it 2. The other help is invincible ignorance which will excuse (c) Vid. Suarez de Legibus lib. 5. cap. 12. authores ab eo Ibidem citatos persons so ignorant a paenâ culpâ and make many actions which otherwise would be sinful not so to seem So in Spain and Italy where Popish Tyranny prevailes and the poor people have no possibility to be better instructed there many innocently believe and do many times against positive laws and Divine Revelations which otherwise were impossible if the Gospel were sufficiently reveal'd to them This is the judgment of Protestant Divines concerning the possibility of Papists being saved who live in the Communion of that Idolatrous and Antichristian Synagogue My Lord I must humbly beg your pardon for this tedious and I fear impertinent Scrible I shall give your Lordship no further trouble at this time That God Almighty would be graciously pleased to bless your Lordship and all yours is and shall be the prayer of My Lord Your Lordships most obliged thank-ful and faithful Servant Thomas Lincolne A Letter to another Person about Worshiping the Host being Formal Idolatry and about Famous Protestant Divines holding it Lawful to punish Hereticks with Death Sir I Remember that in your last you proposed two Questions to me which now I have which I had not before time to Answer The first was in what place of his Works Doctor Hammond would have the Papists Worshiping the Host with Latria which worship they (a) Concil Trident Sess 13. De Eucharistia cap. 5. Cultus Latriae qui vero Deo debetur huic Sacramento exhibendus confess is due only to God and yet they give it to their Consecrated Host to be only Material but not Formal Idolatry I answer that it is in his Tract of Idolatry 364 Pag. 41. Whereas to call any thing material Idolatry is formal nonsense For forma dat nomen esse As nothing is or can be a Man which hath not the form of Man so nothing can with sense he call'd Idolatry which has not the form of Idolatry It is true that in all Sins of Commission there is materiale and formale so in Adultery Murder Idolatry the positive Acts in those Sins are the Materiale and that habitude and relation to the Laws of which they are Transgressions is the formale which denominates them such sins for in a Man there is Materiale the Body and Formale the Soul But no Man who understands sense and Logick would call a dead body when the Soul is gone a material Man seeing it is not Man at all but only materiale hominis and not homo materialis Doctor Jer. Taylor Bishop of Downe was of the same opinion in his Liberty of Prophecying pag. 258. And is earnest in freeing the Papists from Formal Idolatry But the same Doctor Taylor aftewards in his Dissuasive from Popery § 12. pag. 148. Printed at Dublin 1644. Fully Confutes both Doctor Hâ—mmond and himself and truly proves that the Popish Adoration of their Host in the Eucharist is properly Idololatrical Sure I am that our Church of England (b) Vide Canones Anno 1640. Can. 7. did and still does declare it to be detestable (c) See our present Liturgy in the last Rubrick at the end of the Service for the Communion Idolatry For your second Quaery whether you have mistaken my meaning in your Notes out of my Tract against Mr. Hobs of Heresie and whether I did mean that Zanchius Bullenger and Beza did approve the putting of Hereticks to Death and inflicting Capital punishments for Heresie What I said in that Tract against Mr. Hobs I do not well remember nor have I now that Tract by me But it is certain that they and many more Protestant Divines have approved that Doctrine of punishing Hereticks with Death 1. For Beza he has writ largely and Learnedly De Haereticis a Magistratu puniendis Operum Tom. 1. pag. 85. Edit Genevae 1582 Where he proves against Billius and Bas Montfortius that Hereticks may be punished with death And for this he cites Calvin Libro contra Servetum scripto in Commentariis in Titum Bullinger Melanchton Wolph Capito c. The Senate of Geneva put Mich. Servetus an Arrian to Death and consulted the Divines in Helvetia whether they might Lawfully do it And the Helvetian Divines answered that the Case and Circumstances consider'd Servetus might be put Lawfully to Death and so he was And for Zanchius he is expresly of the same Opinion Operum Tom. 4. lib. 1. in tertium praeceptum cap. 28. pag. 580 581 582. Edit 1618. per Sam. Crispinum Now you know that the Church has no power to put Hereticks or any other Offenders to Death Excommunication is the greatest punishment the Church can inflict which though many of our Fanaticks Contemn it yet it was in the Primitive and purer times what the Good Father calls it Tremendum vltimi judicii praejudicium I shall only add That God Almighty would be graciously pleased to bless you and all yours is and God willing shall be the Prayer of Mar. 23. 1684. Your affectionate Friend and Faithful Servant T. L. A Letter about what Greek Fathers and Councils were not Translated into Latin before the time of the Reformation Sir I Received Yours and this comes with my Love and Service to bring my thanks You desire me in two or three lines to tell you what Greek Fathers and Councils were not Translated in Latin nor commonly to be had in the Latin Church before the time of Henry the 8th and the Reformation You know I am willing as for many Reasons I ought to obey your commands so far as I am able But in this particular you do praeter solitum command impossibilities For it is not a work of a Letter or two or three lines to give such an account as you desire nay I dare say that no person though of far more reading and abilities than I do or can pretend to can do it in two or three years nor indeed is it to be done by any one Man in an Age. However in general give me leave to tell you what I think true and evident 1. That in our present case two Intervals of time are to be considered 1. That before the (a) It was taken by Mahomet the 2. Anno Christi 1453. taking of Constantinople by the Turks before Printing (b) It was invented by John Gutenberg An. 1440. vide Hospinian de Templis pag. 448. was invented and before the Reformation begun by (c) Which was begun by Luther Anno. 1517. Luther 2. The time since the Reformation For the time before Printing and Reformation it is certain that the Roman Church in the Primitive times had 1. The Scriptures Translated into their own Language long before Hieromes time who tells us that in his time there were almost Tot versiones quot Codices that is there were very many Latin versions of the Scriptures that
to which you refer me I must to this Query say 1. That I find not any Commentary of Calvin tho' he has writ on the Pentateuch on that Verse or Chapter 2. The Jews Rabbies even Maimonides the most Learned of them as Ainsworth on that place tells you expound that place of all the Inhabitants which were guilty of Idolatry both the Seducers and Seduced but none else Only the goods of those in the City who were not Idolatees were to be burnt as well as the goods of the Idolaters 3. When you inquire of Luther's Judgment on the same Text I can only say 1. That Luther has not writ any Commentary on Deuteronomy 2. Whether he do occasionally explain that Text in any of his other Works I do not remember 3. For putting the Hereticks to death as such that is meerly as Hereticks 1. The Donatists in St. Augustin's time first put those to death which did not consent to their Opinions 2. The Papists universally agree in this that Hereticks that is all who do not believe as they do must be put to death 3. Calvin and the Senate of Geneva put (a) Vide Calvinum Libro in Servetum scripto in Commentariis in Titum Servetus an Arrian to death And Beza (b) Inter Opera Bezae Tâ—m 1. pag. 85. Edit Genevae 1582. justifies the fact in his Tract De Haereticis à Magistratu puniendis where he cites Melanchton Bullinger Capito and many more Protestants who he says were of the same Opinion 4. But the Church of England did never put any Papists to death though Hereticks and Idolaters and it is publickly affirmed and justified in a Book called Justitia Legum Anglicarum c. And for my part I should not be willing that any Heretick should be punished with death unless he joyn with his Heresie blasphemy of God or disloyalty against the King or some sins against the Law of Nature evidently punishable by the Civil Magistrate for the preservation of the Publick Peace and Safety of the Common-wealth I am Sir Your most obliged faithful Friend and Servant Thomas Lincolne Buckden Feb. 26. 1628. Bishop Sanderson 5. ad Populum 1 Tim. 4.3 4 5. 3. Commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with Thanksgiving c. 4. For every Creature of God is good and not to be refused if it be received with Thanksgiving 5. For it is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer FOR the real and true meaning of this passage of the Apostle 't is evident he condemns two Errors in those Apostates from the Faith which should appear in the latter days 1. Their forbidding Marriage of which I shall say nothing at present 2. Their commanding to abstain from Meats For this second particular we are further to consider two things 1. What Meats they were from which those Apostates were commanded to abstain and the Text tells us that it was Meats which God had created to be received or eaten with Thanksgiving 2. The ground or occasion why the Apostle condemns this in the Apostates is because every Creature of God is good and not to be refused if received or eaten with Thanksgiving Now the most Judicious Bishop Sanderson my dear deceased Friend from this general ground that EVERY Creature of God is good seems to infer that there are no Creatures in the World excepted but every one might be received or eaten with Thanksgiving Now this consequence seems to me not good nor rational nor is it possible to conclude the lawfulness of the use of every Creature from the goodness of it in it self and for those ends for which by the infinite power and wisdom of God they were created For 't is most certain that every Creature without an exception is good but then it will not follow that every Creature without an exception may lawfully be received and used for meat In the Text the Apostle condemns the Apostates from the Faith for commanding to abstain from meats which God created to be received or eaten This was their Errour and Tyranny to forbid men the use of those Creatures for their food which God had created and given them for that very use and end 3. And upon this ground it is that the 4th verse neither is nor can be meant universally that every Creature of God without exception is good and not to be refused if received with Thanksgiving but with this limitation every Creature which God hath created to be received with Thanksgiving is good and not to be refused for otherwise if the proposition be taken universally 't is evidently untrue for when the Apostle writ the first Epistle to Timothy there were many Creatures which tho' good in themselves and for the end they were made were never created by God for Man's food and nourishment nor were to be received with Thanksgiving nor could be sanctified by Prayer I instance in 1. Venenatis 2. Prohibitis 1. In Venenatis it is certain that amongst God's Creatures which are all good both in themselves and for the ends for which they were created there were included Serpents Rattle-Snakes c. which are venemous and to humane Nature pernicious which were never created for Man's food nor to be received with Thanksgiving nor to be sanctified by Prayer 2. In Prohibitis 't is also certain that when the Apostle writ this Epistle to Timothy there werh several of God's good Creatures which by Divine Law were prohibited to be receiv'd at all and therefore not to be receiv'd or eaten That this may appear 1. 'T is generally agreed that St. Paul writ this Epistle Anno Christi 52. when that Excellent person Bishop Sanderson thinks that by the liberty our blessed Saviour had purchas'd for us every Creature of God was good and might without sin or scruple of Conscience be receiv'd with Thanksgiving 2. 'T is also generally agreed that the Decree of the Apostles Act. 15.28 29. was made Anno Christi 50 or 51. secundum computationem veram wherein things offered to Idols blood and things strangled are expresly forbid to the Gentile Christians and therefore might not be receiv'd and eaten Anno Christi 52. when St. Paul writ that Epistle being by a Divine Law prohibited a little before Anno Christi 50 or 51 The Obligation of which Law continued long after the time of St. Paul's writing to Timothy as appears by express Texts 1. Act. 21.25 By what James Bishop of Jerusalem tells St. Paul which was Anno Christi 58. So that then notwithstanding that every Creature of God was good yet neither things offered to Idols nor blood nor things strangled could lawfully be eaten 2. Revel 2.14 20. Where eating things offered to Idols is by our blessed Saviour condemned as a sin which was 45 years after St. Paul's Epistle to Timothy which was Anno Christi 52. and St. John Anno Christi 97. To say nothing of the Universal Consent of the Christian World for above
that tho' he had performed all the service and obedience that 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 of it was no more than what was 〈◊〉 Now since the Light of Nature 〈◊〉 perfect and in the state of innocence was no more than sufficient what can we imagine of our decayed lapsed and dim light which comes so far short of the former Whereas if it could teach us how to obey perfectly the Law of Nature it shâ—uld be fully equal unto and run parallel with the same Reason III. This Natural light is much less capable to teach us the manner of that Worship which we owe unto God by vertue of the Covenant of Grace Because the Worship required therein is obedience unto God through Faith in Christ Jesus taking hold of the promises tender'd to us in his holy Gospel which Natural Reason can never conceive being ignorant both of the Object of this Gospel-Worship and the manner in which the same is to be perform'd as I shall more fully evince afterwards Assertion Fifth No Man by the sole light of Natural Reason without the help of Revelation can ever discover or comprehend that Sacred Mystery of the Holy Trinity viz. the distinct Hypostases of the Father Son and Holy Ghost one God Reason 1. Because if this Sacred Mystery had been cognoscible by the light of Nature then Pythagoras Plato Homer Aristotle c. would probably have known it But they have all past it over with a profound ignorant silence and where is the Man that hath ever discover'd it by the light of Nature Reason II. If the Mystery of the Trinity were cognoscible by the light of Nature then it would be such either as a principium unto which upon the first proposal we assent without any further probation or as a Proposition unto which we assent upon sufficient and demonstrative probation But to assert the former viz. that the Trinity is per se notum as a principium or axioma is too absurd and ridiculous to be refuted Besides many of the Schoolmen have deny'd that Deum esse is per se notum But we cannot assert Deum esse trinum unless we suppose Deum esse Ergo if the one be not of it self evident far less the other As to the other membrum viz. that it is cognoscible by us as a proposition which we assent unto upon sufficient and demonstrative probation Contrà All these propositions tho' they be not so evident as on the first proposal to gain an assent yet they are such as Nature can furnish us with sufficient media and praemissae whereby to know and prove their certainty as for Example This proposition God is infinite tho' iâ— be not of it self evident at the first proposal yet it is said to be cognoscible by the light of Nature because Nature can furnish us with sufficient means whereby to prove its certainty But this Mystery of the Sacred Trinity of the Persons in the Godhead is so far from being such as Nature could furnish us with media to prove its certainty that if it do not seemingly contradict Nature yet it far transcends its power to conceive what it is But 2. to use Aquinas's argument There is no other mean whereby we can ascend to the knowledge of God but by the Creature and all the knowledge we have of God from the Creatures is only deduc'd per modum Causalitatis as because I see such an effect therefore I conclude there must be a Cause endow'd with Power Wisdom c. Now how can the Trinity be deduced from the Creatures per modum Casaulitatis For God could have Created all the Creatures though he had not been trinus because the Divine Essence of the Father is a suppositum insinitae virtutis tho' there were no more persons in the Godhead than himself Assertion Sixth No Man can by the Light of Nature know the Works of the Second Person in the Trinity viz. his Redemption of Mankind his wonderful Incarnation Death and Resurrection c. Reason I. Because I have already proved that the three Persons of the Godhead cannot be known by Nature Light and consequently not the Second Person but if the Second Person be not known neither can the Works done by him be discovered that is quoad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to that special incommunicable manner and way that they were performed in by Jesus Christ It 's true indeed that the Redemption of the World is an opus ad extrà and competent to all the Persons of the Trinity and so may in some sense seem to be known by the help of Natural Light without the distinct knowledge of the Person of Christ But the particular and special way in which it was accomplish'd by him can never be known naturally for there were many things relating to that done in his Humane Nature such as his Death Resurrection c. which cannot be known without the knowledge of his Humane Nature whereas the Humanity and Miraculous Incarnation of one who is God is above the reach of Natural Reason to know Reas II. If any such thing had been cognoscible by Natural Reason it 's probable the Heathens would have found it but we find no such thing among them Ergo c. Reas III. It is not possible that the light of fallen Nature should know more of God and Christ than when it was in its Primitive Innocence but then it did not so much as Dream of the Death of Christ for the sins of the World Ergo c. Reas IV. The Redemption of the World by Christ depending upon and flowing from the meer good Will and Pleasure of God could never have naturally been foreseen before it came nor when accomplish'd understood by any except those unto whom God graciously reveal'd the same For how can any thing depending on God's free will be known by Natural Light since all the natural knowledge we have of God is by way of causality from the Creatures But the free Redemption of the World by Jesus Christ can never be deduced from the existence of the Creature by way of causality as though it be naturally known that Man is a sinner and miserable yet does it not follow that therefore God designs to redeem him by Christ no more than from the misery of some of the Angels can it be deduced that therefore God designs to redeem them by Christ Besides Man is fallen into this Misery by his own fault and it were just with God to leave him to wallow in that Misery that he hath purchased to himself for ever wherefore since God is no way obliged to Redeem Man how can we make the Misery of the Creature an Argument that he has or had any actual design to redeem the same yea dato non concesso that our own Miseries could demonstrate that God had a design to free us from it yet it could never discover that particular special way whereby our freedom is purchased viz. by the Blood of Christ
for these last four score and ten Years have lived in that Kingdom under the Reign of Hen III. Hen. IV. Lewis XIII and Lewis XIV faithfully extracted from all the publick and secret Memoirs that could possibly be procured by that Learned and Eminent Divine Mounsieur Bennoit To compleat this Elaborate Work which has already born a second Impression in Holland the Reverend Author had not only great assistance from remote parts but had also the help of many curious persons in his Neighbourhood publick and private Liberaries the Cabinets and Studies of the more exacter sort where Fugitive Pieces secure themselves The several Manuscripts of the Learned and Ingenious Mounsâ—eur Tester Eau which he left at his death with many other helps which will best appear in the work it self This Book was printed first in French by the Authority of the States of Holland and West-Friesland and is now translated into English with Her Majestys Royal Priviledge Bishop Barlow's Remains Liturgia Tigurina Or the Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacrament and other Ecclesiastical Rites and Ceremonies usually practised and solemnly performed in the Churches and Chappels of the City and Canton of Zurick in Switzerland and in some other adjacent Countries as by their Canons and Ecclesiastical Laws they are appointed and as by the Supreme Power of the Right Honourable the Senate of Zurick they are authorized with the Orders of that Church Published with the approbation of several Bishops Memoirs of the Right Honourable Arthur Earl of Anglesey Late Lord Privy-Seal intermix'd with Moral Political and Historical Obsevations to which is prefix'd a Letter written by his Lordship during his retirement from Court in the Year 1683. published by Sir Peter Pett Knight Advocate-General for the Kingdom of Ireland Casuistical Morning Exercises the Fourth Volume by several Ministers in and about London The Life of the Reverend Mr. Thomas Brand by Dr. Samuel Annesley Practical Discourses on Sickness and Recovery in several Sermons as they were lately preached in a Congregation in London by Timothy Rogers M. A. after his Recovery of a Sickness of near two years continuance The Life and Death of the Reverend Mr. Eliot the first Preacher of the Gospel to the Indians in America The Tragedies of Sin by Stephen Jay late Rector of Chinner in Oxfordshire A Treatise of Fornication To which is added a Penitentiary Sermon upon John 8.11 By William Barlow Rector of Chalgrave Infant Baptism stated in an Essay to evidence its Lawfulness from the Testimony of Holy Scripture by J. Rothwel M. A. a Presbyter of the Church of England The Mourners Companion or Funeral Discourses on several Texts by John Shower Mensalia Sacra Or Meditations on the Lord's Supper Wherein the nature of the Holy Sacrament is explain'd and the most weighty Cases of Conscience about it are resolved by the Reverend Mr. Francis Crow To which is prefix'd a Brief Account of the Author's Life and Death by Mr. Henry Cuts Books now in the Press and going to it Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultry THe 2d 3d. and 4th Volumns of the History of the Famous Edict of Nantes containing an account of all the Persecutions that have been in France during the Reigns of Lewis XIII and Lew. XIV faithfully extracted from all the Publick and Secret Memoirs that could possibly be produced by that Learned and Eminent Divine Monsieur Bennoit Printed first in French by the Authority of the States of Holland and West-Friezland and now to be translated into English with Her Majesty's Royal Priviledge The Lord Faulkland's Works Secretary of State to King Charles the I. collected all together into one Volume To which will be prefix'd Memoirs of his Lordship's Life and Death never printed before Written by a Person of Honour A Methodical and Comparative Discription of all the Religions in the World with their Subdâ—visions in two Parts The one in Parallel Columns containing their Theory and the other relating their Practices as distinguish'd unto the several Religions of Jew Christian Mahometan and Heathen By a Dignitary of the Church of England Mr. William Leybourn's New Mathematical Tractates in Fol. Intituled Pleasure with Profit lately proposed by way of Subscription having met with good Encouragement are now put to several Presses and will be ready to be delivered to Subscribers the next Term In this Work will be inserted above what was at first proposed a New Systerm of Algebra according to the last Improvements and Discoveries that have been made in that Art As also several great Curiosities in Cryptography Horometria c. which Additions will inhance each Book to 16. s. in Quires to those that do not subscribe and those that do are desired to send in their first Payment viz. 6. s. before the 26th instant after which no Subscriptions will be taken in