he that telleth the number of the stars will not learn of man how to number his own Commandements Wherefore if our number disagree from his we shall not only have a false piece of Arithmetick in the numerus numerans in the number numbering but we shall also have a false piece of Divinity in the numerus numeratus in the number numbered For we shall call that First which God calls Second there is the false Arithmitick and we shall make that nothing which God hath made a Commandement or make that two which God hath made but one there is the false Divinity Therefore as we may not leave Gods own hand-writing to consult with the Church about the number of the Commandements whether there be Ten or no so neither may we leave it to consult about the number of the Commandements in each Table whether three or four in the first for God hath said four whether six or seven in the second Table for God hath said six And what God hath made his Determination the Church of God may not make her Consultation It is the doctrine of your own Casuist Reginald in praxi fori Poenit. lib. 13. c. 15. Ut omnia rerum genera ad decem summa reducuntur sic omnia praecepta moralia ad decem praecipua quae Decalogum constituunt ex quorum etiam distinctione sicut res ex distinctione summorum generum inter se distinguuntur As all things which have a natural being are reduced to the Ten Predicaments So all things that have a moral being are reduced to the Ten Commandements And as natural entities are distinguished by the Ten Predicaments so moral entities are distinguished by the Ten Commandements So that the Ten Commandements are as it were the Ten Predicaments or general heads in Divinity to which all moral Duties are to be reduced by which they are to be examined from which they are to be Practised And therefore as he would shew himself no good Logician who should expunge or confound any one of the ten Predicaments because that were to disturb the order of nature so he would shew himself no good Divine who should either expunge or confound any one of the Ten Commandements because that were to disturb the order of Grace The one would bring Babel upon our natural the other upon our spiritual inheritance The one would confound us in regard of earth the other in regard of heaven The one would confound us as men the other would confound us as Christians which is infinitely the more dreadful and the more damnable confusion Therefore we must needs say and believe That there is a much greater necessity of distinct entities in morals then in naturals because there is a much greater necessity that we should exactly know our Duties then that we should exactly know our estates or habilements That we should know our God then that we should know the world And consequently any true Christian Church which teacheth us in morals must much more abhor to confound a â—…ommandement for fear she should perplex us in our Religion then the most careful Tutor that teacheth us in naturals canabhor to confound a Predicament for fear he should perplex us in our learning For there is no such desperate perplexity as that of Conscience and no such damnable confusion as that of Religion and God hath ordained and commanded his Church to prevent and to redress not to create or to continue either such perplexities or such confusions And a late faction in your Church by either expunging or abridging the second Commandement for in some Catechisms it is expunged in others it is abridged for fear if it were read out all at length it should either stagger the people by the plainness of its Prohibition or else awake and frighten them by the terribleness of its commination have brought two great absurdities upon the outward Profession of your Religion which I may not be ashamed to name whiles you are not afraid to practise First that in this point it is less certain then was the Religion of the Jews for they had no confusion in their principles concerning the outward worship of God as you have and where is confusion there must be uncertainty Secondly that in this respect it is more scandalous and offensive then was sometime the Religion of the Heathen For Numa would not allow any image to be made of God saith Plutarch in his life because he was a mind invisible and therefore neither to be represented nor worshipped by any image But you will needs both represent and worship him by images Why should any Christians do that against the Law of God which some Heathen would not do against the Law of nature For if the Gentiles which had not the Law doing by nature the things contained in the Law were a Law unto themselves and shewed the work of the Law written in their hearts by abstaining from so gross Idolatry what can be said in excuse of those Christians who have the same Law of nature as fully written in their hearts and more fully written in the Holy Scriptures yet will not do by Grace the things contained in the Law nor shew the work of the Law written in their hearts and in their Bibles but will needs be a Law unto themselves against the Law of God and nature that they may be and continue most gross Idolaters I could wish with all my soul that the question were impertinently asked because I fear it cannot be substantially answered and if it may stand good without an answer it will not only be a most harsh question but also a most heavy accusation Secondly this reckoning the First and Second but as one Commandement is also against accidental Catholicism that is to say against the Profession of a Divine Truth universally taught in the Church of God by the Jews and by the Christians both before and after Saint Augustines daies For the Jews Church we have the testimony of Josephus who lib. 3. Antiq. cap. 4. hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first Commandement teacheth us There is but one God and that we must worship him alone The second commandeth us not to worship him by any image For the Christian Church we have generally the Testimony of all the Fathers before Saint Augustine and of all the writers after him till the Schoolmen and we have his too as to the force and vertue of the second Commandement though not as to the place and order of it I will cite but some few 1. Origene in his 8. homily upon Exodus speaking of the first and second Commandements saith That some would have them both go but for one but he altogether dislikes their opinion and thus confutes it Quod si ita putetur non complebitur decem numerus mandatorum ubi jam erit Decalogi veritas If we reckon so we shall not have the full number of Ten Commandements and where then will be the truth
that your Priests are convinced of their Idolatry in worshipping of Images because they are so willing to shuffle off the second Commandement which forbids it least that should also convince the common people wherein a late German Bishop and Clergy of yours shewed too much fraud to be accounted men of conscience and too little Art to be accounted men of cunning for commanding that the Lords Prayer the Angelical salutation the Creed and Ten Commandements should be distinctly and leisurably repeated in the German tongue every Lords day by the Parish Priests that the people might be able to repeat understand and learn them Distinctè ac tractatim ut populus legentem repetitione subsequi ea discere memoriae mandare possit Synod Augustensis cap. 25. yet left not so much as any blind footsteps of the second Commandement in their German translation which they appointed the Priests to read There was little conscience in leaving out one of Gods Commandements and as little cunning in commanding the Parish Priests to read them All when they themselves had left out One for they could not think by their false copy which quite left out the second Commandement and called the third the second to blind their Priests though they did think by it to blind the people They would be thought very zealous in teaching those committed to their charge all the Fundamentals of salvation yet purposely concealed one main practical fundamental because they had formerly mis-taught or at least mispractised the same finding it more agreeable with their honour though less with their honesty to let the people continue still in ignorance then to recall their own errour The like was the tender care and conscience of your Trent Fathers to instruct the people in their prayers Sess. 22. cap. 8. Etsi Missa magnam contineat populi fidelis eruditionem non tamen expedire visum est Patribus ut vulgari linguâ passim celebraretur Ne tamen oves Christi esuriant Pastores frequenter aliquid in Missâ exponant Though the Mass contain in it very great and necessary instructions for faithful people yet we do not think fit to put it in a language they can understand notwithstanding least Christs sheep should be bunger-starved the Pastors are required often to expound some parts of it A great seeming Fatherly care of souls to fear they might perish for want of food but no Fatherly kindness nor resolution rather to let them perish then make them able to feed themselves But the cause was the same in both The peoples ignorance was to keep them in their sinful obedience For the less they knew the more they would obey in things so plainly against the Law of God Therefore these two Synods had rather the common people should worship God without their Reason then with their Conscience though they could not worship as men without their Reason nor as Christians but with their Conscience But so it is Reason and Conscience must both be laid aside or lulled asleep when men are to act upon false Principles as in this particular The Commandment was to be thrown down that the Images might be kâ—…pt up For that is so plain in its Prohibition and so powerful in its Commination that if the people had understood it they would not have committed so gross Idolatry or would full soon have become very penitent Idolators And good reason for Images are but a relick of Paganism Ex Gentili consuetudine as saith Eusibius Hist. Eccles. lib. 7. cap. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of a Paganish custom and therefore long kept out of the Churches of Christians and longer kept out of their Religion though now they so abound in your Churches and Religion as if you meant that even in your most populous Cities these your new Gods should exceed and out-vie the number of their worshippers so that I might justly hint at your pictures and Images all my fault was I did only hint at them I will now make some part of amends and down-right strike at them though by other mens hands not mine own For in this case I have the primest Champions of Christendom to prove that Images were long kept out of the Churches of Christians and longer kept out of their Religion and either of these is enough to break them in pieces 16. First that Images were long kept out of the Churches of Christians and for this we have the testimony of Epiphanius for the Greek and of Saint Hierom for the Latine Church both in one Epistle to John of Hierusalem which was indicted or composed by Epiphanius translated and approved by Saint Hierom. The testimony is in these words Cùm ergo hoc vidissem in Ecclesiâ Christi contra authoritatem Scripturarum hominis pendere Imaginem scidi illud magis dedi consilum custodibus ejusdem loci ut pauperem mortuum eo obvolverent efferent Precor ut jubeas Presbyteros ejusdem loci deinceps praecipere in Ecclesiâ Christi ejusmodi vela quae contra Religionem nostram veniunt non appendi The story is this Epiphanius going to say his prayers in a Church at Anabaltha there spied a vail or curtain which had in it the picture of Christ or of some Saint at which he was so offended That he cut down the said veil or curtain and wished the Keepers of the Church to bury a dead man therewith alledging it was against the authority of the holy Scriptures and the purity of Christian Religion that such Images should be set up in Churches and desiring the Bishop of Hierusalem in whose Diocess it was to require the Clergy there to admit no more such pictures or images into that Church Contra authoritatem Scripturarum contra Religionem nostram No Christian Bishop can have stronger arguments or rather adjurations either for the casting out or the keeping out of Images from his Church then that the retaining or the receiving of them is against the authority of the Scriptures the custom of the Church and the conscience of Religion All which are here alledged by Epiphanius For he that saith Contra Religionem nostram against our Religion doth appeal to the custom of Christians as well as to the conscience of Christianity And this quotation is such a Gordian not to your Cardinal that after all his pains to loosen and untie it at last Alexander like he cuts it off saying Verior solutio haec verba esse supposititia Bell. lib. 2. de sanct cap. 9. The truest answer is The words are supposititious But words entailed upon the Church for so many hundred years together are not so easily cut off The same Authority had before troubled Waldensis yet he denies not the truth of the story only saith That Epiphanius did this thing in hatred of the Anthropomorphites and out of zeal not according to knowledge Wald. de Sacramental Tit. 19. c. 157. So likewise Alphonsus a Castro lib. de Haer. voce Imago denies not the
a matter of right that is by his orderly power according to the Laws when the Law according to which a man is to act righteously is not in the power of the Agent then by acting according to his absolute power he acts disorderly and not righteously for being subject to a Law he is bound to act according to that Law But when the Law and the Righteousness of the Law is in the power of the Agent such an Agent may act orderly and righteously and yet act otherwise then according to the dictate of that Law because he is not subject to that Law and so his absolute power is not disorderly To apply this to our present case The Church is this free Agent in the exercise of Religion and having a Law given her to act by she may not act therein by an absolute power either besides or against that Law given her but by an orderly power according to it For being subject to the Law of Religion she is bound in the exercise of Religion to act according to that Law For there only the Agent may act orderly and righteously not according to the dictate of Law where the Law and the righteousness of the Law is in his own power So that either we must say That the Law and the righteousness of Religion is under the Power and Authority of the Church or we must confine the Church in the exercise of Religion to act according to the Law of God And therefore though your wit learning and numbers may invite you to that unsufferable insolency of seeking to domineer over other mens reasons yet pray let your own hearts and consciences deter you from that unpardonable impiety of seeking to domineer over Gods Commandements For what his Law hath made sin your practice cannot make righteousness what he hath made irreligion you cannot make Religion though you were as you say you are but shew you are not his Catholick Church For the Church is to depend upon God much more then the People are to depend upon the Church not only for the substance but also for the exercise of Religion Gods commands must be obyed for the substance of Religion according to the three first Commandements for the order and exercise of Religion according to the fourth Invocations Adorations Confessions Consecrations all must be for the honour of God for he only is named in the Commandements that require them that the Church may not make a Schism from God in the substance and in the exercise of Religion And then we must all with one heart and mouth unanimously and magnanimously joyn together in the defence and obedience of such Invocations Adorations Confessions and Consecrations That the people may not make a Schism from the Church in the outward Profession and Practice of Religion The Laws of the first Table are not only in the order of place or situation but also in the very order of nature and of Justice before the Laws of the second Table God must first have his right before the Church can lay claim to hers As in the Creed we are first taught to believe in God and after that to believe the holy Catholick Church so in the Decalogue it is first said Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve and after that Honour thy Father and thy Mother This Protestation was under Moses his hand before it was in the Apostles mouthes We ought to obey God rather then man Acts 5. 29. And this Protestation alone will justifie all Protestants to the worlds end that shall depart from your Church in those points of Religion wherein you have plainly and palpably departed from the Law of God For God first requires Verity iâ—… the Religion before he requires Unity in the Communion of his Church and after these and for these he requireth obedience to her Authority She is first holy by her Verity then Catholick by her Unity That Church that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sub 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our mother in the Lord by her Authority This we believe in believing the holy Catholick Church And according to the method of our faith must be the method of our obedience First obeying the Churches Verity then her Unity then her Authority For God founded the Religion before he founded the Communion as he founded the Communion before he founded the Authority of his Church at least according to the Priority of nature though not of time For he founded the Religion of his Church in the three first Commandements The Communion of his Church in the fourth and the Authority of his Church in the fifth Commandement So that Gods Church hath in truth a threefold foundation one in respect of her Religion another in respect of her Communion a third in respect of her Authority The first concerneth the Being the second the well-Being the third the splendid Being of the Church In regard of the first The Church is the pillar and ground of True worship in regard of the second she is the Pillar and ground of solemn or of publick worship in regard of the third she is the Pillar and ground of orderly or uniform worship First we have Truth in the service of God from her Religion Then solemnity from her Communion Then Uniformity from her Command These are the inestimable blessings God hath conveyed unto this wicked world by his Catholick Church and by every particular member thereof if we consider the goodness of God in offering these blessings rather then the wickedness of men in rejecting his offers or in abusing his goodness For by Gods holy appointment and institution his Church in every Nation is intrinsically Catholick from her Religion extrinsecally Catholick from her Communion and potentially Catholick from her Authority and 't is only by mens perversness and undutifulness That she loseth her Potential whiles she retaineth her intrinsecal and extrinsâ—…cal Catholicism For having her Religion according to the three first and having her Communion according to the fourth she ought also to have her Authority according to the fift Commandement But if she forsake her Religion or corrupt her Communion she cannot justly claim her authority if it be denied and doth unjustly use it if it be granted for she useth it against the honour and glory of Gods and for the distraction and the destruction of men whereas St. Paul saith expresly concerning his own and the Authority of all the other Apostles for he saith our authority which the Lord hath given us that it was only for edification not for destruction 2 Cor. 10. 8. and having said this for the Apostles themselves He hath much more said it for their successors Let it be granted which cannot reasonably be denied That every Christian Priest-hood or Ministry is the grand Apostle of that Nation wherein is an Apostolical Church I hope you will say the Apostle ought to be true to his God no less then the People ought to be true to