their Allegiance What think you of the Popes Nnncio at the head of the Irish Army Sir if you will give your self the freedom impartially to consider the Answers that are made by the Romish Writers to excuse what is charged upon them for these and some other loose Doctrines and practices you will find it no Fable That their defences dwindle into mere evasions I shall now conclude your trouble and my own with a few Animadversions upon the whole matter First That how hot soever your Zeal may grow for the Church of Rome you might have done much better service for the Church Catholick if you had continued in the Communion of that part of it which is established in this Kingdom Secondly To use the word of the Ingenious Author of The Notion of Schisme that for any to desert the Church of England to communicate with that of Rome is such a framick humor as for a man to quit the neatest appartment and exchange for the most sluttish Rooms in the same House Thirdly That you have given a scandal to your Brethren of the Church of England contrary to that Caveat and Admonition of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.32 Estius ad locum And he that gives offence to his Brother sins against God whose handy-work he destroys Rom. 14.20 He sins also against Christ in destroying him for whom Christ died Rom. 14.15 Fourthly and Lastly That by withdrawing your self from that subjection and obedience which by the Laws of the Catholick Church you owe to your own Bishop Primate or Metropolitan you run desperately into Schisme while you are superstitiously solicitous to avoid it For Schisma est contumax adversus Episcopum rebehio quâ quis ejus communionem deserit c. Schisme is a plain Rebellion against the Bishop whereby a man forsakes his Communion and endures no fellowship with him in Divine matters as Christian Lupus hath it upon Tertullian †Schol. ad cap 6. de praescript Epist 65. And St. Cyprian in an Epistle ad Rogatianum Novensem who had been affronted by his Deacon saith thus Haec sunt initia Haereticorum c. By these means Hereticks are hatched and the endeavours of ill-minded Schismaticks promoted who that they may gratifie their humorsome whymfies do supercilionsly contemn him that is set over them thus men depart from the Church and set up a prophane Altar that is a Conventicle without the Communion of it Thus they make war upon the Peace left by Christ and rebel against Unity and the Ordinance of God And Epist 69. ad Florentium Pupianum writing in reference to himself he saith thus Inde Schismata Haereses abortae sunt oriuntur c. Hence Heresies and Schismes have their rise when as the Bishop who is but one and presides over the Church is most presumptuously contemned and the man dignified with a vocation from God is thought unworthy thereof by men That St. Cyprian writes thus not in reference to the Bishop of Rome but to himself and other Bishops of particular Churches is evinced by Goulartius in his Annotations ad Epist 55. n. 27. against Pamelius With great reason therefore did the Council of Nice decree Can. 6. Antiqui mores serventur c. Let the Ancient customes and priviledges be preserved That the Bishop of Alexandria may have the Junisdiction and power of them who are in Egypt Lybia and Pentapolis for so the Bishop of Rome hath customarily had over his Province Likewise also in Antiochia and other Provinces let their Priviledges be preserved inviolable to their respective Churches The Epitome of which Canon runs thus Super Aegyptum Lybiam Pentapolim Alexandrinus Episcopus potestatem habeat Romanus super Romae subditos Item Antiochenus aliique supêr suos i. e. V. Pandect à Guil. Beverege Edit in 1. Concil Nice Cā 6. Let the Bishop of Alexandria have Authority over Egypt Lybia and Pentapolis and the Bishop of Rome over the Subjects of Rome In like manner the Bishop of Antioch and all other Bishops over their Subjects in their respective Provinces And Alex. Aristenus hath this Gloss upon it Ibid. Unumquemque Patriarcharum c. Every Patriarch ought to be content with his own priviledges and not to usurp upon any other Province which was not heretofore and from the beginning under his power and Jurisdiction for this is the pride of an unjust secular Dominion And in the Second General Council held at Constantinople Can. 2. it is decreed thus The Bishop shall not pass the bounds of their own Diocesses nor confound the priviledges of the Churches but govern themselves according to the Canons And if we observe the Canon prescribed concerning Diocesses it is clear that each Province shall be governed by the particular Synod of the same Province as it is decreed by the Council of Nice And Leo the Great had so great a veneration and zeal for the Authority and honour of that Synod that in an Epistle to Anatolius Bishop of Constantinople blaming him highly amongst other miscarriages for invading the priviledges of the Churches of Alexandria and Antioch he writes thus I grieve not a little that you are fallen into so great an Error as to attempt the violation of the most sacred Constitutions of the Canons of Nice viz. In attempting to invade after Alexandria and Antioch the dignities and priviledges of all other Metropolitans And blaming him for endeavouring to wheadle the most Christian Emperour and the holy Synod called by his Authority for the extinguishing of Heresie and the Confirmation of the Catholick Faith to serve his ambitious designs he tells him That the Synod of Nice consisting of three hundred and eighteen Bishops was so Sacred and consecrated * Tanto divinitùs privilegio Consecrata with so great a priviledge from God that whatsoever was done by any of their Councils be they never so numerous who assembled in them it should be utterly void and of no Authority Leo Mag. Epist 53. inter opera Paris 1623. if it were differing from what was Ordained by those Holy Fathers †Quicquid abiliorum fuerit Constitutione diversum And in his Epistle to Martianus the Emperour blaming the Ambition of Anatolius as aforesaid he condemns him for this reason Privilegia enim Ecclesiarum c. For the priviledges of the Churches being established by the Canons of the Holy Fathers and fixed by the Decrees of the venerable Synod of Nice Let the Pope of Rome consider well these weighty Letters of his great Predecessors are not to be changed or shaken by any wicked attempts of Novelty but to be preserved inviolable In which business with Christs help it is necessary that I exert my utmost endeavours as one instructed with a Dispensation And it would become my guilt if the Sacred Constitutions of the Fathers established by the Holy Ghost in the Synod of Nice for the Government of the whole Church of God should through my
Licensed 〈◊〉 19. 78. W. JANE THE Proselyte of Rome CALL'D BACK TO THE COMMUNION OF THE Church of England IN A PRIVATE LETTER THOUGHT Very fit and seasonable to be made Publick To the ROMANS Cap. XI v. 20.22 Be not high minded but fear Otherwise Thou also shalt be cut off Apoc. II. 5. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do thy first works LONDON Printed for R. Clavell at the Peacock in St. Pauls Church-yard 1679. To the Reverend and Learned Author SIR SInce I had the honour and satisfaction of seeing your Papers I have blamed your delay in the publication of them especially being designed to recall a Romish Proselyte that was gone from the Communion of our Church they might in this unhappy and distracted Juncture have seasonably help'd towards the recovery of others whose temporal as well as eternal Interests make them as eager and desirous of satisfaction I know that Modesty is a vertue and Caution a very commendable thing but Charity and Love to the Souls of men is much more so You have lived to see the Church forlorn and desolate persecuted and seemingly forsaken and after a little respite and the hopes of settlement to be again threatned and menac'd with a final overthrow Psal 137.7 Down with it down with it even to the ground cry our Modern Edomites And when the Church did need the Aids of those who loved her we know she found your Zeal and Resolution and Courage in her service And that now you should flag when you are so well arm'd and prepar'd for Combat or be backward when her Adversaries are pecking at the very foundations with Axes and Hammers and striving to undermine her by Artifice or Violence And you a Champion so try'd and experienc'd and furnish'd to defend her I cannot imagine unless you are more tender than formerly and fear taking of harm by being exposed to the open Air. I think I have heard that the time has been Neh. 4.1 when like Nehemiah's Builders you wrought with one hand in the Churches service and with the other you hold a weapon for her defence and succour You know the Arguments that mov'd you then and what hinders but they should now prevail I am you see warm in the Churches cause nor do I believe that you are less concern'd But if I seem to reproach or lament your remissness in these seasonable Circumstances to send abroad your useful preparations let me not be thought rude or unmannerly because I hereby not only vindicate you from the common fault of being forward to print but likewise shew the high value I have for your Person and Papers and that I believe them to he very useful for the Publick benefit As to the Gentleman you design to reduce I only know him upon this occasion and therefore can say little of his Learning or Ingenuity or the Motives that made him depart from us But if after all your endeavours to convict him he still remains hard and untractable and refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer charm he never so wisely he must be let alone in the obstinacy of the deaf Adder and to our Prayers to soften him when your Arguments cannot alter him but when the World have seen your Papers and know that he has done so They 'l strain their Charity to suspect that something else besides the pretended advantage of Infallibility perswaded him to revolt and till he can answer your Arguments they 'l be apt to think that the exchange of Opinion was not for Faith but Fancy and that while he dreamed that he left uncertainty it was to be secure of nothing But if you should have that Friendly influence upon him by your pains and endeavours to call him back hee 'l by that Charity that is more Catholick than the Religion he leaves be glad that by his fall so great an advantage has been offer'd to the world and that others may be reduc'd thereby to the sober enquiry upon what bottom they trust their Salvation and see upon what slender and fickle grounds their Faith has been fixed And what those Grounds are all men will see when they peruse your Tractate Besides we have reason to thank such men as you for asserting the Churches cause in these Controversies For who now that is most freakish in folly and Enthusiasm has a front to say That the Sons of our Church are warp'd from what is Primitive and truly Orthodox or Factors for the Romish Interest or wish well to the promoting that Cause amongst us c Let us hear no more such outcries against the Church of England nor against those who are exact and punctual in the decent performance of Gods publick Worship and the circumstances of Order and Discipline For the gaudy Superstitions of Rome and Italy are more contemned by such men than the looser and more careless dress of Amsterdam and Geneva And you amongst many others have freed our Church from this whining unjust imputation in that you have not only shaken but everted that fundamental Principle upon the fall of which all the superstructure tumbles As to your Quotations they are so proper and peculiarly adapted to every period that you had very great luck to happen on the choice of them And for the Translations which your Charity suffer'd to be made of them for the use of your meaner and more unlearned Reader they I perceive were done by one whose skill in Grammar did exceed his sense in Theologie and Divine Controversies which may excuse them to the Criticks and men of brisker fancy However Translating is a very tedious task and so long as they are true and literal they are justifiable enough against the keenest and most snarling Censurers I am loth the Messenger should stay and therefore only wish your Reader may be impartial and considerative unprejudic'd and serious and that your Papers may convince and confirm him that they may have their design on the Gentleman you 'd recall and advance the interest of Truth and Goodness amongst all men that they may help to allay that bitterness and heal those Animosities and wild Conceits that trouble the Christian World and that all that see them may endeavour after the things that make for Peace Which is the Prayer of Sir Your faithful Servant Dec. 2. 1678. THE RELIGION OF THE Church of England c. IN A PRIVATE LETTER Sir SInce I have known you so long I am sorry I knew you no better I assure you I intended to treat you as an entire Friend but you wrest my words to a harsh construction For Mr. S he was so far from giving any partial account that he did not so much as positively say you had left our Communion I confess upon a vehement suspicion for which we had other grounds I took the freedom to tell you what would fall under every ordinary apprehension that your departure would unavoidably expose you unto censure That
that none of them intend any desertion of the Articles established Where we see his Majesty took notice that men of all sorts took these Articles to be for them and he declares that he took comfort therein Which argues that the imposition was not strict and rigid as to the sense and meaning of the Articles And though in the Synod 1640. Can. 6. an Oath was enjoyned yet it was with as much modesty and tenderness as any sober and peaceable Subject can desire for thus it runs I A. B. do swear that I do approve the Doctrine and Discipline or Government in the Church of England as containing all things necessary to salvation Where two things are very observable 1 The assertion is only this That I do approve the Doctrine c. the 2 Only as containing all things necessary to salvation for which we are referred to the authority of the Holy Scripture by the Sixth Article as was observed before 3. As to the end of these respective Articles Those of Pope Pius are declared to be necessary to salvation not only Necessitate praecepti sed Medii necessary as well upon the account of a Means as of a Precept for the Pope declares Hanc esse veram Catholicam fidem Extra quam nemo salvus esse potest That this is the true Catholick Faith without which no man can be saved But the Articles of the Church of England generally are intended for a decorum and order matters of necessary Faith being herein restrained to the Holy Scriptures to keep out disputes and vain jangling and to preserve peace and concord in her Communion Thus much is intimated in the very Title prefix'd to those Articles but much more clearly in his Majesties Declaration before mentioned where he saith We hold it most agreeable to our Kingly Office and our own Religious Zeal to conserve and maintain the Church committed to our charge in the unity of the true Religion and in the bond of peace and not to suffer unnecessary Disputations Alterations or Questions to be raised which may nourish Faction both in the Church and Commonwealth We have therefore thought fit to make this Declaration That the Articles c. do contain the true Doctrine of the Church of England agreeable to Gods word which we do therefore ratifie and confirm c. But this is more clear in a Book set forth 1571. called Liber quorundam Canonum Disciplinae Ecclesiae Anglicanae SS de Concionatoribus Where it is ordered thus Imprimis vero videbunt c. Let the Preachers take care that they teach nothing in their Sermons which they would have the People hold and believe as a matter of Religion but what is consonant to the Doctrine of the Old or New Testament and what the Catholick Fathers and Ancient Bishops have gathered out of the same And because those Articles of Christian Religion which were agreed upon by the Bishops c. are without doubt collected out of the Sacred Books of the Old and New Testament and do in all things agree with the heavenly Doctrine contained therein Also because the Book of Common Prayers and the Book of the Inauguration of Archbishops Bishops Priests and Deacons do contain nothing that is contrary to that Doctrine whosoever shall be sent out to teach the People shall confirm the authority and belief of those Articles as well by their subscription as in their Sermons Qui secus fecerit contrariâ doctrinâ Populum turbaverit excommunicabitur Whosoever shall do otherwise and disturb the People with any contrary Doctrine shall be excommunicated Here indeed the Clergy are implicitly enjoyned to preach up the belief and authority of these Articles But withal 1 The belief and authority of them is required not as grounded upon the Declaration and Sanction of the Ecclesiastical Governours though a hearty submission and obedience is due thereto in matters of Religion Discipline and Order upon the account of a Divine precept but upon their Congruity with the Holy Scriptures according to the sense of the Ancient Fathers 2 That such as transgress these Articles are punish'd for want of good manners as disturbers of the publick Peace Wherefore though the Author of the Guide in Controversies* * Disc 3. cap. 7. hath made it his business to strain every Sentence Phrase and word in the Canons as well as the Articles of the Church of England to make those Articles seem to run parallel in the Charge of a new Imposition of Faith with those in the Creed of Pope Pius the Fourth aforementioned yet by what hath been observed it is evident that the Articles of the Church of England were not intended as those of that Pope clearly were for an Addition to the Faith declared by the Fathers at Nice which with all Christian Churches we profess as Catholicks but for information to direct our publick discourses generally as occasion serves in matters of Religion as we are united in the Communion of the particular Church of England after a deliberate and sober Reformation which to attempt and perform as far as in them lies no doubt all Bishops are as well obliged in duty by Christ's Command Apoc. 2 3 Cap. as prescribed to do it orderly by the 34. of the Apostles Canons †Episcopos uniuscujusque gentis nosse oportet eum qui in eis est primus existimare eum ut caput nihil facere magni momenti praeter illius sententiam illa autem sola facere unumquemque quae ad suam paroeciam pertinent pagos qui ei subfunt To leave this long though not unnecessary digression This Infallibility in the latitude the Roman party pleads for is so very improbable that Mr. Cressey in his Neophytism was not able to swallow it till he had shrunk it up into an Indefectibility wherein we can heartily close with him And for all that great priviledge which make so much noise in the world I do very well observe that in many cases they are glad to rest satisfied with a probable Conscience And in spight of that Infallibility They must stand to the courtesie or hazard of a probable Opinion to secure themselves according to their practice from the peril of Idolatry And this is acknowledged by the Jesuite Ant. Terill our Countryman in his Tractate de Conscientia Probabili Edit Leodii 1668. p. 387 c. His words are these Quid magis ad mores c. What does more concern manners and the strictness of the Law of Nature than that the worship due to God be not bestowed upon a Creature and yet it is lawful many times out of a probable Opinion only to bestow Divine worship upon the Eucharist and to adore God when he is but probably latent there For there is no true certainty but only a Probability that this numerical Host is rightly consecrated First It is not certain that he who did consecrate was a Priest both because it is not certain that
neglect or connivence ‖ Lud. Bail reads it Te quod absit connivente and so applies it to the Emperour In Sum. Concil Tom. 1. m. p. 141. B. 2. which God forbid be violated or infringed and the gratifying of one Brothers humor should be of more concern to me than the common benefit of the whole Church of God And in an Epistle to Juvenalis Bishop of Jerusalem and the rest of the Bishops assembled in the holy Synod of Chalcedon he writes thus concerning the keeping of the Ordinances of the holy Fathers which are fixed by inviolable Decrees in the Synod of Nice I advise That the rights of the Church may remain as they were ordained by those three hundred and eighteen Fathers divinely inspirēd Let not wicked Ambition covet anothers Right nor let any man seek to augment himself by the lessening of another For by what assentations soever a vain elation may arm it self and think to strengthen its inordinate desires by the name of Councils whatsoever shall be disagreeable to the Canons of the foresaid Fathers shall be void and of no validity Thus Leo the Great And if there were any such thing as Infallibility or Authority either in this Pope Leo the Great or in that first General and most sacred Council of Nice that Canon of theirs concerning the Jurisdiction and Priviledges of the Churches is of full force and ought to be observed inviolably at this day Now to apply this to our own case It is evident out of several Records * See Bedes Histor and the berty of the Brïtannick Ch. by Dr. Basier Lond. printed for John Mileson 1661. That the Britannick Church was ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Independent subject to no foreign Bishop but under her own Metropolitan having her Primacy and Headship with all priviledge Ecclesiastical within her self for six hundred years after Christ till Austin the Monk transgressing that Canon of Nice did by force of Arms subdue and captivate her to the See of Rome The Popes Usurpation began here in blood with the slaughter of Twelve hundred innocent and holy Monks at Bangor and all attempts to reinforce that Usurpation are carried on by methods of the like nature i. e. practices of fraud and violence W. Beverege Anno. ad Can. 6. Concil Nicae p. 58 59. Nevertheless as the Learned Beverege hath observed the unjust violation of that Canon cannot prejudice the high and perpetual Authority of it Wherefore though the Bishop of Rome ever since he sent the aforesaid Austin hither hath exercised the chief Authority in this Nation yet at last having shaken off his Tyrannical yoak our Church through Gods blessing doth most deservedly enjoy her Ancient priviledges by that most worthy Ordinance and Canon prescribed by the Universal Church in this matter It is manifest then that the Bishop of Rome can afford you no good Sanctuary against the Authority of that Bishop and Metropolitan whose Communion you have forsaken What therefore St. Hierome saith against John of Jerusalem I may fitly apply to the Pope of Rome Tu qui regulas quaeris Ecclesiasticas Nicaeni Concilii Canonibus uteris alienos Clericos cum suis Episcopis commorantes tibi niteris usurpare Responde mihi Ad Alexandrinum Episcopum Palestinam quid pertinet Thou who seekest for Ecclesiastical Canons and usest the Constitutions of the Council of Nice and notwithstanding pretendest to usurp the Government over the Clergy of other Bishops tell me what hath the Bishop of Rome to do with Great Britain Sir from what hath been suggested it is evident that the Bishop and Church of Rome have shamefully prevaricated both the Doctrine and Government of the Catholick Church as it was declared and fix'd by the most Ancient and sacred General Councils The Doctrine as well in matters of Faith as Manners And the Government by usurping the Jurisdiction and priviledges of other Churches And if as you profess you have not changed your Loyalty I am very apt to believe the wicked Plot now under Examination with many of the like nature may be sufficient to make you abhor the Communion of that Church whose Morals can hatch such Monsters and whose Governours do make it their business to Lowbel their pliant Creatures into designs of Treason and Assassination by the help of false Lights Bulls and Dispensations and encourage them in the attempts by the fond applause of Merit and a Crown of Red Letters In short the scandal hereof is so foul it may very well become your ingenuity and without doubt it will tend much to your reputation and inward peace to take your leave of such Company with good old Jacobs imprecation Gen. 49.6 O my Soul come not thou into their secret unto their assembly my Honour be not thou united And this is the Advice which proceeds though but from the common prudence yet from the highest Charity of SIR Your most affectionate Friend and faithful Servant L. W. FINIS