Reflexions On the Council of TRENT In Three Discourses I. That the Protestants without any necessity of inquiring into the Decrees of the Council of Trent have sufficient reason to reject it II. That the Doctrine of the Council of Trent is contrary to the antient Doctrine of the Catholic Church III. That the Council of Trent was so far from reforming the disorders which had crept into the Church that it really made the breaches in its Discipline wider and cut off all hopes of correcting the antient abuses A Conclusion of the foregoing Discourses Concerning the State of the Church of England and how she hath bin more successful in the Reformation of her Faith and Manners then the Church of Rome By H. C. de LVZANCY Mr. of Arts of Christ Church in Oxford OXFORD Printed at the Theater And are to be Sold by Moses Pit at the Angel in St. Pauls Church-yard Peter Parker at the Leg and Star in Cornhil William Leak at the Crown in Fleetstreet and Thomas Guy at the Corner Shop of little Lumbard-street and Cornhil 1679. Imprimatur HEN. CLERKE Pro-Cancel Oxon. Martij 17. 1677. TO The right Reverend FATHER in GOD HENRY By Divine Providence LORD BISHOP OF LONDON Dean of his Majesties Chapel-Roial AND One of his Majesties most Honorable PRIVY COUNCIL c. MY LORD I Presume to address to your Lordship a Treatise against the Council of Trent that is against a Conventicle of this last age wherein the ancient Faith was opprest by the establishment of modern errors and Religion crusht by the interests of a politic faction Besides the particular obligations I have to offer to your Lordship the best of my acknowledgments I could not have made a more suitable dedication of this Book then to a branch of that Noble Family which was ever zealous for the Faith once deliver'd to the Saints and to a Bishop of that Church which has alwaies declar'd it self against the unhappy policy of that See which builds its own greatness upon the ruines of the simplicity of the Gospel These two singular qualifications appear so eminently in the conduct of all your Lordships affairs that to them we are to attribute that extraordinary application whereby you answer all the ends of your high calling and content not your self with the advantages and honor but descend to the most laborious and difficult parts of so great a charge that diligent and strict watch whereby you do not only preserve your own Flock but discover all the designs and artifices of its enemies that unblamable conduct which the most violent and partial of your â—dversaries cannot but admire that servent charity which directs to your Lordship as to a sure refuge all them that desire to forsake either vice or error but above all that evenness and steddiness of mind which a Father of the Church calls the Life and Soul of Episcopacy wherewith Almighty God has endu'd your Lordship in so eminent a degree that it may be lookt upon as your peculiar Character My Lord it would be a noble subject to reflect upon a few late instances you have given that you prefer your honor and conscience above all interests whatever that you have no concern but for the welfare both of Church and State and tho the greatness of your quality sufficiently entitles you to the highest honor that either of them can bestow yet you owe your advancement purely to your own merit But My Lord I am prevented by the acclamations of the public and the voice of the whole Nation which by the great things you have already don is making judgment of the yet greater happiness it shall one day derive from your Lordships future undertakings This is become the employment of persons more proportioned to such a work and it is the utmost of my ambition to be admitted amongst the meanest of them who are daily beseeching Almighty God that he would still prosper your Lordship in the accomplishment of those noble designs wherein you are happily engag'd for the good both of Church and State I am with all imaginable respect and duty MY LORD Your Lordships most Humble most obedient and most oblig'd Servant De LUZANCY THE PREFACE THE occasion of these ensuing discourses which are here made public was a Treatise entitl'd Considerations upon the Council of Trent It s author has manag'd his subject with so much dexterity that I could not but judg it agreeable to that love all Christians ought to have for truth and to my own duty in particular to dispel the mist he has attempted to cast before men's eyes To perform this with solidity I thought it not so proper to rely upon any particular historian of that Council there being but four who have treated of it whose testimonies are not free from exception Soavius is suspected by the Romanists as Palaviciny by the Protestants tho with less justice Scipio Henricus is more addicted to his Society then to his Church and more intent to defend the Jesuits then to justifie the proceedings of the Bishops And for Aquilius his Survey De tribus Historicis it is rather a Pamphlet injurious to the Church of Rome it self for its want of sense and learning than a just censure But it appeared much more easie and useful to give a true character of the Council drawn out of its own acts and shew such essential defects in it that all the artifice of its defenders can never satisfie a rational and impartial enquirer There are two things to be consider'd in this Council the manner wherein it was celebrated and those points it determin'd which later either respect articles of Faith or reformation of manners This order I have exactly follow'd by endeavouring in the first discourse to evince that the manner of holding this Council was altogether irregular and that Protestants may lawfully reject it without any further discussion of its decrees in the second that its decisions are contrary to the ancient Canons of the Church and in the third that the reformation which was then pretended to be made was no better then a new violation of Discipline and a perfect illusion of the World In these discourses I avoid the citing any authors but such as for their learning and piety are venerable in the Church of Rome a design which no judicious persons can ever disapprove since it hapens but too often that we combat men whose sentiments their own communion disowns and after a long and tedious disputation we receive no other answer but that the Church of Rome is not bound to make good all the assertions of her privat followers And indeed she would be strangely put to it should she warrant all the dreams of Suarez Vasquez and other Jesuits Since it is easy to demonstrate that they are more contrary to her then to us more pernicious to their mother then to their enemies and as a learned Man of their communion observes fitter to raise new Heresies then to
destroy old ones There being therefore so great a difference between their doctrine and that of their Church I have the justice and honesty not to charge their excesses upon a communion which notwithstanding its many errors cannot cease to be great and venerable but the acts of Trent the Councils of the Catholic Church the writings of the Fathers and the decretal Epistles of the Popes themselves being still extant 't is from thence that the assertors or opposers of that Council must fetch their arguments I make no doubt but that this writing will increase the hatred of my adversaries and I foresee that the blackest colours of calumny will not be dark enough to draw my picture with T is the ordinary way of many Zealots who make it a part of their vertue to slander persons on the account of their Religion and to persecute them to the end either to induce them thereby to turn back to the communion they have left or at least to discredit them in that which they have embraced No Christianly affected man can see such dealings so opposite to God's Spirit without great sentiments of sorrow and compassion nor deplore too much the state of those men who break thro all the laws of charity by a principle of Conscience and certainly a party must needs be strangely weak when its defenders run to Pamphlets and injuries to maintain it The greatest and most signaliz'd revenge I le take of them and of their writings shall be a constant silence As their arguments shall never find me dumb so their reproaches shall for ever make me deaf The living God who understands the language of our hearts shall be the only witness of mine to him alone I will complain and if at any time I pray for the ruine of my persecutors it shall be as St. Austin tells us David did for the destruction of his Enemies He hated them with a perfect hatred he could never be reconcil'd with the sin but nevertheless loved very tenderly the sinner and at the same time he would have suffer'd death to confound the one he would have given his life to save the other REFLEXIONS On the Council of TRENT Discourse I. That the Protestants without any necessity of inquiring into the Decrees of the Council of Trent have sufficient reason to reject it I. THERE are no true Christians whose very being so imprints not in them a profound respect for the Councils of the Church since they consider them as Sacred Conventions wherein that Holy Mother both instructs and reforms her Sons and wherein Bishops speak forth the dictates of that Spirit which proceeds from the supreme Bishop of our souls 1 Pet. 2. 25. thereby preserving as well the faith of their people from being undermin'd by the overgrowing malice of Heresie as their manners from being corrupted by the remissness of her discipline The Catholick Church has alwaies judged them of so absolute a necessity that when ever the Devil attempted to disturb her peace so soon she gather'd her Members from all parts of the Earth to oppose him and to learn from the Divine Scriptures how that dreadful Enemy was to be conquer'd So when Arius endeavor'd to deprive us of our Redeemer by the denyal of his Divinity the whole Church thundred upon him in the Nicent Council Macedonius whose blasphemous Tongue inveighed against the Holy Ghost was no better treated in the Constantinopolitan That of Ephesus prov'd no less Enemy to Nestorius A thousand Anathema's were pronounc'd against Eutiches by the Fathers met at Chalcedon And because the Nestorians even after Nestorius his condemnation were resolv'd to maintain his Errors under the name of Theodorus Bishop of Mopsuestia Theodoret Bishop of Cyr and Ibas Bishop of Edessa and did likewise pretend that the first being dead in the Communion of the Church and the two others having been receiv'd in the Chalcedon Council the said Council had approv'd of the Nestorian Heresie the fifth General Synod gather'd at Constantinople condemn'd the three Chapters their Authors and Defenders amongst whom was poor Pope Vigilius reckon'd notwithstanding all his Infallibility It had been the constant desire of Men that the Council of Trent would have taken these first Assemblies for its rule kept both their form and spirit and shew'd in these last Times where Charity is so cold some foot-steps of those where it was so flaming II. There were no reasons wanting to raise in us the most ardent desires that it should have been so There was scarce any Religion to be found in men Superstition had so blinded their minds and fleshly lusts infected their hearts And at the same time that ambition had put Arms into the hands of Princes to disturb the world the bloodless but more pernicious and obstinate quarrels of Divines wasted the face of the Church The immediate fore-going Ages had brought forth Councils that contradicted each other All Europe stood amaz'd at those of Constance Basil Florence and the Lateran The sacred Persons of Kings were become so despâ—cable â—s to be excommunicated and degraded without the least scruple The Divine Authority of Bishops was brought to nothing and it was hard to judg whether ignorance or corruption was more predominant in the Clergy Nay the Popes themselves if you believe their Bulls seem'd to be sensible of so many Exorbitances Pope Pius the Fourth confessed He could not but be struck with horror when he saw how much both Heresie and Schism had prevail'd and how much Christian manners stood in need to be reformed Paul the Third before him had acknowledg'd That Heresie and Schism had vitiated all things But Adrian the Sixth goes further and in his Letter to the German Princes does not think it enough to say That the whole world groans under inveterate and insufferable abominations that he desires earnestly a Reformation but adds That the Church of Rome the Apostolical See is the off-spring â—f so many disorders We know saies he â—here have been many abominations in this â—oly See abuses in Spiritual affairs excesâ—s in the Laws and that all things are perâ—erted and it is no wonder that the disease â—ath flown from the head to the members â—rom the Popes to the inferior Prelates This is also the Confession of those â—rave and learned Doctors who being â—onsulted by Paul the Third about the â—ntended Reformation answered him poâ—â—tively That such an Enterprize would â—rove impossible and useless to the Church unâ—ess it began at the Head III. 'T was requisite therefore to come to that so much expected Reformation recal the ancient Doctrine and manners of the Church and demonstrate by a sudden and efficacious remedy that the Popes were not deaf to the cries and complaints of so many Nations But 't was necessary also to make the humane Grandeur of the Apostolick See agree with the Spiritual necessities that Souls were in exhibit some kind of help which they should be alwaies masters of and like
a contempt of Episcopal dignity XXVI And indeed the most holy Father us'd them all ut creaturas mancipia James of Clodia Fossa saying he could not suffer tradition to be parallel'd with the Scripture was expell'd the Council Peter of Justinianople being but suspected of what they call'd Lutheranism was forbidden to come there and take place amongst the Bishops Another was proclaim'd Schismatical and threatned to be rejected for affirming there had bin many lawful Bishops never call'd or confirm'd by the Pope Nay another was depos'd because he said the Pope should be contented with the title of Holy which God is satisfied with without affecting that of most Holy So that t was not without reason the Cardinal of Lorrain complains the Council was not free since nothing could be propos'd or resolv'd but what was the Legats pleasure nor could they propose any thing but what was the Popes XXVI But to convince all unprejudic'd persons we need but consider the safe conduct granted to Protestants Tho the Fathers of Trent were engaged in honour to blot out the memory of the Constantian Council whose wounds continued still bleeding by testifying to their adversaries all imaginable sincerity and Candour yet they gave them greater occasions then ever to distrust Protestants require nothing but what had bin accorded to the Bohemians by the Fathers at Basil but they are plainly denied They beg at least a safe conduct which they many confide in but t is doubted whether it may be granted them and they are told it shall be given in the Congregation viz. in the Friers meeting and not in the Session viz. in the Council At last after having bin thus baited they oâ—tain safe conduct which has respect only to the Germans worded in such captious terms that thereby the Pope had reserved to himself the power of burning all the English Swedes Danes and French that should come to the Council nay the Germans themselves tho they could blame nothing but their own simplicity Notwithstanding whatever reasons Protestants had of declining such a Council after the example of the Holy Fathers and the judgment of the wisest men then living they trusting the justice of their cause and seeing in that noble and magnificent safe conduct hope was given them of disputing and proposing their difficulties sent their Divines to Trent and exposed them to all dangers without any other defence then the truth which is call'd in the Scriture the shield of the just These Divines thus authoriz'd by their Nation being arriv'd at Trent conceal not themselves They avoid not the sight of men The whole Councill is acquainted with their coming They speak to the Ambassadors make their addresses to the Popes Legats conjure them to pitty the calamities of Germany and after having presented them with the confession of their Faith they beg no other favour from them but to have it read in the Council for its being either approv'd of or condemn'd The Legats do not burden them with Irons or tumble them into Dungeons they are so far from being murdered that their life could not be more secure in the Prince of Saxonies or the Landgraves Chamber But they receive no answer their confession of Faith remains buried the Legats keep it in Petto nor are the most entire submissions and ardent entreaties able to bring it forth Thinking perhaps that the quality of a Priest or of a Divine had no great influence upon an Apostolic Legat they made use of the Emperours Ambassadors That Prince was the Soul of the Pope as the Pope was of the Council But all these endeavours are frustrated there is somwhat unknown and unperceiv'd which strikes dumb their Eminences Who ever heard of any such dealings If Protestants decline the Council grounded upon a thousand unanswerable reasons all the World rises against them nor are the names of Heretics Schismatics nay Atheists sufficient to express their imputed perfidiousness But tho they come and strike Heaven and Earth with their complaints an ignorance is pretended of their being there The Fathers have neither ears nor hearts nor mouths to hear their praiers feel their grievances and answer their proposals and they are forced to beg and expect from God that justice which men deny them XXVII T is evident from so many instances that Protestants did never reject Councils There is no Christian whom the Authority of the Church do's not overcome he deserving to be debar'd from the quality advantages and hopes of a Son who hearkens not unto his Mothers voice The Church has a true jurisdiction a real and effective authority All contrary Doctrines flow from independency and Enthusiasm two blind and furious Monsters every where to be profligated But the very same Protestants so great admirers and defenders of the Church require she should speak in lawful assemblies When they shall be condemned in Councils like that of Nice and Chalcedon then they will receive their sentence with as much joy as respect But when a new and unlawful meeting guilty of essential aver'd and incontestable defects nay acknowledg'd to be such by the most learned and disinterested men of the Roman Communion shall claim the same authority as these Divine assemblies they will be very careful to keep their ancient waies and far from being deterr'd by the threats of that proud and uncharitable Church which excludes from heaven all those she cannot keep blindfold in her bosom they will augment the glorious company of many holy Fathers whom the overpowring number of unjust Councils could never bend to betray the cause of Christ Such an one was St. Athanasius who rejected the Council of Tyre Maximus Patriarch of Jerusalem that of Antioch Cyril that of Syrmium Paulinus that of Milan and Chrysostome an example of Christian constancy that ad quercum In a word they will receive those curses pronounc'd against them as so many blessings and without going any further into the discussion of the Tridentine Councils decrees they will conclude with the words of Cardinal Bellarmine Si legitima Synodus non fuit planum est nullam authoritatem potuisse habere nullius roboris sunt illius Canones REFLEXIONS On the Council of TRENT DISCOURSE II. That the Doctrine of the Council of Trent is contrary to the ancient Doctrine of the Catholic Church I. WHOEVER peruses the Council of Trent cannot but be strangely amazed to find its stile so altogether unlike that of the ancient writings of the Church There is in those I know not what characters of holiness and Christian majesty which command reverence from all but in this we meet with a sort of so unusual and dubious expressions that shew the Authors of it were incomparably better versed in political practices or Books of School-men then in the Works of the Fathers They never intended in many of their Canons to fix a true and uniform sense which all People might rely upon but a double and captious one apt to receive
from God Justitiam vero quae ex fide Christi est non esse nisi ex Deo A man may be still sinfull and Gods enemy with such a righteousness Ideo cum in illa quae ex lege est justitia sine querela conversaretur Apostolus fuisse se impium non negat Fourthly they taught That sorrow conceiv'd only out of fear of punishment is a sorrow of Infidels and that if God were satisfied with that there is no man in the World that could chuse but be innocent since no man that has but the least Idea of the life to come but is moved with its apprehension Non enim peccare metuit sed ardere This is a principle the Fathers have with unanimous consent maintained This the Popes in former Ages taught Nay those that sit now in the Apostolical See would do so too if with the modesty and humility of their Predecessors they had not also rejected their doctrine XVI The Council seems in its last Session to gather all its strength against those who reject Purgatory and deprive Saints Images and Reliques of their due honor Yet it appears the Fathers of Trent agreed that all those things Purgatory excepted are not founded upon Scripture but only upon the General Councils and Writings of the Fathers This is collected out of the very words of the Decree the Council there speaking of Ecclesiastical antiquity but not a word of the Scripture A Person of extraordinary merit has undertaken to lay open the mysteries of Purgatory and as he leaves nothing unsaid on that subject so none can take it ill if I refer my Reader to him For those other things Invocation of Saints Images and Reliques 't is easy in a few words to shew how infirm their ground is in the ancient Doctrine of the Church All learned men in the Church of Rome admit of the following Propositions First That nothing in the Scripture authorizes these practices or at least nothing sure fixt cleer and undoubted Secondly That all places taken out of Scripture by modern Writers to prove these things have never bin made use of by the Ancients for that purpose and so are of no autority the ancients being most holy and assured Interpreters of the Scriptures Thirdly That till the seventh pretended General Council that is for eight hundred years there was not any decision made of them Fourthly That to this pretended General Council we oppose others acknowledged General by the Collector of the Councils but as all learned men confess endued with these Qualities 1. More exact in the Discussion of matters as it appears by their Acts. 2. Called by an holy Emperor and peculiar Benefactor to the Church of Rome 3. Free from all Suspicions of oppression which the seventh is guilty of 4. That the consent of the Fathers upon that Doctrine is neither clear nor unanimous and that if in any of later date there be some places tending that way there are in the same and many others a thousand contrary places to invalidate them 5. That if we speak according to the Principles of the Church of Rome it self there can no more then a simple probability be pleaded in this case and that none of the greatest neither but to both parties favorable But there is not a Divine in the World who dares affirm that an Article of Faith can be built upon a simple probability nor declare them impious and blasphemous who have a contrary probability nor excommunicate them and separate them from the Church that is inflict upon them the most dreadful punishment How could the Fathers of Trent therefore do this why did they not fear that threatning of the wise Man Sicut avis in incertum volans quolibet vadens sic maledictum frustrà prolatum venit super eum qui misit illud Nor that of Origen when a man is unjustly put out of the Church he ceaseth not to be within when he that thinks himself within may be really out XVII Saints pray in general for all Christians For tho they triumph in Heaven yet they are her members who strives and combats upon Earth They are indeed united to their Head which is Christ but yet they still preserve the remembrance of the Body which is the Church They are a part of that Spouse who as S. Bernard saies sighs after the Bridegroome and begs a kiss from his mouth wisheth for the end of the World that Christ would hasten his Judgment and manifest that day wherein he will begin to be all in all 'T is in that very sense the Apostle saies The whole Creation groans and travails in pain till now even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So S. Cyprian assures us That the Saints being secure of their immortality are careful of our Salvation S. Jerome argues against Vigilantius in this manner If the Apostles and Martyrs being yet in their Bodies can pray for others much more when they have conquered are crowned and triumph And S. Austin yet more perfectly The Saints in Heaven saies he offering their prayers for the necessity of those that pray God grants to every one all those comforts he judges most suitable to them in the miseries of the present life But there is a vast difference between the Invocation whereby we direct our Prayers to the Saints and the intercession of the Saints for us And none of these things are to be found in the Tradition 1. That the Saints pray for any particular person 2. That they obtain any favors for us by their own merits 3. That it is lawful to honor them with a religious worship XVIII And to discover with how little sincerity the Council of Trent speaks of this custom that it has bin preserved à primaevis Christianae Religionis temporibus it is enough to say that their most learned Men confess it was the sentiment of the Primitive Fathers that the Souls of the Saints should not enjoy the sight of God till the day of Judgement and consequently could neither speak in favor of us no offer to him our praiers S. â—ene Justin S. Clement Tertullian Origen Lactantius S. Ambrose S. Chrysostom S. Augustin Eutimius Theodoret Oecumenius Aretas are said to have bin of that opinion Nay S. Bernard preach't it which shews that this Doctrine continued till the twelfth Age of the Church XIX Indeed we cannot too much honor those holy men who preserve with an undaunted resolution the precious Tresures committed to their charge We must admire them in the powerful effects of Christs Grace who in a corruptible flesh and a sinfull World has preserved them pure and undefiled The constancy of Martyrs the austerity of Penitents the inviolated purity of Virgins who despised all other ambition besides that of being near the Lamb deserve all our Praises Nay a true Christian makes his actions
Hurtado are purity it self compar'd with the Book of the Apostolical Tax All the Casuists together never taught the World so many crimes as this one profligate Book We suppress it because we would not offend the modesty of our Reader There are no tongues or words pregnant enough to express so great an infamy but yet to give some hint of it let us hear the Popes Secretary Our sins saies he are rais'd to such an height that we have scarce any hope of mercy left us 'T were a vain attemt to describe the greatness of the Priests covetousness especially of them that govern How unbounded is their ambition obscenity and luxury How deep is their ignorance both of themselves and Christs doctrine also How full is the little Piety they had left of hypocrisie and dissimulation and how instead of concealing the crimes they commit do they affect rather to make them appear XII This then was the disease of the Roman Church let us now examine whether the Council of Trent has truly reform'd so many abuses whether it hath preserv'd the respect due to Princes render'd the rights of Bishops inviolable taken away the Simonies and Extortions of the Court of Rome and whether Mr. d'Espences complains wrongfully Quod tot annis tot annorum centenariâ—is nil in ea emendatur XIII As for Princes the injuries which the preceding Popes had done them were so far from being repaired that Julius the Third was so bold as to excommunicate the Queen of Navar give her Kingdom over to depredation and confiscate her Goods XIV As for the Holy Father they work out his reformation in a pleasant manner It is consider'd as a Crime to speak of reforming him of searching into his wounds or taking any account of his excesses And when the Cardinals hurried on by the force of truth and the cries of all men are oblig'd out of meer shame to propose the mending any abuse they alwaies add Salva tamen Apostolicae sedis autoritate So when plurality of Benefices is condemn'd it is Salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate when that intolerable abuse of Dispensations is cut off 't is salva semper sedis Apostolicae autoritate when any Penance is imposed upon non-resident Bishops 't is salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate when Friars are put again under the jurisdiction of their Ordinaries and obedience to their Canons 't is salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate that is to say The autority of that Apostolic See which has patroniz'd their first violation of the discipline shal be at liberty to do it a second time They dare condemn no crimes without impowring the Apostolic See to commit them over again A Law however just and necessary in it self cannot be enacted without leaving to the Apostolical See the liberty of infringing it And thus they make of the Apostolical See a sanctuary and retreat for all disorders XV. Nothing is better known at Rome then the lives of a great many Cardinals Heaven and Earth are offended at their Pride Their plurality of Benefices Bishoprics and Abbies is monstrous No secular Princes are attended with greater magnificence Never had the most luxurious Heathens either Palaces so gloriously adorn'd or Tables so delicatly furnished and whatever we read of the Gardens of Lucullus or the pleasures of Tempe is far short of the luxury of their Country Houses Yet they are Clergy-men that is a sort of people who not only vowed in their Baptism to renounce the World but declar'd it also in their Ordination That the Lord was the lot of their inheritance and his Gospel a commandment to die and bury themselves with him Notwithstanding when their Reformation was spoken of in the Council the Legats presently declar'd that the Reformation ought not to extend unto their Eminencies to which a Pious and Learned Bishop more daring then the rest moved to see Sacred Episcopacy so trampled upon by them made answer that the most illustrious Cardinals ought to have a most illustrious Reformation Illustrissimi Cardinales indigent illustrissima reformatione But they are deaf to this voice of Heaven and instead of sincerely advancing the Interest of the Gospel among themselves to the end that the spring it self being purified the stream might be so too 200 Bishops and five Cardinals busie themselves in ordering the subsistence of Franciscans and shaping the habit of Nuns XVI Nothing is so certain as the shameful traffic of the Datary and Chancery none but the wilfully blind can deny it to be a gulph which swallows up the riches of many Kingdoms and sucks the purest Blood of the people But they must first have renounc'd the Gospel and their own reason who confess not that it is a continual commerce of abominable Simony a violating of the most Holy Canons and a pernicious attemt upon the autority of Princes and Bishops What Council in former Ages what custom of the Church what legitimate Title impowers the Popes to give Benefices of other Kingdoms What new Gospel teaches him to raise vast sums upon the account of Spiritual matters What right hath he over those Churches he hath never ministred unto Which of the Fathers or what Authors can he allege to maintain such usurpations Nay who in the latter times â—id not rise against such an execrable abuse and spoke not to him in the words â—f a famous Emperor Cesset altaribus imâ—inere profanus ardor avaritiae sacris â—dytis repellatur piaculare flagitium Yea the Council very well saw all this was in the Diocess of all these Bishops â—hat so intolerable disorders spread their â—ranches The Canons of the Sacred â—ouncils of Nice and Chalcedon are set before their eies as so many eternal Witnesâ—es of the Churches Spirit but instead â—f following their rules they wholly buâ—â—e themselves in cutting off some small â—â—uses reforming of a Country Vicar 〈◊〉 for the rest Salva semper Apostolicae â—â—dis autoritate XVII Of all the different kinds of Simony the Court of Rome is guilty of none is so certain and aver'd as the Annats Boniface the Eighth and John the Twenty second invented them two Popes Baronius stiles Monsters The Council of Basil prohibited them under pain of Excommunication and because the Fathers were inform'd that they came from no other source then the Pope who by a Pasce oves meas Joh. 4. 6. makes all crimes lawful they add those so remarkable words That if the Bishop of Rome who more then any other ought to observe and execute the Canons of the Councils comes to scandalize the Church attempting any thing against such a prohibition let him be proceeded against by a General Council The most considerable Authors of the Church of Rome both for Learning and Piety complain most bitterly of this The Faculty of Sorbon calls it not only a Crime but an Heresy Paul the Third his Counsellors who had bin first oblig'd under pain of Excommunication to declare
man most deeply engag'd in the love of the World most buried in all its pleasures the most taken with its glory one that is a public sinner guilty of all the excesses which libertinism or atheism are able to inspire such an one as this must be excus'd from too much troubling himself The bearing of a Medal bowing to a Saint walking to such a Church or the like will wash him whither then snow and presently render him as innocent in the eyes of God as the best of them who think it worth their while to work out their salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. who are at the trouble of mortifying in themselves the body of sin by an incredible perseverance by continual Fasting Praiers and Alms that they may present their bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God Rom. 10. 1. XXII Thus the power of Dispensing opens the door to infinite scandals But the Pope was impowr'd to do what he would the Council granting him that which he could never hope for viz. the affertion of his infallibility and pre-eminence above general Councils two Opinions that had never bin heard of for 14 Ages and were scarce brought forth into the World but all learned and pious Men opposed them the 400 Bishops at Basil and the famous Sorbon stiling them pernicious Heresies but the Fathers of Trent being afraid to contradict openly so considerable an autority and yet desirous to have their intent dealt after a most pleasant manner they take away these two words Infallibility and Superiority but preserve carefully the thing 1. The Council declares the Church of Rome is Mother and Mistress of all Churches 2. The Council affects to stick at many matters and remits their decision to the Popes judgment Now what man of sense is there who would not draw these two Consequences 1. The Church of Rome being Mother of all Churches in the World and a general Council being compos'd but of particular Churches the Pope being Bishop of Rome is therefore Father and Master of all Bishops Councils 2. There is Infallibility in the Church this must either be in the Pope or in the Council not in the last since the Council cannot and dares not give their Opinion in many and weighty matters therefore in the first whose Church is Mistress and Mother of all Christian Churches in the World and whose sentence an oecumenical Council submits unto as to an Oracle which must fix its uncertainty But the same man should with their good leave to these consequences add a third which is 3. That the faculty of Sorbon is Heretical The Learned Gerson Chancellor of Paris is an Heretic The 400 Bishops at Basil are Heretics Pope Pius the Second an Heretic Martin the Fifth an Heretic And generally all the Learned Men of the Church for these 200 years are Heretics for they all call that Doctrine of Infallibility and Superiority a pernicious Heresie XXIII These two Points Infallibility and Superiority being once stated what reformation could be expected in the Church If the Pope be infallible What an insolent boldness is it to subject him to other rules then his own And if the Church of Rome be Mistress and Mother of all Churches What right have these Churches to give Laws instead of receiving them from her And therefore I cannot sufficiently admire how the author of the Considerations upon the Council of Trent durst assert That the Pope had bin ill us'd at Trent and nothing was said of his Supremacy We leave it to all persons to judg of the truth of this Assertion we can only say That the Authors who had written till then with the greatest ardor to promote the Apostolical Grandeur had never given her the ambitious qualifications of Mother and Mistress nay they were so far from raising the Pope above Councils that they call such a Doctrine a Schism and an Heresie XXIV But as if Infallibility and Superiority were not enough the Council adds a third a Vow of true obedience The word true obedience is no less pleasant then the trae pardon of sins The Court of Rome is so us'd to equivocations and ambiguities that her fears appear in her own Decrees All Christians therefore whether Clergy or Laity are tied up or rather sacrificed to the Pope by a solemn Oath so as let him be as much Arian as Liberius as much a Monothelite as Honorius as unlearned as Celestine the Fourth as Simoniacal as John the Twenty second as unclean as Alexander the Sixth let him be as insolent towards Kings as Hildebrand to Frederic Boniface to Philip August Innocent to John King of England Leo the Tenth to Henry the Eighth Julius the Third to the Queen of Navar yet he cannot be resisted 't is not lawful to disobey the Father and Master of all Churches to believe him in the wrong whose judgment is above all Councils and to oppose him to whom you are sworn upon the four Gospels XXV These reasons occasion'd the doleful complaint of Monsieur d' Espences then present at the Council who saies openly That the Church is in a more desperate condition then before and that by reason of the Italian Bishops whom he calls the Helena which triumph'd at Trent there is no hope to cure her wounds Gentianus Hervaeus Doctor in Sorbon also and present at the Council speaks after the same rate and differs only from the others in that he ascribes all the miscarriages of the Council to Lainez and Salmero both Jesuits Julius Sanelius being return'd from Trent whether he had bin brought by the Cardinal of Lorrain gave an account of that Assembly in these terms That in the Council of the Apostles it had bin said Visum est spiritui sancto nobis it seem'd good to the Holy Ghost and to us but in that of Trent Plus nobis quam Spiritui Sancto more to us then to the Holy Ghost It appears therefore that the pretended Reformation of the Pope and Court of Rome is a meer Chimera nor is it an harder matter to evidence that the Reformation of the Church is a meer disorder It may be said and very truly that the sins which Lay-men lie under have no other source then the bad examples of the Clergy and we may learn both from profane Writings and Divine from Historians as well as Prophets that the good or bad life of Priests hath ever had an unspeakable influence on mankind But 't is another truth no less certain that if the sins of the people come from the Priests those of the Priests spring from the Bishops this being a daily experiment that as the Clergy is holy when it is govern'd by Saints so it becomes abominable to God when the life of its head does not answer the duties and excellency of his dignity The shortest way therefore to reform the Church was seriously to reform the Bishops But instead of reforming the Episcopal Order the Fathers
the first Councils of the Church Must articles of Faith be handled secretly Is there any thing more dreadful to the truth then to be abscoâ—ded And is there any rational man that suspects not they are willing to disguise and betray it when he sees them so cautious and overprudent to conceal from him their way of examining it Is infallibility to be found in the Sessions or in the Congregations not in the last since they are compos'd of private Doctors nor in the first since nothing is examin'd in them And Gods Spirit a spirit of Wisdom and discretion forbids to determine any thing but after a long and serious trial XXII Hence we draw how weak is an answer of the author of the considerations upon the Council of Trent which seems to him the most solid ground of all his discourse The inconsiderable number of Bishops who voted in that Council is objected to him And we say that it is a great temerity in those few Bishops and Divines to have made in so short a time upon so important matters such a prodigious number of decrees and an other yet greater and more unpardonable then the first to have bin so bold to propose them as the decisions of the Catholic Church To this he answers two things first that those Bishops and Divines were men of an extraordinary merit Secondly that whatever this small number had done was approv'd of received and ratified by the greater number which amounted to above two hundred at the least Session For the first part of his answer concerning their extraordinary merit he must give us leave to tell him Pope Paul the fourth was incomparably better acquainted with it then he is and consequently more to be beleived And he said of them to Cardinal Bellay It had bin a great weakness in his Predecessours their having sent to the Mountains of Trent threescore Bishops of the less learned Sessanta Vescovi de manco habili forty very ordinary Divines quaranta dottori de meno sufficienti For the second we acknowledg with him that at the end of the Council two hundred and 50 Bishops the greatest part Italians ratifi'd the decrees of those other But he ought to acknowledg with us as a matter of fact that after the arrival of those new Bishops there had not bin any new examination of so many decrees but only a simple reading Whence we conclude many things so disadvantageous to him that it would have bin more secure and handsom for him to have let that objection alone as he did twenty others And first that it is against all Canons all right and rules of common sense that Bishops newly come should determine points they never examin'd Secondly the surveying of these points was either necessary or not If t was so they were bound therefore to undertake it But if there was no such necessity why did the first Bishops impose it upon themselves Thirdly the last Bishops avoiding any new examination did therefore acquiesce in the precedent and so it is a ridiculous petition of principle and the greatest dishonour the Council could be blemish'd with to say the Fathers rely upon some Bishops de manco habili and some Divines de meno sufficienti Fourthly that by this means Protestants continue still in the right for complaining they have bin condemned without being heard that they can and ought to maintain their Doctrine till it be lawfully proscrib'd it being probable so many great Kingdoms three parts of Germany and a considerable part of France and Poland were further from being mistaken then a few Bishops de manco habili and a few Divines demeno sufficienti XXIV Ther 's none can forbear laughing at the simplicity of him that collected the subscriptions of that Council who to dazle the eyes of ignorant People writes a patriarch of Jerusalem and six Greek Prelats Greeks born in Italy who had nothing Greek but their names as lately Cardinal de Rets was Arch-Bishop of Corinth tho he had never bin there The same is to be said of the pretended Arch-Bishops of Armagh and Upsal who sate at Trent when the true Prelats of those Sees protested against the Council And for those titular Bishops who appeard there in so stupendious a number the Pope did never reflect that in sending them thither he published to all the World how much an enemy he was to the Spirit Discipline and rules of the Church which hath alwaies consider'd the Election of Bishops without Bishoprics as constant violations of her most holy laws XXV But all these Shepherds as well those that want Sheep as those that are knowâ— by theirs John 11. 14. are tied up to the Pope by a more solemn and dreadful Oath then that which obligeth them to their natural Princes This Oath is not only contrary to all antiquity wherein t is impossible to find any footstep of it not only unworthy the Episcopal rank not only injurious and scandalous to Kings who thereby can never hope for true and faithful allegiances from their Bishops but also horrid and abominable in all its parts A private author would never be beleived that should undertake to evince the consequences of it They would suspect him of being prepossess'd and swayed more by his own passion then the truth But le ts hear how the Pope himself interprets this Oath No Bishop of the Church of Rome can disown the interpretation of his holiness For it is the universal Doctrine of all Divines except some scandalous Jesuits that we must in all our swearings answer the meaning of the law-giver otherwise we attempt to deride God and make his word a witness to our falshood But Pope Pius the Second makes the extent of this Oath so large that writing to the Bishop of Mayence he tells him It is not lawful for a Bishop to speak true against the Pope Non licet verum dicere contra Papam If we give any credit to that Popes words which the Author of the considerations cannot disown for he spake ex Cathedrâ in a thousand occurrences they that take such an Oath must needs be either perjur'd or betrayers of the truth of Christ But what can we hope from Bishops who sit in a Council thus enslav'd to the Popes will since a Heresie maintain'd by him as but too many have bin they cannot oppose without forswearing themselves and if they remain dumb at such enormities they shamefully betray the station Christ has given them in his Church What would the Nicene or Chalcedonian Fathers have said at this acclamation of the Apulian Bishops Nihil aliud sumus praeterquam creaturae mancipia Sanctissimi Patris What would Domnus oâ— Dioscorus have desir'd more and if Paphnutius could not forbear weeping to see Athanasius's seat fill'd by his accuser and himself thrust into a place due to that vile man is it possible there was not one Bishop at Trent seen to shed tears at so strange
contrary interpretations to satisfy men of different interests and give them the mutual pleasure of believing their assertions upheld by the autority of the Council And thus the Jesuits and Dominicans were equally contented with the Canons concerning Grace and Justification Each Party drew the autority of the Council to its own side and there has not bin any Writer of these two Orders who in their many Books as opposite one to another as light is to darkness has not alledged these very Canons as invincible proofs against his adversary II. But if any should enquire further and search into that vast multitude of Decrees unknown till then he must needs wonder to find them built upon so sandy Foundations The most general Basis of them is laid in the fourth Session where the Council proposes two objects to our Faith to wit Books which are written and Traditions which are not written And they pretend as a necessary consequence that whatever we oppose against the Church of Rome is of that kind This is the Epitome of all the Council Nevertheless least any one should be offended at the word Tradition and perswade himself that they intend by it to equal mens autority to that of God or humane Ceremonies to the sacred Precepts of the Gospell they give of it a most magnificent character calling it The Word of Christ a Doctrine inspired by the Holy Ghost for the ordering our Faith and manners and preserved in the Catholic Church by a continued succession If that Principle be true there is an end of all Controversies and were the Church of Rome as able to prove it as she is ready to advance it we might hope to see in our daies that blessed Word of Christ accomplish't There shall be one Fold and one Shepherd And indeed there is no Protestant in the World who doth not admit of a Tradition endued with these Qualifications First That it be the Word of Christ 2. Inspired by the Holy Ghost 3. In matter of Faith and Manners 4. Preserved in the Catholic Church by an uninterrupted succession But there is no Protestant in the World that doth not maintain such a Tradition cannot be proved and is nothing else but one of those rich and splendid Idea's as admirable and flattering in their speculation as impossible and deceiving in their practice III. For the perfect evidencing whereof we need but consider the following Proposals First That of all places of the Scriptures whereby the Church of Rome asserts her Tradition there is not so much as one alledged by the Fathers in her sense Secondly That none of the Fathers ever understood Tradition otherwise then for the unanimous consent of the Doctors of the Church grounded upon a word which is written Thirdly That no places in Scripture are express for the authorizing such Tradition but many positive and clear to prove the sufficiency of Scripture Fourthly That among the Traditions of the Church of Rome she proposes many to our belief which do not appertain at all either to Faith or manners IV. The Scripture is most holy most infallible most perfect in it self The Gospel has added what was deficient in the Law And the Apostles Writings supplied the defect of the Gospel There we must stay 'T is no less crime in S. Basil's opinion to add that which is not written then to reject that which is written And 't is a stupendious boldness when God has vouchsafed to reveal his will to men by a certain and infallible word to substitute another neither clear nor undoubtedly received V. That new word which is ascribed to God has properly and by its self relation to those things which cannot be proved by Scripture as one of the Divines present at Trent has taken notice of otherwise it would be a written word But if it be so nothing is more unworthy of Christ and less agreeable to his divine Oracles It is to render his truth suspected or uncertain to expose Christians to infinite errors to give them as many masters as there are persons who will profess themselves the Guardians of that word and to make it the object of all mens scorn since according to the excellent saying of S. Jerome Quod de Scripturis autoritatem non habet eâ—dem facilitate contemnitur qua probatur VI. We find not that Christ in his holy Gospel sends us to Tradition whereby we may come to the knowledg of him Search the Scriptures they are they that testify of me The Apostles speak as their Master We have also a more sure word of Prophecy whereunto you do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts Many saies S. Chrysostom pretend to speak from the Holy Ghost but they do it falsly as long as they speak from themselves as Christ testifies he spoke not from himself but from the Law and the Prophets so if they proffer us any other thing then the Gospel under pretence of its being inspired by the Holy Ghost let us be far from believing it Is there any thing worse saies Pope S. Leo then to have impious sentiments and yet not to be willing to assent to the more learned and wise Those are guilty of this folly who when they are hindred from knowing the truth by any obscurity do not recur to the Prophetical Books the Apostolical Writings and Evangelical autority but to themselves and so become Masters and Teachers of error because they refused to be Disciples of Truth It would have bin very easy for S. Austin in that long and tedious Disputation with the Donatists concerning the Catholic Church to have made an end of it by sending them to Tradition But instead of doing so Let us not hear saies he Haec dico haec dicis but let us hear haec dicit Dominus We have the Lords Books Both of us acknowledg their autority both of us believe them ibi quaeramus Ecclesiam ibi discutiamus causam nostram nolo humanis documentis seâ— divinis Oraculis sanctam Ecclesiam demonstrari We seek as he there adds where the Church is what shall we do in verbis nostris eam quaesituri sumus an in verbis Domini I think it is to be sought in his words who is the TRUTH and knows perfectly her who is his Body Habeo manifestissimam vocem Pastoris mei commendantis mihi sine ullis ambagibus exprimentis Ecclesiam If I suffer my self to be reduced and separated from his flock which is the Church by the words of men I will impute it to my self whereas he advertiz'd me saying My Sheep know my voice 'T is the constant Doctrine of that admirable man in all his Works In his Letter to S. Jerome I confess your Charity saies he I give those Books alone which are termed Canonical that honor as to believe none of their Authors did
great Truth in these words which the Church has so much admired as to make a Canon of them Verily verily I say unto you he that beleives in me hath everlasting life He therefore who has not everlasting life believes not in Christ but he believes in Christ that has Charity for to beleive in Christ est tendere in ipsum amando is to be enclined to him by Love It is to this the remissions of sins hath bin promised huic remissio peccatorum promittitur But if Love cannot be separated from Christian Faith how can he that wants Charity have Christian Faith that is believe in Christ Faith is therefore the Spring of our love and love the Source of our Works What is it to love God continues that holy Doctor but to be inwardly adherent to him to conceive an ardent desire of seeing him an hatred of sin a distast to the World a Charity for our Neighbor whom he has commanded us to love and so strictly to observe in our Charity the rules he has prescribed us in his Law as never to pervert its order But let it be far from Christians to think our Faith or Love come from us If any beleives saies the Council of Orange he can do any good action quod ad salutem pertinet vitae aeternae by the strength of nature and without being enlightned and inspired by the Holy Ghost who poures into our hearts a suavity which makes us assent to and believe the truth that man haeretico fallitur spiritu not attending to what Christ pronounces in his Gospel Without me ye can do nothing Nor to the words of the Apostle We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God There are in man saies the same Council many good things which man doth not do but in those he doth there are none but what God doth in him No man saies another Canon has of himself but falshood and sin but if any hath truth and righteousness 't is of him Quem debemus sitire in hac eremo ut ex eo quasi quibusdam guttis irrorati non deficiamus in via Good God! how far are the Canons of Trent from the holiness and humility of these how repugnant to the establisht Doctrine of the Church and the sentiments of the Fathers are the proud and Pelagian principles of the Jesuits XI The Anathema's of the seventh Session being no better grounded are not more to be feared the Council cuts off from the Church which is the Body of Christ those who admit of more or less then seven Sacraments It is evident that such a Principle cannot be proved by the Scripture We must then recur to the unwritten Word Sure so important a truth has bin preserved in the Catholic Church and nothing ought to be more obvious in the writings of the Fathers Nevertheless not a word for twelve whole Ages and that so long uninterrupted silence had never bin broken had not the master of the Sentences and other Scholastics brought it into the World Indeed we find every where in the writings of the Fathers that the Adult must give an account of the Faith they professed at their Baptism and receive the imposition of hands from the Bishop We meet every where with Repentance Penance and Confession of Sins We see every where the power of ordaining Priests so committed to the Bishops by Christ that all Ordinations from other hands were esteemed unlawful and sacrilegious But we find no where all these things to be Sacraments And no man can sufficiently wonder how the Fathers at Trent propose as an Article of Faith grounded upon Tradition a thing they are obliged to confess was never spoken of in the Church for twelve hundred years XII The Vnwritten word doth no more favor the Canon which establishes Transubstantiation then the others and we have from the ancient writings so many places against this Doctrine that we cannot conceive how it came into the World Tertullian writing against Marcion who denied that Christ had a real Body tells him Christ made his Body of the Bread he distributed saying This is my Body that is the figure of my Body Figura Corporis mei but it had never bin a Figure Si veritatis corpus non esset had not the Truth Christ had a real Body Christ saies Theodoret honored the Symbols and signs of the Sacrament with the name of his Body and Blood not changing their nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but adding his Grace to their nature S. Jerome is no less positive then Theodoret The Flesh and Blood of Christ saies he are understood two several waies either of that spiritual and divine Flesh of which he saies himself My Flesh is meat indeed and my Blood is drink indeed and Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you or my Flesh which was nailed upon the Cross and my Blood which was shed by the Souldiers Spear S. Austin who is justly esteemed the Oracle of the Western Churches adds a pregnant testimony to this Assertion The first heresy saies he in the Disciples of Christ was occasioned by the hardness of his words for when he told them Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you they not apprehending him said one to another This is a hard saying who can bear it In saying this is hard they separated themselves from him But he remained with his twelve Disciples and taught them saying It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life Do you understand them in a spiritual manner they are spirit and life do you understand them in a carnal manner they they are no less spirit but not for thee who understandest them not spiritually Spiritually apprehend what I have said Non hoc corpus quod videtur manducaturi estis bibituri sanguinem quem effusuri sunt qui me crucifigent The Sacrament I recommend to you quickneth when it is understood spiritually but the flesh profiteth nothing They answered him according to their apprehension for they understood this flesh as it is used to be sold in a carcass or torn in the shambles Jesus knowing their error said to them What I told you of giving you my Body to eat and my Blood to drink scandalizeth you but what will you say if you see the Son of Man ascending to the place where he was before He resolves here what he had proposed to them he shews them that which they were scandalized by to the end they might apprehend him In this manner they thought he would have given them his Body Ille dixit se ascensurum in coelum utique integrum When you shall see the Son of Man ascending to
by heat or violence an extraordinary and unusual prudence appears in all their Canons they busy not themselves in calling the Pope Antichrist and Rome Babylon but render them the same respect they had ever done They judg themselves without judging others and are content to pray for other Societies without pronouncing either their Salvation or condemnation XX. As they do separate themselves only from the errours of the Church of Rome so they do pretiously preserve what doth not bear that name otherwise 't would not have bin the work of a pious zeal but of a wicked madness None can deny that there are many great and holy rites in the Church of Rome They therefore by a judicious distinction have thrown out those practises which were evil and retain'd the good XXI Having therefore two businesses in hand to wit the reformation of Doctrine and ordering of manners they have made use of the shortest and easiest means They compar'd all to the Scriptures and customes of the first Ages There is no point of their Faith which may not be proved by Scripture nothing in their Discipline which is not conformed to the ceremonies of the first 500 years XXII The Church of England therefore hath the comfort of having her Doctrine founded on the Scriptures so believed by the holy Saints as she beleiv'd it her Canons conformable to the antient Canons her Liturgy like the first Liturgies When she goes about to interpret the Scriptures she exacts not of her Children a blind obedience as doth the Church of Rome She thinks not to make any volume Canonical which was never really so but she follows the tracts of the Saints and of the Councils and hath learnt from the primitive Church which books in the Holy Bible are the grounds of our Faith and which only the object of our Piety XXIII We may say the same thing of all those points which raise the difference betwixt us and the Church of Rome The most considerable one is that of the Eucharist She treats that incomprehensible mystery with the respect due to it She neither presumes nor pretends to comprehend more of it then Christ hath bin pleased to reveal to them and the antient Church understood It is manifest first that Christ instituted the Sacrament of his body and blood Secondly that he is really present in it Thirdly that he abundantly communicates his grace and his holy Spirit to those who before they receive it seriously try themselves as the Apostle speaks and who not only forsake Sin but the very appetite of sinning and labour to order their life by his example But the manner of his being present is uncertain Christ saies nothing of it it appears noâ— that the primitive Church hath known how That of England receives with thanksgiving what he hath bin pleased to reveal to her and adores with a submissive silence what he hath not bin pleased to let her know We understand nothing of the Lord's Supper but by the Scriptures and the practice of the primitive times and when we limit our selves to that without going any further the manner of expounding it is not difficult The Infinite love of God towards us in that Sacrament destroies not the order which his wisdom hath put in things We leave to Faith all the latitude of it without contradicting the principles of reason But when men pretend to make Evangelists speak as Scholastics or Scholastics as Evangelists and look for Transubstantiation concomitancy and existence of the accidents without their subject c. all seems obscurity and darkness We sacrifice not our reason to faith but we throw aside both of them in saying that God explains himself after a manner conâ—rary to those principles which he hath established The Church of England is therefore in 〈◊〉 right of supposing as receiv'd what she beleives and the Church of Rome is obâ—â—ged to prove what she advances The former supposes the miracle which Christ â—ath wrought adding nothing new or â—npossible the other proposeth a thousand things to our beleif of which Christ â—ath said nothing and which are in â—hemselves greater miracles then that about which the two parties differ besides that they draw idolatrous practices XXIV The Church of Eng. doth not only think her self bound to beleive what Christ saies of the sacrament but she administers it â—s he hath given it us She orders the Sacrament under both kinds according â—o the command of Christ and to the praâ—tice of the Catholic Church and the whole World know the unchristian grounds upon which an Italian Bishop in the Council of Trent thought it was not to be granted for fear of making an argument against the pretended Infallibility of the Church of Rome XXV It is unreasonable that she do's not permit service to be read in the vulgar tongue and the Bible to be â—ranslated She knows nothing was ever grounded upon a less foundation then that and without looking on the orders of St. Paul which are so exact thereupon is there any thing in the World so contrary to reason as to pray to God in an unknown Tongue which exposeth the Praiers to the scorn and irreverence of those that offer them The Eastern Church did alwaies pray in Greek or in languages used by her divers Nations Whilst the Latin was the language of the West it was fitting that the service should be read in it but by the distraction of the Empire the incursions of Barbarians and the various revolutions we find in history that language having lost its life and given place to the various Idiomes of all Nations it was fitting men should pray in such languages as may be understood but it being more for the interest of the Pope to keep people ignorant he hath opposed so necessary a practice St. Jerome translated the Bible into Dalmatian the language of his own Country there are also to be â—ound manuscripts of the Bible in most languages of the World The more universal and dangerous heresies were the more the holy Saints exhorted the People to look in the Scriptures for those remedies which God hath granted against them XXVI The Church of England hath therefore turn'd the Liturgy into her Mother tongue The Priests and the Congregation there present send the same Praiers to Heaven and to take away all marks of Enthusiasm or novelty she hath composed the admirable Book of common Praier It is nothing but a collection of the most pathetical and instructive places of Scripture That which she hath not from thence are the very words of the Fathers or antient collects which by tradition were receiv'd from the primitive Church All is sound all is holy we address our selves to God in God's own language and we speak to him as he hath spoke to us 'T is a happy obligation for a Christian to pray after such a manner wherein a vain imagination bears no part his mind is enlivened his heart softned by that he can preach to himself and