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A81350 An apologie for the Reformed churches wherein is shew'd the necessitie of their separation from the Church of Rome: against those who accuse them of making a schisme in Christendome. By John Daille pastor of the Reformed Church at Paris. Translated out of French. And a preface added; containing the judgement of an university-man, concerning Mr. Knot's last book against Mr. Chillingworth. Daillé, Jean, 1594-1670.; Smith, Thomas, 1623 or 4-1661. 1653 (1653) Wing D113; Thomason E1471_4; ESTC R208710 101,153 145

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not the same pace that is to say who deal not roundly and plainly with him As for such sly people as would halt with Him and walk awry between Him and the world and varnish over their loosenesse with false and artificiall excuses He surprizeth them in their pretended subtilties leaving them with those whose marks and badges they have accepted of contrary to the judgement of their own consciences There was doubtlesse among the Israelites of old during the corruptions that Ahaz and Jezabel brought into Religion great store of persons who overcome with their tyrannicall threats did bow their knees to Baal sore against their wills and in their hearts detested those idols which through fear they were driven to adore some who comforted themselves with a vain imagination that they might bow indeed to the Idol with their bodies but keep their souls for God and so inwardly addressing to Him all their veneration they should not deserve either the name or punishment of idolaters Notwithstanding the Lord not regarding this excuse excludeth them from the number of His servants counting none for His but onely such as had not bowed their knees to Baal I have left me saith he Rom. xi 4. 1. Kings xix 18. seven thousand in Israel to wit all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal and every mouth which hath not kissed him And then who would not take the rest who did fall before the images of Baal or did kisse them or salute them if not for idolaters or hypocrites yet for such in a word as God rejected from his communion Long time before this while the Israelites were yet in the wildernesse where they cast a golden calf we cannot imagine they were so brutish as to believe That that image which they then cast was truly and really the God which brought them out of the land of Egypt before it was in the world All the circumstances of the fact induce us to say That they took it onely for a visible symbol of the Divinity which should be to them in stead of Moses who they thought was lost so that they should have addressed to God the honours which they gave to that image But because such services were now become the ordinary mark of idolatry over all the land of Egypt where they lived God without having regard to that which they might have said was in their intentions handleth them and punisheth them Exod. xxxii as being truly and indeed idolaters for so they are called by S. Paul where he recordeth their fault 1 Cor. x. 7. And that divine Apostle in the same place is so far from permitting us under any pretence whatsoever to do any of those actions whereby superstitious men use to testifie their devotion to that which they serve as prostration before the subject which they adore that he forbids the Corinthians 1 Cor. x. 19 20 21. to eat the flesh of those living creatures which they knew to have been sacrificed to idols and this under perill of rendring themselves in so doing partakers of devils and of their Altars and of depriving themselves of the Table of the Lord and of his Communion Was it because the Christians who eat of such meats had in so doing an intention to honour Demons or Idols In no wise They eat simply of it for the refection of their bodies as they would have eaten of other meats if they had been at hand Yet because the idolaters esteemed them sacred and sanctified by the altars of their false Divinities and because eating at their feasts was an action which in the common use signified that one had them in esteem and veneration or at least that one did not think That the service which they used was impure and unlawfull the H. Apostle would not suffer Believers to eat as idolaters did But you will say I do it not to be sanctified thereby I will in this repast addresse my thoughts praises and blessings not as the infidels do to Idols upon altars whereon they lay their viands but to God our onely true Creatour and Preserver No saith the Apostle I would not have you be partakers of Devils I know well enough that an Idol is nothing I know well too that you take it to be what it is But what ever your opinion be concerning it you cannot exercise those actions which are the ordinary symboles of honour that idolaters render thereto without defiling and rendring you unworthy of the Cup and Table of the Lord. And 't is observable That entring upon this businesse he useth this preface Finally my dearly beloved flee from idolatry● 1 Cor. x. 14. clearly intimating thereby that he held all them guilty of idolatry who with any heart or mind whatsoever exercised any of those actions which in the common use of idolaters signified the honour which they bore to that which they served And therefore what can become of such people unlesse they prevent the day of the Lord by a serious repentance since there is no sinne against which the Scripture threatneth a more horrible damnation then against this of idolatry But lest they should sooth up themselves with an opinion that they are not idolaters it denounceth against them elsewhere the same judgement but gives them a name which agreeth to them so properly as they will not know how to disavow it Rev. xxi 8. As for the fearfull and unbelieving and the abominable and murtherers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars their part shall be in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death I would fain have these people seriously consider what these fearful be that are here thrown into hel-dungeon with the worst and most abominable malefactors For if the word signifie not precisely those who lest they should displease the world do outwardly conform themselves to services and ceremonies which in their heart they acknowledge to be a pernicious errour I know not what other sense this passage can beare The H. Ghost meaneth not those who in this world are called fearfull For He is not used to put valour and warlike force among the qualities that be necessary for inheriting the Kingdome of heaven nor doth He mean those who follow errour and serve creatures with a full heart believing and approving inwardly what they doe outwardly For He is not wont to call them fearfull They are rather such as He calleth a little after idolaters Nor doth he mean hypocrites who under an open profession of vertue hide a filthy and infamous life though to call them so were as bad as to call them fearfull The name of liars which followeth soon after agreeth to them a great deal better Nor is there any likelihood that by fearfull he meaneth profane or Atheists or open sinners and malefactors For who ever heard them set out by this name And then who can be meant by these cursed fearfull persons which are here ranked in the forefront of all that shall be
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 quàm 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
inheritours of hell fire but those who overcome with some carnall fear do not confesse outwardly that holy truth which they believe inwardly or those who confesse outwardly some errour which inwardly they misbelieve and detest Thus was it in the Martyrs of Christ not imprudence but a very excellent piece of wisdome That they chose rather to suffer the most cruell deaths and punishments than through fear to conceal that opinion which they had concerning piety and errour It was in them not a cruelty but an act of sweetnesse in their loving devout souls rather to undergoe death then to perform any of the actions of Pagan superstition since they had no other way to avoid those punishments which are threatned to fearfull men And on the contrary it will be sound That there are none more sottish nor more cruell to themselves then those pretended Politicians who to preserve as they say the peace of the world and to exempt themselves from temporall punishments that sometimes betide open Believers accommodate themselves to the services of one and avoid the freedome and communion of the other For as it is prudence for a man to lose a small benefit to preserve a far greater and that is truly and indeed to love a mans self when he suffers a little sorrow as a cut of a razour or a Chirurgions lancet to keep himself from death so it is the highest degree of imprudence for a man to loose his Soveraigne good to preserve one that is incomparably lesse the worst of cruelties to suffer a mans self to perish eternally rather then suffer a short and slight inconvenience CHAP. XVIII That this dissembling grievously offendeth God and scandalizeth men BUt to the end that no man may accuse the judgement of God of too much rigour against fearfull people Let us briefly consider the greatnesse and the weight of their fault First they are evidently guilty of a grievous and inexcusable lie For by their action they make profession of believing that which they do not believe in realitie As for example he that through fear prostrateth himself before the Host of the Church of Rome declareth highly and expresly that he taketh it for a Deity deserving adoration since in common custome that is the sense of this action And yet he telleth us privately that his heart believeth it is not a Deity but an insensible and inanimate creature Who discerneth not here a manifest contrarietie between the mind and the body between the heart and the tongue And though all lying be unpleasing to God and unbecoming a man of worth and reputation yet this is the most vilainous and enormous of any other sort For if lying be farre more blamable in a serious then in a slight subject who can describe or imagine how highly detestable it is in Religion the most important thing in the world how abominable in the most solemn and sacred act of Religion where the question is concerning rendring to a Deity that Soveraign service which we owe him Is it not ●pparently a reproach to the Divine Majestie who hath so expresly protested that He hateth nothing upon earth neare so much as a lying soul and to the holy Angels who are spectatours of our actions and to Men our neighbours that are assembled with us for Us in the presence of them all to say and impudently declare a thing directly contrary to what we think to swear and protest as it were with the hand lifted up that we take a thing to be our Creatour and Redeemer which in reality we esteem to be as farre below the nature of Him as earth is below heaven The most desperate knaves will seldome endure to heare of their having sworn falsly that the Oxen of another man belong to them or they come to do it with a soul full of remorse and a face covered with confusion The reason is because the Authoritie of the Judges the dignity of the Assembly the holinesse of the Place the hand which they lift up and the tongue which they move cometh into their mind and privately chastizeth them for violating the truth So deeply hath Nature imprinted in all mens hearts the hatred and horrour of a lie Ye then who before the face of heaven and earth before the eyes of God Angels and Men have sworn against your conscience not a slight businesse but the most important that concerneth not this present and sading life but that other which is eternall who have sworn not with two or three words let slip between the teeth but highly and expresly with the gesture and motion of all your person who have affirmed and as it were sealed this lie by the most authentick act that is in the Religion of your Countreymen how can you have the face after such a dreadfull perjury to look again up to Heaven How can your conscience choose but trouble you and avenge it self for the horrible outrage that you have committed on it for your having so violently and wretchedly stifled its thoughts If after this it do not prick and torment you night and day I know not how you can make appeare that it is alive For besides the enormitie of the lie such faults are infinitely contrary to the respect which we owe to God and extremely injurious to His Soveraigntie For is it not one of the greatest crimes that a subject can possibly be guilty of towards his Soveraign openly to bestow upon another beside Him the Name and Honour which is due to Him alone I know the Romanist will say That his intention is far from doing it but 'T is enough to make him faulty either to have said or to have done the least thing like it so holy and sacred is the Majestie of Soveraigns that no man may without impietie violate or profane the respect that is due to Them with any intention under any pretence whatsoever Now to give unto any thing which you do not believe to have a Divine nature the services which are given to such and under this notion by those among whom we live is clearly to testifie that you give to another besides God the honour which belongeth to him alone As to bring in our example for You to prostrate your selves before the Host of the Church of Rome or to go on Procession after it on the day of its Feast is to declare that you give it the name and adoration of a Deity I do not affirm that you really adore it I presuppose that you know in your heart that it is but a creature and that your heart addresseth all its service to God onely But because you make this declaration with your body you witnesse and make it appeare that you hold this for your God Do you not in your conscience take it to be an horrible crime to commit so grievous an offense against our Soveraign Lord And here tell not me I beseech you that you do not make such a declaration in prostrating your self