St. Ioseph who made choice of St. Ann for their Patroness they afterwards established themselves in France under the protection of Ann of Austria Regent of the Kingdom So that it was in our times that the Grand-father and Grand-mother of Iesus Christ were brought into remembrance and I hope his great Grand-father and his Father will be soon deisy'd especially if the principle lay'd by the Maidens of St. Ioseph in this work be followed for if one must make his address to the Blessed Virgin because Iesus Christ cannot refuse her any thing and if we must address our selves to Ann the Mother of Mary to have the Daughters Favour then we must go back to great Grand-mother and so on to the rest BOOKS concerning the Exposition of M. de Meaux his Doctrine I. An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England upon the Articles that M. de Meaux heretofore Bishop of Condom has Explained in his Exposition of the Catholick Doctrine with the History of this Book Quarto 1686. II. Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrin of the Church of England against M. de Meaux and his Apologists Objections Quarto 1686. III. A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrin of the Church of England against M. de Meaux and his Apologists new Objections Quarto At London Sold by R. Chiswell 1688. IF it be useful in Civil Life to know them that give us advice and the secret motives that make them act such an examination cannot be of less advantage for our Spiritual conduct in the different ways shewn to Christians by the Doctors of divers Societies if Prejudices and Obstinacy do not damn at least it cannot be deny'd but they are very dangerous but when Learned Divines whose imagination is neither overheated with Dispute nor with the Opinion of a particular Party and does endeavour to call into doubts the most constant practices and publick customs there is reason to suspect that they have imbib'd no less odious Principles than Head-strongness and Prejudice If the Roman Church ever had Judicious and moderate Controvertists they were the Iansenists and M. de Meaux and some English that in these times have imitated the former so that if there be want of sincerity in the proceedings of these Gentlemen it is a strong presumption against the Defenders of Rome and no weak proof that its Doctrin cannot be maintained but by indirect courses These Reflections were necessary to shew the usefulness of the Modern History of Controversies as well in France as in England which Dr. Wake gives in his Preface of these Three Works and whereof we design to give a more than ordinary exact Abridgment here because there are remarkable circumstances known to very few I. All the World knows now that the Extirpation of all the Hugonots of France was resolved on even from the Pyrenean Peace and there are some that believed it was one of the secret Conditions of that Peace The difficulty was to put that Decree in execution without raising a Civil War and without alarming the Protestant Princes The Politicians took very just measures to weaken insensibly the Reformed of that Kingdom and either lull asleep or set at variance the Forreign Powers of their Communion There is none ignorant of the success but it would have been more happy if the Divines employed to maintain Rome's Cause had sped as well as the Coyners of Propositions and Inventers of Decrees And nevertheless it might be said that the Roman Catholick Doctors were not in the fault that things did not go on better and that it was not for want of incapacity that they persuaded no body The first that endeavoured to give a new turn to Controversies was M. Arnaud whose very Name is praised enough It is well known that this eminent Man who was a Philosopher a Mathematician well read in the Fathers and as well acquainted with Scripture has had several remarkable victories over the Adversaries of his own Communion yet with all his great qualities all that he did in his perpetuity of the belief of the Roman Catholick Religion touching the Lord's Supper was to repeat over and over that Transubstantiation being now the common Doctrine of the Church it follow'd that there never was any other Belief because it cannot be comprehended how all Christians should have agreed to change their Opinion which had it happened the certain time should be marked wherein the Universal Church had varied in this Point and when and how each particular Church came to Corrupt the Antient Doctrine It is very strange that after so many proofs of matter of Fact which M. Aubertinus alledged out of the Belief of the Holy Fathers that an Argument purely Metaphysical should make so much noise and be so much applauded by the Roman Communion It 's almost a certain sign of the weakness of a Cause to see the maintainers of it blinded with the least Sophism and Triumph in their fancy for the least appearance of Truth There wanted no great strength to ruin these imaginary Trophies The Protestants had no harder task than to shew that this reason supposed no error could be brought into the World nor embraced by a numerous Society The beginning of Idolatry is disputed upon and nothing yet decided Some will have it that it began by the adoration of Stars others from the deifying dead Men and then say they Statues were erected for Kings for the Benefactors of the People for Law-makers and for the Inventors of Sciences and Arts. And this to reduce People to the practice of Vertue and to do it the better they spoke of their Ancestors and proposed their Examples their Actions were spoken of in high Terms and their Soul placed in Heaven near the Divinity they thought they would not be idle there but that God would give them some considerable office there because they had acquitted themselves so well of the Employments they had upon Earth The common sort of People generally much taken with Figures and great Words it may be conceived a higher Idea of those excellent Persons than their first Authors designed and Priests observing that these Opinions made People more devout and brought themselves Riches made the People to pass insensibly from a Respect to a Religious Veneration And hence Idolatry was rais'd by little and little to its height now must we infer from hence that it is not a pernicious Error and that it was from the beginning of the World because the precise time cannot be marked in which People begun to adore the Stars nor tell who the first Hero was that had Divine Honors rendred to him and yet the Argument would be as concluding as Mr. Arnaud's Many Learned Men have Writ much of the Antient and Modern Idolatry and have shewn its various progress One can tell very near what time the Saturnalia were Instituted and the Mysteries of Ceres and Corpus Christi-Day and that of St. Ann. And at what time the Temple of Ephesus
of Solid Piety and very fit to remove the Abuses whereunto Superstition wou'd engage ' em The Bishop of Mysia Suffragan of Cologne the Vicar General of that City the Divines of Gant Malines and Lovain all approved it Nevertheless the Iesuite assures that That Writing scandalized the good Catholicks that the Learned of all Nations refuted it that the Holy See condemned it and that in Spain it was prohibited to be printed or read as containing Propositions suspected of Heresie and Impiety tending to destroy the particular Devotion to the Mother of God and in general the Invocation of Saints and the Worship of Images There are now near 10 Years past since M. Meaux kept us in Expectation of Mr. Noguier and M. Bastides Refutation but at length instead of an Answer in form there only appeared a second Edition of his Book bigger by half than the first by an Addition of an Advertisement in the beginning of it One may soon judge that it does not cost so much pains to compose 50 or 60 pages in Twelves as the taking of the City of Troy did But tho' the time was not very long it was too long to oblige all that time the Pope and the Court of Rome to give their Approbation to a Book so contrary to their Maxims Without doubt the Secret was communicated to them and they were assured That as soon as the Stroke was given and the Hugonots converted either by fair or foul means what seemed to be granted would be recalled Some Roman Catholicks worthy of a better Religion suffered thro' the ignorance of this Mystery A Prior of Gascogne Doctor in Divinity called M. Imbert told the People that went to the Adoration of the Cross on Good Friday in 83. That the Catholicks adored Iesus Christ crucifyed on the Cross but did not adore any thing that they saw there The Curate of the Parish said it was the Cross the Cross but M. Imbert answered No no it is Iesus Christ not the Cross. This was enough to create trouble this Prior was called before the Tribunal of the Arch-bishop of Bordeaux and when he thought to defend himself by the Authority of M. Meaux and by his Exposition what was said against that Book was objected to him that it moderated but was contrary to the Tenets of the Church After which he was suspended from Ecclesiastical Functions the Defendant provided an Appeal to the Parliament of Guienne and writ to M. de Meaux to implore his protection against the Arch-Bishop who threatned him with a perpetual Imprisonment and Irons it is not known what became of it The History of M. de Witte Priest and Dean of St. Mary's of Malines is so well known that I need not particularize upon it Our Author refers us here to what the Journals have said It is known what Persecutions he has suffered for expressing the Popes Supremacy and Infallibility according to M. de Meaux's Doctrine He did not forget to alledge that Bishops Authority and to say That his Exposition required no more of a Christian and an Orthodox but this did not hinder the University of Lovain to judge that Proposition pernicious and scandalous that intimates that the Pope is not the Chiefest of Bishops In the mean time the Reformed did not forget M. de Meaux his Advertisement did no sooner appear but it was refuted by Mr. de la Bastide and Mr. Iurieâ— a little after made his Preservative against the change of Religion in opposition to that Bishops Exposition But all these Books and those that were writ against his Treatise of the Communion under the two Kinds had no Answer this Prelate expecting booted Apologists who were to silence his Adversaries in a little time The Roman Catholicks of England notwithstanding their small number flattered themselves with hopes of the like Success having at their head a bold couragious Prince and one that would do any thing for them They had already translated M. Condom's Exposition of 1672 and 1675 into English and Irish and as soon as they saw King Iames setled on his Brothers Throne they began to dispute by small Books of a leaf or two written according to the method of the French Bishop The Titles with the Answers and the several Defences of each Party may be had in a Collection printed this present Year at London at Mr. Chiswells which is Entituled A Continuation of the present State of Controversy between the English Church and that of Rome containing a History of the printed Books that were lately published on both sides The Gentlemen of the Roman Church did begin the Battel by little Skirmishes but found themselves after the first or second firing without Powder or Ball and not able to furnish scattered Sheets against the great Volumes made against them said at last instead of all other answer that the little Book alone entituled The Papist Misrepresented and there represented a-new was sufficient to refute not only all the Dissertations which the English Divines lately published against Papists but all the Books and Sermons that they ever preached against Catholicks It is to no purpose to take the trouble of Disputing against people that have so good an Opinion of their Cause And in consequence of this the English answer to M. de Meaux's Exposition and the Reflections on his Pastoral Letter of 1686. met with no Answer as well as several other Books But Dr. Wake had no sooner published his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England but these Gentlemen which know better to assault than to defend made a Book Entituled A Vindication of the Bishop of Condom 's Exposition with a Letter of that Bishop Because we do not design to enter on the particulars of these Controversies we will only take notice as to what past That First M. de Meaux denyed that any Roman Catholick writ against or did design to write against it Secondly That Sorbonne did not refuse approving his Book Thirdly He says his Exposition was reprinted to alter those places which the Censurers had improved and maintains that it was put into the Press without his knowledge and that he had a new Edition made only to change some expressions that were not exact enough Fourthly That he neither read nor knew any thing of Father Cresset's Book Dr. Wake published the Defence of his Exposition about the middle of the same year 1686 where he shews First That the deceased Mr. Conrait a Man acknowledged by both Parties to be sincere had told many of his Friends that he saw this Answer in Manuscript and other persons of known honesty that are still living assured the Author that they had this Manuscript in their hands Dr. Wake justifies his Accusations on the 2d and 3d heads by so curious a History that it seems worthy of being believed He says that one of his Acquaintance who was very familiar with one of Marshall de Turenne's Domesticks was the first that discover'd this Mystery For this
of Bellarmin and Suarez The means they use to make Proselytes are the pure Stories and Inventions of the Iesuites and false Reports and Prophecyes and pretended Inspirations of Womens Dreams as if Herod and Pilate were reconciled and had joyned to destroy Jesus Christ his Worship and his Religion In 1640 there was a design discover'd to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury That the Pope the Cardinal of Richlieu and several English Roman Catholicks but especially the Iesuites were engaged together and that what they proposed was to cause a Rebellion in Scotland as was done a little after this is certain for the Histories of those times have it all at length Sir William Boswel was then King Charles the First 's Resident at the Hague he was told of this Conspiracy and that the Roman Clergy misled the English giving them hopes of a Presbyterian Government That there were Indulgences from Rome and Dispensations from the Pope approved by a Congregation of Cardinals that suffered Scholars to be instructed to Dispute against the Episcopal Party and against the Liturgy of the Church of England That in the space of a years time 60 Priests and Fryars went from France to England to Preach the Scotch Doctrine and to endeavor to destroy the Bishops whom they looked upon as the only Supporters of the Crown Arch-bishop Bramhall being in France some time after the King's death learned there how this business was manag'd In 1646 about 100 Popish Clergymen crossed the Seas and being Mustered in the Parliament Army they kept Correspondence with the Catholicks that served the King and acquainted them with what passed every day The ensuing year having deliberated among themselves whether the King's death would not be an advantage to their Cause and main Business they concluded in the Affirmative But some Priests and Fryars were of opinion to Consult the Universities and among others that of Sorbonne which made Answer That for the good of Religion and Interest of the Church it was lawful to alter the Government especially in a Heretick Countrey and that so they might take off the King with a safe Conscience Father Salmone in his History of the Troubles of England Printed in France with the King's Priviledge makes mention of two Companys of Walloon Catholicks which the Parliament had in it's Service and that at Edge-Hill-Fight there were many Popish Priests found among the dead of their Army After all these Proofs if one does but consider the Principles of both Religions it will be easie to find the true Authors of King Charles's Death It is certain that the Reformed had not Pastors at the Court of Vienna nor in Italy nor in Spain to cause Rebellions or beset the Prince and make them violate the Priviledges of their Subjects But it must be confest that they were for a Common-wealth as their Adversaries accuse them and not that they did not obey a King as freely as they would States it was because they loved Peace and Liberty and that after the Example of Common-wealths they sought quietness suffering others to do as they please Their Doctrine and Discipline dispose them equally for a Peaceable Life All their Ministers may Marry and because this is a Grave and Staid State there are few but do Marry When one is engaged in such firm Tyes there are but few that think of Removing or Seeing and Travelling the World whereas those that serve the Roman Church have no greater engagement than that of a Mistress which they may break at pleasure and which they always do when a good occasion serves or when they are sent into other places by their Superiors Moreover the Popish Conspirations against Q. Elizabeth and King Iames the First without mentioning other Princes make it more suspicious that the Monks were the contrivers of King Charles's death What could not they do against a King who did not love them and that is certainly dead in the Profession of the Protestant Religion since they have Sacrificed the Repose and Restitution of both his Sons whereof the latter has declared in Ascending up to the Throne that he was of their Communion After a step of that consequence one should think that the Roman Church had reason to be satisfied and that they should study to blot out the remembrance of her past Cruelties by a more moderate and mild conduct But on the contrary it is well known how far the Jesuites have pushed this easie Prince and his Retractations are undoubted proofs of the Infringments they made him guilty of they may be seen in the Memorials of the English Protestants and in his Highness the Prince of Orange's now King William's Declaration which now are very common But if these Books and several others were lost and that one had but the King 's own Writing they would be sufficient to condemn that Society The Proofs that were brought that the Prince of Wales was but a CHEAT deserved to be otherwise destroyed than by Witnesses incapable of being heard to Swear according to the Laws of the Country Or of such as only heard a Woman Groan which they did not see or have seen a Child new-born without being sure that it was the Queen's To examin a business of this consequence and to prevent Civil Wars there ought to be a Free Parliament according to the Custom of the Nation And though all England desired it yet the Roman Catholicks stay'd the King a long time from calling it to give all along the marks of their bad intentions IV. It is time to give an Idea of each of these Treatises In the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England Dr. Wake follows the Bishop of Condom's Order and in explaining his Doctrine he shews wherein it agrees or disagrees with Popery as Mr. de Meaux explains it and according as the other Doctors Teach it There is a Preface in the beginning where the Author examins the Principle by which the Expositor pretends to justifie the Tenets of his Church which is that it is unjust to impute the consequences of a Tenet to Adversaries that deny them Which is true when they deny as well in deed as in word And thus the Contra-Remonstrancers are to be excused that make God the Author of Sin for this Inference can lawfully be made out of their System of Absolute Predestination Nor can it be imputed to the Lutherans that some of them believe that Iesus Christ ceased to be Man and was Transformed into a Deity after his Ascension though this is a clear consequence from the Doctrine of Ubiquity The reason is not that Contra-Remonstrants fear these consequences but because they do not influence neither their Worship nor their Practice and because they Teach contrary Doctrines to these Principles If in stead of this the first had maintained that a Man was but a Machine that had neither Liberty Vice nor Vertue nor Punishment nor Reward and that all is necessary to God himself And if the other affirms
which they quote the Arch-bishop Laud Iackson Feilding Hâ—ylin Hammond and M. Thorndike There is not one but has writ the contrary These are the Points whereon the Enemies of Protestants would make the Church of England pass for half Papists tho there is not one but was taught by other Reformed excepting Episcopacy And this Government is so ancient that even those who think Presbytery better ought not to condemn for some little difference in Discipline a Church that is otherwise very pure unless they are minded to anathematize St. Ignatius St. Clement St. Polycarp St. Irenaeus St. Cyprian and the whole Church of the second and third Age and a great part of the first Without question the Episcopal Clergy of England have the like Charity for Presbyterians I will not alledge the Testimonies of Modern Doctors nor of such as were accused of having favoured the pretended Puritans we see the Marks of its mildness and moderation towards all excepâ—ing some turbulent Spirits amongst 'em which indeed are too common in all Societies If there ever was a time wherein the Church of England differed from Presbytery and had reason so to do it was in the middle of the Reign of K. Iamss the First and notwithstanding you may see how the Bishop of Eli speaks writing for the King and by his Order against Cardinal Bellarmin One may see how much the Protestants of this Country agree by Harmony of their Confessions where each Church acknowledges wherein she agrees with the rest Then lay aside those odious Names seek our Professions of Faith in our Confessions The Reproach you make us concerning the Puritans is altogether absurd because their number is but small and the most moderate among them agree with us in the chief Articles of Religion The Scotch Puritans Confession has no Error in Fundamental Points so that the King might say with reason That the Establish'd Religion of Scotland was certainly true And as for the rest there 's no reason to suspect Dr. Wakes Testimony for the Bishop of London and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury have approved his Books None of the other Doctors contradicted him and some sided with him against Roman Catholicks And these last have not accused him of swerving from the common Doctrine of the Church of England only in the Article of the necessity of Baptism and he proves by several Authorities in his Defence of his Exposition what he therein advanced At the end of this Defence are several curious Pieces 1. A Comparison betwixt the Ancient and Modern Popery 2. An Extract of the Sentiments of Father Cresset and Cardinal Bona concerning the Devotion to the Blessed Virgin 3. The Letter of Mr. Imbert to Mr. de Meaux 4. The Epistle of St. Chrysostom to Caesarius with the Preface of Mr. Bigot which was suppressed at Paris in 1680. and a Dissertation of Dr. Wake upon Apollinarius's Sentiments and Disciples A DISCOURSE of the Holy EUCHARIST wherein the Real Presence and Adoration of the Host is treated on to serve for an Answer to two Discourses printed at Oxford upon this Subject With a Historical Preface upon the same Matter At London 1687. p. 127. in 4to DR Wake Minister of the Holy Gospel at London who is said to be the Author of this Book gives First In few words the History and Origine of Transubstantiation as it hath been ordinarily done amongst Protestants Secondly He names several Illustrious Persons of the Romish Church who have been accused of not believing the Real Presence or Transubstantiation to wit Peter Picherel Cardinal du Perron Barnes an English Benedictine and Mr. de Marca Arch-Bishop of Paris who gave his absolute Sentiment hereon in one of his Posthume Dissertations tho' in the Edition of Paris the places wherein he said it have been changed or blotted out But it could not be hindered but that this Work having appeared before Persons took notice of these Sentiments some entire Copies thereof have fallen into the hands of Protestants who got it printed in Holland in 1669. without cutting off any thing To these Authors are joined F. Sirmond the Iesuite who believed the Impanation and who had made a Treatise upon it which hath never been printed and whereof some persons have yet Copies M. de Marolles who got a Declaration printed in form in 1681. by which he declared that he believed not the Real Presence and which was inserted here in English And in short the Author of the Book Entituled Sure and honest means of Converting Hereticks whom we dare not affirm to be the same who published a Treatise of Transubstantiation which the Fifth Tome of the French Bibliotheque speaks of p. 455. The Cartesians and several others are suspected of not believing the same no more than the Protestants So that if the Catholicks cite some Reformed for them Protestants also want not Catholick Authors who have been of their Opinion Thirdly The Author sheweth the dangerous Consequences which arise according to the Principles of the Romish Church from the incredulity of so many Men of Knowledge be it in respect to Mass or in respect of the Infallibility and Authority of the Church The Treatise it self is divided into two parts The first contains two Chapters and an Introduction wherein is expounded the Nature and Original of the Eucharist much after the Ideas of Lightfoot In the first Chapter Transubstantiation is at large refuted by Scripture by Reason and the Fathers We shall make no stay at it because this Matter is so well known The Second Chapter is imployed to refute what Mr. Walker said concerning the Opinions of several Doctors of the Church of England upon the Real Presence Dr. Wake at first complains That his Adversary in that only repeats Objections which his Friend T. G. had before proposed in his Dialogues and which a Learned Man had refuted in an Answer to these Dialogues printed at London in 1679. As to what concerns the Faith of the Church of England which he maintains to have been always the same since the Reign of Edward He reduces it to this according to the Author who refuted T. G. viz. That she believes only a Real Presence of the invisible Power and grace of Iesus Christ which is in and with the Elements so that in receiving them with Faith it produces Spiritual and real Effects upon the Souls of Men. As Bodies taken by Angels continueth he may be called their Bodies whilst they keep them and as the Church is the Body of Iesus Christ because his Spirit animates and liveneth the Souls of the Believing so the Bread and Wine after the Consecration are the Real Body of Iesus Christ but spiritually and mystically He gives not himself the trouble to prove the solidity of this comparison by Scripture and when he comes to the Examination of the Authors that Mr. Walker hath quoted he contents himself to produce other Passages where they do not speak so vigorously of the participation of the substance of Iesus
which is added a Preface touching the Original of this History Sold by Mr. Chiswell at London 1688. p. 44. THe Devotions of the Roman Church appear so ridiculous to them that are not born superstitious that the ablest Controvertists of that party have endeavoured to hide them or to make them pass for popular Abuses but as it is impossible that in a great Society all them that write should be of the Secret so there are a great number of Bigots who feared that the Bishops of Meaux and Turnai would with their mildness betray the Church and were minded really to abolish the Ways that enriched it So much the Protestants have seconded the sincerity of these latter and have collected out of their Offices Rites and the most famous Doctours of Rome the true Doctrine of our Church To avoid the contestations commonly raised by such as do not act sincerely The English are advised to translate whole Books of the Doctrine of Rome as the Life of Magdalene of Pazzi the Contemplations of the Life and Glory of the Blessed Virgin and other such like The Abridgment of the Perogatives of St. Ann is one of these Works The time will not be lost that is imployed in making an extract of it it is sufficient that it was ridiculous enough to cause the Effect which the Translator proposed himself it was printed at Paris in 43. with the approbation of the Doctors of Sorbonne and was Dedicated to the Queen Mother Ann of Austria then Regent so that any godly Book could not be more Authentick The Reader will be far more obliged by the taking out of the English Preface the History of St. Ann's Devotions by which may be learned what are the grounds of Monastick Orders and the Authors of Legends The Friars used ways of forming the Genealogies of their King 's and attributing great Deeds of Chivalry that never hapned to their Princes and thought that it became them to be no less liberal to the Predecessors of Iesus Christ. No Antient Author ever spoke of Iachim and of St. Ann who are said to be the Father and Mother of the Blessed Virgin and St. Epiphanius was the first that mentioned it by the by In the succeeding Ages Germain Hyppolitus and Damascenus spoke of them but 't was little or nothing at all and Nicephorus one of the greatest lyers among the Friars made but a very short History of them so that all the Legends are grounded upon two pieces whereof the Falshood is well known by Criticks One is a Letter upon the Birth of the Blessed Lady attributed to St. Ierome the other is the pretended Gospel of St. Iames. As for the first it cannot be precisely determined when it was invented All that can be said is that an old Fabulous Tradition has been the occasion of it There is a feigned Letter of Chromatius and of Heliodoâ—e desiring St. Ierome to Translate the Gospel of St. Matthew out of Hebrew into Latine which Armanius and Virinus said was in his possession and contained the History of the Infancy of the Blessed Virgin and that of our Saviour Ierome begins to excuse himself from it upon the difficulty of the work and because the Apostle did not design to make this Book publick maintaining that he writ it in Hebrew and did not mention a word of it in the common Gospel designing to keep this History from the Peoples Knowledge adding That it was a Secret that ought to be trusted to none but choice Clergy-men that might make the extract of it to Christians That Seleucus was the first that Translated it and mixed several false Doctrines tho not very different from the Truth in what regarded the History and Miracles and for that reason he promis'd them an exact Version of the Original Hebrew There are in these Fables the Maxims and Folly of the Friars which suffice to refute it Besides this Seleucus or Lucius was a Manichee which doubtless was one of the reasons why St. Augustin rejected a Work like this or perhaps it might be the same with that of Seleucus For says he If one did alledge to me the Book of Apocrypha wherein Iachim is said to be the Father of Mary I would not yield to that Authority because that Book is not Canonical Pope Gelasius not content to term the Work Apocryphal calls the Author a Child of the Devil II. The second piece whereon the Legend is founded is not of better Alloy because it is the Gospel of the false St. Iames. William Postel published it first and having Translated it out of Greek into Latin got it printed at Basil in 1552. under the Title of Prot-Evangelion cum Evangelica Historia Sanctae Mariae Evangelistae vita ejus Octavo Some years after Bibliander made Notes upon this Work and this was printed with the other which was not much better under the Title of Orthodox Writing Orthodoxographae If any one is minded to know who William Postel was he may be informed in the first Chapter of the Apology for the Reformers by Mr. Iurieu Henry Stephens that was no Divine but knew that such a Deist as Postell was might be suspected that he had embellished this Work and Casaubon attributed the whole to him However it is this pretended Gospel of St. Iames with many others was condemned in a Council of 70 Bishops held at Rome under Pope Gelasius Nevertheless the Writers of Legends receive them and form new ones as the Book of the Birth of Mary of the childhood of Iesus and the Gospel of St. Ann. The latter may be judged of according to this passage mentioned by Henry Stephens when Iesus was so grown that he could work Joseph employed him to Carpentry and one day having commanded him to saw a piece of Wood he did it without taking notice of the Mark that was to direct him and so made the piece too short Joseph was angry at this and had a mind to beat him and would have done it if Iesus had not lengthened the stick by making Joseph pull at one end whilst he pull'd at the other If the Inventors of those absurd Relations were design'd to dishonour the Christian Religion they could not find a better way the Gospel of the fictitious St. Iames is full of such extravagant Histories and one would think the Inventor had a mind by his Ironique Imitation to ridicule several passages of Scripture and several Miracles of the Old and New Testament among others the History of Abraham and Sarah that of Hanna and her Son Samuel and that of Zachary and Elizabeth And nevertheless it is upon these counterfeit Books and scurrilous Relations that the most part of the Devotions of the Romish Church are founded the pretended St. Iames has consecrated a Feast to St. Ann which is kept the 16 th of Iuly and was ordained by Pope Gregory XIII 1584. Sometime after Sixtus the 5 th founded or at least confirmed a Religious Order called the Maidens of
a general Critique of all this History to which he adds some Reflections upon M. le Grand It was translated into French and had been published long ago had not M. le Grand busied himself in making a small Book against a Letter of Dr. Burnet and against the Extract of his History of Divorce The Author of this Bibliotheque had begun to Answer it but this xi Tome of the Bibliotheque which lay upon him alone and which could not be put by made him discontinue yet 't is hop'd that the Publick will lose nothing by this delay but may see once more if God be pleased to lend him health and give him leisure to shew that M. de Meaux is none of the sincâ—rest in the World And yet this Prelate has subject to reason himself since those who approve his Works have as little sincerity as himself At least Mr. Wake shews that what the Cardinals Capisucchi and Bona teach in their Works is a very different Doctrine from that of the Catholick Exposition concerning the Invocation of Saints and the Worship of Images Dr. Wake 's Adversaries were so long silent that the Dispute was thought ended but at last they broke silence about the middle of the year 1687 when was publisht a Reply to the Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England with a second Letter from M. de Meaux Dr. Wake a little after that made his 2d Defence which he divided into two parts in the first he justifies all that he advanced concerning the Expositions of M. de Meaux He brings many Historical Proofs of the difference between the old and new Papism or between the Speculative Doctrine of M. de Meaux and of the other Doctors of the Catholick Church and their common practice And examins in particular what Rome Teaches concerning the Worship of Images The Second Part runs upon the Nature and Object of the Divine Service upon the Invocation of Saints and upon Images and Relicks and upon the accusation of Idolatry which the Protestants charge the Roman Church with III. M. de Meaux's Apologist believed that to be even with Dr. Wake he should make a History of Controversies and presently runs upon Generalities that are not to the purpose he speaks of the Roman Catholicks Zeal and of the different methods that Rome has made use of to bring back those who have left her Communion but he has forgot the chiefest of them at least that which had most success which is her Persecution Then he comes to England jumps from the Monk Augustin to Henry the VIII makes some Reflections upon the Duke of Sommerset and on Queen Elizabeth and then like Lightning passes to the Reign of Queen Mary and then to Iames the 1 st to Charles the 2 d and then to Iames the 2 d. These Preambles gave Dr. Wake occasion to speak of several remarkable things which would be too tedious to mention here It will be enough to Remark two of the most important The First relates to the Dissentions of the Episcopal Party and the Presbyterians and the other to the Murther of Charles the 1 st 1. As to the First He acknowledges that many of those whom the Persecution of Q. Mary had Exiled were obstinate in the Form of Religion which they saw abroad but that this Spirit of Schism was fomented by Roman Catholicks who mix themselves with them pretending to be of their number In effect it was by the Roman Catholicks in 1588 that the Puritans begun to make a noise the Chief of them being Commin Heath Hallingham Coleman Benson were all Papists who thus dissembled and disguised themselves as appeared by a Letter which dropped out of Heath's pocket And it was discover'd that the Roman Catholicks had Colledges in Germany France Spain and Italy wherein the Students were brought up in Sciences and Mechanick Arts and they exercised twice a week to Dispute for and against Independents Anabaptists and Atheism it self After which they sent them to England to play the best game that they understood A Iesuit of St. Omers acknowledged that there were some of the Fathers of their Society hid for Twenty years among Quakers which is likely enough because the scruple these Fanaticks make of Swearing gives the Fryars the means of living among them being so exempted from the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy In 1625. the Jesuites published a Book Intituled Mysteria Politica or the Letters of some famous persons designing to break the League that divers Princes of Europe made against the House of Austria it contained Eight Letters equally injurious to France and England to the Venetians Hollanders and Swissers In the last the Author that counterfeited the Protestant forgot nothing which he thought proper to give a mean Idea of King Iames and to sow division between this Prince his Son and the Princess Palatine and between the Lords of the Parliament the Clergy of the Church of England and the Puritane Ministers Upon the Civil Wars of England and the death of King Charles the First Mr. Wake acknowledges that the fear of seeing Popery re-established made the People take Arms who since the Reformation had always horror for this Superstitious Worship But he maintains that the Papists were the first Authors of the troubles M. du Moulin Doctor of Divinity and Chaplain to King Charles the II. accused the Roman Catholicks with this a little after the Re-establishment of this Prince and not contented to prove it in his Answer to the Philanax Anglicus he offered to prove it legally or by Law there were then many alive that were ready to Swear that there was held a Consultation of Cardinals and Doctors of Sorbonne wherein it was declared That it was lawful for the English Roman Catholicks to push the King on to his ruin thereby to endeavor the Change of Religion and Government The Roman Catholicks instead of taking this Challenge made use of King Charles's Authority to hinder Mr. Moulin to press for the decision of this Suit And though the Book and Accusation remained without Answer for 17 years The Author renewed the Challenge in a Second Edition of his Work and dyed without being Answered none having Courage to undertake it They that do not understand English will find the most part of M. Moulin's proofs in the Politicks of the Clergy in the last endeavors of afflicted innocence And in Mr. Iurieu's Parallel betwixt Calvinism and Popery with some new reasons of the Author to which if we add what Mr. Wake has here the conjecture will be more than probable 1. In the beginning of the Troubles the King perceived that the Fanaticks were set on by the Papists Their Principles says he in his Declaration against the Rebels of Scotland are those of the Iesuites their Preachers Sermons are the style of Becan Scioppius and Eudaemon Joannes from whom they borrow their very Phrases The pitiful Arguments of their Seditious Libels are drawn word by word out
retake that Shield which by their Apostacy they lost that so they may be armed not against the Church which grieves at their Misery but against their Adversary the Devil a modest Petition a bashful Supplication a necessary Humility and an Industrious Patience will be advantageous to them let them express their Grief by their Tears and their Sorrow and Shame for their Crimes by their Groans Ep. 31. ap Cypr. Tertullian in a like manner describes one in this State by lying in Sackcloth and Ashes by having a squalid Body and a dejected Soul by Fasting Praying Weeping Groaning and roaring night and day by throwing himself at the Clergies feet and kneeling before the Faithful begging and desiring their Prayers and Pardon If the Criminals Repentance was thought real he was admitted to part of the Service but not to all for a long time some two three five ten Years and some even to their Lives end On the day appointed for Absolution â—he came cover'd with Sackcloth and Ashes throwing himself at the Feet of the Clergy and Laity and with Tears in his Eyes begging their Pardon and Forgiveness confest his Fault and received Absolution by the Bishops putting his hand upon his Head and blessing him and then he was looked upon as a true Church-Member again 8. In the Eighth Chap. he comes to shew the Independency that Churches had one of another as to Superiority or Preheminence which concludes very strongly against the Usurpations of the See of Rome he Cites the Decree of the African Synod Apud Cyp. Ep. 55. § 16. Pag. 142. That every ones Cause should be heard where the Crime was committed because that to every Pastor was committed a particular Portion of Christ's Flock which he was particularly to rule and govern and to render an Account thereof unto the Lord. Yet he shews there was such a Dependence and Correspondence betwixt one another Cypr. Ep. 67. § 6. Pag. 199. Although they were many Pastors yet they were but one Flock and they ought to congregate and cherish all the Sheep which Christ redeemed by his own Blood and Passion And a little after We ought all of us to take care of the Body of the whole Church whose Members are distended through various Provinces Apud Cypr. Ep. 30. § 4. Pag. 67. Our Auâ—hor treats next of Provincial Synods which he proves were a Convocation of Bishops Presbyters Deacons and deputed Laimen who often met to advise about Eccâ—esiastical Affairs and reguâ—ate what should appear amiss He shews that this Convocation was usually every Year Per singulos annos in unum Conveniamus Apud Cyprian Ep. 75. § 3. Pag. 23â— In these Assemblies they chose out of the gravest and most renowned Bishops two to be Arbitrators and Moderators Apud Euseb Lib 5. Cap. 23. Pag. â—90 The Decrees that they made were binding and who ever broke them came under the Ecclesiastick Censure 9. In the Ninth Chap. our Author treats of the Unity of the Church Here he shews that the Unity of the Church consisted not in an Uniformity of Rites and Usages but every Church was at its own liberty to follow its own particular Customs Iren. apud Euseb. Lib. 5. Cap. 24. P. 193. In some Churches they fasted one day in others two in some more and in others forty hours but yet they still retained Peace and Concord the diversity of their commending the Unity of their Faith And a little after the same Father They retained Peace and Love and for the diversity of such Customs none were ever cast out of the Communion of the Church Also Firmilius apud Cyprian Ep. 75. § 5. Pag. 237. That in most Provinces their Rites were varied according to the Diversities of Names and Places and that for this no one ever departed from the Peace and Unity of the Catholick Church 'T would be well if this Primitive Union was well considered on by such as keep up the Dissentions amongst us at this day they will certainly have a severe Account to make one day to the Prince of Peace nor will their Ignorance excuse them in not making a due distinction betwixt the Fundamentals of Religion and mere Circumstances Our Author proceeds to shew what condescentions there were amongst them from Iustin Martyr who speaking of those Jewish Converts who adhered to the Mosaical Rites says That if they did this only through their Weakness and Imbecillity and did not perswade other Christians to the observance of the same Iudaical Customs that he would receive them into Church-fellowship and Communion Dialog cum Tryphon Pag. 266. After this our Author shews how the whole Churches censur'd such as were Authors of Divisions about the different Observation of Easter Baptizing Hereticks c. and afterwards he brings in Irenaeus saying That at the last day Christ shall judge those who cause Schisms who are inhuman not having the fear of God but preferring their own advantage before the Unity of the Church who for trivial and slight Causes rend and divide the great and glorious Body of Christ and as much as in them lies destroy it who speak Peace but make War truly straining at a Gnat but swallowing a Camel Lib. 4. Cap. 62. Pag. 292. Here our Authors defines Schism according to the Primitive Fathers to be an unnecessary causeless Separation from their lawful Pastor or Parish Church So that who ever separates upon such a Ground is a Schismatick then he comes to lay down such measures as the Primitive Christians did make use of for Separation from their Bishop 1 Apostacy from the Faith 2 Or when a Bishop renounc'd the Christian Faith and through fear of Persecution embrac'd the Heathenish Idolatries as was done in the Case of Martialis and Basilides two Spanish Bishops 3 ly When the Bishops Life was scandalous and wicked he gives Instances of all of them yet he brings in Origen against this last Opinion his words are these Origen Hom. 7. in Ezek. He that hath a care of his Soul will not be scandaliz'd at my Faults who am his Bishop but considering my Doctrin and finding it agreeable to the Churches Faith from me indeed he will be averse but he will receive my Doctrin according to the Precept of the Lord which saith The Scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses his Chair whatever therefore they say unto you hear and do but according to their Work do not for they say and do not The Scripture is of me who teach what is good and do the contrary and sit upon the Chair of Moses as a Scribe or Pharisee the Precept is to thee O People if thou canst not accuse me of false Doctrin or Heretical Opinions but only beholdest my wicked and sinful Life but do those things which I speak After having mentioned this Father's Opinion he adds that whether Irenaeus or an African Synod or Origen deserves most Credit he leaves it to the Learned to judge but however our Author gives his own Opinion that they
said also that Usher was a Bishop that he had made because that he had appointed him so without being sollicited to it by any person this Election was made in 1620. Returning into Ireland sometime after he was oblig'd to discourse some persons of Quality of the Roman Religion to administer to 'em the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy that they had refused to the Priest this discourse is inserted in his Life he remarks the form of this Oath is compos'd of two parts the one positive in which they acknowledge the King is Soveraign in all cases whatsoever and the other negative in which they declare they acknowledge no Jurisdiction or Authority of any strange Prince in the estates of the King he says afterwards in regard of the first part that the Scripture commands that we submit our selves to the Higher Powers and that we ought to acknowledge that the power the Kings have whatsoever it may be is Supream as they are Kings upon which he cites this verse of Martial Qui Rex est Regem maxime non habeat That one ought well to distinguish the power of the Keys from that of the Sword and the King of England does not exact an acknowledgment of the same power that is possess'd by the Bishops but nevertheless the Kings may interest themselves with Ecclesiastical Affairs in as much as it regards the body since according to the Church of Rome 't is the Magistrates duty to punish Hereticks For that which regards the second part of the Oath where it 's said that we shall not own any strange power as having any Iurisdiction Superiority Preheminence Ecclesiastical or Temporal in the Kingdom He says that if St. Peter were still alive he would willingly own that the King had this Authority in Ireland and that he us'd the same in regard of all the Apostles that the Apostleship was a personal dignity which the Apostles have not left hereditary to any but nevertheless suppose it was so he sees not why St. Peter should leave it to his successors rather than St. Iohn who outliv'd all the Apostles that there was no reason to believe that St. Peter shou'd leave the Apostolical Authority to the Bishops of Rome rather than to those of Antioch this last Church being founded before the first The King writ to Vsher to thank him for this Discourse which produced so good effect He afterwards went into England by the King's order to collect the Antiquities of the Churches of England Scotland and Ireland and publish'd two years after that his Book intituled De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum 'T was in that time that the King made him Arch-Bishop of Armagh The Winter following he caused to be brought before him the Order for Toleration of the Roman Catholicks and the Lord Falkland then Deputy for the King in Ireland convocated and assembled the whole Nation to settle this Affair But the Bishops call'd by the Primate oppos'd it with much heat as may be seen by a Remonstrance sign'd by ten Bishops besides the Primate and which is in the 28th page They also spoke of raising some Forces by the Joynt consent both of Catholicks and Protestants to hinder any differences that might arise in the Kingdom the Protestants refus'd to consent thereto and wou'd not hearken to discourse the Primate thereupon in the Castle of Dublin altho' his reasonings were founded upon the principal Maxims of the Government of Ireland and maintain'd by Examples drawn from the Antient and Modern Histories of that Kingdom During the time our Primate stayed in Ireland after he had performed the Duties of his Charge which he acquitted with extraordinary care he employed the remaining part of his time to study the fruits whereof were to be seen in 1631. in the first Latin book which he ever published in Ireland 't is his History of Godescalch Monk of the Abby of Orbais who lived in the beginning of the 6th Age there was soon made a small abridgment of the History of Pelagianism which was then extreamly dispersed through Spain and England when he comes to the History of Godescalch he explains his Doctrine and shews by Flodoard and other Authors of that time that those sentiments whereof Hincmar Archbishop of Rhemes and Rabanus Archbishop of Maynce accused him and which were condemn'd by their Authority in two Councils were the same that St. Remigius Archbishop of Lyons and the Clergy of his Diocess defended openly many opinions and odious consequences according to Vsher were fathered upon Godescalch because that this Monk who maintained the opinions of St Augustine about Predestination and Grace did not at all understand ' em Ioannes Scotus Erygenus wrote a treatise against him in which are to be found the principal heads of Vsher but Florus Deacon of the Church of Lions answers it and censures him in the Name of all the Diocess Vsher gave an abridgment of this Censure as also of divers other treatises as that of St Remigius Pudentius Bishop of Troy Ratramus Monk of Corbi who writ against Scotus for his defence of Godescalch there had been two Councils which established the doctrine of this Monk and condemn'd that of Scotus 'T is true that Hincmar published a very large Book against these Councils which he dedicated to Charles le Chauve as Flodoard reports who shews briefly what it is that this Book treats of but that did not at all hinder St. Remigius and those of his Party to convocate another Council at Langres where they confirm'd the Doctrine established in the former Councils and condemn'd that new one of Scotus These Controversies were still agitated in the National Council of the Gauls where nothing was concluded altho' Barancus and others voted that Godescalch should be condemn'd there On the contrary Vsher maintains that in an Assembly which was in a small time after his Sentiments were approv'd of Nevertheless this wicked Godescalch was condemn'd by the Council of Maynce to perpetual Imprisonment where he was severely treated because he would never retract his Errours There are still two Confessions of his Faith by which one may see there are many things attributed to him which he never believ'd after having made a faithful report of the Sentiments of this Monk and those of his Adversaries Vsher concludes that it were better for men to be silent upon these matters than to scandalize the weak in proposing to 'em such Doctrines from which they may draw bad consequences There has been adds Mr. Parr and always will be different Opinions upon the great and abstruse Questions of Predestination and Free Will which nevertheless may be tolerated in the same Church provided those who maintain these divers Opinions have that Charity for one another which they ought to have That they condemn them not publickly That they abstain from mutual Calumnies and that they publish no Invectives against those who are not of the same Sentiments To return to the Life of our Prelate who altho' he
these two estates they are sent back to be judg'd in the day of expiation if they repent they are seal'd for life if they continu'd in impenitence death was to be their inevitable reward 2. St. Paul cites a passage of Scripture to the same purpose Ephes. 5.14 Wherefore saith he Awake ye that sleep Arise from the dead and Christ shall give you light They unprofitably plague themselves to seek this passage in the Scripture for there it is not In vain they look for it in Isaiah the 26.19 the 60. and 18. or in the Apocriphal pieces which are attributed to Ieremiah from whence the Christians might insert it Skinner tells us that St. Paul makes this allusion from a custom of the Jews which Maimonides mentions and paraphrases the words which he finds amongst the Jews upon this occasion 'T was the Custom saith Maimonides in the same treatise Chap. 3. Section four to sound a trumpet the first day of the year after which the publick Cryer pronounced these words Awake Awake you that sleep Altho this Custom of sounding the trumpet was commanded by the Law Levit. 23.24 he observes another thing from these Words of the publick Cryer 't was as much as if he shou'd say you that sleep awake from your Drouziness you that perpetually sigh cast away your Grief examine your works return to your duty by repentance and remember who 't is that created you Thirdly our Lord in speaking of the Sin against the Holy Ghost tells us that it shall neither be forgiven in this World nor in that which is to come Matt 12.32 The Rabbins have also a manner of speaking very like this there is a Sin which is punish'd in this World saith Maimonides in the same Book Chap. 6. Section 189. and not in the world to come there is a sin also which shall be punished hereafter and not now and one that shall be punished in both thus our Lord hath said that those shall be punished in this Life and the other that should blaspheme against the Holy Ghost and 't is this which has happen'd to the Jews who attributed to the Devil the Miracles of our Saviour they suffered a thousand evils in this Life by the Tyranny of the Romans and dying in impenitence they are delivered to the pains of the next which they have merited thereby Fourthly Jesus Christ forbids his Disciples to Swear he commands they shall be contented to say yes yes no no 't is or 't is not Mat. 5.32 Maimonides also says that the commerce that is between the wise is full of truth and fidelity they answer No to that which is not and Yes to what is Lightfoot cites this last passage in his remarks of the Thalmudists upon St. Matthew but he hath not observ'd the others Skinner farther shews some passages of the Rabbins in the four following Letters but as there is nothing very considerable so I shall tarry no longer upon ' em A little before Vsher had finished his History of Godeschalch of which I have spoken S. Ward Dr. in Divinity wrote to him in a Letter dated May 25. 1630. That he had encouragement to wish this History would be more famous and correct than any thing of the same nature then extant He adds to that that he doubted not but that there were Semipelagians or Divines of Marseille who first placed the Predestinarians in the Catalogue of Hereticks he found therein nothing that surpriz'd him but that the Predestinarians were first call'd those Hereticks who were not of the opinion of St. Augustine thus Divines have always done the like Ward believes that 't is Arnobius Author of a commentary upon the Psalms who first treated of the Heresie of the Doctrine of St. Austin about Predestination and who gave the name of Praedestinati to those who maintain'd his Doctrine he lived according to Ward before Tiro Prosper Faustus and Gennadius He approves of the conjecture of the sixth Age who thought that Arnobius lived in the time of St. Augustine because that his commentary upon the Psalms is dedicated to Laurentius and Rusticus African Bishops who were of the Council of Carthage when St. Augustine was there Altho' Ward found not these names in any Council of Carthage he easily persuades himself it may be because that two Bishops of Africa both call'd Rusticus signâ—d the Synodical Letter to Innocent the First where they condemn'd Pelagius and Celestius It is the 90th Letter amongst the Epistles of St. Augustine and was written in the year 416. Two years after the Council of Carthage was held where the preceding Councils were confirm'd 't was compos'd of 217 Bishops amongst which was St. Augustine but there was but 24 who sign'd 'em and among their names was found Laurentius Iositanus Besides Erasmus in the sixth Age hath remark'd in this Arnobius many Latin words which were very much in use in Africk in St. Augustine's time This is the reason which Ward brings to prove that in the time of St. Augustine a Divine who dedicated a Book to two African Bishops had the boldness to accuse his Doctrine of Heresie Nevertheless he finds not that this Arnobius was censured for it 'T is not that Ward approves his Sentiments or the name that he hath given to those of St. Augustine but on the contrary he speaks of it with Indignation He adds that Arnobius was followed in that by Tiro Prosper who must be distinguished from Prosper Aquitanus a disciple of St. Augustine Ward found these words in a Manuscript of this first Author the 24th year of Arcadius and Honorius Praedestinatorum haeresis quae ab Augustino accepisse initium dicitur his Temporibus Serpere exorsa The Heresie of the Predestinarians which as 't is said hath taken its birth from St. Augustine begun to spread in this time After him Fausius and Gennadius have given this ill name to the Doctrine of St. Augustine and particularly the last altho' Sigebert adds Ward says that the opinion of Predestination was produced from the ill Interpretation of some places of St. Augustine from whence they draw these false consequences Nevertheless it seems that these of Marseille and some Africans in the time of St. Augustine maintained this opinion of the Predestinarians as Sigebert relates was drawn from St. Austine by mistaken Inferences as it appears by the objections of Prosper and Hillary proposed to him which have been related by others There is in 162 and 163. Letters some fragments of a discourse of the same Ward with William Bidell Bishop of Kill-more in Ireland touching the efficacy of the Sacraments and particularly that of Baptism and in the 205 Letter the opinion of Vsher concerning the Sabbath which he believed to have been observed from the beginning of the World which made some enquiry among the Heathens of which the greatest part look'd upon the seventh day as Sacred which he proves by many passages after Salmatius and Rivet c. He shews
his Adversaries which have taken no great care to propose clearly their accusations nor to comprehend well the Sentiments of those they accused as appeareth by the obscurity of the Heads which we have read Celestius saith amongst other things that as to what regards the Propagation of Sin he heard several Catholick Priests and particularly Rufinus deny it He presented a Petition to the Council where he confessed the Children were redeemed by Baptism but he was condemned nevertheless and being obliged to depart ouâ— of Africk he retired into Sicily where hâ— writ some works in his Defence It was from thence that he sent to St. Augustine short questions which he had composed to prove that man of his Nature inevitably is not carried to do evil These Interrogations are in fourteen Articles that Vsher hath related at length We shall mention here one or two of them by which the rest may be judged of First of all saith he we must ask of those who say that man cannot be without sin what sin is in general If it is a thing that may be avoided or not If it cannot be avoided there is no hurt in committing it If man can avoid it he may be without Sin But neither reason nor Justice permit that that should be called a Sin which cannot be any way avoided We must again ask if Man ought to be without Sin 'T will be undoubtedly answered that he ought If he ought he can if he cannot he is not obliged Besides that if man ought not to be without Sin he ought to be a Sinner and 't will be no more his fault if it be supposed that he is necessarily such In the same time Pelagius that was at Ierusalem published divers pieces where he expounded more at length his Sentiments and where he particularly granted that no man excepting Jesus Christ had ever been without sin it did not follow that that was impossible He affirm'd that he disputed not of the Fact but of the Possibility and that yet it was not possible but by the Grace or the Assistance of God St. Augustine hath undertaken to refute one of these pieces of Pelagius in his Book of Nature and Grace He accuseth him on the one side of confounding the Graces that God gives us in Creation with those by which he regenerates us and on the other side to say that God gives his Graces according to merit and that these Graces are but outward but it shall be seen in the sequel how Pelagius expounded his Opinion Three years after that Celestius was condemned at Carthage his Master was accused at Ierusalem of holding the same opinions Iohn Bishop of this City called an Assembly of some Priests to examine Pelagius and to see if really he held the Opinions that were attributed to him For to know what was done in Africk against Celestius Into this Assembly were called three Latine Priests Avitus Vitalis and Oros. This last was then at Bethlehem studying as he saith himself at the feet of St. Ierome to whom St. Augustine had recommended him Whilst he was in Africk in the time of the Condemnation of Celestius he related to this Assembly at Ierusalem with what zeal those of Carthage had condemned that Heretick and said that St. Augustine had made a Book against Pelagius and had besides in a Letter written into Sicily refuted the questions of Celestius Having this Letter about him he offered to read it and did so at the entreaty of the Assembly After this reading the Bishop Iohn desired that Pelagius should be introduced It was permitted by connivance saith Orose whether for the respect they had for the Bishop or that it was believed fit that this Prelate should refute him in his presence He was asked if he acknowledged to have taught what Augustine Bishop of Hippona had refuted He instantly answered who is this Augustine and as all cryed out that a man who blasphemed against a Bishop by the mouth of whom the Lord had kept an Vnion in all Africk ought not only to be banished from this Assembly but from all the Church John ordered him to sit in the midst of the Catholick Priests tho' a Laick and guilty of Heresie After that he said to him 'T is I that am Augustine that acting in the name of this offended Bishop can more freely pardon Pelagius and appease enraged Minds We then said to him continueth Orose If you represent here the person of Augustine follow his Opinions He replied by asking us if we believed that what was read was against some other or against Pelagius If it be against Pelagius added he what have you to propose against him I answered by the permission of the Assembly that Pelagius had told me he maintained man could be without sin and could easily observe the Commandments of God if he pleased Pelagius confessed it was his opinion Thereupon I said this that 't was that which the Bishops of Africk had condemned in Celestius which Augustine declared in his writings to be a horrible Doctrine and that which Ierome had rejected in his Epistle to Câ—esiphon and which he refuted in the Dialogues that he then composed But the Bishop of Ierusalem without hearing any thing of all that would have us to bring parties before him against Pelagius We are not answered We the Accusers of this man but we declare unto you what the Brethren and our Fathers have judged and decreed touching this Heresie that a Laick publisheth now lest he should trouble you the Church into the bosom of which we are come Then to engage us in some sort to declare our selves parties he begun to instruct us in what the Lord saith to Abraham Walk before me and be thou upright and what is said of Zacharia and Elizabeth that both of them were just before God and walked bamleless in all the Commandments of the Lord. Many amongst us knew that that was a remark of Origen and I answered him We are Children of the Catholick Church Exact not from us O Father that we should undertake to raise our selves into Doctors above the Doctors nor into Iudges above the Iudges Our Fathers whose Conduct is approved by the Vniversal Church and in whose Communion you rejoice to see us have declared these Maxims damnable It 's just that we should obey their decrees Why do you ask the Children what they think after having learned the Sentiments of their Fathers The Bishop said after that if Pelagius maintain'd that man could be without sin without the help of God it would be a damnable Doctrine but that he did not exclude the help of God and asked what we had to say to that If he denied the necessity of this assistance We answered Anathema to those that did deny it and we cryed out that he was a Latin Heretick that we were Latins that he was to be judged by Latins and that it was almost an impudence in him to pretend to
be found that almost none of these Ideas are distinct so that when the word is spoken to which it is applied we may perfectly know what is meant by it There are also according to them some of these words to which there hath been no Idea absolutely applied so that in some places of this dispute the two parties do very nigh the same thing that a French man and an Arabian would that should know their natural tongue only and speak by turns the lowdest they could and sometimes both at once without understanding each other and then each should boast to have conquered his Adversary This was chiefly what the opinions of Pelagius consisted in and those of his Adversaries touching Grace As to the election it seemeth Pelagius hath believed that there were two sorts the one to Grace and the other to Glory God hath resolved according to his Judgment to call certain persons to the knowledge of the Gospel that they might the more easily arrive at everlasting happiness This was the predestination of Grace He after that hath resolved to save those that he foresaw would persevere until the end in making good use on these favours This is the Predestinatiof to Glory which is founded upon merits whereas the other is purely of Grace St. Augustin in disputing against Pelagius hath confounded as Father Petau believes these two Predestinations and made thereof but one because according to his opinion all those that have received the necessary means to attain Salvation do infallibly arrive at it 'T was that made him exclaim so strongly against those that maintain'd Predestination according to works as if the Predestination to Grace was in question whereas they meant but the Predestination to Glory The year after the Council of Diospolis being Anno 415. there were in Africk held two Councils upon the same matter the one at Carthage and the other at Mileve Aurelius Bishop of Carthage presided in the first where were LXVII Bishops more met together also They had not as yet received in Africk the Acts of Diospolis but Eros and Lazarus had written what had passed therein and had sent their Letters by Orosius who was returned from Palestine to Africk It was resolved on the hearing this Relation to anathematize the opinions of Pelagius to hinder them from spreading any further and to anathematize him after with his Disciple Celestius in case they did not absolutely renounce these Errours After that they sent the Acts of the Council to Pope Innocent to engage him to condemn the same opinions The Council of Mileve consisting of LXI Bishops in which Silvanus Primate of Numidia presided did the same thing as that of Carthage Besides the Synodal Letters of these two Councils Innocent received particular ones from some Bishops of Africk among which St. Augustine was one The design of these Letters was the same as of the preceding ones the design being to incline Innocent to condemn the Doctrine attributed to Pelagius and to cite him before himself to examine whether he continued to maintain the same They insinuated that they might accomplish their end that it might be that Pelagius had deceived the Bishops of Palestine tho' they cou'd not positively affirm that the Churches of Africk might not be joined to those of the East Innocent answered the year following ccccxvii to the two Councils and to the Bishop that had written to him in particular He said he believed that Pelagius and Celestius did deserve to be excommunicated and that the former could not be purged at Diospolis but by Equivocations and by obscure expressions Nevertheless having received no new assurances from that Country and not knowing well how things had passed there he saith he can neither approve nor disapprove the conduct of the Bishops of Palestine He likewise excuseth himself in regard of citing Pelagius upon the distance of the places This Bishop writ these Letters at the beginning of the year and died a little after for the tenth of March in the Martyrology of Beda is marked for the day of his death After the death of Innocent St. Augustine and Alypius writ to St. Paulin Bishop of Nola to exhort him to oppose Pelagianism in Italy provided he was in a Condition of making any An historical Explication of the most weighty Question of the continual Succession and State of the Christian Churches especially in the West from the Apostles time until the last Age. By James Usher Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland Augmented and Revised by the Author London 1687. in fol. p. 191. THe principal difficulties which Roman Catholicks raise against Protestants consists in these two things that the Protestant Religion is new and that it was not remitted from the Apostles unto us whereas they pretend theirs is that of the Apostles and hath suffered no Interruption from their time unto ours Iohn Iuel Bishop of Salisbury hath undertaken in his Apology for the Church of England to shew on the contrary that the opinions of Protestants are conformable to those of the Fathers of the six first Ages Vsher was willing to answer the above cited difficulties in shewing that from the sixth Age unto the Reformation to wit during 900 years there have always been Churches in the West who have received the same Doctrines with the Protestants To that end he thought he ought to give the History of the Tenets and conduct of the Popes with those who have opposed their Usurpations during these nine Ages without mixing any thing of his own being contented to cite only the proper terms of the Authors who have spoken of those times for fear he should be accused of turning things after a more favourable manner for the Protestants This History had once appeared imperfect enough but now very much corrected and enlarg'd in this Edition and therefore we shall give a compleat Abridgement thereof We shall not however stay to relate what the Author saith as concerning the thousand years during which the Devil was to be bound and the time in which he was to be set free As there are as many different Sentiments as Interpreters upon this opinion and that there are but simple conjectures brought which are likewise subject to a thousand difficulties 1. Those who have a mind to be instructed therein may consult the Commentaries upon the Apocalypse At what year soever men relate the beginning of the thousand years whether it be from the Birth of our Saviour or from his Death and his Ascension or finally from the ruine of Ierusalem our Author equally draws his advantage as will be seen in the sequel It shall suffice to say that he divides his work into three parts whereof the first goeth from the seventh Age to the eleventh in which Gregory the seventh arrived to the Pontificate The second should have gone to Mccclxx but the Author could not continue it but to Mccxl. The third reaches to the past Age. So this work is far from being
dogmata postea subtilius explicata tractet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For what regards the High Priest Levites and the Laicks relates according to our Author to the Priesthood and to the Custom of the Jews This Epistle being written about the end of Nero's Empire or at least before that of Vespasian whilst the Temple yet stood Letter 347. 1. p. Tacitus After having said that many learned men have discovered of what use Tacitus is in Politicks without excepting the the Italians who pretend to be the great Masters in this Science He saith that Berneggerus and Freinshemius had given at Strasbourg an Edition of it in 8 vo with a very large Index and most useful Notes in the Margent He adds that he read it with pleasure and that it was esteemed by all the Ingenious of Paris The same Author undertook to make an Addition in Folio with a perpetual Commentary drawn from all the Notes which had appeared tell then upon Tacitus Letter 1092. 1. p. Theophilactus 'T is the abridgement of the Greek Fathers which had written before him and is as the Voice of the Greek Church who gave us the opinions of St. Paul which he had preserved with much Fidelity Letter 1243. 1 p. Predestinatus 'T is the Title of a Book in 8 vo printed at Paris 1643. by Father Sirmond Grotius saith that he hath drawn this Book from a Manuscript which was formerly Hinâ—mar's Archbishop of Rheims that this work is oppos'd to those that believe absolute Predestination And that the Stile is strong and elegant Letter 673. p. 2. Father Casaubon I have not had less veneration saith our Author for his natural openness and sincerity than for his great Learning He told me in the year 1613. at London where I was almost every day with him when he went out of France he quitted all Studies which belong to the ancient Souldiery to which he had been perswaded by Henry the 4 th who was as great a Soldier as a Prince and that in England he had turned his Studies of that side which most pleased King Iames who was given more to peace than War Casaubon had no Collection except in his memory Margents of his Books and upon loose Papers Wherefore we have no Notes upon Polybe but what is upon his first Book and they are imperfect also 184. Letter p. 2. Selden This Author who made his wit appear in many pieces hath given to the Publick his book entituled Mare Clausum in opposition to another intituled Mare liberum This work is very learned and attributes in particular to the King of England all the Sea that extends it self from the Coasts of England Spain France the Low Countreys and Germany unto that of Denmark Letter 590. p. 1. Selden saith Grotius in another place hath taken figurative Expressions whereof I have made use in my Poetry to defend the Laws of the King of England and hath opposed them to others more serious I am very much obliged to him for the honesty with which he hath spoken of me and I believe I shall not injure the Friendship that is between us by this Epigram that I have made upon his Book Ipsum compedibus qui vinxerat Ennosigaeum Est graeca Xerxes multus in Historia Lucullum Latii Xerxem dixere Tagatum Seldenus Xerxes ecce Britannus erit Letter 371.2 p. The Bishop of Bellai I know him saith Grotius not only by his writings but also by Conversation He is an honest man and well versed in Controversie This is the Title of one of his Books The Demolishings of the Foundation of the Protestant Doctrine He hath a great hatred to the Monks and would not have them instruct the People but have it referred to the Ordinaries He is very much esteemed amongst the Bishops and of an exemplary Life Letter 1716. p. 1. Crellius I thank you saith our Author to him Letter 197. p. 1. both for the Letter and the book youâ— sent me I have resolved to read over and over with care all that you have written knowing how much profit I have gain'd by your Works When I received your Letter I was employed in reading your Commentary upon the Epistle to the Galatians You have very happily found the design and occasion of this Epistle as well as the sequel of this discourse I have cast my eye saith our Author elsewhere in speaking to Ruarius friend to Crellius upon his Commentary to the Epistle to the Hebrews which is very Learned I have profited much thereby as well as upon that which he hath made upon the Galatians of which the Ministers of Charenton make the same judgment as I do Let. 552. p. 1. He saith to his Brother speaking of the Book that the same Crellius had written against that of Grotius de satisfactione Christi that he hath written modestly and with much learning altho' he approves not of his opinions p. 2 Letter 138. George Calixta Professor of Divinity at Helmstadt I know not whether you have seen the preface that Calixta hath put before the books of St. Austin de Doctrina Christiana and of the Commonitorium of Vincent de Lerins the book that he hath made de Clericorum coelibatu and the first part of his divine Morals with a digression touching the new Method de Arte nova I approve the judgment of this Man and the respect he hath for antiquity joyned to the love of Peace A. M. des Cordes Canon of Limages p. 1. Letter 350. see Letter 339. p. 1. Salmatius I have run through the book of Salmatius upon Simplicius There is as you say much reading I wonder he disposeth not his thoughts in a better order 'T is sometimes difficult to reconcile him to himself he often disputes about words c. To William Grotius p. 2. Letter 326. Salmatius hath been with me he is dispos'd to defend every thing to the utmost extremity and even maintains that St. Peter never set foot in Italy I wonder the spirit of a Party should have so much strength says he in the same Letter 533. Salmatius is pleas'd to defend Opinions abandoned by all the World for even Blondel who is a Minister in France maintains in a book Printed at Geneva that St. Peter was at Rome He denyes also a Woman was ever Pope but Salmatius affirms it in the same Letter 536. A great friend of Salmatius hath told me a little while since that a Book could not easily be made de lingua Hellenistica Rediviva drawn from this that he saith he is constrain'd to confess in many places that he acknowledges the thing and disputes but of the Name He saith that no body hath remark'd that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answereth to a manner of speaking Latin But I had and even in three places Mat. vi 2. c. in the same book 6921. Daniel Heinsius I have read the Works of Heinsius upon Nonnus which was not worth my while for others have said several
are some words for it is too long to be all inserted The Cardinal burthened with care unloads it on a Monk this Monk dischargeth it very slightly Boutiller the Son only runs about the Father defers every thing the Commissaries of the Treasury and the Generals of the Armies think they are all called to a Harvest of Gold The Cardinal is charged with the Sins of all the World and even fears his life It happened in 1637. that Grotius and the Earl of Leicester the English Ambassadour having sent their Coaches to meet an Ambassadour of Holland the Swedish Ambassadours Men took the Precedency in spight of the English which made the latter draw their Swords The Duke de la Force who went for the Ambassadour ran to the tumult and thought he could easily decide it but the Swedes made it appear they were prepared for this accident in giving the reasons they had to do so which may be seen in Let. 722. p. 1. I almost forgot to remark that in the 2. part which contains much fewer political Letters than the first that the Opinion of Grotius may be seen upon these two questions to wit if one is obliged to send a Prince such succour as hath been promised him when we are attacked our selves Letter 16. and after what manner the Republick of the United Provinces hold Democracy Let. 209. This is what was thought fit to relate of the Letters of Grotius concerning Politicks The subject of his Embassy may be seen in the new History of Swedland by M. Puffendorf lib. vii c. 4. In this great number of Letters one may well judge that there are some of all sorts but we were contented to mark the principal subjects The Letters of Consolation may be added whereof these are the most considerable the 133. to M. du Maurier upon the Death of his Wife The 334. to G. Vossius upon the Death of his Son Denis The 445. to M. de Thou The 1116. to a Prince of the House of the Palatinate What follows is a Continuation of Bishop Ushers Works Entituled The Antiquities of the British Churches c. And should have followed in pag. 37. after these Words Day of his Death but was there left out through the Printers mistake AFter the death of Innocent St. Augustine and Alypius writ to St. Paulin Bishop of Nola to exhort him to oppose Pelagianism in Italy provided he was in a Condition of making any progress In the mean time Celesâ—â—us that was return'd from Asia whither he was gone after having made some little abode in Sicily came to present himself of his own accord to Zozimus Born in Cappadocia and successor to Innocent He gave him a small Tractate wherein he had particularly expounded his Opinions He ran over therein all the Articles of Faith from that of the Holy Trinity to the Resurrection of the Dead and declared that he held all these Articles after the same manner the Catholick Church did He added likewise that if disputes were rais'd in things that were not matters of Faith as for his own part he had not attributed to himself the authority of forming an absolute Judgment thereof but offered to be examined by Zozimus what he had Written upon these subjects drawn from the authority of the Prophets and Apostles that it might be corrected if there was any errour In fine every sentiment he there explain'd that we have before spoken of and denyed manifestly Original Sin Zozimus cited â—elestius to appear before him in the Church of St. Clement where he caused this Writing to be read and asked of the Author if he verily believed what he said therein Celestius answered Yes after which Zozimus put divers questions to him the sense whereof may be contain'd in these two If he condemned the Doctrines that Paulinus Deacon of Carthage had accused him of maintaining He said to that that he could prove this Paulinus to be an Heretick and would not condemn the propositions whereof he had accused him The other question that Zozimus put to him was if he agreed not with Pope Innocent in what he had condemned and if he would not follow the sentiments of the Church of Rome Celestius answered yes After these formalities Zozimus Writ to the Bishops of Africk a long letter where he relates in what manner Celestius had appeared before him and how he had been examined After that he reproachech them with having acted in this affair with too much precipitation fervore fidei praefestinatum esse and that they had too lightly believed extravagant reports and saith the same to certain Letters of Eros and Lazarus not being well assur'd of their worth Lastly he citeth those that shall have any thing to say against Celestius to appear at Rome in two Months at farthest Notwithstanding he took not away the Excommunication that the Bishops of Africk had pronounced against him As in that time the judgment of a Synod or even of a Bishop and particularly that of the Bishop of Rome was of great weight in what manner soever they had proceeded and that afterward Zozimus was accused of having prevaricated in condemning Pelagius after having approved his Doctrine St. Augustine hath endeavoured to give the best turn he could to this conduct of Zozimus as if this Prelate had acted mildly on Celestius's account only for pitty and thinking to have an account of his Opinions only for the better instructing himself that seeing they could not not be attributed to him as obstinate Heresies it would not be so difficult even to bring him back to the truth Zozimus in a Word according to St. Augustin look'd upon Celestius as a Man of great wit and who being corrected might be very useful to others The will of rectifying but not the falsity of Opinion is commendable In homine acerrimi ingenii qui profecto si corrigeretur plurimis profuisset voluntas emendationis non falsitas dogmatis approbata est 'T is a long while ago saith our Author that the Learned Vossius hath shewn this great Bishop endeavour'd in vain to hide the broken back of Zozimus with his Purple It cannot be doubted after reading the Letters that he Writ to the Bishops of Africk that he not only favoured Celestius but also Pelagius as being Catholicks without dissenting much from the true Faith Zozimus having sent his Letter unto Africk received a Packet from Palestin directed to Innocent whose Death was not yet known There were Letters of Prayle Bishop of Ierusalem and an Apology of Pelagius with a small book wherein he expounded his Opinions very clearly as it may be seen by the reading of it Prayle openly took the part of â—elagius and Zozimus caused to be read publickly these Letters and Writings which were approved by all as appears by what Zozimus writ a little while after to the Bishops of Africa Would to God saith he to them my most beloved Brethren that some of you could have assisted
made a Priest by Innocent the first being retired to Marseilles began to compose Books by which sweetening a little the Sentiments of Pelagius wâ—om he also condemned as a Heretick he gave birth to the opinions to which were since given the Name of Semi-pelagianism His Sentiments may be seen in his Collations or Conferences that St. Prosper hath refuted and maintain'd against the pure Pelagianism Here in a few words is what they were reduced unto I. The Semi-pelagians allowed that men are born corrupted and that they cannot withdraw from this Corruption but by the assistance of Grace which is nevertheless prevented by some motion of the Will as by some good desire whence they said nâ—cum est velle credere Dei autem gratiae est adjuvare to Will to Believe dependeth of me but it 's the Grace of God that helpeth me God according to them expecteth from us these first motions after which he giveth us his Grace II. That God inviteth all the World by his Grace but that it dependeth of the Liberty of men to receive or to reject it III. That God had caused the Gospel to be preached to Nations that he foresaw would embrace it and that he caused it not to be preached to Nations that he foresaw would reject it IV. That notwithstanding he was willing all should be saved he had chosen to Salvation none but those that he saw wou'd persevere in Faith and good Works V. That there was no particular Grace absolutely necessary to Salvation which God gave only to a certain number of men and that men might lose all the Graces they had received VI. That of little Children which died in their Infancy God permitted that those only should be baptized who according to the foreknowledge of God would have been pious if they had lived but on the contrary those that were wicked if they came to a more advanced Age were excluded from Baptism by Providence VII The Semi-pelagians were yet accused to make Grace entirely outward so that according to them it chiefly consisted in the preaching of the Gospel but some of them maintained that there was also an interiour Grace that Pelagius himself did not totally reject Others allowed that there was preventing Grace So it seemeth that the difference that was betwixt them and Pelagius consisted only in this that they allowed Men were born in some measure corrupt and also they pressed more the necessity of Grace at least in words Tho' the difference was not extreamly great he notwithstanding anathematized Pelagius But this they did it 's like in the supposition that Pelagius maintained all the opinions condemned by the Councils of Africk St. Augustine accuseth them to have made the Grace of God wholly to consist in Instruction which only regardeth the understanding when as he believ'd it to consist in a particular and interiour action of the Holy Ghost determining us invincibly to Will good this determination not being the effect of our understanding The other Sentiments of this Father are known opposite either to the Doctrine of Pelagius or that of the Semi-pelagians We may be instructed herein particularly in his Books of Predestination and Perseverance that he writ at the entreaty of St. Proâ—per against the Semi-pelagians and in the works of the latter To come back to the History 't is said that in the year Ccccxxix one Agricola Son of Severiaenus a Pelagian Bishop carried Pelagianism into England but St. Germain Bishop of Auxerre was sent hither by Pope Celestin or by the Bishops of the Gauls and extirpated it suddenly Several miracles are attributed to him in this Voyage and in the stay he made in England as Vsher observes But if what Hector Boetius saith a Historian of Scotland who lived in the beginning of the past Age be true he used a means that is not less efficacious for the extirpation of Heresie which was that the Pelagians that would not retract were burned by the care of the Magistrates But whilst St. Germain purified England the Seeds of Pelagianism that Cassian had spread amongst the Monks of Marseille and in the Narbonick Gaul caused it likewise to grow in France St. Prosper and Hilary had writ of it to St. Augustine and had specified it to him that several Ecclesiasticks of the Gauls looked upon his opinions as dangerous novelties St. Augustine answered to their objections in the books which we lately have named but the support that Hilary Bishop of Arles and Maxim Bishop of Riez granted to the Semi-pelagians hindered any body from molesting them tho' they shewed much aversion for the Doctrine of St. Augustine Iulian and the other Bishops banished as I have already observ'd from Italy were gone to Constantinople where they importuned the Emperour to be re-established but as they were accused of Heresie he would grant them nothing without knowing the reasons why they were banished Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople writ about it to Celestine who answered him after a very sour manner and as if it had not been permitted to be informed of the reason of their condemnation reproaching him at the same time with his particular Sentiments His Letter is dated the 12. of August in the year Ccccxxx. It was at that time that St. Augustine died whose Elogium may be found in our Author who approveth of the praises that Fulgentius giveth him in his 2. Book of the Truth of Predestination where he speaks of him as Inspired A little after his death the Letters of Theodosius that had called him to the Council of Ephesus arrived in Africk whence some Bishops were sent thither In the year Ccccxxxi the 22. of Iune this Council composed of CCX Bishops was assembled for the Condemnation of Nestorius Cyril of Alexandria presided there and whilst it was holding Iohn Bishop of Antioch was assembled with 30. other Bishops who made Canons contrary to those of this Council The particulars were that the party of Cyril and that of Iohn reciprocally accused each other of Pelagianism but the greater part approved of the Deposition of Iulian and other Bishops of Italy that Nestorius had used with more mildness He is accused to have been of their opinion and to have maintained that Jesus Christ was become the Son of God by the good use he made of his Free-will in reward whereof God had united him to the Everlasting Word This was the cause that in this Council Pelagianism and Nestorianism were both condemned together But notwithstanding all this and the cares of three Popes Celestinus Xystus and Leo the first Semi-pelagianism was upheld amongst the Gauls It may be that the manner wherewith Celestine writ to the Bishops of France contributed to it because that tho' he condemned Pelagius with heat and praised St. Augustine he said at the end of his Letter that as to the deep and difficult Questions which were found mingled in this Controversie and which were treated at length by those that opposed the Hereticks that as
Bread that the same Body of Iesus Christ which had been stretched upon the Cross was upon the Altar and his not appearing to be there Do you think that I stood to tell them all that in all Bodies there are small Entities vulgarly called Accidents and that amongst these Entities there is principally one called Quantity which extends the Body without being always extended it self of the Body or the Essence of the Body or the Moods of the Body and that God in the Eucharist depriving the Body of Iesus Christ of this Entity made it to stay without Extention Do you think I say that I went to tell them all this fine Discourse Truly I was far from it I should have embraced them again and even as they have a very subtil Wit more fit for Sciences than we when they are minded to apply themselves thereunto it may be I should have given them a distast I was satisfied to tell them simply and in three Words That God who had made that World of nothing could as well make that a Body should appear where there was none and that there should appear no Body where there was one He adds that these good People went away with this more contented and more submissive than if the Thing had been expounded to them after the ordinary manner He is not only contented to defend himself he besides attacks the Cartesians upon the infinity of the World the Soul of Beasts the cause of Motion and Free-Will c. The fourth Piece is the Work of a Cartesian against the same Mr. de la Ville and in favour of the excellent Philosopher who hath made the Disquisition of Truth Mr. de la Ville had witnessed some particular Spleen against him and had by the by attackt his Exposition of Original Sin He is answered and accused of relating the passage fasly After that he is told that the Counsels have not decided all the particular Tenets that the Philosophers of Schools have advanced to expound the Mysteries of the Eucharist and that one may be a very good Catholick without adopting all these Tenets That also it is not apparent that the Bishop of Condom spoke thereof in exposing the Doctrin of the Church It is maintained against him that these Tenets were unknown to the Ancient Fathers and consequently that Tradition and Reason are for those who are called Cartesians There is added a Memorial to expound the possibility of Transubstantiation It deserves to be read for it is a different manner of explication to all those which have been seen hitherto After these four Pieces in French comes a Dissertation in Latin Composed by a Protestant against the same Mr. de la Ville The Protestant is so wife as to intrude into the dispute which the Catholicks have amongst themselves upon the Tenet of the Real presence He lets them go on he supposeth that his mediation would displease both of 'em and that it would be thought he rather endeavoured to put the evil forward than allay it He is content to examin that place of the Book of Mr. de la Ville where this Author endeavours to prove by natural Reasons that the Extent is not of the Essence of the Body and because Mr. de la Ville to bring this about only weakeneth as much as he can the Reasons by which Cherselier Rohault and the Author of the Disquisition of the Truth have maintained that the Extent is the Essence of the Matter The Protestant is contented to Restablish the Reasons of these Gentlemen in all their strength in ruining all the Exceptions and all the subtility of Mr. de la Ville He applieth himself chiefly to shew that the penetration of Matter is impossible The Printer hath added to this Dissertation some Theses of Philosophy which come from the same Hand and where it is maintained amongst other things that Place Motion and Time have not as yet been defined but after an unexplicable manner It is also remarked that the Reflection of Bodies must needs proceed from their Elastick Vertue being Motion is Divisible to Infinity and that by Reason of this Divisibility any fixt Body cannot hinder that which is in Motion to continue in its Motion in a right Line Mr. Descartes had not taken care of this Lastly at the end of this Collection are the Meditations upon Metaphysicks which appeared in 1678. Under the name of William Wanduis In this is the quintessence of the Cartesian Metaphysicks and all the best things which are in the Meditations of Mr. Descartes It even appears to be much better digested in it more short and pertinent than in that of Mr. Descartes and that he is surpassed in it The French Author of the Learned Mercury of the Month of February speaks of these Meditations of William Wanduis and refutes some places thereof but his Remarks tho good in his System have no very great strength when they are used against the Principles of the Author of the Meditations Of the Agreement of Specifick Remedies with the Corpuscular Philosophy To which is added A Dissertation about the various usefulness of Simple Medicaments By Robert Boyle Esq Fellow of the Royal Society WHEN the Ancient Philosophers were asked the Reason of any Natural Effect their Custom was always to have recourse to certain occult Qualities whereof they had no Idea at all It was but in this latter Age that People began to Discourse according to the Rules of Geometry and to explain by Properties by which we clearly conceive the different Effects of Bodies the most universal Properties of Body and Extension Figure and Motion And whereas Bodies do not always act by their whole Bulk but sometimes by their insensible Particles it is necessary to speak of the Figure and Motion of these Particles There have been an infinite number of Conjectures made upon these little Bodies and some have made it their endeavour to draw hence Consequences not only for Natural and Experimental Philosophy but also for Medicine As for Example when some were satisfied that the mass of Blood was in a disposition that disagreed with its Nature they thought that particle of a certain Shape and Figure should be made use of to bring this Blood back to its due and natural Temper And there were some that believ'd that universal Remedies might be found out which would produce this Effect let the Distemper be what it would and so have insensibly fallen into an Opinion That what is said commonly of Specificks is but meer Fancy and an effect of our own Brain 1. Mr. Boyle intends to shew in the first of these two short Dissertations That the common Opinion concerning Specificks is not at all incompatible or inconsistent with the Modern Philosopher's Thoughts of the Operation of the insensible Particles of Bodies To avoid Obscurity and Equivocation Mr. Boyle takes notice from the very beginning That three kind of Remedies may be termed Specificks 1. Such as may serve for the Cure
their own Judgment and generally cast their Eyes upon Gregory The Orthodox Bishops of the East and principally Melece of Antioch Basil of Cesarea and Peter of Alexandria favoured him openly yet their design succeeded not There was in Alexandria one Maximus by Profession a Cynick yet a Christian. He pretended to be descended of a Noble Family and in which there had even been some Martyrs After the Death of Athanasius the Orthodox being persecuted in Egypt he had removed into a Village of the Deserts of Thebaides named Oasis He went cloathed like the Philosophers to wit covered with a poor Cloak he would have neither his Hair nor Beard shaved and carried a Stick as Diogenes did Living thus after a manner most Austere he would take the liberty of censuring the Vices of all People without having any regard to their Quality as the Ancient Cynicks used to do Notwithstanding under this severe Outwardness was hidden a Soul Fraudulent Ambitious Malicious Covetous and full of the most Shameful Lusts. But as that did not appear to the Eyes of Men he acquired a great Reputation not only amongst the People but also amongst the most Learned Men. He held Correspondency with the Bishops of Cesarea in Cappadocia Friend to Gregory as it appears by two Letters of Basil which are directed to him Gregory received him so well at his arrival at Constantinople that he made a Speech in Honor of him where he omits nothing that could make this Impostor pass for a great and good Man But having since known his Fraud instead of the Name of Maximus which was at the Head of this Speech he put that of Hieron and entituled it thus A Speech to the Praise of Hieron a Philosopher of Alexandria sent into Exile for his Faith and returned three Years after Gregory shews in this Discourse what use could be made of the Cynick Philosophy in Christianity and speaketh of the Persecutions which the Princes who had favoured Arianism had raised against the Orthodox particularly in Egypt and to Maximus the Philosopher He endeth in expounding the Mystery of the Trinity and in exhorting his Philosopher to keep himself constantly applied to the wholsome Doctrin which held a Medium between Judaism and Arianism He often makes this Remark when he speaks of the Holy Trinity and in general we perceive in reading his Works that the same thoughts return frequently enough In admonishing his Philosopher to despise the Objections that are made against this Tenet he bids him not to be ashamed at the Accusation of Tritheism whilst others are in danger of establishing two Gods the Arians and Macedonians for you shall either resolve the Difficulty adds he as they do or you shall remain entangled like unto them c. Gregory having thus made the Panegyrick of Maximus received him in his House instructed him in the Religion Baptised him conferred the Orders upon him and communicated to him his most secret thoughts But so soon as Maximus thought himself capable enough he saw with Sorrow that they thought upon making Gregory Bishop of Constantinople He judged himself more worthy of this place than his Master and Benefactor and perceiving that one of the principal Priests of this Church envied Gregory this Dignity also he joyned with him to supplant him To which intent Maximus gained Peter of Alexandria who before favoured Gregory Some time after the Fleet of Corn which came every Year from Alexandria to Constantinople arrived there and the Masters of the Ships Hammon Aphammon Harpocras Steppas Rhodon Anubis and Hermanubis immediately joyned themselves to the Assembly of Gregory though they had orders to assist the Designs of Maximus whom two or three Egyptian Bishops after that upheld strongly Yet this arrival of the Egyptians and the Cares they took to joyn themselves to Gregory gave him so much satisfaction that he made a Speech thereupon where he infinitely praiseth the Piety and Constancy of those of Alexandria and expounds to them his Sentiments touching the Equality of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost He extends particularly to the Proof of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost and makes use amongst other Reasons of this the terms of which would seem strange if already we had not observed such heretofore If the Holy Ghost is not God let him be made God before and after that let him make me a God equal to him in Honour This bold Expression seems to signifie nothing else but that if the Holy Ghost be not God he cannot Sanctifie Men which Gregory calls in another place to render Men Gods Some Learned Men think That it was about the same time that Gregory made the Panegyrick of St. Athanasius which is the Twenty first of his Speeches He reckons therein not only the Vertues of the Bishop of Alexandria but also gives more at large the History of the Persecutions he suffered and the Turmoils that happened during his Life He praiseth him above all for his Orthodoxy and for his Constancy in Defence of the Truth All those saith he that made Profession of our Doctrin were divided into three Parties The one had no good Sentiments for the Son and yet less for the Holy Ghost there were very few whose Doctrin was sound in these two respects He was the first and the only Person who durst publickly declare the Truth or at least he was upheld by very few Gregory gives besides to St. Athanasius the Glory of having reconciled the Eastern with the Western People who Disputing only about words believed each other reciprocally to be Hereticks We say conformably to the Doctrin of Piety that there is one Essence and three Existences Hypostases the first relating to the Nature of Divinity and the second to the Propriety of the three The Bishops of Italy conceived the same thing but by reason of the Poverty of their Tongue they could not distinguish the Hypostases from the Essence because that Latius would translate the word Hypostasis by that of Substance and they introduced that of Persons fearing it should seem that they acknowledged three Essences What came on it Something Ridiculous or rather worthy of Pity A pure Dispute in words appeared a Dispute touching Faith Those in the East were suspected of Sabellianism which said that there were Three Persons and in the West of Arianism those that spoke of Three Hypostases This it was the Disputes produced c. St. Athanasius remedied this in intervening with Mildness between each Party and in examining carefully the Sense of the words whereof they made use and as soon as they found that the Bishops of the East were of the same Sentiment as to the thing and differed but in Expressions he permitted the use of different Terms and reunited them in the bottom as Tenets To return to Maximus the Arrival of his Country-men in CCCLXXIX fortified his Party and the more to engage the Bishops of that Country to
further see in the Expressions of our Bishop a remarkable Effect of the Dispute It is when we fear that our Adversaries should draw some Advantage from certain ways of speaking we avoid with care the use thereof lest we should give them some Prize although these Expressions are otherwise most proper to express the Doctrin we maintain It is visible that to make himself be understood Gregory ought to have answered to the Arians Yet it 's true we adore three Gods seeing we acknowledge three Eternal Spirits whose Essences are distinct but these Gods are perfectly equal and as perfectly united as distinct Beings can be having the same Thoughts and the same Will which makes us say commonly That we acknowledge but one God But if he had spoken thus the Arians who boasted to study and follow Scripture would have replied That all the Scripture represents the Unity of the Supream God as a Numerical Unity and not as an Unity of Species and Consent They would have said as they did before but with much more appearance of Truth That the Homoousians introduced a new Paganism in establishing three Collateral Gods Thus they were obliged that they might keep themselves from these Reproaches to maintain strongly that there is but one God according to the Sentiment of Nice The Platonicks who had a like Thought but were not restrained in their Expressions fortified themselves thereupon and said That the Principle of all things were three Gods I cannot but relate on this Subject these remarkable words of St. Augustine which admirably confirms what I have said Liberis verbis loquuntur Philosophi nec in rebus ad intelligendum difficilimis offensionem Religiosarum aurium pertimescunt Nobis autem ad certam regulam loqui fas est ne verborum licentia Etiam in rebus quae in his Significantur impiam gignat opinionem Nos autem non dicimus duo vel tria principia cum de Deo loquimur sicuti nec duos Deos vel tres nobis licitum est dicere quamvis de unoquoque loquentes vel de Filio vel de Spiritu Sancto etiam singulum quemque Deum esse fateamur Philosophers freely use what words soever they will and fear not to offend Pious Ears in Subjects most hard to be understood For our part it is not lawful for us to speak but according to a certain Rule lest words imployed with too much Liberty should beget an Impious Opinion to understand them according to what they signifie When we speak of God we do not say two nor three Principles as it is not permitted us no more than that there are two or three Gods though in speaking of each one or of the Son or of the Holy Ghost we grant that each of them is God This Custom hath made Men insensibly swerve from the Ancient Idea's because the word Unity was taken in the ordinary Sense that it used to be taken in without supposing that the Ancients understood it in a particular Sense This is what happened in divers other Doctrins as it hath been observed in the History of Iansenism It 's now time to return to the History of our Bishop after having brought so many proofs of his Sentiments upon those Tenets that then divided Christians The Council whereof we have already spoken assembled at Constantinople in May CCCLXXXI There were at it an Hundred and fifty Orthodox Bishops and Thirty six Macedonians who it was hoped would be brought to the Orthodox Faith Besides some Canons that were made there concerning Discipline whereof we shall not speak the Affair of Gregory and Maximus was treated on they also made a Symbol The Ordination of Maximus and all those that he could ever have were judged void after which Gregory was declared Bishop of Constantinople though he endeavoured to discharge himself from it They obtained of him that he would stay there because he was perswaded that he could the more easily in this â—ost reconcile the different Parties which then rent Christianity It was brought against the Promotion of Gregory that being Bishop of Sasime and Nazianze he could not be transferred to Constantinople without violating the Canon of the Council of Nice which is express thereupon But Melece Bishop of Antioch replied to that that the design of this Canon was to bridle Pride and Ambition which had no share in this business Moreover it seemeth that this Canon was not observed in the East since Gregory saith That they opposed to him Laws that were repealed long before besides that he had perform'd no part of the Episcopal Function at Sasime and as for Nazianzen he was but Coadjutor to his Father This Affair being cleared they entred on the principal Subject for which they were assembled which was the Sentiment of Macedonius who had been Bishop of Constantinople and believed that the Holy Ghost was but a Creature though all the Disciples of this Bishop were not of the same mind upon the nature of this Divine Person as appears by a passage of Gregory which hath been related Immediately in the Council was confirmed the Nicene Creed and they thought it convenient to augment it particularly with what respected the Holy Ghost This addition is in these terms We believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord of Life and he that giveth it who proceeds from the Father who with the Father and the Son is glorified and who spoke by the Prophets The Council also anathematized the Sentiments of Sabellius Marcellus Phâ—tinus Eunomius Apollinarius and Macedonius but we shall not stand to relate these Errors because they have no Connexion with the Life of Gregory the same reason makes us omit what concerneth Discipline All passed with Tranquility enough in regard to Gregory until a Tempest arose that made him lose the Episcopal See of Constantinople when he least expected it It was the Spirit of Revenge in a Party which he opposed that caused this Difference from which Gregory who was not so Couragious as to maintain the Brunt against his Adversaries could not free himself but by flying There was some time after a sad Schism in the Church of Antioch where two Orthodox Bishops were at the same time Melece being dead at Constantinople before the Council was separated they spoke of giving him a Successor Gregory thereupon proposed an Expedient to end this Schism which was that Paulinus who was the other Orthodox Bishop and who had been ordained by Lucifer de Cagliari alone governed the Church of Antioch during the rest of his Life and that after those of the Party of Melece being reunited with those of Paulinus's would choose a Bishop by common Votes For fear it should be thought that he had some Interest to favour Paulinus and that he would form a Party he offered the Council to quit the Episcopal Throne of Constantinople in which he had been established But the Ambitious and Incendiaries as Gregory calls them who had begun to give
a Successor to Melece would not hearken to this Proposition A Crowd of young Persons begun to cry out like Magpies and made so much noise that they even forc'd the old Bishops who should have resisted them and brought in question again the Affair of Gregory which had been decided Gregory perfectly describes their Ambition Ignorance and Defects in the Poem he hath made of his Life It is better to read it in the very Author than here Yet the People hearing that the Council gave Gregory a Distast and that the latter spoke of retiring cried out That they should not take away their Pastor and intreated him not to abandon his Flock About that time Timothy Bishop of Alexandria who succeeded Peter and who was of a Violent and Contentious Spirit arrived there with divers Egyptian Bishops The old Malice they had against Gregory upon the account of Maximus the Cynick had so much inflamed them against our Bishop that they began by complaining that the Canons had been violated in transporting Gregory from one Bishoprick to another This excited a great Noise in the Council and it was upon this occasion that Gregory made his Speech of Peace which is the Fourteenth wherein he at length presents the Advantages of Agreement and the evil Consequences of Divisions He highly Censures therein the lightness of the Bishops who had without reason changed their Opinion in his behalf and suffered themselves to be deceived by the Calmness of his Enemies He saith That Back-bitings ought to be slighted which are commonly spread of Moderate Persons and in fine we may easily see by what he hath said that it is not in our Age alone that Men do cover their Passions most unworthily under the fair name of Zeal for the Purity of Faith Gregory testifieth also that he told them For what concerned himself they should not put themselves to so much trouble but that they should endeavour to be reunited That it was time to make People cease laughing at them as wild Men who had learned nothing else but to fight That provided they would agree he consented to be Jonas who should make the Tempest cease That he had taken against his Will the Episcopal Seeâ— and that he quitted it freely and that his Body being weakened with old Age obliged him thereunto Notwithstanding all this they accused him of Ambition he therefore made a Speech which is the Twenty seventh wherein he protests he had accepted of the Bishoprick of Constantinople but by force and brings the People to witness it He saith That he cannot tell whether he ought to call the Seat of Constantinople The Throne of a Tyrant or the See of a Bishop he complains of the Distractions of his Enemies and the Envy they bore him because of his Eloquence and his Learning in the Sciences of the Heathens It may be that made some People envy him but the Post which he was in made a great many more envy him He would have suffered him to have made use of his Rhetorick at Sasine without giving him the least trouble for it After having declared in full Council that he desired to quit the place which was envied him he went to the Emperor's Palace to entreat him to suffer him to withdraw He obtain'd it with some difficulty and afterwards he only thought upon taking leave publickly which he did in the Cathedral in the presence of one hundred and fifty Bishops and all the People We have the Discourse he then made and 't is the Two and Thirtieth in order he there represents the Ill Condition wherein he found the Orthodox Church of Constantinople and the Change he had accomplish'd he makes a Confession of his Faith touching the Blessed Trinity and shews he had done nothing which was worthy of Censure he exhorts the Fathers of the Council to choose a Person worthy of the See of Constantinople to succeed him and afterwards took his leave of all that heard him In this Speech he complains of his Old Age and in the Poem of his Life he saith he was then but a dead Man animated which he could not say if he was according to the common Supposition but Fifty six Years Old As soon as he took his Leave the People and in general all those who had heard him at Constantinople testified a great deal of Grief The Conduct of the Council appears very unequal and Violent since after they Confirmed Gregory in the See of Constantinople they oblig'd him to quit it at the Age of about 80 Years This manner of acting so Unwise and Un-christian like gave pleasure enough to the Enemies of the Council and much diminished the Authority of their Decisions For in fine how can we think that Bishops so Factious so Unjust and so Ignorant as Gregory describes them in divers places were nor capable of Examining maturely the Doctrins in question If their Authority did not make them incline to the Orthodox â—ide it must needs be Chance only that led them into the right way The love of Truth is seldom found with so much Vanity and Ignorance Thus Gregory Abandoned the Bishoprick of Constantinople some few Weeks after he had been established by that Council that Banished him He withdrew into Cappadocia according to Gregory the Priest Author of his Life and went to live at Arianze where he was Born Amongst those that were presented to the Emperor some Bishops put up Nectairus Senator of Constantinople a Man of regulate Manners and comely Countenance but who was not as yet Baptized and who had scarcely any Learning It is not known whether Gregory parted for Cappadocia before this Election was made or staid at Constantinople until he had a Successor named to him Howbeit Gregory writ an Instruction to Nectairus where he begins thus That it seemed as if the Providence of God who before kept the Churches had altogether abandoned the Affairs of this Life That which made him speak thus he says was not his particular Evils tho so great that they would have seemed insupportable to any body else He assures us that the State of the Church only forc'd those words from his Mouth He afterwards describes to Nectaire the boldness of the Arians and Macedonians who were in as great a number at least as the Orthodox and who durst Assemble and form Churches a horrid Attempt after the Decisions of a Council so well Regulated as that which had been newly held Gregory comprehended not how his Holiness and his Gravity it was thus that Bishops were stiled permitted the Apollinists to Assemble He advertised him that Apollinarus said that the Body of the Son of God Existed before the World that the Divinity served him as a Soul and that his Body descended from Heaven and was essential to the Son yet nevertheless Died. Gregory thought tho I know not why that to permit these Men to Assemble was to grant that their Doctrine was truer than that
Martyris Pontificis After having thus harangued upon the credit of a Legend Gregory saith that the Ashes of Cyprian had the Vertue of driving away Devils curing the Sick and foretelling Futurities Persons are as little inclined to believe these Miracles as the other part of this Fable A piece of St. Cyprian is likewise at the end of this Speech where Gregory asks him his Advice for the better governing of his Flock This Prayer hath no resemblance of Rhetorick in it There is likewise another place in this Speech which may perswade us that the Invocation of Saints began to be in use at that time Iustina represented Praying to the Virgin Mary to help a Virgin in danger In effect the opinion of Miracles which were said to be done at the Graves of Martyrs has a very great connexion with the Worship that is rendred to them several Ages since amongst Christians As if we believed that the Ashes of Martyrs cured the Sick who drew nigh them and did many other Miracles there appeared no danger of making Addresses to them to ask some Favour of them since God did so many Miracles in favour of those that called upon them near their Graves There is great probability that the belief of Miracles which Saints did after their Death is not much older than their Invocations Dr. Cave in his English Life of our Bishop saith not without Reason that Gregory sometimes speaks to the Dead by a Figure of Rhetorick which has been observ'd more than once but there is no Figure in the Action of Iustina which Gregory undoubtedly did approve of as appears by the manner he relates it I shall not undertake to speak of all the Speeches of Gregory it sufficeth to have given an Extract of his Principal ones We have Two hundred and forty one Letters of his the greatest part of which regard some particular Affairs which are not well known to us or contain Complements or Morals or even some Jokes There are few considerable Facts excepting those wherein he complains of the Ill Manners of the Bishops of his time and of their Disputes These Letters are not of a Periodick Stile like to his Speeches yet they were written with Care and generally very Elegant Amongst the Works which bear the Name of Gregory it 's doubted if two are his 1. The Forty fifth Speech which treats of Divinity and directed to the Monk Evagrius The Author makes it his business to Expound how Three Persons can be in God though we cannot say that there are Three Gods He Establisheth like to Gregory the Unity of God in the strict Union of the Three Persons and in the specifick Identity of their Essence 2. A Discourse upon the beginning of Ezekiel It is believed that the Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes which is amongst the Speeches of our Gregory is supposed his who is called Thaumaturge and that the Tragedy which is at the end of his Poetry Intituled Christ's Sufferings is Apollinarius's of Laodicea But we may reckon amongst the Works of Gregory of Nazianze at least in regard to the Form a Collection of Divinity which he had made with his Friend Basil in reading the Works of Origen as may be seen by his Letter the LXXXVII to Theodoret Bishop of Tyane Gregory believing this Collection useful the Doctrin it contains may be looked upon as that of Gregory and Basil. We have already said that the German Edition of the Works of Gregory which lately appear'd contains nothing but what is in the Edition of Paris We shall only add here that two things might have been done in favour of Gregory which would have rendred this Edition a great deal better First His Speeches should have been disposed according to the order of Times as much as could possibly be found out by the very Speeches which was easie in regard to a great many of 'em as appears in the Life of Gregory The same should have been done in respect to the Epistles which the Abbot de Billis tho otherwise a Learned Man has not placed in any good Method Secondly It would be a thing to be desired that some able Man should make a new Translation in Prose of all the pieces of Gregory's Poetry That which is in Verse is very bad not only in regard to the Poetry but also in respect to the Sense He that did it being a very ill Poet took excessive Liberties to fill the measure of his miserable Verse These sorts of Translations are not regarded by the Learned for they value them not nor by those which cannot read the Original without the help of a Translation because it 's too far above their Sphere and they may be deceived The Interpreter of Gregory has for Example made Baronius or some of his Copiers fall into an Error since they believed that where Gregory a little after the death of his Brother Cesario and his Sister Gorgonia said that he was Old that was to be understood of a prematured old Age because the Interpreter made use of this term in Translating the 363 d. Verse of the Poem Intituled Carmen 1. de rebus suis tho there is no such thing in the Original As for the version of his Works in Prose it is incomparably better and we may say that the Abbot was as capable of writing Prose as he was unfit for Verse It is wonderful that a Man of his Learning should take so much pains to Translate into pitiful Verse what he could have put much better into Prose One thing notwithstanding may be observed in the Translation of the Speeches and Letters of Gregory which will convince us we ought always to have recourse to the Original And that is the Pointing of the Version which is often very different from that in the Greek that makes it appear more clear and less incumbred Tho that may in part fall out through the fault of those who have placed the Greek in the side of the Translation for he had Published it alone who have taken not care enough of the Correction and partly by the liberty of the Translator who has Abbreviated many Periods and Lengthned those which appeared to him too short However we may say in general that it is one of the best Versions which has been made of the Greek Fathers and at the same time one of the most difficult by reason of the too figurate Stile of Gregory and which is even Harsh and Obscure in divers Places where he treats of controverted Tenets We should here have ended the Life of Gregory because we have nothing more to say of him as a certainty but that we perceived a little too late that what was said of the delaying of Baptism Page 9. may be cleared by Gregory himself He disputes in his XL Speech where he treats of Baptism against those which deferred it under such pretences as we have before related It appears by this Speech that Gregory believed 1. That by
had the honour to hear The one continueth he which I saw in Greece was of the Ionick Sect. I have seen two in Calabria the one of Syria and the other of Egypt I have met two others in the East whereof the one was of Assyria and the other with whom I have conversed in Palestine was of Iewish Extraction This last was the most deserving I stopt in Egypt where he was concealed to seek for him He was as the Proverb saith a true Bee of Sicily He gathered the scattered Flowers as it were in the Meadows of the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles by the means of which he could fill with a pure Knowledge the Souls of those who heard him These Men having conserved the true Tradition of the Blessed Doctrin immediately after the holy Apostles St. Peter St. James St. John and St. Paul as a Child who retains what he has learned of his Father though there are few who resemble them have lived till our times by the Will of God to pour into our Hearts the Seed they had received from the Apostles their Predecessors It is of a great Importance to know what Master an Author hath had for to understand well his Opinions for then as at this day Disciples applied themselves chiefly to the Methods of their Masters and expounded Religion as near as they could to the Principles of Philosophy which they learned Thus Divine School men who were Paripateticks have since Expounded Divinity by the Principles of Aristotle and thus in the places where the Philosophy of Descartes is received Divinity is treated on after the Cartesian way Therefore the Learned of our Age have endeavoured to Divine who those were which Clement spoke of It appears by the Version which hath been given of the words of this Father that he had five Masters but Mr. de Valois gives him but four because he follows the manner of the Reading of Eusebius It cannot positively be asserted which is the Letter but it may be said that the Interpreters who have taken the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a proper Name have done it without reason There is no likelihood that Clement who mentions not the Names of others whom he acknowledges for his Masters should name this there was none in Antiquity who was named Ionick and this name may mark the Sect of Philosophy to which this first Master of Clement was chiefly applied Thales and Anaximander Philosophers of Milet a City of Ionia had been the Chief thereof Clement of Alexandria speaks honourably of both those Philosophers in his Writings Thales saith he in a Place was of Phoenicia according to the Relation of Leander and Herodotus He is the only Person who seems to have had Corrispondence with the Prophets of Egypt and we read not that any was his Master c. Anaximander a Milesian and Son to Praxidamus succeeded Thales and had for Successor Anaximenes Son to Euristratus likewise a Milesian Anaxagoras of Clazomenes Son to Hegesibule came after him he transported his Auditory from Ionia to Athens and was succeeded by Archelaus Master to Socrates Elsewhere he saith that Thales being interrogated what Divinity is he answered That which hath neither Beginning nor Ending And that another having asked him If Men can hide from God their Actions How shall that be possible answered he seeing they cannot hide even their Thoughts from him In speaking of Anaximander of Archelaus and Anaxagoras Philosophers of the same Sect he saith that the first has established for the first Being the Infinite and that the two others have said that the Mind governed the Infinite The Principles of these Philosophers may be seen more at large in Diogenes Laërtius and we may easily perceive that there are some who agree well enough with those of the Jews and Christians as that all that is upon Earth is come from Water that the Night was before the Day that the most part of Men are bad that for to live justly we must not do that which we reprehend in others that Heaven is our true Country c. It is not therefore incredible that a Philosopher of this Sect had imbraced Christianity and was the first Master of Clement of Alexandria All that can be said against this Thought is that the Succession of Philosophers of the Ionick Sect ended in Archelaus Master to Socrates But though there had been no Masters of this Philosophy who had immediately succeeded one another that hindred not but that those might have been Philosophers in divers Places who followed the Opinions of Thales and of his first Disciples Thus Diogenes Laërtius saith in his Preface that the Italick Sect whereof Pythagoras was chief ends at Epicurus though there were Pythagoreans several Ages after Epicurus It is no wonder that a Christian followed a certain Sect of Philosophy because it is not to be understood but as much as he judged it conformable to Christianity Thus Iustin Martyr was a Platonick and Pantenes Master to Clement was a Stoick The Name of the Second whom he had seen in Great Greece or in Calabria is entirely unknown Some Authors believe that that of Assyria was Tatian a Philosopher and Disciple to Iustin Martyr and others Bardesanes of Syria who had been a Valentinian who never left intirely the Sentiments of this Sect As for him who had been originally a Iew some believe he might be Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea though History does not observe that he was descended of the Iews Likewise others do conjecture that he was named Theodotus whose Doctrin Clemens Alexandrinus had exposed in his Books of Hypotyposes or Justifications of Christian Religion whence it comes that the Abridgment of this Work which is seen at the end of Clement is entituled An Extract of the Eastern Doctrin of Theodotus But some do attribute these Extracts to Theodotus of Byzantium a Courier by Trade but a Learned Man who was Excommunicated by Pope Victor in CXCIV for having Taught that Jesus Christ was but a mere Man In fine the least of the Masters of Clement whom he prefers to all the rest and with whom he sojourned was named Pantenus Eusebius believes it is of him that Clement speaks in the last words of the Passage which hath been cited of him and indeed Pantenus Taught in Egypt when Clement sojourned there and Clement called him his Master in his Books of the Hypotyposes The Country and Parents of Pantenus are unknown but we know he applied himself much to the study of Philosophy particularly to that of the Stoicks won perhaps by the Manners and severe Maxims of these Philosophers which agreed not ill with those of the Ancient Christians There had been a publick School at Alexandria for a long time and if some Authors may be believed ever since Mark the Evangelist where the Cathecumenes were Taught an employ which was given only to Learned Persons and of a good Life Pantenus was provided therewith and Taught a long while in this City
Orthodox Treatises of Tertullian he gives the chiefest place to his Apologetick his two Books to the Gentils and that which he Dedicated to Scapula to perswade the Governour of Africk from Persecuting the Christians He proves in this last that all Men ought to have the liberty to embrace what Religion seems the truest to them That 't is no part of Religion to constrain men to embrace a Religion which ought to be a voluntary choice Non est Religionis cogere Religionem quae sponte suscipi debet non vi In the Sixth Book of Baptism Tertullian disapproves of Baptizing Children without Necessity How is it necessary says he to expose God-fathers to the danger of answering for such who may prevent and hinder the performance by Death or Apostatizing from the Christian Religion when they come of Age Our Author assures us that this Opinion of Tertullian is his own particular one and there 's no other Father to be found who hath said as much But Tertullian affirms other things as incredible as for Instance when he says Christians are absolutely forbidden to bear Arms and he calls the Crowns that Soldiers put upon their heads the Pomps of the Devil To râ—ad his Book of Spectacles one wou'd hardly believe that he was the Author of that of Prescriptions but only by his affected Style and Particular Transports he endeavour'd to prove in his Book of Spectacles that Virgins ought to have their Faces covered in the Church contrary to the Custom of the Country which only oblig'd Women to be Vail'd He mightily exclaims against Custom and Tradition and maintains that nothing can be prescribed contrary to Truth 'T is true adds Mr. Du Pin when not Dogmatically enjoyned but 't is when it is done as a Disciplin of little Consequence In mentioning the History of Origen and how he was persecuted by Demetrius the Patriarch of Alexandria he relates an Article of the Discipline of that time viz. when a Priest was once Excommunicated and depos'd by a Bishop with the consent of the Bishops of the Province he cou'd no more be receiv'd into any Church and it was never Examined after the Judgment was past whether it was just or unjust He places among the Errors of Origen the Exposition which he gave upon the words of Jesus Christ Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth c. because he seems to retain the power of binding and loosing only to Bishops and Priests which follow the vertue of St. Peter and he says that all Spiritual Men are this Stone upon which Jesus Christ hath founded his Church St. Cyprian is one of the Fathers whom Mr. Du Pin has been large upon because the Life and Letters of this Martyr make a considerable part of the Ecclesiastick History of his Age. We may see there in the troubles that were excited amongst the Christians by the parties of Novatian and Felicissimus on the account of those that were fallen by Persecution The Moderation that St. Cyprian observed to avoid the Rigour of the first and the extream Remissness of the second and the Weakness of Cornelius Bishop of Rome who suffering himself to be seduced by Felicissimus writ to St. Cyprian after a disobliging manner These Two Schisms were not extinguisht before a third arose upon the Question whether Hereticks ought to be Re-Baptized proposed by Ianuarius and the Bishops of Numidia who upon that Account came to consult a Council where St. Cyprian was They that composed it answered that this Question was already decided by the Bishops that were their Predecessours who had declared in the Affirmative The Year following another Synod was Assembled in Africk which having confirmed this Decision sent to Stephen who was then Bishop of Rome to perswade him to embrace this Discipline But the Bishops was so far from complying with the Reasons of the Africans that he was Transported with anger against St. Cyprian and his Collegues and treated their Deputies very ill calling them false Christians false Apostles and Seducers even forbidding all those of his Church to entertain them and so depriving them not only of Ecclesiastick Communion but also refusing them the Laws of Hospitality but St. Cyprian testified great Moderation being unwilling that any Person shou'd Separate himself from the Communion upon this Dispute Mr. Du Pin afterwards endeavours to prove in his Notes that St. Cyprian did not change his Opinion and that the Churches of Greece were also a great while after his time divided about this Question He directs the Reader to a Letter of St. Basil to Amphilocus in which this Father relates the different Customs of the Church upon this Point Almost all the Letters of St. Cyprian run upon those Subjects that we have already spoken of the extracts of 'em are given to our Author according to the order of time He relates many fine passages from thence upon the necessity of examining the Disposition of such as are admitted to the Communion the Excellency of a Martyr which principally consists in keeping in every respect an Inviolable Holiness in his words and not to destroy the precepts of Jesus Christ at the same time that he 's a Martyr for him This holy Bishop made it a Law to do nothing in the Affairs of his Church without the Council of his Clergy and consent of the People Whefore in the Council of 37 Bishops held at Carthage in 256. upon the Reiteration of Baptism this holy Man gave this reason against Excommunicating those that were of a contrary opinion to him For no one amongst us says he ought to establish himself Bishop over the Bishops or pretend to constrain his Collegues by a Tyrannical fear because each Bishop has the same liberty and power and he can no more be judg'd be another than he can judge him but we ought all to expect the Judgment of Jesus Christ who only has power to propound to his Church and Judg of our actions In this question the Two Parties pretended to have Tradition on their side And St. Cyprian opposed to the Tradition that Pope Stephen brought the Truth of the Gospel and the first Tradition of the Apostles Our Author says also that St. Cyprian was the first that spoke clearly of Original Sin and the necessity of the Grace of Jesus Christ. The best Edition of this Fathers Works is that which has been lately published by Two of our Bishops But Persons have not much esteem for the observations of Dametius because he endeavours more to confirm the Doctrin and Discipline of our time than to explain the difficulties of his Author Mr. Du Pin rejects all the Letters that are attributed to Cornelius Bishop of Rome except those that are in the Works of Saint Cyprian because the rest and particularly the Epistle to Lupicinius Bishop of Vienna and two other that are in the Decretals under the name of this Pope are not like the Stile of those that are