that almost in every page with odious imputations of such opinions whereof he cannot point us out one in all his volumne concerning which he who best knew his own belief and is long since gone to answer for it good or bad said more than once as in his Answer to the directions to N. N. § 28. Whosoever teacheth or holdeth them LET HIM BE ANATHEMA In which volumne though M r Knot declaim oft against reason and say That to it the mysteries of Christian Religion seem impossible c. xiii § 27. p. 808. pro 812. yet he thinks it fitting to charge his Adversary with the sayings not onely of S t Augustine B â— Andrews Hooker Grotius Calvin Beza and the like learned men who yet confessed themselves men but also of Luther Socinus Crellius Volkelius Bonaventure Halensis Dionys Areopagita and I know not what other rabble as if poor Chillingworth were bound to defend all whosoever that wrote before him Whereas all the world knows That he who would not believe the Romane Church whereof he had been a member upon her own bare word would as little believe any particular member of that or any other Society upon theirs and that he disclaimed not her pretended Infallibility which was her worst fault as making all the rest how damnable soever incurable that he might affix it upon another or the next man he met though never so learned or pious And if M r. K. will think it unjust That he should be put to maintain the writings of all Papists or even of those few of his own late Order his citing so much the opinions of Protestants out of our Adversary Brerely is no argument but of his own unreasonablenesse I shall not take notice of half his impertinencies not how he grants what M r Chill affirmed concerning some mens believing contradictions p. 803. lin 5. There is no doubt saith he but that men may believe things which in themselves are contradictions p. 810. l. 18. 'T is needlesse to be proved it being a thing which no man denyeth And yet how in attempting to shew that Master Chillingworth's reasons do not prove it he spends from p. 802. to 815. To take notice of all such peccadilloes would be very tedious to Thee and me Onely because I have mentioned his citing Brerely so oft and not onely M r K. but most of the other English Advocates for the Church of Rome are very faulty therein give me leave to adde a little in that particular M r Chill c. 5. § 91. answering M r Knots alledging the confession of Protestants concerning the Antiquity of some Doctrines in the Church of Rome sets down twenty Doctrines of that Church and entreateh M r K. to inform him what confession of Protestants he hath for them viz. Communion in one kind Latiâ—e Service Indulgences the Popes power in temporalities over Princes picturing the Trinity worshipping of pictures and of the B. Virgin her immaculate conception infallibility of the Pope or Church auricular Confession c. And that as some Protestants confesse the Antiquity but alwayes postnate to Apostolick of some Romane points so there want not Papists who acknowledge as freely the novelty of many of them and the Antiquity of ours To which all that M r K. answereth is p. 867. as followeth 1. Some of these things are not matters of faith and some other points are even ridiculous 2. We deny that any Cath. approved Authour acknowledgeth the novelty of any of our Doctrines or the antiquity of yours except such were ancient heresies How truly spoken the first is the Reader may judge if he have read the Canons of the Councel of Trent Luc. Wadding's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or History of the Immaculate conception printed at Lovain 1624. or any few Romane authours How true the second if he 'l vouchsafe to examine the places I have cited p. 6. or these which follow Though there are some Protestants who confesse the Antiquity though not Primitive which is the onely Antiquity they hold obliging of some few Romane Doctrines so there are not a few Doctours Writers of their own Communion who acknowledge as liberally the novelty of very many others as 1 that Transubstantiation was not named much lesse made an Article of faith before the Laterane Councel Bellarm. de Sacram. l. 2. c. 25. 2 That for the first MCC years the Holy Cup was administred to the Laity Lindan Panopl l. 4. part 2. c. 56. § Hunc igitur Cassander saepe Albaspinaeus Observ Sacr. l. 1. c. 4. And your friend Petavius in his Treatise against Arnault de la frequent Communion saith None but an extreme ignorant or impudent fellow can deny it 3. That they beleeved the sacrifice of the Eucharist to be but the IMAGE or COMMEMORATION of our Saviours sacrifice on the Crosse Lombard Sent. l. 4. c. 12. Aqu. 3. p. qu. 83. art 1. incorp 4. That the Primitive Christians celebrated not the Eucharist as the Romane Church doth now Durand ration div offic lib. 4. c. 1. Rupertus Abbas Tuit Divin Offic. l. 2. c. 21. he that readeth Justin Martyr in his Apology largely describing the custome of the Primitives in his dayes may think he speaks of the Protestants now 5. That Divine Service was celebrated for many ages in a tongue understood by the people Nic. de Lyr. in 1. ad Cor. 14. Cassander in Liturg c. 28. Alphons à Castro de justa pun haeret l. 3. c. 6. where desending this differing from the Primitive Church he saith That he who should now conform to THEM would be accounted not onely an impious man but an Infidel 6. That the Fathers exhorted the people to read the Scriptures Azor. mor. l. 8. c. 26. part 1. § respondeo 7. That they generally condemned the worship of Images for fear of Idolatry Polyd. Virg. de invent rerum l. 6. c. 13. In which treatise that learned Italian oft ingemiously acknowledgeth the novelty of most of their customes in the Church of Rome except such as came from Jews or Pagans As lib. 5. c. 4. where he saith 8 God and the Primitive Church permitted marriage to Priests and Pope Siricius who lived at the end of the fourth century was the first that forbad it whose laws to that purpose though they came out very thick were little heeded till the eleventh Age. See Gloss decret dist 84. c. 3. and P. Pius II. in his 130. Epist against the Bohemians and Taborites where he opposeth the Modern Church to the Primitive 9. That MCCCC years after Christ many learned Romanists denied the Popes judgement to be infallible Gerson Almain Alphonsus Adrian PP apud Bell. de Rom. Pont. l. 4. c. 2. § Secunda opinio 10. Or his authority to be above that of a generall Councel Camaracensis Gerson Almain Cusan Panormitan Abulensis apud Bell. de Conc. l. 2. c. 14. initio 11. That the Masse was not instituted by Christ and the Apostles who at the consecration used
us she would have us receive with the same faith and respect all the traditions which she approves of Besides the repose and rest in the Kingdome of heaven which she with us promiseth to the faithfull she will have us to believe another in Limbo a prison for children that die without baptisme And besides the torments of hell which she with us threatens to the wicked she denounceth to the faithfull another like it in purgatoric These and severall others like to these are the positions which she addeth to the true and fundamentall Articles of the good Old Christianity and which are the points that divorce us from her Communion For every one knows how carefully she hath established them in her Councels how daily she recommendeth them in her Schools and pulpits how rigourously she exacteth them in confession having long since pronounced and oft since daily still proclaiming and repeating That she esteems them Hereticks Enemies of Christ and worse then Infidels that reject these opinions or any of these And which is more offensive yet not content to teach them by the voice of her Doctours she imprints them in the hearts of her people through continuall observation and use so that among them of her communion the practise of these additionall Articles makes more then a full half of what they esteem Christianity For the greatest part of their service consists in invocation of Angels and Saints in adoring the Sacrament in worshipping images in offering up the Sacrifice of the Altar or in partaking of it in making Confessions and exercising other ceremonies But as for us all the world knows that we have quite another opinion of these matters We content our selves with the intercession sacrifice and monarchy of J. Christ and can joyn to Him neither Saints nor Priests nor the Pope in any of those three qualities which the Scripture of the New Testament attributes to none but Him alone We deem His bloud sufficient for the purgation of our souls having never learnt that either S. Paul or any other Saint was crucified for us nor That after this life the Saints shall enter into any other place but onely one of repose and rest After Baptisme and the Lords Supper we desire no other Sacraments not having heard in His Word that he hath obliged us necessarily to go to the eare of any Priest to receive his absolution or to the hand of any Bishop to have his chrisme We dare not adore the bread which we break nor the cup which we blesse because all confesse That it is not permitted us to adore any but God onely We can neither invocate creatures since we have in the Scripture neither commandment nor example for it nor prostrate our selves before images since we have expresse commands therein against it We scruple at making any thing an Article of our Faith which we have not heard in the Word of God be he an Apostle or an Angel that evangelizeth So that since we find nothing in the Scripture of abstinence from meats distinction of times and other Romane ceremonies nor of the Limbus of infants or purgatory we cannot yet be perswaded that it is necessarie for us to believe them CHAP. VI. That our Separation ariseth not from particular matters of fact or private opinion but from such things as are believed generally by all the Romane Church and so that it is not like to the schisme of the Donatists I Might yet alledge many other differences but this little may suffice to let you see what are the main reasons which oblige us to separate from Rome Whence it appears how unjust a comparison it is that I say not impertinent and silly which some make of our Separation to that of the Donatists For they pretended not to find any thing in the doctrine of the Catholick Church from whence they separated which was contrary to their belief Both the one and the other taught the same faith read the same books exercised the same services The Donatist entring with the Catholicks found nothing either in their belief or discipline which he had not seen and learn'd in his own But as for us 't is impossible that we should enter into the Communion of the Church of Rome without swearing to many doctrines which we formerly never learn'd in the schole of the Scriptures without receiving Sacraments which are utterly unknown to us without bowing our knees before images which is absolutely forbidden without adoring a thing for God whose Deitie we know not without acknowledging him to be the Head and Husband of the Church whom we know to be but a mortall man without subjecting those consciences to an humane which are taught and wont to submit unto none but a divine Authority And as for that which the Donatists alledge That Felix the Ordainer of Cecilian Bishop of Carthage did in former times deliver up the Holy Scriptures to the Pagans during the persecution though it had been true as indeed it was not the Catholicks having clearly justified their innocence in this point by many irrefragable testimonies supposing I say it had been true that he had committed this fault who seeth not that this is not a cause in nature like to those for which we make our separation For this was a matter of fact and not a doctrine a fact of one man that is of Felix alone and not of the whole body of the African Church So that it should have given the Donatists no occasion or cause of separating from Cecilian much lesse any just cause of breaking communion with all Africk For suppose that Felix the Ordainer of Cecilian had committed this fault yet 't is cleare That he did not teach or think that it was lawfull for him to deliver the H. Scriptures up to Infidels but on the contrary by denying that he committed it and standing upon his defence as he did he confessed plainly by consequence that it was a fault The Donatists then might have continued in that communion without any way staining either their Creed or their manners without being forced either to do or believe any thing against their consciences But for all that supposing which yet is manifestly false that Cecilian had defended and preach'd publickly in his pulpit That it was permitted Christians in times of persecution to deliver up the books of HOLY WRIT to the enemies of the Church and supposing again which 't is not fit now to examine that this errour were pernicious and inconsistent with a true faith I cannot discern how the Donatists had any just cause of avoiding the communion of the successours of Cecilian or other Bishops of Africk who unanimously held taught and preached that to commit such a fault was a weaknesse unbefitting the soul of a Christian and made all such submit to the rigours of Ecclesiasticall discipline whom they found guilty of it This crime or what ever you will imagine it was onely Felix's or perhaps Cecilians but not any mans else The
whole Church had no share in it so that it was an intolerable piece of injustice a strange pride and mad fantasticalnes to abhorre a whole Church for the errours of offences of one particular man I would to God the case between the Romane Church and us had been the like That we had seen nothing deplorable but onely the faults of her Pastours and the disorders of her manners or That such of her doctrines which we cannot receive had been the thoughts of some particular men onely Had there been nothing else we should have lived still together Our Fathers would never have separated from Her Communion or if some strange passion which we dream not of had precipitated them into a rupture and schisme like that of the Donatists We do in our Consciences protest that we would have been afraid to follow their errour and that we would have lost no time of uniting our selves with them from whom we had been so imprudently separated For we cannot but confesse That 't is a piece of very high injustice to impute the faults of men to their profession and to accuse their Religion of those extravagancies which they commit especially if against it In such a case we should questionlesse practise the doctrine of our Saviour speaking of them who sit in Moses chair Matt. xxiii 3. All those things which they bid you observe those observe and do but do not after their works The Church wherein they live is not guilty of their errour especially when it highly and oft out of the mouthes of those very men condemneth the faults and disorders of their lives The Church may say to such fugitives The faults of my children are no fit reason to induce you to abhorre Me. Live in my communion you may and not be obliged to communicate with their wicked deeds Those very men who are thus wicked should drive you from the vice in stead of bringing you to it for if you mark it They carry preservatives in their mouthes against the poisons of their manners But alas 'T was not this that drove us from the Church of Rome 'T was not the fall of one Felix nor the weaknesse of some Cecilians 't was not the covetousnesse of her Prelates the licenciousnesse of her Monks the filthinesse of her Court the excesse and abuse of her Sovereigne Pontifes For though she suffered these disorders with too much indulgence yet she neither doth command them nor openly approve of them Though she very gently tolerate such as were debauched or vicious yet she did not force any to be so No man was for entring into her communion constrained to be a slave to any of those vices which bore sway in the midst of her No a man might have lived within it and yet addicted himself to honesty and goodnesse And as yet corruption had not gained so farre as that ill manners were authorized by publick laws But on the contrary during the worst of times though her voice was weak and languishing yet she made some noise against the impietie of the age And oftentimes those very men that gave ill example in their lives preached against it and decryed it horribly in the pulpit That which hath pulled us from her communion is her doctrine and not her actions that which she commands and not that which she suffers that which she requires of us all and not that which she tolerates in some others the articles of her faith and not the faults of her life For the adoration of the Eucharist invocation of Saints veneration of images and those other articles which we rehearsed before are not such things as she onely tolerates as bad or excuseth as doubtfull but beliefs which she commendeth as true and observations which she commandeth as usefull and necessary to salvation Nor doth she onely practise them in the house and privately but likewise preach them in the Temple as perpetuall parts of her Faith So that if we continue in her communion we must needs make profession of believing them that is make our selves guilty of an horrible hypocrisie confessing with our mouth what we do not believe with our heart Now if these were onely the opinions of some one of her Doctours if it were onely some one Divine that were to be blamed and the rest of their Church disavowed these things we should not for such a matter make any scruple of communicating with Her acknowledging ingenuously That 't is an unreasonable thing to impute the opinions and so the faults of a few particular men to a whole entire body Since we see it often happens that they who live in the Communion of a Church are neither in whole nor in part of the same belief with that Church Thus formerly among the Jewes The sect of the Sadducees had their doctrines apart and the Pharisees had likewise theirs And for a mans being a Jew he was not at all obliged to embrace or hold precisely the opinions either of the one or of the other sect And at this very day in the Church of Rome whence we departed the order of the Dominicans hath some opinions proper to themselves and the Franciscans have others and so likewise the Jesuits others peculiar to their respective Orders If therefore there were in the midst of Her onely some one societie of men that held affirmatively those things which we cannot believe and others lived at liberty either to receive or reject them In this case I confesse that it were very difficult to excuse our Separation since the Communion with that body whence we have departed doth not oblige us precisely to any points contrary to our consciences But who knows not that those Articles which we cannot receive are publick not private Doctrines common to the whole Church of Rome and not peculiar to the Pope and his party established authentickly in her Generall Councels by the suffrages of the Deputies of all the Churches in the world that live in her Communion Articles to the belief and observation whereof she obligeth all sorts of persons whatsoever Clergy and Laity Monks and Seculars Men and Women little and great anathematizing all as Hereticks who teach or believe otherwise and besides the thunderbolts of the Church excommunications making use of fire and sword and what else they can against them where ever she hath power Thus it appears that our cause is no whit like that of the Donatists our Separation arising from publick and universall Doctrines of the Church of Rome whereas Theirs had no foundation or reason but onely a pretended act of one particular man neither confessed nor proved The African Church whose communion they fled from presented them nothing in her Creeds and Service which was contrary to their faith whereas Rome whence we are departed will constrain us to think and do severall things that directly overthrow the doctrines which we in our souls and consciences believe CHAP. VII That there are two sorts of Errours the one overthrowing the
I confesse that while our Lord was upon earth presupposing that at His being in Judea some person had resembled Him much in viâ—age and coming to one of the Apostles had been mistaken for Him and so one had adored this man in stead of our Saviour In such a case this mistake might have excused the action and there would have been a deal of rigour in making that passe for a criminall service as adoration of the creature And if the Host as they call it were really to be adored as they believe it is I confesse that he who should adore one not consecrated or consecrated without intention set before him upon the Altar could not justly be condemned for having adored it because it was not his passion or not heeding that caused this mistake but the likenesse and extreme uniformitie that was between the one and the other they being not distinguishable one from another by any apparent mark But suppose that the Eucharist be not J. Christ really the errour then of them who take it to be Christ comes all from passion and not from any thing that is without them For in your conscience what similitude can you discern between these two things that should make us take them one for the other or what is there that doth not oblige us most firmly to believe that the one is not the other The one is a round thing without sense and motion and altogether uniform the other hath a humane body organized and furnished with sense and other ornaments even as ours The one is bread which we have seen kneaded and made the other a divine substance formed of the flesh of a Virgin above MDC yeares agoe One is broken in our hands and bruised between our teeth and consumed in our stomacks the other is of an immortall nature glorious and impassible I omit other differences But if I had nothing else but the doctrine of the Apostles and the belief of all Christians That our Lord is in heaven whence he shall come at the last day and the forewarning that he gave us Himself to beware of being surprized by them that say Lo here is Christ or there He is in the desart or secret closet Matth. xxiv 26. Is not this enough to render all errour inexcusable in this particular For what will they be able to answer our Lord against such cleare marks and such expresse forewarnings when He shall demand of them a reason of this great mistake To men I wonder not that they alledge This is my body but to the Great God who seeth the secrets of the hearts and in so glorious and cleare a light I am confident they will never dare to bring for themselves so weak a defense For since they have heard S. Paul say oft that the Church is the body of Christ without believing thereupon that the Church is transubstantiated or not a creature but God because 't is called the body of Christ 1 Cor. xii 27. Eph. i. 23. And if the honour that the Church hath to be called the body of Christ doth not keep man from believing that it were impietie and not Religion to give to the Church the adoration of latria how will that hold good which they say That they think themselves necessarily obliged to adore the Eucharist because it is called the body of Christ If such phrases of speech be enough to ground that service upon which they give to the Eucharist they must then also adore the rock whence Moses brought water in the wildernesse since S. Paul saith That that was Christ And the body of the faithfull 1 Cor. x. 4. 1 Cor. vi 15. since he saith That they are the members of Christ and those hereticks taxed by S. Augustine would be excusable for having adored the sunne since the Scripture sometimes gives that name to the Blessed Jesus If they 'l confesse that these phrases of speech did not excuse that abuse they must likewise confesse that the words of our Saviour This is my body do not suffice to authorize that service which they give to the Eucharist All this they grant sufficiently when their great Doctours confesse That they do not build their opinion upon those words and grant they see no reason why they should not take the words in that sense which we Protestants take them in Cajet in 3. Thom. q. 75. art 1. From the sole Authoritie of the Church that is to say in their language of the Pope and his Councel they deduce their transubstantiation This Authoritie is the onely foundation of the adoration of the Host which they can no way collect but from the will of the Romane Church So it appeareth That laying aside the passion of Rome there is nothing in heaven or in earth or in the sense of men or in the Scriptures of God which should I will not say oblige but any way allure them to be ignorant that the Eucharist is bread So that all ignorance that they can pretend is purely affected and voluntary and so not able to excuse the service which they render to the Host To which adde that it excuseth them so much the lesse Because the question here is concerning the highest adoration the most holy and singular act in all religion which by consequence a man should give to none but to Him whom he knows most assuredly to be God and the Saviour of our souls Nor is it enough to have an opinion or suspicion of this It must be certain For 't is just as the conjugall bed to which a woman must receive none but whom she knows very certainly to be her husband If she have any apparent doubt that it is not he in realitie and if notwithstanding this she receive him she thereby forfeits her troth And here I cannot but commend a saying I read in Apothegm Anachor Aegypt lib. 15. cap. 70. Bibl. Patrum tom 9. p. 286. of an old Egyptian Monk who when one appeared to him in the resemblance of Christ was so farre from adoring what he saw that he would neither view it nor hearken to it but shutting his eyes said I shall see Christ in heaven 'T is enough for me to hope and believe while I am upon earth But how Was he not afraid that this refusall would offend his Lord in case this had been He indeed as the light speech shape and other circumstances obliged him to believe Not a a jot For he was assured that his Lord saw that this refusall proceeded not from any want of respect toward Him but from a just and rationall fear of giving through mistake that to another which belonged to Him onely and which he earnestly desired to preserve inviolably for Him A qualitie which is so farre from offending our Lord that it must needs be very pleasing to Him And in the same place c. 71. an Anchoret is mentioned who when the Devils askt him whether he would see Christ answered Be you and he whom you would shew
will but recollect in what condition the Church of Rome was when Princes and People Clergie and Laity did first desire of the Pope a Reformation in faith and manners shall find 1. That they gave and still do to the B. Virgin and other Saints departed the titles of Mediatour Redeemer and Saviour in their publick Liturgies and hymnes 2. That they began their sermons and other solemn duties with Ave-Maries and rendred not to the B. Virgin onely but to reliques pictures Agnus Dei's and severall other creatures animate and inanimate the worship which is due onely to the Creatour Briefly to omit many Doctrines destructive to piety and even civil society which are warranted by other Councels as in the Councel of Constance Sess 19. 3. That it is lawfull to break promise with hereticks and to instance onely in some few positions of the last Councel held at Trent Sess 25. 4. The decree for veneration of images is against Exod. xx 5. Lev. xxvi 1. Esa ii 8 9. xliv 13 c. 1 Cor. x. 7. vi 9 10. Rev. xxi 8. ◠5. How contrary is their invocation of Saints and Angels ibid. Sess 27. unto Rom. x. 14. Luc. xi 1 2. Matth. iv 10. Col. ii 18. Act. x. 25 26. xiv 14 15. Rev. xix 10. xxii 89. 6. Their Communion in one kind decreed in the very words of the Canon Sess 13. and 21. Can. 1. 2. with a non obstante Christi instituto notwithstanding Christs expresse decree how opposite to Matth. xxvi 27. Mark xiv 23. 1 Cor. x. 3 4 16 17 7. Their Transubstantiation Sess 13. chap. 9. Can. 2. how contradictory not onely to the Apostles Creed but also to 1 Cor. x. 16 17 20. xi 23 24 25 26 27 28 Matth. xx vi 29. 8. In a word for such citations may be numerous who ever can reconcile their decree for Service in an unknown tongue ibid. Sess 22. chap. 8. Can. 9. with any part of all the 1 Cor. xiv I will not wonder if he think that fornication is not contrary to any law of God and that forbidding marriage to all the Clergie doth no way oppose Heb. xiii 4. and 1 Tim. iv 3. Some of which positions are touched in the 19 th chap. of this book and the rest excellently confuted in Mons r Daillé's books de poenis de imaginibus but contra Meliterium and other Protestant Authours Who ever I say recollecteth how these and the like Doctrines which overthrow the fundamentals of Christian Religion were then and still are not onely the private opinions of her Doctours but the publick decrees of her Councels And then lastly who ever considereth with what rigour and tyranny she threw them who disbelieved them First out of the Church and then if she could out of the world meerly for being of the young mans mind whom S r Tho. More commendeth and tells a pretty story of pag. 1438. of his works in English whose name was Company because they would not sinne with their neighbours and be damned for good Fellowship So destroying whole Cities and Provinces and with them in Tacitus Solitudinem facientes pacem appellavere Insomuch as none could communicate with her without approving both her tyranny and doctrines which was the indespensable condition of her Communion Who ever I say considereth these things will I conceive never wonder why the Protestants departed from Rome any more than why the Philosophers did of old when they were banished or why he is out of the house who is thrust out of doors But if none of all this could have been truly pleaded yet the Church of England might have been excused from schism by him that duly considereth That the Anglican Church had of old and still may justly challenge many priviledges as well as the Gallican set down by Marc. de Vulson Counsellour to the King of France in his book de la puissance du Pape and by Pythoeus and many others but most largely described in two vast tomes written by the appointment of Cardinal Richilieu when he advised the King of France to set up a Patriarch in opposition to the See of Rome entituled Preuues des libertez de l' Eglise Gallicane Seconde Edition A Paris MDCLI If our secession was schisme what would that have been Both these Churches being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by force of the Ephesme Canon among others in the case of the Arch-Bishop of Cyprus whereby it was Ordered that the Churches should continue as they were and not be subordinated to any forraign Patriarch And again he who considereth That perpetually under the Old Testament and for many ages under the New Kings and Emperours were acknowledged to have a power of reforming the Church under their Dominions That even our Q. Elisabeth who is most railed at by Romanists claimed no other title but what Q. Mary other Romane Catholick Kings and Princes claimed before Her as may be seen in authentick Records and That by our Ancient Laws the Kings of England as the Christian Emperours of old had Supreme jurisdiction in matters Ecclesiasticall as well as Civil and That by these laws it was death for any man to publish the Popes Bull without the Kings license and if any Ecclesiasticall Court did exceed its just limits jurisdictions the Kings prohibition was to be obeyed All which appeareth in Caudries case reported by S r Edward Coke in his fifth book fol. 8. c. Concerning our ancient Ecclesiastical laws see S r. H. Spelmans Councels B p Carltons consensus Ecclesiae Cathol adversus Tridentinos p. 271. 272. D r. Hammonds answer to the six quaeries p. 414. and D. Blondel's Primauté en l' Eglise p. 796. And that the Reformation in England was in this particular as regular as possibl◠the Clergie desiring it in Q. Elisabeths dayes there were not a hundred Incumbents turned out of their livings throughout all England the King Lords and Commons unanimously concurring to it See a book entituled An answer to that groundlesse calumny A Parliamentary Religion by E. Y. printed at Oxford MDCXLV And lastly I request those who are so prone to term us Schismaticks to examine what obligation there lieth upon us to conform any more to Rome then Geneva and why not to the poore Greek Church as well as to either if it have as much truth or indeed why not to the Primitive rather than any Certain I am that they will never be able to prove out of Antiquity that if the Bishop of Rome or any other Bishop require subscription to any errour especially to any that is damnable or dangerous as the condition of their Communion any man was any longer bound to communicate with them because then he were bound to communicate in sinne or by consequence to be obedient to them Whence it will follow That if the Pope make a new Creed and put in some things that contradict the Apostolicall as he did at Trent If he will force us to
any more queries then are necessary what necessity of an infallible Judge at all The Christian world had no such Judge sor CCCXXIV years for the Nicene Councel was the first General and if They vnderstood Scripture and were saved then when they had no such thing why may not We now And if they were not saved the Church of Rome must blot out many hundreds and thousands of Saints Martyrs out of her Martyrology Till these twenty questions be insallibly resolved it seems to me impossible that any man should have any infallible knowledge of the Church of Romes Infallibility And I am the more confirmed in the necessity of a plain resolution to this last querie because though M. Knot be sometimes hot and positive in grounding all Christian Religion upon the infallibility of the Church I find beside what I said p. 22. Christ and the Apostles intimating the contrary Joh. v. 39. Act. iv 19. xviii 11. 2. Thess v. 21. 1. Joh. iv 1. Rev. ii 2. But to passe by such places of Scripture because I know that they who make profession of devising shifts will find euasions for them and to omit the positions of many Romane Doctours of lesse note who are as high for the non-necessity of an infallible guide as any Protestant can wish I shall onely hint at Lactantius his large Chapter to this purpose lib. 2. de orig error c. 7. beginning thus Quare oportet in ea re in qua vitae ratio versatur sibi quemque confidere suóque judicio ac propriis sensibus niti ad investigandam perpendendam veritatem quà m credentem alienis erroribus decipi tanquam ipsum rationis expertem Dedit omnibus Deus pro virili portione sapientiam c. and rather insist upon a couple of most eminent Cardinals Baronius and Lugo Both these give their opinions very plainly on our side and which I value more their reasons and examples The former hath spent to our purpose a whole Appendix which he prefixed before the second tome of his Annals printed at Rome MDLXXXVIII where appealing to every particular Protestant's judgement concerning the truth of his cause and not once mentioning the infallibility of the Church he goes on thus Ingens sanè vis humanae insidet rationi c. Great is the power of humane reason if it be left unsettered and free in all things And therefore our Ancestors placing great confidence in the force of truth where they contended with obstinate hereticks when they declined and despised all judgement of the Church were so indulgent as not to refuse to try the judgement even of Infidels and expect their determination Such men being Judges the Jews Joseph Antiq. l. 13. c. 6. had the victory over the Samaritans And an heathen Philosopher being by consent chosen for an Arbitrator to whose judgement they were to stand Origen dialog overcame five most wicked hereticks And Archelaus Epiphan haeres 66. a Bishop in Mesopotamia did consute Manes a most desperate Arch-heretick before certain Heathens who were by consent chosen Judges c. The latter though a Jesuite a Spaniard plainly asserteth this non-necessity tom de virtut fidei dis 1. § 12. n. 247. c. And making it good by foure instances 1. THE BELIEF OF THE INFALLIBILITY IT SELF which must be received from some other motive than it self or its own testimony and consequently saith he all other doctrines of Christianity may be believed upon the same inducements not meerly upon the infallibility of the Church 2. CHILDREN or OLD PEOPLE who are newly converted to the faith do not believe the Infallibilitie before they embrace other Articles for they believe Articles in order as they are propounded this is commonly one of the last 3. RUSTICKS AND COMMON PEOPLE at this day in Spain Italy and other Catholick Countreys who commonly resolve their faith no further than their Parish-Priest or some other learned or holy man at the most 4. He asserteth num 252. That IN THE LAVV OF NATURE most believed onely upon the Authority of their Parents without any Church-propounding And also after the law was written most believed Moses the Prophets before their prophecies were received and propounded by the Church for the sanctity of their lives c. And this discourse wa◠written by speciall order from the late Pope Urban and dedicated to the present Pope Innocent X. And now my patient Reader to draw to a conclusion as my spare-leaves do for I have unawares detained thee very much longer then I intended when I first set pen to paper for this Preface which was after the following English Apologie was fully printed and that is one reason of its immethodicalness If I have writ any thing impertinent I hope that my brother THE UNIVERSITY-MAN Mr. Knots friend will help to excuse me if any thing that savoureth of passion which I shall be very sorry for as soon as it shall be discovered to me that Mr. Knot will be my Advocate each of them being commonly conceived sufficiently guilty of one or both of these faults and hereafter I may do as much for them And further to encourage M r K. to do somewhat for me I do here assure him That if he shall vouchsase punctually to answer these xx questions which seem to me very necessary to be plainly determined before he can assure any man of the Infallibility of the Romane Church on which foundation he layeth so huge a structure and withall to refute that one argument which I mentioned pag. 18. out of Dr. Jer. Taylors nervous discourse then prove that the Church of Rome is infallible by any one infallible argument for he hath told us that nothing lesse can do it I will be his Proselyte Vntill which time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlesse which I think far the more probable and therefore shall daily pray for it Mr. Knot will be so ingenuous as S. Augustine was to retract his errours in his later dayes and come over to the good Old Catholick Apostolick Faith leaving Romane superstructures For I begin to despair with that Milevitan Bishop of ever seeing while I am upon earth any infallible living Judge in matters of saith and to believe I must as the Jews speak expect the coming of Elias for that purpose having long observed by Mr. Knot 's seven books in this Controversie that Cause patrocinio non bona pejor erit To the Preface p. 8. l. 29. adde That there were Christians in Britain before Augustine the Monk came over is plain out of Eusebius Theodoret Arnobius Tertullian Gildas Bromton and I suppose no man that is not a meer stranger to Antiquity will deny That those Christians had no dependance upon Rome will appear to any who readeth the ancient Histories of Rome or England Platina saith that Antherus the 20 th Pope sate eleven years and made onely one Bishop In a word from the death of S t Peter till the entrance of
goodnesse I shall earnestly pray our Lord that he would communicate to You more and more of his dear Sonne JESUS the onely happinesse of our souls and crown that obedience which you have rendred to Him by confessing His Gospel here with the blessings of this and a better world remaining inviolably MADAM Your most humble and obedient servant DAILLE The Editions of such Authours as are cited in this Apologie of Mons r. DAILLE and in another English Tract of his entituled The use of the Fathers in controversies between Papists and Protestants AMbrose printed at Basil Anno 1555. in five tomes Athanasius at Paris 1627. by M. Sonnius c. Augustine at Paris 1531. by Chevall Baronius at Antwerp 1612. Plantin Basil at Paris with Sonnius c. 1618. Bertram the Priest in Orthodoxographis at Basil 1555. Bibliotheca Patrum at Paris 1624. Breviarium Romanum at Paris 1612. Canus de locis Theolog. at Lovain 1569. by Servat Sass Cassander at Paris by Hier. Drouart Casaubons exercitations against Baronius at London Cathar annot on Cajet at Lyons 1542. by Matth. Bont Clemens Alexandrinus at Florence 1550. Councels generall Greek and Lat. at Rome 1608. Cyprian at Paris by Claud. Chappell Directory for the Inquisitors at Rome 1587. by Georg. Ferr. Epiphanius at Paris 1622. Fulbert Carnot at Paris 1608. by Tho. Blaise Gregory Nyssens Orations at Paris 1638. by Morel Hierom at Paris 1579. by Nivelle Hilary at Paris 1510. by Ascensius Ireneus 1570. by John Preux and John Petit. Justin at Paris 1615. by Morel Origen at Paris 1536. by Nic. Pen. Origen against Celsus at Augsbourg 1605. F. Paolo his Apolog. at Venise 1606. Pererius upon the epist to the Rom. at Ingolst 1603. by Sartor Pontificale Romanum at Rome 1611. Salmeron at Coloiu 1614. by Antony Hier. c. Scaliger upon Euseb Chronic. at Leiden 1606. by Basson Tertullian at Paris 1616. Theophilus Antioch at the end of Justin 1615. by Morel AN APOLOGIE for the Reformed Churches Against those who accuse them of having made a schisme in Christendome CHAP. I. The Occasion and importance of this Treatise AMong all those actions and perswasions of us Protestants that are ill taken by our Adversaries there is scarce any that is worse resented or for which we are more bitterly and generally reproached then our Separation from the See of Rome and the Churches of her Communion For they charge us of having by this means rent asunder the bowels of Jesus Christ and miserably torn in pieces that holy Body which He formed of His own bloud An horrible crime questionlesse and such an one as comes but little if at all behind the impiety of those outragious murderers who nailed our Saviour to the crosse pierced his side and hands and feet with their abominable spear and nails And whereas other parts of our doctrine offend onely our enemios this hath the ill luck to displease some of our friends For such I take them to be who approve our belief and yet blame us for being out of the Church of Rome It therefore doth behove us infinitely for the common rectifying and enlightning of both parties to examine this accusation and to shew if it be possible the injustice and nullitie of it to the end that they who approve our belief may joyn themselves to our Communion seeing the weaknesse of those reasons which have hitherto kept them on a side in which they acknowledge some errours and that they who entirely reject our perswasion may hereafter consider the grounds whereon we go without any more troubling themselves to throw upon us this invidious but vain reproach This is the subject which I purpose to treat on in this paper most humbly beseeching those who shall vouchsafe to reade it to bring with them a mind free from passion which turning its eyes from the Persons may regard nothing at present but the worth and weight of the subject in hand CHAP. II. The necessity of an union of Believers IN the first place we confesse that Christians are obliged both by the will of their Master and by their own welfare and salvation to continue united one to another and all together to make up but one body And as this union is their soveraigne happinesse and the necessary effect of charity without which they cannot be Christians so the breach of it and division is the greatest of their infelicities and the most grievous of their crimes And they who either procure it or foment it shall never be able to avoid that curse which our Saviour doth often denounce of not inheriting the kingdome of heaven into which place none is received without this charity which such men want For as the being and perfection of a naturall body consists in the union of its parts which dissolving and falling asunder the whole doth presently lose not its form and beauty onely but likewise its force and life so is it in all humane Societies which are called Bodies onely by similitude Their being and their excellence depends upon the union of the members whereof they are composed We see Kingdomes and States flourish while the Subjects are united and knit together with the lovely bond of concord but straight crumble to nothing when dissension separates them each from other And among all the evils that afflict them there is none so pernicious as division which strikes at the very foundation of their being and poisons the originall of their life and strength So that to kindle sedition and sow faction by breaking the peace of Subjects is questionlesse the highest crime that any man can commit against a State So then the Church being the heavenly Kingdome and everlasting State of Christ Jesus the most admirable of all the Societies that ever have been either seen or sancied in the Universe We must needs conclude That by proportion their crime who trouble and disturb it so farre especially as to rend away from the Body any of its parts is the blackest of all crimes whatsoever Thus farre we all agree Nor are any ready to speak ought further in behalf of union or against division which we are not ready to signe and consent unto desiring still if possible to outbid any for unity CHAP. III. That it is sometimes lawfull to separate from a Company of men professing Christianitie BUt though union be a very great good and division an extreme mischief it followeth not thence That it is not sometimes permitted us to separate in some sort from some Societies who make profession of serving God Indeed how can it but be so in a schole that is full of precepts and examples to that purpose in a schole wherein we are commanded to reject a man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition Tit. iii. 10. to exclude them out of our houses and to esteem them not fit to be greeted who bring us any other doctrine then that of Jesus Christ 2 John x. to abhorre the Apostles nay even
Angels and to avoid them as cursed and excommunicated persons if they should take the boldnesse to preach ought else but that Gospel which is already delivered Gal. i. 8 9. To depart straight out of Babylon and not to be kept in there lest we partake at once of her sinnes and plagues Revel xviii 4. In a schole where those of Ephesus are commended for having hated the Nicolaitans and those of Pergamus blamed for having tolerated their doctrine Rev. ii 6 15. In a schole where even at the beginning the children of the Church had continually so much care to separate from the communion of hereticks as Samosatenians Arians and others Who seeth not that according to this discipline it is sometimes not lawfull onely but even necessary to separate from some Societies that make profession of Christianitie and that in this case we must blame not generally and simply all that make a separation but those onely who make it either lightly and without reason or unjustly and without necessity The matter seems sufficiently cleare For since the conservation of such things as are united is the end of union 'T is evident that we are not to entertain any union but onely with them who may help forward that designe and so farre onely as they may help it forward If therefore there be any who under colour of the blessed name of Christ subvert His doctrine annihilate His authority and our salvation 't is so far from being our duty to unite our selves to them that on the contrary we are obliged to part from them because to unite with them were in effect to disunite from Christ and from His body and in stead of coming to salvation to fall into eternal ruine If in a State a City or Province should oblige those that live within it to perform actions that are contrary to the Majestie and service of the Soveraigne the loyal inhabitants may thereupon separate themselves and even oppose and resist the rebels with all their power if occasion be offered For 't is a law generally engraven by nature in all parts of the Universe even in insensible creatures That every thing seeks after the company of that which is like it and with equal violence avoids to be near or have any thing to do with that which is contrary to it So then both the discipline of Jesus Christ and the lawes of Civil societies and even those of nature her self permit us to avoid the communion of such as under any pretence name or colour whatsoever go about to destroy and ruine Christianity What did I say that they permit us nay they command it so expresly that we cannot refrain from such separations without offending God scandalizing our neighbours and destroying our selves And though this be a truth received among all Christians yet there is no Society or company of them wherein it is more strictly and more severely practised then among those against whom we now dispute For who knows not with what rigour Rome hath continually rejected the Communion of those who dissent from her In the infancy of Christianitie she anathematized the Churches of Asia for a matter of nothing viz. because they celebrated Easter otherwise then she and in these later dayes how hath she persecuted with fire and sword all those that would venture never so little to oppose her power and greatnesse How many ages have passed over her head since she broke with the Eastern Northern and Southern Churches with which notwithstanding she boasteth much of her having so great conformity of belief and service So nice is she and delicate in this point that we have seen not long ago the chiefest of her Monks the most exquisite of her Religious Orders fly off and separate from the State of Venice and renounce there her Churches and Altars where all the Articles of her faith were dayly publisht where all her devotions and services were continually celebrated onely upon pretence That this wise Commonwealth would not endure that Pope Paul the fift should bereave her of the power she had to make and execute lawes for the government of her subjects So that if separation simply be a crime who seeth not that our Adversaries are faulty too and consequently are not to be admitted to bring in the accusation against us CHAP. IV. That our Separation from Rome was not made rashly willingly or unnecessarily Object BUt they 'l say that They had reason to do so and that We have none Ans So then now we come to the businesse viz. To examine the causes of our separation before sentence be given against it Let us I beseech you leave the odious words of division and schisme and apply them to none but such to whom we shall find they appertain For if we have not had any important cause of our separation from the Church of Rome if she have not required any thing of us which destroys our faith offends our consciences and overthrows the service which we believe due to God If the differences between us have been small and such as we might safely have yeilded unto Then I 'le grant That men may call our Ancestours Schismaticks may condemn their separation to be rash and unjust and may impute to them all the sad disasters and scandals that have attended that action Bâ—t if they were urged to believe and pressed to do a thousand things contrary to their faith and to their conscience if onely for not doing them they were declared Hereticks enemies to J. Christ and his Church if they were deemed unworthy even of the honours or possessions yea even of that life it self which is enjoyed in this world who doth not see That they deserve the pity of men in stead of their hate and That their withdrawing themselves from people who have Treated them in this manner was just lawfull and necessary according to all the laws of heaven and earth Now it is very apparent that they were forced to make this separation for reasons which they in their consciences judged to be very great and important For excepting the motives of conscience all other considerations evidently obliged them to the contrary In separating from the Church of Rome they pluckt upon themselves all the disfavours of the world they incurred the indignation of their Magistrates the hatred of their Countreymen they exposed themselves to the losse of their goods their honours their friends their very countrey nay all that is sweet neare or deare unto them in this life and to the suffering of poverty ignominy banishment tortures and all imaginable punishments Who can believe that men who had the use of sense and reason as well as their neighbours should ever choose with chearfulnesse where there is no necessity to embrace such a side And though they had been so blind as not to have foreseen that such would be the event of their designe which yet is not a jot probable how should We come to have so little experience as
not to discern the danger We who follow their steps and have seen the whole world in a conspiracy for to reduce them with all possible force and artifice from this separation and to reunite us to Rome One must needs think then that both our Ancestours and We were carried on to this motion so apparently contrary to our own good and welfare by some very strong reason that forced us as it were against our wills to sleight what ever is naturally desirable and in stead of enjoying that to suffer what we are wont to dread which certainly can be no lesse then a strange fantasticalnesse and a silly opinionative humour which should make us take a delight in running counter to others as some without any appearance of reason are pleased to imagine I heartily wish it were in our power to accommodate our selves in this particular with a good conscience to the customes and Services of our Countreymen whose friendship We know very well how much we ought to value and how highly to prize the good favour of those Princes whom God hath set over us especially rather then to displease them needlesly in a matter of such high importance and which they affect with so much passion according to the great and singular devotion which they bear towards those things that they esteem divine We behold likewise and grieve to behold the disorders that this diversitie in Christianitie breeds and the extreme scandal that it gives to Infidels and such as are weak in faith And what ever others say We are not thanks be to God such enemies to His glory and the salvation of mankind as not be as sensible of these dolefull emergencies as of ought that most concerns our temporall good and private interests CHAP. V. Reasons of our Separation from Rome founded upon the diversitie of our Beliefs Object BUt you 'l say If it be thus how can you possibly passe over these considerations your selves which you pretend to think so important why do you not follow them whither they would lead you Seeing you desire the favour of Princes the love of your Countreymen a peaceable and settled condition seeing you would gladly promote the glory of God and the edification of men and do really abhorre the scandal of this disunion why are ye not again reconciled to the Romane Church she opens her arms wide unto you and is not so stiff and rigorous as you seem to apprehend her but for to gain you is willing to yield to some Accommodation and in favour of you to mitigate some of those things that offend you most What I pray is there so strange in her doctrine or in her service that should cause you to forsake her communion to avoid the ancient Churches and Religion of our Fathers to renounce the ordinary publick assemblies of Christian people to sever from all the rest of the world and to suffer all sorts of extremities Our Church adores the same JESVS CHRIST whom you professe to be the Prince and Authour of your Religion She confesseth the unity of His person and the veritie of His two natures She believes Him to be God eternal of the same substance with the Father and with the Holy Ghost and likewise man made in time of the flesh of the blessed Virgin like to us in all things sinne onely excepted truly Immanuel as the ancient Prophesies foretold She acknowledges the truth benefit and necessity of his sufferings and preacheth even as you That His bloud expiated the crimes of mankind That the freedome and salvation of the world is the fruit of His death She exalteth His glory and believes That He sits at the right hand of God in heaven and That He shall come in the last day to judge the world and she hopes after the renovation of this world for a blessed immortality through his grace in one to come She gives to her children baptisme which Christ did institute and refreshes them with His Eucharist and recommends to them piety toward Him and charity toward men She reverenceth the Gospels and the Epistles of the Apostles as books divinely inspired And if there be any other Article in the discipline of our Lord she receiveth and embraceth it as well as you and curseth the names and memory of those who have gone about to overthrow or shake them whether in former or latter ages Ans The truth is We neither can nor will denie that the Church of Rome doth at this day believe all these holy truths We thank our gracious Lord that she hath preserved them through so many ages midst so many disorders But we would to God That she had been as carefull of not adding as of not diminishing That she had foisted in nothing of her own but permitted us to content our selves with that which sufficed the Primitive Christians to bring them to salvation For had she kept within those bounds neither our Fathers nor We had ever had any cause of withdrawing from her Communion We had then sworn to her opinions and performed her service without any scruple finding abundantly in this brief but full and admirably complete rule of wisdome enough to replenish our faith and season our manners understandings and wills with all perfections necessary for attaining to that Soveraigne Happinesse which both you and We naturally desire But who knows not That to the aforesaid divine Articles clearly expressed in the Holy Scriptures authentically preach'd and founded by the Apostles uniformly believed and confessed by Christians of all places and ages Rome hath added divers others which she presseth equally with them forcing all those of her communion to receive them with the same faith as they do those aforesaid thundring out horrible anathemaes against all them that doubt of them and using for the ruine of such all the power and credit that she hath whether in the Church or in the world For besides J. Christ whom she acknowledgeth with us to be the Mediatour of mankind the High-Priest and chief Soveraigne of the Church she would have us hold the Saints departed to be our Mediatours and her Priests our Sacrificers and her Pope to be the Head and Husband of the Church Besides the sacrifice of the Crosse she forceth upon us that of the Altar Besides the bloud of Christ she commands us to expect our cleansing from the sufferings of Martyrs and from the vertue of a certain fire which she hath kindled under ground Besides the water of Baptisme and the refection of the Eucharist she presseth us to receive unction with oyles and the mysteries of her private Confessions Besides the Great God whom she adores and prayes to as we do she commandeth us to adore the holy Sacrament to invocate Angels and beatified Spirits Besides that service of the Gospel wherein she agreeth with us she imposeth upon us divers ceremonies abstaining from meats distinction of times veneration of images Besides the H. Scriptures which are divinely inspired which she confesseth with
foundation of faith and obliging men to separate and the other not That the opinions of the Church of Rome which we reject are of the first sort and those of the Lutherans of the second Object BUt you 'l say Is it lawfull then to separate from a Church because it preacheth publickly and generally some Doctrine which is contrary to our belief Is it possible that our Soveraign Lord who would have us to beare with the ill manners and actions of men for the good that peace unity brings to a Community should permit us to separate from them for false opinions Suppose that Rome have added somewhat to those things which Christ and his Apostles laid down Yet what need had your Fathers to depart from her so farre This Spirit of concord you speak of which obliged them as you grant to suffer the faults in their neighbours lives how chance it did not make them beare with some in their faith Ans Because there is in this respect an extreme difference between faults in doctrine and in life the first drawing after them a consequence farre differing from that of the latter because that the Church propounds unto us not Her life but Her doctrine to be the rule of our faith and manners Yet which we Protestants confesse all errours in doctrine do not give a man a just and sufficient cause to make a division from those that hold them For the Apostle commands us to receive him that is weak in the faith Rom. xiv 1. and not to trouble him with disputes and to afford him our selves for an example in bearing gently with those who are not of our mind in every thing Let us all who are perfect saith he be of the same mind and if any of you think otherwise God shall reveal even this unto him Phil. iii. 15. 'T is evident that this weaknesse in faith and this diversitie in opinon whereof S. Paul speaketh are errours but such as he would have us beare with Yet since he elsewhere pronounceth anathema against those that preach any other Gospel then that which he preached we must of necessitie conclude that there are two sorts of errours in religion the one such as a man may beare with without dividing from them who hold them and the other such for which he is bound to avoid their communion and this difference dependeth upon the nature of errours themselves For as the truths which we are to believe are not all of equall importance some being esteemed fundamentall and so absolutely requisite that a man cannot come to the kingdome of heaven if he be ignorant of them others being profitable yet not so necessary but that a man may without the knowledge of them serve God and enjoy salvation so it is with errours Some are pernicious and no way consistent with a true piety others are lesse hurtfull and do not necessarily draw in men to perdition S. Paul doth clearly enough discover to us this distinction 1 Cor. iii. 13 15. where after he had said That none could lay any other foundation but that which he had laid to wit Jesus Christ he addeth That they who builded upon this foundation wood hay stubble should have losse in their work when it comes to be tried neverthelesse they should be saved yet so as by fire that is to say with difficulty their person onely or that wherein their chief good consisted escaping a burning An evident signe that there be errours which do not deprive the Authours thereof of salvation much lesse exclude such from happinesse as believe them after Them and take them up when they are dead or gone meerly upon their trust and credit And to conclude who doth not see plainly That there be errours which utterly overthrow the foundations of Christianity ingaging us unavoidably in such things as are inconsistent with salvation and that there be others which do not so As for example if one should think that he were bound to worship the Sunne For seeing the Sunne is a creature and those who worship creatures have no portion in the kingdome of heaven 'T is evident that he who hath such an opinion cannot attain eternal happinesse And 't is so with all other errours which overthrow any of the first necessary and fundamentall articles of Christian religion But the errour of those who believed of old That the Church shall continue a thousand yeares or some long time with J. Christ upon earth after the resurrection is no way repugnant to piety towards God or charity towards our Neighbour nor doth it directly overthrow any of the foundations of the Gospel Though it be in my opinion contrary to divers passages of S. Paul and scarce consonant to the nature of Christs Kingdome A man would scarce believe how necessary it is to mark this difference among the errours of men in matters of religion for preventing that vain scrupulositie and importunate pensivenesse which many melancholy spirits are troubled with who condemne all errours alike and thunder out one and the same anathema against what ever differs though never so little from their apprehensions yet for keeping them from falling on the other side into the indifferencie of profane persons who conform to any thing and swallow a camel as well as a gnat Indeed the true pious person will endeavour to keep himself from all errour and will purge his neighbour too as well as himself so farre as he is able For any deviation from truth though it may be a light and small errour yet 't is an errour that is to say an ignorance and contradiction to the truth and by consequence an evil But a man must be very diligent and circumspect in observing this distinction among errours and acknowledge that one is much more dangerous then another and he should more or lesse abhorre them all according as he shall judge them to be more or lesse dangerous If they be of the first rank viz. those which overthrow the foundations of Christianitie he will bestirre himself with all possible prudence and dexteritie according to his vocation and gifts to free his neighbour from them and if he cannot gain upon him he will yet be sure to save and deliver his own soul from the communion of such as hold them This was the practise of the Faithfull in reference to Paulus Samosatensis Bishop of Antioch and Arius a Priest of Alexandria who held that Jesus Christ was a meer creature throwing down Christianitie from top to bottome by this abominable doctrine But if the errour be of a second sort not pernicious nor inconsistent with the principles of our faith we should do well if we could handsomely to free our brethren from it for it were to be wisht that we might be entirely exempt from errour but if we cannot get out we must not therefore straight sever from them but gently and quietly beare with what we cannot alter yet so that we prejudice not any mans salvation much lesse
before the Host For I have sufficiently shown before that this is the true cleare and precise signification of that action and others like it and he that will interpret them otherwise must overthrow the laws and communion of all civil and Religious Societies among men And to partake of such actions against our consciences is not onely an offence against God but likewise a most cruell outrage and scandall against our Neighbours For first one cannot abuse a man or mock him in a serious businesse without deeply violating the holy and respective charity which we owe to a creature that beareth the image of our Lord and hath the same nature that we are of And I do not see how one can more apparently mock his neighbours then by making shew of adoring that which they serve and approving their devotion as good and usefull to salvation and yet to believe nothing lesse and in our consciences to hold that to be a mere creature which they adore and the honour which they give it to be an unlawfull service and unpleasing to the true God What greater affront can men possibly put upon them than thus to abuse and sport with them questionlesse did they discern through the mask under which we hide our selves the thoughts of our hearts and the gullery that we put upon them when we present our selves to them in this false visage they would extremely abhorre us for brazen faced Couseners Did we disguise our selves thus for their good or did not our dissembling doe them a mischief they would have lesse reason to complain But 't is quite otherwise This our vain dissimulation and fond conceit is a very great scandall to them This masking and disguising our selves is to assassinate and destroy them For do you not by exercising the acts and services of Superstition in their presence plainly embolden or as S. Paul phraseth it 1 Cor. viii 10. edifie them in it Is not this to recommend the same things to them by your example and effectually to preach to them the belief and practise of them For example when you are prostrate before the Host of the church of Rome doth not your action authorize their belief do not you thereby warrant them to be more confident in it You tell them in a language that is dumbe indeed but yet more intelligible cleare and significative then all the words which you can use in this subject That this Host is not at all a creature That it is the Creatour and Redeemer of the world That we should adore it and give it the same honour which is due to the Soveraign Deity This and such language as this doth your action speak to your Neighbours nor can they otherwise read or understand what is the sense and meaning of your heart Seeing then that in your conscience you firmly believe that this Host is but a plain creature do you not see how you perswade them to adore a creature which is a pernicious and dangerous errour as I have shewed above You lay before them that which you esteem mortall poyson and seem to take of it your self that you may make them confidently swallow it down which is the most hurtfull and detestable treachery in the world Now if those who poyson the bodies of men are deservedly reckoned amongst the most abominable malefactours consider how great the horrour of your crime is who plunge not their bodies onely but as much as in you lyeth their souls also into that which is in your judgement a dangerous and deadly poyson And if he who offendeth the least of Believers never so little deserveth a rigorous punishment and one more grievous then to be thrown alive into the bottome of the sea as our Lord saith expresly Matt. xviii 6. what thunderbolts and hells shall he be thought worthy of who casts so enormous a scandall before all the congregation And if those who through errour mistake a creature for a Deity are neverthelesse inexcusable as we have proved before what pardon can you expect who knowing well that this is a creature cease not to prostrate your selves before it For the Lord protesteth that the servant who knoweth his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with more stripes than he who doth it not because he knew it not Luke 11. 47. And common reason teacheth us that it is a very equitable sentence and determination Seeing then that the fault of those who outwardly practise the services which they hold in their consciences to be false and unlawfull is so many wayes contrary both to our piety toward God and our charity toward men let none think it strange That our Lord condemneth them with an eternall curse who are so mischievous as to commit it For should He do otherwise He would forget his own nature and rob Himself of all those properties wherewith the H. Scriptures invest Him He would be no longer the Father of truth if He left a lie unpunished He would not be zealous of His glory if He did not avenge so evident an affront Finally He would not be the Prince Protectour of mankind if He did not condemne those to the greatest punishments who do so insolently and cruelly abuse poor men And now let every equitable person judge whether it be possible for Us in any manner to prostrate our selves before the Host of the Church of Rome to deck our houses against it passe by and to do other the like actions instituted to the honour of it believing as thanks be to God we do that it is a plain inanimate creature and not as some pretend our Soveraign Lord and God and whether we are not obliged by all the rules of Christs Doctrine rather to suffer most grievous extremities then to comply with what the Church of Rome requireth of us in this particular Indeed if it were lawfull to lie sometimes and outwardly to witnesse any thing contrary to what we believe in our hearts or to make profession of taking from our Lord the glory due to Him alone to give it to a creature or finally to abuse men and induce them to be confirmed in a belief of that which we esteem pernicious and destructive to their souls If I say it were at any time lawfull for us to doe any of these things for fear of separating from our countreymen I confesse that we should doe amisse in refusing to perform the honour which Rome commandeth us to her Sacrament But if all Laws divine and humane for the most part command us under pain of damnation rather not to fear undergoing all sorts of mischiefs then to fall into any one of these faults 't is evident that having the belief which we have of the Eucharist in the Church of Rome we cannot perform those services thereto which they require of us without incurring the anger of God and destruction of our own souls So that if there were no other difference between them and us but this alone it were