point and the whole Church came to an acquiescence Had this Gentleman been chosen advocate for the Catholic Church I know not how he could have render'd her more visible He proceeds but is it reasonable to suppose that upon these differences they shut out all those holy Bishops and Martyrs from the possibility of Salvation by excluding them from their Communion How far the heat of these disputes might have carried the Parties engaged or whether either or neither party was free from blame I shall not determine but this is a certain Maxime both in Church and State that a submission either active or passive is due to all Lawful Powers though the command be unjust and 't is the known principle of St. Austin with the Ancients that no cause can be given to separate from the whole Church either by Heresie or Schism now in this contest here was no separation from the whole Church by either of the Parties but a perfect submission to her Decrees when delivered by the mouth of her General Assembly so that here was not different Communions amongst Christians but only different sentiments in matters as yet undecided by the Church with which it consisted that both parties were members of the Catholic Church and consequently no one member of the contesting parties as this Gentleman well observes ought to assume to its self the Title and Authority of the one Catholic Church But when Sentence was passed by a General Council the dissenting party if any remained was cut off as a rotten Member from the Body of the Catholic Church and then the contest is no more betwixt party and party but betwixt a rebellious party and the whole Church to whom the stile of that one Catholic Church is justly due she being the whole as the Trunk of the Tree is the whole compared to any Limb and the Novatians and Donatists her putrified Members Amongst other calamities which have sprung from original corruption 't is not the least that being our selves Criminals we have an itch to find out confederates as if their number rendered us Innocent This assailant of the Royal Papers to justifie the late separation of the Protestants from the Roman Catholic Church brings upon the Stage the Eastern Churches cut off and separated from her Communion And adds that the Bishops of Rome would hear of no other terms of accommodation with the Eastern Church but by an intire submission as head of the Catholic Church which all the Churches of the East refus'd however different amongst themselves and to this day look on the Popes Supremacy as an innovation in the Church How well skill'd he is in the History of the Eastern Churches I shall not dispute But sure all is not Game that rises and I doubt the account given him is made up of false Musters This is certain the Eastern Churches were divided from the Roman-Catholic Church that is from all Churches in Communion with the Church of Rome by such Doctrines as are inconsistent even with the Church of England which professes to hold whatever was decreed by the first four general Councils and this breach of union continues with their descendents to this day The Egyptians Ethiopians and Abissines are by Sect Eutichians holding but one Nature Will and Operation in Christ and are condemned by the fourth general Council that is of Chalcedon with these side part of the Armenians the Jacobites Georgians and Cophties The Christians under the Turk and Persians in Asia are Nestorians branded by the General Council of Ephesus for maintaining two persons in Christ. The Grecians with the Muscovites and Russians by the Athanasian Creed so Sacred to the Church of England are excluded even from Salvation for refusing to believe the Holy Ghost to proceed from the Father and the Son As to the first division of the Greek Church the true cause was from the contest betwixt Ignatius true Patriarch of Constantinople and Photius the intruder with the first stood the Pope and the Emperor with the last and in the end to make the breach the wider the procession of the Holy Ghost from Father and Son was denyed and so it rests till this day now that the Pope's Supremacy was and is look'd on as an innovation by any of these Churches I doubt is a story not so well grounded as this Gentleman could wish And if my Authors deceive me not some of these as the Egyptians and Ethiopians have often made overtures to the Pope for Peace and Communion owning him Supream Head of the Church provided only they might not be obliged to renounce Eutiches and Dioscorus After these fundamental Errours of Faith against the Holy Ghost and the person of Jesus Christ he put this question how then came they to be excluded from being parts of the one Catholic and Apostolic Church Since in all those Churches the two Creeds are professed true Baptism administred A Man would have thought that such blasphemies against the Divinity and Humanity of Christ had been cause enough to have Unchurched any number of Men but since he seems to opine that the denyal of the two first Creeds can do the work why should not the refusal of a third Creed or if the emergencies of new started Doctrines made it necessary a fourth and fifth Creed be as prevalent Is the power of the Church Catholic in deciding Faith less then it was in making the second Creed Again is it not as possible for Men who profess a Creed to err even against that Creed as it is for Men professing a Rule to deviate from that Rule Wherefore it being evident that nothing of all this hath been wanting to fill up the measure of Heresie in those Eastern Churches they cannot be reputed parts of the one Catholic and Apostolic Church consequently the Roman Church and the Churches in Communion with her must be that one Church or there was or is none upon Earth This principle then that the Roman Church is that one Catholic and Apostolic Church being as visible as was asserted by the king to enter into the Ocean of particular disputes would be to enter into the maze of everlasting jarring Pregnant evidence of this truth is had from the pretended Reformation of this last Age where the innumerable Sects that have swarm'd from the first Reformers in the divided World steering their course as they fancy by the Compass of Holy Scripture a president given them by their Leaders have improved controversie to that degree that 't is impossible by that method to reclaim them the Scholar still in that out-doing his Master And whereas it is believed by this Gentleman That the Church of Rome hath notoriously deviated from this infallible rule Scripture sensed by fancy for neither he concerns himself for Tradition nor Exposition of the Fathers and therefore is not willing to put her self upon that issue I answer that the Church of Rome cannot deviate from a rule she never professed to follow And if some
can be any such Command and by consequence no Injury is offered to our Senses no reproach to the Church His next offer is at a Clip to the Royal Stamp and because he says 't is with Submission I presume it to be unadvised for whereas the Kings Paper runs thus that none can be that Church but that which is called the Roman-Catholic Church he snips off I know not how this word Catholic and so restrains the Kings meaning to the particular Church or Diocess of Rome this must be confessed not to be the best way of examining the King's Coin for tho' by this term Roman sometimes all Churches in Communion with the Church of Rome be signify'd yet by the Parallel made betwixt the whole and the part he is convinced not to have meant so To requite then his Parallel 't is as visible that the word Roman is not Roman-Catholic as that one word is not two as to the Corruption with which in general Terms he aspersed the Roman Church since 't is as invisible as the Proofs he brings to justify the Charge I shall pass it by After it was settled That Christ can have but one Church upon Earth and that this is that Church we profess to believe in the two Creeds He thus subsumes But if those who made those Creeds for our Direction had intended the Roman-Catholic Church why was it not so expressed how came it to pass that such a Limitation of the Sense of Christ's Catholic Church to the Roman should never be put to persons to be baptized in any Age of the Church My first Answer shall be ad hominem by retorfion If the Apostles intended we should believe that Christ was Consubstantial to his Father or that Hereticks were not to be re-baptized why did they not insert it into their Creeds If the Apostles and Nicene Fathers after them intended we should believe the duality of Wills and unity of Persons in Christ how did it escape both their Creeds I believe we shall jump upon the same Solution which is that none of these Doctrines were questioned in those days no Hereticks had opposed them and therefore there was no need of decision this being the Province of General Councils in framing their Creeds Let 's see if this will square to my purpose Catholic and Roman-Catholic-Church in the Language of Antiquity was one and the same thing saving when the particular Church or Diocess of Rome was expressed which being so and the point never call'd in question in the first and best days of the Church when those Creeds were to be published what great surprize is it that the word Roman should not be comprized in any of their Creeds Or that it was not enter'd into the ancient Formulary or Ceremonies of Baptism so venerable to after ages and of which they have ever been most tenacious I have engaged Antiquity for the Roman-Catholic side let 's see whether she will stand by me and let Tertullian lead the Van who well understood the Language both of his own and the foregoing Age. Speak then Tertullian what thou knowest of Marcion's pecunary Oblation in Rome to the Roman Church Marcion says he gave his money to the Catholic Church which was rejected when he fell into Heresie Tertul. contra Marcion lib. 4. cap. 4. See how easily it dropt from his Pen to stile the Roman Church the Catholic Church What 's now the sense of St. Cyprian the mouth of the African Church to Antonianus You writ that I should send a Copy of the Letters to Cornelius Bishop of Rome to the end that he might understand that you communicate with him that is to say with the Catholic Church Cypr. lib. 4. epist. 2. And if it be the same to communicate with the Pope as it is with the Catholic Church then clearly the Roman and Catholic Church are one and the same St. Ambrose in his Funeral Oration upon his Brother Satyrus relates this passage of Satyrus that coming into a City polluted with Heresie he demands of the Bishop of the place whether he was in Communion with the Catholic Bishop that is with the Church of Rome St. Ambros. Orat. funeb So that in the phrase of that time communion with the Catholic Church and Church of Rome nothing differ'd John of Constantinople to Hormisda Pope writes thus We promise hereafter not to recite in the Sacred Mysteries the names of those who have separated themselves from the Catholic Church that is to say who agree not fully with the See Apostolic Tom. 3. Concil Edit Binii inter Epist. Hormisdae By this we may see the stile of old times Nay it was so familiar to use promiscuously the word Roman for Catholic that the very Arians as the Protestants now do called the Catholics by the name of Romanists Victor of Utica brings in Jocundus an Arian thus arguing with King Theodorick If thou put Armogastus to death the Romanists will proclaim him a Martyr Victor Utic lib. 2. de persec Vandal And Gregory of Tours recounts of an Arian King who seeing a miracle wrought by a Catholic concludes that this was a device of the Romanists Since therefore in the vulgar Speech and Records of old days Roman and Catholic are Synonima the King had much reason to declare That none could be that Church but that which is called the Roman-Catholic-Church And a rational account is given why the word Roman was not expressed in the two Creeds nor in the Ritual of Baptism From the Church of Rome's not denying the validity of Baptism to those who are out of her Communion he urges thus From whence it is to me as visible as that the Scripture is in print that the Church of Rome it self doth not believe that she is the one Catholic Church mentioned in the Creeds This is very pleasant it is a fixed principle that there is but one Church Catholic and the Church of Rome by a thousand Declarations takes it upon her self to be that one Church and yet it must be as Visible to this Gentleman as that the Scripture is in print that the Church of Rome doth not believe her self to be that ōne Catholic Church mention'd in the two Creeds what can he offer to justifie so strange a Paradox For then says he it must void all Baptism out of its communion which it hath never yet done But what greater necessity is there for the Church of Rome to void Baptism given out of her Communion then for the Catholic Church Or if the Catholic Church doth not make it void what can oblige the Church of Rome to do it The Reply is That Baptism enters persons into the Catholic Church who though they be out of the Communion of the Roman Church yet having the true form of Baptism are Members of the Catholic Church But I beseech him if Baptism enters Men into the Catholic Church doth not Heresie Apostacy or Insidelity cast them out of the Catholic Church as well
as out of the Roman Church Is it come to this that Marcionists Ebionites Arians Nestorians Eutichians Donatists Novatians and the scumm of Heretics because rightly baptised shall be reputed Members of the Catholic Church This had been great news in the days of St. Austin who in his forty eighth Epistle makes this profession to Donatus You are with us in Baptism in the Creed in the rest of our Lord's Sacraments but in the Catholic Church you are not And St. Hierom against the Luciferans No Heretical Congregation can be called a Church of Christ. For though Baptism be the Gate by which whoever enters the Church must pass yet there is no Man though baptized if an Heretic can remain there His next Paragraph is made up by comparing the Church in her Infancy with her self in her fuller growth and from that different State he would conclude that in her beginnings 't was easy to find out that one visible Church by reason of the strait union of the Faithful in the Bonds of Faith and Charity when the Multitude of them who believed were of one Heart and of one Soul but not so in after Ages when the Concussion of the whole State of the Church by so many fractions and divisions in her Communion had so obscured her that they rendred her difficult to be discerned This is the sum of his discourse in gross which I answer by detail after the ascention of Christ there was no time wherein there was not divisions in the Church for even in those good days of the Apostles there went out from them either by Schism Heresy or Apostacy many heads of Factions who grew into Bodies and drew after them considerable Parties such as the Ebionits the Nicholaits the Marcionists and many more whereof some had been Jewish others had been Gentile Christians but all of them went out from the Body of the Church so that notwithstanding the Multitude of those who believed were of one Heart and Soul yet there were many who fell from their Belief I shall now take leave to ask whether the Church in the throng of these Divisions was easily visible or no He grants it was how then came it to pass that in after Ages she became so obscure and as it were invisible He replies by Divisions but if in both States of the Church there were divisions how happens it that the Cause remaining the same should not work the same Effect Was there any Mark Rule or Standard by which the Church was known amidst her first Divisions which afterwards disappeared If not the Church may be equally visible in both her States now if at the rise of any Heresie the Apostles and after them the Apostolick Men used all means to suppress it either by Preaching Catechizing writing against it and meeting in full Assemblies for the Comdemnation of it by stigmatizing both the Heresy and its Author cutting him off from the Body of the Church if I say by these means the infant Church was rendred as visible as a Town scituate on a Mountain or a Light upon a Candlestick then the same Methods continuing in the Church of after times do evidently evince that she was and now is as visible as ever and that there was a just Performance of this in every Age is made out by the records of all times where the time the place the Origin the Author of every Heresie the vigorous opposition that was made against it the Fathers that writ against it the Pastors that Preach'd it down the Councils that condemned it the Laws of Princes made against it are all so exactly noted that all the actions and motions of the Church in every Age were as visible as those of the first and best of times As to the remarkable difference he mentions in the nature of Schisms which happened in the Church and gave occasion of great misapplications and sayings of the Antients about the one Catholic Church I do not believe it material to observe it for let the Schism or Heresie be of what nature soever since the Church in a general Council is the last tribunal in all such Causes whoever separates or goes out from her is to be reputed as an Heathen or a Publican but because his way of writing merits that nothing be slighted I shall march with him through the following Passages Some did so break off Communion with other Parts of the Catholic Church as to challenge that Title wholly to themselves as was evident in the case of the Novations and Donatists If the Novatians and Donatists did break off Communion with other parts only of the Catholic Church I desire to know where the whole Church was at that time For unless he ranges these Hereticks in the Catholic Church and so reputes them parts of it the breach was from the whole not from parts as a rotten Branch is separated from the Trunck or the whole Tree Well how was the Breach By Challenging the Title of the Catholic Church wholly to themselves as was Evident for they re-baptized all that embraced their Communion not to insist upon other Enormities of these Novatians and Donatists by what means were these Monsters crushed were they not the same that were used in the first Ages did not the Pastors watch over their Flock to preserve it from the contagion did not St. Austin and other Fathers sharpen their Pens against them did not the Church by her Councils cut them off as rotten Limbs from her Body If nothing of this can be concealed then clearly she was as visible as ever The next instance is from the Bishops of Rome excommunicating the Bishops of Asia for not keeping Easter when they did and the Bishops both of Asia and Africa for not allowing the Baptism of Heretics This Breach I confess is of a different Nature from the former for here the whole Church was not by any of her Councils yet engaged but the contest was betwixt Parts tho' some more Eminent than others and in which 't is possible some transports of Passion might interyene Irenaeus 't is true expostulates with the Bishop of Rome not that he wanted Authority but that he exercised it with too much Severity over the Bishops of Asia upon a Subject he thought not to be of so great Moment The truth is both these customs had long obtain'd the one in the Western and the other in the Eastern Church and nothing less then a general Council did set a Period to the Dispute A Council was called the decision was made for the Bishop of Rome and Peace was restored to the whole Church can any Man at this time of day say that the Church was not as visible as ever the controversy betwixt Cornelius and Stephen Bishops of Rome on the one side and St. Cyprian with the Affrican Bishops of the other was much of the same Nature nothing was yet defin'd by a general Council Right stood for the Bishops of Rome the Council determined the
of Rome of whom they were once a part at Liberty betook themselves to the Examination of the Popes Supremacy and other Articles of the Council of Trent by Scriptures Fathers and Councils but could find nothing in any of them to make out that Supremacy or any Article now in dispute But still the King's Questions pressed upon them who shall be Judge Is not this a President for all Rebellion either in Church or State They have neither Scripture Tradition Councils nor Fathers but what they had from the Roman Church and at the first Breach they were in number very Inconsiderable and yet by a strange Presumption they pretend to have a clearer Sight into those Principles than that Church who gave them their very Being in Christianity I believe were this Gentleman to argue against those Sects that have spawn'd from the Church of England he would not suffer a pride so intollerable as to prefer their own sense in Scriptures or the Rule of Faith before that Church that gave them the Rule Well but having finished this inquiry What did they do He goes on thus Articles of Religion were drawn up wherein the Sense of our Church was delivered agreable to Scripture and Antiquity not the private sense of particular Men. If they be Articles of Religion then they are Articles of Faith if so they must come by Divine Revelation either by the way of Holy Scripture Tradition or otherwise Now I beseech him to declare in which of these principles are all or any of these negative Articles contained as no praying to Saints no Purgatory no reverencing of Images no Transubstantiation and the like with which the nine and thirty Articles are stuft Clearly this is a new Creed which neither the Eastern nor Western Churches did ever profess to hold Nor will it avail to reply that nothing of praying to Saints Purgatory or the like is to be found in the Scriptures or Antiquity which notwithstanding is a manifest illusion for if they be Articles of Religion or of Faith he must bring positive Texts to assert them by which all persons should be obliged to believe them and so to Sacrifice their Lives for them if occasion should be otherwise the Creed-makers will be lookt upon as Cheats and their new Creeds as the deluding Fancies of particular Men. As to the advantages of the Clergy in the Church of Rome I must needs confess they are very considerable and therefore not likely to be lost by any Reformation in Religion since if an Angel from Heaven should bring it they are caution'd not to receive him But that the Clergy should be against and Princes for the Church of Rome is as surprizing as that a Clergy may be byast and a Prince unbyast a Blessing so signally fallen from Heaven upon the Prince who now reigns and his blessed Brother that no advantage under Heaven can be thought so powerful as to have byast them in their Choice THE SECOND Royal Paper VINDICATED HIS late Majesty out of Paternal commiseration and his Princely care for the safety of this Nation breaks out into this complaint It is a sad thing to consider what a world of Heresies are crept into this Nation And this Assailant is much concerned that no distinction should be made between the Religion establish'd by Law and the Parties disowned by it and dissenting from it As if an establishment of a Religion by Law could protect it from being an Heresie or as if Error fix'd by a Law were not more to be pityed than what is vagrant and unsetled He need not trouble himself to vindicate other Sects from Heresie against the four or six General Councils let him defend his own and his work is done But how comes the Church of England to bear the blame of so many Heresies The reason is obvious to any one who reflects upon the breach she made from the Church of Rome and by that example opened a Gate for all Heresies to enter nay the truth is she is a fruitful Womb of Heresies of which Time has and will still deliver her for by throwing the Rule of Obedience and Government over-board the Presbyterians revolted from her from them the Anabaptists the Quakers and how many links more there will or may be God alone can tell since 't is not in the power of that Church but by the Sword to suppress them which if she should use against them nothing would be more unreasonable than to persecute them for adhering too closely to a Rule or Example which she first gave them To his Question How came the Church of Rome to have this power of defining or declaring what 's Heresie I answer By the same way the Church had power in her General Councils to make Creeds and Anathmatize Hereticks and as the Church then did not make any new Articles of Faith when she defined that the Son was Consubstantial to the Father and that Christ had two Wills and one Person so the Church of Rome in her definitions never pretends to make new Articles of Faith but to declare the old ones When the King had pronounced That every Man thinks himself as competent a Judge of Scripture as the Apostles themselves He answers by a Counter-questio Does every one amongst us pretend to an infallible Spirit Yes for by this Gentleman's Position no Man of them will believe but what he sees or understands in the Scriptures and in what they see or understand he conceives they cannot be deceived consequently their Spirit is infallible To use a Man's understanding about Scripture is not to be Judge of Scripture For a Man that so uses his understanding as to submit it to the Tradition of the Church makes the Church the Judge and not himself And whoever uses his understanding in opposition to the Churches Tradition makes himself judge indeed but not to his Salvation We says he own the Authority of Guides in the Church and a due submission to them What 's this Is that submission so due that Heaven will be lost without it If so his Church is as competent a Judge as the Apostles for that is the only punishment due to those who hear not them if otherwise the submission is ad pompam and in the sense of the King every Man thinks himself as competent a Judge of Scripture as the very Apostles themselves The King gives here a Reason for his foregoing Assertion and the sum of it is that the Church of England dares not press her Authority upon other Sects in giving the sense of Scriptures for fear they should confound her for having cast off the Authority of that Church of which she was once a Member and to whom she was equally bound to submit To this he replys That the Church of England pretends to no Infallibility but this is to disguise the Royal Coin for the King abstracts from all Infallibility and his Argument is as forceable without it as with it for if the Sectaries can
Immunities and great Priviledges of the Clergy it was so Fenced with the great Charter of England Magna Charta that nothing but the forcing of this could ruine that As I say some Princes have by their power wrought a change from that Religion into another how much more is it in their hands to turn the Protestant Church into Presbytery or Independency since Protestancy is but of a fresh date and hath no other Foundation but what is common to Presbytery or Independency all of them being built on private interpretations of Scripture saving a Being from the breath of the Civil Magistrate by an establishment in the Law and therefore if the Law be mutable the Religion will be mutable Nor does it avail him to say The Rule of our Religion is unalterable being the Holy Scripture but the Exercise of it is under the Law For Presbytery once established by Law will speak both Law and Scripture as loud as he Thus ends the Vindication of the two Royal Papers Long may they dure in the hands and hearts of all those who love Truth THE THIRD Royal Paper VINDICATED IT cannot but be very surprizing to behold a Gentleman pretending to no ordinary Size in Learning rallying all his Forces to encounter a Princess now in the midst of Laurels whom whilst she Lived the great Figure she made in the Court left no time to improve by Art those excellent Endowments with which Nature had plentifully enriched her and who generously humble consigned to paper this Profession I am not able or if I were would I enter into Disputes with any Body Her design was only the Satisfaction she owed to her Friends not any Engagement in the Quarrels of Disputes and what she left behind her was but a bare and candid Narrative of those great conflicts which she suffered in her Soul upon the only necessary work of her Conversion to God And why a Paper so innocent left by so great a Lady as a Legacy to her Friends should raise the Spleen of so great a Gyant to that degree as to tear it in pieces and thus torn to disfigure it and thus disfigured to expose it would have been a subject of great wonder were it not obvious to suspect the unhappy Genius that moved him But since she has gained the point she aim'd at and so well satisfied her Friends even to the Conviction of many Adversaries and to the admiration of all I shall so recollect the Sense of her Paper by Design and Artifice disjointed that put together it will cement it self and the native Beauty will appear more resplendent by his Neighbouring Shade The first attempt upon her Paper is from her own Concession which is thus I am not able or if I were woul'd I enter into Disputes with any Body at this he seems astonished and hardly capable to understand how any one could be truly satisfied as to the Grounds of leaving one Church and going to the other without entring into matter of Dispute with any Body Before I reply I cannot but observe a Coin newly Counterfeited for the Dutchess does not say she will not enter into the matter of Disputes but only that she will not enter into Disputes which are Expressions of so different a Nature that the one may well be and often is without the other For the matter of Dispute may be any thing about which there may be no Dispute To deliver him then from this astonishment there are many ways to the Wood besides one and God in the Treasury of his all-seeing Providence can so temper second Causes that even without Miracle he can work a thousand Conversions of Souls from Errour to Truth without any Dispute but he urges farther How could one bred up in the Church of England and so well instructed in the Doctrines of it ever satisfy herselfin forsaking the Communion of it without inquiring into and comparing the Droctrines and Practises of both Churches If this will give him Content I doubt not but all this may be and is frequently performed without disputing with any Body for she being now so well knowing in the Doctrines and Practises of the Church of England she had no more to do but to make Inquiry into the Doctrines and Practises of the Church of Rome and so by comparing them together as in the collision of two Flints might by her own Industry strike out that Fire and that Light which might both comfort her Soul and light it to the secure Haven of Eternity But this he adds was not to be presumed of a Person of her Condition for many things must fall in her way which she could neither have leisure to examine nor the Capacity to judg of without the assistance of others As to this I must crave his Pardon for if I be not mis-informed by those who had the Honour to know her she was a Princess of as searching a Wit and of as clear a Judgment as any of her time Nor can it be questioned but she had time and leisure enough for she that professes to have found no rest to her Soul Night nor Day can never be presumed to want time to hunt after that which her Soul did so passionately Love and if any difficulty had fallen in her way which by her self she could not Conquer she had choice of Learned Men of all Professions to consult who might have so smooth'd all the Rubs that lay in her way as to resolve her without any Dispute Had she not says he Divines of the Church of England about her to propose her scruples to yes she had and did so and professes to have received such satisfaction from them as contributed much to her Conversion to the Catholic Church which Discourses she said did but add more to her desire of being a Catholic Now if this be reputed a Dispute then every one who advises with his Divine or Lawyer in matters relating either to his Soul or Estate must be stil'd a Disputant To evince that her Royal Highness did not make use of the ordinary means for her own satisfaction he brings for instance the Bishop of Winchester who had nearest Relation to her as having bred her up in the Principles of the Church of England and was a Man both able and willing to have removed any doubts As to the ability or inclination this Bishop had to have serv'd her in removing her doubts or Scruples I shall not dispute them but this is certain that notwithstanding all his care in her Education in the Protestant Religion she was afterwards out of Love with it and who knows whether this very Bishop at other times at least accidentally in his Discourses with her might not have dropt something which taken up by her might give an advance to her Conversion as it fell out to the insinuated yielding Bishops O but she endeavoured to conceal her Scruples from him Admit she did and that as the Palate nauseats Meat which formerly it loved
so she either out of some disgust or for reasons best known to her self did not so well relish the advice given her by the Bishop of Winchester Had she no Body else to consult If she had there is no reason to charge her with the not using ordinary means unless this Gentleman has a Revelation for it After this he cites the following discourse of her Royal Highness That she spoke severally to two of the best Bishops we have in England who both told her there were many things in the Roman Church which it were much to be wished we had kept as Confession which was no doubt commanded of God That praying for the dead was one of the ancient things in Christianity That for their parts they did it daily though they would not own it And afterwards pressing one of them very much upon the other point he told her that if he had been breed up a Catholic he would not change his Religion but that being of another Church wherein be was sure were all things necessary to Salvation he thought it very ill to give that Scandal as to leave that Church wherein he received his Baptism Which discourse she said did but add more to the desire she had to be a Catholic By this long Text 't is clear that her Royal Highness had made many steps towards the Catholic Religion and that the Conference she had with these Bishops did but add fuel to the flame that was within her for such is the result of her last words did but add more to the desire she had to be a Catholic This being so her Highness and the two Bishops were now upon different terms as Party and Party she making advantage of their Concessions as of Truths coming out of the mouth of the Enemies to the Religion she either actually professed or was inclinable to and they notwithstanding those Concessions keeping their own ground So that it was not the Authority or Example of these Bishops that prevailed with her but Truth forced from an Enemy which for that reason convinced her the more Since therefore this Gentleman allows of the Concessions 't is unreasonable to put this question Why should not the last words have greater force to have kept her in our Church than the former to have drawn her from it Because 't is easier for a Catholic to believe a Protestant speaking against himself in matters of Religion than for himself Ex ore tuo te judico is an Argument invincible against a Man's self The Concessions then being admitted both by the Catholic party and these two Bishops she had reason to believe them as to the Concessions but not in that wherein the Catholics and they differ'd which was That all things necessary to Salvation are certainly in the Protestant Church and that it was ill to leave it The next two Paragraphs concern not her Royal Highness For whether the two Bishops did let fall words inconsistent with their own Religion or not her work was done she not being obliged to reconcile them to their own Religion But the late Bishop of Winchester instead of untying has cut the knot a sunder For says he he first doubts whether there ever were such Bishops who made such answers and then he affirms That he believes there never was in rerum natura such a discourse as is pretended What pity 't is the Bishop of Winchester should be a person of so small a faith as not to give credit to so great a Lady in a concern wherein 't was no advantage to her to tell a Lye and if she had was by all the Laws Divine and Humane bound to restitution for the wrong she did them Non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum Or if he doubted whether there were ever any such Paper we have now the Royal word of a King for it attesting it to be hers Matters being thus we do not charge upon the Church of England the single Opinion of one or two Bishops but 't is reason to believe that a Lady thirsting after truth might defer much to persons of so eminent a rank in that Church This Gentleman I perceive is very studious very industrious to find a Lady in Errour and hopes she may contradict her self thus then She protests in the presence of Almighty God that no person Man or Woman directly or indirectly ever said any thing to her since she came into England or used the least endeavour to make her change her Religion and that it is a blessing she wholly owes to Almighty God So that the Bishops are acquitted from having any hand in it by her own words But I beseech him did she or any else charge upon these Bishops that they said any thing to her or used any endeavours to make her change her Religion How oft doth it happen that the speaker of words may utter them for one design and the hearer make use of them for another though then the Bishops did not say any thing to her with endeavour to make her change her Religion yet their words may have added much to the change of her Religion He proceeds And as far as we can understand her meaning she thought her self Converted by immediate Divine Illumination This construction of her words so tickled his fancy that it made him sport upon the Church of Rome's private Spirit for a long time But for my part if he has done laughing I can understand nothing of this immediate Divine Illumination from her words For God who disposes of all things strongly and sweetly has infinite methods to convert Souls to himself without immediate Illumination by so unexpected a concourse of second Causes so well tempered and knit together by his wisdom that a conversion of a Soul may and will follow thence she not knowing how and consequently as 't is the sole work of the Almighty so that blessing she wholly owes to him What this Gentleman understands by a private Spirit I know not but be it what it will 't is therefore vitious because it is inconsistent with those publick Methods and Rules God has left to govern his Church by which whether the Protestants when they went out from the Roman Church did not desert by following an Ignis Fatuus of their own in their singular interpretation of holy Scripture against the known Sense of their Mother Church is the subject of another dispute or rather indeed 't is put out of all dispute that they then did unless they can shew that the constant Tradition and Practice of the Primitive Church interpreted Scripture as they then did in all the Points they reform'd in which they know is impossible Her Royal Highness declares that she would never have changed if she thought she could have saved her Soul otherwise and he answers if this were true she had good reason for her change if it were not true she had none as it is most certain it was not I cannot perswade my self
that this Gentleman would force his Modesty to such a Degree as to give the Lye to a Lady of her transcendent Quality especially who had been so well bred up in the Principles of the Church of England I shall rather favour him with this Construction that tho' she thought what she said was true yet in reality it was not But how came she to make this Declaration she tells us she never had any scruple till the November before and then they began upon reading Doctor Heylin's History of the Reformation which was commended to her as a Book to settle her and there she found such abominable Sacriledge upon Henry the Eighth's Divorce King Edward's Minority and Queen Elizabeth's Succession that she could not believe the Holy Ghost could ever be in such Councills And because Doctor Heylin's History wrought her Conversion he seems to be displeased at the Author of that Advice but I must needs dissent from him for it being a History of the Reformation it wasmore fit to put that into her hands to settle her in her Religion if the Reformation had been from God being within her Sphere than any Book of Controversy wherein she might have been plunged into difficulties insuperable the Objection oftentimes out-weighing the Solution And tho' in the History of Reformation he tells us there are two distinct parts The one built on Scripture and Antiquity the other upon Maxims of State yet the one being visible and the other invisible had she been a Person of greater Understanding than she was how could she possibly discern both what he requires to have been the Subject of her Consideration was so far beyond her Reach that more Speculative Persons than her Condition would permit her to be come short of that Performance and therefore no better way could be than to be conversant with such Objects or motives as were of her own size One of which was that where the Foundations of a Pretended Reformation were Sacriledge Rapine and Lust She could not believe the Holy Ghost could ever be in such Councills He replies thus were not the Vices of Alexander the Sixth and of many other Popes as great at least as those of Henry the Eighth Be it so and suppose them greater therefore neither she nor any Body else in Prudence can believe that God ever chose Alexander the Sixth or such as he points at by vitiously acting to be the Reformers of his Church or to give Being to a Reformation As to the Invasion upon the Rights and Lands of the Church he replies to by Retaliation Are there not Miscarriages of the like Nature in the Church of Rome It may be so but if by such Miscarriages one should think to reform the Church I shall as freely declare with this great Lady that I cannot believe the Holy Ghost can ever be in such Councils From her scruples which the reading of Dr. Heylin's History of the Reformation had put into her mind she came to the Examen of points in difference by the Holy Scriptures where it seems says he contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome she found some things so easie that she wondered she had been so long without finding them out That some things may easily be met with in Holy Scripture makes not against the Doctrine of the Church of Rome nay standing to the bare Letter without the assistance of Tradition experience has made it manifest that her Champions have fought against all sorts of Enemies with that success even at their own weapon that partiality it self cannot deny her the Victory Nor is it any great wonder that a Lady of her great endowments being but yet a seeker of Truth and not acquainted with the Catholic Rules of Expounding Scriptures and having no other interest but her Soul's safety should easily find what she did not formerly when she thought her self secure and was not concern'd nay what great Doctors do pass slightly over when thousands of lesser Talents than she have done the like What discoveries then hath she made First of the Real Presence then of the Infallibility of Confession and praying for the Dead As to the Real Presence importing a Real and Substantial change of the Elements into the Body and Blood of Christ. He demands In what words of Christ is it to be found I answer in these This is my Body And whereas he adds That the wisest Persons of the Church of Rome have confessed that the bare words of our Saviour can never prove it I answer 'T is hard for him to determine who are the wisest but he knows well that they generally teach that those words cannot be verify'd without that change Confession of Sins as ever commanded is no harder to meet withal than confess your sins to one another And if the Apostles and in them their Successors had power to forgive and retain sins there must be an Obligation in others to confess them otherwise that power had been useless Praying for the Dead is also frequently grounded upon Scripture and though her Royal Highness seems to have been somewhat confirmed in the belief of it by the concession of the two Bishops yet she no where affirm'd that to be the sole Motive to change her Religion but only that it added more to her desire of being a Catholic The Places usually cited for the Infallibility of the Church he would perswade us may as well be apply'd to other Churches as to the Roman but because I have already proved the Roman to be that one Catholic Church I shall supersede from any further trouble at the present From Christ's promise of being with the Church to the end of the World and she now believing no other Church to be that Church but that which is called the Roman she makes this inference That our Saviour would not permit the Church to give the Laity the Communion in one kind if it were not lawful so to do This Illation is evident for otherwise he would not be with his Church to the end of the world From this excellentDiscourse of her Royal Highness 't is an invincible Truth that all the force of Sense and Reason do center in this conclusion that she did not think it possible to save her Soul otherwise than in the Roman Church and by her Paper the world may see the pregnant Power of Truth which forced those two great Lights of England's Church to a private concession of what in publick they were unwilling to own Magna est veritas prâ—valebit FINIS A Catalogue of Books Sold by Matthew Turner at the Lamb in High-Holbourn ACTS of the Clergy of France The second Edition To which is added a necessary advice how to read Books of Controversie Quarto A Discourse of the necessity of Church Guides Quarto The Guide in Controversies Four Parts Quarto A True Narrative of the pretended Popish Plot with Figures A Papist Mis-represented and Represented Quarto Why are you a Catholic And Why are you a Protestant Quarto Bishop Condom's Discourse of Universal History Octavo Digitus Dei against Nullifidians Octavo The MASS Triumphing Octavo The MASS Vindicated Octavo Veron's Rule of Faith Octavo Bishop Condom's Exposition of Catholic Doctrine Twelves His Treatise of Communion in both Species Twelves The Touch-stone of the Reformed Gospel Twelves Turbervil's Manual of Controversies Twelves Abridgment of Christian Doctrine Eighteens Vane's Lost Sheep Return'd home Twelves Counsels of Wisdom or the Maxims of Solomon Twelves The Catechism of Penance Eighteens Four Maxims of Eternity Eighteens Christian Thoughts for every Day Twentyfours St. Francis de Sales Introduction to a Devout Life Twelves Thomas of Kempis Following of Christ. In Twelves and Twentyfours THE END
as any for it confounds Phancy and Tradition whereas the one is publick to the whole World and the other is private His next Paragraph adulterates the Royal Coin for when the King demands to know where the power of deciding matters of Faith is given to every particular person the sense is clear for the question cannot be meant otherwise than in relation to himself But he extends it so as if every one was to give Laws to another's Faith and this without any ground is made the first Member of the division But he adds If by deciding matters of Faith no more be meant but every Man 's being satisfied of the reasons why he believes one thing to be true and not another that belongs to every Man as he is bound to take care of his Soul So that by his reply every Man whose Soul is dear to him may and ought to discuss and dispute every Article of his Faith and bring it to the Test of his own reason and so the Omnipotence of a God revealing and the Authority of a Church declaring what is revealed weighs not with him until reason be satisfy'd and the understanding becomes a measure of all revealed Truths Whereas in truth Authority is the correlative of Believing and Reason of Knowledge And though we make use of our reason to find out that Authority which ought to sway us as a blind Man serves himself with his reason to find out his Guide yet after that 't is Authority not Reason that moves us and the previous motives inducing us to embrace the Authority of the Church from whence we have Scriptures and all other inscrutable Mysteries are much more visible and resplendent than for any other Article of our Faith The King goes on Christ left power in his Church even to forgive sins c. He replys But where then was the Roman Catholic Church Undoubtedly where now it is one and the same from whence all other pretended Churches went out she never departing from any Church that was elder than her self If she had I doubt not but her Eagle-ey'd adversaries would long er'e this have brought to light the Fathers the Councils or whatever else stood in opposition against her and since they never did nor can their plea against her is common to all whoever opposed the true Church In a good Sense therefore she alone remains Heir general to the Apostles as to those gifts which were not personal but given by Christ for the necessary support and government of her self which is to continue untill the consummation of Time And though he seems surprised that God should keep Man more from Error than from Sin Yet if he recalls but to mind that some of the Prophets were led into truths by the holy Spirit and were great Sinners at the same time and that all the Prophets though infallible in delivering such truths as God put into their mouths yet were obnoxious to sin the miraculous surprize will cease and the reason why infallibility is necessary and not impeccability is manifest because without the first the Church could not subsist for if once she makes Shipwrack of her Faith she is no more a Church an effect not so proper to sin And whereas he demands Would any have believed the Apostles infallible if they had known them to have been persons of ill lives I answer yes for either by Miracles wrought in confirmation of their Infallibility or any other way they could have an assurance of it As to any concession that the Church may err in deposing Princes if he means she may err in the decision of Truth or definition of Faith about it he is purely beholding to himself for that concession not to the King or any else I know of who only engage for her inerrability in delivering what she received from Christ and his Apostles by an uninterrupted Tradition and in conformity to this Rule the Church of Rome with all those in Communion with her the rest either by Heresie or Apostacy being divided from her was judge even of the Scripture it self what was Canonical what not or else it had been impossible for the Church of England to have known any thing of Truth concerning that Point there being no other Church to inform her but what had forfeited her Credit by manifest Heresie and that owned by the Church of England this is a vindication of the King against three of his Paragraphs The King having put the question by what Authority Men separate themselves from that Church He replies that they have not separated themselves from the Catholick and Apostolick Church but are disjoyned from the Roman Church that we may keep up the Stricter Vnion with the truly Catholick and Apostolick Church But if the English Church reputes it self a Member of the Chatholick Church because she professes to stand to the three Creeds and four first general Councils then certainly the Arians Nestorians Eutichians and the Eastern Churches above-mentioned cannot be parts of the Catholick Apostolick Church because they hold not the Apostolick Doctrine contain'd in those Creeds and Councils But besides those Churches there were no other in Being at the time of Separation but those Churches which were in communion with the Church of Rome consequently the Church of England going out from them separated her self from the Catholick Apostolick Church and therefore unless he can prove the Church of Rome to have deserted any other elder Church than her self by Usurpation or otherwise his Story of an Usurper will be but a Shift and may authorise all Rebellion either in Church or State The last Paragraph is since Protestants do charge the Church of Rome with Imposition of new Articles of Faith the King desires to know who is to be judg of that whether the whole Church the Succession whereof hath continued to this Day without Interruption or particular Men who have raised Schisms to their own Advantage The Roman Church having been in Possession of all those Truths now questioned by the Men of the Church of England nothing can be more unreasonable than to devest her of her just Possession and to require her to fall a proving whereas this ought to be the Province of those who under the Pretence of Innovation revolted from her For either they must make good their charge or else by all Laws they stand condemned and she remains justified Wherefore since at the time of separation she owned the Papal Supremacy and other Articles to have descended to her by an universal Tradition whoever questions the Title must convince her of that pretended Usurpation and then as it is well observed by the King who shall be judg in that case To have answered the Royal Paper this Method he should have minded which in disputes of another Nature I doubt not but he would have Practised However after his challenging the Church to prove her Possession he proceeds to declare that the Protestants being now by falling from the Church