the Novatians and Donatists made a Schism in the Church because they wou'd not submit to Bishops of Places Canonically instituted but set up Bishops of their own chusing who for that they were destitute of Canonical Election wanted a lawful Calling But there was no such thing could be said of our first Pastors in the Work of Reformation For they were not elected and constituted hand over head in Opposition to others already Canonically instituted as the Novatians in the Roman See oppos'd Novatus against the Council but were lawfully and canonically constituted in their Functions according to all the Ceremonies then us'd in the Church and by the nature of their Calling by which they knew themselves bound to propagate the Truth were constrain'd in their Consciences to oppose themselves against the Abuses and Corruptions at that time crept into the Church and to apply themselves to a Reformation But as they were lawfully Call'd so they could impart that Calling to others and by that means it is deriv'd to us and so by us may be deriv'd to our Successors For they are not to be thought to have lost their Calling for opposing themselves against the Abuses of that Church wherein they receiv'd it Nay they had bin unworthy of it had they not oppos'd themselves against those Corruptions that were so well known to them For every Church that confers upon any Man the sacred Function of the Public Ministry seems to say to him what Trajan the Emperor was wont to say to the Person whom he created Master of the Horse by the delivery of a Sword Vse this in my defence if my Commands are just but if unjust make use of it against me Thus a Pastor Canonically ordaind ought to make use of his Calling to support the Doctrin of the Church wherein he receiv'd it if it be conformable to Truth but if not to oppose it Nor does their being Excommunicated deprive them of their Calling because it was unjust and made use of to support the Errors which they impugned and to keep up in the Temple the Money-Changers Tables which they endeavour'd to overturn Nay the very Romanists themselves confess that the Character of the Clergy is indelible and that an Excommunicated Person may Consecrate Preach and administer the Sacraments effectually Neither is it to be said that the first Reformers were meer Presbyters that could not confer their Calling upon others in regard that Ordination belongs only to the Bishops For in regard the sacred Scriptures do not so plainly teach us what is the difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop and that some of yours particularly Medina confess that the Function of Ordaining may as well belong to a Presbyter as a Bishop you ought not to make any great difficulty in this Case in regard the Dispute is not yet determin'd To which I add That in several places the Reformation began from the Bishops who therefore held their former Dignity in the Reformation which they held before And it is a wonder Mr. Prior that you and yours should carp at the Calling of our Pastors to prove our want of Succession of Pastors when your selves acknowledg that any Man without Orders without a Character without any Call may Consecrate the Eucharist I am contented with one unanswerable Argument Your Durandus in his Rationale lib. 4. cap. 35. § 7. also the Author of the Curates Manual de Sacr. Eucharist cap. 10. and many others give this Reason for the Secreta i. e. the speaking the words of Consecration so low as not to be heard being introduc'd in the Canon of the Mass Because that formerly when the Canon was repeated with a loud Voice the People readily learnt the Rites of Consecrating whence it came to pass that the Shepherds in the Country laying the Bread upon a Stone and repeating over it the Canon and Words of the Consecration presently changed their Bread into Flesh Now either this must be a Fable which however you frequently make use of to establish your Figment of Transubantiation or else you must allow that any Man may Consecrate and Celebrate the most August of all Sacraments tho' neither Call'd nor Ordain'd as we cannot believe those Shepherds to have bin But as the Crime of Schism is falsely laid to our Charge so are we most falsely said to be without the Church without which there is no Salvation We have separated indeed from the Roman Communion but it does not thence follow that we are out of the Church of God in regard that by the Grace of God we are Members of the Catholic Church professing Christianity baptiz'd in the Name of the most holy Trinity in all things adhering to the Head and Foundation Christ Jesus Cardinal Hosius in his Confession acknowledges That the Church is there where-ever the Belief of the Mediator is We have a Belief of a Mediator through the favour of God and therefore we are hated at Rome becaose we acknowledg Christ to be the only Mediator Besides that we have not departed from your Roman Church unless in such things wherein she first departed from the Word of God and the Purity of Antiquity adhering still to the same Communion of Faith and Charity with Her in the Fundamentals of Christianity and knowing that we and the Members of your Communion are Brethren in Baptism as the Israelites and Jews were Brethren in Circumcision tho' in External Worship they differ'd very much Nor can any probable Reason be invented to convince us that any Man ought to be subject to the Bishop of Rome and retain his Communion to the end he may be in a Church out of which there is no Salvation So many Christians as are within the ancient Patriarchates of the East and who exceed you Romanists far in number are not rashly to be said to be out of the Church of Christ because they refuse to be under the Pope's Yoke The Churches of Asia were not excluded from the Covenant of Christ by the rash Excommunication of Pope Victor because they separated from him upon the difference about Easter-day The Roman Clergy separated from their Pope Liberius who had subscrib'd to Arianism without incuring the blame of Schism or the loss of Salvation The Famous St. Cyprian Bishop and Martyr whom your Church afterwards worshipt among the rest of her Saints dy'd out of the Communion and Subjection to the See of Rome divided from her both in Faith and Affection by reason of his Doctrin of Re-baptizing Heretics was very hardly thought of by Stephen Bishop of Rome and yet no Man hitherto made any doubt but that he obtain'd Salvation And therefore 't is an idle thing to exact from us Subjection to the See of Rome to the end we may be in the Church and obtain Salvation especially if the Papacy be now Extinct and that there has bin no lawful Pope for a long time Now this is easily prov'd For that I may pass over in silence so many Schisms
Prodigal If Frugal he must be Covetous If Prudent he is a Coward If Magnanimous and Sedate in the midst of the raging Waves he is pronounced Rash and Bold Such is that Judgment of yours most Learned Mr. Prior which you give in your Letters of Me and all the Protestants rather with a blind Fury then a quick Understanding That is to say that we are all Damn'd to Eternity and that unless we return to Peter's Ship by submitting our selves to the Pope we are adjudg'd in this Life to the Torments of Hell. You are not the only Person who lye under this Mistake for there are not wanting among ye those that in their Harangues to the People in affrighting terms do pawn their own Salvation upon it that all the Protestants are Damn'd By vertue of which precipitate Condemnation the hatred of many is kindled against us for it is a difficult matter to love those whom they believe to be so hated of God that they are already destin'd to the Flames of Hell And in regard there is but little difference between a Damn'd Person and the Devil it is but rational that they should abhor such Persons as the Devil who by an anticipated Sentence are already numbred among the Damn'd Nay those of your Party who either out of Duty or Inclination are better and more tenderly affected towards us are wont to look upon us with Horror and a kind of Commiseration saying That they are very sorry that Men of such excellent Endowments and otherwise born to Vertue should be out of the way of Salvation and willingly throw themselves headlong into Hell. For these Reasons therefore I thought it necessary to examin by the Rule of Charity and Truth this Judgment so frequently given and inculcated against us to the end that if it be found to be rash and prohibited by the Sentence of Christ not only you Mr. Prior may be brought to remit somewhat of your rigor and blush at what you have so unjustly written but that we our selves also slighting and contemning this preposterous Judgment may continue cheerful and constant in the Truth of God saying to our Prior and such like supercilious Censurers as He what St. Paul said to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 4. 3. With us it is a very small thing that we should be judged of you or of mans judgment It is better to be condemn'd by a Physitian then a Judge by Men then by God. Wherefore as no Man can be a Judge in his own Cause it is not for the Accuser to pass Sentence upon the Guilty So that it might be sufficient to plead in Opposition to this unjust Judgment that Mr. Prior would sit Judge in his own proper Cause and that being carried away with various Affections he never regarded what was true and honest but what was profitable and convenient This Judgment certainly is not to be imputed to Equity and pure Reason but to Anger and Hatred As Parents are wont to love their Children tho' Maim'd and Lame so your Doctors are so preposterously devoted to their own pre-conceived Opinions that they hate all Men who go about to impugn or correct them and that so much the more by how much the greater force they find in the same Opinions to establish their Authority in the World and to encrease and preserve their Earthly Riches The Condition of the Protestants in this respect resembles the Condition of our Savior while he was upon the Earth For because he oppos'd himself against the Corruptions both of Manners and Doctrin which abounded in the Church and propounded a sort of Justice quite different from the Pharisaical Pride and rejecting unwritten Traditions labour'd to cleanse the House of God and restore all things to the Primitive Fountains of Purity and Truth therefore he was accounted a Samaritan and proclaim'd a Seditious Person a Demoniac a Blasphemer Turbulent and an Innovator The same things befal the Reformed for therefore are they unjustly condemn'd because they desire that the Temple may be cleans'd that Abuses and Corruptions may be reform'd which Time Ambition Avarice Negligence Ignorance and other Pests have brought into the Church that the Justice of our Savior may be fully acknowledg'd that unprofitable intolerable and superstitious Traditions may be cut off and all things as much as may be restor'd to the Primitive state of the Church and the Exemplar and Pattern of purest Antiquity And indeed if you would but lay aside your Affections and give never so little attention to the Word of God you would there find how unlawful 't is for you to give any such Judgment upon Christians and to devote them to Maledictions whom Christ has redeemed with his Blood whose Faith is conformable to the Scripture and who repose their whole Confidence in the Grace and Mercy of God and the Merits and Cross of Christ Certainly the Point of Eternal Salvation is of a higher Nature then to be wrested away by little blind miserable Animals to their Tribunal or that any Man should presume to pronounce any thing concerning it beyond the revealed Will of God. For God has assum'd it to himself his Sentence is to be expected and not to be anticipated by our Judgment For what Mortal was ever privy to his Secrets or whom did he ever permit the perusal of the Book of Life and the Catalogue of Election St. James c. 4. of his Epistle v. 11 12. positively admonishes us to condemn that Law which condemns his Brother and that he who judges of the Law is not a Doer of the Law but a Judge And that Men for this reason should not invade the Laws of God he adds There is one Lawgiver who is able both to save and to destroy who art thou shat judgest another Excellent also was the saying of the Ethnic Poet Those things which it concerns us not to know let us not take care to believe let Secret things be left to God. Many are number'd among Wolves in this World whom Christ will joyn to his Sheep at the last Judgment Many who are weigh'd in the Ballance of human Censure are rejected as Brass which the Touch-stone of Divine Judgment will demonstrate to have bin fine Gold. First therefore I would fain know of you Mr. Prior upon what ground you come to be more certain of the Damnation of others then of your own Salvation For if it be a piece of Arrogance as you commonly teach against us for any Man to assure himself that he is the Son of God and Heir of Heaven certainly it must be a great piece of rashness to determin as to others that they are the Sons of Wrath and Hell. I rather am of Opinion that the Religion of the Protestants is so far from being an Obstacle to Salvation that it rather serves in a high measure to promote Salvation I confess there is no hope of Salvation beyond the Pale of Christian Religion so that Salvation cannot be obtained in the Communion
of Ethnics Mahometans and Jews no not in the Society of those who retaining the Name of Christ nevertheless subvert the Foundation of Salvation such as formerly were the Ebionites Borborites Manichaeans Arrians and at this day the Socinians or if there be or were any other such like Monsters in Religion But in our Religion what is there to be discover'd that subverts the Fundamental Articles of Christianity but rather on the other side what serves in a high degree to support them Does it not admit the Scriptures of the old and New Testament to be of Divine Inspiration and the Three more solemn Creeds the Apostolic Athanasian and Nicene together with the Four Oeconomic Councils of Nicaea Chalcedon Ephesus and Constantinople Does it not adore in truth One God Three in One the Father Son and Holy Ghost Does it not acknowledg one Christ God and Man for the Mediator between God and Men the Redeemer of Souls a Prophet Priest and King of the Church Does it teach any thing concerning God which is repugnant to his Majesty his Glory and his Power Can it be accused of any Opinion that subverts good Manners or that sins against the Law of God or public Honesty The aim of Religion is to inform Men how to live well and bear Death with confidence to the end that after they have lived in the fear of God they may die in his favour And this is that which a Christian may easily attain in our Religion for it most powerfully excites a faithful Man to fear God and love his Neighbor It propounds no Article of Faith from whence various Corollaries may not be deduc'd for performance of our Duties and Reformation of our Lives and administers most sweet and those most effectnal Consolations to a Christian against the assaults of all Temptations and Death particularly advancing the Certainty of Redemption through Christ into the number of the Sons of God by his Merit and Favour so that they themselves who deal so rigorously by us so often as any one is to be prepar'd for Death insensibly come over to our side and tacitly renounce their own Opinions as is to be seen in Conson Agoniz written by Viguerrus For then they do not comsort the dying Person with heaps of his own proper Merits but exhort him to put all his hope and confidence in the Mercy of God and the Satisfaction of Christ Nor do they scare their doubtful Consciences with the Terror of Purgatory but comfort it with the hopes of soon obtaining Everlasting Rest and admonish the sick Person often to repeat the words of David Into thy hands I commend my Spirit The Bishop of Toledo is reported to have written to the Pope that the Emperor Charles V declar'd upon his Death-bed that he plac'd all the Hopes of his Salvation in one Redeemer and Saviour Jesus Christ and in his Merits adding withal that he look'd upon Luther's Opinion concerning Justification to be very true To which as the Famous John Crocius my Tutor formerly at Marpurgh reports in his Anti-Wigelius p. 451. they make the Pope to return this Answer That he would not celebrate his Funeral Obsequies because he held with Luther in such a Principal Point of Religion Maximilian II when the Bishop of Naples D. Lambert Gruterus came to him then lying under the Pangs of Death would not suffer him to be admitted but upon promise first That he would talk of nothing else but of the Merits of Christ his Blood and Sâ—eat The Bishop was as good as his word and made a long Oration concerning the Merits of Christ full of Consolation and when the Emperor was ask'd Whether he intended to die in that Faith He made Answer I shall do no otherwise As Crato relates in his Funeral-Oration and Chytraeus Chron. Sax. The Head and Summ of Christian Religion is Christ Crucify'd 1 Cor. 2. 2. Other Foundation can no Man lay then that which is laid which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3. 11. So that for the obtaining of Salvation there is no other Rule of Faith to be acknowledg'd then the Word of Christ resounding in Scriptures nor any other Merit to be pleaded before God but his Death nor any other Purgatory but his Blood nor any other Propitiatory Sacrifice for our Sins but that which he offer'd once upon the Cross nor any other Head of the Church nor any other Mediator with God but Himself Behold the Foundations of our Faith Why should you deny us Eternal Salvation Moreover it would be very cruel and altogether repugnant to Christians to condemn to the Torments of Hell so many Myriads of Christians living in the East under the Patriarchs of Antioch Alexandria Jerusalem and Constantinople The Georgians Armenians Abissines Egyptians Greeks whose Churches the Apostles founded Martyrs water'd with their Blood the most Learned of the Fathers cultivated with their Instructions so many Councils honour'd with their Decisions and which are able to vye their Titles of Antiquity and Succession with Rome it self Now if the way to Salvation is not to be deny'd to these Christians dispers'd over the East and retaining the Foundations of Christianity tho' believing nothing of the Fire of Purgatory the Pomp of Papal Dignity Transubstantiation of the Bread into the Body of Christ Communion under One Kind the Use of Latin or a Foreign Tongue in Publick Worship the necessary Celibacy of the Ministry Auricular Confession and the like why may not Salvation be obtain'd in the Society of the Reformed Churches which are gather'd to Christ in the West tho as to those Points they have renounc'd the Roman Communion Then there is another thing which you Romanists confess of your own accords that our Church Reform'd according to the Word of God leads all the Members of its Communion directly to Christ that they may obtain Salvation in him and by him that they feed the starving Consciences with the Spiritual Bread of the Divine Word and Sacramental Eucharist call Sinners to Repentance and recommend to every one Piety towards God and Charity towards our Neighbor There is also another thing which they acknowledge that our Reformed Church both has and administers the true Baptism of Christ and by means of that Spiritually begets Sinners which are to be Heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven seeing that by their own Confession our Children dying after Baptism receiv'd in our Churches ascend to Joys Celestial as may be collected from Bellarmin lib. 1. de Bapt. cap. 11. In the mean time I beseech you Venerable Sir can you tell me what Motives they were that lead you headlong into so absurd a Precipice Or what I beseech you were the Impulsive Causes and Pregnant Reasons of so preposterous and unseasonable a Damning of our Souls If you are Ignorant as I shrewdly conjecture you are I will tell you what they are from your own Doctors who have written variously concerning this Question that is to say That we are therefore to be Damn'd and are
Rome presum'd about Two hundred years after Christ for that reason to Excommunicate the Asiatic Churches that is to say to renounce Communion with them Irenaeus of Lyons sharply reprov'd him as the Epistles of Polycrates and Irenaeus extant about this Matter in Eusebius declare Hist Eccles l. 5. c. 23. 24. Was Aetius deservedly numbred among the Heretics because he acknowledg'd no difference jure Divino between a Bishop and a Presbyter For it is not evident that the Scripture acknowledges any such difference and that St. Jerom upon cap. 2. of the Epistle to Titus was plainly of the same Opinion nay and according to Medina in Bellarmin That St. Ambrose St. Austin Sedulius Primasius and other the most Famous Fathers of the Church were all of the same Judgment Then again without question Rome does no way approve the Ancients for numbring the Angelics among the Heretics because they gave Religious Worship to Angels which she herself defends or those who by St. Austin are call'd Nudipedales or Pattalorynchites against the former of which it is objected That they went Bare-foot seeing that at this day this is one of the greatest Marks of extraordinary Sanctity among you Romanists The other are tax'd to have profess'd a certain sort of Religious Silence which the Carthusian Monks however make no small part of their Glory Or the Collyridians of Epiphanius Heres 79. who offer'd to the Blessed Virgin little Cakes or Wiggs in Greek call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and gave her the Title of Queen of Heaven Which they that now refuse to do are all accounted Heretics Or the Starolatrae of Nicephorus Hist l. 18. c. 54. who as the Name imports worshipt the Cross which most of you assert is a Duty to be done Gretser the Jesuite affirming who in that follows Thomas Cajetan Valentia and Vasquez that it is the more common Opinion among those of his Religion l. 1. de Cruce c. 49. More paricularly among the Modern Romanists under Gregory VII The Collation of Benefices by Princes and by Caesar was call'd the Simonian and Henrician Heresie And as often as in Matters meerly Political any difference happen'd betwen the Kings and Emperors and the Bishops of Rome they declar'd them Heretics Thus Boniface VIII declar'd Philip the Fair King of France a Heretic because he sent none of his Soldiers to the Holy War. Thus John Albret King of Navar was declar'd a Heretic by Julius II because he took part with Lewis XII tho' the Quarrel was not about Matter of Faith and by virtue of that Condemnation he lost his Kingdom which the Spaniard has kept ever since John XXII pronounced Lewis of Bavaria the Emperor a Heretic because he defended the Cause of the Franciscans at that time out of the Pope's Favour but more particularly that of Ockam I forbear to mention any more We must therefore restrain the Signification of this word and a little more diligently examin who is properly a Heretic to the end we may the more easily prove the Protestants not to be guilty of this Crime An Heretic in my Opinion is one who for the sake of Temporal Profit but chiefly of Honor and Supremacy or of Lordship either founds or follows False and New Opinions Thus St. Austin de utilitate ad cred Honor. c. 1. Now in this sense we are not Heretics For tho' the Opinions were False which we uphold yet we could not be said to follow them for the sake of any Temporal Profit more especially of Honor or Supremacy but only for the obtaining of Salvation and upon the only Motive of our Consciences in regard it is plain to all the World that God has annexed to our Profession Reproach the Cross and Poverty and that the Protestants often experience the Truth of that Sentence of St. Paul All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer Persecution 2 Tim. 3. 12. Let Cardinal Bellarmin come in for a share too Why Because he has lit upon a most powerful means for me to demonstrate to Mr. Prior That We are no HERETICS He therefore c. 8. de not Eccles going about to prove that there is no Church among the Greeks notwithstanding the continued Succession of their Bishops from the Apostles time at least from the Reign of Constantine the Great under whom he believes the Constantinopolitan Church began says That the Greeks were lawfully convicted in three full Councils the Lateran that of Lyons and the other of Florence of Heresie and Schism more especially of the Heresie about the Proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Son. This Question about the Proceeding of the Holy Ghost I do not pretend to enter into nor do I see any great difference between the Latins affirming the Holy Ghost to proceed from the Father and the Son and the Greeks alledging that He proceeds from the Father through the Son. This is that which I think worthy Observation That after all the Tridentin Decisions whereby the greatest part of the Opinions of our Churches were condem'd for Heresies Bellarmin attributes no other Heresie to the Greeks besides that of the Proceeding of the Holy Ghost Whence it follows that among the Greeks the Marriage of Priests Communicating under Both Kinds and with Leavened Bread the Rejecting Extreme Unction Auricular Confession Transubstantiation Purgatory and Pontifical Monarchy were no Heresies in all which the Orientals agree with us Now if these Articles of the Greeks had bin Heretical how comes it to pass that the Lateran Lyons and Florentine Councils which enquir'd into their Errors past them by But if they were not Heretical among the Greeks in the East why should they be so among the Protestants in the West If among the Greeks it be no Heresie but only a Schism to reject the Papal Authority and to shake off his Yoke why must it be a pernicious and capital Heresie among the Protestants Neither is it to be doubted but that if the Greeks would have subjected themselves in the Lateran Council to the See of Rome all the above-mentioned Articles except the denial of the Pope's Supremacy had been allow'd them Whence it is apparent that those Articles are neither Heretical nor pernicious in Faith nor destructive of Salvation since it was possible that the Greeks retaining them might nevertheless have bin true Members of the Catholic Church and consequently capable of Eternal Life But that no Man may think I am overcuriously romaging for my Justification in the Thesis's of my Adversaries that I may slip out at length at some Back-door I shall add some direct Reasons for our Innocency which cannot be Answer'd First therefore no Man can be traduc'd as a Heretic and branded with an Infamous Crime unless it be sufficiently apparent that He as the Scripture says has receded from the Holy Command of God and suffer'd Shipwrack of his Faith. For as St. Austin says de unit Eccles c. 5. No Man is to be branded with an ignominious Mark unless it be
the Ephesians are commended because they hated the Nicolaitans On the other side the Pergamenians are reprov'd ver 15 16. because they gave them a Toleration Hence in the Ancient Church the Orthodox and Catholics always very sedulously deserted the Communion of Heretics Rome it self which now accuses us of Schism in the very Infancy of the Christian Religion departed from the Asiatic Churches upon a slight difference about Easter-day And it is long since that the Romanists broke the Bond of Unity with the whole East But it is not long since that the Commonwealth of Venice being Excommunicated by Paul V the Jesuites were seen openly to desert the whole Territory so that they rather chose to renounce their Temples their Altars and their Ordinary Worship then remain in the least Communion with the Venetian So that they are not simply to be blam'd who separate but they that separate unjustly and rashly Let us see then whether or no our Separation were just and necessary that we may free it from being Schismatical Certainly it cannot be said that we separated willingly and of our own accords but constrain'd and expell'd by all manner of violences In the very Bosom of the Roman Church we importunately desir'd a Reformation of Abuses which process of time had multiplied as well in Doctrin as in Disciplin and which the Grandees and People in the Churches of Germany France England and the Low Countries most earnestly long'd for both in the Head and Members But what was done They were not only not heard much less heard in so just a Petition but all severity was exercis'd against them with Temporal and Spiritual Arms Fire Sword and Halters were made use of to extirpate out of the World those whom Anathema's and the Thunder of Excommunication had expell'd from all Public Communion Thus Excommunicated Expell'd and lyable to dire Persecution what should we do It was not safe to redeem your Communion at the Price of our Consciences by subscribing to the Errors themselves and by receiving all those School-Assertions which we deem'd contrary to the Rules of Christian Doctrin as Articles of our Faith. Therefore it was necessary that another Worship should be set up that other Pulpits should be erected and that other Congregations should be assembled together which was every where done by the Authority of the Magistrate whose Duty it is to protect the Church and sedulously to take care for the Reformation of Doctrin and Disciplin therein if corrupted through the neglect of the Ordinary Pastors Becanus the Jesuite Analog Vet. Nov. Test c. 26. num 4. reck'ns up several Reformations made in the Jewish Church by Pious Kings such as were Asa Jehosaphat Josia Ezechia and Joas who most certainly had sufficient Authority to reform the Worship of God and to restore it to its Primitive Purity Therefore it cannot be deny'd but that those Christian Princes and Magistrates who in the times of our Fore-fathers put their helping Hands to the Reformation had a Right to labour the Institution of another Worship more Pure more Holy and more Plain then that from which they were forc'd to make a Separation because they had requir'd a Reformation of it Moreover tho' Rome had not forsaken us yet there was a necessity of forsaking her because she refused to reform her own Abuses and long contracted Corruptions We have in this particular a most express Command Apoc. 18. 4. Come out of her my people that you be not partakers of her crimes and receive not of her punishments Which Command is of so much the greater moment because the Jesuites themselves Ribera upon the 14. and 18. Apoc. and Viegas upon the 18. interpret that to be meant of Rome not the Ethnic but the Christian Rome and such as it is in Scripture foretold it shall be under Anti-Christ To us also says Viegas sect 1. in 18. Apoc. it seems that the same thing ought to be said with Aretas Primasius Ambrose Jerom and others observe what Testimonies he cites and how many that the Idolatry of it is here meant and that Rome shall depart from the Faith and so shall become the Habitation of Devils and of every unclean Spirit and every unclean Bird by reason of her execrable Enormities and Superstition of Idolatry which at that time shall rage far and near in the Roman City and Empire But you would say Mr. Prior if you had any Wit how comes it to pass that you have now more nice Consciences then your Fore-fathers had before the Reformation who dy'd in the Communion of the Roman Church and of whose Salvation you are unwilling to make any doubt I Answer first That the Consciences of others are no Rule to ours and that every Man ought to follow his own and not anothers Would you have me as you desire in your Letter that I should embrace the Roman Communion What if I should press you to embrace Ours wherein so many Men enjoy the Tranquility of their Consciences Secondly I say that our Fore-fathers might with safety to their Consciences persevere in the Roman Communion notwithstanding they abominated the Abuses and Corruptions of it because God had not shewn them a way to depart nor were the Abuses as yet so palpably intollerable because they had not as yet obtain'd the force of Law nor were establish'd under the Penalties of Excommunication But the Example of our Ancestors cannot be apply'd to us because that God set up the Standard of the Gospel in another place to Us. He call'd to Us to come out of Babel when the Opinions of the Scholastics were changed into Articles of Faith. So long as the time appointed for their Captivity lasted the Israelites might securely abide either in Egypt or Babel But it had bin a Crime for them to have remain'd there any longer when God call'd them forth to Liberty He would be very ridiculous indeed who having rich and fertile Pastures should neglect them and rather chuse to carry his Flock into noxious Grounds in hopes that his Sheep would let alone the hurtful Weeds and only feed upon the wholsom Herbs So were he deservedly to be derided who should prefer the noxious and dangerous Pastures of the Roman Church before the well Wooded Gardens of the Reformed Churches in hopes of discerning the poysonous Weeds from the wholsom Herbage as it is very probable our Ancestors did Lastly I add this farther That I do not here dispute Whether the Roman Communion may be retain'd without the loss of Eternal Salvation This Question belongs to another place But Whether we are Schismatics because we have deserted it Now I maintain the Negative because that Conscience alone summon'd us to the Separation without any other Consideration nay contrary to all other worldly Considerations which persuaded us to adhere to it Some there are who to convict us of Schism reproach the Calling of our Pastors but with an Argument too weak for the Proof of so great a Crime Formerly
Ship which carry'd the Mother of the Gods which many Mariners hawling all together could not stir Plutarch also in Coriolanus relates that the Image of Fortune spoke and often as the same Author relates in the same Life the Images and Statues were seen to Sweat Bleed and Weep St. Austin likewise tells us of many such Portents that happen'd among the Gentiles lib. 10 de civitate Dei. Tacitus also Hist lib. 4. relates of Vespasian that by his single Touch he restor'd Sight to the Blind and Strength to the Lame Bellarmin cap. 14. de Not. Eccles That both their Diseases proceeded from the Devil who having seiz'd the Eye of the one and the Leg of the other hindred the Use of their Limbs to the end he might seem to heal when he ceas'd to hurt I do not see why the Protestants may not use the same Exception against so many Miracles which the Romanists seign by the Touch either of their Images or their Reliques But I shall here furl my swelling Sails Mr. Prior being ready to explain and enlarge my self whensoever you shall be pleas'd to re-assume and examin this Matter II. Miracles do not of necessity follow Truth For tho' they were necessary in the time of Infant Christianity yet the true Religion being now establish'd and setled over all the World if not manifestly profitable they cease however to be absolutely necessary So that St. Austin lib. 2. de civitate Dei with very great reason said Whoever still enquires after Prodigies to confirm his Belief is himself a great Prodigy I forbear any more let it suffice me only to produce the Fathers of the Second Nicene Council act 4. Why do our Images at this day work no Miracles I answer with the Apostle Miracles are not for Believers but for the Vnbelievers Now then if the Protestants embrace the Doctrin of Christ and his Apostles the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles are sufficient for them Which would be necessary again were they to follow some new and never heard of Gospel before Nor does the difference whatever it is between the Reform'd Churches and the Lutherans whatever it be either in Ceremonies or some Points of Doctrin savour a jot more your precipitate Judgment concerning the Eternal Damnation of the Protestants For you Romanists your selves acknowledge that the Greek and Eastern Christians would be in the way of Salvation would they but submit to the Empire of the Pope tho' they retain'd their Ceremonies and Opinions differing in many Circumstances from the Rites and Doctrin of the Roman Church It is apparent from the Epistle of St. Austin to Januarius that all the Churches did not make use of the same Rites and Ceremonies In the Apostolic Churches also soon after the first dawn of Christianity Disputes and Contentions arose to pass by those that fell out between Cyril and Theodoret Chrysostom and Epiphanius St. Jerom and St. Austin nay between those very Men themselves that reproach the Lutherans and the Reformed with their differences which I would to God they were clos'd up There is the greatest difference among these Upbraiders not only as to Ceremonials as is apparent from so many Orders of Monks varying among themselves in Habit Rules and Public Worship but also as to Opinions as is evident from those most terrible Controversies about which your Theologists most sharply contend and quarrel one with another of the Authority of the Pope above a Council of a Council above the Pope of the Infallibility of the Bishop of Rome of his Power over Kings and Secular Princes the Conception of the Blessed Virgin of the sort of Adoration due to the Cross and Images of Predestination Grace Free-will and the like So that the Doctors of your Communion split themselves into various Sects according to which some are Thomists others Scotists others Real others Nominal others love to be call'd Jansenists and others Molinists Nay there is not any Article of the Christian Faith about which you have not rais'd Contentions and Disputes if not more sharp and eager yet of no less moment then all those which are stirring between the Reformed and the Lutherans And that diversity which you object against us is far inferior to your Dissentions nor is it concerned in the Fundamentals of Christianity in which the Reformed of both Parties are plainly agreed So that it is a kind of Miracle that there should be so little variance between so many Reformed Churches dispers'd all over Europe compos'd of various People and under several Princes tho' among them there is no Church which commands over others nor any intervening Political Tye to constrain them to such an Agreement in Matters of Faith. In the mean time there is no Schism between ours and the Lutheran Churches seeing that we neither separated from Them nor they from Us. In Poland the Brethren of the Helvetian Bohemian and Augustan Confession setting a laudable Example communicated before together by virtue of the Decree of Sendomir And in the Year 1631 in the National Synod of France a Decree was made for admitting the Lutherans as Brethren in Christ and Members of the same Mystical Body to our Communion of the Lord's Supper and for allowing them Brotherly Toleration in those Points wherein they differ from us And tho' they in their Anger pretend that we Err in Fundamentals which through the Mercy of God they will never be able to prove yet we judge more tenderly and better of them so disproving the Opinions which they obstinately defend that we deny them to be in themselves deadly or pernicious to Salvation or that they are such as ought not to hinder Christian Peace between us and them or prevent an Ecclesiastical Communion which might be obtain'd between Churches not agreeing in all things if the Foundation were sound Now we believe that to be a Fundamental Error wherein there is according to the ancient Phrase of the Synagogue a Denial of the Foundation which cannot comply with true Faith and Holiness For neither all Truths even those that are reveal'd are of the same necessity Neither are all Wounds which are given to Truth Mortal nor is every Disease an Epelipsie or the Falling-sickness St. Paul distinguishes between the Foundation and the Superstructure 1 Cor. 3. 11 12 13 14 15. He that meddles with Fundamentals is lyable to an Anathema Gal. 1. 8. In others there is room left for Exhortation Rom. 14. 1. Phil. 3. 15 16. Here the Gnat is not scrupulously to be strain'd at as there the Camel is not to be rashly swallowed We break Friendship with those that are openly Wicked but we bear with the blemishes and infirmities of Friends Nor is that presently to be thought of the necessity of Faith which yet may have a near Relation to it And therefore you canot blame us for offering our Communion to the Lutherans and rejecting the Papal For that between us and them there is not only a Harmony in the Foundation
of our Faith and all the most solid and necessary Points of Christian Religion but also in common Protestancy against the Idolatry Tyranny and foul Errors of the Church of Rome both Sides impugning the Adoration of the Bread Transubstantiation Sacrifice of the Mass Communion under One Kind Justification by Works Traditions not written Purgatory Worship of Images Infallibility of the Pope c. So that it would be much better for us to arm our selves with mutual and brotherly forbearance against the continual Conspiracies of Antichrist then to lay our Sides open to them through our unhappy Discords and Wars by which neither side can hope for Triumph Far more absurd it would be to upbraid the Protestants with their small Number or to infer their Damnation from that For much more numerous is the Number of Christians under the four Patriarchs in the East and the Great Duke of Muscovy and Russia then of those who in the West adhere to the See of Rome Without question the Number of the Orthodox was very small at what time as St. Jerom testifies The whole World groan'd and admir'd to see it self all Arian Scarcity makes things valuable we are not to adhere to a multitude in Evil nor is the broad Way to be trod but the narrow Path which leads to Life not pervious to many If we must be excluded from Salvation for the smallness of our Number By the same reason the Pharisees of old might have damn'd the Apostles and the Heathens the Christians In the mean time they who reproach us with our small Number and glory in their own Multitude when they come to view the face of Europe are compell'd to talk after another rate Bellarmin praefat in Tom. 1. Controver cannot restrain his fury Who is ignorant saith he of that same Lutheran Pest for Truth was a Plague to the Seat of Pestilence as Christ was the Death of Death and a Pest to Hell that sprung up not long since in Saxony and soon after over-ran almost all Germany then spreading to the North and East delug'd all Denmark Sweadland Norway Gothland Pannonia Hungary and then with equal rapidness shooting to the West and South poyson'd all England France and Scotland flourishing Kingdoms once and at last crossing the Alps extended it self even as far as Italy Nor are we to be condemn'd because we call our selves Reformed or Protestants rather then Catholics For we were first call'd Protestants in the public Dyet at Spire Anno Dom. 1529. because our Electors and Princes there protested against the Errors and Superstitions of the Romish Church plainly in the fame sense as in the old Old Version of the 2 Chron. 24. 19. they who after the Death of Jehoiada oppos'd themselves against Idolatry were mark'd out and differenc'd by the same Name but those Idolaters would by no means give ear to the Protesters So that there being no Satisfaction given to our Consciences upon that Protestation deservedly we deserted that Communion which we believ'd to be pernicious to our Salvation Nor are we therefore to be thought to have deserted the Church For as St. Chrysostom says very remarkably Hom. 46. in Mat. He does not separate from the Church who separates Corporeally but he who Spiritually relinquishes the fundamental Truths of the Church We have left them Locally They have forsaken us in Point of Faith We in departing from them have left the Foundation of the Walls They in forsaking us have forsak'n the Foundations of Scripture We are call'd Reformed not because we reform'd the Religion deliver'd us by Christ and the rest of his Apostles but because we cleans'd it from the Rust of Abuses and Corruptions which that holy Religion had contracted through length of time the Subtilty of Satan and the Vices of Men. And this Reformation the People the Princes and Magistrates and those not a few most earnestly and importunately long'd for all over Europe So that the Tridentine Fathers to satisfie the public Demands at least in outward shew were compell'd to add something of Reformation to every one of their Dogmatical Sessions However we do not renounce these Names of Catholic Protestants Reformed or Lutherans seeing that addition of Catholic belongs of right rather to Us then to you Romanists for that the Doctrin which we profess is the Sincere Orthodox and Catholic Doctrin of the Christian Church as the Apostles deliver'd it from the Beginning Reformed we are in reference to the rejecting Abuses and human Inventions but Catholics as we retain the fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion Nor can this Name suit with them from whom we have departed in any other respect then as they retain some fundamental Truths which as yet are common both to them and us but not in respect of their Additions and Traditions in which we dissent from them In vain do you glory against us of retaining this Name by Force For as Salvian of Marseilles says lib. 4. de Provid What is a holy Name without Merit but an Ornament in the Dirt All the particular Assemblies of Heretics says Lactantius lib. 4. Divin Institut cap. ult believe themselves to be the chiefest Christians and their Church to be the Catholic The very Turks would be called Musselmanni that is the Faithful or Catholic but it suffices us to be really Catholics Good leave therefore have you from us O Romanists to usurp this Name as we call the Saracens Mahumetans who nevertheless derive not their Original from Sarah as Sons of the Promise but from Agar the Egyptian Bond-woman Thus all the Prejudices and Foundations of your precipitate Judgment being repell'd and remov'd Venerable Mr. Prior you constitute at length the only Foundation of your Opinion upon this That in regard that Ours is a new Religion it is impossible we should gain Salvation by the Profession But those things which now are old were formerly new The Christian Religion is at this day New to the Chineses and Japanners nevertheless they ought not to reject it for that Reason For this very sake of Novelty the Heathens refus'd Christianity but in vain There is nothing more Ancient then Truth which beheld the true World in its Infancy But false Religion the Older it is so much is it the more Mischievous True it is the Reformation which we profess is New and newly done but the Rule of it which is comprehended in the Word of God is of great Antiquity according to which whatever was added of Human Invention is separated from the Orthodox and Catholic Doctrin to the end that true and refin'd Antiquity might be retain'd Hence the famous Peter Moulin a Frenchman in a large Treatise against Cardinal Perron has more then sufficiently demonstrated the Novelty of Popery and the Antiquity of the Reformed Religion Therefore our Religion cannot be call'd New since that alone propounds to us things to be believ'd which were believ'd by all Men and every where from the Time of the Apostles according
by which the Succession of the Popes was interrupted So many Simoniacal Elections into that See which are recorded in History so many Popes in the Tenth Age to be call'd Apostatic and Renouncers of Christ rather then Apostolic upon the Testimony of Genebrade I use a new Argument to which you Romanists can make no Answer It is confirm'd as well by the Canon Law as by Custom time out of mind That a Pope may constitute a new Law and a new Form for Chusing a Successor which not being observ'd an Election otherwise made is void Hence Julius II grieving that he had invaded the Supreme Authority by Simony made a new Law concerning the Simoniacal Election of the Pope for the future whereby he ordain'd That any Pope who after him should be Simoniacally elected should be lookt upon as an Intruder a Magician a Publican an Arch Heretic and that he should by no means be acknowledg'd for a lawful Pope But that Sixtus V was chosen Simoniacally is a thing which almost every Body knows For that he might be elected he bought the Suffrages of Cardinal d'Este and the Cardinals depending upon him and covenanted with him in a Writing drawn up and subscrib'd with his own Hand that during his Pontificate he would never make Jeronymo Matthei who was de'Este's Enemy a Cardinal upon condition that by d'Este's means he obtain'd the Pontificate Upon which being made Pope by d'Este and his Faction he confess'd himself to be the work of his hands However Sixtus forfeited his Faith to Him and created Matthei Cardinal for all that which Cardinal d'Este took so ill that he sent the Contract between him and Sixtus to Philip II King of Spain who in the Year 1589 sent the Duke of Sessa his Extraordinary Embassador to Rome to give Notice to Sixtus of his Intentions to call a General Council upon the Information of a Simoniacal Election and to require the Cardinals created by the Predecessors of Sixtus and other Ecclesiastics to be present at a Council to be assembled at Sevil but because upon intimation of the Council Sixtus dy'd for Despair the business went no farther This is related in a certain Book entitled Papatus Romanus cap. 10. pag. 200 c. Seeing then that Sixtus was an Illegal and Simoniac Intruder certain it is that the Papacy ceas'd in him so that they who succeeded were no true Popes because they were elected by the Cardinals which he created who being Intruders as created by a Simoniac wanted Right of Election as well according to the Council of Constance as for that according to the Rule of the Lawyers No Man can transfer more Right to another then he has himself And therefore the whole World ought not to be shut up in one City Some are of Cephas others of Paul others of Clement let it suffice a Christian to be of Christ Whoever fears God and works Righteousness in whatever part of the World he is is acceptable to God. If two or three are gathered together in the Name of Christ he will be in the midst of them The Supernal Jerusalem which enjoys her Liberty is the Mother of us all We shall not be Judg'd by the Roman or Popes Communion but by the Communion of Saints and of Christ Therefore we cannot be Schismatics upon this just necessary and sound Separation of ours There are still remaining Reverend Mr. Prior some other Motives of yours to this rash Judgment which you give of us which are now to be brought to the Touch with the rest There are some who believe a Posteriori that we are deservedly to be listed among the number of the Damned because we stand Excommunicated by the Pope and the Catholic Church But in regard these Excommunications do not strike us but either as Heretics or Schismatics they do us no hurt in regard we are neither Heretics nor Schismatics as hath bin already shewn If they are necessarily to be numbred among the Damned whom the Pope has Excommunicated of necessity all in Asia the less who dy'd during the Excommunication of Victor upon the Paschal difference must be by all Christians excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven and that the Sacraments which you our Adversaries nevertheless will allow preserve their Excellency by way of Physical Cause and in general all Public Worship must be depriv'd of their Efficacy in all Provinces which are sometimes subject to Papal Interdiction Nor ought we to pass over in silence that Observation of St. Jerom upon that place of Mat. 16. wherein the Keys of Heaven are promis'd to St. Peter This Place saith the holy Man the Bishops and Presbyters not understanding assume to themselves something of the Pride of the Pharisees even to Damn the Innocent and Absolve the Guilty whereas God regards not the Sentence of the Priest but the Life of the Offender But according to this Saying of St. Jerom all Casuists and Canonists acknowledge that an unjust Excommunication is Invalid and that such an Excommunicate may both Administer and Receive the Sacraments with a good Conscience An Excommunication without a just Cause is not valid in the Interior Court therefore such a one may Celebrate where it is no Scandal says the Jesuite Emanuel Sa voce Excommunicat § 4. But Toletus lib. Instruct Sacram. cap. 10. num 7. more positively asserts That there is no unjust Sentence of Excommunication can bind either as to God or as to the Church But it is unjust as he says again § 1. from some defect which if it be Essential makes it no Excommunication and then it is not to be dreaded neither does it bind either in the Court of Heaven or Earth Which he confirms by the Testimony of several Canonists If therefore we are unjustly Excommunicated and as the Schoolmen Phrase it Clave Errante or with an Erring Key and that these Excommunications are of no force Our Damnation cannot be inferr'd a Posteriori from such Sentences but that they are unjust and null I shall easily demonstrate An Excommunication is said to be null says Toletus ibid. § 4. if it contain an intolerable Error c. Now then a Sentence is said to contain an intolerable Error when any one is Excommunicated because he does that which is Good in it self or does not do that which is in its own act Unlawful Why then are we Excommunicated Surely because we do that which is good in it self applying our selves to the Word of God and will not adhere to those who would have us to be wiser then the Scripture can make us and refusing to do what is evil in it self or at least what we judge in our Consciences to be so and because we adhere not to a Worship unlawful and contrary to Scripture An Excommunication is void if it be pronounc'd by one already Excommunicated or Suspended from Jurisdiction or Interdicted or after a lawful Appeal says Emanuel Sa as above § 1. And Toletus has the same words Now such is