a certain Spanish Don P. 7. he treads out the ground measures the length of his Weapon makes a Speech and would tempt a man to think he is resolved to fight but he withdraws safely and calls in two others to engage a desire he has to see the Holy Scriptures and Athanasius his Creed to combat one another for his divertisement Now which of these two he is for he says not nor yet seems to guess which would have the better in case of a Contrast But alass this man mistakes those two are Friends and if there were any difference between that Creed and the Holy Scriptures Athanasius if he were now alive would be the first man to declare against that Creed it is certain he learnt and sounded all his Doctrines upon those no man read them with greater care and attention no man cites them oftner or with greater veneration Whether our Authour knew this or no I cannot tell but after all his preparatory flourishes he gives no more than this dry insipid request to the Fathers of our Church that they would not tell him that every Christian suppose every Baker Shoemaker or Cobler upon a sincere perusal of this Holy Book would certainly have composed the Creed of Athanasius Now this is a thing which never was spoken either by Bishop Presbyter or Deacon or Parish Clerk Can any Reverend Bishop be presumed to think and say that the great Athanasius had not more wit and reason more art more skill in Consequences than every Cobler and Tinker or than this Man 's two Friends Nailor and Muggleton it is prodigious to think how men dote that undertake to write Books against Reason But whatever this Man does or can say most certain it is that if Athanasius was the Composer of this Creed he did it upon a sincere perusal of the Holy Scriptures by the power of a good Reason and by the skill which he had in Consequence As for Authority of Pope or Council he had none for this Composition this Creed lay in obscurity and was unknown in the Church long after the days of Athanasius and as it was composed at first so it was brought into the use of the Church afterwards for some time without any considerable Authority morely by the private reason of some that were little more than private Men. Thirdly In the next place our Authour sets down some matters of Faith great and necessary Articles P. 7. as he calls them and these are the Mystery of the Incarnation the Doctrines of the Trinity Consubstantiality Transubstantiation Predestination and Free-will These he examined by his Reason but he does not tell us what account his Reason gave of them It is possible after a sincere perusal of the Holy Scriptures that he might find great reason to believe the Incarnation of our Lord and the Doctrine of the Trinity and by consequence that of Consubstantiality and something of a Predestination and it is possible that from thence he found no reason to believe the Doctrine of Transubstantiation for herein many other Mens Reasons would agree with His. This he does not tell us but yet this I will presume in favour to him that he does not think that the Fathers in the Council of Nice and those in the after Councils who fixed the Doctrine of the Trinity and Consubstantiality I say he does not think but that they made their Determinations with highest reason I will presume too that he thinks that the Fathers in the Lateran and Tridentine Councils had reason to determine the Doctrine of Transubstantiation for though we think that in these two later Councils the generality acted by false reasons by prejudice and by worldly interest yet we do not doubt but they all and every one of them pretended to act with reason for certain it is that the private reason of any single man is a much better guide than the private Spirit of a Quaker or any other for a Reason may be urged and is upon information to be corrected but the pretence to the Spirit is not But if the majority of those Fathers at the Council of Nice were able by Scripture and Reason to establish those Doctrines of the Trinity and Consubstantiality to be Articles of the Christian Faith I know not why our Authour since he has the same Scripture and like Reason might not have done the same Sure I am that after this Council Athanasius pleaded much in the defence of the truth of these Doctrines and that not from the Authority of the Council but from the true sense and meaning of the several Texts Sozom. lib. 7. cap. 12. the same way of arguing was used in the first Constantinopolitan Council and so it continued till Theodosius by advice of Nectarius which he received from Sisinnius took another method After these doughty performances P. 8. our Authour comes in the next place a little more closely to Scripture or the sacred Records of Christian Religion and sets his reason to search and examine them and if possible to draw from thence a scheme of Christian Doctrine But here it seems his Reason was jaded and tyred out much more than in all the rest of his Disquisitions perhaps he found not there any thing like to the Doctrines that make up the Apostles Creed He does not tell this though he ought to have done it if he had compared his scheme with it But he tells us that he disagreed from all Churches the Church of England in her 39 Articles P. 8. and all the Catechisms of Catholicks Calvinists Lutherans and Socinians I was pleased that in his opinion the Doctrine of the Church of Rome did no more agree with Scripture than that of the Church of England But though I was pleased in this yet I was not very confident of any advantage from it because our Authour oft queries and seems to doubt whether his Reason does not much differ from other Mens I know that God Almighty has given different Talents to Men for Heads and Brains and Wits as well as Hearts are not alike in every Man I am sure the Ancients by virtue of plain honest reason were able to find the Christian Doctrine in the Holy Scriptures so did St. Irenaeus St. Athanasius St. Hierome St. Chrysostome St. Augustin and the rest This was a light to their feet and a lamp to their paths sufficient to satisfy those good men in matters of Faith and as this Man speaks in the great and necessary Articles But though this Man could not find the Christian Doctrine there yet it seems that he thought that he found something there that pretty well agreed with the dreams of Ebion and Cerinthus and with those of his dear Friends P. 8. Nailor and Muggleton The first of these I am much enclined to believe and if I were as impertinent as He is perhaps I might give some evidence of the second As for Ebion and Cerinthus this Gentleman is too close
by General Councils and so by the Catholick Church and they have been in peaceable possession of it for many hundred of years P. 16 17. and now they cannot be divested of it neither by themselves nor by others neither in whole nor in part All these things he sets down I suppose as his own opinations and sentiments and would have his Friends to judge him by them as Orthodox and a true Convert He is not concerned whether they be true or false for he knows or may know that every one of these pretences has been proved by Dr. Barrow to be gross falsities and that almost to the evidence of Demonstration and yet our Authour brings not the least proof for any one of them from any Old Authour Indeed he tells us that we have the Succession of Bishops of Rome delivered to us by St. Augustine and that is true P. 15. but he was unlucky to put us in mind of that passage and much more because he never read it himself for had he seen the 165. Epistle of St. Augustine where that Succession is mentioned and the very next to it he might have found in that great Father a full contradiction to all his thoughts concerning the Scriptures and concerning Authority and then perhaps he would have imployed his time to better purposes than in writing this Book St. Austine in that Epistle sets down the succession of the Bishops of Rome from St. Peter and that for no other purpose but to shew that none of all those Bishops was a Donatist Augustinus Epist 165. And that because a Donatist had set down the succession of their Bishops before not that he thought any one of them after St. Peter was a Sovereign Guide or had unerring authority in him for he himself presently adds to this that if any of them had been a Donatist or worse yet the Christian Doctrine would not have suffered the least by it In illum ordinem Episcoporum qui ducitur ab ipso Petro usque ad Anastasium qui nunc super eandem Cathedram sedet etiamsi quisquam traditor per illa tempora subrepsisset nihil praejudicaret Ecclesiae innocentibus Christianis This I suppose our Authour is not willing to think because he depends so much upon Authority and so little upon the Scriptures but St. Augustine did because he relyed upon the Scriptures to teach us that Doctrine which Jesus Christ and his Apostles had revealed to the World and therefore in the same Epistle he slights all his other Arguments and fixes intirely upon the Scriptures as those alone which could give us a full and solid evidence for the truth of a Christian Doctrine Augustinus Epist 165. these are his words Quanquam nos non tam de istis documentis praesumamus quà m de Scripturis sanctis and then he cites a Text. But in the next Epistle and that against the Donatists after some other velitations and general topicks whereof Councils was one as appears by those words Faciant mille concilia Episcopi he comes to the holy Scriptures and triumphs in his Arguments and doubts not to defeat his adversaries by the force of them He begins with words frequent in his writings Augustinus Epist 166. In Scripturis didicimus Christum in Scripturis didicimus Ecclesiam has Scripturas communiter habemus quare non in eis Christum Ecclesiam communiter retinemus Then he throws out near twenty Texts one after another comments in short upon them and never doubts but that he and his Adversaries did sufficiently understand them without the assistance of a Sovereign Guide or an unerring Authority if our Authour had considered this it might have done him good but because he is pleased to find the Succession of Roman Bishops in St. Augustine I will shew him what he seems not to know two very considerable uses which that great Father made of that topick the First was to conciliate a most profound veneration to the Holy Scriptures thus therefore he writes August contra Faust Manich lib. 11. cap. 5. contra Faustum Manichaeum lib. 11. cap. 5. Distincta est à posteriorum libris excellentia canonicae Authoritatis veteris novi Testamenti quae Apostolorum confirmata temporibus per successiones Episcoporum propagationes Ecclesiarum tanquam in sede quâdam sublimiter constituta est cui serviat omnis fidelis pius intellectus A Second use that he made of this consideration of the Succession of Bishops in their Sees was in case of a dispute about a Text to evidence what was the first and so the true Christian Doctrine To this end he very frequently in his disputes with the Donatists requires them to search what was taught in the Churches of Corinth Galatia Ephesus Philippi Thessalonica all the Churches that had the honour to receive Apostolical Epistles Now if all these having several Successions of Bishops should agree in any one point that was controverted St. Augustine took their consent to be a good Argument that such a Doctrine was original and true he sends them indeed to Rome too but upon no other accompt and no higher reason than he does to those other Apostolical Churches Now I think I may presume in kindness to our Authour to give him one advice and that is this to have a care when he refers to St. Augustine that he knows his mind and that St. Augustine did write what he cites him for for I can tell him that a certain person who was of his opinion concerning a Soveraign Guide and unerring Authority to be sound in the Church of Rome came at length to believe and that consequentially to his opinion that the decretal Epistles of the Popes were of the same Authority with and to be reckoned amongst the Canonical Scriptures and to confirm his opinion he cited St. Augustine for it and this his citation had got into Gratians Decretum but the last Roman-Correctours of Gratian found it to be either gross forgery or a gross mistake and they have done St. Augustine right and a favour to such Persons as our Authour is to let them know that St. Augustine is no great friend to such fond and absurd opinions You may see Gratiani Decreti prim part Distin 19. Cap. 6. But because it may be some trouble to consult that Authour I will give you the truth and the forgery together St. Augustine in his Book De Doctrina Christiana lib. 2. cap. 8. had given us these words In Canonicis Scripturis Ecclesiarum Catholicarum quam plurium authoritatem sequatur inter quas sane illae sunt quae Apostolicas sedes habere Epistolas accipere meruerunt c. Now this was plain and good advice in the examination of Books that might be alledged to be Canonical Scriptures to give a preference to the testimony of those Churches that were called Apostolical Seats and such as had the honour to receive Epistles from the Apostles as Rome Corinth
Philippi c. But now a transcriber of this I suppose more knave than fool changes the words thus In Canonicis Scripturis Ecclesiarum Catholicarum quamplurium Divinarum Scripturarum solertissimus indagator autoritatem sequatur inter quas sane illae sint quas Apostolica sedes habere ab ea alii meruerunt accipere Epistolas This speaks quite a different thing that the Epistles of the Apostolical Seat are to be accounted Canonical Scriptures This forgery or mistake came abroad I suppose at the same time with the counterfeit ware of Riculphus and to this with the false Epistles of the most early Bishops of Rome were put into Gratian and there it remained as a great Authority in the behalf of the Sacredness and Canonicalness of Papal Epistles untill the last Correctours were pleased honestly to reject it and prudently to tell the World that they dare not own such follies or knaveries But farther because our Authour thinks to advantage himself of the Name of St. Augustine I will acquaint him that this Father had no very extraordinary opinion of Rome or the Bishops of it when he was in quest of the true Religion he left Rome and went to Milan and submitted himself to the guidance of St. Ambrose and received the true Christianity from him He had all his days the highest reverence for him and would have yielded to his Authority when he would not have yielded to the Pope's Augustinus Epist 162. He tells us that when Melchiades judged the cause of the Donatists he was joyned with several other Bishops in the same Commission by Constantine Aug. Epist 163. when he names those two great men Julius Bishop of Rome and Athanasius as orthodox Persons and defenders of the right faith he puts Athanasius in the first place It is he that gives those hard words Quidam qui nomen habet Falcidii duce Stultitià Civitatis Romanae jactantià Levitas Sacerdotibus August quaesti mes ex utroque mixtim p. 108. 109. Edit Lugdun An. 1561. Diaconos Presbyteris coaequare contendit he tells us what it was that rais'd his passion the Deacons of Rome it seems would not yield to the Presbyters of other places upon that he says Quia Romanae Ecclesiae ministri sunt idcirco honorabiliores putantur quam apud caeteras Ecclesias propter magnificentiam urbis Romanae quae caput esse videtur omnium civitatum Si itaque sic est hoc debent Sacerdotibus suis vindicare And a little after he gives a fuller accompt of it Vides quid pariat vana praesumptio immemores enim elatione mentis eo quod videant Romanae Ecclesiae se esse ministros non considerant quid illis à Deo decretum sit quid debeant custodire sed tollunt haec de memoria assiduae Stationes domesticae officialitas quae per suggestiones malas seu bonas nunc plurimum potest aut timentur enim ne malè suggerant aut emuntur ut praestent But because this Book is accompted by several not to be St. Augustine's though sent abroad by the Monks and published in his Name I will add farther that St. Augustine's thoughts of Rome and the Bishops of that See were quite different from our Authour 's for if he thought that the Soveraign Guide and the unerring Authority had been there and that God deposited those great supports and securities of the Christian Faith in the Succession of the Roman Bishops then in all likelihood when Rome was taken by the Goths he would have lamented and mourned as a Jew formerly would have done at the taking of Jerusalem and the captivity of the High-Priest But alas there was nothing like it when this news was brought to St. Augustine all that he said of it was this Ibi multos fratres non habuimus non adhuc habemus Indeed for this expression he seems to apologize in his next Sermon but that not as to the truth of his words Serm 29. de verbis Domini but as to the spirit of mind in which he spake them that it was not out of any design to insult over the miseries of others Besides he that remembers what labour he and the rest of the African Bishops took to get the concurrence of the Bishops of Rome Innocentius and Zosimus to the condemnation of the Pelagian Heresie may well think that St. Augustine could have no great reverence for them and if we read Erasmus his Censure upon Innocent's Epistles which are printed with St. Augustine's we may possibly be tempted to entertain mean thoughts of the Bishop of so great a See These are Erasmus his words before the 96 th Ep. which is Innocents Innocentius superiori respondet suo more saevus potius quà m eruditus ad damnandum quà m docendum instructior But I must leave this and follow our Authour He goes on p. the 18 th leaping and skipping from one thing to another He speaks first of Victor what he did in casting out the Asiaticks and then what Gregory and others whom he calls Christ's Vicegerents did in bringing in converts and wonders that so many Proselytes should be made to so little purpose Then he fansies he had seen glorious and wonderfull Privileges in the Church of Rome and knows not how they could be forfeited After he falls to his wonted work of whipping our Bishops for telling him that new Doctrines had been brought into the Church which were not imposed upon the faithfull till the Council of Trent Now nothing of all this deserves an answer because it hath been so often given before But it may be expected by some As to Victor he says he excommunicated the Bishops of Asia for keeping of Easter contrary to the Institutions of St. Peter and St. Paul though tolerated by St. John Now this is fit to be said by a new Convert who must venture farther than any man of skill dare do For first the matter of fact is doubted and Valesius the last Editor of Eusebius who was all his days a Roman Catholick thinks that Victor went no farther than to high words and threatning And then as to the right of the action Eusebius lib. 5 c. 24. Irenaeus who wrote to Victor himself about it fully shews that it would have been unreasonable and against all the methods of his Predecessours But then thirdly the relation of our Authour is altogether groundless that St. Peter and St. Paul did institute and St. John onely tolerate For this is a thing that Polycrates the President of the Council of the Asiaticks never knew Victor himself never knew Irenaeus never knew Anicetus Bishop of Rome nor yet St. Polycarp that contested this point with him who too was St. John's own Disciple never knew Euseb lib. 5. c. 24. Certainly our Authour has some Pidgeon that whispers to him Secrets and Mysteries that no man knows I beg his leave a little to acquaint him with the sense
of his friend St. Augustine in a like case The Romans challenged to have a command from St. Peter for keeping the Saturday-Fast and those of the Eastern Churches quite contrarily asserted that they were expresly forbidden and that by St. John to fast upon that day A Presbyter of the Church of Rome writes to his friend and most earnestly exhorts him to do as they did and pleads thus Petrus Apostolorum caput coeli Janitor Ecclesiae fundamentum id ipsum Romanos edocuit Now St. Augustine being consulted in the case slights all that flaunting Plea of the Romans allows the allegation of the Easterns to be as good as those of the West and concludes thus that the Apostles St. Peter and St. John did not vary If they gave any rule it was the same every where And seeing there is a present difference it must be said that either the Eastern Church hath varied from the rule of St. John or else the Roman Church has varied from the rule of St. Peter Now which of these was the truth St. Augustine knew not He himself gives his sense in these words Epistola 86 Casulano Augustinus Ep. 86. Casulano After the Plea for Rome E contrario refertur occidentis potiùs aliqualoca in quibus Roma est non servasse quod Apostoli tradiderunt orientis verò terras unde coepit ipsum Evangelium ipsum praedicari in eo quod ab omnibus simul cum ipso Petro Apostolis traditum est ne Sabbato jejunetur sine aliqua varietate mansisse Upon this he concludes thus interminabilis est ista contentio generans lites non finiens quaestiones Had this great Father known any thing of a Soveraign Guide and unerring Authority seated at Rome he could never have doted so far as to have made this any matter of question But he knew nothing of that or of Peter commanding and John onely tolerating either in the one or the other case And I will presume for once that he knew a great deal more than our Authour does But the second skip our Authour takes is to Conversions and here he says he perceives P. 18. that according to the command and institution of our Saviour his Vicegerent did send out his Disciples Here I want our Authour's Spectacles for I can perceive nothing I see no Vicegerent of our Blessed Lord nor do I see any command that he ever gave to such a Person nor do I know whether he means the Disciples of the Vicegerent or the Disciples of our Lord. It is certain our Lord gave a command to the Apostles to teach all Nations and they and their Successours the Bishops have acted according to that command And if Gregory Bishop of Rome or any other have been industrious in that work we heartily thank and commend them But yet I wonder that our Authour has of a sudden grown so extremely blind as not to see that conversions may be made to what is bad as well as to what is good Pagans and Mahometans have been industrious to make converts So have all Hereticks his friends Ebion and Cerinthus Nailor and Muggleton Nay this if he had not despised and too long laid aside the Holy Scriptures he might have learn'd without the assistence of his unerring Authority from one saying of our Blessed Lord Math. 23.15 Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees c. After this gross piece of ignorance P. 19. which he is pleased to shew to advantage with flourishes of his pen comparing his reason with that of our Reverend Bishops he may excuse me from telling him how the great Privileges and Prerogatives of the Church of Rome could be forfeited untill he hath shown me in particular what they were that he insists upon For until he has proved that Rome did really enjoy such Prerogatives as he challenges on her behalf I will not undertake to shew when and how Rome forfeited that which Rome never had Our Authour may be a Sophister and how far he is beyond that himself best knows and so he may think no farther in this Paragraph than the old trite Cavil quod non perdidisti habes And his friends at Rome will con him but few thanks for that And now our Authour begins to whip our Bishops and wo be to them He tells them what he had been told that there were some late Doctrines introduced into the Church and such as were not imposed upon the faithfull before the Council of Trent This he says he could answer by alledging that the protesting against those Doctrines was in the same time But this he waves and chooseth rather to shew that the Doctrines we oppose were establisht by Councils before And here he begins with 1. The Pope's Supremacy P. 20. which he saith was confirmed in the Council of Chalcedon one of the first four general Councils owned by Protestants above 1200 years since 630 Fathers present Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu As for my part I wonder who either licensed or allowed this Book to be printed Will any man of skill think to advance a Plea for the Pope's Supremacy from the Council of Chalcedon It is certain that nothing was done there that might have any reference to this Point which was not disclaimed by the Legates of the Pope upon the place and afterwards highly resented by Leo the I. who was then Pope It is true that Anatolius then Patriarch of Constantinople carried on a design to advance his Seat and because he was Bishop of New Rome would have the next place after the Bishop of the Old and so would have the Pre-eminence of the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch Du Pin de antiaua Eccl. Discip p. 53. In order to this in the absence of the Pope's Legates Anatolius and his friends got the 28 Canon of that Council to pass which gives to the Patriarch of Constantinople 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as a learned Roman Catholick comments eadem aequalia privilegia tribuunt Episcopo novae Romae ac veteris Romae Episcopo Now assoon as the Legates of the Pope had heard of this they declared against it and obtained another Session wherein they might produce their Plea against the validity of this Canon both as to the form and matter But their objections were answered and the Canon passed against their minds though Lucentius one of the Pope's Legates protested against it and desired that his Protestation might be entred into the Acts of the Council And when Leo the Great who was then Pope heard of this he declared against it and wrote against it with a great deal of vehemence and indignation as any one may see who will consult these Epistles of his the 56 57 58 63 66. And Leo could never be brought to confirm that very Canon which our Authour tells us did confirm his Supremacy Now in this case I will presume that Pope to be a better guide and to have more
the good rules and instructions that are in it and for this end it is read in the Church of England It is something more and to be hinted here Concil Laod. Can. 60. that the Laodicaean Council expresly requires that no Books be read in the Church but those that we accompt in strict sense Canonical Can. 60. And in the Canon 59. of that Council it is absolutely forbidden that any private Hymns or Psalms that is such as have been made by private Persons since the consignation of the Canon of Scripture should be used in Churches Now if our Authour knows his Breviary and allows any Authority to these Councils He may have more reason to object against the Church of Rome for having so many private Hymns in their Service than against the Church of England for having so few Books in that which is properly called the Canonical Scriptures This bye-consideration might have given some stop to a man that was not resolved to run too fast from his Church 3. But he mentions a third Doctrine determined in ancient Councils against us P. 20. and that is concerning the unbloudy Sacrifice now this is for want of matter to give words it is certain that the Church of England at the end of the Communion-service in the last Collect teaches us to pray to God that he would accept this our Sacrifice and our Authour knows that it never owned any Sacrifice but an unbloudy Sacrifice to be offered there I wish our Authour had told us whether the Sacrifice which the Church of Rome pretends to offer be bloudy or unbloudy They tell us ordinarily that there is bloud on the Patten and bloud in the Cup bloud with the Body concomitanter for the benefit of the Laity and bloud in the Cup to the satisfaction of the Priest I think both these are offered up according to their Doctrine as a Sacrifice propitiatory for the dead and the living They that believe Transubstantiation must believe that one part of the Sacrifice is really bloud and nothing else but bloud and they may be concern'd to call it a bloudy Sacrifice but not at all to call it unbloudy Pope Vrban the Fourth seems to have been of this mind when he instituted the great Feast of the Body of Christ commonly called Festum Corporis Christi For he did it upon this occasion that a certain Host being broken by the Priest either bled or shed drops of bloud they say miraculously but how or whether true or no we know not Now this I presume may be call'd a bloudy Host or Sacrifice Brietius Ann. 1264. in these words tells us the story Vrbanus quartus ex occasione miraculi de Eucharistia Briet Annal. in An. 1264. Hostiâ à Sacerdote fractâ reddente sanguinem Festum Corporis Christi instituit The institution of this Feast was to give honour to the Host and that not as unbloudy but as bloudy and it was to insinuate this Doctrine that all the other Hosts have bloud with them as well as this though the bloud does not always appear But as they say then it did and if so it came in seasonably to confirm the Doctrine of the Lateran Council about Transubstantiation and that which soon follow'd after it the communicating of the Laity in one Species So happy was the Church of Rome then to have a Miracle or the story of a Miracle to come in at the nick of time to patronage that which old Councils and old Fathers and sense and reason and all that is in man must have disclaim'd and oppos'd But now after all this our Authour is most unlucky to put us in mind of the true ancient Catholick Doctrine and to summon up old Councils in the defence of a word which we accept and use with submission and that most properly we believe the holy Eucharist to be a Sacrifice and that in plain and strict sense an unbloudy Sacrifice and so as the ancient Councils and Fathers did we call it And though the Doctours of the Church of Rome use the same word yet when they reflect upon the Doctrine of their own Church they must explain themselves by a much harder figure than we use when we interpret the words of our Saviour's Institution But yet our Authour will have the Councils against us and he tells us of a Council at Constantinople which he says was a thousand years agoe and that it seems used these words and so do we those old Councils are better Friends to the Protestant Doctrines than he is aware of for the Protestants studied them and learnt of them and took their rules and measures in the Reformation as near as they could after the holy Scriptures from them Then he cites the ninth Council of the Apostles now I wish he had told us whether this was a thousand or fifteen hundred or two thousand years agoe I thought at first he meant the 15th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles But our Authour has declar'd so much against the Scriptures that we can never hope to find his sense there it is possible he means the ninth of the Apostolick Canons And that is as little to his purpose as the ninth Council of the Apostles to be sure it speaks nothing against the interest of the Church of England and nothing to the advantage of the Church of Rome Thus it is and will be as often as men adventure to write Books without skill 4. P. 20. The fourth point our Authour gives us as determined in Councils is that of the veneration and worship of Saints Relicks as also of Martyrs and holy Images which he says was according to Apostolical Tradition established in the second Council of Nice with the general concurrences of ancient Fathers This Council indeed speaks to the point for which it is alledged but because our Authour is pleas'd to fortify it with concurrences I 'll give him account of some other Councils that as to time do almost concur with this they treat upon the same subject and determine as resolutely and when he has ballanced all the concurrences together perhaps he may find as little pleasure in this allegation as in all the rest The first Council that ever determined any thing about the worship of Images was at Constantinople Anno 754. * See the Acts of the second Nicene Council in Binnius p. 621. Col. Edit Ann. 1618. This called it self the seventh general Council and so it was esteemed for thirty years after This condemned the worship of Images and declared that it was abominable that Images were Idols and the Worshippers of them Idolaters and that all and every Image was to be thrown out of Christian Churches and they spake as high in this way as any have done since the Reformation †See Binnius his Collection as before and Balsamus and Zonaras on the 7th and 9th Canons of the second Nicene Council This appears by the Acts and Canons of the second
Sticklers for Roman Authority and Infallibility and that in a time when he contended most earnestly to bring in peace and good temper amongst Christians and had endeavoured passionately to persuade men to lay aside ill Language and odious Names such as one Party threw at another all which he says were cast up out of Hell such as these Papists Antichristians Ministers of Satan and on the other side Hereticks Schismaticks Apostates Though he heartily wish'd these Names out of the World yet he could be content that two or three of them were always ready to be thrown in the teeth of such Persons as our Authour would seem to be This remark I give to shew our Authour that I do not set down the Sayings and Opinions of others without considering first what weight and stress is to be laid upon them For I must consess that it is to me a scandal and matter of offence to find this Set of Authorities which our Authour uses in the same order and in the same words in another late Book intitled Pax vobis this seems to speak that the Authours of both these transcribed and never considered what force was in their Citations Is this fair dealing with a Man 's own Conscience or with his Readers when he is weighing of Religions and offering motives of Reconciliation either to himself or to others to act thus supinely This is worse than to take a journey to Edinburgh upon the next Hackney and never consider whether he be a Jade or no. A journey to Heaven is long to be sure of greatest importance He that takes up a new Religion to carry him thither had need use eyes and ears and heart and head too St. Paul had reason when he advised us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling but all men will not doe this they are in too much haste They that take satisfaction without reason and in spite of reason change their Religion cannot act with that caution which the great Apostle requires If I am not much out in my guess which I must leave to the Reader 's judgment when he has compared this Set of Citations with those in Pax vobis Pag. 70 71. we have here one of the most wretched Pleas that ever was used by a Writer It is not more than this I have met with some sayings of Men whom I care not for when or where or to what end they were spoken I never considered nor yet whether upon second thoughts they did not retract them my judgment concurs with them therefore I have found that lawfull Supreme Authority I searched for and where this Authority is there is Infallibility That is the first Motive to persuade that the Roman Catholick Church has Supreme Authority over all and Infallibility in the exercise of it He should now proceed to a second But instead of that we have Pag. 24 25 26 27. a discourse upon a new Subject so far is our Authour from making these Doctrines to appear reasonable that for so long together he 'll e'en let them shift for themselves his present business is to talk and talk he will of Separation or how the Church of Rome can be said to have separated either from her self or from the Catholick Church either whole or part and where that whole or part remained from whence the Church of Rome separated and then again where she remained and where she may be found and here he is urgent and importunate and will have an answer and that from the Bishops themselves for he comes up closely to the beards of them and tells them In good faith Fathers my Salvation is highly concern'd in this question and I must be satisfied He prevents them from giving such and such answers and swaggers it bravely out in these words I 'll sooner suffer my self to be knockt down with a true Protestant Flayl than with such a Protestant Answer and at last he adds from this reasonable and important request you shall never beat me whilst I live The Man grows warm and it is well for some that they are out of his way who knows what he may doe The occasion of all this noise and clamour he gives us in the 24th Page in these words You had often told me that She the Church of Rome had fallen from her primitive purity and separated her self from the one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church Answer to Protestant Queries p. 10. declared also to be Antichristian and the true Church latent and invisible by that famous Napper to King James Brocard Fulk Sebast Francus Hospinian and many others Now what is all this to the Bishops of the Church of England must they answer for every thing that has been said by Fulk and Brocard and Napper or as you call him that famous Napper I pray how famous is he has any of the Bishops of England cited him these forty years does any of this Church reade him or depend upon him if your studies have been upon such Authours the Church of Rome have no great prize of you and these Motives as bad as they are were good enough to make you a Convert But yet there remains one Expression cited out of a little Book which it may be few of the Bishops of England ever saw but yet they must give an accompt of it and all the consequences he can gather from it for he says p. 26. his Salvation is highly concerned in it And it is a reasonable and important request And must the Bishops of England be accomptable for every little writing which they know nothing of would the Bishops of Rome think it fair that all the impertinences of our Authour should be charged upon them certainly no. But he argues that if the Church of Rome was once a pure and uncorrupted Church she remains so still for she can neither separate from her self nor from the Catholick Church Now if this Argument be good he himself is bound to answer for all the consequences that can come from a presumed separation either from it self or from the Catholick Church for we have oft proved and are always ready to prove that the Church of Rome is not the same as to purity and incorruption which it was It is changed it is altered multitudes of Innovations have overspread it and great numbers of Errours by little and little as Cassander says have crept in and prevailed over it But yet for all that we own and assert that there is a Church of Rome as well as a Church of Jerusalem Alexandria and Antioch and that though this as well as they have erred not onely in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith So speaks the Church of England in her 19th Article And if she be a Church she must be a Member of the Catholick Church for every part must be contained in the whole None of us doubt but that the Church of Rome receives all the Canonical Scriptures that we
Errour about keeping of Easter The Britains observed the Rule which they had received with their Christianity and they received that as our Authour says in the days of the Apostles The Asiaticks received the same Rule and the famous Martyr Polycarp defended it stoutly as an Apostolical Tradition a whole Council under Polycrates in the Year 197. declared it to be the Rule of St. John taught and practised by him Upon this accompt if we suppose it an Errour it can be no great one For there is no Traditional Doctrine either in Rome or any other Church which solely stands upon the credit of Tradition and has no support from Scripture that can be better evidenced to come from an Apostle and with the first Christianity than this Tradition which the Britains Scots Asiaticks Greeks alledged in very early times to have received in one and the same way For if this be so great an Errour though it be so well attested and so strongly urged to be an Apostolical Tradition what security can we have for the truth of any other Tradition whatsoever The great St. Augustine shews us in his Epistle Casulano S. August Ep. 86. that the name of St. Peter can give no more Authority to a Tradition than the name of St. John nor has any Tradition more grounds of credit because it comes to us by the way of Rome than if it came by the way of Ephesus the Eastern Church is as creditable a Conveyancer of Tradition as the Western Therefore if the Britains must be accused of any great errour for following of this Tradition the Roman Church must be highly condemned for requiring the observance of so many things by virtue of Tradition when they have not the least appearance of such Arguments as the Britains had to prove their Traditions Apostolical The Britains kept close to their first Rule never in the least varied from it The Roman Church oft changed and altered and that before this Augustine the Monk's days as the Learned Dean of St. Paul's has accurately shown in his Discourse against Mr. Cressey And when those of the Roman Communion argued against the Asiaticks and Britains they could not disprove the Tradition or shew that this practice was an Innovation but they alledged Reasons and external Arguments to shew the inconveniency of it from the mischiefs that might come by such a compliance with the Jews Thus the Tables were changed Romanists were for Reason against Tradition and so they ever will be when it is for their Interest 2. The second Errour charged upon the Britains is dissent from the Church of Rome in the administring of Baptism Now this I suppose is put in to make weight in the Accusation for though Bede has those words yet he tells not wherein their practice differ'd from the Romans nor yet wherein they were to be blamed and has not one word in all his History besides wherein he blames either the Britains or the Irish whom he calls in the language of those times Scots for any errour in the administration of Baptism He says lib. 2. cap. 4. of the Scots that they had the same ways and methods that the Britains had Bede lib. 2. cap. 4. similem vitam ac professionem egisse and there having been according to Bede several Disputes between the Romanists and the Scots in lesser matters had this been their fault this would have been charged too upon them Our Authour adds P. 31. Although in some other matters they differ'd from the Church of Rome yet Augustine promised to tolerate them provided they would rectify these which the British Bishops consented to This is the worst Passage in all our Authour's Book for it is manifestly false point-blank against Bede's words who expresly says that they would not consent and then in the manner of citing the Passage there is that shuffling and juggle that plainly shews he designed falshood Bede lib. 2. cap. 2. The words in Bede are these Si in tribus his mihi obtemperare vultis ut Pascha suo tempore celebretis ut ministerium Baptizandi quo Deo renascimur juxta morem Romanae sanctae Ecclesiae Apostolicae Ecclesiae compleatis ut genti Anglorum una nobiscum praedicetis verbum Domini caetera quae agitis quamvis moribus nostris contraria aequanimiter cuncta tolerabimus At illi nihil horum se facturos neque illum pro Archiepiscopo habituros esse respondebant There cannot be a more plain denial than this How then comes our Authour to say that they consented The truth is he seems resolved to say it true or false and therefore he leaves the last words wherein Bede declares the Britains dissent Bede lib. 2. cap. 2. P. 31. and adds to them these Cum. Britones confitentur intellexisse se veram esse viam justitiae quam praedicaret Augustinus Bede lib. 2. cap. 2. And from thence would infer that the Britains did consent But these words belong to another matter they are part of Bede's Narration of the first meeting that Augustine had with the Britains then it seems Augustine did a Miracle and the Britains had a great sense of it and did confess that Augustine's way was the right way But yet for all this stound and hasty words they immediately recollected themselves and in the next moment tell him as Bede says Bede lib. 2. cap. 2. Non se posse absque suorum consensu ac licentiâ priscis abdicare moribus That without the leave and consent of their own Clergy and Laity or a Synod which was upon it forthwith called they could not depart from their ancient Customs Thus we see that the Britains who confessed as our Authour says yet would not consent till they had the Opinion and Judgment of a Synod and when Augustine proposed his Matters to the Synod they flatly denied either to receive his Doctrine or himself as their Archbishop So then it is plainly false that the Britains consented But yet our Authour puts down that Confession first in English and after another quite different discourse he puts it down in Latine and that on purpose to prove a consent Now this must be designed to cheat and couzen some I hope he meant it for the Roman Catholicks I do not fear that any Protestant can be gulled by such a sleight But from this Discourse our Authour observes that it may be inferred that Augustine and the Britains agreed in Substantials this may be allowed if he means onely those things which are necessarily to be held by every one that is a Member of the true Catholick Apostolick Church They agreed in the same Saviour in the same Scriptures in the same Creeds and in all the Doctrine that was maintained and declared in the first four General Councils But this will not suffice for our Authour imagines that they agreed in all the Doctrines which the Church of Rome at this day indeavours to impose upon others In order to this
pag. 32. he discourses After all this can we believe that the Britains who earnestly contradicted Augustine in these smaller matters and were so tenacious of their own Customs would have silently received so many and incomparably greater points of Faith had they in like manner disagreed from him therein credat Judaeus Apella Here our Authour is much to be blamed because he will not permit us to give him civil Language he does not onely betray his ignorance but what is much worse in this Paragraph he challenges to have skill in Bede and Bede is the man that contradicts him in every thing he says For Bede tells us that the Britains neither received greater points of Faith nor lesser from Augustine the Monk nor his Companions But for more than one hundred years after Augustine's arrival they esteemed all his teachings to be vain and trifling and little better than Paganism He concluded his History in the Year 725. as appears lib. 5. cap. 24. and he himself tells us in his Epitome that Augustine came into England in the Year 597. Yet he says Lib. 2. cap. 20. Cum usque hodiè moris sit Britonum Fidem Religionémque Anglorum pro nihilo habere neque in aliquo eis magis communicare quà m Paganis That the Britains according to their usual way had no esteem at all for the Faith and Religion of the English and that they would no more communicate with them than with the Pagans And Bede does not onely say that the Britains had so mean an opinion of the Romans Lib. 2. cap. 4. and their Disciples but likewise that the Scots or Irish had the same For where he gives us part of the Letter that Laurentius Mellitus and Justus sent to the Scots He says that when they had tried the Britains they thought the Scots might be better Cognoscentes Brittones Scottos meliores putavimus but yet they found both alike For Dagamus their Bishop would neither eat at the same Table nor in the same House with them Dagamus Episcopus ad nos veniens non solùm cibum nobiscum sed nec in eodem Hospitio quo vescebamur sumere voluit In the same page he says that Laurentius and the rest wrote to the Britains too Sed quantum haec agendo profecerit adhuc praesentia tempora declarant That is that the present opposition which the Britains made against the Romanists in Bede's days sufficiently sheweth that Laurentius his Letter had no effect upon them and that is the same thing which we had before usque hodie that from Augustine the Monk down to Bede's days the Britains had no regard for the Romans teaching of Faith or Religion so far as it differ'd from their own From these two Passages Henry of Huntingdon made the remark which he has lib. 3. Hist Nec Britannos Henr. Huntingd Hist lib. 3. nec Scotos velle communicare cum Anglis eorum Episcopo sancto Augustino magis quam Paganis This is sufficient to shew our Authour's presumption in alledging Bede to patronize his vain Opinations concerning the Britains if we give credit to him the Britains did not receive either so many or so great points of Faith from Augustine the Monk for they received none at all And therefore his Consequence which he draws from thence is like his Premisses good for nought That is this That the Doctrines these two Points excepted their Asiatick Errour and the difference about Baptism which Augustine taught the Saxons had been delivered to the Britains from the Apostles For seeing we have an acknowledged difference in these two Points in Augustin's days and other differences as I shall shew brake out afterwards and we find no manner of agreement between Augustine and the Britains and no communication between his Followers and them for an hundred years after but an extreme aversion and abhorrence of them and their ways he can no more argue for the truth of Augustine's Doctrines from the consent of the Britains than he may for the truth of all the Doctrines which the present Church of Rome teaches from the consent of the present Church of England we oppose them and so did they we and they too reject their Novelties their unjust Usurpations their unreasonable Impositions And though the terms of Communion which they would lay upon us are much harder than those which Augustine offered to the Britains yet we thank God our charity continues towards them we call them Christians and treat them as Christians which the old Britains would not do and with meekness and humility we endeavour to shew them their Errours This is enough to the Case of Augustine and of Bede's Relation of it And enough to the First Part of this Authour July 26. 1687. Sir I am Yours A brief Account of Augustine and the Conversion of the English taken out of Bede 's Ecclesiastical History AVgustine after he had been received gratiously by King Ethelbert knew not what he had to doe He was sent to preach plain Christianity to those that were willing to learn it But he had a mind to doe something else Bede lib. 1. cap. 27. and therefore soon sent to Pope Gregory for his resolution of certain Questions most of which our modern Historians censure as Legal and Levitical and think them all excepting three to be of little use Two of these are remarkable the first concerning his own power which he would have extended not onely over Britain but to France in this latter he was repressed and told that the Pope could not nor ought to grant it because his Predecessours had before setled it on the Bishop of Arles yet over the Bishops of Britain he gives him all the power which he could wish Omnes Episcopos Britanniarum tuae fraternitati committimus Bede lib. 1. cap 27. Resp 9. ut indocti doceantur infirmi persuasione roborentur perversi autoritate corrigantur Now it was unreasonable in Augustine to ask this and injustice in Gregory to grant it For both must needs know that this was an invasion of the Rights of Bishops against the Canons of the Church against the Sixth of the Nicene Council and the Eighth of the Ephesine which says expresly that if the Rites of Churches are taken away and that by any Patriarch whatsoever that Fact should be null and invalid Barnesius Cath-Rom Pacif. p. 60. This Father Barne says gave just cause and reason to the British Bishops to withstand Austin quia videbatur Augustinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agere cum iis cogendo eos ut reciperent eum pro Archiepiscopo mandatis exterorum se subderent Cum antiqui mores Ecclesiae suae postularent ut omnia inter se Synodicè agerent tum pro Episcoporum ordinationibus tum pro aliis negotiis Ecclesiasticis The second considerable Query of Augustine was concerning Rituals Bede lib. 1. cap. 27. Inter. 3. Forms of Worship Missals or Liturgies in this he propos'd how it
all the ways and methods of Rome He would have him shew Rome in every thing he did and to be intirely of the Roman cut He was altogether for place and not for thing He had no concern for what was pious and what religious and what of good use in other Places He was for that onely which was done at home And though Christianity was once most pure and most gloriously had flourished in the Eastern Churches yet he particularly cautioned and provided that Theodore should lay aside his first Works and the Institutions of his Fathers and the Traditions of the East and intirely govern himself according to the Usages of Rome Now the effect of this is most remarkable though Theodore submitted to all this and came with resolution to please them whose Creatures he was yet being a learned stout and most reverend Prelate he was forced in a little time to run into open opposition against Rome For Wilfrid the great Stickler for Roman Fashions indeavoured to outdoe him and would always be one step beyond him in the way of Romanizing He could not consecrate a Bishop but Wilfrid had something to say against it nor make a Synodal Constitution but he had much to fault in it And so troublesome he was that Theodore was forced to throw him out of his Bishoprick upon this Wilfrid appealed to Rome and got the Pope's Bull for his resettlement yet Theodore would not reverse his Sentence and King Egbert added a second of Banishment against him And neither would obey although the Pope threatened deprivation and excommunication to all those that would not receive him Indeed in the second year of Alfrid he returned again but soon was banished again and then again he appealed to Rome and though he had favour there yet he received no benefit from it here For Wilfrid himself being summoned to appear at a Synod upbraided the English Bishops That they had opposed the Pope's Command for two and twenty years and wondered that they durst prefer the Constitutions of Theodore before the Bull of the Pope But for all his talk the Synod had no more regard for the Bull than the King or the Archbishop had for they added a third Sentence of Excommunication against him and his Adherents And as long as Theodore lived this Papal Bull was not in the least regarded but Wilfrid the great Romanizer Innovator and Reformer who had vanquished the good and truly Christian Scots or Irish and thought he merited much in his Contests about Easter and Tonsure found himself sufficiently beaten by one who was a mere Creature of Rome All this may be seen in Bede Bede lib. 5. cap. 20. and in the Life of Wilfrid written by Stephen Heddius This short Narration may deserve some few thoughts from any candid Reader whether he be Papist or Protestant Romanizer or Catholick and what is more than all those names plain Christian Here any one may see something of the first Christianity and something of that which was superadded to it the first most venerable and good the other vain and trifling In the Advices of Gregory to Augustine and in the Lives and Practices of Aidan Finan and Colman we have a most generous sense of Piety and Religion and noble Designments most agreeable to those of our Saviour and his Apostles In the Aims of Augustine Wilfrid and Vitalian we have that which is low and mean great values put upon little things The Name of St. Peter oft used and nothing else the Soul and Temper of him seems totally to be laid aside Great noise and stir and confidence imployed to advance that which was of no use and the same Arts ingaged in the Service which the great St. Augustine and St. Aug. Ep. 86. Casulano Ambrose despised and trampled upon when they found them formerly appearing in like cases Besides we may here see what mischiefs have come from those Men who have made it their business to subject the Faith and Worship of Christians to the Determinations and Usages of one City Wilfrid certainly gave much trouble and great disturbance to Theodore to King Egbert to King Alfrid to England to Rome and all this to very little purpose If any one now has a mind to satisfy himself in the difference between the old Catholick and the old Romanizer he may compare the accompt which Bede gives of Colman and his Predecessours Bede lib. 3. cap. 26. with the Elogium which he gives of Acca Bede lib. 5. cap. 21. Wilfrid's Successour the first of these I have translated and the other our Adversaries may doe when they think good THE END Some Books lately Printed for Brab Aylmer A Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy to which is added A Discourse concerning the Unity of the Church By Dr. Isaac Barrow A Discourse against Transubstantiation By Dr. Tillotson A Discourse concerning the Adoration of the Host as it is Taught and Practised in the Church of Rome A Discourse of the Communion in One Kind In Answer to a Treatise of the Bishop of Meaux ' s. A Discourse against Purgatory A Request to Roman Catholicks to Answer the Queries upon these their following Tenets viz. § I. Their Divine Service in an Unknown Tongue II. Their taking away the Cup from the People III. Their with holding the Scriptures from the Laicks IV. The Adoration of Images V. The Invocation of Saints and Angels VI. The Doctrine of Merit VII Purgatory VIII Their Seven Sacraments IX Their Priests Intention in Baptism X. The Limbo of unbaptized Infants XI Transubstantiation XII The Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass XIII Private Masses XIV The Sacrament of Penance XV. The Sacrament of Marriage with the Clergies Restraint therefrom XVI Their Sacrament of Extream Unction XVII Tradition XVIII That thread-bare Question Where was your Church before Luther XIX The Infallibility of the Pope with his Councils XX. The Pope's Supremacy XXI The Pope's Deposing Power XXII Their Uucharitableness to all other Christians Now in the Press A Discourse of the Sacrifice of the Mass In 4o.
Pope's Supremacy In charity I was bound to pity him and tell him something which he did not know and thereby if possible to move him to take more care if ever he writes again I pitied the World too to see it in danger to be abused by such impertinencies at this time of day Onely allow me the favour to acquaint you that Petrus de Marca speaking of those Sardican Canons lib. 7. Petrus de Marca de concord Imper. Sacerdot cap. 15. par 4 5. expresly asserts that they were unknown in Africa and other Provinces till Zosimus his days and withall he shews how the Africans at last came to submit to them and that was upon many and those not commendable reasons the first of which is this Cessere tandem ob pertinaciam sedis Apostolicae Pontificum qui nihil remittere voluerunt ex jure sibi legitimè quaesito in Concilio Generali Occidentis Sardicensi nimirum praesertim cùm possessioni eorum consensissent Africani Episcopi qui ad certum tempus morem gesserant defideriis Summorum Pontificum And the last is from the difficulties which the incursions of the Vandals brought upon them who being Arians made it necessary for the Churches of Africa at any rate to purchase the savour and assistence of the Romans incursio Vandalorum Ariani erant in Africa dominabantur Africanos necessitate adigebat ad arctissimam unionem cum Ecclesia Romanâ It seems then that the Popes after long contests prevailed not by the merits of their Cause but by their stiffness or pertinacious insisting upon demands right or wrong And by making advantages of the necessities of others when Vandals and those too Arian Hereticks had master'd them and lay hard upon them for then those Orthodox Christians were forced to yield up their rights to the Popes before they could obtain necessary reliefs from them Thus said that wise and learned Roman Catholick And he himself in the writing of this gives us cause to believe the truth of this remark for he then found in his own experience the same stiffness and pertinacity and therefore puts in words to please them quite contrary to the design of his Discourse For he shews plainly that they had no right and yet was forced to say they had ex jure legitimè quaesito He shews that the Sardican Fathers who made this Canon after the secessionof the others could not make up any shew of a general Council yet says that right was obtained in Concilio generali Sardicensi nimirum Now Sir if you can think that the Roman Bishops have proceeded in these methods I hope you will hereafter less puzzle your self and your Friends with your Queries concerning the prodigious Power of the Papacy how it could get up at first by such slender pretences and how it could hand with such weak props how men could be so bold as to challenge in behalf of the Roman Bishops so illustrious a Supremacy so unlimited Authority so glorious a Vicegerency as the Vicariatship of Christ himself must speak All these will be much easier to you when you have considered these two things first the mighty effects of a pertinacious stiffness in demands right or wrong and secondly what it is to take all advantages upon the necessities of others especially at such a time when those barbarous People Goths and Vandals and Huns and Saxons had overrun so many parts of the World 2. A second point of Controversie between the Church of Rome and the Church of England which according to our Authour was determined by ancient Councils is that about the Apocryphal Books P. 20. which he says were taken into the Canon of the Old Testament in the Third Council of Carthage signed by St. Augustine Baruch onely not named Canon 47. Now to this it is sufficient to say that the Subject is exhausted and there is nothing left for another Writer to add to it The Learned Dr. Cosens in his Discourse of the Canon of the Scripture parag 82. has said more than enough for the satisfaction of any learned Roman Catholick as well as Protestant and if our Authour would presume to reply it will cost him more pains than the writing of a dozen such Books as these But some small return may be expected He shall therefore have this That the Canon he quotes out of the Council of Carthage Canon 47. apud Binnum Canon 27. in Synodico Bevereg does not provide for the taking of Books into the Canon of Scripture but for throwing of Books out of the Church It says at first that no Books should be read in Churches but these and then it says in the close that they had received from the Fathers that these were there to be read Now our Authour knows that though we call these Books Apocryphal yet we reade them in our Churches and that as much and more than they do in the Church of Rome and that all of them except the two Books of the Maccabees Now as to these Dr. Cosin 's Scholast Hist p. 112 113. they are nt mentioned in any of the Greek Copies of this Canon nor yet in Cresconius his Collection of the African Canons and how they came to be inserted we must remit him to Dionysius Exiguus for his satisfaction But if our Authour had any material doubt concerning the Church of England's Doctrine about Canonical and Apocryphal Books he would have done well to have considered the sentiments of the Doctours of the Roman Church before he had concluded against us Now I believe that Cardinal Cajetan where he endeavours to reconcile the Council of Carthage with Saint Augustine would have given him reason enough never to have used this objection against the Church of England He says indeed against Protestants but not those of the English Communion in fine Commentariorum ad Hist V. N. T. Ne turberis Novitie si alicubi reperias libros istos inter Canonicos supputatos vel in sacris Conciliis vel in sacris Doctoribus libri isti non sunt Canonici ad confirmanda ea quae sunt fidei possunt tamen dici Canonici ad aedificationem fidelium ut pote in Canone Biblii ad hoc recepti autorati Cum hâc distinctione discernere poteris scripta Augustini scripta in provinciali Synodo Carthaginensi Now this agrees well enough with the Doctrine in the Articles and practice prescribed in the Rubrick of the Church of England And besides Can. Apostol 85. this distinction has its foundation in a very venerable Authority for the Apostolick Canons make a great deal of difference and that upon the same ground between some and other Books calling some of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 venerable and holy but then of the Book called the Wisedom of Solomon or the Son of Sirach and that most certainly is the best of the Apocrypha say it is to be learnt by the Young Men or the Catechumens for
forward to give any extraordinary Authority to such a Lateran Council intirely governed by such a Man as Pope Innocent III. especially in such a Doctrine which it self durst scarcely speak out but imposeth upon you in it by giving you onely one Word and that a barbarous one in all the presumed Acts of it And that comes in as it were by surprize and most amazing without any deliberation or consultation but you have it there before you in the reading of it can be aware and perhaps too before the Fathers who were convened in that Council themselves could be These Considerations I think sufficient to persuade any man to think himself under no great obligation to believe Transubstantiation by virtue of the Authority of this Council and I presume it will least of all affect the Faith of an English-man I shall onely add one thing more concerning this Lateran Council which some perhaps may think worthy of a remark and that is this This Lateran Council was not onely famous for new Doctrine Addit ad Concil Later quartum Edit Labb but new Doctours For here we find not onely Transubstantiation but St. Dominick He was at this Council And he and that Doctrine were in one and the same condition there in a like obscurity something perhaps but not much taken notice of but he and that went on from thence to be most conspicuous and remarkable They for some time after gave the great noise and talk to the World whereever Transubstantiation came the Fathers of the Inquisition who were the Order of Dominicans soon followed after and those Persons that were not subdued under the power of that Doctrine were sufficiently awed by the Terrour of these Fathers For whereas the Senses of Men were obstinate and refractary against their espoused Doctrine those Men made use of one Sense to oppose all the rest for by Rods and Scourges and Burnings they so affected the Sense of feeling that this in a most compendious way stilled and silenced all the others Thus Transubstantiation grew great And he that would argue for it from the Authority of the Lateran Council does but trifle it is and must and can be no otherwise prevalent than by the Authority of these Dominican Fathers The Order of these was confirmed the year after this Lateran Council and that by Innocent III. Thus effectually did this Pope doe his business when he made a new Doctrine and a new Law he provided a new Order of Men and a new Office to promote it and it is no wonder if by so doing he brought a new face of Christianity into the World Briet Annales in An. 1216. This Monsieur Briet says in his Annals in his remark upon the Order of Dominicans and the Franciscans An. 1216. Aliam Christianitati faciem induxit And I easily believe him that the Christianity which began to appear and was most visible in the World soon after this Lateran Council was as different from the Primitive Christianity as St. Dominick was distant in time from St. Peter or as his Rules were different from those in St. Peter's Epistles Now I have done with our Authour's Allegations from Councils And here according to fashion I might be tempted to talk a little of victory and tell my Reader what I think I have done But here I am stopped for our Authour has possest himself of this Post He has given us in the next Paragraph p. 21. such a Jargon of words that are designed to speak a victory but most certainly shew an intolerable vanity that I cannot imitate him For after he had reflected upon his doughty performances How he had found the Pope's Supremacy in the Council of Chalcedon and the Books called Apocrypha put into a higher rank than we place them as he thought by the Council of Carthage And the unbloudy Sacrifice decreed by the ninth Council of the Apostles And the adoration of Images established in the second Council at Nice with the general concurrences of Ancient Fathers And Transubstantiation owned and confirmed by 1300 Fathers in the great Lateran Council and he might as well have said 13000 and all to like purpose whilst never a man amongst them spake one word either to prove or disprove or approve that or any other Doctrine in the Council as far as it appears And after that he had remarked that all these Doctrines and I presume he means the Lateran Council too were brought into England by Augustine the Monk which Council was not in being till more than six hundred years were past after the death of Augustine When I say our Authour had seen that he had done all this he smiled and cockt his Beaver and admired his Atchievements and then forthwith speaks his glories in these words which I will set down here in perpetuam rei memoriam that all such Conquerors as he is may never want words wherein to express their glories or their follies Thus he says Indeed P. 21. Fathers when I had diligently examin'd this truth and found it most evident beyond the possibility of any just or reasonable contradiction I was much scandaliz'd at the disingenuity of your Writers who whilst they accuse others of fallacy imposture and impudence dare advance so great and demonstrable a falshood in matter of fact that nothing but ignorance can excuse them so they expose themselves to the greatest censure of rashness and indiscretion as uncharitable and unjust to those whom they call their Enemies as also unsafe and abusing the credulity of their Friends I admired to see these words in this place and am yet puzzled to think what could just now inspire him with all this puffiness He knew that he had never read one of these Councils and that he had transcribed from others without skill or care and he could not but know that some of his Allegations are most trite and common and answer'd most sully and largely by numberless numbers Why then does he seem here thus to admire his Acts and put down such an extravagant rant I cannot but think that the spirit of his old Friends Nailor and Muggleton came in to his assistence at the Writing of this Perhaps it is a Flower borrowed from some of that sort of Persons to adorn and imbellish a Book It is here I am sure out of its place altogether groundless and senseless and gives us one Argument more of the mighty powers of Face and what great expectances there are from it I do much believe that our Authour may hope for more success from that one Paragraph than from all his Allegations out of Councils Our Authour in the next Paragraph tells us he designs to be brief and therefore laying aside other Controversies he will insist onely upon two and they are these I. P. 22. The Authority and Infallibility of the Roman Catholick Church II. The Doctrine of Transubstantiation The First of these I shall consider and leave the Second to others who both have
do and has the same Creed and the same Sacraments that we have And so she must be a Church But yet she is corrupt and foully stained by the many additions that have been made to her Faith to her Sacraments to her Worship to her Government and to her primitive rule of Faith and all this in virtue of an usurped Authority and vainly pretended Infallibility All these things we charge upon Rome and we think the Charge high enough and if our Authour could have distinguished betwixt Errour and Schism he might have spared all his impertinent Queries concerning Separation from her self or Separation from the Catholick Church and where that Catholick Church is to be found for all this is but trifling in an over eager pursuit of Consequences from a possible sense of a word If Rome has thus erred she may be said to have left and gone from or be separated from that first holy Catholick and Apostolick Church without the making of an open Schism or Schismatical Separation For seeing particular Churches are called Catholick as the Catholick Church in Smyrna Euseb lib. 4. cap. 15. and the Catholick Church of Alexandria upon the accompt of their continuance in the true Faith with the rest of the Church of God or from their coherence with that Church which was properly and originally called so upon which accompt Clemens Alexandrinus Stro. 7. joins those two words together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ancient and Catholick Church So far then as any Church now in being shall depart from the Doctrine of that Ancient Catholick Church and profess great and many Errours and broach new Doctrines unknown to the Primitive Churches and lay mighty stresses upon them so as to make them necessary for Communion here and to Salvation hereafter Such a Church may be said to depart or separate it self from that ancient one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church And now our Authour may have that satisfaction which he says he must have and I agree with him that his Salvation is highly concerned in it He would know where that Catholick Church from which she Rome separated remained and where she may be found I am sorry he knows it not but he may easily be taught that she was and is in Heaven There are all the glorious Company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs There are all the Servants and Saints of Jesus Christ who have lived and died in the true faith of him and thither all the faithfull Members of the true holy Catholick Church now living hope by the grace of Jesus Christ in the methods of the Gospel by keeping close to the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints in their due times to come and be received into that most happy and everlasting Communion This is my opinion and for once I will pray our Authour not to blame me for it I know he may bring against me Supreme lawfull Authority in the name of Pope John XXII who really designed and heartily indeavoured to make the contrary Doctrine to pass for an Article of Faith and if he had lived a little longer would have declared ex Cathedra that the Souls of the Saints do not come to bliss and happiness untill the general Resurrection I beseech him not to meddle with this but if he does I 'll promise to defend my Opinion from Scripture and Fathers and Councils and doubt not by my little Reason sufficiently to repell him and his Authority too But if he can think with me that the Members of the first Churches the holy Apostles and blessed Servants of our Lord are in bliss and happiness and is willing to find them and be with them He ought then to think again of the change of his Religion and of this accompt that he has given of the Motives to it for if he seriously reflects upon his own Salvation and is heartily concerned for it he will be ashamed and repent of all his rude and unseemly treatment of the Reverend Fathers of this Church It is not huffing and braving that speaks a religious Mind it is not saying In good faith Fathers my Salvation is concerned in it that speaks a pious and hearty sense of that great blessing of God He that with humility and reverence studies the mind and good pleasure of his Saviour cannot rant where he is ignorant despise his betters trample upon those whom he calls Reverend Fathers Such actions may be agreeable to a Man that has no sense of Salvation He that has thrown off one Religion and forgot to take up another He that can easily say and so good night to Christianity may doe this But a Convert to any Sect or Party of Christians or such as are willing to be reputed Christians should not doe it Because such actions speak a Man to be proud and ambitious and designing upon this World and something worse than I am willing to say I must stop onely in requital for some Texts of Scripture which p. 25. he advises us to consider I request him to reade these Rev. 2.5 Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent and doe the first works Eph. 4.14 That we henceforth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive 2 Cor. 2.17 We are not as many which corrupt the word of God but as of sincerity but as of God in the fight of God speak we in Christ Our Authour goes on p. 27. But I must not follow him in all his Impertinencies P. 27. I shall speak of Augustine the Monk afterwards And shall at present onely teach him one thing which he there says he does not understand And that he gives us in these words How you should rise a pure Church after you had been buried so many hundred years in a corrupt Church I do not easily understand Thus he says but yet certainly he may understand it for the same way that I advise him to take that he may become a good man was taken by our Predecessours and by virtue of that proceeding they ceased to be a corrupt Church and became a pure one and that was by remembring from whence they were fallen and by repentance and by reformation they saw the Errours which Rome had taught and proudly imposed they were sorry to have been so long abused they withdrew themselves from slavery and knockt off the chains and fetters that an unjust Power had laid upon them they studied and learnt their true Rites and Liberties their duties to God and to their Saviour and to their Prince and when they knew these they practised them And so they did their first works that which Christ and his Apostles taught and so became a pure Church This was then done but such an answer as this will not satisfy our Authour for he inquires in the next Paragraph by what Authority