unto one of your great Masters to be acquainted with the genuine sense of one of your Churches Proposals this being the way that he takes for his satisfaction First he speaks unto the Article or Question to be considered in Generall then gives the different senses of it according to these and those famous Masters the most of which he confutes who yet all of them professed themselves to explain and to speak according to the sense of your Church and lastly gives his own interpretation of it which it may be within a few moneths is confuted by another 3. Suppose a man have attained a knowledge of all that your Church hath determined and proposed to be believed and to a right understanding of her precise sense and meaning in all her determinations and proposals which I believe never yet man attained unto yet what assurance can he have if he live in any place remote from Rome but that your Church may have made some new Determinations in matters of faith whose embracement in the sense which she intends belongs unto his keeping the Unity of Faith which yet he is not acquainted withall Is it not simply impossible for him to be satisfied at any time that he believes all that is to be believed or that he holds the Vnity of Faith Your late Pontific all Determination in the Case of the Jansenists and Molinists is sufficient to illustrate this instance For I suppose you are equally bound not to believe what your Church condemneth as Hereticall as you are bound to believe what it proposeth for Catholick Doctrine 4. I desire to know when a man who lives here in England begins to be obliged to believe the Determinations of your Church that are made at Rome It may be he first hears of them in a Mercury or weekly News book or it may be he hath notice of them by some private Letters from some who live near the place or it may be he hath a knowledge of them by common report or it may be they are printed in some Books or that there is a brief of them published somewhere under the name of the Pope or they are put into some Volume written about the Councels or some Religious Persons on whom he much relyes assures him of them I know you believe that your Churches Proposition is a sufficient means of the Revelation of any Article to make it necessary to be believed but I desire to know what is necessary to Cause a man to receive any Dictate or Doctrine as your Churches proposition not only upon this account that you are not very well agreed upon the Requisita unto the making of such a Proposition but also because be you as infallible as you please in your Proposals the means and wayes you use to communicate those Proposals you make unto Individuals in whom alone the faith whereof we treat exists are all of them fallible Now that which I desire to know is What is or what are those certain means and wayes of communicating the Propositions of your Church unto any Person wherein he is bound to acquiesce and upon the application of them unto him to believe them fide divina cui non potest subesse falsum Is it any one thing or way or means that the hinge upon which his assent turns Or is it a Complication of many things concurring to the same purpose If it be any one thing way or medium that you fix upon pray let us know it and we shall examine its fitness and sufficiency for the use you put it unto I am sure we shall find it to be either infallible or fallible If you say the former and that particular upon which the Assent of a mans mind unto any thing to be the proposall of your Church depends must in the testimony it gives and evidence that it affords be esteemed infallible then you have as many infallible Persons things or writings as you make use of to acquaint one another with the determinations of your Church that is upon the matter you are all so though I know in particular that you are not If the latter notwithstanding the first pretended infallible Proposition your faith will be found to be resolved immediately into a fallible information For what will it advantage me that the proposall of your Church cannot deceive me if I may be deceived in the Communicating of that Proposall unto me And I can with no more firmness certainty or assurance believe the thing proposed unto me than I do believe that it is the Proposall of the Church wherein it is made For you pretend not unto any self-evidencing efficacy in your Churches Propositions or things proposed by it but all their Authority as to me turns upon the Assurance that I have of their relation unto your Church or that they are the Proposals of your Church concerning which I have nothing but very fallible evidence and so cannot possibly believe them with Faith Divine and Supernaturall If you shall say that there are many things concurring unto this Communication of your Churches Proposals unto a man as the notoritty of the Fact suitable proceedings upon it books written to prove it Testimonies of good men and the like I cannot but mind you that all these being sigillatim every one apart fallible they cannot in their Conspiracy improve themselves into an Infallibility Strengthen a Probability they may testifie infallibly they neither do nor can So that on this account it is not only impossible for a man to know whether he holds the Vnity of Faith or no but indeed whether he believe any thing at all with Faith Supernaturall and Divine seeing he hath no infallible evidence for what is proposed unto him to believe to build his faith upon 5. Protestants are not satisfied with your generall implicit assent unto what your Church teacheth and determineth which you have invented to solve the difficulties that attend your Description of the Vnity of Faith Of what use it may be unto other purposes I do not now dispute but as to this of the preservation of the Vnity of Faith it is certainly of none at all The Vnity of Faith consists in all mens express believing all that all men are bound expresly to believe be it what it will Now you would have this preserved by mens not believing what they are bound to believe For what belongs to this keeping the Vnity of Faith they are bound to believe expresly and what they believe implicitly they do indeed no more but not expresly disbelieve for if they do any more than not disbelieve they put forth some act of their understanding about it and so farre expresly believe it So that upon the matter you would have ment to keep the Unity of Faith by a not believing of that which that they may keep the Unity of Faith they are bound expresly to believe Nor can you do otherwise whilest you make all the Propositions of your Church of things to be
A VINDICATION â—F THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX Wherein the Principles OF THE ROMAN CHURCH As to Moderation Unity and Truth are Examined And sundry Important Controversies concerning the Rule of Faith Papal Supremacy the Mass Images c. Discussed By John Owen D. D. LONDON Printed for Ph. Stephens at the Gilded-Lion in St. Pauls Church-yard and George Sawbridge at the Bible on Ludgate Hill 1664. Imprimatur Tho. Grigg R. in Christ. P. D. Humfr. Episc. Lond. à Sac. domesticis Decemb. 9. 1663. TO THE READER Christian Reader ALthough our Lord Jesus Christ hath laid blessed and stable foundations of Unity Peace and Agreement in judgement and affection amongst all his Disciples and given forth Command for their attendance unto them that thereby they might glorifie him in the world and promote their own spiritual advantage yet also foreknowing what effect the crafts of Satan in conjunction with the darkness and lusts of men would produce that no offence might thence be taken against him or any of his wayes he hath sorewarned all men by his Spirit what Differences Divisions Schisms and Heresies would ensue on the publication of the Gospel and arise even among them that should profess subjection unto his Authority and Law And accordingly it speedily came to pass For what Solomon sayes that he discovered concerning the first Creation namely that God made man upright but he sought out many inventions or immixed himself in endless questions the same fell out in the new creation or erection of the Church of Christ. The state of it was by him formed upright and all that belonged unto it were of one heart and one soul. But this harmony and perfection of beauty in answer to his Will and Institution lasted not long among them many who mixed themselves with those Primitive converts or succeeded them in their profession quickly seeking out perverse inventions Hence in the dayes of the Apostles themselves there were not only schisms and divisions made in sundry Churches of their own planting with disputes about Opinions and needless impositions by those of the Circumcision who believed but also opposition was made unto the very fundamental Doctrines of the Deity and Incarnation of the Son of God by the Spirit of Antichrist then entring into the world as is evident from their Writings and Epistles But yet as all this while our Lord Jesus Christ according to his promise preserved the root of Love and Vnity amongst them who sincerely believed in him entire as he doth still and will do to the end by giving the one and selfsame spirit to guide sanctifie and unite them all unto himself so the care and Authority of the Apostles during their abode in the flesh so far prevailed that notwithstanding some temporary impeachments of Love and Union in or amongst the Churches yet no signal prejudice of any long continuance befell them For either the miscarriages which they fell into were quickly retrieved by them the truth infallibly cleared and provision made for Peace Vnity and Moderation in and about things of less concernment or else the evil guilt and danger of them remained only with and upon some particular persons the notoriety of whose wickedness and folly cast them out by common consent from the communion of all the Disciples of Christ. But no sooner was that sacred Society 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their immediate successors as Egesippus speaks in Eusebius departed unto their rest with God but that the Church it self which untill then was preserved a pure and incorruppted Virgin began to be vexed with abiding contention and otherwise to degenerate from its primitive original purity From thence forward especially after the heat of bloody and fiery persecutions began to abate far the greatest part of Ecclesiastical Records consists in relations of the Divisions Differences Schisms and Heresies that fell out amongst them who professed themselves the Disciples of Christ. For those failings errors and mistakes which were found in men of peaceable minds the Church indeed of those dayes extended her Peace and Vnity if Justin Martyr and others may be believed to such as the seeming warmer zeal and really colder charity of the succeeding Ages could not bear withal But yet divisions and disputes were multiplyed into such an excess as that the Gentiles fetcht advantage from them not only to reproach all Christians withall but to deterr others from the proâ—ession of Christianity So Celsus in his third Book deals with them for saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At first when they were but a few they were of one mind or agreed well enough But being increased and the multitude of them scattered abroad they were presently divided again and again and every one would have his own party or division and as in a divided multitude opposed and reproved one another so that they had no communion among themselves but only in name which for shame they retain So doth he for his purpose as is the manner of men invidiously exaggerate the differences that were in those early times amongst Christians for he wrote about the dayes of Trajan the Emperour That others of them took the same course is testified by Clemens Stromat lib. 7. Augustin lib. de Ovib. c. 15. and sundry others of the antient Writers of the Church But that no just offence as to the truth or any of the wayes of Christ might hence be taken we are as I said before forewarned of all these things by the Lord himself and his Apostles as also of the use and necessity of such events and issues Whence Origen cryes out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Most admirable unto me seems the saying of Paul There must be Heresies amongst you that those who are approved may be manifest Nor can any just excception be hence taken against the Gospel it self For it doth not belong unto the excellency or â—ignity of any thing to free it self from all opposition but only to preserve it self from being prevailed against and to remain victorious as the sacred truths of Christ have done and will do unto the end Not a few indeed in these evil dayes wherein we live the ends of the world and the difficulties with which they are attended being come upon us persons ignorant of things past and regardless of things to come in bondage to their present lusts and pleasures are ready to make use of the pretence of divisions and differences among Christians to give up themselves unto Atheism and indulge to their pleasures like the beasts that perish Let us eat and drink for too morrow we shall dye Quid aliud inscribi poterat sepulchro bovis But whatever they pretend to the contrary it may be easily evinced that it is their personal dislike of that holy obedience which the Gospel requireth not the differences that are about the Doctrines of it which alienates their minds from the truth They will not some of them foregoe all Philosophical inquiries after the
Apostasie also For why must that needs be the notion of these termes in the division you made that you now express Is it from the strict sense and importance of the words themselves or from the Scripturall or Ecclesiasticall use of them or whence is it that it must be so and that it is so None of these will give you any relief or the least countenance unto your fancie Both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in themselves of an indifferent signification denoting things or acts good or evill according to their accidentall limitations and applications It is said of some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they will depart from the faith 1 Tim. 4. 1. And the same Apostle speaking of them that name the name of Christ sayes let every one of them depart from iniquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 2. 19. so that the word it self signifies no more but a single and bare departure from anything way rule or practice be it good or bad wherein a man hath been ingaged or which he ought to avoid and fly from And this is the use of it in the best Greek Authors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are such in Homer who are farre distant or remote on any account from any thing or place And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Aristotle things very remote To leave any place company thing Society or Rule on any cause is the common use of the word in Thucydides Plutarch Lucian and the rest of their companions in the propriety of that language Apostasia by Ecclesiasticall writers is restrained unto either a back sliding in Faith subjective and manners or a causeless relinquishment of any Truth before professed So the Jews charge Paul Acts 21. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou teachest Apostasie from Moses Law Such also is the nature of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a speciall option choyce or way in profession of any Truth or Error So Paul calls Pharisaisme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 26. 5. the most exact heresie or way of Religion among the Jews And Clemens Alexandrinus Strom lib. 8. calls Christian Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the best Heresie And the great Constantine in one of his Edicts calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Catholick or generall Heresie and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most holy Heresie The Latines also constantly used that word in a sense indifferent Cato faith Cicero est in ea heresi quae nullum orationis florem sequitur The words therefore themselves you see are of an indifferent signification having this difference between them that the one for the most part is used to signifie the Relinquishment of that which a man had before embraced and the other a choice or embracing of that which a man had not before received or admitted And this difference is constantly observed by all Ecclesiasticall writers who afterwards used these words in the worst or an evill sense so that Apostasie in this appropriation of it denotes the relinquishment of any Important Truth or way in Religion and Heresie the choice or embracement of any new destructive Opinion or Principle or way in the profession thereof A man then may be an Apostate by partiall Apostasie that is depart from the Profession of some Truth he had formerly embraced or the performance of some duty which he was engaged in without being an Heretick or choosing any new opinion which he did not before embrace Thus you signally call a Monke that deserts his Monasticall Profession an Apostate though he embrace no opinion which is condemned by your Church or which you think hereticall And a man may be an Heretick that is choose and embrace some new false opinion which he may coyn out of his own imagination without a direct renunciation of any Truth which before he was instructed in And this is that which I intended when I told you that your Church is fallen by partiall Apostasie and by Heresie Shee hath renounced many of the important Truths which the old Roman Church once believed and professed and so is fallen by Apostasie And she hath invented or coyned many Articles pretended to be of faith which the old Roman Church never believed and so is fallen by Heresie also Now what say you hereunto Why good S r in this division Apostasie is set to express a totall relapse in opposition to Heresie which is the partiall But who gave you warrant or leave so to set them It would it may be somewhat serve your turn in evading the Charge of Apostasie that lyes against your Church but Good S r will not prove that you may thus confound things for your advantage Idolatry is Heresie and Apostasie is Heresie and what not because you suppose you have found a way to escape the imputation of Heresie I say then yet again in answer to your enquiry that your Church is fallen by Apostasie in her relinquishment of many important truths and neglect of many necessary duties which the old Roman Church embraced and performed That these may be the more evident unto you I shall give you some few instances of your Apostasie desiring only that you would grant me that the primitive Church of Rome believed and faithfully retained the doctrine of truth wherein from the Scripture it was instructed That Church believed expresly that all they who die in the Lord do rest from all their labours Rev. 14. 8. which truth you have forsaken by sending many of them into the flames of Purgatory It believed that the sufferings of this life are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed in us Rom. 8. 18. Your Church is otherwise minded asserting in our works and sufferings a merit of and condignity unto the glory that shall be received It believed that we were saved freely by grace by faith which is not of our selves but the gift of God not by works left any one should boast Eph 2. 8. Tit. 3. 5. and therefore besought the Lord not to enter into judgement with them because in his sight no flesh could be justified Psal. 130. 4. 143. 2. And you are apostatized from this part of their faith It believed that Christ was once only offered Heb. 10 12. and that it could not be that he should often offer himself because then he must have often suffered and died Heb. 9. 25. Which faith of theirs you are departed from It believed that we have one only Mediatour and Intercessour with God 1 Tim. 2. 5. 1 Joh. 2. 2. Wherein also you have renounced their perswasion as likewise you have done in what it professed that we may invocate only him in whom we do believe Rom. 10. 14. It believed that the Command to abstain from Meats and Marriage was the doctrine of Devils 1 Tim. 4. 1 2. Do you abide in the same faith It believed that Every soul without exception was to be subject to the higher Powers Rom. 13. 1. You will not
is lawfull for him to depose Emperours I hope you will not be offended at the calling over these Heresies because the so doing is not suited to our present design I took them out of your Cardinal Baronius in the place above quoted who hath placed them as on a pillar V. D. P. L. P. where they may be easily read by all men And that you may not think that these were the Heresies of Gregory alone the same Baronius affirms that these Dictates were confirmed in a Synod at Rome whereby they became the Heresies of your whole Church Did Peter thus feed the sheep of Christ seeing Pasce oves meas is the great pretence for all these exorbitances Alas Hic alienus oves custos his mulget in horâ— all this is but the shearing milking and slaying of a stranger the shepherds being driven into corners But have these noisome Heresies of your Church think you passed without controll Was she not judged censured written against and condemned in the person of her chief Pastor You must be a very stranger unto all History if you can imagine any such thing A Councell assembled by the Emperor at Worms in Germany reckons up the miscarriages of this Hildebrand and pronounceth him deposed with all those that adhered unto him Another Synod an 1080. at Brixia in Bavaria condemns him also for the same causes All the Heroick Potentates of Europe especially the Emperors of Germany the Kings of England and France with whole Assemblies of their Clergy have alwayes opposed and condemned this branch of your Supremacy And to this purpose hundreds of their Laws Decrees Edicts and Declarations are at this day extant 4. Your Pope's Personall Infallibility with the requisite Qualifications is another Hereticall Opinion that your Church hath fallen by And herein you are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned of your selves and we need no further witness against you you have been often taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very fact I know there is an Opinion secretly advancing amongst some of you whereby you would cast out of the bounds of your defence this Personall Infallibility of your Pope but we have no more reason to esteem that opinion the Doctrine of your Church than we have to conclude that the Jesuits new Position asserting him Infallible in matter of fact is so And though I know not perfectly what your opinion is in this matter yet I may take a time to shew how utterly unserviceable unto your purpose the new way of the explication of Infallibility is For it hath but these two generall inconveniences attending it First that it is not the opinion of your Church Secondly if that be the only Infalliblity we are to rest on the whole claim of your Church and its interest therein falls to the ground both which I hope to have an opportunity to manifest In the mean time we take that for the Doctrine of your Church which is declared by its self so to be which is explained and defended by her most famous Champions And indeed you in your Fiat assert as I have shewed the Pope Personally to be an unerring guide which is that we enquire after Bellarmine tells us that all Catholicks agree in these two things 1. Pontificem cum Generali Concilio non posse errare in condendis decretis fidoi vel generalibus praeceptis morum That the Pope with a generall Councell cannot erre in making decrees of faith or generall precepts concerning manners 2. Pontificem solum vel cum suo particulari Concilio aliquid in re dubia statuentem sive errare possit sive non esse ab omnibus fidelibus obedienter audiendum All believers must willingly obey the Pope either alone or with his particular Councell determining in doubtfull matters whether he may erre or no. I confess if this be so and he must be obeyed whether he do right or wrong whether he teacheth truly or falsly it is to no great purpose to talk of his Infallibility for follow him we must whither ever he leads us though it should be to Hell And the Catholick Proâ—osition that he asserts himself is that Summus Pontifex cum totam Ecclesiam docet in his quae ad fidem pertinent nullo casu errare potest The Pope when he teacheth the whole Church can in no Caseerre in those things which appertain unto faith De Rom. Pontif. lib. 4. cap. 2 3. What a Blind that is of teaching the whole Church children can see The Pope can no way teach the whole Church but as he declares his opinion or judgement which may be divulged unto many as those of another man Let us see then how well they have made good this their Infallibility and how well their judgement hath been approved of by the Church of old I will not here mind you of the Decree fathered on Clemens wherein he determines that all things among Christians ought to be common and among them wives because I know it is falsly imposed on him though you may be justly charged with it who are the Authors of those forgeries whereof that is a part Nor shall I rake the Epistles which you ascribe unto divers of the Ancient Bishops of Rome that are full of ignorance errors and pittifull non-sence because they are questionless Pseudopigraphcall though you who own them may be justly charged with their follies Nor will I much insist on the Testimony of Tertullian in his Book against Praxeas that the Bishop of Rome owned the Prophesies of Montanus untill Praxeas perswaded him to the Contrary because it may be you will say that perhaps Tertullian spake partially in favour of a Sect whereunto he was himself addicted though for ought I know he is as sufficient a Witness in matter of fact as any one man upon the Roll of Antiquity But what say you to Marcellinus Did he not sacrifice to Idols which according unto you is a mixt misdemeanour in faith and manners Con. Tom. 1. Vita Marcell and therefore certainly a shrewd impeachment of his Infallibility and was he not judged for it What think you of Liberius did he not subscribe to Arianism Soomen tells you expresly that he did so Lib. 4. cap. 15. And so doth Athanasius Epist. ad Solitarios giving the reason why he did so namely out of fear And so doth Hierome both in Script Ecclesiast Fortunat. and in Euseb. Chron. Pope Honorius was solemnly condemned for a Monothelite-Heretick in the sixth generall Councell Act. 12 13. which Sentence was afterwards ratified by your own darling the second of Nice Act. 3 and Act. 7. and is mentioned in a decretall Epistle of Pope Leo the second So Infallible was he during his life so infallible was he thought to be when he was dead whilest he lived he taught Heresie and when he was dead he was condemned for an Heretick and with him the Principle which is the hindg of your present faith Neither did Vigilius behave himself one jot better in his Chair
faith of men is formally and ultimately resolved into so that what ever Propositions that are made unto them they may reject unless they do it with a non obstante for its supposed Revelation the whole Revelation abides unshaken and their saith founded thereon But as to the Persons who first bring unto any the tidings of the Gospel seeing the faith of them that receive it is not resolved into their Authority or Infallibility they may they ought to examine their proposals by that unerring word which they ultimately rest upon as did the Beraeans and receive or reject them at first or afterwards as they see cause and this without the least impeachment of the truth or Authority of the Gospel its self which under this formal consideration as revealed of God they absolutely believe Let us now see what you except hereunto First you ask What love of Christs dictates what commission of Christ allows you to choose and reject at your own pleasure Ans. None nor was that at all in question nor do you speak like a man that durst look upon the true state of the Controversie between us You proclaim your cause desperate by this perpetual tergiversation The Question is whither when men preach the Gospel unto others as a Revelation from God and bring along the Scripture with them wherein they say that Revelation is comprized when that is received as such and hath its authority confirmed in the minds of them that receive it whither are they not bound to try all the teaching in particular of them that first bring it unto them or afterwards continue the preaching of it whither it be consonant to that Rule or Word wherein they believe the whole Revelation of the will of God relating to the Gospel declared unto them to be contained and to embrace what is suitable thereunto and to reject any thing that in particular may be by the mistakes of the teachers imposed upon them Instead of believing what the Scripture teacheth and rejecting what it condemns you substitute choosing or rejecting at your own pleasure a thing wherein our discourse is not at all concerned You adde What Heretick was ever so much a fool as not to pretend the Love of Christ and Commission of Christ for what he did What then I pray may not others do a thing really upon such grounds as some pretend to do them on falsly may not a Judge have his Commission from the King because some have counterfeited the great Seal May not you sincerely seek the good and peace of your Country upon the Principles of your Religion though some pretending the same Principles have sought its disturbance and ruine If there be any force in this exception it overthrows the Authority and Efficacy of every thing that any man may falsly pretend unto which is to shut out all order Rule Government and vertue out of the world You proceed How shall any one know you do it out of any such Love or Commission sith those who delivered the Articles of saith now rejected pretended equal love to Christ and Commission of Christ for the delivery of them as any other I wonder you should proceed with such impertinent enquiries How can any man manifest that he doth any thing by the Commission of another but by his producing and manifesting his Commission to be his and how can be prove that the doth it out of Love to him but by his diligence care and conscience in the discharge of his Duty as our Saviour tells us saying if you love me keep my Commandments which is the proper effect of love unto him and open evidence or manifestation of it Now how should a man prove that he doth any thing by the Commission of Christ but by producing that Commission that is in the things about whâ—ch we treat by declaring and evidencing that the things he proposeth to be believed are revealed by his spirit in his word and that things which he rejects are contrary thereunto And what ever men may pretend Christ gives out no adverse Commissions his word is every way and everywhere the same at perfect harmony and consistency with its self so that if it come to that that several Persons do teach contrary doctrines either before or after one another or together under the same pretence of receiving them from Christ as was the case between the Pharises of old that believed and the Apostles they that attend unto them have a perfect guide to direct them in their choice a perfect Rule to judge of the things proposed As in the Church of the Jews the Pharises had taught the people many things as from God for their Traditions or Oral Law they pretended to be from God Our Saviour comes really a teacher from God and he disproves their false Doctrines which they had prepossessed the people withall and all this he doth by the Scripture the Word of Truth which they had before received And this Example hath he left unto his Church unto the end of the world But you yet proceed Why may we not at length reject all the rest for love of something else when this Love of Christ which is now crept into the very out side of our lips is slipt off from thence Do you think men cannot find a cavil against him as well as his Law delivered unto us with the first news of him and as easily dig up the root as cut up the branches You are the pleasantest man at a disputation that ever I met withal haud ulli veterum virtute secundus you outgo your masters in palpable Sophistry If we may and ought for the Love of Christ reject errours and untruths taught by fallible men then we may reject him also for the love of other things Who doubts it but men may if they will if they have a mind to do so they may do so Physically but may they do so Morally may they do so upon the same or as good grounds and reasons as they reject errours and false worship for the sake of Christ With such kind of arguing is the Roman Cause supported Again you suppose the Law of Christ to be rejected and therefore say that his Person may be so also But this contains an application of the general Thesis unto your particular case and thereupon the begging of the thing in Question Our enquiry was general Whither things at first delivered by any Persons that preach the Gospel may not be rejected without any impeachment of the Authority of the Gospel it self Here that you may insinuate that to be the case between you and us you suppose the things rejected to be the Law of Christ when indeed they are things rejected because they are contrary to the Law of Christ and so affirmed in the Assertion which you seek to oppose For nothing may be rejected by the Commission of Christ but what is contrary to his Law The truth is he that rejects the Law of Christ as it is his
most would do so still did they not judge the evil remediless And if the state of things be in your Catholick Countreys between the Gentry and Clergy as you inform us I fear it is not from the learning of the one but the ignorance of the other And this you seem to intimate by rejecting learning from being any essentiall complement of their profession wherein you do wisely and what you are necessitated to do for those who are acquainted with them tell us that if it were you would have a very thin Clergy left you very many of them not understanding the very Mass Book which they daily chaunt and therefore almost every word in your Missalc Romanum is accented that they may know how aright to pronounce them which yet will not deliver them from that mistake of him who instead of Introibo ad altare Dei read constantly Introibo ad tartara Dei Herein we envy not the condition of your Catholick Countreys and though we desire our Gentry were more learned than they are yet neither we nor they could be contented to have our Ministers ignorant so that they might be in veneration for that Office sake which they are no way able to discharge As to what you affirm concerning England and our usage here in the close of your Discourse it is so utterly devoid of truth and honesty that I cannot but wonder at your open regardlesness of them Should you have written these things in Spain or Italy where you have made pictures of Catholicks put in Bears skins and torn with Dogs in England Eccles. Ang. Troph concerning England and the manners of the Inhabitants thereof you might have hoped to have met with some so partially addicted unto your faction and interest as to suppose there were some colour of truth in what you averre But to write these things here amongst us in the face of the Sun where every one that casts an eye upon them will detest your confidence and laugh at your folly is a course of proceeding not easie to be paraleled I shall not insist on the particulars there being not one word of truth in the whole but leave you to the discipline of your own thoughts Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum And so I have done with your Prefatory Discourse wherein you have made it appear with what reverence of God and love to the Truth you are conversant in the great concernments of the souls of men What in particular you except against in the Animadversions I shall now proceed to the consideration of CHAP. II. Vindication of the first Chapter of the Animadversions The method of Fiat Lux. Romanists doctrine of the Merit of Good Works IN your exceptions to the first Chapter of the Animadversions pag. 20. I wish I could find any thing agreeable unto Truth according unto your own Principles It was ever granted that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but alwayes to fail and faigne at pleasure was never allowed so much as to Poets Men may oftentimes utter many things untrue wherein yet some principles which they are perswaded to be agreeable unto Truth or some more generall mistakes from whence their particular assertions proceed may countenance their consciences from a sense of guilt and some way shield their reputation from the sharpness of censure But willingly and often for a man practically to offend in this kind when his mind and understanding is not imposed upon by any previous mistakes is a miscarriage which I do not yet perceive that the subtilest of your Casuists have found out an excuse for Two Exceptions you lay against this Chapter in the first whereof by not speaking the whole Truth you render the whole untruth and in the latter you plainly affirm that which your eyes told you to be otherwise First you say I proposed a dilemma unto you for saying you had concealed your method when what I spake unto you was upon your saying first that you had used no method and afterwards that you had concealed your method as you also in your next words here confess Now both these being impossible and severally spoken by you only to serve a present turn your sorry merriment about the Scholler and his eggs will not free your self from being very ridiculous Certainly this using no method and yet at the same time concealing your method is part of that civil Logick you have learned no man knows where You had farre better hide your weaknesses under an universall silence as you do to the most of them than expose them afresh unto publick contempt trimmed up with froth and trifles But this is but one of the least of your escapes you proceed to downright work in your following words Going on you deny say you that Protestants ever opposed the merit of Good works which at first I wondred at seeing the sound of it hath rung so often in my own ears and so many hundred Books written in this last Age so apparently witness it in all places till I found afterwards in my thorow perusall of your Book that you neither heed what you say nor how much you deny at last giving a distinction of the intrinsick acceptability of our works the easier to silence me you say as I say Could any man not acquainted with you ever imagin but that had denied that ever Protestants opposed the merit of Good works you positively affirm I did so you pretend to transcribe my own words you wonder why I should say so you produce testimony to disprove what I say and yet all this while you know well enough that I never said so have a little more care if not of your Conscience yet of your Reputation for seriously if you proceed in this manner you will lose the common Priviledge of being believed when you speak truth Your words in your Fiat Lux p. 15. ed. 2. are that our Ministers cull out various Texts out of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans against the Christian doctrine of Good works and their merit wherein you plainly distinguish between the Christian Doctrine of Good works and their merit as well you may I tell you pag. 25 26 that no Protestant ever opposed the Christian Doctrine of Good Works Here you repeat my words as you pretend and say that I deny that any Protestant ever opposed the Merit of Good works and fall into a fained wonderment at mee for saying that which you knew well enough I never said For Merit is not the Christian but rather as by you explained the Antichri-christian Doctrine of Good works as being perfectly Anti-Evangelicall What Merit you will esteem this Good work of yours to have I know not and have in part intimated what truely it doth deserve But you adde that making a distinction of the intrinsick acceptability of works you say as I say What is that I pray do I say that Protestants oppose the Christian Doctrine of Good Works as you say in your Fiat or do I say that
The Councell of Pisa deposed Gregory the twelfth and Benedict the thirteenth for Schismaticks and Hereticks The Councell of Constance accused John the twenty third of abominable Heresie Sess. 11. And that of Basil condemned Eugenius as one à fide devium pertinacem Haereticum Sess. 34. an erroneous Person and obstinate Heretick Other instances of the like nature might be called over manifesting that your Popes have erred and been condemned as persons erroneous and therein the Principle of their In fallibility I would be unwilling to tire your patience yet upon your reiterated desire I shall present you with one Instance more and I will do it but briefly because I must deal with you again about the same matter 5. Your Church is fallen by Idolatry as otherwise so in that Religious Veneration of Images which she useth whereunto you have added Heresie in teaching it for a Doctrine of Truth and imposing the belief of it by your Tridentine Determination on the Consciences of the Disciples of Christ. I know you would fain mince the matter and spread over the corrupt Doctrine of your Church about it with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 silken words as you do the Posts that they are made of with Gold when as the Prophetspeaks of your predecessors in that work you lavish it out of the bagge for that purpose But to what purpose Your first Councell the second of Nice which yet was not wholly yours neither for it condemns Honorius calls Thâ—rnsius the Oecumenicall Patriarch and he expounds in it the Rock on which the Church was built to be Christ and not Peter your last Councell that of Trent your Angelicall Doctor Thomas of Aquine your great Champions Bellarmine and Baronius Suarez Vasquez and the rest of them with the Catholick practise and usage of your Church in all places declare sufficiently what is your faith or rather misbelief in this matter Hence Azorius Institut Lib. 9 cap. 6. tells us that Constans est Theologorum sententia Imaginem èodem honore cultu coli quo colitur id cujus est Imago It is the constant judgement of Divines that the Image is to be worshipped with the same honour and worship wherewith that is worshipped whose Image it is The Nicene Councell by the instigation of Pope Adrian Anathematizeth every one who doth but doubt of the Adoration of Images Act. 7. Thomas contendeth that the Cross is to be worshipped with Latria p. 3. q. 25. a. 4. which is a word that he and you suppose to express Religious worship of the highest sort And your Councell of Trent in their decree about this matter confirmed the Doctrine of that Lestricall convention at Nice whose frauds and impostures were never paralleled in the world but by it's self And do you think that a few ambiguous flourishing words of you an unknown person shall make the world believe that they understand not the Doctrine and Practise of your Church which is proclaimed unto them by the Fathers and Mâ—sters of your perswasion herein and expressed in practises under their eyes every day Do you think it so easie for you Cornieum oculos configere as Cicero tells us an Atturney one Cn Flavius thought to do in going beyond all that the great Lawyers had done before him Orat. pro Muraena We cannot yet be perswaded that you are so great an Interpreter of the Roman Oracles as to believe you before all the Sages before mentioned to whom hundreds may be added And what do you think of this Doctrine and Practise of your Church Hath it been opposed judged and condemned or no The first Writers of Christianity Just In Martyr Irenaeus Origen Tertullian Arnobius Lactantius utterly abhorred the use of all Images at least in Sacris The Councell held at Elibâ—ris in Spain twâ—ve or thirteen years before the famous Assembly at Nice positively forbid all use of Pictures in Churches Can. 36. Plaquit Picturas in Ecclesia esse non debâ—re ne quod colitur adoratur in parietibus depingatur The Councell resolved that Pictures ought not to be in Churches that 〈◊〉 which is worshipâ—d and adored be not painted on walls Cyprian condemns it Epist. ad Demetriad And so generally do all the Fathers as may be gathered in the pittifull endeavours and forgeries of the second Nicene Councell endeavouring to confirm it from them Epiphanius reckons it among the errors of the Gnosticks and himself brake an Image that he found hanging in a Church Epist ad Johan Hierosol Austin was of the same judgement see Lib. de moriâ— Eccles. Cathol cap. 34. Your Adoration of them iâ— expresly condemned by Gregory the great in an Epistle to Serinus Lib. 7. Ep. 111 and Lib. 9. Epist. 9. The Greek Church condemned it in a â—ynod at Constantinople an 775. And one learned man in those last dayes undertaking its defence and indeed the only man of learning that ever did so untill of late they excommunicated and cursed him This was Damascenus concerning whom they used those expressions repeated in the second Nicene Councell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unto Mansour of an evil name and in judgement consenting with Saracens Anathema To Mansour a worshipper of Images and writer of Falshood Anathema To Mansour contumelious against Christ and traytor to the Empire Anathema To Mansour a teacher of impiety and perverse interpreter of Scripture Anathema Synod Nic. 2. Act. 6. For that it was Johannes Damascenus that they intended the Nicene Fathers sufficiently manifest in the Answer following read by Epiphanius the Deacon And this reward did he meet withall from the seventh Councell at Constantinople for his pains in asserting the veneration of Images although he did not in that particular pervert the Scripture as some of you do but laid the whole weight of his opinion on Tradition wherein he is followed by Vasquez among your selves Moreover the Western Churches in a great Councell at Frankeford in Germany utterly condemned the Nicene Determination which in your Tridentins Convention you approve and ratifie An. 794. It was also condemned here by the Church of England and the Doctrine of it fully confuted by Albinus Hoveden Annal. an 791. Never was any Heresie more publickly and solemnly condemned than this whereby your Church is fallen from its pristine purity But hereof more afterwards It were no difficult matter to procced unto all the Chief ways whereby your Church is fallen and to manifest that they have been all publickly disclaimed and condemned by the better and founder part of Professors But the Instances Insisted on may I hope prove sufficient for your satisfaction I shall therefore proceed to consider what you offer unto the remaining Principles which I conceived to animate the whole Discourse of your Fiat Lux. CHAP. V. Other Principles of Fiat Lux re-examined Things not at quiet in Religion before Reformation of the first Reformers Diparture from Rome no Cause of Devisions Returnal unto Rome no means of Union YOu proceed unto the fourth Assertion
flattering your selves with an imagination of any other Priviledge is that which hath wrought your ruine You are deceived if in this matter you are of Menander's mind who sayed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that all will of its own accord fall out well with you though you sleep securely As for all other Churches in the world besides your own wee have your concession not only that they were and are fallible but that they have actually erred long since and the same hath been proved against yours a thousand times and your best Reserve against particular charges of Errour lyes in this impertinent generall pretence that you cannot erre It may be you will ask for you use so to do and it is the design of your Fiat to promote the â—nquiry If the Church be fallible that is to propose unto us the things and Doctrines that we are to believe How can we with faith infallible believe her proposals And I tell you truly I know not how we can if we believe them only upon her Authority or she propose them to be believed solely upon that account but when she proposeth them unto us to be believed on the Authority of God speaking in the Srciptures we both can and do believe what she teacheth and proposeth and that with faith infallible resolved into the Veracity of God in his Word and we grant every Church to be so farre infallible as it attends unto the only Infallible Rule amongst men When you prove that any one Church is by any promise of Christ any grant of Priviledge expressed or intimated in the Scripture placed in an unerring condition any farther than as in the use of the means appointed she attends unto the only Rule of her preservation or that any Church shall be â—ecessitated to attend unto that Rule whether she will or no whereby she may be preserved or can give us an instance of any Church since the foundation of the world that hath been actually preserved and absolutely from all errour other than that of your own which you know we cannot admit of as you will do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great and memorable work so we shall grant as much as you can reasonably desire of us upon the account of the Assertion under consideration But untill you do some one or all of these your crying out The Church the Church the Church cannot erre makes no other noyse in our ears than that of the Jews The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Law shall not fail did in the ears of the Prophets of old Neither do we speak this of the Church or any Church as though we were concerned to question or deny any just Priviledges belonging unto it thereby to secure our selves from any pretensions of yours but meerly for the sake of Truth For we shall manifest anon unto you that you are as little concerned in the Priviledges of the Church be they what they will more or less as any Society of the Professours of Christianity in the world if so be that you are concerned in them at all So that if the Truth would permit us to agree with you in all things that you assign unto the Church yet the difference between you and us were never the nearer to an end for we should still differ with you about your share and interest therein and for ever abhor your frowardness in appropriating of them all unto your selves And herein as I sayed hath lyen a great part of your ruine Whilest you have been sweetly dreaming of an Infallibility you have really plunged your selves into errours innumerable and when any one hath jogged you to awake you out of your fatall sleep by minding you of your particular errours your dream hath left such an impression upon your imagination as that you think them no errours upon this only ground because you cannot erre I am perswaded had it not been for this one errour you had been freed from many others But this perfectly disiâ—ables you for any candid Inquisition after the Truth For why should he once look about him or indeed so much as take care to keep his eyes open who is sure that he can never be out of his way Hence you inquire not at all whether what you profess be Truth or not but to learn what your Church teacheth and defend it is all that you have to do about Religion in this world And whatever Absurdities or Inconveniencies you find your selves driven unto in the handling of particular points all is one they must be right though you cannot defend them because your Church which cannot erre hath so declared them to be And if you should chance to be convinced of any Truth in particular that is contrary to the determination of your Church you know not how to embrace it but must shut your eyes against its light and evidence and cast it out of your minds or wander up and down with a various assent between Contradictions Well said he of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is flat folly namely for a man to live in rebellion unto his own light But you adde III. That your selves that is the Pope with those who in matters of Religion adhere unto him and live in subjection unto him are this Church in an assent unto whose infallible teachings and Determinations the Vnity of Faith doth consist Could you prove this Assertion I confess it would stand you in good stead But before we enquire aftes that we shall endeavour a little to come unto a right understanding of what you say When you affirm tâ—at the Roman Church is the Church of Christ you intend either that it is the only Church of Christ all the Church of Christ and so consequently the Catholick Church or you mean that it is a Church of Christ which hath an especiall Prerog ative enabling it to require obedience of all the Disciples of Christ. If you say the former we desire to know 1. when it became so to be It was not so when all the Church was together at Hierusâ—lem and no foundation of any Church at all laid at Rome Acts 1. 1 2 3 4 5. It was not so when the first Church of the Gentiles was gathered at Antioch and the Disciples first began to be called Christians for as yet we have no tydings of any Church at Rome It was not so when Paul wrote his Epistles for he makes express mention of many other Church in other places which had no relation unto any Churches at Rome more than they had one to another in their common Profession of the same faith and therein enjoyed equall gifts and Priviledges with it It was not so in the dayes of the Primitive Fathers of the first three hundred years who all of them not one excepted took the Roman to be a local particular Church and the Bishop of Rome to be such a Bishop as they esteemed of all other Churches and Bishops
mind of God as you know the case to be between you and us what course would you take with him to reduce him unto the Unity of Faith would you tell him that your Church cannot erre or would you endeavour to perswade him that the particulars which he instanceth in as Errours are not so indeed but real Truths and necessarily by him to be believed The former if you would speak it out down-right and openly as becometh men who distrust not the Truth of their Principles for he that is perswaded of the Truth never fears its strength would soon appear to be a very wise course indeed You would perswade a man in generall that you cannot erre whilest he gives you instances that you have actually erred Do not think you have any Sophisms against Motion in generall that will prevail with any man to assent unto you whilest he is able to rise and walk to and fro Besides he that is convinced of any thing wherein you erre believes the opposite unto it to be true and that on grounds unto him sufficiently cogent to require his assent If you could now perswade him that you cannot erre whilest he actually believes things to be true which he knows to be contrary to your Determination what a sweet condition should you bring him into can you enable him to believe Contradictions at the same time Or when a man on particular grounds and evidences is come to a setled firm perswasion that any Doctrine of your Church suppose that of Transubstantiation is false and contradictory unto Scripture and right Reason if you should abstracting from particulars in generall puzzle him with Sophisms and pretences for your Churches Infallibility do you think it is an easie thing for him immediately to forego that perswasion in particular which his mind upon cogent and to him unavoidable grounds and arguments was possessed withall without a rationall removall of those grounds and Arguments Mens belief of things never pierces deeper into their Souls than their imagination who can take it up and lay it down at their pleasure I am perswaded therefore you would take the latter course and strive to convince him of his mistakes in the things that he judgeth erroneous in the Doctrine of your Church And what way would you proceed by for his Conviction Would you not produce Testimonies of Scripture with Arguments drawn from them and the Suffrage of the Fathers to the same purpose Nay would you not do so if the errour he charge you withall be that of the Authority and Infallibility of your Church I am sure all your Controversie-Writers of note take this course And do you not see then that you are brought whether you will or no unto the use of that way and means for the reducing of men unto the Unity of Faith which you before rejected which Protestants avow as sufficient to that purpose CHAP. IX Proposals from Protestant Principles tending unto Moderation and Unity YOu may from what hath been spoken perceive how upon your own Principles you are utterly disenabled to exercise any true moderation towards Dissenters from you And that which you do so exercise we are beholding for it as Cicero said of the Honesty of some of the Epicureans to the Goodness of their Nature which the illness of their Opinions cannot corrupt Neither are you any way enabled by them to reduce men unto the Vnity of Faith so that you are not more happy in your proposing of Good Ends unto your self than you are unhappy in chusing mediums for the effecting of them It may be for your own skill you are able like Archimedes to remove the earthly-Bull of our Contentions but you are like him again that you have no where to stand whilest you go about your work However we thank you for your Good intentions In magnis voluisse is no small commendation Protestants on the other side you see are furnished with firm stable Principles and Rules in the pursuit both of Moderation and Unity And there are some things in themselves very practicable and naturally deducible from the Principles of Protestants wherein the compleat exercise of Moderation may be obteined and a better progress made towards Vnity than is likely to be by a rigid contending to impose different Principles on one another or by impetuous clamours of lo here and lo there which at present most men are taken up withall Some few of them I shall name unto you as a pacifick Coronis to the preceding â—ristical Discourse and Si quid novisti rectius ist is Candidus imperti si non his ntere mecum And they are these 1. Whereas our Saviour hath determined that our happiness consisteth not in the knowing the things of the Gospell but in doing of them and seeing that no man can expect any benefit or advantage from or by Christ Jesus but only they that yeeld obedience unto him to whom alone he is a Captain of Salvation the first thing wherein all that profess Christianity ought to agree and consent together is joyntly to obey the commands of Christ to live godlliy righteously and soberly in this present world following after holiness without which no man shall see God Untill we all agree in this and make it our business and fix it as our end in vain shall we attempt to agree in notionall and speculative Truths nor would it be much to our advantage so to do For as I remember I have told you before so I now on this occasion tell you again It will at the last day appear that it is all one to any man what party or way in Christian Religion he hath been of if he have not personally been born again and upon mixing the Promises of Christ with faith have thereupon yeilded obedience unto him unto the end I confess men may have many advantages in one way that they may not have in another They may have better means of instruction and better examples for imitation But as to the event it will be one and the same with all unbelievers all unrighteous and ungodly Persons And men may be very zealous believers in a Party who are in the sight of God unbelievers as to the whole design of the Gospell This is a Principle wherein as I take it all Christians agree namely that the Profession of Christianity will do no man the least Good as to his eternall concernments that lives not up to the power of it yea it will be an aggravation of his condemnation And the want hereof is that which hath lost all the â—ustre and splendour of the Religion taught by Jesus Christ in the world Would Christians of all Parties make it their business to retrive its reputation wherein also their own bliss and happiness is involved by an universall obedience unto the precepts of it it would insensibly sink a thousand of their Differences under ground Were this attended unto the world would quickly say with admiration Magnus ab integro sêcloram