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A45249 A letter to the Jesuits in prison shewing them how they may get out. From Mr. William Hutchinson alias Bury for fourteen years of their society; but now of the Church of England. Hutchinson, William, fl. 1676-1679. 1679 (1679) Wing H3837; ESTC R219974 4,440 6

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very Church-faults 'T is a notorious cheat that your Church is chargeable with nothing but the mistakes of General Councils If I cannot meet with an immediate Ghostly Guide one in ten but he teaches me dangerous Doctrines and Practises my Soul is in no less danger by my being in your Communion than if the Errors and Fopperies of every petty Confessor were so many Decrees of Oecumenical Assemblies That which influences our Souls either to good or bad are the notoriously known Sentiments of our immediate Guides and not the secret and to few known Decisions of Christian Councils I will not say with a Friend of yours Calumny was your crime and by Calumuy you are punished yet I wish you would reflect how falsly and undeservedly you calumniated the Great Mr. White and the Divine Mr. Arnauld and indeed whom you pleased in the Court or Rome and disparaged amongst your Devotes their incomparable Writings with blind and surreptitious Censures We are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us Gen. 42. 21. You may say and perhaps truly you never were taught your selves the Deposing Doctrine nor never taught it others because the teaching of it by some of your Authors made you odious to Christian Princes and thereupon your General prohibited all medling with the Question You may also perhaps truly say you do not believe the Doctrine to be true that is as an Article of your Faith But what security is this to Christian Princes whom you deem Hereticks if in your hearts you generally think it a probable opinion partly for intrinsecal reasons but manifestly for the Authorities of your own and other Doctors of your Church Especially you commonly maintaining as you do that it 's lawful to follow a probable opinion though but even extrinsecally probable as you speak and this without dispute when great Good is likely to ensue upon your acting according to such an opinion God forbid I should go about to add afflictions to your afflictions but I would gladly shew you how you may appease God and Man's anger against you by inducing you to an humble and penitent acknowledgment of your manifest and notorious faults Your blind zeal for the Pope's Temporal and Spiritual Power has brought all this evil upon you examine it well and impartially at least now when God afflicts you for the idolizing of it lest you hear and deservedly Jer. 2. 30. In vain have I smitten your children they received no correction Acknowledge the plain truth the Pope as from Christ has no more power in England than the Bishop of Canterbury has in Italy All Bishops are absolute Spiritual Monarchs in their Diocesses Archbishops Primates and Patriarchs are purely humane inventions for Union and Order sake in the vacancy of General Provincial Councils as for a Supreme Pastor that would be as inconvenient as a Civil Monarch of the whole World The Government of the Church of Christ is not Monarchical but Aristocratical St. Peter was no more the Vicar of Christ than any one of the other Apostles they were all his Vicars and so is every Christian Bishop and has power all over the World to ordain Priests to preach the Gospel and to administer Christs Sacraments but by mutual accord for Order's sake and to avoid confusion they exercise not this power out of their particular Diocesses The twelve Apostles divided the World amongst them that so their labours might be more profitable and no place left uncultivated the like is done and to be done by all Christian Bishops till Dooms-day come Consider attentively whether seeing Jesus Christ resolved his Church should be spread all over the Earth it be not as certain he would never ordain an Universal Monarch over it as 't is certain he would not appoint a Government which would be impracticable useless and sensless A Monarch even over the Western part of the World what mischief has it not done in making strange Doctrines and Practises universal such are the Doctrines of infusion of habitual grace by the words of Absolution Indulgences mock-Absolutions c. No less notorious mischiefs has it done in exhausting vast Riches out of all the Provinces of Europe to satiate the avarice and ambition of one Pompous See Besides the unanimous belief and practices of several Christian Provinces in the same Faith and Rites what assurance does it not give for their being Apostolical But when all are over-awed and commanded to believe or practise as one Spiritual Monarch pleases their agreement has far less force Nor is there fear of as many Christian Religions as there are Christian Provinces provided they meet frequently in General and Provincial Councils as they ought and determine nothing of Faith to others which is doubtful to themselves and resolve nothing to be Apostolical but what is so clear to them all to be so in the holy Scriptures Tradition c. as they cannot doubt but it had its origin from the Apostles for what 's so clear to one Province cannot be obscure to another consulting the same safe means of not mistaking the holy Scriptures holy Fathers c. Our Judgment are as agreeing as our Eyes and no twenty men can so clearly see an object at such a distance so as they cannot doubt they see it but any three men of equal good eye-sight at the same distance must needs see the same If Reformers have disagreed 't was because they stuck not to this Rule and therefore their disagreement ought to be no prejudice to those who are resolved rigidly to adhere to it In my next I shall hint to you the Reasons of my Change which so much scandalizes you but indeed ought to edifie you and all good Christians Your real Friend William Hutchinson July 30. 1679. London Printed for the Author and are to be sold at the Bear and Orange-tree in Prince's-street 1679.