I. S. has bin in his pretended triumph over me touching this point of History CHAP. XXX Of the strange and absurd terms used in the grants of Indulgences and the immoderate profuseness wherewith and slight causes for which they are granted TRuly if we do consider the absurd language used in the trade of Indulgences and the vast boundless profuseness in the grant of them for very slight causes of all which their most learned Defenders do confess not to be able to give a rational account we may with some grounds suspect that some such Lay-cardinals mentioned in the precedent Chapter out of Baronius granting Indulgences in Rome should have bin the Authors and Inventors of the present practice of Indulgences and terms of it used in the Roman Church First they divide Indulgences into total and partial A total Indulgence is a full remission of all the temporal pains due to the mans sins committed A partial Indulgence is a remission of a part of the penalties according to the will of the person granting it A total Indulgence is subdivided again into plena plenior plenissima a plenary or full more full and most full Here the wits of the Learned are strained to find sense in these words how one Indulgence that is plenary can be capable of these degrees of increase in regard of the same person If by any plenary Indulgence he has a total remission of all the penalties due to his sins how can he have a more total or full remission of them Suarez disp 1. De effectu Indulgent Sect. 4. finding no ground for these degrees would fain give some sense to them by a parity of the Virgin Mary full of grace by the coming of the Angel more full by the coming of her Son and most full in her death but finding himself weary of such bare conjectures resolves that according to the present state there is no substantial difference as to the effect in those gradations of plenary Indulgences whatsoever was the meaning of those terms with the first Authors of them whereof at present there is no clear knowledg and relates Sotus saying that Preachers of Indulgences have introduced those gradations by way of exaggeration Partial Indulgences are likewise subdivided into quadragena septena carena and the like Quadragena they call an Indulgence of forty daies septena of seven years carena composed of both the former containing seven years and forty daies And now enters a very perplex difficulty that turns the brains of their ablest Divines what to understand by these years and daies of remission whether so many years and daies of the pains of Purgatory to be remitted as Viguerius did conceive or so much time of penance enjoined by Canons for sins and tho this latter be the more received and common opinion and approved by Suarez in the place now mentioned yet he finds so many difficulties for a congruous sense of so many thousand years allowed by Indulgences so little consistence in reasons alledged by several Authors that he resolves it s a matter obscure and unknown to us and that we must rest upon the judgment of the Church which knows the meaning of those measures concluding thus Breviter vero assero de re nobis incertà Authores hos disputare Ecclesiam vero uti illa mensurâ quae sibi nota est I say briefly that these Authors do quarrel about a thing unknown to us and that the Church uses herein that measure which is known to it self remitting those pains of Purgatory which may be proportionable to the penalties of this life enjoined by Canons and so leaves us as wise as we were before for understanding what sense so many thousands of years can have whether relating to the pains of Purgatory or to penalties enjoined by Canons But this Language is used and received in the Roman Church and therefore we must stand to it let it mean what it will be it sense or non-sense and that 's all the account that Suarez can give us of it after the trial of his own wit and examining the discourses of others being to speak in earnest Now to the cause of giving Indulgences Mr. I. S. gives us occasion to say somthing since he boasts that Indulgences are not granted so slightly as Protestant Ministers would make their flock believe It s true that Cajetan teaches Opusc de Indulgent cap. 8. that great Indulgences ought not to be given for small causes and that there ought to be a proportion betwixt the quality of the Indulgence and the work performed to obtain it But how can this consist with what Cajetan tells there that a plenary Indulgence is given to every one that stands in the Yard of St. Peters Church when the Pope gives his blessing to the people there on Easter day Here he recurs to a mystery that tho to stand in that place be of its own nature of no great consideration yet relating to the purpose of representing the Members of the Church united under one head it s of great weight and proportioned to the Indulgence received But what mystery shall we find to render decent that famous Indulgence granted by Innocent III. to all such as would marry public Harlots as Spondanus relates in the year 1198. Who would not think that so many loud and learned cries made against the abuses of Indulgences in the Roman Church for more then a hundred years and the scandal and contemt of them grown among the sober and judicious men even of their own party would not be a means to moderate at least the boundless profuseness of those grants feeding continually the hopes of sinners for a remission of all their crimes and encouraging them to persevere in their wicked waies But that 's the unhappiness of that Church and the dismal symptom of a disease being mortal that it grows worse with remedies and hates a cure Setting aside numberless instances of their most absurd prodigalities in this kind whereof many Books are replenish'd I will only set down here a Copy of Indulgences granted by the present Pope Clement the Tenth upon the occasion of Canon zing certain new Saints of late in which you may see a full Idea of the Romish corruptions in this kind Formula Indulgentiarum cum quibus S. D. N. Clemens Papa X. Coronas Rosaria Cruces sacrasque Imagines numismata Medallias vulgo nuncupata benedicir per occasionem Canonizationis SS Confessorum Cajetani Francisci Borgiae Philippi Benitii Ludovici Bertrandi Sanctae Rosae Virginis Peruanae QVicunque saltem semel in hebdomada Coronam Domini vel Beatissimae Virginis aut Rosarium ejusve tertiam partem aut Officium divinum vel parvum Beatissimae Virginis vel defunctorum vel septem Psalmos poenitentiales vel graduales recitare aut detentos in carcere visitare aut pauperibus subvenire aut saltem horae quadrante mentali orationi vacare consueverit si confessus Sacerdoti ab Ordinario approbato sanctissimum Eucharistiae
gains a Plenary Indulgence Whosoever being truly penitent will propose firmly to forsake his sins committed and in the same day will visit any seven Churches or where so many Churches are not to be found shall visit those that be and if there be but one Church in the place shall visit all the Altars of it and pray to God for the extirpation of Heresies once a year shall enjoy the Indulgences allowed to such as visit the seven Churches at Rome Whosoever shall think devoutly of any Mystery of the Passion of our Saviour and in honor of the said Passion shall kiss seven times the ground will in that day obtain the Indulgences allowed to such as go up the holy Stairs in Rome but this once in every year Whosoever in imitation of the foresaid five Saints either shall truly detest his sins with a firm purpose of sinning no more or shall exercise some act of Virtue shall so many times obtain an Indulgence of seven years and so many quadragena's or forty daies Indulgence Whosoever shall read any Chapter of the life of the said Saints or shall visit their Altar or worship their Image and pray for the happy state of our holy Mother the Church and for the Conversion of sinners shall at every time obtain Indulgence of 100. daies The same Indulgence shall any obtain who will give anâ— Alms to the Poor or shall instruct them by himself or by another in things belonging to Faith and good manners Whosoever shall exercise himself in the worship of the holy Eucharist or of the blessed Virgin meditating upon the dignity of that mystery and the benefits redounding from it to us or commiserating the griefs of the said blessed Virgin wherewith she was possessed at the Passion and Death of her Son or in any other manner shall reverence the blessed Sacrament and pray for the necessity of the Church shall obtain Indulgence of 100 daies as often as he doth it Any dwelling in Rome or not distant from it above twenty miles if he hath a lawful impediment not to be present at the solemn blessing which the Roman Pope is wont to give in the Festivity of Easter and Ascension but shall confess and receive and pray for the extirpation of Heresies c. shall enjoy the Indulgences which the people present will enjoy but such as are further distant from Rome shall enjoy the same Indulgences performing the said duties tho they have no lawful impediment for absence All the Indulgences aforesaid may be applied to the faithful deceased by way of Suffrages For to gain the said Indulgences it is enough to have privately with you any Crown or Cross c. blessed by his Holliness with the foresaid Indulgences and to fulfill the duties before mentioned even tho happily you may be obliged to perform them upon another account Whosoever in the point of death commending himself to God shall invoke the foresaid Saints or any of them with his mouth if he can having confessed and received the Communion if he may otherwise having at least contrition shall obtain a plenary Indulgence of all his sins In the distribution of the said Crowns Crosses c. and in the use of them his Holiness commands to observe the Decree of Alexander VII issued the 6. day of February 1657. viz. that Crowns Crosses Rosaries Medals and sacred Images blessed with the foresaid Indulgences may not pass the persons of those to whom his Holiness gave them or such as from them received those things the first time and that they may not be lent or be bestowed otherwise to lose the Indulgences and any of them being lost no other may be subrogated for it by any means notwithstanding any allowance or priviledg to the contrary His Holiness prohibits this form of Indulgences to be printed out of Rome MICHAEL ANGELUS RICCIUS Secret Rome out of the Print of the Reverend Apostolical Chamber 1671. I leave the judicious Reader to gloss upon this grant and the profuseness of it whether it be a rare or difficult thing to gain a plenary Indulgence where grants of this kind are frequent They will tell us it will promote Piety to have such encouragement to Penitence praiers and deeds of Charity But let them consider whether it may not rather be an occasion of continuing in vices and a wicked life if by a verbal Confession and an imperfect kind of contrition or displeasure with sins for penalties following them apt to be conceived by the most wicked livers a security is given of remission of all sins tho never so grievous and repeated and of the eternal pains due to them and likewise all the temporal penalties following them are remitted by a plenary Indulgence so easy to be obtained as we have seen Who will not perceive that encouragement is given hereby to persevere in vices whatsoever other purposes they may have who grant them And if this be well considered Mr. I. S. will cease to admire that Protestant Doctors should accuse the Roman Church of facilitating by these means the way to sinning CHAP. XXXI The dismal unhappiness of the Romish people in having their Liturgy in a Tongue unknown to them EX ore tuo te judico serve nequam thus begins Mr. I. S. his answer to my discourse upon this subject wherein I lamented the misery of the Romish People in having their Liturgy in a tongue unknown to them and thus also shall my reply to him begin which certainly will be to put the Saddle on the right Horse What is it Sr that I have said which may be a judgment against my self in this case That the purpose of nature by speaking is to communicate the sense of him that speaks to the hearer which cannot be obtained if the hearer perceives not the meaning of the words he speaks This say you proves against my self for in the Liturgy or public Service of the Church we speak to God and not to the Congregation and God can understand us tho we do not our selves But stay Sr is not the Liturgy or public Service of the Church as well with you as with us composed of an exchange of speech betwixt God and his People they speaking to him in Praiers and Thanksgivings he speaking to them by the Lessons of sacred Scripture by the Epistles Gospels and Psalms Is it not necessary for both these purposes that the People should understand what they say to God by Prayer and what he says to them by Exhortation And for the first wherein you think your pretension to be obtained for praying I say is not Praier a rational and voluntary Elevation of the mind helped by the expressions and sense of the Praier read or said Is not this elevation of the mind mainly advanced by understanding the word of the Praier read or said whoever heard a Psalm sung with solemn Music may well tell how different a feeling and elevation of mind he hath when he sees or knows the words sung
flaw at least of a sinister intention Men judicious at this rate must not look upon any â—ction of another with a right eye When Vahash the Ammonite reduc'd the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead to ask â—uarter he denied to allow it to them but on condition â—hat he might thrust out all their right eies 1 Sam. 11.2 So doth the Devil when possessed of any man says 〈◊〉 Peter Blesensis he pulls out his right eie of Charity â—nd sincerity and leaves him the left of envy and malice inclined only to see or to imagine defects Mens imaginations are to actions of others as moulds to mettal The same mettal powred into a mould of an Angel will make an Angel and cast into the mould of Devil will frame a Devil And indeed the metal before indifferent thus ill figured is revenged of the Devilish mould declaring by the â—hape he got in it the condition thereof So honest and indifferent actions denigrated by a maâ—icious * Hic est oculus corum in universa terre non dexter sed sinister Blessens Epist 14. apprehension do betray the evil temper of thâ— mind which thus disfigured them But if Avarice and Ambition those ravenous unmerciful passions do contribute their aid to blow the Coals of Hatred Envy and Malice what fume will they not raise to blast the reputation of the best and most laudable endeavours Wherefore he that putteth himself willingly into the Claws of these Monsters that seeketh applause where such Passions reign regards little the quiet of his body or mind He cannot enjoy himself not Christ which is worse saies * Non vivit sibi quod nequius est nec Christo qui domificavit in cordibus aliotum Simon de Cassia li. 4. de vita Salvatoris c. 2. Simon de Cassia who buildeth in the hearts of others not himself whilst he is a Slave to so many Masters as Heads of men each one more variable then the wind it self noâ— Christ S. Paul affirming that if he pleased men he should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1.19 These considerations made me desire earnestly to spend the remnant of my days retired and unknown to prepare the better for the long day of Eternity which I resolved when first I entertained a thought of relinquishing the errors of my former Profession and sticking to the Evangelical Doctrin of the reformed Church But it seems that Soveraign Providence vigilant over all was pleased to dispose otherwise of me For being actually ordering my concerns for a voiage to the end aforesaid it pleased God that a paper containing the reasons of my dissatisfaction with the Roman Church by way of soliloquie with God that by further Praier and consideration I might be ascertained of his Holy will dropped from me and fell into the hands of some of the Romish Communion who so incensed my former Friends and relations against me by a report that I was already become a Protestant Minister as made them out of a blind Zeal threaten to destroy me not unlike those who conspiring against S. Paul swore they would not eat nor drink until they killed him Act. 23.12 Which being made known to the Lord Arch-Bishop the Maior and other English Gentlemen of the City of Cashel they bestirred themselves so generously to procure my safety as may resemble that noble proceeding of the Roman Governour Claudius Lysias in defending S. Paul from the conspiracy of his Brethren against him They sent by several ways to seek after me and acquaint me of the danger I was in they prepared a party to relieve me if any violence should be offered me and sent an officer of horse with other Gentlemen by the way they understood I was to come to bring me with security into the City and prevail with me to go directly to the Lord Arch-bishops Palace to be under his Protection being not secure of my life in my former habitations From the place where I had this notice given to me I wrot immediatly to the Noble man from whose House I â—â—me giving him an account of what happen'd to mâ— and withal assuring him that tho necessity forced me to go under that protection I would never declare against the Roman Church whil'st any hope was left of being satisfied in the doubts I had and delivered by writing against several tenets and practises of it which to one of my temper was not to be performed by vulgar cries or emty pregnancies but by solld and plain reasons grounded upon the infallible word of God such as I humbly conceived those reasons to be which I proposed for Motives of my discontent with the present practice of the Roman Church And I desir'd him to declare so much and communicate my Letter to several persons of Honor his Relations and my good Friends who had much Experience of my Sincerity and Constancy in asserting what I conceived to be truth on all occasions that they giving further notice of it might direct to me any person or persons that should be thought fit to give me the satisfaction I desired Coming to Cashel I sent the like notice to the Viâ—ar General of the Romish Clergy there desiring him â—hat if any of their Bishops or other Clergy did intend to give me satisfaction to the reasons contaiâ— in my paper which was among them they woâ— appoint me a time and place of meeting and tâ—â— should find my heart and ears open to truth beâ—â— resolved to lose my life sooner then the true Cathoâ— and Apostolic faith wheresoever I found it to be pâ—â— and uncorrupted I may truly say that neither I did leave any stounmoved nor omitted any care or labour I coâ—â— imagine conducible for quieting my mind and setting me in my former profession no Tree after mâ—â— years growth and deep rooting in a kind Soile 〈◊〉 plucked up with more violence then I was wroug from my natural inclination and sensible comfort forsake the Society and Communion of my forâ— friends and brethren Neither did they omit any dâ— gence or industry to hinder my parting from theâ—â— and to recal me after my separation of both whâ—â—â— things I will give here a brief and perfect account the manifestation of truth and satisfaction of such desire to know it The first return I had to my invitation before mâ—tioned to a trial of my reasons of discontent with 〈◊〉 Romish Communion was a Letter from the Supeâ— of the Jesuits in Ireland dated 12. May 1674. of 〈◊〉 Tenor following Dear Sir Being loath to give credit to the strange repâ— divulged here of you I make bold to desire you to me know whether you forsook the Catholic and do 〈◊〉 with the Protestant Church for all your best frieâ— câ—iesty I can hardly believe that your wit 〈◊〉 wisdom should be subject to such inconstancy unâ—perhaps by some Melancholy fit or some other diseâ—per proceeding from I know not what discontent jealousy conceived against me or any other of thâ— you know
If any such thing there be I humbly beg of you to acquaint me therewith by your Letter commended to the post Office in Dundalk and do engage my word to you that you shall have all satisfaction imaginable that lieth in my power and that you shall find me alwaies ready to render you any service that may be expected from Loving Sir Your ever assured JOHN FREE alias S. R. To this Letter I answered immediatly in terms of no less kindness and sincere amity that I did and would declare wheresoever he was concerned that neither he nor any other of his Society did ever give me any discontent which might be the cause of the Resolution I was upon that my dissatisfaction was of a higher nature and that it was a great error to imagine that any dislike of particular Persons should work in me an alteration of this kind it being well known how easily I might remedy any discontents in Ireland by repairing to the place of my former habitation and emploiments in Spain and how good a reception I was to expect there even in that season as to him was well known This Letter being miscarried or not reaching to him as he signified before my declaration made at Câ—shel after many days retirement and serious consideration of the matter and no hope appearing of receiving satisfaction to my scruples he wrot another to me of the 16. of June following repeting the same expressions of fear that either he or some of his brethren might have given me some discontent to occasion my change and desiring if any such did happen I might give him notice thereof that I may give you said he any satisfaction possible and that union at least of Christianity if not of Religion may remain entire among us He desired further that I would consider seriously unde quo whence and whither I was going and what great inconveniencies might follow To this Letter also I answered immediatly repeting my former assurances given to him of no injury or discontent received from him or any of his Society as a cause or occasion of my change and that I did heartily embrace his offer of maintaining union of Christianity among us if not of Religion which was my own constant inclination and hearty desire As for considering unde quo whence and whither I went that I did consider it with Prayer and Study of many years and the grounds of my resolution thereupon would soon appear in public and I desired he should prevail with some able men of his Fraternity to reply to them with that gravity and modesty which becometh learned and religious men that on both sides we might concur with our studies to the Glory of God and manifestation of his truth setting a side all wonted acerbities which if used would confirm me and all men of good judgment in a dislike of their way and spirit Soon after at my arrival in Dublin he sent another Letter to me of the 24. of June with a message by word of mouth by a Gentleman of my Relation earnestly craving an opportunity of a privat conference with me with an offer made by the said Gentleman of all favor and assistance if I did desist even then from proceeding in my resolution and desired I would signify either in privat or in public the reasons of my discontent with them To this I answered that I conceived some inconveniencies in privat Conferences in that occasion and expected no quiet of mind by them that the case being already public I judged the handling of it in public to be more expedient both for the Service of God and my particular satisfaction the matter going through a more exact Trial that way and consequently I did proceed declaring in a Sermon preached a few daies after to a very great and noble Auditory in Christs Church of Dublin the reasons of my discontent with the present practice of the Roman Church in such moderate terms as may be seen in the same Sermon printed and extant in the hands of many desiring to be answered with the like moderation and formal Style setting aside satyrical and scurrilous Libels to which I was not to afford any either reading or answer And long it was before I heard of any serious reply made to my proposals but silly Libels of this latter kind which the sober sort of their own party thought unworthy to be published and I thought them to be as little worthy of my regard In the mean time having taken my dwelling since my coming to Dublin in Trinity Colledg near it and that University being pleased to have me incorporated with it in the quality of Doctor in Divinity at the performance of Acts usual to such a degree I published a Divinity Thesis directly intended for a Justification of my resolution taken by a strict enquiry and examen of it in a public dispute and containing to that purpose two conclusions touching the main points of our Controversy and to which all the rest may be reduced The first was That out of the Roman Church there is a safe way for Salvation The Second that the way of the Church of England is safer to Salvation then that of the Church of Rome By the former I intended to justify my constant and continual aversion to that horrid and arrogant position of the Romanists that out of their Communion there is no Salvation the fountain of so many bloody Tragedies and unchristian animosities which have bin the disgrace and destruction of the Christian Church these many years By the Second I proposed to justify the election I made of the Church of England as the more sure way to Salvation each one being obliged by the law of that Charity which every one ows to himself to take the way he conceives to be most secure in a matter of so high a consequence To these conclusions I invited seriously and eaâ—nestly all manner of persons having obtained free licence for them to come and argue from the Lorâ— Primate our Vice-Chancellor and from the other Heads of the University concern'd as may appeaâ— by the Letter following which I wrot with the Theâ—â— enclosed to a certain Learned Doctor of the Romisâ— Communion Honoured Doctor In pursuance of my earnest desire to discover the truth in the matter of greatest concern by all thâ— waies I could think expedient for it I am to defenâ— by public dispute next Thursday in the Chappel 〈◊〉 this Colledg the Thesis I send to you enclosed herâ— in performance of my promise I signified to my Lorâ— Primat to the Provost of the Colledg and the Moderator of the disputes my desire that any learneâ— man of whatsoever condition might be permitted 〈◊〉 oppose and they all granted my request it being no the custom of the Church and Vniversities of England and Ireland to keep their people from reaâ—ing and hearing the reasons of their adversaries a else where you know t is And as Suarez Bellarmin and others
made betwixt the Ecclesaâ—ic and Secular We have for the same practice the examples of the Godly Kings of â—srael and of Christian Emperours in the Primitâ—â—e Church as will be declared hereafter Chap. XV. 1. And our Doctrine herein being built thus on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets appears thereby to be Catholic and Apostolic And if any Doctrine of ours be not found grounded upon the same foundation of the Apostles and Prophets we are all reaâ—y to make that pious confession of our great King James related by Suarez Chapter XVII n. 15. Ego vero id ingenuè spondeo quoties Religionis quam profiteor ullum caput ostendetur non antiquum Catholicum Apostolicum sed novitium esse ac recens in rebus sc spectantibus ad sidem me statim ab eo dâ—sâ—essurum I do faithfully promise that whensoever any point of the Religion I profess shall be found not to be ancient Catholic and Apostolic but new and modern as to things belonging to Faith I will presently depart from it This much those of the Roman Church cannot say with sincerity and truth since several of their tenents are not built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets but are contrary to them as is declared in the second part of this Treatise Therefore our Church and the Faith of it rather then that of Rome is truly Catholic and Apostolic CHAP. V. Of the Succession and lawful Ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons in the Reformed Church of England NOthing is affirmed more confidently nothing more blindly believed by most of the Romish party then the nullity of the Protestant Clergy that our Bishops Priests and Deacons are not such effectively but nominally or by title and therefore unable to give Orders they have not or administer Sacraments depending upon such Orders This I find by experience to be the greatest stop many of the more sober and serious of them have in embracing the Communion of the Church of England They see cleerly nothing is asserted by it which may be thought Heretical or erroneous And what it denies of superstructures added in latter Ages by the Roman Church they easily perceive them not to be essential to Salvation Their main scruple is whether in this separation of the reformed Churches from the Roman a lawful succession of Bishops and Ministers was retained and a legal ordination of them continued whether they may live and die confidently relying upon the Ministery of the reformed Ministers for consecrating absolving c. without recourse to a Romish Priest This point I find to be so necessary for setling the minds of many in this wavering age that I thought convenient to examine it exactly as far as may consist with the brevity and clearness I aim at in this writing To relate the reproches and calumnies of Romish Writers against our Ministery were endless and impertinent The shorter and readiest way will be to shew the truth and right of our cause by positive undeniable arguments touching the lawful succession and due Ordination of our Clergy This being established old stories and slanders will fall of themselves Who would not think it impertinent in me to take notice of that very rude and ridiculous fable of the Ordination of Parker and others at the Naggs-head in Cheapside most vigorously and demonstratively refuted many years ago by Mr. Mason and unhappily revived of late by a certain Gentleman to his own great shame and discredit of his cause being evidently convicted of Impostures by the Lord Bishop Bramhal in a separate Treatise printed upon that Subject Such base stuff as this if suitable to ears possessed with fury and blind passion is unworthy of any mention or regard among serious and sober Men. Now coming to the point after much reading and serious consideration upon the matter I wish heartily I could find the succession of lawful Bishops so cleer and not interrupted in the Roman Church from the Apostles times to the Reformation as we are able to shew it in ours from the beginning of the Reformation to our own daies It shall not be my present work to take notice of doubts occurring touching the former It will suffice for my purpose to demonstrate that from the beginning of Henry the Eight his reign when no doubt was of the legality of our Clergy to this day there has bin a lawful uninterrupted succession and due Ordination of Bishops and other Inferiour Clergy in the Churches of England and Ireland If the testimony of an adversary will avail we have that of * Cudsem de desper Calvini causa Cap. 11. pag. 108. Cudsemius who came into England the year 1608. to observe the state of our Church and the order of our Universities Concerning the state of the Calvinian Sect in England saith he it so standeth that either it may endure long or be changed suddainly or in a trice in regard of the Catholic order there in a perpetual line of their Bishops and the lawful succession of Pastors received from the Church for the honour whereof we use to call the English Calvinists by a milder term not Heretics but Schismatics Bellarmin is peremtory upon the contrary saying of all the Reformed Churches nostri temporis haeretici neutrum habent id est nec ordinationem nec successionem the Heretics of our times have neither ordination nor succession Whatsoever be said of other reformed Churches which I leave to speak for themselves upon this point we have cleer evidences to shew the falsity of the Cardinals assertion as relating to the Reformed Church of England and the more criminal as more wilful calumny of * Bristow Harding Sanders Kellison apud Masonliâ— 1. cap. 2. Vindiciae Eccleâ—ae Anglicanae Bristow Harding Sanders Howlet Kellison and other English Romanists whose malice must be Diabolical or their ignorance supine and unexcusable in slandering their Country with what they knew or easily might know to be an untruth as that stranger Cudsemius with due inquiry came to know For evidencing this point of so great importance * Papists Prisoners in Framblingham Castle in Queen Elizabeths time related by Mr. Mason 1 Book 3. Chap. of his English Edition that it was the cry of Papists to the Protestant Clergy in Queen Elizabeths time and is still the challenge of many among them if you can justify our calling we will come to your Church and be of your Religion I am to premise first as to matter of fact that in all prudence I am to rely with more satisfaction upon the public authentic records of the Church and state of England touching the transactions of both then upon the report of declared bitter Enemies such as those of the Romish faction are known to be Whereas it cannot but appear morally impossible in any impartial judgment that in so grave and wise a Nation as England is known to be the Lords and Officers of Church and State should conspire and agree in deluding
that the words of their Pontifical accipe potestatem offerendi Sacrificium provivis defunctis are contained in those others of our Saviour at the last Supper hoc facite in meam commemorationem Do this in remembrance of me is notoriously weak gratis dicitur gratis negatur as t is said without ground so it may be denied without regard Now as to the form of Ordination * Bellar. de Sacramento Ordinis lib. 1. c. 9. Bellarmine tells us that all agree in taking for form the words that are pronounced by the minister when he exhibits the sensible signs or matter he adds that tho the Scripture doth not mention particular words to be pronounced in each order yet the ancient Fathers of the Church Ambrose Jerome and Augustine do expresly teach that a forme of words suitable to each Order is required and was practiced so in the ancient Roman Ordinals and so is practiced to this day in the Ordinal of the Church of England which in King Edward the sixth his time was disposed according to the more qualified ancient Ordinals used in the Catholic Church In the Ordination of Deacons the Bishop laies his hands severally upon the Head of every one of them kneeling before him saying Take thou authority to execute the office of a Deacon in the Church of God committed unto thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost c. After delivering to every one of them the New Testament he saith Take thou authority to read the Gospel in the Church of God and to preach the same if thou be thereto licensed by the Bishop himself In ordaining Priests the Bishop with the Priests present do lay their hands severally upon the Head of every one that receiveth the order of Priesthood the Receivers kneeling and the Bishop saying Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Priest in the Church of God now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands whose Sins thou do'st forgive they are forgiven and whose Sins thou do'st retain they are retained and be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of God and of his holy Sacraments in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost In the consecration of Bishops the Archbishop and Bishops present do lay their hands upon the Head of the elected Bishop kneeling before them and the Archbishop saying Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Bishop in the Church of God now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen And remember that thou stir up the Grace of God which is given thee by this imposition of our hands for God has not given us the Spirit of fear but of power and love and soberness The Church of England being thus exact in observing the form and matter essential to holy Orders it appears how rash and false was Kellison in saying that in King Edwards time neither matter nor form of Ordination was used How vain and windy * Fitz Symons Britonomach p. 3â—9 Fitz Symons his flourish cum in Sacramento mutatur materia forma intentio faciendi quod facit Ecclesia quae ejus essentiam conficiunt desinit esse Sacramentum omnium qui ante te vixerunt tecum vivunt post te victuri sunt orthodoxe sentientium consensu When in the Sacrament the matter form and intention of doing what the Church do's which make up the essence of it are changed it ceases to be a Sacrament by the common consent of all Catholics that lived before you do live with you and after you shall live Truly Fitz Symons seem'd to study more how his phrase should be round and sounding then to furnish it with sense and truth so as without injury I may say here of him dat sine mente sonum Setting aside what belongs to the matter and form who told Fitz Symons that the Ministers of the Church of England in the administration of Sacraments have not an intention to do what the true Church of God do's And tho their intention were to do expresly what their own Church of England do's and not what the Church of Rome Bellarmin declares that not to be an alteration annulling the Sacrament non est opus intendere quod facit Ecclesia Romana sed quod facit vera Ecclesia quaecunque illa sit vel quod Christus instituit vel quod faciunt Christiani imo si quis intendat facere quod aliqua Ecclesia particularis falsa ut Genevensis intendat non facere quod Ecclesia Romana respondeo etiam id sufficere nam qui intendit facere quod Ecclesia Genevensis intendit facere quod Ecclesia universalis It is not necessary saies Bellarmin to have an intention of doing what the Church of Rome do's but what the true Church which soever that be nay if he should intend to do what some particular false Church which he thinks to be true as that of Geneva saith the Cardinal even that will suffice for he that intends to do what the Church of Geneva * Bellar. de Sacra in Gen. lib. 2. c. 27. do's intends to do what the Universal Church do's of which he believes the Church of Geneva to be a member Then Fitz Symons was mistaken when he said that the supposed alteration in the intention of the Ministers did annul the Sacrament by consent of all Catholics if he will not have Bellarmine to be put out of that number not to take notice of his extravagancy in making the intention of the Minister an essential constitute of the Sacrament nor of the dismal confusion and discomfort he brings upon his proselytes by making the effects of Sacraments depending upon the foresaid intention whereof no Man receiving a Sacrament can have a full certainty the words of the Minister I can hear and his action I can see but of his intention I can never be entirely assured Then if the matter and form of Order necessary and essential be retained in our Church as we have seen and no reasonable doubt is left of the intention of our Ministers to do what the Church of England do's which according to Bellarmin's supposition now mentioned is sufficient How comes Fitz Symons to say that in the matter and form and intention of our Ministers such alteration is made as annulls our Sacraments CHAP. VII How far the form of Ordination used in the Church of England agrees with that of the ancient Câ—â—rch declared in tâ—e fourth Council of Carthage and how much the form prescribed by tâ—e Roman Pontifical of this time differs from the ancient fâ—rm AS in many other points so in this of Crdination especially I cannot but admire how bold the Romish Writers are in imposing upon the ignorant that themselves are the observers of antiquity and the Reformed Churches the contemners of it whereas indeed
in the Library of Dublin University where it is ordered that the Bishop consecrating together with the Bishops assisting to help him do place the Book over the neck and the shoulders of the Bishop consecrated without saying any word one of the Chaplains of the Bishop elect kneeling behind him and holding the Book until it be given to his hands and then the Bishop consecrating and the other Bishops assisting him do touch with both their hands the head of the Bishop elect saying Accipe Spiritum Sanctum Receive the Holy Ghost And in supposition that the mode of placeing the Book is not essential to this Ordination certainly the form prescribed by the Church of England in this particular is very decent and apposite to the purpose of this action the Arch-Bishop or other Bishop consecrating delivering the Bible to the Bishop consecrated saying give heed unto reading exhortation and Doctrine with other wholesome admonitions touching his pastoral duty Now touching the essential parts of this ordination which do consist in the imposition of hands as matter and the benediction or words pronounced by the Bishop consecrating as form the Church of England is exact in observing the form prescrib'd by the foresaid Council of Carthage since it orders that all the Bishops present should lay their hands upon the Bishop elect and only the Arch-Bishop or Bishop consecrating should bless or pronounce the words of the form saying Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Bishop in the Church of God now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Châ—st Here the Roman Pontifical deviates from the foresaid form prescribed by the Council of Carthage ordering that both the Bishop consecrating and the Bishops assisting should pronounce the words of the form saying Accipe Spiritum Sanctum By this we see how exact the Church of England is in observing all the essential and necessary parts and ceremonies prescrib'd by that renowned Council of Carthage for the ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons As for other ceremonies not essential the Council of Trent it self declares that even in the administration of Sacraments whereof they will have Orders to be a part they may be altered by the Church as the condition of matters times and places may require Neither is this to be understood of the Church Universal congregated in a general Council only but also of each particular Church whence proceeded the great variety of Rites in things indifferent amongst the ancient and even modern Christians of several places and orders approved by that grave sentence of a Lib. 1. Epist 41. Gregory the Great in una fide nihil ossicit Sanctae Ecclesiae consuetudo diversa And as the Roman Church upon this account introduces new rites why may not that of England abolish others especially such as are found to be superstitious for which the b Distinct 63. Quia Canon law giveth this warrant Docemur exemplo Ezechiae frangentis serpontem aeneum quae in superstitionem vertuntur illa sine tarditate aliqua cum magna autoritate à posteris destrui posse We are taught by example of Hezechias that such things as turn to superstition may be without delay and with autority extirpated in after ages As a good husband cuts off not only rotten but superfluous branches that may suck away the sap from the main tree so any Church that is free and independent such as this of England is may cut off superstitious and superfluous rites and ceremonies which by their multiplicity may distract both the Ministers and Congregation and take their attention from the main object of their devotion And certainly who ever considers the vast number of ceremonies used now by the Roman Church and prescribed in their Pontifical will find it a task not easie for even a good capacity to comprehend and practice them all and very hard to think of elevating the mind withall to praier or meditation CHAP. VIII How far the Church of England do's agree with the Romish in matter of Ordination wherein they differ and how absur'd the pretention of Romanists is that our difference herein with them should annul our orders AS the Church of England did not think convenient to follow that of Rome in all their superfluous ceremonies especially such of them as are noxious and opposite to the sincerity of Christian discipline so it do's not grudg to go along and conform with them in what they retain of ancient integrity In many things we agree with them First that only Bishops are to give Orders Secondly that none be promoted to Orders without the title of a benefice or sufficient patrimony which is far more exactly observed in the English then in the Romish Church Thirdly that the persons to be Ordained be examined as to behaviour and ability Fourthly that certain times and daies are appointed for Ordination Fifthly that the persons to be ordained ought to appear in the Church Sixthly that they receive their Orders on their knees Seventhly that they receive the Communion All this is commonly observ'd in both Churches but more exactly and indispensibly in the English as to Orders in general Now as to particular Orders we agree in the following points as to Deacons First that the Arch-Deacon presents them to the Bishop Secondly that the Bishop enquires of the Arch-Deacon whether he knows them to be worthy of that Order Thirdly that the Bishop admonishes the Congregation that if any person has any thing to say against them he should declare it Fourthly that the Bishop instructs them in the duty they are to perform Fifthly that litanies are said and the Bishop exhorts the Congregation to pray for the Persons to be ordained that they may be fit Ministers in that sacred Order Sixthy that the Bishop gives them the Book of the Gospels and power to read them in the Church of God Seventhly that one of the Deacons newly ordained should read the Gospel Herein we agree But we differ from the Roman Church First where they add to the litanies the invocation of Saints and Angels Secondly where power is given to the Deacons to read the Gospels for the dead Thirdly that what is not expresly delivered by the Roman formulary is more clearly expressed by the English As for example the Order of Deacons in the former is given by these words Receive the Holy Ghost for power to resist the Devil and his temtations in the Name of the Lord which being too general and common to all Christians is made more proper and apposite to the function of Deacons by these other words used in the English ordinal Receive autority to exercise the work of a Deacon in the Church of God committed to thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Fourthly that we redâ—ce the tedious variety of vestments and ceremonies used in the Roman Church to
the Romish party Now it remains to shew that the succession of our Bishops and Clergy from those of unquestioned legality before the Reformation and the due Ordination of them according to the said rules and rites is more cleer and unquestionable with us then with the Roman Church As for the Bishops of England Mr. Mason giveth an exact account of their Succession and lawful Ordination the time and place of it the persons conscerating them running upon several Dioceses especially that of Canterbury from the time he published his Book which was the year 1638. to the time of K. Henry the Eighth when the validity of Ordination was not questioned grounding his narrative upon the authentic Records kept in London And in the same Records may be found the like account of the ensuing ordinations from Mr. Masons time to this day The like account may be found in the several Registries of the Churches of Ireland from our daies up to the aforesaid time of Henry the Eighth and touching the prime Church that of Armagh I found the ensuing account of the Succession and Ordination of Arch-Bishops in it from the present Arch-Bishop the most Reverend Father in God James Lord Arch-Bishop of Armagh Primate of all Ireland to the great comfort and benefit of it since the blindest passion can't miss to see in his Grace the Idea of a most renowned and perfect Prelate In the hands of his worthy Vicar General and Judge of his Prerogative Court the noble and Learned Dudley Loftus Doctor in Laws I found I say the account following of his Grace his lineal succession from the Bishops of unquestioned authority in Queen Maries time James Margetson Consecrated the 27. of January 1660. by John Bramhal Arch-Bishop of Armagh c. in the Cathedral Church of St. Patric in Dublin John Bramhal Doctor of Divinity was Consecrated Bishop of Derry in the Chappel of the Castle of Dublin the 26. of May 1634. by James Vsher Arch-Bishop of Armagh c. James Vsher Doctor of Divinity was Consecrated Bishop of Meath at Droghedah in the Church of St. Peter Anno 1621. by Christopher Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh c. Christopher Hampton Doctor of Divinity was Conseciated Bishop of Derry May the 5. 1613. in the Cathedral Church of St. Patric by Thomas Jones Arch-Bishop of Dublin c. Thomas Jones Doctor of Divinity was Consecrated Bishop of Meath in the Cathedral Church of St. Patric Dublin the 12. of May 1584. by Adam Loftus Lord Arch-Bishop of Dublin c. Adam Loftus Lord Arch-Bishop of Dublin was Consecrated Arch-Bishop of Armagh in the Church of St. Patric Dublin Anno 1562. by Hugh Curwin Lord Arch-Bishop of Dublin c. Hugh Curwin Doctor of Laws was Consecrated Arch-Bishop of Dublin the 8. of September 1555. being the third of Queen Mary together with James Turbirwill Bishop of Exeter and William Glin Bishop of Bargor Each one of the other Bishops of Ireland may give the like account of their lawful ordination and lineal succession from the Bishops of unquestioned autoâ—ity in King Henry the Eighth and Queen Maries time no exception is known to have bin taken against the legality of any of them and the Laws being so severe and the penalties of premunire so heavy against any Bishop that would enter otherwise then by the Rites and requisites above mentioned and justified 't is morally incredible that any would permit any defect to intervene in his Consecration that might bring upon him so great a damage 'T is not so with the Bishops or Popes of Rome We have not only conjectures but cleer evidences by a learned and exact Pen of their own party that none of the Bishops or Popes who usurped that see from Gregory the 13. was a lawful Bishop or Pope The treatise pen'd upon this subject in Latin and dedicated to King James bore this title The new Man or a supplication from an unknown person a Roman Catholic unto James the Monarch of Great Britain and from him to the Emperour Kings and Princes of the Christian World touching the causes and reasons that will argue a necessity of a General Council to be forthwith assembled against him that now usurps the Papal chair under the name of Paul the Fifth This treatise being published by order of so excellent a Prince as the World knew King James to be it were a blind insolence to say it should not be real and unfeigned and a treatise so destructive to the credit and interest of the Roman Court being not disproved for the space of nine years by any of that party as reported by Mr. William Crashaw translator of the said treatise from Latin into English in the year 1622. nor to this day by any that we know 't is a cleer argument they wanted means to gainsay the truth of it I will reduce to a brief sum the heads of his proof as well to matter of fact as of Law that the election of Pope Sixtus the fifth succeeding Gregory the thirteenth was null and invalid and consequently the Cardinals created by him were no true Cardinals nor the Popes elected by such Cardinals true Popes For ground of this discourse it is to be supposed that any simoniacal contract intervening in the election of a Pope such an election is therefore rendred null and invalid as is declared in the Bull of Julius the 2d set out against Simonaical elections of the Pope whose words are as followeth If it shall hereafter fall out through the Devils malice the Enemy of Mankind or the ambition or covetousness of the Elector that when we or any of our Successors shall by Gods appointment be removed from the Government of the Church on Earth the election of the new Pope be made and don either by him that is châ—sen or by any other or more of the Colledge of Cardinals by the Heresie of Simonaical contract giving promising or receiving any goods of any kind or Lands or Castles or offices or benefices or by making any other promise or obligation of what kind soever whether they do it by themselves or another by a few or by many and whether the election be accomplished by the voices of two parts of the Cardinals divided in three or by the uniform consent or voices of them all whether it be done by way of assumtion or adoration yea tho there be no writing made at all We determine define and declare That not only the election or assumtion so made shall be from that very moment void and of none effect and no power or faculty shall accrew to him thereby thrust in of any administration government or jurisdiction in matters spiritual or temporal but also that it shall and may be lawful to any Cardinal present at the said election to except against the said intruder and to call him into question for the crime of Simony as of a true and undoubted Heresie that so being an Heretic he may be of all men accountedas no Pope or
Nation in the Roman Religion The Indian Christians commonly called of St. Thomas because by his preaching they are supposed to have bin converted to Christian Religion inhabit in the nearer part of India near to Cape Comori being esteemed afore the Portugals frequented those parts about 15000 Families Their Archbishop formerly acknowledged obedience to the Patriarch of Masal by the name of the Patriarch of Babylon as by those Christians of India he is still termed But the Archbishop revolting from his former Patriarch submitted himself of late by the Portugals persuasion to the Bishop of Rome retaining notwithstanding the ancient Religion of his Country which was also permitted by the Pope in so much that in a Synod held in Goa for that purpose he would not suffer any alteration to be made of their ancientrites or Religion as * Linschot lib. 1. cap. 15. one that lived in those parts at that time hath recorded But that Bishop being dead his successor in another Synod held by the Arch-Bishop of Goa at Diamper not far from Maliapur was induced to make profession together with his suffragans and Priests both of the Roman obedience and Religion Here the reader may note how ready the Roman Court is to wink at any errors in the proselytes they can purchase provided they acknowledge the Popes Supremacy that being secured all is well the rest will come in with time as has happened with these Indians If not that wise Court will stop where it cannot go further and allow what they may not deny For it is to be considered that these Indians at their first reduction to the Popes obedience with permission to use their own rites and Religion being Nestorians held several Articles contrary to the Roman Faith First That there are two Persons in our Saviour as well as two natures That the blessed Virgin ought not to be termed Mother of God That Nestorius condemned in the third and fourth general Council and Diodorus Tarsensis and Theodorus Mopsuestensis condemned for Nestorianism in the fifth were holy Men rejecting for their sake the third general Council held at Ephesus and all other Councils after it and especially detesting Cyril of Alexandria Tho. Ã Jes de conv Gen. lib. 7. c. 2. They celebrate the Sacrament of the Eucharist with leavened Bread They communicate in both kinds They use not auricular confession Nor confirmation They celebrated the Communion instead of Wine with the juice of Raisons softned one night in Water and so pressed forth They baptized not their Infants until they were forty daies old They used not extreme unction Their Priests were married and after the Death of their first Wives had the liberty of the second third and oftner Marriage They had no Images of Saints in their Churches but only the Cross Other particular tenets proper to each one of the forementioned societies of Christians inhabiting the East may be seen with Mr. Brerewood and Mr. Pagit in their relations of these Churches In sum we may say they agree with our reformed Churches of Europe as well in asserting the fundamentals of Christian Religion as in reproving the novel errors of the Roman Church and detesting the arrogancy of it in pretending to a Supremacy over all other Christian Churches and condemning all that will not submit to their pretension herein CHAP. XV. A reflexion upon the contents of the Chapters preceding and upon the pride and cruelty of Romanists for condemning and despising all Christian societies not subject to their jurisdiction CErtainly if those bold and blind Zelots of the Roman Church who can speak no peaceable word nor entertain any charitable thought of any man that is not of their communion did reflect upon the contents of the three Chapters preceeding and consider how many illustrious Nations and numerous Societies of Men do serve God sincerely both in the Eastern and Western Churches many under continual persecution and suffering for their Religion they would abate their pride in despising all that be not of their way and moderate their fury in condemning all to Hell fire that will not pay subjection to their Pope When the Emperor Charles the fifth reduced the City of Ghent from a revolt one of his Peers counselled him he should rase down to the ground that great City The generous Emperor to win that Counsellour to milder thoughts brought him to an eminent place whence he could view the vast extent and rare beauty of that City which when he had viewed and considered he could not find in his heart to continue in his former severe judgment of having it ruined Inhumanly cruel he must be who considering the number and splendor of Nations and People mentioned in the preceeding Chapters serving Christ without dependance upon the Pope of Rome will have them all damned to Hell When Scapula president of Carthage threatned the Christians with cruel usage Tertullian bids him bethink himself a Ad Scapulam c. 4. p. 71. What wilt thou do saies he with so many thousands of Men and Women of every Sex age and dignity as will freely offer themselves what fires what swords wilt thou stand in need of what is Carthage it self like to suffer if decimated by thee when every one shall see there his near kindred and neighbours and shall see there Matrons and men perhaps of thy own rank and order and the most principal persons of either the kindred or friends of those who are thy own nearest friends Spare them for your own sake if not for ours And in his Apology speaking of the vast spreading of that party b c. 37. p. 30. Tho saies he we be men of quite an other way yet have we filled all places among you your Cities Islands Castles Corporations Councils nay your Armies themselves your Tribes Companies yea the Palace the Senate and the Courts of Justice Certainly these expressions of Tertullian so tender and pressing could not chuse but work upon the mind of Scapula and win him to a milder dealing with the Christians I would desire N. N. and others of the Roman Church severe censurers of their Christian Brethren to reflect upon the number and quality of those whom they condemn and endeavour to ruine by the notices delivered in the three last Chap. preceeding and consider with how much propriety the words of Tertullian may be applied to them What power will they have need of to subdue the rest of Christianity alien from their communion so far exceeding themselves in number and forces as above declared And in case they should subdue them what fire and sword would suffice to destroy them And if all should attend their wishes what heart could endure to see such multitudes of their dear Countrymen friends and nearest relations perish whether temporally by their decrees tending to the ruine of all Christians not submitting to their power or eternally by the cruel verdict of Eternal damnation they give against all dissentors I know some of them will
Colledg of Pamplona and Divinity scholastic Moral Polemic or Controversial in the Colledges of Pamplona Palencia Tudela and Salamanca joyning with these functions of continual teaching which in those parts are exceedingly laborious the practise of very frequent preaching together with a constant and eager study of holy scripture counsels Fathers and History Ecclesiastic in which kind of study I had alwaies my chief delight when duty and employments enjoyned upon me forced me to the study of those other faculties And is this to be a vagrant person that could bear no fruit united to the stock what fruit would be man have me bear But what if we refer him to himself few pages after saying still excessive that before I was vir Apostolicus a most resplendent star in the firmament of the true Church c. now plunged in all the contrary vices and cries * page 27. quomodo obscuratum est aurum mutatus est color optimus how is the Gold become dim how is the most fine gold changed Truly I am to return the same question upon him How came this change or * Thren 4. how came he to know it For I feel no other change in me but to the better to a quiet of conscience and full satisfaction that I am in the right way of worshipping God But I find in his own words an answer to all he saies I was before vir Apostolicus now Apostata vilis dictus a vile Apostate not really but called so and by whom by a party which I prove by demonstrative reasons not railing at random as I. E. that they have apostatized from the true faith and Doctrine of Christ in several points as evidenced both in my former discourse printed and in the second part of this treatise at large wherefore to be called Apostate by them is to me the same as if I were called a Theif or high-way Robber by one that is such himself I knowing my self to be an Alien from those practises or as if I were called an Infidel by a Turk or Pagan If I was induced to make a blind vow of blind obedience to the Pope of Rome and his Ministers I made a former vow of Religious obedience to God and his holy Laws in my baptism if I find the latter vow made to the Pope not to consist with the complyance of the former made to God as I found clearly not to consist then must I stand to my former vow made to God and rescind the latter made to the Pope If this Libeller were contented to rail at me his guilt had bin less but he extends his insolent soul language to the whole Protestant Church belching out streams against it I know not which more of brutish ignorance or hellish malice in most notorious calumnies * Pag. 30 You deserted a Church saies he in which only is Faith Religion Priests Sacrifice Altars Sacraments and real remission not only of originall sin but also of actual mortal sins all which is excluded and exploded and quite abolished by your Protestant Sect. And all this he bables out boldly without giving one word of reason for all or any part of it but I have proved with clear demonstrative reasons from the beginning of this Treatise that in the Protestant Church we have and do profess the same true Catholic faith and Religion which Jesus Christ and his Apostles taught and was professed by the Church first called Catholie That we have a right Hierarchy and due ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons and therefore a due administration of Sacraments and remission of sins both original by Baptism and actuall by contrition and also by absolution upon confession not only allowed but commended and enjoyned to our people and practised by many if neglected by others it s their fault not of our Church and of the horror some have to this practise wee may well say your Church to be the cause by its intolerable tyranny over consciences as well in the reservation of cases to be absolved only by Prelates or by the Pope as in the difficulties daily added touching the mode of Confessions and circumstances to be declared in them which deters many even from the right use of it and is thought to be occasion of more loss then gain of souls among you He tells me * 63. Page that I know in my conscience that the Protestant Sect doth place all happiness in the pleasures honours liberty and contentments of the body and obstructs all means and waies to vertue to Sanctity Piety Mortification c. and doth stifle the fear of a living dreadful God and all this likewise without any proof of it Was there ever seen a more desperate insolency false prophet who dost pretend to dive into the inward of my conscience known only to God and to my self I will declare to the glory of God and edification of the Christian people miserably deluded by such Slaves of fury and lies what I know in my conscience to be true That in the Protestant Church I saw more practise of solid vertue piety and devotion and of the fear of God more apt means used to purchase those vertues both by the doctrine of our Church and by the ordinances of our state then ever I saw among the Romanists Since my coming to the Protestant Church my constant habitation has bin in Trinity Colledg of Dublin where I see more practise of sobriety devotion and piety then ever I saw in a Colledg of so many young men on the Romish side Three times a day they go all to prayers to the chappel at six in the morning ten at noon and four in the evening with admirable reverence and attention their Prayers most grave and pious for all purposes and for all sorts of persons they say kneeling the Psalmes standing and the sacred Lectures they hear sitting reverently and bare-headed with a respect due to the Lessons used by them sacred indeed as taken out of those blessed fountains of Living waters of the old and new Testament not out of the broaken Cisterns of Romantic Legends all being read in a voice audible and language intelligible and thereby sutable to the edification and instruction of all the people present The same order and style I see observed in the Palaces of Princes and Prelates and in the houses of Gentlemen and godly persons all the family being called to pray together in the Chappel or other decent room of the house after the manner now declared When I come to the Royal Castle or palace of Dublin there I see the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to whom a judicious French * Georg Fournier in geograph li. i. cujus praecipua inter omnes qui n Europasunt Pro reges eminent authoritas writer gives the Chief place among all the Viceroyes of Europe with all his flourishing family and many Nobles attending on his Excellency break off discourses and business tho weighty and serious and answer the found
of a Bell calling upon all at set hours to prayers in the Chappel to which they assist with singular piety and gravity If I look upon the people flocking to their public Churches on holy daies the very silence and modesty of their carriage in the streets gives me a Testimony of their inward good disposition and when they are come to the Church each one retires to his respective seat all being decently severed to avoid confusion and disorders Divine Office is performed in a most grave and decent manner all fitted to the benefit and spiritual food of souls so as if any Hymm or Psalm be sung with more exquisite music the Chanter or some other of the Quire admonishes the people what Psalm or verse is to be sung that seeing it in their Books they may be furnished with the sense that thereby the music may work better on their minds to devotion so great a care is taken that in all we pay to God rationabile obsequium a rational service with sense and feeling of what we do What if I consider the admirable devotion and reverence wherewith they go to receive the sacred Communion far greater then ever I saw with Papists tho pretending to believe something more they know not themselves what about the presence of our Saviour in that Sacrament then Protestants do A spectacle of this kind certainly grateful to God and to his Angels which I saw in Christs Church of Dublin on Resurrection Sunday last year sticks fast in my memory with joy The most Reverend the Lord Arch-Bishop of Dublin Chancellor of Ireland having performed the Communion office with singular decency and good order he took himself first reverently the sacred Communion and gave it to the Minister of the Altar then to the Lord Leiutenant to the Peers and the Roial Council and to a numerous concourse all receiving it with singular devotion having for associates in giving it the most Reverend the Arch-Bishop of Armagh Primate of all Ireland the Right Reverend the Bishop of Meath the chief of the Bishops of Ireland after the Metropolitans and three dignitaries of the Church Doctors in Divinity to administer the Cup each one making a Godly brief exhortation to the receiver for a due receiving of it the Lord Arch-Bishop having read at the Communion Table a grave and pious Homily exhorting to a right preparation for receiving that venerable Sacrament as is usually don in all Churches upon such an occasion Go now Mr. I. E. and compare these practises of piety and devotion with your number of Ave Marias ran over Beads of stick or glass sitting or walking and mixing with them several talks to the people about you with your Mass mumbled over in hast and the people thronging to have a sight of the Priest and a touch of the holy water without understanding a word of what is saying This is your ordinary course of devotion and spiritual assistance given to your people if some particular persons will not provide otherwise for themselves And you speak to me of your deiform intentions of ravishing devotions c. I saw much of those devotions among your Extatics and in them much of delusion cheat and vanity I wish I may never see more of them What shall I say of the preaching used in the Protestant Church truly Apostolic and godly all delivering doctrinam sanam irreprehensibilem sound and blameless doctrine I may say with truth that I never saw a Protestant preacher yet giving a Sermon that was undecent or unbecoming that place not so with you There would I see frequently shewers of non-sens madness and blasphemies preached one to magnify his order will make his Frier a Cherubin another to out go him will make his a Seraphin and another thinking that but a small purchase will set up his Saint higher then Jesus Christ and the holy Trinity with other desperate essaies like those I produced above chap. 26. This lofty style certainly you missed in me when you tell your reader that tho I was a professor of Divinity yet not of any solid intensive learning a Pag. 56. In Epist de dicaâ— and in all the Doctors of the Protestant Church when you stile them ignorant Sciolists Good Lord who knows them and knows you as any may by your goodly Book what will he judg of your presumtion Finally will you tell me what purchase did you expect to make by your defamatory Libel to get the credit of an eminent Scold I confeses you deserve it and the highest chair appointed for persons of that quality And as for me you have confirmed me in the esteem of the election I made and in the acknowledgment of the great mercy of God in drawing me out of a Congregation where the spirit of fury and untruth animating all your Libel is countenanced If we are to believe you and shall we you had the boldness to present it to a most illustrious person whom I forbear to name for very reverence fearing an offence even in mentioning that so durty a piece of Paper should be put into such hands You tell us moreover that it was published by the approbation of your Superiors If it be so certainly God has turned the counsel of your Ahitophels into foolishness Let any man that hath not lost his wits judg whether it be tolerable that men who profess to be poor and humble should speak so scornfully and contemtuously of so great and illustrious a part of Christianity as we have seen the Protestant Church to be whether it be prudence in persons complaining that they are persecuted for their Religion and under the lash of a Protestant Government to cock and insult upon their masters with barbarous abusive language and most gross and manifest calumnies Mr. I. E. knows that in two visits he was pleased to bestow on me after he had honor'd me with his famous Libel excusing the harsh Language of it I told him my discontent was not for any injury don to me but for the prejudice I conceived such undiscreet writings would bring upon his poor Countrymen and mine of the Romish Communion of whose wellfare I could not omit to be solicitous and grieve for the harm they have received often by the means of blind Zelots Truly I was much pleased with the knowledge he seemed to have of my temper very alien from spite or malice and of the spirit of the Protestant Church in coming so freely to me after such heavy affronts published by him against both I do admire and honor the singular patience and Christian modesty of the English Government in not being to severe as Romanists are where they can command in punishing such proceedings and if Mr. I. E. and his council were wise they should rather honour then abuse this modesty of their Masters When I consider the different procedure of the Protestant Church and of the Romish with their desertors I am strongly confirmed in the choise I made If
the words substance of Bread and Wine did mean the Accidents or Species of Bread and Wine which do remain and are to us the means of knowing the substance and may not be called properly Accidents in this Case because there is no substance left for them to rest upon as the nature and common notion of an Accident do's require And having deliver'd this most strange and never heard of complication of contradictory expressions to make of Accidents a substance and with all no substance of Bread to remain he sounds lowdly a triumph over his Adversaries that he has whipt them like boys with their own arms and altho it be allowed gratis that the foresaid testimony should be of Pope Gelasius yet it serves nothing to their purpose I could enlarge more upon the Absurdities of Baronius his discourse upon that subject and the injury he do's to Gelasius in fathering upon him so ridiculous a paradox but I think sufficient for the present to let the Reader see how solid and serious I should say how childish and ridiculous even great Men appear when engaged in a bad cause I am apt to think that some will hardly believe so great a Man as Cardinal Baronius should deliver so eminent nonsense as we have now related Read him in his fifth Tome of his Annals An. Dom. 406. Gelasii Papae an 5. from the first number to the twentieth And conclude Reader from this passage what little hopes we may have of peace and end of Controversy among Christians by allowing the Pope to be infallible when the most clear and plain words of a Pope are subject to an Interpretation of them so cross and diametrically opposite to the meaning of them according to common use As to understand Scripture a Popes Declaration is pretended to be necessary so to understand each Pope his Declaration another infallible Judg is to be look'd after without end CHAP. XX. Ancient School-men declare Transubstantiation cannot be proved out of Scripture and that it was not an Article of Faith before the Lateran Council Mr. I. S. his great boast of finding in my Check to their worship of the Host a prejudice to the Hierarchy of the Church of England declared to be void of sense and ground MR. I. S. with his usual confidence says it is most false what I imputed to Scotus Ocham Cajetan and other School-men that the doctrine of Transubstantiation is not contained in the Canon of Scripture nor was an Article of Faith before the Lateran Council He allows Cajetan was of that opinion and was censored for it he erred therein says he and what then but he denies resolutely that Scotus should be of such an opinion Then Bellarmin did him an injur in relating the contrary of him in these words One thing says he Scotus adds which is not to be approved that before the Lateran Council Transustantiation was no Article of Faith And a little before he tells us that Scotus said there is no place in Scripture that proves clearly Transubstantiation to be admitted if the authority of the Church did not intervene where Bellarmin adds Scotus his saying not to be improbable for tho the Scripture himself alledged may seem clear to the purpose yet even that * Vnum taemen addit Scotus quâ—d minimè probandum est ante â—ateranense consilium non fuisse dogina Fides Transidistantiaâ—â—enem may be doubted whereas most learned and acute Men such as Scotus chiefly was did hold the contrary These are the express words of Bellarmin lib. 3. de Euchar. c. 23. Here you have Bellarmin declaring clearly against Mr. I. S. that Scotus said that Transubstantiation was not an Article of Faith before the Lateran Council and that both Scotus and other most learned and acute men were of opinion that the doctrine of Transubstantiation is not clearly contained in Scripture And truly tho I had not seen Scotus his writing upon the point I am apt to believe that Mr. I. S. should be mistaken rather then Bellarmin but I have read over Scotus his discourse upon this subject not only in the printed Editions but in the ancient MS. kept in Merton Coll. in Oxon. whereof he was a Fellow with no small admiration and compassion to see so noble and excellent a wit forced to opine or seem to opine against his proper sentiment as he doth protest himself to do to comply with Pope Innocent and the Lateran Council Having stated the question of Transubstantiation related the opinion of Aquinas and others for it and confuted most vigorously their arguments out of Scripture and reason for it as not convincing at last yields to the opinion of Innocent in these words Teneo igitur istam opinionem ibi positam ab Innocentio quod substantia panis non maneat sed quod transubstantiatur in Corpus Christi non propter rationes praedictas quia non cogunt For which opinion to say something being forced to follow it he alledges two conveniences The first that if the substance of bread did remain under the Accidents of it a man taking the Body and Blood of our Savior under such Accidents would not be fasting and so may not celebrate twice in one day which is against that Canon de consecrat distinct primâ in nocte The second conveniency is that the Church prays as appears in the Canon of the Mass the bread and wine may be made the Body and Blood of our Savior Jesus Christ but prays not for a thing impossible therefore it is to be said that the substance of bread ceases to be there and is converted into the Body of Christ Whoever knew the subtilty and exactness of Scotus his reasoning may easily perceive that he spoke against his own sentiment when he alledged such weak Arguments as those two now mentioned and so not to forfeit the credit of his subtilty turns to protest with his accustomed ingenuity that he followed this opinion only for the Authority of the Church concluding thus hoc principaliter teneo propter Authoritatem Ecclesiae c. and the same his Scholiasts declares of him upon the foresaid words saying Tenet Doctor tertiam sententiam nempè panem converti in Corpus Christi quia sic Ecclesia tenet * Edit Lugdun an 1639. Vid. Scot. in 4. dist 10. q. 3. Scotus holds the bread to be converted into the Body of Christ because the Church declared it so in the Lateran Council not for any Authority of Scripture or reason which could move him to it The same I may easily prove of other learned Schoolmen By this you may see Mr. I. S. his rashness in saying I did most falsely impose upon Scotus what both Bellarmin and himself declares to be his proper opinion Of the same opinion with Scotus was Durandus in 4. Sent. dist 11. q. 1. sect propter 3. where he declares that the opinion affirming the substance of Bread to remain after Consecration was more convenient to obviate
1. opusc tract 8. q. 4. says the foresaid testimonies are without doubt to be understood of a remission to be given by way of Sacraments not of the remission of pains in the other life as the Pope doth practice in the giving of Indulgences and finally gives for the only reason the Authority of the Church and of Pope Leo then governing which he tells us must suffice tho no other reason should appear by these remarkable words Absque hasitatione aliquâ etiamsi nulla adesset ratio fatendum est dicti Thesauri dispensationem non solùm per Sacramenta quoad merita Christi sed aliter quam per Sacramenta qnoad merita Christi Sanctorum commissam esse Praelatis Ecclesiae praecipuè Papae hoc tanto magis fatendum est quanto per Leonem decimum determinatum est We are to believe without staggering tho no reason appear for it that the dispensing of the Treasure of the Church not only by way of Sacraments as to the merits of Christ but otherwise then by Sacraments as to the merits of Christs and the Saints is committed to the Prelates of the Church and especially to the Pope And this is so much the more to be confessed because it is so determined by Leo X. A very special reason to convince Luther and the rest of the World that do not believe the Pope to be Infallible Suarez tom 4. in 3. partem disp 49. sect 1. delivers his opinion of the foresaid Testimonies of Scripture to be insufficient to prove the doctrine of Indulgences Of that of Joh. 20. he says the same that Cajetan above mentioned Of the other touching the power of binding and loosing Matth. 18.18 he says the literal sense of those words to be the power of binding by Laws and Censures and of absolving from Censures and dispensing in Laws And finally in the number 17. of the same Section he concludes there is no place in the Gospel whence the giving of this power may be concluded if it be not Joh. 21.16 where our Savior said to S. Peter feed my Sheep in which words Suarez doth pretend the power Universal and Supremacy over all the Church to have bin given to S. Peter and under that Universalïty the power of Indulgences to have bin given to him But as S. Peter did never receive such an Universal power over the Church as the Bishops of Rome do now usurp so did he never pretend it nor ever troubled Thomas in India or Andrew in Achaia or James in Jerusalem or any other of his Fellow-Apostles and Bishops in their respective Provinces about a power over them or a dependance of them upon him all and eaâ—h one of them complying faithfully with their Ministry without incroaching one upon the other nor staining the repute of Christian holiness with the profane spirit of Ambition which in Rome did grow to the confusion and distraction of Christendom But tho such a Supremacy would have bin granted to the Pope and to the succeeding Bishops of Rome farr must Suarez go for a consequence of the doctrine of Indulgences to be inferred from such a grant If the power of dispensing those immense Treasures of the merits of Christ and all Saints was given to S. Peter in those words of our Savior commending to him the feeding of his Sheep how came he and the other succeeding Bishops of Rome for so many Ages to neglect the use of this power to the benefit of Souls and great advantage of the Roman Church as now is practised Suarez did easily perceive the weakness of his argument from this testimony and so betook himself in the second Section following to the common refuge of the use and autority of the Church That there is such a use says he is not denied we see it that it is not an abuse but a lawful use is proved first by the authority of the Council of Trent last Session where is added that this use hath bin approved by the autority of sacred Councils for which purpose are wont to be related the Council of Nice Can. 11. of Carthage 4.75 of Neooaesarea ch 3. of Laodicea Can 1.2 but in these Councils says Suarez we only find that it was lawful for Bishops to remit some of the public Penitences enjoined by Canons for divers crimes but that such a remission should be extended to a pardon of penalties due in the Tribunal of God may not be inferred from those Councils Another main argument for the Antiquity of Indulgences they fetâ—h out of 2. Cor. 2.10 where S. Paul remits a part of the penalty due to an incestuous Person whom he had formerly punished saving To whom you forgave any thing I forgive also for if I forgive anâ— thing to whom I forgave it for your sakes forgave I it in the pâ—rson of Christ From these latter words in the person of Christ they pretend to infer that the practice of Indulgences now used in the Roman Church had its beginning from Christ and that S. Paul did practise it in the occalion now mentioned by autority received from Christ This Argument Suarez proposes in the above mentioned second Section num 3. but from the following fourth Number to the 11. he doth most vigorously prove the inefficaciousness of that argument That the remission given by S. Paul to that incestuous man did only relate to an exterior penalty due by course or Canon of Ecclesiastical Government not to penalties of the other life depending from Divine Justice that the words in the person of Christ only proves it to be an act of Jurisdiction or power received from Christ which may be sufficiently verified by a remission of an exterior temporal penalty due by the common course of Ecclesiastical human power and finally concludes that there is no warrantable history or testimony extant by which it may be convinced that the practise of Indulgences now used in the Roman Church was known before the times of Gregory the great of whom he says is reported that he gave a Plenaâ—y Indulgence tho even of this says Suarez I find no written History but a public report in Rome and other places And finally what Suarez says with resolution is only that this practise is now in use in the Church so as they are reputed heretics who reprehend such a custome and it is impossible that the Universal Church should err herein for it were says he an intolerable moral error in practise If the Universal Church indeed did practise now and always from the beginning and in all places this custom according to the rules of Apostolic lawful Tradition delivered by Lyrinensis and S. Augustin l. 4. de Baptismo cap. 24. we would look upon this argument as of force But Suarez himself doth acknowledg and confess that this practise is neither so ancient nor Universal And therefore it may not be taken for Apostolic tradition but ranked among the modern Institutions of the present Romish Church to stand or fall
Sacramentum sumserit in quolibet ex diebus infra scriptis piasque ad Deum preces fuderit pro haeresium extirpatione fideique Catholicae propagatione aliisque sanctae Ecclesiae necessitatibus plenariam suorum peccatorum Indulgentiam corsequetur nimirum die Festo Nativitatis Domini nostri Jesu Christi Circumcisionis Epiphaniae Resurrectionis Ascensionis Pentecostes Sanctissimae Trinitatis Corporis Christi die Conceptionis Nativitatis Praesentationis Visitationis Annunciationis Purificationis Assumtionis beatissimae Virginis tum Nativitatis Sancti Johannis Baptistae Sanctorum modo Canonizatorum omnium Sanctorum dedicationis propriae Ecclesiae ejusdem Patroni vel tituli Quisquis in vigilia cujuslibet istorum sanctorum jejunaverit confessus in ipsius Festo Sanctissimum Eucharistiae Sacramentum sumserit oraveritque Deum ut supra dictum est toties Indulgentiam plenariam consequetur Quicunque Missam celebrarit vel confessus sacrâ Communione refectus interfuerit Missae ad Altare in quo Imago aut corpus aut reliquiae cujuslibet praedictorum quinque Sanctorum asservantur pieque Deum oraverint at dictum est die uno quem voluerit cujuslibet Mensis plenariam Indulgentiam lucretur Quisquis vero poenitens peccata commissa emendare firmiter proposuerit eadem die visitaverit septem Ecclesias quaslibet ubi tot Ecclesiae non reperiuntur quotquot ibi sint si unica tantum Ecclesia sit in loco omnia ipsius altaria pro haeresium extirpatione c. pie Deum oraverit semel in anno fruatur Indulgentiis concessis septem urbis Ecclesias visitantibus Quicunque devotè cogitaverit de aliquo sanctissimae passionis D. N. Jesu Christi mysterio in ejusdem passionis honorem septies terram deosculatus fuerit eo die lucretur Indulgentias concessas ascendentibus Romae per scalam sanctam hoc autem semel in singulis annis Quisquis praedictorum quinque sanctorum imitatione vel peccata sua vere detestabitur cum firme proposito non peccandi de cetero vel actum aliquem virtutis exercebit toties lucretur Indulgentiam septem annorum totidem quadragena Quisquis leget aliquod libri caput de vitâ corundem Sanctorum aut invisitet eorum altare vel imaginem venerabitur eraverit pro felici statu Sancta matris Ecclesiae peccatorumque conver sione singulis vicibus percipiet Indulgentiam ce tum dierum Eandem pariter consequatur qui aliquid pauperibus tribuet vel eosdem instruet aut por alios instrui curabit in iis quae pertinent ad fidem bonosque mores Quisquis in Sanctissimae Eucharistiae cultu vel Beatissimae Virginis se exercebit meditans illius mysterii dignitatem quantaque ex eo ad nos beneficia manant aut commiserans ejusdem Beatae Virginis dolores quibus in passione morte filii affecta fuit vel alia qualibet ratione Sanctissimum Sacramentum venerabitur pro necessitatibus Ecclesiae orabit toties Indulgentiam centum dierum consequatur Quilibet in urbe commorans vel ab ea ultra viginti milliaria non absens si legitimè impeditus non interfuerit Benedictioni qua Romanus Pontifex in Festo Paschatis Ascensionis solemniter benedicere consuevit confessus autem Sacrosancta Communione reficiatur pias ad Deum preces pro haeresium extirpatione c. fuderit Indulgentiis fruatur quibus praesentes fruuntur eadem vero si adimpleverint longius ab urbe distantes easdem Indulgentias etiamsi legitime non impediti consequantur Omnes supradictae Indulgentiae fidelibus defunctis applicari possunt per modum suffragii Pro iisdem percipiendis satis est privatim habere apud se aliquam coronam vel crucem c. cum praedictis Indulgentiis à Sanctitate suâ benedictam quae superius praescripta sint adimplere licet illa etiam alio nomine impleri forte debuerint Quisquis in articulo mortis se totum Deo commendans praedictos Sanctos vel ex iis unum invocar it ore si potuerit sin minus saltem corde confessus sacraque Communione refectus si potuerit alioquia saltem contritus plenariam omnium peccatorum Indulgentiam consequetur In distribuendis hujusmodi Coronis Crucibus earumque usu sanctissimus servari jubet decretum Fel. record Alexandri VII editum sub die sexto Februarii 1657 nimirùm ut Coronae Cruces Rosaria Numismata quae vulgo Medalliae nuncupantun sacrae Imagines cum praefatis Indulgentiis benedictae non transeant personam ilionum quibus à sanctitate suâ concessae sunt aut quibus ab his primâ vice distribuentur neque commodari aut precario dari possunt alioquin Indulgentiis jam concessis aliquatre ex praedictis deperdita pro ea subrogari altera nullo modo potest quacunque concessione aut privilegio in contrarium non obstante Prohibet Sanctitas sua hanc Indulgentiam imprimi extra Vrbem MICHAEL ANGELUS RICCIUS Secret Romae ex Typographiaâ— Rev. Camerae Apost 1671. Thus Englished A Form of Indulgences wherewith our holy Father Pope Clement X. did bless Crowns Rosaries Crosses sacred Images and Medals by occasion of Canonizing the holy Confessoâ—s Cajetan Francis Borgia Philippus Benitius Lewis Bertrand and Sancta Rosa a Peruvian Virgin Whosoever shall accustom at least once a week to say the Crown of our Lord or of the Blessed Virgin or her Rosary or the third part of it or the Divine Office or the little Office of the Blessed Virgin or of the Dead or the seven Penitential Psalms or the Gradual Psalms or to visit Prisoners or relieve the Poor or spend at least a quarter of an hour in mental praier if he confesses to a Priest approved by the Ordinary and receive the holy Communion in any of the daies below mentioned and shall pray to God for extirpation of Heresies the Propagation of Catholic Faith and for other necessities of the Roman Church shall obtain a Plenary Indulgence of all his sins viz. in the day of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ his Circumcision â—piphany Resurrection and Ascension the day of Pentecost holy Trinity and Corpus Christi and the day of the Conception Nativity Presentation Visitation Annunciation Purification and Assumtion of the blessed Virgin the day of the Nativity of S. John Baptist of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul of the five Saints now canonized of all Saints of the Dedication of his proper Church and of the Patron or Title of it Whosoever shall confess and receive in the Vigil of any of the foresaid Saints and shall pray to God as aforesaid shall obtain Plenary Indulgence as often as he doth it Whosoever shall say Mass or having confessed and received shall hear Mass at an Altar in which the Image or Body or Relique of any of the foresaid five Saints are kept and shall pray to God as aforesaid in any one day which he pleases of every Moneth
others with a contemt of the earth Soon after he saies I should have taught That there is no Salvation in the Catholic Church without telling where or when I did deliver such a doctâ—ine as indeed he could not do I professing every day my belief in the Catholic Church and protesting I do and will live and die in it If by Catholic Church he means only the Popish or Roman it s a foul abuse of terms especially speaking to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland or to any other of sense in a polemic discourse and even speaking of the Roman or Popish Church it is another great piece of untruth to say I should have taught that none may be saved in it as may appear by the second Chapter of this Treatise It s another wilful or rude mistake whereinto he falls very often that by Roman Church I should understand the Diocess of Rome of which I never took any notice or regard in my discourse which was of the Roman Church as opposiâ—e to the Reformed and so containing the whole congregation of men subject to the Pope of Rome and it is to me a wonder that this great pretender to skill in Controversies should not know before now that to be the meaning of the Roman Church in Controversies of this kind What shall I say of his pitiful spite and envy in his Preface to the Reader pretending to rob me of those titles my Emploiments gave me so public and known as appears in the Preface of of this Treatise without shame to be convinced of palpable untruths What of his rashness and rudeness in fixing for a Thesis or Title to the eighth Chapter of his Book That the Protestant Church is not the Church of Christ nor any part of it that they cannot without Blasphemy alledg Scripture for their Tenets Of his prosane policy in accusing me of indiscretion in delivering what I knew to be truth touching the Salvation of Protestants when I was on the Romish side as mentioned in the fourteenth Chapter What of his blasphemous impiety in saying that no Text of Scripture tells us that the Evangelists were in the state of Grace when they wrote the Gospel nor nothing else gives us assurance of it Nay further against the Gospel it self he pronounceth this horrible Blasphemy That not only we are unsure of the Infallibility of the Gospel but that we are assured it is not infallible And this hellish conception of his own he must father upon the Protestant Church saying it s the common doctrine of it that it is impossible to keep Gods Commandments the falsehood of which maliâ—ious imposture I have declared above in the 8th Chapter of this Treatise What of his boldness in challenging me and all Protestants to answer his ridiculous and silly Sophisms with undertakings that they shall never be answered as appears in the eighteenth Chapter touching Transubstantiation and in the twenty sixt touching Purgatory in denying that Scotus Ocham and other Schole-men should deâ—lare Transubstantiation not to be proved out of Scripture as above declared chap. 20. As a so in denying that Costerus should say it is the common opinion of Romish Divines that the Image of God and Christ is to be adored by the worship of Latria as above mentioned Ch. 23. What of his terrible Hallucination in matter of History touching Indulgences declared in Chapt. 29. appearing in every word ridiculously mistaken when he pretends to be most magisterial in correcting mistakes of his Adversary And carrying on constantly to the end this spirit of Untruth Hallucination and Impropriety of terms he concludes his Book with telling me I know in my conscience the Church of Rome is not guilty of the errors I attribute to her for cause of my separation from her How came you Sr to know the interior state of my conscience You tell me I know the Popes Supremacy in temporal affairs over Princes was no article of Faith but a Schole question That the Popes infallibility was but an opinion of some Divines As to the Popes Supremacy I have declared above c. 25. what little comfort is left to Princes by that distinction of the Popes Supremacy in spirituals from that of his power in temporals whereas he backs his spiritual power with a temporal to the ruin and deposing of all Princes and Emperors that resist him The only case of furious Hildebrand with the Emperor Henry the 3d as related by his own most friendly Historians even Baronius is apt to strike a horror into any human heart and a terror into Princes and people if the unspeakable arrogance of the Roman Court should not be bridled As for the Popes Infallibility I have declared above in the 3d Chapter how impertinent your distinction of Pope alone from Pope and his Council together is to escape the force of my Arguments in the present Controversy How falsly you say I should speak only of the Infallibility of the Pope alone my Arguments proving he is fallible still whether alone or in a Council depending upon him as that of Trent You tell me I left the Roman Church because I saw the Bible prohibited in it to the People and the Liturgy performed in an unknown Language But tho that is a great crime of the Roman Church as I have declared in the precedent Chapter it was not the only cause others several grievous I produced more immediatly touching my own concern and daily practise wherein I could not continue with quiet or safety of Conscience You tell me I forsook a Church honored with many Saints for the Protestant Church whereof there was never yet any Saint If this be true S. Peter and S. Paul and the rest of the Apostles were no Saints for I am certainly perswaded they were of the Church that I am of their Doctrine and their Faith and no other being taught in it But you speak with the vulgar of Protestants as condistinct from Roman Catholics Well and how come you to know that none of them was ever a Saint Were you in the hearts of all or did you sit in the Tribunal of God to know what degree of grace they had in his Soveraign inscrutable judgement What is rashness if this be not But you have titular Saints who have purchased that calling by public authority as Dukes Earls and Knights do purchase theirs of such we have none Then you speak of titular Saints not of real ones and upon this account you may not expect to win me from the Protestant Church to yours I hear of some Sectaries about us I know not where who style all of their Congregation Saints to this degree of Sanctity your Church did not aspire yet then if I am to remove to a Church of more titular Saints to these Sectaries I am to go not to you But you speak of Saints that come to Heaven and thither none may come but under the conduct of the Roman Pope he hath the keys of Heaven and none may go
of those who are to be saved but not without some note of infamy And a little after he added these words Sunt enim in Ecclesiâ credentes quidam acquiescentes divinis praeceptis erga servos Dei officiosi religiosi ad ornatum Ecclesiae vel ministorii satis promti sed in conversatione propriâ impuri obscoeni vitiis involuti nec omnino deponentes veterem hominem cum actibus suis Istis crgo Christus Jesus salutem concedit sed quandam infamiae notam non evadunt There are in the Church some believers and honorers of his Servants and ready to contribute towards the decency of his Service in the Church but in their private life impure and liable to vices not putting off altogether the old man with his works To these therefore Christ Jesus allows Salvation but they shun not a certain note of infamy According to this doctrine of Origen some may depart this life in state of Salvation and be received in Heavenly bliss tho with some blemishes of smaller guilt not inconsistent with Gods amity but occasioning a decrease in their degree of Glory and therefore capable of a pardon of such blemishes or imperfections even in Heaven if so your Text mentioning a pardon of sins in the other life doth not evince the existence of Purgatory If you say that Origen has erred herein as I conceive you will then first think it not a scandal to say that some one or other of the ancient Fathers should err Secondly acknowledg therein a fault of your Church in making choice of the foresaid words of Origen for Gloss ordinary of the above-mentioned passage of Joshua with the Gibeonites and conclude from all that this subtilty which clearly solveth your strongest Argument for Purgatory out of the New Testament is no invention of mine but a doctrine of a very learned Father of the ancient Church approved and received by yours modern with so public a qualification as to take it for an ordinary Gloss upon the fore-mention'd passage of Scripture CHAP. XXVII The attemt of our Adversary to make the doctrine of Purgatory an Article of the Apostles Creed declared to be vain Mr. I. S. makes sure account he found Purgatory in the Apostles Creed where it is said He descended into Hell And what if you are told those words were not in the Apostles Creed from the beginning and that the first time and place they were used in it was in the Church of Aquilcia some four hundred years after Christ that they are not expressed in those Creeds which were made by the Councils as larger Interpretations of the Apostles Creed not in the Nicene or Constantinopolitan not in that of Ephesus or Chalcedon not in those confessions made at Sardica Antioch Seleucia Syrmium not in the Creed expounded by St. Austin de fide Symbolo And * Ruffin in Expositione Symboli Râ—ffinus saies that in his time it was neither in the Roman or Oriental Creeds Sciendum sanè est quod in Ecclesiae Romanae Symbolo non habetur additum descendit ad inferna sed neque in Orientis Ecclesiis habetur hic sermo It is certain saith he that the Article of the descent into Hell was not in the Roman or any of the Oriental Creeds It is not mentioned in several Confessions of Faith delivered by particular persons Not in that of Eusebius Caesariensis presented to the Council of Nice nor in that of Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra delivered to Pope Julius nor in that of Acatius Bishop of Caesarea delivered to the Senate of Seleucia nor in others mentioned by the learned Bishop of Chester Dr. Pearson in that his grave and judicious exposition of the Creed writing upon the fifth Article of it I am perswaded this will appear strange unto you and tho sufficient to weaken the force of your Argument grounded upon the foresaid words of the Creed my Answer will not rely upon it I allow the said words to belong to the Catholic Creed long time received in the Church and embraced by that of England But I deny your inference from those words of the Creed in favor of your doctrine of Purgatory to be pertinent He descended into Hell I believe he did But not into the Hell of the damned say you for all Christians abhor the Blasphemy of Calvin that saies Christs Soul suffered the pains of the damned What then therefore he descended into Purgatory I am sure the more learned and pious men of your Communion will abhor this consequence I never heard any of them say that descent of Christ should have bin to Purgatory First because under the notion of Hell they never understood Purgatory Secondly if you mean he should descend thither suffering the pains of that place it s no less blasphemous then that you call Blasphemy in Calvin for if we believe your Authors the pains of Purgatory are the same with those of Hell and inflicted by the same Ministers of divine Justice that punish the damned souls in hell If you say he descended thither triumphant and glorious without suffering the pains of that place to purposes of divine Providence not manifested to us you may say without any Blasphemy he descended the same manner into the Hell of the damned triumphant and victorious without prejudice to his glory and honor as the Divinity of Christ is there still without prejudice to his glory why may not his Soul be there for a short time with the same immunity and to the same purpose of triumphing over Hell and his Enemies And the words of the Creed being capable of this Exposition more literal and obvious what need is there of your new Invention of Purgatory unknown to Primitive Christianity for the right understanding of that Article of our Creed CHAP. XXVIII How weak is the foundation of the grand Engine of Indulgences in the Roman Church WHEN first I came to examin the grounds of the doctrine of Indulgence used in the Roman Church I confess I was astonished to see how little ground they could shew in the Fountains of divine Faith for this mystery of the Romish belief of so great noise and so much use among them I thought it a strong negative argument against such a dectrine not to be contained in the Word of God that two so great Champions of the Roman Church Cajetan and Suarez both emploied by public authority to defend this doctrine should not meet with any convincing testimony of it in divine Scripture as both do confess plainly Both do examine the two chief Testimonies alledged for this doctrine the first out of John 20.23 Whose soever sins you remitt they are remitted to them The second out of Matth. 18.18 Whatsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever you shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And both do acknowledg them not to convince the doctrine of Indulgences as now practised in the Roman Church Cajetan tom