being rationally and Christianly principled and nothing averse to Piety till coming to the later Proposition That it became the wisedom and goodness of Christ to appoint a visible Judge Infallible upon Earth to determine Controversies He replied mildly we had reason to go warily in censuring the wisedom and goodness of God if this or that thing seeming to us expedient were not done in the government of the World for who can pretend to know the depth of the wisedom and knowledg of God Rom. 11.33 to search into his judgments and find out his ways This most rational advertisement took deep root in my heart ever thirsty of reason and open to receive it Neither did the modesty of the Proposer diminish but rather augment the weight of it It was in truth the first shock that touched me to the quick striking upon the very root of that Engine of Infallibility I leaned upon Reflecting upon the matter in my solitudes I perceived the weakness of the ground I built upon I saw that in like manner we may say it belongeth to the goodness wisedom and power of God not to permit that his Holy Law should be transgressed by vile creatures and his supreme dread Majesty offended by despicable vermine Nor that Pastors of Souls especially the Roman Pope deemed a Vice-God upon Earth should fall into errours and scandalize with wicked life the people And alas it is but too well known he permits this Shall we therefore waver in the Opinion of his goodness power and wisedom God forbid Why then should we think it a failure in his providence or goodness if besides Holy Scriptures abounding in all light and Heavenly Doctrine to such as are not wilfully blind he did not appoint some visible Judge universal for our direction St. Paul saying 2 Tim. 3.16.17 that Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works That Foundation alledging the necessity of a Judge visible universal and Infallible being thus weakned I proceeded to examine what right the Pope or Church of Rome could pretend to such infallibility the support of all their Incredible Doctrine And first the very inconstancy of their pretence to this priviledge and great dissention of their Authors in asserting it was to me a main reason of suspecting the truth of all and a concluding argument that they cannot be certain of having it Vide Bel l. 4. de Rom. Pont. c. 2. For some will have the Pope himself alone as Pope or as teaching from his chair to have this Infallibility of Doctrine Others will not allow it him but in conjunction with a Council either general or particular of Cardinals and Divines Others only attribute it to him in a General Council Others neither separately nor conjunctly and will only allow the Church Universal to be Infallible And finally others of the most Learned affirm even the Church Universal S. Tho. Turre â—â—â—mata Alphonâ—us a Cactâ—o apud Candi 4 〈◊〉 c. 4 concl 2. to be capable of a Material Errour by Probable Ignorance though not of a Formal and Heretical one which in substance is to allow the Church no more Infallibility than Origen Tertullian or any other particular true Christian Believer hath though subject to errors which Opinion if extended to make the Universal Church fallible even in Points Essential to saluation is false And upon so great an uncertainty of their Infallibility they will have us to build a certain Infallible Belief of all they please to teach us which is to build a house incapable of falling upon a sandy and ruinous Foundation Now for their grounds for this pretended Infallibility what is their warrant for it Divine Scripture they say for who but God could give such a Priviledge and what warrant have they for believing he Scripture saying so to be Divine and Infallible The Infallible Testimony of the Church say they again their own Roman Church they mean So they believe the Scripture is Infallible because the Roman Church doth testifie it and this Church to be Infallible because the Scriptures Testimony is for it A circle in reasoning which Logicians would hiss out of their Schools Neither may Becan's escape avail him that they deal with Christians who believe the Scripture for no Christian but such as they will make blind can believe that there is any Scripture favouring their case in this particular without clipping or corrupting it to serve their purpose For example Their main pillar for this Infallibility fetcht out of the 24th chapter of St. John John 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth Their own Disciples who ordinarily know no more of Scriptures than what they are pleased to shew to them for their several purposes may think that Text to be pertinent for their pretentions But who will take the liberty to read the Context before and after will clearly find out that the very same Text destroyeth their whole design and taketh away all certainty of the Holy Ghost his assistance for rendring their Decrees Infallible The Text restored to its integrity saith thus in their own Bible If ye love me keep my commandments Mundus id est remanens amator mundi cum quo nurquam est amor Dei Gloss interlin Non habent spirituales oculos quibus Spiritum sanctum videant muâ—â—i amaâ—â—res Gloss ordinaria and I will ask my Father and he shall give you another Paraclete that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive By the first words you may see this to be a conditional promise limited to such as love God and keep his Commandments by the later words you see worldly and sinful men expresly excluded from receiving that gracious assistance of the Spirit of Truth therefore to be sure that the Pope and his Council have the assistance of the Spirit of Truth we must be sure that they love God and keep his Commandments but of this we cannot have security their own Histories relating and the world knowing enormous vices in them What they alledge out of St. Paul writing to Timothy Tim. 3.15 that the Church is the pillar and ground of Truth we freely admit it as due to the Universal Church not to any particular but less to one found guilty of so many and great errours such as the Romish is whose ambition in claiming and appropriating to it self all the commendations delivered of the Church Universal is no less reprehensible than as if the Scribes and Pharisees persecuting our Saviour should appropriate to their Synagogue all the praises given to Moses and Aaron Would not you wonder that their chief Champion Cardinal Bellarmine Bellar de sum Pâ—n l. 4 c 2. should bring for proof of the Pope's Infallibility that in the Old Law
God commanded Two Hebrew words Exod. 20. or Two stones signifying Doctrine and Truth to be put in the breast plate of the High Priest And what then will you infer thence more Infallibility in the Pope than in those High Priests you bring for example Will you make them all Infallible even Caiphas If we will speak in earnest I would suppose these words so inserted were an advertisement to the High Priest that he was to exercise Doctrine and Truth as becoming his place The same advertisement I allow the Pope should have and I wish he did always do accordingly This is the utmost That Text can afford And of this weight are the other Texts they bring to assure us of the Infallibility pretended to build all our Belief on This main Foundation of the Romish Church being thus weakned I began with more liberty to pry into and examine exactly the Mysteries and Tenents of both parties Protestant and Romish To which purpose if I had no other notice of the Protestant cause than that afforded by Popish Writers and Informers as long time I had not I should have been for ever kept from adhering to it Here I perceived a great Insincerity of dealing in the proceeding of Romanists who to make odious their Adversaries gathered up out of the Writings of some particular persons a heap of some extravagant doctrines adding thereto humane frailties of their private lives whether true or false I will not debate now but certainly such as any wise and modest Protestant would abhor no less than any of themselves And if he were to repay them in the like coyn he may by their own mouth do it superabundantly For Two certain Families or Orders of them reputed the most learned and grave of all but very opposite in doctrine passing from the Gravity of Scholastick Disputes to the Scurrility of Infamatory Libels have published of late such damnable doctrines and hideous vices the one of the other as any humane and more a Christian heart would tremble to hear Which lest I should defile this sacred place or your ears or my own mouth I will not relate now But I thought it fit to insinuate to them that this foul and killing Armour of their own against themselves is in a readiness if our necessary defence would require to draw it but such a necessity not intervening I think it unbecoming an Evangelical Preacher to stir that dung and indeed no effective way to conclude with serious minds upon so weighty a matter being certain that in all Congregations of men there are defects in particulars The true and proper way being to deal as becomes men of solid and serious temper is to examine these Tenents wherein each party doth generally agree with publick Uniform consent which I have done And beginning with the Church of England I find the eminent persons of it by Uniform consent of word and writing Article 20. assert the summe of their Faith and Religion to be the Word of God contained in the undoubted Canonical Scripture besides which the plain indubitable consequence of it they require nothing to be believed as matter of Faith What rule could be imagined more sacred and excellent than this for the instruction of men in Faith and good manners if you fancy Infallibility or Antiquity what more Infallible or Ancient than the eternal Word of God if Sanctity and Wâ—sedom what can be imagined more holy and wise than the councels of Christ our Saviour the sentences of holy Prophets and Apostles if the Lustre of Miracles what more admirable and certain than those wrought by our Saviour and his Prophets and Apostles in confirmation of their doctrine if Universality all true Christians do agree in embracing and honouring Canonical Scripture Now as to the Roman Church the Tenents of it as opposite to the Protestant shall be considered for the present to be reducible to these seven heads First the Infallibility and Supremacy of the Pope Secondly the Mystery of Transubstantiation Thirdly the Worship of Images Fourthly the Praying to Saints and Angels Fifthly the Half Communion denied to the Laity Sixthly the use of Indulgences and doctrine of Purgatory Seventhly the celebrating of publick Divine Worship in a Language generally unknown to the people and prohibiting the generality the reading of the Holy Scriptures Pope's Infallibility As to the First we have already declared how ill grounded their pretence to Infallibility is St. Tho. 22. q. 13. Art 3. â—â—iman â—â— 4. tr â—0 c. 6. Now it remaineth to shew how heinous a crime it is to attribute it to the Pope or his Council Their own Divines with St. Thomas Aquinas do agree in asserting that of all sins Blasphemy is the greatest 1 p q 16 ar 18 30. The same Divines do accord in saying it is Blasphemy to attribute to any creature what is proper to God whereas God's Attributes are indistinct from himself and so to ascribe any of them to a creature is to make such a creature God Now that Infallibility is one of Gods chief Attributes incommunicable to any creature 1 p. q 16. ar 8. the same St. Thomas teacheth expresly grounding his Opinion upon these words of the Eleventh Psalm Psal 11.1 according to the Latine Translation Quoniam diminutae sunt veritates à filiis hominum that verities are maimed among the children of men To which is consonant the English Translation of the same Text that the faithful fail from among the children of men Psal 115. v. 11. but more resolutely the hundred and fifteenth Psalm declareth that all men are lyars Therefore the Romanists Attributing Infallibility of Doctrine to their Pope are guilty of Blasphemy the most hainous of all crimes which is evidently deduced from premisses of their own Theologie This hainous Blasphemy of parallelling the Pope with God in the Attribute of Infallibility is raised to a higher degree in their practice of making him Supreme and Absolute Judge and Arbiter of the Law of God and his Holy Scripture So as for the belief and practice of all we must stand to his Declaration in such degree Bellarmin li 4. de Rom. Pont. c. 5. that Bellarmine sticketh not to say if the Pope did command Vices and prohibit Virtues the Church would be obliged to believe Vice to be good and Virtue bad Nay the Council of Constance professedly commandeth the Popes Decrees to be preferred to the Institutions of Christ Whereas confessing that our Saviour did ordain the giving of the Sacred Communion under both kinds to the Faithful people and that the Apostles and Primitive Church did practise it so notwithstanding they command Concil Constan Sess 13. that for the future it be not given to the Laity but under one kind Proposing no other reason for it than that the precedent Popes and Church govern'd by them practised it so though contrary to the practice of Christ and His Apostles Whereby they extol the Pope to a
with any that would tell me I did not answer right or that I needed a supply from him to do it My Learned Opposers were wont to say that a man so long time exercised in School debates could hardly want an Answer to Arguments but that they suspected I was not my self satisfied and their suspicion there in was not erroneous I could continue farther giving answer to others but to the serious Proposals of my own judgment in the presence of God in favour of his truth I could not resist and to them I yielded I say Thirdly that many days before my Declaration for the Protestant Church I signified by Letter and Message to such as I thought fit to divulg it of the Romish Clergy and Nobility that although I was forced to come under the protection of the most Reverend Lord Archbishop of Cashell to avoid the popular fury raised against me yet I would not declare against Communion with the Roman Church while any hopes appeared of being satisfied in the Exceptions I took against the present practice of that Church and being they had among them my Writing containing the said Exceptions which in substance are those contained in the ensuing Discourse so long time as may suffice to have Copies of it I desired any that would pretend to resolve me upon those Exceptions should appear and that I would give a willing and unpassionate hearing to his reasons But none appeared for that purpose nor signified to have a mind to do it Neither indeed had I reason to hope that any of them could give me satisfaction having so long time and very carefully studied upon the reasons given by the most Learned Defenders of their cause and found no satisfaction in them and the rather that when my Paper came to their hands containing the exceptions I took against the Romish tenents but without any mention of separation in stead of a charitable conference with my self they stirred the people to fury against me saying I was already made Minister and to preach at the Protestant Church at Cashell the Sunday following which being a fiction of their own I told it was so in a Noblemans house where I had notice of that report without any promise made much less an Oath that I should never become a Protestant which was one of the very false impostures framed against me without fear of God or shame to be found in untruths For certainly I neither said that nor had any Question made to me that would occasion saying it But those stories so enraged the people that from worthy persons who tendered my safety I had notice given me of menaces made to destroy me or convey me where I should not appear speaking against the Romish party As to the former truly I could hardly believe that Christians Countreymen and Kinsmen whom I served and never offended and from whom I had many shews of love and honour should intend to destroy me for following the dictates of my conscience nor that passion should so blind them that being under a Government dissatisfied of their Tenents they should not be contented with the gracious toleration given to them but must insult with violence and malice upon such as following the light of their conscience do embrace the Religion established by the Law and Government which God has put over us As I heartily wish and tender their welfare I earnestly desire they may avoid this foul kind of proceeding withdraw their silly Rythmers Scoulds and Forgers of Calumnies and employ their good wits in examining soberly and seriously for the Glory of God manifestation of Truth and edification of the people the Points I handle in this Discourse and shewing wherein my Arguments against their Tenents are defective or what Arguments they repute of most strength for them and that with Authority of undoubted Canonical Scripture clear reasons grounded upon it or practice uniform of the Primitive Church Not by Hyperbolical expressions of some one or more of Ancient Authours Rhetorical Flourishes and Tropical Applications of Scriptures drawing them from their direct genuine meaning to others different by the help of some Figure At which rate of disputing the Alcoran of Mahomet and the Talmud of the Jews may be defended as plausibly as the Council of Trent The God of Peace and his Son Jesus who bequeathed it for inheritance to his Disciples make us appear to be of them living in peace and charity together in this Life that so we may joyn to praise him in Life everlasting Amen Mr. ANDREW SALL 's Declaration made in the Church of St. John in the City of Cashell the Fourth Sunday after Easter May the Seventeenth present the most Reverend THOMAS Lord Archbishop of Cashell and the Right Reverend HUGH Lord Bishop of Waterford VVHEREAS I Andrew Sall have been born and bred in the Communion of the Roman Catholick Church followed a Religious Life and compleated my Courses of Philosophy and Divinity in Colledges of the Order of JESUS in Spain and was imployed in teaching of the said Faculties many years I acknowledge that since by occasion of this Function I applyed my self to a structer enquiry and examining of matters and by frequent reading of the Holy Scriptures Fathers Councils and Histories of the Church my knowledge was farthered and my judgment ripened I began to doubt of the truth of several Articles introduced by the Vse and Authority of the Roman Church repugnant to human reason and not warranted by Divine Writ as Transubstantiation Indulgences Purgatory Worship of Images c. yet smothered my scruples while I was in Spain partly fearing the severity of that Countrey against Opposers of their Tenents partly amused with a supposition that the Church and Pope of Rome were infallible in their Decrees touching Faith and so may stand with security to their declarations But having arrived to this Countrey disputed often and closely of Religion with several Persons eminent in Learning and Integrity but principally with the most Reverend Father in God and mine truly in Christ his Grace Thomas Lord Archbishop of Cashell present who mindful of the duty of a good Pastor did procure to bring into his Fold this straying sheep with an unspeakable constancy and indefatigable charity suffering for six years of continual battery my obstinate resistance till at last by means of his solid doctrine and of the example of his pious and upright Life to the glory of God be I permitted to say thus much here the Lord was pleased to give me a more clear sight of the errours I was in yet a full assent I delayed to give partly fearing that the weakness I felt might be of my capacity rather than of the cause I maintained partly frighted with the confusions and dangers I conceived might wait upon my deserting of the Romish Communion and so betook my self to a must diligent study of the case leaving no stone unmoved to quiet the trouble of my conscience reading with indifferent eyes the
the ordinary way nor regard the ordering of his house nor he that should be in the field return to take his clothes but hasten his flight with all the speed he can being better to lose all than to lose his soul Our Text being explain'd thus the first Point of my discourse upon it will be to justifie the Councel of our Saviour that if we should see any of those three Abominations declared by the three Opinions related Idolatry Prophane violence or Antichristian impiety predominant in any Church or Congregation we are to shun it with all speed without regarding ceremonies or compliances with men or the loss of humane interest or honour The second is to declare that I saw and by what means I came to see all these three kind of Abominations practised in the Roman Church The third shall be to conclude from these Premisses that the resolution I took of withdrawing speedily from the Communion of that Church when I was convinced of such corruptions to sway in it was Just and Necessary and therefore undeserving so great an offence and scandal as is taken at it by the generality of my former Brethren First Point As it is clear that Heaven is of more value than a piece of the Earth Everlasting Glory than a short joy of this Miserable mortal Life the Favour and Grace of God than that of Men so clear and not needing tedious proofs is the First Point proposed of our discourse that if we should see a Church infected with corruptions inconsistent with the true worship and service of God we are to quit it with all speed and diligence not heeding mens discontents nor any earthly interest But why was our Saviour so earnest with his own Disciples that they should quit the Pleasures of Jerusalem and the Fertil Fields of Judea upon such an emergencie and flee to barren mountains might it not be expected from their constant Faith and fervent Piety improved in the School of Christ enriched with the Heavenly dew of healthful Doctrine dayly dropping upon them from his Divine lips that in midst of the Idolatry and Prophaness of the Romans they would preserve themselves pure and unspotted as the Fish in the Sea without relishing the salt of it Nay further may it not be expected that by their Doctrine and example of their Holy Life the sores of Jerusalem may be healed and the inhabitants of it reduced to a better Life No of their amendment there was no hope because their hearts were hardened as that of Pharao and their disease incurable which did encrease with the very remedies of it their Stomacks so corrupt that they turned the most healthful food into Poyson their minds were so perverse that they abhorred their Cure and killed their Physitians so our Saviour declared of them in the Chapter precedent to that of our Text the 23 of St. Mathew putting them in mind that their Fathers before them did so themselves did so at present and would do the same in the future The doleful words of our Saviour to this purpose are much to be remarked St. Math. 23 v. 29 31.32.39 Wo to you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites Ye be witnesses unto your selves that ye are the children of them which killed the Prophets Fill up then the measure of your Fathers Behold I send unto you Prophets and wise men and Scribes and some of them ye shall kill and crucifie and some of them shall ye scourge in your Synagogues and persecute them from City to City That upon you may come all the righteous Bloud shed upon the Earth c. The People of Jerusalem being thus given over to a reprobate obstinacie what hopes could our Saviours Disciples entertain of healing them Neither could they prudently hope to be safe themselves in so great and general corruption Isaiah thought it one and the same thing to live in a corrupted company and be corrupted himself Wo is me said he For I am undone because I am a man of unclean Lips and I dwell in the midst of a People of unclean lips Whereupon St. Jerome saith that the former part of the Text was a declaration of the later and to say he lived with a people of unclean lips was as much as to say he was himself of unclean lips St. Hieron ep 1. ad Damascum hoc in Pecati ac miseriae parte ducit Propheta habitans in medio populi polluta labia habentis So powerful is the influence of bad company that the best of men are apt to be spotted if not corrupted with it Even Angels it seems may not be safe from the contagions of such neighbourhood In the first Chapter of Genesis is related that God divided the light from the darkness Gen. 1. Rupert li. 1. in Genes c. 13. By which words Rupert understands how God separated the good Angels from the Bad and inquiring further what may be the motive of this seperation he answereth it was that the Good Angels may not be perverted by the company of the Bad. How are Angels Subject to such mutabilities Is it not their nature to have liberty in their first election but that once made to stick immoveably to the side they adhered to St. Thomas 1. p. q. 64. art 2. So Divines do teach commonly in Schools But such is the Power of bad company that it will make even Angels to forget their nature and be perverted with the perverse We have another fair shew of this verity in the 10th Chapter of St. Luke V. 18. where our Saviour in testimony of his Divine power Luke 10.18 telleth that he beheld Sathan as lightning fall from Heaven And what singularity appears in that did not the Angels and all the world see the same Rupent l 1 de victoria Verbi Dei c. 13. yea saith Rupert but with fear and danger only Christ the Son of God could behold that spectacle with security Solus iste videbat securus sui Angeli autem videtunt in magno terrore positi So strong and active is the venom of a bad example and scandalous company that even those pure Angelical spirits could not be secure from the contagion of it in the opinion of this learned Father only Christ could behold with vafety the dismal fall of Sathan solus iste videbat securus sui Trust not in your virtue build no confidence upon your good nature bad company will corrupt virtue and pervert nature This fatal contagious influence of companies justifieth the practice I find in nations of censuring every ones temper by the company he fancies A Spanish proverb reduced to English says Tell me with whom thou walkest and I will tell thee who thou art Noble men who tender your repute Christians who regard your welfare and salvation take heed to what company you adhere And this doctrine being so important for all I will confirm it further with the famous case of that prodigal son set down in the 15th
degree Superiour to God himself in the Government of humane kind If the Laws of England were not to be understood or practised in Ireland but according to the will and declaration of the King of France certainly the King of France would be deemed of more Power and Authority in the Government of Ireland and the people more Subject to him than to the King of England So if the Law of God is to be measured by the Popes will and declaration certainly the Pope is above God in the Government of man kind Who would believe that any Christian would presume to say that it should be a greater sin to transgress an Ecclesiastick Law of the Pope than to break the Law of God Costerus c. 15. enchiridii propos 9. yet Costerus one of the chief defenders of the Romish Doctrine sticketh not to say so much resolutely asserting that it is a greater sin in a Priest to Marry than to commit Fornication or keep a Concubine in his house That Greater sin in his opinion being but a transgression of a Papal Law and the other reputed by him for Lighter a trespass against the Law of God expressed in his Divine Decalogue What Christian ears can abide to hear such execrable Blasphemies will they wonder now that the Pope should be taxed with that Antichristian Impiety declared by Daniel the Prophet Dan. 11.36 2. Thessa 2.4 and by St. Paul who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God Here you see the Romish Church guilty of that Abomination mentioned in our text of extolling man above God Pope's Supremacy To this enormity of robbing God of his prerogatives is joyned another of making the Pope Supreme Head and Master of all Christians not only in spiritual matters but also in their temporal interests with power to depose Kings and move their Subjects to Rebellion against them when they do not obey his will as it was declared in the Lateran Council under Innocent the Third by these terrible words If a temporal Lord warned by the Church doth neglect to purge his Land of Heresie Concil Laterar c. 3. let him be excommunicated by the Metropolitan and if within a year he gives no satisfaction let that be signified to the Pope that from thenceforth he may declare his Subjects absolved from their obedience to him and expose his lands to be occupied by Catholicks And so was done to King John of England by the same Pope Innocent the Third as it is recorded by Polidor Virgil Polidor lib. 15. Suar. li. 3. defens c. 23. to the Emperour Henry the Fourth by Gregory the Fourth To Frederick the 2d by Innocent the 4th and to several other Christian Princes as Suarez relates making the Practice of Popes herein an Argument of their Power for doing so Which kind of arguing as I was admiring in so exact a Schoolman and reflecting upon the power of prejudice and education even over the most sublime wits an ingenious Divine of the University of Dublin reply'd facetiously it was a very concluding argument that proceedeth ab actu ad potentiam being he did so it 's sign he could do it that was good for a jest But Suarez to be in earnest and give consistence to his argument subsumed that the Church Universal did see and approve of this proceeding and the Church being Infallible could not approve it if not Lawful Many other controversies would have a quick decision if this discourse were Legal That all saw it is allowed but that all approved of it freely is denyed Force and fear made them suffer what they would have resisted if they knew how I remit enlarging upon the injustice of the Pope's pretensions herein to another occasion and their unreasonable exclamations against the claim of our Princes to Supremacy of power over their subjects being they pretend no other than such as the godly Kings of Israel had in their time over the Jews and the Christian Emperors in the primitive Church over their respective subjects as it is declared in the 37. Article and 2. Canon of the Church of England Only I will reflect at present upon the cruelty the Pope has practised of late towards the unhappy Irish his Followers in pursuit of his pretended power of deposing Kings That being no matter of Faith nor passing a probable Opinion as Azor Peron Azor to 2 li. 11. c. 5. q. 8. Peronus in replica sua typis data anno 1620. and other very learned Authors of his own party do declare If we may call probable a doctrine so damnable that the great Parliament of France wherein of 200. Votes only 6. were Protestants in the year 1604. commanded Suarez his Book containing this doctrine to be burned by the hands of the publick Executioner and ordered the Jesuits to have their preachers exhort the people to the contrary doctrine or otherwise they should be proceeded against as Traytors and Disturbers of the publick peace Besides all their own Divines generally asserting that in a probable controversie one may with safety of conscience follow the side he pleaseth Yet the Pope prohibited severely the Irish to disclaim that seditious doctrine let them suffer never so many penalties and suspicions for it So zealous is his Holiness not of the salvation of souls but of the conservation of his own Grandeur in having all power upon Earth at his will and the Crowns of Kings to stand or fall at his beck is not this to exercise tyranny and cruelty in the conduct of souls Transubstantiation Touching the second Point proposed of Transubstantiation I signified before how prodigious that engagement was and what weak Foundation they had for it in Scripture Now I will declare how directly contrary to Scripture it is and to the doctrine of the Fathers of the Primitive Church The Council of Trent accurseth such as affirm Bread and Wine to remain in this Sacrament after Consecration Trident. Sess 13. can 2. And yet St. Paul teacheth us expresly and repeateth the same doctrine some five times over that after Consecration it is Bread which is broken and eaten 1 Cor. 11.23 24. The Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took Bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me Of the Bread he took in his hand all that followeth is affirmed to wit that he brake it and that it was his Body And whereas in a literal sense it could not be said with truth or propriety that the Bread was his Body as you may not say with sense that a stick is a stone he declareth immediately that he spoke in a figurative sense willing it to be a commemoration or remembrance of him the Bread still remaining in the nature of Bread though elevated by Christ's Institution to a supernatural and spiritual power of giving grace to well disposed Receivers And so S. Paul
nature of Bread and Wine And truly an Image and similitude of the Body and Bloud of Christ is celebrated in the Action of the mysteries I am to suppose it will be replyed for some exception must be conceived against evidences so clear and executive that these testimonies of the Fathers are not to be seen thus in their more corrected editions which I have reason to believe having seen the venerable writings of the most ancient and grave Fathers of the Church both Greek and Latine defaced with large blots wheresoever they were found opposite to the present Tenents and practice of the Roman Church according to the direction of the Roman Expurgatory They pretend that Protestants have inserted into the Books of the Fathers those clauses favouring their own Doctrine But who can believe that so many weighty Volumes making up great Libraries should be newly printed to receive those supplies that so many clear sentences concording with the context should be so artificially conveyed into the very heart and marrow of the Homilies of the Fathers The contrary is the more credible to me I having seen very ancient Libraries which never came under the hands of a Protestant expurged of such clauses and sentences according to the Rule of the Roman Expurgatory Besides this Scot. in 4. dis 11. q. 3. Ocham ib. q. 6. Biel lect 40 in Canon Missae Râ—ffens c. 1. o. 1. controv captiv Balil Scotus Ocham Biel Fisher Bishop of Rochester Bassolis Caietan Melchior Canus and others many eminent Schoolmen have affirmed that the doctrine of Transubstantiation is not expressed in the Canon of the Bible And certainly it was no Article of Faith before the Lateran Council declared it for such 1200. years after Christ as Scotus and others do affirm And even after this declaration several of their chief Teachers continued affirming that Article not to be contained in Scripture Bassolis Caiâ—tan apâ—d Suar. to 3 Disp 46. sec 3. Caâ—us loâ— com l. 3. sun 2. especially â—assolis Caietan Melchior Canus and so they coined it of their own heads for they could not declare it to be revealed if it was not in Scripture Their doctrine of Transubstantiation and Corporal Presence of our Saviour in the Sacrament of the Altar being thus ill grounded consider how desperate is their resolution in giving to the consecrated wafer the Worship of Divinity nay greater than ever they give to the true undoubted God as is well known to such as have seen the sumptuous pomp of Spain and other Popish Countries in adoring the Consecrated Host Even standing to their own principles they can never be absolutely certain of Christ's Corporal Presence under those Forms of Bread That depending as themselves teach from the intention of the Priest consecrating and his due Ordination and this later again depending from the intention of the Bishop that ordained him and his legal Ordination and so upward of endless requisites impossible to be known certainly upon any occasion as Bellarmine Vega and all their Writers commonly do confess Bellar. li. 3. de justif c. 8. What blindness therefore is it to give Divine Worship to a thing they know not certainly to be more than a piece of bread Vega lib. 9. de justif c. 17. Some pressed with this Argument did answer that they were free from Idolatry in their practice herein because they believe that host to be God But upon this account the Egyptians worshipping the Sun for God and the Israelites adoring the Golden Calf believing it was the true God that brought them out of Egypt and the grossest Idolaters that ever were may plead for excuse from Idolatry alledging unwilful mistake To this again some of them reply that they do not barely suppose Christ to be really present under the Form of bread but that they know and believe it upon the same ground and motives upon which they believe that Christ is God and consequently to be adored Whereby certainly they give great advantage to the enemies of Christ's Divinity seeing they make the truth of these two things equal that is Bellar. de Christo l. 1. c. 4. the Divinity of Christ and Transubstantiation And of the untruth of this bold Assertion I will take learned Bellarmine for judge who when he proves the Divinity of Christ goes through nine several classes of Arguments of which six are wholly out of Scripture with uncontrollable strength and admirable clearness But being to prove Transubstantiation out of Scripture his only argument is from those words of our Saviour Matth. De Sacr. Euchar. l. 3. c. 19. 26. Take eat this is my body And finding that proof not clear enough appeals to the Authority of Councils and Fathers concluding the chapter thus Though in the words of the Lord there may be some obscurity or ambiguity that is taken away by the Councils and Fathers of the Church and so passes to that kind of proof But whatsoever be of Scripture for Transubstantiation it is intolerable boldness to say there is the same reason for the adoration of the Host as for Christ's Divinity it self whereas for the one we have a plain command in Scripture and for the other nothing like it St. Paul tells that all the Angels are commanded to worship the Son of God Heb. 1.6 and that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of things in Heaven Phi. 2.10 in Earth and under the Earth And St. John telleth from his Master's mouth that the Heavenly Father commanded that all men should honour the Son even as they do the Father Jo. 5.23 But where is the least intimation given that we are to worship Christ in the Sacramental Bread supposing him present there If you answer the general command extendeth to him where ever he is present I say you may upon that account as well worship him in the Sun and in the Moon and in any other bread for in all he is present as God I will conclude this Point with answering the argument I saw taken for the most weighty against our Doctrine hitherto declared of taking the Sacrament of the Altar for a commemoration of our Saviour and spiritual partaking of his blessed Body and Bloud for the food of our souls to life everlasting without any real transmutation of the substances That if the Jews did take his words in this sense they could not in reason strive among themselves saying John 5.52 How can this man give us his flesh to eat nor his Disciples say This is an hard saying who can hear it And Christ replying did not reprehend their misunderstanding his words but repeated his former doctrine saying Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man ye have no life in you This argument I once over-valued but considering it better I look upon it as a tacit censure of Christ's reply for non pertinent to satisfie the Objection of his Hearers Shall we pretend to understand their meaning better than Christ
distinction very few certainly When they bow down to an Image the Image it self down-right they worship Then generally they commit Idolatry in this practice or at least a sin in exposing themselves to a danger of committing it But what of the inconveniences of this practice one comes to a Church or Chappel loaden with Images and before he can recollect himself and think of God his imagination and eyes run upon those pictures and he returns home more full of Figures than of Spirit Inveration of Saints Now to the Fourth Their invocation of Saints is contrary to God's Ordinance Rom 8.34 who hath appointed his Son Jesus to make intercession for us who is more compassionate better able and more willing than any of the Saints or Angels to help us Joh. â— 16. And himself assureth us that whatsoever we ask the Heavenly Father in his Name Acts 4. â—2 he will give it us Contrary to this and the declaration of St. Peter that there is not salvation in any other and that there is no other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved The Romish Church teacheth her children to call the blessed Virgin Mary their life and hope vita dulcedo spes nostra their Redeemer and Savioress Reparatrix Salvatrix desperantis animae their comfort and giver of spiritual grace irroratrix largitrix spiritualis gratiae with other extravagancies certainly unwelcome to that glorious Mother of Christ and true humble soul who in that her famous canticle acknowledgeth her very lowliness to be the motive of God's high favours to her Luke 1.46 for he hath regarded the lowliness of his Hand-maiden The like exorbitancies they preach and teach of other Saints As I was considering this Point came to my hands a paper of my own censuring the doctrine I heard in a Sermon preached where I was present in the City of Palencia in Spain the year 1661. by a Fryer of a certain Order upon the Festivity of one of their Saints saying of him that he was incapable of erring in his doctrine that his doctrine was of equal authority with the Bible that whatsoever such a Saint did say though false in it self he saying it must be true The proofs he brought for these desperate positions were as mad as the positions themselves and so ridiculous that dare not relate them in this grav Auditory though I have them in writing Let not malice gather by this discourse that I revile the Saints or repine at their glory I rejoyce at it and bless God for so rewarding his Servants What I reprehend is the blasphemous abuses committed in the worship of them unpleasing certainly to the Saints A facetious expression of a Spanish Preacher may be a serious proof of this being so Preaching upon the Festivity of a Saint Founder of a certain Order he feigned that studying his Sermon he had an extasie or dream wherein finding himself in Heaven he saw that Saint he preached of behind the door hiding himself and being questioned why he did so answered He came there being ashamed to hear the mad expressions of his Fryer's in praising and extolling him upon such days And certainly if the Saints living in glory were capable of shame and sorrow they would grieve and be asham'd at the proceedings of their wild worshippers Of this I made grievous complaints to the Inquisitor General of Spain crying against exorbitancies of that kind repugnant to all Christianity being commissioned by himself to give him account of what doctrine I found censurable Even then and in that Countrey I cried against these exorbitancies but how succesful my good intention to that purpose was I do not know for this malady groweth still The way of getting the credit of a sound Catholick with the blind Vulgar is to exceed in this Practice as to spight the Jews and seem true Christians they will eat more Pork than their stomach can bear so to spight Protestants they will run beyond all measure even of their own principles in advancing Saints For one Church dedicated to our Saviour you will see an hundred dedicated to divers Saints for one Pater noster ten Ave Maries for one discourse or praise of God a thousand of their respective Saints Whereof I often saw to my deep grief sad experiences A person of Quality lyes dying in comes a Fryar of this Order and falls with all his Rhetorick to exhort him to devotion towards the Saints of his own Order to take the habit scapulary or cord of it Then comes one of another Order and falls likewise a commending the Saints and habit of his Order and so each one as they come Among them all little or no mention of our Saviour Jesus his Passion to rely upon Would you think it is the good of that soul or the honour of the Saint they are zealous for or rather the interest of the Convent judge it you and let others of more liberty speak it Have pity O good God of souls left to such Instruction Half Communion Touching the fifth point of denying the Chalice to the Laity I think it an injury to our cause to seek after any farther proof of it than their own Confession that our Saviour Jesus did institute and the Primitive Church did practise the administration of the blessed Sacrament under both kinds to the people as it is used in the Church of England But the Roman Church thought fit to do otherwise This confession is their greatest confusion and too too sufficient confutation It was to me a horror to see the boldness of the Council of Constance confessing the foresaid and coming down with a non obstante That Concil Constâ—n lâ—ss 13. notwithstanding Christ's institution and the practice of the Primitive Church therein the Council prohibited all Priests under pain of Excommunication to administer the Communion under both kinds to the Laity For causes they do not express neither do we need to labour in searching after them it being sufficient for our purpose to know that they can find or pretend causes to alter Christ's institutions and introduce others contrary to them The onely reason they give for their Decree herein is the Authority of the Church and some preceding Popes or Fathers and yet acknowledging that Christ ordained the contrary Is not this to transgress the commandment of God by your tradition Maâ— 15 3. is not this to agree with that attribute of Antichrist who opposeth and exalteth himself over all that is called God The Pope would seem to clear himself from that imputation bearing for title Servant of the Servants of God Gen 27 22 The voice is Jacob 's voice but the hands are the hands of Esau The Pope's speech in calling himself Servant of the Servants of God is Christian but his Deed in preferring his own Law and Institution to the Institution of Christ is Antichristian They cry Antiquity and Authority of the Church for this practice