had opinions different from others separate themselves from them but remained in the Communion and Unity of the same Church with those from whom they differed That is to say they waited till the Church should have decided the difference and after he had resumed a little of what he had formerly said he concludes thus If then the Church was lost for holding that the Baptism of Hereticks was good they cannot shew the Original of their Communion But if the true Church did still subsist they cannot justifie their Separation nor the Schism that they have made One may say all this against the Waldenses the Lutherans the Calvinists and the other Hereticks who cannot mount higher than to Waldo to Luther to Calvin or their other Heads This Method of S. Austin's is most excellent But if our Brethren the pretended Reformed will defend themselves by saying as in effect they do say in some of their Books That it was not they who made the Separation but rather that it came from us and that we have cut them off from our Communion To this it must be answered That there are two sorts of Sâ—paration the one is Criminal the other is Iudicial In the first one separates himself from his Pastor by a manifest Disobedience in the second the Pastor separates him from the Flock who is making a party and refuses to submit to the Orders of the Church The one is a Sin and the other is the Punishment The one is a voluntary departure the other is the being cut off by a Sâ—ntence even as the Iudge pronounces a Sentence of Condemnation against one that has killed himself The proof of those two different Separations is to be found in the Thirty eighth Letter of S. Cyprians where he speaks of one Augendus who had gone over to the party of Felicissimus the Deacon and it appears that that great Saint had suspended and excommunicated him for having withdrawn himself from his Obedience and for having engaged others in the same Separation Let every one says he that has folfollowed his Opinions and Faction know that he shall communicate no more with us in the Church since of his own accord he has chosen to be separated from the Church In his Seventy sixth Epistle he says the same thing of Novatian and those who had joyned with him in his Revolt Because they leaving the Church by their Rebellion and breaking the Peace and Unity of Jesus Christ have endeavoured to establish their authority and to assume a Supreme Jurisdiction to themselves and to usurp power to Baptize and to offer Sacrifice This Distinction is also clearly stated in the fourth Action of the Council of Chalcedon where those two Ancient Canons of the Council of Antioch that were drawn out of Canons of the Apostles were cited The first is concerning those that were separated the other is concerning those who of their own accord did separate themselves The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was thought proper for this purpose to transcribe here those two Canons which are the fundamental Laws of the practice of the Church with regard to Hereticks and Schismaticks whom she throws out of her bosome and who have separated themselves from her These Canons are the Fourth and Fifth of the Council of Antioch and the Twenty seventh and Thirtieth of the Apostolick Canons and the pretended Reformed cannot reject their Authority since they observe among themselves the same Discipline when any particular persons whether Ministers or others of their Communion will not submit to the Decisions of their Synods Remarks 1. FOr the first branch of this Method the Reformed are not at all concerned in it for they do not deny the Church of Rome to be still a True Church and that her Baptism and Ordinations are valid and that they are not to be repeated and therefore though it was very pertinent to urge the Donatists as S. Austin did who held that the Sacraments in an ill mans hands had no vertue at all and that the Church had every where failed so that there was no Church but that which was among them Yet all this is foreign to the state of the Controversie between us and the Church of Rome and we do freely acknowledge that in such a matter as the Re-baptizing Hereticks it had been a very great sin to have broken Communion with the rest of the Church 2. Yet upon this very head P. Sâ—ephen did excommunicate S. Cyprian who yet for all that did not depart from his former opinion or practice So here was such a Schism as they object to us S. Cyprian thought the Rebaptizing Hereticks was well grounded Stephen thought otherwise and did excommunicate him If upon that a lasting Schism had followed in the Church S. Cyprian might have been held the fountain of it by those who condemned his opinion but if his opinion was true he could be no Schismatick So we desire the grounds of our Separation may be examined if they will not bear such a Superstructure we confess we deserve the severest censures possible but if they are solid then the guilt of the rent that is in the Church must lie somewhere else than on us 3. We do not deny but there are two sorts of Separation which are here very well distinguished and without seeking for any proof in so clear a matter We confess that when any separates himself from the Church upon any unjustifiable account those Canons and the highest severities of Church-censures ought to be applied â—o them but all this is upon supposition that the departure is ill grounded and therefore all those Rules that have been â—aid down in general against Heresie and Schism must still suppose the Church to â—e pure and uncorrupted 4. It is plain by these very Canons how much that power of the Church may be and was abused The Council of Antioch being composed of the favourers of Arius deposed Athanasius and resolved to silence him and such other Church-men as receiv'd the Nicene Doctrine in such a manner that they should be no more able to withstand their designs And therefore they made those Canons according to former customes which in the stile of that Age was called the Canon or Rule for none that has considered things will believe that the Canons that are called Apostolical were made by the Apostles and their chief design was levelled against Athanasius and the Orthodox party But at that same time as the Orthodox in the East did not submit to this so neiâ—her did the Bishops 〈◊〉 the West take any notice of it anâ— Chrysostome who was bred up at Aâ—tioch and so could not but know in what esteem those Canons were held did not look on himself as bound by them anâ— made no account of them when they were objected to him Thus though iâ— general these are gooâ— Rules and such aâ— ought to be obeyed where the Synod or the Bishop do not abuse their power yet
man to forsake that Communion The Twelfth Method IS both very short and very easie It is to catch them in this Dilemma Before Wickliff Luther and Calvin and one may say as much of the Waldenses that lived in the Twelâ—â—h Century the Church of those of the P R. Religion was either made up of a little number of the Faithful or was not at all in being If it was not at all in being then theirs is a False Church since it is not perpetual as the True Church ought to be according to the promise of Iesus Christ The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her and I am with you even to the end of the World If their Church was in being it must have been according to their own principles Corrupted and Impious Because they cannot shew that little number of the pretended Faithful who before the Reformation did condemn as they now do all the Assemblies of the Popish Churches as over-run with Idolatry and Superstition They behaved themselves at least as to outward appearance as others did And thus their Church which was composed of that small unknown flock was not Holy and by consequence was not the True Church Remarks 1. TO the greatest part of this answer has been already given We acknowledge the Church of Rome was a True Church and had in it the means of Salvation though it was over-run with Errours and Christ is truly with his Church as long as those means of Salvation do remain in it So was the Iewish Church a True Church after she was in many points corrupted in her Doctrine 2. In those dark Ages many might have kept themselves free from the defilements of their Worship though no account is given of them in story So seven thousand had not bowed their knees to Baal in Elijah's time who were not so much as known to that Prophet though it might have been expected that they would all have willingly discovered themselves to him And since he knew nothing of them it is very probable they concealed themselves with great care from all others 3. All good men have not all the degrees of Illumination for there might have been great numbers that saw the corruptions of their Church but were so restrained by other opinions concerning the Unity of the Church that they thought it enough to infuse their notions into some few Disciples in whom they confided and on some perhaps that which Elisha said to Naaman the Syrian being wrong understood by them had great influence Others observing that the Apostles continued to worship at the Temple and offer Sacrifices which S. Paul and those with him that purified themselves must have done might have from that inferred that one might comply in a Worship though they disliked many things in it which if I am not much misinformed is a Maxime that governs many in the Roman Communion to this day I do not excuse this compliance but it is not so criminal as at first view it may appear to be If it is truly founded on a mistake of the mind and not on a baseness in the will or a rejecting of the Cross of Christ especially in men that had so faint a twilight as that was which they were guided by in those blind times 4. But to make the worst of this that can be and should we grant that through fear they had complied against their Consciences this only must make the conclusion terrible to them if they did not repent of it But God might have ordered the conveyance of truth to be handed down by such defiled hands and their not being personally holy must not be urged too far to prove that they could not be the true Church This will come too near the Doctrines of the Donatists and many of S. Austin's sayings which they unreasonably object to us may be turned upon them And it will very ill become a Church that acknowledges the Succession of the Bishop of Rome to have been the chief conveyance of Tradition which is a much greater matter in their principles than it is in ours to urge the Holiness of the Members to be essential to the being of a Church when it is acknowledged what a sort of men the Heads of their Church have been for diverse Ages The Thirteenth Method IS taken from the nature of Schism which one ought never to make what reasons soever may be pretended for it for according to the Minister â—hemselves no other reason can be given for their Separation but the Errours which they pretend had crept into the Church But those who were in it as well as thâ—y were did strongly assert as we do to this day that these were no Errours at all but Truths And it is certain that of opinions which are so different the one must be the true Doctrine and the other must be Errour and falshood and by consequence the one must be the good grain and the other must be the Tares Now it does not belong to particular persons by their private authority to pluck up that which they pretend to be Tares There is none but God who is the true Father of the Family that has this authority and can communicate it to others It is he who appoints the Reapers that is the Pope and the Bishops who are represented by the Angels to separate the Cockle from the Wheat and to pluck out the one without touching the other till the time of Harvest that is in a Council or by the common consent of the whole Church and in that case a Council is not necessary Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up But he said Nay lest while ye gather up the Tares ye root up also the Wheat with them let both grow together until the Harvest Therefore one ought never to sâ—parate upon what pretence soever it be but he must bear with that which he thinks is an abuse and errour and stay till the Church plucks up the Cockle This is one of the Methods of S. Austin in his Treatises against the Donatists in which he shews from the Examples of Moses Aaron Samuel David Isaiah Jeremy S. Paul who tolerated even the false Apostles that we ought never to separate from our Brethren before the solemn condemnation of the Church He says pursâ—ant to this that the Donatists were intolerably wicked for having made a Schism for having erected an Altaâ— against an Altar and for having separated themselves from the Inheritance of Jesus Christ which is stretched ouâ— over all the Earth according to the promise that was made to it He addâ— that if they thought that was but a smâ—â— matter they had nothing to do but to sâ— what the Scripture teaches us by the examples we find in it of the punishment of sâ— great a crime for says he Those that made an Idol of the Golden Calf were only punished by the Sword whereas those who made the Schism were swallowed
THE LETTER Writ by the last Assembly General OF THE Clergy of France TO THE PROTESTANTS Inviting them to return to their Communion TOGETHER With the Methods proposed by them for their Conviction Translated into English and Examined By GILBERT BURNET D. D. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-yard M DC LXXXIII THE PREFACE THE fate of most that Answer any particular Book or Treatise is such that one may be justly discouraged from undertaking it For besides the great trouble the Answerer is put to in following his Author in all his Digressions and perhaps Impertinences and the small game he is often engaged in about some ill-sounding expression or some misunderstood period the issue of the whole business in matters of Controversies comes at best to this That it may be confest his Adversary has been too unwary in some assertions or unconcluding in some of his Arguments But still men retain their old perswasions And if one whom they had set up for their Champion should happen to be baffled they will only say that they mistook their man and be being made quit the Stage another is set in his room So that at most their engagement proves to be of the nature of a single Combate in the issue of which only two Individuals and not two Parties are concerned But when a whole Body speaks in one Voice here the undertaking of a single person in opposition to them may be thought indeed too hardy and bold but yet the debate becomes of more consequence at least to the one side because the Credit of those against whom he writes is so well established that a satisfactory Answer to what they offer as the strength of their cause must needs have great effect on these who examine those matters Critically and judge of them Impartially The World hath been filled with the noise of the Conversions lately made in France but it has been generally given out that the violences of Monsieur de Marilliac and the Souldiers and the Payments dispensed by Monsieur Pellisson have been the most prevailing Arguments hitherto made use of That Great King has indeed interposed in this matter with a Zeal that if it were well directed might well become one who reckons these to be his most esteemed Titles that he is the Most Christian King and the Eldest Son of the Church But amidst all this noise of Conversions we have heard more of the Temporal than Spiritual Sword and except in the violences and out-rages of some of the Clergy we have not heard much of any share they have had in this matter It is true the Celebrated Explication of their Faith written some years ago by the then Bishop of Condom now of Meaâ—x has made a great shew and most of the Conversions are esteemed the effects of that Book And the eminent Vertues of the Author joined with that great gentleness by which he insinuates himself much into the Hearts of all those that come near him have perhaps really wrought much on some whose Consciences were by other motives disposed to be very easily perswaded Soft words and good periods have also had some weight with superficial Enquirers But that Explication of his which may be well called a good Plea managed with much Skill and great Eloquence for a bad cause has been so often and so judiciously answered that I am confident such as have considered these Answers are no more in danger of being blinded with that dust which he has so ingeniously raised For it must be confessed That his Book deserves all the commendations that can be given it for every thing except the sincerity of it which I am sorry to say it is not of a piece with the other excellent qualities of that great Prelate But now we have before us a work of much more importance in which we may reasonably conclude the strength of the Roman cause is to be found Since it is the unanimous voice of the most learned and soundest part of that Communion For while the Spaniards have chiefly amused themselves mith the Metaphysical subtilties of School-Divinity and when the Italians have added to that the study of the Canon Law as the best way for prefermâ—nt the French have now for above an Age been set on a more solid and generous pursuit of tâ—ue Learning They have laboured in the publishing of the Fathers Works with great diligence and more sincerity than could be expected in any other part of that Church where the watchful Eyes of Inquisitors might have prevented that Fidelity which they have observed in publishing those Records of Antiquity So that the state of the former Ages of the Church is better understood there than in any other Nation of that Communion Nor has the Secular Clergy or Laity only laboured with great faithfulness in those enquiries such as Albaspine De Marca Godeau Launnoy Huetius Rigaltius Valesius and Balusius to name no more but even that Order which is not so much admired over the World for great scrupulosity of Conscience has produced there several great Men that are never to be named but with Honour such as Fronto Ducaeus and Petavius but above all Sirmondus through whose Writings there runs such a tincture of Candour and Probity that in matters of fact Protestants are generally more enclined to acquiesce in his authority than those of his own perswasion are which made them afraid at Rome to give him free access to their Manuscripts Nor is the Learning of the Gallican Church that for which they are chiefly to be esteemed It must also be acknowledged that from the study of the Ancient Fathers many of them seem to have derived a great measure of their Spirit which has engaged diverse among them to set forward as great a Reformation as the Constitution of their Church can admit of They have endeavoured not only to discover the corruptions in Morality and Casuistical Divinity and many other abuses in the Government of the Church but have also infused in their Clergy a greater Reverence for the Scriptures a deeper sense of the Pastoral Care and a higher value for Holy Orders than had appeared among them for divers Ages before Some of their Bishops have set their Clergy great Examples and a disposition of Reforming mens Lives and of restoring the Government of the Church according to the Primitive Rules hath been such that even those who are better Reformed both as to their Doctrine and Worship must yet acknowledge that there are many things among them highly Imitable and by which they are a great reproach to others who have not studied to copy after these patterns they have set them The World will be for ever bound to Honour the Names of Godeau Paschall Arnauld and the Author of the Essays of Morality and those thoughts which they have set on foot are so just and true that though their excellent Bishops are now almost all gone off the Stage and
becomes both to their Characters and Qualities and to whom I know better what is due than to presume to say any thing in contradiction to them if I were not led to it by that which I owe to Truth and to the God of Truth After I have examined both their Letter and the Methods added to it I will venture further and offer on the other hand such Considerations as are just and lawful prejudices against that Communion and are such as ought at least to put all men in doubt that things are not right among them and to dispose them to believe that matters in Controversie between them and us ought to be examined more exactly and impartially and that upon a general view the prejudices lie much stronger in our favours than against us The Letter writ by the Assembly of the Clergy to the Calvinists in France The arch-Arch-Bishops Bishops and the whole Gallican Clergy assembled at Paris by the Kings authority wish to their Brethren of the Calvinist Sect Amendment and a return to the Church and an Agreement with it Brethren THE whole Church of Christ does now of a great while groan and your Mother being filled with holy and sincere tenderness for you does with regret see you rent from her Belly her Breasts and her Bosome by a voluntary Separation and continue still to stray in the Desart For how can a Mother forget the Children of her Womb or the Church be unmindful of her love to you that are still her Children though you have forgot your duty to her The Infection of Errour and the violence of the Calvinistical Separation having drawn you away from the Catholick Truth and the purity of the Ancient Faith and separated you from the head of the Christian Unity From hence is it Brethren that she groans and complains most grievously but yet most lovingly that her bowels are torn She seeks for her Sons that are lost she calls as a Partridge as a Hen she would gather them together as an Eagle she provokes them to fly and being again in the pangs of travel she desires to bear you a second time ye little Children that so Christ may be again formed in you according to Truth in the way of the Catholick Church Therefore we the whole Gallican Clergy whom the Holy Ghost has set to govern that Church in which you were born and who by an uninterrupted Inheritance hold the same Faith as well as the same Chairs which those Holy Bishops held who first brought the Christian Religion into France do now call on you and as the Embassadors of Christ we ask you as if God did beseech you by us Why have you made Separation from us For indeed whether you will or not such are your circumstances that you are our Brethren whom all our Common Father did long ago receive into the adoption of Children and whom our common Mother the Church did likewise receive into the hope of our Eternal Inheritance And even he himself who first bewitched you that you should not obey the Truth of the Gospel the Standard-bearer of your profession did at first live amongst us as a Brother in all things of the same mind with us Were we not all of the same houshold Did we not all eat of the same Spiritual meat And did not he perform among us the mutual Offices of Brotherly Charity See if you can find any excuse either to your Father your Mother or your Brethren to take off the Infamy of so wicked so sudden and so rash a flight of this dividing of Christ the renting the Sacraments of Christ an impious War against the members of Christ the accusing the Spouse of Christ and the denial of the Promises of Christ Excuse and wash off these things if you can But since you cannot do it then confess that you are fallen under that charge of the Prophet An evil Son calls himself righteous but he cannot wash off his departure Wherefore then Brethren have you not continued in the root with the whole World Why did you break the Vows and the Wishes of the Faithful with the Altars on which they were offered Why did you intercept the course of Prayer from the Altars from whence was the ascent to God Why did you then with Sacrilegious hands endeavour to remove the Ladder that came down to those Stones that so Prayers might not be made to God after the customary manner Other Sectaries hitherto have indeed attempted that not that they might overthrow the Altar of Christ but that they might raise up their own Altar such as it was against the Altar of Christ. But you as if you had designed to destroy the Christian Sacrifice have dared to commit a crime unheard of before these times You have destroyed the Altars of the Lord of Hosts in which the Sparrow Christ had chosen to himself an House and the Turtle the Church a Nest where she might lay her young It was this Schismatical fury that brought forth these things and allhat has followed since either of Wars against the Church or of Errours against the Ancient Doctrine Nor would we have those things ascribed so much to your Inclinations as to the nature of Schism But this is that upon which we expostulate with you in particular and which we ask of you without ceasing Why have you made the Schism And unless you answer this how well soever you may speak or write of other things it is all to no purpose We do not doubt but in answer to this you will make use of that old and common defence of all Schismaticks and that you who upon trial know that it is not possible to shake the Doctrines believed by us will begin to inveigh against the Morals of our men as if holier persons who love severer Laws could not hold it creditable for their reputation or safe to their Consciences to live with such men These are the things forsooth Brethren for which the Unity of Christ is rent by you the Inheritance of your Brethren is blasphemed and the Vertue and Truth of the Sacraments of the Church are despised Consider how far you have departed from the Gospel in this These things that you object were less considerable both for number and weight or perhaps unknown and may be not at all true But if they had been true and acknowledged and worse than they were yet those Tares ought to have been spared by Christians for the sake of the Wheat for the vices of the bad are to be endured because of the mixture of the good Moses endured thousands that murmured against God Samuel endured both Eli's Sons and his own that acted perversly Christ himself our Lord endured Iudâ—s that was his Accuser and a Thief and also his Betrayer The Apostles endured false Brethren and false Apostleâ— that opposed them and their Doctrine And S. Paul who did not seek his owâ— things but the things of Jesus Christ conversed with great patience among
Plea of those persecuted men so fully that it may be well concluded that the Spirit that acted in Hilary is not the same with that which now inspires the Reverend Prelates of that Church To this I might add the known History of the Priscillianists that fell out not long after I shall not presume to make a parallel between any of the Gallican Church and Ithacius who persecuted them of whom the Historian gives this Character That he was a vain sumptuous sensual and impudent man and that he grew to that pitch in vice that he suspected all men that led strict lives as if they had been inclined to Heresie And it is also to be hoped that none will be so uncharitable as to compare the Priscillianists with those they now call Hereticks in France whether we consider their opinions that were a revival of the blasphemies of the Gnosticks or their morals that were brutal and obscene even by Priscillian's own confession Now Ithacius prosecuted those in the Emperours Courts and went on in the pursuit though the great Apostle of that age Martin warned him often to give it over In conclusion when Ithacius had set it on so far that a Sentence was sure to pass against them he then withdrew from it Sentence was given and some of them were put to death upon which some Bishops excommunicated Ithacius yet S. Martin was wrought on to communicate with him very much against his mind being threatned by the Emperour Maximus that if he would not do it Troops should be ordered to march into Spain to destroy the rest of them This prevailed on that good man to joyn in Communion with those that had acted so contrary to the mercifulness of their Religion and to the sacredness of their Character But no Arts could work on S. Martin to approve of what they had done The effects of this were remarkable for when S. Martin went home if we will believe Sulpitius an Angel appeared to him and reproved him severely for what he had done upon which he with many tears lamented much the sin he had committed by his communicating with those men and would never after that communicate with any of that party And during the sixteen years that he survived that Sulpitius who lived with him tells us that he never went to any Synod and that there was a great withdrawing of those Influences and Graces for which he had been so eminent formerly And thus if S. Martin's example and practice is of any authority the Cruelty of that Church that has engaged all the Princes of Europe as much as was in their power to do what Maximus then did and the present practices of the Bishops about the Court might justifie a Separation from them But we do not proceed upon such disputable grounds To this I shall only â—dd the aâ—thority of another Father who tâ—oâ—gh he was none of the Gallican Bishops 〈◊〉 since he is more read and esteemed in that Church than any other of all the â—athers it is to be hoped that his authority may be somewhat considered It is S. Austin He was once against all sorts of severity in matters of Religion and delivered his mind so pathetically and elegaâ—tly on that subject that I presume the Reader will not be ill pleased to hear his own words writing against the Manicheans whose impieties are too well known to be enlarged on so as to shew that even in the account which the Church of Rome makes of things they cannot pretend that the Protestants are as bad as they were He begins his Book against them with an earnest Prayer to God that he would give him a calm and serene mind so that he might study their conversion and not seek their ruine to which purpose he applies those words of S. Paul to Timothy the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be meek towards all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves To which he adds these words Let them exercise Cruelty upon you who do not know with what difficulty truth is found out and how hardly errours are avoided Let them exercise Cruelty upon you who do not know how rare and hard a thing it is to overmaster carnal imaginations with the serenity of a pious mind Let them exercise Cruelty upon you who do not know with what difficulty the eye of the inward man is healed that so it may behold its Sun Let them exercise Cruelty upon you who do not know with what groans and sighs we attain the smallest measure of the knowledge of God And in the last place let them exercise Cruelty upon you who were never themselves deceived with any errour like that with which you are now deceived It is true it may be pretended that he became afterwards of another mind but that will not serve to excuse the severities now on foot the case being so very different The Donatists in his time very generally fierce and cruel one sort of them the Circumcellionists acted like mad men They did lie in wait for S. Austin's life they fell upon several Bishops with great barbarity putting out the eyes of some and cudgelling others till they left them as dead Upon this the Bishops of Africk were forced to desire the Emperours protection and that the Laws made against Hereticks might be executed upon the Donatists and yet even in this S. Austin was at first averse It is true he afterwards in his Writings against the Donatists justified those severities of fining and banishing but he expresses both in his own name and in the name of all those Churches great dislike not only of all Capital proceedings but of all rigour and when the Governours and Magistrates were carrying things too far he interposed often and â—ith great earnestness to moderate their severity and wrote to them that if they went on with such rigour the Bishops would rather bear with all the violences of the Donatists than seek to them for redress and whole Synods of Bishops concurred with him in making the like Addresses in their favours And though there were excesses committed in some few instances yet we may easily conclude how gentle they were upon the whole matter from this that he says that the Fines imposed by Law had never been exacted and that they were so far from turning the Donatists out of their own Churches that they still kept possession of several Churches which they had violently invaded and wrested out of the hands of the Bishops It is plain then since he justified those severities only as a necessary restraint on the rage to the Donatists and a just protection of the Bishops that this has no relation to the hardships the Protestants now suffer it not being pretended that they have drawn it upon themselves by any tumultuary or irregular proceedings of theirs So much seemed necessary to shew how different the Spirit of the present Clergy oâ— France is
from that which animated the Church in the former and best ages The Reverend Prelates say in their Letter That they hold the same Faith with their Predecessors If this were true in all points it were indeed very hard to write an Apology for those that have separated from them I shall not engage in a long discussion of the sentiments of the Ancient Bishops of the Gallican Church yet that the Reader may not be too much wrought on by the confidence and plausibleness of this expressionâ— I shall only give a taste of the Faith of the first of all the Gallican Clergy whose works are yet preserved and that is Irenaeus I shall instance it in two particulars the one is the hinge upon which all our other Controversies turn that is whether the Scriptures or Oral Tradition is to be appealed to for determining matters of Controversie The other is the most material point in difference among us concerning the presence of Christ in the Sacrament whether in it we really receive the substance of Bread and Wine or only the Accidents As to the first he directly appeals to the Scriptures which he says were the Pillar â—nd ground of Truth and adds that the Valentinians did appeal to Oral Tradition from which he â—urns to that Tradition that was come from the Apostles on which he insists very copiously and puts all the authority of Tradition in this That it was derived from the Apostles And therefore says that if the Apostles had delivered nothing in Writing we must then have followed the Order of Tradition And after he has shewed that the Tradition to which the Valentinians pretended was really against them and that the Orthodox had it derived down from the Apostles on their side he returns to that upon which he had set up the strength of his cause to prove the truth from the Scriptures Now the Scriptures being the foundation on which the Protestants build and Oral Tradition together with the authority of the Church being that on which the Church of Rome builds it will be easie to every one that considers those Chapters referred to in Irenaeus to gather upon which of those he grounded his belief As for the other particular he plainly calls the Sacrament that Bread over which thanks have been given and says our flesh is nourished by the body and blood of Christ and concludes that our flesh by the Sacrament has an assurance of its Resurrection and Incorruptibility More particularly he says Our blood is encreased by the blood of Christ and that he encreases our body by that bread which he has confirmed to be his body and that by these the substance of our body is encreased and from thence he argues that our bodies receive an encrease not by any internal or invisible way but in the natural way of nourishment and so concludes that our bodies being nourished by the Eucharist shall therefore rise again Every one that considers the force of these words must conclude that he believed our bodies received in the Sacrament a real substance which nourished them and not bare Accidents If then upon this essay it appears that the first Writer of all Gallican Bishops does agree with the Protestants both in that which is the foundation upon which they build their whole cause and also in that particular opinion which is believed to be of the greatest importance then the Reader has no reason to believe that the present Bishops of France hold the same Faith which their Predecessors taught who first preached the Christian Religion in that Kingdom But now I come to answer the main Question which is indeed the whole substance of the Letter Why have they made the Schism If such a Letter with such a demand in it had come from the Abassin or Armenian Churches or perhaps from the Greek Churches whose distance from us is such and the oppressions they groan under are so extreme that they have little heart and few opportunities to enquire into the affairs or opinions of others it could not have been thought strange but to hear it from these among whom those live who have so often both in Writings and Discourses answered this question so copiously is really somewhat unaccountable Yet this is not all but it is added That the Protestants upon trial finding they could not shake their Doctrine have charged them only for their ill lives as if that were the ground of the Separation This it must be confessed had better become the affected Eloquence of a Maimbourg than the sincerity of so many eminent men of whom the mildest censure that can be past in this particular is That some aspiring Priest being appointed to pen this Letter that was better accustomed to the figures of a clamorous Rhetorick than the strict measures of Truth gave it this turn hoping to recommend himself by it and that the Bishops signed it in haste without considering it well Who of all the Protestants have made that Experiment and found that the Faith of the Church of Rome was not to be attackt and that she can only be accused for the ill lives of some in her Communion If this were all we had to object we do not deny but that all that the Fathers retorted on the Schismaticks particularly the Donatists did very justly fall on us and that we could neither answer it to God to the World nor our own Consciences if we had separated from their Church on no other account And this is indeed so weak a Plea that the Penner of the Letter shewed his skill at least if he was wanting in his sincerity to set up a pretence which he knew he could easily overthrow though the reasons he brings to overthrow it are not all pertinent nor convincing But this in conclusion is so managed as to draw an occasion from it to complement the present Pope some way to make an amends for their taking part with their King against him All that is to be said on this Head is That Protestants are not so unjust as to deny the Pope that now reigns his due praises of whose vertue and strictness of life they hear such accounts that they heartily wish all the Assembly of the Clergy from the President down to the Secretaries would imitate that excellent Pattern that he sets them A Zeal for converting Hereticks does not very well become those whose course of life has not been so exemplary that this can be imputed to an inward sense of Religion and to the motives of Divine Charity But in this point of the corruption of mens lives we may add two things more material The one is if a Church teaches ill Morals or at least connives at such Casuistical Doctrines as must certainly root out all the principles of moral vertue and common goodness out of the minds of men then their ill Morals may be improved to be a good argument for a Separation from them How much the Casuistical Doctrine of those
Evidence of those places of Scripture from which they deduced them 5. Since those of that Communion object a National Synod to the Protestants this may be turned back on them with greater advantage in some points established by Councils which they esteem not only General but Infallible In the Third Council of the Lateran it was decreed That all Princes who favoured Hereticks did forfeit their Rights and a Plenary Indulgence was granted to all that fought against them In the Fourth Council at the same place it was decreed That the Pope might not only declare this forfeiture but absolve the Subjects from their Oaths of Obedience and transfer their Dominions upon others In the First Council at Lions they joyned with the Pope in thundring the Sentence of Deposition against the Emperour Frederick the First which in the preamble is grounded on some places of Scripture of which if they were the Infallible Expositors then this power is an Article of Faith And in the last pâ—ace the Council of Constance decreed That the Faith of a Safe-Conduct was not to be kept to an Heretick that had come to the place of Judgement relying on it even though he would not have come without it When Crueltâ— Rebellion and Treachery were thus decreed in Courts which among them are of so sacred an authority It is visible how much greâ—ter advantages we have of them in this point than any they can pretend against us 6. For the Synod of Dort I will not undertake the Apology neither for their Decrees nor for their Assertions and will not stick to say that how true soever many of their Conclusions may be yet the defining such mysterious matters as the order of the Divine Decrees and the Influences of Gods Grace on the wills of men in so positive a manner and the imposing their Assertions on all the Ministers of their Communion was that which many as sincere Protestants as any are have ever disliked and condemned as a weakening the Union of the Protestant Church and an assuming too much of that authority which we condemn in the Church of Rome For though they supposed that they made their definitions upon the grounds of Scripture so that in this sense the authority of the Synod was meerly Declarative yet the question will still recur Whether they understood the passages which they built on right or not And if they understood them wrong then according to Protestant principles their Decrees had no such binding authority that the receding from them could make one guilty either of Heresie or Schism The Sixth Method IS to shew them that the Roman Church or that Church which acknowledges the Pope or the Bishop of Rome the Successor of S. Peter to be her Head all the World over is the true Church Because there is no other besides her that has that undoubted mark which is a perpetâ—al Visibility without Interruption since Christ's time to this day This is a Method common to all the Catholicks and is very well and briefly set forth in the little Treatise of the true Church joyned to that of the Peaceable Method This is that of which S. Austin makes most frequent use against the Donatists and chiefly in his Book of the Vnity of the Church and in his Epistles of which the most remarkable passages relating to this matter are gathered together by the late Arch-bishop of Rouen in the first Book of his Apology for the Gospel in which he handles this matter excellently well One may add to this Method the Maxims of which Tertullian makes use in his Treatise of Prescriptions against the Hereticks and also Vincentius Lyrinensis in his Advices It is enough to say on this occasion that those two Treatises may satisfie any that will read them without prepossession in order to their forming a just Iudgement of the true Church of Iesus Christ and of all those Societies that would usurp that name Remarks THis Method is so common that there was no reason in any sort to give Mr. Maimbourg the honour of it unless it was that the Assembly intended to do him this publick honour to ballance his disgrace at Rome But let us examine it 1. This asserts that no other Church has a perpetual Succession without interruption but that which derives it from Rome which is so contrary to what every one knows that Mr. Maimbourg was certainly inspired with the Spirit of his Order when he writ it Do not all the Greek Churches and all the Churches that have their Ordination from them all from the Northern Empire of Muscovy to the Southern of the Abassines together with all those in the East derive from the Apostles by an uninterrupted series For till the Authority of the Church of Rome is proved which is the thing in question their being declared Schismaticks or Hereticks by it does not interrupt this Succession 2. The Church of England has the same Succession that the Church of Rome had in Gregory the Great 's time to wave the more ancient pretensions of the Brittish Churches and the Bishops of this Church being bound by one of their Sponsions made at their Consecration according to the Roman Pontifical to instruct their flock in the true Faith according to the Scriptures they were obliged to make good this promise Nor can it be pretended that they have thereupon forfeited their Orders and by consequence their Succession 3. The Succession of the Church of Rome cannot be said to be uninterrupted if either Heresie or Schism can cut it off It is well known that Felix Liberius and Honorius to name no more were Hereticks and if Ordinations by Schismaticks or unlawful Usurpers be to be annulled which was judged in the case of Photius and was often practised at Rome then the many Schisms and unjust usurpations that have been in that See will make the Succession of their Orders the most disputable thing that can be especially during that Schism that lasted almost forty years all the Churches of that Communion having derived their Orders from one or other of the Popes and if the Popes at Avignon were the Usurpers then let the Gallican Churches see how they can justifie the series of their Ordinations To all which may be added the impossibility of proving a true Succession in Orders if the Vertue of the Sacraments depends on the Intention of him who officiates since secret Intentions are only known to God 4. The ground on which the Donatists separated from the Orthodox Churches being at first founded on a matter of Fact which was of the pretended Irregularity of those who ordained Cecilian which they afterwards defended upon this that the Church could be only composed of good men and that the Sacraments were of no Vertue when dispensed by ill hands all that S. Austin says is to be governed by this Hypothesis against which he argues And it being once granted that the Church was not corrupted neither in Doctrine nor Worship we are very ready
it cannot be proved that any thing else is to be understood by the word Church in that place A third difficulty may be also raised upon the extent of the word Prevail whether a total overthrow or any single advantage is to be understood by it or whether this prevailing is to be restrained only to the fundamentals of Christianity or is to be extended to all sorts of truth or whether it is to be understood of corrupting the Doctrine or of vitiating the Morals of Christians Thus it is apparent how many difficulties may be started concerning the meaning of those words So that at best the sense of them is doubtful and therefore it will be a strange and rash adventure to determine any thing in matters of great moment upon the authority of such a figurative expression 3. Though the Roman Church had been corrupted that will not infer that the Gates of Hell had prevailed against the Church for that being but the Center of the Union of some of the Western Nations a corruption in it does not prove that the whole Church was corrupted for there were many other Churches in other parts of the World besides those of that Communion The Tenth Method IS that of the Bishop of Meaux lately of Condom in his Book entituled The exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church In which he does in every Article distinguish between that which is precisely of Faith and that which is not so and shews that there is nothing in our belief that may give distast to a reasonable Spirit unless they will look on the abuses of some particular persons which we condemn as our belief or impute Errours to us falsely or charge us with the explications of some Doctors that are neither received nor authorized by the Church This method is taken from S. Hilary in his Book of Synods Let us says he altogether condemn false Interpretations but let us not destroy the certainty of the Faith The Word Consubstantial may be ill understood but let it be established in a sense in which it may be well understood The right state of the Faith may be established among us so as we may neither reverse that which has been well establishedpunc nor cut off those things that have been ill understood Remarks SOmewhat was said in the Preface with relation to this which shall not be here repeated It is not to be denied but in the management of Controversies the heat of Dispute has carried many too far and some have studied to raise many Imaginary Controversies which subsist only upon some misunderstood terms and expressions of the contrary party And things have been on all hands aggravated in many particulars out of measure So that they have deserved well of the Church that have brought matters as near a Reconciliation as may be But after all this it were a strange imposition on this and the preceding age to persuade the World that notwithstanding all the differences of Religion and the unhappy effects that have followed upon them that they really were all the while of the same mind but were not so happy as to find it out till that excellent Prelate helpt them to it by letting them see how near the concessions of both sides are to one another so that a little conversation and dexterity iâ— putting the softest construction that may be on the contrary persuasion might bring them to be of the same mind But if in order to this the sense of both sides is so far stretched that neither party can own it for a true account of their sentiments then this must be concluded to be only the Ingenious Essay of a very witty man who would take advantage of some expressions to perswade people that they have opinions which really they have not I shall not enter into a particular disquisition of those things which have been already so fully examined but refer the Reader to the Answers that have been given to that famous Book 2. The received and authorized Offices of the Church of Rome and the Language in which they do daily make their Addresses to Heaven is that on whiâ—h the most unanswerable and the strongest part of our Plea for our Separation is founded and it is not an ingenuous way of writing to affix some forced senses to those plain expressions because they being so gross as they are all wise or learned men are ashamed to defend them and yet know not how to get them to be reformed or thrown out Therefore it is that they set their Wits on work to put some better construction on them But this is a clear violence to the plain sense of those Offices extorted by the evidence and force of Truth and gives us this advantage that it is plain those that so qualifie them are convinced that their Church is in the wrong and yet for other ends or perhaps from a mistaken notion of Unity and Peace they think fit to continue in it 3. It is to be hoped that those who have cited this passage out of S. Hilary will consider those other passages cited out of him against Persecution though a great Errour made in the Translation of this citation makes me fear that they who rendred it had read him very cursorily The Eleventh Method IS drawn from those General Arguments which Divines call the Motives of Credibility It is that made use of by Tertullian in his Book of Prescriptions and by S. Austin who reckons up the Motives that held him in the Catholick Church Remarks 1. AS for the Case of Tertullian and S. Austin a great deal was said formerly to shew the difference between the Age they lived in and the grounds they went on and the present state of the Western Church 2. When it is considered that a course of many Ages which by the Confession of all were times of Ignorance and Superstition has made a great change in the World that the gross Scandals and wonderful Ignorance of those that have governed the See of Rome that the Dissolution of all the Rules of Ecclesiastical Order and Discipline both among Clergy and Laity that the Interest the Priests particularly the Popes and the begging Orders that depended on them had to promote those was so great and undisputâ—d that it is notorious all the worst methods of forgeries both of Writings to authorize them and of Miracles and Legends to support them were made use of When I say all these things are so plain to every one that has lookt a little into the History of former ages it is no wonder if the Church of Rome is so much changed from what it was formerly That the motives made use of by Tertullian and S. Austin do not at all belong to the present state of the Churches of that Communion But on the contrary instead of motives to perswade one to continue in it there appear upon a general view a great many just and well-grounded prejudices to dispose a
when the power of the Church is used not to Edification but to Destruction then the obligation to obedience is not to be too far extended And as in Laws that oblige Subjects to obey Inferiour Magistrates a tacite exception is to be supposed in case they should become guilty of Treason so there must be supposed likewise in this case the like exception in case a Synod deposes a Bishop or a Bishop censures his Clergy for asserting the true Faith And as a Separation from an uncorrupted Church is a very great wickedness so the separating from a corrupted Church in whose Communion we cannot continue without being polluted in it is but a part of that care which we ought to have of our own Salvation The Fifteenth Method TO all the former Methods a Fifteenth may be added by letting our P. Reformed see that many Articles are to be found in their Confession of Faith in their Catechisms in the Articles of their Discipline in the Decisions of their Synods and in the Books of their Chief Ministers who have writ upon the Controversies from which Arguments may be drawn against them to prove the truth of our belief even by their own Confession For Example Their Discipline allows the Communion in one kind only to such as cannot drink Wine From which one may infer that the Communion under both kinds is not an Article of necessity and that they are in the wrong to alledge that as they do to be a lawful ground for their Separation The Minister Dailée and many others confess that in the time of S. Gregory Nazianzene S. Chrysostome and S. Jerome the Invocation of Saints was received in the Church John Forbes adds to this That the Tradition of the Church was uniform concerning Prayer for the Dead And since he denies that the Books of the Maccabees are Canonical he says the Scripture speaks nothing of it But without engaging into the difficulty concerning the Books of the Maccabees in which they have no more reason on their side than in the rest It is easie to conclude from their own principles that it was no ways to be allowed to separate themselves for matters that according to themselves were established by so great an authority and so constant an union of all Ages Remarks 1. IT is not an equal way of proceeding to object to the Protestants what some particular Writers have said or to strain Inferences too far at a time when the Celebrated Book of the Bishop of Meaux is in such high esteem The chief design oâ— which is to set aside all the Indiscretions of particular Writers and to put the best colours on things that is possible Now Tradition being of such authority among them whatsoever passes down through many of their approved Writers has a much greater strength against them than it can be pretended to have against us And therefore though particular Writers or whole Synods should have written or decreed any thing against the common Doctrines of the Reformed they ought not to object that to us If they will allow us the same Liberties that they assume to themselves 2. It is not a consequence becoming so great an Assembly to infer that because in some few extraordinary cases the general rule of Gods desiring Mercy and not Sacrifice is carried so far as to give weak persons so much of the Sacrament as they can receive and not to deny that to them because a natural aversion mâ—kes them incapable of receiving the Wine That therefore a Church may in opposition to Christs express command Drink you all of it and the constant practice of Thirteen Centuries take this away It is not of necessity for Salvation that every one drinks the Cup but it is of necessity to the purity of a Church that she should observe our Saviour's Precepts 3. It is confessed that some Fathers used the Invocation of Saints yet that being but a matter of fact it is of no consequence for the Decision of any point of Doctrine For we found our Doctrine only on the Word of God and â—ot on the practices of Men how eminent soever they might otherwise be But in relation to these Fathers these things are to be observed 1. They lived in the end of the Fourth Century So this is no competent proof for an Oral Tradition or conveyance of this Doctrine down from the Apostles days 2. Figures and bold Discourses in Panegyricks are rather to be considered as raptures and flights of warm affections than as composed and serious devotions Therefore such Addresses as occur in their Funeral Orations are rather high strains of a daring Rhetorick than Instructions for others since in their expositions on Scripture or other Treatises of Devotion they do not handle these things by way of Direction or Advice Iohn Forbes is mis-cited for William Forbes Bishop of Edenburgh Iohn was not of such yielding Principles It is true William though he was a man Eminently Learned and of a most Exemplary Life yet he was possessed with that same weakness under which Grotius and some other great men have laboured of thinking that a Reconciliation with the Church of Rome might be obtained by an accommodation on both sides and this flowing in him from an excellent temper of Soul he is to be excused if that carried him in many things too far But he is a Writer that has been taxed by all men as one that had particular Notions And we may object Erasmus to those of the Church of Rome as well as they may argue against us from Bishop Forbes 5. If the Church of Rome used only a General Commemoration of the Dead with wishes for the compleating their happiness by a speedy resurrection and went no further we might perhaps differ in opinion with them about the fitness of this but we would not break Communion with them for it But when they have set up such a Merchandize in the House of God for Redeeming Souls out of Purgatory and saying Masses for them this is that we except to as a disgracing of the Christian Religion and as a high profanation of the Holy Sacrament And it is plain that the Fathers considered the Commemoration of the Dead rather as a respect done to their Memory and an honourable remembrance of them than as a thing that was any way useful to them in the other state which may appear by this single Instance S. Cyprian was so much offended at a Presbyter when it appeared after his death that he had left another Presbyter Guardian of his Children that he gave order that no mention should be made of him in the Commemoration of the Dead that was used in the Holy Eucharist because by the Roman Law such as were left Guardians were under some obligations to undertake the trust And that Saint thought such a trust might prove so great a distraction to a man that was dedicated to the Holy Ministry that no Honour ought to be done to the Memory
that threatening clause of forfeiture used by those of Constance in their Decree for a General Council And at Trent it was declared That if any Prince did suffer a Duel to be fought in his Dominions he was thereupon to forfeit that place in which it was fought Now by the same authority that they could declare a forfeiture of any one place they could decâ—are a forâ—eiture of a Princes whole Dominion for both those Sentences flow from the same Superiour Jurisdiction And thus we see seven of those Councils which they esteem general have either decreed confirmed or assumed this right of Deposing Kings for Heresie or indeed for breaking their Orders and Writs 4. The fourth mark oâ— Tradition is â—hat which has been of late so famous by Mr. Arnauld's endeavours to prove from thence that the belief of the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament is a Doctrine derived down from the Aposâ—les days which is this If any one Age has universally received an opinion as an Article of Faith it must be concluded that that Age had it from the former and that from the preceding till we arrive at the Apostles days And this he thinks must hold the stronger if the point so received wâ—s a thing obvious to all men in which every one was concerned and to which the nature of man was inclined to make a powerful opposition I shall not examine how true this is in general nor how applicable in fact it is to the Doctrine of the Corporal Presence but shall only say that allowing all these marks to be the sure Indications of Apostolical Tradition the Doctrine of Deposing Princes for favouring Heresie has them all much more indisputably than the other has Take any one Age from the eleventh Century to the sixteenth and it will appear that not only the Popes the Bishops and all the Ecclesiastical Order received it but that all the Laity likewise embraced it Though this was a matter obvious to sense in which many were much concerned It might have been hoped that Princes upon their own account for fear of an ill Precedent would have protected the â—eposed Prince But on the contrary they either entred into the Croisades themselves or at least gave way to them vast Armies were gathered together to execute those Sentences and the injured Princes had no way to keep their people firm to them but by assuring them they were not guilty of the matters objected to them which shewed that had their people believed them guilty they had forsaken them And yet as it was the terrour of a Croisade was such and the Popes authority to depose Princes was so firmly believed that they were for the most part forced to save themselves by an absolute submission to the Popes pleasure and to what Conditions or Penances a haughty Pope would impose on them So certain it is that this Doctrine was universally received in those ages And thus it appears that all the Characters by which it can be pretended that an Apostolicâ—l Tradition can be known agree to this Doctrine in so full and uncontestable a manner that they cannot bring such Evidence for the points in dispute between them and us So that the Assembly General by condemning this Doctrine have departed from the Tradition of their own Church more apparently than it can be pretended that either Luther and Calvin did in any of those Doctrines which they rejected and therefore they ought not any more to complain of us for throwing off such things as they found on Tradition when they have set us such an Example From which I shall only infer this That they themselves must know how weak a foundation Oral Tradition is for Divine Faith to build upon and that it must be established upon surer grounds FINIS ERRATVM Page 85. line 21. for First read Second Books Printed for and Sold by RICHARD CHISWELL FOLIO SPeed's Maps and Geography of Great Britain and Ireland and of Foreign Parts Dr. Cave's Lives of the Primitive Fathers in 2. 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Filmer's Patriarcha or Natural Power of Kings Mr. Iohn Cave's Gospel to the Romans Dr. Outram's 20. Serm. preached on several occasions Dr. Salmon's new London Dispensatory Lawrence's interest of Ireland in its trade wealth stated DVODECIMO HOdder's Arithmetick Grotius de Veritate Religionis Christianae Bishop Hacket's Christian Consolations The Mothers Blessing A Help to Discourse New-Englands Psalms An Apology for a Treatise of Human Reason written by M. Clifford Esq The Queen-like Closet both parts VICESIMO QVARTO VAlentine's Devotions Guide to Heaven Pharmacopoeia Collegii Londinensis reformata Books lately Printed for Richard Chiswell AN Historical Relation of the Island of CEYLON in the East-Indies Together with an Account of the detaining in Captivity the Author and divers other English-men now living there and of the Author 's miraculous Escape Illustrated with fifteen Copper Figures and an exact Map of the Island By Capt. Robert Knox a Captive there near 20 years Fol. Mr. Camfield's two Discourses of Episcopal Confirmation Octavo Bishop Wilkin's Fifteen Sermons never before extant Mr. Iohn Cave's two Sermons of the duty and benefit of submission to the Will of God in Afflictions Quar. Dr. Crawford's serious expostulation with the Whiggs in Scotland Quarto A Letter giving a Relation of the present state of the Difference between the French King and the Court of Rome to which is added The Popes Brief to the Assembly of the Clergy and their Protestation Published by Dr. Burnet Alphonsus Borellus de motu Animalium in 2 Vol. Quarto Dr. Salmon's Doron Modicum or supplement to his new London Dispensatory Octavo Sir Iames Turner's Pallas Armata or Military Essayes of the Ancient Grecian Roman and Modern Art of War Fol. Mr. Tanner's Primordia or the Rise and Growth of the first Church of God described Octavo A Letter writ by the last Assembly General of the Clergy of France to the Protestants inviting them to return to their Communion together with the Methods proposed by them for their Conviction Translated into English and Examined by Dr. Gilb. Burnet Octavo Dr. Cave's Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church by Bishops Metropolitans and Patriarchs more particularly concerning the ancient Power and Jurisdiction of the Bishops of Rome and the encroachments of that upon other Sees especially Constantinople Octavo His History of the Lives Acts Death and Writings of the most eminent Fathers of the Church that flourished in the fourth Century being a Second Volumn wherein amongst other things is an Account of Arianism and all other Sects of that Age. With an Introduction containing an Historical account of the state of Paganism under the First Christian Emperours Folio Books in the Press DOctor Iohn Lightfoot's Works in English Fol. Mr. Selden's Ianus Anglorum Englished with Notes To which is added his Epinomis concerning the Ancient Government and Laws of this Kingdom never before extant Also two other Treatises written by the same Author One of the