the Ephesians are commended because they hated the Nicolaitans On the other side the Pergamenians are reprov'd ver 15 16. because they gave them a Toleration Hence in the Ancient Church the Orthodox and Catholics always very sedulously deserted the Communion of Heretics Rome it self which now accuses us of Schism in the very Infancy of the Christian Religion departed from the Asiatic Churches upon a slight difference about Easter-day And it is long since that the Romanists broke the Bond of Unity with the whole East But it is not long since that the Commonwealth of Venice being Excommunicated by Paul V the Jesuites were seen openly to desert the whole Territory so that they rather chose to renounce their Temples their Altars and their Ordinary Worship then remain in the least Communion with the Venetian So that they are not simply to be blam'd who separate but they that separate unjustly and rashly Let us see then whether or no our Separation were just and necessary that we may free it from being Schismatical Certainly it cannot be said that we separated willingly and of our own accords but constrain'd and expell'd by all manner of violences In the very Bosom of the Roman Church we importunately desir'd a Reformation of Abuses which process of time had multiplied as well in Doctrin as in Disciplin and which the Grandees and People in the Churches of Germany France England and the Low Countries most earnestly long'd for both in the Head and Members But what was done They were not only not heard much less heard in so just a Petition but all severity was exercis'd against them with Temporal and Spiritual Arms Fire Sword and Halters were made use of to extirpate out of the World those whom Anathema's and the Thunder of Excommunication had expell'd from all Public Communion Thus Excommunicated Expell'd and lyable to dire Persecution what should we do It was not safe to redeem your Communion at the Price of our Consciences by subscribing to the Errors themselves and by receiving all those School-Assertions which we deem'd contrary to the Rules of Christian Doctrin as Articles of our Faith. Therefore it was necessary that another Worship should be set up that other Pulpits should be erected and that other Congregations should be assembled together which was every where done by the Authority of the Magistrate whose Duty it is to protect the Church and sedulously to take care for the Reformation of Doctrin and Disciplin therein if corrupted through the neglect of the Ordinary Pastors Becanus the Jesuite Analog Vet. Nov. Test c. 26. num 4. reck'ns up several Reformations made in the Jewish Church by Pious Kings such as were Asa Jehosaphat Josia Ezechia and Joas who most certainly had sufficient Authority to reform the Worship of God and to restore it to its Primitive Purity Therefore it cannot be deny'd but that those Christian Princes and Magistrates who in the times of our Fore-fathers put their helping Hands to the Reformation had a Right to labour the Institution of another Worship more Pure more Holy and more Plain then that from which they were forc'd to make a Separation because they had requir'd a Reformation of it Moreover tho' Rome had not forsaken us yet there was a necessity of forsaking her because she refused to reform her own Abuses and long contracted Corruptions We have in this particular a most express Command Apoc. 18. 4. Come out of her my people that you be not partakers of her crimes and receive not of her punishments Which Command is of so much the greater moment because the Jesuites themselves Ribera upon the 14. and 18. Apoc. and Viegas upon the 18. interpret that to be meant of Rome not the Ethnic but the Christian Rome and such as it is in Scripture foretold it shall be under Anti-Christ To us also says Viegas sect 1. in 18. Apoc. it seems that the same thing ought to be said with Aretas Primasius Ambrose Jerom and others observe what Testimonies he cites and how many that the Idolatry of it is here meant and that Rome shall depart from the Faith and so shall become the Habitation of Devils and of every unclean Spirit and every unclean Bird by reason of her execrable Enormities and Superstition of Idolatry which at that time shall rage far and near in the Roman City and Empire But you would say Mr. Prior if you had any Wit how comes it to pass that you have now more nice Consciences then your Fore-fathers had before the Reformation who dy'd in the Communion of the Roman Church and of whose Salvation you are unwilling to make any doubt I Answer first That the Consciences of others are no Rule to ours and that every Man ought to follow his own and not anothers Would you have me as you desire in your Letter that I should embrace the Roman Communion What if I should press you to embrace Ours wherein so many Men enjoy the Tranquility of their Consciences Secondly I say that our Fore-fathers might with safety to their Consciences persevere in the Roman Communion notwithstanding they abominated the Abuses and Corruptions of it because God had not shewn them a way to depart nor were the Abuses as yet so palpably intollerable because they had not as yet obtain'd the force of Law nor were establish'd under the Penalties of Excommunication But the Example of our Ancestors cannot be apply'd to us because that God set up the Standard of the Gospel in another place to Us. He call'd to Us to come out of Babel when the Opinions of the Scholastics were changed into Articles of Faith. So long as the time appointed for their Captivity lasted the Israelites might securely abide either in Egypt or Babel But it had bin a Crime for them to have remain'd there any longer when God call'd them forth to Liberty He would be very ridiculous indeed who having rich and fertile Pastures should neglect them and rather chuse to carry his Flock into noxious Grounds in hopes that his Sheep would let alone the hurtful Weeds and only feed upon the wholsom Herbs So were he deservedly to be derided who should prefer the noxious and dangerous Pastures of the Roman Church before the well Wooded Gardens of the Reformed Churches in hopes of discerning the poysonous Weeds from the wholsom Herbage as it is very probable our Ancestors did Lastly I add this farther That I do not here dispute Whether the Roman Communion may be retain'd without the loss of Eternal Salvation This Question belongs to another place But Whether we are Schismatics because we have deserted it Now I maintain the Negative because that Conscience alone summon'd us to the Separation without any other Consideration nay contrary to all other worldly Considerations which persuaded us to adhere to it Some there are who to convict us of Schism reproach the Calling of our Pastors but with an Argument too weak for the Proof of so great a Crime Formerly
first prov'd by most manifest Proofs that the Mark belongs to Him. And therefore formerly Councils were assembled as well Provincial as General for the Conviction of Heretics wherein it was lawful for the Offenders to defend themselves and the Cause was seriously examin'd by the Rule of Faith and the Documents of Sacred Scripture Neither did Passion prevail among Them but Truth and the Fear of God. But in respect of the Protestants no such thing was ever observ'd for against them they began preposterously with Execution The first Arguments of their Adversaries were Halters Fire and Sword according to the Dystich affixed to the Bed of Charles V at the Augustan Dyet in the Year 1530. Vtere jure tuo Caesar servosque Lutheri Ense Rota Ponto Funibus Igne neca Caesar use thy own Power and Luther's fry With Halters Swords Wheels Fire and Sea destroy Whence it came to pass that after a thousand sorts of Executions and numberless Martyrs consum'd by violent Deaths at length a Council was assembled but packt and consisting of none but the Capital Enemies of the Protestants not to hear them calmly and mildly nor to discuss their Cause with Charity and Meekness but to brandish and rattle o'er their Heads the Thunder os Anathema's Neither were they ever admitted or heard in this Council I mean that of Trent the History of which if read is sufficient to display the Justice of it Nay Rome it self was asham'd of this Council for she only publish'd the Canons and Decrees but diligently suppress'd the Acts which nevertheless were afterwards through the singular Providence of God brought to lightby Paul Sarpio a Venetian of the Order of the Servites under the Name of Pietro Soave Polano to the great astonishment and detestation of all Men whose Judgments were more sound and impartial In the Second place there is no Heresie where there is no stubborn Obstinacy nor wilful persisting in the Error This St. Austin teacheth us Epist 162. They who defend not their Opinion with any stubborn Animosity tho' false and perverse more especially if not brought forth by the boldness of their own Presumption but having receiv'd it from their Parents either seduc'd or fall'n into Error seek after the Truth with industrious Care ready to be corrected when they have found it are not to be numbred among Heretics Now the Reform'd are far from any such Stubbornness nothing retains them in their Religion except the force of Conscience through the evidence of Truth We daily offer those who accuse us of Heresie to forsake the Error if we are in any so they shew it to us with the Light of Truth For with that only Daughter of Heaven we are enamor'd e'en to death who alone can recover and assert our freedom If we discover any extraordinary Zeal and Fervor I wish it were more fervent in our Profession that is not to be imputed to any Spirit of Contradiction but to that most firm Persuasion of our Hearts through the Celestial Illumination of the Divine Word that we are in the way of Truth But yet a little farther Thirdly As a Cat has an enmity against a Bat and will eat it either because she takes it for a Mouse or a Bird so you Romanists prosecute us Protestants with an implacable Hatred and damn us to the Flames of Hell either as Heretics or if that Pretence fail as Schismatics For they who deal most gently by us can afford us no better then to lay to our Charge the Crime of Schism the Rending of the seamless Garment of Christ the Viper's Skin and the breach of the Churches Unity But as far as we are from Heresie so far likewise are we from Schism and of this Crime it will be as easie to clear our selves as of the former First therefore tho' the first Authors of the Reformation had overhastily deserted the Roman Communion which cannot be said in regard that they try'd all ways to preserve themselves in it with safety to their Consciences nevertheless they who were born after the Schism and prefer the Protestant Communion before the Roman because they find Satisfaction of Conscience in it which they have no prospect of in the other Communion cannot be accus'd of Schism nor can be censur'd to have lost the hopes of Salvation because they persevere in the Protestant Communion This perhaps Mr. Prior you look upon as a Paradox and yet it may be prov'd without any great difficulty Certain it is that formerly under Jeroboam ten entire Tribes a Schism happening deserted the Communion of the Church and Temple of Jerusalem of which God had said My Name shall abide there and having made choice of Dan and Bethel for the places of Public Worship joyn'd Idolatry to their Schism For the Calves at Dan and Bethel under which they ador'd God were most assuredly Idols Nevertheless it is a Question whether the Posterity of these Schismatics born in the time of the Schism it self and as it were carry'd away with the Torrent of it are to be excluded from Salvation so that they abstain'd from the Worship of Idols at that time The reason of the Doubt seems very great for that God long after the Schism still acknowledg'd the Ten Tribes for his People sent his Prophets to them and entrusted them with his Extraordinary Oracles If then it cannot be said of these Ten Tribes so notoriously Schismatical that there was nothing remaining of the Covenant of God and Light of Nature for them who were as it were swept away with the Torrent of Schism much less are the Modern Protestants to be excluded from Salvation and formally to be accounted Heretics tho' it should be granted that the first Authors of the Schism did sin against the Rules of Charity and overhastily broke the Bond of Unity especially seeing that the Divine Worship under the New Testament is not fixed to Rome and the Quirinal Mount as it was to Sinai and the Temple of Jerusalem But there is no necessity that we should over earnestly desire the Assistance of the Ten Tribes our Cause would be but in a desperate Condition should it stand in need of their Aid I must confess we did depart from the Church of Rome and that another Worship was set up in the West as to External Rites then was publicly receiv'd before the time of that departure But I deny that this departure so far as concerns our selves to be a Schism rather I averr on the other side that it was lawful and just and that they are to be accounted Schismatics who were the occasion of so necessary a departure that caus'd the Wound to Gangrene and shut the Gate against all Peace and Re-union of the Church For sometimes it may be convenient to desert some Societies that profess the Name of Christ if there be taught among them any other Gospel then what we have receiv'd from the Apostles This is a thing not to be question'd Hence Apoc. 2. 6.
Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus The Salvation of the Protestants Asserted and Defended c. Guil. Needham R. R. in Christo P. ac D. D. Whihelmo Archiep. Cantuar. a Sacris Domest Octob. 1. 1688. THE SALVATION OF PROTESTANTS Asserted and Defended In Opposition to the RASH and UNCHARITABLE SENTENCE OF THEIR Eternal Damnation Pronounc'd against them by the ROMISH CHURCH By J. H. Dalhusius Inspector of the Churches in the County of Weeden upon the Rhine c. Newly done into English LONDON Printed for James Adamson at the Angel and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1689. THE PREFACE Health to the Reader from the Fountain of Health Courteous Reader IT is sit thou should'st in the first place be acquainted with the Occasion of the following Discourse which was this From Heddesdorff where my sacred Calling gave me an Abode for almost five years together lyes distant about an hours Riding that celebrated Abbey in Rommersdorff belonging to the Fryers called Predemonstrators who affirm to be Founder of their order in the Year 1120 one Norbert first a Canon in the Church of St. Victor of Santen near the City of Cleve which as they say laid the first Foundations of Santen afterwards Chaplain to Lotharius of Saxony and lastly by the Authority of this Emperor Primate of Germany that is to say Archbishop of Magdeburgh according to the Verses Anno milleno centeno bis quoque deno Sub Patre Norberto fundatur Candidus Ordo They are called Praemonstratenses or Predemonstrators if we may believe the Story because the Place for the first building of the Abbey was shew'd before-hand to Norbert as he was at his Prayers And they wear a white Habit for that the Mother of God brought him a Habit of that colour as the Norbertines not long since vaunted thus bespeaking their Founder Cruce locus Praemonstratus ubi struas Regiam Sancta tibi Virgo Mater vestem praebet niveam Sanctus Augustinus Pater auro praescribit regulam Where thy Palace thou shouldst build the Cross the Place doth shew The Holy Virgin Mother brings thy Habit white as Snow Holy Austin doth unfold thy Order's Rule in Gold. The foresaid Norbert held the See of Magdeburgh seven Years and ten Months He dy'd in the Year of Christ 1134 upon St. Peter and Paul the Apostles day and was buried in the Church of the Blessed Virgin where in the Year 1625 by the Command of the Emperor Ferdinand II his Stone Sepulchre was broken open and his Reliques thence translated in great Pomp to Prague And so dead Norbert was made the living Saint and Patron of Bohemia Now in regard the Successors of this Norbert among which are the Abbots of Rommersdorff frequently visit our Court of Weeden and this Village of Heddesdorff either to look after their Farms and Rents or as any other Occasions draw them and by that means were often wont to be in my Company I thought it not only Decent but most Christianlike at all times and in all places to shew them all the Civility and honest Friendship I could and from thence forward hitherto so continu'd to do as faras lay in my Power They on the other side observing this made reciprocal Returns of Bounty Respect and Love as often as I went to visit them Confiding therefore in this mutual Amity and Familiarity I presum'd upon the last of December to send to the present Right Reverend Lord Abbot Charles Wurstius my kindest Wishes of Prosperity for the ensuing Year Nevertheless to this Civility of mine the next morning such was the rudeness and barbarity of his Prior that for Answer he sent me the subsequent Letter the Contents of which are verbatim as follows To the Reverend and Learned Mr. John Herman Dalhusius for the time Curate in Heddesdorf and Inspector of the County of Weeden his much respected Friend Heddesdorff Rommersdorff Reverend and much respected Mr. Inspector BY the Command of my Lord Abbot now upon business abroad against the approaching New Year according to your Calender I pray for and heartily wish you a good Beginning Progress and a fortunate Couclusion of it Moreover I have sent you according to your desire Oats for your Money together with your Treatise imparted to us against the Anabaptistical Heresie sufficiently and clearly formerly refuted and condemn'd by the Roman Catholic Church We have perused it and are pleas'd with your Zeal but we should have lik'd it much better if after you had implor'd the Grace of the Holy Ghost the only Enlightner of obdurate Hearts you had bin first a Convert to the Lord God by abjuring the Errors of your Faith and returning to the Ship and which is the Roman Catholic and only saving Church St. Peter's Net out of which by reason of the vast multitude of the Fish the Authors and first Founders of the Anabaptistical and other Errors fell down according to the Catholic Belief into the profoundest Sea of Hell of whom the Ring-leader was Luther Whose success I grieve to speak it so fatal to hundreds of thousands of Souls encouraging Melancthon Zuinglius Oecolampadius Menno Calvin and several others to the End they might raise to themselves a great Name in the World and serve their Carnal Desires coyn'd and forg'd several other Opinions repugnant to Truth nevertheless condemn'd by the Roman Catholic Church according to the Custom observ'd from the very beginning of it as the Authors of them were Excommunicated I could wish your Reverence would more studiously peruse the Catholic Writers with sounder Judgment that you would foresee your last End and while you live consult the Good of your own Soul lest after you have run the race of this Mortal Life in Company with those sublime Doctors as you stile them in your Treatise against the Anabaptists you be not only depriv'd of Eternal Felicity but burn in the Infernal Everlasting Fire This wholsom Admonition more precious then Gold and all the Kingdoms of the World patiently and kindly accept instead of a NEW-YEARS-GIFT and live eternally the Favourer of him who is thy Brother most desirous of thy Salvation Prior for the time John Gaspar Baldem Truly I was amaz'd at the sight of such a merciless Monster that instead of the Roses of desired Friendship cast before me Baskets of Thorny Bryers and rejecting the Salvation of Christ Pax Vobis denounc'd a Laborious War against me yet Glorious for the Truth of the Catholic Evangelical Faith. For now as the Case stood my Pen was to be drawn in defence of That and to wipe off pretended Stains Wherefore I return'd an Answer tho' overwhelm'd with the Duties of my Calling during the several Holy-days at that time of the Year and within the space of a few days I finish'd the following Apology for the SALVATION of CHRISTIAN PROTESTANTS and took care to have it convey'd to the Lord Abbot of Rommersdorff by means of this short Epistle Most Reverend Famous and Learned Lord Abbot My most honoured Favourer
that much harsher has fallen from the Pens of the most learned Men in your Church nay what whole Societies maintain at this day in the very Bosom of it Let one serve for all that is to say Bellarmin who l. 2. de amiss Grat. c. 13. thus goes on God does not only permit the Wicked to commit many Evils neither does he only forsake the Godly that they may be constrain'd to suffer what ever injuries the Wicked shall offer them but also he presides over those evil and malicious Wills rules and governs them twists and bends them by working in them invisibly so that altho' they be evil out of their own vitious Inclinations yet they are dispos'd by Divine Providence more to one sort of Mischief then another III. As it cannot be without extreme Injury said of us That we make God the Author of Sin so it is no less maliciously fixed upon us in your Church to the end you may have a Pretence the more freely to condemn us that we maintain That Christ despair'd upon the Cross and that the grievous Torments which he felt in his Body would have little availd unless he had also suffer'd in his Soul the Pangs and Torments of the Damn'd But look upon the Tenth Section of the Gallican Catechism where the contrary is expresly asserted that is to say that Christ still hop'd in God in the midst of all his Agonies even then when he cry'd out in the depth of all his Woes My God My God why hast thou forsaken me As iâ— his Father had bin in wrath with him and had deserted him It behov'd Christ to the end he might free the Souls together with the Bodies to suffer the Punishment of our Sins as well in his Soul as in his Body The most Learned among you in this Point are of the same Opinion with us Cardinal Cusanus Exercit. Spirit l. 10. ex Serm. Qui per Spiritum has utter'd those things upon this Subject without any Censure of your Church which would have been adjug'd Blasphemous and Impious in the Reformed had they dropt from their Pens The Passion of Christ says he then which none could be greater was like that of the Damn'd that cannot be more damn'd that is to say even to the Torments of Hell. In his behalf says the Prophet David The pains of Hell compass'd me about nevertheless thou hast brought my Soul out of Hell. But he is the only Person who through such a Death enter'd into that Glory That same Pain of Sense conformable to the Pains of Hell he was certainly resolv'd to suffer to the Glory of God the Father that he might shew that he was to Obey him to the extremity of Punishment For this is to glorisie God by all possible manner of means And thus our Justification comes solely from Christ For we Sinners in Him discharge the debt of Infernal Torments which we justly deserve that so we may attain to the Resurrection of Life Suarez also of the same Order in 3 Thom. Quaest 52. Art. 4. Disput 43. Sect 1. relates out of Medina That some Catholics believ'd that Christ suffer'd outwardly some Pains of the Damned in Hell yet not in the same manner as the Damned suffer that is to say against their Wills or with Disorder and Confusion but out of extraordinary Charity What more have ever any of Ours said not to offend Christ but out of a desire to seek the Fountain of Sweetness in the Bitterness of his Woes the Harvest of Joy in his Sadness Security of Heart in his Horrors and theâ—eby to acknowledge his Victory the more Illustrious by how much the Combat was more Terrible which he undertook and the Triumph the more Glorious by how much the more Dreadful the Labors were that he sustain'd But from the Pens of which of Ours dropt any thing like that which John Ferus both taught and wrote upon this Subject By Birth a Teutonic says Sixtus Senensis a Dominican Biblioth l. 4. of the Order of Minors Preacher in the Chief Church at Mentz a Person highly learned in Theology endu'd with a singular Eloquence whose Equal in the duty of Evangelical Preaching the Catholic German Churches at this time have not to shew because he wrote in a more free and polite stile Pious and Learned Meditations according to the Catholic Doctrin This Man therefore upon Mat. 27. discoursing of Christ's Exclamation upon the Cross has these Expressions Christ at this hour put off God not by Exposing himself but by not Feeling he set aside the Father that he might act the Man. Thus God the Father now does not act the part of a Father but of a Tyrant tho' in the mean time he had a most tender Affection for Christ And in another place Christ that he might set Sinners free put himself in the place of all Sinners not Stealing nor committing Adultery nor Murther c. but translating to himself the Wages Punishment and Deserts of Sinners which are Cold Heat Hunger Thirst Dread of Death Dread of Hell Despair Death and Hell it self that he might overcome Hunger by Hunger Fear by Fear Horror by Horror Despair by Despair Death by Death Hell by Hell and in a word Satan by Sitan Go then Reverend Mr. Prior and bring me any Reformed Doctor that ever talk'd at this rate which nevertheless in Ferus the Monk never any of your Party censur'd for Blasphemy IV. These more grievous Calumnies being thus wip'd off the rest that remain behind are too slight for me to spend much time in refuting them The most of your Party cry out That we deserve to be damn'd because we are Enemies to the Blessed Virgin and the Saints as also to Mortification c. Are we to be traduc'd as Enemies to the Blessed Virgin who understand that we cannot be so but we must cease to be Christians who believe her now in Heaven enjoying Celestial Glory near her Son Who know that on Earth she was the truly happy and blessed Mother of our Lord and Savior Are we to be accounted the Saints Enemies who boast of their Communion in our Creed and by the Imitation of their Examples as much as in us lyes labour up the same Hill to the same Reward But you will say That we Reformed do not adore the Blessed Virgin nor the Shrines of the Saints c. I Answer That we abstain from that sort of Worship not out of hatred or contempt of the Blessed Virgin but lest we should offend them by paying to them that Religious Worship which is only due to God. The Faithful in the Old Testament never gave these Honors to the Prophets and Patriarchs deceas'd and yet they were never accounted their Adversaries For four hundred years together there was no such Adoration us'd in the Primitive Church And Antiquity anathematiz'd the Collyridians leaning that way and saluting the Holy Virgin by the Title of Queen of Heaven as we find in Epiphanius Haeres
Rome presum'd about Two hundred years after Christ for that reason to Excommunicate the Asiatic Churches that is to say to renounce Communion with them Irenaeus of Lyons sharply reprov'd him as the Epistles of Polycrates and Irenaeus extant about this Matter in Eusebius declare Hist Eccles l. 5. c. 23. 24. Was Aetius deservedly numbred among the Heretics because he acknowledg'd no difference jure Divino between a Bishop and a Presbyter For it is not evident that the Scripture acknowledges any such difference and that St. Jerom upon cap. 2. of the Epistle to Titus was plainly of the same Opinion nay and according to Medina in Bellarmin That St. Ambrose St. Austin Sedulius Primasius and other the most Famous Fathers of the Church were all of the same Judgment Then again without question Rome does no way approve the Ancients for numbring the Angelics among the Heretics because they gave Religious Worship to Angels which she herself defends or those who by St. Austin are call'd Nudipedales or Pattalorynchites against the former of which it is objected That they went Bare-foot seeing that at this day this is one of the greatest Marks of extraordinary Sanctity among you Romanists The other are tax'd to have profess'd a certain sort of Religious Silence which the Carthusian Monks however make no small part of their Glory Or the Collyridians of Epiphanius Heres 79. who offer'd to the Blessed Virgin little Cakes or Wiggs in Greek call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and gave her the Title of Queen of Heaven Which they that now refuse to do are all accounted Heretics Or the Starolatrae of Nicephorus Hist l. 18. c. 54. who as the Name imports worshipt the Cross which most of you assert is a Duty to be done Gretser the Jesuite affirming who in that follows Thomas Cajetan Valentia and Vasquez that it is the more common Opinion among those of his Religion l. 1. de Cruce c. 49. More paricularly among the Modern Romanists under Gregory VII The Collation of Benefices by Princes and by Caesar was call'd the Simonian and Henrician Heresie And as often as in Matters meerly Political any difference happen'd betwen the Kings and Emperors and the Bishops of Rome they declar'd them Heretics Thus Boniface VIII declar'd Philip the Fair King of France a Heretic because he sent none of his Soldiers to the Holy War. Thus John Albret King of Navar was declar'd a Heretic by Julius II because he took part with Lewis XII tho' the Quarrel was not about Matter of Faith and by virtue of that Condemnation he lost his Kingdom which the Spaniard has kept ever since John XXII pronounced Lewis of Bavaria the Emperor a Heretic because he defended the Cause of the Franciscans at that time out of the Pope's Favour but more particularly that of Ockam I forbear to mention any more We must therefore restrain the Signification of this word and a little more diligently examin who is properly a Heretic to the end we may the more easily prove the Protestants not to be guilty of this Crime An Heretic in my Opinion is one who for the sake of Temporal Profit but chiefly of Honor and Supremacy or of Lordship either founds or follows False and New Opinions Thus St. Austin de utilitate ad cred Honor. c. 1. Now in this sense we are not Heretics For tho' the Opinions were False which we uphold yet we could not be said to follow them for the sake of any Temporal Profit more especially of Honor or Supremacy but only for the obtaining of Salvation and upon the only Motive of our Consciences in regard it is plain to all the World that God has annexed to our Profession Reproach the Cross and Poverty and that the Protestants often experience the Truth of that Sentence of St. Paul All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer Persecution 2 Tim. 3. 12. Let Cardinal Bellarmin come in for a share too Why Because he has lit upon a most powerful means for me to demonstrate to Mr. Prior That We are no HERETICS He therefore c. 8. de not Eccles going about to prove that there is no Church among the Greeks notwithstanding the continued Succession of their Bishops from the Apostles time at least from the Reign of Constantine the Great under whom he believes the Constantinopolitan Church began says That the Greeks were lawfully convicted in three full Councils the Lateran that of Lyons and the other of Florence of Heresie and Schism more especially of the Heresie about the Proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Son. This Question about the Proceeding of the Holy Ghost I do not pretend to enter into nor do I see any great difference between the Latins affirming the Holy Ghost to proceed from the Father and the Son and the Greeks alledging that He proceeds from the Father through the Son. This is that which I think worthy Observation That after all the Tridentin Decisions whereby the greatest part of the Opinions of our Churches were condem'd for Heresies Bellarmin attributes no other Heresie to the Greeks besides that of the Proceeding of the Holy Ghost Whence it follows that among the Greeks the Marriage of Priests Communicating under Both Kinds and with Leavened Bread the Rejecting Extreme Unction Auricular Confession Transubstantiation Purgatory and Pontifical Monarchy were no Heresies in all which the Orientals agree with us Now if these Articles of the Greeks had bin Heretical how comes it to pass that the Lateran Lyons and Florentine Councils which enquir'd into their Errors past them by But if they were not Heretical among the Greeks in the East why should they be so among the Protestants in the West If among the Greeks it be no Heresie but only a Schism to reject the Papal Authority and to shake off his Yoke why must it be a pernicious and capital Heresie among the Protestants Neither is it to be doubted but that if the Greeks would have subjected themselves in the Lateran Council to the See of Rome all the above-mentioned Articles except the denial of the Pope's Supremacy had been allow'd them Whence it is apparent that those Articles are neither Heretical nor pernicious in Faith nor destructive of Salvation since it was possible that the Greeks retaining them might nevertheless have bin true Members of the Catholic Church and consequently capable of Eternal Life But that no Man may think I am overcuriously romaging for my Justification in the Thesis's of my Adversaries that I may slip out at length at some Back-door I shall add some direct Reasons for our Innocency which cannot be Answer'd First therefore no Man can be traduc'd as a Heretic and branded with an Infamous Crime unless it be sufficiently apparent that He as the Scripture says has receded from the Holy Command of God and suffer'd Shipwrack of his Faith. For as St. Austin says de unit Eccles c. 5. No Man is to be branded with an ignominious Mark unless it be
the Novatians and Donatists made a Schism in the Church because they wou'd not submit to Bishops of Places Canonically instituted but set up Bishops of their own chusing who for that they were destitute of Canonical Election wanted a lawful Calling But there was no such thing could be said of our first Pastors in the Work of Reformation For they were not elected and constituted hand over head in Opposition to others already Canonically instituted as the Novatians in the Roman See oppos'd Novatus against the Council but were lawfully and canonically constituted in their Functions according to all the Ceremonies then us'd in the Church and by the nature of their Calling by which they knew themselves bound to propagate the Truth were constrain'd in their Consciences to oppose themselves against the Abuses and Corruptions at that time crept into the Church and to apply themselves to a Reformation But as they were lawfully Call'd so they could impart that Calling to others and by that means it is deriv'd to us and so by us may be deriv'd to our Successors For they are not to be thought to have lost their Calling for opposing themselves against the Abuses of that Church wherein they receiv'd it Nay they had bin unworthy of it had they not oppos'd themselves against those Corruptions that were so well known to them For every Church that confers upon any Man the sacred Function of the Public Ministry seems to say to him what Trajan the Emperor was wont to say to the Person whom he created Master of the Horse by the delivery of a Sword Vse this in my defence if my Commands are just but if unjust make use of it against me Thus a Pastor Canonically ordaind ought to make use of his Calling to support the Doctrin of the Church wherein he receiv'd it if it be conformable to Truth but if not to oppose it Nor does their being Excommunicated deprive them of their Calling because it was unjust and made use of to support the Errors which they impugned and to keep up in the Temple the Money-Changers Tables which they endeavour'd to overturn Nay the very Romanists themselves confess that the Character of the Clergy is indelible and that an Excommunicated Person may Consecrate Preach and administer the Sacraments effectually Neither is it to be said that the first Reformers were meer Presbyters that could not confer their Calling upon others in regard that Ordination belongs only to the Bishops For in regard the sacred Scriptures do not so plainly teach us what is the difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop and that some of yours particularly Medina confess that the Function of Ordaining may as well belong to a Presbyter as a Bishop you ought not to make any great difficulty in this Case in regard the Dispute is not yet determin'd To which I add That in several places the Reformation began from the Bishops who therefore held their former Dignity in the Reformation which they held before And it is a wonder Mr. Prior that you and yours should carp at the Calling of our Pastors to prove our want of Succession of Pastors when your selves acknowledg that any Man without Orders without a Character without any Call may Consecrate the Eucharist I am contented with one unanswerable Argument Your Durandus in his Rationale lib. 4. cap. 35. § 7. also the Author of the Curates Manual de Sacr. Eucharist cap. 10. and many others give this Reason for the Secreta i. e. the speaking the words of Consecration so low as not to be heard being introduc'd in the Canon of the Mass Because that formerly when the Canon was repeated with a loud Voice the People readily learnt the Rites of Consecrating whence it came to pass that the Shepherds in the Country laying the Bread upon a Stone and repeating over it the Canon and Words of the Consecration presently changed their Bread into Flesh Now either this must be a Fable which however you frequently make use of to establish your Figment of Transubantiation or else you must allow that any Man may Consecrate and Celebrate the most August of all Sacraments tho' neither Call'd nor Ordain'd as we cannot believe those Shepherds to have bin But as the Crime of Schism is falsely laid to our Charge so are we most falsely said to be without the Church without which there is no Salvation We have separated indeed from the Roman Communion but it does not thence follow that we are out of the Church of God in regard that by the Grace of God we are Members of the Catholic Church professing Christianity baptiz'd in the Name of the most holy Trinity in all things adhering to the Head and Foundation Christ Jesus Cardinal Hosius in his Confession acknowledges That the Church is there where-ever the Belief of the Mediator is We have a Belief of a Mediator through the favour of God and therefore we are hated at Rome becaose we acknowledg Christ to be the only Mediator Besides that we have not departed from your Roman Church unless in such things wherein she first departed from the Word of God and the Purity of Antiquity adhering still to the same Communion of Faith and Charity with Her in the Fundamentals of Christianity and knowing that we and the Members of your Communion are Brethren in Baptism as the Israelites and Jews were Brethren in Circumcision tho' in External Worship they differ'd very much Nor can any probable Reason be invented to convince us that any Man ought to be subject to the Bishop of Rome and retain his Communion to the end he may be in a Church out of which there is no Salvation So many Christians as are within the ancient Patriarchates of the East and who exceed you Romanists far in number are not rashly to be said to be out of the Church of Christ because they refuse to be under the Pope's Yoke The Churches of Asia were not excluded from the Covenant of Christ by the rash Excommunication of Pope Victor because they separated from him upon the difference about Easter-day The Roman Clergy separated from their Pope Liberius who had subscrib'd to Arianism without incuring the blame of Schism or the loss of Salvation The Famous St. Cyprian Bishop and Martyr whom your Church afterwards worshipt among the rest of her Saints dy'd out of the Communion and Subjection to the See of Rome divided from her both in Faith and Affection by reason of his Doctrin of Re-baptizing Heretics was very hardly thought of by Stephen Bishop of Rome and yet no Man hitherto made any doubt but that he obtain'd Salvation And therefore 't is an idle thing to exact from us Subjection to the See of Rome to the end we may be in the Church and obtain Salvation especially if the Papacy be now Extinct and that there has bin no lawful Pope for a long time Now this is easily prov'd For that I may pass over in silence so many Schisms
Ship which carry'd the Mother of the Gods which many Mariners hawling all together could not stir Plutarch also in Coriolanus relates that the Image of Fortune spoke and often as the same Author relates in the same Life the Images and Statues were seen to Sweat Bleed and Weep St. Austin likewise tells us of many such Portents that happen'd among the Gentiles lib. 10 de civitate Dei. Tacitus also Hist lib. 4. relates of Vespasian that by his single Touch he restor'd Sight to the Blind and Strength to the Lame Bellarmin cap. 14. de Not. Eccles That both their Diseases proceeded from the Devil who having seiz'd the Eye of the one and the Leg of the other hindred the Use of their Limbs to the end he might seem to heal when he ceas'd to hurt I do not see why the Protestants may not use the same Exception against so many Miracles which the Romanists seign by the Touch either of their Images or their Reliques But I shall here furl my swelling Sails Mr. Prior being ready to explain and enlarge my self whensoever you shall be pleas'd to re-assume and examin this Matter II. Miracles do not of necessity follow Truth For tho' they were necessary in the time of Infant Christianity yet the true Religion being now establish'd and setled over all the World if not manifestly profitable they cease however to be absolutely necessary So that St. Austin lib. 2. de civitate Dei with very great reason said Whoever still enquires after Prodigies to confirm his Belief is himself a great Prodigy I forbear any more let it suffice me only to produce the Fathers of the Second Nicene Council act 4. Why do our Images at this day work no Miracles I answer with the Apostle Miracles are not for Believers but for the Vnbelievers Now then if the Protestants embrace the Doctrin of Christ and his Apostles the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles are sufficient for them Which would be necessary again were they to follow some new and never heard of Gospel before Nor does the difference whatever it is between the Reform'd Churches and the Lutherans whatever it be either in Ceremonies or some Points of Doctrin savour a jot more your precipitate Judgment concerning the Eternal Damnation of the Protestants For you Romanists your selves acknowledge that the Greek and Eastern Christians would be in the way of Salvation would they but submit to the Empire of the Pope tho' they retain'd their Ceremonies and Opinions differing in many Circumstances from the Rites and Doctrin of the Roman Church It is apparent from the Epistle of St. Austin to Januarius that all the Churches did not make use of the same Rites and Ceremonies In the Apostolic Churches also soon after the first dawn of Christianity Disputes and Contentions arose to pass by those that fell out between Cyril and Theodoret Chrysostom and Epiphanius St. Jerom and St. Austin nay between those very Men themselves that reproach the Lutherans and the Reformed with their differences which I would to God they were clos'd up There is the greatest difference among these Upbraiders not only as to Ceremonials as is apparent from so many Orders of Monks varying among themselves in Habit Rules and Public Worship but also as to Opinions as is evident from those most terrible Controversies about which your Theologists most sharply contend and quarrel one with another of the Authority of the Pope above a Council of a Council above the Pope of the Infallibility of the Bishop of Rome of his Power over Kings and Secular Princes the Conception of the Blessed Virgin of the sort of Adoration due to the Cross and Images of Predestination Grace Free-will and the like So that the Doctors of your Communion split themselves into various Sects according to which some are Thomists others Scotists others Real others Nominal others love to be call'd Jansenists and others Molinists Nay there is not any Article of the Christian Faith about which you have not rais'd Contentions and Disputes if not more sharp and eager yet of no less moment then all those which are stirring between the Reformed and the Lutherans And that diversity which you object against us is far inferior to your Dissentions nor is it concerned in the Fundamentals of Christianity in which the Reformed of both Parties are plainly agreed So that it is a kind of Miracle that there should be so little variance between so many Reformed Churches dispers'd all over Europe compos'd of various People and under several Princes tho' among them there is no Church which commands over others nor any intervening Political Tye to constrain them to such an Agreement in Matters of Faith. In the mean time there is no Schism between ours and the Lutheran Churches seeing that we neither separated from Them nor they from Us. In Poland the Brethren of the Helvetian Bohemian and Augustan Confession setting a laudable Example communicated before together by virtue of the Decree of Sendomir And in the Year 1631 in the National Synod of France a Decree was made for admitting the Lutherans as Brethren in Christ and Members of the same Mystical Body to our Communion of the Lord's Supper and for allowing them Brotherly Toleration in those Points wherein they differ from us And tho' they in their Anger pretend that we Err in Fundamentals which through the Mercy of God they will never be able to prove yet we judge more tenderly and better of them so disproving the Opinions which they obstinately defend that we deny them to be in themselves deadly or pernicious to Salvation or that they are such as ought not to hinder Christian Peace between us and them or prevent an Ecclesiastical Communion which might be obtain'd between Churches not agreeing in all things if the Foundation were sound Now we believe that to be a Fundamental Error wherein there is according to the ancient Phrase of the Synagogue a Denial of the Foundation which cannot comply with true Faith and Holiness For neither all Truths even those that are reveal'd are of the same necessity Neither are all Wounds which are given to Truth Mortal nor is every Disease an Epelipsie or the Falling-sickness St. Paul distinguishes between the Foundation and the Superstructure 1 Cor. 3. 11 12 13 14 15. He that meddles with Fundamentals is lyable to an Anathema Gal. 1. 8. In others there is room left for Exhortation Rom. 14. 1. Phil. 3. 15 16. Here the Gnat is not scrupulously to be strain'd at as there the Camel is not to be rashly swallowed We break Friendship with those that are openly Wicked but we bear with the blemishes and infirmities of Friends Nor is that presently to be thought of the necessity of Faith which yet may have a near Relation to it And therefore you canot blame us for offering our Communion to the Lutherans and rejecting the Papal For that between us and them there is not only a Harmony in the Foundation