek Copies of Holoander The Canon Law is also most express from an Authority of no less than a Pope and a General Council as themselves esteem Innocent III. in the great Council of Lateran above MCC years after Christ in these words Because in most parts within the same City and Diocess the people of divers Tongues are mixt together having under one and the same faith divers Ceremonies and Rites we straitly charge and command That the Bishops of such Cities and Diocesses provide men fit who may celebrate Divine Service according to the diversity of ceremonies and languages and administer the Sacraments of the Church instructing them both by word and example Now if the words of the Apostle and the practise of the primitive Church the sayings of the Fathers and the Confessions of wise men amongst themselves if the consent of Nations and the piety of our fore-fathers if right reason and the necessity of the thing if the needs of the ignorant and the very inseparable conditions of holy prayers if the Laws of Princes and the Laws of the Church which do require all our prayers to be said by them that understand what they say if all these cannot prevail with the Church of Rome to do so much good to the peoples souls as to consent they should understand what in particular they are to ask of God certainly there is a great pertinacy of opinion and but a little charity to those precious souls for whom Christ dyed and for whom they must give account Indeed the old Toscan Rites and the Sooth-sayings of the Salian Priests Vix Sacerdotibus suis intellecta sed quae mutari vetat Religio were scarce understood by their Priests themselves but their Religion forbad to change them Thus anciently did the Osseni Hereticks of whom Epiphanius tells and the Heracleonitae of whom S. Austin gives account they taught to pray with obscure words and some others in Clemens Alexandrinus suppos'd that words spoken in a barbarous or unknown Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are more powerful The Jewes also in their Synagogues at this day read Hebrew which the people but rarely understand and the Turks in their Mosques read Arabick of which the people know nothing But Christians never did so till they of Rome resolved to refuse to do benefit to the souls of the people in this instance or to bring them from intollerable ignorance SECT VIII THe Church of Rome hath to very bad purposes introduc'd and impos'd upon Christendom the worship and veneration of Images kissing them pulling off their hats kneeling falling down and praying before them which they call giving them due honor and veneration What external honor and veneration that is which they call due is express'd by the instances now reckon'd which the Council of Trent in their Decree enumerate and establish What the inward honor and worship is which they intend to them is intimated in the same Decree By the Images they worship Christ and his Saints and therefore by these Images they pass that honor to Christ and his Saints which is their due that is as their Doctors explain it Latria or Divine worship to God and Christ. Hyperdulia or more than service to the blessed Virgin Mary and service or doulia to other canoniz'd persons So that upon the whole the case is this What ever worship they give to God and Christ and his Saints they give it first to the Image and from the Image they pass it unto Christ and Christs servants And therefore we need not to enquire what actions they suppose to be fit or due For whatsoever is due to God to Christ or his Saints that worship they give to their respective Images all the same in external semblance and ministry as appears in all their great Churches and publick actions and processions and Temples and Festivals and endowments and censings and pilgrimages and prayers and vows made to them Now besides that these things are so like Idolatry that they can no way be reasonably excused of which we shall in the next Chapter give some account besides that they are too like the Religion of the Heathens and so plainly and frequently forbidden in the Old Testament and are so infinitely unlike the simple and wise the natural and holy the pure and the spiritual Religion of the Gospel besides that they are so infinite a scandal to the Jews and Turks and reproach Christianity it self amongst all strangers that live in their communion and observe their rites besides that they cannot pretend to be lawful but with the laborious artifices of many Metaphysical notions and distinctions which the people who most need them do least understand and that therefore the people worship them without these distinctions and directly put confidence in them and that it is impossible that ignorant persons who in all Christian countries make up the biggest number should do otherwise when otherwise they cannot understand it and besides that the thing it self with or without distinctions is a superstititious and forbidden an unlawful and unnatural worship of God who will not be worshipped by an Image we say that besides all this This whole Doctrine and practice is an innovation in the Christian Church not practis'd not indured in the primitive ages but expresly condemned by them and this is our present undertaking to evince The first notice we find of Images brought into Christian Religion was by Simon Magus indeed that was very Antient but very heretical and abominable but that he brought some in to be worshipped we find in Theodoret and S. Austin S. Irenaeus tells That the Gnosticks of Carpocrations did make Images and said that the form of Christ as he was in the flesh was made by Pilate and these Images they
revelation that the Bishop of Rome should succeed Peter in it and we being there told that S. Peter was at Antioch but never that he was at Rome it being confessed by some of their own parties by Cardinal Cusanus Soto Driedo Canus and Segovius that this succession was not addicted to any particular Church nor that Christs institution of this does any other way appear that it cannot be proved that the Bishop of Rome is Prince of the Church it being also certain that there was no such thing known in the primitive Church but that the Holy Fathers both of Africa and the East did oppose Pope Victor and Pope Stephen when they began to interpose with a presumptive authority in the affairs of other Churches and that the Bishops of the Church did treat with the Roman Bishop as with a brother not as their superior and that the General Council held at Chalcedon did give to the Bishops of C. P. equal rights and preheminence with the Bishops of Rome and that the Greek Churches are at this day and have been a long time great opponents of this pretension of the Bishops of Rome and after all this since it is certain that Christ who foreknowes all things did also know that there would be great disputes and challenges of this preheminence did indeed suppress it in his Apostles and said not it should be otherwise in succession and did not give any command to his Church to obey the Bishops of Rome as his Vicars more than what he commanded concerning all Bishops it must be certain that it cannot be necessary to salvation to do so but that it is more than probable that he never intended any such thing and that the Bishops of Rome have to the great prejudice of Christendom made a great Schism and usurp'd a title which is not their due and challeng'd an authority to which they have no right and have set themselves above others who are their equals and impose an Article of Faith of their own contriving and have made great preparation for Antichrist if he ever get into that Seat or be in already and made it necessary for all of the Roman Communion to believe and obey him in all things SECT XI THere are very many more things in which the Church of Rome hath greatly turn'd aside from the Doctrines of Scripture and the practise of the Catholick Apostolick and primitive Church Such are these The Invocation of Saints The Insufficiency of Scriptures without Traditions of Faith unto Salvation their absolving sinners before they have by canonical penences and the fruits of a good life testified their repentance their giving leave to simple Presbyters by Papal dispensation to give confirmation or chrism selling Masses for Ninepences Circumgestation of the Eucharist to be ador'd The dangerous Doctrine of the necessity of the Priests intention in collating Sacraments by which device they have put it into the power of the Priest to damn whom he please of his own parish their affirming that the Mass is a proper and propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead Private Masses or the Lords Supper without Communion which is against the doctrine and practise of the ancient Church of Rome it self and contrary to the tradition of the Apostles if we may believe Pope Calixtus and is also forbiden under pain of Excommunication Peract à consecratione omnes communicent qui noluerint ecclesiasticis carere liminibus sic autem etiam Apostoli statuerunt sancta Romana tenet Ecclesia When the consecration is finish'd let all communicate that will not be thrust from the bounds of the Church for so the Apostles appointed and so the H. Church of Rome does hold The same also was decreed by P. Soter and P. Martin in a Council of Bishops and most severely enjoyn'd by the Canons of the Apostles as they are cited in the Canon Law There are divers others but we suppose that those Innovations which we have already noted may be sufficient to verifie this charge of Novelty But we have done this the rather because the Roman Emissaries endeavour to prevail amongst the ignorant and prejudicate by boasting of Antiquity and calling their Religion the Old Religion and the Catholick so insnaring others by ignorant words in which is no truth their Religion as it distinguishes from the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland being neither the Old nor the Catholick Religion but New and superinduc'd by arts known to all who with sincerity and diligence have look'd into their pretences But they have taught every Priest that can scarce understand his Breviary of which in Ireland there are but too many and very many of the people to ask where our Religion was before Luther Whereas it appears by the premises that it is much more easie for us to shew our Religion before Luther than for them to shew theirs before Trent And although they can shew too much practise of their Religion in the degenerate ages of the Church yet we can and do clearly shew ours in the purest and first ages and can and do draw lines pointing to the times and places where the several rooms and stories of their Babel was builded and where polished and where furnished But when the keepers of the field slept and the Enemy had sown tares and they had choak'd the wheat and almost destroyed it when the world complain'd of the infinite errors in the Church and being oppressed by a violent power durst not complain so much as they had cause and when they who had cause to complain were yet themselves very much abused and did not complain in all they might when divers excellent persons S. Bernard Clemangis Grosthead Marsilius Ocham Alvarus Abbat Ioachim Petrarch Savanarola Valla Erasmus Mantuan Gerson Ferus Cassander Andreas Frisius Modrevius Hermannus Coloniensis Wasseburgius Archdeacon of Verdun Paulus Langius Staphilus Telesphorus de Cusentiâ Doctor Talheymius Francis Zabarel the Cardinal and Pope Adrian himself with many others not to reckon Wicklef Hus Hierome of Prague the Bohemians and the poor men of Lions whom they call'd Hereticks and confuted with fire and sword when almost all Christian Princes did complain heavily of the corrupt state of the Church and of Religion and no remedy could be had but the very intended remedy made things much worse then it was that divers Christian Kingdoms and particularly the Church of England Tum primùm senio docilis tua saecula Roma Erubuit pudet exacti jam temporis odit Praeteritos foedis cum relligionibus annos Being asham'd of the errors superstitions heresies and impieties which had deturpated the face of the Church look'd into the glass of Scripture and pure Antiquity and wash'd away those stains with which time and inadvertency and tyranny had besmear'd her and being thus cleans'd and wash'd is accus'd by the Roman parties of Novelty and condemn'd because she refuses to run into the same excess
of most mens lives and that is it which we complain of And we have reason for they suffer their Casuists to determine all cases severely and gently strictly and loosly that so they may entertain all spirits and please all dispositions and govern them by their own inclinations and as they list to be governed by what may please them not by that which profits them that none may go away scandaliz'd or griev'd from their penitential chairs But upon this account it is a sad reckoning which can be made concerning souls in the Church of Rome Suppose one great Doctor amongst them as many of them do shall say it is lawful to kill a King whom the Pope declares Heretick By the Doctrine of probability here is his Warranty And though the Church do not declare that Doctrine that is the Church doth not make it certain in Speculation yet it may be safely done in practise Here is enough to give peace of conscience to him that does it Nay if the contrary be more safe yet if the other be but probable by reason or Authority you may do the less safe and refuse what is more For that also is the opinion of some grave Doctors If one Doctor says it is safe to swear a thing as of our knowledge which we do not know but believe it is so it is therefore probable that it is lawful to swear it because a grave Doctor says it and then it is safe enough to do so And upon this account who could finde fault with Pope Constantine the IV. who when he was accus'd in the Lateran Council for holding the See Apostolick when he was not in Orders justified himself by the example of Sergius Bishop of Ravenna and Stephen Bishop of Naples Here was exemplum bonorum honest men had done so before him and therefore he was innocent When it is observed by Cardinal Campegius and Albertus Pighius did teach That a Priest lives more holily and chaftly that keeps a Concubine than he that hath a married wife and then shall finde in the Popes Law That a Priest is not to be remov'd for fornication who will not or may not practically conclude that since by the Law of God marriage is holy and yet to some men fornication is more lawful and does not make a Priest irregular that therefore to keep a Concubine is very lawfull especially since abstracting from the consideration of a mans being in Orders or not fornication it self is probably no sin at all For so saies Durandus Simple fornication it self is not a deadly sin according to the Natural Law and excluding all positive Law and Martinus de Magistris saies To believe simp le fornication to be no deadly sin is not heretical because the testimonies of Scripture are not expresse These are grave Doctors and therefore the opinion is probable and the practise safe When the good people of the Church of Rome hear it read That P. Clement the VIII in the Index of prohibited Books saies That the Bible published in vulgar Tongues ought not to be read and retain'd no not so much as a compend of the History of the bible and Bellarmine saies That it is not necessary to salvation to believe that there are any Scriptures at all written and that Cardinal Hosius saith Perhaps it had been better for the Church if no Scriptures had been written They cannot but say That this Doctrine is probable and think themselves safe when they walk without the Light of Gods Word and relie wholly upon the Pope or their Priest in what he is pleas'd to tell them and that they are no way oblig'd to keep that Commandment of Christ Search the Scriptures Cardinal Tolet saies That if a Nobleman be set upon and may escape by going away he is not tied to it but may kill him that intends to strike him with a stick That if a man be in a great passion and so transported that he considers not what he saies if in that case he does blaspheme he does not always sin That if a man be beastly drunk and then commit fornication that fornication is no sin That if a man desires carnal pollution that he may be eas'd of his carnal temptations or for his health it were no sin That it is lawful for a man to expose his Bastards to the Hospital to conceal his own shame He saies it out of Soto and he from Thomas Aquinas That if the times be hard or the Iudge unequal a man that cannot sell his Wine at a due price may lawfully make his measures less than is appointed or mingle Water with his Wine and sell it for pure so he do not lie and yet if he does it is no mortal sin nor obliges him to restitution Emanuel Sà affirms That if a man lie with his intended Wife before Marriage it is no sin or light one nay quin etiam expedit si multum illa defferatur it is good to do so if the benediction or publication of marriage be much deferr'd That Infants in their Cradles may be made Priests is the common opinion of Divines and Canonists saith Tolet and that in their Cradles they can be made Bishops said the Archdeacon and the Provost and though some say the contrary yet the other is the more true saith the Cardinal Vasques saith That not onely an Image of God but any Creature in the World reasonable or unreasonable may without danger be worshipped together with God as his Images That we ought to adore the reliques of Saints though under the form of Worms and that it is no sin to worship a ray of light in which the Devil is invested if a man supposes him to be Christ And in the same manner if he supposes it to be a piece of a Saint which is not he shall not want the merit of his devotion And to conclude Pope Celestine the III. as Alphonsus à Castro reports himself to have seen a Decretal of his to that purpose affirmed That if one of the married couple fell into Heresie the marriage is dissolv'd and that the other may marry another and the marriage is nefarious and they are irritae nuptiae the Espousals are void if a Catholick and a Heretick marry together said the Fathers of the Synod in Trullo And though all of this be not own'd generally yet if a Roman Catholick marries a wife that is or shall turn Heretick he may leave her and part bed and board according to the Doctrine taught by the Canon Law it self by the Lawyers and Divines as appears in Covaruvias Mathias Aquarius and Bellarmine These opinions are indeed very strange to us of the Church of England and Ireland but no strangers in the Church of Rome and because they are taught by great Doctors by Popes themselves by Cardinals and the Canon Law respectively do at
shall be no King and then you are dis-oblig'd so Bellarmine And if after all this there remains any scruple of Conscience it ought to be remembred that though even after a Prince is Excommunicated it should be of it self a sin to depose or kill the Prince yet if the Pope commands you it is no sin For if the Pope should err by commanding sin or forbidding vertues yet the Church were bound to believe that the vices were good and the vertues evil unless She would sin against Her Conscience They are the very words of Bellarmine But they add more particulars of the same bran The Sons of an Heretical Father are made sui juris that is free from their Fathers power A Catholick Wife is not tyed to pay her duty to an Heretical Husband and the Servants are not bound to do service to such Masters These are the Doctrines of their great Azorius and as for Kings he affirms they may be Depos'd for Heresie But all this is only in the case of Heretical Princes But what for others Even the Roman Catholick Princes are not free from this danger All the World knows what the Pope did to King Chilperick of France He Depos'd him and put Pipin in his place and did what he could to have put Albert King of the Romans in the Throne of Philip sir-named the Fair. They were the Popes of Rome who arm'd the Son against the Father the Emperour Henry IV. and the Son fought against him took him Prisoner shav'd him and thrust him into a Monastery where he dyed with grief and hunger We will not speak of the Emperour Frederick Henry the sixth Emperour the Duke of Savoy against whom he caus'd Charles the V. and Francis the I. of France to take Arms nor of Francis Dandalus Duke of Venice whom he bound with chains and fed him as Dogs are fed with bones and scraps under his Table Our own Henry the II. and King Iohn were great instances of what Priâ—â—â—s in their case may expect from that Religion Those were the piety of the Father of Christendome But these were the product of the Doctrine which Clement the V. vented in the Council of Vienna Qâ—â—â— jus Râ—gum à se pendere The right of all Kings depend upon the Pope and thereâ—ore even their Catholick Princes are at their mercy and they would if they durst use them accordingly If they do but favour Hereticks or Schismaticks receive them or defend them if the Emperour be perjur'd if he rashly break a league made with the See Apostolick if he do not keep the peace promis'd to the Church if he be sacrilegious if he dissipate the goods of the Church the Pope may Depose him said Azorius And Santarel sayes he may do it in case the Prince or Emperour be insufficient if he be wicked if he be unprofitable if he does not defend the Church This is very much but yet there is something more this may be done if he impose new Gabels or Imposts upon his Subjects without the Popes leave for if they do not pretend to this also why does the Pope in Bulla coenae Domini Excommunicate all Princes that do it Now if it be enquir'd By what Authority the Pope does these things It is answered That the Pope hath a Supreme and absolute Authority both the Spiritual and the Temporal Power is in the Pope as Christs Vicar said Azorius and Samarel The Church hath the right of a Superiour Lord over the rights of Princes and their Temporalties and that by Her Jurisdiction She disposes of Temporals ut de suo peculio as of Her own proper goods said our Country-man Weston Rector of the College at Doway Nay the Pope hath power in omnia per omnia super omnia in all things thorough all things and over all things and the sublimity and immensity of the Supreme Bishop is so great that no mortal man can comprehend it said Cassenaeus no man can express it no man can think it So that it is no wonder what Papirius Massonus said of Pope Boniface the VIII that he own'd himself not onely as the Lord-of France but of all the World Now we are sure it will be said That this is but the private Opinion of some Doctors not the Doctrine of the Church of Rome To this we reply 1. It is not the private Opinion of a few but their publick Doctrine own'd and offer'd to be justified to all the World as appears in the preceding Testimonies 2. It is the Opinion of all the Jesuit Order which is now the greatest and most glorious in the Church of Rome and the maintenance of it is the subject matter of their new Vow of Obedience to the Pope that is to advance his Grandeur 3. Not onely the Jesuits but all the Canonists in the Church of Rome contend earnestly for these Doctrines 4. This they doe upon the Authority of the Decretaâ—s and their own Law and the Decrees of Councills 5. Not onely the Jesuists and Canonists but others also of great note amongst them earnestly contend for these Doctrine particularly Cassenaeus Zodericus the Arch-Bishop of Florence Petrus de Monte St. Thomas Aquinas Bozius Baronius and many others 6. Themselves tell us it is a matter of Faith F. Creswel sayes It is the sentence of all Catholicks and they that doe not admit these Doctrines Father Rosweyd calls them half Christians Grinners barking Royalists and a new Sect of Catholicks and Eudaemon Iohannes sayes That without question it is a Heresie in the judgement of all Catholicks Now in such things which are not in their Creeds and publick Confessions from whence should we know the Doctrines of their Church but from their chiefest and most leading Doctors who it is certain would fain have all the World believe it to be the Doctrine of their Church And therefore as it is certain that any Roman Catholick may with allowance be of this opinion so he will be esteemed the better and more zealous Catholick if he be and if it were not for fear of Princes who will not lose their Crowns for their foolish Doctrines there is no peradventure but it would be declared to be defide a matter of faith as divers of them of late do not stick to say And of this the Pope gives but too much evidence since he will not take away the scandal which is so greatly given to all Christian Kings and Republicks by a publick and a just condemnation of it Nay it is worse than thus for Sixtus Quintus upon the XI of September A. D. 1589. in an Oration in a Conclave of Cardinals did solemnly commend the Monk that kill'd Henry the III. of France The Oration was printed at Paris by them that had rebell'd against that Prince and avouched for Authentick by Bouncher Decreil and Ancelein And though some would fain have it thought to be none of his
oftentimes useless and alwayes troublesome and as an ill diet makes an ill habit of body so does the frequent use of controversies baffle the understanding and makes it crafty to deceive others it self remaining instructed in nothing but useless notions and words of contingent signification and distinctions without difference which minister to pride and contention and teach men to be pertinacious troublesome and uncharitable therefore I love them not But because by the Apostolical Rule I am tyed to do all things without murmurings as well as without disputings I consider'd it over again and found my self reliev'd by the subject matter and the grand consequent of the present Questions For in the present affair the case is not so as in the others here the Questions are such that the Church of Rome declares them to reach as far as eternity and daâ—n all that are not of their opinions and the Protestants have much more reason to fear concerning the Papists such who are not excus'd by ignorance that their condition is very sad and deplorable and that it is charity to snatch them as a brand from the fire and indeed the Church of Rome maintains Propositions which if the Ancient Doctors of the Church may be believ'd are apt to separate from God I instance in their superaddition of Articles and Propositions derived onely from a pretended tradition and not contain'd in Scripture Now the doing of this is a great sin and a great danger Adoro Scripturae plenitudinem Si non est scriptum timeat vae illud adjicientibus detrahentibus destinatum said Tertullian I adore the fulness of Scripture and if it be not written let Hermogenus fear the wo that is destin'd to them that detract from or add to it S. Basil sayes Without doubt it is a most manifest argument of Infidelity and a most certain signe of pride to introduce any thing that is not written in the Scriptures our blessed Saviour having said My sheep hear my voice and the voice of strangers they will not hear and to detract from Scriptures or add any thing to the Faith that is not there is most vehemently forbidden by the Apostle saying If it be but a mans Testament Nemo superordinat no man adds to it And says also This was the will of the Testator And Theophilus Alexandrinus says plainly It is the part of a Devilish spirit to think any thing to be Divine that is not in the authority of the holy Scriptures and therefore S. Athanasius affirms That the Catholicks will neither speak nor endure to hear any thing in Religion that is a stranger to Scripture it being Immodestiae vaecordia an evil heart of immodesty to speak those things which are not written Now let any man judge whether it be not our duty and a necessary work of charity and the proper Office of our Ministery to persuade our charges from the immodesty of an evil heart from having a Devilish spirit from doing that which is vehemently forbidden by the Apostle from Infidelity and pride and lastly from that eternal wo which is denounc'd against them that add other words and doctrines than what is contain'd in the Scriptures and say Dominus dixit The Lord hath said it and he hath not said it If we had put these severe censures upon the Popish Doctrine of Tradition we should have been thought uncharitable but because the holy Fathers do so we ought to be charitable and snatch our charges from the ambient flame And thus it is in the Question of Images Dubium non est quin Religio nulla sit ubicunque simulacrum est said Lactantius without all peradventure where ever an image is meaning for worship there is no Religion and that we ought rather to die than pollute our Faith with such impieties said Origen It is against the Law of Nature it being expresâ—y forbidden by the second Commandment as Irenaeus affirms Tertullian Cyprian and S. Austin and therefore is it not great reason we should contend for that faith which forbids all worship of Images and oppose the superstition of such guides who do teach their people to give them veneration to prevaricate the Moral Law and the very Law of Nature and do that which whosoever does has no Religion We know Idolatry is a damnable sin and we also know that the Roman Church with all the artifices she could use never can justifie her self or acquit the common practises from Idolatry and yet if it were but suspicious that it is Idolatry it were enough to awaken us for God is a jealous God and will not endure any such causes of suspicion and motives of jealousie I instance but once more The Primitive Church did excommunicate them that did not receive the holy Sacrament in both kinds and S. Ambrose says that he who receives the Mystery otherwayes than Christ appointed that is but in one kind when he hath appointed it in two is unworthy of the Lord and he cannot have devotion Now this thing we ought not to suffer that our people by so doing should remain unworthy of the Lord and for ever be indevout or cozen'd with a false shew of devotion or fall by following exil guides into the Sentence of Excommunication These matters are not trifling and when we see these errors frequently taught and own'd as the only true Religion and yet are such evils which the Fathers say are the way of damnation we have reason to hope that all wise and good men lovers of souls will confess that we are within the circles of our duty when we teach our people to decline the crooked wayes and to walk in the wayes of Scripture and Christianity But we have observed amongst the generality of the Irish such a declension of Christianity so great credulity to believe every superstitious story such confidence in vanity such groundless pertinacy such vitious lives so little sense of true Religion and the fear of God so much care to obey the Priests and so little to obey God such intolerable ignorance such fond Oathes and manners of swearing thinking themselves more obliged by swearing on the Mass-Book than the Four Gospels and S. Patricks Mass-Book more than any new one swearing by their Fathers Soul by their Godsips hand by other things which are the product of those many tales are told them their not knowing upon what account they refuse to come to Church but onely that now they are old and never did or their Country-men do not or their Fathers or Grandfathers never did or that their Ancestors were Priests and they will not alter from their Religion and after all can give no account of their Religion what it is onely they believe as their Priest bids them and go to Mass which they understand not and reckon their beads to tell the number and the tale of their prayers and abstain from eggs and flesh in Lent and visit S. Patricks Well and leave
pins and ribbands yarn or thred in their holy welts and pray to God S. Mary and S. Patrick S. Columbanus and S. Bridget and desire to be buried with S. Francis's chord about them and to fast on Saturdays in honour of our Lady These and so many other things of like nature we see dayly that we being conscious of the infinite distance which these things have from the spirit of Christianity know that no Charity can be greater than to persuade the people to come to our Churches were they shall be taught all the ways of godly wisdom of peace and safety to their souls whereas now there are many of them that know not how to say their prayers but mutter like Pies and Parrots words which they are taught but they do not pretend to understand But I shall give one particular instance of their miserable superstition and blindness I was lately within a few Moneths very much troubled with petitions and earnest requests for the restoring a Bell which a Person of Quality had in his hands in the time of and ever since the late Rebellion I could not guess at the reasons of their so great and violent importunity but told the petitioners if they could prove that Bell to be theirs the Gentleman was willing to pay the full value of it though he had no obligation to do so that I know of but charity but this was so far from satisfying them that still the importunity encreased which made me diligently to inquire into the secret of it The first cause I found was that a dying person in the parish desired to have it rung before him to Church and pretended he could not die in peace if it were deny'd him and that the keeping of that Bell did anciently belong to that family from father to son but because this seem'd nothing but a fond and an unreasonable superstition I enquired farther and at last found that they believ'd this Bell came from heaven that it used to be carryed from place to place to end controversies by oath which the worst man durst not violate if they swore upon that Bell and the best men amongst them durst not but believe him that if this Bell was rung before the corpse to the grave it would help him out of Purgatory and that therefore when any one dyed the friends of the deceased did whilst the Bell was in their possession hire it for the behoof of their dead and that by this means that family was in part maintain'd I was troubled to see under what spirit of delusion those poor souls do lie how infinitely their credulity is abused how certainly they believe in trifles and perfectly rely on vanity and how little they regard the truths of God and how not at all they drink of the waters of Salvation For the numerous companies of Priests and Friers amongst them take care they shall know nothing of Religion but what they design for them they use all means to keep them to the use of the Irish tongue lest if they learn English they might be supply'd with persons fitter to instruct them the people are taught to make that also their excuse for not coming to our Churches to hear our advises or converse with us in religious intercourses because they understand us not and they will not understand us neither will they learn that they may understand and live And this and many other evils are made greater and more irremediable by the affrightment which their Priests put upon them by the issues of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction by which they now exercising it too publickly they give them Laws not onely for Religion but even for Temporal things and turn their Proselytes from the Mass if they become farmers of the Tythes from the Minister or Proprietary without their leave I speak that which I know to be true by their own confession and unconstrain'd and uninvited Narratives so that as it is certain that the Roman Religion as it stands in distinction and separation from us is a body of strange Propositions having but little relish of true primitive and pure Christianity as will be made manifest if the importunity of our adversaries extort it so it is here amongst us a faction and a State party and designe to recover their old Laws and barbarous manner of living a device to enable them to dwell alone and to be populus unius labii a people of one language and unmingled with others And if this be Religion it is such a one as ought to be reproved by all the severities of Reason and Religion lest the people perish and their souls be cheaply given away to them that make merchandize of souls who were the purchase and price of Christs bloud Having given this sad account why it was necessary that my Lords the Bishops should take care to do what they have done in this affair and why I did consent to be engaged in this controversie otherwise then I love to be and since it is not a love of trouble and contention but charity to the souls of the poor deluded Irish there is nothing remaining but that we humbly desire of God to accept and to bless this well meant Labour of Love and that by some admirable wayes of his Providence he will be pleas'd to convey to them the notices of their danger and their sin and to deobstruct the passages of necessary truth to them for we know the arts of their Guides and that it will be very hard that the notice of these things shall ever be suffer'd to arive to the common people but that which hinders will hinder until it be taken away however we believe and hope in God for remedy For although Edom would not let his brother Israel pass into his Countrey and the Philistims would stop the Patriarchs Wells and the wicked Shepherds of Midian would drive their neighbours flocks from the watering troughs and the Emissaries of Rome use all arts to keep the people from the use of Scriptures the Wells of Salvation and from entertaining the notices of such things which from the Scriptures we teach yet as God found out a remedy for those of old so he will also for the poor misled people of Ireland and will take away the evil minds or the opportunities of the Adversaries hindring the people from Instruction and make way that the truths we have here taught may approach to their ears and sink into their hearts and make them wise unto Salvation Amen A Dissuasive FROM POPERY To the People of IRELAND The Introduction THe Questions of Difference between Our Churches and the Church of Rome have been so often disputed and the evidences on both Sides so often produc'd that to those who are strangers to the present constitution of Affairs it may seem very unnecessary to say them over again and yet it will seem almost impossible to produce any new matter or if we could it will not be probable that what can be newly
alledged can prevail more than all that which already hath been so often urged in these Questions But we are not deterr'd from doing our duty by any such considerations as knowing that the â—ame medicaments are with success applyed to a returning or an abiding Ulcer and the Preachers of Gods Word must for ever be ready to put the People in minde of such things which they already have heard and by the same Scriptures and the same reasons endeavour to destroy their sin or prevent their danger and by the same Word of God to extirpate those errors which have had opportunity in the time of our late Disorders to spring up and grow stroger not when the Keepers of the Field slept but when they were wounded and their hands cut off and their mouths stopp'd least they should continue or proceed to do the Work of God thoroughly A little warm Sun and somâ— indulgent showers of a softer rain have made many weeds of erroneous Doctrine to take root greatly and to spread themselves widely and the Bigots of the Roman Church by their late importune boldness and indiscreet frowardness in making Proselytes have but too manifestly declar'd to all the World that if they were rerum potiti Masters of our affairs they would suffer nothing to grow but their own Coloâ—ynths and Gourds And although the Natural remedy for this were to take away that impunity upon the account of which alone they do encrease yet because we shall never be Authors of such Counsels but confidently rely upon God the Holy Scripture right reason and the most venerable and prime Antiquity which are the proper defensatives of truth for its support and maintenance yet we must not conceal from the People committed to our charges the great evils to which they are tempted by the Roman Emissaries that while the King and the Parliament take care to secure all the publick interests by instruments of their own we also may by the word of our proper Ministery endeavour to stop the progression of such errors which we know to be destructive of Christian Religion and consequently dangerous to the interest of souls In this procedure although we shall say some things which have not been alwayes plac'd before their eyes and others we shall represent with a fittingness to their present necessities and all with Charity too and zeal for their souls yet if we were to say nothing but what hath been often said already we are still doing the work of God and repeating his voice and by the same remedies curing the same diseases and we only wait for the blessing of God prospering that importunity which is our duty according to the advice of Solomon In the Morning sow thy seed and in the Evening with-hold not thy hand for thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that or whether they both shall be alike good CHAP. I. The Doctrine of the Roman Church in the Controverted Articles is neither Catholick Apostolick nor Primitive Sect. 1. IT was the challenge of S. Augustine to the Donatists who as the Church of Rome does at this day inclos'd the Catholick Church within their own circuits Ye say that Christ is Heir of no Lands but where Donatus is Coheire Read this to us out of the Law and the Prophets out of the Psalms out of the Gospel it self or out of the Letters of the Apostles Read it thence and we believe it Plainly directing us to the Fountains of our Faith the Old and New Testament the words of Christ and the words of the Apostles For nothing else can be the foundation of our Faith whatsoever came in after these foris est it belongs not unto Christ. To these we also add not as Authors or Finishers but as helpers of our Faith and Heirs of the Doctrine Apostolical the Sentiments and Catholick Doctrine of the Church of God in the Ages next after the Apostles Not that we think them or our selves bound to every private opinion even of a Primitive Bishop and Martyr but that we all acknowledg that the whole Church of God kept the Faith entire and transmitted faithfully to the after-Ages the whole Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the form of Doctrine and sound words which was at first delivered to the Saints and was defective in nothing that belong'd unto salvation and we believe that those Ages sent millions of Saints to the bosom of Christ and seal'd the true faith with their lives and with their deaths and by both gave testimony unto Jesus and had from him the testimony of his Spirit And this method of procedure we now choose not only because to them that know well how to use it to the Sober and the Moderate the Peaceable and the Wise it is the best the most certain visible and tangible most humble and satisfactory but also because the Church of Rome does with greatest noises pretend her Conformity to Antiquity Indeed the present Roman Doctrines which are in difference were invisible and unheard of in the first and best Antiquity and with how ill success their quotations are out of the Fathers of the three first Ages every inquiring Man may easily discern But the noises therefore which they make are from the Writings of the succeeding Ages where saecular interest did more prevail and the Writings of the Fathers were vast and voluminous full of Controversie and ambiguous senses fitted to their own Times and Questions full of proper Opinions and such variety of Sayings that both Sides eternally and inconfutably shall bring Sayings for themselves respectively Now although things being thus it will be impossible for them to conclude from the Sayings of a number of Fathers that their Doctrine which they would prove thence was the Catholick Doctrine of the Church because any number that is less than all does not prove a Catholick consent yet the clear Sayings of one or two of these Fathers truly alledged by us to the contrary will certainly prove that what many of them suppose it do affirm and which but two or three as good Catholicks as the other do deny was not then matter of Faith or a Doctrine of the Church for if it had these had been Hereticks accounted and not have remain'd in the Communion of the Church But although for the reasonableness of the thing we have thought fit to take notice of it yet we shall have no need to make use of it since not only in the prime and purest Antiquity we are indubitably more than Conquerours but even in the succeeding Ages we have the advantage both numero pondere mensurâ in number weight and measure We do easily acknowledge that to dispute these questions from the sayings of the Fathers is not the readiest way to make an end of them but therefore we do wholly rely upon Scriptures as the foundation and final resort of all our perswasions and from thence can never be confuted but we also admit the Fathers as admirable
helps for the understanding of the Scriptures and as good testimony of the Doctrine deliver'd from their fore-fathers down to them of what the Church esteem'd the way of Salvation and therefore if we find any Doctrine now taught which was not plac'd in their way of Salvation we reject it as being no part of the Christian faith and which ought not to be impos'd upon consciences They were wise unto salvation and fully instructed to every work and therefore the faith which they profess'd and deriv'd from Scripture we profess also and in the same faith we hope to be sav'd even as they But for the new Doctors we understand them not we know them not Our faith is the same from the beginning and cannot become new But because we shall make it to appear that they do greatly innovate in all their points of controversie with us and shew nothing but shadowes instead of substances and little images of things instead of solid arguments we shall take from them their armour in which they trusted and choose this sword of Goliah to combat their errors for non est alter talis It is not easie to finde a better than the Word of God expounded by the prime and best Antiquity The first thing therefore we are to advertise is That the Emissaries of the Roman Church endeavour to perswade the good people of our Dioceses from a Religion that is truly Primitive and Apostolick and divert them to Propositions of their own new and unheard of in the first ages of the Christian Church For the Religion of our Church is therefore certainly Primitive and Apostolick because it teaches us to believe the whole Scriptures of the Old and New Testament and nothing else as matter of faith and therefore unless there can be new Scriptures we can have no new matters of belief no new articles of faith Whatsoever we cannot prove from thence we disclaim it as not deriving from the Fountains of our Saviour We also do believe the Apostles Creed the Nicene with the additions of Constantinople and that which is commonly called the Symbol of S. Athanasius and the four first General Councils are so intirely admitted by us that they together with the plain words of Scripture are made the rule and measure of judging Heresies amongst us and in pursuance of these it is commanded by our Church that the Clergy shall never teach any thing as matter of Faith religiously to be observed but that which is agreeable to the Old and New Testament and collected out of the same Doctrine by the Ancient Fathers and Catholick Bishops of the Church This was undoubtedly the Faith of the Primitive Church they admitted all into their Communion that were of this faith they condemned to Man that did not condemn these they gave Letters communicatory by no other cognisance and all were Brethren who spake this voice Hanc legem sequentes Christianorum Catholicorum nomen jubemus amplecti reliquos verò dementes vesanosque judicantes haeretici dogmatis infaemiam sustinere said the Emperors Gratian Valentinian and Theodosius in their Proclamation to the People of C. P. All that believ'd this Doctrine were Christians and Catholicks viz. all they who believe in the Father Son and Holy Ghost one Divinity of equal Majesty in the Holy Trinity which indeed was the summe of what was decreed in explication of the Apostles Creed in the four first General Councils And what faith can be the foundation of a more solid peace the surer ligaments of Catholick Communion or the firmer basis of a holy Life and of the hopes of Heaven hereafter than the measures which the Holy Primitive Church did hold and and we after them That which we rely upon is the same that the Primitive Church did acknowledg to be the adaequate foundation of their hopes in the matters of belief The way which they thought sufficient to go to Heaven in is the way which we walk what they did not teach we do not publish and impose into this faith entirely and into no other as they did theirs so we baptize our Catechumens The Discriminations of Heresie from Catholick Doctrine which they us'd we use also and we use no other and in short we believe all that Doctrine which the Church of Rome believes except those things which they have superinduc'd upon the Old Religion and in which we shall prove that they haue innovated So that by their confession all the Doctrine which we teach the people as matter of Faith must be confessed to be Ancient Primitive and Apostolick or else theirs is not so for ours is the same and we both have received this Faith from the Fountains of Scripture and Universal Tradition not they from us or we from them but both of us from Christ and his Apostles And therefore there can be no question whether the Faith of the Church of England be Apostolick and Primitive it is so confessedly But the Question is concerning many other particulars which were unknown to the Holy Doctors of the first Ages which were no part of their Faith which were never put into their Creeds which were not determined in any of the four first General Councels rever'd in all Christendom and entertain'd every where with great Religion and veneration even next to the four Gospels and the Apostolical writings Of this sort because the Church of Rome hath introduc'd many and hath adopted them into their late Creed and imposes them upon the people not only without but against the Scriptures and the Catholick Doctrine of the Church of God laying heavie burdens on mens Consciences and making the narrow way to Heaven yet narrower by their own inventions arrogating to themselves a Dominion over our Faith and prescribing a method of Salvation which Christ and his Apostles never taught corrupting the Faith of the Church of God and Teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men and lastly having derogated from the Prerogative of Christ who alone is the Author and Finisher of our faith and hath perfected it in the revelations consign'd in the Holy Scriptures therefore it is that we esteem our selves oblig'd to warn the People of their danger and to depart from it and call upon them to stand upon the wayes and ask after the old paths and walk in them lest they partake of that curse which is threatned by God to them who remove the ancient Land-marks which our Fathers in Christ have set for us Now that the Church of Rome cannot pretend that all which she imposes is Primitive and Apostolick appears in this That in the Church of Rome there is pretence made to a power not only of declaring new Articles of Faith but of making new Symbols or Creeds and imposing them as of necessity to Salvation Which thing is evident in the Bull of Pope Leo the Tenth against Martin Luther in which amongst other things he is condemn'd for saying It is certain that it is not in the power
whole or in part for there is the same reason of them both than that which we have preached let him be Anathema and secondly by the sentence of the Fathers in the third General Council that at Ephesus That it should not be lawful for any Man to publish or compose another Faith or Creed than that which was defin'd by the Nicene Council and that whosoever shall dare to compose or offer any such to any Persons willing to be converted from Paganism Iudaism or Heresie if they were Bishops or Clerks they should be depos'd if Lay-men they should be accursed And yet in the Church of Rome Faith and Christianity increase like the Moon Bromyard complain'd of it long since and the mischief encreases daily They have now a new Article of Faith ready for the stamp which may very shortly become necessary to salvation we mean that of the immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Whether the Pope be above a Council or no we are not sure whether it be an article of faith amongst them or not It is very near one if it be not Bellarmine would fain have us believe that the Council of Constance approving the Bull of Pope Martin the fifth declar'd for the Popes Supremacy But Iohn Gerson who was at the Council sayes that the Council did abate those heights to which flattery had advanc'd the Pope and that before that Council they spoke such great things of the Pope which afterwards moderate men durst not speak but yet some others spake them so confidently before it that he that should then have spoken to the contrary would hardly have escap'd the note of Heresie and that these Men continued the same pretensions even after the Council But the Council of Basil decreed for the Council against the Pope and the Council of Laeteran under Leo the tenth decreed for the Pope against the Council So that it is cross and pile and whether for a peny when it can be done it is now a known case it shall become an article of Faith But for the present it is a probationary article and according to Bellarmine's expression is fere de fide it is almost an article of Faith they want a little age and then they may goe alone But the Council of Trent hath produc'd a strange new Article but it is sine controversia credendum it must be believ'd and must not be controverted That although the ancient Fathers did give the Communion to Infants yet they did not believe it necessary to salvation Now this being a matter of fact whether they did or did not believe it every man that reads their Writings can be able to inform himself and besides that it is strange that this should be determin'd by a Council and determin'd against evident truth it being notorious that divers of the Fathers did say it is necessary to salvation the Decree it self is beyond all bounds of modesty and a strange pretension of Empire over the Christian Belief But we proceed to other instances Sect. III. THe Roman Doctrine of Indulgences was the first occasion of the great Change and Reformation of the Western Churches begun by the Preachings of Martin Luther and others and besides that it grew to that intolerable abuse that it became a shame to it self and a reproach to Christendome it was also so very an Innovation that their great Antoninus confesses that concerning them we have nothing expresly either in the Scriptures or in the sayings of the Ancient Doctors and the same is affirmed by Sylvester Priâ—rias Bishop Fisher of Rochester sayes that in the beginning of the Church there was no use of Indulgences and that they began after the people were a while affrighted with the torments of Purgatory and many of the School-men confess that the use of Indulgences began in the time of Pope Alexander the third towards the end of the XII Century but Agrippa imputes the beginning of them to Boniface the VIII who liv'd in the Reign of King Edward the First of England 1300. years after Christ. But that in his time the first Jubilee was kept we are assur'd by Crantzius This Pope lived and died with very great infamy and therefore was not likely from himself to transfer much honour and reputation to the new institution But that about this time Indulgences began is more than probable much before it is certain they were not For in the whole Canon Law written by Graetian and in the sentences of Peter Lombard there is nothing spoken of Indulgences Now because they liv'd in the time of P. Alexander III. if he had introduc'd them and much rather if they had been as antient as S. Gregory as some vainly and weakly pretend from no greater authority than their own Legends it is probable that these great Men writing Bodies of Divinity and Law would have made mention of so considerable a point and so great a part of the Roman Religion as things are now order'd If they had been Doctrines of the Church then as they are now it is certain they must have come under their cognisance and discourses Now least the Roman Emissaries should deceive any of the good Sons of the Church we think it fit to acquaint them that in the Primitive Church when the Bishops impos'd severe penances and that they were almost quite perform'd and a great cause of pity intervened or danger of death or an excellent repentance or that the Martyrs interceded the Bishop did sometimes indulge the penitent and relax some of the remaining parts of his penance and according to the example of S. Paul in the case of the incestuous Corinthian gave them ease least they should be swallowed up with too much sorrow But the Roman Doctrine of Indulgences is wholly another thing nothing of it but the abused name remains For in the Church of Rome they now pretend that there is an infinite of degrees of Christs merit and satisfaction beyond what is necessary for the salvation of his servants and for fear Christ should not have enough the Saints have a surplusage of merits or at least of satisfactions more than they can spend or themselves do need and out of these the Church hath made her a treasure a kind of poor mans box and out of this a power to take as much as they list to apply to the poor souls in Purgatory who because they did not satisfie for their venial sins or perform all their penances which were imposed or which might have been imposed and which were due to be paid to God for the temporal pains reserved upon them after he had forgiven them the guilt of their deadly sins are forc'd sadly to roar in pains not inferiour to the pains of hell excepting onely that they are not eternal That this is the true state of their Article of Indulgences we appeal to Bellarmine Now concerning their new foundation of Indulgences the first stone of
Christs merits and satisfactions a hope wholly depending upon the plain promises of the Gospel a service perfectly consisting in the works of a good conscience a labor of love a religion of justice and piety and moral virtues they do also expresly teach that pilgrimages to holy places and such like inventions which are now the earnings and price of Indulgences are not required of us and are not the way of salvation as is to be seen in an Oration made by S. Gregory Nyssene wholly against pilgrimages to Ierusalem in S. Chrysostom S. Austin and S. Bernard The sense of these Fathers is this in the words of S. Austin God said not Go to the East and seek righteousness sail to the West that you may receive indulgence But indulge thy brother and it shall be indulg'd to thee you have need to enquire for no other indulgence to thy sins if thou wilt retire into the Closet of thy heart there thou shalt find it That is All our hopes of Indulgence is from GOD through IESVS CHRIST and is wholly to be obtain'd by faith in Christ and perseverance in good works and intire mortification of all our sins To conclude this particular Though the gains which the Church of Rome makes of Indulgences be a heap almost as great as the abuses themselves yet the greatest Patrons of this new doctrine could never give any certainty or reasonable comfort to the Conscience of any person that could inquire into it They never durst determine whether they were Absolutions or Compensations whether they onely take off the penances actually impos'd by the Confessor or potentially and all that which might have been impos'd whether all that may be paid in the Court of men or all that can or will be required by the Laws and severity of God Neither can they speak rationally to the Great Question Whether the Treasure of the Church consists of the Satisfactions of Christ onely or of the Saints For if of Saints it will by all men be acknowledged to be a defeisible estate and being finite and limited will be spent sooner than the needs of the Church can be served and if therefore it be necessary to adde the merits and satisfaction of Christ since they are an Ocean of infinity and can supply more than all our needs to what purpose is it to adde the little minutes and droppings of the Saints They cannot tell whether they may be given if the Receiver do nothing or give nothing for them And though this last particular could better be resolv'd by the Court of Rome than by the Church of Rome yet all the Doctrines which built up this new Fabrick of Indulgences were so dangerous to determine so improbable so unreasonable or at best so uncertain and invidious that according to the advice of the Bishop of Modena the Council of Trent left all the Doctrines and all the cases of Conscience quite alone and slubber'd the whole matter both in the question of Indulgences and Purgatory in general and recommendatory terms affirming that the power of giving Indulgence is in the Church and that the use is wholesome And that all hard and subtil questions viz. concerning Purgatory which although if it be at all it is a fire yet is the fuel of Indulgences and maintains them wholly all that is suspected to be false and all that is uncertain and whatsoever is curious and superstitious scandalous or for filthy lucre be laid aside And in the mean time they tell us not what is and what is not Superstitious nor what is scandalous nor what they mean by the general term of Indulgence and they establish no Doctrine neither curious nor iucurious nor durst they decree the very foundation of this whole matter The Churches Treasure Neither durst they meddle with it but left it as they found it and continued in the abuses and proceed in the practise and set their Doctors as well as they can to defend all the new and curious and scandalous questions and to uphold the gainful trade But however it be with them Doctrine it self is prov'd to be a direct Innovation in the matter of Christian Religion and that was it which we have undertaken to demonstrate Sect. IV. THe Doctrine of Purgatory is the Mother of Indulgences and the fear of that hath introduc'd these For the world hapned to be abus'd like the Countrey-man in the Fable who being told he was like to fall into a delirium in his feet was advis'd for remedy to take the juice of Cotton He feared a disease that was not and look'd for a cure as ridiculous But if the Parent of Indulgences be not from Christ and his Apostles if upon this ground the Primitive Church never built the Superstructures of Rome must fall they can be no stronger than their Supporter Now then in order to the proving the Doctrine of Purgatory to be an Innovation 1. We consider That the Doctrines upon which it is pretended reasonable are all dubious and disputable at the very best Such are 1. Their distinction of sins Mortal and Venial in their own nature 2. That the taking away the guilt of sins does not suppose the taking away the obligation to punishment that is That when a mans sin is pardon'd he may be punished without the guilt of that sin as justly as with it as if the guilt could be any thing else but an obligation to punishment for having sinned which is a Proposition of which no wise man can make sense but it is certain that it is expresly against the Word of God who promises upon our repentance so to take away our sins that he will remember them no more And so did Christ to all those to whom he gave pardon for he did not take our faults and guilt on him any other way but by curing our evil hearts and taking away the punishment And this was so perfectly believ'd by the Primitive Church that they always made the penances and satisfaction to be undergone before they gave absolution and after absolution they never impos'd or oblig'd to punishment unless it were to sick persons of whose recovery they despaired not of them indeed in case they had not finished their Canonical punishments they expected they should perform what was enjoyn'd them formerly But because all sin is a blot to a mans soul and a foul stain to his reputation we demand in what does this stain consist In the guilt or in the punishment If it be said that it consists in the punishment then what does the guilt signifie when the removing of it does neither remove the stain nor the punishment which both remain and abide together But if the stain and the guilt be all one or always together then when the guilt is taken away there can no stain remain and if so what need is there any more of Purgatory For since this is pretended to be necessary onely lest any stain'd or
unclean thing should enter into Heaven if the guilt and the stain be remov'd what uncleanness can there be left behinde Indeed Simon Magus as Epiphanius reports Haeres 20. did teach That after the death of the body there remain'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a purgation of souls But whether the Church of Rome will own him for an authentick Doctor themselves can best tell 3. It relies upon this also That God requires of us a full exchange of Penances and Satisfactions which must regularly be paid here or hereafter even by them who are pardon'd here which if it were true we were all undone 4. That the Death of Christ his Merits and Satisfaction do not procure for us a full remission before we dye nor as it may happen of a long time after All which being Propositions new and uncertain invented by the School Divines and brought ex postfacto to dress this opinion and make it to seem reasonable and being the products of ignorance concerning remission of sins by Grace of the righteousness of Faith and the infinite value of Christs Death must needs lay a great prejudice of Novelty upon the Doctrine it self which but by these cannot be supported But to put it past suspition and conjectures Roffensis and Polydore Virgil affirm That whoso searcheth the Writings of the Greek Fathers shall finde that none or very rarely any one of them ever makes mention of Purgatory and that the Latine Fathers did not all believe it but by degrees came to entertain opinions of it But for the Catholick Church it was but lately known to her But before we say any more in this Question we are to premonish That there are Two great causes of their mistaken pretensions in this Article from Antiquity The first is That the Ancient Churches in their Offices and the Fathers in their Writings did teach and practice respectively prayer for the Dead Now because the Church of Rome does so too and more than so relates her prayers to the Doctrine of Purgatory and for the souls there detain'd her Doctors vainly suppose that when ever the H. Fathers speak of prayer for the dead that they conclude for Purgatory which vain conjecture is as false as it is unreasonable For it is true the Fathers did pray for the dead but how That God would shew them mercy and hasten the resurrection and give a blessed sentence in the great day But then it is also to be remembred that they made prayers and offered for those who by the confession of all sides never were in Purgatory euen for the Patriarchs and Prophets for the Apostles and Evangelists for Martyrs and Confessors and especially for the blessed Virgin Mary So we finde it in Epiphanius S. Cyril and in the Canon of the Greeks and so it is acknowledged by their own Durantus and in their own Mass-book anciently they prayed for the soul of S. Leo Of which because by their latter doctrines they grew asham'd they have chang'd the prayer for him into a prayer to God by the intercession of S. Leo in behalf of themselves so by their new doctrine making him an Intercessor for us who by their old doctrine was suppos'd to need our prayers to intercede for him of which Pope Innocent being asked a reason makes a most pitiful excuse Upon what accounts the Fathers did pray for the Saints departed and indeed generally for all it is not now seasonable to discourse but to say this onely that such general prayers for the dead as those above reckon'd the Church of England did never condemn by any express Article but left it in the middle and by her practice declares her faith of the Resurrection of the dead and her interest in the communion of Saints and that the Saints departed are a portion of the Catholick Church parts and members of the Body of Christ but expresly condemns the Doctrine of Purgatory and consequently all prayers for the dead relating to it And how vainly the Church of Rome from prayer for the dead infers the belief of Purgatory every man may satisfie himself by seeing the Writings of the Fathers where they cannot meet with one Collect or Clause praying for the delivery of souls out of that imaginary place Which thing is so certain that in the very Roman Offices we mean the Vigils said for the dead in which are Psalms and Lessons taken from the Scripture speaking of the miseries of this World Repentance and Reconciliation with God the bliss after this life of them that dye in Christ and the resurrection of the Dead and in the Anthemes Versicles and Responses there are prayers made recommending to God the soul of the newly defunct praying he may be freed from Hell and eternal death that in the day of Iudgement he be not judged and condemned according to his sins but that he may appear among the Elect in the glory of the Resurrection but not one word of Purgatory or its pains The other cause of their mistake is That the Fathers often speak of a fire of Purgation after this life but such a one that is not to be kindled until the day of judgement and it is such a fire that destroyes the Doctrine of the intermedial Purgatory We suppose that Origen was the first that spoke plainly of it and S. Ambrose follows him in the opinion for it was no more so does S. Basil S. Hilary S. Hierome and Lactaâ—tius as their words plainly prove as they are cited by Sixtus Senensis affirming that all men Christ onely excepted shall be burned with the fire of the worlds conflagration at the day of Iudgement even the B. Virgin her self is to pass thorow this fire There was also another Doctrine very generally receiv'd by the Fathers which greatly destroyes the Roman Purgatory Sixtus Senensis sayes and he sayes very true that Iustin Martyr Tertullian Victorinus Martyr Prudentius S. Chrysostom Arethas Euthymius and S. Bernard did all affirm that before the day of Judgement the souls of men are kept in secret receptacles reserved unto the sentence of the great day and that before then no man receives according to his works done in this life We do not interpose in this opinion to say that it is true or false probable or improbable for these Fathers intended it not as a matter of faith or necessary belief so far as we finde But we observe from hence that if their opinion be true then the Doctrine of Purgatory is false If it be not true yet the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory which is inconsistent with this so generally receiv'd opinion of the Fathers is at least new no Catholick Doctrine not believ'd in the Primitive Church and therefore the Roman Writers are much troubled to excuse the Fathers in this Article and to reconcile them to some seeming concord with their new Doctrine But besides these things it is certain that the Doctrine of Purgatory before the day of
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The end of all our agonies and affirms That the Holy men of God rest in joy and in never failing hopes and are come to the end of their holy combates S. Iustin Martyr affirms That when the soul is departed from the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 presently there is a separation made of the just and unjust The unjust are by Angels born into places which they have deserved but the souls of the just into Paradice where they have the conversation of Angels and Archangels S. Ambrose saith That Death is a haven of rest and makes not our condition worse but according as it findes every man so it reserves him to the judgement that is to come The same is affirm'd by S. Hilary S. Macarius and divers others they speak but of two states after death of the just and the unjust These are plac'd in horrible Regions reserv'd to the judgement of the great day the other have their souls carried by Quires of Angels into places of rest S. Gregory Nazianzen expresly affirms that after this life there is no purgation For after Christs ascension into heaven the souls of all Saints are with Christ saith Gennadius and going from the body they go to Christ expecting the resurrection of their body with it to pass into the perfection of perpetual bliss and this he delivers as the Doctrine of the Catholick Church In what place soever a man is taken at his death of light or darkness of wickedness or vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the same Order and in the same degree either in light with the just and with Christ the great King or in darkness with the unjust and with the Prince of darkness said Olimpiodorus And lastly we recite the words of S. Leo one of the Popes of Rome speaking of the Penitents who had not perform'd all their penances But if any one of them for whom we pray unto the Lord being interrupted by any obstacles falls from the gift of the present Indulgence viz. of Ecclesiastical Absolution and before he arrive at the appointed remedies that is before he hath perform'd his penances or satisfactions ends his temporal life that which remaining in the body he hath not receiv'd when he is devested of his body he cannot obtain He knew not of the new devices of paying in Purgatory what they paid not here and of being cleansed there who were not clean here And how these words or of any the precedent are reconcileable with the Roman Doctrines of Purgatory hath not yet entred into our imagination To conclude this particular We complain greatly that this Doctrine which in all the parts of it is uncertain and in the late additions to it in Rome is certainly false is yet with all the faults of it pass'd into an Article of Faith by the Council of Trent But besides what hath been said it will be more than sufficient to oppose against it these clearest words of Scripture Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth even so saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours If all the dead that dye in Christ be at rest and are in no more affliction or labours then the Doctrine of the horrible pains of Purgatory is as false as it is uncomfortable To these words we adde the saying of Christ and we relie upon it He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath eternal life and cometh not into judgement but passeth from death unto life If so then not into the judgement of Purgatory If the servant of Christ passeth from death to life then not from death to the terminable pains of a part of Hell They that have eternal life suffer no intermedial punishment judgement or condemnation after death for death and life are the whole progression according to the Doctrine of Christ and Him we chuse to follow Sect. V. THe Doctrine of Transubstantiation is so far from being Primitive and Apostolick that we know the very time it began to be own'd publiquely for an opinion and the very Council in which it was said to be pass'd into a publick Doctrine and by what arts it was promoted and by what persons it was introduc'd For all the world knows that by their own parties by Scotus Ocham Biel Fisher Bishop of Rochester and divers others whom Bellarmine calls most learned and most acute men it was declared that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is not express'd in the Canon of the Bible that in the Scriptures there is no place so express as without the Churches declaration to compel us to admit of Transubstantiation and therefore at least it is to be suspected of novelty But further we know it was but a disputable question in the ninth and tenth ages after Christ that it was not pretended to be an Article of Faith till the Lateran Council in the time of Pope Innocent the Third MCC years and more after Christ that since that pretended determination divers of the chiefest Teachers of their own side have been no more satisfied of the ground of it than they were before but still have publickly affirm'd that the Article is not express'd in Scripture particularly Iohannes de Basselis Cardinal Cajetan and Melchior Canus besides those above reckon'd And therefore if it was not express'd in Scripture it will be too clear that they made their Articles of their own heads for they could not declare it to be there if it was not and if it was there but obscurely then it ought to be taught accordingly and at most it could be but a probable doctrine and not certain as an Article of Faith But that we may put it past argument and probability it is certain that as the Doctrine was not taught in Scripture expresly so it was not at all taught as a Catholick Doctrine or an Article of the Faith by the primitive ages of the Church Now for this we need no proof but the confession and acknowledgement of the greatest Doctors of the Church of Rome Scotus says that before the Lateran Council Transubstantiation was not an Article of faith as Bellarmine confesses and Henriquez affirms that Scotus says it was not ancient insomuch that Bellarmine accuses him of ignorance saying he talk'd at that rate because he had not read the Roman Council under Pope Gregory VII nor that consent of Fathers which to so little purpose he had heap'd together Rem transubstantiationis Patres ne attigisse quidem said some of the English Jesuits in Prison The Fathers have not so much as touch'd or medled with the matter of Transubstantiation and in Lombard's time it was so far from being an Article of Faith or a Catholick Doctrine that they did not know whether it were true or no And after he had collected the sentences of the Fathers in that Article he confess'd He could not tell whether there
was any substantial change or no. His words are these If it be inquir'd what kinde of conversion it is whether it be formal or substantial or of another kinde I am not able to define it Onely I know that it is not formal because the same accidents remain the same colour and taste To some it seems to be substantial saying that so the substance is chang'd into the substance that it is done essentially To which the former authorities seem to consent But to this sentence others oppose these things If the substance of bread and wine be substantially converted into the body and blood of Christ then every day some substance is made the body or blood of Christ which before was not the body and to day something is Christs body which yesterday was not and every day Christs body is increased and is made of such matter of which it was not made in the conception These are his words which we have remark'd not onely for the arguments sake though it be unanswerable but to give a plain demonstration that in his time this Doctrine was new not the Doctrine of the Church And this was written but about fifty years before it was said to be decreed in the Lateran Council and therefore it made haste in so short time to pass from a disputable opinion to an Article of faith But even after the Council Durandus as good a Catholick and as famous a Doctor as any was in the Church of Rome publickly maintain'd that even after consecration the very matter of bread remain'd and although he says that by reason of the Authority of the Church it is not to be held yet it is not onely possible it should be so but it implies no contradiction that it should be Christs body and yet the matter of bread remain and if this might be admitted it would salve many difficulties which arise fom saying that the substance of bread does not remain But here his Reason was overcome by Authority and he durst not affirm that of which alone he was able to give as he thought a reasonable account But by this it appears that the opinion was but then in the forge and by all their understanding they could never accord it but still the questions were uncertain according to that old Distich Corpore de Christi lis est de sanguine lis est Déque modo lis est non habitura modum And the opinion was not determin'd in the Lateran as it is now held at Rome but it is also plain that it is a stranger to Antiquity De Transubstantiatione panis in corpus Christi rara est in antiquis scriptoribus mentio said Alphonsus à Castro There is seldome mention made in the ancient Writers of transubstantiating the Bread into Christs Body We know the modesty and interest of the man he would not have said it had been seldom if he could have found it in any reasonable degree warranted he might have said and justified it There was no mention at all of this Article in the primitive Church and that it was a meer stranger to Antiquity will not be deny'd by any sober person who considers That it was with so much uneasiness entertained even in the corruptest and most degenerous times and argued and unsettled almost 1300 years after Christ. And that it was so will but too evidently appear by that stating and resolution of this question which we finde in the Canon Law For Berengarius was by P. Nicolaus commanded to recant his error in these words and to affirm Verum corpus sanguinem Domini nostri Iesu Christi sensualiter non solùm in sacramento sed in veritate manibus sacerdotum tractari frangi fidelium dentibus atteri That the true body and bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ sensually not onely in sacrament but in truth is handled by the Priests hands and broken and grinded by the teeth of the faithful Now although this was publickly read at Rome before an hundred and fourteen Bishops and by the Pope sent up and down the Churches of Italy France and Germany yet at this day it is renounc'd by the Church of Rome and unless it be well expounded says the Gloss will lead into a heresie greater than what Berengarius was commanded to renounce and no interpretation can make it tolerable but such an one as is in another place of the Canon Law statuimus i.e. abrogamus nothing but a plain denying it in the sense of Pope Nicolas But however this may be it is plain they understood it not as it is now decreed But as it happened to the Pelagians in the beginning of their heresie they spake rudely ignorantly and easily to be reprov'd but being asham'd and disputed into a more sober understanding of their hypothesis spake more warily but yet differently from what they said at first so it was and is in this question at first they understood it not it was too unreasonable in any tolerable sense to make any thing of it but experience and necessity hath brought it to what it is But that this Doctrine was not the Doctrine of the first and best ages of the Church these following testimonies do make evident The words of Tertullian are these The bread being taken and distributed to his Disciples Christ made it his body saying This is my body that is the figure of my body The same is affirmed by Iustin Martyr The bread of the Eucharist was a figure which Christ the Lord commanded to do in remembrance of his passion Origen calls the bread and the chalice the images of the body and blood of Christ and again That bread which is sanctified by the word of God so far as belongs to the matter or substance of it goes into the belly and is cast away in the secession or separation which to affirm of the natural or glorified body of Christ were greatly blasphemous and therefore the body of Christ which the Communicants receive is not the body in a natural sense but in a spiritual which is not capable of any such accident as the elements are Eusebius says that Christ gave to his Disciples the Symbols of Divine Oeconomy commanding the image and type of his own body to be made and that the Apostle received a command according to the constitution of the new Testament to make a memory of this sacrifice upon the Table by the symbols of his body and healthful blood 8. Macarius says that in the Church is offered bread and wine the antitype of his flesh and of his blood and they that partake of the bread that appears do spiritually eat the flesh of Christ. By which words the sense of the above cited Fathers is explicated For when they affirm that in this Sacrament is offered the figure the image the antitype of Christs body and blood although they speak perfectly against Transubstantiation yet they do not deny
the real and spiritual presence of Christs body and blood which we all believe as certainly as that it is not transubstantiated or present in a natural and carnal manner The same thing is also fully explicated by the good S. Ephrem The body of Christ received by the faithful departs parts not from his sensible substance and is undivided from a spiritual grace For even baptism being wholly made spiritual and being that which is the same and proper of the sensible substance I mean of water saves and that which is born doth not perish S. Gregory Nazianzen spake so expresly in this Question as if he had undertaken on purpose to confute the Article of Trent Now we shall be partakers of the Paschal supper but still in figure though more clear than in the old Law For the legal Passover I will not be afraid to speak it was a more obscure figure of a figure S. Chrysostom affirms dogmatically that before the bread is sanctified we name it bread but the Divine grace sanctifying it by the means of the Priest it is freed from the name of bread but it is esteemed worthy to be called the Lords body although the nature of bread remains in it And again As thou eatest the body of the Lord so they the faithful in the old Testament did eat Manna as thou drinkest blood so they the water of the rock For though the things which are made be sensible yet they are given spiritually not according to the consequence of Nature but according to the Grace of a gift and with the body they also nourish the soul leading unto faith To these very many more might be added but instead of them the words of S. Austin may suffice as being an evident conviction what was the doctrine of the primitive Church in this question This great Doctor brings in Christ thus speaking as to his Disciples You are not to eat this body which you see or to drink that blood which my crucifiers shall pour forth I have commended to you a sacrament which being spiritually understood shall quicken you And again Christ brought them to a Banquet in which he commended to his Disciples the figure of his body and blood For he did not doubt to say This is my body when he gave the sign of his body and That which by all men is called a sacrifice is the sign of the true sacrifice in which the flesh of Christ after his assumption is celebrated by the sacrament of remembrances But in this particular the Canon law it self and the Master of the Sentences are the best witnesses in both which collections there are divers testimonies brought especially from S. Ambrose and S. Austin which whosoever can reconcile with the Doctrine of Transubstantiation may easily put the Hyaena and a Dog a Pigeon and a Kite into couples and make Fire and Water enter into Natural and Eternal Friendships Theodoret and P. Gelasius speak more emphatically even to the nature of things and the very Philosophy of this Question Christ honour'd the symbols and the signs saith Theodoret which are seen with the title of his body and bloud not changing the nature but to nature adding grace For neither do the mystical signs recede from their nature for they abide in their proper substance figure and form and may be seen and touch'd c. And for a testimony that shall be esteem'd infallible we alledge the words of Pope Gelasius Truly the Sacraments of the body and bloud of Christ which we receive are a Divine thing for that by them we are made partakers of the Divine nature and yet it ceases not to be the substance or nature of bread and wine And truly an image and similitude of the body and bloud of Christ are celebrated in the action of the mysteries Now from these premises we are not desirous to infer any odious consequences in reproof of the Roman Church but we think it our duty to give our own people caution and admonition 1. That they be not abus'd by the rhetorical words and high expressions alledged out of the Fathers calling the Sacrament The body or the flesh of Christ. For we all believe it is so and rejoyce in it But the question is after what manner it is so whether after the manner of the flesh or after the manner of spiritual grace and sacramental consequence We with the H. Scriptures and the primitive Fathers affirm the later The Church of Rome against the words of Scripture and the explication of Christ and the Doctrine of the primitive Church affirm the former 2. That they be careful not to admit such Doctrines under a pretence of being Antient since although the Roman error hath been too long admitted and is antient in respect of our days yet it is an innovation in Christianity and brought in by ignorance power and superstition very many ages after Christ. 3. We exhort them that they remember the words of Christ when he explicates the Doctrine of giving us his flesh for meat and his blood for drink that he tells us The flesh profiteth nothing but the words which he speaks are spirit and they are life 4. That if those antient and primitive Doctors above cited say true and that the symbols still remain the same in their natural substance and properties even after they are blessed and when they are receiv'd and that Christs body and blood are onely present to faith and to the spirit that then whoever tempts them to give Divine honour to these symbols or elements as the Church of Rome does tempts them to give to a creature the due and incommunicable propriety of God and that then this evil passes further than an error in the understanding for it carries them to a dangerous practise which cannot reasonably be excus'd from the crime of Idolatry To conclude This matter of it self is an errour so prodigiously great and dangerous that we need not tell of the horrid and blasphemous questions which are sometimes handled by them concerning this Divine Mystery As if a Priest going by a Bakers Shop and saying with intention Hoc est corpus meum whether all the Bakers bread be turned into the body of Christ Whether a Church Mouse does eat her Maker Whether a man by eating the consecrated symbols does break his fast For if it be not bread and wine he does not and if it be Christs body and blood naturally and properly it is not bread and wine Whether it may be said the Priest is in some sense the Creator of God himself Whether his power be greater than the power of Angels and Archangels For that it is so is expresly affirmed by Cassenaeus Whether as a Bohemian Priest said that a Priest before he say his first Mass be the Son of God but afterward he is the Father of God and the Creator of his body But against this
aut ab integris arceantur said Pope Gelasius Either all or none let them receive in both kindes or in neither and he gives this reason Quia divisio unius ejusdem mysterii sinc grandi sacrilegio non potest pervenire The mystery is but one and the same and therefore it cannot be divided without great Sacriledge The reason concludes as much of the Receiver as the Consecrator and speaks of all indefinitely Thus it is acknowledged to have been in the Latine Church and thus we see it ought to have been And for the Greek Church there is no question for even to this day they communicate the people in the chalice But this case is so plain and there are such clear testimonies out of the Fathers recorded in their own Canon Law that nothing can obscure it but to use too many words about it We therefore do exhort our people to take care that they suffer not themselves to be robb'd of their portion of Christ as he is pleas'd sacramentally and graciously to communicate himself unto us SECT VII AS the Church of Rome does great injury to Christendom in taking from the people what Christ gave them in the matter of the Sacrament so she also deprives them of very much of the benefit which they might receive by their holy Prayers if they were suffered to pray in publick in a Language they understand But that 's denied to the common people to their very great prejudice and injury Concerning which although it is as possible to reconcile Adultery with the seventh Commandment as Service in a Language not understood to the fourteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians and that therefore if we can suppose that the Apostolical age did follow the Apostolical rule it must be concluded that the practise of the Church of Rome is contrary to the practise of the Primitive Church Yet besides this we have thought fit to declare the plain sense and practise of the succeeding ages in a few testimonies but so pregnant as not to be avoided Origen affirms that the Graecians in their prayers use Greek and the Romans the Roman language and so every one according to his Tongue prayeth unto God and praiseth him as he is able S. Chrysostome urging the Precept of the Apostle for prayers in a Language understood by the hearer affirms that which is but reasonable saying If a man speaks in the Persian Tongue and understands not what himself sayes to himself he is a Barbarian and therefore so he is to him that understands no more than he does And what profit can he receive who hears a sound and discerns it not It were as good he were absent as present For if he be the better to be there because he sees what is done and guesses at something in general and consents to him that Ministers It is true this may be but this therefore is so because he understands something but he is onely so far benefited as he understands and therefore all that which is not understood does him no more benefit that is present than to him that is absent and consents to the prayers in general and to what is done for all faithful people But If indeed ye meet for the edification of the Church those things ought to be spoken which the hearers understand said S. Ambrose And so it was in the primitive Church blessings and all other things in the Church were done in the vulgar tongue saith Lyra Nay not onely the publick Prayers but the whole Bible was anciently by many Translations made fit for the peoples use S. Hierom affirms that himself translated the Bible into the Dalmatian Tongue and Vlphilas a Bishop among the Goths translated it into the Gothick Tongue and that it was translated into all Languages we are told by S. Chysostome S. Austin and Theodoret. But although what twenty Fathers say can make a thing no more certain than if S. Paul had alone said it yet both S. Paul and the Fathers are frequent to tell us That a Service or Prayers in an unknown Tongue do not edifie So S. Basil S. Chrysostome S. Ambrose and S. Austin and this is consented to by Aquinas Lyra and Cassander And besides that these Doctors affirm that in the primitive Church the Priests and People joyn'd in their Prayers and understood each other and prayed in their Mother Tongue We find a story how true it is let them look to it but it is told by AEneas Sylvius who was afterward Pope Pius the II. that when Cyrillus Bishop of the Moravians and Methodius had converted the Slavonians Cyril being at Rome desir'd leave to use the language of that Nation in their Divine Offices Concerning which when they were disputing a voice was heard as if from Heaven Let every Spirit praise the Lord and every Tongue confess unto him Upon which it was granted according to the Bishops desire But now they are not so kind at Rome and although the Fathers at Trent confess'd in their decree that the Mass contains in it great matter of erudition and edification of the people yet they did not think it fit that it should be said in the vulgar tongue So that it is very good food but it must be lock'd up it is an excellent candle but it must be put under a bushel And now the Question is Whether it be fit that the people pray so as to be edisied by it or is it better that they be at the prayers when they shall not be edified Whether it be not as good to have a dumb Priest to do Mass as one that hath a tongue to say it For he that hath no tongue and he that hath none to be understood is alike insignificant to me Quid prodest locutionum integritas quam non sequitur intellectus audientis cum loquendi nulla sit causa si quod loquimur non intelligunt propter quos ut intelligant loquimur said S. Austin What does it avail that man speak all if the hearers understand none and there is no cause why a man should speak at all if they for whose understanding you do speak understand it not God understands the Priests thoughts when he speaks not as well as when he speaks he hears the prayer of the heart and sees the word of the mind and a dumb Priest can do all the ceremonies and make the signs and he that speaks aloud to them that understand him not does no more Now since there is no use of vocal prayer in publick but that all together may signifie their desires and stirre up one another and joyne in the expression of them to God by this device a man who understands not what is said can onely pray with his lips for the heart cannot pray but by desiring and it cannot desire what it understands not So that in this case prayer cannot be
a strange spirit of contradiction or superstition or deflection from the Christian Rule greatly prevailing in the Church of Rome it were impossible that this practise should be so countenanc'd by them and defended so to no purpose with so much scandal and against the natural reason of mankind and the very Law of Nature it self For the Heathens were sufficiently by the light of nature taught to abominate all Pictures or Images of God Sed nulla effigies simulachraque nulla Deorum Majestate locum sacro implevere timore They in their earliest ages had no Pictures no Images of their gods Their Temples were filled with Majestie and a sacred fear and the reason is given by Macrobius Antiquity made no Image viz. of God because the Supreme God and the mind that is born of him that is his Son the eternal Word as it is beyond the Soul so it is above nature and therefore it is not lawful that sigments should come thither Nicephorus Callistus relating the Heresie of the Armenians and Iacobites sayes they made Images of the Father Son and Holy Ghost quod perquam absurdum est Nothing is more absurd then to make Pictures or Images of the Persons of the Holy and Adorable Trinity And yet they do this in the Church of Rome For in the windows of their Churches even in Country Villages where the danger cannot be denied to be great and the scandal insupportable nay in their books of devotion in their very Mass-books and Breviaries in their Portuises and Manuals they picture the Holy Trinity with three noses and four eyes and three faces in a knot to the great dishonour of God and scandal of Christianity it self We add no more for the case is too evidently bad but reprove the errour with the words of their own Polydore Virgil Since the world began never was any thing more foolish than to picture God who is present every where SECT X. THe last instance of Innovations introduc'd in Doctrine and practice by the Church of Rome that we shall represent is that of the Popes universal Bishoprick That is not only that he is Bishop of Bishops superior to all and every one but that his Bishoprick is a plenitude of power and as for other Bishops of his fulness they all receive a part of the ministry and sollicitude and not onely so but that he only is a Bishop by immediate Divine dispensation and others receive from him whatsoever they have For to this height many of them are come at last Which Doctrine although as it is in sins where the carnal are most full of reproach but the spiritual are of greatest malignity so it happens in this Article For though it be not so scandalous as their Idolatry so ridiculous as their superstitions so unreasonable as their doctrine of Transubstantiation so easily reprov'd as their half Communion and Service in an unknown tongue yet it is of as dangerous and evil effect and as false and as certainly an Innovation as any thing in their whole conjugation of errors When Christ founded his Church he left it in the hands of his Apostles without any prerogative given to one or eminency above the rest save onely of priority and orderly precedency which of it self was natural necessary and incident The Apostles govern'd all their authority was the sanction and their Decrees and writings were the Laws of the Church They exercis'd a common jurisdiction and divided it according to the needs and emergencies and circumstances of the Church In the Council of Ierusalem S. Peter gave not the decisive Sentence but S. Iames who was the Bishop of that See Christ sent all his Apostles as his Father sent him and therefore he gave to every one of them the whole power which he left behind and to the Bishops Congregated at Miletum S. Paul gave them caution to take care of the whole stock of God and affirms to them all that the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops and in the whole New Testament there is no act or sign of superiority or that one Apostle exercised power over another but to them whom Christ sent he in common intrusted the Church of God according to that excellent saying of S. Cyprian The other Apostles are the same that S. Peter was endowest with an equal fellowship of honour and power and they are all Shepheards and the flock is one and therefore it ought to be fed by all the Apostles with unanimous consent This unity and identity of power without question and interruption did continue and descend to Bishops in the primitive Church in which it was a known doctrine that the Bishops were successors of the Apostles and what was not in the beginning could not be in the descent unless it were innovated and introduc'd by a new authority Christ gave ordinary power to none but the Apostles and the power being to continue for ever in the Church it was to be succeeded to and by the same authority even of Christ it descended to them who were their successors that is to the Bishops as all antiquity does consent and teach Not S. Peter alone but every Apostle and therefore every one who succeeds them in their ordinary power may and must remember the words of S. Paul We are Embassadors or Legates for Christ Christs Vicars not the Popes Delegates and so all the Apostles are called in the Preface of the Mass quos operis tui Vicarios eidem conâ—ulisti praeesse Pastores they are Pastors of the Flock and Vicars of Christ and so also they are in express terms called by S. Ambrose and therefore it is a strange usurpation that the Pope arrogates that to himself by Impropriation which is common to him with all the Bishops of Christendom The consequent of this is that by the law of Christ one Bishop is not superior to another Christ gave the power to all alike he made no Head of the Bishops he gave to none a supremacy of power or universality of jurisdiction But this the Pope hath long challenged and to bring his purposes to pass hath for these six hundered years by-gone invaded the rights of Bishops and delegated matters of order and jurisdiction to Monks and Friers insomuch that the power of Bishops was greatly diminished at the erecting of the Cluniac and Cistercian Monks about the year ML but about the year MCC it was almost swallowed up by privileges granted to the begging Friers and there kept by the power of the Pope which power got one great step more above the Bishops when they got it declared that the Pope is above a Council of Bishops and at last it was turn'd into a new doctrine by Cajetane who for his prosperous invention was made a Cardinal that all the whole Apostolick or Episcopal power is radical and inherent in the Pope in whom is the fulness of the Ecclesiastical authority and that Bishops receive their portion of it from
him and this was first boldly maintain'd in the Council of Trent by the Jesuits and it is now the opinion of their Order but it is also that which the Pope challenges in practice when he pretends to a power over all Bishops and that this power is derived to him from Christ when he calls himself the Universal Bishop and the Vicarial head of the Church the Churches Monarch he from whom all Ecclesiastical authority is deriv'd to whose sentence in things Divine every Christian under pain of damnation is bound to be subject Now this is it which as it is productive of infinite mischiefs so it is an Innovation and an absolute deflection from the primitive catholick doctrine and yet is the great ground-work and foundation of their Church This we shall represent in these following Testimonies Pope Eleutherius in an Epistle to the Bishops of France says that Christ committed the universal Church to the Bishops and S. Ambrose saith that the Bishop holdeth the place of Christ and is his substitute But famous are the words of S. Cyprian The Church of Christ is one thorough the whole world divided by him into many members and the Bishoprick is but one diffused in the agreeing plurality of many Bishops And again To every Pastor a portion of the flock is given which let every one of them rule and govern By which words it is evident that the primitive Church understood no praelation of one and subordination of another commanded by Christ or by vertue of their ordination but onely what was for order sake introduc'd by Princes and consent of Prelates And it was to this purpose very full which was said by Pope Symmachus As it is in the Holy Trinity whose power is one and undivided or to use the expression in the Athanasian Creed none is before or after other none is greater or less than another so there is one Bishoprick amongst divers Bishops and therefore why should the Canons of the ancient Bishops be violated by their Successors Now these words being spoken against the invasion of the rights of the Church of Arles by Anastasius and the question being in the exercise of Jurisdiction and about the Institution of Bishops does fully declare that the Bishops of Rome had no Superiority by the Laws of Christ over any Bishop in the Catholick Church and that his Bishoprick gave no more power to him than Christ gave to the Bishop of the smallest Diocese And therefore all the Church of God when ever they reckon'd the several orders and degrees of Ministery in the Catholick Church reckon the Bishop as the last and supreme beyond whom there is no spiritual power but in Christ. For as the whole Hierachy ends in Iesus so does every particular one in its one Bishop Beyond the Bishop there is no step till you rest in the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls Under him every Bishop is supreme in Spirituals and in all power which to any Bishop is given by Christ. S. Ignatius therefore exhorts that all should obey their Bishop and the Bishop obey Christ as Christ obeyed his Father There are no other intermedial degrees of Divine Institution But as Origen teaches The Apostles and they who after them are ordain'd by God that is the Bishops have the supreme place in the Church and the Prophets have the second place The same also is taught by P. Gelasius by S. Hierom and Fulgentius and indeed by all the Fathers who spake any thing in this matter Insomuch that when Bellarmine is in this question press'd out of the book of Nilus by the authority of the Fathers standing against him he answers Papam Patres non habere in Ecclesiâ sed filios omnes The Pope acknowledges no Fathers in the Church for they are all his sons Now although we suppose this to be greatly sufficient to declare the Doctrine of the primitive Catholick Church concerning the equality of power in all Bishops by Divine right yet the Fathers have also expresly declar'd themselves that one Bishop is not Superior to another and ought not to judge another or force another to obedience They are the words of S. Cyprian to a Council of Bishops None of us makes himself a Bishop of Bishops or by tyranical power drives his collegues to a necessity of obedience since every Bishop according to the licence of his own liberty and power hath his own choice and cannot be judged by another nor yet himself judge another but let us all expect the judgment of our L. Iesus Christ who only and alone hath the power of setting us in the government of his Church and judging of what we do This was spoken and intended against P. Stephen who did then begin dominari in clero to lord it over Gods heritage and to excommunicate his brethren as Demetrius did in the time of the Apostles themselves but they both found their reprovers Demetrius was chastised by S. John for this usurpation and Stephen by S. Cyprian and this also was approv'd by S. Austin We conclude this particular with the words of S. Gregory Bishop of Rome who because the Patriarch of Constantinople called himself Universal Bishop said It was a proud title prophane sacrilegious and Antichristian and therefore he little thought that his Successors in the same See should so fiercely challenge that Antichristian title much less did the then Bishop of Rome in those ages challenge it as their own peculiar for they had no mind to be or to be esteemed Antichristian Romano Pontisici oblatum est sed nullus unquam eorum hoc singularitatis nomen assumpsit His Predecessors it seems had been tempted with an offer of that title but none of them ever assum'd that name of singularity as being against the law of the Gospel and the Canons of the Church Now this being a matter of which Christ spake not one word to S. Peter if it be a matter of faith and salvation as it is now pretended it is not imaginable he would have been so perfectly silent But though he was silent of any intention to do this yet S. Paul was not silent that Christ did otherwise for he hath set in his Church primùm Apostolos first of all Apostles not first S. Peter and secondarily Apostles but all the Apostles were first It is also evident that S. Peter did not carry himself so as to give the least overture or umbrage to make any one suspect he had any such preheminence but he was as S. Chrysostom truly sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did all things with the common consent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing by special authority or principality and if he had any such it is more than probable that the Apostles who survived him had succeeded him in it rather than the Bishop of Rome and it being certain as the Bishop of Canaries confesses That there is in Scripture no
of riot and deordination But we cannot deserve blame who return to our ancient and first health by preferring a New Cure before an Old sore CHAP. II. The Church of ROME as it is at this day disordered teaches Doctrines and uses Practises which are in themselves or in their true and immediate Consequences direct Impieties and give Warranty to a wicked Life Sect. I. OUr first instance is in their Doctrines of Repentance For the Roman Doctors teach that unless it be by accident or in respect of some other obligation a sinner is not bound presently to repent of his sin as soon as he hath committed it Some time or other he must do it and if he take care so to order his affairs that it be not wholly omitted but so that it be done one time or other he is not by the precept or grace of Repentance bound to do more Scotus and his Scholars say that a sinner is bound viz. by the precept of the Church to repent on Holy dayes especially the great ones But this is thought too severe by Soto and Medina who teach that a sinner is bound to repent but once a year that is against Easter These Doctors indeed do differ concerning the Churches sense which according to the best of them is bad enough full as bad as it is stated in the charge but they agree in the worst part of it viz. That though the Church calls upon sinners to repent on Holy days or at Easter yet that by the Law of God they are not tyed to so much but only to repent in the danger or article of death This is the express Doctrine taught in the Church of Rome by their famous Navar and for this he quotes Pope Adrian and Cardinal Cajetan and finally affirms it to be the sense of all men The same also is taught by Reginaldus saying It is true and the opinion of all men that the time in which a sinner is bound by the commandment of God to be contrite for his sins is the imminent article of natural or violent death We shall not need to aggravate this sad story by the addition of other words to the same purpose in a worse degree such as those words are of the same Reginaldus There is no precept that a sinner should not persevere in enmity against God There is no negative precept forbidding such a perseverance These are the words of this man but the proper and necessary consequent of that which they all teach and to which they must consent For since it is certain that he who hath sinn'd against God and his Conscience is in a state of enmity we say he therefore ought to repent presently because until he hath repented he is an enemy to God This they confess but they suppose it concludes nothing for though they consider and confess thâ—â— yet they still saying a man is no bound by Gods Law to repent till the article of death do consequently say the same thing that Reginaldus does and that a man is not bound to come out of that state of enmity till he be in those circumstances that it is very probable if he does not then come out he must stay in it for ever It is somthing worse than this yet that Sotus sayes even to resolve to defer our repentance and to refuse to repent for a certain time is but a venial sin but Medina sayes it is none at all If it be replyed to this that though God hath left it to a sinners liberty to repent when he please yet the Church hath been more severe than God hath been and tyes a sinner to repent by collateral positive Laws for having bound every one to confess at Easter consequently she hath tyed every one to repent at Easter and so by her Laws can lye in the sin without interruption but twelve moneths or thereabouts yet there is a secret in this which nevertheless themselves have been pleased to discover for the ease of tender consciences viz. That the Church ordains but the means the exteriour solemnity of it and is satisfied if you obey her Laws by a Ritual repentance but the holiness and the inward repentance which in charity we should have suppos'd to have been design'd by the Law of Festivals non est id quod per praeceptum de observatione Festorum injungitur is not that which is enjoyn'd by the Church in her Law of Holy dayes So that still sinners are left to the liberty which they say God gave even to satisfie our selves with all the remaining pleasures of that sin for a little while even during our short mortal life onely we must be sure to repent at last We shall not trouble our â—â—lves or our charges with confuting this impious Doctrine For it is evident that this gives countenance and too much warranty to a wicked life and that of it self is confutation enough and is that which we intended to represent If it be answered that this is not the doctrine of their Church but of some private Doctors we must tell you that if by the Doctrine of their Church they mean such things only as are decreed in their Councils it is to be considered that but few things are determin'd in their Councils nothing but Articles of Belief and the practise of Sacraments relating to publick Order and if they will not be reprov'd for any thing but what we prove to be false in the Articles of their simple Belief they take a liberty to say and to do what they list and to corrupt all the World by their Rules of Conscience But that this is also the Doctrine of their Church their own men tell us Communis omnium It is the Doctrine of all their men so they affirm as we have cited their own words above who also undertake to tell us in what sense their Church intends to tye sinners to actual repentance not as soon as the sin is committed but at certain seasons and then also to no more of it than the external and ritual part So that if their Church be injuriously charged themselves have done it not we And besides all this it is hard to suppose or expect that the innumerable cases of Conscience which a whole Trade of Lawyers and Divines amongst them have made can be entred into the records of Councils and publick Decrees In these cases we are to consider who teaches them Their Gravest Doctors in the face of the Sun under the intuition of Authority in the publick conduct of souls in their allowed Sermons in their books licens'd by a curious and inquisitive Authority not passing from them but by warranty from several hands intrusted to examine them ne fides Ecclesiae aliquid detrimenti patiatur that nothing be publish'd but what is consonant to the Catholick Faith And therefore these things cannot be esteem'd private Opinions especially since if they be yet they are the private opinions of them all and
that we understand to be publick enough and are so their Doctrine as what the Scribes and Pharisees taught their Disciples though the whole Church of the Jewes had not pass'd it into a Law So this is the Roman Doctrine though not the Roman Law Which difference we desire may be observ'd in many of the following instances that this objection may no more interpose for an escape or an excuse But we shall have occasion again to speak to it upon new particulars But this though it be infinitely intolerable yet it is but the beginning of sorrows for the guides of souls in the Roman Church have prevaricated in all the parts of Repentance most sadly and dangerously The next things therefore that we shall remark are their Doctrines concerning Contrition which when it is genuine and true that is a true cordial sorrow for having sinn'd against God a sorrow proceeding from the love of God and conversion to him and ending in a dereliction of all our sins and a walking in all righteousness both the Psalms and the Prophets the Old Testament and the New the Greek Fathers and the Latine have allowed as sufficient for the pardon of our sins through faith in Jesus Christ as our Writers have often prov'd in their Sermons and books of Conscience yet first the Church of Rome does not allow it to be of any value unless it be joyn'd with a desire to confess their sins to a Priest saying that a man by contrition is not reconcil'd to God without their Sacramental or Ritual penance actual or votive and this is decreed by the Council of Trent which thing besides that it is against Scripture and the promises of the Gospel and not onely teaches for Doctrine the Commandments of Men but evacuates the goodness of God by their Traditions and weakens and discourages the best repentance and prefers repentance towards men before that which the Scripture calls Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ. But the malignity of this Doctrine and its influence it hath on an evil life appears in the other corresponding part of this Doctrine For as contrition without their ritual and sacramental confession will not reconcile us to God so attrition as they call it or contrition imperfect proceeding from fear of damnation together with their Sacrament will reconcile the sinner Contrition without it will not attrition with it will reconcile us and therefore by this doctrine which is expresly decreed at Trent there is no necessity of Contrition at all and attrition is as good to all intents and purposes of pardon and a little repentance will prevail as well as the greatest the imperfect as well as the perfect So Guilielmus de Rubeo explains this Doctrine He that confesses his sins grieving but a little obtains remission of his sins by the Sacrament of Penance ministred to him by the Priest absolving him So that although God working Contrition in a penitent hath not done his work for him without the Priests absolution in desire at least yet if the Priest do his part he hath done the work for the penitent though God had not wrought that excellent grace of Contrition in the Penitent But for the Contrition it self it is a good word but of no severity or affrightment by the Roman Doctrine One contrition one act of it though but little and remiss can blot out any even the greatest sin always understanding it in the sense of the Church that is in the Sacrament of Penance saith Cardinal Tolet. A certain little inward grief of minde is requir'd to the perfection of Repentance said Maldonat And to Contrition a grief in general for all our sins is sufficient but it is not necessary to grieve for any one sin more than another said Franciscus de Victoriâ The greatest sin and the smallest as to this are all alike and as for the Contrition it self any intension or degree whatsoever in any instant whatsoever is sufficient to obtain mercy and remission said the same Author Now let this be added to the former and the sequel is this That if a man live a wicked life for Threescore or Fourscore years together yet if in the Article of his death sooner than which God hath not commanded him to repent he be a little sorrowfull for his sins then resolving for the present that he will do so no more and though this sorrow hath in it no love of God but onely a fear of Hell and a hope that God will pardon him this if the Priest absolves him does instantly pass him into a state of salvation The Priest with two fingers and a thumb can do his work for him onely he must be greatly dispos'd and prepar'd to receive it Greatly we say according to the sense of the Roman Church for he must be attrite or it were better if he were contrite one act of grief a little one and that not for one sin more than another and this at the end of a long wicked life at the time of our death will make all sure Upon these terms it is a wonder that all wicked men in the world are not Papists where they may live so merrily and dye so securely and are out of all danger unless peradventure they dye very suddenly which because so very few do the venture is esteem'd nothing and it is a thousand to one on the sinners side Sect. II. WEe know it will be said That the Roman Church enjoyns Confession and imposes Penances and these are a great restraint to sinners and gather up what was scattered before The reply is easie but is it very sad For 1. For Confession It is true to them who are not us'd to it as it is at the first time and for that once it is as troublesome as for a bashfull man to speak Orations in Publick But where it is so perpetual and universal and done by Companies and crouds at a solemn set time and when it may be done to any one besides the Parish-Priest to a Frier that begs or to a Monk in his Dorter done in the ear it may be to a Person that hath done worse and therefore hath no awe upon me but what his Order imprints and his vitiousness takes off when we see Women and Boys Princes and Prelates do the same every day And as often times they are never the better so they are not at all asham'd but men look upon it as a certain cure like pulling off a mans cloathes to go and wash in a river and make it by use and habit by confidence and custom to be no certain pain and the women blush or smile weep or are unmov'd as it happens under their vail and the men under the boldness of their Sex When we see that men and women confess to day and sin to morrow and are not affrighted from their sin the more for it because they know the worst of it and have felt it often
Masse is as sure as may be to deliver the souls of his parents and a thousand more such stories as these are to be seen every where and every day Once for all There was a Book printed at Paris by Francis Regâ—ault A. D. 1536 May 25. called The hours of the most blessed Virgin Mary according to the use of Sarum in which for the saying three short prayers written in Rome in a place called The Chappel of the Holy Cross of seven Romans are promised fourscore and ten thousand years of pardon of deadly sin Now the meaning of these things is very plain By these devices they serve themselves and they do not serve God They serve themselves by this Doctrine For they teach that what penance is ordinarily imposed does not take away all the punishment that is due for they do not impose what was antiently enjoyn'd by the penitential Canons but some little thing instead of it and it may be that what was anciently enjoyn'd by the penitential Canons is not so much as God will exact for they suppose that he will forgive nothing but the guilt and the eternity but he will exact all that can be demanded on this side hell even to the last farthing he must be paid some way or other even when the guilt is taken away but therefore to prevent any falling that way they have given indulgences enough to take off what was due by the Old Canons and what may be due by the severity of God and if these fail they may have recourse to the Priests and they by their Masses can make supply so that their Disciples are well and the want of ancient Discipline shall do them no hurt But then how little they serve Gods end by treating the sinner so gently will be very evident For by this means they have found out a way that though it may be God will be more severe than the old penitential Canons and although these Canons were much more severe than men are now willing to suffer yet neither for the one or the other shall they need to be troubled they have found out an easier way to go to heaven than so An indulgence will be no great charge but that will take off all the supernumerary penances which ought to have been imposed by the ancient Discipline of the Church and may be requir'd by God A little alms to a Priest a small oblation to a Church a pilgrimage to the image or reliques of a Saint wearing Saint Francis Chord saying over the beads with an hallowed appendant entering into a Fraternity praying at a priviledged altar leaving a legacy for a soul Mass visiting a priviledged Caemetery and twenty other devices will secure the sinner from suffering punishment here or hereafter more then his friendly Priest is pleased gently to impose To them that ask what should any one need to get so many hundred thousand years of pardon as are ready to be had upon very easie terms They answer as before that whereas it may be for perjury the antient Canons enjoyned penance all their life that will be supposed to be twenty or forty years or suppose an hundred if the man have been perjur'd a thousand times and committed adultery so often and done innumerable other sins for every one of which he deserves to suffer forty years penance and how much more in the account of God he deserves he knows not if he be attrite and confess'd so that the guilt is taken away yet as much temporal punishment remains due as is not paid here but the indulgences of the Church will take off so much as it comes to even of all that would be suffered in Purgatory Now it is true that Purgatory at least as is believ'd cannot last a hundred thousand years but yet God may by the acerbity of the flames in twenty years equal the Canonical penances of twenty thousand years to prevent which these indulgences of so many thousand years are devised A wise and thrifty invention sure and well contriv'd and rightly applotted according to every mans need and according as they suspect his bill shall amount to This strange invention as strange as it is will be own'd for this is the account of it which we find in Bellarmine and although Gerson and Dominicus à Soto are asham'd of these prodigious indulgences and suppose that the Popes Quaestuaries onely did procure them yet it must not be so disown'd truth is truth and it is notoriously so and therefore a reason must be found out for it and this is it which we have accounted But the use we make of it is this That since they have declar'd that when sinnes are pardoned so easily yet the punishment remains so very great and that so much must be suffered here or in Purgatory it is strange that they should not onely in effect pretend to shew more mercy than God does or the primitive Church did but that they should directly lay aside the primitive Discipline and while they declaim against their adversaries for saying they are not necessary yet at the same time they should devise tricks to take them quite away so that neither penances shall much smart here nor Purgatory which is a device to make men to be Mulata's as the Spaniard calls half Christians a device to make a man go to heaven and to hell too shall not torment them hereafter However it be yet things are so ordered that the noise of penances need not trouble the greatest criminal unless he be so unfortunate as to live in no countrey and near no Church and without Priest or Friend or Money or notice of any thing that is so loudly talk'd of in Christendom If he be he hath no help but one he must live a holy and a severe life which is the onely great calamity which they are commanded to suffer in the Church of England but if he be not the case is plain he may by these doctrines take his ease SECT IV. WE doubt not but they who understand the proper sequele of these things will not wonder that the Church of Rome should have a numerous company of Proselytes made up of such as the beginnings of Davids Army were But that we may undeceive them also for to their souls we intend charity and relief by this address we have thought fit to add one consideration more and that is that it is not fit that they should trust to this or any thing of this not onely because there is no foundation of truth in these new devices but because even the Roman Doctors themselves when they are pinch'd with an objection let their hold go and to escape do in remarkable measures destroy their own new building The case is this To them who say that if there were truth in these pretensions then all these and the many millions of indulgences more and the many other wayes of releasing souls out of Purgatory the innumerable Masses
said every day the power of the Keys so largely imployed would in a short time have emptied Purgatory of all her sad inhabitants or it may be very few would go thither and they that unfortunately do cannot stay long and consequently besides that this great softness and easiness of procedure would give confidence to the greatest sinners and the hopes of Purgatory would destroy the fears of Hell and the certainty of doing well enough in an imperfect life would make men carelesse of the more excellent besides these things there will need no continuation of pensions to pray for persons dead many years ago To them I say who talk to them at this rate they have enough to answer Deceive not your selves there are more things to be reckon'd for than so For when you have deserved great punishments for great sins and the guilt is taken off by absolution and you suppose the punishment by indulgences or the satisfaction of others it may be so and it may be not so For 1. It is according as your Indulgence is Suppose it for fourty years or it may be a hundred or a thousand and that is a great matter yet peradventure according to the old penitential rate you have deserved the penance of fourty thousand years or at least you may have done so by the more severe account of God If the penance of fourty years be taken off by your indulgence it does as much of the work as was promised or intended but you can feel little ease if still there remains due the penance of threescore thousand years No man can tell the difference when what remains shall be so great as to surmount all the evils of this life and the abatement may be accounted by pen and ink but will signifie little in the perception it is like the casting out of a Devil out of a miserable Demoniack when there still remains fifty more as bad as he that went away the man will hardly find how much he is advanced in his â—ure But 2. You have with much labour and some charge purchased to your self so many Quadragenes or Lents of pardon that is you have bought off the penances of so many times forty dayes It is well but were you well advised it may be your Quadragenes are not Carenes that is are not a quitting the severest penances of fasting so long in bread and water for there is great difference in the manner of keeping a penitential Lent and it may be you have purchased but some lighter thing and then if your demerit arise to so many Carenes and you purchased but mere Quadragenes without a minute and table of particulars you may stay longer in Purgatory than you expected 3. But therefore your best way is to get a plenary Indulgence and that may be had on reasonable terms but take heed you do not think your self secure For a plenary Indulgence does not do all that it may be you require for there is an Indulgence more full and another most full and it is not agreed upon among the Doctors whether a plenary Indulgence is to be extended beyond the taking off those penances which were actually enjoyn'd by the confessor or how far they go further And they that read Turrecremata Navar Cordubensis Fabius Incarnatus Petrus de Soto Armilla aurea Aquinas Tolet Cajetan in their several accounts of Indulgences will soon perceive that all this is but a handful of smoke when you hold it you hold it not 4. But further yet all Indulgencies are granted upon some inducement and are not ex mero motu or acts of mere grace without cause and if the cause be not reasonable they are invalid and whether the cause be sufficient will be very hard to judge And if there be for the Indulgence yet if there be not a reasonable cause for the quantity of the indulgence you cannot tell how much you get and the Preachers of indulgences ought not to declare how valid they are assertive that is by any confidence but opinative or recitative they can onely tell what is said or what is their own opinion 5. When this difficulty is passed over yet it may be the person is not capable of them for if he be not in the state of grace all is nothing and if he be yet if he does not perform the condition of the Indulgence actually his mere endeavour or good desire is nothing And when the conditions are actually done it must be enquired whether in the time of doing them you were in charity whether you be so at least in the last day of finishing them it is good to be certain in this least all evaporate and come to nothing But yet suppose this too though the work you are to do as the condition of the indulgence be done so well that you lose not all the indulgence yet for every degree of imperfection in that work you will lose apart of the indulgence and then it will be hard to tell whether you get half so much as you propounded to your self But here Pope Adrian troubles the whole affair again for if the indulgence be onely given according to the worthiness of the work done then that will avail of it self without any grant from the Church and then it is hugely questionable whether the Popes authority be of any use in this whole matter 6. But there is yet a greater heap of dangers and uncertainties for you must be sure of the Authority of him that gives the Indulgence and in this there are many doubtful questions but when they are over yet it is worth inquiry for some Doctors are fearful in this point Whether the intromission of Venial sinnes without which no man lives does hinder the fruit of the Indulgence for if it does all the cost is lost 7. When an Indulgence is given put case to abide forty dayes on certain conditions whether these forty dayes are to be taken collectively or distributively for because it is confessed that the matter of Indulgences is res odibilis a hateful and an odious matter it is not to be understood in the sense of favour but of greatest severity and therefore it is good to know before hand what to trust to to enquire how the Bull is pen'd and what sense of Law every word does bear for it may be any good mans case If an Indulgence be granted to a place for so many dayes in every year it were fit you enquire for how many years that will last for some Doctors say That if a definite number of years be not set down it is intended to last but twenty years And therefore it is good to be wise early 8. But it is yet of greater consideration If you take out a Bull of Indulgence relating to the Article of Death in case you recover that sickness in which you thought you should use it you must consider whether you must not take out a new one for the next fit
of sickness or will the first which stood for nothing keep cold and without any sensible error serve when you shall indeed dye 9. You must also inquire and be rightly informed whether an Indulgence granted upon a certain Festival will be valid if the day be chang'd as they were all at once by the Gregorian Calendar or if you go into another Countrey where the Feast is not kept the same day as it happens in moveable Feasts and on S. Bartholomews day and some others 10. When your Lawyers have told you their opinion of all these questions and given it under their hand it will concern you to inquire yet further whether a succeeding Pope have not or cannot revoke an Indulgence granted by his Predecessor for this is often done in matters of favour and priviledges and the German Princes complained sadly of it and it was complain'd in the Council of Lions that Martin the Legate of Pope Innocent VIII revok'd and dissipated all former grants and it is an old rule Papa nunquam sibi ligat manus The Pope never binds his own hands But here some caution would do well 11. It is worth inquiry Whether in the year of Jubilee all other Indulgences be suspended for though some think they are not yet Navar and Emanuel S à affirm that they are and if they chance to say true for no man knowes whether they do or no you may be at a loss that way And when all this is done yet 12. Your Indulgences will be of no avail to you in reserved cases which are very many A great many more very fine scruples might be mov'd and are so and therefore when you have gotten all the security you can by these you are not safe at all But therefore be sure still to get Masses to be said So that now the great Objection is answered you need not fear that saying Masses will ever be made unnecessary by the multitude of Indulgences The Priest must still be imployed and entertain'd in subsidium since there are so many ways of making the Indulgence good for nothing And as for the fear of emptying Purgatory by the free and liberal use of the Keyes it is very needless because the Pope cannot evacuate Purgatory or give so many Indulgences as to take out all Souls from thence And therefore if the Popes and the Bishops and the Legates have been already too free it may be there is so much in arrear that the Treasure of the Church is spent or the Church is in debt for souls or else though the Treasure be inexhaustible yet so much of her Treasure ought not to be made use of and therefore it may be that your souls shall be postpon'd and must stay and take its turn God knows when And therefore we cannot but commend the prudence of Cardinal Albernotius who by his last will took order for fifty thousand Masses to be said for his soul for he was a wise man and lov'd to make all as sure as he could But then to apply this to the Consciences of the poor people of the Roman Communion Here is a great deal of Treasure of the Church pretended and a great many favours granted and much ease promised and the wealth of the Church boasted of and the peoples money gotten and that this may be a perpetual spring it is clear amongst their own Writers that you are not sure of any good by all that is past but you must get more security or this may be nothing But how easie were it for you now to conclude that all this is but a meer cozenage an art to get money but that 's but the least of the evil it is a certain way to deceive souls For since there are so many thousands that trust to these things and yet in the confession of your own Writers there are so many fallibilities in the whole and in every part why will you suffer your selves so weakly and vainly to be cozen'd out of your souls with promises that signifie nothing and words without vertue and treasures that make no man rich and indulgences that give confidence to sin but no ease to the pains which follow Besides all this it is very considerable that this whole affair is a state of temptation for they that have so many ways to escape will not be so careful of the main stake as the interest of it requires He that hopes to be relieved by many others will be tempted to neglect himself There is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Vnum necessarium even that we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling A little wisdom and an easie observation were enough to make all men that love themselves wisely to abstain from such diet which does not nourish but fills the stomack with wind and imagination But to return to the main Inquiry We desire that it be considered how dangerously good life is undermined by the Propositions collaterally taught by their great Doctors in this matter of Indulgences besides the main and direct danger and deception 1. Venial sins preceding or following the work enjoyn'd for getting Indulgences hinder not their fruit But if they intervene in the time of doing them then they hinder By this Proposition there is infinite uncertainty concerning the value of any Indulgence for if venial sins be daily incursions who can say that he is one day clean from them And if he be not he hath paid his price for that which profits not and he is made to relie upon that which will not support him But though this being taught doth evacuate the Indulgence yet it is not taught to prevent the sin for before and after if you commit venial sinnes there is no great matter in it The inconvenience is not great and the remedy is easie you are told of your security as to this point before hand 2. Pope Adrian taught a worse matter He that will obtain indulgence for another if he does perform the work enjoyn'd though himself be in deadly sin yet for the other he prevails as if a man could do more for another than he can do for himself or as if God would regard the prayers of a vile and a wicked person when he intercedes for another and at the same time if he prays for himself his prayer is an abomination God first is intreated for our selves and when we are more excellent persons admits us to intercede and we shall prevail for others but that a wicked person who is under actual guilt and oblig'd himself to suffer all punishment can ease and take off the punishment due to others by any external good work done ungraciously is a piece of new Divinity without colour of reason or religion Others in this are something less scandalous and affirm that though it be not necessary that when the indulgence is granted the man should be in the state of grace yet it is necessary that at some time
non solvit in aere luat incorpore is a Canonical rule and though it was spoken in the matter of publick penances and so relates to the exteriour Court yet it is also practis'd and avowed in satisfactions or penances relating to the inward Court. of Conscience and penance Sacramental and the rich man is made negligent in his duty and is whip'd upon another mans back and his purse onely is the Penitent and which is worst of all here is a pretence of doing that which is too neer blasphemy but to say For by this Doctrine it is not to be said of Christ alone that he was wounded for our transgressions that he only satisfied for our sins for in the Church of Rome it is done frequently and pretended daily that by another mans stripes we are healed 2. They teach That a habit of sinne is not a sinne distinct from those former actions by which the habit was contracted The secret intention of which proposition and the malignity of it consists in this that it is not necessary for a man to repent speedily and a man is not bound by repentance to interrupt the procedure of his impiety or to repent of his habit but of the single acts that went before it For as for those that come after they are excus'd if they be produc'd by a strong habit and the greater the habit the less is the sin But then as the repentance need not for that reason be hasty and presently so because it is onely to be of single acts the repentance it self need not be habitual but it may be done in an instant whereas to mortifie a habit of sinne which is the true and proper repentance there is requir'd a longer time and a procedure in the methods of a holy life By this and such like Propositions and careless Sentences they have brought it to that pass that they reckon a single act of Contrition at any time to be sufficient to take away the wickedness of a long life Now that this is the avowed Doctrine of the Roman Guides of Souls will sufficiently appear in the Writings of their chiefest of which no learned man can be ignorant The thing was of late openly and professedly disputed against us and will not be denied And that this Doctrine is infinitely destructive of the necessity of a good life cannot be doubted of when themselves do own the proper consequents of it even the unnecessariness of present repentance or before the danger of death of which we have already given accounts But the reason why we remark it here is that which we now mentioned because that by the Doctrine of vitious habits having in them no malignity or sin but what is in the single preceding acts there is an excuse made for millions of sins For if by an evil habit the sinner is not made worse and more hated by God and his sinful acts made not onely more but more criminal it will follow that the sins are very much lessened For they being not so voluntary in their exercise and distinct emanation are not in present so malicious and therefore he that hath gotten a habit of drunkenness or swearing sins less in every act of drunkenness or prophane oath than he that acts them seldom because by his habit he is more inclin'd and his sins are almost natural and less consider'd less chosen and not disputed against but pass by inadvertency and an untroubled consent easily and promptly and almost naturally from that principle So that by this means and in such cases when things are come to this pass they have gotten an imperfect Warrant to sin a great deal and a great while without any new great inconvenience Which evil state of things ought to be infinitely avoided by all Christians that would be saved by all means and therefore all such Teachers and all such Doctrines are carefully to be declin'd who give so much easiness not only to the remedies but to the sins themselves But of this we hope it may be sufficient to have given this short warning 3. The distinction of Mortal and Venial sins as it is taught in the Church of Rome is a great cause of wickedness and careless conversation For although we do with all the ancient Doctors admit of the distinction of sins Mortal and Venial yet we also teach That in their own nature and in the rigor of the Divine Justice every sin is damnable and deserves Gods anger and that in the unregenerate they are so accounted and that in hell the damned suffer for small and great in a common mass of torment yet by the Divine mercy and compassion the smaller sins which come by surprize or by invincible ignorance or inadvertency or unavoidable infirmity shall not be imputed to those who love God and delight not in the smallest sin but use caution and prayers watchfulness and remedies against them But if any man delights in small sins and heaps them into numbers and by deliberation or licentiousness they grow numerous or are in any sense chosen or taken in by contempt of the Divine Law they do put us from the favour of God and will pass into severe accounts And though sins are greater or less by comparison to each other yet the smallest is a burthen too great for us without the allowances of the Divine mercy But the Church of Rome teaches that there is a whole kinde of sins which are venial in their own nature such which if they were altogether all in the world conjoyn'd could not equal one mortal sin nor destroy charity nor put us from the favour of God such for which no man can perish etiamsi nullum pactum esset de remissione though Gods merciful Covenant of Pardon did not intervene And whereas Christ said of every idle word a man shall speak he shall give account at the day of judgement and By your words ye shall be justified and By your words ye shall be condemned Bellarmine expresly affirms It is not intelligible how an idle word should in its own nature be worthy of the eternal wrath of God and eternal flameâ— Many other desperate words are spoken by the Roman Doctors in this Question which we love not to aggravate because the main thing is acknowledged by them all But now we appeal to the reason and Consciences of all men Whether this Doctrine of sins Venial in their own nature be not greatly destructive to a holy life When it is plain that they give rest to mens Consciences for one whole kinde of sins for such which because they occur every day in a very short time if they be not interrupted by the grace of Repentance will swell to a prodigious heap But concerning these we are bidden to be quiet for we are told that all the heaps of these in the world cannot put us out of Gods favour Adde to this that it being in thousands of cases impossible to tell which are and which
least become very probable and therefore they may be believ'd and practis'd without danger according to the Doctrine of Probability And thus the most desperate things that ever were said by any though before the declaration of the Church they cannot become Articles of Faith yet besides that they are Doctrines publickly allowed they can also become rules of practise and securities to the conscience of their Disciples To this we may adde that which is usual in the Church of Rome the praxis Ecclesiae the practise of the Church Thus if an Indulgence be granted upon condition to visit such an Altar in a distant Church the Nuns that are shut up and Prisoners that cannot go abroad if they address themselves to an Altar of their own with that intention they shall obtain the Indulgence Id enim confirmat Ecclesiae praxis says Fabius The practise of the Church in this case gives first a probability in Speculation and then a certainty in practise This instance though it be of no concern yet we use it as a particular to shew the principle upon which they go But it is practicable in many things of greatest danger and concern If the question be Whether it be lawfull to worship the Image of the Cross or of Christ with Divine Worship first there is a Doctrine of S. Thomas for it and Vasquez and many others therefore it is probable and therefore is safe in practise sic est Ecclesiae praxis the Church also practises so as appears in their own Offices and S. Thomas makes this use of it Illi exhibemus cultum Latriae in quo ponimus spem salutis sed in cruce Christi ponimus spem salutis Cantat enim Ecclesia O Crux ave spes unica Hoc passionis tempore Auge piis justitiam Reisque dona veniam Ergo Crux Christi est adoranda adoratione Latriae We give Divine Worship says he to that in which we put our hopes of salvation but in the Cross we put our hopes of salvation for so the Church sings it is the practise of the Church Hail O Cross our onely hope in this time of suffering encrease righteousness to the godly and give pardon to the guilty therefore the Cross of Christ is to be ador'd with Divine Adoration By this Principle you may embrace any opinion of their Doctors safely especially if the practise of the Church do intervene and you need not trouble your self with any further inquiry And if an evil custom get amongst men that very custom shall legitimate the action if any of their grave Doctors allow it or good men use it and Christ is not your Rule but the examples of them that live with you or are in your eye and observation that 's your rule We hope we shall not need to say any more in this affair The pointing out this rock may be warning enough to them that would not suffer shipwrack to decline the danger that looks so formidably Sect. VIII AS these evil Doctrines have general influence into evil life so there are some others which if they be pursued to their proper and natural issues that is if they believ'd and practis'd are enemies to the particular and specifick parts of Piety and Religion Thus the very prayers of the Faithful are or may be spoil'd by Doctrines publickly allowed and prevailing in the Roman Church For 1. They teach That prayers themselves ex opere operato or by the natural work it self do prevail For it is not essential to prayer for a man to think particularly of what he sayes it is not necessary to think of the things signified by the words So Suarez teaches Nay it is not necessary to the essence of prayer that he who prays should think de ipsa locutione of the speaking it self And indeed it is necessary that they should all teach so or they cannot tolerably pretend to justifie their prayers in an unknown Tongue But this is indeed their publick Doctrine For prayers in the mouth of the man that says them are like the words of a Charmer they prevail even when they are not understood sayes Salmeron or as Antoninus They are like a precious stone of as much value in the hand of an unskilful man as of a Ieweller And therefore attention to or devotion in our prayers is not necessary For the understanding of which saith Cardinal Tolet when it is said that you must say your prayers or offices attently reverently and devoutly you must know that attention or advertency to your prayers is manifold 1. That you attend to the words so that you speak them not to fast or to begin the next verse of a Psalm before he that recites with you hath done the former verse and this attention is necessary But 2. There is an attention which is by understanding the sense and that is not necessary For if it were very extremely few would do their duty when so very few do at all understand what they say 3. There is an attention relating to the end of prayer that is that he that prays considers that he is present before God and speaks to him and this indeed is very profitable but it is not necessary No not so much So that by this Doctrine no attention is necessary but to attend that the words be all said and said right But even this attention is not necessary that it should be actual but it suffices to be virtual that is that he who says his office intends to do so and do not change his minde although he does not attend And he who does not change his minde that is unless observing himself not to attend he still turn his minde to other things he attends meaning he attends sufficiently and as much as is necessary though indeed speaking naturally and truly he does not attend If any man in the Church of England and Ireland had published such Doctrine as this he should quickly and deservedly have felt the severity of the Ecclesiastical Rod. But in Rome it goes for good Catholick Doctrine Now although upon this account Devotion is it may be good and it is good to attend to the words of our prayer and the sense of them yet that it is not necessary is evidently consequent to this But it is also expresly affirm'd by the same hand There ought to be devotion that our mind be inflam'd with the love of God though if this be wanting without contempt it is no deadly sin Ecclesiae satisfit per opus externum nec aliud jubet saith Reginaldus If ye do the outward work the Church is satisfied neither does she command any thing else Good Doctrine this And it is an excellent Church that commands nothing to him that prays but to say so many words Well! But after all this if Devotion be necessary or not if it be present or not if the minde wander or wander not if you minde what you pray or minde it not
there is an easie cure for all this for Pope Leo granted remission of all negligences in their saying their offices and prayers to them who after they have done shall say this prayer To the Holy and Vndivided Trinity To the Humanity of our Lord Iesus Christ crucified To the fruitfulness of the most Blessed and most Glorius Virgin Mary and to the Vniversity of all Saints be Eternal praise honour vertue and glory from every Creature and to us remission of sins for ever and ever Amen Blessed are the Bowels of the Virgin Mary which bore the Son of the Eternal God and blessed are the Paps which suckled Christ our Lord Pater noster Ave Maria. This prayer to this purpose is set down by Navar and Cardinal Tolet. This is the sum of the Doctrine concerning the manner of saying the Divine offices in the Church of Rome in which greater care is taken to obey the Precept of the Church than the Commandments of God For the Precept of hearing Mass is not to intend the words but to be present at the Sacrifice though the words be not so much as heard and they that think the contrary think so without any probable reason saith Tolet. It seems there was not so much as the Authority of one grave Doctor to the contrary for if there had the contrary opinion might have been probable but all agree upon this Doctrine all that are considerable So that between the Church of England and the Church of Rome the difference in this Article is plainly this They pray with their lips we with the heart we pray with the understanding they with the voice we pray and they say prayers We suppose that we do not please God if our hearts be absent they say it is enough if their bodies be present at their greatest solemnity of prayer though they hear nothing that is spoken and understand as little And which of these be the better way of serving God may soon be determin'd if we remember the complaint which God made of the Jews This people draweth near me with their lips but their hearts are far from me But we know that we are commanded to ask in faith which is seated in the understanding and requires the concurrence of the will and holy desires which cannot be at all but in the same degree in which we have a knowledge of what we ask The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man prevails But what our prayers want of this they must needs want of blessing and prosperity And if we lose the benefit of our prayers we lose that great instrumentality by which Christians are receptive of pardon and strengthned in faith and confirm'd in hope and increase in charity and are protected by Providence and are comforted in their sorrows and derive help from God Ye ask and have not because ye ask amiss that is S. Iames his rule They that pray not as they ought shall never obtain what they fain would Hither is to be reduc'd their fond manner of prayer consisting in vain repetitions of Names and little forms of words The Psalter of our Lady is an hundred and fifty Ave Maries and at the end of every tenth they drop in the Lords Prayer and this with the Creed at the end of the fifty makes a perfect Rosary This indeed is the main entertainment of the peoples Devotion for which cause Mantuan call'd their Religion Relligionem Quae filo inâ—ertis numerat sua murmura baceis A Religion that numbers their murmurs by berries fil'd upon a string This makes up so great a part of their Religion that it may well be taken for one half of its definition But because so few do understand what they say but all repeat and stick to their numbers it is evident they think to be heard for that For that or nothing for besides that they neither do nor understand And all that we shall now say to it is That our Blessed Saviour reprov'd this way of Devotion in the Practise and Doctrines of the Heathens Very like to which is that which they call the Psalter of Iesus in which are fifteen short Ejaculations as Have mercy on me * Strengthen me * Help me * Comfort me c. and with every one of these the name of Iesus is to be said thirty times that is in all four hundred and fifty times Now we are ignorant how to distinguish this from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or vain repetition of the Gentiles for they did just so and Christ said they did not do well and that is all that we pretend to know of it They thought to be heard the rather for so doing and if the people of the Roman Church do not think so there is no reason why they should do so But without any further arguing about the business they are not asham'd to own it For the Author of the Preface to the Iesus Psalter printed by Fouler at Antwerp promises to the repetition of that sweet Name Great aid against temptations and a wonderful increase of grace Sect. IX BUt this mischief is gone further yet For as Cajetan affirms Prayers ought to be well done Saltem non malè at least not ill But besides that what we have now remark'd is so not well that it is very ill that which follows is directly bad and most intolerable For the Church of Rome in her publike and allowed offices prays to dead men and women who are or whom they suppose to be beatified and these they invocate as Preservers Helpers Guardians Deliverers in their necessity and they expresly call them their Refuge their Guard and Defence their Life and theiâ— Health Which is so formidable a Devotion that we for them and for our selves too if we should imitate them to dread the words of Scripture Cursed is the man that trusteth in man We are commanded to call upon God in the time of trouble and it is promised that he will deliver us and we shall glorifie him We finde no such command to call upon Saints neither do we know who are Saints excepting a very few and in what present state they are we cannot know nor how our prayers can come to their knowledge and yet if we did know all this it cannot be endured at all that Christians who are commanded to call upon God and upon none else and to make all our prayers through Iesus Christ and never so much as warranted to make our prayers thorough Saints departed should yet choose Saints for their particular Patrons or at all relie upon them and make prayers to them in such forms of words which are onely fit to be spoken to God prayers which have no testimouy command or promise in the Word of God and therefore which cannot be made in faith or prudent hope Neither will it be enough to say that they onely desire the Saints to pray for them for though that be of it self a matter indifferent
is publikely avowed and practis'd in the Church of Rome to rely upon the Saints Intercession and this intercession to be made valid by the Merits of the Saints We pray thee ô S. Iude the Apostle that by thy Merits thou wouldst draw me from the custom of my sins and snatch me from the power of the Devil and advance me to the invisible powers and they say as much to others And for their Satisfactions the treasure of the Church for Indulgences is made up with them and the satisfactions of Christ So that there is nothing remaining of the honour due to Christ our Redeemer and our Confidence in him but the same in very kind is by the Church of Rome imputed to the Saints And therefore the very being and Oeconomy of Christianity is destroyed by these prayers and the people are not cannot be good Christians in these devotions and what hopes are laid up for them who repent to no purpose and pray with derogation to Christs honour is a matter of deepest consideration And therefore we desire our charges not to be seduc'd by little tricks and artifices of uselesse and laborious distinctions and protestations against evidence of fact and with fear and trembling to consider what God said by the Prophet My people have done two great evils they have forsaken me fortem vivum the strong and the living God fontem vivum so some copies read it the living fountain and have digged for themselves cisterns that is little phantastick helps that hold no water that give no refreshment or As S. Paul expresses it they worship and invocate the Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the Creator so the word properly signifies and so it is us'd by the Apostle in other places And at least let us remember those excellent words of S. Austin Tulius jucundius loquar ad meum Iesum quam ad aliquem sanctorum spirituum Dei I can speak safer and more pleasantly or chearfully to my Lord Jesus than to any of the Saints and Spirits of God For that we have Commandment For this we have none for that we have example in Scriptures for this we have none there are many promises made to that but to this there is none at all and therefore we cannot in faith pray to them or at all rely upon them for helps Which consideration is greatly heightned by that prostitution of Devotion usual in the Church of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to every Upstart to every old and new Saint And although they have a story among themselves that it is ominous for a Pope to Canonize a Saint and he never survives it above a twelve-moneth as Pierre Mathieu observes in the instances of Clement the IV. and Adrian the VI. yet this hinders not but that they are tempted to do it too frequently But concerning the thing it self the best we can say is what Christ said of the Samaritans They worship they know not what Such are S. Fingare S. Anthony of Padua S. Christopher Charls Borromaeus Ignatius Loyola Xaverius and many others of whom Cardinal Bessarion complain'd that many of them were such persons whose life he could not approve and such concerning whom they knew nothing but from their parties and by pretended revelations made to particular and hypocondriacal persons It is a famous saying of S. Gregory That the bodies of many persons are worshiped on earth whose souls are tormented in Hell and Augustinus Triumphus affirms that all who are Canoniz'd by the Pope cannot be said to be in Heaven And this matter is beyond dispure for Prateolus tells that Herman the Author of the Heresie of the Fratricelli was for twenty years together after his death honour'd for a Saint but afterwards his body was taken up and burnt But then since as Ambrosius Catharinus and Vivaldus Observe if one Saint be called in question then the rest may what will become of the devotions which are paid such Saints which have been Canoniz'd within these last five Centuries Concerning whom we can have but slender evidence that they are in Heaven at all And therefore the Cardinal of Cambray Petrus de Alliaco wishes that so many new Saints were not Canoniz'd They are indeed so many that in the Church of Rome the Holidayes which are called their Greater Doubles are threescore and four besides the Feasts of Christ and our Lady and the Holidayes which they call half double Festivals together with the Sundays are above one hundred and thirty So that besides many Holidays kept in particular places there are in the whole year about two hundred Holidays if we may beleive their own Gavantus which besides that it is an intolerable burthen to the poor labourer who must keep so many of them that on the rest he can scarce earn his bread they do also turn Religion into superstition and habituate the people to idleness and disorderly Festivities and impious celebrations of the day with unchrististian merriments and licentiousness We conclude this with those words of S. Paul How shall we call on him on whom we have not believed Christ said Ye believe in God believe also in me But he never said Ye have believed in me believe also in my Saints No For there is but one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Iesus And therefore we must come to God not by Saints but onely by Jesus Christ our Lord. SECT X. THere is in the Church of Rome a horrible impity taught and practised which so far as it goes must needs destroy that part of holy life which consists in the holiness of our prayers and indeed is a conjugation of evils Of such evils of which in the whole world of Society of Christians should be least suspected we mean the infinite Superstitions and Incantations or charms us'd by their Priests in their exercising possessed persons and conjuring of Devils There was an Ecclesiastical Book called Ordo baptizandi cum modo visitandi printed at Venice A. D. 1575. In which there were damnable and diabolical charms in somuch that the Spanish Inquisitors in their Expurgatory Index printed at Madrid A. D. 1612. commanded deleatur tota exorcismus Luciferina cujus initium est Adesto Domine tui famuli that all that Luciferian Exorcism be blotted out But whoever looks into the Treasure of Exorcisms and horrible Conjurings for that is the very title of the Book printed at Colein A. D. 1608. shall finde many as horrid things and not censur'd by any Inquisitors as yet so far as we have ever read or heard Nay that very Luciferina or Devilish Exorcism is reprinted at Lyons A.D. 1614. in the institutio baptizandi which was restored by the Decree of the Council of Trent So that though it was forbidden in Spain it was allowed in France But as bad as that are allowed every where in the Church of Rome The most famous and of most publike use
Virgin and by all her names and titles which he must reckon one and forty in number together with her Epithets making so many Crosses and by these he must cast him headlong into Hell But if the Devil be stubborn for some of them are very disobedient there is a fourth and a fifth and a sixth Exorcism and then he conjures the earth the water and the fire to make them of his party and commands them not to harbour such villainous Spirits and commands Hell to hear him and obey his word and conjures at the Spirits in Hell to take that Spirit to themselves for it may be they will understand their duty better than that stubborn Devil that is broke loose from thence But if this chance to fail there is yet left a remedy that will do it He must make the picture of the Devil and write his name over the head of it and conjure the fire to burn it most horribly and hastily and if the picture be upon wood or paper it is ten to one that may be done After all this stir Sprinkle more holy water and take Sulphur Galbanum Assa foetida Aristolochia Rue S. Johns wort all which being distinctly blessed the Exorcist must hold the Devils picture over the fire and adjure the Devil to hear him and then he must not spare him but tell him all his faults and give him all his names and Anathematize him and curse not onely him but Lucifer too and Beelzebub and Satan and Astaroth and Behemot and Beherit and all together for indeed there is not one good natur'd Devil amongst them all and then pray once more and so throw the Devils picture into the fire then insult in a long form of crowing over him which is there set down And now after all if he will not go out there is a seventh Exorcism for him with new Ceremonies He must shew him the consecrated Host in the pixe pointing at it with his finger and then conjure him again and rail at him once more to which purpose there is a very fine form taken out of Prierius and set down in the Flagellum Daemonum and then let the Exorcist pronounce sentence against the Devil and give him his oath and then a commandment to go out of the several parts of his body always taking care that at no hand he remain in the upper parts and then is the Devils Qu. to come out if he have a minde to it for that must be always suppos'd and then follows the thanksgivings This is the manner of their devotion describ'd for the use of their Exorcists in which is such a heap of folly madness superstition blasphemy and ridiculous guises and playings with the Devil that if any man amongst us should use such things he would be in danger of being tried at the next Assizes for a Witch or a Conjurer however certain it is what ever the Devil looses by pretending to obey the Exorcist he gains more by this horrible debauchery of Christianity There needs no confutation of it the impiety is visible and tangible and it is sufficient to have told the story Onely this we say as to the thing it self The casting out of Devils is a miraculous power and given at first for the confirmation of Christian Faith as the gifts of Tongues and Healing were and therefore we have reason to believe that because it is not an ordinary power the ordinary Exorcisms cast out no more Devils than Extreme Unction cures sicknesses We do not envy to any one any grace of God but wish it were more modestly pretended unless it could be more evidently prov'd◠Origen condemned◠this whole procedure of conjuring Devils long since Quaeret aliquis si convenit vel Daemones adjurare Qui aspicit Iesum imperantem Daemonibus sed etiam potestatem dantem Discipulis super omnia daemonia ut infirmitates sanarent dicet quoniam non est secundum Potestatem datam â salvatore adjurare Daemonia Iudaicum enim est If any one askes Whether it be fit to adjure Devils He that beholds Jesus commanding over Devils and also giving power to his Disciples over all unclean spirits and to heal diseases will say that to adjure Devils is not according to the power given by our B. Saviour For it is a Jewish trick and S. Chrysostome spake soberly and truely We poor Wretches cannot drive away the flies much less Devils But then as to the manner of their Conjurations and Exorcisms this we say If these things come from God let them shew their warranty and their books of Precedents If they come not from God they are so like the Inchantments of Balaam the old Heathens and the modern Magicians that their Original is soon discovered But yet from what principle it comes that they have made Exorcists an Ecclesiastical Order with special words and instruments of collation and that the words of Ordination giving them power onely over possessed Christians Catechumens or Baptized should by them be extended and exercis'd upon all Infants as if they were all possessed by the Devil and not onely so but to bewitched Cattel to Mice and Locusts to Milk and Lettice to Houses and Tempests as if their Charms were Prophilactick as well as Therapeutick and could keep as well as drive the Devil out and prevent storms like the old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of whom Seneca makes mention of these things we cannot guess at any probable principle except they have deriv'd them from the Jewish Cabala or the Exorcisms which it is said Solomon us'd when he had consented to Idolatry But these things are so unlike the wisdom and simplicity the purity and spirituality of Christian devotion are so perfectly of their own devising and wilde imaginations are so full of dirty Superstitions and ignorant fancies that there are not in the world many things whose sufferance and practice can more destroy the Beauty of Holiness or reproach a Church or Society of Christians SECT XI TO put our trust and confidence in God onely and to use Ministeries of his own appointment and sanctification is so essential a duty owing by us to God that whoever trusts in any thing but God is a breaker of the first commandement and he that invents instrumental supports of his own head and puts a subordinate ministerial confidence in them usurps the rights of God and does not pursue the interests of true Religion whose very essence and formality is to glorify God in all his attributes and to do good to man and to advance the honour and Kingdome of Christ. Now how greatly the Church of Rome prevaricates in this great soul of Religion appears by too evident and notorious demonstration For she hath invented Sacramentals of her own without a Divine warrant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said S. Cyril Concerning the holy and Divine mysteries of Faith or Religion we ought to do nothing by chance or of our own heads nothing without
the Authority of the Divine Scriptures But the Church of Rome does otherwise invents things of her own and imputes spiritual effects to and men are taught to go in wayes which Superstition hath invented and Interest does support But there is yet one great instance more of this irreligion Upon the Sacraments themselves they are taught to rely with so little of Moral and Vertuous Dispositions that the efficacy of one is made to lessen the necessity of the other and the Sacraments are taught to be so effectual by an inherent vertue that they are not so much made the instruments of Vertue as the Suppletory not so much to increase as to make amends for the want of Grace On which we shall not now insist because it is sufficiently remar'kd in our reproof of the Roman Doctrines in the matter of repentance SECT XII AFter all this if their Doctrines as they are explicated by their practice and the Commentaries of their greatest Doctors do make their Disciples guilty of Idolatry there is not any thing greater to deter men from them than that danger to their Souls which is imminent over them upon that account Their worshipping of Images we have already reprov'd upon the account of its novelty and innovation in Christian Religionâ— But that it is against good life a direct breach of the second Commandment an Act of Idolatry as much as the Heathens themselves were guilty of in relation to the second Commandmant is but too evident by the Doctrines of their own Leaders For if to give Divine honour to a Creature be Idolatry then the Doctors of the Church of Rome teach their people to commit Idolatry For they affirm That the same worship which is given to the Prototype or Principal the same is to be given to the image of it As we worship the Holy Trinity and Christ so we may worship the Images of the Trinity and of Christ that isâ— with Latriâ— or Divine honour This is the constant sentence of the Divines The Image is to be worshipped with the same honour and worship with which we worship those whose Image it is said Azorius their great Master of Casuistical Theology And this is the Doctrine of their great S. Thomas of Alexander of Ales Bonaventure Albertus Richardus Capreolus Cajetan Coster Valentia Vasquez the Jesuits of Colein Triers and Meniz approving Costers opinion Neither can this be eluded by saying that though the same Worship be given to the Image of Christ as to Christ himself yet it is not done in the same way for it is terminatively to Christ or God but relatively to the Image that is to the Image for God's or Christ's sake For this is that we complain of that they give the same worship to an image which is due to God for what cause soever it be done it matters not save onely that the excuse makes it in some sense the worse for the Apology For to do a thing which God hath forbidden and to say it is done for God's sake is to say that for his sake we displease him for his sake we give that to a Creature which is God's own propriety But besides this we affirm and it is of it self evident that whoever Christian or Heathen worships the image of any thing cannot possibly worship that image terminatively for the very being of an image is relative and therefore if the man understands but common sense he must suppose and intend that worship to be relative and a Heathen could not worship an image with any other worship and the second Commandment forbidding to worship the likeness of any thing in Heaven and earth does onely forbid that thing which is in Heaven to be worshipped by an image that is it forbids onely a relative worship For it is a contradiction to say this is the image of God and yet this is God and therefore it must be also a contradiction to worship an image with Divine worship terminatively for then it must be that the image of a thing is that thing whose image it is And therefore these Doctors teach the same thing which they condemn in the Heathens But they go yet a little further The Image of the Cross they worship with Divine honour and therefore although this Divine worship is but relative yet consequently the Cross it self is worshipped terminatively by Divine adoration For the Image of the Cross hath it relatively and for the Crosses sake therefore the Cross it self is the proper and full object of the Divine adoration Now that they do and teach this we charge upon them by undeniable Records For in the very Pontifical published by the Authority of Pope Clement the VIII these words are found The Legats Cross must be on the right hand because Latria or Divine honour is due to it And if Divine honour relative be due to the Logates Cross which is but the Image of Christs Cross then this Divine worship is terminated on Christs Cross which is certainly but a meer Creature To this purpose are the words of Almaiâ— The Images of the Trinity and of Christ and of the Cross are to be adored with the worship of Latria that is Divine Now if the Image of the Cross be the intermedial then the Cross it self whose Image that is must be the last object of this Divine worship and if this be not Idolatry it can never be told what is the notion of the Word But this passes also into other real effects And well may the Cross it self be worshipped by Divine worship when the Church places her hopes of salvation on the Cross for so she does says Aquinas and makes one the argument of the other and proves that the Church places her hopes of salvation on the Cross that is on the instrument of Christs Passion by a hymn which she uses in her Offices but this thing we have remark'd above upon another occasion Now although things are brought to a very ill state when Christians are so probably and apparently charg'd with Idolatry and that the excuses are too fine to be understood by them that need them yet no excuse can acquit these things when the most that is or can be said is this that although that which is Gods due is given to a Creature yet it is given with some difference of intention and Metaphysical abstraction and separation especially since if there can be Idolatry in the worshipping of an Image it is certain that a relative Divine worship is this Idolatry for no mau that worships an Image in that consideration or formality can make the Image the last object Either therefore the Heathens were not Idolaters in the worshipping of an Image or else these mâ—n are The Heathens did indeed infinitely more violaâ—e the first Commandment but against the second precisely and separately from the first the transgression is alike The same also is the case in their worshipping the consecrated Bread and Wine Of which how far they will
be excused before God by their ignorant pretensions and suppositions we know not but they hope to save themselves harmless by saying that they believe the Bread to be their Saviour and that if they did not believe so they would not do so We believe that they say true but we are afraid that this will no more excuse them then it will excuse those who worship the Sun and Moon and the Queen of Heaven whom they would not worship if they did not believe to have Divinity in them And it may be observed That they are very fond of that persuasion by which they are led into this worship The error might be some excuse if it were probable or if there were much temptation to it But when they choose this persuasion and have nothing for it but a tropical expression of Scripture which rather than not believe in the natural useless and impossible sense they will defie all their own reason and four of the five operations of their soul Seeing Smelling Tasting and Feeling and contradict the plain Doctrine of the Ancient Church before they can consent to believe this error that Bread is changed into God and the Priest can make his Maker We have too much cause to fear that the error is too gross to admit an excuse and it is hard to suppose it invincible and involuntary because it is so hard and so untempting and so unnatural to admit the error We do desire that God may finde an excuse for it and that they would not But this we are most sure of that they might if they pleas'd finde many excuses or rather just causes for not giving Divine honour to the Consecrated Elements because there are so many contingencies in the whole conduct of this affair and we are so uncertain of the Priests intention and we can never be made certain that there is not in the whole order of causes any invalidity in the Consecration and it is so impossible that any man should be sure that Hâ—re and Now and This Bread is Transubstantiated and is really the Natural body of Christ that it were fit to omit the giving Gods due to that which they do not know to be any thing but a piece of bread and it cannot consist with holiness and our duty to God certainly to give Divine Worship to that thing which though their Doctrine were true they cannot know certainly to have a Divine Being SECT XIII AND now we shall plainly represent to our charges how this whole matter stands The case is this The Religion of a Christian consists in Faith and Hope Repentance and Charity Divine Worship and Celebration of the Sacraments and finally in keeping the Commandments of God Now in all these both in Doctrines and practices the Church of Rome does dangerously erre and teaches men so to do They do injury to Faith by creating new Articles and enjoyning them as of necessity to salvation * They spoil their hope by placing it upon Creatures and devices of their own * They greatly sin against Charity by damning all that are not of their opinion in things false or uncertain right or wrong * They break in pieces the salutary Doctrine of Repentance making it to be consistent with a wicked life and little or no amendment * They Worship they know not what and pray to them that hear them not and trust on that which helps them not * And as for the Commandments they leave one of them out of their Catechisms and Manuals and while they contend earnestly against some Opponents for the possibility of keeping them all they do not insist upon the necessity of keeping any in the course of their lives till the danger or article of their death * And concerning the Sacraments they have egregiously prevaricated in two points For not to mention their reckoning of seven Sacraments which we only reckon to be an unnecessary and un-Scholastical Errour they take the one half of the Principal away from the Laity and they institute little Sacraments of their own they invent Rites and annex Spiritual Graces to them whaâ— they please themselves of their own heads without a Divine Warrant or Institution and * At last perswade their people to that which can never be excus'd at least from Material Idolatry If these things can consist with the duty of Christians not only to eat what they worship but to adore those things with Divine Worship which are not God To reconcile a wicked life with certain hopes and expectations of Heaven at last and to place these hopes upon other things than God and to damn all the world that are not Christians at this rate then we have lost the true measures of Christianity and the Doctrine and Discipline of Christ is not a Natural and Rational Religion not a Religion that makes men holy but a Confederacy under the conduct of a Sect and it must rest in Forms and Ceremonies and Devices of Mans Invention And although we do not doubt but that the goodness of God does so prevail over all the follies and malice of mankind that there are in the Roman Communion many very good Christians yet they are not such as they are Papists but by some thing that is higher and before that something that is of an abstract and more sublime consideration And though the good people amongst them are what they are by the grace and goodness of God yet by all or any of these Opinions they are not so But the very best suffer diminution and allay by these things and very many more are wholly subverted and destroyed CHAP. III. The Church of Rome teaches Doctrines which in many things are destructive of Christian Society in general and of Monarchy in special Both which the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland does by Her Doctrines greatly and Christianly support SECT I. THat in the Church of Rome it is publickly taught by their greatest Doctors That it is lawful to lye or deceive the question of the Magistrate to conceal their name and to tell a false one to elude all examinations and make them insignificant and toothless cannot be doubted by any man that knows how the English Priests have behav'd themselves in the times of Queen Elizabeth King Iames and the Blessed Martyr King Charles I. Emonerius wrote in defence of it and Father Barnes who wrote a Book against Lying and Equivocating was suspected for a Heretick and smarted severely under their hands To him that askes you again for what you have paid him already you may safely say you never had any thing of him meaning so as to owe it him now It is the Doctrine of Emanuel SÃ and Sanchez which we understand to be a great lye and a great sin it being at the best a deceiving of the Law that you be not deceiv'd by your Creditor that is a doing evil to prevent one a sin to prevent the losing of your money If a man askes his Wife
if she be an Adulteress though she be yet she may say she is not if in her mind secretly she say not with a purpose to tell you so Cardinal Tolet teaches And if a man swears he will take such a one to his Wife being compelled to swear he may secretly mean if hereafter she do please me And if a man swears to a Thief that he will give him Twenty Crown he may secretly say If I please to do so and then he is not bound And of this Doctrine Vasquez brags as of a rare though new invention saying it is gathered out of St. Austin and Thomas Aquinas who onely found out the way of saying nothing in such cases and questions ask'd by Judges but this invention was drawn out by assiduous disputations * He that promises to say an Ave Mary and swears he will or vows to do it yet sins not mortally though he does not do it said the great Navar and others whom he follows * There is yet a further degree of this iniquity not onely in words but in real actions it is lawful to deceive or rob your Brother when to do so is necessary for the preservation of your fame For no man is bound to restore stollen goods that 't is to cease from doing injury with the peril of his Credit So Navar and Cardinal Cajetan and Tolet teaches who adds also Hoc multi dicunt quorum sententiam potest quis tutâ conscientiâ sequi Many say the same thing whose Doctrine any man may follow with a safe Conscience Nay to save a mans credit an honest man that is asham'd to beg may steal what is necessary for him sayes Diana Now by these Doctrines a man is taught to be an honest Thief and to keep what he is bound to restore and by these we may not only deceive our Brother but the Law and not the Law only but God also even with an Oath if the matter be but small It never makes God angry with you or puts you out of the state of grace But if the matter be great yet to prevent a great trouble to your self you may conceal a truth by saying that which is false according to the general Doctrine of the late Casuists So that a man is bound to keep truth and honesty when it is for his turn but not if it be to his own hinderance and therefore David was not in the right but was something too nice in the resolution of the like case in the fifteenth Psalm Now although we do not affirm that these Particulars are the Doctrine of the whole Church of Rome because little things and of this nature never are considered in their publick Articles of Confession yet a man may do these vile things for so we understand them to be and find justifications and warranty and shall not be affrighted with the terrours of damnation nor the imposition of penances He may for all these things be a good Catholick though it may be not a very good Christian. But since these things are affirm'd by so many the opinion is probable and the practice safe saith Cardinal Tolet. But we shall instance in things of more publick concern Catholick Authority No Contracts Leagues Societies Promises Vows or Oaths are a sufficient security to him that deals with one of the Church of Rome if he shall please to make use of that liberty which may and many times is and alwayes can be granted to him For first it is affirmed and was practis'd by a whole Council of Bishops at Constance that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks and Iohn Hus and Hâ—erom of Prague and Savanarola felt the mischief of violation of publick Faith and the same thing was disputed fiercely at worms in the case of Luther to whom Caesar had given a safe conduct and very many would have had it to be broken but Caesar was a better Christian than the Ecclesiasticks and their Party and more a Gentleman But that no scrupulous Princes may keep their words any more in such cases or think themselves tyed to perform their safe conducts given to Hereticks there is a way found out by a new Catholick Doctrine Becanus shall speak this point instead of the rest There are two distinct Tribunals and the Ecclesiastical is the Superiour and therefore if a Secular Prince gives his Subjects a safe conduct he cannot extend it to the Superiour Tribunal nor by any security given hinder the Bishop or the Pope to exercise their jurisdiction And upon the account of this or the like Doctrine the Pope and the other Ecclesiasticks did prevail at Constance for the burning of their Prisoners to whom safe conduct had been granted But these things are sufficiently known by the complaints of the injur'd persons But not onely to Hereticks but to our Friends also we may break our Promises if the Pope give us leave It is a publick and an avowed Doctrine That if a man have taken an Oath of a thing lawful and honest and in his power yet if it hinders him from doing a greater good the Pope can dispense with his Oath and take off the Obligation This is expresly affirm'd by one of the most moderate of them Canus Bishop of the Canaries But beyond dispute and even without a dispensation they all of them own it That if a man have promised to a woman to marry her and is betrothed to her and hath sworn it yet if he will before the consummation enter into a Monastery his Oath shall not bind him his promise is null but his second promise that shall stand And he that denies this is accursed by the Council of Trent Not only Husbands and Wives espoused may break their Vows and mutual Obligation against the will of one another but in the Church of Rome Children have leave given them to disobey their Parents so they will but turn Friers And this they might do Girls at twelve and Boyes at the age of fourteen years but the Council of Trent enlarged it to sixteen But the thing was taught and decreed by Pope Clement the III. and Thomas Aquinas did so and then it was made lawful by him and his Schollars though it was expresly against the Doctrine and Laws of the preceding ages of the Church as appears in the Capitulars of Charles the Great But thus did the Pharisees teach their Children to cry Corban and neglect their Parents to pretend Religion in prejudice of filial piety In this particular AEâ—odius a French Lawyer an excellently learned man suffered sadly by the loss and forcing of a hopeful Son from him and he complain'd most excellently in a Book written on purpose upon this subject But these mischiefs are Doctrinal and accounted lawful But in the matter of Marriages and Contracts Promises and Vows where a Doctrine fails it can be supplied by the Popes power Which thing is avowed and own'd without a cover For when Pope
Clement the V. condemn'd the Order oâ— Knights Templers he disown'd any justice or right in doing it but stuck to his power Quanquam de jure non possumus tamen ex plenitudine potestatis dictum ordinem reprobamus that is though by right we cannot do it yet by the fullness of power we condemn the said Order For he can dispense alwayes and in all things where there is cause and in many things where there is no cause fed sub majori pretio under a greater price said the Tax of the Datary where the price of the several dispensations even in causa turpi in base and filthy causes are set down Intranti nummo quasi quodam Principe summo Exiliunt valvae nihil auditur nisi salve Nay the Pope can dispense supra jus contra jus above Law and against Law and right said Mosconius in his Books of the Majesty of the Militant Church For the Popes Tribunal and Gods is but one and therefore every reasonable Creature is subject to the Popes Empire said the same Author And what Dispensations he usually gives we are best inform'd by a gloss of their own upon the Canon Law Nota mirabile quod cum eo qui peccat Dispensatur cum illo autem qui non peccat non Dispensatur It is a wonderful thing that they should dispense with a Fornicator but not with him who marries after the death of his first Wife * They give Divorces for Marriages the fourth degree and give Dispensation to Marry in the second These things are a sufficient charge and yet evidently so and publickly owned We need not aggravate this matter by what Panormitan and others do say that the Pope hath power to dispense in all the Laws of God except the Articles of Faith and how much of this they own and practice needs no greater instance than that which Volaterran tells of Pope Innocent the VIII that he gave the Norvegians a Dispensation not only to communicate but to consecrate in Bread only As the Pope by his Dispensations undertakes to dissolve the Ordinances of God so also the most solemn Contracts of Men Of which a very great instance was given by Pope Clement the VII who dispensed with the Oath which Francis the I. of France solemnly swore to Charles the V. Emperour after the battel of Paâ—y and gave him leave to be perjur'd And one of the late Popes dispenc'd with the Bastard Son of the Conde D' Olivarez or rather plainly dissolv'd his Marriage which he made and consummated with Isabella D' Azueta whom he had publickly Married when he was but a mean person the Son of Donna Marguerita Spinola and under the name of Iulian Vaâ—easar But when the Conde had declar'd him his Son and Heir the Pope dissolv'd the first Marriage and gave him leave under the name of Henry Philip de Guzman to Marry D. Iuana de Valesco Daughter to the Constable of Castile And now if it be considered what influence these Doctrines have upon Societies and Communities of Men they will need no further reproof than a meer enumeration of the mischiefs they produce They by this means legitimate adulterous and incestuous Marriages and disanul lawful Contracts They give leave to a Spouse to break his or her Vow and Promise and to Children to disobey their Parents and perhaps to break their Mothers heart or to undo a Family No words can bind your Faith because you can be dispenc'd with and if you swear you will not procure a Dispensation you can as well be dispenc'd with for that Perjury as the other and you cannot be tied so fast but the Pope can unloose you So that there is no certainty in your Promise to God or Faith to Men in Judicatories to Magistrates or in Contracts with Merchants in the Duty of Children to their Parents of Husbands to their Wives or Wives to their contracted Husbands of a Catholick to a Heretick and last of all a Subject to his Prince cannot be bound so strictly but if the Prince be not of the Popes persuasion or be by him judg'd a Tyrant his Subjects shall owe him no Obedience But this is of particular consideration and reserv'd for the III. Sect. SECT II. THere is yet another instance by which the Church of Rome does intollerable prejudice to Governments and Societies In which although the Impiety is not so apparent yet the Evil is more own'd and notorious and defended and that is the Exemption of their Clergy from the Jurisdiction of Secular Princes and Magistrates both in their Estates and Persons Not onely in the matters of Simony Heresie and Apostasie but in matters of Theft Perjury Murther Adultery Blasphemy and Treason In which Cases they suffer not a Clergy-man to be judged by the Secular Power untill the Church hath quit him and turn'd him over and given them leave too proceed This was verified in the Synod of Dalmatia held by the Legats of Pope Innocent the III. and is now in the Church of Rome pretended to be by Divine Right For it cannot be proved that Secular Princes are the Lawful Superiours and Iudges of Clergy-men unless it can be prov'd that the Sheep are better than the Shepherd or Soxs than their Fathers or Temporals than Spirituals said Bellarmine And therefore it is a shame sayes he to see Princes contending with Bishops for Precedency or for Lands For the truth is this what ever the custom be the Prince is the Bishops Subject not the Bishop the Princes For no man can serve two Masters the Pope is their own Superiour and therefore the Secular Prince cannot be So both Bellarmine and Suarez conclude this Doctrine out of Scripture And although in this as in all things else when he finds it for the advantage of the Church the Pope can dispense and divers Popes of Rome did give power to the Common-wealth of Venice to judge Clergy-men and punish them for great Offences yet how ill this was taken by Paulus V. at their hands and what stirrs he made in Christendome concerning it the World was witness and it is to be read in the History of the Venetian Interdict and not without great difficulty defended by Marcus Antonius Peregrinus M. Antonius Othelius and Ioachim Scaynus of Padua beside the Doctors of Venice Now if it be considered how great a part of mankind in the Roman Communion are Clergy-men and how great a portion of the Lands and Revenues in each Kingdom they have to pretend a Divine Right of Exemption of their Persons from Secular Judicatories and their Lands from Secular burthens and charges of the Common-wealth is to make Religion a very little friend to the Publick and Causes that by how much there is more of Religion by so much there is the less of Piety and Publick Duty Princes have many times felt the Evil and are alwayes subject to it when so many thousand persons are in their Kingdoms
and yet Subjects to a Forreign Power But we need not trouble our selves to reckon the Evills consequent to this Procedure themselves have own'd them even the very worst of things The Rebellion of a Clergy-man against his Prince is not Treason because he is not his Princes Subject It is expresly taught by Emanuel SÃ and because the French-men in zeal to their own King could not endure this Doctrine these words were left out of the Edition of Paris but still remain in the Editions of Antwerp and Colien But the thing is a general Rule That all Ecclesiastical persons are free from Secular Iurisdiction in causes Criminal whether Civil or Ecclesiastical and this Rule is so general that it admits no exception and so certain that it cannot be denied unless you will contradict the Principles of Faith So Father Suarez And this is pretended to be allowed by Councills Sacred Canons and all the Doctors of Laws Humane and Divine for so Bellarmine affirms Against which since it is a matter of Faith and Doctrine which we now charge upon the Church of Rome as an Enemy to publick Government we shall think it sufficient to oppose against their Pretension the plain and easie words of St. Paul Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers Every soul That is saith St. Chrysostome whether he be a Monk or an Evangelist a Prophet or an Apostle Of the like iniquity when it is extended to its uâ—most Commentary which the Commenters of the Church of Rome put upon it is the Divine Right of the Seal of Consession which they make so Sacred to serve such ends as they have chosen that it may not be broken up to save the lives of Princes or of the whole Republick saith Tolet No not to save all the World said Henriquez Not to save an Innocent not to keep the World from burning or Religion from perversion or all the Sacraments from demolition Indeed it is lawful saith Bellarmine if a Treason be known to a Priest in Confession and he may in general words give notice to a pious and Catholick Prince but not to a Heretick and that was acutely and prudently said by him said Father Suarez Father Binet is not so kind even to the Catholick Princes for he sayes that it is better that all the Kings of the World should perish than that the Seal of Confession should be so much as once broken and this is the Catholick Doctrine said Eudaemon Iohannes in his Apology for Garnet and for it he also quotes Suarez But it is enough to have nam'd this How little care these men take of the lives of Princes and the Publick Interest which they so greatly undervalue to every trifling fancy of their own is but too evident by these Doctrines SECT III. THe last thing we shall remark for the instruction and caution of our charges is not the least The Doctrines of the Church of Rome are great Enemies to the dignity and security to the powers and lives of Princes And this we shall briefly prove by setting down the Doctrines themselves and their consequent Practises And here we observe that not onely the whole Order of Jesuites is a great Enemy to Monarchy by subjecting the Dignity of Princes to the Pope by making the Pope the Supreme Monarch of Christians but they also teach that it is a Catholick Doctrine the Doctrine of the Church The Pope hath a Supreme Power of disposing the Temporal things of all Christians in order to a Spiritual good saith Bellarmine And Becanus discourses of this very largely in his Book of the English Controversie Printed by Albin at Mentz 1612. But because this Book was order'd to be purg'd una litura potest we shall not insist upon it but there is as bad which was never censur'd Bellarmine sayes that the Ecclesiastical Republick can command and compel the Temporal which is indeed its Subject to change the Administration and to depose Princes and to appoint others when it cannot otherwise defend the Spiritual good And F. Suarez sayes the same The power of the Pope extends it self to the coercion of Kings with Temporal punishments and depriving them of their Kingdoms when necessity requires nay this power is more necessary over Princes than over Subjects The same also is taught by Santarel in his Book of Heresie and Schism printed at Rome 1626. But the mischief of this Doctrine proceeds a little further Cardinal Tolet affirms and our Countryman Father Bridgewater commends the saying That when a Prince is excommunicate before the Denunciation the Subjects are not absolved from their Oath of Allegiance as Cajetan sayes well yet when it is denounc'd they are not only absolved from their obedience but are bound not to obey unless the fear of death or loss of goods excuse them which was the case of the English Catholicks in the time of Henry the VIII And F. Creswel sayes it is the sentence of all Catholicks that Subjects are bound to expel Heretical Princes if they have strength enough and that to this they are tyed by the Commandment of God the most strict tie of Conscience and the extreme danger of their Souls Nay even before the sentence is declar'd though the Subjects are not bound to it yet lawfully they may deny obedience to an Heretical Prince said Gregory de Valentia It were an endless labour to transcribe the horrible Doctrines which are preach'd in the Jesuits School to the shaking of the Regal power of such Princes which are not of the Roman Communion The whole Oeconomy of it is well describ'd by Bellarmine who affirms That it does not belong to Monks or other Ecclesiasticks to commit Murthers neither doe the Popes use to proceed that way But their manner is first Fatherly to correct Princes then by Ecclesiastical Censures to deprive them of the Communion then to absolve their Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance and to deprive them of their Kingly Dignity And what then The execution belongs to others This is the way of the Popes thus wisely and moderately to break Kings in pieces We delight not to aggravate evill things We therefore forbear to set down those horrid things spoken by SÃ Mariana Santarel Carolus Scribanius and some others It is enough that Suarez sayes An Excommunicate King may with impunity be depos'd or kill'd by any one This is the case of Kings and Princes by the Sentence of the chiefest Roman Doctors And if it be objected That we are commanded to obey Kings not to speak evill of them not to curse them no not in our heart there is a way found out to answer these little things For though the Apostle commands that we should be subject to higher Powers and obey Kings and all that are in Authority It is true you must and so you may well enough for all this for the Pope can make that he who is a King