to subscribe to every expression of his and do freely acknowledge that the making a rent in a Church that is pure both in Doctrine and Worship upon any particular or personal account is a sin that cannot be sufficiently detested and condemned I shall not enter into a particular discussion of every passage of S. Austin's but if in some he seems to go too far for the authority of the Church I shall only offer two general considerations concerning these The first is That it is a Maxime with Lawyers That general words in Laws are to be restricted to the preambles and chief design of these Laws And if this is true of Laws that are commonly penned with more coldness and upon greater deliberation it is much more applicable to warm discourses where the heat of Contradiction and the Zeal of a Writer makes that things are ofâ—en aggravated and carried too far but still all those expressions are to â—e molliâ—ied and restricted to that which was the subject matter of the debate therefore those expressions of S. Austin's supposing that the Church was still sound in her Doctrine and Worship are to be governed by that Hypothesis The second is That many of those who urge these passages on us do not deny but S. Aâ—stin in the disputes about Grace and Original Sin was carried too far though those were the subjects on which he employed his latest years with the greatest application If then it is confessed that he wrote too warmly against the Pelagians and in that heat advanced some propositions that need a fair construction is it unreasonable for us to say that he might have done the same writing against the Donatists 5. As for Tertullian he that might have conversed with many that could have known S. Polâ—carp who was both instructed and ordained by the Apostles so that he might have been the third person in the conveyance of the sense of what the Apostles had left in Writing could reasonably argue as he did against the Hereticks but certainly no man that considers the distance we live at from those ages and the many accidents that have so often changed the face of the Church can think it reasonable to argue upon that ground now And yet it were easie to bring many citatious out of that very Book of Tertullians to shew that he grounded his Faith only on the Doctrine of Christ delivered in the Scriptures how much soever he might argue from other Topicks against the Hereticks of his time who indeed were bringing in a New Gospel into the World We willingly receive the Characters that Vincentius Lyrinensis gives of Tradition that what the Church has at all times and in all places received is to be believed and are ready to joyn issue upon this and when they can prove that the Church at all times and in all places has taught the Worshipping of Images the Invocation of Saints and Angels the adoring the Sacrament and the dividing of it with many more particulars we will yield the whole cause and confess that we have made a Schism in the Church The Seventh Method IS to let them see that those who at first pretended to Reform the Church in which they were amongst us neither had nor could have any Mission either Ordinary or Extraordinary to bring us any other Doctrine but that which was then taught and that by Consequence none ought to believe them since they had no authority to Preach as they did How can they Preach if they are not sent This is the ordinary Method that puts the Ministers to the necessity of proving their Mission which is a thing that they can never do This cuts off all disputes and is one of the Methods of Cardinal Richelieu Remarks 1. IF the first Reformers had delivered a new Doctrine which was never formerly taught it had been necessary for them to have had a very extraordinary Mission and to have confirmed it by very extraordinary signs but when they grounded all â—hey said upon that very Book which was and is still received as the unalterable Law of all Christians then if every man is bound to take care of his own Salvation and is in Charity obliged to let others see that same light that guides himself then I say an extraordinary Mission was not necessary when the thing in dispute was not a new Doctrine but the true meaning of those Writings which were on all hands acknowledged to be Divine 2. If notwithstanding the necessity of not raising War in Civil Government without an express Commission from the Prince or Supream Authority yet in a General Rebellion when the ways of intercourse with the Prince are cut off if it be not only a lawful but a commendable action for any subject even without a Commission to raise what force he can for the service of the Prince Then if it be true that the Western Churches had generally revolted from the rules of the Gospel that was a sufficient warrant for any person to endeavour a Reformation 3. The nature of the Christian Religion is to be well considered in which all Christians are a Royal Priesthood And though it be highly necessary for all the ends of Religion to maintain peace and Order and to convey down an authority for sacred administrations in such a way as tends most to advance those ends yet this cannot be lookt on as indispensable and absolutely necessary Among the Iews as there were many services in which none but Priests and Levites could officiate so the Succession went in the natural course of Descent But in the Christian Church there are no positive Laws so appropriated and therefore in cases of extream and unavoidable necessity every Christian may make use of that dormant priviledge of being a Royal Priest and so this difficulty must be resolved by examining the merits of the whole cause for if the necessity was not extream and unavoidable we acknowledge it had been a Sacrilegious presumption for any that was not called in the ordinary manner to meddle in Holy things 4. It is but a small part of the Reformed Churches that is concerned in this Here in England our Reformers had the ordinary Mission and in most places beyond Sea the first Preachers had been ordained Priests And it will not be easie to prove that Lay-men yea and Women may baptize in cases of necessity when that is often but an imaginary necessity and that yet Priests in a case of real necessity may not ordain other Priests For all the Rules of Order are superseded by extraordinary cases and in Moral as well as in Natural things every Individual has a Right to propagate its kind and though it may be reasonable to regulate that yet it can never be wholly cut off The Eighth Method IS to tell them You do not know that such or such a Book of the Scripture is the Word of God but by the Church in which you were before your Schism So that you cannot know
Inâ—allibility was not so obstinately lodged with them that a company of lewd and wickeâ— Prieâ—ts could not mis-leaâ— the people aâ— they did in the Doctrine concerning the Messias From all which it may be well inferred that how large soever the meaning of those disputed passages that relate to the authority of the Church may be supposed to be yet a tacite condition must be still implyed in them That while Church-men continue pure and sincere and seek the truth in the methods prescribed by the Gospel they shall not err in any point of Salvation And it is not reasonable to expect that our Saviour should have left a more effectual provision against Errour than he has done against Sin since the latter is certainly more pernicious and destructive of those ends for which he came into the World So that as he has only left sufficient means for those who use them well to keep themselves from Sin in such a manner that they shall not perish in it so has he likewise provided a sufficient security against Errour when such means of Instruction are offered that every one who applies himseâ—f to the due use of them shall not err damnably 4. Another foundation on which they build is Oral Tradition which â—hey reckon was handed down in every Age since the Apostles days This some explain so as to make it only the conveyance of the Exposition of the Scriptures though others stretch it further as if it might carry down Truths not mentioned in Scripture And for finding this out two Methods are given The one is Presumptive when from the Doctrine of the Church in any one age it is presumed from thence that those of that age had it from the former and the former from those who went before them till we run it up to the Apostles days The other Method is of particular proof when the â—onveyance in every age appears from the chief Writers in it I shall not here run out to shew upon either of these hypotheses the unfitness of this way of conveying Doctrines nor the easie door it opens to fraud and imposture but shall only shew that they cannot prove they have a competent Evidence of Oral Tradition among them And first it is certain that we have not handed down to us a general exposition of the Scriptures and that almost all the Ancient Expositors run after Allegories according to the way of the Greek Philosophers For some whole ages we have not above two or three Writers and those lived very remote and what they say chiefly in the passages that are made use of in the later Disputes fall in oft on the by and seem rather to have dropt from them than to have been intended by them so that this cannot be thought decisive And when it is likewise confessed that in their Disputes with the Hereticks of their days they have not argued so critically from those places of Scripture which they considered more narrowly It will not be reasonable to conclude too positively upon those things that rather fell in their way occasionally than were the designed subjects of their enquiries So that it is not possible to prove an Oral Tradition by the Instances of particular Writers in all the ages and corneâ—s of the Church For almost an age and a half we have not one copious Latine Writer but Tertullian and Cyprian that both lived in Carthage And it is not very clear of what persuasion the former was when he wrote the greatest part of his Treatises That he was a Heretick when he wrote some of them is past dispute Now can one think â—hat if God had intended that the Faith should have passed down by such a conveyance there would have been such uncertain prints left us by which we might trace it out As for the other Method of Presumption or Prescription it is certainly a false one for if in any one particular it can be made appear that the Doctrine of the Latin Church has been in these latter ages contradictory to that of the primitive times then this of Prescription is never to be any more alledged and of this I shall give two Instances that seem demonstrative The first is about the worshipping departed Saints or Martyrs which has been the practice of the Lâ—tin Church for several ages And yet in the second Century we have the greatest evidence possible that it was not the Doctrine of that age and that not in any occasional word let fall by some single Writer but in a Letter writ by the Church of Smyrna concerning the Martyrdom of their late Biship S. Polycarp In which there appears that warm affection for his person and honour for his memory that we cannot think they would have been wanting in any sort of respect that waâ— due to the ashes of so great a Saint And what they say to this purpose is deliberately brought out for it being suggested by the Iew that had set on the Heathens against that Martyr that it was necessary to destroy his Body lest the Christians should worship him They reject that imputation in these words They being Ignorant say they that we can never forsake Christ who died for the salvation of the World nor worship any other for we adore him as the Son of God But for the Martyrs we do worthily love them as the Disciples and Followers of our Lord for their unconqâ—ered love to their King and Master and therefore dâ—sâ—re to be their Partneâ—s and Disciples To this I shall add another Instance that is no lesâ— evident which is concerning the presence of Christ in the Sacrament The Tradition of the Church can be best gathered from the Liturgies which are the publickest the most united and most solemn way in which she expresses her self In S. Ambrosâ—'s time or whosoever else was the Author of the Book of the Sacraments that goes under his name we find that the Prayer of Consecrations as it is cited by him differs in a very essential point from that which is now in the Canon of the Mass In the former they called the Sacrifice that they offered up in it the figure of the Body and Blood of Christ but since that time they have changed that phrase and instead of it they pray that It may be to us the Body and Blood of Christ. We cannot tell in what age this change was made but we may certainly conclude that the Latin Church in S. Ambrose's time had a very different opinion concerning the presence of Christ from that which is now received among them and that then she only believed a Figurative Presence And thus it is certain that the Presumptive Method for finding out Oral Tradition is a false one and that the particular proof of Tradition by enquiring into the Doctrine of every age is impossible to be made 5. I shall enlarge a little further upon one particular Instance which is concerning one of those propositions lately condemned by the Assembly
Gâ—neral In which I intend to shew that they have departed from the Tradition of the Church much more evidently than they can pretend that we have done And this is concerning the Popes power oâ— Deposing Kings which they who live under so mighty a Monarch have very prudently renounced But whether they have not more plainly contradicted the Tradition of the Church than the Reformers did shall appear by the sequel of this Discourse In order to which I shall lay down two grounds that seem undeniable in their own principles The one is That the Tradition of any Age or Ages of the Church when it is universal and undisputed is of the same authority with the Tradition of any other Age whatsoever For the promises made to the Church last continually and have the same force at all times And therefore a Tradition for these last six hundred years is of as strong an authority as was that of the first six Ages The second is That a Tradition concerning the measures of mens Obedience and actions is of the same authority with a Tradition concerning the measures of their Belief The one sort are practical and the other are speculative points and as more are concerned in a practical truth than in a speculative point so it has greater effects and more influence on the World therefore it is as necessary that these be certainly handed down as the other And by consequence a Tradition concerning any Rule of Life is as much to be received as that concerning any point of Belief for the Creed and the Ten Commandments being the two Ingredients of the positive part of our Baptismal Vow it is as necessary that we be certainly directed in the one as in the other and if there were any preference to be admitted here certainly it must be for that which is more practical and of greater extent Upon these two grounds I subsume that all the Characters of Oral Tradition by which they can pretend to find it out in any one particular agree to this Doctrine of the Popes power of deposing Princes that are either Hereticks or favourers of them The way sof searching for Tradition are these four First what the Writers and Doctors of the Church have delivered down from one age to another The second is what the Popes have taught and pronounced ex Cathedrâ which to a great part of that Communion is Decisive their authority being held Infallible and to the rest it is at least a great Indication of the Tradition of such an Age. The third is what such Councils as are esteemed and received as Oecumenical Councils have decreed as General Rules The fourth is the late famous Method of Prescription when from the received Doctrine of any one Age we run a back-scent up to the Apostles upon this supposition that the Doctrine of the Church chiefly in a visible and sensible thing could not be changed These are all the ways imaginable to find out the Tradition of past Ages and they do all agree to this Doctrine All the Writers for five or six Ages both Commentators on Scripture the School-men the Casuists and Canonists agreed in it so that Cardinal Perron had reason to challenge those of the contrary persuasion to shew any one Writer before Calvin's time that had been of another mind We do not cite this as a proof because Cardinal Perron said so but because the thing in it self cannot be disproved and in the Contests that fell in between the Popes and those Princes against whom they thundred no Civilian nor Canonist ever denied the Popes power of deposing in the case of Heresie It is true when the Popes pretended to a Temporal Dominion and that all Princes were their Vassals some were found to write against that other Princes contended about the particulars laid to their charge and denied that they were either Hereticks or favourers of Hereticks But none ever disputed this position in general that in a manifest case of Heresie the Pope might not depose Princes and it is too well known what both the Sorbonne determined in the case of Henry the Third and likewise how the body of the Clergy adhered to Cardinal Perron in the opposition he made to the condemnation of that opinion The next mark of Tradition is the Popes pronouncing an opinion ex Cathedrâ that is in a solemn Judiciary way founding it on Scripture and Tradition If Popes had only brutally made War upon some Princes and violently thrust them out of their Dominions this indeed were no mark by which we could judge of a Tradition But when we find Gregory the Seventh and many Popes since his time found this authority on passages of Scripture as that of the Keys being given to S. Peter Jeremiah the Prophet's being set over Kingdomes to root out to pluck up and destroy and that all power in Heaven and Earth was given to Chrâ—st and his bidding his Disciples to buy a Sword we must look on this as the declaring the Tradition of the Church So that it must eitâ—er be confessed that they are not faithful conveyers of it or that this is truly the Tradition of the Church And this has been done so often these last six hundred years that it were a needless imposing on the Readers patience to go about the proving it The Third Indication of Tradition is the Declaration made by Synods but chiefly by General Councils I need not here mention the many Roman Synods that have concurred with the Popes in the Depositions which they thundered out against Kings or Emperours since we have greater authorities confirming it The Third Council of Lateran declared that all Princes that favoured Heresie fell from their Dominions and they granted a Plenary Indulgence to all that fought against them The Fourth Council of the Lateran vested the Pope with the power of giving away their Dominions if they continued for a year obstinate in that their merciful disposition of not extirpating Hereticks The first Council of Lions concurred with the Pope in the deposition of the Emperour Frederick the Second which is grounded in the preamble on the power of binding and loosing given to S. Peter After these came the Council of Constance and they reckoning themselves superiour to the Pope lookt on this as a power inherent in the Church and so assumed it to themselves and therefore put this Sanction in many of their Decrees particularly in that for maintaining the Rights of the Church and in the Passports they granted which had been often added in the Bulls that confirmed the foundations of Monasteries that if any whether he were Emperour King or of what Dignity soever he might be opposed their Order he should thereby forfeit his Dignity The Council of Sienna confirmed all Decrees against Hereticks and the favourers of them that had been made in any former Councils and by consequence those of the Third and Fourth Councils in the Lateran The Council of Basil put
that threatening clause of forfeiture used by those of Constance in their Decree for a General Council And at Trent it was declared That if any Prince did suffer a Duel to be fought in his Dominions he was thereupon to forfeit that place in which it was fought Now by the same authority that they could declare a forfeiture of any one place they could decâ—are a forâ—eiture of a Princes whole Dominion for both those Sentences flow from the same Superiour Jurisdiction And thus we see seven of those Councils which they esteem general have either decreed confirmed or assumed this right of Deposing Kings for Heresie or indeed for breaking their Orders and Writs 4. The fourth mark oâ— Tradition is â—hat which has been of late so famous by Mr. Arnauld's endeavours to prove from thence that the belief of the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament is a Doctrine derived down from the Aposâ—les days which is this If any one Age has universally received an opinion as an Article of Faith it must be concluded that that Age had it from the former and that from the preceding till we arrive at the Apostles days And this he thinks must hold the stronger if the point so received wâ—s a thing obvious to all men in which every one was concerned and to which the nature of man was inclined to make a powerful opposition I shall not examine how true this is in general nor how applicable in fact it is to the Doctrine of the Corporal Presence but shall only say that allowing all these marks to be the sure Indications of Apostolical Tradition the Doctrine of Deposing Princes for favouring Heresie has them all much more indisputably than the other has Take any one Age from the eleventh Century to the sixteenth and it will appear that not only the Popes the Bishops and all the Ecclesiastical Order received it but that all the Laity likewise embraced it Though this was a matter obvious to sense in which many were much concerned It might have been hoped that Princes upon their own account for fear of an ill Precedent would have protected the â—eposed Prince But on the contrary they either entred into the Croisades themselves or at least gave way to them vast Armies were gathered together to execute those Sentences and the injured Princes had no way to keep their people firm to them but by assuring them they were not guilty of the matters objected to them which shewed that had their people believed them guilty they had forsaken them And yet as it was the terrour of a Croisade was such and the Popes authority to depose Princes was so firmly believed that they were for the most part forced to save themselves by an absolute submission to the Popes pleasure and to what Conditions or Penances a haughty Pope would impose on them So certain it is that this Doctrine was universally received in those ages And thus it appears that all the Characters by which it can be pretended that an Apostolicâ—l Tradition can be known agree to this Doctrine in so full and uncontestable a manner that they cannot bring such Evidence for the points in dispute between them and us So that the Assembly General by condemning this Doctrine have departed from the Tradition of their own Church more apparently than it can be pretended that either Luther and Calvin did in any of those Doctrines which they rejected and therefore they ought not any more to complain of us for throwing off such things as they found on Tradition when they have set us such an Example From which I shall only infer this That they themselves must know how weak a foundation Oral Tradition is for Divine Faith to build upon and that it must be established upon surer grounds FINIS ERRATVM Page 85. line 21. for First read Second Books Printed for and Sold by RICHARD CHISWELL FOLIO SPeed's Maps and Geography of Great Britain and Ireland and of Foreign Parts Dr. Cave's Lives of the Primitive Fathers in 2. Vol. Dr. Cary's Chronological Account of Ancient Time Wanley's Wonders of the little World or Hist. of Man Sir Tho. Herbert's Travels into Persia c. Holyoak's large Dictionary Latine and English Sir Rich. Baker's Chronicle of England Wilson's Compleat Christian Dictionary B. Wilkin's real Character or Philosophical Language Pharmacopoeia Regalis Collegii Medicorum Londinensis Judge Iones's Reports in Common Law Cave Tabulae Ecclesiasticorum Scriptorum Hobbs's Leviathan Lord Bacon's Advancement of Learning Sir Will. Dugdale's Baronage of England in two Vol. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity Winch's Book of Entries Isaac Ambrose's Works Guillim's Display of Heraldry with large additions Dr. Burnet's History of the Reformation of the Church of England in 2. Vol. Account of the Confessions and Prayers of the Murtherers of Esquire Thynn Burlace's History of the Irish Rebellion Herodoti Historia Gr. Lat. cum variis Lect. Rushworth's Historical Collections the 2 d. Part in 2. vol. Large account of the Tryal of the Earl of Strafford with all the circumstances relating thereunto Bishop Sanderson's Sermons with his Life Fowlis's History of Romish Conspir Treas Usurpat Dalton's Office of Sheriffs with Additions Office of a Justice of Peace with additions Keeble's Collection of Statutes Lord Cook 's Reports in English Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World Edmunds on Caesars Commentaries Sir Iohn Davis's Reports Judge Yelverton's Reports The Laws of this Realm concerning Jesuites Seminary Priests Recusants the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance explained by divers Judgments and resolutions of the Iudges with other Observations thereupon by Will. Cawley Esq William's impartial consideration of the Speeches of the five Jesuits executed for Treason 1680. Iosephus's Antiquities and Wars of the Jews with Fig. QVARTO DR Littleton's Dictionary Latine and English Bishop Nicholson on the Church Catechism The Compleat Clerk Precedents of all sorts History of the late Wars of New-England Dr. Outram de Sacrificiis Bishop Taylor 's Disswasive from Popery Spanhemii Dubia Evangelica 2 Vol. Dr. Gibbs's Sermons Parkeri Disputationes de Deo History of the future state of Europe Dr. Fowler 's Defence of the Design of Christianity against Iohn Bunnyan Dr. Sherlock's Visitation-Sermon at Warrington Dr. West's Assize Sermon at Dorchester 1671. Lord Hollis's Relation of the Unjust Accusation of certain French Gentlemen charged with aRobbery 1671. The Magistrates Authority asserted in a Sermon By Iames Paston Cole's Latine and English Dictionary Mr. Iames Brome's two Fast-Sermons Dr. Iane's Fast-Sermon before the Commons 1679. Mr. Iohn Iames's Visitation Sermon April 9. 1671. Mr. Iohn Cave's Fast-Sermon on 30. of Ian. 1679. Assize Sermon at Leicester Iuly 31. 1679. Dr. Parker's Demonstration of the Divine Authority of the Law of Nature and the Christian Religion Mr. William's Sermon before the Lord Mayor 1679. History of the Powder Treason with a vindication of the proceedings relating thereunto from the Exceptions made against it by the Catholick Apologist and others and a Parallel betwixt that and the
THE LETTER Writ by the last Assembly General OF THE Clergy of France TO THE PROTESTANTS Inviting them to return to their Communion TOGETHER With the Methods proposed by them for their Conviction Translated into English and Examined By GILBERT BURNET D. D. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-yard M DC LXXXIII THE PREFACE THE fate of most that Answer any particular Book or Treatise is such that one may be justly discouraged from undertaking it For besides the great trouble the Answerer is put to in following his Author in all his Digressions and perhaps Impertinences and the small game he is often engaged in about some ill-sounding expression or some misunderstood period the issue of the whole business in matters of Controversies comes at best to this That it may be confest his Adversary has been too unwary in some assertions or unconcluding in some of his Arguments But still men retain their old perswasions And if one whom they had set up for their Champion should happen to be baffled they will only say that they mistook their man and be being made quit the Stage another is set in his room So that at most their engagement proves to be of the nature of a single Combate in the issue of which only two Individuals and not two Parties are concerned But when a whole Body speaks in one Voice here the undertaking of a single person in opposition to them may be thought indeed too hardy and bold but yet the debate becomes of more consequence at least to the one side because the Credit of those against whom he writes is so well established that a satisfactory Answer to what they offer as the strength of their cause must needs have great effect on these who examine those matters Critically and judge of them Impartially The World hath been filled with the noise of the Conversions lately made in France but it has been generally given out that the violences of Monsieur de Marilliac and the Souldiers and the Payments dispensed by Monsieur Pellisson have been the most prevailing Arguments hitherto made use of That Great King has indeed interposed in this matter with a Zeal that if it were well directed might well become one who reckons these to be his most esteemed Titles that he is the Most Christian King and the Eldest Son of the Church But amidst all this noise of Conversions we have heard more of the Temporal than Spiritual Sword and except in the violences and out-rages of some of the Clergy we have not heard much of any share they have had in this matter It is true the Celebrated Explication of their Faith written some years ago by the then Bishop of Condom now of Meaâ—x has made a great shew and most of the Conversions are esteemed the effects of that Book And the eminent Vertues of the Author joined with that great gentleness by which he insinuates himself much into the Hearts of all those that come near him have perhaps really wrought much on some whose Consciences were by other motives disposed to be very easily perswaded Soft words and good periods have also had some weight with superficial Enquirers But that Explication of his which may be well called a good Plea managed with much Skill and great Eloquence for a bad cause has been so often and so judiciously answered that I am confident such as have considered these Answers are no more in danger of being blinded with that dust which he has so ingeniously raised For it must be confessed That his Book deserves all the commendations that can be given it for every thing except the sincerity of it which I am sorry to say it is not of a piece with the other excellent qualities of that great Prelate But now we have before us a work of much more importance in which we may reasonably conclude the strength of the Roman cause is to be found Since it is the unanimous voice of the most learned and soundest part of that Communion For while the Spaniards have chiefly amused themselves mith the Metaphysical subtilties of School-Divinity and when the Italians have added to that the study of the Canon Law as the best way for prefermâ—nt the French have now for above an Age been set on a more solid and generous pursuit of tâ—ue Learning They have laboured in the publishing of the Fathers Works with great diligence and more sincerity than could be expected in any other part of that Church where the watchful Eyes of Inquisitors might have prevented that Fidelity which they have observed in publishing those Records of Antiquity So that the state of the former Ages of the Church is better understood there than in any other Nation of that Communion Nor has the Secular Clergy or Laity only laboured with great faithfulness in those enquiries such as Albaspine De Marca Godeau Launnoy Huetius Rigaltius Valesius and Balusius to name no more but even that Order which is not so much admired over the World for great scrupulosity of Conscience has produced there several great Men that are never to be named but with Honour such as Fronto Ducaeus and Petavius but above all Sirmondus through whose Writings there runs such a tincture of Candour and Probity that in matters of fact Protestants are generally more enclined to acquiesce in his authority than those of his own perswasion are which made them afraid at Rome to give him free access to their Manuscripts Nor is the Learning of the Gallican Church that for which they are chiefly to be esteemed It must also be acknowledged that from the study of the Ancient Fathers many of them seem to have derived a great measure of their Spirit which has engaged diverse among them to set forward as great a Reformation as the Constitution of their Church can admit of They have endeavoured not only to discover the corruptions in Morality and Casuistical Divinity and many other abuses in the Government of the Church but have also infused in their Clergy a greater Reverence for the Scriptures a deeper sense of the Pastoral Care and a higher value for Holy Orders than had appeared among them for divers Ages before Some of their Bishops have set their Clergy great Examples and a disposition of Reforming mens Lives and of restoring the Government of the Church according to the Primitive Rules hath been such that even those who are better Reformed both as to their Doctrine and Worship must yet acknowledge that there are many things among them highly Imitable and by which they are a great reproach to others who have not studied to copy after these patterns they have set them The World will be for ever bound to Honour the Names of Godeau Paschall Arnauld and the Author of the Essays of Morality and those thoughts which they have set on foot are so just and true that though their excellent Bishops are now almost all gone off the Stage and
man to forsake that Communion The Twelfth Method IS both very short and very easie It is to catch them in this Dilemma Before Wickliff Luther and Calvin and one may say as much of the Waldenses that lived in the Twelâ—â—h Century the Church of those of the P R. Religion was either made up of a little number of the Faithful or was not at all in being If it was not at all in being then theirs is a False Church since it is not perpetual as the True Church ought to be according to the promise of Iesus Christ The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her and I am with you even to the end of the World If their Church was in being it must have been according to their own principles Corrupted and Impious Because they cannot shew that little number of the pretended Faithful who before the Reformation did condemn as they now do all the Assemblies of the Popish Churches as over-run with Idolatry and Superstition They behaved themselves at least as to outward appearance as others did And thus their Church which was composed of that small unknown flock was not Holy and by consequence was not the True Church Remarks 1. TO the greatest part of this answer has been already given We acknowledge the Church of Rome was a True Church and had in it the means of Salvation though it was over-run with Errours and Christ is truly with his Church as long as those means of Salvation do remain in it So was the Iewish Church a True Church after she was in many points corrupted in her Doctrine 2. In those dark Ages many might have kept themselves free from the defilements of their Worship though no account is given of them in story So seven thousand had not bowed their knees to Baal in Elijah's time who were not so much as known to that Prophet though it might have been expected that they would all have willingly discovered themselves to him And since he knew nothing of them it is very probable they concealed themselves with great care from all others 3. All good men have not all the degrees of Illumination for there might have been great numbers that saw the corruptions of their Church but were so restrained by other opinions concerning the Unity of the Church that they thought it enough to infuse their notions into some few Disciples in whom they confided and on some perhaps that which Elisha said to Naaman the Syrian being wrong understood by them had great influence Others observing that the Apostles continued to worship at the Temple and offer Sacrifices which S. Paul and those with him that purified themselves must have done might have from that inferred that one might comply in a Worship though they disliked many things in it which if I am not much misinformed is a Maxime that governs many in the Roman Communion to this day I do not excuse this compliance but it is not so criminal as at first view it may appear to be If it is truly founded on a mistake of the mind and not on a baseness in the will or a rejecting of the Cross of Christ especially in men that had so faint a twilight as that was which they were guided by in those blind times 4. But to make the worst of this that can be and should we grant that through fear they had complied against their Consciences this only must make the conclusion terrible to them if they did not repent of it But God might have ordered the conveyance of truth to be handed down by such defiled hands and their not being personally holy must not be urged too far to prove that they could not be the true Church This will come too near the Doctrines of the Donatists and many of S. Austin's sayings which they unreasonably object to us may be turned upon them And it will very ill become a Church that acknowledges the Succession of the Bishop of Rome to have been the chief conveyance of Tradition which is a much greater matter in their principles than it is in ours to urge the Holiness of the Members to be essential to the being of a Church when it is acknowledged what a sort of men the Heads of their Church have been for diverse Ages The Thirteenth Method IS taken from the nature of Schism which one ought never to make what reasons soever may be pretended for it for according to the Minister â—hemselves no other reason can be given for their Separation but the Errours which they pretend had crept into the Church But those who were in it as well as thâ—y were did strongly assert as we do to this day that these were no Errours at all but Truths And it is certain that of opinions which are so different the one must be the true Doctrine and the other must be Errour and falshood and by consequence the one must be the good grain and the other must be the Tares Now it does not belong to particular persons by their private authority to pluck up that which they pretend to be Tares There is none but God who is the true Father of the Family that has this authority and can communicate it to others It is he who appoints the Reapers that is the Pope and the Bishops who are represented by the Angels to separate the Cockle from the Wheat and to pluck out the one without touching the other till the time of Harvest that is in a Council or by the common consent of the whole Church and in that case a Council is not necessary Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up But he said Nay lest while ye gather up the Tares ye root up also the Wheat with them let both grow together until the Harvest Therefore one ought never to sâ—parate upon what pretence soever it be but he must bear with that which he thinks is an abuse and errour and stay till the Church plucks up the Cockle This is one of the Methods of S. Austin in his Treatises against the Donatists in which he shews from the Examples of Moses Aaron Samuel David Isaiah Jeremy S. Paul who tolerated even the false Apostles that we ought never to separate from our Brethren before the solemn condemnation of the Church He says pursâ—ant to this that the Donatists were intolerably wicked for having made a Schism for having erected an Altaâ— against an Altar and for having separated themselves from the Inheritance of Jesus Christ which is stretched ouâ— over all the Earth according to the promise that was made to it He addâ— that if they thought that was but a smâ—â— matter they had nothing to do but to sâ— what the Scripture teaches us by the examples we find in it of the punishment of sâ— great a crime for says he Those that made an Idol of the Golden Calf were only punished by the Sword whereas those who made the Schism were swallowed
guilty of which is to worship that as a God which we do believe is only a piece of Bread 2. In this very Article it is plain that our Opinion is the surer side For as to the Spiritual efficacy of the Sacrament and due preparation for it which is all that we hold concerning it by their own Confession there can be no sin in that whereas if their opinion is false they are guilty of a most horrid Idolatry So there is no danger in any thing we do whereas there may be great danger on their side all the danger that is possible to be on our side is that we do not adore Christ if he is present which may be thought to be want of Reverence But that cannot be reasonably urged since we at the same time adore him believing him to be in Heaven and if this objection against us had any force then the Primitive Church for twelve hundred years must have been in a state of damnation for none of them adored the Consecrated Elements nor has the Greek Church ever done it 3. It is clear this general Maxime of taking the surer sidâ— is against them There is no sin in not worshipping Images whereas there may be a sin in doing it They confess it is not necessary to invocate the Saints and we believe it is sinful They do not hold that it is necessary to say Masses for redeeming Souls out of Purgatory and we believe that it is an impious profanation of the Sacrament They do not hold it is necessary to take away the Cup in the Sacrament we think it Sacrilegious They do not think those Consecrations by which Divine Vertues are derived into such a variety of things to be necessary we look on them as gross Superstitions They do not think the Worship in an unknown tongue necessary whereas we think it a disgrace to Religion So in all these and many more particulars it is clear that we are of the surer side 4. We own that Maxime That nothing is necessary to Salvation but what is plainly set down in the Scriptures but this is not to be carried so far as that it should be impossible by sophistry or the equivocal use of words to fasten some other sense to such passages in Scripture for then nothing can be said to be plain in any Book whatsoever But we understand this of the genuine meaning of the Scriptures such as a plain well-disposed man will find out if his mind is not strongly prepossessed or biassed with false and wrong measures 5. The Confidence with which any party proposes their opinions cannot be a true Standart to judge of them otherwise the Receipts of Mountebanks will be always preferred to those prescribed by good Physicians and indeed the modesty of one side and the confidence of the other ought rather to give us a biass for the one against the other especially if it is visible that Interest is very prevalent in the confident party The Third Method IS to confer amicably with them and to shew them our Articles in the Scriptures and Tradition as the Fathers of tbe first Ages understood both the one and the other without engaging in reasonings or the drawing out of Consequences by Syllogisms as Cardinal Bellarmin and Perron and Gretser and the other Writers of Controversie have done which ordinarily beget endless disputes It was in this manner that the General Councils did proceed and thus did S. Austin prove Original sin against Julian To this end says he O Julian that I may overthrow thy Engines and Artifices by the opinions of those Bishops who have interpreted the Scripture with so much glory After which he cites the passages of the Scripture as they were understood by S. Ambrose S. Cyprian S. Gregory Nazianzene and others Remarks 1. WE do not deny but amicable Conferences in which matters are proposed without the wranglings of Dispute are the likeliest ways to convince people And whenever they shew us their doctrines directly in the Scripture and Tradition we will be very unreasonable if we do not yield upon that Evidence When they give us good authorities from Scripture and Tradition for the Worship of Images and Saints for adoring the Host for dividing the Sacrament for redeeming Souls out of Purgatory for denying the people the free use of the Scriptures for obliging them to worship God in a Tongue not understood by them we will confess our selves very obstinate men if we resist such Conviction 2. The shewing barely some passages without considering the whole scope of them with the sense in which such words were used in such ages and by such Fathers will certainly misguide us therefore all these must be also taken in for making this Enquiry exactly Allowances also must be made for the heats of Eloquence in Sermons or warm Discourses since one passage strictly and philosophically expressed is stronger than a hundred in which the heat of Zeal and the Figures of Rhetorick transport the Writer And thus if the Fathers disputing against those who said that the Humane Nature of Christ was swallowed up by his Divine Nature urge this to prove that the Humane Nature did still subsist that in the Sacrament after the Consecration in which there is an Union between the Elements and the Body and Blood of Christ they do still retain their proper nature and substance such expressions used on such a design leâ—d us more infallibly to know what they thought in this matter than any thing that they said with design only to beget Reverence and Devotion can do 3. The Ancient Councils were not so sollicitous as this Paper would insinuate to prove a Tradition from the Fathers of the first Ages They took great care to prove the truth which they decreed by many arguments from Scripture but for the Tradition they thought it enough to shew that they did innovate in nothing and that some Fathers before them had taught what they decreed We have not the acts of the two first General Councils but we may very probably gather upon what grounds those at Nice proceeded by what S. Athanasius wrote as an Apology for their Symbol in particular for the word Consubstantial which he proves by many consequences drawn from Scripture but for the Tradition of it he only cites four Fathers and none of those were very ancient They are Theognistus Denis of Alexandria Denis of Rome and Origen and yet both that Father Hilary and S. Basil acknowledge that Denis of Alexandria wavered much in that matter and it is well known what advantages were taken from many of Origen's expressions So here we have only two undisputed Fathers that conveyed this Tradition We have the Acts of the third General Council yet preserved and in them we find a Tradition indeed alledged but except S. Cyprian and S. Peter of Alexandria they cite none but those that had lived after the Council of Nice and Pope Leo's Letter to Flavian
to which the Council of Chalcedon assented is an entire contexture of authorities drawn from Scripture without so much as any one citation of any Father It is true there is added to the end of that Letter a Collection of some sayings of six Fathers Hilary Ambrose Nazianzene Chrysostome Austin and Cyril who had all except one lived within sixty years or a little more of that time So it is certain they founded their Faith only on the Scripture and not on Tradition otherwise they had taken more pains to have made it out and had not been so easily satisfied with what a few late Writers had said And thus it may be presumed that all the end for which they cited them was only to shew that they did not broach new and unheard of opinions And S. Austin could noâ— think that S. Cyprian's opinion alâ—ne was a sufficient proof of the Doctrine of the first three Centuries for Original Sin and yet he citeâ— no other that lived in those Ages Noâ— could S. Ambrose and Nazianzene that had lived in his own time be cited tâ— prove the Tradition of former Ages And whereas it is insinuated that he cited others one would expect to finâ— a Catalogue of many other Fatherâ— wrapt up in this plural whereas alâ— resolves into Hilary alone And we have a more evident Indication of S. Austin's sense as to the laâ—t resort in matters of Controversie than this they offer in that celebrated saying of his when he was writing against Maximinus the Arian Bishop But neither may I make use of the Nicene Council nor you that of Arimini as that which ought to pre-judge us in this matter for neither am I held by the authority of the one nor you by the authority of the other Let the one side and cause and their reasons be brought against the other from the authorities of the Scriptures that do not belong to either side but are Witnesses common to both The Fourth Method IS to tell them that their Ministers can never do this nor shew in the Scriptures any of their Articles that are controverted and this is very true For example they can never bring any formal Text to prove that Original Sin remains as to the guilt of it after Baptism that we receive the Body of Iesus Christ only by Faith that after the Consecration the Sacrament is still Bread that there is no Purgatory and that we do not merit any thing by our good works And to this it may be added that among all those passages that are on the Margent of their Confession there is not one that says that which they cite it for either in express or equivalent terms or in the same sense This is the Method of Mr. Veron which he took from S. Austin who says to the Manichaeans Shew me that that is in the Scripture and in another place Let him shew me that that is to be found in the Holy Scripture We must then boldly tell them That they cannot prove any of their Articles that are in dispute nor dispute against any of ours by any passages of Scripture neither in express terms nor by sufficient consequences so as to make their Doctrine be received as the Faith and ours pass for Errour Remarks THe first part of this Article proceeds upon Veron's Method of putting us to prove our Doctrines by express words of Scripture but some more cautious person has added in the conclusion a Salvo for good consequences drawn from them upon which we yield that this is a very good Method and are ready to joyn issue upon it If they intend still to build upon that notion of express words we desire it may be considered that the true meaning of all passages is not to be taken only from the bare words but from the contexture of the Discourse and the design upon which they are made use of and that Rule of Logick being infallibly true That what things soever agree in any third thing they do also agree among themselves it is certain that a true consequence is as good a proof as a formal passage Thus did our Saviour prove the Resurrection from the Scriptures by a very remote consequence since God was said to be the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and was the God of the Living and not of the Dead So did the Apostles prove Christ's being the promised Messias and the obligation to observe the Mosaical Ceremonies to have ceased upon his coming by many consequences but not by the express words of Scripture All the arguings of the Fathers against the Heretiâ—ks run on Consequences drawn from Scripture as may appear in all their Synodical Letters more particularly in that formerly cited of Pope Leo to Flavian to which the Fourth General Council assented This Plea does very ill become men that pretend such reverence to Antiquity since it was that upon which all the Ancient Hereticks set up their strength as the most plausible pretence by which they thought they could cover themselves So the Arians at Arimini give this reason for rejecting the word Consubstantial because it was not in the Scriptures The Macedonians laid hold of the same pretence Nestorâ—us gives this as his chief reason for denying the Virgin to be the Mother of God And Eutyches covered himself also with this question In what Scripture were the two Natures of Christ to be found And his followers did afterwards insist so much on this Plea that Theodoret wrote two large Discourses on purpose to shew the weakness of this pretence So that after all the noise they make about the Primitive Church they follow the same tract in which the Hereticks that were condemned by the first four General Councils went and they put us to do the same thing that the Hereticks then put on the Orthodox But we make the same answer to it which the Fathers did That the sense of the Scriptures is to be considered more than the words So that what is according to the true sense is as much proved by Scripture as if it were contained in it in so many express words And yet this Plea had a much greater strength in it as it was managed by those Hereticks for those contests being concerning mysteries which exceed our apprehensions it was not an unreasonable thing at first view to say that in such things which we cannot perfectly comprehend it is not safe to proceed by deductions or consequences and therefore it seemed safer to hold strictly to Scripture Phrases but in other points into which our understandings can carry us further it is much more absurd to exact of us express words of Scripture 2. Most of the points about which we dispute with the Church of Româ— are additions made by them to the simplicity of the Christian Religion So much as we own of the Christian Religion they own likewise In the other particulars our Doctrine with relation to them is made up of Negatives